KARGIL WAR

OPERATION VIJAY-10 YEARS AFTER

It was during the rainy season of 1999, when I was in my 3^rd standard, that news came “terrorists/infiltrators” had entered Kargil. At that age I neither knew nor cared what infiltrators were or what the LOC was and so on, but the two things which I most prominently remember are, firstly, the heavy artillery firing which was being shown on the news and secondly, the “cool” line of Pepsi “YEH DIL MAINGE MORE”, being said by Capt. Vikram Batra. Then, the line was just something catchy and nice to say, but today when I remember these moments I feel the bravery and valour of the Indian armed forces.

Operation Vijay will always, technically, remain an anti-infiltration operation, but for us Indians it was a moment of great sorrow and pride. The brave sons of our motherland fought like fearless tigers in the hostile and inhospitable terrain of Kargil, just to protect the pride of this great country.

There are issues that the Government does not treat the armed forces well, but the greatest sorrow for me is that the people of this country DO NOT value these brave men to protect the sovereignty of their country with their lives. We Indians do not value our armed forces and unless and until, this respect and love for the men in olive green, sky blue and white does not come amongst us, we cannot expect the Legislature and the bureaucracy to value the armed forces because the people who form both these are not aliens but are very much part of the Indian civil society.

It may be Capt. Sourav Kaila, whose body was sent by the infiltrators/Pakistani army after mutilating beyond recognition, the mountaineer regiment of the Gorkhas, Capt. Vikram Batra or even Capt. Sher Shah, a Pakistani officer, who was conferred the highest gallantry award of Pakistan on recommendation from the Indian officers, these were men who fought with valour and I salute their bravery, grit and patriotrism.

This is my, microscopically small tribute to the martyrs of Operation Vijay on its 10^th anniversary. Hats off to the men of the Indian armed forces who fought with the spirit “VIJAY YA VEERGATI” on the heights of Kargil.

JAI HIND

GAY RIGHTS IN INDIA

GAY RIGHTS IN INDIA

2^nd July 2009, a Thursday, was a day to rejoice for many people across India, the reason for this, the Delhi High Court had given a historic judgement by means of which “gay sex” was no longer a criminal offence. The High Court, through this judgement struck down the 148year old law which made “gay sex” an offence punishable with 10years of imprisonment. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which made same-sex relationship an offence was, however, not abolished completely. The judgement has just decriminalised “sexual relationship between two consenting adults. Homosexuality is generally considered a taboo subject by both Indian civil society and the government. Public discussion of homosexuality in India has been inhibited by the fact that sexuality in any form is rarely discussed openly. In recent years, however, attitudes towards homosexuality have shifted slightly, the reasons for which range from getting media publicity to atrocities against homosexuals. In particular, there have been more depictions and discussions of homosexuality in the Indian news media and by the Hindi Film Industry.

The hype created by the television media and at times even the reports published in the print media gave the impression that now same sex relationships were completely accepted by the legal system. But this judgement has made things more ambiguous. If I ask a question like, can two men get married to each other? The answer to this is a big NO. The judgement given by the Delhi HC somewhere lacked foresight, as it has indirectly legalised sex [may be between people of the same sex] outside the wedlock. There was a very interesting argument put up by the counsel, who appealed against the judgement of the Delhi HC, if the court can legalise “gay sex” then why not legalise prostitution as well.

The NGO which filed the PIL in the HC, NAZ Foundation, has suddenly come in the limelight. This keeps me wondering whether this whole thing is just to get all the media attention and popularity. In the past few years, being gay or lesbian has been “in vogue” not just in Hollywood but also in the Hindi Film Industry. Being in controversy is also a means to get popularity, and for me the reason why so many film stars and Page 3 folks “raising a voice for homosexuality” is just for easy popularity. The issue of homosexuality is of importance but today people are, literally, running after it as if all the legal problems and issues of India have been solved and just this one issue is left.

                        

The argument put forward by the people in support of gay rights is that the people have to evolve according to the changes in the society. But what I do not understand is, why should “evolution” always be in opposition to the laws of nature? The true evolution of man kind, as put by APJ Abdul Kalam is, “when the human race understands the true spirit of the laws of nature and acts in synergy with them and not in opposition”. Even ancient Hindu scriptures like Manusmriti does mention about homosexuality as a sexual practice but was never encouraged and its mention made to serve the purpose of regulation. We have to understand that homosexuality is not a westernised concept but is very much Indian, this can go a long way in tackling the various issues of homosexuality in India. There is no doubt that the problem needs to be solved but people should not fulfil their craving for media publicity through this issue.

