Voice from the Rooftop

October 2018 has seen many accusations of rape and sexual harassment against many men. Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of sexual harassment. He sent her legal notice for defamation. Vinta Nanda accused Alok Nath of rape. He sent her legal notice for defamation. Sandhya Mridul and Deepika Amin accused Alok Nath of sexual harassment.
Vikas Bahl sent legal notices to Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane for siding with an accuser of sexual harassment. He called them opportunists.
Simran Suri, Saloni Chopra, Rachel White and Amrita Puri accused Sajid Khan of misbehaviour. Sajid Khan is out of Housefull 4 as director and Nana Patekar is out of Housefull 4 as actor.
Harnidh Kaur accused BCCI CEO Rahul Johri of sexual assault of a female author when he was Executive Vice President and General Manager (South Asia) for Discovery Network Asia Pacific. BCCI Committee of Administrators asked Rahul Johri not to attend ICC meeting in Singapore from 16 to 19 October.
Subhash Ghai has an anonymous accusation of rape against him made public by Mahima Kukreja. He denied the allegation. TV actress Kate Sharma has filed a police complaint against him for molestation.
Vinod Dua had accusation of sexual harassment against him by Nishtha Jain. He denied the allegation. His daughter Mallika Dua said she supports Me Too but stands with her father.
Rajat Kapoor had three anonymous accusations against him posted by Sandhya Menon on Twitter. He apologised. His film Kadakh was dropped from MAMI festival.
Natashja Rathore, Mandakini Gahlot, Ishita Yadav, and Ira Trivedi accused Suhel Seth of sexual harassment of themselves and Anisha Sharma accused him of sexual harassment of a 17-year old girl.
Ira Trivedi accused Chetan Bhagat of sexual harassment. Chetan Bhagat posted a screenshot of e-mail sent by Ira Trivedi and said claim of him sexually harassing was false. The last line of e-mail was “Miss u kiss u.” Chetan Bhagat asked “So who wanted to kiss whom?”
Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Anu Malik, Kailash Kher, Luv Ranjan, and Varun Grover are among those accused of sexual harassment.

Geetanjali Arora had no empathy or sympathy for women who said they suffered sexual harassment many years back. It was a case of doing favours to each other. She does not me too stories. She gave a tight slap to anyone who tried to molest her then and there. Strong women don’t have sob stories.

Anyone can accuse anyone of rape or sexual harassment. Victims of sex crimes should file police complaints. Allegation on Twitter or Facebook should not be a ground for dismissal or resignation.

Mobashar Jawed Akbar was abroad when accusations began against him. He was in Nigeria. He went to Equatorial Guinea and returned to India on 14/10/2018. Women journalists have accused of him of harassment many years back when he was an editor. He denied the allegations, hinted at political conspiracy, and threatened legal action.
Some political parties demanded resignation or sacking of M. J. Akbar as Minister of State for External Affairs. Most were silent. BJP leaders know if M. J. Akbar is asked to quit other ministers can also be accused of sex crimes and they will have to quit. Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and others can be targets.
Sometimes there is duplicity and hypocrisy in dealing with accusations. Those who constantly say a woman should be believed no matter what suddenly change their tune when their favourite man is accused. Then they say both sides should be heard.

Sedevacantists hold that no Pope has been validly elected after the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958. They do not accept the decrees of Second Vatican Council. Sedevacantism means the Chair is vacant. The Chair here refers to the Chair of Pope who is Bishop of Rome. John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis are not valid Popes for Sedevacantists. Congregatio Mariae Reginae Immaculatae, Novus Ordo Watch, and Society of St. Pius V are among Sedevacantists.
There are Catholics who do not accept Popes after Pius XII and have their own Popes. The number of followers of such Popes varies. They are not Sedevacantists.
There are some who blame Pius XII for the changes he made in liturgy. For them he began the process that damaged the Church. John XXIII was the link between Pius XII and Paul VI. Paul the VI completed the process.
On 20/9/2018 I wrote to Novus Ordo Watch.
Subject: bishops and priests
“Who consecrates your bishops and ordains your priests? Pope’s approval is needed to consecrate bishops. You do not recognise popes from John XXIII onwards. That is from 1958 and 60 years now. Bishops consecrated before that are dead. Pius XII changed many things. He suppressed most octaves and vigils, changed Holy Week liturgy, changed ceremony for consecration of bishops, reduced communion fast to three hours. Why are you not against him?”
On 20/9/2018 I wrote to Novus Ordo Watch.
I got the reply.

