For a while, I have seen this article from Indiatogether floating around on the net, written by an alleged yellow journalist called Bikram Jeet Batra, who also moonlights as a “Legal Officer” for Amnesty International (AI).
I was amazed by the stance he has taken with regard to the amendment of Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code.
He says: “Allegations have been made repeatedly that the penal code’s protection against matrimonial cruelty is often abused by women. But no evidence is given to support this claim” .
Well here is all the evidence he needs in terms of statistics:
- Here is a post that details the statistics on the number of women arrested under this extortion racket.
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Here are the comments from the some numbers (2005) from the Ministry Of Home Affairs, published by Hindustan Times. Unfortunately the article is lost but I have linked to a pdf here:
“According to data provided by Ministry of Home Affairs, there were 58,319 registered cases and 134,757 people underwent arrest under 498A and A and Dowry Prohibition Act. That is on average 2.3 people were arrested in every complaint of woman. There were 358 children and 4,744 senior citizens arrested. Out of 129,655 cases, approximately 18 per cent (23,337) were not charge sheeted and hence suffered only because these acts are non-bailable”
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NHRC Tells HC: Police Must Change Way Of Probing Dowry Related Cases
- Approximately 27,000 Women Arrested Per Year Under 498A Cases
He needs to re-read the statute of Amnesty International again. Here it is:
VISION AND MISSION
- Amnesty International’s vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments. In pursuit of this vision, Amnesty International’s mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of these rights.
As the “Legal Officer” of AI India, he should have been at the forefront of the campaign to amend 498A and make it an effective law, not a tool for extortion in the hands of corrupt Indian govt officials and embittered wives seeking vengeance or money.
It was a revelation to find out that Amnesty International, which has sworn to fight for Human Rights around the world would oppose the amendment of 498A . I am saying this, as in almost all cases, unless you are well connected, entire families are arrested by the Indian police on the basis of an allegation with no due process. This is the duplicity shown by Amnesty International India.
All this shows the extent to which individuals like this “legal officer”of AI are beholden to radical Indian feminists and their agenda, which does more to shred fundamental rights than any other action of the Indian government.
Over a 100,000 women have been arrested between 2004 and 2007. What does this “legal officer” of AI have to say about this ?
Its time this “Legal Officer” focused on the real but not so “sexy” issues that fall within the statute of AI than on “Sexy Issues” like the abolishment of the death penalty in India.
He won’t do that as it’s easier to pander to elitist stances of the corrupt establishment and keep getting a pay check rather than fight the real fight.
It is a waste of my time to dwell any further on the drivel of this wannabe legal luminary and alleged yellow journalist, but I will leave you with a few links of interest which reflect reality:
- Madhu Purnima Kishwar On The Ineffectiveness Of Coercive Legislation Like 498A
- What The Courts Are Saying About 498A And Its Abuse
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Wow! You have deconstructed the hypocrite.
Now, he should go back and see himself in the mirror, before he espouses “sexy” causes. He may also do us all a service, how much he gets paid and from what sources to be a champion of “sexy” causes.
Amnesty International in India is a fraud and must be exposed for its hypocrisy!
It is horrible to see how men (not human) are reacting to 498A. I did not see such men reacting when women are burnt and hospitalized, they take last breath without breaking silence, afraid about their children or younger sister’s future. Because they know that people like Batra ( Who are misguiding on the name of international human rights spoke person or some men talking about gender equality) having the same mentality of husbands, who do not afraid to harass women not only for dowry but through mental and physical atrocities. I was working in women’s Centre for 7 years. I have seen most of the women choose 498A as a last option. If there would be a misuse of the law would be done from exceptional cases, ask police to have interrogation. In most of the cases police support men and do not register case, they give protection to men instead of women. In reality if women would decide in the country to come forward and launch complain against the atrocities done in the families, most of the husbands would be behind bars. Because men feel that it is their birth right and natural masculine power to beat women, hold mother in law and daughter in law responsible for family quarrels.The most of the fights, murders, killings about property are done by men in the same family, but never men spoke that men are the enemies of the family, good family framework. Women got this 498A or PDVT act after long struggle. Feminists when they talk to save women from cruelty or violence, the want to save the women as human being, one’s daughter, one’s mother and all the respected relations, she lives in. If men like Batra really want to do justice then come forward in the burning ward, come to the shelter homes, go when the husbands demand for the money, go and investigate why their is killing of girl infants, female foeticide, go and just see why women after so much harassments can not complain against their in-laws, husbands? The women who are coming forward and showing courage to launch the complaints are only 2%. Still this is there is noise made by such men, but without investigation how police could punish and put him behind the bars. If there would not be such law these women who spoke out could be murdered like other silent victims. Let law play it’s role and in this country law gives enough scope to defend. Don’t defeat to the reformers like Jyotiba Phule, Raja Ram Mohan Roy or Maharshi Karve. If you can not become Mahatma, at least be a good human rights activist. Or it would be always questioned that whether women are human or not, are their rights included on human rights? or they are still reproductive machines producing men like Batra, who do not have understanding of humanity.
