(The following post contains some essential Hindi translation help from my colleagues Arnika Thakur, Suraj Balakrishnan and Havovi Cooper. Any remaining errors or lack of precision are my fault as I reviewed and participated in all translations. Additionally, any opinions here are those of the author, and not necessarily those of Thomson Reuters Corp.)

From the desk of Rajdeep Sardesai, editor in chief of Indian news network IBN Live (I stitched these sentences together from his Twitter account):

My timeline suggests little space for healthy debate/discussion on twitter. So will no longer raise any political issues on the medium. Will continue writing/talking on issues of natl interest in print/tv, but not on twitter. Will continue to write in print/speak on tv. But will no longer seek twitter as a medium for public debate. Had hoped to interact; failed. A journalist has only his integrity/credibility. That has been abused on this medium for too long by unknown people. Time to switch off.

Or: I’ve had it with you awful people. You are intolerable and I don’t have to tolerate your abuse.

Indeed.

I can’t determine whether Sardesai plans to leave Twitter or whether he is going to save just his political coverage and thoughts for the papers and for television. I also don’t know which comments or which Twitter users led him to this decision, though I have asked him these questions.

Some people encouraged Sardesai to focus on the positive:

@samarmumbaikhan: don’t let a few bigots and narrow minded people turn u away from twitter … That would be sad and a victory for them

@PawanDurani What happened so suddenly ? In amedium where we all can exchange on level field , quitting would be unfair to readers.

@GappistanRadio Kya sir, aap fir jazbaati ho rahe hain.. [you're being emotional again]. Few abuse but many try to interact in a civil manner as well.. Aap date raho.. [keep going!]

Some people were less charitable:

@YearOfRat Because no 1 likes a feedback… sirji, you rarely interacted with anyone here. You treated twitter like a 1 way street. There was no public debate, ever.

@Themangofellow Rajdeep Sardesai quits twitter owing to lack of healthy debate.. Thats like asking Sambar with Pasta

@rekharamaswamy So “Rajbeep” Sardesai is quitting twitter. Well doesnt make a difference to me because he blocked me for asking some sharp questions of him

@VarunPrakash31 Sardesai is a very very coward person he has no face bcoz he has no soul his soul is sold to Congress. Block me is not a solution i find u

Then there was this conversation, which includes Indianomix co-author and my Twitter friend Rupa:

‏@RupaSubramanya while I respect @sardesairajdeep decsn to leave Twitter,imo by doing so he’s conceding space to those who abuse.Bad precedent

Ravinder Sabarwal ‏@_wellnz: True! expected him as a senior journalist to fight back and set things right.

Let’s give that a second thought. One of Twitter’s strengths is that it allows journalists and their fans and detractors to talk, spar, debate, discuss, interact. It’s a lovely idea because it elevates the reader and it allows journalists to show people that they’re in the same universe as their readers. That’s the ideal. The reality is that many people are rude, abusive, simplistic, conspiratorial, suspicious and paranoid. Most of us are not as smart as we think we are, and many of us don’t know when to end the discussion. If comment sections of many news websites are cesspools of the worst of human nature, Twitter is the two-way radio version. Most journalists today understand that they should be on Twitter, if for no other reason than because it’s such an important part of news delivery.

What most people don’t understand, however, is that being on Twitter is not a licence to abuse those journalists — or anyone else — with impunity. If every visit to Twitter results in unsophisticated, nasty, shabby treatment at the hands of hundreds or thousands of foul-mouthed people, why would anyone stick around for that? Sardesai gave it a try. Regardless of any real or perceived failings or shortcomings on Sardesai’s part, he is not obligated to put up with abuse. It’s unfortunate for the rest of us, but for that, people should blame their fellow Twitter users, not Sardesai.

Shiv Aroor’s dispatch on Twitter says it all. Other people in India tonight are echoing the theme: people racing through their day in modern India, too busy or too wary to get involved when they see people in distress. In this case, a truck struck a family of four riding on a motorcycle in Jaipur on Monday, killing a woman and her eight-month-old daughter. The woman’s husband and son escaped. The family was riding the motorcycle through the Ghat Ki Guni tunnel on Sunday afternoon when the truck struck them, according to the Hindustan Times and other Indian news organisations.

Here is more from the HT:

CCTV footages showed that the woman’s husband and his four-year-old son beseeched passers-by for help for almost 10 minutes. However, no one stopped to help them, police said. The survivor, Kanhaiyalal Raigher, tried to call relatives from his mobile, but failed as there was no network connectivity in the tunnel. Raigher, a resident of a village on the outskirts of Jaipur, was on his way to his in-laws’ house with his wife Guddi Devi, 26, daughter Arushi and son Tanish.”

