Daily Hindu Editorials

💥 Daily w ord bytes - 1  from editoria l  - Crime in Kathua  💥 👉 abduction (noun) – kidnapping, hostage-taking. Hindu Editorial usage :  The 15-page chargesheet filed by the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Crime Branch on the abduction, rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua district is chilling. 👉 undermine (verb) – weaken, diminish, reduce. Hindu Editorial usage :  Attempts to undermine the investigation into a little girl’s rape and murder must be resisted 👉 chilling (adjective) – frightening, terrifying, disturbing/horrifying. Hindu Editorial usage :  The 15-page chargesheet filed by the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Crime Branch on the abduction, rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua district is chilling. 👉 overlain past participle of overlie (verb) – surround, cover, enclose/wrap. Hindu Editorial usage :  An unspeakably horrific crime has been overlain with an ugly form of communa...

👍YES | VINOD PAUL 💥Building  a robust primary health-care system will save lives and  lead to a healthier India Ayushman Bharat, the new, flagship health initiative of the government, has two dimensions. First, it aims to roll out comprehensive primary health care with Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) serving as the people-centric nuclei. A nationwide network of 1.5 lakh HWCs will be created by transforming the existing sub-centres and primary health-care centres by 2022. This will constitute the very foundation of New India’s health care system. So far, the country’s primary health care has been focussing on reproductive, maternal health, newborn and child health as well as controlling priority communicable diseases. All this perhaps covers only 15% of our needs. Public health action for preventive/promotive health has also been limited. There is a huge unmet need for primary health care, namely, care for non-communicable diseases (specifically, preven...

💥In Kathua and Unnao, the common feature is the blatant support given by BJP leaders to those accused of rape The child was just eight years old. The beautiful image showing her wide-eyed innocence, a semblance of a smile caught by the camera, is widely shared on the Internet. She looks even younger in the photograph. She belonged to the Bakherwal nomadic community, and went missing on January 10 from the camp site in Rasana village in Kathua, Jammu where she stayed with her family. 👉Grim chronicle Her father registered the missing child case with the police on January 12. Her battered body was found on January 17. Six men were arrested, among them a special police officer, a retired revenue official and his family members; later two policemen were arrested for connivance and destruction of evidence. Three months later, on April 9, the Crime Branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, which took over the investigation, filed a chargesheet in court. Its contents have been wi...

💥Attempts to undermine the investigation into a little girl’s rape and murder must be resisted The 15-page chargesheet filed by the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Crime Branch on the abduction, rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua district is chilling. An unspeakably horrific crime has been overlain with an ugly form of communal politics, which has heightened the feeling of vulnerability among the Bakherwal nomadic community. Asifa Bano had been missing in Rasana village since January 10. On January 17, her mutilated body was found, bearing the marks of gang rape. This week, local lawyers tried to prevent the police from filing the chargesheet, and the Jammu High Court Bar Association called for a bandh on Wednesday demanding that the investigation be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. By all accounts, the demand owes less to any faith in CBI impartiality, and more to the ongoing attempt to influence the police’s investigation that has led to the arrest...

💥Without shifting IPL out, the rights of fans and protesters could have been protected The shifting of Indian Premier League cricket matches out of Chennai reflects poorly on the Tamil Nadu administration. It is misleading to see the development as a victory for protesters espousing the Cauvery cause or as the inevitable result of the current political mood in Tamil Nadu. By conveying its inability to give adequate police security to the remaining matches to be held in the city, the State government, which had adopted a wishy-washy attitude towards holding the IPL in Chennai, simply capitulated. It is undeniable that there were aggressive protests around the Chepauk stadium just before the season’s first match in the city. Road blockades, frayed tempers and scuffles between the police and protesters suggested it would be a challenge to hold more matches. But governments exist to maintain public order and are expected to stand up to threats made by a fringe, whether it is calling f...

💥When societies take positions against the consensus of science, for economic or ideological gains, they risk failure It has been a time of crisis for science over the past several years. In cases where society and policy need inputs from science, there is now a widely prevalent view that the conclusions of scientific inquiry can be challenged for economic or ideological reasons. Here I briefly discuss the process and practice of science, establishing where conflicting views are germane and where they are a futile denial of evidence. 👉On three pillars In essence, science is the organised method developed to understand nature. The method has developed over centuries and the knowledge gained has proved to be so effective that human history and the human condition over the past several centuries have been dominated by the knowledge and mechanisms made available by science. However, it should be recognised that while scientists and society may have strong moral and ethi...