Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday lambasted the Gupkar Alliance in his public speech in Baramulla and said he “will listen and talk to people of the Kashmir valley and not Pakistan”.
“They [the Gupkar Alliance] want me to talk to Pakistan. I want to talk to the people of the Valley. They want me to listen to Pakistan, I want to listen to people. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not accept terrorism and uproot it from Jammu & Kashmir. PM Modi has almost freed Jammu & Kashmir of terrorism,” Mr. Shah, who addressed a large gathering of locals in north Kashmir’s Baramulla, said.
He said the regional leaders should see the level of development in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK). “There is no electricity, no water and no hospitals. In Kashmir, every village is electrified. Kashmir was a hotspot of terrorism and now a hotspot of tourism. From mere six lakh tourists visiting a year, Kashmir till October has witnessed 22 lakh tourists,” he added.
Mr. Shah stopped his speech when Azaan was being recited in a mosque as a mark of respect. Restarting his speech, he urged the people of Kashmir to join the mainstream. “We want a holistic development in Jammu & Kashmir. People should join the mainstream and the development process and move forward,” he added.
The Minister said it pained him if anyone was killed. “The biggest burden on a father’s shoulders is the coffin of his son. Around 42,000 ordinary people have died in Kashmir due to terrorism. None was a son of a politician. Who is responsible for 42,000 deaths? The Muftis and Abdullahs. Terrorism will yield nothing,” Mr. Shah said.
He said elections in Jammu and Kashmir would follow the process of finalisation of electoral rolls. “Elections will be held. The J&K delimitation commission has ensured that real representatives come to power,” he added.
The Union Minister said the Modi model for Kashmir was peace, development and harmony. “The Gupkar model gave us the Pulwama attack and the Modi model set up a hospital worth ₹2,000 crore in Pulwama. The Gupkar model is for stones in hands, closed colleges and machine guns in youth’s hands. The Modi model is implementing ₹56,000 investments on the ground,” Mr. Shah said.
He named the Abdullahs and the Muftis and blamed them for youth having stones and guns in their hands. “PM Modi replaced them with mobiles and laptops by setting up industry and providing employment.”
Referring to former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s tweet, Mr. Shah said, “Let Ms. Mufti and Mr. Abdullah open their ears. What have you given to J&K in 75 years? Democracy was restricted to 87 legislators and six Members of Parliament, we made 30,000 people join the democratic process by taking electoral process to grassroots level, from panchayat to tehsil,” he said.
He said the three families — the Abdullah, the Mufiis and the Gandhis — ruled Jammu and Kashmir for over 70 years and attracted just 15,000 crore investment. “In just three years, ₹56,000 crore investment has come to J&K. One lakh homeless people were provided homes for the first time. We got IIT, AIIMS, NIT, NIFT, additional medical colleges and nursing colleges to J&K,” the Minister said.
Mr. Shah’s rally was largely attended by Gujjar and Paharis after the recent announcement of inclusion of Paharis in the Schedule Tribe list.
“After removal of Article 370, reservation to STs and Schedule Castes became possible. Mr. [Farooq] Abdullah is provoking people that Gujjar reservation will be cut. All Gujjars, Bakerwals and Paharis will get reservation in education, jobs and elections and not a single percent will cut from Gujjars.
He also recalled the role of Maqbool Sherwani in 1947. “He fought Pakistan and laid down his life to save his motherland in 1947. Otherwise, Baramulla too would have been part of backward PoK,” he said.
Mr. Shah said Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Mr. Modi’s efforts on the development front was visible on the smiling faces of people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Population control, religion-based population balance can no longer be ignored: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat
After 75 years of Independence, India now needs a population control policy applicable to all for the next 50 years to make population an ‘asset’ to the country, said Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday.
Mr. Bhagwat also stressed that religion-based population balance is an important subject that can no longer be ignored.
Speaking at the programme of RSS’s foundation day celebration event on the occasion of Vijayadashmi in Reshimbaug in Nagpur, Mr. Bhagwat asked people if they can imagine how many people India can feed after 50 years. He also questioned what kind of education and healthcare will be provided to people if the population continues to grow.
“Our country has a huge population — this is a reality. Populations require resources and if it keeps growing it becomes a big burden, perhaps an unbearable burden. Therefore, with the perspective of population control, plans are made,” said Mr. Bhagwat, citing the example of China’s efforts to control population.
He added that the number of children is linked with maternal health, education and financial status of a family.
“Population impacts the environment also. In short, the population policy has to be formulated considering all these factors mindfully. It should be applicable for all. Only then rules pertaining to population control will yield results.”
Mr. Bhagwat said that three new countries that have come into existence in the 21st century — East Timor, South Sudan and Kosovo — have been the results of population imbalance in certain territories of Indonesia, Sudan and Serbia.