Police told media organisations that two-wheelers are not allowed in the tunnel, but that people drive them there anyway to save time.

Raigher and his son waited an hour for help before a man on a motorcycle rode ahead to tell toll booth operators about the accident, according to NDTV. The network added more details and comment about what one group said was lax behaviour on the part of authorities watching the road via closed-circuit TV:

The driver of the truck that hit the two-wheeler is absconding, the police said. They got the truck’s registration number from the camera footage and later found the truck, they said.

The National Commission for Women (NCW) has alleged that the man’s wife could have been saved if people in a control room manning the close circuit television cameras or CCTVs fitted inside the tunnel had called the police on time. “People in the CCTV control room didn’t inform the police… There was a delay of one and a half hours… If she had been given medical attention on time she would have been saved,” NCW chairperson Mamta Sharma said.

CNN-IBN quoted a worker at the toll booth who said that he tried to help the family:

A young man who works at the Ghati Ki Guni tunnel traffic control booth and was the first one to come forward to help the Jaipur family that lost two members in a road accident on Sunday, blamed public apathy for the delay in help. “The accident happened at 2.13 pm. I saw the CCTV footage and rushed to help the family. But nobody on the road came forward to help. People just drove by without stopping. I called the PCR and they reached within 7 minutes. They were very helpful. If the people had stopped to help, the situation would have been much better,” Ranjit Kumar said.

When asked why the two-wheeler was allowed entry in the tunnel despite a ban, Kumar said they would not be able to handle the public anger. “The company cannot stop two wheelers from using the tunnel. There will be a lot of public anger which the company cannot tackle. We are taking police’s help in controlling traffic.”

Though I have not read this anywhere yet, the incident reminds me of a similar round of soul searching that flared up in China in 2011. As the BBC reported in October 2012, a driver received a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence for striking a two-year-old girl on a busy road and leaving the accident scene. The girl died.

Accidents like these underscore a perception of widespread callousness in both countries. More people in India and China want a piece of the prosperity that two decades of economic liberalisation have wrought. Along with that has come a perception that human decency has moved in inverse proportion as more people hustle for their share (There is plenty of evidence to support the notion that this is a human problem, not a China-India problem). The Jaipur incident also comes after the December gang rape that shocked India and the world and sparked protests among thousands of people in India who protested what they saw as a shocking and unacceptable level of human cruelty and an attitude toward women that is inexcusable.

It would be hard to prove that people in India and China have become harder, crueler or more immune to the suffering of others because of a new-found drive toward capitalist-style success, or that they somehow outrank other nations in apathy toward their fellow human beings. Nevertheless, this attitude exists, and it’s getting a lot of attention, at least for today. India’s roads are notoriously dangerous, and families routinely pile four or five people onto motorcycles and jockey for space on the road with trucks driven with abandon. Every drive I’ve ever taken in India has included a moment when I hand over my fate to the gods and hope for the best. The Jaipur accident challenges people to respond to suffering with mercy and empathy, not with fatalism. Whether people will meet that challenge is anyone’s guess.

(Traffic moves along a busy road in New Delhi, Jan. 11, 2011. Reuters photo: B Mathur)

(This commentary reflects the thoughts of the author. It does not reflect anyone else’s opinion, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Thomson Reuters Corp.)

I’ve encountered some interesting descriptions in the press of India’s political leaders. My favorite is “supremo,” which I’ve heard comes from British English. “Honcho” and “strongman” are common too. The one that catches my attention, primarily because I disapprove of it, is “poster boy.”

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was today’s poster boy, according to the Times of India print edition (I also see the article here). I’ve seen many more examples in recent weeks and months. Perhaps that’s understandable. Wherever you live, you will read a lot more about Modi in the next year because many people say that he will be the Bharatiya Janata Party’s selection for prime minister. As the most likely chief rival to the Gandhi family dynasty and its scion Rahul, Modi has captured the nation’s attention in a way that few other politicians have.

Why call him a poster boy? The term comes from the United States, where people used it to describe children with diseases who appeared on posters or other literature meant to get people to donate time or money to efforts to fight the disease. Its meaning evolved to describe people who are emblematic of any number of causes or movements. I suppose that this describes Modi. He is the face of opposition to the Congress Party. He is the most recognizable BJP politician. He articulates economic policies and says things that appeal to enough of India’s voting population that it might just put him into power next year.

