Advisory

Some of you may be tempted to forward many anti-Pakistan/anti-Congress SMSes that will inevitably make rounds in the days to come. We strongly recommend that you refrain from doing so, unless you are self-employed, politically well connected or otherwise empowered to take care of your own ass.

Why? Because of the Balakrishna episode (original post, follow up).

If you are a BJP supporting Hindu living in a Congress/secular neighborhood, you might want to consider hiding your political affiliations for a few months.

Vote for change

Please go out and vote for change. Rahul Gandhi is India's Barack Obama. Why vote for him? Because you as an Indian deserve the very best.

Jai Rahul Baba.

Dude, where is my country?

Just a matter of time.

Shocking!

Now you are ready for a more advanced course in West Asia. Let me stress that the following is not typical but it is revealing. On November 12, 2008, MEMRI published its video clip No 1903 which you can see at http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1903.htm. It is from a television show aired on October 31, 2008. First, I will tell you what it says, which is profoundly shocking. But then I will give you reasons why it is far more shocking than you thought.

The person being interviewed proposes that Arab men sexually harass Israeli women as a new means of resistance against Israel. “They are fair game for all Arabs,” the interviewee explains, because they “rape the land” by their very existence.

Might this cause a legal problem if an Egyptian or Jordanian rapes an Israeli tourist? No problem, the interviewee explains, "Most Arab countries do not have sexual harassment laws. Therefore, if (Arab women) are fair game for Arab men, there is nothing wrong with Israeli women being fair game as well." [link]

Do read the full article and be sure to watch the linked video to understand just how grave is the implication.

What could go wrong?

What could go wrong in the scenario described in this report?

Hint.

Our intellectuals

In his latest post, blogger realitycheck mentions an article by Ram Guha, who is no stranger to this blog or its readers. Guha is always interesting to read, so we read the Guha article linked from the post.

Guha writes:

Enough of nostalgia, I will be told. Forget the past — who now, in present-day India, is the politician who is not wholly unremoved from the style and strategies of the remarkable Barack Obama? Here again, there is an unacknowledged precursor, if at first glance a somewhat unlikely and unprepossessing one. Nitish Kumar has no Harvard degree (perhaps no degree at all). He dresses in a crumpled kurta, not a well-pressed suit. He is an indifferent orator. Still, he too speaks of, and in some measure, practises, a politics that is non-sectarian. When the National Democratic Alliance said that it would project the “Gujarat model of development” to the whole country, Kumar asked them instead to showcase the Bihar model of development, since it was “inclusive”. (The last word, as used by the Bihar chief minister, was an euphemism for “not anti-Muslim”.)

This paragraph vividly illustrates the sheer brazenness of our intellectuals. They do not even bother to do a basic fact check. Nitish Kumar has a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering. He was the railway minister before Lalu and although the media does not give him credit, he strengthened the railways. Lalu merely added froth and public relations.

This is the nature of political discourse in India. Sound bites - yes, substance nil. All you need to do is add a sprinkling of the magic keywords - social justice, secularism etc. No need to do any fact check. No need to do any research.

Given that Guha elevates Nitish Kumar to the stature of India's Obama, he simply can not be excused for not looking up the man. Makes one wonder about Guha's widely celebrated book on India's contemporary history - India after Gandhi.

Hindu? It will cost you

The French philosopher Pascal once argued that believing in God has a net positive value. Well, it turns out that believing in certain Gods can actually be quite harmful - it could cost you your career.


As we noted in the previous post, there is intense competition for the attention of the American President elect, Barack Obama. A Hindu American woman, Sonal Shah (pictured), happens to be a member of the Obama transition team. This created a ruckus like you wouldn't believe! A quick google news search reveals the extent of the trouble Ms. Shah is looking at.

Ms. Shah has to go to absurd lengths to assuage the world that she is Kosher. She issued a denial in the current web issue of Outlook. Several eminent Indians have also penned a column in the same issue, savaging the "baseless innuendoes" against Ms. Shah. The funny part is, the column itself is full of innuendoes about two political organizations.

