The Chinese doctor who tried to warn others about coronavirus

Dr Li posted this picture of himself from a hospital bed on 31 January - a day before he was diagnosed with coronavirus

Dr Li Wenliang, who was hailed a hero for raising the alarm about the coronavirus in the early days of the outbreak, has died of the infection.

His death was confirmed by the Wuhan hospital where he worked and was being treated, following conflicting reports about his condition on state media.

Dr Li, 34, tried to send a message to fellow medics about the outbreak at the end of December. Three days later police paid him a visit and told him to stop. He returned to work and caught the virus from a patient. He had been in hospital for at least three weeks.

He posted his story from his hospital bed last month on social media site Weibo.

"Hello everyone, this is Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital," the post begins.

It was a stunning insight into the botched response by local authorities in Wuhan in the early weeks of the coronavirus outbreak.

Dr Li was working at the centre of the outbreak in December when he noticed seven cases of a virus that he thought looked like Sars - the virus that led to a global epidemic in 2003. The cases were thought to come from the Huanan Seafood market in Wuhan and the patients were in quarantine in his hospital.

On 30 December he sent a message to fellow doctors in a chat group warning them about the outbreak and advising they wear protective clothing to avoid infection.

What Dr Li didn't know then was that the disease that had been discovered was an entirely new coronavirus.

Four days later he was summoned to the Public Security Bureau where he was told to sign a letter. In the letter he was accused of "making false comments" that had "severely disturbed the social order".

"We solemnly warn you: If you keep being stubborn, with such impertinence, and continue this illegal activity, you will be brought to justice - is that understood?" Underneath in Dr Li's handwriting is written: "Yes, I do."

He was one of eight people who police said were being investigated for "spreading rumours".

At the end of January, Dr Li published a copy of the letter on Weibo and explained what had happened. In the meantime, local authorities had apologised to him but that apology came too late.

For the first few weeks of January officials in Wuhan were insisting that only those who came into contact with infected animals could catch the virus. No guidance was issued to protect doctors.

But just a week after his visit from the police, Dr Li was treating a woman with glaucoma. He didn't know that she had been infected with the new coronavirus.

In his Weibo post he describes how on 10 January he started coughing, the next day he had a fever and two days later he was in hospital. His parents also fell ill and were taken to hospital.

It was 10 days later - on 20 January - that China declared the outbreak an emergency.

Dr Li says he was tested several times for coronavirus, all of them came back negative.

On 30 January he posted again: "Today nucleic acid testing came back with a positive result, the dust has settled, finally diagnosed."

He punctuated the short post with an emoji of a dog with its eyes rolled back, tongue hanging out.

Not surprisingly the post received thousands of comments and words of support.

"Dr Li Wenliang is a hero," one user said, worrying about what his story says about their country. "In the future, doctors will be more afraid to issue early warnings when they find signs of infectious diseases."

"A safer public health environment… requires tens of millions of Li Wenliang."

Mankind has recurrently faced, and overcome, challenges; but it may not have absorbed all lessons it required to along the way. A recounting of major battles that preceded the current one

From the Telegraph of 22.3.2020By Upala Sen

Epidemic, the word, as we understand it now, is the widespread occurrence of a disease in a community at a particular time. Pandemic relates to the geographic spread of an epidemic. The term epidemic is 2,500 years old and is a compound of the Greek terms epi meaning on and demos meaning people. The word epidemios was used by Homer in Odyssey, to describe someone who has returned home or to his country. Thucydides used the term epidemeo as a verb to mean “to stay in one’s own country”, as opposed to apodemeo, “to be absent from one’s country”. Later, orators Demosthenes and Aeschines used this word to refer to a stranger who arrived someplace with the intention of living there. Authors before Hippocrates used epidemios for almost everything from persons to rain to rumours to wars, but not diseases. Hippocrates was the first to adapt this word as a medical term. In the 5th century BC, the Greek physician wrote the seven-volume Epidemics, wherein he used epidemios to mean “that which circulates or propagates in a country”.

