New Delhi: The political game in West Bengal does not look to be over even after the conclusion of assembly elections as a new power play has begun. Days after the election results, the CBI arrested four TMC leaders in the Narada sting case, which has led to a fresh tussle between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Monday (May 17) discussed the power game playing out in Bengal over the arrest of TMC leaders in connection with the Narada case.

TMC activists gathered outside the CBI office in Kolkata today and pelted stones at the police and security forces. These activists were angered by the arrest of Cabinet Ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former minister Sovan Chatterjee.

New Delhi: US President Joe Biden today announced that those who have got both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine do not need to wear masks or follow social distancing anymore. In the UK too, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that people will be allowed to meet with each other and even have parties from May 17. In India, however, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that even after getting both vaccine shots, people need to follow COVID guidelines.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Friday (May 14) explained the significance of the decisions taken by three of the biggest countries regarding COVID guidelines after vaccination.

Joe Biden held a press conference at White House’s Rose Garden where he was accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris and other staffers. None of them wore a mask to make a statement.

Biden made the decision following the new guidelines of the CDC, according to which people who have had both doses of the vaccine can go without a mask in most places. However, it has advised applying masks in closed crowded places such as buses and aircraft or in hospitals.

Out of the 33 crore population of the US, 11.7 crore people have been fully vaccinated. This means, all these people can now live without masks.

Similarly, UK PM Johnson has announced the lifting of restrictions from May 17, which people are calling the “Big Unlock”.

In both countries, a large portion of the population has been fully vaccinated.

What is the right approach – the US and UK’s decision to relax COVID norms after vaccination or India’s decision to not lower the guard?

Many people have already started opposing Biden’s decision and with good reason. Only two weeks ago, the CDC said that people in America should apply masks even after getting vaccinated. What changed since then? Some believe it is a hasty decision by the Biden administration which has no scientific basis.

Ever since day-to-day cases of COVID in the US began to decrease, President Biden was under pressure to allow people to remove masks. There were demonstrations in the past few months as people demanded to get rid of the imperative of masks.

During the Presidential elections in the US in October last year, Trump was criticized for not wearing masks and Biden was saying that he would make rules about masks as soon as he became president. But now he is giving people the freedom to not wear masks.

By doing this, the Biden administration wants to encourage people to get vaccinated.

There has been a decrease in the number of vaccines applied per day in the US in the last few days. It is now being speculated that after Biden’s statement, people who want to get rid of the masks will definitely go for the vaccine.

India is right to continue to follow COVID guidelines even after vaccination. It has a scientific basis. Scientists believe that even after getting both doses of the vaccine, there is a risk of getting infected. Therefore, people should continue to wear masks.

Another important point to note is that though the danger posed by the virus is reduced significantly after vaccination, it can still infect a person. And the person, though asymptomatic, can infect others and thus become a Super Spreader.

In the US, 5.84 lakh people have died due to coronavirus but despite this, they are set to shed masks, whereas in India, this figure is 2.62 lakh, yet we are talking caution.

It is understandable that President Joe Biden in America and Boris Johnson in Britain took this decision under pressure from their people. But in India, the priority of the government is the safety of the people, which is clearly the right thing at the moment.

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New Delhi: The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has made deep inroads into rural India. Villages across the country are registering an unprecedented rise in the number of new infections, which has become a major cause for concern.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Thursday (May 13) brought the third edition of the series focusing on coronavirus in villages. He discussed the troubles the villagers have to go through just to get tested for COVID.

The people living in India’s villages have to go through a number of tests before actually being able to get tested for the virus. These tests are often too difficult to overcome.

The first test starts at home. In a village, if a person has symptoms of coronavirus, then his first task is to convince family members that he may have the disease. In many places, people are downplaying the threat assuming that the patient may just be suffering from a common fever or cough. Due to this, often the disease goes undetected which sometimes even results in death.

The second test starts outside the house. Most villages in the country do not have the facility to test for COVID at all. In this case, even if a person wants to get tested, is not able to do so. There are several such reports coming from states such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal where there is no adequate testing facility.

The third test begins at the COVID Center in the district headquarters which are about 50-60 kilometers from the villages. Even if a person travels that distance, their patience will be tested in the long queues that are present at the testing centres.

