by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
By Mohit Dubey,
Lucknow : Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik, who is at the centre of a storm over the state government decreeing that the name of B.R. Ambedkar, considered the architect of the Indian Constitution, be officially expanded to Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, is unfazed by the controversy it has created, but says he is “deeply pained” at the insinuations made by political parties.
He dismisses all accusations of political motivation behind his efforts in renaming Ambedkar, saying the Dalit icon was his hero from his younger days.
He said he found that Ambedkar had himself signed his name as “Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar” in the original copy of the Constitution where all the other members of the Constituent assembly, including its Chairman, Rajendra Prasad, who later became President of India, and Jawaharlal Nehru had put their signatures.
He shared this information with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and a request was made to remove this “major inaccuracy” in Ambedkar’s name.
“This needed an amendment in the Act, but Yogi Adityanath assured me that once the session of the UP Assembly was underway the course correction shall be done,” he said.
Naik expressed surprise that when the Bill on the new name was unanimously passed in the UP house on December 29 last year “how can Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) question it now?”
Naik said soon after that he wrote to BSP supremo Mayawati and even Ambedkar’s grandson, seeking their help in dissemination of information that the corrected full name of the Dalit legend was Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar.
“I have been an admirer of the Dalit leader since the 1950s, when I went to Mumbai in search of a job. I have heard him speak at various public rallies,” Naik told IANS.
“My admiration, and that of even the Jana Sangh, for Baba Saheb, has always been there and it is sad that people find political motives in things which have nothing to do with it.
“Like Mahatma Gandhi, even Ambedkar was above politics and cannot be owned by any group, political party or an individual,” he said.
He recalled that in 1989, he had raised a question in the Lok Sabha to the then Telecom Minister, K.P. Unnikrishnan, on whether the government planned to release a postal stamp to commemorate the birth anniversary of the Dalit icon.
“I was informed that the Union government had no such plans.”
Naik, a five-time MP and a former Union minister, said that the minister then responded by saying that 15 paisa and 20 paisa stamps on Ambedkar were released in the past on April 14, 1966, and April 14, 1973.
Later, then Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar not only formed a committee to look into this aspect but it also ensured that, in 1991, a postal stamp was released on the Dalit stalwart. This stamp too, he pointed out, carried his real and full name.
Asked how, all of a sudden, the effort of getting Ambedkar’s name changed got rolling, the Governor said the move stemmed from an invitation he received from the Vice Chancellor of the Bhimrao Ambedkar University in Agra for its convocation ceremony.
“I said it was the wrong way to write Ambedkarji’s name, to which he responded by saying, ‘Saab, yahaan aisa hi chalta hai (Sir, this is how things happen here),” Naik said, adding that he then pored over several government documents and went through the original copy of the constitution.
“Everything that needs change cannot be held on belief and should have legal backing to have constitutional validation,” he said.
Questioning the political sparring his move has now triggered in the state, with the BSP alleging that he had connived with the ruling BJP, specially with his roots in the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the governor said possibly these people and parties do not know how he had launched a “satyagraha” and served six days in prison to get the name of Ambedkar to the Marathwada University in Maharashtra.
Listing his “zara hatke” (somewhat different) moves as a legislator and then as an MP, including pitching in for double-storied toilets in Mumbai’s slums, infrastructure facilities for people at Gorai, Manori island, and the start of the MPLAD funds for lawmakers, the governor said he had done what he thought was correct and right.
(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
By Saket Suman,
New Delhi : Women’s rights crusader and controversial writer Taslima Nasrin was only 32 when she was hounded out of her country and forced to live in exile in Europe and America. Twenty-four years on, she’s lost all hope of returning to her native Bangladesh, where the crowds once bayed for her blood and where she feels she “would be killed right away”.
Starting out with her first collection of poetry in 1986, she published several books before “Selected Columns”, that led to the formation of “Taslima Smash Committee”. Her newspaper columns explored everyday perils of women and, to a large extent, held Islam responsible for the subjugation of women and their rights.
“Fundamentalists were angry because I was writing against Islam. It did not matter to them that I was also writing against other religions. In fact, I was not writing against anyone but for women and their rights,” Nasrin recalled in an interview with IANS here.
Notwithstanding this complication, her second book of essays was published in 1992, but copies of it were soon burnt at the National Book Fair in Bangladesh which she was not allowed to visit.
