Editorial
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| | Deadly Nipah virus | | The centre and state government needs to join hands for infection control to prevent spread of deadly virus outbreak | | | Loss of precious lives to the extent of a dozen persons due to outbreak of deadly Nipah virus in and around Kozhikode, Kerala, in the last one week, is unfortunate and tragic. The outbreak of this virus, which has recorded very high mortality rate in previous years whenever it has emerged in different parts of India and the world, is also a challenge to the country's capacity to respond and deal with public health emergencies. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has already listed Nipah in 2018 as one of the 10 priority pathogens needing urgent medical research in view of its ability to trigger lethal outbreaks and non-availability of drugs against it. As an RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) virus, Nipah has an exceptional rate of mutation - that is, it can easily adapt to spread more efficiently am... |  | |
| | | Violence in TN | | It is not only about mishandling of law and order situation but also the nexus that allows industries violating environmental norms to thrive | | | The killing of 9 people during anti-Sterlite protests in Tamil Nadu's Tuticorin is an ugly reflection of brutal power exercised by the state government to protect the interests of the big multi-national companies at the cost of public health and environmental concerns. Thousands of residents had been protesting for 100 days against Vedanta's Sterlite copper smelting plant and its reported expansion but the state government responded with criminal silence. They had intensified protests demanding closure of the plant after reports came in that the group was seeking licence for expansion as the initial 25 year licence comes to an end. On Tuesday, coinciding with the 100th day of their protest, about 20000 people marched in a procession towards district collector's office in violation of proh... | | |
| | | Checking electoral mal-practices | | Practice of unaccountable wealth at disposal of political parties must stop | | | The political fiasco in Karnataka serves important lessons that do not get settled with the formation of the government. The manner in which constitutional posts were abused to bypass propriety and ethics was one question that needs to be dealt with. The other is the brazen attempts to woo over the legislators allegedly in lieu of money, which points out to the excessive use of money power by political parties for power struggle. Karnataka is not the first time it has happened. Every hung assembly brings the country face to face with the horrifying reality of horse-trading and bid by contending parties to herd their legislators and search for resorts where they can be preserved till the floor test while trying for ways to woo independents and legislators from the opponent camps. Exorbitan... | | |
| | | Mixed signals | | Some signs of thaw between India-Pakistan don't gel well with renewed hostility at borders | | | Other than lacing his speech in Srinagar with phrases of mis-pronounced Kashmiri sentences, prime minister Narendra Modi, during his recent visit, made no efforts to reach out to the people and also dropped virtually no hints of carrying forward the peace process meaningfully. Going about the usual rhetoric of bringing back "misguided youth" into the mainstream and hastening up pace of development, he had nothing to offer in terms of announcing confidence building measures to ease the stifling atmosphere that could showcase the sincerity of the union government in resolving the Kashmir issue. This silence coupled with his ambivalence on relations with Pakistan arouses skepticism. The huge scale of border shelling and firing in Arnia sector of Jammu province on Saturday, the day he arrived... | | |
| | | Deaths in border clashes | | Rulers in both India and Pakistan need to realize futility of animosity and instead engage in dialogue for peace and stability in the region | | | Deaths of a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan and four civilians on the Indian side of the International Border (IB) in Jammu region and four civilians including three children in the border shelling between the Indian and Pakistani forces last week is unfortunate. It is all the more tragic that the civilians on both sides of the IB lost their lives for no fault of theirs a day before the prime minister Narendra Modi’s day-long visit to Jammu and Kashmir. This is one of the incidents in a series of alleged ceasefire violations on the borders in J&K in which precious lives are lost and the working in the agricultural fields by farmers on both sides of the border are disrupted due to continued animosity between India and Pakistan for the last seven decades. The peace on the borders occasion... | | |
| | MARGINALIA | | Truce comes calling. What next? | | | By Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal | |
| | On the face of it, the ceasefire announcement for Kashmir made by union home minister Rajnath Singh sounds good. But it needs to be taken with Shakespeare's note of caution: All that glitters is not gold.
What is the purpose of any truce call? Does it signify a brief break from the violence or is it aimed at achieving the purpose of making a transition from military handling of a conflict to a political one? If it is the former, there is nothing to expect other than a possible and not so possible lull of few days. As for the latter, the signs don't seem visible.
Ceasefire is not an end in itself but a means to achieve an end. It can either be a useful tool for building a comprehensive peace process that is in the making or be introduced as a confidence building measure to lay the edif... | | |
| | | SC directive on floor test | | The BJP appears to be a bad loser in the power play of politics in Karnataka where it cannot claim victory over other parties | | | The Supreme Court directive on Friday to Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa to prove his majority in a floor test in Legislative Assembly by 4.00 PM tomorrow is a welcome decision amid high-voltage drama that has been going on for the last three days. The directive to this effect was issued on a petition filed by Congress and Janata Dal-S combine challenging the governor Vajubhai R Vala's decision to invite Yeddyurappa and swearing in him as chief minister on Wednesday despite the fact the BJP had only 104 members falling short of at least 8 MLAs to cross the half-way mark. The directive that the present chief minister cannot take any policy decision till the floor test is over is also a welcome decision. This is mainly is the light of some transfers ordered by Yeddyurappa after his... | | |
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