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India – 3 people awarded life imprisonment in 1984 Sikh riots case

Ashish — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 18:43:44 +0000

It is always said that justice delayed is justice denied, the very fact that the criminal justice system in India takes decades to wind through and deliver justice. In that time, people either give up on justice, die, or implemented their own form of justice; conversely, it becomes easier to thwart justice by either witnesses being bought or scared away, their testimony becoming hazy, or witnesses simply not being present anymore. All these reduce the effectiveness of the judicial system as a way of delivering justice to society.
India has had a history of massive riots in the past, even starting from Partition where riots between Hindus and Muslims were horrendous in terms of casualties. After partition, there were cases of riots where the police and administration either were unable to control the riots, or played a partisan role. It is the cases where the administration played a partisan role that are a blot on society, and the inability to judicially address these crimes is actually criminal.
The 2 biggest such cases were the 1984 Sikh riots, and the 2002 Gujarat riots. In both cases, the administration let the riots happen (and it is accused with a lot of testimony and circumstantial evidence) that functionaries of the ruling party played a big role. In the 1984 riots, after Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her own bodyguards (who were Sikh), there were mobs of people (primarily in the city of Delhi) hunting down Sikhs (on the streets, and in their homes) and killing them by burning them or by cutting them down. Congress leaders (primarily HKL Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, and Jagdish Tytler among the more well known) were accused of leading these mobs, and it was only after 2-3 days that the situation was brought under control.

By then, a community had been horrified, but this was not the only crime. The bigger crime was that this situation was never taken quickly through the criminal justice system, and the perpetrators of such a genocide were never brought to justice (even the Gujarat riots cases are having a tough time in being brought to justice, and it is many years now). It is only occasionally that you hear of a court decision in the 1984 cases, or you hear of the CBI deciding that there was no evidence against Jagdish Tytler, so that he could be rehabitilated.
Why all this ? Well, I read of a judgment where a sessions court sentenced 3 people to life imprisonment for their involvement in attempt to murder during the riots (link to article):

A Delhi court awarded life imprisonment to three people for attempting to murder members of a Sikh family here in 1984 anti-Sikh riots and came down heavily on ‘contrived inaction’ of the police and the Government of the day which led to loss of “priceless lives”.
The court slammed the Delhi police and the Government for its inability to tackle the riots that followed the assassination of the then PM Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. “History would never forgive the police officials who were at the helm of affairs and the government of the day for their unprecedented slothful and quiescent role.

The court also criticized the role of the police, the administration, and the local Government of the day. However, the fact remains that these were all failures, but how can the court just not comment on the fact that this judgment is being delivered 25 years after the cases; where it is possible that family members of the victims may have died, where society is totally sensitized about the incidents that happened a quarter of a century back. I watched areas of Delhi burning from the top of a high rise, and can never forget the scene, but in the overall memory of society, I believe the 1984 riots are a forgotten incident.

Humour: Kenyan offers animals for Chelsea Clinton

Ashish — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:07:08 +0000

Chelsea Clinton’s (wikipedia) dowry: 40 goats and 20 cows.
Now if you have finished laughing, this was actually a proposal made by a Kenyan man (Godwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor). Giving livestock for gaining the hand of a girl in marriage is apparently proper in Kenya, and this offer was first made 9 years ago when the then President Clinton had visited Kenya. He renewed the offer when President Clinton’s wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Kenya, and she was told of the offer in an open session. What makes the offer even more interesting is that the man is already married, but it would be legal for him in Kenya to get a second wife. However, it would be quite apparent that he would have to wait for quite some time for Chelsea to agree to this proposal.
Maybe the man felt emboldened since now President Obama has kin in Kenya, and this would have made Godwin seem bolder. A secretary of state cannot be rude or be forcefully direct, so Hillary took the most politically correct answer in terms of stating that this would be Chelsea’s decision. (link to article):

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, the session’s moderator, commented that given the economic crisis at hand, Chepkurgor’s dowry was “not a bad offer.” However, Clinton said her daughter was her own person. “She’s very independent,” she said. “So I will convey this very kind offer.”
In Kenya, a man proposes with dowry for the prospective bride, Chepkurgor explained. He said he stands by his initial livestock offer until someone makes a counteroffer. Chepkurgor, now 39, first made his intentions known when all three Clintons visited East Africa in 2000. He wrote a letter to the former president, offering himself as his only child’s suitor. He said he had not expected the secretary of state to address the issue during her visit to Kenya this week.

Iran – People Getting Killed in Prisons

Ashish — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:05:20 +0000

The struggles following the Iranian election and the dispute over the ‘successful election’ of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were not crushed as was initially thought. At some point, when the Supreme Leader waded again into the controversy by first declaring the election as valid, and then actually calling for stringent action against the protests, the huge public rallies stopped. No longer were there sights of large number of Iranians coming out in the streets and protesting against the election, fighting with the police, with the Revolutionary guards and with the lumpen force of the Basij.

Opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi also seemed to somewhat buckle down against the onslaught and withdrew his calls for public protests (he however did not endorse the election and continued calling it a fake). There were other movements in this area, with the clerical force being divided over whether to support the election or not. From behind the scenes, the former President Rafsanjani continued with his efforts, but not enough to win over the support of enough people to influence the situation.

At the same time, members of the Revolutionary Guards seem to have taken the calls for strong use of force literally, since they arrested a number of protesters and carted them off to prison, apparently without much involvement of the police force or the intelligence agencies. The Revolutionary Guards have become much more than a paramilitary force; they are now involved in the economy in various ways (including running industries and making money by the handful). Further, during the reign of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, they have apparently become much more powerful, with hints that they are actually now one of the major forces in Iran, and that the clerical establishment is not as powerful as it was thought.

It is the action of this force in the prisons that has become very controversial in the last few days, with people starting to be found to have been killed in these prisons during torture and interrogation. Under Islamic Iran (unlike other dictatorships), the wishes and apparent rights of the citizens have been always been important, and for people to be start getting killed in the prisons under torture has shaken the country. It reached such a degree that the Supreme Leader (and not the President or the Interior Minister) ordered closure of some of the more horrific prisons (link to article):

About 140 Iranians detained during protests against last month’s disputed election result have been released from Evin prison, officials say. The release comes after Iran’s supreme leader ordered the closure of another detention centre because it failed to “preserve the rights of detainees”. The unusual moves show how much pressure Iran’s leaders are under over detainees, correspondents say.
In recent days the opposition has reported almost every day new deaths of protestors held in prison. Iran’s prisons are notorious for their poor conditions, correspondents report. Former political prisoners, such as journalists and bloggers, have complained of human rights abuses such as solitary confinement, harsh interrogation tactics and even torture at Evin.

So even though it would seem that the President’s victory is now enforced with no opposition, there is apparently wide-spread disenchantment, and it would seem that protests happen on almost every occasion. In addition, the President also faced a huge issue when his choice for Vice-President was vetoed by the Supreme Leader and the President almost seemed to defy the Supreme Leader.

The shift by Senator Specter – and what this means for US politics

Ashish — Fri, 01 May 2009 05:10:24 +0000

It is the wish of every US president to have a compliant Congress that will vote his way for the bills that he wants. Many Presidents have had the horror of having to veto bills that have been passed by Congress that they do not like, and also had the inverse effect of seeing their favorite initiatives doomed due to gridlock in Congress, and even worse, when the Congress is dominated by a party that is the opposite party of the President, every bill and initiative is an effort, with huge expenditure of political capital (Bill Clinton had to contend with a Congress that was dominated by the opposite Republican Party; and lately Bush had to content with a Democratic Majority in his last few months).
Even when the Opposition Party is not the dominant party, they still have the weapon of the ‘filibuster’ to block (or seriously delay) bills that they do not like. What is actually a dream for the President is when his party reaches the magic figure of 60 in the Senate (at which point the Opposition Party cannot even use that weapon). And this is a dream that Obama almost has in his grasp; with the announced decision of Senator Specter to cross over to the Democratic Party, and with the State Supreme Court judgment in the case of another Democratic candidate for Senatorship maybe heading towards the Democrats, the Senate may be heading towards a filibuster majority for the Democrats.

This is introspection time for the Republicans; they are down and out right now – and yet, instead of trying to become more inclusive and including people in the center, a section of the Republicans seems to feel that they need to become more conservative; that they need to go back to their core statements of small Government, fiscal and moral conservatism. A lot of these were dramatically over-turned during the Bush years and the heritage of that era still causes a lot of schisms inside the party. However, unless they try to become more inclusive, it is quite likely that the Republican party will cede control of the moderate sections of the American citizenry.
However, it is not that President Obama has a free run now. As the Democratic party has reached out to people in the center, there are now Senators who have opinions on subjects such as gun control, abortion, fiscal responsibility, etc which are closer to what the traditional views of the Republican Party had, and different from what the Democrats used to believe. As a result, if President Obama wanted to get a bill passed on abortion rights, or on gun control, or on climate change, a lot more opposition will now come from within the Democratic Party rather than outside, as was the case in the past.