The fourth test is the long waiting period. Even after submitting the sample, the report of the tests is very much delayed. There are reports from many villages in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, where people have to wait for 5 to 7 days for the report after getting corona tested.

At this time, the highest number of coronavirus cases is being registered in Bengaluru. The rate of infection is 34 percent. Despite this, the Karnataka government has been successful in reducing deaths. This was made possible due to the high number of testing.

The number of active corona patients in Bangalore is about 3.6 lakhs. But the fatality rate is only 0.9 percent, whereas in Mumbai, the number of active cases is 36,595 but the fatality rate is 2.1 percent.

This means, if the infection has to be stopped from spreading in the villages, more tests will have to be done. This is the only way to break the chain of infection.

This is a testing time for the country, for the government, for the system and for the people. If more tests are done during this testing time, this infection can be prevented from becoming uncontrollable. If it does not happen, the situation in the villages can be very severe.

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New Delhi: The number of new cases of coronavirus in the country stood at 3.48 lakh and 4205 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours. This was the highest number of deaths in a single day. A big share of the new infections and fatalities were recorded in rural India which has become a cause for concern.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Wednesday (May 12) discussed how the second wave of the pandemic has affected the villages across the country. He also highlighted the plight of the villagers who are suffering due to lack of medical aid.

The rate of infection in the country is not going down as the virus has now spread from the cities to the villages. This has been mainly observed in 13 states including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

The infection rate in the rural areas of these states has left the urban areas behind. It points towards a big crisis.

In Maharashtra, the number of new cases is around 24,000 per day in urban areas, while in villages this figure is more than 30,000.

Similarly in Uttar Pradesh, the new cases in villages are about twice that in cities.

In Rajasthan, out of about 12,000 new cases, the cities are recording only about 5000 cases and the rest are being registered in the villages.

Similar situations have been found in Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Jammu Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

There are 6.5 lakh villages in the country housing a population of about 90 crore. The situation is indeed quite worrying.

There are 11 states where the number of infections is more than ever in the villages. Among them, Punjab tops the list, where 49 percent of the new cases are being found in villages. In Karnataka, this figure is 44 percent and in West Bengal, it is 47 percent.

These figures clearly indicate that the virus has spread in the villages.

To make things worse, there are limited test centres and medical facilities in the villages. In many places, the villagers have to travel about 50 to 60 km to the district headquarters to get tested for COVID. The health centres are also not adequate.

In many villages, people have to walk about 2 km just to get drinking water. They are forced to go out of their houses, which is not advisable in this pandemic.

In such a situation, it is very crucial that the government take special measures to take check the spread of the virus in the villages.

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New Delhi: India witnessed a decrease in the number of COVID-19 cases today. A total of 2,29,942 new cases were registered on May 10. It was the first time in this month that the number of cases in a day has been so low. Hence, many are considering this to be a good sign.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Tuesday (May 11) discussed the decreasing trend of COVID cases and the need for vaccines for children.

Whenever the number of coronavirus cases decreases, there is an apprehension that maybe the number of tests was reduced. That is, due to fewer tests, there was a reduction in new cases. But it was not the case this time.

On May 6, for the first time, as many as 4.14 lakh new cases were recorded in a single day. That day the total number of tests conducted stood at 18.26 lakh across the country. On May 10, the number of new cases was 3.29 lakh out of 18.50 lakh tests.

This means that the number of tests has not decreased but the number of new patients has come down. Therefore, it can be considered to be a good sign.

However, it would be only good as long as this trend is not limited to just one day and continues in the days to come.

Need for vaccines for children

In Canada, children between 12 and 18 years of age have started getting vaccinated. The country is administering Pfizer’s vaccine for this purpose.

America has also approved the emergency use of this vaccine on children between 12 and 15 years.

The question is, when will the vaccine be available for children in India?

About 30 percent of India’s population is under 18 years of age. The population of children between 11 and 17 years of age is 17.5 crore. Doctors predict that children of this age group will be most vulnerable to the third wave of coronavirus. This means 17.5 crore children will be at risk of infection. It is, therefore, necessary to vaccinate them.

The Serum Institute of India has said it will make vaccines for children by October. Bharat Biotech has said it will make available vaccines for children between the age of 12 to 18 years by May-June. But so far these vaccines are in trial stages only. The Pfizer vaccine is not likely to be available in India any time soon.

