Category: Dis-opinion

  • Can Sachin Pilot Survive Outside Congress, BJP in Rajasthan?

    Can Sachin Pilot Survive Outside Congress, BJP in Rajasthan?

    Yash Sapra,INN/Gwalior, @infodeaofficial

    There has been huge controversy going on in the Congress and other parties. Due to the dilemma in which Sachin Pilot is trapped for the party but as per the sources on Wednesday.

    Sachin Pilot cleared that he would not join BJP, the options left before he could be to join a non-BJP party or float his own political outfit, in case he decides to leave Congress or the party expels him in the coming days.

    Rajasthan, however, has been unreceptive to both the ideas. Since independence, the state has elected a Congress government or a BJP one.

    Leaders who formed their own outfits were largely rejected by the people. Be it Ghanshyam Tiwari, Kirodi Lal Meena, Devi Singh Bhati, Lokendra Singh Kalvi,  Hanuman Beniwal, all have met the same fate. 

    In the run-up of the 2018 Assembly Elections, Tiwari split from BJP following his prolonged tussle with Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and floated his own Bharat Vahini party despite his long political career in the state during which he was rejected by the people, Tiwari ultimately joined Congress.

    Before him, Kirodi Lal Meena split with the BJP and joined the national people’s party (NPP) of former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma.

    Meena tried to create a third political front as an alternative to Congress and BJP in the state but failed to do so. In 2013  the tribal leader could win just 3 seats. Mina returned to BJP before the 2018 polls and is currently the party’s Lok Sabha MP.

    Even as the veterans were failing In posing a challenge to Congress and BJP in the state politics, Beniwal, the young Jat leader took the plunge and founded The Rashtriya LokTantrik party (RLP) in 2018. 

    Despite commanding a large following among the youngster’s office community, which is the largest in the state, Beniwal party too was restricted to just 3 seats In the Assembly.

    Soon he joined hands with BJP and added one Lok Sabha seat also to the RLP Tally in 2019. Even as a section of leaders within the Congress feels that Sachin Pilot has gone too far especially after he took the party to court over the disqualification issue, sources on Thursday said the top party leadership is still keeping the doors open for him and has also asked Rajasthan CM Ashok Gahlot to not make critical comments against the former Deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot.

  • Breastfeeding in Public- An individual choice

    Breastfeeding in Public- An individual choice

    Dharshana Kathiresan, INN/Chennai, @infodeaoffical

    We always find instances, where breastfeeding mothers are being shoved off, frowned upon, and singled out from malls, parks, beaches, pools, flights, etc.

    How difficult it is to not sexualize the natural and very fundamental necessity such as breastfeeding?

    There are many ways to feed a baby and every mother has the freedom to choose it according to her comfortability. Some only breastfeed, some bottle-feed pumped milk, some use baby formula and there are some who do all the above. Ultimately it’s their decision to feed in public or not.

    Babies need to feed on 8 to 10 times a day. The number of times is high, as they intake the food in small volumes. This ensures that both the infant and the nursing mother are healthy, protecting them from any illness.

    It’s an unhealthy expectation to ask a female parent to stay at home (24×7) and nurture the baby. She has a life outside home, personal choices, and job, which needs to be addressed. It’s unfair to ask them to put their work in a halt and find private places for breastfeeding.

    In a society where women are objectified it’s not a surprise to know that exposure of breasts while feeding is perceived as sexual by many.

    A common reaction to public breastfeeding is that it makes ‘others’ awkward. This is an outcome of cultural beliefs that are discriminatory and it shows that the people see feeding as an inappropriate act.

    Experts and breastfeeding advocacy groups state that people need to respect the choice of a mother and the natural, positive process of feeding infants. The others (the ones who dislike) can move away if they are unable to process this, instead of harassing the mother or expecting her to find another spot.

    Another response from these ‘others’ is why the mothers do not cover themselves while feeding. It’s because some babies cannot feed while they have something (a piece of cloth) over their heads.

