Democratic Strife

It has been a very interesting month to say the least; elections in few major states have the politics buzzing all over, a double homicide case which has had the country engrossed for last 6 years has reached a verdict. Tarun Tejpal who has been a crusader of sorts with his magazine exposing corrupt politicians has been caught in a sexual harassment case which is opening many new cans of worms for him. And of course not the least there has been a snooping case against Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and his aide Amit Shah. With so many interesting discussions I thought I would try to pen my thoughts and try to see if my logic and conviction would hold good in these debates.

One of the great advantages (or disadvantage, if you don’t like arguing) of living in a democratic society is that it is full of contradictions. The problems, their solutions and arguments around them are not black or white but they vary in all shades of grey. What is right or wrong? How far can the law and protectors of law go? What is private and what is public in this modern world? What is justice and what is injustice? All these questions keep arising and we will keep tweaking our thoughts on them. Democracies work in this cacophony and we don’t see this chaos we should be more worried. There are things to cheer, the voting percentage in the 4 states have been above 70%, that is a very good number and as a democratic nation we should be happy about it.

However, every democratic country has its own battles to fight. India is worried about sexual discrimination and crime against women. Belgium is contemplating on Euthanasia for young adults, what is that appropriate age where someone can demand euthanasia. In the US debate is around Obamacare to abortion.  But the base of it is the same theme and principle, how to create a more just and equal society. We all vary in our ways from people opposing or agreeing Indian governments Food Security Bill or the ‘Obamacare’ in the US. Some think that it is right to tax the rich to support the underclass, some don’t. People like I believe in ‘Reservation’ or ‘Affirmative action’ in college admissions and I know a lot of people who oppose it. I have met people who thoroughly believe in the use of force to protect the ‘State’ and its boundaries, I have some friend of the opposite spectrum who stand against the State and condone the use of violence against it in case of suppression of any kind of rights. Both sides are ready to overlook the most heinous crimes that these organizations both States & Militant commit in carrying out their philosophy. Looking at these hard stands we might assume that our convictions are fixed and will not vary. However, we might have our leanings but can debate and discussion make us change our thoughts towards the opposite side.

    

The Arushi murder case is a double homicide which has gone unresolved. Even after the verdict that the parents are guilty, the debate still rages on. Most people choose to exercise their emotions over the facts and make a choice. I am not an expert and neither do I have a full idea of the facts to make any choice and hence I am sitting on the fence on this one. The information that has come out in the open contradicts on all levels and it is very difficult to make a choice. Though it has to be said that CBI & Police as investigating agencies, made a lot of errors both in terms of investigation but also in the way they handled the people involved and media. Media also has had a negative effect all concerned parties.
Once I have established this position, I also think the judge has made a very bold judgement based on facts. If you look only at the legal process it has shown that the judge made the decision only on the facts, the judge could have easily acquitted them on lack of evidence but it takes audacity to make a decision which would be unpopular in such a high profile case. Judge Shyam Lal gave a 210 page verdict stating the prosecution's point of view. The concern in all this is not that a good or a bad decision was made, Talwars have many ways to redress this and maybe the higher courts may take a different decision.

My concern is the level of distrust people are showing in the establishment. People based on their emotions are ready to disregard not only the investigating agencies but also the court. Now I agree that our institutions haven’t done a good job in raising the level of trust but this kind of behaviour is not good for any society. One of the reasons that I think is responsible for it is that in our schools we are not taught the structure of our legal system. Though we have a subject called Civics which most of us take and it does have the basics in it but the teaching it and the explanation part are missing. Most of the people cannot distinguish between ‘Law and Order’ sides of the system. They don’t have a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities. They don’t understand the process of the legal system and what it entails when you sit on the seat of a judge. They also are unaware of moral dilemmas that a judge faces while giving a hard judgement like this. I think the Indian judicial system, like many other branches of government should have a media cell which tells its side of the story to the public.     

Tehalka seems to be the most talked about case but I think that is because the media is scrutinizing one of its peers. The case if straight forward as the accused has confessed to the crime. But the issue doesn’t end there, it is the way they tried to solve it internally which has led people to believe that the organization had very little intention to take this seriously. They hadn’t implemented the Vishakha guidelines in the last 10 years which made the things worse for them. The more it gets dug into more you realize the murkiness of the whole affair. If this was a case of a man showing interest in the colleague, flirting and even trying to pursue her. Even if that was inappropriate it wouldn’t have turned into a legal issue. This was a sexual assault and with new laws into the picture this would come under rape. It doesn’t matter if Tarun Tejpal apologised.