Source: A 2006 paper — 2,500-year Evolution of the Term Epidemic by Paul M.V. Martin and Estelle Martin-Granel

Various Pandemics that humans have suffered across History.
Year	Name	No of Deaths	Origin	Spread Across
165 - 180 AD	Antonine Plague	5 Million	Egypt, Most likely viral	Trade Traffic. Another theory is that the virus was borne into Rome  by soldiers returning from war against the Parthinians of Ham in Mesopotamia or from other battles in northeastern Italy. It was possibly an outbreak of smallpox with recorded symptoms such as blistered black skin rash, fever, diarrhoea and black stool
541 -543 AD	Plague of Justinian	30 - 50  millions	Egypt, Bacterial	The Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. Its capital, Constantinople, the Sasanian or Neo Persian Empire and port cities around the Mediterranean Sea.
735 - 737 AD	Japanese Smallpox	2 million	Kyushu in Japan, Viral	Caused by airborne virus, possibly spread by fishermen who had contacted the illness after being stranded on the Korean Peninsula. It swept across all the five islands that today constitue Japan.
1346 - 1353	Bubonic Plague	50 million	Origin Central Asia or East Asia, Bacterial	Mongol armies and traders were most likely carriers of the bacteria. While the plague is spread by infected fleas from small animals, it may also result from exposure to the body fluids of a dead, plague-infected animal. Swept across Europe, Asia and Africa. It is estimated to have killed 30 to 60 per cent of Europe's population.
1520 -1521	Small Pox	5 - 8 million	Coast of Mexico	A Variola virus, believed to have travelled to Mexico via Cuba, carried by a slave on a ship carrying aSspanish army. Swept the Aztec Empire or what is now central Mexico. While many credit Spanish conqueror Herman Cortes with the victory over the Aztecs at the Battle of Tenochititian, it was possibly the smallpx that had weakened the natives, leading to the downfall of the Aztec Empire
1647 - 1679 AD	Great Plaguew	1 million, Bacterial	The first cases of the London Plague were reported from St. Giles-in-the-Fileds.	The outbreak in England possibly spread from the Netherlands.Historians claim the initial contagion may have arrived with Dutch trading ships carrying bales of cotton from Amsterdam, Swept South Spain, Russia, Naples, London, Malta, Austria. A fire started on September 2, 1666, in the King's bakery in Pudding Lane near London Bridge. It was a dry summer and the fire took hold and burnt much of Central London. But it also killed the black rats and fleas that carried the plague baccilus.
1817 - 1923	Cholera	40 million, Bacterial	Jessore in undivided Bengal, now in Bangladesh	The first six cholera pandemics occurred consecutively and continuously over time. Increased commerce, migration and pilgramage are supposed to be behind its transmission. Caused by intake of contaminated food or water with the bacterium, Vibrio Cholerae. Sweep - Worldwide.
1855 - 1859	The Third Plague	14 million, bacterial	Yunan in China	Daily water traffic between China and Hongkong spread the bacteria. From Hongkong it travelled to British India. Swept Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and the Indian Sub-continent.
1889 - 1890	Russian Flue	1 million, Viral	St. Petersburg in Russia	Caused by Influenza virus. Modern transport infrastructure assisted the spread of the 1889  influenza. Swept Worldwide
1918-1920	Spanish Flue	50 million , Viral	France	Caused by HONI influenza virus. Swept worldwide. The name is the result of a misunderstanding. Spain was one of a few major European countries to remain neutral during World War I. While the other countries suppressed news of the outbreak fearing it would affect troops, the Spanish media was free to report it. And thereafter, the infamy stuck.
1957-58	Asian Flue	1 million	China	Caused by influenza A Subtype H2N2. Spread from China to Singapore, reached Hongkong and then USA. It also reached India where a student in Goethals, Kurseong died.
1968-1970	Hongkong flue	1 million	China	Caused by Influenza Type A H3N2. Swept worldwide
Dec-19	COVID-19	9840*	Wuhan China	234073* Confirmed cases. Severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2, believed to have originated in horseshoe bats. Early cases had links with the Hunan Seafood Wholesale market that sells live animals. Swept worldwide
		*on 21.3.20

What choice does the Indian Voter have between the Devil and the Deep sea?

