THE Real Marigold Hotel series four will see eight celebrities head to India to trial out retirement there.

But where did they film the fourth series?

The group will head six thousand miles away from home TO the colourful coastal city of Puducherry, and then on to the beautiful town of Rishikesh.

The celebrities will have have time to reflect on the ups and downs of life, open up to each other and find out if they could spend their golden years there.

Here we take a look at the area they are staying in.

This coastal town is on the verge of the Indian Ocean.

Puducherry is one of the most popular tourist spots for national and international visitors.

Its inhabitants are drawn from all parts of the world is situated on the outskirts of the city.

There are several temples, churches, monuments, parks, and mosques which attract tourists.

Set in the foothills of the Himalayas, this idyllic location offers breathtaking scenery.

Rishikesh is a city in Indias northern state of Uttarakhand, beside the Ganges River.

The river is considered holy, and the city is renowned as a center for studying yoga and meditation.

Temples and ashrams line the eastern bank around Swarg Ashram, a traffic-free, alcohol-free and vegetarian enclave upstream from Rishikesh town.

Britt Ekland, Duncan Bannatyne, Dame Zandra Rhodes, Paul Chuckle, Henry Blofeld, John Altman, Susie Blake and Barbara Dickson arrive in India and get their first taste of the chaotic traffic on the bus to Puducherry and their new home by the sea.

Although Britt struggles with the heat and Paul is struck down

with an upset stomach, the group throw themselves into their new surroundings ready to embrace retired life in India.

Keen to see what the region has to offer, the senior citizens embrace everything within the local vicinity, including an early morning trip to the beach for a dip in the Indian Ocean, a visit to a traditional coffee house and a trip to Puducherrys vibrant and colourful Goubert market.

Whilst yoga enthusiast Duncan wastes no time immersing himself into the local way of life, he encourages John to join him as they embrace this ancient Indian practice together.

Susie and Henry decide to visit an Ayurvedic doctor to see if he can help with the aches and pains of old age. Susie is impressed with the doctors healing hands, and shocked at his precise diagnosis when he reveals more than expected.

The show returns TONIGHT (April 30, 2020).

You can watch it on BBC One at 9pm.

It will run for 4 episodes.

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Where is Real Marigold Hotel 2020 filmed? - The Sun

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: In a major turn of events, the Allahabad High Court has rejected allegations of bias and harassment against UP government's Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is probing Swami Chinmayanand sexual abuse case. The allegations were raised in a complaint filed in the court by the Shahjahanpur law student, who has charged Swami Chinmayanand with sexual harassment.

Consequently, the court, on Thursday, directed the concerned trial court to pass any order which it may deem fit and proper in accordance with law after taking cognizance on the police report.

Hearing an application filed by the law student, who has accused former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand of sexual harassment, a division bench comprising Justice Manoj Misra and Justice Deepak Verma observed that they were satisfied with the SIT probe as it had duly investigated all aspects and after a thorough investigation, had submitted a police report. Hence no further action is required, said the bench.

In her application moved before this division bench of Allahabad HC, which is monitoring the trial on SCs directive, the law student had demanded setting up of a fresh investigation team and sought action against the officials of the existing SIT for allegedly harassing and assaulting her family members. She claimed that the SIT was partial and that Chinmayanand had been offered special treatment through the course of the investigation as if he were a state guest.

The court accepted the SITs contention that it could not be labelled as biased, as it had strongly opposed Chinmayanands bail application, which resulted in a lower court refusing to grant him bail at one stage. However, the court also rejected the girls allegations of her familys harassment at the hands of SIT.

Notably, the LLM student of SS Law College, run by Mumukshu Ashram of Chinmayanand, had accused the Swami of rape and harassment for over a year. Following her complaint, Chinmayanand was booked under Sections 376 C (sexual intercourse by a person in authority), 342 (Wrongful Confinement), 354 D (stalking) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC. He was arrested on September 20, 2019 and languished in Shajahanpur district jail till he got a bail from High Court on February 3, this year.

The law student and three of her accomplices were booked in the extortion case by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on the basis of the complaint filed by Chinmayanand. All the four were accused of demanding Rs 5 crore from the former Union minister while threatening him with the release of his objectionable videos.

