The death of George Floyd has unleashed mayhem in US. Protestors have been thronging the streets across different cities with placards and chants of “No Justice No Peace” and “I can’t breathe”. Many incidents of looting, arson and vandalism are also being reported with protestors breaking glass panes of buildings and torching small business enterprises.
In a bizarre incident, a scantily clad woman protestor climbed up a turtled police vehicle and defecated on it as other on-lookers cheered and recorded it on their phones. The incident happened in Salt Lake City in Utah.
Soon after, the hashtag #PoopingForJustice started doing the rounds on twitter.
The Jammu and Kashmir police on Monday (June 1) said that a narco-terror module was busted by its men in central Kashmir’s Budgam district along with security forces. Six terrorists belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) have been arrested.
Upon receiving a tip-off, the police along with the army and CRPF forces arrested 6 members of the JeM: Mudassir Fayaz resident of Kralpora, Shabir Ganaie resident of Wathoora, Sageer Ahmad Poswal resident of Kupwara, Issaq Bhat, Arshid Thoker both residents of Shopian and a minor from Chadoora area of Budgam.
Arms and ammunition including a Chinese pistol, a hand grenade, four pistol rounds, one Pistol Magazine along with ₹1,55,000 cash and 1 kg heroine were seized.
“As per police records they were in close connection with Pakistan-based terror handlers and were involved in drug trade, supply of weapons besides assisting financially to active terrorists of proscribed terror outfit JeM,” police said in a statement.
The police also said that the recoveries exposed the interconnection between drug dealers and terrorists.
A complaint has been filed against a DMK office bearer in Tiruvannamalai district for beating a youth belonging to the Scheduled Caste community with slippers.
The accused Karunanidhi belonging to the DMK, is the leader of Parayampattu gram panchayat. Ramkumar, a young graduate belonging to the same village, is the leader of the youth wing of Dravidar Kazhagam (DK)’s Tiruvannamalai unit.
The incident was reported by Ramkumar to another a media outlet as below:
Ramkumar was a riding his bike near the banks of the village lake at around 10 AM on May 15. Karunanidhi riding pillion with another man named Dharman is said to have come in the opposite direction and collided on Ramkumar’s bike. Ramkumar had responded angrily saying that both the parties would have been hurt badly if they had come in speed.
“Can’t you see me and Thalaivar (leader) coming? You should have made way on seeing us” Dharman is said to have responded using abusive language. Ramkumar had then gotten into a war of words. Irked, Karunanidhi got off from the bike and started beating Ramkumar with slippers hitting his face and chest.
“How dare you raise your voice and speak against me? Should have thrown you guys outside the village a long time back. Since that wasn’t done, you got enough courage to speak up against us is it?” said Karunanidhi using casteist slurs.
Karunanidhi’s brother Parthasarathy who was passing by started using casteist slurs against Ramkumar without inquiring into the incident “You earn your livelihood by beating drums. Don’t even have the ability to pay back debts! How dare you speak against my brother?” Parthasarathy is reported to have said who also started thrashing Ramkumar.
Coming to know of the incident Ramkumar’s mother hurried to the spot who was also beaten with slippers by DMK man Karunanidhi and his brother.
Ramkumar is later said to have reported the incident at Thachampattu Police Station where his complaint was initially rejected. After a long hiatus, an FIR was registered. Later, Thachampattu Block Councillor Ramanan of the DMK had threatened Ramkumar to withdraw the case.
The Thachampattu Police have registered cases against 6 members including Karunanidhi. Dharman has been arrested. Karunanidhi and the other 4 members are absconding. The family members of Karunanidhi had said that Ramkumar had lost the elections for panchyat union leader and had acted in vengeance. They alleged Ramkumar of using cuss words which had irked Karunanidhi to beat him with slippers. “The slippers didn’t even hit him”, the relatives were reported saying.
Karunanidhi is said to be an influential man in the DMK. He is said to be a close acquaintance of A.V. Velu who is said to be protecting Karunanidhi currently.
Having been in a month long medically induced coma after testing positive for COVID-19, Dom gets to go home in time to celebrate his half-birthday. He was diagnosed to be coronavirus positive a month after he was born in Rio de Janeiro and spent 54 days in the hospital, of which 32 were in coma.
Wagner Andrade, this miracle baby’s father, while speaking about this, said, ‘He had some difficulty breathing and so the doctors thought it was a bacterial infection. But the medication didn’t work and he got worse. Then I and my wife decided to take him to a second hospital and test him. He was COVID-19 positive’.
Viviane Monteiro, the baby’s mother, had noticed that the baby had been having difficulty breathing and called a few doctors. Upon recording a video, the doctor had asked them to take him immediately to the hospital. They concluded that he could have possibly contracted it at a relative’s place during a visit.
