The Delhi High court’s decision to decriminalize gay sex has sparked off a spree of intense televised debates between gay activists – lawyers, doctors, journalists, gays – on one side and, mostly religious leaders on the other. Amazing isn’t it? Look at a discussion panel which has taken up case of poverty, corruption, rape, and other evils that haunt the societies, you would rarely find a religious leader on the panel. I can’t say whether, it’s the media which has somehow brought these religious elements in this case and has left them out at other times. But there can be no doubt that one of the vociferous disapproval of the judgment has been from the religious heads.

Whether it’s the view of the court, which deemed that religious texts as inadmissible? Or whether quoting prohibitions from their holy books and damning sinners is being increasingly equated with fundamentalism? Faith heads have taken a shot at logic (something they aren’t good at).

When confronted with a direct question as to what their problem about decriminalization is all about? Surprisingly, their replies infer none whatsoever, yet they still are uncomfortable with it! Confused? Well, when has religion been unequivocal? At least on screen, they don’t regard homosexuals as criminals but they are unnatural, like they have some kind of disease.

NDTV’s big fight took up the issue of decriminalization of gay sex. And on discussion was the view that whether homosexuality can be cured?

Why should homosexuality be “cured”?

The question of “whether homosexuality can be cured?” is itself a fallacy of plurium interrogation or loaded question that the channel has deliberately or inadvertently committed. The fallacy is committed when someone asks a question that presupposes something that has not been proven or accepted by all the people involved. The above question presupposes that it is accepted that homosexuality is a disease. A more apt question should be why should it be cured at all? (Forgive the use of the word cure)

Is homosexuality a congenital disorder like blindness, deaf and dumb? Leave the scientific view apart for sake of argument (which in fact, is against categorizing homosexuality as a disease), and lets concentrate on the philosophical aspects of it. A person, who is congenitally blind or deaf or dumb or with any other such disorders, would want to be cured of it given a chance. I am yet to see a person (at least in my experience) who would want to remain so. Homosexuals by the looks of it don’t ask for a  “cure”. It’s their sexual orientation and they want to live with it.

Imagine a blind or a deaf person, we would have difficulties communicating with them and vice-versa. Aspects like communication which fall in the public domain make a case for their cure. Why should a person’s sexual orientation which is entirely related to his privacy and falls in his individual domain or at maximum in the domain of those with whom he has consensual sex should be the concern of anyone else?

Isn’t it perverse enough, on the part of those who accuse homosexuals of being sexually perverse, by subverting to make supposedly straight people into one of them, when that is exactly what they want from homosexuals?

Is to be born blind or becoming blind viewed as a sin? If not why are homosexuals being viewed as sinners by religious texts? And why are these religious heads ashamed to quote their texts? And yet, try to justify the bias ingrained by these texts?

Not the fictional one in the movie, but the real person, Daniel Radcliffe who plays Harry Potter is an atheist. Daniel in an interview has claimed to be an atheist and an admirer of Richard Dawkins.

I’m an atheist, but I’m very relaxed about it. I don’t preach my atheism, but I have a huge amount of respect for people like Richard Dawkins who do. Anything he does on television, I will watch. [The Telegraph]

Well,  Harry…. welcome to the club!

HT Atheist Revolution

As expected the religious heads are up in arms. Alas! This isn’t 7th century Arabia or some Spanish inquisition. This is year 2009 and religious heads understand that reputation of their creeds, are already on the line. Now that doesn’t mean that they aren’t going to take it lying down. They are going to let their displeasure known and place their hurdles for the government to amend the law. (Well we don’t like it… we have votes… remember!)

Yeah! Well they aren’t after all criminals… but they have some kind of disease, it’s simply unnatural and immoral, was the response from the Delhi Catholic Archdiocese spokesperson Dominic Emmanuel (in spite the court saying that these people don’t have any disorder or disease). All India Muslim Personal Law Board member Kamal Farooqui agrees to this view (oh yeah?! Then why ask the government to appeal against the court’s verdict?). But these are far better positions as of now than that of the biblical, hadith’s one to kill homosexuals.

Mr. David Miliband’s comments on extraditing the 26/11 perpetrators to India are extremely unfortunate and vacuous. For example, how can he claim that the 26/11 perpetrators must be persecuted in Pakistan because they had violated Pakistani laws, while being totally oblivious to the fact that the attack was carried out in India (, against India) and it indecently also violates Indian laws?

Being consistent would Mr. David Miliband admit that it was wrong on the part of British to have asked for the extradition of Rashid Rauf, since he too had violated Pakistani laws?

