Rapes in the rise: How are the ‘good people’ to be blamed?
Just as the whole country is reeling under the shocking number of rapes that are being reported ever so frequently, a strange case of rape is reported from Pathan, Gujarat. A 22-year-old man has raped his own mother. Just as the cabinet approved the ordinance recommending death sentence to rapists of children below 12 years of age, a gory incident such as this one has occurred. There have been many horrible instances of a father has raping his own daughters. But this case of a boy raping his own mother is a rarest of rare case. The entire society has to hang its head in shame over this. Why did something like this happen? How did we as a society become responsible for this?
What enabled the young man to grow such a perversion? Can the government ever help curb such evils by commuting death or life sentence to the guilty?
Though each rape is horrible, the first mistake we make is that of putting all rape cases on the same scale. There is a difference between a debauchee raping a child, and the Kathua case where a 7-year-old girl was drugged, raped and killed. Kathua is not just about being a perverted act, it also has dirty politics involved in it. The girl became a victim because she belonged to a particular community. Hence, another particular community showed solidarity with the culprits.
We cannot place Kathua and Khairlanji rapes alongside other rapes and address all of them in a monolithic manner. Here, the motives are clear. They know the ways to fix this too. The culprits are not just looking for ways to satiate their sexual needs.
Today, a lot of sexual assaults on children are happening at home. The society has probably created a more than conducive atmosphere for such crimes to thrive. It is not too tough to analyse the reason behind the Gujarat rape. The boy was addicted to porn videos. He had spoken to his mother about his inclination of wanting to experiment with sex. She was well aware of his sexual drive being active. If the parents had paid closer attention, they could see their son going astray with this addiction to sex. They could have, probably, taken him for medical and psychological treatment. But they were not willing to comprehend with the factor that their son was disturbed. Hence, the whole thing ended in a tragedy.
Many years ago, if a paper published a vulgar picture, people hesitated to take the copy home. There were magazines that were dedicated to porn and they would never be sold in open. ‘Cabaret’ dancers as they were called, were exclusive dancers who wore skimpy clothes and pranced in a film irrespective of the script demanding it or not. They would appear in one small song, and disappear soon after. They wouldn’t be seen again in the film at all.
But they gradually disappeared. Leading ladies and even children began to wear clothes that were skimpier than that of the cabaret dancers. Leading ladies merged with cabaret dancers and would wear even more skimpy clothes. Today children form the major chunk of television viewers including women, children and all aged male and female members; and mind you, that television does not have the slightest of responsibility to change this situation. The leading dailies splash vulgar pictures on the very first page itself with no sense of what it would do to young minds. Internet takes people close to disaster very fast. People would read magazines with sexual content on the sly and hidden from the other members. Porn is watched irrespective of age now by both parents and children, on their own mobiles.
Internet is even more dangerous. Porn is freely and economically available now. If a young boy who has to decide on right and wrong thing, commits a crime owning to free porn, who should we complain to? Internet
When parents are busy with other joys of the internet, children watch the wrong stuff and turn into a menace for themselves and the parents too. Parents pay attention to this ugly habit by children only when they try to exhibit it openly.
Some time ago, the government had decided to clamp down on vulgar websites. Many people raised an objection to this. They said this interfered with the ‘freedom of expression’ and they continue with their works. An awareness has to be created opposing porn videos. It is right that the government should focus on bigger issues at hand. To close down these porn websites is the need of the hour for the sake of our children, grandchildren . Children should not be given mobile or any kids of luxury till they are old enough to handle it responsibly. Instead of suffering after losing him, parents should pay attention to their son’s whereabouts everyday.
Children from poor background and into begging or the ones that live in slum areas, should be guarded. Parents have to spend time with their children and shape their personality by way of sharing and caring. Only then, the rapes can be brought under the control of the government. The government needs to reprimand earlier, now I think they have made peace. Parents have to work with children to showcase the richness of this diversity. Only then, we can claim the nation has progressed.
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India, US trade team to start three-day talks from Dec 10: Sources
New Delhi (PTI): India and the United States will commence three-day talks on the first phase of their proposed bilateral trade agreement here from December 10, sources said.
The visit is crucial as India and the US are working to finalise the first tranche of the pact.
"The three-day talks will start on December 10. It will conclude on December 12, and it is not a formal round of talks," said one of the sources.
The US team will be led by Deputy United States Trade Representative (USTR) Rick Switzer.
This visit of the US officials marks their second trip since the imposition of a 25 per cent tariff and an additional 25 per cent penalty on Indian goods entering the American market due to the purchase of Russian crude oil.
On September 16, the US officials last visited India.
On September 22, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal also led an official delegation to the US for trade talks. Goyal had also visited Washington in May.
While the USA's chief negotiator for the pact is Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch, the Indian side is led by Joint Secretary in the Department of Commerce Darpan Jain.
The talks are also important as Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal has recently stated that India is hopeful of reaching a framework trade deal with the US this year itself, which should address the tariff issue to the benefit of Indian exporters.
While noting that the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) will take time, Agrawal has added that India is engaged in protracted negotiations with the US on a framework trade deal that will address the reciprocal tariff challenge faced by Indian exporters.
India and the US are having two parallel negotiations -- one on a framework trade deal to address tariffs and another on a comprehensive trade deal.
In February, leaders of the two countries directed officials to negotiate an agreement.
It was planned to conclude the first tranche of the pact by the fall of 2025. So far, six rounds of negotiations have been held. The agreement aims to more than double bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030, from the current USD 191 billion.
The US remained India's largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, with bilateral trade valued at USD 131.84 billion (USD 86.5 billion exports).
The US accounts for about 18 per cent of India's total goods exports, 6.22 per cent of its imports, and 10.73 per cent of its total merchandise trade.
According to exporters, the agreement is important as India's merchandise exports to the US declined for the second consecutive month in October, falling by 8.58 per cent to USD 6.3 billion due to the hefty tariffs imposed by Washington.
