Delhi needs more smog towers!

Does Delhi need more smog towers? This question is being raised in several circles as demand for smog towers is growing in several parts of the capital city Delhi and NCR. As Delhi has faced critical situation in the recent past the administrative and environmental structure have come out with a robust ‘solution’ in form of smog towers... read more

POLL LIST, GANGRAPE & STUDENTS' AGITATION

City This Week

Finally the list is out. As the capital city is celebrating Makar Sankranti with other states and poll notification has been issued by the Election Commission, the process of announcement of name of candidates for assembly polls has started. While LJP and some other parties have already announced the names of candidates, the ruling AAP too announced the names of its candidates for all 70 assembly seats in Delhi. Other two major parties BJP and Congress too will announce their candidates in couples of days.

But the list of AAP is quite interesting. While, city’s CM heavily relying on women voters for the elections the list elaborates completely different story. The list of 70 candidates include less than 15 percent female candidates. Only nine women candidates have been accomodated in the list although 23 new faces have been included in the list. Although, 15 new candidates have been accomodated in the list but there are several allegations and counter allegations started taking place regarding corruption during the ticket distribution.

The city is already witnessing some interesting war of words between Delhi’s BJP Chief Manoj Tiwari and city’s CM Arvind Kejriwal after Bhojpuri actor turned politician Tiwari allegedly appeared in Kejriwal’s promo. Tiwari slapped rupees 500 crore legal notice on Kejriwal for defamation. The list of BJP and Congress yet to be appeared as both are waiting for each other’s strategies.  

Delhi’s much-hyped gangrape case Nirbhaya has now encountered with another twist. As Supreme court rejected curative petition of two of the convicts and High Court has clearly refused to put a stay on the death warrants of the convicts the city government has said that hanging of the convicts could not take place on the scheduled date due to technical-legal reasons. This clearly means that execution of capital punishment needs more time.

As the tussle between agitated students and university administration has started defusing the JNU and Jamia have now started academic activities. The city too has taken a sigh of relief as students of both the universities are now participating in the academic activities rather than the misleading agitations. However, demands of students and faculty are yet to be fulfilled but process of dialogue has taken place. Although some of the agitations are still taking place in the city and some of the protesters have been able to show their anguish to the PM Narendra Modi as he was going to participate in the global meet ‘Raisina Dialogue’ in New Delhi. Gobal leaders discussed several issues including climate change and Iran issue during their discussions.

JNU, NIrbhaya... Delhi preparing for polls!

Chandan Sharma

At last, death warrants for all four convicts of Nirbhaya gang rape case have been issued on Tuesday by a city court, giving the city a great sigh of relief, that jolted the entire city as well as many parts of the country. Although, the legal remedy does not end here for all the convicts but it certainly provide some relief for victim’s family and the entire women community in general for the moment.

But, it is a matter of the fact that it neither the first case of rape nor the last. National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) are full of data of such atrocities and crime against women’s dignity. But, big question still there that why such crime happens. There are different versions. Police has different theory; victims react differently, psychologists have different explanation, sociologists and anthropologists have different theories about such crimes. But one thing is certainly common that all community equivocally believe that it is a crime.

But, actual remedy begins at the basic learning place. As it was recently described by a leader during an interaction with women entrepreneurs and businesswomen. According to him, there is need to provide some value education to each and every child in schools, colleges and families. It is also needed that they should be boycotted by their families, in case they were caught indulged in such kind of activities.

Not only Nirbhaya case; Delhi also jolted by the attack on student’s at JNU. Although, it was more the clash between two ideological groups than the movement against any specific atrocities. In fact, it is prima facie seems a matter of mal-administration of the much reputed university, which is known for intellectual debates and discussions and movements rather that goons. It is yet to know that why the university administration unable to sort out the issues raised by students during the registration process that ultimately injured over 25 students including JNUSU president as well as members of both right wing and left wing student organizations.

It is another matter that it has given a big opportunity to both political leaders and Bollywood stars to come close to the young community of the university. Moreover, several student organisations of various universities. But question remains that why the two big leaders stayed away from the entire process and who were those goons? Though, police has claimed to identify the masked goons but the demand of removal of VC is gaining momentum as a senior political leaders too demanded the removal.

