It seems that Covid pandemic in India is increasing day by day. Two days back, ie on 6th Sept (Sunday), India logged more cases than USA and Brazil combined, and on that day India overtook Brazil , and is occupying no. 2 position (after USA) for total number of cases, the other two worst hit countries. India logged more than 1.84 lakh cases on last Saturday & Sunday(Weekend), while at the same time USA reported 73,000+ cases and Brazil reported 45,000+ cases. India till date has recorded 72,000+ deaths due to Covid infection. With unlock 4 happening and many more people coming out of their houses for economic reason, it looks like both central govt and state govts have reconciled to the fact that Covid pandemic is not going to go away soon, and people have to come out as it will be difficult to contain them in their houses. So it is up to the general public to take necessary precautions while moving out.
For last few days there have been confrontation happening between film actress Kangana Ranaut and Maharashtra state govt of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), a coalition govt formed by Shivsena, NCP and Congress. It all started with the death of film actor Sushant Singh. The state govt and Mumbai police botched up the investigations regarding his death. There was hue and cry in the media, and in the end matter went to Supreme Court (SC) and SC directed the Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI) to take over the case relating to Rajput’s death. There were wide speculation in the media and certain section of Bollywood that state govt and Mumbai police are trying to shield some of the VIPs of Bollywood and political circles, who are connected with his death. Now there is Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigating economic offence angle and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) investigating drugs angle. In all these happenings there was war of words between two camps in social media and TV channels, one blaming Maharashtra govt, Bollywood and other VIPs and the other camp defending them. In one of the tweets Kangana Ranaut mentioned that the state govt is behaving like govt of Pak occupied Kashmir, where no body is allowed to raise voice and there is no freedom of speech etc etc. On this tweet there was very angry reactions from govt., specially from Shivsena. One of their leader commented that she is working in our state and condemning the same, if it is so then she should not come back to Mumbai( presently she is in her home town in Himachal), then the same leader again said that we will see how she enters Mumbai, and one other leader start threatening her and said if she lands in Mumbai, we will bodily harm her. The reply from her was that ‘she is coming to Mumbai on 9th Sept, and do what ever you want to do’.
Now Raj Thackrey of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and CM Udhav Thackrey’s cousin also entered the fray and said MNS will provide full protection to her. After hearing about the threats Kangana asked for protection from govt, state govt never responded but yesterday on the instruction of Home Minister Amit Shah, she has been provided Y category security as soon as she lands in Mumbai. Now the Sena leaders have started giving statements against Amit Shah and central govt saying why centre is interfering. In between there was raid on Kangana’s office in Mumbai by BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) saying that it is illegal. On this Kangana tweeted That ‘ I have all the papers. BMC permissions, nothing has been done illegal in my property. BMC shouls send a structure plan to show the illegal construction with a notice, today they raided my place without any notice, tomorrow they will be demolishing the entire structure.’
In my opinion problem with Maharashtra govt is that, in the last few months first time in Palghar lynching case when 2 monks and their driver was lynched by the mob in presence of police, and second time in Susshant’s death case , both that time it was clearly evident that Mumbai Police under the pressure of state govt is trying to shield some top people (politicians and Bollywood personalities). Now Shiv sainiks and NCP people are trying to defend every action of govt in these two cases, and majority of the general public understands what is happening.
In other news, World no. 1 tennis player Noval Djokovic was defaulted from US open grand slam tournament, after a ball he carelessly hit a lineswoman on her throat on 6th Sept (Sunday). After seeing what has happened Novak immediately rushed to the woman and apologised and asked about her well being. She was to be escorted out in pain. After 10 minutes of consultation, tournament referee defaulted the top seed. Novak will be losing all the ranking points and prize money earned in this tournament. With Roger Federar and Rafeal Nadal not playing in US open, Novak was hot favourite to win this tournament and his 19th grand slam title. It has been observed that whenever any top ranked player commits some serious infringement, then chair umpire, match referee and tournament referee always take very tough stand, give the player harsh punishment, whereas low ranked players always get reprieve. I have seen the video of the incident, it happened when serving at the score of 5-5, Noval lost his service, he was disgusted with himself and after the point when he was returning the spare ball with him, without looking back he carelessly hit the ball which hit the lineswoman. Yes it was an offence, but he intentionally did not hit the ball to injure the woman, which attracted the punishment that he was defaulted from the tournament.
Friends this will be first time since 2004 French open that none of 3 big players, Rager Federar, Rafeal Nadal and Novak Djokovic will be there in quarter final of a grand slam tournament.
Waiting for your comments/views/feedbacks.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
8th September 2020.