The law student was booked under Sections 385 (Putting person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion), 507 (Criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication), 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence), 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of IPC and Section 67 (A) of IT Act.

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Chinmayanand case: HC rejects law students allegations of bias, harassment against SIT - The New Indian Express

Bollywood celebrities have been known to explore their spiritual sides and there have been many instances of it. One of these instances has been actor and politician Vinod Khanna who in 1982, walked away from the film industry to explore spirituality with Osho and shifted to Rajneeshpuram in the US at the pinnacle of his stardom. Vinod Khanna was known throughout the country as one of the most handsome men in the industry and by then had been quite successful as well. Today marks Vinod Khannas 3rd death anniversary and we take a look into his time at Oshos US Ashram.

Apparently Vinod Khanna wanted to explore his spiritual side and after moving to Rajneeshpuram spent most of his time cleaning dishes and working in the gardens there. In an old interview with TOI, he had said, I was Osho's mali: I am one of the few Indians to have stayed with Osho in Rajneeshpuram, the city he built in America. I spent four years with Osho. I was his gardener, I cleaned the toilets, I did the dishes, and his clothes were tried out on me because we were, physically, of the same stature.''

Before his spiritual break, Vinod Khanna had given a lot of hits including Amar Akbar Anthony, The Burning Train, Mere Apne. He made a return to the industry in 1987 and was welcomed with open arms and starred in a lot of hit movies like Satyamev Jayate, Hulchul, Dabangg.

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They say the best things in life are free! Indias favourite music channels 9XM, 9X Jalwa, 9X Jhakaas, 9X Tashan, 9XO are available Free-To-Air. Make a request for these channels from your Cable, DTH or HITS operator.

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Vinod Khannas 3rd Death Anniversary: The Actor Cleaned Toilets, Did Dishes At Oshos US Ashram After Walking Away From Films - SpotboyE

On Friday, a Hindu Sadhu named Swami Pushpendra Swaroop was attacked and injured by two assailants at his ashram in Hoshiarpur, Punjab. He was resting alone around 10 pm when the duo climbed the wall, entered the ashram, and attacked Swami Pushpendra with sharp-edged weapons.

He was then rushed to a local hospital. The Sadhu informed the police that the unidentified assailants tied his hands and feet, prior to attacking him. The duo also tried to strangle him, before fleeing the crime scene with 50,000 and some other items from the Ashram. I pleaded them to spare my life and take the money instead. But, they continued to injure me, Swami Puspendra recounted. He was also hit on his head with a weapon that aggravated his injuries.

According to reports, the condition of the seer remains critical.

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On April 16, two Sadhus associated with the Juna Akhara, 70-year-old Kalpavrishka Giri Maharaj, and 35-year-old Sushil Giri Maharaj along with their driver 30-year-old Nilesh Telgadewere were on their way from Mumbai to Gujarat to give Samadhi to another Sadhu. At Gadakchinchale village, a wild and frenzied crowd of over more than 100 people attacked them. The villagers deemed them as thieves and started attacking them. The police claim that their team which had rushed to the spot to rescue the 70-year-old man also came under the attack of the violent mob.

But later videos emerged which completely debunked the claim of police, as it was seen that the sadhus were in the custody of the police, but the police personnel handed them over to the mob. The mob then proceeded them to beat them to death in front of the policemen.

The Crime Investigation Department(CID) of Maharashtra police has taken over the investigation in the Palghar lynching incident of two Sadhus and their driver last week. The Maharashtra government had earlier ordered a high-level probe and suspended two policemen who showed complete dereliction of duty.

Originally posted here:

I pleaded for my life but they continued to attack me, Sadhu in Punjab mercilessly beaten, Rs 50,000 stolen as he lay bleeding - OpIndia

(CNN) People living under coronavirus lockdown measures are adapting as best they can, but six foreign tourists took an unusual approach by hiding out in a cave in India.

The group lived in a cave near Rishikesh, a town (pictured above) in Uttarakhand state in northern India made famous by The Beatles, for nearly a month before they were found by the police and quarantined at an ashram on Sunday, according to a police official.