What is worrying is that the WHO estimates that in the first wave only 8 percent of the children were affected and most of them recovered without going to the hospital. But in the second wave, some children needed to go to the hospital. In the third wave, it is being said that the new variant of the virus would mainly attack the children.

Therefore, it is very important to have vaccines for children before the third wave strikes.

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New Delhi: Mahatma Gandhi once said that the real India lives in villages. This was a period when villages were the soul of India. But over the years we have gradually forgotten the villages because the centre of power was in the cities. The centre of the media was also in the cities. Even today the media of our country shows the news of cities and the regional media is limited to the state capitals. Opinion makers of our country live in the cities. All celebrities and movie stars also have their homes in the cities.

Even today during the ongoing COVID pandemic, everyone is talking about the cities and the villages have been ignored.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Monday (May 10) discussed the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic in rural India.

The coronavirus infection is spreading rapidly in the rural areas of many states and there are some villages where there have been five or more deaths due in the last 10 days. It should be noted that until someone from the village goes to the COVID Centre at the district headquarters, they are not included in the government records.

The situation is such that people in the villages still believe that the deaths are because of fever and cough. In many villages, people have locked themselves in their homes. In some villages, people are not even getting a proper funeral owing to the fear of infection.

There are reports of infection in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Chhattisgarh. But it is difficult to estimate precisely how much infection has spread there. This is because there is no facility for COVID testing in the villages and there is no treatment facility either.

Even a drug like Paracetamol is being black-marketed there. Normally a leaf of Paracetamol comes at Rs 6 to 7 but nowadays in villages it is not available even for Rs 200.

There are about six and a half million villages in India, in which about 90 crore people live. 45 crore people live in the cities. That is, more than half of the population of our country lives in villages and the situation is not good.

At present, the total number of infected patients in India is 27 million, of which it is estimated that about 80 per cent of the patients are living in big cities. 18 to 19 per cent of patients are in small towns and less than one per cent are in villages. Now if the infection spreads in the villages just like the cities, it is feared that crores of people will be affected.

Three key points need to be understood in this regard:

1. The villages do not have COVID testing and corona treatment facilities. Although 90 crore people of our country live in villages, the bitter truth is that there are neither large hospitals nor doctors in the villages. There is an insufficient number of Community Health Centres, First Aid Centers, and Health Sub Centres.

2. The number of doctors in the villages is very less and the number of quacks is more. According to a 2016 WHO report, 57 per cent of doctors in the country are fake. And most of them treat people in villages. The same thing is happening at this time. In many villages of Uttar Pradesh, fake doctors are treating infected patients and giving them medicines for malaria and typhoid. This is worsening the condition of the people.

3. Many people in the villages are undermining the threat of coronavirus. Last year, the infection was mainly confined to the cities and hence some people call it the disease of the cities. The village people believe that they breathe pure air, eat good and nutritious food, so they will not get this infection. However, according to the Ministry of Health, the new variants of coronavirus are capable of badly affecting the rural population as well.

The need of the hour is that the villagers should be made aware of the reality of the situation and the government must work to create healthcare infrastructure in the rural areas.

New Delhi: American scientist Jonas Salk, who created the polio vaccine in 1955 refused to get a patent for it. Because of that, the world was able to beat the terrible disease. But times have changed and humans have changed too. About 3.2 million people have died from the coronavirus worldwide but despite this, the vaccines have not been made patent-free as the companies making these vaccines do not want their money-printing machines shut down.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Friday (May 7) discussed the patent politics being played on the global fora while the common man is suffering from the pandemic.

At present, there are more people in the world and fewer vaccines. Because of this, there is a shortage of vaccines in many countries. Many poor countries do not have vaccines at all. This crisis can end only when the production of vaccines can be started in every country. But patents are a major hurdle in this.

In the month of October last year, India and South Africa sent a proposal to the World Trade Organization demanding the removal of the Intellectual Property rights of the coronavirus vaccine. Both countries said that all the research related to the vaccine and all the information related to their manufacture should be shared with other companies also so that they can also produce the vaccine.

After several months of debate on this proposal, now the US has also given its support to it. Apart from the US, the European Union has also said that it is ready to discuss it. Britain has also agreed.