And the counting for the election has finally been started in the city. As date of the polling has been announced by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora the stage is now perfectly ready for polls. The recent attack on JNU students, the protest on the issue of CAA and NRC in the some parts of the city and Nirbhaya’s case have created a perfect atmosphere in Delhi for polls. But as Delhi has experimented several types of government including right wing BJP, centralist Congress and left oriented AAP. Now it is difficult to understand the mood of the public of the city; despite that fact that Delhi has a tendency to go with the ruling party. As the city has crossed the number of voters to 1.46 crore parties are relying on their surveys. But will these surveys actually work? There are so many factors in this concern and counting started.

(Chandan Sharma is founder of Yuvavani.com/ A pvt. initiative)

2020: QUEST FOR BETTERMENT TO CONTINUE DESPITE ODDS

2020: TEENAGE ERA OVER; HOPES ALIVE
CHANDAN SHARMA

The new year has finally arrived with a bang. Amid fear of the slowdown and a mega stimulus for the infrastructure sector by the government has, at least, gave an indication that the quest for the prosperous and happier nation and world to continue in the coming days despite all odds.

The year 2019 will be known for some of the unique and bold decisions. These decision would certainly impact the future of the entire nation. The country witnessed probably the biggest decision in the recent history or say in the modern history of India – Supreme verdict on Ayodhya temple was probably the biggest decision of over a century old conflict.

On the other hand, rise of people’s awareness about climate change and young Greta’s biggest challenge ‘How dare you’ certainly made an impact on the ruling community of the world and compelled them to seriously consider about the carbon credit and environmental protection.

The year 2019 also raised alarm for Himalayan crisis and melting of glaciers in polar regions and Himalaya. This was probably first year when people encountered with bizarre picture of international mountaineers, making beeline to climb world’s highest Mount Everest, indicating crisis of adventure tourism in the region.

Moreover, the capital city Delhi experienced a shivering cold as the city encountered with the coldest day in the century, colder than other hill stations.

Abrogation of article 370 is certainly a big step taken by the government to make India a united country and paved the way for ‘one nation one constitution’. India also added two new union territories, Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, this year.

Promulgation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is another big step despite controversies and protests by the opposition parties and youth. Although, there may be some concerns from various quarters but the decision was certainly a bold step despite all criticism. These concerns can be addressed in the future course of action. As far as protest is concerned, this was fuelled more due to misinformation and mismanagement of the administrative and communication tools and it can not be mixed with NRC or NPR.

The year 2020 is also going to the year of new political permutation and combination as opposition Congress or Congress supported (UPA) emerged as the major party in state politics in 2019. This gives so many indications for 2019 but also says that road ahead for BJP is not so smooth. The void created, by passing away of some of the political leaders like Arun Jaitley, Sheila Dikshit, Sushma Swaraj, S. Jaipal Reddy and some others, seems difficult to fill in the new year.

Not only politics, but media also faced some tough and challenging times. Several esteemed newspapers closed their editions or shut down the operations in some of the metro cities.  These include newspapers like ‘The Hindu’, ‘Deccan Chronicle’ and several others. Vernacular newspapers also forced to shut down in the cut-throat competition with electronic media and internet. Channels were not much different in this concern. This was despite the fact that several stimulus announced for the corporate sectors.

However, there are several economic challenges are still haunting the nation but Prof. Abhijit Banerjee’s Nobel prize gave some solace for India amid disappointments like crash landing of Chandrayaan-2, loss of 45 lives due to fire in Delhi, flood in Patna and many others in 2019.

There are several milestones in defence and diplomatic areas but one big achievement must be acknowledged that India emerged as a global leader in the renewable energy and telecom and its quest will continue in the era of rise of youth power despite plethora of social, political and economic challenges.  So, happy 2020!

(Chandan Sharma is founder of Yuvavani.com; A pvt. initiative)

Merry Christmas

Celebration of Christmas and preparations for new year grip Delhi's mood despite all odds.  

Citizenship Amendment: Protest in the era of misinformation

Chandan Sharma

Why the citizenship amendment act (CAA) has become so controversial? And, why the students some of the best central universities are so agitated that they had to take the route of violence to express their anguish against the law? This question also show the behaviour of the ‘failed administration’ to control a simple law and order problem and allow it to become a national issue. In fact, the Prime Minister had to intervene into the matter and appealed younger generation to be peaceful and calm.

