Hazare parts ways with Kejriwal

September 19, 2012

Anna

New Delhi, September 19: Team Anna on Wednesday suffered a vertical split with Anna Hazare and some top activists choosing to part ways with the Arvind Kejriwal-led group, opposing their plans to form a political party.

After a roller-coaster ride of 18 months in which they came together to run a high-steam anti-graft movement, the group led by Mr. Hazare had acrimonious discussions with Mr. Kejriwal and his supporters including Prashant Bushan and Shanti Bhushan on the issue of forming a political party.

Backed by activists including Kiran Bedi and Justice Santosh Hegde, Mr. Hazare told the other group during the nine-hour deliberations that they were free to form a political party but cannot use his name or photo for their campaign.

“It is unfortunate that the team has separated...I will not join any party or any group. I will not go for their campaign. I have told them not to use my photo or my name in their campaign. You fight on your own,” he told reporters in New Delhi.

Mr. Hazare refused to accept the survey done by India Against Corruption, which overwhelmingly favoured a political path, saying he does not agree with the exercise done through social networking sites. “My best wishes are with them (those taking political path). There is no harm in it. If they think that they can get majority in Parliament, it is good... The paths have been separated. Both of us have chosen our (separate paths).”

When pointed out that Mr. Kejriwal had earlier declared that he will not form any party if Mr. Hazare does not approve it, he said if that was the case, then the party should not be formed but “it is a good thing”.

The discussions saw a section alleging that Mr. Hazare was “exploited” by the Kejriwal group. It was countered by others saying “people in Delhi have made Anna what he is now“.

Reacting to the developments, Mr. Kejriwal tweeted, “Country is on sale. It is passing through very difficult phase. I will do everything possible for me to save my country.”

Ms. Bedi, who is opposed to forming of a political party, tweeted, “Anna finally distances himself from political option. Moves to strengthen the movement. May bring together anti-corruption movements.”

She told PTI that she did appeal to those members of the team who were very keen on political option to give the movement some more time.

“But it appears that they are convinced about their option. This finality by Anna was essential to dispel the mix up of the movement and the party politics,” she said.

Giriraj Kishore, an ex-Registrar of IIT Kanpur who attended the meeting, said the overall mood of the discussions was that the movement should remain united and should reach a fruitful conclusion.

“A section of those in meeting said Hazare was exploited by some people in the movement. But this is not true. If Anna has given his name to the movement, people here have made the Anna what he is now. They built the image of Anna,” he said.

Bollywood actor Anupam Kher, who attended the meeting, said in case one needs to fight corruption solidly, one “may have to fight elections”. He said there is no controversy but only deliberations.

During his interaction with the media, Mr. Hazare also expressed hope that government will be forced to pass a strong Lokpal Bill as elections are nearing and the government should be fearing it.

“They will be afraid of losing power. That time has come. I believe that they will have to bring the Lokpal Bill before elections. Now it is that they bring Lokpal or my death,” he said.

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Agencies
April 23,2020

More and more Indians have become better prepared in the last one month, as far as stocking of their ration, medicine or money is concerned, according to the IANS-CVoter COVID-19 Tracker.

With the second leg of the lockdown half way through and Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying it's a long haul, 57.2% respondents said they have less than three weeks of stock while 43.3% said they have a stock that will last beyond that

However, if one breaks into weeks, most respondents said they are prepared for a week's time. 24.5% respondents said they have ration, medicine or money to last a week. This is closely followed by 21.9 % respondents saying they are ready for a month.

Meanwhile, 20.4 % said they are ready for a couple of weeks. There are 15.8 % who said they are ready for more than a month with food, ration and medicine. A tiny 5.6 % said they are ready with three weeks of stock.

However, there is 12.3% who still seem to live on the edge with less than a week's preparation.

But, the biggest takeaway from the IANS-CVoter COVID-19 Tracker is that in the last one month, a massive segment of society realised that the fight is long and the preparation should also be to last that long.

o put things into context, on March 16 when the tracker started, a whopping 77.1% said they have stock to last for less than a week. More than a month later on April 21, that number jumped to just 12.3%, which essentially means, people have become better prepared for a long-hauled lockdown period.

