What about Modi’s Role in Spreading Coronavirus?
“Both have spread the Covid infection. If Tablighis were responsible for the first wave, Congressmen are responsible for the third wave.” This is the tweet of the BJP’s state unit in response to Congress leaders ‘Mekedaatu Padayatra’ in a bid to hold Congress leaders responsible for the increasing Coronavirus cases in the state. The Coronavirus cases have increased not only in Karnataka but the entire country. It is not wrong then to raise questions or discuss the appropriateness of taking out a padayatra in such a situation. But another equally important question that must be answered is about the government triggering panic over the spread of Coronavirus when people hit the street in support of pro-people programmes while maintaining silence during election rallies or meetings. It is therefore a matter of suspicion if the government is indeed scared of Coronavirus or the Congress’ Mekedaatu padayatra.
It is also rather ironical that the State BJP in its tweet criticizing the Congress has tried to keep alive the media’s prejudiced reports that the Tablighi convention was responsible for the first wave. The Courts issued several rulings against media reports that said the Coronavirus spread due to the Tablighi convention and even rebuked the media. Similarly, the Courts dismissed the cases filed by police against foreigners who attended the conventions and indicted the prejudiced police action. The Sangh Parivar’s attempts to hold one community responsible for spreading the Coronavirus through the Tablighis failed. By again making the same statement that Tablighis were responsible for the first wave, the state BJP has tried to fish in troubled waters.
The main reason for the spread of the Coronavirus in the country can be traced to the ‘Namaste Trump’ show organized by Prime Minister Modi at Ahmedabad. If the Centre had imposed restrictions at international airports when the Coronavirus had just started spreading, the Coronavirus would not have spread its tentacles to this extent in India. The price that India paid for glorifying a President of another country by spending crores of rupee is the Coronavirus. To make the ‘Namaste Trump’ programme successful, all airports were kept open. The government did not become alert even after the ‘Namaste Trump’ programme following which the BJP-sponsored riots took place in Delhi. More than 50 innocent people lost their lives. Similar to closing the doors of the fort after it is looted, the government became alert to the Coronavirus after it entered the country. To hide its failures, it created ‘Tablighi Coronavirus.’ The media tried hard to protect the Modi government by projecting participants of Tablighi conventions as criminals. All these attempts failed in the Courts.
Even if BJP’s argument that Tablighi gathering was responsible for the first wave and the Congress is responsible for the third wave is taken into consideration, the party is silent on who is responsible for the second wave. Only if it were to morally accept that the election rallies in West Bengal under Modi-Shah leadership were responsible for the second wave, can it take moral ground to claim that the Mekedaatu padayatra is responsible for the third wave. How far have Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah followed the pandemic rules? Prime Minister Modi gathered lakhs of people in West Bengal and then congratulated the people for responding to the party’s invitation to attend the meeting in such large numbers. It is ironical that the BJP that allowed the Kumbh mela paving the way for the second wave is blaming the Tablighis for the first wave and the Congress for the third wave. It is high time political parties and politicians stopped using Corona as a shield. The BJP’s Coronavirus politics is most vile. It reminds us of the story of a pet monkey which stealthily ate curd rice from its owner’s lunch box and then smeared its hand over the mouth of a goat nearby to mislead the owner.
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Lt Gen NS Raja Subramani to be India's next Chief of Defence Staff
New Delhi (PTI): Lt Gen NS Raja Subramani will be India's new Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and his key task is set to be to implement the ambitious theaterisation plan that seeks to ensure tri-services synergy.
He will succeed Gen Anil Chauhan whose tenure will come to an end on May 30.
Gen Chauhan, a former Eastern Army Commander, took charge as the country's senior-most military commander in September 2022, over nine months after the first CDS, General Bipin Rawat, died in a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu.
The government has appointed Lt Gen NS Raja Subramani (Retd) as the Chief of Defence Staff, who will also function as the secretary of the Department of Military Affairs, the defence ministry said on Saturday.
Lt Gen Subramani is currently serving as the military adviser to the National Security Council Secretariat.
Prior to that, he was the Vice Chief of the Army Staff from July 1, 2024 to July 31, 2025, and was General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Central Command from March 2023 till June 2024.
As Chief of Defence Staff, Lt Gen Subramani's primary task will be to implement the theaterisation model to bring in tri-services synergy by rolling out integrated military commands.
The officer is a graduate of the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy. He was commissioned into the eighth battalion of the Garhwal Rifles on December 14, 1985.
Lt Gen Subramani is an alumnus of Joint Services Command Staff College, Bracknell (UK), and the National Defence College, New Delhi. He holds a Master of Arts degree from King's College London and an MPhil in defence studies from Madras University.
In his illustrious career spanning over 40 years, Lt Gen Subramani has served across a wide spectrum of conflict and terrain profiles and tenanted a host of Command, Staff and Instructional appointments.
He commanded the 16 Garhwal Rifles in Counter-Insurgency operations in Assam as part of Operation Rhino, the 168 Infantry Brigade in Jammu and Kashmir, and the 17 Mountain Division in the Central Sector, all during a challenging operational environment.
He also has the distinction of commanding two Corps, including the Indian Army's premier strike Corps on the Western Front.
