in this issue. · Nishat Sharique Ansar Manager : Junaid Khan [email protected] Mob: +91 7532 063 797 ... Bagh, Srinagar is one such beauti-ful reality which one gets to see

in this issue.

10Reform needed; not Retribution

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vol 16 / issue 04The Companion

The contents under this magazine are licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA (unless stated otherwise) which means you’re free to copy and share them (but not to sell them)

05Why the Indian voter needs a dose of maturity?- Tahmina Laskar

06GUJCTOC Bill: A ploy to establish Police Raj- Rashid Hussain

07 Tulip flower festival- Nusrat Balur Lalkhanwar

08Bengalaru Resolution on child labor passed- SIO Karnataka

09Value her in your life- Anubha Rohatgi

12Earthquake episode

14HYPOCRITIC ODE- Waheed Hussain

- NADEEM KOTTALATH

15 World Environment Day -

A farce?- Sudhir Mane

16The EarthQuake

- Mohammed Mobeen Ahmed

17Six years behind the bar

for no reason- Ammar Mansoor

19Mother

- Shubham Rohatgi

My Guiding Star-Shefa Tahreem

20Reason Why I Stand In

Favour Of Net Neutrality- Umar Maniar

22MODICRISY- Syed Kazim

26The Cracks

- Reehan Ahmed Khan IL

27How to Think More

- Saad Muhammad Ismail

29A Glance at Our Roof…

- Talha Faiyazuddin

30One year of governance:

Hopes are still alive- Kashif Mansoor

04EDITORIALFate of those students who lose in the mad-race- Farukh Shaikh

2015 June The Companion 04

| EDITORIAL |

With results of 10th & 12th being out, the ap-prehension ceases. Its busy time for both the parents and students in seeking admissions in best academic courses and colleges. The neces-sary arrangement for the college fees and other needful are all done. Both the parents and the students enter into the world of promised ca-reers.

On the other side, there lie many shattered dreams and hopes of those students who couldn’t clear the exams and give up completely in transforming their life through the means of education.

Having the greater population of youngsters pursuing their academics, with larger ineffi-cient teaching faculty, poor infrastructure and

Fate of those students who lose in the mad-race- FARUKH SHAIKH

acute shortage of educational counsellors, the situation wors-ens when these students are unable to cope-up and clear the exams. The situation gets more complex when this phenom-enon is largely confined to rural pockets where many of the ad-ministrative and scientific fac-ulty is acutely shortage of.

Many colleges and universities graciously embrace those meri-torious students in joining their institution(with the motive of pulling in more students with greater capitation fees) where as academic weaker students finds no asylum except in those useless institution which fur-ther aggravates the whole situ-ation.

This again creates a systemat-ic segregation of students in to “Academic Elite Class” and Un-competitive students who are suitable for minial jobs. Quite often, it has become custom-ary in felicitating the toppers but no positive intervention is made in addressing the left-out students.

There is a greater need in paradigm shift in our cur-riculum & syllabus along with proper evaluating procedure. It should be the priority policy of the government to frame on these aspects and proper imple-mentation and monitoring. The healthy government along with educationist, policy maker and educational counsellor is very much needed to save the greater young population who too are looking for a brighter future.

2015 JuneThe Companion05

| EDITORIAL |

- TAHMINA LASKAR

| DELIBERATION |

When most Indians speak of democracy, a sense of pride is evident in their words, pride mixed with patriotism, a sense of belonging and most importantly, a feel-ing that they have the power to steer the country on whichever course they choose to. However, an average educated Indian often tends to feed on popular discourse, most of which is manufactured and ma-nipulated, rather than to acquire knowl-edge on their own. The tragedy of Indian democracy is that it is yet to obtain a popu-lation of sceptical voters who questions the actions of their leaders.

The recent episode involving the suicide of a farmer at an Aam Aadmi Party rally and the shouting matches that followed on TV indicate the lack of maturity that characterises not just most of the Indian political fraternity, but the Indian public itself. They actually take out time to con-sume such nonsense. Today is not the era where ignorance is bliss. Today, ignorance can cost you your democracy.

If this jingoism and false sense of power

Why the Indian voter needs a dose of maturity?

need to transform into patriotism and actual power, the Indian masses should quit watching these shouting matches and instead focus on acquir-ing true information. It’s tough work, and a presence in the social media with half-baked information won’t do. The only way to go about it is to read, make comparative studies and get a holistic understanding of politi-cal realities.

Jeering at intellect is considered as some kind of achievement in India and our politicians use this tendency among voters to steer them away from core debates and issues. Noam Chom-sky rightly says “…jingoism, racism, fear, religious fundamentalism: these are the ways of appealing to people if you’re trying to organize a mass base of support for policies that are really intended to crush them.” The demo-cratic fabric is being used by a smart few to corporatize and militarize the country.

As a voter, you cannot blame others for your ignorance and lack of genuine inquisi-tiveness. ‘I don’t have time to read and this does not concern me’ is probably the most-repeated excuse from people who try to cov-er up for their lack of deeper understanding of political realities that determine the suc-cess or failure of a democracy. The current political trend is to throw some big words like ‘development’ , ‘subsidy’, ‘smart-city’ and ‘make in India’ and a few controversial words like ‘ghar wapsi’ and ‘love jihad’ and the politician’s job is done. The endless de-bate and cacophony drowns the discourse on important issues like environment, agri-culture, education etc.

it’s high time we voters discipline our-selves and start questioning about the real issues, the real problems and the real solu-tions. Or the politics of lip service will de-stroy the democratic discourse.

works with Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, as a Progamme Officer, Access to Justice (Police Reforms)


GUJCTOC BILL: A PLOY TO ESTABLISH POLICE RAJ

- RASHID HUSSAIN

| OPEN SPACE |

The Legislative Assembly had passed the Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organ-ised Crime Bill on 31st March 2015 which is now awaiting an approval from the President of India before the law could be enacted. In this context, the SIO Gujarat’s monthly organ in Gujarati Yuva Saathi had organized a panel discussion which saw participation of some of the noted High Court lawyers and activists of special re-pute in Gujarat.

S.H.Aiyer, a senior counsel of the Gu-jarat High court explained that clubbing the terrorism and economic Crimes was completely misplaced and unjustified. He termed that the existing laws were ad-equate to address the crimes presented in the Bill. He also expressed his apprehen-sion on how this proposed law had the intentions of quashing anti-establishment voices and ushering the Police Raj.

Advoate Shamshad Pathan of the Jan Sangarsh Manch termed this proposed law as a draconian one which completely disregarded the CCP (Code of Criminal Procedures). He also pointed out three ma-

jor objections in the proposed law. He opined that establishing admission to police officer as an evidence to an of-fence was a risky proposition consid-ering the record of police force which has been proven guilty in fake encoun-ters in the past. He also objected to the provisions which would enable the es-tablishment to intercept the telephonic and electronic communications of the individuals thus compromising the privacy of the individuals. Further, he felt that the provision for extending the inquiry period from 90 days to 180 days for preparing a charge sheet was akin to shielding the Police Department of their inefficiencies.

Advocate L.R.Pathan of the Gujarat High Court opined that stronger laws were also welcome if they were to be applied against the real culprits but they can be extremely dangerous when they are used for witch hunting of a certain community and the underprivi-leged and the marginalized sections of the society. Dr.Shakeel Ahmed, the Na-

tional Secretary of the APCR recalled the freedom struggle against the imperialist Britishers and opined that the ruling Class is now playing the role of the Britishers by explicitly following their urge of suppress-ing their citizens. He also expressed that the rulers who are unable to dispense jus-tice resort to means of controlling the dis-senting voices by framing stringent laws and termed the GUJCTOC Bill as a clear manifestation of the same mentality.

The participants also felt a need for bring-ing the matter to the public sphere by edu-cating the citizens of the ill effects of such a draconian law. They also felt that it was possible to prevent the passage of the Bill by exerting the public pressure as done in the past which resulted in the repulsion of similar laws including POTA and TADA. The various means of protesting the pas-sage of the Bill including a signature cam-paign with more than 500,000 signatories representing their disapproval to the Presi-dent of India was also discussed during the meeting.


Ever thought of a song in the mid-dle of a field full of colorful flowers? If one wants to witness it in actual then Tulip Flower Festival at Siraj Bagh, Srinagar is one such beauti-ful reality which one gets to see once in a year during the month of March and April. With flowers and flow-ers everywhere till the extent where one’s sight reaches is something re-ally wonderful.

The Tulip Flower Festival is the Asia’a largest flower festival which is also known as Indira Gandhi Memo-rial Tulip Garden named after late Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of In-dia. It was started in 2007 by Ghulam

Tulip flower festival

|OPEN SPACE |

- NUSRAT BALUR LALKHANWAR

Nabi Azad, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir with the aim of promoting tourism at Kashmir by boosting floricul-ture.

