In other words, open thread. Back here tomorrow late afternoon. Happen you come across interesting stuff — or have thoughts to share, disagreements to voice, whatever — drop them off in the comments box. See you tomorrow, be well.
Daily Archives: March 8, 2016
Martha Nussbaum on dissent
India, whose embrace of free speech is, historically, deeper and more foundational than that of the US, should rise up in protest against the very idea of punishing “seditious” speech, seeing the truth in the ideas that Freund, Tagore and Gandhi all stood for, in their different ways.
The art of living irresponsibly
An early front-runner in the annual WTF-ery Award stakes is Sri XXX Ravi Shankar, who says his organisation should be applauded for choosing such a polluted venue as the Yamuna for its birthday party.
Sandip Roy takes the whole exercise in self-aggrandisement apart with surgical skill.
The President of India has cancelled his attendance. And this just in:
#BREAKING | PM Modi unlikely to attend @SriSri‘s mega cultural event #SriSriYamunaMess pic.twitter.com/Vf4QvmV8Ss
— CNN-IBN News (@ibnlive) March 8, 2016
Good on you, Mr Modi.
PS: Via Scroll, a first person account of the construction activities being carried out in connection with the festival.
Hub of treason bags President’s award
Jawaharlal Nehru University has been named the winner of two of the three Visitor’s Awards President Pranab Mukherjee instituted last year, the laurels coming at a time some have dubbed the varsity a hub of treason.
The university took the prize in the “Innovation” and “Research” categories, while Assam’s Tezpur University was adjudged the “Best University”, according to an announcement by Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday.
And meanwhile:
JUST IN: No one has anything against the particular student who was arrested, says Arun Jaitley in RS #JNURow pic.twitter.com/z8zUZUKua0
— CNN-IBN News (@ibnlive) March 8, 2016
That explains it, then.
Azaadi from life’s little indignities
It’s some kind of day for women, today. Cue conferences and high-minded speeches and selfie-with-bindis and all of that. Tomorrow, we can mothball all of that for another year, and go back to business as usual.
In the midst of all the high-minded speechifying, I found this little ‘listicle’ by Neha Dixit. Sample item:
My mother, a huge Shah Rukh Khan fan, wanted to watch Yes Bossin a theatre, in the late ’90s in Lucknow alone during daytime. She was refused a ticket. My father, who had no interest in films except some Sooraj Barjatya films, had to buy a single ticket on her behalf the next day, drop her at the cinema and assure the hall manager that she is watching the film alone and has her family’s approval for doing so.
Reservations in Parliament? Parity of wages? If we are even remotely serious about creating a better world for women, maybe it is these little indignities they are subjected to on a daily basis that deserves our most urgent attention.
A plague on both your houses
A worker of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS was pulled out of the autorickshaw he was driving in Kerala’s Kannur this morning by a group of men, who then attacked him with sharp weapons.
Huddled inside the autorickshaw and watching in fright were four children from class 1 and 2 who the RSS worker, AV Biju, drives every morning to school. Mr Biju was driving down the route that he usually takes, a short-cut between two main roads, when he was attacked.
It is barbaric (doubly so, given that that act of violence was perpetrated in full view of young children), it is horrific — and I don’t give a flying fuck.
Because who does?
Smoke Signals 