India: Rushing Through The Bills And A Clueless Opposition!

While the opposition political parties of India have been clueless about what to stand for and how to stand for, the ruling political party with its huge majority or a brute majority have been getting used to rushing through the bills in Parliament of which the prime example had been the Three Farm Laws in 2020 pandemic times (had to be repealed last month due to sustained opposition by the farmers) along with other examples, especially after the party’s second landslide in 2019. ‘Rushing through’ essentially means getting the bills passed in a hurry with mostly voice votes rendering ‘debate’ a mere formality. Yesterday, Monday the 20^th of December 2021, the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill-2021 was passed by the Lok Sabha without any debate despite strong opposition to the move. Today, the Bill has also been passed by the Rajya Sabha amid an opposition walkout, and with the Presidential assent being only a formality this move to link the Aadhaar Card to the Voter ID is set to become a law.

 

Why oppose this inevitable move as it traces back to 2013 and only thanks to the verdicts of the Supreme Court of India in the past few years responding to pleas against the moves, the linking could be accomplished only partially till now? The Election Commission of India (ECI), a supposedly independent constitutional authority, has been asking for this reform since long time in a bid to eliminate bogus voting and duplication of voter cards. The Government justifies this move by standing with the ECI and adding to it that the said linking is still ‘voluntary’; that it proposes to be ‘gender neutral’ changing ‘wife’ to ‘spouse’ that will allow both husbands and wives in service vote from the same location; that the voters can register for voter cards four times in a year now instead of just once so far; and that not providing the Aadhaar Card does not necessarily mean that the applications will be rejected.

 

The opposition political parties and some other stakeholders are saying that this is a ‘dangerous’ move leading to deletion of the names of many voters the likes of which had been seen after the ECI decided upon the linking in 2015, enrolling more than 300 million citizens already; that the Government is set to resort to ‘target’ the voters having the profiles of the citizens thus stored in the ECI data base in view of the forthcoming assembly elections in five states; that the fraudsters can have a very good time thanks to possible exploitation of the same data base; and most importantly that the country still not having a Privacy and Data Protection Law in place this might lead to breaches and leaks of personal data. The last point carries a lot of weight, and ideally, the Government should’ve first ‘rushed through’ the Privacy and Data Protection Bill, and then could’ve made the elections reforms bill fool-proof.

 

However, leaks and breaches in the personal data bases have been taking place all over the globe from various sources quite frequently in these digital days—the banks to the social media—and fraudsters have been in the act of resorting to various ‘creative’ measures to cheat people. While as per the Supreme Court orders that submission of Aadhaar Cards cannot be demanded by private entities, the banks, public or private, and the telecom companies have been making the card mandatory for accounts, credit cards, SIM cards, address proof or for change of address and so on. Besides, the linking of the Aadhaar Card to the PAN card has been made mandatory for Income Tax purpose. Of course, the Supreme Court has given some relaxations to some of the above and more for the purpose of digital payment gateways; but the distinction between ‘voluntary’ and ‘mandatory’ disclosures of Aadhaar Card details through the biometrics often gets blurred. We would say there is actually nothing wrong in going for the Card by all the citizens of the country and thus release the outlets for a range of benefits and conveniences.  

 

Politics has always been the mainstay in a democracy like India, and the ‘brute majority’ enjoyed by the ruling party has been the real concern for the largely disjointed opposition political alliances. Now, all the opposition parties are alarmed about the possible benefits through this ‘linking’ law for the ruling party in the forthcoming assembly elections rather than the justifiability of the ‘linking’. As far as we the citizens are concerned both the ruling party and the opposition must focus on the real issues of concern rather than indulging in petty and electoral politics.

 

In the midst of repeated disruptions in the winter session of the Parliament over issues, prominently on a union minister and his on being involved in the Lakhimpur-Kheri incident in Uttar Pradesh where at least four farmers were mowed down by the son’s vehicle, another bill, the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill has been presented in Lok Sabha today, aiming at making the marriageable age uniform for both men and women, again leading to opposition protests. The proposed bill wants to raise the marriageable age for girls from 18 to 21 which makes it uniform with the boys. Some of the opposition political parties are protesting against the move saying that at the age of 18 one becomes an adult, eligible to vote also, and therefore, the girls attaining the age of 18 should have the right to decide about their future in choosing to get married if preferred. Such was the ruckus in the lower house that finally the bill had to be referred to a Parliamentary Panel for scrutiny, and with just two days left for the winter session it may not be possible for the ruling party to ‘rush through’ again.

