Counterview

By Bharat Dogra  Socrates said, “I am not a citizen of Athens, not a citizen of Greece, I am a citizen of world.” A time may have come today 2400 years later to give much more attention to this most basic identity of human beings which unfortunately is also most neglected. Most members of humanity have been identifying themselves more in terms of national, regional and religious (unfortunately even narrower racial and caste-based) identities than the most essential one of being citizens of world. This has led to serious problems, culminating in a survival crisis—world-level threats to basic life-nurturing conditions of our planet. As scientists increasingly confirm the survival crisis and warn that we do not have much time to resolve this, the (so far elusive) solutions may involve a much wider and deeper commitment to the most basic identity of humanity emphasized by Socrates. Finding solutions to survival problems involve much higher cooperation of humanity living in all parts ...

By Sudhansu R Das  Tension between two communities has gripped the culturally rich Sambalpur town of Odisha. Recently, some miscreants from a community threw stones at the Hanuman Jayanti procession which injured dozens of people including many police personnel. The injuries on the face and heads of the victims show that the stones were thrown from a higher elevation.

By Salman Khurshid*  Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) invited me to join their Business Conclave 2023 event last week. There was a panel discussion proposed on Indian Media and Western Media. Other panelists were Mani Shanker Iyer, Sudheendra Kulkarni, J Sai Deepak and Prof Anand Ranganathan of JNU. What was to be discussion was assumed to be a debate by the last two eminent persons against the three of us.

By Harasankar Adhikari  ‘There is an incident that occurred at the examination during my first year at the high school and which is worth recording. Mr. Giles, the educational inspector, had come on a visit of inspection. He had set us five words to write as a spelling exercise. One of the words was 'kettle'. I had mis-spelt it. The teacher tried to prompt me with the point of his boot, but I would not be prompted. It was beyond me to see that he wanted me to copy the spelling from my neighbour's slate, for I had thought that the teacher was there to supervise us against copying. The result was that all the boys, except myself, were found to have spelled every word correctly. Only I had been stupid. The teacher tried later to bring this stupidity home to me, but without effect. I never could learn the art of 'copying'.' This is a reference story from Gandhi's autobiography about his honesty in his school days. Why has this story been referred to in this wri...

By Proshakha Maitra, Megha Gupta*, Mansee Bal Bhargava** The earth has almost 70% water of which only 2.5% is fresh on which most living beings on land depend upon. The freshwater sources in and around human habitations are mainly from ponds, lakes, wetlands and rivers. The tropical Indian landscape dots these water systems extensively across the length and breadth of the country.  The ponds are predominantly the one that are small human-constructed rainwater harvesting structures and closely integrated to social-ecological evolution of human settlements and life. All villages, towns, cities are in abundance of ponds despite losing nearly half of them in the past one century in the process of urbanisation in India.

By Shankar Sharma*  There is yet another development of serious concerns in our country's energy sector, as news link NTPC eyes 3.5 GW N-power by 2030, in talks for SMRs  suggests. It is impossible to notice any rationale, or due diligence, or coherence in the approach/ policy/ practice of various segments/ agencies in achieving a common welfare objective in the context of various provisions of our Constitution and various specific laws of the Parliament.

Counterview Desk  The People's Union for Civil Liberties, seeking a  halt to encounter killings in UP and end to what it calls "state lawlessness", has said that doubts have arisen about complicity of UP Police in killing of Atiq and Ashraf Ahmed. Signed by Dr V Suresh, PUCL general secretary, in a statement, it seeks to answers to the following questions from UP Police: Why did the UP Police not seek 'Police Custody’ of the killers of Atiq and Ashraf Ahmed when produced for remand before Duty Magistrate on 16.04.2023 itself, and agree to Judicial Custody? If the killer gang was unknown to the police, didn’t the police think it important to interrogate them to find out how the killer gang knew about the police allowing the Ahmed brothers to meet the press at an unearthly hour of 1030 pm on 15.04.2023? Didn’t the UP police think it was important to find out who all were behind the killer-gang by interrogating the 3 youngsters who shot Atiq and Ashraf? Text: PUCL i...

By Harsh Thakor  Junior doctors in England, like other workers of the National Health Service (NHS), are embittered to the very core, being victimised by low wages, overwork, and soaring inflation. Reflection of the overall crisis faced by the working class in Britain. Approximately 60,000 junior doctors in the England have waged a strike for the second time this year. The 96-hour walkout began on Tuesday, April 11, demanding pay restoration. Junior doctors affiliated to the British Medical Association (BMA) marched in Trafalgar Square, London; on Tuesday will in all probability continue the strike and picketing outside hospitals till April 15.Expression of wrath was written all over the faces of the participants., who looked determined to wage a pitched battle. The striking doctors are demanding a salary hike to compensate for the 26% cut, since 2008, in take-home wages for the highly qualified workforce. Doctors called on the Tory government to undertake negotiations to redress t...

Counterview Desk  Washington DC-based top diaspora advocacy group, the Indian American Muslim Council ( IAMC ), claiming to the largest of its kind in the US, condemning Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s denial of Muslim persecution in India, has said that the top minister’s statement echoes the popular Hindu supremacist propaganda claim that the Muslim population is increasing at a rate disproportionate to Hindus.

By Harasankar Adhikari   After every election in India, the leaders of the winning political party or alliance of political parties claim with a smile that their government would be the people’s government. They always respect people. The government would work with the people. But does it really work? It is the biggest saying about democracy in India. The functions of the government are restricted and limited within the realm of the will of the ruling parties that formed the government. In this people’s government, is there any scope for social auditing? Social auditing is the key tool of democracy and its functioning. It is a legal, moral, and democratic necessity for the transparency and accountability of any work. It bridges the gap ‘between vision or goal and reality, and between efficiency and effectiveness.'  It is important because (i) it values the voice of stakeholders (including marginalised poor groups), (ii) it enhances local governance, and (iii) ‘in a democ...