Sach ka Sammana- Reality or Farce

THE CLOCK strikes 11, the charming Rajeev Khandelwal warmly welcomes you on the game show ‘Sach Ka Saamna’! After about a few grilling round of questions you are left wondering about the repercussions of the same on the family members. But what you do realise is that the family members are not reacting the way you would react after shocking revelations by your near and dear ones. They are strangely calm and quiet and answer only if asked to do so by the host. You are then left wondering, why would a mother or a father, a sister, a brother or the girlfriend/boyfriend not be shocked by statements like ‘Yes I had a child out of wedlock or yes I did feel attracted to someone else in spite of being married’.

It is quite strange that the family members react very normally, blank mind and face. This raises obvious thoughts of whether the show is truly genuine or is it completely scripted. If the show is scripted, are the reactions of the relatives of the participants also scripted? It is just not the reactions but also the kind of personal questions asked to the contestants raises several doubts regarding the authenticity of the show. Would someone actually take the risk of spilling out the beans just to earn quick bucks is one of the major arguments raised against the show. The arguments that fall in favour of the show lies in the fact that in today’s world when everything is so commercialised, increasing competition forces people to go to the extent of taking the risk of entering such a show and revealing their secrets openly. In the case of a famous TV actor Yusuf Hussain, he took part in the game show because he felt it was high time he revealed the hidden secrets of his life to his family and to the entire world. This gives rise to confusing and conflicting thoughts about the ‘truthfulness’ of the show.

When a couple of viewers were asked on what they feel about the show, a mixed response was garnered from their opinions. Some believe that the show reflects the truth prevailing in the society managing to bring out the true face of the society. Vandana Menon, a student of MA in Pyschology believes that unraveling the mystery of an individual’s multi-dimensional life is like looking into the Pandora’s Box, startling and surprising at every turn. She says “Not everyone would jeopardise their life and self respect on national platform just for money. I welcome this new turn that reality show has taken and I believe that this generation is ready to accept the individual with their faults and not stigmatise the truth.” Neelam Bansal, a housewife echoes the same opinion and adds on by saying that the show definitely portrays reality since bluffing to such a large scale and high extent is not possible. She voices that, “This show portrays the fact that truth is stranger than fiction and that is why the real life of the contestants stumps us to such an extent that makes us feel like it is made up.” While some feel the show is yet another classic example of a TRP driven show, where the entire stage is scripted ranging from the questions to the reactions. Anjani Kapoor, a media trainee voices strong opinion against the the show. She says, “Sach Ka Saamna is something beyond the mindset of a typical Indian family especially upwardly-mobile middle class! I totally believe that the show is bogus and voices all norms far from reality.”

Despite a lot of debate one cannot deny the fact that SKS has managed to attract quite a few eyeballs since the time it has gone on air. The unique concept and format of the game show has shaken the grounds of many families and not to forget the MP’s. It is thus rightly said, love it or hate it, but you definitely can’t ignore it!

Honour my dignity

EVERY 30 minutes or so a woman is being raped in this country. Why are some sections of Indian men so intolerant of the other half of the population? Why is it that the women are always at the receiving end? Why am I being looked at and stripped as if I am some kind of brand and commodity? Similar questions have been bothering for long. And each time I hear about the unthinkable crimes being committed against young girl child or a woman, my heart quivers. And at these moments, I honestly feel the loss of not being born a man.

Can we for a minute lay down our obsolete mores, superficial differences of religion, caste and geographic boundaries and think hard about why women in India are not safe, even in their own homes. I would like to question the higher ups, the young force who clearly shone in the recently held general elections? Does the safety for women ever feature as a top priority in their lengthy arguments? India on the one hand is earning international praise for its economic strides, whereas on the other hand, crimes of all kinds, heard and unheard are being perpetrated against women. Incidents such as rape, sexual exploitation, eve teasing, public groping, dowry deaths, mercy killing, trafficking, female foeticide and gender bias: these are what an average Indian woman has to face in India. Of all the crimes, rape is on the rise.

A recently released report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) stated that a total of 20,737 rape cases were registered in 2007 as against 19,384 in 2006, while the figure was 18,359 in 2005 and 18,233 in 2004 against 15,847 in 2003. Last year's report indicated that there were 38,734 cases of sexual molestation. Crime against woman has increased considerably. There has been a jump of 700 per cent since the time the NCRB started keeping records. As per the same report, Delhi reported 29.5 per cent (524 out of 1,775) of total rape cases, 31.8 per cent (1,021 out of 3,207) of the total cases of kidnapping and abduction of women, 15.6 per cent (111 out of 711) of the total cases of dowry deaths, 14.2 per cent (1,711 out of 12,031) of total cases of cruelty by husband and relatives and 21.5 per cent (744 out of 3,463) of total cases of molestation. But the picture is almost the same in Gurgaon, Mumbai, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab or some other nondescript town or village. The fact of the matter is, this country is extremely unsafe for women. What is the root cause behind this behavioral and physical malice? What agitates them to resort to such a violation of dignity?

