NEW DELHI, Oct 25: With opposition leaders using the elevation of Rishi Sunak as Britain’s next prime minister to lament alleged majoritarianism and divisiveness in India, the BJP on Tuesday cited APJ Abdul Kalam’s and Manmohan Singh’s rise as the country’s president and prime minister to hit out at them. The BJP also rejected any parallel between its leaders’ opposition to prime ministership for Sonia Gandhi, who is of Italian origin, after the Congress won the Lok Sabha poll in 2004 and the Britain’s ruling party choosing Indian-origin Sunak as its leader, paving the way for him to become the country’s next PM.
“Can’t differentiate between Italy-born Sonia (who refused to take Indian citizenship for several decades after marriage with Rajiv) and UK-born Rishi with Indian ancestry,” BJP’s foreign affairs department head Vijay Chauthaiwale said responding to a Twitter user.
Reactions from BJP leaders came after leaders from various opposition parties, including the Congress, appeared to take a swipe at the BJP while lauding the rise of Sunak.
PDP president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said it was a proud moment that Indian-origin Sunak was elected as the UK’s prime minister but it should also serve as a reminder that Britain has accepted an ethnic minority member as its premier but “we are still shackled by divisive and discriminatory laws like NRC and CAA.”
Congress leaders P Chidambaram and Shashi Tharoor welcomed the move and hoped one day this practice is adopted in the country. TMC MP Mohua Moitra welcomed the move and hoped India too becomes more tolerant.
“First Kamala Harris, now Rishi Sunak. The people of the US and the UK have embraced the non-majority citizens of their countries and elected them to high office in government,” Chidambaram said on Twitter.
“I think there is a lesson to be learned by India and the parties that practise majoritarianism,” he also said.
Tharoor said, “If this does happen, I think all of us will have to acknowledge that the Brits have done something very rare in the world, to place a member of a visible minority in the most powerful office. As we Indians celebrate the ascent of @RishiSunak, let’s honestly ask: can it happen here.”
Former law minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad hit out at them.
Taking a swipe at Mehbooba, he asked her to answer if she will accept a minority as Jammu and Kashmir’s chief minister.
“Some leaders have become hyper active against majoritarianism after election of Rishi Sunak as PM of UK. Gently reminding them about the extraordinary Presidency of APJ Abdul Kalam, Manmohan Singh as PM for 10 years. A distinguished tribal leader Droupadi Murmu is now our President,” he said.
Prasad said a competent leader of Indian origin Sunak becoming the UK’s prime minister needs to be complimented by them all on this extraordinary success.
“It is tragic that some Indian politicians are unfortunately trying to make a political brownie point on this occasion,” he said.
BJP’s IT department head Amit Malviya noted that India has had three Muslim and one Sikh president besides a Sikh prime minister for 10 years and minorities in top judicial positions and the armed forces.
“It need not learn about diversity and inclusivity from any other country. But Mehbooba must walk the talk and back a Hindu for J&K’s CM,” he said. (Agencies)

Despite a complete ban on firecrackers in the national capital, the Fire Department received as many as 201 calls during Diwali, officials said on Tuesday.

“A total of 201 calls pertaining to fire incidents were received in Delhi, yesterday during Diwali,” said Director, of Delhi Fire Services, Atul Garg. Ahead of the festival, the Fire chief had said that the department was prepared to fight fires through drones with which they could access high-rise buildings. Fire tenders were deployed near congested areas.

Meanwhile, on Monday evening a fire broke out at an apartment in a residential society in Greater Noida West on Diwali evening, officials said.

The fire broke out in the flat located in Vedantam Society in Gaur City 2 area, under Bisrakh police station limits, prompting relief operations at the site, according to police officials.

Chief Fire Officer Arun Kumar Singh said that efforts are on to douse the fire completely.

“We got information at around 10.05 pm about a fire at a flat on the 17th floor of Tower B2 of Vedantam society. The fire reached the 18th floor too. Fire tenders were brought and the fire was controlled in an hour,” he said.
Singh further said that no casualties were reported so far.

The cause of the fire and the damage caused were yet to be ascertained, the official added. As the whole nation was celebrating the festival, many cases of fire were reported across the country.

