Tag Archive for: Lalita Nijhawan

Ayodhya: The Last Exile of Lord Ram and His Return to Janmabhoomi

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Sabarimala: Lord Ayyappa’s vows v/s the selected ladies’ woes in “TOI Blog”

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Sabarimala: Lord Ayyappa’s vows v/s the selected ladies’ woes

 

Although known for traditions existing from the most primordial times to relentlessly being carried forward, our country is also one of the unfortunate few that are embroiled in never ending legal battles. The infamous Supreme Court (SC) verdicts have a way to seep into our psyche while they remain in the society for ages, as if an antidote to tradition itself.

 

It was the decade of 1990s that the Sabarimala row became part of the social consciousness. In 1991, the Kerala High Court upheld the ban on entry of women and directed Devasom Board to implement it. Fast forward to 2019, the SC verdict only seems to make the waters murkier. Some news channels play the devotees’ pleas, requesting women to adhere to the age-old traditions, on loop. While many others run debates with the ball being bounced to and fro, and never finding a resting place in either’s court.

 

If one delves deeper into meanings accorded to meticulously followed rituals one would realize that the temple structures across South India follow a certain repertoire based on a set of beliefs. The location of a temple is chosen along the magnetic lines of the earth and it is done so to contain the energy field that the idol emits and further resonates. It goes beyond debate then that the geographical location plays a significant role in the establishment of a temple. The Garba Griha or Sanctum Sanctorum is placed with utmost precaution, keeping in mind intricate details in the course of spirituality. In particular the Sabarimala temple has a long tradition, part of which resembles the aforementioned rituals. Women in the age bracket of 15-50 years are prone to experience energy disruptions should they enter the temple premises during their menstrual period.

 

More importantly, it has come to surface that the Sabarimala temple is built in reverence to Lord Ayyappa who is believed to have taken Naishtika Brahmacharya, which translates to lifelong celibacy. For worshippers and even atheists living in India, it is no rocket science to understand that every god in the Hindu pantheon is worshipped for particular characteristics they come to portray. To call lord Ayyappa prejudiced for avowing to brahmacharya is rather polemic. As if to pacify the female devotees, Lord Ayyappa has a dozen more temples in Kerala itself.

 

The larger question here is whether the vision towards the traditions is narrow or the tradition itself? It is appalling to see women entering the temple on whims and not in adherence to a belief system in whose name they enter. Justice Indu Malhotra’s opinion needs to be specially highlighted here. As a devoted lawyer should do, she upheld the constitutional value that states ‘Secularism’ as the binding fabric of our country. She categorically mentions that if the rule of gender equality is to be applied to a certain temple, then it must have to be extended to all places of worship across every other religion and that amounts to intrusion of State in the matters of religion.

 

Hinduism encapsulates both the sacred and profane elements of religion and it is reflective in the practices that are followed by devotees religiously. It not only reveres menstrual blood which is otherwise considered profane, it also encourages worship of Goddesses such as the Kamakhya Devi temple in Assam. It is needless to argue then that the religion respects women, and menstrual blood is indeed considered sacred. The neo-feminazi debates surrounding empowerment of women are as hollow as a rotten bitter gourd. It seems a new trend has gone viral such that it leaves people bereft of common sense, prodding them to never use their mental faculties. The subtle line between fighting for equal rights and fighting against every tradition in the name of equal rights is what most transgress in ignorance. The latter is an extremist fad which contains within itself the perils of a sad demise. When one collates Sati to Sabarimala what they are essentially collating is a widespread conscience collective to a narrow traditional practice pertaining to an individual temple. While both should be open to scrutiny in an evolving society, the quest to understand the meaning should not be a biased one.

 

Lucius Annaeus Seneca quotes, “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful”. While the debate on common versus wise people is for another day, I believe the political subterfuge is surely relevant in this case. In matters of religion and faith, India has been constitutionally established as a secular country where politics and religion are not to be combined. However truth is stranger than fiction and what happens in India is undecipherable not just for the common populace but the wise as well. The Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s intrusion in the matters of Devasom board and the SC not only look ill placed but raise concerns of political mileage that the rulers earn through religious route in our country.

 

The SC verdict is eagerly awaited and the well educated folks of Kerala know how to voice dissent however it is my earnest plea to women across India to understand the subtleties that revolve our tradition and the path to empowerment. It would be quite a despondent situation if the real battle towards empowerment of women gets entangled in the quagmire of feminist fad that is far from the resemblance of fair war.

“Are we aiming for Shinkasen before we seek our civic sense?” in TOI Blogs

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History repeats itself, once as tragedy then as farce. We have repeatedly witnessed farcical mishaps but are yet to recognise tragedy as an irretrievable loss. It is no surprise that people lose their lives while crossing railway tracks in India, however it is a dismal situation that years after independence we are yet to reach an understanding with the common populace. Last week, 61 people lost their lives in Amritsar on the occasion of Dussehra. A festival symbolic of triumph over evil, will now sadly be recalled as the day innocents lost their lives. It is indeed history repeating itself for Amritsar, where days of festivities are remembered years hence for tragedies. While Jallianwala Bagh incident on Baisakhi will forever be the indelible scar that the external enemy left on India; the 2018 Dussehra incident will be remembered as a scar left by the enemy within.

If we look at the classic immediate response to tragedies in our country, we can trace an impeccable chart of blame routes. It is perhaps this area that we give our best performances at. As soon as the incident caught the eye of media, the fuel to flame was set indiscriminately. From pedestrians to the train driver to parliamentarians, to the police, to the Municipal Corporation, all have faced flak. In passing the blame, no stone was left unturned. Why are we obsessed with pinning a scape-goat rather than taking responsibility? Does it take too much ego, to be apologetic for the loss of innocent lives? Perhaps we have encouraged this blame game, by taking sides as bystanders. Perhaps we have instilled this toxic culture and we abide by it religiously, every time we assign blame.
We need scrutinise this culture more closely, because this is the AmritsarAmritsarbedrock of our management abilities. We need to attend to our culture of responsibility and adaptability, before we welcome modern age developments. Maybe we need to polish our civic sense before we aim for Shinkasen. In the age of burgeoning technological advances, catastrophes of crowd management have sadly become the prime concern. From stampedes at Elphinstone, Satraganchi, crowd management becomes foremost public safety concern.

