Just Jo

It looks like justice is finally being done in the Sr. Abhaya murder case. After 16 years, the CBI has arrested and remanded two priests and a nun on Nov 18th and 19th. The CBI joint director Ashok Kumar said the arrests were made on strong evidence. It was evident from the news came out in May 2008 that the narco analysis points at Thomas Kottoor, Jose Poothrikkayil and Stephy as the culprits.

The arrest also renews my faith in our country’s judicial system. Reportedly, there were serious tampering of evidence right from the beginning of the case inquiry. The case was initially taken by Kerala Police and then moved to Crime Branch and finally to several teams of CBI. The Court intervened and severly criticized CBI and closely followed up the case. If not for the Kerala High Court and the latest CBI team, the case would have been lost forever and the arrests would never have been made.

One person to remember on this occassion is Mr. Varghese P Thomas, the retired DSP of CBI. In 1993, he called a press conference and announced his resignation from CBI, stating that his conscience did not permit him to comply with a strong directive given by his superior officer, V. Thyagarajan, the then Superintendent of CBI Cochin Unit. He had also mentioned that the political pressure came from various places including the then prime minister Narasimha Rao’s office. The action council convener Jomon Puthenpurackal later said in a press conference that former minister K M Mani was involved in the putting political pressure on the case.

But the most dissapointing statement comes from the Catholic church authorities. Instead of letting the court take its due course, the authorities are trying to defend the accused. The diocesan vigilance committee of the Knanaya Archeparchy of Kottayam has said that the arrest is ‘mysterious’. They also claimed that those who have been arrested are innocent! But it is not surprising as Kottoor was serving in the higher posts of the Church. But the Church is only going to put the entire community in shame. It is high time that the Catholic church members come out and voice against such authorities.

Related post: Sr. Abhaya Murder Case - New developments

Google continues to rock and the latest is that you can add themes to your Gmail page. You can choose from any of the available themes/skins and get rid of the boredom of seeing the same old page every day. I like the color based ones than the graphical themes and some of them are really good to read and makes it easy for the eyes. Check it out.

It looks like the news of Dalits and Tribals forming a larger political alliance has got the Congress and Communist parties worried in Kerala. Tribal leaders like C K Janu and M Geethanandan have joined hands with Kerala Pulayar Maha Sabha (KPMS - a Dalit organization) to become a political pressure group in Kerala because they have understood that, in India you have to counter caste politics with caste politics. I could see some changes in the mainstream political arena after this news got out.

On the way to my office in Thiruvananthapuram district, there is a board with the headline that says, “Congress strengthens those who have been sidelined” and it shows a picture of party’s newly appointed KPCC General Secretary and former minister M A Kuttappan, who is a Dalit. Then comes the news of P K Biju, a Dalit youth, being appointed as the national president of SFI, the students of wing of Communist party. It is quite interesting, because people affiliated to the trade unions of all major political parties (Communists, Congress and BJP) were allegedly involved in harassing women, blocking food, medicines and other essentials of the protesting tribals and dalits in Chengara. And all of a sudden, they seem to love Dalits.

I just landed upon this music blog of Vidya Venkat, thanks to Nandita for the link, and she is an awesome singer. Check out her songs at her music blog.

Radioandmusic.com is a website dedicated to business news in the music and radio industry. Anita Iyer of Radioandmusic.com interviewed me last week about Blogswara and other such musical initiatives. It was nice talking to a musically inclined person like her and I enjoyed the conversation. Here is the interview at Radioandmusic.com.

Not many of us knew that composer Sarath is also an amazing singer and a Karnatik musician until he displayed his talent through Idea Star Singer. Now check out this video where he sings with P Unnikrishnan, another great singer.

(Thanks to Rosh for the link)

There is so much talk going on about Sonal Shah, the newly appointed Indian-American of US president-elect Barack Obama’s transition group. It all started with some news items pointing out Sonal’s association with VHP-America and her family’s association with VHP-India. Then her friends wrote long blog posts and articles stating that Sonal is a humanitarian and never had been a part of hate politics and you can’t pronunce someone ‘guilty-by-association’ (word of the year).

Well, I wouldn’t blame her friends supporting her (after all they are her ‘friends‘), but I am not sure about some of their substantial reasons in their articles in support that “I am a born Christian and an atheist…” or “I am a Muslim but never felt…” kind of tone. Do Sonal having Christian friends or Muslim friends make the accusations look less important? Heck, BJP has a Muslim MP on their fold, does that make them secular? And sometimes back Advani had renewed his admiration towards Jinnah and recently he met the Christian leaders here in Kerala, but does that put away the riots following Babri Masjid demolition and the renewal of the Hindu-Muslim hatred in India?

And is Sonal Shah only a good samaritan as her friends and herself claim to be? Did she have no association with Sangh Parivar other than attending their meetings in America (some people have commented that it is only the VHP meetings where the second generation Indo-Americans get to learn about their heritage and culture)? The answer is NO.

Continue Reading…

A friend of mine has launched a game portal, Crickees, for online cricket prediction. Here is an excerpt from their website:

Crickees.com is a skill based prediction game where you can play the game by simply predicting the outcome of upcoming cricket matches in three simple games - Match Result, Team and Scorecard.

(1) Match Result : Predict the answer to a few simple questions.
(2) Team : Predict the playing XI and the batting order of players
(3) Scorecard : Predict the match scorecard

Predictions have to be put in before the actual match is played. The more accurate your prediction, the better your chances to win.

It is very common that religion being used for all the wrong purposes when it could have helped to enhance the lives of weak and the oppressed. Most of the times it would be the priests or clerics from a religion who would be misinterpreting the Holy Books to sustain their own interests and misleading the others within the community. The latest controversy about a comment from the senior Muslim cleric Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musaliar on polygamy shows that this trend still continues. Kanthapuram reportedly have said this: A second wife is biologically justified. Women’s menstrual cycle prevents them from sexual contact for 5-6 days.

His statement came in the backdrop of a state law reforms commission has come out with a draft bill to check polygamy and divorce by Talaq. The bill seeks that ‘monogamy shall be the rule’ and that ‘marrying again during the lifetime of husband or wife is an offence.’

The proposed bill wants that “if any married Muslim, man or woman, marries again during the subsistence of the first marriage, the party who violates shall be guilty of bigamy under the IPC and punishable as such.”

Continue Reading…

I have often wondered what stories would those who silent witnesses of history have to say. Imagine what kind of history would unfold if they had begun to speak. Here is an article from Washington Post which writes about a Butler who served for 34 years in the White House.

First lady Nancy Reagan came looking for him in the kitchen one day. She wanted to remind him about the upcoming dinner for West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. He told her he was well ahead in the planning and had already picked out the china. But she told him he would not be working that night.

“She said, ‘You and Helene are coming to the state dinner as guests of President Reagan and myself.’ I’m telling you! I believe I’m the only butler to get invited to a state dinner.”

Husbands and wives don’t sit together at these events, and Helene was nervous about trying to make small talk with world leaders. “And my son says, ‘Mama, just talk about your high school. They won’t know the difference.’ [ A Butler Well Served by This Election - Washington Post ]

But all were not that good as the article explains in itself. Read on…

(Link via email from Krish)