    Some mothers also feel that they need to see the little one while feeding, in order to make sure that the baby is properly latched.

    When it comes to why not bottle milk or pumped breast milk the answer is that most newborns do not prefer baby formula (infant milk) and they properly consume milk only if it is given through breasts.  Several research studies have been conducted around this area.

    Shaming the mothers for nourishing has gained a lot of attention and criticism over the past years. Many social groups have come forward to stand for these females and helped them to understand their rights.

    These groups also provide details about the laws regarding breastfeeding, in that particular state or country.

    Note: All views are that of the Author

  • Caste based Reservation, Is It Good or Bad for The Society?

    Caste based Reservation, Is It Good or Bad for The Society?

    Dharshana Kathiresan, INN/Chennai, @infodeaofficial

    Oppression based on the birth of the child has been active for thousands of years in our society. Several kings and rulers of our country followed the Hindu rulebook and treated the Shudras with the lowest status.

    They were denied education, access to government positions, business, training, jobs, etc. Discrimination against them based on social and financial fronts was highly prevalent.

    Now here, we can find the role of reservation in our community. Reservation is a condition in which education, jobs, opportunities, seats, etc are provided to the underprivileged sections (on the basis of caste) of the society – this was introduced to bring equality among all sections of the society.

    This was indeed a positive action, taken to bridge the gap between upper caste and lower caste. The Brahmanical structure was well inbuilt and active (in our nation) and it treated the non-Brahmanical people with abuse and power.

    The main aim of caste-based reservation was to construct a proper link of opportunities to all social groups and to save the oppressed castes from the clutches of unemployment, financial stress, etc.

    So our constitution stepped in to make laws, which provided enhanced treatment for the weaker groups.

    There is another particular policy that reserves opportunities in education, political representation, jobs, and promotions for all castes on the basis of their proportion or size among the total population.

    It is known as “proportional reservation policy”. But in our country, we chose to opt for general reservations and not proportional reservation policy.

    The constitution believes in projecting equal justice to all groups. That is why after denying rights and equality for several centuries, the system came forward to bring up the weaker sections. Not all people who use reservations lack talent or skills, but instead, they weren’t given the promises of chances.

    Seats in parliament houses have helped them to bring their opinions to the table of discussions. Quotas have given them the resources to study and enhance their future. This has also effectively helped the children from the lower groups in overcoming financial struggles.

    The Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) are the main castes which are at the receiving end of reservation policies.

     

    Caste-based inequality

    Powerful (upper caste) groups have always had an upper hand in subjecting the lower caste people, especially the Dalits.

    We can still find hundreds of cases where Dalit men get lynched, Dalit women get harassed by her superiors, Hindu pandits take a grip over the minority groups (considering them as impure and unclean), SC people get suppressed in land disputes, etc. Northern states are prone to such discriminatory activities.

    Even though the families of the victims try to reach justice, they are often overlooked in our society where the upper class has ties with political and administrative officials.

    Caste-based reservations have always been resisted by the dominant social groups of the country. The roots of this oppression can be found even in colonial rule.

    Even as the current system acts favorable to the selected people, and aids in their development and welfare, the fundamental concept of discrimination based on birth is still prevalent in all cores of our country.

    But there are also certain negatives to the caste-based reservation system. Let’s take a look at them.

    • Along with this system the concept of ‘divide and rule’ has also been created. This has often led to clashes among the various groups of society. The idea of secularity becomes invalid here.
    • This acts as a disadvantage to other caste people. In some cases of examinations (civil service exams, government exams, etc), the placements are chosen based on caste and not on merits. This has been unfavorable to many students coming from higher classes, who possess the required talent.
    • Manipulative nature in making use of reservations. Sometimes people tend to take advantage of their castes and grab opportunities even though they lack the required skills for engaging in such activities.

    Today we have seen a good amount of development in the productivity of underprivileged people. But as earlier mentioned we can also find several administrative and political heads using the reservation opportunity for their personal gain.

