http://uchalla.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/the-national-commission-for-women–candidness-personified/

by Uma Challa

In May 2003, the National Commission for Women (NCW) felicitated one Ms. Nisha Sharma for canceling her own wedding, standing up against the evil of dowry and sending out a “loud and clear message to dowry seekers”, and Ms. Sharma became a role model for all women, overnight.  The truth, that her wedding was not cancelled due to additional demands for dowry, but because of Ms. Sharma’s pending issues with a former boyfriend, was quietly pushed under the carpet by the NCW.

In the same vein, in July 2007, a woman called Pooja Chauhan made false accusations of dowry harassment against her husband and mother-in-law, and paraded the streets of Rajkot semi-nude as a symbol of protest. The NCW was very prompt in reacting to the incident, ensured the arrest of the husband, mother-in-law, and neighbors too, for allegedly committing domestic violence against Ms. Chauhan. It did not take too long for the truth to come out and for the NCW spokesperson to put her foot in her mouth, and quickly cover up their faux pas.

In February 2009, NCW showed its characteristic promptness in ordering a probe into the “Mangalore pub incident” when a number of girls were allegedly molested by some goons in the middle of the night. The NCW and other women’s rights champions had a field-day harping about increasing atrocities on women.  When the investigation report filed by Karnataka Women’s Commission Chairperson, Nirmala Venkatesh, revealed certain inconvenient truths, the NCW found itself in the same usual “foot-in-its-mouth-situation”. This time the NCW rejected Ms. Venkatesh’s report, and fired her to save its own face.

On 5 October 2009, an airhostess approached the NCW with allegations of assault and molestation on a pilot and co-pilot of a plane on which she was a crew member. While counter allegations and witness statements quickly revealed that the story of the airhostess may just be another story like those mentioned above, the NCW habitually jumped into action, and instituted a panel for investigation into the issue, in less than 2.5 days after the incident. The two pilots have been fired even before the investigation could begin. Knowing NCW’s track record of rendering justice in such situations, does one have to really guess the outcome of this episode?

Never mind! The NCW is just doing its job of looking after protection and empowerment of women in a male-dominated society. After all, it should be okay to penalize a few innocent men to protect thousands of vulnerable women, right?

Oh! Wait a minute! Don’t jump to conclusions so soon!

Beginning year 2005, several elderly women, falsely accused under IPC Section 498A (for the only crime of mothering sons and getting the sons married) approached the NCW, seeking justice. These women have long heart-rending accounts of how they are being harassed by their daughters-in-law. The NCW’s short, yet prompt and candid response to these mothers was, “Your matter does not fall under the mandate of the Commission”.

Similarly, in June 2009, a 45 year old woman who was arrested on charges of dowry harassment was allegedly gang-raped in police custody, in Bhopal. The news, which was reported in leading newspapers, went completely unnoticed by the NCW. No panel, no probe, even 2.5 months after the incident. Surprised? No need to be. This is simply one more matter that does not fall under the mandate of NCW.

Indian women need to be very clear about their expectations from the NCW, when the NCW is so clear about its mandate. You should know by now that the NCW is literally working overtime for the cause of disgruntled, adulterous, parasitic and criminal-minded wives, girlfriends and female workers. How many more matters would you expect the NCW to include in its mandate?

Why are so many of you women surprised about NCW’s modi operandi? Beats me!

October has apparently been designated as Domestic Violence Awareness Month by National Coalition Against Domestic Violence in 1987.  In the US, the Domestic Violence Industry profiteers have pretty much got what they wanted in terms of legislation and public policy.  By the time the public realized the damage, it was too late. Besides, in the US, the victims of the DV legislation and DV policies were too disorganized and divided to voice their angst against the bankrupt policies promoted by the DV industry profiteers.

Having accomplished their mission, the feminazis of US have turned their attention to their eastern neighbours. None proved to be a more fertile ground for implanting their bankrupt policies than India. They found their best partner in Indira Jaising of Lawyers Collective to organize the urban feminazi, who are miniscule percentage of population but have disproportionate access to the echelons of the power. Funds were channeled to Lawyers Collective and Indira Jaising through UNIFEM to bring about DV legislation to India. The result was the most insidious and most ridiculous DV legislation in the form of Protection Of Women against Domestic Violence Act 2005, passed by the Indian Parliament on Oct 26, 2006.

This year, Save Indian Family Foundation is organizing the Domestic Violence Awareness Month, to highlight

- the malicious nature of gender biased and unconstitutional acts of  PWDVA and ipc 498a

- the atrocities committed by the police and the judiciary against innocent and defenseless citizens in the name of women protection legislation

- the complete marginalization and exploitation of males in matters relating to family law like child custody, maintenance, alimony and divorce

Save Indian Family Foundation and its sister NGOs are calling on all the victims of illegitimate legislation like PWDVA and ipc498a to join hands to raise their voices against the injustice perpetrated and promoted by the Government against its own citizens.

Until all the “ostensibly women protection legislation” is amended and made gender neutral, Save Indian Family Foundation and its sister NGOs treat all the proceedings instituted, orders passed and sentences imposed using such legislation as illegitimate and morally reprehensible.  This Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we will ensure this message is spread far and wide.

Visit the blogs below for more information.

_________________________________________________________

http://dvawareness-india.blogspot.com/
http://dvawarenessindia.blogspot.com/
http://dvawarenessindia.wordpress.com/

“Arrey Sunita, kya baat hai, bahut udaas lag rahi ho, sab theek to hai?” asks a curious neighbour. “Kya kahun, tu to jaanti hai meri saas-sasur ke dahej ke lalach ko, main soch rahi hoon ki sab par mukadma daayar kar du. Par roj-roj court ke chakkar aur paise aur time ki barbaadi ko sochkar chup ho jaathi hoon,” replies Sunita. Chirps in the neighbour: “So go to Delhi Police’s Crime (Women) Cell at Nanakpura in West Moti Bagh for mediation.” A brief pause later, a cheerful Sunita tells the audience on FM Radio about mediation centres at Rohini, Karkadooma and Tis Hazari court complexes. 

So began a news item in Indian Express (link here). This is apparently in reference to the advertising blitz undertaken by Delhi Police to entice women to approach the Police to settle their matrimonial grievances.

So far, the standard procedure has been for the disgruntled woman to approach the police station and file a false 498a case. Of course, the police played the role of extortionists or their enablers even in these cases. However, with the recent activism of the Save Indian Family Foundation volunteers, the falsely accused citizens have started asserting their rights and the Police have been left with no option but to let the false 498a cases go forward in the courts. As most of these cases are false, the likelihood of conviction is practically nil and in many cases, the falsely accused citizens have exposed the perjury committed in the open courts by the complainants and filed counter charges to punish the false accusers. Even the courts are becoming exasperated with the sheer numbers of false cases and the trampling of civil liberties of innocent citizens in the name of women protection laws.

