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Showing posts from November, 2020

Canadian 'farmer logic': Who benefited from GSFC's obscure investment in Karnalyte?

On November 8, Counterview carried an article titled “Pump and dump strategy? Erosion of GSFC's Rs 250 crore investment in Canadian firm”, by a 1975 batch IAS bureaucrat, who was called a “turnaround man” by the Times of India way back in 2006. Second article by Luke on the subject (the first one was on January 4 ), it is based a letter he wrote to Gujarat chief secretary Anil Mukim protesting against a 2013 Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals investment of Rs 250 crore in Canadian firm Karnalyte in 2013, whose value has now fallen to Rs 10 crore!

What separates giants like Maradona or Mohammad Ali from other sports icons

Diego Maradona By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* A portrait size painting of Diego Maradona was on display at certain ruins in war torn Syria where people were mourning the death of the legend. In the entire Latin American world, people are pouring their respect to Maradona who died in Buenos Aires, the Argentine Capital where his dead body was kept at the presidential palace as people flocked in to pay their last respect to the legend. The Argentine President declared a three day moaning. Tributes poured in the world over whether it is nations or sports federations or political activists who Maradona supported through their causes. On his passing away, we need to ponder this question as what separates giants like Diego Maradona or Mohammad Ali from rest of the sports icons who might have been hugely successful financially but the grief and outpouring of their passing away will never be the same. Of course, we know, in our own country, there are cricketers who we worship but except for endorsing

World of Mahabharata is stacked against women, today things aren't much different

Controversial American Indologist Audrey Truschke , associate professor of South Asian history at Rutgers University, Newark, in a detailed essay, “The living Mahabharata”, points to how “immorality, sexism, politics, war” in the “polychromatic Indian epic pulses with relevance to the present day”.  ***

Netaji didn't want Gandhiji to write foreword to his book he presented to Mussolini

A writeup by Utpal Aich* , a former Union ministry of external affairs ministry official, who retired on January 31, 2015 after serving for 38 years, and last served as first secretary at the Indian Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is now  reportedly  engaged in studying India's freedom struggle, the role of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army (INA). This is an excerpt from the author's introduction to Netaji's book “The Indian Struggle 1920-1934”, which was later revised into “Indian Struggle 1920-1942": *** Subhas Chandra Bose was on forced exile in Vienna, Austria, in 1934, and he was undergoing medical treatment there when he was approached by M/s. Wishart and Co., a Publishing Company of London, for writing a book on Indian politics. He was happy to receive such an offer and decided to name the book “The Indian Struggle 1920 –1934”. Initially, he was asked to submit the manuscript by August, 1934, and the book was scheduled to be published in

Nagpur’s own Samaritan, who ensured NGO is useful during lockdown

By Moin Qazi* Nagpur has been a traditional and fertile hub for voluntary organizations and social workers. It has been home to a number of activists whose social chromosomes have inspired them to undertake humanitarian work for their fellow brethren. The result is a confluence of so many rivulets of social activism which have merged into a vibrant social movement .This is one reason why several reformist crusades had their birth in the region. A member of this social corps who has carved a space for himself through his committed service to the community’s underprivileged is Salman Ahmed. His social vehicle, Fikr Foundation which he founded in 2011, has been supporting wide ranging causes both at the individual and community level. His sister-in-law Dr Saba Ahmed is a pediatrician and manages the organization’s periodical health camps for children. Relief and rehabilitation are the key activities of the organization. There are several slum pockets in Nagpur where rains are a regular ha

Coordination: The need of the hour in the coronavirus pandemic

By Arup Mitra, Debdatta Saha* Human history has seen many diseases caused by external agents, like rats or viruses (the 1918 Spanish flu being one of the most fatal ones in the not-so-distant past). The Ebola virus causes havoc in the African sub-continent at regular intervals. The latter, though, contained in terms of its geographical spread. For the ones that have achieved a near global coverage, such as the Spanish flu, the disruption to the economic system has not been as large as the current pandemic. The reason is the hyper-connectivity and co-dependence in supply networks that globalization has achieved. Like a dominoes effect, a shock to the system at one location spills over to all other points in the connected system. The quick succession of SARS, MERS and now the current COVID-19 pandemic is only a reminder of the obvious; though the popular press has compared the ongoing pandemic to a black swan event, academic researchers have long been warning us about an impending threat

Why those who say ‘Do not put too much politics in your art’ are not being honest

Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe (1930-2013), acclaimed for his unsentimental depictions of the social and psychological disorientation because of the imposition of Western customs and values upon traditional African society, and American James Baldwin (1924-1987), known to have explored intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western society, went into an interesting conversation, went into an interesting conversation in 1980 on beauty, morality, and political power of art. 

Racism persists in many forms, caste stigma runs deep among Pak Christians, Muslims

Saldanha with Canadian community of Precious Blood Church in Canada Lawrence John Saldanha, an 84 year old retired archbishop from Pakistan, originally from Mangalore, currently living in Canada helping persecuted Pakistani Christians who seek asylum in Canada, in an email alert to some of his community colleagues has expressed concern over casteism among Christians and Muslims in Pakistan. Appointed Archbishop of Lahore by Pope John Paul II in 2001, his family was among those who had opted to remain in Pakistan after Partition.

