Has the Me Too Movement been taken away from the victims of sexual misconduct?

Russian president Vladimir Putin shocked the world when a few weeks ago he spoke out against the Me Too Movement. He just stopped short of explicitly stating that the campaign is a media conspiracy. “I don’t think that we should turn these questions, especially concrete cases, into some kind of campaign,” Putin said. When one of world’s most prominent leaders says something like that, the world sits up and listens.

The Me Too movement was an attempt of what can be called the desperation to do something about a problem and stop silently suffering from it. It aimed at encouraging women to speak up about the sexual transgressions that they face or have faced so that people and policy makers alike are sensitized towards how extensive the problem is and can be therefore better armed in dealing with this huge evil.  This movement is women expressing the horrors that they have faced and could not talk about it because they fear the societal judgement. The movement is an outlet for all the frustration because everyone should know that this is something that can happen to literally anyone.

So the question that arises is that why do such leaders have a problem with it, Is it just men who fear the campaign or is that we have been conditioned to ignore something like this and this movement just makes us uncomfortable because let us face it, as a society we are doing literally nothing to make sure that a woman facing sexual misconduct can at least speak up about her problem.

The Me Too Movement has faced a lot criticism as a proponent of outrage culture. Feminists criticised it for having an undefined purpose while journalists and lawyers criticised it for not having a mechanism of fact checking making it really easy to defame a person and then there was an issue of over emphasis on certain cases having big names while the ones that did not were again conveniently ignored.

A new term was coined “Me Too conspiracies” to address the cases that were solely put together with the intention of defaming certain persons. In a brief period of time we went from outrage on Me Too Movement accusations to Outrage against Me Too to believing in Me Too conspiracies and once again conveniently forgot the issue of widespread sexual harassment.

Granted for an instance that the MeToo conspiracies might be true but it can never be granted that sexual abuse is not a problem, it can never be granted that women do not have the right atmosphere to speak out about the trauma that they face due to it and it can never be granted that we had a chance to do something for the victims ofsexual misconduct and we once again failed them by taking a movement meant for them and smearing it with false accusations and conspiracies. 

Akhilesh Yadav hinted at a coalition: The name of the party however, keeps changing

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav hinted at a coalition when he earlier said that his party can turn out to be a friend of the Congress if the country's oldest political party becomes weaker.He also said that it is the Congress's responsibility to bring parties with similar ideology under one umbrella.

When Akhilesh Yadav hinted at a coalition, it happened after a series of events. Samajwadi Party had decided to field Arjun Arya from Budhni in Madhya Pradesh state elections. Budhni is the seat from where Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan contests elections. Arjun Arya refused to contest from Budhni on a Samajwadi Party ticket saying that only Congress can defeat Bhartiya Janta Party in the region.

This probably annoyed Akhilesh who in response to reporters said "The Congress annoyed the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) the same way. If there is a Congress leader behind this (Arya's refusal), we welcome all those who want to contest on the SP ticket. I would not say that the Congress should take our candidates, but it may feel bad if I say that those not fielded by the Congress can join the SP."

Akhilesh Yadav hinted at a coalition however, when later he added "But remember one thing - when the Congress becomes weaker, the SP can prove its friend. This is the Congress's responsibility to bring parties with similar ideology under one umbrella."

Samajwadi Party has released a list of six candidates for the Madhya Pradesh state assembly polls. Elections for the two thirty member Madhya Pradesh Assembly are scheduled for November 28th.

In the ever-changing political climate however, Akhilesh Yadav hinted at a coalition with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party on October 6thwhen he said that Samajwadi Party will no longer wait for Congress to decide on the matter. "The Congress has made us wait for too long. How much longer must we wait? “He said.

"We will now consult the Gondwana Gantantra Party with which we had an alliance, and also the BSP, for the coming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh," Akhilesh Yadav told reporters.

The political climate of the country is changing so rapidly that it is becoming hard to keep a track of the political machinations. The only thing one can do as a citizen right now is try to keep up with it and vote for the one who seems will actually work as hard after elections as one is doing right now over the machinations.

Ram Janambhoomi Movement: Building the Ram Temple in Ayodhya

Building The Ram Temple in Ayodhya

Recently, BJP President, Amit Shah expressed hopes that the ongoing movement for building the Ram Temple in Ayodhya will result in “victory for culture”. He put extensive emphasis on the fact that people’s sentiments are the driving force in the smooth functioning of a democracy. In a democratic government, people’s sentiments always win.

The issue gained new flair when Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief, Mohan Bhagwat called for building the Ram Temple in Ayodhya as soon as possible. He said that the society was yearning for “justice” and this “justice” had to be served quickly and deftly.

