As back in the states, there’s nothing quite like sitting down early in the morning with a cup of tea and the paper. I was awaiting to hear about the present current affairs here and The Times of India does a pretty good job of giving me the dose I’m looking for. So what grabbed me this week?
-The city of Bombay started giving motorcycle and scooter riders 100 rupee (2 dollar) tickets if they are not wearing a helmet. They tried doing this in Pune a couple years a go, but because of citizen protest, the city didn’t enforce it. On Friday the Bombay cops handed out several hundred tickets on the law’s initial day, which sparked outrage amongst riders who said that they hadn’t even had ample time to purchase helmets yet. A funny note, is that Sikhs (those urban turban wearers) are exempt from this law.
-The Indian paper believes that the European proposal to ban the swastika is ridiculous. The Nazis took and altered this symbol from a Sanskrit symbol which means “well-being.” So for Europeans to abolish this in its entirety for display is preposterous. How can they ban something and infringe on the freedom of expression, while trampling on an ancient Sanskrit symbol? Any thoughts?
-In 2002, it was claimed that some Muslims had set a train on fire in Gujarat, killing several Hindu activists. This created a reaction of state-sponsored terrorism by the BJP (the extreme right-wing Hundu fundamentalist party of India), in which thousands of Muslims were slaughtered. Muslims would call the police department for help, and the officers would be respond, “Are you Hindu or Muslim?” When the head of the party, Modi, was asked why this was happening and why the government was allowing this genocide to occur, he answered “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
A few days ago an interim reort was published that stated that the train’s fire was an accident and not conducted by hateful Muslims. What?!?! After 3 years, this is now being reported. It was defintely a suspicion by many, but now this report is being heavily criticized, as the BJP says this is all being politicized. Although the BJP has suffered politically since the Gujarat massacre, they have been looking at making a comeback in local assembly elections. They are even crying out to the Muslim community to vote for them, while only endorsing one Muslim candiadate, amongst hundreds of others. I did a research paper on the massacre last year for a human rights class, so I guess I’m a little interested in the latest updates.