Monday 31 December 2012

Wish you all a very regretful New Year--Part 1

The Crime, Treatment and Death

This is the first of a 3 part series of articles, giving an insight of the Delhi Rape Case, which has created a ripple throughout the nation. Even other nations are having a keen eye on this issue.

It seems a little to pessimistic to wish everyone a regretful New Year. But it is a fact that we are starting the new year with a regret, especially we as Indians. I think you might have caught the whiff of what i am talking about. Yes, it is about the death of the 23-year old rape victim, who was a wake up call to the nation to ask ourselves the question of whether we are ensuring the protection to women that we just talk about. It was a time to introspect. The worst part of this was that, such an unfortunate incident happened in our nation's capital.
The entire nation grieved for her, people took it to the streets, protested that justice should prevail and the guilty be prosecuted and punished swiftly. They voiced in unison, they hammered the politicians for bringing the case as a political issue. The government gave the best possible medical care and promised to bear all the medical expenses. But, in the end, despite her will to live, she left the world in the early hours of December 29, 2012. Leaving us to greet a New Year with a sense of guilt and regret.

The Crime


It all happened on the 16th of December in Delhi, when a 23-year old physiotherapy student along with her male friend boarded a bus at 9:30 pm. The male friend grew suspicious when the bus doors were shut, also the bus deviated from the normal route. By the time he raised an objection, a group of six who were in the bus had started taunting them about being out so late. 
The friend of the victim, when tried to intervene was beaten up by the pack and knocked out cold with an iron rod while the woman was dragged to the rear end of the bus and raped by the gang while the driver continued to drive. The driver is also been reported to have raped the woman. The worst part of this was that the woman suffered damages to her intestines abdomen and genitals. Doctors believed that a blunt and rusted object might have been used to penetrate the woman, on investigation it was found to be the rod that is used along with a wheel jack. Doctors said that the rod inserted which was inserted into her body when removed seems to have removed most part of her intestines along. It is to be noted that the woman when hospitalized, was found to have just 5% of her intestines intact. 
After the assault, the woman and her male friend were robbed of their possessions, stripped naked and were thrown out of the moving bus. Passers by informed the police, who hospitalized the victims. The perpetrators had cleaned the vehicle to destroy the evidence. The police later arrested the accused and impounded the bus where the crime is said to have occurred.

Treatment


The government had taken responsibility for the 23 year old and made sure that she got the best of treatment. She was admitted in Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi. The 23 year old victim was literally battling for her life for 13 days before she died. Throughout her ordeal, she had shown the will to live. For most of her days in the hospital she was under ventilator support. There were some serious medical complications from the brutal attack on her. Most part of her intestine were missing and around 5% was left, which was heavily damaged leading to a gangrene as a result of which the doctors had to remove it to prevent further infection. Her organs such as Kidneys and Liver had shown some dysfunction at the initial stages of treatment. Her abdomen had to be opened and cleaned to ensure that there were no risks of internal infections. The 23-year old paramedical student could not orally communicate, hence she communicated through gestures and at times used to write down the message. The government of India had promised to take care of all the medical expenses of the victim and ensured medical treatment in any part of the world. It also promised to sponsor for the transplants that the victim would have to have.
Throughout the treatment process in India, the doctors were worried about her WBC and platelet count, as it showed abnormality. Also at times she developed internal bleeding which the doctors attribute it to clotting in the blood vessels. The worst part of her medical condition came when she was about to be air-lifted to Singapore. The doctors were unable to detect her pulse for nearly 3 minutes, also she suffered cardiac arrest. She had also suffered brain damage and doctors believe this damage to have triggered the cardiac arrest.

