New Delhi, May 6 (IANS) Those who speak in favour of Maoist guerrillas will face legal action and 10 years imprisonment, the government announced Thursday in a warning to civil society groups who raise voices in favour of Leftwing extremism.
"Any person who commits the offence of supporting such a terrorist organisation (like Communist Party of India (CPI)-Maoist) with inter alia intention to further the activities of such terrorist organisations would be liable to be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years or with fine or with both," a home ministry statement said.
It said such action would be taken under Section 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
The home ministry said the government has noticed that some Maoist leaders were directly contacting certain NGOs and intellectuals to propagate their ideology and "persuade them to take steps (and) support the CPI-Maoist ideology".
"General public are informed to be extremely vigilant of the propaganda of CPI-Maoist and not unwittingly become a victim of such propaganda," the statement warned.
The Leftwing extremist group and all its front organizations have been designated as terrorist organizations by the government.
According to the ministry, the "sole aim" of the CPI-Maoist is to overthrow the Indian state.
It "continues to kill innocent civilians including tribals in cold blood and destroy crucial infrastructure like roads, culverts, school buildings, gram panchayat buildings so as to prevent development from reaching these under-developed areas", the statement added.
Showing posts with label IANS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IANS. Show all posts
16 August, 2009
Media causing undue public anxiety about swine flu
DR. GIRISH BHASKAR
IANS
What started as an epidemic of swine flu in Mexico in March 2009 has now spread to 100 countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been alerting countries for the past eight years to get prepared for a major influenza outbreak. It seems to have finally arrived.
H1N1 virus moved from pigs and went on to infect humans, facilitated by crowded living conditions. From Mexico it spread to the United States, then to Europe and Asia. In the US, swine flu has so far killed 436 people and infected about 100,000 people. The situation will get worse as winter approaches parts of the world.
India has seen 21 deaths so far and this is causing panic among the populace. The good news is that the vast majority of the people who contract swine flu influenza are going to recover completely after going through a period of body aches, sore throat and fever.
If the Mexican experience is any guide, the H1N1 swine flu is sometimes lethal in children and young adults. This seems to be the pattern in India also. People born before 1957 appear to have some protection from the current pandemic. In the 1918 pandemic, it is estimated that close to 50 million people perished in different parts of the world.
In 2009, healthcare is very advanced compared to 1918. Tamiflu tablets if taken early may minimise the severity of the disease. But if Tamiflu is used indiscriminately, the virus will adapt and become resistant to the drug. Governments have stock piled millions of tablets to be used in a major outbreak.
The influenza virus sometimes settles down in the lungs and can cause severe respiratory distress requiring mechanical ventilatory support. Of the 2,155 cases of viral pneumonia reported from Mexico, 821 required hospitalisation and 100 died of respiratory failure in spite of mechanical ventilation. Not all viral pneumonia cases need ventilatory support.
Pharmaceutical companies are racing to bring a vaccine that could be effective against the swine flu virus. Pilot clinical studies are going on in America. The vaccine is expected to be available to the public in October of this year. One also needs protection against the regular flu virus which shows up every winter. It is unlikely there will be enough vaccine to vaccinate the entire world population. Pregnant women, children, young adults, healthcare professionals engaged in patient care, military personnel all should get priority.
Public need to remember that every year seasonal influenza causes 30,000 deaths in America especially the elderly with chronic lung disease, heart disease and kidney disease. Death generally happens only when there is severe involvement of both lungs by what is called acute lung injury or acute respiratory distress syndrome. With modern medical amenities, 42 percent of such cases can be saved.
Two classes of drugs are available to minimize the effects of flu on the body. They are Tamiflu (Oseltamivir) and Relenza (Zanamivir). Recently, Japanese scientists have successfully tested CS-8959 in a clinical trial. This drug may be released for public use in Japan next year. This is found to be safer and more efficacious than Tamiflu.
According to a British Medical Journal report, children under the age of 12 should not be given Tamiflu or Relenza. These drugs reduced the length of the flu infection by only one day. More importantly these drugs reduced the transmission of the virus only by eight percent.
The Mexican experience has also revealed the effectiveness of personal protective equipment, to prevent the infection of health care workers. Doctors and nurses taking care of critically ill patients should be given N 95 masks for their safety.
So many people are dying everyday from dengue fever, malaria, tuberculosis and various bacterial and viral infections. Yet, the media by heightening awareness about the disease has unwittingly engendered undue public anxiety.
IANS
What started as an epidemic of swine flu in Mexico in March 2009 has now spread to 100 countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been alerting countries for the past eight years to get prepared for a major influenza outbreak. It seems to have finally arrived.