Unfortunately for Ms. Shah, it may be too late. It is not going to help that the eminent Indians who penned the column are all Hindus (except one).

The Sonal Shah episode reminds us about the Balkrishna incident (original post, follow up) - only it is much more sinister and needless to say way more prominent at an international level. This also speaks of the level of paranoia the secular buggers in India suffer from. They are constantly whining how the Hindu outfits are growing strong in the US, yet it is Narendra Modi who gets his visa denied. Meanwhile rabid Mullahs, harcore leaders like Ahmadinejad et al have no trouble getting to the US or Eurozone.

Basically this is a harbinger of things to come, once seculars gain a threshold strength in India. With unchecked infiltration and industrial scale conversions, that day may not be far.

Obamas 'R' Us

Right about now there is an intense competition for the Obama mindspace in the media/intellectual sphere. There are hundreds if not more intellectuals desperately fighting to outdo each other. Who liked Obama first? Who wrote the most frothy article? Who can suck up the most? Who is the mostest uberest super liberalest of them all?

Predictably it is leading to a lot of jealousy as well, almost like the multiple concubines of Mughal Emperors. They have even unearthed info that a Obama transition team member (a female economist) has RSS roots! Everyone panic! CNN-IBN posted a news story explaining how L K Advani is copying Obama by creating a website. This was a bit bizarre, this wasn't his first website and he couldn't possibly time his birthday to match the Obama victory. Neither is Obama the first politician to use websites - Narendra Modi has had dozens for years now (since before anyone knew there was such a dude called Barack). But then those were deemed as propaganda tools for fascist ideas - hence bad for mankind.

All this is leading to some pretty bizarre situations. It almost seems like Obama could do away with his PR team since Indian intellectuals are defending his every supposed gaffe even before they are made into issues by Obama's rivals in America. For instance a TOI article defended Obama's gaffes in his very first press conference. A critical post from Obama's rival quarters can be found here.

Perhaps the most amusing Obamania article came out in The outlook, the current lead story on the website.

First, let's look at the article in the spirit in which it is written, i.e. a farce. The article is very short for The Outlook standard and even compared to the past articles by the same author. Written up in a rambling tone, it profusely mixes up issues. Numerous articles in the past invariably compared Mayawati to Obama (correct contextual comparison) and concluded niet. This is the first time the situation is analyzed in the religious context (politically incorrect, shrouded with denial context by the dude himself - Freudian slip?).

It is quite clear that the author doesn't really believe or particularly want a Muslim as a PM of India. His main aim is to provoke. If you want a people to accept a leader they do not consider their own kind, calling them bigots is not, repeat NOT a good way to start.

(.....to be continued)

Hindu Terrorists found! Can we please hang Afzal now?

Had it not been for the American elections, the media would be abuzz with minute by minute details on the Hindu terrorism case in which almost half a dozen people (including a Hindu Sadhvi and senior army personnel) have been arrested so far. A google search reveals the frantic reporting and painstakingly written reports that are crying out for space on the headlines. A google news search on Hindu Terrorist reveals the great deal of attention this is getting on the media from Islamic countries.

There is nothing objectionable with the term Hindu Terrorist. There is a reason terrorism is treated differently from ordinary crimes. There is a strong reason to attach the ideology that causes it. The case of the Sadhvi finds its roots in the same sort of ideology that causes minorities to blow up innocent people. As the recent case of the Software Engineer (19 Lakhs per annum salary) proves, poverty etc. leading to terrorism is largely a mythical construct.

There are several things that stand out in this case.

First, there is the deafening silence from the so called Human Rights activists. We have to give them time to digest the other important news and get back to regular programming but don't hold your breath for Arundhati Roy to appear on Devil's Advocate and punch holes on the case based on conflicting media reports. No demands for a judicial inquiry either.

Second, the police have acted in pretty much the same manner in which the prior cases were dealt with - at least the recent ones. The measures included confinement, interrogation , narco analysis and forensic tests, wiretapping, cross referencing witnesses etc. There might have been some third degree involved - no loss of limb or life (except the Delhi encounter case, but a cop died too).

