God’s Angels mistreated on Earth

Some of you might find my title too dramatic, but being an ardent animal lover who witnesses cruelty towards animals daily, specially the stray dogs I genuinely feel they are mistreated and terribly neglected. If properly used, the law can be your most effective weapon against animal exploitation. India has one of the most comprehensive set of animal protection laws in the world. There are detailed codes of conduct governing our use and treatment of both domestic and wild animals.  In fact, India is unique in the fact that animal protection is enshrined in our constitution and every citizen is required to show compassion to all living beings. Unfortunately, in spite of the importance accorded to animal protection by our founding fathers, animal protection laws have remained mere pieces of paper because either people do not know how to use it or are not aware of the law at all. 

How many are even aware of the basic laws for animal rights?

Domestic animals & Pets

Beating or causing any animal pain or suffering by the owner or any other person should be reported to the police. The penalty is a fine of Rs 100/-or jail up to three months or both. 

Caging or confining an animal in a cage or enclosure too small to allow reasonable movement. The penalty is a fine of Rs 100 and jail up to 3 months or both.

Tying with a short or very heavy chain. The penalty is a fine of Rs 100 and up to 3 months in jail or both.

Keeping the animal constantly confined or tied for extended periods thereby denying it the opportunity to exercise. Punishable with a fine of RS 100/- and up to 3 months in jail or both. 

Failure to provide sufficient food and water to a pet animal. Penalty is a fine of RS 100/- and up to 3 months in jail or both. 

Failure to provide proper shelter. This means failure to provide protection from the external environment e.g. leaving a dog out in the rain or cold. Penalty is a fine of RS 100/- and up to 3 months in jail or both.

Maiming or injuring an animal in any way or any surgical or invasive procedure without anaesthesia. This would include ear or tail docking is a cognisable offence under Section 428/429 of the Indian Penal Code. The penalty is a fine and up to 5 years in jail. 

Stray animals

According to section 11 of the Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals Act 1960 it is illegal to put out poisoned food as these could pose a serious health hazard. Also it is illegal to transport any animal in any manner that will cause it unnecessary suffering. This includes loading cows into trucks without ramps and overcrowding the vehicle, tying up pigs and carrying them on cycles and so on. All violations of Section 11 are punishable with a fine of Rs 100 and /or up to 3 months in jail. Section 428/429 of the Indian Penal Code makes it a cognizable offence to maim or cause injury to any animal. Citizens can report any such nuisance to the Municipal authorities. I request you all to please do so. The High Courts of Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Mumbai, and several other states have specifically forbidden the killing of stray dogs and directed the municipality to introduce a sensible sterilisation programme instead. Stray animals cannot be used for research. Rules for Experimental Animals as formulated by The Committee for the Control and Supervision of Experimental Animals has laid down that only animals bred for the purpose of research by institutes registered by the Committee may be used for experimentation. Therefore it is illegal for any medical, educational or commercial research institute to pick up stray animals either from the street or from the municipal pound for this purpose. 

So the next time you see a poor stray dog on the road instead of ignoring it or being afraid and running away try feeding it, or probably contact the blue cross or any NGO for animals if it is injured. All they require is love and care.

RoxanneWadia

The writer has completed her studies in law and is a passionate animal lover.

Prisoners of Hatred

Paulo Coelho wrote in his famous book The Alchemist, “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”, and as his fan, I have always believed in these words and tried to incorporate them in my life. Various aims and ambitions rule our lives and the intermingling phase between those ambitions and dreams is the very base of our existence. We are born as ordinary individuals but the moment we grow into this world as people who have nothing but suspicion that is when the problem starts. Even I am no exception to that rule.
 

When I was in the seventh grade, there lived a Pakistani family in my neighborhood. They had a son named Ali. Being a social butterfly at a very young age I was very excited to have a foreigner friend. But then I never understood why all other people thought them to be a social outcaste. After 6 months they left the area and nothing exactly changed except for a constant query in my mind why were they being treated like that. And somewhere in my subconscious the answer came, “They were Pakistanis”. I stepped into the age of reasoning and rationality and found my answer to my biggest query. I learnt about the wars being fought, relations being snapped, laws being disobeyed and most important of it was a deep distrust being created between both sides. Something inside of me never accepted that two countries with so much of history, culture and heritage to share could ever be so far torn apart. I always dreamt that people will change and they will understand their mistakes which costs and will cost so many lives. It is not really a one – sided job, it needs to be done by both parties.

