MONTH-IN-PERSPECTIVE

RAJASTHAN: It is rather sad that we had to start this column with the episode involving a 16 year old girl accusing a septuagenarian preacher Aasaram of sexual assault at his Jodhpur Ashram. A student of 12th from the preacher’s Chindwara gurukul in Madhya Pradesh has even alleged that the accused has threatened to eliminate her parents if she goes public about the alleged assault. 

Public, she did go, with Delhi police filing an FIR and recording her statement before a magistrate under section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code.

Although, the details of the incident is not important, as long as the truth of the sexual assault is established and the perpetrator is dealt with extreme severity for the crime committed on a minor. 

The incident allegedly happened in Jodhpur, where the girl was brought by her parents to see this Aasaram from the hostel in Chindwara, for a cure of an alleged possession of the girl by the evil spirit. What transpired in the Ashram is in public domain. 

Delhi police came into the picture, since the parents could only manage to see the preacher at the Ramlila Grounds where he was conducting a 3 days camp. Having stopped by his security, the parents met the police to complain about the incident. That, he, despite his multiple attempts through his legal team joined by his son and supporters, could be presented before the court to send him to 2 weeks custody, only confirms, that slowly public outrage coupled with the sensation hungry electronic media does cause action by the authorities, is a welcome sign. This is a good development. Hope the judicial last word is said on the accused, the preacher teacher.

Of course, the dirty politics by all and sundry in the political arena with media contributing its own tinted version was in full display for all 10 days prior to his eventual arrest.

By hindsight, it can be said that, like some Hindu activists have alleged that when it comes to so-called God-men from Hindu background, they are subjected to large scale media exposure. Similar charlatans among other faiths are not been as severely hunted by the media. Like it or not. This is the truth. There are any number of instances of media taking snide sides.

This is not to suggest that this sex maniac Aasaram has to be leniently dealt with. In fact he should be shown his proper place in prison rather than those Ashrams where his writ runs. Reportedly, despite many allegations of wrong doing, this rich and powerful spiritual practitioner has evaded the law for a long time. At least now, it seems to catch up. So be it. Or is it so!? Enters Ram Jethmalani, the ‘best’ criminal lawyer in the country, to defend, the apparently indefensible Aasaram. He has already muddied the water by his now infamous observation that the 16 year old girl suffers from a strange disease of “wanting to meet men in private”. It was atrocious to say the least, that a lawyer of his stature could stoop so low that he could cast aspersion on a minor girl for the benefit of a suspected lecherous old man! That too in a sexual assault case, especially when the accused is allegedly having more skeletons in the cupboard. It was very clear that Ram Jethmalani had difficulty in  justifying his observations on the minor girl that he walked out of the TIMES NOW Channel unable to face the barrage of questions from the anchor and other two lady interlocutors. He was so irritated that he even asked one of them to “shut up”. That was indeed a great fall for a ‘great’ lawyer. No wonder, former CVC Sahilesh Gandhi was so deeply upset with this ‘great’ lawyer, he complained to the Bar Council to cancel Jethmalani’s membership of the council, observing ‘What Jethmalani is doing, is the character assassination and intimidation of a minor girl, instead of Aasaram, the culprit. This is obnoxious’.

KARNATAKA: “Hundred Days and 101 mistakes” by the opposition to the ruling dispensation in Bangalore, is as usual an opposition party’s opposition to the party in power. While the incumbent government is in great hurry to fulfill their pre poll promises and post poll assurances, its Anna Bhagya scheme is certainly not well thought out but purely populist. It is sure to drain the government resources and unlikely to greatly help the poor in the long run, except make them more and more lazy. There are controversial moves like CET counseling, disqualifying village panchayat members for their failure to hold meetings, termination of management committee of temples coming under Murzai deptt, etc. These are measures decided in a hurry and without application of mind. Right enough, court has stayed the order termination of temple management committees. But one thing is clear, this government has tried to do something, since they managed to win absolute majority, unlike the last government, which did precious little, witnessed during the first couple of months itself, a wholesale trading in MLAs, with Reddy brothers, who are in the hibernation at present, playing the kingmaker role. 

As a country we do suffer from some kind of selective mindset. Recently one Yogesh Master was arrested, based on a complaint that his book “Dhundi” in Kannada has outraged the religious sentiments of Hindus by portraying one of their gods Ganesh in poor light. Portraying Hindu gods, and occasionally even Christian gods badly, is a national pastime for our so-called creative writers and artists. What they don’t realize is that, like they have a freedom of expression, the freedom to protest peacefully is a right they should recognise. But our media is quick in picking up cudgels against Hindu protesters, unlike other protesters.

