World stands a mute spectator to Gaza conflict

Most countries are only talking politics (Source: Google)

The kidnapping and killing of three Israeli students has reopened a vicious circle of hate, revenge, killings and war in West Asia. 

The ongoing Israeli onslaught in Gaza has entered its second week and the death toll continues to mount. 

More than 300 people have lost their lives and around 50,000 have been rendered homeless, but the world stands a mute spectator.

The scenes of death and chaos aren’t as disturbing as the fact that, apart from condemning the offensive, no nation has even tried to intervene. 

India itself has taken a very cautious stance on the issue. 

Parliament refused to have a debate over the issue since India shares diplomatic ties with both Israel and Palestine. 

India is the largest customer of Israeli military equipment; the West Asian nation is our second-largest military partner after Russia. 

India has also recognised Palestinian statehood following its own declaration in November 1988.

If India took a well-calculated stand, the United States made sure there were no second thoughts on its stand when President Barack Obama said: “Our understanding is the current military ground operations are designed to deal with the tunnels. 

"And we are hopeful that Israel will continue to approach this process in a way that minimises civilian casualties.” 

The way most countries have reacted to the conflict makes it clear they are talking politics, and that the lives at stake are none of their business. 

Instead of demanding a halt to both Hamas and Israel’s war campaign over the Gaza strip, Western powers have chosen to take sides. 

According to the West, if it wasn’t for Hamas’s rockets fired out of Gaza, all of this bloodletting would end. 

It does not matter which side is wrong and which is right, for hundreds of lives have already been lost and the brutal reality is that the bodies will keep piling up if the rest of the world does not step in.

© 2014 Nasreen Ghani

Published in Daily Mail and Mail Today
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/article-2699225/Gaza-conflict-World-stands-mute-spectator.html

Indians hit new low over Sharapova

All it took to offend 'patriotic' Indians this time was ace tennis player Maria Sharapova admitting that she did not know who Sachin Tendulkar was. 

Tennis player Maria Sharapova

What hypocrites we Indians are! It turns into a life and death situation if a top Russian tennis player does not follow cricket and has no clue about Tendulkar, but it is all right if more than 90 per cent of Indians don't know what their national game is and who captains the team. 

Some of our Bollywood actors have no clue who the country's President is! 

The outburst on social networking sites including Twitter and Facebook is less about Indians being hypocrites than it is about the patriarchal mindset of Indian men, who have all the time in the world when it comes to demeaning a woman. Any woman, even Sharapova. 

Sharapova's Facebook page was bombarded with such horrid comments that most aren't even print-worthy. 

If cricket is religion and Sachin is God, then all of his followers who went after Sharapova seem to be imps from hell. 

As much as Indians believe that cricket is the only sport being played out there, it is a fact that football, rugby and tennis are watched and loved far more worldwide. 

How many of us know anything about tennis? 

Let me only count our cricket players and keep the rest of the population out of this one - ask any Indian cricket player who Sardara Singh is. I am certain most would not know he is the Indian hockey team captain.

You may even have something to say to Virender Sehwag, an Indian, who did not know who legendary cricket players Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy were, even though they played the same sport for the country. 

If Sharapova's confession was honest, the Indian cyber-reaction to it was pure filth.

© 2014 Nasreen Ghani

Published in Daily Mail and Mail Today
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2682471/WHIPLASH-Indians-hit-new-low-Sharapova.html

Living with fear in India's rape province

The two girls were gang-raped and murdered. (Source: Google)

Numbers never lie. In 2013, Uttar Pradesh registered 126 rape cases per week. 

And this did not ring any alarm bells with the state government or Chief Minsiter Akhilesh Yadav. 

Unfortunately, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav had declared at a public meeting in Moradabad on April 10 that “Ladke, ladke hain.

"Galti ho jati hai (Boys will be boys. They commit mistakes).” He even went a step ahead and said if SP comes to power, he will do away with the provision of death penalty for rape. 

Mulayam’s “Boy will be boys” statement, it seems, has encouraged the perpetrators of the crime. 

Consider the Badaun gang-rape and murder case which has shaken the people across the country: Two Dalit cousins, aged 14 and 16, were gang-raped and murdered. 

As if the atrocity was not enough, their bodies were then hung from a tree in a village. Two police constables are among the seven accused. 

Reports also said the local policemen had turned away the family members of the girls when they had gone to seek help. 

More shame followed, this time in Mulayam’s home district Etawah. A rape victim’s mother was brutally thrashed by the father of the man accused of raping her daughter. 

Her crime? The woman had dared to file a complaint against the accused. 

With nearly 2,000 rapes, close to 8,000 abductions and over 3,000 cases of assault on women with intent to outrage their modesty every year, it seems UP is the worst when it comes to safety of women. 

