Indo-american News: May 28, 2021

Friday, May 28, 2021 | Vol. 40, No. 22

Indo American News

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May 28, 2021

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Covid Subsides, But Suffering Continues

Cyclone Yaas: No! P5

‘Dithee’ : Timely

P9

P 2-4 A woman mourns after seeing the body of her son who died due to COVID-19, outside a mortuary of a hospital in New Delhi [Adnan Abidi/ Reuters]

Indo-American News • Friday, may 28, 2021 • www.indoamerican-news.com

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2 May 28, 2021 COVID RELIEF Sewa Releases $100,000 to Nepal; $50,000 to Trinidad and Tobago Houston: Sewa International has announced $100,000 in aid to Nepal and $50,000 to Trinidad and Tobago for COVID -19 relief efforts as the second wave of the pandemic is gaining strength in the two countries. The COVID-19 second wave is rapidly spreading in Nepal and the test positive rate has crossed 47 percent.

“Similar to our ongoing campaign to help India, we have launched ‘Help Nepal Defeat COVID-19’ campaign to raise funds to send oxygen concentrators, ventilators and other lifesaving equipment to Nepal,” Sewa International’s Vice President for Administration, Ashwani Garg said.

According to Swadesh Katoch, Sewa International’s Vice President for Disaster Recovery, Sewa is planning to send 54 oxygen concentrators, 500 oximeters, 250 infrared thermometers, and 250 electronic blood pressure monitors to Trinidad and Tobago as the initial shipment in a week. Sewa International of Trinidad and Tobago is working with its partner organizations to distribute food, medicine, and other essentials to people who are in need.

“Sewa is working with the Nepal

Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, inaugurated Sewa International’s Nepal Covid Care Center in Kathmandu on Monday, May 17, 2021.

Medical Association, Aggrawal Sewa Kendra, Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, and Upkar Sewa and our other partner organizations.

Many Nepal related organizations in the US have been reaching out

to Sewa to collaborate in this effort. Sewa International Nepal in collaboration with its partner organizations started our first COVID isolation center in Aggrawal Kendra in Kathmandu, Nepal on

Monday, May 17. Vinay Mohan Kwatra, the Indian Ambassador to Nepal, inaugurated the center,” Ashwani Garg said COVID Care Center has 22 rooms that accommodate two pa-

tients each. It also has three big dormitories that house more than 80 beds. If required, bed capacity can be increased to 150 in these dormitories.

Sewa International has also started work in three other places in Nepal where food and basic medicines are being distributed to people in need. “Sewa carried out major disaster relief and recovery activities in Nepal during the 2015 earthquake and we have the experience working in Nepal and we have volunteers on the ground.

We are grateful to Americans who gave their generous support to our India campaign and request them to extend their complete support to Nepal to fight COVID-19 at this hour as Nepal is not really equipped to face a crisis of this magnitude,” said Arun Kankani, President of Sewa International.

Sewa’s Director of Disaster Response, Achalesh Amar, and Anup Bhasin, Sewa’s Houston Chapter Joint Coordinator, met Yuba Raj Khatiwada, Ambassador of Nepal in Houston on Monday May 17, to the United States and apprised him of the work being done by Sewa International in Nepal.

Sewa to Build 100 Qxygen Generation Plants; 15 Running in 3 Months

By Viswanath Koppaka Houston: Sewa International will be funding the installation of 100 oxygen generation plants in hospitals across India to ease oxygen scarcity in the country. It has ordered 20-tonn Zeolites (molecular sieves that absorb nitrogen and produce oxygen as a product) from Honeywell to establish up to 30 plants immediately. As part of these efforts, it has placed orders for 15 oxygen generation plants to be set up in the next 8-12 weeks at a cost of about $1.8 million.

Sewa International has started a fundraising campaign to construct these oxygen plants. A donation of $61,000, $81,000 or $121,000 can help establish one such oxygen plant of a desired size. The campaign will help distribute oxygen generation capability equitably to different parts of the country bridging the urban and rural divide in India’s healthcare sector. “Based on our reading of the current situation, Sewa International has made a strategic decision to establish oxygen generating plants in India to enhance India’s capacity to face the present COVID-19 crisis. This will also make India future-ready to face a possible third wave of the pandemic,” said Arun Kankani, President of Sewa International.

Sewa has identified three vendors from India to supply machinery required to build these plants.

