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Open Letter from Swathi’s Sister Calls a Halt to Insensitive Speculation

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A candlelight vigil held in memory of software professional S. Swathi in Chennai. Photo: K. Pichumani​


Five days after Swathi, an Infosys employee was brutally murdered at Chennai’s Nungambakkam station, her sister Nithya, has written an open letter to counter false claims and dispel rumours about Swathi that are doing the rounds on social media. On June 24, Swathi, an Infosys employee was brutally murdered at Chennai’s bustling Nungambakkam station, four days later no arrests have been made.

Here is the full text of the open letter by Swathi's sister:
“Well, I know, I can’t clear or clarify all the speculations raised against Swathi. As her elder sister, I thought I will share some facts about her. She was such a childish, soft-spoken, God fearing, semi-traditional, bubbly and poised girl. 

“She did not step out of the house without reading Sundharakandam, Thadipanjagam and putting Acharyan archadhai in her head (sacred rice). While commuting to the office by train, she regularly listened to Vishnu Sahasaranamam. 

“As her office is on the way to Singaperumal temple, she often visited Narasimhar temple and also our Acharya Mudaliandan Swamigal in Thirumaligai. While returning home she didn't fail to visit Srinivasa Perumal Temple in Choolaimedu. 

“Born in Srirangam and raised in Chennai as per the Iyengar traditional values and beliefs, and as a family, we love travelling and have visited many temples, without compromising on tourists’ spots. The last trip with her was to Masinagudi where we got lost in the middle of wilderness and nature. 

“She loved nature and had done a couple of treks including one to Mukurthi peak. She was very attached to the family, both direct and extended. Her friend’s circle was very limited and didn’t entertain any unnecessary drama. 

Having said this, it is really shocking to see the speculation about her. I also request public not to create any new posts in her name or for her as it might add to the existing speculation and confusion with regard to the case.
“It would be great if people can stop speculating and start praying for her. All I request is for a permanent solution for such unfortunate incidents to prevent them from recurring. Let us not unnecessarily tarnish the image and the character of the unfortunate departed soul. Let us not allow the #spiritofchennai to die.

“For some unknown reason, no one came to her rescue, but let this pass. Going forward, let us take an oath in our own little way to help one another. Also, I want to remind the public that it isn’t only the responsibility of the government or the officials’ duties to safeguard the country and the citizens.

“It is everyone's responsibility to take care of ourselves, others and the country. Together we can achieve a lot. I am very sure this incident is going to bring a change in each of us. Proud to be an Indian and always love Chennai. Jai Hind.”

Meanwhile there are aspects to this tragedy that reveal not just where ‘social media’ goes with such crimes but what we actually need to ponder about
The News Minute carried a special report on the safety of Chennai local train stations at night?

Watch the video here:       

This report stated:
Many anti-social elements also use the stations at night, posing a threat to travellers. Days after a 24-year-old woman was hacked to death in broad daylight at the Nungambakkam railway station, The News Minute decided to do a reality check of Chennai’s public transport system. We chose to ride the MRTS line at 8 pm on Tuesday.

Despite being only 20-years-old and having amenities such as escalators and lifts in several stations, the patronage for the MRTS is low. Unlike Chennai’s suburban railways, which have a million commuters every day, India’s first elevated line sees an average of only one lakh riders.  

We decided to start at the Indira Nagar station. Located along the IT corridor, the station is one stop away from Tidel Park. People hovered at the entrance to the station, taking shelter from the rain. What struck me as I entered the station was the sheer size of the station, which was built for bigger crowds. There were no queues at the ticket counter.  

On purchasing the tickets, we headed to the mezzanine floor, vast and empty, serving no purpose.  

The two platforms had a handful of commuters at around 8 pm, who were heading home after a long day at work. A lone security personnel manned one corner of one platform. He was responsible for keeping watch of the other platform too. My colleague Pheba, who regularly uses the MRTS, noted that the policeman on duty appeared to be a new security measure, perhaps, in the wake of the recent murder.

From Indira Nagar, we took the train to Kotturpuram. We got into the general compartment. There was no security present. While many seats on the coach were occupied, the train was far from running full.  

At Kottupuram, we made our way down to station. Much like Indira Nagar, this station too was deserted. Like many other stations, Kottupuram has two entrances/exits.  In a move to monitor crowds, there were plans to have single entry and exit points. But this remains only on paper. There are no security personnel at the station, barring the platform. None of the stations have CCTV cameras or metal detectors. 

After dark, many destitute people use the stations to sleep in. What’s more worrying is that many anti-social elements also use the stations at night, posing a threat to travellers.

