Ravinder Pal Singh, Assistant Inspector of Police, was shot dead in Amritsar (Punjab) when he was trying to save her daughter from an eve teaser. The culprit is Ranjit Singh Rana, a young Akali Dal leader. This is not the first case. A few days ago five miscreants had killed a youth who protested against lewd comments passed by miscreants to a girl living in his neighbourhood in a Mumbai suburb. It has been happening not only in Mumbai but also in Bangalore, Delhi and many other small cities such as Kanpur, Amritsar, Noida, etc.

What is happening to youngsters and why are they indulging in these kinds of activities? Do parents and teachers teach them well how to behave with girls? Should we blame all this to media? Should we blame their upbringing and the way their parents bring up them?

Do we need tougher laws?

Sections 509 and 294, 354 of Indian Penal Code deal with sexual harassment cases. Offenders can be sent to jail for one year or Rs. 12,000 fine or both. Activists believe that we can make stringent acts but they will remain post facto solutions. Political will and police action at the right time is required to handle these cases.  

Why people are doing this?

Why does a boy feel like doing this? It has been observed by many that there is a male mindset that rape is a crime but eve teasing chalta hai. Should we blame Indian entertainment industry which has glorified eve teasing in some way or the other? They show lad clad in fashionable clothes pinch a girl and easily get away with it. We need to tell them that they should respect each and every girl. No one gives them license to eve tease a girl just because she is wearing skimpy clothes or goes to pubs or smokes cigarettes. 

We need to change the mindset of the people and need to stand up with girls who decide to complaint against such harassment and take up these cases to police. These are the girls who are the torch bearers and will change the world for their fraternity. Cheers!!!

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A still from the music video Gangnam Style

Gangnam Style, a music video by a South Korean singer Psy, went viral over the Internet. It has been seen millions of times since it was uploaded on the video sharing website YouTube. Why is it so popular? Is it an excellent piece of musical creativity? Do the lyrics of the song have deep meaning? Or is it out of the ordinary for some other creative reasons unknown to common people? How did it become the most liked video in YouTube history?

There are many such questions that boggle the minds of the people who have watched this video and even those who have not searched it on YouTube and only read about it in news reports. The strange thing is that ninety per cent people who do not understand Korean had not understood the lyrics of the music video if they would have not seen it with subtitles in their preferred languages. The phenomenon of liking a musical video in the language we don’t understand was seen in India when Kolaveri Di went viral. The song was as popular in Punjab and U.P. as it was in Tamil Nadu. It will not be wrong to say that Gangnam Style is more popular in other countries than in South Korea. It has fan following everywhere from Africa, West Indies to India and Sri Lanka.

But what is Gangnam Style? Wikipedia says that ‘Gangnam style’ depicts the lavish lifestyle associated with Gangnam district in Seoul (South Korea). The lyrics of the music video do not tell about Gangnam Style but the video does speak a little about it. 

When I listen to this song for the first time I could not make head and tale of its meaning. I tried looking for the translated version of its lyrics and when I read the translated version I realized that I was better of without knowing what exactly it meant. There was nothing to understand. It was as senseless as Kolaveri Di. But the video has enough material to make you roll on the floor laughing (ROFL).

The translation of the lyrics of Gangnam Style in English is given here so that if you could make any sense of it then please explain.

Oppa is Gangnam style
Gangnam style

A girl who is warm and humanle during the day
A classy girl who know how to enjoy the freedom of a cup of coffee
A girl whose heart gets hotter when night comes
A girl with that kind of twist

I’m a guy
A guy who is as warm as you during the day
A guy who one-shots his coffee before it even cools down
A guy whose heart bursts when night comes
That kind of guy

Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey

Now let’s go until the end

Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style

Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh

A girl who looks quiet but plays when she plays
A girl who puts her hair down when the right time comes
A girl who covers herself but is more sexy than a girl who bares it all
A sensable girl like that

