Indian Opinion

Mukesh Devrari India is facing a severe health crisis, not due to coronavirus, but in general due to the neglect of the healthcare sector for generations by the various union and state government since independence in 1947. Over the years, governments’ have given de facto acceptance to the idea that universal healthcare is not possible in India. So, those who cannot afford healthcare should die as human society is also akin to a jungle where only fit has a right to survive. This narrative only shows the medieval mindset prevalent in India.   BJP and Congress are equally responsible for the terrible situation of the healthcare sector in the state of Uttarakhand. Over the years, neither central nor state governments have allocated adequate funds to the health sector. Not enough hospitals, nursing colleges, pharmaceutical institutions were created in the state. Health and education are the two most crucial sectors to ensure opportunities for upward mobility. People expect that t...

Mukesh Devrari This article is not an academic exercise, in fact, it is a result of the elaboration of lived reality between 2014-19. Nothing changed in the last five years in India, nothing at all. Life was as difficult as it was under the tenure of UPA government led by Cambridge educated Manmohan Singh. Jobs were as rare as they are now. The economy was in tatters as it is now. Millions of unemployed graduates are joining the existing fleet of unemployed youth in India.     When Manmohan Singh was a PM, he did not enjoy the stature of PM in the eyes of common masses as he was holding the office as per the wishes of Gandhi family. He was a humble down to earth man Sikh gentleman who had no control either over the Congress party or over his colleagues in the government. Most of the Congress and UPA alliance partners leading the different ministries minted as much as money as they could. Corruption was rampant. Things went to such a state that corporate India, ...

Mukesh Devrari Congress is going through a difficult phase. Every party must go through such phases. During the two terms of UPA, many Congress leaders were indulged in large scale corruption scandals. Right-wing forces fought the general election against the failures of Congress party. People were frustrated as there was talk about inclusive growth and development but it did not reach the larger population. Nothing is irreversible in politics. There is no allegation of corruption against Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. There is no corruption allegation against Priyanka Gandhi. His husband is under the scanner for BJP for last few years. First of all the ruling party cannot make charges of corruption against opposition party leaders and their family members. If anyone of them is involved in corruption, they should be immediately put into jail, but BJP knows that Gandhi family and their track record is absolutely clean. Otherwise, BJP would have put them in jail long ago. I...

Mukesh Devrari Universities in India appoint Assistant Professors in four categories. However, the categories are not defined by UGC itself. They have been created in the policy gaps of UGC regulations over the years. First, universities appoint permanent Assistant Professors, who have a job for life. Second, universities appoint Assistant Professors on full salary as fixed by the government but on a yearly contract basis. Thirdly, universities also appoint Assistant Professors on a fixed salary of 35000 or 25000 per month on yearly contracts. It is discretionary for universities. Fourthly, Universities also appoint Assistant Professors on per class basis with a ceiling of 25000 per month. Some universities pay 500 rupees per class, others pay 1000 rupees. DAV PG College in Dehradun pays 300 rupees per class to the faculty members of all self-finance departments. Minimum qualification for the post of Assistant Professors as per UGC regulations is UGC - NET or PhD degree. ...

Mukesh Devrari  In the literal sense fundamentalism is a form of a religion that upholds belief in the strict, literal interpretation of scripture. It exists in various degrees.  Social media provided impetus to fundamentalist forces around the globe. It is an open allegation against the functioning of social media. It is possible to work anonymously in the public sphere created by social media for social intercourse on a variety of subjects. This luxury of anonymity is not available in traditional media. Even without being anonymous, people can spread filth all around, like people are doing on Twitter, perhaps the most dangerous platform for unregulated hooliganism and right-wing propaganda.  In the physical presence of ‘the other’ social etiquettes remain in existence. This good mannerism must not be underestimated as it is essential for the peaceful existence of society. In real life, people do not use derogatory or outrightly inflammatory remarks against...

Photo - Village Kurar, Chamoli District, Uttarakhand Mukesh Devrari  Development is a wide concept. Developed nation means a nation where people have a better life. Anything and everything which contributes in improvising the lives of masses should be included in the wider definition of development. It has many determinants. Broadly all determinants can be divided into two categories. Firstly, tangible determinants which make our physical presence on earth comfortable. Secondly, non-tangible determinants which make our psychological presence on earth comfortable. Most developing countries are lacking either both categories of determinants of development or any of them severely.  India lacks tangible determinants more than it lacks intangible determinant. Our population lacks access to basic necessities of life like food, shelter, education, jobs and healthcare.  It is terrible thing to argue for intangibles in a nation state which could not provide ne...

