2012: The 10 comic books you shouldn't miss

Anish Dasgupta
31 December 2012, 12:53 PM IST

2012 was a great year for comic book fans - not just for reading, but for viewing as well! We watched The Avengers finally get the Hulk right. We saw Bane and Batman battle it out in the final chapter of Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. The Amazing Spider Man delivered more character (and less bounce) than a tennis ball. And the Man of Steel trailers simply left us wanting more!

The movies were great. But there's simply no replacing the mind-blowing artwork and intricate plots that artists and writers weave into a comic book. Here, in no particular order, are this year's 10 comics you should definitely read.

Saga

(Pic: Cover Art courtesy Image Comics)

Written by Brian Vaughan and illustrated by Fiona Staples, Saga is a classic Romeo & Juliet tale set in space. Described by many as a 'Star Wars meets A Game of Thrones', the story follows Marko and Alana, two soldiers from opposite sides of an interplanetary war who fall in love and have a baby - Hazel (who occasionally narrates the story) - and are on the run from bounty hunters, soldiers and a whole lot of other aliens in the galaxy. Saga, however, is not about spaceships and blasters. It's a story with well-developed characters that one can identify with and is supported with equally great art. How good is it? The first print run of the first issue sold out before the release date!

Hawkeye

(Pic: Hawkeye (2012) #2 cover by David Aja)

Yes, we're talking about that crossbow-wielding guy from The Avengers who was possibly the most under-used character in the movie. Writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja give Hawkeye a.k.a Clint Barton the gritty treatment by showing us the non-superhero side of the man - a government agent who can take a lot of punishment while taking on gangsters and villains of every sort. This is simply a really fun comic to read and I think will be a great series to follow.

The Hive

(Pic: Illustration from The Hive by Charles Burns)

Charles Burns' eerie psychedelic follow-up to X'ed Out continues the story of Doug as he confesses his past while trying to recall the details how his life fell apart. While on the surface, Doug's world seems to be a hellish alternate reality, what's spooky is that it (in many ways) mirrors our own. Burns' gift for the multilayered narrative makes his one a must-read.

Fatale

(Pic: Fatale preview snippet)

The writer-artist duo of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips who put out some of the most seminal noir work (like Criminal) returned this year with the story of Josephine, a woman who doesn't seem to age. With Fatale, Brubaker successfully mixes supernatural with noir while Phillips brings his trademark dark realism to the artwork. Saying more would be giving away the story.

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City

(Pic: Cover art by Guy Delisle)

Guy Delisle is as much a journalist as he is a travel book (comic) writer. In my opinion, being more of the latter makes him better at the former. While Joe Sacco is usually considered to be among the better graphic journalists today, in my opinion, Sacco tends to take sides. It's not reflected by his writing, but in the art and layout.  Delisle's outing of Jerusalem puts into sharp perspective the impact of conflict on the daily lives of the residents - both Muslim and Jewish - on either side of the wall. His simple art and writing style make it both, a compelling report and a travelogue.

The Bulletproof Coffin: Disinterred

(Pic: Issue 3 cover art by Shaky Kane)

To say that this one is 'different' would be an understatement. David Hine writes and Shaky Kane draws what is one of the most chaotic and path-breaking narrative styles yet. This isn't something you read for the story, but something you read because you're fascinated by the grotesqueness of the artwork which somehow makes the writing work. Also embedded in the stories are mini-tales which Hine uses to make statements on various subjects - like the propaganda embedded in comic books of yesteryear. Each issue tells a single story, so don't bother about which 'number' you've picked up. This is one for the connoisseur.

Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Blood (The New 52)

(Pic: Cover image courtesy DC Comics)

It took Brian Azzerello to finally do it! After decades of seeing something that was there "just for the old fans", we finally have a Wonder Woman comic book series that can hold its own. As he did in Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, Azzerello reinvents Diana's backstory to make her a demigod charged with the protection of a mortal woman pregnant with Zeus' child. It's a story about power and politics (of Olympus) that's unapologetically violent… the kind of stuff you'd expect from Azzerello.

Building Stories

(Pic: Illustration by Chris Ware)

 

If the previous one was about different narrative style, then Chris Ware ensured that this one was also about different mediums! To begin with it comes in a boardgame-sized box. Open the box and you'll find 14 different parts of all sizes - including broadsheet supplements, books, pamphlets, and scraps. It's like a jigsaw puzzle, but minus the 'big picture' to guide you… and you're faced with the task of putting it together. True to form, Ware explores everyday life in a story about a landlady, a spiteful married couple and a lonely amputee – all living in the same building.

America's Got Powers

(Pic: America's got Powers promo. Enlarge image)

Writer Jonathan Ross and artist Bryan Hitch take you into a future where everything we do and see is backed by a faceless corporation - including the superheroes who battle it out on the eponymous reality show for TV ratings. With a plot that's very similar to Matz & Jacamon's Cyclops, the story revolves around a character trying to do the right thing in a world gone bad - that's increasingly tempting him as well. Hat-tip to Jonathan Ross for getting the social commentary just right.

Batman: Death of the Family

(Pic: Promo image courtesy DC Comics)

And finally, no comic book list is complete without a Batman comic. This year's pick is definitely Scott Snyder's extension of the Dark Knight saga with the Joker finally coming back to DC comics after a year. Not to be confused with the late 80s A Death in the Family (when the Joker beat the second Robin to death with a crowbar), this time around the Joker is out to kill every one of Batman's allies including Catwoman, Batgirl, all the Robins, and even Alfred.

Here, in Snyder's own words, is his evaluation of the Joker's psyche: "He has this strange belief that Batman is this kind of Bat-king of Gotham. And that he serves him the way a court jester historically has served the king ... to bring the king the bad news. But in this case he sees himself as delivering the worst news of Batman's own heart, his own nightmares, in the form of these horrifying challenges that Batman can then overcome and become stronger and (a) more resilient king of the city… The Joker in our story ... really believes that the family.  

The Bat Family -- Nightwing and Red Hood and Batgirl and Robin and Red Robin - all sort of do Batman a terrible service because instead of challenging him and making him a stronger, fiercer king, they try to convince him that whoever he is beneath the mask is more important, and that he's human and tender and should have feelings for people, and should sort of temper the qualities that make him a great king of Gotham."

Cheers & have a great year ahead! 

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Mera Bharat mayhem

Jug Suraiya
31 December 2012, 03:02 PM IST

Like other communities around the country, the National Media Centre (NMC), the co-operative housing society in Gurgaon where I live, shared the nationwide grief over the tragic death of the young woman appropriately named Nirbhaya by The Times of India. The NMC had double reason for mourning: a couple of days before the young paramedic was savagely gang-raped in Delhi, 19-year-old Vicky was killed by a hit-and-run driver in Gurgaon.

Vicky was the trainer in the NMC gym. A dedicated bodybuilder with a formidably muscular physique, he was a gentle giant with a shy, charming smile which immediately endeared him to all those he met. Vicky was planning to compete in a forthcoming bodybuilding contest for north India, where he was hoping to be one of the prizewinners. To supplement his income as a gym instructor he worked as a late-night bouncer in Gurgaon bars. I doubt he ever had to use force to eject a troublemaker. One look at Vicky's sinewy size  would have been enough to quell the most belligerent of would-be brawlers.

Vicky was killed at 8.30 in the morning by a speeding vehicle that hit him and ran without stopping. Had the driver stopped and taken him to hospital, Vicky might well be alive today. When finally some passersby took him to hospital, Vicky was declared dead. There were no eyewitnesses who came forward to give any details of the crime. The registration number of the vehicle that hit him is not known, and it remains untraced.

Vicky leaves behind a mother who works as a cook in an embassy in Delhi and who is the head of the household which consists of a mentally disturbed father and Vicky's school-going sister. The residents of NMC are raising a fund to help her complete her school education.

Nirbhaya - who has become a tragic national icon for the often lethally brutal repression that Indian women are subject to - and Vicky - who will be just another faceless number in India's road death statistics, which are among the highest in the world - have only one thing in common: they were both innocent victims of our increasingly brutalised society, in which human life is the only commodity which seems to become cheaper each day.

Rapes, honour killings, road rage which results in fatalities, hit-and-run accidents, murderous inter-caste and inter-community clashes have become a daily commonplace in the land of the Mahatma who preached ahimsa and non-violence.

Why are we such a violent society? Why do we hold human life in such callously scant regard? Is it because when you have a population of a billion-plus, and growing daily, the life and death of a single individual becomes insignificant in the overwhelming multitudes that make up India? The greater the numbers, the less the value of a single entity that goes to make up the total.

Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit has blamed 'migrants' for the capital city's notorious record of attacks on women, and violent crime in general. The argument is that the migrant worker - often a daily wage earner and near the bottom of the economic ladder - is uprooted from his family and traditional village values when he comes to the city and in its anonymous and desperate rat race for survival get desensitised to human values.

