The rape and murder of a doctor in a Kolkata hospital

The 31 year old female doctor was resting in a hospital, where she was brutally raped and murdered. The postmortem reports were too gruesome and horrifying to relive. I cannot imagine what she should've gone through and what makes someone behave this way to a woman. A doctor no less. I feel sorry for her loved ones who have to live with this for the rest of their lives. I hope she gets justice.

How the government and news outlets respond to this is very very weird. First, a random constable was arrested, thinking that it'd calm down the unrest. But, the postmortem reported that her body contained semen samples from multiple men. Who planned and orchestrated this, nobody knows. The government is less than eager to do a thorough investigation. Mahua Moitra, who usually is widely outspoken on several issues, issued a blanket statement about women safety which makes it incredibly weird. Everything in her record speaks against it. And just today, I saw that thousands of goons appeared randomly at the hospital, trying to tamper with the evidence and the police wilfully allowed them to go ahead with it. It feels like a huge conspiracy chamber and there is no chance for normal people to raise their voice or fight against this. The dean of the college said that it was suicide and the doctor had psychosis. For God's sake. How is our country making monsters like this? What education are we imparting? 

I will write more as more things unfold. But I feel that there is one thing that people tend to miss in delicate situations like this. The PR firms could easily spin facts and divert the issue into something it is not to protect powerful people. No party is innocent of this crime. Every political party has their own share of leaders accused of sexual impropriety. Recent example is the case of a minister from Karnataka. That said, people in general should be cognizant of the subtle manipulation these PR firms do to protect their highest bidder. They are no better than the mercenary army. For example, I saw a news release saying that they are renovating the bathrooms adjacent to the room where the incident happened. This clearly feels like a diversionary tactic these firms usually employ to side track the investigations and the public eye. Who's driving this? It's a shame from the TMC government and the deafening silence their leaders are showing, including their chief minister. I am sure many of them want to speak out but are unable because someone has a thumb on the scale. I mean there is obviously a huge amount of corruption in TMC and West Bengal.  But keeping silence in the wake of this is what kills a government. 

Somehow, I don't find it surprising that such events happen in India. Look in the comments section of any girl who posts even remotely revealing dress or flaunts having a boyfriend or anything else, the moral policing men are ready with their misogyny and bigotry, labeling them as impure and uncultured and what not. And this is the tip of the iceberg. Women get rape and death threats everyday. You'd think education helps. Educated working individuals sexually harass women in work places with no retribution. 

The horrific dealings of the rape cases in Hathras, Unnao are similar examples. Here, the rape victims, their relatives have been murdered while the accused roam free with little to no repercussions. Why? Because they come from an influential upper class background. India needs to go through a serious cultural and maybe even political transformation. 

This is the time to show solidarity. You might think that it is not your fault and you are a good guy and that "not all men". It is not about being right. It is not about justifying your actions. It is about solidarity. Solidarity to the women who have to think twice over their decisions. Women who face sexual harassment in their workplace. Women who are molested. Women who fear for their safety to travel at night, even during the day sometimes. It is the time to swallow our egos and stand with them. It's time all the guys should shut the fuck up and listen. 

Aug 20

The Supreme Court has taken up the case on a suo moto basis. The HC of West Bengal also has a parallel case going on. Kapil Sibal is arguing for the state and is deliberately trying to subvert the process. I used to respect him. Although he was responsible for the shitty changes in the IIT-JEE model, he regained my respect through other cases. But I don't understand why he's representing the state and in fact trying to subvert the blame. For example, he said, "The principal DIDN'T say that it was a suicide". 

The CJI rapped back with questions over the hooligans that vandalized the hospital premises and abused the female doctors. One question nobody asking is, who in the name of hell are these people? Obviously, this is orchestrated by some powerful people. Kapil Sibal said 37 people were arrested. So nobody revealed who they were working for? No single person would be able to mobilize 7000 people to just randomly appear. Cue the denials from Kapil Sibal. 

In light of these events, the Supreme court ordered a National Task Force (NTF) comprising of expert doctors and asked the central government bodies to fund the actions of this task force. The goal of this task force is to prepare a report regarding: 

1. The presence of working CCTV and weapons check in government hospitals. 

2. The presence of security guards. 

3. The presence of separate bathrooms for men and women and gender neutral restrooms. 

4. Restricted access to places such as ICUs and restrooms. 

5. An internal system for reporting sexual harassment. (This should be mandated for every government office tbh).

6. Counselling logistics for the aggrieved to protect the doctors. 

etc. 