So much has been written about this “Dhundi’ episode and the arrest of the author. Surely, arresting the author is untenable and cannot be justified, but nobody has condemned the author for his action, but have taken on the protesters. But the same media seem to have gone dumb on the protest by hardliners in Kashmir on the Zubin Mehta concert. This selective mindset of our media is a matter of concern, which nobody in the media talk about, including the present PCI chairman Justice Markandeya Katju. The fact is, if the Indian society has remained divided, the media role is certainly not a healthy one. 

KERALA: We are, as a nation, poor admirer of good job. There are any number of people doing good job, where a small step of appreciating them can be so much fulfilling and make the recipient of appreciation perform still better than what he already performed. This casualness of not recognizing is a national malaise, be it the government apparatus, or service organization, schools or colleges or any other institution manned to manage things. Examples of cynicism are dime a dozen. And comes this news from Credit Information Bureau (India) Ltd. (CIBIL) about better treatment of good borrowers. A Thiruvanantapuram datelined report informs that as a reward to those borrowers who have kept their promise of paying back the loan to banks in letter and spirit shall be given repeat loans at cheaper interest rates. This is not merely a social and public recognition of a responsible loanee, but makes lot of business sense. In fact, the writer is involved in a co-operative bank where those who repaid their loans in time, were given remission or reduction in interest burden. But the present proposal of CIBIL makes lot of sense in attracting responsible financial behaviour from all prospective loanees. Any reward for the past credit worthiness has a lot of promise for the future of bank loans, besides, it also boosts the morale of the individual who gets a public recognition of his credit worthiness. It is indeed a win-win situation for both. Hope this becomes a pan Indian spirit for the larger good of the society.

TAMIL NADU: As a rule judicial officers or justices are known to be wise and very selective in their usage of words, especially in public platforms. But then they are human too.

Justice N. N. Kirubakaran of Madras High Court, while inaugurating the Fast Track Mahila Court in Ramanathapuram in the southern tip of the state had this wise crack “Nirbhaya, the Delhi gang rape victim chose the wrong time to travel”.

It was an extremely uncalled for observation by the judge, who probably did not have the full details of the case, besides seems to have predilections about women movement in public. As expected women’s group have slammed the remark. The question what is the right time or wrong time and for whom and when, is a matter of universal application and hence segregating women for special restrictions on the time of their movement is a regressive bent of mind. Certainly all need to be sensitized on this, including judges.  

MAHARASHTRA: As a nation, like most western countries, we always accused Pakistan of being bad with minorities. Of course, to some extent it helped our national politics as well. But there are recurring evidences emerging where police and other law enforcing and investigating agencies are casually arresting and detaining without trial some of the Muslim youth on suspicion alone. In a country like India, which prides itself as a democratic secular nation, this approach needs an overhaul. Of course, police as a matter of practice always target weak and poor without much application of mind. We can accuse Pakistan of doing something like this, but India should not and cannot do it, or else the difference between India and Pakistan shall get blurred slowly but surely.

The news report “2006 Malegaon Blast: 9 accused set to walk free” informs that National Investigation Agency found no decisive proof to support the earlier conclusion drawn by Anti Terrorism Squad and CBI. So it is the court that saved the day for the idea of India, an idea that should survive all condition for India to be a model to the world. There is this Syrian young intellectual in his thirtees writing from London, that he does not want Syria to be antoher Pakistan, but he wants Syria to be like India. 

As a nation, we must necessarily protect our composite culture and spirit of Vasudaiva Kutumbakam. It is a call all must take across our national spectrum. Of course when all is said and done, we must also appreciate, subject to the black sheeps, that our police too has its own share of helplessness, forced upon them by circumstances of the past, and the experience gained from them, influences some of their harried or hurried actions on the ground. How much police can be blamed for their actions of commissions and omissions, while it is a moot point, there is certainly scope for more responsible and responsive approach in dealing with cases involving all sections of society, not only Muslims. Hope all players play their role with sensitivity, which indeed is a hall mark of a civilized society.

According to KEM Hospital in central Mumbai, some 190 cases of Dahi Handi accidents were reported at the hospital. They were from different parts of Mumbai. Of these 190 injured youths, 23 were admitted with others being treated in OPD. Of the 23 admitted 6 were operated upon for multiple fractures with two in ICU. Unfortunately one of them, 25 years old Shashikant Mane, died. Dahi Handi, an occasion for exuberant joy of Krishna Janmasthami, had turned into suffering, to so many across Mumbai, with some even being turned away from hospital, since they did not know who will sign for their treatment. 

