Recently, a tragic incident involving the death of an elephant occurred in Kerala. The elephant ate a pineapple that had firecrackers stuffed in it which was allegedly intended to kill ‘wild boars’ and died tragically soon after. The post-mortem report established that the elephant was pregnant. The elephant’s death was so gut wrenching that it pulled at the heart strings of lakhs of people who shed tears at the erosion of human values that caused the death. But, as is the wont these days, every incident is used to pursue an agenda and the focus in this instance became Kerala, the state, in which the incident occurred instead of the ghastly incident. Instead of condemning the inhumaneness of people and their irresponsibility and lack of commitment to protect wildlife, the focus quickly shifted to attacking Kerala, the state which was recently lauded globally for the way it handled the Corona pandemic.

Even as Karnataka is seeing a rapid increase in the number of coronavirus cases, the state government has taken a major step with respect to reopening of schools, the second major move after its announcement to conduct SSLC examinations. According to government sources, the state government has prepared a draft timetable to reopen schools in a phased manner from July 1. This decision has elicited widespread reactions, from those supporting and opposing the move.

We have heard horror stories of partition, stories of how trains carried dead bodies of people reaching their destinations on both sides of the border. We have read equally unnerving stories about how, during Hitler’s regime, Jews died of suffocation in railway bogies. Such shocking stories are now repeating in India during these times of the Coronavirus.

‘Sab ka Saath, Sab ka Vikas, Sab ka Vishwas.’   The Narendra Modi government which rode to power for the second term with these three slogans has completed one year in office. Looking back on the year gone by, these slogans seem to have been thrown to the wind with the country now standing steeply divided on economic lines and the government’s focus nowhere on the development agenda. The ‘Sab ka Vikas’ development juggernaut has simply trampled and run over the lives of migrant laborers. Minorities and Dalits are stunned at the betrayal of this government as the Modi government has dumped its ‘Sab ka Vishwas’ agenda.

The new Yelahanka flyover in Bangalore stands a symbol of the capital city’s development dreams.  The Karnataka government has turned the naming of this flyover – already open to the public – into a controversy that is so avoidable in these times of Corona. It would have been meaningful if the focus were to be on the migrant laborers who constructed the flyover. The laborers who constructed the flyover are now on the streets without homes and away from their villages. Laborers who work on our development projects have many times been thrown out of their dwellings after completion of projects and have been termed ‘migrant laborers’.

“Non-resident Indians” (NRIs) in a broad sense are those who give light to others by getting burnt in the process.  When unemployment was raging at home, these NRIs sought work in Gulf countries in scorching weather conditions, and provided relief to people and towns they had left behind. The country has always been very appreciative of the contributions of the NRIs. During their visits abroad, all the Prime Ministers of our country have held special meetings with NRIs and thanked them for their contributions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, especially, has taken special interest and has held several meetings with NRIs and asked them to play a crucial role in India’s development.  NRIs have helped the country’s foreign exchange reserves grow. Coastal Karnataka’s path of development is owed in large measure to the money, sweat, and blood of those toiling in Gulf. NRIs are also responsible for the coastal district’s numero uno performance in the field of education and health. 

Finally looks like the BJP has kicked off to a strong campaigning phase in the upcoming loksabha elections. IT dept officials have raided a few selected people including politicians of other parties in the state giving the BJP much needed campaign curtain raiser. In the recent past, the same IT dept officials had raided the house of minister D K Shivakumar’s residence. Centre had sent IT teams for the very purpose when DKS had created a safe haven for Cong MLAs from Gujarat.