Almost at the same time — not very far away from her home country — a large crowd of Hindu kar sevaks demolished the 16th century Babri Masjid in Ayodhya and just as a series of communal riots were engulfing India, Nasrin could feel its ripples back in Bangladesh.
“I was seeing and observing everything. Hindus were being targeted. Their shops were being broken down by mad crowds of people and so many Hindu patients were in hospitals telling their horror stories. I visited many places to see what was happening. I gave shelter to some of the Hindus. I just thought that nobody should be oppressed or tortured because of some buildings being destroyed. It was not the fault of Bangladeshi Hindus,” she explained.
And so her documentary novel “Lajja”, which is a protest against the torture on the minority community of Bangladesh, was published, and banned simultaneously in 1993. However, contrary to popular beliefs “Lajja”, or Shame, was not the reason behind her ouster from Bangladesh.
“In ‘Lajja’ I didn’t write anything against Islam. The fanatics were angry from before, because of my newspaper columns on women, not ‘Lajja’. It was not against Islam, but my ‘Selected Columns’ was very much against Islam because I was defending women. Fanatics were demanding the banning of my other books, not ‘Lajja’. They were happy that it was banned though,” she maintained.
In April 1994, Nasrin was invited to Paris for a talk on Press freedom and stopped in Kolkata on her way back to Dhaka. “I gave an interview to The Statesman newspaper and said that Quranic law should be changed, but it was misunderstood and headlined that Quran should be changed,” she claimed.
Nasrin issued a rejoinder immediately, saying “I don’t believe in religion so why should I feel the need to change it” and the newspaper obliged by publishing a corrigendum the following day — but it was too late.
“When I entered Dhaka, aag jal raha tha (the city was on fire). They would have killed me right away. They believe Allah has written the Quran and the interview said that I wanted to change the Quran. It was a big thing. There were lakhs of people on the streets across the country. The government filed a case of blasphemy against me. The fundamentalists were already angry, now they had got something solid against me,” she said.
Through June and July of 1993, Nasrin remained in hiding. “Baad main mera bail hua on condition that I had to leave the country,” she recalled. Meanwhile, several Human Rights organisations were pressurising the governments in the West to come to her rescue. Noted writers like Milan Kundera and Salman Rushdie, among others, wrote open letters, published in several leading European newspapers at the same time.
“One night, the police put me on a flight. I was received in Bangkok by the Chief Security officer of Sweden and they took me to Sweden. I just didn’t want to believe that it was forever. I thought it would be for one month, two months or three months, maximum six months. So I was very restless to go back to my country. I never wanted to settle anywhere else… but I slowly realised it was not possible. Bangladesh was left far behind,” she lamented.
From Sweden to Germany to Paris and then to the United States and finally to India, Nasrin was living what she calls the “celebrity life” — her books were being translated into foreign languages, many ministers would come to visit her and she was being bestowed with several prestigious honours. “It was all too big for me. Prize, prize. But I always wanted to go back to my country — that would have been the real prize,” she said.
“I so much wanted to go back to my country, but now all my close relatives and family are gone. And I know that the country has been totally Islamised now. All my old classmates now wear the hijab, so many of my friends have been hacked to death. Bloggers are being killed. Those people are being hacked to death and I am their old target. I would be killed right away,” she says.
Nasrin maintained that “I will never be able to go back because the government will always prevent me from entering”, but yearns for freedom of movement. “Why should Bangladesh say that you are not allowed to enter this country? I should be allowed, if I don’t go there, that is my choice, but as a universal citizen, I should be allowed to move freely. Not only me, everybody,” she maintained.
Nasrin’s latest book is titled “Split” and its Bengali original was banned by the Left Front in West Bengal as well as by Bangladesh in 2003. While the West Bengal government lifted the injunction after the ban was struck down by the Calcutta High Court in 2005, Nasrin was eventually driven out of Kolkata, the city that she found closest to her home in Bangladesh.
Taslima Nasrin has since been living in New Delhi under a government Residence Permit which needs to be renewed at regular intervals.
(Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, Interviews, Women Entrepreneur
Swara Bhaskar
By Nivedita,
New Delhi : She is frank, honest and fearless. Actress Swara Bhaskar believes in acknowledging the “good” as well as “not-so-good” realities of the film industry and says when someone tries to shut her down, is when she gets more strength to rise above the fear and that it is a test of her conviction.
“Life teaches everyone as we go about living it — it is normal,” Swara told IANS when asked if the incidents when she has been questioned for speaking her mind have affected her as a person or made her stronger.
