Post-mortem reports of bodies of 25 people who died after consuming spurious liquor in Aligarh indicate deaths due to alcohol poisoning, Aligarh district chief medical officer said on Sunday.

“We have conducted postmortem of 51 bodies. The findings in 25 of them are more suggestive of alcohol poisoning. Viscera of 26 have been kept and samples have been sent to Agra for testing. The reports are awaited,” ANI quoted Aligarh district CMO Dr B.P.S. Kalayani as saying.

Six people have been arrested in the case so far. Three cases have been files in which charges ranging from culpable homicide to assault. The Yogi Adityanath government has announced financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh to the families of the deceased.

On Saturday, District Magistrate Chandra Bhushan Singh said that a probe into the matter was initiated and will likely invoke the National Security Act (NSA) against those found guilty in the inquiry.

Three officials of the excise department, including District Excise Officer Dhiraj Sharma, have been suspended in connection with the deaths of people after allegedly consuming liquor sold by licensed vendors in Aligarh. Also, Aligarh ADG Rajeev Krishna on Friday said that one main accused Anil Chaudhary was arrested and a further probe in the matter was underway.

Meanwhile, Excise Minister Ram Naresh Agnihotri promised that the culprits will not go unpunished. “A reward has also been announced on the culprit. The Chief Minister has given instructions to deal with the liquor mafias in all the districts,” he said.

But Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee President Ajay Kumar Lallu blamed the Yogi government for the deaths, accusing it of providing protection to the liquor mafia in the state. In order to save big liquor mafia, action has been taken on junior excise officials, he said.

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On Friday, West Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay was summoned to Delhi at 10 am on Monday. In the North Block, he is supposed to join the Central government’s personnel department. Will he arrive on Monday as instructed by the Centre? Or, is there a new turn waiting in this controversial episode? The situation is not yet clear. Alapan was present in his Kolkata office on Sunday.

According to sources, the state government has not given the necessary clearance to Alapan to go to Delhi till now. Even the Central government did not withdraw its directive at the request of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. What’s next? What action will the Centre take if he does not turn up?

If Trinamool Congress (TMC) sources are to be believed, Alapan may take a political plunge. “Alapan may resign on Monday and join politics. This possibility is very much there,” said a party functionary, refusing to be quoted. According to TMC sources, the state government is pondering over many options, with him joining politics being very strong. “If Alapan joins politics, it will be a strong reply. Since he is very close to the Chief Minister, he will get a good position in the party and even in the government,” said another source.

There is also a buzz that he may contest the election from Shantipur, left vacant after BJP candidate Jagannath Sarkar decided to quit the Assembly and retain his Lok Sabha membership. Alapan will have a precedent. Earlier, Humayun Kabir, who was a Chandannagar Police Commissioner, too had joined TMC and is a minister now.

Following the transfer order on Friday evening, the Chief Minister held a press conference in Nabanna on Saturday and appealed to the Centre to withdraw the order. But just as there was no news of the withdrawal of the Central directive on Sunday, the state government did not give the Chief Secretary permission to work in Delhi. On behalf of the Central government, besides instructing Alapan to join the work in Delhi, a letter was also sent to Nabanna, which houses the temporary State Secretariat of West Bengal. But so far no release order has been issued to the Chief Secretary from Nabanna and no reply has been given to the Central government’s letter.

On Monday, Mamata Banerjee will hold a meeting in Nabanna to discuss the situation after the cyclone. The Chief Secretary may also be present at the meeting. 31 May was supposedly the last day for Alapan as the Chief Secretary. But when the state government appealed to the Centre for an extension of his term, the Modi government agreed and he got a three-month extension.

Mamata Banerjee and Alapan were scheduled to attend a meeting with PM Modi to review the damage caused by Cyclone Yaas on Friday but neither of them attended it. Before the meeting, the Chief Minister met the Prime Minister and presented the account of the damage caused by the disaster. Within a few hours, the Centre summoned Alapan to Delhi.

The state government is seeking legal advice. The Centre has kept the caveat file in the court and Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), the Chief Minister said on Saturday. A discussion is going on how to give a suitable reply to the Prime Minister. His three-month term as Chief Secretary was extended and the term can be extended for a maximum of six months. But if he goes to Delhi on 31 May, he will have to resign from his current post.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his monthly radio programme ‘Mann Ki Baat’ on the seventh anniversary of his government on Sunday, said that following the mantra of ‘Sabka-Saath, Sabka-Vikas, Sabka-Vishwas’, India has moved ahead and given a befitting reply to those who conspired against the country.

