Do frequent accidents indicate a crumbling infrastructure?
At least 60 people were killed when a fast-moving Uttar Banga Express rammed into the waiting Vananchal Express at Sainthia in West Bengal early on Monday. While officials have virtually ruled out any terror link, the fact the trains were on the same track when the accident happened, does indicate possible human lapses.
In May, a train sabotage blamed on Maoist rebels killed more than 70 people. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee came under criticism after the Gyaneshwari Express was attacked.
With a 63,327-kilometre network, the railways play an important role in connecting vast stretches of the country and are seen as an affordable means of travel for India’s burgeoning middle class.
Overcrowding results in daily fatalities as people crammed on the roof tops of trains are often electrocuted by overhead wires.
Poor wages, overworked and an insufficient staff lead to human errors.
Do frequent accidents indicate a crumbling infrastructure? What steps does the government need to take to ensure safe and secure travel of passengers and minimise human errors?
Death of Michael Jackson: A year in review as a fan
It’s hard to believe a year has passed since the day a frantic 911 emergency call from pop legend Michael Jackson’s residence set off a chain of events that left millions of fans across the world numbed.
Michael Jackson, youth icon and arguably the greatest pop star that ever lived, was found unconscious at his Los Angeles residence. Attempts to revive him proved unsuccessful.
It was my routine night shift, regular copies of global recession and politics scrolled across the Reuters screen, when the dullness of the night was broken by hysterical breaking news alerts on the end of Michael.
As journalists, we are trained to maintain objectivity and professional detachment to news that otherwise shake us as humans.
I wasn’t even born when Elvis Presley died and had only read about the fan hysteria that followed in yellowing newsprint.
I grew up listening to Michael’s songs and like million others counted myself amongst his greatest fans. Writing about Michael’s death wasn’t easy.
In the year that has passed since his death, the popularity of Michael has only increased. The once-struggling pop star looking to revive a career mired by ugly molestation charges and heavy debt posthumously went on to amass millions of dollars in ticket sales and chart-topping albums.
India’s ‘Watergate’ rocks ruling Congress coalition
The Congress-led government, under scrutiny in the wake of allegations of financial irregularities in a multi-billion cricketing tournament, has now come under fire from the opposition over accusations it tapped phones of senior leaders.
A united opposition demanded a joint parliamentary committee to look into these allegations, ruled out by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who is in Bhutan attending a summit of South Asian leaders.
Last week, a magazine report said mobile phone conversations of senior politicians were tapped, sparking allegations intelligence agencies were being used to spy on political rivals.
The ethics of phone tapping, its need in internal surveillance and its scope and limitations are widely debated and this is not the first time a government has come under fire for “political eavesdropping”.
Tamil Nadu Social Welfare Minister Poongothai Aladi Aruna tendered her resignation in May 2008 after transcripts of her conversation with a state vigilance officer surfaced in the media.
Similarly Ramakrishna Hegde was forced to resign as Chief Minister of Karnataka in 1988 after allegations that the phones of prominent leaders in his state were tapped.
In a landmark judgement in 1997, India’s apex court ruled that an individual’s right to a telephonic conservation in the privacy of his/her home or office is part of the Right to Life and Liberty as stated in Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.
I’m gay, says new Archie comic character
It’s official. Eternal teen Archie Andrews will soon be joined in his escapades at Riverdale High by an openly gay friend — Kevin Keller.
Kevin is the latest fictional character to have come out of the closet in a world where good always triumphs over evil.
As more and more cartoonists and comic writers embrace the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) theme, usually kept out of the purview of young audiences, readers weigh the merits of an all-inclusive world against traditional morality.
The outing of Albus Dumbledore, headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Harry Potter series, caused an explosion of interest on the internet in 2007.
Most fans who loved the eccentric headmaster from the day he started the school feast with the words “Nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak!” till the day he died, did not seem to care if Dumbledore was straight or gay.
As Herge’s immortal reporter Tintin celebrated his 80th birthday, former politician and writer Matthew Parris in a tongue-in-cheek article raised a lively debate over the cartoon character’s sexuality.
Will democratisation help clean up gentleman’s game?
It started with a Twitter post and promptly snowballed into accusations of funding irregularities, corruption and misuse of power. Almost hard to believe it’s cricket that is being discussed here.
Cricket has always attracted controversy because of the large amount of money and sponsorships it involves unlike any other game.
As the game changed its format over the years, the scale and proportion of the scandals grew accordingly.
If conservatives shook their heads in 2000 after match-fixing allegations plagued cricketer Hansie Cronje, they are stunned into disbelieving silence after accusations of money laundering hounded stakeholders of the Indian Premier League (IPL) a decade later.
It seems that the sport that united a frenzied nation into a single cheering, nail-biting entity has taken a backseat amid political power play and corruption.
The Twenty20 version of the game appealed to a newer set of jet-setting fans for its sheer glamour and entertainment value without compromising on quality.
However, as income tax officials probe financial improprieties in the IPL, voices in the Indian opposition are increasingly demanding democratisation of the game to bring in transparency and accountability.
Will democratisation help clean up gentleman’s game?
It started with a Twitter post and promptly snowballed into accusations of funding irregularities, corruption and misuse of power. Almost hard to believe it’s cricket that is being discussed here.
