Long Live our Democracy!!

Yesterday, the night security in our apartment informed us that he along with other few night watchmen in the area caught hold of a thief red handed while he was stealing some used clothes and shoes from a bachelor quarter. Promptly, they handed him over to the police. It is normal sport in this part of the country that the crowd thrashes the thief before the police formally arrests him and legally thrash him. They are ‘entitled’ to do so. It is not that every day you catch a thief! In case the thief dies in the process of ‘interrogation’, it is convenient for the police to put the blame on the public thrashing. However, the security told us that this guy wasn’t beaten up for a change. I felt sympathy surging in me for that bad guy, in the sense that it must have been real desperation that drove him to stealing used clothes and shoes.

Meanwhile, in a village in West Bengal, so far away from Chennai where I live, a 70-year-old widow was among the 14 tribal women arrested under serious charges ranging from attempt to murder to sedition and waging war against the state. They were in jail for over a month. They were arrested from their village Bansber on September 3, 2009. The Maoists negotiated their release in exchange for that of a police officer, Atindranath Dutta whom they had ``arrested’’ and held him in their ``custody’’. News paper reports said that the tribals, on release from judicial custody, did not even have the money to get back to their village and so much so the advocate had to pay their bus fare. I am yet to know when these poor illiterate tribal women become Maoists for the State. I am ashamed of myself that I am not able to do anything. Unlike these tribal women, I have many things to loose. A comfy home, a good pay package, the society I move around, etc. And I do not know what hunger means; I never experienced the pain of my land and my livelihood being taken away…..

Our honourable Supreme Court Collegium is still waiting for more and more evidence to decide on the land garb allegations against the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, Justice Mr. P.D. Dinakaran. He bought one third of the village land and grabbed a good 200 acres of wet land and made it his own. These include the common water sources, path ways and grazing lands, etc. etc. This public land is supposed to go to the landless Dalits and backward people in the village. Well, I don’t want to talk about his possession of other properties since the list is so huge. The people of the village and the district collector, who is the head of the revenue administration, came up with ample evidence against the Judge. However, the Supreme Court wants more evidence. Well, my middle class sensibility is itching for an impeachment; though I know this will never take place. And the Hon’ble Justice Mr. P.D.Dinakaran is not an illiterate poor tribal to be dealt with by the state!

Meri Bharat Mahan

Here’s how the Indian TV news channel would report the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme. All names (except those of Jack and Jill), are fictitious.. Krishna forwarded this one to me....It is hilarious....

Prashant - TV Anchor
Two persons have been injured in a freak climbing accident. Jack and his companion Jill had gone up a hill to fetch a pail of water when Jack fell down and broke his crown. Jill came tumbling after. Live from the hill, our reporter, Amrita Shah, takes up the story.

Amrita Shah
Thank you Prashant. Well, as you say, two persons - Jack and Jill - had gone up a hill to fetch a pail of water. Suddenly, Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after. Prashant.

Prashant
Thank you Amrita. What do we know about the hill?

Amrita
Not too much. Jack was going up the hill to fetch a pail of water when he fell down and broke his crown. Jill came tumbling after.

[Headline appears at the foot of the TV screen: “hill breaks crown of pail-boy Jack”]

Prashant
What news of Jack and Jill?

Amrita
Prashant, it seems that Jack had gone up the hill to fetch a pail of water. We know nothing about the pail, or how heavy it was but it seems that Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after. I have here with me, an eyewitness to the accident, Mr Shahid Trivedi. Mr Shahid, tell us what you saw.

Shahid Trivedi
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after.

[Headline appears at the foot of the TV screen: “Boy and girl tumble down hill. Water spilled”]

Amrita
Jack and Jill. What do we know about them? Are they brother and sister? Are they married? Just what were they doing on the hill together?

Shahid Trivedi
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail a water.

Amrita
And what happened next?

Shahid Trivedi
Jack fell down and broke his crown

Amrita
Go on.

Shahid Trivedi
And Jill came tumbling after.

Amrita
Prashant, there you have it. Two people innocently going about their business to fetch a pail of water when one of them falls down, breaks his crown, and the other comes tumbling after. Back to you in the studio Prashant.

[Headline appears at the foot of the TV screen: “Water errand ends in tragedy”]

Prashant
I have with me in the studio now, Professor Chandrashekar Belagare from the Indian Institute of Applied Hill Sciences. Professor: a hill; Jack; Jill; a pail of water. A tragedy waiting to happen?

Professor
Well that depends on the hill, the two persons, the object they were carrying and the conditions underfoot. Let us look at the evidence so far.

Jack and Jill
Went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down
And broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.

Clearly, one would suspect that if Jack’s fall was severe enough to break his crown then the surface of the hill must have been slippery or unstable. But I think we’re overlooking something quite fundamental here. Who was carrying the pail? Jack fell down and broke his crown and – this is the key – Jill came tumbling after. If Jack and Jill had been carrying the pail together, would they not have fallen at the same time? The fact that Jill came tumbling after suggests that Jack lost his footing first and perhaps knocked Jill over as he slipped.

