Idiocy has no limits

In today's troubled world, countries like North Korea provide much needed comic relief to the people. For instance, listen to the top-ranking North Korean military official. He has threatened the world with a nuclear strike on the White House and Pentagon. As it is not for the first time that North Korea made such a belligerent oratory there is no need to fear about any nuclear strike from N Korea. Though N Korea has conducted nuclear tests, their expertise in missile technique is insufficient to target a crow.

Dare they make any nuclear misadventure as threatened, the fall out would be catastrophic. To make N Korea a nuclear waste land S Korea alone is sufficient. Any attack to White House by N Korea would wipe out that country from the world map.
Heroism has limits but idiocy has not!

K A Solaman

No key role for UN

The United Nations Organizations is an integral part of the system of international relations and it is supposed to tackle global problems. However, of late, the United Nations does not play any key role in settling essential problems that occur in the world. The United Nations has no real influence in the world.  The latest events have given the United Nations the image as a toothless tiger. The appeal to Israel and Hamas by UN Security Council is unlikely to get a humanitarian resolve. The act of UNO waiting until the killing of thousands of  Palestinians and a few  Israeli soldiers reveals that it stands  for the interests of Israel.  

The people in Gaza strip are the sufferers and there is immediate need for provision of humanitarian assistance. More than 100,000 Gazans becoming refugee should become an eye-opener to all world countries.. The large-scale aggression by Israel on Gaza should be thoroughly condemned by the UN.

The United Nations is, in fact,  caught by the pressure from pro-war countries, mainly the United States. If UN is incapable of breaking war-mongers’  trap it would ultimately show to the world its ineffectiveness  to restore world peace.

K A Solaman 
The New Indian Express published on 6 Aug 2014

Disgraceful act.

Shiv Sena MP Rajan Vichare’s force-feeding of a chapatti into the mouth of a fasting Muslim employee in New Maharashtra Sadan is a heinous act as it hurt the religious sentiments of the employee. However if it is a reaction against the poor quality of food served, done unknowingly the religion of the employee, the wide spread agitation over this issue is unwarranted. Bringing religious sentiments to this subject has far reaching effect. The MPs should make provision for chapatis and sabji to the hungry millions below poverty line  elsewhere in the country and not force feed those ones who do not need it.  

As the NDA in power, there have been generated discussions on certain serious communal issues.  It is time to stop all arguments based on religious  matters and lets  us work towards the saving of our poor children. This country, in fact, does not want to see any more communal violence. Let us remember that we are not Hindus, Muslims, Christians or Sikhs but Indians. True Indians respect all religions

K A Solaman
The Hindu Business Line published on 25-7-20014

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Tackle poverty

The common man’s eatery, the Indian Coffee House in Kerala, charge Rs45 for a masala dosa weighing roughly about 100g and a tea without sugar. According to the report, if one enjoys this luxury on one day, he is rich. This is like theformer Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit saying that Rs 600 a month was enough for a four-member family in Delhi to make ends meet

This sort of poverty classification is absurd. No one can live on Rs32 a day. There are better ways of drawing the poverty line These committees comprise only the rich and the influential and without representation from the poor, no committee can adequately decide on what constitute’s poverty.

K A Solaman

The Hindu Business Line published on 8 july 2014

Resistance to criminal rashness

Resistance to criminal rashness comes better late than never. That is what the Bar Council of Kerala has done by taking action  against Solar Scam Saritha Nair’s advocate Fenny Balakrishnan.  The counsel of the notorious criminal was performing like a body guard all the time and made innumerable media outbursts that are quite unbecoming of the profession of an advocate.
The act the Bar Council presents clear warning to those counsels indulging to whimsical practices in criminal jurisprudence.

K A Solaman
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On destroying files

The Modi Ministry seems to be undertaking a whole lot of unnecessary jobs because of its brute majority. One such example is the destruction of 1.5 lakh files by the Home Ministry. This is a very questionable move. Taking just a minute or less to identify the historical importance of a file seems astounding. Why is there no process of digitisation? It is only after this that a decision on whether to destroy the original file or not can be taken. As far as the historical importance of a file is concerned, even the signature affixed on a set of papers could be of more importance than the text. The Modi government has to exercise caution before embarking on such actions. Any move to rewrite the history of India is detrimental.

