Violators of women deserve no mercy

A quick glance at the news spectrum gives a sorry picture of the state of women in this country. The fairer sex which constitutes more than a majority in the population are being handed out an unfair deal — so much for the concept of democracy.

From the Guwahati molestation where a 50-strong drunk mob literally raped a teen in full media glare to the remote village in UP where a woman was force-fed alcohol and gang-raped by policemen in a police station, safety and dignity of women is virtually non-existent.

When it comes to glorification of women in culture and philosophy, no one can beat us. From goddesses to warrior princesses, women have been worshipped in one way or the other. Religious texts to literature, pages extolling women's virtues are countless. However, nothing guarantees the safety of women in the street.

Dowry is a major cause of abuse, harassment and violence against women. Though outlawed, the practice is rampant across the country; and contrary to expectation, education, social status or urbanity does not deter this social evil.

If a man has even a grain of self-respect he wouldn't ask for dowry. A demand for dowry is an open proclamation that “for all my machismo, I am an incapable loser who can't provide for my better half and I am desperately dependent on the charity handouts of my in-laws”.

A majority of dowry-related cases go unreported due to fear of social stigma, threat of violence or pressure from families, the few that are reported are gory and appalling enough to question one's belief in humanity.

Sexual violence against women is a different ballgame altogether. Though myriad laws are in existense to safeguard the safety of women, and to provide justice to victims, few translate into real support.

The people and institutions who are supposed to enforce these laws are themselves supporters of sexually charged animals who prey on women with impunity.

The frequent statements from top police officials, ministers, clerics, and, in the latest case, from a member of National Commission for Women, put the victims' moral credentials under scrutiny. Those who bark that it is the dress of the woman that 'provokes' sexual assault must remember that miniskirts don't get women raped in most cases.

The 'moral police' who patrol the streets to ward off 'corrupting' Western influences such as Valentine's Day is nowhere to be seen or heard when the women are torn to bits by savages across the country. Their silence, combined with the 'endorsement' from the powerful, encourage the sexual predators.

Sexual crimes do not deserve any mercy. For all the psychological and social reasons that may be lined up, it is the lack of fear of punishment that powers these beasts.

I personally favour physical castration as the most potent punishment for sexual crimes. The criminals, rendered incapable of similar crimes, must be incarcerated for life with hard labour. Hurt them where is hurts, and results will naturally show in statistics.

Barely a month back, an international study had ranked India as one of the worst places to be a woman — only next to Saudi Arabia. Something is fundamentally flawed with our system if we are in the same bracket with primitive societies where rape victims are executed on charges of adultery.

We don't need Obama, but change we definitely need.

(This article was published as the editorial column in Postnoon on July 25, 2012)

Cheers from stands can’t drown 26/11 screams

If you want to be respected by others, the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

It’s been barely four years since India was hit by the most audacious terrorist assaults into its territory when the 10-man squad waltzed in through the porous coastal security and unleashed their wrath on India’s commercial capital.

If it was not for the selfless sacrifice of a Maharashtra policeman, India wouldn’t have had even a Kasab to save its face.

The cleansing agents may have removed the blood stains from the CST and the mammoth railway hub is bustling with activity, but justice remains a distant dream for the dear ones of those who were gunned down. Ever since the attack, India has been doing sabre-rattling, and nothing more, to make Pakistan accountable for its actions.

Despite more proof emerging about Pakistan’s institutional involvement in the attack, mostly through work done by foreign intelligence and investigative agencies, Indian resolve to pursue the case has mostly remained on paper. Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Abu Jindal, who has been recently arrested with the help of Saudi Arabian authorities, has revealed the shocking extent of Pakistani agencies’ involvement in orchestrating the 26/11 attacks.

Like it does after every provocative incident, India took a tough posture cutting off all engagements with Pakistan for a while — only to concede ground later. While the 26/11 dossiers India sent to Pakistan might soon be requiring a room for storage, any other country (with self-respect, which we are desperately lacking) would have put open bounties for terrorist leaders; and Hafiz Sayeed wouldn’t be roaming the streets organising rallies and protests.