Now, the feminist mafia has turned its attention to the mediation mantra, so the extortion can be affected simply in the CAW cells without the need for filing FIRs and letting the cases go forward in the Courts.

Most sensible women know that involving Police in matrimonial disputes is a recipe for disaster for everyone concerned. The moment a woman enters a police station for petty marital grievances; her marriage is over for all practical purposes. In most cases, where a woman decides to enter the police station, she already made up her mind about terminating the marriage. Now, all she is looking for is the best bargain to get out of the matrimony. These women, who walk into police stations to complain against their husbands or in-laws, are often the abusers, the aggressors and the victimisers masquerading as victims. They have mastered the art of exploiting the gender card to their advantage in every situation.

Enter CAW cell. The so called mediators of CAW cells know the truth about these abusers. In fact, they are the enablers of these abusers. With their “batons” parked on the head of the husband, they start their mediation. Mediation is nothing but arriving at a bargaining price to avoid false charges and/or police brutality. What sort of mediation is this, carried out under the threat of Police Brutality? Can any settlement obtained under such a threat be termed a genuine and fair settlement?

The role of Police is to uphold law and order. When a crime is reported, their job is to investigate and bring charges against the accused to be tried in a court. If indeed a woman complained of harassment or domestic violence, the police’s job is to remove her from the threatening situation and put her in a safer shelter and then investigate her claims. Mediation in marital disputes should not be and cannot be in the charter of the police. This practice is illegal and illegitimate.

The threat of Police Brutality, often starting at the CAW cells, is the single biggest cause for the increasing numbers of suicides of married men in India. This detestable practice of mediating marital disputes in Police Stations must be deprecated, discouraged and discontinued. Batons must be used to maintain law and order and to prevent crime and terrorism; and not for blackmailing defenseless citizens. Batons and counseling are incompatible with each other, other than in the case of legalized extortion as is happening in these notorious CAW cells.

Men are urged to boycott these counseling sessions in the CAW cells. If indeed a crime is committed, let them file an FIR, let the matter be investigated by the police and tried by the courts. If woman’s life is in danger, let the police remove her from danger and place her in a safe shelter. CAW cells cannot be used to short circuit the constitutional protection of due process for the hapless men.

Ca Ching! The cash register is ringing non-stop and the money is pouring in from all corners!

Oh my God! One in three women in India is a victim of Domestic Violence, that too “behind closed doors”! What a shame? What a shame?

The Goebbels of Third Reich is hanging his head in shame from his comfortable ensconce in hell looking at the scale and intensity of the “Bell Bajao” campaign!

Not to be left behind, the corporate heavy weights like Google, Intel, Bloomberg and other sundry do-gooders eagerly attach their names to the campaign!

Here are the Domestic Violence Industry profiteers in full force and action, what with merchandise for sale, Domestic Violence credit cards, charity monies from the sundry foundations – the profits appear to be unbelievable and unstoppable!

So what is really happening with this shameful campaign? Our beloved Sentinel (the author of Survival Guide to IPC 498a and blogger at ipc498a.wordpress.com) has applied his keen analytical skills and sharp pen to deconstruct this campaign in his posting here –

To The Feminazis Of The Bell Bajao Campaign

Here are some excerpts –

…

“One out of every three women faces violence behind closed doors“

Really ??!!!

Let’s take a look at this number again.

India has a population of 1,000,000,000 (1+ Billion.  What a shame !)

Let’s say approximately half of them are women of all ages so that makes it 500,000,000.

According to this Feminazi statistic,  1/3 of these women of all ages face domestic violence behind closed doors.

This means

500,000,000 / 3 = 166,666,667

which is effectively a little more than half the population of the US.

Considering that this law (PWDVA) defines domestic violence as being inflicted only by men upon women, then we have an equal number of men, 166,666,667,  subjecting women to domestic violence behind closed doors.

This effectively means, 320,000,000 Indians are living in violence and misery.

What does this number really mean?

This number means that the entire Indian Middle Class is living in misery and subjecting itself to domestic violence.

Why would I say middle class?

Because nobody cares about the  poor and the abjectly  poor brethen of our country, whose number goes into 600,000,000+. They face a greater violence, poverty.

How does one apply the DV in its present form, with compensations, right to residence and all its idiocies to the poor and the very poor?  Heck  ! If you don’t live in a house which Bell will you Bajao?

In reality the poor don’t have the taste for the finer aspects of life like the PWDVA.

You can forget about the political class and the very rich. Things like the DV Act don’t apply to them, because if it did, the beneficiaries of this nonsense would be booted onto the streets, instead of hob nobbing with the elites and the political class in fancy hotels and conference venues. Try getting past the security guards and the throngs of hangers on to Bajao the Bell of the homes of the political class and the very rich.  To illustriate my point, try to Bajao the Bell of Union Minister “498A accused” Arjun Singh !!

By this reasoning,  a huge chunk of the Indian population can be eliminated from the purview of the DV Act.

This leaves the upper middle, the middle, and the lower middle classes, which are estimated to be around 400,000,000. The PWDVA is targeted precisely towards this strata of Indian society and so does this shoddy campaign. The middles classes have not organized themselves into a solid voting block. They remain divided and are a tempting target for the Feminazis to extract their pound of flesh from.

For a population size that is still greater than that of the US, that is a lot of Bells To Bajao, cases to stuff down into clogged courts, protection orders to issue and prime properties to be taken over under the excuse of right to residence!!

One last question – If all this domestic violence was going on behind closed doors, how on earth did these people compile these statistics ?

—–

Now floks, you get the picture. These profiteers of Domestic Violence Industry have no principles, no scruples and no morals. They feed on ignorance of the charities, they feed on the misery and devastation they cause in the society and they profit from utter and pure lies. They can do all this because they have mastered the art of propaganda. Sad truth is, there is nobody in positions of power, respect or authority left to challenge these dishonest and disgusting people!

Recently, I was forwarded an article titled “Gruesome and escalating violence on women” by one Mr. P N Benjamin in Deccan Herald news paper.

Looking at the title, I could immediately discern it as feminist propaganda garbage. The opening statement read something like – “The recent chilling front page report of the police shielding the accused in a dowry case…”

I was “stuck” by this statement. I do not know which incident this P.N. Benjamin was referring to. But if any objective person looks at the reality on the ground, day in and day out, thousands upon thousands of innocent and defenseless citizens across the length and breadth of our country are being mercilessly arrested, incarcerated, presumed guilty and tormented for endless years based on mostly false complaints registered by disgruntled women.

