More equal that others

While the Sadhvi and army men continue to suffer under fabricated charges and a sham of an investigation, the usual shrill voices of the sundry "concerned" citizenry, "human right" voices and commentators of vacuous intellect have been conspicuously missing. This motley crew has been vociferous in defending Jihadis accused of the numerous blasts across the country. Apparently every Jihadi arrested suffered "police atrocity" and "human rights" violation. However, all that zeal is missing in questioning the ATS's handling of the Sadhvi case.

A simple look at the affair will indicate lapses by the ATS in conforming to the rules of investigation. The Sadhvi had a chance to speak (only for 5 minutes though) to her lawyer Ganesh Sovani. And those few minutes yeilded these facts -

"According to section 50-A of the Criminal Procedure Code, a detainee or accused has to be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours. We would like to know why the ATS didn't declare her arrest on October 11," Sovani said.

And -

Sovani has also alleged that National Human Rights Commission guidelines issued to all chief secretaries of states and Union territories on January 11 , 2000, relating to the administration of Polygraph Test (lie-detector) on an accused was not followed as the test was conducted without the subject's consent, which should have been recorded before a judicial magistrate.

It seems that the "police atrocities" and "human right" violations do not apply to a Hindu Sadhvi or the army men. Jihadis are more equal than others. While the mainstream media and their convenient commentators have gone to town labelling Hindus as terrorists, these inconvenient details were given a miss. No sooner does one test or interrogation fail, curiously enough, some new theory emerges either from the ATS or the media. The campaign to malign Hindus is relentless. So resolved is the media to attain this, the October Assam blasts were only a momentary distraction for them, after which, selling this new pet story of theirs resumed.

However, it is heartening to see increasing support for the Sadhvi among the people. Various political leaders have now voiced and offered their support including the BJP and RSS after fumbling earlier. Indians from Abroad too are now offering support. It seems that Hindus are waking up. The awakening must continue until until justice is achieved and Jihad quashed.

Indian government offices abroad any better?

I’m sure many expats from India will agree to this. The Indian consulates & missions are a reflection of the inefficient government offices in India. Babus will be babus. The same indifferent attitude, lack of professionalism & general carelessness is on display all throughout the world.

One of my friends in the US had to get his passport renewed. This, according to the consulate in NY, is a simple 2-3 business day’s affair if all the paper work is in order. That claim not withstanding, it took 5 weeks to get a new passport for himself. There was no system of tracking the progress at all. Worse yet, you can’t even get a hold of any person to talk to. Sure, they do have a phone number, but when you call there, you have recorded voices directing you to choose appropriate options. When you do choose the right option, a recorded voice tells you to not call them before its 4 weeks & even if it’s an emergency you should leave a voice message! No person to talk to. This seems to have changed recently. Another of my friends tells me, he could talk to a person, but there’s a catch here. You can only talk to a person between 02:00 to 04:00 pm on working days. And you have to be lucky.

In a different incident, relatives of another of my friends were visiting the US. Unfortunately they lost their passports while on a trip. The next thing they naturally did was to get in touch of the Indian consulate & the nearest one was in NY. On telling the babus of what had happened to them, they got the most absurd answers back. The babu there told them, they had to go back to India & follow the necessary process since their original passports were issues there! How could one travel back to their home country without their passports & visas?

The people working at our consulates seem to be the same babus imported from back home. It is quite clear from their attitude towards work & their English. When you call the NY consulate, you’ll be greeted with a voice telling you about the consulate & the recent outsourcing of it’s visa processing to a firm called travisa. The voice & accent are undeniably Indian. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s a good thing, but it is fast & hard to understand. It would save a lot of trouble if they had someone who could speak clearly & it doesn’t have to be a non-Indian.

With such unprofessional attitude is it surprising then that some Indians overseas are upset with the lack of support they get abroad?