A neat argument, which echoes Sartre's remark: Hell is other people. But the hell that we've created can't be blamed on 'migrants' , or any other people. Rape, like other forms of extreme violence, is far from unknown in villages and the countryside, almost one-third of which is seething with so-called Naxal insurgency.

We accuse a 'foreign hand' (read Pakistan) for recurrent terror attacks on us. But what about the terror attacks we inflict on ourselves, particularly on our women, and on innocent children? Who is the worse, more dangerous terrorist: Ajmal Kasab, or those guilty of the unspeakably sadistic attack on Nirbhaya? The demon within us seems more bloodthirsty and terrifying than any demon across the border.

Who is to exorcise this demon within, and how? Another Mahatma, who might meet the same deadly fate as the last one?

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Family, Socialization and Subversion of ‘Shame’

Ragini Nayak
31 December 2012, 03:55 PM IST

'Shame' is a powerful word because it is associated with something as pure and as forthright as the conscience. . In the societal purview, its presence in a person exemplifies a sense of pride and dignity. Its absence makes one disgraced and dishonorable. Despite the transformational powers it entails, nowadays 'Shame' seems to be a small and insignificant word in the wake of the ghastly acts of rapacious savagery being committed against women. Are the men who brutally assaulted and raped the 23 year old physiotherapy student feeling ashamed of what they have done? Or the only negative feeling that they have towards themselves relates to the regret of being caught. Let me generalize the question and see if the answer changes. Do all men who whistle, wink, grope, stock, harass, molest and violate women ever feel ashamed of what they do? The answer is NO. On the other hand, 'Shame' has been used against women as a double-edged sword. They are easily tag-marked as shameless transgressors for acts like marrying without the consent of family, seeking a divorce, asking for share in ancestral property, refusing to cover hair, faces, or bodies etc. Also, they are forced to feel ashamed for the physical and sexual atrocities committed on them. More often than not, only women have to bear the brunt of 'Shame'. Since time immemorial, 'Shame' in the form of a moral sanction has been an effective tool that the patriarchal society uses to control women, to limit their autonomy, their mobility and their choices.

'Shame' is directly linked to the utmost necessity for a victim of sexual violation i.e. her rehabilitation in society. Her social acceptance would be complete only when society will stop creating conditions under which she will feel guilty and ashamed for what was done to her. Those women parliamentarians who were themselves feeling ashamed and helpless after this incident, were still very vocal in proclaiming that the scars on the soul of the victim will never go and she will remain a "Zinda Lash" for the rest of her life. They must come to the realization that such incidents are not evil enchantments from a witchy tale whose spell can never be broken. Instead of challenging society's approach towards such victims, they ended up endorsing it. Such statements which reflect nothing but pitiable social conditioning (and a covert political agenda) can only lead the victim further into depression mode. Whether the perpetrators go scot free, get a life-term or are hanged would definitely have a positive or negative impact on the deterrent value and on assuaging retribution but an actual positive transformation in the lives of victims of sexual assault would take place when society would be ready to embrace them with an open heart. I am all for reforms.  I would definitely jump on the bandwagon of Police sensitization and accountability, Judicial expediency, Fast track courts and justice, Civil defense mechanisms, better surveillance through CCTV cameras so on and so forth. But, in the glittering spree of 'Institution bashing', I would not want to undermine the role of one of the most important social institutions, which has tremendous capacity to subvert the biased construct of terms like 'Shame' and overturn the set norms, namely the Family.

For that, one of the essential questions that we need to ask is that how do the societal interpretations and expectations of gender roles remain constant while individuals are dynamic? It is because societies and state legislate through families. It was not in vain that Louis Althusser proclaimed family to be one of the Ideological State Apparatuses. The family is able to adapt to the society by ensuring that the functions necessary for maintaining societal power structures are performed within it. Families do not socialize people into normative roles of man/woman, rather into gender specific roles. The terms of relationships in a family are taken for granted and the rigidly defined gender roles assigned within a family are hardly refuted. Thus, families become repositories of exercising the functions of society and sustaining the power relations endorsed by it. The toys that girls are given, the way girls are encouraged to dress up and be like their mothers, the way they are told to be docile and submissive is all a part of this socialization. And hence, differentiation of gender also becomes differentiation of power and the principle of stratification and hierarchy in our society continues.

With this theory of socialization in the back of the mind, the import of what Ram Singh, the driver of the bus in which the gang rape took place, said about the incident, is easily understandable. He categorically mentioned that it was the defiance of the victim that angered him the most. How dare she fight back, speak back and stand up to them? The deeply ingrained patriarchal mindset would automatically switch on the punishment button. And what is the biggest punishment for the females of our species? It is to shame her through sexual violation. Violence against women surges whenever the patriarchal status quo or the traditional mode is challenged. It strikes with severe backlash to kick women back in the space ordained by patriarchy for her. That is why it is important to understand that there is clear-cut power dynamics related with the very concept of rape. A lot of debate ensued on the issue whether the rapists are perverted, mentally sick individuals or is it about proving who the boss is? The important factor in the case of rape is that it is all pervasive, and is done across class, caste, region, religion, cultures and countries. It is not just the sexual desire or lust but the will to subjugate and dominate the victim that leads to rape. It is an explicit manifestation of the power relations entrenched in our social fabric.

If Gender Justice would ever break free of the shackles of being a fragile myth and if equality of women will ever become an achievable goal then home should be the starting point. Everything can't be left to the state. After all, the ideal situation would not be when every girl/woman is being accompanied/ watched/protected by a police official. The ideal society would be the one in which even without the fear of an administrative watch dog, men would whole heartedly want women to live and move around with as much freedom and liberty without unsolicited invasion on their integrity as they themselves do. Such a change cannot be ordered through statutory laws, it has to evolve from the social fabric, from families, from individuals. We have to stop believing that this deplorable social condition, this family set up is deterministic and inevitable. When the parents would make their sons realize the importance of respecting the other sex and treating them on par, when the society would stand up to support rape victims and ostracize the assaulters, when the social order, stratified by division of gender roles will stop seeing women as belonging only to the domestic realm, when men would willingly share with women the public domain where one gets remuneration, property, power and control only then this battle would be won.

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Delhi gang rape girl: Salute the braveheart

Jitendra Verma
29 December 2012, 09:57 AM IST

Yet again a life has been snuffed out, very violently at that. Yet again, a woman has been violated and killed in cold blood. The nation will pay homage to the 23-year-old Delhi gang rape victim who lost her battle for survival at a Singapore hospital. But beyond that customary homage, we need to act against such incidents.

The gang rape victim who was flown to the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in an extremely critical condition failed to survive and died "peacefully", according to doctors.

The gang rape triggered nationwide demonstrations with protesters from all walks of life converging at Raisina Hill, India Gate and Jantar Mantar, as also other parts of the country, to protest against the heinous crime and seek speedy justice for the girl who was interning as a physiotherapist at a Delhi hospital.

This incident yet again exposed the growing violence in our society and a lack of an administrative system which can curb such criminal activity through simple measures like a transparent and honest transport department, screening of drivers of public transport, vigilant police and technology that can keep track of anti-social elements.

The girl, we must remember, was only shaping up to provide for her brothers' education and had earnestly worked for a life that would have taken not only her but her middle class family from a remote part of Uttar Pradesh forward in life. To merely laud her 13-day fight for survival against all odds is not what we as a population should limit ourselves with.

A movement that gets the government to initiate a system where such crimes do not happen is the need of the hour. Let's stop debating over the pros and cons of the death penalty as a deterrent of crime and, instead, compel the system to give out speedy justice to such victims.

As for the government, instead of merely going into alarm mode against expected protests, it should cultivate honesty of intention in tackling crime. The Prime Minister told the nation he is also the father of three daughters. Let him spur his government into giving all daughters the right to live and work safely not just in Delhi but in the whole of India.

As a population let's be the monitors which have the ability to curb crime not just at the legal level but also at homes as parents, in schools as teachers and in society in general as a sensitive citizenry. Look within, look out and look for criminals in our minds.

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Be grateful, there won’t be any rape on Raisina Hill

Kannan Somasundaram
29 December 2012, 02:37 PM IST

Anthropo-legal theories cruise unstoppably like that bus with tinted windows,
And legislators say you have no moral right if a salon has fixed your eyebrows,
Water canons to the right of Indians, water canons to the left of them,
And teargas clogs their outrage in their throats like the winter phlegm
But the seat of power is sylvan and very British still
Be grateful, there won't be any rape on Raisina Hill

Rich Indians fly on weekends to Singapore and buy duty-free port,
Daughter of India flew too, but she was on maximum life support, 
Water canons to the right of Indians, water canons to the left of them,
And teargas clogs their outrage in their throats like the winter phlegm
But the seat of power is sylvan and very British still
Be grateful, there won't be any rape on Raisina Hill

Our rulers will break their silence and find rhetoric high,
But father of India's daughter wants to know only "why?"
Water canons to the right of Indians, water canons to the left of them,
And teargas clogs their outrage in their throats like the winter phlegm
But the seat of power is sylvan and very British still
Be grateful, there won't be any rape on Raisina Hill  

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Nirbhaya the revolutionary

Akhilesh Kumar Singh
29 December 2012, 02:48 PM IST

Dear God,

As a firm believer in divinity, I am convinced that Nirbhaya (the name TOI coined for the Delhi gang-rape victim) would have been offered a coveted seat in your heavenly durbar. She must have been consoled about her tragic demise, which is set to transform the Republic of India. "Better to die for something than live for nothing", the saying aptly describes that Nirbhaya even after her death means a lot to her country and its natives. She died in a saddle and not a cradle, unlike it happens with majority of us.

