MONTH-IN-PERSPECTIVE-February 2021

NEW DELHI: A New Delhi datelined report “SC asks centre to share policy for declaring public Holidays”, was a long overdue observation by the apex court. It has not come day too early. Holidays are based largely on emotions of people. Especially in a country like India whether it is possible to have a policy applicable pari passu across the country, applicable to all sections of Indians, is a hugely debatable issue! India is a country of some 23 official languages and over half a dozen religions, like Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Jews and Buddhists. They all have days of religious significance involving festivals, spiritual/ social personalities so also languages. Hence, besides 2 important national holidays like Independence Day on 15th August, Republic Day on 26th January and Gandhi / Shastri Jayanthi, there are Deepawali holidays, Krishna Janmashtami festival, Ganesh Chaturthi, Dussehra/Vijay Dashami, Gudi Padva across India. Then there are Ramzan, Bakrid, Mohorum for Muslims. Then there are holidays for Christians like Christmas and Good Friday, proceeding Easter. The Christian new year 1st January is no-more a holiday in India. Then there is Mahavir Jayanthi for Jains. There is Navroz, the Parsi New Year, which is no more a public holiday. Officially there is no holiday for any festival of Jews. Then there are holidays decided on vote bank politics like Tipu Jayanthi in Karnataka and a few others. Guru Nanak Birthday too used to be a holiday. Kannada Rajosthava in Karnataka, Maharashtra Day in Maharashtra then International Labour Day as May Day are some of the holidays which have nothing do with religion. So the holiday can be for myriad reasons which become relevant in the context of a society like that of India, which has its own myriad dimension. In fact holidays on Ambedkar Jayanthi and Buddha Jayanthi were not there in the early part of holidays in independent India. Therefore to have a policy on such emotive issues is clearly dicey. However, while it is true that India does not have a specific Public Holiday Act, it may be required, especially in the context of an evolving India. Weekly Holidays Act 1942, that India has, is basically meant for labour welfare, unlike Public Holidays, which our based on emotive issues. Hope the central government takes the call in response to SC intervention in the matter. NEW DELHI:Sometime in August 2019, some 18 months ago, one of my taxpaying friends had whatsapped that he bought a concessional train ticket for senior citizens. He was shocked to read a remark printed on the ticket “Are you aware that 43% of your fare is borne by the common citizens of the country”. It was such a shameless provocation of a law abiding taxpaying senior citizen, especially when for all these 70+years, Members of Parliament had enjoyed without interruption, concessions of all kinds and undeserved payments of salaries, allowances, pension, free services of telephone & electricity, free rail and air travel and of course highly subsidised canteen supplies. These Members of Parliament too need to be reminded that all these state largesse too are borne by the common citizens of the country. At least these senior citizens, who have enriched the state coffers with all kinds of state levies, including income tax, are only getting a small fraction of it repaid back by way of concessional tickets! What about Members of Parliament? They do not even pay income tax on all these receipts and enjoyments! In public space, there have been remonstrations on these underserved benefits enjoyed by Members of Parliament. No wonder canteen subsidy in the parliament canteen will be a thing of the past. According to print media reports, Loksabha speaker Om Birla has reportedly informed media that from 29th January 2021 food served in parliament canteen for MPs and others will become expensive as the subsidy given for canteen services has been stopped. For too long these Members of Parliament enjoyed the largesse of subsidized food, where they used to get chapathi @ Re.1/- Masala Dosa @ Rs. 6/- Rumali Roti @ Re. 1/- Puri with veg @ Rs. 2/- Veg Thali, including sweet & curd @ Rs. 12.50. Non Veg Thali with chicken @ Rs. 22/- and 3 Course Veg Meal at a mere 61/- when outside it could be around Rs. 250/+, with mind boggling varieties at peanut rates! The question is why food at parliament canteen so cheap, when MPs get such high salaries and perks, when the poor continues to live hand-to-mouth existence and sometime even starve! It’s a clear Orwellian case of ‘in a democracy all are equal but some are more equal than others’. Hope, along with scrapping of canteen subsidies other benefits to these Members of Parliament are slowly withdrawn, towards more egalitarian practices. UTTAR PRADESH: Can Uttar Pradesh become Uttam Pradesh, under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath! UP is the most populous