Protests in University over Muslim professor’s appointment

New Delhi, Apr 11: With 40 deaths and 1,035 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, India on Saturday witnessed a sharpest ever increase in coronavirus cases, taking the tally of the infected people in the country to 7,447, as per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday.

According to the official data, among 7447 COVID-19 positive cases, 6,565 are active cases and 643 are cured, discharged and migrated and 239 patients who have succumbed to the virus.

Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases in the country which stands at 1,574, including 188 cured and discharged and 110 deaths, followed by Tamil Nadu with 911 corona positive cases.

On the other hand, the national capital has reported 903 cases, which include 25 recovered cases and 13 deaths.

While 553 have detected positive for the infection in Rajasthan, Telangana has 473 corona cases and Chhattisgarh and Chandigarh have reported 18 cases each.

Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, that borders the national capital, has 431 and 177 cases, respectively.
Kerala, which reported India's first coronavirus case, has 364 confirmed cases.

The newly carved union territories -- Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir--- have 15 and 207 cases, respectively.

The least number of COVID-19 cases have reported from the northeast region of the country. While Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Tripura have only 1 corona positive case, Assam has 29 people infected with the virus, which is the highest in the region.

Mumbai, Feb 26: Observing that the violence in Delhi is akin to a "horror film" depicting the grim reality of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the Shiv Sena on Wednesday said the "bloodbath" has brought disrepute to the national capital like never before while US President Donald Trump was in India with the "message of love".

The editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana' lamented that Trump was welcomed in Delhi while there was bloodbath on the streets.

It further said that the violence could potentially spread the message that the Central government has failed to maintain the law and order situation in Delhi.

"Violence has erupted in Delhi. People are on the streets equipped with canes, swords, revolvers, blood is being spilled on the roads. Some horror film-like situation is being witnessed in Delhi, which depicts the grim reality of the 1984 riots," the Sena said.

It further said the BJP was still blaming the Congress for the deaths of hundreds of Sikhs in the violence that was erupted after assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

It needs to be unravelled who is responsible for the current riots in Delhi, the Sena said while referring to the "language of threats and warning used by some BJP leaders".

"The national capital was burning at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting US President Trump were holding talks.

"It does not augur well that Trump was welcomed in Delhi with the horror film of violence, bloodbath on the streets, screams of people, and tear gases. Trump saheb came to Delhi with a message of love, but what unfolded before him? 'Namaste' in Ahmedabad and violence in Delhi. Never before Delhi was defamed like this," the editorial said.

Trump had begun his February 24-25 India visit from Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

Seventeen people have died so far and over hundred were injured in the violence that has gripped several parts of north east Delhi over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) since Sunday.

Attacking the Central government over reports that the violence was timed with Trump's visit, Sena said, "the Union Home Ministry has alleged that a conspiracy was hatched to defame India internationally by triggering the violence during Trump's visit to the national capital.

"The Home Ministry not knowing about the conspiracy behind the violence over the CAA is detrimental to national security. There is no problem in controlling the riots with the same courage with which Article 370 and 35A were scrapped," the editorial said.

It further said the anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi was yet to be called off yet despite the Supreme Court appointing mediators.

"It is being said that the violence sparked off after some BJP leaders talked the language of threats and warning. So, did someone want the peaceful agitation (at Shaheen Bagh) to acquire the present form of riots? (They) could have waited for at least Trump to leave the country," the Sena said.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led party also questioned the timing of the riots, which are occurring days after the results of the Delhi assembly polls.

"It is mysterious that the violence broke out days after the BJP lost the Delhi assembly elections. The BJP lost and now this is the condition of Delhi," the Sena said.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led party, a former ally of the BJP, now shares power in Maharashtra with the NCP and the Congress.

From March through May, around 1 crore migrant workers fled India’s megacities, afraid to be unemployed, hungry and far from family during the world’s biggest anti-Covid-19 lockdown.

Now, as Asia’s third-largest economy slowly reopens, the effects of that massive relocation are rippling across the country. Urban industries don’t have enough workers to get back to capacity, and rural states worry that without the flow of remittances from the city, already poor families will be even worse off -- and a bigger strain on state coffers.