In the recent past, the deaths of the two war prisoners have made me rethink the reality of those naive dreams. The killings of Sarabjit Singh and Sanaullah Ranjay ached my heart. They were already suffering from being imprisoned in an inhuman condition and on top of that being killed in a prison scuffle perpetrated by hatred. But the important thing which really crossed my mind was the attitude of both the nations. India to save her territorial strategies never actually claimed the release of Mr. Singh and many more like his, so was the egotist and unstable nature of Pakistan’s foreign relations. Though there were so called ‘Talks’, but they were inconclusive, and they are still left to die in a foreign prison governed under foreign laws. After Mr. Singh’s death, Indian Govt. called the act “Barbaric”. Wasn’t their attitude barbaric when they left him to the whims of a different government?  As Einstein said, “To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. Was the death of Mr Singh the action and then death of Mr. Ranjay the reaction? I still can’t find the equal and opposite part of it. 

There are more than 100 of PoWs who are still imprisoned on both the sides. Officially, 54 prisoners have been claimed to be PoWs in Pakistan and have been put to trial at the International Court of Justice, but no one counts the unofficial statistics. Agreements have been breached by both the sides. There are unknown accounts of similar attacks of hatred on other prisoners too. It is difficult to know how many prisoners have faced the same fate as Mr. Singh and Mr. Ranjay. So, on the whole, prisoners on both the sides are in constant danger of death. They might be given death sentence for their crimes, but they die every day with the fear of being killed by fellow inmates and more importantly by the cruel attitude of the respective governments.

Politicians have a habit of exaggerating the true accounts. But what about us? Are we so blinded that we really can’t understand the true nature of any act? We say that they were Prisoners of War and crime, but I think they were the Prisoners of Hatred. The hatred which have been bubbling in our veins since the day we got independence and lost our dignity. We are not born hating other people. It’s the society which teaches us to hate and teaches us “They are Pakistanis”, “They are Indians”. No amount of movies, talks, speeches would help people to raise the blood stained curtains of hatred, but it would be our own realization. But for that realization to come, I can’t imagine how many blood battles will be fought and how many lives have to be sacrificed.

We should always understand one simple fact that opposite of Love is not hate, but love gone bad. My dream of meeting my old friend in the streets of Lahore remains a sharp edged dream which can cost our lives too. But then I will do my part of believing in that dream without the fear of failure.

P.S – This is a personal account. Apologies if it hurts anyone’s sentiment. Comments are encouraged but I hope it won’t be based on “Hatred”.

Sharanya Kundu

@sharankundu on Twitter

The author is a young law student at ILS law college, Pune. She has worked for women's rights in the past  and dreams of visiting Pakistan. She has a strong belief that India and Pakistan will share a positive future.

The Security of Choice

“Well, in any case, I will get married off in an year or so, and from then on, I will see how I can adjust my career according to the family I’ll have.” This was the response of a fellow female Indian student I met on campus when I asked her about her immediate future plans after graduate school. It wasn’t in the least a surprising answer for me: this is perhaps the way a vast majority of Indian girls would answer if asked about their career plans after their undergraduate degree. This particular student was already pursuing a graduate degree in the US, and even with an educated family background, she could only view her future as hanging on such fine balance: hoping earnestly that her future husband through an arranged marriage would be supportive of her career.

When I heard that statement, the response to the same question by an American friend of mine inevitably came to my mind: she had graduated in family studies, and was hoping to work for children with Developmental delays. Before she told me about her major, I never even knew someone could get a degree in such a field. And here she was, explaining how she and her boyfriend were planning to shift to another state within the US, so she can take up a great job offer there, and he would try to acquire a job in the city she would be in.