With around 5 hectares of different colors of tulips bloomed at the foothills of Zabarwan Range and the Dal Lake, the view is simply breath taking. A wide variety of tulips are specially imported from Holland for this festival. The tulips found here are of many different varieties ranging from Margaritta to Lap-top. One can never stop himself from capturing this beauty.

With Kashmir being known for its beauty, this Tulip Festi-val is an added advantage which Kashmir can proudly boast. Tourists from all over the world throng in to get a glimpse of the beautifully colored carpet of tulips spread over a wide area.

A beautiful festival such as the one above encourages tour-ism to a greater extent which directly or indirectly helps in boosting the economy. For all the beauty lovers of this world, this place is a must visit for atleast once in a lifetime.


The ‘Bengalauru Resolution’ was passed at the emergency strategic meeting on the issue of child labour on Thursday by the center of child and law, National Law of School of India University.

The resolution was the outcome of a one day emergency strategic consultation meet-ing organized by the Centre for Child and the Law, National law of School of India University, NLSIU, Bengaluru to discuss the implications of a central government pro-posal to bring about a relaxation in Child Labour laws to allow children to work with their families and certain occupations. This includes working in the fields or forests, or in home based industries.

Representatives from various child rights movements and networks like Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL); People’s Al-liance for Fundamental Right to Education (PAFRE) – Karnataka; Student Islamic Or-ganisation (SIO) – Karnataka; Child Rights and You (CRY) – Bengaluru; Jeetha Vimuk-

thi Karnataka (JEEVIKA); Indian So-cial Institute(ISI) – Bengaluru; Child Welfare Committee (CWC) – Bengal-uru; Social Work Department – Ben-galuru University (BU); Rural Literacy and Health Programme(RLHP) -Mys-uru; Centre for Child and the Law, National Law School India University (CCL-NLSIU) participated in the stra-tegic consultation.

VP Niranjanaradhya from Centre for Child and the Law, National Law School India University (CCL-NLSIU) told Newskarnataka that the partici-pants strongly opposed the proposal to relax Child Labour Laws to allow children to work with their families and certain occupations. This in-cludes working in the fields or forests, or in home based industries. “The language of the present union govern-ment on the premise of ‘not redraw-ing the social fabric of Indian society’ indirectly suggests that the govern-

Bengalaru Resolution on child labor passed

- SIO KARNATAKA

| SOCIETY |

ment intends to continue the existing in-equality in the area of school education and economic exploitation in the various fields by tinkering the existing legislation”, he alleged.

The participants and child rights activ-ists, strongly urged for the following in their resolution:

1. All Child Right Legislation must com-ply with the definition of child being 18 years as laid down in UNCRC and National Policy for Children 2013.

2. Abolish all forms of child labour up to the age of 18 years without any distinction

3. Bring necessary amendments to Article 21A to ensure equitable quality education to all children from 3 to 18 years.

4. Child rights networks and movements across the nation should come together to build strong national alliance to pressurize the central government to implement the above demands.


- ANUBHA ROHATGI

| EXPRESSION |

On this special occasion, I would like to share with you guys the experience and the bond I share with my mother.

Mother according to me is an epitome of love, care and friendship. She is the person with whom u can share anything and everything. Mom I would like to thank you for being there with me every time whether I need you or not you have always being there for me. For me my mother is my best friend because I can share anything with her, whether it’s about my day to day life events or my relationship. She always understands me and helps me out every time I face a problem. It’s more like a bond that I and my mother share. My mom is the best person in my life because I have seen her sacrific-ing her happiness just for the sake of my future. She lets me go out of the town so that I can build a better future for myself but I know she misses me to the core of her heart. I love u mom. Whatever I am today is because of my parents and their sacrifices. The most important thing that makes mothers different from other persons

is that they are always ready to face all the troubles they can just in order to see us happy, they scarify their happiness and comfort for our happiness and comfort and there are children who take it for guaranteed but guys it’s a request to you all, I would like you to value the things your mother did for you and express your grati-tude to her to have her in our lives.

Anubha Rohatgi is a student of M.A. Applied Psychology in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

Value her in your life


Reform needed; not Retribution

- NADEEM KOTTALATH

| NATION |

The BJP-led NDA government, with the support of the major opposition parties, has succeeded in passing the Juvenile Justice Bill 2014 in the lower house of Indian Par-liament. The Bill contains a host of appalling provisions which has attracted strong opposition from child rights activists and jurists alike. The bill stipulates that children above the age of 16 years will be treated as adults if they commit heinous offences like rape, murder, kidnapping, and robbery. In addition, the Juvenile Justice Board will have discretionary powers to decide whether or not the juvenile be tried in adult courts.

The rationale for this Bill was the public anger and outrage over the sentence handed over to the juvenile in the unfortunate Nirbhaya incident. Public angst should not be the basis of legislation. Will the government en-


act a new law again if a 15-year-old commits rape? The law must not be changed on the basis of one inci-dent. It must possess a strong sci-entific evidentiary backing and 18 years of age is the scientifically justi-fied age.

The concept of punishment as ret-ribution has become passe. Barbaric ‘an eye for an eye’ theory should not have any place in 21st century’s wel-fare jurisprudence. Modern criminal jurists are of the view that punish-ment should transform convicted prisoners into good citizens and the primary rationale behind punish-ment should be the rehabilitation and integration of prisoners into mainstream society. Various studies across the globe prove that harsher punishment will not deter juveniles from repeating the offence.

No juvenile is born a criminal; the reasons for criminal tendencies in a child are based on factors like so-cial, religious, and economic condi-tion of the family. Crimes are caused partially by social and environmen-tal factors and partly due to medical factors. It is noteworthy that 87% of the juveniles are illiterate and semi literate and 77.55% of juveniles in conflict with law come from fami-lies which earn a monthly income of less than Rs 4,200 in India (National Crime Record Bureau, 2013). Latest research in neuroscience and psy-chology say that children reform bet-ter than adults and the state should actively support and encourage such

initiatives.

By incarcerating juveniles in con-flict with law in adult prisons, any chance for moral and intellectual development of the juvenile will be denied. Their life with hardened criminals and drug peddlers will make them witness more violence and chaos, making a normal life dif-ficult after release. Justice Verma Committee observed that if a young child is sent to jail at the age of 16 years for a long sentence and comes out of jail by the time he is 30 years, considering the dismal state of re-habilitation programmes in Indian jails, he is most likely to come out as a hardened criminal and not as a reformed person (Justice Verma, Justice Seth & Subramaniam, 2013).

In early 1990s, US lawmakers de-cided to curb juvenile crimes by imposing harsher punishment. But these measures failed to bring about the expected results. The study conducted by MacArthur Founda-tion Research Network found that juveniles are far more likely to be re-arrested for violent crimes when they are tried in adult courts (85%, in New York) than special juvenile courts (44%, in New Jersey). Re-search also showed that juveniles who are routed through the rehabili-tative system are less likely to com-mit crimes again.

Indian lower courts are known for delay in proceedings. It often takes decades to conclude a case in a ses-sion’s court. If the juveniles are tried

in the same adult courts, they lose the chance for a speedy trial under Juvenile Justice Board. Unlike the trial in Juve-nile Justice Board, the identity of the ju-venile will be revealed and this will lead to stigmatization of the individual. The Bill also creates a situation of a trial be-fore a trial by giving the Juvenile Justice Board discretionary power to decide whether the juvenile should be tried as an adult or not. And the time limit stipu-lated for this - one month – is too short to come to a conclusion.

Another dreadful provision in this Bill is section 7, which says that a per-son who is apprehended after 21 years of age for committing any offence when he was between the ages of sixteen to eighteen years shall be tried as an adult. In other words, he will not come un-der the purview of the Juvenile Justice Board. The spirit of equality principle will be lost since the basis of the pun-ishment will be when the offender has been arrested and not when he commit-ted the offence. This provision is liable to be struck down by the Supreme Court for being ultra vires to the Constitution.

It is worthy of notice that our National Plan of Action for Children, 2005 has a goal to recognize, promote and protect the rights of children in conflict with law through preventive, protective, re-formative and rehabilitative policies, laws, plans, strategies, programmes and interventions. Let us stick to it.

currently pursuing his bachelor’s degree in law at Government Law College Calicut, Kerala

The concept of punishment as retribution has become passe. Barbaric ‘an eye for an eye’ theory should not have any place in 21st century’s welfare jurisprudence. Modern criminal jurists are of the view that punishment should transform convicted prisoners into good citizens and the primary rationale behind punishment should be the rehabilitation and integration of prisoners into mainstream society. Various studies across the globe prove that harsher punishment will not deter juveniles from repeating the offence.


