The violence unleashed by followers of so-called godman Ram Rahim Singh, a convicted rapist, and the alleged failure of Haryana government to control the situation is appalling. Why were strict preventive measures not taken. Thirty people are reported to have died, numerous persons have suffered injuries and the rapist continues to receive VIP treatment. This is a clear case for imposition of President’s Rule in Haryana.
Supreme Court Judgment on Privacy: The recent unanimous Supreme Court (SC) judgment on privacy has evoked immense interest among different sections of society, particularly LGBT community which bears the brunt of Section 377 of the IPC and the Division Bench judgment of the SC which by overturning Delhi High Court judgment has recriminalised homosexuality.
The judgment of Justice D V Chandrachud has some excellent passages which are worth reproducing. “The body and mind are inseparable elements of the human personality. The integrity of the body and the sanctity of the mind can exist on the foundation that each individual possesses an inalienable ability and right to preserve a private space in which the human personality can develop. Without the ability to make choices, the inviolability of the personality would be in doubt. Recognising a zone of privacy is but an acknowledgement that each individual must be entitled to chart and pursue the course of development of personality. Hence, privacy is a postulate of human dignity itself.” He went on to observe that “Dignity cannot exist without privacy. Both reside within the inalienable values of life, liberty and freedom which the Constitution has recognised.
Privacy is the ultimate expression of the sanctity of the individual. It is a constitutional value which straddles across the spectrum of fundamental rights and protects for the individual a zone of choice and self-determination, and the ability of the individual to protect a zone of privacy enables the realisation of the full value of life and liberty. Liberty has a broader meaning of which privacy is a subset. All liberties may not be exercised in privacy. Yet others can be fulfilled only within a private space. Privacy enables the individual to retain the autonomy of the body and mind. The autonomy of the individual is the ability to make decisions on vital matters of concern to life.”
Incidentally, Justice D V Chandrachud dissented from a previous SC judgment authored by his father Chief Justice Y V Chandrachud, which according to him was ‘flawed’. Happily filial ties do not affect judicial independence.
Was Shakespeare Gay? There is no dearth of stories about a person’s sexual preferences, including the great William Shakespeare. There has been a long-running debate in academic circles about whether Shakespeare was a gay. According to a top UK theatre director, it was no longer acceptable for performers to conceal the sexual orientation of the bard’s homosexual characters. It was Shakespeare’s sexuality which gave the noted playwright an outsider’s insight that had helped his work. And that allows him to get inside the soul of a black general, a Venetian Jew, an Egyptian queen or whatever, and perhaps it is that outsider perspective which has something to do with his sexuality. In support of this theory, the argument advanced is that Shakespeare wrote sonnets for man. According to some critics, Shakespeare “was certainly bisexual and actively so, and the strongest evidence comes from the sonnets, in some of which he writes a triangular relationship with a man and a woman. Some people claim that these poems are fictional, ‘but this is an evasion.”
Misogynic Propaganda: According to some analysts, it has been well-documented that the proportion of women watching porn has gone up. It turns out that 80 per cent of women access Pornhub from mobile devices compared to 69 per cent of men, and that 71 per cent of female traffic comes from smartphones and 9 per cent from tablets. This means, women are 34 per cent less likely to use a desktop computer than men. But when it comes to accessing adult entertainment, women are 16 per cent more likely to use smartphones than men, and 10 per cent more likely to use a tablet. Is this true? Or is it misogynic propaganda?
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