Given that the current course of action is yielding some success, it should be continued. Alas, if only the world was so simple.

For one thing we are dealing with a community that has a very unique way of looking at things. At least two thirds of the community globally if not more believe that 9/11 was a Jewish conspiracy. There is already demands for opening up past blast cases, even solved ones. The Shahi Imam has made statements to the effect that no Government is taking care of the community. The community leaders in Assam are all set to form a new party, riding on the sizable and growing population.

In a sense this was inevitable. Once propaganda takes root, it is hard to temper it or throttle its momentum. Clearly over the decades there has been a conscious attempt to channel real or imaginary minority discontent towards a certain political goal. Ideally the activists and secularists would want it to stop right after defeating BJP. Right about now there is no going back. The secular propaganda way overshot its original target and there is widespread discontent that does not necessarily distinguish a secular Hindu and a communal Hindu. The anger is now targeted at India Inc. as a whole. As an example, the recent IM emails excoriated the Maharashtra CM and even lashed out at Tehelka.

You can not wave the red flag of freedom and then take it away at the last moment. This beast will break through everything. The case of the Hindu Terrorist, even if dealt with a strong hand will produce the exact opposite of the intended effect.

Did you listen?

Schoolgirls in Assam don't want to talk - nobody listens to them

"Assam is facing external aggression and internal disturbance." This comment from the Supreme Court came not after the serial blasts that killed scores but more than three years ago on July 12, 2005. [...]

Both the governments paid scant attention to the ominous signals that the Supreme Court read from the November 8, 1998 report of then governor Lt Gen S K Sinha, who had prepared it after a thorough inspection of border areas and districts, discussions with the Indian high commissioner in Bangladesh and talks with political leaders. What Lt Gen Sinha’s report brought out before the apex court in 2005 was the grim ground reality of Assam. His report stated: "The illegal migrants coming into India after 1971 have been almost exclusively Muslims... Muslim population in Assam has shown a rise of 77.42% from what it was in 1971. Hindu population has risen by nearly 41.89%." [link]

Meanwhile a a funny thing came to our notice. A CNN-IBN article (one of the current headlines) reports that "according to latest official figures" an estimated 2.2 lakh illegal Indian immigrants are residing in the US. A google search reveals that similar stories came out on TOI, the Economic Times and The Hindu. Now, the actual report [pdf] appears to be dated September, 2008. The news release also came out in September.

Why then would so many Indian newspapers report it in the month of November?

What's the connection you ask? Well, if you were able to figure that out, we confer an honorary bachelors degree in Indian politics on you.

Marathi Manoos vs. the LDR and the Train connection

Seeing itself is an act of violence. For example, if you listen to the words of a homeless person
with your eyes closed, they may have different meanings. When you see people you unconsciously judge them, and discriminate against them.

- dialog from the movie Tokyo Marigold.

Shobhaa De has penned several articles on her regular TOI column excoriating Raj Thackeray's regionalism. So, her astounding volte face on her Devil's Advocate interview came as a huge shock.

Not only does she lend full moral support to Raj Thackeray's ideals (sans the violence, of course), she seems to be irked by the influx of outsiders:

Karan Thapar: You’re saying two very interesting things – it’s been hijacked in their minds and that today Mumbai is every one else’s first and Maharashtrians’ last. Are Maharashtrians being discriminated against?

Shobhaa De: I would, to some extent, agree that they are being discriminated against in terms of job applications like the Railways – we saw last week what happened there – because Maharashtrian himself/herself has not perhaps fought for their rightful position within the state or the city. I say that with a great amount of compassion, not just for Maharashtrians but a system that seems to not recognise the dreams and ideals of the locals.

Karan Thapar: Before I come to why they haven’t fought for their rights, you are really seriously saying that today in Mumbai – the capital of Maharashtra – Maharashtrains are getting a raw deal?

Shobhaa De: I am definitely saying Maharashtrians get a raw deal which does not mean that I, in any way, support violence or endorse what Raj Thackeray stands for. What I am saying is that the raw deal has a lot to do with the Maharashtrian way of asserting or not asserting themselves.