This is not a generalized picture of both societies, of course, but it is definitely a reality. When I heard my Indian friend talk about her ambitions as if they were a function of her luck in finding a complacent groom, I thought on how secure she might be feeling about her education and life ahead. And given the complexities of caste, astrology and age restrictions in India, what are the chances that she would find such a groom within the age window that society has judged acceptable for its women to marry?

My friend had simply followed her older siblings into choosing engineering studies as a career since that was a ‘natural choice’ in India. And although to her credit she indeed did very well, all the efforts that she might put into her research, her relentless pursuit for a scholarship, could all be a story of legend she would perhaps tell her children at bed time, ten years from now.

Looking at the Indian society from afar and comparing it with the West gives me the opportunity to see pros and cons in both. But one painful reality back home shames me most: our judgements and stubbornness to tame and domesticate our women. How women are judged based on their marital status and ‘homeliness’ rather than their ambition and merit.

But if this was just another grim example of all that is wrong with the arranged marriage system in India, why was she here in the first place spending thousands of dollars into a degree that would tax most of her youthful years and her parents’ financial savings?

The answer is the ray of hope that gives me reason to argue our case to the world about Indian women and our current society: our constant willingness to adapt and grow. It makes me proud whenever I see my Indian friend at a research meeting or make a smart move in class. She may not know how her future husband would value her education and her ambitions, but she surely knows how to make the best of what comes her way!

- Abhijit Sunil

@abhijit_sunil on Twitter

The writer is currently a Research Assistant at the Computer Science and Engineering at the Southern Methodist University of Dallas, TX, USA.

Knowledge or numbers?

“A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers” said the legendary Greek Philosopher Plato. But it is heart-breaking to see how when it comes to the statistics of children who are enrolled in schools for elementary education all over India, some people rely on numbers than knowledge.

Data released by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) revealed the statistics of children who are enrolled in schools for elementary education all over India. It was shocking to note that Goa has the lowest number of Muslim children in schools.

It has been reported that on a national level, with 10.49% enrolment in elementary schools, Muslims fare worse than the Other Backward Classes (42.26%) and the Scheduled Castes (19.72%). The comparison of enrolment at elementary level between the SCs, OBCs and Muslims shows that the OBCs and SCs are doing much better than Muslims in terms of elementary education. According to the recently released statistics of 2008-09, just 0.20% of Muslim children in the state are enrolled in schools, making Goa perhaps the worst state in educating children of the Muslim community. The figures put Goa below states like Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Harayana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and even Uttar Pradesh.

Disturbed by this statistic, I sought to find out why Muslims were poorly educated in the state. Educationist M K Shaikh disagrees with the statistic. “It is false!” he says, “To understand this problem, we will have to go back to pre-liberation times. During the Portuguese rule, very few Muslim families sent their children to schools because they could not afford to pay the fees as education was not free at the time. The economic conditions were such that they could hardly make both ends meet. The liberation of Goa in 1961 opened the doors for education to everybody, thanks to the first CM Dayanand Bandodkar’s vision and efforts of taking education to every nook and corner of Goa. Like any other community, Muslims in Goa also started sending their children to schools. The oil boom in the gulf in the early ‘70s enabled Muslims to migrate to those countries where they improved their economic conditions. Awareness among Muslims that education plays an important role in life coupled with improvement in economic conditions gave Muslims a boost t to educate their children.”

“With the construction boom in Goa in the early ‘70’s, people from other states migrated here and this filled the vacuum that was created by the migration of Goans to the gulf. These migrants were influenced by the original Goans and so they also started sending their children to schools of their choice. Today, every migrant who has settled in Goa ensures that his children are enrolled or admitted to the school of his choice and they continue their education in whatever field they choose. Not that every migrant child that joins school reaches college. There is the factor of dropouts in between but this factor is applicable to every other community. The original Muslim migrants who came to Goa and joined either the construction activity or started selling fruits or vegetables wherever he got the place, has ensured that his children are not following the same profession… they are educated. To say that only 0.20% of the Muslim children in Goa join schools is false and I think it is based on false data that is provided to the NUEPA.”

