Vox Populi Issue 252

                                                                      VOX POPULI                                           
                                                                               by
                                                                         S Kamat
                                                                                as
                                                                         Aam Admi
                                                     Issue: 252                     Date: 08.10.2018    
                                skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com             

Contents:

1. Narendra Modi's Hopes For A Nobel Peace Prize

2. India's #meToo Moment 

3. India In Circa 2018

                                Narendra Modi's Hopes For A Nobel Peace Prize

Our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi seems to be angling for the Nobel Peace Prize, after getting the UN Champions of The Earth award. His plank for aiming at the Peace Prize are the Jan Dhan bank accounts which identifies financial nclusion in the world's largest democracy notwithstanding the fact that  a large number of such accounts are lying inoperative and those that are valid are being massively misused like during the Demonetisation times. Then the Swaccha Bharat Abhiyan along with the newly launched sanitation programs which form the basis for the UN Champions Of The Earth award.  The latest in Modi's armoury along with the earlier two to aim at the Peace Prize is the National Health Plan launched recently which though very ambitious in scope is not supported by adequate budgets and financial resources. The current allocation of funding for the health plan will only give a measly Rs. 20 per capita for the covered population. Talk of a gas-filled balloon this is the biggest. Dramatic in scope and intent but all hot air inside! Aspirations and ambitions are all right but these need be supported by fact and that is where Modi's claim to achievement falls far too short. Modi's thinking must be that if Barrack Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize for doing nothing why should the Nobel Prize Foundation not consider his claim.

But the Nobel Prize management maybe anticipating Modi's nomination or because of its own internal problems is re-thinking whether they should consider altogether dropping  the awarding of Nobel Prizes from 2019 and pass it on to another agency. The reason behind this is the scandal surrounding Jean Claude Arnault who connected through his wife to the Nobel Foundation and has been recently sentenced to 2 years in prison for raping and sexual abuse charges brought against him by some 18 women. He was also the reason why the 2017 Nobel Prize of Literature was not announced and why the 2018 Literature Prize  may not be announced. With this scandal there are many of the nominees on the Nobel Prize board who are generally members for life who have relinquished their positions. This has led to the erosion of the reputation and credibility of the institution which is making the Foundation seriously review its program of announcing the Nobel Prizes.

So much then for Narendra Modi's hopes for a Nobel Peace Prize from the original Foundation! 

                                            India's #meToo Moment

When the world celebrates by giving the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize to 2 crusaders who have been working against sexual violence in war-torn areas, we have privileged women in India raising their voices in a #meToo movement when India's women and female children, minors and infants are fighting against rape in a war zone kind of situation in the country generated by their male counterparts. Those who are talking up until now in India's #meToo movement are women who are comfortably placed economically or at the top of their professions and who are venting their grievances more in a vengeful mode than anything else. It would have been better if these women had raised their grouses at the time when the incidents occurred and sought redress then. If these women had talked about rape in our society considering that some of their voices are heard in the media it would have been a greater service to the country. Postscript: The extent of the problem of rape can be understood from the unrest now prevailing in northern Gujarat where migrant workers and their families are being attacked by locals and they are leaving the State in large numbers after an alleged rape of a 14 month old baby by a migrant worker. Where these women in Bollywood should have protested against the depiction of women in Indian cinema they are airing their personal idiosyncrasies and exposing the psychological faults in their characters. Rape and 'item numbers' are a staple of our cinema which are watched by audiences, the women in silence while the slavering predatory single male comes out of the cinema looking for  targets and he seizes the most vulnerable of the female gender, minors and infants, and satisfies his lust. One is not saying that cinema is not the only reason for the rise in incidence of rape in the country but it is one of the significant  factors why rape happens. These Bollywood actresses who are taking pride in launching a #meToo movement in India should introspect about their actions and see if their voice can be used to improve and make safer the lot of their kind rather than drive their own personal and selfish agendas. 

                                                    India in Circa 2018

The Sunday morning headlines on 30th Sept 2018 made one want to shake one's head and confirm that we were fully awake and that all this was happening in our country, India. In Goa the papers headlines screamed that a Christian man's body kept in the mortuary of the Govt Medical College had been inadvertantly cremated as an unclaimed body with other such bodies and the body of a Hindu was found in the particular mortuary slot. Simple logic would say that a Christian was cremated and a Hindu was offered for burial.

Then national headlines, blared out that an American style cop killing had taken place late in the night in Lucknow's Gomti Nagar when an Apple executive accompanied by his lady colleague whom he was proceeding to drop in his car was gunned down by the police as he had refused to stop the car when the 2 policemen had asked him to stop.

This is India, my friend, in Circa 2018, where common people cannot go about their lives without undue interference from the police and even in death they are not respected for the faith that they profess.

                                                   ***********************

Vox Populi Issue 251

                                                            VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 251                        Date: 01.10.2018

                    Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

 

Contents:         

1. Supreme Court Sabarimalai Temple Judgment Is Patently Wrong and 

    Erroneous

2. Tanushree Dutta's Allegations & The #meToo Movement

3. The Rupee Yo-Yo-ing On A Devaluation Roller Coaster

 Supreme Court Sabarimalai Temple Judgment Is Patently Wrong and Erroneous

The Supreme Court judgment in the Sabarimalai Temple case allowing the entry of women of all ages is patently wrong and erroneous. The woman Judge Indu Malhotra in her dissenting judgment in the case has succinctly said that in matters of religion and faith the courts have no right to interfere and should leave the matters to the religious leaders and elders in society. This coming from a woman in a case affecting women and which is likely to have ramifications across India in other temples is eminent wisdom. The aspect that even before the Constitution was framed these practices were in force establishes a precedent of sorts that the courts should not interfere in such matters. Looking at the matter just as ensuringz a right of access for women is very superficial and limited since these practices enjoin a tradition that has been going on through the ages. It is understood that there are moves by the Travancore Devaswom Board, the temple authorities and others who are not comfortable with the judgment to file a review petition in the Supreme Court which needs to be supported so that court interference in matters of religion is not accepted. 