Wow! Lata – you are the proof that most feminists are short brained creatures.
I dont know when you feminists will stop this sob-storied sorry farce. Because of dolt heads like you, the female foeticide is going through the roof. Even a blind eddy can see the stupid laws like 498a or pwdva are prone to misuse and such misuse causes real victims of abuse not get the justice they deserve.
By the way, poor Batra is actually on your side (proof for your intellect) – one reason why we decided to expose this idiot in our blogs.
Guess what? My female side agrees with Lata PMS! As a matter of fact, I believe every estrogen imbalanced pea brain should nod their vacuous cranium in agreement whether or not Lata PMS’s statistics are factual or fictional – synchronized, mechanical nodding would be more dramatic, Bollywood style.
Nevertheless, here are some statistics that seriously conflict with Lata PMS’s assertions:
1. “… most of the women choose 498A as a last option”: VERY TRUE. When informal methods at verbal extortion doesn’t seem to be working, or doesn’t seem to be prompting a quick enough return, 92% go the formal route and engage the muscles of the Collection Mercenaries, the local constabulary. [The remaining 8% are applicable to No. 2 below]. Now, of these 92%, 79% have an axe to grind, i.e., either the wifeypoo and/or her “sympathizers” stoop to discover primal self-gratification in stroking their proverbial pestle. For the 21%, it’s simply a “straight, across-the-table” business deal a la Ladies of the Night; nothing personal: “You play – You pay”!
2. “ … In most of the cases police support men and do not register case.” PARTIALLY TRUE! But it’s NOT because “police support men” (Police support none but their own!). The Police entrepreneurship, recognized and revered for shrewd business practices, analyzes and correctly assesses beforehand the pecuniary merits/demerits of the complaint in terms of anticipated profits. Rumor has it that the old adage, “You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip” originated in a local Thaana. If preliminary shakedown formalities indicate that the accused husband is truly poorer than a church mouse, they release the sorry bastard with a good farewell kicking and move on to more profitable complaints. This makes up for the 8% from No. 1 above.
You might be curious as to where in hell I came up with these astounding figures. Well, just like Lata PMS, I was also working for 7 delightfully intoxicating years but in Men’s Centers. It is really immaterial that these Centers happened to be sleazy bars overrun by social derelicts who had the misfortune of bestowing honor thru’ holy matrimony on some potentially wayward slut with insidious designs of appropriating the Chambu while Hubby Dearest was busy straining merrily away on the commode!
You see, with discriminatory gender-specific laws bearing down heavily, as intended, on these miserable schmucks, it becomes increasingly difficult for this new category of criminals to wash away the dirt, stand upright from their cramped Ukkdu squat position, and continue being the honorable, responsible, civic minded, productive citizens they once were.
Which just affirms the immortal observation of Benjamin Disraeli: “There are lies, damn lies; then there are statistics”. Go figure.
Get a clue, Lata PMS: You happen to be our mothers, sisters, daughters, teachers, lovers, beauty-filled creations of God, and the inspiration for voluminous poetry since time immemorial! You enable a future for our race (with a tiny contribution from us males)! You seem to be forgetting that men have a fundamental vested interest in the welfare of our virtuous women: If it were not so, the practice of Satti, the traditional test of marital valor, would still be in vogue. Heaven forbid, that would surely imbalance the combatant ratio in this fruitless “gender war”, wouldn’t you say?
One feels saddened to take notice of the vicious, hate mongering diatribe and unsubstantiated accusations coloring Lata PMS’s harangue. Unfortunately, this is typically the ranting of disillusioned losers with a chip on their shoulder nursing the fallacy that the world owes something to them. And the beneficiaries, almost inevitably, stand to be the profit mongering liaisons.
Looks like Lata is one heck of a Feminist who has helped a lot of educated girls and made them as bitches, these Feminists are nothing but Pimps and the 498A girls are bitches. Sooner or later, both Pimps and Bitches get old and end up losing their Life very soon.