MONTH-IN-PERSPECTIVE-JULY 2021

HARYANA: Chief Minister ML Khattar of Haryana, the state he is looking after is rarely in the news for any significant happening. Recently he came into the news for some funny reasons. In fact there was no reason why at all he should have been in the news. Probably there was nothing that he could talk on, so he thought of making some unsolicited noise. CM Khattar was reported to have gone to town to remark that his Delhi counterpart, Arvind Kejriwal is playing politics over-anti-Covid vaccines saying the national capital is exhausting its supply too soon while his own state is stretching it over a longer period, informed a report datelined Chandigarh. There are two things in the above report. Firstly, CM Khattar should concentrate on his state and see that his administration quickly completes the vaccination of its people where needed, and not stretching the supply for a longer period with less vaccination. This can be a reflection on the heightened concern and competence of the state. 2ndly, may be AAP government in Delhi must be working overtime to vaccinate its people and hence exhausting its supplies. Kejriwal may be pulling a fast one or may be a very efficient administrator. Either way, there are people in the centre to verify Kejriwal’s claim. Thus ML Khattar has no role and it is none of his business what Delhi CM does. If both Congress and AAP make fun of ML Khattar that he is saving vaccine by administering to small numbers, when he should be going all out to vaccinate as many as possible, they have a point. Kejriwal has hit the nail on its head when he tweeted “My aim is not to save vaccines, but to save people’s lives, Khattar Saab”. ML Khattar attempt at hogging limelight at the expense of Kejriwal blew on his face. NEW DELHI: A print media report datelined New Delhi said “After row over ‘No Malayalam’ hospital withdraws its circular”. Ascribing to GB Pant Hospital in Delhi, the report stated that the authorities had withdrawn an order issued earlier directing all nursing staff to use only Hindi & English for communication at the hospital premises. This was sequel to the complaints by patients and other staff that nursing staff, mostly from Kerala, are using Malayalam for communication within the hospital premises and since most of the patients and colleagues do not know this language they feel helpless, causing lot of inconvenience. So the Nursing Superintendent of the hospital had issued a circular “It is directed to all nursing personnel to use only Hindi and English for communication otherwise serious action will be taken”. Probably it is the sentence “otherwise serious action will be taken” has been the villain. Or else there was no reason to have a row and then withdraw the order. We have to recognise, it is a decency to use the common language in public spaces. Use of, so-called, mother tongue by all is universally in vogue and all are comfortable in its use. But in a place, where it is cosmopolitan around in its composition one can be misconstrued or misunderstood in the use of an uncommon language between two interlocutors. So if in Bengalooru, it’s fair to expect to speak in Hindi and English, except in an exclusive crowd, one can feel free to speak in Kannada. Of course, it is true that, Kannadigas would expect outsiders do try to learn Kannada, if they are going to live in Karnataka and make Bengalooru or any other city their home. Therefore it is alright that these nurses in Delhi, speak in Malayalam while being in Kerala, not while in Delhi, especially when the over whelming majority of visitors to Delhi hospitals are non-Keralities or Non-Malayalees. The circular was certainly in order, except that ‘serious action’ could have been avoided, while insisting that use of Malayalam within the hospital premises is clearly discouraged. Hope as Indians we recognise this dimension of our Idea of India and respect each others’ sentiment. NEW DELHI:In a major policy shift, the central government has decided that centre would give states free vaccines for all adults above the age of 18 from June 21, so also to extend food relief for 80 crores Indians till Diwali in November under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. This will undoubtedly cost huge sums of national resources which are getting stretched by the day. Good number of Indians who are individual road users with 4 wheelers and two wheelers besides opposition politicians have been complaining about the increasing petrol and diesel prices. Indeed the prices of these have been increasing for many reasons, including increases from the suppliers. Moping resources to find free vaccines and food for those in the margins cost huge money for a populous country like India. After all, the one way to mobilise resources is the principle “what the traffic can bear”. It is true that the central government is doing its best under the circumstances to alleviate the problems faced by Indians