Harry: Did you feel it?

Bobby: what feeling are you talking about?

Harry: EARTHQUAKE!!

Bobby: it’s not a feeling it a terror! It is a tragedy! It a tremor!

Harry: yeah I know whatever it is. How was it?

Bobby: it was scary. And due to this sequential effect I fear to take a good night sleep. I believe I won’t be able to see the next day’s sun.

Harry: you are so funny. Don’t be such a timid. You will be fine and the impact in extreme south is very less.

Bobby: God must be angry, he is toying around with us.

Harry: what has god to do with the earthquakes. Don’t you know the causes of earthquakes? Every time whenever something bad happens we put the blame on GOD.

Bobby: I don’t know all that scientific stuff, but I have an intransitive faith that there has to be a su-pernatural power behind it.

Harry: Oh come on bobby! Don’t be such an orthodox. I respect your faith but we should also account for what we are doing. Science has proved it. Let me try to convince you on two fronts: how science explains the causal factors and what the human activities have to do with earthquakes.

Bobby: let’s see how much you can change my mind.

Harry: Earthquakes are caused by the movements of the huge tectonic plates that make up earth’s outer crust. Driven by currents in the semi-molten layer below the crust, the plates slowly drift over earth’s surface and collide, grind together, or pull apart. Most earthquakes occur on fault lines—cracks

Earthquake episode

| HARRY & BOBBY |


in earth’s crust where two plates meet and grind to-gether. Most earthquakes begin deep underground at a point called the focus. As the rocks shatter at the focus, shock waves called seismic waves radiate out-ward in all directions. The point on earth’s surface directly above the focus is called the epicentre. This is where most damage occurs.

Bobby: I know the scientific reason but who is go-ing to trigger that movement?

Harry: Now here comes the fault of humans. The ra-pacious tendencies of humans has led to devastating impact on the natural balance. It is the man made unchecked activities which increase the occurrences as well as intensities of the earth quake.

Geology, urbanisation and architecture all influ-ence an earthquake.

Bobby: But how?

Harry: Due to the digging of land in mine areas and for underground metros create loose spaces on the earth which create greater pressures on the earth to adjust, creating tremors during the settlement.

Bobby: Earthquakes are not only a single disaster. They even lead to avalanches and landslides if oc-curred on earth, if under water they also stimulate tsunamis.

Harry: Now I tell you about a very recent report and its findings. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released a new report and its first map showing the frequency of earthquakes thought to be triggered by human activities. USGS said in its April 23, 2015 an-nouncement:

“Earthquake activity has sharply increased since 2009 in the central and eastern United States. The increase has been linked to industrial operations that dispose of wastewater by injecting it into deep wells.”

This practice occurs in hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – which is the forcing open of fissures in subterranean rocks by introducing liquids (water, sand, chemicals) at high pressure. The process is used in oil and gas extraction. Thus the rapid indus-trialisation with no regard to its impact on nature has increased the incidences of earthquakes.

Bobby: I guess the wrong doings of human increase the amount of negative energy present on earth which leads to these disasters. Is there any specific part of the world that they occur?

Harry: Most earthquakes, and also volcanic erup-tions, strike on or near the edges of Earth’s tectonic plates. They are most common in the “Ring of Fire,” the name given to the edge of the vast Pacific Plate

that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. Japan, the Philippines, New Zealand, and the western coastline of North and South America all lie in this major fault zone.

Bobby: it can be measured as well. I know about that. The size or mag-nitude of earthquakes is determined by measuring the amplitude of the seismic waves recorded on a seismograph and the distance of the seis-mograph from the earthquake. These are put into a formula which con-verts them to a magnitude, which is a measure of the energy released by the earthquake. For every unit increase in magnitude, there is roughly a thirty-fold increase in the energy released. For instance, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake releases approximately 30 times more energy than a magni-tude 5.0 earthquake, while a magnitude 7.0 earthquake releases approxi-mately 900 times (30x30) more energy than a magnitude 5.0.

Harry: you are absolutely right! You are very smart, bobby.

Bobby: after the occurrence of so many earthquakes I’m concerned about the preventive measures as well.

Harry: you don’t have to worry so much! You should take shelter under the tables.

Bobby: And if we are outside we should be away from buildings, bridg-es, and electric pylons.

Harry: we should also be alert always and have an emergency bag ready to grab if we have to run in short time.

Bobby: most importantly we should listen to the news and the instruc-tions given by the authorities.

Harry: like recently when this happened all the international agencies like UNICEF and Red Cross, and all the developed countries offered mili-tary help for rescue operations. A lot of countries also disposed financial aids.

Bobby: But these operations become difficult due to impassable roads, damaged communications and infrastructure.

Harry: hmm… rescue operations become difficult but now heartbeat de-tection and FINDER devise are being used for rescue operations which can find people under 10 feet. Alongside many rehabilitation centres are also being set up, which serve peopled need. But the recent nuisance made by India media in Nepal earthquakes is really disappointing.

Bobby: What?? How India media is related to this? What did it actually do?

Harry: You must have come across “Go back Indian Media” trending on twitter and facebook. I mean the media people have lost their own media ethics. The Indian media was casting reports as if shooting a serial. It is so sorrowful to know that the media reached the places where even the rescue people could not. But these people did not carry any first aid kit. On top of that one reporter was disturbing rescue persons by asking about technology.

Bobby: Alas! This is really disgusting. These people should behave more ethically. They just care for their lights-camera-action TRPs. Anyway let’s all pray for fast relief and immediate recoveries. May GOD bless us all.

Harry: Let’s make the world a better place to live by not creating mess in the earth and be compassionate with the unfortunate people. See you later. Take care. Bye…..


12:30 pm on an odd day of May,

The sun shone fiercely, wherever its rays found their way,

I felt the global warming right up till my neck,

The heat was melting me away; the feeling was such a wreck,

Stopping at the signal, I lowered my window a little,

Well that helped my sweat but soon came a whistle,

A grand marriage procession made its way through the bus-tling traffic,

The band played noisily; the dancing people surrounding them sadly more drastic.

My ears surely going numb; cried out in pain, bled, wet and soaked,

The biker by my side, earphones plugged in, ecstatic of what he smoked,

The cigarette’s vapours almost made me choke,

And feeling bored, the human in me awoke,

I gathered words and asked, “Isn’t that Blank Space?”

And turning to me he blew two puffs of smoke right on my face!

Instantly I coughed up my lung on him, faces showed mu-tual feeling of dejection,

Offended about losing it, my brain shouted, “This situation needs correction!”

Fast forward to tedious days of spreading the word of peace,

- WAHEED HUSSAIN

Distributed millions of posters that read, “Stop chopping down Innocent trees!”

Day and night arranged for the placing of many plastic garbage bins,

Prayed that these little acts of care atoned for hu-manity’s sins,

Burnt down the banners of all those fancy factories,

Punished them for releasing poison for our arteries,

“Save your Earth!” I announced gladly in the loud-speaker, “Save it before its too late!”

Few people thence changed, but for most, same re-mained the fate.

Years passed and thoughts began as to where I was mistaken,

One day a child spoke to me, gave me the truth for-saken,

“How do we save earth if we make posters from murdered trees?

How do we save earth if we shout noisy slogans to intolerable degrees?”

How foolish to think of cleaning the world around,

When still to Evil each man is bound,

The conscience within is what matters,

Pushing a human without their will won’t save this world from shatters.

MBBS student from Osmania medical college

|EXPRESSION |

HYPOCRITIC ODE


The 5th of June every year is observed as World Environ-ment Day. It’s run by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). This year’s theme is ‘sustainable consumption and pro-duction’.

Now, what does sustainable consumption and production re-ally mean? This concept aims at improving the environment through efficient consumption of natural resources. Several international seminars, conferences and world summits have been held since the beginning of the new millennium to ‘dis-cuss’ this issue along with other problems like climate change and global warming. Nations pledge to make an effort to im-prove the environment and combat climate change.

Yet all these international resolutions are never fully imple-mented. World leaders take these pledges/resolutions to save the environment. That’s where it ends. These resolutions are forgotten!

Now, I’m not accusing governments of inaction. Several coun-tries have now passed laws and regulations to promote sus-tainable consumption and production. They have realised the gravity of the situation. Corporate companies have also taken

World Environment Day - A farce?

- SUDHIR MANE

| DELIBERATION |

an initiative to tackle this problem. This is definitely a step forward.

Governments and giant corporations are doing their bit to solve the problem. But that is not enough to protect the environment! We as individuals have a hypocritical atti-tude towards this issue. Most of us believe that we have no role to play in combating climate change and protecting the environment.