I’m a guy
A guy who seems calm but plays when he plays
A guy who goes completely crazy when the right time comes
A guy who has bulging ideas rather than muscles

That kind of guy

Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Beautiful, loveable

Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Now let’s go until the end

Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style

Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh

On top of the running man is the flying man, baby baby
I’m a man who knows a thing or two
On top of the running man is the flying man, baby baby
I’m a man who knows a thing or two

You know what I’m saying
Oppa is Gangnam style

Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh

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Abhishek Pandey

People are angry in India. They are fuming not only in New Delhi but almost in every part of the country. People in Kanpur and Mumbai are up in arms against the arrest of cartoonist Assem Trivedi. He is facing a charge of sedition for making a cartoon on national symbol. Congressmen are infuriated in Odisha against Biju Janta Dal (BJD) for doing nothing for the development of the state despite being at the helm of affairs for the last 12 years. One woman constable was allegedly pulled by her hair, molested and beaten up badly by the out-of-control mob.

People are on Jal Satyagraha in Madhya Pradesh against the BJP government for their demand to bring down the water level in Onkareswar Dam so that they need not to leave their land and settle elsewhere. Farmers are protesting in Uttar Pradesh against the State government; they are vandalizing public property to push their demand for increase in compensation given against their land.  In Tamil Nadu people are protesting against Kudankulam nuclear plant and a 44-year old farmer had lost his life in police firing. Muslims are coming on streets in almost all parts of the country in solidarity with Muslim brethren against the violence against Muslim in Assam and other parts of world. Many policemen including pedestrians were injured; public property was destroyed. 

Is India a country of intolerant people? Or it is just we have not learnt how to use our constitutional right to free speech and expression. India is a democratic nation and everyone has a right to express their opinions in words or in pictures or for that matter in cartoons too. But no one gives us a right to throw stones at police or public. Are these protests solving any of these problems? They may not be solving.

This is our constitutional right. We have right to protest what we don’t like but it is our duty not to disrupt public life. It is our duty not to give anyone a reason to protest. Many of protesters are inspired by Mahatma Gandhi but they have not learnt being responsible like him. Someone had rightly said, “my freedom to move my fist ends where your nose begins.”

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Abhishek Pandey

The answer is no. And I have reasons to say this. The modesty of a girl was razed on one of the busiest roads of Guwahati on Monday night. More than 20 men molested her, dragged her on the road by her hair, groped her and ripped her clothes in full public view. She cried. She begged for mercy and help. But no one came forward. As usual, police came late. However the officials managed to save her from a bunch of jeering boys but failed to save her from the trauma that will haunt her all her life.

After the incident, the girl was in utter shock. She had no idea what has happened. What was her fault? Everything was fine before the incident. She had left her home a few hours before to attend a birthday party. She was going home after a brawl among her friends. The unfortunate act that went on for fifteen minutes or even more has left an indelible mark on her memory; life will never be the same for her.

Three days have gone, thirteen culprits have been identified and three have been arrested too. Police officials have done their job and hopefully, will arrest others soon. Law will take its course and the court will punish them. But have we learnt anything from this incident?

In my opinion, this particular incident does not raise any question on the functioning of police rather it question our existence as a society. It tells bluntly to our face that we have failed as a society. It shows that we are living in an era when people complain and cry about eve-teasing, molestation and violence against the fairer sex on Facebook and Twitter but do nothing in real life except being a mute spectator.

I am sure after seeing this incident on TV, all parents are worried and they should be. They will think twice before sending their daughters for coaching or shopping after the sun set. The incident will make the parents of girls think that we have not yet become civilized and there are people from barbaric age and roam on the roads with their libido.

Girls are not safe on Indian roads. And even the chief minister of Delhi accepts this when she says that girls should avoid going out at nights. I understand that she is not against women liberalization or something. She just wants girls to reach home safely and she said that out of her motherly love. I am not a great fan of congress not of Sheila Dixit. I appreciate her concern and any mother will suggest her child the same before going and eliminating all hooligans on the roads. It is different argument all together that she as the chief of the state should ensure that girls can roam around on the city roads without fear. I believe that the advice should be considered as a precaution till Delhi or say Indian roads become safer for girls.

