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!