Editorial, "TOTALLY AVOIDABLE GAS TRAGEDY," in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 May 2020, Vol. 16, Part 1, No. 9 issue

 TOTALLY AVOIDABLE GAS TRAGEDY

at Vizag intensely torments our hearts. If only a few basic, mandatory precautions were taken by the Government and the culprit company i.e. LG Polymers Ltd., the accident or at least its intensity could have been certainly avoided. This was not so calamitous, highly poisonous gas leak as in the shocking Bhopal Gas Tragedy of the 1980s and if the people could have been alerted by a siren before/even just after the gas leak almost all the lives lost could have been saved. But that a multinational company did not do so only points out to their reckless conduct and blatant violation of all environmental and pollution control norms too. The State Government also appears to be in cahoots with the corporates as evidenced by the Chief Minister himself arriving at Vizag, his camaraderie with the company management, assuring them of no harm, and declaring the same to the public too. What was needed was the immediate closure of the unit, sealing off the entire premises so that no evidence relating to this egregious human rights crime could disappear in any way. Instead we find the Government continuing their collusion, as they did in permitting its reopening during a lockdown, that too with no pollution control/public health officer taking the risks into concern and supervising, by now facilitating the shifting of Styrene tanks by shipping to their home country – a blatant erasure of evidence, and not even informing the National Green Tribunal, or the State High Court, which had taken suo motu cognizance of this tragedy. This editor had commented in social media on 7 May itself that “Like the Bhopal Gas Tragedy some decades back, today morning we hear of this Vizag Gas Tragedy and it seems these profit-oriented capitalists/corporations learn nothing. And the Governments do nothing to control them virtually. When a Chemical Factory is to be reopened, should not the govt take utmost precautions?” Later the irresponsible and dangerous conduct of the management in not blowing a siren even, on occurrence of the accident was decried. On 12 May this editor appealed to the people to not let any evidence disappear and demanded that not only the Company be closed down but also attached immediately and called for a thorough judicial inquiry into all aspects thereof. The same needs to be reiterated here with the hope that the National Green Tribunal and the High Court of AP would comprehensively consider about the accident and strictly punish the concerned culprits of the company, and also of the government, and reach full justice in the matter. §§§

Editorial, "CORONA CRISIS AMERICA: TRUMP'S ANTICS," in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 30 April 2020, Vol. 16, Part 1, No. 8 issue

CORONA CRISIS AMERICA: TRUMP’S ANTICS

It is amply clear now that American ‘exceptionalism’ has given rise to a cruelly devouring Corona Crisis therein, mainly due to the criminal negligence of the authorities there. Even on 9 March Trump tweeted that more people died of Flu in America for years but no shutdowns were imposed and Covid-19 had but 546 cases with 22 deaths i.e. took it very lightly, failing to take note of its more contagious, asymptomatic nature. Then, this editor reply-tweeted that it may be so but, yet, quarantining the suspects was essential as also treating people kindly. True, once the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 as a world health emergency on 30 January 2020, Trump banned all flights to and from China to be effective from 2 February, but later again fell asleep; showed much negligence and ignorance, but even the Democrats were worse – only busy with framing up false evidence to impeach him, caring the least for public health, and others no better. Sadly, America has become a divided house with ugly wrangling for partisan interests rather than sincere care for people’s health. And when the disease broke out in all fury, with thousands dying like fleas, there were not even enough masks, PPEs, ventilators, etc. to save them. This editor was constrained to comment on 29 March that “America, boasting to be No. 1 power in the world, is now also No. 1 in Coronavirus contamination! President Trump's arrogance and buffoonery is also a cause for this astronomical rise but hope he comes to senses and as indicated by recent tweet makes up with China, benefits from Chinese experience, ....... If President Trump succeeds in tackling this problem well, he is sure to get reelected but otherwise it is very doubtful.” And on 15 April again caustically commented: “Trump acting like a deranged clown. He, the Republicans, the Dems, all authorities of US, Congress and Senate have been criminally negligent and are solely responsible for this human tragedy in the US, and not WHO or China. ... America is no longer a superpower ... ... has not even the gratitude that Russia and China have flown emergency aid for Corona victims in the US.” The situation is no better now, Trump and others, even his opponents, are wildly accusing China as also WHO yet; are even thinking of lifting the lockdowns, which by the way were never implemented meaningfully. Trump talks much of ‘God’ nowadays, though he never was a sincere devotee it seems, and with such foolish measures of his, and worse such conduct by his opponents, one may hope ‘God’ alone can save America, and the world from America! §§§