All organizers, normally claim that they all have safety precautions in place, like Ambulance, stretchers, First Aid Box, waiting doctors and the group insurance cover, etc. But in reality none of them were there, when accident really took place. How can such reckless stunt of human pyramids of 30/40 ft without any shock absorbers in place, allowed to be performed? Some of these Dahi Handis are organized by even Ministers and their hangers on. But there appears to be no law to control super dangerous acrobatics in the name of festivals. Hope somebody up in the city administration take some decisive action to control these Govindas. 

There was this headline “Muslim leaders shocked at distribution of swords”. A Shiv Sena leader reportedly distributed 2 ½ ft. long, 500 swords at a Dahi Handi function at Dadar. Why only Muslim leader should be shocked? It should shock the entire thinking population of the country. Aren’t newspapers shocked to report such a bizarre happening, that too right in the heart of Mumbai city? What’s gone wrong with the Maharashtra’s political class? that they didn’t react sharply at this brazen act of brow beating? For police to justify that they were blunt and hence does not come under the definition of weapons is quite simply ludicrous. Why shouldn’t one of these ‘blunt’ swords tried on the head of DCP Dhananjay Kulkarni, who reportedly defended police inaction? It is absolutely unthinkable that police didn’t even confiscate these swords even after days, let alone take action against the distributor. 

JAMMU & KASHMIR: Believe it or not, in J & K, lives are differently valued and paid accordingly. And more shocking is, this practice is in place since last over 23 years. According to a govt. order of 1990 “the next of kin of personnel of para military forces, if he is permanent resident of J & K is sanctioned Rs: 5 lakh (in case of death), where as for other personnel of para military forces, only Rs: 2 lakhs is sanctioned”. Similarly “On the death of a policeman compensation is Rs: 5 lakhs, paid to the next of kin,  where as in case of policeman, or a magistrate who dies in similar circumstances, Rs: 2 lakhs compensation is paid to the next of kin”.

Supreme Court was hearing a PIL on the Kishtwar riot victims. The lawyer appearing for the litigant cited the discriminatory order, and court reportedly took a strong exception to the J & K state government order, where apparently they were treating the permanent residents of the state of J & K as state subjects, and other as non-state subjects. This is “highly objectionable” the apex court felt. Reportedly, the apex court had remarked “Can you manage without the assistance of others? Can you discriminate between natives and outsiders who lost their lives while serving in your state? We know that you have a special status. "But”, the court asked “Does special status granted to the state allows you to discriminate between natives and outsiders who lost their lives”. Hopefully in the course of disposal of the PIL, the court shall take the call to rectify this highly discriminatory order.

NEW DELHI: Another important happening of the month that went by is the 3 years' jail term for the most cruel rapist among the Delhi gang rape accused, only because he is still few months away from his 18 years age bar, to be an adult. So it has only proved that you can do all that an adult is capable of doing, but our law is not empowered to treat you as an adult. That is rather very funny. The alibi that courts are giving is, that constitution makers have thought and decided the age for juveniles as 18 and that they should be treated as per provisions of Juvenile Justice Act. Therefore unless the constitution is amended to reduce the age, it is status quo, like it or not. But what our legal eagles do not think is, that it was in 1950, that the country gave itself a constitution when boys were still boys and any incident of crime by young boys were few and far between. But the new millennium has seen the complete metamorphosis of the youth with television and information explosion on the internet. Life has never been the same for anybody, let alone youth. Hence any change in the constitution to take care of the evolution of the society, is only too normal. Courts must necessarily take care of this and advise the government of the day that its not early at all to respond to the changing social scenario and take the call where needed. After all, Justice is, only the truth in action, isn’t it? Thus the truth is, boy has grown, but our response to him has not grown enough to render justice where it is due. The shock and the sense of outrage felt not merely by the parents of the late Delhi gang rape victim, but also by the people at large, should be understood in right perspective. This boy, who was held guilty of rape and murder should necessarily get the punishment in accordance with his crime, not allowed to go scot free by this mere 3 years, in correctional juvenile home. This is a complete miscarriage of justice.

