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Rahul Gandhi not to blame for Congress's Lok Sabha poll rout: Antony

August 16, 2014

Rahul GandhiNew Delhi, Aug 16: Congress leader A K Antony has absolved Rahul Gandhi of any responsibility for the party's debacle in Lok Sabha elections.

The investigation into the reasons for the defeat, conducted by a committee headed by Antony, has instead blamed organizational weakness and the "manipulation of media coverage by Narendra Modi".

Asked if Rahul had been apportioned the blame for the defeat, Antony told reporters, "This is all speculation. Nothing. Absolutely wrong. Those who are spreading these kinds of rumours want to weaken the party... such things are being spread by mischievous people who want to weaken the party."

The remark indicates that Rahul is in the clear. "The reasons for Congress defeat were something else," Antony said, adding that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul campaigned across the country.

The all-clear from the probe panel contrasts with the criticism that the Gandhi scion has been facing since Congress crashed to its worst-ever defeat, with partymen questioning his leadership skills and his ideas.

Rahul was the face of the Congress's 2014 campaign which was marked by his experiments like "primaries" — to choose candidates by voting by a section of workers. His hand in the selection of candidates was also final, with a core committee picked by him doing the job.

The Congress chief and Rahul, who came to the party's Akbar Road headquarters for flag hoisting, did not take questions.

Refusing to divulge details of his report, Antony said, "We are confident, just as we did in 1977, we will overcome this difficult phase as well. Congress will overcome this. We will be able to regain the loss, strengthen our party, strengthen our mass base again. We will revive under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul."

The Antony panel spoke to party leaders from states and arrived at its conclusions on their feedback.

Interestingly, the report talks about the alleged "manipulation of media coverage by BJP and the lacunae in the Congress campaign vis-a-vis the Modi blitzkrieg".

Senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said media was "one of the contributory factors" for the defeat as its entire focus was one person.

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News Network
March 9,2020

New Delhi, Mar 9: The Centre and the Delhi government are working in close coordination to deal with coronavirus, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said here on Monday.

Talking to reporters after a review meeting with Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on the preparedness for COVID-19, the chief minister said people arriving from foreign countries are being screened at airports.

A campaign will be run to make people aware of the preventive measures to contain the spread of the disease, Kejriwal said.

Health Ministry sending directives to states: Vardhan

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said the government is prepared to deal with novel coronavirus and his ministry is sending directives, including guidelines, to states in all the languages on ways to contain it.

"We are sending detailed guidelines to all states on ways to contain coronavirus. Have asked states to strengthen laboratories and manpower to effectively deal with coronavirus and form early rapid action teams," Vardhan told reporters adding, that the government is prepared to deal with the infection.

Vardhan stressed on a coordinated action between all concerned departments and agencies for activities such as contact tracing, community surveillance, hospital management, identification of isolation wards, ensuring adequate personal protection equipment and masks and risk communication for mass awareness.

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News Network
July 25,2020

New Delhi, Jul 25: India reported a spike of 48,916 coronavirus cases on Saturday, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The total COVID-19 positive cases stand at 13,36,861 including 4,56,071 active cases, 8,49,431 cured/discharged/migrated. With 757 deaths in the last 24 hours, the cumulative toll reached 31,358.

Maharashtra has reported 3,57,117 coronavirus cases, the highest among states and Union Territories in the country.

A total of 1,99,749 cases have been reported from Tamil Nadu till now, while Delhi has recorded a total of 1,28,389 coronavirus cases.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 4,20,898 samples were tested for coronavirus on Friday and overall 1,58,49,068 samples have been tested so far.

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News Network
July 4,2020

New Delhi, July 4: India on Friday reported its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases with 22,771 cases reported in the last 24 hours, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

With these new cases, India's coronavirus cases tally has gone up to 6,48,315, out of which there are 2,35,433 active cases in the country and 3,94,227 cases have been cured/discharged or migrated.

As many as 442 deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported in the last 24 hours taking the number of patients succumbing to the deadly virus across the country to 18,655.

As per the Union Health Ministry, Maharashtra -- the worst affected state due to COVID-19 -- has a total of 1,92,990 cases which is inclusive of 8,376 deaths. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu, the second worst-affected state, has a total of 1,02,721 cases and 1,385 fatalities. Delhi's tally of coronavirus cases stands at 94,695 which is inclusive of 2923 deaths due to the virus.

The Centre said that the recovery rate has further improved to 60.80 per cent. The recoveries/deaths ratio is 95.48 per cent : 4.52 per cent.

The Indian Council of Medical Research, earlier on Saturday, said that the total number of samples tested up to July 3 is 95,40,132, out of which 2,42,383 samples were tested yesterday.

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