THE
GOOD WORD
Jul 19, 2021 - Week 31
Volume 7S-10|
Pages 2
NHRC slams West Bengal for post poll
violence-’law of ruler’ not ‘rule of law’
Jul 13, the National
Human Rights
Commission (NHRC)
submitted its final
report on the post poll
violence in West Bengal
to Calcutta High Court
(HC). It contains a
scathing indictment of
the TMC, the Mamata
government and state
police. It recommends
that CBI should probe
‘grievous offences like
murder and rape’ and
that the trial should be
held outside the state.
The report castigates
the state police for
inaction, complicity and
capitulating to TMC
pressure. As per police
records about 2,000
complaints were lodged
in the aftermath of
Assembly polls,
between May 2 and Jun
20. Of the 9,300
accused in them for
heinous acts only 14%
were arrested. Within
that an abysmally low
3% were put in jail
while the rest were let
out on bail, indicating
abject failure of the
police.
The 7 member NHRC
panel separately
received 1,979
complaints visiting 311
places across 23
districts, over 20 days.
It received 57
complaints from the
National Women
Commission. It found a
huge gap between the
complaints filed by the
West Bengal police and
to those it had
received.
The report states ‘Poor
and common people
have lost faith in
Police.’ It stated almost
all victims reported
that the police either
did not respond to
their phone calls or
stood as a mere
spectator while goons
went on a rampage.
The NHRC lamented
that in several cases to
absolve TMC goons the
police filed counter
charges on the victim.
To add insult to injury
Bharat First
Raids continued on
Sunday at Nagpur even
after the attachment of
assets. ED claims
Deshmukh is not taking
calls now and is
untraceable.
Earlier Deshmukh had
skipped ED summons
thrice. He had asked ED
to conduct the meeting
via a virtual interface in
place of requiring his
presence. He had also
approached the
Supreme Court to
prevent ED from taking
‘coercive action’ against
him. On Jun 26, ED had
arrested Deshmukh’s
personal secretary
Jul 14, Madhya Pradesh
forest minister Mr Vijay
Shah announced that
starting November, 20
cheetahs from South
Africa, will be re-
introduced in India, at
the state’s 750 sq km
Kuno National Park. An
equal number of males
and females will be flown
in, in two batches.
The last cheetah in India
was spotted in 1951.
Cheetahs were
exterminated by hunting
and loss of habitat. India
had approached Iran for
an Asiatic cheetah
earlier, but given Iran’s
highly depleted numbers
the deal fell through. A
recent study found that
the African and Asian
species were genetically
identical. In 2020 the SC
allowed a reintroduction
of the African animal to
check if they can adapt.
At: Wikipedia, Britannica-Image,
TOI
Jul 14, The Taliban is
reinforcing barbaric
rules that characterized
its regime from 1996-
2001. In an online diktat
Taliban ordered clerics
in captured areas to
prepare a list of girls
above 15 and widows
under 45, to be married
to its insurgents. In
Takhar, men have been
ordered to grow beards,
women banned from
stepping out without a
male relative and trials
are being conducted
without evidence.
Jul 16, Afghan president
Ashraf Ghani claimed
10,000 jihadis had
entered his country
from Pakistan and other
areas in the last month.
He accused Pakistan of
supporting the Taliban.
More: Republic,
Zee,
SmartTraveller
Visit IndiaWiki.org
Student’s family records teacher’s
rant against BJP, forces resignation
Jul 14, the Supreme
Court (SC) said it will
examine the need for
the Allahabad High
Court (HC) to venture
into the executive
domain in the midst of
a pandemic, to order
UP government to
implement a range of
measures to manage
Covid more effectively.
Expressing displeasure,
it asked if the HC’s ‘Ram
Bharose’ (left to God’s
care) comment about
the UP health care
system was justified.
May 17, the HC, on a
case taken up suo moto
to deal with Covid
issues, had issued the
controversial order that
stirred a debate about
judicial overreach. May
22, the SC set aside that
order and cautioned the
HC not to pass orders
that cant’ be
implemented. Today it
reiterated the need to
respect the demarcation
of power under the
Constitution. The next
hearing is on Aug 12.
