All stories by RASHME SEHGAL
Should post vaccine reactions be better monitored?
Rediff.com17 May 2021'There is more likelihood of dying from lightning than from vaccine induced blood clots.'
Can bodies thrown in Ganga spread COVID?
Rediff.com15 May 2021'We cannot have bodies putrefying in water.' 'This is a health hazard and it can create a very inflammatory situation.'
Why was Kumbh Mela held amidst raging pandemic?
Rediff.com22 Apr 2021What is particularly worrying is that the vast majority will not have access to testing or even to proper treatment. These cases could have been avoided if the government had shown the political will to do so, observes Rashme Sehgal.
North India could see 100,000 cases per state per day
Rediff.com19 Apr 2021'The trajectory of the disease will keep increasing because of the population density being very high.'
'PLA won't withdraw from advantageous positions'
Rediff.com15 Apr 2021'The Indian government wakes up after the fact when it can do nothing, or rather lacks the will to prosecute military actions to reverse these adverse PLA-driven developments.'
Ken-Betwa project: 'Tiger population won't survive'
Rediff.com7 Apr 2021'Tiger reserves were created to protect areas from developmental activities.' 'If we go ahead with these projects, then it is a complete mockery of our institutions and our laws, it is against everything we have stood for, our Forest Conservation Act, our Wildlife Biodiversity Act.'
India's cry for water falls on deaf ears
Rediff.com23 Mar 2021India's water future remains very bleak. The monsoon season, which once extended to 4 months, is now down to less than 30 days of heavy rain.
'Rawat has become CM by default'
Rediff.com15 Mar 2021'He has been made CM of Uttarakhand because everybody thinks he is not a challenge to anyone.'
59,853 Crimes Against Women in UP!
Rediff.com8 Mar 2021UP accounted for 14.7 per cent of all registered crimes against women in 2019. The state also recorded the highest number of cases against Dalit women.
'We can do 50 lakh vaccinations per day'
Rediff.com4 Mar 2021'We have 25,000 private hospitals participating in this exercise and if each of these hospitals does 200 vaccinations per day, that makes it 50 lakhs.'
'The Indian State has abdicated its duties'
Rediff.com3 Mar 2021'... of protecting the lives and property of a large section of society.' 'It may further deepen the communal divide which already exists in the country.'
When women join the farmers protest
Rediff.com24 Feb 2021From carrying portraits of their sons and husbands who have committed suicide due to agrarian distress to picketing to doing sewa 24x7 at langars, women have shown a rare determination not to capitulate before the government.
'Indian Army's advantage has been lost'
Rediff.com22 Feb 2021'The military advantage the Indian Army had gained by the Special Frontier Force occupying the heights of the Rezang La-Rechin La ridge on the Kailash Range is lost without the PLA withdrawing to east of the Khurnak Fort line.'
Budget ignores women and children
Rediff.com5 Feb 2021Women and children have been given short shrift with these crucial sectors facing substantive budgetary cuts, discovers Rashme Sehgal.
Why deprive same sex couples of their legal rights?
Rediff.com2 Feb 2021When the highest court gave a decision on the Navtej Singh Johar case, it held that LGBT citizens have a right to not be discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation. It was keeping this in mind that this same sex couple approached the Delhi high court.
'We started as a democracy, but have regressed to a banana republic'
Rediff.com25 Jan 2021'Governments, democratically elected governments, are custodians for a short- specified time.' 'Parents don't let baby sitters decide the course of their child's future.'
Love Jihad must be declared ultra vires in 2021
Rediff.com30 Dec 2020The most strident criticism of UP's anti-conversion ordinance has come from the judiciary with several retired Supreme Court and high court judges having described it as being violative of Article 14 (Right to Equality), 15 (Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion), 21 (Right to Life) and 25 (Freedom of conscience) of the Constitution, points out Rashme Sehgal.
China's Brahmaputra dam: How India will respond
Rediff.com10 Dec 2020'India is planning to construct a multipurpose reservoir.' 'It will be a 10,000 MW hydropower project to offset the impact of the hydropower project by China.'
Women voters in Bihar are no longer a silent force
Rediff.com24 Nov 2020This was the first major election in the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Obviously, the women of Bihar were not intimidated by the pandemic and came out in large numbers to vote.
Why do rape victims turn hostile?
Rediff.com3 Nov 2020The fact that so many victims turn hostile should be a matter of concern. If so many accused persons continue to roam freely in society, this becomes an additional liability to women's safety, points out Rashme Sehgal.