Editorial, "CORONA SPREAD AND TABLIGHI JAMAAT," in 15 April 2020, Vol. 16:Part 1, No. 7 issue

 CORONA SPREAD AND TABLIGHI JAMAAT

True, there is a definite connection between the two though it cannot be said the latter is the only causative factor for the former. But, it has been amply confirmed that at a time when Delhi was complacent about the corona spread there and confident that it could be contained fully to set an example even - due to and since the general lockdown in the entire country from 24 March 2020 onward, this Jamaati explosion of Corona affliction had upset all calculations and the Jamaati Corona spread even affected Nepal, not just other States in India. Earlier inside the large Markaz buildings in Nizamuddin, Delhi also they did not implement self-isolation and social distancing measures and it is alleged that Maulana Saad, the Head, himself exhorted the participants to congregate and be not afraid. Anyway, they - some 2300 persons found inside – were vacated by 1 April and most of them were shifted to quarantine and some disease afflicted to the Covid19 hospitals. Later from various states also the dispersed and hiding Jamaati participants, including several foreigners, were traced and caught but by that time much harm was done by their transmissions. So much so that even Arvind Kejriwal, the liberal CM of Delhi, himself stated on 6 April that most of the then spurt in Delhi was due to Jamaat sources, some 67.4% [259/384 as on that date]; the same was the course in Telangana [about 80%], in AP also, in Tamil Nadu, etc. This was a very unfortunate defiance of lockdown and consequent increase in Corona spread, and the other violators are the migrant labor exoduses and occasional birthday/ religious celebrations at some places. Though Tablighi Jamaat is not a terrorist organization, studies point out that it is a very orthodox Islamic propaganda/conversion association with no formal structure and no membership details etc. reported to the governments. Considered in many countries as an extremist organization with links to terrorists, it is banned outright/officially discouraged in some like Russia, Uzbekistan, even Saudi Arabia, Iran, etc. Its annual conferences (‘ijtema’s) in India (its origin-country) and other countries draw lakhs of people (including thousands of foreigners). Recently Pakistan also found them quite harmful, had to close their Sind headquarters and arrest some of them too. Such rigidly orthodox religious extremist organizations [‘antechambers of fundamentalism’], dreaming of a religious-power-seizure, should be harshly dealt with, strict sanctions must be placed on, and due transparency demanded of, them. §§§

Editorial, "WAR ON CORONAVIRUS", in 15-31 March 2020 special issue, Vol. 16, Part 1, No. 5-6 issue

 