Even while battling against death, she triggered a national movement and her death has shaken the "People of India". The President and the Prime Minister of the nation are aggrieved and both have assured that death of Nirbhaya will not go in vain. She has become an icon, a national hero as the barbarism meted out to her has catalysed a national debate about atrocity against women and also the mindset of seeing women as an object of pleasure. Today the entire country is debating about the same mindset and people are asking themselves as to why we can't see all women with the same eye that we have for our own daughters, sisters and other women family members.

Nirbhaya belonged to UP's Ballia district, which is also the birthplace of Indian freedom fighter Chittu Pandey. On August 19, 1942, Pandey had unseated the local British government in Ballia and the district was declared 'free' by him along with a group of revolutionaries. They usurped powers of the district collector and several Congress leaders were freed from jails. Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose used to nickname Pandey as 'Sher-e-Ballia'. Pandey's heroism had gone a long way in inspiring the contemporary revolutionaries and he was seen as an example about how British could be chased away with sheer guts and firmness.

Nirbhaya too has revolutionised whole of the country. Every single home is in grief. There are demands about keeping the national flag half-mast and that the killers are tried through a fast-track court and capital punishment be executed as soon as possible. She wasn't a victim but she is the paragon of a soldier who fought until the day her breath stopped. She has a statue waxed in the heart of every human that became the poor bearer of this bitter news. She may not be coppered into a model and put across every crossroad in the country but she was a revolutionary and will always be a very important figure in the recasting of the way females are seen in this country.

Dear God, the recent experiment has given credence to the "God Particle" theory. Although, the sobriquet is disliked by many physicists, who regard it as inappropriate and misleading but I firmly believe in your existence and also in the principle of "divine justice". Although I firmly believe that no punishment can or will let Nirbhaya's soul be contented. But Oh Dear Lord, we demand from you to let Nirbhaya's soul reincarnate, may her soul be adhered to the hangman, who will hang the culprits till death.

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2014: the electoral math-II

Minhaz Merchant
28 December 2012, 02:22 PM IST

With the 16^th Lok Sabha election likely to be held in late-2013 or early-2014, four key factors will affect its outcome:

First, intractable inflation and sluggish economic growth despite a slew of new reforms.

Second, growing public anger against UPA-2's misgovernance.

Third, the BJP's continuing support to its president, Nitin Gadkari, despite charges of impropriety against him.

Fourth, the impact of the UPA government's Direct Cash Transfer (DCT) scheme.

Two of these factors are strong anti-incumbent catalysts. The positives for the government? A divided, often inept opposition.

The table below projects the number of seats the Congress and the BJP are likely to get if the general election was held now. Listed under the table are the seats UPA allies, NDA allies and others are projected to win.

The total number of Lok Sabha seats is 545, including two nominated MPs who have been placed in the "others" column. While the projections shown are based on an analysis of publicly available poll data, taking both qualitative and quanitative factors into account, they are subjective and indicative.

Coalition alignments will play a key role in the outcome of the 16^th Lok Sabha poll. For the purpose of this analysis, I've assumed that neither the Congress nor the BJP will declare its Prime Ministerial candidate before the general election. UPA and NDA coalition allies are therefore taken as those prevailing today though the analysis examines several alternative options.

2014 Lok Sabha: Projections

State	Total Seats	Lok Sabha Projection
		Cong	BJP
Andhra Pradesh	42	4	0
Arunachal Pradesh	2	2	0
Assam	14	4	5
Bihar	40	2	15
Chhattisgarh	11	1	10
Delhi	7	1	4
Goa	2	0	2
Gujarat	26	9	17
Haryana	10	4	6
Himachal Pradesh	4	2	2
Jammu & Kashmir	6	2	1
Jharkhand	14	2	10
Karnataka	28	12	9
Kerala	20	10	0
Madhya Pradesh	29	9	16
Maharashtra	48	12	12
Manipur	2	1	0
Meghalaya	2	1	0
Mizoram	1	1	0
Nagaland	1	1	0
Odisha	21	2	0
Punjab	13	2	4
Rajasthan	25	8	15
Sikkim	1	0	0
Tamil Nadu	39	0	0
Tripura	2	0	0
Uttarakhand	5	2	3
Uttar Pradesh	80	12	15
West Bengal	42	5	0
Andaman & Nicobar	1	0	1
Chandigarh	1	1	0
Dadra and Nagar Haveli	1	0	1
Daman & Diu	1	0	1
Lakshadweep	1	1	0
Puducherry	1	0	0
Nominated members	2	0	0
Total	545	113	149

In states where Congress+BJP projected seats
don't add up to total seats, UPA/NDA allies or
unattached regional parties make up the projected
balance as follows:

UPA allies projected seat tally:
DMK 8, NCP 8, NC 2, Others 12. Total 30.

NDA allies projected seat tally:
SS 16, SAD 7, JD(U) 20, AGP 2, Others 2. Total 47.

Others projected seat tally: AIADMK 28, BJD 18,
TMC 25, TDP 5, TRS 13, YSR 19, JD(S) 4, BSP 28,
SP 25, Left Front 21, Others 20. Total 206.
_____________________________________

The news isn't good for either the Congress or the BJP. The Congress is projected to get 113 seats, the BJP 149.

UPA allies (NCP, DMK, NC and others) get 30. The UPA total – a dismal 143. NDA allies (SS, SAD, JDU, AGP and others) get 47. The NDA total – 196.

Neither alliance will be in a position to form a stable government. What about the regionals? Between them, the SP, TMC, BSP, AIADMK, BJD, TDP, YSR, TRS, Left, JD(S), and others get 206 seats. Again, well short of a workable majority. And if you remove the UP, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh rivals (SP/BSP, TMC/Left and YSR/TDP) from the equation, the regional front sinks into near-oblivion.

The BJP's internal politics and ally-sensitivity could prevent it from nominating Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate. This will cut its seat total significantly – unless Modi leads the national campaign and his Prime Ministerial candidature is kept deliberately ambiguous.

But does Modi travel well? Analysts say the two rallies he addressed in Himachal this November failed to sway voters. Modi's pan-India appeal is an open question and the only way to get an answer is to put it to test by making Modi one of the BJP's principal campaigners in the eight state assembly elections due in 2013.

Modi as PM-candidate will polarize the majority vote for the BJP, leading to more seats but fewer allies as we see in Scenario 3 below. The RSS will meanwhile have to decide whether it wants to run the BJP in opposition or allow the BJP to run India in government. That means loosening control and convincing L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley to step aside to give Modi a larger national leadership role.

What about the Congress? If public sentiment sours further, Rahul may be held back as the party's Prime Ministerial candidate for fear of defeat damaging him permanently. Sonia reckons 2014's inevitable hung parliament will lead to a mid-term poll in 2016. Voters, having tasted instability, will rush back into the Congress's familiar and warm embrace. That's when Rahul will make his PM pitch and Priyanka play an increasing role in the party along with Sonia who will turn 70 in December 2016.

                                                       * * *

The bottomline: the BJP will get more seats than the Congress (149-113) but fewer allies. Final coalition score: NDA: 196. UPA: 143. Others: 206.

In the end, 2014 could boil down to an ideological battle between Sonia and Modi. Dynasty vs. Development. Dressed-up Secularism vs. Hindutva. Soft on Pakistan vs. Tough on Pakistan. Handouts to the Poor vs. Self-Reliance for the Poor. Dependencies vs. Competencies. 

Whoever's vision – Sonia's or Modi's – resonates with voters could end up forming, or supporting, the next government.

We are thus left with three likely scenarios for 2014:

Scenario 1: The UPA with 143 seats supports from outside around 150 regional MPs out of the 206 "others" (minus UP/WB/AP state rivals) as it did in 1996. A regional PM (Mulayam? Mayawati?) or even one from within the UPA (Pawar?) is propped up for two years till Rahul is ready in 2016. At this stage the regional front government will be unceremoniously pulled down. (The Congress supported, then cut down, Chandra Shekhar in 1991, Deve Gowda in 1997 and I.K. Gujral in 1998. It got Vajpayee's NDA for six years in return for the perfidy.)

