📰 Stirred up Darjeeling hills alive with the spirit of cooperation
People continue to share, volunteer and rally despite prolonged impasse
•On a drizzly Monday morning, Dambar Prasad Shiwakoti, senior master of Darjeeling’s elite Turnbull High Secondary School, leaves his house at 5 a.m. for the nearby neighbourhood of Rose Bank, where he enters an unimpressive double-storey building. He cleans the blackboard in a large, rectangular hall with a duster and waits for students to arrive.
•Everything but pharmacies in Darjeeling have been shut down since June 15, following a call by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) demanding a separate State for Gorkhas, but this makeshift school has been functioning for the last 51 days. “The Class X examination is approaching. Students of elite institutions are attending private classes in Siliguri. But what about those who are not from elite schools?” Mr. Shiwakoti asks. He often works late and wonders if he did this much “during usual times”. Classes begin at 7 a.m., followed by an afternoon session at 11 a.m. About 275 students of nearly a dozen schools attend. “In these times, we have to cooperate with each other,” says Urmila Pradhan, a Class X student from the St. Teresa's Girls School.
•Mr. Shiwakoti approached Uday Sewa Sangh, a voluntary organisation, for permission to start the school in their premises, usually rented out for weddings. The club agreed.
•The spirit of cooperation keeps Darjeeling going. There is no solution for the impasse in sight. The Chief Minister of West Bengal is silent, the GJM leadership appears confused, the Central Government seems reluctant to act, and the Internet is down. “During 1986 movement [for Gorkhaland], Rajiv Gandhi was far more proactive than today’s Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP],” claims a senior official of a tea planters’ association, who does not wish to be named.
•Yet, Darjeeling’s residents are not deserting the movement. Every morning, they assemble in different parts of a town that is littered with burnt vehicles, shouting slogans for Gorkhaland. They keep their moral high by hugging each other, forming human chains, and even having toddlers hold ‘Jai Gorkhaland’ placards. Many bring vegetables or noodles. “We often carry some food to the rallies these days, to ensure that our neighbours have enough,” laughs Roshan Rai of the NGO DLR Prerna.
•The city is usually deserted, but for a few hours in the afternoon when people throng its centre. Many of them participate in street corner meetings. In the absence of regular vegetable markets, vendors set up tiny, temporary shops in the by-lanes, which have managed to hold the prices. They disappear later in the day. “And if there are little or no garbage on the roads, it is because the municipality is overworking with skeletal staff,” said a senior government official.
•The town falls silent by early evening and sinks into darkness. Paramilatary and police vehicles drive at a remarkable speed, flashing blue lights, often stopping lone walkers to check their identity. The agitation is “still absolutely unarmed”, protesters say.
For far-flung areas
•“While we are doing our best, the key question is if we are reaching the forest villages and remotest tea gardens,” said Roshan Rai, convener of a meeting held at the Diosecan Pastoral Centre last Sunday to streamline equitable food distribution, “a challenging task”, the organisers said.
•“We distribute five kilos of rice, edible oil, lentils and salt in the tea gardens as they are cut off,” said P.P. Sherpa of the Japan-funded Eurasia Reiyukai.
•A former teacher Norreen Dunne believes “personal bonding has increased after the internet ban”.
•The bonding was visible in a narrow bylane in Mahakal Market, where volunteers of the Mani Trust, a charitable organisation, were selling potato and squash momos to raise funds. Sashi Yanzon, a key organiser, said they were selling about 40 kilos of vegetable momos every day. “The money is used to buy fuel to take basic food stuff to villages in far-flung areas,” she said.
•Sudha Rai, a school teacher and another volunteer, said they had reached about 2,000 families. The Mani Trust’s shop is among the hundreds of charitable institutions and individuals coordinating relief in the hills.
“But for how long?”
•Such large-scale support in terms of food collection and distribution is keeping the GJM leadership on tenterhooks. “The meeting among NGOs was essential to ensure transparency. We would like to keep tabs on funding,” said a GJM official attending the Pastoral Centre meeting. “But we have no reason to stop it as long as it is for the people,” a senior government official said.
•“The key question is for how long,” asked Denmark-based professor at Roskilde University, Prem Poddar. A native of Darjeeling, Poddar has written extensively on the region. He argues that the GJM leadership has “painted itself into the corner”.
•“After the initial swell, the movement is losing steam,” he feels. “The other factor,” said the professor, is the strategy of theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.
•“Despite its earlier commitment [regarding Gorkhaland], the BJP is looking at it from the optics of elections, while for Ms.Banerjee, the approach is to let people suffer for few more months till they change their position,” Professor Poddarobserves. However, the party that is facing the heat on ground is the GJM and its chief Bimal Gurung.
•“For Gurung, it is a question of managing the expectation that he has generated through his promises,” Professor Poddar said.
•Senior officials of external intelligence in the country, however, anticipate a “larger Nepali homeland” movement, largely secessionist in nature, brewing behind Gorkhaland. “For us, with or without any politics, Gorkhaland is unacceptable. What could be Bengal's problem today would be India’s issue tomorrow,” said a senior intelligence official.