WAR ON CORONAVIRUS

the world over is going on now. We humans have been coexisting with lakhs of viruses all along, but some virulent ones played havoc with our lives. For example, Influenza is attributed to the work of a virus - the 1918 Spanish Flu had taken crores of lives all over the world [>1.5 crores in our country alone]. Earlier to that we were struck by Bubonic Plague in which also millions died; the arbitrary and cruel plague control measures by the British colonialists had even led to counter attacks by extremist nationalists [e.g. Chapekar Brothers] during 1897-99. In the recent past, we had HIV-AIDS, then SARS-Swine Flu and Ebola etc. killing lakhs of people – starting from the 1980s. The current coronavirus began since November-December 2019 in Wuhan, China it seems. But, suspicions as to whether from October 2019 itself it was there in the US, and if that was due to bio-war experiments conducted in the US Labs, later outsourced to the Wuhan Lab, also exist. Whatever it be, China imposed a very rigid lockdown in January 2020 in the entire Hubei province (capital Wuhan), also speedily built several hospitals and, mobilizing the health staff and medical resources of the entire country, has been able to contain it by now. The genome details, the danger of human to human transmission and the asymptomatic, highly contagious nature of the disease were quickly communicated to WHO when it declared a world health emergency on 30 January 2020 concerning this ‘2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease’; later it was named COVID-19 and declared a pandemic. The European countries and the US did not yet wake up and so are horribly suffering now with the attacks of COVID-19 in gargantuan proportions. Luckily, we Indians have taken to a nation-wide lockdown from 24 March, a bit belatedly though, which has helped us reduce the speed of the spread considerably. However, the lack of adequate prearrangements, prevalence of reckless orthodoxy [e.g. Tabligh Jamaat related spread], rumours and stupidity [e.g. migrant labour exoduses] have become main hurdles. Anyway, lockdowns can only limit the spread. We need to take feverish measures for the cure and eradication of the disease, for raising the civic consciousness, and helping the economically and socially most suffering sections with a wide range of workable schemes/measures; especially supply at cheap rates, or even free of cost, of masks to the people and PPE kits to the doctors, nurses and other paramedical medical staff, as also to other civic staff, is a MUST. Perhaps we have to live with this disease for a long time to come, pending invention of the right cures and creation of a scientific spirited, hygienic and enviro-friendly climate all over the country, but we have to march in earnest and unitedly to reach that goal. §§§

Editorial, "DELHI RIOTS: A DANGEROUS TREND", in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, Vol. 16, Part 1, No. 4, 29 February 2020 issue

DELHI RIOTS: A DANGEROUS TREND

that the national capital should be convulsed by ugly communal riots which seem to have never occurred since the notorious 1984 anti-Sikh riots in the wake of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination, and that too the current riots occurring right at the time of the American President Trump’s visit to India, especially Delhi. This does not appear to be any sudden and unexpected eruption but reveals a deliberate and inhuman sort of plotting behind to intentionally provoke, attack, injure and kill persons of other communities, even the law enforcement officers, and in this editor’s opinion reveals the utter incompetence of the Union Government and its Home Minister who should have well anticipated all this mess and geared up the security and law and order mechanism to meet such dangers. Of course, one cannot condone the roles of various parties/ groups either. The anti-CAA protests indefinitely going on at Shaheen Bagh, a nerve center of the city, and a total roadblock due to it, was a standing provocation, aggravated by demands of the Hindu fanatic leaders to get it vacated even by force. Though the Supreme Court had to and did interfere to solve it by sending negotiators to persuade the protesters see reason, lift the roadblock and close/shift their protests, the situation was further intensified by extremists trying to extend the protests to block other centers, especially when they occupied the roads in Jaffrabad-Maujpur area and even barred entry/exit to/of a metro rail station. This generated a lot of discontent, strong provocation to the irate opponents and exacerbated the situation. But all this was only a preparation of the soil, and the real gory work of riots was deliberate and well planned and it seems the hands of Islamic terrorists are behind it if the free use of acid tanks, petrol bombs, country made pistols, guns, etc. be taken into note as also that a big number of police personnel got injured and a high ranking intelligence officer and a senior constable were cruelly killed even. Nearly 50 human lives and crores of properties have been lost and the communal atmosphere has been much vitiated. Now people should rise above petty communal considerations, do all to get law and order situation restored to normalcy first, get vacated all protests pro or against the CAA/NPR/NRC tangle and mandate that any protests can take place at only some indicated maidans for a limited period and never permitted to block roads and cause troubles to the public and inflame communal/inhuman passions. §§§

Editorial, "BUDGET AT OUR GLANCE" in Vol. 16, Part 1, No. 3, 15 February 2020 issue

