India Political Blog

The Women’s Reservation Bill, a long pending legislation, was finally brought into Parliament for voting, and it produced the anticipated furore. The Government (and the previous BJP Government) had long dithered over getting in the bill to vote, worried about the impact of the Bill on their supporting parties. For example, even though the Government has a majority in the Lok Sabha and in the Rajya Sabha, it is a wafer thin majority and has a comfort level in terms of support from the BSP, the RJD and the SP. All these parties are primarily the parties of the oppressed classes and remain very worried that a Bill which ensures the reservation of seats for women will be primarily cornered by women from the classes that are not part of their supporting bases and which will cut into their possible seats. Hence, they produce a vociferous reaction to the Bill and couch it in terms of asking for a reservation for OBC’s and Muslims in the Bill, and hope that such a demand will make the Bill infeasible. In the past, such protests (along with an implicit push back by male MP’s in the main parties – the Congress and the BJP) have worked to derail attempts to pass the legislation.
It is only in this session that the Congress, inspired (and pushed) by Sonia Gandhi (along with all the political calculations required for the passing of such a controversial bill) has made a push to get the bill passed, and after a initial push in the Rajya Sabha on World Women’s Day (where the expected protests did materialize and derailed the Government’s attempts), the Government pushed to get the Bill passed on the next day; for this purpose and for suppressing the protests, the Government even used Marshals to push out some of the unruly MP’s.

Read the rest of this entry »

Typically in India, the criminal justice system has not been handling the crime of rape very well. The confidentiality of victims is not maintained by either the media or by the judicial system, cases take a long time to happen (if you leave aside the fast track cases, which are an exception); the medical examination in the police process or the cross examination in the courtroom are not fully cognizant of ensuring that the victim’s sensitivities are kept in mind (with some cross examination being distinctly hostile, in some cases, implying that the victims were asking for it). Then, when the actual case is going on, natural principles of justice are given a go-by; this happens when the testimony of the alleged victim is enough to incriminate the accused (with the moralistic attitude that no lady would accuse rape unless it was true). However, this is not enough, since such a slant in favor of the alleged victim can be mis-used in many cases (with judges and courts getting swayed by the testimony of a defenceless victim and deciding to convict the dastardly villain even if the circumstances are questionable and the evidence is not enough to convict the accused beyond a reasonable level of doubt).
One area where morality and law were setting out on a conflict was in terms of a future relationship. The morality in India says that because the honor of the victim has been sullied, no one will take her, and maybe it is easiest for everybody if she marries the accused (and any child that may be born of the crime also has the natural father). This has been objected to very strongly by many organizations, by the courts, and by the media, since this assumption of a loss in honor of the victim, along with the effort to marry her off, would imply that she has no self-respect; further, this does not take into account the fact that she had been subject to an incredible humiliation by the accused, and that any person who did this to her could not be trusted with her future. He would be just trying to save himself from a sentence, and once free, would be free to subject her to more torture and even forced sexual interaction. Courts have also been refusing to entertain such requests by the accused in rape cases and throwing out their efforts.

Read the rest of this entry »

Indian rivers are filthy, with frequent reports of how the level of contaminants in the rivers of the country (including the holy rivers) is much (many times) over the levels that are fit for humans to even bathe in, forget drinking. As an example, the Yamuna is now considered to be of the same level as a drain in Delhi; at its entry into Delhi, it is bad for human consumption, and by the time it leaves the capital, it is so saturated with filth and pollution that it is considered dangerous to humans. In the last 1-2 years, there have numerous articles about how all the major rivers are India are facing the same level of pollution. In Punjab, the Sutlej had a huge number of fish suddenly dying because of the uncontrolled release of effluents.
Is the situation treatable ? Apparently not if one goes by the efforts undertaken by the Governments (both central and state). What has happened that huge amounts have been spent in the name of of Ganga and Yamuna Pollution control, and yet the rivers have only got more polluted. Refer this article (link) and you can see how the levels of pollution in rivers has increased drastically in the last decade.

In just over a decade, India’s major rivers have been desecrated. Urban filth and industrial pollution are scientific causes, but what drives them is personal greed and administrative indifference. Environmentalists believe that apart from industrial pollution and sewage, the increase in number of slaughterhouse, dhobi ghats, crematoria and slums are the major sources of pollution in these rivers. Every year, religious idols are immersed in rivers which lose a little more of their life as they are choked yet again.
Read the rest of this entry »