                Tanushree Dutta's Allegations & The #meToo Movement

Tanushree Dutta allegations on the sexual harassment charge against Nana Patekar is in bad taste and also out of place. Sitting in the US and seeing the support for the #meToo movement, Tanushree Dutta seems to have had ideas to resurrect it in India. So a homecoming with a #meToo Bollywood version seemed a good idea and she launched into it without mulling on the implications. Again for a balanced person any incident more than a decade old is water that has flowed under the bridge and long gone. It is over. People have moved on. There is no point digging out old hurts because the person whom you will hurt the most is yourself. Another aspect of the #meToo movement even in the US is that people are getting tired of it but for the Weinstein saga. You did something either on the spur of the moment or for your career  or for love knowing full well the implications and then one fine day you wake up and start playing the victim. This is not acceptable behaviour among rational and sensible adults. The people on whom you cast aspersions are shocked and have to dig deeper into old wounds, maybe long forgotten. There is a broader sociological aspect about the #meToo movement and that is what women think about themselves and their position in society today. Until the 1960's and thereafter in the days of Women's Lib of Gloria Steinem and others, with women burning bras in public, it was thought that the woman is now liberated from the masculine shackles in which they were supposedly chained till then. The liberated independent woman with a mind of her own was welcomed mostly in western societies and other parts of the world to the extent that their societies would allow it. But one thinks that the #meToo movement is setting back the clock to the pre-Women's Lib days and wanting to portray the woman as a prey, vulnerable and in need of protection both physical as well as institutional like through the judiciary or whatever. Is this not retrograde thinking for the women, propagated by the women themselves?

                   The Rupee Yo-Yo-ing On A Devaluation Roller Coaster

There have been 3 unusual cycles of changes that we have been seeing lately when it comes to the Indian economy. Not in any particular order these are the value of the Rupee, the stock markets and fuel prices. While the Rupee has been yo-yoing about with the trend lines upwards in the last few weeks, the Sensex has been giving stock market investors a roller coaster of a ride in the last couple of months while fuel prices are on a unidirectional binge - higher, higher and still higher, again in the last few weeks. Such changes as we have been seeing recently in these three items are dramatic and have many ramifications on the lives of common people of this country.

The Rupee on a downward spiral against the US Dollar should have been contained by more energetic intervention by RBI. With the Rupee losing value leads to the rise in prices of almost every single item that is in the basket of daily necessities of the common man. The reason for this is not hard to find since we are dependent on imported oil and with landed prices of oil going up everything becomes costly because cost of transportation goes up. We have seen the Rupee depreciating in the past but it always had been effectively contained by RBI's intervention. This was at a time when our foreign exchange reserves were much lower than now where we are holding reserves in excess of US$ 300 Billion. With such reserves there should have been more comfort to try and hold the Rupee to reasonable levels. To explain the inaction we are being given many reasons like - Let the Rupee find its own level. It is also being said that any strong intervention will lead to sending wrong messages to the international community about India's sustained effort to pursue economic reforms. These arguments do not factor in the impact of the sliding Rupee on the common man's budget. And mind you this is happening when the Rupee is not fully convertible. You can therefore imagine what will happen when the Rupee becomes fully convertible which has to happen sooner or later if we are to join the comity of nations as a full-fledged economic player both in trade and services. India cannot participate on the world financial scene as a reluctant or unwilling donkey being pulled along by the dhobi or laundryman but become a pro-active and energetic player and show its competence in handling financial matters effectively and efficiently. Time for our present government to wake up and bite the bullet. 

                                                  ***********************

Vox Populi Issue 250

VOX POPULI                                                                         by                                                                   S Kamat                                                                          as                                                                 Aam Admi                                            Issue: 250                        Date: 24.09.2018                     Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com Contents:          1. BJP's Many Psychoses Will Cost Them Heavily In The Upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2. Modi's Corruption Robes Are Dappled In Black Akin A Dalmatian  3. Gen. Rawat Should Act More, Talk Less

           BJP's Many Psychoses Will Cost Them Heavily In The Upcoming 

                                               Lok Sabha Elections

         

The BJP is suffering from many psychoses. This includes the 'motor mouth' syndrome which we saw at its peak in the first half of this Modi government incumbency and which continues even now with random outbursts. The more recent is the 'spoilt brat syndrome'. In this as we have seen, the BJP leaders are free to call other people on the political scene all kinds of names and make all sorts of comments about them which in civilised society will not be considered acceptable behaviour. This includes Narendra Modi who descends to the depths of intemperance when it comes to a known Opposition party. But when it comes to taking back what they are dishing out to others the BJP leaders will yell foul and claim that the comments have crossed the borders of decorum. This particular comment is being made in the context of Nirmala Sitharaman saying that even when the Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is sick the Congress party is trying to de-stabilise the State government without any compunctions of sympathy. Being a relatively new politician she probably does not know that alls fair in love, war and also politics. This is precisely the  'spoilt brat syndrome' which is when you create nuisance for others you convince yourself and others that you are in the right but the moment the opponents respond in kind, you are not able to take it and cry out in protest. The BJP leaders need to grow up and show more maturity by being able to take as much as they can give. The other thing is, like we have seen the BJP leaders have ever since the win in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 come across as too full of their own importance. In this ego trip we have seen them say outrageous things and act with ridiculous abandon. The latest being just last week in 2 incidents. The first when a Jharkhand BJP MP's feet were washed and the water was drunk by a party worker and the second when a MLA in U.P.  forcing the railway attendant to open a level crossing and then parking his car across the tracks thus blocking train services for a few hours. Most of the BJP leaders including ministers in the Central government are incompetent or have reached their level of incompetence. All these tendencies arise out of the BJP being new to government. Thus they either have this habit of lecturing the nation believing that all people are the kind who will swallow all that they say or throw their weight around aggressively in trying to suppress contra-opinions. In other context where the BJP have in the past been accusing previous governments of paralysis in governance and decision making, we have them doing the same thing in Goa where with Manohar Parrikar, the Chief Minister being in and out of hospitals since February 2018 with a serious ailment along with at least 3 ministers of his Cabinet being similarly incapacitated, the Goa government is in a 'coma' or suspended animation with nothing moving. The fact of trying to cling to power without delivering in governance and being irresponsive to common man needs is going to cost the BJP heavily in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections scheduled in 2019. 