Scenario 2: The NDA with 196 seats wins over 84 of the 206 "others" as coalition allies: AIADMK (28), BJD (18), TMC (25) and TRS (13). This formation of 280 would nominate a non-Modi Prime Minister post-election (Jaitley, Sushma or Advani) to guarantee support from "secularists" like Nitish, Naveen and Mamata. Modi could be given Home or even the Deputy Prime Ministership. He would have to prove himself nationally as a campaigner and also in government – and bide his time. He could then make 2016 his own battle against a post-Sonia, Rahul-led, Congress, targeting 180-200 sets for the BJP alone on a national development plank. Nitish and others would be bade farewell.

Scenario 3: The BJP, overcoming internal resistance, nominates Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate. How would this change the electoral math? These are the states where Modi-as-Prime Minister could bring the BJP additional seats in 2014 if he fires up voters the way he does cadres:

• 8 more in Uttar Pradesh, up from the projected 15 in our table to 23.
• 4 more in Bihar, up from 15 to 19 (despite the inevitable break with the JDU).
• 4 more in Maharashtra, up from 12 to 16.
• 4 more in home state Gujarat, up from 17 to 21.
• 2 more in Delhi, up from 4 to 6, 2 more in Rajasthan, up from 15 to 17, and 2 more in Karnataka, up from 9 to 11.
• 6 more in smaller states.

Total: 32 additional seats – taking a Modi-led BJP on its own to 181. The NDA would lose JDU's 20 seats but retain Shiv Sena (16), SAD (7), AIADMK (28), AGP (2), TRS (13), with the stated promise of Telengana, and possibly BJD (18), taking a Modi-led NDA to 265.

Even without the three "secular" Ms (Mulayam, Maya and Mamata), only a handful of independents and smaller parties (8 seats in all) would then be needed for NDA-3 to secure a 273-seat majority in the Lok Sabha.

Follow @minhazmerchant on twitter

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Nirbhaya shifted in her interests or govt interests?

Rema Nagarajan
28 December 2012, 02:55 PM IST

The shifting of the 23-year-old rape survivor to a Singapore hospital has raised innumerable questions about government intentions rather than reassuring the public of the government's 'best intentions'.

If most doctors including those treating a patient say that there can be no transplant or surgery for the patient for weeks, what is the logic of shifting that patient to a multi organ transplant specialty hospital? When the patient is in no condition to undergo a single organ transplant, or any surgery, what is the hype about a multi-organ transplant facility?

It is reported that Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde took the decision about involving and consulting the private hospital Medanta. Should the Home Minister be taking this decision or should the treating doctors be taking a medical decision? Or, was the Home Minister taking the decision because it was more about law and order implication and not about the medical/health implication of the decision?

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), hailed as India's premier institute is where even the Prime Minister is treated. It's specialised trauma care centre, Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Center claims to be a state-of-the-art center "setting benchmarks in patient care not only nationally, but also internationally", claims its website.

In India, there are also several other such specialised trauma centres and even multiple organ transplant centres in the private sector which claim to attract patients from abroad because they are among the best in the world. Are we to now believe that all those centres are lying? Maybe they are not really the best? Maybe, India does not have any centres of excellence when it comes to trauma care or multiple organ transplant.

Dr Samiran Nundy of Ganga Ram Hospital who has successfully done an intestinal transplant also told the media that it would take weeks to even look into the possibility of an intestinal transplant. He minced no words saying that he was puzzled by the hurry to take a critically ill patient in such a serious condition out of a facility which was working so well and added that it seemed more a political move.

Even more curious, doctors in Safdarjung Hospital who have been treating the patient from day one were not allowed to accompany the patient, barring one, the ICU in-charge Dr P K Verma. The other doctors were all from Medanta, who got involved just the night of the shifting based on Home Minister Shinde's decision.

To top it, the lapse on the part of the team shifting such a serious patient in not having an arterial line ( a thin catheter inserted into an artery) to monitor her blood pressure in real time is being passed off as a great feat that they achieved at 30,000 feet, in the airplane. Such histrionics of putting in an arterial line in an airplane would not have been necessary if it has been done before shifting the patient.

She had undergone three surgeries, suffered two cardiac arrests  from which she was revived but the clotting of blood in her arteries had reportedly left her weakly comatose.  And yet, the government insisted on shifting her. Why? Was it to shift the focus of media attention and protestors from Safdarjung Hospital?  Was is just to pretend to be seen as doing the best for the patient? Can the public be blamed for regarding the whole midnight operation shrouded in secrecy with suspicion? After all, what need of secrecy when doing such a 'noble' thing as seeking the best care for the patient.

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India must not take Nepal for granted

Rudroneel Ghosh
28 December 2012, 04:13 PM IST

Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav's ongoing visit to India comes at a crucial time. For months now Nepali politics has been stuck in a painful impasse. Having missed several deadlines, the country's Constituent Assembly which was tasked with drafting a new permanent Constitution of Nepal has been scrapped. This in turn has pushed Nepal into a constitutional limbo, leaving no other option for the country's political parties but to seek a fresh mandate from the people. However, the major political formations in Kathmandu are yet to reach a consensus on the modalities of the next election, further aggravating the policy paralysis that has progressively stifled Nepal's economy.

Almost all political stakeholders in Nepal agree that election is the way forward. Most of them are also in favour of a national unity government till polls are held in April-May next year. However, the current deadlock revolves around the nature of the prospective unity government. While incumbent Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) wants his government to be converted into a consensus regime before handing over its leadership to the opposition Nepali Congress (NC), he is opposed by his own party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, aka Prachanda. The latter has been urging greater flexibility on the part of the PM, insisting that Bhattarai hand over leadership of the unity government to the NC if it agrees to a package deal that includes, among others, protocols for appointments to constitutional bodies.

The NC, on its part, is not buying any of this. Having been out of power for the last four years, it feels it has been short-changed in the ongoing democratic process. It remains suspicious that should it join a Bhattarai-led unity government, the incumbent PM will renege on his word to hand over power. Nor is the NC fully comfortable with Prachanda's sudden desire to play the role of an elderly statesman. Meanwhile, the Madhesi parties are concerned about ethnic rights and want a redefinition of Nepali citizenship along with certain guarantees on federalism.

Add to this the factionalism and cross-cutting interests within each of the political formations and it is easy to see why Nepali politics today is a classic case of multiple oarsmen rowing the boat in different directions. Perhaps the only person who realises the cost of this impasse is President Yadav. He understands the price that Nepal has to pay if it doesn't promulgate a Constitution soon. The instability and chaos in Pakistan is a stark reminder of what awaits Nepal if its political parties are unable to hammer out the foundational charter of the new Republic. It would also mean that the peace process initiated in the wake of the decade-long civil war would remain incomplete. This is precisely why President Yadav has been using his office to try and forge consensus among Nepal's political stakeholders - efforts that New Delhi would do well to support wholeheartedly.

Having said that, Indian foreign policy towards Nepal needs to guard against complacency. In New Delhi there is an innate tendency to take Kathmandu for granted and only pay attention when presented with evidence of growing Chinese influence in the Himalayan Republic. This sort of callous big-brotherly attitude on the part of the Indian leadership needs to be discarded forthwith. It must be made clear that India-Nepal relations will proceed on an even keel. Nor should New Delhi be overly perturbed by Beijing's interests. India and Nepal share strong historical, cultural and religious bonds, making them natural allies. In fact, being a genuine all-weather friend to Nepal is what India should focus on. That's the message that President Yadav should be taking back home.

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India 2013. A time for New Year resolutions?

Sukanti Ghosh
27 December 2012, 11:06 AM IST

Come end December and people the world over start to think about the year gone by – the highs, the lows, the achievements, the failures, things to laugh about, things to worry about, new friends made and old friends forgotten, births and bereavements, political upheavals and victories, sporting heroes and heroes from the world of sport, cinematic icons and music moguls, the list is endless.

This is also the time of the year that most of us start to wonder about what the New Year will bring; and some of us try to take fate into our own hands by setting for ourselves an agenda of personal goals and objectives, which we hope to realize during the coming year. And though, these objectives or resolutions are often broken even before the month of January (named after the two-headed Greek God 'Janus' who had the power to look into the past and into the future) runs through, it doesn't stop people from making them again or trying to hold on to them for as long as possible.

