126. Hindu-Muslim harmony in India. P S Remesh Chandran

126

Hindu-Muslim harmony in India

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 Article Title Image By Sidhant Shreshtha. Graphics: Adobe SP.

For centuries the Hindus and the Muslims of India lived in harmony in the villages and cities, freely intermingling with each other. When drought comes, they share water and in famine, food. Fire, flood, famine and natural disasters have seen millions of incidents of their sacrifices for each other. Now when we go to some part of India with the intention of purchasing a house and living there, we are told that this particular area is a Hindu area or a Muslim area and so you cannot purchase a house there and live there. It is the uneducated zealots in the political and administrative layers of Indian society who brought about this polarized situation without which they cannot survive either in politics or in administration. Even the socialist and communist parties of India fix their candidates in the elections depending upon first their religion, then their caste and lastly their wealth. Who will and can deny that this is exactly what creates mistrust among people and obstruct the progress of India. The constitution of India boasts, it allows no communal discrimination and stipulates severe punishments for those who keep practicing such discrimination. Still, India was divided into two, based on religious distinctions. We all know that intelligence is what decides things as far as man is concerned. So let us decide to adopt an entrance test based on measuring the intelligence quotient of anyone who wants to become a parliament or state legislative assembly member in India, the world’s largest home of the Hindus where they co-exist with Muslims. Either give a chance to Indian parliamentarians to prove that they are intelligent enough to lead the country and control its people, brilliant officers, academicians, industrialists, army, navy, air force, foreign affairs and economy, in communal harmony or withdraw from politics and administration. Nincompoops and arrogant blunderers cannot carry forward this nation even not through another decade. Even to be recruited as a peon to government service needs one to prove his intelligence. Let anyone who wishes to control the government in India prove his intelligence before their citizens. If they fail the test, they are out! We all know that not one single political party in India would acquiesce to this kind of a reformation in Indian parliamentarianism, yet this would be the greatest reformation the world is going to see happening in India in the coming 10 years. 

[In response to news article ‘Hinduism third largest religion of world; India home to most religions’ in First Post on 19 December 2012, written on 26 December 2012]

125. Taxes make Indian airfares three times higher than China. P S Remesh Chandran

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Taxes make Indian airfares three times higher than China

P. S. Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

 Article Title Image By Skeeze. Graphics: Adobe SP.

All Indian airline companies are undergoing hard times due to reasons including heavy taxation by the Indian government, skyrocketing of aviation fuel prices and fall of the value of Indian rupee. Even while the cost of Indian air travel is nearly thrice that in the Chinese Republic, fall of rupee value by four rupees within a month has led to a further rise of over 20% in the cost of airline tickets. 23% fall of rupee against the dollar certainly has affected harshly the airline industry.

Travelling from India to America, Britain, France and the African continent has lost its attraction for tourists. Their numbers have dwindled during the recent months. It is true, domestic travellers in India do not have to face much hardship due to rupee’s fall. The India government considers and seems to think that it is good to let travellers spend money in Indian locations during their holidays. There are still a few countries to which tourists can travel without worrying about the fall of rupee and they are the other Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Mauritius and China. Certainly it is now a great opportunity for Indians to tour China if they are fortunate enough to secure a visa. All the airline companies operating from India including Air India, Indian Airlines, King Fisher and Jet Airways have hiked ticket prices to domestic tourist travel destinations also. Even if the fuel prices come down considerably, aviation companies in India won’t get the benefit of it due to the fall of rupee. There surely will be a decline in the price of crude oil as the world is moving again towards a financial crisis which would reduce the consumption of oil. As more and more depositors in the oil industry begin to withdraw their money from crude oil, the prices will come down again. Unless the exchange rate of rupee remains stable, Indian airline companies will not be allowed to enjoy the benefit.

Article Title Image By Karl Köhler. Graphics: Adobe SP.  

Aviation field in India is already in turmoil following the mismanagement and managerial indiscipline in the state owned service Air India. They were not able to settle the strike of their Pilots. Only 40% of their international services are operated now which means they are suffering a loss of nearly 20 crore rupees a day which they cannot afford without loosing their wings. The arrogant management of Air India dismissed hundreds of their able pilots and is thinking about recruiting retired pilots. We all know that airlines retire their pilots at a desirable age and at a particular health and efficiency level. This they do to avoid judgment errors during take-off, landing and flight and to ensure flight safety. This decision of Air India to dismiss able pilots and engage retired ones is an open challenge to air safety in India and is setting a very bad example in India aviation industry. It is sure in the immediate future, when Air India planes traverse the sky, people will run away to seek shelter, not to mention the destiny of thousands of human souls aboard.

Article Title Image By Holgi. Graphics: Adobe SP. 

[In response to news article ‘Indian airfares 200-300 per cent higher than China’ on 11 June 2012]

124. NRHM officials live like kings. P S Remesh Chandran

124

NRHM officials live like kings

P. S. Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
  Article Title Image By Rawal Kiran. Graphics: Adobe SP.
 

The state organizers of National Rural Health Mission live like kings with the money allotted from central government funds. It is widely believed that the Accountant General’s branches in the states are not allowed to look into their accounts. We shall take the particular example of Kerala which has the highest rates of literacy and health standards. When this scheme was introduced, the initial amounts allotted were utilized not for creating infrastructures in villages but for purchasing scores of costly cars for the officers to travel. They were all air-conditioned cars. Why were non-a/c Maruti 800 cars not purchased? The first directive to have come from central government ought to have been limiting only one car to each district and limiting the purchasing price of one car to 3 lakhs rupees. Costly cars purchased should immediately be sold in auction and replaced with Maruti 800s. This would bring millions back for being diverted to the rural areas. Then the spree was for purchasing buildings. The health services departments in all Indian states have enough buildings and space in the districts and in the headquarters to house NRHM offices. It is also transparent to operate this scheme from health services premises. Why did government allow this spend-thrift scheme to operate outside the main stream? Was it not to allow a new generation of officers to have enough freedom for corruption? The organizing and operating of the scheme should have been from the government secretariats. Every building taken by NRHM pays exorbitant rents and every building purchased cost far higher than market rates. Crores of rupees were pocketed by state organizers on this account. Does the government of India have this much money to spare? Is it not people’s money? Every building purchase and rental by NRHM officers should be investigated and illegally made money brought back to public exchequer. Now it has become something lucrative to be posted as an NRHM officer, just like postings to key check posts of the sales tax department. If the salaries the officers draw are looked into, we will not believe that they are serving the poor government of India. Each decides his own salary which is unbelievably higher than what are paid for equivalent posts in the state health services. Some argue that unless paid salaries commensurate with corporate standards, bright officers would not be available to lead NRHM. Why should we pay corporate salaries to a bunch corrupt to the core? There are brighter candidates to replace them at the state health department level salaries, at least in Kerala. Purchase of luxury cars, purchase and rental of buildings at exorbitant prices and rates and self-fixation and drawal of inconceivably high salaries in all states must be immediately investigated by the government of India and the state branches of the Accountant General assigned the charge of conducting their audits.

