DailyOh! Rajinikanth goes back on party promise, to the UK coronavirus strain in India
The mega star says only social media campaign can’t create political upheaval.
Political parties can break promises, but by breaking the promise of forming a political party, Rajinikanth has done what others can’t. If Rajinikanth is to be believed - how dare we won’t – the decision to not launch the party came after a ‘warning from God’.
The ‘warning’ came in the form of high blood pressure, post which, Rajini had to be admitted to the hospital. In a three-page letter playing the role of the party pooper, Rajini wrote that if he was to campaign only through social media, he won’t be able to create a political upheaval among people and win big in the elections.
— Rajinikanth (@rajinikanth) December 29, 2020
Rajini put up the three-page note on social media, detailing the reasons behind his decision. In neighbouring Karnataka, a more unfortunate note was found along with the body of Karnataka Legislative Council Deputy Chairman SL Dharmegowda. The body, in turn, was discovered along railway tracks in Chikkamagaluru today morning. Just weeks ago, Dharmegowda was pulled down from the Chairman’s seat in Karnataka Assembly.
JD(S) has said Dharmegowda was upset over the incident. Does the suicide note say that? Maybe yes, maybe no. In short, we don’t know because the details of the letter have not been made public yet. But Dharmegowda's body was cremated in the afternoon in the presence of Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa.
This alleged suicide on the railway track reminded us of the murder of Jana Sangh leader Deendayal Upadhyaya because his body too was found along railway tracks near what was then called the Mughalsarai station, on February 11, 1968. The Jana Sangh, and later BJP, claimed it was a political murder. The CBI investigation ruled it as a killing during an ordinary crime, even if Upadhyaya was no ordinary man.
There were many things that made the matter suspicious; one of them was the role (that he did not play) of CBI director John Lobo. Lobo had a reputation for being an upright and honest officer. When the matter of Upadhyaya’s murder was handed over to CBI, Lobo landed at Mughalsarai with his team. Even as he was trying to collect evidence in the case, he was suddenly called back to Delhi for no pressing reason. This led to more speculation over whether someone was trying to control which way the investigation should go. Based on the CBI report that was submitted, a special sessions court said that “the real truth still has to be found”.
Obviously a furore followed. The then PM Indira Gandhi constituted an inquiry commission. Politically, there is no better way to end a furore than form a commission. The commission in its ruling said, “The warp and weft of the sequence of events prima facie is no less than some terrifying James Bond movie... What happened in Mughalsarai, in parts, is stranger than fiction. Several people behaved abnormally to create suspicions.”
We learnt from the Sushant Singh Rajput death case how suspicion is the easiest thing to create.
Ultimately, the Deendayal Upadhyay death case was ruled as one of killing during theft.
Six cases of coronavirus have been ruled as those of the new strain. Yes, the strain said to be more infectious. And yes, the strain from the UK. How did the authorities reach the six? Close to 33,000 passengers arrived in India from the UK between November 25 and December 23, the day flight operations were suspended. As many as 114 of them tested positive. And then six of them were found to have tested positive for the new strain. Now, the strain hasn’t been found to be more dangerous but definitely more infectious. But where was the word strain found?
Strain, the Word Of The Day, comes from Latin word stringere, which means to ‘to bind, tie, draw tight’. To strain basically is to stretch tightly or cause injury by long-continued or sudden and too violent effort or movement. That is when strain takes the form of a verb. As a noun, strain is the coming together of different lines of ancestry in a family or an individual. A strain of a virus is one which has distinct properties and a particular immune response. A strain is a variant when it has enough mutations to change a minor portion of its genetic code. Some researchers believe the strain that we are calling a strain is actually a variant. How does that matter? The success of the vaccine will depend on how much the virus’s genetic code has changed.
Vaccine manufacturers say the current changes aren’t enough to change the vaccine. But they are manufacturers, who have manufactured stuff they want to sell. We will go by what the scientists say. They say the mutations aren’t enough to demand a new vaccine even before the old one has arrived. So don’t strain yourself worrying about the new strain.
Scientists at IMD say the mercury has dipped and will dip further. There will be fog and there will be more cold in India but in South Korea the sun is shining – an artificial one. A superconducting fusion device, also known as the Korean artificial sun, set a new world record as it successfully maintained high temperature over 100 million degrees (Celsius) for a record 20 seconds.
But before we talk about the winter intensifying, let us give you a way to stay warm. Eat chikki. Better still, eat made-at-home chikki. Keep a good dose of it handy because the weather department has issued a yellow alert for December 31 and January 1 as the cold wave can intensify into a severe cold wave.
But it is summers in Australia and the Indian team turned on the heat on Australia avenging the first Test drubbing with an eight-wicket win today even as most of us were sleeping or struggling to wake up.
The series has levelled for now with each side picking a victory each. The next match will start off on January 7.
The Indian team has won but guess what India has lost? Madame Tussauds. The wax statues of Narendra Modi, Leonardo DiCaprio, Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan and others will be moved out of India and sent to countries where Madame Tussauds desires them to be. The outlet in Delhi’s Connaught Place will be shutting down, a Times of India report has said.
Where are India’s farmers protesting against the farm laws? On Delhi’s borders. On December 30, which is tomorrow, the farmer unions will once again start talks with the government over the farm laws.
We will be back tomorrow with updates on that meeting and more.
Stay safe.
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