The tourists -- four men and two women from France, Turkey, Ukraine, the United States and Nepal -- were initially staying at a hotel, but ran out of money and took refuge in the cave, said Mukesh Chand, spokesperson for Uttarakhand police.

"They had been living in the cave since March 24, the police found them on Sunday and moved them to Swarg Ashram near Rishikesh, we have asked them to self-quarantine for two weeks as a precaution but the group seemed healthy," Chand told CNN.

The group were rationing their remaining money to buy food and other items, he added.

Indian and foreign tourists have been banned from entering the state of Uttarakhand since March 20 due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to a state government order.

India is the world's second most populous country and the fifth biggest economy, and there are fears that the country's health systems would not be able to cope with a major outbreak of the virus.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown on March 24, which came into effect from midnight.

Since that time only essential services have been operational in the nation of 1.3 billion people, including water, electricity, health care, fire services, grocery stores and municipal services.

The measures were set to expire on April 14 but Modi later extended them until at least May 3.

Authorities launched a website called "Stranded in India" to provide aid to foreigners stuck in the country during the nationwide lockdown.

India has recorded 17,615 cases of coronavirus and 559 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

CNN's Manveena Suri and Helen Regan contributed to this report.

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Foreign tourists found self-isolating in Indian cave - CNN

Two videos have gone viral with the claim that people from the Muslim community are hoarding food supplies and wasting food amidst the lockdown imposed to tackle coronavirus.

Video 1: Shot at night

A 90-second video of a man who claims to be reporting at a slum near Gandhi Ashram has gone viral. In this video, the man says that since past seven or eight days he has been visiting these slums to give food. However, he claims that some people have been hoarding the relief food even when they have more than enough supplies of their own. Later in the video, he enters a house and shows various food items a portion of chicken, a meagre quantity of flour and nine food packets. The video also shows stacks of pooris lying on a table. Just as the pooris are shows we can hear goats bleating in the background. While the man walks out, we see a lady sitting on the ground. She said, We took them out because of the dal. The man wraps up the video by requesting people of Meerut not to distribute food at slums near Gandhi Ashram.

The readers should note that police officers can be seen in the viral video and the fact that the man in the video made no communal comments

Alt News has received several requests to fact-check this on WhatsApp (+91 76000 11160) and on ourofficial Android application with the claim that people of Muslim communities are deliberately hiding food.

Facebook page Najafgarh Confession shared the viral video sans communal subtext.

! ! ! !

Posted by Najafgarh Confessions on Friday, April 10, 2020

Video 2: Shot in daylight

Several Facebook users have posted a different one-minute video with the claim that Muslims are hoarding food so that poor Hindus are starved. This video shows the man from video 1 in an orange kurta. Just like the first video he appears to be reporting. According to him, food is being wasted at a leprosy ashram. The video shows a room where pooris are lying on the floor. It is pertinent to note only the man who appears to be reporting can be seen in the video. The video abruptly ends with the frame of stacks of jute bags.

Just like video 1, no communal comments were made by the man in the video.

On April 12, Kumar Ajit posted the viral video and wrote in Hindi, #Caution #Food_Jihad has started, loot the food and let it go bad, dont let the food reach to any Hindu poor, so that the government looks bad and poor Hindus die (translated from # #_ , , , ). This video has been viewed over 66,000 times and shared by more than 2,700 users. (archive link)

# #_ , , ,

Posted by Kumar Ajit on Saturday, April 11, 2020

A Facebook user even felt the need to mention muslanmanoo and jihadiyon in brackets just in case the communal subtext wasnt clear.

Alt News found a Facebook post by Mukesh Garg which includes two videos, video 1 and a longer version of video 2, posted on April 10. It is pertinent to note the man seen the viral videos cannot be seen in the second video uploaded by Garg.

He wrote, All the institutions of the country must watch both these videos. Look how slum dwellers and disrespecting the god of food (translated from ). This post is massively viral, it has been shared over 63,000 times. One of the videos has over 11 lakh views (Video 1) while the other has over three lakh views. (archive link)

At the very first second in video 1, a cars number plate is visible UP 15 CN 2507. Using this as a clue, Alt News looked up its registration details and found that it registered at Meerut RTO to one Ankur Sharma.

