Guha threat mails

New Delhi, March 28 (PTI): Historian Ramachandra Guha today tweeted that he had been getting "identical mails" that warned him not to be critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP.

Guha, who is also a columnist for The Telegraph, said the mails warned him against criticising BJP president Amit Shah.

"Many people/IDs sending identical mails warning me to 'get ready for punishment (sic) by Divine Mahakal' for being critical of the BJP," he tweeted. "I am also warned not to criticise Narendra Modi and Amit Shah who 'are blessed & divine... chosen one by Divine Mahakal to change the world'," he said.

Calling themselves "Divine Indian", the senders of the mails told Guha not to compare Modi with Indira Gandhi and Shah with Sanjay Gandhi, while calling the BJP leaders "Divine chosen ones".

"Before writing such blogs, comparing Mr Modi and Indira Gandhi, or Amit Shah and Sanjay Gandhi... you should understand the differences between them. Who are you to think, and write that way? You need to first understand the meaning of Divine chosen, and blessed by divine," the mail read. It also warned Guha "not to compare or insult" and "maintain the dignity of blessed persons".

Guha told PTI that such mails were a "routine affair" and they were "nothing serious".

Name and shame VIP bullies: Airport force

New Delhi, March 27: The Central Industrial Security Force has handed the Union home ministry a dossier on MPs accused of bullying its jawans at airports when asked to undergo the mandatory security check.

It has asked that these MPs' names be put on the ministry website to shame them.

The dossier comes at a time major domestic airlines have barred a Shiv Sena MP from their flights for thrashing a 60-year-old Air India official with a sandal aboard a plane on Thursday.

However, there's already talk of sorting out the row through talks and allowing Ravindra Gaikwad to fly again, reflecting the challenge before the CISF, which manages airport security across India.

"The dossier names 20 MPs who berated and browbeat our jawans last year when asked to get their luggage X-rayed and take their coats off before check-in," a senior CISF officer said.

Such dossiers are routine: every year the CISF sends the home ministry a follow-up report on MPs' complaints accusing its personnel of misbehaving with them at airports.

CISF officers say most of the complaints stem from the MPs' hurt egos and that security-camera evidence proves virtually all of them false.

But this is the first time the force has sought action against the MPs, after all the 20 complaints proved false, a senior CISF officer said.

North Block sources, however, said the home ministry had two years ago, too, considered "naming and shaming" the "egotistic" MPs who hector airport security, but eventually backed out fearing political controversy.

The senior CISF officer said the dossier was sent last week. The ministry, to which the force reports, had earlier forwarded the MPs' complaints to the CISF director-general.

"While examining the CCTV footage from near the check-in area, we found that it was the complainants (MPs) who had misbehaved with the jawans," the officer said.

A home ministry official said that CISF jawans posted at airports were trained to show due courtesy to passengers and MPs without compromising security regulations.

According to ministry data, 24 MPs and several bureaucrats had lodged "false" complaints against CISF personnel across airports in 2011. The number was five in 2012 but rose to 30 in 2013, dropping to 24 in 2014 and 21 in 2015.

Parliamentarians are not per se exempt from security checks at airports. Those so exempt include the President, Vice-President, Prime Minister, Union ministers, chief ministers, chief justices of the Supreme Court and the high courts, chief election commissioner, Union cabinet secretary, the Dalai Lama, Sonia Gandhi and her family, former Presidents, Lok Sabha Speaker and the three service chiefs.

Delhi police sources said that Gaikwad, booked on the charges of assault and attempt to commit culpable homicide, which carries a maximum jail term of seven years, would be asked to have his statement recorded.

"We have already recorded the statement of the complainant, Air India duty manager Sukumar," an officer said.

Gaikwad had refused to get off the plane after his Pune-Delhi flight landed in Delhi, complaining about being denied business-class travel after he himself had insisted on boarding an all-economy flight.

When Sukumar tried to persuade him to disembark, he allegedly slapped him, tore his shirt and, by his own admission, hit the official "25 times" with his sandal.

It seems Ravindra Gaikwad is not the first case of MPs bullying airport staff when they do not get what they wanted. 

The King is Dead, Long Live the King!

The British may have left and the Privy purses of the Maharajahs may have been taken away but India is producing a new breed of Maharajahs, called politicians, who consider themselves above the law.

There are around 24 MPs who seem to be doing what Gaikwad does.

Are you going to give your hard earned money which you give to the government in the form of taxes to pay for the pension of life of these rogues?

I won't be surprised if these 24 MPs figure in the list of 33 % MP who have criminal cases against them.

Niti Aayog proposes draft bills for Indian System of Medicine, homoeopathy

NEW DELHI: Niti Aayog has come up with two draft legislations to regulate and promote Indian Systems of Medicine which include ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, and homoeopathy.

