They both decided to marry in USA

Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 18:42:39 +0100 (BST)
From: Gope Lalwani

Gope Lalwani wrote: Here is other story !!!
==============================================================


After introduction through Times of India matrimonial and exchanges on Internet and visit to Bombay my son and she were engaged in July 2001.

They both being Independent and professionals, the parents were not involved in their decisions. The decisions were their own.

She was working with Eastern shipping co Ltd; Mumbai as law officer for the past seven years and living and supporting her divorced mother who was divorced about 12 years ago.

They both decided to marry in USA as it was felt by them that decent marriage may not be possible in India, due to social stigma attached to the divorce of her mother.Therefore petition for fiancee visa (K_1) was submitted to US authorities which was approved. She went to US consulate to receive fiancee visa on December 6 , 2001 and came to USA on fiancee visa sponsored by US citizen on December 9, 2001. After receiving Visa and before leaving India, she transferred all her property, assets, holdings,bank balance to her mother by executing special power of attorney on December 7, 2001.

On the next day of her arrival in USA they both applied together for marriage license and marriage was scheduled for December 18, 2001 by county Court.

There after she started misbehaving in the family and wanted her mother to be sponsored for visitor visa before the marriage is solemnized in USA.. She wanted all the other members of the joint family { my wife and younger son - I was in India ) to vacate the house as house belonged to her would be husband. She wanted to take over complete control over the family before the marriage is solemnized. She misbehaved beyond limits as such it was realized that the marriage will not work.

The scheduled marriage was postponed due to her several demands and her leaving the house without consent/permission for one week on December 25, for IOWA to meet her friend.

Due to prevailing circumstances finally they agreed and entered into prenuptial agreement on February 5, 2002 in which it was decided that she will get US $ 10,000 in case she remains in marriage for at least for two years. She also declared that her all assets , belongings etc; were lying in Bombay and had absolutely nothing in US.

They got married on February 13, 2002 and obtained marriage certificate for applying for Green Card and work permit for her.

My son had purchased a bigger house which was under construction. The present house was to be sold to partly pay for the new house. She in -spite of prenuptial agreement demanded that the house should not be sold and kept for her use. In the huff she left for California on February 19, 2002and returned after 5 weeks of absence on March 25, 2002. [ This absence has been justified by her as HONEY-MOON by her in California ( in divorce proceedings) saying that her husband could not accompany her on HONEY-MOON as he was busy selling his house !!!]

While in California she sent email on March 20,2002 stating as under :

" I do like you & want this marriage but I do not know how to effectively deal with the situation".

" I am requesting you again that whilst you stay jointly with your family you should be willing to give me my own private space".

" Anyway, I am writing this to you because I would be forced to qquit our marriage. The decision is very much in your hands".

After she returned from California,she continued with UN-acceptable behavior in the family and subjected every body to abusive language and turned home into living hell.

The new house was ready and the family moved on June 15, 2002. I returned from India on June 22, 2002. On June 28, 2002 she left for Bombay to pursue studies in " EVENT MANAGEMENT" at S.N.D.T. women's college for which she had sought admission through her mother, while in USA. She left US in spite of knowing that she was scheduled for Green Card interview on August 12, 2002 and was not supposed to leave US without parole.

On July 10, 2002 she sent email from Bombay as under: Hi, How you? I am fine out here. It feels good to be back in Mumbai. I am happy to be with Mom, friends & family. Today we had gone to the US club at Colaba to play house and returned at 10 pm. You could call me at 9pm any time on Friday, Meanwhile you could send me an email as well.

Divorce petition was filed in US Court and papers were served to her on August 14, 2002 in Bombay. She being professional lawyer, participated in legal proceedings, assisted by other Lawyer friend and her Divorced father. She demanded alimony US $ 200,000 (Rs.one crore app.) in her reply to US Court sent on September 11, 2002. Her father is law attorney admitted to practice in India having influence with Police , Judges and law enforcing machinery.

While the proceedings in divorce matter were going on in US court, she filed false criminal complaint in India and FIR was registered on December 31, 2002. The complaint was registered by Asst. Police Inspector in violation of the Law that these matters can be only registered by Deputy Superintendent of Police. The complaint was not verified, inquired or investigated by Police .The FIR was prepared and Non bailable warrants of arrest were obtained against entire family of US citizens. Bombay Airport-police was alerted for look out.

The entire operation was kept secret by Police in collusion with the complainant..The fact that divorce proceedings were underway was not disclosed in the complaint nor Indian Court was informed about facts.Nor the US court was informed that the Criminal proceedings were started by her in India simultaneously.

Divorce was granted and decree was passed by US court on April 01. 2003 .She got nothing as alimony. The US court during the hearing of the case had remarked and called father-daughter duo blackmailers and extortionists. The decree of Divorce was duly delivered on April 15, 2003

Without the knowledge of fowl play and secret collusion in-between girl and Indian law enforcing machinery , my wife accompanied by my son visited India to meet 92 years old ailing mother in June 2003, after the divorce was granted by US Court. Both US citizens were arrested at Airport and jailed by Police. All documentary evidence was provided to police and court.to prove the complaint false, fabricated and fraudulent. The residential property owned by me as non resident Indian was searched by the assistant Inspector who registered the FIR without any search warrant or the permission from the concerned police Jurisdiction. No where in the complaint it is alleged that the complainant ever stayed or lived at the premises searched by the said officer. Complainantalso tried to take possession of my property with the help of corrupt Indian police. There is record of this attempt at the society office in which property is located. It cost my wife and son 3 days in jail over Rs10 lakhs expenses and 15 days detention in India to obtain bail and get back to US. Charge sheet was filed by Police after one year without submitting any Inquiry or Investigation report. Prosecution is giving two different stories in entire proceedings.

Before the charge sheet was filed by the police with the court in December 2003, the complainant (witness in 498A criminal police case) has absconded to Dubai UAE and never returned or visited her home in Mumbai or attended any court date till this day. She has found the job with M/s Gacworld shipping company as claims officer at Dubai. The corrupt Indian police and law enforcing machinery including Judiciary is taking care of the false, fabricated and fraudulent FIR registered by them.

However now in view of strong evidence and documentary proof, she has admitted having lodged false complaint and signed settlement document stating that she was never subjected to mental or physical cruelty by her husband or other family members as falsely alleged in police complaint. She has also confirmed that no dowry demands were ever made or any dowry or gifts were ever taken from her or her parents.

She has withdrawn all the allegations falsely made against all the members of US citizen family; victimized under 498A Indian barbarian law, with active collusion and abatement from Police, Judiciary and corrupt law enforcing machinery in India.

The extreme Injustices suffered by US citizen family of Indian origin, due to UN- scrupulous bride from India , and corrupt Indian law enforcing machinery including Judiciary, and naked misuse and abuse of laws by government machinery for corruption and Extortion has additionally resulted in untold sufferings:

Readers views, suggestions and comments
shall be highly appreciated
Thanks
Regards,
Gope Lalwani.
gopelalwani@yahoo.co.in

Did Indian feminists influence Govt. decision on IIT admissions ?

Did Indian feminists influence Govt. decision on IIT admissions ?


There seems to be a feminist angle to the IIT JEE admission controversy.

Many states in India reserve 33% of their seats in Engineering colleges for women. There are allegations that Indian Feminists were demanding a similar 33% reservation for women in IITs. It can be noted that the number of women who clear the IIT JEE is very low. Their demands for 33% reservations for women were turned down.

Then, Feminists started pestering for making changes in the IIT JEE format so that women can perform better. They gave example of the various changes done to GRE according to feminist demands. Earlier GRE examination used to have 2400 marks which used to be divided into 3 sections (Analytical, Quantitative and Verbal). With demands from feminists, the analytical section was removed and an essay was added separately when the authorities gave in to the demands by Feminists.

As the pressure for feminist lobbies started mounting, some changes to the IIT JEE examination were carried out. But, that did not seem to help women candidates. So, feminists started demanding linking IIT JEE examination results with the +2 or class 12th results. They were also against giving more than one chance to a candidate for IIT JEE. Men seem to attempt more often than women to clear IIT JEE. So, the IIT admissions were linked to the results of 12th exams, where women tend to perform somewhat better than their IIT Performance. Then, a ceiling was put on the number of attempts that one can take for IIT JEE.

In US, it is well know that Feminist lobbies have forcibly introduced major changes in school syllabi and also in the teaching methods. That has led to a situation in US, where boys perform much worse than girls in school. Many young mothers are very much concerned about the performance of their sons in school.

Its worthwhile to ponder the serious consequences to the society when educational system is distorted based on demands by various lobbies funded from West.

http://www.saveindianfamily.org/blogs

Ultra-successful brainwashing of the public by the media

Ultra-successful brainwashing of the public by the media




http://homepage.ntlworld.com/verismo/dv.againstmen.html

If you want to find an example of ultra-successful brainwashing of the public by the media, you need look no further than the subject of domestic violence; though I have to admit that child abuse runs it a close second. If you ask the man-in-the-street what he thinks domestic violence is, he will probably tell you that it is men attacking women within the family. If you further ask him why he thinks this, he will tell you that he has heard it many times in TV news broadcasts, read about it in newspapers and magazines and has seen adverts about it on television.

Exactly! In a word he has been brainwashed and, sadly, he is by no means alone; he is in the company of his wife, his neighbours, his children's teachers, his bank manager and countless politicians. They are all totally ignorant of the true facts about domestic violence. So where can these poor beleaguered souls discover the truth about this important problem which constantly batters their ears and eyeballs? The sad answer is, it's all around them if only they use their eyes and their ears.

In January 1999 the UK Government's Home Office published the results of a survey into domestic violence. It was the biggest ever carried out anywhere in the world and involved more than 10,000 men and women. It was called Study 191 and it stated, quite categorically, that 4.2% of men and 4.2% of women perpetrate the crime of domestic violence. In other words they had discovered that men and women are equally violent.

Surprised? Don't be. It's nothing new and to my knowledge (and to anyone else's who has researched the matter) it has been known for at least 30 years.

The persistent claim that the overwhelming majority of victims of domestic violence are women is not supported by any impartial research, either in the UK or elsewhere. The results of all reputable gender-neutral studies of domestic violence in couple relationships, published to date, indicate that there is an almost equal numerical culpability between men and women.

We hear much today about the need for women's refuges where all those women who are `regularly' beaten up by men can flee with their children. The first such refuge in this country (indeed in the world) was opened by Erin Pizzey in London, back in 1971. She was a feminist and thought that women needed to be helped. But in her book Prone to Violence, published in 1982, she stated that, of the first 100 women who entered that refuge, 64 of them were as violent, or more violent, than the men they were allegedly running away from. So with this evidence available for over 20 years, why are the public and the politicians so ignorant of it? The simple answer is: the book was censored. Erin Pizzey received death threats from feminists in the UK who, at that time, were riding on the crest of a powerful wave, and Erin had to leave the country.

I first heard about the book eight years ago so I decided to buy a copy. I was told that it was out of print. I decided to try the massive Internet booksellers Amazon who boasted that they could supply any book. When I visited their site I asked for the titles of all the books written by Erin Pizzey (she's written about 12). Down scrolled a list of all her books - all except Prone to Violence. Strange! Are you now thinking the unthinkable, that book censorship is alive and well in the UK? You are so right!

Having failed to buy a copy, I decided to borrow one. I tried my local library but they told me that they did not have a copy. I therefore filled in the necessary card, and paid the fee, for them to borrow a copy from another library in the UK. I was eventually informed that there was not a single copy of the book in any library in the country. Fortunately, having had experience in the publishing business, I knew that a copy of every book published in the UK has to be sent, free, to the National Library, by the publisher. I told my library this and asked them to borrow a copy from them. They did, and I was eventually able to read the book. A year or so later, Prone to Violence was published on the Internet. The cenosrship had eventually failed and now anyone can download the entire book free.

Now that governments and other agencies can no longer censor books which appear on the internet, does it surprise you that we constantly hear of how much "damage" merely being on the Internet does to children? Increasingly politicians and other censorship angents are trying to take some sort of control of the Internet no matter how feeble the reason. Freedom to think is a constant threat to politicians. This complete censorship of domestic violence has now been replaced by a one-sided presentation of the "facts" of domestic violence with the feminist spin machine presenting carefully selected "facts" to present to the public in an effort to suggest that domestic violence is a sex issue, and not showing it in its true colours as a social issue. Violence in couple relationships has always existed. Some examples of male victims include Abraham Lincoln, and more recently, Humphrey Bogart and John Wayne, to name but a few. But do you think any of these gentlemen would want it noised abroad that they were attacked by their wives? I hardly think so. Just imagine what such publicity would have done to their macho images. And here we have a genuine problem but one which is slowly being solved. Men don't like to admit that they are attacked by their wives or girlfriends; hence they are loathe to admit it. In the UK the men's civil rights charity, ManKind, has over the past year, set up helplines for male victims all over the country. How many calls do they get? One of the men who mans one of the lines recently told me that he gets on average 15 every day; and that's only in one area of the south of England.

