Though the article about how the labour room functions was a revelation, most of us have been at the receiving end of a doctor's brusque and dismissive behaviour at some time or the other in government hospitals, even outside labour rooms (“'I can't take it anymore': Sights and awful sounds from the labour room of an Indian public hospital”). Is it any wonder that distraught relatives of patients regularly rough up doctors and vandalise hospitals? It is the power dynamics that is at play, especially when the patient is poor. – Krishna Lahiri Majumdar
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I remember our labour room at BJ. It was a story of the same misbehaviour. But there were warm moments too. I don't remember violence against patients. The reporter here is a novice and simply does not realise that an average delivery causes 500ml of blood loss. The descriptions of episiotomy are unnecessary and reflect the writer's own abhorrence for incisions and bleeding. Historically, episiotomies have saved a lot of perennial tears, though recent guidelines advise against routine episiotomies. Still, they're the best way of preventing perennial tears. The seemingly psychologically unbalanced descriptions of bleeding simply tells me that the reporter is unfamiliar with the birthing process. Midwife handled deliveries are the basic cause of high MMR in India, and centralisation of deliveries is the answer.
As far as misbehaviour is concerned, isn't it a malady affecting all government hospitals across all departments? I know for a fact that normal deliveries conducted at night in the GH of my district are not supervised by a gynaecologist. They're conducted by unsupervised nurses. The gynaecologist is not at fault. The government is. Plus, apathy is the hallmark of Indian doctors. We think Indian doctors are great. Since coming out of India, I have observed that we are not. - Dr Sachin Lohra
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The article is pretty good but very superfluous! Read up obstetrics textbooks and try to spend two consecutive weeks in the labour room, 12 hours a day. Don't do anything. Maybe just be an observer or something. That would probably be the real undercover story. Visiting once and for just one patient is downright inadequate for the kind of conclusions you have drawn.
And while you may just see one person delivering on the table at any given point in time, there are at least 40 to 50 other patients in the labour room in various stages of labour, abortion and many of them are at high risk. While your sensation-seeking eyes may not get any action, a lot of mishaps are being averted by the timely interventions of doctors on duty.
If only you had asked Dr Shikha for her point of view. – Ishita Singh
Those IIT blues, again
In response to the letter regarding taxpayers’ money being misused for IITians, I have a few remarks to make (“Dear Smriti Irani, stop giving my money to IITians”).
1. Taxpayers’ money gets misused in several ways. The money spent on education of any student is not a misuse.
2. I agree that the students finally either use their training for a company which pays them well or change the occupation wherein the training is not useful directly. Instead of debating on subsidies, why not we make it compulsory for them to use their training for the country for two years? Medical graduates have to serve in public hospitals and also take up rural posting. After two years, they are free to take up anything they wish.
3. In a country like ours, many intelligent students are expected to take up medicine or engineering as their career. It is only when they grow up by Indian standards that they think of what they actually like .Efforts need to be made at school level to educate students and parents about the opportunities. Aptitude tests and post-test counselling should be encouraged in order to avoid afterthoughts. Talented students can use precious years of their lives learning what they really like and make it their profession. – Rukmini Govekar
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I really liked the story about how the government is spending Rs 1,700 crore on IITians. Will Smriti Irani hear this? IIST students have to sign a bond for three years, but IITians don't. A strict bond to serve the government (without money) for a minimum of five years should made to sign by the IITians or not provide subsidy for them at all. – S Kala
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It's been a year since I have been sitting idle at home after my graduation. Initially, I thought that perhaps my qualification is not sufficient to get a job due to tough competition. But does all this competition benefit India? Most of products we use every day are made on foreign shores, such as mobile phones, refrigerators, computers and laptops. Even military aircrafts are purchased and imported from the US, Russia and France, among others. Narendra Modi promotes "Make in India" programme, but by this, only the place of manufacturing will be changed to India while the manufacturers will still be foreign companies.
