Culling debate
I write on behalf of all civilised citizens of India who believe in our tolerant spirit and in our Constitution that gives all species a right to live in our country. I am absolutely shocked with your article “It’s unpleasant but culling cattle, dogs and monkeys is becoming a necessary evil in India” by an obviously unaware writer in Scroll.in. It is not necessary to cull animals across India.
It is indeed necessary to conduct spaying and neutering of dogs and monkeys to humanely reduce population. It is necessary to reduce cruelty on dairy and meat animals, reduce consumption of animal products, stop normalising slaughter and dumping of cows once they stop producing milk. That is what is absolutely necessary.
Civilised publications, as civilised journalists from civilised countries, do not normalise culling when other options exist and are promoted by law. This biased article has shown Scroll.in in very poor light and demonstrated it to be a regressive publication. Really sorry if that is the case cause the future belongs to a humane generation.
Please do not encourage or attract such negative minded, cruel and potentially sociopathic articles to feature in your publication. There are humane solutions that exist and organisations such as Humane Society International, Friendicoes SECA, Animals Aid Unlimited, Janm Foundation, and others can easily be contacted to provide those solutions. – Smita Joshi
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Such people should not be allowed to write articles about poor animals. I believe Scroll.in has many animal lovers. At least they should have objected to such an articles. Writers are known for their in-depth knowledge and empathy towards other people and creatures. Shame on this man. – Bharat
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I am really disappointed with this recent article from Scroll.in. It reflects very badly on the publication. People all over the world are urging their respective governments to impose stricter regulations on the meat and dairy industry to ensure that animals are treated in a humane manner. It’s really surprising to see your publication advocating the culling of animals.
Being a fairly popular publication, you have the power to influence the minds of many. Kindly refrain from encouraging cruelty and violence against animals, it is already a big problem in our country. I hope the article will be taken down at the earliest. – Deep Roy
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This is an absolutely absurd article. The animals aren’t the problem. It’s humans that are to blame. One can’t set up a shop in a river and then complain about the water, or live in a cave and then complain about darkness. The Indian government needs to work with people to find humane means. Maybe India needs to put out a call to people to stop reproducing. – Jimmie Leistiko
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This is a disgusting article. What is your solution, killing them? You should ask the government to make shelters for them instead of advocating culling. If people don’t feed dogs or care for them, where will they go? They are not evil. They suffering because of us. Street dogs’ lives are miserable. Please don’t make their lives more difficult with such articles. – Suparna Jana
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How does Scroll.in allow such insensitive articles? The entitlement with which humans live and devalue and degrade the environment, including non-human animals, is abhorrent! Please understand, humans have overpopulated the world and have encroached the space that was meant for other species. What makes the writer think that the planet is just for humans? Considering the apathy in our current society regarding animals, Scroll.in should be ashamed to allow such content! Your duty is to put some sense into the audience, and not make them hostile towards the fellow beings. I must say that Girish Shahane is extremely misinformed and such people are a threat to the society. Please be morally responsible! – Nandita Kalra
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As a policy analyst, I find Girish Shahane’s article that you seem to have given so much prominence an excellent piece of writing.
I think the idea of steadily “culling” all “feral and free-roaming” animals, birds, dogs, cats, goats, trees, monkeys is a great idea. But, I do find one flaw with Shahane’s thinking. A man of such intelligence should not be perceived as a speciest. I would urge you, to urge him, to include humans in the list.
I can build a very cogent and well-referenced case on how “feral and free-roaming” humans have invaded not just someone else’s fields, but also their homes, done worse things than bite, caused accidents, caused traffic jams, and so on. Quite frankly I could offer a litany of well-documented properly referenced sources for this too. I know it is just a tad “unpleasant”, but think of how many of us women and other defenceless people can walk around looking cool is our aviators!