The first 15 plants will be a mix of 250 LPM and 500 LPM capacity and each can support about 20 to 40 ICU beds. Sewa International is working with forty to fifty hospitals across India to establish these

Images of oxygen generation plants from two of Sewa’s suppliers.

plants. The number of hospitals we work with is expected to grow to more than 100 depending on support from donors.

“The primary targets for installing these oxygen generation plants are charitable hospitals in the rural and tribal areas and second and third tier cities. The plants, with good care and maintenance, have a life of twenty years,” Mukund Kute, Project Manager for Sewa’s

oxygen generation plant initiative said. According to Kute, Sewa International has established technical team of experts and project managers to assist selected hospitals in seeking permits, setting up electrical systems, pipelines, and in constructing industrial workshops, training, etc., to install and operate such plants quickly and efficiently.

“Sewa is going to be involved

from concept to completion in installing these plants. Once operational, they will eliminate the need for transporting liquid oxygen from place to place. The Zeolites we have ordered from Honeywell are going to be shipped to India very soon. It is going to take about 10-14 weeks for these plants to become operational as some of the mechanical components required are on back order,” Sewa’s Vice

Indo-American News • Friday, May 28, 2021 • www.indoamerican-news.com

President for Technology Services, Anil Deshpande said.

“One 500 LPM plant can support a 200-bed hospital with 40 ICU beds or can produce 110 cylinders of oxygen a day. Including site preparation expenses and taxes, one such plant would cost about $121,000. When we calculate the initial investment and annual maintenance costs, it will still work out to be less expensive for hospitals than buying oxygen cylinders or liquid oxygen from a vendor,” Deshpande said.

India’s daily production capacity of oxygen is 7127 MT per day, and 46 percent of which is for industrial consumption and 3842 MT is used for medical consumption.

Medical consumption is expected to increase to about 6,000 to 7,000 MT per day going forward with the current trajectory of COVID cases and any potential third wave of the pandemic. The more than 100 oxygen generation plants that Sewa International is planning to set up with the help of donors is going to help rural and semi-urban India prepare to face future challenges more confidently.

Sewa International (www. sewausa.org) is a 501 (c)(3) Hindu faith-based charitable nonprofit that works in the areas of disaster recovery, education, and development. Sewa has 43 Chapters across the USA and serves regardless of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin.

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COVID RELIEF

May 28, 2021

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Oxygen Express Trains Head South for Deliveries to Andhra, Tamil Nadu

By Avishek G Dastidar

New Delhi: Oxygen expresses, the special trains crisscrossing the country to ferry medical oxygen for patients of Covid-19, delivered their highest-ever single-day load of more than 1,142 tonnes on Sunday — beating the previous record of 1,118 tonnes on May 20.

Southern states have figured prominently on India’s oxygen express map of late, with deliveries of liquid medical oxygen to Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka having spiked the most sharply over the last four days.

Oxygen expresses, the special trains crisscrossing the country to ferry medical oxygen for patients of Covid-19, delivered their highest-ever single-day load of more than 1,142 tonnes on Sunday — beating the previous record of 1,118 tonnes on May 20.

Between April 19, when the first oxygen express rolled, and Monday, the Railways have delivered 16,023 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen in more than 977 tankers aboard 247 trains.

From delivering emergency supplies to Delhi and Mumbai at the beginning of the second wave, the oxygen expresses have reached 15

‘Oxygen Express Train’ being used through green corridors to trasnport Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) and 0xygen cylinder, required for treatment of Covid-19 patients. (Source: Twitter/@RailMinIndia)

states over the past month as the virus has spread to India’s vast rural hinterland.

More than half the total supply — 8,249 tonnes until Monday — has been to Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

On Saturday, Assam received 80 tonnes on a single oxygen express rake.

The biggest spike in supply recently has been seen in Andhra

Pradesh, which had received a cumulative 292 tonnes until Thursday (May 20). On Monday, this number had jumped to 730 tonnes, an increase of 150 per cent.

Tamil Nadu had received 1,024 tonnes until Monday, a 75 per cent increase since Thursday. Karnataka had received 1,063 tonnes, a 66 per cent increase over receipts of 640 tonnes of oxygen until Thurs-

day.

Kerala, a state with no major oxygen shortage, had received six tankers carrying 118 tonnes until Thursday. Four days later, that number was 246 tonnes, a 108 per cent increase.

