DNA Column – the Ordeal doesn’t end with Molestation

 Articles, Gender Issues, India, Media, News, Society  9 Responses »
Jul 232012
 

My column in today’s DNA

 

On a slow news day, a girl in Guwahati got molested by a gang of men, who saw nothing wrong in groping, pinching, punching, stripping, feeling up and mauling the victim. In fact, they seemed to take great pleasure in it. A news camera crew captured the act in full gory detail; every nuance of the violence perpetuated on the victim was captured as was every hand movement, every expression; as was the pride and joy shown by the molesters in hearing the helpless girl cry for help. The mob action seemed like a rite of passage – something that got the molesters their official entry into the club of Machismo. They had done it – succeeded in stripping a girl of all her dignity, in public space; in front of cameras and a gawking public. Without censure. Without being stopped. It finally ended half an hour after it started when the police rescued the victim. But, the ordeal did not end with the molestation. The news channel decided to air the tape without masking her face. The footage was uploaded to YouTube and went viral. Mainstream media that had completely ignored theAssamfloods for being unworthy of national airtime went to town with the story.

 

A study conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, said that amongst the G20 nations, India, was the hardest country for a woman to live in; worse than Saudi Arabia. In the Danger Poll, also conducted by the same foundation, Indiawas the 4th most dangerous place in the world to be a woman. The first three on that list wereAfghanistan,Somalia andPakistan.India lags behind on every count that matters. It starts with birth. Rather, it starts by terminating birth. The Poll estimated that there are 50 million girls missing because of female foeticide. A 100 million women and girls are trafficked. 44.5% of all women are married off before the age of 18 – it means education comes to a grinding halt, dreams of economic independence remain unfulfilled, and lifelong servitude in a feudal set up beckons. The woman neither knows nor understands rights that she has as an independent citizen of the country. She is relegated to being part of a traditional society – which may have its’ own charms- but has never been woman friendly.

 

Public molestation of a woman is not new. It is to teach her and the men in her family a lesson. ‘Look I am doing this to you and yours – and you are powerless to stop me’. We have grown up hearing about Draupadi and her ordeal. Lost in a game of dice by her husband, dragged out of her chambers by her brother-in law, Dushasan , propositioned in an open court by another brother-in-law Duryodhan, she is told to take off her clothes. When she refuses the ‘vastraharan’ begins. An entire court of ‘Noble’ men stand by and do nothing while a woman is being stripped.. Draupadi was the daughter of a king, wife of another and mother to future kings, dressed modestly and visiting her in-laws. Theoretically it can’t get safer than this, yet none of this prevents her ordeal. It literally takes a deus ex machina to save her. But the story doesn’t end there. Draupadi vows not to tie her hair until it has been washed in the blood of Dushasan. Bhima swears to kill every single Kaurav prince to avenge the assault on Draupadi, to tear open Dushashan’s chest and drink his blood, and to break the thigh of Duryodhan who asked Draupadi to sit on his lap. It takes around fourteen years to fulfil all the vows – but fulfilled they are. Retribution for that act of molestation is bloody, brutal and complete.

 

In a modern world breaking thighs & tearing chests is not allowed nor is personal retribution. So what is the punishment for ‘molestation’? Two years. The men will spend a maximum of two years in prison and probably make bail after a year. The victim on the other hand has been handed a life sentence. What we saw in Guwahati is not new – it is a story mirrored in various cities, towns and villages. It may not happen in front of news cameras but it does happen. And, it happens for only one reason – the perpetuators know they can get away with it .That needs to stop. There needs to be smarter and better policing – surveillance cameras, more manpower on the streets, linked databases.  There need to be time bound trials. Finally, where there is crime, there had better be punishment. Hard jail time. Biting monetary fines. Make the punishment hurt.  Else arm every woman in India with a gun and teach her how to use it.

Geography is not Politics …

 And Finally ..., India, Media, News  4 Responses »
Jul 222012
 

There is no rioting in the NE , The riots are in part of one district Kokrajhar , Assam.

The North East is 7 continuous states in the North East of India + Sikkim.

 

You would expect news media (even group blogs) to get basics right.  I hope they change the head line.

I also hope that someone responsible - and i hope that firstpost.com  has someone responsible in charge – spanks whoever put out that headline.

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A long time ago, when I was studying for my Masters at City, my group was in a Seminar on International Relations. The lecturer was talking about post the post colonial Britain, and said something about Afro Caribbean people. a classmate of mine (from Barbados) drawled from the back seat – “pardon me Peter, what is Afro Caribbean – we are either African or Caribbean and there is an ocean  between us. Unless you want to lump all blacks (her word not mine) together”. That class ended in chaos.

Editors in India have to erase the word North East from their lexicon. the states have nothing in common but geography. And, Geography means a rats ass in this word. Continuous use of that word to   represents ignorance, bigotry and deep rooted callousness.

Must Watch – Brokering News

 India, Media, News, Print, propaganda, Society, TV  9 Responses »
Mar 042012
 

Brokering News

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9dKQ4IB2hY&w=420&h=315]

Brokering News is a documentary on the Paid News in India. The phenomenon has spread far and wide and permeates every aspect of news in India.