I know four men who have suffered domestic violence at the hands of their wives. The first woke up one morning to find his wife sitting on the side of his bed, striking matches and throwing them on the sheets in an effort to set him alight, another told me of the time he was left lying injured and bleeding on the floor of his kitchen, after being attacked by his wife, and when the police arrived, they stepped over him to go to his wife to ask if she was all right. A third man had his skull and several ribs fractured by his wife using an iron bar, but still stayed with her until the day she put crushed glass in his dinner. When blood started pouring out of his mouth, he realised it was time to move out. A fourth stands at six feet four, is a black belt in karate and his wife constantly bombards him with verbal abuse. He will not hit her because he knows very well that if he does the police will immediately arrest him and make him leave his home.

If you wish to delve further into the truth about domestic violence, I suggest you obtain a copy of The A to Z of D.V. complied by Martin S Fiebert, Ph.D. of the Department of Psychology, California State University. This is a collection of 95 scholarly investigations, 79 empirical studies and 16 reviews and analyses, covering over 60,000 case studies. Together, this massive volume of evidence proves beyond doubt that women are as physically aggressive, if not more so, in relationships with their spouses than men. All this is freely available on the Internet.

The majority of male victims feel that the police and social agencies are generally unsympathetic to their plight and in some cases antagonistic. A Dispatches programme, broadcast in the UK on 7th January 1999 reported on the experiences of 100 male victims of domestic violence and found that: 30% had been attacked while asleep; 25% had been kicked in the genitals; 25% of the male victims had themselves been arrested after seeking police help, and 89% felt that the police had not taken their complaints seriously. Only 7% of the female assailants had been arrested and none was subsequently charged.

Despite the huge body of research I have referred to above, the assumption that women are always the victims and men the victimisers still largely underpins government and public policy and is the reason for giving many millioins of pounds of public money to women's groups and refuges every year, and none to help male victims. There are over 445 refuges for "battered" women in England and Wales where women can flee and take their children. At the moment, in the UK there are just two refuges for men, one opened in December 2003 and the other, which is the only one exclusively for men, in January 2004.

Given the foregoing, it is not surprising that men do not report instances of domestic violence against them, and it is this problem that the UK men's rights charity ManKind is now busy addressing. Their DV posters are being increasingly seen in police stations, libraries and on notice-boards as more and more people are becoming aware of the truth of the situation and are willing to help. One of the posters shows a man with an injured face bearing the caption, "The `garage door' he bumped into last night was female." This is an attempt to urge men to report domestic violence as readily as women do. The latest surveys show that women are five times more likely than men to report domestic violence against them.

Domestic violence is not a sex issue, it is a social issue, and until both sides of the problem are acknowledged and addressed by those who claim to be concerned about the matter, no cure will be found.

Measure of Battered women

http://www.nycop.com/Davis_Column/Davis_-_Battered_Women_and_Bat/body_davis_-_battered_women_and_bat1.html


Measure of Battered women


Most researchers and professionals agree that a "battered woman" is a woman whose life is thoroughly, extensively, and completely controlled by a man and her behavior purposely altered to suit a man's desires while they live in a familial-styled relationship. The batterer systematically uses physical violence, economic subordination, threats, isolation, and a variety of other behavioral controlling tactics to ensure she does what he wants her to do. The problem with the numbers documented above, and often reported elsewhere, is that the vast majority of data that purport to demonstrate the number of "battered women" do not document the above type of victim or abuser.

The vast majority of studies used to measure the number of "battered women" employ some form of the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) developed by University of New Hampshire in 1971. CTS is the most common measure of non-sexual family violence. It measures three styles of interpersonal conflict in familial styled relationships. It measures, most often through telephone interviews, the use of rational verbal agreement and disagreement, the use of verbal and nonverbal aggressive behavior, and the use of physical force or violent behavior. It is not designed to measure in any rational context the reason or motivation for the behavior of either abuser or victim.

Almost all of the modified versions of the CTS ask questions such as:

• Did you have something thrown towards you that could hurt if it hit you?

• Were you grabbed, pushed, or shoved?

• Were you slapped, hit, bitten, or kicked?

• Were you hit with an object, choked, or beaten up?

• Were you threatened with a knife, gun, or other weapon?

• Was a knife, gun, or other weapon used against you?

The question begged here is, how many of us have not been guilty of, or a victim of, some form of the behavior described by the CTS scale? How does a single yes answer to any one of the above questions document that a victim of an isolated event is a "battered woman" or that the actor is a "batterer?" And just as important is the fact that the motivational dynamic is rarely asked and, hence, rarely answered. No one, not the most ardent feminist or male chauvinist, can argue with any degree of reason or certainty that some of these self-reported behaviors could not have been motivated by an isolated argument, anger, jealousy or revenge for some perceived prior behavior and/or fueled by an excessive use of alcohol or drugs.

Simple and cursory research concerning the "battered woman model" document the phenomenon is very real. I believe that most police officers in this nation honestly agree that both the batterer and victim, noted above, exist in their community. None of what I write is an attempt to dispute that fact. My concern is just the opposite. What I proffer is the attempt by many in the women's rights movement to inflate the number of victims and to paint all men as batterers and all woman equally at risk of being battered has resulted in driving many men and woman away from the issue. The victims of battering, the majority who are at the lower end of the socioeconomic, educational ladder, become marginalized because of the claim that all women are equally at risk for battering. All studies document quite clearly that women who suffer social, economic, and educational deprivation and lack family support are at a greater risk of severe battering. These victims are the ones who most need our help and their batterers need sure, swift, and just sanctions.

The constant attempt by the women's rights movement to paint all men as batterers has caused many men to minimize or deny or ignore this type of behavior even when they suspect a friend might be a batterer. Many men fear being caught in the women's rights legal dragnet for batterers. After all, many in the women's rights movement continue to profess that these witnesses, are men and hence they must be guilty of something. The continued drumbeat by many in the women's rights movement and some researchers that all men are demonic batterers and all woman angelic victims has resulted in the majority of men and women in America, who are not abusers or victims, to ignore the plight of many battered women that lack resources or family support.

Many women and African American women in particular, during the 1800s, came to distrust white suffragettes led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton because of their repeated attack on marriage and in particular when both turned their support away from the rights of African American women in the South to vote. Today, many men and woman, who are neither batterer or victim, have come to distrust many in the women's rights movement because of their repeated attack on all men and because they continue to present flawed and dramatically differing numbers of abusers and victims simply to support their position. And once again many very real victims are marginalized in society because of their social, economic, and educational status.


EDITOR’S NOTE:
Richard L. Davis, the author of "Domestic Violence: Facts and Fallacies", Praeger Publishers, Westport CT (1998), retired after 21 years of service with the Brockton, Massachusetts Police Department, he is a Domestic Violence Intervention and Programs consultant. rldavis@post.harvard.edu

Lawyers in UP set up Hindu law board - By Amita Verma

Hope this board will bring in some respite to VITIMS of FALSE 498A cases



http://www.asianage.com/main.asp?layout=2&cat1=1&cat2=22&newsid=181503&RF=DefaultMain

Lawyers in UP set up Hindu law board - By Amita Verma

Lawyers in UP set up Hindu law board

- By Amita Verma

Lucknow, Sept. 18: The All-India Muslim Personal Law Board seems to have inspired Hindus to set up a similar body. A group of lawyers practising in the Allahabad High Court on Saturday set up the All-India Hindu Personal Law Board.

Board chairman Ashok Pandey told this newspaper, "We set up the board on the auspicious occasion of Anant Chaturdashi and we will work to safeguard the rights of Hindus who can bring property disputes and marital disputes before it. We will work towards removing social evils like dowry and the board will have the power to appeal for social boycott of families that do not treat their daughters-in-law with respect and love."

According to Mr Pandey, the board will work towards "rectifying the follies committed by our elders at the time of Independence."

"At that time, India should have been declared a Hindu Rashtra and all constitutional posts should have been reserved for natural Hindus — persons born to Hindu parents. Protection and repair of temples and Hindu shrines should have been made the constitutional duty of the government. Symbols of national shame like roads named after Mughal rulers should have been removed. The board will take legal steps to ensure that these tasks are accomplished," Mr Pandey explained.

The board proposes to have all Shankaracharyas and chief priests of the Badrinath and Kedarnath temples as ex-officio members on the working committee and their opinion will be sought on matters that concern the Hindu religion. A two-member delegation will meet the Shankaracharyas to seek their consent, and the national convention of the board will be held in Lucknow in October.

Women are as likely to be violent and to initiate violence as men

http://www.vdare.com/roberts/column101701.htm

October 17, 2001

Agenda Over Fact

By Paul Craig Roberts

Three years ago I concluded a sixteen-year stint as a Business Week columnist with the observation: “As the growing emphasis on feelings crowds out reason, facts will play a smaller role in public discourse.”

That was the safest prediction any economist ever made. Respect for facts has a tenuous hold on the allegiance of public policymakers, journalists, academics, and many others with agendas unsupported by the facts.

Recently, a history professor wrote a book citing sources that don’t exist. What was important to the professor was not truth, but making a case against gun ownership.

To further their agendas, other professors have fabricated life stories for themselves. A professor in Maryland passed himself off as a Vietnam veteran and told stories about events that never happened. Another at Columbia created a history of himself as a Palestinian refugee. One woman won a Nobel Prize in Literature for a fabricated biography. Even some scientists have made up global warming scenarios in order to achieve their environmental objectives.

In a civilization in which so much depends on adherence to fact, it is a scary thing to experience fact playing second fiddle to emotions. If fact becomes dispensable, what becomes of law, crime and punishment, trials, contracts, insurance, finance, technology, science, and identity?

Almost anywhere we look, we can find examples of propaganda crowding out truth. Consider the issue of domestic violence.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. The premise of domestic violence is that it is something men do to women. A current issue of National Review, for example, has a two-page add sponsored by the tobacco company Philip Morris. One page has the face of an attractive young woman. The other page is text designed to arouse anger at men:

“He said he beat me because I deserved it. Now I know I deserve better.” “‘He tried to strangle me last night.’ Melissa cried as she wrote these words, eight months pregnant and seeking an order of protection from her husband. Their high school romance had seemed like a fairy tale, but when the honeymoon ended the beatings began.”

There are shelters for battered women, domestic violence coordinating councils, and magazine and newspaper articles and advertisements that encourage women to report their husbands to the police just as they would report any other criminal.

Seminars warn women that a raised male voice constitutes abuse and is a prelude to a beating.

Feminists believe that the percentage of men who are abusers is far higher than arrest records indicate. From this belief they conclude that hoards of abused women are sufering in silence.

How many times have you read: “In the U.S. a man beats a woman every 12 seconds”? Have you ever wondered where these statistics come from or how often women batter men?

In his book, “The Revolt of the Primitive,” Howard S. Schwartz shows that the one-sided portrait of men as abusers of women is constructed out of fabrications and selective reporting of real studies.

The most extensive data base on domestic violence is the National Family Violence Survey, funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health and supervised by Murray A. Straus and Richard J. Gelles. Their conclusion that women are as likely to be violent and to initiate violence as men is one of the best replicated findings in all of social science.

A 1999 Canadian study by Brad Evenson and Carol Milstone, reported in the National Post, found that “women are just as violent to their spouses as men, and women are almost three times more likely to initiate violence in a relationship.” The National Post noted that the study “deals a blow to the image of the male as the traditional domestic aggressor.”

Dishonest feminists created the image to fit their agenda by selectively reporting and emphasizing only instances of male violence. The feminist claim that 12%-!5% of men are abusers comes from a survey, which reported that10.8 percent of the men committed minor acts of violence and 2.5% committed more severe acts. The same survey found that 12.4% of women committed minor acts and 4.7% committed major acts of violence. Moreover, 67% of the women said they had initiated the violence. Only 26% of the women blamed the male.

Ironically, it is mainly uninformed males, such as Dan Rather and Philips Morris executives, who spread the feminist propaganda. When Dan Rather termed Super Bowl Sunday “a day of dread for American women,” he was giving credibility to the feminist claim that wife beatings shot up 40% on the day of the big game. This feminist hoax was finally exposed by Ken Ringle in the Washington Post.

When confronted with their false reporting, feminists say that they trust their feelings about men more than “gender-biased statistics.” Like others, they are not interested in information that gets in the way of an agenda.