It is a matter of the fact that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is now become a law after getting nod from the both the houses of the parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) and approval from the president of India. It is also a matter of the fact that the law talks about granting of citizenship to the minority communities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, persecuted in their countries due to their religious belief and migrated from these neighboring countries. Certainly, it does not talk about majority community (Muslims) of these Islamic nations. 

There are several aspects of the law. Exclusion of the Muslims is the ‘big issue’, as being projected by non-NDA leaders and parties as well as student leaders of some of the universities. As the law talks about only minorities of these three nations, certainly no question of disparity arises due to religious belief. But despite the debate, that continued over 20 hours in the both the houses of the parliament, government or ruling BJP unable to spread the clear message among the people, especially among the minorities. 

This has certainly gave the chance to some of the opportunist leaders to mislead and confuse the ill-informed students and younger generation and convert the confusion into a big nationwide protest, that ultimately to benefit some of the rivals and enemies. But before going into the details of all these, it must be understood that this law does not restrict Muslims to get citizenship of India. But conditions apply everywhere, even in case of the applying for a simple ration card or aadhar card.  Moreover, a refugee, in India or anywhere else, is entitled to enjoy or get certain amenities from the concerned country. That is certainly an extra burden for that nation. As far as India is concerned, the total number of official and unofficial refugees is in millions or even in crores. The implementation of NRC in Assam revealed about 1.9 million refugees in a single state. It must be remembered that there are over 30 states in India and bordering states have large number of refugees, both officially and unofficially. Moreover, in absence of proper habitat for them these refugees become cause of socio-economical-urban complexities and put a heavy pressure on life and culture of locals. This can be understood by condition of some of the states facing acute refugee problems like North-eastern states, J&K, West Bengal, Odisha, border areas of Bihar, UP and some of the southern states and some of metro cities.  

Even if these refugees are entitled to get citizenship or granted citizenship by the state, it is a difficult task to get  them absorbed in the society. It takes decades or even generations to get absorb in the society. But at the same time it is a matter of the fact that these communities are darling of regional parties. They use them as vote bank during the polls. It is also a fact that citizen of other nations sometimes considered as the normal citizens of India and not as refugees. So, it is not that the issue of refugees or migrant refugees is not going to resolve completely by this issue but the new law will certainly open a new window of solution for a large number of refugee populations. As the law entitles Christians, Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist and Jain community to get citizenship in India, the intelligence report also gave a rough calculation of the number of such minorities in these nations. If go by the calculation or estimates, it does not cross 50,000 marks. In the country like India it is not difficult to accommodate them. 

But this also become a reason to protest. But here it must be noted that these protest mostly on ethnic line as the mainstream political parties, sitting in opposition, unable to stop the bill in the parliament or unable to send it to the select committee, so that a wider discussion could take place. 

But democracy is also about raising of voice not for suppression. Whatever happened in some of the universities including Jamie Millia Islamia in New Delhi or AMU or some other institutions, including Assam is an example of ‘failed administration’ on the issue of maintaining law and order. Students or younger generation may be confused or misled by some miscreants; but mishandling the new generation in such a manner indicates two things clearly  - 1. The ‘failed administration’ is paving way for emergence of new generation of rebellion against state and 2. The ‘public administration’ still living in British era of suppression, that invited unnecessary attention from the global communities and give a chance to criticise the democratic process of the country and raises question of right to protest, raise voice and discussion on several issues in a peaceful and democratic manner. 

However, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has come out to defend the action taken against protestors after taking stock of situation and Supreme Court too has refused to put a stay on the Citizen Amendment. This is despite the fact that opposition leaders gave a representation before the President of India seeking withdrawal of the law. And, UN Chief Antonio Guterres’ in his message advocated all basic amenities for migrants on International Migrants Day. But, democratic rights in a democratic nation like India need right to protest peacefully, debate and discuss and raise the voice for people. Educational institutions like colleges and universities and other institutions are probably the best forum for free and fair discussion to understand best and worst of any important issue. Government or administration may like or not but their people too come from the similar system of debate, discussion (and democratic way to raise their voice). Unfortunately, human being is not robot.       

(Chandan Sharma is founder of Yuvavani.com, A pvt. Initiative)      

Low GDP: FM discusses with RBI Gov.

As the GDP growth has reached to worrisome level of 4.5% for the first time after Modi government took over the charge, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das called on Union Finance Minister to discuss the issue.
The latest data shows that the rate of GDP growth reached to lowest level in six years.(yuva vani.com is a pvt. Initiative)