H1N1 virus moved from pigs and went on to infect humans, facilitated by crowded living conditions. From Mexico it spread to the United States, then to Europe and Asia. In the US, swine flu has so far killed 436 people and infected about 100,000 people. The situation will get worse as winter approaches parts of the world.
India has seen 21 deaths so far and this is causing panic among the populace. The good news is that the vast majority of the people who contract swine flu influenza are going to recover completely after going through a period of body aches, sore throat and fever.
If the Mexican experience is any guide, the H1N1 swine flu is sometimes lethal in children and young adults. This seems to be the pattern in India also. People born before 1957 appear to have some protection from the current pandemic. In the 1918 pandemic, it is estimated that close to 50 million people perished in different parts of the world.
In 2009, healthcare is very advanced compared to 1918. Tamiflu tablets if taken early may minimise the severity of the disease. But if Tamiflu is used indiscriminately, the virus will adapt and become resistant to the drug. Governments have stock piled millions of tablets to be used in a major outbreak.
The influenza virus sometimes settles down in the lungs and can cause severe respiratory distress requiring mechanical ventilatory support. Of the 2,155 cases of viral pneumonia reported from Mexico, 821 required hospitalisation and 100 died of respiratory failure in spite of mechanical ventilation. Not all viral pneumonia cases need ventilatory support.
Pharmaceutical companies are racing to bring a vaccine that could be effective against the swine flu virus. Pilot clinical studies are going on in America. The vaccine is expected to be available to the public in October of this year. One also needs protection against the regular flu virus which shows up every winter. It is unlikely there will be enough vaccine to vaccinate the entire world population. Pregnant women, children, young adults, healthcare professionals engaged in patient care, military personnel all should get priority.
Public need to remember that every year seasonal influenza causes 30,000 deaths in America especially the elderly with chronic lung disease, heart disease and kidney disease. Death generally happens only when there is severe involvement of both lungs by what is called acute lung injury or acute respiratory distress syndrome. With modern medical amenities, 42 percent of such cases can be saved.
Two classes of drugs are available to minimize the effects of flu on the body. They are Tamiflu (Oseltamivir) and Relenza (Zanamivir). Recently, Japanese scientists have successfully tested CS-8959 in a clinical trial. This drug may be released for public use in Japan next year. This is found to be safer and more efficacious than Tamiflu.
According to a British Medical Journal report, children under the age of 12 should not be given Tamiflu or Relenza. These drugs reduced the length of the flu infection by only one day. More importantly these drugs reduced the transmission of the virus only by eight percent.
The Mexican experience has also revealed the effectiveness of personal protective equipment, to prevent the infection of health care workers. Doctors and nurses taking care of critically ill patients should be given N 95 masks for their safety.
So many people are dying everyday from dengue fever, malaria, tuberculosis and various bacterial and viral infections. Yet, the media by heightening awareness about the disease has unwittingly engendered undue public anxiety.
08 April, 2009
A journalist must express himself through media, not by shoe throwing
Jarnail Singh (left), correspondent of Dainik Jagran, who flung a shoe towards Home Minister P. Chidamabaram at his press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday. Below: The shoe whizzes past Chidambaram.
B.R.P.BHASKAR
Comment
Indo Asian News Service
Jarnail Singh, correspondent of the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran, was following the well-established Indian media tradition of imitation when he hurled a shoe at Home Minister P. Chidambaram at his press conference in New Delhi.
There was a slight departure from tradition, though. The Indian media usually imitates the West. Many newspapers are indebted to the West not only for their journalistic style but also for their names. Jarmail Singh imitated not a westerner, but an Arab, Muntazer al-Zaidi of Iraq, who had attracted attention worldwide by hurling a pair of shoes at President George Bush at a Baghdad press conference late last year.
Muntazer’s was an act of protest against the US atrocities in Iraq. He became a hero across the Arab world instantly. He also found admirers in anti-US circles elsewhere.
Jarnail Singh’s was an act of protest against the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) report absolving Congress leader Jagdish Tytler of complicity in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984. He became a hero to at least a section of the Sikh community instantly. Quite possibly he has also found admirers in anti-Congress circles elsewhere.
Muntazer was tried by an Iraqi court and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment on a charge of assaulting a foreign head of state. Jarnail Singh was let off by police in less than two hours as Home Minister P. Chidambaram forgave him immediately and did not want the police to prosecute him.
