Sheila Dikshit-'The Woman' for Congress

SHEILA 'ON A SONG'

India's capital state Delhi experienced the height of pro-incumbency when Sheila Dikshit struck the throne for the third consecutive time.Congress has been in power in Delhi for ten long years from 1998.Though this performance is not considered a 'congress win'(congress style of winning in a large margin),Congress had its day at the end.Dikshit survived many controversies and has managed to come out in flying colours.The Demolition drive in different parts of the capital during her rule was thought  to be an anti-incumbency drive for her assembly elections 2008.She reacted to this by implementing the 'Bus Rapid Transistor' which turned out to be a boomerang  as the new plan became a liability for the traffic.Sheila was criticized for her inadequate planning and improper implementation that still contribute to the gridlocks of traffic in central parts of Delhi.

During the run-up to the Elections :

During the run-up to the elections,the arch rivals of Congress concentrated on two major issues for understating the government of Dikshit.The first one was the terror attacks Delhi witnessed on September 13.The second issue was the Inflation which erupted during her period and her inability to control it.BJP had two solid points to chop off the congress authority in this election.On the other side of the coin,Sheila Dikshit focused on developmental issues in her campaigning.Surprisingly,The Bhagidhari scheme(citizen-government partnership scheme) became the invaluable credit for her though she was criticized for using the government's public machinery.The bold step of privatizing power added another feather to her hat which clicked in the campaigning process.The increased number of schools and her assurance for a large scale power production by 2012,strengthened her roots eroding the BJP's dreams.

The Mumbai terror impact:

Just three days before the Delhi elections,the country's financial capital Mumbai was into a terrorist attack costing many deaths and injuries.Apparently,the Congress government's public-security functionality became a big question mark at that moment.But nothing seemed to affect Shiela's winning spree.The terror attack became a global issue as it was a Pakistani plot and had far-off impacts on the Delhi elections.

Margin of victory:

Dikshit retained her seat as a legislator with 39,747 votes in the New Delhi constituency and defeated the BJP’s Vijay Jolly by a margin of 14,078 votes.She minced off all her controversies which is clearly depicted in the stats.

On October 24 in an interview Dikshit said“We would like to think there is pro-incumbency (in Delhi). People feel that this is a government that has performed for the past 10 years.”These words appear to be the fact and fate of Delhi's political era now.Incumbency is a matter of concern for BJP to establish its institution in Delhi and issues must be dealt from scratch.The Intra-party conflict was just a conflict and never a concern for Congress which is exactly the opposite down in Tamil Nadu where conflict causes an alternate governance in every assembly election(AIADMK and DMK)

The lady of high caliber,is evolving as a great Indian leader who never gives up and this portrays the rapid narrowing down of gender bias in our country.

SAINT ALPHONSA-Now a saint comes in the list!

Sarojini Naidu,Jayalalitha,Kiran Bedi and now Saint Alphonsa joins the list of great Indian women personaliities."A woman is a weaker sex".This statement is almost into extinction though we have news regarding woman exploitation.Saint Alphonsa is now considered as the next Mother Terassa of Indian origin.

Pope Benedict XVI has canonised an Indian nun in a move said to have boosted the flagging spirits of the country's persecuted Christian minority.
Sister Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception was made a saint at a ceremony held in the Vatican on Sunday.
Described by Pope Benedict as “an exceptional woman” who lived in “extreme physical and spiritual suffering”, Sister Alphonsa is the second Indian to be declared a saint. She is said to have decided to become a nun aged seven, and at the age of 13, to have thrust her feet into burning embers, in a bid to disfigure them and thus avoid attempts by an aunt to make her marry.
After entering a convent, she endured serious illness, eventually dying at the age of 36 in 1946. Numerous miracles have been attributed to her intercession by pilgrims to her tomb in Bharananganam in the southern Indian state of Kerala. The hundreds of Indian Christians visiting Rome for the ceremony yesterday included a 10-year-old boy who claimed that his club foot was healed, after he prayed for the intercession of Sister Alphonsa. For a candidate to sainthood to be canonised, a miracle must be attributed to their intercession.
Pope Benedict appealed after the ceremony for Hindus and Christians to "work together in building a civilisation of love."
Forty Christians are said to have died in the ongoing attacks on Christians by Hindu mobs in the east and south of the country.
The Pope added "As the Christian faithful of India give thanks to God for their first native daughter to be presented for public veneration, I wish to assure them of my prayers during this difficult time,"
India's first saint, Gonsalo Garcia, was canonised in 1862

A TOPIC TO BE SPOKEN ABOUT!!

