While an incomparable event takes place now on the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka, where four distinct nearby volcanoes are erupting concurrently, seven villages in India suffered freak hailstorm that rained on sizable ice boulders killing nine people.
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On Tuesday 29th January, people living in seven villages in Chevella, Moinabad and Shankarpally, in the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India experienced a once-in-a-lifetime freak natural event. The hailstones started falling during the night.
On the following day at dawn, women found it difficult to clear their yard of the large boulders of ice using the indigenous ekel brooms.
Though the hailstorm lasted only for about 20 minutes, it covered the entire villages under a snowy blanket causing financial loss to most of the villagers by destroying their houses, live stock and crops.
A 45 year-old woman was gang raped in the early hours of January 23 in Nugegoda (some reports give her age as 47). This gruesome incident only received a few lines in some of the newspapers and in the media. Yet a similar incident that occurred in New Delhi, India, when a medical student was gang raped on a bus, provoked a nation-wide protest for several days and, in fact, the protests continue internationally even up to now. This protest caused the Indian Prime Minister to intervene and take action, not only to ensure medical treatment and justice for the young girl but also to take steps towards bringing in speedy legislation to prevent the re-occurrence of similar incidents. Protests took place also in Nepal when a similar case came to the notice of the public. There too, heavy demands have been made of the government, not only to bring legislation but also to achieve other reforms needed to protect women.
The media and the active participation of the people and women’s movements, including local politicians, both in India and Nepal reflected the active participation of the people to ensure protection and to express outrage at the malfunctioning of the law enforcement agencies which are duty bound to protect the public.
In both countries, the media responded to these protests and ensured that the unfortunate event came to be an occasion for the whole nation to introspect and to discuss the crisis of the law enforcement agencies and the failure of the government to ensure that these agencies act with the required diligence in future. On the one hand, the role of the media represented the problems of the conscience of the public. On the other hand, the media also created a discussion among the people in order to express concern as well as to critically discuss the deficiencies of the government that make it possible for such crimes to occur.
According to the short reports that appeared in the Sri Lankan media, the police reported that the woman who became the victim of the gang rape had gone to the market and having lost her way, made some inquiries as to directions from a three-wheeler driver. Under the pretext of offering help, the driver took her into the three-wheeler and then, against her will, took her near a well and threatened her. Thereafter, several persons who came in another three-wheeler, gang raped her. She is said to be taking treatment at the Kalubowila Hospital. The items discovered from the three-wheelers include some condoms which, according to observers, suggest that the attackers may have been engaged in such activities on a regular basis.
New approach to scandal management under peoples’ sovereignty
In recent times when such scandals occurred, the police filed reports of arrest and this appeased the public by creating the impression that the law was being enforced. However, shortly after arrest, these matters were forgotten. Through all kinds of negotiations and bribery exchanges, or by the intervention of politicians, the process of justice was subverted. The cases of the murder of several persons, together with a government politician, Baratha Lakhsman Premachandra and the recent murder of an elected local government official in Kelaniya are public events which demonstrate this quite strikingly. The murder of a British national and the rape and assault of his Russian companion at Tangalle, allegedly by the Urban Council Chairman of Tangalle and others, was also hushed up. The gang rape of a child by several local area politicians in another rural locality in the South underwent a similar fate. Similarly there were allegations of rape against government member of parliament, Duminda Silva which too, came to nothing. In fact, the list of crimes that have been followed by no real consequences is quite long.
It will not be surprising, if one of these days, the rape victim of this present incident and her family are called to Temple Trees and given some money from the President’s Fund. Such examples of so-called mercy have been evidenced many times, when such scandals happen. After neglecting Rizana Nafeek’s case resulting in her beheading in Saudi Arabia, her mother was called to the palace and some money was given.
Lawlessness and public apathy
In Sri Lanka while there is a public acknowledgement of the existence of widespread lawlessness involving particularly shocking offenses against women, the public itself reacts to these events apathetically. There is no energetic pursuit of justice or demands for accountability from the government.