 

However, this move must be supported for the simple reason of uniformity between males and females. To add more reason to our support, the boys become graduates at about the age of 21 and many of the girls getting or forced into marriage are thus deprived of higher education. The argument by many social activists that the practices of child marriage and child labor still persist in our society does not hold much water. The opposition against the bill is more of a reflection of the mindset of a patriarchal society than having any solid ground to object to the proposed move by the Government. A step in the right direction can always help better our society in future, and most importantly, no government can ever change the values of a society whatever way it tries. The feudalistic patriarchal domineering mindset still prevails in this country and this includes many political leaders too across various parties, not excepting the ruling party at all. No wonder, the crimes against women continue unabated and the bill for ensuring reservation for women in Parliament has been pending for years. 

Crimes Against Women: The Bestial Lows!

 Accept it or not: feudalism had never left India. The feudal forces of exploitation, torture and crimes still flourish, particularly in the northern belt of the country including, prominently, the most populous state of India, Uttar Pradesh (UP), with its around 20 Crore people. This state has been the hotbed of crimes against women, communal violence, maximum custodial deaths, fake encounters and so on for decades, even though its crime rate does not still top the list thanks to its enormous population.  

 

The powerful upper castes here continue playing the dominating roles as landlords, politicians, criminals, rapists and mafias. And they work in tandem forming a huge empire of vested interests that percolates down favorably to the local authorities, including the police in particular. Naturally, there has always been an overpowering spirit of mutual protection between them. Whenever any of the feudal lords is under a cloud of doubt or danger the corresponding forces get into motion by engineering cover-ups or the like, finally ensuring their protection against all odds.

 

All low-caste inhabitants are untouchable for them, except their women. The upper-caste men or their off-springs or their domesticated goons prowl constantly for an opportunity to torture, rape and kill low-caste women, sometimes as measures of punishment for what they decide is wrong, and sometimes just for carnal pleasures. The poor down-trodden low-caste menfolk, subdued in a continuous process of oppression, watch dumb and numb, and if some dare to protest the feudal counterparts in the local administration act immediately, suppressing them ruthlessly. Of course, there would be exceptions always when low-caste individuals manage to infiltrate the upper-caste bastion, assuming important positions of power.

 

During the last few COVID-19 infested months the notorious state has been witnessing a series of brutal rapes and rape-murders, one after the other as if those beasts achieved acquired immunity to possible action by the administration or the justice system. One of such inhuman acts happened on the 14^th of September 2020 at Hathras in UP when a 19-year-old low-caste girl was waylaid, abducted, gangraped and physically brutalized by four upper-caste beasts, almost to the point of death. With her bruised-battered body, her spine broken and her tongue cut the victim just managed to reach home, and was immediately admitted in the local hospital. Later, as her condition became critical, she was transported to a hospital in Delhi. Details of her treatment there are unclear as the media that time were head-to-foot engaged in the investigation of some glam gals.

 

The media or some of it, hopelessly polarized as they are in India, woke up only when the unfortunate girl died on 29^th September. They were forced to stay awake as the UP police hurriedly took away the body to Hathras, and cremated it around 2.30-3.30 AM on the next day, without the victim’s family’s wish or consent or permission. And then only, the media decided to make it a national outrage recalling, justifiably, the horrors of the Delhi Gangrape case in 2012 that shook the nation leading to a mass movement against the rapists and drastic changes in the legalities of crimes against women.

 

The UP police went on with its brazen act. Some of their top cops even said that it was not a case of rape at all: the girl died due to a neck injury the intensity of which made her bite off her tongue. Their sayings were supposedly based on tests done one week after the incident, and the final autopsy report. More acts followed in apparent haste: the victim’s family was isolated, their phones being allegedly snatched away; the whole village of Hathras was sealed not allowing anybody to enter or exit; political leaders of the opposition parties were blocked, arrested and even manhandled; the now-desperate media were also not allowed to enter Hathras.