[In response to news article ‘CBI raids ex-UP health minister’s house in NRHM scam’ on 02 June 2012]

The National Rural Health Mission is going to gulp down a few more hundred millions of money from government as NRHM is behind this idea of creating a new special task force of family doctors for rural villages, it is going to be another massive scam. Once we look at what this money-gulping organization has been doing through the past years, we can understand the motive behind their new scheme, which is to be implemented through their subordinate organizations in the states. 

Flesh is something important and influential in government service. When a fleshy, protein-rich lady with sufficient curves and projections comes to work in an office, several changes in the seating arrangements and allotment of sections would be made there so as to sit her as lightly and cozily as the sex-starving officers would wish. Curvaceous flesh can move officers but not office files. It needs learnèd and dedicated officers and staff to move them. Flesh had been the selection criteria for recruiting staff to NRHM in all states. Second came relations. Third came recommendations. Right people with right qualifications were not even considered. If anyone has doubt, inspect all state level offices of NRHM and ask how and why only beautiful women came to be recruited as staff everywhere. Also inquire what ridiculous qualifications and certificates they possess. When they laugh, where they are willing, cheques are written for hundred thousands for non-existing projects, as if it is all that officers’ own private money. When months pass, the corruption becomes that of millions. A government steeped in corruption opened this goldmine of NRHM to appease IAS officers before they revolt against corruption. There was one story of a government secretary in Uttar Pradesh in North India who ate up millions from NRHM funds. Another health secretary in a southernmost state while holding office of NRHM insisted that he should be accompanied in his Delhi excursions by the most beautiful and curvaceous damsel working in the health department, to stay with him and to take part in his nightly rendezvous. When they returned to the state capital after a week, her salary was raised to 25000 rupees from 7000 rupees. That is how our money vested with NRHM authorities is burned out. A born sinner will never repent and even heaven will not touch that devil. A mad dog will not cure and that is why the world kills it. A person who is left at liberty to destroy the confidence citizens give to government and steel at will whatever government money is placed at his disposal will destroy human lives as well without hesitance or remorse. He leaves a trail of destruction behind him, his intolerance for having been exposed brutally expressing itself in causing him to destruct whatever solid human creations and relations comes his way.

123. Mad cow slaughter rioters in Punjab towns. P S Remesh Chandran

123

Mad cow slaughter rioters in Punjab towns

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 Article Title Image By Stephan Seeber. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Cows in India are considered as a gift from gods to man. In the ancient Indian culture they were given the status of mother and most civilized Indians still worship cow as their mother. This is not an Ode To The Cows here but certain undeniable facts cannot be forgotten. Millions of cows are being slaughtered all over India for flesh and bones in spite of there existing the Cow Slaughter prevention Act passed by the Indian parliament. A few decades ago in Kerala there lived a saint by the name Narayana Guru who was a great teacher and composer of immortal songs in Malayalam, Tamil and Sanskrit. He was the saint who was responsible for the most dramatic and permanent changes in the South Indian social structure by causing the untouchables to get intensely educated. Because he was not English-educated, he sent Dr. Palpu to England for English education who later became a very noted physician in Kerala. It was after reading the beautiful poems of this saint and becoming exhilarated by inspiration that the most famous poet of Kerala Kumaran Asaan began to write poems. It was a time when poverty and scantiness of food caused eating flesh among Keralites and this question of permitting the slaughtering of cows was much debated. One of his disciples asked the saint this very question: Teacher, why can’t we kill and eat a cow when there is no food for us to eat and there are cows there in plenty? The saint asked his student another question: Do you have your mother now? The student answered: No, she died a few years ago. Then came the next question from the master: Did you eat her or did you bury her? The disciple fled. This was the question that closed this subject. There are sacred relations in human society which mankind wants to keep. Who will eat their mother except cannibals?

Article Title Image By Markus Schultes. Graphics: Adobe SP. 

The viruses responsible for chikungunya and dengue that kill thousands of people each week complete their life cycles in the body of dogs which is basic science. Without dogs there is no dengue even if mosquitoes try hard. Why don’t they kill and eat dogs which are the animal reservoir hosts to these viruses as they do in the Philippines and Thailand? When these useless dogs are killed, thousands of fatty rich Indian memsahibs suddenly rise up, move governments and courts and obstruct dog killing because dogs give them sexual pleasure. When cows are butchered, there is nobody there to speak for her because cows cannot be used for sexual abuse. When this obnoxious bone crushing factory came to be established there, someone in the village administration, health or the pollution control board accepted bribes or they all, or else how can this factory come to be licensed? They are the first to be arrested and prosecuted for plotting communal riots. Remember the Sepoy Mutiny when some animal fat started it. There is not one family in Punjab that has not lost a son in the subsequent brave freedom struggle. Do not anyone rouse those patriots again.

Article Title Image By Kien Nguyen. Graphics: Adobe SP. 

[In response to news article ‘Cow slaughter riots in Punjab towns’ on 11 June 2012]

122. Why is there a Right to Education if there is no Right to Living? P S Remesh Chandran

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Why is there a Right to Education if there is no Right to Living?

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 Article Title Image By Carol Austin. Graphics: Adobe SP.

