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Showing posts from April, 2021

Amidst Covid crisis, turnaround man insists: Gujarat model is more precious than Modi

The other day I was talking with Alexander K Luke, a Gujarat cadre IAS bureaucrat of the 1975 batch, who resigned from the service in 2006 following two negative confidential reports (CR) despite having dramatically turned around one of the top state public sector undertakings (PSUs), Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals (GSFC), which was a sick unit till he took it over in 2003. Settled in Kerala since then, Luke was very upset with those who he believes have sought to criticise the current crisis due to Covid in India as a reflection of the Gujarat model. “I have put in a series of tweets which explain what I mean by Gujarat model”, Luke told me, wondering if I “followed” him. I thought I was, but wasn’t. So, the first think I did was to begin following his twitter account , and saw through umpteen number of tweets on the subject. During my stint in Gandhinagar as a "Times of India" man, which began in 1997, I don’t recall having met Luke before the day he was packing u...

Sangh Parivar proto-fascist? Kerala academic's query raises Govt of India eye-brows

Veteran political scientist and peace and human rights activist  Manoranjan Mohanty , who is with the Council for Social Development (CSD), and academic Prem Kumar Vijayan of the department of English, Hindu College, Delhi University, have sought endorsement in support for Dr Gilbert Sebastian of the Kerala Central University (KCU), being “targeted” by Sangh Parivar for seeking a discussion on whether the Sangh Parivar and the Modi government are “proto-fascist”.

India sees 62 journo deaths, 4th highest, amidst pandemic: Swiss media rights body

  By Our Representative The Switzerland-based media rights body Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) has noted that India is the fourth most affected country as far as mediapersons’ death on account of Covid-19 is concerned. According to Blaise Lempen, secretary-general of PEC, the global tally of casualties among media persons in the Covid-19 pandemic has reached 1,036 journalists in 73 countries till date.

#MittiSatyagraha: Parallel civil society Dandi yatra continues amidst police 'obstruction'

Activists stopped at Umrachhi on way to Dandi  A civil society-sponsored #MittiSatyagraha Yatra, which has commenced across India amidst Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s high profile Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, has seen a nervous administration in Gujarat seeking to block the entry of  activists at a spot near Dandi, where the yatra was heading.  The yatra has begun from Mumbai (Maharashtra), Bhadwani and Rewa (Madhya Pradesh), Champaran (Bihar), Bhubaneswar (Orissa), Varanasi (UP), Bellary (Karnataka) and Amritsar (Punjab), and is scheduled to reach Delhi borders on April 6.