How can somebody get pleasure by causing pain and suffering to others? Some sections of society are of the opinion that we as woman ask for such crimes by forgetting our morals, wearing dresses that tempt men, by pubbing and by flouting our traditions and culture. This is indeed utter nonsense and nothing but a blinkered opinion. Let us call upon all faith leaders, political heavyweights, self-acclaimed activists and celebrities from the entertainment industry. As you rant and rave in front of the camera on every issue, somewhere some unthinkable crime is being committed against a woman. As a woman I have been forced to feel paranoid about my surroundings and safety. As a citizen, I am deeply frustrated and angry. And I am sure I am not the only one with this feeling.

Why so much hue and cry over Shahrukh's detention?

FOR INDIANS, celebrities from glittering Mumbai film industry and cricketing field are living legends, they are so much infatuated by their achievements that they can’t even take legal action against them in positive stride.

The frisking and subsequent detention of king khan Shahrukh at the Newark airport on August 15, when he was heading for a concert organised to celebrate the 63rd Independence day of India in America had left many Bollywood celebrities high and dry. Even politicians are not sparing any moment to offer their support for Sharukh Khan, who is applauded across the country for his mesmerising acting on silver screen.

Leading Bollywood celebrities like Priyanka Chorpra, Mahesh Bhatt and Irfan Khan have condemned the action taken by American security at the air port against the Dr Shahrukh Khan (He was recently conferred with the honorary doctorate by Bedforde University-England). Hundreds of fans of Shahrukh have also expressed their displeasure at the frisking of their super star.

Minister of state for external affairs Sashi Tharoor also pitched in to express his support for Shahrukh, he said, "To all who asked about SRK, we all found it offensive and have asked the US to look into it." American authorities on the other hand had kept themselves completely away from the entire controversy. One of the spokesmen said that it was an usual security check and there is no point in giving it too much importance.

Why we Indians are feeling offended at Sharukh’s frisking? Every nation has its own law of the land, whatever American security did at the Airport was completely in accordance with the prevailing immigration law. We Indians have to learn lesson from Americans. When it comes to security, no body is above law, be it Sachin or Rahul Gandhi.

Why so much hue and cry over Shahrukh's detention?

FOR INDIANS, celebrities from glittering Mumbai film industry and cricketing field are living legends, they are so much infatuated by their achievements that they can’t even take legal action against them in positive stride.

The frisking and subsequent detention of king khan Shahrukh at the Newark airport on August 15, when he was heading for a concert organised to celebrate the 63rd Independence day of India in America had left many Bollywood celebrities high and dry. Even politicians are not sparing any moment to offer their support for Sharukh Khan, who is applauded across the country for his mesmerising acting on silver screen.

Leading Bollywood celebrities like Priyanka Chorpra, Mahesh Bhatt and Irfan Khan have condemned the action taken by American security at the air port against the Dr Shahrukh Khan (He was recently conferred with the honorary doctorate by Bedforde University-England). Hundreds of fans of Shahrukh have also expressed their displeasure at the frisking of their super star.

Minister of state for external affairs Sashi Tharoor also pitched in to express his support for Shahrukh, he said, "To all who asked about SRK, we all found it offensive and have asked the US to look into it." American authorities on the other hand had kept themselves completely away from the entire controversy. One of the spokesmen said that it was an usual security check and there is no point in giving it too much importance.

Why we Indians are feeling offended at Sharukh’s frisking? Every nation has its own law of the land, whatever American security did at the Airport was completely in accordance with the prevailing immigration law. We Indians have to learn lesson from Americans. When it comes to security, no body is above law, be it Sachin or Rahul Gandhi.

Gay Issues

REMEMBER the first time I met a person who was openly gay. Like many people, I had a certain mental picture of what a gay man would look like, would talk, and would dress and so on. But this man was unlike any one of those stereotypes. A well educated man, he spoke openly about his struggles as a gay person trying very hard to be heterosexual and along with his parents doing everything possible to get therapeutic help. It is after everything that was tried, failed that he decided to try and come to terms with his situation. And that is where he ran into this massive brick wall called stigma. And alas, a large part of this stigma is fuelled by religion.

