Jan 29: 33,337 new COVID cases, 70 fatalities in Karnataka
Dakshina Kannada reports 627 fresh Covid cases, five deaths
Bengaluru, Jan 29: The COVID-19 related deaths in Karnataka increased from 50 on Friday to 70 on Saturday while there were 33,337 fresh COVID-19 infections taking the caseload and fatalities to 37,57,031 and 38,874 respectively, the health department said.
In its bulletin, the department said 69,902 people were discharged, taking the total number of recoveries to 34,65,995. Active cases stood at 2,52,132.
Bengaluru urban district was a major contributor of the fresh COVID-19 cases, registering 16,586 infections and 13 deaths.
Other districts too had fresh cases including 2,431 in Mysuru, 1,278 in Dharwad, 1,192 in Tumakuru, 1,039 in Hassan, 986 in Mandya and 798 in Belagavi.
There were deaths in 26 districts including nine in Mysuru, five each in Dakshina Kannada, Kalaburagi and Udupi, and four in Ballari.
There were zero fatalities in five districts.
The positivity rate for the day was 19.37 per cent and the case fatality rate was 0.20 per cent.
A total of 1,72,062 samples were tested in the state including 1,29,779 RT-PCR tests on Saturday, taking the cumulative number of specimens examined to 6.15 crore.
There were 1,99,043 inoculations done, taking the total vaccinations so far to 9.50 crore, the department said.
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Catholic Bishops' body slams Bhagwat's remarks
New Delhi: The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India on Thursday slammed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for his reported remark that Pranab Mukherjee, when he was President, had said tribals would turn "anti-national" if there is no "ghar wapsi"Catholic Bishops.'
In a statement issued here, CBCI, a body of Catholic Bishops, referred to reports which said Bhagwat, at an event on Monday, claimed that Mukherjee, while he was President had appreciated ghar wapsi and told him that had it not been for the Sangh's work on reconversion, a section of Adivasis would have turned "anti-national".The CBCI called the report "shocking".
"Fabricated personal conversation being attributed to a former president of India and its posthumous publication with the vested interest of an organization with questionable credibility raises a grave issue of national importance," the CBCI claimed.
"Is it not the violent ghar wapsi program of VHP and other similar organizations, curtailing the exercise of freedom of conscience of economically deprived tribals, the real anti-national activity?" it asked.
'Ghar wapsi' is a term used by the RSS and affiliated organisations to refer to reconversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism, based on the belief that they were originally Hindus before converting to other religions.
The CBCI also questioned why Bhagwat did not speak about it while Mukherjee was alive.
"We, the 2.3 percent of Indian citizens who are Christians feel extremely hurt by such manipulated and motivated propaganda unleashed," it said.
In a post on X following the statement issued by CBCI, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said, "Speak up. This is a start!"
"Bishops body have issued a statement condemning remarks made by Dr Mohan Bhagwat and RSS for defaming the Christian community," he said.
O'Brien added that they should ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi more questions, including why Christmas Day has been turned into "Good Governance Day".
The TMC leader, in a blogpost earlier this month, had said "hard questions" must be asked to the government with regards to the Christian community, including why the FCRA has been 'weaponised', and why has Manipur been 'ignored'.