In the age of social media everyone likes to play the role of a ‘social media activist’. Most of us will probably share a post on Facebook or Tweet about how it is important to protect the environment. The activist within us thinks that sharing a post is not enough. We should be doing some-thing more proactive. How about signing a petition on Change.org? Sure, signing an e-petition on a website will save the environment!

Those of us who are not so net savvy may probably take part in an event organised by a pro-environment NGO. We’ll meet at a designated place, wave placards, distribute pamphlets to pedestrians on the street, take pictures and finally upload them onto social media. These activities will not help the cause in any way. They may help in generating awareness but their effect is minimal.

We must do our bit to save the environment. One does not have to conjure a clean source of energy out of thin air. That task is best delegated to scientists. We can begin with saving electricity, planting a tree and constructing rain water harvesting pits. Use public transport. Encourage car pooling. Of course, this is not an exhaustive list. But I think you get my point. Small steps like these will go a long way in saving the environment.

MBBS student from Osmania medical college


THE EARTHQUAKE- MOHAMMED MOBEEN AHMED

| DELIBERATION | | EXPRESSION |

Clattered, growled, quavered, the earth

breaking down screeched the earthquake.

Underneath the earth’s surface nothing hangs around,

thumps and trips the techno plates,

while jostling grinding get stuck.

Then the clatter, growl quiver starts

the earth screams the earthquake.

Everything when the thought of trembling earth

visits my mind shatters the stings of peace

reminding the agony of helpless souls crumbled

beneath dismantled gnawing buildings.

The trees rustling, earth quivering under the feet.

What a horrifying view it was

It was a view brimmed with chaos,

devastation, as always seems to follow.

Everytime when I think of earthquake

I anticipate an earth quake

quaking the ground under my feet.

My nerves degenerate.

My senses fade.

By the thought of tormented souls.

Pursuing graduation from Mangalore.


It was on the night of 18th of February, 2008 and Yahya along with his wife and three children were at the din-ing table for supper when they heard a calling bell. The person on the other side introduced themselves as Police officials from Intelligence Bureau and requested Yahya to come downstairs as they wanted to collect some infor-mation from him. Little did he know that it would take six long years for him to complete the meal on his din-ing table. Half an hour is what they requested but it has taken more than six years for Yahya Kamukutti of Kerala to get another chance to see the outside world. The Hubli District session court acquitted Yahya and 18 others who were said to be involved in the Hubli conspiracy case of all charges. It took SIX long years for the system to give a fi-nal verdict on this case, snatching away more than 2200+ valuable days of his lifetime. Relatives of Yahya had ap-plied for bail numerous number of times, but was denied bail every single time stating that the case is booked un-der the notorious UAPA and that the court cannot go into the merit of the case.

Yahya, who hails from Mukkam Taluk of Kerala be-longed to a middle class family. Yahya graduated with a B.Tech degree from the prestigious National Institute of Technology (Then known as REC). He then got placed in one of the leading firms in Bangalore through Campus placement. He was leading a happy life with his wife and two children when the unfortunate happened (His wife

| SOCIETY |

- AMMAR MANSOOR

SIX YEARS BEHIND THE BAR FOR NO

REASON


was carrying at the time of his arrest). Even though he was arrested on 18th of Feb, It took two days for the police to respond to his arrest. Thanks to the timely intervention of a counsel in Bangalore, His family had filed a habeas corpus which forced the po-lice to produce him before court. The verdict was delayed number of times stating technical reasons. Finally it took six long years for him to see his relative and friend from the out-side world.(At the time of writing this article, Yahya is still in prison, He is slated for release on 2nd May 2015, Saturday).

But things are not going to be the same for Yahya. In most of the cases like this, even after the courts acquit-ting a person,it will take lot of time for the society at large to acquit him/her of charges to which he never was a party. Media is by far and large re-sponsible for this. The media which once celebrated the news of his ar-rest creating hue and cry out of his arrest, has reduced the news of his release into a mere inner page “unim-portant” less glamorous news item. Some well known media have even made the news of his release into a box news in some corner of the inner pages, but the same newspaper were in the forefront celebrating the news of his arrest and minting out stories that even the most creative of fiction writers would find it difficult to im-agine. The news of acquittal should weigh equally important as the news of arrest. On the one hand, the system

snatches away six long years of a person’s life and on the oth-er hand the media maligns him by fabricating stories against him and in some cases even against his family.

Who will give back the six long years of care and affection his children would have wanted from a father ? Who would give back the love and attention his wife would have wanted from a husband for six long years ? Who would have comfort-ed his ailing mother and father during their old age ? Which compensation would compensate 2200 days of his life behind bars, a lot of question would go unanswered but questions need to raised for sure.

Budding IT Entrepreneur from Bangalore.

Yahya, who hails from Mukkam Taluk of Kerala belonged to a middle class family. Yahya graduated with a B.Tech degree from the prestigious National Institute of Technology (Then known as REC). He then got placed in one of the leading firms in Bangalore through Campus placement. He was leading a happy life with his wife and two children when the unfortunate happened (His wife was carrying at the time of his arrest). Even though he was arrested on 18th of Feb, It took two days for the police to respond to his arrest.


Mother you filled my days with rainbow lights

Fairytales and sweet dream nights.

A kiss to wipe away my tears,

Gingerbread to ease my fears.

You gave the gift of life to me,

And then in love, you set me free.

I thank you for your tender care,

For deep warm hugs and being there.

I hope whenever you will think of me,

A part of you, you will always see.

pursuing his M.A Economics from

University of Hyderabad

Under a pleasant moonlight,

You look like a star so bright

Your presence gives me so much pleasure,

Because you are a priceless treasure

When you utter, it’s like a fairy tale,

Be always here, as it is a never ending sail

When you fly like a careless kite,

Then you are under the clutch of my sight

You are a precious dew,

Which are available to a few

You are like a flower’s pleasant scent,

Spreading fragrance, making everyone faint

You are a beautiful creature,

Who is a precious gift of nature

This is a message of dove

It symbolizes my true love

student from Dabhanga, Bihar.

MY GUIDING STAR-SHEFA TAHREEM

Mother- SHUBHAM ROHATGI

| EXPRESSION |


15 August 1995, a day when India celebrated its 48th Independence was another revolutionary day in the his-tory of India when Indian got access to free information all over the world via Internet and within 6 months ten thousand people took access to this free information. To-day there are 243 million users who are connected to this network called the Internet.

After all these years of using in-ternet for free have you ever imagined, what would you do if you are charged for sharing your status on Facebook? Whom are you go-ing to complain if Wikipedia took a very long time to open up when you have to complete your project the next day? Where will you go if you are forced to pay for viewing videos on Youtube. What oth-

er best alternative will you have when you are not allowed to use Google to search content on the Internet.

That will be a black day in the history of India for every technocrat, every student, every person who has an urge for sharing or gaining information which used to be available free since the Internet came into existence.

Since few days there has been a buzz word going around called Net Neutrality.

Let me explain you this terrible, technical sounding phrase which even suffers a proper def-inition.

Telecom opera-tors/ISPs are access services providers who have started believing that they have right to con-trol either how much you access, what you access,

Reason Why I Stand In Favour Of

Net Neutrality- UMAR MANIAR

| TECHNOLOGY |


how fast you access and how much you pay to access content and services on the Internet.

Access to Internet for knowl-edge, services, free speech, as well as freedom and ease of do-ing business online has become a basic need in our society. For this access to be neutral - All sites must be equally acces-sible, with same access speed that you have opt for and at same data cost for access to each content on per KB/MB ba-sis.

This means, Net Neutrality is about:

– No telecom-style licensing of Internet companies

– No gateways (Internet.org, Airtel OneTouch Internet, Data VAS), censorship or selection

– No speeding up of specific websites (that may or may not pay telcos)

– No “zero rating” or making some sites free over others

Till recently telecom compa-nies had enjoyed a great run in India stashing thousands of crores in profits. During this time, they’ve largely focused on selling voice minutes - while at the back end they have been us-ing voice over internet protocol (or VOIP) to connect with other telcos and deliver calls using the internet. And given that the cost of VOIP is a tiny fraction

of the cost of traditional voice calls they were charging, they raked in the moolah.

But thanks to the advent of Whats-app, Skype and Google Hangout- consumers can get the same voice calls delivered at internet prices, direct to their handsets which have started putting the hole in their pockets.

So now these telcos want to charge for the internet differently based on how you use it for which they have come up with an explanation as said by Mr. Sunil Mittal, MD of Bharti airtel, “Today, Google, Yahoo! and others are enjoying at the cost of network operator. We are the ones investing in setting up data pipes and they make the money. There is interconnection for voice then why not for data.They are completely by-passing the telecom operator. There should be a fair revenue share.If we have to build the highways, there has got to be a tax on highways. You cannot have automobiles running on these highways which are paying nothing”

You might be wondering - I already pay more if I use more bytes and I’m fine with that.