Police may say that this is an isolated incident and it does not prove that our roads are not safe for girls to move out. The incident is disturbingly surprising because many people witnessed the incident but did not protest. Now it is high time for us to think what we learn from this incident? What will be our reaction if something like this happens in front of us? How will we react? THINK.

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Are we doing enough?

Our tigers are in danger. They are falling prey to poaching and man-tiger conflict. Inviolate spaces for tigers are shrinking. Villagers living near core and buffer areas of tiger reserves poison them in revenge for killing their cattle. The government agencies have failed miserably in relocating the reluctant villagers; as in the last 40 years they have been able to relocate only 105 villages out of 1700 in protected tiger reserves. Abhishek Pandey visited the Jim Corbett National Park in Nainital (Uttarakhand) as part of a media briefing workshop on ‘Tigers, Tiger Habitats and Conservation’ organised by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and reports the present status of the national animal.

Jim Corbett Park (Uttarakhand): India had over 50,000 tigers in the beginning of the 20^th century and is now left with only 1,706. Habitats are shrinking because people living on the fringes of tiger reserves are dependent on forests for grazing and firewood. Poaching is rampant. Thousands of posts of forest guards are lying vacant across the country. Tigers are facing threats to their lives on many fronts.  

Thankfully, the situation has improved slightly with the efforts of many NGOs and government agencies. According to the Environment Ministry, the estimated number of tigers at 1,706 is higher than the 1,411 tigers in 2007. India still has over 70 per cent of the total tiger population of the world.

Sunita Narain, Chairperson of Tiger Task Force (TTF) and Director-General of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said, “Our forests are habitats of people and not wilderness areas. Millions of people depend on forests for their livelihood. We should keep in mind the interests of people too for sustainable tiger conservation. We should not develop hostile neighbours for tigers and should work on changing the conservation paradigm. We should work on providing employment and tourism benefits to villagers and also allow them to harvesting produce on a sustainable basis.”

However, one of the members of the task force, Valmik Thapar, had written in his note of dissent sent to the chairperson that human and tiger co-existence plans will not work because people will not relocate if the co-existence plan will improve their life 100 fold. He has written a book The Last Tiger and said that a miracle is required to save Indian tigers. He has said in an interview that lions don't co-exist with people in Africa, jaguars don't co-exist with people in South America and tigers and leopards have never co-existed with people in India.

The country has 41 tiger reserves in 17 states and out of which 25 reserves have notified buffer zones. Around 50 per cent of the tiger population lives outside the protected tiger reserves. They are vulnerable to poaching. Despite rigorous tiger conservation activities by government agencies and the forest department, the nation has lost 45 tigers in 2012 (till June 9, 2012). This year has been a terrible year for tigers.

RK Mishra, Director of the Jim Corbett National Park, claims that there have been no instances of poaching since 2001. The department arrested three poachers after finding four metal traps inside the park. Some wildlife activists have alleged that the park is a haven for poachers and that 15 tigers have been killed in 2012. However, this has not been confirmed yet.

Mishra, who hails from Odisha, added, “The forest department is trying to put a stop on retaliatory killing of tigers. Villagers poison tigers if the animal invades human habitats and kills cattle. We give immediate compensation to the villagers whenever a case is reported.” The Jim Corbett Park has over 200 tigers and there are over 40 tigers in Ram Nagar Forest range.  

Odisha

Simlipal was one of the first nine tiger reserves which were declared in 1973. Besides Simlipal, Odisha has two other tiger reserves—Satkosia Tiger Reserve and Sunabeda Tiger Reserve. According to the state government, there are 192 tigers in Odisha, while the Wild Life Institute of India (WWI) states there are only 45.

