oppn parties No Time For Complacency

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  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
Stock markets on fire due to US results, Sensex gains 2008 points to reach its highest level in 8 months
oppn parties
No Time For Complacency

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2020-10-21 11:52:40

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

Prime Minister Modi addressed the nation on the 20th of October ahead of the festival season to warn the countrymen against lowering their guard against the coronavirus pandemic. His plea could not have come at a better time. With Indians showing signs of complacency as reports coming in from across the country talk of people ignoring health advisories and coming out in public without masks, crowding popular places and wholesale markets, it was needed that the Prime Minister speak once again to usher in a renewed sense of responsibility among the citizens.

Although experts have said that India witnessed the Covid peak in September and is likely to get the measure of the virus by February, there are other studies, happenings and processes that point to the fact that the fight is neither going to be easy nor is it going to last only till February. First of all, experts point out that since India is a vast country, it would be wrong to say that the peak was reached in September. There are many regions where the virus is yet to reach the peak and with unlock happening at a fast pace, people travelling from these regions to other parts of India can yet cause a massive spike in new cases in the near future.

Then, with Europe experiencing a second wave and the USA the third wave, saying that the virus has been controlled after the first peak is erroneous. There have also been reports of people getting infected a second time. Further, several mutated versions of the original virus have been discovered all over the world, creating confusion whether the vaccines being developed will be effective in protecting the people. Although there is no doubt that the new normal means we have to live with the virus, taking precautions and following health advisories is the minimum the citizens can do to support the government in its fight against the virus.

The government has ramped up testing and the numbers are all in the comfort zone, especially for a hugely and densely populated country like India. Fresh cases are going down (except for a few districts), recovery rate is high and mortality is low. But these figures should not induce a sense of complacency as the fight is far from over. We have to be continuously vigilant and be on our guard as a second wave can strike at any time. This is what the Prime Minister tried to tell the people in his own inimitable style. One hopes that the people will celebrate the festivals with a sense of responsibility. 

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