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| | Kausarnag Pilgrimage: Politicisation of religious tourism | | | | Government of India, especially after the year 1989, has seen Hindu religious tourism in Kashmir, as one of their weapons, to counter the overwhelming feeling of 'non-Indianness' in Kashmir. This could easily be gauged by the increase in the number of pilgrims, increase in the number of days of pilgrimage, brutal disregard to the ecology of these areas by not implementing 'the Nitish Sengupta Committee recommendations'. This commission was constituted by the state government in 1996 following the death of yatris and porters due to an inclement weather situation. The commission in its report had made multiple recommendations not only to ensure safe pilgrimage but also to protect the environment and ecology of the area which remains under severe threat during the period of the pilgrimage d... |  | |
| | | J&K Children: Right to Life is compromised? | | | | With the teenager's death at Kulgam (J&K) by police firing, it is once again proved that life is not safe at all if you are in J&K. It becomes more vulnerable for children and women as cruelty never identify them for any kind of relaxation.
On another side, the police version, where it claims that its vehicle was surrounded by crowd and after one policemen fell from vehicle, crowd overpowered it, lynch it and tried to snatch the rifle; it seems that if it was true, it reflects lack of humanity on both sides. But moreover and more importantly, even if it is true, the reasons of such hatred against police must be known and root cause should be investigated.
This incident highlighted the very serious situation of Kashmir. Rest of India must think and know that how a child in Kashmir is ma... | | |
| | | Smart Cities: Correcting Urban Chaos | | | | The Union Budget has provided a sum of Rs.7,060 crore for development of 100 smart cities as promised in the election manifesto of the BJP. While presenting this, the Finance Minister stated that unless new cities are developed to accommodate the bourgeoning number of people, the existing cities would soon become unliveable. He pointed to the rapid pace of migration from rural to urban areas as a result of development.
The basic idea is to make urban infrastructure network and delivery of services more efficient to cope with the needs of increasing population.
This, in a sense, is an unfinished plan of the previous UPA government that planned two smart cities in each of the 28 States in the country in the second phase of the JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission) in 2... | | |
| | Column | | Middle Eastern Christians: Going, Going...Gone | | | | Two high-profile incidents last week, at opposite ends of the Arab world. In northern Iraq, recently conquered by the zealots of the newly proclaimed "Islamic State", the Christians in Mosul were given three choices: convert to Islam, pay a special tax (about $750, on this occasion), or be killed. They all fled, and now Mosul is Christian-free for the first time in almost two millennia.
Meanwhile, in Sudan, Meriam Ibrahim finally got permission to leave her homeland after spending months chained up in a jail cell. The young woman had been condemned to hang by a Sudanese court for the crime of having "converted" to Christianity, but the government couldn't legally kill her until after her baby was born.
Now, neither of these incidents gives an accurate picture of government policy in Ara... | | |
| | SIGNS OF THE TIMES | | Communally charged politics | | | | I was more than horrified seeing those stark shots /video footage of Shiv Sena's M.P. Rajan Vichare shoving a roti right into the mouth of a staffer at the Maharashtra Sadan.Compounding the barbarism was this accompanying factor - the staffer, Arshad, was fasting; and though he was seen pleading yet this parliamentarian seemed in no mood to behave sane or civil. In fact, he seemed defiant even when those shots were splashed; showing the disgusting lows that these parliamentarians can stoop to, the utter lies and layered deceit they can come up with.
Here let also point out that this parliamentarian had no business to behave in this feudal way with any staffer, from any community or caste, Muslim or non-Muslim. And an apology will not do. An apology of sorts is ... | | |
| | | Balochistan's missing people: Numbers don't add up | | | | While the search for Balochistan's missing persons continues, their cases are complicated by the discrepancies between the records of those involved.
The home department, for instance, said in a recent report that 71 people are missing in the province, while human rights organisations estimate that the figure is closer to 8,000. The Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VFBMP) advocacy group insists that more than 19,000 Baloch political activists and sympathisers have been subjected to enforced disappearances over the last 13 years. For his part, Akbar Durrani, the provincial home secretary, has reiterated the government's resolve to finding the missing persons. Monthly reports are submitted to the Supreme Court, according to him.
