|
|
|
|
|
| HOME | NEWS | COMMENTARY | SNAFUspheres | |||
|
February 11, 1999
SPECIALS
|
'No mercy should be shown to these sons of the rich'How Readers reacted to Varsha Bhosle's recent columns
Date:
Thu, 4 Feb 1999 16:00:40 -0500
Sometimes I feel ashamed to be born in India. This is a reason. I don't know how to express my deep shock at how these rich lawyers go to any extreme to free themselves of their mistakes. If one of the guys who died was a relative of these lawyers, would they have defended the driver? Oh what a joke the Indian legal system has become! It is okay for the driver to drive at high speed, but it is a crime for people to walk late in the night! I express my condolences to the families of the deceased. May the legal system take the correct path. Jai Hind!
Ravi K Peddu
Date:
Thu, 4 Feb 1999 13:36:37 -0800 (PST)
And I thought Varsha was oblivious to India's secular and social issues, legal reforms, and politicisation of the bureaucracy. Hell no! She is one-up on them, but prefers to write (religion) stirring pieces, for the obvious reason -- it sells. For once, the Maharashtrian belle has delivered! No mercy should be shown to these sons of the rich. They have committed a crime. They should be prosecuted as per the applicable law. That indeed is a difficult proposition, because, the battalion of defence lawyers will put their thrifty brains together, and in conjunction with others prove that the real criminals were the dead! Unfortunately, the Indian judicial system cannot prosecute the non-living! May it be known to our "learned lawyers" that these young kids of the "stinking rich" and "ignorant parents" have overstepped the law and must be prosecuted for: 1. Driving under the influence of alcohol 2. Speeding 3. Hit and Run, and above all 4. Destroying valuable evidence Unfortunately, another case of borrowed freedom will go down in the history lanes, while those seeking justice is left in a lurch. The rich and the powerful will continue to prove their immunity leaving the innocent to judicial tardiness. To answer your question, whether these "innocent" drivers would have behaved like this in the USA or London. Hell no! Remember the Clinton saga? Nobody is above the law. In general, Indians are an epitome of law-abiding citizens here. The system keeps them in perfect civic lines abroad. Of course, when the same is expected in India, they are a completely different species. They very well know by greasing the ever-demanding palms, they can get away unscathing. Finally, I think Nina Pillai should get a life! She needs to step-out of her social envelope and look at the world objectively. Will somebody drill this into the spoilt socialite? Tailpiece: It still beats me why Bal Thackeray (who detests Indian Muslims) intervened in the Sanjay Dutt case and got him out... can Varsha investigate?
Date:
Thu, 4 Feb 1999 20:40:37 -0000
I fully agree with Varsha. It is really sad to see the so-called 'educated lawyers' taking such a stand. Is the value of life so cheap? Reminded me of one old story about a king ordering the execution of his own son as a cow pulled the bell to ask for justice on her calf's death in a 'hit and run'. I guess India in 1999 has come far away from those days... even to the extent of protecting and supporting the accused.....' Mera Bharat Mahan!'