Death



The valiant warrior who had fought tirelessly for 13 days, just for the sake of living a normal life once again, breathed her last in the early hours (IST) on December 29,2012. She died in Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore, a super specialty hospital where the victim was transferred the previous day. Doctors say that her death was due to multiple medical conditions. 
The main cause of her death is said to be because of Cerebral Oedema, a condition where the brain swells and stars to collect fluid inside the swellings and the increase in volume of the brain increases the pressure in the skull. Usually such conditions are treated by draining out the fluid collected. But given the case of the victim, the severity of the condition and her instability , in terms of her health condition, put an end to her life as the brain cells were damaged and destroyed due to the Oedema. A CT scan revealed blood loss in the brain, it was later found to be during the time when the doctors at Safdarjung hospital couldn't find a pulse or blood pressure on the victim for 3 minutes, prior to the 23-year old being air-lifted to Singapore.     

Sunday 30 December 2012

Stairway To 2014—Modi Triumphs


This article as it can be noticed, is tagged with "Stairway to 2014", the readers have to understand that articles that carry this tag line have an outlook towards the 2014- Lok Sabha Elections. Any article of political importance that includes a perspective to the 2014 general Elections would carry this tag-line.

Elections in Gujarat to decide who would rule one of the most industrialized states was held in 2 phases. The votes were counted on 20th and the results showed that Mr. Narendra Modi, would rule the state for a 3rd consecutive term. The BJP won 115 seats in the 182 seat strong assembly.
The political scenario as of now in the state of Gujarat is more like a one-man show with Mr. Modi donning the character. Literally, no other opposing party could put up a candidate who could challenge and put up a worthy fight against the incumbent leader. The poll in 2012 was more of candidates in the battleground under the brand of Mr. Modi rather than the party’s brand. Though the competitors were able to make a dent in BJP’s vote share, it was not enough to put up a good fight.

Campaign Strategy

The one thing other parties took for granted was the campaign strategy. Mr. Modi took it quite seriously and managed to take part in about 250 rallies in person and 180 others by means of 3D projection of his image. This strategy of reaching out to people in spite of his incumbency could have created an impression on the public. There may have been reasons for such vigorous campaigning of Mr. Modi, one could be to clear his image from the taint of the Gujarat violence in 2002 pertaining to which one of the former minister of Mr. Modi’s cabinet was convicted and sentenced.


With regard to other parties, the campaigning could not have come even close to Mr. Modi’s grandeur in rallies. The Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Congress general secretary Mr. Rahul Gandhi, for instance, campaigned at about 8 and 7 places respectively. The numbers, as one can see, would easily decide the contest. The reason behind the attitude of Congress towards Gujarat might be due to the BJP stronghold in the state for so long that there came a point where the Congress cannot muster numbers to form a government.

Throughout the entire campaign in Gujarat, Mr. Modi had asked the people to come out and vote for him rather than the candidate in the constituency. He personified himself as a candidate in all the constituencies saying that it was for Modi whom they were voting in all the constituencies. There was a high voter turnout of 71.9%, which is nearly 10% higher than the turnout in 2007 assembly polls. This high turnout could have been in favor of Mr. Modi.

Congress claims “Victory”

In spite of losing the elections and managing to get mere 61 MLA’s in the assembly, the Congress claims that they have won. Well, it is not in literal terms, but according to Mr. P. Chidambaram, “If the BJP does not cross 117 and Congress has improved its tally, Congress is a clear winner”. This statement clearly is a self-consolation for the loss in Gujarat. The Congress has also been celebrating victory saying that the party has won in constituencies where Ms. Sonia Gandhi and Mr. Rahul Gandhi had campaigned. It can be a reason to celebrate, but one must not forget that the Congress President and General Secretary had campaigned only in very few constituencies and as in the words of Mr.Modi "nothing had stopped them from campaigning throughout the constituencies".
The Congress tried to make their impression of the people by bringing out “Ghar nu ghar” scheme in their manifesto. This was an appreciable scheme which promises to provide houses for those who don’t have one. But rather than being a constructive, the scheme could have portrayed the party as creating a class difference between the ‘have’s’ and ‘have not’s’.
There is one other flaw in the state Congress party. The congress unlike BJP does not have a leader like Modi, who is capable of batting for the entire party single handedly. This is not only with the Congress, but also for other parties in the state.

