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DailyOh! Why Manu Sharma is out of jail, to how deadly Cyclone Nisarga is likely to be

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Vandana
VandanaJun 02, 2020 | 18:52

DailyOh! Why Manu Sharma is out of jail, to how deadly Cyclone Nisarga is likely to be

In Delhi, the killer of Jessica Lal, Manu Sharma, has got an early release from jail. Meanwhile, Maharashtra and Gujarat are bracing for Cyclone Nisarga.

Hello,

Prime Minister Narendra Modi ditched his preference for the 8 pm address to the nation, starting the address a little past 11 am on Tuesday morning. That's because it wasn't really an address to the nation, but an addres to the CII Annual Session, which Modi used, to address the nation. Now, the timing of the talk is inconsequential. What’s of consequence is what he said in his address. The push, as you know by now, was for Aatmanirbhar Bharat, which will not only be self-reliant, but also a manufacturing hub that would be exporting stuff abroad too. You can read about that in detail here.

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PM Modi said his government has (just) two key responsibilities - to save lives of citizens, and to stabilise the country's economy. The responsibilities might just be two in number, but both are mammoth tasks. Mammoths are extinct but the two tasks exist. Today, the PM gave a task to the nation too. Go Swadeshi. If we do the task well, the government’s task becomes easy. Remember, two-thirds of Indian economy is dependent on its domestic market. If the domestic market buys and sells domestic goods, aatmanirbharta could arrive early.

What about the other challenge? Saving lives, that is. The government says the recovery rate from Covid-19 stands at 48 per cent now, and the mortality rate has dipped to 2.83 per cent now from 3.3 per cent around 45 days ago. The number of positive cases have, however, crossed the 2,00,000 mark. Where is this spike going to stop? Some epidemiologists suggest at 50 per cent of India’s population of 135.26 crore. That number is a maddening 67.63 crore. They say the nature of the virus will ensure a natural herd immunity. Which means as the virus spreads, those getting infected will keep getting immune to the virus and when the figure reaches about half the population, the chain of transmission would break. Some would, of course, die in the process. Epidemiologists say that is why we must keep the elderly strictly inside houses.

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In Maharashtra and Gujarat, however, those along the coast are being brought out and taken to safer locations. That’s because of the approaching cyclone - Nisarga. Cyclone Amphan just left after devastating parts of West Bengal and Odisha, and now cyclone Nisarga is set to make landfall in Maharashtra and Gujarat. So, what’s the destruction likely to look like? Much less than what we saw in West Bengal, because there what hit was a super cyclone. The strength of a cyclone is determined by the wind speed that accompanies it. The wind speed accompanying Nisarga is likely to be around 95-105 km per hour. For Amphan, it was in excess of 180 km per hour.

You can have a vaccine for coronavirus, probably treat it through remdesivir and hydroxychloroquine also, but nothing can be done to stop cyclones because they are a natural process. That is why the cyclone heading the western Indian coast couldn’t have been more appropriately named - Nisarga. Nisarga, our Word Of The Day, means just that, nature. The word finds its root in Sanskrit, meaning natural state or condition.

nisarga_690_060220023343.jpg
A satellite photo of a depression over the Arabian Sea, expected to intensify into Cyclone Nisarga. (Photo: IMD)

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The only way to mitigate the damage caused by cyclones is make timely predictions about their arrival so that people in coastal areas can move to safer areas. High-intensity cyclones will still uproot trees and blow away houses, but the loss of lives can be minimised.

A loss of life in the US has, however, caused great upheaval. Riots have broken out in several cities after the death of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of a white cop in Minneapolis. US President Donald Trump had to take shelter in the White House bunker as protesters reached his residence too.

Remaining indoors is neither easy, nor preferable for anyone. If you are the head of a state and your state is in disarray, you have every reason to step out and make a statement. Trump is known for many things, but making politically correct statements isn’t one of those things. So, when Trump came out of the White House to walk his way to the St John's Episcopal Church, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse protesters.

Once he arrived at St John’s, which is across the street from White House, Trump held up a Bible that read “God is love”, before going on to pose for shutterbugs. Rev Mariann Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, hasn’t taken kindly to Trump’s visit for two reasons. One, the use of tear gas at ‘peaceful’ protesters. Two, Trump posing for photos. Now, Trump was trying to make an appeal for peace, which under the US Constitution he must maintain at all costs, from God’s abode. That, Trump hoped, would appeal to those who believe in both books, and also those who believe in either. There was no strategy for those who believe in neither. What Trump himself believes in is difficult to say. But do you know why St John's Episcopal Church is also called the ‘Church of Presidents’? Not just Trump the President, but all US Presidents. Credit its vicinity to the White House.

When President Abraham Lincoln took office in 1861, St John's Episcopal Church was well established as the "Church of Presidents" because it was close to the President’s official residence and given that it was in downtown Washington, it attracted many famous and influential people.

But Lincoln wasn’t the first President to visit the church as President. Even James Madison, President from 1817 to 1825, is known to have offered prayers at the church.

Coming back to Trump and his walk to the church in a bid to stop violence across the country, a police officer has asked the US President to keep his ‘mouth shut’ to help restore order.

Talk about talking ‘truth to power’.

A man in power, back in India meanwhile, has planted some evidence on himself indicting him as a Covidiot. The man is no less than the Health Minister of Karnataka B Sriramulu. Sriramulu, our Covidiot Of The Day, seems to have taken the Unlock 1.0 plan as a licence to unleash his idiocy. The man made a surprise visit to Chitradurga, his constituency, and got his supporters to throw a grand welcome for him, thinking probably that coronavirus has been locked in somewhere and the keys thrown in the South China Sea.

Neither the minister, nor his supporters, wore masks or maintained social distancing. In a bid to keep the doctor away, Sriramulu accepted a garland of apples. The apples may act as a defence against doctors, but not against the virus for sure. Karnataka’s challenge in dealing with the virus just grew bigger – control the virus, but before that, control the man tasked with controlling the virus in the state. 

Let the idiots do what they are doing, but let us do what the experts are saying. Wear your mask. Even with the mask on, stay miles away from people like Sriramulu.

And if you don't absolutely have to, do not step out of the house.

Talking about stepping out, Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal has allowed Jessica Lal's killer Manu Sharma to step out of jail. Sharma, by now all of us are familiar with the case, gunned down Jessica Lal at a bar in Delhi, when she refused to offer him a drink. That was 1999. Sharma was first acquitted by the trial court in 2006. The Delhi High Court then overturned the trial court decision the same year and sentenced Sharma to life imprisonment. The Supreme Court upheld the order in 2010.

Now, Anil Baijal allowed the release of Manu Sharma based on the recommendation of the Sentence Review Board. Sharma's plea for premature release came before the SRB five times before it actually said, "Okay." But what could have really helped the case for Sharma's release was Jessica Lal's sister Sabrina saying that she had no objection if Sharma was set free before his sentence was completed. 

We will leave you with that.

But you can Move Your Lakk with Dabangg girl Sonakshi Sinha, because she is the birthday girl today.

See you tomorrow.

Also read: DailyOh! Sajid-Wajid’s Wajid Khan no more, but who were Bollywood’s first composer duo

Last updated: June 02, 2020 | 18:52
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