in general, but somehow our media including opposition politicians have been rather unkind and harsh in criticizing central government. It is nobody’s case that the central government is doing a perfect job. However it is also true that Prime Minister Modi and his PMO seem to think that they have solutions to all problems and they need not discuss it with even cabinet colleagues in handling the pandemic issue let alone calling a meeting of opposition parties! It is also true that there are opposition leaders like Mamata Bannerji of West Bengal, who is truly speaking, arrogance personified. On 1st of June, she had stated in Kolkata, “Centre’s claim of vaccinating adults by December is a hoax”. On the same day centre had refuted the print media claim that “only 5.9 crores vaccines were available, when actually 7.9 crores were administrated”. The report was a blatant lie. It is very unfortunate that every time the media and opposition leaders, especially this Mamata Bannerji of West Bengal have been rather boorish in their observation. After the 7th June announcement of free vaccine for all, TOI had published in front page “Took 4 months to listen to states plea says Mamata”, while “Stalin lauds PM Modi for reversing vaccine strategy” appearing in the 6th page. This clearly shows the mala fide intention of media. In a situation like that of Covid 19 pandemic, in a country like India with over 1300 million people, the job at hand is indeed humongous. It’s only fair that everybody joins the government’s effort in addressing the multiple problems in managing this scourge. After all the adage “ask not what the country can do for you, ask what you can do for the country” should not remain just a quotable quote. Hope all are wiser in coming days with improvements in the overall situation of the pandemic. NEW DELHI: A contemporary legend informs that Queen Elizabeth on a visit to India was taking a round of areas overlooking the mighty Himalayan mountain range. Sitamarhi and West Champaran are the northern most districts of Bihar bordering Nepal and had the pleasure of occasionally experiencing the glimpse of the breath taking view of Mount Everest, although it’s over 200 kms away. Legend has it that Queen Elizabeth happened to have witnessed this awesome sight of the world’s highest peak in a clear sky of 1950s. Deeply impressed by the majesty of the Mount Everest, Her Majesty asked the accompanying guide, ‘if India could do her a favour’, since she is ‘the Queen of England and England had ruled India in the past!’ “What favour your Majesty?” asked her guide “May be India can rechristen this Mount Everest as Queen Elizabeth”! was the royal suggestion. The guide, legend tells, was a well known Marathi writer journalist Prahlad Keshav Atre or Acharya Atre as was known then. He was also a political satirist. He reportedly quipped “Your Majesty, Government of India may grant you the wish, but then there is a minor hick-up from a historical perspective” “What’s that” retorted Her Majesty the Queen of England “We may have to change the contemporary history of the conquest of Mount Everest, from ‘Tenzing Norgay was the first to climb on top of Mount Everest to Tenzing Norgay was the first to climb on top of Queen Elizabeth”, to which an embarrassed Queen Elizabeth was learnt to have dropped her wish. Be that as it may, comes this latest information that after all Mount Everest may have to be renamed. Recorded history of the highest peak tells that Colonel George Everest was the Surveyor General of British India between 1830 & 1843. He had nothing to do with the world’s tallest peak. But since British thought there was no name to the world’s highest peak they named it Everest, although Tibetans called it Chomolungma, since Mount Everest is in Tibet & Nepal border. However if Mount Everest has to be changed to another name, it could as well be Mount Sikdar. Radhanath Sikdar, was a student of Hindu College (now Presidency College) in the then Calcutta. He was still in his teens, all of 19 years, when he was hired, by the Surveyor General of India. He was a brilliant mathematics student. Very early he had mastered Newtonian Mathematics and Spherical trigonometry. Reportedly the mountain’s height was measured by Sikdar in 1852 as part of the Great Trigonometric Survey of India and he named it Peak XV. However it was only in 1865 that it was confirmed that, Chomolungma, as Tibetan’s called it, was the tallest peak instead of Kangchenjunga. For want of any known names, British, in their earnest named it after George Everest to honour his memory. Sadly, like many things Indian having non-Indian names, Mount Everest too remained. May 29, is supposedly the International Everest Day, and the Principal of Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Group Captain Jai Kishan, reportedly remarked “Why not Indian Mountaineering fraternity calls the peak Mount Sikdar, at least 7 decades after Britishers left Indian shores!”