Insightful newsletter of Drishtikone - Issue #99: The Penguins and the Voiceless
The rot is deep. The powerful and the unscrupulous have no end to their greed and vices. They will do anything to feed their greed with the entrails of another’s life.
And, it has been going on for a long time and the less powerful, more idealistic have taken this to be their destiny.
One day they found their voice.
The story started that suddenly the freedom of expression was in jeopardy.
The problem, you see, is not that those who ruled us and over-ruled our voice, do not have their expression any more. The problem is that we have a voice too. And, this voice challenges theirs.
Which they cannot over-rule it.
So, a self-important, half decent actor who has done crap like Tridev feels that an actress who worked her way against all odds and has done some amazing work isn’t worth a voice. Because she isn’t as educated as he is.
It’s like a Michelin-star chef isn’t worth a voice of her own because her trigonometry doesn’t add up.
Education of Kangana is a ruse. The problem is that in the world of Naseeruddin Shahs and Shabana Azmis, a Kangana has dared to even speak.
That, is the destruction of all freedoms of the entitled and privileged!
“Criminals should be punished, not fed pastries.” ― Lemony Snicket, The Blank Book
Today’s edition is dedicated to the very queer creature called baby penguin.
A baby penguin strutted around the small little confines of his confident little empire. He had it all figured out.
Cute he is, some friendly creatures thought and let him get away with mischief. Until his mischief elevated to devious plans.
Things went horribly wrong one day and he quietly did what he shouldn’t have.
He had his ways and kept pushing the levers. Until, the levers came apart and the world outside got involved in his affairs. As he went about his merry way - tight came the slap from the wise one.
The strut, the arrogance went down with him. THE END.
In a completely unrelated story, we look into the Sushant Singh Rajput’s murder case.
Sushant Singh Rajput - justice finally on track
Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques has been known as THE definitive source of homicide investigation in the US. That handbook says categorically that:
“All death inquiries should be conducted as homicide investigations until the facts prove differently.“
Suicide as the reason for death, irrespective of the circumstances, should be the last conclusions after Homicide, Accident and Natural Causes of death have been eliminated as the cause of death.
No crime investigator ever starts his/her work at a crime scene by assuming that a death is a suicide. Check this video from CrimeTak anchor Shams out. It is very instructive in how the police generally approach a normal suicide scene. It takes hours before they even bring down the body.
EP 342: कैसे पता चलता है कि ये क़त्ल है या ख़दकुशी?...पुलिस जांच की अनोखी कहानी |CRIME TAK
chronology of events on June 14th
The police was in a hurry to pronounce his death as a suicide. In fact, when the police officer came down, he announced it right away. When according the standard homicide investigation rules, suicide is the last option - after all other causes have been ruled out.
Now, here is the funny thing - The Police was called around 12.45 PM. By 2.30 PM IST, Wikipedia had already been updated with the information about Sushant Singh’s suicide death.
There was no investigation and certainly no due diligence into Sushant’s death before the announcement of suicide as the cause.
6 important things to know
Here are some important things about the whole case which we need to be mindful of:
On August 3, Rajput’s father, KK Singh, released a video stating that he had informed Bandra Police (Mumbai) on February 25 that he was worried for his son’s life. To substantiate the claim, the family released transcripts of chats between Rajput’s brother-in-law, OP Singh and Mumbai Police, where it was mentioned that Sushant’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty’s family had taken the late actor to a resort near the airport, kept him there for three months and had been managing his business affairs since.
Sushant Singh Rajput’s friends and family have been receiving threatening calls and messages to stay away from the case, and not even demand a CBI enquiry
Inconsistencies between the statements given by Sushant’s ‘friend’ Siddharth Pithani and those by Rajput’s staff members. For example, Rajput’s bodyguard was fetching prescription drugs from the chemist which were given to Sushant by Rhea Chakraborty. Also confirmed by Sushant’s cook, Neeraj Singh.
Senior IPS officer Vinay Tiwari was sent to 14-day quarantine by the BMC soon after his arrival in Mumbai on August 2 in Sushant Singh’s case probe. He was quarantined even when Mumbai Police had been informed well in advance of his arrival and probe.
Maharashtra cabinet minister Aditya Thackeray has attended a party where Disha Salian was also present, just before her death. The party was at Sooraj Pancholi’s residence.
Over 40 people have recorded their statements so far in the case, including Rhea Chakraborty, director-producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali, filmmaker Aditya Chopra, director Mukesh Chhabra, filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor, film critic Rajeev Masand among other. Aditya Chopra and Rajeev Masand were interviewed after Kangana Ranaut’s interview on Republic TV, where she pushed for these individuals to be called.
These lead us to our next thing - what is up for question in front of the CBI?
Investigation modus operandi and its integrity
It is not enough to get to the question of who was Sushant Singh Rajput’s murderer. Yes, until it is proved beyond reasonable doubt that it wasn’t a murder, that is the first assumption. It is not a suicide until other like causes are disproved. If it was a suicidal action, then we need to get to the question of who abetted it?
But along with the inquiry on who did it? - we also need to know what modus operandi was followed in the investigation and why? We need to get the evaluation of the fact that if the standard operating procedures in a homicide investigation were indeed followed?
