Govt Defers Implementation Of Labour Codes

 

FILE PHOTO: Workers make pipes used for drilling, at a factory in an industrial area in Mumbai on January 29, 2018

The four labour codes will not come into effect from April 1 as states are yet to finalise the relevant rules, which means that there will be no change in take home pay of employees and provident fund liability of companies for now.

Once the wages code comes into force, there will be significant changes in the way basic pay and provident fund of employees are calculated.

The Labour Ministry had envisaged implementing the four codes on industrial relations, wages, social security and occupational health safety and working conditions from April 1, 2021. The ministry had even finalised the rules under the four codes.

"Since the states have not finalised the rules under four codes, the implementation of these laws is deferred for the time being," a source told PTI.

According to the source, a few states had circulated the draft rules. These states include Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Uttarakhand.

Since labour is a concurrent subject under the Constitution of India, both the Centre and the states would have to notify rules under the codes to bring them into force in their respective jurisdictions.

Under the new wages code, allowances are capped at 50 per cent. This means half of the gross pay of an employee would be basic wages.

Provident fund contribution is calculated as a percentage of basic wage, which includes basic pay and dearness allowance.

The employers have been splitting wages into numerous allowances to keep basic wages low to reduce provident fund and income tax outgo.

The new wages code provides for provident fund contribution as a prescribed proportion of 50 per cent of gross pay.

In case the new codes had come into effect from April 1, the take home pay of employees and provident fund liability of employers would have increased in many cases.

Now, the employer would get some more time to restructure salaries of their employees as per the new code on wages.

 

Google Maps To Direct Drivers To 'Eco-Friendly' Routes

 

FILE PHOTO: A 3D printed Google logo is seen in this illustration taken on April 12, 2020

Google’s Maps app will start directing drivers along routes estimated to generate the lowest carbon emissions based on traffic, slopes and other factors, the company announced on Tuesday.

Google, an Alphabet Inc unit, said the feature would launch later this year in the U.S. and eventually reach other countries as part of its commitment to help combat climate change through its services.

Unless users opt out, the default route will be the “eco-friendly” one if comparable options take about the same time, Google said. When alternatives are significantly faster, Google will offer choices and let users compare estimated emissions.

“What we are seeing is for around half of routes, we are able to find an option more eco-friendly with minimal or no time-cost tradeoff,” Russell Dicker, a director of product at Google, told reporters on Monday.

Google said it derives emissions relative estimates by testing across different types of vehicles and road types, drawing on insights from the U.S. government’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). Road grade data comes from its Street View cars as well as aerial and satellite imagery.

The potential effect on emissions from the feature is unclear. But in a study of 20 people at California State University, Long Beach, university researchers last year found that participants were more inclined to consider carbon emissions in route selection after testing an app that showed estimates.

Google’s announcement included additional climate-focused changes. From June, it will start warning drivers about to travel through low emissions zones where some vehicles are restricted in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain and the U.K.

In the coming months, Maps app users will be able to compare car, biking, public transit and other travel options in one place instead of toggling between different sections.

 

Mehbooba Mufti Denied Passport On National Security Grounds

FILE PHOTO: Former J&K CM and PDP President Mehbooba Mufti was denied passport by the authorities on Monday

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and president of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), Mehbooba Mufti, was denied passport by the authorities on Monday.

A communication addressed to Mehbooba Mufti by the Passport Officer has informed her that the J&K CID, which is the nodal agency for the verification of an applicant’s antecedents, has opposed the grant of passport to her.

She has been informed that she can appeal to the competent authority in the Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), in case she wants to file her grievance against the decision to reject her passport application.

Mufti tweeted, “Passport Office refused to issue my passport based on CID’s report citing it as ‘detrimental' to the security of India. This is the level of normalcy achieved in Kashmir since August 2019 that an ex-Chief Minister holding a passport is a threat to the sovereignty of a mighty nation.”

MEA, in a communique to Mufti, states that her passport case was rejected under the provision of Section 6 (2) (c) of the Passport Act 1967, which says that the departure of the applicant from India may, or is likely to be, detrimental to the security of India.

MEA added that the decision to reject Mufti's passport case was taken after the Crime Investigation Department of the Jammu and Kashmir Police in its verification report stated, "...do not favour issuance of Passport and returned (it) as ‘Not Recommended Passport Case.’"

Last week, the former CM was questioned by the ED in Srinagar in a money laundering case, following which she had tweeted, “GOI is trying to dismantle PDP by luring & threatening its members. Investigative agencies like ED are being used to intimidate me. To make matters worse, I’m being denied my fundamental right to a passport. If this isn’t political vendetta then what is?”

On her questioning by the ED, Mufti wrote, “To set the record straight, during the course of my questioning at ED, right from the start I insisted on not signing any statements till I consulted my lawyers. But I was shown rule books & told that not signing would have consequences.”

She added, "Finally, despite my reluctance, I was forced to sign a statement which is evident from the CCTV of my questioning."

Mufti, along with other veteran leaders, was placed under detention in August 2019 after the Centre scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir granted under the Constitution. Following this, the state was bifurcated into two Union Territories.

"Coronavirus 'Escaped' From Chinese Lab"

 

FILE PHOTO: Street view after Wuhan government announced a ban on non-essential vehicles in the downtown area to contain the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei province, China on January 26, 2020

The former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes the coronavirus escaped from a laboratory in China, he said in an interview that aired on Friday.

Robert Redfield, who served in the top public health role under former president Donald Trump, told CNN: "If I was to guess, this virus started transmitting somewhere in September, October, in Wuhan, China."

Stressing he was offering "only an opinion," he added: "I am of the point of view that I still think the most likely etiology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory, escaped."

"Other people don't believe that. That's fine -- science will eventually figure it out. It's not unusual for respiratory pathogens that are being worked on in a laboratory to infect a laboratory worker."

The central Chinese city is home to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has experimented extensively with bat coronaviruses.

"That's not implying any intentionality, it's my opinion. But I am a virologist, I have spent my life in virology," Redfield added.

"I do not believe this somehow came from a bat to a human and, at that moment in time, the virus that came to the human became one of the most infectious viruses that we know in humanity for human-to-human transmission. Normally when a pathogen goes from a zoonotic to human, it takes a while for it to figure out how to become more and more efficient in human-to-human transmission. I just don't think this makes biological sense."

CNN host Sanjay Gupta asked Redfield if he thought the virus was engineered inside the lab to become more efficient at transmission.

The former CDC director replied: "Let's just say I have coronavirus that I'm working on."

"Most of us in the lab, we're trying to grow virus. We try to help make it grow better and better... so we can do experiments and figure out about it."

FAUCI SAYS LAB THEORY LESS LIKELY

Redfield's views are at odds with the dominant theory among experts that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is genetically related to coronaviruses in bats, crossed into humans naturally, probably via an intermediate animal.

A large proportion of the initial cases reported in December 2019 and January 2020 were directly linked to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan City, which sold seafood as well as wild and farmed animal species.