state in the country with maximum number of Members of Parliament being sent to Loksabha, so it has an important socio-political role to play. Therefore it is pertinent that the state has to perforce become Uttam Pradesh in all socio-economic indicators. But sadly it has not succeeded in getting out of the tag of BIMARU states despite ‘bhogies’ of the past and Yogi at present as in-charge of the state administration. Ever since Yogi Adityanath, the Mahant became the CM, he has tried his best to improve the law and order in Uttar Pradesh. His encounter strategy has paid some dividends. But the bad-land that UP had been, with criminals turned politicians calling the shot, it’s not been very easy. Things have no doubt improved but lot needs still to be done. And comes this news about a former BJP functionary Ram Bihari Rathore. A Jalaun datelined report informed “Ex-BJP neta in betting racket too”. This 62 year old leader was reportedly arrested in January this year on a complaint of two minor children being sexually exploited by the leader. Another FIR for similar offence of sexual assault of minor boy since 2014 was filed a few weeks back. Reportedly for the past six-seven years this fellow was involved in all kinds of criminal anti-social activities including running a betting racket from his house in Konch police area of Jalaun district in UP. According to SHO Imran Khan, the police are looking into all aspects, if police could invoke National Security Act (NSA) against this BJP leader Ram Bihari. Hope the law of the land will catch up with this leader, who is currently an expelled BJP leader according to the report. Its time Yogi Adityanath cracks down on the in-house garbage within his own party to justify his action on others. WEST BENGAL: “This is a government programme and not a political programme. There has to be dignity. It does not behove anybody to invite people and insult them. I won’t speak, Jai Bangla, Jai Hind”. This statement purported to have been made by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Bannerji, should not be brushed aside as a rant of a disgruntled politician. Parakram Diwas celebration in Victoria Memorial marking the 125th Birthday of Subhas Chandra Bose was indeed a government programme and as reported, for a section of audience to raise “Jai Shree Ram” slogan was indeed very inappropriate. It was a function to honour in memory of legendary Subhas Chandra Bose and therefore should have been ‘Subhas Chandra Bose ki jai’ and not ‘Jai Shree Ram’. There is no marks for guessing that Mamata Bannerji as the Trinamool Congress Chief Minister of West Bengal will be most uncomfortable, given the political slugfest prevailing in West Bengal between Trinamool Congress and BJP, with such sloganeering by BJPs Ram Bhakths. Whether it was pre-planned by a section of BJP or was it the spontaneous act by some BJP supporters, it was patently wrong for the crowd to have sloganeered in a programme meant for national integration. It is true, walking out in a huff is a kind of trade mark of Mamata Bannerji, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was present as the principal guest, could have saved the situation by requesting her to stay back and asking the crowd to stop and instead he himself could have hailed “Subhas Chandra Bose ki jai”. This act of grace by PM Modi would not only have diffused an embarrassing situation but in all probability his own political stock and stature as a national leader would have clearly boosted. But then grace is not our strength. In the event, he merely was a silent witness and lost an opportunity not only to bridge the divide between the centre and the state but would have been seen as a statesman. Sadly that was not to be. This is Yeh Mera India. MAHARASHTRA: Jail and bail are separated only by a letter, as is evident. But more often than not those who got bail somehow manage to remain out of jail due to varieties of socio-political reasons. So the question is why bail should be given except under very stringent conditions. Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect accused person to ensure that he comply with the judicial process. Bail is a conditional release of an accused defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. So it’s clear that there are restrictions and conditions that go with the bail. These restrictions and conditions depend upon the severity of the crime. More severe the crime, more grounds to deny the bail should be the norm, since in India we have seen and read in papers almost daily, how those on bail have either gone missing or have repeated their crime while being on bail. But sadly neither the judicial officers concerned nor the police have applied themselves with due diligence when granting bail to an accused is considered. January 1st, Times of India, India’s largest English News Paper, had these two stories on page 2 and page 8. “Student facing sedition