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NO END TO DOWRY MURDERS!
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NO END TO DOWRY MURDERS!

Aug 30-Sept 05, 2025, Stray Thoughts August 29, 2025 , by

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when maha panchayat in Uttar Pradesh suggested that parents should give guns to their daughters as “kanyadiyaan.” For a Saturday following the week when good friend Donald Trump declared war on Prime Minister and India. For a Saturday following the week when we saw the double standards of Donald Trump. For a Saturday following the week when we saw the outstanding performance of the Hedgewer School.

DOWRY MURDER CASE
AND a few stray thoughts on a maha panchayat in Uttar Pradesh, suggesting that parents should give guns to their daughters as “kanyadiyaan.” This is in the light of several horrific cases of dowry-related murders particularly in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. Amongst the most horrific recent incidents is the case of Nikki Bhati who was repeatedly subjected by the husband Vipin Bhati and in-laws. Leading to her death in the hospital on August 21, 2025. So far, besides the husband Vipin, in-laws, including the brother-in-law, have been arrested.
 There has been widespread public outrage over the Noida dowry murder with Bollywood actress Ridhima demanding the death sentence for the husband. These are only the latest in a series of suspected dowry killings or murders. There are many hardcore Hindu families in Rajasthan, UP and Bihar and Gujarat, where the practice of demanding huge amounts as dowry continues to prevail, though officially it’s illegal to demand or accept dowry. The ban is followed more in the breach. It has become routine for a boy’s family to demand expensive items like cars and other luxuries from the to be bride’s family.
Unfortunately, the police also come from conservative backgrounds and often collude in hushing up dowry deaths. It has been repeatedly pointed out that convictions in dowry cases are very poor as witnesses turn hostile. Indeed, the community tends to support the perpetrators of dowry deaths rather than the victims.
Dowry is unique to South Asian countries, and there is no concept of dowry in the Western world. In any case with women entering the work force and climbing the corporate ladder, dowry does not make any sense. Regrettably, the weight of tradition hangs heavy and even Generation Z, comprising of young people born in the present millennium, continue the practice of dowry overtly and every big fat wedding becomes a vulgar display of ostentation and status. Interestingly, the menace of dowry impacts even minority communities in India as the converts to Islam or Christianity also practice the dowry system openly or insidiously. Neither Islam nor Christianity sanctions dowry. Along with the caste system, dowry is part of the wedding legacy of the minority community in India.

TRUMP FRIENDSHIP
AND a few stray thoughts on good friend Donald Trump declaring war on Narendra Modi and India. The United States has raised the duty on imported goods from India to an average of 50% and more from August 27, which coincidentally marks the first day of Ganesh Chaturthi. Unfortunately, Lord Ganesha has not been able to do anything about the trade barriers raised by Donald Trump. Worse still, Modi’s good friend has singled out India for the imposition of the penal tariffs. Significantly, no such special penalty has been imposed on China or any of the other trading partners of the US, like Canada, Mexico, Vietnam, Japan and the European Economic Community.
The business sections worst affected include garments, gold and silver, jewelry, exports of prawns from various parts of India including Goa, carpets, footwear and automobile parts. Also severely impacted are mobile phones made in India by Apple for sale in the US. Apple phones made in Bangalore by a Tata subsidiary will ironically cost American buyers a whopping 60% than they were paying before August 27, 2025. The ostensible excuse for punishing Narendra Modi and India is India’s purchase of large quantities of crude oil from the Russian Federation.
Trump is particularly mad over the fact that India gets most of its defense supplies including the latest fighter aircraft from Russia. All this is part of Donald Trump’s obsession with forcing American companies to manufacture in the United States. Increasingly, all the large corporations in the US, including automobile firms have shifted their manufacturing facilities to third world countries where labor costs are much lower.
Moreover, the labor laws are much more flexible in third-world countries, including China although China is no longer a third world country. While the average working week has been shifting to 40 days in most of Europe as against 70 to 80 days a week in China and in India in the manufacturing sector. It may be recalled that the founder chairman of Infosys Narayan Murthy had even demanded that Indians should be forced to work on their weekday off on Sunday. His sentiments were echoed by R Subramaniam who heads the infrastructure giant L&T, who rhetorically asked “How long can you look at your wife?” To which Kumar Mangalam Birla retorted that he could look at his wife all through the week.
That apart the tariffs could force India and indeed, the rest of the world, to turn inwards and isolate the US. India and China have huge domestic markets and do not need to sell in the US or Europe.
Unfortunately, the distribution of raw material has spread all over the world. For instance, India cannot make its own batteries for its electric cars because the key raw material lithium, is not available in the country. But having said this, the US will sooner or later have to climb down as its economy will face a backlash.