Date:
Thu, 4 Feb 1999 12:10:18 -0800 (PST)
Just tells what money can do in India. Of course, that is not to tell that the US of A is above corruption or that it is an Utopian society -- only that here the law is above everyone, or how else can a Bill be prosecuted? Can u imagine a president going to court in India? The Laloos, Jayas and Rajivs (to mention a few) don't care what they did since they know that it is just a matter of time before they become LEADERS of this country....(sic) If I was given a wish....if God gave me a boon and said ask for whatever you want....I would wish that: "ALL POLITICIANS IN THE COUNTRY (called INDIA) get assembled in A SINGLE CONVENTION HALL and at that moment either the Pakistanis/Chinese/Indian military get enough courage to bomb that convention centre. NOT A SINGLE PERSON SHOULD ESCAPE" The reason I am telling ONLY POLITICIANS is that if I say EVERYONE WHO IS CORRUPT, then the population of India would get reduced to ONE MILLION (from one-billion)... and I love my country too much to do that!! I hope one more BHAGAT SINGH or SUBHAS CHANDRA BOSE, SAVARKAR comes up and show these SPINELESS IDIOTS that it takes more than politics to lead. I hope there is one more MAHABHARAT in which the Politicians are on one side and Krishna appears and gives us the knowledge, skill and courage to vanquish the seemingly massive political army!!! As Pritish says "INDIA IS A FIRST RATE COUNTRY WITH FOURTH RATE POLITICIANS"...so if we remove the fourth-rate....we will be left with no alternate but be a FIRST RATE COUNTRY. Jai Hind! S Srivatsa
Date:
Thu, 4 Feb 1999 14:24:38 -0500
It's thought provoking and I personally feel that one should not show any mercy to such guys!! I live in theUSA and I know how we have to drive here. Forget about hit and run, which is a serious offence. The slightest misdeed or negligence on the road (may be a mere 5 to 10 mph faster than the posted speed) catches the eyes of cops and presents a ticket (penalty!!) to your driving record and, of course, the pocket. Varsha is right in saying that these fellows tend to show obnoxious behaviour in their own country while obeying the laws of others!!! The Indian law should sentence them for life and teach a bitter lesson to others who tend to repeat the same!! Kamesh Mullapudi
Date:
Thu, 04 Feb 1999 12:25:44 -0700
I cannot claim to understand how it feels to be in the shoes of the victims -- it would be foolish. But then again, this is not the first instance a wealthy, spoilt brat with influential parents has shown scant respect for the lives of fellow human beings, and his parents plead his innocence. Nothing really has changed, has it? A totally tangential issue. Sriram
Date:
Thu, 04 Feb 1999 13:19:27 -0600
I wish that Nanda had committed this homicide in the USA. He would have been sentenced to life or hanged.
Ashok
Date:
Thu, 4 Feb 1999 14:06:03 -0500
Good article. I really liked what Varsha wrote. This is the first time that I am 100% with Varsha. Anurag
Date:
Thu, 4 Feb 1999 13:43:25 -0500
Keep it up. This Indian living in the US for the past 35 years loves your reasoning. I love the way you come out with both guns blazing. These BRATS are a different breed outside the country and behave totally different in India. Keep it up, Varsha. Brij
Date:
Thu, 04 Feb 1999 13:31:42 -0500
Your article about Sanjeev was very revealing, to say the least. I can't believe that after committing such a heinous crime, he will probably get away thanks to the Indian justice system. However, in the last paragraph of your article you had mooted a rhetorical question as to why desis in the US or elsewhere are always on their best behaviour. Your article seemed to suggest that it was entirely due to the fact that "brownies" living in the white man's land can never really get away with drunken driving and the like. As much as there might be some truth to it, there is another important aspect that people often overlook. Your average desi living in the US does not come from a rich khandaan like our man Sanjeev here. Your average desi belongs to the middle class (or at best upper middle class) who is normally an engineer who lived (or lives) a hands to mouth existence on his stipend at grad school or is working in a software company and saving money to buy that dream house back in India. Most of these people do not and will not break the law: Be it in USA or India. Further, most of these people do not indulge in the extravagant life style that our man Sanjeev seems to be used to. Therefore, to compare a guy like Sanjeev to the rest of the Indian community is, how shall I put it?.. just not cricket... R Pazhianur
Date:
Thu, 4 Feb 1999 12:39:05 -0500
Castrate such people! Vivek Shukla
Date:
Thu, 04 Feb 99 23:25:43 Central Daylight Time
Heck, I have been reading Varsha for a while now. And of course she makes statements. And she started her article quoting Nina Pillai and ended it up making her own. Darkies, goodness where did she find that! Indians (above 30) are good drivers in the US not because they drive fast, but because they drive slow! Rahul