             Modi's Corruption Robes Are Dappled In Black Akin A Dalmatian 

Just like a skein of wool the Rafale deal is coming unravelled, one thread at a time. The latest is the French ex- President, Hollande's statement that the name of the Anil Ambani led Reliance Aerospace as offset partner for the deal came from India. Diplomatic nicety stops him from disclosing the name of the person from the Indian side who suggested the name of Reliance. With this the scams in this Modi government are bigger than in the UPA I & II. In the Rafale deal the pay-off is almost 10 times that of Bofors as far as scams in defence purchases are concerned. The Defence Minister wanting to collect brownie points had recently made a comment that the Modi government had eliminated agents from defence purchases but she did not say that the conduit is now through crony capitalists as the Rafale deal is showing up. Similarly the Nirav Modi/Choksi fraud is almost double that of the Mallya scam at Rs. 16,000 crore. Where the Modi government wanted to cloak itself in white robes of purity as far as corruption is concerned, it is now being seen that this position is coming unstuck and the pristine white is being dappled with black spots akin to a Dalmatian. The analogy is being used to suit Modi's sartorial style since even clothed in corruption, one is sure that he would like to see himself look good.

                                 Gen. Rawat Should Act More, Talk Less

For a professional soldier Gen. Rawat, our Chief Of Army Staff tends to align himself  and play to the political overtones of military action. Like recently after the mutilation of the Indian jawan at the hands of the Pakistani state and non-state actors, he is getting into the act by saying that we should retaliate and give the Pakistanis a bloody nose, not in as many words though. He should have done what he proposed and then came and told us the results of his action. One would expect thus that he should go about his job of defending our borders quietly and looking after his soldiers with dedication, he more often than not shoots off his mouth. Even during the episode of the surgical strike he had the tendency to wade into the details of it, feeding fire to the subsequent controversy while a professional soldier would have stood quietly on the sidelines and watched the fun and games that his political masters play. In fact when Prakash Javdekar, our Human Resources Minister asked the UGC to send out an instruction to educational institutions around the country to celebrate Surgical Strike Day, Gen. Rawat should have told him that undercover operations be best kept under wraps. That is the way you ensure that they remain effective. When our political leaders are blasé about certain matters it is the duty of the professionals, in this case Gen. Rawat to correct them. That is what we would expect from the boss of the Indian Army. 

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Vox Populi Issue 249

                                                              VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 249                        Date: 17.09.2018

                    Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

 

Contents:         

1. Tall Claims & A 56" Chest

2. Common Logic About The Economy Turned On Its Head

3. Nirmala Sitharaman Needs To Tone Up On The Rafale Deal & Pursue Democratic   

     Principles

4. Modi's Gujarat Model At Work

                                           Tall Claims & A 56" Chest

Narendra Modi and his government has been consistently losing credibility from the time they took office in 2014. Maybe that is the reason for some of his bombastic statements that are being made from time to time and which are increasing on the magnitude of the claim from one to the other. Like the latest one that India has become cleaner in the last 4 years than in the previous 65 years. If you look around you, you know that this is not true since you still find garbage strewn on the roads, animal poop dot our roads and open spaces, there is litter all around along with construction material. People still go out with their lotas or in the new avatar, plastic bottles in the morning to do their ablutions though it is claimed that the country is moving towards OD - Outdoor Defecation free status. These claims are in the nature of good sloganeering but bad in fact. 

Similarly some time back it was claimed that all villages in India or some 90% of them have been provided with electricity. Very soon after that newspapers carried news of large swathes of the country mostly in the rural areas not having  been provided connections for electricity. 

The major credibility issue of Modi and his government is about economic indices and to show among them in an almost obsessive way that the GDP growth is close to 8%. For this since 2014 this BJP government changed the base years so that the GDP figures are given a more rosy hue. But unfortunately in the manner of a stalled engine for no apparent reason the GDP recently has not been able to go just a tad beyond 7%. It has also been lately put out in the public domain that the growth in both UPA 1 & 2 had been better than that of the BJP since 2014. This has brought about the need to be more raucous about any GDP growth that just crossed 7% like in the April-June 2018 quarter. This   celebration was somewhat neutralised by proving that the previous year same quarter the figures were not so good for comparison and hence the present year's quarter tipping the 7% mark. It is not just the GDP figures but also the CPI, WPI, the IIP and every conceivable economic indice this government has fiddled with. The resultant effect is that no one believes the figures on the India economy that the government puts out. This has made any growth suspect like the IIP indicated a spurt in industrial production from a consistent straight fall in the last 5 quarters but it took a while for the country to digest it. The reaction was to wait and see another month to confirm the reality of this growth. 

Even on jobs data, it is the same situation where 1 crore jobs were promised but lately when the issue came up that though this government has been talking about growth and even if it has been there it has not resulted in increase in jobs. The charge has been that it is jobless growth. To counter this charge the government came up with figures saying it has created lakhs of jobs mainly in government. While this data is again doubtful the government in its anxiety to prove its point has failed to realise that between a lakh and a crore there is a factor of 100. In fact that reflects the margin of claims versus achievement of this Modi government. Talk big, talk tall but comparable factual performance is minuscule and sometimes you need a magnifying glass to verify the  government's claims.

There was also talk of a 56" chest a couple of years back, oft repeated since then, which also needs to be verified. It may not be true since rarely does rhyming reflect the fact of actual physical attributes. There has been also some time that has passed since the first claim which may have changed the 56" for better or for worse. Give or take a few inches. That's life, Mr Modi!