The parents expressed their joy, saying that they were longing to bring him home. Baby Dom will celebrate his 6-month birthday at home on June 14, with his parents and the virtual presence of his relatives.
Brazil has had atleast 25 COVID-19 related deaths among infants in the last few months. The country has been hit the worst by the virus amongst the South American countries.
Over the last few years, repeated proclamations for boycotting Chinese goods have surfaced and re-surfaced, giving young India a taste of what the swadeshi movement might have felt like back in the day. But how much water do these appeals hold in today’s context? Is sacrificing the convenience of Zoom or the fun of TikTok worth the effort or is it just another leaf out of a bad economics playbook? These are some questions that need to be examined more closely.
To be fair, the swadeshi movement has an impressive record of accomplishment. A rising feeling of nationalism, boost to the local economy, retaining monies within the Indian markets, positive evolution of supply chains and a spike in availability of jobs are some objectives it has not missed.
But today, we must look at it strictly from the prism of relevance and availability of strong circumstantial evidence.
Then and now
At that time, no aspect of the Indian subcontinent had escaped British enslavement. Administration, economy, education; everything, was under foreign control. There was a feeling of anger among a large section of people who were more than willing to trade comfort for freedom, but they needed a leader whom they could rally behind. Baba Ram Singh Kuka started the first successful swadeshi-non-cooperation movement in 1871, while subsequent swadeshis like the one after Bengal’s partition and which Gandhi started were shaped by similar circumstances.
Enter globalisation.
Today, our foremost form of ‘enslavement’ to the Chinese is economic. But it is not just India – global supply chains are heavily dependent on China in one way or another, no matter how insignificant the requirement. For instance, the bamboo that is used for manufacturing incense sticks comes from China. Not just in the world, but even in India, which is one among the world’s largest producers of Bamboo; suggesting that large scale production does not automatically guarantee a place in large value chains. Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) mostly come from there as well, and so do a million other things.
If India intends to threaten China with swadeshi, a boycott of Chinese products alone is not enough. The country must invest heavily in reforms that can cut through red-tape and build an ecosystem which nurtures businesses, especially smaller ones, as they are key to producing intermediate goods required by global value chains. There is a serious need for judicial reforms too, which can guarantee a strong legal framework and make ‘ease of doing business’ genuinely easy. Data laws and clarity on intellectual property rights are other areas that need focus.
The road to success is almost easy
An interesting question is, if a disruption in Chinese manufacturing can dent small and large businesses across the globe, is the corollary also true?
To an extent.
While China is dependent on the world, the nature of its dependency is a stark contrast. The world needs China for creating the products it wants to sell, while China needs the world to sell its intermediate goods which enable production of finished products. It is interesting how, while global dependency on China was increasing, China itself was enhancing vertical integration of its own supply chains, both forward and backward.
Source: China and the transformation of value chains, Alicia Garcia Herrero, Senior Fellow, Bruegel
Simply put, third countries are not adding the same value to Chinese exports as China is adding to third country’s exports. The gap is only increasing.
Next steps
A vital aspect of China is its small and medium enterprise network. A sustained all-out global boycott could potentially harm this in the short run, which might lead to political instability in the country. However, a swadeshi in India alone will not help as it accounts only for 2% of China’s total exports. But if it does become a global phenomenon, which is possible given the current sentiment, things could take a different course. The intent is not to take food away from Chinese dinner tables but to hurt the Xi-Jinping hegemony, which I’m sure even the Chinese want gone.
Global diversification is on the rise and India does not top the list. The biggest gainers are sub-Saharan African and South-East Asian nations. If India plans to hurt China, it can be better done by enhancing the output of its intermediate goods and getting its MSME story right. Structural reforms are the only path to progress, for which the babus must innovate.
Swadeshi is a small cog in a big wheel unless its scope is expanded to include supply side reforms, which is key to dousing the Chinese fire.
This article was republished from Standpoint India with permission. Read the original article here.
Abid Hussain and Tahir Khan, working as Visa Assistants at the Pakistan High Commission were apprehended red handed indulging in espionage activities by the Delhi Police on May 31
Both of them are ISI operatives who were working under the disguise of diplomats at the Pakistan High Commission.
The Ministry of External Affairs in its press release said that the two persons have been “declared persona non grata for indulging in activities incompatible with their status as members of a diplomatic mission” and have asked them to leave the country within 24 hours.
Persona non grata in diplomacy implies that a person entering or remaining in a country is prohibited by the particular country’s government. It is the strongest form of censure which a country applies to foreign diplomats.
Pakistan’s Charge de Affaires (Cd’A) was issued a demarche and a strong protest was registered by India for working against India’s national security. The Cd’A was asked to ensure that none of its members of its diplomatic missions indulge in espionage activities or behave in a manner incompatible with their diplomatic status.