Paul Craig Roberts is the author (with Lawrence M. Stratton) of The New Color Line : How Quotas and Privilege Destroy Democracy

COPYRIGHT 2001 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.



Copyright © 1999 - 2005 VDARE.com

Girl's Story Of Harassment False, Police Say

A society should NOT ONLY protect women. It should also make safeguards against FALSE CASES. Here is a false case - a simple complaint by a girl stating that a man "grabbed her arm".

But when the police realise that she is lying THEY ARE IMMEDIATELY TALKING ABOUT CHARGES AGAINST HER !!

Compare this to India where EVEN AFTER A FALSE 498A, women go scott free - after a much serious offence and harassment of our parents, sisters and brothers




http://news.tbo.com/news/MGBX2L7CSCE.html

Girl's Story Of Harassment False, Police Say

By VALERIE KALFRIN vkalfrin@tampatrib.com

Published: Aug 25, 2005

TAMPA - Tampa police thought something seemed odd about a 12-year-old girl's story regarding a man harassing her at United Skates of America.

The girl told the rink's managing partner, Brian Cherry, that a tattooed man followed her and her cousin around the rink Saturday. Cherry asked the man to leave, which he did.

Moments later, the girl told Cherry the man had returned, grabbed her arm and said, ``I'll be back.'' She said she kicked the man, and he released her. Cherry called police.

But no one else in the rink at 5121 N. Armenia Ave. that day saw the man grab the girl, police said. Security footage from the rink showed the man left and did not return.

Confronted with those details Tuesday, police say the girl told them she fabricated the encounter.

``He just made her uncomfortable,'' Capt. Sophia Teague said Wednesday. ``We don't know why.''

The girl said he grabbed her ``to prevent something from happening'' to another child, Sgt. Julia Massucci said.

Not satisfied with the explanation, Massucci wants the girl to be charged as a juvenile with making a false police report. The girl's tale pulled two detectives off other cases and panicked the rink's patrons and employees, Massucci said.

``Perhaps she can be sent to a diversion program where she can get some counseling and learn that's not the way to get attention,'' she said.

Police did not identify the girl. Massucci said she will discuss the possible charge with the State Attorney's office today or Sept. 1, depending on other pressing cases.

Police last year charged a 13-year- old girl with making a false police report after she lied about someone grabbing her off the street, Massucci said. ``It seems if they're late to school or late coming home, they make up a story to keep out of trouble,'' she said.

Children should report people or incidents that make them uncomfortable, but ``we want them to be accurate and not lie to us,'' Massucci said. ``What if we had arrested [the man] on this child's word? That would have been a travesty.''

The girl also had said she saw the man at Town & Country Skateworld, 7510 Paula Drive, spurring the rinks' managers to confer about safety. They arranged a meeting next week with employees and a Hillsborough County deputy to discuss how to handle suspicious-looking people.

On Wednesday, Cherry said the meeting will take place. The sheriff's office plans to provide the rinks with photos of nearby sex offenders, he said.

Even so, Cherry was relieved to hear some of the girl's claims were false.

``I haven't slept in three days. I've been so worried about this,'' he said.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800.


TBO.com Is Tampa Bay Online ©105, Media General Inc.

Whose harassment is it anyway?

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5922_1493443,0015002500000000.htm

Friday, September 16, 2005|01:10 IST

Whose harassment is it anyway?

Manish Chandra Pandey

Lucknow, September 15

RIGHT FROM not joining a particular political party to their husband’s inability to speak English, the war between the two sexes, where the fairer ones are giving their hubbies a tough time using the convenient ‘harassment for dowry’ tool with disturbing regularity, is getting hotter with each passing day.

With the dowry law heavily loaded in favour of women (specially in the first seven years of marriage), cops often feel helpless in bailing out the harassed male.

Take this Congressman’s predicament, for instance. This senior state Congress leader — a general secretary of the UP Congress Committee and also an AICC member —- married off one of his nephews about eight years back to a girl hailing from Banthara. .

The marriage went fine for eight years during which his nephew fathered two kids. Then one fine day, the in-laws of the nephew, who are active members of the BSP, “suggested that the nephew as well as his entire family resign from Congress and join BSP instead!” The Congressman’s failure to do so saw the nephew’s wife walking out of the marriage and into the police station with her family. Dowry harassment charges came flying thereafter.

Ever since, this politician has used all his clout to get his side of the story heard. After the intervention of senior cops, the case landed with the Aichhik Bureau formed by former SSP Navniet Sekera, specially to “get all such suspect cases vetted” before registering a complaint.

Compounding the problems of the males is the fact that post-Sekera the Aichhik Bureau (of which Sekera’s wife Puja was also a member) has been reduced to a ‘powerless’ unit, with new SSP Ashutosh Pandey not showing any interest in its functioning.

But because of the bureau’s overwhelming success during Sekera’s tenure in making the warring couples see reason, applications are still pouring (though not all are male-centric) in requesting a patch-up. Uma Dwivedi, bureau in-charge, admits that even senior cops are directing cases of dowry harassment to her bureau.

Take the case of this doctor with KGMU who is still seen frequenting the bureau office here on the Mahila Thana premises. His wife deserted him and got a case registered against him. The issue: “The wife felt angry simply because her mother-in-law asked her how much did she earn,” says a cop investigating the cause for the break up.

Another woman went to the police simply because her husband was unable to make her mother’s business profitable!


Asia News © HT Media Ltd. 2004. India News

How local officials in China launched a brutal campaign of forced abortions and sterilizations

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1103579,00.html

Enemies Of the State?

How local officials in China launched a brutal campaign of forced abortions and sterilizations


By HANNAH BEECH/SHANDONG

a.. TIME Archive: China Bringing Up Baby, One by One

Posted Monday, Sep. 12, 2005

The men with the poison-filled syringe arrived two days before Li Juan's due date. They pinned her down on a bed in a local clinic, she says, and drove the needle into her abdomen until it entered the 9-month-old fetus. "At first, I could feel my child kicking a lot," says the 23-year-old. "Then, after a while, I couldn't feel her moving anymore." Ten hours later, Li delivered the girl she had intended to name Shuang (Bright). The baby was dead. To be absolutely sure, says Li, the officials--from the Linyi region, where she lives, in China's eastern Shandong province--dunked the infant's body for several minutes in a bucket of water beside the bed. All she could think about on that day last spring, recalls Li, was how she would hire a gang of thugs to take revenge on the people who killed her baby because the birth, they said, would have violated China's family-planning scheme.

Since 1980, when China began fully carrying out what is commonly known as the one-child policy, officials in the provinces have often resorted to draconian measures--forced sterilizations and late-term abortions among them--to prevent the country's population of 1.3 billion from expanding into a Malthusian nightmare. Government leaders credit China's stringent population control with helping spur economic growth by reducing the number of mouths that must be fed. But in 2002, as personal freedoms proliferated in other areas of life, parliament voted to ease the deeply unpopular policy. Instead of forbidding extra children outright, the new law, among other reforms, allowed couples to have multiple offspring if they were willing to pay big fines. The costs can be exorbitant for peasants like Li--$365 or more for the first additional child in Linyi, around four times the average annual net income in this impoverished region. But at least the Chinese now possess a modicum of choice in family matters, which they lacked a few years ago.

The Communist Party bureaucracy, however, doesn't seem to have caught up with the new law. Despite laxer regulation, the career advancement of local leaders, especially in rural areas, still often depends on keeping birthrates low. "One set of bad population figures can stop an official from getting promoted," says Tu Bisheng, a Beijing legal activist who has helped document abuses related to the one-child policy.

At a provincial meeting last year, Linyi officials were castigated for having the highest rate of extra births in all of Shandong, according to lawyers familiar with the situation. The dressing-down galvanized what appears to be one of the most brutal mass sterilization and abortion campaigns in years. Starting in March, family-planning officials in Linyi's nine counties and three districts trawled villages, looking to force women pregnant with illegal children to abort, and to sterilize those who already had the maximum allotment of children under the local family-planning policy. According to that regulation, which exists in a similar form in most rural areas, women with a son are not allowed to bear more children, whereas mothers whose first child is handicapped or a girl are allowed to have a second baby.

Many women refused to undergo the procedures. Others hid, often in family members' homes. The crackdown intensified. Relatives of women who resisted sterilization or abortion were detained and forced to pay for "study sessions" in which they had to admit their "wrong thinking," says Teng Biao, an instructor at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, who visited Linyi last month to investigate the coercive campaign. In the Linyi county of Yinan alone, at least 7,000 people were forced to undergo sterilization between March and July, according to lawyers who spoke with local family-planning officials. Several villagers, the lawyers allege, were beaten to death while under detention for trying to help family members avoid sterilization.

Officials in Linyi deny that anything improper has happened. "All these things are either exaggerated, distorted or not based on facts," says an official surnamed Yao (he wouldn't give his full name) at the Linyi municipal family-planning commission. But national-level cadres concede that something has gone terribly wrong. "We have heard about the situation in Shandong, and it's totally against national law," a member of the State Family Planning Commission's secretariat in Beijing told TIME. "We are investigating the situation now." A public statement from the commission said that central and provincial authorities have cautioned Linyi officials to follow national regulations, vowing to punish lawbreakers.

The plight of Linyi's women was publicized by a most unlikely man. Chen Guangcheng was blinded at a young age in Linyi and learned massage in Beijing, one of the few subjects those without sight in China are allowed to study. But Chen was fascinated by law and while in Beijing sat in on several university law courses. Returning to Linyi, he became a legal activist, advising peasants on land and tax disputes. In March, a stream of distraught peasants complained to him of forced sterilizations and the detentions of family members. Chen, 34, had heard about the campaign; many people in his village, he told TIME, had been imprisoned at one time or another for defying the sterilization order. But he had no idea the campaign was so widespread. After discussing the issue with lawyer friends in Beijing, Chen decided to file a class action against Linyi officials for contravening national family-planning law. Chinese journalists traveled to Shandong to chronicle his mission but were not allowed to publish articles about him in the domestic press.

By mid-August, Chen was under house arrest for his activities. Seven people, he and his wife say, were stationed outside his home to watch him. But Chen felt he had to escape to Beijing to continue with the lawsuit. On the evening of Aug. 25, while police snoozed outside, he sneaked out in the dark. Hearing someone follow him, Chen threw handfuls of gravel in different directions to confuse his pursuer. "The night gives me an advantage," says Chen. "I can navigate better than people with sight can." With a relative as a guide, Chen fled into fields of tall corn and walked for miles before meeting a friend who drove him to safety. But when Chen reached Beijing, four officials who had come from Linyi hassled him at the railway station. When he met again with TIME last week in Beijing, Chen's hands were shaking. Three hours after the interview, Linyi officials hustled him into a vehicle and took off. Chen is again under house arrest in Linyi.

Whistle-blowers in China often face retribution for publicizing official malfeasance. "I know I'm at risk, but I cannot give up, because people are depending on me," said Chen shortly before he was detained. Yet even if Chen is released from house arrest and his lawsuit succeeds, it will do little to change the fate of women like Hu Bingmei. When family-planning officials came to fetch her in May for a forced sterilization, Hu escaped with her two daughters to her parents' home in another village. Several days later, seven officials showed up, she says, grabbed her younger child and shoved the girl into a car. Afraid that her daughter would be abducted, Hu jumped into the vehicle with them. The car drove to the local family-planning clinic, where, Hu says, nurses threw her onto an operating table. "Other people were fine after their operations, but it hurt me so much, I could barely stand up," says Hu, 33. Two weeks later, doctors operated again and promised things would heal better. But even today, Hu doubles over in pain after just a few steps. "They told me they were doing this for my own good," says Hu. "But they have ruined my life."

Another Step to Kill Indian Families and the Institution of Marriage – Domestic Violence Bill

Sub: Another Step to Kill Indian Families and the Institution of Marriage – Domestic Violence Bill



Respected Sir/Madam,


We appreciate and understand your intention to improve the Indian Society. Happy, harmonious families are the bed rock of Indian Society.

A Few years back Indian society faced a grim situation. Our Parliament introduced section 498A of IPC, which empowered police to ARREST the ACCUSED, NOT guilty, BUT ARREST JUST THE ACCUSED MALE. IPC 498A also makes the complaint (EVEN A FALSE COMPLAINT) a Non bailable and non compoundable one.

This DRACONIAN power granted to police in 498A is WORSE than powers granted AGAINST terrorists and anti social elements under TADA or POTA

Earlier we never considered the effects of misuse of such DRACONIAN POWERS and how this could spoil families in India. With due respect to you, we request you to go the nearest court and check with lawyers, judges on real statistics regarding misuse of Section 498A of IPC and resultant abuse of age old mothers, sisters (including pregnant women), father and husbands.


