Opinion
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| HUMAN RIGHTS | | Murder of morality in Kathua | | | | "There are many incidents of brutal attack on the Bakarwal community, since the BJP government has come into power in 2014 with the coalition of PDP in Jammu and Kashmir. One such incident that one recollects is that of a Bakarwal family while migrating from Reasi to Kishetwar in Jammu was allegedly attacked by the so called cow vigilantes while they were ferrying their cows in trucks."
Co-Written by OS Rajaraman & Bonny John
Most of India is still under the delusional impression that it's a democracy. The bureaucrats, police officers and politicians who are part of the nation state wear uniforms/badges of nationalism which sub verses justice in a democracy. Democracy is no longer of equals. It has in fact reduced to become a power equation between the majoritarian demands and the peopl... |  | |
| | | Death to the Rapist..! | | | | Once upon a time in a lawless country, the lawlessness which he had helped create, a king heard a clamour coming from different parts of his kingdom. He looked at his knights bullying and lynching and raping and growled, "What do the people ask this time?"
"They are angry about the rapes!" laughed an oval headed knight who was in charge of law and order in the kingdom.
"How foolish of them!" cried another knight, artful with his tongue but having a problem with his kidneys, as oft the other knights found to their dismay after a day of bullying and raping and lynching.
The king laughed with his knights but grew serious, "This protesting by these citizens is being heard by neighbouring kingdoms and others across the sea."
"So what?" asked Knight Oval Head.
"Don't bother!" smiled ... | | |
| | South Asia | | The appropriation of Pashtun rights movement | | | | "During General Zia's second decade-long martial law from 1977 to 1988, Pakistan's military trained and armed its own worst nemesis, the Afghan and Kashmiri jihadists. And during General Musharraf's third martial law from 1999 to 2008, Pakistan's security establishment made a volte-face under American pressure and declared a war against the Pashtun militants that ignited the fire of insurgency in the tribal areas of Pakistan."
Historically speaking, from the massacres in Bangladesh in 1971 to the training and arming of Afghan jihadists during the Soviet-Afghan war throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and then launching ill-conceived military operations in Pakistan's tribal areas under American pressure, leading to the displacement of millions of Pashtun tribesmen, the single biggest issue in ... | | |
| | | BJP's response to rapes betrays existential crisis | | Hindutva aggression against little Indian girls | | |
The woes are piling up for the BJP. Meenakshi Lekhi, the party's MP, listed them in the right order; although her purpose was to mock the Opposition for raising the issues, rather than to draw the government's attention to them for taking corrective steps.
According to her, the Opposition's cries were, "first, about minority-minority, then Dalit-Dalit and finally, women-women". The BJP ignored the first issue as was evident when Narendra Modi bade a particularly ungracious farewell to Hamid Ansari for having spoken out about the insecurity of the Muslims in his last interview as the vice-president.
He might have been dismissive about Ansari's comments - telling him that he will be more at liberty to air them after relinquishing office - but both the prime minister and his party canno... | | |
| | | We Need Hands That Mend..! | | | | It was an olive branch! One of many that former Indian prime minister Vajpayee extended to Pakistan many years ago. Twice before he had done the same thing and twice the general had shown his true colours but as I'd listened to Vajpayee speaking in Kashmir, I felt proud to be an Indian. Today I'm ashamed, because of the constant stirring up of rife, communal disharmony and insecurity of women.
The tragedy is not that things are
broken,
The tragedy is that they are not mended again.(Alan Paton)
A madman came into a shop carrying a hammer; he swung it at the china and smashed it all to pieces. People stopped, rushed across from all over and gazed in astonishment. Some hours later a little old man came into the same shop with a box under his arm, he took off his coat, put on his glasse... | | |
| | | Politics behind Kathua horror | | | | No chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir so far has ever survived the rage on the streets of Jammu. A hard fact of the region's history is that angry Jammu has not even spared the tallest leader Sheikh Abdullah, who was ousted from power after the Praja Parishad agitation hit the streets in 1953. This was then followed by the dismissal of his son Dr. Farooq Abdullah in 1984 and then Ghulam Nabi Azad in 2008, who got entangled in the Amarnath land row. The anger is so great that there is a perception that Indian public conscience can absorb as many strikes, agitations or violent deaths in the Kashmir Valley, but not in Jammu. Both the regions of the State, divided by mighty Pir Panchal mountains, have remained poles apart, not only in terms of demography but divergent in political aspiration... | | |
| | Patriarchy | | Asifa's just killers! | | | | "Asifa would completely understand why this world will not give her justice. Whatever justice is there in this system - social justice, economic justice, civil justice, human justice and child/juvenile justice - she has been kept away from them all. Which is why it was so easy for her entire being to be thus trampled and crushed. She would understand that this passionate furore over justice for her would soon get cold."
