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The week that was not, a collection of views in last few weeks

Mobilenews24x7 Bureau 

It is difficult to silence the media is what appears from various views emanating from various columnists across. And  we make an attempt to reproduce them here for our readers.

Known columnists have placed their views through several platforms. Having a reputation of being critical of the system that rules, Tavleen Singh, taking to a space in national English daily had raised the issue of alleged immolation of a mother and daughter while protesting an anti- encroachment drive in Uttar Pradesh.     

 

The incident had caught the national attention as the people who were on a bulldozing spree cruised through her shelter. But it was portrayed as a suicide.

However, Singh gathered that, the shanty was deliberately set on fire leading to the burning deaths.They were literally confined to an inferno, wrote Singh   

Something difficult to digest that the arms of the law can be so mechanically brute.

The question that needs to be asked is whether these things should be happening at all in a democratic structure ? There have been many instances in the past when the government has lawfully taken possession of someone’s property when it came in the way of a new highway or some other public utility. In many cases the due policy of compensation were followed to minimize the pains of people.

Now on the current topic of the BBC vs Centre, the issue has , boiled out of proportion on a defensive ferocity of nationalism. It was a journalist and columnist Mitali Saran who in her piece in Deccan Herald was read wondering ‘ was there a need to call the BBC names and send income tax officers?

BBC is a media organization so, cannot be expected to toe the line of public relationship, It could have been contested through facts to rubbish any intended falsification to target any individual or regime.

 

“The Hindu’s former editor, N Ram, called the move ‘akratic’— akrasia being the Greek word for that state of mind in which you do something against your own interests, against your better judgement. One senior citizen called it a form of throwing your own interests, against your better judgement. One senior citizen called it a form of throwing your toys out of your pram when you don’t get your way,” Saran writes.

Was  it a calculated intimidation by the government to punish the BBC or keep the people oblivious to many realities under the sun. Is media domesticated?

Then in a leading English daily, a columnist said “ India can have a political formation that can put forward a model of economic growth which does not depend on a handful of big business houses”

Amit Bhaduri, in an opinion piece in The Telegraph, questions if India can have a political formation that can put forward a model of economic growth which does not depend on a handful of big business houses.”

“There is no reason why people cannot be made to believe great things were achieved by Modi, including his fight against black money, his wisdom of sudden demonetisation (the destruction of innumerable livelihoods in the informal sector notwithstanding), the sudden lockdown during the pandemic along with his initial advice of lighting candles and banging kitchen utensils to keep away the pandemic,” Bhaduri writes.

“India’s growth story has been similar if you consider growth not merely as a GDP number but the state of economic well-being of ordinary citizens. Natural resources were handed over at heavily subsidised prices to a few favoured corporations while the environment was degraded and poor people lost homes and livelihoods. There has been no success in creating jobs or alternative livelihood, no improvement in health, education and nutrition, except at the whimsical charity of the great leader.” that was real straight speak by Bhaduri

Yet notes of harmony cannot be ignored as many traits of harmony are still alive against a relentless pursuit to divide.

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