Category Archives: India
This is an interesting piece of reportage:
Mithun would never speak out openly against Amitabh and fear incurring his wrath especially now that he has started blogging.
Ignore the grammar—that sentence confirms what I’ve always suspected: Blogging is a powerful tool in the hands of the powerful. That means little for the rest of us, who blog to indulge ourselves. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. What else is life about?
(Link via email from Rajeev Mantri.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 14 May, 2008 in
Arts and entertainment |
Blogging |
India |
News
"The IPL shows it is time to liberalise cricket,” wrote my friend Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute in a recent email, and the thought is echoed by Neelakantan of Interim Thoughts, who draws a comparison between the IPL and what liberalisation did to the IT industry in the 1990s.
Needless to say, I agree with them—though I wish the extent of both liberalisations was greater. Just as the government retains a stranglehold over many areas of our lives, the BCCI retains its monopoly over representative cricket. Deeper change will be a long time coming—though I’m grateful for the little that has come so far.
Posted by Amit Varma on 14 May, 2008 in
Economics |
India |
Sport
Here’s the WTF headline of the day:
Selectors likely to watch second half of IPL
Why on earth weren’t they watching the first half?
Posted by Amit Varma on 14 May, 2008 in
India |
News |
Sport |
WTF
On celebrating a mutiny that took place 150 years ago. MSN reports:
India spent Rs 130 crore to celebrate its First War of Independence, 1857 revolt, without constructing a memorial for the martyrs or their directory.
A day after the government officially ended the year-long celebrations, a member of the National Implementation Committee (NIC) on 1857 revolt has termed most of the expenditure as “waste” on a “national tamasha”.
A tamasha it is, and an ironic one at that, for our government is closer in spirit to the British forces of 1857 than to the mutineers—this waste of our money, coercively taken from us, is a great example of that. Will we ever rise up against such theft?
Also read: The Republic of Apathy.
(Link via email from Rajeev Mantri. For more on how our government loots us, check out my Taxes Archive.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 12 May, 2008 in
Economics |
India |
News |
Old memes |
Taxes
Loyalty, thy name was dog. It is now Arjun Singh. NDTV reports:
A day after being reportedly snubbed by Sonia Gandhi, Arjun Singh has reacted saying that he would always be loyal to her and her family. [...]
The union minister said that when he met Pundit Nehru in 1960, he pledged his total loyalty to Nehru and his family and have scrupulously adhered to it. He also said that he shall do everything to maintain the loyalty and commitment to remaining members of the family till he lives.
I think Singh deserves greater reward than just the Ministry of Human Resource Development. What about handing him additional charge of the Ministry of Canine Resource Development?
(Link via email from Girish, who asks, “What about [loyalty to] the country?” Heh.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 12 May, 2008 in
India |
News |
Politics |
WTF
Oh Dog, here comes another punny headline:
Sari state of K’taka polls
And what causes the sari state? Saris do, that’s what.
Hemashree (24), the youngest contestant in the fray, is banking on her appeal as the host of a TV show that gives away saris to women.
I actually don’t find this deplorable at all. It is a given that voters will be bribed in elections, in different ways. How much I object to politicians depends partly on how much taxpayers’ money (my money) they offer as bribe. (Free TVs, saris, make-work employment schemes etc.) If this woman is cashing in on popularity that she has earned by giving away saris bought with private money, what’s wrong with that? It is at least, odd as it sounds, an honest form of corruption.
(Link via email from Abhishek.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 09 May, 2008 in
India |
News |
Politics
You don’t need to elect film stars to parliament to get full entertainment. CNN-IBN reports:
The much-delayed Bill providing 33 per cent reservation for women in legislatures was introduced in Rajya Sabha amid high drama and protests by Samajwadi Party (SP) members on Tuesday.
Law Minister H R Bhardwaj introduced the controversial Bill in the midst of Samajwadi Party members trying to snatch its copies from the hands of the Minister. But the Congress MPs formed a human chain around Bhardwaj as he introduced the Bill by a voice vote.
To protest against the Bill, SP members also reportedly threw papers at the Congress MPs. [...]
An agitated SP MP Abu Azmi said, “If given a chance I would have torn the Bill.”
However, Congress members intervened and Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chaudhary repulsed SP’s attempts by pushing Azmi away.
I was on NDTV’s show We the People once with Renuka Chaudhary as a fellow guest—we fought over the women’s reservation bill among other things—and I can attest to how formidable she is. Indeed, you put her and The Great Khali in a ring and she will wipe the floor with that bugger and have him curling up in a foetal position at the end of it and asking for Mummy. Still, parliament is not an akhada, and if we pay Rs 26,000 per minute for its proceedings, you figure out what this entertainment costs us, and whether it’s worth it.
(Link via email from Vinjk.)
Update: The Telegraph’s report on the subject has this priceless paragraph:
“Had I pushed him, there would have been byelections,” minister Renuka Chowdhury, more substantial than Kamal Akhtar, her adversary from the Samajwadi Party, later joked outside Parliament after she and some fellow women members had fought off a brawny bid to stop the women’s reservation bill from being tabled today.
Note to the reporter: are you sure she was joking?