•Thus locked between the “expectation” of its supporters, the BJP’s prospects, Ms. Banerjee’s policies, and national security compulsions, a section of the GJM said that “a truce can be reached” in the form of a committee to examine their demand onGorkhaland with Constitutional experts, and representatives of the government and the GJM. “This may provide an exit route to the GJM,” said a sympathiser close to the party. But will it be acceptable to Umesh Tamang, a taxi driver, whose mother Dhanmaiya Tamang, 68, was arrested for backing the movement?
•“No. We want Gorkhaland and would continue to fight for it. If Bimal Gurung backtracks, we will replace him,” he said.
📰 23 dead, over 400 injured as Utkal Express derails
NDRF teams deployed at accident site near Muzaffarnagar
•At least 23 persons were killed and around 400 injured when 14 coaches of the Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express derailed on Saturday evening at Khatauli, near Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh police officials said.
•It was 5.46 p.m. on Saturday when the Haridwar- bound train derailed immediately after it crossed the Khatauli station.
•National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel told The Hindu that the number of dead could rise as several passengers were still trapped in the wreckage. Officials said 100 persons were seriously injured. Rescue operations have slowed down after darkness.
•The Railway Ministry is yet to comment on the reason for the accident but the impact of the accident was strong enough to send a derailed coach crashing into a house in Jagat colony, a railway colony next to the tracks.
•Out of total 14 coaches, three were third AC coaches and the rest were sleeper coaches.Senior Railway Ministry officials present on the spot told The Hinduthat “though the investigation is yet to be concluded but preliminary probe suggests that the driver of the Kalinga Express had applied sudden breaks as he found repair works going on the track which led to the accident.
•According to eye witnesses many pedestrians walking on the road near the railway track were also injured in the accident.
•Several eyewitnesses said there was loud sound preceding the derailment. “There was an extremely loud sound which attracted people's attention before the train was derailed. We saw some coaches dangling in the air and falling off, some of them on each other,” Jaiveer, an eyewitness said.
•Most of the injured were in a state of shock. Many elderly people were lying near the tracks, struggling to overcome the trauma. too shocked that they were unable to remember anything. But there were many bodies of men and women, some of them bloody, on one side of the derailed train. Eyewitnesses who were rescuing people were recounting how it happened.
•A passenger Vishal travelling in one of the AC coaches said, “There was huge loud noise. Before I could realise, it was all dark and there was huge movement and shaking as if it was an earthquake had hit. I think that was the last thing I remember.” He sustained a minor injury on his head and was rescued by local people.
•There was minor skirmish between the local residents and the police when the crowd which was busy in rescuing people accused the administration of reaching late but soon the rescue mission started in full speed with all the senior police officers of Meerut and Muzaffarnagar range, BJP MP from Muzaffarnagar Sanjeev Baliyan, Suresh Rana, a member of Yogi Adityanath government, on the spot supervising the rescue mission with equipmen to cut open the mangled coaches.
•Hundreds of passengers came out from other coaches and started looking for their friends and fellow passengers. There were many like Kabir Rathor whose parents were travelling in the train. “I must thank god that my parents are safe. They were coming from Gwalior for the purpose of bathing on the occassion of Somvati Amavasya,” Rathor said with relief and tension both palpable on his face.
•"The cause of the derailment is difficult to ascertain at this moment. All possibilities are being explored. Even the Anti-Terrorist Squad is at the accident site," said a senior Railway Ministry official.
•Minister of State Railways Manoj Sinha, Railway Board Member Traffic Mohd. Jamshed and Railway Board Member Engineering A.K. Mittal have rushed to the accident spot, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said.
•“I have ordered inquiry into the unfortunate accident to ascertain the cause. Strict action will be taken against any lapse,” Mr. Prabhu said, adding he has requested Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Dr. Sanjeev Balyan to reach the accident site as well.
•An accident alert has been issued to all the hospitals in Meerut and the National Capital Region Uttar Pradesh anti-terrorist squad has reached the site too on the instructions of state ADG (law and order) Anand Kumar.
•A.K. Gupta in charge of CHC Khatauli told the media that over all 150 people were admitted by 10 p.m. in the night and 30 serious patients were referred to the Meerut hospital.
•U.P. Health Minister Siddhharth Nath Singh tweeted that the State government mobilised medical services and instructed chief medical officers of Meerut and Muzaffarnagar to extend all help to the injured.
•Chief medical officer, Meerut, Dr Rajkumar told The Hindu that 26 government ambulances have been sent to the accident site. Additionally, 20 ambulances from private hospitals have also been rushed to the spot.
•Dr Rajkumar added that all hospitals, including the medical college in Meerut, have been put on high alert. “The district hospital in Meerut is admitting serious patients. We are all prepared,”he added.
•Meanwhile Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu announced an ex-gratia of ₹3.5 lakh for kin of dead, ₹ 50,000 for the seriously injured and ₹25,000 for those with minor injuries. Mr Adtiyanath has announced ₹2 lakh for the families of the deceased and ₹ 50,000 for those injured.
•Expressing deep anguish over the loss of lives in derailment of Kalinga Utkal Express in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, “my thoughts and prayers are with victims’ families and the injured.”
•Mr. Patnaik spoke to Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu who had assured all help to the affected passengers.
•The Odisha government has announced an ex-gratia of ₹5 lakh for next of kin of passengers from the State killed in the derailment. The State government will also pay ₹50,000 for the injured and for treatment in any hospital.