Date:
Fri, 5 Feb 1999 12:14:38 -0000
I am amazed by the defence counsel saying that driving a car at 100 km/hr does not amount to culpable homicide. It is a crime to do over 60 km/h on Delhi's roads, it is a crime to drive under the influence, and it is a crime to kill someone by crashing your car into them. The men obviously knew they were drunk. However brainless they were, they were not insane, and so cannot claim that they did not realise that they should not drive while drunk. So, in effect, if they knew they were doing something murderous, and still did it, is it not culpable homicide? Secondly, these men should be charged with destruction of evidence, and conspiracy to affect the course of justice. They clearly knew what they were doing when the car was hosed down. Since there is no evidence but that of the surviving victim, it should be borne in mind that pleas by the defence that the charges be dismissed for lack of evidence should not be upheld. If someone kills another person, and then successfully does away with all evidence, does it make him innocent? This is not a case where evidence has been planted on these men. This is not a case of vendetta, where witnesses may be tainted. This is not a case where there are other suspects. Then why is the system even listening to the defence counsel twist the law around? Why are these men out on bail? So they can kill someone else? So they can destroy whatever evidence remains? What is wrong with this country? Is it so easy for murderers to get away? We know the answers to those -- remember Sushil Sharma of the tandoor murder case? If the prosecution has any sense, they will revoke their passports and inform their schools (where these murderers are spending the ill-gotten gains of their parents) about the nature of their crime. The court should remand them to police custody and try to get them expelled from school. That will teach them a lesson. They should be banned for life from driving, and if possible, they should be given 99 years in prison. Oh, for a government which is tough on crime! But Indians don't believe in equality before the law, they believe in extracting concessions for one group or another. I hope these murderers are given capital punishment, or at the very least, sent to prison to suffer the brutality of prison life -- they deserve it. Ruchira Raghav
Date:
Fri, 05 Feb 1999 12:51:12 +0000
Surprise, surprise! I never knew that you are even good in these social matters. Does this mean that you are coming back to your senses? There has been no comment from you about the Stains murder and other atrocities on Christians. I would love to hear some from you. Yasir
Date:
Fri, 05 Feb 1999 10:05:36 -0600
In the early '80s, Shankar Nag starred and directed Accident, playing the honest reporter who tracks down and prosecutes the diabolical politician played to perfection by his brother Anant Nag. The rich drunk brat in his BMW mows down a bunch of sleeping pedestrians, drives to his friend's house, has the bloodstains cleaned, and tries to go scot-free. The honest reporter gets a whiff of the plot and the diabolical politician tries to thwart all attempts to prosecute the two "kids". What happens next made for a suspenseful thriller, and Accident bagged a Karnataka state award for best film. Usually movies emulate real life. It is absolutely shocking to see real life happenings flawlessly following a movie script. Krishnan Sundararaman
Date:
Fri, 05 Feb 1999 16:28:40 -0500
I have often read your articles in The Sunday Observer. But this is the first time I have read one after moving here. I think you have done a good job on decimating Ms Pillai. And God knows, she deserves it! The whole incident makes me sick. What she is saying, in effect, is that the rich can, quite literally, get away with murder. I'm glad you tore the premise apart. Could you do it less profanely, though? That is just a personal aside, and doesn't take away the fact that the article was very, very good! Anuradha
Date:
Sat, 06 Feb 1999 15:20:26 -0800
In your article about the two young reckless drivers, you ask whether the 'darkies' would have gotten off so lightly in the US. I am not sure what being a ' darkie' has to do with it. Having driven in the US for the past two decades, this 'darkie' is clueless on this point. Methinks these casual comments besmirch a society unfairly. On the other hand, perhaps you should check with some of the other 'darkies' who are helping run the Silicon Valley, not to mention other segments of the US economy, as to their experiences. Kris Chandrasekar
Date:
Thu, 4 Feb 1999 21:47:07 EST
