Voice from the Rooftop

Battle of Galwan has come as a rude awakening for people of India. On 16/6/2020 afternoon came reports that one Colonel and two jawans had died in skirmishes with Chinese on the night of 15-16. At night came the news that 20 are dead.
Line of Actual Control stand-off has been going on for sometime. In April and May there were Chinese army movments along LAC and they occupied Indian territory. Indian Government was slow to act and when Chinese occupation became public knowledge it tried to downplay the incident and questioned the patriotism of people who raised questions about occupation. Foreign media reported occupation and POTUS Donald Trump offered to mediate. Indian Government did not accept the offer and talked of solving the problem by bilateral talks. Indian and Chinese army officers held talks and it was said that both sides will disengage or withdraw. At one place there was report of withdrawal. At Galwan, China claimed it was in its territory and battle followed. It is no use to say not a single bullet was fired. When lives are lost it does not make a difference whether they were lost to bullets or to batons, clubs, sticks and stones.
This Battle has to be linked with two other events. One is continued infiltration in Kashmir from Pakistani side. Second is belligerence by Nepal. Nepal’s Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli claimed part of Indian territory i.e., Kalapani, Lipulekh, and Limpiyadhyra in Uttarakhand belongs to Nepal. That territory was not in Nepal’s map. So he called for Constitutional Amendment to change Nepal’s map to show that territory as beloging to Nepal. All political parties of Nepal supported him. Nepal has 275 members in House of Representativess. Of these 258 were present and voted for Amendment. The Bill has gone to National Assembly which has 59 members and 50 belong to ruling party Nepal Communist Party and members of other parties also support Amendment. Nepal has moved its army to No Man’s Land between India and Nepal. Some Indians in Bihar have land in Nepal. They wanted to go there to till the fields. There was commotion at the border. Nepali police fired on Indians. One Indian died.
It is time for India to get real with Nepal and not talk of food and blood (roti-beti) ties as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh did. It is no use of talking civilisational and cultural ties and humanitarian assistance.
Magnanimity is foolishness. India gave up the land it won in Kashmir in 1965 and 1971 wars. It is said Lal Bahardur Shastri succumbed to pressure from Nikita Khrushchev and signed Tashkent Agreement in 1966. Indira Gandhi did not have such pressure to sign Simla Treaty in 1972. In 1974 she gave Kachchateevu island to Sri Lanka. After that Indian fishermen have suffered losses. Sri Lankan navy has killed or injured Indian fisherman, destroyed their boats and dumped their catch into the sea.
China had evacuated its citizens from India some weeks back. It has prepared for war and Nepal and Pakistan are its allies. India should be ready for war with three countries on air, land and sea. China and Pakistan are nuclear powers. Be ready for nuclear war.

Tamil Nadu government has ordered name changes of 1,018 places. Most of them are adding a, i, k, th to existing names or substituing u with oo. Change of names continues in India ever since Independence. Change of names was mainly of British Era names. Now names prior to British Era like that of Allahabad and Mughalsarai are also changed.
English does not have some sounds which are in Indian Languages. Changing Bangalore, Mangalore and Belgaum to Bengaluru, Mangaluru and Belagavi was not of much use because l in new names does not represent the Kannada sound. Also instead of luru it should have been looru.
Those who want name changes disagree with William Shakespeare who wrote “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.” (Romeo and Juliet).
Some years back, that is August 2009, M. K. Azhagiri changed his name to M. K. Alagiri because zh does not represent the Tamil sound and non-Tamilians are unaware of it. Now Egmore has become Ezhumboor. It will be pronounced differently by Tamilians and non-Tamilians.
Madras was the name of the state and the capital. State became Tamil Nadu. Capital became Chennai. Some say Chennai is Telugu, Madraspatnam is Tamil.
Now nothing official about Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Mylapore, Triplicane, Vellore and so on. States have changed many place names at a time. Changing 1,018 place names at a time is unknown.
Some wanted Tamil Nadu to be changed to Tamizh Naadu and and removal of Sanskrit names.
Change of name happens all over the world. When countries changed names when they became independent.

It is Lockdown 4 of central government. State governments have their own lockdowns. People are caught in the middle.
Narendra Modi announced lockdown for 21 days. First extension was for 19 days, second for 14 days, third for 14 days which is Lockdown 4 and ends on 31/5/2020.
Maharashtra had its lockdown before that of central government. Some other states also had lockdowns and had extended lockdowns on their own.
There should be one lockdown; either by state or by centre. When states relax conditions of central lockdown they get letters to follow rules strictly. When states have additional restrictions there is no letter. This is wrong. If states can not relax restrictions they should not also not add restrictions.
Karnataka has 14 days government quarantine for any person who goes there. The person has to pay for quarantine. Further Karnataka has banned entry of people from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Many migrant workers from Karnataka who wanted to return from Maharashtra are stuck at Belgaum border.
Air travel within India is set to resume from 25/5/2020. It is unlikely many will go to Karnataka by air. Civil Aviation Ministry has fixed air fares.
Migrant workers are badly hit. Many walked long distances to reach their native places. Some died on the way due to hunger and exhaustion. Of them 16 slept on tracks and were run over by a train. One person ran out of money, mobile balance and battery and hanged himself. Some workers died in accidents. There is exodus from big cities to distant villages.
Lockdown 1 and extensions were justified on the ground that they were necessary to prevent spread of Corona. One chart showed zero Corona case on 16/5/2020. The opposite happened. Corona cases continue to rise every day. Before Lockdown 1 the cases were around 500. Now they are around 1,18,000.
What is an essential service or a non-essential service is a matter of subjective opinion. For people whose life depends on an income from a job it is an essential service. For barbers, gymnasium owners, restaurant owners, theatre owners and many such people, their service is an essential service. For governments they are non-essential services.
Show business is hit. Some producers could not wait for theatres to open and they released their films on Amazon Prime or Netflix.