It is now 73 years since we achieved independence in spite of the efforts of the forefathers of the BJP who tried to derail the movement and who now claim themselves to be nationalists. Are we satisfied with the performance of the Indian Union since 1947?
I am not.
Part of the blame should go to Pandit Nehru who was at the helm up to 1962. In spite of all the development work he did in building modern India with its towering world class factories and the IITs and IIMs, which are present leaders try to belittle, he failed on one front - curbing corruption and nepotism. We are suffering because of his closing his eyes to the corruption of people close to him like V K Krishna Menon who was associated with the Jeep scandal. Nehru took no action on Krishna Menon and instead made him the Defence Minister. If Nehru had taken action when this first corruption case occurred, perhaps, India's corruption would have been nipped in the bud.
After that the flood gates opened and it reached unmanageable proportions during Indira Gandhi and then Rajiv Gandhi's time. It further increased when Manmohan Singh became Prime Minister and  had to form unholy coalitions to keep his ministry stable. It was one such coalition partner, the DMK which led to his down fall. Of course, the downfall was assisted by the then head of CAG who it seems acted as a Trojan horse of the BJP to inflate loss figures of the 2G  scandal. He had the active support of the media to whom he would leak his views. The media have suddenly become silent, now that the BJP is in power.
We can safely say, that the BJP got a chance to step in because of the corruption in the Congress, ably magnified by the media.. Of course, the corruption under the BJP has not decreased by any chance. It is only, the media which is supposed to be the watch dog for the people have been drugged with money by the BJP capitalist cronies.

But are we going to stagger along between corrupt parties and communal parties for the rest of our and the lives of our children? Do we have no choice?

Presently the existing political parties have built a deep moat around themselves so that unless a person has money in crores, criminals to loot, boot, threaten and murder and the police to back him to file false FIR against opposition candidates and harass them, he just cannot hope to serve the people. With each election, ie. five years, the wealth of 90% of the political candidates increase by anywhere between 300 to 900 %. Of course, we are never told of the increase in wealth of the political parties themselves for they coolly keep themselves out of audit in spite of the best efforts by the Supreme Court.

Fortunately, one of the good deeds of the ADR was the introduction of NOTA, (None of the Above) on the voting paper. The time has now come to expand the activities of NOTA.

Presently, people do not cast their vote for NOTA because it does not have a candidate and people are  told by the existing political parties that your vote for NOTA is a waste.

Since ADR have been following and trying to set the standards of our electoral system, I would suggest that ADR may be given the task of setting up offices in each state and selecting good NOTA candidates according to their yardstick for each and every Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha seat. 
An ideal electoral manifesto should be drawn for each state considering everyone to be and Indian, irrespective of caste, language or religion.

Although, NOTA does not have a candidate, ADR could draw up a list of candidates after thoroughly vetting their CV. If they meet the high standard which ADR has set, they could be called for interview. They would be shown the electoral manifesto that ADR has drawn up and if the candidate agrees with the manifesto 100 % then only can he be added to the selected list.

We do not want the people to vote on the basis of caste, language or religion. The people of the constituency could then be given the qualifications of the candidate and the work he has been doing, without giving out the name, caste or religion of the candidate. People then can be told that if you vote for NOTA in this election you would get such a candidate. 

ADR and Civil society should approach the EC and Supreme Court to allow a candidate to be marked for NOTA in each constituency. I know, the EC is under the thumb of the Modi government an may not agree but some means should be found. But first ADR has to agree to take the lead to select NOTA candidates.

I know this is a haywire idea but the corrupt political parties have to be defeated with haywire ideas. I will wait for your comments before forwarding all to ADR.

Association for Democratic Reforms

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) is an Indian non-partisan, non-governmental organization which works in the area of electoral and political reforms. Along with National Election Watch (NEW), ADR is striving to bring transparency and accountability in Indian politics and reducing the influence of money and muscle power in elections.

ADR came into existence in 1999 when a group of Professors from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad and Bangalore filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) with the Delhi High Court regarding the disclosure of the criminal, financial and educational background of the candidates contesting elections. The PIL was upheld by the Delhi High Court in 2000 but the Government of India appealed to the Supreme Court of India against the High Court judgement. However, in 2002 and subsequently in 2003, the Supreme Court made it mandatory for all the candidates contesting elections to disclose their criminal, financial and educational background prior to the polls by filing an affidavit with the Election Commission of India. The process led to greater awareness among voters of criminal cases against politicians

ADR was co-founded by Trilochan Sastry, Jagdeep S. Chhokar, Ajit Ranade, Sunil Handa, Devanath Tirupati, Brij Kothari, Rajesh Agarwal, Pankaj Chandra, Sudarshan Khanna, Prem Pangotra and P.R. Shukla. It is headed by Maj. Gen. Anil Verma (Retd.).