Even in the latest round of talks in New Delhi, India was grovelling for action on 26/11 and Pakistan kept to its regular stand of ‘requiring credible proof and sharing of information’. Their only real interest was resumption of cricketing ties! And the shameless ‘super-power-to-be’ that we are, it was granted.

The government actually left the decision to the cricket associations to take the call. If cricket and sports ties were never part of bilateral relations, this could have been considered a ‘mature’ call. However, that is not the case. And since when has the BCCI, which is not even a government body (actually run by a bunch of businessmen for their interests), been allowed to take decisions on behalf of India?

Are the guys at the helm of the government such dimwits that mass entertainment is allowed to be a priority over national interests.

The decision to resume cricket ties as ISI smiles smugly sends out a wrong message to Pakistan and Indian public. It is a not-so-subtle declaration that the government would rather have the game raking in crores in revenues for some private stakeholders than stay resolute in its resolve to not go soft on Pakistan and terrorism. Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar has rightly criticised the BCCI for its decision.

While Pakistan has never let up on supporting terrorist activities targeting India, we have have been going out of our way – and at times bending backwards – to woo our bête noire. We have fought four wars; have between us around 400 nuclear weapons meant for all-out conflict; miniscule bilateral trade; and continuing acts of terrorism. What is the point in pretending that all the touted ‘confidence-building measures’ will bear fruit and we will be best friends one day.

We should have the courage to declare Pakistan a ‘terrorist state’ and invest in strengthening our military and intelligence capabilities. Pakistan is nothing but a threat and never a possible friend.

Cricket is great fun, millions love it, but the cheering galleries won’t take away the screams of those who were butchered in Mumbai from the nation’s conscience.

We must not let BCCI to become Board of Cricket Controlling India.

(This article was published as the editorial column in Postnoon on July 18, 2012)

Let India, not Time, judge Manmohan

It was only a few days back that Time magazine had branded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as an ‘underachiever’ on its cover. The grave fault the US magazine found with the economist PM was that he ‘refused to stick out his neck’ for the liberalisation reforms.
Well... The magazine is entitled to its opinions as it operates from a free country. We regret to tell you that majority of the 1.3 billion citizens of our country live on below $1 per day (Though according to Planning Commission that might be upscale lifestyle) and their priority is not exactly rolling out red carpet welcome to Wal-Mart and other global giants circling the Indian retail skies.
The BJP was quick to grab the new stick to beat the Centre with, but seems to be oblivious to the fact that the same magazine had described its stalwart and former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee as ‘asleep at wheel’ in 2002. The main Opposition party must not forget that it is not in the best of health and is yet to catch its breath after putting out fires in its Southern base Karnataka, where a local caste strongman got the national party on its knees.
The BJP constantly uses terms such as ‘weak, puppet, indecisive’ to describe Singh but forgets that the ‘strong’ NDA prime minister was comparatively less effectual. The Parivar campaign of going ‘swadeshi’ was the first casualty when the NDA government overtook the Congress in the road to liberalisation and selling off PSUs.
While in the Opposition, the BJP was always ranting about how it would strike at terrorist camps in Pakistan if elected to power. The much-touted nuclear tests failed to stop Kargil intrusions.
When terrorists attacked Indian Parliament, the government launched the biggest ever troop deployment to the Western border in Operation Parakram, but chickened out when generals on the other side of the border threatened to use nukes.
Terrorists continued to strike with impunity and the controversial anti-terror law Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (POTA) was used mostly for political vendetta. But the biggest blot was the Gujarat riots of 2002. In a well-planned and methodical manner, thousands were butchered while the state machinery looked the other away or acted in complicity.
And for the regional outfits, caste parties and Mao-worshippers, they have all proven their hypocritical sides by diverging from declared policies and ideologies to retain power, fatten wallets and woo vote banks. Media is a vital constituent of democracy, but it is not the last word.
The Fourth Estate is not devoid of vested interests. Most media houses have business interests and this reflects in their analysis of news. In India, the most recent example was regarding the implementation of Wage Board recommendations for journalists.
The publishing houses, who are otherwise at each others’ throats, united in publishing story after story about a grand conspiracy to bleed the industry — and never implemented the recommendations. If Singh’s hands have been tied, it’s due to coalition compulsions.
When your government’s survival is dependent on people like Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee and Karunanidhi, the elbow room available is little.
 Despite all that, Singh has steered the country through economic doldrums in different capacities. He is free of corruption (though not the same can be said about his colleagues and allies), a gentleman and a statesman of international standing. He has never responded to vicious criticism by stooping to that level.
He might have several shortcomings, but is still the prime minister and the hope for this country to ride out of economic and political storms. And those baying for his blood must come up with credible alternatives (no, not the BJP).
Let Indian public, and not Time, be the judge of its prime minister.
(This article was published as the editorial column in Postnoon on July 11, 2012)

