VOX POPULI
by
AAM ADMI
Issue No. : N 011
Issue Date: 19 Dec 2022
Contents:
1. China Starting With Covid All Over Again?
2. Launch 'Surgical Strikes' Against China To Clear Them Off Our Land
3. Of Corruption & Criminality in Politics
4. The State of India's Democracy
China Starting With Covid All Over Again? : 18 Dec 2022
Sometime back there was a forward doing the rounds on WhatsApp that finally Covid has decided to - WFH : Work From Home, referring to the surge in Covid cases in China and to the fact that as commonly believed the virus commenced its journey around the world from that country and it had gone back finally. However, it is surprising that with rigid government control and their 'Zero Covid' policy towards the virus, China who was so successful in controlling the spread of the pandemic in the initial stages and during successive waves should now fail to bring the current surge under control. Newspaper reports and pictures show deserted streets in Beijing which highlights the risk to the world of the pandemic getting ready for yet another circumnavigation of the world from where it all started in the first place. This will be a disaster and it is high time that China got its act together to bring the virus under control.
Launch 'Surgical Strikes' Against China To Clear Them Off Our Land : 16 Dec 2022
In the context of the recent incursion of China’s soldiers in the Tawang sector and their skirmish with Indian troops, now is the time for Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh, to 'walk the talk' and give the enemy eyeing Indian territory and intruding into it - 'a bloody nose'. He has said that he would do this many time while talking about our defence preparedness. So this is the time for him to show that he means what he says and can take action. The last time that China intruded at Galwan we lost some 21 soldiers. Thus with the repeat incursion which is provocation enough, this is the time for Rajnath Singh to retaliate. He has also said that India will not hesitate to launch 'surgical strikes' against the enemy. Let him do that now and clear the entire LAC from Chinese soldiers, encroachments and defensive installations that they have built there. The Chinese strategy has always been to intrude into Indian territory and then declare the area that they have secured control as a DMZ (De Militarised Zone) and say that Indian soldiers cannot patrol these areas and need to stay out of there. By putting this stratagem to work China has now control of hundreds of square Km. of our territory all along the LAC and India is doing nothing about this. It is in fact hiding this fact and claiming that this is is not true to quell the likely uproar within the country. So Rajnath Singh, come out with the truth and take back our lands that have fallen into the hands of China.
Of Corruption & Criminality in Politics : 15 Dec 2022
The candidates standing for elections in India file an Asset Declaration with the Election Commission in which they list their property and other assets that stand in their name. This practice has been in force for quite some years now. in the latest Assembly elections, among the MLA's declared elected, more than 80% crorepatis were found in both the Gujarat & Himachal Pradesh assemblies. At the same time 22% of these MLA's had criminal cases against them in Gujarat while in Himachal Pradesh 41% had criminal cases against them. This is the pattern across India with the figures deteriorating as you go through the Hindi belt of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Now one cannot understand if the candidates regularly file Asset Declarations, then surely these are not for record purposes and some action is expected against them. Why the Election Commission does not refer these for investigation to the Income Tax Department to find out if these assets were acquired through their declared source of income or are disproportionate and have been illegally acquired, is anybody's guess? In the same manner many a time we have been told that candidates with criminal cases should not be allowed in our Legislatures but sadly nothing is being done in this regard. There needs to be legislation brought in disallowing candidates with criminal cases from standing for elections. This will hopefully cleanse our Legislatures from disreputable characters. Unfortunately in the recent elections to the 2 States and the MCD it was found that upcoming parties like AAP had more candidates with criminal cases than other political parties. Thus one would assume that this trend is not on the wane but is here to stay.
The State of India's Democracy: 13 Dec 2022
The state of India's democracy is reflected in the many instances where it is infringed with impunity. Apparently we have all the freedoms as given in the country's Constitution. But in reality everything is conditional. We have the Home Minister of the country say the other day that after 2002 the troublemakers will not 'dare' raise their head in Gujarat again. The Election Commission finds nothing wrong in this since no community was named by Shah and ignores the implied reference to the Gujarat riots. The lesser version or the more grievous version of this, you take your pick, is the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh who presides over Bulldozer Raj meaning the houses of rioters are demolished without any recourse allowed to them on the plea that they are illegal. State terrorism is another word for this where intimidation of citizens is executive policy. Interestingly the majority of those whose houses are demolished are that of Muslims. The bulldozer policy has reached Kashmir where the other day a terrorist's house was razed to the ground. One does not know whether it was illegal or not. One does not know whether his family is having alternate shelter. One does not know whether in the height of winter where temperatures in the Valley have been plummeting below zero degree, it is humane and proper to do this if his family was staying there.