Chavez wins the right to keep on going in Venezuela

Ashish — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:16:57 +0000

Hugo Chavez just keeps on going. He is the most important face of the anti-American resentment in South America, and has inspired many people to react against American policies. He allies with Iran and Cuba, both states that are an anathema to the US. Inside Venezuela, he is a strong figure, who inspires strong feelings both for and against. Ever since becoming President, Chaves has got strong support from the poor and the downtrodden (enough support that he gets re-elected easily, and has been able to push for the changes he wants). At the same time, because of him being a polarizing figure, he has been actively opposed by the richer and more affluent section of society who cannot stand his policies.
It is not that Chavez is a do-gooder who is opposed by richer sections because he is a true democrat; Chavez is for all practical purposes a strongman who will push for getting his policies in place, and will take actions when he deems them sufficient. However, term limits for the Presidential post were an important impediment for him being able to continue with his policies, and hence the push by him to change the policy so that he could continue to keep on standing for the post of President. He was rebuffed by the voters the last time he tried, but this time, he has managed enough support to get the change passed:

Without a constitutional change he would have had to stand down when his term expires in 2013; instead he had secured the right to stand again for office in the next elections due in 2012, and elections beyond. “I am ready!” He told them. “With today’s victory we start the third historical cycle of the Bolivarian revolution, from 2009 to 2019.” This has been a crucial victory for Venezuela’s president. He had a lot riding on the outcome, both personally and politically.
While Venezuelans have shown with this vote that President Chavez still has more than enough support to win another presidential election, a lot can happen in four years and the road to the 2012 election may well be rocky.

A lot of what Chavez did earlier was due to the high price of oil for the past many years, providing him revenues that enabled him to dole out huge sums of money to his supporters (while kicking out foreign oil companies). However, with oil prices down to the $40 level from the $140 level of just some time back, it is difficult for Chavez to provide the same amount of largesse. It would be interesting to watch his policies for the next several years to see what he can achieve.

Space crash between US and Russian satellites

Ashish — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:51:27 +0000

One always thinks of space as a large open area, with plenty of space in all directions. You combine this space with the concept of satellites being well regulated and following controlled orbits, and then it is difficult to believe that satellites under the control of such countries such as the United States and Russia could actually collide, and yet that is exactly what seems to have happened:

The collision between a U.S. and a Russian satellite over Siberia may have been accidental and the first of its kind, but experts say more crashes will inevitably occur and could have geopolitical consequences. “This is an event that really makes us realize that things are not so straightforward as we originally thought,” said Francisco Diego, a senior research fellow in physics and astronomy at University College London.

The collision, between a spacecraft operated by U.S. communications group Iridium Satellite LLC and a Russian Cosmos-2251 military satellite, happened 485 miles above the Russian Arctic on Tuesday afternoon. The crash sent at least 600 pieces of debris off into space, officials said, increasing the risk that other satellites, including the vast International Space Station, which orbits 220 miles up, could be struck and damaged.

This crash may have been accidental, but what is to prevent countries from investing in such technologies. For example, a couple of such crashes have the effect of impacting the GPS and communication technologies that are used by the US military to great affect.

Chunnel fire – trains restart

Ashish — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:07:47 +0000

The Chunnel is shorthand for the Channel tunnel – the 3 tunnels under the English channel that connect the land masses of England and France, and effectively broke the separation of England from the European mainland. When these tunnels were made, they were an engineering marvel (still are), going for 3 tunnels that go for 39 kms under the water. 2 of these tunnels are for to-and-fro train traffic, and an in-between 3rd tunnel is for maintenance and an emergency exit. This 3rd tunnel fulfilled its purposes yet again when a train carrying a lorry with some sort of chemicals ignited, and caused a major fire in the tunnels on the 11th of September, 7 km from Calais. This is the worst nightmare of a claustrophobe, caught in a tunnel with a raging fire that uses the tunnel structure to become an inferno.
A fire in such a location can be very damaging for the tunnel infrastructure, and a similar fire some years back had caused $200 million worth of damage that had to be repaired. In this case, along with repair effort, there are other economic losses – with normal passenger traffic (in the thousands per day) having to be much more reduced (due to having to use only one tunnel), and a huge backlog of lorries waiting to be transported across to France:

The Channel Tunnel has reopened to trains after Thursday’s fire, with some lorry shuttles and a reduced Eurostar passenger service operating. Trains are running in one of two tunnels that normally carry traffic. The other remains closed while the French authorities investigate. Car shuttle services have not resumed, with Eurotunnel giving priority to lorry shuttles and Eurostar.
The tunnel was closed after fire broke out on a freight train about seven miles from Calais on Thursday. The 16-hour blaze was put out on Friday morning. Thirty-two people on board were led to safety when the fire broke out. Fourteen had suffered minor injuries, including smoke inhalation. Some of the lorry drivers involved in the incident have told how they escaped from an amenity car close to the fire.

Modern technology comes with its own problems, and in this case, it was lucky that the passengers did not suffer more serious damage. A fire in a tunnel has the potential to be coming very huge.