We then performed a keyword search on YouTube and found a report published by Jan TV on April 10. This video shows footage from both the viral videos.

Jan TV aired a few seconds of both viral videos on mute and presented a similar narrative that poor marginalised people from leprosy ashram and slums near Gandhi Ashram are hoarding food supplies. The report also added that these people sell excess food. The report included a statement from district magistrate Ajay Kumar Tiwari. He discouraged hoarding and said that authorities will look into the claims made in the viral video. Tiwari added that authorities will visit the slums where food is being wasted and explain to them that there is no food shortage. Tiwari acknowledged that selling of meat is a serious matter and said no one is authorised to sell meat.

Alt News reached out to multiple journalists in Meerut hoping to find more details about the videos. According to them, the man in the video is Navneet Balaji, a member of Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV). HYV is a youth organisation founded by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Balaji refuted the claim made by JAN TV that people are selling excess food.

Alt News spoke with Balaji. He said, I work in the real estate sector, and confirmed that he is a part of HYV. Explaining the context behind the viral video he said, I heard that some marginalised people were hoarding food. So I decided to look into the matter along with the government officials. Balaji didnt reveal the identity of the officials to Alt News. When we informed that the video is being shared with communal narrative, Balaji clarified that there is no communal angle to this video. I just wanted to show that some people are taking more food supplies than required.

Balaji told us that video 1 was shot on April 9 and video 2 was shot a day prior. Multiple people were shooting the video on April 8, thats why there are two versions of the video online, he added, There is no Hindu-Muslim angle to my videos.

Alt News reached out to a local journalist (identity concealed at request) who visited the location where the video was shot. According to the journalist, the slums are located 100 metres away from Gandhi Ashram crossway.

According to the journalist, the woman is the video has nine family members. Alt News crossed checked this with Ashutosh Kumar, inspector Nauchandi, Meerut. The woman seen in the viral video is Kasturi and she belongs to a Hindu family, the inspector added.

As per the journalist, Kasturi explained that pooris had dampened because they were packed with dal which is why she placed them outside to dry. In the video, we can hear Kasturi trying to make this point twice. Inspector Kumar said, She told us that uses these pooris with other food that is given to her. The journalist also told that he got the same explanation from Kasturi.

The journalist added that many families in slums accept extra food packages because there is an uncertainly about their next meal. While speaking with Alt News, inspector Kumar said, These people get food from the government or NGOs. They accept food from everyone hoping to secure the next meals.

The image below shows four screenshots from the video of various food items chicken and chapati, pooris (which were next to chicken curry), boxes (that dont look like food parcels, possibly empty) and flour. Anyone in the right mind will not label this quantity as hoarding. However, Balaji felt that Kasturis family had excess food.

The viral video also shows boxes of food possible flavoured rice or biryani. Balaji suggested that the family had taken more food than necessary. However, in the picture, we can clearly see the boxes match the number of members in Kasturis family.

Inspector Kumar clarified that social media claims are baseless and added, The family shown in the video is a Hindu family. Balaji also confirmed that there is no communal narrative, as mentioned above.

Balaji added, After I learnt that the video got viral, I realised that the families in this area might be struggling to get food from NGOs. Since last two days, I have been going to this area to give them food. Alt News couldnt independently verify this claim.

Thus, the social media claim associated with the first viral video is false. Additionally, Balajis allegation that the family shown in the video is hoarding food doesnt hold water. Moreover, entering someones home without permission and filming them inside is a gross violation of privacy.

At the beginning of the video, Balaji said he is at Kusht Ashram behind a mehal. Using that as a clue, Alt News performed a keyword search on Google and found Shri Vivekanand Kusht Ashram (SVKA), a leprosy shelter. As per Just Dial, the ashram is located on Delhi Road, behind Mukud Mehal.

Alt News tried looking up for the ashram on Google maps but couldnt find it. After speaking with Balaji, we learnt that the ashram is located behind Hotel Mukut Mahal, Delhi Road. Since it is not marked on the map, Alt News requested Balaji to pin-point in on the map. The screenshot below highlights the location of Shri Vivekanand Kusht Ashram (SVKA), as per Balaji.