K.A. Solaman, Alappuzha

The Hindu published on y 16, 2014

Need for day care centres for seniors

Senior citizens are at present a neglected lot and in most cases they are sent to old age homes. But the old age homes do not provide a safe and supportive environment for seniors who need care for the whole day. In day care centres seniors are attended well and day and programmes are arranged by a nurse, a geriatric recreation specialist and a  number of personal support workers. These centers provide relief to caregivers and family members who are caring for an elder in their home, as well as offering the senior a chance to get out of the house, socialize and participate in fun activities with others.

Generally men and women aged 65 and older are eligible to attend elderly day care. The average age of senior participating in day care programming is 72 and usually lives with a spouse, adult children or other friends or family members. It is found that approximately half of all participants in elderly day care have some type of cognitive impairment such as memory loss, and many of these seniors need support with activities of daily living such as personal hygiene and meal preparation.

Elder day care programs are to be located in nursing homes, community and senior centers, hospitals, schools and churches. Other locations include centers in shopping areas, rehabilitation centers and private homes. Day programs should operate Monday to Friday during the day. However, some  facilities may offer evening, holiday and weekend programming to accommodate caregiver schedules.

There are only limited day care centers currently operating across the state. In view of the growing demand public and private agencies can think of opening more day care centres or convert the present old age homes partly into day care centres. The government speaking volumes for the support of senior citizens can do something in this direction to lend a helping hand to them.

K A Solaman

Bold idea of self-attestation

In what may come as a major relief to citizens, the government of India has decided to do away with the necessity of filing affidavits from a gazetted officer or a notary for a big chunk of government-related work and instead to promote self-attestation of documents. The government may be congratulated for doing away with the necessity of filing affidavits from a gazetted officer.

In this regard I would like to be grateful to the Kerala  Public Service Commission for their clever  decision of doing away with attestation by gazetted officers years back. What is there in attestation when the appointment of a candidate is done only after verifying the certificates in originals?  The novel way of PSC, however, was not taken up by other public and private agencies causing immense hardship to applicants. And with the present decision the government has reduced the suffering of people especially from villages and remote areas.

The people who are annoyed of this decision may be notary babus, nevertheless, a person attesting his certificate is now himself responsible for any kind of fake information is a brazen idea.

K A Solaman

A poor catch for faithful

In any community one can find that only twenty percent of the people are trustworthy and all others are either careless or funny. These twenty percent people run a college,  a factory or a ministry. For clergies too this concept is applicable. For instance look at clergy run Christian weekly newspaper ‘Sunday Shalom’ carrying an editorial praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that Modi is God’s answer for Christians who prayed for the benefit of the country and for a good administration. The editorial stated that god will save the country and the Sabha through Modi. Till Modi’s incarnation they were praying for someone of Italian origin for country’s rule.

There are clergies who do even more funny things. For example, one clergy in Alappuzha who openly claims his direct connection with Jesus, had gone to bless the Arabian sea for a good catch for the faithful. Unfortunately the followers got little catch as all the HIndu fishes ran to the west and the sea became ferocious.  CBCI president Cardinal Cleemus Catholica Bava,  the patron of Sunday Shalom, however, is not that much imprudent.

-K A Solaman

On destroying files.

The Modi Ministry is doing all the unnecessary jobs because of its brute majority. One such job is the destruction of 1.5 Lakh files by the Home ministry. It is highly questionable. Taking just 45 seconds or less  to identify the historical importance of a file seems astounding.

It is important that all the files should be xeroxed and be made along with micro filming too. Then only decision to be taken to destroy the original or not. No one has time to see even the subject. As far as historic importance is concerned, for some people even the signature could be of more important than the text.

It would be better if the Modi Government to exercise caution before doing such actions. Any action to rewrite history of India would become detrimental to them too.

-K A Solaman

Poor educational practices in Kerala private colleges.

