12 PARTIES, 4 OPP CMS WRITE TO PM OVER COVID FIGHT

The political fault lines over the Covid second surge sharpened yesterday with leaders of 12 major Opposition parties, including four Chief Ministers, writing a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking the Centre to procure vaccines centrally from global and domestic sources and begin a free, universal mass vaccination campaign across the country.

Incidentally, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been demanding steps to augment vaccine production, was not a signatory to the letter. Also missing was BSP chief Mayawati.

The signatories include Congress president Sonia Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda.

The other leaders who signed the letter are NCP chief Sharad Pawar, JKPA’s Farooq Abdullah, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was not a signatory as the Left was represented by CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and his CPI counterpart D Raja.

Arguing that the pandemic has assumed unprecedented dimensions of a human catastrophe, the Opposition leaders said: “We have repeatedly in the past drawn your attention, independently and jointly, to the various measures that are absolutely imperative for the Central government to undertake and implement. Unfortunately, your government has either ignored or refused all these suggestions.”

“This only compounded the situation to reach such an apocalyptic human tragedy,” they said.

“Without going into all the acts of commission and omission by the Central government that have brought the country to such a tragic pass,” they said, the Centre must now “procure vaccines centrally from all available sources — global and domestic” and “immediately begin a free, universal mass vaccination campaign across the country.”

The leaders asked the Prime Minister to invoke compulsory licensing to expand domestic vaccine production and spend budgetary allocation of Rs 35,000 crore for the vaccination drive.

The leaders also urged the Centre to stop construction of the Central Vista project and, instead, use the allocated money for procuring oxygen and vaccines.

Their other suggestions were: Release all money held in the unaccounted private trust fund, PMCares to buy more vaccines, oxygen and medical equipment required; and give all jobless at least Rs 6000 per month (and) free distribution of foodgrains to the needy.

The leaders demanded repeal of the farm laws to “protect lakhs of our annadatas becoming victims of the pandemic so that they can continue to produce food to feed the Indian people”.

“Though it has not been the practice of your office or government, we would appreciate a response to our suggestions in the interests of India and our people,” the leaders wrote.

KEY COVID NUMBERS

Current Active Cases Countrywide: 37,06,105

New Cases in last 24 hours: 3,62,452

Recovered in last 24 hours: 3,51,881

Change in no. of Active cases in last 24 hours: +6,444

No. of deaths in last 24 hours (Total Covid Deaths so far): 4,127 (2,58,352)

Daily Tests: 19,83,804

Daily Positivity Rate (Proportion of Positives among total Tested): 17.6%

Most Affected States:

(S. No. / State / No. of Active Cases / New Cases in last 24 Hrs / Deaths in Last 24 Hrs)