“Population imbalances lead to changes in geographical boundaries. Alongside the differences in birth rate, conversions by force, lure or greed and infiltration are also big reasons. All these factors have to be mulled over. Population control and religion-based population balance is an important subject that can no longer be ignored,” he said.
Mr. Bhagwat’s statement came weeks after former election commissioner S.Y. Quraishi, former Chief Election Commissioner gifted him his book titled “The Population Myth: Islam, family planning and politics in India” in which Mr. Qureshi writes how the right-wing spin to population data has given rise to myths about the 'Muslim rate of growth'.
The RSS, twice in the last two decades (2004, 2015), passed resolutions on population control policy. The resolutions maintained that effective laws on conversion, NRC, and check on infiltration is something the government needs to work on to develop the policy which should be made keeping in view the availability of resources in the country, future needs and the problem of demographic imbalance and apply the same uniformly to all.
Chemistry Nobel goes to trio for development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry
The Nobel Prize in chemistry for 2022 is being awarded to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless for developing “an ingenious tool for building molecule”, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in Stockholm.
The Nobel laureautes are being awarded for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry, the academy said.
Professor Carolyn Bertozzi of Stanford University, has taken click chemistry to a new dimension and started utilising it in living organisms. Her bioorthogonal reactions take place without disrupting the normal chemistry of the cell.
Barry Sharpless and Morten Meldal have laid the foundation for a functional form of chemistry – click chemistry – in which molecular building blocks snap together quickly and efficiently.
While American Professor Sharpless works in Scripps Research, Mr. Meldal is a Professor at University of Copenhagen.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 is about making difficult processes easier. Click chemistry and bioorthogonal reactions have taken chemistry into the era of functionalism, the academy said.
Click chemistry is utilised in the development of pharmaceuticals, for mapping DNA and creating materials that are more fit for purpose. Using bioorthogonal reactions, researchers have improved the targeting of cancer pharmaceuticals.
Read our explainer here.
OPEC+ makes big oil cut to boost prices; pump costs may rise
The OPEC+ alliance of oil-exporting countries decided on Wednesday to sharply cut production to support sagging oil prices, a move that could deal the struggling global economy another blow and raise politically sensitive pump prices for U.S. drivers just ahead of key national elections.
Energy ministers meeting at the Vienna headquarters of the OPEC oil cartel cut production by a larger-than-expected 2 million barrels per day starting in November after gathering for their first face-to-face meeting since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
People and media gather at the entrance of the building of the Organization Of The Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, in Vienna on October 5, 2022. | Photo Credit: AP
The group said the decision was based on the “uncertainty that surrounds the global economic and oil market outlooks.” Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman stressed the cartel’s stated role as a guardian of stable energy markets.
“We are here to stay as a moderating force, to bring about stability,” he told reporters.
Besides a token trim last month, the major cut in the amount of crude that OPEC+ ships to the world is an abrupt turnaround from months of restoring deep cuts made in 2020 during the depths of the pandemic. As demand rebounded, global energy prices have swung wildly since Russia invaded Ukraine, fueling inflation that is squeezing economies around the world.
The OPEC+ decision could help alliance member Russia weather a looming European ban on oil imports. But the impact of the production cut on oil prices — and thus the price of gasoline made from crude — will have some limitations because OPEC+ members already can't meet their quotas.
The decision comes as oil trades well below its summer peaks because of fears that major global economies such as the U.S. or Europe will sink into recession due to high inflation, rising interest rates meant to curb rising consumer prices, and uncertainty over Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Cough syrups by India’s Maiden Pharma potentially linked to deaths in Gambia, says WHO
The World Health Organization on Wednesday said that four cough and cold syrups made by India’s Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd. could be potentially linked with serious kidney injuries and 66 deaths among children in Gambia.
New Delhi-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals declined to comment on the matter.
WHO issued a medical product alert for the four syrups and said it was conducting further investigation with the company and regulatory authorities in India.
Gambia’s government said last month it has also been investigating the deaths, as a spike in cases of acute kidney injury among children under the age of five was detected in late July.
“While the contaminated products have so far only been detected in the Gambia they may have been distributed to other countries,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference on Wednesday.
He added that WHO recommends all countries detect and remove these products from circulation to prevent further harm to patients.
In Brief:
A call was received on the landline number of Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital on Wednesday threatening members of Indian billionaire and industrialist Mukesh Ambani‘s family. Deputy Commissioner of Police Zone 2 Neelotpal confirmed the same to The Hindu. and said, “A threat call has been received on the landline of the hospital, and we are in the process of registering a FIR (First Information Report).” A similar threat call was made at the same hospital on August 15, and the caller was arrested by the police. This is the third time Mr. Ambani has received threats, the first time was on February 24, 2021, when a car was found outside his residence in Mumbai containing 20 gelatin sticks and a note threatening his family.
