At a presentation made before the Committee of Secretaries, the NRSA presented “concrete evidence” that suggests construction activities, excavations and movements of trucks in and around the Zangmu site.

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said here that India has taken up the issue with China on a number of occasions, but China has consistently denied engaging in any construction activity on the Brahmaputra.

She added that the question of dam has not strained India’s relations with China.

The Brahmaputra, according to Nirupama Rao, has now become a permanent subject on the agenda of the talks between India and China. India has taken up the issue of the dam with China several times, and China has time and again denied that any dam was being built, she said.

With data from the National Remote Sensing Agency revealing construction activity by China, the government of India has decided to seek clarification from China on the matter.

The official media of China has reported that China will build 5 dams in the “middle reaches” of the river Brahmaputra (Yarlung-Tsangpo) for hydro-power projects and that they are scheduled to be completed by 2015.

The Chinese report went on to say that Huaneng, the top electricity-generating company in China, was financing the project. Gezhouba, one of the largest dam-construction firms in China, is in charge of building the project.

According to other reports, China is expected to approve more dam-building projects on the river Brahmaputra soon, with the Zangmu hydro-power project the first one to be constructed. This is to be followed by 5 other dams on the Brahmaputra – Guoduo, Dhongzhong, Ruxi, Linchang, and Xiangda.

According to experts in India, while these dam projects have small reservoirs and that China has a right to build them – it being an upper riparian state – what Indian should worry about is that China’s strategists have proposed that the Brahmaputra be “diverted” to meet the water needs of its arid north-eastern region.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had recently “reassured” the Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam saying that he was “convinced” that China was not constructing dams on the Brahmaputra.

The matter also had come up at the meeting between Manmohan Singh and China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao held on the sidelines of the ASEAN-India and East Asia Summit in Thailand in October 2009.

It may be noted that China did not inform Pakistan when it constructed a big dam on the river Indus in Senge-Ali. Pakistan knew about China’s dam in Senge-Ali only after a book presented details of the dam.

India fears that the dam China is reportedly building, aimed at generating 540 megawatts of electricity, will result in water being denied to India.

There is no bilateral treaty in place between India and China regarding trans-boundary rivers.

According to experts, the river Brahmaputra enters India from Tibet with 71.5 BCM of water. Out of this, China is reportedly planning to divert 40 BCM of water for its needs.

The fact that the Brahmaputra has a runoff of 550 BCM of water, on an average, when it reaches Bangladesh shows that the river is being fed by its tributaries after it enters India.

In the run-up to the Commonwealth Games that will take place in New Delhi in October 2010, the administration of Delhi has decided to get tough on drunk driving and drinking in public places. Related story on Commonwealth Games 2010 accommodation.

A sworn affidavit filed by the Delhi government’s Department of Transport before a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court, headed by Chief Justice A P Shah, said that the administration will enforce ‘zero tolerance’ against drunk driving on the roads of the national capital.  For some reason, several newspapers keep referring to drunken driving as ‘drink driving’.  Drink driving?  To me, that brings up a picture of a bottle of imported scotch driving a car-pretty much an impossibility, even in a crazy city like New Delhi.

Related stories on drunk driving in New Delhi

Road rage  Delhi vs Kerala

Drunken driving in Mumbai vs Delhi

How Delhi drivers attack corners

The Division Bench of Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice S Muralidhar was hearing the suggestions on checking incidents of drunk driving in Delhi after these suggestions were referred to the Division Bench from a single judge, along with a request to treat it as a public-interest litigation (PIL).

According to the affidavit, the Delhi government, after consulting the Delhi Police and the Transport Department, has decided to suspend and revoke the driving licences of those persons who drive under the influence of alcohol.

In the affidavit, the Transport Department’s senior deputy commissioner Ajay Kumar Bisht stated that 762 notices for disqualification had been served to persons caught driving drunk. These persons face a ban, for a limited period, from possessing a licence or driving any kind of vehicle.

Anup J Bhambhani, lawyer and the Delhi High Court’s amicus curiae, said that disqualification of driving licences in a city like Delhi “will be a real, everyday deterrent” for those who drink and drive as “it will cramp their lifestyle.”

After perusing the affidavit, the High Court asked the Delhi police to furnish more guidelines to curtail the rising incidence of road accidents caused by drunk driving, and also directed the Joint Commissioner (Traffic) to consult the Transport Department and draft guidelines taking into consideration the suggestions by the amicus curiae on the subject.

The High Court directed the police to submit the draft guidelines on November 11, 2009 – which is the next date of hearing – for the consideration of the court.

