Showing posts with label journalist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label journalist. Show all posts

Tuesday, 26 November 2013

'A Clear Case Of Rape'

Perhaps it was inevitable that the distressing charges of sexual assault and the ordeal of a young journalist would became fodder in the BJP-Congress war of words as well
The full text of the statement made by the BJP leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha on hisFacebook page, which was also distributed through the party's website
The ingredients of an offence of rape as amended by Parliament are squarely made out in the victims e-mail. Why was the offence not allowed to be reported forthwith?
The Indian media is on trial. A young intern alleged that a retired Judge had made an improper advance towards her. The media reported it extensively. The Chief Justice of India appointed a three Judge inquiry to examine the issue and report its finding. A section of the media is outraged that the police in Gujarat was protecting or allegedly keeping an eye on a young lady even with her and her family's consent.
The Goa incident involving Tarun Tejpal and a young journalist is in a different league altogether. The victim's complaint makes out a clear case of rape. The definition of rape was amended by the parliament subsequent to the Justice Verma Committees recommendations. The ingredients of an offence of rape as amended by Parliament are squarely made out in the victim's e-mail. Why was the offence not allowed to be reported forthwith? Were any pressures brought on the victim not to lodge a complaint? How can an offence of rape be compromised by an atonement that the guilty will not attend office for six month?
It is unheard of that a private treaty between Tarun Tejpal and Shoma Choudhary wipes out the penal consequence of rape. How can Shoma Choudhary so definitely say that the victim will not depose before the police? Is she not guilty of tampering with evidence in a rape case by pressuring a young employee to conceal the offence?

The grievance of the of the citizens' movement after the gang rape of Nirbhaya in Delhi was that sexual assaults are always under- reported. Is this what is happening in this case? Just because the assailant has connections in the Congress party, the nation is deprived of the sage advice of P Chidambram, the caustic comments of Kapil Sibal and the exaggerated tweets of Manish Tewari.

Manish Tewai was in Goa recently. He discovered Hitler there. What a pity that he could not discover a serial rapist in Goa. Additionally, we will all await if the outrage in the media is proportionate to the offence. Or will journalistic pressures b e brought on the young journalist to conceal the truth?
May be secular philandering is to be dealt with a different standard. We all wait to see if the young lady testifies to the truth or not.

Monday, 23 September 2013

One rescue and the multiple existential crises of policemen in Palwal

In early August, a group of activists, lawyers and one journalist arrived at Sadar police station in Haryana. They demanded the rescue of an Assamese teenager who had been trafficked, raped, beaten and imprisoned by a local family. But it was never going to be straightforward.

Shamsul, 20, had spent a month in Delhi looking for his younger sister Sakina. 

He and his three siblings grew up in a small village in Kokrajhar district of Assam. They were brought up by a physically disabled father who earned his living by begging. Their mother had passed away three months after Sakina was born. After the ethnic violence in 2012 Sakina’s three brothers, who worked as daily wage labourers, stopped getting work. They were Muslims in a Bodo-dominated village.

Theirs is one of the 11 districts in Assam currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme. Since 1994, Kokrajhar has witnessed several bouts of ethnic violence between Bodo tribes and non-Bodo people. 

In fact, the BJP and RSS have been claiming for the last 15 years that all the Muslims in this area are Bangladeshis. Posters and wall writings that read, “Bangladeshi Bharat chhodo,” are as common in this area as they are in Delhi. In July 2012, there was another round of violence between Bodos and Muslims. Nearly four lakh people were displaced from over 400 villages.