We need to look at how citizens define civic sense. It does begin and end with keeping our surroundings clean; it is also about how we use communal spaces and for what purposes.  This incident brings to light how railway tracks are used as communal spaces by many people day in and day out. Some gather here for their evening share of shenanigans, some for cutting their route short by a few steps and a couple of minutes and others simply for catching some air. The fact that they find railway tracks to suite their convenience speaks volumes about the lack of space for communal purposes in the cities. While public safety awareness must be prioritised above all, taking cognizance of citizen grievances would be the way to break free from this vicious cycle.

We could imbibe a great deal of societal goals just by looking at revolutions and their immense power to transform. The Cuban literacy campaign was one such massive success. During the year of 1961, ‘literacy brigades’ were sent out and educators were sent to train and teach the illiterate to become self sufficient in reading and writing. Post this endeavour, the national literacy rate reached to 96% almost 36% jump in one year. This tiny step to make the population literate goes a long way beyond just being able to read and write. Education and literacy are not limited to knowledge acquisition and they invariably make a person the best version of himself. We need our workers, our citizens, our parliamentarians to reach this level for the common good of all.

Let us not conspire to place the blame on one authority, one person, and one situation and satiate our need to demonise those involved in this gut wrenching accident. It would be rather more humane to register our fault lines and start working on them without much ado. The parliamentarians need to ensure safer public spaces to accommodate people. The citizens need to ensure their safety and that of others, and they need to take responsibility for their actions and instill a civic sense for their own good. As for the Municipal Corporation, this event is an eye opener, and it should be treated as a reminder for compulsory precautionary measure to avert possible damages in the future. Together we can overcome obstacles, by taking more responsibility and according less blame.

“Off to Mars; yet stuck in drains!” in TOI Blogs

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The grim reality of Manual Scavenging in India

Manual scavenging continues to plague us, decade after decade; death after death. We as a country have constantly challenged ourselves to find solutions to every problem, be it miniscule or scaling the lengths and breadths of mankind. Through our innovative methods and constantly boggling minds, we have dotted ourselves on the ‘World Achievers’ map in diverse fora. However, this basic element of human societies; sanitation, has received dismal attention.

Isn’t it ironical that, from being the world’s most ancient civilisation, the first well-planned drainage system, we have today come to the point of irreversible damage? To blame our ancestor architects would be superfluous, for they led the path even when scientific discovery didn’t favour conditions to explore space. How then did we end being a generation of lackadaisical dullards, when it comes to ground level management of our existence as a society?

Manual Scavenging is perhaps this century’s worst Human Rights breach. Despite concerted efforts of scientifically and environmentally conscious people batting for human rights, change has been reluctant to manifest. Bezwada Wilson, the founder of Safai Karamchari Andolan has been campaigning for an end to Manual Scavenging and his efforts were even recognised at the international dais when he became the recipient of the Ramon Magasasay award in 2016. With this achievement, the issue gained considerable spotlight back home, yet the snail’s pace for change remains.

As recently as last month, three labourers died while manually cleaning a sewage tank in Loni, Ghaziabad due to suffocation induced by poisonous gases. While we are a developing country, struggling with rising petrol prices and obsessing over Dollar exchange rate, we can certainly pay more attention to lives lost to the inefficiency in the sanitation system. Although Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swach Bharat Abhiyan has taken cognizance of this crucial issue, we as citizens, entrepreneurs, and socially responsible people need to think more and do more.

We require capital investment for appropriate gear such as goggles, gumboots, waterproof gloves, and respiratory protection. Along with building toilets in rural and urban areas, we need the Swachta Mission to tackle the issue of faecal sludge management first and foremost. For a rain-fed, water-scarce country like ours, it becomes all the more relevant. However certain daunting questions remain, where do we get funds for the same? What technology is the most appropriate for a country like ours? What are some of the eco-friendly and budget-friendly ways we can adopt? Most importantly how do we reduce the waste generation, how do we become responsible stakeholders in this fight?

The government of India has often outsourced activities that it was unable to reach perfection in. Although met with resistance, cleaning of monuments has been privatised and the step is welcome if the results are in favour. A similar model in sewage treatment could perhaps clear the murk of our sanitation system. Faecal sludge management has been introduced in railways, with a concept of Biodigester toilets, designed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). In these toilets, the anaerobic disintegration of human waste through bacteria releases Methane gas which can be further re-used. This being cost-effective solution is quite appropriate and brings about a transformation in the level playing field.

Apart from the technological innovation in the drainage system and capital investment required for sanitation gear, we also need to scrutinise the aim of reaching ‘Zero Waste’. Every couple of years, Sweden makes it to the headlines for being the most advanced country when it comes to recycling and waste management. It goes extra miles, by importing waste from neighbouring countries to keep its state of art recycling plants functioning. The energy released from burning waste is then utilised in keeping its national heating network running. Such a renewable waste management approach is inspirational!

In European countries, there is a ban on landfills; hence they send the garbage to Sweden instead of paying fines. Though we have an upper limit on landfills, it almost looks like the 4 landfills of Delhi are competing with each other as to who reaches the sky first. Not only has it caused deaths due to collapsing piles of garbage but the toxic waste has been percolating into the groundwater over the years. What could be more disastrous than living in a polluted environment having nothing else to consume, but polluted food and water. The cycle is self-defeating.

Hydraulic engineering needs a revamp for most cities drainage systems, the sooner it’s done the better. Banned in 1993, manual scavenging continues to be practiced in 2018. It is about time, that manual scavenging is taken off our dictionaries, off the face of this planet. Each and every life matters and should be treated with dignity. After all, it couldn’t be more appropriate, to call cleanliness next to godliness, and losing lives in the pursuit is nothing short of a debacle.