The cry seeking justice for Asifa is becoming stronger and deeper. From Delhi to the United Nations, from social and civil rights organizations to civil society citizens, more and more people are out on the streets shouting slogans and demanding justice for Asifa. The social media is parading her pictures, right from happier times to the horrifying end; protesters unfurl ... | | |
| | | Is this the India we want? | | | | "The involvement of policemen in either committing the crime or shielding the accused in Kathua and Unna points to a crumbling civil and moral order. Moreover, in the age of the Internet, the horrible crime in Kathua has led to world-wide condemnation with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling for the guilty to be brought to justice."
Perhaps for the first time in India, or anywhere else in the world, three legislators of a ruling party have had to pay the price for their dubious role in the most heinous of crimes, the rape of minors.
Two of them, who were ministers in Jammu and Kashmir, have had to resign three months after an eight-year-old girl was raped and murdered in Kathua.
They had been 'misled', according to a BJP spokesperson, into supporting the accused t... | | |
| | | Is it the truth..! | | | | I attended a meeting of the Round Table last night. I was a tabler once and enjoyed every year of my being one, and am not one now because of the age rule of retiring when you are forty. The meeting started with the Aims and Objects of the Round Table being recited by all the members present. This was a new one on me, as in the old days, someone in the group read it out and the others listened.. Obviously the present chairman felt that with everybody saying it, it would have a deeper impact on the members. Kudos to him.
But, does it?
I watched the others as they recited the lines., 'to encourage active and responsible citizenship by cultivating the highest ideals in business, professional and civic traditions.'
Did the members really know what they were saying?
Did they realise that t... | | |
| | | Filthy politics on women's bodies must stop | | | | "Violence against women is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation and it is perhaps the most pervasive. It knows no boundaries of geography, culture or wealth. As long as it continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development and peace."-
—Nelson Mandela
The ghastly rape and murder of an eight-year-old minor in Rassana village of Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir has once again brought the issue of violence against women and minors in limelight.
As one reads the narratives related to the Rassana case in newspapers it is not only horrific and bringing in more discomfort but also deliberates one to ponder what is wrong with the mankind?
The atrocities and brutal gang rape of the women reminds me of the famous philosopher Thomas Hobbes who... | | |
| | | Why JNU would be difficult to save? | | | | "Just like Indian democracy is at crossroad, similarly, JNU too is in a state of despair. In a way, it is futile to blame the current regime responsible for the present crisis of JNU or in country. It is the effect of years of misdeeds and lack of principle politics which is backfiring at the present moment. Indian universities are literally in a state of deep crisis where the basic minimum condition which is required for a university to evolve is not being provided by the Indian state."
Through the title I don't want to shed a sense of pessimism about the future of Jawaharlal Nehru University, instead my attempt is to lay bare the context which is indeed very frustrating and demotivating. Also, being in the campus from the last two year it seemed to me that somewhere down the line a cri... | | |
| | | The budget and fifty-Six inch growth..! | | | | “Whatcha doing?” asked the wife, looking at me standing in front of the TV, “Why are you standing at attention?”
“The budget is being read out!” I whispered, “And don’t shout like that, he might hear you!”
“So what if he hears me?” asked the wife, looking fiercely at the Finance Minister on the TV screen.
“He might introduce a marriage tax!” I said softly, “He’s already brought in a sin tax for my beer and cigars!”
“You don’t smoke!” said the wife sweetly.
“Who would?” I asked, “When every puff goes to the government, and the government lets it go up in smoke!”
“Oh my!” whispered my wife running to her mother and jumping with joy. “Your health insurance deduction has been raised by twenty thousand rupees!”
“Wonderful!” shouted her mother, “Means I can eat more ladoos and jalebhis a... | | |
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