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed extreme pain over the accident and assured that the Railway Ministry and State government were doing everything possible to provide the required assistance.
•From January-June this year, total 29 serious train accidents took place out of which 20 accidents happened due to train derailment that killed at least 39 people and injured 54. In 2016-17, 78 derailments took place on railway tracks two of which were attributed to ‘coach defect.’
•In the last five years, between 2012-13 and 2016-17, out of total 586 accidents, 308 occurred due to derailments and 199 because of unmanned level crossings. Out of total 1,011 casualties, 347 were killed due to train derailments and 449 because of unmanned level crossings.
•This is the second serious train derailment case in Uttar Pradesh in the last few months. In November last year, 14 coaches of the Patna-bound Indore-Rajendranagar Express train derailed between Pokhrayan and Malasa stations in Uttar Pradesh, killing 152 passengers and injuring 183.
📰 Video shows troops trading kicks, punches in Ladakh
Visuals show it was Chinese soldiers who started pushing around India’s men
•A video grab of the August 15 skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops by the Pangong lake in Ladakh shows the incident was a significant showdown, involving fisticuffs and stone-throwing.
•Lieutenant-General (Retd) Prakash Khatoch, one of the first to make the video public, told The Hindu that the visuals clearly showed that it was the Chinese who started to push around Indian soldiers and they also started throwing stones. “They started it all; our chaps only responded,” he said.
•The video, shot from a smartphone, shows an ugly brawl and captures the frayed nerves along the border at a time when the standoff between the two sides in Doklam has continued for the third month.
•Some Army sources, however, insisted that it was not very unusual for the two sides to engage in fisticuffs.
•The video begins with a few dozen soldiers from both sides jostling, and then it soon breaks down into kicking, punching and stone-throwing.
Ugly brawl
•The video clearly shows at least one of the soldiers kicking down another. A few seconds later another soldier is on the ground, hit by a stone thrown by a rival soldier.
•The skirmish started around 6 a.m. on August 15, with the two sides coming face to face by the lake, and lasted until 9 a.m.
•On Friday, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar confirmed the incident, but did not speak about stone-throwing or the fight. “We feel that such incidents are not in the interests of either side. We should maintain peace and tranquillity,” Mr. Kumar said.
•A meeting of the Brigade Commanders of both sides was held in the Chushul sector in Leh on Wednesday, and the two sides agreed to maintain peace and tranquillity in the area.
Rawat to visit
•Army Chief General Bipin Rawat will undertake a three-day visit to the Ladakh region over the weekend. Army sources said Gen. Rawat will review the security scenario, including the latest incident along the disputed border, during his visit starting Sunday.
•Lt. Gen. Katoch said the Modi government’s policy was clear and well articulated. “The government policy is very, very clear now. This is not 1962. A respectable solution is mutually acceptable withdrawal,” he said about the Doklam standoff. “For once the defence establishment and political authorities are firm,” he said. “The ball is in the Chinese court.”
📰 In Venezuela, a new Assembly takes power
•Venezuela’s new legislative superbody was criticised by South American governments and Washington on Friday after giving itself the power to pass laws, superseding the Opposition-led Congress while ex-top prosecutor Luisa Ortega fled the country.
•President Nicolas Maduro sponsored last month's election of the 545-member constituent assembly over objections from the opposition, which boycotted the vote, calling it an affront to democracy. In its first session on August 5 the Assembly fired Ms. Ortega, who had accused Mr. Maduro of human rights violations. The oil-rich but economically ailing country has seen months of political unrest in which more than 125 people have died. Ortega arrived in neighbouring Colombia on Friday, migration authorities in Bogota said. She told Reuters in an August 10 interview that she feared for her life in Venezuela, although she still considered herself the country's chief prosecutor.
•U.S. State Department meanwhile criticised the new super-assembly. “As long as the Maduro regime continues to conduct itself as an authoritarian dictatorship, we are prepared to bring the full weight of American economic and diplomatic power to bear in support of the Venezuelan people as they seek to restore their democracy,” it said. In practice, the assembly’s assumption of power changed little in Venezuela, where the Supreme Court has shot down nearly every law that congress has approved since it was taken over by the Opposition in 2016.
📰 Do not blame it on women
The only way to stop rapes is by not obstructing the agency of women
•Let us get this straight: It is not women who get raped; it is men who rape.
•Comments on rape get into the news in India (and elsewhere) once in a while — I suspect this is more for electoral reasons because rapes keep happening with as great a frequency even when politicians are not talking about it. That is so because what does not change is the ‘mindset’ regarding rape, which tends to put the blame on women. Many women do this too, because, alas, this what we have been mostly conditioned to do.
•It is this dominant mentality that, sometimes even in the act of loudly protesting against rape, ends up reinforcing the ‘mindset’. At the core of it is the shocking assumption that rape is something that happens to women — a bit like menstruation, but more bloody and painful. This puts the onus of the crime on women instead of the men who commit rape. The victim is held responsible, not the criminal.
Control of female bodies
•This happens in many ways. The suggestion that female dress codes and behaviour ‘cause’ rape is one of them. I must add that this is not the case just in India; I have heard this dangerous argument in places like the U.S. and supposedly liberal Scandinavia too.