If imposing sanctions would undermine support of Pakistani people then why on earth has Britain being imposing sanctions on Iraq and Iran? Or rather Mr. David Miliband could explain what kind of support have India received from Pakistani people other than the usual lip service?

Its high time India realizes that this is its war against terror and not US’s or UK’s. Its hurts me that a common enemy like terrorism has to be politicized in the manner like this. But that’s the way it is, the west has always gone on the offensive when terror has been perpetrated against it and advised us to use restrain. If it weren’t for victims who belonged to the west, even the support now visible wouldn’t have materialized. If we can’t do our job, don’t expect others to do our job!

From The Indian Express:

Mumbai, October 22 The Maharashtra police are said to have cracked the September 29 bomb blasts in Malegaon and Modasa town in neighbouring Gujarat saying these were allegedly carried out by the Hindu Jagran Manch, an Indore-based Hindu extremist group known to have links to the BJP’s student wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). The key suspects are being questioned, top Maharashtra Police sources have told The Indian Express.

Five Muslims were killed in a powerful blast in the communally sensitive textile town of Malegaon in Maharashtra and one Muslim boy was killed in the explosion in Modasa in Sabarkantha district.

Both bombs were placed on motorcycles parked in crowded areas days before Eid and set off after Muslims had broken their Ramzan fast on a Monday evening.

The BJP had condemned both the blasts. Investigators initially suspected Islamist groups such as SIMI or the Indian Mujahideen to be behind the near-simultaneous attacks — the first blast was at Modasa at 9.26 pm, the second minutes later in Malegaon — as they came in the aftermath of blasts in Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi.

Besides, the motorcycle in Malegaon was parked below the now-defunct first floor office of SIMI while the one used in Modasa had Islamic stickers on its seat.

However, investigators found that these were apparently attempts by the attackers to mislead them, the sources said.

The breakthrough, they said, came when they traced the origin of the two-wheeler used in Malegaon. The vehicle used was a LML Freedom brand although some of its parts had been cannibalised from other vehicles and the chassis and engine numbers had been erased.

But with this brand out of production, dealer records and help from forensic experts led the probe to Gujarat, the sources said.

The motorcycle was allegedly owned by a man with an “ABVP background” there while the attackers belonged to the Hindu Jagran Manch with its headquarters based out of the office of an NGO in Indore, investigators found.

Top Maharashtra police officials confirmed the breakthrough but refused to go on record due to the sensitivities involved, adding that Central agencies were aware of the development.

The blast in Malegaon had sparked mob violence as angry Muslims targeted the local police and grievously injured the first policemen to arrive at the site, including a probationary IPS officer.

The attack came two years to the month when three bombs had exploded in and around a mosque in the town and killed 37 people, mostly Muslim worshippers.

That attack was blamed on SIMI and nine men were arrested but the trial has been stayed by the Supreme Court.

If this has any substance, we now have to face the threat of bomb blasts not just from Islamic terrorist groups but also from Hindu terror groups. The security forces now need to be more responsible rather than blaming SIMI, LeT, or the HuJI every time a blasts goes off.

Anyways, I used this article for yet another reason. This article is an example of irresponsible journalism. When was the last time newspapers started to give a religious breakdown of people killed in terror attacks?

Five Muslims were killed in a powerful blast in the communally sensitive textile town of Malegaon in Maharashtra and one Muslim boy was killed in the explosion in Modasa in Sabarkantha district.

Is this a balancing act of some kind to make up for the reporting of Jihadi terrorism all these years?

PSLV-C11 which launched the

chandrayaan – 1 is an uprated

version ISRO’s  Polar Satellite

Launch Vehicle configuration.

Image via Wikipedia

India’s first unmanned mission to moon has taken off successfully. BBC reports:

India has successfully launched its first mission to the Moon.

The unmanned Chandrayaan 1 spacecraft blasted off smoothly from a launch pad in southern Andhra Pradesh to embark on a two-year mission of exploration.

The robotic probe will orbit the Moon, compiling a 3-D atlas of the lunar surface and mapping the distribution of elements and minerals.

The launch is regarded as a major step for India as it seeks to keep pace with other space-faring nations in Asia.

It was greeted with applause by scientists gathered at the site.

The BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says there has been a lot of excitement about the event, which was broadcast live on national TV.

Competitive mission

An Indian-built launcher carrying the one-and-a-half-tonne satellite blasted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at about 0620 local time (0050 GMT).