“#MeToo: Keeping silent v/s staying woke” in TOI Blogs

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Legend it that the fate of truth and lie was irrevocably met with, on one fine day.

The lie says to the truth, “It’s a marvellous day today!”

Truth looks up to the skies and sighs, for the day was really beautiful.

They spend a lot of time together, ultimately arriving beside a well.

The lie tells the truth: “The water is very nice let’s take a bath together!”

The truth tests the water and discovers that it indeed is very nice.

They undress and start bathing. Suddenly the Lie comes out of the water, puts on the clothes of truth and runs away. The furious truth comes out of the water and runs everywhere to find the lie and get her clothes back.

The world, seeing the truth naked; turns its gaze away, with contempt and rage. The poor truth returns to the well and disappears forever, hiding therein, its shame.

Since then the lie travels the world dressed as truth, satisfying the needs of the society, because the World in any case, harbours no wish at all to meet the naked truth. (excerpt taken from The Speaking Tree)

In the light of the #MeToo movement that has taken the nation by storm, truth and lie have become the two most talked of participants. Anyone who has seen Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon would understand how truth is a VIBGYOR and each colour has a story to tell. The allegations seem to be just about as complex. However, just the fear of false allegations should not hold us back, from instilling the fear of crime abetted. The crime of violating consent, misconduct, gangrapes are the most heinous and deserve to be brought to book at all costs.

Karl Marx and his sympathisers relegated women to the second or the lesser sphere and believed that in the scheme of things, women must become forbearers of this lesser sphere. They were to do their duty diligently and produce a score of children (read men) who would then go on to build an indestructible workforce or at least a Reserve Army. However convenient the explanation seemed for years gone by, women’s role in the society has transcended the sphere of being a child making factory. The new age workforce is a slap on the face of misogynistic societies. A transition is actively shaping up and therefore causing inconvenience to years of imbalanced power rhetoric. Women have come to occupy important roles in a plethora of professional spheres and are comfortably outdoing the age-old stereotypes.

The #MeToo movement is rather revolutionary as it hits the bull’s eye. For the first time in so long, more and more women are using the social media as a platform to unveil years of hidden trauma and hopelessness. We have lived in a society where the rich got away with most of the crimes, that the others had to inevitably bear the consequences of. It is ironical that it isn’t the justice system that is making people come forth and unleash their complaints, but rather social media, that has mostly been an inconvenient mirror to the society. This movement is making the society and its hierarchy of power and gender politics stand on their head.

Some men have apologised, some resigned, some are defiant and in turn have called it a reversed witch-hunt. A lot of men seem to sympathise with the alleged, calling women, sympathy seekers, drama queens and the sorts. Truth be told, these are the kind of reactions which strengthen our resolute in the fight against sexual assaults. Victim shaming has been the most played out card in history; unfortunately, it is no longer going to stub voices. The #MeToo movement has indeed given voice to the voiceless; power to the powerless.

Why is now the right time, you ask.

When an ambulance with an all-powerful siren, streams through the roads unhindered and yet reaches the hospital late, it comes under scanners. Not just the ambulance driver, traffic police, people’s civic sense, road structure, you name it and an avalanche of probabilistic reasons ascend.

Why then do we show apathy to justice delayed and often denied, when it comes to women survivors of rape and misconduct. After all, isn’t the physical, mental, and psychological health of women just as important, if not more?

Instead of questioning why women are opening up now and that too to social media, a gracious society would thank them for coming forth. However, media trials are only a channel for those who had their hands tied. Media trials do not constitute as a legal course of action.

It would be laughable to assume that these women coming out on social media are unaware of the same. It is taught in 8th standard school textbooks, that an FIR must be filed and in case it is not registered by the police, then one can approach the Magistrate. However robust our legal justice system is, as evident, it is inadequate in registering cases thus filed. The culture of inherent male chauvinism, victim shaming, abuse of power has made filing FIRs a lot more cumbersome. A responsible society must come forth to nip the issue in the bud. It begins with accepting that there is a web of entrenched issues to deal with.

The government of India has made it mandatory for every employer to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). Ministry of women and child development dedicated a portal of ‘She-Box’ where women can submit complaints. These proactive measures are certain outlets apart from filing an FIR.

It becomes all the more relevant now, to question whether it is indeed time for gender sensitisation courses to start at school level. For one, it is the role of the stakeholders to look into the crux of the problem. And we are all stakeholders in this society, parents, school teachers, social media influencers, advertisements, movies, government, corporate houses, professional office spaces, are each to follow a role set that makes them responsible citizens of the society.

Let us stop normalising errant behaviour, let us stop casually airing “Men will be Men” across TV and in everyday conversations. It is rightly said, “Spare the rod, and spoil the child” If parents and teachers do not step up and mould children right from their youth, it is likely that they would become deviant from the norms of the society. They often inculcate vices, growing up; transitioning from unchecked youth to belligerent adults.

This is a war against apathy, misogyny, chauvinism; it is not a war between men and women, it is not about Bollywood v/s Hollywood. The sooner we understand this, the sooner we become ‘Woke’. Let us all aim for ‘Justice sans Frontiers’.

“Adultery: Is the sanctity of marriage being sacrificed at the altar of equality?” in TOI Blogs

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The elephant in the room is being tickled. With an influx of coming of the age issues, there is a heap of unwashed cases, piling up helplessly in a corner. The Supreme Court is doing well to chase archaic laws out of the country, but in some cases, the chase seems to be rather hasty. The repeal of Anti Adultery law is one such contention. Section 497 of the IPC is an imported concept and it so words adultery as though speaking of women as material possession and emphasising on the passivity of female sexuality, both as a matter of mere male importance and their agency alone. While the SC moves ahead to scrap the Anti Adultery law, removing it from the lenses of law itself, is a hard stance.

