Strong under-current against India in Kashmir, says IPS officer

August 28, 2012

protestNew Delhi, August 28: Senior IPS officer N C Asthana of CRPF was today at the centre of a controversy over his remarks that there was a "strong under-current against India" in Kashmir, prompting the Home Ministry to take action, if required.

52-year-old Asthana, a 1986 batch IPS officer from Kerala, has penned down a book "India's Internal Security: The Actual Concerns" along with his wife Anjali Nirmal, who holds a doctorate in police administration, which speaks about his tenure in the Valley during 2010 unrest.

His remarks have been hailed by hardline Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and main opposition in the state PDP.

In an interview to a weekly, Asthana had said "there is a strong under-current against India" and that heavy turn-out in elections or flow of tourists should not be read as return of normalcy in the state.

When contacted, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Home Affairs said, "MHA is siezed of the matter. We are examining the content of the book. If required, action will be taken."

Asthana, who is at present posted as Inspector General of CRPF, looking after anti-naxal unit CoBRA, refused to answer any questions saying that he has written whatever he had, in the book.

"I do not wish to give any interviews or answer any questions," Asthana, who was shunted out from the Valley after CRPF had fired indiscriminately on protestors in Bomai area or Sopore in North Kashmir, said.

N_C_Asthana

CRPF Director General K Vijay Kumar declined to comment on the controversy.

Asthana, according to officials, had given an undertaking that there was no malafide intention in writing the book. ccording to section 6 of All India Services rules, no official shall publish anonymously, pseudonymously or in his own name or in the name of any other person or in any communication to the press or in any public utterance, make any statement of fact or opinion which is against the interests of the Centre or state government.

Hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani has already welcomed the comments and observations made by the serving IPS officer.

Opposition PDP welcomed the statement of Asthana saying this had vindicated their stand.

"It vindicates our stand and it's a good development that it comes from an officer who was in charge of security at ground zero. This should serve as a valuable input for all those who frame policies on Kashmir," PDP's chief spokesperson Nayeem Akhtar said.

To a question on the official's observation about anti-India sentiments in Kashmir, he said "there is a sentiment but it has to be addressed. It is not completely anti-India. Sometimes local reasons, when not addressed because of misgovernance, lead to trouble and then shapes up in anti-India sentiments. So its better to address the issues at the very beginning."

Jammu and Kashmir BJP spokesperson Jitendra Singh termed Asthana's comments incorrect and said "this observation is statically as well as factually incorrect and subjective opinion.

"There is no authentic data to support the observation made by the author and as a general statement of opinion of a small section of population, if any, cannot be accepted as a view of the people of the state"

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News Network
July 23,2020

New Delhi, Jul 23: With the highest single-day spike of 45,720 cases, India's coronavirus count crossed 12 lakh mark on Thursday.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed that 1,129 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours.

The total number of coronavirus cases stand at 12,38,635 including 4,26,167 active cases, 7,82,606 cured/discharged/migrated. The cumulative toll has reached 29,861 deaths.

Maharashtra has reported 3,37,607 cases, highest in the country followed by Tamil Nadu with 1,86,492 cases. Delhi coronavirus count has reached 1,26,323 cases.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 1,50,75,369 samples were tested till July 22 out of which 3,50,823 samples were tested yesterday.

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News Network
March 30,2020

New Delhi, Mar 30: The government on Monday said there was no plan to extend the 21-day lockdown which came intro force on Tuesday midnight.

The Press Information Bureau (PIB) of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting tweeted, saying Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba has denied media reports claiming that the government will extend the lockdown.

"There are rumours & media reports, claiming that the Government will extend the #Lockdown21 when it expires. The Cabinet Secretary has denied these reports, and stated that they are baseless," it said.

The 21-day lockdown is aimed at checking the spread of the coronavirus.

Following the lockdown, there has been a massive exodus of migrant workers from big cities to their villages after being rendered jobless.

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Agencies
May 23,2020

New Delhi, May 23: The nationwide lockdown will no longer help India in its fight against COVID-19, and in its place community-driven containment, isolation and quarantine strategies have to be brought into play, leading virologist Shahid Jameel said.

The recipient of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology also stressed that testing should be carried out vigorously to identify coronavirus hotspots and isolate those areas.