If you don’t believe what we've said, please go though at least these article :-

- WHO Report – Elder abuse by Daughter In LAW is the biggest problem in India .
- US Government Caution warning for marriage in India .
- ZEE TV Andha Kanoo Program.
- Recent Judgment of Supreme Court , Misuse of 498A "Legal Terrorism "

On the Internet use Goggle and please search for 498A , you will find huge MISUSE story by different well known social organization and writers .

Now to kill the rest of the family left out and spoil the institution of marriage this Domestic Violence Bill is proposed by a gang of people

Regarding DV Act Peco Chakravarty says: "In case of 498a, often it is possible to prove in a black and white that you are innocent. You can show Cheque books, credit card bills and bank statements. But Domestic violence is very vague to define. If you speak a bit loud, even that can considered Domestic Violence. Now, they are saying it will be non-bailable. The bank accounts will be frozen. The man would be thrown out of his house and woman can stay (right to matrimonial home). Moreover, accused have to keep paying maintenance to woman by default even if she does not apply for it."

We must understand, instituting a criminal case against some one is not a Joke or ordering a PIZZA.

If you punish a single innocent and send him / her to jail for even a day, he / she will come in contact with other real criminals. Our sincere request to review the D.V. Act immediately, as 498a, a Blood Cancer is already there. This DV Act will totally kill the Institution of Marriage .

This Domestic Violence law will weaken our basic foundation of Indian Society.

The world will make fun of our Judiciary and Criminal Cases. Because in India still we fight for our Mother or sister. We can’t tolerate and sit quite if some one tries to abuse and imprison them using a false case.

So if you really want to save the Institution of Marriage :

- Stop abuse of elders at the name of IPC Criminal LAWS.
- Stop blind arrests of innocents, without any investigation; Follow the DUE PROCESS OF LAW, we are INNOCENT UNLESS PROVEN GUILTY
- Stop encouraging single parenting and family breakup
- Initiate strong Legal action and severe penalties against those who implicate innocents or catalyze this abuse.
- All family matters to be considered as Civil Matters only. A criminal case is not a joke.


With High Regards

Swarup Sarkar

Given its widespread misuse, 498A must be made non-cognisable and bailable.

Women can equally fall victim to the law, if they happen to be relatives of married men. Thanks to 498A, the US state department now puts out warnings to its citizens on contracting marriages in India.....


Given its widespread misuse, 498A must be made non-cognisable and bailable.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1222806,curpg-1,fright-0,right-0.cms

THE TIMES OF INDIA

Anti-dowry laws are ineffective

SWAGATO GANGULY

[ TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 06, 2005 12:00:00 AM ]

The road to hell can be paved with good intentions. This is the case with Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, intended to help women faced with dowry harassment and violence.

A study by USAID and Center for Social Research has shown that about 6-10% of complaints lodged under Section 498A are false, which is of concern since 498A undermines the notion of due process, normally a cornerstone of the Indian legal system.

Offences under 498A are consider- ed non-bailable, non-compound- able and cognisable — which means the accused husband or relative will be jailed first, and investigations will begin afterwards.

A definition of the offence includes not only physical violence and cruelty, but mental harassment, emotional torture and verbal abuse.

Section 498A confuses and yokes together disparate things — issues of marital discord that normally come under civil law, and things like assault, murder and abetment to suicide that are criminal matters.

To top it all, there is no evidence that the law has helped curb domestic violence. How does one explain this apparent contradiction?

Even before the advent of politically correct laws, there were enough provisions in the Indian Penal Code to deal with domestic violence — the problem is they were never implemented by the police.

The solution is widespread social awareness, and reforming the way the police functions — not handing even more draconian powers to them.

A feminist like Madhu Kishwar, who played an iconic role in the early struggles against dowry violence, has expressed serious doubt about the efficacy of 498A and related clauses.

In reality, 498A is not a men versus women issue at all; it is more a case of police and lawyers against the rest of us.

Women can equally fall victim to the law, if they happen to be relatives of married men. Thanks to 498A, the US state department now puts out warnings to its citizens on contracting marriages in India.

Given its widespread misuse, 498A must be made non-cognisable and bailable.

Money can't buy you love. - Legal Terrorism In India

Monday, September 12, 2005

Money can't buy you love. - Legal Terrorism In India . by rup


Money can't buy you love. - Legal Terrorism In India . by rup

http://indiatalking.com/blog/swarup/1318/

An ever-increasing number of the city's privileged women and Men are waking up to this brutal reality.An estimated 95% of the Story received by the Save Indian Family Yahoo Group ( SIF)in recent times have been from the IIT , IIM , IT and well educated People who believes in hard working , honesty and self respecting and well settled in their Carrier .

In their wildest dream also they and their age old Parents and Pregnant Sister never ever thought, that they will one day visit a court room or Police Station , but in reality , today their day start after visiting the Court Room or Police Station.

It's a fact borne out by Mrs. Vijya ( A school teacher )and his son Anil Sharma. When Anil married Sangeeta, a high-profile entrepreneur, featured often in the lifestyle pages of the dailies, she thought his son found his dream partner."Last year, though, Anil came to us, complaining that Sangeeta was involved with someone else, and was mentally and physically torturing him. Inquiries bore out the allegation, though Sangeeta refused to be counseled by us. The case has now gone to the courts," revealed a SIF Volunteer.

More surprising is — 98% of the Story that come to S I F isSowry-related (reverse of Dowry). Obviously, money is never enough. Interestingly, a high 85% relate to harassment by in-laws, blackmailing, and extortion of money, putting false 498A and dowry harassment case...As Praveen Walia, President of PSS (pariwarik suraksha) reveals: "Marriages are a status statement for this level of society. Invariably, the expectations of high demanding wife and their parents are became very illogical and the poor husband and their family not able to met. On the other and the Men bears the brunt of the disappointment, as you can see in false 498A case, (which Supreme court of India described as “Legal Terrorism )

Old Indian Parents and Pregnant Sisters in JAIL?

The matter doesn't stop at harassment though, it soon degenerates to physical abuse, threat to kill, defame in the society and office by the support of a lot of Women Organization. According to Mahesh Tiwari, A Supreme court Lawyer: "Domestic violence is never contained by money. The Husband and their parents and Sister get little support from the LAW, Police and Human Right Organization and are at the mercy of the Wife and their family."Since that amorphous commodity, reputation is at a premium, cases are generally hushed up, admitted By Mr. Mahesh Tiwari."The trend is to strike a compromise in the range of 10 to 50 Lacks , legal dowry , which is termed as Sowry Harassment .

"The domestic violence that you witness at this level is very different. For instance, we've had cases where the family would ensure that no marks would be left on the Husband, Mother in LAW or Sister –In Law's body. But the physical and mental trauma is still enormous," added Ashish.

Relationships with in-laws are no different in this strata, agreed experts. Ashish cited the case of a couple where the Wife, working in a call center, was actively encouraged to continue her extra-marital affair by her parents as they felt their Son-in-law didn't contribute to the family budget."Education doesn't make any difference. In our society, it's easy to hit your Husband and mother, sister and get away with it," rued Ashish.

The figures certainly point to it. Of the 162 story received over the past six months with S.I.F., 159were against the wife or in-laws about Sowry demand starting from 2 lacks to 90 Lacks.A telling 82 involved physical violence against the Husband and their relatives.

"It's more frustrating when the Husband and their parents and sister knows that there are no options outside , as media , Human right organization have enough time and money to protect the TADA/POTA Victim , but as WHO ( World Health Organization ) , say there is a Missing Voice,

- “ The biggest problem of India is Non caring Nature of Daughter –In –Law , for which they abuse the Elders , but for that forget any Punishment , there is no Provision for a Small warning for them . So those Dishonest Daughter –in –Law , doing the Legal Terrorism as Our government had given them the Whole sale Free License for that .”

Regards

Swarup Sarkar

(Names of victims have been changed at SFI’S request)

92% of the MEN fighting marital disputes are ARE UNDER RISK OF BEING ARRESTED

My take on this article : Dowry a stark reality among the elite as well


92% of the MEN fighting marital disputes are ARE UNDER RISK OF BEING ARRESTED



http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1227113,curpg-1,fright-0,right-0.cms

Dowry a stark reality among the elite as well

RUMU BANERJEE

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2005 01:56:10 AM ]

NEW DELHI: Money can't buy you love. An ever-increasing number of the city's privileged women are waking up to this brutal reality.

An estimated 10% of the complaints received by the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) in recent times have been from the creme de la creme of the city.

============
COMMENTS :
This may also mean that NOT ONLY the MIDDLE CLASS, BUT ALSO the creme de la creme have started ABSUING the ANTI DOWRY LAW

While women's groups have started providing these stats recently, on can trace back dowry law ABUSE OVER the last decade.

That it has BECOME RAMPANT WITH THE creme de la creme MAY BE A new phenomemon !!
<<<<<<<<<<<<<


It's a fact borne out by Richa and Mohit Sharma. When Richa married Mohit, a high-profile entrepreneur, featured often in the lifestyle pages of the dailies, she thought she'd found her dream partner.

"Last year, though, Richa came to us, complaining that Mohit was involved with someone else, and was mentally and physically torturing her. Enquiries bore out the allegation, though Mohit refused to be counselled by us. The case has now gone to the courts," revealed a DCW official.

===========
COMMENTS : Unfortunately that poor guy Mohit's view is hidden from this great feminist's article. God knows what that poor guy is undergoing. Men are increasingly loosing their voice. We can't even contact and offer assistance to this poor chap - as his name might have been changed !! in this great article
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<


More surprising is — 92% of the complaints that come to DCW are dowry-related. Obviously, money is never enough. Interestingly, a high 22% relate to harassment by in-laws.

===============
COMMENTS : This is the clincher. To me this 92% is VERY HIGH. While feminists may argue that this proves the existence of dowry, to me this MAY ALSO show how badly the ANTI DOWRY law is misused. Practically EVERY complaint is MADE USING 498A and similar sections. the situation is far worse than what we (harassed husbands) believed. 92% of the MEN fighting marital disputes are ARE UNDER RISK OF BEING ARRESTED. 92 % OF THE FAMILIES OF MEN ARE UNDER RISK OF ARREST
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<


As Kiran Walia, chairperson, DCW, reveals: "Marriages are a status statement for this level of society. Invariably, the expectations of one side are not met by the other and the woman bears the brunt of the disappointment."

The matter doesn't stop at harassment though, it soon degenerates to physical abuse. According to Aparna Bhat, national director, Human Rights Law Network: "Domestic violence is never contained by money. The girls get little support from their families and are at the mercy of the husband and his family."

===============
COMMENTS : Who said Girls don't have the support of their family ? girls have all the support of their family... How else did those 92% complaints - 677 cases in just six months appear ??

There are 10s of thousands of such cases all over India, where Men are UNDER RISK OF ARREST WITHOUT BEING PROV EN GUILTY.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<


Since that amorphous commodity, reputation is at a premium, cases are generally hushed up, admitted Jyoti Dharmendra, counsellor at DCW.

============
COMMENTS : True. Men too have "reputation". when Arrested their reputation is ALSO under risk. Many men are forced to "pay up" or get "locked up"
<<<<<<<<<<<<


"The trend is to strike a compromise. Even the 10% cases that we register is just a tip of the iceberg." It's a point that Abha Chaudhary, member of the women's body, concedes.

============
COMMENT : Compromise ?? who pays at the end of EVERY compromise ?? MEN PAY !!. How many women pay ?? NONE !!!. So This is a clear case of MEN PAYING UP !!
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<


"The domestic violence that you witness at this level is very different. For instance, we've had cases where the family would ensure that no marks would be left on the girl, she'd just be bruised. But the physical and mental trauma is still enormous," added Chaudhary.

Relationships with in-laws are no different in this strata, agreed experts. Chaudhary cited the case of a couple where the husband, working in a call centre, was actively encouraged to continue his extra-marital affair by his parents as they felt their daughter-in-law didn't contribute to the family budget.

"Education doesn't make any difference. In our society, it's easy to hit your wife and get away with it," rued Bhat. The figures certainly point to it.

Of the 677 cases registered over the past six months with DCW, 500 were against the husband or in-laws about dowry demands.

A telling 27 involved physical violence against the woman. "It's more frustrating when the woman knows that there are options outside but doesn't have the support to reach for it. It's endemic with the elite class of society," said Walia.

===============
CONCLUSIONS : 92% men are under THREAT of being arrested. 92% of Mothers and Sisters are under Threat of being arrested !!. Men going for compromise are paying up. Un scrupulous lawyers and women are laughing all the way to the bank !!
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Beware of fakes : Two member women Gang on a Cheating spree

Cheating gang on the prowl


News Ttoday Bureau

Chennai, Sept 4:

A new form of cheating has come to light in Chennai city wherein a gang is reportedly involved in pledging fake jewels. And the city police have cautioned the pawn brokers against the tricksters. Police are also on the look out for those giving 'quality control approval seal' on fake jewellery.

