“First, declare the dog as mad. Then kill it,” is the strategy that the Centre has been adopting to kill human beings if the situation warrants. Attaching the labels of “anti-national, terrorist, or extremist” gives the police the license to kill anyone. Those who are genuinely concerned about this are forced to refrain themselves from condemning such incidents fearing that they might also get labelled as anti-nationals. Recently, a BJP Member of Parliament, Anantkumar Hegde, called employees of  the state-owned telecom firm BSNL as ‘traitors.’

It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword. Those who use this sword must have the wisdom, discretion, and must be pro-people. In the hands of immature people, this sword can very well become dangerous. It is because of the might of the pen that even if newspapers make the slightest mistake or write with pre-conceived notions, they can fan fires of controversies that might even lead to deaths and extensive destruction.

Pluralism is India’s pride. India has identified itself as one nation with one flag retaining its diversity. It was not formed on the basis of one culture and one language. 

Malnutrition is the mother of all diseases. The Centre had admitted that more than 45 percent of the people are suffering from malnutrition in India. In the post-Corona world, India’s future depends on winning the war against malnutrition. The lockdown has had such a lethal impact on the life of the people that malnutrition has doubled along with an increase in unemployment and poverty. Children have become victims of these developments. Though we claim that today’s children are the citizens of the future, we are on the verge of creating a country that is disease prone and unhealthy. With the advent of the Coronavirus, all other diseases have been neglected and this has adversely affected the crores of children.

A successful hotelier is making a roaring business but prefers to dine at a luxurious hotel close by for fear of risking his health if he ate at his hotel. This analogy can be applied to our leaders who are doing exactly the same as the hotelier. Several leaders including Chief Minister Yediyurappa and Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah are now infected with the Coronavirus. Union Home Minister Amit Shah is in quarantine.

As discussion rages around the removal of Chief Minister Yediyurappa from his post, BJP leaders have clarified ‘that there is no question of a change in leadership.’ The moment the Yediyurappa-led BJP government completed one year in office, one faction presented a proposal for ‘leadership change.

The developments witnessed in Dakshina Kannada district over the past few days have exposed who actually controls the law and order situation in the district. When the deputy commissioner (DC) warns miscreants not to take the law into their hands, the DC not only receives open threats to life but also gets transferred within two days of having issued the warning. People’s representatives who are supposed to extend support to the DC, assigned with the responsibility of maintaining the law and order in the district, choose to not react, thereby extending their silent support to the anti-social elements. These developments have raised several significant questions and triggered anxiety among the people of the district whether the Sangha Parivar is a sub-branch of the police department.

To combat the Coronavirus, the entire country has been under lockdown for the last two months, but the lockdown has hardly been of any help to stop the community spread of the virus. It has, however, wrecked economic havoc in the life of the common man with the country finding itself in social and economic shambles. Further, using the lockdown as a pretext, the police brazenly committed atrocities against the common man which was reported widely in the media. The country needs at least one or two years to recover from the impact of the lockdown.