The draft bills, prepared by a committee under Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya, has suggested creation of apex councils and boards to deal with issues concerning different streams of Indian Systems of Medicine as well as homeopathy.

The draft National Commission for Indian Systems of Medicine (NCISM) Bill, 2017 will cover Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Sowa-Rigpa, Yoga and Naturopathy.

The draft National Commission for Homoeopathy Act, 2017 will also cover biochemical remedies.

Among other things, these two bills seek to ensure adequate supply of high quality medical professions for the Indian stream of medicine at both under graduate and postgraduate levels and promote research.

The bills also provide for maintainace of registers for professionals engaged in Indian System of Medicine and homeopathy.

As per the NCISM bill, the central government shall constitute a commission, to be called the National Commission for Indian Systems of Medicine.

The Commission shall comprise a Chairperson, a Member Secretary, 13 ex-officio members and 14 part-time members.

According to the draft NCISM bill, the central government shall also constitute a council to be called the Advisory Council for Indian Systems of Medicine (ACISM).

It further said the central government shall, by notification, will establish a body to be called the Board of Yoga & Naturopathy (BYN) to determine and prescribe standards and oversee all aspects of medical education at all levels for Yoga and Naturopathy.

As per the National Council for Homoeopathy (NCH) Bill, 2017, the central government shall constitute a council to be called the Advisory Council for Homoeopathy (ACH).

The central government shall also constitute a Commission, to be called the National Commission for Homoeopathy.

Recently, Panagariya led panel has also proposed to replace the Medical Council of India by a National Medical Commission.

The government has constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) under Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to look into concerns raised by some states and stakeholders over the draft National Medical Commission Bill 2016.

Poison in ayurvedic drugs

AHMEDABAD: Many believe that “herbal” is synonymous with “safe,” but it turns out ayurvedic medicines, if not prepared as prescribed in rasa shastras can, in fact, turn deadly with metals like lead or mercury!

A retired IAS officer and secretary, revenue appeals, Gunwant Champaneri found himself critically ill with severe weight loss, alarmingly low haemoglobin levels, loss of appetite and neurological weakness with wrist drop, making it difficult for him even to hold a cup of tea. After lot of medical consultations, he was diagnosed with lead poisoning ostensibly caused by ayurvedic diabetes medication he had started for better sugar control -- the safer way.

“I had started taking an ayurvedic course for diabetes in July 2010. I lost 17 kilos in 10 months, my haemoglobin levels fell to 7, I had abdominal pains and I lost appetite. I was readying for a spine surgery when a doctor suggested I consult a toxicologist. I was shocked that I was suffering from lead poisoning with exceptionally high lead level of 80.88 ug/dl,” says Champaneri.

The WHO has recommended the upper limit for lead in blood to be no more than 10 ug/dl for adults and 5 ug/dl for children.

Retired NIOH clinical toxicologist Dr Aruna Dewan, now director of Center For Education Awareness and Research On Chemicals and Health says she is getting significant number of lead poisoning cases -- mostly triggered by people popping ‘safe ayurvedic’ drugs.

Dewan put Champaneri on a treatment of an oral chelating agent D-penicillamine, one of the most preferred medicines for lead detoxification and a rarely available drug. Dewan said, “There is a strong need for stringent quality control measures to be in place for ayurvedic medicines.”

“I recommend people who are taking ayurvedic medicines should get them tested in a government accredited food and drug laboratory for metal traces,” she said.

Leading gastroenterologist Dr Nilay Mehta said that lead poisoning due to ayurvedic medications with heavy metals, especially those used for treating diabetes is an alarming issue.

He cited the case of a Muslim businessman from Rajkot who was brought to him with convulsions, severe jaundice and altered sensorium wherein he was not able to recognize his family members.

Neurologist Dr Sudhir Shah treated him for neuropathy. “The businessman had taken ayurvedic medicine to control diabetes for ten-odd months. While his sugar levels were controlled, he suffered serious complications and has not recovered 100% even after two and a half years,” Dr Mehta said.

“The alarming growth in lead poisoning in patients has now led us to take detailed medication history of patients including ayurvedic and herbal medications as well", said Dr Mehta.