•An American woman recently posted a photo on social media of her dog waiting patiently next to her table to be fed; the table also held a loaded plate of food for the woman. The dog was not jumping at the plate. It sat there, calm and contained, waiting. Even my dog, the woman noted, knows how to control himself. Why then should men be excused for not controlling themselves, she asked. While I find it disturbing to equate food with sexual appetite, as if our sexual partners are inert material to be simply consumed, the woman did have a point — though, as we shall see, a limited one.
•The discourse on what a woman wore, or ate, or drank, or where she was, etc. is then turned by men (who claim to abhor rape) into a tighter surveillance of women’s bodies. This plays right into the hands of the ‘male’ rape mindset, which is basically about control. Rapes do not take place just because a man cannot ‘control’ himself, as the American woman supposed; they take place because he wants to control women. That is why during vicious wars some soldiers have tended to rape defeated and captured men too. Rape is about oppressive control and exploitative power; it annihilates its victims as equals and as human beings.
•Rape is an extreme and extremely violent form of the control of female bodies and spaces, something that is generally practised by many men in ‘moderate’ and ‘peaceful’ versions every day of their lives — when they demand certain binding patterns of behaviour and duties from women. To say that rape should be prevented by controlling women in advance — dress conservatively, do not go out at night, no beer, don’t laugh aloud in public, etc. — is to lie. What this does is put women in their presumed place and reduce their choices, but that is what rape is also about in any case!
•Most rapes take place because some men cannot accept the fact that women should have an equivalent space to dress, move, work, play, enjoy; they take place because some men cannot accept a ‘no’ by a woman. Throwing acid on a girl who does not show interest in the ‘Romeo’, or on a woman who rejects her lover, is part of this continuum of sexual assault.
Strengthening the male status quo
•There is often an assumption that virginity has something to do with rape. This is not surprising in a country where leaders have gone on record equating an unmarried status with virginity. And this is as disturbing as the claim that married women ‘cannot be raped’ by their husbands. Actually, marital rape is a serious issue: by allowing it, we sanction the mentality that a given relationship — current husband or ex-boyfriend — can justify the rape of a woman. This strengthens the male status quo. We need to be very clear that any forced act of sex is rape, period.
•Once when I wrote about the matter of women’s rights, I received angry emails from men who basically wanted to ‘protect’ women — by keeping them in ‘place’. This, again, is part of the problem: rapes will keep taking place as long as we define women as ‘things’ to be protected, cherished, taught, used, whatever. That is, as objects for men. The stress on totally abstaining from sex is as problematic in this context as the stress on women as sex objects. These are two sides of the same coin, from which the woman as a human agent (a person who thinks and acts) is largely missing.
•The only way to stop rapes is by not obstructing the agency of women. This includes, above all, the agency to do with their own bodies what women wish in terms of dress, food, even, yes, if the person is an adult, sexuality. Rape is about refusing to let a woman say ‘no’ to a man. It cannot be stopped by forcing her to say ‘yes’ to some other men.
📰 Have you taken the New India pledge?
Why solve only six problems when you can solve 56?
•Have you taken the New India pledge?
•Let me first wish you all a belated very happy Independence Day! If I were the Prime Minister of India, I would be a proud man today. As fate would have it, I am not the Prime Minister of India. I’m not even the Opposition, which in any case is no longer required since we already have the best government that money can buy. But I am still proud — not only of me and my country, but of every single one of you who took the New India pledge on our latest Independence Day.
•Never in my life have I felt so full of purpose and patriotic pride as I did last Tuesday. Listening to our Prime Minister’s inspirational speech, I got to know so many fantastic new facts about my country that I never knew before. I sat mesmerised for the entire 56 minutes. (Incidentally, 56 is my favourite number too.)
•By the time the great man was done, I was so fired up with nationalistic fervour that I whipped out my smartphone and took a video of myself taking the ‘Sankalp se Siddhi’ (achievement through resolve) pledge. Like millions of other Indians, I pledged to build a New India by 2022, an India that would be dirt-free, poverty-free, corruption-free, terrorism-free, communalism-free and casteism-free.
An extended pledge
•I posted my pledge selfie on Facebook and sat back, feeling pleased at having solved six of the country’s major problems in one go, on a single day. And then it struck me: why should I, as a patriotic Indian citizen, restrict myself to solving only these six problems? What about the remaining 56 problems that afflict our great nation? If not you and me, who will solve them — your grandfather? Hello, just because you pay taxes doesn’t mean the government owes you something.
•Let me tell you, from one Vande Mataram-singing patriot to another, if you really want your country to become great, then you must take personal responsibility to make it happen. It is in this spirit of selfless service to the nation that I appeal to each one of my 125 crore fellow Indians to not only take the New India pledge, if they haven’t already done so, but to take an expanded version of it so that we can together by ourselves solve all the problems the country is currently facing.
•Therefore, over and above the pledge to solve the problems of dirt, poverty, corruption, terrorism, communalism, and casteism, I urge every citizen of India to also pledge to solve the problems of unemployment, farmer suicides, malnutrition, faltering GDP growth, drinking water supply, housing for all, education for all, universal health care, electrification of villages, rural road connectivity, and affordable oxygen for babies.