. Indeed for the singular contribution that Radhanath Sikdar made to the computation of the highest peak of the world, the name Mount Sikdar would have been appropriate in our history books, although so late in the day! NEW DELHI: “LIKE MINDED-non-Congress opposition parties meet at Pawar’s House”, was the report datelined New Delhi. Leaders and representatives of some 8 political parties met in the residence of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar in Delhi mainly to discuss 2024 Loksabha election, or more importantly how to displace BJP/ Narendra Modi juggernaut. Among the people who had assembled there were mostly those in their seventies and eighties, selfish oldies with only ambition as a driving force. Two of the important lights of the group are NCP boss Sharad Pawar and the presently TMC card holder Yashwant Sinha. Sharad Pawar is 81 years old, and Yashwant Sinha is 84 years old. Sharad Pawar is a longtime Prime Minister-in- waiting, since many decades, a man with extremely questionable connections and questionable history & geography. He simply has no vision for the country, so completely driven by selfish agenda of self & family. Yashwant Sinha, although a former IAS, is driven by vengeance. He was a leading light of BJP and was a Finance Minister in NDA with Atal Behari Vajpayee as PM. With PM Modi unilaterally deciding 75 years as age bar, Yashwant Sinha was unceremoniously dumped with no political future. He was a deeply disappointed man. From 2014, he has been spewing venom on PM Modi. Thus here the question is how these two kingpins of the group of 8, who are already on the wrong side of their age, one with his own agenda of being the PM and the other driven by revenge, can be an alternative to NDA led by BJP and NaMo! Certainly BJP and NaMo in their present state of being, is not a combination as panacea for the problems of India. But at the moment they appear a better bet despite their many inadequacies. At least they have a vision for the nation. Coming to Pawar he is not a choice at all with countless negatives in his Curriculum-Vitae. Sinha did the ultimate disgrace to himself by joining TMC. He could have joined hands with Subramanian Swamy, another not so happy intellectual in BJP, in creating a pressure group, to make BJP/ NaMo fall in line. But he too has missed the bus. At this point in time India needs statesmen and not politicians. UTTAR PRADESH: Bharatiya Janatha Party, the biggest political party in to-day’s India, a party with a difference, may not be different after all. That the party, BJP is similar to other parties when it comes to financial skull drudgery, is never in doubt, may be not in the same scale like Congress, Samajwadi Party, RJD of Lalu, Janata Dal (Secular) of Devegowda and scores of others. But being a party originally of traders, corruption has stayed within the party portals in some degree. And comes this news that there has been a massive unaccounted money changing hands in the land purchased for the construction of Ram Temple at Ayodhya, so informs the print media report datelined Lucknow. Most Indians are aware that there has been massive collection of donations from public, far beyond the budgeted estimate for the construction of temple complex. According to political accusations of Congress Party and Samajwadi Party, the land that cost just Rs. 2 crores was on record purchased by Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, for a whopping Rs. 18.5 crores. Not that Congress or SP couldn’t be concocting story but the possibility of massive corruption in such deals, away from the public gaze, always existed. Because that it is BJP functionaries who are dealing, is not a guarantee of clean hands at all! They are just as human as Congress men or Yadav family of UP. They were also fellow travelers of characters like Asaram Bapu, who is in jail for reasons best known to all. Then you have the so called Guru, Baba Ramdev, controversy personified. These controversial associations, and there are many others, make the inventory of BJP not so comfortable, in the test of honesty and integrity. Therefore, it is very important that BJP comes clean on this issue of corruption in the name of Lord Rama. Standards set by MARYAAD PURUSHOTTAM LORD RAMA, as a model to all humanity in public behavior should ensure that there is no hanky-panky in the kind of abode; Indians have planned to construct and dedicate to the sacred memory of this reverential deity. WEST BENGAL:All news privy Indians are aware that Alapan Bandopadhyay, the former Chief Secretary (CS) of West Bengal has resigned from his position some days ago and has become an advisor to the WB, Chief Minister. Most Indians also know that there is a troubled relationship between West Bengal administration and the Central Government. It has, as if, increased since the election results have greatly favored the ruling TMC, and it has come to power for the 3rd time. Sadly, the