Orissa--Religious Politics

The chief minister of Orissa must step up to restore normality in the wake of the grim series of events in his state. What is happening there is quite frankly disgraceful. All communities must come together to strongly resist the grotesque decadence prevalent in Orissa; to save secular India from ravenous communal forces.

With the violence against Christians in Orissa creating widespread condemnation across the country, a prominent religious leader said on Friday that the attacks on the minority community were "very similar" to the 2002 Gujarat riots.


"The killing of Swami Laxmanananda is being used as an excuse to target minorities in Orissa like the Godhra incident was used in Gujarat to fan the communal cauldron," Swami Agnivesh, President, World Council of Arya Samaj, told reporters in New Delhi.


The killing should be properly investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) so that the real culprits are apprehended, he added.


"The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrag Dal are getting tacit support from the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) which is part of the ruling coalition in the state to instigate violence in the state," he alleged.


A fact-finding team of Swami Agnivesh, Shabnam Hashmi and Vimal Thorat recently visited the state to enquire about recent violence in Kandhamal.


"To some extend, the repeat 2002 Gujarat riots are taking place in Orissa. With the same preparedness and planning," claimed social activist Shabnam Hashmi.


"We heard reports there that the attackers had lists with them while targeting the victims," she alleged.


"It is very surprising that while we were not allowed to go into area, but were asked to wait till September fourth. VHP leader Pravin Togadia was allowed into the region with full police protection," Agnivesh said.


"What is more strange is that the Union Home Minister for State Sri Prakash Jaiswal was turned back as state refused to give him any security to the troubled area," he added.

source: NDTV

The BMW case--A Background

Sanjeev Nanda, the main accused in the case (born 1978) is the grandson of an ex-Chief of Naval Staff-turned businessman from New Delhi who is the prime accused to have run over and killed six people, including three policemen, in a drunken state when he drove his BMW car at high speed through a police checkpoint. The incident occurred at 4:50 AM early morning of January 10, 1999. After running through the policemen, he allegedly stopped the car to check the damage, saw people under the car, and according to the prosecution, at this point co-passenger Manik Kapoor said: ‘‘Let’s go,’’ and they quickly drove away. The car was later cleaned up by servants at a friend's house.


Sanjeev Nanda's father, Lt. Commander Suresh Nanda (ex-Indian Navy), heads the arms supply firm Crown Corporation. His grandfather S.M. Nanda, was once India's Chief of Naval Staff; after retirement he joined the arms trading business. Sanjeev Nanda is a management graduate from INSEAD and Wharton.


Subsequently Sanjeev and five others were tried in a high profile court case that dragged on for many years. Ultimately the court did not find any of the witnesses reliable and the defense was able to make the case that it was perhaps a truck and not the BMW that had caused the deaths. All the accused were released, resulting in a sharp drop in public confidence in the legal system, since it was widely believed that the witnesses had been bought off.


Sunil Kulkarni is a witness that didn't turn hostile in a Delhi Additional sessions court. The case is continuing in Delhi at present.

The Joker--Why so serious? (a repost)

The Joker is a fictional character and super villain that appears in the comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, with contributions by artist Jerry Robinson, the Joker is the archenemy of the superhero Batman and first appeared in Batman #1 (Spring 1940). The Joker is a master criminal with a clown-like appearance, including bleached white skin, red lips, and green hair. Initially portrayed as a violent sociopath who murders people and commits crimes for his own amusement, the Joker, later in the 1940s, began to be written as a goofy trickster-thief. That characterization continued through the late 1950s and 1960s before the character became again depicted as a vicious killer.

He has been responsible for numerous tragedies in Batman's life, including the paralysis of Barbara Gordon (Batgirl/Oracle) and the murders of Jason Todd (the second Robin) and Jim Gordon's second wife Sarah Essen.

In 2006, Wizard magazine rated Joker as the greatest villain of all time.

The Dark Knight Wallpapers

A must see film!!!
More to come...

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Capital Punishment--Error in Judgement

Like other forms of punishment, application of the death penalty is subject to human fallibility. However, unlike other forms of punishment, the death penalty is irrevocable. These two factors make the outcome intolerable.

Former Supreme Court Chief Justice P N Bhagwati wrote: "The possibility of error in judgement cannot therefore be ruled out on any theoretical considerations. It is indeed a very live possibility and it is not at all unlikely that so long as [the] death penalty remains a constitutionally valid alternative, the court or the State acting through the instrumentality of the court may have on its conscience the blood of an innocent man".

Consider for example the case of Kehar Singh, who was executed for taking part in the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. It is now widely recognized that Kehar Singh's sentence was based on weak, circumstantial evidence. Today, even the judge who passed his sentence questions the accuracy of the judgement.

Capital Punishment under the Indian Penal Code--An Introduction

The only method of Capital Punishment in India is death by hanging, a practice which violates the universally recognized right to be free from torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In August 1983, the then-Attorney-General of India described hanging as the best method of execution based on the theory that the vascular, nervous and respiratory systems are extinguished in a single moment. However, experience shows that hanging can be a brutal and long ordeal. For example, Nathuram Godse, the man convicted of murdering Mahatma Gandhi, was suspended for fifteen minutes from the scaffold before finally dying.

Notably, Mahatma Gandhi would have likely opposed his killer's fate: "I cannot in all conscience agree to anyone being sent to the gallows. God alone can take life because he alone gives it".