Cursed Life

It was published in SAKAAL TIMES On 13/02/2009 (6th page letters to editor)

Here's the original excerpt-
On January 2009 a Eunuch from Rajasthan, Sonam Singh, filed a plea in Supreme Court demanding education, social and political rehabilitation, including reservation of seats in Parliament, state assemblies and legislative councils for her community. Last year another Eunuch Laxmi Narayan Tripathi spoke in UN about the atrocities committed against the sexual minorities in India (and other parts of the world) and asked international community to help them. Whatever be the outcome of the above mentioned incidents there is not going to be a significant difference in the lives of Eunuchs until a common man sees them as a human being and not as 'Chakka' or 'Hijda'. No law or organization in the world will end their misery unless they are accepted by the society as human beings. Cursed at birth and abandoned by their parents, for centuries eunuchs have lived a humiliating and unbearable life. These unfortunate citizens of the largest democracy in the world are treated worst than slaves. Eunuchs are compelled to live in utter poverty and isolation; they are ridiculed by society and harassed by the police on regular basis. Their civil rights are openly violated and they face gender discrimination everywhere. Due to lack of education employment opportunities are very few and many are left with no option but to earn their living by begging and prostitution. We are proudly screaming at the top of our voices that 'India is shinning' but this branch of Indian society is left in the darkness to live a life that resembles hell. It is depressing to see that Eunuch's are joke to many who call themselves 'civilized'. Instead of living in denial and rejecting these unfortunate people we should be treating them like regular fellow citizens. A person's gender does not define or limit his capabilities to contribute towards the well being and progress of his nation. Eunuch's gender abnormality does not necessarily make them less intelligent, less productive at work or make them inferior than any other normal person. Eunuch's can be equally efficient and productive like us if they get fair shot at life, if they get good education and if they get an opportunity to perform. Most importantly Eunuchs deserve compassion and respect from their families and from the society.

The moral police

It was published in SAKAAL TIMES on 10/02/2009 (pg.6, letters to editor)

Child Abuse

IT WAS PUBLISHED IN SAKAAL TIMES ON 7/02/2009.

A SLAP IN THE FACE OF OUR CITY

Let’s focus on an issue that has clogged the development of our beloved Pune and has haunted every Punekar for a long time – corrupt corporators. For decades due to their corrupt mind set, irresponsible behavior and greed our city’s growth has been limited. A position which was created to represent citizens and bring consistency in governance & development of the city is now used for milking government funds. The money these corrupt corporators accumulate is stolen from the government funds which are generated from the taxes we pay, and these taxes are annually drawn upon our hard earned income. To summarize, these corrupt corporators are not just a bunch of white collared thieves but are vicious blood sucking ticks draining our blood whenever the opportunity strikes. Arun Bhatia explains it very well how these corrupt have affected our city, here is the excerpt - “When you calculate the total money stolen and gone in the pockets of politicians and bureaucrats in the past 58 years (since independence) - 17 years of development budget has gone down the drain (one third of the total budget of the last 58 years).” He mentioned this in mid 2006, today is 2009, more 2 ½ years damage done.

The reason to go through what we have already read & heard before is the recent stunt Rashtrawadi Congress (NCP) corporators pulled on 3rd Feb 2009 in PMC. A group of about 200 thugs led by a NCP corporator occupied the entire ground floor of the PMC building and took control of the tender submission cell by force. The reason to undertake such a ‘massive operation’ was to prevent contractors who were not on ‘their list’ from submitting tenders for the government contract worth more than Rs. 120 crore. Many of these thugs were armed with guns and swords. Whoever dared to oppose them was beaten. As the media arrived these goons took off. Were they ashamed? Naaaaa, these people are shameless, they have sold their self respect a long time back. Latest I heard is that the NCP has issued a show cause notice to those from their party involved in the incident; I guarantee that these corrupt corporators will get away with only a slap on their wrist.

What surprises me is that all this happened in the PMC building, a place from where the top city officials govern our city. The chief security guard, Mr.Khandare, said that nothing serious had happened and it was a minor incident and there was no need to file a police complaint. Really? Where were you Mr.Khandare when this goodaism was unfolding on the PMC ground floor for almost an hour? Where were your men who are responsible for preventing such incidents? What are you paid for? I bet some of the government officials are involved in this or else such an incident which was happening on the ground floor of PMC for almost an hour would not have gone unnoticed. Pune municipal commissioner, Pravinsinh Pardeshi, refused to name the corporators involved, the newspapers have named them then what is stopping you, sir?

In 2008, according to RTI (Right to Information), every third corporator in PMC faced criminal charges ranging from attempt to murder, carrying illegal arms and offences as shameful & serious as eve-teasing. Some are even booked under TADA and MCOCCA. One does not need to be an analyst to see those who are charged with such serious offences should be in jail and not in our city assembly; if these offences were committed by a common man the system would have put him away for good. Unfortunately these thugs roam freely on the streets in their expensive vehicles purchased from the money generated from corruption and their illegal businesses. Despite being elected as a public servant their illicit businesses are still openly operated either by their family members or by their henchmen.

One thing that we should definitely learn from these people is ‘unity’. For them ‘Unity is strength’, irrespective of their political parties these people come together when their ‘interests’ are under attack or when one of them is in trouble from law. Honest civil servants like Arun Bhatia bear the brunt of their selfish unity if they try to cross them and are transferred on dubious grounds. Even after proven guilty these people are pardoned, thanks to the support they enjoy from the influential politicians sitting in upper houses. These criminal turned politicians are virtually immune from legal action because if they get in trouble the interests and might of the big players is jeopardized. Political parties are too busy auctioning election tickets that they forget (read neglect) to consider the person’s history and character. Whoever is the highest bidder with some local influence gets the ticket. I agree with Vikas Mathakari’s view that our judicial system allows the criminals to contest elections until they are convicted and that takes years, the latest example of this being a BJP corporator sentenced to life imprisonment on 31 Jan’09 for murdering a wrestler 5 years back.

Another invention from their ‘creative’ mind is the use of flex banners. To publicize themselves, for whatever reasons they find appropriate, these enemies of the state are disfiguring our city with flex banners. Sporting a corrupt smile on the banners erected everywhere in the city what are these hypocrites trying to prove? These low lives are so sick that they did not miss the ‘opportunity’ to take advantage of Mumbai carnage martyr’s. With their disgusting criminal faces next to the 26/11 hero’s they have once again displayed who they really are – parasites.

Such are the dynamics of our ward representatives but they cannot be solely credited for getting into the city assembly, we voted for them, didn’t we? Were we fooled? Of course not. Are all the responsible citizens blind to not to see the plight of our city? Have we become so busy in surviving that we cannot take a look around and stand against that is wrong? May be we have become comfortable with the corruption and we will not act until these criminals come banging on our doors? Are these white collared criminals less than a slap in our face and in the face of our city?

-Pritash Chaudry

Israel cannot afford a soft stand against Hamas

It was published in SAKAAL TIMES on 30th Dec 2008. Unfortunately I didn't know it was published, I found it on the web yesterday.

To see it online visit

SAKAAL TIMES

(6th page - letters to the editor)