Some love her. Some loathe her. Some admire her guts, while others cry out for her blood because of those very same guts.

Meet Nisha Susan, reputed journalist and reporter for Tehelka - my favorite Indian magazine for the past 3-4 years that addresses social issues directly at the core with no bullshit nonsensical crap.

But Nisha is more widely known in the recent months as founder of the popular “Pink Chaddi” campaign, which resulted in both a National and International wide response - over 5000 pink panties sent to Sri Ram Sene chief Muthalik on Valentine’s Day as a mark of protest against his goons mercilessly beating up women in WWE style so as to promote “Indian culture”.

A controversial campaign no doubt, which deeply divided the netizens into three main camps – those who endorse Nisha, those who endorse the SRS, and those who endorse neither. Hence with three different ideologies, the flame wars were quite interesting albeit detestable on many occasions.

So you can say it was one of those “I will definitely blog about this” moments when Nisha Susan herself suddenly calls you up in person and says she wants to meet you! Continue Reading »

Face the fact - the media has always had a sloppy side in reporting whats happening in the north-east. The Indian Media, simply fails to actively report any incident thats happening in the North-Eastern parts of our country. The only time it ever appears in the news is for some ULFA bomb attacks or if one of the so called ‘famous’ politicians makes a visit. Apart from that the Indian Media seems to have no reason what so ever to report on the incidents of the north-east.

So what exactly is the north-east. The North-East, as its commonly known across India, consists of the 7 states located at the north-east part of India, viz., Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura. Tough many people have heard about Assam in the news, the rest of the 7 ’sisters’, remain in a total negligence from the media. Partially blame it on the political leaders leading the country. Though they have the time and money to go to every other state in the country, they just cant make it to the north-east.

I have friends who hail from that region, and i admit that, if it wasnt for them, i would have never even realized about this. The media, just feeds us with all the rubbish things from a shoot-out in Delhi to the local political party’s march in Cochin. These things are hailed and showcased as things of national interest, but not the killing of a law abiding officer and how it subsequently put a population into crisis. I’m talking about the killing of Dr Kishan, who was brutally murdered.

The sad part is that, when i got a mail from a friend asking me to help him report this event, i googled for it. The top results for - “Dr Kishan murder” - didnt even reveal any of the top news sites. Here are a few links - Continue Reading »

Hey! What’s up? Haven’t seen you lately.

Yeah, I’ve been busy.

Busy with what? Work?

Yeah, work. But not the office work. I joined a cultural army and was busy protecting our culture.

Oh, you joined the Sene Sainiks? I heard you guys beat up some girls in a pub or something? Man, why would you do something like that??

We were actually protecting our women, silly! Did you know that Muslim boys lure away our girls and get them converted at Ponnani in Kerala? And it is not only our girls, but the Christian girls too. Christian girls man! Your tribe. Do you see the danger now? We gotta be together in this fight against Jehadi Romeos! Continue Reading »

Times of India Mumbai carried a front page story (Jan 4 2008) about the city’s police “advising” book stores to remove works by Pakistani authors fearing attacks from the right wing parties such as MNS. According to the report, the city police commissioner Hasan Gaffoor, rejected any such directive being issued. When the journalist Ananhta Mukherji persisted with the local police station from where the “advisory” was issued she was met with the “are you a Pakistani” slur:

Mumbai: A city book shop, the Oxford Bookstore, said it had been urged by the police to take Pakistan-authored books off its shelves. However, the policeman from the Marine Drive police station who visited the store said he had not advised anybody against stocking Pakistani literature, but had simply dropped in to “check that everything was all right.” When this reporter persisted and asked the policeman what the problem was with Pakistani books, he asked her whether she was Pakistani. He then added that it was important that people took precautions, so that crimes were not committed.

It’s not just the police who advised Oxford Bookstore against selling books by Pakistani authors. A store employee who belongs to Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) also urged Thakur not to display Pakistani books. When contacted by TOI, the employee demanded, “After the recent attack on Mumbai, why should we have any Pakistani material in our bookstore?’

It is not just Pakistanis who will not be tolerated by lumpen elements. Any voice or discourse that upsets the sensibilities of the Hindu right will be met with force, including those belonging to Indians. For an earlier Times of India report on cultural and academic censorship in the public sphere click here and read Shashi Tharoor’s opinion piece here on M.F. Hussain here.

Continue Reading »

[This article first appeared as the cover story (on regionalism) in the December edition of Mutiny print. Click here to subscribe to Mutiny.]