"Our current testing rate at 1,744 tests per million population is one of the lowest in the world. We should deploy both antibody tests and confirmatory PCR tests. This will tell us about pockets of ongoing infection and past (recovered) infection. This will provide data to open up gradually and let economic activity resume," Jameel told PTI in an interview.

He stressed that testing has to be dynamic to continuously monitor red, orange and green zones and change these based on that data.

About community transmission of COVID-19 in India, Jameel said the country reached that stage long ago.

"We reached community transmission a long time ago. It's just that the health authorities are not admitting it. Even ICMR's own study of SARI (severe acute respiratory illness) showed that about 40 per cent of those who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 did not have any history of overseas travel or contact to a known case. If this is not community transmission, then what is?" he posed.

Lockdown bought India time in its fight against coronavirus, but continuing it is unlikely to yield any further dividend, Jameel said.

"Instead, community-driven local lockdowns, isolations and quarantines have to come into play. Building trust is most important so that people follow rules. A public health problem cannot be dealt with as a law-and-order problem."

The nationwide lockdown, initially imposed from March 25 to April 14, has been extended thrice and will continue at least till May 31. The virus has claimed 3,720 lives and infected over 1.25 lakh people in the country so far.

Jameel has expertise in the fields of molecular biology, infectious diseases, and biotechnology. He is the CEO of Wellcome Trust/Department of Biotechnology's India Alliance and is best known for extensive research in Hepatitis E virus and HIV.

He said COVID-19 will eventually be controlled through herd immunity, which is acquired in two ways – when a sufficient fraction of the population gets infected and recovers, and with vaccination.

"It is estimated that for SARS-CoV-2 at least 60 per cent of the population would have to be infected and recovered, or vaccinated. This will happen over the course of the next few years," Jameel said.

Herd immunity is reached when the majority of a population becomes immune to an infectious disease, either because they have become infected and recovered, or through vaccination. When that happens, the disease is less likely to spread to people who aren't immune, because there just aren't enough infectious carriers.

"India has 1.38 billion people, a population density of about 400/sq km and a healthcare system ranked at 143 in the world. If we allow 60 per cent people to get infected quickly in the hopes of herd immunity, that would mean 830 million infections," Jameel said.

"If 15 per cent need hospitalization that means about 125 million isolation beds (we have 0.3 million). If five per cent need oxygen and ventilatory support, this amounts to about 42 million oxygen support and ICU beds; we have 0.1 million oxygen support beds and 34,000 ICU beds. This would overwhelm the healthcare system causing mayhem," he said.

Jameel said if the population level mortality is 0.5 per cent that would mean 40 lakh deaths. "Are we prepared to pay this price for herd immunity in the short term? Clearly not," he said.

He said it is unlikely that a vaccine would be available by the end of the year.

"Even then, we don't know yet how long it would give protection – weeks, months, one year, a few years? I don't think we will return to pre-coronavirus days for at least the next 3-5 years. This is also a chance to evaluate if we want to return to those unsustainable, environment-damaging ways. COVID-19 is a timely warning to reform our way of living," he said.

Jameel said it is hard to predict but plausible that COVID-19 would return in second or third wave.

"Later waves come when we don't understand the disease and become lax. A comparison to Spanish Flu is not entirely valid because in 1918 no one knew what caused it. No one had seen a virus till the mid-1930s as the electron microscope needed to view those was invented in 1931," he said.

"Today we know a lot more about the pathogen, its genetic makeup, how it transmits and how to prevent it. We need to be sensible and follow expert advice," he said.

If there is any scientific evidence linking deforestation, rapid urbanisation, climate change with pandemics like COVID-19, he said zoonotic viruses -- those that jump from animals to humans -- happen so when wild animal–human contacts increase.

"Deforestation destroys animal habitats bringing them closer to humans. When you cut forests, bats come to roost on trees closer to human habitations. Their viruses in secretions/stool get transmitted to domestic animals and on to humans. This happened clearly with Nipah virus outbreak in Malaysia in 1997-98 from fruit bats to pigs to humans," he said.

"COVID-19 possibly arose in wet animal markets due to dietary habits that bring all kinds of live and dead wild animals in close contact with humans," Jameel added.

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