S. No.   States              Active Cases    /           New Cases       /           New Deaths

1          Karnataka                     5,92,182           /           39,998  /           516

2          Maharashtra     5,46,129           /           46,781  /           816

3          Kerala              4,32,787           /           43,529  /           95

4          Rajasthan                     2,09,110           /           16,384  /           164

5          Uttar Pradesh   2,06,615           /           18,023  /           326

6          Andhra Pradesh            1,97,370           /           21,452  /           89

7          Tamil Nadu       1,72,735           /           30,355  /           293

8          West Bengal     1,28,684           /           20,377  /           135

9          Gujarat             1,27,483           /           11,017  /           102

10        Chhattisgarh     1,22,798           /           10,150  /           153

11        Madhya Pradesh           1,09,928           /           8,970    /           84

12        Haryana                       1,07,058           /           12,490  /           165

13        Bihar                99,623  /           9,863    /           74

14        Odisha             89,683  /           10,982  /           17

15        Delhi                82,725  /           13,287  /           300

16        Punjab              79,963  /           8,271    /           193

17        Uttarakhand      77,082  /           7,749    /           109

18        Telangana                    59,133  /           4,723    /           31

19        JnK                  51,542  /           4,509    /           65

20        Jharkhand        50,467  /           4,362    /           97

21        Assam              40,970  /           5,657    /           71

22        Himachal Pradesh         38,954  /           4,977    /           66

23        Goa                  32,791  /           2,865    /           70

24        Puducherry       15,562  /           2,007    /           27

25        Chandigarh       8,528    /           776       /           14

26        Manipur                        5,272    /           666       /           17

27        Meghalaya        3,381    /           406       /           8

28        Tripura             3,368    /           416       /           9

29        Nagaland                      3,297    /           338       /           9

BJP: 84% OF JABS SENT ABROAD AS PART OF COMMERCIAL, LICENCING LIABILITIES OF MANUFACTURERS

With its government being questioned over the decision to send vaccines to foreign countries, the ruling BJP on Wednesday accused the Opposition parties of spreading misinformation about India’s vaccine programme and said around 84 per cent of doses sent under ‘Vaccine Maitri’ were part of commercial and licencing liabilities of the Indian manufacturers.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, while addressing a virtual press conference, said 1.07 crore vaccine doses sent abroad were India’s aid to different countries and noted that of those, 78.5 lakh were dispatched to seven neighbouring countries. “A safer neighbourhood is good for India too,” he said.

Patra said more than two lakh doses were given to the UN peace-keeping force, in which over 6,600 Indian soldiers are deployed. He accused the AAP and Congress, especially Rahul Gandhi, of spreading misinformation that the Narendra Modi government has exported over 6.63 crore vaccine doses abroad while not using those to inoculate Indians.

Sending over 5.50 crore vaccine doses abroad was the compulsion of the two Indian manufacturers as it was part of their commercial and licensing liabilities, Patra said.

Patra pointed out that the intellectual property rights over Covishield, manufactured in the country by the Serum Institute of India (SII), are with Astrazeneca, a foreign firm and that the SII was obliged to send a part of the vaccines produced by it abroad.

Covaxin manufacturer Bharat Biotech have sent vaccine doses abroad as they had signed an agreement to procure raw materials for preparing the jabs, the BJP leader added.

“This misinformation is being spread that Indians were ignored and vaccines were sent abroad. In this global era, no country can exist as an island and there has to be cooperative globalisation,” he said.

The vaccine indigenously prepared by Bharat Biotech requires a high level of biosafety, which only a few firms are capable of preparing, and the Centre is holding talks with them, including some public sector undertakings, to scale up its production, he added.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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COVID CATASTROPHE "COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED": INDEPENDENT GLOBAL PANEL

The catastrophic scale of the Covid-19 pandemic could have been prevented, an independent global panel concluded Wednesday, but a "toxic cocktail" of dithering and poor coordination meant the warning signs went unheeded.

The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPPR) said a series of bad decisions meant Covid-19 went on to kill at least 3.3 million people so far and devastate the global economy.

The report was requested by WHO member states last May.

Institutions "failed to protect people" and science-denying leaders eroded public trust in health interventions, the IPPPR said in its long-awaited final report.

Early responses to the outbreak detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019 "lacked urgency", with February 2020 a costly "lost month" as countries failed to heed the alarm, said the panel.

The panel was jointly chaired by former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark and former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a 2011 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

The report, "Covid-19: Make it the Last Pandemic", argued that the global alarm system needed overhauling to prevent a similar catastrophe.

"The situation we find ourselves in today could have been prevented," Sirleaf told reporters. "It is due to a myriad of failures, gaps and delays in preparedness and response."

The report said the emergence of Covid-19 was characterised by a mixture of "some early and rapid action, but also by delay, hesitation, and denial.

"Poor strategic choices, unwillingness to tackle inequalities and an uncoordinated system created a toxic cocktail which allowed the pandemic to turn into a catastrophic human crisis."

The panel did not spare the WHO, saying it could have declared the situation a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) -- its highest level of alarm -- on January 22, 2020. Instead, it waited eight more days before doing so. Nevertheless, given countries' relative inaction, "we might still have ended up in the same place", said Clark. As for the initial outbreak, "there were clearly delays in China -- but there were delays everywhere", she added.

