Musings of 1084

Delhi has got used to shocking news nowadays. Hence it wasn’t of much shocking to hear one Pushpam Kumar Sinha, a PhD scholar working on wave mechanics at IIT Delhi assaulted, strangled and burnt 19-year old Manipuri girl. Indian english media raised its eye brows exclaiming at an IIT-ian turning in to a cold blooded murderer. So how come a ‘gentle genius’, that’s what his relatives say, turned in to a killer overnight? The events that led to fateful night seem to be simple.

Police said that on Saturday around 4.30 p.m., Pushpam Kumar Sinha found that the girl was alone in the house. He entered the kitchen where she was and made advances towards her. When she protested, he got scared and strangled her to death.

“He feared that the girl would report about him to others and he would face police action. He then torched her face. But because of the fire, her torso also suffered 30 percent burn injuries” Dhaliwal said.

Earlier, the police thought it was a case of accidental fire. However, the post-mortem examination revealed that she did not die of burns but had been strangulated.

Dhaliwal said the girl`s sister Timila, who works in a Delhi restaurant, had during the investigations raised suspicions about her next door neighbour Sinha.

“Timila said he was trying to befriend her sister but there was never any occasion when she had made any complaint about him. On Diwali they had burnt fire crackers together, so he mistakenly thought that she was attracted to him” Dhaliwal said.

The usual thinking of the Indian male is Hasi toh Phasi!(if she laughs, then she is trapped) Police now claims he had mental disorders as if they hold degrees in psychology. we are not sure of this Obsessive Compulsive Disorder theory will really help or harm the accused. But whatever the name you put it, the otherwise enviable IITian, educated urban younster is yet another ‘victim’ of the same Hasi toh Phasi syndrome. This incident also proves that the education without imparting basic human values is futile.

The growing trend of crass consumerist culture which is shaping the urban male in to a robot who only gets excited to gizmos, girls and cash and the commodification of women by the Indian cinema which is being aired 24/7 from all the directions are the social causes for all these kind of unimaginable, inhuman excesses. There are more Sinhas and Shiney ahujas amongst us who are continuing to be ‘gentle genius’ for the simple fact that they haven’t got the opportunity.

Other than the sexual aspect, the racist aspect also plays a deep role in this episode. Indians who raise hue and cry over Australian racism are in reality very good at perpetrating racism on their fellow country men and women. Leave the centuries and centuries of caste oppression and untouchability system which still continues, the racism and bias towards north eastern people in recent times are reaching its heights.

A survey by the centre shows that 86% (or 86,000) of people from the northeast in Delhi face some or the other sort of discrimination on a daily basis. Sixteen severe cases of molestation, rape and brutality against people from the northeast were recorded in Delhi this year. Four of these took place in the last fortnight. They include Hongray’s murder, molestation of an Arunachal girl by school boys, molestation of a Naga girl and beating up of a Naga couple.

Kamakshi Sinha of Assam, who is pursuing an undergraduate course in DU, says, “The police circular is just a piece of paper. People call us ‘Chinky’ and other names, but the police laugh when we go and complain”Most girls from the region are even scared of approaching the police. “Many cases have come up where the police do not respond to our cries. We are treated like outcasts” said Priyadarshini Nath, a DU student.

“We are often blamed for dressing provocatively and inviting trouble. A week ago, some men punctured the car tyres of a Naga couple and beat them up. The police blamed the Naga couple for the incident” Nath said. For safety’s sake they live together in groups. But they are called names when they venture out. “People view us as objects of sexual abuse only because we look different and wear western outfits. It’s like our community versus theirs and we feel we can never intermingle” Kamakshi said.

Agatha Sangma, Minister of State for Rural Developmet and the youngest member of parliament had say with despair, that incidents of women from the north east being molested in Delhi has been quite rampant. The situation in Delhi has been disgraceful, she said.

Manipur and other north eastern states are burning for the last 50 years for the ‘crime’ of raising self determination demands. Indian state is crushing the lives of Manipuris with an iron fist saying they shouldn’t ask for secession at one hand. On the other hand, proud indians are mocking at them and at times murdering them calling Chinkies. Wonder what’s the option left?

This sad episode reminds me the forgotten Irom Sharmila whose hungerfast is entering the tenth year, yes it’s not a joke, the tenth year, this november. One more corpse from delhi is certainly reiterating with force, the cause for which Irom fights for.