What is the relevance and usefulness of passing a right to education bill if there is no right to living for the common man? When an administration fails in protecting the right to live, it is easier to pass bills of lesser importance to escape from the accusation of administrative impotence than initiating express measures to ensure that the price of essential food articles and petrol are affordable for the common and poor citizens in the nation. Here we see that when immensely rich corporations and companies are soon to crush people with another unbelievable price hike, the political leaders in the ruling parties and the elected representatives in the administration hasten and crowd together to pass yet another bill, the benefits of which will never be enjoyable to the common man. There will always be conditions. They once boasted that all girl students will get free education and at another time declared that the only child in the family, if a girl, will not have to pay any kind of tuition fees. The condition was that it would be applicable only to the government schools. After permitting the opening of 1000 private schools for 10 government schools, where did in India the economically backward one child girl students get the benefit of this boasted about bill? For a nursery admission, one has to pay 25000 rupees, plus 2 admissions will cost 75000 capitations and the present rate for MBBS admission is 50 lakhs. Where is this free education, our mighty kings? Government boasts about the opening of a million new class rooms and posting a hundred thousand teachers and making possible immense infrastructures. Where it not in the private owned posh educational institutions, inaugurated with great pomp by top most cabinet members, inaccessible to 90 per cent of the people of India? It only means that 20000 or 50000 more crores of rupees from the government coffers earmarked under Education Heads are soon to be lavished on the privileged class of India, to speak in plain language. When these new private institutions come into being and begin to run in full force, every Indian citizen knows that, more government schools will be closed the future of economically backward Indian children will become darker than now. Rather than passing such meaningless bills, if the authorities simply declare that they wish to donate such and such amounts from government to such and such heavy contributors in the educational industry as a token of gratitude for favours received, the poor man of India who has now no rice, wheat, sugar, oil and petrol will not protest. He is such weak.

Article Title Image By AkshayaPatra. Graphics: Adobe SP. 

[In response to news article ‘Right to education bill introduced by UPA govt.’ on 23 May 2012]

121. Villagers stoning Bihar Chief Minister. P S Remesh Chandran

121

Villagers stoning Bihar Chief Minister

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 Article Title Image By Ihsan Rosniza. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Robert Browning in his poem ‘The Patriot’ describes the different treatments the same man receives from the same people within a course of one year. First he was received by the people royally like a patriot. After one year he was dragged through the streets by the same people and given a scornful send-off to his death as a condemned man. The poet does not tell exactly what crime was committed by such a famous and worshipped man to be sent to the gallows within one year. Perhaps he might have turned a traitor to his country or people, or might have done much favouritism and corruption for his friends while he was in power, or else people might have made a serious mistake in judging him. We have examples of a Caesar returning victoriously after an Egyptian Tour, received jubilantly by people in Rome and declared by Senate as the Dictator for the entire Roman lands and after that, within days, assassinated by a senator in front of all senators fearing for the likely chance of him in the future declaring himself as an Emperor of Rome. We also have before us the example of the Oracle of Delphi proclaiming none was wiser than Socrates and then Socrates being assassinated by the City Council of Athens for a puny charge of corrupting their youth. The execution of Sir. Thomas Moore, the modern day Socrates, also is vivid in our memories. We have seen this exact scene in history a few centuries before, in the mountains of Gagultha. A human representative of the creator and molder of mankind- an innocent carpenter- was executed on the cross for the crime of loving mankind. History is so full of such admonition messages from the past that now we all know that people’s applause is but momentary and that their admiration nor condemnation shall not be taken into account in assessing a man’s real worth. In Browning’s poem, the patriot did everything for his people that a man could do while in authority. All of a sudden people turned against him and decided to hang him publicly as a punishment for his crimes committed during one year. Everything he did during one year had become crimes when viewed from another angle. Now we see him hands fettered, suffering in rain, stoned all the way, being dragged to the death post. And now there is nobody on the roof-tops to watch the spectacle. All have gone to the death-post at Shambles’ Gate to get the best direct sight of hanging him. What an unpredictable twist of human attitude! People’s applause and esteem is but a momentary bubble soon to explode. But they certainly have the right to stone a man elected by them to authority because his authority, if he has any, exclusively belongs to the people. Protection from the anger of his people is not an elected authority’s birth right or a privilege. If he has to escape and flee from his people, why should he pose and be considered as a leader? Or, is it a private gang that he is leading? 

[In response to news article ‘Villagers pelt stones at Bihar CM Nitish Kumar's convoy’ on 23 May 2012]

120. Indian school girls have to escape rape and then set afire. P S Remesh Chandran

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Indian school girls have to escape rape and then set afire

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 Article Title Image By Nickbar. Graphics: Adobe SP.

When we go after the boy, we can most often find a pampered rich boy, born in a family where the father and mother live with no inhibitions or fear of society, most probably, an only son. He would have enough pocket money to throw around, boast with classmates that he would one day get this particular girl, or even kill her, and if caught, he would be released on bond, and eventually set free by an Indian court after a long trial dragging through years. Thus gaining a reputation, and creating a fear among the local population about him repeating this drama if he is denied anything again in his life, he can in his time become an MLA or an MP or even a cabinet minister in India. His future is secure anyway. The person who commented that 150 MPs are criminals is going to be summoned by Parliament for trial and punishment. Then why are a few MPs serving jail terms? How many rapists and child killers were hanged in India? The rich town memsahibs of India cannot bear the news of some human being hanged for however heinous a crime. If this boy is hanged, they will riot in the Indian streets, write articles on the sacredness of human life and approach law courts for a stay on public interests. National dailies will publish their articles with great photos, them sitting with loathsome dogs on their laps or on their breasts. They were the people who tricked Indian politicians into making severe and strict laws in the parliament for ensuring the longevity of their darling dogs so that they can continue with their carnal pleasures inside their air-conditioned mansions. Little girls being raped and killed in their poor huts by adolescent rich pampered boys coming in motor cycles and cars, well equipped with 65000 rupee mobile phone intelligence relays and costlier legal connections, or the poor Indian people on the roads dying out in thousands due to dengue and chikungunya spread by mosquitoes, dogs and monkeys, are nothing to these fat parasites. Administration paralyzes in their presence. They are the new kind of law- breakers in India, breaking all the ancient laws which prevailed for millenniums in the country and ensured such crimes as mentioned won’t happen. A crime has its punishment which is now impossible in India. Everyone knows this. Even then there is no shortage of laws. Each year since India gained Independence our peoples’ representatives meet in sessions in legislative assemblies and pass laws, at least a hundred each term. Think how many laws might have been passed by the half dozen Indian states within 65 years! 

