Bharatheeyam : ( 08/11/2012. )

Face Veil; a Human Right? M N Karassery December 10 was World Human Rights Day. Against this backdrop, it needs to be discussed as to how far violative or liberative is the face-covering veil worn by Muslim women. A veil that covers a woman's face and her eyes is more than just a religious issue. When an individual's rights are violated it directly affects Human Rights of our society. Is the face veil, the 'Burkha' a violation of rights? If so, what are the rights that are being violated? Women wear a face veil by choice. That is their democratic right. True. So is the right to criticize. The right to criticize is equally democratic too! Further, one may wonder why criticize, after all it is out of their free choice! What we understand as a woman's free will is in fact a socially mediated choice. The freedom of choice is exercised within the confines of the social pressure. The 'opinion' here stems out, not from informed choice but from the clo...

Were British people cultivating tenants in Kerala? G Shaheed Kochi: Historians, students of history, politicians and administrators will shudder on hearing the claim of Harrisons Malayalam, a plantation company based in Kochi, that their predecessors, who were Englishmen, were cultivating tenants in Kerala. There are widespread allegations over the company HML (Harrisons Malayalam Ltd) owning 60,000 acres of land in Kerala, mostly plantations. Majority of these plantations are set on encroached government lands. As directed by the government under the provisions of Land Conservancy Act, Ernakulam District Collector M G Rajamanikyam was directed to conduct an enquiry and submit the report. The report submitted by the Collector was placed before the High Court at a time when there are many cases pending against HML. Rajamanikyam has pointed out in his report that HML, with the connivance of Revenue officials, misinterpreted the Kerala Land Reforms (KLR) Act to their favour, to gra...

Congress in self-destruct mode Amulya Ganguli Perhaps the awareness about the irredeemable nature of the Congress's political fortune persuaded Prithviraj Chavan to let the cat out of the bag. By confessing, however, that he was powerless as the Maharashtra chief minister to probe the allegations of corruption against influential party members like Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Ashok Chavan, as well as a ministerial colleague, Ajit Pawar, the outgoing chief minister has drawn attention to the primary cause which is behind his party's decline. There is little doubt that it is the deliberate turning of the blind eye towards suspected acts of corruption, which has fatally undermined the party's position. The Congress' reputation for aiding and abetting corruption first enabled Anna Hazare to whip up public sentiments against the party. Since then, its soiled image has been exploited in full measure by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has buttr...