Rest Assured, HM’s Recovery Is Assured

by Shobha Aggarwal 

HM has been reportedly readmitted to the hospital for post-COVID care (and continues to work from there).  Even as the whole country is praying for his speedy recovery, Sarkari facts and statements issued ad infinitum should give him a reason to cheer viz:

• The recovery rate for COVID-19 has improved and reached 73.64 % because of ‘active intervention treatment strategies’.

• The mortality rate has decreased to 1.91%. This is apparently the lowest in the whole world.

• India has one of the lowest rate of death of elected representatives due to COVID-19. (Cf. Iran where about 2 dozen legislators had died.)

• India has the plasma therapy in place which can increase life span albeit for a few days.

• Indian Government has played a pioneering role by advocating HCQ and dispatching it to half the world as a curative cum preventive therapy.

• Anti-AIDS drugs have been given a green signal by the Drug Controller of India. Indian health authorities have stocked a huge amount.

• Over 50,000 ventilators are available in India right now; PM Cares Fund has contributed Rs. 2000 crore for this life saving gadget. Even as the wag says: ventilators not needed in mild, moderate cases; are useless in severe cases.

• India reached the figure of 50,000 deaths in the longest period of time i.e. in 156 days. (Cf. USA reached the figure in 23 days.)

• More and more people are testing positive but that is because testing has been ramped up due to the sustained campaign for improvement of health infrastructure.

• The number of laboratories testing for COVID-19 – both private and government – have reached a record 1400 plus. Courtesy: Union Government, State Governments & UT administrators.

• India has recorded the highest number of tests ever conducted in a day viz 9 lakhs in 24 hours.

• India has recorded the highest number of patients being discharged from the hospital viz 57381 in one single day.

• While India has third highest number of cases in the world it needs to be emphasized that this is only on account of its huge population.

• Even as the concerned governments are doing their best, the PM said in his ‘mann ki baat’, that some people are seen to be off their guards risking infection. Credit to governments; blame to ‘we the people’.

• The policy of WFH (work from home) includes WFH (work from hospital).

• COVID-19 Vaccine is around the corner; just as AIDS vaccine has been around the corner – for the last four decades!

Inanity of Sarkari statistics notwithstanding, rest assured, given India’s stellar role as a global leader in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic HM’s recovery is assured.

Shobha Aggarwal is a member of PIL Watch Group.

Email: pilwatchgroup@gmail.com

First published: https://countercurrents.org/2020/08/rest-assured-hms-recovery-is-assured/

In Defence Of Committees For Defence of Political Prisoners

 by Dr P S Sahni 

After Prof. G. N. Saibaba’s arrest a 17-person Committee for the Defence and Release of Saibaba was constituted to expedite his bail and also that all his legal and constitutional rights stay protected. With the arrest of Prof. Hany Babu, member of this Committee on 28 July, 2020 and the subsequent raid on 2 August, 2020 at his house by 12 officials of National Investigative Agency (NIA) along with Delhi Police, a search was conducted for documents pertaining to this Committee. The message was loud and clear that witch hunting of all those associated with the Committee and those who funded the Committee would ensue. Apparently the regime is not comfortable with the idea of legal aid being provided to the political prisoners.

Healthy political tradition for over a century

In the last one hundred years a healthy political tradition has been set up whereby such committees have been formed and have been allowed to function unhindered both by the colonial rulers as well as by Indira Gandhi during the Emergency era.

• During the Emergency era (1975-77), George Fernandes and 24 others were arrested in the Baroda Dynamite Case. A defence committee was formed which included lawyer V.M. Tarkunde and Acharya Kripalani. The regime in power would recollect that George – a onetime socialist – worked in Vajpayee government as a Union Defence Minister!

• “On 15 August 1975 The Times of London carried a full page advertisement taken out by the ‘Free JP Campaign’. The ad had been paid for by individuals: the first person to contribute being Bishop Trevor Huddles-ton, the last Dame Peggy Ashcroft. The other signatories to the appeal included such long-standing friends of India as the socialist Fenner Brockway, the economist E. F. Schumacher and the political scientist W. H. Morris-Jones, as well as celebrities with no specific connection to India, such as the actress Glenda Jackson, the historian A. J. P. Taylor and the critic Kenneth Tynan.”

• Formed in 1929 the Bhagat Singh Defence Committee to provide legal and financial aid to the revolutionaries had the Indian National Congress at the forefront. The Committee asked the public to donate funds. While Jawaharlal Nehru was not a member of this committee, he did go and meet Bhagat Singh and his comrades in the prison.

• The Kakori Conspiracy Case (or Kakori train robbery) that took place on  9 August, 1925 was conceived by Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqullah Khan.  Govind Ballabh Pant provided the legal defence for the arrested revolutionaries. Those who came out in support included Motilal Nehru, Madan Mohan Malviya, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Lala Lajpat Rai, Jawaharlal Nehru, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, Shiv Prasad Gupta, Shri Prakash and Acharya Narendra Dev.

Jawaharlal Nehru with the members of INA Defence Committee, 1945 Photo by Kulwant Roy

• In 1945, the Indian National Congress established the INA Defence Committee – which included famous lawyers of the time Bhulabhai Desai, Asaf Ali, Jawaharlal Nehru – to defend Indian National Army mutineers who were to be charged during the trials.

May a thousand committees for the defence/release of political prisoners bloom. Better if the regimes become pro-people and there is no need for such committees. However, the most relevant question has been raised by Prof. Chaman Lal, formerly of JNU, who is known for his work on Bhagat Singh: “PM Modi should throw some light, what the Sangh leaders were doing when the young revolutionaries were hanged.”

Dr. P. S. Sahni is a member of PIL Watch Group. Email: pilwatchgroup@gmail.com

First published: https://countercurrents.org/2020/08/in-defence-of-committees-for-defence-of-political-prisoners/