Author: The Metrognome

Categories
Big story

Dhoble transfer issue hots up

Public support for recently-transferred cop increases daily; if probe absolves Dhoble of wrongdoing, he might be reinstated as ACP, Vakola.
by the Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Vasant Dhoble is one lucky man. Transferred by the Chief Minister following the death of a hawker during a hawker eviction drive last week in the suburbs, the controversial cop is receiving tremendous support from all quarters – most recently from the Congress’ ally in the State, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Yesterday, NCP leader and State Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had jokingly agreed to support CM Prithviraj Chavan’s decision to transfer Dhoble from Vakola to the police control room following the hawker’s death – the post mortem report reveals he died of a brain haemorrhage, and not of cardiac arrest, as originally surmised – but today, Pawar took a different line altogether. “We should not transfer a person wrongly,” he said. “If the probe (initiated into the incident by the Home Department) does not show that Dhoble was responsible (for the hawker’s death), he will be reinstated with immediate effect,” he added.

Interestingly, Home Department chief RR Patil, who also belongs to the NCP, had said yesterday that the decision to transfer Dhoble was a welcome one, since it would “help in an impartial probe’.

Meanwhile, the rabble-rousing cop himself has chosen to keep a low profile since his transfer, refusing to comment even on the support from such parties as the Shiv Sena and the MNS, which surprised all by actually uniting over the issue of his transfer.

‘Bring him back’

Residents and local corporators of the area under Dhoble’s purview as ACP have reacted strongly to the cop’s transfer. This morning, two separate ALMs in Vile Parle had initiated signature campaigns in support of Dhoble. The signatures are to submitted to the Chief Minister. “We are extremely pleased with his performance as a cop in our area,” said Vile Parle resident Rohini Gupte (53). “I have lived in Vile Parle all my life, and after Dhoble came here and started cracking down on illegal hawkers, we saw the footpaths on our streets for the first time. It is wrong to transfer a police officer who is doing his job for the betterment of an area.”

Senior citizens, especially, profess to be more than satisfied with Dhoble’s stint as ACP. “Even before, when he was posted at Goregaon, he was very popular with the local residents because he came down very heavily on wrong activities,” said MS Prakash (69). “If a police officer is carrying out his duties and he gets punished for it, then why should the police do any work at all? I strongly feel that the Government should reconsider and bring him back, instead of deputing him to some ordinary post.”

(Picture courtesy intoday.in)

 

Categories
Deal with it

Mumbai’s Hockey India League team moved to Delhi

State promises security to Pak players who’ve moved to Delhi following Shiv Sena’s protests against their inclusion in Mumbai game.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The ongoing fracas between India and Pakistan’s armies at the border has claimed its first victims in far-flung Mumbai. The  Hockey India League (HIL), an IPL-style hockey tournament which was scheduled to have a match in Mumbai on Sunday, ran into security tangles when about 100 Shiv Sena workers started protesting outside a stadium that the Mumbai Magicians team was practicing in. This team has four Pakistani players in its side; there are a total of nine Pak players in the League’s five teams.

Sensing that the protests could escalate and cause security issues for the visitors, the organisers of HIL decided to whisk the team away from the city. The team has been sent to Delhi for practice, and schedules are being reworked to accommodate the Sunday match at Delhi. As things stood, said the HIL, it was too soon to comment on whether other Mumbai matches featuring teams with Pak players on board would be cancelled or held elsewhere.

Following the protests, the Mumbai police reportedly swung into action and announced a security cordon for the team, but the  management conveyed its decision to move to Delhi.

“The players have left Mumbai. Once we hear what the management’s future plans for Mumbai matches are, we can discuss the necessary security arrangements at that time,” said Ravindra Shishve, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone I).

However, the State’s Home Minister, RR Patil, said that the Pakistani players would be given full security when they played in Mumbai and Maharashtra. “We assure them (the Pakistani players) of full protection for their matches so that nobody can disrupt play,” he said.

(Picture courtesy dawn.com)

 

Categories
Watch

VIDEO: Activist Sulaiman Bhimani attacked

RTI activist Sulaiman Bhimani’s office was attacked by a group of men two days ago, but they fled within seconds. Bhimani himself sustained a minor injury.
by Krishnaraj Rao

On the afternoon of January 12, at about 3 pm, eight unknown men entered Mumbai-based RTI activist Sulaiman Bhimani’s office located at Goregaon with sticks and swords, and smashed a laptop, a printer-scanner and a computer keyboard.

