'After an appeal for donations to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) from the University Grants Commission and the Delhi University, one day’s worth of DU staff salaries were deducted for this purpose. However, the DU Vice Chancellor Yogesh Tyagi has now said that the collected money — amounting to more than ₹4 crore — was sent to the PM-CARES Fund instead. The change was made on the basis of direction from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, according to a senior DU official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity...'
'Six years ago, the then editor of the Hindustan Times invited me to write a fortnightly column. I agreed, on condition that there would be no censorship. While occasionally some changes to my text were made without my consent, there was no attempt to get me to rewrite my column or change its arguments. Until this week, when the Hindustan Times declined to print the column I had sent, which was scheduled to appear on Sunday, April 19. I am grateful to The Wire for carrying this column in its entirety...
'Employees from a number of government departments and agencies have donated a day’s salary toward the PM-CARES fund. While the donations, meant for COVID-19 relief, were said to be “voluntary”, government circulars show that the deductions were made directly from salaries. Those unwilling to donate were asked to submit their refusal in writing...'
'In an unusual bail condition, the Jharkhand high court granted bail to a former Bhartiya Janata Party member of parliament and five others and asked them to deposit an amount of Rs 35,000 each into the PM-CARES fund. The order, uploaded on LiveLaw, states that the accused would have to download the Aarogya Setu app after getting released, along with contributing the bail deposit to the PM-CARES fund...'
'On Friday, April 17, Hindi media outlet News24 shared a video on Facebook titled, “कोरोना ने बदला इबादत की तरीका,दिल्ली के जामा मस्जिद का माहौल क्या है?” This translates to – “Cororna has changed the ways of worship, what is the atmosphere in Delhi’s Jama Masjid?” The broadcast started with the anchor informing that the coronavirus scare has caused Islamic nations across the world to alter the ways of offering prayers. “People are being advised to offer namaz at home.
'On April 10, India Today TV aired a “special investigation” on Newstrack, a primetime show hosted by its news director, Rahul Kanwal. Called “Madrasa Hotspot”, it “stung” caretakers of three madrasas in the National Capital Region – Madrasa Darul-ul-Uloom Usmania and Madrasa Islahul Mumineer in Madanpur Khadar, Delhi, and Madrasa Jamia Mohammadia Haldoni in Greater Noida... The report showed that students were staying in the madrasas amid the nationwide lockdown. It also had at least one teacher accepting that he had bribed the police to keep them at bay.
'There has been a sudden spurt in the number of burials in Muslim graveyards in Indore, the hotspot of the Covid-19 pandemic in Madhya Pradesh. At least 183 bodies were buried in five Muslim graveyards in Indore in the first nine days of April, records available with the officials of graveyards show. In a majority of the cases, the records cited high blood pressure, diabetes and other ailments as the cause of death...'
'An ICMR study of patients admitted with Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) showed that 93% of those who tested positive for Covid-19 and for whom data on exposure was known had neither travelled abroad nor had any contact with a person known to be infected...'
'Like the rest of the world, India is battling the coronavirus pandemic. However, here the public conversation over the past week has focussed inordinately on only one facet of the disease: its link with the Tablighi Jamat, a Muslim religious group. A Tablighi Jamat event, held in early March in Delhi, was attended by foreign delegates from South East Asia as well as members from all over India. A few attendees, it later turned out, were coronavirus carriers. When the event finished, many people went back to their home states, carrying the virus with them.
'BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje on Monday took to social media to claim that some people from Belagavi, who were quarantined after they attended the Tablighi Jamaat in New Delhi, were misbehaving and spitting at the healthcare workers of the hospital that they were taken to. However, this claim has been denied by Belagavi Deputy Commissioner SB Bommanahalli, who said that the people quarantined in the district were not spitting or misbehaving with health workers...'