(Link via email from Rahul Gaur.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 07 May, 2008 in
India |
News |
Politics
Okay, this is not satire. PTI reports:
Hot vadapavs served in corporate style with a ‘Jai Maharashtra’ greeting from an assured Maharashtrian vendor - Shiv Sena will now take the popular snack to the Marathi Manoos their way.
Announcing a state-wide network of Maharashtra Vadapav Vikreta Sena, the party mouthpiece Saamna said on Tuesday that the Shiv Sena sponsored association of vendors would be selling the popular spicy preparation comprising bread and potatoes at various stalls in hygienic conditions matching McDonalds and international pizza outlets.
What a sentence! I’m not sure a business started by a political party can work, but I’m a huge fan of “the popular spicy preparation comprising bread and potatoes,” and wish them all the best. What’s more, I demand that the vadapav be served on pages of Saamna, so that the Maharashtrian experience is complete. Hokay?
(Link via email from Vinjk.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 06 May, 2008 in
India |
News |
Politics
Inspired by my post, Raj Thackeray Owns Maharashtra (and Amar Singh is a Frog), reader Ullas Marar conjures up a Saamna editorial by Bal Thackeray:
The Marathi manoos knows who will safeguard their interests. Raj Thackeray is a fraud. At a time when Shiv Sainiks are working their socks off to instill Marathi values in people, Raj blatantly patronizes unhealthy western influences like ‘throwing cans’. He has joined hands with the bar girls’ union to promote cans and lure more Marathi manoos to vices like drinking. No Shiv Sainik will ever throw cans. We take pride in our culture. Throw eggs, tomatoes (no puree), chappals (only Kolhapuri), but no cans. Cans are American. This is my rallying call to all Sainiks. Come forward and empty every single can you can lay hands on, so that Raj and his goons don’t corrupt our traditions. Jai Maharashtra!
- Bal Thackeray (Saamna)
Ullas concludes his email: “After this inspiring editorial, Shiv Sainiks were seen heading to the nearest bar to ‘empty’ as many cans as they can.”
Maybe Raj was inspired by Bono...
Posted by Amit Varma on 05 May, 2008 in
India |
Politics
The WTF quote of the day comes from Shobhaa De during a Q&A with Rediff:
Rediff: How do you want the world to look at India?
Ms De: If you had asked me this question 10 years ago, I would have said an enchantress. Now, I would say a cerebral courtesan.
What could this possibly mean? Does she, perhaps, want Ratan Tata to learn belly-dancing?
Posted by Amit Varma on 05 May, 2008 in
India |
News |
WTF
The following exchange, from an Indian Express Q&A session with Aslam Sher Khan and MK Kaushik, explains what is wrong with Indian hockey:
Deepak Narayanan: If there is a unanimous view that Mr Gill must go, why is it not possible for everyone to come together and fight an election and take control of the IHF?
Aslam Sher Khan: When Sanjay Gandhi was in politics, someone asked him why he didn’t go into sports. He replied, ‘too much politics’. That says everything. To win the IHF elections cost around Rs 1 crore. We can come together but we cannot afford to buy votes.
With that kind of money required to get to power, is it not natural that the winners then look for ways to recoup their investment? Indeed, would it not be surprising if that was not the case?
Posted by Amit Varma on 04 May, 2008 in
India |
Politics |
Sport
Raj Thackeray has a problem with people from Bihar and UP coming to Mumbai. And he uses the WTF analogy of the day to make his argument:
People tell me that any one can live anywhere according to our Constitution, but even in our own housing society, we disallow children from other societies. Aren’t these children also Indians? Then if I ask people from leaving my Maharashtra society, then what have I done wrong?
A housing society, of course, is private property, and its owners have the right to set whatever rules they want. So by Thackeray’s analogy, Maharashtra is his private property. Well, well, well…
And wait, there’s more. In a quote that takes WTFness to a new level, Thackeray goes on to say:
Amar Singh is a frog. He shoots his mouth off. My activists were accused of throwing bottles on Bachchan’s bungalow. If they have to throw something, they will throw cans, not bottles.
The first person to tell me why gets one year’s free subscription to India Uncut. Thank you.
PS: Rediff quotes Thackeray as saying that his men would have thrown “not a single bottle but a whole crate” if they were so inclined. I suppose he’s confused by all the options open to him. What to throw?
Posted by Amit Varma on 04 May, 2008 in
India |
News |
Politics |
WTF
What a headline:
Is Mallika Sherawat’s dress too revealing?
Apparently some politicians in Chennai are upset that Sherawat, by wearing allegedly revealing clothes at a function, caused “mental agony to the people of Tamil Nadu.” The report is unclear on whether this was caused by her wearing too much clothing or too little, and I can only hope that the mental agony gave way to some kind of pleasurable physical relief.
But really, look at this picture from the event. Sherawat looks more ‘ugh’ than ‘mmm’, and I find the other chica with her much more attractive, with her pretty smile, dignified posture, well-tailored sleeveless kurta and the hint of a diaphanous churidar. Her name is Asin Thottumkal, and her website reveals that her “attitude to charity” is summed up by the following words: “What is done by the right hand is not to be known even by the left hand.”
Is there a lesson there for the people protesting Sherawat?
PS: Don’t miss the comments underneath the Rediff story.