Objective

The objective of ADR is to improve governance and strengthen democracy by continuous work in the area of Electoral and Political Reforms.^[9] The ambit and scope of work in this field is enormous, hence, ADR has chosen to concentrate its efforts in the following areas pertaining to the political system of the country:

• Corruption and Criminalization in the Political Process
• Empowerment of the electorate through greater dissemination of information relating to the candidates and the parties, for a better and informed choice
• Need for greater accountability of Indian Political Parties
• Need for inner-party democracy and transparency in party-functioning

Function & Research Areas

Election Watch or Analysis of Affidavits: Election Watch is the flagship programme of ADR. Since 2002, National Election Watch (NEW) and ADR have been conducting Election Watches across the country. As part of this programme, affidavits of candidates contesting elections are minutely examined and citizens are provided with the information about their background details to help them make an informed choice. The Election Watch has so far collated data of about 1,82,108 candidates which can be accessed easily on www.myneta.info. Election Expenses of MPs and MLAs: ADR also analyses the election expenses declared by elected representatives and the data is released to the media/citizens. Register of Members’ Interest of Rajya Sabha: ADR also analyses Register of Members’ interest of the Rajya Sabha, which was brought into public domain in June 2011 after ADR’s two-year-long RTI battle. The report contains information regarding remunerative directorship, shareholding of controlling nature, regular remunerative activity, paid consultancy and professional engagement of the Rajya Sabha members.

Political Party Watch (PPW): ADR’s PPW program is aimed at bringing more transparency and accountability in the functioning of political parties. In 2008, based on an appeal filed by ADR, the Central Information Commission (CIC) declared that the Income Tax Returns of political parties should be made available in the public domain by the IT Department. Since then, ADR has analysed the IT returns of all National and Regional parties of India whose ITR details are available in public domain, from FY 2002-03 till date. An analysis of their Income Tax returns and donations statements filed with the Election Commission of India (ECI) shows that the sources remain largely unknown. ADR analyses the sources of funding of National and Regional political parties. Between FY 2004-05 and FY 2014-15, ADR analysed sources of funding of 6 National and 51 Regional political parties.

• Contribution Reports of Political Parties: Under this programme, the contributions reports of political parties containing information about receipt of donations by corporate houses and individuals above Rs 20,000, are analysed. 
• Contribution Reports of Electoral Trusts: Apart from individuals and companies, there are electoral trusts which contribute the most to National parties and a few Regional parties. The details of contributions received by the Electoral Trusts and the details of donations given by the Trust to political parties are analyzed for the period between FY 2013-14 to FY 2017-18.

• Election Expenditure of Political Parties: ADR, through this programme, analyses the details of expenditure declared by various political parties after Lok Sabha and Assembly Elections. Till date, expenditure reports for 91 Assembly Elections and 3 Lok Sabha Elections have been analyzed.

Legal Advocacy: ADR also resorts to legal advocacy for Political and Electoral Reforms. Time to time ADR takes up various issues in the light of good governance by filing relevant complaints/appeals and PILs/writs with Central Information Commission, Supreme Court/ High Court as well as other Central and State agencies. ADR also attends various consultations/round-tables with bodies like Law Commission of India, Election Commission of India, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Secretariat.

ADR Youth Outreach Programmes

1. Hum Badlenge Apna Bharat

The programme aims to educate senior school children of the challenges faced by Indian Democracy today via workshops. The workshop trainers use videos, audios, quiz papers and other interactive materials to engage with the youth.

2. ADR Campus Ambassadors

The programme aims to engage with college youth in issues related to Indian democracy and involve them proactively in organizing events. The selected Campus Ambassadors are apprised about the issues ADR is working on and their roles and responsibilities as ADR campus representative. All the activities are approved, sponsored, assisted & supervised by the ADR Team.

