 Hello and let's talk about secularism. Now, according to the preamble to the constitution, India has a sovereign socialist, secular and democratic republic. However, a few days ago, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari sent a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thakre about temples not being opened due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In the letter, he wondered if the Maharashtra CM had turned secular, a term which Uddhav Thakre, according to the governor, used to hate. Of course, the Maharashtra CM replied with an equally scathing letter claiming that he did not need a certificate in Hindutva from the governor. These barbs aside, what does it mean for the country when secularism is used as a taunt? We have seen this all around us, the eye-rolling when secularism is mentioned, the abusive way in which the word pseudo-secular has been used. And now we have a constitutional functionary using the word in a way that makes it seem like secularism is not really a value to be cherished. What does it say about the polity and the state of our institutions? We talked to senior journalist Paranjay Guha Thakurtha on this issue. Thank you, Paranjay, for joining us. So we have seen the governor of the state of Maharashtra Bhagat Singh Koshyari write this letter. And this letter is a lot of media organizations have also already pointed out, experts have pointed out that there are various aspects which are problematic. But to start with the most significant issue here seems to be his question to Chief Minister Uttar Thakure as to whether he has turned secular, which of course the tone is one thing. But the sheer question itself kind of sparks disbelief because it seems like being secular is something of a crime. It's something that is deviant to something like that. So what do you have to say to this? Prashant, this is really absolutely amazing, the kind of unsolicited advice that the governor of Maharashtra Bhagat Singh Koshyari gave to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. And you see both of them are constitutional authorities. That's the first point. The most controversial sentence in that letter that he wrote, which is it's in the public domain. Again these letters, who pulled it out in the public domain is another issue. But dripping with sarcasm, Governor Koshyari wrote that he was wondering whether the Chief Minister has received any sort of a divine premonition to keep postponing the reopening of religious places in Mumbai, in Maharashtra, and then wondered whether he turned secular himself and he said this is a term that he hated. Now the point is, if you look at the facts, Maharashtra has among different states in the country, it has the maximum cases of COVID-19, over one and a half million cases, over 40,000 deaths. Health, law and order is a state subject. Technically the governor is bound by the advice of the Council of Ministers. But whether it be in Maharashtra, whether it be in Kerala, whether it be in Bengal, the governors who have been appointed by the Bharti Janta Party are acting as if they are political personalities, not constitutional authorities. In fact, this was pointed out not just by Uttar Pradesh himself, that the Governor Koshyari had sworn by the constitution of the country which mentions the word secular. And the head of the Nationalist Congress, Bharti Sharad Pawar II, has written to the Prime Minister, objecting to all that he's written. Now behind all this is politics. Governor Koshyari was literally made a fool of when he had sworn Devendra Padnavis and Ajit Pawar early in the morning and the whole political equation changed. Now if you step back and see the photographer's son, the Thakre's cartoonist father, Balasat Thakre, was a hardcore right-wing pro-Hindu political personality. You can't say the same thing about his son. But Balasat Thakre was a different guy. I mean he publicly welcomed the fact that some of his supporters had demolished the Babri Masjid. I mean when the anti-Muslim riots took place in Mumbai in 1992 and 1993, the Sri Krishna Commission report clearly pointed out the complicity of the Sheikh Sena in those riots. But let's move ahead and let's see Uttar Thakre. Uttar Thakre talks on the, it says on the floor of the Assembly that one should not mix religion with politics. Now they are obviously very, very unhappy about the fact that they've been denied this opportunity. The Shiv Sena and the BJP were together before the elections and then they lost out because Uttar Thakre switched sides. Now we have to also know that local elections are going to take place. Now after having taken charge as Chief Minister, yes Bhagat Singh Koshyari reminds Uttar Thakre that you've been a strong rotary of Hindutva, you had publicly espoused your devotion to Lord Ram by visiting Ayodha after taking over charge as Chief Minister. All of this is Sagar Grace. Now it's sort of competitive Hindutva that is in place. The same Devan Koshyari welcomes actor Kangana Ranaut when she could describe Maharashtra compares Maharashtra to Pakistan occupied Kashmir. So what we are seeing is competitive, you know, sort of right wing Hindutva and I just say the unsolicited advice that has been given by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari indicates, I mean how even today the Bharti Janta Party has not been reconciled to the fact that they failed in their attempt to form a government in Maharashtra which is one of India's very large and highly industrialized state at the capital of Maharashtra. Mumbai often described as India's financial capital that they have lost out. I think it's still hurting Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari who's acting more as a functionary of the Bharti Janta Party than as a constitution of quality which he is. Absolutely and this context is also maybe interesting to look at the aspect on which much of like you said the sorghrabs is focused on that is secularism itself and we've already seen how much in public culture secularism is today denigrated. I mean pseudo secular has almost become a common place in popular discourse so to speak on WhatsApp and families on media channels of course. And now we have a constitutional function like you said say seemingly in this letter which is again sarcastic almost making it seem like it's something that is out of the ordinary. So these kind of small small these this letter maybe in the larger scheme of things is nothing it gets forgotten two weeks down the line but it also sends a message in some ways about how secularism itself is being perceived and its value being in constitution. You mentioned the phrase pseudo secularism. This was used by Lal Kishan and Vani. You know but the point is today the crisis is deeper because what you're seeing is that the very the constitution of India it's itself under attack and there is talk that is there's need to remove two words from the preamble which is secularism and socialism. The point is the Narendra Modi government clearly by its actions are I mean they have indicated in the past and continue to indicate how little they really care for institutions and how little they care for say the parliament the manner in which the last parliament session took place that the I mean if you compare the track record of the Narendra Modi government the last six years the two governments with