Posted by Amit Varma on 03 May, 2008 in
Freedom |
India |
News |
WTF
... ‘Torture Hour’ costs Rs 15.6 lakhs.
That’s your money. And mine.
Posted by Amit Varma on 02 May, 2008 in
India |
News |
Old memes |
Taxes |
Politics
The Times of India reports from Kolkata:
The bus stopped midway to get rid of him. The old man got down trembling. He leaned against the shutter of a closed shop, gasping for breath. Passersby saw him but didn’t offer help. They informed the Bantra police, who took hours to sort out if the case was under their jurisdiction. The man lay on the road unattended for three and a half hours until he died.
The emphasis is mine. Read the full story—at one point, when the police arrived…
… they dispersed the crowd and streamlined the traffic, but didn’t touch the old man. Instead, they informed the Shibpur police because the spot where he lay under the blazing sun was not under their jurisdiction.
To think that those cops get their salary because people like the gentleman in question pay their taxes—if not as income tax, then every time they make any purchase, for the government gets a cut of everything.
Also: I’m reminded of Dnyaneshwar Kulkarni.
Posted by Amit Varma on 01 May, 2008 in
India |
News
The WTF quote of the day comes from Gulu Ezekiel in Hindustan Times:
The bold new face of modern India now stands exposed as hollow following the slapping drama starring Harbhajan Singh and S Sreesanth.
Q1. What bold new face?
Q2. Assuming that there is a “bold new face of modern India” somewhere, why should it be “exposed as hollow” because one joker slapped another on a cricket field? Harbhajan and Sreesanth are a metaphor for all of us or what?
Indeed, extrapolating grand truths about India from shallow generalizations about cricket is so 2001. Fine, we sighed and took it when Ganguly and Wright’s team was held up as a symbol of how India has changed—but enough already. Both cricket and India are far too complex and nuanced to be captured in such lazy clichés. No?
Posted by Amit Varma on 01 May, 2008 in
India |
Sport |
WTF
Salil Tripathi begins a piece on P Sainath thus:
The foreign correspondent Edward Behr had titled one of his books Anyone Here Been Raped and Speaks English? It pithily shows journalistic callousness, where reporters hardened by tragedy cannot respond in a humane way to a crisis. But it is one thing to be moved, quite another to be moved by the idea of being moved. And honest reporters try to avoid falling into that trap by reporting facts, letting them speak for themselves.
Read the full piece. Sainath, I have always felt, is an excellent reporter when he is doing the honest reporter’s job of reporting facts. But when he lets his ideology take over, his pieces lose their way. Faulty government policies are responsible for the plight of our farmers, and it is disingenuous of Sainath to offer more such government interference as a solution. It is convenient to blame “neoliberal economics”, as if free markets have ever been allowed in agriculture or in rural India, but the truth is that only free markets and free enterprise can give our farmers the choices they deserve. (I’ve written on this subject often, but points 15 and 16 of this post sum up my thoughts on it.)
In other words, Sainath rocks at description but sucks at prescription. What a pity.
Also read: Salil’s cover story on farming in the April 2008 issue of Pragati.
Posted by Amit Varma on 01 May, 2008 in
Economics |
Freedom |
India |
Journalism |
Media
Mahendra Shikaripur emails me the headline of the day:
6-yr-old thrown in fire for walking on ‘upper caste’ road
It won’t surprise me if our politicians now offer reservations as a solution. After all, won’t reserving 50% of every road for the exclusive use of historically oppressed people play a big part in correcting past wrongs?
Posted by Amit Varma on 30 April, 2008 in
India |
News
The Times of India reports:
In a grotesque incident, three educated sons of a UP Power Corporation engineer, along with a cousin, punched, kicked and beat their mother to death with a rod late on Saturday night believing that she had been possessed by the spirit of a dead relative.
The bizarre violence didn’t end there. The foursome then tried to “sacrifice” a sister-in-law in an attempt to bring their dead mother back to life. They also beat up and injured their sister, her husband, the husband’s father and two sisters, when they tried to intervene. [...]
As news of the violence spread, several hundred residents rushed to the police station to get a glimpse of the “butchers of Vijaynagar”. Some agitated residents demanded they be allowed to lynch the culprits.
To me, the worst part of this story is the last line I’ve quoted above. While superstition is rampant in our country, such incidents of madness are thankfully rare. But lynching, on the other hand, has become commonplace, almost a sort of mob entitlement. It demonstrates both a belief that justice will otherwise not be done on those the mob plans to lynch, and confidence that the mob won’t face justice either. That’s a lousy justification, as almost any justification for violence is, but a powerful explanation. And there doesn’t seem to be much hope of improvement.
Posted by Amit Varma on 28 April, 2008 in
India |
News
This is surely the WTF headline of the year so far:
Incredible India! Infants thrown off roofs to thank God
Here’s the video. Watch it, it’s astonishing.
And here’s the WTF quote of the piece, from “deputy sarpanch of Musti village, Ravikiran Mehta”:
People have been following this tradition for almost 500 years now. They believe that if they throw the child from the roof then it does good to him or her.
I have a theory for how this tradition came to exist. Centuries ago, some village patriarch went mad and started throwing kids off the roof. The kids got brain-damaged in the process, and continued the tradition when they became parents, causing the next generation to also become brain-damaged. And so on. What else can explain such lunacy?