Without the lag between the first identification in Wuhan and the PHEIC declaration -- and then the "lost month" of February 2020 -- "we believe we wouldn't be looking at an accelerating pandemic, as we have for the last 15 or 16 months or so. As simple as that", said Clark.

56 KILLED IN GAZA, 6 IN ISRAEL, FEARS OF FULL-SCALE WAR MOUNT

Israel said it killed 16 members of the Hamas armed wing in Gaza in a barrage on Wednesday and Palestinian militants rained rockets into Israel as Washington said it would send an envoy to try to calm their most intense hostilities in years. At least 56 people have been killed in Gaza since violence escalated on Monday, according to the enclave’s health ministry. Six people have been killed in Israel, officials said.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said the brigade commander for Gaza City was among senior members of the Islamist militant group who had been killed. “This is just the beginning. We’ll hit them like they’ve never dreamed possible,” he said. Soon after the announcement, a new rocket barrage was fired at the Israeli city of Ashdod and Israeli media said the military was preparing for new salvoes on the Tel Aviv area. Hamas confirmed the death of the commander. Its leader Ismail Haniyeh added: “The confrontation with the enemy is open-ended.”

A Palestinian source said truce efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the UN had made no progress to end violence. Describing the scenes of destruction as “harrowing”, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said a senior aide, Hady Amr, would be sent to urge Israelis and Palestinians to seek calm. Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin reaffirmed “ironclad support for Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself”. Israeli defence minister Benny Gantz said Israel would continue to strike Hamas to restore long-term calm, according to a statement.

THE REST

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COVID VACCINATION DRIVE FALTERING IN SEVERAL STATES DUE TO VACCINE SHORTAGE

As states face an acute shortage of COVID-19 vaccines, Maharashtra decided on Wednesday to suspend its drive to vaccinate people in the age group of 18 to 44 years while Delhi also temporarily shut Covaxin administering centres for them as it has run out of stock.

The Tamil Nadu government was the latest to announce global tenders for procurement of COVID-19 vaccines, while the Rajasthan government was also mulling a similar step. Uttarakhand officials said the state will import 20 lakh doses of Sputnik vaccine over the next two months.

States like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and  Delhi have already opted for global tenders to meet their needs.

Amid demands to ramp up domestic supply, Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech have submitted to the Centre their production plan for the next four months, informing that they can scale it up to 10 crore and 7.8 crore doses respectively by August, official sources said.

EID-UL-FITR ON MAY 14, KERALA CELEBRATES TODAY

Eid-ul-Fitr will be celebrated on Friday across India barring Kerala amid COVID-19 restrictions.

In Kerala, the festival marking the end of the fasting month of Ramzan is being celebrated today.

Clerics in Delhi including Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Ahmed Bukhari, said the moon was not sighted on Wednesday and hence the festival of Eid will be on May 14.

Shahi Imam of Fatehpuri Masjid Mufti Mukarram Ahmed also announced that the moon was not sighted last evening.

All religious leaders have appealed to the Muslims to adhere to COVID protocols and offer their Eid prayers at home.

PHOTOGRAPHY PROHIBITED AT CENTRAL VISTA CONSTRUCTION SITE

Amid criticism over the Central Vista Redevelopment Project, the Central Public Works Department has prohibited photography and video recording at the construction site near India Gate.

Sign boards have come up at the redevelopment site of the Central Vista Avenue, which read: ‘No photography’, ‘No video recording’.

The government has been facing criticism from the opposition for executing the Central Vista Redevelopment Project amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

The redevelopment of the Central Vista, the nation’s power corridor, envisages a new Parliament building, a common central secretariat, revamping of the 3-km Rajpath from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate, new Prime Minister’s residence and office, and a new Vice President Enclave.