But… “poster boy?” When I was in college and my friends and I spent our time mocking everything that we could, “poster boy” or “poster girl” was a term that we threw around like an insult. “Oh, him? He’s the poster boy for Deadheads.” That sort of thing. It reeks of sarcasm in the land where the term was born. Maybe over here, it doesn’t. Maybe few people even know what it means. Regardless, wouldn’t you prefer a more conservative approach to news writing? We could call him the chief minister of Gujarat. We could call him possible prime minister candidate. But calling him the BJP’s “poster boy” when he’s a 62-year-old politician feels just the slightest bit on the wrong side of right.

I understand that news editors sometimes like to jazz up their copy to keep the kids reading and to sound cool and so on. That’s where you get the strongmen, the honchos and the poster boys. But think about how well you can apply that term to others. Imagine the Times of India writing about Mahatma Gandhi as “the poster boy of Indian independence and non-violent resistance.” Or, “Guru Dutt, the poster boy of self-pitying, suicidal alcoholic movie directors.” You could, given the chance, but why would you?

(Reuters photo: Modi speaks during the 29th annual session of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Ladies Organisation in New Delhi April 8, 2013. Photo: Adnan Abidi)

India needs to implement existing laws, not introduce tougher punishment such as the death penalty, to prevent rape, a government panel set up to review legislation said on Wednesday, following a brutal gang rape that shook the nation. Panel head, justice J.S. Verma, rejected outright the idea of the death penalty for rape cases, a demand from some protesters and politicians in the days after the 23-year-old physiotherapy student was attacked on a moving bus.

There’s lots more to examine in the report, which was commissioned after the gang rape and death of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi aboard a moving bus. I’ll try to highlight on this blog in coming days. The committee cited plenty of case law in its report, and it came across one opinion that it said “seems to have stereotyped Indian and Western women in a somewhat unorthodox way.” That’s putting it kindly. Here is an excerpt that highlights a decidedly retrograde view toward women — particularly in the West. It’s from a 1983 Supreme Court case,  Bharvada Gohinbhai Hirjibhai v. State of Gujarat, in which a civil servant appealed his conviction of the rape of a 10-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl.

The court spends time discussing the nature of corroborating a rape victim’s account of what happened as a means to strengthen the case against the accused rapist. Here is what the presiding judge wrote regarding the concept of corroboration and women. It’s a long excerpt, but undoubtedly enlightening. I wonder how much the general view has changed in 30 years. I’ll have to rely on you to answer the question… (underlining is mine)