It is suspected that the market could have been the source of the outbreak, or played a significant role in amplifying it.

Asked at a briefing what he thought of Redfield's opinion, Anthony Fauci, who leads the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and is President Joe Biden's chief medical advisor, said it was unlikely.

"There certainly are possibilities... of how a virus adapts itself to an efficient spread among humans.

"One of them is in the lab, and one of them, which is the more likely, which most public health officials agree with, is that it likely was below the radar screen, spreading in the community in China for several weeks if not a month or more which allowed it, when it first got recognized clinically, to be pretty well adapted."

Asked to weigh in, current CDC director Rochelle Walensky said: "I don't have any indication for or against either of the hypotheses that Dr Fauci just outlined."

The World Health Organization conducted an investigation into the origin of the virus that causes Covid-19 from January to February, and is due to report its findings soon.

Farmers Squat On Railway Tracks To Mark 4 Months Of Protests

 

Farmers sing a folk song during a 12-hour strike, as part of protests against farm laws, on a highway at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border in Ghaziabad on March 26, 2021

Dozens of farmers squatted on railway tracks in northern India on Friday, disrupting traffic to mark four months of a campaign against the opening up of agriculture produce markets to private players.

Tens of thousands of farmers have been camped on the outskirts of the capital New Delhi since last year, saying new farm laws enacted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will leave them at the mercy of big corporations.

Farm unions called for a 12-hour nationwide shutdown to keep up the pressure on the Modi government, which says the reforms will help farmers realise better prices for their produce and bring in investment.

“Four months ago, this day, farmers came to the borders of Delhi with their demands. But this government isn’t listening to the farmers,” said union leader Gurinder Singh Pannu.

“This protest will continue,” he added.

Across the northern states of Haryana and Punjab, protesters blocked railway tracks at 32 locations, leading to the cancellation of at least four passenger trains.

“Around 30 trains are held up,” Deepak Kumar, an Indian Railways spokesman, told Reuters.

Freight movement had also been affected, with around 20 goods trains currently stalled, Kumar said.

At a major protest camp in Delhi’s Ghazipur, protesters blocked a highway connecting the capital city with neighbouring Uttar Pradesh state.

Police also erected additional barricades, topped by concertina wire, and hundreds of personnel had been deployed.

Of around a thousand protesters at the site, some danced and sang on Friday. “Take back the black laws,” they chanted in Hindi.

Several rounds of talks between the government and the farm leaders have failed and there are no new meetings planned for now.

"Sad Day For Democracy": Kejriwal As Delhi Bill Clears RS

 

FILE PHOTO: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that he will continue the struggle to restore power back to the people

Soon after the passage of the GNCTD amendment bill in the Rajya Sabha, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said it was a "sad day" for democracy and stressed that his struggle to restore power back to the people would continue.

The Parliament has passed the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021, that gives more powers to the Lieutenant Governor. It was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

"RS passes GNCTD amendment bill. Sad day for Indian democracy. Will continue our struggle to restore power back to people. Whatever be the obstacles, we will continue doing good work. Work will neither stop nor slow down," Kejriwal tweeted.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia called it a "dark day" for democracy.

"Today is a dark day for democracy. The rights of the government elected by the people of Delhi have been taken away and handed over to LG. Look at the irony, the Parliament was used to assassinate democracy which is called the temple of our democracy. People of Delhi will fight against this dictatorship #BJPFearsKejriwal," Sisodia tweeted in Hindi.

The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday approved the bill giving primacy to Delhi's Lieutenant Governor (L-G) over the elected government, after high drama in the House, that saw uproar by the opposition and a walkout by MPs of parties like the BJD, SP, Congress and the YSR-Congress.

The legislation was passed in Rajya Sabha by a voice vote on Wednesday. However, a division was sought by the Opposition when the government moved the bill for consideration. During voting, 83 members were in favour while 45 opposed the bill. Just before the passage of the bill, the Congress too walked out.

Earlier, Rajya Sabha witnessed uproar by Opposition members who termed the bill "unconstitutional" and demanded that it be sent to a Select Committee for scrutiny. The upper house also witnessed two brief adjournments. The members of the BJD, SP and the YSR-Congress also walked out of the House.

According to the statement of objects and reasons of the bill, the original bill was enacted to supplement the provisions of the Constitution relating to the legislative assembly and a Council of Ministers for Delhi and for matters connected therewith.

It said that to give effect to the interpretation done by the Supreme Court, which had ruled that the city government need not obtain the Lieutenant Governor's "concurrence" on every issue of day-to-day governance, the bill has been brought.

"The said bill will promote harmonious relations between the legislature and the executive, and further define the responsibilities of the elected government and the L-G, in line with the constitutional scheme of governance of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, as interpreted by the Supreme Court," the statement of objects said.

“Send Them Home Happy”: Congress To Centre On Farmers’ Protest

 

FILE PHOTO: Farmers listen to a speaker during a protest against the newly-passed farm bills at Singhu border near Delhi on December 9, 2020

Opposition Congress on Wednesday urged the government to agree to the demands of farmers who are protesting against the agri laws and "send them home happy", warning that "making fun" of them would prove very costly to it.

Initiating the debate on the Finance Bill in Rajya Sabha, Congress member Deepinder Singh Hooda questioned the government over its promise of doubling the income of farmers by 2022, alleging that instead of increasing the minimum support price of crops, it was trying to snatch the MSP.

Mr Hooda also demanded that the government express condolences over the "death of over 300 farmers during their agitation" and announce an economic package for their families, along with job opportunities.

He also accused the government of following wrong economic policies leading to a decline in economic growth. He said it was the farmers who saved the country and kept the economy alive during the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Hooda said that in 2015-16, the income of farmers was estimated at ₹ 8,000 per month, and by 2022 it should be around ₹ 16,000 per month, but it seems to be going down as input costs, especially on diesel, have risen substantially.

"I urge the government to hear out farmers and show some compassion and sensitivity towards them and send them home happy after agreeing to their demands. The government should announce an economic package for families of those who died during the protests and provide them with employment opportunities. Send the farmers back home happy. I urge you with folded hands not to make fun of farmers, as this would prove very costly to you. Please allow farmers to happily return home," he said.

Mr Hooda said farmers have been sitting in protest for over four months now and 300 farmers have died.

"Farmers expected that you would fulfill the promise of doubling their incomes, but what has happened is that you have reduced the agriculture budget by 8.5 percent," he said.

"You promised to double farmers' income. Instead of doubling MSP rates, you are trying to snatch it away from farmers. You have attacked the MSP itself and farmers are now fighting to save it," he also said.

The Congress MP said a farmer was getting an MSP of ₹ 1,410 per quintal for paddy in 2015-16, so it should be ₹ 2,800 or ₹ 3,000 now.

But the MSP of paddy is only ₹ 1,868 per quintal, he said, and added the same is the case with wheat.