'SOMEWHERE THEY HAVE SLIPPED': ANUPAM KHER ON MODI GOVT

It is important to hold the government responsible for what is happening in the country in the wake of the second Covid wave, actor Anupam Kher said, while asserting that public criticism towards authorities is "valid in lots of cases". Kher is generally considered close to BJP and has not been known to critise Modi govt on any count.

Asked in an interview to NDTV if the efforts of the government should have been more in providing relief right now than managing their own image and perception, the National Award-winning actor said it is important for the government to rise to the occasion and do things for the people who elected them.

"I think the criticism is valid in lots of cases... Only an inhuman person will not get affected by the bodies floating (in the rivers)," Kher said in a reference to the scores of bodies found floating in the Ganga and other rivers, leading to suspicion that they might be those of COVID-19 patients.

"But for another political party to use it for their gain, I think that is also not right. I think we should, as people, get angry. It is important to hold the government responsible for what's happening. Somewhere they have slipped. It is time for them to understand that there is much more to life than just image building maybe," he added.

HAVEN’T ASSOCIATED THE TERM 'INDIAN VARIANT' WITH B.1.617: WHO

The WHO on Wednesday said it does not identify viruses or variants with the names of countries they are first reported from.

“We refer to them by their scientific names and request all to do the same for consistency,” the WHO said in a tweet tagging media agencies that associated the WHO as using the term Indian variant for B1617.

“Several media reports have covered the news of WHO classifying B.1.617 as variant of global concern. Some of these reports have termed the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus as an “Indian Variant”. These media reports are without any basis, and unfounded. This is to clarify that WHO has not associated the term “Indian Variant” with the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus in its 32 page document,” the world body said.

NEW ACADEMIC SESSION AT UNIVERSITIES? NO WORD YET FROM UGC, GOVT

The academic session for colleges, universities and other higher education institutions is set to be delayed for the second consecutive year due to the postponement of many board exams. But unlike last year, the University Grants Commission has given no word about when central and state universities and non-technical colleges will be able to begin classes.

In 2020, when the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic had hit India, the UGC had formed a panel in April itself to decide the new academic calendar, but this time, as the country struggles to come to grips with the massive second wave of infections, neither the regulator nor the Ministry of Education have made any announcements on this matter.

The UGC-appointed panel had submitted last year that for those students who began their first year after the pandemic-induced delay and are now set to begin second-year classes, the session would begin in August 2021. But the panel had not mentioned any timeline for the new batch of students beginning college/university in 2021, or for those in other batches, in case Covid-19 forced another delay, like it has.

INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT JUMPS 22% IN MARCH ON LOW BASE EFFECT

India’s industrial production rose at the fastest pace in at least nine years, clocking a 22% jump in March, on the back of a 19% decline a year ago.

What will, however, provide some relief to policy makers is the softening of retail inflation — the key measure used by the RBI for its monetary policy actions. Retail inflation, based on consumer price index (CPI), moderated to a three-month low of 4.3% in April, although edible oil and meat & fish registered double digit increase. Overall food price index saw a muted 2% rise.

Again, last year’s lockdown — resulting in supply disruptions pushing up prices — seems to have played a part in the April numbers.

The bad news on the factory front is that this is the second consecutive year of declining output with an 8.6% contraction witnessed in 2020-21 on the back of a 0.8% fall in the previous financial year. Besides, despite the index of industrial production (IIP) climbing to 143.4 in March 2021, it was still short of the March 2020 reading of 144.1.

With the country back to a near lockdown situation across a majority of the states, industrial activity is expected to be hit in the coming months due to the second wave of Covid-19.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

We can spend our lives either avoiding fear or embracing it. - Seth Godin

OFF TRACK

A little boy was sitting on a park bench munching on one chocolate after another. After the 6th one, a man on the bench across from him said, "Son, you know eating all that candy isn't good for you. It will rot your teeth, and make you fat."

The boy replied, "My grandfather lived to be 107 years old."

"Oh?" replied the man. "Did your grandfather eat 6 chocolates at a time?"

"No" replied the boy, "he minded his own bloody business!!"