TRUMP DOUBLE STANDARDS
AND a few stray thoughts on the double standards of Donald Trump. While Donald Trump claims to have issued an ultimatum to Vladimir Putin to stop the ongoing war against Ukraine, no such initiative has been taken in respect of Israel. On the contrary the US is encouraging Israel to completely annihilate Palestinians from Gaza in the latest phase of the Israel offensive, it is seeking to occupy the whole of Gaza and displace all Palestinians. Israel’s strikes on Gaza, where the main casualties are the civilian population, continue daily with renewed ferocity. The most horrifying aspect of the Israeli aggression is the blockade on even emergency relief supplies. The United Nations has publicly declared that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and Palestine. There have been visuals of starving Palestinian people, including women and children, even on the BBC channel.
Donald Trump makes no attempt to rein in Israel. Indeed, unlike during the time of the Vietnam War, Donald Trump has been cracking down on student protests in American universities, including Harvard and Yale. Government grants to the top universities have been on the claim that they are anti-Semitic, which means they’re hostile to the Jews and sympathetic to the Arabs. This is absurd, as it is Israel that has grabbed Arab territory in the Middle East. Israel was created by the Western world at the end of the Second World War under the pretext of creating a homeland for the Jews scattered around the world.
India, which has been sympathetic to Palestine, has changed its attitude to Israel under the BJP regime. It may be recalled that not only Israeli weapons but also Israeli intelligence were used during “Operation Sindoor.”

DANGE’S LORD GANESH BOOK
AND a few stray thoughts on the little-known fact that the late veteran communist leader S Dange has written a book on Lord Ganesh. Dange argues that Ganesh is primarily a tribal god. In several traditions, Ganesh is seen as the chief of the “ganas” — which literally means clans or tribes. Which is why the Ganapati name means “lord of the clans.” All the clans have a totem, which is represented by an animal. Dange argues that in the final battle of the ganas, the tribe with the symbol of the elephant defeated the tribe whose totem was the mouse. Which is why Lord Ganesh uses the mouse as his “vahan.”
 There is also a charming story on why the first day of Ganesh always falls on darkest “amavasya” night. Apparently, Ganeshji fell off his vahan while rushing somewhere and all the ladoo packed in his stomach spilled out, and this was witnessed by the moon. The moon is reported to have laughed Ganeshji. So the legend has it that Ganesh cursed the moon from shining on his birthday, which is a moonless night. But this year Ganeshji seems to have blacked out the sun also. The day of the installation of Ganesh deity in family homes turned out to be a wet rainy cloudy day cold and irksome dampness everywhere and the accompanying mess of roadways and muddy village tracks.

HEDGEWER SCHOOL
AND a last stray thought on the outstanding performance of the Hedgewar School. Which commemorates the founder of the RSS DR KB Hedgewar. The headmaster of the Hedgewar School, which is run on Hindutva RSS lines, has won the national teacher’s award. Under the leadership of Vilas Satarkar the Hedgewar School has achieved 100% results at the SSC level for 16 consecutive years. The Hedgewar School is among the few schools which has an outreach program, and the headmaster himself and all the teachers are encouraged to visit the homes of the children studying in the school. This enables the staff to appreciate the economic and social conditions of the students. The school is a pioneer in clean energy, having set up solar panels. The school also encourages students to appear for competitive exams.

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