“Since the active caseload in southern states has been rising, stretching the capacity of (oxygen) plants in that region, we have

Indo-American News • Friday, may 28, 2021 • www.indoamerican-news.com

diverted a lot of oxygen to these states,” said a senior government official involved in the operation.

While the first oxygen express last month carried supplies of the lifesaving gas to Mumbai from the Visakhapatnam steel plant, Maharashtra has so far required just 614 tonnes — the understanding is the demand may be plateauing in the state.

Between April 27 and Monday, Delhi had received 4,600 tonnes; an increase of 17 per cent since Thursday. Uttar Pradesh with 3,649 tonnes is second in terms of volumes of gas received. Haryana had received 1,759 tonnes by Monday, up 17 per cent since Thursday.

Over the past one month, the bulk of the oxygen has come to these three states.

Most of the oxygen is being picked up from Hapa, Baroda, and Mundra in the west, and Rourkela, Durgapur, Tatanagar, and Angul in the east of the country. With the looming threat from cyclone Yaas this week, the government has made plans to ensure uninterrupted power to the plants, and worked on alternative routes for the expresses, should the regular routes be affected, sources said. -Indian Express

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May 28, 2021

Covid Aid: Indian Americans Pitching In via HC402

COVID RELIEF

Oxygen concentrators reaching hospitals in India, thanks to donations from Indian Americans through Hindu Charities for America.

By Swati Arun Austin: As the second wave of the fatal virus burns through India, Indians living abroad are leaving no stone unturned to help India beat Covid-19. Hindu Charities for America (HC4A) is partnering with Navya Care, to send highquality oxygen concentrators to underserved COVID-19 patients in India.

Several FedEx 777 charter planes have landed in India with over eighty-one thousand kilos of medical supplies, oxygen concentrators, and over three hundred thousand N95 masks.

The campaign, HC4O2 (Hindu Charities for Oxygen), is raising funds to ensure a speedy and reliable supply of oxygen concentrators and other medical supplies for maximum impact during this emergency.

“We were collectively hurting to do something to help the situation in India. We chose to align with Navya Care as they had already figured out the sourcing, transport, and distribution of oxygen concentrators. It’s a relief to see the concentrators already at work

at hospitals throughout the country”, says Gulshan Singh, VicePresident Communications, Hindu Charities for America.

These oxygen concentrators are state-of-the-art, INOGEN GEN 5 made in the USA and subsidized to fifty percent of the price; freight carriers are transporting supplies at no-cost agreements. One oxygen concentrator can be used by sixty patients for one month.

Navya Care is working with Tata Memorial Centre and the National Cancer Grid network of over two hundred hospitals across India to ensure no delays in access to supplies once they reach India.

Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi, Deputy Director of Epidemiology, Tata Memorial Centre congratulated us saying “Great job team for smooth job. You all have done custom clearance in a record time of less than two hours. That is phenomenal. US team did a fabulous job of perfect paperwork.”

Dr. Pramesh, Coordinator of the National Cancer Grid, said: “We are collecting requests for equipment and consumables from hospitals across the NCG, and mapping the current incidence of Covid-19

infections to determine where the greatest needs are and prioritizing government and charitable organizations to finalize the allocation.”

These concentrators will be distributed across Goa, Delhi, Assam, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, West Bengal, Kerala, Bihar, and Jharkhand.

Gitika Srivastava, Founder, CEO of Navya Care said “I got goosebumps to be a part of such an incredibly amazing group of people.

Thank you!

Every dollar donated is tax-exempted. Please share this initiative with friends and family. We can together save hundreds of lives!”

HC4A or Hindu Charities for America is a non-religious, nonpolitical, non-profit organization that is based in Austin, Texas. Its mission is to bridge income disparities through education.

Over the last ten years, it has strived to close the gaps in education by providing schooling’s needs and vocational scholarships to young students who are homeless and below the poverty line in the USA.

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INDIA

May 28, 2021

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Cyclone Yaas: Storm Batters Bengal-Odisha Coast; High Alert in Jharkhand Kolkota: At least four people died as several coastal towns of north Odisha and neighbouring West Bengal were pounded by Cyclonic storm ‘Yaas’ after it made landfall in Odisha on Wednesday morning with a wind speed of 130140 kmph, gusting to 155 kmph.

This is the second cyclonic storm to hit the country within a week after ‘Tauktae’ barrelled into its western coast, causing death and destruction.

