Monday Briefs

Some interesting bits of news on the beginning of new week

1. Yesterday Rahul Gandhi gave a statement that we (Priyanka & Rahul) have forgiven the killers of our father Rajiv Gandhi. During an interaction with IIM alumni in Singapore, he spoke about assassination of his grand mother Indira Gandhi and his father Rajiv Gandhi, and further adder that this was the price his family had to pay while serving the nation. He adds on ” We knew that my father was going to die, we knew that my grand mother was going to die, when you  take a stand on some principle and mess with wrong elements, you are bound to die.” After reading this statement – my only reaction was that when the Congress president is going to mature. When his grand mother died he must have been a kid of about 10/12 years and when his father died he must have been around 18 years, I am surprised that at that age he understood the politics and knew they were going to die or they are super humans who knew about their family members deaths. What does he mean by when you mess with wrong people– First thing his father made a grave error by sending Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka, when it was question of Sri Lanka’s internal affair and  secondly why Indira Gandhi went against security advise and still kept Sikh Guards after Blue Star. Height of immaturity.
2. It is a great honour of our country that International Solar Alliance (ISA) will have its head quarter in  Gurgaon in National Capital Region (NCR). This was announced in founding conference of  ISA where head of 23 countries were present. This is a real honour for our country, after the wonderful work done by our people in the field of solar power during last few years and India is among the top countries who have started the use of this alternative source of power in a major way.
3. On last Friday Supreme Court (SC) legalises passive Euthanasia and Living Will. While giving the direction SC gave the following reason:      a) The right to die should be considered as part of right to life and right to privacy. Cites Mental healthcare Act of 2017.                                             b) When state is not being able to provide and guarantee the right to healthcare for all, can the citizens be denied the right to die with dignity.                                                                                                                     c) Poor are forced to sell properties and endanger family’s future to treat terminal case. SC also asks the fairness of limited life saving facilities blocked by patients who can not recover.                                        d) Budhism and Jainism allow euthanasia, while Hinduism, Islam and Christianity are against it.                                                                                   e) The safeguards provided for passive euthanasia are- mandatory provisions for double medical board, involving Judicial Magistrate or collector or HC, to implement  the living will.                                                WHAT IS LIVING WILL- it is a a document executed by person of sound  mind  on his/her own accord without any coercion, about the medical care decision to be taken by the executors of the will, in the event of person becoming incompetent to take crucial medical decision. Some of the situations where a person can become incompetent- stoppage of heart function for a period which can result in irreversible damage,Severe and Lasting brain damage by any cause, stoppage of brain stem function, Any irreversible irremediable disease causing severe physical or mental illness which renders one incapable of thinking rationally and any form of terminal illness such as malignant cancer etc leading to vegetative existence.                                   The living will  also instructs the doctors to desist from indulging any heroic life supporting system such as Ventilator, IV infusions or nasogastric feeding tubes.                                                                                  Now, it is just in a nascent stage , will know in future more about the intricacies  of this decision of SC.

Awaiting your views/comments/feed backs.