NEW DELHI, Oct 25: The air quality in Delhi on the morning after Deepavali was recorded in the ‘very poor’ category but the situation was relatively better than previous years due to favourable meteorological conditions which diluted the effect of firecrackers and stubble burning.
The capital’s air quality index (AQI) stood at 326 at 8 am on October 25, 2022.
The neighbouring cities of Ghaziabad (285), Noida (320), Greater Noida (294), Gurugram (315) and Faridabad (310) reported ‘poor’ to ‘very poor’ air quality.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.
The relatively better air this morning doesn’t mean it’s good air. The PM2.5 levels at 30 out of the 35 monitoring stations in the capital were five to six times the national standard of 60 micrograms per cubic metre at 8 am.
PM2.5 are fine particles that are 2.5 microns or less in diameter and can travel deep into the respiratory tract, reaching the lungs and entering the bloodstream.
Though people burst firecrackers in several parts of Delhi despite a ban on them, the intensity appeared less as compared to the last two years.
The Delhi government had in September announced a complete ban on the production, sale and use of all types of firecrackers till January 1, 2023, including on Deepavali, a practice it has been following for the last two years.
Farm fires raged across Punjab and Haryana on Monday but the wind speed was moderately unfavourable for the transport of smoke. Hence, the contribution of stubble burning to Delhi’s pollution (around 10 per cent) was also “not very significant”, said Gufran Beig, chair professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science.
Emissions from firecrackers and farm fires have contributed significantly to Delhi’s PM2.5 pollution on Deepavali over the years.
Their share this year was relatively less than previous years due to reduced firecrackers bursting and moderately warm and windier conditions which prevented rapid accumulation of pollutants.
Deepavali was celebrated on November 4 in 2021 and on November 14 in 2020 when temperatures were considerably low and winds calm.
According to the Early Warning System of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), the air quality is predicted to remain in the ‘very poor’ category during the day (Tuesday) and is likely to improve slightly over the next two days.
Delhi recorded a 24-hour average AQI of 312 at 4 pm on Monday — the second best for Deepavali day in seven years.
Before this, the city recorded an AQI of 281 on Deepavali in 2018.
Delhi had recorded an AQI of 382 on Deepavali last year, 414 in 2020, 337 in 2019, 319 in 2017, and 431 in 2016, according to Central Pollution Control Board data.
On Sunday evening, the city reported a 24-hour average AQI of 259, which was the lowest for Deepavali eve in seven years.
“The share of PM2.5 in Delhi’s air has increased which is indicative of contribution from firecrackers and stubble burning,” said Beig, also the founder project director of SAFAR, a forecasting agency under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences.
“Though the active fire counts have doubled, the wind direction is north westerly and the wind speed is moderate (not very favourable for the transport of smoke from farm fires). Hence, the contribution of stubble burning is not very significant,” he said.
Stubble burning is likely to account for 12 to 15% of Delhi’s PM2.5 solution on Tuesday, he added.
The Indian Agricultural Research Institute reported 1,019 farm fires in Punjab, 250 in Haryana and 215 in Uttar Pradesh on Monday evening.
The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) had earlier predicted that the air quality in Delhi will be recorded in the ‘very poor’ category if no firecrackers are burst.
In case firecrackers are burst like last year, the air quality may plunge to ‘severe’ levels on the night of Deepavali itself, it had said.
Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai had earlier said bursting of firecrackers on Deepavali in the city will attract a jail term up to six months and a fine of ₹200.
He had said production, storage and sale of firecrackers here will be punishable with a fine of up to ₹5,000 and three years in jail under Section 9B of the Explosives Act.
A total of 408 teams have been constituted to implement the ban. The Delhi Police has set up 210 teams under assistant commissioners of police, the Department of Revenue has set up 165 teams and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee has constituted 33 teams. (Agencies)

NEW DELHI, Oct 25: India logged 862 new coronavirus infections, the lowest in 196 days, taking the tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,46,44,938, while the active cases declined to 22,549, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.
The death toll climbed to 5,28,980 with three fatalities which include two deaths reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated. One death has been reported from Delhi in the last 24 hours.
The country had earlier reported low Covid cases on April 11 when 796 infections were logged.
The active cases comprise 0.05 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate increased to 98.76 per cent, the ministry said.
A decrease of 644 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.35 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 1.02 per cent, according to the ministry.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,40,93,409, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent.
According to the ministry, 219.56 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive. India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.
The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year. It crossed the four-crore mark on January 25 this year. (Agencies)