Not surprised. This is the standard feminist fare – take some isolated case and peddle it as the mainstream, so as to intimidate the police, judiciary and politicians to tow the party line.

Then Benjamin goes on to write -

“One cannot help but be struck by the off-hand way in which generally a young woman’s life and death is summed up, matter-of-factly, without any undue cause for alarm or probing of the causes. It is as much as one would report a traffic accident or the death of a cancer patient — tragic certainly, but such things are to be expected.”

In India, at the present moment, a young married woman’s death is anything but un-sensational. Not a day goes by without one coming across a report of some married woman’s death somewhere “sensationally” repackaged as “dowry death”. It does not matter what the true cause of the death is. In the first instant, the entire family of the husband is rounded up and incarcerated. Then, to the eternal shame of our country’s civic credential, these defenseless citizens are presumed guilty as charged and made to fight the deep-pocketed and corrupt prosecution in the courts run by equally corrupt judiciary.  By the time the case is resolved, reams of journalistic garbage would have been written; thousands of rupees of the public monies would have been spent; scores of lives would have been ruined; and quite possibly some innocent persons may even have been jailed, particularly if they were indigent and could not afford the best defense money could buy.

When such a ruckus is created in the society upon the death of a young married woman, how could this charlatan of Benjamin make a claim that young woman’s life and death are paid no attention by the society? Obviously, this is a falsehood. What, then, is the reality that this self-proclaimed champion of women’s rights is trying to obscure?

Let me illustrate by replacing one word in his statement (“man” for “woman”) which then would read as follows – “One cannot help but be struck by the off-hand way in which generally a young man’s life and death is summed up, matter-of-factly, without any undue cause for alarm or probing of the causes. It is as much as one would report a traffic accident or the death of a cancer patient — tragic certainly, but such things are to be expected.”

How true! Now, the sentence makes sense; and that is the reality this charlatan is trying to obscure. Every year, 56000 married males end their lives unable to withstand the pressures of domestic violence, social hostility, lack of support and unreasonable expectations placed on their shoulders by the society. The tragic deaths of Pushkar Singhs, Syed Mukdooms are neither sexy enough for the mainstream media,  nor sensational enough for the state prosecutors nor sad enough to move the heartless judiciary. These human beings who were sacrificed at the altar of feminist fraud are the true faceless statistic.

As I read further through this piece of garbage, I could not help but notice this whole rant revolved around the D word (Dowry).  How is it that years after noted and pioneering woman’s rights activist Ms Madhu Purnima Kishwar adequately exposed the politics around dowry (link here), the sundry practitioners of pussy politics like the author of this drivel getting away with converting every woman’s issue into that of Dowry harassment? That too, in the mainstream media!

Could it be that the feminist machinery is feeling the heat as more and more mainstream media and civil society are coming forward to expose the “dowry harassment” blackmail racket? Quite possibly!

Coming back to PN Benjamin, is this pseudo-intellectual dunce really interested in the women’s welfare? If indeed he was, why was there no mention of the plethora of real and more serious problems faced by women in our country? Issues like -

-          deaths in childbirth

-          access to education

-          access to healthcare

-          extreme poverty

-          human trafficking

-          forced prostitution

-          forced marriages

-          extravagant marriages

-          child marriages

No! None of the above serious issues are of major concern for our Private Benjamin. And indeed, none of the above issues are of major concern for most of the loud mouthed feminists of our country. In fact, the bulk of the cases of use (or abuse) of the legislation (dowry related and DV legislation) has been by the middle class women of our country. As a segment, the middle class women of our country would hardly ever face any of the problems mentioned above. They, as a group, are in the best circumstance with regards to education, access to healthcare, and financial security. Disgruntled and brainwashed women from this segment constitute the best foot soldiers for the pursuit of feminist agenda. It is no wonder then that all legislation is targeted to this segment, so that more and more of them misuse the provisions of the legislation and wreak havoc on the society. And do that while playing victim, because they have the wherewithal to execute this scheme properly.

Where do the “Benjamins” of the media fit in the grand feminist scheme? They are nothing but bots strategically placed in mainstream media by the feminist political machinery to poison the public opinion. These dummies have the language skills, but lack the intelligence and honesty required to analyze the intricacies of socio-economic-political issues of our complex society.  However, that doesn’t seem to matter much. They still are making handsome careers peddling garbage, as our Private Benjamin has done in this article.

http://uchalla.wordpress.com/2009/02/28/151/

In the year 1910, Clara Zetkin, a German women’s rights advocate, proposed that “every year, in every country, there should be a celebration on the same day – a Women’s Day – to press for their demands”. Ever since, International Women’s Day is being observed in various countries across the world.

In order to press for our demands that have been ignored and brushed aside by mainstream women’s organizations, lawmakers and our elected representatives, we, the members of All India Forgotten Women (AIFW) and Mothers and Sisters Initiative (MASI), are organizing a Dharna on the occasion of International Women’s Day, 8 March 2009, in front of the office of the National Commission of Women between 10:00 am and 1:30 pm.

In India, we not only have a Ministry dedicated to women’s welfare but also a National Commission for Women and several regional and local organizations representing the cause of women.

The Government of India is constantly doling out pro-women policies in the name of providing equal rights, imparting education, improving health, and encouraging women’s participation in all walks of life. It has passed several laws in the name of addressing problems such as dowry harassment, dowry death, marital cruelty, domestic violence, rape, indecent representation of women, to name a few.

Women’s rights activists have been successful in pressuring the police, judiciary and media to take a lenient approach towards women and grant them special privileges compared to men. They constantly remind women of their “hard won” rights and privileges in the society, and the need to protect and exercise them.

In spite of all the above, we continue to hear that the status of women in the country is only worsening every day. One is bound to wonder why granting more and more privileges and protections to women would lead to worsening of the status of women in the society? Here is why:

The Ministry of Women and Child Development, the National Commission for Women and other powerful women’s organizations comprise of radical feminists who are anti-men and anti-family. These radical feminists have become self-appointed authorities who determine what is good for all women in the country, and have assumed proprietary rights on the drafting and implementation of all policies and laws related to women. In their regime, spread of anti-male sentiments and superficial appeasement of women take precedence over real empowerment of women. Laws pushed by radical feminists under the guise of empowering women are, in reality, weapons that facilitate abuse by women, violate basic human rights of men, women and children and promote family destruction.

Does penalizing innocent women under false cases bring justice to genuinely abused women?

