Just a thought
Tukaram Mundhe is a household name right now, and one spoken of wt enormous respect and regard
You may argue with his methods, but surely we deserve to know that the food we eat is safe and that basic standards are being enforced
There’s a larger lesson here for our govt and civil servants.
Do your job with this kind of commitment and u won’t merely hold office. You’ll build a legacy.
People will speak of u years later, as they still do of G.R. Khairnar and T.N. Seshan.
2 immediate opportunities come to mind:
• Mumbai traffic
The cop who finally sorts out our hopelessly psychotic traffic, nails people driving on the wrong side and explains that red lights are not optional, will become an enduring urban legend.
• Open spaces and greenery
The civil servant or politician who becomes an uncompromising warrior for preserving Mumbai’s open spaces and increasing its green cover will go down in folklore
Singapore, New York and Hong Kong prove that dense, crowded global cities don’t have to surrender every available square foot to concrete.
Competence is remembered
Sometimes, simply doing your job exceptionally well might be the greatest legacy of all
@mybmc@MumbaiPolice@CPMumbaiPolice
PTI has apologised. In writing.
The false reporting of Shri @PriyankKharge’s remarks was amplified across television screens, websites and social media within the hour. The correction will receive only a fraction of that attention. That imbalance is not incidental. It is how misinformation acquires legitimacy.
An apology after the damage is done is not enough. Every platform that amplified the false report has a responsibility to give the correction the same prominence and urgency as the original misinformation.
Hope those in the wrong can correct the record with the same speed, visibility and seriousness with which they distorted it.
When the politician who has done more for Indian hockey than anyone else raises a concern, it deserves to be heard. Indian hockey belongs to every Indian—not to any political colour. Don’t stain our sporting legacy with colour politics. 🇮🇳🏑😡🙏
I am deeply anguished to know that the legendary colour of the Indian hockey team’s jersey has been changed to saffron. The iconic shade of blue of the Indian hockey team is not just a colour. It is an emotion associated with the nation’s sporting heritage.
For decades, this colour united us in hope, in victory, in defeat and in the pursuit of sporting excellence. We have cried, laughed, celebrated and stood proudly with our men and women in blue. Wearing the blue jersey our teams have won Olympic medals with the national anthem playing on the world stage. #Blue is derived from the blue chakra in our national flag. It is a symbol of our national pride and identity. The colour blue belongs to every Indian.
When the national hockey teams were struggling for sponsors, #Odisha created history by being the first and only state to support our national teams and our beloved game. Every Odia across the globe was proud of the state’s gift to national hockey. After 41 long years, our men’s team won an Olympic medal. Just because the government changed in Odisha, it should not change our national team colours. This is petty politics of the worst kind.
Our blue jersey is to us what the iconic stripes are to Argentina and the yellow jersey is to Brazil. It is etched in our collective memory. Any change in this colour, is a crass attempt to erase our priceless sporting legacy. National symbols are meant to unite us not divide.
I am given to understand that this step was taken under pressure from the BJP Government in Odisha. Those in authority may deny it, but the fact is that for the last two years, everybody in Odisha has seen the obsession of this government with changing colours of buildings, buses and even bridges. It is the only work that is happening in Odisha today. But now the same government has changed the colours of our national team. I strongly condemn this attempt by BJP Odisha to politicise a national game like hockey. It has deeply hurt the sentiments of lakhs of sports lovers across the country and the pride with which Odisha has supported the national hockey.
#Hockey
#MenInBlue
#WomenInBlue
Irony just died again. The cleanest man in Indian politics did not need an SC certificate of his integrity. Instead it is those who sought to implicate him in these charges who ought to be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
While education is the topic of conversation; here’s a very interesting perspective:
An Indian professor visited Russia to study its education system.
During his visit, he came across something that left him completely puzzled.
In Russia, the highest score in an exam was 5.
That was understandable.
But what shocked him was this:
Even a completely blank answer sheet received 2 marks.
A blank paper.
Two marks.
The professor could not believe it.
Surely, a student who writes nothing deserves zero?
The question stayed in his mind until he finally asked a senior Russian educator.
"How can you give marks to someone who has written absolutely nothing?"
The educator smiled.
Then he gave an answer the professor never forgot.
"Zero means non-existence. As long as a student is standing in front of me, how can I call him zero?"
The professor was silent.
The educator continued.
"Perhaps that child woke up before sunrise."
"Perhaps he travelled through snow and freezing weather."
"Perhaps he studied but became nervous."
"Perhaps he tried and failed."
"But how can one bad day erase all the effort that brought him here?"
Then he said something even more powerful.
"A teacher's job is not to convince a child that he is nothing. A teacher's job is to help him believe he can stand up and try again."
The professor later admitted that this conversation changed the way he looked at education.
And perhaps it changes the way we should look at people too.
How quickly we give labels.
Failure.
Average.
Not good enough.
Finished.
But a person is never equal to one result.
One exam cannot measure a life.
One mistake cannot define a future.
One bad chapter cannot decide the entire story.
Some of the most successful people in the world have failed interviews, lost businesses, repeated exams, and faced rejection after rejection.
What kept them moving was not talent alone.
It was hope.