    Adoption of new ideas, like economic-based reservations, etc can be considered as that can bring more positives to all regions of society.

    Note: All views are that of the Author  
  • Struggle of a cook and a father

    Struggle of a cook and a father

    Biplab Das, INN/Kolkata, @Biplaboriginal

    COVID-19 has lead to a nationwide lockdown as a step to deter the spread of the corona virus which has infected over 1 lakh 39 thousand people and took life of over 4000 people in India.

    The nationwide lockdown was enforced by the centre on 24th march and has been the major deterrent against corona virus.

    Yet, this lockdown caused a major turbulence in the daily lives of people throughout all classes of people in India. People from different walks of life lost their source of income. The most affected of all are the people working on daily wages.

    Carpenters, mechanics, labors, domestic help, cooks, plumbers, electricians and many more, who were employed on daily basis, lost their source of incomes.

    Many of these daily wage workers are migrant workers who have migrated from their homes to big cities like Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai, for a better living. But now with the enforced lockdown, most of them have lost their earnings. Without any work, many of these are leaving for their homes.

    But some had decided to stay. One of them is Santosh. Santosh is domestic cook who used to work as professional cook in peoples home in Chennai. He hails from Bihar and is living in Chennai since 2011.

    He, like other daily wage worker lost his earning following lockdown as people have stopped calling him for work as a cook in their housed. Santosh lives in Chennai with his wife and 2 kids. Prior to lockdown, he was a popular cook, working as a cook at many houses.

    But after the lockdown, he was asked not to come anymore by all of his former employers. Once household name in many localities in Chennai went to total oblivion and lost all of his sources of earning.

    But, the father of three didn’t give up. He fought for survival and for his family. He started selling snacks in the local areas. Samosa, Chiwda and pakodi’s being his specialty. He invested last of his savings in the venture.

    But this venture lasted only two weeks. The reasons were the same old, the corona virus and the lockdown. People have distanced themselves from the outside, including street food due to corona virus.

    People who used to laud his cooking once have now restricted themselves to their homes, due to the fear of corona virus. Santosh himself stopped working on this due to no profit and due to the increasing number of cases of corona virus in Chennai.

    Now, Santosh and many more like him are all unemployed. When asked about the help provided from government, he said, “Only medical workers came to check the spread of corona virus.

    No help is being provided otherwise. Police is not letting them go to any place. Some of my friends were being beaten when they tried to run away back to Bihar.

    No food is being provided to us from the administration. Nothing from local government or from Bihar government for migrants, who are working outside the state.”

    Many people like Santosh are struggling all over the country due to COVID-19. The government is taking steps and allotting millions of rupees for workers and labors but there are thousands of people who are still waiting for the help from government.

  • Better to Payback, than to pack bags back…

    Better to Payback, than to pack bags back…

    INN/Chennai, @Infodeaofficial

    On one side, the Recommendation of Ministers and Legislators have paved its way for many students who were trapped because of the Lockdown were transported to their houses, by special vehicles. No Authorities intended to take care of the trapped workers in the same lock down.

    Many of them walk their way on their own, some reached and some died before reaching their destination. In our country, there is no cost to the life of the poor, and everything seems to be possible for the Rich and the Powerfully Infuencial.

    In Perumbakkam ,an area about 30-35 km from Chennai, Our Team met some people who have been spending their days since the lock-down was announced and are waiting for that moment, of getting the Lockdown uplifted and go back home.

    These people hardly get any food and survive by eating only one time in a day. The companies for which these people have toiled and given their life to make an earning out of it, has not even bothered to care of them.

    These are the workers who give big builders and construction companies a chance to make crores and crores of turnovers with their hard work. But now when this lock-down has happened today, the same company turned its back on these poor and destitute laborers.

    One of the Companies include, a construction company called Maleesh Ashira which has residential complexes in many other cities including Chennai and many are under construction yet.

    About 400 to 500 laborers working in these under-construction residential complexes have been left only with destitute. After the lock down, they have tried hard to talk to the contractor, engineer but none cares to give their ear. No one came forward to help them.