In the last four years, over 123,497 women have been arrested under IPC Section 498A alone, without evidence or investigation, not for committing any crime under law, but only because they were related to a man. The recently amended Section 41 of CrPC, which redefines police powers of arrest, imposes greater accountability on the law enforcement machinery while carrying out arrests, and ensures that unnecessary arrests are avoided. While these amendments represent a step in the right direction to uphold basic human rights and constitutional rights of men and women, radical feminists are opposing these amendments. They parrot exaggerated statistics of crimes and injustices against women, label them as gender-driven discrimination and abuse, and press for draconian legislations that penalize the innocent.

Is the pain of a mother who lost a son to domestic abuse or legal terrorism any less than that of a mother who lost a daughter?

Recent data from the National Crime Records Bureau indicates that nearly twice as many married men, compared to married women, commit suicide every year, unable to withstand verbal,emotional, economic and physical abuse and legal harassment. While every death of a young married woman is converted into a case of dowry death, leading to immediate arrest of the husband and in-laws, large-scale suicides of men are completely ignored. While husbands and their relatives are under constant suspicion leading to frequent violation of their basic human rights, wives are rarely ever questioned leave alone prosecuted if a husband dies or ends his life under similar circumstances. Suicides of men only make for the brief stories we often read in newspapers stating that a certain man “killed himself due to family issues or financial problems”. No Ministry has been set up to support our sons and brothers. No laws have been passed to protect them from abuse.

Does inciting a gender war solve women’s problems within and outside the home?

Radical feminists disparaged the Indian family as oppressive and Indian men as abusive, and portrayed the streets as far safer for women than their own homes. They have urged women to break free from the slavery of home, family and childrearing, and, instead, become slaves of government and corporate enterprises. Not surprisingly, radical feminists have neither been able to ensure the security nor the happiness that they had promised to women outside the home. They now cry foul saying that crimes and abuses against women have only been increasing. Notwithstanding the fact that men and women are equally vulnerable to violence and crime committed by members of either sex, radical feminists claim that crime against women is gender-driven, thus, pitting women against men in the society.

Does women’s equality mean empowerment of morally bankrupt women at the expense of responsible, family-loving women?

Radical feminists even went a step further to promote chaos in the society by pitting women against women. They introduced IPC Section 498A which allows arrests and jailing of innocent mothers and sisters of men based on a mere complaint by a disgruntled daughter-in-law. They introduced the Domestic Violence (DV) Act which allows a daughter-in-law to evict her mother-in-law out of her own property and render her homeless. If you think this is outrageous, here is the coup de gras: on the one hand radical feminists demanded that adultery be treated as a crime when committed by men. On the other hand, they demanded that adulterous women be considered as victims and not penalized under criminal law. They ensured that the DV Act empowers a wife to violate marital norms with impunity and also claim residence and maintenance rights in spite of being unfaithful to the husband. Through the DV Act they also sought to grant live-in partners and concubines the same legal status as a legally wedded wife. The end result is that the protections and privileges, granted to a live-in-partner or concubine, violate the rights of a legally wedded wife and dependent female members of a man’s family.

Does women’s empowerment mean destroying family harmony and creating a fatherless society?

The Ministry of Women and Child Development claims that safeguarding the interests of children is paramount in its agenda. However, the same Ministry has left no stone unturned to ensure that children are mercilessly torn away from fathers in cases of marital separation or divorce. The Ministry pushed the DV Act which even allows for the passing of ex-parte orders to take away the custody of a child from the father without a just and fair enquiry to assess the suitability of guardianship by either or both parents. The Act includes provisions for passing of restraining orders that eliminate all contact between a father and child, only based on the self-serving statements of a vindictive wife. Thus, the DV Act violates a child’s right to the love and affection of both parents, and promotes a fatherless society.

Is the cause of women’s empowerment synonymous with Gobbelian propaganda, legal terrorism and human rights violations?

Radical feminists raise a hue and cry about dowry harassment by husbands and in-laws and portray India as a country where brides are routinely burned for dowry. They spread paranoia about how unsafe women are in their marital homes because of the “evil practice” of dowry. The same radical feminists do not oppose extravagant marriages or giving of dowry. Consequently, the ever increasing marriage related expenses in the present consumerist economy are causing mortal fear in the minds of parents about giving birth to a girl. Radical feminists who turn a blind eye to excessive marriage expenditures and giving of dowry, but indulge in alarmism about dowry harassment are, in fact, promoting female foeticide and discrimination against the female child. These very feminists turn around and blame all the problems of their own creation on what they call the “male-dominated society” in order to garner funds from international agencies, and also to lobby for more stringent anti-male laws that aid legal terrorism and violation of basic human rights.

Is this the notion of women’s empowerment that hard-working, self-respecting and individualistic women subscribe to?

Radical feminists, who claim to represent the interests of all women, have been pushing for more and more rights and privileges, disregarding how many existing rights, opportunities and privileges are poorly utilized and even quite often misused by women. They advocate rights and privileges for women without prescribing any concomitant duties or responsibilities towards the family and society. Consequently, today, there are more women who are separated or divorced. There are more women indulging in illicit relationships. There are more unwanted pregnancies. There are more women raising fatherless children. There are more literate but uneducated and morally bankrupt women, who are living parasitic lives by siphoning money away from an estranged husband or partner. There are more women who abuse laws to destroy families and the society, as they themselves self-destruct.

Unscrupulous radical feminists and the rest of the society

It will not be an exaggeration to state that the Ministry of Women and Child Development and organizations like the National Commission for Women are protecting the interests of unscrupulous women, while the rest of the society pays the price.

The recent Mangalore pub incident and the responses of radical feminists represent another good example of women’s empowerment gone awry.

In the past, when rural women destroyed liquor shops and beat up men who drank or sold alcohol, they became heroes and their acts were cheered. Achieving prohibition was seen as a victory of the women’s movement and a sign of women’s empowerment. In the recent times, the Minister of Women and Child Development dealt a death blow to the women’s movement by championing urban women’s right to frequent pubs and drink as a token of their empowerment and equality with men. The National Commission for Women seems to be more passionate about protecting women indulging in the luxury of drinking alcohol in pubs, while 30% of Indian women still walk up to 10 kilometers everyday to fetch a pot of drinking water, which is a basic necessity.

It has become crystal clear that radical feminists only create more problems in the name of solving existing ones. They can neither devise nor support sustainable solutions, policies and laws which will actually benefit women because if the status of women improves, the gender card will be rendered redundant, and can longer be used to reap any political or financial gains. The survival of radical feminist outfits and politicians who dance to their tunes depends on stoking anti-male sentiments, destroying the family and creating chaos in the society.

