“India is run by politicians, tycoons and bureaucrats, but there is a Superclub that discreetly dominates the national agenda. They are Nobel Prize winners like Amartya Sen, who quit Nalanda University after allegations of irregularities and nepotism, and ‘human rights’ activists like Teesta Setalvad and convicted Naxal sympathisers such as Binayak Sen. They bask in the luxury of dollars and euros, receive prestigious awards and grants, and have more air miles with junkets than the square meals an average Indian gets. Mesmerised by their intelligentsia cachet, it is the only cosy club the political class woos with corporate-funded think tank and government committee positions.” – Ravi Shankar
The Nobel Prize has a singular sheen of its own. It glows like a luminous halo, laminating a personality or an organisation with its glory. As you read this, India’s coquettish climate commando, R. K. Pachauri, will be enjoying the balmy climes of Japan and China to yaw yaw on environmental threats, quaffing champagne and attending high-profile banquets. And the girl he allegedly sexually harassed for a year until he was exposed in February, who felt repulsed by the 74-year-old climatologist’s advances and erotic poetry, waits for justice from the same system that allows Pachauri to jet set around the globe to save polar bears. Other women have spoken up against him.
The legal definition of rape was changed after the Nirbhaya horror, but Pachauri’s smart lawyer got him the approval to travel abroad to “earn his livelihood”. Any dirty old man accused of sexual harassment would have been enjoying the dubious hospitality of Tihar Jail, with other molesters.
Following his disgrace, he was forced out as the head of the UN climate change panel in February. He was sacked from TERI in July. In spite of it all, he will be India’s unofficial ambassador at global forums. Do we really want this type of Make in India product junketing around the world at a time when our Prime Minister is projecting India as the world’s new shining destination and has made climate change an important agenda?
Data collected until August 15 shows Delhi’s infamous Tihar was home at some time or the other to 1,121 rape accused and 2,238 arrested for molestation this year alone. The latest National Crime Records Bureau statistics point out the number of reported crimes against women has increased to over 3.3 lakh in 2014, or 56 incidents per one lakh females.
According to the National Violence Against Women Survey in the US, one in six American women has experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. Pachauri may roam free for the time being, but all the power, international influence and glamour of Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn, then the boss of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who was the front-runner to replace the French president Nicolas Sarkozy, could not save his job or liberty after a hotel maid alleged he raped her in May 2011. Presidential prospects and political careers have been destroyed by sex scandals. But not in India. Perhaps, it is not surprising considering the attitude our leaders have towards the harassment and violation of women.
India is run by politicians, tycoons and bureaucrats, but there is a Superclub that discreetly dominates the national agenda. They are Nobel Prize winners like Amartya Sen, who quit Nalanda University after allegations of irregularities and nepotism, and ‘human rights’ activists like Teesta Setalvad and convicted Naxal sympathisers such as Binayak Sen. They bask in the luxury of dollars and euros, receive prestigious awards and grants, and have more air miles with junkets than the square meals an average Indian gets. Mesmerised by their intelligentsia cachet, it is the only cosy club the political class woos with corporate-funded think tank and government committee positions. Together they form the Establishment, which the ordinary Indian cannot beat. The laws are different for them. And Pachauri knows too well this climate will not change and it will never get too hot for him. – The New Indian Express, 23 August 2015
» Ravi Shankar Etteth is an author, cartoonist and columnist for The New Indian Express. Email him at ravi@newindianexpress.com
Filed under: india | Tagged: crime, india, indian courts, indian judicial system, indian politics, politics, psychological warfare, r.k. pachauri, rape, sex scandal, sexual harassment, teesta setalvad | 1 Comment »
