Unequal in the eyes of the law

AS the New Year approaches, the shock of the Section 377 judgment might recede into the background - but not for everybody. 

A friend of mine, a man, has been in a live-in relationship with his boyfriend for the past year-and-a-half at a rented south Delhi apartment. 

But, following the judgment, they were asked by the landlord to either move out before he complains to the police, or pay double the rent that they have been paying.

It's important to remember: the debate over 377 isn't just an academic one.

It wouldn't be wrong to say that the Supreme Court's verdict criminalising gay sex has erased the basic human rights of thousands of Indian citizens, and in the process given thousands of others the right to harass the LGBT community. 

We live in a country where love - real, normal love, not the syrupy Bollywood kind - is looked down upon by the masses. 

When lovers from different religious backgrounds elope, that becomes the pretext for a communal riots. Inter-caste marriages often result in cold-blooded murder. 

As if these all-too-common examples of society cracking its regressive whip weren't enough, now the court and cops have the power to prosecute people having consensual sex. 

The Supreme Court might be the highest authority in the land, but nobody should be allowed to brand someone a criminal because the person is in love or having sex. 

And claims that the law is barely used are no excuse - as my friend's case shows, simply having something like this on the books is enough to have a serious impact on the rights and liberties of ordinary people. 

The headlines will change and most people - even those who agitated on behalf of the LGBT community - will move on, but as we enter 2014, we must remember that an entire section of ordinary Indians have been rendered criminals for no fault of their own.

© 2013 Nasreen Ghani

Published in Daily Mail and Mail Today

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2531434/WHIPLASH-Unequal-eyes-law.html

The acid scar on our system

The attacker entering a salon with a jar full of acid.
(Source: Google)

IT wouldn't be wrong to say that India is one of those countries where women are tortured in the worst possible ways. 

They are killed in the womb, or after their birth; if they manage to survive and grow up, many of them are abducted and sexually assaulted and then tossed aside like cigarette butts on the road. 

As if this was not enough, jilted lovers and sexual predators are now increasingly hurling acid at their victims.

A bride-to-be in Ludhiana, who was getting ready for her wedding in a parlour, was scarred for life when a boy threw acid on her face on Saturday. 

The girl was 'punished' for reportedly turning down her tormentor's marriage proposal.

I wonder, from where did he, and many like him, get the courage to attack women so violently? Maybe it's because these men firmly believe in the weaknesses of the law. They probably assume they will never have to go to jail for such crimes, and in case they get caught they would be out on bail. 

The perpetrators seem to think: 'Death would be too easy for her (the victim); I'll give her a life that would be worse than hell.' 

After ruining the life of their 'targets', most culprits continue to live as usual. 

Remember what happened to those who threw acid on Sonali Mukherjee from Jharkhand? While she is still running from pillar to post for financial assistance, her attackers are free (out on bail) to attack their next victim. 

In such cases, if the girl's family doesn't desert her, they go broke financing her infinite number of surgeries and other medical requirements.

The Indian judiciary has failed time and again to ensure justice for acid attack victims and its failures are taking a toll on the defenceless women.

If a country like Bangladesh can significantly bring down the number of acid attacks by taking various measures, why can't India? It's time the law turned an iron hand on these monsters in the skin of men.

© 2013 Nasreen Ghani

Published in Daily Mail and Mail Today:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2520432/WHIPLASH-The-acid-scar-system.html

Certificate to dish out crap movies

A still from Goliyon Ki Rasleele: Ram-Leela (Source: Google)

THE Censor Board, which at times behaves like a moral guardian, pretends to pay close attention to all the schlock that Bollywood manages to churn out every year. 

However, it doesn't take more than a close look at our movies to realise that there is something seriously wrong with the film certification process and its implementation. 

Consider Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Ram-Leela, which is said to be inspired by William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The pretentious, clichéd film would have made even the Bard turn in his grave.

Also, with the film rated U/A (parental guidance required), many were left wondering how the parents could have guided their children through the intense kissing scenes (which popped up after every few minutes) and the double entendres – and those don't even include the attempted-rape sequences. 