Instead of providing subsidies to IITians, the government should open centres for apprenticeships for students so that they suit the needs of the industry. If students have to sit idle at home despite getting a degrees, then it is truly the failure of the government – Pardeep Rathee
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This is the dumbest idea I've heard in a while. For every one IITian India invests in, it gets back 50x the money back as taxes if he or she works in India. A Rs 36 lakh annual salary or a Rs 12 lakh tax is common after 12 years of experience. Multiply that by 20 years service and the government is looking at Rs 2.4 crore in taxes only from this one individual.
In case he works out of the country, the dollar repatriation amount over his lifetime is at least half that. And this is assuming he brings no other value – like jobs, industry skills, training – to his surroundings. The value of that is priceless.
The government's returns are so phenomenal that that they should leave no stone unturned to ensure that the brightest minds get the best education, be it at IIT, IIM, IISc or any other quality Institute. – Nitin Narang
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The government subsidises medical education and the medicos run towards corporate hospitals and clinics. Please extend the same article with to them. – Pavankumar Raja
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Getting a scholarship/subsidy is an extremely hard process and I don't think that Jeswanth Padoorui has any clue about it. I dare him to clear any entrance exam, be it IIT or the GRE-TOEFL. – Anindita Chaudhary
Exaggerated history
I don't know which part of the world Girish Shahane belongs to, but I am sure he did not get the correct material to read about our Indian history. Every myth is based on some true legend – it might be hyperbole at some points but it doesn't mean it doesn’t exist (“Rani Padmini and four other Hindutva history myths exploded”).
It’s said that a little knowledge is always dangerous. All the facts he claims to have exploded is sheer nonsense and has nothing to do with history. Anyway, if he is really on a hunt to explode myths, I will be happy to prove him wrong provided he visits those places with me along with his material and scientists who can make out C14 dating. – Mayur Chaturvedi
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Another myth which needs to be busted and buried deeply is the exaggerated notion of Maratha bravery. The Marathas had an excellent opportunity to build and consolidate an imperial state in northern India after the collapse of the Mughal empire, but wasted it, primarily because of disunity and their outdated ways of conducting warfare. Another reason is their complete disinterest in constructing a moderately efficient civil administration. These facts were elaborately brought out by Professor Jadunath Sarkar in his four-volume study of the fall of the Mughal Empire. – R Sivaraj
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I will only take up one point from Girish Shahane’s article and give some proof about its authenticity. The anniversary of Shrimad Bhagwad Gita: the dating comes from the ancient book of Surya Siddhanta. This dating is corroborated by many other authors using astronomical events and going back in time. One only needs to look at the internet and you get at least five ‘independent’ datings which more or less coincide.
Now comes the question of why 5,000 years. This was because of the outside limits put up by Max Muller on Indian civilisation. In those days, the clout of Max Muller was omnipresent. Thus, you could not work outside the framework given by him. What was given by him was arbitrary at best and has been disproved subsequently. Now that Mahabharata itself has been shown to have happened at least 5,000 years ago, it goes without saying that the Indian civilisation goes back much more. – Anand Ghúryé
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Please check the following details.
1. Age of Indian civilization: Please see the Indus Valley Civilization details on Wikipedia.
2. About Rani Padmini, everything of that time is well documented and the Sisodias, who took over Chitorgarh from Khilji, have the complete history documented. So how come only Rani Padmini's story is false?
3. Prithvi Raj Chauhan: if he had not caused any hardship to Ghauri then why is there a ritual in Afghanistan to hit his cemetery with shoes?
There can also be claims that Mohammad and Jesus are fraud godmen like what we have in current times. Just having a website and allowing people to write is not a good idea. – Saurabh Sisodia
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The author's purpose in this article does not seem to educate but rather negate popular thinking. He forgets that many of us in India understand how history is sometimes exaggerated and that is what gives rise to folklore. They serve a purpose and we who seriously understand the making of history of any nation or people give credence to it. Let people be the judge of what history tells. When you express opinions along with facts to shift people's understanding of history you lose your credibility as a historian. Your opinions come across strongly than the truths you claim to portray. – Revathy
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Let me first tell you that I am an army officer and do not have any inclination towards politics and as the rule goes, I am strictly apolitical. It goes without saying I am an extremely fierce nationalist and love my country, my motherland more than anything.
