Avoiding a Barbarian World?

I have no doubt in my mind that the maximum punishment under the law has to be given to the rapists in the most recent incident in Delhi. I am sure that the no judge is going to spare them if the evidence is presented. I have no issues in the India Gate protestors highlighting the issues connected with the recent rape and trying to broaden the debate to the wider issues of definitions and bringing about a more acceptable definition of rape or molestation. An FIR to be filed, police sensitisation is all necessary.

What I cannot understand is the cry for some punishment which sound barbaric.  Some of the banners hold out demands like “Hang them now”, “Castrate them” and the most horrific one “Treat them the same way they treated the girl”.  That to my mind is unacceptable.

The whole protest is to bring about some order in the society.  A society where each person is able to go about with his or her own life without hindrance. To go about without getting commented or molested or worse raped is a part of that.  More civilised we want the society to be, the more we need to respect the other person’s right. Right to go about the life and let other live their lives.  This also includes how we will correct the wrong doer.  What punishment we will give out and how we will give it out.

Remember, we as a nation got the admiration of the whole world in the way in which we treated Ajmal Kasab.  He waged war on India.  We did not just string him up on the nearest lamp post.  He went to a judge, had lawyers “prove” that he did do wrong and had lawyers defending (at least ensuring that the legal process was correctly done) and then it went all the way up to the Supreme Court and then the President and then he was hanged.  It was probably a forgone conclusion that he would be handed the death penalty. We could have just done it without too much of ado.  Then we would not be a civilised society and pretty barbaric.

In the distant past, before we became civilised, it was common for men to have sex with whomsoever he pleased? Rape was not an issue then.  It is in a civilised society that there is a concept of rape? So those who argue strongly for a civilised society should stop arguing for barbaric punishments? Even if we amend the laws we cannot probably make it applicable for this case? As they would have to be tried under the current rules. 

However we much we may detest them, however much we feel that they deserve more stringent punishment, we have to be law abiding.  Else the difference between the rapists and the rest would cease to exist.

Bala@Panaji

Some Hidden Dangers of Facebook Pages

When we were students in the seventies and eighties we parted at the end of the course with maudlin tears and promises to keep in touch.  Which we often broke and didn’t keep up with one another, apart from occasionally bumping into a few friends or trying to make it to the alumni meets, to talk about grey hair or the lack of it and who resembles Lord Ganesha the most! Today’s generation is luckier.  End of the course parties are only one more celebration and do not really mean you will not continue to meet each other.  It is also one more occasion to put up photos on Facebook, where you continue your interaction virtually.

Facebook pages, some secret and some open, also serve as an exchange of information about jobs.  It is a sort of good Samaritan act where former batch mates look out for each other by posting potential jobs opportunities in their own organization or other organizations.  This is especially the case with fresh graduates and those who have been out there for a couple of years.

The hidden danger in such groups is that the more senior batches are also members of the same group pages.  Say a guy, who is frustrated in his current position, writes in the e-group saying, “I am looking for opportunities in Finance and Analytics domains in Delhi. Have over 4 years of experience in financial services including equity research and investment banking support”.  He would be not only letting his classmates know that he is looking for a new job, but perhaps also his boss who may be from the same school. Or maybe not his boss, but someone on the Compensation Committee who would be deciding his pay increase;  may be someone in HR who would be handpicking a person for a plum assignment.

Another instance would be where someone posts a job vacancyoin the group page saying “ Hey – I have the following vacancy coming up in my company…..”.  Another guy then comments asking “Send me your email id” and yet another guy very helpfully tags a classmate or junior “Jumbo -- For your attention”.  Your intention to seek greener pastures would immediately become known to the bosses. Are you yet ready to let them know yet?

