AAP in touch with Sidhu
After receiving the green signal from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party has started wooing Punjab MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu. The former cricketer has suddenly started interacting with some of the disgruntled Congress MLAs. This forced Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to host a luncheon meeting some days ago for some legislators from the Amritsar parliamentary constituency. Sidhu, who belongs to Amritsar, was not present in the meeting. The MLAs said that issues regarding the development of their constituencies and efforts to contain Covid-19 were discussed. The CM informed the MLAs that Rs 25 crore was being released for each Assembly segment. Interestingly, the invites for the lunch were sent after reports of AAP wooing Sidhu surfaced. The CM has, however, rubbished these reports and said that Sidhu was “very much a part of the Congress” and had been in touch with the party high command in that capacity and, if Sidhu had any issue, he could meet him. The CM saying that Sidhu is in touch with the party high command, and not with him, shows that the two are obviously not in good terms.
Dead have right to go with dignity
Social media is flooded with reports from across the country on how some doctors, hospitals (mainly private) and “safai karamcharis” are behaving in an inhuman manner with Covid-19 patients and the dead. Several private hospitals are indulging in black-marketing of beds and charging exorbitant rates for treatment. In one case, municipal workers dumped the body of Mohammed Anwar (45) in a garbage van in Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur district on Wednesday evening. Seven employees, including three policemen (who had watched it happen), were suspended when a video went viral.
Anwar had gone to a government office, where he collapsed at its gate and died on the spot. The reason of his death is not known as yet. Though an ambulance was parked nearby, the municipal employees suspecting the man to be infected with coronavirus refused to transport the body. Later, they bundled the body in a garbage van.
Seeing bodies of the Covid-19 deceased piling up in the capital, former law minister Ashwani Kumar has written a letter to the Chief Justice of India and his companion judges, urging for orders to enforce the apex court’s previous rulings that guarantee and recognise the right to live and die with dignity as fundamental. “The right to dignified death must be restored,” he has appealed.
‘Chinese cheating in name of Covid’
The US on 10 June filed a civil complaint in America to recover more than $543,000 from individuals based in China who purported to sell face masks and N-95 respirators at inflated prices but never shipped the products. A number of fraudulent websites were established to purportedly sell N-95 respirators and other protective face masks in February and March. “It is unconscionable that anyone would exploit the increased demand for personal protective equipment brought on by the international pandemic,” says First Assistant United States Attorney Daniel P. Bubar. Payments for the masks were made through four separate PayPal accounts, all associated with telephone numbers and internet protocol addresses based in China. Some customers simply never received the masks they ordered. Other customers, instead of receiving masks or respirators, received toys or rhinestone necklaces. Victims of the fraud include individuals in the Western District of Virginia, a Florida municipality, and a Wisconsin sheriff’s office.
JJP MLA regrets joining party
Once again, Haryana’s Jat party, Jannayak Janta Party MLA from Narnaund, Ram Kumar Gautam (73), has raised the banner of revolt against his leadership. “Joining the JJP was a black day in my life,” Gautam told The Sunday Guardian. The JJP had emerged from a split in the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in 2018. When the BJP returned to power in the state in 2019, the JJP with 10 MLAs joined as an ally. Its head Dushyant Chautala was made the Deputy Chief Minister. In a veiled attack on the JJP leadership, Gautam says that “I really regret my decision of joining the party and contesting the Assembly poll.” Party sources say that Gautam is upset as he was not made a minister. But Gautam says “I am upset with the functioning of the party and had already resigned as the party’s vice-president.”
Gadkari okays new Sikh circuit expressway
Union Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has given the green signal for building a new expressway to connect Punjab’s Sikh shrines—Ber Sahib Gurdwara in Sultanpur Lodhi, Goindwal Sahib, Khadoor Sahib and Tarn Taran—with the Golden Temple City of Amritsar. It will create a new “Sikh Circuit” covering five religious shrines as part of the proposed Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway.
The National Highways Authority of India has been asked to start working on this expressway. Gadkari told The Sunday Guardian that this project had been initiated keeping in mind the sentiments of Sikhs worldwide. It will be a new greenfield alignment via Nakodar to cover all Sikh shrines associated with five different Sikh Guru Sahibans and this expressway would be extended to Dera Baba Nanak to provide connectivity to Kartarpur Sahib corridor.
Man Mohan can be contacted at rovingeditor@gmail.com