More: FinancialExpress,
OpIndia
Jul 7, in what appears to
be an advantage of
online schooling over a
classroom based model,
an alert student’s family
caught a teacher at
Gurugram’s Euro
International School on
camera, making an
objectionable and
misleading rant against
the BJP to tenth
standard students. The
act was reported to the
school principal. The
video is now viral on
social media. When the
principal sought an
explanation, teacher
submitted her
resignation and went
missing. The incident
raises a concern about
how content taught in
classroom sessions
should be monitored.
More at: ZeeNews,
SirfNews
to similar violations.
Per RBI, there are about
900 million debit and 60
million credit cards in
India. Visa is the largest
player in the debit card
space, followed by
Mastercard and RuPay.
Rupay is seen as a
disruptor with about
30% market share by
value. In the credit card
space Visa and
Mastercard are the two
dominant players.
An industry expert said,
RBI’s ban will force
banks aligned to
Mastercard to their
debit card business to
Rupay and credit card
to Visa. Public sector
banks which had largely
migrated to the
indigenous Rupay card
wont be impacted.
At: Business Standard, Reuters
Jul 16, the Enforcement
Directorate (ED)
provisionally attached
immovable assets of the
former Maharashtra
home minister Anil
Deshmukh and his
family, worth ₹4.2
crores at purchase
price. The present
worth of these assets
may be in excess of
₹300 crores per sources.
In a big development,
the ED attached a flat at
Worli that cost
₹1.5
crores and 25 parcels of
land in Raigarh costing
₹2.7 crores under the
Prevention of Money
Laundering Act (PMLA).
Jul 14, the death toll in
the South African (SA)
riots has climbed to 72.
The unrest follows
president Jacob Zuma’s
arrest to serve a
Constitutional Court
sentence for 15 months,
as he failed to testify
before a state enquiry
investigating corruption
charges from 2009 to
2018. Dealings with the
Indian origin Gupta
brothers are also under
scrutiny. Their assets
have been frozen and a
red corner Interpol
notice has been issued
against them. A force of
25,000 cops using stun
grenades and rubber
bullets has still not been
able to quell the riot.
1,200 arrests were
made in two provinces.
Indians are SA’s richest
community. They are
facing misplaced local
resentment. So vigilante
groups are resorting to
arms for self defense.
Republic 1-2,
BBart, image-SAToday
Unprecedented
rioting in SA
claims 72 lives
Jul 14, Sister Lucy
Kalappuraykkal from
the St Mary's church in
Kerala's Wayanad, told
Republic TV, that she
will argue her own case
before the Kerala High
Court as no lawyer is
prepared to appear for
her.
In June, Vatican’s
Apostolica Signatura,
the highest judicial
authority in the catholic
church had upheld her
congregation's decision
to strip her of
sisterhood following the
nun’s protest against
rape-accused ex-Bishop
Franco Mulakkal in
2018. The church
dismissed sister Lucy
and made her vacate its
premises in August
2019. Sister Lucy feels
hopeful that the court
will listen to her as, she
says “I know what I'm
saying is the truth,"
Sister Lucy also
despaired that no
woman should be
thrown out into the
street after being
judged unfairly.
At: Republic, IndiaToday
victims were made to
apologize to criminals.
It added that the
violence was
retributive. It target
those who ‘dared’ to
vote or support the BJP.
Neither senior
politicians nor officials
condemned the
violence indicating a
toxic politico-
bureaucratic-criminal
nexus in Bengal. It
concluded that the
situation is a
manifestation of ‘Law
of Ruler’, instead of
‘Rule of Law’.
Jul 2, after NHRC’s
interim report the HC
chastised the state
government for falsely
asserting there was no
post poll violence. It
ordered the police to
file an FIR against TMC
goons on NHRC’s
direction. The NHRC
report is an outcome of
an order by a five-judge
bench of the HC on Jun
18 to probe the post
poll violence.
More at OpIndia
Jul 17, chief justice of
India, NV Ramana
inaugurated live
streaming of proceedings
of the Gujarat High Court
(HC), describing it as a
measure to widen the
gates of justice.
