Indian Minister Blamed for Suicide of Air Hostess
By Zaheerul Hassan
A 23 year old former Air hostess of domestic a private airline has reportedly committed suicide by hanging herself at her residence in Ashok Vihar in North-West Delhi. According to the reports late Gitika Sharma has named Haryana minister Gopal Kanda in her suicide note. The police have registered a case of abetment of suicode against the minister.
Notably, Gitika was working for MDLR Airlines which is owned by Kanda. He is the Minister of State in the Home Ministry in the Haryana government. The Chairman of the MDLR Airlines, Gopal Kanda, is also the Minister of State (MoS) in the Home Ministry in the Haryana government. The local police have booked the minister for abetment to suicide and a team has been to Mr Kanda’s home in Gurgaon. Police stated that in the note, air hostess has written, “he (Gopal Kanda) has broken my trust.”
The girls’ family too alleges that she was mentally and physically tortured by Mr Kanda. According to NDVT, “When the airline’s operation was suspended, Gopal Kanda offered her another job. She refused that offer and joined Emirates in Dubai. He then wrote a letter to Emirates stating that she had a bad character, which leads to her termination,” alleges Gaurav Sharma, her brother. He also says that when his sister returned home in 2011 she joined Mr Kanda’s company after he convinced her but she was allegedly ‘mentally tortured’. The police are now investigating these allegations. She has been even asked to establish sexual relations by the minister. Women staff of others airlines are going to launch protest against Indian minister and will go for strike till the arrest of the minister.
It is mentionable here that the trend of sexual harassment is very high in India as compare to others Asian countries. According to a survey report 24% self staff of female gender carried out suicide because sexual abuses. Even females working in Indian armed forces are not safe from sexual assaults, since number of cases have been registered that women were assaulted by their seniors or colleagues. Indian media reports females along either side of Indo-Myanmar, Indo- Bangladesh and Indo- Nepal borders are also victims of forced rapes by frustrating Indian soldiers. It is also reported that Indian Govt procuring 1,000 units of condom vending machines to promote safe practice. It is high time that over 20 senior officers (Brig or above) faced charges of corruption, moral turpitude in past 3 yrs.
Maj Gen AK Lal, dismissed after proven guilty of sexually assault a junior woman officer. In 2007 two Lt Gen SK Oahiya, Sahni, two Maj Gen and more than 50 junior officers were charged for irregularities. CBI sorted out Maj Gen Anand Kapoor for possessing disproportionate assets amounting five crore.
Maj Gen Gur Iqbal Singh Multani, found guilty in smuggling of large qty of liquor to his hometown. In Jul 09 Capt Poonam, ASC, has alleged 3 officers for mental sexual harassment. But unfortunately the same lady has been thrown out of army. In Dec 09 Brig Guredeep of 16 Corps earned millions in the name of forest fire. Now again 03 Jun 10, Engr-in-Chief Lt Gen Nanda, was asked by Indian Army chief to quit on molesting the wife of his Tech Sectary but Gen has been made clear through local type inquiry .
Incidentally ,bulk of the corruption in armed forces is because of involvement of Indian intelligence agencies RAW and CBI Both agencies extensively found engaged in blackmailing, bribing, liquor sup, drug trafficking and offering girls to attract senior officers. RAW and CBI have become the symbol of terror amongst the troops.
The graph of a survey report shows, self employed people (24 per cent) are the most vulnerable to suicide: Housewives (21 percent) are the second largest group. Suicides in married women are due to lack of love and respect at home, dowry harassment, mental torture at the hands of in-laws, abandonment and/or sexual abuse is often the cause of despair in women. On the other hand men are driven over the edge mostly because of financial and health related reasons. The report further reveals that in India the suicide rate of younger women (15-25 years) is almost identical to that of men. This is abnormally high if one goes by world trends. The report also dig out that in India the ratio starts improving in favour of women only after the age of 30, but even then, the number of Indian women killing themselves is far higher than in other parts of the world.
Farmers (15 per cent) form the next biggest group. India has seen a lot of farmer suicides in recent years. It is notable that due to poverty and unevenness of society because of poor economy, more than 25,000 farmers have killed themselves in India, mostly by consuming pesticide since the year 1997. Debt and the resulting harassment at the hands of money lenders is a major cause.
Farmers fell into debt because of a combination of high farming costs (exorbitantly priced hybrid (so-called high yielding) seeds and pesticides sold by multinationals and a lack of a good price for their produce, partly due to imports. Drought added to their woes. Irrigation was too expensive for these farmers and the state government didn’t help. This lack of interest from the state government (in the initial years) is in stark contrast to the efforts of the Gujarat government.
So what used to happen before the advent of globalisation? Well, farmers went in for low yield, low risk farming. Their crops may have failed, but they didn’t sink into debt which they could not repay…they managed to survive. It was their decision to go for high yielding crops with its resultant high cost of farming which did them in…it’s also a failure of our banking system that these poor farmers had to fall back on money lenders. Money lenders in rural areas are notorious for charging 30-40 per cent interest and then if the farmer does not pay, they make his life miserable. Threats to life and intimidation of family members are common. Murder is also not unheard of. Farmers often see no way out but to die. In Maharashtra about 1,448 farmers, mostly cotton growers, committed suicide, in 2006 alone.
Concluding, I must say that Indian government should pay heed to the actual problems of the society rather than posing glorious picture of Indian masked society. There is a need to take ruthless actions against corrupt mafia of armed forces, intelligence agencies and political elite. World associations rights should condemned ruthless brutality against women and should launch an organize campaigns for protection of women rights in India.
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