There was a time when people who fought hard in the movements came into the parliament or assemblies. During the 80s, both houses of the Parliament had names such as S A Dange, A K Gopalan, Ram Manohar Lohia, Bhupesh Gupta, Prof Hiren Mukherjee, Madhu Limaye and other stalwarts. George Fernandes who died on Tuesday was also one such blaze of fire. Having risen out of people's movement to the heights of a union minister, George today is just a fond yet painful memory.

The assault by the centre on CBI has continued unabated. By dismissing Alok Verma from the post of Chief, the government had pointed out the limits to the premier investigating agency that cannot be crossed. For the government, it pretended as if it was an existential crisis to remove Verma from the post. Government wasn’t too happy with CBI being autonomous. If the agency had stepped ahead on Rafale investigation, the whole government would have been in trouble along with Modi. Many would have landed in jail.

Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award given to extraordinary achievers in the country. But since the award is placed so high, it does not mean everyone who receives it is also as significant. This applies to the award too. When the award is conferred on really significant achievers, does it increase its own value on par with the recipients.Nobel Prize, no doubt, is an internationally acclaimed one.

While the whole nation was remembering Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on January 23, a Hindu Sena outfit held a commemoration programme to pay tribute to British Queen Victoria at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. Many were plagued with the question as to how exactly was Queen Victoria worthy of a commemoration by Sangh Parivar when she was instrumental in wringing India dry of its resources through her regime that lasted for more than 300 years.   

The time when one goes though primary and High school students is a very impressionable one. Any seed that is sown, sprouts immediately. That soft ground does not know whether the seed would grow to yield good fruit or a bad one. Their minds are like soft surfaces that hold the impression of whatever is thrown at them, without any discrimination. It is impossible to undo their memories formed during this time.

Drought has hit the state again. About 100 taluks are reeling under drought as per government report. Drought situation is particularly worse in 72 taluks. Many more number of taluks are also affected by the drought. People’s lives are getting miserable. Drinking water has become scarce. Hundreds of villages are being supplied with water in tankers.

It has been three years since Rohit Vemula had to sacrifice his life to the system. His death is an example of how the government, police department, politicians and authorities can systematically finish a creative person. This silencing of voices didn’t end with Vemula, in fact his incident was just the beginning of it all.

A country like India can never be devoid of swamijis and mutts almost at every nook and corner of the cities and villages. We even see some fake swamijis being exposed increasingly too. Known as godmen at some point of time, most of them are spending their days inside the jails for their crimes. Hindu dharma that had saints and social reformers like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Narayana Guru etc is being humiliated to the core by fake swamijis.