•Further, every citizen of India should pledge to solve the Kashmir problem, take care of Pakistan, and teach the Chinese a tough lesson on Dhokla. Let us together also pledge to improve the criminal justice system by implementing police reforms, filling the vacancies in the judiciary, and providing operational autonomy to the CBI.
•Citizens of India should also pledge to transfer ₹15 lakh to the bank account of every Indian by 2022. Let us together pledge to end crony capitalism and to personally escort Vijay Mallya back to India. Let us pledge to pay back all the NPAs of all the public sector banks even if it means we have to break open the piggy banks of every innocent child and woman in the country. Let us together also pledge to take our Sensex to an all-time high of 70,000 by 2022 by pledging our provident fund, pension, life insurance, and leftover savings, if any, to the stock market.
•Every citizen of India should also, in my opinion, pledge to pay on time the wages of whoever has worked under the MGNREGA, implement the Food Security Act, and appoint a Lokpal. Let us together pledge to answer all pending RTI queries by 2022.
The No.1 nation
•And while we are at it, let us also pledge that our politicians will not poach MPs or MLAs from other parties by bribing them, that our government will not use state machinery such as the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax department to target its political adversaries, and that by 2022, the Prime Minister of the country will start holding periodic press conferences where he or she will answer unscripted questions from unfriendly journalists.
•And to round things off, I suggest that any citizen of India who enters politics to serve the nation and suddenly finds his assets growing at a rate greater than ten times the GDP growth rate should immediately pledge 56% of his and his family members’ assets to the Indian Army. If all of us can take the above pledges, I assure you, we will become the world’s number one country in 56 days flat.
📰 The importance of a country’s self-image
Publicly acknowledging and attending to flaws rather than ignoring them is pivotal to nurturing a healthy, positive self-image
•The recent remark by the outgoing Vice President, Hamid Ansari, that there is growing unease among Dalits and minorities caused rancour amongst some of our fellow citizens. It is a bit puzzling why, for this was not an unusual observation. Many Indians, including the former President, Pranab Mukherjee, had raised concerns about growing intolerance in our country and the threat to our pluralist ethos. But Ansari’s remarks were seen by some to be particularly disturbing because they appeared to damage the country’s image. Some went as far as to say that they were an insult to the country.
•A concern with the country’s image is not to be scoffed at or dismissed as inconsequential. A country’s image is important. Since a country is made up of its people, its image is the collective self-image of a people. Each one of us wants to be viewed by others favourably because how one is treated is frequently determined by how one is seen. We don’t wish to be misrecognised by others. We all wish to be recognised for what we truly are and not be seen through a distorting lens. Besides, a positive self-image is crucially linked to our self-esteem. If our self-image is damaged, our self-esteem is necessarily lowered and we are bound to feel humiliated and insulted. This is equally true of our collective self-image. If our country is portrayed negatively, we feel ashamed, angry, or even outraged. There is no denying the importance of a country’s image.
Self-image: A double-edged sword
•Yet, a self-image should not be confused with the person’s real self. There is always a gap between how one is seen (by others or by oneself) and what one really is. Moreover, there are two kinds of self-images. One, constructed self-reflectively, constantly realigns how we appear and what we really are. Conscious of the pitfalls of self-deception, it relentlessly unmasks defects and vulnerabilities. Building a real self and constructing a self-image are here part of the same ethical process.
•The other thrives on deliberate distortion. Though carefully crafted, such a self-image is far removed from reality. Disconnected from the real self, the image overtakes it and becomes all that matters. Indeed, it even masks the real self and its flaws. An obsessive concern with self-image undermines the growth of the real self; wasteful energy is spent on polishing the self-image, even as the real self is tarnished by neglect. This is as true for nations as it is for individuals.
•Publicly acknowledging and attending to flaws rather than ignoring them is pivotal to nurturing a healthy, positive self-image. Cosmetically engaging with them or being indifferent to the creeping malaise damages the self and its real image. What or who then is damaging a country’s self-image? And who amongst us is nurturing it positively? Consider a teenager habitually cheating in exams but who is caught, one day, by an observant and scrupulous teacher. Though his acts reflect badly on his own moral character, they probably tell us even more about the poor quality of moral life in his family. The appropriate thing to do here is for the parents to own up their mistake and find ways of rectifying the moral ambience at home, so that this does not occur again. But what happens instead is bizarre! The parents begin to blame the teacher for publicly ruining the reputation or image of the family! How twisted can a mind be!
•Some years ago, the country was hit by a cascade of corruption scandals. Imagine if those who exposed it were blamed for damaging the country’s image, and the scamsters came through unscathed? Today, it is clearly the lynch mobs who are damaging the image of the country, not those who express concern over the lynchings and want the government to put a stop to them. Surely, there is some perverse logic operating here.
Internal and external image
•A second feature of the obsessive preoccupation with image is this: those persistently anxious about the country’s image leave unstated that it is the country’s image in the external world that they are really embarrassed about. But equally, if not more important, is the country’s image amongst its own people. Do we not need to ask what the image of the country is in the eyes of Dalits, minorities, ravaged farmers and others who feel alienated and excluded? Can we please start getting concerned about the country’s internal image, the imprint this intolerance leaves on our alienated citizens?
