Editor,
The values of democracy are what govern the country and society. To preserve the democratic way of life it is essential that people should have the freedom to express their feelings and also to make their views known to the people at large. The press, a powerful medium of mass communication, should be free to play its role in building a strong, vibrant society. Denial of freedom of the press to citizens would necessarily undermine the power to influence public opinion and be a counter to democracy.
The freedom of press comes within the ambit of Freedom of Speech & Expression as guaranteed under Article 19 of our Constitution. In a democracy, freedom of press is extremely important as it (the press) acts as a watchdog on the three organs of a democracy viz. the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. But of course, the freedom of press is not absolute in nature as there are certain grounds of restrictions under Article 19 (2) laid down which entails security of the State, public order, decency and morality, contempt of court etc,.
The recent order of the Meghalaya High Court which took up contempt proceedings against the editor and publisher of The Shillong Times by imposing a fine for a report in the daily which critiqued an order of Justice SR Sen on the retirement benefit of judges is problematic. While we may not be in contention with the findings of the court, the order which states that failure of payment of the fined imposed would lead to a ban on the publication of the oldest English language daily is condemnable and regressive. It deals a huge blow to the Freedom of the Press and is reminiscent of events during the reign of our colonial masters when press freedom was denied. For an ordinary viewer it may seem far- fetched that the judgment which ends with the words, “the paper will automatically come to an end (banned)” would actually be carried out, but the fact that such an order persists, shows that this pillar of democracy is under attack at each of its key frontiers.
In the words of Thomas Jefferson “The press is the only tocsin of a nation. [When it] is completely silenced… all means of a general effort [are] taken away”.
Yours etc.,
Rayner Dkhar,
Via email
Stop cutting down trees!
Editor,
I’m no environment activist, but, I hurt like hell every time I see a tree felled or even trimmed. I also have no clue as to how this sensitivity for the well being of trees resides in some remote corner of my subconscious mind as something that’s right and virtuous. Recently I lost sleep and suffered immense pain at the loss of three trees which I had grown up with. A pain whose intensity was much less than that suffered by a friend who lost one of his own in the extremely unfortunate and sad tree collapse incident near Raj Bhavan, which mother nature very rarely subjects us to. The fall-out of that incident was that a fear psychosis gripped many Shillongites, leading to the felling, half-felling and trimming of many trees. We have thus lost a fair bit of green cover in the past year and am sure Google Earth imagery would back this observation. I also feel it’s time to stop the cutting; its also time to stop being fearful, for statistics would reveal that death or injury of a human due to the collapse of a tree or the falling of a branch is extremely rare as compared to the slow deaths due to respiratory ailments and reduced immunity as a fallout of breathing in more carbon dioxide and less oxygen.
Trees, we were taught in Science class, breathe in carbon dioxide and convert it into wood (carbon). We were also taught that trees on land and plankton in the oceans are the only sources of new oxygen on this planet. The more oxygen we breathe in the healthier we become due to improved resistance to all diseases. When we burn fuels like petrol and diesel in the internal combustion engines of cars, gas or kerosene or wood for cooking, coal in industries and power plants, crop stubble or forest fires, the carbon removes the oxygen from the air and combines with it to form carbon dioxide thereby reducing the amount of oxygen (O2) in the atmosphere and increasing the poisonous carbon dioxide (CO2) content. So aren’t we taking this oxygen for granted, which in the 1980’s we were told constitutes 21% of the atmosphere and carbon dioxide a mere 0.03%. Hasn’t that component undergone a drastic change in the last 40 years with cars replacing trees in our psyche and on planet earth, besides the manifold increase in industry, cooking gas etc? Has anyone done any research to find out what percentage of carbon dioxide in the air would be the tipping point for the human race? Can we as blessed Shillongites overcome our fear of being held responsible in case an extremely improbable mishap were to happen? Can we not succumb to the pressures of some of our cleaners who find it tedious to broom the fallen leaves every morning? Can we not repair the cracked boundary wall or retaining wall which a tree has grown into? Can we stop treating trees as criminals saying, “We received a complaint against those trees and therefore axed them” ? Can we not object and take affirmative action rather than just feel bad when we see a tree being cut ?
We’ve witnessed trees falling during storms all our lives but it is the first time that there has been such a concerted drive against them. We cry ourselves hoarse over buzz words like Environment, Global Warming, Climate Change yet do not make any efforts to plant & protect trees. One can never replant a tree that is felled by the road side. When the Assembly Complex at Khyndailad was annihilated 15 years ago, we were told that it would be made green again, yet very few trees were replanted and those too the most slow growing variety which will take another 15 years to attain substantial greenery. Do we want to be breathing air worth 20-50 cigarettes 24×7 in the same way that 70 Crore Indians have subjected themselves to in the North “by doing nothing”. Aren’t even places like Guwahati, Jorabat, Byrnihat, Umiam perpetually smogged out these days? Isn’t this a big wakeup call to one and all? Do we want our Green City to be named in the 20 most polluted in the world or be the 16th Indian city on that list OR retain the character of Shillong as the greenest city in India /the world ?
Yours etc.,
Gagann Jain,
Vie email