Oct 2020, Gujarat HC had
commenced streaming of
proceedings of its first
bench on pilot basis. Its
official channel on
YouTube received an
encouraging response
with 65,000 subscribers
and over 41 lac views. So
the court launched live
streaming of proceedings
across all willing benches
yesterday.
Chief justice Ramana
expressed pleasure that
viewership of court
proceedings will no
longer be constrained by
room space. Public will
gain first hand access to
the court’s observations
and this will prevent
vested interests in media
from selectively playing
up parts of proceedings.
At: New Indian Express,
DeshGujarat
Palande and personal
assistant Shinde who
were remanded to
custody.
ED is probing
allegations levelled by
the dismissed police
officer Sachin Waze that
Deshmukh had
instructed him to extort
₹100 crore per month
from bars, restaurants
and outlets. As part of
the probe ED had
uncovered a trail of ₹4.7
crores allegedly paid by
bar owners to a trust
owned by Deshmukh,
through Waze and
intermediaries.
Republic, Times of India, ANI-image
Jul 14, the Reserve Bank
of India (RBI)
indefinitely barred
Mastercard from issuing
new debit or credit
cards to domestic
customers for violating
data storage rules that
require the company to
store Indian payment
data within the country
so the regulator can
have ‘unfettered
supervisory access’ to it.
The RBI added
considerable time had
been given for
compliance. The move
will not impact
Mastercard’s existing
customers.
The ban comes into
effect on Jul 22. In May,
RBI had banned
American Express and
Diners Club
International from
issuing new cards due
Shri Adi Shankaracharya Guru Purnima image
courtesy GuruPradhan
Taliban revive the
medieval era, call
for girls
SC questions
Allahabad HC’s
‘Ram Bharose’
ED attaches former Maharashtra
home
minister’s property valued
at ₹300 crores
RBI bans new issues of Mastercard
for failing to move database
to India
Subscribe Now! Annual Subscription
Rs 1,200
Sister Lucy argue
her own case to
stay on at church
Cheetah set to
make a comeback
in India
Gujarat High Court
starts live
streaming of cases
Jul 19, 2021 |
Week 31 | Volume
7S-10
Bharat First
Visit IndiaWiki.org
PAGE 2
THE GOOD WORD
Amit Shah addresses the 18
th
investiture ceremony of the
Border Security Force, cites
a
focus on border infrastructure
development
Thar with highs of 45
degrees Celsius the
force remains
devoted to duty.
After the 1965 war
the seeds of the BSF
were sown with a
force of 25 battalions
in states along the
border. Since then
the force had grown
considerably.
India has vast
borders. Our
coastline runs about
7,500 km and the
land border, more
than 15,000 km. He
said for a long time
there was no
comprehensive
security policy. When
prime minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee's
government was
formed it provided
momentum to this
initiative and a
principle of ' One
Border, One Force'
was approved. A
blueprint was created
and responsibilities of
each force were
fixed.
The Modi
government gave
priority to the work
on developing border
infrastructure. Citing
figures, he illustrated
how the progress
achieved in 6 years
under prime minister
Modi far exceeded
that of the previous
six years as seen in
the graphs on the
right. Budget
allocation for road
construction
increased 91% to
₹44,000 crores
under the six years of
Modi government
from 2014 to 2020 vs
₹23,000 crores in the
earlier six years from
2008 to 2014.
Kilometers of roads
constructed have
similarly gone up
32%, number of
tunnels increased 6
times and the length
of bridges made, by
99%. It was the
prime minister’s
belief that
unless the basic
infrastructure in
borders areas is
improved, people will
migrate away from
these regions and
eventually it will
become difficult to
protect uninhabited
borders.
The home minister
spoke about a central
initiative to fence
gaps on border. He
pointed out that a 3%
gap in the perimeter
fence opens up
possibilities for
infiltration and may
render the remaining
97% useless. Modi
government has
accelerated filling of
gaps and by 2022 all
remaining gaps in
border fence will be
plugged. A
Comprehensive
Integrated Border
Management System
(CIBMS) that involves
smart fences,
advanced surveillance
gadgets and anti-
infiltration alarms has
been sped up by the
ministry of home
affairs.