Image Courtesy: The Hindu

Beyond all the uproar of Kasab’s four hour long confession, there is a small incident which couldn’t find much importance.

The court took exception to a remark made in jest by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam. In a jibe at Ajmal’s lawyer Abbas Kazmi, Mr. Nikam said Ajmal had not mentioned “Abu Abbas Kazmi.” The court immediately asked Mr. Nikam to withdraw his comment.

What made the well learned lawyer to pass such a demeaning remark? After all, Kazmi is performing his duty just as the over excited Nikam. Was that a simple joke? Didn’t we saw how humor started with Anjali waghmare forcing her to quit? Some time later, Kazmi was ousted by Islam Gumkhana for the ‘kaffir’ act. We heard the bar council resolutions in various north indian courts that no lawyer should defend ‘Terrorists’. We saw how some lawyers were thrashed inside court premises for the ‘crime’.

Things are moving in that direction. Like how an ‘ordinary middle class man’ want to pronounce sentences in ‘Wednesday’, a hindi movie, instead of wasting time. The hate and ultra patriotism is in air.. ‘Sunny Deols’ everywhere, intolerant towards all ‘traitors’. Rules are pretty simple. Just be with us. Don’t use words like democracy, rule of law etc., We will joke. We will ridicule. At times things may go out of control. We can’t help.

Noted Tamil writer, S.Ramakrishnan writes in his blog.

Some friends from Eelam used to send me emails for the past few years. The emails sent from a state of mind where there is no option left other than to share the hope, pain and agony…

A friend who called himself with a single word ‘Yo’, used to send me mails for the past two years. I always found an indefatigable hope in his mails. Deaths at the war front couldn’t deter his hopes. But, two months before, he sent a mail which had only three words.

I AM ALIVE.

I switched off the monitor and spent the rest of the night in the deep darkness of the room, totally numbed. It was not an expression of a single individual but the pathetic cry of a race which has been forced to shed all the residual hopes.

I received yet another mail from him after two days of the massive devastation. This time the mail had more words.

I AM ASHAMED TO BE ALIVE.

Day before Yesterday, repeating the horrifying images of lifeless Prabakaran (it’s under dispute), CNN IBN found a ’scholar’ to voice his opinions on air. The scholar was none other than the tout (courtesy:himself), the political pimp of Tamilnadu, Subramanian Swamy. Jegath Gasper Raj, a christian priest who has twice met Prabakaran was quiet defensive while Swamy was brazen.

Let us not be innocents. Civilians will get harmed in a war and now it’s time to move forward.

3000 people died in 3 days and this was the reaction of the so-called Harvard visiting Professor or in real the CIA agent. He called Prabakaran, a megalomaniac.

The next day we get the information that Srilankan Army puts out a dossier which describes Prabakaran as a megalomaniac. Beyond the similiarity of word usuage, the vulgar enthusiasm of Srilanka to Swamy, and the conspicous silence of Indian State sends the message that mission is over. Beyond all our criticisms on Prabakaran and tigers, We must acknowledge that they have died a brave death against the megalomaniacs of xenophobic fascism.

Today the same Hindu comes up with articles published in guardian. Till date we heard all the SLA propaganda masked as news and now we see obituaries to Prabakran and we hear the voices of Eelam Tamils for the first time in the pages of ‘The Hindu’.

With no proper hospitals inside the no-fire zone, doctors put patients on mattresses under the trees, he said. “One day in April it rained really hard. It started to flood. Those patients who were lying on the ground and who had limited mobility could not get up fast enough. Ten people died of drowning that night,” he said.

“Things are really tough for us. My children are begging me for food and water. It is killing me to see us like this. We led such different lives. Why is this happening to us?”

Yesterday Srilankan Government announced a national holiday to ‘celebrate’ the Victory. Now every scoundrel who accompanied Srilanka in the genocide is voicing his concern to address the demands of Tamils and to rehabilitate them. Rajapaksa starts his presidential address in Tamil and this symbolism is celebrated by the media.

It would be self deceiving to believe that the same Rajapaksa who killed Lasantha Wickramatunga and silenced many others who questioned his fascist measures will bestow equal rights to Tamils. Sonali Wickramatunga, wife of Lasantha puts it with pain.

The free Sri Lanka in which I was born no longer exists. Our country has entered a Dark Age where the government unapologetically equates democratic dissent with treason.