[In response to news article ‘Class X girl foils rape bid, and set afire’ on 17 April 2012]

119. Internet freedom and intellectual freedom face challenges in India. P S Remesh Chandran

119

Internet freedom and intellectual freedom face challenges in India

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 Article Title Image By Liggraphy. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Bill Gates and Microsoft opened the gates of internet freedom and intellectual freedom to the world’s poor people. Mentioning him and his contributions in the inaugural lecture was only appropriate. What we have to know is whether these ‘political scientists, academicians, scholars and students who are post-graduates in political science, public administration, international relations and area studies’ have responded properly to the new challenges this internet freedom and intellectual freedom now face in India. The Union Government of India is getting ready to impose more rigid control over all Social Media Networks. It is not because any of those activities, comments, observations or articles in them pollutes the pure, nature fresh minds in India or because they pose any serious or actual threat to the nation’s security and reputability. The politicians in India now no more care about anything the like. What they fear is the speed with which the news of their abominable corruption, bribery and favouritism reaches the world people. That is their only concern as they, since born with corrupted minds unlike the ordinary educated inter-netting public, can never withdraw themselves from committing these crimes again. They also know that the world people are actually inner-netting through inter-netting in social media. What the corrupted leaders feared is actually happening. It is now Inter-netting Public versus Corrupted National Leaders. If they are corruption-free, why should they be aggressive and fear high-speed transmission of information through broad band? Why can’t they simply remain pure, like their people? Everyone wants a share of the immense profits and side kicks from broad band licensing, but at the same time wants to put more rigid control over its possible use against them. Everyone in this world knows that. At the present rate and speed of revelation, when we look back after ten years, not one political leader presently on the national scene of India would not still be there as a leader, politician, administrator or a minister. The world has not forgotten the folding and subsequent shameful retreat of Yahoo from China after it’s revealing the identity of a Chinese dissident, yielding to Chinese government’s compulsive persuasion. Because we are not standing on the moon and observing things from the next century, we are not having a bird’s eye view of what is happening in the world presently, and what drastic and irreversible changes are being brought by world people. Kerala has always been a state where people are very bold in their opinions. But nothing was heard from the political scientists and academicians of the state when the freedom of speech and social communication of the people of India face dire threats from a few wicked authorities, especially from the communication ministry. If they truly represent the past, present or future generations of India, it is time they respond convincingly.

Article Title Image By Shahadat Shemul. Graphics: Adobe SP.

[In response to news article ‘Internet freedom in India’ on 25 March 2012]

118. Government officers who say no hunted throughout life. P S Remesh Chandran

118

Government officers who say no hunted throughout life

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 Article Title Image By Erika Giraud. Graphics: Adobe SP.

In every strata of society, there indeed are people who keep balanced judgments and say No when necessary and where needed. Such people are in the administration, politics and business. And they are not so rare. Had they been rare, there would not have been a nation existing in the name of The Republic Of India. When we trace back to their ancestors, we shall see that their fathers and grandfathers were very stern people. Therefore the child could not have grown otherwise. When children sired by neat, clean and righteous fathers who have integrity of character become officers in the Indian Administrative Service, they will behave accordingly and say NO to things when necessary. We all know that every decision taken by a government will be implemented only through a government secretary who will inevitably be an IAS officer. Therefore every wrong decision taken and implemented by a government will evidently have the hand and rotten brain of an IAS officer behind it. Had they objected sternly, no wrong or politically motivated decision would have been implemented. What would happen if they all object? Would they be all hanged or expelled by those corrupt politicians? We do see occasional IAS officers objecting here and there and being hunted all over India for the same. Since they also have families and they also have wishes to settle down somewhere, they normally and generally do not object and be a target. But it is unbelievable, and is something unexpected from them. This brings them down to lower than the timid average citizens who do not possess the necessary skills for fighting against authority. Those who follow the lives of people in the civil service in India perfectly well know that there are far greater and better fighters against corruption and favouritism among the ranks of clerks and peons. The low opinion in the article about these categories is therefore unjustified. But these IAS folks are supposed to be the cream of society with every armament at hand to fight injustice and corruption. Either they are under-educated in their core or they are not integrated enough in their morality to show courage. It is a question of backbone which brings us back to the question of who sired them biologically.

Article Title Image By Erika Giraud. Graphics: Adobe SP.

[In response to news article ‘Why can’t IAS officers say No?’ on 18 February 2012]

117. There is now no one there to climb coconut trees in Kerala. P S Remesh Chandran

117

There is now no one there to climb coconut trees in Kerala

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 Article Title Image By Lucija Ros. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Coconut Tree Climbers declining to help yield the crop has certainly caused havoc among farmers in Kerala. Many think that, when ripe, the coconuts will fall anyway and can be picked up. And the leaves too will fall when dry. But what about cleaning the crown? Moreover the landowner cannot wait everyday at the foot of the tree for the coconut to fall so that he can pick it up before another does. It is true many coconut tree climbers suffer from calloused hands and legs and many occasionally fall and they too have a family to take care of. But considering the present rates for climbing tree and also considering the success of labour welfare activities in this field, they certainly can make a living out of this profession. Most of the old tree climbers have already passed away and the new generation turned their faces to this profession, exactly like what happened in the rice paddy fields of Kerala. All of a sudden, cultivation of this crop became unattractive and cumbersome in Kerala. The first person to react to this vital problem of Kerala and to bring this farmers’ crisis to public attention was not anyone from government or these so-called boards but the beloved genius and respected joker of Kozhikode, late Ramadasan Vaidyan who startled Kerala by announcing the opening of his ‘Coconut Tree Climbing Training College’ which he got inaugurated by Sri. Chouhan, I.A.S, who inaugurated the college by climbing the tree though this North Indian officer knew nothing about climbing a coconut tree. It was his first experience. But it was not the first joke of Ramadasan Vaidyan. He was the person who organized a great public meeting at Kozhikode to commemorate the centuries-long valuable services of the numerous Washing Stones in the beach there. What authorities ought to have done was permitting the coconut tree farmers to help make the light liquor ‘Toddy’ out of the tree liberally under official supervision which should have helped these farmers sustain themselves and the cultivation of this trees also would have survived. But how will the hard-liquor industry and mafia allow this to happen as it would straight eat away their empire?

