Personal View

Looking for temple under every mosque is disturbing and dangerous Alok Tiwari The opening of Ram Temple on the site of disputed Babri Masjid in Ayodhya should logically have provided an end to temple disputes within the country. That dispute was running for decades and had roiled the society like few others. It climaxed with demolition of masjid on December 6, 1992. It should finally have seen its denouement with the construction of Ram temple at the end of a tortuous legal process. In fact, if there is an unfinished work remaining as part of mandate of that process, it is bringing to book those responsible for the 1992 demolition that the SC had clearly called an illegal act. If that seems unlikely to happen, at least under the present government, what is disturbing is relentless effort being made to raise other disputes of similar nature. The release of report by Archaeological Survey of India indicating presence of temple in place at Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi and at Shahi Ei...

Bad intent and vindictiveness are writ large on law to sack CMs and ministers Alok Tiwari One hallmark of a demagogue-led regime is that it continues to throw one bait after another at the opponents, each more outrageous than the last. Even before proper action is organized to oppose one act, another one is ready. The society at large is continuously thrown off-balance until a large section no longer cares. After a time, sheer fatigue ensures that the reaction is muted. The regime has endless resources and strong motivation to remain in the saddle. The opposition and civil society, by their very nature, are fragmented, lack resources and fora to amplify their views and eventually cave in. This is how a nation moves towards autocracy. One such act is the latest Constitution (130 th Amendment) Bill presented by the government that will allow union cabinet to dismiss state chief ministers and other central and state ministers if they remain under arrest for 30 days for serious of...

Shrinking global population should be seen as an opportunity to heal the planet Alok Tiwari The big news on population front last week was that population of China declined for the second successive year. In 2023, the decline was by nearly 20 lakh people, more than twice the 8.5 lakh decline seen in 2022, the first year it saw a decline. China is not alone in this. Much of the developed world is seeing a significant fall in birthrates and population. Japan and Russia are experiencing declining population for decades. They have been joined by almost entire Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and several emerging economies in Asia. Even India has seen significant decline in the growth rate over the last three decades from over two percent annually to less than one percent. This too is contributed mostly by a handful of states in north and northeast with the rest of the country at either replacement rate or seeing a decline. High population growth is now seen only in Afri...

While dealing with strays we need to be more rational and less emotional Alok Tiwari When people talk of living a dog’s life, they are probably unaware of the status the canines enjoy in India. First, it took an order by Supreme Court to shake the authorities into action about them. Last week the court ordered capturing and impounding of all stray dogs in the National Capital Region. Such was the anger of the judges that they barred anyone from interfering. This expectedly led to protests by animal rights activists across the country. They had such an impact that the chief justice assigned the case to a larger three-judge bench for reconsideration. The dogs thus got more “due process” and “natural justice” than what even citizens often get from the judicial system. Stray dogs are a massive and growing problem not just in and around Delhi but all over India. Every big city has lakhs of them. Dog bites are estimated to cause thousands of deaths every year. Even if a person does n...

Education in India is in dire straits, it urgently needs to be rescued Alok Tiwari If the sounds of fireworks, drumbeats, blowing of conch shells, and triumphal Jai Shree Ram have subsided, could we turn to more bread-and-butter issues? I refer to the Annual Status of Education Report for 2023 that was released last week. Even though we are years into what we are led to believe is amritkaal, the report conveys the same depressing picture. Basically that of most teenage students in rural areas and in public education system not being able to master basic maths and language skills that they were supposed to master in lower classes itself. More than half the students in mid and high teens cannot solve three-digit division problem that is taught in primary classes. A quarter of them could not read Class II textbook in their own language (what are local language warriors everywhere doing about it?). And some 42% could not read simple sentences in English. This should surely gladden th...

As flying became a more middle-class thing, the price of meal at airports has become an issue Alok Tiwari “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door,” goes the quote often attributed (probably erroneously) to late 19 th century American essayist and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. It likely originated from a person frustrated with inefficient mousetraps and longed for a better one. The phrase has now come to be the guiding principle for businesses wanting to create offerings that customers harassed by shoddy products seek. In modern Indian context, it can be applied to an unlikely craving—the airport meal. Or a snack, or just a cup of tea. If only someone could figure out a way to serve reasonably priced food at our airports, Indians will build a runway to their door. In recent times social media has been set aflutter by fliers dismayed by overpriced menus at Indian airports. One lamented a Rs600 masala dosa. A friend who complained on social media a...