"In these five years, you increased the MSP by 30 percent... If the price is not increasing how will the income increase," he said, claiming that the price of diesel, an input in agriculture, increased by 94 percent during the period.

The Congress MP also said that because of the government's economic policies, the economy had started to derail well before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the GDP growth fell to 3 percent from 8 percent in the eight quarters between March 2018 and March 2020.

Mr Hooda said that during the 10-year rule of the Congress-led UPA regime, the average GDP growth was 7.8 percent, which came down to 6.8 percent in the first six years of the BJP-led NDA government.

He said there was a decline in the growth rate of consumption, investment, exports as well as government expenditure during the NDA rule compared to the UPA regime. He cited data to support his arguments.

Mr Hooda also quoted views of economists like Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee and former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan to suggest the government was following wrong economic policies.

He said the Indian economy declined at the fastest pace in the April-June quarter and the country also witnessed the highest job loss of around 12 crore during the coronavirus pandemic.

Besides, the gap between rich and poor further widened. To support his point, Mr Hooda said the income of the top 100 wealthiest people increased by 35 percent while the economic growth declined. He also complained that the financial package announced by the government to deal with the impact of the pandemic was significantly low compared to other countries.

Mr Hooda also criticised the government for high taxes on petrol, diesel, and LPG. He said because of the high cost of LPG cylinders, the poor were not able to refill cylinders.

 

15 Dead, 400 Missing In Rohingya Camp Fire: UN

 

A general view of a Rohingya refugee camp after a fire burned down all the shelters in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on March 23, 2021

At least 15 people have been killed in a massive fire that ripped through a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, while 400 remain missing, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday.

“It is massive, it is devastating,” said the UNHCR’s Johannes van der Klaauw, who joined a Geneva briefing virtually from Dhaka, Bangladesh. “We still have 400 people unaccounted for, maybe somewhere in the rubble,” he said.

He added that the UNHCR has reports of 560 people injured and 45,000 people displaced.

Bangladeshi officials said they are investigating the cause of the massive fire as officials sifted through the debris looking for more victims.

The fire ripped through the Balukhali camp near the southeastern town of Cox’s Bazar late on Monday, burning through thousands of huts as people scrambled to save their meagre possessions.

The vast majority of the people in the camps fled Myanmar in 2017 amid a military-led crackdown on the Rohingya that UN investigators said was executed with “genocidal intent”, a charge Myanmar denies.

Police Inspector Gazi Salahuddin said the fire – the biggest in the cramped settlements since 2017 – ripped through flimsy bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters and grew after cylinders of cooking gas exploded.

Mohammad Yasin, a Rohingya helping fight the fire, told AFP news agency the blaze raged for more than 10 hours and was the worst he had seen.

“People ran for their lives as it spread fast. Many were injured and I saw at least four bodies,” said Aminul Haq, a refugee.

A volunteer for Save the Children, Tayeba Begum, said: “Children were running, crying for their families.”

Sanjeev Kafley, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies delegation in Bangladesh, said more than 17,000 shelters had been destroyed in the blaze, and tens of thousands of people had been displaced.

The fire spread over four sections of the camp housing roughly 124,000 people, about one-tenth of the more than one million Rohingya refugees in the area, he added.

Some witnesses said the barbed wire fencing around the camp trapped many people, hurting some and leading international humanitarian agencies to call for its removal.

Humanitarian organisation Refugees International, which estimated that 50,000 people had been displaced by the fire, said the extent of the damage may not be known for some time.

“Many children are missing, and some were unable to flee because of barbed wire set up in the camps,” it said in a statement.

It was the third blaze to hit the camps in four days, fire brigade official Sikder, who only goes by one name, told AFP.

Two separate fires at the camps on Friday destroyed scores of shelters, officials said. Two big fires had also hit the camps in January, leaving thousands homeless and gutting four UNICEF schools.

The government has, meanwhile, been pushing for the refugees to be relocated to a remote island in the Bay of Bengal, saying the settlements were too crowded.

So far, 13,000 Rohingya have been moved to the flood-prone island, which critics say is also in the path of deadly cyclones.

River Linking Will “Destroy” Panna Tiger Reserve: Ex-Minister

FILE PHOTO: The Ken-Betwa Link Project lies in Bundelkhand, a drought-prone region, which spreads across 13 districts of UP and MP

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday expressed fear that the interlinking of Ken and Betwa rivers will destroy the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh.

Ahead of the signing of the agreement between the chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh for linking the rivers, the former environment minister said he had suggested alternatives in this regard 10 years ago but those were ignored.

“The CMs of UP and MP will sign a pact today to link the Ken and Betwa rivers. This will all but destroy the Panna Tiger Reserve in MP, a success story in translocation and revival. I had suggested alternatives 10 years ago but alas…,” he said on Twitter.

The pact to link the rivers Ken and Betwa would be signed in the presence of the Prime Minister, during the launch of the “Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain” campaign on World Water Day on Monday.

The Ken-Betwa Link Project is the first project under the National Perspective Plan for interlinking of rivers. Under this project, water from the Ken river will be transferred to the Betwa river. Both these rivers are tributaries of river Yamuna.

The Ken-Betwa Link Project has two phases. Under Phase-I, one of the components — Daudhan dam complex and its appurtenances like Low Level Tunnel, High Level Tunnel, Ken-Betwa link canal and Power houses — will be completed. While in the Phase-II, three components — Lower Orr dam, Bina complex project and Kotha barrage — will be constructed.

According to the Union Jal Shakti Ministry, the project is expected to provide annual irrigation of 10.62 lakh hectares, drinking water supply to about 62 lakh people and also generate 103 MW of hydropower.

According to the Comprehensive Detailed Project Report, the cost of Ken-Betwa Link Project is estimated at Rs 35,111.24 crore at 2017-18 prices.

The Ken-Betwa Link Project lies in Bundelkhand, a drought-prone region, which spreads across 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

According to the Jal Shakti Ministry, the project will be of immense benefit to the water-starved region of Bundelkhand, especially in the districts of Panna, Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Sagar, Damoh, Datia, Vidisha, Shivpuri and Raisen of Madhya Pradesh and Banda, Mahoba, Jhansi and Lalitpur of Uttar Pradesh.

Former UP CM Urges Protesting Farmers To Stay United

 

FILE PHOTO: Women, including widows and relatives of farmers who were believed to have killed themselves over debt attend a protest against farm bills passed by the Parliament, at Tikri border near Delhi on December 16, 2020

Describing the BJP as a party that divides, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday urged farmers to remain united, saying a government committed to their welfare is possible only if they maintain harmony and brotherhood.

“Since the BJP has attained power by dividing society, farmers’ unity has to be maintained at any cost,” Yadav said addressing a “Kisan Mahapanchayat” at Morki Inter-College in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.

The day farmers will understand their trick, the BJP will be out of power, he said, adding that a farmer-oriented government in the state is possible only when the harmony and brotherhood reflected in the rally is maintained.

