View Articles

Reports of medical students and young doctors committing suicide even in the premier institute AIIMS is a matter of grave concern. This issue needs serious introspection on the part of medical profession as well as the society. Depression that these young doctors and students have to pass through may have several causes, both external and internal. Stress starts in students and their parents even as children enter into 10+1 class and are preparing to get into medical course. Many promising students remain devoid of the opportunity to get admission to the course they have aspired for all through their schooling because of exorbitant increase in the tuition fees due to privatization of medical education. Just because one does not have money to pay tuition fee to the tune of nearly one crore rupees for graduation and another one crore for post-graduation they fail to become doctors. They then look for other allied courses but never get reconciled to this.

If the ability of the state to protect its citizens—be they religious minorities or migrant workers from other provinces—from mass atrocities is the test for democracy, then Gujarat has failed the test again and again. In 2002, it was a failed communal state. In 2018, it has again proved itself to be a failed chauvinist and racist state.

M J Akbar is one of the brightest journalists and a handsome young man in his younger days; even now he has an impressive personality. No wonder women fell for him. With all the talents and rated as one of the best editor, he has a weakness for young women but it is a surprise that he would fall so low as described by 20 women journalists who worked under him at one time or other. Many upcoming women journalists left their jobs because they could not bear the harassment. At the same time, those who worked with him learnt a lot professionally.

MJ Akbar is out of the Council of Ministers and “they” think the state is free of the #MeToo stain. Ha! PMO got MJ to quit. NSA Ajit Doval did it. EAM Sushma Swaraj did it. WCDM Maneka did it. Blahblahblah… O! Great, just great. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is with the women! Zero tolerance for women-harassers. And women-bashers at Sabarimala. News is the Centre has sent a “stern advisory” to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan asking him to enforce rule of law and the Supreme Court verdict.

The Modi government’s Kashmir policy has been a grand failure. In 2015 when the election to J&K Assembly took place people participated with a great enthusiasm. However, the subsequent opportunistic alliance between PDP and BJP vitiated the atmosphere as the central government started pursuing the so-called strong arm approach of resolving all issues related to Kashmir. BJP’s constant threat of doing away with Article 370 of Constitution and its communal approach also added fuel to fire. But today after 4 years 6 months of misrule, the alienation of Kashmiri people is a reality. In the local body election participation of people was less than 3 per cent. Similarly, more than 1,200 Kashmiri students studying in Aligarh Muslim University have threatened to go back if cases against three Kashmiri students are not withdrawn, creating a crisis in the university and also in Kashmir.

Peaceniks in Afghanistan heaved a sigh of relief, with subdued optimism, when in November last year Col Chris Kolenda, an Afghan war veteran, boarded a Doha-bound plane, along with Robin Raphel for a dialogue with the Talibans - an experimental diplomacy sans formality, aimed at termination of the 17-year war in Afghanistan, a disastrous gamble for the US. Hi-fi strategic and diplomatic experts in the US, who ridiculed the move, have now chosen a disquieting quietitude as the effort bears distinct signs of an unprecedented triumph. Although the move was never formally authorised by U.S. officials, the Trump administration climbed down to assign Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan’s Reconciliation, to lead a U.S. delegation for peace talks with the Taliban representatives in Doha.

First it started as a trickle of bold expose by a few. Then it opened up the floodgates of years of pent-up frustration and anger of numerous women. The ‘Me Too’ phenomenon then literally turned into a deluge. The true colours of many big guys—from Bollywood celebrities to top-notch media barons, from reputed academic dons to NGO bosses—got exposed. Their credibility is lost beyond salvage.

“There is no God,” says physicist Stephen Hawking in his final book “Brief Answers to the Big questions” published posthumously. Coming at a time when a part of India known as ‘God’s Own Country’ is battling over whether women of all ages have the right to worship at the temple of a particular God, Hawking’s blanket declaration, if thrown into the Sabarimala mix, might take the discussion into blind alleys.

THURUVANANTHAPURAM: There is no escaping this conclusion: The Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has squandered another golden chance to defuse the tension over the ongoing agitation on the Sabarimala issue.

Barely a month after JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar announced that an honourable agreement had been reached with BJP, some senior JD(U) leaders have expressed unhappiness with the BJP's proposed formula for seat sharing in Bihar for the 2019 general elections.