Rape and Honour Killing - Is this the Nadir?

I wanted to write today about the plight of the six year old who was raped in an upmarket school in Bangalore.  But such is the state of affairs in the present day world that i read about worse things happening in the morning newspapers today that numbed my senses so much, that i decided to write about those first.

Just imagine reading headlines like ' 65 year old mom raped by 40 year old son', 'man badly mutilates a woman and left bleeding for 4 hours to die for refusing to allow him to rape her', '8 year old daughter raped by father' ....  Such pathetic news would have thoroughly disgusted us a few years back but now with a spate of such incidents, we have become so de-sensitised that they are being treated as routine crimes.  Surely they are not routine!! what's making these guys behave this way? what can the society do to stem this rot? But even such rotten news was nothing compared to the next headline from afghanistan - the one which numbed my senses so much and almost made me throw up  - '10 year old violently raped by maulvi in mosque, girl's private parts badly damaged, men in family want to secretly take the girl out of hospital and kill her so that family honour is saved' (I feel like throwing up even while punching in those letters now).  How sick can u get beyond this!! This must be the Nadir!!

Though honour killing can never be justified, there is still some kind of bizarre logic to it, if the girl has eloped or got into an affair with a boy from a family that her elders dont approve of. I am at no stage saying that honour killing is justified but only saying that in the conventional honour killing (sic), the girl atleast has a role to play.  Here was a 10 year old girl who was violently raped by a maulvi inside a mosque and admitted to a hospital in a critical state - How can you hold her responsible for what happened? She is just a little girl who would probably continue playing with her toys once the ordeal is over.  But will she be permitted to do that? 

If the family men so strongly feel about family honour - why not confront the perpetrator of the crime? why attack the victim? The investigation of the rape and subsequent judgement is beyond the scope of this post. That is for the law of their land to decide. But the important point is - how can the family hold the girl responsible? Just by killing her, will it erase the fact that she was raped or the fact that the family men have failed to protect her when she needed them the most!!

This is terrible news and we all must appeal to the good senses of the men of the girl's family who decided that family honour is more important than the girl's life. Please have some love and affection for the little one! Please let her live in the name of God!.

Apart from praying to the girl's family and hoping, we all must also do something to give hope and a fighting chance to the little one.  This event must not be allowed to pass as many others.  These are times that one needs to stand up and be counted and to prove that 'justice for all'  is not just a slogan for lip service.

Friends, I think the time to procrastinate is over and we need to act and act fast if we are ever going to make a difference to this little one. please take five minutes of your time and forward this to as many people as possible. You never know how it will work.  Somewhere someone down the line may be powerful enough to make a difference.  They could be a powerful individual or the UN or a country such as US of A or even India.  Let us try in earnest!!

I pray to God for her safety and i bestow upon her all the good wishes that i have accumulated over the years. Hope she gets back to a normal life soon!!

shiridi sai baba - needless controversy

jai shiridi sai baba

i wanted to recommence writing after visiting my favourite lord at his divine abode in shiridi but  as that could not happen in the last few weeks i prayed to baba at my home itself and started again. The needless controversy sorrounding baba due to the comments  of a holy man reignited the spark  to write but what actually brought in the urgency is the brutal rape of a six year old by two teachers in a school in bangalore. More about that later.

Coming to the comments on the favourite lord of many whose popularity is soaring by thousands with every passing day - i think its best if all the religions and faiths kept to themselves without imposing themselves on others and also by not trying to lay a claim on other's gods. I am an abject devotee of shiridi sai baba but i have also prayed to lord shiva (and many other gods including visits to churches n mosques) both with my parents and individually. 

We can love and pray to all our gods and godesses without needing  to mix them up or drawing comparisons. All faiths can have their own space and retain their beliefs and there is really no need for attempts to merge faiths!! May God help us in following our chosen faiths and beliefs in peace and harmony!!

