Mumbai has reported 23,000 fresh infections in past 24 hours, the highest in any state of India on any single day. But switch on any TV channel for past one week, the Government is busy protecting Rhea Chakraborty from arrest or bad mouthing Kangana Ranaut.

Kangana Ranaut had reached Mumbai and the ruling party Shiv Sena could only demolish one floor of her office in her absence in open defiance of rule of law, natural justice or common sense or politics. It also violates the general embargo on all demolitions due to Corona. Later Shiv Sena proclaimed it’s achievement:

The headline above smacks not just arrogance but also a lack of sobriety expected from a publication. The alterations made in the apartment of Kangana are very common and exist in every household including that of prime minister of India. If such demolitions are permitted no building in India would be legal enough to stand on ground.

On top of it a reporter of Republic TV has been arrested from the farm house of the Chief Minister (??) and is being kept in custody of police for several days. Why TV has not filed habeas corpus petition in High Court? Why it has not approached the concerned Magistrate?

Republic TV has also alleged that there is an attempt by Maharashtra Government to block the Republic TV in the State. Has Maharashtra become an independent republic within India? How many times such attempts have been made by different State Governments?

The Government of Maharashtra is seriously rattled by all these developments. Is it due to the Drug Dalda? Why it does not focus on Corona Pandemic? Kangana whose house was demolished is the prime witness in the Drug case. Was the demolition a message to the Central Government for giving her Y+ security?

Maharashtra is a hotspot that accounts for nearly one-third of the total cases in India as well as about 40% of all deaths.

The serological survey conducted by ICMR is out and it is revealed that for every RTPCR test or the formal recognition of an infection there are about 100 unreported cases, all over India. Yet the priority of Maharashtra Government is some where else. It is not a business as usual in Maharashtra but the Government has entirely different priorities.

Reverting back to the survey, till May, around 64 lakh people in the country became infected with Coronavirus. This survey was conducted at the national level for the first time. By May, 0.73% of adults i.e. 64 lakh (64,68,388) people have been estimated to have been exposed to the corona virus. From the survey, it was estimated that there were 82–130 infections in India to confirm every single case of corona by RT-PCR test. It has also been found from the sero survey that about 44 lakh people of the village have been infected with corona.
According to ICMR, these surveys were conducted between May 11 and June 4. Samples of 4, 28,000 adults were taken during this period. These surveys were conducted in 70 districts of 21 states. Most of the survey was done in rural areas. According to the areas, the positivity was like this – rural- 69.4%, urban slum- 15.9%, urban non-slum- 14.6%. The age-wise positivity rates were as follows- 18-45 years- 43.3%, 46-60 years- 39.5%, above 60 years- 17.2%

26 Million cases?

Maharashtra has 990,795 active cases with cumulative total of 261,798 cases. if the result of aforesaid Serological test is applied and this number is multiplied by 100 (median number) the total number soars to 26,179,800. This way over all number of cases in India will also be multiplied but the problem is Maharashtra has 40% of deaths.

Governor can not be a spectator?

In democracy, there is always a check and balance. The Governor of the State has a duty to ensure welfare of the people. It is sad that the Governor has not yet summoned the Chief Minister and counselled him to focus on the Pandemic rather than issues of petty politics of ego. The False vanity of the Shiv Sena can wait for better days. But the fact Governor has not chosen to do anything like this makes it suspicious. It is a sad reflection of politics.

What if suddenly pandemic goes out of hand and entire Government machinery enters paralysis? After all Virus does not spare officials. About five hundred policemen have been infected in Maharashtra alone, so far. Meanwhile we the lesser mortals can only cross our fingers and wait.

So what is the political game of UddhavThakrey? Or has he lost whatever game he had?

More about that but tomorrow.