                         Common Logic About The Economy Turned On Its Head

Price indices for the common man used to be the market price of onions, potatoes and petrol/diesel. For the little educated, a booming stock market  and a relatively strong Rupee meant 'all is well' with the economy. Now all this common wisdom has been turned on its head by the present BJP government. Prices for petrol/diesel are running amok. Not even when a few ears ago international prices of oil were US$ 100 a barrel, did the domestic prices of petrol touch Rs. 90 per litre as they are doing now in Mumbai, when International prices of oil are hovering between US$ 70-75 a barrel. The government is doing nothing about it but asking us to hold our breath and wait for the prices to fall. The same with the Rupee where we are told that the 'Rupee must find its true level'. In the meanwhile imports are becoming costlier creating an inflationary situation in the economy. This trend is being compounded with the rising fuel prices leading to a cost push for transportation which is already seeing a rise in prices of vegetables and other essential commodities. While all this is happening, as said earlier, the government is doing nothing but watching the fun as it were from the sidelines. In both cases that of fuel prices and the Rupee rate there was a need for intervention by using our reserves of foreign exchange which this government has refused to do or has not fathomed the need to do because of being inept or because of the Finance Minister being away or to put it simply - sheer cussedness. Prices a short while ago for oil were hovering at US$ 50 a barrel at which time we could have built a buffer stock with the foreign exchange reserves that we had. This would have held us in good stead at this time with the government at least able to think on the option at an attempt to control fuel prices. Without that the common man is being exposed to the double whammy of rising fuel prices and a weakening Rupee. And a minister in the Rajasthan cabinet tells # that we need to curb expenses so that we can pay for the rising fuel prices. The same thing with the Rupee where the RBI should have intervened effectively to hold the value and has been done in the past. It’s nothing new for the RBI but it looks like a game of attrition is being played out as to who would blink first between them and the government. These are the mind games being played between institutions like the RBI and the government and the economy is being allowed to drift aimlessly. It s time that Modi and his team screw their heads properly on their necks and looked at the betterment of the common man and the economy. 

                       Nirmala Sitharaman Needs To Tone Up On The Rafale Deal 

                                              & Pursue Democratic Principles

Nirmala Sitharaman, Defence Minister is acting with rank stupidity in trying to defend the procurement of the Rafale fighters from France. In her various statements lately she is tying herself in knots trying to defend the indefensible. She is probably out of her depth when she says that in the deal negotiated by the previous UPA government, the whole thing fell through since HAL refused to guarantee the aircraft that they were supposed to produce under a joint program with Dassault Aviation. Firstly, we need to recognise that this is not the first time that HAL are going into a joint program for manufacture of aircraft with a foreign Co. All the aircraft that the IAF uses have been produced by HAL. So one would have to believe that HAL knows what they are talking about when it comes to the guarantee. This BJP government seems to think that on any matter because it is new to them, it is also new to the country. That is not the fact. In contrast the Defence Minister is for the first time into her job and she has to learn a lot still. As for the guarantee in a joint program of manufacture involving localisation of high technology products like aircraft, it is normally a joint guarantee given by the local manufacturer and the foreign collaborator. Only when full localisation is achieved then only can a Co. like HAL give a guarantee for the aircraft that too with a back-to-back guarantee on the sub-systems that they will get from the foreign Co.

In another statement, Nirmala Sitharaman has said that she finds it not necessary to engage with the Opposition on the Rafale deal since they only tend to misconstrue the issue. This is highly irresponsible to first make a mess of a 'done' deal then when the Opposition raises issues to call them trouble-makers. The simple thing is that if there is nothing wrong with the deal then put out a White Paper on it. That will close the matter. In a democracy if you refuse to engage with stakeholders and clarify a matter that has come into the public domain, then it smacks of unilateralism. To also say that the people of India have no issue on the matter is trying to steamroll public opinion. You do not tell the people the prices at which the Rafale fighters are being bought and other details about the contract but claim that it is acceptable to them!

The Reliance deal for local offsets that can run up to 30% of the contract value, is being claimed by the Defence Minister that technically she is not aware of. According to her the foreign Co. is not contractually bound to tell the government with whom they will implement the offset arrangement. This is again something that just does not sound right. The government needs to know the credentials of the offset manufacturer since then they are reassured that the contract will be performed satisfactorily. Otherwise we will have what has happened now where the Anil Ambani Co. with no background and experience in aerospace gets the offset contract for the Rafale deal. As far as Nirmala Sitharaman's comment about ignorance of the offset manufacturer, all she had to do was pick up the phone and talk to Narendra Modi who surely knew all along about the identity of the offset manufacturer.    

                                         Modi's Gujarat Model At Work

We are seeing yet again the Gujarat model at work being put through by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the context of rising fuel prices. Just like in the 2002 Gujarat communal riots Modi did nothing in the first couple of days allowing the rioters to literally run riot across Gujarat, so also now fuel prices are being allowed to spiral beyond control with Modi not even lifting his little finger to allow some relief to the common man. We have seen this prevarication and indecision till almost the point of no return since 2014 many times starting with the intolerance Issue, then it was the polarisation of university students at JNU and Osmania University with the dubious intent of controlling the student's unions and thus the student voice, then it was the lynching of mostly Muslims & Dalits on various cow charges, then on the rape of the girl child and women across the country which in brutality in some cases was in excess of the Nirbhaya incident in 2012 at Delhi. On crimes against women the nation wondered that Modi who has at most times a voice preferred to remain mute except to make a lame statement late in the day that we need to respect women in our society though one must grant his government for having passed a stringent law against rapists that goes up to capital punishment for raping minors. Where in matters related to the common man and relief and sympathy to him Modi and his government have been remiss, they have with great alacrity and a sense of purpose put through measures like Demonetisation and GST which have loaded misery on the common man for no great economic gains or for showing this government's administrative ability to put through major reforms. In most matters related to the nation there is a tendency to blame the previous UPA regimes or the Congress party to a point where one needs to ask that after being almost 5 years in power what has the Modi government done? Have they achieved anything? Nothing tangible has been achieved except for shows of bluff and bluster.  

                                            **********************************

Vox Populi Issue 248

                                                        VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 248                        Date: 10.09.2018

                    Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

 

Contents:                

1. BJP Leaders Should Show More Maturity

2. No Action To Control Domestic Fuel Prices

3. Rape Is A Disease In Our Society And A Cure Is Required On A War Footing

WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY GANESH CHATURTHI. MAY LORD GANESHA FILL YOUR LIFE WITH HIS BOUNTIFUL BLESSINGS.

