ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Friends This month signifies the completion of a milestone in the evolution of our efforts started in November 2000. Yes, we shall be completing 10 years of extremely satisfying journey in the world of print media. We have planned a Souvenir to mark the decennial. Navigating thru’ the uncharted waters of 4th estate had its own feelings of exhilaration and disappointment. But looking back over the shoulder the labyrinth that we traversed, certainly has left us with a sense of ‘déjà vu’. Of course hurdles have been many and have been of varying kinds, mainly of participative readership. Our support base has not radically picked up. Although it has crossed four figures, it is a long way to reach the five figure mark. For a ten year old periodical, it is pretty low. Of course many of our readers, who are receiving complimentary copy somehow do not realise that if they like to receive it and read it, they should as well subscribe to it. We have such souls aplenty. Of course, there are some ...

KASHMIR - A Question of Answers Mr.M. Veerappa Moili, the present Union Law Minister, in a moment of ‘introspective enlightenment’ wrote as follows “The congress leadership right from 1947, has always surrendered its ego and shunned narrow political opportunism in providing stable governments in Jammu & Kashmir. This objective approach and display of sagacity are absolutely in tune with the legacy of the Congress party right from the days of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajeev Gandhi. Sonia Gandhi has to be commended for her enlightened and statesmanly approach, inspired by national spirit, in lending her support to heralding a vision of Kashmir.” This was way back in 2002 Nov. Writing in the Deccan Herald (DH) of 27th Nov.2002, “Beyond Democracy’s Moment of Glory – Keeping Promises in Kashmir” Mr. Moili, as a diehard loyalist Congressman, remembered not to include Mr Lal Bahadur Shastri, the cleanest and financially the poorest Prime Minister, in his no holds barred prais...

Age, I abhor thee, Prof. B. M. Hegde, hegdebm@gmail.com Youth, I adore thee.” Shakespeare. One does not have to abhor aged people at all. I do not agree with Shakespeare. One could grow up gracefully and could achieve many things even at the ripe old age. There are examples of people who have been creative even in their eighties and nineties. How to grow old gracefully is a million-dollar question? Any society, which does not have the wise counsel of its elderly people, is a poor society. Age mellows people a lot. If one is a thinker, age teaches many useful lessons. Life is not long enough for each of us to make all the mistakes ourselves and then learn from them. We could learn from others’ mistakes and, in this direction, the thinking elders are a great boon. Virtue and morality have taken a back seat. Look at what Shakespeare wrote about the state of affairs then: For in the fatness of these pursy times, Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg.” Hamlet. Ageing starts from the...

Can Central Govt equate housewives with beggars, prostitutes and prisoners?! New Delhi: The Supreme Court has slammed the Government for clubbing housewives with prostitutes, beggars and prisoners in the Census and describing them as economically non-productive workers. The court described as “totally insensitive” and “callous” the approach of the statutory authorities in equating women, who are homemakers, with such segments, saying it was indicative of a strong gender bias against women. The court suggested that time has come for Parliament to revisit the Motor Vehicle Act to ensure that whenever a housewife dies, suitable compensation is awarded to the family members, to avoid gender bias. In separate but concurrent judgements, the Bench also suggested amendments to the Matrimonial Laws to give the women their due status in the society. “This bias is shockingly prevalent in the work of Census. In the census of 2001 it appears that those who are doing household duties like cooking, c...

Caste Census futile: Experts New Delhi: Experts say the headcount of castes through a separate standalone caste census in June-September as decided by the Cabinet will be a futile exercise, defeating the very purpose of social justice for which the opposition parties wanted reintroduction of the caste enumeration scrapped since after the 1931 Census. Advocating collection of the caste data in the main Census 2011 to be carried out in February, they say the separate headcount will not integrate the caste data with the socio-economic, educational and demographic data like literacy, education, martial status, life expectancy, occupation, etc. that be gathered during the Census headcount. In a public appeal, nine experts have called for an urgent course correction to achieve the intended policy benefits, pointing out that repeating the gigantic exercise within two months of the main Census cannot be defended in “administrative, logical or financial terms.” The experts, who have pointed out...

Chinese traffic jam: 100 kms long, 10 days old! Beijing: Does your blood boil when you get caught in a traffic snarl? If so, then spare a thought for motorists in China who have been stuck for the past 10 days in a traffic jam stretches a good 100 km on a highway. Trucks bound for the Chinese capital are barely moving on the Beijing – Tibet Expressway, formerly known as the Badaling Expressway, due to ongoing maintenance construction work. Traffic authorities are struggling to cope with congestion on the major national expressway on which traffic has slowed to a snail’s pace, ‘Global Times’ reported. Local residents are profiting due to the massive traffic jam by overcharging drivers for food. Since Aug 14, thousands of Beijing-bound trucks have choked the expressway. Now traffic stretches for over 100 km between Beijing and Huai’an in Heibel Province and Jining in inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, ‘China National Radio’ (CNR) reported. Minor traffic accidents and broken-down cars ha...

THE NATURE OF AMERICAN STRATEGY Dr. M. V. Kamath When will the United States ever learn from history? And when will it stop feeling itself and the world at large? Its self-centred record of international strategy ever since the end of World War II has been, to say the least, dubious and destructive. In order to break up the Soviet Union it went to great lengths to perpetuate the Cold War. That, in the end, the Soviet Union collapsed was because of its own inner contradictions. Even without U. S. meddling it would have collapsed but the U.S. thought it would pitch in with its own efforts at great cost to itself. In another couple of decades, may be, it will cease to be the lone super power. It all started with Korea which to this day remains divided. Then came Vietnam. For all its power that was freely flaunted, the U.S. was defeated and had to run away with its tail between its legs, in the eyes of the world, humiliated. And now we hear of Iraq where Vietnam is being repeated. The U...