We have to disagree with Napoleon, the pig, in Geroge Orwell's "Animal Farm". All four legged animals are not good and all two legged animals are not bad. There are benefits in all streams of medicines, Allopathy, Homeopathy and Ayurvedic. 
Allopathy has been the most researched, tested and propagated stream although on many occasions the pharmaceutical companies do incomplete testing or hide the results of any adverse test results. However, in India, especially North India, I am sorry to say, unscrupulous physicians and surgeons are more interested in earning a fast buck rather than look after the welfare of the patient.
Homeopathy, too has been a well researched stream and my family believe strongly on its efficacy. Allopaths look down on it, probably out of fear that they will lose patients. However, it is slow to act and where quick results are required or where surgery is required a good homeopath would recommend his patient to see a specialist allopath.
Ayurved has been the least researched. It has through the ages been handed down from father to son knowledge,kept secretive in the family with very few records kept and handed down from word of mouth.It normally famous for its churans (mixed powders) for indigestion and colds and cough. They promise treatments and remedies from all ailments including, TB , Cancer and AIDs, but with no records to show.Treatment of Erectile Dysfunction has been one of its forte if we see the number of ads from Baids and Hakims as practitioners of Ayurved are called. However, the persons who take these cures for ED never expose their effects for fear of exposing themselves. After  the appearance of Viagra and its other avtars, ayurveds are known to add the above ED drugs in their churans to cure ED.
The present government which is hell bent on taking us back through the dark ages, wants to promote Aurvedic medicine. It is good news, at least, some research will be done on it.

Modi prod for digital payments in daily life

New Delhi, March 26 (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today urged people to use less cash in their daily lives and continue to support the movement towards digital payments, started after the note recall in November. "My dear countrymen, we must take our fight against black money and corruption to the next level.... We should contribute towards ensuring a reduction in the use of cash, of currency notes," he said in his monthly Mann Ki Baat radio programme, Modi exhorted the public to pay school fees online and buy medicines, goods and air and train tickets digitally. "We can do this in our day-to-day lives. You can't imagine how you can serve the country in this way and become a brave soldier in the fight against black money and corruption," he said. Observing that the budget had announced there would be 2,500 crore digital transactions this year, he said that if the 125 crore Indians wanted, "they need not wait for a year, they can do it in six months". Modi said the country had over the past few months witnessed an atmosphere in which people had in large numbers participated in the "Digidhan" movement for digital payments. "There has also been an increase in curiosity about cashless transactions. The poorest of the poor are making attempts to learn, and people are gradually moving towards doing business without cash. There has been a surge in various modes of digital payment after demonetisation," he said. Modi added that the BHIM App, launched about two-and-a-half months ago, had already been downloaded by one-and-a-half crore people. He greeted the people of Bangladesh on their Independence Day and referred to the two countries' shared memories of Rabindranath Tagore, who wrote both their national anthems. The Prime Minister lauded Tagore's renunciation of his knighthood in protest against the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre and cited how the killings had inspired a 12-year-old Bhagat Singh to become a freedom fighter. Modi referred to Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagraha and how "he could inspire the poorest of the poor, the most illiterate, to unite and come together" to fight British rule. He mentioned his government's "very important decision" to give working women maternity leave for 26 weeks, instead of the earlier 12 weeks. He also talked about his pet Swachh Bharat drive and discouraged the waste of food.

Apollo Group’s Preetha Reddy admits to lapses in healthcare delivery

Kolkata: At a time when Apollo Gleneagles Hospital in the city is under the scanner for alleged medical negligence and malpractices, Apollo Group's managing director Preetha Reddy on Monday admitted to lapses in the hospital's healthcare delivery in the last few months.

Reddy told reporters after a meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat that the level of care had indeed deteriorated in the last one and a half months.

"Apollo has treated nine million people from West Bengal and in the last one and a half months the level of care was not what it had been," she said.

Reddy said, "We stand for quality, we are committed to quality... Sometimes the system does not adhere to that level of quality and anybody has to correct it... We have a whole team which is going to be able to do that."

Reddy also hailed the chief minister's initiative to set up the West Bengal Health Regulatory Commission, saying all hospitals have to meet what the CM wants.

"The CM has set up a commission... She was extremely gracious and pointed out certain parts which I think all hospitals have to meet ... parents have to be treated well, patients coming to emergency have to be given the treatment and the level of care they need," she said.

She further said that the tariffs of the hospital also needed to be 'rationalised'.

Describing the meeting with Banerjee, who is also the state health minister as a "good one-hour meeting with a lot of ideas and exchanges", Reddy said that the hospital would continue serving the people from the state with "affordable, accessible and best possible care".

She said, "We should do whatever we can to see highest quality of tertiary health care for the people of West Bengal."

Discounting speculation of leaving the state, she said, "I assure the people of West Bengal that Apollo is here and we are committed to caring, we are committed to compassionate care and we will do whatever is possible to see people are treated with love, compassion."

Secular manifesto for change: Here’s how secularism must be reinvented to credibly challenge the Hindutva narrative

The following has been written by Saba Naqvi for a blog in Times of India

A Yogi Adityanath could not have been elevated to CM of the country’s largest state had there not been a complete hollowing out of secular values. For those of us who still have secular stardust in our eyes, let’s recognise that secularism as practised in India has been reduced to electoral management, that first sees Muslims as a herd and then tries to keep that herd together.

