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from India Insight:
Updated: Delhi police helpline: if your stalking case is not urgent, please press 1
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author, and not necessarily those of Thomson Reuters Corp.)
Citizens First: those are the two words at the top of the Delhi Police department's website. An alternative could be: "first come, first served."
I called the stalker line after receiving some text messages and telephone calls that made me feel unsafe. The upshot: a dispatcher routed my call to three police stations, none of which have a record of the complaint. Furthermore, it will take several days to get back to me with the results of any investigation. This is happening when the police are under intense criticism for not doing enough to prevent rape, harassment and assault, not to mention reports of their views on women. This latest incident was not an inspiring episode.
Here's what happened:
April 28-29: I receive anonymous calls from different numbers on my mobile phone. I receive two text messages from one of the numbers. Here is what they said:
from India Insight:
Snapshots from Arvind Kejriwal’s hunger strike in Delhi
"Ankush, should we pay the electricity bill? The secretary of our apartments has advised us against it." That was my mother's question to me as I was leaving for Arvind Kejriwal's fast venue in Delhi's northeast corner, Dilshad Garden.
While I won't be among those who refuse to pay electricity bills, Kejriwal's supporters said hundreds of thousands of city residents had signed a pledge saying they would not pay their bills to the state.
from India Insight:
Photo gallery: Spirit of Holi in Delhi’s Sadar Bazaar
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily of Reuters)
The festival of Holi is easy on the pocket. All one needs is a packet of gulaal (coloured powder), buckets of water, friends and family; and perhaps some music and alcohol.
from India Insight:
Anti-rape bill goes easy on first-time stalkers, but only if innocent
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily of Reuters)
Women have become increasingly worried about their safety in New Delhi after the gang rape and torture of a young woman aboard a moving bus last December. Not for nothing do people call the city India's rape capital. Beyond the leers and the crass words that men often direct at women walking on the street, fresh fears have arisen over stalkers.
from India Insight:
Making a case for tougher anti-stalking laws
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily of Reuters)
Should any well meaning law proposed in a democratic parliament be shelved because it risks being misused in some form?
from India Insight:
Connaught Place: As ugly as it gets in Delhi’s expensive heart
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily of Reuters)
New Delhi’s Connaught Place is home to the fourth-most expensive office space in the world, ahead of such usual suspects as New York and Tokyo. If you're one of the people who has to walk through it every day, the one question you'd ask yourself is: why?
from India Insight:
Corruption trumps reforms and economics in Kejriwal’s politics
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author, and not necessarily of Thomson Reuters)
The transformation of Arvind Kejriwal from taxman to anti-corruption activist and politician has been hard to ignore. He became something of a celebrity last year when he launched broadsides against rich, powerful people. That in turn gave him a platform to enter politics with his "Aam Aadmi Party" (party of the common man). Now Kejriwal, 44, must build a party in time to contest state-level elections in New Delhi this year.
from India Insight:
Delhi Art Gallery’s nude portrait exhibition draws protesters
Modern Indian artists have celebrated the body on the canvas for more than a hundred years. Amrita Sher-Gil, known as India's Frida Kahlo, may have been the earliest Indian artist in modern times to paint nudes, including a self-portrait. The Delhi Art Gallery’s latest show – "The Naked and the Nude" – presents a retrospective journey of the representation of the body in modern Indian art, mostly from the dawn of the 20th century to the present.
It's also generating anger among groups that object to art involving nudes. When I visited the gallery, the front office operator received a call from a regional political group, demanding that the show be closed. That is not an option, said Kishore Singh, project editor and head of exhibition and publication at the Delhi Art Gallery. "We cannot and will not take seriously people’s right to be offended, and demand that we take something down."
from India Insight:
Understanding the repo rate, cash reserve ratio and the Reserve Bank of India
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday cut the repo rate as well as the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 25 basis points, or 0.25 percent. Here's a quick explanation of what that means. It will be obvious to some readers, but many people haven't studied economics and are unfamiliar with the terms.
The repo rate, which now stands at 7.75 percent, is the rate at which the central bank lends money to Indian banks. As the repo rate goes down, it gets cheaper for banks to borrow money. That makes it easier for people to borrow money at cheaper rates too. As more people borrow money, which ought to be the result of action like this, they'll spend more money. That's good for the Indian economy.
from India Insight:
“Homelands” exhibit in Delhi examines identity through art
Indians give high importance to the concept of identity and kinship, especially in a land that is home to hundreds upon hundreds of different languages and ethnic groups. Indian curator Latika Gupta explores this theme in “Homelands”, an exhibition of works by 28 leading contemporary British artists, all wrestling with the idea of what "home" means in the 21st century.
The artists whose works are displayed include four Turner Prize winners, Jeremy Deller, Richard Long, Grayson Perry and Gillian Wearing. Work by World Press Photo (2007) winner Tim Hetherington, who was killed in Libya, also is on display.