We welcome the nuanced analysis that seeks to undo gender inequality across all laws and especially the Anti-Adultery law. Former Chief Justice of India, Deepak Misra, is in the right to say “Husband is not the master of a woman”. The subordination of a married woman to her husband and of women to men, in general, has outlived its time. The structuring of such archaic laws are no doubt problematic, but that calls for all the more reason to amend them according to the age we live in.

Today’s society is fast progressing towards diverse avenues, hitherto untouched. What we are essentially seeing is a poor concoction of the East with the West. In Indian society since time immemorial, the way of being has been ‘collective’ as opposed to the West where the focus is on ‘individualistic’ societies.  This becomes particularly important to the various institutions that work in tandem with the basic fibre of the society.

Marriages in India are viewed as the sacred union of not just man and wife, but of their respective families. It is a rather collectivist affair and rightly affects the families involved, thereby the society as a whole. Indians are keen on preserving their culture and the unique traditions that make up their identity. Equality and faithfulness are not contradictory; they are rather complimentary in a marriage. Equality and dedication in marriage are the ingredients that give stability to the basic unit of society. The bone of contention arises when we speak of eliminating dedication from this equation. It cannot be sacrificed and shouldn’t be, and that’s why it’s called a ‘Holy Alliance’.

With marriage, present-day advances have introduced us to ‘Dating’, ‘Live-In relationships’, ‘Divorce’, and now repealing the ‘Anti Adultery law’. While most imported concepts tend to get comfortably merged, some may have far-fetched ramifications.

Marital infidelity is a delicate issue and requires much more careful examination on the part of the State. Women have been flogged and beaten to death when found to be adulterous. For men, it has been accepted in certain cases and gone unnoticed in others. These instances reflect the public view on the subject, and it must not be turned a blind eye to. While Justice Chandrachud contends that people must be free to choose their sexual choices even within marriage and that the country must be liberal and accepting of the same, there arises a moral contention herewith. In India, marriages are not viewed as mere civil contracts but rather a sacred union whose sanctity is not to be fiddled with, even in the name of liberalism. The Anti Adultery law touches on the principles of sexual autonomy, practices of the private realm, societal moral fabric and constitutional overreach. For this reason, it is a subtle link between the private and the public; the covert and the overt.

In his work titled ‘Policing families’ Jacques Danzelot makes an interesting observation, he offers an account of how public interference shaped the private realm since the 18th Century. The emphasis is on families and how they are seen as social linkages between the public and the private realm and is applicable to our cause. Head of the family have a discretionary power and act as a fulcrum for its existence, and in turn, they are dialectically responsible for the protection of the members. Therefore the state uses these important dynamics to translate into the private realm, what is essentially public in nature. This is done to ensure public order.

Two solutions emerge from his work, one is how the public and private realm converge without weaving panic across the society and secondly how the private sphere can become an active agent in not only transforming itself but also the society. When we speak of adultery, it is seen as belonging to the private realm, but if it were left to be so, ensuing chaos could spill out to the society. Repealing the law, only makes the act more conspicuous because no avenues are offered where the wrongs can be corrected, for those who so desire.

Indians are not so forgiving when the question of adultery arises, right from Panchayat diktats to the city’s moral impulse, it is considered a crime. If there is no law to condemn the same, mob rulings will become more fervent, as has already been happening in the crevices where the law could scarcely enter. The state must ensure that the sanctity of marriage is maintained with the aid of laws and provide its citizens with an outlet for their anguish. By repealing the anti-adultery law, the SC believes it is moving out of the private sphere and thereby leaving the matters of individual families up to their discretion, but that can lead to a mass hysteria as each set their own moral compass and justify their chosen way of reprimanding. Through its verdict, the SC is further confusing a lot that is getting drained in a quagmire of cultures.

The Indian culture has taken pride in its monogamous marriage setting and has been organic in its acceptance of the option of divorce for cases where fall outs are inevitable. However, let us not forget that society is built on a set of cultural practices that are revered. Stability of marriage is one of the ways in which our society learns to stand on its own feet and keep moving forward, collectively. It is therefore of utmost importance that the nuances surrounding holy matrimony are dealt with, rather than letting them blow to the wind.

Supreme court must have undergone a careful consideration of the ramifications of repealing the Anti Adultery law, for ours is a society that is emotionally charged about the moral bedrock and has taken to mob violence in areas where the law has failed to provide them with a solution.

Urban Naxals: The Enemy within

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Murders
Demolition of school buildings
Tribal women raped
Civilians kidnapped
Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) persons killed
Ransoms demanded
and yet Naxals are called revolutionaries and not terrorists.

The complexity of their existence lies in the dual roles they play, one covert as tribal sympathisers and revolutionaries and another overt as extortionists, terrorists, blood hungry rebels.

Since 1972, Naxalite insurgence has shed all capes it donned for relieving the rural people from the Zamindar’s oppression.
The Zamindars have disappeared from the modern day discourse.
Yet the spite of the tribals has remained the same across decades.

In 1972, following the death of Charu Majumdar, the Naxalite movement emerged in a fresh light; a light that blinds the eyes.
In the years that came, the red corridor had painted the town anything but red.
It gave leeway to new appendages, the ‘intellectual terrorists’

 

Somewhere between 4 G (4thgeneration Spectrum) and 4 GW (4thGeneration warfare) India has moved ahead and paradoxically retrogressed.
Some of the mealy mouthed intellectuals have discretely doubled as ‘Urban naxals’.

Urban naxals are the present day liaisons to the Naxalite movement.
They are the new extortionists, the new oppressors, the new roadblocks to development in whose name they thrive.

They have done a meticulous job in remaining hidden for decades.
A harmful nexus of university professors, media men, intelligentsia, IT professionals and medical practitioners has emerged.
Sitting in their comfortable air conditioned rooms, often living off the government’s subsidies, the tax payer’s money; these naxals have been engaging in causing irreversible harm to our nation.