cyclone that lashed the eastern coast of India has brought the Prime Minister of the country to inspect and to get a first hand view of the situation post cyclone in West Bengal. He was already in Kolkata and waited for the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary Bandopadhyay. As per protocol, they should be waiting for the PM and not the other way round. Reportedly they came 15 minutes late to the Kalaikunda Air force Station, and to make matters worse, both CM & CS left in the middle of the meeting. If CM was rude enough to leave the meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, Chief Secretary was duty bound to remain attending the meeting. But he too left along with the CM as if he was following her order. It was clearly in bad taste. No wonder, reportedly MHA has served a show cause notice to the West Bengal Chief Secretary, under Disaster Management Act, and asked him to reply within the next 72 hours. Reportedly notice informed “In view of this act of abstaining yourself from the review meeting taken by the PM, you as Chief Secretary has acted in a manner tantamount to refusing to comply with lawful direction of the Central Government and thus violative of section (B) of the Disaster Management Act 2005”. The provisions of the act entails 2 year imprisonment, informs the report. It’s sad that state and centre is on confrontation mode with respect of Chief Secretary. It is true that centre has not consulted the state regarding his being called to the centre. However it is also true that in case of disagreement it’s the centre’s decision that prevails. So has the Chief Secretary crossed the limits and exposed himself to action!? It is true that he is personally obliged to the Chief Minister who has reportedly made his wife the Vice Chancellor, of Calcutta University (CU) without being teaching faculty of the University. Reportedly she was earlier a Registrar of CU. Even his brother-in-law has been given the benefit of favor by the CM, grapevine informs. Thus that he will play the ball for CM Mamata Bannerjee was very evident. The development of next few days shall show where the wind is blowing. MAHARASHTRA:Bhima Koregaon case accused Stan Swamy, the oldest to be detained in prison is becoming a test case for judiciary. He is 84 years old and is suffering from Parkinson's disease, which worsens with advanced age. So being in jail, with this state of health is the worst one can think of. He has been in prison charged with ‘carrying activities detrimental to the democracy and integrity of the nation”. According to the court hearing National Investigation Agency (NIA) cases, there is material placed on record prima facie indicated that he had plotted to overthrow the NDA government in Delhi through an armed militia. Stan Swamy is a Jesuit priest. Rightly or wrongly he is in jail for alleged crime under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) since last 2 years. He has a failing health. His bail appeal has been rejected twice and is presently in hospital on court order. Earlier he had told the court that he may not mind to die in the jail, after it suggested that he can be hospitalized, while rejecting the bail appeal. How long, he will remain incarcerated is anybody’s guess. With the failing health and advancing age, it is difficult to fathom what can happen. Can the court review its stand the way judiciary looks at the issue or such issues so that some semblance of fairness is introduced in the moribund situation? Can his case be taken on priority basis? It’s a call, may be court can take. But since there are others too in this particular case, how Swamy’s case can be prioritised, is difficult to say. He is asking for the bail, so that he can spend time with his friends as he is walking towards his eventual sun set. Thus he has a genuine case to accommodate his inevitable concern. Court can think of granting him conditional bail looking into his delicate situation, purely, as a measure of fairness within the constraints of law. We do not need tutoring that laws are there not merely to ensure order but also to deliver justice to those who are suffering or suffered. The conditional bail can be police monitored that nothing untoward happens that can make the case stronger against Swami, that he or those who come to see him are without any mobile phones or such gadgets. The intention is purely to help an old and infirm accused, some breathing space. Hope concerned court thinks on these lines. MAHARASHTRA:There was this interesting development in Mumbai initiated by Maharashtra Transport Commissioner, some weeks ago. Surprisingly 5th June, the World Environment Day came and gone into amnesia as usual. Except talking about tree planting and glacier melting not much thought was spent on the issue of how to save the environment. We all know, automobile emission is the single largest source of emission that gets into the atmosphere that makes life in the