All 645 evacuated from Wuhan test negative for virus

NEW DELHI: All 645 Indians, who were evacuated from the central Chinese city of Wuhan and were quarantined after their return to India, have tested negative for the novel coronavirus, the Union health ministry said on Thursday. Ministry of external affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said apart from those evacuated, 10 other Indians have indicated they want to return from China, but were unable to clear the health screening process.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the Opposition, blaming the Congress and the Left parties for hiding behind the Constitution to encourage those who were violating it, reading out quotes from three former Jammu & Kashmir chief ministers to justify their preventive detentions, terming the anti-caa protests as anarchic, and staunchly defending the changed citizenship law by highlighting the plight of minorities in Pakistan.

The Prime Minister, at the same time, called for the ongoing Parliament session to be “dedicated” to the economy while saying that its fundamentals – from fiscal deficit targets to manageable inflation to macroeconomic stability – were strong.

Modi also spoke in the Rajya Sabha later — the first time he addressed both houses of Parliament in the same day — focussing more deeply on the economy and bringing in the National Population Register (NPR) into the discussion by asking Opposition leaders not to “mislead” people by “lying” about what he called a “regulation administrative process”.

In a fiery Lok Sabha speech often interrupted by objections and interjections from the Opposition benches, Modi, in his reply to the Motion of Thanks by President Ram Nath Kovind, said:

“The people who are trying to lecture us to save the Constitution, need to repeat their own words to themselves. These are the same people who imposed the Emergency, tried to take judicial rights away from the Supreme Court, tried to end the right to life, made the most changes in the Constitution, dismissed state governments dozens of times, tore Cabinet decisions in press conferences, and put up a remote control above the prime minister and the PMO.”