As we have argued several times on this blog, this vividly illustrates that we set out to play a game without agreeing upon the rules. Now we have fouls all around and we can't decide on a neutral referee. Shobhaa De certainly does not speak for all Maharashtrians and neither does Raj. However, it is amply evident that there is an undercurrent of strong discontent. Political parties are only too willing to exploit the situation. According to De, even the intellectuals are bound by a "conspiracy of silence".

It is an easy ruse for the garden variety secular-socialists to pin the entire blame on Shiv Sena or MNS. Meanwhile Congress and NCP has been playing soft Marathitva to MNS' hard Marathi regionalism. They commissioned the giant Shivaji statue. When a newspaper criticized the expensive move, their offices were vandalized by Cong/NCP hoodlums. Even the official order for mandatory Marathi signboard came out of the Maharashtra legislature. Of course, Raj did more than his part to enforce it. It has been alleged that Congress reacted too late before arresting Raj, thus extracting political mileage out of the situation.

Elsewhere in the interview, Karan Thapar points out that statistics does not bear out the claim of the regionalists - that Maharashtrians are well represented in jobs. Shobhaa De doesn't seem to agree - she claims to see only outsiders at construction sites.

The whole situation is one of massive denial by all parties concerned. Are Marathis really agitating for construction jobs? Having been screwed over by a system that allowed certain communities to corner the wealth, they have only one option left. Or at least the option that should be obvious to anyone with a short-term perspective. Raj Thackeray can not be singled out for blame for indulging in identity based politics when virtually every intellectual in India does the same thing. At the time of writing, the lead story on Times of India, the largest circulation paper in India laments the few percentage points Minorities are lagging behind in jobs. Recently India's best known intellectual Arundhati Roy supported freedom for Kashmiris. In the end it turned out Kashmiris didn't want freedom.

Aside from the wealth accumulation issue (that can not be helped without overhauling the entire system and not anytime soon), much of the perception of job stealing by outsiders is mixing up cause and effect. The reason there are jobs in Maharashtra is why people go there in the first place. Certainly Marathis wouldn't want to swap for Orissa where no one goes (except missionaries)?

In India we want to eat the cake and have it too. When it comes to our own state, we want domicile quotas every which way we can. As soon as the matter relates to another state, suddenly we are gloriously Indians, cheerleaders for the LDR and great fans of cosmopolitan cities. Same thing when it comes to politics. When Congress applies Sachar, it is for social justice. But Raj Thackeray is not allowed to bat for poor Marathis.

The Train Connection

In the latest incident of anti-Hindustani violence by MNS, candidates from Bihar who were about to take the Maharashtra Railway Board entrance exam were severely beaten up. Reportedly one man was killed which triggered widespread violence in Bihar - public property was vandalized and one Maharashtrian was beaten up.

Well, it turns out that the man supposed to have been killed by MNS party workers had actually died in a train accident and they have CCTV footage to prove it. Now they tell us!

The incident happened at 7:30 AM. The man was brought to a hospital by railway staff. Which part of train accident was in doubt? Surely a man looks slightly different when run over by train as opposed to being beaten up by a mob? Yet somehow the rumor that an MNS mob had killed the boy reached Bihar and triggered violence.

From Babri Masjid (Advani was arrested by Laloo and confined in Bihar when the mosque was destroyed) to Godhra to this latest incident - every murky, sordid and controversial issue has Laloo's paw prints all over it. The man camps out in Gujarat, in Maharashtra. He is certainly entitled to as Railway minister. He also can't keep his hands out of the cookie jar of public money. Even the exam in question was for the railway services - who know if rules were being violated?

Shobhaa De mentions slogans written all over the walls in Mumbai saying, 'UP hamari hai, ab Maharashtra ki baari hai' (UP is ours, now for Maharahtra). Think poor migrant laborers thought it up by themselves? Special trains bringing in thousands for political rallies have added to the claustrophobia. Sometimes the trains bring in elements that would be undesirable anywhere, not just in Maharashtra. Why would Marathis put up with it?