Bangladesh Imploding

With geopolitics, there is always something more to the story, as reiterated by Ezra Helsinger in CBS's Madam secretary. It seems to be the case with the current civil unrest in Bangladesh. I am basing most of my writing on this video by Prof. K. Nageshwar.

Couple of weeks ago, news broke of the student protests happening in Bangladesh over reservations. While at that time it seemed vague and I ignored it as some minor issue, which has now metastasized into a political and humanitarian crisis. The reason the protests started was because the government has reserved 56% of the employment positions for the descendants of Bangladesh freedom struggle. 

The story begins in 1971 with the Bangla freedom struggle under the leadership of the Bangladesh Awami League or Bangladesh Freedom Party (BAL for short). Now, as we know BAL won freedom from Pakistan for the Bangladeshi people and almost 30 lakh Bangladeshi's were slaughtered in this struggle. 

After independence, the then leader BAL, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (SMR) proclaimed 56% reservation in govt. positions for the freedom fighters and their descendants upto two generations. Although, only 30% was allotted for them. 10% was allotted to women. And the rest was allotted to other backward tribes and the physically challenged. Recently, a student protest broke over this which is now demanding for the resignation of the now president Sheikh Hasina (SH), the daughter of SMR. 

Political context: Ever since SH came to power she has been ruling with an iron fist over both civillians and the opposition. She mercilessly quashed the protestors which resulted in the death of over 300 students. There is a high rate of unemployment, inflation, and poverty in Bangladesh. Further, it looks like she has intimidated the opposition in the last two elections, thus becoming an autocratic ruler. Therefore, there is a high amount of socio-economic distress. 

Misinformation: This is incredible information that has gotten lost in the messaging. While the said reservations have been in vogue since Bangladeshi independence, it seems like SH withdrew them in 2018---which is what the protestors were demanding for. However, a high court (HC) reverted this decision. SH's government then appealed the matter to the Bangladesh SC, which re-reverted the HC ruling to  only entail 5% reservations, i.e., 30% to 5%. 

THEN WHAT IN THE NAME OF BENGAL TIGER ARE THESE PROTESTORS PROTESTING ABOUT? 

Prof. Nageshwar talks about three different forces: 

1. The "internal" forces who are vexed with starvations, low economy and the lack of jobs. 

2. The "political" forces who are waiting to oust SH from the government. 

3. The "external" forces like the anti-Bangladesh formation islamic terror groups. 

The professor gives the bringing down SMR's status in Dhaka as a proof for the involvement of the anarchists. Surprisingly, he makes a point about US being involved, wherein US doesn't support the democratic nations abroad but only dictatorships in the third-world. I find this hard to be true, but oh well. We have seen Iraq. 

What happened? It seems like at the advice of the military, SH has resigned to her post as the PM and has fled via a military airplane to India and is currently at the Ghaziabad air base in Delhi. Now, are the anarchist elements of the protest still looking to sow unrest? Time will tell. 

Maharashtra elections

With the performance of BJP in the 2024 general elections and the subsequent poor performance in the bypolls (won only 2/13), they sure have a lot hanging on Maharashtra elections. 

Why are these elections happening? 

Who are the competing parties and hows and why? 

The ruling BJP party coalition led by Eknath Shinde competes with Uddhav Thackerey led Shiv Sena from the INDIA bloc are the competing parties. It looks like Uddhav Thackerey wanted to be the cheif minister but was not allowed and thus established a separate party. 

An interesting nugget here is that both the parties are right leaning Hindutva parties. As Prof. Nageshwar succinctly put, they are ideological partners but political opponents!

LoP RaGa's speech on Budget 2024

Most of my points are based on this video.

I found it amusing and confusing and weird that at the beginning of the speech, RaGa made an MP get his water and glass. I am sure they are friends. But felt weird. 

He started right from where he left off last time. Shiv Ji. "Dar mat, Darao mat", ahinsa, etc.

He accused that in a lot of things, the government is creating these "Padmavyuh" and trapping people. Just like how 6 people (Drona, Aswatthaama, Sakuni, Duryodhana, and Karna) were the orchestrators of the "Padmavyuh" in Mahabharatha, six people orchestrated these Padmavyuhas on the people of India. 