Prashant
Professor thank you very much. So there we have it, two persons – Jack and Jill – went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after. Later in the programme, Osama bin Laden captured in Afghanistan, President Bush says rent-boy menage-a-trois was "just a brief lapse of judgement", and Pakistan launches nuclear warheads against key Indian cities. But next up, join us after the break for a studio discussion about hills, boys and girls and whether water-fetching trips should be supervised. We’ll be right back...

Happy Diwali!

I am looking forward for a calm and quiet Diwali …
Far from the maddening crackers …
With lots and lots of lights
But I know, I can’t help it
People have already started bursting crackers on their terrace, on the roads and wherever they found a little space
And I wish a happy and safe diwali to all my friends, foes and to the neutral ones

Barack Obama, the US President, celebrated Diwali, the festival of lights by lighting the ceremonial lamp at the White House.

Now why don’t we honour him with a Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of India?

The astrologers predicted an award/Nobel season for him!

Media meddling and Actors’ annoyance

Well, press freedom is very important. Even if they represent and promote the ‘popular’ culture; or for manufacturing consent; even in the case of embedded journalism. Freedom of this rustic pillar has to be protected. The recent protest by the journalists, holding up traffic on the busy Kamarajar Salai in Chennai (down the Marina Beach for those who know Chennai that way) against the arrest of Mr. Lenin (charged under sections of the Prevention of Women Harassment Act was a case in point.

The story goes like this. Ms Bhuvaneswari, a small time actress was arrested by the police on charges of prostitution. It was reported that she was running a brothel in one of the prestigious localities in Chennai. She not only confessed to the crime, but also gave a list of actors who, according to her, are involved in the world’s oldest profession. Dinamalar, a Tamil daily, published the news and that provoked the film fraternity. They in turn barged into the city police commissioner’s office to register their protest. Apparently, some of the actors, whose names were mentioned in the report, are happily married and obviously, the allegations made them very upset. It seems that some of them were in tears (of course, without having to pour glycerine).

In Tamil Nadu, films and governance, always, coexisted. Our Chief Minister, ex Chief Minister, few ministers and MPs are actively connected to the film industry. Hence the complainants went to the court of the CM and that ultimately led to the arrest of the news editor of the daily. When the State wants something; it will happen. In Gujarat the police was silent spectators when men and children were killed and women raped and killed by thugs in February-March 2002; and in the Meerut violence witnessed in 1981, the police were the perpetrators. The political masters, in those places, wanted it that way at that time.

“Emotions ran high” and mind it, 250 journalists met up to “chalk out the future course of action” and declared it as “black day”. They demonstrated in the busy road leading to the State Secretariat from the Press Club (wherethey assembled that morning) and demanded the arrest of few actors who were involved in the maligning the media professionals. They denounced the police action as undemocratic and unjustified and asked for the release of the fellow journalist immediately.

There are two sides to this story. To begin with, the media sensitivity to the police atrocities- A few months ago, when the police entered the high court premises and lathi charged many lawyers, litigants and even a judge and destroyed property, most of the media justified the police action. Whether the lawyers are straight forward or crooks is a different question. How do you justify such an action? In what way was it different from police entering a new paper office and arresting somebody without a proper warning? In fact, the police entering someone’s premises is sanctioned for in the law whereas the force that was used in the High Court premises was without a legitimate authority.

Another aspect is that some of the Tamil news papers are notorious for publishing the pictures of the sex workers who are “caught in the police” net, invariably with a disgusting title ‘prostitute beauties’ (vibhachara azhagigal). These are the small time sex workers who fix their business on the busy streets of T Nagar or Parrys or elsewhere for a paltry Rs.50 to 100. I was part of a study team, commissioned by NHRC, on the trafficking of women and children sometimes ago and had interviewed many sex workers. They used to tell us that the policemen arrested them even when they went to leave their children at the school; just to fill their quota of arrests for that particular month. They also said that some policemen demanded free sex. They had no choice but to oblige. Once arrested, these dailies published their photographs, though there is a law preventing that. It is obvious that they get the photographs from the police only. A clear case of Police Press nexus!

And about the film stars’ protest and their grievance: Aren’t they aware of the fate of the many young girls, in the age group of 15 to 20 years, who are trafficked to the film industry and pushed into prostitution? Many in the industry demand sexual favours from these young girls to get them some work to get going. I am sure the so called leaders of the film industry are not so naïve not to know about these happenings. But hardly any intervention on the matter. Of course, STARS are different from ‘extras’ as far as the human rights are concerned.

Well, I did not want to mix so many things; but these are so interrelated – so I couldn’t help it

Oops! Why do we insist that Judges should declare their asset?

The Judiciary has always carried an aura of purity and integrity. But now people know that it is no way different from the other pillars of the democracy. The wealth amassed by some of the judges is no longer a secret. Though only a few have made it to the headlines. Nothing surprising! Why should we expect the judiciary to be different or independent from the popular culture? It does represent the ruling culture of the day and the system. No wonder, why judges are soooooooooooo hesitant to declare their assets in public. Some of them have more than half of a village in their possession. More skeletons are waiting for their turn to tumble out of the cupboards. One can have a good laugh, if one’s sense of humour is still intact.