Ruchika, smile :)

Ruchika, finally you can rest in peace … Today – May 25, 2010 – finally, “the tomorrow” came! And that master molester SPS Rathore went to jail, his trademark dirty smirk gone forever. … And, the nation saw your friend Aradhana smile for the first time … Great!

Ruchika, you could get this victory because of the strongest determination of your family & friends and, of course, Indian Media – Times Now in particular! I know you must be blessing Arnab Goswami for taking up your case and campaigning relentlessly for justice! … India is indeed fortunate to have Arnab Goswami. May God Bless him and be with him in all his crusades! The country is with him, undoubtedly!

But Ruchika, today’s verdict is just the beginning. Criminal Rathore will be punished adequately for all his crimes perpetrated on you and your family & friends. The courts just cannot ignore the nation’s sentiments anymore. Both Truth & Justice will prevail.

Smile, Ruchika :)

Ruchika, tomorrow you will get justice --- 20 years later!

Ruchika, do not worry. If today - 20.05.10 - "the tomorrow" did not come, it will for sure come on 25.05.10. ...

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Yeah, today I am preempting judgement. Tomorrow, Ruchika Gihrotra will get justice.

Though this can be said only in a manner of speaking. Actually, no amount of punishment to the master molester SPS Rathore will actually be appropriate to the heinousness of the crime he perpetrated on a 14year old girl. The physical, mental, emotional, social and financial traumas she and her family had to endure, all ensured by the then all-mighty police high official can never be compensated by even gallows for Rathore. Ruchika had to finally kill herself failing to bear the “consequences” of her complaint against SPS Rathore anymore. We all know the tragic story …

Nevertheless, when tomorrow comes, the courts will not be able to afford NOT to grant justice to the departed soul of Ruchika – much belatedly though – and will pronounce appropriate sentencing on Rathore.

Tomorrow, the “Media Activism” initiated by Times Now will bear fruit and Ruchika will get justice. And I heartily Congratulate Arnab Goswami for continuing with his role as a responsible news broadcaster!

Tomorrow, a celebrated legal eagle called Ram Jethmalani will try to find a place to hide, tough only briefly till he gets a fresh new case in consonance with his true nature of practice: as a favoured habitual defender of the high profile offenders! Because, tomorrow, the Indian Criminal Justice System – the Courts – will no longer pay any heed to India’s Devils’ Advocate No.1 Ram Jethmalani’s – who else? – broken record like questioning, “Where is the evidence?”

Tomorrow, I will feel a bit relieved like the millions all across the country including Ruchika’s parents and friends (Aradhana & her family) and well-wishers and pray that no girl in India ever has to go through trauma that Ruchika had to undergo along with her parents’ & friends’ ordeal which did not end even with her end.

Tomorrow, I as an Indian will also feel a sense of pride for our Media – Times Now in particular – and pray that if ever any girl is assaulted anywhere in India, there is always an active Media around to take up her case as well.

Tomorrow, I will also make an appeal to the Indian Parliament and its protectors – Indian Government – to make fresh amendments in the Indian Constitution and make carrying a handycam mandatory for every female in the country so that she could record all kinds of assaults like molestation, rape, etc. perpetrated on her which could come handy as sufficient evidence in the courts of law against the offenders, especially in cases where Ram Jethmalani is the defending lawyer! … Arnab, may be you could help me in this case!

Tomorrow, once again, I will pray for SPS Rathore’s children: that in their next life, they get a non-molesting type father.

Yes, I will also pray to God that in his next birth, please make Ram Jethmalani a girl and make her (him) face SPS Rathore. May be his – her, I mean – handycam will come handy …

MSD: from Captain Cool to Captain Lost?

“Where’s the party tonight?” kept resonating in everybody's mind while watching IPL-3 matches – viewers’ included! After all, the IPL-3 initially got more publicity - notoriety - for its “famed” post matches parties, gaining equal prominence at par with matches! The tamasha would have carried on but for its own creator’s "mid-match" crisis! Lalit Modi’s midnight tweets revealing Shashi Tharoor’s ‘personal’ interest in the formation of the IPL Kochi team put a "strategic break" in between! And all hell broke loose thereafter!

Here, we need not discuss the aftermath again. Already a lot of time and space – in media and mind – have been devoted to debating the unfolding of the IPL sordid saga.

Today, we discuss the aftermath of India’s debacle in the T20 World Cup. The guns are out for the players, and rightly so. As expected, BCCI is hell bent on deflecting the entire blame on the captain. Mahender Singh Dhoni is receiving the maximum flak for India’s disappointing play.

Well, MSD has proven himself to be the most successful of the cricket captains that India has had so far. His cool demeanour coupled with his supreme control over his team and himself has endeared him to the Indian cricket lovers across all age groups and sections of the society. He is hugely regarded as the Captain Cool by one and all!

Then what went wrong with MSD at the T20 WC? Why did he behave in the manner he did? Why was he seen as being uninterested and casual in his actions and responses? Why was he deemed to have an arrogant body language - very unlike him? Well, why did he give all those silly excuses and attributed his team’s dismal performance to the post match IPL parties? …

The questions are many. And we need to dissect them threadbare. After all, a lot get invested in cricket in India: not only enormous amount of money and time but also deep emotions. It is believed that for an Indian cricket fan, cricket is almost a religion – though I find this clichéd explanation a bit boring.

So, without digressing, let us debate if MSD should be made the fall guy? Should he be seriously reprimanded for his poor captaincy or be removed from the post? Should he be also sacked – rested, as BCCI would like to put it – like a few of the out-of-form senior players?

I say: reprimand him; give him an ultimatum; but do not remove him from the captain’s post. Because, this is not how cricket should be administered in India. And, then how can BCCI shirk all its responsibilities and hold one man – the captain – responsible for the entire fiasco in the Caribbean? Aren’t the officials of the cricket controlling body equally to be blamed for the team’s cheerless show? Isn’t it the BCCI who had planned team India’s itinerary and had scheduled IPL competition so near to the T20 WC? Parties or no parties, the fact remains that players are bound to get fatigued after such a hectic tournament, that too just prior to the T20 WC!

Let us not be unfair to Mahender Singh Dhoni. Though he for sure was out-of-form as far as his manners and actions are concerned in the West Indies, but he remains the best player to lead the team India in future as well. No one else is even closely as capable as MSD to handle the challenges of captaincy. Give him time.

MSD, hope you are listening. Please get back to your original self soon. We cannot afford to have you as the ‘Captain Lost’ for long.

MSD, I am sure you will bounce back as our Captain Cool :)