Such apathy that prevails amongst the public regarding heinous crimes as well as the criminal negligence on the part of the government to resolve the problems of the law enforcement agencies is indicative of the deeper malaise in the Sri Lankan society and the Sri Lankan system of justice.
The collapse of the policing system has been acknowledged. This was the direct result of the politicisation process which in turn is a product of the total control of the state by the executive president which has paralysed the bureaucratic apparatus in Sri Lanka. Naturally, it is not within the capacity of the Sri Lankan president to enquire into all crimes and to deal with them. The task of controlling crime could only take place through the functioning of the law enforcement agencies within the framework of the law. The duty of the president and the government is to ensure that these agencies function and deliver the necessary services to the public. However, the nature of the Sri Lankan system at present is such that the president and the government do not have a reliable bureaucratic apparatus through which law enforcement as well as other aspects of the running of governance can be effected.
The result is crimes that re-occur and the gimmicks that are played by politicians to create the impression of law enforcement while there is no real attempt to ensure protection to the people. This situation has resulted in the creation of a sense of apathy in the society as a whole, even in the face of gruesome crimes such as the gang rape of this woman.
As an independent media is suppressed, there is apathy, widespread cynicism and shameless manipulation of news in the state media which is the only media that is allowed to function without hindrance.
While the rest of the south Asian countries are rising to demand better performance from their governments and the creation of efficiently functioning law enforcement agencies to protect all citizens with particular emphasis on the more vulnerable groups such as women, in Sri Lanka crimes continue to take place with impunity.
On August 15, 1947, India became independent of the British rule as a constitutional monarchy with King George VI as head of state and Earl Mountbatten as the governor-general.
The country, then did not have a permanent constitution. Its laws were based on the modified colonial government of India Act 1935. So, on 28 August 1947, a Drafting Committee was appointed to create a permanent constitution, with Dr.B. R. Ambedkar as chairman. On November 4, 1947, this committee submitted a draft constitution to the Assembly. The Assembly met, in sessions open to the public, for 166 days, spread over a period of two years, 11 months and 18 days before adopting the Constitution. After many deliberations and modifications, the 308 members of the Assembly signed two hand-written copies of the document in Hindi and English on January 24, 1950. Two days later, on January 26, the constitution came into effect throughout the nation.
Today, 26 January, India celebrates its 64th Republic Day.
While India’s Independence Day celebrates its freedom from British Rule, the Republic Day celebrates the coming into force of its constitution.
In Manyari village in Aliganj area in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India a Dalit mother on finding her son Deepak Kumar strangulated lodged a complaint with the police.
Satyendra Veer Singh, Superintendent of Police, Sultanpur said the police apprehended Sangeeta the wife of the deceased after some time, and she allegedly confessed to the crime.
However, on Wednesday 16th January, in an instance of police brutality, Inspector Kailash Nath Dubey beat Sangeeta in the presence of a subordinate lady police officer, though she confessed to the crime. A freelance journalist, who was at the spot recorded the incident on his camera.
When reporters asked why the lady police personnel did not step in order to prevent the incident, Singh said, “She is a subordinate officer… When the inspector is doing something, she is not supposed to (interfere). What I can say is that there was absolutely no need for this kind of attitude on the part of the police. We have found him (inspector) guilty of absolute misconduct,” he said, adding such incidents will not be tolerated.
The National Commission for Women (NCW) has asked for a report on the case. It also wants to know why a criminal case has not been filed against Inspector Kailash Nath Dubey.
Dr. Mohan Madhukar Bhagawat is the sixth Sarsanghachalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
He created an uproar by his remarks while speaking on issues concerning women saying, “Such crimes (rapes) hardly take place in Bharat (rural areas), but they occur frequently in India (urban areas)”.
According to IBN, the RSS chief said, “There is a theory of social contract in the universe. A husband and a wife are bound by a contract which says – you (woman) look after the household chores and satisfy me, I (man) will take care of your needs and will protect you. Until she delivers her duties without fail, he keeps her on the contract, and if she fails to honour the contract, he disowns her. And if it is the husband who is not honouring the contract, she can also abandon him. One can go for a new contract then.”