London, October 24: Rishi Sunak will become Britain’s next prime minister after he won the race to lead the Conservative Party, leaving him with the task of steering a deeply divided country through an economic downturn set to leave millions of people poorer.
Sunak, one of the wealthiest politicians in Westminster and set to be the country’s first leader of colour, will be asked to form a government by King Charles, replacing Liz Truss, the outgoing leader who only lasted 44 days in the job before she resigned.
He defeated centrist politician Penny Mordaunt, who failed to get enough backing from lawmakers to enter the ballot, while his rival, the former prime minister Boris Johnson, withdrew from the contest saying he could no longer unite the party.
“This decision is an historic one and shows, once again, the diversity and talent of our party,” Mordaunt said in a statement as she withdrew from the race just minutes before the winner was due to be announced. “Rishi has my full support.” The pound and British government bond prices jumped briefly on news of Mordaunt’s withdrawal, but soon returned to their previous levels. According to an ITV reporter, the king was returning to London and could accept Truss’s resignation either later on Monday or on Tuesday.

Sunak, the 42-year-old former finance minister, becomes Britain’s third prime minister in less than two months, tasked with restoring stability to a country reeling from years of political and economic turmoil.
The multi-millionaire former hedge fund boss will be expected to launch deep spending cuts to try to rebuild Britain’s fiscal reputation, just as the country slides into a recession, dragged down by the surging cost of energy and food.
He will also inherit a political party that has fractured along ideological lines, a challenge that damaged the fortunes of several former Conservative leaders.
PERMA-CRISIS
Britain has been locked in a state of perma-crisis ever since it voted in 2016 to leave the European Union, unleashing a battle at Westminster over the future of the country that remains unresolved to this today.
Johnson, the face of the Brexit vote, led his party to a landslide victory in 2019, only to be driven out of office less than three years later after a series of scandals. His successor Truss lasted just over six weeks before she quit over an economic policy that trashed the country’s economic credibility.
Economists have questioned whether Sunak can tackle the country’s finances while holding the party’s multiple warring factions together.
Finance minister Jeremy Hunt – the fourth person in that role in four months – is due to present a budget on Oct. 31 to plug a black hole in the public finances that is expected to have ballooned to up to 40 billion pounds.
Sunak came to national attention when, aged 39, he became finance minister under Johnson just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit Britain, developing the successful furlough scheme.
The former Goldman Sachs analyst will be the United Kingdom’s first prime minister of Indian origin.
His family migrated to Britain in the 1960s, a period when many people from Britain’s former colonies moved to the country to help it rebuild after the Second World War.
After graduating from Oxford University, he went to Stanford University where he met his wife Akshata Murthy, whose father is Indian billionaire N. R. Narayana Murthy, founder of outsourcing giant Infosys Ltd. (Agencies)

The nine Vice Chancellors (VCs) of various Kerala Universities, who were asked to resign before 11.30 a.m. on Monday by Governor Arif Mohammed Khan in his capacity as the Chancellor of the University, have refused to quit. Instead, the VCs approached the Kerala High Court against the Kerala Governor’s directive.

It may be noted that the Kerala Governor had on Sunday in an unprecedented move directed the nine Vice Chancellors of the state to resign from their respective posts. The Governor had issued the directive on the basis of the Supreme Court verdict directing the Kerala Technical University Vice Chancellor to demit office due to discrepancies in the selection process.

The order of the Governor came as a shock to the Left-front government. In a press conference on Monday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that there was no need for the Vice Chancellors to resign. The Kerala Chief Minister also said that the Governor will have to face the mass uprising against him in the state.

Newly-elected Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday attacked the Centre over India sliding down on the hunger index and said the government should solve the problem rather than discrediting the organisation.

“Rather than discrediting and ignoring reports by organizations, the @BJP4India Govt should work towards solving the hunger crisis. In the last 8 years, we have seen that there has been slow progress on this front and the Govt data also reveals the same,” he said.

“Diwali celebrates victory over defeat and awareness over ignorance, an occasion to celebrate life with renewed hopes and new dreams. May this auspicious occasion light up your life with health, happiness and peace. Happy Diwali!”,Kharge said.

A few days back, the Centre had said that “misinformation seems to be the hallmark of the annually released Global Hunger Index”.

“The index is an erroneous measure of hunger and suffers from serious methodological issues. Three out of the four indicators used for calculation of the index are related to the health of children and cannot be representative of the entire population. The fourth and most important indicator estimate of Proportion of Undernourished (PoU) population is based on an opinion poll conducted on a very small sample size of 3,000,” said a statement by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

The Global Hunger Report 2022 released by Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe, Non-Government Organisations from Ireland and Germany, respectively, has ranked India at 107 among 121 countries.