“With the rise of social media, however, I feel, speaking and thinking has become a contested space where people get to question you and tell you what to do. I think that the time when someone tries to shut you down is the test of your conviction, and that gives me the strength to rise above the fear of ‘what will happen if I do this’,” she added.
The 29-year-old, who made her debut in filmdom in 2010 with “Madholal Keep Walking”, has essayed some strongly opinionated roles in films like “Nil Battey Sannata”, “Anaarkali of Aarah” and “Listen… Amaya”. Her on-screen persona is no different from off screen as she believes in speaking her heart out.
Her critique of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s “Padmaavat” as a movie that glorifies Sati and Jauhar sparked a war of words between celebrities with some supporting her while others dismissed her point.
Asked what makes Swara different from other Bollywood actresses, she said: “Everyone has their way of looking at matters, and everyone’s opinions are bound to differ. I believe in frankly acknowledging the good as well as not-so-good realities of our industry.
“I am an outsider who has found perfect harmony in the kind of work I do here, but I am also willing to voice my disappointment every time I find something off.”
The actress is currently being featured as one of the women changemakers in Season 3 of Levi’s #IShapeMyWorld campaign. It is driven by the insight that in a world that still tries to restrain women from achieving their potential by fueling insecurities about themselves — whether it is about her “body” or her “being” — there is an increasing number of stories of women who took their chances and beat the odds.
Swara feels she has literally shaped her world in Bollywood by speaking out.
“I believe in speaking my mind and being frank. My parents gifted me the feeling of fearlessness. I believe in looking beyond existing stereotypes in my industry — right from gender discrimination; to pre-defined characteristics of a typical actress; to the portrayal of women in society.
“My belief in rising above fear and speaking out is how I shape my world,” added the daughter of well-known strategic analyst C. Uday Bhaskar and professor of film studies Ira Bhaskar.
She said she never thought of speaking out or doing what she feels like as something that requires strength or as something out of the ordinary.
“I always believed myself to be a regular urban Indian kid. It is easier for me to be myself and make the right choices that way. This is who I am and have always been.”
Being a girl child in a country like India, the best gift she got from her parents was the quality of being “fearless”.
“As individuals too, it is very important for us to interact with the society around us. I am what I am because of the upbringing my parents gave us as children, and they continue to teach me to believe in myself and do everything with conviction.”
On the big screen, Swara will next be seen in “Veere Di Wedding”.
(Nivedita can be contacted at Nivedita.s@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews, Markets, Technology
Satya Nadella
By Nishant Arora,
Bengaluru : Amid increasing data breaches, tech giants are today busy deliberating on how to ensure privacy and security for the users. Where Microsoft is concerned, however, data ownership clearly remains with its customers – protected by enterprise-grade security solutions.
Microsoft’s Cloud-powered Office 365 – which according to the CEO Satya Nadella is the biggest growth opportunity for the company in its history — makes up the bulk of what it calls its “Commercial Cloud” services.
According to Rajesh Jha, Executive Vice President, Office Product Group at Microsoft, there are nearly 120 million “Commercial Cloud” users globally and over 29 million of them are Office 365 enterprise subscribers — and the onus is on the company to keep its data safe and secure.
“The data ownership belongs to the customers. We are just the custodians. Our Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms run on massive data sets in Office 365 and show the insights back in the application to the customers – allowing them to enhance their businesses. We have hundred of capabilities today running in our Cloud,” Jha told IANS in an interview here.
According to Jha, who is part of the senior core team that reports directly to Nadella, data should always follow the users and remain in their control.
“We take the data from the users, run AI and give the inputs back to them. This is what Office 365 does — working across platforms and giving customers evergreen capabilities to keep them up-to-date, helping them innovate in a secure and safe atmosphere,” Jha explained.
Redmond-headquartered Microsoft has three local data centres in India to serve the increasing demand coming from big enterprises, small and medium businesses (SMBs) and governments.
“India is an interesting market with hundreds of millions of connected devices and a robust mobile-first workforce. Microsoft Office in earlier days catered to knowledge or information workforce but now modern workplaces with first-line, mobile-only workers are our focus in the country,” Jha emphasised.
It has been a multi-year journey for Microsoft when it comes to its Office product.
“Its roots were in the desktop, which we used to deliver as on-premise software to the customers. With Office 365, we made it cloud-enabled that can be delivered on any platform. We are very happy with its quick adoption globally, including in India,” Jha noted.