My home is in a small town in the middle part of Kerala and I work in Kerala’s capital city. There is a common perception that people in this southern capital city are arrogant and cannot be trusted. When I was about to move to this city, I was told by many people that “do not trust them, they always cheat” or “the women out there are so clever and cunning” etc. Even people who live in the other southern districts were of the same opinion when it came to the capital city. After I moved to the new place and started interacting with my colleagues, some of them had curious questions about the northern part too. Questions like, “I heard that in the northern part, women head families and men are like mere servants?” or “I have had bad experiences while I was in your town. Don’t take me wrong, but most of the people from the northern part are not trust worthy”. I couldn’t help myself but laugh at these questions and I told them that it is the same perception that exists in the northern part about people from south.

Continue Reading »

Kerala’s liquor policy is one of the most stupid and ineffective decisions of the previous government which is being continued to the date by the current government. According to the existing policy, bars and liquor shops would remain shut on the first of every month and on all government holidays. One of the reasons cited for this move was that the employees would spend a good portion of their monthly salary in the bars or for buying liquor from the shops on the first of every month. So the government thought this move would reduce the liquor consumption, but they were wrong.

In fact, the government statistics show that Malayalees’ liquor consumption has only increased ever since the policy put in place. The reasons are plenty. Not all drunkards are salaried people. There are so many people who work for daily wages who spend a good portion of their daily wages to buy liquor from the shops or from bar hotels. And for salaried sector, they buy and store liquor prior to the holidays (including Hartal days as Hartal is also a major holiday here in Kerala). So you can see big queues outside the liquor shops on 30th or 31st of every month. Well, that’s not all. Even on the 1st of every month and holidays, you will get liquor for some extra bucks. Some three star hotels sell liquor on these days through their backdoor. Only difference is that you will have to pay some extra than the usual shop rate. Some ‘wise men’ also store liquor in big quantities and sell them to their ‘regular customers’ on these Dry Days. So you only have to give them a call and get your bottle delivered, again, for some extra bucks.

So in effect, the government’s policy is only helping some private parties to make more money out of the Dry Days. This joke has got to stop and government should think about other ways to effectively implement the liquor policy.

(Image courtesy: Rediff.com)

After watching all the gunfires, blood, gore and fire in Mumbai through live TV streaming, I went to sleep today by 4 in the morning. By the time I woke up, more than 100 people were killed and 200 injured (reportedly, 125 people killed as of now including 14 policemen and left 327 injured). The financial capital of India was taken under control by a group of terrorists. The fight was and is on. More than 24 hours passed and our police and army is still fighting with terrorists.

The attack seems to be planned and executed well, and it doesn’t look like it is done all alone by a home-grown terrorist outfit. Seeing the kind of massive ammunition and logistics they have (remember, they are still fighting us even after 24 hours), there must be some strong support from outside. Could it be global terrorist outfits like Al-Qaeda? Or is it the terrorist outfits rooted in our neighborhood Pakistan (and possibly supported by home-grown terrorists here)? Nobody has the answer yet, but the interesting thing is that the Pakistan’s foreign minister is on a 4-day visit to India from yesterday. So the attack could also be seen as an attempt to worsen the relationship between India and Pakistan.

Then I saw our Prime Minister’s face in the channels and by the time he opened up his mouth to “talk tough on terrorism“, I changed the channel as I was not in a mood to hear comedy. If these terrorists could take control of an entire city and kill more than 100 people and still fighting with the army, what kind of security do this country offer to it’s citizens? In India, only politicians and bureaucrats are sacred and valued, not the ordinary people who get killed in such terror acts. Oh, on that note, let me add, I really had wished (I know it’s a cruel wish) that a couple of our politicians were killed in one of these terror attacks, because it seems that only then the government would wake up.

It was a horrible scene to watch the Taj burn. And it took some time for the firefighters to reach to the spot. I’m just wondering, do we have any aerial firefighting method or was that option not feasible at the time? We spend money on so many feel-good projects, how about making our lives secure and feel-good? Is our government going to listen?

On the other hand, there are people who use this chance to spit venom on certain communities. The first thing that a colleague friend said in the morning was “I told you, all Muslims are terrorists“. Such blatant generalizations would only help to worsen the situation and cause unnecessary tension at the wrong time. I asked him if any Muslim was spared from the attacks or if only members of a particular religious community were killed. Well, it is better to ignore such people, but you can’t help just watching them spread hatred at this crucial hour.