Yet our intellectuals find Laloo's tomfoolery charming. They can't get enough of his rustic jokes.

Laloo is a living indictment to the dishonesty of the intellectuals in our country. We are letting men like him destroy the LDR bit by bit. Raj Thackeray and his company can not hold a candle to Laloo's disruptive presence in Indian politics and our intellectuals pretend not to see any of it.

Are we there yet?

So, the lunar probe got launched successfully. For the next few days we will not hear the end of it from various news channels. So, Singh is now King of the Universe! After becoming king of the world following the nuke deal.

Perhaps this was necessary. Who knows? But we know for sure the kind of articles that would be written had this happened during the NDA tenure.

Then again there is this minor matter, which the party of the aam aadmi was supposed to fix better than anyone else:

The war-ravaged countries of Serbia and Lithuania are better off. So are people in cold deserts of Mongolia. Tiny nations such as Surinam and Honduras have got a better handle on it and so have large diverse countries like China and Brazil. India, in comparison, is failing miserably to tackle hunger.

India ranks 66 out of 88 countries on the 2008 Global Hunger Index (GHI), far behind comparable developing countries as well as smaller, less diverse and resource deprived nations.

The index, released by the International Food Policy Research Institute on Tuesday, is bound to take the hype out of UPA's talk of inclusive growth, with a review of Indian states showing that economic progress witnessed in some states has not helped improve hunger and malnutrition levels. [link]

Joke

Rahul Gandhi wants to end dynasty politics.

Lipstick on a little girl ........

Eleven-year-old Nazmeen can barely speak. She suffered 99 per cent burn injuries after her neighbour set her on fire - all because she dared to wear lipstick.

Nazmeen was attacked by the man she called nana (grandfather). On Friday, Saleem told the little girl not to wear lipstick. When she defied him, in a fit of rage he allegedly molested her before pouring kerosene on her and setting her on fire. [link]

.. can be irksome to fundamentalist pigs.

The TOI story has a shocking twist.

Previous:

Uncles and Nephews
The never ending Imrana sequels

Heads I win .....

Funny

Reva Seth, whose recent book 'First Comes Marriage' is catching the West's fancy, argues that the developed world needs a different method of finding a spouse in an age of uncertainty. There are signs that some are listening.

Elaine McCabe, 33, a physiotherapist in Michigan, USA, has just permitted her father to invite men he thinks eligible to meet his daughter with a view to their marrying. McCabe, who took her cue from an Indian friend, says, "Any of us with Asian friends know if someone could save us from all those terrible nights next-to-zero hits and nearly-all misses, it would be wonderful." But she adds, "This does not mean I am supporting the kind of marriage in which the parties are left with no choice. The word is arranged, not forced."

The funny part:

But is the arranged marriage quite as Indian as it is portrayed? History records that the West once encouraged a system of arranged marriages in order to safeguard property and inheritance. There is evidence of arranged marriages in Western societies as far back as the 1500s and in the prim Victorian era, which encouraged a union for cultural and economic reasons rather than mere love. Ask any married person and they will tell you that marriage is a unique bond, whose strength lies in commitment, responsibility and the law and it has little to do with being madly in love with one's intended. [link]

When it was bad, we invented it. Now it is no longer so bad - so we didn't invent it in the first place. Catch-22.

Cowboys and Cowgirls

Watch this video, it is great fun. The idea of a fair debate according to seculars is 2 communal vs. 5 secular panelists. Watch who screams the most, watch who blames others for using lung power. The debate is indistinguishable from a fish market. These are our intellectuals.

The video is about 40 minutes, but you can use the slider.

At around 12:50, Swapan Dasgupta calls Teesta Setalvad an overground wing of the terrorists.

Towards the very end of the video, Tehelka's Harinder Baweja reveals a startling side of her character we never knew existed. Watch the video to find out.

Civil war

Bodo women and children at a relief camp

Anther civil war is on in Assam, between Bodo tribals and Bangladeshi immigrants. The body count is about the same as Orissa, but no one seems to be interested. The story disappeared from the headlines faster than you could say "Kandhamal'.

