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Bengaluru, Apr 21: Hardline BJP leader and Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya, who had deleted some of his old sexist tweets while contesting for Lok Sabha polls, yesterday deleted deleted his ugly remarks against Arab woman after it went viral and triggered sharp response from  many quarters, including from the Arab world.

In 2015, before Surya became an MP, he had said in a tweet, "95% of Arab women have never had an orgasm in the last few hundred years! Every mother has produced kids as an act of sex and not love. @Tarek Fatah."

The old tweet was picked up some influential members in the Arab community. Many intellectuals and various members of the royal families too have over the past few days condemned the attacks on Muslims in India and called out instances on Islamophobia. They have been highlighting derogatory comments about the Arab community purportedly made by supporters of the ruling BJP. It was then that a few found that even present day recognised leaders like Tejasvi had made similar comments in the past.

As the outrage grew, Tejasvi deleted the old tweet. A lot of BJP supporters on Twitter then started pointing out that Tejasvi Surya had merely quoted Canadian journalist Tareh Fatah, known for his anti-Islam comments. But by then someone had archived the tweet and Tejasvi's response to it in 2015.

Dear @Twitter , this Indian politicians @Tejasvi_Surya has racially slurred Arab women, I wonder how is his account still active? Is it not against Twitter's official policy? Please act as Arab sentiment has been badly wounded. pic.twitter.com/JAM3hnDEjN

— المحامي⚖مجبل الشريكة (@MJALSHRIKA) April 19, 2020

Pity Ur upbringing @Tejasvi_Surya that respect for women couldn’t be instilled in U despite India having some great female leaders .Please note if someday the govt bestows a foreign ministry to you, avoid travelling to Arab lands. You are not welcome here. This will be remembered pic.twitter.com/KJJlqJL5tR

— Noora AlGhurair (@AlGhurair98) April 19, 2020

In a thread to the same tweet, responding to criticism, Surya had said that these were not his opinion but attributed to Tarek Fatah. He also said that he agrees with Fateh's position that 'Islamofascism was a threat to all civilsations'.

Prime Minister ..
An Indian Member of Parliament accuses Arab women, and we Arabs are asking for his membership to be dropped !!@narendramodi@PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/aQl4XayWZU

— عبدالرحمن النصار (@alnassar_kw) April 19, 2020

Surya could not be reached for a comment.

However, a source close to Surya, said, "This is a 2015 tweet where Tejasvi Surya was quoting Tarek Fatah from an interview. It is being wrongly attributed to him with malicious intent. The main issue being addressed in the interview was about the barbaric and inhuman practice of genital mutilation of women. If there's any person to comment on it, it has to be Tarek Fatah."

Tejasvi Surya had landed in a similar controversy soon after his nomination as a candidate just ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

His deleted Tweet recorded a video

تغريدته المحذوفة تم رصدها بالفيديو @narendramodi@PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/cTrIkaGosf

— عبدالرحمن النصار (@alnassar_kw) April 19, 2020

Surya could not be reached for a comment.

However, a source close to Surya, said, "This is a 2015 tweet where Tejasvi Surya was quoting Tarek Fatah from an interview. It is being wrongly attributed to him with malicious intent. The main issue being addressed in the interview was about the barbaric and inhuman practice of genital mutilation of women. If there's any person to comment on it, it has to be Tarek Fatah."

Tejasvi Surya had landed in a similar controversy soon after his nomination as a candidate just ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

More islamophobic gems from @Tejasvi_Surya : @alnassar_kw @MJALSHRIKA @AlGhurair98 https://t.co/wktXi8fzhM pic.twitter.com/Rk2cEyRqWl

— شخص (@falana_shakhs) April 20, 2020

The Congress also stepped in to criticise Surya and the BJP, national spokesperson Sanjay Jha said in a tweet, “The BJP gives tickets to Pragya Singh Thakur and #TejasviSurya etc because it helps popularise their hardline bigoted political profile. But the chickens usually come home to roost. Today, India stands embarrassed, humiliated.”

Bengaluru, Feb 5: Despite installing a BJP government in Karnataka through disguised operation Kamala, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led union government has continued its step motherly attitude towards this south Indian state.