It is high time sensible, responsible and enlightened women take charge of the situation and restore sanity in the society before things go out of hand. All India Forgotten Women (AIFW) and Mothers and Sisters Initiative (MASI) comprise of women who work towards promoting family harmony and true gender equality, with the goals of maintaining social stability and nurturing responsible citizens in the country.

Our Demands

On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2009, we make the following demands to the Government of India:

• We demand immediate implementation of CrPC Amendments 2008 to protect us and our dear ones from legal terrorism and human rights violations.

• We demand equal protection to men and women under law.

• We demand laws and policies that promote family harmony.

• We demand severe penalty for anyone misusing legal provisions to settle personal scores.

• We demand that balanced, responsible, family-loving women are given charge of the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the National Commission for Women.

• We demand a Ministry for Men to cater to the needs and welfare of our brothers and sons.

We request esteemed members of the print and electronic media to join us and provide unprecedented coverage for our event.

Event supported by:

www.savefamily.org , www.saveindianfamily.org , www.mynation.net , www.protectindianfamily.org , www.ghrs.in

In the last few years, marriage has become a crime for Indian men. Multiple cases, containing false and baseless allegations, under Section 498A and the Domestic Violence Act are being filed against Husbands and their parents and relatives. These false cases are filed with a pervert motive of, either treating the Husband as *FREE ATM MACHINE*, separate him from his immediate family, to grab his property, to hide the wife’s illicit relationships and extra marital affairs, to deny access of his children to the father, or for any reasons other than actual Dowry Harassment and Domestic Violence.

There is no investigation done on the complaints received, nor any evidences are verified before registering a case and arbitrarily arresting people.  Because of such malpractices, more and more number of married men are losing their jobs and committing suicides as well. Some shocking statistics, regarding the misuse as per data available from the *National Crime Records Bureau* (NCRB),

1. 1,23,000 women (mothers, sisters and other female relatives of husbands), have been arrested in the last four years (2004-2007) merely on the basis of complaints by wives under Section 498A, without trial or investigation, whereas even the barbaric British Government arrested only 20,000 women in 40 years.

2. 57,000 married men have committed suicide in 2007, of which 16,000 are directly due to domestic abuse. In the last 11 years (1996-2007) 1,56,000 married men have committed suicide directly due to domestic violence. Equivalent figures for women are 83,787 which means in the last 11 years the number of married men’s suicides has been nearly two times that of married women’s suicides.

In addition to the above, a study done by the *Center for Social Research*, a Govt. funded NGO has found that there is only 2% conviction in dowry cases. Keeping in mind the fact that in dowry cases, it is the accused that have to prove their innocence rather than prosecution proving them guilty, as the accused is innocent until proven guilty. If the complaints had been true there should have been 100% conviction. But an abysmally low rate of conviction only shows that the  complaints are entirely false, uninvestigated and totally unprosecutable.

But the criminal justice system has broken down to such an extent that it has become a handy tool in the hands of unscrupulous people to utilize it as a tool to settle personal scores. Some of the problems that people face who are falsely accused in such cases, are:-

1. Their productive years are wasted in the precincts of a litigating corridor fighting an unnecessary battle that ultimately declares them innocent after a long and arduous legal battle.

It is not merely a false case that is lodged. But on one complaint the entire state machinery of law and order is set in motion against the husband and his family who are humiliated, terrorized and traumatized by the process and even blackmailed and extorted in the name of ‘settlement and
compromise’. The criminal justice system has lent itself to be used as a state sponsored tool in the process funded by tax payer’s money, 82% of which is paid by men. Even the Honorable Supreme Court in its various landmark judgments has coined the term “Legal Terrorism” to such rampant
misuse of dowry laws and urged the Government to take immediate steps to put checks and balances in the system.

Very recently Honorable Chief Justice of India Shri. K.G.Balakrishnan has expressed serious concern over the growing misuse at a Seminar organized by the National Commission for Women. Added to that, Honorable Chief Justice of Karnataka Shri P.D.Dinakaran had also voiced the problems that men face when false cases under Domestic Violence Act are lodged against them at a workshop organized for Awareness of Domestic Violence Act. Even Honorable President of India Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil has agreed in a recent speech, that there is widespread misuse of the dowry laws by women in the country. Time and again various judges of the High Court and Supreme Court have repeatedly expressed displeasure on the misuse of dowry laws and Domestic Violence Act and have recommended several corrective measures which have fallen on deaf ears so far, sadly enough.

SIFF receives weekly 250 – 300 calls over its various helplines from husbands all over India and abroad about not only the misuse, but also how they are facing rampant domestic violence from their wives and in-laws which can be physical, emotional, mental, and economic in nature. And SIFF has been creating awareness about this issue through its various awareness campaigns wherein it has repeatedly urged the Government to take note of this issue. However, the current form of the Domestic Violence Act does not allow husbands to make a complaint of domestic violence and get relief. And there is no proposal from the Government to review it either despite SIFF and its partner NGOs making repeated requests to the Government.

SIFF is deeply concerned that the family system in India is in grave danger. When foreigners are looking up to Indian customs and marrying as per Indian traditions, our own people have gone blind in aping the western culture in the name of Westernization. Our cultural values and respect for tradition is getting lost as the youth, today is more concerned about its own liberalism and individuality rather than family values. Vested interests call the Indian family as oppressive and brainwash the young minds against the family system. The Government is urged to call upon a national debate to address the issue of the dying family system of India.

In this protest on 14th February 2009, SIFF places its demands before the Government and the society as follows:-

1. Form a National Commission for Men and a Men’s Welfare Ministry to look into the issues that men are facing.

2. Clear the huge backlog of pending matrimonial cases and appoint evening courts and more judges for the same.

3. Allow the citizens, especially the youth to participate in policy decisions affecting their life.

4. Eliminate all gender biased laws and replace them with Gender neutral laws by replacing the words “Husband” and “Wife” with “Spouse” and “Man” and “Woman” with “Person”.

5. Eliminate all redundant legal provisions of applying for maintenance by the wife.

6. Amend the Domestic Violence Act which currently does not cater to female to female violence, female to male violence and male to male violence.

7. Police should be kept away from the family matters and there should be no ‘counseling’ whatsoever in police station.

8. Child interviews should be totally banned in child custody cases as in most of the cases the custodian parent poisons the child against the non-custodian parent. Interviewing such a child is a torture on the child.

9. Misusers of laws should be punished with severe punishment. In a criminal case either the complainant or the accused have to be punished depending on whether the complaint is false or true. No settlement should be allowed in criminal cases.

10. Owing to skyrocketing suicides due to family distress and domestic disputes, a national debate needs to be called for. The debate needs to address the issues the current family system faces.

