Birds of the same feather
The Central Government of India and the State Government of Gujarat has released eleven rapists and murderers in the Bilkis Bano case and these rapist and murderers were felicitated with garlands and given sweets upon their release.
The order for the release was given by the Home Minister who was also accused of murder and the PM of India is also from the same State of Gujarat and is also a murder accused.
So what is the reason for the release of the rapist and murderers? Are we living in a country which glorifies rapists and murderers? Why are the rapes increasing in the country? Can the Government of India explain?
Matias Lobo, Tivim
Hydraulic cattle lifting van
The stray cattle menace has been plaguing the State for several years and there seems no solution in sight. The rapidly increasing menace of stray animals can prove to be hazardous to road safety. The only way to tackle the problem effectively is to round up these cattle roaming freely on the roads and transport them to the cattle shelter. However, this step does not seem to work out effectively due to the difficulty of loading the stray animals onto the vehicles.
The technique that is being adopted of physically pushing the bovine onto the truck subjects the animals to cruelty from their handlers. A mobile Hydraulic Cattle lifting Van has been specially designed to tackle the stray cattle menace. Just two persons can load and transport the stray animals from anywhere within the city with the least effort and in a friendly manner totally eliminating any kind of cruelty towards animals.
The whole system has been made possible by designing a robust, caged platform which is hydraulically lowered to the ground level at the rear of the vehicle cargo deck. The animal is brought onto this platform and the platform is lifted upwards hydraulically. The whole operation is completed in less than a minute by just pressing a control lever. The vehicle can also be used for transporting sick and dead animals. Every civic body in the State needs to mandatorily possess such a mobile hydraulic cattle lifting van.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Violence against young women
The recent incident of a girl student being pushed and killed by a stalker in front of a moving train in Chennai is a clear pointer of the growing violence against young women in suburban railway stations in Chennai, starting with the spine-chilling murder of the techie Swathi in broad daylight by a man in 2016.
As years will roll by further, these ghastly episodes may slowly ebb away from our memory, but the mountainous scar of pain and resentment the incidents left behind can never be obliterated from society. Fearfully enough the growing trend of sexual overdrives by the present generation is causing more perils to the society.
The increasing crimes against women are a jolt to their confidence, to our society, and to our judicial system as a whole. We have a fundamental duty to contribute towards bringing an order to ensure dignity and respect for women, so that they can live with a sense of pride, freedom and confidence. Reforms in our legal system are the need of the hour, with stringent punishments meted out to the offenders in such a manner that the crimes are treated as non-bailable offences. This may well act as a friction to those who perpetrate crimes against women.
Ranganathan Sivakumar, Chennai
Pandemic’s lasting damage
The Coronavirus pandemic has created a huge challenge for humanity. The pandemic has set back the fight against poverty in the developing world, with many economies in the Global South still struggling to recover from the effects of the lockdowns.
In order to prevent further economic damage, we should take care to follow all required SOPs. A resurgence in the virus may bring back the crippling lockdowns, ending what recovery in economic activity we have been able to enjoy.
Jubel D’Cruz, Mumbai
We owe it to our Goa
We can only blame ourselves for the sad direction in which Goa has been drifting and now reached a point of no return. Our silence is allowing those in power to use their brute majority to bulldoze their vicious plans which are fundamentally against Goa and Goans.
It is pertinent that we stand up to this injustice and dare to speak up. Standing by our rights and for the truth is no sin, at least in the eyes of God. Our silence is unforgivable at a time when our Goa is bleeding and desperately crying for help. In the current circumstances we cannot remain mere spectators to the deliberate devastation and destruction of our land, our economy, our rule of law, our infrastructure, our health, and well-being, our political stability and even our social cohesion and religious harmony.
We should be ready to sacrifice it all for our Goa. We should rather die with a hope, rather than have hope to die inside us. We owe it to our Goa, to ourselves and to our future generations.
We need to relentlessly battle against injustice and corruption. Each of us must go someday, but Goa must live forever, truly liberated from injustice, corruption, and nepotism, all sadly a way of life today with so many silly souls around. When governments fail the people that elect them in good faith, then it must be down to the people to take back control and rectify these failures.
Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
Textbooks for professional degrees
On October 16 in Madhya Pradesh the Home Minister released a set of medical textbooks that are published in Hindi. These could be of benefit to students whose mother tongue is Hindi. The Centre in all fairness and with due respect to the other Indian States should encourage the publications of textbooks of medical and other professional courses in every regional language.
Special grants could be provided to subject experts who are keen to write such books that would assist the students and faculty.
The books could be published by NCERT and affordably priced. Hope there are authors who will rise to the occasion and write a challenging book in a subject like pharmacology by using the proper technical terms in their vernacular languages.
Sridhar D’Iyer, Caranzalem
The power hungry ignore the poor
Looking at the priorities of the ruling dispensation, say like, building Ram Temple in Ayodhya, dividing people in the name of religion with majoritarian rhetoric, promoting Hindi and thrusting this language down the throats of the non-Hindi speaking people. All this with an eye on the votes of the gullible, toppling elected non-BJP governments, selling away well-run public sector organisations, of course, for the benefit of large corporate crocodiles.
It is not a surprise that India has slipped six steps down from last year to get ranked 107 among 121 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI).
What is more shameful is that India ranks much below Sri Lanka (64), Nepal (81), Bangladesh (84) and even Pakistan (99). Further, India’s Global Hunger Index score is 29.1 which placed the country in the ‘serious’ category of hunger problems. The BJP government has, as usual, refused to accept the findings terming it a biased survey.
Tharcius S Fernando, Chennai