But wait, there’s more. The last (terribly ungrammatical) sentence of the report says:
Both Muslim and Hindu families take part in this ritual, however the state administration chooses not to interfere and provides heavy police security during the ritual every year.
Yes, the cops don’t protect the kids—they protect the idiots throwing them off a roof. If I pinch myself any more the mosquitoes will go on strike.
(Link via separate emails from vinjk and Mahendra Shikaripur.)
Update: I’d embedded the video on this page, but it kept making a pop-up ad open when this page was refreshed. I hate pop-ups, and would hardly want to inflict such inconvenience on my readers, so I’ve changed that to a link.
Update 2: Krishna Prasad writes in pointing me to his post last year about a similar ritual in North Karnataka. Ah, tradition!
Posted by Amit Varma on 28 April, 2008 in
India |
News |
WTF
Another mini-state-of-the-nation report:
Man lynched for delay in serving tea
That delay was negligible compared to the one that will now take place in serving justice, I’m sure. No?
(Link via email from Mahendra Shikaripur.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 25 April, 2008 in
India |
News
The WTF quote of the day comes from Nawab Malik, an NCP MLA who opposes sex education in schools:
What is the need for us to appoint sex gurus? Europe needs sex education because of its declining population rates.
There are other quotes on that page as well, invoking “Indian culture”, “the socio-cultural fabric of the country” and suchlike. Yawn. All these gentlemen seem to think that sex education means learning how to have sex, and I think they need to be educated about sex education. I suppose you could call that sex-education education.
Posted by Amit Varma on 24 April, 2008 in
India |
News |
WTF
In unnecessary gizmos for government bigwigs—especially ones that will keep them occupied during traffic jams. Mid Day reports that Mumbai’s mayor Shubha Raul recently threw a “tantrum” and demanded a laptop.
“Raul liked the additional municipal commissioner’s laptop and said she wanted one like it, but we gave her a better model,” said an IT officer. “It’s the best laptop in the BMC.”
Raul obviously is happy. “Who doesn’t want to get the best in the world? I am no exception. At least now, when I’m stuck in traffic jams, I can entertain myself with the laptop. I have never been tech savvy, but I will learn,” said Raul.
I don’t grudge our mayor a laptop, even if her post is largely ceremonial, but see the one she got. It’s a Toshiba Qosmio G40 costing Rs. 1.65 lakh. That’s like buying a Merc as an official car—it’s simply not necessary. I bought a beautiful Dell Inspiron 1525 a month ago for 45k, and it performs every function the mayor could possibly require—unless she’s editing films or creating special effects for Star Trek .
And see the woman’s gumption. Who doesn’t want to get the best in the world? she says. That’s my money you’re spending, Mrs Raul. Have some shame.
(Link via email from Amol Chavan. For more on how our government loots us, check out my Taxes Archive.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 23 April, 2008 in
India |
News |
Old memes |
Taxes |
WTF
By now I’m sure you’ve heard about the Jothikumaran case—a sting operation has allegedly revealed that K Jothikumaran, the secretary of the Indian Hockey Federation, accepted a bribe “for getting a player included in the senior team.” The fellow has denied it, making a ridiculous excuse that Prem Panicker scoffs at here. Most of us have given up on India hockey long ago, and this is hardly surprising. But there’s one element of this whole thing that intrigues me.
The DNA report states that the bribe was offered to select a player named Lalit Upadhyay in the national team. The report later says:
Upadhyay, however, has nothing to do with the sting; his name was used just to make the deal look real.
Does that mean that Upadhyay’s name was used without his knowledge or consent? Is that not dreadfully unethical? And wasn’t it guaranteed to screw Upadhyay over no matter what happened? There are three possible scenarios here:
One: Jothikumaran turns out to be an upright fellow, and goes public with the bribe offer, as in the Kiran More-Abhijit Kale case. Where does that leave Upadhyay? Does the channel come forward and admit that they were trying to carry out a sting operation, or do they stay quiet? Even if they admit their role in it, don’t the authorities look at Upadhyay with suspicion from then on, and perhaps punish him for it by ruining his career?
Two: Jothikumaran refuses the bribe, but stays mum about it. He believes that Upadhyay (or his agents) offered him a bribe, and he resolves never to select the man again. There is no occasion for the truth to come out, for the channel will never publicize a failed sting operation.
Three: Jothikumaran accepts the bribe, and is exposed. This is what has allegedly happened now, and in the process, an insinuation has been made that Upadhyay was never good enough to get into the side on his own. Whether that is true or not, the IHF might find it inconvenient to select him ever again, for it will evoke memories if it doesn’t raise questions.
Three possible outcomes: in all of them, Upadhyay gets hurt for no fault of his own. If DNA’s report is correct, and Upadhyay didn’t know how his name was used, then Headlines Today, the channel in question, might have done him immense harm. Do you think they care?
Also read: Lad from Varanasi living a dream.
Posted by Amit Varma on 22 April, 2008 in
India |
Journalism |
Media |
Sport
Quiz question: what are the following lines about?
It can all be seen as a metaphor for India itself, which is growing younger, hipper and more willing to take chances, awash in cash as its economy expands at 9 percent per year.