And sometimes all a person needs is someone who refuses to give up on them.
The next time you see someone struggling, remember this Russian teacher.
Instead of asking, "Why did you fail?"
Perhaps ask, "How can I help you try again?"
Because people grow best not when they are judged, but when they are encouraged.
(Via WA on my school chat)
He didn’t carry a weapon. He carried food. He didn’t incite violence. He served meals. Since when did being a food volunteer at Jantar Mantar during CJP protests become a crime? Who will stand up for Junaid? A police force that sees a food volunteer as a threat needs to ask itself some hard questions.🙏
Pellet guns, lathis and tear gas were used against students peacefully protesting in Delhi.
I met 19-year-old Sahil Lochab. Shot with pellets, he may lose an eye. His “crime”? Demanding an end to paper leaks and a fair future for our students.
@AmitShah ji, I have two questions:
1. Did you approve the use of lethal force, including pellet guns, against students? If not, who did?
2. Were the men in plain clothes beating students with lathis police personnel or volunteers? Who authorised their deployment?
Desh jawab maang raha hai.
मोदी जी, करोड़ों छात्रों का भविष्य बर्बाद करने के बाद अब आधी रात की Reel से उनका वक़्त बर्बाद मत कीजिए।
प्रधान बर्ख़ास्त। दोषियों पर कार्रवाई। छात्रों से माफ़ी।
इससे कम कुछ भी मंज़ूर नहीं।
“The Narendra Modi government has responded to the students’ courage with cowardice and wanton cruelty, treating them not as inheritors of the future but as enemies of the nation.
The Modi government has not just degraded India’s education landscape but has also made a habit of acting with utter impunity, supreme self-delusion, and abject insensitivity.
If is our moral, political and constitutional duty to stand with students and safeguard their future.”
Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Smt. Sonia Gandhi Ji.
I have a question: if teachers face disciplinary action for hitting students in school, why is no action taken against the police officers in Delhi who beat students, or against those who issued such orders?
During the ongoing student protests in Delhi, the police have been indiscriminately using lathi-charges against the students. While a mild lathi-charge to disperse a crowd might be understandable in some contexts, the force used here appears to be an act of vendetta. The videos surfacing show not only protesting students but also bystanders being ruthlessly trampled upon. Such actions by the police could not possibly occur without specific orders from above.
What triggered the protest in the first place? It stemmed from the chaos surrounding the NEET exam, which adversely affected lakhs of students; out of anger, these students took to the streets, joined by others in solidarity. In short, the students initiated and sustained this movement. So, what was the justification for assaulting them? And who authorized the police to do so? Just as teachers are not permitted to hit students, neither are the police. Yet, why did this happen?
In the past, teachers frequently used to hit students (I, too, have often received such ‘punishment’), a practice that was eventually restricted because, no one has the right to inflict corporal punishment on students aside from the judiciary. Why shouldn't the same standard apply to the police? I have often said, and I say again today, that whether it is the Maharashtra police or any other force, officers often have no choice but to carry out the actions they are ordered to perform; therefore, they cannot be held solely responsible. But who gave the authority to the system that issues orders for such ruthless beatings? Do they consider themselves above the Constitution?
There are certain key United Nations principles, also adhered to by Amnesty International, dictating that whenever the use of force becomes necessary, the action taken must be constitutional, essential, and proportionate, and must entail accountability.
Today, in countries like Norway, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and New Zealand, any use of police force is subject to rigorous inquiry. An inquiry that focuses heavily on those who issued the orders. We need to see this happen here as well.
The question remains: who will ensure this happens? On one hand, the Chief Justice of the country dismissively refers to these young people as "cockroaches," while on the other, the Supreme Court itself states it has no time to view videos of the beatings. It is baffling. What do they have time for then? Young men and women are forced to take to the streets because they no longer have any expectations left from the current government. Civil society must reflect on this issue. It needs to be debated. Members of Parliament must insist on a discussion regarding this matter in the House.
The issue is not whether the State possesses the authority to use force against its citizens; almost every State holds that power. The real question is whether a constitutional democracy demonstrates the capacity to exercise restraint in the use of its authority. A democracy’s maturity is not measured by how harshly dissent is suppressed, but rather by how it handles dissenting voices, with restraint and due consideration for the consequences.
Raj Thackeray
प्रधानमंत्री मोदी भारत के इतिहास के सबसे युवा-विरोधी प्रधानमंत्री हैं - इतने युवा विरोधी कि एक नाकाम शिक्षा मंत्री धर्मेंद्र प्रधान का इस्तीफा भी नहीं ले सकते।
152 पेपर लीक। 7.5 करोड़ छात्र पीड़ित। और सज़ा एक दोषी को भी नहीं। सजा किसे मिली? मेहनती युवाओं को।
और जब इन बच्चों ने शिक्षा के जायज़ सवाल उठाए - तो जवाब में मिली लाठी और हिरासत��� लीक करने वाले अपराधी आज़ाद - और वाजिब मुद्दे उठाने वाले छात्र घसीटे जाते हैं, पीटे जाते हैं।
यह सरकार सिर्फ़ युवाओं को नाकाम नहीं कर रही - उनपर टूट पड़ी है।