Prakash Javadekar, who heads three powerful Union Ministries: Environment, Forest & Climate Change; Information & Broadcasting; and Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, has announced that India will be fully vaccinated against Covid19 by December 2021.

Reacting sharply after Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said that less than three per cent of the country’s 130 crore people had received both doses of a vaccine, Javdekar replied that the Union Health Ministry had issued a “blueprint” which will ensure that 108 crore people will be vaccinated with 216 crore doses by December. According to Javdekar, “India is the second-fastest in vaccinating its people.

He then lashed out at Gandhi for raising the issue of a low vaccination rate, something many state governments have also raised with the Centre, about the unavailability of vaccine stocks. “Rahulji… if you’re concerned about vaccination then pay attention to Congress ruled states… there is a mess. They are not taking the quota given to them for 18-44 year old beneficiaries from May 1,” said Javadekar took it a step further and accused Gandhi of “questioning the vaccine” and creating “confusion in the minds of people.”

.@RahulGandhi जी अगर आपको वैक्सीन का महत्त्व आज समझ आ रहा है तो जब कोवैक्सीन आयी थी तब उसपर आपने प्रश्नचिन्ह क्यों लगाया था। लोगों के मन में भ्रम ना उत्पन्न करें। प्रधानमंत्री जी ने खुद कोवैक्सीन ली तब भी आपकी नौटंकी बंद नहीं हुई। pic.twitter.com/JS7t6xjIMN

— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) May 28, 2021

This reaction came after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the Centre, and the Prime Minister have “failed to understand Corona”. Gandhi raised questions on the Centre’s Covid-19 vaccine strategy, and played videos from a year ago when he is heard “predicting” the devastation that Coronavirus has unleashed till now. He also played clips of the PM’s “thaali, taali” message, and a year later a message in early 2021 where the PM said India had handled Covid-19 pandemic better than most nations globally. Gandhi said a “permanent” solution to fight Coronavirus was vaccination, and warned that moves Covid-19 waves may attack due to the Centre had “no vaccination strategy” for its own people while indulging in “vaccine diplomacy. 

“You have left the door open [for Covid-19], there are different rates [for vaccines], business is going on…” he said adding that “unfortunately, the Prime Minister is an event manager. We cannot have an event manager in such times. We need effective and speedy administration. 

LIVE: My interaction with members of the Press about GOI’s Covid vaccine disaster. https://t.co/YbC8iSe4aw

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 28, 2021

According to official data, India has recorded 1.86 lakh new Covid-19 cases in a 24 hours period ending on Friday. The active caseload, stated the government data, has now declined to 23,43,152, and 3,660 fatalities have now taken the death toll is now over 3.18 lakh. However, Gandhi warned that the worst was not over yet. “The second wave is the Prime Minister’s responsibility… he did nautanki [dramas],” Gandhi was direct in his critique, adding that the “government was lying about the death rates”. The Opposition is not the enemy, said Gandhi. 

However, the Union government also put out a detailed “myth and facts” document reportedly by Member (Health) in NITI Aayog and Chair of the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) Dr Vinod Paul. A key “myth” it sought to explain was “Centre has abdicated its responsibility to the states.” According to the government note, “Central Government is doing all the heavy-lifting, from funding vaccine manufacturers to giving them quick approvals to ramping up production to bringing foreign vaccines to India.” Another “myth” was that the ‘Centre is not giving enough vaccines to the states’, to which the government stated it was “allotting enough vaccines to the states in a transparent manner as per agreed guidelines. In fact, states are also being informed in advance of the vaccine availability. Vaccine availability is going to increase in the near future and much more supply would be possible.”

Hours after that release, Rahul Gandhi, made one of the sharpest attacks by an Opposition leader on the government’s Covid-19 strategy, rather the lack of it as he puts it, “I directly told the PM that if India does not sort out its vaccination strategy, there will be multiple waves since the virus adapts. The Prime Minister is the head of the country. He is responsible for its well-being. The buck stops with the Prime Minister.” According to Gandhi, the “PM is trying to repair his image but his image is gone…PM has to show leadership, don’t be afraid, be a leader.”