But one country is still opposed to this – Germany. Its view is that the production of the vaccines cannot be increased by making them patent-free. The important thing is that the WTO will need the support of all countries to pass the proposal of India and South Africa. The chances of it happening don’t look good.

The US has two major vaccines Pfizer and Moderna. If it agrees to remove the patent from the vaccines, then the pressure will increase on other countries as well.

However, it is not so easy. Because first of all the member countries have to agree on this subject in the WTO. And even if an agreement is reached, the companies making the vaccines can approach the court. The case can get entangled for a long time, while the world needs vaccines now.

The pharma companies cite two arguments against making vaccines patent-free. The first is that even after removing the patent, companies will not be able to produce it, because to make a vaccine raw material is required which is limited. The second argument is that in the name of higher production, fake vaccines will enter the market, due to which people can die.

What can the Government of India do?

The central government can issue the Compulsory License to third-party companies for the manufacture of Covaxin. This is not possible in case of Covishield as its patent lies with the Oxford University. Serum Institute of India Company of India is only producing it.

If the vaccines are made patent-free, not just the people of our country will get the benefit, but it will ensure that the vaccines are available to the poorest of people around the world. This is what India wants.

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New Delhi: Even as the people are struggling to cope up with the second wave of COVID-19 in the country, the fear of the third wave has made things worse. People are worried about when the next wave will strike and how they will survive it.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Thursday (May 6) discussed the threat of the third COVID wave and busted myths about certain home remedies people are employing these days to fight against the deadly virus.

The Supreme Court today asked the central government about the preparations it is making to deal with the next wave. It asked what the government would do if children were infected. The court sought answers from the Central Government regarding the vaccination of children.

But the fact is that in the current circumstances, there is little hope of any vaccine for children soon. Most vaccines are still in the trial stages.

When will the third COVID wave strike?

According to scientists, it cannot be estimated when the third wave will strike. But we can definitely prepare by assessing the situation of other countries.

For example, in the US, there was a difference of only two and a half months in the second and third wave of coronavirus. Notably, there were more deaths in the third wave than in the second wave.

In India, the third wave has been around for one and a half months. If the virus behaved in the same way as in America, then the third wave can be expeceted to hit in the next two and a half months. It is also possible that there would not be much difference between the second and the third wave.

The second wave of coronavirus in the US lasted 45 days, whereas in India it has been more than 60 days. And still, according to scientists, the peak of this wave has not come yet.

Myths about home remedies for treatment of COVID-19:

1. The Nebulizer therapy – Many believe that this home remedy improves oxygen level in the body. This claim is completely false. Experts say that this technique is not effective in giving extra oxygen to the body. Its misuse can even lead to death. So, one must consult a doctor before using this technique.

2. Some believe that putting two drops of lemon in the nose increases the oxygen level. But according to the World Health Organization, there is no evidence for this. The vitamin C present in lemon is important for the body, but the claim that it improves oxygen level in the body, is completely false.

3. Using Paracetamol round the clock – Doctors say that taking more than 2 to 3 grams of Paracetamol a day can be dangerous. This can worsen the patient’s health. It must be kept in mind that Paracetamol should not be taken too often.

4. Antibiotics: Some claim that using antibiotics help fight COVID-19 virus. This claim is also wrong. The fact is that antibiotic medicines are given in diseases caused by bacteria. But this disease is caused due to a virus. However, during infection, it has been observed in many patients that they are also suffering from certain bacterial diseases, and in that case, doctors recommend the patient to take antibiotics.

5. A mixture of camphor, celery and eucalyptus oil – Some believe this helps improve oxygen level in the body. But according to the US health agency CDC, this claim is completely false.

Apart from these, a large number of people are currently demanding blood plasma for patients on social media. But does this actually help?

ICMR says No. It has said that plasma therapy is not effective in treating serious or in reducing chances of mortality.

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New Delhi: Three days after the counting of votes for UP panchayat elections began, the picture is now clear. It shows that the BJP has suffered a big loss in these elections. Although in these elections, political parties do not field candidates with their election symbol, but they do support them. This was done on a large scale this time.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Wednesday (May 5) explained the significance of the results of UP panchayat elections and its implications on the assembly elections next year.

This time, almost all major parties released a list of candidates who had their support. That is why the defeat of these candidates is being considered as defeat of these parties.