The attack ended within 10 seconds as Bhimani’s neighbours raised an alarm. While retreating hastily, they slashed wildly at the nameplate with their swords, and kicked at the wooden door frame, smashing it. Bhimani escaped with only an injury on his finger.

Fortunately, this entire episode was captured on two CCTV cameras installed inside and outside Bhimani’s office. (The man seen on the right in the pink shirt is not Bhimani, he is a visitor. Bhimani, being directly seated under the CCTV camera, is not visible in the footage below.)

A man wearing a T-shirt is seen entering from the main door into the office of Sulaiman Bhimani, and abruptly smashing a laptop, before dropping his stick and fleeing. The other assailants are seen through the glass, swinging wildly to damage the office equipment before they retreat. The attack ended within 10 seconds. Bhimani, who suffered only an injury on his finger, is not seen in the footage as he was seated directly under the CCTV camera.

The man in the blue shirt talking on the phone is a visitor, and he completely fails to react as the people wearing handkerchiefs and carrying sticks and swords walk into the cabin. (This man is the “rounder” of a well known security agency.) While retreating hastily, the assailants slashed wildly at the nameplate with the swords, and kicked at the wooden door frame, smashing it.

Bhimani feels that the men were sent by a local builder due to his expose that involved a builder, MMRDA and a plot of land at Gilbert Hill. (Read details of the case here). The builder and unlawful elements mentioned in this report suffered losses of several crores when MMRDA cracked down on them recently, evicted 50 tenants with police action, and served eviction notices on 102 others. They have criminal records, and have allegedly threatened Bhimani in the recent past.

An FIR was registered under IPC sections 452, 427, 323, 143, 144, 147, 148, 149 in the matter. The case has been made against eight men for rioting, criminal intimidation and unlawful assembly.

Krishnaraj Rao is an RTI activist.

(Picture and videos courtesy Krishnaraj Rao)

 

Categories
Event

A round table on inclusive development

Mumbai University hosted a discussion on inclusive development for Indians recently. One of the invitees gives us this pitch report.
by The Association of Muslim Professionals

The Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP) was one of the exclusive invitees from the social sector participating in a round table brainstorming on ‘Indian Inclusive Development at the turn of the 21st century at JP Naik Bhavan, ICSSR, Mumbai University. The discussion was jointly organised by the Center for Research and Debates in Development Policy (CRDDP), New Delhi and the US-India Policy Institute, Washington DC, and was coordinated by Dr Abdul Shaban of the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Mumbai and presided over by Professor BL Mungekar, Rajya Sabha MP.

This round table was for brainstorming to provide a framework and highlight key facts in the most simplified manner possible, so as to facilitate a debate for strategising policy engagement. A case was also made during the discussion regarding the need to have independent debating platforms in major States of India where regional issues can be articulated and policy papers prepared. Syed Najeeb, Head PR and Communications (AMP) represented the organisation at this significant event which also had high-ranking bureaucrats, political dignitaries and other members from the social sector in attendance.

Sharing his views during the discussion Najeeb said, “We need to have a two-pronged approach to tackle the current issues in the community. We need to work not just on the policies and schemes at the macro level but also ensure its proper implementation at the micro-level. Apart from that, we also need to do some self-introspection and there is a need to bring an attitudinal change within ourselves and then only can the communities prosper. Also, we need to take proper measures to put to rest the apprehensions of certain communities in the country.”

Some luminaries who shared their views at the event included renowned social activist Asghar Ali Engineer, NCP MLA Nawab Malik and Congress MLA Amin Patel.

(Picture courtesy bizforum.org. Picture used for representational purpose only)

Categories
Enough said

Choose whom you honour

Humra Quraishi wonders why we’re not talking more about the young man who stood by the Delhi gang rape victim. We’re choosing, instead, to focus on rubbish statements by politicians.

For three consecutive weeks, I have been writing on rapes and its offshoots, but there’s little else in focus even now. Pushed aside for the moment are corruption scams and scandals, together with those men who were crying themselves hoarse over black money that others have stashed away. Anna Hazare has been quiet for a long time, and so have his key associates.

In the midst of this, those who are opening their mouths are speaking plain rubbish. The Samajwadi Party’s Mumbai man Abu Azmi wants the young generation to not have boyfriends and girlfriends, and he thinks couples should not step out at night. I wish Abu Azmi would try imposing his ideas on his son and actress daughter-in-law Ayesha Takia. Jumping into the fray are others, so-called leaders from various regions, proclaiming that women should don overcoats and be fully covered at all times! No more jeans and short tops! As per these men, women should be coy, dressed in saris, tending to their homes, submitting to their husbands’ never-ending demands, and doing little else.