The next stop was Chepauk, near the MA Chidambaram cricket stadium. Although there were definitely more people, the station itself was a picture of neglect. Escalators weren’t functional; tiles were dug up from the floors, large steel columns lay haphazardly inside the station. Water pooled around Chepauk station, as the leaky roof incessantly dripped rain water.  

Like Kotturpuram, there were people asleep inside the station and the platform. But unlike the other stations we visited, the lone policeman was missing.

Pheba and I took the ladies coach on our way back. There was no police personnel in the compartment we boarded. There were helpline numbers for the Railway Protection Force and the state’s Government Railway Police in both the general and ladies coaches.

I chose to get down at Light House, while Pheba travelled on. The station was relatively crowded. But they were not commuters. Homeless and poor, many men and women were calling it a night at the Light House station.   

After scoping out both exits, I chose, what I believed was, the safer route. The parking lots, dark and dingy, had camps of men. Dim streetlights lined the access route to the main road, located about a kilometre away. As I walked alone in the rain, I suddenly became aware of the many eyes watching me. Choosing to ignore, the inebriated catcall from a passerby, I made way out of the MRTS station and prayed I would find an autorikshaw at the earliest.
 
The media had also reported how people present at the station during and after the murder were mere spectators and many chose to board the next train and carry on with their business as usual.What haunts K Santhanagopalakrishnan the most is that when his 24-year-old daughter Swathi was lying on a railway platform bleeding to death, literally no one helped.

“Even if a crow is dead, the corpse is surrounded by hundreds of other crows,” said the grieving father in an interview to India Today. “If something is happening to a common man, we should not be mute spectators. This should be the last of such an incident,” he added.

Santhanagopalakrishnan also expressed his helplessness and disbelief when he wondered if his daughter could have been alive had bystanders done something to help her. “I don’t know if it was due to aversion or selfishness, they allowed the attack to happen,” he told NDTV.

In addition to losing his daughter, Santhanagopalakrishnan now fears for the safety of the rest of his family. “My family is afraid to go out,” he said as the crime happened not at an isolated place, but a busy one.

While the media scrutiny on the case has heightened the pressure on the authorities to nab the culprits, much to Santhanagopalakrishnan’s dismay, the limelight extended to his daughter’s personal life as well. Even in the hour of mourning, the techie’s father has made an appeal to not bring caste or communal colour where it is not required.

“As we talk of women’s liberation, women’s safety has to be prioritized. This type of incident should be the last one and should not be repeated. The body was lying for two hours without getting any medical attention. Even a cloth was not put over the body,” he told India Today.

Meanwhile, the police are also exploring the stalker angle with many reports suggesting that Swathi was being followed by a man for about two months. However, Santhanagopalakrishnan seemed unaware about the aspect. He said that there was only “one stray incident of stalking in May (10th May) when one guy was following her and she also spoke about the same. Otherwise my daughter never spoke about any stalker”.

100% FDI in Defence: How Wrong can you Get?

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A Move to Jeopardize India’s Military

Interview with D. Raghunanda

A Golden Raspberry Award or Razzie has been awarded in Hollywood every year since 1981 to the film declared to be the worst movie of the year just a day before the Oscars. If there were a Razzie for the worst public policy in India in the recent past, it would certainly go to the Modi government’s announcement of opening up the defence manufacturing sector to 100% FDI with relaxed norms. Even as muddle-headed policies go, it cannot get worse than this.

The government has recently opened up defence production to 100 % foreign investment, with dilution in conditions those were the pivotal to this policy. The government, in the new rules, have amended the earlier condition of “state of the art” with “modern”, a move that would leave a lot of scope for interpretations. 

Newsclick spoke to D Raghunandan, Defense Analyst, to know the nuances of this policy and its potential implications.

Excerpts from the interview. 

 

Courtesy: Newsclick.in
 

A Forest Policy that Wasn’t, But which still snatches Forest Rights away

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Coming from a government and party that claims sole proprietorship over ‘patriotism’ and ‘nationalism’, the Modi regime is determined to snatch the legal safeguards and rights over Indian forests and peoples who live on them, hard earned after struggles that lasted over a century. That this exercise seeks to sneakily bypass Parliament makes it even more dangerous


Photo: Anisha Sheth / The Hindu


Last week, the Ministry of Environment and Forests uploaded a "draft National Forest Policy" and invited comments within a fortnight (two weeks). Then, faced with questions, inexplicably, the government declared that it was not a draft at all, but just a "study". This is odd, considering that the document is titled "National Forest Policy (Draft)."

A detailed note sent out by the Campaign for Survival and Dignity has analysed these developments.

