Details, please?

Sozzled member of NGO molests doctor's wife

LUCKNOW: Sozzled members of an NGO working for the upliftment of the fairer sex allegedly molested a doctor's wife and misbehaved with the doctor when he resisted, at a multi-starred hotel on the banks of the river Gomti in the upmarket Hazratganj area on Thursday night. 

What was even more shocking was that though the incident took place before the hotel staff, none of them intervened to help the woman and her husband. Finally, the harassed doctor approached the Hazratganj police who in turn lodged a case in connection with the incident. On the other hand, deputy general manager of the hotel, Promod Chaturvedi washed his hands off the issue when approached by the victim. "We are only responsible for what happens inside the hotel rooms,'' Chaturvedi reportedly said. 

Even while talking to TOI, the deputy general manager said that the hotel staff was not in a position to intervene. "If two drunk visitors pick up a fight in the hotel restaurant, we can't do anything. At best we can tell them to approach the police,'' Chaturvedi told TOI, adding: "After all, this is a public place.''  [link]

This is shocking at many levels. At a time when we want to exorcise India of ghosts of Hindu groups such as the Sri Rama Sene, this is callous reporting at best - if not shoddy journalism.

1. Name of the NGO is not mentioned
   
2. Name of the hotel is not mentioned. There is no "Promod Chaturvedi", but there appears to be a "Pramod Chaturvedi" in Lucknow who coincidentally happens to be a Dy. General Manager of Hotel Clarks Avadh in Lucknow (5 Star Hotel). Whether it is a typo or deliberate obfuscation or a mind blowing coincidence - we will never know. 
   
   
3. What's an NGO doing throwing parties at multi-starred hotels? Also, we understand the great national need for unrestrained consumption of alcohol, but is it proper to knock down so much at company expense? Especially when the company is an NGO.
   
   
4. The Dy. G.M.'s assertion that the hotel is only responsible for safety of guests inside rooms is rather strange. There is such a thing called perimeter. This is really Abhishek Manu Singhvi type argument. What if the man had started sexually assaulting the woman right in the corridor?
   
   
5. A man associated with an NGO which works with lots of disadvantaged women is a certifiable perv who is apparently not afraid of much. Anyone see a problem with that?
   
   
6. The police did not appear to be too eager to nab the perp, even though they clearly had information about the NGO. 
   
   
7. Are we still saying "fairer sex"? Sounds sexist, not to mention skin color obsessed. 

What if the NGO supports Hindu outfits? After all it is often alleged that many NGOs are mere fronts for disbursing funds to local vote marshals. Even the good ones tend to provide little information. As an example, take the Mahila Samakhya NGO, with a branch in UP. With over 400 staffers including 14 drivers, their website does not list any details of activities, funds collected or used. As a matter of fact, there is simply no names or contact lists on the website. Elsewhere we find that the NGO received Rs. 34 crores in budgetary allocation for 2007-08. The NGO is linked to the Education Ministry, no less.

We are rather disappointed by TOI's reporting of this incident as well as the behavior of the hotel staffers and bystanders - as reported by TOI. More power to Renuka Chowdhuri, if she can truly fix these things, we will personally campaign for her.