Balaji said, On April 8 we visited the ashram in order to assess if they need food supplies. While inspecting the premises we saw few doors that were locked. One of our team members managed to have a peek inside and pointed out that there is food lying on the ground. As stated above, he clarified that there is no communal narrative in the video.

Alt News spoke to Sachin, secretary at SVKA. Sachin informed that in the ashram only members of the Hindu community stay and refuted the communal narrative on social media. According to him, they had received food on Kanya Poojan which was celebrated on April 1 this year. This year we received pooris in extra quantity. Despite distributing it among ashramites food was left. We were going to give it to a gaushala, Sachin said. He added that they received food from Amar Ujala newspaper as well.

However, as per Balaji, the ashram authorities didnt explain why they had so much food rotting in a room.

Alt News spoke with Rajan Tripathi regional editor Amar Ujala, Meerut. According to Tripathi, SVKA had reached out, prior to April 1, for aid because they were struggling to feed the people at the ashram. He also pointed out that the ashram is very close to their office. Alt News checked on Google maps and found that it is within a two-kilometre radius.

Tripathi said, I find it unlikely that Kanya Poojan was celebrated due to the lockdown. However, it is likely that the ashram got more food than the requirement. Thus a lot of it was wasted. When we informed that the video is being shared with a communal narrative, he said, This a leprosy ashram people all faiths are welcome. However, as far as my knowledge only Hindu community residents here.

Alt News also spoke with an inspector at Nauchandi police station who looked into this incident. He said, After the video went viral the police visited the ashram. However, by then all the excess food lying was cleared up. Thus no case was registered. The inspector confirmed, There is no communal narrative to this incident.

Despite the inconsistencies on why food was wasted in the ashram, the claim that Muslims are stocking up food supplies in this ashram was refuted by Meerut Police, Navneet Balaji (the person who recorded the video), Sachin, secretary at the Shri Vivekanand Kusht Ashram and Rajan Tripathi, regional editor Amar Ujala, also have the same statement.

Two videos went viral from Meerut around April 10. The initial claim was that marginalised people are stocking up food. However, several people subsequently shared it with the communal narrative on social media. Alt News investigated both the videos and verified that both claims do not hold water.

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Videos viral with false claim of poor slum dwellers and Muslims hoarding food in Meerut - Alt News

According to the news reports, a group of four men and two women, shifted to a cave near Rishikesh for about a month until the local police discovered them and put them under quarantine at an ashram a few days back. The tourists hail from France, Ukraine, Turkey, the United States and Nepal. They had their accommodation at a hotel in Rishikesh; when they realised that it would be hard to pay their hotel bills anymore, the group took shelter in the cave.

Meanwhile, no domestic or international tourist is allowed to enter Uttarakhand due to the spread of Coronavirus as per the order of the state government.

The government authorities have also announced help to foreign nationals grounded in India during the current lockdown.

Rishikesh is reputed as a spiritual destination not only among the domestic tourists but also among a lot of foreign nationals. The Himalayan town first gained popularity among international tourists because of the music band Beatles that set up an ashram here.

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Foreign tourists hiding in a cave caught by Rishikesh police - Happytrips

Two questions have been put to me over these weeks: one, is it true that Gandhi was laid up with the Spanish flu in 1918? Two, what would he have been doing now, were he alive?

To answer the first: he was, it is true, ill, grievously ill, within a faltering heart-beat of death, when the pandemic was sweeping across the world. But he was not down with that deadly flu. A brief thumbing down historys pages would be in order here.