the way parliament has been it's not to just mention various other institutions of the state whether it be the judiciary whether it be bodies like the election commission of India law enforcing agencies like the the the central bureau of investigation the judiciary the media all these institutions have been not just compromised and weakened they've been populated with individuals who espouse a certain ideological position which is not just pro-Hindu but more often than not Islamophobic and this is the culture that is being sought to be propagated by the ruling dispensation and the supporters of the ruling dispensation so what you're seeing this kind of unseemly spat and exchange of letters between the governor Maharashtra and the the the chief minister of Maharashtra is really a manifestation of how the Bharti Janta party is ideological parent the Rashti of Swamseh Baksang and the rulers of India today how they are seeking to not just demonize the seventh of the population but what what what what they actually are I mean they're completely disregard for secularism any which way you choose to interpret this term thank you so much for talking to us thank you our next segment is part of a conversation between newsletters Prabir Purkayastha and immunologist Dr Satyajit Rat they discussed monoclonal antibody therapy which was given to US president Donald Trump after he contracted COVID-19 Dr Rat explains his treatment and its positives and negatives right now of course the news is the monoclonal antibodies not a cocktail but two anti-bond monoclonal antibodies seem to have been given to Trump in a mixture and Trump claims this is amazingly good that he is almost fully recovered and he's also pushing that it be now allowed for under emergency use provisions which earlier he had proposed or he had advocated for hydroxychloroquine and what else was it apart from bleach which of course he didn't really ask for emergency authorization he had pushed Remdesivir he had pushed plasma therapy do you think this monoclonal antibodies the Regeneron variety of course which is given a huge boost to their stock is actually something which is worth considering at this stage that this is something really which has more positive elements to it for whatever reports we are getting and not from Mr Trump but from whatever other reports that are available and it could be something which could be used yeah so it's interesting in a variety of ways this monoclonal antibody cocktail therapy that's under trial and that Mr Trump has gotten as a matter of compassionate usage authorization compassionate usage presupposes that one is feeling sorry for the ill person so let's let's go one step back and remind ourselves that for a long time not simply Mr Trump and his fantasy bandwagon but a lot of people across the world including in India were very hopeful about plasma therapy right and the principle is being used in different parts of the world including India and in India we had politicians exhorting people who had recovered to donate plasma and so on and so forth now let me offer a little bit of arithmetic in this the amount of plasma being given in plasma therapy was about 200 milliliters okay 200 milliliters of plasma is on average about four grams of antibody protein okay but keep in mind that of the total amount of antibody protein that anyone of us has circulating at any time certainly no more than about one percent will be against a given target okay that means amongst the antibodies the which is your currently what the disease or infection will be you will be having only a small fraction of the total antibody only that small fraction will be against the specific disease correct so think it's about one percent sort of four grams you are really talking about really 0.04 grams correct so now consider that unlike plasma therapy the monoclonal antibody therapy that mr trump has gotten has a two dose regimen a high dose and a low dose he of course being the leader of the free world got a high dose regimen so the high dose regimen is eight grams the low dose regimen is four grams okay what this is saying is that in the low dose regimen four grams of monoclonal antibody is injected into the individual now unlike plasma therapy here is the arithmetic when you do plasma therapy you are transferring 40 milligrams of antibody when you do monoclonal antibody therapy you're transferring four grams of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibody that's hundred times more effectively monoclonal therapy is giving 100 times the amount of antiviral antibody as plasma therapy has been given okay yeah i think it's antibody that you are getting getting to replace really help your body antibodies to fight the disease now so effectively the antibodies that you're getting are substituting for your antibodies they're not actually helping your antibodies do anything okay they are simply functioning to neutralize virus particles binding to target cells and if that happens the virus life cycle is interrupted and if the virus life cycle is interrupted virus growth is prevented and that helps you get better so what Regeneron the company has done is taken not one but two monoclonal antibodies both of which block virus particle binding to the cell surface and the amounts that are being given are huge not only are the amounts huge they are therefore being given as a slow intravenous drink so here's the problem what we are talking about is an extraordinarily expensive medication okay because such very large amounts have to be given consider the manufacturing and the supply chain difficulties that will arise for one dose to be of four grams or quite possibly eight grams that's one problem the second problem is as i said intravenous strip so it has own it can only be given in a hospital hospital the third issue is we've been saying now for the past six months that for all viral diseases antiviral medications have the most clinical effect early during infection as a result what we are saying is that the Regenkov II which is what this medication is apparently called although Mr. Trump seems to think that it's called Regeneron but which is the company but this monoclonal medication where would it be best so let me point out to you where it would work supremely well it would work beautifully as a prophylactic as a preventive in people who are going to be very high risk exposed such as first responders such as healthcare workers not simply physicians healthcare workers including physicians nurses nursing aides ambulance drivers mortuary her drivers and so on and so forth in them a single injection might quite conceivably provide them with very strong protection for a couple of weeks or even up to a month but the trouble with that is they can't just take a shot and go to work they have to go into hospital get an intravenous drip all of this therefore is to underline the fact that none of this none of these are easy solutions there are interesting technological possibilities but there are daunting real life difficulties with all of this none of this of course does the current president of the united states understand in any nuanced fashion but nuance has never had a being any passing quintance apparently with Mr. Trump that's all we have time for today we'll be back tomorrow with more news from the country and the world until then keep watching news click