Politics, no longer a selfless service
While we are in the midst of battling this over a year long vicious COVID-19 raging pandemic, let us not forget to pay homage today to our very revered Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the Father of our Indian Constitution, on his 130th birth Anniversary.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
We need to be reminded that Dr Ambedkar who was a symbol of knowledge must never have visualised that thick skinned persons without integrity but with never ending greed for power and wealth would ever be occupying very high Constitutional posts. He had so aptly said ‘However good a Constitution maybe, if those who are implementing it are not good, it will prove to be bad. However bad a Constitution maybe, if those implementing it are good, it will prove to be good.’
Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and his team had burnt the midnight oil to draft our great Indian Constitution to keep our country secular and democratic for posterity. We can never forget Dr Ambedkar as well as the Great Mahatma and all that they strived to achieve. Gandhi once said “The future depends on what you do today.”
Politics today is no longer a dedicated voyage of selflessly serving the society. It has become a personal investment business venture, more self-serving than public servants. My Political Science Professor in college had termed Politics as a scoundrel’s last resort. So very right was he. Today even at the grassroot level it has become a ruthless business paying very high monetary dividends.
We can only remind those in power of those words of Joel Osteen “You can live your life angry, bitter, mad at somebody or even guilty, not letting go of your own mistakes, but you won’t receive the good things God has in store”.
The final thoughts on this anniversary of Dr Ambedkar are best remembered in his wise thoughts; “If you ask me my ideal would be the society based on liberty, equality and fraternity. One cannot have any respect or regard for men who take the position of the reformer and then refuse to see the logical consequences of that position, let alone following them out inaction.”
Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
Second coming of Covid-19
The second wave of Covid-19 is peculiar in many ways and in Maharashtra itself, which is badly hit for the second time, various trends emerge. The first wave was limited to urban areas and. Metropolises to large extent. This wave has spread its tentacles to the remotest areas and has affected entire families. In Maharashtra for instance, it started in Vidarba and Marathwada where the people were not exposed to the virus earlier.
The rise in cases was in tandem with a lack of Covid appropriate behaviour and zero masking. “Because these people were never exposed to the virus, they thought it disappeared.”
In March, more than dozen States, including Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, recorded their highest numbers in the second wave and accounted close to 78 per cent of all fresh Covid-19 cases in the country.
Delhi also saw a sharp spike in cases in the last few weeks as per the Director, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology Rakesh Mishra the surge is caused by carelessness, not mutation.
Diomedes Pereira, Corlim
‘Work from Goa’ – The new mantra
The pandemic which struck the world last year has forced several companies in India to reduce its staff. However, work had to go on which introduced the concept of ‘Work From Home’. This concept has done away with the need to travel to and from the work place which reduced the crowd on the streets and the possibility of getting infected by the Corona virus.
We are now in the second phase of the pandemic in the year 2021 and things have not changed much. Many office goers still continue to work from home, however with a new twist.
Several executives from metropolitan cities decided that it would be better if they could work from a place which was peaceful, with almost no pollution. Obviously the first choice among many was Goa. Working from Goa is like mixing work with pleasure. Many want to live near the beach and companies are willing to hire apartments or even villas in certain cases for several months. People like to work in a serene atmosphere far away from the hustle and bustle of city life.
The concept of ‘work from home’ has caught the imagination of the company executives. The only difference is that the “home” is now an apartment in Goa. This in the process can improve productivity for the concerned firm and has come as a blessing for realty business in Goa as they can give their apartments and villas on hire.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Recycle the hot-mix for re-use again
The ongoing works on the National highway express roads are running through the length and breadth of Goa at various speeds high, low and standstill. These highway roads were hot-mixed and Re-hotmixed time again and again with the exchequers money making the layers height more than 12 inches running thousand of kms.
The Government Departmental in-charge of these constructions of roads should try and recover the removed tar and recycle it at the hot-mix plant for reuse. The Government preaches for reduce, recycle and reuse and should also practise the same. Hoping the authorities will act on this suggestion.
Gregory E D’Souza, Siolim
Start wearing masks and keeping SOPs
Apropos the news report “India becomes 2nd worst hit country”, published in your esteemed newspaper, on April 13, it’s very shocking to learn that only on last Monday, by registering 1,68,912 fresh cases of Corona virus, our country surpassed Brazil to become the second worst hit country from this deadly virus. This news was appalling but not a very surprising one for me, as a considerable portion of Indians, even in this grave situation, are showing very careless attitudes, in this matter.
They aren’t wearing mask properly even in the crowded places like markets. They are also not maintaining any social distance norms. These dangerous tendencies among many people are really unfortunate and should be stopped anyhow immediately by the authorities, otherwise it would be very late and everything would surely go out of control.
Sourish Misra, Kolkata
Pakistan’s U-turn on trade with India
The U-turn on trade policy by Pakistan on trade cotton and sugar from India has indeed taken a bizarre turn and a self goal by Pakistan in international diplomacy. Pakistan makes honeyed statements of intention for developing peaceful relations with India and then does exactly the opposite. Pakistan never changes its spots. They are so heavily invested in the industry of jihad that it is extremely difficult for them to come out of it now.
Government in Pakistan have to toe the line of military and the hardcore religious fanatics, who survive only on anti-India rhetoric. Leadership in Pakistan is bent on making the lives of the common people miserable. It’s not surprising at all about this U-turn. Pakistan is notorious for its bankrupt policies. Some analysts say that PM Imran Khan simply released a weather balloon to gauge public mood and retracted within 24 hours. India should thank PM Imran khan for showing the true colours of Pakistan so soon. Pakistan and China are made for each other, which in the long run will fail due to crooked vision of both.
KG Vilop, Chorao