Photo Courtesy - Nirmal Poddar  Mukesh Devrari  The earth has enough resources for our needs – not for our greed – Mahatma Gandhi In the early nineteenth century renowned political economist Thomas Robert Malthus tried to point out that the incremental growth in food production can never match the food requirements of an exponentially growing population. He suggested that a better way to deal with the problem is to open sewer lines. It would lead to the spread of diseases and the result will be an immediate reduction in population. Today Malthus can be charged with underestimating the resilience of human beings as a biological entity against the odds of life and nature. Lot has changed since then. Requirements of human beings now go far beyond mere food. The lifestyle of westerners suggests earth has enough not only to fulfil our needs but also our greed. It seems each one of us can have things in abundance. The byproduct of modern man’s quest for progre...

Screen shot from the website of The Hindu.  Mukesh Devrari In the morning I came across a column written against uniform civil code in the editorial page of ‘The Hindu’. The essay was written by Nivedita Menon. She is a professor at JNU, New Delhi and describes herself as a feminist scholar. In her column titled ‘It isn’t about the woman’, she gave reasons to support the continuation of Sharia based Muslim personal law in India and argued against prohibiting polygamy and triple talaq. She described the Uniform Civil Code as a Hindu agenda to impose Hindu laws on Muslims. I could resist myself and scribbled a few lines to critique her arguments. It is important to critically examine her grotesque narrative on the issue. She is denying democratic space available to Muslim women in secular democracies like India. According to her even in secular democracies if Muslims women need any right, they should find it within the Islamic faith.  Recently a Muslim w...

Mukesh Devrari Can Hindi be our national language? Sometimes people in North India wonder whether South Indians especially people in Tamil Nadu hate Hindi because of their love for their mother tongue or their hatred for Hindi is based on their new found love for English. During the raj, British experts on South Asia used to teach newly recruited civil servants before deploying them on actual service that India is not a country. It is a loosely tied nation which could exist as one unit only because of the British Empire. Tamil Nadu and Himanchal Pradesh are more different from each other than Poland and Britain.  India is ethnically and linguistically more diverse than Europe. Chinese still believe India is not a nation. It is too diverse to be a nation and loosely tied by the Hindu religion.   English became the Trojan horse for India, initially, it was gifted but its actual purpose was to destroy India culturally. If India has any culture at all. There is ...

Mukesh Devrari  There was not much to read in the victory speeches of the man of the moment Narendra Modi. He led BJP to its biggest victory. BJP won staggering 283 seats and Congress has to contend with 43 seats. Even in 1977 general elections, which were held immediately after an emergency, Congress could win 154 seats in Lower House of parliament out of 543. BJP ideologue Balbir Punj said that he had never imagined that in his lifetime BJP would come to power on its own. If BJP leaders could not imagine this spectacular win, how could others? So far, the highest score of BJP was 182 seats in 1999 general elections under the charismatic leadership of A.B Vajpayee. The Modi is now our Prime Minister. The focus of this article is to highlight an ideological structure, if there was any, in his victory speech. During his campaigns, Modi promised that development will be his priority. The entire corporate world stood behind him because as a Chief Minister of Gujarat he en...

Mukesh Devrari Promises of politicians are hollow. There are no exceptions. People believe in false promises amid despair. In the widespread hopeless environment propaganda works better. False promises during election campaigns by BJP went unnoticed. Modi wants all Bangladeshi Muslims to go back to Bangladesh as India is already overcrowded and they are snatching the opportunities and land from local population. His logic is as Bangladeshi Muslims can immigrate or seek asylum in any Muslim country. They must not come to India.   Now the BJP is in power on its own and Modi is a Prime Minister. If you think new dispensation is going to take any steps to make its poll promise of sending illegal Bangladeshis back home, then you are wrong. It is not going to happen but maybe during the next assembly election or general election BJP may raise this bogey of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants again.   Modi also observed in his subtle speeches during the poll campaign that...

Mukesh Devrari The situation in this country has reached to such a level that even a beast would revolt, but still every individual is tolerating all the hardships at his own level. It is a miracle why bomb blasts are not happening in our country, why yet there is no civil war in our cities and why Maoist rebels are not getting support of youngsters?   Just take a look at the despair and hopelessness spreading all around. Every year millions of youngsters pass out from thousands of colleges based in our cities and country sides. Each one of them carries a degree in their hands, but don’t have job.  In states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand whenever government notifies even ten vacant posts of clerk, g enerally hundred thousand applications turn up. On the day of the examination government runs special trains to cities like Patna and Ranchi, so that these job aspirants could come and appear in exams and return without posing a threat to law and order in th...