Having said that, let me first ask you, what basis do you have to firstly use the word "myth"? And secondly, how do you claim that you have "exploded" the myths? Nowhere have you substantiated your claims with authentic proof.
I am mainly concerned about points 3, 4 and 5 because they talk about India as a country. You have yourself talked about "history being written by the victor and poems by the vanquished", so how can you impress me about believing your logic and little historical background that you have given in one or two of the "myths"?
I am presently on deputation with the United Nations and have the opportunity to be in the midst of people from at least 67-70 nations. I have come to the conclusion that India is far, far greater than I ever thought it was. When we shout at the top of our voices, it is tolerated. We are the real democracy. We Indians enjoy the "freedom" in the truest sense possible. – Raviraj
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I think that the author's existence is also a myth. He relates himself as a well-known historian with very less importance to the pedagogy of myth. It seems he has not been through Swami Vivekananda's literature. He should rectify himself or he is well-suited for understanding the history of mental growth of penguins in Antartica or Meerkats in South Africa.
He should look for a change, probably deep underwater, for at least another thousand years. – Ranajoy Chatterjee
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Many of us – my friend and I – are intrigued by Girish Shahane's article on Rani Padmini and "other myths". I would like to know the source from which Shahane got these facts. Then we can tell our children and grandchildren true stories from the past. – Komilla Raote
Qatar: one death too many
In situations like Qatar, where there is no concept of human rights, the humanity must raise an alarm with or without accurate figures (“The true story behind reports of hundreds of labourers dying to build Qatar's World Cup 2022”). Your argument of figures being inaccurate does nut cut any ice. If you look at the history of repression, undisputed figures never emerged.
How many political prisoners died in Stalin's Russia, what were the exact number of cold-blooded murders during cultural revolution, how many people really died in racist attacks in the US, how many Dalits have been killed by upper caste Indians? We only have estimates, which can be disputed. Does that mean we don’t raise an alarm?
Clinical accuracy is not really a virtue of journalism. It may be useful sometimes to err on the correct side. – Hemant
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Any death at a work-site is one too many. I have witnessed two and they were both horrible. – Quinn Bottorff
Provocative speech
Shyam Manohar’s speech is really wonderful, throwing many questions and provoking many thoughts (“Search and re-search: The challenge India faces in creating a forward-looking culture”). It covers the realms of the mundane world, literature and philosophy. The search is never ending for the individual. It is the subtle intellect with intuition that can take us forward.
I heartily congratulate and profusely thank the speaker. – Rajagopal Kalavacharla
The answer is easy
I can only react to the story about why it’s difficult to discover good books (“Why it’s difficult to discover good books though they are out there”). That's because some writers - let's call them sentimental columnists; sentimental, in the sense that Orhan Pamuk uses it in his Naive and the Sentimental Novelists – today know how to catch the readers' attention, even create some great interest by identifying with their problems, queries, pain points, and then offer solution that is ridiculously simplistic or extraordinarily superficial. Why, sometimes even immensely stupid.
This is one such piece
But yes, I am a born optimist and Scroll and Naresh Fernandez have given me some great stuff in the past. So, will try a few more times – Shyamanuja Das
Southern mangoes
You speak of Delhi and Mumbai mangoes as though the rest of India does not exist (“Why Indian mangoes are better than Pakistani ones”). I would have all you people north of the Vindhyas know that the best Indian mangoes come from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The Malgoa, Banganapalli and Imam Pasand mangoes belong in a different league altogether. I suggest that you get your teeth into them as soon as you can. – TT Srinivasaraghavan
A house for the LGBT community
I have a proposal. The gays and lesbian, or rather the whole LGBT community, should be given a homeland somewhere upon a large island in the Pacific ocean and they should be helped to settle there. Those who enjoy the benefits of the heterosexual society are not ready to contribute to its continuation. In the long run, these people are useless for our civilisation. They must live together in harmony and enjoy their brand of sexually gratification there, far away from the sane and responsible world of ours (“I am a gay Indian man, but I wish today I was living in Ireland”). – Mohammad Mustahsan
Blatter is better
I don't see why Scroll.in must give so much credit to the US in the recent FIFA controversy (“Political football: why the US took action on FIFA corruption”). America is interested only because its business interests are tied up with the sponsoring American corporations, Coca Cola, Nike etc. in these matches. They are not any better morally than the Europeans, so stop your prejudiced reporting. There have been plenty of money-related scandals of a home grown variety here related to all the three major American sports, baseball, football and basketball.