The Division Bench agreed with the suggestion given by the amicus curiae to revoke the licence of repeated offenders and to forfeit their vehicles. It also agreed with the suggestions of the amicus curiae that keeping a strict vigil at liquor bars and a special drive in the festival season would help check untoward incidents.

However, the court did not favour the suggestion that the managers of the restaurant/bar should provide substitute drivers to its guests, and dismissed another suggestion that guests can leave their keys with the restaurant drivers and then make sure that the driver is allowed to drive only when he/she is “in a proper state to drive.”

The Delhi government’s new Excise Bill includes a provision for a fine of up to Rs 50,000 for those who are caught drinking alcohol in public like on roadside, inside cars or outside eateries. Besides, such offenders also face imprisonment without bail.

The new Excise Bill, which has been approved by the Union Home Ministry, will be presented in the Delhi Assembly’s winter session.

Meanwhile, the traffic police arrested 123 motorists in Mumbai for drunk driving on October 8, 2009.

According to the police, a total of 37,717 cases of drunk driving were registered and 17,910 motorists were sentenced to simple imprisonment in Mumbai in the last two years.

Considering the general lawlessness even among the policeman in New Delhi, it might be a little dangerous to allow them the power to jail offenders even in cases like drunk driving.  The potential for misuse is extremely high.  The fear that you may lose your driving licence in the event of being caught might be good enough to control the drivers of Delhi.

Drinking in public, on the other hand, has always been a regular part of New Delhi’s social life.  It is common to find guests at marriage ceremonies drinking standing around their cars.
He is still a conservative city, and therefore, people do not like to drink at home or are not allowed to do so.  Drinking is his sneaky activity here, there are no beer bars like in Bombay, and sitting in your car mixing the drinks and then driving away sozzled often leads to accidents.

That public drinking is so much a part of the city can be seen from the fact that one of the newspapers in Delhi published an article which quoted someone telling the reporter that he and his friends would not drink at home, could not afford to go to pubs, and now they would not be allowed to drink even on the flyovers in the city!  Drinking on the streets often lead to brawls, eve teasing, rash driving, macho behaviour and accidents.

It would be great, if the authorities could use the excuse of the Commonwealth Games 2010 to control the drunken driving and the public drinking twin menaces in New Delhi.

Former nun’s autobiography alleges that sexual abuse and homosexuality is very high in the Catholic Church in Kerala, India. The book comes in the wake of a spate of sex scandals, nun suicides, and murders that shook Kerala’s clergy.

The Catholic Church in Kerala, India, which has barely recovered from the Sister Abhaya murder case, allegedly murdered by two priests and a nun, finds itself in another controversy.

52-year-old Sister Jesme, a former nun from Kerala, has blown the whistle on the alleged sexual abuse that nuns have to face in convents. Sister Jesme has written a book – Amen – Oru Kanyasthreeyude Atmakatha (Amen  – an autobiography of a nun,) that talks about the sexual harassment that she faced in the convent at the hands of both priests and nuns.

”At a retreat for novices, I noticed girls in my batch were unsettled about going to the confession chamber. I found that the priest there asked each girl if he could kiss them. I gathered courage and went in. He repeated the question. When I opposed, he quoted from the Bible which spoke of divine kisses.”

In her book, Sister Jesme has asserted that she first came face-to-face with sexual abuse when she was a Novitiate. She says in her book, ”At a retreat for novices, I noticed girls in my batch were unsettled about going to the confession chamber. I found that the priest there asked each girl if he could kiss them. I gathered courage and went in. He repeated the question. When I opposed, he quoted from the Bible which spoke of divine kisses.”Sister Jesme has alleged that another time, a nun forced her to have sex with her. ”I was sent to teach plus-two students in St Maria College. There, a new sister joined to teach Malayalam; she was a lesbian. When she tried to corner me, I had no way but to succumb to her wishes. She would come to my bed in the night and do lewd acts and I could not stop her,” she has written in her book, Amen  – an Autobiography of a Nun.

Back in his room, he tried to fondle me and when I resisted, got up and asked angrily if I had seen a man. When I said no, he stripped himself, ejaculated and forced me to strip.”

Amen: Autobiography of a nun has infuriated Kerala

Citing another incident of sexual trauma that she had to face, Sister Jesme says that it happened when she had gone to Bangalore for a refresher course. She writes, ”I was told to stay at the office of a priest respected for his strong moral side. But when I reached the station, he was waiting there and hugged me tight on arrival. Later in the day, he took me to Lalbagh (a garden) and showed me cupid-struck couples and tried to convince me about the need for physical love. He also narrated stories of illicit relations between priests and nun to me. Back in his room, he tried to fondle me and when I resisted, got up and asked angrily if I had seen a man. When I said no, he stripped himself, ejaculated and forced me to strip.”