The next demand of the Homosexuals in India is granting of equal marriage rights to them. This demand, if fulfilled, is going to create mammoth problems in the legal system. For example, if two men get married and have children through scientific methods and after some years they apply for divorce, then how will you define “family”, on what basis will the succession of property take place, who will get the custody of the children and the million dollar question, who will be termed as the “husband/father” and “wife/mother”. Granting of equal marriage rights to homosexuals can land many laws of the country in a soup.

The issue of homosexuality needs to be addressed, there is no doubt in this, but while doing this there should be a foresight and it should not be done with the motive of publicity. For a nation to grow the institution of family is of utmost importance and homosexuality challenges the very basis of family, which is the union of a man and a woman. It is for us to decide which way do we want our country to evolve.

RED TERROR-THE ENEMY WITHIN

 

When the 26/11 attack took place six months back, it was a talking point during every meal any family had together but the same did not happen when one of the remote parts of West Bengal/India was burning, rather when it had been “LIBERATED”, in the words of the Naxals. The situation was much more treacherous in this case as the persons fighting against the police and paramilitary forces were not AMIR AJMAL KASABs, coming from across the border, but were the most backward sections of the Indian society. The issue of Naxalism is graver than the issue of terrorism and the sole reason for it is that, people on both the sides of the divide are very much a part and parcel of the Republic of India.

 

Naxalism has been the major internal security threat to India for the last two decades. The Naxal movement began in the 1960s in Naxalbari, a remote area of West Bengal, as a mere splintering of the Communists into radicals and moderates. But today what we are witnessing is abuse of the barrel of the gun for furthering political motives. The so-called “ROBIN WOODs” of modern India are no longer the garibo ke masiha or the voice of the poor but are mere puppets of external enemies or ambitious young men trying to fulfil their political ambitions.

 

Today Naxalism, along with jehad, is being used by external forces ranging from China to Pakistan to bring a halt to the economic development and technological advancement of India. Naxalism is at its peak in certain areas of Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, which are the most remote and the least developed parts of India. The “Red Corridor” in these 9 states totals up to 155 districts, these amounts to nearly a quarter of our national territory.

 

With the tense and volatile neighbourhood that India has, however illogical and impossible it may seem, a great nexus is being created between the Maoists of Nepal, the Naxals in India and the extremist Islamic groups like the JeM [Jaish-e-Mohammad] and LeT [Lashkar-e-Toiba]. The Indian intelligence agencies have reports that Pakistan’s ISI is using the Naxals for drug-trafficking and pumping fake currency notes into the Indian economy. In return the ISI is providing the Naxals with sophisticated weaponry and know-how about using improvised explosives. The evidence to this nexus is the support given by Naxals in Andhra Pradesh for the demand of the Dasargah-e-Jehad-e-Shahadat to unconditionally release of Maulana Naseeruddin, a key accused in the murder of former home minister of Gujarat, Haren Pandya and the strategically coordinated economic blockades and swarming mass attacks with the Maoists in Nepal. The weapons and explosives also stand testimony to this unimaginable nexus.

 

However there is a need to look at the other side of the divide as well. In left-extremism there is a thin line between ideologues and leftist mercenaries. The true ideologue is fighting against the police atrocities, lack of development and presence of few or no government facilities in these remote areas. But many a times such ideologues are generalised as the armed Naxals because of the financial backing which the Naxals have. Hence a careful analysis of the Naxal threat needs to be taken up as the ideologues can easily be brought into the main stream by taking firm developmental steps.

 

Also a small part of the Naxal problem is because of the use of such people for winning elections by candidates and parties. The result of such actions is instances like Nandigram where the so-called Naxals were used by the Left Government in West Bengal to maintain its hold political hold in its bastions against the in-roads being made by the Trinamool Congress. Small make shift or part-time “Naxal” groups are used during elections for campaigning and in other times to maintain the hold of that political party.

 

It is high time the Central Government, in harmony with the various state governments, tackles this issue of Naxalism by formalising a national policy to deal with this issue of Naxalism and stop sweeping it under the carpet. The problem of Naxalism cannot be dealt with the military solution. There needs to be training for the SPOs [Special Police Officers] who are being used for dealing with Naxals. Policing needs to assess the psychology of the local people, who are being sandwiched between the armed forces and the Naxals. However the reverse scenario exists where the SPOs are just trained for dealing with criminals and not civilians. The armed solution has to be supplemented by development, as development alone can help solve the problem of Naxalism once and for all. Reforms of land have to be also looked at as Naxalism also arises due to oppression from the landed class. Special measures to help the tribals and various ethnic groups displaced by mining have to be taken. Development of educational opportunities and providing health facilities are the easiest ways to win over the people and re-instil their faith in democracy.