Achievements

• May 2002 and March 2003: ADR's petitions resulted in a landmark judgment by the Supreme Court of India by making it mandatory for the  candidates contesting elections to Parliament and State Assemblies to file self sworn affidavits (Form 26) declaring full information regarding their criminal, financial and educational background. In keeping with the spirit of the judgement, at the All India State Election Commissioners' (SEC) Conference held in July 2003, all the State Election Commissions had unanimously resolved to implement the disclosure rules in local body elections.  
• April 2008: ADR obtained a landmark ruling from the Central Information Commission (CIC) stating that Income Tax Returns of Political Parties would now be available in the public domain along with the assessment orders.
• June 2011: After a two year long RTI battle, crucial information on the 'Registers of Members' Interest' was finally mandated by CIC to be available in the public domain in June 2011. The Second report of the ‘Committee on Ethics’ of the Lok Sabha mentions ADR’s recommendations to instate a Register of Members’ Interest to disclose business and financial interests of the members on the same lines as that of the Rajya Sabha.
• June 2013: The Central Information Commission (CIC) in an effort towards making political parties transparent as well as accountable in their functioning, declared the six national parties BJP, INC, BSP, CPI, CPI(M) and NCP as public authorities . All the six parties refused to comply with CIC's order.  In 2015, a petition was filed by ADR in the Supreme Court to implement CIC's order by bringing them under the preview of  Right to Information Act, 2005.
• July 2013: Supreme Court delivered a Judgment on a petition filed by Lily Thomas and Lok Prahari NGO, (ADR Intervened) setting aside clause 8(4) of the Representation of the People Act. As a result of which sitting MPs and MLAs were barred from holding office on being Convicted in a Court of Law.
• September 2013: ADR had also intervened in the petition filed by Common Cause for having a separate button on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) with the option of ‘None of the Above (NOTA).’ The Supreme Court gave a favourable ruling on 27 September 2013 and the NOTA button was inserted in the EVM machines for the Lok Sabha elections in 2014.
• May 2014: The Delhi High Court issued notices to the Government of India and the Election Commission on a petition filed by ADR to monitor election expenditure of political parties.
• August 2016: Prof. Trilochan Sastry, Chairman ADR, represented ADR at the 3rd Asian Electoral Stakeholder Forum (AESF III) conference in Bali, Indonesia.
• February 2018: On a petition of Lok Prahari regarding disproportionate asset increase of the MPs & MLAs, Supreme Court made it mandatory for candidates to declare sources of income of spouse & dependents in Form 26 of affidavits. ADR had intervened in the matter & also provided all the necessary data.

ADR Reports

ADR has become the single data point for information/analysis of background details (criminal, financial and others) of politicians and of financial information of political parties. In the last few years, based on ADR’s report and data, a huge number of coverage was received in print and online media.

The above has been taken direct from Wikedepedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_for_Democratic_Reforms

The Corona Virus - Is it Man made or God made?

There is rumour going around that the Corona virus was developed by China to create havoc on the western world but owing to some blotch up, its own people were affected most. However, even if we assume that it was Made in China, then unlike all Chinese things this product seems to be quite effective. But we give too much credit to the Chinese. Unless God wanted this developed and gave the necessary brains and other tools to them, the Chinese could not have developed it.

God treats everyone as equal, for Him, there are no favourites, whether you are a believer or a non believer. Thus Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and Hindus and confirmed non-believers like the Communists have been affected and killed by this virus. I have not mentioned Sikhs and Jews as I have no confirmed news about them. Thus whether it is Christ, Allah or our Vishnu or being an Athiest, nothing can save you, when your time comes.

The way this virus has spread through all continents, it has truly gone international owing to better communication between  people. People, nearest to China have been affected most but I do not understand why the Italians are the worst sufferers when Korea, Japan and Russia are much nearer to China. Being Communist countries, I am sure we are not getting the true picture from both Russia and China and the situation is much worse than reported. 

Our Holy books describe the different Awatars of Lord Vishnu. The tenth and Last Awatar is supposed to be the Kalki (Kalkin/Karki). This would finish off the Kaliyuga. Does this Corona virus have any relation to Kalki?

The way the flue has spread and with no treatment in sight, it does raise fears. If it is allowed to run for one whole year and no cure found it will be a serious matter for the human population on the Earth.

I won't blame any world leader for this catastrophe. But the way the people in different countries have chosen mad or semi mad rightist minded leaders to lead their countries, who are riding rough shod over the poor people, I just wonder if this is God's, call Him by whatever name, retribution. This happened earlier when Hitler, Mussolini and the Japanese were made to eat dust when they created anarchy. Of course, at that time, Stalin was a worse remedy than the illness. Remember what Lord Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita. "Whenever unrighteousness increases and the good people are made to suffer, I will come to set things right." Has the Corona come as per Krishna's words.

