The Pink Chaddi wars (as the events of the past couple of days have been termed here at UD) caused a lot of traffic between the email inboxes of the Über bloggers. The arguments proved to be heated and since countering Runakka’s informed arguments proved be a hard task, one of UD’s alums had to be brought in. And Sakshi responded to give us her view of the argument.

It’s quirky. It’s pink. It’s in your face. It’s attention grabbing. It’s the Pink chaddi campaign, started to oppose the moral police in their new avatar – the Sri Ram Sene. The supporters of the Pink chaddi campaign are delighted, the campaign has grabbed attention of the urban youth and the media, making the whole thing a success by today’s standards.

I agree that the whole shebang has worked – the question is for whom? To me it seems, that the very people they are protesting against are getting the best deal out of this. A few weeks ago the Ram Sene were the infamous folks who beat up helpless girls in a Mangalore pub. The entire country was unanimous about despising these thugs. Now, they are famous for the Pink Chaddi campaign. Give it a few weeks more and the association will be permanent. White washing their rather heinous crime, and making them famous for the stupid folks who go about protesting Valentine Day.

More ever, the assumption with the likes of campaigns like Pink chaddi (yes there are others – like the Free hugs, the pub bharo) is that it paints the accused party in a bad light, shaming them. But politics is an occupation for people with rather thick skins. Rather than getting the focal point of the campaign, the Ram Sene chief Mr. Muthalik has brushed off the whole thing as crass and has offered
return gifts in lieu of sarees to all joining the culture war. A few months ago, no big media journalist would have given Muthalik and company more than a ten line attention. Now, I bet his press conferences are full, each word written and published. In Indian politics, like in the showbiz – any publicity is good publicity.

That is my problem with these glossy opposition to a serious issue. Such campaigns make for excellent TRP ratings but they take the main point of the issue out of focus. The real issue here is that as long as the activity is legal, men and women should be free to indulge. And that is the prime duty of the government – to assure the citizens safety and protecting their individual rights, no matter what Ram Sene says (as long as it is non violent).

The Pink Chaddi campaign does a disservice to those who want to fight for woman’s rights, to those who demand that each woman feel safe in the country. Pink chaddi campaigns just breed more inane blather and the talk is reduced to who is more right – those who are fighting the moral police or those who think the way to fight the moral police is morally wrong!!

In my opinion, it is more necessary to hold the state government to task about how they deal with the perpetrators of the Mangalore pub attack or to demand that the cops make the V day celebration safer (which the Banglore police is doing). Shift the attention from the likes of Ram Sene to what is the State’s responsibility. Muthalik and his hooligans are dime a dozen in India. They use the media to gain attention, shout neanderthal slogans and try to grab a small slice of the political power. They are and will be easily replaced. In fact, by making such a big deal about Muthalik, we have shown how simple is the path to become “cultural heros” to small minded goons. But ias long as it is known that the government will see to it that these hooligans stay well within the legal lines and no man/woman is harmed – we will be a successful and safe democracy. Get used to these cultural wars – they are here to stay for a long time.

If the supporters still want to send Pink chaddis – send it to the state government if they fail to protect all of us. Not Muthalik et al. The only thing they deserve is media silence. That is what will hurt them.

Looks like you are one of our regular visitors. Here is our RSS feed, just another way to keep up with the new posts.

My WTF moment of the day came reading this tidbit of news,

Lodging of FIRs at public kiosks may become a possibility with the Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) recommending “totally citizen friendly” registration of crimes. [Link]

A step taken to follow up on the National Police Commission’s observation that the cops were avoiding registration of complaints or FIRs. First Information Reports is the informant’s account of the crime committed and necessary to start criminal proceedings. There indeed needs to be a high level of transparency in filing FIRs but this Kiosk thing baffles me.

