💭 At Present India has 28 States and 8 Union Territories.
There are more than 19,500 mother tongues spoken in India
Indian dialects of over 19,500 and 121 are recognized as languages since they meet the standard of 10,000 or more speakers.
The most commonly spoken Indian dialect, which also happens to be one of the oldest surviving languages in the world, is Hindi, the official language of the Indian central government, alongside English.
💭 As of 2020 about:
➡ 79% of Indians are Hindu (1 billion)
➡ 15% are Muslim (170 million)
➡ 2.3% are Christian (28 million)
➡ 1.7% are Sikhs (20 million)
➡ 0.7% Buddhists (8 million)
✞ 25+ Churches BURNED in Manipur, India
Mobs Kill 60, Burn Down 25 Churches in Northeastern India
While ethnic tensions have festered for decades, leaders in Manipur say religious extremism is fueling the extreme aggression.
Rioting mobs have taken the lives of at least sixty people and destroyed or burned down 25 churches in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur. Since May 3, thousands of victims, the majority of them Christians, have fled as their homes and businesses have gone up in flames.
While tensions over property rights and economic interests have existed between the state’s ethnic groups for decades, local leaders told CT that church burnings are the result of the growth of Hindu nationalism among the dominant Meite community.
The chief minister of Manipur, N. Biren Singh, described the situation as a “prevailing misunderstanding between two communities” and said that his government was committed to protecting “the lives and property of all our people.”
“We should not allow the culture of communal harmony in the state to be disturbed by vested interests,” Singh said, adding that he also intended to address the community’s “long-term grievances.”
Manipur borders Myanmar and is home to a diverse range of ethnic groups, including Meiteis, who are a numerical majority in the state and are predominantly Hindu, and various tribal communities, who are largely Christian.
Primarily based in Imphal Valley, a region which includes Manipur’s capital, the Meiteis have long dominated the state’s political and economic landscape. Meanwhile, tribal communities make up around a third of the population (35.4%) and are mainly concentrated in the hills surrounding the valley, 90 percent of the state’s geographical area.
For decades, the issue of land ownership and control has been a source of conflict between the two groups. But in recent years, these tensions have been exacerbated by the political influence of the Hindu nationalist organizations Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which have sought to promote their faith as the dominant religion in India and have used the Meitei community to advance their political agenda in the state.
This month’s violence came weeks after the Manipur High Court ordered the state government to respond to the Meitei community’s request for Scheduled Tribe status. The designation gives communities special constitutionally backed protections including reserved seats in the parliament and state legislatures, affirmative action in education and employment, and property protections.
But believing that this categorization would dilute their own protections and political representation, Mainpur tribal groups have long fought this change.
While area leaders believe that the violence was largely a reaction to this political decision, they see its viciousness and severity, particularly the attack on churches, as the growth of the influence of BJP and the RSS. Radical Hindu ideology historically has struggled to find a foothold in Manipur, because of its mix of tribal, Hindu, Christian, and Muslim communities.
Christian leaders from the area told CT that they believed this violence was religiously motivated.
“In this pogrom, the Hindu Meiteis not only burned down churches belonging to tribals but also churches that exclusively belong to Meitei Christians,” said Ngaineilam Haokip, an academic at university in Kolkata, who grew up in Manipur. “They targeted their own brethren who follow Christ by burning their churches.”
“If this is not a pogrom, what is? They are burning churches when the protest rally was simply against the inclusion of Meiteis as Scheduled Tribe by All Tribal Student Union Manipur (ATSUM). There is definitely a religious angle here,” said a Christian leader in the area, who for security reasons asked to be identified by the name Lien.
On Wednesday, thousands of people across the state, the majority Christians, gathered locally to protest the Meitei’s demand. Although the event ended peacefully in several districts, there were reports of arson, vandalism, and confrontations in other areas.
In the district of Churachandpur, one unidentified group set fire to a famous war memorial. Infuriated by this arson, there was a clash among locals, resulting in the destruction of homes and forcing hundreds of residents to seek refuge in nearby forests. Retaliatory attacks by local youths targeted Meitei neighborhoods in Churachandpur, and the violence caused two deaths and injured 11. Some reports alleged attackers carried sophisticated weaponry.
In response, groups of people targeted several tribal neighborhoods in the capital city of Imphal. Residents told The Wire that mobs burned down 23 houses and injured 19 residents.
One victim of the attacks was a tribal legislative assembly representative who sustained severe head injuries and is currently in critical condition.