Sister Jesme has also described the mental torture that novices are subjected to. She said that she was not allowed to go home when she heard of her father’s death, and was able to see her father’s body just before his funeral. She was told by the superior sisters that she was lucky to have been able to at least see her father’s body, unlike many senior sisters.

The Open Air Rock Cross in front of the Syro Malabar Catholic Church- Martha Mariam Church Kuravilangad

Dr. Sister Jesme also refers to the corruption and the politicisation of religion prevalent in the Catholic Church. “Thirty-three years cannot be penned down in 180 pages but there are points the I want to make about the capitation fee, the quarrels that happen within the church, about the homo-sexuality, the hetero-sexuality,” she says.

“The mental torture was unbearable. When I questioned the church’s stand on self-financing colleges and certain other issues, they accused me of having mental problems. They have even sent me to a psychiatrist. There are many nuns undergoing ill-treatment from the order, but they are afraid of challenging it. The church is a formidable fortress,” she adds.

The Catholic Church, of course, has reacted in its usual inimitable, unoriginal way. Sister Jesme has been denounced as mentally ill, and her Amen: Autobiography of a Nun has been termed as a “book of trivialities.”

Sister Jesme has alleged that the Church alternately tried to bribe her not to write the book, and threaten her.

She writes, “One sister said that she is going to sit in the corner of the chapel and pray the rosary so that all my books will be burnt and no person will be able to read it. I said let us wait and see whose prayer will God hear.”

In the book, Sister Jesme refers to the helplessness that nuns face when they are sexually abused in a convent. “When a woman is molested, sexually harassed, will she speak out? Only one out of a thousand will speak out. So think of nuns! They will never speak out. They fear that their nun-hood will be lost,” said Sister Jesme.

Her allegations are in line with the scandals that have plaguing the Catholic Church in Kerala.

A suicide note that accused another nun of sexual harassment

Photo: Sister Anupa Mary

On August 11, 2008, Sister Anupa Mary committed suicide in St. Mary’s convent, in Kollam. She left a suicide note that accused a senior nun, in the convent, of sexual harassment.

In a fit of uncharacteristic originality, the Superior of St. Mary’s convent denied the allegations by saying that sexual abuse is impossible because the nuns sleep in a cubicle which is only 6 feet high.

And two orphans try to kill themselves..

On August 26, 2008, two girls living in the Nithya Sahaya Matha Balika Mandiram, an orphanage for girls, tried to commit suicide. The orphanage is part of the Holy Cross order in which Sister Anupa was ordained. The two girls who had consumed poison and were admitted in a hospital run by the church gave a rather garbled explanation. They said that an apprentice priest Benedict spoke to them in a humiliating tone when he was counselling them and also told them that he had come to know that they were not good girls. Another girl who was also present at the counselling session told the Kerala State Women’s Commission the priest had only blessed them by putting his hands over their heads and told them to be good girls.

And another suicide

Six months later, on February 11, 2009, Sister Josephine who lived in the The Daughters of Mary convent, in the Syro-Malankara archdiocese in Thiruvananthapuram, committed suicide. It was alleged that it was abuse at the hands of other nuns that forced Sister Josephine to take her own life. Unsurprisingly,  a press release from the archdiocese said that Sister Josephine was being treated for depression.

Under-age sexual exploitation

Going back a few years, in 1995, a parish priest in the Changanacherry archdiocese, allegedly entered into a two-year sexual relationship with a 15-year old school girl who gave birth to his child in1998. A case of rape and abduction was registered against the priest.

Another murder, and another nun who spoke out

In 1998, a nun from the Sacred Heart Convent in Kozhikode district was murdered. Kerala Police had said that they suspected a sexual motive behind the murder.

In October 2008, a 60-year-old nun belonging to the Congregation of Daughters of Mary Convent, Anchal, alleged that young nuns from the convents were being forced to have abortions and that priest and nuns were having “limitless” affairs. She further alleged that a nun Serenna Jacob has committed suicide because she could not handle the trauma. The nun is now in a mental hospital in Thodupuzha. Her nephew has alleged that she has been forcibly admitted to the hospital by the Convent authorities.

Sister Jesme has said that writing the book has been cathartic for her.  “I wanted an outlet for my trauma. It’ll help me start my second life afresh. The society has the right to know what’s happening to the sisters,” Sister Jesme, ex-principal of  St. Mary’s College in Thrissur, Kerala, has said. Sister Jesme quit the Congregation of Mother Carmelite (CMC), in August 2008.

She hopes the book will trigger a change in the life of the religious. She told the media, ”I have just opened a window, only one window, and through that window if they see dust or dirt inside the convent, at least in a corner, and if one sister cleans the corner of the convent, then my book has been rewarded.”