July 16, 1985, Forty Years Ago: Black Box Analysis
The Sri Lankan President, J R Jayewardene, has offered to grant 'sufficient autonomy' to Tamil areas of the island to resolve the ethnic issue, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi said. The offer had come during the talks the Sri Lankan President had with the Prime Minister. Virtually ruling out support for a separate Eelam, the Prime Minister told a news conference at Raj Bhavan that 'we will not support anything more than what is available in India'.
The overseas wing of the so-called Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) seems to be disintegrating and its former president, Amanullah Khan, is so frustrated with what he called 'integral politics' that he is now seriously thinking of setting up his headquarters in some Middle East country, possibly the UAE.
After a fiery four-and-a-half-hour discussion over the 'Dharavi land scandal', the entire Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly walked out for the day in protest against the government's refusal to appoint a committee of House members to probe the 'deal'. Leader of the Opposition Sharad Pawar did not agree with Minister of State for Urban Development Ram Manohar Tripathi's offer to ask the chief secretary to investigate the land deal.
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The Hindu
2 hours ago
- The Hindu
Letters to The Editor — July 29, 2025
Honouring Chola legacy India should formally honour the Chola legacy for launching successful naval expeditions beyond India shores and establishing the Tamil influence across Southeast Asia. Getting the Indian Navy to celebrate 'Rajendra Chola' day would be a fitting tribute to these unmatched maritime achievements. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's references to Chola military and democratic legacy rightly spotlights their enduring contributions. Their practice of Kudavolai Murai — selecting local representatives by lot — was a democratic model that was centuries ahead of its time. The Chola overseas campaigns were not just conquests but also acts of cultural diplomacy and naval vision. Honouring the Cholas would not be symbolic alone. It would reclaim India's proud naval heritage and inspire a forward-looking maritime spirit rooted in our own history. Avinashiappan Myilsami, Coimbatore It is a matter of pride that Tamil Nadu is now home to a number of World Heritage sites. One can think of Gingee Fort along with the great Chola temples and the Mahabalipuram monuments. The only drawback at these sites is the lack of proper infrastructure. Connectivity is an issue. Pollution control too is another problem. A.S. Thirumalai, Chennai Crowd management Stampedes have become a frequent occurrence, leading to a tragic loss of lives (Front page, July 28). There needs to be comprehensive crowd control and management measures in place at all places of public gathering. There needs to be a posse of well-trained volunteers (with a specific dress code) to guide people and ensure their orderly movement. Kosaraju Chandramouli, Hyderabad
NDTV
3 hours ago
- NDTV
Air India Aircraft Grounded By Aviation Body Due To Overdue Emergency Slide Inspection
New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has grounded an Air India aircraft after discovering a serious lapse during a routine audit -- an overdue inspection of the aircraft's emergency slide system. The aviation regulator took immediate action, barring the aircraft from operation until the required rectification was completed. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol on Monday, through a written response, told Rajya Sabha, 'During the audit of Air India, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has found that the inspection of the emergency slide was overdue. DGCA immediately grounded the aircraft till the required rectification was carried out. DGCA has initiated enforcement action against Air India and its responsible personnel as per the Enforcement Policy and Procedure Manual of DGCA. The minister's response was to DMK member Tiruchi Siva's query on whether Government is aware that aircraft operated by Air India, in the weeks preceding the crash of Flight-171 in June 2025, were allowed to fly with overdue emergency slide inspections, in violation of mandatory safety norms, and if so, the accountability that has been fixed on DGCA for regulatory oversight failure. In response to the question of whether any performance audit of DGCA's enforcement actions over the last five years has been undertaken in cases of repeat violations, the Minister said, 'In 2022, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) carried out the ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) audit of DGCA India. As per the ICAO assessment, the effective implementation score of India is 85.65. On whether DGCA's enforcement mechanisms are resourced to address technical non-compliance in a timely way, Mohol said, "DGCA ensures the compliance by airlines with all safety and maintenance standards through the mechanism of conducting surveillance, spot checks, night surveillance, etc., of the airlines. and its personnel. In case of violation, DGCA takes enforcement action in accordance with procedures prescribed in the Enforcement Policy and Procedure Manual. The enforcement action consists of warning, suspension, and cancellation, including imposition of a financial penalty on the airlines/personnel. DGCA officials are well trained to perform the oversight and enforcement function".
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
What procedure did Stalin undergo? It doesn't matter
If Indian politics is a theatre, Tamil Nadu is a multiplex. Where cigarette flicks and dark glasses are the perennial symbols of style and substance, sycophancy does a tandava over psephology. And with the players ensconced in the ministerial thrones in Delhi, it is no longer just a southern delight. Arun Ram, Resident Editor, The Times of India, Tamil Nadu, who alternates between the balcony and the front row, says it incites as much as it excites. During the intervals, he chews on a bit of science and such saner things. LESS ... MORE Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin has been in hospital since July 21. Newspapers, including The Times of India, quoting medical bulletins from the hospital, said he underwent investigations, including a diagnostic angiogram and a therapeutic procedure to correct variations in his heartbeat. Soon, there were discussions in some circles about why we hadn't specified the therapeutic procedure (as a Tamil daily had). Some said newspapers didn't have the 'guts' to report the details. I beg to differ. We knew exactly what the procedure was. It was an informed decision not to go into the details, following guidelines on patient confidentiality. Would we have followed the same guidelines if the patient were not a VIP? The answer is yes, unless the procedure is news (here, again, the patient's identity would be revealed only with consent and if it adds value to the story). Has the media always followed these guidelines? No. In the early 2000s, a news magazine had A B Vajpayee on the cover, with the headline that read something like this: How healthy is our PM? It had a photograph of Vajpayee – as in an anatomy textbook – with a dozen body parts marked with specific ailments. I don't remember Vajpayee protesting. He lived another 15 years or more. Things have changed. Today, the mainstream media follows internationally accepted guidelines while reporting on the health status of people. Shouldn't the public know about the health of public figures, especially those who make decisions that impact public life? I believe we should know how healthy our lawmakers are, but we aren't entitled to their diagnosis sheets. And here comes the importance of official health bulletins that give out ample and accurate information without breaching patient confidentiality. The medical bulletins on Stalin kept this promise. It said the results of the procedure were normal and the chief minister would resume work in two days. Not all medical bulletins are forthcoming when the patient is a high-profile person. Senior journalists who have covered former chief minister M G Ramachandran's health remember the hospital putting out regular health bulletins that gave necessary information. But after his return from the US (where he underwent treatment) in Feb 1985, information dried up and speculation ran high. MGR made several more visits to the US for treatment and died two years and 10 months later. Medical bulletins during J Jayalalithaa's hospitalisation were sometimes inaccurate and misleading. On September 22, 2016, a bulletin said she was hospitalised with complaints of fever and dehydration (it turned out that she had fainted at home); two days later, it said she was on a normal diet. On September 29, the hospital said the CM was recovering well. On Oct 6, a bulletin said she was on respiratory support. Her condition see-sawed between then and her death on December 5, 2016 (On November 13, Jayalalithaa released a statement saying she had 'taken rebirth because of people's prayers'), but probably on orders from the patient or her caretakers, the hospital sometimes played down the criticality of her condition. The worst a bulletin can do is give inaccurate information. We don't expect the hospital to go on record when a public personality undergoes such a critical procedure as, say, ECMO (when machines take over the functions of the heart and lungs), but it is imperative that the media is informed about the seriousness of the condition. A good health reporter has no difficulty in keeping track of a VIP's condition in a hospital. What a newspaper does with the information depends on how responsible it is – to the patient and the public. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