A country with a literacy rate of about 50-60% [source] is now opening up kiosks to lodge FIRs? So how is this going to work out? Assuming that this is just to cut down on the number of complaints the cops have to handle, still the question I am pondering over is – How the heck this thing work?
Swipe your credit card to enter your name like at the airport check in? Or type it in?
A touch screen that asks, Was a crime committed – Yes or No?
Was it committed against you – Yes or No?

Was the Crime choose all that apply – Rape, Theft, Domestic violence, robbery, robbery with intention to kill, fist fight, threatening… and so on and so forth for 5 screens
How does one give a detailed personal account of a crime on a kiosk?

I actually like their call centre idea – half the time the number will be engaged, when they do pick it up they will ask inane questions – was your car in a running condition when it was hijacked? and the accent will be Ameriki..

An Indian bride.

This story has me thinking about two things -
Will Indians ever embrace the pre-nup deal?
and more importantly, Will we ever leave the arranged marriage after aligning the astrological charts to the old, bygone era where it belongs?

“One leaves a lot to chance in finding a match. We have witnessed a few unpleasant shocks after marriages in our social circle.” Naik believes it is better to pay for a reliable medium before marriage, rather than to regret the marriage after “a big fat wedding”.

This qoute had me have my WTF moment of the day. I would have thought that most people have heard about the pre-nuptial contracts. And you can always have a small wedding

One can imagine why such a custom arose in the past. Most European societies have moved away from it. Even the inbreeding monarchies have let it go. So why do Indians who meet at least 100 other Indians insist on holding on this nonsensical custom?

In a free country should art be curtailed?

I ask this in response to Mumbai Police seizing M.F. Husain’s property. This was in response to his failure to turn up to hear the court proceedings. Charges against him – Obscenity Case filed against him by Arvind Srivastava in 2006.

Now this is not the 91 year old painter’s first transgression. He has been on the receiving end of the right wing fundie ire (and that of all them Hindutva-vadi folks) for painting Indian Gods and Goddess nude before. He recalled those painting and apologized.

Then he went and did “Bharatmata” , where he painted the country as a nude woman. (it is a depiction of a nude woman against a backdrop of the Ashoka Chakra with names of cities painted all over her). People objected. The painting was withdrawn from the auction it was to be sold in, Husain apologized again. That should have been the end of it. But a case was filed against him. Ho hum. This seems to have become an everyday event back home. The twist came when Husain failed to show up for the proceedings. His lawyer, Akhil Sibal claims that the first they came to hear of the case was through media. It is absurd how the courts have been quick to issue a non-bailable warrant against the painter and now proceeded to seize property. This case should have been thrown out of the court!

Read the rest of this entry »

Conceptual design for a Bollywood Theme park. Image courtesy: Saturn Projects.

So if you plan to go to India and are sadly stranded in Mumbai, what would you do? It’s the stuff a tourist’s nightmares are made of – I mean here’s a place that can only boast of a few dozen famous places and a vibrant night life. What can a soul can do for fun in this place? Fear not!! Your prayers are going to be answered in 2008. To increase tourism, the powers to be have decided to tap into what Desi’s worship next to Cricket. Bollywood. (no offense to the vibrant South Indian Film Industry)

As recently announced, Percept Holdings is going to put up the first Bollywood themed entertainment park. Costing about $100 mil, the park is going to have museums, Bollywood rides, sets, shoot visits and simulator experiences and Bollywood cafe.

Given the latest frenzy over a mere wedding, I can safely say that the theme park will be a hit. I mean ask any kid today, he or she is likely to quote all the lines from a latest AB/SRK/”who ever rules the biz” now but will be hard pressed to tell which Indian Physicist won the Nobel Prize. In the same vein, why would a tourist visiting Mumbai want to stroll down the Juhu Beach or take pictures of Gateway of India or just watch the every busy crowd moving around near VT, when they can catch a glimpse of AB or SRK’s sprawling home and may be *gasp* catch a glimpse of the stars!!

Read the rest of this entry »