General Elections : India (2014)

Next year, 2014, our country, is headed to one of its most important periods of its democratic timeline since its independence in 1947-the general elections to choose its leader to head the country of more than 1.2 billion dreams for the next 5 years. As always, unless something dramatic happens, India is most likely to choose one from its two major political parties, the Congress or the Bharitiya Janata party (BJP). The Congress which is the current government is stained with enormous corruption and for increasing social problems& chaos in the country, while the BJP which is formed on the religious foundations of Hindtuva principle is no greater in morality. The one thing that stands out about the coming elections is that it is presumed by the “entire country and media” as a battle between two people, rather than two political parties, the two prime ministerial candidates, namely Rahul Gandhi-un-officially claimed candidate of congress and Narendrea Modi the current Gujarat chief minister from BJP.  

                      
                             A unique aspect about the BJP candidate is that there are always equal doses of praise and criticism for him in the society and media. He is hated by many for his alleged involvement in 2002 Gujarat riots but is also praised equally for his efforts of development that he claims to have achieved. To quote exactly in terms of development perspective, even though Modi’s state holds #2 in the country in terms of power generation and it is indeed the industrial hub of India. However, states like and including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab etc. have all reported to be doing better in terms of GDP, human development index, and child nourishment, conditions for women and education sector and so on-in the recent years. In fact a lot of praise can be given to states like Bihar or Odisha which have shown improvements given all odds of circumstances against them. It can be said that the entire nation itself is trying to develop and every state needs each other to do so. However, I see no problem for BJP in choosing him as their candidate since it’s their own choice but the only thing that worries me most are his projections as a strong believer of religion in politics and- inclination for religious views. This is something to be fearful and watchful about. Just as times are changing and world is on the path of moving forward into advances of life and sciences, our country seems to head backwards by mixing religion with politics. I see a lot of propaganda from the young generation of our nation in social media and outside supporting Narendra Modi for his strong pro hindtuva agenda- and often feeling proud about their religion. Since India is a secular country with right to practice ones religion of choice, feeling proud is acceptable but to put it as the main agenda for the elections ahead of other important socio-economic problems is unacceptable. In democracy, mixing religion with politics is a signal of exponential decline of the state.
                  
                       Most importantly, It is upsetting to observe from all the political speeches given by both prime ministerial candidates of Congress and BJP at their respective rallies held thus far in view of forth coming elections- no one has till date proposed their understanding, insights or ideas about combating the major problems faced by our country today, such as – safety for women & children, corruption, the agricultural farmer’s suicides, the AFSPA or social other problems from north east, the naxal issue from the east coast belt of India, the problems of tribal populations, the issues of ever growing poverty, the forever rising prices of fuel or other common commodities like food inflation, the agenda on nuclear power, FDI, states bifurcation demands, unemployment, the rupee decline, foreign relations, health related problems – to name a few and the list is ever increasing.  There are numerous socio-economic problems that we face today as a country that need immediate answers with concrete long term solutions to which the politicians need to focus. The existing problems cannot be color coated by saffron/green or with any religion since hunger knows no religions. 

                      India is a country that has its roots from religious tolerance, equality, secularism and peaceful co-existence of people from different religions/communities which makes our country very special on the globe and we should put efforts to sustain our greatness and achieve development. 

Sleep Early to Stay Safe "Kolkata"

 

After the recent news reports, that showcased the various incidents of torture, assault, rape and murder of women on the streets of Kolkata in the past few weeks, the chief minister of west Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, issued a notice to all night clubs to shut down businesses in town by midnight -as an immediate measure to curb the horrific incidents happened against women. 

 According to me, this is not the right move. The act of not attacking the problem directly and instead playing around it-is showcasing her lack of responsibility towards citizens and is not something expected by someone who is bestowed upon the trust and responsibility by the people of the state in belief of a colorful future.

Restricting a certain population from hanging around the streets of the city after a certain time doesn't solve the actual problem- the social evil.The problem should be solved from the roots. The problem is not the night clubs or the people going to them but the problems  are the anti-social – frustrated –mentally sick– minds that take opportunity of helpless women.  Instead of just closing down night clubs, which is also restricting the freedom of the people of a democracy, there could be measures taken in terms of setting up safety measures. Like more surveillance cameras, more police personnel, many more measures for protecting the suppressed that need to be thought of by the government by keeping in mind various factors that limit/guide them in making the decisions.

According to me, more than this, there should be awareness about these acts should spread across all communities. There should be awareness made to children .Thoughts should spread amongst children-of today- as to- not to commit these social crimes. A permanent change can be anticipated by these acts. 

The major problem with these incidents is that, those committing these crimes are definitely not first timers, as most of these incidents go unreported. There should be awareness made to make women and children who are subjected to sexual harassments or domestic violence, in or near their community or college or work place or anywhere to come out and express the horror so that action can be taken against those committing them. There should be enough confidence built by the system regarding confidentiality of the reporters or assurance of action against the committers, so that people come forward and report the incidents. The government and NGO’s should work together in bringing about awareness and courage to face the incidents. Then there will be many persons brought under the law and the punishment for those committing these crimes should me made the highest and culprits should be made accounted for their crimes. 