News report regarding the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) about the per capita expenditure of different religious group, has somehow failed to get electronic media sensation hype. Some of the dailies had highlighted in its headline about the expenditure by Muslims to be the lowest. “Muslims live on average Rs. 32.66 a day”, was the headline. The report also informed about Hindus living on Rs. 37.50, not any better than the Muslims. Report further inform about the Sikhs enjoying much better at Rs. 55.30 so was Christians at Rs. 51.43. The news report does not give details of how they have calculated the average. However what all should recognize is that if income is divided among the number of mouths per household  then both Hindus and Muslims have exposed themselves as groups with larger families and that they have failed to check their numbers. Similar is the explanation for both Sikhs and Christians. They surely will have more per capita expenditure as families are smaller and they managed to not only keep their number under control, but also tried to empower themselves with education and hard work, which both Muslims and Hindus have failed as a community. Of course, there are millions of Hindus whose per capita expenditure is very very high and so are there among Muslims.  

There was this report “Jairam rapped for pampering opposition” in a Mumbai based newspaper. Jairam Ramesh is one of the gentlemen politician. Suave, highly educated, articulative. Ramesh is a welcome guest in any crowd and pleasant person to meet. He is probably the best with his rapport with politician of all hues. Congress party should be happy to have him as a trouble shooter. But politics being politics, surely the likes of Chidambaram and Kamalnath have reportedly reprimanded Ramesh for accommodating opposition amendments in the land acquisition bill. Of the two, Chidambaram in particular is not liked by most politicians, including his own party colleagues.  Kamalnath is an aspirant for higher positions in the government, but does not make open display of ambition. Hence the acceptability of Jairam Ramesh to opposition members of the parliament should be looked at as an asset in the larger interest of national good in the overall political discourse rather than be made subject of narrow prism with which people like Chidambaram and his ilk are allowed to brow beat pleasant political personalities. 

“Litigation beyond poor man’s reach” was an observation from the Apex Court, some weeks ago. Expression of its regret for the commercialization and the exploitative dimension of legal profession, the Supreme Court has been rather slow. Like medical profession, lawyers profession too have been most exploitative since last few decades. It has been crass commercial. Helplessness of the people has been the capital of these ‘professionals’, good number of them have been mercenaries to the core. Of course there are equal number of gentlemen professionals who protect the fair name of the profession. But sad part is the increasing number of lawyers and doctors taking easier course to the riches. But unfortunately, rich man may not have any qualms of paying higher cost to these professional black sheeps, it is the poor who are treated with the same ruthlessness. And that is sad. Hence there are any number of cases where the poor either stop the treatment and face the inevitable or the litigants give up the fight in court or hospital, only because it has become increasingly difficult to fund these legal and medical profession. That indeed is a sad dimension of an emerging super power!

Better late than never. At long last Supreme Court woke up to the reality of justice delayed is justice denied or justice denied is simply injustice. Hearing the petition filed by the father of a 15 year old school girl from Haryana, who was gang raped by three men in 2012 and her mother killed for not withdrawing the complaint, apex court judges R.M. Lodha and Madan B. Lokur observed rather sharply “What is wrong with the system? Why are 90% of rape cases ending in acquittal?”.

Court was responding to the pleading by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing the victim’s father. According to him the girl was denied entry into the school by the school principal, to persue her studies, after the incident of rape. How such person can still continue in their position, but for the state complicity? So it is the comprehensive failure of the entrenched power, the police, the bureaucracy, the legal fraternity or may be even the judiciary at times, besides the political class who have all joined hands, to keep the victims of the system where they are. Of course, it has to be fought. Fortunately there are activist judges, Colin Gonsalvises, Shailendra Gandhis, Arvind Kejriwals and Prashant Bhushans and their ilk popping out of the pavement, as Mahatma had said it long ago, in a system where there also likes of Ram Jethmalanis and his ilk. Hope the dawn is not far away. And we all live with hopes, don’t we?! 

Yasin Bhatkal, notorious wanted 30 year old, native of Bhatkal in coastal Karnataka, was arrested in the Nepal border. He is reportedly wanted in several blast cases. Unfortunately, he has a Muslim name, and some in the political parties raised questions, if he was being arrested because he is a Muslim whether there are enough grounds to arrest him. On the face of it, the observation by Kamal Farooqui a spokesman of Samajwadi Party can be taken on the face value or as mischievous. For some reasons, Congress Party felt it was mischievous. Even his own party felt irked by his observation, and removed him as party spokesman.

