Muslims population will never surpass Hindus in India: Owaisi
Hyderabad (PTI): AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has said that Muslims will never surpass the Hindu population in India.
Addressing a rally at Nizamabad on Friday night ahead of the municipal polls in Telangana, the Hyderabad MP said he was listening to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's (recent) speech in the Rajya Sabha wherein he said that the population of the entire world is ageing while India's population is young.
If the Prime Minister was asked if 60 per cent of the country's population is aged under 40, then what (measures) he (Modi) did for their jobs, and what skills have been taught to them, the AIMIM chief asked.
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"After 20 years, this young population will age. How much inflation and how much they need to spend we don't think of it. Instead, they say the population of Muslims is growing...Muslim population will stabilise. Muslims will never exceed the Hindu population in India.
"They are now understanding that after 25-30 years, the country's population will age. RSS (chief) Mohan Bhagwat says to give birth to at least three children. Though he himself is not doing, that's another matter," Owaisi said.
Earlier, it was said a bill would be brought for population control and they used to criticise Muslims. Now they have realised that when the country's population ages how it will affect the nation, he said.
On Pakistan's boycott of their T20 World Cup match against India, Owaisi said India is hosting the T20 World Cup and that "useless" Pakistani team says they will not play the game against India. "You should have told them (Pakistan) why did you come here and go out from here, if you won't play. But you are sitting silently and listening," he said.
Owaisi further hit out at the Modi government, accusing it of remaining silent on China's (border) issue.
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2 Indian nationals part of crew of luxury cruise ship that reported hantavirus outbreak
London (PTI): At least two Indian nationals are part of the crew of the Dutch vessel MV Hondius which reported a hantavirus outbreak with five confirmed cases and three deaths so far, according to the BBC.
The luxury cruise ship, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, began its journey on April 1 from Argentina’s Ushuaia and is expected to arrive in Spain’s Canary Islands on May 10.
About 150 passengers and crew from 28 countries were initially aboard the luxury cruise, but dozens disembarked on the island of St Helena on April 24, according to the report.
Of the 28 nationalities onboard, 38 are from the Philippines, 31 from the UK, 23 from the US, 16 from the Netherlands, 14 from Spain, nine from Germany, six from Canada, and two crew members from India, among others, the BBC reported.
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The World Health Organization said on Thursday that five of the eight suspected hantavirus cases had been confirmed.
A 69-year-old Dutch woman, confirmed to have the virus, has died; her Dutch husband and a German woman were also among the fatalities. Their cases are being investigated.
The UN health agency has said the outbreak is not the start of a pandemic.
Maria van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist at WHO, told a news briefing that the situation is not the same as six years ago with Covid-19 because hantavirus spreads through “close, intimate contact”.
Van Kerkhove said “this is not Covid, this is not influenza, it spreads very, very differently”. She said authorities had asked “everyone to wear a mask” on board the MV Hondius.
Those in contact with or caring for suspected cases, she added, should “wear a higher level of personal protective equipment”.
Hantavirus typically spreads from rodents - but in the latest outbreak the transmission between people was documented for the first time, the WHO said.
Meanwhile, health authorities are racing to trace dozens of people who have recently disembarked from the Dutch vessel MV Hondius.
Oceanwide Expedition said 29 passengers, of at least 12 different nationalities, had left the MV Hondius in St Helena, the British Overseas Territory.
It also said the body of one deceased person—now known to be a Dutch man - was taken off the vessel.
Seven of those who left the cruise liner were British nationals.
