Editorial, "IGNOBLE NOBEL PRIZES?", in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, Vol. 17, Part 2, No. 20, 31 OCTOBER 2021 issue

 IGNOBLE NOBEL PRIZES?

Established by the ‘merchant of death’ Alfred Nobel (it is said that in 1888, Alfred Nobel was astonished to read his own obituary, titled The merchant of death is dead, in a French newspaper, which was actually meant for his deceased brother; but, anyway, that changed his mind to make him write his Will of 1895 to institute this prize) the Nobel Prize comprises of five separate prizes that are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." However, many controversies have been raging over these decades since 1900 about the prizes awarded in Literature and Peace fields particularly, though there may be some discontent against such awards made in the other three fields – of Physics, Chemistry and Physiology (or Medicine) – too. We find many such awards in Literature or Peace mired in serious disputes. Especially, some of the Russian awardees like Pasternak or Solzhenitsyn seem to have been given those prizes mainly out of an anti-communist/anti-Soviet bias and consequent to imperialist manipulations; it is well known that Solzhenitsyn was a staunch supporter of the fascist Right. In the field of Peace Prizes, we can notice more shocking developments. War criminals like Henry Kissinger and Barrack Obama were awarded these prestigious prizes, filling disgusting hatred in the hearts of all humanists and democrats. Now come the latest awards of these Peace Prizes to Dmitry Muratov and Maria Ressa, Russian and Philippines journalists little known outside till now, and obviously both Russia and Philippines are now not in the good books of the US-NATO-Israel evil axis. May be these two are very competent and diligent journalists famous in their countries and fields to an extent but these Prizes contemplate and require universal importance and relevance. And it is quite sad that they are being used as pawns in political chess games. On the contrary we see genuine fighting journalists like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden who have taken so many troubles with daring and sacrifices for the protection and promotion of human rights the world over by their startling revelations of the US-NATO genocidal atrocities, etc. are languishing in prison/exile and very much suffering. Actually, such pioneers and activists deserve the Nobel Peace Prize very much and not any yes-persons or locally relevant activists. So, this editor is certainly not happy with these awards made mainly with an eye on the political equations of the day, that too to favor the imperialists and adversely affect the interests of not just the two sovereign states of Russia and Philippines only, but in fact, of the entire humanity. §§§

Editorial, "SAVARKAR CONTROVERSY ONCE AGAIN!", in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, Vol. 17, Part 2, No. 19, 15 OCTOBER 2021 issue

 SAVARKAR CONTROVERSY ONCE AGAIN!

With the recent assertions of our Home Minister Rajnath Singh, releasing the book, “Veer Savarkar: The Man Who Could Have Prevented Partition,” by Uday Mahurkar and Chirayu Pandit (3 above), that the image of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar is being unjustly tarnished by the ‘leftists and liberals’, and his citing of a 1920 letter by Mahatma Gandhi in his support, the Savarkar controversy has raked up again with all the fury. This editor remembers to have earlier also once refuted some wild allegations against the great patriot V.D. Savarkar and pointed to the many laudatory references to Savarkar by stalwart communist leaders like Prof. Hiren Mukherjee, CPI MP, Indira Gandhi, then PM, etc. Firstly, it has to be made clear that much before the Rajnath-cited Gandhi’s letter, Savarkar had already submitted a few mercy petitions in 1911-1920. Then, it is also true that Gandhi was encouraging the revolutionaries to shun their violent policies/measures and surrender/submit such petitions. Gandhi had gone on record stating: “The Savarkar Brothers' talent should be utilized for public welfare. As it is, India is in danger of losing her two faithful sons, unless she wakes up in time. One of the brothers I know well. I had the pleasure of meeting him in London. He is brave. He is clever. He is a patriot. He was frankly a revolutionary. The evil, in its hideous form, of the present system of Government, he saw much earlier than I did. He is in the Andamans for his having loved India too well. Under a just Government, he would be occupying a high office. I therefore feel for him and his brother.” (Gandhi, CW, Vol. 23). Savarkar and Gandhi, two poles apart, knew each other well. Savarkar was a pioneer; much before Gandhi he organized the freedom movement. He even invited Gandhi to speak in one of the meetings at the India House, London. Gandhi demanded full independence only after 1929, but Savarkar was advocating it right from the 1900s. So, there was no question of Savarkar heeding Gandhi's advice to submit mercy petitions. Once sentenced to two life transportations, finding the life in the Andamans horrible and also realizing that unless they changed their policies, they could make no further headway except to languish and die in prisons, Savarkar thought it better to appeal to the British Government for his release declaring he had changed and wanted to follow the 'constitutional' path. And this change facilitated Gandhi's efforts for conducting his "release political prisoners" campaign also. Here Gandhi's and Savarkar's interests converged. Savarkar was a pioneer; a great patriot. As Lenin said of Roza Luxemburg – “sometimes eagles may fly quite low, lower than chicken - but mind it, chicken can never fly to the great heights of eagles” - so it applies to Savarkar too. He was a great eagle of the freedom movement. That he later drifted to Hindu religious trends to counter the Muslim League is an entirely different matter. §§§