“Whatever we have accomplished in these seven years, it has been of the country, of the countrymen. Together, we have experienced many moments of national pride in these years. When we observe that now India moves ahead not with the thought and pressure of other countries but with her own conviction, then we all feel proud. When we witness that now India gives a befitting reply to those who conspire against us, then our confidence soars. When India does not compromise on the issues of national security, when the strength of our armed forces increases, we feel that yes, we are on the right path,” the Prime Minister said.

Noting the achievements of his government during the past seven years PM Modi said that the people thank him for taking electricity and other basic necessities to the villages where it has not reached in the past 70 years since Independence. “I get messages and letters from countless countrymen spanning every corner of the country. Many people are thankful for the country that electricity has reached their village for the first time in 70 years, that their sons and daughters are studying in the light, under the fan. Many people say that our village too is now connected with the city by a paved road,” he said.

The PM reminded that in the seven decades after Independence, only three and a half crore rural homes of our country had water connections. However, just in the last 21 months of his governance, four and a half crore houses have been given clean water connections, he said.

PM Modi said that under the Centre, India has worked to show the world a new direction in digital transactions, and added that India is not only launching a record number of satellites but constructing a network of roads too. He pointed out that in the past seven years many old contestations of the country have also been resolved with complete peace and harmony. “A new confidence of peace and development has arisen from the Northeast to Kashmir,” he said.

Talking about Covid-19, the PM said in the midst of this pandemic, India is moving forward with the resolve of ‘service and cooperation’. “In the first wave, we fought courageously; this time too India will be victorious in the ongoing fight against the virus. Be it social distancing, rules related to masks or vaccines, there should be no letup in our efforts. This indeed is the path to our victory,” he said.

PM Modi also appreciated the farmers across the country and pointed out that there was a record production of crops even during the pandemic. “Our country faced such a big crisis that it affected every system of the country. The agricultural sector protected itself from this attack to a great extent. Not only did it keep itself safe, but the sector also progressed, moving forward,” the Prime Minister said.

“The farmers produced record output and this time the country went on to procure a record amount of crops. This time in many places farmers have got more than the minimum support price (MSP) for mustard,” he said. “Due to the record food grain production, our country has been able to provide support to every countryman. Today, 800 million underprivileged citizens are being provided free ration in this hour of crisis. So, no such a day ever occurs in a needy home when the stove is not lit,” The PM added. PM Modi also requested people to send him suggestions regarding the topics to be discussed on the next ‘Mann Ki Baat’, which is the Prime Minister’s monthly radio address to the nation broadcast on the last Sunday of every month.

Amid calls for a fresh probe into the origins of Covid-19, an explosive new study has found that Chinese scientists created the virus in a lab in Wuhan, then tried to cover their tracks by reverse-engineering versions of the virus to make it look like it evolved naturally from bats.

Covid-19 has no “credible natural ancestor” and was created by Chinese scientists who were working on a ‘Gain of Function’ project in a Wuhan lab, the Daily Mail reported on Sunday, citing a new research paper by British professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr Birger Sorensen. The new research claims that scientists took a natural coronavirus “backbone” found in Chinese cave bats and spliced onto it a new “spike”, turning it into the deadly and highly transmissible Covid-19.

The paper also quotes that researchers found “unique fingerprints” in Covid-19 samples that they say could only have arisen from manipulation in a laboratory. Authors Dalgleish and Sorensen wrote in their paper that they had prima facie evidence of retro-engineering in China for a year, but were ignored by academics and major journals, reported DailyMail.com.

The study alleged “deliberate destruction, concealment or contamination of data” at Chinese labs and notes the silencing and disappearance of scientists in China who spoke out about the activities.

Dalgleish is a professor of oncology at St George’s University, London, and is best known for his breakthrough creating the first working ‘HIV vaccine’, to treat diagnosed patients and allow them to go off medication for months. Sørensen, a virologist, is chair of pharmaceutical company, Immunor, which developed a coronavirus vaccine candidate called Biovacc-19. Dalgleish also has share options in the firm.