Riding on its growing Cloud business, Microsoft reported revenue of $28.9 billion for the fourth quarter that ended December 31. Office commercial products and Cloud services revenue increased 10 per cent, driven by Office 365 commercial revenue growth of 41 per cent.
The State Bank of India (SBI) has deployed Office 365 to improve communication and collaboration among its workforce — one of the largest deployments of Office 365 in the country.
“SBI was looking for a new platform for a modern workplace — a solution that would empower their employees to work in a collaborative way on the go, bring the culture change and tap individual talent. They have moved entirely to Office 365,” Jha said.
Now this is a customer, said Jha, which sets a high bar when it comes to enterprise-grade security and privacy, and Microsoft is successfully able to give SBI that.
Not just SBI, “Office 365 is across the board, be it healthcare, transportation, government, education or small businesses. It has broad-based appeal,” the Microsoft executive added.
When it comes to AI, Nadella is betting big on it and the outcome could potentially have a huge impact on the software giant’s future.
“We get billions of signals from Cloud. We take those signals and, after using AI insights, we give the results back in the customers’ core products — be it government, small businesses or enterprises,” Jha told IANS.
In December 2016, Microsoft completed the acquisition of LinkedIn, for which it paid more than $26 billion.
“You will soon hear about Office 365-LinkedIn integration. It is already there internally at Microsoft, allowing us a unified experience. LinkedIn will also come in Dynamics 365 soon,” he added.
Dynamics 365 is a product line of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) applications.
The next big thing is Microsoft 365 – an intelligent solution including Office 365, Windows 10 and enterprise mobility and security that the company has recently announced.
(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
By Mohd Asim Khan,
New Delhi : The government is ready to discuss the triple talaq bill in the Rajya Sabha and was open to suggestions from the opposition — but referring it to a Select Committee made no sense, Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has said.
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill — commonly called the triple talaq bill as it criminalises “instant” divorce among Muslims — is scheduled to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha in the coming week as part of the government’s business.
“Let’s discuss the bill in the House and the members can move amendments. Nobody can stop a member from moving any amendment,” Naqvi told IANS in an interview.
“But where is the sense in insisting on refering the bill to a select committee of the House? What will the Select Committee do? Even the House can scrutinise legislation,” he added.
The Select Committee may also invite suggestions from stakeholders such as various Muslim organisations and women’s bodies, which the government has apparently not done.
The opposition, Muslim bodies and women’s rights groups have accused the government of “unilaterally” drafting the legislation without seeking any opinion from the stakeholders or those who would be directly affected by the proposed law.
However, Naqvi said: “We have said it earlier too and reiterate that the government is open to suggestions on the bill from the opposition and others.”
But on the question of negotiating the penal provision — which is the main bone of contention — the minister said the bill would make no sense without this as the practice of triple talaq continues even after the Supreme Court banned it.
Under Section 4 of the bill, “Whoever pronounces talaq upon his wife by words, either spoken or written or in electronic form or in any other manner whatsoever, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and fine.”
It also provides for a subsistence allowance for a divorced woman and her children as determined by a magistrate and provides custody of the minor children to the woman in case of divorce.
The government had introduced the triple talaq bill in the Rajya Sabha on January 3 this year during the winter session of Parliament. The Lok Sabha had earlier passed the bill.
Almost all the opposition parties have objected to the penal provision in the bill and had insisted it be sent to a Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha for closer scrutiny. Congress leader Anand Sharma and Trinamool Congress member Sukhendu Shekhar Roy had moved amendments to this effect.
Sharma even suggested the names of the 17 members of the select panel from the opposition’s side, leaving it to the government to give its names.
The government, however, vociferously objected to the proposal, citing various technical reasons. The opposition even demanded voting on the issue on the day the bill was introduced as well as the next day, January 4.
However, on the first day, the treasury benches members created a ruckus, forcing the chair to adjourn the House for the day, saying voting could not be done unless the House was in order.
The next day, the government listed the bill at the bottom of the day’s business, prompting loud protests from the opposition, which wanted it to be taken up early and a vote taken. The chair said he could not help as it was the government’s prerogative at which position to list a bill. Amid pandemonium, the House was adjourned for the day.
The winter session concluded the next day on January 5, and the triple talaq bill is still pending in the upper House.
On March 16, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel, while announcing the coming week’s business, also listed the triple talaq bill for considering and passing.
(Asim Khan can be contacted on mohd.a@ians.in )
—IANS