One key objective will be to search for surface or sub-surface water-ice on the Moon, especially at the poles.

Another will be to detect Helium 3, an isotope which is rare on Earth, but is sought to power nuclear fusion and could be a valuable source of energy in future.

Powered by a single solar panel generating about 700 Watts, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) probe carries five Indian-built instruments and six that are foreign-built.

The mission is expected to cost 3.8bn rupees (£45m; $78m).

The Indian experiments include a 30kg probe that will be released from the mothership to slam into the lunar surface.

The Moon Impact Probe (MIP) will record video footage on the way down and measure the composition of the Moon’s tenuous atmosphere.

“Chandrayaan has a very competitive set of instruments… it will certainly do good science,” said Barry Kellett, project scientist on the C1XS instrument, which was built at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory in the UK.

C1XS will map the abundance of different elements in the lunar crust to help answer key questions about the origin and evolution of Earth’s only natural satellite.

Researchers say the relative abundances of magnesium and iron in lunar rocks could help confirm whether the Moon was once covered by a molten, magma ocean.

“The iron should have sunk [in the magma ocean], whereas the magnesium should have floated,” Mr Kellett told BBC News.

“The ratio of magnesium to iron for the whole Moon tells you to what extent the Moon melted and what it did after it formed.”

The instrument will look for more unusual elements on the Moon’s surface, such as titanium. This metallic element has been found in lunar meteorites, but scientists know little about its distribution in the lunar crust.

Chandrayaan will also investigate the differences between the Moon’s near side and its far side. The far side is both more heavily cratered and different in composition to the one facing Earth.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket will loft Chandrayaan into an elliptical “transfer orbit” around Earth.

The probe will later carry out a series of engine burns to set it on a lunar trajectory.

The spacecraft coasts for about five-and-a-half days before firing the engine to slow its velocity such that it is captured by the Moon’s gravity.

Chandrayaan will slip into a near-circular orbit at an altitude of 1,000km. After a number of health checks, the probe will drop its altitude until it is orbiting just 100km above the lunar surface.

India, China, Japan and South Korea all have eyes on a share of the commercial satellite launch business and see their space programmes as an important symbol of international stature and economic development.

Last month, China became only the third country in the world to independently carry out a spacewalk.

But the Indian government’s space efforts have not been welcomed by all.

Some critics regard the space programme as a waste of resources in a country where millions still lack basic services.

With this India has become the 6th nation to attempt a unmanned mission to moon.

Congrats for all at ISRO who made this possible!

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Our union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss goes around requesting and at times intimidating (by threatening ban smoking in films) actors not to smoke on screen. The reason given is, that the reel life of actors may influence youngsters into thinking smoking is a part of a jaunty and debonair lifestyle. This has amazed me, since reel life is one of fiction – where a single man takes on the entire system (often emerging triumphant), where a gorgeous girl falls for an ordinary boy at first sight – which doesn’t really reflect real life, if youngsters do fall for this, it shows poorly on their intellect. Extremely violent, steamy, and controversial scenes often don’t make it beyond the moral policing of the censor board. So much fuss is being made on the reel life of actors, yet few seem to care what these upright heroes, Utopian directors, revolutionary poets and writers of the tamil film industry preach in real life.

I am myself an “Indian” tamil, yet I can’t sympathize with most part of the show put up at Rameswaram by the tamil film industry condemning the killing of innocent civilians in the ongoing civil war in Sri Lanka. Not because I don’t have sympathies for the innocent lives lost in the war, to the contrary I mourn and condemn the destruction, loss of lives of innocents (both tamil & Singhalese) but because I can’t condone the tone of their condemnation.

How can anyone sympathizing with the ethnic tamils in Sri Lanka demonize the Singhalese population? How can anyone opposing the subjugation and oppression of the tamil people in Sri Lanka would want to see the same done to the Singhalese? How would anyone condemning the terrorism of Sri Lankan army against the tamils advocate & support the same done by the LTTE against the innocent Sri Lankans (including tamils)?