According to Shaikh Sulaiman Karol, president of All Goa Muslim Samaj, who incidentally also is the chairman/centre in charge of two schools in Goa, majority of the Muslim population in Goa is that of migrant Muslims, in comparison to which, the authentic Goan Muslim population is very less. “In Goa, Goan Muslims are quite less.” He says. “Most of the Muslims here are immigrants. These immigrant Muslims do not want to send their children to school, they want to send them to work since they are poor. Mostly, these kids sell polythene bags, groundnuts, etc. Our organisation is working very hard for these children. As far as Goan Muslims are concerned, they are all economically well off but the conditions of the migrant Muslims in Goa are not very good. They come to work here as labourers, get a ration card etc. and live here as Goans. Now, there is a population of more than two lakh Muslims in Goa. As far as education is concerned, awareness is a must. Most organisations like Goa Muslims Samaj, All Goa Muslim Association, Social and Cultural Association of Goa, All Goa Urdu Teachers Association are working for the upliftment of Muslims students in Goa. Most of these migrants do send their children to school, but they don’t get admission in higher secondary schools after SSCE. This is because people have various pre-conceived notions regarding Urdu medium students, especially since they come from Chimbel. Mostly, people consider the Chimbel crowd to be very rowdy so they don’t want children from Chimbel studying in their institutions. So, I have started a higher secondary school in English medium. It is open to students of all communities and social strata.”

According to the study, the socio-economic condition of the community was one of the chief causes for these children being denied basic education. Most parents preferred to engage their children in economically productive activities rather than educating them. Another problem was that of ghettoisation. The people in certain segments of Goa, in fact, live in closely-knit houses which are impoverished, most of them self-made with cheap and sub-standard components. I visited some of these ghettos and spoke to some migrants who have made home in Goa. The women mostly work as domestic help and the men work at construction sites. Some are in the business of selling fruits and/or vegetables. Almost all those who can afford to send their children to schools try to make ends meet. They choose to send their children to the best possible schools even if it burns a hole in their pocket; the most preferred schools being Ideal Primary school, Don Bosco High School and Government Schools. Though a few have not been able to pursue their higher education, most children have done their basic elementary schooling.

Ibrahim Khalilullah, happily skips about as he says, “I am in Std II and go to Ideal Primary School. There are 27 students altogether in my class. I like to go to school, it is very nice.” His other two siblings also go to school along with him and he has aspirations to become a big man one day.

Affrin Nawar, who has just answered her Std X board exams speaks fluently in English as she says, “I have just completed Std X in Auxilium High School. As a child I went to a Government Marathi medium school. After my SSCE results are out, I will study further. I want to pursue my studies in the Arts stream and after Std XII, I want to graduate in Travel and Tourism from Don Bosco College. My mother is a domestic helper and my father works on construction sites. My brother has completed his XII commerce from Lyceum HSS. He had passed his SSCE from Don Bosco High school. He wanted to study further but due to financial issues, we are forcing him to go overseas and earn.”

Basha Shaikh says, “My mother is originally from Haveri District in Karnataka and my father is a Keralite. My parents came to Goa in search of employment about 20-21 years ago. I got my basic education in school. As a child, I went to a Government Primary school where I studied till Std IV. After that I was admitted in Progress High School, I studied there for two years but had to leave as my mother could not afford the fees there. Due to this, I joined Don Bosco’s night school and I would work in the day time. But because of financial problems, I had to discontinue my education after Std VII. I worked in a garage for five years as a mechanic of four wheelers. Then I learned to drive and now work as a driver. I would like to complete my studies but if I leave work and study then it will create a lot of financial issues in my home.”

Such a scenario thus begs the question whether reservation in jobs and in higher educational institutions will be a solution to bring the community into the mainstream. “That is not enough,” avers Shaikh Sulaiman Karol. “There are many problems that Muslims face. I hope Manohar Parrikar will spare some time for the Goa Muslim Samaj, so that we can place our difficulties and grievances with him. We have really high expectations from him. We hope that Manohar Parrikar’s government solves the problems of educating Muslims.”