                                       BJP Leaders Should Show More Maturity

BJP leaders are filled up with their own importance and care little about the people. An  incident in the last week in Tamil Nadu highlight these tendencies. A young girl student raised slogans about the BJP being a 'fascist regime' and denigrating it on board a flight from Chennai to Tuticorin and also upon landing at Tuticorin airport with the trigger being possibly that the student had spotted the BJP-in-charge lady for Tamil Nadu on the flight. The BJP leader as understood by the reports in the media went hammer and tongs at the young student to the extent of getting her arrested on the charge for inciting public unrest. This while the police, airport authorities and even bystanders requesting the BJP leader to let the matter pass since the student may not even know what she is saying. But the lady politician did not relent leaving the police no option but to arrest the student. This satisfied the ego of the BJP leader who if she had good humouredly gone and asked the student the meaning of fascism and why she was behaving in this manner could possibly have defused the situation. Like they say when there is an age difference between the interactors in any situation, a little humour can go a long way. But then among the ranks of the BJP in Tamil Nadu humour may be in short supply. Not only that for this lady it was a question of losing face since she would have attracted derision for not putting down dissent and acting with authority in the matter. In this issue, there is the amusing sideline as to why the BJP leader was not arrested by the TN police for causing public unrest because she was making much more noise than the student? Maybe the TN police may like to explain. 

Continuing on the theme that BJP leaders should show more maturity. At a 'dahi handi' event in his constituency in Ghatkopar West last week the BJP MLA Kadam announced in public that the boys can point out any girl that they have a fancy for and he would have the girl kidnapped provided the boy agrees that he would marry the girl. In this we are back into the caveman age where you could carry away any woman to your liking and have the leader legitimise the abduction upon a show of strength with any other contender for the woman's hand. 

                             No Action To Control Domestic Fuel Prices

This BJP government is utterly insensitive to citizen's problems, their interest and well-being. This is being said in the context of the comments made recently by the BJP spokesperson, Nalin Kohli on the spiralling rise in prices of petrol and diesel that we have been seeing the last few days. The hike could be because of international oil prices and the deprecating Rupee, but to say that the hikes are in the interest of the economy and is beneficial to the Centre and the States since their revenues increase it is forgotten that oil is a commodity of daily necessity for the common man and it is his purchase that gets the government its revenue. With rising prices all around him starting with food, basic necessities in which petrol figures, his back is getting broken time and again with almost the daily increases of fuel prices. Where the government should have been sensitive to the plight of the common man and looked at methods of reducing his burden, there seems to be a certain amount of glee in claiming that the government stands to gain from the rising prices. Sometime back there was talk that the Centre would reduce the Excise Duty on petroleum products and maybe even Customs duty and in turn persuade the States to reduce their Sales Tax, since petrol and diesel happen to be the highest taxed items. This would have reduced the price then by about Rs. 5 per litre which today maybe would be Rs. 7. However from Nalin Kohli's statement one would believe that forget any reduction in taxes and duties, this government seems to be cheering the increase in fuel prices and waving it along higher and higher. The problem is that BJP functionaries and spokespersons rarely apply their mind in any great detail to any issue. Their tendency is to look for the sound byte and come up with off-the-cuff responses which takes the easiest position to justify the event or action on hand. This is surely irresponsible and callous on the part of this government which has forgotten or plainly put does not see the point that governments need also to be benevolent. 

      Rape Is A Disease In Our Society And A Cure Is Required On A War Footing

The issue of rape of women in our society is not being tackled properly. The problem is deep rooted in the psyches of our men and needs to be taken more seriously than what is being done today where it is equated to a crime like petty theft or burglary believing that making a law will deter those that commit rape. Even the PM the other day made a statement that rapes will not be tolerated and that his government has made a more stringent law to deal with rapes of particularly minors which involves among other stringent punishments for rapists, the death sentence to those who rape minor girls below 12 years. This was very much required. We need to fast track all rape cases and if within a span of 3 months from the occurrence of the rape the attacker is hanged, it will send a message out to likely rapists that the government means business and they better be wary and desist from their heinous plans. However, this law will serve in a limited way since the offenders are rarely thinking of the consequence of their actions while performing the offence and even beyond that as we all know our justice system is slow to act and our police who are expected to investigate and bring the cases to court are easily influenced if not purchasable. 

Rape in Indian society has been a continuing phenomenon but it raised national remorse after the Nirbhaya case in 2012 where the sheer bestiality of the incident left the nation horrified. But nothing happened after that to limit the rape incidents with cases dotting across the length and breadth of the nation to this day. The Unnao, Kathua and Surat rape cases with their callousness and brutality show that after the Nirbhaya incident nothing really has changed in the way that women particularly children and even infants are seen by men not as human beings but as objects to satisfy their lust and sexual aberrations. Neither was justice delivered to rapists quickly since then, with even the culprits of the Nirbhaya case only now after close to 6 years finally being sent to the gallows. The main instigator of the Nirbhaya incident on the basis of being a minor was let off by the juvenile court with a limited sentence in a remand home. Not only that case but for the numerous incidents of rape since then, our police and justice system lumber on to serve punishment to the rapists. Attached is a listing of attack and rape cases on women since 29th June 2018 which do not include crimes of passion and/or romance or those where a certain amount of prior knowledge between the rapist and the victim is indicated or related to assumed connivance by the victim. This information is culled from 8 mainline national newspapers and highlights the lack of safety of women in India as women and girl children go about their normal daily lives. The sheer randomness indicated by these 64 cases over 73 days, making it in an average of almost one incident per day, preclude women from anticipating such attacks and seeking protection and highlight the predatory approach of the men involved. The actual number of incidents could be higher since many cases go unreported due to either the police unwillingness to register a case or perceived social stigma from the victim or her family. If one scans these 64 cases you will find that the problem of rape is deep rooted in the minds of the Indian male. There is a need of a detailed study done on this by a panel of psychiatrists who need to come out quickly with a set of concrete measures to change this mind-set. In addition a sustained multimedia advertising campaign needs to be launched on the need to respect the female sex of all ages and not necessarily from the immediate family but women and girl  children at large. The intensity of the campaign should be equivalent to the earlier ones that we had som3 years ago to limit the size of the family - Ek Ya Do Bas. Chota Parivar Sukhi Parivar. Or the birth control campaign featuring the use of Nirodh. The present campaign on the girl child - Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao - needs to be expanded to cover all women as well as to bring in the aspect of rape. Otherwise what is happening now is that  - Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Aur Uske Baad Rape Karo. A disconcerting thing about this matter is that the focus of our government is somewhat cursory and lopsided. We have a woman Maneka Gandhi as Woman & Child Welfare Minister who has not raised her voice on rape except in the last few days when rapes were found to be happening in shelter homes. However she writes on Animal Welfare almost every weekend in major newspapers of the country and is known to be an animal lover. This shows how much she is doing in her ministry and for the female sex. 