In the Indian setting, refusal to act on the testimony of a victim of sexual assault in the absence of corroboration as a rule, is adding insult to injury. Why should the evidence of the girl or the woman who complains of rape or sexual molestation be viewed with the aid of spectacles fitted with lenses tinged with doubt, disbelief or suspicion? To do so is to justify the charge of male chauvinism in a male dominated society. We must analyze the argument in support of the need for corroboration and subject it to relentless and remorseless cross-examination. And we must do so with a logical, and not an opiniated [sic], eye in the light of probabilities with our feet firmly planted on the soil of India and with our eyes focussed on the Indian horizon.
We must not be swept off the feet by the approach made in the Western World which has its own social milieu, its own social mores, its own permissive values, and its own code of life. Corroboration may be considered essential to establish a sexual offence in the backdrop of the social ecology of the Western World. It is wholly unnecessary to import the said concept on a turn-key basis and to transplate [sic] it on the Indian soil regardless of the altogether different atmosphere, attitudes, mores, responses of the Indian Society, and its profile. The identities of the two worlds are different. The solution of problems cannot therefore be identical. It is conceivable in the Western Society that a female may level false accusation as regards sexual molestation against a male for several reasons such as:
(1) The female may be a ‘gold digger’ and may well have an economic motive to extract money by
holding out the gun of prosecution or public exposure.
(2) She may be suffering from psychological neurosis and may seek an escape from the neurotic prison by phantasizing or imagining a situation where she is desired, wanted, and chased by males.
(3) She may want to wreak vengeance on the male for real or imaginary wrongs. She may have a grudge against a particular male, or males in general, and may have the design to square the account.
(4) She may have been induced to do so in consideration of economic rewards, by a person interested in placing the accused in a compromising or embarrassing position, on account of personal or political vendetta.
(5) She may do so to gain notoriety or publicity or to appease her own ego or to satisfy her feeling of self-importance in the context of her inferiority complex.
(6) She may do so on account of jealousy.
(7) She may do so to win sympathy of others.
(8) She may do so upon being repulsed. [ie, rejected]
10. By and large these factors are not relevant to India, and the Indian conditions. Without the fear of making too wide a statement, or of overstating the case, it can be said that rarely will a girl or a woman in India make false allegations of sexual assualt [sic] on account of any such factor as has been just enlisted. The statement is generally true in the context of the urban as also rural Society. It is also by and large true in the context of the sophisticated, not so sophisticated, and unsophisticated society. Only very rarely can one conceivably come across an exception or two and that too possibly from amongst the urban elites. Because:
(1) A girl or a woman in the tradition bound non-permissive Society of India would be extremely reluctant even to admit that any incident which is likely to reflect on her chastity had ever occurred.
(2) She would be conscious of the danger of being ostracised by the Society or being looked down by the Society including by her own family members, relatives, friends and neighbours.
(3) She would have to brave the whole world.
(4) She would face the risk of losing the love and respect of her own husband and near relatives, and of her matrimonial home and happiness being shattered.
(5) If she is unmarried, she would apprehend that it would be difficult to secure an alliance. With a suitable match from a respectable or an acceptable family.
(6) It would almost inevitably and almost invariably result in mental torture and suffering to herself.
(7) The fear of being taunted by others will always haunt her.
(8) She would feel extremely embarrassed in relating the incident to others being over powered by a feeling of shame on account of the upbringing in a tradition bound society where by and large sex is taboo.
(9) The natural inclination would be to avoid giving publicity to the incident lest the family name and family honour is brought into controversy.
(10) The parents of an unmarried girl as also the husband and members of the husband’s family of a married woman would also more often than not, want to avoid publicity on account of the fear of social stigma on the family name and family honour.
(11) The fear of the victim herself being considered to be promiscuous or in some way responsible for the incident regardless of her innocence.
(12) The reluctance to face interrogation by the investigating agency, to face the court, to face the cross examination by Counsel for the culprit, and the risk of being disbelieved, acts as a deterrent”.

 (Richa Singh, 24, who works for an online travel portal, poses next to a mannequin at a market in New Delhi, Jan. 13, 2013. Reuters photographer Mansi Thapliyal took Singh’s picture for a photo series called “Voices of Indian Women,” published as part of Reuters’ coverage of the Delhi rape case.)

(Any career-destroying attempts at irony or humour are the responsibility of the author, and not of the chief ministers of Gujarat or West Bengal or any of their associates.)

Everybody’s talking about how Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has fostered fair weather for businesses and investors in his state. Maybe he’s making it too easy. In West Bengal, it looks like investors and business people must work a little harder for their returns. Take a look at that state’s chief minister, Mamata Banerjee. She isn’t just making business people and investors work for their profits; she’s making them sing.

From India Today:

An industrialist climbing the dais at an investors’ summit to sing a popular Rabindra Sangeet. The perhaps unseen scene was made possible on Tuesday courtesy West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee .

Impressed by Dhunseri Petrochem and Tea chairman C.K. Dhanuka’s ability to play the violin on an earlier occasion, Banerjee cajoled him to sing at the opening of the “Bengal Leads” summit organised in this industrial cum port town of East Midnapore district.

“Mr. Dhanuka please come up and sing us a song. Violin, violin,” she kept repeating as the seemingly embarrassed industrialist walked towards the stage. Banerjee then asked music company Saregama’s Sanjiv Goenka (chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group) to accompany Dhanuka.

Dhanuka began singing the evergreen hindi song “Ae Mere Pyare Watan” and later Rabindranath Tagore’s masterpiece “Jodi tor daak sune keu na ase tobe ekla cholo re” (If no one responds to your call, then go your own way alone) as Goenka, Banerjee and others present on the dais hummed along.

At Banerjee’s insistence, then everybody stood up to sing the national anthem that brought the programme to a close.

I’ve encountered countless books and films from many countries that portray cogs in the capitalist machine as being willing to take any risk, cut any corner and do anything that it takes in the name of profit, return and so on. Maybe Banerjee is on to something, then: “KBC” meets “Indian Idol.”

This might seem crass. It might even seem degrading, being made to dance like a monkey on a leash in front of a crowd. On the other hand, people tend to put up with lots of indignities to get rich. Surely there are worse ways to do it then than learning how to sing and play a musical instrument.