Amit Shah described the Ram Janambhoomi movement as the biggest agitation in the history of the great country of India, coming second only to the Movement for Independence. He further added that this agitation touched all sections of society.

He also claimed that the agitation of the people in order to reconstruct the Ram Temple in Ayodhya has been going on since the original temple was demolished over six centuries ago. Shah stated that this agitation will continue until the victory for culture is achieved.

Ram Temple in Ayodhya

Mohan Bhagwat, in his speech, made references to decades-old movement in support of temple-building at the birthplace of Lord Ram. He said that failure in building the temple was a denial of truth and justice. He added, as if in the form of a threat, that promoting untruth and injustice causes violence. People’s devotion that had existed for centuries was ignored and it would quite surely invite trouble.

On the last day of the three-day RSS conclave, Bhagwat had strongly pitched for building the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. He asserted that this would end tensions between Hindus and Muslims.

On the other side of the argument was Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari. He was not essentially against the construction of the temple. What he claimed was that if a timeline is drawn of the statements made by the BJP and RSS leadership on Ram Temple from 1986-2018, it can be observed that they were made when an election was near.

Whether the building of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya is an election propaganda scheme or not is a question of little consequence. The real agenda should be communal peace and unity. If the construction of the temple can achieve that, almost every upstanding citizen of a proud and secular India would be ready to back up this proposition. But the question is how shall a place of worship for the Hindus put an end to communal feeling persisting the minds of the many communities of India? What do you think?

Celebrating the Elephant God of New Beginnings: Ganesh Chaturthi 2018

Ganesh Chaturthi is a Hindu festival that is celebrated every year in the honor of the benevolent Lord Ganesh. This religious festival, also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi is a 10-day long nationwide gala.

It typically falls in the month of August or September. This year, the festivities will begin on 13^th September, a Thursday. Clay idols of Lord Ganesh are worshipped in homes. Huge and extravagant idols are also crafted for public ceremonies.

Vedic hymns and the Ganapati Upanishad are read in the form of prayers for the elephant-headed god. Fasts are also an integral part of the rituals carried out during the festival.

Offerings of sweets are presented to the lord. Modakis considered to be the favorite sweet of Ganesh.

At the end of the festival, the idols of Ganesh are immersed in rivers or other water bodies. In Mumbai alone, around 150,000 statues are immersed annually. With the dissolving of the clay idols, Ganesh returns to Shiva and Parvati at Kailash.

Lord Ganesh is venerated as the God of New Beginnings, the Remover of Obstacles and the god of wisdom and intelligence. States such as Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Telengana, Gujrat and Chhattisgarh carry out this festival with immense zeal and enthusiasm.

Private and small celebrations occur in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Apart from India, Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated in Nepal. It is also celebrated in foreign countries like Trinidad, Suriname, Fiji, Mauritius, United States and European countries by Hindus.

This year too, Ganesh Chaturthi2018 shall be celebrated with extreme devotion and dedication to the Lord, as has been done since the era of Shivaji.

We wish everyone a very Happy Ganesh Chaturthi 2018 and hope that the blessings of Lord Ganesh bring fruitful results in the lives of his devotes and worshippers. 

Rupee fall hits a new low of 72.50 versus the dollar for the first time

On Monday, the rupee breached the critical mark of 72.50 against the US dollar.  The rupee fall has occurred due to the sustained buying of the American currency by banks and importers

The domestic unit of India plunged down by 85 paisa. The rupee fall hashit a new record low of 72.58 against the dollar.

Additional pressure was exerted on the local currency due to rising crude oil prices and widened current account deficit. Fears of a possible escalation in the US-China trade conflict also put a lot of pressure on the rupee.

US President, Donald Trump issued a warning to China on Friday. He said that he was ready to slap tariffs on virtually all Chinese imports to the United States. This threatened duties on another $267 billion of goods in addition to the $200 billion already facing a risk of duties.

Continuing global trade disputes has strongly contributed towards the rupee fall. Lead Economist and Partner at Deloitte, India said that monetary policy announcements by the Fed may have further led to investment re-routing with a derived pressure on INR valuation.

The 10-year bond yield rose to its highest level since 2014. This has been due to the worries of higher crude oil prices and weakening rupee that has bolstered inflation concerns.

On Friday, the rupee rose 26 points and closed at 71.76 against the dollar. This rise in the value of the rupee against the dollar came only after seven days of depreciation. There was heavy intervention of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the foreign exchange market on Friday. They mounted a formidable defense of the 72 rupee to the dollar mark.

The rupee fall has been hard this year. Fears of inflation are still up and about. The only thing to do is to wait and hope that the value does not fall beyond an inescapable limit.