My Columns: Without Fear and Favour

Real story behind India-Pakistan partition By  Deepak Parvatiyar August 14, 2014 68 years of existence, both sharing the common umbilical cord, yet India and Pakistan are anything but friendly nations. Both celebrate their Independence this month.  It was on 14th August 1947 that Pakistan was created. India got its freedom, a day later. Partition claimed innocent lives from both sides and created scars in people’s minds and hearts. It resulted in mass displacement and millions lost their near and dear ones in unprecedented communal riots and massacres. Since then, the distrust remains between the two neighbouring countries that have fought four wars. History of India-Pakistan Partition Going by the history of Partition, can we say the way it was made with undue haste sowed the seeds for all future discord between India and Pakistan? What was the need for the British to divide India in a hurry? You may also like to read Change in Mindsets of I...

Are We Really Independent in India By  Deepak Parvatiyar August 13, 2014 Just surf the internet and you would find how customary it has become to debate our independence every 15th August. How independent are we? Do we really live in an independent society? Are we independent to do what we want… so on and so forth? Indeed, these oft-repeated questions sound monotonous and cyclical. Yet they are raised every time we celebrate our Independence. To put it simple, why should we celebrate Independence, if we are not free? Why is our freedom (independence) debatable ? Yet such questions are important as they examine people’s expectations from a free society on one hand, and reinforce our commitment towards the freedom that was bequeathed to us by our forefathers through their sacrifices. Further, it makes sense evaluating our liberty on the day when we celebrate the spirit of Independence but the evaluation of freedom should be more fiercely debated not jus...

Change in Mindsets of Indian Politicians since Independence By  Deepak Parvatiyar August 11, 2014 The nation celebrates its 68th Independence Day on August 15. A couple of days back, the activists of a ‘swadeshi’ outfit vandalised three 200-year-old life size statues of Queen Victoria in a museum in Mathura, as they felt they were “symbols of British colonialism”. This makes me wonder whether our railway network is not a British legacy. What about our President’s House and India Gate? Aren’t they symbols of “British colonialism”? Every Independence Day, the prime minister hoists the Tricolour at the Red Fort. Isn’t the Red Fort a symbol of the Mughal rule over India? Should they also desecrate the Taj Mahal ? It is one thing to be promoting ‘swadeshi’ and another to politicise it for cheap political gains. The Mathura incident cannot be treated as an isolated case of vandalism. It reflects on the quality of our leadership and the ways the political aspirants vie wi...

Under the Garb of Communalism By Deepak Parvatiyar (This article was published in Sunday Free Press Journal, Bombay on 13 December 1992) Through four days of carnage, Bombay shed its pretentious veil of cosmopolitanism to expose its true, blotched face to a world bewitched by its glamour. And the citizens, left in a disarray, refused to believe that the demon of mayhem and madness had possessed the city, till some stray bullet or a stone made their dear ones its target. Helpless as they felt, they asked why their city, which boasted of the most advanced minds in the country, reacted so disgracefully and violently to an event which in itself was a  chapter that posterity would hate to read. Chroniclers will write volumes on the event and analysts will expound theories on it, yet the happenings will continue to confound thousands of sufferers who can only blame the intricacies of the system for their misfortune. It is always easy to blame the authorities, and none...

Is Politics involved behind Kamla Beniwal’s sacking ? By  Deepak Parvatiyar August 9, 2014 Kamala Beniwal presents a queer study in political career. From being the first female minister in Rajasthan at the age of barely 27 years to being an 87-year-old governor of Mizoram – ‘sacked’ unceremoniously following charges of partisan politics and corruption – she has seen it all, politically. She was also the first female governor of any state of Northeast India when she became the governor of Tripura in October 2009. Now, the Narendra Modi government cited the following major reasons for sacking her – 1. She caused a loss of Rs 1216 crore in central funds to Gujarat, when she was governor of the state, by keeping Lokayukta amendment bill pending for ‘prolonged period’ in 2013. 2. Her “unethical” involvement in the affairs of a cooperative society in Jaipur as cited in a June 27 report from the Rajasthan government. President Pranab Mukherjee took the final call afte...

Amendment to the Juvenile Law in India – Its Implications By  Deepak Parvatiyar August 8, 2014 There are some serious issues involved with the latest Union cabinet decision to approve the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2014 that proposes treating minors older than 16 years as adults if charged with serious crimes such as rape. A Real Step Back? The United Nations International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) has termed the decision as a “real step back” – apprehending that the new JJ Bill could be a significant deviation from the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, which was promulgated in compliance with the Child Rights Convention of 1989 (CRC). The CRC provided in Article 40.1 that the children accused of offences should be tried separately from adults ‘in a manner consistent with the child’s sense of dignity and worth. (In 1992, India was a signatory to the Child Rights Convention 1989). “The rece...

The idea was to provoke you a bit By Deepak Parvatiyar (This report was published in The Free Press Journal on 6th May 1994) Bombay:   The fashion show was outrageous; and the mannequins, delicate. Pierre Cardin, designer par excellence, was hellbent on turning Bombay into another Paris. The audience held their breath and the mandarins gasped, as a whole range of exotic designs on bouncy sirens bewitched their fantasies. As Madhu Sapre, Aishwarya Rai and others ramped to reveal, Anjali Mendes, Director of Pierre Cardin Fashion Private Limited, smiled: "The idea is to provoke you a bit." Thus thought the models too. "I enjoyed it a lot,"Mark Robinson of Kamasutra fame was overheard telling a friend. And the setting at the spacious Regal Room of Hotel Oberoi provided the required elixir to the fun-loving elite of the megapolis. The conservatives, as always, grumbled over this yet another foreign invasion on our socio-cultural fabric. "Yes,...

Ban on E-rickshaws : Will the Government Find the Way Out? By  Deepak Parvatiyar August 6, 2014 http://www.elections.in/blog/ban-on-e-rickshaws-will-the-government-find-the-way-out/ Isn’t it amazing that in the last two years since the e-rickshaws were introduced on Delhi roads, the government failed to introduce any guideline to regulate them? Why did it turn a blind eye to all the traffic rules these e-rickshaws flouted? True that these vehicles are eco-friendly, don’t pollute and provide the much needed last mile connectivity to commuters from their residential colonies to the nearest metro or bus stations. But the way they have mushroomed in absence of any regulation is, indeed, a cause of concern. On one hand the untrained drivers drive recklessly, congest the roads and slow down the traffic. On the other hand, there are reports of these drivers stealing electricity from poles to recharge the batteries of these rickshaws. Naturally, accidents by these u...