Seawater entered several villages in Bahanaga and Remuna blocks in Balasore district, and Dhamra and Basudevpur in Bhadrak district of Odisha, while in Bengal, roads adjoining the sea beaches in Digha were inundated.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that at least one crore people in the state were affected by rough weather conditions and high tide arising out of the storm. Three lakh houses have suffered damage, she said.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that at least one crore people in the state were affected by rough weather conditions and high tide arising out of the storm. Banerjee said that she will visit areas affected by the cyclone and high tide in Purba Medinipur, South and North 24 Parganas on Friday. “We have sent relief worth Rs 1 crore to areas affected by cyclone and high tide,” she said.

According to news agency PTI, the rising river water levels due to the landfall of cyclone Yaas

Pedestrians wade through a flooded road during landfall of cyclone ‘Yaas’ in Kolkata.

inundated large parts of Bengal’s coastal districts of Purba Medinipur and South 24 Parganas, as sea waves were seen touching coconut tree-tops and cars floating in floodwaters.

According to news agency PTI, the rising river water levels due to the landfall of cyclone Yaas inundated large parts of Bengal’s coastal districts of Purba Medinipur and South 24 Parganas, as sea waves were seen touching coconut tree-tops and cars floating in floodwaters.

Jharkhand was put on high alert on Wednesday amid the forecast that cyclone Yaas would be hitting the state by midnight after pound-

ing neighbouring Odisha and West Bengal, officials said.

The storm, which has now weakened into a ‘severe cyclonic storm’ category, made landfall in Odisha on Wednesday morning and crossed the northern Odisha coast about 20 km south of Balasore between 10:30-11:30 am with an estimated wind speed of 130-140 kmph, gusting to 150 kmph.

The Met department has predicted very heavy rain (more than 200 mm) over Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Balasore, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Keojhargharh and heavy showers over Puri, Khurda, Angul, Deogarh, Sundergarh districts of Odisha on

Wednesday. The department has also predicted light to moderate rainfall at isolated places in West Bengal today while Jharkhand is likely to receive heavy to very heavy rain today and tomorrow.

The NDRF, along with the district administration of Jagatsinghpur in Odisha, has rescued 10 people from a river after their boat capsized, amid rough weather conditions under the influence of cyclone Yaas, news agency PTI reported.

In a video tweeted by the Jagatsinghpur district collector, rescue personnel on Tuesday night can be seen holding on to an inflatable boat as people disembarked.

Jagatsinghpur district collector Sangram K Mohapatra said in a tweet on Wednesday, “Fantastic work by NDRF and BDO, Erasama during #CycloneYaas rescuing 10 people in the late night from a river after their boat capsized.” He further said that the arduous operation was carried out in the midst of light drizzle and 45-kmph wind.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has also lauded the rescue effort.

“Appreciate the quick response from the team of @NDRFHQ and Erasama BDO to rescue 10 people from a capsized boat in the river, during a courageous night time rescue operation,” he said in a tweet.

Rising river water levels due to the landfall of cyclone ‘Yaas’ have inundated large parts of West Bengal’s coastal districts of Purba Medinipur and South 24 Parganas on Wednesday, as sea waves were seen touching coconut tree-tops and cars floating in floodwaters.

The seaside towns of Digha and Mandarmoni in Purba Medinipur and Fraserganj and Gosaba in South 24 Parganas were among the areas affected by a storm surge of more than 2 metres above the astronomical tide level, news agency PTI reported.

Officials said the surging waters have breached embankments at several places in the two coastal districts, inundating many villages and small towns. Water levels of several rivers, Bidyadhari, Hooghly and Rupnarayan. -- Indian Express

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COMMUNITY

May 28, 2021

Alabama School Students Can Learn Yoga, but No References to Hinduism: Governor

Montgomery: Students in Alabama can now learn yoga at school -- but they still can’t deliver the traditional “namaste” greeting to their teacher.

The southern state’s governor, Kay Ivey, revoked a 30-year-old law Friday that banned the popular practice, letting public schools teach and practice yoga, though stripped clean its cultural, spiritual and religious elements.

“All instruction in yoga shall be limited exclusively to poses, exercises, and stretching techniques,” the new law says. Those poses have to use the English names, like the “downward dog” and “the warrior.”

Meanwhile, it says, “Chanting, mantras, mudras, use of mandalas, induction of hypnotic states, guided imagery, and namaste greetings shall be expressly prohibited,” meaning meditation, Hindu/Buddhist style, is out.