A total of 3050 seats went to polls in Uttar Pradesh. Out of the total, the Independents won 1081 seats, Samajwadi Party-supported candidates won 851 seats, 618 BJP-backed candidates won, while only 320 of the candidates supported by the BSP made the cut.

Apart from this, 47 candidates of Apna Dal and 68 candidates supported by Ajit Chaudhary’s RLD won the election. Congress-backed candidates won 65 seats.

In simple terms, it can be said that the ruling party BJP lost to the Samajwadi Party in the panchayat elections which bagged 233 more seats. The performance of BSP also improved.

The results of the panchayat elections usually follow a trend that candidates having the support of the ruling party win more seats. But this time it did not happen as BJP got fewer seats.

Notably, even in Ayodhya, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Kanpur and Mathura, the Samajwadi Party easily defeated the BJP. These are the districts where BJP is considered to have a lot of influence. And the Prime Minister himself is an MP from Varanasi. But BJP still lost here.

In the panchayat elections of Varanasi, the Samajwadi Party won 15 seats, the highest for any party. Independents won 8 seats while BJP got 7 seats. BSP and Congress got 5 seats each.

Similar results were seen in Ayodhya, where Samajwadi Party got 21 seats out of 40 seats and BJP was reduced to just 8 seats.

In Purvanchal, the Samajwadi Party left the BJP behind, while the BSP’s influence in western UP showed. In Mathura, BSP-backed candidates defeated BJP.

In the 2017 assembly elections, BJP got 312 seats out of 403, which means the BJP’s strike rate was 77 percent. Then in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it got 62 seats out of 80 seats in UP i.e. the strike rate was the same as it was in 2017. But in the panchayat elections, the BJP’s strike rate was reduced to only 25 percent of the seats. And this is a huge decline.

These panchayat poll results are significant because next year the Vidhan Sabha elections are to be held in Uttar Pradesh. If we consider these elections as the semi-final of UP, then what does it means for the assembly elections?

Key takeaways from UP panchayat elections:

1.  In the assembly elections next year, the biggest party in front of BJP will be Samajwadi Party, that is, Yogi Adityanath Vs. Akhilesh Yadav.

2. In the Panchayat elections, BJP suffered the most damage in the Purvanchal, Awadh and Central UP. These are the areas where the BJP has a lot of influence and in most of the seats the BJP has its own MPs and MLAs. But after these results, things look difficult for BJP.

3. Ajit Chaudhary’s RLD and BSP are influential in some places in Western UP. In such a situation, BJP will have to work in these places too.

4. The main reason for BJP’s defeat is the disenchantment of people belonging to rural areas. This worked in favour of Samajwadi Party.

5. There is still a lot of difference between panchayat elections and assembly elections. The issues are different and more importantly, the parties are directly face to face with their symbol.

So, what just happened in the panchayat elections may not repeat next year, but it sure gives some clues for the assembly elections next year. This could be a wake-up call for the BJP.

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New Delhi: The digital arm of Zee Group, Zee Digital continues to reach new landmarks and strengthen its presence in the digital world crossing the 300 million MAUs (Monthly Active Users) mark in April 2021. Zee Digital, which is spread across 31 websites, 20 brands and 12 languages has registered impressive growth of 4x in MAUs in the past two years and continues to lead the digital space among the top Indian media publishers.

Zee Digital achieved over 310 million aggregate MAUs across its network in April 2021 up from only 75 million MAUs in April 2019. While the network witnessed growth across the portfolio, the largest growth contributions came from flagship brands like India.com (11x growth), ZeeNews (3.4x growth), DNA (4.3x growth), BollywoodLife.com (5.2x) and WION (7.8x).

During the past two years, Zee Digital has kept its focus towards catering to the 450+ million news and entertainment internet audience in India and the results are here for all to see.

The future of digital content lies in 3Vs – Video, Vernacular (Languages) and Voice and that’s what our focus has been. Bringing videos to the forefront on the product along with setting up strong video infrastructure has helped Zee Digital grow from 200 million video views in FY19 to over 2.5 billion video views in FY21.

During the 2020 lockdown, Zee Digital launched OTT apps for Zee News to capitalize on the increased adoption of OTTs. It launched 8 broadcast brands on digital and launched 3 new regional languages – Odia, Punjabi and Urdu on digital to penetrate these markets in depth. As a result, a very strong growth has been seen from Video and Vernacular both and the company intends to continue to focus on the same in the near future.

