Nupur Sharma and Live TV Debate Controversy

I had become a fan of Nupur Sharma after I first read about her. Her name was announced by the BJP as its candidate during Delhi Assembly Election 2015 against the big name of Arvind Kejriwal. I wondered who she was and searched the web to read about her. She had got splendid credentials. Born and brought up in Delhi, she studied Economics at the Hindu College of Delhi University and later completed her law degree (LLB) from faculty of law, Delhi University. Then she completed her Master of Law (LLM) from London School of Economics (LSE). This was enough to understand that she was a woman of great talent and intellect. But why was she in politics?

I read that she was involved in student politics from her Delhi University days. She was a member of ABVP and became President of Delhi University’s Student Union (DUSU). That was some feat. She has since then held several positions in the BJP, being associated with BJP’s youth wing and a member of state executive committee of the BJP Delhi.  

Way back in 2009, she was featured among the “Top 10 Most Inspirational Women in India” by the Hindustan Times. If we look at above credentials, it was a place well deserved. You can read more about her here on Wikibio,  or check her profile on LinkedIn. If our country has to become a developed nation and a nation of our dreams, we need well educated and honest people like her in politics too.  

Now I will come at the reason I am telling about her. Yesterday, I got to know through News that a fellow politician from AAP shouted at her and verbally abused her during “Live” TV debate. You can read about it here or here. The leader from AAP was claiming that the BJP was using Shri Ram for political gains; when Nupur Sharma intervened and then the man lost control and started abusing her. Nupur Sharma has said that she would be taking legal action against him for defamation and character assassination. This episode “broke the internet” and last night, #WeStandWithNupurSharma was trending on Twitter as #1 trend in India.

These days, I have been increasingly getting annoyed with the needless “controversies” breaking on the internet and on the TV news media. Anything and everything become prime time news and discarded after a few days once another controversy-worthy news comes out. This is a never-ending trend and creates unnecessary stress in our minds.

I was thinking about how to end this “media mess”. I think we have too many TV News channels and they are continuously fighting among themselves for “breaking news”. In this competition, truth becomes a tragedy. I was reflecting on yesterday’s controversy and wondered how to prevent such incidents from happening in the future. I noticed that this issue happened because the debate was a “live” debate. Had this been a pre-recorded debate, the TV channel could have edited and cut out that portion when the man went berserk. You may ask what the benefit is of “hiding” things and an abuse is an abuse, whether it is shown on TV or not. If the channel hid the abusive portion, would it not be unfair for victims like Nupur Sharma? I think, even if the clip is cut out from being aired to the viewers, the portion would still be recoded and hence if the victims want to take legal action, they could still do it, because they were defamed and abused in front of a larger panel and their peer and that amounts to insult. But it would at least avoid bringing out the controversy in front of the public, save them from some stress and avoid wasting their time hearing or discussing about it. Overall, it will save productivity and energy of the viewers if we ban such content.

Therefore, I was thinking that all TV channels could avoid “live” TV debates. If channels don’t do it, government should ban live TV debates because all such programs become too risky to air. If the show is “live”, anyone among the panelists can always abuse the platform for fulfilling stupid or evil goals. “Live” debate can be misused to spread a false anti-national propaganda, or to defame and harm the image of an important person or organization, for example.

Apart from the risks involved in airing “live” content, this controversy on social media also highlighted how "online abuse" is often tolerated by the same set of people, but if the same incident happens on TV, those people are furious. It proves that TV as a medium is still so powerful, perhaps since it is more "personal" and online content is still taken lightly. If you are on social media platforms, you would notice that people use abuses very frequently while commenting on famous people’s tweets. No action is taken against such people. But if something of that kind happens on TV, it has serious repercussions.

I think that at some point of time we should start making such controversies as “examples” to make real systematic changes in our country. One Nupur Sharma filing a legal case against one stupid man won’t change anything. But if TV channels are made responsible and held accountable for showing bad content to the public, that may be a really beneficial change. The ideas I shared in this blog post may not be perfect. But if we start trying to find ideas and solutions to fix systematic problems, we may create a better future for our country.