Looks like the Bodos were at the receiving end, by a wide margin. Our sympathies, unless you people can connect it up with the secular party's electoral fortunes, you are out of luck. See if you can somehow link up Bajrang Dal or VHP into the mix - something like, because of the Hindutva parties' hate campaign the Bangladeshi people in Dhaka got paranoid and decided to invade Assam and attack Bodos. It is a stretch, but worth a try.

The burden of proof [Updated]

(click on images for a larger version)

(A) Original TOI article published Oct 3, retrieved from Google cache

(B) TOI article modified on Oct 4: Headline changed, URL remains the same

In a few months time, four poor tribal people could be sent to jail on potentially false charges. India's motley crew of Human Rights Activists, tribal welfare wallahs, seculars, socialists etc. will keep mum. In fact, they will cheer the occasion and celebrate it.

The violence in Kandhamal district of Orissa has been bad enough but the political football surrounding it has scaled new heights. Already the Center has started talking about President's rule. The center of attention is now the alleged rape of a Nun that took place over a month ago.

Given the poor record of the Indian state in matters related to safety of women, the logical course of action should be to let the state do its work. However, suspicions abound in this particular case, especially in light of politically motivated false accusations in the past. Media rhetoric about the violence in Orissa is getting shriller by the day and by now it has reached a crescendo.

First, let's analyze the TOI report in question. On Oct 3, this report was first published, headlined: Medical report suggests nun raped; probe ordered, and can be still accessed from google cache. The screenshot (A) is the cached report, which has this to say:

"The woman was medically examined and the report received by us suggests possibility of rape," Kandhamal Superintendent of Police Praveen Kumar told. According to the report of the nun's medical examination, there was no external or internal vaginal injury, but semen was found inside. The nun's clothes have been sent for tests to the state forensic laboratory.

Note the "suggests" part. Note the mention of no injuries that could definitively establish sexual assault.

On October 4, the same article was mysteriously modified. The headline now reads:
38 days later, Orissa govt admits nun's rape. It is incomprehensible that a third party can actually "admit" to something that happened between a perp and a victim, but nevertheless this "admission" has evoked euphoric reaction in the Commie circles. The screeshot (B) of the report now carries the following:

Orissa police claimed on Friday they "received" the medical report - which found injuries to the victim's private parts and pointed to sexual assault - only on October 1. But doctors have a different story. Dr Sangeeta Mishra, who along with Dr Smita Marandi, performed the examination at Baliguda government hospital on the night of the incident, have a different story.

The modified report now claims there were injuries consistent with sexual assault.

The nun did not allege rape initially, but later mentioned that she had been raped by one person, in an FIR. Various news reports now claim that she was gangraped. Initial reports suggested the possibility of rape or rather "the report did not rule out rape" and "no injuries but semen was present". By now, the Nun was brutally gangraped by a mob and medical reports incontrovertibly establishing rape have surfaced.

Predictably the victim is untraceable and taken to an undisclosed location, but the media has full access to her.

The chances of abusing the situation is mind boggling. If one adds to it presumptive behavioral patterns expected of Nuns and by implication the alternate more acceptable theory, the situation becomes too complicated.

We are not suggesting that we have the last word on this incident - the incident must be thoroughly investigated and the guilty, if any, must be punished to the fullest extent of the law, but TOI updating its story rather than issuing a new one (they have published hundreds of stories on the incident) is highly suspicious. This type of complications put further strain on our already fragile secular nation.

[Update]

The CNN-IBN video that carries the actual voice of the victim narrating the assault on her is here.

I was hiding in a house, that is a Hindu house, in [inaudible]. They came inside, about 40 to 50 people with all the weapons in their hands and they saw me there ... recognized that I am a sister. One of them gave me one slap on my face and pulled me out from there by holding my hair.. took me out back door two of them holding my neck and wanted to cut my neck.. Anyway they left there and they started pulling my saree and dragged me to the road along with father ... ah ... they found also father Chellan ...