Police said a two-member women gang who came in an auto to Saidapet Five Lights area yesterday evening went to a pawn broker and pledged a gold ornament with 916 seal (a symbol of quality) and sought Rs 8,000. The pawn broker who examined the jewels found it to be a fake one. Sensing trouble, one of the women escaped from the scene. However, the other woman landed in the police net.

The woman identified as Latha is a native of Uthangudi village in Madurai district and told police that she had come to the city in search of livelihood since her husband had deserted her.

It may be noted that a couple of days ago a two-member women gang was arrested when attempting to pledge fake jewels in Mahakavi Bharathi Nagar.

Police suspect that a big gang is operating in Chennai city and is attempting to pledge fake jewels with 916 seal. A vigorous hunt is on to nab the culprit who is engaged in embossing 916 seal on fake jewels.

Cheating : Overall, women are better than men at covering up.

Cheating : Overall, women are better than men at covering up.


http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050906/asp/atleisure/story_5203140.asp

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Cheating, & not telling

ALEXANDRA FREAN

London, Sept. 5: Illicit affairs happen everywhere. But the surprise results of a survey in Britain show that the likelihood of getting caught depends on where you live.

When it comes to cheating, London women are the best at keeping it hush-hush. Only 20 per cent get found out, according to a Populus survey on relationships. On the other hand, the women of Yorkshire and Humberside have a lot of explaining to do: 70 per cent have their undercover lives uncovered.

Overall, women are better than men at covering up.

Just over a third of cheating women (37 per cent) say their partner learnt of their affair, while more than half of unfaithful men (52 per cent) got caught.

London men are among the worst at keeping secrets: 55 per cent of unfaithful men say their affairs were exposed.

In the East Midlands, 74 per cent of those who have been unfaithful say their partner discovered their affair.

Women have always been more secretive than men about affairs, according to Julia Cole, one of the country’s leading relationship therapists.

Women regard infidelity as an emotional betrayal and therefore more potentially damaging to their principal relationship than men, who are more likely to consider affairs “just sex”. Women, therefore, go to greater lengths to keep their affairs secret.

One possible explanation for the success of London women at keeping partners in the dark is the divergent cultural norms between urban and rural areas, Cole said.

“It could be that in London there are different social mores and, because there is a more relaxed attitude towards relationships, people are less likely to talk. In a small village, however, it might be less acceptable and word may get around,” she suggested.

She was unclear, however, why this appeared not to apply to men.

The survey of 2,014 adults found that for Britain as a whole, 16 per cent of women and 21 per cent of men have been unfaithful at some time. Most, though, acknowledge that infidelity is always destructive to a relationship.

Boredom with their partner is the most common reason given for cheating. This suggests that many Britons have difficulty adjusting to a long-term partnership once the spark has gone out of their relationship, said Cole, author of After the Affair.

“People often mistakenly believe that affairs are all about sex. But more often than not people have affairs because they want to feel that they are special to somebody and to themselves, and their partner has stopped seeing them as special,” she said.



Copyright © 2005 The Telegraph.

Divorce: Men the fairer sex when dividing up possessions

http://www.easier.com/view/News/Finance/article-27664.html

Divorce: Men the fairer sex when dividing up possessions


27 August 2005

When dividing personal effects following a break-up men are more willing than women to part with belongings and actually want their ex to keep things, according to research by Yorkshire Building Society. Women appear to be less generous and even if they don’t want something they still don’t want their ex to get it.




Out of 24 typical items surveyed, from the house to the family pet, men wanted their ex to keep 19, while women only wanted their ex to keep 8. Women did not actually want to keep all the other items though.



Most men wanted their ex’s to keep the bed, TV, wedding album, lawn mower, sofa, Christmas decorations, Garden accessories, toaster, house plants, coffee machine, Monopoly board, pots and pans and the family pet. The only things men were keener to keep for themselves were the house (32% of men wanted to keep it but 30% wanted their ex to have it), the car, the laptop, digital camera and the CD, DVD or record collection.



Regardless of the object most women did not want their ex to have it. Women most wanted to keep the house, car, house plants and pets. There are a large number of things that women didn’t particularly want but didn’t want the ex to get, including the TV, the CD, DVD or record collection, the wedding album, Christmas decorations, toaster, Monopoly board and the pots and pans.



The bed, sofa, lawn mower, coffee machine, laptop, digital camera, Playstation, wine and drinks collection were the only things that most women would like their ex to keep.



Is it any wonder then that women end up with more of the spoils after the battle. 37% of women surveyed got the house. They also got the bed (53%), TV (53%), the wedding album (45%), lawn mower (34%), sofa (51%), Christmas decorations (53%), garden accessories (36%), toaster (44%), houseplants (44%), Monopoly board (29%), coffee machine (22%), pots and pans (52%), as well as the cat or dog (22% and 33% respectively).



45% of men got the car. The only other things they got were the CD, DVD or record collection (35%), the laptop (15%), digital camera (16%), wine and drinks collection (12% & 13%).




Denise Knowles, Counsellor at Relate commented: "These findings reflect the hugely different emotional attachment that divorcing men and women feel towards their shared possessions. Men are far keener than women to put their past behind them and want to move on, which is why they are happy to let their ex keep almost all of their shared possessions – apart from those items that provide "entertainment" such as the car, digital camera and music system.



"Women by contrast have a far greater emotional attachment to their home and its contents, seeing these things as the fabric of their lives and things that should be preserved both for themselves and any children as symbols of their family history and life. This is also why women don’t want men to have even items that they themselves are not that keen to keep – they probably don’t think that their ex husband would treat the item with the respect it deserves."



Rachel Court, Head of Mortgages, Yorkshire Building Society commented: "When a couple splits up the division of belongings can be a delicate issue. Seemingly unexciting household goods can become the key focus of fights, leaving both parties needing to buy some new ‘essentials’. The Fresh Start mortgage with 0% interest for the first six months frees the money that would normally be spent on mortgage payments to be used for these extra purchases."

Preeti Jain hired Gawli aide to kill bollywood director: Police

http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/sep/10preeti.htm


Preeti Jain hired Gawli aide to kill bollywood director: Police

September 10, 2005 13:14 IST

Bollywood starlet Preeti Jain, who had accused film director Madhur Bhandarkar of sexually exploiting her, was detained by police on Saturday morning for questioning after they found her alleged involvement in giving 'supari' or contract for killing to underworld don-turned-politician Arun Gawli to eliminate Bhandarkar, police said.

Madhur Bhandarkar: Nice guy?

Jain allegedly paid Rs 70,000 as part payment to one of Gawli's aide in last 2 months, police said, adding that the matter came to light when another Gawli aide, advocate Bagawe brought the matter to the notice of police earlier this week.

"We have called Preeti Jain for questioning, but she has not been arrested yet," additional commissioner of police central region Subodh Kumar Jaiswal told PTI.

Rumours of Karisma asking for Rs 7 crore in cash as alimony for her divorce ...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1197283.cms

Knot tied down...

PRIYANKA DASGUPTA

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2005 10:13:23 PM ]

With remarriage no longer a taboo for women, permanent alimony is now much in demand

Rumours of Karisma asking for Rs 7 crore in cash as alimony for her divorce has long been doing the rounds in Bollywood. Saif Ali Khan also went for a one-time settlement in December when he got divorced from wife Amrita. Not just Bollywood, recent divorce records among people from all strata of society show a growing trend for permanent alimony settlement than monthly payment deals.

What surprises is not the growing interest in these kind of settlements but the reason behind the trend. Thanks to the increasing rate of remarriages among divorcees, lawyers these days advice clients to go for such settlements.

Speaking on this issue, celebrity lawyer Vibhav Krishna said, "Going for permanent alimony is nothing new. Sometimes, there is so much of bitterness among divorced couples that they prefer to snap all ties completely to avoid future harassment of going back to the court in case of default. Moreover, couples don't want to prolong payment issues because that would mean depending on the paying ability of the person concerned. It's true that remarriage of women is no longer a taboo. I have advised many of my clients to go for permanent settlements. They can invest the cash that will give them a sense of financial security when they go in for their second marriage."

Many lawyers say that they have come across warring couples who are already involved in other relationships while going through a divorce. "Though they do not admit it to us, it's quite obvious when they remarry after a couple of months of the divorce. If I sense such a situation, I always insist on permanent alimony. Otherwise, the lady stands to lose the money she would have got as maintenance once she ties the knot. For men, it's advisable to go for one-time payment since the Section 25 (II) of the Hindu Marriage Act and Section 38 (II) of the Special Marriage Act have provisions by which a lady can ask for enhancement of alimony due to circumstantial changes," said Kolkata High Court lawyer Swapna Mukherjee who is now fighting a divorce case against anchor Anu Kapoor. Mridula Kadam, who has handled the divorce of Priya Tendulkar-Karan Razdan, Amol and Chitra Palekar, Ruby Bhatia and Shefali Chaya, agreed that the clients' wish to reorganize their lives is giving an impetus to such onetime settlements these days. She says, "Amol Palekar and Chitra went for a one-time settlement. Amol gave Chitra a bungalow in Juhu and has now remarried. Though Chitra hasn't remarried, Shefali has tied the knot with Vipul Shah. It's true that divorcees are more open these days about moving on in life. Today's women, even from conservative families, are more forthcoming. They want to move ahead in life and prefer a permanent settlement even if the negotiable amount is a little less than what they had expected."

"In December, Saif and Amrita went for an out-of-court. Even if I had not suggested it, Saif himself was inclined to go for a onetime payment. I would not want to mention the exact amount that Saif had agreed to pay, but it's quite a hefty amount. Like any other lady of today, Amrita too wouldn't have settled for anything else. The settlement is basically for the benefit of the two children." — Kranti Sathe, who had fought Saif Ali Khan's divorce case priyanka.dasgupta@timesgroup.com

Copyright © 2005 Times Internet Limited.

Marriage meltdown is on the rise in India, with some 280 divorce petitions being filed in Delhi alone every week.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050906/asp/atleisure/story_5201054.asp

Anandabazar

Front Page > At Leisure > THE FAMILY - Coffee Break

House smart

Coffee Break / PAKSHI VASUDEVA

She is an expert housekeeper. Every time she gets divorced, she keeps the house,” goes a joke. Alas, says an English friend of mine, currently in the throes of a second divorce, if this were only true! Though the house was hers long before her present marriage, her husband has laid claim to it and refuses to move out. A long legal battle lies ahead before a solution can be found.

Ironically, in America and Britain, where divorce is rampant, neither husband nor wife can count on getting the house. In fact, couples feel increasingly compelled to stay in the same house after their marriages break down, the reason being that property prices being what they are, neither can afford to buy a comparable house after selling the one they had while they were married. These money-over-love couples find themselves staying in the same house, though not speaking to each other or having anything to do with each other.

Others choose the option of staying married, however unhappy they might be, again for the same reason. These are generally in a minority. Extraordinarily, the divorce rate seems to be tied to property prices. When house prices rise, divorce rates fall and vice versa!

Not surprisingly, couples increasingly elect to live together as partners, rather than marry and then go in for a messy divorce. The theory is that when they no longer enjoy being together, they can simply part company without acrimonious arguments about who gets what. However, it doesn’t quite work out that way all the time. So much so, I am told, that many such couples now take the precaution of signing a contract that stipulates in advance the division of material goods, much in the nature of prenuptial agreements that some of those hazarding marriage sign.

So what is the situation in India? I suspect that since young couples do not often own their homes, neither property nor the lack of it makes a difference. Whether this is true or not, a divorce boom is currently taking place. Marriage meltdown is on the rise in India, with some 280 divorce petitions being filed in Delhi alone every week. Paradoxically, in some areas, the number of divorce petitions being filed has even overtaken the number of marriages taking place!

Indian couples largely divorce by mutual consent, with more women filing for divorce than men. There is no stigma attached to being divorced, nor to women making it on their own. The perception of marriage appears to have changed amongst the young. Gone are the ideas of a lifelong commitment. Divorce now is the first resort rather than the last. Today’s mantra is that life is short and we want to have fun. If things don’t work out, it’s time to walk out, with or without property.


Copyright © 2005 The Telegraph.

Only one out of six dowry complaints genuine

Only one out of six dowry complaints genuine

Sanjay Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 12

Only one out of six complaints of dowry demand, are genuine

Surprisingly, such complaints are being made even in those cases where there have been love marriages. Reeta who hanged herself on Sunday and her arrested husband Satish, who committed suicide on Monday, had a love marriage.