denied bail again” on page 2 was Bengalooru datelined and “rape accused on bail kills 3 year old child” on page 8 was Mumbai datelined. In the former case, the student Faiz Rasheed was arrested on 18 February 2019. He had reportedly posted a celebratory piece in the social media after the Pulwama attack on CRPF that left over 40 Jawans dead. He had deleted the post in the meanwhile but damage was done. He was a BE student. He was denied bail in June 2019 and again now in December 2020. He has claimed to be innocent and that he has old parents to look after etc. But here the question is why a young man is allowed to be in jail inordinately without completing the trial? Conclude the case early; so that, if innocent, he is released soonest possible or if convicted complete the process of appropriate punishment. After almost 2 years, a youth is made to suffer the uncertainty due to the police or judicial apathy! This is just not done. Somebody should be made accountable for this suffering of the young man, if he is innocent. Then you have this case of 3 year old child being allegedly physically assaulted and killed by a criminal on bail. The report is silent about if the accused is arrested. It does not give any details of his past crime for which he was given bail. Assuming he was an accused of a crime and was given bail, what are the conditions on which he was granted bail! Was the bail given without any guarantee of good behavior by his guarantors? So what is the liability of the guarantor in such cases? Shouldn’t they be culpable and therefore should be detained until the accused is arrested and bail cancelled?! Isn’t there a role for both police and judiciary to frame a set of do’s and dont’s while granting bail?! KARNATAKA:If there is any issue which civilized world, especially in third world countries like India, should be concerned, is the issue of child kidnapping. Children before the onset of teenage, that is those 12 years of age and below are the most vulnerable to kidnapping by enemies of civil society. Most of us are privy to the knowledge that police, as custodian of law and order, when it came to rescuing children kidnapped, have failed miserably. The rate of tracking down these children is abysmally low as most of these children belonged to the poorer sections. Therefore what is important is how these kidnappings or even abductions can be prevented, should take the attention of all concerned. Unfortunately since children do not constitute any vote bank, political parties are neither interested nor have the inclination to work towards addressing this disturbing dimension of Indian society. The news, a Mangalooru datelined report “Attempt to Kidnap Schoolboys” has unfortunately not elicited the requisite concern among social media users to highlight the danger that hangs over the heads of small children. The report tells, the issue is just round the corner, knocking our doors. Reportedly 3 schoolboys returning home in the evening twilight hours, in Konchady a suburb of Mangalooru, a bike borne trio tried to catch them by using a sack. Fortunately children resisted valiantly. When crowd gathered soon thereafter hearing the commotion the bike borne trio fled the scene. Reportedly a CCTV around the place of incident captured the entire incident and that police have taken up the investigation. 96 hours down the line, no development is reported from the investigation. This is the sad reality of our establishments. When will the seriousness come to people and political class on this very serious issue of child abductions, where they are misused for all purposes including crime and organ harvesting! Oh poor mother India! And look at media; it hasn’t given the importance the issue deserved. TOI carried it on page 3, under TIMES city. Among the highlights on page 1 were “No Chief Guest for R. Day”, “Polio Drive Rescheduled” “Gujarat IAS officer joins BJP”, “Hooch tragedy toll now 24” “No relief for KSRTC staff”. Surely one of them could have been relegated elsewhere to highlight the child abduction attempt. But then this is Yeh Mera India, always barking up the wrong tree. KARNATAKA: The decision of the Government of Karnataka not to buy the published Kannada book “Rama Mandira Yeke Beda” (Why Ram Temple not needed) by K.S Bhagwan has raised the hackles of sentinels of freedom of expression. This is on expected lines. Let’s take it, India is India, it cannot be like France of Charlie Hebdo. These Indian sentinels of freedom of expression are a funny lot. They are selective in their ‘considered’ views. This man K.S Bhagwan has his name funnily as Bhagwan. His parents probably named him so. Did he fight with them for naming him as God- Bhagwan! All his life he has flaunted this name, and never complained nor stopped using it, now he is out questioning why a venerable deity for most Hindus, Lord Rama need not have temple! Overwhelming majority of Hindus consider Lord Rama as