In the past 2 years ZEE Digital has launched digital platforms for all of its broadcast brands like ZEE Hindustan, ZEE Madhya Pradesh Chhattisgarh, ZEE Bihar Jharkhand, ZEE Rajasthan, ZEE Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand, ZEE Odisha, ZEE Punjab Haryana Himachal and ZEE Salaam. Further, it launched digital-only brands in Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam and Kannada to increase its reach in South India.

Mobile contributes to 95% of the users hence the entire product roadmap is focussed on mobile-first. ZEE Digital launched native mobile apps for 4 of its major brands – the flagship digital brand India.com, the fast-growing national Hindi news brand Zee Hindustan, the #1 Bengali news brand Zee 24 Ghanta and the #1 Hindi business news brand Zee Business – making the content accessible to the end users on the go. 

At the same time, performance, UI/UX and size improvements in the updates of existing WION and Zee News mobile apps helped them become the highest-rated news apps in the World and in India respectively with user ratings of 4.9 and 4.7, respectively on Google Play store. Further, the PWA (Progressive Web App) technology deployment for mobile web has shown tremendous growth in organic web traffic and there is a plan to extend it to all the brands.

Recently, ZEE Digital did the largest PWA launch for 13 of its national and regional news brands covering 9 languages to offer seamless news consumption experience on mobile web to cater to low-end smartphone users and users in low bandwidth areas. Earlier this year, India.com launched its new mobile site to provide a more immersive experience to users which resulted in tremendous growth for the brand in terms of monthly active users.

Last year during the US presidential elections, ZEE Digital did a first-of-its-kind digital-first global launch of its international news channel WION making it available on 4 billion connected devices globally. The brand received tremendous response in the global markets and has seen 90% growth in users over the past 6 months. The growth and increment has been inspiring and is pushing its team every day to come up with incredible ideas to help users to receive easy access to the content. The company expects that the strategies planned for 2021 will continue to fuel its growth and break new records in this ever-developing Digital domain.

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New Delhi: Since TMC’s victory in West Bengal, incidents of violence and arson have been reported in the state. BJP workers and those who voted for the party are reportedly being attacked. There is an atmosphere of fear among BJP workers and an urgent need to put an end to it.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Tuesday (May 4) discussed the disturbing state of affairs in Bengal following election results and whether there is a need to impose President’s rule to curb the violence.

Since Sunday night, at least 12 people have died in clashes in different areas of the state. The police did not say which party the deceased belonged to. But the BJP has claimed that six of its workers have been killed at the hands of TMC workers.

Today, BJP president JP Nadda reached South 24 Parganas in West Bengal, where he met the family of activists killed in the violence. He held TMC responsible for the violence.

The issue of political violence also reached the Supreme Court, where two petitions were filed today. While one petition demanded the investigation of violence by the CBI the second demanded imposition of President’s rule.

The decision to impose President’s rule in any state can be made under three conditions:

The first condition, which is mentioned in article-356 of our constitution, states that if the President feels that the state government is not working according to the Constitution, then he can impose President’s rule in the state.

Secondly, if a party or coalition is not in a position to form a government even after the elections in the state or the party which is running the government loses majority or the current government resigns then through Article-356 President’s rule may be applied. However, this condition cannot be the basis of the current situation in West Bengal because TMC has won more than a majority of seats.

The third condition states that if the state government does not follow any constitutional order of the Centre and the law and order in the state is serious, then there can be President’s rule. This formed the basis of petition filed in the Supreme Court.

However, it will not be easy to impose President’s rule in West Bengal at this time. Nevertheless, BJP leader Dilip Ghosh has demanded it.

The imposition of President’s rule in any state is demanded by the Governor posted there. The Governor makes a report on it after which the decision depends upon the discretion of the President. As of now, the Governor of West Bengal, Jagdeep Dhankhar,  is deeply concerned about the post-poll political violence.

Today, the Prime Minister also spoke to Dhankhar over phone and expressed concern over the law and order situation in the state. The Governor said that violence and killings in Bengal continue unabated and it is necessary to control it.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today called a meeting at her residence in Kolkata, in which a plan is said to have been made to stop the violence. We hope that after all this bloodbath, Banerjee would finally take strict measures to end this turmoil.

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