Frontline
April 1999
Newscan

Brickbats for yet another ‘pro–women’ plan of BJP govt.
As protests by women’s groups against the proposed capital punishment for rapists took a backseat, the BJP government was taken up with another ‘pro–woman’ idea. The Rajrajeshwari Mahila Kalyan Bima Policy, launched by the PM on March 19 (the first anniversary of the BJP government), was to insure girls and women between 10 to 75 years against the ‘disability arising out of rape’. The insurance cover, provided at a premium of Rs.15 for a period of one to five years, would ‘assess the seriousness of the resultant disability and judge the amount due to the victim’. Permanent disability arising out of rape would gross compensation of Rs. 25,000. The General Insurance Company (GIC) and all its four subsidiaries, National Insurance, New India Insurance, Oriental Insurance were to provide the insurance policy. The PM was particularly enthusiastic about the scheme, suggesting that every village panchayat and municipality could insure all its girls and women ‘at a discount’.

The All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) immediately took up the issue and demanded a change in the clause, which so casually equated rape to any other accident. AIDWA threatened demonstrations outside every GIC office in the country, if the clause was not modified. AIDWA general secretary, Brinda Karat, said, "In a country where rape and sexual attack on women is increasing, the PM inaugurates a policy which equates rape with other marketable insurance policies. This shows how callous and insensitive the attitude of people can be." She added, "Rape is not the least about losing a limb or a body part and equating it to a physical accident is both outrageous and unfortunate. It is deplorable that our corporate and political leaders are viewing rape as only a physical accident when the victim might actually be dying more than a thousand deaths".

The insurance companies claimed that the aim of the policy was not to add to a rape victim’s trauma but to help her cope with it without having to worry about financial problems. However, as Shabnam Hashmi, who sent out a nation–wide appeal to protest against the policy pointed out:

"In a society where the first victim of poverty is the girl child, the new scheme will provide yet another avenue for manipulating rape on hapless girls. It will also lead to increasing child abuse for gaining monetary compensation." Following the protests, the GIC decided to delete the word ‘rape’ from the scheme’s prospectus, saying the word was only used in the scheme to clarify the causes for disablement.

Hurdles on the Indo–Bangla bus route
After the successful Delhi–Lahore bus service, it was the Calcutta–Dhaka bus service that was to be flagged off. The bus, Souhardya, was to leave Calcutta on March 24, on a trial run and return the next day. But the bus had to settle for an informal trial run on the scheduled date, and return without crossing the border as the Bangladesh government expressed its inability to conduct the trial run just before Eid festivities. The Bangla team is now expected to arrive in India in the first week of April to finalise details of time, stops, road condition and fare.

The trip between the two cities is expected to take about 12 hours. The 36–seater air–conditioned buses carry on their sides, a line each from the famous poets, Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam, of the two countries.

In the meantime, a team of MPs from Assam has announced their intention of making the bus trip from Guwahati to Dhaka as a good–will gesture in May. The need to open up border trade between the two countries was also emphasised by Assam chief minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, at a seminar in mid–March. He pointed out that the Northeast shared only two per cent of its border with India while sharing 98 percent with its border with Burma, Bangladesh, China, and Bhutan. He stressed that joining hands with Bangladesh may well open a gateway to the affluent Asian markets, and improve the Northeast economy — a step which he said was urgently required considering that the poor state of the Northeast economy was manifesting itself in militancy.

SC enhances Hindu woman’s property rights
In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court on March 10 decreed that a Hindu woman enjoyed complete ownership of the husband’s property after his death. The wife will now have full rights to set aside the husband’s decree as to who the property will go to after the wife’s death.The division bench, consisting of Justices V.N. Khare and Syed Shah Mohammed Qadri, set aside verdicts of the first and second courts of appeal, in the case of a Hindu widow Beni Bai. Beni Bai’s husband had willed his property to his wife only during her life–time as maintenance and had willed it to his son after her death. However, the widow had gifted the property to her daughter instead. The Supreme Court deemed the gift deed as valid and transformed her ‘limited right’ to the property during her lifetime, to ‘absolute right’.

The judges observed: "According to the old Shastric Hindu law, marriage between two Hindus is not a contract but a sacrament and after marriage it is a pious obligation on the part of the husband to maintain his wife during lifetime and after his death, the widow is to be maintained out of the party." Thus they held that the ‘pre–existing right’ automatically became an ‘absolute right’, under section 14 of the Hindu Women’s Rights to Property Act and other provisions of the Hindu Succession Act.