•Quite like an individual, no country is perfect. We all make mistakes, stray from the path, get misdirected, temporarily lose our way, and even reach the wrong destination, but the more intelligent and wise amongst us are self-correcting. They can tell when and where we have gone wrong. And take steps for course correction. The discriminating ability to tell right from wrong, the courage to acknowledge that a wrong has been committed, and the collective resolve to fix it — these are all crucial for the health of a nation.
•The image of the country is greatly enhanced when its citizens speak out against any wrong committed in their name or in their land. It is even more reassuring to hear people in the highest positions of authority acknowledging public wrong with responsibility and purpose. It shows that we are a vibrant, self-examining, introspective people. It also shows that we are an assured democracy. That indeed is the image that we should wish to have of ourselves, both inside the country and abroad.
📰 Modernity and divinity
Have temples become the religious pharmacies of our times?
•What do you think of when you think of Hinduism? Many in their mind’s eye see the saffron-clad sadhus who trek their way around the Himalayas, some picture the glowing lamps of a Ganga aarti and some see the beloved temple that occupied a corner of their street and their hearts.
•Rituals have become synonymous with the true expression of Hinduism, whether the many submerged Ganeshas around monsoon or the gaily dressed elephants in the Guruvayur temple square.
•So much so that many have forgotten the essence of these rituals; that there is a religion of incredible complexity hidden beneath the layers of milk and turmeric and flower garlands. So many children are clueless when it comes to the meaning behind the scriptures, but can mouth the Bhagwad Gita verbatim. These rituals have taken precedence over everything else in this religion; priests prescribe pujas as doctors prescribe drugs.
•Need to get that job? Yes, one Ganapati puja should get you there. Child not listening to reason? A few abhishekhams will do the trick. Insistent, throbbing arm ache that plagues your days and nights? Oh, this will be an expensive one, one solid gold arm to your local temple.
•Indeed, every problem has a cure, and temples have become the religious pharmacies of our days, dhoti-clad priests the pharmacists. No side effects, no specific dosage. Divine medicine is one-size-fits-all.
•You may say that is just the older generation. My generation prides itself on being rational and scientific; we don’t blindly follow god-men’s instructions.
•You might see the occasional teenager at his local temple, but it is a rare sight; the strength of faith, like old medicine, loses its potency over the generations. But come examination time, when NEET and JEE and AIEEE papers are being printed en masse and desks are laden with half empty coffee cups?
•No, that isn’t a tsunami but a flood of students putting their faith in divinity to chariot them past the ranks to the IIT or the AIIMS. Pizza, Coke, and Game of Thrones? No, two months before entrance it becomes puja, kumkum, and Gita Chapter 16. The irony in the fact that we have pledged ourselves to the gods before an examination in order to show our mastery of science, somehow escapes us.
•And as for our level-headed, collected adults? A shrine turns them all into fanatic subjects looking for a glimpse of their divine king. Visit Shirdi, Tirupati, Guruvayur or any other major temple in the subcontinent and you will know what I mean. Baths are taken, the best clothes worn. In ten minutes the cramming will have you drenched in sweat and fanning yourself with hands already heavy with flowers and money.
•This line would fuel the ubiquitous angry mob if it was anywhere else, but this being a temple, emotions are dulled by the anaesthesia of faith. Trapped in the sea of humanity inching centimetre by centimetre towards the all-pervading idol at the front, it is every person to himself or herself. Feet are trodden on, offerings dropped. A few whispered curses are heard through the aura of intense worship, and glares are passed back and forth among the women who jostle for space.
Rush hour
•Time seems to move as slowly as molasses, and when it does, the rush begins. Push! Shove! Squeeze through! Quick, there seems to be an opening here; no, I was there first!
•All the civilised sense of patience and courtesy goes up in flames as people fight for any opportunity to get closer to the aforementioned idol. Proximity, it seems, equates to divinity.
•The closer you are, the more blessings are heaped upon you. Get to the front and atone for your sins, and as you finally leave, elbow someone in the face so you can have one last glimpse. It is okay.
•In matters of love, war, and now temples, all is fair. Just don’t forget to put that ten-rupee-note in the collection box before you leave.
📰 ‘Ideal if new CEO is close to Murthy’
Infosys needs a candidate who can manage important shareholders, including founders: analysts
•A replacement for Vishal Sikka, the first non-founder to become the CEO and MD of Infosys, must be an internal candidate who has risen up the ranks and is favoured by co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, industry analysts said.
•Mr. Sikka, Stanford-educated and former SAP AG executive, resigned on August 18 citing what he termed “baseless, malicious and increasingly personal attacks” by the founders of India’s second-largest software services exporter, led by Mr. Murthy, that had constrained his ability to foster change.
•“The confidence on an external candidate is very low now,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, founder & CEO of Greyhound Knowledge Group, a global strategy and transformation firm. “Also, chances of top-notch leaders trying to join the company is also very low. The Sikka episode has wiped out $3.5 billion of shareholder value yesterday [August 18]. They cannot afford another botch-up. It will be wise to have an internal candidate who knows the system well enough.”
•“They may not look for a forward-looking CEO. Instead, they may look for a CEO who can buy into the strategy of the company and its culture. They will look for one to stabilise the operations. A person such as a COO may be promoted to CEO. To prevent another such episode, they will look for a candidate aligned with Murthy.”