Sepp Blatter deserves to head FIFA and efforts from here to dislodge him have failed. – Byravan Viswanathan
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In typical Indian servile style, you merely echo what the US and the Anglos say and liberally reproduce the views of their media. Don't you have views of your own?
FIFA didn't expel Blatter, he was duly elected for the fifth term. The US and the UK are smarting from their failures in 2018 and 2022 and trying their darndest to hit back. – Eddie Ray
Ya Illiah
I don't think Kancha Illiah said anything wrongly about God (“Case filed against social scientist Kancha Ilaiah for asking, 'Is God a democrat?'”).
It is a shame to take any action against him. He simultaneously discussed Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. Are we living in the zamindaar era? – SM Ali
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Jesus' words, ‘Lord forgive them for they know not’ comes to mind when I hear the intolerance from the religious Right – be it Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist or others.
Lack of conviction in one's faith breeds intolerance towards criticism, whereas firmness in faith can lead us to learn from criticism, explore the infinite wisdom and realise the strength of our faith; a worthy feeling to have, instead of living in doubt and shooing criticism away.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, RSS and Lashkar-e-Taiba, Taliban, Jamaat -e- Islam, orthodox Jews, and a few evangelicals do not have faith in their religion and become intolerant when they hear a different point of view.
I hope the court does not entertain the case, it is silly. – Mike Ghouse
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I take this opportunity to congratulate and offer my support to Prof Kancha Ilaiah for his thought provoking article on violent and undemocratic gods. Any legal move and action towards him and such persons shows an act of cowardice. Since Indian democracy is forced to practice Moditva which is nothing but the front for fascist Hindutva, I am not surprised that their pracharaks hunt Prof Kancha Ilaiah. – Vincent Crasta
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What Iliah said in his article was said earlier by many rationalists and reformers (ranging from Tripuraneni Ramaswami Choudhary to Periyar Ramaswami Naicker) over the last hundred years. By taking the matter to court, the Hindutva zealots are only indicating that they have lost the argument. – R Palanki
Immigrant in America
What is so ironic every time an US citizen of European ancestry talks about 'real Americans’? (“Indian-Americans win Spelling Bee yet again, but success isn't a natural product of our culture”) All I can see is people of Native American tribes. Almost everyone is an immigrant to that continent – except them. The question of real Americans is just a matter of basic white racism and has nothing to do with nationalist pride and people of the soil. – Tania De
Deluded BJP
Has the BJP no moral principles at all? Of course, Netanyahu will welcome PM Modi for two reasons (“Narendra Modi plans to visit Israel, the first Indian prime minister to do so”):
1. Israel has few friends in Asia and Israelis would like places to holiday.
2. India will buy military equipment from Israel.
The West tolerates Modi for one reason only: he buys military equipment from traditional warmongers – military equipment from the US, fighter jets from France, uranium from Australia and Canada and surely some military equipment from Israel.
The West must be bemused that a poor nation like India (with the highest number of destitutes in the world) wastes its sparse funds on military equipment instead of spending on schools, health, sanitation, toilets, cleaning up the filthy 'holy' rivers, crumbling infrastructure.
But that's how the deluded BJP thinks. – Eddie Ray
One under Ashoka
Except under Emperor Ashoka, at no time was India under a single ruler. Even Mughals and the British barely ruled half of the country. No one trusted a single leader in India because of our castes, languages, religions and race (“Why there has never been a military dictatorship in India”).