Today even a cursory glance of the Internet reveals lists of resolutions for most everything and everyone - there are lists of resolutions divided by age group, gender, ethnic background, profession, and choice of pastime; there are lists of resolutions that are never kept, those which are most often kept, recommendations on how you can hold on to them longer, and even studies on trends in resolution making and breaking! For instance, a study conducted in the UK by global research firm YouGov at the beginning of 2012 revealed:

• 27% of British people say that they have made a resolution this year, while 73% haven't
• Of those who have made a resolution, 58% want to improve their fitness or do more exercise
• 57% aim to improve their diet
• 17% want to pursue a career ambition
• 16% say they would like to cut down on their drinking (and 7% want to give up smoking)
• 14% envisage spending more time with their family
• Other options included taking up a new hobby (13%), volunteering or doing charity work (7%)
• 3% said they wanted to spend less time on social networking sites (while a paltry 0% wanted to spend 'more time' on them)
• Men were especially keen to cut down on their drinking (23% compared to 11% of women), while women were much more likely than men to want to take up a new hobby (18% compared to 5% of men)
• 33% of those who had made a resolution said that they had chosen to do something that didn't feature on our list

Earlier this year, Time Magazine provided a list of the top 10 commonly broken resolutions: 

1. Lose weight and get fit
2. Quit smoking
3. Learn something new
4. Eat healthier and diet
5. Get out of debt and save money
6. Spend more time with family
7. Travel to new places
8. Be less stressed
9. Volunteer
10. Drink less

And Forbes, very recently, provided a list of the resolutions that will help you jump start your career in the coming year:

1. Get a raise or a promotion
2. Reduce stress
3. Be more organized
4. Quit your job / get a new job
5. Improve your work life balance
6. Network more effectively
7. Improve your relationship with your boss / co-workers
8. Enhance your communication skills
9. Get a degree
10. Be better with e-mail and voicemail

There are even resolutions made by non-profits, leading corporations and industry associations on behalf of their members: given the dramatic changes that the global medical devices industry has faced the US Medical Devices industry has arrived at the following 5 resolutions for 2013 in the hope that "this is the year to make operational and cultural changes to stabilize instead of sinking into quicksand". (http://bit.ly/Vy6Nef):

1. Stop whining about comparative effectiveness and embrace it
2. Be more aggressive about international markets
3. Innovate for local market
4. Hire medical economists
5. Engage patients to build better products

Though relatively less common, countries, through their leaders and government institutions, have also been known to make a set of resolutions for the coming year.  

If as intelligent, conscious and caring citizens of India, we were to arrive at a set of resolutions that India should consider making for 2013 - given the current socio-economic challenges and opportunities that the country faces - what do think they should be?

Herewith are a couple of ideas to set you thinking. Please add your suggestions to the list:

1. Ensure quality, affordable and easily accessible healthcare for all
2. Provide food security for all citizens
3. Ensure greater safety and security for children, women and the aged
4. Provide greater job opportunities to mitigate social inequity
5. Mitigate allegations of graft in the high places
6. Substantially reduce the pollution levels in our cities
7. ….
8. ….
9. ….
10. ….

For history buffs who would like to know more about how and where New Year resolutions started, please read: http://bit.ly/5Vpe2d

For those who would like to read some of the 'resolutions' made around the Chinese economy in 2013, please read: http://bit.ly/ZChhSB

Image courtesy: embassysuitesconcord.com and 123newyear.com

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The fear factor

Swati Sucharita
27 December 2012, 01:01 PM IST

Some of us might remember a TV reality show, the Indian adaptation of a hugely successful US daredevil stunt series, which tested (male and female) contestants' endurance of various phobias, like that of heights, bugs, snakes, spiders, you name it. The Fear Factor tested the primeval instinct, which rules all human minds, sometime or the other.

There is one primeval fear, however, which women across the gender, have in common,  and that is the fear of rape or molestation, which even while being inflicted on the body or the mind or both, leaves the soul and one's core, most scarred.

While the New Delhi protests by students, politicians, fashion designers, besides other ordinary civilians, against the rape of Nirbhaya (as the victim is named by TOI), and the retaliatory police action, threatens to resemble the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising (hope it doesn't end that way), we have yet another senior politician shooting off insensitive and uncalled for remarks. What was APCC (Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee) president Botsa Satyanarayana thinking when he announced at a press conference a couple of days ago in Hyderabad, "Just because India achieved freedom at midnight doesn't mean that women can venture out after dark. They should ensure that they do not board buses in which there are few passengers." Huhhh? A young girl cannot board a private bus, and that too with a male escort at 9 pm, (much before midnight, by the way, Mr Botsa)? Instead of reiterating the minimum assurance by the government of citizens' safety and security, blame the victim, who has been sodomised and her internals mangled out of life? Which means, if you board a bus late at night in Delhi, be prepared to be first raped, and then murdered.

Like other women, who have been students of Delhi University,  and who have traveled in 'U-specials', chartered and non-special buses, I will testify to the rites of initiation, as a hostel fresher, into the art of self-preservation as a woman in Delhi, (the umbrella handle held so, the can of pepper spray…also the words of advice from well-meaning seniors, "don't let the @##$** get away with it, always make a hue and cry in the presence of co-passengers")! Making a noise or just loudly and politely suggesting, "Do you mind moving your elbow or your good self", usually worked, most times at least. But there was always a sneer-laden smile thrown at you, as if you were the wrong-doer, instead of the leering male.

Like most other working women in Delhi, I have also been a sitting duck for "Aati Hai, Kya?" propositions from young and fairly-avuncular-looking gentlemen, while waiting, alone especially, to pick up someone from the railway station, or the airport, or to board public transport. As a hosteller, so many times even on the DU campus, one has been naïve enough to think that the man in the car who stopped by and rolled down the windows was asking for directions!! Haaaah!

But is the fear factor more rampant in Delhi than in other metros? I have worked and lived in different cities, like Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and now Hyderabad, and I am not a rocket scientist to say a resounding yes…Delhi, indeed, even from personal experience, is the worst city for women! 

When we moved to Bengaluru from Delhi, what impressed me was the soft-spoken and genteel manners of an average Bangalorean, compared with the ebullient 'Jat'-laden manners of Sada Dilli.

In Ahmedabad, I was even more conscious of the fact that eve-teasing is perhaps an unheard of concept. On one occasion, I realized, closer to midnight, that I had left my cellphone behind at a restaurant in Ahmedabad. I had come back to the hotel, where I was staying, working on a Diwali assignment for the women's magazine I was then with. I remember checking with the restaurant staff, and they confirmed that it was in their custody, and they would not close until I came, so could I please come there quick?

Without batting an eyelid, I boarded an auto outside the hotel gates, and don't remember feeling the slightest twinge of fear, while going out so late, and searching for the hotel staff under the half-shut doors. Would I have dared to do that in Delhi? Perhaps not, at least, I wouldn't have been so cavalier about it and going alone past midnight?? Definitely not!

I have a friend in Hyderabad, who doesn't think twice, before dropping anyone who stays anywhere in town, even after a late night concert, movie or event. She loves to drive around Hussainsagar Lake on the quiet, deserted roads late at night, especially when she is trying to collect her thoughts, she says. No safety issues, so far, she says. Would she dare do that in Delhi? Doubtful, even though I haven't asked her about it!

Metros like Mumbai are also no longer as safe for women as it used to be earlier, when Mumbaikars would assert that women could travel alone at night, do as they will, like sit on the Marine Drive sea wall late at night, and nobody would even bother them.

Quite recently, ad guru Alyque Padamsee launched an organization Izzat Ki Fauj, along with Benjamin Fernandez, the brother of Reuben who was stabbed to death while protecting his female friend from being molested in Mumbai last year. Izzat Ki Fauj was a spontaneous response to an eve-teasing episode involving Alyque's actor-daughter Shahzahn at a multiplex in urban Mumbai. He emphasized that, as a father, he felt extremely helpless when she recounted her traumatic experience.

Will Nirbhaya survive? While the nation prays for her recovery, she has become a living symbol of the country's dogged resistance to evil, and that surely is a healthy beginning.

21.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Apocalypse, NOW!

Meeta Chaitanya
27 December 2012, 12:35 PM IST

The world has come to an end.

The precise day, Dec 16, 2012 will be inked in our minds, in our writs, in our social media boards and forums, in our blogs, in our comments and maybe, for a change, in our legislative procedures as the day sanity, sanctity and safety died a brutal death in the person of a 23-year-old whose very existence, represents our collective damnation.

Niirbhaya, or the fearless one, as this newspaper calls her, is fighting for life for the last 10 days after being brutally gang-raped in the heart of the capital. She is fighting for survival. To want to live, to dare to live, would perhaps be a tad ambitious for any girl given the prevalent bestial, inhuman and senseless preying that is a routinely acknowledged fact in India, today.

Truthfully though, not just she, you are dithering on the edge of survival, yours are threatened, you are the victim. Struggling for a breath, but alive. For, when the accused left her for dead, what they didn't realize was that they left her, alive.

Niirbhaya's will to survive is the soul of this trauma. Will it be shepherded and avenged or will it be subdued and silenced? Silenced even as hundreds upon hundreds of children undergo similar, shameful, heinous atrocity every day. Shuffled beneath reams of newspaper reports that are cyclical in reportage (yes, to our disdain and shame this is a crime that is perpetrated nearly daily and reported more often than that!). Or will we, collectively rustle up the courage to protest, and the conviction to follow through?

Have you been raped today - section 376 (2)(g)? How have you been butchered- section 377? Who has murdered your conscience? Who silenced your voice today? Who pelted your perseverance? Who snuffed your dignity - section 394? Who stabbed your selfhood - section 365? Did you await the Mayan prophecy for your apocalypse? How many sections will need to be invoked before we stagger to consciousness?