Light a lamp today, tonight, tomorrow, everyday, continue to keep it burning

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ* Light a lamp for COURAGE – to illumine the darkness which has engulfed many everywhere! Diwali, the Festival of Lights is a reminder that each one of us is called to be a light in our world today; a light that is visible, enkindling other lights with hope and in doing so, dispelling the fears and hopelessness that have gripped the lives of many! Light a lamp for JUSTICE – which we desperately need in our country today! A justice which is objective and impartial; which is not of fear nor seeks any favour; which does not kowtow to the rich, the powerful, the influential or to the ruling regime! A justice which hears the cry of the poor, the Adivasis, the Dalits and the sub-alterns of our society. Light a lamp for LIBERTY – that India awakes to that “heaven of freedom”, which Rabindranath Tagore prayed for. When every single citizen has the freedom of speech and expression and is not slapped with archaic laws of sedition and contempt of court; where freedom of rel

Arnab entitled to bail, but what about 3.5 lakh undertials, 83 yr old priest, 80 yr old poet?

Senior Mumbai-based human rights lawyer Mihir Desai, in a Facebook post , “tears in the hypocrisy of the judgement and the utter naiveté that informs the discussion about it in certain quarters”, comments Vistasp Hodiwala, adding, “It is the kind of stuff that only a lawyer of serious standing such as Mihir who deals with such cases day in and day out would be able to put up.”

MNCs GM, Ford knew in 1960s car emission caused climate change, delayed action

Top auto giants General Motors (FM) and Ford knew way back in 1960s about looming climate crisis, but helped bury reality. This was quite like the major oil and gas companies, which “took a calculated risk that they – and the world – could delay action to address the drivers of climate change. We are all paying for that gamble", argues  Jessica Corbett in Common Dreams . Exerpts: *** 

Banker for poor who hopes to bounce back from pandemic fallout

By Moin Qazi* Finance is one field where we have witnessed significant innovations in recent decades, and this has transformed our society in many ways. Earlier, we could hardly visualise social change in rural India as it was mired in caste conflicts and was impervious to the winds of change. Before the 1980s, outsiders rarely visited villages. Those who did were the occasional anthropologist, extension staff, social workers and missionaries of various religions. The gradual change in the profile of visitors was the first sign of the embryonic revolution in development finance, which later bloomed into an era of social banking. It was during this time that bankers started courting villages in large numbers. Their mission was to find trustworthy villagers for providing soft credit to rescue them from moneylenders. This, it was thought, would help villagers start small businesses, promote local economic activities and empower people to climb out of poverty. The bankers and missionaries,

Wanton neglect: Actions taken to restore Bengaluru lakes found to be superficial

The Bengaluru Environment Trust (BET), in its report “Citizen’s Agenda for Bellandur/Varthur Catchment”, has found that the plan to rejuvenate Bellandur, Varthur and Agara lakes in Bengaluru is “ad-hoc, illogical and not supported by well documented data and scientific facts.” Following is an excerpt from the BET report, which is actually an official submission to government bodies and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) appointed monitoring committee to oversee the rejuvenation process:

Liberating Muslims from alims’ hermetically-sealed religious capsules

By Moin Qazi* Book review: “The Scientific Muslim: Understanding Islam in a New Light”, by Dr Mohammad Aslam Parvaiz, pp184, Rs 595, Konark Publishers While a global pandemic has been a looming risk for decades, COVID-19 has sent shockwaves through societies, economies, health systems and governments around the world. The pandemic has revealed both the fragility of our systems and the need to come up with resilient, long-term solutions and more robust systems. It has exposed fundamental weaknesses in the current economic models, namely the fact that they do not benefit everyone equally. The idea of globalization has changed on its axis with some of the largest outward-looking economies now becoming inward-focused. It is now widely surmised that much of the present day maladies are considered to be a direct consequence of man-made systems that actually run counter to the divine laws revealed by our scriptures. This interesting facet is the subject of a study by a well known botanist and

Character assassination as smear campaign to control individual freedom

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak* What is character? Character indicates totality of feature of an individual’s personality, courage, commitment and outlooks from righteousness to humility. The material or physical representations or moral frameworks are not character. Class, gender, race, sexual orientations, religious practice and moral values do not represent character. Character is a commitment to one’s own self, to one’s own family, friends, society, state and beyond. And character assassination is as old as human civilisation. The character assassination manifests itself in different ways by spreading factually incorrect information, rumours, lies, misquoting, misrepresentation, silencing, acts of vandalism, name-calling, mental illness, creating false perceptions, and sexual deviance. These are discussed in detail in Martijn Icks and Eric Shiraev’s edited volume on “Character Assassination throughout the Ages”. The criminal tribes, underdeveloped rural poor, dirty working classes, unhyg

'Matter of shame... wasn’t even aware of Anvay Naik’s story till case was reopened'

Author Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, whose debut novel “The Last Song of Dusk” won the Betty Trask Award, the Premio Grinzane Cavour in Italy, and was nominated for the IMPAC Prize in Ireland, and was translated into 16 languages, has argued that the tragedy is not Arnab’s arrest but architect Anvay Naik’s decision to kill his mother Kumud, and then himself, from fear of lifelong debt after he was “refused” payment of dues for his work.

Underlying causes of migration of the poor within the country: Regional view

An Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), New Delhi, note on special talk by Prof Babu P Remesh on Labour Migration in South Asia: There are over 150 million migrants around the world a significant number is from south Asia. Nearly one in every three people in India is a migrant and one in every sixth is a migrant in Pakistan and similar statistics were found in other countries of South Asia. With the increase in urbanization, in South Asian countries, a lot of people are migrating from rural to urban areas for better livelihood and employment opportunities. There are two sets of migrants that exist in urban areas, one who moved from rural areas to urban area and settle permanently, and second set of migrants, who moved from rural to cities to work and then return to their native places in rural areas, they are called short term migrants or seasonal migrants. These short term or seasonal migrants are the most vulnerable and they are the ones who need policy interventions. This