Devyani Khobragade had immunity when charges filed, case dismissed

A US court ruled that Devyani Khobragade had immunity when charges were filed and case was dismissed.  Well, if that were be the case, should the court now put the government prosecutor in the dock for  straining international relations  just for nothing!!

I mean aren't they supposed to be accountable for wrongly subjecting a woman to such treatment, bring the budding relationship between two countries to a low, cause  big arguments in both countries for/against, cause alleged security problems for their own diplomats in india etc - just because they didn't check their facts right in the first place?!! No accountability at all?!! Amazing!!

Nirbhaya case: High court upholds death to 4 rapists - but where is the juvenile?

Glad to read that Delhi high court upheld the death sentence.  but where is the juvenile who allegedly was the most barbaric of the lot and the one who started using the rod!!

True and final justice will prevail only when he is also brought to book. Till then, the issue should not be closed

Ms Devyani Khobragade - All my thoughts

I read an article in the online version of the New Indian Express.  Thar article actually sums up all my thoughts and the whole issue and i am reproducing the link below.

http://www.newindianexpress.com/prabhu_chawla/US-Must-Realise-that-India-Can-be-a-Friend-Only-as-an-Equal-and-Not-as-a-Follower/2014/01/12/article1995409.ece
pse read on

Devyani Khobragade gets full diplomatic immunity and on her way to India

Devyani Khobragade gets full diplomatic immunity and on her way to India

Again the big question - what does it mean?

did America drop charges?

did they tender an apology?

These were the demands of all Indians and the Govt.  But if she is indicted by the court on criminal charges but only allowed to go on transfer to India, the acceptance of guilt is no where on the American side either for the sloppy handling of the nanny case or the illegal evacuation of her family.  Wont somebody be made accountable for that? Do we bring back the people who have been evacuated to the US?  And What happens to the alleged violations by US Diplomats in India then? 

We have to wait and watch the response of the MEA.

The saving grace is that the Lady would be back in India.  May God be with her in these troubled times.

Mr Preet Bharara - Enemy of both States?

Mr Preet Bharara may be a great and righteous lawyer fighting for the rights of the under priveleged.

But, history may blame him as the biggest saboteur of a budding Indo-US relationship.

I wonder if Mr Preet Bharara had seen the hollywood movie 'Taken'. The movie tells us that 1000's of US women are missing every year.  We can even see that at www. missingpersonsnews.com

If that be the case, why did he pick on a hapless diplomat who reported the matter (of the missing nanny) several times to US authorities (which was even acknowledged by them).  If he was really concerned about such issues, there are enough cases in the US itself which genuinely need the assistance of his high office. Of course, there would be no publicity for taking up those cases!!!  One may even get knocked off,  if the opponents involve organised crime syndicates!!

So is it easier to get on a moral high horse and brandish your sword at soft targets and become famous too?!!

                                                              (ordinary women protesting)

But India has also come of age. It is not just the elite who are protesting in the power corridors against this whimsical act but ordinary men and women have come out on the streets, which makes it extremely difficult for any Govt of the day to ignore it  and therefore this hard stand is likely to continue (and rightly so).

(These are young people and it will not be easy wiping these memories from them)

Picking up the pieces from hereon is not going to be an easy task especially when the trust levels are low. A long process, whenever it starts, but in the meantime there will be several mutual opportunities lost and several jobs missed. All because of one nanny (accused or conspirator?) and one man who thought (alleged) justice for her is more important than Indo-Us relations and thousands of jobs for people!!

Whatever may happen, but History will not be kind to Mr Preet Bharara on this issue.

Devyani Khobragade - Where do we go from here?

Where do we go from here? A country which was touted as a close friend of ours in recent times and which defined our relation ship with them as the most defining one of the 21st century has let us down so badly.  They not only stripped our diplomat's dignity but evacuated citizens of this country making a mockery of our system and our laws and to top it,  there is no sign of any remorse except for some lip service about how important the relation ship with India is.

