24th February

So, Take That

The article urges the people across the nation to celebrate the success of Slumdog at Oscars and rise above the issues of the origin of the movie or the pity portrayal of India’s poverty. 

India has a reason to celebrate the success of the movie. If it depicts the Indian poverty then it also shows the optimism present in the society. Three Indians, A R Rehman, Gulzar and Resul Pookutty, has won the individual awards and is recognition to the immense international level talent that these people possess. Award won by “Smile Pinki – the story of Pinki Sonkar”, story of an Indian girl who underwent a cleft palate operation, in the documentary category adds to the celebration. Rehman is a true ambassador of India who rules the contemporary music with his incredible fusion of western and classical Indian music. He is confident and comfortable in his role of being a Muslim, Tamilian and above all Indian. The people who won the Oscars are from different religions but they accepted awards as Indians. 

India is an experiment lab for multiculturalism and we have proved that it works. Rehman, rightly, said that he owes this success for choosing love over hate. The best time say this perhaps. Taliban should learn that India celebrates its cultural differences and achievements of its fellow Indians irrespective of religion.

Deep Trouble

The article stresses on need to develop better policies and rules to protect the rapidly depleting water levels and drying up of lakes and put a strict check on the mining activities that is currently carried on in ecologically sensitive areas especially Aravalli hills.

The recent photographs “then and now” of the lakes in the NCR region raise serious concerns about the drying lakes and water shortages. The lakes served dual purpose of tourist destination as well as ground water replenishment. The problem also expands to regions like Rajasthan, MP, Tamilnadu and Orissa. Some ancient man-made reservoirs have survived seasonal droughts while others have dried up mainly due to mining activities and are being turned into real-estate, bus stands or landfill sites. Mining in Aravalli range has to be stopped by SC. Even minor mining leads to rainwater being stored in the catchment areas instead of water reservoirs and the non-porous rocks prevent groundwater rejuvenation while the trapped water is lost to evaporation. The court stay orders are openly neglected by the miners who continue to mine especially in ecologically sensitive areas. 

There needs to be a greater community participation to stop the mining activities in these areas and the central environmental authority has to deal with the clearances issues and disputes to make SC intervene in the rarest of cases.