ISSUES AND CONCERNS

This is with the deepest sense of loss. I am writing to you that, our dearest Madhav Vithal Kamath, known popularly as MV Kamath is no more. He breathed his last in sleep on 9th Oct. at 7.30 in the morning. He was 93 years and 32 days to be precise, as he bade good bye to this sorry world. Yes all of us have to go someday, so he too has followed the inevitable. But it is only given to some to leave one's footprints on the Indian Journalism landscape, which he strode like a colossus. For us at Issues & Concerns, it is a huge vacuum difficult to fill. He stood with is like a rock for all the 175 issues that we have just completed. We will hugely miss him for his support and guidance. We have attempted to pay our tribute to the departed soul on our back cover for the respect he commanded. Reverting to the month that went by, it is but significant that we crossed another milestone. Yes we crossed our 14th milestone last month. This month is the beginning of 15th year. So this y...

NEW DELHI: A sessions judge of Mehsana in Gujarat had created a history, back in Jan. 2005, by disposing a dowry death case in 9 days. While he acted with alacrity to deliver judgement which should be the objective of all fast-track courts, he appears to have disposed off himself for a meaner cause with cavelier fashion. Or else there is absolutely no reason for not taking the issue of death very seriously due to alleged dowry harassment of a young mother of a girl child. According to case details, kerosene was poured on Renukaben, the wife of Mahesh Patel in Panchot village of Mehsana district. She died of burns on 16, December 1997. Although the accused, the husband, and his parents, were arrested and were detained in Jail for three days before letting them off on bail, it took 7 years for the charges to be framed. Prosecution reportedly produced a list of 12 witnesses on 1st Jan 2005. 3 days after the charges were framed. However, they produced only 5 witnesses on 7th Jan. The s...

Children of Lesser God & Nobel Peace Prize October 10, supposedly the World Child Labour Eradication day, has come and gone. Has that made any difference to the issue of exploitation of children in India? The answer is No. There are close to 65 million children across the country who are victims of exploitative practices, which is almost 40% of global figure of 165 million. A month later on 14th Nov, its Childrens Day in India. From Rashtrapathi Bhavan to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, just about all schools celebrate! Childrens Day, to mark the birth day of India’s First Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. But, what about those children without school, children without future, and certainly children without reasons to celebrate. And you see them all around. You find them in eateries, automobile garages, mechanical workshops, brassware making machineshops, carpet weaving factories, rug making units, bangle making works, glass factories, diamond polishing, cracker units, and even in homes...

Senior Citizens and their Citizenry October 5th 2014, FPJ weekend supplement carried a front page story “THE UNSEEN VIOLENCE THAT IMPACTS CHILDREN” by Amrita Nandy. Then there is a small highlight “Amrita Nandy says that violence against children by their own parents and near and dear ones is the hidden violence that nobody talks about.”  It was an article of around 1250 words. The article was completely devoted to the vulnerability of senior citizens, especially women. The highlighted portion displayed on the main body of the article was no were found. There was neither , even a passing reference to children or ‘violence that impacts children’, as the title claimed. Thus my hunch is, the paper did not carry the story meant under the above referred title. There appeared to be a mix-up. Kindly correct me, if I am wrong.  Of course the idea of writing this piece was, not to point out the visible error, but to comment on the story that was carried rather than the title. ...

175th Issue release of ISSUES & CONCERNS  held in  Govinda Dasa College,Surathkal,Mangalore Indian journalism should be less melodramatic, more humane and realistic - commented Mr.Ananthakrishna, Chairman, Karnataka Bank, at the function marking the release of the 175th issue of the journal "Issues & Concerns", held at Govinda Dasa College on 10th October, 2014.  Congratulating I&C, for its  'never say die' spirit, also expressed concern regarding the early exposure of children to negativity and cruelty, through television channels. He expressed hope that children will be encouraged will be weaned away from TV, towards creativity in print and humane gestures in the future.   The unfortunate demise (a day before the event) of Dr. M.V.Kamath, former Chairman, Prasara Bharathi, who was slated to preside over the event, turned the event into a commemorative event to the “Bhisma” of Indian journalism.  Sri. Jayaram Shriyan, Editor, Issues ...