Well, this is different - they want the right to charge what they want, when they want and how they want, with no logic whatsoever. In effect, if Airtel doesn’t like Gaana.com or Saavn.com but wants to push its own music app Wynk - it wants the right to offer that for free while charging

you a bomb to access the Gaana or Saavn.

One of our telcos, Reliance, has already gone ahead with this Face-book-driven evil scheme called In-ternet.org - where you can access Bing for free, but you have to pay to access Google - and you have access to BabaJobs for free, while you have to pay for Naukri.com.

This breaks the very nature of the Internet for which it was designed.

Given the internet’s indispensa-ble nature, it needs to be treated as public utility just like electricity. As electricity suppliers don’t dis-criminate among their customers on basis of electrical appliances used, same way it’s no business of ISPs to decide which website should be free or get preferential access.

Internet.org and Zero rating plans like “Airtel Zero” will be specially disadvantageous to start-ups, who will have to pay the dis-tributor to offer their apps on the platform, and this will lead to mo-nopolization by a few and squeeze out the small companies.

This is the reason why a stand in favor of net neutrality needs to be made before those with deep pockets hijack the digital revolu-tion and dreams of Digital India, killing the goose that laid Golden eggs.

Budding Entreprener from Ahmedabad

So now these telcos want to charge for the internet differently based on how you use it for which they have come up with an ex-planation as said by Mr. Sunil Mittal, MD of Bharti airtel, “Today, Google, Yahoo! and others are enjoying at the cost of network op-erator. We are the ones investing in setting up data pipes and they

make the money.


Last year, during the same time, the PR companies who were hired by Modi to fight the Union elections coined many words which could contrib-ute to the Modi phenomenon. Firstly, they coined a word called ‘MODIfy’, which was a combination of two words, ‘Modi’ and ‘Modify’, which explained how Modi has modi-fied Gujrat and how he would modify the country if he was made the Prime Minister of the country. Secondly, they coined a word called ‘MODInomics’, which was a combination of two words, ‘Modi and ‘Eco-nomics’, which explained that if Modi becomes the Prime Minister of the country then he would implement his crea-tive economic strategies which he implemented in Gujrat and remove the country from all sorts of financial crises which

MODICRISY- SYED KAZIM

| POLITICS |


it is going through. Thirdly, they coined a word called ‘MODItva’, which was again a combination of two words, ‘Modi’ and ‘Hin-dutva’, this word was introduced to communalise the Hindus and give them the confidence that when Modi becomes the Prime Minister, all Hindus will be pro-tected, the Hindu laws will be im-plemented and will make India a Hindu State.

After a year, looking at the per-formance of the Modi Govern-ment, another word has to be coined and that is ‘MODIcrisy’, it is a combination of two words, ‘Modi’ and ‘Hypocrisy’. The need was felt to coin the word because of the hypocritical attitude shown by Modi and his party after com-ing into power. The article will mainly focus on highlighting various actions of Modi and the party which were Hypocritical in nature.

Firstly, let us begin with the most criticized slogan of the country in the last one year, ‘Achhe din aane wale hain’ which was used massively by BJP during the union elections. The slogan is for inflating expectations that the new government can quickly turn around the economy and spur economic growth. On the other hand, the slogan has also been used to question the effec-tiveness of Modi’s government. But after the 2015-16 budgets was presented, it was all crystal clear that the ‘Achhe din’ has come at last, but not for the common man but for the corporates who funded BJP during the Union elections. The present budget has given Rs. 2 lakh crore bonanza to corporations in the Budget. The exchequer would stand to lose that amount since corporate tax rate was to be cut from 30%

to 25% starting from April 2015. The Budget has ultimately failed to curb rising inequality.

Once there was a time when the BJP supported the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilita-tion and Resettlement Act of 2013 and now after coming into power it has taken a U-turn from its pre-vious position. Now, according to the new act, it has extended land acquisition to any private entity that includes proctorship, part-nership, NGO or any other entity. In the name of infrastructure, now the government can acquire land for private educational in-stitutions and private hospitals as well. The ultimate people who will benefit from the bill are the corporates and the victims will be the poor farmers. The farmers thought that ‘Achhe din’ would have a check on inflation and will avoid any kind of price rise but they never thought that a bill would be passed that would grab away their lands through a planned and legal process. So now the famers will still have to still wait for their ‘Achhe din’!

Secondly, after the election an-other phrase was coined called ‘Make in India’, with an objec-tive to promote and encourage individuals and organisation to indulge in production activities in the country. But our leader failed to set an example by his ac-tions, when Narendra Modi wore a personalized pinstripe suit at the Hyderabad House event for President Barack Obama. The London Evening Standard has reported that this exclusive fabric had been made by “cloth mer-chants of distinction” Holland & Sherry of Savile Row. The cost of Holland & Sherry’s fabric is any-where between 1,000 and 1,500

pounds per metre. To tailor it into a suit, a minimum of six to seven metres of fabric (single width) is required. Few sources have also claimed that the cost of the suit might come up to Rs.10 lakhs. My questions is, “Where is Make in India?”.

Thirdly, “Communalism will take us nowhere” said this man who is now our Prime Minis-ter. Before he came to power, he turned a blind eye towards the communal riots that swept through his state in 2002. But since he came into power the na-tion has witnessed an increase in the number of communal vio-lence, especially in states like Ut-tar Pradesh and Maharashtra. In a very short span of time the na-tion has witnessed more than 600 incidents of communal violence. Why have all these communal instances occurred right after the BJP Government came to power? These instances are deliberately created to divide our society on religious lines. Isn’t this hypoc-risy?

Fourthly, as Modi is the leader of the party, he has been success-ful in floating his hypocritical at-titude among the party as well. In one of his campaigning speeches in Uttar Pradesh for the Union elections Modi said that he will ensure that the Parliament be-comes criminal free. But on the other hand during the recent Del-hi assembly polls it was observed that BJP is having the maximum number of criminal cases. There were 27 BJP candidates who had criminal cases against them as said by the Delhi Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms. BJP also tops the list in the category of serious criminal cases with 17 candidates. Are all these candidates innocent ac-


cording to the BJP? Have they done an internal screening of the candidates be-fore giving them the tickets?

Fifthly, the UPA Government had signed the agreement with Bangla-desh, BJP criticised Congress and said it would oppose any attempt to give As-sam land to the neighbouring country. But, however, after coming to power, they are also supporting it. BJP’s MLA Jadav Chandra Deka said the present government at the Centre is going ahead with the agreement because it was signed by the former Prime Minis-ter of India. BJP misguided the people of Assam after former Prime Minis-ter; Manmohan Singh had signed the LBA and opposed the deal for political mileage. The present Union Youth Af-fairs and Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had then said that not even one inch of Assam land would be given. Even the BJP MLAs protested in the As-sembly by holding placards inside the complex. I want to ask, why this double standards?

Sixthly, after winning the Union elec-tions the Government coined a new slogan called, “Sabka Saath Sabka Vi-kaas” but the slogan has no practical implementation and is only used by the BJP leaders in their speeches. Recently, after BJP came into power in Maharash-tra the Government decided not to give 5% reservation to the Muslim commu-nity in both jobs and education. Did they forget their own slogan, “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikaas”. I think the BJP Government is not and will not be com-mitted to its slogan “Sabka Saath Sabka

Vikaas”. If this is not hypocrisy then what is it?

Seventhly, the hypocritical attitude has also transferred to the MP’s of BJP. Shashi Maharaj, the Member of Parliament of BJP said that every Hindu woman must have 4 children. Sakshi emphasised that it is necessary for Hindus to increase their progeny to protect the religion. He also said that 1 out of 4 of these children should be given to the RSS. My question is why don’t we start this with Sushma Swaraj who has only one daughter and Sm-riti Irani who has a son and a daughter? Why this double standards? Why this hypocritical attitude.

Eightly, as Modi is from the RSS, he was also successful in inspiring the RSS chief to follow the hypocritical attitude. The RSS chief hit a new level of stupidity when he claimed Mother Teresa served the poor from the Mis-sionaries of Charity in Calcutta with the aim of converting them to Christi-anity. Bhagwat, however, is also a full-fledged supporter of the ‘ghar wapsi’ movement that aims to “re-convert” Muslims and Christians to Hinduism.

A hypocritical attitude is the last thing which any Indian would have ex-pected from Modi and his party. I hope to coin a new word called ‘MODIsty’, which is a combination of two words, ‘Modi and ‘Honesty’, when he and his party will rule the country with full Honesty. If this is the attitude of the ruling ‘party’, then the common man can never ‘party’!

lecturer at the Department of Management, Kristu Jayanti College, Bangalore.

