When
Indian Prime Minister Modiji appeared on TV and announced lockdown – I stopped print edition of Times of India
& Dinamalar getting delivered – and for
past two months or so have not been reading newspapers, mostly do not see TV
especially news as one vies with another to deliver more depressing news on
Covid-19. Mostly I don’t read Corona
related statistics and bulletins sent on
WA / FB too.
Isolated in a
recent European Union council of ministers, with attitudes described by
European leaders past and present as “repugnant”. It sounds like an old script
of Britain in the EU. Yet it is the Netherlands that has found itself at the
heart of the union’s most bitter row during the coronavirus pandemic. As EU
leaders meet on Thursday for their fourth virtual crisis summit in seven weeks,
the Dutch will once again be in the vanguard of opposition to plans for big
spending on the recovery. British
parallels only go so far. The Netherlands is a founding member of the European
club and single currency, and does three-quarters of its trade with the EU. A
year ago the prime minister, Mark Rutte, gave a sweeping vision of a savvier,
more realpolitik-positioned EU in the world. Surveying “the chaos of Brexit”,
Rutte said, “there is no such thing as splendid isolation”. Dutch Eurosceptic
parties have quietly shelved visions of “Nexit”.
So the Dutch
are in news ! ~ the Netherlands,
informally Holland, is a country
in Western Europe along the North Sea coast. In Europe, it consists of 12
provinces that border Germany, Belgium, North Sea and United Kingdom. Together with the Caribbean Netherlands,
consisting of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba, it forms a constituent country
of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The country's official language is Dutch,
with English and Papiamentu as secondary official languages in the Caribbean
Netherlands, and West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province
of Friesland.
They are good in many
sports especially Hockey. The Netherlands' national women's field hockey team
is currently number one on the FIH world rankings and the reigning world
champion. The Netherlands is the most successful team in World Cup history,
having won the title a record eight times. The team has also won eight Olympic
medals.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark
Rutte claimed that all sorts of public events in the country will be canceled
till Sept 1. He said so at a press conference as quoted by Voetbal
International. That, in particular, concerns football games. The national
football federation has not yet responded to this statement, but the decision
actually means that the current season is over, ahead of the schedue. The
season was supposed to be over on the schedule, the way UEFA previously
recommended to do; the Association considers the option not to let the teams
from the countries that ended the season early play in European cub
competitions. So far, only Belgium claimed that the season was over early due
to the spread of Covid-19. Germany, on the contrary, plans to resume the games
of Bundesliga and the championships in England, Italy and Spain may follow in
June.
A couple of months back
when Covid struck - Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte surprised everyone with
appointment of opposition MP as the
country’s new health minister to help combat the spread of coronavirus.
Martin van Rijn, the former Labour party health secretary, was appointed the Minister for Medical Care on a
temporary basis for 3 months. He has years of experience in healthcare and
knows the Ministry well,” Mark Rutte said.
Now today a
casual search on something else led me to the same subject written differently
by Deccan Herald, Times of India and Indian Express – topic ‘migrant crisis’.
Desperate to
strengthen the Congress in the state, Priyanka not only outfoxed the opposition
Samajwadi Party (SP) and the BSP but also pushed the BJP government into a
corner and virtually forced it to accept her offer, wrote Deccan herald. It stated that finding themselves outwitted, SP president Akhilesh
Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati were also forced to join the issues with the
Congress leader. The BJP government, not wanting to be seen opposing the help,
was forced to accept the offer of the Congress general secretary though
reluctantly.
Mayawati,
who had also initially termed Priyanka's offer as a ''political ploy'', asked
the Congress leader to send the buses to Lucknow so that they could be used to
send the migrant workers home. Akhilesh Yadav, however, asked the state
government to utilise thousands of school buses to ferry the workers home. Political
observers here see Priyanka's ''bus move'' an attempt to send across a message
among the workers, that the Congress, despite being in the opposition, was
ready to help them.
That is not over as yet
! the BJP on Tuesday alleged that the list of 1,000
buses sent to the UP government by Priyanka Gandhi’s Congress also includes
smaller vehicles like auto-rickshaws and cars. Uttar Pradesh Minister Sidharth
Nath Singh said there are registration numbers of three-wheelers, scooters and
goods carriers in the Congress list of buses given to the Uttar Pradesh
government of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. “We have done preliminary inquiry
and it has come to surface that out of the buses for which they sent details,
many are turning out to be two-wheelers, autos and goods carriers. It is
unfortunate. Sonia Gandhi should answer why they are committing this fraud,”
Singh said. The minister alleged that the Congress has no intention to help the
migrants who are stuck in various states. He described the Congress as a
'farziwada party', adding that it has been known for long to commit scams.
(Timesnownews.com)
Indian Express was to
state that the Yogi Adityanath government on Tuesday found registration numbers
of bikes, autos, cars, and ambulances in the list of '1000 buses' arranged by
Congress to facilitate transportation of migrants to their native places from
the UP border. The list was provided by the UP Congress to state government on
Monday night.
Shambolic is the plight of
migrant workers caught in a political web.
In Tamil Nadu they were haunted and hurt by locals calling them ‘panipuriwallahs’
but now when they want to attack the Central Govt, they put memes stating that
the plight of migrant workers is so pathetic.
Politics !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
19.5.2020
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