“Now we are implementing the Right to Education Act,” added M K Shaikh. “According to that act, a child must be educated till the age of 14. I think the government should notify it and implement it in letter and spirit. There is no question of giving compensation; then they’ll have to give it to all communities.”

Parvin Nawar says, “We are originally from Raniminnur, a village in Karnataka. I studied till Std V in my village in an Urdu medium school. We were six children, so my father could not afford to send us all to school due to our financial conditions. I was married at seventeen and now I have three children. My husband and I didn’t get to study but we are doing whatever we can to make ends meet and send them to school. I want my children to study well and get a good job somewhere. Inshah Allah, this will happen. Manohar Parrikar has said that he will provide us help. Many of our children from the basti who have completed their BA and BCom went to see him but the CM was inaccessible. No one allows us to meet him. The government had made many promises to us before coming to power and we are looking forward to what happens. We have been staying in Goa from almost forty years. We pay all our taxes, water and electricity bills etc. Despite this, we have got a notice from the Municipal Department to vacate the place. How shall we live if we get thrown out? The notice has come as a nightmare to us. How will the poor children study? Because of this, we have to force our sons to discontinue their studies after HSSCE and send them overseas.” Is the current ruling party listening to the woes of these people?

Speaking about the number of students enrolled in his schools, Sulaiman Shaikh said, “Our newly started pre-primary has 80 students and 20 students have enrolled in Std I. This is in Chimbel. In Valpoi, from the Std I to Std X, we have more than 700 students. Majority of these students are Muslim. In the past 2-3 years, 100% of the students have pursued higher education after passing out of my schools. Some years ago, it was 0%. Earlier they would get admissions because they were from Chimbel and came from Urdu medium schools. Now some students are in Government HSS, Lyceum HSS and People’s HSS.”

In M K Shaikh’s Jawaharlal Nehru HSS, “50% of Muslims are enrolled. There is a mixture of authentic Muslim Goans and migrant population. Sometimes we get students from Anjuman Urdu Medium School, Margao. Everyone who passes Std XII joins the first year in college maybe in different streams. Very few, maybe 5%, of them dropout, especially when it is a girl. Migrant Muslims in Goa like to arrange the marriage of their daughters soon and won’t wait till she completes her education. So most of the girls drop out after Std XII. Otherwise, most students pursue their higher education.”

Dr. Yasmin Mudassir, Principal of Dhempe College of Arts and Science reveals the statistics of Muslim students enrolled in the college for the Academic year 2011-2012, according to which approximately 7-8% students enrolled in BA/BSc are Muslim students. “As far as the college is concerned,” says Dr. Yasmin Mudassir, “it welcomes minority students and there is no discrimination. Approximately, 7-8% Muslim students are enrolled in BA/BSc for the academic year 2011-2012. In these, there is a mixture of Goan Muslims, migrant Muslims and students sponsored by the ICCR.”

Plato founded one of the earliest known organised schools in Western Civilisation, Academus or the Academy to cater to the intellectual thirst of the scholars of his time. Similarly, there are organisations in Goa that are trying their best to uplift school children at the grassroots level. Also there are rational Muslim families sending their kids to pursue higher education in some of the finest institutes of Goa/ India and even overseas. This picture is vividly present before all, yet it appears that numbers weigh more than knowledge.

Nida Sayed 

The writer is a Reporter at The Goan Observer Newspaper.

CKD- The Silent Killer You Haven’t Heard About

Radha had been married a little over a year and was beginning to settle into the pulls and pressures that came with being a new bride in India. The gentle and sometimes blunt reminders from relatives on both sides, about time slipping by and the need to have children early, didn’t really concern the 29 year old IT professional or her husband. They were young and healthy and even though they had been trying to conceive for a few months, all the literature available online assured them that there wasn’t any cause for worry. So, when she reluctantly scheduled a visit to the infertility specialist at the prodding of her mother, it was more to avoid being nagged, than out of any real concern. Her first shock came when the doctor told her that her Blood Pressure (BP) was high. But when her blood reports came in and the doctor told her that her kidneys seemed to have failed, her world fell apart. Since that fateful day, chronic kidney disease (CKD) had completely taken over her life.

