All hail the SC
Equality of sexes is a basic, inviolable principle of any libertarian civilization and contemporary nation state. The recent Supreme Court judgement granting equal inheritance rights to daughters strikes down a regressive community practice and is perhaps the most important piece of reformative jurisprudence in post independence India.
The SC went so far as to say, “A son is a son until he gets a wife, a daughter is a daughter throughout her life.”The verdict makes it amply clear that daughters have equal coparcenary rights in parental or ancestral property.
Kudos to our learned judges for their legal acumen and path breaking ruling, hopefully this drives the last nail in the coffin of an exclusionary and discriminatory social arrangement.
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
Retaining wall at Xavier Retreat House
It is understood that heavy rains over the past two months has led to parts of hillock near the Xavier Retreat House at Baga, Arpora collapsing. There was a major landslide at the spot on August 3 which blocked the access road. Another landslide occurred on Tuesday morning. It is believed that the retaining wall that was built six years back to prevent the hill from collapsing, has started to sink and has also tilted and that there is every possibility of the retaining wall collapsing with heavy rains battering the state. This has caused fear in the mind of the Jesuit priests that if the retaining wall gives way, the entire hillock can come down causing a major disaster.
Frequent landslides block the only access road to the Retreat House which makes it difficult for the priests to move out and for the devotees who come here to spend time in prayer. The government needs to act on a war footing to prevent a major catastrophe here by building a new retaining wall as the old one will not be able to withstand another major landslide. This will put the lives of the Jesuit priests and devotees at risk.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Disrespect towards our National Flag
Independence Day represents the true spirit of independent India and marks the patriotic fervour of all Indians across the country who celebrates this event with great enthusiasm year after year. On the occasion of Independence Day, we must remember the sacrifices made by those Indians who fought bravely for a liberated India. But it seems that the Gandhian ideals that inspired India’s independence struggles are no longer followed by the citizens today.
Each and every one of us respects Mahatma Gandhi and proudly addresses him as the ‘Father of the Nation’, but no one is prepared to tread the path adopted by him. Independence Day is a day for us to celebrate with the hoisting of our national flag, recitation of our national anthem, singing patriotic songs and organising social and cultural events.
The National Flag is symbolic of one’s respect for the nation. However, there has been a new trend to sell flags, made of paper and plastic, as Independence Day or Republic Day approaches. With a sense of national pride, people buy such flags but the very next day, we find these flags being trampled on roads, in dustbins and elsewhere. By allowing this to happen, people forget that they are insulting the National Flag of the country. This disrespect towards our flag must come to an end.
Jubel D’Cruz, Mumbai
Fighting the pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented medical, social, and economic crisis. We have seen disasters like the tsunami, floods after tanks have breached, and epidemics such as cholera. But COVID-19 has made them all insignificant. It is unsettling that cases are galloping. With no vaccine in sight in the foreseeable future, people have to be very conscious not to create problems as far as the infection transmission cycle is concerned.
India has very few testing centres in proportion to its population size. While social distancing, face mask can reduce the possibility of the spread of infection, hygiene measures must be pursued without a break. And the most important point is to take care of the needs of daily wage earners. People kept indoors as an inherent part of social distancing, which is sure to have helped in the fight against COVID-19. The shutdown shows the support for a genuine and valid emergent cause.
The Government should launch extensive COVID-19 rapid antibody testing across the state amongst priority groups like health workers in hospitals, those in home quarantine and vulnerable populations such as those with high social exposure, to check if silent disease transmission is happening in the community.
The Prime Minister must be complimented for his efforts in bringing people together in the war against a virus. We also owe much gratitude to those in service of the country.
K.G.Vilop, Chodan
Operation Kamal flops in Rajasthan
Yet another Congress Government was on the brink of collapse with the blessings of none other than PM Modi and HM Amit Shah, but thankfully they flopped.
The story of destruction of democratically elected Governments is a work in progress of the BJP in many States including Goa which the majority of Goan people and the BJP bhakts are very happy with all these developments.
The only people who can save this country from destruction by the communal forces are the minority community from the majority who must expose the communal forces who are destroying the country for their selfish interest.
Matias Lobo, Tivim
Safety and efficacy of Russian vaccine
World’s first Covid Vaccine developed and approved by Russia named Sputnik V is definitely a breakthrough. But there is still time for us to be happy. This vaccine is being approved for civilian use even before large clinical trials are completed which is more sceptical and unease than excitement. Safety and efficacy are the two important things for a vaccine.
The other thing is, this vaccine is yet to be approved by World Health Organisation and the Association for Clinical Trials are possessing doubts over their trials. WHO has also warned Russia against their rush earlier.
The world can come to a conclusion once all the learnings come out which in this case was untold until now.
Later the question comes will it be under compulsory licensing provision or at least as a patent pool, or they reserve the rights over it. However this is a major development and should hope it will work in the larger perspectives. We are still a long way behind and should continue to follow all Covid safety protocols until.
Ravi Teja Kathuripalli, Hyderabad
Russia might have jumped the gun
Russia stole a march over other countries by becoming the first nation to grant regulatory approval to a Covid-19 vaccine after less than two months of human testing, a move that drew similarity to Moscow’s success in the Cold War-era space race.
The vaccine administered on one of President Vladimir Putin’s daughter, who ventured to volunteer, will be christened ‘Sputnik V’ in homage to the world’s first satellite launched by the Soviet Union.
But with the vaccine yet to complete its eventual trials and its veracity questioned by experts, one believes that Russia might have jumped the gun.
N J Ravi Chander, Bengaluru