“Tribals were not prepared for a war. They were holding peace rallies against the demand for Scheduled Tribe status by Meiteis. The Meiteis on the other hand, were planning for this kind of confrontation for a long time, it seems. They collected gun licenses and guns and then lit the fire,” Haokip said.
In the wake of the violence, the government has imposed a curfew and suspended internet access. The severity of the situation has led the Indian government to deploy military to the affected areas and authorize it to use lethal force in “extreme cases” in addressing the increasing violence. The federal government has additionally invoked Article 355, giving it authority over the state of Manipur. More than 7,500 people have been evacuated to safer places.
💭 Atiq Ahmed = Abiy Ahmed (Genocider PM of Ethiopia). Well, the fire gets hotter and we know that hot air rises up. During these Easter days, we are witnessing miracles that are not trivial.
🔥 Gunmen seemingly posing as journalists shot dead a former Indian member of parliament and his brother live on TV as they were being taken in handcuffs to hospital by police, authorities said.
Atiq Ahmed, 61, who had been jailed since 2019 and was convicted of kidnapping, was answering reporters’ questions late Saturday when he and his brother Ashraf were shot at close range, the television images showed.
“According to preliminary information, three persons posing as journalists approached them and opened fire… The attackers have been held and are being questioned,” police official Prashant Kumar said.
The TV clip in the northern city of Prayagraj shows the assailants shouting Hindu slogans after the brazen attack.
The two victims were from India’s Muslim minority but police did not say whether they were investigating a possible sectarian motive in the killings.
The brothers were deeply involved in India’s criminal underworld – the ex-MP was reportedly facing more than 100 different cases – and press reports said the attackers were petty criminals.
💭 Is New Zealand A Beta Test For Western Governments Micromanaging The Populace?
👉 by Planet Today – Wednesday, January 18, 2023
In the wake of the covid pandemic lockdowns and mandates, many western nations and states in the US witnessed a new eye opening level of government intrusion into the daily lives of citizens. Some, however, dealt with worse scenarios than others.
New Zealand in particular has popped up time and time again over the past couple of years with some of the most draconian restrictions on the public, and sadly the trend has not stopped just because the pandemic lockdowns stopped. The island nation seems to be intent on setting the standard for authoritarian policies and government micromanagement, and a series of recent laws are driving home the reality that they do not intend to relent.
Flashback: In 2018, New Zealand banned all offshore oil drilling exploration in the name of instituting a “carbon neutral future”, meaning tight energy restrictions are forthcoming in NZ as the decade progresses.
In 2019, NZ banned all semi-automatic weapons after the Christchurch mosque shootings, punishing millions of law abiding citizens for the crimes of one man. Video evidence of the Christchurch shootings is suspiciously illegal in NZ, and anyone caught viewing or downloading the event can be prosecuted. The gun bans were enforced just in time for the pandemic lockdowns.
In 2020, the government introduced internet censorship legislation which would give them the power to selectively filter “dangerous content.” Most of the provisions were ultimately scrapped after a public backlash, but future censorship remains a priority for the government.
In 2021, New Zealand Prime Minister and associate of the World Economic Forum, Jacinda Ardern, openly admitted to constructing a two tier society in which the vaccinated enjoy normal access to the economy, travel and social interaction while the unvaccinated would be deliberately choked with restrictions until they “chose” to comply and accept the mRNA jab.
It should be noted that the Ardern and the New Zealand government were made aware on multiple occasions in 2021 by medical professionals of the risks of Myocarditis for people 30 years old and under associated with the vaccines. They ignored the warnings and pushed forward with mass vaccination campaigns anyway, including attempts to introduce vaccine passports.
This was not necessarily unique, though, as many western countries made similar dismissals of vaccine concerns and tried to promote passports. That said, New Zealand was one of the few in the west that built actual covid camps designed to incarcerate people with the virus in forced quarantine. The camps, referred to as “compulsory quarantine facilities”, were administrated by the NZ military, leaving no doubt that these were prisons rather than resorts.
The Primer Minister was finally forced to scrap a large number of covid mandates last year as evidence mounted that lockdowns and masks were mostly useless in preventing the spread of the virus, and that the vaccines do not necessarily stop covid contraction and transmission. The fact that the vaccinated now make up the majority of covid deaths is proof enough that the vaccines do not function as officials originally promised. The process of centralizing power has not stopped, though – The tactics have simply changed.
NZ has introduced a multitude of oppressive laws post-covid that add up to a freedom suffocating atmosphere for the public.
