Cows Granted Life Protection, Not Buffaloes
The Karnataka Assembly has passed a bill pertaining to prevention of slaughter of cattle bill but the legislation is clearly discriminatory. Finally, the State Government has promulgated an ordinance banning cow slaughter. Cows have been granted life time protection from slaughter, buffaloes above the age of 13 can be culled for their meat. Recently law minister J C Madhuswamy said that buffalo meat is available which is not banned. He further said, “Cow is our god which is to be protected, and worshipped.” But what about buffalos, what sin did buffalos commit?
As per the Hindu scriptures, the buffalo is considered to be the vehicle of Yama Raj, the god of death. But it has no guarantee to its own life beyond 13 years. The cow has full protection of law in Karnataka. It is a delicacy in neighbouring god, though both are ruled by the BJP.
Nazeer Ahmed Kazi
Prof Secab
Vijaypur, Karnataka
Alas! A Grim Picture of Our Democracy!
As the country is preparing to celebrate the Republic Day under the cloud of ongoing farmers’ protest, which is lingering week after week due to the anti-people policy of the government as well as its miserable failure to listen to the demands of the farmers, the Government of Uttar Pradesh has asked supply officers in all districts not to give diesel to protesting farmers. Thousands and thousands of farmers from across the country are reaching Delhi borders to join protesting farmers and participate with them in the ‘Kisan Gantantra Parade’ on the Republic Day.
Livehindustan has reported that on the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait asked the farmers to block roads in cities and towns where they are. The UP Government move shows that they are making all efforts to defame and sabotage the farmers’ protest in any way, fair or foul. While the fact is that the farmers’ protest, in its size and the farmers’ determination, is the largest in the history of Independent India. This is a very grim picture of our democracy.
Yacoob Singh
Rohana Khurd
Uttar Pradesh
TRP ‘Match Fixing’
Arnab Goswami’s case in a pandora box which is opening, slowly but steadily. The former CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India, Partho Dasgupta, has claimed in a handwritten statement to Mumbai Police that he received US$12,000 from Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami for two separate holidays and a total of Rs 40 lakh over three years, in return for manipulating ratings in favour of the news channel, according to the supplementary chargesheet filed in the TRP scam case.
There was a time when we used to hear about match fixing but now, in the age of scientific and technological advancement we have pre-fixing of TRP, better call it TRP ‘match fixing’. The 3,600-page supplementary chargesheet, filed by Mumbai Police on January 11, shows that the RRP scam is very deep rooted. A formal judicial enquiry into the scam is the need of the hour.
Rakesh Bahl
Jalandhar
TOI Offers Apology for Publishing Defamatory Article
At a time when polarisation is the way of the world, the English daily Times of India tendered an apology for publishing a defamatory article on Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in a civil court of Delhi on January 14. The case, filed by a former law student of the university, Farrukh Khan, who is now a practising advocate, took 14 years to settle.
The 2007 news story titled “AMU: Where the Degrees are Sold like Toffees” was written by Akhilesh Kumar Singh. Khan graduated from the university the same year and filed a defamation suit against the publisher, the editor and the reporter of the newspaper. The case was settled on January 14 when the newspaper submitted an apology. This gesture of the English daily will surely help it restore its credibility.
Musheer Akhtar
Aligarh, UP