Even the grant of Diplomatic immunity to Ms Devyani may not have been to oblige us. The litany of cases that would have followed against American diplomats in India, be it for commercial activities or spouses working without permits or non payment of indian taxes may have worked in Ms Devyani's favour.

But the question is - what happens now and how do we go forward with a country which has such utter disregard for a supposed strategic partner.  It is so bizarre that they choose to do it at a time when everything in the relation ship was hunky-dory. 

Are we going to gulp it and say 'business as usual' or are we going to stand up and fight irrespective of any immediate strategic or technological losses?!!

I hope our government of the day chooses the later.

Mark Twain - What a Thought!!!

(What i received on fb from a friend!!)

Devyani Khobragade strip search video

The US confirmed that the video is not of Ms Devyani and denounced the video as dangerous & fabricated.

Point taken. The lady in the video is not Ms. Devyani Khobragade.

But, it is still some lady and clearly all her rights have been violated. Being stripped and allowed to lie helplessly in front of so many male and female police officials is outrightly humiliating and it is a shocking depiction of the violation of human rights.

I am sure the US with all the latest gadgets and monitoring systems can very easily identify who the people in the video are and who had uploaded the video.

Frankly, if the video turns out to be a hoax, even we would be relieved, as the world does not expect US officals to behave so insensitively and in such an inhuman manner.

I hope they get to the bottom of this video case and bring the guilty to book.

Devyani Khobragade

14,827 murders                     i.e one every 40 minutes

84,376 rapes                          i.e one every 7 minutes

3,54,520 robberies                i.e one every 90 seconds

760,739 assaults                    i.e one every 45 seconds

89,75,438 property crimes   i.e 17 crimes every second

Which country do you think this is?!!

This is the United States of America!!!! (as listed by FBI for 2012) and this does not even include crime stats of  other law enforcement agencies/ unreported crimes!!!

Now, take a look at Ms Devyani's case in the above context. Prima facie, her offence (even if true) does not fall into any of the above types.  It is not at all serious that she has to be arrested in the manner she was. (Here, I am not writing about that handcuffing/stripping incident anymore because enough has already been written and seen on that). I want to analyse this situation by the reactions of the US state department spokes woman Ms Marie Harf who said the following - 

"...... we don't want this (incident) to define our relationship going forward and don't think that it will........ if you look throughout the region, if you look at Afghanistan, if you look at energy issues, economic issues, we have a whole host of things we work together on........And those are very important and shouldn't be derailed by this incident. And that's why, again, we are putting the process forward. We're setting that aside..........the relationship with India is incredibly important.....It's vital, and that's what we're focused on ........There's a lot of business we have to get done together, a lot of issues we work very closely on economically, diplomatically, and that's what's important to us and that's what's important to do moving forward, and I have no reason to think that that won't be the case."  Very Well said, Ms Harf, you echo the sentiments of over a billion indians and we truly like to believe what you say. If that be so, then why are you trying to scuttle it all, by sticking to a fraudulent visa charge against a career diplomat? Are you trying to say that the United States is 'holier than thou' and that there is no crime in your country?! if you have any such notions please have a look at your own crime stats on top.  This is without even mentioning the violation of various Indian rules by your Diplomats in India!!! It is rather bizarre that you are trying to put an end to a relationship which had taken years to fructify over something as silly as 'underpaying a nanny (which itself is not proven yet)', in the course of which you have grossly ill treated a woman diplomat and deliberately airlifted indian citizens against whom cases are pending in the Indian courts!!!  How do you expect us to trust you and treat you as our partner?  Do you think protecting the rights of one nanny (if at all she is the victim) is larger than saving thousands of jobs (from the defence/other deals india is ordering)?   Either you have no care for what India thinks or someone is deliberately trying to sabotage this budding relationship.   Anyway, to really take this relation ship forward, you need to cut down on the rhetoric of how important ties with India are and do some actual work on ground i.e grant of her accreditation  and offer an unconditional apology.