Bhagwan or God. I have not read the book. Probably may not. But disdainfully, in his zealous approach he never felt to ask, “why in the first place Babri Masjid was built on the destroyed structure of an existing temple at Ayodhya?” But that is the right of the writer to decide what to write and what not to write, isn’t it! Although the Charlie Hebdo types wrote disparagingly on Prophet Mohammed, it’s been same with all religions including Christianity, which is the religion of majority French. That’s honesty. Fortunately Indian writers like Bhagwan and his ilk are highly selective in targeting only Hindu religion and Hindu scriptures. They suffer from a deep sense of dishonesty. Mostly due to the mortal fear of practitioners of Islam, they do not touch them. So much rational sense they have, in protecting themselves. They feel very safe to caricature Hindu beliefs and Hindu Gods and get away in style. And this K.S Bhagwan is not alone in this tribe. Apparently his question is ‘Why a human needs a temple?’ But the vast majority of Hindus do not think that way. Faith is an issue of personal choice and is best left to the faithful. A writer, who is an intellectual by his own right, because he can ask questions, should have the basic intelligence to understand that faith cannot be put under the crucible of logic. Besides writing on such issues create avoidable controversy, but then these writers are selfish. They want name, fame and fortune, since only controversy sells. No wonder, Bhagwan has claimed his book has seen 3rd edition. KARNATAKA: There was this report, early this month, datelined Mangalooru “Case filed over comment on FB”. All newspaper reading public in Mangalooru is privy to the news that there were some groups who had raised Pro-Pakistani slogans in Ujire outside Mangalooru. Earlier it was blamed that SDPI- Social Democratic Party of India- was the group that shouted Pro-Pak slogans. Then some report appeared in the press that even some BJP workers too raised similar Pro-Pak slogans probably in some other place. One can surmise that SDPI being a party of Muslim cadres could have raised these slogans, subject of course to confirmation. In the past CPI (M) chief Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had compared SDPI as Indian version of Islamic state (IS). But for BJP cadres, who are mostly Hindus, to shout Pro-Pak slogan could be mischievous, either to implicate someone else or with some larger mischief in mind. It is difficult to say that BJP does not have mischief mongers. Trouble makers are there in all sections and in all political parties. Be that as it may, comes this above mentioned report. According to the report, reacting to the SDPI members having been booked/arrested for the alleged sloganeering, a woman, had written a post in FaceBook “It is because of a communal party like BJP that another communal party-SDPI is born. BJP is in power, both at centre and state, and can ban SDPI. But they will not do so because they are getting benefit from the party”. This woman, whose name was not published in the report, certainly thinks she is intelligent, like our liberal intellectual class. She and her ilk need to realize that all political parties in India are communal in their own way, one way or the other. It was the Communist Party of India who was aligned with Muslim League in Kerala in fifties. Congress followed them. Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS), an offshoot of RSS, hardly had any influence with voters in 50s & 60s. It was only in 70’s BJS joined hands with Non-Communist and Non-Congress parties and Janata Party was born. 1980 saw Janata Party disintegrating and BJP was born. They had only 2 seats in the Loksabha in 1984. Vast majority of Hindus, who supported all parties including Congress and Communists, slowly shifted their preferences and come 2019, BJP walked away single handedly with 303 seats in the Loksabha. BJP has been the same party with same ideology. Somehow the rise of BJP has not been a happy development for some sections of Indians, and SDPI is a product of this unhappiness, among others. Thus to paint SDPI and BJP with the same brush is downright stupid. ANDHRA PRADESH: India can be a crazy place with all kinds of things happening in most unexpected ways. Truth sometime can be bizarre and even very cruel. To think that two young women, one 27 and the other younger at 22, both well qualified, could be bludgeoned and pierced with trident to snuff their life out of their body, by their own parents-father & mother- could only be the height of madness. That they did it, in the belief that both their daughter would be born again within 24 hours to experience a better elixir of life is clearly an act of lunacy. Without any shadow of doubt, both mother & father deserved to be hanged till death. A report datelined Tirupati informed “AP parents kill daughters to ushers in ‘Satya Yug’.” What compounded the