Article Title Image By Annie Spratt. Graphics: Adobe SP.

[In response to news article ‘Coconut plucking becoming a lost art’ on 20 January 2012]

116. The Street Vendors Bill and the politicians of India. P S Remesh Chandran

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The Street Vendors Bill and the politicians of India

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 Article Title Image By Ibrahim Rifath. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Anyone travelling though Kerala will wonder at the numerous roadside shops situated on shady spots where tea, coffee, snacks, light food articles and sometimes even tapioca and chicken are available. Hot food prepared before our watching eyes are served in clean plates or plantain leaves. The taste is savoury and the prices are inconceivably low. These shops are made of a single plank of wood for placing the samovar, kettle, tea glasses and dishes, protected above from the sun and shower with three or four thatched coconut leaves. The word for shop in Kerala is Kada. So these plank shops are called Thattu Kada in Malayaalam. They can be seen in almost all places, in the coastal areas, in towns and villages, in remote hamlets, hilly tracts and on forest edges. They are run by women, children or very old men who live nearby, who are unable to undertake any other work. This is their only livelihood and sustenance. It is good milk they make tea with because their cows feed on the lavish forest green or grass fields and they are washed daily in the nearby streams. These shops are the virtues Kerala sees each morning while opening her eyes. They open very early in the morning and remain open late at night, catering to peasants, coolie labourers, and the educated and the unemployed, and all are satisfied and relished.

Article Title Image By Govaayu. Graphics: Adobe SP.

The political leaders of Kerala when they were very poor, unknown, unimportant non-entities with no money in their pockets to pay for their food, were regulars in these poor shops. They even kept accounts there. These poor sisters, kids and old men sustained and fed them when they were in pangs of hunger and when they had no money to pay. Then began the great hunt by police, accusing that they provided sitting places for criminals. Actually these shops served as loyal, vigilant watching posts against crime in each village and town. Thousands and thousands of shops were removed thus, to the satisfaction of helmeted, motor cycle-riding daylight robbers and gold chain-snatchers. Had these shops remained, every crime perpetrator’s name would have come out in the open the very next morning. Then in due course of time, thousands and thousands of these roadside shops were forcefully closed and bulldozed as part of widening of roads to facilitate high-speed travel for Million Dollar Cars of the opulently rich. Not a single voice was raised by one single shameless political party or the all-powerful three or four Youth Organizations in Kerala. We do not know where those sisters, kids and old men have gone, to life or death? No politicians and youth leaders in Kerala like to be reminded of those innocent eyes, bent bodies and faltering legs who fed them for years.

Article Title Image By Vitamin. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Gradually these unknown politicians who kept accounts in those poor Thattukadas gained popularity and rose in politics and authority as Panchayat Members, Assembly Members and some even as Parliament Members. Now they have people-funded cars to travel which won’t stop at Thattukadas, but will only at the next Luxury Star Hotel. Their loyalties change, and sitting in their sequestered offices, they order officials to bull-doze Thattukadas becuse they obstruct free car travel and are an ugly sight to see on highway sides. They are now even thinking about licensing Tea Shops only if a Master of Business Administration Graduate is employed there on their staff. The only Tea Shops and Hotels they frequent with people’s money and they are now familiar with are those with M.B.A. Graduates to take their orders. Those ungrateful drones!

Article Title Image By Rhiannon. Graphics: Adobe SP.

[In response to news article ‘The Street Vendors Bill introduced’ on 14 January 2012]

115. High heeled shoes may cause abortions like slope-floored cattle sheds. P S Remesh Chandran

115 

High heeled shoes may cause abortions like slope-floored cattle sheds

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 Article Title Image By Xiang Qilun. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Women who wear high heeled shoes suffer not only from damages to their calf muscles but to their wombs too. The dangers to women from high heeled shoes are not something revealed new to the world. The farmers of India and elsewhere knew even decades ago that cows resting in cattle sheds constructed with a sloped floor frequently suffers from untimely projection and release of their calves outside. That is why these farmers construct the floor of their cattle sheds more or less level, even though constructing them with a slope would have made their cleaning job very easy. Even though human body remains vertical when compared to the horizontality of a cow’s body, the risks to the human womb and other internal organs when taken a slanting position are still there. But no modern day shoe makers will admit this particular risk. Constantly inclined positions to human body may even result in more abortions.

Article Title Image By Betsisman. Graphics: Adobe SP. 

[In response to news article ‘High heeled shoes cloud be disastrous on 29 January 2012]

114. Direct Cash Transfer Subsidy aimed at enriching banks. P S Remesh Chandran

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Direct Cash Transfer Subsidy aimed at enriching banks

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 Article Title Image By Ahobbit. Graphics: Adobe SP.