VFBMP vice president Mama Qadir says his organisation has s... | | |
| | | Tamil girls too face the threat of 'Honor' killing | | | | Ramya (name changed) hails from a small village close to Virudhachalam in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu. Although her parents ensured that she got the best of education, and today they support her endeavours to do well in her career in the booming Information Technology industry in Chennai, every time she goes home for a visit she is warned against doing anything that would bring disgrace to the family and is threatened with dire consequences if she "dared to behave like Selvi". Selvi is an example for all the young women in Ramya's village. She was butchered to death by her brothers and father after she professed to have fallen in love with a man from a lower caste.
Statistics from the United Nations reveal that one-in-five cases of 'honour killing' internationally every year comes f... | | |
| | | Child Labour: A Global scourge | | | | Children being forced by extreme poverty into wage (as well as slave) labour remains in the second decade of the Twenty-First Century a chilling, global phenomenon.
In its latest report on the issue, "Marking Progress Against Child Labour: Global Estimates and Trends," the International Labour Organization (ILO) said that in 2012 at least 168 million children were working in conditions that fell under its definition of "unacceptable" or exploitative child labour.
Almost half of the child-labourers - 73 million - were between the ages of 5 and 11. A further 47.4 million were children 12 to 14 years old. (According to the ILO's definition, only 12- to 14-year-olds who work at least 14 hours per week or are involved in hazardous work are counted as child-labourers). And in 2012 there were ... | | |
| | | The Burden of inequity | | | | It is a marvel of nature that worthwhile people may be found in the most unlikely places.
Take Mr Jaitley; civilised in demeanour, a sophisticated listener, quick on the uptake and sharp in repartee, adroit deployer of the well-timed witticism, unimpressed by raucous cheerleaders even if on his own side of the aisle, and, party Whip forbid, equipped to recognise merit on the other side, however reluctantly.
Yet, alas, the travails of office and the mauling oppression of dry-as-dust. A litany of push-pin that absolutely banished the poetry of the ministerial soul. Was there ever in recent memory a more poorly written or a more miserably read Budget speech? I doubt me there was. Any wonder that the so upright Mr Jaitley was brought back down in the pain of that knowledge.
Or was it the t... | | |
| | | BJP discovers harsh realities difficult to overcome | | | | After being out of power for a period of ten years, it was not going to be easy for BJP leadership to mould itself into a party which has to govern and produce results instead of being a party in opposition which could indulge in fault finding without any compulsion to offer alternatives or solutions for the problems facing the nation. Thus it was no surprise that Modi and his colleagues have gone slow on their rhetoric and are now suggesting that it will take time to get results and they should be judged on completion of their term only.
The slogan "Acchhe Din Ayenge" has been put on the backburner and instead they are preparing people for a bitter dose as the task of turning around the economy is not easy. They had no alternative but to continue the policies of the previous Government ... | | |
| | | Inevitable logic of Gaza tunnels | | | | Palestinians are an ancient people. They thus do not need to wait around for the emergence in their midst of some military genius to edify them on the efficacy of tunnels in guerrilla warfare. The knowledge of it is encoded in their historical archetype, stored there in their DNA, as it were.
When you're under siege, and facing an enemy possessed of a formidable arsenal of weapons, you dig tunnels and confront him where he least expects to see you. You confront him on your home-ground when he invades your territory and chase after him on his own at a time of your own choosing.
Gaza, the most well-known open-air prisons in the world, is no different. Its defenders, fearless guerrilla fighters one and all, realize that, since they are blockaded by land, sea and air, sieges are by definiti... | | |
| | DEAD-END | | Ah these road deaths! | | | | "Uncle."
"Yes son."
"Our roads are becoming the roads to hell! Ah back that cart-age!"
"True! India has the highest number of road deaths in the world, says a recent World Health Organisation report, - here every 60 seconds a road accident occurs, every 3.7 minutes a road accident snuffs out a life. 'The proportion of fatal accidents in the total road accidents has consistently increased since 2002 from 18.1 to 24.4% in 2011. The severity of road accidents measured in terms of persons killed per 100 accidents has also increased from 20.8 in 2002 to 28.6 in 2011.'"
"Uncle…frustrating, maddening! And how about our own J&K State?"