The state, dominated by conservative Protestants, banned yoga in public schools three decades ago, saying it could not be separated from its Hindu beliefs.

Albert Mohler, theologian and president of

the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, had written that yoga was innately Hindu and that contradicted the teachings of the Christian church.

“The embrace of yoga is a symptom of our postmodern spiritual confusion, and, to our shame, this confusion reaches into the church,” he wrote.

That view has still not left Alabama’s schools. The new law requires parents to sign a permission letter to allow their children to learn yoga at school. “I understand that yoga is part of the Hinduism religion,” the letter must say.

Moreover, local school boards will have the choice of permitting yoga or opting out.

The effort to permit yoga in schools was led by a young African-American state lawmaker, Jeremy Gray. The new law “prioritizes our children’s health and wellness and brings Alabama schools into the 21st century,” the state Democratic party said in a statement. -- Times of India

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CRICKET

May 28, 2021

Indian Men and Women’s Squads begin Hard Quarantine ahead of England Tour Mumbai: The Indian contingent that will head to the UK for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand and the five-match Test series against England this summer will undergo a hard quarantine, spanning two weeks, starting May 19.

Also part of this plan will be the Indian women’s squad, which is scheduled to play a one-off Test followed by three ODIs and three T20Is. Both the Indian squads will assemble in Mumbai and are likely to fly out together on a charter flight to London on June 2.

As per the BCCI’s plan, the 20 players in the men’s Test squad, excluding those residing in Mumbai, will start their quarantine at the team hotel from Wednesday.

The BCCI has arranged charter flights that will pick up all the players, coaches and support staff from different parts of India and bring them to Mumbai.

From May 24 onwards the rest of the squad and members of the team management residing in Mumbai, including Indian captain Virat Kohli, his deputy Ajinkya Rahane, senior batsman Rohit Sharma along with head coach Ravi Shastri, will enter the biosecure bubble at the Mumbai team hotel. The Mumbai group will also serve a strict home quarantine starting on May 19.

To ensure the bubble is completely secure, the BCCI has arranged for all members - both the men’s and women’s squads - to

tious about incoming travellers from India mainly due to concern over the growing number of cases related to the coronavirus variant, B.1.617.2, which originated in India. On Monday, Matt Hancock, the British Health Secretary said there were about 2,323 cases of the Indian variant.

At present, the BCCI has allowed family members to be part of the Mumbai bubble. The family members will undergo the same bio-safety protocols meant for the team while living in the bubble. -ESPN Cricinfo.

BCCI to Restart IPL at UAE in Sept-Oct

get three negative tests before they board the flights to Mumbai. There will be further testing done at the team hotel in Mumbai before they embark on the London flight.

Wriddhiman Saha, who is one of the two wicketkeepers along with Rishabh Pant for the WTC final and the England series, will join the Mumbai bubble in the week leading to the England departure. Saha had tested positive for Covid-19 during his stay in the Delhi leg of the IPL where he plays for Sunrisers Hyderabad.

The men’s squad will head directly to Southampton where India will play New Zealand in the in-

augural WTC final between June 18-22. ESPNcricinfo understands that as per the permission sought from the British government by the ECB, which will coordinate with the ICC in hosting the WTC final, the Indian Test squad will undergo a 10-day quarantine at the team hotel which is located within the ground premises in Southampton. However unlike the hard quarantine in Mumbai, the Indian squad would be allowed to train in a controlled fashion within the Southampton bubble, which will comprise the team hotel and the ground and training facilities.

One significant question still

facing the BCCI is getting exemptions for the family members of the Indian contingent. It is learnt that the ECB is working with the UK government on seeking these exemptions.

With the number of Covid cases nearing 25 million overall, India is only behind the US globally and also has the third-largest death count since the pandemic hit. Recently the UK government had put India on the red list of countries for travel - both outbound and inbound. Despite most of its adult population having received at least one shot of the vaccine, the UK government has been cau-

The BCCI is honing in on the possibility of conducting the second half of IPL 2021 in the UAE in a window between September 18 and October 12.

For that to happen, however, it would require a rejigging of various boards’ calendars, not least the Caribbean Premier League (CPL which is scheduled to start on August 28. If the BCCI does push ahead with these dates it would mean that the IPL ends only around a week before the mooted start of the ICC’s T20 World Cup, which may also be held in the UAE. This year’s IPL was indefinitely suspended on May 4, after a number of players and staff tested positive for Covid-19 in the midst of the second wave of the pandemic in India.