Rape is being treated as an event and instead of prevention the government is concentrating on the rehabilitation of the victims. Though this is important the emphasis should have been on stopping rape cases that happen publicly. We need to understand that if we reduce the incidence of rape then we save the victim from the pain, suffering and trauma and less will be the need for rehabilitation funds. Lately in France the lady Minister in charge of women affairs has launched a program by which men who are involved in eve teasing on the streets are intercepted within minutes by the police who are entrusted with this ask and enjoined to take crimes against women on priority. Though granted we have more people on our streets which may make it difficult to intercept miscreants but the issue is the police attitude we have here which does not even register rape cases and sometimes discourages rape complaints. And also we have a woman Minister for women and child affairs who is least bothered about rape. Coming back to the rehabilitation issue after the Nirbhaya case a Rs. 1 crore fund was set up in 2013. Even after 2 years in 2015 it was found that hardly a couple of Lakhs was disbursed from the fund though rapes continued unabated which means our bureaucracy continues in its stodgy insistence on government procedures. Rape is a disease in our society and therefore we need to tackle it on a war footing. 

Crimes Against Women Mostly Rapes Since 29.6.2018:
__________________________________________________________

67. A 28 year old woman, an anganwadi worker, while returning home with her brother on a bike were intercepted by 3 men and after assaulting the brother took away the woman to a nearby farmhouse and raped her by turns and abandoned her there. The incident took place on 10.9.2018 evening at Kukudajhar village under Sadar police station of Dhenkanal district. The woman was rescued by her brother and the police from the farmhouse after she gave a call to her brother and a case was registered after which the 3 men were arrested and the car used in the kidnap was also seized. Date: 12.9.2018. Source: National newspapers.

66. A 14 year old girl was beaten up in public by villagers upon the orders of a khap panchayat for daring to file an FIR after she was raped by a 65 year old man of the her village. The incident happened in the village Bishnupur in Chattisgarh's north Bastar village of Kanker and the police case was filed in Bande police station. Date: 12.9.2018. Source: National newspapers.

65. A 27 year old man has been arrested for touching inappropriately and molesting a 26 year old woman in Bandra West, Mumbai on Sept 6 & 7 while she was walking with her mother to go to church on Mount Mary Road. Date: 10.9.2018. Source: National newspapers.

64. A 42 year old priest of the Khola Mandir in South Delhi has been arrested for molesting a 15 year old girl when she had gone with her woman relative to the temple. The priest has been arrested on Sept 2. Date: 4.9.2018. Source: National newspapers.

63. A 27 year old engineer woman was held captive and raped regularly and head tonsured after she met a man in his Andheri West, Mumbai flat in mid-June 2018 and was offered some sweet laced with a sedative. The woman finally escaped on Aug 25 and fled to Pune to her relative when a FIR was lodged and the rapist arrested. Date: 4.9.2018. Source: National newspapers.

62. A 14 year old girl from the near extinct Sabar tribe was raped in Ghurabandha village near Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, then strung up on a tree to simulate suicide and then buried by her friend's father. He was assisted in hiding this crime by other members of his tribe who have all - 7 - been detained. The incident happened on Aug 28 when the 2 girls were found missing but the victim returned same evening while her friend went away with her boyfriend. The father of the missing girl then suspecting the victim about his missing daughter took her into the forest and on the pretext of questioning her, raped and killed her. He then strung her up on a tree and later buried her with the help of other members of the tribe. In the meanwhile his daughter came back n her own on Aug 30. The case came to light when a local TV channel reported the case of a girl committing suicide after hanging from a tree. This prompted the police to investigate. Date: 1.9.2018. Source: National newspapers.

61. A 12 year old girl claimed to have been touched inappropriately in the school canteen at Kandivali during recess in the crowd at the food counter when she was in front of a bunch of male students. The student who committed the act is yet to be identified. The incident happened on 30th Aug 2018. A police case has been filed. Date: 1.9.2018. Source: National newspapers.

60. An Australian woman in her mid-20's who had come t attend her friend's wedding in Khar was abused and molested on 29th Aug 2018 on Hill Road, Bandra West in Mumbai in the afternoon on the street by a 30 year old man who has since been arrested after being identified through CCTV footage. Date: 1.9.2018. Source: National newspapers.

59. A 28 year old woman immolated herself in Shahjahanpur, U.P. with police refusing to register a rape case on her by her neighbour on Aug 18, 2018. Her husband said she was mentally very upset with the incident and the police not willing to pursue the case. Date: 31.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

58. A 15 year old girl raped by her neighbour in April 2018 and who has become pregnant has been threatened along with her father in village Laksar, near Roorkee in Uttarakhand by the people of the village and the panchayat to terminate the pregnancy and not report the case to the police. However, with a police complaint being filed some 20 villagers have been arrested and strictures issued on the panchayat not to issue such fatwas. Date: 31.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

57. A  Class XI girl was dragged into the cane fields in Ghaziabad and raped by 2 men with another keeping watch while she was returning from an adjoining village where she had gone on her bicycle to photocopy some notes. The police are investigating the suspects named by the girl and her father. Date: 31.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

56. A 11 year old girl was raped in the basement of a Gurgaon multi-storey residential society by a 22 year old student living in the same complex. Date: 31.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