Hope the multi state police, who are going into the details of the Bhatkal terror activities in their respective states come up with some solid evidence of wrong doing to fix him and make him accountable. Only thing the police involved in interrogating him, should keep all sensitive issues under safe custody, without their daily media briefings, to arrive at the truth. According to these daily media reports, this Indian Mujahideen operative is a mine of information on different terror module operating across the border with Pakistani official complicity. Wish something conclusive emerges for the overall improvement in the terror scene within the country by this detention of the elder of two Bhatkal brothers.

There was this news in the media, which one more time has exposed the lack of planning and economic imagination of our planners “Lack of Storage: India loses fruits, veggies worth Rs: 2 trillion/year” was a news report in the English print media some weeks ago.

“India incurs, post harvest fruits and vegetables, losses worth over Rs: 2 lakh crores each year largely owing to the absence of food processing units, modern cold storage facilities and a callous attitude towards tackling the grave issue of post-harvest losses” informed a study report of Assocham, an all India trade and industry organisation. While pegging the production of fruits and vegetable all over India at 227 Metric tons, it states only 22% reach the wholesale market. So there is 78% of the production, according to the report, losing the market access, only because, they cannot be stored to market it on a different day and place, thus causing a huge loss to all concerned, including the state. And what is the Sharad Pawar and his thumb sucking babus in the agriculture ministry doing? Storage is an issue both centre and states can tackle, but sadly neither is doing anything about it.  As agriculture minister, he has only protected the interest of his family, friends and cronies. National interest and those of farmers, was never his priority. That is indeed very sad and bad. This is Yeh Mera India.

WORLD: Who ever has said that Indians and Pakistanis are not same, we are birds of the same feather. We have a history of to-getherness of many centuries. We are separated only since last 66 years physically, and mentally may be some years more. Since independence, they became an Islamic republic and we became a secular democracy. But our mentality and even moral values are same. Hence, the news report “ISI officers caught cheating in Pakistan exam” did not come as a surprise to anybody. An Islamabad date lined report informs that at least 500 candidates were caught cheating in an examination held for Pakistan’s National Centre Terrorism Authority (NACTA). Candidates were found liberally using smart phones to download answers from the internet to solve papers.

Ten invigilators for 5000 candidates were also accused of helping some candidates. Don’t we find such scenes in India too? It is very normal anywhere in India. So how are we different from each other? And we have been fighting for all the 66 years of post independence, including wars. It is another matter that, official connected with NACTA has reportedly cancelled the papers of those who were found cheating.

As usual Pakistan is once again in the news for all wrong reasons. The whole month was replete with one or the other news that commanded global attention. Month began with “Taliban strike Nato base near Pak/Afghanistan border” “Lal Masjid murder case filed against Musharraf” was another. “Pak resumes firing along LOC after lull” but “Pak approved amendment to anti terror law” to empower police to deal with terror was a positive news in line with aspiration and interest of the people. Despite India having granted Pakistan MFN status since many years, “there is no immediate consideration to grant India MFN status” Pak Finance Minister Isaq Dar was reported to have stated. And they talk about Confidence Building Measures (CBM)! talking about anti terror steps. But still “Pakistan to release seven Taliban prisoners” & “Hafiz Saeed has a free run at Jamat-ud-Dawa’s Islamabad rally” were the self defeating developments, while releasing a top Taliban leader Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar,  ostensibly to support the peace efforts in Kabul. Same people killed Indian writer Sushmita Bannerji for writing against Taliban. Like they were concerned about the size of ‘Samosas’, it is the “quality of Kebabs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province” got Chief Justice  of Peshawar court go cracking on police and Health Deptt, informed a report. 

A former legislator of MQM was arrested on alleged murder charge and Karachi closes in protest, was a news about the difficulty of police in acting lawfully. Being Indians and Pakis being from the same home and hearth, there was this sad news “Gang rape of 5 year old in public unsettle Pak” “A Kashmiri arrested in Pakistan”. “Armed man in standoff with police in Islamabad” “Saeed dares  India over 26/1” “Blast kills officers in Khybar Pakhtunkwa” “Women grapple with violence in Pak” “Pak recovers body of killer of 26/11 prosecutor” “Church in Peshawar blasted with over 80 killed”. “Protest all over the country”. Earth Quake kills 45 in Baluchistan” “12 killed in Jammu by terrorist from across the border” To cap it all, as Indian PM and Pak PM were meeting in New York “A car bomb killed in the troubled north west Pak” informed a Peshawar datelined news to end the month. So this is Pak for you.

J.SHRIYAN