Perceptive or far-fetched?
- Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said China is adopting the same principle with India as Russia is with Ukraine, as it is threatening to alter India's boundaries. This is from Rahul’s conversation with actor-politician Kamal Haasan.
- Rahul also claimed that the Sino-Indian border conflict has a link with a weak economy, a confused nation without any vision, hatred, anger and the Chinese sitting in Indian territory.
Rahul to Haasan
- "Essentially, what the Russians have done in Ukraine is that they have said we do not want Ukraine to have a strong relationship with the West and they have basically told the Ukrainians that if you will have a strong relationship with the west, we will alter your geography.”
- "That is the exact same principle that can be applied to India. What the Chinese are saying to us is that be careful with what you are doing, because we will alter your geography. We will enter Ladakh, we will enter Arunachal [Pradesh], and what I can see is them building a platform for that type of an approach."
Charge against government
- Rahul said security has become a holistic thing in the 21st century as one has to have a global view of it, adding, "I think our government has completely miscalculated it."
A counter
- BJP’s Amit Malviya wrote on Twitter: “Kamal Haasan, well beyond his prime, who couldn’t win an AC in TN, interviewing Rahul Gandhi, a washout politician, struggling to bloom after decades in politics, who lost from the family bastion of Amethi, is rich…Incidentally, both lost to BJP leaders.
- 3. When terror struck twice in 14 hours
- Terrorists struck for the second time at the same site within 14 hours in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri, leaving a minor sister-brother duo dead and six others injured in an IED explosion on Monday morning, reported news agency PTI. Sanvi Sharma (7) and Vihan Kumar Sharma (4) were killed in a blast in Dangri village where terrorists had opened fire at three houses on Sunday evening, killing four civilians and injuring six others, according to officials.
Same location
- The explosion on Monday morning took place near the house of one Pritam Lal, a victim of the gunfire attack on Sunday evening, reported PTI citing residents of the village. There were several people, including Lal’s relatives, present in the house when the blast took place around 9.30 am on Monday.
Protests
- As the incidents led to protests across the district, including in Rajouri town, and a complete shutdown, Director General of Police Dilbag Singh said that the IED blast (Monday) was intended to target senior police officers who were about to reach there. The DGP, who went to the village after the attack, also met protesters who were refusing to conduct the last rites of the victims.
- The DGP announced that village defence committees (VDCs) will now be revived and rearmed, after some protesting leaders and locals claimed that the incident could have been averted had the authorities not taken away the weapons of VDCs.
- While the army and police are conducting a massive search operation, a team of the National Investigation Agency has reached Dangri village for a probe.
And a bomb threat in Chandigarh
- A bomb disposal squad was rushed to the spot after reports that a bombshell was found a few hundred metres away from the official residences of Punjab and Haryana chief ministers in Chandigarh on Monday, police said. The bombshell was reportedly found on the Nayagaon-Kansal road, which is about 600 metres from the residences of Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar.
- Disaster Management Nodal Officer Sanjeev Kohli said that the explosive has been secured with the help of the police and the bomb disposal squad. “An Army team has been called in… The area is being cordoned off. Further investigation is underway.”
- 4. The idea of turning humans into compost
- What
- Humans can be turned into compost after they die. It’s legal in Sweden. New York has become the sixth US state to allow human composting.
- Its proponents call it recomposition — integration of the human body with the soil.
Never heard about it?
- Humans have been composting livestock for a few years now.
- Human composting is also called “natural organic reduction” of the human body.
- It is a practice of accelerated decomposition of the human body in a controlled environment.
- Against the backdrop of climate change, this is being seen as an environment-friendly alternative to cremation or burial, the popular and religion-sanctioned modes of body decomposition.
Need a law?
- Yes, human composting needs a new law because it involves disposal of the human body, and the existing legislation provides for only burial, cremation or donation of the body.
How
- A human body can take months to return to earth if left in the open or when buried in the ground or in a casket. But in the compost process, it takes about four weeks.
- The body is placed in a closed vessel. Select materials such as woodchips, alfalfa and straw grass are placed in it, allowing heat-loving microbes to do their work.
- In about 30 days, the remains are heated at 55 degree Celsius to kill off any contagion.
- Now, this compost is safe for use in growing vegetables, flowers or trees.
But why
- Short answer is the excessive carbon emission, which is a major contributor to climate change.
- Based on a study — BBC reported in 2020 — in the US, it is estimated that tonnes of carbon could be saved compared to cremation or traditional burial.
- Also, it can potentially solve a civic problem — of expanding cemeteries — in lands of burial culture.
Any problems?
- Maybe; at around $7,000 per body in the US, its cost is prohibitive for most of the world.
- Police may object to it as exhuming bodies to solve an old crime wouldn’t be possible anymore.
- 6. Is Delhi horror an accident or a murder?
- The shock
- A 20-year-old woman died after a car hit her scooty on New Year’s midnight, and dragged her for several kilometres in Delhi.
- Video footage showed her entangled in the wheel of the car, whose occupants reportedly removed the body from the car and fled from the scene.
The accused
- Deepak Khanna (26), Gramin Seva auto driver; Amit Khanna (25), who worked in a bank on a contract basis in Uttam Nagar; Krishan (27), who worked at Spanish Culture Centre in CP; Mithun (26), a hairdresser and Manoj Mittal (27), a ration dealer.
- The car belonged to a relative of Amit Khanna’s friend.
- Probe
- Police said the five accused were arrested on the basis of the registered car number.
- The accused said they were unaware that she was dragged along with their car for several kilometres.
The case
- Police lodged a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, causing death by negligence and criminal conspiracy. Police got a three-day remand of the accused.
- The Union home ministry has sought a detailed report from the police.
The victim
- Her body was found on the road without any clothes. She was declared brought dead in the SGM Hospital, Mangolpuri, where her body was kept for post-mortem examination.
- Her mother alleged that the victim had been se*ually assaulted. Police denied the claim.
Eyewitness
- A local confectioner, who first spotted the victim entangled in the car and informed police, said the accused drove the car on the same road taking U-turns for about one and a half hours. “It could not be just an accident.”
Politics
- Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal demanded the culprits should be hanged. His AAP alleged that one accused, Mittal, was a BJP member, and protested outside LG VK Saxena’s residence.
- DCW chief Swati Maliwal pelted the police with a barrage of questions, alleging se*ual harassment.
- Saxena said his head “hung in shame” over this crime.
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