12. The police, the mediators and the courts need to be sensitized about the issues of men and should be trained adequately to understand the problems of a husband before terrorizing him into a forced settlement. Monetary compensation for a broken marriage should be the last resort and
should be resorted to only in the rarest of rare cases and cannot be more than six months of the income of the earning spouse.

http://uchalla.wordpress.com/2008/10/21/press-release-on-the-2nd-anniversary-of-domestic-violence-act-26th-october-2008/

Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, commonly known as the Domestic Violence (DV) Act took effect on 26th October 2006. On the occasion of the second anniversary of this highly inhuman and discriminatory law, Save Indian Family Foundation and its sibling organizations call upon the entire nation to observe BLACK DAY and show solidarity by joining our Dharna at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, on 26th October 2008 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.

From the outset, the DV Act has been touted as one of the most progressive legislations passed to empower women in India and to protect them from domestic abuse. The dark secret, unknown to many, is that this law is a clone of Western laws (like the American VAWA) which have not only been utterly unsuccessful in curbing domestic violence against women, but, on the contrary, have become socially harmful legislations that facilitate violence against men, violate basic human rights of men, women and children and promote family destruction. What is worse is that this lethal weapon of social destruction was secretly imported to India, without any debate or discussion on its relevance or pros and cons to the Indian society prior to its enactment.

The DV Act, through its various provisions, not only violates the Constitution of India but also the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other International Conventions.

The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the DV Act begins with the acknowledgment that “Domestic Violence is undoubtedly a human rights issue and serious deterrent to development”, while citing the Vienna Accord of 1994 and the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action of 1995. However, the Act consciously ignores a well-established fact that domestic violence is not gender-specific, and that, studies all over the world show that men and women are equally likely to indulge in intimate partner violence.

The DV Act is based on the untenable assumption that victims of domestic violence are always women and that the perpetrator is always a man; while statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau show that in the years 2005 and 2006 alone, nearly twice as many married men (52,483 in year 2005 and 55,452 in year 2006), compared to married women (28,186 in year 2005 and 29,869 in year 2006), committed suicide unable to withstand verbal, emotional, economic and physical abuse and legal harassment.

The Universal Declaration of Human rights states that “men and women,…, are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.” It declares that “all are equal before the law, and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law”. Article 14 of the Indian Constitution declares that “The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.” The DV Act, however, blatantly denies protection to men against any form of domestic abuse.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims that “everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.”  However, the DV Act presumes that the accused man is guilty until proven innocent, thus violating the presumption of innocence and the principles of fair trial guaranteed under Articles 20 and 21 of the Constitution of India, in addition to defying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The DV Act also prescribes many rules of evidence, procedure and trial which are shockingly arbitrary, unreasonable, irrational and discriminatory. The following are a few examples.

The DV Act assumes that women are always honest victims, and, hence, requiring proof of their claims is unnecessary. Under this Act, the sole testimony of the so-called aggrieved person is enough for the court to conclude that an offence has been committed. This baseless assumption turns the Act into a weapon in the hands of abusive women to perpetrate violence against men and also misuse the law.

Section 10 of the Act makes a provision for service providers which amounts to delegation of essential judicial as well as investigatory functions to them. Such a provision is completely preposterous and hitherto unknown to law.

Rule 14 of the DV Act prohibits any defense to be taken by the accused husband or his relatives and the entire procedure prescribed to the so-called counselors is unilateral, one-sided and loaded in favor of the complainant. This provision is in direct violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Section 20 of the DV Act provides monetary compensation for victims of domestic violence. This Section empowers a Magistrate to order the accused to pay monetary relief consistent with the standard of living to which the complainant claims to be accustomed (irrespective of the earning capacity of the accused). In addition, if the accused person fails to make the payment, the Magistrate can direct the employer or debtor of the accused to directly pay the complainant or deposit the same amount with the court. Commonsense dictates that a victim of domestic violence should be removed from the abusive situation and be sheltered from further violence. By making lucrative provisions for monetary compensation, the law provides enormous scope for misuse by unscrupulous women.

The DV Act contains provisions which are essentially duplications of several other laws and confers the same protections and rights to women that have been already provided by other existing legislations. For example, a wife who has been allegedly subjected to cruelty by her husband and in-laws is protected both under Indian Penal Code Section 498A, and also under the DV Act. This violates Article 20(2) of the Constitution, which states that “No person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once.” The DV Act also makes provisions for a woman to claim maintenance from the “abusive” husband, while two other legal provisions, CrPC Section125 and the Hindu Marriage Act Section 24, simultaneously allow a wife to claim maintenance from the husband.

Apart from being blatantly anti-male, the DV Act is also anti-family, as it violates the social and legal sanctity of marriage. According to the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, a Hindu wife shall not be entitled for separate residence or maintenance if she is commits adultery or gets converted to another religion, but the DV Act actually empowers a wife to violate marital norms with impunity and also claim residence and maintenance in spite of being unfaithful or converting to another religion. The DV Act also endeavors to grant live-in partners/concubines the same legal status as a legally wedded wife. In many instances, the protections and privileges (maintenance, residence rights, etc.) granted to the live-in-partner/concubine, violate the rights of a legally wedded wife. Such provisions are not only revolting but also destructive to the institutions of marriage and family. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, “the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society, and is entitled to protection by society and the State.” The DV Act, on the contrary, promotes matrimonial disharmony and destruction of family.

In addition to violating family rights, the DV Act also violates a child’s right to the love and affection of both parents. The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the DV Act refers to the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), 1989, which mandates that States shall ensure among other things that in all cases the interest of children is paramount. For reaching a just opinion about the interest of children, it is imperative that a just and fair enquiry be held by the court to assess the competing claims of both parents about the suitability of guardianship. However, Section 23(2) of the DV Act allows for passing of ex-parte orders to take away the custody of a child from the father on the sole basis of the self-serving affidavits of a complainant woman. Thus, the DV Act promotes a fatherless society.

One of the most preposterous aspects of the DV Act is that it violates even the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the very International Convention that the law is based on. The DV Act openly promotes discrimination against women relatives of an accused man. The Statement of Objects and Reasons categorically states that “whereas the Bill enables the wife or the female living in a relationship in the nature of marriage to file a complaint under the proposed enactment against any relative of the husband or the male partner, it does not enable any female relative of the husband or the male partner to file a complaint against the wife or female partner.”

Thus, the Act ignores the several instances where a daughter-in-law commits domestic violence against her mother-in-law, sister-in-law or any other females related by marriage. Interestingly enough, the DV Act also favors divorced women and former girlfriends over a legally wedded wife. It supports the encroachment of property by a girlfriend (former or present) at the expense of the right to residence of a man, his legally wedded wife and any other dependent female members of a family. So, in the name of protecting a section of women who may be making true or false allegations, the law penalizes innocent women who are related to an accused man. So much for Elimination of ALL forms of Discrimination Against Women!!!

