Hug Me...Sanjay.....

And so it has happened. A government has proved that people very low down in the hierarchy are no better than bugs. Bugs who can be squished anytime, for as little reason as possible.

"A constable who hugged Dutt, convicted under the Arms Act in 1993 Mumbai blasts case, has been suspended while the eight others whose friendly gestures towards 'Munnabhai' of silver screen were seen in a live coverage by television channels all over, will be facing a departmental probe, jail superintendent Rajendra Dhamne said on Sunday (August 26). "

Imagine being a constable serving at a jail in Pune. Being overworked and underpaid for several years. Being constantly used as a personal servant by your superiors. Living a life of nothing, but sheer misery.

And then comes a moment you've always hoped for. Munnabhai himself lands up to serve time in the prison you work on. You are suddenly a happy man. For someone who has only dreamed about movie stars, seeing one in reality is a big thing in itself. Being close to one, is just an outrageous dream come true. You are happy. All your relatives know that the iconic film personality, the original "khalnayak" of bollywood is spending time in your proximity. Your wife boasts about it to the neighbors. You go to work every morning with a smile on your face, looking forward to a day where you'll get a close glance at Sanjay Dutt.

Life doesn't get any better. Sanjay is released on bail. And you, in a moment of sheer joy, hoping to share a moment with the man himself, steal a handshake or a hug. Being the nice man that he is, Sanjay acknowledges.

You are on seventh heaven. You have shaken hands with one of Indian Cinema's biggest star, made Munnabhai himself give you his Jadu Ki Jhappi. You world has come to a stop.

But wait, save the hyperbole. You are going to need it soon. The very next day, you are fired for the very moment of joy you had dreamed of. Now your world has come to a stop.

"However, questions are now being raised over the constable's suspension as Baba Siddique, the state minister for food and civil supplies who has been constantly spotted accompanying Dutt and seen hugging and shaking hands with the actor. Many are wondering if the same treatment will be meted out to the Minister. "

First, let me put out a question. Is hugging, or shaking hands with a criminal illegal? This question is easy to answer. Under the Indian Penal Code, it is not. The next question should be, should Police and law enforcement agencies shake hands with criminals?

Well, this almost sounds rhetorical to me. It is a well known fact that in India, Police very regularly shake hands with criminals. They do more than shaking hands with criminals. There have been instances when the Police have been blamed of accepting bribes and letting criminals go. Cops and robbers do make strange roommates, but then, who'll watch them.

Now enter the minister, who has landed the iron fist on the hand shaking cops. But isn't there a very old saying - People who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others. Criminals and ministers are regular bedfellows, and some ministers actually play both roles with aplomb. States of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are known for appointing certain ministers only if they have a few murder charges on their heads. So what's new about shaking hands with a criminal anyways?

Apparently, the particular politico in question was upset.

"Sources claim a very peeved Patil ordered an immediate inquiry after he saw visuals of of policemen rushing to greet Dutt at the Yerwada jail which he thought "sent a wrong message" about his force. "

Sending a wrong message? Please Mr. Minister, shaking hands with Sanjay Dutt hardly does that. And what is the right message that you are sending. That if you are a minister, you can shake hands with whoever you want. But if you are a constable, you cannot. That you are peeved when a poor constable gets a moment of limelight, but you do nothing when another minister in the same cabinet as you goes around doing the same?

You can squash the bug Mr. Minister, but you cannot stop the stench of the bug rotting under your foot.

Kudos to Times Now, for picking up the ante. I will hope that your positive journalism spreads across the world of mass media, and saves the job of a few poor constables.

All quotes are taken from this article on the Times Now Website

Justice...or is it?

The last of the sentences in the '91 Mumbai Bomb blast case are out, and with this the curtains are drawn on an investigation that has lasted for over 10 years.

Today's sentencing was the one probably most awaited. A sentence on which 100 crore Rs. were hanging in mid-air. And it did come, and it wasn't very good. Sanjay Dutt was pronounced to serve a term of 6 years in jail( read the story here). Most of the country, and the film industry is in deep shock. But the question in everyone's mind is, is this fair? Did Sanjay deserve this sentence, or is it too harsh?

Arms Act(1959) says, and I quote "Whoever has in his possession any arms or ammunition with intent to use the same for any unlawful purpose or to enable any other person to use the same for any unlawful purpose shall, whether such unlawful purpose has been carried into effect or not, be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years, or with fine, or with both." A glance at this law will tell you that the maximum term for an Arms Act violation is 7 years imprisonment. For a complete reading of the Arms Act, go here.