They target the students, who are as naïve as a goat that is about to be butchered and turned into minced meat, after being well fed and well taken care of.
Universities have become the safe havens of these urban intellectual terrorists who deliver instructions, hiding behind their innocent lecturer costumes.
Just like their compatriots, the Naxals who hide in the thickets and undergrowths of the tribal hinterland.
Look around, maybe you’ll find a terrorist, right next to you.

The venomous speech of the intellectual propaganda cannot be denied, the words ‘bharat tere tukde honge’ will echo from the walls of Jawarharlal Nehru University to the entire country.
Pillars of education where debate and discussion have been taken for granted, are hotbeds of left terrorists, discretely introducing students to sinister propaganda.
It is a slow poison and it acts like Cancer, it spreads before you know you have reached Stage 4 GW.

Where students sat under trees and engaged in revered debates with their professors in gurukuls, today the guru has robbed them of knowledge, of intellectual development; he slow poisons them to believe in anti-establishment, destruction, disintegration.
With youthful entrants such as Kanhaiya Kumar, Swara Bhaskar and Jignesh Mewani, Umar Khalid, the rhetorics of debate, discussion and dissent have changed.
They are now channels of mass propaganda, hate speech, calling upon nothing short of destruction and demolition.

 

In his book titled ‘Urban Naxals’, Vivek Agnihotri exposes the intricate and sublime network of urban naxals, where they indoctrinate youth with extreme left anti-India ideology through a hierarchal structure.
He gives a chilling firsthand account where he faced violence and resistance from students across Universities such as Jadavpur university, JNU, Indian Institute of Technology IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Gandhinagar, National Law School (NLU), National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR)
A network of universities in a posh urban India, where dissent is not worded, it is acted through violence.
Is this what we want our students, our youth, our nation to become?
A harmless filmmaker was at the edge of being lynched for showing a movie that most denied to see.
Macaulay wanted to destruct India’s culture and use it to their advantage by the divide and rule principle.
It appears that the Britishers passed on the beacon of destruction of India to the Congress party. And congress party has made the seat warm for the Naxals.

 

All congress has done in its decade long rule is to masquerade its incapacity by giving out doles to appease what it calls the minority section.
To make sure that they remain a faithful minority vote base, Congress has never truly dug them out of impoverishment.
It continues to play the messiah by tearing apart the binding Hindu fabric.
It continues to pit Hindus against Muslims, Brahmins against Dalits in 2018.
Where the narrative of the common populace is far from such caste division, it uses intellectual terrorism.

Congress has coordinated well with the Naxalite movement, the urban naxals strive to keep the issue of oppression alive.
While the challenges to this country lay in a plethora of issues such as child labour, sex trafficking, terrorism, substance abuse, the focus has been shifted to secularism, intolerance.
Problems are created, issues are staged and the youth brainwashed.

 

They are like the synapse, whose structure is not definitely visible.
Whose existence is inevitable to pass information from one neuron to another.
The Naxals have spread like the neurons and they use these synapses in the urban area as their linkages, their informants, their underground workers.
These transition points must be exposed, dealt with a blow.
The door to intellectual terrorism must be shut, before it makes the system collapse under its own weight.
Look around before it’s too late!

Urban Naxals: The blood thirsty chameleons

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Is Naxalism just an ideology?
Is it followed by the tribals?
Does it have followers in the cities?

The poor have no ideology.
They follow an ideologist, one who paints them a rosier picture.
This ideology was efficiently transcribed by Charu Majumder, who wanted to alleviate poor tribals from the affliction of poverty.
What started in a small town called Naxabari in West Bengal soon spread like wild fire and subsumed the neighbouring states.
It carved a path in the woods, a road not hitherto taken.

While the Zamindari oppression was soon and successfully brought to a excruciating demise. The ideology of the Naxalites didn’t remain incorruptible for long, following the death of Charu Majumdar, the movement lost its purpose and sheen.

The road not taken became the road that should not have been taken.
In order to keep their funds flowing, the Naxals kidnap innocent civilians, through whom they demand a ransom.
They are known to take bribes from trucks that pass through the red corridor.
Reports of looting civilians that pass through the forests are also afloat.

The ideologists turned into mass murderers, they ironically became the enemy they were fighting against.

The spread is out of context if one looks at ‘Zamindari oppression’ as the seat of the movement.
In order to understand how these states came to be roped in, we need to look at the larger ideologues that the Naxals operate on.

The Red corridor developed along Odisha, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh.
However today, in roads are reaching Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala.
The blue print for the future of the red corridor is bereft of buildings, roads, infrastructure, technology and development.
From the undergrowths of the mineral rich states, the chameleons have emerged into the city. The well educated and well aware, entitled, empowered citizens have been roped in their false narratives of growth and development.

The Urban Naxals
Sitting camouflaged behind the bushes and thickets of the jungle, the Naxalites could well orchestrate their guerrilla warfare tactics. However in order to seep into the urban landscape they figured it needed more than physical strength and so began the steady infestation of the mind.
They targeted scapegoats; intellectually pretentious people of the society that occupied the urban hinterlands.

The reach has cast a murky spider web of university lecturers, IT professionals, doctors, engineers, media and the most innocuous of all, students.
Professors have misused their seat of power and tool of empowerment to brainwash the youth of the nation, to drag them into their sorry network of destructive politics.

Universities are making to headlines not for their excellence in education but rather for the political turmoil, the ideological unrest, the intellectual debilitation.

Students are yelling about deconstruction, demolition, unrest. They are being injected the serum of soft terrorism into their brains.
The credit goes to the Maoists who have successfully created the Urban Naxals.

With youthful entrants such as Kanhaiya Kumar, Swara Bhaskar and Jignesh Mewani, Umar Khalid, the rhetorics of debate, discussion and dissent have changed.
They are now channels of mass propaganda, hate speech, calling upon nothing short of destruction and demolition.