In the former case, at least the information is about the person himself/herself.  However, in the second case, “Jumbo” is probably not yet ready to tell the whole world.  He has, confidentially, reached out to some of his classmates but his privacy is breached by publicly telling the whole alumni group that he is looking for a new job.  Jumbo also could be, as part of his job, hiring from his junior lot for a position in his company.  With what level of credibility would he do that when it becomes known that he himself is planning to move – may be entirely for personal reasons? Would you want the world to know you are getting frustrated, or worse about to get fired from your present job?

Sounds far-fetched?  In a twenty year old business school where I teach, I know of a recent management trainee who is my student, his boss is my student from one of the previous batches and his one up manager is from one of the earliest batches of the same school. I also know that all three people are on the same e-group on Facebook (obviously they draw different meaning and purpose from belonging to the group).

                                                                                                        
Recently I posted a small note on this group page, which I belonged to as well, pointing out the danger of such breaches of information.   In response to this, another student wrote in saying that he enquired about a job from a consultant classmate about a job posting which the consultant friend was headhunting for.  It turns out that the job was in the same company that he was working for! It is a different matter that he was seeking out the information for a friend and not for himself.  But the embarrassment and the niggling feeling that your boss would think that you have become footloose may remain?

When Facebook pages are created for a particular graduating year, this may be not much of a problem. But its usefulness as information exchange would be rather limited? However, when a page reaches a few thousand members running across a couple of decades, it becomes as open as the PA system at Dadar station. One needs to think twice before commenting, and tagging on posts? It might be better to choose to send individual messages or emails?

Bala@Panaji

Two Young Girls and their “Mere Facebook Status”!

I was never an admirer of Mr Bal Thackeray.  Following the dictum “de mortuis nil nisi bonum”, I will not talk about him.  I will also keep quiet about the man and his politics. 

But there has been a furore of sorts about the two young girls who were arrested at the behest of a complaintant who apparently did not like the comments made by one of the girls on the events following the death of the Shiv Sena leader.  The girls were duly arrested, apparently illegally, and now the policemen who arrested them are facing trouble.  A couple of them have been suspended and the honourable magistrate has been given the heave-ho – possibly to some undesirable place.  TV channels and papers were arguing the case for the young girls. Now the Shiva Sainiks have taken up the cause of the cops by calling a bandh!

I think the channels and the papers were wrong in their assessment and the defence they put up.  They kept describing it as a “mere Facebook status”.  How can someone be arrested for “merely” liking a status on FB– went the refrain. And therefore, the arrest is such a big punishment for such a teeny weeny action. 

One cannot hunt with the hounds and run with the foxes.

Experience tells us that social media can be quite powerful.  Recall the “Pink Chaddi” campaign which started off as a family joke and then went on to become a small movement with a handful of people. We have seen how it spread all over the country through the social media, with Mr Muthalik getting far more undergarments than he would care for!  

We saw the potential of a single MMS which went viral in the city of Bengaluru and that had frightening consequences for our brethren from the North Eastern states.  So let us not understate the potential of a single status posted on Facebook or a tweet on Twitter or a single SMS.

The defence for the two young girls from Palghar cannot be that they merely posted something and so it is a “mere post” after all.  That sounds quite silly.  The question that needs to be answered is whether a status is judged as “mere” is based on the number of people who see it.

Just because a status is one that would be seen by her friends does the young lady has the freedom to say what she wants to say? Supposing that the status had gone viral, and a few thousand people had seen it, would it have made a difference to the defamatory nature of what she had said?  Similarly, it is the first “like” which makes a FB status go viral.  It is the proverbial match stick which makes a forest fire.

I do not wish to go into the merits of the post made by the young lady on Facebook, or her opinion about Mr Bal Thackery.  But I feel the standard of evaluation used to judge the “status” should be the same as if the young lady had gone on stage at a stadium full of people and made those statements.

 In other words, each one of us have to keep asking ourselves the question.    Would I make this sort of statement I am about to make on FB or Twitter if we were in an open place where not just our friends are standing, but  also a huge crowd of strangers are assembled.  Before “liking” a status, we also need to ask ourselves whether we would be willing to share that same stage where such statements are made.

Bala@Panjim