Their study is expected to intensify the ongoing debate on China’s role in creating the virus that has claimed thousands of lives.

These developments come in the backdrop of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) annual assembly in Geneva demanding access for independent experts to “complete, original data and samples” relevant to the source of the virus and early stages of the outbreak in China.

There have been growing demands by various countries to investigate whether the virus originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan from an animal source or from a laboratory. The United States has last week asked American intelligence agencies to find out how Covid-19 emerged in China. India too on Friday supported renewed global calls for a comprehensive investigation by the WHO into the origins of the virus. “The WHO convened global study on the origin of COVID-19 is an important first step. It stressed the need for next phase studies as also for further data and studies to reach robust conclusions,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Friday.

Design is a subject that has limitless possibilities, potential to improve the quality of life of millions, discover and rediscover ways of changing how we walk, sense, and possibly impact everything around us. As we dive into the finale of Dikshu Kukreja’s journey of exploring this diverse space and deciphering the various aspects of design in multiple industries and sectors, we take an insight into the one discipline that has more impact on our mundane routines more than we realise.

Deciphering Design with Dikshu has shared perspectives of varied spheres like interior design, fashion, culinary, handicraft, transportation, heritage, and public spaces. The finale episode captures an intuitive discourse between Dikshu Kukreja and Jay Panda, the National VP of BJP, on the aspects of policy design. Before we dive deeper, let us understand how it really concerns us, shapes us, and how its understanding is essential for expanding our awareness.

A single stroke of a pen, a draft of one legislation hold tremendous power of determining how cities are built, what their residents will be exposed to, and how that will mould your direction in life. Policies can shape the design direction of a nation and have a direct influence on our design sensibilities. We are living in a time where a nation’s overall development is not derived just out of its GDP, but also takes into consideration the quality of life, a new index called the Gross National Happiness that emphasises the paradigm shift of significance of qualitative factors and not just quantitative gains.

In this progressive journey, design in all aspects of different sectors plays a vital role in innovating unique ways of improving the experiences and policies of a particular nation. 

“I am from a business family. I used to complain about the system, and my friends told me to either do something about it or stop complaining, one thing led to another, and that is how I stumbled into politics. It was not something I had planned since my student days,” suggests the ‘Accidental Politician’, a term Panda refers to himself as.

In India, today, we have this window of opportunity where massive public projects are happening, be it the metros, expansion of highways and waterways, and more in scale that has rarely been done in any other nation. We ought to give policy-making the much-needed exposure and that would also be beneficial in understanding the relevance of infrastructure projects impacting our quality of life today, and in the coming years. 

“The moment such a policy is introduced in a city, it means that rather than building an urban sprawl where you keep building limitlessly and the city keeps expanding, you densify nodes in a city where you have an easy public commute, making it easier to go to work and come back home. I think policies in that sense can make a great deal of difference,” elaborates Dikshu as he delves deeper into discussing policy-making’s impact that has been existent in architectural designs’ yesteryears and the opportunities they unfold ahead.

As we come to the end of the episode, Panda eloquently describes how the policies in the coming days are going to shape the new design in India and the world as a whole. Where we come from, and the direction we are headed towards, each step is a conscious decision that needs to be taken thoughtfully and by being inclusive of all the other aspects that surround us. Both Dikshu and Panda have finely articulated the relevance of policies, design, architecture, and nation-building in their conversation.

Design — a word, a journey, a question, and an answer that has been intricately and delicately explored by Dikshu in this breakthrough show, that brought design-inspired facets of various subjects to the fore, is bound to leave us all feeling more aware and equipped to undertake our steps ahead.

Do not miss out on this grand finale of Deciphering Design with Dikshu. Log on to www.designwithdikshu.com to watch the entire episode and join Dikshu Kukreja in his journey of celebrating design by following and subscribing to the show. You can also directly connect with Dikshu Kukreja and find answers to your design-related questions by using the hashtag #designwithdikshu on Instagram or Twitter. For more updates follow @DikshuKukreja on Instagram and Twitter.

Yet again Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being targeted by the same set of people, be it nationally or internationally. Something is narrated in an international magazine and vested elements start quoting it even before it hits the stand. An impression is created that there is no tomorrow for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Is this all new for the Prime Minister?

