Thinking aloud!

Two news items have exercised my mind and raised quite a few questions. So, without my much ado, let me get on at them.

(a) Supreme Court stays Bombay High Court's Order

The Supreme Court stayed the acquittal order of the accused in the case where the Nagpur Branch of the Bombay High Court had said that groping a minor's breast without "skin-to-contact" can't be termed as sexual assault as defined under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Justice Pushpa Virendra Ganediwala of the Bombay High Court modified the order of the sessions court punishing the man under Sec 354 IPC (outraging a woman's modesty), observing that there was no "specific detail" as to whether the minor's top was removed and there was any skin-to-skin contact.

My take.

* A judgement that is surprising, coming from, a woman judge!

* Groping, therefore, ceases to be a crime. How can women be safe when you have such misguided interpretations?

* Would she have the same opinion if, God forbid, someone were to commit a similar crime on her daughter/relations? 

(b) Rajdeep Sardesai given the boot

The India Today channel took its main news anchor, Rajdeep Sardesai, off the air and docked his month's salary for spreading fake news. He'd tweeted that the farmer who was killed during the mayhem created by the farmers' rally on the Republic Day was due to police firing. Later, on confirmation that he'd died because his tractor had turned turtle, Rajdeep had removed the content from his twitter handle.

My take.

* Get the impression that he was standing by for some nasty news like that. Did he have prior knowledge that there was something ugly going to happen? The conspiracy theory gets stronger!

* If my doubt above is true, he needs to be tried for treason because he'd kept quiet - despite prior information - of a security threat.

* This guy is a biased and bad journalist. He carries his political affiliations on his sleeve.

Tailpiece.

Got up a trifle late, the chores and was ready by a quarter to 10. Yet another quiet day.

Video called a few more of my friends.