In his book titled ‘Urban Naxals’, Vivek Agnihotri exposes the intricate and sublime network of urban naxals, where they indoctrinate youth with extreme left anti-India ideology through a hierarchal structure.
He gives a chilling firsthand account where he faced violence and resistance from students across Universities such as Jadavpur university, JNU, Indian Institute of Technology IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Gandhinagar, National Law School (NLU), National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR)
A network of universities in a posh urban India, where dissent is not worded, it is acted through violence.
Is this what we want our students, our youth and our nation to become?
A harmless filmmaker was at the edge of being lynched for showing a movie that most denied to see

But surely such a destructive ideological movement couldn’t have survived without support.
Over its dynastic decade long rule, Congress has warmed the seat for the Naxals, it has handed support to their existence and spread.
Making all odds meet, the politics of destruction has united.

They have ensured that the vicious cycle of poor getting poorer and rich getting richer would remain a cliché for as long as they exist.
Like the age old adage says, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Congress chose to give fishes and so the mandate remained to give out doles to the poor and continue their cycle of oppression.
This although ensures a faithful vote bank, it never truly gets them out of the quick sand.

It continues to play the messiah by tearing apart the binding Hindu fabric.
It continues to pit Hindus against Muslims, Brahmins against Dalits in 2018.
Where the narrative of the common populace is far from such caste division, it uses intellectual terrorism

Let us not allow these political narratives to shape our minds and encourage us to become appendages of destruction.
Students of India! Behold! You are above this mediocre fight.
You are the new light that the country is aspiring to become, do not let the camouflaged terrorists dictate your path to development.

Sit back, look around, contemplate and introspect.
Watch your words, scrutinise your actions.
You are wiser than falling prey to the Urban Naxalism.
You are the new leaders!

“The Trafficking of persons (Prevention, protection, and rehabilitation) Bill: Transporting stolen lives from a hopeless present to an optimistic future” In TOI Blog

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23-year-old Yazidi, Nadia Murad has been designated as the Ambassador for Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking for the UN’s Drugs and Crime body.  She is also a Nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize this year.

If humans have learned one thing from the past of their mistakes, it is to not blame the victim, but engage themselves in waging wars against the perpetrators of the crime that have subsumed their spirit.

This approach is a penetrating beam of light in a carton of doom that this world is racing to resemble.

So, is the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection, and Rehabilitation) Bill, introduced in Lok Sabha by the Minister of Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi on July 2018.
The bill accords importance to creating a National Anti Trafficking Bureau for reaching even grass-root level investigation in trafficking cases.

To tackle this menace, Anti Trafficking Relief and Rehabilitation Committees (ATC) will be established in national, state and district levels, which are to take care of compensation, repatriation, and reintegration. There would be protection homes and designated courts in addition.

While critics look at it as endless bureaucratisation, let’s face it, the trafficking racket is a spider’s web that sprawls across continents and begins in the most ordinary places.

Human trafficking is an umbrella term which subsumes trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery, drug smuggling, organ smuggling and often for malicious activities such as terrorism, regional violence.

About 8 children go missing every hour, 4 are sexually abused,
2 raped.

In this organised crime, millions are being oppressed at homes, shops, brothels, colluding in an illicit $150 billion trade.
In his novel called ‘A Walk Across the Sun’ Corban Addison gives a chilling account of international trafficking for sexual slavery and drug smuggling in human beings. He explains how the nexus between corrupt police officials, pimps, locals is a net spread wide to reach the international arena. Emerging through the gruesome tale is a revelation and a haunting solution; he says “Trafficking will stop when men stop buying women. Until that happens, the best we can do is win one battle at a time.”

The fight against this evil is not a recent one but the approach is renewed.

Association of Nobel laureates in this war against this crime is a reflection of the urgency, importance of agency and pro-active engagement of civil society.

Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi has been proactively engaged in the struggle against the suppression of children and young people.
In his Nobel peace prize speech, he narrates the woes of a trafficked child labourer.

“Is the world so poor that they cannot give a toy and a book, instead of forcing me to take a gun or a tool?”
Innocence has been cashed on for a donkey’s life of work.
Neither, worth the consequent despair.

However, human trafficking is not limited to kidnapping children and women for labour and sexual exploits as has been largely understood.

One of its myriad forms could be seen in the recent Rohingya refugee contention; here is the other dimension, discussed less often.

An international organisation of Migration has reported that there is evidence of trafficking of Rohingya refugees in India.

Though the media placed the moral compass on the shoulders of the government, it forgot to do its duty and bring to the surface, the fact that these very infiltrators are potential pawns. Speculation is rife that they chose Jammu for the proximity to Pakistan, a politically motivated migration. It points out to a probabilistic angle of terrorism and unnoticed crime. Media reports are unnerving, as they suggest humanitarian aid to migrants and fail to approach it with a circumstantial understanding.

Even religious places are no longer a safe haven.
With Missionaries and orphanages selling children, the age of doom is here.

It is not to malign religious institutions but to chide the clandestine activities that they carry forward under the cloak of benevolence.

Largely, it is the poor, underprivileged, under-informed, naïve who are unfortunate victims of trafficking.

With Government’s policies such as Ujjwala, Swadhar Greh, Juvenile Justice Act 2002, Code of Criminal procedure the issue of rehabilitation is well met.

Another innovation brought in by the government, the Aadhar card could be an effective move, as it keeps records of all the adults and children who are citizens of the country. Although there are hurdles in information storage and execution, these are more like teething problems.

If only people focus on the potential benefits more than minor inconveniences, the issues plaguing humanity can be addressed in a rightful way.

Trafficking is a crime against humanity. The war is to be collectively waged.

With this bill, there is hope that awareness will beget change.
This battle cannot, however, be won by the solitary action of the government.

It requires the sympathy of media, proactive involvement by civil society, and victims must come to the forefront.

Citizens must be welcoming to changes in the legal system.
Someone rightly said, to do nothing would be to die one day at a time.