The kidneys are wonderfully complex organs that perform tasks vital to our normal well being. Each of our 2 kidneys work in tandem to clear the blood of excess waste and fluid that result from our diets, keep the chemical composition of our blood within normal limits and help maintain the health of our bones and manufacture red blood cells. Tiny filtering units, around 1 million in each kidney, called nephrons, keep plugging on regardless of the insults we pile on. Amazingly, all of this work can be done just as well, in a normal person, by just one kidney, which is what makes kidney donation possible. Even when some nephrons get damaged, the remaining normal nephrons work even more efficiently to compensate for the loss.  And this is why kidney diseases are a silent killer. The kidneys are so efficient at compensating for damage, that we seldom make a diagnosis early in the course of the disease.

In India, Diabetes and Hypertension together are responsible for about 50% of the cases of CKD.  And due to changes in our lifestyles and improving socio-economic standards India has seen a sharp rise in patients with Diabetes and Hypertension. Both, lack of awareness and sketchy access to quality medical care puts a large number of these patients at risk of developing complications associated with these chronic diseases, the most silent of which is CKD. Given this situation the only real precaution that can be taken against CKD are the following:

• Regular and strict control of diabetes and hypertension

• Avoidance of indiscriminate over-the-counter drug consumption

• Regular check-ups for early detection of kidney disease especially in at-risk patients including diabetics, hypertensives, those with unexplained leg swelling or urinary disturbances and those with recurrent stone disease

• Early referral to a kidney specialist for specialized care

The slow but inevitable progression of CKD to End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) makes it even more important that the health officials of our country take notice of this disease and formulate policy that allows the easy setting and running of dialysis units by private players or enable subsidized access to dialysis facilities to patients as has been done by the YSR government in Andhra Pradesh. Increasing access to dialysis facilities allows these patients to remain functional and facilitates the possibility of a new lease of life through a kidney transplant at some point in the future.

All of this brings us back to Radha. Twice a week dialysis meant that she lost 2 days of work in a week and soon had to resign from her job. All the restrictions in food and fluid intake meant she could no longer indulge in her favourite roadside chaats.

The worst was yet to come. The doctors soon informed her that she had no hope of conceiving unless she received a kidney transplant. The search for a donor turned out to be one of the most eye opening experiences of her life. Now the Indian law restricts organ donation to close relatives. To Radha's bad luck even though her husband and parents were willing, they were rejected as medically unfit. Her older sister who was a match faced resistance from her in-laws. She finally received a kidney from an uncle, a rare occurrence in India where the vast majority of donors are women. The transplant was done only after a Government appointed committee approved it after ensuring that the donation was being done for purely altruistic reasons. Today, 3 years after her transplant, Radha, now working with a charitable organization to spread awareness about kidney disease, is expecting her first child. She is still on medications to keep her body from rejecting her kidney, but is hopeful of a leading a long and fulfilling life made possible, by an act of kindness.

Radha is one of us. She represents us. Just like her we are adept to ignoring our health. It is important that as much as we are living a fast - paced life in a technologically driven world, health must take precedence over all else.  

- Dr. Sanjeev Nair

@Nair_Sanj on Twitter

The Author is a Consultant at the Department of Nephrology at the Madras Medical Mission in Chennai.

Why the German Economy Will Never Fail

Germany as a country has always been characterized by the outstanding work ethic of its people who are not only among the most skilled but also the most quality conscious professionals in the whole world. Its rather fashionable today and popular to predict the Euro's death and Germany's fall. It's a simple answer to a very hard question about how to integrate peoples and cultures that have been beating each other senseless for centuries. However it's even easier to predict the euro's survival backed by the German economy though much less popular.

If you spend any amount of time thinking about the ramifications of the euro going away you know that there's one reason the currency's survival is preordained: Germany.