SUGGESTIONS ON MAKING DELHI/INDIA SAFE PLACE FOR WOMAN

WOMAN PROTECTION FORCE (WPF)

I am a Gurgaon resident and wanted to get in touch with you all for a project on WOMAN PROTECTION IN INDIA which I want to pursue
I have some ideas which i wanted to share with you and seek your opinion on how we can make Delhi a safe place for woman.

The area of concern of this project is to focus on areas on how we can prevent incidents like Rapes/molestation/stalking/eve teasing/ domestic violence .The concerns which are visible on news channel are focussing on what should be done after the incident has happened.

I want to propose a system which should be put in place only for woman and their empowerment.

The intended result of the system if implemented would be total security for all woman in India (rural area and urban areas included)
Points As follows:

1) WOMAN PROTECTION FORCE (WPF)
WPF would be a team of woman / young and bold girls who will be trained for defensive techniques and would be given certain tools which they can use at the time they catch the wrong doers. These tools are basically electric bars or rods (Tasers) which on click of button can make the other person unconscious or numb depending on thevoltage rating which is adjustable.
Taking Delhi as an example : Delhi can be divided into 4 areas- North, South, West, East. All these 4 areas need to be divided into sub areas. All sub areas need to be further divided into sub areas. Every sub-sub area would be guarded by the woman protection force. This team of extraordinary woman would be only dedicated only for the safety of woman in the areas allocated to them. This can be worked on a day shift and night shift basis as this duty has to be on 24 hrs and 7 days a week. They will have vehicles – bikes, jeeps, scooties, which will have a GPS locator to track the distress signal (Distress signal coming from a radio frequency chip) such as in mobile phones.
We can coordinate with Telecom providers to let the police hone into signals from which such distress calls are received for swift location and hence atleast be able to reach the scene of intended crime. More details on this “Chip” are below -

2) DISTRESS SIGNAL – RADIO FREQUENCY CHIP/DEVICE. Now, this device /chip would be part of clothing, accessory for every girl walking on the streets of Delhi at any point of time. This chip has to be modular and can fit with any kind of clothing or accessory. This kind of chip is used in Canada for the parents to track their children location. Its a part of the children’s uniform t-shirt collar.

Now, all of a sudden, if the girl/woman senses an attack , she can use that device to give a distress signal to the nearest woman protection force available for her help. Now, for her to give signal at the point of attack, she simply needs to press the button on the chip. Its like a lifeline. Now, even if she is on a moving bus or has been taken in a moving vehicle, her location can be tracked. If the vehicle is moving from one sub area to another sub area, the distress signal keeps getting low in one area and higher in the next area, where the vehicle is leading. The WPF of that area is on the move already as they have the information with them. In a matter of minutes, this vehicle can be caught and stopped and girl can be saved from a disaster.

3) ROAD BARRICADES FOR HALTING / TRAPPING RUNAWAY VEHICLES. Now, when the distress signal is helping us track the location of vehicle, then we can simply know where the road blocks can be made or activated for the vehicle to be stopped. Now, pushing the barricades manually onto the middle of that road on which the vehicle is moving is easier or having automatic pop up units installed at all signals can be really helpful. Which ever method is suitable, we can go in for that. Technology is ever growing and can be used for the betterment of the society.

4) WOMAN SELF DEFENSE PROGRAMMES. Organizing defense programmes for woman in all major localities of India (say Delhi for example) wherein lots of young girls and woman can spend 2-3 hrs and learn self defense techniques which will give them empowerment and they can be ready to face attacks , not only a the time of rape, but also if some wicked boys stalk her, or try eve teasing and molesting or even at the time of domestic violence. These programs will be organized by lady police officers.

5) POST ATTACK TRAUMA COUNSELLING. A dedicated team of doctors and trauma counselors would be put in place for making sure that the girl is ok after the kidnapping incident.

6) FAST TRACK COURTS FOR WRONG DOERS. When incident like these take place so swiftly, then creation of courts which can take swift decisions for the wrong doers does make sense at this point of time.

7) AWARENESS PROGRAMMES FOR “BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS WOMAN” & GENDER SENSITIZATION. Many types of awareness programmes can be organized on public places for a group of say 1000 people at a time by eminent speakers and leaders like Mrs. Kiran Bedi , Mrs. Mamta Sharma etc. These programmes would not only instill awareness, but also people would start feeling responsible for the safety of delhi as their own state and capital. A value added education to be started at school levels as a module for imparting education/awareness on behaviour towards woman. This would instill moral value in all students starting from the school level.