"I am attending the "Kisan Mahapanchayat" with the expectation that by maintaining unity, farmers will teach the BJP a lesson in the next elections," the former UP chief minister said, alleging that through its three draconian laws, the BJP-led Union government has attempted to snatch farmers' land.

He also criticised the Centre for demonetisation, saying while people suffered due to it, the promise of eliminating corruption and black money remained unfulfilled.

Similarly, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced with a lot of fanfare but it also proved counter-productive for small and medium traders, he said.

RLD national vice-president Jayant Chaudhary, who also attended the rally, criticised BJP leaders for calling farmers terrorists and “parjeevi” (parasite).

Describing farmers as the backbone of the country, he said 300 of them have already died protesting against the Centre’s farm laws. Jayant also advised farmers to maintain unity and brotherhood.

Meanwhile, the farmers protesting at Delhi’s borders plan to keep the movement alive during the upcoming harvest season with the help of supporters from other walks of life, in an example of building solidarity across professions.

With the harvest season upon them, farmers from Punjab and Haryana are under pressure to return to their fields. But Darshan Pal of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha said that various unions and groups had already committed to sending people in batches to occupy the protest sites during this period.

Pandemic Pushed 32 Mn Indians Out Of Middle Class

People wearing protective masks walk on a platform at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease, in Mumbai on March 16, 2021

Financial woes brought by last year’s coronavirus pandemic have pushed about 32 million Indians out of the middle class, undoing years of economic gains, a report showed on Thursday, while job losses pushed millions into poverty.

The number of Indians in the middle class, or those earning between $10 and $20 a day, shrunk by about 32 million, compared with the number that could have been reached in the absence of a pandemic, the U.S.-based Pew Research Centre said.

A year into the pandemic, the numbers of those in the middle class has shrunk to 66 million, down a third from a pre-pandemic estimate of 99 million, it added.

“India is estimated to have seen a greater decrease in the middle class and a much sharper rise in poverty than China in the COVID-19 downturn,” the Pew Research Centre said, citing the World Bank’s forecasts of economic growth.

Nearly 57 million people had joined the middle income group between 2011 and 2019, it added.

In January last year, the World Bank forecast almost the same level of economic growth for India and China, at 5.8% and 5.9% respectively, in 2020.

But nearly a year into the pandemic, the World Bank revised its forecast this January, to a contraction of 9.6% for India and growth of 2% for China.

India faces a second wave of infections in some industrial states, after a decline in cases until early this year, and its tally of 11.47 million is the highest after the United States and Brazil.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has taken steps to support the economy, while projecting a contraction of 8% in the current financial year, which ends this month, before economic growth picks up to about 10% in the next financial year.

The Pew Centre estimated the number of poor people, with incomes of $2 or less each day, has gone up by 75 million as the recession brought by the virus has clawed back years of progress.

A rise of nearly 10% in domestic fuel prices this year, job losses and salary cuts have further hurt millions of households, forcing many people to seek jobs overseas.

In China, however, the fall in living standards was modest, as numbers in the middle-income category probably decreased by 10 million, while poverty levels remained unchanged, the report added.

Recycling Flowers: One Man's Mission To Clean Up The Ganga

 

Workers remove floral waste outside a temple on the banks of the Ganga in Kanpur on March 13, 2021

Sitting at plain wooden tables, women in face masks roll a brown paste into thin cylinders - helping to recycle some of the millions of tonnes of flowers that worshippers throw into the Ganga.

They are part of a 100-strong team working for entrepreneur Ankit Agarwal’s Phool.co, removing floral waste from one of the most polluted stretches of India’s holy river in the northern city of Kanpur.

Indians typically offer flowers at temples as a mark of devotion and, Agarwal says, some eight million tonnes of those offerings end up in the country’s rivers each year - along with sewage and industrial and domestic waste.

“All the pesticides and insecticides that were used to grow these flowers mix with the river water, making it highly toxic,” he told Reuters TV.

Agarwal’s team, most of whom are women, pluck out the discarded flowers near the river bank and gather them from temples to repurpose them into paper and incense - as well as water colours that can be used for the Hindu festival of Holi.

Many Indians prefer to dump the flowers they offer to deities into water bodies as putting them into bins is considered unholy, Agarwal said.

To discourage them from also discarding into water the packets of incense sticks his company makes, his company stamps them without images of Hindu gods and infuses the paper with basil seeds, a plant considered holy in Hinduism.

“The concept was, once we use these products, please sow the packaging and a Tulsi (basil) plant would grow out of it and the packaging really helped us establish our brand,” he said.

Phool.co has received investment from the social arm of the Tata business group, and most of the women he has employed used to work as manual scavengers or were jobless.

Now they have an occupation that commands respect - cleaning the sacred Ganga.

“People see me as an independent woman who can do a job and also run her household. So, this has brought a change in my life,” said one, Sujata Devi.

“We Will Block Delhi-Noida Border”: Naresh Tikait

FILE PHOTO: Farmers take part in a protest against farm laws at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border on December 17, 2020

Amid the ongoing protests against the Centre’s three agri laws, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait on Tuesday told reporters that they are sure to block the Delhi-Noida border.

“The committee is yet to decide the date,” said Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Tikait.

Meanwhile, farmer unions had earlier announced that they are calling for ‘Bharat bandh’ on March 26 when their agitation against the Centre’s three farm laws completes four months.

On Monday, Tikait said the farmers’ stir against the Centre’s agri marketing laws would go on till December and the future course of action would be decided then, if the laws are not repealed.

Speaking at a rally in Sihora, some 45 kilometres from the district headquarters, Tikait said the MSP mechanism was irrevocable and farmers would not sell their produce below it.

Several posters with his image were torn down at the rally venue last night, and Tikait reacted by saying such action would have not any bearing on the farmers or their protests.

He said ruling BJP leaders who want to join the farmers’ protest are welcome, and added that a governor, though he did not name anyone, was among those who was supportive.

He asked farmers around the country to start large-scale protests on the lines of the one going on near Delhi.

Thousands of farmers are camping at Delhi’s border points in Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur, with the demand that the Centre repeal three farm laws that were enacted in September 2020 and make a new law guaranteeing minimum support price (MSP) for crops.

The farmers fear the new laws will destroy their livelihoods and leave them at the mercy of corporations.

The government, which has held 11 rounds of formal talks with the protestors before the discussions broke down, maintains that the laws are pro-farmers.

 

‘If You Wish To Sleep Well’: Kim Jong’s Sister Warns Joe Biden

 

FILE PHOTO: Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attends a wreath laying ceremony at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam on March 2, 2019

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister warned the United States against actions that could make it “lose sleep”, state media reported on Tuesday, as top Biden administration officials began a visit to key allies Tokyo and Seoul.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Japan on Monday on their first overseas trip, aimed at rallying military alliances as a bulwark against China and cementing a united front against the nuclear-armed North.

The statement by Kim Yo Jong, a key adviser to her brother, was Pyongyang’s first explicit reference to the new president in Washington, more than four months after Joe Biden was elected to replace Donald Trump — although it still did not mention the Democrat by name.

