Jottings of the week: From Julian Assange's detention to a class divide over alcohol

Class divide over alcohol !
Many of our legislators can give Donald Trump a run for his words. The US politician is an object of universal ridicule because of his reckless, uninformed, insensitive and sometimes potentially inflammatory speeches, but our home-grown politicians can outshine him on all these counts. What’s even better is their ability to elicit unintended laughter. The latest to join the comedy circus is Bihar social welfare minister Kumari Manju Verma. In response to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s liquor ban announcement, Ms Verma has said that since the elite — doctors, engineers and lawyers — need a couple of pegs for sound sleep, banning English liquor could be difficult. It is not just about Verma’s class bias that is on display here — she feels that people of a certain social and economic standing should be exempted from the prohibition law, which the hoi polloi must abide by. She is also endorsing the view that drinking alcohol is a healthy habit. Ms Verma seems to have forgotten that regular consumption of alcohol leads to addiction, which is far from being healthy. Regulated drinking looks great as a principle but extremely difficult to follow in reality.

Freedom or detention?
US whistleblower Julian Assange’s freedom can become an international flashpoint, even as the UN panel found that UK and Swedish authorities have unlawfully detained the WikiLeaks founder and that it was a violation of Human Rights. Assange had sought temporary asylum in Ecuadorian Embassy in London, which held him captive for three and a half years. In a report that castigates both the nations for depriving him liberty, the panel also asked UK and Sweden to compensate Assange. The report said: “The working group therefore requested Sweden and the United Kingdom to assess the situation of Mr Assange to ensure his safety and physical integrity, to facilitate the exercise of his right to freedom of movement in an expedient manner, and to ensure the full enjoyment of his rights guaranteed by the international norms on detention.” But the UK government has fought back saying: “This changes nothing. We completely reject any claim that Julian Assange is a victim of arbitrary detention. The UK has already made clear to the UN that we will formally contest the working group’s opinion.”

Misleading study
It is common knowledge that the rate of drop-out in civic schools is very high, and student enrolment has also gone down substantially. But the Maharashtra government thinks otherwise. Its latest figures of school drop-outs are much lower than the numbers thrown up by surveys conducted by NGOs and Tata Institute of Social Sciences in the recent past. According to the government, only 2984 children in Mumbai between six and 14 years of age have quit studying while districts like Palghar, Beed and Satara have zero dropouts. Compare these absurd figures with the TISS findings which put the number of children living on the streets of the state capital at 38,000. In all probability, these children haven’t entered any civic school premises. It’s considered a luxury by their parents who are forced to push young boys and girls to work for a living. Another city-based NGO, Praja, which released its report last month, showed that 13 out of every 100 children who began studying in civic schools dropped out in 2014-15. It is amply clear that the state government is trying to gloss over a harsh reality which points to the administration’s failure of getting children to school and helping them continue their studies amid economic hardships.