While the DV Act came under severe criticism from several judicial authorities, legal experts, NGOs and concerned citizens, the Government has not made any efforts to amend the provisions of the law in the interest of fairness, justice, family harmony and social stability. The Ministry of Women and Child Development conducted a Round Table Conference in New Delhi, on 25th June, 2008, claiming to give an opportunity to “men’s organizations” to present their recommendations and suggestions regarding laws pertaining to women. Save Indian Family Foundation and its sibling organizations, which work towards family harmony and true gender equality, were deliberately left out until several appeals were sent to include our representatives in the discussions. The Conference, however, turned out to be only an eye-wash, as the Ministry, eventually, denied the need for amendments in these laws including the DV Act.

In light of all the above facts, and in an attempt to highlight the serious social damage caused by the DV Act, Save Indian Family Foundation and its sibling organizations call upon the entire nation to observe the second anniversary of the DV Act as a BLACK DAY in the history of India. We specifically request all the print and electronic media to show solidarity by joining us in our Dharna at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, on 26th October 2008 between 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.

On this occasion, we also demand that the following amendments be made to the DV Act to prevent further damage to marital harmony and social stability in India:

1)    DV Act should be made gender-neutral and equal protection should be provided to men and women against physical, emotional, verbal and economic abuse.

2)    DV Act, like every other law, must be based on the presumption of innocence until guilt is proved. In addition, the DV Act must follow the principle of according a fair trial to the accused.

3)    Service providers should not be delegated with judicial and investigatory functions. In addition, service providers and counselors must be persons or organizations who have a track record of working for family harmony, true gender equality, and possess a balanced and educated approach towards serious issues like domestic violence.

4)    In order to protect victims of domestic violence from further abuse, they should be removed from the abusive situation and relocated to shelters. Making provisions for monetary compensation to the complainant promotes misuse of the law by unscrupulous individuals. Denying the accused persons of residential rights on their own property violates the human rights of the accused. In addition, a genuine victim who is not removed from the site of abuse is more likely to fall prey to violence again and again.

5)    A complainant should not be allowed to claim maintenance under DV Act, as there are two other existing provisions, CrPC Section 125 and Hindu Marriage Act Section 24, which simultaneously allow a dependent woman to seek maintenance.

6)    DV Act should not be allowed to contain any of the same protections and provisions granted under any other laws without first repealing those other laws and rendering them ineffective. For example, since the DV Act provides protection to women against cruelty by the husband and his relatives, IPC Section 498A should be repealed with immediate effect.

7)    DV Act attempts to legalize live-in relationships, thereby violating laws against polygamy and also disregarding the rights of a legally wedded wife. A live-in relationship, unlike marriage, is not a legally binding contract. Women and men who enter live-in relationships are implicitly accepting the risk of a break-up, whatever the reasons for the break-up may be. Forcing legal interference into a relationship that is legally invalid is simply ridiculous. Therefore, live-in relationships must be removed from the purview of the DV Act.

    Child custody decisions should be made by a court based on a fair hearing of competing claims of both parents, and unless there is compelling evidence to believe that either one or both parent(s) is/are harmful to the child’s physical and emotional health and well-being, joint custody should be granted to the mother and the father.

9)    Persons filing false cases to settle personal scores should be severely punished for misusing the judicial process and blocking the path of justice for genuine victims.

In short, the DV Act should be replaced by a more benign, sensible, gender-neutral legislation that ensures women and men their rightful, honorable place within and outside the home, in order to promote domestic harmony, reduce litigations and prevent legal terrorism and extortion through misuse of the law.

While the debate is still raging on the fairness of existing illegitimate laws like PWDVA, taxpayer funded NCW in cahoots with the foreign-funded Lawyers Collective, is busy churning out more and more such legislation. Often the family rights and men’s rights activists are sucked into arguments with the feminist liars and their supporters regarding these illegitimate laws.

One constant refrain one hears from the supporters of these laws is, that there is nothing wrong with the laws per se, but their implementation is wrong. We must not allow this reasoning to become mainstream argument in our debates. This is the most dangerous red herring. If poor implementation of illegitimate laws in itself is resulting in so many victims, imagine what a properly implemented illegitimate law would result in – definitely orders of magnitude more victims.

These laws (e.g. PWDVA) are WRONG – plain and simple. They are drafted with malicious intentions. They fail the test of fairness in any dimension you measure them in. They are discriminatory. They are based on lies, propaganda and anachronistic assumptions. They deny due process to the accused. They are based on summary penalties and confiscation. No matter how they are implemented, they will result in injustice. In summary, these laws are indefensible.

Therefore, in our debates, we should never deviate from the main argument, that these laws are wrong and that they are poorly drafted with ample scope for misuse, extortion and blackmail. Point after point, we must show them the different loopholes intentionally left in these laws. We must show that the supporters of such terrible and unjust laws do not believe in human rights, in liberty and dignity of the individual, in constitutional protections, in fairness and in due process. We must counter them with the truth. We must counter them with the statistics. That is the way to expose them. That is the way to alter the terms of the debate.

In recent years, the number of abusers of women protection legislation for personal gain or to settle scores has gone up substantially. Concomitantly, the numbers of false cases, the incidents of malfeasance, illegal detentions, police and judicial corruption as well as the backlog of unresolved cases have also skyrocketed. The trend shows no signs of waning. What makes this process so easy and convenient for the criminally minded individuals, families and state officials? The answer lies in the active state support and participation in this nefarious scheme of “legal terrorism”. While this state participation is occurring at the expense of the well-being of ordinary, law abiding citizens who have not violated any laws, the parasitic elements of the society like unethical lawyers, fund chasing and morally bankrupt feminists, lowly judiciary and corrupt police officials are immensely benefiting from this pernicious practice.

- What is the root cause for the proliferation of state sponsored legal terrorism in our country?

- Would the state sponsored legal terrorism cast its shadow in ever more areas of our public and private lives?

- Should the citizens be resigned to this state of affairs?

- What is the prognosis for the future?

In this article, I will attempt to address some of the concerns raised above.

Root Cause of Legal Terrorism is Illegitimate Legislation

The root cause of the state sponsored legal terrorism is the existence and passage of illegitimate legislation in our legal regime. Most reasonable and objective persons can quickly tell right from wrong and fair from unfair.  Thus most reasonable and objective people can also tell apart a legitimate law from an illegitimate one.

