From The Newsroom: Amit Shah admitted to AIIMS; RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh no more

In your evening news brief, From The Newsroom, RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh no more; Union Health Ministry issues management protocol for Covid-19 recovered patients and Amit Shah admitted to AIIMS.

Here are the top news of today, Sunday: September 13, 2020:

RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, the driving force behind the rural jobs scheme MGNREGA, breathed his last at the AIIMS here on Sunday due to post Covid-19 complications. He was 74.

A strong supporter of RJD founder Lalu Prasad, Singh had a fall out with the party a few days back and had shot off his resignation letter from the hospital bed. Lalu Prasad, who is incarcerated in the Ranchi jail, had written back to him rejecting the resignation.

Singh had also written a letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, which was seen as an attempt to cosy up to the JD(U) ahead of the Bihar assembly elections later this year.

A doctorate in mathematics, Singh was linked closely with farmers’ movement in Bihar and had a keen understanding of rural India, an experience that held him in good stead during his stint as Rural Development Minister in the UPA-I government.

Singh was regarded as the brain behind MGNREGA which has stood the test of time in creating employment opportunities in villages across the country.

A five-term Lok Sabha member, Singh was pushed to the margins of the RJD after incarceration of Lalu Prasad and emergence of Tejashwi Yadav to the forefront of party affairs.

Singh contested unsuccessfully from Vaishali parliamentary constituency in 2014 and 2019.

“Dear Raghuvansh babu, what have you done. Only the day before yesterday I had said you are going nowhere. And now you have gone so far away. I am speechless. I am sad. You will be remembered a lot,” Lalu Prasad said on Twitter.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah was admitted to AIIMS on Saturday late night, 12 days after he was discharged from the hospital for post-Covid-19 care.

He was taken to AIIMS around 11 PM after he complained of having breathing trouble. In a statement, AIIMS said, "as per the advice given at discharge (August 31), he has now been admitted or complete medical check up before the Parliament Session for 1-2 days.

There has been speculation about Shah's health for some time. However, neither the government nor he gave any details regarding his health condition except that he was admitted to the hospital when he contracted the coronavirus last month and later for post Covid-19 care. While discharging him on August 31, AIIMS had said that he had fully recovered.

Yogasana, Pranayama, meditation and intake of chyawanprash are among some of the suggestions given by the Union Health Ministry in its new management protocol for patients who have recovered from Covid-19.

Calling for a holistic approach for follow up care and well-being of all post-Covid recovered patients, the Health ministry said such patients must continue COVID appropriate behaviour by use of mask, hand and respiratory hygiene, physical distancing.

The protocol provides an approach for managing patients who have recovered from Covid-19 for care at home.

However, the procedure is not meant to be seen as preventive or as a curative therapy. “The recovery period is likely to be longer for patients who suffered from more severe form of the disease and those with pre-existing illness,” it said.

At individual level, the protocol suggested drinking adequate amount of warm water (if not contra-indicated), taking immunity promoting AYUSH medicine prescribed by a qualified practitioner of AYUSH and if health permits then regular household work to be done.

It advised people to resume professional work in a graded manner.

The key to a more settled Sino-Indian relationship is a greater acceptance by both countries of multipolarity and mutuality, building on a larger foundation of global rebalancing, says External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

In his recently-released book "The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World", he also says that India is not the only country focused on coming to terms with China as the entire world is doing so, each nation refashioning its terms of engagement in its own way. The external affairs minister, however, had written this book before the military standoff in eastern Ladakh began in early May.

"If there is a common approach, it is of them simultaneously strengthening capacities internally, assessing the external landscape and seeking understandings with China. In this overall exercise, India will occupy a special place by virtue of its size, location, potential, history and culture," Jaishankar writes.

He says this book, published by HarperCollins India, was developed in the course of the last two years through a series of events and lectures given at think tanks, conferences or business forums form its core.

According to Jaishankar, much has changed, mostly to India's disadvantage, since November 1950, when Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru had a famous exchange of views on how to approach China.

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