 

First, the police gave the COVID-19 excuse for such coercive measures, and then, as the state Chief Minister announced a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe, they said no one would be allowed to enter till the probe was over. The family must be protected from outside influence and any possible tempering of evidence must be prevented, they also maintained. The top cops further strengthened the apparent cover-up by saying that it was a conspiracy to fuel upper-caste versus lower-caste community tension.

 

The nation exploded then: people, women activists and political parties coming out on streets protesting; the High Court giving a notice to state government to explain the hurried cremation; Human Rights groups asking for explanations and so on. But crimes against women in the state continued unabated, at least two more women being brutalized and murdered in the last two days. The feudal status-quo and the brazenness only got heightened, with the state being ruled by the most powerful national political party. Instead of promising stern action and preventive measures the ruling dispensation chose to make mockery of protesting opposition leaders and others. In many instances of rape-murders in the recent past leaders of that political party were found to be involved, at times directly. A well-known former judge added more fuel to fire by building up a theory as to why men rape women, the COVID-induced unemployment being the main reason for such crimes, according to him.

 

In spite of the fast-tracking justice system in regard to crimes against women that was developed post 2012 Delhi case and the recent executions of three of the perpetrators, there seems to be no deterrent to the enemies of humanity who continue to wreak havoc on the society as they wish. This issue is seemingly beyond laws and the justice system. The society at large must take the final call, to prevent more horrors like Nirbhaya, Hathras and others in future. The society must break out of the exploitative feudal values and the vested interests’ nexus. Governments can only provide more effective laws, if at all; the society only can implement to ensure a protective environment for women.  

India: Protecting The Rapist

Juvenile or not—rape is the worst adult crime possible. Anybody who commits this crime is thus the worst criminal and justice must be meted out to him as sternly and ruthlessly as possible in total disregard to the age factor. The horrible Delhi gangrape of 16^th December, 2012 is still a nightmare in the minds of most of the right-thinking people of this country. Therefore, their pain and shock at the release of the most brutal of the rapists who happened to be just days short of the juvenile age of 18 as fixed by international and national standards is only natural. The disturbed and crying mother of Nirbhaya is a sight that can rattle the conscience of any except the ‘animals’ in human garb. The continuing protests in the national capital are just a reminder of the mass uprising against juvenile crimes in 2012 and onwards.

A juvenile criminal can be kept in a remand home for a maximum of three years for supposed ‘reform’ and then has to be released as per the prevailing law, international standards and a host of ‘child’ rights hue and cry. Thus, on the completion of that period on 18^th of December, 2015 the Delhi High court refused to extend the stay and accordingly the ‘animal’ was released on Sunday, the 20^th December in an undisclosed location in Delhi under police protection and supervision of an NGO. This would not be inhuman to say that such an act reminds us of taking unwanted dogs or cats on a ride and releasing them on locations from where they could not possibly return home.

Against all judicial odds the Delhi Commission for Women appealed against the release in the Supreme Court of India and an eager nation waited for the final verdict. Disappointing all righteous souls the Apex court had no other option but to dismiss the petition today, the 21^st of December, 2015. The judicial dilemma is palpable—the verdict delivered despite the opposition of the nation, the opposition of the Union Government and the opposition of most right-minded political leaders. What could the helpless mother of Nirbhaya do now apart from tearfully expressing her resolve to go on fighting the system that seems to be more interested in protecting the rapists and not listening to the victims?

Of course, there is no prejudice or bias in the judicial verdicts—because prevailing laws cannot be set aside unless there is a new legislation on juvenile acts. This brings us to the political scenario. In our wonderfully ‘democratic’ country we often find prominent political leaders trying hard to protect their rapist sons or relatives or even themselves from the law. Many of them question the victims or the survivors on what they wore or how they behaved before being raped rather than the perpetrators. Some of most prominent leaders even justify such acts as ‘natural outbursts of masculinity’. The archaic ‘feudalistic’ mindset of the largest democracy of the world refuses to leave it alone.