So from the law, the court has done its job correctly by awarding 6 yrs prison. But the question is, should good conduct have been considered for a lenient sentence? 6 years is a long time, and for a good actor like Sanju baba, his acting career might well be over till the time he is out of prison! At this point, just consider the offense. Possession of an AK-56 rifle, and then asking two people to destroy the rifle. AK-56, named as 56 after its year of production, has a magazine capacity of 30 bullets-each of which is a powerful 7.62mm calibre bullet that can be fired with a muzzle velocity of 735 m/s at a rate of ~600 rounds per minute (Data from wiki). In layman terms, a very powerful weapon, a killing machine that can unleash a wave of destruction. Why does a film star, knowing well that the weapon he has in his house is such a powerful tool of murder, agree to keep it? All we know is, he did. And that mistake is what lead to his conviction today.

What if it was someone else who had kept this weapon? Not Sanjay Dutt, but a common man, should he be sentenced the same? I bet that if it were a common man, the news wouldn't even have made it to the last page of the newspaper, forget the TV channels.

The law will take its course, Mr. Dutt will file an appeal in the Supreme Court, and he might get a reprieve from this sentence. But is this harsh? Has the judge tried to set an example?

If he did, he most certainly succeeded at it! May God give Sanjay the courage to stand through these tough times, and prove to the world that tough times never last, tough people do! Always.

Law and Order

Every citizen wants their country to be safe. Be it an Indian citizen, an American citizen, or a German citizen for that matter, every citizen wants to live in an environment of safety and security. And for this safety, citizens pay a price to the government...called tax.

Now once a citizen pays for his/her safety, it becomes the government's prerogative to provide it to them. Safety from external threats is usually provided by a country's military force. And internal security is provided by the police.

You might be wondering where I am getting at with all this talk. I am getting to the law and order situation that prevails in India.

Some of my fellow countrymen(and women) might say, law...what law? Does such a thing as safety exist in India? Can a family leave their home for a vacation without worrying about it being burgled?Or can women walk on the streets alone without being eve-teased?

There are two very clear reasons for the law and order problem that exists in this country. I will talk about both.

The first problem lies in the enforcers of the law, i.e, the Police. According to the Indian constitution, police is a matter of the states to take care of. Each state is responsible for its police force. And Police is responsible for maintaining law and order in the state. However, that does not happen in India. Police is virtually non-existant in most states in India. On my recent visit to the US, I was impressed by the response time of the police to a 911 call. Try calling 100, the police response number in India. I am quite sure that if there is a response to your call, it will be hours before anyone actually arrives.

Now I happen to know quite a few policemen, both at the lower ranks and senior ranks. So I went forward and asked some officers, and a few constables, why is the Police force in such a miserable state.

Officers have a fixed reply, we have shortage of cash, there is shortage of manpower, there are too many bureaucratic hurdles in police reforms etc etc etc... Talk to the lower ranks, the constables, and a different picture emerges.

One constable, to whom I put this question to, said.."Sir, when do we investigate a FIR? Most of the time we are used as a personal servant by our officers, to bring their kids from school, to drive the mem-saab to the markets...and when we have a little time, how much do we investigate? We don't have a means to go around(this particular person had a bicycle!), we are not educated enough, we do not have weapons...and we do not get enough money."

This is the reality of the Indian Police force. When we citizens stand up and blame to cops for mis-handling of evidence, we do not see the fact that they were never taught how to handle evidence in the first place! When we talk about improper handling of witnesses by cops, we ignore the basic premise that they were never taught how to handle witnesses. The situation might be better in police forces of uptown cities like mumbai, delhi etc, but by and large, the situation is pathetic. Police force is in much need of reforms, and lower ranks who are the ones who really work need to be made more efficient, paid better, their living conditions need to be improved. Unless this happens, I do not think we can expect a lot from the rag-tag group that we call the police.

Now the second culprits. You might think I am going to talk about the judiciary, but no. Judiciary comes in third on my list of culprits. The second reason for law and order problems is the so-called "law abiding citizens" of this country. Citizens who love to take the law into their own hands, and jump on the streets whenever there is an incident. And then there are riots. Some vehicles are burnt, shops are broken, and after all this is over, no one is arrested.