It’s a vaguely insulting formulation, particularly as practitioners of the craft of secular politics have auctioned out the task of delivering the imaginary herd to a bunch of middlemen, all too often clerics or strongmen with criminal antecedents. It should be crystal clear by now that they repel others and have brought Indian Muslims to the point where candidates who presume to be the people’s representatives are unelectable and the community’s vote has been rendered ineffective.

The secular model currently offers no counter narrative to challenge Hindutva that claims to unite people above caste and region in a national symphony. All of this has been some time in the making. The clout of clerics increased ever since Congress famously capitulated before them when it overturned the Shah Bano judgment in 1986. This reinforced the “separateness” of Muslims and contributed to the rise of BJP in national politics.

The All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) was at the heart of that churning. Founded in 1973, it is a collection of clerics with a motley crew of professionals whose main purpose is to protect Sharia law. Half its members are life members who represent an orthodox male viewpoint, by default promoted by the state that swears by secularism, that actually means separation of religion and government. Frankly, the Ulema should have no complaint with Yogi Adityanath, the head of a religious order, occupying political office!

The same clerics also have their hand in managing Waqf properties that can be described as religious endowments made in the name of Allah for the benefit of the poor. There are approximately 3,00,000 registered Waqf properties in India on about four lakh acres of land (the second largest land holding after Indian railways). It is a national resource that should have been developed for the welfare of the community (the Sikh community is a model to emulate here).

Instead, many Waqf boards are repositories of corruption, both petty and large. Yet they get away with it because any demand for scrutiny is described as an attack on Islam.

It’s all rather pathetic. There is actually precious little that the Indian secular state has given the Muslim community except to ensure that they live for eternity in the museum of stereotypes, most notably that of the clerics who mostly talk rubbish when they showcase their views on television. The imagery of these men as “sole spokespersons” only works to counter mobilise. The community has slipped on all human development indices yet an entire mobilisation has thrived on the argument that they are appeased. It’s true, the clerics have indeed been appeased in a manner of speaking.

The real wealth of the Muslim community lies in its artisans, weavers and craftsmen who make both functional and beautiful things with their hands. It lies in the intellectual reservoirs of poetry and literature, in music and architecture. It is a real irony that over 200 years ago a poet such as Mirza Ghalib would mock the mullahs so relentlessly while we in contemporary India were doomed to take their views so seriously.

These elections have also exposed as a zero sum game the cynical mathematical model that works with the presumed value of the Muslim vote. Indeed, a politician such as Mayawati should recognise that her projection of the mullah-meat trader-muscleman candidates fitted communal stereotyping and hurt rather than helped a community she so grandiosely set out to represent. She spoke so incessantly of Muslims that a casual visitor to Uttar Pradesh during the elections could be forgiven for getting the impression that the state was voting to elect a minority CM!

Now that the shock of the verdict has registered some voices are beginning to express bitterness against the mullah-politician nexus. A process of introspection has begun and at the very least the community must recognise that in the narrative emerging in India their only utility lies as an image that is a caricature of the multiplicity of Muslim identities in India. No one will shed tears unless the change comes from within. Here are my humble suggestions for a manifesto for change:

* Tell the mullahs to restrict their activities to the masjid. Ban them (short of issuing a fatwa!) from appearing on TV. Be vocal about stating that you have different role models. Begin the process of examining the structures of law boards and Waqf boards, managed by groups of men guarding their turfs. Get professionals to create a genuine welfare structure for the community.

* Ask for participation in existing government schemes instead of harping on separate identity constitutional guarantees. Build campaigns over economic issues, jobs, small loans, education and not issues such as triple talaq. Yes, you will be baited but don’t fall into the many traps.

* Salvation lies in propagating the many cultural traditions that unite, not those that separate. Take on the conservative views on music, women’s right and freedoms. Highlight the pluralist traditions.

* If someone comes asking for votes on the basis of fear and tells you that Muslims are supposed to be in the frontline of the battle to save secularism, turn around and tell them in that case it may not really be worth saving.

Religion is a personal affair and it should be treated as such.
There is a difference between being religious and being spiritual
Religion has become business but spiritual if for you alone for the benefit of mankind.
When one allows gurus, maulvis, jathedars and padres to run your life it becomes dangerous. 
Then we have fatwas and hukumnammas to rule your life.
One should decide for himself what is right and what is wrong and not be influence by these external sources who in most cases have an axe to grind.
Even at this late stage, if the population realizes that it is the politicians and the above people who are taking them for a ride, it will all be for the good.
The first thing for the educated people among to call these people's bluff and start having normal education instead of that given by madrassa on religious basis.

The Yogi and the magic of numbers

Will India’s democrats let majoritarianism plant the seeds of counter-democracy?

We are a democracy.

What an original thought!

And with the second biggest population, the largest democracy in the world.

Cheers !

We are proud of being such a democracy.

But of course!

