Ready to return Bharat Ratna if Vajpayee asks: Amartya Sen

July 25, 2013

New Delhi, Jul 25: A major slugfest erupted today over BJP MP Chandan Mitra's demand for stripping nobel laureate Amartya Sen of the Bharat Ratna award and the economist offering to return it if Atal Bihari Vajpayee asks him to do so.sen

While BJP steered clear of the controversy, Congress waded into it with an attack saying it reflected the "fascist mentality" of BJP.

"Mr Chandan Mitra may not know that the Bharat Ratna was given to me by the BJP-led government and was handed to me by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. If Mr Vajpayee wants me to return it, I will certainly return it," Amartya Sen told Times Now.

He said it was unfortunate that such a demand had come forth and termed it as a "personal" view of Mitra.

"To get into a political debate and somebody takes a view which seems to me is rather unfair...to all the people as well....I think it is unfortunate....It is so unproductive actually," Sen said.

He added that during the BJP-led NDA government, he has had a lot of discussion with leaders like L K Advani, Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh and Arun Jaitley.

Demanding that Sen be stripped of his Bharat Ratna, Mitra had said he was not even a voter in India and wondered whether a Bharat Ratna awardee should speak for or against any party or a leader.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari hit out at the BJP for its attack on Sen, who had raised the heckles of the saffron party saying he did not want to see Narendra Modi as prime minister since he did not have secular credentials. The prominent economist had also criticised Modi's model of governance saying he did not approve of it.

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Agencies
February 16,2020

New Delhi, Feb 16: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal was on Sunday sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Delhi for the third time in a row at Ramlila Maidan here, after his party registered a massive victory in the recently concluded Delhi Assembly polls.

Kejriwal was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.

The sprawling Ramlila Maidan reverberated with sounds of thousands of people cheering for the AAP leader.

Kejriwal who received a hero's welcome here had extended an invitation to the people of Delhi urging them to attend the swearing-in ceremony to witness "the son of Delhi" taking oath today.

The AAP nearly repeated its 2015 performance in the elections, sweeping the Assembly polls winning 62 seats in the 70-member Assembly, in the face of a high-voltage campaign by the BJP, which fielded a battery of Union Ministers and Chief Ministers in its electioneering spearheaded by Home Minister Amit Shah. 

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News Network
April 30,2020

Hyderabad, Apr 30: A 45-day-old baby boy, who tested positive for COVID-19 when he was 20-days-old, was discharged from a state-run hospital here on Wednesday after his full recovery.

The baby from Mahabubnagar, who contracted the infection from his father, was 20-days-old at the time of admission (on April 4), a COVID-19 bulletin said.

He was discharged after being cured, it said. The baby, probably the youngest to contract the infection in the country, was treated at the state-run Gandhi hospital in the city.

State Health Minister E Rajender expressed happiness over the baby being discharged after recovery.

An official release said 35 people were discharged today and 13 of them were children.

Those who were discharged thanked the doctors and medical personnel of the hospital and the minister has lauded the doctors and other medical staff for their efforts, it said.

Among those undergoing treatment at the hospital, 10 are being treated in the ICU.

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News Network
May 3,2020

New Delhi, May 3: Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Sunday said that India's COVID-19 mortality rate of 3.2 per cent is the lowest in the world and over 10,000 coronavirus patients have been discharged from hospitals after recovering from the disease so far.

"Today more than 10,000 COVID-19 patients have been discharged. Those still admitted at hospitals are on the road to recovery. If in last 14 days doubling rate was 10.5 days, then today it is around 12 days," the Minister told ANI after visiting Lady Hardinge Hospital.

"Our mortality rate of 3.2 per cent is the lowest in the world," he said.

With 2,644 more COVID-19 cases and 83 deaths in the last 24 hours, the number of people infected from coronavirus in the country has reached 39,980 including 1,301 deaths, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday.

Currently, there are 28,046 active cases while 10,633 COVID-19 positive patients have been cured/discharged.

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