Gandhi had been busy in Gujarats district of Kheda that year, with his new-found and invaluable associate, Vallabhbhai Patel, asking peasants hit by a crippling crop failure not to pay land taxes. His success in Champaran the previous year in the Indigo satyagraha had encouraged him to come to Khedas aid with the weapon of satyagraha. Frederick Pratt, the commissioner of the northern districts of Bombay Presidency, told Gandhi to desist. In India, said the Gujarat-knowing and Gujarati-knowing civil servant, to defy the law of revenue is to take a step which would destroy all administration. But the Gandhi-Patel duo persisted with the satyagraha and over 3,000 peasants signed a pledge not to pay the land tax and, despite severe penalties, most of them kept to the pledge. At the same time, with World War Is shadow extending by the hour, a massive recruitment campaign had begun. The viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, who had come to know and grudgingly, perhaps, to respect Gandhi from the Champaran Indigo satyagraha, invited Gandhi to a war conference that he had called in Delhi in April. Gandhi made a one-sentence speech saying he supported the recruitment effort. But he spoke that sentence in Hindustani and by that simple and single gesture interlaced his support with Indias honour. And he did not suspend the Kheda satyagraha. Chelmsford seemed to understand Gandhis nuanced cooperation but Sir William Vincent, Home Member, saying to Gandhi that he had given a lot of trouble to the local administration, asked pointedly, Well... have you brought a single recruit? That was a taunt. But it worked. Gandhi plunged into an intense recruitment drive in the same district where he was conducting the satyagraha Kheda. The raj reciprocated by accepting the Gandhi-Patel demand and in June the two leaders were able to announce that the peasants demands had been accepted by the raj. With that, being true to his word to the viceroy, Gandhi intensified his recruitment campaign. If Vincent had taunted him in Delhi, some of his ashram colleagues demanded from him a reconciling of ahimsa with army recruitment. His reply was more clever than convincing: first, ahimsa was often a screen for cowardice. Second, discipline such as military discipline can create a new self-confidence among Indians to cultivate a higher ahimsak vitality with which we may even fight the [British] Empire should it play foul with us and Khedas peasants could take India towards Dominion Status and one of them could even aspire to the Viceregal office. Plunging, for Gandhi, meant exactly that. He plunged into recruitment also into exhaustion, breakdown.

The success that attended his satyagraha in Kheda eluded him completely in the recruitment drive. On August 11, in Khedas Nadiad, he simply collapsed. It was not just the failure to recruit but, one must here say with all objectivity, the conflict within him about ahimsa versus army recruitment took its toll. His own clever reply was not working within him. And he also managed to get into a vicious abdominal infection. I have suffered indeed, he wrote to C.F. Andrews on August 29. And to his son, Devadas, It was all my fault. Moving from Nadiad to Ambalal Sarabhais home in Ahmedabad and then to the Sabarmati Ashram, Gandhi thought his end was near and on October 1, got his oldest son, Harilal, in Calcutta and Devadas, then in Madras, sent for. Recuperation was painful, and painfully slow.

Curious being the ways of Fate and curiouser still, always, in its ways with Gandhi, even as he recovered with agonizing slowness, his grandson, Shanti, Harilals eldest son, and Harilals wife, Gulab, or Chanchal as she was also known, fell mortally ill. And in their case there was no doubt about the cause. Victims of the great influenza epidemic sweeping across the continent, they died in the last week of October, within days of one another in the village of Patharada in Gujarat where they had gone, in vain, alas, for health-change. Kasturba had her three other motherless grandchildren from Gulab brought over to the ashram.

So, the Spanish flu that lasted about 15 months, making 500 million people sick worldwide and killing between 3 to 5 per cent of the worlds population, while not felling Gandhi, crippled his family.

Not far from where this tragedy was enacting itself, it struck another family that Gandhi was to become inseparable from. Hitting equally hard and poignant in a different, almost epic way. Abdul Ghaffar Khan, later to be known as Badshah Khan and Frontier Gandhi, had his son Ghani gripped by the Spanish flu. As the boy seemed to slip into its labyrinth, his mother, Ghaffar Khans wife, Mehr Qandh, prayed that god should spare her son and, if substitution was acceptable, take her life instead. Not to placate unreason but to place a historical fact on the table, as Ghani began to recover, Mehr began to sink and, very rapidly, Crossed Over. Ghani was to become an artist and poet, studying for a while at Santiniketans Kala Bhavana.

The second question, namely, What would Gandhi have done now, with Covid-19 upon us? is far more difficult to address for it deals not with facts but with suppositions. Yet it must not be dodged.

