Ring the Bell: One Million Men One Million Promises

Bell Bajao is an international campaign launched by Breakthrough which calls upon men and boys to take a stand against domestic violence and work towards eliminating all forms of violence against women.

The campaign’s name is Bell Bajao, which in Hindi literally means Ring the Bell started with showing how domestic violence can be prevented by simply ringing the door bell. Violence against women became one of the most discussed topics in India after the Indian media brought forth the pathetic state of law and order in various cities around the country. Since then a spate of reforms have been envisioned, some of which have been implemented. In a country, which is seeing more and more interaction and opinion formation through social media forums, this campaign has great potential!

Even though you find people from all strata of society condemning the atrocities against the fairer sex, the incidents still happen in abundance! There is no excuse or justification that one can provide for such heinous behavior! The issue is not just about strict governance and law enforcement. It is also about educating the mass population! You might think of this  as a trivial issue but looking at the faux pas from eminent people and even the common man (overheard in various conversations at public places) in the country that have been shamelessly defended by various people proves that disrespecting a woman is not looked at as a crime!

This is one cause that our political parties should work together on and forget bi-partisan behavior or politicking! Such a cause doesn’t need bureaucrats who try to gain that extra political mileage by pointing fingers at someone else’s failures!

All that one needs to do is put yourself into the shoes of the observer and imagine the following hypothetical scenario:

If the ludicrous comment/behavior was directed towards an immediate member of your family or someone that you held close to your heart (God forbid that such a situation arises), what would your reaction be? You will have your answer immediately!

Come join forces to support the cause, and promise to actively make a stand. This social media storm includes performances by Mahabanoo Modi Kotwal, Swarathma and Anoushka Shankar at the British Council Division in Delhi on 8th March, 2013.

If a democracy of one billion decides bring about change, then nothing can stop that resolve! It is time we stopped procrastinating and Be the change!

Book Review: Executive Orders

This is one of the last books in the Jack Ryan Sr. series where Jack Ryan becomes the President of the United States of America. The circumstances which led to his landing the top job were tragic and at the outset of the book, Jack Ryan has the herculean task of rebuilding the Congress. The previous book ended with a Japan Airlines pilot turning his 747 into a missile which claimed the lives of almost the entire Congress.

Now it is Jack Ryan’s responsibility to rebuild the government. However, he faces both internal challenges in the form of the ex-Vice President, who claims to be the rightful resident of the Oval Office. Even externally, Ryan faces opposition from various sources! Even though the work is fictional, you can see the author(s) has drawn parallels from past events and at times co-related them incorrectly to represent the geo-political landscape. Since this is a work of fiction, such irregularities can be overlooked!

However, this book lacks the previous Ryan series finesse. The detailing of the events at times being mundane and the narrative can drive you to sleep! You need to be a big fan of the Ryan series to complete this book in a single seating. There are patches of action and extremely clever dialogues. The book even manages to run parallel events with fair amount of ease! However, the past zing is missing and at the end of the book, you are left wanting!

To summarize, if you are following the Ryan series, pick this up. If you are not, then pick one of the earlier ones!

Social media under the scanner

Government of India seems to be wielding the proverbial axes, most recently, against the social media platform, Twitter. The micro blogging site didn’t seem to pay heed to the previous notices from the government but on receiving an ultimatum of the blanket blockage of their site in the country, Twitter seems to have relented and blocked a few accounts/pages which were ascertained to be offensive by the government.

All this was a fallout of the unrest in various parts of the country sparked off by salacious comments and posts on social media platforms and SMS messages! It is actually commendable that the government is trying to combat flagrant misinformation being spread through social media platforms in an attempt to start ethnic violence in the country!! That effort is a complete thumbs-up to the government.

What definitely gets a thumbs down is the using the pre-text of blocking the cyber crime to shut down the opposition!! Democracy is all about getting the masses vote to stay in power and not use heavy handedness to eliminate the opposition’s voice! That is the starting of what is known as “dictatorship”. If you really want to block access to accounts which are a parody of the PMO and other key government areas, then setup a parliamentary committee consisting of opposition leaders to ascertain if blocking is the right way to go!

An old adage had once claimed “Actions speak louder than words” If you are so above reproach, then the actions of the government will show the country’s citizens that the 140 characters posts being propagated about the current administration is a farce and has not iota of truth in it. But reading the current papers and looking at the inflation numbers, you would want to think otherwise!!

The fundamental right of Freedom of Speech is a much talked about right nowadays. But the simplicity of this law is the evident. A citizen has the right to express his/her views as long as it doesn’t cause harm to another individual(s). Now that being said…. Blocking the accounts or pages which are catalysts for instigating violence in the country should be policed!! But the ones which do not pose a threat and are merely voicing their opinion  cannot be subjected to the same fate as the former!! If such a case were true, then all opposition parties should be banned from contesting during elections as they do not shower any praises on the current ruling party or coalition!

In this entire episode of censorship, the biggest source of embarrassment was that Twitter had suspended the account of the Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology!! Talk about a classic irony!! The account was later restored with an apology issued from Twitter for the mishap.