A perusal of the cases registered with the local Child and Women Support Unit (CWSU) also reveals that 75 per cent of love marriages are failing due to, among other things, complaints of dowry demand.

An interesting fact which has emerged in the cases of harassment and dowry is that only six out of an average of 70 complaints in a month result in the registration of a case and remaining one are either settled through mutual understanding or given up due to lack of evidence.

Only one in six cases, dowry demand is supported by evidence, the sources in the CWSU told the Chandigarh Tribune.

The sources said the complainants had gathered an impression that unless a demand of dowry was not made against the other party, the police would not consider entertain them.

Many cases of harassment (which includes mental torture) and dowry demand, however, are solved with a compromise if the boy's family makes a payment to the family of the girl.

Only in 30 per cent cases, there is a prima facie evidence of dowry demand but in all cases, the aggrieved party claims that the boy's family was demanding dowry and harassing the girl, the sources.

Commenting on the yesterday's incident, some police officers said matrimonial disputes had to be dealt with caution. There are chances that one of the aggrieved party can accused the police of being biased towards the other. In Reeta's case the police worked in a haste as it normally do if a girl commits suicide.

In another recent case, the Manimajra police took some time to arrest family members accused of poisoning their daughter-in-law. The police said evidence suggested that there was nobody at home at that time to hint that the girl might have been poisoned. But when the girl died in the hospital, the police had to arrest the entire family of the boy.

The sources said in a large number of a disputes dowry cases were being made to recover the money spent on the marriage.

The police officers, however, clarified that this do not mean that the evil of dowry had been eradicated as there were genuine complaints also.

Unemployment, lack of understanding, impotency, inappropriate employment, and infidelity are emerging as factors that are leading to marital discord.

The Imperial Origins of Dowry

http://www.boloji.com/wfs/wfs159.htm

Excerpts from : The Imperial Origins of Dowry


Srimati Basu

April 26, 2003



...........

Dowry, or some form of marriage payment, is hardly unique to India. Of the 563 societies listed in George P Murdock's Atlas of World Cultures, 24 (four per cent) are associated with dowry systems, 226 with bride wealth (grooms' families making payments to brides' families), and 63 with bride service (grooms contributing labor to brides' families in lieu of money).

Anthropologists have suggested that marriage payments are one of the ways in which cultures expand social relations between communities by exchanging gifts. Other explanations are that marriage payments help secure labor rights, or that they provide occasions for display of social status. Jack Goody claimed that European dowries were a way for families to pass on pre-mortem inheritance to their daughters.

Similarly, Veena Talwar Oldenburg has claimed in her book, 'Dowry Murder: The Imperial Origins of a Cultural Crime' - released last month at the Asia Society, New York - that in Punjab, dowry was a form of 'streedhan' (women's wealth). Dowry was put together by the bride's female relatives, partly from their own jewellery but partly from setting aside household resources. Land was attached to households and neither men nor women were sole legal owners of pieces of property. This benefited women because it gave them a fund of their own. But this practice changed as colonial policies were put into place.

Oldenburg contends that dowry among Punjabis had commonly functioned as a property fund for women, "one of the few indigenous, woman-centered institutions in an overwhelmingly patriarchal and agrarian society", put together by women over numerous years, and paid for through a complex system of community reciprocity.

The colonial concern about rising dowry payments, infanticide linked to Hindu concerns about not being able to pay dowry, and the attempt to control marriage expenses to diminish the impoverishment attributed to dowry were all 'scapegoating' attempts that cast "Hindu culture" as the problem and justified colonial paternalist domination.

Oldenburg not only refutes the evidence that infanticide was a high-caste Hindu problem and that dowry was suddenly extortionate, but turns the culpability back upon the colonial State. She argues that the growing impoverishment had a far greater correlation with colonial land and revenue policies and suppression of modern industry. And increasing son-preference correlated highly with the colonial construction of males as property owners and the creation of lucrative wage jobs in the military.

A professor of history at Baruch College (City University of New York), Oldenburg emphasizes that the present scenario bears little resemblance to pre-colonial traditions. That the extreme devaluation of women reflected in contemporary practices such as dowry, female infanticide and female feticide may be traced back in Punjab to colonial policies.


...................

DOWRY IN SOUTH KOREA :

http://iht.com/articles/2005/05/05/news/dowry.php


Tradition of dowries changes

By Su Hyun Lee International Herald Tribune

FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2005

SEOUL In a society that is deeply traditional and fully wired at the same time, it is little surprise that marriage dowries are still a strong tradition in South Korea, but they have gone high tech.

Three decades ago, a new bride would have taken homemade silk-ornamented cotton blankets and mattresses to her new home. Nowadays, the must-bring items are home theaters and giant plasma television sets.

This contemporary turn in an old tradition has been a blessing for makers of home electronics. Marketing experts at LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics estimate that 20 percent of South Korea's domestic electronics sales comes from the dowry market.

The number of digital TV LG Electronics sold last year was six times that sold in 2001. Yoon In Duk, a marketing manager at LG Electronics, said the dowry market accounted for more than 40 percent of this increase.

A study last October by Interpark, one of the biggest Internet shopping malls in South Korea, showed that young brides allocated almost two-thirds of their dowry budgets to electronics goods.

Though high-tech, dowries still serve the same social function, in joining not only a bride and a groom but two families as well.

"Traditionally, dowries were sent and presents were exchanged between parents of bride and groom when families knew each other," said Chun Hae Jung, a professor of consumer science and human development at Ewha Women's University.

Parents are still very much part of the decision-making process. Although many working brides and their partners are becoming more independent, some still leave all dowry preparation up to the parents. Many take mothers along shopping, especially when purses need to be opened.

"Face-saving concession still prevails, and parents cannot say no when their daughter or son-in-law wants the latest electronics goods models in fear that they might look cheap, or simply because they want to give all they can for their daughter's once-in-a-lifetime event," said Kim Yeon Hwa, an expert on the culture of marriage at Sookmyung Women's University.

Until about 50 years ago, once a Korean bride moved into the groom's house, she rarely had a chance to visit her own family. So, she would take everything that her parents prepared for her to furnish the young couple's room.

Parents tended to send more than they could afford in hopes that their daughter would be loved by her new family members. Parents also wanted to demonstrate their family's social status through dowries.

Nowadays, custom still pressures the groom to prepare a house for the couple to live in - no longer a simple room at his parents' home. Given high real estate prices, it is perhaps not a surprise that grooms are getting more say in the dowry items selection.

"When we went shopping for electronic goods, my husband turned mute when I said that we should buy a smaller TV. When I finally gave up and said, 'O.K., I will buy you that big projection TV,' he was suddenly very happy and offered to chip in," said Kim Yeon Kyung, 27, who married a year ago.

Yang Dong Chul, a marketing manager with Himart, a discount store and a major distribution route for home electronics goods for dowries, said that while brides show more interest in items related to house chores, grooms get excited about visual and audio goods.

The bride of Choi Sung Ho, 30, allocated more of her budget to home electronics goods than to furniture, taking into account Choi's keen interest in audiovisual products. But skimping on furniture has its costs. Choi, a bridegroom of five months, said he sometimes felt uncomfortable at not having a sofa when watching TV.

Won Kil Sun, a professional wedding planner, is used to seeing the grooms fixated on large-sized flat panel screens. When she goes shopping with her clients for electronics goods, she explains that big items are not practical for small spaces.

"But there was this couple who, upon my advising them, first bought a smaller TV. After a few days, however, the groom got up and went to replace it with a bigger TV," Won said.

The reason? The groom apparently felt slighted that Won had allowed the bride to buy a large refrigerator.

'Don't condemn the institution of dowry'

Home > News > Interview

The Rediff Interview/Veena Talwar Oldenburg


'Don't condemn the institution of dowry'

April 05, 2003

While dowry has long been seen as a despicable social custom responsible for the killing of women in India, a New York historian has traced the phenomenon to influences of the British colonial period.

In her book, Dowry Murder: The Imperial Origins of a Cultural Crime, Veena Talwar Oldenburg argues that laws effected by the British, while on the one hand brought economic upheaval, on the other they transformed what was till then a safety net for women into a pathology.

Her interest in dowry was spurred partly by questions from the American media and partly her own experience of three decades ago. "There is so much social history that could be written instead of just taking snapshots of today and saying this is what happened," she says. One newspaper in India went on to define dowry as demands made by the groom at the time of marriage, she points out. "If that is dowry, then you really stood it on its head."

Dowry used to be voluntary gifts given by the bride's parents, kin and sometimes the whole village at the time of marriage, she explains. It was reciprocal. Under British rule, a masculine economy took shape and women's control of the system diminished. Boys became even more desirable.

Oldenburg, professor of history at Baruch College and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, is spending a year in India researching a new book. She is a senior National Endowment for the Humanities fellow of the American Institute of Indian Studies. On a brief visit to New York recently, she released her book at the Asia Society and spoke to rediff.com Senior Correspondent Monika Joshi.

How did you get interested in this subject?

First, it came from the media as a question to me. As a professor, I had no honest answer. That bothered me. I was going to India so I thought I would look it up; I would talk to my feminist friends.

In the sixth chapter of the book, I suggest I have had a personal experience. I was married in 1965, and in 10 months, ended that marriage. It was a marriage by arrangement, and it had nothing to do with dowry. I have mentioned the one little moment when dowry did come up. They asked my parents for an extra set of jewelry. It was given; it should not have been given. But that's not what went wrong, for which I nearly got killed. I tell that story in the last chapter. That it is a very curious case of sexual harassment from a father-in-law; it resulted in a very dramatic event.

I went to Saheli (a women's community organisation in New Delhi) and sat there for a year, every single day. I would listen to the stories of women who came there. They would say -- 'Didi, here's my dowry list. I have already filled the form. Please get back my dowry.' Very cursory, edited, tight and repetitive stories about dowry. I started to meet these people outside Saheli. (Oldenburg discovered that dowry was not the only thing wrong with these marriages.) I have given some of those cases -- love affairs, drinking problems, wife-beating. It seemed the whole universe of sexual jealousy, crimes of passion, other things which happened all over the world seemed not to be happening in India. We had a cultural crime on our hands.

This led me to investigate the universe of cultural crime. There is nothing in the Vedas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the shastras, that say kill your wife if she doesn't bring you dowry.

How did dowry get absorbed into Indian culture?

Culture grows out of pressure from the political. If you think of culture as frozen and static, then we are barking up the wrong tree. But if you look at the idea of culture as dynamic and reconstituting itself with social and economic pressures, then we can start to think of what happened. So I looked at the colonial period. And plenty happened that changed the idea of dowry.

The reason I am not saying it was the same from Manu to pre-colonial times is because there is very little place to find it. What I found was descriptions of what it was just before the British took over, and what it became. I am only talking about that juncture.

The colonial construction of women looked like they were helping women. What I argue is they made it worse. I talk about the collusion of Punjabi patriarchy with colonial patriarchy, creating an even more hidebound structure of rights, or the absence of rights, of women.

How did it happen in a country like India, where we worship the goddess, or Shakti?

In the Punjab (where Oldenburg's research is based), they worship Lakshmi, Durga and Saraswati. But the construction of women over time has declined. We still have those strengths, but the political economy has become so masculine that the place of women in society has shrunk. I have been able to explain the changes that occurred in the colonial period -- very deeply documented. The time you would think that some progress was made, I am arguing for the opposite. There seems to be a loss of women's rights in the use of land.

How did the colonialists effect these changes?

They brought in the notion of private property rights in land, and replaced communal or joint rights. That's the key. Land becomes alienable, as property is. Earlier, you just defended land. For instance, there is a flood in Bihar. People move. They become landless.

But you didn't go into the market and say 'I have got two acres. You give me cash.' Not till you had a title to the land. The British gave titles to the tillers, and land became a commodity. Women did not get titles to the land.

That's why I said property rights and the alienability of land is possibly the greatest social revolution that the British brought, far greater than banning sati. We keep banning things. We learnt from them. Dowry ban kar do. What big difference does that make?

What was the role of the ongoing reform movements?

The reform movements about dowry were (brought in by) the Brahma Samaj and the Arya Samaj. I have written about that. The fact is that the reform movements are there. People are concerned about social things. Even caste. Our Constitution abolished caste and banned it. But the reality is rather different. Isn't it?

Look at the racism in this country (the USA). There was a war about it in 1862. Everyone became equal in the constitution in 1774. Do you think there is no racism here? It's writ on people's skins. Just as gender is writ in the person. That's why gender and race are such fundamental categories. That is why you really need to study them.

No history of India is complete without recognizing the connection between gender and the political economy. That's what I have tried to do. That's why you might start on dowry and end up with the revenue system and customary laws. In the last chapter, I come back and connect it all up to the current situation.