What is noteworthy is that politicians of the capital city seem to have matured. Maybe they have been around for far too long to be reckless in their statements. Or because they have sensed the mood of the masses and cannot afford to add to the growing unrest. Whatever the reason, politicians here have not much contributed to these rubbish thoughts by their counterparts elsewhere. There was no overreaction even to Shashi Tharoor’s suggestion – that if the parents okayed it, the rape victim’s name be made official for an anti-rape law to be named after her – and it was recognised to be an earnest statement, not a malicious one.

This one gang rape has opened the clichéd Pandora’s Box. Women are not just hitting  out, they are also trying to connect. But we cannot lose sight of the young man, the victim’s friend, who not just stood by her, trying to save her from the rapists, but even now has the courage to refute the police’s theories, after fearlessly declaring that the cops were not there in time to rescue the girl.

It isn’t easy to go against the establishment, especially the police and the very machinery at their command. But this young man has done exactly that, at a time when he has suffered tremendously after battling the rapists and getting injured in the process, then losing his steady friend.

If any attention is to be paid to anyone’s statements, it should be this young man’s. If anybody is to be honoured, it should be him.

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journaliast. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

(Picture courtesy telegraph.co.uk)

 

Categories
Film

Follow me, Like me, please…

M writes on how films use Social Media to create a (mostly false) hype about how good their product is.

We are socially connected with our friends, colleagues, acquaintance and many strangers. These strangers could be anyone: a stalker, an innocent bystander, a brand prowling on your activities and at times, it could be Bollywood. Social Media has been actively used to promote films and ‘engage’ audiences more than ever. This fad started almost two years ago, when filmmakers decided to jump on the Stay Connected bandwagon that picked up momentum almost overnight in our country.

This created opportunities for small mom-and-pop shops to mushroom under the title of Social Media Experts and make quick bucks. Many of them managed to swindle the brands first, and then the filmmakers.  Here’s how this works:  once the agency is hired, the objective is defined – ‘X’ number of fans on Social Media  Portals must be achieved. Then the agency, which works with a vendor, goes all out to ensure that the fan base amplifies daily. The release date of the film arrives and the agency gets paid if they keep its promise.

But how does the agency keep its promise? The vendor hires people to create fake profiles and accounts to ‘Like’ or ‘Follow’ the film page. Of course, there are also some real people who interact with these accounts, but fake profiles are required to fulfil the commitment. This method of ‘engaging’ with the audience is widely used across the fraternity, and constantly enhanced.

Agency services are not limited to merely increasing the fan base. Some agencies, at an additional cost, provide the option of ‘deleting’ negative interactions from Social Media and Video Streaming Sites. When the film fails to please a user, which happens a lot these days, he or she is most likely to leave a negative comment on the film’s page. Now, in a democracy, with Freedom of Speech and all that jazz, this is quite understandable. But it is not acceptable to the filmmaker. So all negative comments are summarily executed the moment they are out.

Sometimes, I feel that filmmakers have their delicate brains wrapped in bubble wrap, to protect themselves from harsh realities. It’s actually quite simple. If you work hard on your product, you should release it with confidence and let the feedback flow. If people hate it, take the hate and make a better film next time. The more you try to protect your film, the more irate your audience becomes.

One particular film star, an A-lister who hasn’t tasted success in a while, was completely anal about the reviews of his film. His film was released during Diwali and the marketing teams, after delegating work to the Social Media Agency with strict instructions to remove every negative comment the moment it was published, were on a long break.  The film was touted as a big ticket release owing especially to its special effects.

Bas, the film released and the floodgates opened. The flow of negative reviews was something beyond anybody’s control. The film star was pissed off and a special meeting was called, despite everyone’s holiday. After an hour of futile brainstorming on how to control the damage, a very creative idea was touted: “Team, use your BBM/WhatsApp and personal Social Media accounts to promote the film.” Of course, 20 positive remarks were easily outnumbered by the thousands of highly negative ones, and the final verdict was a ton of unhappiness all around.

The latest innovation in seeding positivity amongst filmgoers takes deviousness to the next level. Agencies ‘gratify’ users who already have a large following to promote a film. These users then regularly talk about the film and how entertaining it is. The followers give credit to their reviews and fall prey to the hype. So the next time you see a first-rate review of a crappy film in your newsfeed, don’t be fooled. It’s time you review who you follow.

Sharp as a tack and sitting on more hot scoops than she knows what to do with, M is a media professional with an eye on entertainment.

(Picture courtesy blog.iwearyourshirt.com)

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