Nazi-colluder Bayer Starts COVID Treatment Centre In India

Co-Written by Dr. P. S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal

 

Bayer being allowed to hawk its drugs and agri-products in India like any other multinational corporation is one thing; being permitted to have COVID facility right within its plant premises leaves room for mischief given its track record since the Holocaust days. Bayer’s parent company – Bayer AG became a Nazi party donor and was the single largest donor to the election campaign of Adolf Hitler. One of its subsidiaries supplied the poison gas, Zyklon-B which speedily exterminated one million people in concentration camps under the watchful eyes of the SS personnel and Gestapo. Bayer AG conducted illegal drug and vaccine trial on Jews.

The correspondence between the Bayer managers and the commander of Auschwitz concentration camp reads:

“With a view to the planned experiments with a new sleep-inducing drug we would appreciate it if you could place a number of prisoners at our disposal,”

“We confirm your response, but consider the price of 200 RM [reichsmarks] per woman to be too high. We propose to pay no more than 170 RM per woman. If this is acceptable to you, the women will be placed in our possession. We need some 150 women,”

“We confirm your approval of the agreement. Please prepare for us 150 women in the best health possible,”

“Received the order for 150 women. Despite their macerated condition they were considered satisfactory. We will keep you informed of the developments regarding the experiments,”

“The experiments were performed. All test persons died. We will contact you shortly about a new shipment.”

During the Nuremberg trials, the U.S. prosecutor commented that the role of Bayer AG was more dangerous than that of the Furher yet only a few top level management people were sentenced to one and a half to eight years imprisonment, but then set free early.

During the AIDS pandemic in 1980s Bayer’s medical products – Factor VIII & IX – for use in thalassemia patients were found to be contaminated with HIV, the virus causing AIDS. Bayer management was aware of this; its technical experts then informed the management that the technology to remove HIV from its products was too costly. Bayer management then decided to export its contaminated products to Asia and Latin America in 1984-85 – much after such products were taken off the U.S. market. This criminality was like awarding death sentence to thalassemia patients who were administered this drug and contracted HIV infection. Bayer escaped unscathed in Asia, Latin America but was sued in USA.

We at ABVA (AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan) wrote to the government and staged a protest on 28 February, 1990 i.e. National Science Day outside the ICMR office, New Delhi urging the authorities to:

“Institute and enforce strict screening procedures and criminal penalties for blood banks and blood product manufacturing companies.”

The response of the Indian Government was not surprising. A few months after the contaminated blood product issue was made public, the AIDS Bill was introduced in Parliament without any clause indicating specifically that hospitals, blood banks and large pharmaceutical companies manufacturing blood products which could spread HIV –would be criminally prosecuted or black-listed. The big blood product manufacturing companies were let off the hook!

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit China in January 2020, Bayer has been pushing the drug HCQ (Hydroxychloroquine) for treatment of severe cases of COVID-19. Most countries fell into the trap. In USA over 1300 Veterans were administered the drug; not only no benefit was noticed but the number of deaths increased; the WHO withdrew the drug in June 2020 for use in patients.

In early July 2020 Indian authorities gave permission to Bayer to start a 100-bedded COVID care centre in Aurangabad, Maharashtra for treatment of n-Coronavirus cases. Bayer has few other products ready for trial on patients. What is the guarantee that the facility right in its plant premises – outside the public glare and state scrutiny – would not be used to conduct secret trials of newer products and vaccines? Bayer could repeat its role of experimenting on patients in illegal, unethical, and surreptitious manner.

References:

1. https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/bayer-monsanto-merger-cant-erase-nazi-chemists-past/ accessed on 29/7/2020 at 8.30 a.m.
2. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bayer-admits-it-paid-millions-in-hiv-infection-cases-just-not-in-english/ accessed on 29/7/2020 at 9.20 a.m.
3. Women & AIDS – Denial and Blame, 1990 a citizens’ report by AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan

Dr. P. S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal are members of ABVA.