    They do not have any provision that they can go back home, nor do they have access to any big or influential people so that they can be transported to their home by special vehicles.

    These people say that the money that they had isn’t any more and struggle now, by eating one time meal. There are many people who are asking for money from their homes and trying to make their living.

    They say that they had come to earn money so that they could send money to the house, but the situation was such that they now had to ask for money from home itself, Given the simplicity of the company, there has been only a lot of dissatisfaction among these workers.

    The workers tell that as soon as the lock down is over, all the workers will leave everything and go to their respective homes. These laborers come from different parts of the country like Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, and many states to work here.

    When our team spoke to the company officials in this regard, most of them did not respond. When a person picks up the phone, after listening to all the incidents, he says that you have nothing to do with it, pay attention to your work.

  • Media calibrating challenges on the innovation front

    Media calibrating challenges on the innovation front

    Oly Banerjee, INN/Gwalior, @Infodeaofficial

    Retaining attention of audience is one of the biggest challenge that bothers news channels currently. It is here where the concept of Unique Selling Prerogative (USP) has to be worked out.

    Indian media has evolved a lot over the years, it has turned into an epitome of journalism with an impressive following among the masses. Working out the USP is not an easy task as it involves lot of effort. However, Indian media houses appear to have calibrated this challenge
    albeit unsuccessfully.

    While using modern technologies for bringing news to all are impressive, but media houses sometimes over represent situations which makes the programme gross, reaches to the extent of lauding politicians, which gets embarrassing for the person himself.

    All these matters, compel the general public to question the existence of basic ethics of journalism. Some of the recent instances, which helps in getting a clear view of the present situation.

    Happenings during the 26/11 Mumbai Attacks, reporter risked their life to get to the militant infiltrated hotels and interviewed people to give audience a clear view of the prevailing deadly conditions.

    A woman was interviewed, whose husband was hiding somewhere in the Oberoi Trident Hotel which the terrorists had captured, forcing the women to declare on international platform where her husband is hiding in the hotel. The live broadcasting of the specially deployed commando operation was like giving the terrorists the perfect clue they wanted.

    The incident involving Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman during March last year is also worth mentioning. He was held captive by the Pakistan Army, though Abhinandan refused to reveal any information about his whereabouts in India during the interrogation, still it looked like Pakistan Army’s need for information was fulfilled without much effort. Their job was done free of cost by various Indian Media Houses.

    Even before Pakistan armed forces took Abhinandan to their base, media reached in front of his house in Bangalore and aired a full information on his ancestors and history.

    In Bihar’s Muzzafarpur, hundreds of children fell prey to Acute encephalitis syndrome and many of them died, a much acclaimed reporter, reached a hospital’s ICU, where the entry of outsiders is strictly prohibited and continued blaming the doctors for not performing their duties responsibly, without paying attention toward the guidelines of a protected medical facility and overlooking the number of patients per doctor.

    The reporter seemed reluctant to focus on the government’s role in this and held doctors solely responsible for the crisis.

    The editor-in-chief of a hindi news channel, during demonetization days, when most of the channels were displaying the benefits of the step, repeatedly in a cue, the editor in chief declared that new notes would have GPS microchips installed in them, to catch incidents of robbing, money laundering etc, whereas from 2016 till 2019 there is no such information about introduction of such high-tech notes.  

    During the election seasons, VFX and VR outshone the conventional or historical ideas of debating by calling spokesperson of various political parties, choreographing rallies, rather some news channels in an opportunity to elevate viewership thought of riding an animated helicopter to give a better understanding of the number of seats each party would probably win, making the whole situation look childish and gross.

  • Largest wall painting in the world is in Chennai

    Largest wall painting in the world is in Chennai

    S Vishnu Sharmaa, INN/Chennai, @Svs037

    The name and fame of Chennai airport has reached the skies, thanks to creative effort taken up on its premises recently. Creative painting work taken up on the walls of Chennai airport has won a place in ‘Universal Achievers Book of Records’ as being the ‘Largest Wall Painting in the World.’