When Muntazer and Jarnail Singh hurled shoes they were registering political protests, not performing any journalistic function. Like any other human being, the journalist has multiple identities. When his political or social identity overrides his journalistic identity, it is a clear sign that he is failing as a media practitioner. It testifies to his professional weakness. It is professional grounding that enables the journalist to overcome the pulls of other identities.
Ideally, a media person must express himself through the media. At least that is what his professional training must equip him to do. But, then, the media has limitations. A media person who becomes conscious of these limitations is entitled to step out of the professional bounds and use other means to put across his ideas.
However, so long as he functions within the framework of journalism, he has an obligation to ensure that his conduct is consistent with the requirements of the profession. Media persons must have good working relations with newsmakers. Shoe-throwing is not conducive to healthy interaction between newspersons and newsmakers.
Colleagues have described Jarnail Singh as a serious journalist, not given to maverick conduct. His action cannot be explained merely in terms of dissatisfaction over the home minister’s answer to his question about the CBI giving Jagdish Tytler a clean chit. Quite obviously he was giving vent to the sense of hurt in Sikh minds over the administration’s failure to bring to book those responsible for the killings.
Nearly 3,000 Sikhs are believed to have been done to death in Delhi as Indira Gandhi’s supporters went on a rampage after her assassination by her Sikh bodyguards. According to eyewitness accounts, Congress leaders like H.K.L. Bhagat, Tytler and Sajjan Kumar had instigated the riotous mobs.
Twenty-five years after the reprisal killings, the system has not been able to render justice to the victims. Since some Congress leaders of Delhi have been personally implicated, the party has a special responsibility to assuage the feelings of the victims. Delhi has just seven seats in the Lok Sabha. Is the Congress party so short of leaders there that it needs to nominate Tytler and Sajjan Kumar as candidates?
The CBI’s credibility as an investigating agency has been called into question often. The agency is directly under the prime minister. Use of the official machinery by those in authority to serve their political interests is not entirely unknown. It is necessary for those on the two sides of the political divide to realise that the credibility of such institutions needs to be protected. When the CBI named Communist Party of India -Marxist (CPI-M) politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan, who is a former electricity minister of Kerala, as an accused in a corruption case arising from a deal between the State Electricity Board and the SNC Lavalin company of Canada, the party charged the central government with implicating him with a political motive. Yet when the alleged Israeli missile scandal broke, the CPI-M demanded that the CBI be asked to look into it.
While the sense of grievance of the Sikhs is genuine, the current furore over Tytler’s role is essentially political. An eyewitness account may not be sufficient for a judicial commission to indict a person. The investigating agency will need evidence that a court will consider credible to launch prosecution.
The Shiromani Akali Dal, which has rushed in with a reward of Rs. 2 lakhs to Jarnail Singh for bringing the Sikh grievance to the fore, was a part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, which was in power at the centre for six years. It must, therefore, bear its share of responsibility for the denial of justice to the Sikh community.
12 April, 2008
Gopal Raju’s many battles
Those who knew Gopal Raju will find it hard to believe that he is no more. He always conveyed the impression that he will be around forever. “Look, I’m 60 and I’m not thinking of retiring,” he told me when I mentioned my plan to retire in three years’ time and return home from Bangalore. “I am an Indian, Gopal,” I quipped, “you are an American.” That was 20 years ago.
Raju reached the United States as a young man and made it his home. Like other immigrants, he carried a bit of India with him but he spanned the Indo-American socio-cultural divide in a way few others did. He was a soldier who could not hang up his boots because there was always a battle to fight. He ventured into fields where others feared to tread. No one expected his idea of an Indian vegetarian restaurant in New York to work but he persevered and made it a success. He later moved into the travel business and made it a greater success. Still later he marched into the media, the last battlefield where he was to score a string of even greater successes.
All of Gopal Raju’s battles furthered the interests of fellow Indians. When he reached the American shores, Indian presence in the country was limited to a small band of farmers on the west coast and students scattered in a few campuses. As the community grew in size and its composition changed, he recognized the immense potential of the amorphous body of upwardly mobile professionals, and fought to weld them into a vibrant entity capable of playing its due role in the country’s polity.
Raju had been in the US for two decades when he launched India Abroad, which was to propel him and the community forward. Its phenomenal success can be traced to the unique character that he imparted to it. Breaking away from the traditional pattern of Indian publications, he pioneered a new style that combined Indian content with American form. He hired American professionals to give finishing touches to the Indian output and thereby give it the desired American form. It was a strategic move which helped the journal to extend its influence beyond the Indian community to official and academic circles. After he sold India Abroad, his team transformed News India Times using the same strategy.