What do you think about it?

- Rahul Tiwary

[#Politics] Irom Sharmila Losing Elections in Manipur

Among the medley of news on recently held assembly elections, one small news item said that Irom Sharmila who was fighting election against Manipur CM got only 90 votes and has quit politics now, vowing not to fight elections again. 

Irom, known as "Iron Lady", had done hunger strike for 16 long years protesting against Armed Forces Special Powers Act which grants special power to the security forces to search property without warrant and arrest people on suspicion of acting against the state. Such harsh a law is applicable only in the North Eastern states and in J&K, obviously because there are powerful separatist and insurgent forces working in these regions against the republic. 

Irom was not alone in her fight against AFSPA and her long hunger strike of course won't be possible without people's support for her cause. She was not untouched from politics; from Anna Hazare to Mamata Banerjee to Communist Party, all have been in touch with her in the past. Not to speak of social organizations who have rallied around her. She has received several international prizes commending her for human rights and non-violence; including Amnesty International and Asian Human Rights Commission. 

It is unbelievable how she was able to manage only 90 votes.  

Her 16 years long fast ended just last year in 2016; meaning she won't have lost relevance in public's memory. She was born and brought up in Manipur and lives there; meaning she was no outsider to the state. She is known all over India due to her hunger strike and her noble cause and hence the locals would definitely have positive opinion about her. The results of assembly elections including the high number of seats won by the BJP indicate that people were looking for a change. Then what happened that she got only 90 votes? Why would the masses who were with her during her hunger strike suddenly abandon her? What does her defeat tell about Indian democracy - positive or negative?

I think the fact that she lost elections in this manner tells good about Indian democracy. I guess people were aware that despite being a good person with a noble cause, she was unprepared and lacked political experience to make actual changes. Also, spending decades on a single purpose of repealing AFSPA did not raise confidence in people that she would be able to take the state forward in all counts of important issues like employment, security, health and education, which do matter to people. Her decision to "aim too high" by fighting against the CM would also have backfired against her; as people judged her by comparing her with the CM who was a senior leader. Looking at opposition party BJP's numbers, it appears that she would have done much better had she joined and fought on a BJP ticket. But the mature and "unsentimental" manner in which people discarded her as unfit in politics, speaks that Indian voters are prudent and logical. They care about their votes and don't want to spend it either on sentiments or on single causes alone. 

Despite the valid reasons, one can't remain without feeling sorry for her. That is why popularity can be so dangerous - it raises the expectations so high that disappointments become more severe and damaging. 

Elections are called celebrations of our democracy. Then no festival is celebrated in all homes. May the losing ones be strong and be able to get on their feet again. Because life must go on!

- Rahul

Political Artists as Conscience Keepers

Recently Oscar winner AR Rahman performed at a concert* organized on the occasion of Mulayam Singh's birthday. I am sure he would go even if Lalu invites him. Or if Lalit Modi or Rahul Gandhi invites him. And no one would raise an eyebrow. Why? Because apparently Rahman being an artist would be doing all these shows to "earn his bread". The fact that he would already be a millionaire and hence performing at each function where host is ready to pay should not really be counted as "earning bread" but can be seen as an attempt to keep the "rich and powerful on one's sides", could be ignored.

I think being an artist gives him the privilege of not being conscientious when it comes to grab money making opportunities. There can be some more professions like this. Doctors would treat any sick person no matter his/her background; lawyers can defend any accused if one pleads not guilty. Others are not so lucky. If you work in a firm which is considered doing unethical business or corrupt - it is often taken as a blemish on your character too.

Now, after becoming rich and powerful helped by keeping conscience locked in a closet for best part of life when one is young and energetic, if these artists or professionals suddenly start pretending to have a more genuine conscience than yours and mine, and being holier than the common man, what do we do? I discard such individuals and their claims as trash.