The most recent incident of Sikhs going on rampage in Punjab is a wonderful example. If something illegal was done, have a peaceful march. Go and follow democratic ways of registering an FIR against the person you think has done wrong, and then follow it up. But no, we as Indians now believe in taking matters in our own hands. We'd rather go ahead and burn, break and riot all over the place. If a bus runs over a person on the street, all by-standers will take out their anger on the bus. No one thinks that this mindless destruction of property(in most cases, public property) does no good.

Yes, the police lacks in their duty when they fail to stop all this rioting. Yes, the judiciary fails in its purpose when it sits all day processing cases of film stars being kissed in public, or some artist making a painting rather than speed up murder and rape case verdicts. But the biggest culprits are we the people, who choose to get on the streets, throw stones on police, break shops...and cause disturbance.

And no, rioting is not the only way of having your voice heard. There are better ways, that involve less damage to public property. We as people do not have the right to pronounce guilty verdicts, or take the law into our hands.

But who listens? The only evolutionary progress we seem to have made is from being monkeys jumping around in a forest, to humans roaming around in concrete forests. Other than that, nothing!

I have more thoughts, but this is enough for one post....maybe a part 2 will follow. Till then....

I Tube, You Tube

The big buzz in the online world is that the daddy of video sharing, You Tube, is being sued by the mommy of network television, Viacom. Mummy dearest, it seems, is not happy about daddy allowing everyone to have a bite out of mummy's delicious cooking. Ouch.

So mummy drags daddy to court. And all that dirty linen falls out of the closet and into full public view, where mummy and daddy will now wash the dirt and blood out of it.

In the meanwhile, daddy's found himself another muse, in the name of Fox. Now the muse in interested in daddy putting out samples of its cooking, so that people get to taste it. If they like it, they can pay for it and buy it. If they don't, well, who cares. That's just a sample that's gone out.

In case I have you wondering by now, the above more or less summarizes the legal wrangle between Viacom and google(who incidentally happens to own youTube now), and also the discussions going on between FoxTV executives, and Google. Without the legal jargon, of course.

There are a few interesting questions that have come out of this debate. One being the whole concept of legality of content. Of course, a TV show, its copyright and everything are owned by the producers(or whoever in the production company). Once the show is aired, typically it gets assigned to a bin from where it can be picked in case a rerun is needed. YouTube, doesn't allow copying of content by its users..so you just cannot go to YouTube and copy a video. But you can surely watch it, and upload one. Uploading is where it gets tricky. A user can upload almost anything to YouTube, of course adhering to the upload policies.(I believe they have some new rules about copy righted content now) So whom does the onus of responsibility lies with? The guy who is generously allowing you to post videos for all to see, or the guy who is actually copying copyrighted content without permission and uploading it?

Let the lawyers decide this one..

I will move on to a more interesting issue...why have this issue in the first place? I live in India, but I enjoy watching several programmes that are aired on US based networks. It is on a really lucky day that Star, or Zee decides to air these programmes in India(as is with the popular series Friends). But I can go to youTube, watch a scene or two and get my laughs. Or I go to youtube, and see music videos that I have never seen. Well, if you live in India and are a fan of english music, you will agree that there is a limited number of channels that actually air good english music videos. YouTube intoduced me to George strait, whose music I really loved. Now I have 3 CDs that I purchased(well, thats as many as I could find).

Point is, YouTube ultimately promotes content. Like Fox has realized, it can be used for promotional purposes. We anyways live in a world where music has lost its spirit, people do it just for the money. Which is clearly proven by all the DRM issues that are being raised, and the noise a few years back over Napster. It definitely is all about the money, but what about people who would enjoy listening to content more than actually owning it? Why do they need to pay 69 cents everytime they listen to a song?

Call me a socialist, or a communist for that matter..but I believe that channels like YouTube where great music, great videos are shared should not be clamped down, but should be promoted. Who wants to see a half hour episode on youTube, but give me my funnies...give me the videos that have disappeared from the channels....give me the music that no one plays anymore...

and stop being the capitalist jerks that you are...there are people in the world who might not be rich enough to pay you, that does not mean you can take the music out of their lives!

P.S: As for me, I am beginning to enjoy my stay in Baltimore...another travelogue will be up shortly. And Happy Fools Day to all of you. If you are still on this planet, you are a fool. So while you are here, enjoy your day :)