Such was the argument made in court by one Shrikant Shivde, lawyer for Shiney Ahuja, Bollywood actor arrested on charges of rape. "She", of course, refers to the victim. (Thanks to Jai for the pointer, in a comment here).
The nauseating nature of this remark reminded me of this other one that came my way, from three years ago:
"its not our fault if the backwards (well most of them) dont value education."
(made here).
What I was prompted to reply then applies equally to Shivde's observation: remarks like these, the attitudes they speak of, make the case for reservations better than most of its proponents would.
Apart from that, I've had it up to here with the argument -- often made in such cases, or mentioned by the police while arresting a thief -- that the accused is from a "good family" (for example).
(Alternate formulations: "respectable family", "decent middle-class family", "good respectable excellent wonderful army background decent god-fearing middle-class family" -- mix and match as you please).
Just what is this supposed to mean? "Good families" don't produce criminals? "Middle-class families" don't produce criminals? "Army background" or "god-fearing" automatically implies innocence?
I can easily think of examples that undermine all those claims, and so can you. I hope someday there will be a judge in a court who will cut through such phrases and say, politely, "The defendant is on trial, not his family. So I don't want to hear any more about them."
12 comments:
Outragious indeed. Sadly, even the judge did not feel appropriate to reprimand the lawyer for these remarks.
Sandeep Vaidya
Hmm, if family background decided who is innocent, how about this:
"Dawood Ibrahim, the son of a police constable Ibrahim Kaskar, was born in Mumkaa village in Ratnagiri in the Indian state of Maharashtra on December 26, 1955."
The guy comes from a respectable police background! The judge should have shot back with this example
on reservation facts all bloody forwards should know plz read comment and forward... [link]http://sree9898blog.blogspot.com/2008/03/excerpts-from-arun-shouries-falling.html[/link]
just click on this link to go to my blog straight.. plz fwd it to all ppl u know lets have an informed and objective discussion in my blog page fact by fact.. i have put a lot of time into this project plz help me get an objective view of the responses considering atleast the time and effor i put [:D]
Swami Shri Shri fuckfaceroola, can you do the world a favour and learn some fucking English. Reading your blog is almost as painful as reading D'Souza's blog while being sodomised by a piece of mumbai's sealink (which has banned buses and swear words). D'Souza responds with 'WHERE HAVE I SAID the Sealink bans swear words'. Nowhere, D'souza, nowhere.
Now excuse me while I put my pants back on.
OKay! I now have my pants back on.
thanks for listening.
- TTG aka Tarun Pal aka Phoenix aka Azous.
Sandeep, that was my point really. When will we have judges who will ridicule such comments for the nauseating crap they are? Why did this one even allow this to pass?
Mayuresh, unfortunately, plenty of homegrown terrorists come from perfectly respectable family backgrounds.
.....And Bollywood maintains a conpiratorial silence on Shiny. No protests, not a word. After all he is a part of the chattering classes....
--SK
Why not put up the original post in which context the comments were made. It has some 'gems' from your favorite Ms Shivam Vij. REaders can then see the context in which the comments were made. That is fairness and honesty.
But since when did such terms come into your dictionary?
Just smear and tar people who do not agree with your worldview.
Yes - Shiney's lawyers comment was in very bad taste and the judge should have thrown it out immediately.
When will we have judges who will ridicule such comments for the nauseating crap they are?
When will bloggers of the other India stop tarring all upper castes with the same brush?
When will we have judges who will ridicule such comments for the nauseating crap they are?
When will bloggers of the other India stop tarring all upper castes with the same brush?
Why not put up the original post in which context the comments were made.
Please clarify this curious demand.
If you're referring to the "don't value education" phrase, I've pointed to the post itself where that was a comment. You want me to paste that whole post in here? Sorry, I'm not doing that.
If you mean a post that the commenter refers to (without linking), sorry, I'm not pasting that either. Apart from not knowing what it was he was complaining about anyway, it wasn't relevant to his "don't value education" remark then, it isn't relevant now. After all, what context could possibly make respectable this claim?
its not our fault if the backwards (well most of them) dont value education.
That's right, none.
As for your remark about brushes, naturally I'll ask you to show me where I (not some shadowy "bloggers", but me) have done the tarring you claim, but just as naturally, I know you won't answer. Far easier to make a claim and run.
People do this a lot, don't they?! Lump people belonging to a certain group together, and assign them them characteristics that they all have. "Yeh loh sab aisa hi karte hain". I've heard millions and millions of these: "Look at what that woman is doing. That just proves my point: women just cannot drive" is one that really, really bugs me! Lots of people talk about how all Marwaris are miserly, and I've never understood that!
This dialogue is not the just a case of lumping and labelling people, but that is one factor I saw.
And I hate is when being from a "good family" is an excuse/reason to get away with outrageous behaviour.
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