Freedom of Expression and Amendments to CrPC

Now don't forget Article 19 (2) either.

19-year-old IT student, D. Ajit from Kerala, has been slapped with a criminal case for initiating an Orkut community criticising  Shiv Sena, for its “moral policing.” The case was registered after complaint by a Shiv Sena official by Thane police in 2008.

Robbed on A Busy Street

It was this bit of local news that prompted me to write this post.  Do not dismiss this news story as just another crime. Crime sometimes walks right into you, your home. As it happened to me. In our Capital City, Delhi. Yes, here you go with my story. How I was robbed recently.

Mumbai Under Seige

Taj Hotel Burning at Mumbai

Image courtsey CNN-IBN slideshow

26 November: Shock reverberates in my body when I see the morning newspaper headline, while traveling for work. Mumbai under siege. 80 dead, 300 injured. I visibly withered after reading the headline. I had missed last evening (25 November) bulletin.

Was it a coincidence that a day ago I had watched Denzel Washington–Bruce Willis–Annette Bening-starrer 1998 movie, The Seige? One of the targets of attack in the movie was elite broadway after having hit the commute system. Eventually military was called to manage country’s own citizens against all prudence. Now elite hotels like Taj and Trident Oberoi are under siege. Terrorists have attacked Nariman House, CST terminal and hospitals. Since three days! Death toll and number of injured have increased since the first newspaper headline. 125 lives lost and 327 injured as per latest bulletin. You can check list of released hostages, injured, and deceased here at Mumbai Help.

Streamload/MediaMax/LinkUp: Cheats and Offenders on Web

Fraud by Online Storage Company

I am sure, sometimes you would have wondered about backing up your files online. You thought, in case you lost files or delete files from your computer, you could stack it away safely to access it in future. If you did that, your data is in danger as mine has been lost by a online backup and storage Web site. You heard it right, I have LOST all my data due to unscrupulous online practices.

I researched well about all the available online and storage options. Here is a post from Techcrunch’s blog that says: “Streamload is the most aggresive on pricing – offering a full 25 GB free to every user.” Here is another post from Lifehacker going ga-ga about it.

Naturally, I signed up for Streamload that had by then become Mediamax. I backed up all my pdf documents online and kept deleting them from my PC and laptop to avoid the clutter. A BIG mistake in hindsight! 😦

A few days back, I try logging into Mediamax to upload more files. Mediamax had now changed to Linkup. I was surprised as I had received no information. I thought perhaps that was fine. But imagine my rude shock, when I read on home page that ONLY accounts for paid users had been moved to the new Web site! For free usage upto 2 GB (compare it with earlier free offering of 25 GB), we needed to signup again for a new account with Linkup. What about all my FILES in Mediamax? LOST!!

10 Reasons Why My India is Regressive

1. Corruption: India is 83rd on world corruption index as per Transparency Index. Most bureaucrats and politicians in the country are corrupt. There is no honesty in corruption as well. In India, bribing also does not ensure that your work will be done or not. So most entrepreneurs prefer to bribe outside of India to set up an industry. 🙂

Some days back, Hindustan Times broke a story that most Indians knew in their heart. There was misuse of Red Cross funds meant for Kargil soldiers by IAS officers. We all know how various unscrupulous individuals and groups duped millions of people by asking money in name of Kargil. But the money never reached those for whom it was meant. 😦

2. Insensitivity to Environment Hazards: India has not yet woken up to the importance of conserving environment and energy.

• We still use bulbs in place of CFLs. It is not even apparent what could be other reasons of not using CFL other than cost? Do we get poor quality of CFLs in our country?
• People who take care of India’s recycling are poorest of the poor – ragpickers. Their effort is largely unrecognized. We should also not have manual scavengers work in such unprotected conditions.
• Asbestos is banned in US and EU because it is carcinogenic and also an environment hazard. But as per Outlook magazine, current Indian government is considering to revoke 20-year-old ban on asbestos mining. Forget environment, what about all those workers who would suffer from lung cancer, asbestosis, mesothelioma, a painful cancer of chest wall lining. Doesn’t this government care for its people?

Gurgaon School Murder: Insensitive Media and Law Enforcement

I was not planning to blog as I was busy. But I could not do without expressing my feelings. I am enraged.

A hot news now in India, especially Delhi, is the murder of a class 8 student by his classmates in school premises. People are discussing every aspect of this sordid story in detail. School is to be blamed. Parents absconding. Must be bad parents. Where did the guys get revolver? Juvenile murderers are unrepentant. Blah! Blah! Blah! Did anyone notice that something was amiss? It caught my attention in the morning when a colleague was showing this news piece from yesterday’s newspaper to other colleague. Nothing wrong with it. But she said, “See they killed a Tyagi!” (The other colleague happens to be a Tyagi.) So did you figure out what’s wrong?

Hell, why did the police and the new channels have to name the accused kids? Why did they publicise every bit of information about them and their school identity cards was broadcast on the television? However heinous the crime, we have to concede that they are yet in teens, not adults? Why are we marking them as criminals for whole life? We are robbing them of a chance to make a decent living.

A search in news paper web sites also informs me that naming the juvenile offender in public was illegal according to Juvenile Justice Act, Article 21, Chapter 2:

No report in any newspaper, magazine, news-sheet or visual media of any inquiry regarding a juvenile in conflict with law under this Act shall disclose the name, address or school or any other particulars calculated to lead to the identification of the juvenile, nor shall any picture of any such juvenile be published.

What do you have to say about this?

Another news

Before finishing this post, there is another news I want to share that you might dismiss as frivolous. However, it means a lot to some. Jodie Foster has finally come out in public and admitted she is a lesbian. The gay community is delighted at being her being open about her sexuality.