Police denies permission to comedian Munawar Faruqui's Delhi show
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New Delhi (PTI): Police have denied permission to stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui's show in central Delhi to maintain communal harmony after the Vishwa Hindu Parishad wrote a letter to the city police chief to cancel the programme, officials said on Saturday.
A senior police officer said the central district police in its report to the licencing unit said the show will affect communal harmony in the area.
The event was scheduled for Sunday afternoon (August 28) at the Kedarnath Sahni Auditorium, C-Block, SPM Civic Centre in central Delhi.
According to the police, the central district police submitted its report to the licencing unit on Friday, following which the permission for the show was denied on the same day.
While giving permission, it is already mentioned in the form that the programme/show will not affect the communal harmony in the area. However, if the licencing unit gets any input that it will affect the communal harmony, then the permission for the show is denied, the officer said.
Surendra Kumar Gupta, state president of right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), on Thursday wrote a letter to the Delhi Police Commissioner urging him not to give permission to Faruqui's show.
The letter said Faruqui is going to hold a programme on August 28 at the Kedarnath Sahni Auditorium in Civic Centre and alleged that he mocks Hindu gods and goddess due to which there was a communal tension in Hyderabad recently.
Gupta asked the police to cancel the show or the workers of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal will hold a protest against it.
The organiser of the show refused to comment on the issue.
After the news about the cancelation of the show broke out, Trinamool Congress MP Mohua Moitra tweeted, "VHP bullies spineless @Delhipolice, cancel @munawar0018 show. Gandhiji said "I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed". Is India@75's communal harmony so fragile today that is is disrupted by comedy show?"
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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.