biosphere difficult. Ask Arvind Kejriwal, and his alternate-day-car-travel scheme, he would vouch for the discharge from hydrocarbon due to the automobile usage. So, to replace hydrocarbon usage came Electric Vehicle and how Tesla Electric cars have already made major inroads into sustainable energy thinking. But despite a history of over 130 years (William Morrison-created the first electric wagon in1890-91) and the mega push in recent times by Elon Musk, the sale of electric vehicles has not revolutionized its usage, and comes this news from Mumbai. One of the most primary concerns for Electric Vehicle owners is the recharging of these Vehicles. After buying the Electric Vehicle, the worry is to find charging points. Holding the bull by the horns, Transport Commissioner Avinash Dhakne presented the possibility of making compulsory provision of Electric Vehicle charging points in housing societies, public parking lots, business and shopping complexes etc. The proposal is already with the Sachivaalay in Mumbai for MVA (Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi) government’s cabinet approval. Hopefully it should come anytime now. This possibility can truly revolutionize the marketing and therefore the usage of Electric Vehicle by leaps and bounds. This is a very important development but strangely remained as just another piece of news. This is Yeh Mera India. KARNATAKA:Some weeks ago, Supreme Court had dismissed a PIL, with fine of 50000/- to the litigant calling it “an absolutely frivolous petition”. Syed Wasim Rizwi, a former Chairman of UP Shia Central Waqf Board, had gone to court stating that there are 26 verses or suras in Holy Quran, which instigates violence and therefore they should be removed. He mentions how these verses are ultra vires to the Constitution in India etc. Strangely apex court did not find any meaning in his PIL and snubbed him with a fine of 50000/- for wasting the time of the highest court of the land. Although no media commented, it was felt, that it was patently wrong on the part of the Supreme Court to have rejected the PIL and imposed an unjustified penalty to the petitioner. Now comes this case in Bangalore, Karnataka High Court is entertaining a PIL and has issued notice to both central government and state government. That’s about the alleged illegality in anointing a 16 year old boy as the latest SEER of SHIROOR MATT. According to the PIL, foisting the sanyasa or pontiff-hood on a 16 year old, is violation of his rights as a minor. The illegality, PIL alleged, is not only with respect to Protection of Child Rights Act of 2005 but also Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act 1956, where he is required to be under the care of his natural guardians until he reaches 18 years of age. There appears to be sense in this PIL, and logically the Karnataka High Court has taken the call and is reportedly acting on it, to be heard on July 1, 2021. Isn’t this strange that, at one instance we have the highest court of the land dismissing a very relevant issue as ‘frivolous’ and imposing an entirely undeserving penalty on the petitioner, and the High Court in Karnataka is allowing the rights of the petitioner to be heard at another instance. What do we, the general public, make of such confusing treatment of similarly viewed subjects?! WORLD: Has the white man been more cruel than black man or brown man or say even the yellow man, the Mongol featured ones!? We have history books provided to the school room classes by the private national vanity and then there is an unwritten history. Normally it is the victor or the survivor who normally writes the history. So he will be writing only his side of the story and it passes-off as history or even as gospel truth. Then there are ideologues writing the history lessons for young minds, seeing events through their own perception and prism. Political leadership is often bought and sold in a market place where, more often, untruth is peddled as truth and generations of young minds grow-up fed with these stories where truth is more often than not is a casualty. And comes this story of “215 bodies of indigenous children found buried in Canadian School ground”. To say it is shocking is to understate the enormity of the issue of white man’s cruelty. Rosanne Casimir, the Chief of the Community in British Columbia City of Kamloop reportedly informed in a news release that the remains of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, have been found with the help of ground penetrating radar, sometime in late May 2021, while adding that there may be more bodies to be found since there are more areas to search on the school ground. According to Casimir, from the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 children of Kamloop were required to attend state funded Christian Schools as part of a program to assimilate them into Canadian Society. They were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their