In fact religious leaders of different faiths in the country talking united on one voice on any issue is something that does not often happen. But the subject of gay rights and whether homosexuality ought to be decriminalised brought together all of them. Initially, it was the Christian clergy who seemed to be more vocal and was the religious face on television channels but later others joined in too. But is the matter of gay rights, a religious issue? Partly yes, partly no, perhaps.

But there is also the matter of distinguishing between homosexual attitudes and homosexual practice, a distinction that is often not made. Most people do not delve deeply enough to distinguish between some who may be gay by orientation but celibate in practice.

However, even as the Union Cabinet debates about the stand that it will take on the contentious Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, one thing is clear. The fact that there is such a strong and vocal opposition to the move to decriminalise homosexuality obviously proves that the gay and lesbian community has as of now, not been able to create the necessary public opinion to promote their cause. Gay parades held here and there in a couple of cities – and with concepts basically borrowed from the West , only serve to prove that only a bunch of Westernised urbanites are the ones concerned about this and they are airing their concerns in what is essentially an Western idiom.

Although rights may be granted legally, they cannot be enforced unless there is a necessary and conducive social climate. There are enough examples: untouchability has been abolished in India for long; but Dalits are exploited in sufficiently large numbers; child marriages are banned; but every Akshay Tritiya, lots of children gets married in full media and public glare, socially morality ought to be enforced through law or preached persuasively as a lifestyle.

History proves that criminalising anything merely drives people underground.
A century or more of the provision of law penalizing “act of carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal an offence” has obviously not prevented the development of a robust gay movement in the country. Neither has for instance, more than 60 years of keeping Gujarat a dry state done much to keep people from consuming illicit hooch and dying.

So clearly the matter is far more complex. Clearly the government will not find it easy to break this impasse. Obviously, social laws cannot be passed by ignoring religious sentiments when all the major religions have united to raise a chorus of support against the granting of gay rights, because it is against Bharatiya sanskriti or Indian culture.

But we must remember that in 1829, when the practice of Sati was being banned through the efforts of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, William Carey and others, obscurantist elements had sought shelter under the same veneer of culture and tradition. So, in the mean while rather than trying to be God and pass judgment on those individuals, a better option may be to offer prayers to those struggling with their homosexuality and society’s largely hostile responses to them.

The death of the Tiger

AFTER DECADES of battling, the Sri Lankan army finally managed to destroy the LTTE with the confirmation of the death of its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Prabhakaran, who formed the entity with just the revolver on his person, expanded the terrorist outfit so effec-tively that the outfit managed to exert control over large parts of Sri Lanka, including the Jaffna peninsula. Although the Lankan army managed to recapture the territory, confining the tigers to a mere jungle airstrip, the LTTE never failed to make its presence felt - through its several assassinations - including those of the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 (following which India banned the outfit) and the Sri Lankan President, Ranasinghe Prema-dasa, in 1993. They accomplished the assassinations with their suicide-bombers. The Tigers pioneered such bombings. The suicide bombers were ordered to bomb Sri Lanka’s holiest Budhist shrine, the Temple of Tooth. They were also ordered to bomb the Lankan army camps - in the north-eastern town of Mullaittivu in 1996 and Kilinochchi. Eventually, such actions led the United Nations to label LTTE a terrorist organization in 1997.

While the war continued for a long time, on February 23, 2002 the Sri Lankan government and the Tigers signed a ceasefire pact and later in December, the same year, both the parties agreed to share power, with the Tigers being given autonomy in the Tamil speaking areas. But peace could not be restored, with the Tamil Tiger commander V. Muralitharan’s (aka Karuna) exit from the organization leading to more violence in the region. Finally, in January 2008, the Sri Lankan government withdrew from the ceasefire agreement, in order to force the issue.

A year later in 2009, the Sri Lankan army managed to capture Kilinochchi and later Mul-laitivu, where the tigers were hiding. After capturing the last jungle strip occupied by the Ti-gers, the Lankan army reached the last leg of the operation. It was now all blood and bullets and many civilians were caught in the crossfire. It aroused global concern and most impor-tantly for India, the lives of Tamilians were at stake. All this happened at a time when the Lok Sabha campaign was in progress in India. The DMK Chief Karunanidhi took advantage of the ongoing struggle and went on a 6-hour hunger strike.

Meanwhile, the United Nations, labelling it a bloodbath, instructed both the warring factions to spare civilians who were caught in the crossfire. The country had to inevitably create a ceasefire zone to protect the civilians. Karunanidhi resorted to a cheap gimmick to cash in on the situation – he opined that his hunger strike had led to the ceasefire. He added that when his arch rival Jayalalitha went on a similar strike, nothing had happened.

