jabdakhata

Remember Manjunath Shanmugam, the IIML graduate and IOC officer who was murdered in cold blood by a petrol pump owner because he brought on them charges of corruption? Yesterday he received another blow, this time from Indian Judicial system, a system so arcane and dismal that it cannot deliver justice in 5 years (and we all know cases normally drag on for a lifetime in Indian courts). Earlier in March 2007 district sessions judge (DSJ) Lakhimpur Kheri, S M A Abidi had given death sentence to the chief architect of the crime, Manu alias Pawan Mittal, and the rest of the gang were given life sentence. Honest people were relieved that there is still some sanity in judicial system. But now in December 2009, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court felt that the crime did not belong to the “rarest of the rare cases” and therefore does not justify death sentence, they commuted it to life imprisonment. Not only that, the high court has freed two of the accused. These guys will obviously f

Ruchika Girhotra was a young promising tennis player who was molested by a high profile director general of police, S.P.S Rathore . The incident took place in 1991, 19 years earlier. The story does not end here. It was witnessed by one of the friends of the victim who promptly informed her family. The said police official (?) got panicked and left no stones unturned to intimidate and humiliate the victim’s family. As per media report her brother was tortured in police prison, the family was threatened with dire consequences, her father’s house was eventually bought off by the offender’s lawyer, rowdies were dispatched to instill fear. Eventually three years down the line the victim, unable to bear the pressure, committed suicide and her family was in ruins. But the friend’s family carried on with the fight despite all threats, abuses and attempts to retrain it from its strive for justice. 19 years later that same DGP was convicted of the crime even though he stands defiant and unre

Bhopal gas tragedy enters into its 25th anniversary. A lot has been written on it. Suffice to say that nothing will alleviate the pain, misery and horrendous suffering of people caused by Union Carbide (now Dow Chemicals). The disaster left around 4000 dead and another 500,000 badly affected. They are dying a slow death everyday. The ground water has been polluted by the incident to such an extent that people are drinking toxic water for the past 25 years. Governments and political parties have done nothing, except taking advantage. People of India have not shrunk in horror at the extent of the calamity, they have just accepted it as another ill fate. But the most unholy response came from Dow. The paltry amount given to every injured was around INR 25000 and to every dead person's kin it was INR 62000. As if Indian lives are so cheap. It seems that there was also a statement from Dow that the "amount would be sufficient for Indians". Now isn't that called arrogance

The second story goes like this - In a town there lived a small time businessman who was doing poorly in business and therefore was in dire financial strait. That businessman prayed to the God and that night he had a dream that a monk had come to visit his house, but instead of entertaining his guest, he took a stick and hit the monk on the head. Immediately the monk fell down and got converted to a heap of gold. In the morning when he woke up he was still deliberating on the significance of his dream when his barber came for his daily shave. Just then there was a knock on the door and when the person opened the door, a monk came inside. Just then he remembered about his dream, took a rod and hit the monk on head. The monk fell flat and immediately there was a heap of gold coins in his place. The businessman gave his barber some gold and sworn him to secrecy. But this incident dishevelled the barber. He too went hom and began thinking, if by hitting a monk he gets so many gold coins, I

Remembering Tagore's poem - Keno cheye accho go Ma Mukhopane Era chahena tomare chahena je Era apono Ma yere nahi jane Era tomay kichhu debena debena mitthya kobe sudhu hino porane Tumi to ditechho Ma ja achhe tomari Shorno shoshyo tabo Janhobi bari gyano dharmo kato punno kahini Era tomay kichhu debena debena mitthya kobe sudhu kato ki bhane monero bedona rakho ma mone nayano bari nibaro nayane mukho lukao ma dhuli shayane bhule thako jato hino santane shunno pane cheye prahoro gono goni dekho katekina dirgho rajani dukhho janaye ki hobe janani nirmomo chetanahino pashane Translating this beautiful poem in English retaining its sense is next to impossible. However here is a feeble attempt. Why are you staring at our face mother, they don't want you, they don't know you, their own mother. They won't give you anything except for lies and more lies and pretension. You have given us all you have - golden harvests, pure water, knowledge, religion, virtue. But they don'