We must, as a democracy, respect the will of the majority.

Absolutely!

Because the voice of the people — vox populi — is the voice of truth.

Er…

This is where bombast and its counter — sarcasm — ends. Where irony, humour retires. And hard-rock reality stares us in the face, the reality that is Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister of India’s most populous State.

We cannot get anyone more democratic than him.

Gradual ascent

Born to no privilege in the hinterland isolation of the temple-town of Gorakhpur, he was raised in no metropolis, educated in no sequestered school or ivy-covered college. But being sharp-witted, he turned social stagnations into political steroids and taking his town’s eponymous dedication to cow protection seriously, became not just a priest but head priest of the temple. And then, as such head priest, offered himself as a parliamentary candidate, becoming the youngest member of the Lok Sabha to which he was first elected, winning each of the five subsequent elections that he contested as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. More, MP Adityanath remained that quintessence of parliamentary democracy — the private Member, the back or middle-bencher, sometimes of the party in power, sometimes in the Opposition, speaking the language of his people, the language of the masses as their chosen MP, the legislative digit that really counts, that makes up the numbers, the ‘body’ that gives that august body not its augusta meaning, in Latin, ‘majestic, grand’, but its body, its bones, sinew, muscle and flesh.

He studied, one discovers, at the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in Uttarakhand for his BSc., not music or philosophy (both courses being on offer there), but mathematics. And so he knows his numbers, knows that numbers count and that in a democracy they are all that count — apart from money. Yogi Adityanath deserves to be congratulated, and I do so, for rising to the pinnacles of our legislative architecture from its very foundations, not being air-dropped on its carpeted terrace from a helicopter.

This is where factoids and their theoretical master, empiricism, end. Where chronology, ‘plain’ narration, retires. And where another stony reality stares us in the face, the reality that is our democracy’s subversion, distortion — in fact, its perversion.

Of the many forms of government — old, new, and still in the making — electoral democracy, the system which enables people to choose their law-makers, their leaders and lodestars in freedom and without fear, is only the least imperfect. It is far from, very far from, being perfect. Worse, it can and does recoil to shapes and forms that are in their nature and impact, un-democratic, anti-democracy. This process can be called counter-democracy. India holds a doctorate in democracy; it is doing a post-doc in counter-democracy.

Ours is, of course, a global classroom.

West to east

Few persons can be as different as Donald J. Trump is from Yogi Adityanath. The President of the United States, according to a Forbes listing, has a net worth of $3.7 billion, or nearly ₹24,000 crore. The new Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, according to National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms, has assets amounting to a modest ₹72 lakh. Thrice married, part owner of the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants from 1996 to 2015, Donald Trump is hedonism personified compared to the celibate head priest of the Gorakhnath temple. But there is the great connect between them: the inter-leaved action of democracy and counter-democracy.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Adityanath are, both, their people’s gifts to themselves. They are the creations of the people’s own choice, their own voice as counted in numbers. They are the sum of the vox populi — enumerated. They are where they have reached by wholly licit procedures in the exercise of legitimate, constitutional, democratic choice. No one can question, let alone challenge, their democratic accomplishment. In this they are as twinned by the popular vote.

They are also where they have reached, by the skilful, adroit managing of the processes of that same legitimate, constitutional and democratic choice to do something that is wholly counter-democratic – polarise the electorate. “Skilful?” an admirer of political bi-ceps might interject. “Is being skilful a crime?” Of course not. But not being criminal is not the same thing as being innocent. Adroitness is a skill, not a virtue. The creation of the bogey of the ‘Other’, an entity to be feared, hated, isolated, ostracised, intimidated, blocked from entering, perhaps hustled out, is a technique of emotional branding that is adroit; it is not clean. And so Mr. Trump and Mr. Adityanath are also twinned by the polarised vote.

About India

But this article is not about Mr. Trump and Adityanath, twinned or separate. It is about India, united or divided. It is about an India that is a Republic in which all its citizens are constitutionally equal and a democracy in which they are politically unequal. Our Constitution separated politics from religion. Today they are becoming co-extensive. ‘Hindus vote Hindu’ is cunning, it is not clean. “Clean?” the same interjector will put in. “Does the law define ‘clean’?” No, it does not. But it does talk of something that is the opposite of clean, namely, ‘corrupt’.

The Representation of the People Act, 1951, declares in its Section 123(3) as “corrupt practice”, “The promotion of, or attempt to promote, feelings of enmity or hatred between different classes of the citizens of India on grounds of religion, race, caste, community, or language, by a candidate or his agent…” It is for the courts, if moved, to say whether in the U.P. elections that section of the Act was offended or not. But it is for us to ask, is it democratic or counter-democratic for a State of which 19% are Muslim to be ruled by a party that did not put up a single Muslim candidate? Is it democratic or counter-democratic for a State to have a Chief Minister said to face charges of promoting enmity between different groups on the ground of religion, injuring or defiling places of worship?