Cricket has always attracted controversy because of the large amount of money and sponsorships it involves unlike any other game.
As the game changed its format over the years, the scale and proportion of the scandals grew accordingly.
If conservatives shook their heads in 2000 after match-fixing allegations plagued cricketer Hansie Cronje, they are stunned into disbelieving silence after accusations of money laundering hounded stakeholders of the Indian Premier League (IPL) a decade later.
It seems that the sport that united a frenzied nation into a single cheering, nail-biting entity has taken a backseat amid political power play and corruption.
The Twenty20 version of the game appealed to a newer set of jet-setting fans for its sheer glamour and entertainment value without compromising on quality.
However, as income tax officials probe financial improprieties in the IPL, voices in the Indian opposition are increasingly demanding democratisation of the game to bring in transparency and accountability.
Is the government losing the plot in tackling Maoist insurgency?
A day after hundreds of Maoist rebels trapped and killed 76 Indian security personnel in a heavily mined swathe of jungle in Chhattisgarh, a feeling of shock pervades the national psyche.
The nature of the attack, the detailed planning that went into it and the government’s reaction thereafter has raised the question that is being debated for some time now.
Is it time to involve the better equipped and better trained armed forces in ongoing anti-insurgency operations?
Home Secretary G.K. Pillai told a television news channel the central forces are on track in reclaiming thousands of acres of land under Maoist control and the decision to get the army into fighting Maoist insurgency is essentially a political one.
The April 6 attack, one of the deadliest in recent times, is seen by experts as retaliation to the government’s ongoing operation to root out insurgency in Maoist-hit states.
Indian newspapers reacted in rage and indignation the morning after with most dailies calling the massacre a “War” on the Indian state. Some of them expressed the need for calling in the army to counter such violence.
“As the one-sided battle in Chhattisgarh has shown all too glaringly, a military solution in tandem with state forces cannot be shelved,” the Hindustan Times newspaper said in an editorial.
Kiran Bedi on being India’s first woman police officer
One of India’s most recognised faces, Kiran Bedi is India’s first woman police officer and has a larger-than-life image in a country where police are mostly perceived as inefficient or corrupt or both.
She was an Asian and national tennis champion before she made it to the Indian
Police Service in 1972. Bedi has worked in traffic and narcotics control, prison management and has also been an adviser for United Nations peacekeeping operations.
As head of Delhi’s Tihar jail, one of Asia’s largest, she introduced yoga, meditation and literacy classes for prisoners as part of a reform programme that drew global notice. Bedi broke the mould in a country where many women, particularly in the countryside, continue to be discriminated against and harassed. Her life was also partially adapted to create a TV series that became popular on national television.
Reuters interviewed her ahead of International Women’s Day.
Q: What influenced your decision early in life to join the police force?
A: “My resolve to grow up to make the difference and be the difference. My upbringing, my education based on personal discipline with sensitivity to gender injustices set the foundation of the choice. The rest is destiny.”
India says investigating blast, Pakistan talks on
PUNE, India (Reuters) – Security officials were investigating the possible involvement of Pakistan-based militants in a bomb blast in western India that killed nine people, but New Delhi said talks with Islamabad later this month would go ahead.
The bomb, left in a backpack at the popular German Bakery in the city of Pune on Saturday, wounded 60 and appeared to target Indian and foreign tourists.
Senior internal security sources, who declined to be named, said the focus had fallen on Pakistan-based separatist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which has been blamed for the Mumbai attacks, and a local militant group called Indian Mujahideen (IM) because both had been behind bombings in India in the past.
“As of now our line of investigation is toward the possible involvement of LeT … a sleeper module of the Indian Mujahideen could also be involved,” a senior interior security official overseeing the investigation told Reuters.
Both groups are fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region.
“Nothing is ruled out, nothing is ruled in. The investigation is in progress,” Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said.
On Friday, India and Pakistan agreed to high-level talks in New Delhi on February 25, suspended after Pakistani militants killed 166 people during a three-day rampage through the financial capital of Mumbai in November 2008.
India says few clues to bomb, denies intelligence failure
PUNE, India (Reuters) – The Indian government said on Sunday it had little idea who was behind a bomb in a tourist eatery in western India that killed nine people, an attack that some experts said could be the work of home-grown militants.
The bomb that also wounded 57 in the city of Pune was the country’s first big attack since the 2008 Mumbai massacre and appeared to target Indian and foreign tourists. At least one foreigner whose identity had not yet been established was killed.
German Bakery, located close to a Jewish center and a religious retreat frequented by foreigners, was a soft target in an area that had been on the radar of intelligence officials, Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said.
“Nothing is ruled out, nothing is ruled in. The investigation is in progress,” Chidambaram told reporters.
“There is no intelligence failure. This particular area has been on the radar for quite some time. But this was not an overt attack by a gunman, but an insidious attack with a bomb planted in a soft target.”
Indian authorities put airports and railway stations on high alert after the blast and extra security was given to South African and Indian cricket teams playing in the country.
The explosion came a day after India and Pakistan agreed to high-level talks in New Delhi on February 25, suspended after Pakistani militants killed 166 people during a three-day rampage through the financial capital of Mumbai in November 2008.
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