INDIAN PENAL Code (IPC) has imbibed every possible measure to exercise its control over the social evils that are prevalent in India. An important legislation was added, when Section 498A was inserted into IPC by an amendment in 1983; better known as ’The Dowry Law’.
Section 498 makes it punishable for the husband or a relative of the husband of a woman to subject her to cruelty; where cruelty includes:
a)Any willful conduct, which is of such a nature as likely to drive the woman to commit suicide or to cause grave injury to her mental or physical health.
b)Harassment of a woman with a view to meet any unlawful demand of property or valuable security on account of failure by her to meet any such demand.
There has been a long time since this law was introduced to safeguard the lives and rights of women falling prey to dowry-seekers.
Today, the times have changed and women are much more than just ‘aware’ of their rights and they don’t hesitate going to courts if someone tends to deny their rights.
A major change in the Indian society was observed after liberalisation, which started in nineties made the real impact in 2000-2001. A huge section of Indian population, especially women became aware of their rights and learnt how to use and sometimes even misuse law!
There has been quite an uproar over the dowry law, since last many years, as it is being misused by the victims. In fact, even the police and the legal fraternity has admitted that this law has been misused by some people.
Several sections of this law make it completely impossible for someone to get respite, if he or she is innocent.
A case registered under this section is non-bailable, non-compoundable and cognizable. This means that there is no scope of getting a bail, if someone’s wife files an FIR against her husband under 498A. This law is non-compoundable as the case can’t be quashed, which means that once the FIR has been lodged, there remains no chance of settlement and withdrawal of the case.
It is also cognizable as the police can arrest the defaulter without even starting the investigation to start working on the case. This results in immediate suspension or loss of job for the accused in most cases. Furthermore, there is no penalty (even a fine) for filing a false case under this section. It has been seen in many of the cases that police arrests the elderly parents which sometimes has even lead to suicides.
A large number of cases have been witnessed in recent years where some women have lodged false reports of being subjected to cruelty in demand of dowry. As more and more women are getting to know of this law, they have even started using it as a weapon against their husbands to harass them. It was recently reported that the wife of a government employee in Mumbai asked him to disown his parents. On his denial, she threatened to file a fake FIR against him and his parents and even did so afterwards. The husband lost his job and being the only breadwinner in the family, the family was in ruins.
Justice JD Kapoor, in his book, ‘Laws and flaws in Marriage’ talks severely of section 498A. His point is that rather than examining the cruelty that leads to such complaints, the judgement states its concern for the women involved and this leaves no scope for a compromise between husband-wife, even if both are ready to give their marriage another chance.
Based on his experience, he confirms the misuse of this law as a growing tendency among women. He also advocates the law to be made bailable and necessarily compoundable. Once the matter of misuse of this law came to light, the Government of India in 2003 set up two committees: the Malimath Committee and the NK Shinghal Committee, both under the aegis of Ministry of Home Affairs.
Malimath Committee gathered and studied the data and finally suggested the section to be made compoundable and bailable. Shinghal report was of no different view. It, however, had no data and gave its report purely on the basis of views, opinions and comments in general.
This committee was actually set up show the misuse of section 498A. Ironically, soon after December 17, 2003, minister of state for home affairs, I.D Swam said, "There is no information available with the government to come to the conclusion that many families in India are suffering due to exaggerating allegations of harassment and dowry cases made by women against their husbands and other family members involving them in a criminal misappropriation and cruelty."
There is no specific reason known to public for this statement of ID Swami but the need of the hour today is to bring some amendments to this law as it is being misused to settle personal scores.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
"LOVE" The eternal mystry
WITH THE passage of time and development accompanying it, science has given new dimensions to natural, social and psychic phenomenon occurring in our very own world. Science now seems like intending to give a rational explanation to every such thing/event that continues to remain unexplained as for now.
Earlier with the new civilisations coming into existence, human beings commenced feeling or rather experiencing a new kind of emotion we all know to be ‘love’. It has been one of the biggest mysteries in the history of human emotions and relations. Earlier this was often confused with an already known emotion called attraction.
Later, it was realised that love on its own is a much stronger feeling then mere attraction. For the people who have been in love and experienced this wonderful emotion claim it to be divine in nature. Love can actually act as a booster for some of the other psychic procedures in our brain, claim psychologists. It can stimulate the hormonal secretion by many other glands which make the human being more balanced.
There used to be a community called ‘Sufis’ who derived their name from Urdu word ‘Safa’ which means ‘pure and clean’. The Sufi Movement started in early ADs and influenced a major part of south Asian and central Asian population irrespective of caste or religion due to the quality and appropriateness of their teachings which are as clean as their name. Sufis researched on love in their own ways and found it to be pious in nature.