Beyond U.P.’s election and its Chief Minister, a grim anomaly, a bitter truth, about our political selfhood faces us. Introducing the draft Constitution to the Constituent Assembly on November 4, 1948, B.R. Ambedkar said: “Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on an Indian soil which is essentially undemocratic.” Notwithstanding this diagnosis, he went ahead and introduced the text. With his associates in the Assembly, Nehru foremost among them, and with Gandhi’s eclectic spirit brooding over the proceedings, he looked ahead to a future in which a truly representative democracy would percolate India’s soil. With setbacks, for half a century almost, its tender roots did deepen, protecting ethnic minorities and strengthening the ground for gender justice, Dalits, tribals, for free-speech, dissent.

Today, will India’s democrats let majoritarianism lift that topsoil and plant in its place seeds of a counter-democratic biochemistry? I believe they will not. Wherefrom this optimism? It comes not from anything hopeful that I find in our country but because in Mr. Trump’s America, a statue of that little Fearless Girl has just come up facing, four square, the flared nostrils of Wall Street’s Charging Bull. And how she inspires!

By Gopalkrishna Gandhi is a former administrator, diplomat and Governor

Kolkata : FIR against another healthcare major

Kolkata: Yet another complaint of medical negligence leading to death has reached a police station in Kolkata, adding to the turbulence in the already choppy private healthcare sector.

The family of a 42-year-old cardiac patient, who died at Medica Superspecialty Hospital on Monday morning, filed the complaint at Purba Jadavur police station. The hospital denied negligence, but the patient’s family felt wrong treatment had led to one of his legs being amputated. The police said it would approach the health department to help them probe the case by forming a medical board.

Sunil Kumar Pandey, the patient, had been admitted to Medica on March 6 following a massive heart attack. He was unconscious and had to be revived at the emergency, said the hospital. Subsequently, he was put on ventilation since his vital parameters were not stable. His family was told that Pandey needed an angioplasty.

But, before the procedure could be done, a clot was detected on his left leg. “We were told that a procedure would have to be done to remove the clot since the leg had gone almost limp. But we had no idea that it was so serious that he might lose the limb. That was exactly what happened. The doctors told us that the leg had been infected and could not be saved,” said Rajneesh Lalwani, a friend.

Medica authorities denied the charge, though. They pointed out that due care had been taken to save the patient even though he was admitted in a ‘very serious condition’. An initial ECG, according to the hospital, revelaed a massive anterior wall myocardial infarction. “His cardiac condition was very serious and he had to be put on ventilation on the very first day. While he improved very slowly, another clot appeared on his leg. Even though such clots on the leg are rare, they do occur. Our medical board did an embolectomy to remove the clot. But despite that it didn’t normalize blood flow in the leg. Subsequently, it got infected and amputation was the only option. It was not the result of either negligence or wrong treatment,” said Alok Roy, chairman, Medica.

A statement issued by the hospital said the medical board decided to amputate the gangrenous part of the leg as a life-saving procedure. The patient’s relatives were informed of the magnitude of the problem and the risk involved in the procedure,” said the statement.

But Pandey’s family and friends disputed the claim. “Even as Sunil’s condition deteriorated, there was not a single senior doctor available in the critical care unit on Sunday. The whole night he was left in the hands of one RMO. When we are paying the hospital almost Rs 1 lakh per day, can we not expect a senior doctor to tend to him when he is sinking,” said Lalwani

Pandey, a resident of Baishnabghata, was into medical media publication. The family alleged that even though doctors said Pandey’s left leg had to be amputated immediately on Thursday, the operation was done almost six hours after they were informed. The patient died around 5am on Monday. The hospital is also alleged to have provided the medical records on the patient only after the FIR was filed.

Police have registered a case of negligence though it does not mention any accused. “We will approach Swasthya Bhawan to form a medical board,” said an officer.

INDIA’S TOPMOST NEGLIGENT AND UNETHICAL DOCTOR CHOSEN TO DECIDE COMPLAINTS AGAINST DOCTORS IN WEST BENGAL’S NEW HEALTH LAW

Riding on a populist message against medical negligence and unethical practice by private doctors and hospitals, Mamata Banerjee recently rushed a new healthcare Bill through the assembly (W.B. Clinical Establishments Registration, Regulation and Transparency Act, 2017) to entrap public sympathy, she disclosed today the names of members of the supremely powerful “Commission” that, as per these new provisions, will decide allegations by all aggrieved patients. 

Shockingly, Dr. Sukumar Mukherjee, convicted by the Supreme Court for his unethical behavior and gross medical negligence causing death of Anuradha Saha, has been chosen by Mamata Banerjee as a senior medical member of the “Commission”. In fact, in Anuradha Saha case, Apex Court has not only held Dr. Mukherjee as the most “reckless” physician, it has also severely criticized him for his unethical conduct and dubbed his conduct as “unbecoming of a doctor“. 