Living fossils in a dynamic world

In many dictatorships across the world, lampooning the ‘supreme leader’ is a crime punishable by death or prison sentences worse than death itself. Before we pat ourselves for our ‘vibrant’ democracy, as our political stalwarts and their foreign counterparts put it, let us take a realistic stock of our country.
If you thought it was the whimsical Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee alone who threw tantrums over cartoons and threw people into dungeons, you got it wrong.
The row over political cartoons in the NCERT textbooks is the best examples. Netas of all hues have thundered against a 50-year-old cartoon showing Jawaharlal Nehru whipping BR Ambedkar for the snail’s pace of work in drafting the Constitution. Both have played their roles in nation building, but are now dead and gone. The cartoon was published in a national daily and is a matter of historical record.
Now suddenly we find some groups taking umbrage to that cartoon (getting offended, developing feeling of animosity... the list goes on) and has got the government to agree to delete it.
The incident made several interest groups realise that if children were allowed free (or rather uncensored) access to political developments of the past, there would be little future for several ideologies based on divisiveness. It also dawned on many that if the origins of their political movements were laid bare before the smart schoolchildren, their out-dated and irrational outfits would soon run out of takers.
 And so began the clamour from across the country for text books to be ‘politically correct’. The designated panel of ‘experts’ sifted through the NCERT curriculum for political booby traps. And lo! 36 out of 176 cartoons were found to be inappropriate and the panel has recommended their removal.
These cartoons reflect the critical political analysis of the times when the corresponding incident occurred. Going back to them now and trying to erase their presence is nothing short of juvenile conduct. And the current ‘revision’ reeks of the dictatorship we see in George Orwell’s 1984. In the book, there is a government department dedicated to destroying records of all follies of the past and rewriting them to make the leadership look like infallible visionaries — we are not far.
Tolerance to criticism, no matter how vitriolic it is, is an indicator of the maturity of a leader or an organisation. The more convinced the party is about its ideology and history, the less will be the tendency to throw tantrums over ‘offensive content’.
It is an attempt at the impossible to keep historic realities away from the children as they are not confined to text book knowledge. Information of all shades is available in the media, especially on the internet.
We also need to understand that perspectives on the same person or event are divergent, depending on the level of involvement and impact in the life of the person involved.
 For example, Indira Gandhi is a great leader but others perceive her as the only dictator the country has had since independence. So who gets to decide the political ‘acceptability’ of a cartoon on the Emergency?
Many political parties that ran decades of mindless ‘education in mother tongue only’ campaigns are now struggling to own up their folly when English-speaking youths from other liberal states corner the best jobs. Attempting to erase the records of their actions will not undo the damage done.
We should come out from the state of denial and learn to accept criticism as inputs for introspection and course correction. Ego-driven ideas of self-glorification must not ossify us into living fossils in a dynamic world.
(This article was published as the editorial column in Postnoon on July 4, 2012)