EXPRESS MORNING BRIEFING
Dear Reader,
Big Story
The Rajasthan saga took an unexpected turn on Friday with the Congress accusing a Union Minister and one of its own MLAs of conspiring to topple the Ashok Gehlot government, after audio tapes emerged in which they were purportedly discussing "horse trading". In one of the conversations a BJP leader was heard saying: “Tell Sachin ji not to give their names in the list.”
As politics heat up in the desert state, former chief minister Vasundhara Raje has been missing in action. A source close to Raje said she did not want to be part of the developments since the party leadership “did not keep her informed about the events, nor did they have any discussions with her”.
From the Front Page
India's continued silence on Chinese ingress into the Depsang Plains could result in a new status quo being created in the strategically important area, where Chinese would have effectively shifted their actual control of the territory 18 km to the west, a section of the security establishment fears.
Sudden lockdowns, announced with very little notice by state governments, have begun to hurt industrial activity in plants located both within and outside containment zones. It is creating uncertainty for workers planning to return to work as the economy continues to reopen after multiple phases of lockdown and “unlock”.
In Bihar's Bhagalpur, the focus of a series by The Indian Express, the Covid shutdown has dealt a blow to the educational coaching ecosystem, with no signs of a reopening any time soon. Now, many aspiring doctors and engineers are struggling with the online replacement — classes over Zoom call.
The Pandemic
Amid a rat race to bring out a Covid-19 vaccine, a couple of clinical trials by Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila were kicked off this week. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna, testing Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, has injected nine participants with the inactivated vaccine. It is unclear how many participants Zydus has vaccinated even though the firm is targeting a sample size of 1,048 participants.
In a first, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has confirmed the community spread of the virus, saying that the infection is spreading very fast in the coastal areas of Thiruvananthapuram. In view of the grim situation, he added, a complete lockdown would be in force in the affected coastal areas from Saturday, with the affected zones brought under police control.
Beyond Covid-19
Farmers in Assam suffered a double blow this year. At first, the lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19 hit supply chains of vegetables at the time of sale and the new crop was damaged by the flood that came early this year. “In the lockdown, I could not sell our produce of vegetables and jute. And now there is flood water in the paddy field, it will damage the crops,” says one Noor Jamal of Barpeta district.
A health worker at a Covid-19 testing centre in Delhi on Friday.
A 20-year-old man trying to cross over to Pakistan to meet his alleged girlfriend was apprehended by the Border Security Force on Thursday. Zeeshan Siddiqui undertook a 1,200-km trip during the lockdown, first on a bicycle and then on a bike from Osmanabad to Kutch, to meet a woman friend with whom he is said to have come in contact through social media, police said.
ICYMI
- The Indian Institutes of Technology on Friday decided to drop the Class 12 performance criterion for admissions this year.
- Bengal JP MP Arjun Singh has alleged that the police were planning to kill him, his wife, and son Pawan in an “encounter”.
- Bollywood actor Aishwarya Rai and daughter Aaradhya Bachchan have been admitted to Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai after the duo tested positive for Covid-19 last week.
- The Chinese engineering firm which was chucked out of a Rs 470-crore signaling contract recently has dragged Railways to court against the move even as India served it the formal termination letter on Friday.
- Four persons have been arrested for allegedly forcing a Nepalese citizen to chant slogans against Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli in Varanasi.
And Finally...
The sight of a teacher early in the day is not a happy prospect for most. But not Aamina Abdul Sheikh. As Kaliash Ahir arrives Wednesday morning at her home, the 11-year-old can barely stop herself and rushes out to hug her. As they sit down on the floor facing each other, Ahir takes off her face mask to begin a speech therapy session, an initiative taken by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to ensure that children with special needs are too allowed their share of classes amid the pandemic restrictions.
Delhi Confidential: Political developments in Rajasthan have drawn a number of visitors to Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat’s official residence in Delhi. All the visitors—be they politicians or mediapersons—got one thing for certain, Shekhawat made sure they were treated to home-made cookies and cakes.
Until tomorrow,
Leela Prasad G and Liu Chuen Chen
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