For most of us working in the media, the story of paid news is not new. When i was with a leading entertainment group, the anger against journalism as a profession and specific journalists or news companies, inside the company was huge. “chor hain woh log’ was a term i heard many times, especially when it came to the time when business results had to be published.  This is despite the fact that the company i worked for owned a news channel. But, in board rooms and office meetings we were told to be nice to journalists, to humour them and give them the ‘bhaav’ and treat them with kid gloves.

When we made our film Jhing Chik Jhing, and then were ready for publicity – we were told very clearly pay or there will be none. It is not called paid news. it is called a marketing tie up :D While you can argue that publicity for a film should be paid for, after all you are making profits out of the film … however, if you go to watch a film based on the reviews (which are part of the marketing package) then are you incurring a loss if it is a bad film ?  the same logic applies  when it comes to covering Politics or Business. The job of journalism is not to encourage or cover up for politicians on the take – it is to expose them. Similarly the function of journalism is not to cover up business wrong doings. For example, do you remember what happened with the ground water pollution in Kerala caused by Coke ? or do you know why the Metro in Mumbai has been delayed for so long – or indeed who is building it ?

Umesh Agarwal’s documentary looks at all these areas – be it film marketing, or sanitizing politicians or covering up business wrong doing. It further looks at the issue of who owns the media. the answer is that the same people own different news channels and papers and are also amongst the largest advertisers. The film looks at the main paid news cases of the last 5 years – be it the reporting on the Ambani brothers or the involvement of leading journalists – Prabhu Chawla, Vir Sanghvi & Barkha Dutt – with Nira Radia. The journalists claimed that they were cultivating an important source, but the fact remains that the incident eroded the credibility of not just the journalists but the profession at large.

A few years ago i stopped watching and reading the bulk of main stream media, and get my news from Government controlled agencies such as PTI, UNI, DD and AIR. For, if I am going to read biased news, i might as well know whose bias it is and compensate for it. I wouldn’t mind paid news, if i knew who was paying for it and how the bias manifests it self.

Do spend an hour to understand how the majority of those in the news business function. it is more business and less news. Don’t believe most things you see or read – it will lead to tremendous disappointment and disillusionment. There is a line that S.Y. Quraishi., the CEC, uses in the documentary “the fourth estate should not become the 5th column.’  Corruption – and the term paid news is a euphemism for corruption – corrodes a system from the inside.

The documentary raises important points. However, like most desi documentaries it tends to bludgeon you with its view rather than allow for any subtlety of any sort. I wish that it had featured views from honest editors and hones member from the journalistic fraternity . Also, the one thing i would like to see Indian docus do, as i would Indian films, is understand and appreciate the value of silence. there is no need to cram every second with sound … Having said all this , the film is a worth while excessive. Its an hour well spent in understanding who shapes your views and why . Umesh Agarwal needs to be congratulated to have the courage to go up against some powerful people .

Is asking for Taxes an assault on the Freedom of Expression ?

 India, Media, News, propaganda, Society  4 Responses »
Dec 082011
 

Dear Economic Times

You are, allegedly, a ‘respected business newspaper’. So, i am kind of surprised, though I shouldn’t be considering your parentage, that you didn’t know – that transfer pricing is a shady practise that is considered illegal attracts penalties in most parts of the world. Including the world that you aspire to belong (the gora world). Why is it illegal, because it is a method of tax avoidance that deprives economies of tax revenues.

What is Transfer Pricing – this is for the journalist who obviously is clueless about the term, as is the editor (does your paper still hire them?) who let the article pass. Transfer Pricing is:

The price that is assumed to have been charged by one part of a company for products and services it provides to another part of the same company, in order to calculate each division’s profit and loss separately.

The largest accounting firms in the world have entire departments that help transnational corporations – companies that operate out of multiple countries and tax regimes – sanitize transfer pricing. What does Transfer Pricing do? it

shift profits to low tax jurisdictions and avoid taxes in countries where corporations have substantial trading operations.

So, if the IT department sent a notice to Google, it may not be one grand conspiracy to curtail free speech, but a tax order.

For the assessment year 2008-09, the order says Google India has admitted revenue of only Rs 7.49 crore instead of showing the “correct revenue of Rs 167.32 crore”.

Besides, no tax was deducted at source against the amount credited to Google Ireland. Based on the tax on the ‘gross income’ and TDS, the department has made a claim of Rs 74 crore for the year.

There is a serious amount of difference between the tax paid on 7.49 crores and 167.32 crores.

While the opening paragraph is nice, juicy and sensational – and possibly will translate to screen well with the soundtrack of jackboots, it is possibly erroneous

Around the same time Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal was planning to pull up Google, the Income-Tax Department was giving the final touches to a tax demand on the Indian arm of the global search engine company.’

The second paragraph sheds light on the picture better,

Google India Pvt Ltd, according to the tax office, has not offered its entire income for taxation and the profit and loss account filed by the company “does not give complete picture of the businesses”.