Now we can imagine when Sinhalese people themselves claim there is no free Srilanka what lies ahead for Tamils. This genocide has set up an example for rest of the world that you can deny the access of international media, medical help and carry out what you want in the name of ‘War on Terror’. we can very well expect that Israel and other rogue regimes will emulate this example in future or we are missing something? How it was possible to a state to outrageously deny even the media presence amidst the so-called ‘International pressure’? Was there a pressure? or did we got it wrong? may be the pressure was to finish off the LTTE sooner.

But, megalomanic Rajapaksa and the South asian regimes, India, China and Pakistan who have directly lended all support to him are not understanding the simple fact that struggles for self-determination and the just voices against Genocide cannot be wiped out by military might. Kashmir is the live example that even after decaded and decades of oppression both in the hands of India and Pakistan, it still defies to cow down. North east still fights the hegemony of Delhi.

May be the chapter of Tigers ended in the long struggle. But the story will not end as the contradiction will not get resolved without justice. New chapters will definitely arise defying all the obstacles, assimilating the positive and negative experiences of the past chapters of the struggle.

The duty of democratic and revolutionary forces across the world at this crucial juncture must be to raise voice for convicting Rajapaksa for the horrendous war crimes and to expose the connivance of the South asian powers which will be the real reconcillation to the Eelam Tamils other than providing food and water.

Image Courtesy: Vinavu.com

The politically aware, progressive sections of Tamilnadu always knew the true color of  ‘The Hindu’, identified by Periyar as ‘Mount Road Mahavishnu’. Periyar used the nickname sarcastically to denote the Brahminical attitude of ‘The Hindu’.

‘The Hindu’ acts as the unofficial spokesperson of Rajapaksa clique for the last six months of the ongoing Sinhalese Offensive in Srilanka which has resulted in one of the gruesome genocides of human history. Many bloggers and intellectuals have condemned the false reporting of ‘The Hindu’ but still it continues the same. The brazenness of N.Ram is a gesture in return for the award bestowed on him by Chandrika Kumaranatunga regime.

Muralidhar Reddy, a ‘The Hindu’ reporter who claims to be in the battle field comes up with everyday reports probably dictated in person by Sarath Fonseka. For example, today ‘The Hindu’ claims 3000 fleed from LTTE zone. The conspiracy of the double quotes really boils your blood. He starts the report with this line.

At least 3,000 civilians, held hostage by the LTTE inside the 3.5-sq. km. new safety zone (NSZ) along the Mullaithivu sea coast, escaped on Thursday as the Sri Lanka military opened up an escape route.

Note. There are no double quotes for the words “held hostage” or “escape route”. After a paragraph he continues.

The latest rescue operation began amid concern expressed by the U.N. Security Council and U.S. President Barack Obama over the deteriorating humanitarian crisis inside the NSZ and an offer by the Tigers to engage with the Sri Lanka government in the “interest of the civilians.”

Now comes the notorious double quote with the sole intention of maligning the intention of LTTE. But the words, “The latest rescue operation” are not attributed with double quotes so as to inject the opinion that it is indeed a rescue operation.

He also comes up with a foolish claim.

Images from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) of the military show that several hundred people, from inside the NSZ under LTTE occupation, are waiting for an opportune moment to escape.

An UAV image  looks like this.

An UAV image, i.e., an Aerial image at the best can help the Army to identify targets and cannot read the faces of people. But Muralidhar reddy was even able to read the emotions and intentions of several hundred people. You have beat Goebbels, Muralidhar! Bravo!

It is necessary to look out how ‘The Hindu’ reports in some other foreign issues. In the case of GAZA, ‘The Hindu’ came up with news and images supporting the palestinian people and opposing the Israel’s claims. In Nepal, Siddharth Varadarajan was able to come up with Prachanda’s Interview within days of his resignation amidst the chaos in the Himalayan country. To be precise, ‘The Hindu’ acts according to the foreign policy of CPI(M) and the likes and dislikes of CPI(M) determines the reporting outlook.

We are neither naive to believe Newspapers to be non-partisan nor foolish to cry for fair reporting as it never happens anywhere. But we must expose ‘The Hindu’ to those who believe it is non partisan and should counter the false opinions which are injected in to their minds. Someday History will report the connivance of ‘The Hindu’ with more details and will reprimand its role in the collective crime in one of the monstrous genocides of the new millennium.