BJP’s MLA Jadav Chandra Deka said the present government at the Centre is go-ing ahead with the agreement because it was signed by the former Prime Minister of India. BJP misguided the people of Assam after former Prime Minister; Man-mohan Singh had signed the LBA and opposed the deal for political mileage. The present Union Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had then said that not even one inch of Assam land would be given. Even the BJP MLAs protested in the Assembly by holding placards inside the complex. I want to ask,

why this double standards?



I see the cracks, they are there,

But why is it the world doesn’t see,

They aren’t hidden but clear

In one thing or the other, everyone’s busy.

They are ignorant, or are they kept so?

So they see not what is to see;

“Time pass” is what they do,

All with a foolish dancing monkey.

Just look-up the cracks are there,

Some know it and they do fear;

Nothing can be done, is what they say;

So their slogan: live as if you don’t care.

Who created the cracks, they are a few

They know the real reality

Their selfish gains, always anew

Have brought to the brink, whole humanity.

Then there are the quacks

None listens to them ever

They always point us to the cracks

Their voices are all over.

Ignorance is bliss they say

But it’s a prison of self

Blind and deaf and they go to pray!

Hypocrisy, a dear price yet to pay.

The cracks are deep,

Waiting to rent asunder

This structure will stand

But for how long – I wonder.

Utopia is what we live in,

Because we think everything is green.

Open your eyes, oh mankind,

Wake-up and face the reality,

Before it’s too late, before it’s too late.

The C

rack

s| EXPRESSION |

- REEHAN AHMED KHAN IL


How do I choose my career? How do I cope with an unsatisfactory job? How to deal with unrequited love? How to live more confident-ly? How to worry less? How to find calm?

These are just the questions we haven’t been taught at school. Somehow our curriculum missed out on teaching us the basics of liv-ing. Isn’t it ironic that we are exqui-sitely trained in solving abstract mathematical problems while be-ing left to our own in figuring out how to solve the practical prob-lems of real life? We are well aware for instance of the physics of over-coming inertia, but know nothing of overcoming anger. We learn the minutiae of the Natural world by heart, but have we ever allowed our hearts to be actually attuned to Nature. Do we even perceive a dif-ference between the two?

‘The School of Life’ is here to help with these and related issues. It is devoted to using ideas and culture in helping us live better lives. Their collected thoughts and theories can be accessed at their constantly updated online organ ‘The Book of Life’. It aims to offer practical guid-ance related to your relationships, your income, your career, your anxieties –in short your life.

HOW TO THINK MORE

- SAAD MUHAMMAD ISMAIL

| OPEN SPACE |

It might help to illustrate its effectiveness in something specific, say anxiety.

Anxiety seems to consuming your mind and your time. You may worry too much about your colleagues’ opinion of your work, Or about the uncertain future of your career? Or you are worried that you worry too much. In times like these it is easy to think that your worries would all vanish if only you could afford an exotic vaca-tion. Or that getting uber-expensive house décor would allay some of your fears, or perhaps you might have nothing to worry about if you were a celebrated personality the world over? Or maybe all you need is Mr./Mrs. Perfect to enter into your life and somehow seamlessly sweep your sorrows away.

Yet a moment’s reflection reveals that it is perfectly possible to be anxiety-ridden despite having all the above grandiosities at one’s behest. The single most important move to dealing with anxiety seems to be acceptance.

“There is no need – on top of everything else – to be anxious that we are anxious. The mood is no sign that our lives have gone wrong, merely that we are alive... We are far from the only ones with this problem. Everyone is more anxious than they are inclined to tell us… We must suffer alone. But we can at least hold out our arms to our similarly tortured, fractured, and above all else, anxious neighbors, as if to say, in the kindest way possible: ‘I know…’”

Even as I write these words, I fall for the deadliest charm of the School of Life approach. I come to rely on their reasoning to the point of belittling my own. To


presume that the lessons they seemingly derive from ‘The Great Books’ are the only ones worthwhile. That we may all sit back, relax and trust others to do our thinking for us. Because our lives are simply too busy for us to take the time out to seek-ing truth critically on our own. We would rather return from a hard day’s work and switch on the T.V. or browse through Face-book than care to read about the world we live in. Though on some level we do realize that it would be unethical to live in such selfish isolation, detached from one’s fel-low (wo)man and little caring for her/his life. So we turn to such pop-cultural pseudo-intellectual outlets as The School of Life to assuage this pressing guilt, be-lieving that this passes for ‘doing our bit’.

The School of Life is the brainchild of Alain de Botton, whose style of writing has unwittingly become the archetype for all others commissioned to write for the School. Despite the diversity and range of topics they aim to address, they display a very narrow range of literary breadth (not to mention philosophical depth). It is as if de Botton’s patriarchal presence looms dominating over the entire institution, thus turning a grand buffet of ideas bland.

To be fair, Alain de Botton does seem to be inspiring a sizeable audience to seek practical and emotional assistance in the marks of their culture. Although its spellbinding charm seems to rely heav-ily on nonchalant name-dropping, The School’s single most important contribu-tion may be that it induces one to look up oneself, the names cited. Thus a person who may have been allured into reading “How Proust Can Change Your Life” may someday be seen ambitiously purchas-ing the gargantuan collection of Proust’s seven volume tome. Although how far s/he may actually make progress with it is altogether uncertain.

As suggested earlier, The School of Life audience is not a particularly perceptive bunch. It is precisely the kind that would happily substitute pop-cultural page-turn-ers for the more slow-paced classics, be-lieving they are the same thing. With im-ages on every other page and with a text than is written at the level of an eighth-grader, The School’s self-help series un-

surprisingly seems to be catching on. It offers the middlebrow reader an easy to acquire yet false sense of intellectual and literary competence. Thus appeas-ing the reader’s guilt of being intellec-tually docile in increasingly complex times. Consequently ignorance, the one incentive to seek knowledge is made to disappear (under the rug). Knowledge of one’s ignorance is unsettling. Yet it is this very feature that prompts one to seek to ‘settle’ with knowledge. But ignorance of one’s ignorance, that is bliss. And that bliss is what one may hope to find at The School.

Now, if for some reason you cannot read your way to ignorant bliss at The School, you also have the option of simply buying it instead. A look at their online store reveals how you can buy ideas as a substitute to thinking them. If you are seeking reassurance and con-solation, you are told you would find them in The School’s ‘Comfort Blan-ket’- just an ordinary blanket, extraor-dinarily overpriced. Or get yourself the ‘Philosopher’s jumper’ to ward off any intellectual insecurity along with the cold. Perhaps a pair of the ‘Philoso-pher’s shoes’ too, to go with it. While you’re at it, why not get some ‘Philo-sophical Honey’ and a few ‘Philosophi-cal Pencils’ to add to your cart?

“Done shopping for the day?

Here’s your bill for the above items: £ 400 only (Roughly Rs 40,000)

Enjoy your day, Sir.”

This is not ‘philo-sophia’, the love of wisdom. This is the love of being known to love wisdom. A desire for fame and a psychological soft-spot for consumer-ism add to the consoling effect of your shopping at The School of Life.

Also on the display are dolls and soft-toys. The spirit behind them is ador-able, as are the dolls themselves, but the commercial intent and the price tag are categorically cruel. It undoubt-edly helps to have symbols of one’s faith close at hand to serve as constant reminders and to help put things in proper perspective. That has been the classical purpose of art. But it is quite another thing to seek to constantly sur-

round oneself with amulets. The problem with amulets has always been that people tend to develop more faith in the object of the amulet itself than the idea it was meant to symbolize. Even a conceptual form as a book can be concretized into an object of deification. One runs the risk of being fas-cinated and obsessed by the idea of a book, rather than the idea in a book, for instance. And this is an unhealthy way of living. The inevitable hazard of depending on intellec-tual crutches is intellectual atrophy.

It seems that in his nostalgia for religion, de Botton is driven to revive superstition. Surely since primitive paganism cannot see the unity in multiplicity, we must ac-cept it as an inescapable and fundamental human flaw. Whilst utterly discounting the monotheistic ambition of perceiving beyond the plurality of forms, a trans-cendent singular essence. Conceiving the God of the Abrahamic religions, for exam-ple, requires the highest order of abstract thinking. While corporeal pagan deities are inherently less intellectually stimulat-ing to conceive of. So too, corporeal dolls are an inadequate substitute for ideas that are necessarily abstract. And here The School’s choice betrays its pessimism re-garding human potential.