Poll body needs to be transparent and accommodative; its arrogance raises suspicion Alok Tiwari Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has stirred the hornet’s nest by revealing irregularities in voters’ list of Karnataka’s Mahadevapura constituency. He alleged a theft of over one lakh votes through duplicate and fake entries. Using the data supplied by the Election Commission (EC) of India, he showed multiple listing of same name at different booths. Also, dozens of people living at same address that later was revealed to be of a BJP worker. In many cases, proper addresses or name of parent was missing or some gibberish was entered. The revelations came on the back of widespread discontent over the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. EC was under fire for asking for specified documents from voters to support their application for entry instead of relying on word of head of the household as was the case in earlier SIRs. It was feared that a lot of people wo...

Strong regional parties force national ones to heed regional aspirations Alok Tiwari One Nation One Election (ONOE) has been one of the pet issues of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He has been underlining the need to have simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and all the state assemblies once every five years. This has led last year to setting up of a high-level committee chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind to examine the issue. It had token representation of opposition by way of Congress’s Adhir Ranjan Choudhury who promptly withdrew saying the terms of reference of the committee all but guarantee the outcome. That is usually the case with all government committees. They are set up to create a façade of deliberation when a decision has already been made. Now the committee has invited opinion from public. While opinions submitted may not count for much, this is a good time to ponder over the issue that has far reaching ramifications. Modi has been framing it in terms of heav...

Humankind has seen thousands of languages emerge and perish Alok Tiwari India’s Information Technology capital Bengaluru was once again in the news for the wrong reason. Parochial and regressive issues are never far in the city that is also arguably India’s most modern. Some years ago, goons had attacked pub-going women prompting women’s organization to send sets of women’s underwear to the head of that group. Now, it is the language. Karnataka Rakshana Vedike decided to attack signboards in English language demanding that they be in Kannada. Like religion, language is another tool for petty and petty-minded leaders to seek limelight. It could just be an attempt by the little-known outfit to grab some headlines. While the workers and leader of the group were arrested, it still did not prevent the municipal body to declare that signboards in Kannada were necessary. That is the trouble with the genies of emotive issues. Once let out, they can rarely be put back in the bottle. Even ...

Difference in official reaction to Mumbai and Malegaon judgments is telling, and tragic Alok Tiwari During the last fortnight two major court judgments in terror cases have made headlines. The first was about Mumbai train blasts case of 2006. A series of seven coordinated explosions in Mumbai local trains within 11 minutes claimed 187 lives. It was among the biggest terror attacks in the country. The second was about Malegaon blast case of 2008, just a couple of years after the Mumbai blasts. Strategically placed bombs targeted the crowd coming out of a mosque. That attack took six lives. A lower court in Mumbai case had convicted the accused and handed various sentences from life term to death. The recent judgment was pronounced by a division bench of Bombay High Court on an appeal by the convicts. In Malegaon’s case, it was the initial judgment from a special NIA (National Investigation Agency) court. Investigations in Mumbai case led to arrest of alleged Muslim radicals. Thoug...

Democracy may have its flaws, but authoritarianism is never a solution Alok Tiwari Suspension of disbelief is required to enjoy a play or a movie. It is a tool without which we cannot really enjoy the show because many things we see on stage are just make believe. Unless we leave our disbelief at home and accept the premise of the playwright or moviemaker, the show will appear meaningless. We do it unconsciously all the time. However, what is one to do when the reality one is seeing is so terrifying as to numb our senses? We might resort to suspension of belief. While that may aid our sanity, it will not change the reality just as suspension of disbelief does not make things on the stage real. I refer to the mass suspension of opposition MPs from Parliament during its recent winter session in the aftermath of security breach in the premises. It is not that opposition MPs have been suspended for the first time. This time though the scale and manner of their suspension has had no...

In every profession where personal brand matters, parents are busy installing their children Alok Tiwari   The release of Zoya Akhtar’s The Archies movie, featuring a bevy of star kids, has stirred up the nepotism debate in Indian film industry afresh. It was much in currency when actor Sushant Singh Rajput had died. Many then asserted the reason for his suicide was frustration with prevailing nepotism that made it difficult for outsiders like him to succeed. Film industry is hardly the only place where nepotism is an issue. Politics has had it for some time. BJP has for some time used it as a stick to beat Congress with, levelling the charge of ‘vanshwaad’ for relying on Gandhi family for leadership. The opposition has been hitting right back pointing at numerous political dynasties within the BJP. The anointing of Home Minister Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah to key post in BCCI without any apparent qualification or background in the game was Exhibit A in that case. We instincti...