Outrage is growing in India over a six-month jail sentence handed out to a former senior police officer convicted for molesting a 14-year-old girl.Ruchika Girhotra complained in 1990 that she was assaulted by SPS Rathore.After Mr Rathore used his influence to harass the Girhotra family, Ruchika committed suicide three years later. Earlier this week, a court found Mr Rathore guilty, but Ruchika's family and activists say he has got away with a "very light punishment".
Mr Rathore sentenced in jail for six months and ordered to pay a fine of 1,000 rupees ($20).
Comment:
Last Month I read about a India given rating on par with African Countries for Social Justice. The number of incidents in which Justice is denied even in cases which have very high public attention. The growing Justice Gap mirrors the widened economic gap during the Globalization era. The excess of the rich and political class during this period will become more and more evident as time progresses.
NEW DELHI: Home minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said the demand for a separate Telangana state in Andhra Pradesh showed how people feel neglected despite speaking same language. "Last night (Wednesday) the government announced initiating the process of formation of Telangana. The region is a good example of how people feel neglected despite speaking same language," he told reporters.When asked about the possible impact of state formation, he said: "The US has one-third of our population still it has 50 states."
As I had written in the earlier blog on Telegana, The separation of Andhra Pradesh, and then subsequently other states is an inevitable consequence of the Rural and Urban divide in India and the globalization bull run. This separation would rewrite the Indian Political Scenario completely within a decade. Congress hopes it can still ride the tiger.
On the hind-sight, it would also see the death of linguistical chauvinist politics which is bigger menance (DMK, MNS etc.) This could be seed for death of DMK, on the very day the Madurai case verdict is announced, as TN itself could be bifurcated. If that happens, it would be the ultimate poetic justice.
Amarya Sen had written a book differentiating between Nidhi - Written Law of the Land and Nyaya - Justice - the implementation of the law. Yesterday was a shameful day for Tamil Nadu's Nidhi and Nyaya. I'm talking about the Murders at Dinakaran Office in Madurai.
On May 9, 2007, a mob attacked the Madurai office of Tamil Daily 'Dinakaran' owned by Kalanidhi Maran. They smashed windows, computers and furniture, and set fire to the building. Three people - watchman K Muthuramalingam and engineers G Gopinath (25) and M Vinod Kumar (23) - were killed in the mindless violence. The Sun Network, which owns 'Dinakaran' was unambiguous while identifying the perpetrators of the violence: M K Alagiri's goons.
Two years and seven months later, on December 09, 2009, the Madurai district and sessions court acquitted all the 17 accused in the case. The judgment has shocked several people, but not some others who were closely following the case which was handed over to the CBI for investigation. Video footage of the attack were submitted in the court during the trial. And then, first witness who is a sub inspector of a nearby police station, and the second witness who is the deputy news editor of 'Dinakaran' turned hostile.
The Hindu also reported that the Judge gave the verdict in just a Single Line. The Gross violations of the law and justice is a everyday phenomenon in Tamil nadu. Anna, the Founder of DMK had said that Law is a Darkroom. But the Current DMK government seems to say that "Justice is also a darkroom" and that might be the reason why Newspapers are not even carrying a report on this minor incident.
I thinks all the protests to this incident is very silent.
The battle for the TeleganaState is eerily similar to the battle for AndraPradeshState in 1950s. Ramachandra Guha writes about the Andra Movement in the Hindu:
On December 3, Nehru wrote to Rajagopalachari: "Some kind of fast is going on for the AndhraProvince and I get frantic telegrams. I am totally unmoved by this and I propose to ignore it completely". By this time Sriramulu had not eaten for six weeks. As his ordeal went on, support for the cause grew. Hartals were called in many towns. The sociologist Andre Beteille, travelling to Madras from Calcutta at this time, recalls having his train stopped at Vizag by an angry mob shouting slogans against Rajaji and Nehru.
Nehru now recognised the force of popular sentiment. On December 12, he wrote again to Rajaji, suggesting that the time had come to accept the Andhra demand. "Otherwise complete frustration will grow among the Andhras, and we will not be able to catch up with it". But the formal announcement was delayed, and Sriramulu continued his fast. On the 15th he died. The next day all hell broke loose. Government offices were attacked, and trains stopped and defaced. The damage to state property ran into crores of rupees. Several protesters were killed in police firings. On the 16th, Nehru made a statement saying a state of Andhra would come into being, but its boundaries would be decided by an independent Commission. In March 1953, the Telugu districts of Madras were identified for separation; later, these were joined by Telugu-speaking areas of Hyderabad to constitute the present state of Andhra Pradesh.
What is the consequence of the Creation of Andra Pradesh? The Creation of Andra led to the creation of other linguistic states like Maharastra, Gujarat etc crushing the hope of Nehru and Rajaji to create a federal India with a common culture. Over the decades, It also reduced the political influence of Congress as many of the states have regional power-centres whose coalition is the only significant threat to Congress.
What would be the consequence of Telegana? Telegana itself is a political movement whose inner core is the vast socio-economic disparities between the Rural and Urban Andra. This inner core issue is the same across many states in India especially Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharastra. The short-sightedness of Chandrababu Naidu and later YSR who focused all their attention on building Cyberabad, neglecting the rural Andra has led to the emergence of Telegana movement. The same short-sightedness applies to Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu, CMs of Maharastra and Karnataka also. As this is a national phenomena, the responsibility of this rests on the Central Government. The Congress took advantage of stupidity of “the India Shining” BJP Government which ignored the rural Indiaand came to power. It’s answer to the rural-urban divide, the NREGA program for the rural, is an socio-economic planning disaster but political success as it had created a rural votebank for them. As the Congress was voted back to power, Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram had thought that they had solved the Rural-Urban divide. The Telegana movement is the voice of the lower-middle classes of rural India which was ignored by the Congress and is now starting to haunt them.
Once Telegana is granted, it would pave the way for many other smaller states atleast in South India such as Kongunadu in Coimbatore region, Vidharbha in Maharastra etc. This will be disaster for the National Parties and even current State level Parties as hyperlocal issues would dominate the politics there reducing the national influences. The inter-state disputes especially in South India would be even more unmanageable. Telegana Movement is clearly the Siege Within that is brewing in India which would to larger threats to India’s stability. The support enjoyed by the Telegana movement has started giving nightmares to Indian Politicians.
So whatever be the turnout of the current Telegana Movement, the clear winners would be rural lower middle classes of India would have been completely left out of the Globalization wave. The Telegana movement is a wake up call for Karunanidhi who had largely ignored the Kongu region. The Telegana's impact on Tamilnadu will be seen shortly from the upcoming plans of Karunanidhi's DMK government for the Kongu Region. Similarly there will be change in stance of the MNS of Maharastra which had so far been barking at the wrong issue of marginalization of Maharastrians in Mumbai.