Delhi prepares to unlock

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that the National Capital will begin “to Unlock gradually,” and construction activities and factories will start work from Monday, May 31. However, he added that “if the Coronavirus cases increase again, we will have no option but to impose the lockdown again.” The CM said even though the city will gradually unlock people should not step out “unless absolutely necessary.”
 

The gradual unlocking from Monday was decided after a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA). The city is perhaps the first to announce an unlocking as the devastating second Covid-19 wave is said to have slowed down for now. Thousands are still impacted directly by the disease, and even more are impacted due to the lack of work, and food security due to the lockdown. According to Kejriwal “labourers, daily wage workers, migrant labourers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and the neighboring states come to Delhi to earn their livelihoods… So today it was decided in the meeting that both these activities will be open from Monday… for the next one week, construction activities and factories will remain open.”

Related:

Covid-19 Vaccine: Where are the crores of doses manufactured, but not administered?
UP blunder: 20 jabbed with Covaxin after getting Covishield as first dose
Madras HC raises concern over shortage of Covid vaccine, Black Fungus drugs
Vaccine indemnity: GoI, Pfizer at an impasse
K’taka HC seeks govt’s plan of procuring oxygen and vaccines

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The HRD Minister, before taking questions from the press stated that NPR (National Population Register) is a regular exercise and just like it took place in 2010 in the UPA regime, it is being carried out 10 years later in 2020 and will continue in 2030 and so on. He also mentioned that during NPR exercise, when door to door enumeration will be done, no documents will be asked as proof for the information being provided by the individual. He also stated that no biometric data will be collected during NPR 2020.

He further said that the government does not want proof of anything as it “trusts the people”. He further said that NPR is a usual process and that there is only little difference between data sought in NPR and data sought in Census. The Indian Express had reported that the upcoming, and now approved, NPR ‘will require people to declare ‘date and place of birth of parents’ which was not asked in the earlier NPR — this holds significance in the context of the proposed nationwide NRC.’
 

NPR-NRC Connect drawn by BJP govt

When asked about cabinet’s discussion on NRC, he said that NRC was not discussed in the Cabinet and also stated that his government has never said and has never implied that NPR is related to NRC. To this statement, a member of the press pulled up an answer given in the last Lok Sabha i.e. the 16^th Lok Sabha by Kiren Rijiju, the then Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). On July 22, 2014, Kiren Rijiju while responding to a question on NRC (National register of Citizens) had stated, “The Government has decided to create the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) based on the information collected under the scheme of National Population Register (NPR) by verifying the citizenship status of all individuals in the country.”

Mr Javadekar fumbled and was not able to provide a satisfactory answer to the same. In fact, on a question about NPR as well, Kiren Rijiju had stated, “The scheme of NPR has been reviewed and it has been decided that NPR should be completed and taken to its logical conclusion, which is the creation of NRIC by verification of citizenship status of every usual residents in the NPR.” Clearly Modi 2.0 regime is unprepared to face the ghosts of its own past.
 

NPR and Census

Further, when he was asked about the difference between NPR 2020 and Census 2021, he did not seem to have any information on that either as he said that there is very little difference between the two and one difference being that NPR is being carried out in 2020 and Census in 2021.

After the Cabinet approved the budget for NPR today, the PTI (press Trust of India) reported that the budget was Rs. 8,500 crores; this was later retracted by the PIB (Press Information Bureau) which issued a press release stating that the Union Cabinet approved the proposal for conducting Census of India 2021 at a cost of Rs. 8,754.23 crore and updation of NPR at a cost of Rs. 3,941.35 crore. It is pertinent to note that these numbers are exactly the same as mentioned in MHA’s answer in parliament’s recently concluded winter session.
 

The NRC question

The Government is now trying to backtrack from the “nation-wide NRC” announced so pompously by the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah in the beginning of the recent winter session. Towards the end of the session, MHA refused to admit conducting nation-wide NRC, in its official answers in the Parliament.
 