Bhagawat also blamed the western culture and the excessive urbanization for rising crimes against women.
Activists raised their voice against the RSS chief’s attempt to draw a correlation between the modern way of living and rape. Women’s groups criticized his view on rape in “India” and “Bharat” for being regressive. However, statistics show that Bhagwat’s views are wrong.
The National Crime Records Bureau of India does not split registered cases of sexual assault by rural and urban areas. However, Mrinal Satish, an associate professor of law at Delhi’s National Law University researching for his doctoral dissertation at the Yale Law School in the US found that 75% of rape cases that led to convictions over the last 25 years originated from rural India. Satish scoured all high court and Supreme Court cases involving rape reported in the Criminal Law Journal between 1983 and 2009 in which at least one court (trial court, HC or SC) had convicted the accused.
Following a complaint lodged by a widow, the Police arrested Firoz Ahmed under IPC sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation). Firoz had consensual sex with the woman after promising her that he would marry her.
Earlier, the trial judge had dismissed Ahmed’s bail application, citing Firoz had obtained the woman’s consent under the pretext of marriage though he never intended to marrying her.
Justice Kailash Gambhir of the Delhi High Court agreed with the view of the trial judge. He dismissed the anticipatory bail application of Firoz Ahmed since the offence fell under IPC section 375(4), which states that consent for sex obtained under a false pretext also amounts to a rape he upheld the prosecution’s argument that Firoz Ahmed did not deserve a bail.
The word physically handicapped or physical disability conjures in our mind a person with some impairment to the body that limits the physical function of limbs or movement or mobility.
I came across the following images on the net. Would you label these people “handicapped”?
Congress leaders like Renuka Chaudhary had sought chemical castration of rapists.
Unlike surgical castration, where the testicles or ovaries are removed through an incision in the body, chemical castration involves the administration of anti-androgen drugs, such as cyproterone acetate or the birth-control drug Depo-Provera, given as an injection every three months. The antipsychotic agent Benperidol can also be injected for this purpose. Chemical castration does not actually castrate the person, nor is it a form of sterilization.
Chemical castration does not castrate the person, nor is it a form of sterilization. Although reversible on discontinuation of treatment, sometimes permanent changes in body chemistry can be seen, such as bone loss of density due to the use of Depo Provera for a length of time.
From time to time, chemical castration used as an instrument of public and/or judicial policy despite has evoked concerns over possible side effects and human rights.
On Saturday, January 5, 2013, submitted its suggestions on stringent laws for crimes against women to the three-member committee headed by former Chief Justice of India J.S. Verma.
The Verma Committee set up on December 23, 2012, with a mandate to review the present statute and give recommendations on amending laws to provide speedy justice and greater punishment, in cases of aggravated sexual assault, has to submit its report in 30 days.
The Congress party made it clear that its party chief Sonia Gandhi has not made any suggestion to The Verma Committee regarding chemical castration.
Statue of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington D.C. (Photo: T.V. Antony Raj)
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Anyway
People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
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Deeds
“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”
“We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something.”
“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”
“I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish he didn’t trust me so much.”
“I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.”
“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.”
“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”
“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
“Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.”
“God doesn’t require us to succeed, he only requires that you try.”
“Never travel faster than your guardian angel can fly.”
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Dreams
“Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.”
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Forgiving
“I once picked up a woman from a garbage dump and she was burning with fever; she was in her last days and her only lament was: ‘My son did this to me.’
I begged her: ‘You must forgive your son. In a moment of madness, when he was not himself, he did a thing he regrets. Be a mother to him, forgive him.’
It took me a long time to make her say: ‘I forgive my son.’
Just before she died in my arms, she was able to say that with a real forgiveness.
She was not concerned that she was dying. The breaking of the heart was that her son did not want her. This is something you and I can understand.”
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Humbleness
“Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.”
“If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.”
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Life
“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.”
“A life not lived for others is not a life.”
“At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.”