The system and the law should be changed in such a manner that people who even imagine committing the crime should fear of being reported and also the gravity of punishment after. His sheer thoughts of pleasure via greedy evil crimes should be suppressed, quenched and impounded by the fear of mammoth suffering via punishment for the crime. 

Here are a few highlights about current law that generally prevents women from reporting the incidents and definitely separate them from justice. They need to be addressed to chop the wings of those uncivilized infected birds of the society. 

    a)    Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) defines rape “Rape (from Latin rapio, to carry off, to overcome) means an unlawful intercourse done by a man with a woman without her valid consent” Here the “Consent” is defined in six situations and is definitely a tricky term where most cases in the court are ruled against the victims and lets free the accused. 
    b)   According to Section 376 of IPC, the minimum imprisonment for a rape accused in 7-10 years but they are NOT NON-BAILABLE. A crime doer can escape with influence or other means at any time of the punishment tenure. 
   c)    The biased nature of the Indian law, Section 155 of Indian evidence act “When a man is prosecuted for rape or an attempt to ravish, it may be shown that the victim was of generally immoral character." Section 54 of Indian Evidence Act says, "In criminal proceedings (including rape) the fact that the accused person has a bad character is irrelevant, unless evidence has been given (by him) that he has a good character, in which case it becomes relevant."  This is sheer injustice to the women 
section of the society. This is clearly not what we claim “equal before the court of law”

Likewise, there are many more loopholes in the law that prevents the prosecution of the guilt. The proceedings in the court should be made very rapid for these cases so that all cases can be addressed quickly and efficiently and so there should be fear of punishment rooted into these rotten minds. Hence, there is certainly room for improvement in the Law for better society.

But, as we all know power and fear can never change the minds and thoughts of humans. The change should come from the minds. Within these Trojan infected minds a medicine- realization should rise to permanently end these social crimes. Then these persons will learn to behave like humans and not like- animals. They will realize the importance of feelings and try to understand the horror the victims face due to the tragedy. 

I am not quite sure how to end this article but I am going to end it by quoting the panacea, “awareness is the key to all social problems” 

Save "Democracy" !

Fast for a cause-Article 19 of the Indian constitution gives its citizens, the right to freedom of expression and speech, the right to go on a hunger strike as a mode of expressing their dissent over unlawful acts or injustice in the country.

India has witnessed numerous incidents protests via fast for, a purpose, achieving democracy and independence pre independence, to stand against various instances of unruly actions of the government since independence.

Recent developments in the country, needless to mention about the shameful acts, like the looting of public funds and vandalizing the hopes of people, have made the people restless and desperate for a change to see a clean society. This gave the social activists fighting for lokpal bill, a bill that is designed to attack anyone who is guilty of corruption irrespective of their wealth/power and other virtues which make the law disabled to bring them to justice, a chance to put forward their movement into limelight in hope to get the long awaited lokpal bill passed-which one the flip side is a bit over reaching than it is supposed to and also undemocratic in some ways  and loosely flawed  which could be corrected to match and benefit a democratic country like ours. In this scenario to start debates for setting up lokpal bill a fast-unto death-protest was under taken by Shri Anna Hazare during early 2011 which was welcomed with huge reception by the Indian crowd including over the internet. The talks began and ended in despair as the two teams, government & social activists, failed to come to a conclusion over the bill.

Now what Anna Hazare has done unknowingly in this process of protesting is that he has sparked off a trend in the society. Trends which like a medicine can turn harmful when taken without a prescription and even poisonous when in overdoses. Immediately after the talks broke for Lokpal raised into limelight the yoga guru of India, Baba Ramdev and sparked a controversy when he narrated his plans to build an army against the Indian state. Then the infamous fast by Tinku urging the government to give him admission into IITs.

The support to fasts by Anna Hazares and Ramdevs may be attributed largely to the lost hopes of people over the government and partly to the media. The media on the same lines can be blamed for being biased, not many people are even aware of the 10 year old -still ongoing- fast by Irom Sharmila fighting for removal of arms act from Manipur or about the 115 day old fast which ended in death of the protester for saving river Ganga,Swami Nigamananda.

Now what I fear from the most is that this phenomenon of picking up fasts for every desire on mind and expecting positive results in return may actually demean the respect protest via fast has earned till date. Even more than this, the wide range of unrest that is created by these fasts have an impact on the life of a common man. As I quote “a common middle class man may afford losing money from his pocket without his knowledge but cannot tolerate losing his daily bread. Even worse the government may rule out protests like these as attempting to committing suicide as mandated under the Indian Penal Code and cease them permanently which is again undemocratic and leads to unrest .

With continued protests and threats like these which results in building unrest amongst the people ,halt the progress of the nation and destabilize the society and may actually lead to downfall of democracy and state which is totally unnecessary for a country like India. Instead I would recommend the protesters for Lokpal to either build a bill that is feasible and ready to adapt to Indian democracy or to contest in the coming elections and lead a party to change the society in a more democratic manner rather than what is happening now. And for the government I urge them to open their eyes to work efficiently and effectively to curb any further corruption. Overall it is a vicious circle.