It also reflects predominantly on the political class that the Juvenile Justice(Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 is still not passed despite being approved in Lok Sabha in May this year. Well, for most of the political leaders who now join the ‘holy’ opposition the new ‘democratic’ standard is to prevent Parliament from functioning. Two full sessions of Parliament including the current one have been washed out almost completely thanks to their ‘so just and so non-corrupt’ stands. In our wonderfully ‘democratic’ country even ruling leaders call the Prime Minster a ‘psychopath and coward’. So pray, who would ‘demean’ themselves trying to find ways to take care of the victims rather than protecting the rapist.

Time came in 2012 and time comes again now that people make their crucial decisions themselves instead of depending on their so-called representatives. 

Crimes Against Women: Bollywood Villains Walking Out Real!

Even C-grade Bollywood (Hindi film industry based in Mumbai or earlier Bombay) movies show a kind of stark realism in terms of depraved, regressive and malignantly anti-woman villains. If you have been following Bollywood movies for at least the last three decades you must have noticed villains who when confronted with rapes committed (on screen) by their son/sons or male relatives normally say with pride, “He is a boy only…they commit mistakes man, please understand. In my prime time I too had done a lot of merrymaking. I’ll even burn this city to save my son!” These villains are dirty rich mostly being smugglers or business tycoons or plain dons and they carry the concerned ‘screen’ police force in their pockets. They do get punished in the end by the heroes, but after all the gory regressive oppressive chauvinistic feudalistic details shown gloriously by the filmmakers who definitely seem to pander to a sizeable male section of our society. However, you can hardly deny the ‘realism’ being portrayed with ‘painstaking’ details, particularly after you take notice of what has been happening in certain states of India like Uttar Pradesh in the perspective of the on-going General Elections of the country. This particular state of Uttar Pradesh has always been feudalistic and openly anti-woman—a point that we have mentioned here on several occasions.  Stiff opposition to Women Reservation Bill came from this state only cutting across all leaders of all political parties. Having easy access to modern weapons this kind of feudalistic practices is the most dangerous one and therefore we can say that Uttar Pradesh along with few other northern states are the worst possible enemies of womankind on our planet earth.

Veteran political leader of Uttar Pradesh, ex-Chief Minister and father of the present Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav  is the Samajwadi or Socialist Party (SP) of India Supremo, though his party is mostly full of anti-social or feudalistic elements. He seems to be severely pained by fast track courts delivering death or life sentences to horrible rapists in Delhi, in Mumbai and in other places of the country in the aftermath of the barbaric Delhi gangrape and the amendments in the criminal law that followed.  While asking for votes in an election campaign this great leader commented on the crimes of rape, “Boys are just boys…they naturally make mistakes. They should not be punished with death. Our party opposes the strict laws and the possible misuse of the same.” A national outrage erupted and even after that the great leader refused to apologize, so entrenched in his ‘beliefs’. What is more, his counterpart in Maharashtra, Abu Azmi, hardly caring for the outrage or sentiments blatantly decided to add to it, although one may say dictating a little more ‘balanced’ view. In an interview to a newspaper this fittingly ‘socialist’ leader reportedly said, “You see…the rapist is punished with death because he is guilty. But the woman or the rape survivor is equally guilty, and so both should be hanged. In fact all women, married or unmarried, having sex with a man with consent or being forced should be hanged.” His ‘solution’ encompasses hanging of the rape survivor too if not already murdered.

Well, this is the way our ‘leaders’ think of or about women. This abysmally shameful exploitative and perverted mentality prevails despite the national reawakening, despite the movement for prevention of crimes against women and despite the stricter laws being formulated. What can we do? We must carry on with our crusade nationwide and at this moment of elections we must vote against all such depraved animals of our society. India, the holy land of the Shakti cult or the revered Goddesses, we must rise up to the challenge, and restore and ensure full respect and complete safety for women.

Delhi Gudiya: The Rape Capital Shames India Again!

This time it was a five-year-old baby girl, lovingly called 'Gudiya’ (Doll), who fell to the perverted and fiendish greed of the rapists. She was reportedly abducted by a 25-year-old neighbor of her building on the evening of 15th April, 2013. The distressed family informed the police, but nothing was done except for registering an FIR with lot of delay. The point here to note here is that the family was a poor one with no political or influential connections to impress upon the police. And naturally, the ‘investigating’ officers never bothered to conduct a search in the building complex.