The United States and South Korea began joint military exercises last week and Pyongyang’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried a statement from her offering “a word of advice to the new administration of the United States that is struggling to spread the smell of gunpowder on our land”.

“If you wish to sleep well for the next four years, it would be better not to create work from the start that will make you lose sleep,” she said.

Trump’s unorthodox approach to foreign policy saw him trade insults and threats of war with Kim Jong Un before an extraordinary diplomatic bromance that saw a series of headline-grabbing meetings.

But ultimately no progress was made towards Washington’s declared aim of denuclearising North Korea, which is under multiple international sanctions for its banned weapons programmes.

It has isolated itself further, imposing a strict border closure to protect itself against the coronavirus pandemic that first emerged in neighbouring China.

Shortly before Biden’s January inauguration, leader Kim decried the US as his country’s “foremost principal enemy” and Pyongyang unveiled a new submarine-launched ballistic missile at a military parade.

‘MARCH OF WAR’

The talks process was brokered by South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in but relations between Seoul and Pyongyang have been in deep freeze since Kim and Trump’s summit in Hanoi collapsed in February 2019.

Kim Yo Jong is a trusted adviser to her brother and was a key voice when inter-Korean tensions mounted last year, culminating in the North blowing up a liaison office on its side of the border.

Shin Beom-chul, a researcher at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, pointed out that her announcements have previously represented incremental steps by Pyongyang.

“North Korea has judged that the US will not offer enough concessions and so has released this statement ahead of Blinken and Austin’s visit to Seoul,” he told AFP.

There was a “high possibility” of a military provocation by the North during or immediately after the Americans’ trip, he added.

Seoul and Washington are treaty allies, with the United States stationing around 28,500 troops in South Korea to defend it against its neighbour, and they began computer-simulated joint military exercises last week.

The North always condemns such drills as preparations for invasion, and in her statement, Kim Yo Jong said: “The South Korean government yet again chose the ‘March of War’, the ‘March of Crisis’ rather than a ‘warm March’ before all the people.”

“It will not be easy for the warm spring days of three years ago to come back if the South Korean government follows whatever instructions of its master,” she added, threatening to scrap a North-South military agreement if Seoul acts “more provocatively”.

NEW YORK CHANNEL

Austin and Blinken arrived in Tokyo on Monday and will be consulting with both it and Seoul on the new administration’s review of US policy towards Pyongyang, but China will be the main focus of their discussions.

Beijing presents multiple challenges to Washington on trade and diplomatic fronts, and is also the North’s key diplomatic backer and main provider of business and aid.

Washington has attempted to reach out to Pyongyang “through several channels starting in mid-February, including in New York”, state department deputy spokesperson Jalina Porter told reporters on Monday.

“To date, we’ve not received any response from Pyongyang,” she added.

The “New York channel” is a reference to the North’s mission to the United Nations, as Pyongyang and Washington do not maintain diplomatic relations.

Austin and Blinken are due to arrive in South Korea on Wednesday before the defence secretary heads to India while the diplomat returns to the United States for talks with Chinese officials.

India To Raise With UK Racism Faced By Samant At Oxford

FILE PHOTO: Samant had to quit her Oxford University Students' Union President-elect post over her social media posts

India will take up with the UK when required the alleged incidents of racism in Britain, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in the Rajya Sabha on Monday. He also described India as the land of Mahatma Gandhi and said it can never turn its eyes away from racism.

Responding to concerns raised by a BJP MP over racism and cyberbullying that forced Indian-origin Rashmi Samant to resign as president of the Oxford University Students’ Union, the minister said New Delhi has strong ties with the UK and will take up such matters with great candour when required.

“I note the sentiments of the House,” he said. “I do want to say that as a land of Mahatma Gandhi, we can never ever turn our eyes away from racism wherever it is. Particularly so when it is in a country where we have such a large diaspora,” he said.

Samant, the first Indian woman to be elected as president of the Oxford University Students’ Union, was forced to resign within five days of her appointment over several of her social media posts that were labelled anti-Semitic and racist.

BJP’s Ashwini Vaishnav said she was cyberbullied and her parents’ Hindu religious beliefs were publicly attacked by a faculty member.

“As a friend of the UK, we also have concerns about its reputational impact,” Jaishankar said. “What I do want to say is that we have strong ties with the UK (and) we will take up such matters with great candour when required.”

“We will monitor these developments very, very closely. We will raise it when required and we will always champion the fight against racism and other forms of intolerance,” he added.

Raising the issue through a zero hour mention, Vaishnav said there appears to a  continuation of attitudes and prejudices from the colonial era in the United Kingdom.

Samant, a bright student from Udupi, Karnataka, overcame all challenges to become the first Indian woman president of the union, he said.

But “what was the treatment meted out to her?” he asked. “Shouldn’t this diversity have been celebrated? Instead of that, she was cyberbullied to the point that she had to resign. Even the Hindu religious beliefs of her parents were publicly attacked by a faculty member, which went unpunished. If this happens at an institute like Oxford, what is the message that goes out to the world?” he said.

While she did issue a public apology for ‘unintentionally’ hurting anyone’s emotions, Samant believes she was unfairly targeted as a ‘conscious attempt’.

Vaishnav also brought up Prince Harry’s wife Meghan Markle’s accusations of racism by UK royals.

“The behaviour of a society is actually a reflection of its beliefs and value system. If such practices of racial discrimination are followed at the highest level in society, what would be (happening) at the lower levels?” he asked.

Stating that the two instances were not isolated, he said the treatment of migrants and their segregation in the UK on a racial basis is very well known all over the world.

A recent report stated that the death rate among people of Asian origin because of COVID-19 is higher than the death rate in other communities in the UK, he said.

“Doesn’t it raise a major question about equitable access to health and indeed the entire basic human rights issue?”

He went on to state that India is a country with a large diaspora in the UK. “There is a natural concern for all of us. The era of colonialism is over but the mindset seems to be still persistent. This is where the UK has to change. If it wants our respect, it has to change,” he said, asking the External Affairs minister to take up the matter with the UK government.

PTI

Centre Asked To Respond To Plea In SC On 'Barbaric Invaders'

 

FILE PHOTO: Television journalists are seen outside the premises of the Supreme Court in New Delhi on January 22, 2020

The Supreme Court sought the Centre’s response on Friday to a plea filed before it challenging the validity of certain provisions of a 1991 law, which prohibit the filing of a lawsuit to reclaim a place of worship or seek a change in its character from what prevailed on August 15, 1947.

The petition alleges that the 1991-law creates an “arbitrary and irrational retrospective cut-off date” of August 15, 1947 for maintaining the character of the places of worship or pilgrimage against encroachment done by “fundamentalist-barbaric invaders and law-breakers”.

A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justice AS Bopanna issued notice to the Centre on the plea filed by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, seeking that sections 2, 3, 4 of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 be set aside on grounds including that these provisions take away the right of a judicial remedy to reclaim a place of worship of any person or a religious group.