Finally on May 16, 2009, the Sri Lankan army defeated the rebels, ending their decades-long rule of the Tamil speaking areas of the island nation. The Tigers waved the white flag offi-cially on May 17, inviting their end. The following day, the LTTE chief Prabhakaran was shot dead while he tried to flee in an ambulance. His son, Charles Anthony, was also shot dead. It brought a bitter end to their rule and liberated the country from LTTE which once thought of liberating the Tamilians through their terror outfit – another attempt of terrorism failing mis-erably.

There are speculations on the death of Prabhakaran though - whether he was really shot dead by the Sri Lankan army or whether he committed suicide. Also the fact that the body was re-covered a day after the Lankan army announced his death raised some doubts about the au-thenticity of the announcement. The ‘body double’ debate also heated up - if he was really fleeing, why did he not disguise himself? Also, the Lankan army proudly showcased the documents found on his person which proved his identity. Would a man, who so brilliantly led a terrorist organization for decades, be so dull-headed as not to use a disguise and also carry documents on his person which would highlight his capture? Well, such things may be speculation to some, conspiracy to others and just plain media hype to yet some. The truth of the matter is it is all over now.



While people like Karunanidhi tried to gain advantage when the battle was on, post war, it was the media channels. The moment Prabhakaran’s death was announced, there was a mad rush to release the exclusive pictures to the viewers! It was still seen as a race for TRP (Tele-vision Rating Points) rather than a celebration of the liberation of civilians who were the ac-tual scapegoats and not the politicians. Viewers were flooded with visuals of a dead Prab-hakaran, with his eyes popping out and a bullet mark on his head that couldn’t have looked ghastlier! Not a single channel had the decency to blur out the bullet mark until a few hours after the first telecast. Worse, a leading Hindi news channel crossed all limits of decency and zoomed in on the bullet. All for what? Creating hype or sensationalizing news or gaining more TRPs.

I can still visualise his face, tilted up and down for the sake of media persons, his eyes pop-ping out and the camera zooming in on the frame. The treatment of the story was so bad that instead of being happy about the end of at least one terror outfit, I could do nothing but feel sorry about the way our media approached it.

End of ltte

THE LIBERATION Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) seem to have succumbed to the final assault by the Sri Lankan Army. According to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse, the Sri Lankan Army dealt the final blow on LTTE when it wrested control of the last remaining coastline under their captivity and in the process trapped LTTE cadres to an area of one square kilometre.

As of now, it seems that the war is over and this is even admitted by LTTE sources. In a statement on the pro-rebel website TamilNet, the Tigers’ chief of international relations said that the battle had reached its bitter end and the LTTE has decided to silence their guns to remove the last excuse the Sri Lankan army had to attack Tamils. But the question arises - is it the possible end to a 25-year civil war? Has LTTE been demolished to its core? What has been the fate of its chief Velupillai Prabhakaran? Is he dead or in a hideout plotting his new series of actions?

Amidst a lot of speculation and apprehension, the Sri Lankan government and Army proudly claim that they have uprooted LTTE which people believed was invincible. The LTTE had for almost three decades fought the Sri Lankan military and defended its right to carry arms as a means of protecting the Tamil people living on the island. But going by the reports and claims, the army seems to have established control on the island.

The result of the war was well visualized a few days earlier when the army had been able to overrun and conquer the entire coastal area held by the Tigers. The rebels were slowly giving up their fight against the advancing government troops and a large number of civilians had managed to flee the war zone.

The Tigers had received a huge jolt when the army was able to capture family members of LTTE's naval wing chief Soosai, a close confidant of Prabhakaran, when they were trying to flee the island in a boat with huge sums of money with them. Ultimately, as expected, the Sri Lankan Army had the last hoorah.

Despite all the claims of defeating LTTE, the army has not been able to capture the ever elusive Prabhakaran. There isn’t any concrete evidence of his whereabouts. There have been contradictory reports that the bunker in which the Tiger’s high command was located has been destroyed in a big explosion, and that a body believed to be his had been taken away for identification. It is also speculated that Prabhakaran and the other fighters may resort to mass suicide with cyanide pills or other means.

However, at the moment peace seems to have been established on the island which was witnessing a civil war for almost 30 years. After unilaterally walking away from the peace process that began in 2002 with Norwegian facilitation, the Sri Lankan government had opted for a military solution to end the crisis. The mission seems to have headed in the right direction for them, but a lot needs to be done on the part of rehabilitation and maintenance of peace and camaraderie in the region.