    Infodea went ahead to know more in this regard. Not long ago a group of artists painted the walls of Chennai airport as a part of Swachchta Abhiyan, themes for the painting were tourism and environment.

    When the painting work was going on, little did those who took part in it knew that their hard work will get them a prize that will make them feel proud forever.

    The painting was done on city side wall panels of Chennai airport running parallel to GST road from International entry (Pallavaram side) to Airport Colony gate which is around 3907 feet long (24,261 sq.ft).

    About 1436 artists comprising students, elderly persons, employees of Chennai airport took part in the painting work which lasted for nine hours. Now the creative work has found a place in the book of records as ‘Largest Wall Painting in the World.’

    The record attempt was monitored and has been recognized accepted and certified by Universal Achievers Book of Records. The record attempt was monitored and has been recognized, accepted and certified by Universal Achievers Book of Records.

  • Procrastination: A motivational problem

    Procrastination: A motivational problem

    Dr. Vatsal Priyadarshi Pandey, INN/Gwalior, @Infodeaofficial

    Procrastination is a form of self-regulation failure that is characterized by the needless delay of things one intends to do despite the expectation of negative consequences.

    It has been estimated that the majority of college students engage in procrastination and consider themselves procrastinators but also that about one in five adults are chronically affected by procrastination.

    Chronic procrastinators perform more poorly overall and feel more miserable in the long term. Regarding the work domain, it has been reported that employees spend about 90–180 min per workday on personal activities (potentially including procrastination) during their working hours.

    Procrastination
    Procrastination

    One of the important question that arises is the reason behind procrastination. People often procrastinate on tasks which are associated with rewards that they will only receive a while after completing the task. People tend to discount the value of rewards that are to be obtained far in the future, a phenomenon known as temporal discounting or delay discounting.

    For example, it’s easier to discount the value of attaining a good grade on an exam while that exam is still weeks away compared to when it’s only days away, which is one of the reasons why people wait until right before the deadline to complete necessary tasks.

    Accordingly, people often display a present bias when they choose to engage in activities that reward them in the short-term at the expense of working on tasks that would lead to better outcomes for them in the long term.

    Note that the relationship between the time it takes to receive a reward and the perceived value of that reward is usually inconsistent, as the rate of discounting decreases over time.

    Essentially, this means that the farther into the future a reward is, the less the increase in time matters, when it comes to lowering that reward’s perceived value.

    Thus, it is important to think that procrastination is the result of a faulty reward evaluation. The best way to push us towards not procrastinating is to make sub goals out of big projects. Research has shown that while you achieve a goal the motivation to complete the next goal will be will be energised once the previous ones are accomplished. 

    This theory is called goal achieving theory of motivation. In sum one should break down the goals into small sub goals and work on achieving these smaller goals as working towards a goal will be the single most drive that will keep pushing us.

  • Hypothyroidism and your memory

    Hypothyroidism and your memory

    Dr. Vatsal Priyadarshi Pandey, INN/Gwalior, @Infodeaofficial
    Hypothyroidism can cause a host of health problems. Fortunately, an underactive thyroid can be easily diagnosed and treated. Midlife can bring subtle changes in our skin, hair, energy, weight and even mental outlook.

    Before writing them off as products of aging, it’s a good idea to make sure they’re not the result of an underactive thyroid. This tiny butterfly-shaped gland influences virtually every organ system in the body.

    The hormones it secretes into the bloodstream play a vital role in regulating metabolism — the rate at which our bodies convert food and oxygen to energy. Low thyroid hormone production or hypothyroidism causes symptoms such as fatigue, constipation, dry skin and brittle nails, aches,  pains and feeling down.

    You might easily attribute hypothyroidism symptoms to other health problems. Moreover, hypothyroidism is especially common in women. Between ages of 35 and 65, about 13 percent of women are said to have an underactive thyroid and the proportion rises to 20 percent among those over 65.