However there have to be stern steps taken by the UPA government at the centre. Tooth-less efforts like reconciliation with mercenaries directly involved in the dastardly massacre of blowing up a bus full of 40 CRPF jawans and then shooting the survivors in the eyes at point blank range, have to be stopped. On the other hand, there has to be a concrete surrender policies put in place for villagers and other civilians who want to enter the main stream and help the developmental work in the region, as a vast majority enter Naxalism because they have no other choice.

 

There are certain very encouraging steps taken by the government, like the policy to recruit 50% of the SPOs and CRPF jawans fighting in the Red Corridor from the affected areas itself, the ban on the Naxal organisations and other supporting organisations like CPI (Maoists) and CPI (Marxist-Leninist) and the setting up of night schools for the villagers who have fled their homes due to the fear of the conflict between the armed forces and the Naxals.

  

The urban population of our society has to be sympathetic and aware about the problems of Naxalism faced by their nation and members of their society, and not turn a blind eye just because it is not happening in the urban alleys of Mumbai. The evidence of the “fastest growing economy” should not just come from Dalal Street but also from the villages of Bastar, Dantewada and Lalgarh.

HUMAN RIGHTS-Looking At Both The Sides

The Oxford dictionary defines Human Rights as “the rights of all human beings to fair treatment, justice and basic needs”. For me, personally, Human Rights are those rights which are given to a person without giving a second thought about neither his past nor his present. It may be a murderer or an accused, a man or a woman, an assassin or a saint, he/she gets Human Rights, the only criterion which requires fulfilment for getting these rights is that the person should be a “Human Being”. In every situation of justice delivery there is some Human Right or the other which is violated and what makes it more interesting is that, this violation may have taken place on either of the two sides involved.

The fields of Human Rights which interest me the most are Child Rights, Trafficking and Rights of HIV/AIDS Patients. The reason for interest in the first is because they constitute the most vulnerable section of the society. In spite of this, the society as a whole has taken very few or no steps with regards to changing things, a simple example for this is that the crimes against children are tried as the ones against adults except in the state of Goa, which has a separate cell to deal with crimes related to children. Trafficking for me is a violation of a person’s right to move about freely and live his life the way he wants to. The stigmatisation of HIV/AIDS patients and treating them as second-class citizens is a very unfortunate thing and can be done away with only by awareness. Even better laws for the protection of such patients in the society can be of great help, for example the law that HIV/AIDS patients cannot be called so but they have to be called Sero-+ve patients. We have to realise that after all AIDS is just another disease which does not have a cure, like Alzheimer's Disease.

Today in India with the booming economy and cut throat competition and hence tension and stress coming into the picture, Human Rights will have many more applications and hence its necessary to be vigilant and raise a voice against wrong doings of any one with respect to this issue. There is also the need to pat the backs of those who have fulfilled their duty with respect to Human Rights in spite of the odds. This leads to various NGOs dealing with Human Rights shouldering more responsibility by becoming more accountable to the society itself. The Government needs to put in more effort to control the situation of Human Rights violation in the country. Small steps taken by the Government machinery in the right direction can do a lot of good in finding a solution to the problem. Things like Police reforms, revamp in Child Rights Acts, social protection to victims of evils like trafficking and crimes on women and many other miniscule measures would mean a lot in overcoming various problems faced today.

Many a times we focus on Human Rights of one party while the other party, and the section of the society to which he/she belongs to, involved in the act of injustice is totally ignored and put to shame. For example, there are many people fighting for the rights of “criminals” killed in encounters but we will find very few fighting for the rights of soldiers in Siachen, who receive an amount as the High Altitude Allowance (HAA) which is less than the money paid to a person in jail for making furniture. There is no comparison between the two neither do I say that no one should fight against the atrocities on criminals or accused persons but we should give this a thought and decide for ourselves whether is right to pay a person almost dieing of cold to protect his motherland the same as you pay a person for doing some work while completing his punishment in jail? Agreed that its matter of Government policy, but isn’t it our duty to protect the Human Rights of any person irrespective of what work he is doing or which cult of the society he belongs to? We should realise that the person on the other side has also got human rights and some day the society will be affected if justice is not done to him, considering him to be JUST a “Human Being”.

According to me, the time has come when we should not just push the Government for providing a better environment for the fight against Human Rights violations but also look into our ways of dealing with people on the other side of the issue. There is a need to see the violations from the perspective of both the sides as all the people ultimately belong to the society. Come let’s broaden our view and try and solve the problems regarding Human Rights violations of all the sections of the society involved.