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ENTERTAINMENT

May 28, 2021

‘Dithee’: Film Feels Timely, Its Questions Timeless

By Shubhra Gupta

Cast: Kishore Kadam, Mohan Agashe, Amruta Subhash, Girish Kulkarni, Anjali Patil, Dilip Prabhavalkar Director: Sumitra Bhave Rating: 3 stars A devastated father trying to make sense of the untimely death of his son, is the opening for the many questions that plague us as we go through life, questions about faith and belief, truth and myth, memory and remembrance.

‘Dithee’ which means ‘seeing’, is Sumitra Bhave’s last film (she passed away in April), and is almost like a compendium of the big themes that her films touched upon, especially those that she codirected with Sunil Sukthankar (‘Vaastupurush’, Doghi’, ‘Astu’, ‘Kaasav’).

Kadam plays Ramji, a skilled cow whisperer who is struggling with the fact of his 30 years of pil-

grimage, and the tragedy that has befallen him: how, he cries out, did his beloved Lord Vithal allow this to happen? The son, who was swept away by the swift currents of a river, was young. Ramji is advancing towards old age. His

eyes rest upon his grief-struck daughter-in-law (Anjali Patil), and the new born girl in her lap, and he cannot bear it: he wants his son back, not his (the son’s) progeny and equally bereft wife.

The constantly falling rain is both physical and metaphorical, a flowing cleansing of SEEKS and anger and sadness.

Ramji’s old friends A QUALIFIED PERSON WITH PROVEN and neighbours gather together to SKILLS IN BOOK KEEPING comment on the tragedy, the weathFOR APARTMENTS IN SOUTHWEST er, the perilous HOUSTON state of a cow who is about to give Email resume to birth. The trio (Mojbbassetmanagement@yahoo.com han Agashe, Girish Kulkarni, Dilip

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Prabhavalkar ) functions almost like a Greek chorus in a tiny Maharashtra village, providing a layer of meaning to the endless cycle of life and death.

Agashe delivers a lovely line about the fickleness and porousness of memory, ‘otherwise the grief of a ripped kite from childhood would have affected us for our entire life’.

The parallel that the film draws between the cow’s deliverance of a female calf, and the acceptance of the baby girl is predictable, yet moving. We know that finally it will be Ramji who helps the painfully lowing animal to deliver, and will find deliverance of his own. We also know that Subhash, despite being aware of the pain Ramji is going through, will reach out to him. She, the owner of the cow, knows about empathy, and knows exactly who can help.

Kadam’s portrayal of Ramji, who manages to arrive at a state of acceptance and compassion, is at the heart of ‘Dithee’, which says ‘if the ‘seeing’ is clear, you can see both here and beyond, otherwise it’s all dark everywhere’. Aren’t we all looking for salvation right now? As we grapple with the pandemic, experiencing other peoples’ grief as well as ours, the film feels timely its questions timeless. -- Indian Express

Indo-American News • Friday, may 28, 2021 • www.indoamerican-news.com

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Tamilian MP Against Serial ‘Family Man 2’

Days before the release of muchawaited web series The Family Man 2, Rajya Sabha member and MDMK leader Vaiko has written a letter to the Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar to stop the broadcast of the show, alleging it shows Tamilians in a negative light.

The Family Man 2, a sequel to the series that debuted in 2019, has Manoj Bajpayee returning as the main lead, Srikant Tiwari along with actors Sharib Hashmi, Priyamani and others. The show has actor Samantha Akkikeni joining the cast as the main antagonist.

According to what we saw of her in the Family Man 2 trailer, Samantha plays the role of Raji, a rebel, who has an ulterior motive against the government. The new season is set in Chennai and has undercover spy agent Srikant Tiwari out to stop Raji from leading the anti-establishment force.

On May 19, Vaiko sent a letter to Prakash Javadekar. As per Vaiko, the show depicted “Tamilians as terrorists and ISI Agents and having link with Pakistan.”

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DIPLOMACY

May 28, 2021

What Minister S Jaishankar’s Recent Visit Says about Indo-US Ties

By C. Raja Mohan

External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s visit to New York and Washington this week highlights the new India-US synergy between bilateral, regional and multilateral issues.