tragedy was the fact that both father & mother were teachers with higher education, one an associate professor in Chemistry and the other qualified enough to run a coaching institute for IIT aspirants. Strangely both of them have not been taken into custody despite having found the dead body of both youngsters in their home. According to police couple pleaded that they will bring their daughters back to life and they will be taken into custody once the cremation of both bodies are over. Hope both, father & mother, killers of their 2 daughters, are arrested and are convicted for cold blooded murder with death sentence. However, one thing is not clear, if there was a God man involved in this ghastly experiment, who professed that they will be born again with better life or whatever. In macabre incidents of this nature, there is always an outsider who encourages human sacrifice to acquire huge riches, better life to killers etc. Hope law enforcement agencies act with all seriousness to book all culprits who snuffed out the life of two promising young women. TAMIL NADU: How does jail bird Vivekanandan Krishnaveni Sasikala (VKS), becomes cover page news for a newspaper? We can understand jail officials taking care of her physical and mental well being for payment of service charges, you are free to call it bribe. But why a newspaper carrying her photograph on the left hand corner on top cover and in the right hand corner a brief about her being unwelcome to AIADMK, ascribing to Tamil Nadu CM-K Palaniswami! TOI Wednesday January 20, 2021, searched and re-searched the whole paper of 8 sheets, but 12 pages, nowhere there was any report on her, until the next day. 24 hours later on Thursday 21st 2021, the report appeared on page 1, “Release in 1 week, Sasikala admitted to Bowring hospital.” It’s a classic case of how media can make or break a person, a non-entity, even a jail bird into a celebrity! After all who is this lady in terms of eminence! If Jayalalitha, the high profile ebullient former CM of Tamil Nadu was with VKS, maybe she would have got some space from some friendly journo. But this is extra-ordinary! Has some money changed hands, as it happened with jail authorities! Why media suffer this absolute lack of a sense of proportion! Except her physical proximity to the late celluloid queen and protégé of MGR, J Jayalalitha, this VKS had absolutely no standing. It is true that she had all the money clout through this association of this grand lady of TN politics-late JJ. Probably even all the wealth and huge land holdings of the late Tamil Nadu CM too may be with VKS after the death of Jayalalitha. Or how else this woman, who was in jail for close to 4 years on disproportionate asset case, becomes the toast of newspapers, especially the Times of India! It’s a story right from Ripley’s ‘Believe it or not’! KERALA: Of all the states in India Kerala stands out when it comes to human development index, as determined under the parameters of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). When it comes to health and education Kerala’s statistics are far above the national average. Although industries did not make a beeline due to its restive labour market, it has been able to attract some 3 million workers from other states, generally referred to as migrant labourers. Lots of these migrant workers travelled from different parts of India with destination from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Pandemic came without giving notice and lockdown that followed threw the life of everybody across the spectrum, upside down. Most importantly migrant labourers, who had no job with the lockdown longed to travel home. In the process of travelling back home they suffered the most. Here too, Kerala stood out, in its official response to the migrant labour crisis due to pandemic induced lockdown. Government in Thiruvanantapuram created a kind of shelters to look after these migrant labourers who stayed back. Now that the pandemic has tapered off and lockdown is no more there, except some health protocol, life is almost near normal, certain aspect of this labour management -Kerala in particular-has come to light. While Kerala government has been taking pro-active welfare measures for these migrant workers, they reportedly kept a tab on them. Migrant labourers in Kerala were recorded as ‘Atithi thozhilalikal’ or guest workers. So it was a kind of ‘we and others’. Indian Journal of Labour Economics had published a research paper “Inclusion of interstate migrant workers in Kerala and lessons for India”. According to the paper, there is an official formal approach in Kerala, of referring to migrant workers in documents including government orders as guest workers. Thus the paper informs that Kerala was officially promoting, what is called as ‘otherings’, reminding everyone that these workers, who are Indian citizens with fundamental right to work, reside and travel anywhere