Nobody can be judge on these matters,
it is for the court to decide having gone through the evidences. The wonders of
technology are such that we common people do have ringside view on these
happenings. I was going through the
letters the victim has written, if true then Mr. Tejpal is in serious trouble. Though
there are people who are admirer of Tehelka kind of ‘investigative journalism’,
that rely on sting operations, I have never been a supporter of these. Journalism
needs more involvement, commitment and nuanced discussion, rather than fly by
night blitzkrieg operations. I somehow believe that these are bordering
unethical. A moment taken as a context to judge the event is not the whole
truth though the video is seen as compelling truth, sometimes these are but not
always. The recent sting on AAP party and malicious campaign proves the point. I
personally knew the fellow who was involved in ‘defence scam’ sting conducted by
Tehelka (that scalped the then BJP president), he used to work with me briefly.
He was a terrible fellow whom I studiously avoided. I wasn’t surprised that he
arranged ‘honey traps’. Where is the morality here? Nevertheless Tehelka did
position itself as an answer to the cruder times we live.
In the Tehelka sexual assault case, I believe
the complete truth is somewhere out there and needs meticulous investigations. I
was going through the pictures taken during the THINK festival, I must tell the
pictures of the ‘victim’ doesn’t look like that of a person who has been recently
“seriously assaulted”. She doesn’t show signs of recent trauma. I find that
baffling. Also the ‘victims’ letter makes serious insinuation on character of
the people concerned, that may not relate to the case, which needs further
affirmation. Like about Mr. Tejpal’s daughter witnessing when she was 13, this
needs to be further examined. Also an allegation that her Managing editor was ‘having
an affair’ with Editor in chief, these are statements that seems to suggest
there is more to it. I was reading some of the articles written by the ‘victim’
on teenage sex, as also death of an actor which is correctly argued as a murder
–the evidences suggest so (another cop botch up). She is a good writer and has flair
with words, taking extreme caution on the identity of the ‘victim’, I must add
here Stephenians are born writers (you can either be a Stephenian or not a
writer, so argued Kushwant Singh. No wonder Indian writing has suffered, and so
has the country! There are about 20 odd Stephanians in Parliament, that is as
big as state of Kerala!! So much so for feudalism. Mr Tharoor has a culinary explanation he calls it Thali effect!!).
Sexual harassment at work place
is a serious matter, long time back the place I was working there were serious allegation
of rapes, not one victim but many (incidentally renowned Justice Iyer was our neighbor).
I was privy to one, she talked about these in detail, those days I had my own serious
problems, and was vacillating between life and death, literally!, extremely
confused lad. So wasn’t terribly concerned about others, an extreme form of alienation
that family-societal expectations can bring to an individual. Further in the
same organization there was another man who hunted on young men, he did try some
crap (the worse that I had experienced as a kid). These were sickening times
for me, I left the place at the earliest possible opportunity.
These are to be dealt seriously by
the law, but I believe times are changing quite fast and we live in different
worlds. What may look like an assault in small town may not be that in a big town. Like
for instance, to take an example, people of different sex don’t hug each other
in small towns but big cities they do, it is seen as normal. The context may be
same but nuances are different and could be seen as an assault if one has the
intention to see it that way. Though the articulate women in media (who incidentally
have their own agenda) may try to make us believe that gender violence is same,
the fact is they are not. Women face
immense hardship in small towns and lower middle class homes which I don’t think
they can relate to or empathize just because they are of same gender. The class-caste
factors are acute, indeed higher strata women are in same league as men as
arbitrators and perpetrators of caste/class violence into next generations, oppressive
norms as identity. For instance, the matrimonial columns are not written by illiterates.
The muck is beyond gender, the reason this blogger is stridently against women
reservations in the parliament. It is an
elitist ploy to appropriate power.
In the power struggle sex is nothing
but a weapon, and some men and women are quite adept in using these. At one
extreme it is described as sensuality while on the other it is brutal power,
nevertheless it exist all the while. The law is stringent but it should also be
able to decipher and not brush everything under same context. If that is the
case then it is being gender insensitive. As also the lynch mob like behavior
of ‘righteous’ media must be curbed, it is high time we also have laws on these
matters.