In November, the government implemented a law which forces large financial institutions to disclose climate related risks associated with their investments. The implications are far reaching, and ostensibly this puts pressure on banks and lenders to avoid financing businesses that are a “carbon emissions risk.” Meaning, if you want a loan from a bank and the government determines you are a “carbon polluter,” then you likely will not get the loan. This could include anything from large manufacturers to dairy farms.
Speaking of farms, NZ has banned the use of caged chicken farming across the country, creating a massive egg shortage which has led to high prices (This is taking place coincidentally right after the US government culled over 50 million chickens in 2022 due to “avian flu”, also causing high prices in America).
Feeling stressed about this mess and want to smoke a cigarette? Those are getting banned in NZ, too. In an unprecedented move, the government has passed a law which blocks any person under the age of 18 as of 2023 from buying cigarettes for their entire lives. Meaning, cigarettes will be slowly phased out as the younger generation grows older. Are cigarettes a health risk? Yes. But, governments claim that costs to socialized medicine give them a rationale to control people’s personal habits. Today it’s cigarettes; tomorrow it could be anything bureaucrats deem unhealthy regardless of actual science.
And that brings us to NZ’s latest authoritarian measure, the Therapeutic Products Bill, which if passed will give the government far reaching authority to manage and restrict the manufacture or sale of natural health supplements. Want to avoid big pharma and their untested products by taking care of your own body? You’re not allowed. Alternatives will be erased leaving only drugs and jabs.
This is not only the end result of the western fall into socialism, New Zealand seems to represent a test case for increasing violations of individual liberties and individual choice. New Zealand could yield a vision of the future for many other nations should western populations respond passively.
💭 iNCOVACC, the world’s first COVID-19 intranasal vaccine, will be launched on January 26. The intranasal coronavirus vaccine has been developed by India’s Bharat Biotech. Speaking at an event at the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), Krishna Ella, the company’s chairman and managing director, said, “Our nasal vaccine will be officially launched on January 26, on Republic Day.”
The company, in December 2022, got the approval for the primary 2-dose schedule, and as a heterologous booster dose. Before that, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had approved the restricted use of the intranasal vaccine in emergency situations in the age group of 18 and above.
But they found it only led to an immune response in a minority of participants.
This was also weaker than that from the standard injected Covid vaccines
AstraZeneca’s leading Covid nasal spray vaccine does not protect well against the virus, a study has shown — dashing hopes it could replace traditional jabs.
The University of Oxford — which is developing and running trials of the vaccine — said only a minority of patients mounted an immune response.
Even those who did react to the jab had lower antibody levels than someone given a shot-in-the-arm vaccination.
It is another blow for AstraZeneca which has so far failed to break the US vaccine market — after concerns about its original jab’s link to blood clots.
Researchers across the world have placed high hopes on nasal spray vaccines because they may have the potential to stop Covid infections entirely.
It was thought that prompting an immune response directly in the airways would be able to shut the virus down before it spreads to the rest of the body.
But Dr Sandy Douglas, who ran the UK-based AstraZeneca trial, said the spray did not perform ‘as well as we had hoped’.
China and India have already approved nasal spray Covid jabs, although there is no public data on how well they work.
South Koreans were inviting satan’s attack by celebrating satanic Halloween rituals – Indians were doing the same by celebrating satanic Diwali – and, of course, Babylon Saudi Arabia is ultimately excelling in this pagan fusing pride project.
So, Iran (biblical Elam) must destroy Arabia. In Isaiah 21:9, Isaiah levels a prophetic oracle against Babylon using the same announcement in Revelation 18:1-2 and Revelation 14:8: “Babylon is fallen, is fallen”:
“The burden against Dumah” (Isaiah 21:11) “The burden against Arabia” (Isaiah 21:13) “All the glory of Kedar will fail” (Isaiah 21:16).
These are all in Arabia, which is destroyed by Iran “Elam” (Isaiah 21:2).
💭 Saudi Arabia, U.S. on High Alert After Warning of Imminent Iranian Attack
Saudis said Tehran wants to distract from local protests, and the National Security Council said the U.S. is prepared to respond.
Saudi Arabia has shared intelligence with the U.S. warning of an imminent attack from Iran on targets in the kingdom, putting the American military and others in the Middle East on an elevated alert level, Saudi and U.S. officials said.
” A western disturbance and cyclonic circulation over Rajasthan brought unseasonal rains” ¡Madre mía!