University PG Hostelites go without food Raichur: As many as 130 students, including 10 girls, studying in Yeragera postgraduate centre of Gulbarga University, have been starving for two days mow. The reason: the university hostel mess suddenly shut down. The students are finding it tough to appease their hunger as the college is situated around 20 km from Raichur in an isolated rural area. The students said that the contractor, to whom the hostel has been outsourced to, abruptly closed the kitchen when they questioned him on the poor quality of food served. “The food offered to us was not good. We questioned the contractor, as we pay him a monthly bill of Rs. 1,300, apart from the one-time deposit of Rs. 2,500 and yearly hostel room rent of Rs. 4,500. He forced us to starve by closing the hostel kitchen just two days after he opened it,” said Pratap Kumar, a second-year M.Sc student of the Instrumentation Technology course. The mess was opened on October 8, though it was suppo...

‘Dry’ Sundays in God’s own country Thiruvananthapuram: Liquor sale outlets and bars in Kerala will remain closed on all Sundays as part of the Congress-led UDF Government’s liquor policy which seeks to lead the state to total prohibition within a decade. Under the new policy, nearly 400 retail liquor outlets of State Beverages Corporation, the sole distributor of Indian Made Foreign Liquor, will remain shut for 52 days a year, reports PTI. Apart from Sundays, holidays like Gandhi Jayanthi, Sree Narayana Guru birth anniversary and Good Friday are already dry days in the state. The Government has ordered closure of bars attached to hotels, except in the five-star category, as part of the policy of reducing availability of liquor to the people. Also, 10 percent of the retail outlets will be closed each year. Over the years, Kerala has earned a reputation of being one of the top liquor consuming states in the country. The state had a foretaste of partial prohibition when the mi...

…and she married herself ! London: A woman in the UK who was fed up of being single got married to herself in a full wedding ceremony attended by 50 guests. Grace Gelder, a photographer by profession, said that after being single for six years she had built up a brilliant relationship with herself – and creating that bond with someone else seemed like too much hard work. Gelder ‘proposed’ to herself on a park bench in Parliament Hill, London, last November and walked solo down the aisle in mid-March this year, ‘mirror.co.uk.’ reported.Gelder bought a dress, a ring, rehearsed vows and eventually wed in a farm-house in rural Devon watched by her sister and friends – sealing the deal by planting a kiss on a mirror. “A few did comment, in a light-hearted way, that it was a bit narcissistic,” Gelder said. “Obviously, if you have just announced you’re marrying yourself, it is plainly a statement of self-love, and I was under no illusion how self-indulgent that might appear. “But I...

Sino – Indian ties: Sans spirit Dr. M. V. Kamath After all the brouhaha and sloganeering like Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai, the three-day visit of China’s President Xi Jinping turned out to be a damp squib. The boundary dispute persists, even when both sides want peace and tranquillity along the border. True, both Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping are more than anxious to correct the situation and be accommodative. Xi Jinping did his level best to sound friendly, calling India “an ancient and magic land, an enchanting and beautiful land” and Modi lavished unheard of hospitality in more than ample measure. Prior to his visit word was going round that China was willing to invest over US $100 billion in India but in the end, it turned out that the amount would not exceed US $20 billion – chicken feed as critics called it, and to be spent over the course of five years. One thing seems clear; unless the border dispute is amicably resolved, a sense of restraint will continue to prevail in the re...

Friends We are into the monsoon season, but unlike last year, this time round, rain god is playing hide and seek. It’s not been even 50% of the last year, when, it caused unprecedented devastation in Uttarkhand. Thousands had died and loss of property has been colossal. While the rebuilding is still in its limping stage, the memory of the dead shall linger for a very long time to come with dead bodies still popping up from no-where. A complete account of the loss of life may never be possible with the kind of topography the state has. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was not functional then, hope, it is activated by this time to be available in case of need. According the Meteorological people, July shall have better monsoon. Hope it is proved right or else we will have a serious socio-agrarian problem. Month-in-Perspective, as usual, has tried to cover as many issues of relevance as was possible within the space constraints. We have tried to be as fair as possible...

NEW DELHI: ‘Good days are coming’ has been the clarion-call of Modi’s campaign in Election 2014. Modi has been rather innovative, in his verbose in the election rhetorics. Result, we have all seen. After 30 years, there’s a single party government in New Delhi. Narendra Modi has certainly arrived on the national stage like none before him. Hence the expectation of ordinary Indians, especially those who voted for him, is justifiably there, of good days ahead. And comes the bomb shell, by way of 14% hike in the railway passenger fare and 6% in the freight charge. As expected all political parties went to the town to cry hoarse. Even BJP would have done the same before Election 2014. But that is politics. This is the only way it functions in a country like India. Media informs that the increase of 14% and 6% was planned in the last vote-on-account proposals of former Rail Minister of UPA, Mallikarjun Kharge. But due to possible election fallout it was not tabled in the parliament. Thus...