native languages. Many were beaten badly and up to 6000 are said to have died. British Columbia Premier John Horgan was reported to have remarked, that he was “horrified and heartbroken” to learn of this belated discovery. He called it a tragedy of unimaginable proportions that highlighted the violence against the indigenous students. According to Casimir, these deaths of school children remained undocumented and unknown to the world at large. Can any civil society imagine the gravity of what white colonial masters have done to indigenous people, wherever these whites have travelled and colonized places in different parts of the world !? Follows another news datelined Washington, “Oldest US Race Massacre survivor calls for justice”. Viola Fletcher, aged 107 now, is the oldest survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in the US, perpetrated by the white mob. It happened in Greenwood Avenue of Tulsa in Oklahoma on May 31 and Jan 1, 1921. Aided by city officials white residents attacked black residential areas with guns and explosives, destroying their businesses and homes, killing unaccounted number of deaths with ‘bodies lying all over’ as Viola Fletcher recounts. This piece of history too has remained undocumented, as to the number of deaths and those seriously injured, because in the white man’s world, coloured and blacks are faceless crowd lost into the national amnesia. This is the white man’s legacy. WORLD: Have you ever heard anywhere in the world that a passenger plane was force landed by a state to catch a disagreeable critic of its government?! Sometime truth can be stranger than fiction. President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus reportedly ordered a Ryan Air Flight flying from Greece to Lithuania to make an emergency landing in Minsk airport, the capital city of Belarus. Reportedly the flight was carrying as a passenger Belarusian journalists Roman Protasevich, who was to have organized a massive protest against President Lukashenko through his social media channel. Belarusian President wanted to arrest the journalist, who had fled Belarus in 2019 fearing arrest. According to sources in the aviation circle, Lukashenko had ordered an MIG-29 fighter jet to be air borne to escort the Ryan Air plane after threatening to shoot down the plane unless it landed immediately, flying over Belarus air space. While it was sensible for the pilot to land at the Minsk airport instead of risking the life of 170 passengers and crew in the Ryan Air plane, clearly, it was a state sponsored hijack which can become a very dangerous precedent, if it’s not taken up and stopped forthwith, by the international community and the United Nations. The incident puts the whole travel industry and the related allied activities of a civilized world in jeopardy. President Lukashenko has to be pulled up and made accountable for his brinkmanship. What he has done is patently wrong. But has he got a case against the journalist Roman Protasevich. Is Roman Protasevich indeed a threat to the security of Belarus or is he only a critic of Belarus President.? Somewhere there should be a line of actual control so that it does not affect the international community. A purely domestic issue of Belarus cannot be allowed to become an issue of international safety and security, period. WORLD: Americans can be a bit crazy, even their judges sometime. There was this report by agencies datelined San Diego in California US, “Judge overturns ban on assault weapons”. Reportedly US District Judge Roger Benitez in a 94 page ruling overturned California’s 3 decades old ban, since 1989, on assault weapons, while ruling that it violates the constitutional rights to have arms observing “Under no level of heightened scrutiny can the law survive”. No wonder, the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom condemned the judgment, calling it a ‘direct threat to public safety and is fundamentally flawed.’ We are all aware that gun lobby in the US is very strong and has always tried to sabotage every effort to control its trigger happy profligacy. And this judgment of San Diego District Judge Benitez is only a confirmation of this lunacy. He had issued a permanent injunction while comparing assault rifle AR-15 to Swiss Army Knife against enforcement of the law but gave the Californian Attorney General 30 days time to appeal. As expected the authorities in California challenged the order in US Court of Appeals. It has blocked the ruling, reports The Washington Post. In a one page order a three judge panel issued a stay of the June 4 order of District Court Judge Roger Benitez. Clearly there are elements within the US society who are rational enough to recognise the dangers of this clearly misplaced freedom describing Benitez’s ruling as a “disgusting slap in the face to those who have lost loved ones to uncontrolled gun violence”. Hope such interventions rein the gun culture prevalent in the US society.