1. Home
  2. ‘Conspiracy’: Kerala won't protect activists led by Trupti Desai to visit Sabarimala

‘Conspiracy’: Kerala won't protect activists led by Trupti Desai to visit Sabarimala

News Network
November 26, 2019

Kochi, Nov 26: A team of gender rights activists led by Trupti Desai, which was headed for Sabarimala to offer prayers at Lord Ayyappa temple was denied police protection on Tuesday amidst protests by devotees, members of a right wing outfit and BJP here, against their entry into the shrine.

The Kerala government dubbed Desai's attempt to visit Sabarimala as a "conspiracy".

As soon as the team of activists landed at the airport here, they went to the city police commissionerate seeking protection to proceed to the hill shrine.

However, police declined to grant protection to them, citing the recent Supreme Court decision to review its 2018 order permitting women in all age groups into Sabarimala.

A large number of Ayyappa devotees, activists of the BJP and Sabarimala Karma Samiti gathered outside the commissionerate chanting 'Ayyappa Saranam' mantra protesting against Desai's visit.

Activist from Kerala, Bindu Ammini, who had joined Desai's team at the airport was attacked by the rightwing group member using pepper spray when she came out of the office of the commissioner to take some papers from their vehicle, police sources said.

Visuals aired by TV channels showed her being attacked.

The man identified as Srinath Padmanabhan has been arrested, police said.

Ammini, who was admitted to the general hospital here, has been discharged after the treatment, her lawyer said.

The agitators ended the protest following assurances from police officials that the women activists would not be given protection to visit the temple.

Ammini and Kanakadurga were the two women activists who had offered prayers at Sabarimala Lord Ayyappa temple under police security last year following the Supreme Court permitting entry of women in all age groups into the hill shrine.

Reacting cautiously, the CPI(M)-led LDF government condemned the attack on Ammini but made it clear that no women in the age group of 10 and 50 would be given police protection to climb the holy hills unless they get an order from the Supreme Court in this regard.

Kerala Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran alleged conspiracy behind women's rights activist Trupti Desai's decision to visit Sabarimala.

"The government suspects a conspiracy behind Trupti Desai's decision to go to Sabarimala. She has come from Pune, a stronghold of the RSS and the BJP," the Minister told reporters in Thalassery.

Surendran alleged the move was to create trouble during a peaceful pilgrim season in Sabarimala.

Travancore Devaswom Board president N Vasu said the board was not informed about their plan to visit the temple.

Contending that the apex court has not stayed its 2018 order permitting women in the menstrual age group into the shrine, Ammini said theywould file a contempt of court petition in the top court against the state government for not providing them police security to visit the temple.

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who argued the Sabarimala case in the Supreme Court, said the likes of Desai can only do excesses in the name of activism while the final verdict for Sabarimala temple was still pending before the apex court.

"At least the sentiment of people associated with the temple must be respected before final verdict assigns rights," he said in a tweet.

Leader of Opposition in Kerala Assembly, Ramesh Chennithala, alleged "conspiracy" by the CPI(M) and the BJP to "sabotage" the ongoing pilgrimage to Sabarimala temple.

"While Desai is having Sangh Parivar connection, Ammini is a supporter of the CPI(M). Both of them have come to climb Sabarimala hills. This is a move to sabotage Sabarimala pilgrimage," he alleged.

The senior Congress leader also urged the government to take steps to maintain peace and sanctity of the temple.

Comments

abbu
 - 
Wednesday, 27 Nov 2019

RSS.. DEVOTEESS SHOULD OBEY THE SUPREME COURT VERDICT....... AND ALLOW WOMENS TO VISIT SABARIMALA TEMPLE........... SAME AS THEY ARE ADVISING MUSLIMS TO OBEY THE VERDICT OF BABRI MASJID....... FIRST YOU ACCEPT THE VERDICT OF SABARIMALA AND THEN MUSLIMS  WILL ALSO ACCEPT

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
August 3,2020

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has given nod to the Serum Institute of India (SII) for conducting phase 2 and 3 human clinical trials of the Oxford University developed Covid-19 vaccine candidate in the country.

Government officials said that the approval for conducting phase 2 and 3 clinical trials by the SII was granted by DCGI Dr V G Somani late Sunday night after a thorough evaluation based on the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on Covid-19.

"The firm has to submit safety data, evaluated by the Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), to the CDSCO before proceeding to phase 3 clinical trials," a senior official said.

"As per the study design, each subject will be administered two doses four weeks apart (first dose on day one and second dose on day 29) following which the safety and immunogenicity will be assessed at predefined intervals," the official said.