Senior advocate Gopal Subramaniyan appeared in the court for the petitioner.

The law has made only one exception — on the dispute pertaining to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri masjid at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.

The fresh plea assumes significance as there has been an ongoing demand by some Hindu groups to reclaim religious places at Mathura and Kashi, which are prohibited under the 1991 law.

The provisions not only offend the right of equality and life, but also violate the principles of secularism, which is an integral part of the Preamble and the basic structure of the Constitution, the plea says.

The PIL claims that the provisions of the law “not only offend Articles 14 (equality), 15 (prohibits discrimination of Indians on basis of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth), 21 (protection of life and personal liberty), 25 (freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion), 26 (freedom to manage religious affairs) and 29 (protection of interests of minorities), but also violate the principles of secularism, which is an integral part of the Preamble and the basic structure of the Constitution”.

The PIL contends that the Centre has barred the remedies against illegal encroachment on places of worship and pilgrimage of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs, who cannot file a suit or approach a high court.

The petitioner has sought a declaration from the court that the provisions of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 are void and unconstitutional for being violative of the fundamental rights to equality, practise one’s religion and maintain religious places, among others, as the law validates the “places of worship” illegally made by barbaric invaders.

The plea claims that the restriction to move court is against the principle of rule of law and secularism, and adds that “if the Ayodhya case had not been decided by the Supreme Court’s constitution bench on November 9, 2019, Hindus would have been denied justice even after 500 years of the demolition of the temple”.

“The Centre, by making impugned sections has, without resolution of the disputes through process of the law, abated the suit/proceedings, which is ”per se” unconstitutional and beyond its law-making power. Moreover, impugned provisions cannot be forced with retrospective effect and the judicial remedy of dispute pending, arisen or arising cannot be barred. The Centre neither can close the doors of Courts of First Instance, Appellate Courts, Constitutional Courts for aggrieved Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs nor take away the power of high courts and Supreme Court, conferred under Article 226 and 32,” it says.

Earlier also, another public interest litigation (PIL) petition was filed by the “Vishwa Bhadra Pujari Purohit Mahasangh”, seeking directions to declare section 4 of the Act as ultra vires.

Child Rights Body Asks Netflix To Stop Streaming ‘Bombay Begums’

 

FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of displayed Netflix logo in this illustration taken on March 19, 2020

A government agency for protecting child rights has asked Netflix Inc to immediately stop streaming its new drama series “Bombay Begums”, after it reviewed complaints around scenes showing children consuming drugs.

In a letter to Netflix late on Thursday, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) asked the U.S. streaming giant to investigate the matter and submit a report within 24 hours, or face further action.

The NCPCR notice referred to a tweet where a user objected to a scene showing “minors having cocaine”.

“The series with this type of content will not only pollute the young minds of children, and may also result in abuse and exploitation of children,” the NCPCR notice said.

Netflix did not respond to a request for comment.

Released this week, “Bombay Begums” is a series about five women from different parts of society trying to get ahead in modern Mumbai, formerly called Bombay.

The controversy is the latest to hit video streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video in India, where they have faced complaints also around promoting obscenity or hurting religious sentiments. Industry executives say such complaints go against freedom of speech and expression in the country.

A member of India’s ruling party’s youth wing last year lodged a police complaint against Netflix objecting to scenes in the series “A Suitable Boy”, showing a Hindu girl kissing a Muslim boy against the backdrop of a Hindu temple.

Amazon recently became embroiled in legal cases following allegations that its political drama “Tandav” depicts Hindu gods in a derogatory manner.

Several users on Friday tweeted their objections and support for the new Netflix show, making #BombayBegums a top trend on the microblogging website.

“If your child is influenced to do drugs by scenes in which a young girl does cocaine ... You need to talk to your child, not the show,” Twitter user Sahir said.

‘We’re Not Racist’, Says William After Tell-All With Oprah

 

The British Royal Family can be seen at Buckingham Palace, London, in this file photograph

Britain’s Prince William on Thursday defended the British royal family after his younger brother Harry and wife Meghan accused them of racism in a bombshell interview watched around the world.

“We’re very much not a racist family,” William told reporters during a visit to a multi-racial school in a deprived area of east London.

The Duke of Cambridge, son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, added that he had yet to speak to Harry in California since the interview first aired in the United States on Sunday.

“No, I haven’t spoken to him yet, but I will do,” he said.

A keenly awaited statement from Queen Elizabeth II issued on Tuesday was conciliatory towards her grandson and his mixed-race spouse, after their interview with US chat show host Oprah Winfrey.

But it also stressed that “some recollections may vary”, as Buckingham Palace vowed to look into the couple’s assertion that an unidentified royal had asked how dark their unborn son Archie’s skin would be.

Charles has yet to comment on the controversy but was filmed on Tuesday touring a Nigerian Christian church in London whose pastors are promoting a drive to vaccinate more black people against the coronavirus.

In the interview, Harry also said that his father and brother were “trapped” in a hidebound institution.

Piers Morgan Pours More Scorn On Meghan Suicide, Racism Claims

 

Piers Morgan smiles in front of members of the media in London, Britain on March 10, 2021

Piers Morgan, the pugnacious British TV presenter who lost his job over his attacks on Prince Harry’s wife Meghan, said on Wednesday he still did not believe what she had said during her Oprah Winfrey interview.

Morgan, 55, left ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Tuesday after a backlash against his comments on Meghan’s interview with Winfrey, in which she revealed she had felt suicidal while living as a royal in Britain.

“On Monday, I said I didn’t believe Meghan Markle in her Oprah interview. I’ve had time to reflect on this opinion, and I still don’t. If you did, OK,” Morgan said in a characteristically combative Tweet on Wednesday morning.

“Freedom of speech is a hill I’m happy to die on. Thanks for all the love, and hate. I’m off to spend more time with my opinions,” he told his 7.8 million Twitter followers.

He added a photo of Winston Churchill with a quote on free speech.

In an interview that has embarrassed Britain’s tradition-bound monarchy, Meghan, who married Prince Harry in 2018, said the royal family had rejected her pleas for mental health support.

The American actress, who is mixed race, also said that someone in the royal household had raised questions about the colour of her unborn son’s skin.

The morning after the interview was aired on U.S. television, Morgan said on Good Morning Britain, among a torrent of other criticisms, that he did not believe a word Meghan had said. In a Tweet, he called her “Princess Pinocchio”.

The following morning, he stormed off the set of the live programme when challenged by a co-presenter about his stance. Later that day, ITV said he was leaving.

Monday’s programme attracted more than 41,000 complaints to Britain’s media regulator, the second highest in its history, which announced an investigation.

Morgan first made his name in the cut-throat world of the British tabloid press, culminating in stints editing the now-defunct News of the World, then the Daily Mirror.