They were of the belief that if there is something as pure as ‘Samvit’ or the ‘path towards God’, it is love itself in its purest form. Saint Kabir, one of the greatest reformers of the Sufi and Bhakti movements in India says in one of his verses, "Pothi par par jag mua, pandit baya na koi. Dhai akhar prem ka pade soi pandit hoye." This means that one can’t be a man of God just by cramming up the bookish knowledge or sacred teachings, which in fact the whole world does, but the real man of His is the one who has ‘love in its purest form’ within himself.
Moving on to the present scenario, gone is the time when we were short of explanation for topics like love. Today, science claims to have solved the riddle of love which continued to puzzle us from generations. Recently, two research works have been published in psychology viz, ‘how to make everyone fall in love with you’ and ‘seven levels of intelligence’. These were dedicated to the theory of love and the related biomechanics.
Love and biomechanics sound strange together but this is how the author reasons the process of falling in love. The research shows that a hormone named ‘oxytycin’ is responsible for initiating the feeling of love. According to him, it is the level of oxytycin which determines the extent of love. Along with it there are other factors like natural odour of body and similar characteristics in personality and behaviour which prompt the secretion of oxytycin.
Looks like, soon there are going to be laboratories providing analysis to check the amount of love in a person. The book has also classified intelligence into seven subdivisions one of which is ‘emotional intelligence’. Detailing into this theory, we find that the most important part I played by the love life of a person in making him emotionally intelligent. Here again it finds a mention of the levels and rate of secretion of oxytycin in body.
This theory yet awaits a response from the masses but the author seems to be much confident over the thesis provided. The rest of is up to a person’s individual experience of love and the way he wants to take it like!
Earlier with the new civilisations coming into existence, human beings commenced feeling or rather experiencing a new kind of emotion we all know to be ‘love’. It has been one of the biggest mysteries in the history of human emotions and relations. Earlier this was often confused with an already known emotion called attraction.
Later, it was realised that love on its own is a much stronger feeling then mere attraction. For the people who have been in love and experienced this wonderful emotion claim it to be divine in nature. Love can actually act as a booster for some of the other psychic procedures in our brain, claim psychologists. It can stimulate the hormonal secretion by many other glands which make the human being more balanced.
There used to be a community called ‘Sufis’ who derived their name from Urdu word ‘Safa’ which means ‘pure and clean’. The Sufi Movement started in early ADs and influenced a major part of south Asian and central Asian population irrespective of caste or religion due to the quality and appropriateness of their teachings which are as clean as their name. Sufis researched on love in their own ways and found it to be pious in nature.
They were of the belief that if there is something as pure as ‘Samvit’ or the ‘path towards God’, it is love itself in its purest form. Saint Kabir, one of the greatest reformers of the Sufi and Bhakti movements in India says in one of his verses, "Pothi par par jag mua, pandit baya na koi. Dhai akhar prem ka pade soi pandit hoye." This means that one can’t be a man of God just by cramming up the bookish knowledge or sacred teachings, which in fact the whole world does, but the real man of His is the one who has ‘love in its purest form’ within himself.
Moving on to the present scenario, gone is the time when we were short of explanation for topics like love. Today, science claims to have solved the riddle of love which continued to puzzle us from generations. Recently, two research works have been published in psychology viz, ‘how to make everyone fall in love with you’ and ‘seven levels of intelligence’. These were dedicated to the theory of love and the related biomechanics.
Love and biomechanics sound strange together but this is how the author reasons the process of falling in love. The research shows that a hormone named ‘oxytycin’ is responsible for initiating the feeling of love. According to him, it is the level of oxytycin which determines the extent of love. Along with it there are other factors like natural odour of body and similar characteristics in personality and behaviour which prompt the secretion of oxytycin.
Looks like, soon there are going to be laboratories providing analysis to check the amount of love in a person. The book has also classified intelligence into seven subdivisions one of which is ‘emotional intelligence’. Detailing into this theory, we find that the most important part I played by the love life of a person in making him emotionally intelligent. Here again it finds a mention of the levels and rate of secretion of oxytycin in body.
This theory yet awaits a response from the masses but the author seems to be much confident over the thesis provided. The rest of is up to a person’s individual experience of love and the way he wants to take it like!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The political immaturity in India
Politics in India has completely differentiated itself from the criteria it was supposed to work on with; a thought process which is the brainchild of our great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and others. They dreamt of an India which should be free from any social, political or judicial misconduct; but looking at the existing political system, it is more the other way around. The politics here is being propagated on by the factors involving regional, lingual, communal and caste based misconceptions which serve as a major base in the votebank politics for some of the big party leaders in India. This is perhaps the reason why we always find a Punjabi, a Marathi, a Bengali or Kannadiga anywhere but we seldom manage to find an Indian anywhere. The present political scene is yet to witness a leader who can stand above all this crap and imbibe the feeling of true nationalism in society as a whole. It is not that every party or every leader has bottled in his conscience for the sake of power and money but the ones who have are more than enough to jag in their share of venom which paralyzes the whole system including the ones who are fully committed towards the betterment of the country. Taking a closer look onto the political structure, we come to know of the prime deficiency in it. At the basic level, which initiates the entry to the political world lies the root cause i.e. there is a no entry for people who have a clean record or are from a non political background. The ones who get in are more popular with their power to win or rather capture votes at the time of polls. They obviously do it by unfair means and are proud
to have many FIR books to their credits which are filled with all sorts of criminal offences. The parties permit them to join in because they want an elevation in their vote banks through any possible means.