Moreover, many such cases are never reported by the victims fearing social stigma.

Shockingly, the state police has said rapes happen because women go to the fields to relieve themselves. 

But isn’t this the failure of the panchayats and the administration as providing basic amenities like potable water and toilets are their responsibilities? 

And when did stepping out of your house become a crime punishable by rape? Isn’t the state police responsible for the ever increasing number of rape cases?

© 2014 Nasreen Ghani

Published in Daily Mail and Mail Today
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2645471/India-rape-Living-fear-Indias-rape-province.html

It's not all fun and games on social media

SOCIAL

Singer Kailash Kher (Source: Google)

media, a tool which safeguards our freedom of speech, has always seen sharp reactions when it comes to injustice. 

A forum that is associated with free speech has now spiraled out of hand giving rise to a new disturbing trend. 

Priorities have taken a new turn, more and more people now believe in targeting celebrities and anyone can have the 'honour' of being the joke of the day whether it is actor Alok Nath, Anushka Sharma, Neil Nitin Mukesh or singer Kailash Kher. 

While singer Kailash Kher was targeted over his height, Neil Nitin Mukesh was the centre of all jokes because of his name. Actor Alok Nath was taunted for his 'sansakaari' behaviour.

The latest to be shoved onto the bandwagon is actress Anushka Sharma. Ever since the chirpy, young actress made an appearance on Koffee With Karan, Twitter has been abuzz with thousands making fun of her 'pout'. 

So much that Anushka had to step in and give a clarification on Twitter. Some like Alok Nath and Neil Niktin Mukesh might choose to laugh along with the Twitterati.

But it doesn't usually go down well with most people like in the case of Kailash Kher and Anushka. And why would it? Laughing at someone's appearance is harrowing. Pointing at someone's height or lips or their figure - like it or not it - is called bullying. 

I wouldn't want someone to make fun of me even to my face, let alone on Twitter. 

Every now and then we hear that a certain person or a student committed suicide because they were tormented by fellow students over their appearance. 

In the times of social media, people feel content and happy seeing someone be the butt of all jokes. We assume it is harmless, when it isn't.

Would you like it if today Twitter went abuzz with people making fun of your appearance?

© 2014 Nasreen Ghani

Published in Daily Mail and Mail Today
http://www.filmyboxoffice.com/news/whiplash-it-s-not-all-fun-and-games-on-social-media.html

Playing politics over riots

Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh (Source: Google)

Our country is not new to communal riots. Whether it is 1947, 1984, 2002 or 2013, the same thing keeps happening. People are tortured, raped, and murdered.

Children are orphaned and rendered homeless. Refugees lose all their belongings and property and have to start from scratch, in terrible conditions.

Humans are supposed to learn from their mistakes, yet the same thing happens over and over again.

And, equally inevitable, are the opportunistic politicians who turn up in the aftermath.

Former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh played the role to perfection on his 58th birthday, lashing out at SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for his callous decision to party while the victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots were dying in the camps.

Although Singh did not accuse Mulayam of inciting the riots, the implication was obvious.

We don't say it enough, but it is a fact: most riots are incited by party leaders for political gains.

And the ones that turn up later are simply there to earn brownie points, and maybe polarise the survivors to their own benefit.

Muck is thrown around until it has covered everyone, so that you can't distinguish the polariser from the polarisee.

If it was the Britishers who sowed the seeds of communalism in India, it is our politicians who watered them for their personal gain.

In the mad rush to take advantage of the situation, the lives of the ordinary - the ones who are killed, injured, put out on the streets and generally traumatised - are ignored.

And we ordinary Indians seem to fall for it every time.

And remember, this has nothing to do with religion, no matter what those at the forefront might be saying.

What could be better proof of this than the fact that, as a girl who might find herself in the middle of a riot-hit area, I'm liable to be tortured, raped and even murdered without anyone so much as asking me what god I believe in?

© 2014 Nasreen Ghani

Published in Daily Mail and Mail Today:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2549023/WHIPLASH-Playing-politics-riots.html

The right time for Didi drama

Mamata Banerjee (Source: Google)

We have all seen West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee unleash her vicious temper time and again.

But now appears to be the right time for her to lash out over the increasing number of rape cases happening in the state she governs.

She might want to start by putting a ban on kangaroo courts, which appear to have taken upon themselves to authorise every possible incident of rape in West Bengal.

One of them this week 'sanctioned' the gang-rape of an 18-year-old tribal woman after she was found to be in love with a man from another community.

Her family was first asked to pay an amount of Rs 50,000, and when they said they couldn't the village headman asked the men present to "enjoy the woman". Thirteen men took turns to rape her.

This is not the first time it has happened either.