He later went into television, appearing as a judge on the reality shows America’s Got Talent and Britain’s Got Talent. For three years he hosted a chat show on CNN.

Morgan’s detractors said his attitude towards Meghan seemed to be partly driven by personal animus because, by his own account, he had got on “brilliantly” with her when he had first met her but she had later dropped contact with him.

Susanna Reid, who co-presented Good Morning Britain with Morgan and frequently disagreed with him on air, described him on Wednesday’s programme as “outspoken, challenging, opinionated, disruptive”.

Morgan told reporters on Tuesday he thought Meghan’s interview had damaged the monarchy and Queen Elizabeth at a time when her 99-year-old husband Prince Philip was in hospital, which he said was “contemptible”.

“If I have to fall on my sword for expressing an honestly held opinion about Meghan Markle and that diatribe of bilge that she came out with in that interview, so be it,” he said.

2/3rd Of Tropical Rainforest Destroyed Or Degraded Globally

FILE PHOTO: Fire brigade members from the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources try to control hot points in a tract of the Amazon jungle near Apui, Amazonas State, Brazil on August 11, 2020

Humans have degraded or destroyed roughly two-thirds of the world’s original tropical rainforest cover, new data reveals – raising alarm that a key natural buffer against climate change is quickly vanishing.

The forest loss is also a major contributor of climate-warming emissions, with the dense tropical forest vegetation representing the largest living reservoir of carbon.

Logging and land conversion, mainly for agriculture, have wiped out 34% of the world’s original old-growth tropical rainforests, and degraded another 30%, leaving them more vulnerable to fire and future destruction, according to an analysis by the non-profit Rainforest Foundation Norway.

More than half of the destruction since 2002 has been in South America’s Amazon and bordering rainforests.

As more rainforest is destroyed, there is more potential for climate change, which in turn makes it more difficult for remaining forests to survive, said the report’s author Anders Krogh, a tropical forest researcher.

“It’s a terrifying cycle,” Krogh said. The total lost between just 2002 and 2019 was larger than the area of France, he found.

The rate of loss in 2019 roughly matched the annual level of destruction over the last 20 years, with a football field’s worth of forest vanishing every 6 seconds, according to another recent report by the World Resources Institute.

The Brazilian Amazon has been under intense pressure in recent decades, as an agricultural boom has driven farmers and land speculators to torch plots of land for beef, soybeans and other crops. That trend has worsened since 2019, when right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro took office and began weakening environmental enforcement.

But the Amazon also represents the best hope for preserving what rainforest remains. The Amazon and its neighbors – the Orinoco and the Andean rainforest – account for 73.5% of tropical forests still intact, according to Krogh.

The new report “reinforces that Brazil must take care of the forest,” said Ane Alencar, a geographer with the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, who was not involved in the work. “Brazil has the biggest chunk of tropical forest in the world and is also losing the most.”

Southeast Asian islands, mostly belonging to Indonesia, collectively rank second in terms of forest destruction since 2002, with much of those forests cleared for palm oil plantations.

Central Africa ranks third, with most of the destruction centered around the Congo River basin, due to traditional and commercial farming as well as logging.

Forests that were defined in the report as degraded had either been partially destroyed, or destroyed and since replaced by secondary forest growth, Rainforest Foundation Norway said.

That report’s definition for intact forest may be overly strict, cautioned Tasso Azevedo, coordinator of the Brazilian deforestation mapping initiative MapBiomas. The analysis only counts untouched regions of at least 500 square km (193 square miles) as intact, leaving out smaller areas that may add to the world’s virgin forest cover, he said.

Krogh explained that this definition was chosen because smaller tracts are at risk of the “edge effect,” where trees die faster and biodiversity is harder to maintain near the edge of the forest. A forest spanning 500 square km can fully sustain its ecosystem, he said.

Meghan Accuses UK Royals Of Racism In Interview With Oprah

 

Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, are interviewed by Oprah Winfrey in this undated handout photo

Meghan, the wife of Prince Harry, accused Britain’s royal family of raising concerns about how dark their son’s skin might be and pushing her to the brink of suicide, in a tell-all television interview that will send shockwaves through the monarchy.

The 39-year-old, whose mother is Black and father is white, said she had been naive before she married into royalty in 2018, but that she ended up having suicidal thoughts and considering self harm after pleading for help but getting none.

Meghan said that her son Archie, now aged one, had been denied the title of prince because there were concerns within the royal family “about how dark his skin might be when he’s born”.

“That was relayed to me from Harry, those were conversations that family had with him,” Meghan recounted in an interview with Oprah Winfrey aired on CBS late on Sunday.

Meghan declined to say who had aired such concerns, as did Harry. He said his family had cut them off financially and that his father Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, had let him down and refused to take his calls at one point.

Buckingham Palace was not expected to give an immediate response to the interview, which aired in the early hours of Monday morning in Britain.

The two-hour broadcast was the most anticipated royal interview since Harry’s late mother Princess Diana shared intimate details of her failed marriage to Charles in 1995, denting the heir’s reputation and the family’s standing in the eyes of the British public.

Nearly three years since her star-studded wedding in Windsor Castle, Meghan described some unidentified members of the royal household as brutal, mendacious and guilty of racist remarks.

She also accused Kate, the wife of her husband’s elder brother Prince William, of making her cry before her wedding.

While the family came in for open criticism, neither Harry nor Meghan attacked Queen Elizabeth directly.

Still, Meghan said she had been silenced by “the Firm” - which Elizabeth heads - and that her pleas for help while in distress at racist reporting and her predicament had fallen on deaf ears.

“I just didn’t want to be alive any more. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. And I remember how he (Harry) just cradled me,” Meghan said, wiping away tears.

‘REALLY LET DOWN’

Harry and Meghan’s announcement in January, 2020, that they intended to step down from their royal roles plunged the family into crisis. Last month, Buckingham Palace confirmed the split would be permanent, as the couple looks to forge an independent life in the United States.

Harry, 36, said they had stepped back from royal duties because of a lack of understanding, and he was worried about history repeating itself - a reference to the death of his mother Diana who was killed in a 1997 crash as her car sped away from chasing photographers.

Asked what his mother would say about events, he answered: “I think she would feel very angry with how this has panned out and very sad.” He felt “really let down” by his father.

Harry denied blindsiding Queen Elizabeth, his grandmother, with his decision to shun life within the monarchy, but said Prince Charles stopped taking his calls at one point.

“I had three conversations with my grandmother, and two conversations with my father before he stopped taking my calls. And then he said, can you put this all in writing?”

Detractors say the couple, whose official title is the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, wanted the limelight, but were not willing to live with the attention and scrutiny it brought.

To supporters, their treatment shows how an outdated British institution lashed out against a modern, independent biracial woman.

“I know first-hand the sexism and racism institutions and the media use to vilify women and people of color to minimize us, to break us down and to demonize us,” Serena Williams, one of the world’s most successful tennis players and friend of Meghan’s, said on Twitter.