Email: aidsbhedbhavvirodhiandolan@gmail.com

First published: https://countercurrents.org/2020/07/nazi-colluder-bayer-starts-covid-treatment-centre-in-india/

Why Is The Hindustan Times Pimping For An Investigating Agency?

 

The PIL Watch Group views with serious concern the reporting in the print edition of Hindustan Times (HT) dated 25 July, 2020 (later uploaded on its website) regarding Gautam Navlakha’s interrogation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) about Bhima Koregaon case. Questions arise:

1. Was it a planted story in the HT as no other newspaper or news agency carried it on that day?
2. Under which law of the country was the NIA briefing a newspaper about a pending investigation which has the potential to irreparably damage the reputation of Gautam Navlakha and his right to a fair trial?
3. Since when has attending a seminar on Kashmir become a criminal offence? Certain constitutional changes regarding Kashmir have taken place a year back but they are under challenge in the Supreme Court. In any case the alleged attendance of seminar by Gautam Navlakha took place much before August 2019.
4. Since when has visits to jungles become a cognizable offence? Both Jayaprakash Narayan and Acharya Vinoba Bhave had visited the dense jungles of Chambal valley to get the dacoits into the mainstream life. Gautam, too, in a different context was attempting to deepen democracy.
5. Journalistic ethics demand that the reporting should not have been done without Gautam Navlakha’s point of view being carried. Why was this basic principle violated? Why should the Press Council of India not take suo motu action against the paper?
6. Why should the National Human Rights Commission not take cognizance of this development because at stake are the human rights of Gautam Navlakha which are being violated while he is in custody? Additionally NHRC should summon the NIA official who leaked the information to HT during an ongoing investigation.
7. Is the editor of HT aware of the various judicial orders/government guidelines safeguarding the rights of people in custody in similar situations?

Dr. P. S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal

Members, PIL Watch Group

Email: pilwatchgroup@gmail.com

FAQs on COVID-19 tests and prevention

   1.       The rapid anti-body test for COVID-19 is just like the ELISA test for HIV/AIDS. Both these indicate the presence of anti-bodies but both may give false positive and false negative results i.e. they are not 100% reliable; also these tests being positive only show that infection may have occurred sometime in the past – few days to few weeks to few months. The confirmatory test (RT-PCR) involves taking a swab from the nose/throat and checks for the genetic material of the virus.

   2.       The three things for prevention of COVID-19 infection are frequent hand washing, maintaining social distancing and wearing a face-mask. Hand washing ensures that if we touch a surface where the virus is stuck and we touch this surface and then take our fingers to inside of mouth; inside of nose and inside of eyes then the virus is able to multiply there. The skin of the inside of these three areas is very thin and called mucus membrane. In India nose picking is very common with the index finger; the index finger is also used to clean the corner of the eye where discharge has got collected; some people use this finger to remove the food particles stuck between the gums and the inner part of the cheek.

   So if the index finger is contaminated with the virus any of these three activities will ensure that virus multiplies and then spread in the body.

    During an open hearing in the Supreme Court one of us saw a judge indulging in nose picking with his index finger. So we have to get rid of these habits.

Home Minister Et Al Made Provocative, Threatening Speeches: Statutory Body’s Report On Delhi Violence

Co-Written by Dr. P. S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal

“If crime itself assumes authority and power

And hunts down people, holding them criminals,

Everyone endowed with a mouth who keeps silent,

Becomes (a) criminal himself.”

                                                    - Varavara Rao

Incarcerated Telugu poet Varavara Rao must feel satisfied that several brave men and women coming from different faiths have refused to be silent accomplices. They were members of the fact finding committee constituted by Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC) to enquire into the February 2020 violence in Delhi. In the Report they have named the man who heads the Union Home Ministry – the very same Ministry courtesy which Varavara Rao nay thousands of others are imprisoned. The 130 odd paged Report is available in various formats at: https://archive.org/details/dmc-delhi-riot-fact-report-2020.  It needs to be translated into all Indian languages included in the Eight Schedule of the Constitution of India. The Report has compiled the testimony of journalists – all from the non-Muslim community – who had filed their on-the-spot reports as any journalists should as per the criteria laid down by George Orwell:

“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”

But for the factual reports of these journalists the world would not have known the truth about the violence.