    Because the link between hypothyroidism symptoms and thyroid disease isn’t always obvious, especially in older people many women won’t know they have an underactive thyroid and won’t be treated for it.


    Untreated hypothyroidism can increase your risk for high cholesterol, high blood
    pressure and heart disease. That’s why it is important to keep an eye out for hypothyroidism symptoms and have your thyroid function checked.

    Hypothyroidism can be diagnosed with a blood test and treated with a pill. Forgetting where you left your keys, having a name slip from your mind, struggling to concentrate can be part of frustrating brain fog or memory issues related to hypothyroidism.

    Hypothyroidism tends to affect memory in many ways. For instance it can affect your ability to retain a particular information for a short period of time and at the same time it can also affect your ability to retain information for a longer period of time.

    Nevertheless, your memory is affected terribly. One more feature that I observed in my patients was their ability to be organized. This particular disability can further exacerbate the situation.

    How? It is clear that one’s memory has deteriorated while one has lost to be organized as well. Thus, failing to find a key left is more frustrating because the ability to be organized has also been lost. 

    Thus, one might have kept keys on the stove which is by the not a common place to keep keys. In sum, one has lost the ability to remember things for either short or longer period of time, moreover, one has also lost the ability to be organised.

    While it’s a common practice that things misplaced are first searched at places where one usually keeps it, however, hypothyroidism leads to poor organization thus misplacing things is an obvious result.

    Although, it’s a good news that we know how memory is affected in hypothyroidism. Therefore one can make some suggestions which can make a hypothyroid person better.

    One can also do many things which will help keep problems away. Measures like staying organized, taking ones medication religiously, making notes for important information, maintaining a schedule and sticking to it can keep problems away.

  • Procrastinating? It’s Okay, just don’t do it next time

    Procrastinating? It’s Okay, just don’t do it next time

    Dr. Vatsal Priyadarshi Pandey, INN/Gwalior, @Infodeaofficial

    Procrastination is a form of behaviour that humans have been very good at. Be it students or professionals, it is a common phenomenon that tends to dominate their life.

    Although it’s a common behaviour, it has far reaching effects on the productivity. For instance, students procrastinate often when it comes to academic assignments, employees procrastinate when it comes to mundane official tasks while administrators, quite specially the case of India, procrastinate in initiating important matters pertaining to orders or memos.

    Also, its prevalence is huge in day-to-day lives. Explanations for the emergence of procrastination differ depending on the standpoint scholars take.

    From an individual difference perspective, procrastination is a trait that is associated with other personality variables. During early 21st century psychologist started defining individuals into certain basic characteristics markers which were common among all individuals.

    The variations in these markers tend to define a person. These markers are called traits and a common example is conscientiousness. A person high on this trait tends to be meticulous and very responsible. Thus, on grounds of common sense one could say that procrastination will surely be the last thing you could find in conscientiousness person and indeed researches have shown that lack of conscientiousness is a common thing among people who tend to procrastinate.

    Another common trait to explain an individual is neuroticism which is common among people who are impulsive, people who tend get upset easily and are usually moody.

    Here again, a person who’s impulsive would in turn will procrastinate. This is to say he might indulge in different endeavours on impulsive grounds while he might go impulsively towards a goal while abandoning another in the middle thereby delay things irrationally. Thus, people with procrastination problem might be impulsive and should ascribe to be more responsible especially in terms of decision making. 

    It is quite prudent to conclude that certain individuals tend to procrastinate more than the other. However it is not wise to say that one has to be a different person altogether in order to stop procrastinating. 

    The key is the self realization before one misses the bus. One has to understand that procrastination is inevitable and that one will procrastinate later or sooner.Yet one should make attempts to correct those mistakes when one realizes. It is possible that an impulsive person might indulge in an endeavour in an unplanned way which might push the current task behind.

    But one should make reminders which might remind a person not to procrastinate. Reward yourself for not procrastinating on a task. This might motivate one to do task instantly.