Tag Archives: Swine Flu

Everyday Life, Law, Right watch

Narendra Modi – Murdabad! Murdabad, murdabad!

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Can you even imagine Indian politics, or even India, without Murdabad? Who in this country has not seen a protest with people shouting “murdabad” after the name of a politician? Murdabad literally means death be upon you. In Gujarat, though, wishing death upon Narendra Modi can land you in jail. After the chief minister contracted swine flu, one Umesh Anupchandra Jain in Surat sent his friend Nirav Jagdishchandra Rana an SMS that read: “Jay Shree Ram. Narendra Modi ne swine flu positive. Bhagwan ene jaldi uthavi le aevi prarthna. Jaisi karni vaisi bharni.” That translates as: ‘Jai Shri Ram. Narendra Modi is swine flu positive. Let’s pray that god takes him away soon. As you sow, so you reap.’

So what if the recipient, Nirav, further circulated this to another 500 people? And so what if some of those were Modi fans, who were infuriated enough to go to the police station with it? What in those words gives the police the right to arrest Umesh and Nirav under charges of promoting enmity between groups, criminal conspiracy and abetting a crime, besides the IT Act. The irony of the Narendra Modi government accusing somebody of promoting enmity amongst groups. You may say it’s in bad taste, you may invoke Gandhi and say and eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. But jail for an innocuous SMS makes Gujarat a police state. Continue reading Narendra Modi – Murdabad! Murdabad, murdabad! →

Ecology/Environment

The Pigs Revolt; and the Mexicans are not Amused

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Dearly loved children, is it not a sin?
To peel potatoes and throw away the skins?
For the skins feed pigs and the pigs feed you,
Dearly loved children is it not true?

Children, the elderly and even the otherwise hale and hearty, take cover.  There is an ill wind that blows, a virus is on the loose, a contagion stalks the citadels of the great cities of our world, an illness stalks us all.  Look closely at the sneezing stranger next to you; you could be staring at the face of death.

Hyperbole aside, the outbreak of the flu in its latest avtaar gives us all something to think about; particularly those of us who have the sniffles.  Of course, this is no  runny nose to be scoffed at; but while health professionals across the world scratch their heads; I am most intrigued by the subtle and not to subtle politics of the flu. Continue reading The Pigs Revolt; and the Mexicans are not Amused →