The DMC Report indicts the Delhi Police for being either complicit (against the Muslims) or being mute spectators to the violence unleashed on the minority community. The Report journeys us through the peaceful, continuous protest launched by women at Shaheen Bagh, Delhi against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC); how violence was unleashed through a conspiracy to damn the peaceful protest which had received worldwide attention. The Report records how efforts to lodge FIRs by Muslims got thwarted; how the victimized members of the minority community were made out to be accused by the Police! Even the promised compensation has largely evaded the victims.

Similarities with 1992 violence

Ironically the 1992 anti-Muslim violence in Delhi resulted after the Muslims were silently protesting/mourning the martyrdom/demolition of Babri Masjid, Ayodhya. The role of police; obstruction to filing of FIRs by Muslims; victims being made the accused; compensation being denied to most victims – the whole chain of events was no different from that of 2020 Delhi violence. We can testify to this as we at ABVA had worked amongst the victims and brought out a Citizens’ report titled “Victims’ Version”. The report was authored by Arun Bhandari; Jagdish Bhardwaje; Manoj Pande; Dr. Puneet Bedi; Dr. P. S. Sahni.

We recall how the Supreme Court then reacted to a petition filed by civil liberties champion V.M. Tarkunde, formerly judge, Bombay High Court and now since deceased on behalf of the victims. The petition had appended all the reports documented by activists on the issue. Shoving away the file the judges disagreed that the Delhi Police is communal. And with that the petition was dismissed!

Sham enquiry into 1984 anti-Sikh violence

Significantly after the anti-Sikh violence in November 1984 the Rajiv Gandhi government appointed Js. Ranganath Misra, then Judge Supreme Court as a one-man commission to enquire into the violence. Js. Misra exonerated the higher echelons of the ruling Congress (I) party and put the blame on the lower level functionaries. The moral courage and conviction of the ten member fact finding team of DMC contrasts sharply with that shown by Js. Misra. The DMC Report becomes a template for all future efforts everywhere in similar situations.

Yet these are troubled times:

“How topsy-turvy is this world

Those who ought to be in the dock

Have in their hand

Key to the prison.”

A peoples’ movement could upset apple cart.

Dr. P. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal are members of PIL Watch Group & ABVA. Email: pilwatchgroup@gmail.com

Revolutionaries, Fasts & Prisons – Cue For Jailed Activists!

by Dr P S Sahni 

A grim scenario is unfolding itself in India over the last 6 years and 2 months. Social activists are being arrested on fabricated charges under Draconian laws – where in bail is denied – and incarcerated with no end in sight to their trial. The period of imprisonment itself becomes a long punishment. Many of the detenue are from the minority communities like Muslims, tribals, dalits, Christians, poets, intellectuals, writers, academicians, students, journalists and those working for civil liberties and democratic rights issues. Hundreds of habeas corpus petitions were lying pending in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court last year for months after the great betrayal of the Kashmiris!!! The legal process of trying for bail from lower court to the apex court brings no relief.

Democratic protests in support of these activists have been curtailed – section 144 IPC has been imposed eternally in many popular protests sites; police permission is not granted for protests; number of protesters has been limited; protests spaces are being shrunk; strict watch is kept through CCTV cameras, drones, AI, facial recognition techniques – all these are used by the state to ensure a chilling experience of participating in a protest. The judiciary turns a blind eye when the right to peacefully protest is abrogated. The corporate press censors out the news or distorts the coverage. Parliament itself has no time to admit a call attention debate notice on such issues of public importance. To this must be added that a long term concerted effort for mass protests against curtailment of democratic rights has not got built ever since the Internal Emergency era, 1975-77. Discussion of the future of such concerted effort might usefully begin with the recognition of this fact. Sumanta Banerjee, author and veteran democratic rights activists commented in Countercurrents.org on 16 January, 2019 in relation to Anand Teltumbde’s urgent plea for support:

“While of course understanding the need for approaching courts for justice for civil rights activists like you, there’s a need for supplementing such judicial moves by organizing mass movements – even against judicial orders which violate democratic rights.”