Varshaben you are mistaken, manipulated and targeted. I have happy experience with almost all the digital equipment you despise. The digital diary is a lifesaver. The cute little thing can store easily 2,000 names, addresses, phone numbers and fax numbers and other information. The calendar is built in for decades if not for hundreds of years. It is a handy tool to contact new and old friends, clients and customers. Palm Pilots are even more useful. e-mail, the Internet and the world is in your hand including online banking which can save you the drudgery of writing, stamping, signing, gumming, dating and posting for each routine bills. The mobile phones are very useful while travelling with children even if to another county. Even a new and sturdy Taurus tire can hit a nail and you can be stranded on a highway at an untimely hour. Seriously, please let me have details of Rotichef. I can surprise my folks by it! Rasik Sanghvi
Date:
Fri, 29 Jan 1999 22:07:33 EST
Just wanted to point out one small detail. In the US you don't get to see people using a cellular phone unless you are driving a car right behind them! These people can't seem to find a more inconvenient time than that to stick their cell-phones to their ears! In India it might be a minor nuisance, but in the US it becomes downright dangerous, especially when the cell-phone idiot insists on switching lanes at 125 kmph without using his/her blinkers because he/she has one hand on the wheel and the other on the phone! Srinath Jagannathan
Date:
Fri, 29 Jan 1999 14:07:40 -0800
While the possibility of an "analogue family" is an oxymoron in the techno age, the idea of "having to learn" the digital hours is even more so. Doesn't the digital clock tell the "spoilt" digital-savvy and the "simpler" analogue-rich users alike, the time by the 24 hour and 12 hour clocks? I guess that's where one of those "dozen tiny buttons" comes in handy. And whatever would champion athletes do without the digital stopwatch? As they train for a competitive race where a fraction of a second could mean victory or loss, imagine poor coach recollecting mathematical fractions as he tries to mark a tenth of a second on his grandfather's analogue stopwatch! Moreover, every desi marching to his own digital time is certainly no fault of the digital revolution, if I may call it that. Is it to say then that analogue watches are all in harmonious unison of time? As for the grievances against the digital diary's QWERTY keypad, I have fond dreams of ample elbow space while manoeuvring a pencil through a telephone book that can fit no more than one address per page, and yet have only 3 pages per alphabet (not to mention 1 page for Q, X and Z). Speaking about the alphabetical disarray on the digital keypad, I am yet to come across an old-fashioned typewriter equipped with keys arranged by the letter. In defence of PIP, I can think of plenty other uses for the technology than watching split personalities of a telly star. How about using the little window for cricket score updates while you are watching your favourite program for one? Why drag Sybil into this? Technology is progressive. Subwoofers, woofers, tweeters and the whole spectrum of "humbug" are a progressive step in acoustics. The dancing green columns are meant to be read and translated into sound quality, not hypnotise and stupefy. Try comparing the difference between mono and stereo recording to see the difference. Finally, I am utterly baffled by the bearings these techno trends supposedly have on manhood and femininity. (I am also wondering about the connection between femininity and Rotichef. Speaking of this techno gizmo that Ms Bhosle cautions us about, if it "does live up to its claim," what is the point about normal dough and sticky dough and the aroma of the raw atta? Are there nationally set standards for dough consistency, roti thickness and flavour that everyone abides by? Isn't this a buyer's choice? Besides, I don't take very kindly to Ms Bhosle's unjustified claims about Rotichef's popularity with NRIs, consequently and blatantly implying that NRIs are not very culinary. It would be good practice to quote sample surveys in this matter before throwing in hastily concocted assumptions. A Rotichef isn't exactly an appropriate yardstick to measure a person's inclination toward cooking. On a positive note, it could be considered an aid to today's careerwoman, struggling to take home and work within her stride. On a final note, if used unnecessarily, the mobile phone could be as intrusive an element in the west and the east. And hey, a jaguar with or without a muffler could draw envious knife-wielders to its tyres! But wait, there's more! If computers were a "piece of shit" you wouldn't be read on Rediff! In light of your expressed dissent for "online banking, shopping, email" and the like, I guess I'll have to postmark this at the daak ghar, seal it with lac and have it delivered at your door by the friendly neighbourhood daakiya? Nitya Ramanan |
| Tell us what you think of this column | |
|
HOME |
NEWS |
BUSINESS |
SPORTS |
MOVIES |
CHAT |
INFOTECH |
TRAVEL
SHOPPING HOME | BOOK SHOP | MUSIC SHOP | HOTEL RESERVATIONS PERSONAL HOMEPAGES | FREE EMAIL | FEEDBACK |
|