Similarly, on April 21, a sizable 21.9% respondents claimed they are ready with ration and medicine that will last them a month. On March 16, not even one respondent could claim they have a month's stock. In fact till March 22, just ahead of the announcement of the first lockdown, no respondent the IANS-CVoter tracker said that they have a month's preparation.

Similarly, when the tracker started, 9.9% said they simply ‘don't know'. As on April 21, that number is a big zero.

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News Network
April 19,2020

Shimla, Apr 19: A man, who had recovered from the novel coronavirus, was again found suffering from the infection in Himachal Pradesh, officials said.

The man, a Tablighi Jamaat member, tested positive for the infection on Saturday within a week of his two reports coming out negative, they said.

Residents of different places in Mandi district, the man along with two other Jamaatis had been staying in a mosque of Nakroh village in Una'a Amb tehsil and all tested positive on April 2.

They were admitted to Tanda's Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College (RPGMC) in Kangra district on April 3.

As per the available information, they had tested negative for the first time on April 10 and they were declared as cured as per protocol after they tested negative for the second time on April 12.

Subsequently they had been discharged from the RPGMC and were kept in institutional quarantine.

However, with the man again testing positive, the total number of active cases in the hill state has increased to 23 out of the total 40 positive cases.

Four persons have been shifted to a private hospital outside the state. Eleven have recovered while two others have died.

A total of 16 confirmed cases were found in Una and health department statistics now shows 14 active cases and two cured.

Officials said 11 patients — three each from Chamba, Kangra, and Solan districts and two from Una district — have recovered.

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Agencies
July 13,2020

Hyderabad, Jul 13: Family members of Telugu poet and writer Varavara Rao, who is currently lodged in Navi Mumbai's Taloja jail in the Bhima Koregaon case, on Sunday appealed to the government for his immediate release in view of his deteriorating health.

Rao's wife P. Hemalatha and their three daughters urged the government to save his life by shifting him to a hospital or allow them to provide him with immediate medical care.

We want to remind the government that it has no right to deny the right to life of any person, much less an undertrial prisoner," they said.

His family members said they were very much worried about his deteriorating health. They said his health condition had been scary for over six weeks, ever since he was shifted in an unconscious state to JJ Hospital on May 28.

"Even as he was discharged from the hospital and sent back to jail three days later, there has been no improvement in his health and he is still in need of emergency healthcare," Hemalatha said.

"The immediate cause of concern now is that we are very much perturbed at the routine phone call we received from him on Saturday evening. Though the earlier two calls on June 24 and July 2 were also worrying with his weak and muffled voice, incoherent speech and abruptly jumping into Hindi. But the latest call, on July 11 is much more worrisome as he did not answer straight questions on his health and went into a kind of delirious and hallucinated talk about the funeral of his father and mother, the events that happened seven decades and four decades ago respectively," Rao's wife said.

She said her husband's co-accused companion took the phone from him and informed her that he is not able to walk, go to the toilet and brush his teeth on his own.

"We were also told that he is always hallucinating that we, family members, were waiting at the jail gate to receive him as he was getting released. His co-prisoner also said he needs immediate medical care for not only physical but also neurological issues. The confusion, loss of memory and incoherence are the results of electrolyte imbalance and fall of Sodium and Potassium levels leading to brain damage. This electrolyte imbalance may be fatal also."

Stating that Taloja Jail Hospital is not well equipped to handle this kind of serious ailment, they demanded that he be shifted to a fully equipped super specialty hospital to save his life and prevent possible brain damage and risk to life due to electrolyte imbalance.

"At the present juncture we are leaving aside all the pertinent facts like, that the case against him is fabricated; he had to spend 22 months in jail as an undertrial with the process turned into punishment; his bail petitions got rejected at least five times now and even the bail petitions with his age, ill-health and COVID vulnerability as grounds were ignored. His life is the top most concern for us right now. Our present demand is to save his life," the family said.

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