An awareness program for Woman’s rights can be organized in all rural and urban areas to let all Woman/girls know their rights. Making them aware about their rights is going to make a huge difference.

8) Informing concerned authorities about areas which are not well lit up and isolated.

9) Organizing a program for instigating the feeling of “ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE” in colleges/corporate offices and workplaces which will help girls/woman deal with the problem of eve teasing and stalking powerfully.

10) Organizing a march or a parade in the night in various areas in India (once every fortnight) for sending out a clear message that Woman Can Come Out at anytime in the night and Can wear any kind of cloths.

11) Introducing special type of accessories which woman can choose to wear. This type of accessories are something which can handy to the woman at the time of attack. These items are called anti rape devices. For eg: For woman who generally wear jeans/trousers, they can wear a code lock belt along with it . Code lock belts are belts which can be opened with the help of a 3-digit number lock (the ones which you get to see in travel luggages) this will ensure that at the time of attack the girl can buy some time for herself before Woman Protection Force comes and saves her. Many more such cost effective accessories can be made for woman to use.

12) Auto rikshaws run by Woman can be something which can ensure safety for Woman. These auto rikshaws can be available at all major corners of the cities, villages, towns for ensure safe pick and drop for ladies.

13) In public transport- buses, there can be a divider which ensures that woman can sit one one side of the divider and male citizens can sit on the other side of the divider. All buses can be equipped with SOS distress signal facility in case of any problems and that signal can be again traced by GPS system available with WPF vehicles and police vehicles, for them to easily track the vehicle and stop it with immediate effect.

Apart from the above mentioned points, there maybe so many other ideas which can make a big difference to the society. But, ideas which prevent rapes, domestic violence, eve teasing, molestation, stalking from happening in the nights, broad daylight need to be focussed as its the need of the hour . We need to reach out to take opinions of people, especially students, teachers, NGOs, involve TV channels, radio channels and spread this message all across the country.

The mind of a rapist has always remained like this and will continue to do so. People can be made aware, but cant be guaranteed to have transformed their thinking.

The above measures would ensure not changing anything in the present scenario, but only putting in place a system backed by technology. Some fine tuning maybe required to make this system practically feasible and it can prove to be a great success.

Re-instating that the main aim of such a system is to empower woman, give them access to being strong in the face of so much crime and keeping this system in place, one day is sure to come when there will be degree of equality b/w men and woman. Our society wont be addressed as a male dominated society.

I am willing to stand for , participate and do everything in my control to make empowerment present for all girls/woman in Delhi/NCR and India on the whole

Its my humble request to you to kindly give me some feedback on the draft proposal above so that we can put in place a system for making India a safe place for woman

Your support in the form of suggestions, opinions, volunteering for taking surveys in your respective residence, getting us in touch with the NGOs, decision making authorities will be really helpful

Lets work together and make India a safer place for Woman

BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD
Jai Hind

Delhi (Anoo Bhuyan):

Kolkata:

Delhi (Anuja Jaiman):

Bangalore:

You can see many more images related to this story from our Reuters photographers as well.

(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author, and not necessarily of Thomson Reuters)

The gang rape of a 23-year-old woman and the beating of her male friend on a moving bus in New Delhi Sunday night has produced debates about women’s rights in India and about whether the death penalty — or castration — are suitable remedies for the situation. It has not prompted, from what I can see, any speculation that the woman got what she deserved because she was dressed like a slut… until today.

For anyone who has missed the story, here’s what has happened so far, according to multiple media reports: the woman and her friend boarded the bus. They thought it was operating on a public route, but the driver and the men on board apparently were out for a joyride instead. They raped the woman, beat the pair with an iron rod, and threw them out of the bus and left them to die on the street. Police have arrested some of the men, politicians are in high dudgeon, and the woman is in the hospital. She suffered damage not only to her reproductive system, but to her intestines.