The history of Indian politics shows a clear elevation in the rate of rise in opportunism within our political pool. Sometimes even the well educated leaders behave as illiterates fighting as wild cats to grab their share of cheese. The most recent and unfortunate incident to grace our so called ‘higher politics’ was seen when there was a roar over the Indo-US nuclear deal which is supposed to keep a guarantee for the future energy supplies in India as the available energy resources are soon going to decline with a sharp increase in prices. The fact is as simple as that and in fact received full support from the Indian Gems like former president and nuclear scientist Mr. APJ Abdul Kalam Azad. Then why would anyone try to interrupt one such deal which stands for public welfare? Well no satisfactory answer came from CPIM chief Mr. Prakash Karat on his decision of withdrawing support from congress in the UPA government following which congress was asked to prove its majority at the centre. At that time some parties like JMM (jarkhand mukti morcha) and SP (samajwadi party) came up to show their support to the congress eying their political interest. Congress reportedly also purchased some of the MPs to obtain majority at the time of the trust vote. An enquiry has been however ordered in this regard but nevertheless congress survived the trust vote. After this, Karat expelled Somnath Chatterjee from the party in spite of him being one of the most senior leader/politician if the country and the honorable speaker of the Lok Sabha. This was because Karat had ordered him to step down as the speaker which he refused to do in public
and national interest. Karat’s this move was criticized by one and all but acting as such he showed the country the true way to behave with people working in National and Public interest! Coming to the fresher developments, what we are seeing is Shibu Soren, the JMM chief demanding to be the CM of Jarkhand and asking the present CM to step down in return of his favor in supporting congress at the time of trust vote or SP demanding its share in the central government.,l
All this in itself shows the immaturity of our political world which claims to run our country. Counting the flaws in the flow of these events, there can be seen much more than what could be termed as acceptable. This is no good than those fighting wild cats mentioned earlier. The country has been witnessing all this C-grade politics and now we as the citizens of India should contribute our bit by putting the best possible people if we manage to find any!
Sahil koul
to have many FIR books to their credits which are filled with all sorts of criminal offences. The parties permit them to join in because they want an elevation in their vote banks through any possible means.
The history of Indian politics shows a clear elevation in the rate of rise in opportunism within our political pool. Sometimes even the well educated leaders behave as illiterates fighting as wild cats to grab their share of cheese. The most recent and unfortunate incident to grace our so called ‘higher politics’ was seen when there was a roar over the Indo-US nuclear deal which is supposed to keep a guarantee for the future energy supplies in India as the available energy resources are soon going to decline with a sharp increase in prices. The fact is as simple as that and in fact received full support from the Indian Gems like former president and nuclear scientist Mr. APJ Abdul Kalam Azad. Then why would anyone try to interrupt one such deal which stands for public welfare? Well no satisfactory answer came from CPIM chief Mr. Prakash Karat on his decision of withdrawing support from congress in the UPA government following which congress was asked to prove its majority at the centre. At that time some parties like JMM (jarkhand mukti morcha) and SP (samajwadi party) came up to show their support to the congress eying their political interest. Congress reportedly also purchased some of the MPs to obtain majority at the time of the trust vote. An enquiry has been however ordered in this regard but nevertheless congress survived the trust vote. After this, Karat expelled Somnath Chatterjee from the party in spite of him being one of the most senior leader/politician if the country and the honorable speaker of the Lok Sabha. This was because Karat had ordered him to step down as the speaker which he refused to do in public
and national interest. Karat’s this move was criticized by one and all but acting as such he showed the country the true way to behave with people working in National and Public interest! Coming to the fresher developments, what we are seeing is Shibu Soren, the JMM chief demanding to be the CM of Jarkhand and asking the present CM to step down in return of his favor in supporting congress at the time of trust vote or SP demanding its share in the central government.,l
All this in itself shows the immaturity of our political world which claims to run our country. Counting the flaws in the flow of these events, there can be seen much more than what could be termed as acceptable. This is no good than those fighting wild cats mentioned earlier. The country has been witnessing all this C-grade politics and now we as the citizens of India should contribute our bit by putting the best possible people if we manage to find any!
Sahil koul
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