Friday, June 11, 2021

Limited fundamental rights means limited right to life.

"The battle between governments and Big Tech around the world is not surprising -- both want to control information (not just the message, but also the medium), and thereby, power (and in the case of the latter, also money)," Chanakya. "No State, however well-meaning, can be expected to use powers such as this responsibly. National security, sovereignty, communal harmony, and public safety are real issues, but experience has shown that no State is immune from the temptation to use these bogies to choke dissent and stifle criticism," Hindustan Times (HT). "These iconic American companies are registered in various countries where they operate and make money, but there is a Western universality to their thinking and functioning that often clashes with local mores," wrote Prof Sreeram Chaulia. Therein lies the problem The United States adopted a Bill of Rights in the form of 10 Amendments to the constitution in 1791, which starts with, "The Convention of a number of the States, having at their time of adopting the constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses shall be added," National Archives. The US Constitution specifically restricts abuse of power of government, so the rights are absolute. India also has some fundamental rights, wikipedia, but various governments, with the assent of the Supreme Court, have made these conditional on the charity of politicians, civil servants and police, ipleaders. The Indian Constitution reads that the State is Sovereign, wikipedia, which has allowed successive governments to use majority in parliament to enact laws to the detriment of citizens, which reached its peak during the Emergency in 1975, barandbench. com. "State monopoly on violence, in political science and sociology, the concept that the state alone has the right to use or authorize the use of physical force. It is widely regarded as the defining characteristic of the modern state," britannica.com. The present government has published new rules on social media which seek to compel these companies to delete any post as per government orders and to reveal the originator of the post for punishment, Economic Times (ET). However, a MP of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has claimed that, "If we have desi gau mutra (urine from an indigenous cow) everyday, then it cures lung infection from Covid," Business Today. When Twitter tagged a post by national spokesman for the BJP, Sambi Patra a team of Delhi Police was sent to Twitter office to 'investigate' the matter, Hindustan Times (HT). This maybe a reason why Twitter is apprehensive about employing a "resident grievance officer", wrote Rahul Narayan. The government cannot touch Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, but may arrest and harass an Indian citizen. Modi apparently has over 60 million followers on Twitter, HT, and may not want to ban that channel for fear of losing that megaphone. Thus, 22 year old Disha Ravi was 'abducted' by Delhi Police from her home in Bengaluru, Deccan Herald, "after sharing a document intended to help farmers protest against new agricultural laws," BBC. Nodeep Kaur has alleged that police beat her, including on her private parts, after arrest, while medical examination of Shiv Kumar, who was arrested with her, has revealed severe injuries including broken bones, India Today. The government, naturally, will not want its atrocities to be shared on social media. Vice Chancellor of the University of Trans Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology, Bengaluru, Darshan Shankar wrote "Ayurveda management of Covid, which indicate that physicians effectively manage respiratory symptoms, fevers, fatigue, metabolic disorders and low saturation with safe, classical formulations," Times of India (TOI). It used to be a common sight to see people with shortened legs due to polio, also a viral disease. Why didn't Ayurveda cure polio in all these millennia? Did Ayurveda deliberately hide its cures? How criminal would that be?     

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