Indus people were Asuras (Rakshasas/Dravidians) who built the Indus Valley civilisation 5,000 years ago and who fought against the invading Aryans. Later, we were defeated by Muslims and Europeans. Native Indus people were brown people who worshipped Shiva and Kali, and the invading Aryans were a white race and they imposed Varna system to discriminate the native Asuras. Indian Founding fathers should have kept India together instead of splitting the country on religion in 1947.
If that was not possible then they should have divided India as North India, East India and South India based on language and culture. Pakistan and North India speak the same language and their culture is similar. By dividing Bengal, a more advanced Bengali society was decimated. South India has nothing in common with North India, and they are subjected to all kinds of discriminations and a threat of imposing Hindi on them. India has no other choice except democracy for the above mentioned reasons. – Madhu
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I love those few paragraphs, especially the parting shot! – RV Asokan
Lazy Keralites
Being a Keralite, I would like to add something to the story about why people are applying for government jobs (“Why five lakh people applied for 1,500 government jobs in Kerala”).The labourers are paid lucratively in Kerala compared to other states in India. A man getting Rs 150 in Tamil Nadu gets about Rs 700 for the same work in Kerala. Now the problem is if you employ a Keralite to do the same job done by a North Indian, either he would ask for more money or he will work less.
It is well known that most of Keralites are lazy (including me). Another serious aspect is development of trade union and strikes and harthals created by locals, which won’t happen if you employ a Bengali or Bihari. So contractors opt for a no-nonsense North Indian than a potentially headache-causing local. In a way as it is rightly said Kerala is a consumer state than a productive state. – Shimin VV
Slowly down the Ganges
During my six-year stay in Banaras, I have not even once seen the Ganga being cleaned with governmental aid (“Ganga’s water quality is plunging despite Rs 986 crore spent on cleanups over 30 years”). I don't understand where such large sums of money go. – Prabhakar
Yours vegetarianly
The stand taken by CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan to ban eggs in anganwadi centres is good (“Not just Madhya Pradesh: Denying eggs to malnourished children is common in BJP-run states”). In Madhya Pradesh, many people are vegetarian. As a head of the state, he has taken a correct stand. He is a leader in the true sense.
There are many ways to give protein. Only egg having protein is a myth marketed by some peoples with vested interest. – Anup Vhora
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I strongly believe that if eggs are beneficiary, there should not be any reservation in egg consumption. Why deprive them from this highly nutritious food. Preserving life is far more important than anything else. – Dr Munira Husain
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Should serve pork in madrasas. It has lot of protein as well. – Anurag Tikaria
Eye-opener
Very well written, very factual and an eye-opener article about Narendra Modi (“Modi’s irrelevant homilies won’t shift people from Bharat to India”). – Kartar Sandhu
Shocking disclosures
It’s outrageous but very sad that the shock therapy to LGBTs is taking place nowadays too (“The impunity with which doctors give LGBTs shock therapy shows why gay-sex ban must go”). However, private health practitioners conduct a lot of unethical practices. There is no regulation by the corrupt Medical Council of India. There is no standard adopted and no guidelines issued and, more importantly, no documentation by most of the medical professionals. Often, you won't get details about what treatment you got and what medicines and injection you have been given. ECT (shock) is given at many centres without taking the consent of patient and\or guardians. – Jitendra Keshwani
Overestimates, oversights
I was very interested to see Mayank Jain's article on how the Right to Education is failing (“How the Right to Education is failing the very children it was meant to benefit”). The article raised a number of important questions and I would like to thank Scroll and Mayank for starting these very necessary data driven conversations.
However, a closer examination of the data shows a few oversights. By looking only at 2014 data, the article misses the improvement in the trend. For example, while Muslims are still underrepresented in classrooms, Muslim enrolment has increased 73% since 2007. Moreover, the share of Muslims in classrooms has almost doubled over this period.
