'Police opened fire in the air in Assam's Bongaigaon district on Saturday morning to disperse an unruly mob at a market that attacked the security personnel when asked to abide by the lockdown order, an officer said. None was injured in the melee, he said...'
'Of the scores of horrific video clips in circulation of the anti-Muslim violence that engulfed large parts of North East Delhi a month ago, one piece of mobile-phone footage has been indelibly seared into our collective memories. Even a country habituated to seeing Muslim victims of lynchings being filmed by their attackers was stunned at the sight of the assailants in this video – men in police uniform... A month later there has been no investigation, no explanations offered by police, leave alone starting an inquiry that would hold the assailants accountable.
'Amidst the criticism over the handling of the coronavirus crisis, the Indian government has decided to go ahead with an arms deal with Israel worth hundreds of millions of dollars. According to a statement released by the Indian government, Israel will supply the Indian military with 16,479 Negev light machine guns, despite growing concerns over the health emergency facing the country of 1.3 billion people.
'The BJP’s Ghaziabad MLA has asked the police to shoot violators of the 21-day lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to contain the spread of the coronavirus. According to a report in the Deccan Herald, Nand Kishor Gurjar has also announced a cash reward of Rs 5,100 to every cop who shoots the violators. Calling the violators “traitors”, Gurjar said that “cops should break their legs….if they do not follow the orders then the police should shoot them in their legs’.’...'
'...But India has so far among the lowest ratios of testing in the world. Does India lack testing capacity? What is stopping the country from testing more? Scroll.in spoke to officials of nine state governments, three government labs, one private lab, several independent microbiologists and the Indian Council for Medical Research. A country’s testing capacity is contingent on a range of factors: the availability of testing kits, laboratory preparedness and human resources. Yet, some Indian states have managed to test more than others with comparable resources.
'Can normal life resume after the 21 day nationwide lockdown? Will three weeks be enough in the fight against the novel coronavirus? How many more people will be infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the pandemic? These are burning questions that everyone - public health officials to persons now confined to their homes - are asking.
'The journalist who wrote about members of the Musahar community eating grass in villages around the prime minister’s parliamentary constituency Varanasi has been served a notice by the district administration for spreading misinformation. Vijay Vineet, news editor of Jansandesh time, a 16-page newspaper which has five editions in the state, had filed a report with his colleague Manish Mishra about families in Koiripur village (Baragaon block) subsisting on the grass on March 26. The report was accompanied by pictures of children eating grass.
'The Gujarat government on Friday decided that no migrant workers will be allowed to travel back to their natives during the lockdown period. The officials said that district administrations have been instructed to provide food and accommodation to such workers during the lockdown and stop their movement. Earlier this week, thousands of daily wage earners started going back to their native homes on foot in neighbouring Rajasthan and parts of Gujarat after the lockdown was announced.
'A case that reeks of brazen abuse of power at a time when citizens are hard pressed to place full faith on the state machinery to contain the coronavirus pandemic has come to light in Uttar Pradesh. The Uttar Pradesh police arrested Dr. Ashish Mittal on March 23, 2020. At the time, chief minister Adityanath had already imposed a lockdown.
'To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. To the Indian Police, every situation can be solved with a bit of violence. That seems to be the dictum of police authorities around the country, as India enters Day 2 of the three-week lockdown announced on Tuesday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Pictures and videos have emerged from around the country of people being brutally hit by lathis, of doctors being assaulted and of vegetable vendors being slapped around and extorted for bribes...'