Winning patterns 

Though the difference in the number of seats won is just 2, there has been a lot of change in the pattern in the BJP’s win. The party has managed to breach the Bharuch district where the Congress could not even ensure a single seat, despite the fact that it was a home turf for Ahmed Patel, the political secretary of Ms. Sonia Gandhi. The BJP managed to win seats from the Congress’s grip in central and south Gujarat. But for BJP’s dismay, 5 of its ministers lost their seats. However, the Congress has the most to worry with the state Congress president, Arjun Modhawadia failing to make it to the assembly.
With the court sentencing a few party functionaries along with a former minister in the 2002 Gujarat violence, the BJP could have been skeptical about winning in constituencies where there are more than 15% Muslim vote count. The party managed to snatch 5 constituencies—which had a considerable Muslim vote bank—from the Congress. In the 2007 elections BJP won 18 such seats, but there seem to have been a hike with winning 24 seats in the 2012 elections, in spite of the BJP fielding no Muslim candidate in this election.
When looked at the overall winning pattern for the last 3 elections, it is noticeable that the Congress are improving in the numbers and the BJP is losing small numbers every year. But this cannot be attributed as a success of Congress in the state or a failure in the part of BJP. However, the pattern can be seen as a very slow crescendo for Congress and an extremely slow diminuendo for the BJP with regard to the 3 previous assembly elections.

Role of Modi in 2014


With a pretty convincing win in Gujarat, there follows a very obvious question of whether Modi would be the Prime Ministerial candidate for BJP in 2014 elections. Supporters of Mr. Narendra Modi were seen holding posters which clearly conveyed the message to field Mr. Modi as Prime Ministerial candidate in 2014. Though Mr. Modi has promised the people to serve Gujarat for 5 more years, he seemed to hint his desire to be the Prime Ministerial candidate by asking the people to get used to hearing him speak in Hindi.


The pressure is now mounting in the party’s higher authority as well as RSS to declare Mr. Modi a candidate for Prime Minister on behalf of the BJP. The party although has kept its stance by saying that it has not yet decided on the candidate. There is many a chance for the BJP to consider Mr. Modi as a worthy candidate, as he has driven the BJP to power in Gujarat almost single handedly. Mr. Modi has also ensured the sustenance of BJP in power. Being able to hold on to power in a state for three consecutive terms is not an easy task. This feat has increased the chances of Modi in being a prospective candidate for 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

But there are a few red flags that Mr. Modi has to have a deeper look. Narendra Modi has been accused by the opposition, of being a mute spectator throughout the trials of 2002 riot and also of not giving even a single ticket to Muslim candidate in the Assembly elections. Mr. Modi, in order to have a greater success in the Lok Sabha elections 2014, must brandish his secular views at the opposition.



The First Step


Hello everyone, in this age where the Information Technology has revolutionized the way we communicate and reach out to people with opinions, Blogging is just one other way to reach out to a huge audience. With so many blogs around, people might think this to be just another blog that takes up room in the blogging sphere. Well, it might be, but i hope to make it quite different from others. Anyway, it is going to be my personal opinions about events and issues along with facts. Being opinions, it is bound to be unique, but who knows, we will have to wait and watch. 
Let me now come to the purpose of this blog. This blog is aimed at reflecting my opinions about issues pertaining to my country, thus the title "A pair of eyes on my country". I am not restricting myself to any particular topic and am hoping to cover almost all the major happenings, I also hope to learn more about new fields that i am not familiar with. There shall be a wide range of topics ranging from Social issues, Politics, Economics, Human Interest etc. Readers are always welcome to comment on my articles, give their perspectives and even point out my mistakes if any. And if there are any mistakes, please do not be offensive. Kindly bear with me if my articles are a little too long, sometimes i do lose track on the size of the article once i am deep into it. But i shall make sure that the articles are small, even if they are big i'll make sure that it is on to the point.
Looking forward for your comments and readership.