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When rich people go to a bank and ask for withdrawal of, say, 5 lakhs or 50 million, no one in the bank will ask, what you are going to do with this money. It is taken for granted that if they deposit money, they will withdraw it also and they needn’t give any explanations. If anyone in his ignorance dare to ask, that account is lost, and that employee his job. But that is not the case with a low amount depositor. When he goes to a bank for his small withdrawal, the full power of the bank will work on him. From the clerk, teller and cashier to the bank manager and director will ask him what he needs the money for. If it is subsidy money from government, withdrawing it will look like a shameful act and the bank will have and show all the heavy responsibility of saving the government by any means from bankrupting by preventing the person from withdrawing his little money. If he replies that it is meant to pay his daughter’s tuition fees or for purchasing medicine for his ailing wife, there will be all kinds of objections and rules and regulations. The listeners to these conversations standing there waiting to conclude their businesses would exclaim, this teller when poor in his youth was fed free from the tea shop of that subsidy man but now he is behaving like governor of the Reserve Bank! This is what is going to happen to those poor people whose subsidies are forcefully flowed into the arrogant banks of India. Banks are rich men’s, owned by them and run for them; not one among the millions of poor people in the world would disagree. It is the same in every country in the world, in every century. Every penny in every bank in the world is already taken by the rich to run their business, industry and to speculate on the share market which nearly emptied all banks, the only reason behind the collapse of hundreds of famous banks around the world. Therefore they want the money of the poor man also to exist, to breathe, to live. That is why, governments run by the rich men and the corrupt of those countries introduce new schemes fast to divert all money entitled to poor people to banks. Even though these poor depositors are treated ignominiously by these banks, these poor people’s money is the only life blood for the existence of these banks. Take the example of any famous bank in India or abroad; they are all actually sick and collapsing. The attractive figures in their profit columns have an all-time-present if. They are all profits, if, those rich borrowers repay, which they never will and never have. Each year they write off unbelievably huge amounts of rich men’s borrowals, to balance their books. So, they need capital to continue to exist and write off more of the rich men’s borrowals. So they open their ugly mouths and swallow poor men’s money. Government has become their obedient servant, not only in India but everywhere. Even the American, British and French governments diverted people’s national money to save banks from crashing. 

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When people go to the bank for subsidies and they are informed that their subsidies have not yet arrived in their accounts, they will run to where, nobody can say. Even when they have arrived, the bank managers won’t release them, saying a thousand of technical reasons. People will go to see the politicians to recommend them to the bank manager and the politician will become again a very important figure in making possible the release of subsidy amounts to poor people which is exactly what the government wishes by this project. The politician who is now a little lower in value and esteem due to exposure of his corruption should regain his importance among people. Once they become able to accept bribes from people to recommend them to the bank manager, he can once again become an essential figure in the local community and his everything will be looked after by the bank manager. When we are eating something delicious and our dog barks, we will throw crumbs to it. Whole billions of rupees vanish into the pockets of the political leaders in the government and they throw kind of crumbs to the greedy local politicians so that they will stop growling. When Panchayat Raj was introduced, all public works in the local bodies were taken away from the qualified Works Departments of state governments and assigned to ward members of local bodies, thereby giving them also a chance to make some money. Now, regardless of belonging to ruling party or opposition party, all ward members of local bodies and local politicians are staunch supporters of the government in whatever it introduce. When roads, culverts and canals are built in the local area, sixty percent of the money goes to these local politicians and thirty five percent is shared by the works contractor and the officer deputed from the government’s works department. Only five percent of the amount is actually put on the work. If anyone in India has a doubt, go see the works done in local bodies since this system was introduced. National level politicians, stained and steeped in horrible corruption which made the Indians’ heads bow before the whole world, are generous in throwing away greasy pieces to state and local level politicians so that all will be contented and there won’t be any grumbling. Every new scheme introduced by government during the past a few years has the only objective of making themselves richer and appeasing the grumbling local politicians. It is why local politicians are contented that great scams and corruption in higher government levels become possible and they have no shame. Every project and scheme formulated, which ought to have been prestigious landmarks in India’s progress such as the National Rural Health Mission and Genrum became scenes of the greatest of scams in the national level as well as in the state and local levels. Their only purpose is abating the unrest of lower level politicians.

Article Title Image By Steve PB. Graphics: Adobe SP. 

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A poor agricultural laborer, house servant or street vendor works from morning till evening, collects his day’s earnings and run to the ration shop for obtaining his rice, sugar, wheat and cereals before the shop closes. It is all a rush act, unknown to bosses lolling in state assemblies and parliaments. He gets the ration at subsidized prices and he is satisfied. The Food Corporation of India, the wholesale depot and the retail ration depot may steal something from his ration but he is still satisfied, because he can get it within the limited time available to him and with his limited cash. The government says this price of ration shall not be less than the market rate, and the difference will be paid to his bank account as subsidy which he can encash at the bank. Where do they think he will get the time to go through all the humility and shame of standing before an arrogant bank officer for the whole day, waiting for his name to be called, told at last that there is a technical error or that the computer system is down for a few days? How can he spend his days at a bank for fear of loosing his actual employment which helps him to win his daily bread? It is that person’s ballot that made the assembly member, parliament member, finance minister, prime minister and president. Who is there to speak for him or is he to speak through megaphones and press releases? Ingratitude is something a man recognizes easily and that is what the thought that passes through the tired mind of that person waiting at the bank for his ration subsidy is. Subsidy is what this poor man’s representatives sitting in assemblies and parliaments receive as free house, water, electricity, car, driver, servant, security, protection, air travel, train travel, treatment expenses, constituency allowances and perks, for boycotting assemblies and parliament. Enjoyed by sitting members and thousands of ex-members, they are what ruin the country of its economy, not this poor man’s ration subsidy for rice, wheat, sugar and kerosene. Ingratitude has its bounds, and no representative shall jump boundaries. They only represent people, don’t own them; if they think so, that’s a great mistake. A people’s representative will not loose his daily wages for collecting his subsidies from bank because that poor man via state pays salaries to staff for attending such chores. But who pays that poor man for attending bank for one day and loose his daily wage, or if his employer is infuriated, the job itself? If every people’s representative in India paid for his house, water, electricity, gas, petrol, car, driver, servant, travel and treatment inland and abroad, and was paid no pension but salaries alone, there would have been no need for subsidies, for India would have been a very rich country. The poor people know this while shouldering the present and future of all these representatives for taking decisions to destroy them, wondering all the while ‘which people they represent’. 