The three domains, viewed as separate until recently, are beginning to come together as India raises its multilateral ambitions and President Joe Biden discards America’s unilateralist impulses that came to the fore under his predecessor Donald Trump. But Biden has embraced and reinforced the idea of an Indo-Pacific regional space articulated by Trump.

This new Indo-Pacific consensus in Washington presents India and the US an enduring geography for regional cooperation. In the past, regional issues, including those in the subcontinent and broader Asia, were a major source of friction between Delhi and Washington.

Meanwhile, the mechanism of the Quadrilateral Security Framework, which arose out of the India-US bilateral defence cooperation and includes Japan and Australia, is emerging as a potential instrument to shape the regional architecture in the east.

India’s principal national challenge today — of beating back the

virus by vaccinating its population — is expected to be an important part of the Jaishankar’s talks in Washington. This conversation goes beyond the bilateral and has regional and global dimensions.

In New York, the ambition is to make India’s current tenure as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council count. Traditionally, Indian diplomacy in Washington and New York seemed to inhabit two different planets. There was so little in common between India’s bilateral goals in Washington and its global discourse in New York. Today, they are reinforcing each other.

But first to the profound changes in Washington that form the background to Jaishankar’s talks. If Trump’s policies suggested America was turning its back on the world, Biden has promised to restore US leadership in multilateral institutions. Biden is vigorously contesting the notion — especially popular in China — that America is in a terminal decline. Biden has declared that Washington will not cede the top slot to Beijing under his watch. He has promised extreme competition with China.

And this has the full support of the Republicans.

America’s allies and partners were despondent in the last four

years and complained bitterly about Trump’s transactional approach to international relations.

Many of them are now welcoming the opportunity to engage with the Biden administration that looks better organised.

India finds itself in a relatively sweet spot with the Biden administration. It is quite familiar with Biden, who has spent nearly five decades in Washington’s public life before becoming President.

Many of the key people in his administration have worked with India before. Continuing with the recent tradition of advancing ties with India and disappointing the many sceptics of US-India ties, Biden was quick to demonstrate the commitment to deepen the strategic partnership with India — at the bilateral, regional and global levels.

Although the brief delay in the US response to the second wave of the pandemic in India generated much chatter, Washington has now come through strongly — by facilitating the release of essential items for vaccine production and delivering significant relief supplies.

That bilateral cooperation on pandemics has a natural regional dimension. Well before the virus began to surge in April, the Biden

administration saw the partnership with India as a critical element in the regional effort to expand the production of vaccines and deliver them across the Indo-Pacific. That was one of the main outcomes from the first meeting of the Quad leaders at the summit level in March that Biden convened.

The terrifying April surge of the virus certainly set back India’s own Vaccine Maitri initiative and the collective plans of the Quad.

As the second wave begins to recede and India’s vaccine production revives, Jaishankar and his American interlocutors must now plan to reboot the strategy to vaccinate the Indo-Pacific.

Beyond the regional, there is much that Delhi and Washington could do by pooling their resources and strategies in boosting the global resilience against the pandemics and framing new international norms to combat it. Delhi, like the rest of the world, has welcomed Biden’s move to reverse Trump’s decision to walk out of the World Health Organisation.

This, in turn, brings us to the emerging possibilities for expansive India-US cooperation in the multilateral domain. During the Cold War, India and the US ended up on opposite sides of most global issues. A great ideologi-

Indo-American News • Friday, May 28, 2021 • www.indoamerican-news.com

cal divide limited the possibilities for international cooperation between Delhi and Washington. After the Cold War, Delhi tended to rally behind Chinese and Russian positions on multilateral issues.

The idea that multilateralism is a natural domain for India-China cooperation took a big beating as Beijing blocked India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group and Delhi’s quest for a permanent seat at the UNSC. To make matters worse, China has sought to get the UNSC intervention against India’s constitutional changes in Jammu and Kashmir. It also continues to protect Islamabad from international pressure on the question of Pakistan’s continuing support for crossborder terrorism in the region. It was the US that led the charge to end India’s nuclear isolation and France that took the lead in blocking China’s Kashmir moves at the UNSC. India’s default position of opposing the West on multilateral issues is now history. In the last couple of years, Delhi has actively backed the European “Alliance for Multilateralism”. It is now open to positive engagement with the Biden administration on global issues. -- Indian Express What’s going wrong with In-

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