As timorous as it may be, this trigger marks on the one hand, the end of decency in our society and the beginning of rightful outrage on the other. We have to choose between those two states-of-being, for there is no other way out. So go ahead and participate in that protest march, go ahead and sign the petition, go ahead and inundate your FB with countless shares, go ahead and badger with your pen what this country's administration should be doing with the sword, go ahead and choose your TIP (Test Identification Parade), so that one girl's will to live wins for us, what each one of us has lost, the instinct to survive.

I am ashamed, I am responsible, I was defeated that night, and every other when an innocent life is assaulted, I am the witness but, I am also the change agent.

As are you.

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Highs and lows of Indian Art 2012

Uma Nair
25 December 2012, 10:44 PM IST

2012 in the Indian art world was at best a stage with many acts- drenched  in the delights of pretension  and debauchery.And when  the dust  settles on deals and the lack of money flow and the recession has shaken the art world out of its dreams we can look at the prism of reality.

Low sales,very little buying,an Art Fair that saw very few highs in terms of transactions-foreign galleries complaining of the high handedness and lack of professionalism of the Indian customs and a number visitors losing handbags at the Art Fair! We can look back at 2012 and wince instead of whistle because lethargy was what lit up the year in lackluster sales all around.

Of course on the face of it galleries show a relative state of calm and no one wants to talk about the blue mood.While the point of any gallery in the business is grab eyeballs and have quick sales the mood is slow,somber and dull.

Jehangir Sabhavala and Rajinder Dhawan.

The year saw the passing away of two great artists-Jehangir Sabhavala and Rajinder Dhawan.It is interesting to note that suddenly when an artist passes away there are a host of people who appear out of nowhere stating claim to great shows and the like-but Paris based Dhawan's best shows were held at Bodhi Art Mumbai and Singapore and his works sold best in the period 2005-2007.

Between the  poles of culture and commerce-we need to find ways to encourage emerging artists and their works-we also need to engage in the building of the spirit of community rather than high handed competition.

Curatorial Disasters
In terms of the gaffes in the parade of curating 2 shows that stood out for poor quality in presentation and choice of works were the Meera Mukherjee show by Aakar Prakar at ITC Sheraton Hotel and the Nandlal Bose show at Lalit Kala Akademi.The Meera Mukherjee show was squeezed into a dark corner at Sheraton-what was more shocking was heritage works shown in shoddy obscurity-even worse was their slip of a paper that seemed to mirror the attempt to make up for an absence of a brochure.The Nandlal Bose at LKA suffered from scant disregard for a master. Bringing a show to Delhi from Kolkata is one thing-but expecting Delhi litteratti to be oblivious and ignorant of curatorial standards is a tad too tactless.

Best  Solo Shows 2012
Perhaps the show that made one sit up was A.Ramachandran's show of watercolours at Vadehras, Ram Kumar's ledger coming out of the attic at Vadehras again and Kalidas' journey in search of his father J.Swaminathan's roots at Galley Espace.On a side the visual Arts Gallery created a stir with Sudip Roy's Time Past is Time Present.Sudip's works of a Japanese portrait culled from his college years was the glory of the show because it personified the beauty of the wash technique and its multiple possibilities.

 

Best Photography Book –Sadhus by Rajesh Bedi
36 years of following  sadhus is a journey in itself.And wildlife photographer and BBC films Rajesh Bedi's documentation of the life of Aghoris in India is an odyssey that befits a kingdom .Bedi gives us surreal moments in time-when the darkest reaches of an ascetic journey can also be the most sublime.The book consists of stunning and stirring plates-the best being that of the Aghori sitting on the banks of the Ganga in meditation-here is one image that speaks of the richness of smoke and embers-where the reflection in the still water is an uncanny mirror of the truth of a passion that stretches beyond eternity.

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India’s dying need for new-age social reformers….

Prashant Panday
26 December 2012, 01:33 PM IST

The recent rape case in Delhi (and the hundreds others across the country which didn't get as much publicity and attention), along with a hundred other types of atrocities against women shows us that there is a desperate need for social reforms in this country. Without social reforms, such crimes will continue to happen. Making more stringent laws, increasing the police force, bringing in more modern technology are temporary palliatives; not the real solution. We need reformers with credibility who can address the different ailments of Indian society and make it their life's mission. People who do it out of a passion and love for the country, not for the lure of lucre or the glory of TV cameras.

Lets be honest here. Indian society is exceedingly orthodox and bigoted. It has been for many centuries. It is plagued by several and severe faultlines which simply refuse to go away with time. Those of us who are blindly proud (unwilling to accept these faultlines exist) of the Indian culture are in denial mode. We should keep the best of our culture intact, but we should be willing to shed its rougher parts.

It was only 200 years back that the practice of Sati, one of the most obnoxious of scourges in the country, was finally eradicated thanks to the tireless efforts of Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Mahatma Gandhi, in addition to winning India its freedom from the British, was one of the most determined and persistent social reformers this country has seen, for which he is emulated and revered worldwise. Gandhiji is most renowned for his fight against untouchability; everyone knows he started calling dalits harijans, people of god. Unfortunately, his work in this area wasn't completed and India continues to be ravaged by faultlines of caste, in which the worst is reserved for the dalits. Gandhiji was also a tireless crusader for women's rights and of course ethnic and religious unity. Much like Kabir in the 16^th century who made it his life's mission to harmonize relationships between Hindus and Muslims. I think we need another Kabir now.

India has been blessed to have had so many reformers. Jamnalal Bajaj who fought to get harijans the right to visit temples and draw water from public wells, Vinoda Bhave for his bhoodan movement, Baba Amte for his struggle against the public apathy for leprosy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar for taking up the cause of widow remarriage, Dhondo Keshav Karve for fighting for women's education (and also widow remarriage) and Virchand Gandhi for women's education have all contributed enormously to the modernization of Indian society. As have Baba Ambedkar for his struggle for dalit pride, Jyotiba Phule for removing caste restrictions and the dominance of Brahmins, Mother Teresa for caring for the downtrodden, Swami Dayanand Saraswati who founded the Arya Samaj and campaigned against idol worship and caste divisions amongst others, and Ramakrishna Paramhansa who went so far as to regard every woman as holy mother.

In spite of the vast efforts of these reformers, the work is not finished yet. In fact, many of the earlier faultlines – most notably related to caste, religion and women's issues – have returned to haunt India in a big way. Unfortunately, there are no reformers left to take on these issues.

The social reformer has to have high credibility because he (she) talks to society about difficult, unpleasant change. All social problems are within society, and by extension, within people. How many leaders today have the courage to speak to people about these problems on their faces? Most simply duck the issues; preferring to speak about the more pleasant things instead. I have said this earlier: a leader must have the ability, the determination, the courage to speak to his people about their mistakes, without fear of losing votes or being ostracized or worse, attacked. How many leaders speak against khaps? How many for dalits to marry into Brahmin families? How many for women to get equal opportunity for higher employment and professional glory? Why, we are unable to even pass the women's reservation bill which could ensure a semblance of women's representation in Parliament.

It's not like there have not been reformers in India in the recent past. I count Anna Hazare as a social reformer who worked tirelessly in the villages for their uplift. His work on water harvesting, removal of alcoholism, etc are what made him the national figure that he is today. His fight against corruption can also be seen as a life long struggle which was going along just fine, till the time he paired up with Kejriwal & co, losing focus, becoming political and simply descending from his high alter.

Modern day reformers – if they can be called that – are more elitist, catering to the upper crust of society, and while using Indian culture and spirituality as the motif, prefer on global audiences rather than the domestic masses. Take Sri Sri Ravishankar, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev and other such. We need people like them to penetrate the many strata that makes Indian society rather than attend to the needs of the rich and famous globally. India needs them more than the West does.

There is a difference between reformers and merely popular personalities. Baba Ramdev is an enormously popular yoga teacher, but he cannot be called a reformer. He is doing a lot for promoting yoga and even ayurveda, but very little for removing deep seated prejudices in his followers. Has he ever asked his men followers to treat women with equal respect? I doubt it.

The real truth is that it is on social reforms that will rid India of the various problems we face. India can lead the world in this. Rapes are far more common in the western democracies in India, but we can reduce the incidence even further, if only we can teach our people a little respect for women, and for personal freedom….

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Tender minds angry questions

Kingshuk Mukherji
26 December 2012, 02:27 PM IST

The savage gangrape of a 23-year-old woman and the angry outburst of youngsters thereafter, have left a mark on children. I am not using the word scar here, for fear of overstating the case. Twelve and thirteen year olds say they've been discussing the protests at school – during breaks, lunch recess and many have even urged their parents to take them to join the protestors.

These are tender minds who don't really understand the complexities and gravity of all that has happened. But they do have a sense of the enormous wrong and the outpouring of anger that the nation has seen for the past few days.

The average middle-class parent would much rather take a ringside view of the grim sequence of events, especially in a city where human life is cheap and "collateral damage" during police action is not considered unfortunate. But today, dad and mom are stumped. They don't know how to react to the increasingly strident demand to join hands with agitators who've responded to a voice within and risen in fury. Theirs is a passionate effort to reach out to an establishment that has looked, acted and sounded patronizing and uncaring.