•Mr. Murthy had recently raised issues of corporate governance and salary increases paid to Mr. Sikka and COO U.B. Pravin Rao. Mr. Murthy had also sought that a probe report on alleged irregularities over the $200-million acquisition of cloud solutions start-up Panaya, be made public.
•Dinesh Goel, formerly partner and head of India for ISG, a U.S.-based Nasdaq-listed technology research and advisory firm, echoed Mr. Gogia’s views and said a candidate within the organisation would have to be close to Mr. Murthy.
‘Candidate from within’
•“The main requirement now is for the candidate to have a greater degree of sensibility in managing critical shareholders, including founders,” Mr. Goel said. “An internal candidate will lack a larger perspective of the industry but will be tuned to the company’s culture. The person will have to go back to the drawing board without sacrificing the strategy laid down by Sikka. Any paradigm shift from the core values of the company will not work now.”
•Co-chairman of the board, Ravi Venkatesan on Friday ruled himself out of the race, The other senior management officials include U.B. Pravin Rao, the interim CEO and MD, M.D. Ranganath, CFO, Ravi Kumar, deputy COO, Mohit Joshi, head of financial services and healthcare and Sandeep Dadlani, head of manufacturing and retail business.
•Shriram Subramanian, founder and MD, InGovern Research Services, a proxy advisory firm, said the Infosys board needed to “go back to the drawing board.”
•“It is not that an outside CEO did not work. Sikka was Mr. Murthy’s choice. The crux of the issue is the conflict between the board and Murthy,” he said.
•“So the present board will have to go. A new-looking board needs to take its place with the help of the founders. One solution is to let the founders propose the constitution of the board. Even then the shareholders will have to agree. The resignation of Sikka has achieved nothing as the uncertainty continues.”
•“One way forward is to recruit a candidate which both parties agree to. Else, we are facing a situation where both parties land up in courts.”
📰 Meet the bacteria that save babies
A community-based trial in Odisha finds that administrating synbiotics to newborns can halve sepsis-related deaths
•That babies born by Caesarean section are at a slightly higher risk of developing obesity, asthma and other ailments than children born vaginally is now well known. The reason: in a vaginal birth, a baby ingests some of the microbes present in the vagina during the time of delivery. These bacteria colonise the newborn’s gut and keep it healthier when compared with babies born through a C-section.
A low-cost life-saver
•However, in the case of India, infants born even vaginally are more prone to infection and sepsis, which causes many deaths. Now, a community-based trial carried out on newborns in rural Odisha has found that administering synbiotics for a week beginning 2-4 days of life could bring about 42% reduction in sepsis.
•With 30 per 1,000 live births, the incidence of hospital-based sepsis is huge in India and about a fifth of neonates with sepsis die in the hospital; community-based studies indicate an incidence as high as 17% of all live births. About 30% of sepsis-related deaths occur in the second week, whereas it is around a fifth in the third and fourth weeks, according to a paper in the Journal of Perinatology (December 2016).
•There was also a reduction in lower respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia, which was “completely unexpected”. The reduction in respiratory tract infections suggests that synbiotics not only enhanced the gastrointestinal immunity but also overall immunity in the newborns. The week-long treatment costs about $1.
The world of synbiotics
•Synbiotics are a combination of probiotic or live microorganisms that provide health benefits and prebiotic which promote growth and sustain colonisation of the probiotic strain. In this case, Lactobacillus plantarum was used as a probiotic. A carbohydrate (fructooligosaccharides) that occurs naturally in plants such as onion, garlic and banana was chosen as the prebiotic. The researchers chose L. plantarum after carefully studying its ability to colonise infant gut over a long period. The bacteria have been shown to protect infants during the early weeks of life. “The bacteria is safe and does not cause problems in sick and even immunocompromised babies,” says Dr. Sailajanandan Parida from the Department of Paediatrics, S.C.B. Medical College, Cuttack, Odisha, and one of the authors of the paper. “The bacteria colonise the gut and do not allow harmful bacteria to grow. They stimulate the immune system so babies are able to produce antibodies against pneumonia and sepsis-causing bacteria.”
‘Overwhelming results’
•Researchers from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, U.S. and India studied over 4,550 infants born to mothers from 149 villages in Odisha, where neonatal and infant mortality rates are among the highest in India. The babies were at least 2 kg at birth and had completed at least 35 weeks of gestation. To eliminate any kind of bias in the conduct of the trial, the newborns were randomly assigned to receive either the synbiotics or a dummy. Neither the researchers nor others knew who received what. Half the participants received the synbiotics while the other half received the dummy. The babies were monitored for 60 days, the most critical period when they get sick and die.
•The researchers had anticipated only 20% reduction in sepsis but as the reduction was more than twice than what was anticipated, the trial was stopped midway. It is not uncommon for trials to be stopped midway when the results are overwhelmingly positive. Denying newborns the benefits of the synbiotics, which have been found to be beneficial, would be considered unethical if the trial is continued. The results were published a few days ago in the journal Nature.
•“The synbiotics can be introduced as a preventive measure for sepsis. It should be given for seven days, 2-3 days after birth,” says Dr. Parida.
