Snowy Owl
Retired in 2010, In Memoriam
Maoists say bird flu threat a hoax
http://www.asianage.com
http://www.asianage.com
<story> Hyderabad, April 8:
The troubled poultry industry got support from unexpected quarters: the CPI (Maoists), which said that bird flu was "a gigantic hoax" and "a conspiracy" of US pharma companies to sell their vaccine and "the master plan of the US to enter the Indian poultry industry". It has asked the public to reject US chicken products as they "contain hazardous preservatives".
In the April edition of the magazine People?s March, run by Maoists sympathisers, the CPI Maoists stated that small producers and Venkateswara Hatcheries were the worst affected by reports of bird flu. It cited an incident in Malkajgiri, Hyderabad, where two youth died due to acute diarrhoea but sections of the media attributed it to eating of eggs.
The state police sees the Maoists "support" for poultry industry as a gimmick. Director-general of police Swaranjit Sen said, "They are trying to save face with such campaigns. They want to gain the sympathy of poultry farmers."
Venkateswara Hatcheries general manager K.G. Anand said, "I don?t want to name any party. But we are thankful to everyone who are supporting the cause. The government has given us maximum support. It has challenged to pay Rs 10 lakhs to those who prove that bird flu has spread to humans. It?s true that this is the conspiracy of MNCs based in the US and Europe against small producers and us. They want to dump chicken legs here. We have been fighting against this."
The Maoists stated: "For nearly a fortnight, bird flu was the main item and the scare beat even the terrorist scare of the Varanasi bomb blast. A TV channel, interviewing a lady from AP, said that her two relatives died immediately after consuming eggs. Immediately chicken and eggs were taken off the menu of government offices, armed forces, railways and even Parliament. All this propaganda is a gigantic hoax. Not even one of the 95 patients who were suspected to have the H5N1 virus tested positive for bird flu."
It said that Ranikhet disease is common in poultries and results in mass chicken deaths. But the media barely mentioned it and made it out that such large numbers of chicken deaths could only be due to bird flu, it said.
The CPI Maoists see that hand of US pharma companies to sell their vaccine and US MNCs to enter the Indian market worth Rs 35,000 crores.
</story>
The troubled poultry industry got support from unexpected quarters: the CPI (Maoists), which said that bird flu was "a gigantic hoax" and "a conspiracy" of US pharma companies to sell their vaccine and "the master plan of the US to enter the Indian poultry industry". It has asked the public to reject US chicken products as they "contain hazardous preservatives".
In the April edition of the magazine People?s March, run by Maoists sympathisers, the CPI Maoists stated that small producers and Venkateswara Hatcheries were the worst affected by reports of bird flu. It cited an incident in Malkajgiri, Hyderabad, where two youth died due to acute diarrhoea but sections of the media attributed it to eating of eggs.
The state police sees the Maoists "support" for poultry industry as a gimmick. Director-general of police Swaranjit Sen said, "They are trying to save face with such campaigns. They want to gain the sympathy of poultry farmers."
Venkateswara Hatcheries general manager K.G. Anand said, "I don?t want to name any party. But we are thankful to everyone who are supporting the cause. The government has given us maximum support. It has challenged to pay Rs 10 lakhs to those who prove that bird flu has spread to humans. It?s true that this is the conspiracy of MNCs based in the US and Europe against small producers and us. They want to dump chicken legs here. We have been fighting against this."
The Maoists stated: "For nearly a fortnight, bird flu was the main item and the scare beat even the terrorist scare of the Varanasi bomb blast. A TV channel, interviewing a lady from AP, said that her two relatives died immediately after consuming eggs. Immediately chicken and eggs were taken off the menu of government offices, armed forces, railways and even Parliament. All this propaganda is a gigantic hoax. Not even one of the 95 patients who were suspected to have the H5N1 virus tested positive for bird flu."
It said that Ranikhet disease is common in poultries and results in mass chicken deaths. But the media barely mentioned it and made it out that such large numbers of chicken deaths could only be due to bird flu, it said.
The CPI Maoists see that hand of US pharma companies to sell their vaccine and US MNCs to enter the Indian market worth Rs 35,000 crores.
</story>