They took us both to the road they took.. took me into the [inaudible] there over they removed my blouse, they tore out my ..my bra and they cast me to the ground and two of them were stepping my hands on both sides and one ... one raped me . one person ..and they were shouting I heard - where is that sister? Come we will rape her at least hundred people will rape and leave - like that they were saying.

Earlier I didn't know I have not seen them but now if I see I ... I will recognize them ... At that moment no police were there .. no police were there ... then ah they... told .. told me that they will hand.. hand me over to the police so I .. I .. still .. I got courage then they took me out again from there to the road by then they poured kerosene on father Chellan and they wanted to burn and they were beating him with sticks and iron bars um.. then they made us to walk to the market.

There .. in the market police were there ... dozen of police were there. I thought they will they will .. protect.. protect us but they were just sitting as ... like stones .. they were not .. they didn't even talk or move or anything.. I.. I sat in between them but then they didn't.. means no movement at all.

We have given FIR and we have not yet received also the photocopy of it. It is a safe place [probably referring to her new location] I feel now I mean pretty safe place yes. I want to get justice, yes. Also not for my sake ... for the people for whom I was working I want to say the leaders of the country and the state specially [inaudible] safety and protect our people there in Kandhamal or wherever they.. they are insecure . [transcript ours]

This incident must not be taken lightly. However, the fate of the Orissa Government hinges on this. Swapan Dasgupta of The Pioneer elaborates on this. Congress will most likely go for a kill this time.

Several things stand out from the transcript above. The victim clearly says that she was raped by one person. Meanwhile the media is playing up the "gang rape of Nun" by a "fanatic Hindu mob" way too much. Also, Police were not present at the actual location of the incident. This is quite clear from the testimony. The Police were at the marketplace where presumably the victim was taken to. While this does not exonerate the Police, it is pretty far from "the Police stood mute spectators while a fanatic Hindu mob gang raped a Nun". Of course this is really rather technical, the nature of the incident, if it happened the way it was described, is basically gang rape.

Another curious aspect is that a fragment of the crowd, three or more in number, took the victim inside a building. This means that the larger crowd can not corroborate the statement of the victim. Also, it is not clear what the victim means by earlier she didn't know, she hadn't seen them, but now she can recognize them.

Sheilaji's Delhi

A young woman, after a late shift in her job as a TV production executive, leaves for home in her car. The time is after 3:00 am. New Delhi is not known to be particularly safe for women, so she calls up her father. She would be home in 15 minutes. So the man would just have a short period of time to worry. Half an hour later, her car is found crashed against the median, with the engine still running. The woman is found slumped in the driver's seat, with a bullet lodged in her head.

Reacting to the murder of journalist Soumya Viswanathan, Sheila Dikshit had on Wednesday said: "All by herself till 3 am at night in a city where people believe...you know...you should not be so adventurous.''

Sheila Dikshit married her way into the extended family. As discussed in a previous post, unless you are cricketer or film star or a member of a social justice class, it is very difficult to gain access. Marriage is another route.

That remark of Sheilaji, aside from being juvenile and ignorant, puts her into the league of various clerics who say that women who wear immodest clothing deserve what happens to them. The victim in this case wasn't even out for late night fun, she was out earning her bread (non-members of the extended family have to work to make a living). What if she had been to a nightclub? We can only imagine what this cretin would say. Gotcha adventuress!

Granted, political compulsions have forced the CM of New Delhi to tune out the recent tragic incidents in the city. But as a leader, doesn't she even feel the need to make a strong statement condemning the assailants? Couldn't she say, we will catch you and send you to the slammers for a long long time? We know that her enfeebled administration can hardly do anything worthwhile, but a strong statement could go a long way in restoring the confidence of thousands of women in New Delhi, who must take their chances all by themselves in the late hours of night.

Such statements embolden the nasties who bring in fire arms into the city. Part of the problem is that many of these elements are what keeps the dynasty intact. They are watching and they are having a good laugh. They know that no one will go after them and the person who could really send a posse after them is a soulless puppet. So they will continue to prey on vulnerable young women. The dynasty will live on, propping up many more puppets here and there in its wake.