Periscope

Can Congress escape blame?

The brutal gang rape of the 23-year-old paramedical student yet again exposed, how  unsafe women are in Sheila Dikshit’s Delhi. Living upto its notoriety Delhi tops of the list  as the most unsafe place for women. As per 2011 figures of National Crime Bureau 572  rapes were reported from Delhi as compared to  221 from  Mumbai (221). Kolkata  recorded 46 rape incidents, Chennai-76, Bengaluru-97 and Hyderabad-59 cases. Figures for other cities indicated 79 rape cases in Pune, 60 from Ahmedabad, 100 from  Bhopal, 92 from Jaipur, 38 from Lucknow, 27 from Patna, 30 from Kochi, 39 from  Thiruvananthapuram and nine from Coimbatore.  However, a State-wise distribution of  2011’s rape statistics sees Madhya Pradesh at 3,406 incidents accounting for 14.1 per cent  of the country’s recorded rape cases, closely followed by West Bengal at 2,363 incidents  (9.8 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh at 2,042 incidents (8.4 per cent). The other State where a  large number of rapes have been reported from is Rajasthan with 1,800 incidents (7.4 per  cent). Assam and Maharashtra are tied in the next slot with 1,700 incidents each (7 per cent). Andhra Pradesh at 1,442 incidents (6 per cent) and Kerala at 1,132 incidents  (4.7 per cent) also report significant number of rapes.

PM’s remote

She controls the Prime Minister, she controls the government and she is the last word. Yet  following the national outrage over the horrific gang rape of a girl in a moving bus in Delhi,  Sonia Gandhi has asked her ministers and ministry to take prompt action. Leader of the  Opposition in Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj promptly retorted by saying that Sonia  Gandhi “should not demand action, but should act.” The government’s callousness and  lack of sensitivity was exposed, when the police lathi charged and dispersed 200 students with water cannons, who had gathered outside the chief minister’s house to submit a memorandum over women being unsafe in Delhi. An unfazed chief minister merely said that people were trying to “politicise” the issue. She was proved wrong when in the same  evening thousands of students laid siege to the India Gate, demanding—“We do not want a  world class city. We want safety.” Tv channels ran scrolls saying- “ Is Sheila Dikshit  watching this?”

Quota blackmail

Even as the Samajwadi Party was isolated over the SC/ST quota Bill, the Congress seems  to be wanting to keep the outfit in good hurmour. In a bid to underplay tiff with Samajwadi  Party in Lok Sabha over the quota in Promotion Bill, Congress indicated that  communication channels will remain open with Mulayam Singh Yadav’s  party on the  issue. “Governance is in a constant action and talking and negotiating. We will continue to  talk and try to ensure that the Bill is (passed) through in Parliament,” party spokesperson  Renuka Chowdhary said. On December 19 in the Parliament, a Samajwadi Party member  snatched the copy of  quota in Promotion Bill from Union Minister V Narayansamy in the Lok  Sabha. Congress President Sonia Gandhi along with some party members  tried to stop SP  member Nagina Yashvir Singh near the Well of the House. Samajwadi Party  supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, accompanied by his party members including Yashvir  Singh, told reporters outside the Parliament that Congress has insulted his party MP. But then  a Congress member quipped with SP and said our relation is like din mein kushit, raat meing  dosti.

Rahul booed on home turf

Recently after being booed in his home turf at Amethi, Rahul Gandhi visited the  constituency along with Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, Omar Abdullah.  The two  leaders arrived at the Fursatganj Airport and then drove around the constituency, meeting  various groups of people. Rahul Gandhi and Omar Abdullah drove to the Kasbapur  village in Jais where Gandhi attended a meeting of self help women group. Rahul Gandhi, sources said, had brought the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister to show him  the ongoing works of the self help groups in his constituency. The two leaders interacted  with the local people and discussed their problems. This is Rahul Gandhi’s second visit to  his constituency this month.

A threat from tree top

When upset, make tree your home. A young man in Varanasi district is so upset with his  wife that he has been living on a guava tree since the past nine months. The man, who  remains perched on the tree, says he will climb down only when his wife apologises to him  for her infidelity. 25-year-old Sanjay, a resident of Ramgaon in Cholapur block in Varanasi,  was working in Mumbai when he got married. He took his wife Tara with him to Mumbai  but one day, when he returned home earlier than scheduled, he found his wife in a  compromising position with a boy who lived next door. An upset Sanjay returned the  following day to his home in Varanasi with Tara. He tried to convince his wife but she  refused to listen to him and insisted that she wanted to return to Mumbai. The couple had  a showdown after which Tara left for her parents’ home. Sanjay’s family members have  made several attempts to bring his wife Tara back but she is unrelenting. “He climbed on this tree on March 9 and has remained there ever since. Whenever we try to bring him  down, he threatens to commit suicide.  He eats and sleeps on the tree and even relieves himself from there. We keep going to him and asking him if he needs anything,” said Kushma Devi, Sanjay’s mother.