Maybe Shahane should learn a couple of things from Thanos. Now that fellow does the same thing in a snap, but he is a true egalitarian! – Nirupama Soundararajan
Modi response
This article is extremely irresponsible and could be a cause of communal outrage (“Narendra Modi is usually quick to condemn terror attacks on Twitter. So why not for New Zealand?”). If the prime hasn’t tweeted about the incident, it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t condemn it.This article was clearly written for the sake of writing something and has no meaning. Are tweets of more value now? I hope whoever reads it understands what I’m trying to say and take some action. – Ashutosh Kumar Singh
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I do not understand the motive behind this statement. If the idea is to suggest that he has not tweeted because the attack was on mosques, his other tweets have condemned such attacks on Muslims and mosques. There are some channels and media reports that will slam the prime minister regardless of his actions or words. In my view this is a totally meaningless and misleading report. – Devendra Agochiya
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Scroll.in is for trolls. Your selective arguments smack of cynicism. Does the prime minister have to express himself in a way that would please you? This article can be thrown in the bin. – Ram Hegde
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Please stop playing political games over these things . If you are Rahul Gandhi fan, go ahead and be one, but what is the point of such nonsensical news? Do you think Modi has all the time in the world to tweet? If he does anything, you have a problem and if not, you have a problem. Indian media outlets like yours are itself a problem for our country. Please stop spreading useless news against our prime minister. – Aakrati Nigam
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These are all tactics to criticise a nation’s prime minister. We understand foul-mouthed politicians lying and distorting truths, but the media is supposed to be responsible. Such cheap tactics to plant doubt in the minds of readers makes media fellows like you irresponsible. – Aishwarya Sriram
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Why attach so much importance over a tweet? Narendra Modi has expressed his feelings differently, trough a note to the New Zealand prime minister, which has a personal touch. Do not attribute any motive to Modi. You behave like the East India Company, it’s successors and now the Congress party in dividing the people. – VR Gopalarathnam
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People have stopped reading Scroll.in because it is never neutral in its analysis and is always against Modi. I’ve never seen one article criticising the Congress. Journalism has dignity in society. Please don’t sell that. – Sankaraprasad BL
Movie or propaganda?
Narendra Modi’s rise in Gujarat politics came after the Godhra incident (“Final version of Narendra Modi biopic trailer drops Godhra reference”). Atal Bihari Vajpayee had at the time criticised Modi for failing to follow Raj Dharam and reportedly wanted him remove him as chief minister of Gujarat after the riots, but LK Advani came to his rescue. If these references are removed from the biopic of Modi, it cannot be called a true biopic but a fictional film. – Narendra Agarwal
Twitter gaffe
It is trivial of Scroll.in to highlight this mistake by Narendra Modi on social media (“As Narendra Modi thanks ‘Niirav Modi’ on Twitter, social media breaks into laughter”). You want to show Modi in a bad light, though are unsuccessful in the attempt. This is biased journalism on your part. It is a blot on objective journalism. – Mohanram Subbarao
Pollachi case
Both the Tamil Nadu police and the government failed to maintain the secrecy of the complainant in the Pollachi sexual harassment case. (“How Tamil Nadu government and police mishandled investigation into Pollachi sex blackmail racket”). These are senior officials with experience, which means that they did so deliberately.. The Rs 25 lakh court-ordered compensation for the complainant should come from the pockets of the individuals who made the mistake of revealing the woman’s identity and not from the taxpayer’s money. – Rajaraman Balasubramaniam
State censorship
It is shocking how the screening of Anik Dutta’s film was obstructed in West Bengal despite a censor board clearance (“SC directs West Bengal to ensure satirical film ‘Bhobishyoter Bhoot’ is screened without obstruction”). This after the state had boasted that Padmaavat could be screened here without hindrance. But governments have many subtle ways of thwarting things and people that they don’t like. Only contempt proceedings against those who defy the Supreme Court might just bring results. – Rita Datta
Reader feedback
This is the first time I am writing in and that too because I saw so many people take offense at the article comparing Virgin Mary and the government’s narrative regarding the air strikes (“Readers’ comments: ‘Comparing IAF strikes to immaculate conception is hurtful and unecessary’”). Yes the article did make me a bit uncomfortable. But I would never ask it to be taken down. Why do people think that religion, its practices and customs cannot be questioned (even decisions of the government for that matter)? The article never asked people to lynch, pillage or murder. The author just asked questions, regarding virgin birth and the air strikes. He never twisted facts or claimed things that were not already known. We should definitely respect his right to question. To all my Christian brothers and sisters who have taken offense at this article, I think your faith must be strong enough to answer such questions. You can never ask a person to be silent just because these questions make you uncomfortable. It just shows that you have never asked these questions yourself or thought about your faith/beliefs long enough to give a proper answer. – Karun Mathew
Kashmir dispute
Hats off to Indresh Kumar. This is the most sensible idea l have heard from any Indian leader (“Pakistan will be part of India after 2025, claims RSS leader Indresh Kumar: Report”). I request RSS and BJP is to liberate Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and integrate it with India by removing Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution. House secular Indians in Kashmir and give them security. House all our retired Indian military jawans in Kashmir to protect all the displaced Kashmiri Pandit who were neglected by the Congress. Give a one-way ticket to Hurriyat and their followers if they do not come on board. – Raj K
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