Where do we stand today with respect to dowry?

Dowry has grown with inflation, availability of a larger number of consumer goods, and with women's rights and property, which they don't get. When you are a young woman today, educated; and you will find a lot of this is happening among the educated, middle classes; you say -- I should take my microwave, my refrigerator. Because they know these things are costly and these will be paid for at a time when parents do give. In many cases, the bride may know the boy a bit -- in the urban scene. The boy might say -- well, it will be very nice if I can get a scooter, I can go to office easily. Often, it's negotiable. Yeh nahin diya to woh de diya (if you don't give this, you give that)

In a few cases, which are very unfortunate, and certainly not within the framework of traditional dowry, is the demand, which I call extortion. There is no understanding that you have to yield to the demands, but they find the moment of blackmail. Cards have gone out, the baraat house has been fixed, half the payments have been made. At that point no one wants to withdraw from an arranged marriage. You can only do this if gender relations allow the man to exert a sort of superior idea. What I am saying is -- pay attention to gender relations. Don't condemn the institution of dowry, which has only become a pathology because of gender relations.

Why didn't dowry go the other way? Because there is an implicit subordination of bride-givers to bride-takers because the bride is a woman. It's about being a woman and it is about the legal and social construction of women.

You have discussed female infanticide in the book...

(About this) The colonialists talked to native informants who did not want blame to be put on anyone less than a caste -- a whole caste. Because the minute you blame a caste, you cannot have individual punishment. (For instance) You cannot round up all the banias and put them in jail. It served the British people very well -- to say these people are benighted, they have a horrible culture, and we have come to civilize them. And then Parliament says to civilize anyone s a good deed. As long as you are civilizing them, you are on a good job. But just don't do it for greed. So greed gets disguised as a civilizing mission. I have written about that.

Where does the notion of 'cultural crime' come from?

There are murders in this (American) society also. There is no dowry. 2.5 million women were assaulted by their intimates in 1999. I get this from The New York Times, but never made it to the front page.

Burning rings bells in your brain. Suddenly, it's cultural -- Hindu, fire, cremations, sati are pre-associated with it. You get the whole culture laid out. However, it (burning) is the simplest crime. It's a kitchen crime. You have a tin of kerosene, you have a match. When you burn a woman, you won't find any fingerprints, any kind of tell-tale signs of whether she died in an accident, suicide or murder.

You grew up in Lucknow. What images of women did you see around yourself?

It was a very peculiar time. Partition was still very raw for the Punjabis, Sindhis and Bengalis. A lot of my family, my mother's side and my grandmother's side were from the Punjab. One heard of the horror. Everyone would say things like -- 'I had this necklace I hid it. And then when I came here, I could buy a house.' Dowry was a very positive thing -- the one thing you could leave your country with. My readings of dowry have also been different. People who have forgotten that tend to see dowry as a demand. They don't understand how useful it could be from a woman's perspective. You lose your husband, or you have to leave him.

I certainly don't condone dowry demand, this modern, ugly pathology of dowry. But the custom I condone because it was created at a time because that was all women could get. Today, I am a fighter for women's property rights. Because we lost our rights, and now we are fighting for them again.

Your next book will be set in Lucknow...

My first work, The Making of Colonial Lucknow, was published by Princeton. I listed colonial urban policy and the effects of the mutiny on urban space in Lucknow. I am going back to Awadh. I am looking at the role of the East India Company -- how they displaced sovereign states by condemning the rulers. Wajid Ali Shah was called a debauch. I haven't found a good enough treatment of it.

A WEEK AFTER KATRINA - A LONG-TERM PERSPECTIVE

ALL VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS PARTICULAR BLOG RE. KATRINA ARE VIEWS OF MR. ANIL CHAWLA
_______________________________________

A WEEK AFTER KATRINA - A LONG-TERM PERSPECTIVE

Author - ANIL CHAWLA

The true test of any individual or society or nation comes when it faces adversity. United States of America faced such a test on 29 August 2005 when Hurricane Katrina with wind speeds of more than 100 mph touched ground. Katrina has been called as "a natural disaster of unprecedented proportions for America". There can be no disputing the fact that Katrina has caused extreme destruction in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana (especially Greater New Orleans). Katrina had a strong impact on Florida. She also affected Texas, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and many other Eastern U.S. states.

Having said that, let us note that the percentage of population that has been affected is less than five or ten per cent of the population of USA. New Orleans, that has been the worst affected, had a population of less than half a million before the disaster struck (484,674 as per 2000 census). USA's population is around 296 million. So, the population of New Orleans is less than 0.2 per cent of the country's population. Given the fact that USA is a developed and rich country, it stands to reason that the country should have had no problems in facing up to an event that affected such a miniscule percentage of its population.

Compare this with the Tsunami disaster that struck a small poor country like Sri Lanka (along with India and some others) on 26 December 2004. Sri Lanka's population is about 20 million. About 40 per cent of the country's population was affected by Tsunami waves. The number of deaths was much higher in Sri Lanka than in case of the tragedy in South East USA. Yet, Sri Lanka faced the disaster with much more aplomb. If my memory serves me right, there were no rotting corpses in Sri Lanka a week after Tsunami waves struck. In Sri Lanka there was no looting; there were no rapes; army and police did not have to fire a single shot against civilians on rampage; and even though there was a severe shortage of resources, there were no allegations of discrimination based on either race or religion or caste.

Now compare it with the total anarchy that prevailed in New Orleans. A few glimpses:

* As I write it, the news has just come in that the people, holed up in the city's famous (now infamous) sports stadium called Superdome, have been evacuated. About 70,000 persons had taken shelter in this stadium. Many died in this shelter due to starvation, dehydration and also due to attacks by criminal gangs.

* The ambulance service in charge of taking the sick and injured from the Superdome suspended flights after a shot was reported fired at a military helicopter. Richard Zuschlag, chief of Acadian Ambulance, said it had become too dangerous for his pilots.

* Police shot and killed at least five people after gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors traveling across a bridge on their way to make repairs.

* Organized and well-armed gangs were roaming in the streets, looting empty houses and ransacking shops.

* There may be no better way to explain the desperation on the city's ravaged streets than this: In the past few days, two police officers took their lives with their own weapons and dozens have turned in their badges.

* On Tuesday, 6 September, corpses were still lying all around the place. Probably, the priority is to move the living before taking care of the dead.

* Voluntary, religious and charity organizations have been conspicuous by their absence. One reads that about USD 300 or 400 million has been raised by charity organizations including Red Cross but there are hardly any volunteers out in the field helping out.

* There are widespread accusations that African Americans (blacks, in politically incorrect language) are being discriminated against. African Americans formed 67 per cent of the population of New Orleans.

* Tsunami had come without prior warning, but there was a warning of at least two clear days for Katrina. On Sunday, 28 August New Orleans Mayor, Ray Nagin, had ordered mandatory evacuation of the city. All those who had cars fled. Motorways were jammed. George Bush declared state of emergency. But no one made any arrangements for evacuation of poor people (read blacks) who did not own cars. They just moved into shelters like the one in Superdome where they were abandoned to rot, without food, water, toilet facilities and police protection.

The picture that emerges from the above glimpses is one of sheer neglect and callous insensitivity of a country, which claims to be the world's richest and most powerful. There have been strong comments from various quarters about the attitude of President George W Bush and his team during this crisis. He was vacationing when the crisis occurred and he took it very lightly. It has also been said that he suffers from a compulsive-obsessive-disorder that forces him to focus exclusively on Iraq and the so-called war against terrorism even when there is a category-five hurricane knocking at his doors. These are strong words about a person who is surely, human and suffers from infirmities that all humans, and in particular politicians across the world, are susceptible to.

It is easy and a bit too tempting to join the chorus of Skin-Bush-Alive (not counting the innumerable unprintable slogans about Bush circulating on the net). While one cannot defend George W Bush, it is important to understand that the malaise is more deep-rooted and will not disappear if George Bush is hanged on the nearest electric pole.

Sitting in India, nobody I know can understand how a rape can occur in a sports stadium packed with 70,000 people. Women in India feel safe when there is a crowd and are afraid only when it is lonely. Temporary camps are routinely set up in India to house persons displaced due to either floods or riots or tsunami or some other calamity. Police protection in such camps is virtually non-existent. Yet, women have never felt unsafe in any such camp. There must be something drastically wrong in a society that cannot remain peaceful and orderly without an omnipresent policeman.

Americans like to talk about this or that poor country drifting into statelessness. The truth is that their own country has reached the stage of societylessness. Society, as an organic being, has ceased to exist in USA. New Orleans, with its population of less than half a million, is a small town. In any small town in India, everybody seems to know everyone else and while in normal times there may be petty rivalries and quarrels, in times of crisis, the whole town stands up together as one. This did not happen in New Orleans. The looting, ransacking, intimidation, rapes, and murders were the handiwork of citizens of New Orleans. The so-called normal law-abiding citizens had no spirit or willingness to rise up and face the destructive elements within their own brethren. Each one of them trusted the state to take care of these matters and abdicated their responsibility as a responsible member of the society. The fiasco at New Orleans would hopefully make Americans realize that there can be a society and a country without a formal state, but a state without a society has a precarious existence.

Every society needs leaders and traditionally persons heading the state have provided leadership to the society in times of crisis. Though, of course, there are many other leaders that spring up in difficult times. New Orleans, in particular and USA, in general, have suffered from the total absence of leadership. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has been fuming over what George W Bush did not do. He may well be right. But there are things that Ray Nagin has also failed to do. He failed to provide leadership to his people in this hour of crisis. I saw an aerial photograph of large number of inundated school buses lined up in a yard. Why were these not called up on the day before the hurricane struck to move people out of town? Was it not possible to make teams among people holed up in the Superdome to take up self-defense and policing? Was it not possible to contact, inspire and motivate voluntary agencies across USA to take up relief work? No American commentator has raised these questions. Probably because, all this sounds too strange in a country where people are held together by the order of law implemented by the state. In most other countries, social bonds and duties are stronger and more important than laws laid down by the state. In times of crisis and adversity, it is these social bonds and duties that help the society survive. In USA there is no society, it is just individuals who tolerate each other to the extent that the policeman in the street bids them to. When there is no policeman, some of these individuals jump at the throats (or groins) of some others, while everyone else just looks away.

United States of America must take a critical look at its social bonds and structures. For two centuries or so the values of America have been selfishness and self-centeredness. Religion, as a way of thinking and life, has been dying a slow death in the mainstream of American thought. There is no doubt that Christianity is today more potent force in American politics than it ever was in the past hundred years. Conservatives and evangelists, who exploit Christianity as a political weapon, have reduced Christianity to either a ritual of going to Church every Sunday or parroting all that is written in the Bible or a set of family values where one rises above one's own selfishness and spends quality time with one's children on every weekend. The classic Christian values of compassion, universal brotherhood, love and care, willingness to sacrifice one's pleasures for the other - are essential for the existence of any society. It is these values that seem to have vanished from United States of America.

An oriental value that could possibly be useful for America is respect for elders. Americans see old persons as painful but unavoidable baggage. In oriental societies, old and experienced provide moral guidance. In a way, at a micro level, aged persons provide leadership to the society in eastern countries. In the absence of such a leadership in America, might-is-right or bullyism or ruffianism holds sway, as it happened in the Superdome at New Orleans.

But, one cannot really blame the bullies of New Orleans. They were only doing what America has been doing for the past many decades on the international arena. Unfortunately for USA, the ethos of might-is-right when internalized among her own people leads to results, which are truly terrible.

Hurricane Katrina, in spite of its category five status, would have only been a small blip in the history of USA. But by exposing the collapse of society in USA and by demonstrating her incapability of handling adversity, the hurricane has created circumstances that will influence the progress of world history in the next few decades. USA has too many enemies across the world. While you and I sympathize with the unfortunate people of New Orleans, the enemies of USA are rubbing their hands with glee at having seen a big chink in the armor. They know that a nation without a society cannot face adversity and a country that cannot face adversity is doomed, sooner or later. Many of these enemies of USA predict that USA will meet the same fate as USSR, probably even worse than that. Time alone will prove them either right or wrong.

If the people of USA look at Katrina as a blessing in disguise and see her as an opportunity for them to understand their weaknesses as a society and rebuild the damaged social structure of their country, 29 August 2005 would be remembered as the golden turning point in the history of USA. On the other hand, well, I dread to even imagine that. Please join me in wishing the best to America and her people!



ANIL CHAWLA


6 September 2005


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Copyright - All Rights Free

For articles circulated during the past, please visit
http://www.samarthbharat.com

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

ANIL CHAWLA is an engineer (and now a lawyer too) by qualification but a philosopher by vocation and a management consultant by profession.

