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Showing posts from October, 2010

The Question of Eligibility

The word 'eligibility' means 'the quality or state of being eligible'. The synonyms that best suit this word as per the dictionary are 'fitness', 'qualification', 'suitability', 'suitableness', 'worthiness' etc. Each of one of us is consciously or unconsciously applying this word in our day to day life. People who would like to enter into business partnerships, parents wanting to get their children married, companies scouting for staff for different positions, schools admitting children to kindergarten courses, management and engineering colleges conducting entrance exams, UPSC for selecting aspirants into different administrative services, sports authorities enabling someone to participate in sports and games to represent the nation, banks opening savings and current accounts for applicants, gas companies for giving gas connections, mobile companies for providing connectivity and you name it, everyone is constantly on the look

Human rights - for criminals or civilians?

I woke up to the news of the encounter of Adapa Venkanna, the most notorious burglar on the morning of 5th October at Vijayawada. It came as a surprise as I never thought he would be encountered by police going by the media reports of the early 2000's. A certain section of the media has then reported that some police personnel from Mangalagiri and also Vijayawada were hand in glove with Venkanna. I was forced to believe this because I was a victim of Venkanna in July 2003 and was also given to understand by Venkanna himself that a policeman from Mangalagiri police station had taken my watch that was stolen from my house by Venkanna. The protests by human rights activists and other organizations in the aftermath of Venkanna encounter just show how some people are making a mockery of democracy. They raised a hue and cry on the encounter and said the police are at fault as they have intentionally killed Venkanna in the garb of an encounter for self-protection. What happened to these h