“Live simply so others may simply live.”
“Spread the love of God through your life but only use words when necessary.”
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Love
“Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do… but how much love we put in that action.”
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
“Love begins by taking care of the closest ones – the ones at home.”
“Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand.”
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
“People are unrealistic, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway.”
“Work without love is slavery.”
“Intense love does not measure, it just gives.”
“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
“I’m a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.”
“Love to be real, it must cost—it must hurt—it must empty us of self.”
“Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.”
“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”
“Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God – the rest will be given.”
“What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.”
“Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own.”
“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”
“I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn’t touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.”
“If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.”
“I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?”
“Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.”
“Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”
“I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, he will not ask, ‘How many good things have you done in your life?’ rather he will ask, ‘How much love did you put into what you did?’”
“God made the world for the delight of human beings– if we could see His goodness everywhere, His concern for us, His awareness of our needs: the phone call we’ve waited for, the ride we are offered, the letter in the mail, just the little things He does for us throughout the day. As we remember and notice His love for us, we just begin to fall in love with Him because He is so busy with us — you just can’t resist Him. I believe there’s no such thing as luck in life, it’s God’s love, it’s His.”
“There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives – the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them.”
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Patience
“Without patience, we will learn less in life. We will see less. We will feel less. We will hear less. Ironically, rush and more usually means less.”
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Poverty
“Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.”
“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”
“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”
“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.”
“The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.”
“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”
“When you don’t have anything, then you have everything.”
“When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed. “
“The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. But we are perfectly happy.”
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Prayer
“Prayer in action is love, love in action is service.”
“Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.”
“If we pray, we will believe; If we believe, we will love; If we love, we will serve.”
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Religion
“There are so many religions and each one has its different ways of following God. I follow Christ:
Jesus is my God,
Jesus is my Spouse,
Jesus is my Life,
Jesus is my only Love,
Jesus is my All in All;
Jesus is my Everything.”
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Sharing
“You and I, we are the Church, no? We have to share with our people. Suffering today is because people are hoarding, not giving, not sharing. Jesus made it very clear. Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me. Give a glass of water, you give it to me. Receive a little child, you receive me.”
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Smile
“Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”
“Peace begins with a smile..”
“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.”
“Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.”
“The person who gives with a smile is the best giver because God loves a cheerful giver.”
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Speaking
“Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart.”
“Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don’t only give your care, but give your heart as well.”
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Words
“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”
In 2008, The Board of Control for Cricket in India initiated the Indian Premier League – a billion dollar professional league for Twenty20 cricket competition in India.
After the finals of the DLF IPL (fifth season) played at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, on 27 May, 2012, the Kolkata Knight Riders went home richer by $2 million in prize money and the Chennai Super Kings received $1.5 million as the runners-up.
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In November 2012 PepsiCo, one of the two eligible bidders for the coveted title of the sixth IPL season, won over Airtel with a bid of ₹396.8 crore for the league to be called the “Pepsi IPL” for the next five years.
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Pepsi IPL (IPL 2013; IPL 6) Teams
Last season nine teams participated in this popular Cricket carnival. This season too, the number of teams participating remains the same; however, on September 14, 2012, at an emergency Governing Council meeting of the Indian Premier League, the BCCI terminated its contract with the cash-strapped Deccan Chargers and floated tenders for a new IPL franchise. Sun TV Network purchased the team by placing a bid substantially higher than that of PVP Ventures, and changed the name of the team to SunRisers Hyderabad. .
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Locations of IPL Teams
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The tournament of the sixth season of the Indian Premier League to be held in India abbreviated as: Pepsi IPL, IPL 6 and IPL 2013, is scheduled to begin on April 3, 2013 and end on May 26, 2013 with the opening and closing ceremonies held in Eden Gardens, Kolkata – the home venue of the reigning champions Kolkata Knight Riders. Both the opening match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils on Wednesday April 3, 2013 at 20:00 IST and the final match on Sunday, May 26, 2013 would be played in Eden Gardens, Kolkata and begin at 20:00 IST (14:30 GMT).
Impressions 