“Female Genital Mutilation: A millennial crime” in TOI Blog

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It is commonplace knowledge that Islam preaches circumcision, a form of male genital mutilation as a tenet and a sacrament of Islamic practices however little do people know about the equally practiced female genital mutilation.

Under the garb of sacrosanct religious diktats, the Dawoodi Bohra community is obstinate to continue the sublime horror of FGM (Female Genital mutilation) The Bohra high priest vehemently favours this custom, rendering religious justification for its continuation.

While in the West, actresses such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd, Jennifer Lawrence, Uma Thurman have actively engaged in the campaign ‘Me too’ A movement against sexual harassment and assault.

India is rather taking a snail’s pace in the domain. However, Actress Nusrat Bharucha (Pyar ka panchnama actress) who belongs to the Bohra community and whose mother had undergone FGM has filed a petition and speaks vociferously against the custom.

Also known as ‘Haraam ki boti’ in native parlance, it translates to ‘the source of sin’ thereby validating the removal of ‘unwanted skin’.
It is believed that partial or total removal of the external female genitalia will enable individual hygiene, coupled with societal stabilization through controlled female sexual act.

Clitoral mutilation is carried out in these communities, between infancy and adolescence. But the more odious part is that it is carried out by untrained midwives and self-proclaimed experts from amongst the elders in the community.

The usage of instruments such as common knives and blades point out to medical apathy. Looming large over dismal medical procedure is the aftermath of extreme pain, continual bleeding and infections, probable cyst formation, sexual disorders. And it doesn’t stop at that, in severe cases it could lead to childbirth complications, worst comes to worst, even death.

It is presumed to take away excessive libido, prevent unpleasant odor, and ironically reduce urinary infection. However there are no medical records to ascertain this claim, much to the contrary, World Health Organization (WHO) along with United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) issued a joint statement against the FGM in 1997.

In December 2012, United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) came up with a resolution to eliminate FGM from the world. It has designated 6th February as the international day for Zero tolerance for FGM.

The sentiment is echoed by United Nations Convention on the Rights of the child (UNCRC) and the UN universal declaration of human rights, of which India is a signatory.

In the international arena, FGM is practiced in places such as Africa, South America and the Middle East. In the present day it has been banned in as far as 27 African countries, America, England, France and the general fervor seems to grow.

Closer home, a PIL has been filed, intervention applications are sprouting in the Supreme Court.

Justice D.Y. Chandrachud has taken cognizance of the clandestine act and regarded it to be a violation of the bodily integrity of the girl child. It was pointed out, why should anyone have the authority to access a girl’s private part, even if it is in the name of faith.

When the SC ascertained its stand, deeming it unacceptable, Congress politician and lawyer for the Bohra community, Abhishek Manu Singhvi claimed that the practice is a thousand year old custom, adding on he said that since only a small section of the foreskin is removed, women do not face any complications and it is not any different from male circumcision. He backed the argument with the Right to religious freedom under article 25 as a basic fundamental right.

Central government’s attorney general K. K. Venugopal threw light upon the difference in FGM and MGM stating as a matter of fact that while the MGM may have benefits however the FGM must be out and out banned, not only is it futile, in most cases it leads to further irreversible complications.

Early in 2016, about 50 FGM survivors launched a month-long campaign in Mumbai ‘Each one reach one’ where experiences and accounts of unfortunate victims are shared on the online portal by women across the world.

A number of women have come forward to show their displeasure and cry out against the nefarious act.

Since most of the victims are minors due to the age frame within which the act is conducted, it is also a violation of the POCSO act.

Earlier this year in February came out the first qualitative study on FGM titled ‘The clitoralhood – a contested sight’ released by Masooma Ranalvi whose network ‘We Speak Out’ is the largest survivor-led movement to end female circumcision.

Statistics that stand testimony to the abhorrent practice revealed that near about 75% of all daughters of the study sample were subjected to FGM, 97% remembered the pain inflicted on them, 33% categorically pointed out that the painful memory remained with them much after they grew up.

As there are 2 sides to one coin, so there exists a fraction of women in the community The Dawoodi Bohra Women’s association which is crying foul against the elimination of the practice.

It is noteworthy however that some women of the community have joined hands in fighting against Triple Talaq, Nikah halala, Polygamy, FGM. But the apathy of politicization of atrocities is a matter of concern. Orthodox members of the Muslim community have made it their manifesto to keep every wrong act alive. And those vouching for Muslim votes are favoring even these wrongs.

The SC verdict is eagerly awaited; however a greater challenge than the SC verdict is societal acceptance.

In order to see real changes manifest in the society, it is the people’s understanding of human rights, scientific hygiene standards and adjustment of moral compass that need to take the front seat. And bigger than that is the victims’ bravery for they alone have to fight out against the atrocities they are subjected to. They alone need to recognize their rights and fight for them.

“Tuticorin Protests: What would you do?” in TOI Blog

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The hullabaloo in Tuticorin district, Tamil Nadu, concerns the Sterlite Copper Plant. The plan was to expand Sterlite and increase its capacity to produce copper. When locals of Tuticorin came to know about this news they gathered in thousands to protest the expansion. These protestors claimed that the Sterlite Plant was a major pollutant and they feared pollution levels would increase. To make matters worse, these protestors turned into a mob. The outcome of this mob’s erratic behaviour is that Sterlite has been shut down, and law enforcers declared criminals. As always, Modi and his government is blamed by opposition parties. As always, the RSS is pinpointed. As always, the unsuspecting viewer sees a situation go from bad to worse and isn’t able to discern why.

Up till now, Sterlite annually produced 4 Lakh tonnes of copper, after expansion, it would be a whopping 8 Lakh tonnes of copper annually. Most of India’s copper needs would have been fulfilled nationally, and we wouldn’t need to import, perhaps India could even begin exporting copper. This project would have made India self-sustainable and was in line with Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign. Unfortunately, the word ‘development’ in India has been equated to an uncharacteristic behaviour in a selfish person. Development is not selfish if it benefits the country.