Gandhi was at his intense best when dealing with illness and epidemics, finding some quirky but very specific, practical and demanding solutions, in which the enforcing of hygiene regimes was central. Though actuated by his own sharply developed sense of the physical bodys working, he was very consultative seeking and considering the advice of medical practitioners, both Western and Traditional, but keeping well away from superstitious, ritualistic or irrational nostrums. He did not always heed medical advice but he did not everdismiss it ab initio or without mature reflection.

Today, who can claim to know or say with any confidence what Gandhi would have done? No one. But Gandhis recorded example of coping with such situations tells us what he may and very likely would have done. These may yield the following pointers not as his, but as those of a vigilant and humble common sense:

1. Recognizing the legitimate authority and inherent conscientiousness of governments, we the governed should treat expert and official advice, especially about hygiene and disinfection, with respect and observe it scrupulously.

2. Similarly and simultaneously, recognizing the integrated experience and inherent good sense of us, the governed, the government should keep a helpline open not from but to us to seek public counsel on the measures particularly as related to restrictions. These must see who and how and where the restrictions hurt the people they are intended to help. Rules are best observed when they have louvres for genuine exceptions and exemptions such as for the space-less, job-less, family-less, the elderly, the physically and mentally challenged. If Chelmsford could hearken to the Kheda satyagraha in the midst of World War I, this is not asking too much of our administrations.

3. We should replace utterly useless commercial, political, sectarian icons with the real heroines and heroes of this human crisis doctors and medical workers like nurses and lab technicians who are the brave and endangered Fire Brigade for this conflagration. And those providers of essential services who are working with unflagging and hazardous zeal.

4. Responding to Palagummi Sainaths reminder on his PARI portal of heroism among the delicately interwoven economies of rural India weavers, toymakers, other artisans and craftspeople, farmers, labourers urban and rural, sanitation workers, displaced labourers, cancer patients from rural areas lying outside major hospitals, nomadic pastoralists, daily wagers, folk artists, fisherfolk, barbers, Dalits and adivasis in various occupations, offer to all of them, whose livelihoods have been cut off at this time, not just salutation but genuflection and assistance.

Finally and most pertinently, in Gandhis spirit, we must de-throne, un-crown, and dismiss from its High Seat the cult of blind materialist goals that is decimating our collective lung and converting the human species into the planets Hitler, killing us in the gas chambers of our greed, our own Final Solution.

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Gandhi at the time of the Spanish flu - Telegraph India

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On Wednesday night, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman gave an astonishing interview on CNN where she advocated an immediate end to the lockdown and the reopening of her city as a gambling mecca.

Id love everything open because I think weve had viruses for years that have been here, Goodman told Anderson Cooper. Weve never closed down the United States. Weve never closed down Nevada. Weve never closed down Las Vegas because thats our job. Goodman said she was motivated by her talks with casino owners, whom she described as very sensitive people.

Cooper pressed the point by asking If casinos re-open, are you going to be inside those casinos every single night putting your life on the line? Goodman tried to dodge the question and then responded, First of all, I have a family.

Fortunately, Goodman doesnt actually have the power to end the lockdown in her city. But her comments typify a very loud and reckless faction of the political class that is pushing for a premature end to efforts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. As Cooper accurately noted, Goodmans remarks are all the more remarkable because there is no indication that shes put into place any of the infrastructure of testing and contact tracing that would make ending the lockdown safe.

Nor is Goodman alone in her foolhardy advocacy. On Thursday night, conservative pundit David Frum noted that the Trump administration was laggard in all the policy steps needed for a safe reopening of the economy. Frum argued that the strategy of Trump and the Republicans going forward would be to ram through a reopening even without the safeguard of a proper testing and tracing regime.

What the Trump administration plainly yearns to doand ditto FL, GA, TN, and other GOP governorsis to reopen, let the disease rip, take casualties, hope for rapid onset of sufficient immunity, Frum argued. Trump and his governors are working to ensure there wont be any other choice. He went on to note, Maybe well get lucky. Maybe the virus will mutate into harmlessness. Maybe a vaccine will be devised. But we cant stay locked down forever, and there isnt going to be testing and tracing anytime soon. Meanwhile, those with clout in the GOP are pushing for take the punch.