Para-military forces
had been made nodal
organisations for the
implementation of
government projects
in border villages.
Infrastructure
development works
were being
undertaken to
provide basic services
to the residents and
prevent emigration.
Under the Modi
government a
separate sovereign
security policy has
been created where
security earlier was
addressed as part of
the foreign policy.
Border security is
national security, the
home minister
emphasized.
He lauded the
achievement of the
BSF in preventing
infiltration and
smuggling of
contraband. BSF
seized narcotics
worth ₹15 billion,
gold and silver worth
₹ 4.5 crore,
killed 15
terrorists and
apprehended about
2,000 terrorists and
infiltrators. He also
commended the role
of the forces in anti-
naxal operations.
---------------------
More at: PIB.gov.in,
Wikipedia, Republic,
The Hindu, image-The
Week.in
To contribute content to The Good Word email IndiaWiki2020@gmail.com
Jul 16, home minister
Amit Shah awarded
medals and
addressed a
gathering at the 18
th
investiture ceremony
of the Border Security
Force (BSF) at New
Delhi.
The BSF with 186
battalions and a
sanctioned strength
of about 2.6 lac
personnel is the
world’s largest
border guarding force
and India’s first line
of defense. It guards
the borders along
Pakistan and
Bangladesh. The
Indo-Tibetan Border
Police protects the
Chinese frontline,
Assam Rifles patrols
the Myanmar border
and the Sahastra
Seema Bal monitors
the boundary along
Nepal and Burma.
The home minister
thanked the brave
officers and
personnel of the BSF
for their indomitable
courage, valour and
outstanding service
to the nation. Be it
the freezing
Himalayan heights
with lows of -45
degrees or the
scorching desert of
Budget allocation
for road
construction
increased 91% to
₹44,000 crores
under the six years
of Modi
government from
2014 to 2020 vs
₹23,000 crores in
the earlier six
years from 2008 to
2014.
All knowledge,
therefore, secular or
spiritual, is in the
human mind. In many
cases it is not
discovered, but remains
covered, and when the
covering is being slowly
taken off, we say, "We
are learning," and the
advance of knowledge
is made by the advance
of this process of
uncovering. The man
from whom this veil is
being lifted is the more
knowing man, the man
upon whom it lies thick
is ignorant, and the man
from whom it has
entirely gone is all-
knowing, omniscient.
There have been
omniscient men, and, I
believe, there will be
yet; and that there will
be myriads of them in
the cycles to come. Like
fire in a piece of flint,
knowledge exists in the
mind; suggestion is the
friction which brings it
out. So with all our
feelings and action —
our tears and our
smiles, our joys and our
griefs, our weeping and
our laughter, our curses
and our blessings, our
praises and our blames
— every one of these
we may find, if we
calmly study our own
selves, to have been
brought out from within
ourselves by so many
blows. The result is
what we are. All these
blows taken together
are called Karma —
work, action. Every
mental and physical
blow that is given to the
soul, by which, as it
were, fire is struck from
it, and by which its own
power and knowledge
are discovered, is
Karma, this word being
used in its widest sense.
Thus we are all doing
Karma all the time. I am
talking to you: that is
Karma. You are
listening: that is Karma.
We breathe: that is
Karma. We walk:
Karma. Everything we
do, physical or mental,
is Karma, and it leaves
its marks on us.
Swami Vivekananda
Karma Yoga
a series of extracts
Swami Vivekananda Image courtesy Newsgram.com
0 1,000 2,000
3,000 4,000 5,000
2008-2014
2014-2020
3,610
4,764
Border Roads (kms)
0 10,000 20,000
30,000 40,000 50,000
2008-2014
2014-2020
23,000
44,000
Road Construction Budget (Rs crores)
0 1 2
3 4 5
6
2008-2014
2014-2020
1
6
Tunnels
0 5,000 10,000
15,000
2008-2014
2014-2020
7,270
14,450
Bridges (metres)