Although it is no secret that Banerjee government has been staunching backing Dr. Mukherjee to rebuild his badly tarnished public image for many years (Dr. Mukherjee was also chosen as the “chief adviser” for the Bengal health department in 2012 against which a PIL is presently pending before the Apex Court),it is truly startling to find that the state government would go this far to select the biggest “negligent” physician to investigate complaints of medical negligence. 

This brazen selection by Mamata Banerjee also undermines sanctity of the Supreme Court and violates Article 144 of Indian Constitution that has mandated that all authorities, civil and judicial, must always act in aid of the Supreme Court. 

PBT president Dr. Kunal Saha has submitted an urgent memorandum with Bengal chief minister today urging her to immediately remove Dr. Mukherjee from this Commission. Dr. Saha has also said that if Banerjee government remains silent, he will take this matter to the court for ends of justice. It is a shame that the self-proclaimed government of Ma, Mati and Manush (mother, land and humans) is truly hoodwinking the ordinary people (manush) with bogus hope for justice against medical neglgience.

A non surgical cure for Hernia

The above is not a snake but a hernia belt
Most of you must be knowing hernia, especially those who gained entrance to Engg Colleges.
I don't know about others but in our college before we could gain entry, we had to undergo a medical test.
Hydrocele and Hernia were two ailments the doctor used to confirm we did not have as it would make us unfit for the rigours of an engineering profession.
The test was simple.
We had to drop our pants in front of the doctor and he would ask us to cough. If nothing dropped down or protruded during the cough, we passed.
After 1966, when I entered the college, I had to perform the test again as I suspected that I was getting pain because of hernia, just above my groins.
The doctor checked and confirmed that the hernia had not developed to such an extent as to require surgery and told me to see him if the pain increased.
However, he did not tell me about the use of the above belt. I read about it somewhere and decided to have one made for myself.
Since the last month, I use it regularly when going for my walks or even at home when I am doing pranayam.
I am pleased to inform that after using the best the hernia has completely vanished (touch wood).
I am writing this to advise anyone who has hernia in the initial stages to use this type of belt made especially as per your measurement.
You will not require a surgical procedure to correct it.
As it is, a surgery does not guarantee that the hernia will not recur.

US scientists 'hack' India electronic voting machines

By Julian SiddleScience reporter, BBC News

• 18 May 2010

Scientists at a US university say they have developed a technique to hack into Indian electronic voting machines.

After connecting a home-made device to a machine, University of Michigan researchers were able to change results by sending text messages from a mobile.

Indian election officials say their machines are foolproof, and that it would be very difficult even to get hold of a machine to tamper with it.

India uses about 1.4m electronic voting machines in each general election.

'Dishonest totals'

A video posted on the internet by the researchers at the University of Michigan purportedly shows them connecting a home-made electronic device to one of the voting machines used in India.

Professor J Alex Halderman, who led the project, said the device allowed them to change the results on the machine by sending it messages from a mobile phone.

"We made an imitation display board that looks almost exactly like the real display in the machines," he told the BBC. "But underneath some of the components of the board, we hide a microprocessor and a Bluetooth radio."

"Our lookalike display board intercepts the vote totals that the machine is trying to display and replaces them with dishonest totals - basically whatever the bad guy wants to show up at the end of the election."

In addition, they added a small microprocessor which they say can change the votes stored in the machine between the election and the vote-counting session.

India's electronic voting machines are considered to be among the most tamperproof in the world.

There is no software to manipulate - records of candidates and votes cast are stored on purpose-built computer chips.

Paper and wax seals

India's Deputy Election Commissioner, Alok Shukla, said even getting hold of machines to tamper with would be very difficult.

"It is not just the machine, but the overall administrative safeguards which we use that make it absolutely impossible for anybody to open the machine," he told the BBC.

"Before the elections take place, the machine is set in the presence of the candidates and their representatives. These people are allowed to put their seal on the machine, and nobody can open the machine without breaking the seals."

The researchers said the paper and wax seals could be easily faked.

However, for their system to have any impact they would need to install their microchips on many voting machines, no easy task when 1,368,430 were used in the last general election in 2009.

An Italian Doctor Shocked the World: Cancer Is a Fungus That Can Be Treated With Baking Soda!

According to Italian doctor Tulio Simonchini, cancer is nothing but a fungus which can be eliminated with baking soda. Dr. Simonchini used this method to cure thousands of patients suffering from different types of cancer, and claims that it is 100% effective.

