Surgical strike: Ex-servicemen target PM over using blood of armed forces for politics

Agencies
September 29, 2018

New Delhi, Sept 29: Congress fielded a battery of ex-servicemen to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “using the blood and sacrifice” of armed forces for political gains as the three-day celebration of Parakram Parv (second anniversary of surgical strikes) began on Friday.

The ex-servicemen demanded the implementation of the 'one rank, one pension' scheme “without dilution”, questioned the low expenditure on defence in terms of percentage of the GDP and pressed for celebration of December 16 – the day when 93,000 Pakistani soldiers surrendered before the Indian Army in 1971 – as a 'National Day'.

The refrain of the ex-servicemen was that though the 'surgical strike' of September 28-29, 2016 was a “very good operation”, similar actions had been carried out on earlier occasions.

“If you are using the valour of the armed forces for political gains, you are doing grave injustice to the soldiers,” Major General Satbir Singh (retd.), leader of the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement, said at a press conference at the Congress headquarters here.

Colonel Rohit Chaudhary (retd.) also attacked the Modi government over the increase in violations along the Line of Control and the international border. “If you are really concerned about national security, you will have to increase defence expenditure from the current 1.5% of the GDP. China spends 5% of its GDP on defence, while Pakistan spends 3.5%,” Chaudhary said.

Surjewala said the armed forces have been carrying out surgical strikes over the past two decades and recounted at least eight instances when the armed forces had conducted such operations along the borders in Jammu & Kashmir.

He accused Modi and the BJP of “always using” the “blood and sacrifice” of the armed forces as a “tool to garner votes”.

Surjewala said the Modi government had compromised national security and betrayed national interests over the last four-and-a-half years. “Lack of political action and policy has led to a disquiet border and an alarming internal security situation,” the Congress leader said.

He said Modi had failed to consolidate on the surgical strikes of September 2016 as 1604 ceasefire violations have been reported after that in which 29 security personnel have lost their lives.

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News Network
February 28,2020

Feb 28: The best economic tonic for the coronavirus shock is to contain its spread and worry about stimulus later, said Raghuram Rajan, former head of the Reserve Bank of India.

There’s little central banks can do, and while more government spending would help, the priority should be on convincing companies and households that the virus is under control, he said.

“People want to have a sense that there is a limit to the spread of this virus perhaps because of containment measures or because there is hope that some kind of viral solution can be found,” Rajan told Bloomberg Television’s Haidi Stroud Watts and Shery Ahn.

“At this point I would say the best thing that governments can do is to really fight the epidemic rather than worry about stimulus measures that comes later,” said Rajan, who is currently a professor at the Chicago Booth School of Business.

The spread of coronavirus is pushing the world economy toward its worst performance since the financial crisis more than a decade ago.

Bank of America Corp. economists warned clients Thursday that they now expect 2.8% global growth this year, the weakest since 2009.

“We have moved from extreme confidence in markets to extreme panic, all in the space of one week,” said Rajan, who previously was chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.

The virus outbreak will force companies to rethink supply chains and overseas production facilities, he said.

“I think we will see a lot of rethinking on this, coming on the back of the trade disruption, now we have this,” Rajan said. “Globalization in production is going to be hit quite badly.”

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News Network
June 16,2020

New Delhi, Jun 16: With an increase of 10,667 cases and 380 deaths in the past 24 hours, the COVID-19 count in India has reached 3,43,091 on Tuesday, according to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry.

It is noteworthy that today's spike in cases is lower than the 11,502 registered in the country yesterday and has also stayed below the 11 thousand mark it had been crossing for the past two days in a row.

However, there is an increase in the number of deaths due to the infection from yesterday, with 380 deaths being reported from across the country, the toll due to COVID-19 has now reached 9,900.

The COVID-19 count includes 1,53,178 active cases, while 1,80,013 patients have been cured and discharged or migrated so far.

Maharashtra with 1,10,744 cases continues to be the worst-affected state in the country with 50,567 active cases while 56,049 patients have been cured and discharged in the state so far. The toll due to COVID-19 has crossed the four thousand mark and reached 4,128 in the state.
It is followed by Tamil Nadu with 46,504 and the national capital with 42,829 confirmed cases.

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News Network
July 17,2020
New Delhi, Jul 17:  Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that as India's COVID-19 tally has crossed 10,00,000 mark and issued a warning that by August 10, more than 20,00,000 people may be infected in the country. He called on the government to take concrete steps to control the pandemic.
 
Taking to Twitter, Gandhi marked his earlier tweet from July 14 that stated: "This week the figure will cross 10,00,000 in our country."
"The tally has crossed 10,00,000 mark. If COVID-19 continues to spread at the same speed, by August 10, more than 20,00,000 people will be infected in the country.
 
The government must take concrete, planned steps to stop the epidemic," he tweeted today.
With the highest single-day spike of 32,695 cases and 606 deaths, India's COVID-19 tally on Thursday reached 9,68,876, informed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday.
 
The total number of COVID-19 cases includes 3,31,146 active cases, 6,12,815 cured/discharged/migrated and 24,915 deaths. 

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