There can be several bases on which one can conclude a certain legislation to be illegitimate. However, most illegitimate legislation is identified by the following five characteristics –

Discriminatory

According the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “all are equal before the law, and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law”. Any laws that are explicitly or implicitly discriminatory are illegitimate. Any demagogue would be tempted to play vote bank politics and pass discriminatory legislation that can rob the non-vocal minority off its legitimate protections that are hallmarks of any civilized society. In most civilized countries, constitution places limits on the illegitimate laws passed by the demagogues. For example, in the United States, any discriminatory legislation could be shot down by the Supreme Court of the US as unconstitutional if challenged. Such protections do not appear to exist in India. At least, the Supreme Court has not displayed the courage to declare discriminatory legislation as unconstitutional. Most of the ostensibly women protection laws in our country (like PWDVA, adultery laws, alimony laws) are discriminatory and thus illegitimate.

Presumption of guilt

As the jurisprudence evolved over the centuries, it has become an universally accepted maxim that an accused person is innocent until proven guilty. It is always the responsibility of the accuser to prove the guilt. In modern India, this maxim has been subverted thoroughly. In the name of special protections, the accusers have been given free pass to accuse any person at their fancy. The state, in turn, has assumed the proxy role to prosecute the accused at the taxpayer’s expense while placing the burden of proving innocence on individual citizen. This is a monumental distortion of principles of justice. Any legislation that presumes the accused as guilty until proven innocent is illegitimate. The best examples are ipc304B and ipc498A.

Summary action

Legislation that allows summary action by the judges or other officials is also illegitimate. Summary action may include confiscation, imprisonment or other penalties. Watch out summary provisions in any legislation to declare it as an illegitimate legislation. PWDVA is the best example.

Multiple laws to confer the same benefit

Many a time, in spite of the existence of legal provisions addressing certain benefits under law, new laws are passed conferring the same benefit. This results in unscrupulous elements filing multiple cases under these differing legal provisions for the same benefit, thereby flooding the court system with frivolous and vexatious litigation. The best example of this practice is the alimony and maintenance laws like 125 Cr PC, Section 24 of HMA and PWDVA.

Based on anachronistic assumptions

Society is constantly changing and evolving. Legislation passed hundreds of years ago under colonial rule may not have any relevance in the modern times. Such legislation must be scrapped and replaced with modern legislation that reflects the realities of the current state of our country and its citizens. If you come across shrill voices opposing changes to anachronistic legislation, please understand that is an illegitimate legislation still existing in our law books. It is time to agitate for changing such illegitimate anachronistic legislation. The best examples are the alimony and adultery laws in India wherein women are perpetually assumed to be victims even when they are the perpetrators.

 The Real Victims

Who are the real victims of this legal terrorism?

Any unsuspecting individual who is compelled to defend oneself against charges under any illegitimate law automatically becomes a victim of that law. Law is a coercive state instrument. Inherent fairness is a fundamental pre-requisite for the citizens to have faith in the law. When the law fails the test of fairness, individuals charged under that law become victims of state sponsored legal terrorism. In those circumstances, the guilt or innocence of the individual becomes irrelevant. Do not inquire into the guilt or innocence of the individual when that individual is on the receiving end of illegitimate laws. Extend compassion and support to them unconditionally.

Strategies to counter Legal Terrorism and Illegitimate Legislation

Reposing faith in democratic institutions to counteract the evil consequences of illegitimate legislation may not always produce results. In fact, democracy uncurbed by the constitutional limits, as is the case in present India, will always result in the passage of illegitimate legislation to safeguard the interests of vocal sections of the population. Further, corruption also plays a major role in the passage and preservation of such legislation. Once the vested interests become entrenched, the ordinary citizens become powerless in the face of massive state power and state sponsored legal terrorism.

Are we, the ordinary citizens, helpless against this state sponsored travesty? Or are there any ways in which we can counter this?

Here I am outlining some strategies that can be employed collectively by the civil society to counter this menace.

Counsel the victims

This is by far the most important strategy. When an individual is pitted against the massive state machinery, the morale of the individual takes a massive beating. In many cases, the victims of legal terrorism, overwhelmed by the odds of fighting the corrupt state machinery out to persecute them, end their lives. When such demoralized individuals come in contact with other victims, their feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness tend to be alleviated substantially. The mere act of listening to their sad plight gives them courage and strength to fight back against the injustice. Besides, the victims can learn from each other and support each other in various other ways. In fact, the common suffering will prove to be a strong bond that will result in lasting friendships. I implore all the victims reading this article to become counselors. (See above on “The Real Victims”)

Show contempt

As Mahatma Gandhi said, cooperating with evil is worse than the evil itself. The illegitimate legislation must be held in utmost contempt it rightly deserves. Just because it was passed by the parliament, it does not become legitimate if it has failed the test of fairness as discussed above. Pay particular attention to the shrill voices of vested interests that defend the illegitimate legislation.  Check on their backgrounds and understand how these vested interests stand to benefit from the existence of the illegitimate laws. Argue with them and expose them at every opportunity.

Spread awareness

Another related strategy is spreading awareness in the society about the existence of these illegitimate laws. Most of the victims of legal terrorism are caught unawares when a barrage of criminal and civil cases hits them like bolt of lightning from the blue skies. Until it happens to them, most citizens are blissfully ignorant of such laws. In fact, one of the main secrets of the propagators of illegitimate legislation is obfuscation. These propagators deliberately hide the most pernicious provisions they included in these laws in most open debates. As soon as the heat is turned up in any debate, they slip back in to platitudes and lies. The best example of this deception is “Karan Thapar vs Renuka Chaudhary” debate in which Renuka Chaudhary fell back to her rhetorical lies like “every minute a woman is burned for dowry” or something on those lines, when sustained questioning by Karan made her squirm.  One of the best weapons to fight the illegitimate laws and legal terrorism is spreading awareness. Internet will play a significant role in spreading awareness about illegitimate legislation.

Social boycott and ostracism

Finally, the most potent weapon to counter legal terrorism is the social boycott and ostracism of its perpetrators. Most relationships and transactions in our traditional society are carried out based on trust and reputation of the families. No sane person would like to enter into any marital relationship with a family who ruthlessly used the illegitimate legislation to unleash legal terrorism on another family.  Exposing the truth about the perpetrators of legal terrorism will be enough to caution other families that plan to enter into any kind of relationship with them.

Prognosis for the future

The strategies outlined above will prove to be the philosophical underpinnings for the resistance movements that will proliferate across the country to counter the menace of legal terrorism. Save Indian Family Foundation is the best example of such social resistance movement that is employing the above strategies successfully to counter the evil consequences of illegitimate women protection legislation in India.