My heart goes out to those who have been killed and their families. My salutes to the brave men who fought against the terrorists and those who have been killed in the process - Anti Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar and additional commissioner Ashok Kamte. We can also not forget the service of the Firefighters, Police, Anti Terrorist Squad, National Security Guards, Army, the people who helped and still helping the helpers, those who are donating blood, those who are helping in every way they can. We should also appreciate the journalists, particularly the TV channels like NDTV and IBN covering all the events from several parts of the city, giving continued updates.

India is indeed incredible. And our government can perhaps change the tourism slogan to “Terrorist Devo Bhava“. You are welcome here fellow terrorists; please do come and bless us with your bullets.

(Image courtesy: nytimes.com)

It looks like justice is finally being done in the Sr. Abhaya murder case. After 16 years, the CBI has arrested and remanded two priests and a nun on Nov 18th and 19th. The CBI joint director Ashok Kumar said the arrests were made on strong evidence. It was evident from the news came out in May 2008 that the narco analysis points at Thomas Kottoor, Jose Poothrikkayil and Stephy as the culprits.

The arrest also renews my faith in our country’s judicial system. Reportedly, there were serious tampering of evidence right from the beginning of the case inquiry. The case was initially taken by Kerala Police and then moved to Crime Branch and finally to several teams of CBI. The Court intervened and severly criticized CBI and closely followed up the case. If not for the Kerala High Court and the latest CBI team, the case would have been lost forever and the arrests would never have been made.

One person to remember on this occassion is Mr. Varghese P Thomas, the retired DSP of CBI. In 1993, he called a press conference and announced his resignation from CBI, stating that his conscience did not permit him to comply with a strong directive given by his superior officer, V. Thyagarajan, the then Superintendent of CBI Cochin Unit. He had also mentioned that the political pressure came from various places including the then prime minister Narasimha Rao’s office. The action council convener Jomon Puthenpurackal later said in a press conference that former minister K M Mani was involved in the putting political pressure on the case.

But the most dissapointing statement comes from the Catholic church authorities. Instead of letting the court take its due course, the authorities are trying to defend the accused. The diocesan vigilance committee of the Knanaya Archeparchy of Kottayam has said that the arrest is ‘mysterious’. They also claimed that those who have been arrested are innocent! But it is not surprising as Kottoor was serving in the higher posts of the Church. But the Church is only going to put the entire community in shame. It is high time that the Catholic church members come out and voice against such authorities.

Related post: Let justice be done

It is very common that religion being used for all the wrong purposes when it could have helped to enhance the lives of weak and the oppressed. Most of the times it would be the priests or clerics from a religion who would be misinterpreting the Holy Books to sustain their own interests and misleading the others within the community. The latest controversy about a comment from the senior Muslim cleric Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musaliar on polygamy shows that this trend still continues. Kanthapuram reportedly have said this: A second wife is biologically justified. Women’s menstrual cycle prevents them from sexual contact for 5-6 days.

His statement came in the backdrop of a state law reforms commission has come out with a draft bill to check polygamy and divorce by Talaq. The bill seeks that ‘monogamy shall be the rule’ and that ‘marrying again during the lifetime of husband or wife is an offence.’

The proposed bill wants that “if any married Muslim, man or woman, marries again during the subsistence of the first marriage, the party who violates shall be guilty of bigamy under the IPC and punishable as such.”

Kanthapuram says that polygamy is sanctioned in Islam. But noted writer M N Karassery has reacted strongly against Kanthapuram’s statement. In an article in this week’s Mathrubhumi weekly, Karassery writes that Kanthapuram’s statement has come from those who see woman as a mere sex object. He has also mentioned that polygamy as allowed in Islam is not for the sexual pleasures of man. He cites from Quran:

[4:3] If you deem it best for the orphans, you may marry their mothers - you may marry two, three, or four. If you fear lest you become unfair, then you shall be content with only one, or with what you already have. [via]

Here the emphasis is on protecting the orphans, but the clerics like Kanthapuram interpret it wrongly. Jamaat-E-Islami has welcomed the proposed bill, but Sunni sect of which Kanthapuram is part of is objecting it strongly. The Mujahid sect has not reacted to the issue yet.

Kanthapuram’s statement helps only to leave a bad mark on the Kerala Muslims, the Sunni sect to be particular. It is high time that clerics like him think about it.

(Image courtesy: Kanthapuram.com)