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A state cannot go on continuously giving out subsidies but if it has to, the state has the only option of reducing administration expenses and curtaining corruption. In India, the total amount spent on state subsidies is only a fraction of the total amount involved in scams each year and the amount siphoned out to foreign banks by those few persons who directly take part in the government. Calling out all illegal and unauthorized secret bank accounts abroad alone will make up for the amounts the country needs to continue giving out subsidies to the poor. India ranks number one in stashing black money abroad. Failure of the government in returning all this money to India was what necessitated the withdrawal of state subsidies on food ration, petrol, gas and kerosene. These people who took away the money which rightly belongs to the people of India might be favourites, pets and sons and daughters of the government but the people who need these subsidies to continue are the actual owners of the country. Taking away their essential subsidies to compensate for this stolen money is not what a government is authorized to do. There is an easy explanation the economists and finance ministers of India give for curtailing subsidies- they do not want their nation to become like paupered Greece, Mexico or Brazil. The explanation is relevant, only in the fact that along with India, these were the countries money colonialists like Wal-Mart flowed billions to buy governments to set their foot on those countries. Every Indian economist and finance minister in his day time and dream time remember that they were accessories to heavy corporate bribing and fear when the amounts each received would be revealed to the American government and Congress by these companies. Examples of what happened in Mexico and Brazil are live and vivid in their minds, a terror on their political security. No countries they mention to have introduced Direct Cash Transfer has as much amount of black money stashed abroad unable to be brought back by government as India. If they want the example of another nation to reiterate, the apt one is the smallest welfare country in the world, the 18 mile island of Nauru, between Australia and Philippines, which subsidized even the foreign studies of its children on the power of its phosphate which would have sustained them through centuries. Like India, their greedy rulers allowed foreign countries to loot their minerals freely which soon exhausted. When the people of Nauru thought they could still sustain themselves through their National Phosphate Welfare Fund, international auditors showed that 95 percent of it had been stolen by their rulers and their island had been heavily borrowing from international banks and consortia. What difference is there in the fate of this smallest of nations and that of the largest democracy of India with this kind of greedy and corrupt rulers? 

[In response to news article ‘Subsidies through direct cash transfer a blow’ on 14 January 2012]

113. Delhi students take to street demanding justice for the dead girl. P S Remesh Chandran

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Delhi students take to street demanding justice for the dead girl

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 Article Title Image By Autthaporn Pradidpong. Graphics: Adobe SP.

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The last time the student community of India took to the streets was in the 1970s when, inspired by the very old Jayaprakash Narayan and his fight against the corruption in India, students in Universities from Kashmir to Kerala left classes for weeks and weeks, many of them never to return, and took to the streets to protest against the corruption of the congress government. This student community of India which did not get mesmerized by the brilliant speeches of the young Turks in the congress party or by the magical eloquence of the socialists going after a grand old man, obeying his instincts and words, was a great wonder in those times. What happened next, we all know. The largest people’s movement in India against governmental corruption since the time of the Indian Independence Struggle followed, at the end of which Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, as advised by Brezhnev, declared national emergency to curb the unrest, Jayarakash Narayan was arrested with all opposition leaders and tortured in jail, she and her party was thoroughly defeated in the next parliament election, every atrocity and corruption conducted by Sanjay Gandhi, Maneka Gandhi, V.C.Shukla and a multitude of others exposed in the Justice Shaw Commission Trials, Indira Gandhi arrested and put in the Tihar Jail by the Morarji Desai administration, the sequence of events running till militant Sikhs took her life, ‘in their opinion’, for past crimes. It was a simple students’ struggle that originated as a protest against corruption and culminated in all these political and historical events in India. As it was in the past, the seed has been sown. Now again the student community of India, presently in the national capital New Delhi, is in the streets, protesting against central government’s inaction, even after hundreds of girl rapes having happened in New Delhi each year, the Chief Minister of Delhi having had a long time at her disposal to stop this criminal rapes, the woman Chief Minister moaning about her inability to either act or resign, the central government and the prime minister eagerly awaiting the signing of defense deals worth billions with Russian president in the midst of this mayhem, and supportive struggles starting in several state capitals. What we now see in New Delhi and in many other state capitals in the form of student agitation is an indication of how the future Indian citizens are going to think. They do not fear, they do not need a leader and they do not need a conventional medium to communicate, the actual warning to all Indian politicians and leaders that they are not at all qualified to lead them or govern the country for them. Intelligence Quotient proven in national open competition alone will determine the future prime ministers, cabinet ministers and parliamentarians of India. This young generation exactly resembles the zeal and modus operandi of events which shook the world recently and brought about the fall of governments in many countries.

Article Title Image By Michelle Ding. Graphics: Adobe SP. 

Delhi’s Chief Minister, her cabinet ministers, their senior bureaucrats, party supporters and sympathizers did a silent march in Delhi streets, with full state security and protection, demanding justice for the dead girl. This incident was what startled the nation more than the actual brutal incident. Everyone who never cared to do anything against rapists assembled at one place! The Who is Who of Delhi, who remained immobile during the months and months of Delhi crimes, with rape cases and women molestation cases being reported almost every day. During all these months, not one of them found it their national duty and responsibility to respond to the atrocities against women in the capital city of India, now parading through the streets, supposedly protesting, with state protection and security of course. Protection against whom? Demanding justice for the victim of a heinous crime which the state’s vigil could easily have prevented from happening. Demanding justice for whom? With this much intelligent and highly paid politicians moving around and working in Delhi, it is inconceivable to believe that their collective knowledge bank does not have relevant knowledge on the identities of Delhi’s main sexual crime perpetrators. We know, to win elections, they all essentially have to seek the vote and help of every decent and crooked voter in Delhi. No corner of the city is unknown to them or their supporters and followers. Why didn’t they during all these years report the activities of at least one women molester whose activities they or their party men came across through these years? Where a beggar comes to possess ten more rupees above his daily average earning, where a money lender is able to squeeze a hundred rupees more from a borrower, where a merchant sell fake and dubious things and makes a thousand more rupees as profit, and where a company operate profitably without obtaining any licenses, these dignitaries are there, asking for more money for their party collections. How will they omit to notice the names and identities of women molesters alone in Delhi? We know, the bus involved in this crime had tinted windows in spite of the new regulations. How many of these persons who paraded in this official charade of a protestation knew or knew not why authorities permitted this bus to run with tinted glasses? Was this bus regularly used by powerful people, powerful politically and economically, to abuse women, if not how will they dare operate unauthorized transport services from a public bus stand in India? Was this the only activity of this bus: are many other buses like this in our country’s capital? Instead of revealing answers to these questions which every Indian who caste a vote in the election asks, they parade the streets, demanding justice! Are they demanding justice for the offenders before they speak and call out names? This is the first time in India that a state head takes to the public road to demand justice for a raped and mutilated girl. They all divide parliament seats based on which religion each candidate is born into. They divide state cabinetships based on the strength of each religion in their won party. Can anyone of them say publicly which religion’s justice they demand, Christian, Muslim, Hindu? Moses set the rule in such a way that it will have to be one eye for an eye, one hand for a hand, one life for a life. Muslim and Hindu sets of rules also are not different or gentle either. What troubles them most is not any of these, but the most ridiculous problem of what can be a new law against rape named after!