Related:

MHA’s boiler-plate response to questions about NRC
PTI reports Rs. 8,500 cr approved for NPR, PIB retracts figure to Rs. 3,941.35 cr
National Population Register updation: Centre to seek info on date and place of parents’ birth
NPR 2020 gazette notification missing from official gov’t websites, taken off?
NRC to hit India’s informal labour force
Modi’s Delhi Speech, a “bundle of untruths”, says CPM
WB to get reprieve from NPR?
NRC-NPR an assault on India’s poorest citizens : Teesta Setalvad
NPR 2020 to cost close to Rs. 4,000 crores; Centre silent on connection to NRC

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The ordinance may be read here.

In response to the social media storm around the #5MarchBharat Bandh, earlier this  week, Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said the centre was committed to restoring the reservation roster in educational institutions following a series of protests over the issue by various students’ and teachers’ organisations. They had been urging the government to bring an ordinance to restore the 200-point roster taking college or university as a unit for reservation in teaching posts.

Ironically the issue began with a shift in policy within the Modi regime itself. The University Grants Commission had announced in March last year that an individual department should be considered as the base unit to calculate the number of teaching posts to be reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes candidates, following an order by the Allahabad High Court in April 2017. The Supreme Court had upheld an Allahabad High Court order over reservation of SC/STs in the appointment of faculty members in universities in January.

The Supreme Court had last month dismissed a review petition filed by the Human Resource Development Ministry after its special leave petition against the court order was rejected by the top court. Mr Javadekar had said in the Lok Sabha on February 11 that the government can “bring an ordinance if its review petition filed in the top court is rejected“.
 

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An Indian Express report today revealed a number of recommendations submitted by Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas – an RSS-affiliated organisation, to the ministry of human resource development, ahead of the formulation of the new education policy. Apart from the demand for prominence for mother-tongues and elimination of English as a medium of instruction, the Nyas (trust) has also demanded that foreign languages not be offered as an option to the Indian languages, all research work should only be pertaining to ‘national interest’, and all references that insult Indian culture, sects or thoughts and offer “wrong” explanations be removed.

Prakash Ambedkar, president, Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh told Sabrangindia, “It’s quite obvious that they’re trying to target Dalits here, but this move will also affect the poor adversely. It’s an attempt at reinstating the old systems. Where knowledge is expanding its scope and is being globalised in the current era, they’re asking for localisation of knowledge. It’s ridiculous.”

He advised that the RSS should implement the recommendations within its own institutions before advocating these measures. “Children of almost all of the upper-castes study in English medium schools. Are they willing to withdraw their children from these schools? They should implement this suggestion within the cadre, see the results and then talk of its nation-wide implementation,” he said.

Dismissing the chances of the implementation of these recommendations, he added, “People will not support these regressive ideas. They will speak up. Looks like they (right wing organisations) will end up losing power (if continue to function in this manner).”

Taking ta jibe at these recommendations, Dalit rights activist and eminent writer Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd told Sabrangindia, “They should ask for the closure of all (English medium) private schools and colleges, irrespective of their ownership. Why stop at that? They should also withdraw English as a subject from the Saraswati Mandirs – schools run by the RSS. They should also make sure that we do not export material to the English-speaking countries. And they should refrain from accepting even a penny form these English-speaking countries for educational purposes. Then, we can say, their purpose will be truly served!”

He further dubbed this moves as an attempt to marginalise students from backward castes studying in the English medium schools and progressive environments. “This will hamper the progress if Dalits,” he claimed.

Supporting the recommendations made by the Nyas partially, BJP Mumbai spokesperson Aarti Sathe told Sabrangindia, “I am not familiar with how exactly and on what levels do they plan to implement these measures, but, I feel that a child can understand the curriculum best if it’s in her or his own mother-tongue. Learning will become easier. Although, I am not against the English-medium education.”

According to the Indian Express report, the Nyas founder-secretary has claimed that the HRD minister Prakash Javdekar “appreciated many suggestions” and  said that they “will certainly consider” its suggestions.
 
Also read: Undoing India – The RSS Way
Also read: The Latest Victims of "Cultural Terrorism": A Dalit Poet and a Dalit Scholar

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