Satyamev Jayate – Does truth really prevail?

To:
Mr. Aamir Khan and the Satyamev Jayate team,
Comments on Episode#3 telecast on national television on Sunday, 20 May, 2012 @11am IST.
It is really nice to see you raising serious social issues in the society such as the issue of dowry harassment caused to married women at the hands of their in-laws. However, your show only gives the half-truth and does not actually give the real and correct picture. I give the below 14 reasons for my opinion.
1. We have an anti-dowry law as old as 1961. Girls who actually need protection are the ones from the backward classes, lower strata of society who need to be made aware of such laws to protect them. Just as there are men who harass women, there are plenty of women who have destroyed, are destroying and (if this trend is not arrested) will continue to destroy men and their families under the garb of anti-dowry law protection. Why your show does not touch this critical aspect?
2. The law is clear that both giving and taking of dowry is a crime. However, why was your show silent on the same?
3. Most viewers are hooked on to the show to catch a glimpse of MR. AAMIR KHAN. As much as hoping to create awareness is a laudable effort, it is also wishful thinking that it will curb the menace of dowry-harassment. What it will surely do is to embolden many married women to leave their homes for the flimsiest of reasons and then take revenge by implicating under anti-dowry laws.
4. Why is it that the girl can willingly give gift(s) at the time of marriage and if the marriage fails, owing to incompatibility and difference in temperaments, she gets the liberty to claim those gifts as being given in dowry?
5. Your show states of official statistics for dowry-deaths. The law is that when any married woman dies within 7 years of marriage, it is presumed to be a dowry death. Thus, even if it is not in reality a death caused owing to dowry, law will presume it so and thus the statistics would include them. Why did your show not give the true picture to the nation?
6. Why is your show highlighting the deaths of married women and ignoring totally the deaths of married men, many of which are suicides owing to torture at the hands of their wives ? Is the life of a married man cheaper than that of a married woman?
7. The fact of gross misuse of the anti-dowry law is very widely well-known nowadays. However, your show kept totally quiet and presented a picture that all married women who file cases of dowry-harassment are genuine cases, whereas the facts (as admitted by investigating officers and also ruled by various courts in the country, including the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India) are totally contrary to it. Do you know that, as per official statistics, 98% of the cases on dowry-harassment end in Acquittals? Why has your show given a biased and one-sided view to the general public? When the legal and investigative machinery has actually witnessed rampant instances of mis-use, why has your show ignored it? Why could you not take a realist stand as opposed to a populist stand (which you have actually taken)?
8. As the maker of this show, you are also living in this age and times of gross abuse of the anti-dowry laws that has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent husbands and destroyed their families. Is that not a social problem worthy of being raised by you? Or is it that your show content on harassment of married men at the hands of their wives (causing destruction of the entire family owing to false dowry complaints, harming their lives, reputation and destroying them physically, mentally, emotionally, financially) was not a saleable idea with respect to TRPs? Or is it that you are waiting for many more married men to die owing to the mis-use of anti-dowry law before you may think of bringing their story to the public as well?
9. Your show states that marriage is considered a business by married men. You say the glass is half-empty and I say the glass is half-full. If marriage is a business where a married man demands money from his wife as a consideration of keeping her with him, Why has your show dared to ignore the truth of married women treating a failed marriage as a business and extorting money using the instrumentality of the State and by abusing this beneficial legal provision?
10. Your team has glorified sting operations. Why is a sting operation by married men against the harassment by women discarded as unbelievable and a sting operation by married women against the harassment by married men considered sacrosanct?
11. When do we get over the fixation of married men being always the abusers and villains and of married women being always the victims and saints? Just as it is true that not all fingers are the same, it is equally true that not all dowry harassment cases are genuine. Further, why is it difficult for you to see the anti-husband stance adopted by the State and it’s laws. Why can you believe the version of harassment given by a married woman but have a general hesitation in believing the version of the mother and sister of the husband? Why have you ignored the fact of many married women not being “abala naris” but being “bala naris”?
12. Why is it that when a harassed married woman decides to fight back against her in-laws, she is treated as a hero(ine) and when a married man, harassed and tortured at the hands of his wife, decides to fight back against the false charges (instead of settling the matter by paying money), he is subject to threats of arrest, harassed to extort money illegally? Why is it that both the women and the investigative machinery are allowed to make his life a living hell, and take cover under the current laws? Why could your team not think of this reality? You can’t live with the harassment of married women for dowry. I understand. You can live with the torture of married men who are implicated in false cases of dowry harassment. I can’t understand.
13. Do you know that we already have an extremely strong law against harassment for dowry and that the problem is in the implementation of this law? We have the strictest of anti-dowry laws, but we still continue to have dowry-deaths as the implementation of this law is poor and that the people who need help of this law are not even aware of it’s existence. Were you aware of the anti-dowry law and it’s rampant misuse? Even if you were not, it is not an excuse as by closing your eyes in broad daylight you are only fooling yourself by stating that the world is dark. Why have you missed the wood for the trees?
14. If you have the willingness to look around, you will find thousands of miserable and tortured souls like me who have been put through hell by their wives. My wife killed my father, got me illegally arrested on false dowry charges; made me suffer paralysis while I was in prolonged custody; got me terminated from my job. In short, she is the sole cause of destruction of myself and my family. Does your show have the testicular fortitude to bring to light the plight of people like me?
By:
Amit Bhandari
More TRUTH will continued…….

2 thoughts on “Satyamev Jayate – Does truth really prevail?

  1. SIMPs, Judiciary, police, celebrities, law makers and polticians only know how to ignore men’s issues and work for their own good. Time will come when men won’t be marrying to Indian girls due to biased systems and prejudiced mindset.

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