Just a slight aside, the speaker is so one-sided. Eventhough the ruling party is making noise first, he chastised the opposition ministers. He said, "if you do this running commentary, then they (the ruling party MPs) will also do the same. The same person didn't say a thing when the prime minister was calling the LoP "balak buddhi". This is an open secret that since the speaker is a member of the ruling party, he'd obviously be impartial. Then, a ruling party MP cried foul saying that LoP has talked back against everybody, the speaker, the prime minister, and the "constitution". This is such a laughable comeback but well, what can you expect from the party who has been a bully and suddenly is being ridiculed by the very person they bullied for 10 years. Btw, the PM was not present in the speech. RaGa alluded to the ruling party that "don't worry, he won't be here whenever I speak". We will see if that holds. 

I also want to make a small note about the FM. Her smug laugh in the face of tax burden on the middle class is so agitating to watch. FM has perfected the ducking of the questions on the budget and side-lining the main issue. An example was this video, where the reporter asked the FM two questions: (1) Is the 15000 crores allocated to Amaravati (the capital of Andhra) a loan or is it covered by the government? (2) Are you gonna take incharge of Polavaram? Obviously centre doesn't want anything to do with either of them but they are stuck with CBN. The second questions is the lesser devil so she expertly answered that first. FM said, rather vaguely, whatever was agreed before the centre will take care. Wow, such a committed answer. Then, while answering the first question she resorted to non-denial denial type answer. The less I talk about it, the better. Watch the video and find out for yourself. 

Then, RaGa talked how the government is isolating the middle class, the farmers, the dalits, the aadivaasis, the backward classes. He alluded that it is in a way good for INDIA bloc as all of them will now turn to them. He accused that they constitute 90% of the Indian populace but the remaining 10% is allocating the budget among themselves while the rest 90% is starving.The main talking points of his speech are as follows: 

• They will allocate MSP for the farmers properly. 
• They will do the caste and economic census, which he said the government is afraid to do. 
• They will reinstate the MNREGA scheme, which provides employment to the rural communities. 
• They will reinstate indexation on the property sales.  

He ended by saying that INDIA bloc will pass all these laws in this parliament and ended with a Jai Hind. 

Indian Budget 2024

The general consensus is that this budget imposes a heavy burden on middle- to lower-middle-class families. I will share more excerpts from the Budget as I read it, but the major issues concerning the middle class seem to be as follows: 

1. They removed the indexation on the property tax. This means that inflation is not considered when calculating the tax that should be paid to the government when you sell your property. 

2. The long-term capital gains are taxed even further. This would surely hurt the investments and stock market as newcomers are more likely to not come due to the excessive taxation. 

3. Minister Raghav Chaddha argued in the parliament that Indian govt taxes like western countries and provides infrastructure like sub-saharan countries. 

4. Unemployment was one of the highly cited reason for the low vote turnout for the ruling party and they seem to have taken some steps. Many sectors are incentivized to hire freshers with low taxes. There is a peculiar provision where the fresh hire would get one month's salary as a bonus. I don't know what this achieves but good for them. 

5. I would like to see "all the black money" collected during note ban put to some use to improve the infrastructure in the country. 

6. It looks like most funds went to Bihar for reconstruction. Andhra was made some random promises to get 15000 crores for constructing the capital but with T & C. Nobody knows what those are. More drama to unfold here. See Shashi Tharoor's speech in Parliament on Budget 2024.. 

7. Several states, including West Bengal and Tamil Nadu accused that no funds were allocated to those states on account of BJP not being elected from there. See Shashi Tharoor's speech here.

There are two main themes that I perceive from this. Try to follow my logic. The ruling party obviously doesn't want India to develop. Prosperity reduces conflict. Then you can't anger voters based on "mutton" and "mangal sutra", am I right? 

The news media doesn't ask any questions. The few print media that ask fall on deaf ears. The finance minister is acting so smug to be honest. This was also demonstrated when an audience member asked them about why there is GST and SGST and an additional capital gains tax on the investment. What are we earning then? Here's a link to that video. 

The (possibly) declining right wing politics

With the recent general elections in India serving a sour punch in a silver platter to the ruling party, which saw a reduction in its majority of 303/545 to 240/545, a curious thought crossed my mind. These days, political parties that espouse right-wing politics often tend to have dictatorial tendencies (e.g., making draconian laws that curb free speech, elimination of government oversight, consolidation of the news and print media) all of which were seen in India for the past couple of years. During elections, there was even talk that by gaining a 400+ majority, they will rewrite the constitution, which in all seriousness would have eroded fundamental rights of minorities and may have made India a one-party state similar to Russia. What happened? 