📰 IISER Mohali: Spider silk, a material for the future
Processing it was a challenge addressed by the team
•Spider silk is a biomaterial that has come to intrigue many in recent times. With five times the strength of steel of comparable weight, it offers immense possibilities for applications, however the difficulty in processing it and also welding it with other excellent materials were posing a challenge. Now, researchers at IISER Mohali have demonstrated how to overcome these challenges using a femtosecond laser pulse. They have succeeded in cutting and manipulating spider silk and making tiny objects of complex geometries such as braids and Mobius bands out of it. Their research is published in Nature Materials.
•The early use of spider silk material was in microscopes, telescopes, guns and bomb-guiding systems as cross hairs in the optical elements. Since then, its extraordinary properties have been discovered. During spinning of the silk, amino acids arrange themselves as tiny nanocrystals embedded in a soft amorphous matrix of molecular nanosprings. While the amorphous regions provide elasticity, the nanocrystalline domains are optimized to provide great strength, explains Kamal P. Singh, School of Physical Sciences, IISER Mohali, who has carried out the research with Mehra S. Sidhu, a Post Doctoral Fellow at the department and first author of the paper.
Jumping spiders
•“We collect spiders from gardens near Mohali and Chandigarh and grow them in large plastic boxes… to collect silk, we make the spider jump from a stick. It immediately suspends its body with a silk known as dragline silk. This is typically a few micrometer in diameter and is the strongest type of silk,” says Prof. Singh. Spiders can make seven types of silk from seven different glands. Each is tuned to perform a special task. For instance, capture silk is much more elastic with glue drops to trap the prey. The silk it makes to hold its babies can be softer, he explains in an email.
•The researchers’ key innovation was that femtosecond (fs) laser pulses of duration about 10 fs can effectively process the silk fibre with minimal damage to its properties. They have also shown that these pulses can be used to weld the silk fibre with metals, glass and polymers to produce combinations that come in useful.
•“The femtosecond pulses in our study were produced with commercial lasers. But we had to design our own experimental setup to target these pulses on the fine silk fibre precisely,” says Prof. Singh. A femto second is a millionth of a billionth of a second. “The mechanism of interaction of the silk with sub-10 femtosecond pulses was not known previously,” he adds.
Sun-power
•The high strength and elasticity of the material makes many applications possible. They can be used, the researchers explain, in building radiation pressure meters. Radiation pressure can be felt when the momentum carried by photons is transferred to objects in its path. This is the operating principle of optical tweezers for instance. “With NASA trying to build tiny satellites and space vehicles that can be propelled in space by the pressure of sunlight (without burning fuel), it is important to develop sensors that can measure these tiny forces accurately,” says Prof. Singh.
📰 Time for a targeted programme?
•Scientists question the universal supplementation approach that is prevalent in India, arguing it may not work for all children
•Textbook wisdom — that supplementing Indian children with vitamin A is beneficial — is under attack from some scientists at the institution that once recommended it. Rather than being administered universally, as was the norm, vitamin A needs to be selectively given only if required, they argue.
Programme highlights
•The National Prophylaxis Programme against Nutritional Blindness due to Vitamin A Deficiency ((NPPNB due to VAD) was launched in 1970. Such blindness is identified by changes to the skin and the eye, including keratinised growth on the conjunctiva known as Bitot’s spots; deficiency also manifests in night blindness.
•Today, children aged 6-60 months are administered vitamin A every six months in doses of 200,000 IU or 60 mg, as per World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. But physicians administer it to children routinely, irrespective of their nutritional status, though WHO recommends vitamin A supplements where prevalence of vitamin A deficiency is 20% or higher in infants and children under 60 months or where night blindness prevalence in children is higher than 1%.
Alternative viewpoint
•Scientists at the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) in Hyderabad, which made the supplementation recommendation in India more than four decades ago, are now divided on the subject. A scientist at the institution, who did not want to be named, says those in favour of the programme cite numbers that are not acceptable.
•“Those within the institute who support the programme claim that the incidence of Bitot’s spots is about 0.8%, warranting universal vitamin A supplementation. The actual figure could be much lower,” says the scientist, weighing in favour of a targeted approach. Outside of NIN, a recently published review of scientific studies on the subject also favours doing away with the universal programme. Published in Clinical Nutrition ESPEN by Dr. Sudip Bhattacharya and Dr. Amarjeet Singh of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, the review also points to studies that recorded vitamin A toxicity in the country. The death of over 30 children in Assam in 2001 reportedly occurred after vitamin A supplementation. The authors cite several other studies that claim improvements in nutritional status in the last 40 years, warranting a targeted approach to the problem — and not universal supplementation — which would also lower the cost burden of the programme.
•The vitamin A supplementation programme is often credited for reducing childhood mortality by as much as 23%. Similar effectiveness is claimed in tackling blindness and Bitot’s spots. Noting that the incidence of vitamin A-associated blindness has greatly reduced, Dr. Bhupesh Bagga of Hyderabad’s L.V. Prasad Eye Institute states the continued need for supplementation. “Besides the one or two cases of eye problems in babies post infections like measles, there are populations in rural areas where vitamin A deficiency exists. Though not as severe as before, many children could be on the borderline,” he says.
•Critics of the programme cite NIN’s own surveys that established patchy coverage of the programme. They also claim that reduction in mortality, blindness as well as vitamin A deficiency was related to improved nutrition, as pointed by the Clinical Nutrition ESPEN paper.