Editorial, "CORPORATE STRANGLEHOLD IN INDIA", in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, Vol. 17, Part 2, No. 18, 30 SEPTEMBER 2021 issue

 CORPORATE STRANGLEHOLD IN INDIA

is tightening and enormously growing, much more so ever since the BJP Government under Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. Especially, the Gujarati corporate capitalists are receiving the largest/best part of the cake under the Gujarati Modi-Shah duo’s shameless open favoritism and disbursal of the spoils. True, even under the earlier Congress governments favor/promotion of corporate capitalism was very much there and they were also undermining the social properties oriented mixed economy policies/measures initiated under Nehru and continued for long thereafter. We also know how even in those days the ruling classes undermined the public sector by egregious corruption and channeling of public moneys to the private sector. Well, the then license-permit raj damaged the national economy too; and Manmohan Singh under the then PM PVNR succeeded in starting its dismantling and liberalizing the economy to favor/promote private/corporate capitalism. There were egregious corruption scandals too during the MM Singh rule till 2014, the furor created by which was adroitly used by the communal fanatic but not less corrupt-cum-capitalist oriented BJP to come to power in 2014 and since then we see the massive plundering of the country’s public properties to favor/promote super rich Ambanis, Adanis, etc. – a clear regional linguistic favoritism overlapping the other vices. Most recent disturbing news is that Adanis have grown like a leaping Octopus and now their daily income amounts to more than 1000 crores rupees overtaking Ambani’s daily income by at least 6 times – all this within these 7 years of BJP rule. Earlier Mr. Krishna Rao, of Andhra Jyoti, had questioned whether the country was being turned into an Adani Estate, with many ports in AP/other coastal regions, several airports and other public industries either transferred to or sought to be given over to Adani’s ownership/management. Even the Vizag Steel Plant, achieved by the prolonged arduous struggles of Andhras, is now decided for privatization and possible Adani takeover! Unless our people rise and conduct widespread, intense agitations to contain this privatization pandemic and save at least the main public sector industries, this editor sees no light at the end of the tunnel and the Modi-Shah duo who, apart from their undermining the social welfare ideals/measures, have already, without any discussion in parliament/public, joined India to the evil axis of the U.S. imperialists, giving up all pretensions of non-alignment, will ruin whatever autonomy the country’s linguistic groups now enjoy/are promised and jeopardize the country’s unity/integrity even. §§§

Editorial, "CORONA REAL, HARMFUL, DON’T NEGLECT!", in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, Vol. 17, Part 2, No. 17, 15 SEPTEMBER 2021 issue

 CORONA REAL, HARMFUL, DON’T NEGLECT!