The people rejected the incumbency in a spectacular manner. Similar things are happening around the world. In the last week, France rejected their ultra right wing party uprising. UK too put brakes on 14 years of (recently tumultous) conservative rule that ended up with Brexit.

Let's have some comparisons. Like the US, France is a presidential democracy, whereas like UK, India is a parliamentary democracy. However, the way the French elections are setup is slightly complicated as explained in this video. In brief, it is a two-stage system: First stage is like a knockout round where only the parties that gain over 12.5% of the vote share move to the next round. The party that wins the majority in this round, becomes the ruling party. This is in stark contrast with the US elections where there are only two competing parties. So, the right wing leader Le Penn rose in popularity recently and everybody thought they are gonna win the primaries. While she went through in the first round with a majority, the consolidation of the liberal left and centrist vote made sure that democracy prevailed another day. 

In UK as well, conservative leader of Indian origin Rishi Sunak (to be fair, the conservative party) saw an unprecedented defeat in the hands of  the Labor party. Love's Labour's not lost ;). Although, I felt that the UK politicians handled the success and defeat in a more civilized manner. Can't believe I am saying this, but all the world leaders could take a page out of this book on civilized political discourse. 

What's best. the INC sweeped the bypolls that happened in 7 states. While this is not a clear indicator of the political winds in India, it is evident that people are becoming more and more aware of the current state of the Indian polity and are voting accordingly, as much as 'Godi' media is trying to ostensibly side track the real issues, such as economy, unemployment, Manipur civil war, NEET paper leak, Electoral bonds, and Delhi CM arrest. 

In an almost dramatic manner, there was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump yesterday. The killer was shot and killed by the secret service. Unfortunately, an innocent civilian was killed too and several are being reported to be injured. Violence is never the answer. Sadly, even this wouldn't bring reasonable gun reforms in USA. I saw several tweets on twitter asking if Republicans would now support a gun reform lol. Most likely not lol.

Fin.    

What is happening with NEET?

 I gave my IIT-JEE exam in 2013. There were certain nuances which I won't mention here, such as the change in format of the exam, to happen in two stages instead of one. The amount of physical and mental toll it takes on an above average non-prodigy middle class student like me cannot be explained in words. While I was relieved after the exam as I did reasonably well, the two years of intense study leading up to it sort of changed me. I had no social life, no real friends just colleagues who I have shared trauma with, and no shared memories during that time. I don't think I could go through that time again. Even today, sometimes, I wake up in sweats in the middle of the night thinking of how I missed the exam date or how I interchanged the two exams and any other fail-proof scenarios my sweet brain could conjure up. So, believe me, when I say, I know what the prospect of a paper-leak or a cancelled exam feels like. 

Let me make my position absolutely clear. I am not blindly supporting the so-called RE-NEET neither am I against conducting the NEET again if that means everyone gets a fair chance. Maybe, there should be an averaging of scores from the first and the second test. I don't know the clear answer. 

BUT, the NTA (National Testing Agency) and the Indian government are clearly at fault here. I have been watching a lot of videos on what the political vibe is among the nation's youth and it seems like an overwhelming majority is unhappy of the fact that almost every exam has been subjected to said "leaks", which was shocking to say the least. So, this is not an isolated happening. Yet, the Solicitor General and the NTA rather misleadingly presented that it is so in the Supreme Court (SC). SC in response, said that, "there is no question that the leak has happened". 

What is the current state as of July 10, 2024? 

The SC has currently directed the NTA to provide the entire test data in an Excel sheet so that the attorney general of the People could try and use "data science" on the data to point out irregularities so that they can provide a more informed arguments in the court. Subject to correction, it looks like NTA has provided an interface where someone could collect data one student at a time but not as a batch query. Goes out to say that they would use any dirty trick available to them to evade justice. The quorum on this isn't settled yet and we might have to see how this plays out in the next court hearing. 

The SC further said that, while there is no question that the leak happened, the "blast radius" of the leak has to be determined. Only then, can they provide ruling on whether the NEET would be cancelled entirely or only in certain affected areas.

I wish all the medical students stay strong. If you have put in the hard work, you will persevere and you will get through this. This too shall pass! :)