☆ India applauds Britain’s 1st Indian-origin leader Rishi Sunak, 75 years after colonial rule
☆ The Mayor of London is Sadiq Khan, a Muslim of Indian-Pakistani heritage
💭 After unseasonal rain, Mumbai under a thick haze layer.
The Weather Dept said that the dust winds phenomenon would last for Sunday only, but again from Monday onwards, there is a possibility of a dip in temperature in Maharashtra for the next few days
A day after a western disturbance and cyclonic circulation over Rajasthan brought unseasonal rains it, Mumbai on Sunday had a thick layer of haze settled over it.
According to weather experts, the haze was attributed to “dust-raising winds”, brought as a result of the same Western Disturbance which caused Saturday’s rains and a drop in Sunday’s temperature.
It was further said that since everybody was wearing mask due to Covid-19, no other precautions were required.
“This haze consists of mainly sand because it originates from the Middle East where the conditions are sandier. It cannot be defined as smog, which comprises a more complex mixture of pollutants,” said Gufran Beig, Project Director, SAFAR.
The Weather Department said that the dust winds phenomenon is going to last for Sunday only, but again from Monday onwards, there is a possibility of a dip in temperature in Maharashtra for the next few days.
The maximum temperature of Mumbai’s Santacruz stood at 23.8 degrees Celsius, which is lowest in the last 10 years.
The dip in temperature was a result of the cloudy sky over north Konkan. It brought day time temperatures to as low as 23-24 degrees Celsius, which is the lowest maximum temperature in the last 10 years or maybe more, for the month of January.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Saturday said that after affecting normal life in Karachi, a massive dust storm headed towards Gujarat and south Rajasthan on Saturday evening and it may continue to have an effect till next 12 hours.
Karachi was caught off guard on Saturday morning when a dust storm that travelled from Pakistan’s west disturbed the normal life there with visibility reduced to less than or about 500 metres.
“Saurashtra coast has been getting dust rising winds from afternoon. Dwarka station reported 400 m visibility, at Porbandar, wind speed was more than 10 km per hour with visibility of less than 1 km,” the IMD said.
Winds carrying dust blew from south Pakistan areas and adjoining the Arabian Sea towards Kutch and Saurashtra towards evening.
The ‘Sand and Dust Storms Risk Assessment in Asia and the Pacific’ report for 2021, published by the Asian and Pacific Centre for the Development of Disaster Information Management (APDIM), which is a regional institution of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), had said more than 500 million people in India and more than 80 per cent of the populations of Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Iran are exposed to medium and high levels of poor air quality due to sand and dust storms.
Lahore, Karachi, and Delhi are the three most affected cities, the report had said.
Dust storms, if severe, and over a longer time, also adversely affect agriculture, especially cotton.
💭 Harrowing video has captured the moment a footbridge in India collapsed, killing at least 141 people celebrating Diwali. WARNING: Distressing
😠😠😠 ዋይ! ዋይ! ዋይ! 😢😢😢
Very Sad, indeed!
👉 Death toll rises to 141, many still missing
At least 141 people died when a pedestrian suspension bridge collapsed in India’s western state of Gujarat.
A local official said most of those who had died were women, children or elderly. The bridge in Morbi had been reopened just a week ago after repairs.
There was overcrowding on the bridge at the time as people celebrated the Diwali festival, officials said.
The 230m (754ft) bridge on the Machchu river was built during British rule in the 19th Century.
The death toll is expected to rise further.
Police, military and disaster response teams were deployed and the rescue effort is continuing.
More than 177 people have been rescued so far, officials said.
“Many children were enjoying holidays for Diwali and they came here as tourists,” an eyewitness called Sukram told Reuters news agency.
“All of them fell one on top of another. The bridge collapsed due to overloading.”
Videos on social media showed dozens clinging onto the wreckage as emergency teams attempted to rescue them. Some survivors clambered up the bridge’s broken netting, and others managed to swim to the river banks.
Reports said several hundred people were on the bridge when it collapsed at around 18:40 India time (13:10 GMT) on Sunday.
A video shot before the collapse showed it packed with people and swaying and many gripping the netting on its sides.
Gujarat is the home state of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has announced compensation for the families of victims. He said he was “deeply saddened by the tragedy”.
The authorities have promised a full investigation. Questions are being asked about whether safety checks were done before the bridge was reopened. It is a popular tourist attraction known locally as Julto Pul (swinging bridge).
Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi said a number of criminal cases had been registered over the incident.
Prateek Vasava was on the bridge at the time of the incident. He told 24 Hours Gujarati-language news channel how he had swum to the river bank.
