Counterview.in

If you are a doting as well as a discerning parent with a baby or toddler this is for you! A new study, ‘What’s in the Diaper: Presence of Phthalates in Baby Diapers’ released by Delhi-based advocacy organisation, Toxics Link, has sought to raise concern over toxic phthalates which it says have been found in disposable baby nappies that are available in the Indian market.

Gujarati Sahitya Parishad building in Ahmedabad  I was surprised over what they say in the US, a “tempest in a teapot”: An article by Dankesh Oza , a Gujarat government official who took voluntary retirement about a decade ago, stated in an article in the site I manage, Counterview.in, that two “oldies” (both octogenarians) were fighting Gujarat Sahitya Parishad polls, which has over 3,000 life-time members as voters. He appeared to support a relatively younger, though retired, person who was a key government official “looking after” Gujarati literature.

A few days back, India’s home minister Amit Shah, currently “recuperating at his residence” (to quote a former Gujarat official, currently in Delhi) after he contracted novel coronavirus, once again raised controversy by pitching for Hindi as the only language that “can do the work of uniting the country”, because it is the “most spoken language”. He did this a year after he made a similar statement on Hindi Diwas, which falls on September 16.  Usually I don’t care for what politicians say about Hindi, as I think they usually talk from a commonsensical perspective, without taking into account any facts before them. They are more concerned with consolidating their constituency – in the case of Amit Shah it happens to be the Hindu majority in what is often described as Hindi mainland. A somewhat similar effort was made, I recall, way back in 1960s, when an attempt was made by north Indian politicians to impose Hindi, even Sansktritise it, setting off a reaction in the south, particu...

As farmers’ agitation gripped the country on September 25, a retired IAS bureaucrat, whom I have known for nearly two decades, phoned me us to get a feel of what I felt would be its impact. I said, I don’t know, as it is too early to assess, but I wondered whether the fact that it shook the entire country would mean that tables have begun turning against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  This bureaucrat, who has been a keen watcher of the Indian political scene and has been in direct touch with those in the top positions of power, said, “Indeed, this is what many of the bureaucrats across India have begun to discuss... After all, we in the administration have always had access to know what the mood of the political masters is...” This bureaucrat, who has mostly served in Gujarat, suggested that the agricultural bills, passed in Parliament, show that Modi was ill-advised, or “to be more precise, there is nobody left around whom to whom he would listen.” The bureaucrat agreed, there was...

A rally felicitating new state BJP chief CR Patil This was scary: A very close friend, near and dear to me, phoned me and told me that he was in “frantic search” of a hospital bed for a relative in Ahmedabad, but to his utter surprise there is a “long queue” everywhere. The reason for the search, he said, was a relative from a neighbouring state had rung him up to inquire whether one could come over to Ahmedabad to get post-Covid treatment, as hospitals were “full” in the city where this relative lived.  “I inquired in all top Ahmedabad private hospitals taking in Covid patients, including Apollo, Zydus, CIMS, elsewhere. They took my contact number and told me that all beds were full, and there was a long waiting list, hence they couldn’t give a date”, this friend, who happens to move around in Ahmedabad’s established business circles, told me. “This made me approach an influential journalist I know who could talk over with hospital managements”, my friend noted, adding, “The reply...

An interesting story  in The Wire” on how the Sangh Parivar had “organized” the 1995 Ganesha milk miracle and why the plan flopped” a quarter of a century ago took my memory down the lane back to September 21, 1995, the day I began seeing long queues in Ahmedabad with people trying to “feed” Ganesha idols with milk in small and big temples, mysteriously wondering how the Lord was “drinking away” all the milk they were feeding. The queues must have continued for at least a week.  I didn’t stand in any of the queues, but surely I found that many of my relatives, inimical in standing in queues, buying up Ganesha idols from the market telling me how they were “surprised” by the mysterious disappearance of the milk. While I don’t want to endorse or deny whether it was a Sangh Parivar plot, or if it flopped, what I surely remember how the then chief minister of Gujarat, Keshubhai Patel, went on to endorse the “miracle”. He said, “Haa… Bhagwan Ganesh doodh pive chche” (of course, Lor...

A few days back I wrote a blog, giving the example of Facebook ads, on how advertisement could go to some length in deterring crucial news stories which may embarrass those in power – whether in the corporate or the political world. I had cited example of my experience as a “Times of India” man, first in Ahmedabad and then in Gandhinagar, on how this happens.  There appears some reaction to my blog, with some on social media particularly seeking to highlight the fact that ads do play a certain role in "blocking" certain types of news, as it would happen during biennial Vibrant Gujarat summits, involving top Indian businessmen. However, I just tried putting facts as these occurred to me, without seeking to comment on whether the corporate-owned media – which the “Times of India” was and is – blocks free expression, too. Let me put it things straight: Corporate media is owned by businessmen, who consider newspapers as a means to earn profit. This is as much true of the “Times o...