Commissions

A country that has commissions in place for the protection of human rights, women’s rights, minorities rights etc etc, regardless of their nature (quasi-judicial or not) and motives, confesses that its political and legal system is unsound. If its politics, and therefore laws, were based on individual rights, such commissions would be unnecessary. But since most countries have never understood the meaning of rights, they are at a loss to understand how it is that their system targets the “human rights” of some people, or lets people beat the shit out of women while the whole world watches on, or lets riots consume the lives of thousands of minorities, or understand why some minorities find themselves excluded from the mainstream. And so they come up with the idea of having such commissions to protect the victims. But that rarely happens. At its best, the impact of these commissions would be minimal, and at its worst, they will perpetuate the same crimes that the system does.

The role, and statement of a member of the National Commission of Women in the light of the Mangalore molestation saga is a case in point. Here are some pearls of wisdom-

• “We visited the place and found that basically the pub that was attacked had no security. Anybody could just walk in or walk out. I have learnt from sources that there was live band going for which there was no permission. We have examined the documents and we are not happy with the answers given by the management. What has happened there is unfortunate but the management has no right to run the pub.”
• “We have found that some illegal activities are going on in some hotels and pubs in Mangalore, including prostitution.”
• “National Commission for Women will recommend the cancellation of license of this pub. The pub was given license to serve food for the lodge. They did not have the license to have a live band.”
• “Women should protect themselves. They should have come forward and filed a complaint. So far no girl or their parents have come forward to file a complaint. If the girls feel they were not doing anything wrong why are they afraid to come forward and give a statement? When I met the culprits and asked for the names or numbers of at least one girl they refused saying they do not want to defame these girls.”

The first thing the member is concerned about is not that women got slapped around by “brothers” who had no business being there, but whether the pub is “legal.” And then she goes on to say that the women should come forward and complain if “[they] feel they were not doing anything wrong.” Brilliant. If the NCW has that much trust in the country’s legal system, why is it unnecessarily wasting taxpayers’ money by indulging in redundant activities? When the Chief Minister of the State says he won’t allow “pub culture” to go on, what that means is that women should stay at home, and if anything happens to them when they are outside, the State will not be responsible for their safety. If the NCW is really concerned about women’s safety, it should lobby against gun control laws. So the next time some “brother” wants to show “brotherly love,” the girl can protect herself by shooting him in the nuts.

In an unrelated case, some days back, the Supreme Court of India came down heavily on the National Human Rights Commission for trying to encroach upon its territory-

The Supreme Court on Monday saw red over the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) recommending clemency to a condemned prisoner, whose appeal as well as a review petition against death penalty in a murder case was turned down by it terming it not a fit case for life sentence.

[...]

A Bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and A K Ganguly took serious objection to NHRC’s meddling into the matter and wanted to know from the apex human right body’s counsel Shobha how the Commission could exercise jurisdiction over the decisions of the apex court.

[...]

Unimpressed, the Bench pointed towards the lurking danger to the justice delivery system if the sentencing system gets intervened in similar manner from multiple authorities.

“This will give rise to flooding of frivolous petitions (before the Commission) where Supreme Court decisions will be challenged as violative of human rights,” it said.

“If NHRC acts without authority in this manner, it is our duty to tell them what to do. They are headed by such high persons acting in public probity and they must know their limits,” it added.

Not only is the State running riot, hurting its citizens instead of protecting them – acting like a master instead of a servant – but so are its various commissions. But then you can’t expect too much from India.

Victoria’s children

Fuck them all. Be it Yediyurappa, or Gehlot, or the Sri Ram Sene, or the KRV, or the MNS, or the Shiv Sena, or the Bajrang Dal, or the VHP, or any other pea-brained “leader” or group, they all have one thing in common. They are Victoria’s children. People who’s sense of history and culture is limited to the 19th century – the Age of Victoria. That’s why they can only see obscenity where none exists, and that’s the source of their prudishness. Given the way they go about behaving in public, one can only imagine how they treat their women. Do they cover them in jute bags, keep them in cow sheds, make them wear chastity belts, and wear it themselves? I don’t know, and I don’t want to either. All these practitioners of Victorian Hinduism should go back to their native country – Britain. Or else they can go and hug their cousins – the Taleban from Afghanistan.

There is no single “Indian culture” or “Hindu culture,” and if these illiterate idiots had ever bothered to read history, or stopped rewriting it just like the Marxist historians do, they would find that everything from prostitution to pubs to drinking to gambling to beef eating is part of “Indian culture.” Sauvik has written a post on the same, and he refers to Kautilya’s (350 B.C.E.) magnum opus, “The Arthashastra”. I have read a bit of it, and given the long list of regulations prescribed in the treatise, I don’t completely agree with Sauvik’s “ancient Indian culture was closer to the Goa Model of Liberty than the Taliban.” Kautilya was no liberal, or libertarian – he was a paranoid consequentialist who saw every bit of public policy from that viewpoint. And the punishments he prescribes for some crimes (like adultery) are as brutal as those of Hammurabi. But the fact is, he didn’t declare “pub culture” as anti-Indian. And that’s why all those people I have honored above should be tied to their chairs and made to read each and every word of the Arthashastra.

In his political economy, Kautilya has a place for the “Chief Controller of Entertainers, Courtesans, Brothels, Prostitutes, and Other Entertainers.” The Kautilyan State trained and protected prostitutes, laid down rules of contractual behavior, and appointed “madams” to run brothels. There is also a provision for “independent prostitutes.” Then Kautilya writes about the “Chief Controller of Gambling and Betting.” This person is charged with “ensuring that gambling is carried out [only] in designated places under the supervision of honest gambling masters.” Then there is the “Chief Controller of Alcoholic Beverages.” It was this fellow who organized the sale of [many varieties] of alcoholic beverages and the construction of pubs for the purpose. “The drinking rooms shall be made pleasant in all seasons by providing them with perfumes, flowers and water.” And “the liquor seller employed beautiful female servants” for spying. Apparently the pubs performed a dual role.

Its obvious that these idiots have no idea of what “Hindu culture” is. I have previously written about how even the sari is a recent phenomenon – “‘for millennia’, Indian women went about bare from the waist upwards.” But then, you cannot reason with donkeys. They only understand one language – that of mob warfare – the big fat stick. Form a violent group with a thousand members ready to vandalize anything at the drop of a hat – show “brotherly love” by molesting women – and people like Yediyurappa and Gehlot will come and worship you. Talk to them in a civilized manner, and they will spit on your face and throw you in jail.