Court acquits youth accused of raping mother-in-law

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200508071323.htm

News Update Service

Sunday, August 7, 2005 : 1345 Hrs

Court acquits youth accused of raping mother-in-law

New Delhi, Aug. 7 (PTI): After a decade-long trial, a Delhi court has acquitted a youth accused of raping his mother-in-law and rebuked the 55-year-old woman for levelling "improbable and unrealistic" allegations owing to a property dispute.

"The complainant must realise that even if she is not his mother by birth, the status comes to her by law. By making such false allegations against her son-in-law, she maligned the sanctity of this relation and it is shameful", Additional Sessions Judge Rajiv Mehra, said while acquitting Santosh Kumar.

Santosh, who was residing with his in-laws at Vikaspuri in North Delhi, was married to the eldest of the woman's three daughters.

On August six, 1995, the woman went to the police station and said the accused had been raping her for the past two months and had threatened to kill her husband and children if she disclosed it to anyone or refused to continue such a relationship.

She also said that on that day, the accused had beaten her up and tried to attack her with a knife and blade. Police lodged an FIR under Section 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) and section 25 of the Arms Act against the accused and arrested him the next day.

In her statement before the court, she said her house consisted of two rooms. While the others slept in one room in the night, the accused was regularly subjecting her to rape in the other room and all this occurred while her husband was sleeping in the verandah.


Copyright © 2005, The Hindu.

Are you a man getting married from India? Then beware - 498A is a law for daughter-in-laws.

Sanil Sukumaran wrote:

Are you a man getting married from India? Then beware - 498A is a law for daughter-in-laws.

Dowry is an evil which has no place in our society and hatred towards men is being circulated in the society by the media. Dowry criminality does only affect the women but men too. It is men (i.e. the father) who pays dowry and many have commit suicide not being able to arrange dowry. However, the plight of thousands of women who are being tortured physically, emotionally and verbally the consequences of dowry have published over the years. Many women suffer the consequences of dowry silently in order to keep the marriage institution intact. Many have spent decades tolerating cruel husbands and their demands because they can not access the law.

Section 498A of the IPC, commonly called dowry-law in India, which was introduced and amended with the view to dispelling the scourge of dowry-related criminality and the abuse relate to it. The section provides an explanation that elaborates the meaning of cruelty as follows:

a) "Any wilful conduct which is of a nature as is likely to drive the woman to commit suicide or to cause grave injury or danger to her life, limb, or health (whether physical or mental) of the woman;" or

b) "harassment of the woman where such harassment is with a view to coercing her or any person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any property or valuable security or is on account of failure by her or any person related to her to meet such demand."

This anti-dowry legislation is a means by which the genuine suffer of dowry related criminality has recourse to the protection of the police and the law. 498A is a cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable. This means the person(s! ), named in the First Information Report (FIR) to the police by the daughter-in-law or by designated relatives, is subject to immediate arrest and imprisonment without an investigation or verification of the truth. The arrested person(s) cannot be granted bail at the primary police custody level or can the case be easily called off or settled out of court without the intervention of the Court. Under 498A offender is liable for imprisonment (max. 3 years) as well as a fine. The Indian authorities (Police, Courts etc) will believe the statement given by the daughter-in-law or her relatives to be truth (100% & 10%) ever when they could be telling lies.

It is apparent that misuse of IPC 498A legislation is becoming a common occurrence. There is apparently no penalty (even a fine) for filing a false case. Corrupt police will sure the arrested and imprisoned of the groom and relatives so that girl and her family to gain an upper hand. If you! are one of those who do not have contacts in higher places and you get caught in 498A, kiss your freedom and liberty goodbye.

The basic spirit of any court jurisprudence is that a person is presumed innocent till proven guilty. However, 498A IPC prosecution is based on the presumption of offence; whether or not the accused have committed the offence and are presumed to be guilty unless they prove otherwise. One thing is sure, clear and evident that 498A is largely misused/abused by the daughter-in-law and her family for purpose of extracting money and harassing the groom and his relatives.

Solutions for misuse of 498A:

* Simply revoking the law is not a solution as the law is intended to protect vulnerable women. As the law stands, the daughter-in-law or her relatives can register a case and watch the harassment against her in-laws. 498A is been misused, the legislation should be amended so that it is bailable, compoundable and non-cognisable to avoid innocent people arrested and imprisoned.

* A rigorous investigation must be carried when allegations are reported under 498A section before registering the case to local Magistrate Court. Arrest should happen ONLY after proper investigation and if some truth is found in the complaint.

* If found false allegations the person responsible for false 498A must be counter charged under several provisions of IPC and to pay for the physical, emotional and financial loss the appellant has inflicted on the innocent people. The Police and Courts MUST implement these against appellant in order to protect the innocents. Courts must also invoke and implement perjury law too.

* Provision MUST be made to punish people for false complaints within the 498A legislation. After all, the idea of any legal system is punish the guilty and protect the innocent where male or female.


Sanil Sukumaran

Tel No:

NexDox - DSI Group

Reactions to the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Bill 2004 continue to pour in. This time, two economists react....

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=77564

Monday, September 05, 2005

Home > Op-Ed

A muted cheer

Reactions to the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Bill 2004 continue to pour in. This time, two economists react....

Posted online: Monday, September 05, 2005 at 0000 hours IST

Sauvik Chakraverti

The most important feature of property rights is that they are ‘‘private’’: the state and its legislations cannot interfere in the exercise of these rights by private property owners. These rights extend beyond one’s lifespan, so, if one leaves a well drafted ‘‘last will and testament’’ behind, duly registered, it is the duty of the courts to stand by this document. Thus, private property holders may disinherit their sons or daughters, or even leave their fortunes to charity. Priyamvada Birla, a woman, left her fortune to a rank outsider.

The idea is that ‘‘private property’’ is governed by ‘‘private law’’ made by the owners themselves (as with a will), and the ‘‘public law’’ of the state and its legislatures and courts cannot curtail this right.

Advertisement

The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Bill, 2004 must be seen as a violation of this principle: it imposes ‘‘public law’’ on ‘‘private property’’. Of course, this does not apply to those who do not belong to Joint Hindu Families governed by Mitakshara law. This legislation shall apply only to those who follow ancient traditions in property matters like the Mitakshara or the Dayabhaga and some South Indian systems. What a true liberal and pluralist would want is that those who belong to such systems be allowed to maintain their respective traditions.

By interfering in private property, ‘‘public law’’ is all set to destroy these ancient systems. Ostensibly, according to the women activists who campaigned for this legislation, daughters will stand to gain. However, the end result may well be that these traditions will die out.

I believe that our women activists have been wrong footed here. A strong civil society is one wherein the scope of ‘‘private law’’ and ‘‘private property’’ is maximized. Such a society is good for daughters too. But our women activists prefer asking for more and more ‘‘public law’’, thus reducing the scope of civil society to manage its own affairs.

As a liberal, I do not believe that the state should have any legal authority to interfere in private property thus. In India we do not have a uniform Hinduism. Joint families are dying out anyway. In the free market, globalised scenario that is emerging, our sons and daughters both should be encouraged and empowered to create more and more property for themselves rather than depend on a state-administered inheritance. This requires private property rights and private law governing the same. Further, we also have matriarchal and matrilineal systems in India: Is anyone crying out for their poor sons?

There is another reason to respond to this legislation with just a muted cheer, for the principle enshrined — that women should have a right to property — is being flouted openly by the state, and the suffering women in this case are from the poorest ranks of society, whose parents did not have even a bit of property to leave behind. I refer to the dancing girls of Mumbai, 75,000 strong, who have been banned from doing what they like with their own bodies (which is their private property) inside the premises of a piece of private property that is the dance bar. In their latest outrage against these girls, the income tax department has arrested many of them and seized their possessions (their properties) alleging tax evasion. How can you want to tax anyone whose work you ban? Our women activists should now work for these suffering women. Getting legislation to help daughters of joint families grab ancestral properties is a lesser cause than getting the state off the backs of property-less women who have escaped patriarchy in village India to carve out a niche for themselves in our cities.

Author's Email: sauvikc at yahoo DOT com

Woman tries to declare husband dead to usurp property

I'd consider this woman to be of the humane kind, for most vindictive women try to mentally kill the husband and his family by filing false cases. This one just got a false certificate and let the man live


========================================================================

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=146969

Woman tries to declare husband dead to usurp property

SI also involved in the conspiracy

Express News Service

Ambala, September 3: A HOUSEWIFE, in connivance with a police official, tried to declare her husband dead to usurp his property and other belongings in Ambala cantonment.

Rajni, wife of Hari Lal, former safai karamchari of the Cantonment Board here, got forged documents prepared to get death certificates from the offices of Sub-Registrar, Births and Deaths, by giving false affidavits duly attested by a notary.

She applied for death certificates to the Sub-Registrar, Cantonment Board, and Chaur Mastpur Primary Health Centre by showing two different addressed of her residence— Topkhana, Ambala Cantonment, and Babyal village, near here.

The husband alleged that he, his mother and two children were maltreated, harassed and beaten up by Rajni in complicity with a Sub-Inspector, who is in charge of Topkhana police post. He alleged that Rajni and the SI used to threaten him and his family of dire consequences.

Rajni used to draw pension of his mother and also took his salary by threatening him. After the death of his mother, Rajni tried to become the legal heir of her property, he alleged. When she failed in her attempts, she conspired with the SI and another union leader to declare him dead.

Hari Lal met Superintendent of Police Rajbir Deswal, who has ordered an inquiry.

Bring judicial services under consumer laws: Sorabjee

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5922_1481644,0015002100000001.htm


Sunday, September 4, 2005|16:42 IST


Bring judicial services under consumer laws: Sorabjee

HT Correspondent

Bhopal, September 3, 2005

THE FORMER Attorney General of India, Soli J Sorabjee, today said here that the judicial services should also be brought under the purview of the Consumer Protection Act.

Speaking at the fourth annual Noronha Memorial Lecture series at the Academy of Administration, Sorabjee said it was unfortunate that whispers about corruption in the judiciary, which, according to him, protected itself from the evil of corruption to a large extent, had started coming out prominently.

He said that on the lines of doctors, the lawyers should also be brought under the purview of the Consumer Protection Act so that they could not play in the hands of other and continue to do justice to the people of India.

“There are some rotten eggs who have tarnished the image of the judiciary. These rotten eggs should be identified and removed from the system,” said the Supreme Court lawyer. He asked the Bar Councils to take this issue seriously and improve the judicial system.

Referring to the exorbitant fee being charged by senior lawyers, Sorabjee said that degradation of moral values and principles along with blind race of materialism contributed a lot to this and service to the humanity had taken a back seat.

Saying that he was not against earning money and accumulating wealth but there should a distinction between the adequate fee and exorbitant fee being charged by lawyers. Giving an advice to those who are entering the profession he said, “Do not enter legal profession with the aim to make a fast buck; but with the motive to serve the community,” he added.

Once William Shakespeare had advocated to ‘kill lawyers’, he said, adding that witnessing the exorbitant fee charged by lawyers and widening gap between the common people and judiciary it appeared that Shakespeare was right. “I am not saying this for the entire fraternity but for those because of whom judiciary is getting a bad name,” he added.

Sorabjee further said that there was unprecedented decline in values and principles and what is more unfortunate was the fact that tremendous technical and scientific advancements failed to guarantee any dignity in public life.

Moving to politicians and public servants, the leading lawyer of the country said that every section of the society had been influenced by the demon of ‘greed’ and engaged in corrupt practice.

That was why the belief in ‘simple living and high thinking’ was eroding very fact. If this phenomenon continued, people’s faith in democracy would be eroded, he warned.

Taking a dig at politicians he said that the nexus between the criminals and politicians was becoming stronger and stronger. Every one was entering politics with the intention of making money.

The only remedy to check the increasing corruption was to make a law and forfeit properties of those people who convicted in such cases, he advocated.

Sorabjee said that there was an acute shortage of leadership that believed in fundamental values of democracy. “Today, nation needs political leaders like J P Narayan and officers like R C V P Noronha who had devoted their entire life for the cause of people by maintaining moral values and principles,” he added.

The former Attorney General said that values could be restored by inculcating right values among youths, starting a battle in the minds and hearts of the people for restoring these values and by galvanising people against corrupt people.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Babulal Gaur termed Noronha as an honest officer who believed in simple living and high thinking. “Noronha was easily accessible to common people and lived a simple life whereas the present bureaucrats are not giving adequate time to the people,” he remarked.

The Chief Minister also released the second edition of the late Noronha’s book ‘A tale told by an idiot’. Director General Academy of Administration Mala Shrivastava and senior bureaucrats were present on the occasion.



Asia News © HT Media Ltd. 2004. India News