As violence grips US over the killing of a black man name George Floyd by the police with lootings, arson and vandalism being reported from across the country, Ashok Swain, a professor with the University of Uppsala in Sweden put out a tweet on Sunday (May 31) calling for a similar ‘mobilization’ of Muslims in India.
Citing the protest in the wake of the death of George Floyd, Swain in his tweet said that that there need to be a similar kind of ‘mobilization’ to oppose ‘extra-judicial killings’ of Muslims in the country.
He questioned the encounter of SIMI terrorists who had attempted a jail break by slitting the throat of the jail guard by giving a link to one of his earlier articles published in 2016.
In another tweet, Swain said that protest are key to democracy and emphasized that “occasional inconvenience” and “limited violence” are a small price to pay to live in free and democratic country.
This has come across as an open attempt to instigate violence. Many on twitter called out the inciting nature of the tweet saying that the man is attempting to instigate violence sitting on a foreign land.
Loot and vandalism isn't democracy. Neither is theft of Louis Vuitton n Gucci. Peaceful protest is democracy. There is never a justification for x% / limited violence because no one can define what x or limited is. Is breaking legs limited violence?
Swain has made numerous remarks undermining India’s national interests. He had called the Pulwama terror attack on CRPF jawans an inside job that sought to secure Prime Minister Modi’s relection. This claim was used by Pakistani media too. He had even mocked later External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s death.
A Muslim man in Meerut honoured the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh workers by showering flower petals on them.
In the video, Swayamsevaks can be seen chanting “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “Vande Mataram” as a Muslim man showers petals.
The incident happened at Meerut Railway Station where RSS workers have been distributing food, water and other essentials to the travellers boarding the special trains.
The man also showered petals on policemen at the railway stations.
Protests have been rocking the cities of US following the incident of the death of George Floyd. Cities like Minnesota were up in flames as protestors indulged in arson and vandalism.
Floyd, who was unarmed, was reportedly suspected of trying to pass counterfeit bills at an eatery in Minneapolis. A video shot by an on-looker shows police officers pinning down Floyd to the street with one of them placing his knee on Floyd’s neck. Floyd can be heard saying “Please, I can’t breathe” as the police handcuffed him before he became motionless. He was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead the same night.
Derek Chauvin, the police officer who had his knee over Floyd’s neck, was dismissed from the police department with three fellow officers, the day after the fatal encounter. Derek was later arrested on charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter.
Since then, hundreds of protestors have been thronging the streets across different cities with placards and chants of “No Justice No Peace” and “I can’t breathe”. In certain places, protestors indulged in looting, arson and vandalism. Protestors gathered in front of a liquor store in Minneapolis and set it to flames. The CNN office in Atlanta was attacked with protestors breaking the glasses of the building. Several other business places have been set on fire which appears to be the work of arsonists. Police have been using tear gas, plastic bullets and concussion grenades in an attempt to bring law and order. So far, 1400 protestors have been arrested across 17 cities.
In the wake of this situation, the US cities that currently have curfews in place are Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Denver, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Miami, Cleveland, Columbus, Portland, Milwaukee and Salt Lake City.
Meanwhile, President Trump has been staying put inside the White House as protestors gathered outside the fortified mansion. On Saturday, he threatened to respond with “dogs” and “weapons” against those protesting outside the White House.
While under a global pandemic situation of which US has become the epicentre with increasing number of deaths every day, this incident has made the situation across the country volatile.
Titanic, the doomed ship that sank on April 14, 1912, during its first and last ever voyage from Southampton to New York is back in news now. For long, its captain Edward Smith had been blamed, who had died with the ship, for having ignored the warnings, and sailing too fast. There were even claims that he had been drunk that night.
Now, a high court judge has given the green signal that could potentially clear his name of those accusations. Earlier this week, Rebecca Beach Smith, a federal judge in Virginia, said: “The Marconi device has significant historical, educational, scientific and cultural value as the device was used to make distress calls while the Titanic was sinking.”
That coupled with the deterioration is enough to justify its removal, even if that requires “limited cutting” of the ship’s hull, she ruled.
The sunken ship’s wireless Marconi telegraph equipment found in the Marconi suite of the upper deck of the ship, could provide insight into what had gone down. To retrieve the machine, salvagers will need to cut open the ship’s hull with a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) but a court ruling in 2000 prohibited the removal of any artefacts from the wreck.
Twenty year later, the company has successfully challenged that ruling, citing concerns that the room and its contents could be destroyed by the ship’s deteriorating condition.
If retrieved, it could help unravel the mystery of the “unsinkable” ship’s final moments, provide new insight into the messages that the vessel sent and received before it struck the iceberg, as well as the distress calls it sent out as it sank.
The company, RMS Titanic, wants to recover the sunken ship’s wireless Marconi telegraph, which has been called the “last voice” of the Titanic.
