VISAKHAPATNAM
Sunday, September 20, 2020
WIDE ANGLE
Will the new
guidelines make the
Oscars better
represent gender,
race and sexual
orientation? p6
LITERARY REVIEW
D.H. Lawrence
was writing about
the loneliness of
the deracinated
individual more than
a century ago p4
COVER
BOOKEND
Podcast Scrolls &
Leaves takes science,
health and history
beyond the
dominant Western
perspectives p7
BACK PAGE
Writer, poet,
grassroots activist
Trepan Singh
Chauhan of
Uttarakhand died
last month p8
Breadwinners
Construction
workers on a
building site in
Dubai, 2006. AP
The
big
wage
Gulf
Hundreds of Indian
migrant workers in GCC
countries have had to pack
their bags and return home
without months of salary
owed to them p3
Kapila Vatsyayan
no more
Arts scholar, institution
builder, and founder of
Indira Gandhi National
Centre for the Arts,
Padma Vibhushan Kapila
Vatsyayan passed away
in New Delhi aged 91.
Mentored by Kamala Devi
Chattopadhyay and
Rukmini Devi Arundale,
Vatsyayan authored
classics such as Classical
Indian Dance in Literature
and the Arts , The Square
and the Circle of Indian
Arts , and Bharata: The
Natya Sastra .
Invisible deaths
The Labour Ministry
told Parliament that
there was no data on the
migrant workers who
had lost jobs and lives
during the lockdown,
so the question of
compensation “does not
arise”. This invited
scathing attacks from the
opposition. A database
of migrant workers
is supposed to be
maintained under the
Inter-State Migrant
Workmen Act, 1979, and
activists have raised
concerns over this.
Trials resume
No questions
Days after the Serum
Institute of India
stopped trials for the
coronavirus vaccine
developed by
AstraZeneca and Oxford
University following a
notice from the DCGI,
the institute resumed
them after it got a
go-ahead. Phase 3 trials
by AstraZeneca and
Oxford University were
suspended briefly after
a volunteer in the U.K.
developed transverse
myelitis, an
inflammation of the
spinal cord.
In an unprecedented
move that was sharply
criticised, the Lok Sabha
did away with Question
Hour and private
members’ business for the
current parliamentary
session, citing
extraordinary
circumstances and
curtailed sittings.
Opposition MPs called it a
violation of norms and an
erosion of legislative
oversight of the executive.
Defence minister Rajnath
Singh claimed it had
already been discussed
with opposition leaders.
Wildfire
Continuity
cabinet
Conspiracy theory
After arresting former
JNU student leader
Umar Khalid under
the Unlawful
Activities
Prevention Act for
his alleged role in
the Delhi riots,
Delhi Police said
it would
confront him
with 40 GB of
data — 11 lakh
pages —
extracted from
his phone. Khalid’s
arrest came a day
after the police
named several
politicians and
intellectuals as
‘conspirators’,
including CPI(M)
general secretary
Sitaram Yechury.
CM
YK
As many as 28 major
wildfires in California,
exacerbated by high
temperatures, high winds
and lack of rain, killed 24
people and destroyed
4,200 structures. Since the
beginning of the year,
wildfires have burned
over 3.2 million acres of
land — larger than the
State of Connecticut. So
intense is the fire that
smoke reached the
skies of New
York city and
even Europe.
Yoshihide Suga was
formally elected
Prime Minister of
Japan after winning
the race to become
leader of the ruling
Liberal Democratic
Party following
Shinzo Abe’s exit. The
71-year-old, Abe’s
former chief cabinet
secretary and long
regarded as his righthand man, indicated
that he would pursue
many of his
predecessor’s policies,
as he put together a
‘continuity cabinet’,
keeping roughly half the
ministers in place.
VZ-X