55. Man gropes 25 year old woman at Dadar station, whips out knife. Caught by RPF before he could hurt anyone. Date: 30.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

54. A 30 year old woman security guard was molested by an inebriated man at a mall  on Sohna Road on 26 Aug 2018 when she was going to the toilet at about 10.45pm. Upon the woman raising an alarm some late movie goers at the multiplex inside the mall caught the man and handed him over to the police. Date: 28.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

53. A 16 year old girl was confined to a room by a private security guard in Gurgaon's Chauma village and regularly raped over that period was freed and found to be 2 months pregnant. The incident was reported to the local Child Welfare Committee (CWC) by the victim and arrangements are being made to help abort the foetus to help the girl forget about her travails during the 3 month period. Date: 28.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

52. A 19 year old woman while going into the fields of Kotla village in Medway of Nuh district was abVducted by 4 men of the village and raped multiple times. The rapists also took videos of the action and uploaded it onto social media on Saturday when the crime was reported to the police. The attackers are still absconding. This was reported from out of Gurgaon by TOI. Date: 28.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

51. A 58 year old woman was thrown onto the tracks hurting herself seriously by a person trying to snatch her handbag which she refused to let go in Mumbai between Masjid and Sandhurst stations at 8am. The elderly lady was travelling by the Udayan Express to Bengaluru on Aug 22, 2018. The attacker has been arrested on Sunday, 26th Aug 2018 while the woman with a broken hip, fractures on her right arm and a cut palm is recovering in hospital. Date: 28.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

50. A 20 year old man was arrested in Barhariya of Siwan district, Bihar for raping and killing a 4 year old girl after luring her from a wedding feast on 25th Aug 2018. Date: 27.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

49. A 22 year old woman was shot dead in an incident while her phone was being snatched by a masked man in Katihar when she was returning with her lady friend after buying rakhi on 25th Aug 2018. Date: 27.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

48. An 18 year old girl was assaulted in a Mumbai local train and thrown off the moving train at Mumbra station @ 9 am in the morning while resisting the snatching of her hi-end mobile phone. Based on the CCTV recordings the attacker a Mumbra resident was arrested. Date 26.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

47. A 21 year old physically challenged girl was raped and then stripped and left in a paddy field by 2 youths in Kasba town of Bihar's Purnea district on 23rd Aug 2018. 

Date: 25.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

46. A 16 year old girl employed in the kitchen of an old age home atChiluatal in Gorakhpur district, U.P. and staying on the premises was raped over a period of 10 days by the old age home manager who has since been arrested. Date 25.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

45. A 13 year old girl was raped and killed by her 24 year old neighbour in Bhiwandi near Mumbai on 23 rd Aug 2018 evening. The man has since been arrested. Date 25.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

44. A 11 year old girl was raped and then attempted to be strangled by a masked youth when she had gone to attend nature's call at 8.30pm on 22nd August 2018 at Rangpuri Pahad in South Delhi. The girl survived after she was left for dead in a nearby bit and was taken to AIIMS where she was operated upon. Based upon the girl's description a number of youth have been detained and questioned to establish the identity of the attacker. Date 24.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

43.A. A 6 year old girl while returning from a flag hoisting ceremony on Aug 15 was abducted and raped by 2 persons in Sukhpura in Ballia district. One of the attackers has been arrested. Date 20.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

43. In another case in Gadwar of the same Ballia district as above a minor girl was held captive and raped in a field by a fellow villager on 18 Aug. Date 20.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

 

42. A. A 15 year old was lured by two sisters, her close friends, after drugging her and then taken to be raped by 2 male friends in Manikpur town of Korba district, Chhattisgarh. The sisters and their male friends have been arrested. Date 19.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.z

42. A teenage girl in Sardhana town of Meerut district was set on fire by a group of men by pouring kerosene on her for refusing to talk to them on the phone. They used to eve tease the girl while going to her coaching institute. The girl survived and is being treated for burns at the local hospital. Some of the men involved have been arrested. Date 19.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

41. A 12 year old girl was raped and murdered in Uttarkashi by some construction labourers from outside the State. Some of the suspects have been taken into custody.

Date 19.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

40. A 6 year old (variously reported as a 3 year old whose arm was also dismembered in the attack) was raped and murdered and then her body dumped among some bushes in a farm in a village in Raisen district of M.P. after she was lured with a sweet by someone known to the victim's family. The attacker has since been arrested. Date 17.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

39. Police arrested a tuition teacher for sexually assaulting a 15 year old girl over 3 months in a northern suburb of Mumbai who was kept back on the pretext of an extra lecture after the other students had left. Date 16.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

38. 7 inmates of a women short-stay shelter home in Haripur, Bihar run by a private NGO are suspected to have been molested and raped by the Vaishali district program manager who has been arrested along with others on charges of rape and abetment of rape. Date 15.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

37. A 13 year old girl in Bahraich, U.P., studying in a residential school was raped while being taken home for a medical ailment. The youth who raped her has been arrested. Date 13.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

36. A 12 year old girl was aped by three men when she had gone out in the night to relieve herself in Bagalkot, Karnataka. Date 12.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

35. A Cl. 2 girl has been raped in a Delhi Govt. school by the electrician. The man has been arrested. Date 10.8.2018. Source: TV News.

34. A Juhu couple has been arrested for raping 2 minor girls hired as household help multiple times. The man for the act and the wife for helping the rapes to happen. The couple have since been arrested. Date 10.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

33. A deaf-mute has been raped a number of times by the director of a shelter home in which she was housed in Bhopal. The case since expanded with 3 more inmates of the home accusing the owner of molestation, unnatural sex and rape. Date 10.8.2018. Source: National newspapers. & Date 13.8.2018. Source: TV News.

32. A 5 year old infant was raped and then strangled to death by a man who was later caught in Ghaziabad. Date 8.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

31. In a similar incident to the Bihar shelter home rape case, 24 minor girls are suspected to  have been raped by different individuals in Deoria, U.P out of 42 girls in the NGO run shelter home with the remaining 18 reported missing. The girls would be sent out by the lady manager of the NGO as reported in cars arriving at the home in the afternoon and returning back late in the night crying. Date 6.8.2018. Source: National newspapers & TV news.