[In response to news article ‘Delhi students take to streets for the dead girl’ on 14 January 2012]


Article Title Image By Micheile Henderson. Graphics: Adobe SP.  

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When we read about a very heinous atrocity committed on a woman, or when we see a television report on the same, our blood will boil and we will rush to some spot where we can do something worthwhile. That is human nature, a very desirable human nature. Rich or poor, young or old, man or woman, student or housewife, does not make any difference in this human attitude. If we come to know that a protestation is already going on in our neighbourhood, we will rush to that venue and participate. If it is in our state capital, we will get aboard the next bus and go there, if circumstances permit. But if it in Delhi that this protest is going on, we cannot all go there, but will certainly wish our hearts support go with them. This citizens feeling is what saved India from British hands. When people assembled for protests, the British loathed them and wished them death, because they knew that if people’s protests grew each day in mass, strength and ferocity, their foreign careers would be ruined, their privileges and pleasure would be taken away and they will have to pack up from India. So they moved the papas and mommies to ask British police and military to crush down people’s protestations and remove any threat to their contented and happy lives. When they look from their lofty imagination, it will appear that these people are well governed by my papa, mummy and cousin, these people does not deserve the services of such dignified people and they are committing a crime against divinity by questioning their country’s administration. These are the thoughts that are going through the minds of sons and daughters of all leaders in power. It is they who bring about the fall of their papas and mammas. India’s political history is full of such sons and daughters. Just remember the case of Smt. Indira Gandhi who was a very good prime minister indeed. One famous congress leader who very nearly reached prime ministership had a son whom he brought into politics as his successor and political heir who did not have the tact, patience and tolerance to co-exist with his father’s party supporters who sensed the danger and prevented the leader from becoming a prime minister. We cannot blame these leaders for getting into these kinds of circumstances. With politically ambitious sons and daughters, they are like swimmers who are forced to swim the seas with a rock ties down from their ankles.

[In response to news articles ‘PM Singh calls for calm after gang rape sparks violent protests’ in The Guardian on 24 December 2012 and ‘President's son terms Delhi women protestors 'dented-painted', and apologizes’ in Yahoo News]

Article Title Image By Siddhant Singh. Graphics: Adobe SP.  

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The first thing the Indian Prime Minister ought to have done was look back into the ranks and files of his own party. If every parliament member who has ever been accused of rape and women molestation were thrown out of party and parliament, how many parliament members would Congress Party have in the parliament now? One person from Kerala who has been accused as a culprit in one of the cruelest gang rapes in the state is officiating as the Vice Chairman of Rajya Sabha. Investigating officers split in their public opinions and have been constantly alleging that their subordinates and superiors did everything in their power to keep this politician out of law’s grip. Instead of resigning out of self respect or being thrown out of party by leadership, how contradictory and strange would it be he presiding over debates on enactment of new laws against rapes and women molestation! The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the world. Even then, the people of America did not find it inappropriate or difficult to throw him out of presidency on account of his involvement in a molestation case. America is the most powerful democracy in the world and it proved its worth and guts by showing to the world that if their president cannot protect the rights of women or even get involved in one of such cases, he would be thrown out of mercilessly, regardless of how important and inevitable his contributions and role have been in keeping the world politics and economics balanced. India which claims that it is the largest democracy in the world, not only in being the democratic nation with the largest population but also the nation where the largest number of people undergoes election process, shivers at the thought of dismissing rapists and molesters from power. So, whatever our politicians, including our prime minister, talk about actions which are going to be taken against such low-bred creatures is a farce, meant to cool things for a while. Why most politicians and bureaucrats do not want capital punishment for rapists is because of their anxiety about what would happen when their sons or they caught one day for such crimes. If one is clean and if one’s son is clean, one needn’t fear capital punishment for sexual killings. Objection to this type of punishment comes from unnatural persons with unclean past or future intentions. Those who argue for lesser punishments and ‘humane’ treatment for sexual killers are the persons who make sexual killings safe for offenders and make them happen. They conveniently make people forget the 2000 years’ penal history of India. It is they who ensure by their ‘humane’ protests that they can continue to wallow in the pleasure of reading sexual crimes till the end of their days. If we look closely and scrutinize their lives, we can see that they are perverts, caring nothing about the safety of women and children and living in isolated rich ivory towers, every one of them.

[In response to news article ‘PM calls for women safety; Delhi rape accused says had an accomplice’ in DNA India News on 21 April 2013]

Article Title Image By Alex Jones. Graphics: Adobe SP.  

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We know, the bus involved in this crime had tinted windows in spite of new regulations. How many of these persons in the Delhi administration knew or knew not why authorities permitted this bus to run with tinted glasses? Was this bus regularly used by powerful people- powerful politically and economically- to abuse women, if not how will they dare operate unauthorized transport services from a public bus stand in India? Was this the only activity of this bus: are many other buses like this in this country’s capital? Instead of revealing answers to these questions which every Indian ask, Delhi administrators paraded the streets, demanding justice! Were they demanding justice for the offenders before they spoke and called out names? This is the first time in India that a state’s head took to the street to demand justice for a raped and mutilated girl. They all divided parliament seats based on which religion each candidate is born into. They divide state cabinetships based on the strength of each religion in their party. Can anyone of them say publicly which religion’s justice they demand- Christian, Muslim, Hindu? Moses set the rule in such a way that it will have to be one eye for an eye, one hand for a hand, one life for a life. Muslim and Hindu sets of rules also are not different or gentle either. What troubles them most is not any of these, but the most ridiculous problem of what can be a new law against rape named after! 

[In response to news article ‘A year later, family of Delhi gang rape victim press for full justice’ by Betwa Sharma in the New York Times on 16 December 2013]

Article Title Image By Jesse Belleque. Graphics: Adobe SP.