The larger issue is why suddenly such a large amount of cases with violence and exploitation against women are coming into open. Is it because as a society we have become more aware of it? Or is it some kind of sickening of society. As our society is becoming more open and urban, a large amount of women are joining the work force. For some reason this has lead to a regression in the attitude of men. I think both men and women need to play an important role in solving this issue. Men need to know that attraction has a limit and No means a NOOO. I feel there is a deeper problem, which exists at all levels of our society, rapes and sexual harassment are just a manifestation of it. As more and more women come out in the public space there seems to be more regression in their freedom. Our television or movies have regressed beyond comparison. In mid 80s women were fighting all kinds of social evil, being only a ‘Bahu’ was a symbol of injustice as dowry deaths were being targeted.  Serials like Rajani & Udaan showed women as fighters and as equals, from this to ‘Crap’ of Ekta Kapoor. Our movies are not far behind in this either.  ‘Rosy’ in The Guide or working women of Hrishikesh Mukherjee in 70s were women who stood for their independence and equality. Now you have two roles, either a perfect wife/girl friend or an item song dancer. If this is not regression of an image of a woman, what is? I am not an Anthropologist but maybe there is a connection somewhere. Somehow I feel that it seems that someone like Edward Barnays is working on these topics and feeding us this utterly rundown content.

I really believe that women have to start a revolution of their own, something of the sort which in the US happened in the early 20th century with women lighting up 'Torches of freedom' in public. It was a symbolic (and commercial) thing but yet suddenly the society saw women as equals because they dared to smoke in public. If I have a daughter I would tell her to do everything that a man does, be strong, break as many hearts as she can and live life on her own terms. I hope everyone does that and it brings a revolution.

But I have one more thing to say but that comes after the Snooping Issue.

Snooping Issue has been out there for around two weeks now and I think this is something that Media should be paying more attention to but has chosen to pay the least. A friend thought the reason is because it is associated with a politician and no one trust case for and against politicians. Now I think this case is more important as it touches two important aspects, one, it is pointing fingers at the prime ministerial candidate and two, it's the issue of liberty. A girl was tailed and stalked by Gujrat state police because the Mr. Modi was allegedly obsessed with her. Her father has said that he had asked Mr. Modi to take care of her security. Even if this was the case the government has no right to snoop into an individual’s life. This is a clear violation of a person’s right and liberty, doesn’t matter who authorises it and who asks it, until it comes from the person himself/herself. I think this is something that we need to take very seriously and ask questions.

For some reason Indians are ready to give away their liberty in hope that the economy will pick up. Which itself is a global issue now, no country remains immune to each other’s success and failures. How would someone turn it overnight is not something that people are ready to talk about. This appalling obsession with the economy and money is very worrying.    

In the Ayn Rand’s time, the idea of Liberty was opposite of Socialism but over time most western states have been able of find a balance between personal liberty and freedom with a sort of economic socialism towards the section of society which needs helping hand. In India, rich people have a hard time understanding social welfare; they do not desire it and don’t want it.    

I am not a Modi fan and will never be because of his past for which he still refuses to apologise. Over that he is turning into India’s George Bush. Think about a person who wants to be Prime Minister of India and has no knowledge of Indian history, he makes Biharis fight & win against Alexander. He has very little knowledge of Economics as seen by his speeches in which seem to believe that the world works according to his whims and fancies. I feel a bit worried because the majority of middle class India seems to discount the intelligence and eruditeness when it compares it against rhetoric. 

Central elections are coming closer and closer and questions like these would be raised again and again. What privileges Kashmir should have which other states are not allowed? Why is there such a large amount of crime against women? Are we doing the right thing in subsidising food for the poor?  

 Elections are won and lost on these agreements and disagreements. The various components of culture change have different speeds depending on how fast the society adopts them. So called culture war is fought on it.  However sometimes when we look at these dilemmas we might think that it would be very hard to change the masses. The convictions and faith seem far away from reason. But hopefully it is not as hard as it seems. Persuasion towards a better tomorrow could be brought by a public debate. Debates about justice, rights, liberty, secularism and peace for the whole world has to be in every village, every school and more importantly on every dining table. When confronted with logical argument we do refine our thoughts and choose which is in larger good of the society. This would enable us to rise above all kinds of prejudices because I do believe in the inherent goodness of a human being.  

HOWEVER, as Martin Luther King Jr. Had once said:

There are some things in our social system to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I suggest that you too ought to be maladjusted.

I never intend to adjust myself to the viciousness of mob-rule. I never intend to adjust myself to the evils of segregation and the crippling effects of discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic inequalities of an economic system which take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. I never intend to become adjusted to the madness of militarism and the self-defeating method of physical violence.