in the country, do not belong to Kerala and are expected to return upon the completion of work for which they came into the state. Reportedly Kerala has an exclusive department for the welfare of its nearly 3 million Non-Keralites, directly under the Chief Minister. Probably Kerala is the only state where migrant workers are categorized as ‘others’. No wonder the print media had this title “Kerala’s guest workers. Not so welcome after all?” datelined Kochi, a kind of proletarian apartheid?! KERALA: As a forward looking state Kerala has excelled again. A Thiruvanantapuram datelined report informs “Transgender option in all Kerala forms”. Indeed it’s a landmark step in the right direction. Left front government in Kerala needs to be commended for this off beat, but overdue all the same, decision to include this additional gender in all their application forms in all its departments of the government. Speaking to the media, state health minister K.K. Shailaja has reportedly remarked “An order has been issued to add transgender/ transwoman/ transman in all application forms of the state government along with the options of female/male. This will help in the upliftment of the transgender community”. Creditably Kerala is the first state in India which declared a transgender policy after the landmark judgement of the Supreme Court in 2014. Two cheers to Kerala Left Front government. WORLD: That Donald Trump is a walking disaster, the world realized only the day before yesterday. He was always a self-centered egotistic maniac. It's another matter that a good part of US citizens thought him fit to be the US president is a risk of practicing democracy. Now that the number stood reduced and Trump has been reduced to be the former president, also is another democratic exercise. But the self-centered Trump thinks otherwise too is also a democratic dimension. But sadly he is taking it too far. In life everything depends upon a SENSE OF PROPORTION including the so-called Fundamental Right to disagree. Law & order is the basic premise on which people's power or demo-cracy works. Donald Trump and his supporters have failed the test of this 'sense of proportion' and therefore law enforcement agencies should contain all disruptive forces to make way for the newly elected president of the United States of America, Joe Biden to occupy the White House. Supreme Court of the US has to suo-moto take cognizance of the happening in the Capitol Hill and ask all to behave for the law and order to prevail for the peaceful transition of CEO of world's most powerful address. The scene of President Trump's supporters storming the US Capitol in Washington represented an attack on the citadel of democracy. This was the ultimate indignity heaped on the concept of American Dream. Surely Donald Trump will be remembered in the contemporary history of the US as the President who reduced USA into a Banaana republic. 6th Jan.2021 will go down as the saddest day for the US and to the democratic world. WORLD:Come 21st January 2021, the United States of America has changed hands from the unpredictable Donald Trump to more clear headed Joe Biden. What’s good for the US is good for world! Not necessarily. There are far too many things one can disagree with US, but between US and China, world is a better place with US in command. Of course the just vacated Donald Trump was a kind of disaster, for varieties of reasons. Having lost the last election, rather comprehensively, it was funny that he wasn’t ready to vacate. That he could even think of encouraging violence from among his followers, is a bizarre dimension of US pedagogy. The violence on Capitol that left 5 dead is an extreme departure from what United States of America stood for. This one act of possible complicity by the ousted President Trump has destroyed his future political career. Surely the US is not poorer, nor the world poorer by the political absence of this walking disaster called Donald Trump. But surely man had some positives which could have been available to both the US and the world, that is sadly lost. Surely the new team of Joe Biden and his deputy Kamala Harris should do a better job of presidency and hopefully deliver on the promises made to the electorates. On day one in the Oval Office of the White House, reportedly the new President has signed series of executive orders mostly reversing some of the policies of outgoing President Donald Trump. Most important of them being back in the World Health Organization (WHO), and appointment of Covid Response Co-ordinator, which was treated rather casually under President Trump’s administration, leading to some 400,000 deaths in less than 9 months of the pandemic. Rejoining the Paris agreement on climate change and reversing hard-line immigration policies including Muslim travel ban are the other actions. Hope White House will play its expected role of a responsible state in the coming four years.