Clearly The School isn’t as ‘non-ideologi-cal’ as it would like to boast. The issues it aims to tackle are certainly universal and pertinent. And while The School does a commendable job in bringing these is-sues to the fore, much of their responses however, can be superficial. Moreover, the insights are far from comprehensive or for that matter, even original. Their insight on anxiety detailed above, for instance, seems to have always been around as a religious prescription. And it has been practiced at a far deeper level by even illiterate believers. Such wisdom can be seen embodied in, for example, the following formulaic prayer that has always been on the lips and often in the hearts and minds of the Abrahamic populace:

“To God we belong, and to Him is the re-turn.”

A medical student at the KBN Institute of Medical Sciences, Gulbarga.


O my Sister and Brother!

To breath, swim up from your LED screen,

about nature let us all bother

for a mind deep and serene

It’s red, blue, black and all,

sometimes it is plain

sometimes jeweled with big and small

it’s different but beautiful in every frame

Stars spread in multitudes of patterns,

huge but tiny

twinkling lanterns

up above the world so high

It brings calm when clear,

it sprinkles when crowded

and makes the land greener

a demonstration of life after one’s dead

It’s magnificent straight up

it’s harmonic at the horizon

without a pillar, maintained high up

such wonderful is Lord’s creation

It’s a beauty, they kiss it, the mountain peaks;

man does appreciate the perfection and beauty

through the long telescopic sneaks

but has failed to accept the Creator’s reality

Man readily accepts the reflected radiation

and lets it enter their ear-holes

but when for mankind comes down Revelation

they reflect not, or it would bring life to souls!

Take sometime and look above

stare deep and long into the sky

for the universe, it’ll increase your love

and it’s Creator you’ll identify

Yes the sky, our roof

About the Creator’s existence, it is the proof!!

MBBS graduate from Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad

A Glance at Our Roof…

- TALHA FAIYAZUDDIN

| EXPRESSION |


- KASHIF MANSOOR.

| ECONOMICS |

Do you feel ashamed of being born Indian? Do you think India was a shameful place to live in before one year? Does the legacy of fast emerging Indian econo-my (supposedly) not have credit to its erstwhile legendary personalities? Or do you NOW feel ashamed of being an Indian on NaMo’s unrealistic remarks dur-ing his UNENDING world tour in Shanghai and Seoul? I don’t know how each one of you feels but this much is obvious: Our Hon’ble Prime Minister is fatally narcissist. This is awkwardly ludicrous to note that how foolishly he degraded the reputation of a vast multitude diverse populace. May 2015 marks the com-pletion of his coming in power, along with many political and economic poli-cies unfolding and delivering their own [un]desired outcomes and a plethora of inter-community violent clashes seeing a deep abdominal lull on the lips of Mr. Narendra Modi. The silence of PM thrashes the hopes and expectations of the masses. Silence of a person of such stature on so overwhelming issues is detrimental to a well-functioning progressive and accommodative democracy.

To judge BJP-NDA led governance on the basis of one year performance and other economic and social indicators is too naïve. Nevertheless it’s no harm evaluating the impact of the policies unleashed so far on different strata of society. As the saying goes coming events cast their shadows before.

The Modi government came up with a big list of manifesto before the assem-bly elections, promising lofty development with ‘sab ka vikas sab ke sath’ and rolling in of ‘achche din’. The man was reincarnated into the savior of human-ity by media and corporates; distinct from what was the reality as witnessed in the case of Gujrat carnage 2002. This stands true to testimony that the religious minorities have increasingly come under fears and insecurity as anti-minority hate mongering speeches laden with targets of de-humanizing particular com-munities started to flow unhindered and unchecked. With BJP in power, its ideologue RSS has started to swing even more aggressively and violently deci-mating the social and cultural fabric of a pluralistic republic.

The cultural ethos were heavily affected by the politics of Ghar Wapsi where by thousands of Muslims and Christians were forced to ‘come home’ in terms of faith as the ancestors were Hindus- and ‘love Jihad’ which sounds so nonsensi-cal in as to why Muslim boys would make love with Hindu girls in times of their increasing population (as reiterated by them) and henceforth me being com-

One year of governance: Hopes are still alive


pelled to question ‘is Hindu beauty more jaw-dropping than Muslim beauty?’

Now coming to the political dis-course, it’s agonizing to find the weakening of democracy and the emergence of majotarian democracy rather than a participatory one. Of the 282 seats no minister belongs to minority. The test of democracy lies in how it treats the minority and how the judiciary functions. With innumerable cases of injustice add-ing to the previous stockpiles, the promises of development no matter it is attained, become hollow and thereby precludes the people from participating in the nation-building. When a nation’s people are not em-powered and justice-starved, the future seems bleak casting off nega-tive vibes on overall economy’s pro-gress. If the political leaders are not grounded to the social forces which brought them to power, democracy turns into authoritarian autocracy.

The promises as made in the mani-festo again remain unfulfilled with the announcement of Arun Jaitley annual budget 2015-16. The great-est brunt the budget had was on social sectors like education, health and public services to the benefits of private corporate sector. It is no denying that physical capital is im-portant for economic growth but equally important is human capital and other economic institutions in-cluding social norms. However the budget overlooked these insights and allocated poorly both in real

and relative terms to education and health. With the reduction of corporate taxes from 30% to 25% and increasing the services taxes and education cess, the budget has firmly come in the interests of big corporates and no good to the poor and ‘aam aadmi’.

Despite alarming cuts in budget-ary allocations to the tune of 3900 crores, the BJP overall approach to higher education is undermin-ing the autonomy and creativity of central universities by introducing a common admission and common syllabus along with transferable fac-ulty. Each university has its unique-ness and specifies. The idea of cen-tralization and homogenization will disturb not only the quality of di-verse research patterns but also the plural nature of the universities. The choice-based credit system as be-ing propounded in ‘New Education policy’ is itself contradictory to the nature of diversity in universities. This policy is being tried to imple-ment without proper consultations and deliberations with the experts. It stand clear that the education is being saffaronised enthusing it with Sangh culture and ideologies by way of deliberate attempts to re-write history. This is a serious step towards crafting a Hindu Rashtra.

With a big push for creating a conducive environment for private investment, the Modi government launched the Make in India cam-paign aiming at developing India into a global manufacturing hub.

Though economic experts are of di-verse opinions, with partly question-ing the sustainability of the program given the low competitiveness of In-dia’s exports and unskilled labor force and partly arguing with a serious note of dissent about lack of planning to improve the labor productivity and employment generation, I am more concerned about the future fate of Indian economy if such neo-liberal policies are unleashed ignoring the fact that the country has wide income-inequalities and regional inequalities. A balanced and uniform development strategy is imperative with importance attached to productivity enhancement of the poor and a sound corporate gov-ernance, not merely heavily regulating it but giving proper incentives to all economic agents.

Four more years to go, the common citizenry still hopes to gain for what they voted him to power. However en-meshed in such a highly communal charged and economic slowdown en-vironment, the people and civil socie-ties are distressed. The farmers are pa-thetic and hoping for something, poor kids are aspiring to go to schools, the small businesses are credit crunch and expecting some, the aad aadmi are still looking for stable prices and afforda-ble housing. I appeal to Hon’ble Prime Minister to look into people’s concerns and discern strategies that could re-ally make the slogan of ‘achche din’ a reality to feel and touch upon.

M.A Economics from HCU, Hy-derabad.

The promises as made in the manifesto again remain unfulfilled with the announcement of Arun Jaitley annual budget 2015-16. The greatest brunt the budget had was on social sectors like educa-tion, health and public services to the benefits of private corporate sector. It is no denying that physical capital is important for eco-nomic growth but equally important is human capital and other economic institutions including social norms.


She has done excellent, proved that her poverty does not come in her way to success and is now highly determined to prepare for competitive exams. Shalini, a resi-dent of Maiyappanpalya Bengalaru has scored 84.8% in science stream despite the fact that she works as domestic help at 8 different places. She was just some scores behind the topper who attained 99.1%. Reportedly, her father has been bed-ridden since she was seven years old, after he fell off a build-ing. While he has regained some movement now, he is still restricted in his movements and is compelled to stay within the confines of his

Calicut University has instituted an inter-nal enquiry into the embarrassing incident of the varsity issuing erroneous degree cer-tificates to students. Vice-chancellor (VC) M Abdul Salam on Monday appointed a two-member enquiry commission, headed by syndicate examination standing committee convener K M Nazeer, to probe the incident. The committee will submit its report within seven days. The fiasco in issuance of degree certificates was exposed last week after it was found that a BSc nursing student was is-sued a degree certificate mentioning her de-gree as MBBS and a BBA student was given a BCom certificate.

Meanwhile the preliminary report, submit-ted by controller of examinations (CoE) V V Georgekutty to the VC on Monday, said that there were five instances of BSc nursing stu-dents receiving certificates that mentioned their degrees as MBBS and in one case a BBA student was provided a BCom certificate. The report said that glitches in the software provided by C-DIT was the reason.