Academic activities in colleges across Kerala have been badly hit by large-scale vacancies in various faculties. Many colleges have been facing an acute shortage of teachers with several vacancies.

Though permission to various colleges to fill up vacancies has been given, they make it as good opportunity to collect money by way application money from innumerable job seekers. It is the practice of some private college managements to post none after conducting interview. The five member interview board with one government nominee and a subject expert is a farce as these members dance in tune with other three of the management in the board after getting a five star hospitality.  After the interview, posts are held vacant for always with no permanent faculty. The classes are then run by guest faculty with meager salary and hence managements can often notify the vacancy for collecting application money. The fee for single application for appointment in private colleges in Kerala about Rs 800 and if a college receives 100 applications for a single post it makes Rs 80000 per subject. If there are ten subjects the sum collected is Rs 8 lakh and that too without filling a single post. This ordeal is repeated and the losers are those candidates with NET qualification and Ph D.

The colleges engaging lecturers on contractual basis should be abandoned. Teaching is a noble profession that needs total dedication and  for which the guest faculty and retired teachers are unfit. It is high time for higher education department in Kerala to investigate the bad practices taken up by the private college managements.

A candidate from a different community appeared for an interview in a private college had to answer only questions of the sort: “Why did you waste money? Don’t you know our practice? Could you find any one in our colleges outside our community? So, take tea and leave the place. This job is not for people like you”.

All in the education sector know this but who cares?

K A Solaman

Poor man’s luxury!

The PMEAC Chairman C Rangarajan may be greeted with folded hands for his report that individuals spending below Rs 47 a day in cities and Rs 32 in rural areas would be considered poor. The common man’s eatery the Indian Coffee Houses in Kerala charge Rs 45 for a Masala Dosa weighing roughly about 100gram and a tea without sugar. As per the report if one enjoys this luxury in a whole day he is rich. This report is somewhat akin to the the finding of former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit  that Rs 600 in a month is enough for a four member family in Delhi to meet their both ends.

In this context I would like to say that this sort of poverty classification is absurd. No one could live in this country with Rs 32 in a day. The actuality of purchasing power of citizen and other technical aspects should be applied to finalize such reports. There are better ways of drawing poverty line nevertheless, the Rangarajan Committee is not able to recognise the exact idea of poverty line.
The committees of the above sort comprise only the rich and the influential. And without poor man’s representation, no committee in India could demarcate  the rich and the poor with a sharp line.


K A Solaman

Weakness of Indian democracy

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari is never going to contest any election from Kerala and even if he decides so he will not get back the election deposit amount. That is why he says Centre will not extend any assistance under national highways programme if the Kerala government decides to develop NH stretches in the state at 30metre width instead of 45 metres.

Gadgiri does not know about the dense population in Kerala. Any move to widen the high stretch would certainly affect innumerable dwellers near the highway side. The Kerala government’s decision for four-lane of 30metre highways is to avoid the massive land acquisition that was needed if the width is 45m. Gadgiri saying that NHAI funds would not be available for NHs less than 45 m wide, is to discard the genuine requisite of the state and thereby to divert fund to his state.

Gadgiri like ministers not seeing the country as a whole is certainly a weakness of Indian democracy.

K A Solaman

Law Minister is wrong.

Regarding SC Judge appointment row too there is no difference between the last UPA Government and the present NDA government. Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s comment that the government has the right to be consulted on the appointment of judges is unwarranted. No one agree with this minister. And in this respect Chief Justice of India RM Lodha's remark that the government had acted unilaterally in segregating the name of former solicitor general Gopal Subramanium from the panel of four names recommended by the collegium for appointment as apex court judges, stands acceptable.

It is a fact that any ruling party at centre or state always wants to recommend officials in favour of them. This criterion if applied to judges it would become detrimental to Indian Judicial system. Therefore, the collegium and not the ministry should decide on selection of Judges whether it is for SC/HC judges. This would enable the judges to remain fully independent.

The law abiding citizens of the country are with the views of Chief Justice and not with the Law Minister. It is thoughtless on the part of NDA to take unwise decisions as done by the erstwhile UPA government.

K A Solaman