The department has questioned Google India’s practice of paying tax on its ‘net’ income from advertisements, after crediting a sizeable amount as distribution fees to Google Ireland. Google India runs the ‘Adwords’ programme whereby advertisements that appear on its website are sold in India to Indian business establishments.

Companies, and people, pay taxes. Whether they like it or not. I don’t – either as an individual or a company relish the idea of paying taxes. But, I do. there is legal avoidance, and there is borderline evasion – it would be nice if facts are  before articles are published.

It is nice to see the Government as the Big Bad Wolf – and it possibly is. But, in this case, it is highly likely that it is not censorship but genuinely tax avoidance.

If the ET argued against the principle of tax in general, or why transfer pricing is a good business practise, I would be impressed, but this is just shoddy, biased and inaccurate  reporting (reportage is not supposed to be biased. that is the role of op-eds and columns – just a reminder).

————-

btw – just a question. was that paid news, or was it erroneous because no one knew better ?

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declaration – i don’t normally read the ET. But, saw a whole bunch of otherwise rational people go into a hand wringing mode on the tax order. I hate paying taxes too, can i claim that since i oppose Governmental stupidity, i should be exempt from my tax liability ?

Quo Vadis Team Anna ?

 Articles, India, Media, News, Politics, Society  7 Responses »
Nov 012011
 

This appeared in the DNA as what next for team Anna ..a team that seems to be drowning under the weight of its own publicity ..

 

The last fortnight has been an interesting time for Team Anna. A series of incidents has severely dented the image of the rainbow alliance, and caused confusion, consternation and a crisis of confidence amongst its core support base.

First off the mark, there was Prashant Bhushan with his utterances on a referendum in Kashmir to sort out the issue of self-determination. While we may argue that in a civilised, democratic republic, one has the right to both free speech and self-determination that argument is, in this context, academic. What is real is the fact that a large portion of Team Anna’s support base was from individual citizens who are on the right of the political spectrum. These were people, who turned up in large numbers at the Ram Lila grounds as volunteers and supporters . In advocating the plebiscite, Prashant Bhushan crossed a lakshman rekha by questioning the territorial integrity of India and betrayed a large chunk of the support base of the anti corruption movement. Anna Hazare himself spoke out against Prashant Bhushan’s statement, but by then the damage was done.

The Constituent Assembly that drafted the Indian Constitution, while enshrining our rights, duties and freedoms, left out key methods of Direct Democracy, namely, Referendum, Plebiscite and Right to Recall. Perhaps they felt it would be impractical as well as divisive in a large, diverse nation such as India with many interest groups. Team Anna, either deliberately or in ignorance, has let the genie of referendum out of the bottle. You would expect a team made up of former civil servants and practicing lawyers to know that no referendum is possible in India, under the Constitution.  However, in setting themselves up above all other systems, they in their collective hubris have set a potentially explosive precedent.  If people have the right to vote for and demand a Jan Lok Pal directly, surely they have the right to vote and demand other things, such as independent states like Telengana or Vidarbha or even independent nations.  Prashant Bhushan maybe persona non grata with the rest of Team Anna, but he just took the philosophy of ‘referendum’ one step further.

No sooner had Prashant Bhushan become yesterday’s news, than  came the revelation that Kiran Bedi had been over invoicing various NGO’s that had invited her to participate in their programmes. She would travel economy class but charge business class to the concerned NGO. While it isn’t illegal, it is definitely in the unethical space. If you worked for a company and overcharged on travel, and they found out, you would be, most likely, be asked to go. It would be perceived that you had integrity issues. Ms. Bedi, of course, vigorously defended her actions. Her claims that the money ‘saved’ by her travelling economy and charging business class ‘went to her NGO’ sounded like the defense of a politician. Most political parties in India have political machinery. They have volunteers and workers at the ground level who work with local communities. These volunteers and workers ‘do good’ for their constituency, be it helping people acquire ration cards, get children admission, or helping people find jobs. It is alleged that parties use the money made from ‘kickbacks’ to fund these ‘good works’.   Now, isn’t the point of an anti-corruption movement to prevent leakages, no matter how laudable the end use?

Finally, there is Arvind Kejriwal. Mr. Kejriwal is not only accused of not paying back dues worth 9.27 lakh to his former employer, the Indian Revenue  Service, but also depositing cash collected by India Against Corruption into the Public Cause Research Foundation (PCRF), a private trust run by him. Mr. Kejriwal justified this by saying that the IAC cannot open a bank account because it is a movement not an organisation. While that may be true, people donated to IAC not to PCRF. Transparency, that is so required in public life to ensure a corruption free society, was sorely absent when it came to Mr.Kejriwal’s own dealings.

 

While Team Anna has been blaming the government for muck raking, the fact remains if there is no muck, it cannot be raked. Also, if you are going to abuse, revile and cast aspersions on people, they are going to return the favour.  It is human nature. Team Anna has hopefully realized what politicians have known for a long time. It is a bit difficult to take the moral high ground when you are sinking in the quicksand of ambiguous morality. Therefore it is best not to get sanctimonious, self righteous and personal.  Maybe it is time that corruption gets looked at as a systemic issue with systemic solutions rather than the magic wand of Jan Lok Pal proposed by Team Anna.

 

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