Tag: Arnab Goswami

Cartoonists in demand

India
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Ever since a professor went to jail for sending a cartoon of Mamata Banerjee, cartoonists are in demand in TV news channel studios. After that came the controversy over cartoons in text books. Then came the case of Aseem Trivedi who was charged with sedition for his cartoons.

Cartoons are generally looked at, laughed at, and forgotten. Newspapers come up with cartoons every day.

Aseem Trivedi got his chance to be hero and he grabbed it with both hands. He did not wait for police to come and pick him up in Kanpur. He came to Bombay and surrendered. When the police said in court they did not want him for investigation or questioning, he did not apply for bail. He imitated Anna Hazare. He was happy to be in jail. He was the talking point on TV channels. He did well considering the competition from protestors in Madhya Pradesh and Koodankulam. Somebody filed a PIL and got him bail.

Journalists and cartoonists debated Aseem Trivedi’s cartoons. Some said his cartoons were bad. Two cartoons were said to be offensive. Someone had filed a police complaint against them in December 2011.

Aseem Trivedi appeared on Times Now. There were two other cartoonists and Mayank Gandhi. There were many questions to Aseem Trivedi. Before he could finish his answers there were further questions. Aseem Trivedi said to Arnab Goswami “I have heard you. Now you have to hear me.” Arnab Goswami had bitten off more than he can chew. After sometime Aseem Trivedi left Times Now and appeared on Headlines Today.

Unmukt Chand controversy

Cricket, Education, General
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All students are equal. Students who are sportspersons are more equal. A student who is the captain of a cricket team that wins U-19 World Cup is the most equal.

That is the view of Ajay Maken, Kapil Sibal, Rajeev Shukla, Kirti Azad, Arnab Goswami and many others who live in a world that is worse than George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

Valson Thampu, principal of St. Stephen’s College, appeared on many channels on 30/8/2012. He faced hostile questioning on Times Now.

Many channels condemned St. Stephen’s College for not allowing Unmukt Chand to sit for exams though the college was following Delhi University rules. As per those rules students in general should have 66.66% attendance and students who are sportspersons should have 33.33% attendance to appear for exams. Unmukt Chand had only 8% attendance. The principal did not have the power to waive attendance requirement. Valson Thampu said he had sent Unmukt Chand to meet vice chancellor who could waive the requirement but vice chancellor being busy Unmukt Chand could not meet him.

Kirti Azad said his attendance was worse than that of Unmukt Chand. He had 5.7% attendance. His principal and professors supported him. If the college had allowed Kirti Azad to sit for exams in contravention of prevalent rules it was wrong.

Kavita Sharma, former principal of Hindu College, said they had helped Gautam Gambhir. They had special classes for him.

Jerry Fernandes, Deepak Mukharji and Sunil Bikhchandani defended the college. Jerry Fernandes asked whether the issue would have been raised if India had not won the U-19 World Cup or reached the final. I have another question. What if the captain had been Laloo Prasad Yadav’s son and the team had lost all its matches and did not reach even the semi-final?

Valson Thampu said hype is created. After one month no one will remember.

Kirti Azad’s father Bhagwat Jha Azad was a Congress politician. When he was chief minister of Bihar the speaker had ruled that he could not be the leader of Legislative Assembly as he was not an elected member of the Legislative Assembly. The speaker had to quit.

India had won U-19 World Cup in 2000 and 2008. Both times there was not much hype though in 2008 an event management company had hired students to welcome the cricketers when they landed at Bangalore airport at night. Boys were paid 200 rupees each, girls 1,000 rupees each.

Some exaggerate the importance of cricket in India and call it a religion. One company that bought cricket telecast rights could not make profit. Now another company holds telecast rights at higher amount. IPL teams have not made profit. Kochi Tuskers disappeared after one season. Many players have not received payment for 2012 season. Deccan Chronicle pledged its IPL franchise to banks. DLF did not renew IPL sponsorship.

Sports quota for admission in colleges should be abolished. It is difficult to get admissions in good colleges in Delhi where first cut-off percentage is 100%. Even after final cut-off students with 90% marks do not get admission. It is unfair to give the seat of a student who has 90% marks to someone who has 74% marks in sports quota, more so when he cannot even maintain 33.33% attendance. It is not fair to demand special classes for sportspersons. Sportspersons should choose between college and sport. If they want degree they can do correspondence course. Sachin Tendulkar, Sania Mirza and Saina Nehwal did not attend college.