Several children fell into the river, he said, adding: “I wanted to pull some of them along with me but they had drowned or got swept away.”
Videos showed scenes of chaos as onlookers on the river banks tried to rescue those trapped in the water as darkness fell.
My Note: ☆ Halloween = Oromo Ireecha = Thanksgiving
☆ ሃለዊን = ኢሬቻ = ምስጋና (ለደም ግብር)
👹 Halloween + Diwali = Hallowali
☆ Days ago it was South Korea & Halloween – and today it’s India & Diwali.
South Koreans were inviting satan’s attack by celebrating satanic Halloween rituals – Indians were doing the same by celebrating satanic Diwali
Let’s rembeber, Halloween is just the Western equivalent of Diwali.
It’s spooky season and everyone is way too excited for the house parties that they have scheduled. Halloween is the best day of the year, for the Western part of the world – after Christmas, of course.
But what’s the hype about in India?
Well, dressing up. Indians love to shop and dress up – the two things that unite us all together. It’s also part of the reason Diwali is such a huge festival in India. Diwali or the Festival of Lights is one of the most popular festivals of Hinduism, it symbolizes the spiritual “victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance.”
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Maybe a little similar to Halloween?
A lot of people believe that Halloween is the western equivalent of Diwali – the tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints. Soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating treats.
But the traditions and formalities of the two holidays are so similar it’s hard to ignore. Before Diwali night, people clean, renovate, and decorate their houses and offices. And on Diwali night, people dress up in new clothes or their best outfits, light up diyas inside and outside their house, pray, typically to Lakshmi — the goddess of fertility and prosperity.
After the pooja, there’s fireworks, and then a family feast with a whole lot of mithais, and an exchange of gifts between family members and close friends.
Halloween, follows in somewhat the same fashion – people clean the house before the holiday arrives, decorate the house, exchange sweets and take part in other activities like trick or treating. Just like the firecrackers, on Halloween people put up huge bonfires and sing and talk around it, put up lights and celebrate the lives of the dead.
This could just be simple speculation, but the similarities in the dates is also eerie – they fall so close to each other and are celebrated in such a similar way that maybe that’s the reason India has now adopted Halloween as a part of its subculture.
Either way, it’s interesting to see that some cultures integrate without actually colliding with one another. And celebrating both the holidays is never going to be a let down because both of them are such fun, interesting holidays.
The BBC has emailed Maiden Pharmaceuticals for comment.
Indian government sources told the BBC on condition of anonymity that India’s drug regulator had launched an investigation after it was informed of the issue on 29 September.
The regulator has also asked the WHO to share its report establishing the “causal relation to death with the medical products in question”, they said.
The WHO findings, announced by Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday, came after samples of each of the four cough syrups were tested. It identified the medicines as Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup.The health body said that laboratory analysis had confirmed that the syrups contain “unacceptable amounts” of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, which are toxic to humans and can prove fatal when consumed.
The WHO said that so far, the products have been identified in The Gambia, but that they may have been distributed to other countries through informal markets.
“All batches of these products should be considered unsafe until they can be analysed by the relevant National Regulatory Authorities,” it added.
However, the sources cited above said that the company has exported these cough syrups “only to The Gambia so far”.
India produces a third of the world’s medicines, mostly in the form of generic drugs.
Home to some of the fastest growing pharmaceutical companies, the country is known as the “world’s pharmacy” and meets much of the medical needs of African nations.
Maiden Pharmaceuticals, which is based in the northern state of Haryana, exports its products to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, according to Reuters.
Medical officers in The Gambia first raised the alarm in July after dozens of children were diagnosed with serious kidney problems.
The Gambia’s director of health services, Mustapha Bittaye, told Reuters that the number of deaths had gone down in recent weeks and that the country had banned the sale of the products.
“However, until recently, some of the syrups were still being sold in private clinics and in hospitals,” he was quoted as saying.
💭 TIGRAY: PEACE MUST PREVAIL AND THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR WAR ATROCITIES SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE
In an urgency resolution on the recent humanitarian developments in Tigray, Ethiopia, most notably that of children, requested by our political group and today approved by the plenary, we strongly condemn the use of starvation as a method of warfare and we call on the EU and its Member States to adopt sanctions against perpetrators of human rights violations through the European Magnitsky Act. Children are at the centre of the suffering in northern Ethiopia. There are numerous reports of sexual abuse of children by both sides of the conflict and the use and recruitment of child soldiers by rebel forces. The warring parties must put an end to this.
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Addis Ethiopia Weblog 