The Evening Wrap: India rejects China’s opposition to Venkaiah’s Arunachal trip

Amid continuing tensions between them in Ladakh, India and China on Wednesday exchanged sharp statements on Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh. New Delhi said it “rejected” a Chinese statement “firmly opposing” the visit. On Wednesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement in response to a Chinese state media question on the visit, asking India to “stop taking actions that would complicate and expand the boundary issue”. Naidu, on a tour of the Northeast, was in Arunachal over the weekend. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) responded that it “reject[s] such comments”. “Arunachal Pradesh is an integral and inalienable part of India,” its spokesperson Arindam Bagchi stated. “Indian leaders routinely travel to the state of Arunachal Pradesh as they do to any other state of India. Objecting to the visit of Indian leaders to a state of India does not stand to reason and understanding of Indian people,” he noted. Neither China issuing a statement on an Indian leader visiting Arunachal nor India responding to it was unusual in and of itself; what was new was the sharpness of the exchange, underlining the current state of ties, the lowest since 1988, with an 18 month-long LAC crisis still unresolved. Bagchi also rejected China’s contention that the visit would “complicate” boundary issues, amid ongoing tensions in Ladakh. “As we have mentioned earlier,” he said, “the current situation along the LAC in the Western Sector of the India-China border areas has been caused by unilateral attempts of Chinese side to alter the status quo in violation of the bilateral agreements. Therefore, we expect the Chinese side to work towards early resolution of the remaining issues along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols rather than trying to link unrelated issues.” China’s statement came days after the latest round of military talks ended in a stalemate. The question to the foreign office on Naidu’s visit was posed by a state media outlet, in this case Xinjiang Television, suggesting the authorities wanted to make a statement on the issue. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in response,“The Chinese government never recognises the so-called Arunachal Pradesh established unilaterally and illegally by the Indian side, and is firmly opposed to the Indian leaders’ visits to the area concerned. We urge the Indian side to earnestly respect China’s major concerns, stop taking any action that would complicate and expand the boundary issue, and refrain from undermining mutual trust and bilateral relations. It should instead take real concrete actions to maintain peace and stability in the China-India border areas and help bring the bilateral relations back on to the track of sound and steady development.” China claims up to 90,000 sq km in Arunachal in the eastern sector, while India sees China as illegally occupying 38,000 sq km in Aksai Chin in the western sector. Lakhimpur Kheri violence: Ashish Mishra denied bail Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra, was denied bail by a court in Lakhimpur Kheri on Wednesday in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case. Senior prosecution officer (SPO) S.P. Yadav told PTI that Chief Judicial Magistrate Chinta Ram rejected the bail applications of Ashish Mishra and his alleged accomplice Ashish Pandey. Ashish Mishra, who was arrested on October 9 by the special investigation team after 12 hours of questioning, had been sent to three days in police custody from Tuesday. The court also remanded Shekhar Bharti, arrested on Tuesday, in police custody for three days. Police have so far arrested four people in connection with the case — Ashish Mishra, Luvkush, Ashish Pandey and Bharti. One Ankit Das, who is said to be a close friend of Ashish Mishra, appeared before the SIT at the crime branch office in Lakhimpur earlier in the day. The investigators had summoned Ankit Das for questioning in connection with the October 3 violence that had left eight people, including four farmers, dead. Das is the nephew of former Minister Akhilesh Das, and the black SUV which allegedly knocked down the four farmers is said to be owned by him. At around 11 a.m., Das along with a team of lawyers arrived at the crime branch office in the reserved police lines area, the police said. On Tuesday, Ankit Das and one other identified as Latif had moved an application for surrender before the chief judicial magistrate. Congress demands dismissal of Ajay Mishra in meeting with President A Congress delegation, led by former party president Rahul Gandhi, met President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday and demanded the dismissal of Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs, Ajay Mishra Teni, over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, and called for an impartial probe by two sitting judges of the Supreme Court. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was part of the delegation, claimed that President Kovind had “assured” them that “he would talk to the government about it today itself”. Though the Congress had written to the President, seeking time for a seven-member delegation, a five-member delegation eventually called on him. The delegation included former Defence Minister A. K. Antony, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, former Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, besides Gandhi and Vadra. They also presented a memorandum of facts about the Lakhimpur Kheri incident to the President. Demanding an inquiry by two sitting Supreme Court judges, Gandhi said, “There cannot be an impartial inquiry and justice cannot be given till the time the MoS Home is sacked. This is the voice of not just the families of those killed but of all the farmers and this voice is being suppressed.” “The families want that the person who committed these murders should be punished,” he added. Vadra told reporters that the demands raised by her party reflect what “every right-thinking person” would want the Central Government to do. “The message that this government seems to be sending is that you will not get justice if you are a poor person, Dalit, farmer or a woman. There is no justice or the rule of law for them. And if you are a leader of the ruling party, then the law doesn’t apply on you,” she told reporters after meeting the President. In the memorandum, the Congress said, “It is important to note that on September 27th, 2021, the day of the Bharat Bandh called by protesting farmers against the three black laws, Shri Ajay Mishra Teni, MoS Home Affairs, in a public function openly threatened the agitating farmers and even boasted about his dubious antecedents.” The Congress also noted that given that BJP leaders, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, were making conciliatory statements towards the MoS Home, the situation will not change without intervention. Further, no police official would dare to fairly investigate the son if the father continued in his post as a Minister. “In these difficult circumstances, we call upon you as the custodian of our Constitution and the moral compass to this Government to immediately dismiss Union MOS Home Affairs, Sh. Ajay Mishra Teni; to direct an independent judicial investigation by a Commission comprising of two sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India or the High Court,” the memorandum said. Supreme Court notice on plea for mechanism to examine bills of ‘overcharged’ COVID-19 patients The Supreme Court has decided to intervene in a plea for a mechanism to probe whether private hospitals fleeced desperate COVID-19 patients and their families, dragging them into financial ruin at the time of their dire need for medical care during the pandemic. A Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud has admitted a petition to direct the government to set up a mechanism to examine if private hospitals “overcharged” COVID-19 patients, preferring profit over public health. The court has issued notice to the Union of India, through the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, on a plea by Abhinav Thapar to set up an audit and scrutiny mechanism of the bills of COVID-19 patients who have accused hospitals of swindling them. “The issue which has been raised in the petition concerns a wide strata of society consisting of patients and their relatives who have been overcharged during the COVID-19 pandemic and the issue which has been raised would merit serious attention,” the Supreme Court underscored in its order. It said the complaints made include those by families of COVID-19 patients who died. “We will set up some mechanism,” the Bench, also comprising, Justice B.V. Nagarathna orally observed. Noting that the petition was filed in public interest, the court said the “specific aspect canvassed in the petition is that during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, patients had to take recourse to seeking medical facilities in private hospitals as a result of the inadequacy of the public health infrastructure and there were widespread complaints of overcharging of hapless patients”. “Families, including of those who did not survive the pandemic, have been brought to economic ruin, as a result,” the order said. The Bench highlighted Thapar’s reference to how local bodies like the Pune Municipal Corporation have already issued notice to private hospitals for overcharging patients and ensured refund of excess amounts charged. “A writ of mandamus is sought to the Centre and the State Governments to set up a mechanism for scrutinising and auditing the bills of COVID-19 patients who have complaints of being overcharged... Issue notice to the Union of India for the present, returnable in four weeks,” the court ordered. Prioritise children who need COVID-19 vaccination the most, says expert Children are extremely unlikely to develop complications, severe disease or death due to COVID-19, unlike even the youngest adult, and panic created by any bad outcomes in children can in fact be counter-productive for the entire paediatric vaccination process, according to experts. Speaking about balancing benefits and risks of COVID-19 vaccination in children in India, Dr. Rajeev Jayadevan, vice chairman, research cell, Indian Medical Association (IMA), Kerala, said age was the most significant risk factor for COVID-19 complications. The important question was, is vaccination of crores of healthy children worth it just to prevent a few asymptomatic and mild infections for the first few months alone? “The short period of protection makes paediatric COVID-19 vaccination unattractive - when done for the purpose of preventing infection. The concept of ‘herd immunity’ is not valid any more for the virus, as sterilising immunity does not occur and reinfection/breakthrough infections are common,’’ he stated. It did not make sense to vaccinate enormous numbers of children to prevent one rare complication. “We should prioritise children who need vaccines the most. These will be children with comorbidities, who are more likely to develop complications. An additional subgroup will be children who live with people with cancer and immunosuppressed or elderly relatives – these children also may be considered for vaccination on a case by case basis,’’ he noted. There was need to keep a careful watch for any vaccine-related complications that may arise in the sub-group. “Vaccines produce different complications in different age groups and we should watch this carefully,’’ he stressed. Jairam Ramesh, Owaisi attack Rajnath Singh for his 'Gandhi-Savarkar comment' A day after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s remark that it was on Mahatma Gandhi's request that Veer Savarkar wrote mercy petitions, some opposition leaders attacked the Minister on Wednesday, alleging that he was “trying to rewrite history”. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh and All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi shared on Twitter a letter by Gandhi on January 25, 1920 to Savarkar’s brother regarding a case, and accused the Union Minister of giving a “twist” to what Gandhi wrote. The AIMIM leader also said the first petition Savarkar wrote was in 1911, just six months after getting to prison and Gandhi was then in South Africa. Savarkar wrote again in 1913/14 and Gandhi’s advice is from 1920, he added. “Rajnath Singhji is amongst the few sober and dignified voices in Modi Sarkar [government]. But he doesn’t seem to be free of the RSS habit of rewriting history. He has given a twist to what Gandhi actually wrote on Jan 25 1920. Here is that letter to Savarkar’s brother,” Ramesh said on Twitter while sharing the letter. “Rajnath Singh has clearly blown Gandhi’s letter of Jan 25 1920 out of context. Not surprising. This is par for the course for the BJP/RSS,” he said in another tweet. Ramesh’s comments were in response to a historian and Savarkar’s biographer Vikram Sampath, who tweeted, “Some needless brouhaha about the statement by Rajnath Singh.” “In my Vol 1 and in countless interviews I had stated already that in 1920 Gandhiji advised Savarkar brothers to file a petition and even made a case for his release through an essay in Young India 26 May 1920. So what’s noise about,” Sampath said. Tweeting on the issue, another historian S. Irfan Habib said, “Yes, monochromatic history writing is really changing, led by the Minister who claims Gandhi asked Savarkar to write mercy petitions. At least it is accepted now that he did write. No documentary evidence needed when the Minister makes a claim. New history for New India.” Owaisi attacked Singh and said, “Sir @rajnathsingh you said that Savarkar’s grovelling mercy petitions were on Gandhi’s advice. Here’s the letter to Savarkar from Gandhi. No mention of petition to the British begging for leniency, mercy and promising to be a faithful servant of the crown.” BJP ally Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)] too waded into the row over Rajnath Singh’s claim, with party spokesperson K.C. Tyagi demanding that letters exchanged between Gandhi and Savarkar should be made public to shed light on the matter. “While it is true that Savarkar spent many years in jail, it is also true that he tendered an apology and was freed with the consent of the British administration after he reached a pact with them,” Tyagi said, adding that he also decided to withdraw from politics following his release. The copy of Gandhi’s letter to S.D. Savarkar, shared by Ramesh and Owaisi, said, “I have your letter. It is difficult to advise you. I suggest, however, your framing a brief petition setting forth the facts of the case bringing out in clear relief the fact that the offence committed by your brother was purely political. I suggest this in order that it would be possible to concentrate public attention on the case. Meanwhile as I have said to you in an earlier letter I am moving in the matter in my own way.” Singh at an event to release a book on Veer Savarkar on Tuesday had alleged that there was a deliberate conspiracy to defame Savarkar and that it was on Gandhi’s advice that he wrote his mercy petitions. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 3,40,02,199 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 4,51,250. In Brief: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was admitted to All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) on Wednesday at 6:15 p.m. The former PM was admitted to the cardio neuro section of the Institute. Hospital authorities refused to give details about his medical condition. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 13 OCTOBER 2021 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( India rejects China’s opposition to Venkaiah Naidu’s Arunachal trip Amid continuing tensions between them in Ladakh, India and China on Wednesday [exchanged sharp statements on Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh](. New Delhi said it “rejected” a Chinese statement “firmly opposing” the visit. On Wednesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement in response to a Chinese state media question on the visit, asking India to “stop taking actions that would complicate and expand the boundary issue”. Naidu, on a tour of the Northeast, was in Arunachal over the weekend. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) responded that it “reject[s] such comments”. “Arunachal Pradesh is an integral and inalienable part of India,” its spokesperson Arindam Bagchi stated. [Speaker of Arunachal Pradesh Assembly Pasang Dorjee Sona presents Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu an artwork depicting Mr. Naidu in Memba traditional attire during the Vice-President’s visit to the Assembly in Itanagar on October 9, 2021.]  “Indian leaders routinely travel to the state of Arunachal Pradesh as they do to any other state of India. Objecting to the visit of Indian leaders to a state of India does not stand to reason and understanding of Indian people,” he noted. Neither China issuing a statement on an Indian leader visiting Arunachal nor India responding to it was unusual in and of itself; what was new was the sharpness of the exchange, underlining the current state of ties, the lowest since 1988, with an 18 month-long LAC crisis still unresolved. Bagchi also rejected China’s contention that the visit would “complicate” boundary issues, amid ongoing tensions in Ladakh. “As we have mentioned earlier,” he said, “the current situation along the LAC in the Western Sector of the India-China border areas has been caused by unilateral attempts of Chinese side to alter the status quo in violation of the bilateral agreements. Therefore, we expect the Chinese side to work towards early resolution of the remaining issues along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols rather than trying to link unrelated issues.” China’s statement came days after the latest round of military talks ended in a stalemate. The question to the foreign office on Naidu’s visit was posed by a state media outlet, in this case Xinjiang Television, suggesting the authorities wanted to make a statement on the issue. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in response,“The Chinese government never recognises the so-called Arunachal Pradesh established unilaterally and illegally by the Indian side, and is firmly opposed to the Indian leaders’ visits to the area concerned. We urge the Indian side to earnestly respect China’s major concerns, stop taking any action that would complicate and expand the boundary issue, and refrain from undermining mutual trust and bilateral relations. It should instead take real concrete actions to maintain peace and stability in the China-India border areas and help bring the bilateral relations back on to the track of sound and steady development.” China claims up to 90,000 sq km in Arunachal in the eastern sector, while India sees China as illegally occupying 38,000 sq km in Aksai Chin in the western sector. [underlineimg] Lakhimpur Kheri violence: Ashish Mishra denied bail Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra, was [denied bail by a court in Lakhimpur Kheri]( on Wednesday in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case. Senior prosecution officer (SPO) S.P. Yadav told PTI that Chief Judicial Magistrate Chinta Ram rejected the bail applications of Ashish Mishra and his alleged accomplice Ashish Pandey. Ashish Mishra, who was arrested on October 9 by the special investigation team after 12 hours of questioning, had been sent to three days in police custody from Tuesday. The court also remanded Shekhar Bharti, arrested on Tuesday, in police custody for three days. Police have so far arrested four people in connection with the case — Ashish Mishra, Luvkush, Ashish Pandey and Bharti. One Ankit Das, who is said to be a close friend of Ashish Mishra, appeared before the SIT at the crime branch office in Lakhimpur earlier in the day. The investigators had summoned Ankit Das for questioning in connection with the October 3 violence that had left eight people, including four farmers, dead. Das is the nephew of former Minister Akhilesh Das, and the black SUV which allegedly knocked down the four farmers is said to be owned by him. At around 11 a.m., Das along with a team of lawyers arrived at the crime branch office in the reserved police lines area, the police said. On Tuesday, Ankit Das and one other identified as Latif had moved an application for surrender before the chief judicial magistrate. [underlineimg] Congress demands dismissal of Ajay Mishra in meeting with President A Congress delegation, led by former party president Rahul Gandhi, met President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday and [demanded the dismissal of Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs, Ajay Mishra Teni]( over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, and called for an impartial probe by two sitting judges of the Supreme Court. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was part of the delegation, claimed that President Kovind had “assured” them that “he would talk to the government about it today itself”. [Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressing the media after the party's delegation met President Ram Nath Kovind, over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, in New Delhi on October 13, 2021. ]  Though the Congress had written to the President, seeking time for a seven-member delegation, a five-member delegation eventually called on him. The delegation included former Defence Minister A. K. Antony, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, former Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, besides Gandhi and Vadra. They also presented a memorandum of facts about the Lakhimpur Kheri incident to the President. Demanding an inquiry by two sitting Supreme Court judges, Gandhi said, “There cannot be an impartial inquiry and justice cannot be given till the time the MoS Home is sacked. This is the voice of not just the families of those killed but of all the farmers and this voice is being suppressed.” “The families want that the person who committed these murders should be punished,” he added. Vadra told reporters that the demands raised by her party reflect what “every right-thinking person” would want the Central Government to do. “The message that this government seems to be sending is that you will not get justice if you are a poor person, Dalit, farmer or a woman. There is no justice or the rule of law for them. And if you are a leader of the ruling party, then the law doesn’t apply on you,” she told reporters after meeting the President. In the memorandum, the Congress said, “It is important to note that on September 27th, 2021, the day of the Bharat Bandh called by protesting farmers against the three black laws, Shri Ajay Mishra Teni, MoS Home Affairs, in a public function openly threatened the agitating farmers and even boasted about his dubious antecedents.” The Congress also noted that given that BJP leaders, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, were making conciliatory statements towards the MoS Home, the situation will not change without intervention. Further, no police official would dare to fairly investigate the son if the father continued in his post as a Minister. “In these difficult circumstances, we call upon you as the custodian of our Constitution and the moral compass to this Government to immediately dismiss Union MOS Home Affairs, Sh. Ajay Mishra Teni; to direct an independent judicial investigation by a Commission comprising of two sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India or the High Court,” the memorandum said. [underlineimg] Supreme Court notice on plea for mechanism to examine bills of ‘overcharged’ COVID-19 patients The [Supreme Court has decided to intervene]( in a plea for a mechanism to probe whether private hospitals fleeced desperate COVID-19 patients and their families, dragging them into financial ruin at the time of their dire need for medical care during the pandemic. A Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud has admitted a petition to direct the government to set up a mechanism to examine if private hospitals “overcharged” COVID-19 patients, preferring profit over public health. The court has issued notice to the Union of India, through the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, on a plea by Abhinav Thapar to set up an audit and scrutiny mechanism of the bills of COVID-19 patients who have accused hospitals of swindling them. “The issue which has been raised in the petition concerns a wide strata of society consisting of patients and their relatives who have been overcharged during the COVID-19 pandemic and the issue which has been raised would merit serious attention,” the Supreme Court underscored in its order. It said the complaints made include those by families of COVID-19 patients who died. “We will set up some mechanism,” the Bench, also comprising, Justice B.V. Nagarathna orally observed. Noting that the petition was filed in public interest, the court said the “specific aspect canvassed in the petition is that during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, patients had to take recourse to seeking medical facilities in private hospitals as a result of the inadequacy of the public health infrastructure and there were widespread complaints of overcharging of hapless patients”. “Families, including of those who did not survive the pandemic, have been brought to economic ruin, as a result,” the order said. The Bench highlighted Thapar’s reference to how local bodies like the Pune Municipal Corporation have already issued notice to private hospitals for overcharging patients and ensured refund of excess amounts charged. “A writ of mandamus is sought to the Centre and the State Governments to set up a mechanism for scrutinising and auditing the bills of COVID-19 patients who have complaints of being overcharged... Issue notice to the Union of India for the present, returnable in four weeks,” the court ordered. [underlineimg] Prioritise children who need COVID-19 vaccination the most, says expert Children are extremely unlikely to develop complications, severe disease or death due to COVID-19, unlike even the youngest adult, and panic created by any bad outcomes in children can in fact be counter-productive for the entire paediatric vaccination process, according to experts. Speaking about balancing benefits and risks of COVID-19 vaccination in children in India, Dr. Rajeev Jayadevan, vice chairman, research cell, Indian Medical Association (IMA), Kerala, said age was the most significant risk factor for COVID-19 