Vox Populi Issue 252

                                                                      VOX POPULI                                           
                                                                               by
                                                                         S Kamat
                                                                                as
                                                                         Aam Admi
                                                     Issue: 252                     Date: 08.10.2018    
                                skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com             

Contents:

1. Narendra Modi's Hopes For A Nobel Peace Prize

2. India's #meToo Moment 

3. India In Circa 2018

                                Narendra Modi's Hopes For A Nobel Peace Prize

Our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi seems to be angling for the Nobel Peace Prize, after getting the UN Champions of The Earth award. His plank for aiming at the Peace Prize are the Jan Dhan bank accounts which identifies financial nclusion in the world's largest democracy notwithstanding the fact that  a large number of such accounts are lying inoperative and those that are valid are being massively misused like during the Demonetisation times. Then the Swaccha Bharat Abhiyan along with the newly launched sanitation programs which form the basis for the UN Champions Of The Earth award.  The latest in Modi's armoury along with the earlier two to aim at the Peace Prize is the National Health Plan launched recently which though very ambitious in scope is not supported by adequate budgets and financial resources. The current allocation of funding for the health plan will only give a measly Rs. 20 per capita for the covered population. Talk of a gas-filled balloon this is the biggest. Dramatic in scope and intent but all hot air inside! Aspirations and ambitions are all right but these need be supported by fact and that is where Modi's claim to achievement falls far too short. Modi's thinking must be that if Barrack Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize for doing nothing why should the Nobel Prize Foundation not consider his claim.

But the Nobel Prize management maybe anticipating Modi's nomination or because of its own internal problems is re-thinking whether they should consider altogether dropping  the awarding of Nobel Prizes from 2019 and pass it on to another agency. The reason behind this is the scandal surrounding Jean Claude Arnault who connected through his wife to the Nobel Foundation and has been recently sentenced to 2 years in prison for raping and sexual abuse charges brought against him by some 18 women. He was also the reason why the 2017 Nobel Prize of Literature was not announced and why the 2018 Literature Prize  may not be announced. With this scandal there are many of the nominees on the Nobel Prize board who are generally members for life who have relinquished their positions. This has led to the erosion of the reputation and credibility of the institution which is making the Foundation seriously review its program of announcing the Nobel Prizes.

So much then for Narendra Modi's hopes for a Nobel Peace Prize from the original Foundation! 

                                            
                            India's #meToo Moment

When the world celebrates by giving the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize to 2 crusaders who have been working against sexual violence in war-torn areas, we have privileged women in India raising their voices in a #meToo movement when India's women and female children, minors and infants are fighting against rape in a war zone kind of situation in the country generated by their male counterparts. Those who are talking up until now in India's #meToo movement are women who are comfortably placed economically or at the top of their professions and who are venting their grievances more in a vengeful mode than anything else. It would have been better if these women had raised their grouses at the time when the incidents occurred and sought redress then. If these women had talked about rape in our society considering that some of their voices are heard in the media it would have been a greater service to the country. Postscript: The extent of the problem of rape can be understood from the unrest now prevailing in northern Gujarat where migrant workers and their families are being attacked by locals and they are leaving the State in large numbers after an alleged rape of a 14 month old baby by a migrant worker. Where these women in Bollywood should have protested against the depiction of women in Indian cinema they are airing their personal idiosyncrasies and exposing the psychological faults in their characters. Rape and 'item numbers' are a staple of our cinema which are watched by audiences, the women in silence while the slavering predatory single male comes out of the cinema looking for  targets and he seizes the most vulnerable of the female gender, minors and infants, and satisfies his lust. One is not saying that cinema is not the only reason for the rise in incidence of rape in the country but it is one of the significant  factors why rape happens. These Bollywood actresses who are taking pride in launching a #meToo movement in India should introspect about their actions and see if their voice can be used to improve and make safer the lot of their kind rather than drive their own personal and selfish agendas. 

                           India in Circa 2018

The Sunday morning headlines on 30th Sept 2018 made one want to shake one's head and confirm that we were fully awake and that all this was happening in our country, India. In Goa the papers headlines screamed that a Christian man's body kept in the mortuary of the Govt Medical College had been inadvertantly cremated as an unclaimed body with other such bodies and the body of a Hindu was found in the particular mortuary slot. Simple logic would say that a Christian was cremated and a Hindu was offered for burial.

Then national headlines, blared out that an American style cop killing had taken place late in the night in Lucknow's Gomti Nagar when an Apple executive accompanied by his lady colleague whom he was proceeding to drop in his car was gunned down by the police as he had refused to stop the car when the 2 policemen had asked him to stop.

This is India, my friend, in Circa 2018, where common people cannot go about their lives without undue interference from the police and even in death they are not respected for the faith that they profess.

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