This analysis states that the ‘policy document’ of the Modi government, that is and is not a policy (!) directly incites State Forest Departments to violate the single most important forest law passed since independence – the Forest Rights Act of 2006 – by supporting their disastrous Joint Forest Management policies and rechristening it "community forest management." 

This move is particularly problematic, says the Campaign given the fact that, as per international studies, almost half the forest land in the country actually belongs to communities, as per law. Nowhere in the Modi government policy are the words "forest rights" contained and there is not one reference even to a path breaking legislation that made statutory obligations on the government towards forest land.

The track record of Ministry, of Environment and Forests over the past two years has been abysmal. Consider this:

The single most consistent theme behind this policy is – the grant of executive immunity to the Environment Ministry and forest officials, bypassing parliament; ignore local communities, and treat them as if they are persons with no legal rights.

This dangerous tendency to empower bureaucrats with sweeping, illegal powers –that contravene the law as it exists on statute books –is not just dangerous but is an authoritarian way of bypassing Indian parliament.

The final irony?
A self proclaimed "nationalist" ruling party obsessed with accusing others of being "anti-national" has been systematically involved in seeking to restore the colonial system of forest management and the colonial law on land acquisition denying Adivasis and other people who have rights over forest and farm land. The Environment Ministry of the Modi government leads in this reversal of basic human rights campaign.
 
References

1. The Signs On This Week’s Calendar
2. Has India betrayed its indigenous peoples, the Adivasis?
3. Blow to Adivasi Rights, this time from the Modi Regime itself
4. Is Shutting Your Eyes to Coca Cola's Misconduct in the "national interest", Mr PM?
5. Jairam's CAMPA bill change is unnecessary. We aren't diluting forest rights: Javadekar

Army Petitions Supreme Court to Close Kunan Poshpora Rape Case

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Justice Delayed is Justice Denied: Six Victims of the Kunan Poshpora mass rape and torture case of 1991 have died

  

A quarter of a century — 25 years– after the alleged mass rape and torture at Kunan Poshpora on 23/24 February 1991, the Indian Army, through the Ministry of Defence, Union of India, has petitioned the Indian Supreme Court challenging orders of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court on investigations and compensation.
 
In December 2014, Government of Jammu and Kashmir had challenged the same High Court orders before the Supreme Court on the issue of compensation, and got a stay on the orders. The central government chose not to respond to this petition despite being given time and opportunity to do so and wasted one year of both the courts and survivors time.
 
The Supreme Court heard afresh, another petition on behalf of the Indian army on May 13, 2016, issued notice and tagged both petitions to be now heard before the court together. Besides the above two petitions in the Supreme Court, there are three petitions pending before the Jammu Kashmir High Court: one by the survivors seeking investigations and prosecution, and two by the army, against the implementation of the State Human Rights Commission recommendations in this case, and, against the police investigations ordered by the Judicial Magistrate, Kupwara on June 18, 2013.
 
Now, the Indian army has contended before the Supreme Court that the allegations of rape and torture are “a hoax orchestrated by militant groups”, “part of cleverly contrived strategy of psychological warfare”, to “discredit the security forces by indulging in false propaganda”, “with a view to jeopardize the conduct of counter insurgency operations…in the valley”, and that the numbers of men and women alleged to have been tortured and raped are against “natural human conduct”.
 
On March 3, 2016, Sabrangindia had published an account by journalist Dilnaz Boga written on the 25 year mark of the tragic events. She recalled her journey to report the incident around 2006, a decade earlier.

In this, the journalist, Boga, quotes a PRO of the Ministry of Defence in Delhi telling her around 2006 when she was exploring the story, who says “Puraney zakhm kyu khured rahey ho? (why are you bringing up old wounds?)” Shereplied that justice had not been done and the guilty were not booked. Dilnaz boga further writes, “Pushing my luck, I asked to see the files of the incident and he told me that the files were destroyed, as it had been 17 years. In the end, I explained that I was doing my job and that he should do his and hung up as his tone changed.” Finally the editor of the publication she was working for never carried the story saying it was anti-national and pro-Pakistan. The happenings in the valley, from Handwara to others, to date reveal how any effort to bring about rational discourse on the issue of human rights abuses by the Indian armed forces in Kashmit or the north east, risk being labelled as anti-national.

According to a press release issued by the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), the army petition before the Supreme Court is the latest attempt by the State to delay proceedings and frustrate every attempt of the survivors for justice. To date, six victims of the brutal rape and torture have died.
 
In their continuing struggle for justice, the survivors of Kunan Poshpora will now submit their response before the Supreme Court and seek for investigations and prosecution of the accused army personnel.