Editorial, "ACCIDENTAL DROWNING!", in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 28 February 2018, Vol. 14, Part 1, No. 4 issue

ACCIDENTAL DROWNING!

And that in a handful of water! – the reference here is to the heckling rebuke in Urdu – “Chullu bhar paani mein doob maro!” [Go, die drowning in a handful of water!]. That was somewhat nebulous to understand but this ‘live tragedy’ in Dubai now opens to its real meaning. So, at last, one of the most talented actresses of the Indian silver screen, the lady who captivated millions of Telugu hearts as the ‘atiloka sundari’ [trans-world beauty], is no more. This editor was suspicious from the beginning and posted on his FB timeline on 26-02-18 that – “My initial fears confirmed, I now suspect it is coldblooded murder. Let thorough investigation go on and culprits be strictly punished if it is really murder. …there was mischief – [how and by whom] will be revealed only in thorough investigation. Up to then Sridevi's dead body … should be retained in Dubai itself ... If necessary a second post mortem also should be conducted by international experts. …She has no reason to commit suicide. TV9 and perhaps other channels too which … propagated [the story of] sudden heart attack [till now] …are now questioning whether it is accident or suicide? … I don't think Sridevi is such a weakling to commit suicide. Not only in [this] … but in the past too, in two other cases [of deaths of cine actors Uday Kiran and Ranganath] also 

I expressed, …stick to, [such] doubts.” And hopes were expressed to the extent that “…Dubai is not a country where suspicious deaths can be easily passed off as suicides … (except perhaps in cases involving their own elite and leaders) and hope the Dubai police and prosecution will meticulously unravel the secrets and contribute to the strict punishment of the guilty.” But soon everything seems to have been ‘sorted out’ in that Islamic monarchical State, devoid of democratic laws/ practices. The very next day this editor commented, “ANOTHER GREAT COVER-UP!? Just now news is being broadcast that clearance certificate is given to bring Sridevi's dead body to India and a chartered plane sent by Ambanis is ready to bring. All this shows high political intervention from India to undermine the criminal proceedings and search for truth regarding her suspicious death … in Dubai.” Accidental drowning could be possible only if the person is already unconscious for any reason, otherwise it is well neigh impossible to happen in a bathtub. Earlier a similar incident of death of another actress Priya Rajvansh was also sought to be passed off as suicide but the mystery was unraveled, murder detected, and the accused, some film producers et al, convicted and sentenced too – that happened in Bombay. This editor finds no reason to depart from the above doubts/opinions, and hopes that some day, somehow, and by somebody the real truth would come out.  §§§

Editorial, "FALSE PROMISES AND EMPTY HANDS", in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 February 2018, Vol. 14, Part 1, No. 3 issue

FALSE PROMISES AND EMPTY HANDS

- (శుష్క ప్రియాలు, శూన్య హస్తాలు in Telugu idiom) are all that given to the State of Andhra Pradesh by the Jumla-addict authoritarian Central Government, as has become too clear from the recent 2018-19 budget allocations. There is not a whisper of any special package to A.P., let alone of the special status promised by the previous Prime Minister on the Parliament floor for 5 years, demanded by Venkaiah Naidu for 10 years as was also the poll promise of Modi in the last elections, but insisted for 15 years by the current CM of AP though all have conveniently trashed the same. But the people of AP have neither forgotten nor forgiven this ‘betrayal’ as the huge success of the recent state-wide protest Bandh demonstrates. No sufficient allocations are made to Telangana either. But here the need for serious concern is more on Andhra Pradesh’s problems as the division of the State itself was done quite unjustly, arbitrarily throwing to winds, even without a nationwide debate and discussion, the legacy and achievements of decades old struggle of our national movement and pro-people entities during the freedom struggle and afterwards for linguistic reorganization of the country, succumbing to base regional chauvinism out of murky vested interests and collusion of the then and the now ruling parties to stab the Telugu people in the back. Certainly much loss and damage were caused to Andhra Pradesh which even the backstabbers could not ignore and so had to incorporate some 19 statutory directions to help it out in addition to this promise of special status. The now ruling party soon after coming to power reneged on the assurances on the pretext of the finance commission recommending scrapping of the category of special status states itself, again a blatant lie, and dangled the carrot of a special package but now neither this nor that is visible. The budget allocations have in reality become the BJP poll-strategic spending manoeuvres and no real relief to any section of the people except the corporate rich evident therein. In such a context, the rising agitation in Andhra Pradesh for special status and due justice is quite welcome and it should be widened and intensified into a nationwide movement for exiting the current false-Hindutavadi Jumla regime, and installing a good, at least any lesser evil, government soon to protect and promote whatever ingredients of the much-publicised secular socialist democratic fabric yet remaining in the country. §§§   

Editorial, "FICTIONAL FARCE AND FALSE PRIDE", in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 31January 2018, Vol. 14, Part 1, No. 2 issue

FICTIONAL FARCE AND FALSE PRIDE

of Rajputs in some North Indian States, deliberately incited and inflamed by certain obscurantist fundamentalist organizations like the Karni Sena, have created a serious disturbance in the Indian socio-political scenario. And this utter chaos and terror seems to be just a guise for an extorting and inciting campaign to further certain nefarious political and monetary ends. The film Padmavath is based on Sufi poet Malik Mohammed Jayasi’s poem on a beautiful Sinhalese princess who marries the Rajput Raja Rattan Singh and when a victimized and turned-disloyal Brahmin influences and allures the Muslim ruler with the tales of wealth, and the excelling beauty of the Rani to invade and destroy the Rajput kingdom, that ends in a tragedy of hundreds of Rajput women led by Padmavathi self-immolate themselves – a sort of mass-Sati in anticipation of the defeat and deaths of their men-folk and fear of consequent rapes, tortures and humiliations on them. And to sustain this incredible fiction woven some 2 centuries after the so-called event, the self-proclaimed defenders of Hindu faith and Rajput pride, encouraged and even aided by the ruling party and its front organizations, have created such an anarchy and terror in North India at least that even the Supreme Court had to intervene to protect the precious fundamental right of freedom of expression and even right to life and property being destroyed. It is not without truth and justice that the Pakistani daily Dawn rued: “the makers of Padmaavati have shamelessly played into the narratives of extremists, casting the Muslim Sultan of Delhi as a capricious barbarian who happily murders his way to power,” whereas “according to history, Khilji was a civilized man, a brave solider and clever tactician who saved India from Mongol hordes six times.” Also as commented elsewhere, “…if Jauhar is not condemned, the film as a message is worthless and even dangerous. …doubt whether it was a voluntary compact suicide at all and at least many of the so-called self-immolators might have been forcibly thrown into the fires. And Rajputs are also migrants to this country, settled and assimilated in the religion here, not that great warriors or protectors of/fighters for Hindu religion as being trumpeted, but many of them … cooperated with and served Mogul Emperors. Several gave their women in marriage to Muslim emperors and kings too.” It is extremely important that we the people of India should not be misled and incited by such stories of fictional farce, false pride and hate ideologies and destroy our secular democratic libertarian fabric.  §§§

Editorial, "YES, ONE SHOULDN'T SELL HIS SOUL!", in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 January 2018, Vol. 14, Part 1, No. 1 issue