Under the new formula adopted to share central taxes among states Karnataka will be the worst-affected. Though the 15th Finance Commission has recommended a special grant of Rs 5,495 crore for the state for 2020-21, the Centre appears reluctant to pay up and instead has asked for the proposal to be reviewed.

During the Union budget, the report of the 14th Finance Commission headed by NK Singh for 2020-21 was tabled in Lok Sabha. It shows besides Karnataka, Telangana, Mizoram and Kerala saw their central tax share decrease, while Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra were top gainers.

Karnataka's share has decreased from 4.7% provided by the previous finance commission, to 3.6%. Acknowledging there is a steep decline in Karnataka's share from 2019-20, the finance commission has recommended a special grant of Rs 5,495 crore for the state.

Its share in 2019-20 was Rs 36,675 crore, but under the new formula, Karnataka will get only Rs 31,180 crore in 2020-21 from the divisible pool of Rs 8.5 lakh crore - a decline of 22.5%.

Also, the decrease for Karnataka comes on the back of a shortfall in 2019-20. While the state was entitled to Rs 39,806 crore from the divisible pool, it got only Rs 36,675 crore as the Centre suffered a tax revenue shortfall of Rs 1.5 lakh crore.

What is more disheartening though is the Centre's refusal to pay the special grant. Instead, the Union finance ministry has asked the finance commission to reconsider the recommendation. This has prompted the state to take up the issue with the Centre.

"The decline in central taxes devolution comes at a time when the state is going through a tough financial situation. Steps are being taken to ensure Karnataka gets justice," said chief secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar.

Officials said besides corrective measures for 2020-21, the focus will be on ensuring a fair share in subsequent years. However, Karnataka has little chance of getting its dues as the Centre is known to be prudent when distributing tax proceeds among states.

"The Centre has certain views on devolution. We have done our duty by submitting the interim report. It's up to the states to convince the Centre," said Ravi Kota, joint secretary of 15th Finance Commission.

Under the new formula, the commission changed the weightage for some of the six criteria it considers - population, area, forest cover, income distance, demographic performance and tax effort.

San Diego, Apr 15: Several people lost their sense of smell or taste weeks ago globally and are still waiting for it to come back and now, researchers have identified an association between sensory loss and novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) infection, indicating that loss of smell and taste may be considered as early symptoms of the deadly disease.

Interestingly, the study also found that persons who reported experiencing a sore throat more often tested negative for COVID-19.

The team from University of California-San Diego found high prevalence and unique presentation of certain sensory impairments in patients positive with COVID-19.

Of those who reported a loss of smell and taste, the loss was typically profound, not mild.

"Based on our study, if you have smell and taste loss, you are more than 10 times more likely to have COVID-19 infection than other causes of infection. The most common first sign of a COVID-19 infection remains fever, but fatigue and loss of smell and taste follow as other very common initial symptoms," explained study researcher Carol Yan from UC San Diego.

"We know COVID-19 is an extremely contagious virus. This study supports the need to be aware of smell and taste loss as early signs of COVID-19," Yan added.

For the findings, published in the journal International Forum of Allergy and Rhinology, the research team surveyed 1,480 patients with flu-like symptoms and concerns regarding potential COVID-19 infection who underwent testing at UC San Diego Health from March 3 through March 29, 2020.

Within that total, 102 patients tested positive for the virus and 1,378 tested negatives. The study included responses from 59 COVID-19-positive patients and 203 COVID-19-negative patients.

Encouragingly, the rate of recovery of smell and taste was high and occurred usually within two to four weeks of infection.

"Our study not only showed that the high incidence of smell and taste is specific to COVID-19 infection but we fortunately also found that for the majority of people sensory recovery was generally rapid," said Yan.

"Among the COVID-19 patients with smell loss, more than 70 per cent had reported improvement of smell at the time of the survey and of those who hadn't reported improvement, many had only been diagnosed recently," she added.

Sensory return typically matched the timing of disease recovery.

In an effort to decrease the risk of virus transmission, UC San Diego Health now includes loss of smell and taste as a screening requirement for visitors and staff, as well as a marker for testing patients who may be positive for the virus.

"It is our hope that with these findings other institutions will follow suit and not only list smell and taste loss as a symptom of COVID-19, but use it as a screening measure for the virus across the world," Yan said.