“All real knowledge comes through direct experience,” this aphoristic saying of the Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong is all the more correct in these Corona times. Affected, ill but recovering, this editor is constrained to pen these lines for the benefit of one and all. The real danger and harm of Corona is the intensification of any existing co-morbidities; and curative medicines are more essential on prescription from qualified, experienced doctors. On the efficacy or real need of vaccines this editor is undecided but in general such rushing of vaccinations and also, at least in India, very insufficient reporting of its adverse consequences that might [and should] have occurred, is a very alarming development. As Stephen Lendman made it clear in his articles in this journal, in general it takes years to test, get peer reviewed and then approve any such vaccines and also once more than 50 or so adverse events directly attributable to vaccination occur, it is generally stopped. In the current scenario the entire process seems to have been abandoned and reversed. But, they say though vaccination per se may not prevent affliction or spread of Corona, it certainly reduces the intensity of the disease when affected. This too is not a thoroughly tested proposition, though. However, there is no doubt that good curative medicines – no medicines generally used for flu, malaria, etc. communicable diseases are per se bad or avoidable, as all depends on the experience, wisdom and judgment of the prescribing qualified medical practitioners and their  hands are not to be barred. To ‘pun’ the famous lines of the great Telugu poet Sri Sri, we may say “kaadeadii cikitsa ku anarham!” [Nothing is ineligible for right treatment]! As such, effective multi-therapeutic treatment and use of immunity booster domestic foods and herbal medicines are always welcome and that’s why this editor in general supported the natural concoctions made by herbal medical practitioner Anandayya (of Nellore district), or advices given by Mallik Engineer, without any compunction. Without taking this or that as the panacea, one has to get tested and get used to treatment by various sorts of domestic, herbal medicines and concoctions even, but always on experienced medical advice. One has to be quite open-minded and also investigative/critical to the extent needed in this regard. Finally, heartily wish all Corona affected people, speedy and best recovery! §§§

Editorial, "KABUL BLASTS AND THE AFGHAN DANGER," in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, Vol. 17, Part 2, No. 16, 31 AUGUST 2021 issue

 KABUL BLASTS AND THE AFGHAN DANGER

are quite terrific and menacing, not just to Afghanistan but to the entire world. Truly as [the previous, 45^th] President Trump recently remarked, “Never in history has a withdrawal from war been handled so badly or incompetently as the Biden Administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. ... Nobody ever thought such stupidity, as this feeble-brained withdrawal, was possible!” This despite the American troop withdrawal being decided in February 2020 itself by President Trump through two Doha agreements (one with the Taliban and the other with the then Afghan Government). But the withdrawal, which could have been more orderly under a Trump regime, has turned into a very disorderly mess under Biden’s Administration. In the last editorial itself we have commented how dangerous the bedlam in Afghanistan – the ultimate result of the unwarranted invasion and oppression of that country by the U.S. imperialists – was, and how sickening the hasty and humiliating flight of American forces without any concern towards the horrible consequences to the anti/non-Taliban people/forces is. In a way, all this tarnished the reputation of America as a superpower and made it a virtual laughingstock with this joke said to be going viral on the Chinese Social media – “If you ever feel useless … Just remember that the United States took four presidents, thousands of lives, trillions of dollars and 20 years … TO REPLACE TALIBAN WITH TALIBAN!” So not irrational when about 200 people were killed in the recent ISIS-K terrorists’ conducted suicide bombing in Kabul in which 13 American soldiers were martyred, an angry Kathy McCollum, mother of a deceased soldier, Rylee McCollum, exploded in a radio talk which now goes viral on the net: “My son was one of the marines that died yesterday,” “Twenty years and 6-months-old, getting ready to go home from freaking Jordan to be home with his wife to watch the birth of his son, and that feckless, dementia-ridden piece of crap [Biden] just sent my son to die.” She sobbingly said, “I just want all you Democrats who cheated in the election, or who voted for him legitimately, you just killed my son. With a dementia-ridden piece of crap who doesn't even know he's in the White House, who still thinks he's a senator.” May be the Taliban also learnt some lessons, and would like to govern better now? But then, as already made clear in our last editorial, it is possible only by a real change of heart with a secular outlook and democratic policies/measures. Otherwise, as in the past, now also, the Taliban will stand as a great danger to the peace and progress of humanity in general and of us Indians in particular. §§§