To meet the needs of the large Gujarati community in the US, he published the weekly Gujarat Times and to cater to the requirements of the new generation of Indian Americans he launched Desi Talk. Early in his career as publisher, he started an Asian journal. It did not succeed because its time had not come.
Two institutions which he created are today making significant contributions in India and the US. Since 1975, the Indian American Foundation, which he promoted, has been raising substantial sums by way of donations each year to assist projects in India. The Indian American Center for Political Awareness, which he set up in 1994, has provided invaluable service by provided young Indians opportunities to play their part in political life at different levels through Congressional internships and local leadership development programs. Generations of Indian Americans will remember him with gratitude for welding them into a political community. Hopefully, he will be around for a long time, if not forever, through the institutions he has left behind.-- News India-Times, New York, April 25, 2008
Raju reached the United States as a young man and made it his home. Like other immigrants, he carried a bit of India with him but he spanned the Indo-American socio-cultural divide in a way few others did. He was a soldier who could not hang up his boots because there was always a battle to fight. He ventured into fields where others feared to tread. No one expected his idea of an Indian vegetarian restaurant in New York to work but he persevered and made it a success. He later moved into the travel business and made it a greater success. Still later he marched into the media, the last battlefield where he was to score a string of even greater successes.
All of Gopal Raju’s battles furthered the interests of fellow Indians. When he reached the American shores, Indian presence in the country was limited to a small band of farmers on the west coast and students scattered in a few campuses. As the community grew in size and its composition changed, he recognized the immense potential of the amorphous body of upwardly mobile professionals, and fought to weld them into a vibrant entity capable of playing its due role in the country’s polity.
Raju had been in the US for two decades when he launched India Abroad, which was to propel him and the community forward. Its phenomenal success can be traced to the unique character that he imparted to it. Breaking away from the traditional pattern of Indian publications, he pioneered a new style that combined Indian content with American form. He hired American professionals to give finishing touches to the Indian output and thereby give it the desired American form. It was a strategic move which helped the journal to extend its influence beyond the Indian community to official and academic circles. After he sold India Abroad, his team transformed News India Times using the same strategy.
To meet the needs of the large Gujarati community in the US, he published the weekly Gujarat Times and to cater to the requirements of the new generation of Indian Americans he launched Desi Talk. Early in his career as publisher, he started an Asian journal. It did not succeed because its time had not come.
Two institutions which he created are today making significant contributions in India and the US. Since 1975, the Indian American Foundation, which he promoted, has been raising substantial sums by way of donations each year to assist projects in India. The Indian American Center for Political Awareness, which he set up in 1994, has provided invaluable service by provided young Indians opportunities to play their part in political life at different levels through Congressional internships and local leadership development programs. Generations of Indian Americans will remember him with gratitude for welding them into a political community. Hopefully, he will be around for a long time, if not forever, through the institutions he has left behind.-- News India-Times, New York, April 25, 2008
11 April, 2008
Gopal Raju is no more
Gopal Raju, Editor and Publisher of News-India Times, died in New York on Thursday.
He was 80.
Raju was the Founder-Editor of India Abroad and the India Abroad News Service, predecessor of Indo-Asian News Service.
IANS report:
New York, April 10 (IANS) Gopal Raju, the pioneer of ethnic Indian media in the United States, and founder of the well known India Abroad newspaper as well as IANS, died here early Thursday after a brief illness. He was 80.
A bachelor, Raju died of complications arising from a sudden bout of jaundice.
The soft-spoken shy publisher, who became an institution in the South Asian community in the US, was conferred the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman for his contributions to India and its diasporas by then president A.P.J.Abdul Kalam in 2007.
Till his death, he was editor and publisher of the New York-based News-India Times, Desi Talk and Gujarat Times.
The Bangalore-born Raju was also the founder of the Indian American Centre for Political Awareness (IACPA), a well-known non-profit organisation in Washington that sought to empower Indian Americans, especially the younger generation, and helped create a distinct Indian voice on Capitol Hill.
A SAJA FORUM message says: We have received the following update from VEENA MERCHANT, long-time colleague and friend:
There has been an outpouring of grief and heartfelt words of sympathy at the passing away of Gopal Raju. We are deeply touched by these sentiments and are overwhelmed by the kind of feelings that he generated, not just in the community but all those who came into contact with him. A lot of people wanted to send flowers for his funeral. In keeping with Mr. Raju's wishes of keeping his funeral purely private and minimalistic, we request mourners to, instead, send a contribution in the name of "Indian American Foundation" - the money
will be utilized to fund the causes that Mr Raju held dear.
Indian American Foundation
43 W. 24th St Suite 8b
New York, NY 10010
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