---

* The Concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1f2WepFA4Y

- Rahul

Know more about Dr. Subramanian Swamy

Dr. Subramanian Swamy is the current President of the Janata Party (founded by Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan in 1977). 

Dr. Swamy completed his Masters in Statistics at the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, and thereafter went to Harvard University for doctorate (Ph.D) in economics on scholarship. At Harvard, he worked with Nobel Laureate Simon Kuznets and jointly authored papers with another Nobel Laureate, Paul. A Samuelson. Dr. Swamy taught Economics at Harvard University for several years (1963-69, 1985-86). For 22 years, Dr. Swamy was professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi. Dr. Swamy is a linguist and is proficient in Tamil, Hindi, English and Chinese. I could find that he is author of at least 17 books and many research papers. 

On the personal front, he met his wife-to-be at Harvard. His wife is an PhD in Mathematics and presently an advocate at the Supreme Court of India. They have two daughters. 

The court cases he has filed has become part of India's history. 2G scam won't have led to the arrest of A. Raja without Dr. Swamy who filed a case in Supreme Court which then asked CBI to produce a detailed report. His case in High Court led to apology from Sonia Gandhi for presenting false information about her education (degree). He has also filed a case in Supreme Court for protection to Ram Setu and to prevent its demolition. And then, as the legend says, he is the person who was responsible for preventing Sonia Gandhi from becoming India's Prime Minister... 

In his most recent exposure, Dr. Swamy has made astounding revelations on the Nehru-Gandhi Dynasty:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/subramaniam-swamy-accuses-sonia-rahul-gandhi-of-land-fraud-associated-with-national-herald-quami-awaz/articleshow/17054772.cms

Source of information: Various sources on the internet including his profile at his party website: http://janataparty.org/president.html

We do Need Sedation Law but not Against Cartoonists

13 Sep 2012

You must be aware of the events unfolding during the last few days in which a cartoonist Aseem Trivedi was arrested on sedation charges and then released after a huge public outcry. He was arrested on the charges of having insulted national emblem and constitution, which was filed against him by a so called dalit activist in Mumbai. Government justified the arrest citing laws on sedation which prevent national symbols and emblem from being shown disrespect, while the media, public activists and so called liberalists used the opportunity to demand this law to be abolished altogether.

Political Aspects of this Case should not be ignored!

Let us analyze the news in slight detail. Firstly, the case has been filed now alleging that the cartoonist had put up banners mocking the Constitution during Anna Hazare's rally at the Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai in 2011 [Ref] This “event” happed in 2011 but the police case has been filed in now in 2012, which clearly puts doubts on the intention of the complainant. Police should not have immediately arrested the cartoonist as if one year old cartoons were going to explode now and do some great harm.

The fact is that the complainant Amit K. is a so called dalit activist and member of Republican Party of India (RPI) [Ref]. RPI is a political party which has tried to champion the cause of so called dalits and has huge vote banks in these communities. Recently RPI has come close to Shiv Sena and BJP and formed an alliance with these two political parties and even fought local elections together. Recently MNS has come closer to Shiv Sena too and there have been talks of both parties joining hands for the upcoming state assembly elections. It seems some political masterminds are trying to prevent formation of such a grand alliance of opposition parties in Maharashtra.

Recently RPI and MNS activists fought over a small issue [Ref]. Congress party always tries to bring Muslim and so called Dalit vote banks together to make a bigger vote banks which could ensure it victory on many seats. It seems the Congress govt in the state tried to widen the gap between RPI and other state parties and also to isolate RPI by forcing these parties hurt RPI’s political agenda and sentiments. This police complaint seems to have worked perfectly in creating a political situation which could be in advantage for the RPI and Congress to come closer while MNS, Shiv Sena and BJP to go further away from these. The success of this approach was evident when news came that Raj Thackeray supported Aseem Trivedi [Ref] and Bal Thackeray also publicly backed him [Ref] and criticized govt for arresting the cartoonist. It is anyone’s guess that RPI won’t have loved this support for the cartoonist from Shiv Sena and MNS.