Ranjit Sur, a central secretariat member of the Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) in an interview to Sanhati on 24 January, 2019 sounded an optimistic note:

“There is repression on so-called “urban Naxals” across the country. All of this may lead to a certain rejuvenation of the rights movement, some traces of which we have started to see.”

So what options are available in situations where activists are languishing in jails for years all over the country with their number reaching tens of thousands? A cue emerges from the revolutionaries who fasted in prisons for illegal detentions, improvement of jail condition and rights of under-trials and convicted prisoners.

Satyagraha as a weapon of political resistance

In 1929, during the anti-colonial struggle both Batukeshwar Dutt and Bhagat Singh had decided upon a hunger strike in the Central Jail Mianwali, Punjab (now in Pakistan) in order to bring about a change in the rigorous jail life. It was demanded “that all persons who are convicted of offences that are actuated by political motives, and not for any personal gain or object, should be regarded as political prisoners who should be allowed facilities for study, newspaper, better diet, and association of all political prisoners with each other.” The undertrials threw in their weight by declaring a sympathetic hunger strike on 13 July, 1929. On 28 July the condition of Jatin Das – member, Hindustan Socialist Republican Association – became serious while lodged in the Borstal Jail, Lahore; he finally embraced death after fasting for 63 days on 13 September, 1929, aged 24 years. The Punjab Jail Enquiry Committee was forced to promise amelioration of the jail conditions. Again the Kakori Conspiracy was a train robbery that took place between Kakori and near Lucknow on 9 August, 1925; the robbery was organized by Hindustan Republican Association. The robbery was conceived by Ram Prasad Bismil & Ashfaqullah Khan. After the court verdict in the case the accused were sent to different jails of United Province. In the jail the revolutionaries argued that since they had been charged with crimes against the British rule they should be treated as political prisoners. These prisoners went on a hunger strike for periods ranging from 4 days to 45 days in different jails in United Province. Most significant was the hunger strike at Andaman Islands in 1933. This lasted for 45 days, three lives were lost but the hunger strike kept the spirit of anti-colonial struggle alive in the lull after the failure of Gandhi’s Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930.

Hope lies in the younger prisoners – particularly the students – presently lodged in various jails launching a Satyagraha on similar lines.  It could set in motion mass campaigns and movements in civil society and put pressure on the authorities.

Dr. P. S. Sahni is a member of PIL Watch Group and ABVA. Email: pilwatchgroup@gmail.com

First published: https://countercurrents.org/2020/07/revolutionaries-fasts-prisons-cue-for-jailed-activists/

PRESS RELEASE: ICMR Exhumes, Revives Nazi Era Template For Vaccine Trials

 

“No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects.” – Nuremberg Code

The ABVA (AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan) views with serious concern the manner in which the alleged n-coronavirus vaccine in India is being launched for public use latest by 15 August, 2020. The topmost medical scientist at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is forcing Phase I and II trials of this vaccine to be over by then. It is the most unscientific and dangerous way to proceed on with human trials. The speed with which the entire exercise has been surreptitiously undertaken is matched by the fast-tracking of Typhus vaccine in Nazi Germany, which had resulted in a disaster as Hitler’s very own German soldiers on whom the vaccine was used suffered tremendous morbidity and mortality. This happened because the vaccine was prepared with the Nazi SS men breathing down the necks of the medical scientists and with unpractical deadlines.