The baby girl was raped and tortured for more than forty hours. Finally, somebody heard her crying from inside a locked flat and she was rescued in a most precarious state. The neighbor seemed to have fled the premises as the noise over the abduction grew. The police arrived, and instead of taking the serious girl to a good hospital tried bargaining with the family for a cover-up. The family was allegedly offered 2000 bucks to remain silent and thus close the case. The 'magnanimous' police officials allegedly told the family that there was nothing now to worry about since Gudiya was found alive. 

Yesterday Gudiya was finally shifted to the best hospital in the city and protesters took to the streets creating a national outrage once again in the Rape Capital of India—Delhi— where only four months ago a brutal gang rape shook the government of India forcing it to consider the issue of crimes against women more seriously. Action, ordinances and draft bills followed in quick succession. Within three months the anti-rape bill was made into a law that aimed to cover a whole range of crimes against women prescribing the death penalty in the rarest of rare cases. But, unfortunately, all rape-related cases in a country inhabited by an overpoweringly large class of male chauvinistic monsters could only be commonplace occurrences while in most foreign countries such cases would be immediately termed as 'rarest of rare'. 

A team of specialized doctors started treating Gudiya. One of them said that he had never seen such barbaric torture inflicted upon a little girl.

More was in store. The same day yesterday some protesters barged into a police station demanding action and immediate punishment to the culprits. The police officers, true to their feudal colors, became oblivious even of the camera persons present there. Before a shocked nation one of them slapped a girl repeatedly and shoved the protesters out. The visuals went viral and angry reactions began to pour in from all quarters.

Even as the Prime Minister of India expressed his anguish and asked for stringent action to be taken Delhi Police showed little concern. The top cop never showed up and only a local Deputy Commissioner held a press conference last night. The Indian society, particularly the feudalistic northern belt, refused to change even after the most horrific Delhi Gangrape and the revolutionary aftermath. Another incident occurred at the same time at Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh where the body of a five-year-old girl with torture marks was recovered. When the mother of the child went to the local police station to lodge a complaint she was beaten and thrown out.

Money, power, corruption, perversion and degeneration have penetrated the Indian society to the core. If you do possess all these attributes you are fit to live in this country, if you try to be different better leave India.  In such a situation even strict laws, severe punishment and fast-track courts fail to act as deterrents. The only solution is a deep-rooted revolution. The Young India Movement for Change that started after the Delhi Gangrape must not be case specific and must go on without letup till it changes the ‘male-volent’ society.

Hope must still be kept alive in all our hearts. Gudiya is doing well as per the latest medical bulletin, but would need long-term reconstruction. The fiendish accused has been arrested in Bihar. A few police officials were suspended last evening, but suspension is only a stop-gap measure. All male monsters must be dismissed from service and arrested.

Maya Is Only Maya!

The genocides, tortures, murders and rapes currently coming to light in Uttar Pradesh of Northern India only prove that feudalism still rules in this region. Feudal lords of states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar may have assumed a democratic nomenclature, but  their basic nature and execution of duties remain horrifyingly the same as in the middle ages. The situation is confounded by still existing poverty, illiteracy, damnable traditions and exploding population.

Though bitter political fights are being fought over this saga of inhumanity, it’s hardly political. The ruling party may be under a lot of pressure and if this eventually effects transfer of  power to an opposition party the situation would not ever improve. This basically means a transfer of power from a feudal lord to another equally reactionary feudal lord. Feudal exploitation would remain its mantra.

No wonder, the Women Reservation Bill has been facing maximum opposition from these two states. Because, the basic principle of feudalism is to dominate and exploit women. The Lords would rather die of shame than elevating women. That the concerned Lord may be a woman too hardly matters.

From the ancient period the great sages and scriptures have been teaching us that the external world is only an illusion or maya. We should ignore it and try for internal bliss. So now, from the philosophical side whatever has been happening in Uttar Pradesh or in Northern India is only Maya (illusion). And, from the materialistic side it’s also Maya (wati)! We can only appeal to the sages to kindly reincarnate and tell us what to do!