Amanda Gorman, the poet who wowed viewers at the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden, said on Twitter that Meghan had been the “Crown’s greatest opportunity for change, regeneration, and reconciliation in a new era. They didn’t just maltreat her light - they missed out on it.”

LIES AND TEARS

There have also been allegations of bullying against Meghan which appeared in The Times newspaper in the buildup to the couple’s appearance. Buckingham Palace said it would investigate the claims, adding it was “very concerned”.

Meghan told Winfrey that people within the royal institution not only failed to protect her against malicious claims but lied to protect others.

“It was only once we were married and everything started to really worsen that I came to understand that not only was I not being protected but that they were willing to lie to protect other members of the family,” Meghan said.

Meghan denied a newspaper story that she had made Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, cry before the wedding and said it was a turning point in her relations with the media and the palace.

“The reverse happened,” Meghan said. “A few days before the wedding she (Kate) was upset about something, pertaining to yes the issue was correct about the flower girl dresses, and it made me cry. And it really hurt my feelings.”

Meghan, who said they were not paid for the interview, conceded she had not realised what she was marrying into when she joined the British monarchy and “went into it naively”.

The couple also revealed that Meghan, who is pregnant with their second child, was expecting a girl.

Harry said Meghan had “saved” him from his trapped royal life. “I would disagree, I think he saved all of us. You made a decision that certainly saved my life,” Meghan said.

“This is in some ways just the beginning for us.”

Govt Blasts US Think Tank That Calls India Only ‘Partly Free’

 

FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators display placards during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Ahmedabad on December 9, 2019

India on Friday condemned a report by a U.S.-based think-tank that dropped its status from free to “partly free”, saying the claims made by Freedom House are “misleading, incorrect and misplaced”.

Freedom House, in its report released on Wednesday, titled "Freedom under Seige," said India appears to have abandoned its potential to serve as a global democratic leader under Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Modi and his party are driving India toward “authoritarianism”, it said, adding political rights and civil liberties have deteriorated since Modi came to power in 2014 and the decline accelerated after his re-election in 2019.

The report also said Modi’s government and its state-level allies continued to crack down on critics and “ham-fisted lockdown” to stem the spread of COVID-19 led to the dangerous and unplanned displacement of millions of migrant workers.

Responding to the report, India government said the ranking was faulty, as many states in the country are ruled by other parties.

The government said it took steps to prevent distress to people and to alleviate problems of those worst-hit by the lockdown. India had registered “one of the lowest rates of active Covid cases and deaths globally”, it said.

The Freedom House report said the Hindu nationalist movement also encouraged the scapegoating of Muslims, “who were disproportionately blamed for the spread of the virus and faced attacks by vigilante mobs”.

India said it treats all its citizens with equality and follows due process of law in matters relating to law and order, irrespective of the identity of the alleged instigator.

India said it attaches highest importance to the safety and security of all residents and justified a move to temporarily shut internet services in parts of the country as a step needed to maintain law and order.

The Indian government also defended freezing Amnesty International’s assets, saying it had remitted large amounts of money to four entities registered in India, by misclassifying it as Foreign Direct Investment.

Since 1973, Freedom House has assessed political rights and civil liberties around the world. Its reports are used as references by policy makers, journalists and others.

India Downgraded To ‘Partly Free’ In Report By US Think Tank

 

FILE PHOTO: Daily wage workers and homeless people wearing protective masks wait on the banks of the Yamuna river, as police officers arrange buses to transfer them to a shelter, after India extended a nationwide lockdown to slow the spreading of the coronavirus disease, in the old quarters of Delhi on April 15, 2020

India was downgraded to “partly free” for the first time since 1997 in an annual ranking of democracies by the U.S.-government funded research group Freedom House, which cited worsening civil rights under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The world’s largest democracy slipped in rankings this year because of continuing discrimination against its Muslim citizens and increased harassment of government critics and journalists, according to the “Freedom in the World” report released by the Washington-based organization.

The report cited “a multi-year pattern in which the Hindu nationalist government and its allies have presided over rising violence and discriminatory policies.” It listed several events in 2020 like religious riots in Delhi, use of sedition laws against critics and hardships endured by migrant workers after PM Modi announced a sudden lockdown to control the coronavirus pandemic.

India was among 73 nations downgraded for declines in political rights and civil liberties, affecting three-fourths of the world’s population. The report, which ranks 210 nations, found that states designated “Not Free” have reached the highest since 2006. Those affected included not just authoritarian states like China, Belarus, and Venezuela, but also troubled democracies like the U.S. and India.

India’s status change means that less than 20% of the world’s people now live in a “free” country — the smallest proportion since 1995, the report said. The changes in India since PM Modi took charge in 2014 “form part of a broader shift in the international balance between democracy and authoritarianism, with authoritarians generally enjoying impunity for their abuses and seizing new opportunities to consolidate power or crush dissent,” the report said.

Freedom House was formally established in New York in 1941 to promote American involvement in World War II and the fight against fascism, according to its website.

19 Myanmar Police Personnel Seek Refuge In India, More Expected

 

Demonstrators take cover during clashes with the police in Myanmar in February 2021

At least 19 Myanmar police personnel have crossed into India to escape taking orders from a military junta that is trying to suppress protests against last month’s coup, an Indian police official said on Thursday, adding that more were expected.

The men have crossed into Champhai and Serchhip, two districts in the northeastern state of Mizoram that share a porous border with Myanmar, the official said, declining to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

All the men, who are lower-ranking policemen, were unarmed, the official said. “We are expecting more to come,” he said, citing intelligence reports.

There have been several instances recounted on social media of police joining the civil disobedience movement and protests against the junta, with some arrested, but this is the first reported case of police fleeing Myanmar.

The official said that the policemen crossed over fearing persecution for disobeying orders and would be temporarily housed by local Indian authorities.

“They didn’t want to take orders against the civil disobedience movement,” he said, referring to the agitation in Myanmar calling for the reversal of the Feb. 1 coup and the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Of the 19, three Myanmar policemen came across the border near the town of North Vanlaiphai in Serchhip district on Wednesday afternoon and authorities there were assessing their health, another police official said.

“What they said is they got instructions from the military rulers which they cannot obey, so they have run away,” Serchhip police superintendent Stephen Lalrinawma told Reuters.

“They are seeking refuge because of the military rule in Myanmar,” Lalrinawma said.

India shares a 1,600 km (1,000 mile) land border with Myanmar, where more than 50 people have been killed during protests against the coup.

The junta overthrew a democratically elected government, and detained its leader, Suu Kyi, having disputed her party’s landslide victory in November.

India is already home to thousands of refugees from Myanmar, including ethnic Chin people and Rohingya who fled the southeast Asian country during previous bouts of violence.

A Chin community leader in New Delhi said police have rarely fled to India.

“This is something unusual,” said James Fanai, president of the India-based Chin Refugee Committee. “Because in the past, police and military just follow orders.”

Myanmar’s ruling military council has stressed the importance of police and soldiers doing their duty.

by Reuters