The canvassing for volunteers needed for the first two phases of the trial has started; about 1100 are needed in all. If the Government of India indeed feels that the vaccine is safe and efficacious for human trials to be started then why can’t it enlist all members of the present Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha; Judges of the Supreme Court; Secretaries, Union Ministries & Chief Secretaries, States/Union Territories; Scientists at ICMR, AIIMS, NIV and Chair Persons, National Commissions who could voluntarily consent in writing to become subjects of the trials. Of course all of them will have to be explained the risks inherent in any clinical trial of a new drug; in case any mishap happens then compensation is already inbuilt in The New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules, 2019.

However, if any one or all of them have reservations about being volunteer-subjects then an independent peoples’ commission should be constituted to ensure whether such a scheme as envisaged by ICMR is indeed scientific, safe and in consonance with the medical ethics as also WHO guidelines on vaccine trials.

Dr. P. S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal

Members, AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan

Email: aidsbhedbhavvirodhiandolan@gmail.com

COVID-19 Pandemic: The Drug Pushers On Top Of The World

by Dr P S Sahni 

India has become the third worst affected country globally in relation to COVID-19 pandemic; the triad consists of India, USA and Brazil. Quite early in the course of the pandemic the Indian government either gifted or sold the drug Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) – a drug primarily used against malaria and a host of other diseases including autoimmune diseases like SLE. A section of medical scientists in India had a belief – with not an iota of scientific evidence – that HCQ could be useful in preventing n-coronavirus infection as also in severe pneumonia due to COVID-19.

The Indian Prime Minister was passionate in this belief and publicly aired his concern for helping other countries in their fight against the pandemic. Trump called it a wonder drug, nay a game changer; he even testified that he feels absolutely great after taking HCQ. He even said HCQ has tremendous, rave reviews.

In a letter written to PM Modi regarding the supply of HCQ, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stated:

“Just as Lord Hanuman brought the holy medicine from the Himalayas to save the life of Lord Rama’s brother Laksmana (sic), … India and Brazil will overcome this global crisis by joining forces and sharing blessings for the sake of all peoples.”

Modi said in his Mann Ki Baat on 26 April, 2020.

“Today, when world leaders say ‘thank you, India; thank you, people of India’ I feel very proud. India is caring for its own citizens and is contributing towards creating a healthier planet,”…

A glimpse of what has appeared in the media about the COVID-19 – both contracting the infection and deaths among healthcare service providers in USA, Brazil and India:

• Bloomberg reported on 21 May, 2020 that “coronavirus is killing Brazilian nurses faster than anywhere else in the world as the pandemic spreadsin the Latin American nation. The country’s Federal Nursing Council says there are more than 15,000 nurses infected with Covid-19, which according to the council represents almost 40% of the global case toll. As of Wednesday, 137 nurses had died.”
• The Telegraph, India reported on 29 May, 2020 that more than 2000 health care workers in India were infected by the n-coronavirus over an 8 week period till April 30 as per an ICMR study.
• The Guardian reported on 6 June, 2020 that nearly 600 US health workers died of COVID-19 and the toll is rising.
• The Times of India reported on 30 June, 2020 that 2,000 Delhi health workers are Covid-infected and 8 have died.

It is obvious that the triumvirate of – Trump, Bolsonaro and Modi – have taken not only the people of their own countries but also of the whole world for a ride. Even a lay person can conclude that these three countries in the forefront of propagating HCQ have a very high number of infections and deaths amongst the healthcare service providers. If HCQ had indeed been provided (and it was effective) to doctors, nurses and others in these three countries, then there should have been no case of infection and death due to n-coronavirus in health care service providers. Yet what we are seeing is thousands upon thousands of doctors, nurses and others getting infected in USA, Brazil and India. This is prima facie evidence that HCQ has no preventive role in COVID-19.

Secondly, on 17 June, 2020 WHO announced “that the hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) arm of the Solidarity Trial to find an effective COVID-19 treatment was being stopped … that hydroxychloroquine does not result in the reduction of mortality of hospitalised COVID-19 patients…” So finally even the WHO has come to conclude that HCQ will not benefit patients of severe pneumonia in COVID-19 infection.

