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...

Mathrubhumi : COLUMNS  » TVR SHENOY Published: THURSDAY, MAY 01, 2014. Kerala - a state stuck in the past! : The first of May _ Labour Day _ is a red letter day in the Marxist calendar. In one of history's ironies, the decline of the Communists in India can be told as a tale of three days in May.  The first was16 May, 1996, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee became Prime Minister of India. Though that ministry lasted but thirteen days it brought the national leaderships of the Congress and the C.P.I.(M) into an embrace.  The second is 20 May, 2011, when Mamata Banerjee replaced Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as Chief Minister of West Bengal. Kerala may be the icing on the Leftist cake _ Tripura being the cherry _ but the eastern state, twice the size of Kerala, is the cake itself.  What is the third? Prediction is a mug's game but it could be another16 May, when the results of the sixteenth General Election are announced.  How many voters in Kerala realise ...

MATHRUBHUMI : NEWS »  KERALA Published: SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 2015 Air Kerala services to be launched soon in state: Chandy Kochi: The Kerala government will soon launch domestic services of its proposed airline 'Air Kerala' for fulfilling the mandatory requirement of the country's civil aviation norm stipulating five year domestic operations before international flight services, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said Friday. 'Though we have approached the union government for a relaxation in this norm, we are yet to get a reply from them in this regard. However, we have decided to go ahead with the project and launch a domestic service with a small aircraft connecting airports with in the state,' said Chandy at a face to face session with the NRKs at the Global NRK Meet that he had inaugurated earlier in the day. Answering to a query from a NRK who sought subsidy on air tickets in Gulf sector, he said that Air Kerala project would be successfully impl...

ENTRANCE EXAMS : Kerala Govt is very careless  as it is seen that any one with low marks can get through the exams and enter the rank list. The result is all  future engineers and doctors  etc are no where near required standard in their respective fields. Awe full !

National Calendar of India The national calendar of India is based on the Saka Era with Chaitra as its first month and a normal year of 365 days. The national calendar of India was adopted on March 22nd 1957. Dates of the Indian national calendar have a permanent correspondence with the Gregorian calendar dates- 1 Chaitra falling on 22 March normally and on 21 March in leap year. The national Calendar of India is used along with the Gregorian calendar for the following official purposes- (i) Gazette of India, (ii) news broadcast by All India Radio, (iii) calendars issued by the Government of India and (iv) Government communications addressed to the members of the public.