This law should not have been applied on Assem Trivedi

The strongest argument to support Aseem Trivedi’s arrest and the police case was his cartoon on our National Emblem which is taken from Ashoka’s Lion Capital. In his cartoon, Trivedi had made the three front lions look like wolves with blood dripping from their tongue and instead of “Satyamev Jayate”, the cartoon mentioned “Bhrashtamev Jayate”. Supporters of state govt said that it was an insult to our national emblem. In my personal opinion, we should differentiate a cartoon from other forms of art.

This piece was a cartoonist’s expression to show the corruption in our system. At the same time, there was no attempt on his part to “appear realistic” in order to “confuse people with the actual national emblem”. His cartoon was not a “look-alike” of our national emblem. It was only a sketch and even a small kid in school would say that this was only a cartoon and not any realistic version of our national emblem. Therefore, Assem should not have been charged with the sedation laws.  

Media only concentrated on the law instead of its wrong application!

It is shocking to me that none of the media houses and TV news channels who feed on sensationalism even pointed towards the political connections which I tried to expose in the earlier parts of this article. Today, people of our country have to be very careful about the way we form opinions heavily relying on who wins the TV debates and whose side the TV channels are supporting. TV news channels and even print media heavily targeted only this sedation law.

Three laws were applied against Assem:

1. Indian Penal Code Section 124 (sedition)
2. Section 66 A of Information Technology Act
3. Section 2 of Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act

Under Section 66 A (Punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service, etc) and Section 2 of Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act (Whoever in any public place or in any other place within public view burns, mutilates, defaces, defiles, disfigures, destroys, tramples upon or otherwise shows disrespect to or brings into contempt (whether by words, either spoken or written, or by acts) the Indian National Flag or the Constitution of India or any part thereof) the accused faces a prison term of three years and/ or can be fined. [Ref]

When it came to discuss this whole episode, thinkers like Salil Tripathi also discussed only on the law [Ref] while controversial persons like Binayak Sen also supported repealing this act [Ref].

Of course all anti-nationals, terrorists and enemies of India would also love this law to be repealed. And tomorrow they will start burning our national flag and desecrating our national symbols at the fly. Do we want such a situation to happen? (It is already happening in J&K where separatists burn our national flag and to some extent happens in many places when sections of population waive Pakistani flags on Indian soil along with insulting our symbols.)

Also, it appears that the main argument why this law should be repealed has been put forward as “this in a colonial era law”. This argument is amusing: there are so many laws which have come from the British era and even stopped so many social evils; should all these laws be repealed now just for being “from colonial era”? Of course no! Then why “use” this case of “wrong application of law” to demand the law itself to be repealed?

My Conclusions:

1. Police case on the cartoonist seems to be filed because of political agenda (as explained in the article).
2. Sedation laws should not apply on the cartoonist Aseem Trivedi because there was no planned attempt on his part to insult our national emblem.
3. Media has so far campaigned only in support of the cartoonist and has used him to make a case to get the sedation laws to be repealed. Media should also have exposed the political games underlying the case and presented a balanced picture.
4. The sedation laws should not be repealed but should be applied more judicially.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization associated with the author. There is no attempt to hurt the feelings of readers and any unintended ones are regretted. You are welcome to share your own personal opinion on this article in the comments section.

I support Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam as Our President

It seems the current Presidential election has become a battleground of political gimmicks and ego clashes. A list of probable candidates is in front of us but it disappoints me to see that most are seasoned thick-skinned politicians. Electing an active politician at the highest post of President of India would be risky in my opinion. What if some bones come out of the closet later on?

I support Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam as President of India. Dr. Kalam is a patriot, very honest and capable person and is a symbol of intelligence and industry. He has been such an inspiring figure for one and all. He is the only figure in the list who is completely non-political and an achiever in true sense who can represent the resurgent India in front of the globe. If Dr. Kalam is our President, we shall definitely be proud of the fact!

I wish and pray to see Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam as President of India, again!

- Rahul