For the answer, check out this Washington Post article by Emily Wax, a lazy piece of journalism that is full of facile observations and clichéd analysis like the lines above. It’s not as bad as the Sean Thomas piece I linked to a couple of months ago, of course—but that’s hardly praise.
For one, Wax gets her facts wrong, and shows she hasn’t done basic research on what she is writing about:
[Twenty20 cricket] condenses nearly a week of match play into three hours, with shorter “overs,” which are similar to innings in baseball.
Shorter overs indeed! Then Wax explains that Indians are unused to people showing as much skin as the IPL cheerleaders are:
The American women’s presence has caused a stir across India, a conservative, Hindu-dominated country where even at the beach, women often shun swimwear in favor of saris, which are made of at least six yards of billowing fabric that covers everything from the neckline to the ankles, sometimes leaving the belly exposed.
I’m sure Wax’s editors did not ask her which beach she visited, if she went to one at all. Why upset preconceived notions? And what stir have the IPL cheerleaders caused? They’ve been written about because it’s a new gimmick for cricket, and not because they show too much skin—Wax would find as much skin on any of our entertainment channels, or in our glamour magazines, the entertainment pages of newspapers and online photo galleries. (An example from today...)
A quick Google search reveals that Wax seems to be a celebrated young foreign correspondent, but in my view, the best judges of that are not peers or bosses, but the residents of the places you are reporting from. To someone who does not know India, this piece of hers must seem full of insight and telling detail, instead of the sloppy hackwork that it is. But who cares what the natives think?
(Link via email from Gautam John.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 22 April, 2008 in
India |
Journalism |
Media
In my 34 years of existence, I have accumulated little knowledge and less wisdom, but there is one useful piece of advice I can offer you with absolute certainty: Never deny a mango to a Maharashtrian. The Times of India has a report today of the terrible consequences of one such cruel denial:
The daughter of the Bhises was being married to the Botaljis’ son. Just before the ceremony, the Botaljis demanded that their relatives be served aam ras. The Bhises expressed their inability on grounds that the menu for the occasion was decided between the two parties a long time ago and it was not possible to arrange for aam ras at the last moment. This led to the cancellation of the marriage.
Needless to say, a police complaint was filed in this case—by the groom’s side. I’m sure feminists will complain and demand an Anti-Mango Law, but I don’t think they’ll get far in our patriarchal society—and, more to the point, in summer.
PS: I’m not even sure that Botaljis are Maharashtrian, but the report says they’re from Talegaon-Dabhade, so I’m assuming they are. Why spoil a good parable?
(Link via email from Saurabh.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 22 April, 2008 in
India |
News
In response to a Congress sycophant referring to Rahul Gandhi as “a ‘Yuvraj’ (prince) of the common man”, Balbir Punj of the BJP said in the Rajya Sabha:
Somebody being referred to as Yuvraj in a democratic country has to be a joke.
Perhaps Punj misunderstood, and it was a cricketing reference. After all, Gandhi has also been compared to MS Dhoni. Would Punj ever say:
Somebody being referred to as Dhoni in a democratic country has to be a joke.
No, but seriously, every minute of Rajya Sabha proceedings amounts to large amounts of taxpayers’ money, and it is disgraceful that so much money is wasted on such nonsense. BJP’s goons and Gandhi-Parivar asslickers are quite welcome to bicker on their own money and their own time. But when the Rajya Sabha convenes, it should discuss matters of governance and legislation, and nothing else. No?
(Rediff link via email from Vinjk.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 22 April, 2008 in
India |
News |
Politics |
WTF
The Times of India has a story today about how rapists and alleged rapists are treated especially badly in jail:
If one goes to jail on murder charges, he might gain respect from fellow inmates. But, if he is in the prison as an accused or a convict for rape, then from the time he enters the jail, his life is hell. Under the unwritten code he is subject to mental, physical and sexual assault. The first welcome comes from the jail staff which gives him a sound thrashing.
Then, in the barracks, the prisoners individually and in groups beat up the new inmate at random.
I have three questions here, the first one deliberately naive:
1. Do prisoners lose all their rights when they are imprisoned? Aren’t prison authorities supposed to protect them from other prisoners, or does anarchy reign in what should be the most secure places in our land?
2. My first reaction on reading the story was to think, Who cares about a convicted rapist? Fuck him. But the ToI story points out that even undertrials accused of rape face this treatment. If our legal system treats an accused as innocent until proven guilty, as it should, shouldn’t the prison system take that into account?
3. Isn’t it amazing that this is actually a revenue stream for cops? Consider how the ToI piece ends:
Even the rich are not spared under the prisoner’s code for rapists. An accused who was released recently from the Sabarmati Central Jail told TOI that even Sajal Jain, the prime accused in the Bijal Joshi gang rape case, had to go through punishment under this code. His family had to pay protection money to prevent further harassment.
Protection money?
Posted by Amit Varma on 21 April, 2008 in
India |
News |
WTF
The Times of India reports:
One morning, when Jatinderbir Singh woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. He lay on his armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly domed and divided by arches into stiff sections.
Hey, wait a minute! That’s not ToI! That’s Kafka! This is ToI:
An Army man has learnt the hard way that marriages are made in heaven and marital ties are difficult to sever, with the Supreme Court asking him to resume married life despite an estrangement of 17 years, 14 of them spent in litigation.