Certainly, the audience would not have missed the fact – if you ever have to get back at someone, then go and rape women from the community. 

Violence, cheap dialogues and semi-clad women are the essential factors in such equation, with a pinch of Honey Singh's retrogressive item numbers simply the 'cherries' on top. 

Don't even think about films where women have to do something more than shed their clothes or be protected from being raped. 

In typical Indian fashion, of course, hypocrisy is not far behind. What's allowed for 'us' is not permitted for 'them'. 

Movies such as Ram-Leela, Boss (with item numbers that have bikini-clad women indulging in pillow-fights) or Agneepath (full of gory fights) pass with a U/A rating with no cuts while movies like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo aren't even permitted to release in the country under 'A' rating.

It's hard not to blame the Censor Board for encouraging terrible work and being staggeringly hypocritical.

© 2013 Nasreen Ghani

Published in Daily Mail and Mail Today:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2516539/WHIPLASH-Certificate-dish-crap-movies.html

Netaji vs the Queen's English

Mulayam Singh Yadav (Source: PTI)

HUNDREDS are spending sleepless nights in makeshift refugee homes after communal clashes broke out in Muzaffarnagar. 

The usual problems of poverty, electricity and water remain. The government has returned to gunda raj. 

And yet, 'the need of the hour' for Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav is to promote Hindi. 

And that too not Hindi in Uttar Pradesh's schools or on television, but the use of a colonial bhasha in Parliament, which according to him is a threat to national integrity. 

These are the same politicians who wouldn't think of putting their children in a Hindimedium school. The same ones whose kids would have a hard time completing two sentences without slipping an angrezi word in. 

And yet, their concern is the use of English in Parliament - that too on the shocking grounds that it will interfere with the country's development. 

Yadav might have a point, although he would be reluctant to admit it this way. His anti-English tirades usually forget to mention the tiny little detail that his son, Uttar Pradesh's chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, got his college degree in Australia - where Hindi-medium universities are a bit hard to find.

But all the 'development' that was supposed to come with Akhilesh's regime has amounted to nothing. 

Maybe that's what triggered Mulayam's move to automatically magnify the importance of the Hindi language through an anti-English law in Parliament? With a population of 1.2 billion, India has over a hundred regional languages. 

Of these, there are 22 officially recognised languages. How are our politicians - who already have enough trouble being understood and getting things done - expected to hear each other out in the name of development if they can't speak a language that is common?

© 2013 Nasreen Ghani

Published in Daily Mail and Mail Today:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2511383/WHIPLASH-Netaji-vs-Queens-English.html

The Indian hypocrisy festival

A girl protesting against the December 16 gang rape in Delhi. 
(Source: Google)

WHEN an article entitled "The Assam Rape Festival" turned up on an American news portal, it sparked outrage among sons of the soil who believed it was a direct assault on Mother India. 

They quickly turned on the author, who had offered up scarce evidence of this 'festival' being a real event, with obviously preposterous claims and a picture of Naga Sadhus at the Kumbh Mela alongside it. 

Turns out, the piece was an attempt at 'satire,' which most missed.

But the article is not the point. What is much more notable is the contrast in the reaction to actual incidents of violence against women, versus the response to a piece written by an anonymous writer attempting to be humourous. 

As soon as the piece got attention in India, the Assam Director General of Police Jayanto Narayan Choudhury had already ordered a probe into the publication and distribution of the article - and they did it suo moto, without anyone complaining.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, meanwhile, came out with a statement that the piece was "demonic" and showed disrespect to the "humble and unsuspecting" people of Assam. 

If only the state could react as quickly when women are actually raped maybe India might not have as much of a reputation of being a place where sexual violence is so prevalent.

Most men turn a blind eye when a girl is molested on the street. And if the girl gathers the courage to report the matter to her family or the police, society ends up turning against her - often resorting to the "she asked for it, in those short clothes" explanation. 

I wonder what happens to Mother India's honour when a girl is raped every 20 minutes in the country. A total of 24,206 rape cases were registered in 2011 alone. 