An independent international enquiry should be instituted to ascertain as to how many of the health care service providers died due to use of HCQ rather than COVID-19.

[Dr. P. S. Sahni is a member of ABVA. On 27 April, 2020, we had demanded that Indian Government should recall HCQ from 55 countries who were gifted/sold this drug by India.]

First published: https://countercurrents.org/2020/07/covid-19-pandemic-the-drug-pushers-on-top-of-the-world/

For Peoples’ Manifesto: A Suggested LGBTQIA Perspective

— by Dr P S Sahni 

At the very outset we at ABVA would like to make a simple point that the LGBTQIA community – which constitutes about 7 to 8% of the population as per the Supreme Court Johar judgement of 2018 – has tasted a measure of freedom and identity only in the last few years starting from NALSA judgment of 2014 whereby the transgenders were accepted as third sex! The vast majority of Indians being heterosexual – both men and women – must have experienced such a thrill right after 15 August, 1947.

We wish to point out that even the framers of the Indian Constitution bypassed the sexual minorities in India; on the other hand South Africa on achieving freedom forbids discrimination on the basis of sex, gender or sexual orientation in their Constitution itself. Even Nepal’s Constitution contains several articles that enshrine protections and rights for LGBT community. The Constitution of Ecuador banned discrimination based on sexual orientation in 1998. But in India the Parliament continues to dodge the issue till date. What a shame! Are sexual minorities not part of ‘WE, THE PEOPLE’?

ABVA has been exerted on gay rights since 1988 at a time when the entire political spectrum from left to right kept mum on the issue. My colleague Shobha had documented the struggle around gay rights in an article published in Countercurrents.org on 01.09.2018 titled: ‘Reminiscing ABVA’s Struggle for Gay Rights in the Twentieth Century – A Brief History of That Time’, wherein she had observed:

“ABVA had a broad futuristic vision and in “Less Than Gay” it asked for repeal of all discriminatory legislation singling out homosexual acts by consenting adults in private – section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and the relevant sections of the Army, Navy and Air Force Acts, 1950. It’s Charter of Demands in 1991 included demand to recognize right to privacy as a fundamental right.”

ABVA’s has updated its Gay Manifesto of 1991 (see Charter of Demands in Less than Gay) in an article published in Countercurrents.org on 06.10.2018 titled: ‘An Open Letter To Indian Parliamentarians To Get Section 377, IPC Repealed In Toto’, in which it was stated:

“About time the political parties should appreciate that a population of 100 million people constitutes the second largest minority community in India next only to the Muslim community; and that the sexual minority community can influence, nay change the contours of government formation – both at the Centre and state level … Future ministers in Indian Government could well include a Christian Lesbian; Muslim Gay; Sikh Queer; Tribal of Mongoloid race(from the North Eastern States of India); Transgender; Dalit (of Dravidian stock) Bisexual. This political formation could be the best bet for a secular, democratic regime. The political interests of the working class (workers, farmers) would need to be assured.”

It is hoped that the manifesto proposed for release on 15 August, 2020 would act as an impetus for the future struggles of the people and provide a direction to the activists. Pertinently, it would serve the purpose of ‘WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA’ putting the Union Government itself to notice!

The spirit in which the CC is preparing the manifesto should be no less than that in display while Karl Marx & Frederick Engels were preparing the Communist Manifesto.

Some of what we had demanded in 1991 became a reality recently viz in 2014 transgenders were given an identity of third sex; in 2017 Right to Privacy was held as a fundamental right and in 2018 S.377, IPC was partially struck down. So there is hope!

Dr. P. S. Sahni is a founder member of ABVA. Email: aidsbhedbhavvirodhiandolan@gmail.com

First Published: https://countercurrents.org/2020/06/for-peoples-manifesto-a-suggested-lgbtqia-perspective/