Editorial, "THE BEDLAM IN AFGHANISTAN," in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, Vol. 17, Part 2, No. 15, 15 AUGUST 2021 issue

 THE BEDLAM IN AFGHANISTAN

is so shocking; it is quite dangerous to world peace, and particularly to us India; it is the ultimate consequence of the quite unwarranted invasion and suppression of that country by the American imperialists. And now the hasty and humiliating flight of American forces without any concern towards the horrible consequences to the anti/non-Taliban people/forces there is quite sickening. Taliban, a radical Islamic organization, was in fact created and nurtured by the US deep state for its sinister operations against the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in the late 70s; and then came to power after the Soviet withdrawal. The US Government was cozy with the Afghan Government and its Godfather-patron Pakistan later, but after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush, accusing Taliban of sheltering and acting under bin Laden and al Qaeda, invaded and toppled them. But this time too, the invaders never had a peaceful day. Actually no aggressor of Afghanistan ever escaped without the ultimate defeat. The British invasion of Afghanistan in the 19^th century ending in its humiliating defeat with only one soldier coming back (in fact deliberately spared) to report to his command is not too old to be forgotten. Mighty America, the much bragging ‘only superpower’ in the world, also meets a similar debacle now and we are still witnessing this utter humiliation faced by the US. Taliban returns to power with gusto but the masses of Afghans and certainly its neighbors (except Pakistan) are not at all happy as they know well about the fanatic horrors perpetrated by these merciless terrorists. It is very hard to believe the few songs of harmony and peace occasionally sung by Taliban now – of course, if they publicly apologize  for the destruction of, and re-erect, the Bamyan Buddhas, declare the country a democratic republic with basic rights including women’s freedoms, etc. then one may rethink about any such ‘change of heart’. But this editor feels our Indian Government failed miserably in this crisis to protect the thousands of Indian origin persons suffering there. We should have sent our air force/ army, occupied the Kabul airport and arranged a safe/orderly evacuation of all Indian origin, as also other helpless, persons there within a week or so, in which short time Taliban could not do any substantial damage to our forces. Even now it is not too late for us India to firmly intervene and save the distressed people there through effective evacuation.  §§§

Editorial, "THE SAD DEMISE OF STAN SWAMY," in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, Vol. 17, Part 2, No. 13-14, 15-31 JULY 2021 issue

THE SAD DEMISE OF STAN SWAMY 

in judicial custody is quite heartrending. True, the judicial branch is looked as the ultimate corrective to any excesses/evils in the system, but even it miserably failed to protect this octogenarian human rights activist, so much so that even Justice Deepak Gupta, retired SC Judge, shocked by Swamy, denied release on bail, meeting a horrid death in captivity in a hospital, was constrained to question: “Are we not Humans? Have we lost all touch of Humanity? Are we living in a Police State?” It is easy to say and demand that the UAPA and the sedition clause – Section 124A IPC – be struck down/repealed. We have been agitating for the same since long years. But this editor feels it is more necessary now that courts read down the repressive provisions in these laws – to uphold the presumption of innocence of the accused and to protect the right to life and personal liberty and freedom of expression. The phrase "exciting … disaffection towards the Government..." in S 124A can immediately be struck down or repealed and its scope may be limited only to the conduct of inciting, or committing acts for, the violent overthrow of the existing government. This sort of reading down can be easily and immediately done by the Apex Court or the laws amended suitably by the Parliament forthwith. §§§

Editorial, "THE TRI-POWER TANGLE," in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, Vol. 17, Part 1, No. 12, 30 JUNE 2021 issue