“The law that the Pope’s explicit approval is required for the consecration of a bishop is a church law only, not a
divine law, and automatically ceases if it becomes harmful or impossible to fulfill. The Church was made for souls,
not souls for the Church.

The Pope has every right to make changes to the Sacred Liturgy. The problem with Paul VI and his gang is not
that they made changes but what kind of changes they made.”

I wrote.

“Not good for a see to be vacant for 60 years. You can have a bishop of Rome.”

See means seat or diocese.

There was no reply to that.

On 22/9/2018 I wrote to NOW.
Subject: Bishop of Rome
“Not good for a see to be vacant for 60 years. I can be bishop of Rome. The territory of Diocese of Rome
will include all countries and territories except USA. I understand you are not outside USA. I will retain the
right to marry. Clerical celibacy is church law, not divine law. I will restore octaves, vigils, liturgical
sequences, tenebrae suppressed by Pius XII and other popes. I will allow Benedectine, Capuchin,
Carmelite, Carthusian, Cistercian, Dominican, Franciscan, Gilbertine, Norbertine, Beneventan, Celtic, Gallican,
Lyonnais rites. Oriental Rites will continue. I will restore communion fast from midnight without food, water,
other liquids and medicine. I will bring back Holy Week liturgy as it was before Pius XII. Chrism mass will have
twelve priests, seven deacons and seven subdeacons.”

There was no reply.

I posted that message on CMRI web site. No reply.

On 28/9/2018 a five –judge bench of the Supreme Court by 4-1 majority ruled that females of all ages can enter Sabarimala Temple. It struck the rule that forbade girls above 10 and women below 50 from entering the temple.
CJI Dipak Misra, Justices Rohinton Nariman, Ajay Khanwilkar, Dhananjaya Chandrachud said that the provision in the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Rules, 1965, which authorised the restriction, violated the right of Hindu women to practice religion. It also said that patriarchy in religion cannot be allowed to trump the right to pray.
They found the practice discriminatory in nature and that it violates Hindu women’s right to pray. They said devotion cannot be subjected to discrimination. “Patriarchal rules have to change. Patriarchy in religion cannot be allowed to trump right to pray and practise religion.” “To exclude women of the age group 10-50 from the temple is to deny dignity to women. To treat women as children of lesser god is to blink at the Constitution.” “Religion cannot be used as cover to deny rights of worship to women and it is also against human dignity.” “Prohibition on women is due to non-religious reasons and it is a grim shadow of discrimination going on for centuries.”
They ruled that devotees of Ayyappa do not constitute a separate religious denomination.
Justice Indu Malhotra, the only woman Justice on the bench, dissented with others. She said the notions of rationality cannot be brought into matters of religion. She added that the shrine and deity are protected under Article 25 of the Constitution and that it was not up to the court to decide which religious practices should be struck down, except in issues of social evil like ‘Sati’. Worshippers of Sabarimala temple constitute a separate religious denomination.
The matter was debated for years on TV channels. Rahul Easwar has said there is differentiation at Sabarimala, no discrimination. There is one temple where only women are allowed, men not allowed.
The verdict has consequences for others. Indian Young Lawyers Association had petitioned for removal of restriction on females of 10-50 age group. They are not devotees of Ayyappa. We see unrelated people meddling in affairs of life and religion. In Aruna Shanbaug case, Pinki Virani had petitioned for ending life of Aruna Shanbaug though she was not her relative or guardian. Nurses of KEM Hospital were taking care of Aruna Shanbaug. Nurses won the case and Aruna Shanbaug lived for more years.
Recently National Commission for Women wanted ban in Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Leaders of Churches opposed ban. In Catholic Church the commandment is to confess mortal sins once a year. If a person has not committed a mortal sin in a year there is no obligation to confess.

Around 12 years back Kannada actress Jayamala had said she had entered the Sabarimala temple dressed as a man. Some people said the power of the deity had gone down because of that. Recently some people blamed the petition for all females to the temple for flood in Kerala.

Many religions are collectively known as Hindu. Legally, anyone who is not a Christian, Jew, Muslim or Zoroastrian is a Hindu. That includes atheists, agnostics, rationalists, Bahais, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs.

Judiciary should not determine what forms an essential practice of religion unless followers of that denomination or religion come to court. Constitution forbids the State from discrimination on the ground of sex. It does not forbid private or religious entities from discrimination on the ground of sex.