Yet, this was the tone of most speakers (literally, some speakers did actually indulge in the above mentioned hate speech, which was telecast live on televison). One called Prabakaran, the leader of LTTE as the leader of all tamils. Mahinda Rajapakse, the President of Sri Lanka was subject to much ridicule, mudslinging and curse. The unparliamentary language of the worst kind was used to describe the Lankan president. One comedian, Karunas (not so comically) claimed he was ready to go on a suicide mission to kill Mahinda Rajapakse, this at a time when the country itself is reeling under terror attacks! What kind of message is being sent to the youngsters? A respected director, Ameer, hinted at a conspiracy between India and Sri Lanka against Tamils because of India’s military aid to srilanka in the form of Radars and military training and also demanded secession from India. It is very easy to float conspiracy theories, without understanding India’s position in the sub continent and its relations with Sri Lanka, in fact the tables can be easily turned around and asked when so many fishermen from Tamil Nadu where suffering at the hands of excesses committed by SL navy where were these people from the film industry? Do they only realize the cause of Indian fishermen when LTTE is in the brink of defeat in SL and Tamils in SL suffer? Where does your loyalty lie with the LTTE and tamils in SL or the tamil in tamil Nadu?

In fact, the extreme reaction of the political parties and tamil film fraternity can easily fool an outsider into thinking that the reaction to the SL crisis is as severe as it was in 1983, but the reality remains otherwise. The people of Tamil Nadu do sympathize with the innocent tamils caught in the crossfire but to view it as a support for the cause Prabakharan and his terrorist LTTE will be foolish. Most of Tamil Nadu would find themselves agreeing with the views of former chief minister Jayalaitha on this regard rather than the current chief minister Karunanidhi!

Any sane person would want the ongoing war to end and innocent lives to be spared, but how? Advocating hatred against the majority of SL? By indulging in more terrorism?

Very few spoke with sanity and composure and understanding of what India can do and cannot and what the problem in Sri Lanka is. The Tamil film industry has put up some great shows all over the world but this would rank among one of the poor shows it had put up! Probably emotion where running high and all that was said wasn’t to be taken too literally. Anyways, lets hope war in SL comes to an end as soon as possible with or without Indian or other diplomatic intervention and prevent more loss of lives.

Kafeel Ahmed, drove the vehicle into the airport on the afternoon of June 30 last year.

I have always been of the opinion that the undoing of any person or a community is not just erring but failing to see the error and to remain in a state of denial, this is true of many religious communities, especially the Islamic community. Recently while switching channels I happened to see a political talk show hosted by a famous south Indian talk show host Mr. Ravi Bernard, the show epitomized this state of denial. He was interviewing a self styled spokesperson of the muslim community who as usual denied that any muslim could be involved in the terror attacks that has become so common in India. Mr. Ravi Bernard probably dumbed by his association with a politically run television offered no counter and listened with sympathy.

The self styled spokesperson of the muslim community asked how a muslim would put the lives of his fellow muslims in danger, as they where even blasts is masjids? And answered the question himself by stating emphatically that it could not be and concluded that no muslim could be involved in such acts. Of course this showed utter disregard for the history of Islam which is replete with ideological clashes between muslims – the shitte-sunni clashes, persecution of heretical minorities – the shitte-sunni war in Iraq being an obvious example.

He also had specific examples to show how they have been wrongly targeted (bad ones at that). He brought up the issue of how Dr. Sabeel Ahmed was accused of a hand in the Glasgow bombings and was subsequently released because of the absence of any evidence and made a chide at the Indian law enforcement agencies by claiming that even a “foreign law enforcement agencies” could find no fault with Sabeel who was a muslim. This of course, is in total disregard to the fact that his cousin Kafeel Ahmad and a fellow muslim Bilal Abdullah were indeed involved in the attack.

As a breath of fresh air, some in the Islamic community (in india) are willing to concede that some “misled” muslim youth are indeed involved. From the Mumbai Mirror [17th October 2008]:

Admitting that the youth of their community had been led astray, top intelligentsia and Islamic leaders have decided to press for a ‘surrender policy for boys who have strayed’ in a bid to bring them back into the fold.

At a conference organised at the sea-facing ground of Islam Gymkhana on Friday, prominent leaders, lawyers, educationists, Ulemas and social workers of the Muslim community gathered to debate on “Secularism and Terrorism”, during which they agreed in no uncertain terms that the time had come for decisive action.

“We want a mechanism through which our boys who have strayed can be taken into confidence and brought back home.

The authorities should draw up a plan for this,” said former minister Nawab Malik, who set the tone of the meet.

Congress MLA Yusuf Abrahani said, “We have to accept that there are certain youth from our community who have gone astray. But why and how this is happening is a question which needs to be addressed urgently.”

Malik said, “In the early ’90s, when a lot of members left SIMI due to a change in its working style, no policeman or intelligence officer cared to find out the reasons.