As a rapid regulatory response, the expert panel at the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) on Friday, after a detailed deliberation and considering the data generated on the vaccine candidate in phase 1 and 2 of the Oxford University trial, had recommended granting permission for phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of the potential vaccine, 'Covishield', on healthy adults in India,  the officials said.

Currently, phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of the Oxford vaccine candidate is going on in the United Kingdom, phase 3 clinical trial in Brazil and phase 1 and 2 clinical trials in South Africa.

The officials said that the SII had submitted a revised proposal on Wednesday after the SEC on July 28, following deliberation over its application, had asked it to revise its protocol for the phase 2 and 3 clinical trials besides seeking some additional information.

The panel had also recommended that the clinical trial sites which have been proposed for the study be distributed across India.

According to the revised proposal by the SII, 1,600 people aged above 18 years will participate in the trials across 17 selected sites, including AIIMS-Delhi, B J Medical College in Pune, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRIMS) in Patna, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, AIIMS-Jodhpur, Nehru Hospital in Gorakhpur, Andhra Medical College in Visakhapatnam and JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research in Mysore.

"According to the application, it would conduct an observer-blind, randomised controlled study to determine the safety and immunogenicity of 'Covishield' on healthy Indian adults," the official said.

The SII, which has partnered with AstraZeneca, for manufacturing the Oxford vaccine candidate for Covid-19 had submitted its first application to the DCGI on July 25 seeking permission for conducting the phase 2 and 3 trials of the potential vaccine. 

Initial results of the first two-phases of trials of the vaccine conducted in five trial sites in the UK showed that it has an acceptable safety profile and homologous boosting increased antibody response, sources had said.

To introduce the vaccine, SII, the world's largest vaccine maker by number of doses produced and sold, has signed an agreement to manufacture the potential vaccine developed by the Jenner Institute (Oxford University) in collaboration with British-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca. 

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 11,2020

New Delhi, Mar 11: Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Madhya Pradesh politician whose surprise exit from the Congress has brought the Kamal Nath government to the brink of collapse, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday. Scindia joined the BJP at an event in national capital Delhi in the presence of party chief JP Nadda.

Scindia, who was warmly welcomed by Nadda, described 10 March, the day that he exited from the Congress as one of the two life-changing days of his life. The first, he said, was 30 September 2001 when he lost his father. Scindia underscored that the Congress was not the party that it had been and had been living in denial.

Scindia had ended his 18-year-old association with the Congress on Tuesday after meetings with Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Scindia’s exit from the Congress was followed by resignation letters by about 22 MLAs who had been sequestered in Karnataka. The resignation letters were, however, sent to the Governor and not the assembly speaker, and threatens to upend the Kamal Nath government which has a wafer-thin majority.

If the resignations are accepted, the effective strength of the MP assembly will come down to 206, leaving the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with a slender majority beyond the halfway mark of 103 with its 107 MLAs. For now, the Congress is trying to persuade the MLAs to not pull down the state government.

In his resignation letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi that Scindia put out on Twitter soon after, he alluded to his discomfort in the party over the last year or so. “...as you well know, this is a path that has been drawing itself out over the last year,” he had written in his letter.

It was seen as a reference to the Congress settling for Kamal Nath as the chief minister after the 2018 state elections though it was Scindia who had led from the front to oust the BJP from Madhya Pradesh. Scindia’s supporters had hoped that the Congress would tell Kamal Nath to give up his second charge - as the party chief in the state - but this also didn’t happen.

The first hint that something was amiss came in November last year when Scindia removed a reference to the Congress in his Twitter bio and instead wrote “public servant and cricket enthusiast”. He had then explained the change to an effort to make the Twitter bio shorter.

Jyotyiraditya Scindia’s aunt Yashodhara Raje Scindia appeared to declare soon after that the 49-year-old would join the BJP when she welcomed his resignation, calling it “ghar wapsi” or homecoming. “Jyotiraditya was being neglected in Congress,” Yashodhara Raje Scindia said.

Scindia’s grandmother, Vijaya Raje Scindia, was one of the founders of the Jana Sangh, the precursor to the BJP. His aunt Vasundhara Raje is a former Union minister and ex-chief minister of Rajasthan and another aunt Yashodhara Raje is a former minister in the Madhya Pradesh cabinet.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
February 13,2020

New Delhi, Feb 13: The BJP's Amit Shah today said statements like "goli maaro" and "Indo-Pak match" should not have been made by BJP leaders ahead of the Delhi elections.

The BJP may have suffered in the elections because of hate statements made by party leaders, he said, reported news agency Press Trust of India.

The party, he said, had distanced itself from such remarks.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.