Trumps continued touting of miracle cures is part of this strategy. Although his previous wonder drug hydroxychloroquine hasnt panned out, Trump continues to advocate for bizarre panaceas. During a Thursday press briefing, Trump speculated that cures could include irradiating patients with an ultraviolet light or possibly injecting them with disinfectants.

If Trump and the GOP push for a premature end to the lockdown, one that will only lead to a new surge in illness and death, then its worth asking them the same question that Anderson Cooper posed to Carolyn Goodman: Are they willing to spend their days in the workplaces where Covid-19 is likely to spread fastest?

The Darwinian callousness of the take the punch approach is a product of the extreme inequality of American society. Goodman and the owners of the Las Vegas casinos, Trump and his Mar-A-Lago cronies, the plutocrats funding protests against the lockdown, Rupert Murdoch and the Fox News pundits: All of them inhabit a bubble of wealth that protects them from the consequences of the pandemic. They can happily contemplate a system where they will continue to work from home and benefit from an economy in which the risks of Covid-19 are overwhelmingly borne by the working class.

In his 1983 book Spheres of Justice, political theorist Michael Walzer made the case for a more equal society where the burden of doing dirty and dangerous work is shared:

In a society of equals, who will do the dirty work? And the necessary answer is that, at least in some partial and symbolic sense, we all should do it. Then we will have an end to dukes, if not yet to dustmen. This is what Gandhi was getting at when he required his followershimself, tooto clean the latrines of their ashram. Here was a symbolic way of purging Hindu society of untouchability, but it also made a practical point: People should clean dirt. Otherwise, the men and women who do it not only for themselves but for everyone else, too, will never be equal members of the political community.

As an example of what he had in mind, Walzer suggests, the cleaning of city streets, say, or of national parks should be the (part-time) work of the citizens.

Aside from Gandhi, Walzer cited other advocates of equality such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Walt Whitman as promoting the virtues of communal grunt work. He could also have mentioned the science fiction novelist Ursula K. Le Guin, whose novel The Dispossessed features a society where everyone had to devote one day a week to kleggich (drudgery).

These ideas are guided by the ethical imperatives of egalitarianism, but could also have a practical benefit. As Walzer notes, There would probably be less dirt to clean up if everyone knew in advance of making it that he couldnt leave the cleaning to someone else.

The chief value of this type of utopian speculation is that it makes more apparent the deficiency of the real world. In the case of Covid-19, advocating a Walzer-style sharing of dirty work makes visible the brutal class reality that undergirds current policy.

Imagine a world where Carolyn Goodman had to spend her evenings cleaning up a casino, where Georgia Governor Brian Kemp had to do part-time labor in an Amazon warehouse, where Donald Trump had to work one day a week as a hospital orderly. In such a world, we wouldnt have a rush to reopen the economy. Instead, wed have a massive investment in the health care system, including in testing and tracing infrastructure.

We have to demand a wider sharing of the burdens of the pandemic. The ruling elite have to be forced to choose: Either they can start spending on the scale the problem needs, or theyll be conscripted into the army of essential laborers.

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The Burden of Dangerous Work Must Be Shared By All - The Nation

Updated: Mar 19, 2020, 06:00 IST

Chief Justice Vikram Nath took the decision considering the seriousness of the pandemic of Coronavirus (Covid-19) and no Cause List will be prepared from Thursday onwards till the month. No cause list shall be prepared and notified including for bail matters and quashing matters, the circular issued by Registrar General states.

It said, Any advocate who is desirous of obtaining an urgent order shall file a note stating the urgency and the same shall be considered by the court. If the court finds that there is genuine urgency, the matter shall be either listed on the same day if no caveat is there or on the next day.

Keeping the threats emanating from the novel corona virus (ncovid-19), the administration of the Sabarmati Ashram has decided to close down the ashram till March 29.

Ashram Director Atul Pandya said that the decision was taken keeping in mind the safety of the citizens. The ashram will be closed for visitors from March 19 to 29.

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HC to hear only urgent matters - Ahmedabad Mirror