How come it was a satirical article - not this - that registered outrage among the sons of the soil?

© 2013 Nasreen Ghani

Published in Daily Mail and Mail Today:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2501050/WHIPLASH-The-Indian-hypocrisy-festival.html

An electoral race to the bottom

PM Manmohan Singh and Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. ©PTI

AS the political discourse touches a new low in the race for power, the masks have finally come off. 

All the claimants to the 'Dilli ka takht' (throne of India) have been busy selling dreams to the people while sparing no efforts to vilify their opponents. 

Shahzada, Phenku, Vishwasghat, Pappu have been echoing at rallies and on TV screens, and recently even Lord Krishna was labelled a 'caste icon'.

The real issues of jobs, poverty, a border dispute, growth, infrastructure and food have been drowned out by this foolish, meaningless rhetoric. 

What should have been a debate of real issues has been brought down to a personal battle of one-upmanship. 

With ever-rising inflation, the only plan of action the national parties could come up with is to fight it out like 10-year-olds.

One can clearly see how the BJP and Congress are embroiled in a tussle over Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's legacy.

In a country where people die of hunger everyday and a chunk of the children still suffer from malnutrition, our politicians have money to splurge on a statue that would cost more than 2,500 crore. 

When the parties should have actually been opposing this colossal waste of money, the foundation stone of which was laid by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, they were busy fighting over the past. 

The evergreen mantra of mixing religion and regionalism with politics is being invoked again.

The Ram temple issue has been brought to the fore and, why not, when the voters fall for it every time. 

While there is no dearth of leaders per se, there is clearly no leadership that can pull the country out of this mess of corruption and sluggish growth. 

For the political class, the business of votes will pay dividends when they are in power. But for the rest of us, it seems, there is little hope for meaningful change from this decadent system.

© 2013 Nasreen Ghani

Published in Daily Mail and Mail Today:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2487405/WHIPLASH-An-electoral-race-bottom.html

Child labour... no end to it!

A young boy washes utensils outside a restaurant.
©Diptendu Dutta/AFP (Source: Google)

SHOBHA, an 11-year-old child, wakes up at 6 in the morning. Her chores start from making breakfast for a family of five.

By 9 she sweeps and mops the house, bathes and feeds the dog 'Laila', cleans the utensils and then bathes herself. 

She has to take care of the owner's mother ( a 78-year-old woman), who cannot even manage to feed herself let alone walk without human support. 

She makes sure, the elderly is bathed, well-dressed and fed. She is after all an 11-year-old girl, big enough to do all  the work. 

She then cooks lunch, rice, roti, dal and sabzi. Yes, she knows how to cook. All through the day she fetches water, the TV remote, fruits, wash clothes, dress people  and everything else she is asked to do.  

Her day ends when all those in the house sleep. She goes to a shady corner, spreads a sheet and dozes off. 

You ask her if she needs something and in return she stares at you with blank eyes. Eyes that will ask you why? You have a daughter too, almost the same age as mine, would you want her to grow up like this? 

All this in a house where the owner is the principal of a very reputed university and her husband is a doctor while one daughter is pursuing her Masters in English literature, the other is young and goes to school. 

A well educated family with surplus amount of money to splash out on three drivers, one child servant, three cars and a brand new house worth crores. 

Child labour, an issue which has been talked and written about to death. Each one of us is aware of what it is. I doubt there is a person around who would not have heard of it.

Yet we see children working from morning to night, in conditions which one can barely think of working in. 

You walk out in the morning and you see kids working on tea stalls, washing utensils and cleaning the place. Kids as young as six are forced into labour. 

Yes, it is an offence, we have laws but who implements these laws? How many people actually get punished and how many get away? 

Well roughly it can be said not even a few end up behind bars. And nearly thousands of children lose their childhood, days that were meant to put smiles across their faces and inspire their souls. 

If each one us make it a point to act against the wrong, you won't see empty eyes and lost smiles. 


© 2013 Nasreen Ghani