Dear members 
I was shocked to see this news....
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050604/edit.htm#1
“Sati” tourism!
At stake is the reputation of Rajasthan
UNDER the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987, sati is a crime and so is glorifying it. To the best of our knowledge the law applies to every part of India, including Rajasthan. But the government of the state does not seem to think so. Otherwise, how could it be that the Rajasthan Tourism Development Authority under the Tourism Department could come up with a package promoting Rajasthan’s sati sites as tourist destinations? The booklet mentioning that “there is not a spot in the state where women had not committed sati” has been withdrawn following a hue and cry in the media but that does not silence the question: How could the state government so blatantly promote the sati cult? Nor is this the first time that such none-too-tacit support for the obnoxious practice has been shown. The Jaipur Development Authority recently went to the extent of naming a new township “Shree Rani Sati Nagar”. One is shocked to find all this happening in a state led by a woman chief minister.
The problem is that Rajasthan seems to exist in a feudal time-warp where every wind of modernism and change is frowned upon. In public, leaders may speak against sati but in private they find nothing wrong in this veritable murder of the womenfolk. That is why when last year a lower court acquitted all the accused of glorifying Roop Kanwar who committed sati in 1987, there was no serious attempt to go in appeal.
It is because of such deep-rooted prejudices that the inhuman burning of the wives on the funeral pyre of their husbands still takes place, as it happened recently in Banda in Uttar Pradesh. In most such cases, it is found that the women have not chosen to immolate themselves out of grief but have been forced to do so by vicious relatives out to grab their share of property. To that extent, these are clear-cut cases of murder and the law admits as much but with even senior officials having hidden sympathy for the reprehensible practice, the culprits get away lightly. Those who thought it fit to promote “sati tourism” are nothing less than killers themselves.
Niti
I was shocked to see this news....
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050604/edit.htm#1
“Sati” tourism!
At stake is the reputation of Rajasthan
UNDER the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987, sati is a crime and so is glorifying it. To the best of our knowledge the law applies to every part of India, including Rajasthan. But the government of the state does not seem to think so. Otherwise, how could it be that the Rajasthan Tourism Development Authority under the Tourism Department could come up with a package promoting Rajasthan’s sati sites as tourist destinations? The booklet mentioning that “there is not a spot in the state where women had not committed sati” has been withdrawn following a hue and cry in the media but that does not silence the question: How could the state government so blatantly promote the sati cult? Nor is this the first time that such none-too-tacit support for the obnoxious practice has been shown. The Jaipur Development Authority recently went to the extent of naming a new township “Shree Rani Sati Nagar”. One is shocked to find all this happening in a state led by a woman chief minister.
The problem is that Rajasthan seems to exist in a feudal time-warp where every wind of modernism and change is frowned upon. In public, leaders may speak against sati but in private they find nothing wrong in this veritable murder of the womenfolk. That is why when last year a lower court acquitted all the accused of glorifying Roop Kanwar who committed sati in 1987, there was no serious attempt to go in appeal.
It is because of such deep-rooted prejudices that the inhuman burning of the wives on the funeral pyre of their husbands still takes place, as it happened recently in Banda in Uttar Pradesh. In most such cases, it is found that the women have not chosen to immolate themselves out of grief but have been forced to do so by vicious relatives out to grab their share of property. To that extent, these are clear-cut cases of murder and the law admits as much but with even senior officials having hidden sympathy for the reprehensible practice, the culprits get away lightly. Those who thought it fit to promote “sati tourism” are nothing less than killers themselves.
Niti