"Our J&K State in 2013, says the National Crime Records Bureau in its latest report, recorded the highest percentage of unnatural deaths occurring by ... | | |
| | | American Spies in Germany: The End of Trust | | | | The question to bear in mind, when reading this whole sorry tale, is this. If Americans are, on average, no stupider than Germans, then why are their intelligence services so stupid?
After the most recent revelations about American spying in Germany, there was considerable speculation among members of the Bundestag (parliament) that Germany might "get even" by inviting US whistleblower Edward Snowden to leave his Moscow exile and come to Berlin instead. But last weekend Chancellor Angela Merkel, at her traditional pre-summer vacation press conference, rained all over that idea.
"We learned things (from Snowden) that we didn't know before, and that's always interesting," she said - but "granting asylum isn't an act of gratitude." Given that one of the things she learned from Snowden was ... | | |
| | | Slipping and Sliding, Poonch women trek for water | | | | In the scorching heat of the vast expanse that is the Rann of Kutch, a woman, straining with the weight of her near-term unborn child, walks in a daze beside her husband. He is a water diviner, who knows that his desperate search for water is hopeless. She calls out to him faintly and collapses in a heap on the sand… This is the heart-rending reality of millions of Indian women, portrayed sensitively on the big screen in the recent film, 'Jal'. In another narrative, a female protagonist is raped by a man from another village who offered water in exchange for her body.
This film has indeed been a sobering reality check for many, particularly big city folks who take for granted the availability of water 24X7 in their homes. Ask Rubiya Kausar (name changed), 24, from Ari, a remote village i... | | |
| | | Gaza: The Human Catastrophe | | | | The unfortunate and subversive Israeli aggression in Gaza strip gears up day by day with no immediate end in sight. As the conflict enters the second fortnight, the perverted antagonism is leaving behind the innocent killings and mass destruction both in the human as well as pecuniary aspects and the whole world is watching it as a mute spectator. Israel the oppressor continued its onslaught and military might on unarmed citizens of Gaza by showing no concern to humanity and international humanitarian norms. As per the medics in Gaza, the malevolent face of Israel took about 600 lives of innocent people and left thousands fatally injured. It has been also circulated in media that Israeli aerial bombardment in Gaza annihilated 22 families without leaving any of their members alive. Last Su... | | |
| | | The burden of inequity | | | | It is a marvel of nature that worthwhile people may be found in the most unlikely places.
Take Mr Jaitley; civilised in demeanour, a sophisticated listener, quick on the uptake and sharp in repartee, adroit deployer of the well-timed witticism, unimpressed by raucous cheerleaders even if on his own side of the aisle, and, party Whip forbid, equipped to recognise merit on the other side, however reluctantly.
Yet, alas, the travails of office and the mauling oppression of dry-as-dust. A litany of push-pin that absolutely banished the poetry of the ministerial soul. Was there ever in recent memory a more poorly written or a more miserably read Budget speech? I doubt me there was. Any wonder that the so upright Mr Jaitley was brought back down in the pain of that knowledge.
Or was it the t... | | |
| | | The Ramzan - Ramadan word game | | | | This year, a week before the month of Muslim/Islamic fasting started, social media was abuzz with a debate about how to actually pronounce, spell, and write the name of the month. Is one supposed to call it Ramadan, or is Ramzan the proper term? The debate was so fierce that a few non-Muslim friends emailed and called up enquiring about this. My answer was simple - there is nothing wrong and right about it. Keep pronouncing, spelling, and writing, the way you used to. People of different geographies do it differently.
Many believe, though, that this isn't just a matter of spelling or pronouncing, as Irena Akbar of Indian Express in her latest column notes: "How can someone living in India, and being Indian, ever say "Ramadan"? That was a point raised by one Facebook friend (not real-life... | | |
| | | Our right to dignified livelihood | | | | If you have to curse someone in Kashmir just say, "May Allah make you a contractual, or private employee in Kashmir".
Once in the course of my contractual/private employment in Srinagar, a colleague of mine (Sweeper/Chowkidaar by profession) was told by his so called Director (though she was herself a temporary employee) to wash her personal car (a work which he was not employed for). Upon refusal, the employee was honoured by an explanation letter and was humiliated. I had earlier worked in an international organisation and what I experienced there was refreshing. The bosses (from Europe) would treat everyone from sweeper to head of the mission with dignity. Everybody was respected as an employee, who was entitled to his work and had to do no favours for others. But this is contrary to... | | |
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