Meanwhile, migrant workers aren’t expected to return to the cities as long as the virus is spreading and work is uncertain. States are rolling out stimulus programs, but India’s economy is hurtling for its first contraction in more than 40 years, and without enough jobs, a volatile political climate gets more so.

“This will be a huge economic shock, especially for households of short-term, cyclical migrants, who tend to come from vulnerable, poor and low-caste and tribal backgrounds,” said Varun Aggarwal, a founder of India Migration Now, a research and advocacy group based in Mumbai.

In the first 15 days of India’s lockdown, domestic remittances dropped by 90%, according to Rishi Gupta, chief executive officer of Mumbai-based Fino Paytech Ltd., which operates the country’s biggest payments bank.

By the end of May, remittances were back to around 1750 rupees ($23), about half the pre-Covid average. Gupta’s not sure how soon it’ll fully recover. “Migrants are in no hurry to come back,” Gupta said. “They’re saying that they’re not thinking of going back at all.”

If workers stay in their home states long term, policymakers will have more than remittances to worry about. If consumption falls and the new surplus of labor drives wages down, Agarwal said, “there will also be a second-order shock to the local economy. Overall, not looking good.”

India announced a $277 billion stimulus package in May and followed it up with a $7 billion program aimed at creating jobs for 125 days for migrants in villages across 116 districts. Separately, local authorities are also looking for solutions.

Officials in Bihar have identified 2,500 acres of land that could be made available to investors, said Sushil Modi, deputy chief minister of Bihar, a state in east India. “We can use this crisis as an opportunity to speed up reforms,” he said.

The investors haven’t materialised yet, and in the meanwhile, state governments are relying on the national cash-for-work program that guarantees 100 days worth of wages per household.

Skilled workers don’t want to do manual labor offered through the program, and even if they did, says Amitabh Kundu of RIS, many think of it as beneath their station. “There will be an increase in social tensions,” he predicts. “Caste may again start playing a role. It’s absolute chaos.”

For skilled workers, initiatives vary:

* Uttar Pradesh, which received 3.2 million people, is compiling lists of skilled workers who need employment and trying to place them with local manufacturing and real estate industry associations. So far, the government says, it’s placed 300,000 people with construction and real estate firms.

* Bihar has placed returners in state-run infrastructure projects and hired others to stitch uniforms and make furniture for government-run schools, even as they waited in quarantine centres, said Pratyay Amrit, head of the state’s disaster management department.

* The eastern state of Odisha announced an urban wage employment program aimed at putting as many as 450,000 day labourers to work through September. Some 25,000 people have been employed, so far, under the scheme, G. Mathivathanan, principal secretary for housing and urban development said.

Attracting Investments

It’s not clear any of this will be enough to make a dent, says Ravi Srivastava, professor at New Delhi-based Institute of Human Development, adding that the states don’t have much of a track record on economic development.

“It was the failure of these states to improve governance and put development plans in place that led to the out-migration in the first place,” he said.

But officials and workers’ rights advocates see opportunity. Uttar Pradesh has established liaisons to encourage companies from the US, Japan and South Korea to establish manufacturing in the state. There and in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the government has made labour laws more friendly to employers, making it easier to hire and fire workers.

Modi, the minister from Bihar, said the migration may also give workers--historically a disenfranchised group--new power, particularly as urban centres struggle. “The way industries treated workers during the lockdown -- didn’t pay them, the living conditions were poor -- now these industries will realize the value of this force,” Modi said.

“In the days to come, labour will emerge as a force that can’t be ignored anymore,” he added. “That’s the new normal. We will work out how to ensure dignity, rights to our people who are going to work in other states.”

Bihar is due for elections by November, a vote that could be an early test of the mass migration’s political consequences. The state is currently governed by a coalition that includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Amitabh Kundu, a fellow at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries, a New Delhi-based government think-tank, said migrant workers are likely to be angry voters.

“Chief ministers are telling these migrants that they will not have to go back for work,” he said. “But their capacity to do something miraculous in the next four to five months is doubtful. If they can retain even one-fourth of the migrants, I would call it a success.”