Gathering gulps cow urine to ‘fight virus’

Hindu Mahasabha hosts ‘gaumutra party’ in national capital

By Pheroze L. Vincent in New Delhi

One could be forgiven for thinking someone was taking the piss.

Blessed by a self-proclaimed godman, a gathering was gulping down cups of cow urine and panchkavya — a cocktail of cow urine, dung extract and milk products — to try and appease the coronavirus, or the “Corona demon”.

“Arey wah, maza aa gaya (Wow, feeling groovy)!” some of them drooled as they swigged the golden elixir at the “gaumutra party” on the lawns of Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan on Saturday afternoon.

A yagnya (fire ritual) wore on before them, looking to drive the pandemic back to the netherworld.

A faction of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha — a defunct political party — led by a litigant in the Ayodhya title suit held the ritual, during which a 10-armed, fire-breathing Corona was offered cow urine, panchkavya, puris and paneer, which were then gulped down by the 30-odd participants.

A live band belted out devotional songs, and men in saffron robes smeared one another with pink powder in a Holi-style celebration.

The vinyl poster of the Corona demon also carried images of East Asians eating reptiles and insects, with speech bubbles showing the animals praying, “Save us, Corona.”

The message seemed to be that Corona was punishing the world for non-vegetarianism, as symbolised by East Asians who were the first victims of the outbreak, and would be placated only with a yagnya.

Two women devotees at the party pleaded for second servings of the cow urine, which they guzzled down enthusiastically.

Yashoda Devi, a middle-aged homemaker from Rohini in northwest Delhi, told The Telegraph: “I believe one hundred per cent that gaumutra can protect us from any illness. I have been drinking it for 25 years.”

She and her neighbour Sunita Devi claimed they had suffered “ordinary illnesses” but nothing life-threatening “at a time when major diseases like cancer and AIDS plague the world”. They attributed the feat to gaumutra, drunk with “full faith in Guruji”.

Swami Chakrapani, the “Guruji” and Ayodhya litigant who held the event, had previously been in the news for supporting the segregation of menstruating women, calling for actresses to shun their “immoral” profession, and claiming that Rahul Gandhi is gay.

“When God created the Earth, he sent the cow as a last resort to save mankind. The Corona is punishment for mankind for the killing of animals,” he told reporters.

“Only this amrit (elixir of eternal life — a reference to cow urine) can save us from this deadly disease as it contains all the healing elements and will convince the virus, which is an avatar (incarnation), of our feeling of repentance.”

The chants at the yagnya — the site flanked by armed police from Chakrapani’s Z-plus security detail — included “Corona shant ho (Be calm Corona)” and “Bharat Mata ki jai”.

Rajesh Kumar, leader of a Hindu youth group told this newspaper that he cared little for modern medicine.

“Those who want to understand will do so. Modern medicine has only caused more illness,” he said.

“I have been drinking gaumutra since 2013 — 50ml of it on an empty stomach in the morning. It healed scars on my leg. It’s difficult to drink only for the first few days.”

The organisers say they will be sending vials of cow urine to US President Donald Trump — currently an international poster boy for Hindu nationalists — and other world leaders.

Plans are afoot for similar events in the state capitals.

At a recent meeting in Mumbai, Union minister and Republican Party of India leader Ramdas Athawale had chanted “Go Corona” along with Chinese consul-general Tang Guocai in the presence of Buddhist priests.

102-year-old readies CV as BJP puts him to freedom fighter test

It began when the BJP MLA from Bijapur, Basangouda Patil Yatnal, called him a “fake freedom fighter” and a “Pakistani agent” last month, seeking proof of his involvement in the Independence movement.

H S Doreswamy accused of being a ‘Pak agent’. (Express Photo by Amrita Dutta)

“I have been writing my CV,” says H S Doreswamy, peering closely at a bunch of papers he has been scribbling on. In the dim light of his ground-floor residence in south Bengaluru, the 102-year-old reads out a summary of his life, from his birth in the city in 1918 to a family of landed gentry to his participation in the Quit India movement and Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan movement, and, most recently, a campaign to revive lakes in Bengaluru. “You can read it and tell me if there is anything anti-national in it,” he says.