Inspite of the horrendous Nirbhaya rape case in Delhi in 2012 which raised the question of women safety, where a woman could be raped by a group of men in the heart of Delhi, the nation's capital, we have similar cases occurring with clockwork regularity across the northern States of the country. A decade has passed by but women safety remains as much as a concern as it was earlier. Recently Bilkis Bano, the pregnant woman who was raped during the 2002 Gujarat riots, has decided to go to the Supreme Court against the State government's decision to release her rapists from jail on grounds of 'good behaviour'. She fears for her life if the rapists are allowed to roam free in Gujarat. It is not only Bilkis but also a woman in Karnataka who had accused a seer in Chitradurga of raping her 2 minor daughters. The seer is also believed to have sexually assaulted other girls and on these charges has been arrested. But now the woman who had accused the seer of rape is being charged with being involved in a conspiracy to defame the seer. The woman who was without her husband had taken shelter in the seer's ashram when the rape incident of her daughters had occurred, was forced to leave the ashram. Those who tried to provide help to her were threatened to stay away. The police also seem to be involved in supporting the conspiracy charge and have been harassing the woman. Now this woman is a Hindu. Thus women of any religious persuasion are fair game today in 'democratic' India.
Law and order is another area where the situation is becoming progressively alarming. After the ghastly murder of Shradha by her live-in partner Poonawala in Delhi, there have been a spate of 'me-too' kind of murders across northern India including Bengal where close family or with those with relationships have been killed, dismembered and disposed off in suitcases, gunny bags and the like. Safety of people which is one of the cardinal principles of democracy is given the go-by in 'democratic' India today.
Not only that the minorities and lower caste people are being systematically attacked more so those of the Muslim community. Starting from students to journalists Muslims find themselves in jail for the flimsiest of reasons and once there the net of their offences is deliberately widened to ensnare them in the judicial process as long as possible. We even had a student being called 'Kasab' by a professor at the reputed Manipal University in Karnataka since ostensibly he had a name sounding similar to that of the terrorist and when objected to by the student said it was a joke! The head scarf worn by Muslim women, the hijab, was not only in the news in Iran but had hit headlines in India too as also the matter had reached the Supreme Court. The issue here was very simple where the hijab is particularly worn in the Malabar and Dakshina Kannada region for generations and is an external covering and has nothing to do with education which is a matter of the mind. People who are agenda-driven raise these issues and matters come to a head with the hands of the courts being forced like in this matter the Supreme Court finally ruled that the school or college uniforms need be strictly followed. This issue disrupted classes and the lives of some of the protesters who were rusticated from educational institutions and others who were dismissed from jobs. In such matters nothing happens to the instigators who go about their normal lives. It is the simple students and others who suffer.
It is not just the minority community but also the lower castes and tribals are being treated shabbily and shame and insult is being heaped on them if they deviate an inch from the track laid out from them. One feels ashamed that this continues even today in the 75th year or Amrut Mahotsav of India's independence from the British, our principal colonial rulers. We according to Modi speaking to the media before the opening of the winter session of Parliament said that India in its Amrut Kaal will show the way to the world. But one thinks that he has to look back at his own home and country and put it in order before he attempts to give lessons to the world.
The problem with our leaders and our governments is that they remain in denial and refuse to accept even if world leaders and other countries highlight the issues in India that relate to the minority communities and the underprivileged as also women. UN Secretary General Gutteres on his last visit to India had mentioned these issues but was met with a rebuttal from our Foreign Minister that it is all an attempt to show India in a bad light to the world. The USA had also raised the issue of human rights atrocities sometime back on the minority communities and women at the level of the Secretary of State but India responded by saying that the USA need concentrate on its own human rights record relating to the black, Hispanic and the underprivileged which is pretty bad. Similarly the other day when India took over the helming of the UN Security Council for this month - Dec 2022 - and in the media briefing for that the India UN Permanent Representative responding to a question about the state of democracy in India in the context of reported atrocities on the minority community and weaker sections of society, said that India does not need lessons in democracy from anybody since Indian democracy has sustained through the ages and will remain strong and vibrant. These are semantics played around with by diplomats and politicians that is intended to deflect and hide the deeper malaise that is eating away at the roots of Indian democracy and converting it into an autocracy of a small minority of doggedly communal minded people.
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S Kamat
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Email: kamatsrinivas@hotmail.com
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