DailyOh! Vaccine Maitri might get Choksi back to India, more trouble for Sushil Kumar

The war between the IT giants and the Indian government seems to be touching new milestones every day. Whatsapp sued the Indian government saying the new IT rules violate the right to privacy and are unconstitutional. The government in turn responded by saying that it “fully recognises” the right to privacy and the rules have been formulated to stop abuse and misuse of social media.

Not to be lagging in the race to respond to the IT Rules, Twitter now has said that it would strive to comply with applicable law in India. But complying with the IT rules does not come without caveats. Twitter went on to add that it is particularly concerned about the requirement to make an individual (the compliance officer) criminally liable for content on the platform, the requirements for proactive monitoring, and the blanket authority to seek information about our customers. This represents dangerous overreach that is inconsistent with open, democratic principles, it added.

And the Indian government responded in kind. In its statement, the government has asked Twitter to stop beating around the bush and comply with the laws of the land. It added that Twitter is just a social media platform and has no locus in dictating what India's legal policy framework should be. 

Now, WhatsApp has a murky trail of being the most-banned app in the world. And Twitter is no stranger to controversies — most recently in India for labelling BJP leader Sambit Patra’s tweet as ‘manipulated media’.

The war of words is not limited to the tech companies. Rahul Gandhi accused the Centre of misrepresenting the Covid deaths, citing a report from The New York Times.

Visibly riled, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan spoke of vultures and playing politics over Covid deaths, without explicitly accusing the Gandhi scion or his party of being any. The Minister’s tweet translates to, "Politics on corpses, @INCIndia Style! Although vultures are disappearing from trees, it seems their spirit has been absorbed by vultures of the earth. @RahulGandhi ji trusts #NewYork more than #Delhi. One should learn to play politics on corpses from the vultures of the earth.”

The Minister used the word गिद्ध (giddha) in reference to those who “play politics on corpses”. Our Word Of The Day is a Hindi word that translates to vultures. It is inherited from a Sauraseni-Prakrit word, again reading गिद्ध (giddha) that derives its roots from the Sanskrit word गृध्र (gŕdhra) that means ‘greedy’. Collins COBUILD dictionary says that “If you describe a person as a vulture, you disapprove of them because you think they are trying to gain from another person's troubles.” And that is what the Minister meant when he referred to vultures in his tweet.

Forget vultures. Let's move to the baap of all cops — The Interpol. Interpol has arrested fugitive fraudster Mehul Choksi, in Dominica. This comes after Choksi’s mysterious disappearance from Antigua and miraculous appearance in Dominica. And since one good turn deserves another, India has a good chance of getting Choksi deported to the country even though Choksi's lawyer might want you to believe otherwise. Now the Indian government had donated Covid vaccines to the Caribbean Island nation not too long ago (in February 2021, in fact). With the excellent relationship between the two countries, we might soon see Choksi nabbed by the lambe haath of our kanoon.

The kanoon ke lambe haath haven’t spared Sushil Kumar either. Troubles seem unending for this two-time Olympic medallist, who has been in police custody for six days now in the Sagar Rana murder case. The Delhi Police resorted to a psychological expert to interrogate him. But the latest distress for him is the new image that is going around on social media. The photo has the ace wrestler posing with dreaded gangster Kala Jathedi’s brother Pradeep. The photo was shared on Facebook, dated December 18, 2018.

The guy sitting next to Sushil is gangster Kala Jathedi’s brother Pradeep, who has escaped overseas with prize money of Rs 7 lakh on his head. The sources have also confirmed that Kumar advocated for gangster kin in front of the Delhi Police and even went to Sonipat to help out Kala Jathedi’s brother Pradeep in a case.

There cannot be a talk of trouble without mentioning the trouble that has troubled the planet for over a year and a half. The troublesome virus has diplomatic trouble brewing for China after POTUS Joe Biden ordered a review of Covid-19 origins. The theory being that the SARS CoV-2 was leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) labs. The theory was once dismissed, but thanks to the documents the US procured, it has again gained steam.

The move by the US President resulted in a strong pushback from China, which has accused the US of "spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation" while asking Biden to open its own virology facilities to scrutiny.

The US and China are no bhai-bhai. But what of the man who gave us the slogan “Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai"? The man died on this day 57 years ago.

The former and first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru was striving hard to have friendly ties with the Chinese. Hence the slogan that translates to Indians and Chinese are brothers. But our Chini bhai launched the war against their Hindi bhai, us, that is, right under PM Nehru’s nose in 1962. Celebrated journalist late Kuldip Nayar even wrote of Nehru that “...he is quieter than usual, keeping his thoughts to himself, often in a reverie and sometimes trembling.” It is also speculated that betrayal by the Chinese caused Nehru’s health to collapse and he died two years after the war.

But the former PM gave Sardar Patel sleepless nights even when he was in the pink of health. Why? Then-Deputy Prime Minister and Union Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel constantly feared that Nehru might be assassinated and the worry kept Patel awake at night. After Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, four plots were foiled in which Pandit Nehru was the target.

The first was in July 1948 when three men from Lakhisaarai, Bihar, were arrested on their way to Delhi to kill Nehru and Patel. Pistols, rifles and country-made bombs had already been arranged for the hitmen in Delhi.

Second was in 1950. Patel informed the Parliament that one LP Bhopatkar, who was a former president of All India (Hindu) Mahasabha, "confessed to a plot to kill" Nehru during riots in Eastern Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Third was in 1953 when the police foiled a plot in Kalyan, Maharashtra. The plot was to blow up the train that Nehru was travelling to Bombay (now Mumbai) in.

And the fourth was in 1955, when a rickshaw-puller in Nagpur tried to attack Nehru with a knife. He was overpowered by the police and the former PM’s military secretary. The rickshaw-puller was apparently annoyed with the Congress and wanted to remove the root cause of the Congress majority. Nehru managed to evade all his attackers and died of natural causes in 1964.

From the distant past to the near past. Sitcom Friends ruled the television roost through the 10 seasons (and 10 years) from 1994. Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Phoebe and Joey came back with a Friends Reunion Special today. Read the review here. The grapevine tells us that it wasn’t all that thrilling.

But what is thrilling is Sense8 where eight people suddenly start sharing their consciousness. We recommend this masterpiece by the Wachowskis for you today.

Watch Friends Reunion Special, Sense8 or read My Days with Nehru by MO Mathai. Do whatever you have to, but stay home and stay safe.

See you tomorrow!

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Also Read: Lessons Nehru learnt from India's war with China