A familiar figure in civil society movements in Karnataka for decades, Doreswamy finds himself at the centre of a political storm. It began when the BJP MLA from Bijapur, Basangouda Patil Yatnal, called him a “fake freedom fighter” and a “Pakistani agent” last month, seeking proof of his involvement in the Independence movement. Several senior BJP leaders, including Union minister Pralhad Joshi, backed Yatnal.

Last Tuesday, in response, the Congress produced a document, dated 1971, signed by the senior superintendent of the Bengaluru Central Jail, attesting that, as a 25-year-old unmarried man, Doreswamy had been imprisoned there from “December 18, 1942 (and) released on December 8, 1943”.

Of the many allegations made against Doreswamy by BJP leaders is his “connection” with Amulya Leona Noronha, the 19-year-old held on February 20 for “sedition” over slogans she had raised at an anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act rally, on the basis of a photograph which shows him at her residence in Koppa.

“He is the conscience of our state,” says historian Ramachandra Guha, calling the campaign against Doreswamy “shocking and scandalous”. “A man of great decency and honesty, he has been a part of several social and ecological movements, has spoken up for farmers and the landless. He has criticised Congress governments for their shady land deals… But what shocks me the most is the silence of Chief Minister B S Yeddiyurappa, who knows what kind of a person he is, who took oath in the name of farmers,” says Guha.

Doreswamy says he is as surprised. “I have been in public life for 60 years. We have differences in ideology but I have friends in the BJP and RSS too. I never expected that the BJP as a whole would attack me like this.”

Admitting he has been critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the centenarian adds, “I have criticised every government. That is a citizen’s privilege. During the Emergency, I wrote a letter to then PM Indira Gandhi, saying, ‘You are ruling in the name of democracy, but behaving like a dictator… If this continues, I will go house to house telling people you are a dictator’.” Doreswamy was imprisoned for four months consequently and released when a magistrate dismissed the case, saying “he has every right to criticise his prime minister”.

A teacher of physics and maths at a school in Bengaluru, Doreswamy joined the freedom struggle in June 1942, on Mahatma Gandhi’s call. “We would place small ‘time bombs’ in post boxes near government offices. They were not meant to kill people. They would burn documents, disrupting government communication. Sometimes, we would tie bombs to tails of rats and throw these into record rooms,” he recalls.

Barely six months in, Doreswamy was arrested for arson. When he was released in 1943, he plunged into the Independence movement.

In decades since, Doreswamy has taken up several causes, from the protests against the Kaiga nuclear plant in north Karnataka to rights of landless farmers. “To call a Gandhian figure like him ‘Pakistani agent’ or accuse him of inciting violence is laughable,” says anti-corruption activist S R Hiremath.

In 2014, Doreswamy and slain journalist Gauri Lankesh were part of a civil society platform that helped Naxalites who had given up arms return to the mainstream. “We want Naxals to join a democratic system. But these peoples call me a Naxal!” he says.

About Amulya, whose father stood surety for two former Naxals, Doreswamy says, “Five or seven years ago, I had gone to Koppa, where about 500 homes of tribals were about to be demolished. I don’t remember but my friends say the family had called us for supper. She was in Class 5-6, a child. Or is it that she was a born Naxal?”

Remembering how the RSS used to be a “weak force”, with “no freedom fighters among them”, Doreswamy believes the failure of successive governments facilitated the BJP’s rise. “Gandhi wanted poverty reduced on a priority basis. But other than that, politicians have done everything, gone to the moon, squandered money, melted hills and hillocks.”

Accusing the RSS of targeting the young, the 102-year-old, who moved close to his daughter’s house three months ago after his wife’s death, says, “They invite them to shakhas to play, and then poison their minds with anti-Muslim hate.”

On March 3, in an open letter to a minister in the Yeddiyurappa cabinet, writer and intellectual Devanoor Mahadeva lamented what the campaign against Doreswamy reflected. “Without the courage to look at the problems his words point to… instead of being in wonder that a man from another era lives among us, a man who has lived by non-violence for more than a hundred years, only makes us Lilliputian.”

Doreswamy insists he is not worried. “My friends say it is because they want to curb my voice. But rules and regulations are there, the Constitution is there to defend us. People are there. They know me through and through. My life is like a mirror. Definitely, people will stand behind me… The poor deserve food, employment, literacy. That is why I am still fighting.”