Parents struggle to explain why the young woman at the receiving end of inhuman torture cannot be, and must not be, named. Why is it that an innocent human being who has been so grievously wronged needs to be protected from social stigma? Or, why every politician comes on camera and says: "I have three daughters, I know."

In this day and time of ferment, finding reasoned responses to these questions isn't easy. A father of a 12-year-old struggled to answer why we elect candidates with rape charges against their names to Parliament, Assemblies and civic bodies. After all, their textbook describes Parliament as the "temple of democracy". How could someone with such a terrible blot on him make it to that shrine?

For one, no right thinking father would approve of the assault on a policeman who was performing his duty when he fell. He was one of those men in khaki trying to rein in the protestors. He died on Christmas day. And, when his young son came on TV asking who would bring his father back to him, it broke a parent's heart. 

But what of our young minds? They are convinced the agitators at Raisina Hills are in the right. Their struggle is for a just cause. But now that some among them have been charged with murder, the child is even more confused – Now, how does one look at the agitation?

TV, for the past couple of days, has been beaming a storm of images – bright young faces, intelligent, expressive eyes, college-going, driven by common dreams of careers, devoting entire days to dodging past police barricades. They're not in class, not attending tutorials and not worried about competitive exams, but out there in the thick of action with placards, powerful slogans scrawled on them. The messaging is devastatingly sharp, packed with truth, scribbled hurriedly on plain white paper with blue, yellow, red and green doodle pens in language that has currency in the world of the young. Sample these: "You rape, we chop", "Metro kya tera baap key paise sey bani hai?" – Powerful stuff.

Suddenly, it's back to the days of the great rising. It's reasonable to be angry, legitimate to go out there and fling a stone, throw an abuse, if not at anyone, but at the impervious, cold colonial buildings that house the government of India and all those we elect or pay to sit there and push files so that you and I live with honour and dignity.

Days before, Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal were still remote, a Class VI student didn't quite relate to them. In the multilayered Coalgate scandal, the telecom scam, or in the shenanigans of politicians, the only word that resonated with them was corruption. That was about the only aspect they cared to grasp or had bandwidth for, not the nitty-gritty. But in a way, that was sufficient to convey to them that a deep rot had set in and some people had unfairly cornered massive sums of money. On the dinner table, dad and mom, uncle and aunt, the guest come to dinner chaffed on vile politicians. Many family elders sympathized with Anna and Kejriwal, saw hope in them, but seldom went out there and sat on dharna with them. Their fulminations were mostly private, over cups of coffee and gobi ka parantha.

But, not anymore.

This one's for real. One of them, one they could identify with, a sister, the girl next door they had a quick chat with every day at the park, had been brutalized. Worse, the gangrape was a tragic manifestation of what many of them had already undergone, often in silence. And, no one ever lifted a finger to correct the wrong. Not the system. Not their parents. Not the government. Not their teachers. Not even their protectors, the police. Never before had the protectors looked so much in need of protection.

So, who would they turn to? None. The only way now is to just go out there and scream, clench fists, agitate so hard that the legitimate authority structures, tasked to make the urgent corrections, are shaken and kicked into action. The only thing one can say of those who insist this protest is being politicized is that they are so right. Young minds, who wouldn't otherwise have bothered about the structures of governance, today want to join the protests against these. For, even the little ones find the sloth and inaction of the authority structures revolting.  

Yes, the child is now forcing the reluctant dad to get out of his stupor, go out there and join the throng, add one more brick to the new wall of anger, so that what happened to the brave, young woman on that cold Sunday night never happens to anyone ever again. The devil has struck home, far too close for comfort.

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With Constable Tomar dead, there is blood on the protesters’ hands….

Prashant Panday
25 December 2012, 04:33 PM IST

Shocking, the extent to which the demonstraters in Delhi have lost their mental balance. What was once a noble fight has suddenly become a lowly brawl. What was once a gathering of "revolutionaries" has quickly become an assembly of rowdies. What was once a soulful and peaceful demand for justice has long transgressed into the territory of violent injustice. The murder of  constable Subhash Tomar, killed for no fault of his, has changed everything . There is blood on the hands of the demonstrators.

What was constable Tomar's fault? That he was fulfilling his duty of maintaining law and order as ordered by his superiors? That he bravely went about doing his job even in the face of violent attacks from some of the protesters. The pictures in the papers yesterday bared it all. People pelting stones, overturning cars, attacking public property, and even provoking, taunting, abusing and physically assaulting the cops. If anyone has been arrogant in the last few days, it is certainly not the Government but these misguided "free radicals" who have made it a habit to descend onto the streets. They have now become the "mujahideen" of the Indian middle class who move from one cause to another without really having any understanding of any.

For if they did understand, they would have been satisfied long back. Their demand for a more stringent law has already been conceded. But the law cannot be made on the streets no matter how hard the protesters demand. It has to be made in Parliament and everyone from the PM to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi to the Home Minister have already committed to "quick" changes. I worry about anything done quickly in our country. For, often, the pendulum of law swings from one unfair extreme to the other. We saw that in the case of Section 498 (a) of the Indian Penal Code, introduced to protect women harassed for dowry, but which soon became the most handy tool for women to batter their in-laws with. I worry about how many rape-accused in the future will first be treated like convicted criminals and subjected to humiliation before they somehow manage to prove their case.

It is of course way beyond the pea-sized brains of these demonstraters to comprehend that any justice, like demanded in this case, has to be delivered by the judiciary and not by the politicians, against whom they are raising slogans. Maybe, they would be better off demonstrating before the High Court and the Supreme Court where thousands of similar cases are lying unattended. The High Court has now said it will set up fast track courts, but what prevented it from doing so uptil now? I am told that in Mumbai, where a similar fast track court was set up last year to hear the Reuben and Keenen murders (when they tried to protect a girl from eve teasers), even a chargesheet has not been filed. But who can explain this to the demonstraters?

It is also impossible for these hare-brained loose cannons to understand that death cannot be a solution for every crime. Several women's organizations have themselves argued against death in rape cases, fearing rapists may go even further and murder the woman to destroy any evidence against them. If we gave the death penalty for every crime (remember Anna wanted death for corruption also), India would soon resemble Talibanised Afghanistan. Its time these bunch of louts is shown their place. Like everyone else, I too have a complaint against the cops. But my complaint is not that the cops have been too harsh; it is that they have not been harsh enough.

If only the crowds had a little concern for the poor girl, they would have heeded the request of at least her father to stop the violence. The poor man hasn't lost his composure even in the face of extreme tragedy, but these protesters are finding it impossible to maintain theirs. The poor girl is already a victim of violence; what will the protesters achieve by inflicting more violence? And violence against whom? There is no one denying them anything. Everyone is on the same side. The demonstration is now without a cause.

Delhi in now witnessing a second chapter of shame. For if there is one scourge that is even more prevelent in Delhi than rapes, it is the cult of aggressive machismo. The preference for brawn over brain. The penchant for abusive language. Delhi has to give up such conduct if it has to be considered a modern city. Moderation and tolerance are critical ingredients of modern, cosmopolitan cities.

What would be right to do now is for the protesters to go back home; and if possible say a prayer for Constable Tomar. His death was completely unnecessary. Before the situation becomes any more messy, the curtains must be drawn on this unfortunate act.

The real truth is that Delhi has been held hostage by inimical elements over the last several days. Everything has a perfect timing to end; that moment has long been crossed for this particular protest….

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Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola

What a lovely way to start the year it will be! A Vishal Bharadwaj film that looks like it is full of energy and fun. And if we know anything from his filmography, it will surely have something more. What a pleasant surprise it is to see Shabana Azmi back in action. I am sure she alone will make the film worth the ticket price.

So, the story is set in a little village in Haryana and Mandola (Pankaj Kapoor) is a politician, Bijlee (Anoushka Sharma) his daughter and Matru (Imran Khan) his man Friday. It is very interesting that there are African women in this village and Bijlee dresses the way she does in a Haryani village. I guess these are perks of being a politician's daughter. Whatever the purpose, it goes without saying that curiosity has piqued.

Yes, I remind myself of my disappointment after watching Kaminey and the excitement balances off. Well, almost. There is something about Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola that says it will entertain and be a good film. If nothing else our we will know what Gulabi Bhains (pink buffalo) is all about.

And the music of course, has put us on a good start.

Music Reviews:
Milliblog - "Typically quirky and imaginative soundtrack from the Vishal-Gulzar combo!"
Music Aloud - "8/10"
dunkdaft - "MKBKM soundtrack serves it purpose perfectly - making us curious about the film. "
Bollyspice - "2/5"
Happy Sing - "Vishal has done some good work. And it's worth listening to. But the thirst that came with the big size, isn't quenched."

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Her story. Our story.