“The boys who left the organisation openly said that Pakistan had started taking an interest in the organisation and the boys are being trained. But nobody from the police did anything,” said Malik.

A former housing minister in the state, Malik said the ISI could also be blackmailing the youth. “The ISI is asking them (youths trained in Pakistan) to carry out the attacks or else they would pass on their details to the Indian government,” said Malik.

Maulana Zaheer Abbas, a prominent cleric, said while killing people is no solution to any problem, the involvement of educated and well-placed individuals shows they have no confidence in the administrative mechanism.

“Maybe they are thinking that risking and sacrificing their lives is a better option,” said Abbas.

“Let us raise our voice against terrorism. Mumbai crime branch chief Rakesh Maria has said that many of the arrests would not have been possible without the help of Muslims who supported the police in their operations,” Abbas added.

Muzaffar Hussain, Congress MLC from Mira Road, chided the Urdu media for focusing too much on international conflict.

“While the English press should be more responsible, the Urdu press too should stop focusing on America, Israel, Pakistan, Hindustan, Musalman and Kabrastran. There are other burning issues too,” he said.

Well said! (on the last para).

However it is still disappointing that they are looking out for scapegoats:

Malik said, “In the early ’90s, when a lot of members left SIMI due to a change in its working style, no policeman or intelligence officer cared to find out the reasons.

“The boys who left the organisation openly said that Pakistan had started taking an interest in the organisation and the boys are being trained. But nobody from the police did anything,” said Malik.

Mr. Malik if all these were so obvious what took the (part of the) Islamic community so long to even accept that some “mislead” youth from their community are indeed involved? Isn’t obvious Mr. Malik even after numerous terror attacks the Islamic community is blaming the law enforcers that they are targeting them unfairly and are in a mode of denial, how are they supposed to crackdown on these misguided youth even before these attacks?

And who said policeman or intelligence officers don’t know the reason?

From the TOI [17th October 2008]:

SRINAGAR: Protesters clashed with police and paramilitary troopers after offering Friday prayers resulting in injuries to at least two dozen people in this summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, police said.

After the prayers, the protesters gathered in the old city’s Nowhatta area and the uptown Maisuma locality, pelting stones on police and paramilitary forces deployed there.

“Police used batons and tear smoke shells to disperse the irate protesters in Nowhatta and Maisuma areas who resorted to heavy stone pelting on the deployed security men,” a senior police officer said.

Reports said at least two dozen protesters and security men were injured in the clashes.

A cameraman working for a private television channel was also injured in the stone pelting.

The joint co-ordination committee of the two separatist Hurriyat groups had called upon the people to hold peaceful protests after the Friday prayers here as part of the “separatist resistance programme”.

From TOI [16th October 2008]:

NEW DELHI: Testing the government’s logic justifying ban on homosexuality, Delhi HC asked it to table evidence that AIDS had spread in countries where homosexuality has been decriminalised.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice S Muralidhar also pulled up the Centre for relying on religious texts to justify the prohibition on consensual sex between adults of same sex. “We won’t be first country to decriminalise in case we do. Show us AIDS has spread where homosexuality has been decriminalised. Place some authentic study like one backed by UN,” HC said.

The court’s remarks came when the additional solicitor general P P Malhotra cited an article condemning gay sex which was religious in nature and in which racial profiling had been done to arrive at conclusions. “We should not accept religious literature instead of scientific report. In a secualar country how can a government rely on a report which says that certain races contribute more to homosexuality?,” the bench remarked, adding, “These are not scientific reports. This is a propaganda. Your arguments should be based on scientific reports. Show us scientific reports which justify criminalisation of such acts.”

Asking the government to place before it the reports of the World Health Organisation on the issue of health hazards arising out of criminalisation of gay sex the bench noted that UN health reports supported what Naco said in its affidavit. “To counter Naco report give us some scientific report,” it added.

The National Aids Control Organisation, in its affidavit filed on behalf of Union health ministry, had said that gay sex among consenting adults should be decriminalised. The court observed that if the government goes by the religious text referred by it then all such people (homosexuals) in the country would be put behind the bars. “Then you should put all the 25-30 lakh such people behind the bars. This is just one sided version of a religious body. This is a part of religious doctrine which cannot be relied upon.”

Referring to Naco report, the court said that right to health is a fundamental right which cannot be denied to any one and the government has to justify criminalisation of gay sex which may pose health hazards to such people. “There is no doubt that they are high risk group, so you have to prove that allowing gay sex among consenting adults would increase the risk of HIV to an extent to criminalise it,” the court said.