The German economic miracle over the last decade is the direct result of the euro. The euro did away with the cost of currency conversions when importing and exporting products around the E.U. It also equalized pricing from one country to the next, and added huge efficiencies to the manufacturing and sales processes.

In essence, the euro allowed the German exports to excel.

Indeed, German exports in the early-90s rose by about 3% a year. Between 1999 and 2003, when the euro existed largely as an accounting currency only, German export growth rose by more than 6% annually. And between 2003 and 2007, when physical euro coins and notes were in circulation, German exports grew by 9% a year.

For 2011, Germany expects exports will top €1 trillion for the first time, representing more than one-third of GDP... and about 40% of that goes to other Euro-zone countries.

Anyone who thinks German business and industry - which relies heavily on selling goods to the rest of the E.U. - will allow such an important trading advantage to slip away is delusional. It's never going to happen. The single-currency's existence has added hundreds of billions of Euros to the German economy in the last few years alone.

Survival is the only option. Because consider the fate otherwise... Europe returns to individual currencies and instantly BMWs and Mercedes Benz's become too expensive across much of the rest of Europe. German exports would immediately slow and the German economy would crash. Massive layoffs would ensue and Germany's political and financial might would shrivel.

The re-emergence of Germany's former currency, the Deutsche Mark, would attract capital from all over Europe as Greeks, Italians, Irish, Spaniards, French and others dive out of their weak currencies and into a stronger currency. That would risk inflation in Germany - exactly the fear today of Germans who, as a culture, cling to images of Weimar hyperinflation.

So Germany would end up in a situation where the economy is crashing even as inflation rises.

German business and industry absolutely does not want that and it will ensure that it doesn't get it.

Vivek Sharma

Impartial and Honest Policing is the Key

It is a sordid state of affairs in India today with crimes galore including Rape, Murder, Loot and the culprits more often than not getting away scot free. This is compounded by the fact that the perpetrators are usually either in positions of power or well connected to the same. We have had incidents of elected representatives and even the police officials themselves indulging in this heinous rape of democracy. What then is the solution?

The key difference in India and the first world countries is the stark difference in the policing and the police. The Police is not subjugated in the first world to the whims of the powerful and the mighty and they are indeed public servants literally in every sense. When a crime is committed the criminal is subjected to an uniform procedure no matter who he is. Crime is tackled head on and there is no attempt to beat around the bush or muddy the waters in a vile attempt to cover up the same. Everything is transparent and every citizen/resident is subject to the same uniform treatment be it the prime minister/chancellor or an unemployed homeless person. This ensures that every person has the same respect and fear of the Police wherein they know and understand that they stand to be held fully accountable for their actions for the good or the bad!

There is no interference from any quarter unless injustice is being seen to be done. This in itself emboldens the Police to function in an impeccable manner wherein Justice is neither delayed or denied. The society embraces this as an inherent and integral part of its fabric wherein the individual goal is subjugated beautifully tot he general good and such a society is formed that is humanly closest possible to an utopian one.

When the people get used to such a society where onus is placed on themselves to be law abiding and just the resultant scenario is a natural reduction and eradication of social crime. It is no wonder then that the crime rates fall and citizens feel safe and secure to function to the best of their abilities.

We have to aim for such a situation in India which is possible only by first removing all corrupt elements of our society wherein it is to be understood that certain areas are gangrened to an extent that only an amputation would save the whole body. People and organisations that have been habitually corrupt and rotten and have to be thrown in the sacrificial fire of truth and honesty in order to pave the way for a clean and just system. The politicians, police, bureaucrats that are known to be corrupt need to be removed from their positions and duly punished for their crimes. This should be followed by an impartial system of public recruitment which ensures that only merit is considered not the caste or background or connections or bank balance of the aspirants. The quota system needs to slowly fade in toto be it on base of colour, caste, creed or finances otherwise equality in the truest sense may never be struck. 

Although this sounds simple, it is not in so in practice. We have to ensure that our acts should lead the way to the formation of an India that was envisaged by our freedom fighters who did not lay their lives down for the total destruction of everything that is just and pure!

Vivek Sharma