Instead of moving ahead we are moving towards the medieval era. Unfortunately, expecting Mamata to proceed swiftly against the horrendous act and ensure speedy justice is like wishing for rain in a drought-hit terrain.

In a few days, all 13 accused will be out on bail. The girl will be threatened to take her complaint back, the matter will soon die and no one will care.

The story is the same anywhere and everywhere in India, and even having a woman chief minister known to be feisty doesn't change things.

Even death doesn't ensure you justice. The December 16 gang-rape victim died, but her parents are still fighting for the culprits to get punished. The juvenile will be out soon, as he got just three years in a corrective home. He will be free to rape and murder any girl he wishes to.

This is precisely what the court and the law have been unanimously preparing every girl for.

Why do you think people don't want girls to be born anymore?

© 2014 Nasreen Ghani

Published in Daily Mail and Mail Today:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2546397/WHIPLASH-The-right-time-Didi-drama.html

The same old message won't stop smokers

(Source: YouTube)

CIGARETTE smoking is injurious to health and may lead to various life-threatening ailments. But do you know what's actually killing and life-threatening at the moment? The anti-smoking advertisements that the audience is forced to watch every time you turn on the television or step into a movie hall.

Every movie - Hollywood or Bollywood - starts with a short film where a very ill Mukesh, "a chain smoker," is dying of oral cancer while the voice in the background talks of how the deadly, black tar gets accumulated in your lungs which "will make you sick… very sick". 

Every time one looks at one of these ads she feels sick, so sick that someday someone might puke on the person sitting next to her.

The situation is no different at home. Whether it is a serial or a feature film, half of the screen is taken up by anti-smoking warnings. This is even more absurd, especially since each film is also preceded by an anti-smoking message with the same information. 

And if, by chance, you are watching a horror flick, then beware! You never know when the next warning might pop up on the screen and give you a heart attack. 

Somehow, the Information & Broadcasting Ministry and the Health Ministry are under the impression that these messages deter youngsters from smoking. 

The day is not far off when warnings will cover the entire screen whenever there is a love-making scene or one featuring alcohol. 

And what about eating junk food? Using abusive language? Fighting random goons? Wielding weapons? Shouldn't we have warnings for these too?

If warnings had stopped people from smoking, those gory visuals on cigarette packs would have done the job.

Instead, all the government is doing with these disclaimers is encouraging people to pirate movies so they don't have to be lectured at while being entertained.

© 2014 Nasreen Ghani

Published in Daily Mail and Mail Today:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2535464/WHIPLASH-The-old-message-wont-stop-smokers.html

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

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 

I support Irom Sharmila..do you?

NOVEMBER 2, 2000 is the day she started fasting. It has been 11 years since then and she hasn't eaten a grain of food nor has she had a drop of water.

Irom Sharmila also called the Iron Lady of Manipur is protesting against the Armed Forces Secret Power Act, 1958 (AFSPA) which is equal to a military rule in Manipur (the north eastern zone of India).

The military has undisputed and unaccounted power to do anything they feel like doing.

The worst part of the Act is the fact that Human rights violations is permissible. When you say violations of human rights is not a problem then of course most of us can wonder what we are looking at.

“The AFSPA empowers the representative of the Central government, the governor to subsume the powers of the State government to declare “undefined” disturbed areas. It also empowers the non-commissioned officers of the armed forces to arrest without warrant, to destroy any structure that may be hiding absconders without any verification, to conduct search and seizure without warrant and to shoot even to the causing of death. No legal proceeding against abuse of such arbitrary powers can be initiated without the prior permission of the Central government. While introducing the AFSPA on 18 August 1958, the government accepted it as an emergency measure and it was supposed to have remained in operation only for one year.” (An analysis of Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 ^-- By The Asian Centre for Human Rights)

Manipur is under a military rule for more than 40 years now. To make it simple, it is like the emergency in India that was declared by Indira Gandhi in 1975. For two years, all of us know what India went through. These people in Manipur have been going through the same for some 40 years now.

Imagine your loved ones being shot in front of you, or say your sister or your daughter being raped and there is nothing you can do except watching. Imagine going to the authorities and they shoot you in return or throw you out or bash you up. Try and visualise the agony of a mother whose child is detained, tortured and thrown in some dark corner and forgotten about.

The woman has been fasting since years and none of us have the courage to stand up or her. Instead we prefer standing up for corruption. We prefer pointing fingers at others even though we ourselves are deep into it, covered from head to toe.

Once in a while, there is always a need to look inside your heart and question yourself whether what you are doing is right or are you just blindly copying or following someone.

Yes, we are all busy with our lives, all of us have to earn for a living but we always have time to stand up for a cause.

And by standing up for a cause I don't just mean I support, you need to show your support As we all know, actions speak more than words.

© 2011 Nasreen Ghani