Twists and turns in the Staines’ killings case
The Staines’ killings case seem to be taking an absurd turn. A little after the government had announced that the Rashtriya Ekta Puraskar for the year 1999 was to be awarded posthumously to the missionary, they admitted that the investigation into his death had not even begun. At a Union cabinet meeting held on March 23, the BJP government decided to grant the DP Wadhwa Commission of enquiry, which had been appointed to investigate the murders, three more months for the investigations. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, information and broadcasting minister, Pramod Mahajan, admitted that the commission was to "begin work now", though it had been appointed shortly after the murders took place on January 22, and had been instructed to submit its report as soon as possible, but definitely within two months time. The report, therefore, would have been due in April. Mahajan said that the delay was a result of the lack of co–operation from the Orissa state government. Subsequently, Justice Wadhwa asked the special investigating team, formed to probe the murders, to submit their preliminary report by April 6, when the commission will hold its first hearing in Orissa.

The Indo–Australian Association, Chennai, also conferred the Indo-Australian Award for Meritorious Service on the late Graham Stuart Staines on March 24. The Australian high commissioner, Rob Laurie, said at the function that it was crucial for the Centre to bring to book those who were responsible for the murders of Staines and his two sons.

Christian homes torched in Orissa
About 150 Christian houses were burnt down at Ranalai village in Gajapati, Orissa, on March 16. Twelve people were injured, with four of them having received bullet wounds. Tension had risen after a cross, carved on a hillock was tampered with by miscreants. Though the block development officer and the police reached the village and constituted a peace committee, violence broke out. Along with the burning down of houses, four people were injured in firing.

Meanwhile, an attempt to burn down a Christian prayer hall in Vadgam village in Gujarat was foiled by the villagers, who quickly put out the fire before any major damage was done.

Keeping the Lahore spirit alive
On March 22, India and Pakistan swapped 57 civilian prisoners at the Wagah border. India handed over 43 Pakistani prisoners and received 14 Indian nationals. As part of a welcome change in relations since the PM’s Lahore visit, officials are optimistic that the exchange was only a ‘first instalment’ to be followed by others in the near future. Among the prisoners returned to India were Ashok Kumar and his three minor sons who had been in Pak prisons since the past three years. Kumar was arrested in Pakistan while attempting to cross over to Afghanistan, for not having valid visa papers. Since his three minor children had nowhere else to go, they too joined him in prison. Non–governmental organisations had been trying to get the children free for the past two years.

The foreign minister of Pakistan, Sartaj Aziz, and India’s minister for external affairs, Jaswant Singh, also met during the 21st SAARC council of ministers at Sri Lanka and set out a road map for implementation of the Lahore declaration. They issued a joint statement agreeing on:

Ø A meeting of experts to be held within two months for implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding.

Ø The next round of composite and integrated dialogue process was set to commence in New Delhi in May and in Islamabad in June.

Ø The committee on humanitarian issues composed of minister of state for foreign affairs of Pakistan and the minister of external affairs of India, which was set up by the Prime Ministers of the two countries at Lahore is to meet in April to formalise the agreement on the issue of release of civilian prisoners and to discuss other humanitarian issues.

Ø Both sides agreed to relax the visa regime for several categories of visitors. Specific visa relaxation measures are to be announced soon.

Ø Delegations of experts are to meet in April to identify areas of co-operation in information technology, Y2K and WTO–related issues.

In mid–March, Pakistan took the lead in unilaterally announcing relaxation of rules for issuing visa, claiming even tourists can apply and get ‘same day’ visas. On March 25, India reciprocated declaring specific easing in visa regulations. For seven categories of individuals, multiple entry visas with up to one–year duration will be issued. The visas will no longer need to be city–specific, and most importantly, these individuals will be exempted from police reporting.

But dissenting groups have still not let up. The Jamaat–e–Islami in Pakistan is adamant on its anti–India stand. As threatened, it carried out its plan to wash the Minar–e–Pakistan with rose water, in order to "wash away PM Vajpayee’s footprints" at the monument, "which is a symbol of the sacrifices of the martyrs of the Pakistan movement". The Minar is built at the spot where the idea of the formation of a separate Muslim nation was born. The Jamaat has also declared that the Lahore Declaration is void and no subsequent governments will honour it.


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