BUDGET AT OUR GLANCE

It may be the longest ever speech (160 minutes) in Parliament by a Union Finance Minister, but this presented on 1 February 2020 does not look any better than the previous ones. In fact, the budget does not take into account the continuous slide down of the growth for the last six quarters and projects somewhat unachievable target of 6.5% growth rate and creates a delusion in the minds of the people. There is no substantial increase in the immediate welfare benefits to the people and DownToEarth laments that in reality the funds for women welfare programs got constricted and Chidambaram slams it for doing nothing to create jobs for the youths in the country with the growing unemployment rate now and terms the budget as a ‘laundry list of old programs’. The Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has termed it repetitive and with no strategic idea to uplift the country, Shashi Tharoor said there is nothing stimulating in it to give the kind of development we need and the Marxist party concentrated mainly on the flawed thoughts and measures on education, health care and inflation control. To us it seems largely private corporate sector oriented, further reducing the corporate tax burdens, in false belief that it will lead to growth and trickle down processes for the country’s good, ever doubtful assumption. There is no reason why corporate taxes cannot be significantly increased in a graduated scale at least to a 40% cap and as also why income taxes cannot be increased likewise to a 60% cap even. Whereas the US Federal Budget receives 50%, and UK about 28% from income taxes, we just receive 17% indicating the need to widen tax base as also increase at the higher slabs. For lower income tax payers obviously the said concessions given prove damaging when removal of standard exemptions taken into note. There should be a way and measure to have all incomes taxed, with lower incomes taxed still less, and higher still more in a graduated scale. Also expenditures on provision of basic necessities, education, public health, employment and infrastructure for strictly necessary ends need to be increased and streamlined and agriculture and industry promoted by incentives at the start up phase but taxed well after they pick up and enter the profit phase. Now almost all the agricultural landlords and capitalists are going tax free and especially the government lavish spending and the Nawab style living of the leaders at public expense have to be eliminated. Maybe this is just a thinking aloud.  §§§

Editorial, "Peace to Prosperity? Scheme of the Century?" in Vol. 16, Part 1, No. 2, 31 January 2020 issue

PEACE TO PROSPERITY? 

SCHEME OF THE CENTURY?

Having failed to deliver his pre-poll promises to American people to prove himself a Messiah of peace and prosperity instead of a Moloch of war, and having taken to failed attempts to forge peace with some, and incite coups against some other, sovereign states also, President Trump seems to have finally bowed down to the belligerent bipartisan deep state of the U.S. and its main provocateur-beneficiary the Jewish lobby and in cahoots with the Zionist terrorist Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu invented a new Peace to Prosperity Scheme of the Century purporting to solve the more than a century old conflict in the Middle East. Perhaps all this servility to the base Zionist interests may not serve him, ultimately the Mossad may cause or aid his assassination even and then put the blame on Iran, or Russia, etc. to provoke another bigger and more calamitous war to gain more advantage to Israel at the expense of American blood and money! But, with the thousand ‘NO’s by the Palestinian President Mr. Abbas, and its rejection by the Arab League too, this seems to be a non-starter for the present, though there is no guarantee that its essence would not be pushed brutally through one-sidedly. A cursory analysis of it shows that Palestinians are now left with only some stray patches amounting to less than 10% of the territorial area within a Greater Israel, instead of the original 46% of the area awarded to them by the UN Partition Plan of 1947, and except for the narrow Gaza strip under constant bombardment by the Israeli IDF, the entire State will be landlocked, and in any future conflict with Israel could be closed by the Israeli forces in no time, with no ways of retreat/escape even. Moreover, placing the entire security concerns of Palestine in the hands of Israel as per this Scheme, means it would have to languish as a vassal state forever. All this is totally against the innumerable UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions calling for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories and self-determination to the people of Palestine. This editor opines that only if and when Israel withdraws from the occupied territories as per the UN Resolutions, and Jerusalem itself is made a corpus separatum under UN auspices; real justice and self-determination accorded to the Palestinian people and Israel itself freed from the stranglehold of the Zionist terrorist state with its apartheid policies and measures, peace and prosperity can actually dawn in that ‘accursed region’ and this Scheme of the Century is only fit to be thrown out into the Mediterranean Sea. §§§