To follow ‘Make in India’ is nothing different from the economic plans of China, Israel, North Korea, and the Middle-East. It’s an effort towards self-sufficiency and protecting our economic needs. We are proud of India’s rapidly growing economy and our path to becoming a financially rich country, but countries at the top fear being dethroned. Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign is an effort to ensure that we will not remain a third world country, that we can keep funding our defence institutions so that our nation can prosper safely.

A major point highlighted in the Tuticorin protest was that the police fired shots and some people were killed. That is true, people did die, it should not have happened. But what forced our law defending policemen to pull the trigger?

There were thousands of protestors compared to the couple of hundred police personnel. These protestors turned into a violent mob that abused people and damaged public property. According to hundreds of eye-witnesses, the mob chased policemen while pelting stones and beating them up with lathis. This same mob overturned vehicles and set them ablaze, buildings were put on fire, ambulances that save lives were destroyed. The clothes of female officers and were molested by many men. Tuticorin would have been decimated if the police would not have taken charge.

Tamil Nadu is extremely familiar with creating hiccups in growing projects. The districts of Tirunelveli, Tuticorin and Kanyakumari have faced the greatest opposition to national development plans. Churches have a history of leading protests in these three districts, which unsurprisingly also have the highest number of Christians. Before Tuticorin, India’s largest nuclear plant in India, Kundankulam Nuclear Power Project, saw many uprisings. This was during the Manmohan Singh government, and he publicly blamed US-funded institutions for the protests. Then Union Minister V Narayanasamy alleged that Bishop Yavon Ambrose of Tuticorin received Rs. 54 Crores to fund the protests against Kundankulam. The Home Secretary announced that bank accounts of four NGOs were sealed, as money was transferred from overseas to fund national protests and incite disruption. The Tuticorin protest also has foreign influence. Samarendra Das of ‘Foil Vedanta Group’ flew in from London and secretly met Sterlite protesters, he assured them complete support to continue the protests. After the protests in Tuticorin, the London parliament motioned for Vedanta Group (parent company of Sterlite) to be removed from the London Stock Exchange.

When it comes to the repeatedly raised issue of toxicity and Sterlite being a major pollutant, science should back all claims. The scientists of National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and National Green Tribunal (NGT) had visited Sterlite and certified that emissions were within the prescribed limits. Yet without any scientific backing Brother Mohan C. Lazarus posted a YouTube video claiming Sterlite is a toxic factory. He stated that a protest will be held on March 24, 2018, in Rajaji Park Tuticorin, where all the Catholics, Pentecosts, Church of South India (CSI) will unite to participate against Sterlite. Christians have a rich history of debunking science, the Sterlite protest is just another name on the list.

Despite knowing the source of the protests, opposition parties, especially Congressmen and Communists, blamed the Central Government. These leaders took to social media and declared that Prime Minister Modi is a murderer, which is a shameful strategy to sway future voters. Congress President Rahul Gandhi decided to up his game on the ‘Modi murderer’ tangent and looped in the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) for causing this protest. Rahul Gandhi’s favourite political tactic is to always blame the RSS. He blamed the RSS within half an hour of prominent journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder. Apparently, prominent leaders do not know what proof, evidence and reasonable deduction are. These prominent leaders especially do not understand the putrid nature of furthering political agendas while standing on the graves of the dead. Rahul is adamant about proving that the RSS is a terrorist organization. As a country that is led by the Constitution of India and defined by the term ‘secularism’ the stance held on the RSS is diabolical. Supporting the RSS is termed as ‘communalism’ and supporting Mosques and Churches is labelled ‘secularism’.

“Busting the myth: Women at greater risk of heart attack than men” in TOI Blog

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Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is thought of as a man’s disease, but this isn’t true. In fact it’s the number one leading cause of death in Indian women and the risk is eight times greater than that of breast cancer.

Another misconception is that CVD occurs above the age of 50, nowadays people in their early 30’s and living in the city are extremely susceptible to a sudden onset. Whatever age a woman is at it’s time to begin taking proactive measures for a strong and healthy heart.

Though it is true that women have a lesser risk to CVD it’s only before menopause. The natural production of estrogen in women protects the heart, delaying the risk of having a heart attack by 10 to 15 years later than men.

After menopause the significant drop in estrogen puts women at a much greater risk than men. Women whose menses began before the age of 11, or became menopausal at the age of 47 or below are at greater risk of a heart attack, so are women who have recurrent miscarriages.

About 12% of people that have a heart attack in India are below the age of 40, which is double the number in the West. City life puts people at 3 times the risk due to lack of excursion which results in diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and many other factors which are stronger causes of heart attack in women than in men.

South Asian women are at great risk of cardiovascular disease as they are unlikely to receive timely intervention as compared to men. South-Asian women tend to be lax when it comes to taking care of themselves, as the age old adage of putting the family first and foremost is carried forward through centuries.

Women of our nation have the habit of brushing pain aside, after all the greatest pain felt by a woman is during the birth of a child and comparatively everything else is ‘discomfort’.

The biggest problem is the lack of awareness that heart disease in women doesn’t always manifest itself as it does in men; often times there is no conventional angina pain on the left arm or left chest that occurs. The symptoms of heart disease in women could be pain in the jaw, back pain, or trouble breathing which could be ignored as something trivial; even if she goes to a clinic or hospital there is a chance of it being overlooked by a doctor.

Cardiovascular disease is preventable and corrective measures should be taken immediately. Regular checkups of cholesterol levels, removing all trans-fats, taking alcohol in limited amounts, and exercising regularly for 30 minutes a day can prove to be mighty beneficial.

Focus on diet is the greatest boon, taking a good daily amount of fruits and vegetables, dried nuts, and good cholesterol producing fats can provide multiple benefits. These preventative measures can combat multiple diseases such as the commonly plaguing thyroid, diabetes and high blood pressure. Simple yet life-changing alterations to diet and lifestyle will not rob a child of a mother, and a husband from his beloved wife.

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