Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from January, 2017

Prevent forces inimical to values of Gandhi, the Apostle of Nonviolence

By Fr. Cedric Prakash sj* January 30th 1948 will remain etched forever in the conscience of the nation. On that fateful day at evening prayer, Mahatma Gandhi fell to the bullets of his assassin Nathuram Godse, in Delhi. Godse represented the fascist, fanatic, fundamentalist and ‘feku’ forces, which abhorred the values for which Gandhi, espoused all his life and particularly the idea of an inclusive, pluralistic and secular India. These forces unfortunately are still very alive in India and in several parts of the world today! There are certainly those who disagreed with Gandhi during his lifetime and there are many who disagree with his philosophy and his methodology even today. Nevertheless, few will be able to contest the fact that Gandhi was a man of principles who lived and died for a cause. His life was frugal and exemplary and unlike several politicians today, he did not care leave alone crave, for the privileges and the trappings of power. In his lifetime, he internalized and pr

People have right to know all about donations to political parties

By Venkatesh Nayak* The dust has not yet settled on the demonetisation drive though more than 75 days have lapsed since the Government announced the pathbreaking ‘notebandi’ decision in November, 2016. People continue to queue up before banks and ATMs for that elusive trickle of cash, though media reports say the queues are growing shorter. People’s hardship in rural areas is rarely getting much attention in the national media as most cameras and eyes are focused on bulls and how they are or must be treated. Thankfully, there is some gender balance now because more attention was showered on cows during the last couple of years. That is some progress! International financial institutions and rating agencies are downgrading the economy’s growth forecast. In between there was some clamour for transparency of the transactions of political parties. The Hon’ble Prime Minister seized the initiative and called upon the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to lead by example and spoke in favour of revi

PM’s green signal for transparency in politics: Parties must comply with RTI

By Venkatesh Nayak* Addressing a meeting of the national executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which concluded recently in New Delhi, the Hon’ble Prime Minister is reported to have declared: “ People have a right to know where our funds are coming from .” Media reports indicate that the Central Government may be working on a legislation to make the source of funding of all political parties more transparent. An economic resolution reportedly adopted at this meeting endorsed the Hon’ble PM’s appeal for transparency in political party funding , particularly election campaign financing. While this resolution itself is not available on the BJP’s official website, the salient features containing the Hon’ble PM’s transparency call to the party are uploaded there. Celebrating the 41st anniversary of the judicial recognition of people’s right to know These path breaking public statements have come less than 20 days before the 41st anniversary of the Supreme Court’s finding about the p

CRPF doesn’t own up responsibility for using pellet guns on innocent

By Venkatesh Nayak* Readers may recollect my despatches from September and December 2016 describing my efforts to find out details about the sale and the efficacy of anti-riot weapons- particularly, pellet guns, which have caused severe injuries to hundreds of youth in various parts of Jammu and Kashmir. Both the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) and the First Appellate Authority (FAA) of the Khadki Ordnance Factory (OFK) rejected my request for information about the quantum of sale of anti-riot weapons such as pellet guns to security personnel on grounds of national security and commercial confidence. The FAA clearly stated in his order that OFK was not manufacturing the pellet guns being used by security agencies across the country but only the ammunition. He also held that OFK did not have any reports about the efficacy of such ammunition, especially, their impact on human beings. Now the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) which actually uses such weapons for dealing with

Facilitate those who missed demonetisation bus to exchange old notes

By Venkatesh Nayak* Print and electronic media have highlighted the plight of a young woman who approached the New Delhi office of the Reserve Bank of India to change some demonetised currency notes that she had. Apparently the security personnel did not even allow her to enter the RBI office premises. A police officer is said to have commented on the torn state of the currency notes that this daily-wager carried with her, which was why she was not allowed to enter the building. Exasperated, the woman is said to have stripped down in protest in front of her son while a bystander recorded the entire event on his mobile and circulated it in cyberspace. According to media reports, this was not her first attempt to exchange her old notes at RBI’s Delhi office. If this version is a true record of what happened, it is extremely disturbing that the security personnel tried to usurp the role of the RBI officials who are the only competent authorities to allow or refuse demonetisation related