30. A woman in Mehsana town in Gujarat depressed after Lang a child recently after hiring an auto-rickshaw  was raped by the driver along with 3 others at different places. 

Date 6.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

29. An eight month pregnant woman was raped by 4 men while her husband was locked up in their car at Turchi Phata in Tasgaon near Sangli town in Maharashtra over supposedly a business dispute. Date 3.8.2018. Source: National newspapers.

28. 17 year old girl raped in Bengaluru by mobile shop owner/cab driver by posing as a police officer to drive away the girl's male companion showing a fake gun and then forcing the girl into his cab and raping her near Chikkabommasandra, Yelahanka New Town. Date 28.7.2018. Source: National newspapers.

27. In a government shelter home 29 girls (revised since to 34 after medical examination was done on other inmates) have been found to be raped in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar. Arrests have been made of those that run the home. Suspicion of influential people in the area with close political connections to be involved in the rapes.

Date 24.7.2018. Source: National newspapers.

There has been another case of a 21 year old raped in another Bihar shelter home.
Date 27.7.2018. Source: National newspapers.

26. 4 women beaten up in Dawkimari village, Jalpaiguri district in Bengal on suspicion of being child lifters. 2 of them were disrobed. Date 24.7.2018. Source: National newspapers.

25. A 25 year old woman was beaten to death suspecting her to be a childlifter in Morwa region of Singrauli district, MP. Date 23.7.2018. Source: National newspapers.

24. A 16 year old girl from Puducherry was raped by 4 youth from adjacent Villupuram district where she had come visiting her grandmother. Date 23.7.2018. Source: National newspapers.

23. A Muslim man was lynched at Alwar, Rajasthan on suspicion of being involved in cow trafficking. Date 22.7.2018. Source: TV News & National newspapers.

22. A 22 year old woman was raped under sedation by some 40 men over a period of 4  days at a guest house in Morni, Panchkula District, Haryana where she was employed as a caretaker by one of the men involved. An SIT has been constituted to investigate the case and apprehend the culprits. Date 21.7.2018. Source: TV News & National newspapers.

21. A 19 year old girl from Nagaland was raped by 2 men in Kakrola area of Dwarka in Delhi. Date 21.7.2018. Source: National newspapers.

20. A 11 year old hearing-impaired girl was raped over months in the heart of Chennai by 17 men including the security guard of the building where the girl used to live. Date 17.7.2018. Source: TV News & National newspapers. 

19. A 6 year old girl was abducted in the heart of Delhi by a eunuch and raped on the night of 14th July 2018. Date 17.7.2018.Source: National newspapers.

18. A man was lynched in Handikhera village near Bidar, Karnataka by a mob on suspicions of being a child lifter. 3 other associates of the victim were severely beaten up. Date: 16.7.2018. Source: National newspapers.

17. A mentally unsound woman was raped in a NGO run short stay home SSH by the security guard in Bihar's Saran district resulting in the victim's pregnancy. The guard and the SSH manager has been held. Date: 15.7.2018. Source: National newspapers.

16. A 35 year old woman, a mother of 2 children, was gang raped by 5 men and then torched in the yagnashala of a temple in a village under Rajpura police station of UP's Sambhal district. Date: 15.7.2018. Source: National newspapers.

15. A  minor girl raped by BJP MLA Sengar in June 2017 at Makhi village of Unnao, UP. Then gangraped within another fortnight by a group of men. Father arrested on trumped up charges in April 2018 and dies thereafter of injuries allegedly inflicted by brother of above MLA. Girl threatens immolation in front of UP CM's residence. With this & public pressure case transferred to CBI now. Date: 12.7.2018. Source: National newspapers.

14. 16 year old girl immolates herself after gang rape in Baruipur, Bengal. Date 9.7.2018.Source: National newspapers.

13. Businessman in Gurugram rapes daughter's friend. Date 08.7.2018. Source: TV News.

12. 3 men molest a woman in Unnao, UP, while a 4th man films it & the video goes viral. Date 06.7.2018. Source: TV News.

11. 14 year old girl gang-raped in Sagar, MP. Date 5.7.2018.Source: IANS/Goa newspaper.

10. 19 year old girl raped by 4 men in a forest at Dewas, MP. Date 5.7.2018.Source: National newspapers.

9. 15 year old girl raped by 3 of her elder brother's friends with 2 of them being minors in the Bada Patthar area of Jabalpur. Date 4.7.2018.Source: National newspapers.

8. 3 year child raped in the Kanota area on the outskirts of Jaipur. Date 4.7.2018.Source: National newspapers.

7. Dalit Woman, Raped & Paraded Naked In UP - incident happened in Kurara village of Hamirpur District. Date 4.7.2018.Source: National newspapers.

6. In MP again at village Panna, a 4 year old girl was raped and the child was left for dead in a secluded spot. The rapist was caught and handed over to the police while the child is fighting for her life in hospital. Date 2/3.7.2018.Source: National newspapers & TV News.

5. In Dhule, Maharashtra 5 persons were lynched, actually stoned to death, on rumours of them being child lifters. Date 01.7.2018. Source: TV News. Similar cases reported across the country in Chennai, Bengal and Tripura where people have been attacked and killed on rumours of organ harvesting from kidnapped children. Such cases of mob attacks have been on the rise particularly after finding that the gau rakshaks who after attacking victims are left scot-free. 

4. In Mumbai, Italian banker raped in moving car. Date 01.7.2018.Source: TV News.

3. A woman thrashed, stripped and paraded naked in a Delhi locality on suspicion of eyeing the property of her landlady & having an affair with the landlady's son. The son's wife turned up with 4-5 women and did the gruesome deed. Date 30.6.2018.Source: National newspapers.

2.In Andhra seniors at a college raped a junior girl student over a year. Date 30.6.2018.Source: TV News.

1. The Mandsaur Rape Case where a 7 year old schoolgirl was thrashed, raped and killed by allowing her to bleed to death. Date 29.6.2018.Source: National newspapers & TV News.

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