Once again Osmania University students staged a massive protest against the Telengana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s move to allocate portion of university land to construct houses for the poor.

They said that already many portions of the university land were under encroachment and successive governments have failed to protect the century-old university land. The students staged protest in front of the Telangana secretariat and burnt KCR’s effigy.

However the government is unmoved by the protests and added that “universities do not need thousands of acres”.

Hitting out at opposition parties, Rao accused “They want the poor to remain poor forever, as they do not like change to occur in the lives of the poor.” We are not the erstwhile Maharajahs and eve-ry inch of our urban land should be put to efficient use, he added.

Stating that in Hyderabad, some political parties gave away thou-sands of acres to race courses, golf clubs and playing card clubs, but are now resorting to petty politicking at the idea of using gov-ernment lands for building homes to the poor.

He declared that “I would at any cost build houses to benefit two lakh poor in the city in phases; and, that too, on government lands. To achieve this goal, what is needed is land. The land cannot be cre-ated in a whiff. It needs to be adjusted. I contemplated to use a part of the OU land to implement the development projects,” he added.

Hats off to a hard-working girl

University awarding fakedegree certificates

KCR’plan to build houses for the poor met students’ agitation

house. Her mother worked as a domestic help in several houses so she could provide for Shalini and her younger brother. But early this year, her brother was diagnosed with third stage blood can-cer, dealing a serious blow to the already-strained family circumstances.

She is an early bird who wakes up at 4.30am, completes household chores and then rushes to five neighbour houses. At 6 am she sweeps and mops the floors of an office and at 7.30am she is off

to wash the clothes at yet another house. Back to home at 9am, she stud-ies three hours for CET keeping an eye on her younger brother father and domestic chores. At 6 pm again she goes to work in different houses, only to return home at night and then slogging to score well. Such a tiring and hectic schedule did not hold her back. Instead she managed her time so well that she raised the name of her family.

She praises her teachers for their support, and says she doesn’t mind the hard work, so long as she can support her family.

| CAMPUS NEWS |


Calling the manner in which the state was intervening in higher education ‘worrying and alarming’, a group of academicians from Delhi’s Central universities expressed their opposition against the ‘thoughtlessness’ behind the choice-based credit system (CBCS), and the ‘opacity and reckless speed’ with which it is being pursued.

The opposition to the Centre’s at-tempt at academic reforms comes weeks after the University Grants Com-mission (UGC), in a public notice is-sued on April 10, said it is ready with the draft model syllabi for undergradu-ate courses.

The UGC plans to introduce CBCS in varsities across India starting this year. In its notice, the commission had sought feedback from stakeholders within 15 days. The new system pro-poses a common syllabus for all cen-

Choice-based credit system: Education will suffer

PhD thesis on sale near IIT-D and JNU

tral universities, a common entrance test, and faculty and credit transfers.

“Centralised control of standardised curriculum is suggestive of a lack of aca-demic rigour. A common syllabus for 51 universities is not only a mammoth task, but also largely unnecessary. Good universities will have to lower standards in order to conform to a common standard of teaching the same syllabus,” Romi-laThapar, renowned historian and Emerita professor at JNU, said.

“In this entire system, there will be two casualties. First, the standard of ed-ucation in good universities will suffer. The second and bigger casualty is that universities will no longer be autonomous. It is essential for universities to be au-tonomous to devise reasonable teaching ways. What one fears, then, is that uni-versities will be reduced to teaching shops and coaching centres,” Thapar said.

“We accept that much needs to be reformed in the country’s education system, especially in the higher education system. But what we want is a creative reform, not a top-down, poorly thought out process like this,” Satish Deshpande, Sociol-ogy Professor at Delhi University, said.

The group claimed that homogenisation of curricula across universities is not a means to enhance quality.

Farida Khan, Professor at JamiaMilliaIslamia’s School of Education, said, “The justifications offered are enhanced employability, skill development and seam-less nationwide mobility for students. However, the reforms fail to differentiate between curricula and syllabi,”

There are boards that an-nounce “Projects and Assign-ments.” Students from differ-ent colleges go around shop after shop to look for a better bargain, some places charge per word, some per page. The entire place looks like a spe-cialised market. The place is Ber Sarai market which is situ-ated on the boundary between Indian Institute of Technol-ogy (IIT), Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

The first few pages reveal that these are thesis and projects which are submitted to univer-sities and colleges by students. The names are still there, all you need to do is change the initial credits and the name of

the university. “This will cost you Rs. 300, if you want to get it print-ed that will cost you separately. There is difference between the prices for hard bound and spiral bound. The plagiarism detecting softwares check the databases of universities and the internet to search for duplicate content. The mafia has a hack for that too.

Ber Sarai is not the only such market, outside other reputed universities in Delhi the situa-tion is no different. Delhi Univer-sity North campus has Patel Chest Market, Amity University has Noida Sector-18 market and Jamia Millia Islamia and other South Delhi colleges have Nehru place where similar practices are just as open as Ber Sarai.

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Growth and fiscal con-solidation are compat-

ible with each other: Dr. Arvind Subramanian

Electric racing car at IIT Bombay

Students Islamic Organi-sation has organized a pro-test against the approval amendment of Child labour act In front Of District Com-missioners Office.

In a press release the or-ganization has stated that the Union Cabinet has given approval to the proposed amendments to the Child Labour (Prohibition & Reg-ulation) Amendment Bill, 2012 on 13/05/ 2015. Karna-taka Zone (SIO) condemns the proposed amendments and demands for review of the same in larger The Pro-posed amendment bill has prohibited the child labour upto age of 14 years in all occupations and processes but it has created exception in the name of ‘Family En-terprise’ and ‘Audio-visual

Government allows children below 14 to workIndustry.’ The government sees it as a balance “be-tween the need for education of a child and the real-ity of the socio-economic condition and social fabric in the country.”

SIO believes that most of child labour happens at ‘Family Enterprise’ only. Such Children are already effectively outside of normal world of child fantasy and innocence.

The proposed amendments are legitimizing and legalizing such rampant practice of child labour by ‘Family Enterprise’

Further the proposed amendment has created an-other group called adolescents (14 to 18 years of age) in the CLPR Act and employment of adolescents has been prohibited in hazardous occupations and processes only, but allowed to work in other sec-tors. The Proposed amendments runs contrary to the spirit of Right of Children to Free and Compul-sory

Education Act, 2009 and other International con-ventions like the UN conventions on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), International Labour Organisa-tion (ILO) Conventions 138 and 182, National Policy for Children 2013.

Speaking at a session on Economic Survey Outreach 2014-15 organised by the School of Economics, Dr Arvind Subramanian, India’s Chief Economic Adviser explained the big ideas pre-sented in the Economic Survey 2014-15, to students, faculty and staff at the Uni-versity of Hyderabad (UoH), on Tuesday.

Dr Subramanian presented ‘Push for Public Investment’ as the first big idea. “There are many investment challeng-es; balance sheet syndrome with India characteristic hold back private invest-ment. Many countries have good bank-ruptcy laws where promoters, bankers, owners etc. come together and find a way out when a business is not perform-ing badly. In India, we don’t have effec-tive exit ways.

Our bureaucracy is not empowered to take decisions that are conducive for the public investment. These aspects present negative case for public invest-ment and these institutional issues need to be addressed to facilitate public investment that is much needed for the economy,” he stressed at the meet. Dr Subramanian also mentioned that skill development is an under-invested area and railways can also attract public in-vestment in NDA-II regime.

The second big idea highlighted at the session was fiscal consolidation path. Dr Subramanian said that growth and fiscal consolidation are compatible with each other. “India is now looking for a target of 3.9 per cent and not of 3.6 per cent and there are sufficient rationales to achieve this,” he added.

The IIT Bombay Racing team un-veiled a new Formula Student electric racing car that can accelerate from 0 to 100 kmph in just 3.5 seconds, and touch a top speed of 111 kmph.

Christened EVo 4.0 Formula Student Electric Car, the car will participate in “Formula Student” competition, an in-ternational student motorsport event held annually at the Silverstone circuit in UK in July.

IIT Bombay Racing is an independ-ent student organisation in IIT Bom-bay, comprising of 75 students spread

across various engineering disciplines and united by a common passion to design, fabricate and race electric cars, and participate in the Formula Student competition organised by London-based Institution of Mechanical Engi-neers (IMechE)

Professor Soumyo Mukherji, Dean of Student Affairs IITB, said that the students have been a completely inde-pendent organisation with a clear goal in mind. “From sponsorships, to design and implementation, they have done it all by themselves,” he said.

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