The therapy isn’t harmful at all and let’s face it – you’ve got nothing to lose. The painful reality of more and more cancer cases is somehow connected to the failures of oncology. “We have to prove that modern oncology is unable to answer all the questions cancer patients have. It’s our moral and ethical commitment to find the real cure for the hardest and deadliest diseases of our time,” says Dr. Simonchini.

Cancer is a fungus!

“About a century ago, there was a great theory that cancer is caused by malfunctioning genes, which means that the disease is intracellular. However, in my opinion, cancer is a fungal infection and a special cellular phenomenon,” says Dr. Simonchini, who has sent shockwaves around the medical community with his claim.

Candida

In the plant world, carcinoma is caused by fungal infections, and the same happens in humans. Fungi always carry a tumor with them – this has been proven in both in vivo and in vitro studies. However, scientists believe that they develop after the disease appeared. Dr. Simonchini believes that they were already there before – fungi create cancer, weaken our immune system and then attack the whole body. Every type of cancer is caused by the Candida fungus, which has been confirmed by several studies, and its histological structure is a result of the defensive measures against the invasion. Over time, our tissues are weakened and tired, and they start producing unidentified cells. According to Dr. Simonchini, cancer is an “ulcer” where deformed cells accumulate and form colonies.

Baking soda

The usual antifungal drugs are ineffective against cancer as they only attack the surface of the cells. The main infection is more powerful than a single bacterium, which is why fungal infections last for so long. “I have identified the things that can attack these colonies of fungi – for cancer, it’s baking soda, and a iodine tincture is the best substance for skin cancer,” claims Dr. Simonchini. Many studies have confirmed baking soda’s intracellular action against cancer.

The treatment

“I have used the treatment on my patients for more than 20 years. Many of these patients have completely recovered from the disease, even when doctors gave them no chances. The best way to eliminate a tumor is for it to come in contact with baking soda, which can be applied as an enema for digestive cancers, intravenous injection for brain and lung tumors and inhalation for tumors in the upper respiratory system. Breast, lymph system and subcutaneous tumors can be treated with a local perfusion. Internal organ tumors should be treated with baking soda by applying it directly into the arteries, and it’s also important to treat every type of cancer with the proper dose,” Dr. Simonchini explains, and continues: “For phleboclisis, you’ll need about 500 cm. of 5% or 8.4% solution; in some cases, the mixture only needs to be salty enough. During every treatment, it’s important to know that tumor colonies come back between the 3 and 4 day, and suffer a collapse between the 4 and 5 day, so a minimum of 6 days of treatment is required. The treatment should be repeated for 4 cycles, and has no other side-effects other than thirst and weakness.”

“For skin cancer, you should rub a 0.7% iodine tincture on the affected areas 20-30 times a day. Afterwards, the tumor will not return,” Dr. Simonchini says.

Here are the main symptoms of Candida infection:

• Chronic fatigue;
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder;
• Anxiety and irritability;
• Brain fog and nausea;
• Chronic skin disorders;
• Chronic digestive disorders;
• Mood changes;
• Starch and sugar cravings.

If you have notice at least 2 of these symptoms, you may have an advanced stage of candida infections which may result in cancer, so they should never be ignored.

Treatment and prevention of candida infections

The fungal development must be kept in check. Left untreated, candida can lead to candidiasis which can cause symptoms that mimic other diseases and result in perforation in the intestines and leaky gut syndrome. This will allow protein to attack your blood cells. In order to prevent further problems, we first need to eliminate the foods that feed candida – sugar and starch. This means no bread, candy, fresh fruit, pasta and rice for a while. Focus on eating raw fruit and steamed vegetables, and some people have had great results with grapefruit seeds. Dr. Simonchini recommends using aluminum-free baking soda for the treatment of cancer. It can be found in almost all health stores and pharmacies.

How the therapy works

Baking soda significantly increases the alkalinity of your blood which destroys the fungi. Due to this, baking soda quickly disintegrates the tumor, leaving it without defense.

For stomach, colon, rectal and oral cancer, you need to take 1 teaspoon of baking soda in a glass of water every morning and evening for a month. In most cases, this is enough time to eliminate the tumor. The therapy should last 3-4 weeks and not a day more. Dr. Simonchini’s therapy also usually requires intravenous injections as well. For best results, you’ll need 500 ml. of 5% baking soda solution applied in the vein directly every day. Do this for 24 days, then go for a scan. Vaginal fungal infections have become pretty common nowadays and according to Dr. Simonchini, they are the main culprit for cervical cancer and vaginal tumors. In order to treat these problems, you need to wash your vagina with a mixture made of 2 l. of filtered water and 2 tablespoons of baking soda. This will defeat the fungi that are causing the problem and prevent them from coming back in the future.

The original article may be read with video on http://www.collectivehealthy.com/an-italian-doctor-shocked-the-world-cancer-is-a-fungus-that-can-be-treated-with-baking-sodavideo/