Let us put a full stop to Eve teasing in India
Eve Teasing death of One Kumari Muthuselvi, TN state of India

Eve- teasing: Let us put a full stop! (topic)


It is obvious that fair sex is facing difficulties,much more than his female counterpart, from birth to death, in this uneven world. Her life is not safe, even in her mother's womb! Eve-teasing, dowry harassment,etc...the list does not end!

This is about eve-teasing death of a girl, due to torture meted out to her in a far off town , away from her home,where she had gone for studying.


That teenage girl by name Muthu selvi, was studying in the XI th standard . Some youths had photographed her in their cell camera and were black mailing her. It is said that they were threatening to mix some obscene photographs of women, with Muthuselvi's face and put it in the net. The girl did not realise that the threat was only a hollow one and that it was made only to embarass and blackmail her and nothing more.

Muthuselvi is just one example. Eve-teasing deaths of innocent girls are happening in every part of our country.It is discomforting that even after the enactment of strict laws,by the governments, the menace is continuing.

Muthuselvi was staying at the hostel run for SC/ST community students,at Nagercoil, and studying at the Salvation Army Higher Secondaray School, nearby.Salvation Army is one among the various Pentecost sects of christianity.

What sin has this innocent girl done to lose her life? Before her suicide, the fatherless girl had conveyed to her mother,while at home,in a village, in Tirunelveli District, earlier, about the torture by some youths. Her mother who is an agricultural worker perhaps failed to grab the magnitude of the problem faced by her daughter. She sent back Muthuselvi to the hostel, where she was staying , after consoling her. For the last time of course!

After some days, a dull Muthuselvi, who returned home hanged herself up! Who can console her mother and her only elder brother? It was reported,lately, that some youth had been taken into custody.

If Muthuselvi's father had been alive and happened to be a big shot, he would have probably sent strong men to teach the culprits appropriate lessons and drive them away for ever.

We find poor students falling an easy prey to eve-teasing, more often than well off students, comparatively speaking. Also, for example, if her father was alive and happened to be a higher Police Official, no body would have dared to go near her!

By law, the government should make it mandatory that the youth found to be guility in eve-teasing deaths should be dismissed from the school/college he is studying and also barred from joining any other school/college - even through correspondence. They should not be allowed to join the government services. Their Driving Licenses should also be cancelled permanently.No Bank or Insurance Company should entertain them for opening a Bank account or getting an Insurance Policy. They should not be issued passports, through out their lives. All these punishments should be apart from rigorous imprisonment for a few years. In essence, they should be blacklisted at all levels and made a "zero'!

Then only there will be no more Muthuselvis.

At the other end, the parents should bring up their children , whether male or female, who are would-be teenagers with love, piousness, honesty, patience, confidence and sensitivity to others' mental and physical sufferings. Parents should be a role-model for their children! Then only, there will be no need, for them, to repent in the future. Mind, Parents whose son is in jail,for causing an eve-teasing death, cannot be happy,as well!

Parents of teenage girls should deal with them in a friendly manner and conduct themselves in such a way that their offsprings repose absolute faith in them and convey their sorrows and agonies. Most girls are extroverts but there are introvert girls too. The parents of those girls should be more alert.


So, fear alone can deter vultures, eyeing for innocent pigeons, such as Muthuselvi, of Tamilnadu.

It is the duty and responsibility of the government to enact legislation on the above harder lines, and put a full-stop to such heart-breaking deaths, immediately !

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES

You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women.
- Jawaharlal Nehru

However much a mother may love her children, it is all but impossible for her to provide high-quality child care if she herself is poor and oppressed, illiterate and uninformed, anaemic and unhealthy, has five or six other children, lives in a slum or shanty, has neither clean water nor safe sanitation, and if she is without the necessary support either from health services, or from her society, or from the father of her children.
- Vulimiri Ramalingaswami, "The Asian Enigma"

The women who participate in and lead ecology movements in countries like India are not speaking merely as victims. Their voices are the voices of liberation and transformation. . . The women ecology movements are therefore one, and are primarily counter-trends to a patriarchal underdevelopment.
- Vandana Shiva

Amartya Sen - The Unheeded Conscience: We will lionise him, but will we ever listen to what he's saying?

Sen points out that when he took up issues of women's welfare, he was accused in India of voicing "foreign concerns." "I was told Indian women don't think like that about equality. But I would like to argue that if they don't think like that they should be given a real opportunity to think like that."
- Parmita Shastri, Outlook India, 1998