In other words, Jatinderbir Singh doesn’t want to live with his wife—indeed, they’ve been separated for the last 17 years. But the court knows what’s good for him better than he does. Gadzooks. Wake up, Franz, you got work to do!
Earlier: Whose Life Is It Anyway?
Posted by Amit Varma on 18 April, 2008 in
Freedom |
India |
News |
WTF
HT has a report today on how there have been a series of robberies in Mumbai recently using “China-made toy guns”—in some cases, “a China-made cigarette lighter impersonating ... the United States of America-made .357 Magnum Cobra Colt revolver.” (Nationalists should be outraged at how neither the impersonator nor the impersonated are made in India.) The best line in the story is a quote from “an officer from the LT Marg police station”:
This (gun) toy does not invite the provisions of the stringent arms law.
That’s a bit irrelevant, no? Prosecuting robbers for robbery should be enough, I’d imagine, you don’t need to use the arms law here.
And I know there is nothing amusing about theft and suchlike, but I somehow find the thought of people being held up by cigarette lighters rather amusing. If stretched a bit, it can also act as a metaphor—for what else does Prakash Karat hold to Manmohan Singh’s head?
Posted by Amit Varma on 17 April, 2008 in
India |
News
Heh.
Posted by Amit Varma on 14 April, 2008 in
Economics |
India |
Politics
This headline could work as a state-of-the-nation report:
Delhi: Neighbours beat up rape victim
She was asking for it, you think?
Posted by Amit Varma on 12 April, 2008 in
India |
News |
WTF
Dear Mitra
You write in your column today that your support of reservations “is not a socialist stance.” Quick question: Are you aware of the meaning of the word ‘socialist’?
A socialist society typically redistributes wealth—reservations redistribute opportunities. Same difference.
You speak about “universities (and eventually the private sector, I hope)” being “forced” to implement reservations. Forced? So you see coercion as the basis of social justice? That sounds familiar.
You write at the end of your piece: “[A] day might come in the rest of India where you ask two young men on a college campus what caste the other is—and each will say he doesn’t even know.” Well, I wasn’t aware of my caste in my college years, or that of my friends. With prosperity and an open economy, barriers of caste gradually erode. Yes, India has a long, long way to go before we’re prosperous enough and open enough, but consider that reservations actually increase one’s awareness of caste, and exacerbate tensions between them. You cannot fight injustice with injustice.
Warm regards
Amit
*
Link via email from Nitin Pai. More open letters here.
Posted by Amit Varma on 11 April, 2008 in
Freedom |
India |
Letters |
Politics |
WTF
My friend Shivmeet Deol is appalled at a story that appeared today in Mail Today (PDFs: 1, 2), and has shot off a letter to them. It deserves to be read, and as she doesn’t have a blog, I’m publishing it here, with her permission:
Dear Sir,
I read your report of Sheeba Thomas’s murder in Mail Today this morning, and found the stance of the story infuriating. The opening line itself is misleading, with that unnecessarily emphasized detail about the live-in relationship.
The issue is this: a young woman has been murdered. She is a victim. The perpetrators are still out there. Those are the most important facts. That’s how a mature, objective crime report would deal with it.
But your report focuses on the other facts – chiefly that she isn’t the ‘good’ Indian woman – about her lifestyle and the rest of it, detracting from the real issue of the crime itself. It is judgmental and utterly preachy and in fact makes it sound like she brought it upon herself. Playing up all these stereotypes – ‘air-hostess’, living with a man she isn’t married to, out late at night, ‘unconventional’ lifestyle (which means what, simply that she was sexually active and wore what she liked?), that picture of her in the mini-skirt – is narrow-minded, and viciously so, of you and your paper. And in that, it is irresponsible journalism. It isn’t up to you or your paper to judge how she lived or who with and how many lovers she had or what time she came home. Or what she wore.
Plus, that picture of the poor woman lying there in her blood is unnecessary sensationalism, and undermines her dignity even further.
It was a distastefully done story and the publication ought to take some sort of responsibility for it, maybe by doing a follow-up story by someone who can examine this with more sense and less prejudice, and focuses on the crime and what it is being done to sort that out, and not by making young women sound like accessories in their own murders.
Shivmeet Deol
Sadly, this is not a problem with Mail Today alone, or with this story alone. Remember Scarlett Keeling and her mom?
Update: Elsewhere, in another context, more talk of “loose character.”
Posted by Amit Varma on 11 April, 2008 in
India |
Journalism |
Media |
News
WTF headline of the day:
Olympic torch must pass through India safe: Left
No doubt the Left can spout rhetoric about sports and politics being kept separate, but here’s my question: Would Sitaram Yechury, D Raja and their band of jokers take a similar stand if these Olympics were being held in the USA and not China?
(Link via email from reader Mukund.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 09 April, 2008 in
India |
News |
Politics |
WTF
WTF headline of the day:
MP allegedly calls pilot a ‘glorified driver’
What a bizarre way to abuse someone. I wish the pilot had turned around and called him a glorified domestic servant. Indeed, the pilot’s taxes go into paying the MP’s salary; the converse isn’t true. I know which of them I think is a parasite on society.
Of course, had the pilot actually said that, domestic servants across the country would have been justified in feeling offended.