It is important to know if they were followed and if not, why? The “why” is the critical part.
The current establishment and the botches investigation has raised question marks over the Mumbai police. Yes, they are compromised, but police at the end of the day is always answerable to the political masters. And despite what these politicians make the police force to be, there are many honest police officers who have done tremendous work over their lifetime. Let us give them their due. And, that will only be possible if these black clouds hanging over the integrity of Mumbai police is lifted by knowing who specifically botched up and why? Lets not indict the whole force for the sins of a few.
Saudis calling for amendments to Quran
Over the years, many have spoken up about how Quran may need to be amended because it includes things which are not in sync with an inclusive world. Those voices were either put down or called Islamophobic.
Now, the calls to change the book have started coming from Saudi Arabia, which is unprecedented.
One, was an article on January 10, 2020 by Saudi journalist Ahmad Hashem on the “Saudi Opinions” website. Hashem says that “Quran as it is known today was written down after the Prophet’s lifetime” and since this writing is in itself a “human intervention”, there is no reason to “sanctify it”. In fact, he goes on to share that Quran has some 2,500 errors of spelling and grammar which should be corrected.
Second, was an article on July 20, 2020 by Jarjis Gulizada on the Saudi website Elaph. The writer is a political analyst of Kurdish-Iraqi origin and is also an editor of the magazine Baghdad from Iraq. He used the changes to the Islamic form of worship done during COVID for physical distancing to say that this flexibility should also be applied to the Islamic texts. He says that Quran should be “reexamined and adapted to modern perceptions.”
These views are unprecedented specifically as they come from the home of Mecca itself.
Articles In Saudi Press Call To Amend Thousands Of Scribal Errors In The Quran, Reexamine Islamic Texts In Light Of Modern Perceptions
Two unusual articles published this year on Saudi websites called to amend scribal errors in the Quran, and also to reexamine religious texts in light of modern perceptions, so as to make them more readable and adapt them to the present age.
the besties fall apart - Pakistanis and Saudis
Pakistani foreign policy’s long-standing dictum has been: Agree to whatever comes out of a Saudi mouth.
The besties moved away in recent weeks. It started off with the strong-worded rant from Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. That created issues between the “natural friends” as Pakistanis would say.
In November 2018, Saudi Arabia had given a US$6.2 billion loan package to Pakistan. This included $3 billion in loans and $3.2 billion in an oil credit facility.
This month, however, the Saudis ended both, the loan and oil supply arrangement, as they asked for the return of the US$3 billion loan and refused to sell any more oil to Islamabad on deferred payments.
All this happened because Pakistan thought that Saudi-led Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was not doing enough to pressurize India on the Kashmir issue. And, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi went on a rant on the local TV.
This was on the anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370, when Qureshi issued a stark and unprecedented warning to Saudi Arabia and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). This video is the one which ‘broke the camel’s back’.
Did the Foreign Minister of Pakistan just lay down an ultimatum for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the OIC?
"Support us on Kashmir or we will get our support from other Muslim countries outside the OIC"..... https://t.co/E39vKlYtVp
But if you really see, the drifting apart of the Pakistanis and the Saudis started in real sense when Pakistan’s ganged up with Turkey and Malaysia to create an Islamic leadership block post-UN General Assembly session last year.
The only option for the Pakistani establishment was to sack Qureshi. Or it would appear that the Army was behind it. He wasn’t let go.
So this week when Pakistani Army General Bajwa went to Saudi Arabia to mend relations, he conveyed the government’s apology over foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s statement. But it didn’t help. He returned without meeting anyone other than the Deputy Defence Minister Sheikh Khalid Bin Salman.
As Pakistan and Saudi Arabia drift apart, China moves in
A growing schism between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan points to new alliances in the Muslim world.
the war against sparrows
Let us understand the smartness or otherwise of Mao Zedong, the guy India’s Communists swear by. It will show very clearly what kind of mindset and IQ he had.
In 1958, Mao decided that sparrows, yes those small cute birds, were China’s top enemy because they eat too much grain and disrupt the food supply. So he ordered all the sparrows in China to be killed in what was called the Great Sparrow Campaign. Hundreds of millions of sparrows were killed. This was part of the Four Pests Campaign, where the Chinese establishment also targeted rats, flies, and mosquitoes.
Three years later, 45 million people had died due to that decision.
The ‘Great“ Mao had forgotten that the sparrows also ate insects. Not just grains. Result - locusts and caterpillars populations boomed and they ate lots of foodgrains.
Ultimately the Soviet Union came to the rescue of the Chinese and gave them sparrows.
But you can see the brain of an elementary school kid working at the helm in this case, don’t you?
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what Sushant has created in India
Sometimes courage happens in places we least expect them. This is the Thakur siblings. Maithili Thakur has participated in Little Champs and Indian Idol Junior. She and her brothers jointly sing songs on their own YouTube channel. They obviously are starting off in their careers. After Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, these kids took a decision - to never sing bollywood songs on their channel.
Now, can you imagine that? They will not sing any bollywood songs even when these songs are what get the most traffic. And, they let it go. Just like that. At the start of the career.
If you want to see what Sushant Singh Rajput has created in India - watch these kids. And please do support them by subscribing to all their channels. I did.
Can't stand with it || Rishav Thakur, Maithili Thakur