Country grappling with undeclared food insecurity!
A rather gut wrenching account of three young children having died of hunger has occurred in the national capital, New Delhi. This happened just around the time the Prime Minister and his men are trying to project some amazing success India has achieved, only according to them. The post-mortem reports have said the children didn’t have any traces of food or water in their body, and their stomachs were totally empty at the time of death.
Deputy chief minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia has ordered for an inquiry into the matter. The hospital has confirmed that the children died of hunger and impoverishment. Around the time when the ruling dispensation is busy debating what people should eat what they shouldn’t; this gory death of children has posed a big question before us holding up the stark contradiction to the people we are. The government may ask how can it be held responsible for these children who died of hunger. But this is an indicator of a consistent effort to snatch people’s right to live, in a civilized society. The government shouldn’t lose sight of that. Malnourishment is a big menace the country is currently fighting.
Today children are battling more than 40% of the diseases that are caused by lack of nourishment. Hunger is the biggest disease in the nation now. Yet, these deaths are testimony to the fact that the central government has failed to create an efficient programme to tackle hunger and malnourishment among its citizens. In many ways, people are losing food security, owing to consistent use of various tools employed by the government to deny food to people living in poverty and inhuman conditions. That the government should provide them aid is a suggestion that is yet to be considered by the ruling dispensation.
Many instances of people being denied food grains because they didn’t have aadhaar card. Unemployment has increased after demonetization. These incidents happened in Karnataka too. People have been denied treatment and medicines in hospitals for want of Aadhar card.
People are facing dire consequences of note ban, owing to jobs being reduced and unable to return to their villages because they do not have any food security there either. How would they pay attention to anything else when food itself is a premium for them? Dairy farming is on a downhill in villages owing to fake Gau Rakshaks and the violence they have unleashed on the innocent people. These fake Gau Rakshaks claim rights over farmers’ cattle, they are lifted midway reach the Gau Shalas and eventually disappear mysteriously or are reaching slaughter houses for someone’s benefit. This development has startled the people in lower strata of both cities and villages alike. People are unable to provide food for their children to survive.
Even when the malnourishment and hunger is at its peak in the nation, an RSS leader has said people should stop eating beef. A person who lives off someone else’s earnings can give such statements. Beef is a food of the majority of the country. This has kept the poor and impoverished with some stamina and health. It is easy to snatch it from them, but what is the alternative the government is providing for them? Today beef is among the top exported items in the country.
The nation is keen on providing the best of beef for other nations. The nation’s poor will suffer and this would show on the hunger index of the country and eventually on the economic status as well. But the leaders are busy advising the people not to eat beef. This is bound to have adverse effects on the nation because many people are dependent on beef in various ways. For farmers who rear the cows, beef eaters are consumers who provide market for their goods. Which is why they sell the cattle that have outlived their utility. Beef eaters are seen as part of the chain of dairy farming. Lakhs of slaughterhouses work to provide beef. Tanneries work to provide leather extracted from the dead cattle. All these occupations provide livelihoods to people and they would be affected should the government work adversely to the interests of the people.
The rates of beef are skyrocketing since the meat is hardly available in the market. With this, rates of other varieties of meat are also getting beyond the reach of people. The poor are unable to afford nutritious food because vegetables are very costly and cannot be afforded by all. Owing to fake Gau Rakshaks, the country is facing crisis on all fronts. The food has been denied and an insecurity has been created. This is a complete denial of right to live. Today we do not have the luxury of deciding who can eat and what needs to be consumed. The hunger deaths in Delhi are a testimony to that fact. We need to debate on ways of tackling hunger. Just as the Gau Rakshaks have become a point of debate, even the dead children need to rattle our consciousness. And it is imperative that an inquiry reveals who is responsible for this food insecurity, and we need to find solutions for that.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
US SC rejects 26/11 attack accused Tahawwur Rana’s plea seeking stay on his extradition to India
New York, Apr 7 (PTI): The US Supreme Court has rejected 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana's appeal seeking a stay on his extradition to India, moving him closer to being handed over to Indian authorities to face justice.
Rana, 64, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is currently lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles.
He is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks. Headley conducted a recce of Mumbai before the attacks by posing as an employee of Rana’s immigration consultancy.
Rana had submitted an ‘Emergency Application For Stay Pending Litigation of Petition For Writ of Habeas Corpus' on February 27, 2025, with Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit Elena Kagan.
Kagan had denied the application earlier last month.
Rana had then renewed his ‘Emergency Application for Stay Pending Litigation of Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus previously addressed to Justice Kagan’, and requested that the renewed application be directed to US Chief Justice John Roberts.
An order on the Supreme Court website noted that Rana's renewed application had been “distributed for Conference” on April 4 and the “application” has been “referred to the Court.”
A notice on the Supreme Court website Monday said that “Application denied by the Court.”
Rana was convicted in the US of one count of conspiracy to provide material support to the terrorist plot in Denmark and one count of providing material support to Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashker-e-Taiba which was responsible for the attacks in Mumbai.
New York-based Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra had told PTI that Rana had made his application to the Supreme Court to prevent extradition, which Justice Kagan denied on March 6. The application was then submitted before Roberts, “who has shared it with the Court to conference so as to harness the entire Court’s view.”
The Supreme Court justices are Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
In his emergency application, Rana had sought a stay of his extradition and surrender to India pending litigation (including exhaustion of all appeals) on the merits of his February 13.
In that petition, Rana argued that his extradition to India violates US law and the UN Convention Against Torture "because there are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, the petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture."
"The likelihood of torture in this case is even higher though as petitioner faces acute risk as a Muslim of Pakistani origin charged in the Mumbai attacks,” the application said.
The application also said that his “severe medical conditions” render extradition to Indian detention facilities a “de facto" death sentence in this case.
The US Supreme Court denied Rana's petition for a writ of certiorari relating to his original habeas petition on January 21. The application notes that on that same day, newly-confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio had met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Washington on February 12 to meet with Trump, Rana’s counsel received a letter from the Department of State, stating that “on February 11, 2025, the Secretary of State decided to authorise” Rana’s "surrender to India,” pursuant to the “Extradition Treaty between the United States and India”.
Rana’s Counsel requested from the State Department the complete administrative record on which Secretary Rubio based his decision to authorize Rana’s surrender to India.
The Counsel also requested immediate information of any commitment the United States has obtained from India with respect to Rana’s treatment. “The government declined to provide any information in response to these requests,” the application said.
It added that given Rana’s underlying health conditions and the State Department’s findings regarding the treatment of prisoners, it is very likely “Rana will not survive long enough to be tried in India".
During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Modi in the White House in February, President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of "very evil" Rana, wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, "to face justice in India”.
A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing people at iconic and vital locations in Mumbai.