(Link via email from Sridhar Loke.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 09 April, 2008 in
India |
News |
Politics |
WTF
On painting Uttar Pradesh blue.
This is right out of Calvino, it is. Isn’t the sky enough for Mayawati?
(Link via email from Abhisek Pandey. For more on how our government loots us, check out my Taxes Archive.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 08 April, 2008 in
India |
News |
Old memes |
Taxes |
Politics |
WTF
ANI reports from London:
A Brit woman who could not get out of her trousers to go to the loo dialled emergency and claimed to be locked in a chastity belt.
Robeena Cheema’s real belt buckle had jammed and she needed help. But because she knew that rescuers would not treat it as an emergency, she claimed that she was stuck in a chastity belt.
Twelve firefighters went to help after her call and opened the buckle despite the false claim.
If she was in India, you think she would have called the cops?
(Link via email from Chandoo.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 08 April, 2008 in
India |
News |
WTF
Amitabh Bachchan’s made his choice.
Posted by Amit Varma on 08 April, 2008 in
Arts and entertainment |
Freedom |
India |
News |
WTF
The quote of the day comes from a piece in The Times of India by Mohammed Wajihuddin that reexamines suicides in Vidarbha:
Why would he choose to jump into a well which was three kilometers away from his house when he could have easily killed himself by swallowing pesticide?
Read the full piece. Doesn’t it superbly demonstrate this? And these?
(Links via email from Salil Tripathi and Reuben Abraham.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 06 April, 2008 in
Economics |
India
What would Shakespeare have done with Dwarika Prasad? Consider this man’s tragedy: first his wife leaves him, and he is alone in his old age; then his savings get wiped out because he kept his money in a bank locker and termites ate it all.
Prasad claims he had kept Rs 4.5 lakh in cash, FD papers, Kisan Vikas Patras and National Savings Certificates worth Rs 2.5 lakh apart from some gold and silver jewellery in the locker two years ago. He showed the perforated currencies and documents to the bank authorities, who in turn showed him a notice pasted on the wall near the locker room requesting customers to remove their important papers from lockers as termites were eating up the documents!
Needless to say the notice had escaped his attention, and now his money, a lifetime’s work, his Gogol’s overcoat, was gone. The bank in question was a government bank, of course, though I would hesitate to attribute any metaphorical significance to the termites.
(Link via email from MadMan.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 06 April, 2008 in
India |
News |
WTF
The Times of India reports that the Central Information Commission, which is supposed to make sure that public authorities provide information about themselves to the public, lacks basic information about itself.
I know bureaucracies everywhere are the same, but isn’t it a pity that Kafka and Borges weren’t born in India? Such fun they would have had.
Posted by Amit Varma on 04 April, 2008 in
India |
News |
WTF
WTF headline of the day:
Patna: Lalu’s nephew held for attempted kidnapping
Perhaps appropriately, the “attempted kidnapping” happened near the Patna Zoo.
Posted by Amit Varma on 03 April, 2008 in
India |
News |
WTF
On 62 sandstone elephants in Lucknow. Their cost, according to CNN-IBN: Rs. 38 crore. They will be part of the Ambedkar Memorial, which, according to The Economic Times, is being built at “a whopping cost of Rs 7 billion.”
That’s Rs. 700 crore.
Yes, yes, I know that’s your money, and mine. But it’s not like we were planning to do anything useful with it. The nation needs an Ambedkar Memorial. And the memorial needs sandstone elephants. No?
(Link via email from Akshat Kaul. For more on how our government loots us, check out my Taxes Archive.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 03 April, 2008 in
Economics |
India |
News |
Old memes |
Taxes |
Politics |
WTF
Ah, April 1! It’s that day of the year again when one is wary of taking others seriously, so there is no better time for me to resume blogging. I’m going to be a little tight on time for the next couple of days as well, so here are some links to keep you going.
A couple of readers asked me for my reaction to the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, as it’s my money being spent (not that anyone cares). I shall be lazy and point to Bibek Debroy’s excellent comment in India Today, in which he points out that the proposed hikes will effectively be “a transfer from 375 million who work outside the government to 45 million who work for government and quasi-government bodies.” Aroon Purie also has something to say about the “Rs 66,000 crore gorilla” that runs our country.
A recent example of government dysfunction was the Goa government’s handling of the Scarlett Keeling case: when ministers and top cops come on TV and blame a young girl’s rape on her mother because she left the kid alone, it makes the skin crawl. Devangshu Datta puts it in context of another “WTF moment” he once had on a ship.
Speaking of WTF moments, check out this Shashi Tharoor piece in which he argues that a study that shows “correlation between engineering and terrorism” (with no hint of causation, mind you) constitutes an “argument in favour of studying the humanities.” Lest engineer readers of this blog do something rash in dismay, let me point out that Tharoor does say: “I know a few engineers who wouldn’t harm a fly.” Isn’t that kind of him?
A few days ago I’d blogged about the great Tantra Challenge. Reader Ajit Joshi informs me that he has persuaded Rationalist International to put the videos on YouTube—so here you go.
Speaking of rationalists, Christopher Hitchens writes about Hillary Clinton’s “flagrant, hysterical, repetitive, pathological lying,” and points out how she is guilty of both suggestio falsi and suppressio veri. Read the full piece.
