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In Lucknow, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath could, if he wants, smell the stench of death. For the last several days, the city’s crematoriums have been inundated with Covid corpses. So much so, with people taking a morbid interest in the goings on at the city’s largest cremation ground, the authorities had to put up an “opaque” fence all around it! Out of sight out of mind?

India has been vaccinating its citizens with domestically manufactured COVID vaccines since January 2021. The government has adopted a phased approach in vaccinating its population — first the at-high-risk populations, then the 60-plus and from April onwards, everyone over the age of 45 years is eligible. A digital platform, CoWIN has been set up to register beneficiaries for the vaccine at the front end and for planning, implementation and monitoring of the vaccination drive at the backend.

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party national President Akhilesh Yadav played aggressive dalit card to win over Dalits by celebrating 130th Ambedkar Jayanti all over the state as "Dalit Deepawali." Following directives from the national president, the Samajwadi Party leaders and workers celebrated Ambedkar Jayanti all over the state by lightening diya near Ambedkar statute. Thousands of Samajwadi Party workers visited dalit bastis in the state and interacted with Dalits and offered them help and lighted diya and candles.

Amidst the din over farm bills, the BJP government (it should no longer be called NDA since there are no ministers from any coalition parties) has deftly manoeuvred the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill 2021 through both Houses of Parliament. It’s the BJP’s trademark now to introduce bills at short notice and then have them sail through without much discussion about their import.

The second wave of COVID-19 pandemic situation across the country is becoming alarming. With nearly 1.52 lakh new cases being reported daily (as on April 10) and the death toll mounting, health situation takes a turn for the worse. Amidst the deadly chaos, various states report vaccine shortages and people being sent home from the vaccination centres. With spike in infections people have started thronging vaccination centres as the demand has suddenly soared.

US President Joe Biden’s $1.9trillion rescue package is one of the most ambitious measures to revive the US and, with it, the world economy. Coming on the heels of Trump’s $2trillion package last year and a further$900 billion package announced in December 2020, it seeks not just to provide relief from the pandemic but to start a new boom in the US which, it is expected, will have spillover effects for the world as a whole, notwithstanding the protectionist measures against imports introduced in the US under Donald Trump. It will also raise the US fiscal deficit to GDP ratio to a level unprecedented in its post-war history.

The most auspicious and poignant cultural identity of the Bengalis, the Poila Baisakh ,which heralds the beginning of the Bengali new year has become the victim of the evil machination of the RSS and BJP. April 15 was the day and the Bengalis, throughout the world, numbering more than 23 crore including the population of Bangladesh, were stunned to see a new interpretation of that auspicious day by the Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh giving communal colour.

Daily spikes in incidents of COVID-19 infections, caseloads on health facilities, active cases, and deaths have been worsening every day since the first week of February 2021, and so the more and more stringent containment measures are being put in place to control the outbreak day after day. Within four weeks from now, the present trajectory suggests, the daily infection could be 2.5 times and death around three times, which are now around 2.17 lakhs and 1185 a day respectively. To defeat this assessment India will have to implement even stricter measures sooner than one may expect. The urban poor and the migrants, who are already between the two grinding stones – the disease and the poverty – may find themselves between the devil and the deep sea.

US president Joe Biden has announced that his country’s full troop withdrawal from Afghanistan will be completed by September 11 this year, bringing to an end a 20-year long war which has cost the American taxpayer $2 trillion and taken a toll of 2,312 US soldiers. What will this mean for India? It is common knowledge that without US troop support, the Government of Ashraf Ghani cannot hold out against the Taliban for long. During the last year, the Taliban launched several attacks against government troops, bringing more and more territory under its control. Once the remaining 2300 US troops leave, the Taliban will overrun the whole of the country with lightning speed. A Taliban-controlled Afghanistan will also give Pakistan the strategic depth against India that it desperately needs.

The year 2020 of the Christian era would be noted by history as the year of China and its superior strategy of allegedly terrorizing the rulers of 190 nations of the world and respond in panic. Without wasting a single bullet, it allegedly used the tiny and invisible but infectious germ to make most rulers across to respond in panic even though they have more advanced scientific and technological ability than their predecessors who had to face epidemics without advantages of advanced medical sciences.