Looking at his track record, he has had experienced many such instances like the Godhra riots, demonetisation, implementation of GST, banking reforms, agriculture reforms, Citizenship Amendment Act, Rafael, abrogation of Article 370, phase 1 of Covid-19 pandemic, and so on. In every such situation, PM Modi didn’t deter, didn’t react, he simply concentrated on his work and came out even stronger. He is class apart from other leaders as he has a unique ability to ignore the noise of such people and instead creates his noise through the act of performance.

The secret of his success is very open that he does politics of performance, reaching out to the last person, appeasement of none, and most importantly politics of creating wealth for none of his relatives, successors, and survivors. Which other leader of the present era can compete with a person having such rare qualities? To err is human and thus Narendra Modi too can’t be an exception. He too might have committed errors may be due to error of judgement or advises he relied upon. Despite this being the case, why Narendra Modi is still the most sought-after leader, the answer is lying beneath this fact. In Indian political history it happened for the first time that under the leadership of the same person, one party secured an average of 300 Lok Sabha seats in a row.

Similarly, there is another challenging situation posed before the Prime Minister as a result of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. This second wave indeed turned out to be deadly. This wave is differently affecting different places. No one anticipated the characteristics of this dynamic mutant, the Covid-19 cases may cross a figure of four lakhs that was four times the all-time high of the cases in the first wave or the requirement of medical oxygen would be five times more than the normal and almost 150% of the total aggregate available oxygen in the country. Suddenly the demand for oxygen beds, ventilator beds, oxygen concentrators, remdesivir, and steroids have gone up beyond imagination. There was mayhem for some time, people were right in expressing their anguish, the situation was out of control in some of the hospitals, and people died of non-availability of oxygen.

It was very obvious that the same set of people would not let this opportunity go; they started blaming PM Modi alone for election rallies, Kumbh Mela, no beds, no oxygen, no ventilators, and no vaccines, etc. They would blame him alleging that he doesn’t believe in democracy and the constitution at the same time when it comes to responsibility and accountability, Narendra Modi alone is responsible for all, be it the Election Commission, courts, or states though part of the federal structure. In such a situation, which is not new for him, the Prime Minister maintains his calm and cool and works harder on such challenges.

Leadership is all about steering through such turbulent times. Leaders do not function in a copybook way, they take all such decisions that are in the interest of the public and not what they wish for. In such times opposition raises the same point why Narendra Modi is not speaking? But leaders speak at an appropriate time and an appropriate forum. He will respond to all allegations in the parliament. He would certainly remind the opposition that he had a meeting with all the Chief Ministers on 17 March 2021 when cases in India per day was only 30,000, how he advised all Chief Ministers to take all measures immediately failing which it would be too late as the new variant is very dynamic and different from the first variant, how Mamata Banerjee and Bhupesh Baghel gave a miss to that important meeting, how the farmers agitation became the epicentre of Covid-19 situation in Punjab, and so on.

Much is being debated on the vaccination front in India. So far India is nearing 18 crore vaccination to the citizens. Even WHO appreciated the scientific approach of the Central government in prioritising the vaccination first to frontline workers followed by 60 years plus and 45 years plus with comorbidity followed by 45 years plus and then all above 18 years to 44 years. The vaccination was free for the citizens, however, various states including Maharashtra and West Bengal urged the Central government to allow states to have their policies to vaccinate their citizens. Accordingly, the Centre allowed all states to go for vaccination of 18 to 44 years population. Around 18 states announced that they would provide free vaccination. It’s almost one month now allowing the states to have their vaccination programmes. What is the status particularly in Maharashtra and West Bengal? They are still engaged in the blame game and holding the Centre responsible for their failure.

One can always grant 30 marks out of 100 marks for his satisfaction to the Prime Minister but in that case, one has to evaluate how many marks would he give to the best performing leader in the world. Assuming that the US has managed the Covid-19 pandemic well so far then one has to look at the population of the US which is one-fifth of India, the US faced one lakh cases per day that is like five lakh cases per day for India, the US has around six lakh deaths whereas India has three lakh deaths that is much less. The US has ten times better medical infrastructure than India. Also, what is the per capita income of India vis-à-vis the US? Thus what would be the marks granted to the US? Is this fair to show the dead bodies waiting in queues at crematories in India alone? Why six lakh burials in the US were not shown by any international media? Why these double standards?

Vishwas Pathak is the media head of BJP Maharashtra. The views expressed are personal.