'The media is absolutely to blame for escalating violence over Cauvery dispute'

Telly trouble
It’s not just regional channels that were showing the clip of a Tamil boy being beaten up by a purported pro-Kannada outfit (“Cauvery dispute: Is the media responsible for the violence in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu?").

A Malayalam news channel was also showing the clip when the anchor was recounting the details of the situation in Bengaluru and Tamil Nadu. This despite them having no evidence over whether this incident was actually a fallout of the Cauvery dispute, without knowledge or what exactly took place in this case, and despite knowing that such WhatApp videos and messages have often fuelled such conflagrations. – KB Kannampilly

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In recent years, TV media in Karnataka seems to have entirely forgotten journalistic ethics and openly takes sides. Instead of news, we have coloured views. The so-called discussions are nothing but high-decibel verbal duels in which the anchor is an active participant, rather than a moderator.

One cannot help but think that a lot of this is paid news. Where are the regulatory bodies? And what happened to self-regulation? – Suresh

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I agree with your views. I crossed Mysore Road and Kanakapura Road during the peak of the mayhem over the Supreme Court ruling in the Cauvery dispute on Monday. However, the situation was not as bad as what the media had depicted.

The media is expected to be more responsible and ensure that the situation is not aggravated – showing scenes of violence can incite more people to violence.

Leaders should be invited to talk on TV and request everyone to stay calm, keep the peace and prevent damage to life and property. – Amar Reddy

Party politics
AAP appears to be in doldrums (“Before eyeing the Assembly, Kejriwal will first have to set his house in order in Punjab”). Arvind Kejriwal, though an honest man, has a dictatorial attitude. Earlier, Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bushan, two prominent people who had worked hard in the newly formed AAP, were expelled from the party. The multiple fissures in the party reflect that Kejriwal cannot carry his team with him.

The suspension of the party’s Punjab convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur and Kejriwal’s decision to replace him with actor and comedian Gurpreet Singh Ghuggi, who has no political credentials, shows the immaturity of the AAP chief. – Kewal Khanna

Caring for care providers
There should be a post of nursing director in all states (“Why nurses go unheard in India – even when they strike”). Nurses today are more qualified than ever before and many of them are post graduates. Time-bound and time-scale promotion is essential. Gazetted ranks should be given to nurses. – Olvina Shelrose

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You don't have any insight on nurses’ salaries, work hours and workload, despite which you wrote a lengthy piece on them. You seemed to have gathered information from here and there and put it together. In the Central government, nurses, even those with minimum qualifications, get a salary of Rs 60,000. And the responsibility all falls on the doctors. Have you ever heard of a nurse being penalised for negligence?

This is the problem with our system – everyone thinks they know everything. – Tanmoy Maji

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This is a well-researched and well-written article that gives a true representation of nursing in India. It focuses on the violation of basic human rights and workers rights of largest health care workforce.

This article shows why intelligent and skilful nurses have been migrating to other countries in large numbers since 1950s and reflects the displaced priorities of policy makers.

Ideally positions can be created in the healthcare delivery system for different cadre of nurses. Autonomy needs to be given to the Indian Nursing Council to bring it on a par with the Medical Council of India.

The Ministry of Labour must standardise salaries, benefits and working conditions for all nursing professionals, whether they work in the government or private sector. – Leena Chacko

Paramount responsibility
As Dr Abhai Shukla is quoted as saying in this article, doctors cannot avoid their ethical responsibility (“After Mumbai arrests, nervous doctors pull back from transplant surgeries”) It is not impossible for doctors to cross-check the relationship between a donor and a recipient to ensure there’s no racket at play. This is their social responsibility, as is performing transplants, and they cannot avoid it. – TB Nandi

Job well done
This article is an example of the type of in-depth, logical, and ruthless journalism that has made me fall in love with Scroll.in (“Why engineering interventions won’t prevent another flood in Chennai”). Whether written by in-house writers, freelancers or experts, pieces in this news magazine are shining examples of how journalism should be. Even if sometimes your journalists take erroneous views, even if they sometimes jump to wrong conclusions, the pieces are at well researched and well thought out. At least there is an attempt to scratch beyond the surface. Keep up the good work. – Sachin Lohra

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The rivers in Northern Tamil Nadu are non-perennial and rain-fed. New reservoirs should be created in the districts so that in case of excess rainfall, the water may fill them instead of flooding the city or draining into the sea.

The problem is that land prices are sky-high and even if the government decides to pursue this, activists will oppose such a move on some or the other grounds. – Karthik

No comment?
Instead of allowing readers to post comments directly on the website, there could be a moderator who screens them before uploading (“The Readers' Editor writes: Does Scroll need the comments feature?”). The comments could be sent to an email address, similar to the current system, with the exception that they appear below the article concerned and within a few hours instead of at the end of the week in a separate section. – Vivyen Eyben

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Comment sections often becoming the ground for vitriol, trolling and bullying. As someone, who spends more than 12 hours a day browsing the web content, I have such comments on many websites and am tired and disgusted of them.

Lack of empathy and basic etiquette is one of the reasons for this. The bigger problem, however, is that unsuspecting people get easily swayed and influenced by what they see or hear and such comments further spread the herd mentality.

I want to thank you not having a comment box. It helps me to put some thought into what I feel about an article, instead of being swayed or put off by the wave of unnecessary remarks and outright trolling in guise of comments. – Amitkumar

Deep in the Valley
This is a fascinating and eye-opening account about what happened in Khrew on August 17 (“'They had rods and hammers': Army raid on Kashmir village last month didn’t even spare its own staff”). I congratulate and commend the writers for their bravery in going to the village, facing people’s raw emotions and covering the story.

One suggestion is that there should be a little box of backgrounder within the article for readers who have not followed the events of Kashmir on a day-to-day basis.

However, we should also have the other side of the story - even if it is very brief and very unjust – from the Armed Forces’ perspective on what prompted the raid. – Kochmama P

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I am a regular reader of Scroll.in and I find that your articles are often one-sided. Have you ever published an article from the point of view of the protesters in Kashmir – who are the youth participating in protests, why they’re doing so and what their aspirations are?nurs

Prey problem
The most important reason why tigers in the Sunderbans eat humans is inadequate prey (“Why do the tigers of Sundarbans eat humans when tigers around the world seldom do?”).

There are around 75 tigers in the Indian part of the Sundarbans. One tiger required one chital a week, or about 50 chitals a year. Present surveys show that there are around 13,000 chitals in Sundarbans, which can feed 26 tigers a year.

If 30% of their diet comprises other animals, even then only about 35 tigers can be supported by the present prey base.

This is why the tigers of the Sunderbans are a starving lot.

More than 100 people are getting killed every year in the Sunderbans in India, though official figures don’t reflect this. It is widely known that a majority of the people entering the forests don’t have necessary permits and hence their death goes unreported.

Our NGO, Sundarban Tiger Widow Welfare Society, of which I am the president, visits more than 30 families a year whose members have been killed by tigers and our research has shown that the actual number of deaths is at least four times this – that is, 120. – NC Jana

Right left out
In the JNU elections, the ABVP was flattened by Students Federation of India – All India Students Association combine which shows that even though the BJP tried its best to stop Leftist groups in the university, students still prefer that over the rightwing and communal ways of the RSS-linked student group (“JNU elections: ABVP routed as Left Unity alliance sweeps to 4-0 victory”).

I hope this prompts the Sangh and the ABVP to revamp their ideology to suit the current atmosphere in education instead of holding on to archaic beliefs that students of 21st century simply do not care about. – Devadas V