There is plenty of speculation about what it is about men’s attitude toward women in India, as well as women’s place in society there, that could produce a situation like this. One thing’s for sure, it’s not uncommon. And if you’re looking for the other view, rightly discredited in most countries, you can find it on Twitter. Many Indians reacted with horror and anger to these Tweets from @shivendraINDIA, who calls himself an assistant review officer in the Allahabad High Court (he is listed here with 342 others):

• @saritatanwar why that gal was enjoying with her boyfriend? is it indian culture?
• girl,who was raped in delhi, shud not have followed western culture
• @maheepkapoor. sorry but I think that delhi gals r too modern so that delhi is becoming rape capital

In other words (and this is only my interpretation), nice girls don’t go out at night with men and get on city buses. They also should not fall pray to the West with its skimpy clothing, loose morals, premarital sex or other choices that women are allowed to decide for themselves in most countries. India, with its stated goal of equality for everyone, is supposed to be one of those places. Though it’s not a revolutionary thought, there is no excuse for raping a woman or a man, and then beating them almost to death. “She deserved it,” “she’s a whore” and “she asked for it” are not plausible explanations. I don’t mean to sound preachy, which is how I might sound to many American readers. But in India, where women on the street are routinely groped and leered at, these ideas evidently remain in circulation.

I asked @shivendraINDIA, whose name apparently is Shivendra Singh, what he does in the Allahabad High Court. I also asked him about his views on the woman in this incident. I don’t know what an assistant review officer does. I also wonder whether the court handles rape cases. He has not responded to my public inquiries on Twitter.

What I have never been able to figure out is why the conservative disapproval of these women must transform itself into a desire to attack and conquer through violence, particularly sexual violence. More mysterious to me is the reaction of @shivendraINDIA to this woman. Consider his tweets to an account in the name of Canadian ex-porn actress Sunny Leone (who is of Indian origin):

• @SunnyLeone – hi, i m ur big fan n i m eager to meet with u. when r u visiting to india? plz do reply.
• @SunnyLeone – what an awesome body u got! u r really a most attractive porn star in the industry.i m ur big fan
• @SunnyLeone – where r u? i m waiting for ur reply, ur reply will be a pleasure movement for me

I’m sure.

(PS: an interaction with the bikini-clad Poonam Pandey takes a different turn…

“ur family does not object u for ur obscene appearenc?”

And when Pandey tweets: “I’m not really funny, I just earn my followers the old fashioned way: hand jobs,” Shivendra responds: @ipoonampandey hand job means?)

UPDATE: @ShivendraINDIA on Dec. 23 asked that I remove this post or at least remove his occupation and designation. “I never said that she deserved it. plz dont spoil the things. and plz remove that blog.” To be clear, the views that he wrote, as he said, are his personal views and not those of his position. He did not use the words “she deserved it.”

He and his band members then begin playing the piece called “Bangla Dhun.” At the end, the crowd cheers just as lustily as they did for the warmup.

That was 1971. Forty-one years later, and a day after Shankar’s death at the age of 92, I’m not sure that most of the western world is any more hip to the difference between tune-up and performance in Indian music than the people who filed into Madison Square Garden that August to hear the show. I wasn’t when I heard the album in the 1980s, and I am not now. (If that’s a tune-up, I’ll listen to tune-ups for hours)

People are remembering Shankar today as a maestro of Indian music, and as the man who tried to build a bridge between western and eastern styles of music, both performance and theory. He was a crossover success, in large part because the Beatles and George Harrison in particular fell for his sound at the height of their own popularity. At least dear George stuck with it after the pop music industry wrung all that it could from adding sitars and sarods to rock and roll, and the psychedelic revolution spent itself silly on sex and drugs.

Shankar’s legacy was not that he bridged unbridgeable gaps between different cultures through their musical traditions. His legacy was that he embedded Indian music in a larger western pop tradition, and that it lurks there today. Whether we understand it or appreciate it for what it is, I can’t say. I doubt it, however.

Many of us in the West are attracted to Indian classical or devotional music because it evokes the exotic, erotic East. It just has that kind of sound.  We use it in western music to add those flavors (I was going to write “spices,” but I concluded that you can go overboard sometimes), and composers going back more than 200 years have tried their hands at styles and scales that bring the exotic feeling to their music. I suppose the inverse picture of this would be an Indian person who goes totally wild for Gregorian chant for a few heady teenage years before returning to Clapton and Pink Floyd like the rest of us do.

The air was heavy with this accent at one time. Listen to Procol Harum, the Rolling Stones, Miles Davis, the Moody Blues, Steely Dan. Sitar, sitar and more sitar. And then it faded into the background, never losing that mysterious air. To someone who knows what it is all about and understands its rhythms and meters and other distinguishing features, I suspect that it must be more than “Indian music.” To most western ears, that’s all it is.

To understand and fully appreciate different kinds of Indian music requires a lot of concentration and study, so I’m told. I’m not one of the people who has tried. To me, it seems like more of an investment than learning to understand what makes a Mahler symphony work or why Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words can make you cry.

