The plague of spoons in India.

In June 1992, Forest and Revenue officers entered a village in Tamil Nadu and vandalised homes, destroyed livestock and raped 18 women. It took over a fortnight for the news to reach the outside world. When it did the state government denied the incident and the then Forest Minister of Tamil Nadu accused the entire village of smuggling sandalwood, earning Rs 500 per person per day. The Chief Minister at the time was Ms Jayalalithaa, proving that it is not just 'patriarchal' men who are indifferent to crimes against women. Naturally, local police refused to register a case and the government used taxpayer money to obstruct justice, to protect the officers. The victims kept fighting, assisted by the Tribals Association. Finally, in September 2011, 215 out of the initial 269 accused were sentenced to prison, ranging from 1-10 years. The remaining 58 had died due to the long delay, thus escaping justice. The women also received compensation by 2015. Last month, 5 farmers were shot dead by police in Madhya Pradesh while protesting against falling prices for their produce. As usual the state government denied the killing, with the Chief Minister starting a fast unto death against violence by farmers, wrote Prof S Vishwanathan. Ever since this government has come to power people are being killed or being beaten up in the name of protecting cows. Prof T Kothiyal wrote that violence to protect cows will convert them from economic assets to liabilities so that cattle herders will stop rearing cows and shift to buffaloes instead. Why are criminals able to get away with murder in India? Because they are protected by politicians either by direct interference with the police or by repeatedly denying any crime had occurred, and cases dragging on for decades because of the inability of our courts to reach any conclusion. Politicians are surrounded by sycophants, ready to sink to sickening levels of flattery, as discovered by S Vadukut when he found 3 books in the British Library in London. The books are about Sanjay Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi, who was behind some of the excesses of the Emergency. Writing about forced sterilisation, Jagat Singh wrote. "The greatness of Shri Sanjay Gandhi lies in the fact that he took up very unpopular programmes and vested them with a roaring popularity by dint of hard work and the force of his personality." MJ Rao wrote, "History has still in its womb the future of this illustrious son of the Nehru family, but the omens are all to the good." The title of Pyare Lal Sharma's book was, "World's Wisest Wizard - A Psychography of Sanjay Gandhi's Cosmic Mind". Sycophants are called 'chamchas' in India, which literally means 'spoons'. Is it any wonder that the armed rebellion, that started in a village known as Naxalbari 50 years ago, is still going on? Guns needed to fight spoons.