THE TRI-POWER TANGLE 

Two important events of immense international impact occurred recently – the Putin-Biden Summit in Geneva on 16 June and the video meet of President Xi Jinping and President Putin on 28 June - exposing the tricky tri-power tangle now perplexing the world. This editor was quite averse to Putin of Russia, the real successor to the Soviet Union, meeting the warmonger President Biden of America even, without Biden saying even a formal ‘sorry’ for hurling a ‘Putin the killer’ abuse soon after his coming to power (by egregious electoral fraud). But, it seems Putin swallowed his personal pride for something beyond – an assurance of some degree of peace and stability and prevention of any further destruction spree by the belligerent superpower; but, in the end could not achieve substantial gains – we have seen how the US reneged on its solemn promises (made to the earlier Soviet Union) not to expand NATO to East Europe, also insidiously engineered a ‘regime change’ and installed a neo-Nazi vassal government in Ukraine but when Russia has taken the needed counter measures to protect its interests and rightfully merged Crimea in it as per the overwhelming YES vote in a popular referendum there, America and its lackeys have taken it as a serious affront and imposed strict sanctions on Russia. The sanctions were not lifted but just an agreement to exchange ambassadors, and to reopen the talks on strategic arms limitation agreements was made. Even after the summit vile efforts to assert the American camp’s right to pass through ‘Georgian’ waters made, when in effect those were ‘Russian’, as shown by the recent HMS Defender fiasco wantonly provoked by the British PM, Boris Johnson, as directed by his American masters. In contrast, Russia-China good relations, developed steadily since the bilateral Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation signed 20 years ago, were further promoted by extension of the treaty in the video meeting between Xi and Putin on 28 June. That serves as a bulwark against the US and NATO machinated aggressive and genocidal neo-imperialist invasions and mayhems; and as a solid booster to the development of third world countries and their commitment to an equitable world based on established international treaties and rules under the UN auspices instead of the chaotic so-called ‘rule-based world order’ sought to be imposed by the capitalist hegemonic powers of the West under the leadership of the American imperialists. §§§

Editorial, "TRUTH TELLING MUST NOT BE CRIMINALIZED," in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, Vol. 17, Part 1, No. 11, 15 JUNE 2021 issue

 TRUTH TELLING MUST NOT BE CRIMINALIZED

YES, and especially in these worldwide Corona Crisis days when so many disturbing tragic phenomena are occurring, and governments possessing excessive powers are misleading the people with deceptive measures and untruthful propaganda, different sorts of truth speaking by scholars and social activists is quite essential to protect and promote the basic right to life of the people. In this context it was quite heartening to watch Engineer Mallik exposing the many loopholes/faults in the governments’/institutions’ policies and measures in this regard, on several YouTube videos, and learning so many new things from that. As such this editor was shocked at the news of the Director of Public Health, Telangana, filing a criminal complaint against the ‘false information’ spread by Mallik, “an individual [with] no official training in epidemiology or medical science, yet ... continued to spread panic,” who allegedly said on the [TV] show[s] that one person from every household would die in the third wave, averring that “in these testing times, spreading of rumors by P Mallik, which are unfounded and do not have any scientific backing, will definitely cause panic and distress among the common man. ......". It seems the Sultan Bazar P.S. has booked a case against Mr Paruchuri Mallik under S. 54 of the Disaster Management Act 2005 {Punishment for false warning: (punishable with 1 year imprisonment or fine)} and S. 505 of the IPC {Statements conducing to public mischief: (punishable with 3 years’ imprisonment or fine or both)}. This is nothing but severe harassment and vilification of a whistleblower who has honestly warned the public about the impending calamity. If this is taken as OK, then what one should say about the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who  stated (on 26-04-2021) that the Covid-19 (second wave) situation in India was “beyond heartbreaking” and about the British Government caused modelling report, which alerted about the third wave of COVID-19 spike that could kill/hospitalize 60-70% of the people who took both the vaccine doses even; or of the Nobel laureate virologist Monsieur Luc Montagnier who declared that ‘mass vaccination [for Covid-19] is a [unacceptable] medical mistake” and was even said to have warned about lakhs of deaths in future. We strongly feel that such criminal proceedings are but a stern suppression, by devious means, of the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression of the people and demand that those be withdrawn or be quashed by a competent court forthwith. §§§