Shankar, from what I know about him, took a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – a serendipitous flirtation by the Beatles and the West with his music – and made something wonderful: he became the most famous Indian musician in the world, he made music in new and amazing styles, and he left the world two daughters who have given the world more beautiful music. Most importantly, he made many more people familiar with a kind of music that was completely unknown to them. Now it will be up to somebody else to make the rest of the world understand it — if the world really wants to.

(Reuters photo: Parth Sanyal)

We call those “man bites dog” headlines because they’re unusual, and that makes them news. Journalists are supposed to resist government attempts to control the way they do their jobs. If you make the government one of your minders, supervisors or shareholders, the argument goes, you compromise your journalists’ abilities to report on the government. If editors call for more regulation of themselves, no matter the country, this is the risk that they run.

Vinod Mehta, editorial chairman of the Outlook Group, which publishes Outlook magazine, was the editor quoted in the CNN-IBN article who said the press needs regulation. He said this in response to news that police arrested two Zee News editors after Congress Party parliamentarian and industrialist Naveen Jindal said they tried to extort money from him in return for not airing a negative story about his company.

“I think there is a very very serious need for external regulation. I think internal self regulation has failed and failed lamentably, at least television has your national broadcasters association. In the print media, we have absolutely nothing because all editors say that we don’t want external self regulation because we can do it ourselves. I’ve got a corrections page, I’ve got a clarifications page, and therefore, we don’t need it.”

It’s not surprising that Mehta would say this. Outlook cracked open a scandal in 2009 in which a bunch of Indian newspapers charged politicians for coverage packages, not just positive coverage, but any coverage at all. If that’s not a kind of crime already – some kind of bribery would be my guess, or reverse blackmail (we ignore you if you don’t pay us) – there’s probably a way to make it fit a crime already listed in the books.

So, why regulate? What would the regulations do? My colleague in Delhi, Aditya Kalra, wrote that the proper set of regulations would curb arrogance and bad behavior without restricting their freedom of speech or ability to report.

You can’t do one without the other. Establishing any government control over the press, however tenuous, means that politicians of varying beliefs, platforms, business relationships and attitudes toward the press can penalize journalists for infractions, or they can appoint people who will.

Look at the Press Council of India. Its chairman, former Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju (whose writing on language I admire ), says that the council recognizes no government influence. He also says, in the same essay, that three politicians appoint members of the council’s governing board. This council also has judicial power to decide cases that people bring against journalists for accusations of libel, defamation and more. That seems to constitute government regulation already, though one step removed from a bureaucrat’s desk.

Katju has been quoted at least twice in the past two weeks as saying that India’s press needs more regulation. He recently said, “There should be [a] reasonable amount of restriction on media freedom.” He also said that media freedom should be “crushed” under some circumstances.  (Katju’s comments are all over the map if you read them. He talked about media freedom versus responsibiltiy here, and defended the same press freedom he spoke of crushing here)

In fact, laws against extortion, bribery, blackmail and other illegal acts should apply to anyone who commits them. Why make a new set that applies to one profession, the one that, conveniently enough, tries to expose bad behavior among powerful people, if it’s doing its job properly?

What would the regulations that Katju and Vinod Mehta ask for look like? Who would enforce it? Under what legal power? What can journalists do? What can’t they do? Where do regulatory and enforcement powers end? Will journalists have to get a government-issued license? Will negative stories result in the suspension of licenses? These may be absurd questions now, but why open the door to that path?

Some of what motivates the antipathy toward journalists that would bring us to this stage is a sense that journalists and their editors – and their corporate managers – have it coming. Every Indian journalist I know has told me at least one story about watching their fellows use their press passes to score little, petty favors – cheaper beer at the bar, parking spaces reserved for VIPs – or use their positions to intimidate people into giving them what they want. You know the type: “You’d better give me X, or else I’ll ruin you with a negative story…”

Journalism, like most other professions, attracts its share of arrogant jerks. Some journalists are lazy, sycophantic, craven, robotic, vindictive, corrupt and dishonest. Some are guilty of nothing more than working for greedy, corrupt, pliable owners who use their editorial platform to highlight or ignore topics or people to suit their interests. Others care about the job they do and do it the best they can. Some tell you things that you need to know, and others can change people’s lives. Allowing governments, whether central or state or local, to have a role, however small, in regulating how journalists do their jobs is the first step toward making sure that journalists commit the worst possible offenses available to them: repeating, not reporting, and pulling punches when they should hit harder.