Finally, I shall end with the quote of the day, from the Economist review of Salman Rushdie’s “The Enchantress of Florence”:
Mr Rushdie ought to bear in mind that a novelist is at heart a storyteller, not a serial creator of self-delighting sentences.
What baffles me is that there are actually many people who love those self-delighting sentences, such as the good friend who sent me the above link, Manish Vij. I assure all pretty desi women in Boston and thereabouts—Manish was available last I heard—that he has no other bad qualities.
Posted by Amit Varma on 01 April, 2008 in
Arts and entertainment |
India |
Miscellaneous |
Politics |
WTF
I’ve been a bit preoccupied the last couple of days, and blogging has been light. So a few quick links:
Rahul Gandhi, who is travelling through Karnataka, wants journalists to leave him alone. “I want to interact with people freely,” he says, “because I like to say many things off-the-record.” In other words, he doesn’t want to be accountable for his public utterances. He’s lucky he’s inherited India and not the USA, where virtually anything a politician says can end up on YouTube.
Mid Day mistakes betting for match-fixing. The headline mentions match-fixing, the text only speaks of betting and satta. Do they really think there’s no difference?
Rediff reports: “Britney’s pregnant teen sister gets engaged”. That’s too much information for one headline, no? By the time Rediff’s readers process it, the baby will out and cutting records.
Abdul Ghaffar, accused of stealing “two cans of groundnut oil 14 years ago,”, has been acquitted. There is no mention in the report whether the people who actually took that oil have been apprehended. I consider it likely that they’ve consumed the evidence.
I’ve just discovered Ayaz Memon’s column from last Sunday: It’s headlined “The fantasy of make believe.” Er, Ayaz?
And finally, check out this superb piece by one of my favourite columnists, Stanley Fish, on denouncing and renouncing. An excerpt:
This denouncing and renouncing game is simply not serious. It is a media-staged theater, produced not in response to genuine concerns – no one thinks that Obama is unpatriotic or that Clinton is a racist or that McCain is a right-wing bigot – but in response to the needs of a news cycle. First you do the outrage (did you see what X said?), then you put the question to the candidate (do you hereby denounce and renounce?), then you have a debate on the answer (Did he go far enough? Has she shut her husband up?), and then you do endless polls that quickly become the basis of a new round.
I am beginning to believe that the main purpose of elections is not to enable democracy but to provide newspapers with material to write about. And blogs, of course.
Blogging will continue to be infrequent for the next couple of days. I wish you happiness.
Posted by Amit Varma on 27 March, 2008 in
Arts and entertainment |
India |
Journalism |
Media |
News |
Politics |
WTF
PTI reports:
Former BCCI President Jagmohan Dalmiya has been found to have misappropriated over Rs 2.90 crore of the cricket body’s funds during his tenure, police said on Monday.
Acting on a case filed by the BCCI in March 2006 after Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar took over as head of the game’s governing body, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has found that Dalmiya diverted funds meant for legal fees towards other expenses including paying for personal phone bills.
[...]
The crime branch will be filing a chargesheet against Dalmiya, Gautam Dutta and KM Choudhary in the matter on Wednesday in a local court, he said.
I don’t get it. The chargesheet hasn’t been filed yet, and the newspapers report that Dalmiya ”has been found to have [blah-blah]”. It’s as if the cops and investigative agencies in the country pass judgement on crimes, not the courts. Surely an “allegedly” in there wouldn’t have harmed the story too much.
I’m not supporting Dalmiya here, who may well be guilty for all I know. But a judgement on that should come from the courts, not from the cops investigating him or the press, seeking a story but unconcerned about what the truth may be.
Posted by Amit Varma on 25 March, 2008 in
India |
Journalism |
Media |
News |
WTF
Well, here, in microcosm, is a state of the nation report:
Hearing the case of a missing 13-year-old girl, a senior judge on the Bench [of the Delhi High Court] was “shocked” on hearing the girl’s name—“Nirasha” (disappointment). The judge went on to express his reservations about her parents’ choice and was keen to know the reason behind it. As expected, the lawyer for the parents had an answer ready: “My Lord, she was their fifth daughter.”
I bet this girl will be looking after her parents in their old age. But it will be too late then to change her name.
(Link via email from Sambhu Singh Rathi.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 24 March, 2008 in
India |
News
Courtesy ToI, here’s the picture of the day:
Coming to think of it, this is pretty normal compared to the tamasha that is Indian politics. No?
Posted by Amit Varma on 23 March, 2008 in
India |
Politics |
WTF
CNN-IBN reports:
Men treating walls as public toilets is a common problem across this country, but Ghaziabad administration has come up with a unique solution.
Fed up with the men treating city walls as public toilets, the city administration has installed mirrors on the walls with the slogan “What you do, the world sees” inscribed alongside.
The move is aimed at all those who see a dry wall and feel it’s their duty to wet it. The idea is to let people reflect on their wrong doings and broadcast their acts live to passersbys. [sic all along.]
See how modernity is destroying our traditions? If our young men cannot pee in front of walls, where will they pee? They might as well install treadmills in front of these mirrors next and play hip-hop on the streets. Pah.
(Link via email from Sandeip.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 22 March, 2008 in
India |
News |
WTF