Lala A.K. Singh, who is a wildlife expert and has worked in the Simlipal Tiger Reserve for more than two decades said that we can save tigers in Odisha only by minimizing human interference and creating inviolate space for the animals.

As Ravi Chellam, wildlife biologist and conservationist, puts it, “tigers are territory animals and they cannot live in apartments like humans. We have to create inviolate space to protect tigers.”  

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‘The Third Eye of Nirmal Baba’ is one of the most seen religious programmes on TV. The show is telecast on 44 channels including three in the USA. Nirmaljeet Singh Narula aka Baba spends over Rs 4 crore a month for telecasting.

According to reports, he earns around Rs 70 lakh a day in his religious samagams. He charges Rs 2000 for attending his samagam and even a child above the age of two has to register. He charges extra money for personal meetings. He takes money for doing pooja on the behalf of devotees. All this makes his annual income around Rs 250 crore.

He claims to remove all the worries of his devotees; provided they do what he suggests. Nirmal Baba ‘peeps’ into the past of his devotees with his ‘magical’, or say, ‘divine’ powers and solves their problems. Some get promotion in jobs, some accumulate wealth in a few months time and families of a few devotees recover from serious diseases. But many in the media and those have been associated with him alleged that he gives money to junior TV actors for asking questions in his shows. He impresses people by telling their past and makes people believe that he helps his devotees a lot.

If you want to benefit his ‘powers’, you just need to deposit a few thousand rupees or if go by his suggestions a 10 percent of your total income for a Dasvand Puja in the account of Nirmal Baba and in return, he will shower his blessings on you.

‘Baba’ tells his devotees to keep a black purse—it must be an expansive and branded one, a packet of 10-rupee notes in their purse to receive the blessings of divine powers. He tells them to eat Golgappe, dye their hair black, plant a money-plant in a glass vase and keep in the house and several other amusing ways to get rid of problems and sufferings.

According to a newspaper report, he had married a girl Sushma from Jharkhand in 1964 and also owned a brick kiln for some time. He has two children—one son and one daughter.  He has around Rs 110 crore in two bank accounts and also has a fixed deposit of Rs 25 crore.

There are many complaints for cheating pending against him; including one filed by two children from Lucknow at Gomti Nagar Police station.

The rise of Nirmaljeet Singh Narula aka Nirmal Baba has proved the statement of Barnum, the famous circus owner: “There is a sucker born every minute."

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Akhilesh Yadav is a man in a hurry. He has more clout than any other politician in UttarPradesh. Akhilesh is the youngest chief minister of the most populated Indian state. He has emerged as the strong man of the Samajwadi Party. Unlike other politicians in his party, he has risen from the grass roots to a position of authority and therefore understands the political milieu better than the most.
 
He is the only person who can cut the Gordian knot of political problems that beset the part after the victory. Almost all the candidates he supported have won and he has emerged stronger. Akhilesh has brought about a change in the policies of the party. He has announced of introducing computers in schools and giving laptops and tablets to high school and intermediate students.

Akhilesh has emerged as the strongest contender for the crown of Yuvraj which has been associated with Rahul Gandhi, at least in UP. The Congress party had lost badly in the assembly elections. Rahul Gandhi is being criticised for the debacle and Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the party, has been defending him. Rahul is being lampooned by the media for his failed, much-hyped political canvassing and tactless distribution of tickets.

 It is not in the Congress alone that faces such a problem, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) is also ina similar problem. Though, the BJP has been successful in transforming its image from a communal party to a party that, in the changed climate, champions the interests of all communities. However, the party has lost ground among Hindus.

The biggest ever victory of the Samajwadi Party has warmed the cockles of party supporters. Today, in an abrupt turnaround of fortunes, the party has emerged as a major threat to all the parties in the forthcoming general elections due in 2014. The impact of this victory may be short-lived in the minds of the people; but the fear of losing the next election endures in the minds of all the bigwigs of the Congress, the BJP and the BSP.

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