ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Friends Looking back in perspective has its own joy. Yes, its joy alright, but a deeply mixed one. We have completed 13 long years in the print media. Yes, this is our 1st issue of the 14th year. Going back to the above second sentence, ours has been a journey of cliffs and valleys. If our 150th issue release function was an unqualified success and made us feel that we shall have an accelerated paid readership, we were not exactly misplaced, but we did realise that in the world of dime a dozen ‘nay’ sayers, its not always a smooth ride especially, when it comes to print journalism. However, we have had many well meaning souls, who stood by us, beginning with Nitte Group Chairman Dr N Vinay Hegde, who sponsored 20 of his friends, relatives and colleagues for ten long years in a spirit of participative support. Yes, the trickledown effect is there and slowly but steadily our circulation is going up, as more are coming forward to sponser. Hence, it’s a big THANK YOU to all those who...

BIHAR: Chaara Ghotala, which took place some 2 decades ago, actually happened in the unified Bihar before Jharkhand was carved out, when Nitish Kumar was the chief of Samatha Party in Bihar. It is alleged that some proceeds of this fodder money loot was indeed donated to the Samatha Party when, the present Chief Minister of Bihar, was the president. A key witness in the scam, in a sworn affidavit has stated that a sizeable amount was given to Nitish Kumar as political contribution to his party. Somehow this dimension of the case has not been highlighted, either by the electronic media or even the spokesperson of  investigating agencies. It is not clear, if the judgement of the special court has made any reference to it. But clearly, it appears, that CBI has not followed it up to its logical conclusion. Legally even donation to charity or other social causes from stolen money is illegal, and therefore beneficiaries too are subjected to criminal proceedings. Hence Nitish Kumar too ...

MODI & Aam Aadmi Party Manoj is a good friend. I know him for many years. He is a subscriber of ISSUES & CONCERNS and of course he reads too. I bumped into him in a restaurant. Touching many subjects, our talk was meandering into all and sundry, and suddenly he says, “In the next Focus, you must write on NA-MO”. Surprised at his abrupt suggestion, had to gather my response. “You do have a valid suggestion but not sure how to go about it. Na Mo is not a simple person that he can be described easily both in his words and actions. But he is not the same Narendra Modi of 2002. He is beginning to evolve. But will he be the solution to the myriad problems in this country of over 1200 million, diverse & kaleidoscopic population? Answer is a capital ‘NO’. Yet, in the public discourse of our contemporary India, he is the most talked about and written about. Therefore we at ISSUES & CONCERNS are certainly seized of the matter. However, what we hope to articulate may not be, exa...

Free Speech – My foot! Public memory, we are told, is notoriously short. Hence we find in the media, players of different class playing to the gallery or even otherwise, mouthing, pearls of wisdom, so also inanities of grand standing, conveniently forgetting, having said the very reverse.  Instances and issues are innumerable. Sometime ago, a Mumbai based newspaper had carried the story “Shabana offended by ‘Ishq Ki Maa Ki”. Those who are in the know of colloquial Hindi/Urdu in Mumbai would vouch that the above statement is not only very distasteful but also derogatory to both love and mother. It is a song in the film ‘I don’t love you’. Taking exception to the song, she went viral on the social networking site. She is reported to have said “When we talk about self regulation in our industry, we must keep in mind the identity of women before producing such things. One must be vigilant whether our work is treating woman as commodities or objectifying them and their individua...

Flash strike by CR motormen on Visarjan day Mumbai: Central Railway motormen and guards struck work for half-an-hour, affecting services for an hour. They wanted an additional 10 minutes during their break between two trains. During the protest, two engine failures occurred, further disrupting the services. An engine of a train stalled at Kalwa and the other at Tilak Nagar. Official suspect foul play, as the engine failures occurred exactly during the protest. Both, motormen and guards refused to ply trains from CST from 5.05 pm to 5.35 pm due to which 36 trains were cancelled on the main line and 51 on the harbor line. Although this was the peak hour but due to a holiday on account of Ananth Chaturdashi there were comparatively fewer commuters. The motormen and guards want to increase their ‘signing on’ time, that is, the time between changing of two trains as well at the beginning of their work hours. The demand of the 754 motormen of CR is to increase this time from 20 min...

Illegal Evidence may be admissible: SC The Supreme Court held that obtaining evidence illegally by using tape recordings or photographs is admissible in law although such methods was not the procedure established by law  "It is a settled legal proposition that even if a document is procured by improper or illegal means, there is no bar to its admissibility if it is relevant and its genuineness is proved. If the evidence is admissible, it does not matter how it has been obtained," a bench headed by Justice B S Chauhan said.  The bench, however, said that before accepting such evidence, the court must come to the conclusion that the evidence is genuine and free from tampering.  "However, as a matter of caution, the court in exercise of its discretion may disallow certain evidence in a criminal case if the strict rules of admissibility would operate unfairly against the accused. More so, the court must conclude that it is genuine and free from tampering or mutilation,...

Italy has lowest graduation rate Rome: Italy has the lowest graduation rates in Europe with just one-fifth of people aged 30-34 holding a university degree, according to a study. A total of 31 percent of Italian families cannot afford to pay for their children's university studies, and must take out loans or have their offspring seek jobs to help fund tuition and living costs, said the report by charity Save the Children. It said Italy was jeopardizing the future of its youth by spending just 1.1 percent of its economic output on children and families, putting the country in 18th place out of Europe's 27 nations. Almost 29 percent of children during the crucial early years from 0-6 are living in poverty and 23.7 percent endure hardship in terms of nutrition, clothing, holidays, sport, books, equipment and school charges, according to the study. When jail bird chose honesty Houston: In a bizarre incident, a prisoner in the US state of Oklahoma chose honesty over ...

An Icon for Gen Next leaders  Dr. M. V. Kamath When I read in the papers that 50 percent of the Lok Sabha members and 17 per cent of Rajya Sabha members have criminal cases against them and another 16 per cent have “serious criminal cases” against them, I keep wondering about those great days in pre-Independence times, when it was an honour to be a people’s representative. Many of them were best and the brightest of the lot, who had fought for freedom and in the process often, gave up their flourishing careers.  My favourite is Kanhaiyalal Maneklal Munshi (1887-1971), one of the greatest of his generation, who established the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in November 1938 with the blessings of Mahatma Gandhi. It is the only organization which can boast of 119 kendras (branches) in India and seven centres abroad, not to speak of a record 367 constituent institutions that are engaged either in teaching or researching a range of subjects from science, arts, commerce, communicati...