Soma Ghosh
25 December 2012, 06:17 PM IST

She is still alive and she is still willing to live. Her sodomized, gangrenous intestines have been removed surgically and yet her heart feebly beats on. Her body has started to reject antibiotics so she has been going through more surgeries and yet she whispers on 'I want to live'. Her wounds don't allow her to breathe on her own, she has been put back on the ventilator and yet she wants those who raped and brutalized her to be punished. She continues to will and continues to live. Her battered body continues to fight because of her unbroken spirit. That is her story.

I find myself in angry tears. Questions crowd my mind and judgment. 'How is she still alive? What keeps her heart beating? Is it not better that she dies than live in such pain? Will her death put out the flicker of rage in us? Will the men who desecrated her body and tried to batter her spirit be let off with little or no punishment because of the lack of stricter laws? I have suddenly felt a stirring in me. A part of me that I had thought had died a long time ago has come alive.

As a girl, as a woman, I had been told that I have the right to live freely. But have I really lived freely? The answer does not please me. I realize that all these years, in the name of living freely in my city, in my own country I have only made compromises with myself. I have been made to feel embarrassed of being a girl. Even before I could understand that my little body was changing, that I was growing up, groping hands and elbows have told me that I was not a little girl any more. Men and older boys at busy street corners, crowded markets, on buses and trams have stared and ogled, passed jeering, lewd comments, tried to touch and stealthily touched - a touch that spread a feeling of hatred and fear as it told me that I would have to hide myself and my body, be embarrassed, be ashamed and feel guilty.  .

Though enraged I walked on without a word. Later, I dressed more conservatively, though in vain, in the hope that nobody would taunt me or make passes at me. I walked faster on occasions when young men on bikes suddenly stopped and tried to whisper lewd nothings into my ears. I have on occasion entered a shop and waited till the man or men who had followed me have walked away after waiting outside the shop for me to emerge. I changed routes ever so often and took long detours to avoid 'unsafe' alleys, even in the daytime.  

On one occasion I changed buses, because a man taking advantage of the crowd around him tried to expose himself in front of me. I got off the bus at the next busy intersection, had waited very close to a group of men and women who looked 'respectable' and caught another bus, all the while looking over my shoulder to see whether the man had followed me and then frantically looking around for a man or a woman I could approach if this man accosted me. Was I scared? Yes. Did I try changing anything? Yes, the next day onward I carried a bigger bag and a broader dupatta and took a more circuitous route home. I remember, in my younger days, furtive instructions being passed on to me by my older cousin sister or my mother to steer clear of a certain relative or family friend, a guidance I respected and abided by, though wondering what may have caused this.

The few times I did pluck up the courage to protest, to question the 'respectable' face behind the groping hands I found myself surrounded by a sea of poker faces, my fellow human beings, standing next to me, listening to my outrage yet deaf and mute to their surrounding, ensconced in their little bubble that cocooned them and kept them safe with the thought that 'it's not happening to me, so it's not my problem'.

Those were days of growing up in a gray city of repressed men; days, when I was supposed to rejoice in the spirit of carefree youth. Were they? Alas! By the time I was in my early 20s, I had resigned to the fact that compromise was an essential part of growing up and living as a woman in a big, decaying, old city.

Now, after close to fourteen years of having survived three other cities, including Delhi and several countries, each of which left a few scars in my life, I have learned my lessons well. I know my limits, I know how to stay out of trouble, I know how to stay safe, I know I have to make certain compromises if I want to continue to enjoy myself without exposing myself to potential harm. I know that no one is safe – little girls, boys, married women, even the elderly - can fall prey to the viscous lust of these depraved creatures for whom it all seems to be child's play.

So where did my tears come from today? Had they not dried up a long time ago? Why does the state of this unnamed girl who was raped, battered and left to die make me so angry? Why now? Why do I want anything to change? What is it that is forcing me to step out of my safety bubble and feel this outrage again? Is it the way she had been brutalized?

I know why. It's her 'never say die' spirit and her incessant fight, even in her darkest moments, which tell me that I gave up even before I thought of putting up a fight. Her story tells me that I compromised too soon. She has razed the inhibitions that I have been living under for the better part of my life. Even in her defeat, her brutal assault at the hands of these beasts who call themselves men, she has taught me that there is no shame; there is no defeat; there should never be any compromises made; that life is worth living despite the barbs and arrows that fate unwittingly throws at one. Salute! 

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One week later

Deepan Joshi
24 December 2012, 03:18 PM IST

It's like a winter chill that sets on you, leaving you numb. In this cold they threw out the boy and the girl naked around 10.15pm as a living system throws out its refuse. After they were done, they dumped the two like disposable waste. The white Chartered Bus should have stood out as it's not a bus that plies on the busy and posh Olof Palme Marg every day. Yet it managed to encircle the area from 9.15 to 10.15pm on Sunday night. The FIR was lodged in the Vasant Vihar police station. This then was their idea of an ideal Sunday.   

A bleak first week after the act has come to an end. How is she is a national question. Time has been halted and defined: Stable but Critical. The act was out on the Monday that has just gone by and the blood-splattered newspapers were out on Tuesday morning when outrage could be felt more easily than an earthquake in the capital. It was as if the city was mutilated. Office was horror-struck and a colleague who sits nearby was much more candid than the parliamentarians. He spent the entire day boiling and fuming. Capital punishment, its uselessness, chemical castration, lynching on city roads, hanging, and life imprisonment accompanied by torture, all were discussed. The women could convey with words, with silence, with indignation, with sardonic rage. A woman colleague during a conversation put forth an earnest thought: What was this? What is this? Her question is the complete definition. It is necessary to ask questions to which there are no answers. This crime has no name, it is indescribable, and it goes beyond the sections defined in the IPC. I can't even begin to describe it as it is much more twisted than the human intestines.          

It was somehow difficult to feel from a distance or perhaps I didn't want to write from a distance. So after I finished work on Tuesday, I reached Safdarjung Hospital around midnight. I knew the OB Vans would be outside the entrance to the Emergency so I reached there and found myself alone with huddled groups of TV crew scattered around the 8 to 10 vans. I walked in to feel the earth beneath my feet. If you've done time in hospitals then you can sense the atmosphere. It was a quiet night, a rather busy Emergency, and there was no mistaking that someone 'important' was battling to survive. I just had to be there and someone would have talked.  

Two nurses outside the Emergency slowly opened up after realizing that we were on one side of the border. They were, obviously, much more shocked than I was because they knew more. The matron loosened her face mask and pulled it till her jaw as she wanted to speak from inside. The other nurse had it hanging around her neck. The act came out in hushed and hissing voices as if it was concentrated Sulphuric acid. I read somewhere that the doctors described it saying they haven't seen such a case in four decades.

Must have been a hard-earned Sunday for the 23-year-old girl and she had the idea of roaming around in a popular mall with her 27-year-old engineer friend, then watch a recent movie, The Life of π, and reach home by 10. That in hindsight was her crime because as it turns out you can't do that in this city anymore. This is an indicator of one extreme of our culture. Of what is going on out there. This story from the Wednesday edition of the Times of India in profiling the main accused tells you about how un-mad and cool-headed he was.           

Then on Thursday I went around 6.30pm and this time the response was outside the gates of the hospital where hundreds of candles were lit with dozens of students, working professionals, lecturers from DU and JNU, and individuals who had come to the hospital gates commuting from long distance to express solidarity had gathered. And then began the horror stories.        

I was pointed to a study in Tihar Jail of around 900 rape convicts showing that by the time the law catches up with them it is usually their third or fourth time. This can be gauged by seeing the manner of the main accused—he brushed aside the risk with an air of casualness, asked his partners to lie low for a while, on being caught he refused a test identification parade, and in the heat of the crime had planned to keep the clothes of the victims to destroy any DNA evidence. He was known as 'mental' in his neighbourhood. This cannot be his first crime and he should have been behind bars much before, and that tells you that there is a need for effective and intelligent policing.       

There is something that makes this girl special. I don't know what it is exactly but I can try. It has nothing to do with the act, the crime, with her being the victim. She symbolizes whatever little is good about us as a society. She has two younger brothers and yet her father sold a piece of land to educate her and not save the money for her dowry. In a country notorious for selling the girl child short, this is as shining an example from the other side of the border as you would ever get.

I feel another thing; the tragic irony of the act also makes her special. This pain was reserved for someone who had such a deep relationship with it. She was a 23-year-old physiotherapist interning with a city hospital. To elevate pain you have to feel it extremely-sensitively even though you are not having it yourself. If you don't have the passion for it, then in my view, it's among the world's most-boring jobs. It takes a physiotherapist months and months of work for minor improvements in a frozen shoulder and for spinal injuries it could take years of sessions. You need loving hands to do it.

I just hope she survives and gets justice because that will help her live. Justice is the only prosthetic for an amputated soul. And justice is not just a court verdict. It means that our culture gives her the space and the silence to heal. It means once she recovers, we die for her. We make no attempts to breach her privacy, no drama to refresh her memory, and it means that our response is human and not political. It means that even from a distance we are able to feel.

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