October 5th, 2008 — Politics, Society
The term civil code is used to cover the entire body of laws governing rights relating to property and otherwise in personal matters like marriage, divorce, maintenance, adoption and inheritance. The call for a uniform civil code for India has been gaining traction from all avenues of the society. As a modern society, we really need to come up with a unified civil code for leading our country to the next millennium and beyond.
However, there is a big controversy about the topic whenever the issue comes up at any venue. So what is the true nature behind all these? Let us examine the situation starting with Indian Constitution which is and should be the basis of all laws in India. The article 14 of the Indian Constitution is as follows.
Right to Equality
14. The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.
Then the question arises, why is that there are different sets of laws that govern different people, all citizens of India, mind you. Let me explain the current state of laws in India. As far as the Criminal Laws are concerned, everyone is subjected to the same code, known as the Indian Penal Code. However, the civil code of India is a mess of different sets of laws according to what religion that they follow. We have a) The Hindu Law (which covers Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists), b) Muslim Personal Law, c) Christian Personal Law and Parsee Civil Law. This itself is a blatant violation of the article 15 of the Indian constitution that says
15. (1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.
There are inherent inequalities built into these various civil codes. A classic example is that the Muslim Personal Law allows the Muslim women to inherit only half of that of men. One does not have to be a constitutional lawyer to see that it violates the 15th article. If you go into the marriage and divorce areas, these different civil codes take a quick turn to absurdity. So, the call for a uniform civil code asks for unifying all these different personal laws and coming up with a single secular civil code that is applicable to all the citizens of India, regardless of sex, caste or religion.
As human beings and citizens under the same tricolor flag, and abiding by the same constitution, I feel that we all should be subjected to the same laws. This is the only way that we can fulfill the vision of the founding fathers of the country as they were drafting the constitution to enable this young country with tens of thousands of years of rich and varied heritage to set forth on a path of freedom and equality so that we may be called as the best country ever in history. Are you still unconvinced that the constitution asked for a unified civil code? Well have a look at the Article 44 of the constitution that says:
44. The State shall endeavor to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.
So, there is no excuse for denying all the citizens of India, what is promised by our constitution.
Source : Constitution of India
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October 4th, 2008 — English, Movie Reviews
PS :- I Love You is a good romantic movie with a touching story about a girl whose husband dies due to brain tumor. After his death she gets pre planned letters from him. Through those letters he takes her back through all the good memories they had together. Every letter ends with a “PS :- I Love You”
The movie shows her struggles to move on and her confusion trying to figure out the meaning of all the things that happened to her. Finally she overcomes the grief and moves on.
Check these reviews too
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October 3rd, 2008 — Experiences
Recent troubles in the movie industry got me thinking. Three movies that I saw recently in the theatre are Indiana Jones, Madambi and Subramaniyapuram. Among these three, Subramaniyapuram was the best, Indiana Jones was average and Madambi was a total waste. But for all the three I paid 40 Rs.
For every other product out there, the manufacturer can set the price. It depends on production cost, quality and demand. But why are we using a standardized approach when it comes to movies ? Why cant we let the producer decide the ticket rate for his movie ?
Right now the producer and director are the ones who don’t have any control of the distribution of their movie. Look how arrogant the A class theatre owners are. No wonder why Reliance is buying up all the theatres. They want to own the entire movie supply chain so that uninterrupted business is possible.
When a Rajanikanth movie is released, black market ticket rates go upto 500 Rs for a ticket that’s originally sold at 40 Rs. That money actually belongs to the producer cos he is the one who took the risk. But right now there is no means for him to get that money.
PS :- In certain states producers can fix ticket rates.
Check my earlier post about movie indutry : - Monopolies Entering the Movie Industry
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October 3rd, 2008 — Experiences
I have been tracking the real estate market in Kerala for over an year now. My interest in it was sparked by our very own Chief minister when he coined the term “Real Estate Mafia”. The amount of money that flows in this business is huge.
One year back real estate business took a hit all over India except for Bombay and Kerala. Even Bangalore saw 10% to 20% price decrease. Transaction volumes decreased sharply. But Bombay and Kerala were not affected.
In Bombay, there is enough cash flow to maintain the prices. Its the business capital of India. But what is so special about Kerala ? Its the exact opposite reason. We dont have any business here.
What are the investment options in Kerala for someone with loads of disposable cash. Think of an NRI who can pump in 20 to 30 lakhs every year. Where can he invest that money ? Land is the only safe investment for him.
That’s the beauty of the socialist attitude we have here in Kerala. We never allow good business to stay here. We are very hostile to new businesses. And we have earned that reputation among foreigners also. Every foreign delegation that comes to Technopark asks this question. “Ive heard that there are labour problems here. Is it safe to invest here”.
For Keralites, the only safe investment is in land and crores are being pumped into the market every year. This is the only reason why the prices are increasing.
No land reform or no law can remedy the situation. People will continue investing in land as long as we dont provide them with other options. No point in calling the real estate people a Mafia. They are rich helpless people looking for a place to invest their money.
Check my earlier post on Real Estate Mafia and Share Trading Mafia
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October 2nd, 2008 — Relationships, Uncategorized
My Love Life – Part II
For those who have not read part 1: click here!
Where did I leave you guys? Oh yea! My friends love life was going smooth. And this other girl was after him too. Well his parents were not too happy about this. Nor where her parents. But they were both taking it easy and spending time with each other.
Finally when the girl finished her UG, she had to go back to Bengal. They thought everything will go smooth and they will get married. When she went back home, her parents asked her to pull out of the relationship. I am not really sure how they put it to her. But she called up my Friend and told him that she was ending the relationship cause of pressure from her parents. My friend was heartbroken. He called up her parents and pleaded with them. They did not want to listen. They decided to call up his father and warn him. His father promised them that my friend would no longer bother them, and advised my friend of the same.
My friend was devastated. His parents had also let him down. He stopped talking to everyone at home. He started blaming them for all his miseries. He was going to write his exams for the second last year of his PG. He flunked in most of the exams. He would not listen to any of us. He would not eat properly. It was really a very sad and difficult time. No amount to advice seemed to help him. But we all persisted and kept talking to him.
We made him realize that he should to at least spoil his Professional life. He seemed to realize it and started working harder on his studies. But he was still in Denial about the whole issue. He still blamed himself and his parents for all that had happen. No amount of talking would make him understand that. He wrote his exams again and passed out with good marks.
I was in India briefly at that time. He took me around town showed me all the development – he was trying to convince me to come back to India. We had a very long chat about his dead relationship. He was not ready to let it go. And he swore there will be no other girl in his life.
Well I went back to my job after a month in India. After that I spoke to him a few times – and I felt that he was going from bad to worse. I spoke to his mother. She also confirmed this. He had virtually stopped eating. He would hardly speak to anyone. The only people he would talk to was me and my brother, and some of his close friends. I spoke to my brother and told him to make sure that my friend comes regularly to my house and make sure that he eats something at our house. I used to regularly call him and check if everything was OK. I can tell you all of us had a really hard time. Especially my friend.
Fortunately before long, he got a good job offer in a Financial MNC, in their IT department. It took his mind off the matter. And guess who was already working there – “Vath” – the girl from his college.
I know I am sounding like Indian TV Serials. But read the next part for the interesting twists and turns.
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