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BJP fields more Muslim candidates in Jammu and Kashmir

November 17, 2014

Muslim candidatesJammu/New Delhi, Nov 17: The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been trying to shrug off the 'communal' tag, has fielded nearly 40% Muslim candidates in Jammu and Kashmirassembly polls under its ambitious 'Mission 44 plus' to wrest power in the state.

BJP is contesting more than 70 Assembly seats out of 87 and has fielded 32 Muslim candidates. While the saffron party has fielded 25 Muslims in Kashmir Valley, six BJP candidates from the community are in the fray in Jammu region and one in Ladakh. BJP has also fielded four Kashmiri Pandit candidates and a Sikh leader in assembly constituencies in Kashmir Valley and three Buddhists from Ladakh region as a strategic move.

"BJP is not an untouchable in Kashmir Valley. People in the Valley come out in huge numbers in our rallies, road shows and programmes as they look towards BJP as an alternative to National Conference (NC) and The People's Democratic Party (PDP), which are ruled by Kashmir's two important dynasties," BJP in-charge for J&K and MP Avinash Rai Khanna said.

BJP hopes to improve on its success in the Parliamentary elections in May when it won three out of six seats in the state. The rest three went to PDP while NC-Congress coalition was wiped out.

"We won three seats in 2014 Lok Sabha polls and took a lead on 27 Assembly seats," Khanna said, adding "the battle to reach to our Mission 44 plus is just on 17 seats".

BJP is trying to focus more on poll plank of peace and development to reach out to people in the country's only Muslim-majority state rather than controversial issue like the demand for abrogation of Article 370 of Constitution which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir. It has put the issue of Article 370 virtually out of the poll frame, saying it would do only want the people of the state want.

The BJP's mantra for 2014 Assembly elections is freeing J&K from 'ruling families' of Kashmir and corruption along with a promise of good governance and development while invoking the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and performance of BJP governments in other states.

Khanna, who has been leading scores of road shows and rallies in Kashmir Valley, is optimistic about accomplishing 'Mission 44 plus'. "During the rallies at Ganderbal and Kangan, Modi's popularity was visible," he said, adding that "the communal tag used as propaganda tool in past, is not being referred to now at all. We are contesting this elections on poll plank of making Jammu and Kashmir an 'international tourism hub' by bringing peace and development to the region".

In 2008 Assembly elections, BJP had fielded 24 Muslim candidates and seven Kashmiri Pandits out of a total of 60 candidates in Jammu and Kashmir and bagged 11 seats. In 2002 Assembly elections, BJP gave tickets to 17 Muslims candidates out of 58 seats it contested in Jammu and Kashmir and won one seat.

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News Network
May 27,2020

New Delhi, May 27: Professor Johan Giesecke of the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, on Wednesday claimed that India will ruin its economy very quickly if it had a severe lockdown.

Claiming that a strict lockdown may disrupt India's economic growth, Giesecke during an interaction with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said: "In India, you will do more harm than good with strict lockdown measures. India will ruin its economy very quickly if it had a severe lockdown."

While calling for a soft lockdown approach in India, he suggested that India has to ease restrictions one by one. It may, however, take months to completely come out of lockdown, he said.

He further criticised countries across the globe for having no post-lockdown strategy.

Emphasising on the disease, the Swedish health expert said that coronavirus is spreading like a wildfire across the world. "It is a very mild disease. Ninety-nine per cent infected people will have very less or no symptoms," he added.

Meanwhile, Ashish Jha, Director Harvard Global Health Institute and a recognised public health official, in interaction with Gandhi, called for a need to go in for an 'aggressive' COVID-19 testing to create confidence among people.

"When the economy is opened post-lockdown, you have to create confidence. There is a need for aggressive testing strategy in high-risk areas," he said.

He asserted that COVID-19 is not the last pandemic in the world, adding that "We are entering the age of large pandemics".

Jha further said that countries like South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong have responded the best to COVID-19 pandemic, while Italy, Spain, the US and the UK have responded the worst.

A few days ago, the Gandhi scion had interacted with former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan and Nobel Prize Winner Abhijit Banerjee to discuss various issues related to the COVID-19 crisis.

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News Network
June 13,2020

New Delhi, Jun 13: India's COVID-19 tally on Saturday witnessed its highest-ever spike of 11,458 cases, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

A total of 386 deaths have been reported due to the infection during the last 24 hours.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the country now stands at 3,08,993 including 1,45,779 active cases 1,54,330 cured/discharged/migrated and 8,884 deaths.

COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra continue to soar with the number reaching 101141. Tamil Nadu's coronavirus count stands at 40,698 while cases in Delhi reached 36,824.

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Bloomberg
July 27,2020

New Delhi, Jul 27: India’s coronavirus epidemic is now growing at the fastest in the world, increasing 20% over the last week to more than 14 lakh confirmed cases, according to Bloomberg’s Coronavirus Tracker.

Infections in the South Asian nation of 130 crore people have reached 14.3 lakh, including 32,771 deaths, India’s health ministry said, with daily cases close to a record 50,000 on Monday. India is only trailing the US and Brazil now in the number of confirmed infections, but its growth in new cases is the fastest.

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are among the states where the maximum number of daily cares are being reported. The world’s second-most populous country has been ramping up testing, with 515,472 samples taken on Sunday, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Still, India and Brazil have some of the world’s lowest testing rates, with 11.8 tests and 11.93 tests per 1,000 people respectively, compared to the US with 152.98 tests per 1,000 and Russia with 184.34, according to Our World in Data, a project based at the University of Oxford in the UK.

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