There is also a mistake in the source survey. The National Sample Survey of Out of School children overestimates the number of SC and ST children and therefore overestimates the share of SC and ST children out of school. Different data sources show that SC and ST enrolment is in line with their representation in the population. So, the data does not really support the statements that the RTE is failing minorities. However, it is true that higher enrolment is not resulting in higher literacy. – Shreedhar Sasikumar
Missing poet
It’s a good article. However, I'm surprised there is no mention of the famous poet C Narayan Reddy (“Meet the cultural icons of Telangana, as the new state celebrates its first anniversary”). – Soni Cheepala
Hunger pangs
The hunger series is extremely well written and shows the grim situation (“Middle class children in Delhi are fat – and undernourished”). Now that we seem to have a committed government at the Centre, I would request you to forward this to various government departments, including PMO. – PR Mohan
App for Windows
I am a regular reader of Scroll.in and felt somewhat jealous that Android users now have an app for the website. I use a Windows Phone. Please pay heed to our needs too. – Ankit Kawade
Tortured reality
I appreciate the detailed analysis about the sensitive issue of the Kargil War (“Why India chose not to sue Pakistan for torturing a Kargil war veteran – until now”).
Sometimes the emotions that burst open, especially after reading about the very brutal torture of Captain Saurabh Kalia, prevents one from digging deep and considering the alternate plausible and rational explanations, it’s good to have an objective analysis of the matter. – ElBorak
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Keep your cynical thought to yourself. Your attitude can be made out from the fact that only few of us are reading your good-for-nothing article, while many are standing in support of Saurabh Kalia. And it’s because of your cynical attitude that I feel that had you been at his place, your family would have been in the forefront demanding for justice.
Instead of being cynical, try and support him. Your doubts may get cleared – Apeksha S
Simmering unrest
I have been following the Maruti story ever since it happened (“A new documentary brings the Maruti struggle alive through the stories of its arrested workers”). It's easy to see that the violence did not happen overnight.
There was simmering unrest. The management did everything to control and suppress the workers and ignore their needs. What are the profit margins? What are executive salaries? What are temporary or contract labour paid? Are rules being followed about PF and other benefits?
And finally what is the cost of the unrest? Is it profitable to have badly paid workers when you compare it with the costs of unrest violence and litigation? Shri S K Pramar, a senior CSR professional, has written about the Maruti incident.
Above all, how do the Japanese partners tolerate this? Would it happen in Japan? – Shyamala Sanyal
The gift of the Maggi
The issue with the Maggi ban is that, be it politics, economics or social, there is no accountability for those in power (“Maggi controversy: Some good news (and some bad) for Madhuri Dixit, Amitabh Bachchan and Preity Zinta”).
The rot starts right at the apex and then trickles down.
The measly humans belonging to the lower/middle strata face the stringent laws and pay the taxes and are made to be law abiding, while the law makers sit in abounded luxury and spew rhetorics on how to run the country. Disgusting! – Nandita Mathur
Madhuri mystery
The article about Madhuri and Maggi is terrible in not explaining what it is talking about — it’s inside baseball, and the subject may be familiar to locals but Scroll has international readers, too, and we’re not aware of what the writer is talking about (“The bias against Maggi has disenfranchised millions, but the biggest victim is Madhuri”).
Good journalism requires that the writer to explain what the subject is by summing it up in the first paragraph. I know what Maggi is but have no idea what the controversy is about — not Madhuri. Please explain. – Vibhuti Patel
Behind beef ban
I read the interview with Prof Kancha Illiah (“Beef ban is an attempt to impose upper-caste culture on other Hindus: Kancha Ilaiah”). Firstly, thank you for the interview. Yes, there is RSS ideology behind imposing the law – what should we eat why we should eat it – and they claim that Muslim are mainly responsible for eating beef here. What rubbish is going on in BJP's government, I don't know.
I am not beef eater yet I respect freedom of choice. Yes, beef was always the main protein for Dalit and Muslims.
Please interview some more persons. – Vijay Kumar