complications. The important question was, is vaccination of crores of healthy children worth it just to prevent a few asymptomatic and mild infections for the first few months alone? “The short period of protection makes paediatric COVID-19 vaccination unattractive - when done for the purpose of preventing infection. The concept of ‘herd immunity’ is not valid any more for the virus, as sterilising immunity does not occur and reinfection/breakthrough infections are common,’’ he stated. It did not make sense to vaccinate enormous numbers of children to prevent one rare complication. “[We should prioritise children who need vaccines the most](. These will be children with comorbidities, who are more likely to develop complications. An additional subgroup will be children who live with people with cancer and immunosuppressed or elderly relatives – these children also may be considered for vaccination on a case by case basis,’’ he noted. There was need to keep a careful watch for any vaccine-related complications that may arise in the sub-group. “Vaccines produce different complications in different age groups and we should watch this carefully,’’ he stressed. [underlineimg] Jairam Ramesh, Owaisi attack Rajnath Singh for his 'Gandhi-Savarkar comment' A day after Defence Minister [Rajnath Singh’s remark]( that it was on Mahatma Gandhi's request that Veer Savarkar wrote mercy petitions, some [opposition leaders attacked the Minister]( on Wednesday, alleging that he was “trying to rewrite history”. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh and All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi shared on Twitter a letter by Gandhi on January 25, 1920 to Savarkar’s brother regarding a case, and accused the Union Minister of giving a “twist” to what Gandhi wrote. The AIMIM leader also said the first petition Savarkar wrote was in 1911, just six months after getting to prison and Gandhi was then in South Africa. Savarkar wrote again in 1913/14 and Gandhi’s advice is from 1920, he added. “Rajnath Singhji is amongst the few sober and dignified voices in Modi Sarkar [government]. But he doesn’t seem to be free of the RSS habit of rewriting history. He has given a twist to what Gandhi actually wrote on Jan 25 1920. Here is that letter to Savarkar’s brother,” Ramesh said on Twitter while sharing the letter. “Rajnath Singh has clearly blown Gandhi’s letter of Jan 25 1920 out of context. Not surprising. This is par for the course for the BJP/RSS,” he said in another tweet. Ramesh’s comments were in response to a historian and Savarkar’s biographer Vikram Sampath, who tweeted, “Some needless brouhaha about the statement by Rajnath Singh.” “In my Vol 1 and in countless interviews I had stated already that in 1920 Gandhiji advised Savarkar brothers to file a petition and even made a case for his release through an essay in Young India 26 May 1920. So what’s noise about,” Sampath said. Tweeting on the issue, another historian S. Irfan Habib said, “Yes, monochromatic history writing is really changing, led by the Minister who claims Gandhi asked Savarkar to write mercy petitions. At least it is accepted now that he did write. No documentary evidence needed when the Minister makes a claim. New history for New India.” Owaisi attacked Singh and said, “Sir @rajnathsingh you said that Savarkar’s grovelling mercy petitions were on Gandhi’s advice. Here’s the letter to Savarkar from Gandhi. No mention of petition to the British begging for leniency, mercy and promising to be a faithful servant of the crown.” BJP ally Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)] too waded into the row over Rajnath Singh’s claim, with party spokesperson K.C. Tyagi demanding that letters exchanged between Gandhi and Savarkar should be made public to shed light on the matter. “While it is true that Savarkar spent many years in jail, it is also true that he tendered an apology and was freed with the consent of the British administration after he reached a pact with them,” Tyagi said, adding that he also decided to withdraw from politics following his release. The copy of Gandhi’s letter to S.D. Savarkar, shared by Ramesh and Owaisi, said, “I have your letter. It is difficult to advise you. I suggest, however, your framing a brief petition setting forth the facts of the case bringing out in clear relief the fact that the offence committed by your brother was purely political. I suggest this in order that it would be possible to concentrate public attention on the case. Meanwhile as I have said to you in an earlier letter I am moving in the matter in my own way.” Singh at an event to release a book on Veer Savarkar on Tuesday had alleged that there was a deliberate conspiracy to defame Savarkar and that it was on Gandhi’s advice that he wrote his mercy petitions. [underlineimg] Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The [number of reported coronavirus cases from India]( stood at 3,40,02,199 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 4,51,250.  [underlineimg] In Brief: Former Prime Minister [Manmohan Singh was admitted to All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS)]( on Wednesday at 6:15 p.m. The former PM was admitted to the cardio neuro section of the Institute. Hospital authorities refused to give details about his medical condition. 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