Have a Safe New Year 2008

Hope our readers have survived their respective New Year parties, bashes etc. unscathed. As you must have heard by now, the new year didn't start very well for a lot of people.

Terror kept relentlessly stalking us - a CRPF camp was attacked in UP on New Year's eve, leaving 8 jawans dead. The big international incident of New Year's eve happened in Kenya which erupted into an orgy of ethno-religious violence. Some 300 dead, innumerable properties destroyed. The Indian disapora has taken to flight, some are stranded.

Of course the unsavory incidents that happened across the country got the most attention. A couple of women were molested right outside a big Hotel in Bombay by a crowd as large as 70 - 80 people. This was an action replay of last year's incident at Gateway of India.

Apparently seven people were apprehended, no further info on the case available. Last year too, some men were arrested. It is not known if the authorities were able to pursue the case:

Three persons, including two minors, were arrested on Thursday in connection with the alleged molestation of a woman by male revellers at New Year-eve function at the Gateway of India. The only adult among the three arrested has been identified as Rizwan Shaikh. "The police came to our house early on Thursday morning and took them away by giving us incorrect information regarding where they were being taken," Rehana Khan, mother of one of the accused, alleged. [link]

A Similar incident happened in Kochi, where a teenage female tourist was groped by a group of men right next to her father while the father was actually being interviewed by a reporter on his great experience in India!

Local revellers molested a Swedish tourist's daughter at Fort Kochi on Monday night. The father of the girl said that he would now have to think twice before bring his children to India. "I was talking to someone and this man was grabbing my daughter from behind me. The girls are friendly and that is something which can be mistaken in India. I will have to think twice before bringing my children to India again," said the father.Though no complaint was lodged by the Swedish family, the local police has registered a suo moto report and arrested the alleged offender - a 17-year-old boy named Shafique. [link]

Various other reports of similar assaults on women came from Pune, Patna, New Delhi etc. Perhaps this was the most interesting of them all:

Two sons of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad got into trouble for allegedly indulging in eve-teasing on New Year's eve and were beaten up by unidentified youths in south Delhi. In the scuffle, a personal security officer accompanying Yadav's sons - Tarun and Tejpal - lost his service pistol, for which a complaint has been filed in the local police station. [...] On their return, they allegedly passed some remarks at girls who were partying at a farm house near Mehrauli. However, this time they ran short on luck when a group of youngsters decided to thrash them. The PSOs, sensing the gravity of the situation, did not reveal the identity of the two, the sources said. [link]

Tarun and Tejpal, why does that sound familiar? Hmm. Needless to say, people are desperately searching for a pattern in these cases. Various theories are being put forward.

Meanwhile, life must go on while they figure out the root cause of these incidents. We recommend carrying any weapon or deterrant that you can carry legally in your district.

Be Happy and stay safe.