Vested interests manipulate media and create hysteria. Serious issues are forgotten. A girl in Delhi, 16 years old and Class XI student, had gone to a market in Prashant Vihar around 10.30 p.m. on 29/8/2012 to recharge her mobile phone. Nine young men misbehaved with her. She called two friends on mobile who came in a car and picked her up. The group of nine criminals followed them in another car, blocked the car of girl, pulled out girl’s friends, battered and robbed them. The criminals raped the girl in the car. TV channels did not report the incident and hold discussions on it. Abduction, battery, robbery and rape in Delhi are ignored by news channels. Have Delhi and central governments co-opted news channels? Something is rotten in Indian news channels.

Kapil Sibal made a mess of education. Promoting students from Std I to Std VIII even if they fail annual exams has ruined education. Now there is a proposal to do away with annual exams. His interference in Unmukt Chand case is not good.

Are we a country governed by rule of law? Where is the equality mentioned in the constitution? S. M. Krishna and Ajay Maken interfered in selection of tennis players for Olympics. Two pairs of men’s doubles were sent. They returned without medal.

On 31/8/2012 at 7 p.m. DU VC Dinesh Singh in a press conference said Unmukt Chand will be allowed to go to second year. He spoke of balance. One cannot get Maths (Honours) degree without attending maths classes.

IPL is a commercial venture. When Unmukt Chand played in IPL he did not represent college, university, Delhi, North Zone or India. Absence from college to play in IPL should not be condoned or permitted even if it is for two matches and six days. Those who want to make sports their career and want to attend college with low attendance should join physical education colleges.

Justice International

India
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I announce the founding of Justice International. I am the founder and president.

The aim is to get justice to victims and their families. Those who wish to join can write to vincent@go4quiz.com

We will fight for death penalty in all countries for all cases of murder, attempted murder, abduction, acid throwing, hijacking, kidnapping, piracy and such high crimes. Death penalty should not be restricted to rarest of rare cases. It is immaterial how much time has passed after the crime. It is ridiculous to say a murderer should be hanged within one year but should not be hanged if a long time has passed. It is immaterial whether the criminal has reformed or not. We will see that death penalty is restored in Canada, European Union, Russia, Mexico, South Africa and such countries.

We will fight for consecutive sentences for crimes instead of concurrent sentences. If a person had committed ten murders the punishment should be ten death sentences. It is immaterial that a criminal can be hanged only once. If punishment for one case of cheating is one year imprisonment, for ten cases of cheating it should be ten years imprisonment, for 180 cases of cheating it should be 180 years imprisonment. If punishment for one rape is 25 years, punishment for 10 rapes should be 250 years.

We will fight for proportional punishment for crimes. If punishment for taking a bribe of 100 rupees is one day, punishment for taking a bribe of one crore rupees should be one lakh days.

We will fight for quick justice.

We will fight for abolition of parole and furlough. Many criminals who come out on parole and furlough do not return to prisons.

Courts are for justice. We will fight for punishment to lawyers who know their clients have committed crimes but try to prove otherwise.

It is a shame that victims cry and criminals laugh. It is a shame that Pratibha Patil commuted death sentences of 35 murderers to life. Her excuse that the decisions were of government does not work because when the home ministry wanted her to reject mercy petitions she refused to do so and home ministry agreed to commutation. It was well known long back and I had written to many MPs to impeach her but I did not have any success. She even refused to reject mercy petition of Afzal Guru. Now she should reverse her decisions or her successor should reverse her decisions. Rajendra Prasad had reversed a decision to grant clemency and the murderer was hanged.

It is a shame that journalists like Barkha Dutt manipulate TV programmes to oppose death penalty. The discussions have a large number of people who oppose death penalty and token presence of those who favour death penalty. May be she acts at the behest of Nira Radia or some other lobbyist.

Victims like Manish Tewari, Neelam Katara, Sangeeta Khanna, Ritu Mathur and Chamanlal Mattoo should speak in favour of death penalty. Manish Tewari should move a bill in Lok Sabha making death penalty obligatory in all cases of murder.

Meenakshi Lekhi should expose lobbyists who oppose death penalty. Pinky Anand should continue to defend death penalty. Arnab Goswami has defended death penalty.

When mercy petitions are decided family members of all who were murdered be asked their views. In Sriperumbadur blast 16 people died including Rajiv Gandhi. When deciding on Nalini’s mercy petition, Sonia Gandhi’s view was considered and death sentence was commuted to life but members of other 15 people were not consulted. This is against equality before law.

We will take on abolitionists and self-styled human rights activists who oppose death penalty. For them murderers are human beings, victims and their family members are not human beings. We will refute their arguments. We will refute their argument that life sentence is a greater punishment than death sentence. We will refute their argument that state has no right to take life.

There are different categories among people who oppose death penalty. Some do it because they think it is fashionable or politically correct. Some have heard others to say that so they repeat. Some are evil and we will unmask them.