Anjali Gupta vs. Indian Air Force
Don't even think about claiming sexual harassment if you're a woman in the Indian Air Force. First, your charges will be dismissed. Then, you'll be put in jail, "for your own protection." And finally, you'll be court-martialled on trivial charges, and convicted by a jury that, to add insult to injury, includes two senior women officers (one of whom is Air Marshal Padmavati Bandyopadhyay, the highest-ranking female officer in the Indian military). Here's the back-story from Mumbai's Mid-Day:
“She refused to play ball with senior officers who wanted her to ‘co-operate’ with them in various ways including participating in collecting bribes for recruitment of cooks and others. (Apparently the going rate for a cook in the force is Rs two lakh),” he reveals.
Jitender claims Gupta was forever being harassed for illegal favours. “The more she refused to join them at parties in the night, the more she was harassed.
In fact, Anjali had earlier complained to her seniors about the drunken behavior of Sq Ldr Choudhary who was even issued a Form10 by the IAF.
Every time she complained to higher authorities about malpractices in her department, she would be moved to another department. She was moved around 6-7 times in the last one year,” he states.(Mid-Day)
And here's today's news:
An Indian Air Force court martial has recommended that Flying Officer Anjali Gupta be cashiered from service. Gupta and her family contend that she is being framed because she brought charges of sexual harassment against superior officers and because she blew the whistle on corrupt deals.
In armed forces’ parlance, “cashiering” is a more severe punishment than “dismissal”. A cashiered officer is denied the privileges of rank and post-service benefits. The five-member jury’s proposal in the court martial headed by Group Captain Ganesh in Bangalore has to be confirmed by Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi.
The court martial has found Gupta guilty of five of seven charges brought against her. She was charged on five counts of financial embezzlement (amounting to Rs 1,080), insubordination, indiscipline, irregularity and conduct unbecoming of an officer. (Calcutta Telegraph)
Oh no, she embezzled 1080 Rupees! (approx. US $25). And let's see, insubordination (because she says her superior officers were hitting on her?) and indiscipline (because she refused to go along?).
If the Air Force can explain why they found her sexual harassment charges to be false, they really need to do so ASAP. Otherwise, this case case stinks to the high heavens.
posted by Amardeep at 10:08 PM
21 Comments:
Holy Shit she's a whistleblower and she's still alive?
This doesn't surprise me. I mean stuff like this goes on all the time in military circles here in America. They wiill pay off, courtmartial, fire and discipline anyone who rocks the boat and in order to present a "clean" image. If you have friends upstairs you'll probably be transferred, like the new Chief of Staff at Westpoint, Mike "No Combat" Colpo who's been in the USMC for 20 years yet has never seen combat.
Or that other general in the news who was fired because Rumsfeld didn't like him.
I've heard tales of murders being turned into suicides so...
Not surprising at all.
Take a break.
It's a case where somebody has been accused of being venal and she in turn is accusing them of sexual harassment.
Just because she's a woman, everybody jumps to conclusions. In the case of MSM, it is understandable. Sells.
If a gent had been involved, the whole thing would've been unnoticed.
Leave the law to take its own course. You are not adjudging Anjali Gupta to be innocent until proven guilty. You are accusing the Air Force of guilt unless proven innocent.
As for the Air Force being a law unto itself, it is simply false. Admiral Bhagwat's successful and later unsuccessful lawsuits prove it. Apparently, from the article itself, there is an automatic review by a higher officer. A difference from a court where you have to prefer an appeal.
Unlike the MSM who have commercial compulsions, could you choose the "harder right instead of the easier wrong?"
It's a case where somebody has been accused of being venal and she in turn is accusing them of sexual harassment.
Uh, you've got the order dead-wrong. Go and actually read the articles. She'd complained of sexual harassment multiple times before she even got a hearing.
The court-martial against her was initiated only after her charges against the Air Force were introduced.
You're right that we don't know everything about what happened in this case (that's why I said the Air Force needs to make public some indication of why they don't believe her).
I'm willing to be proven wrong. As it stands right now, however, the order of events is strongly suggestive.
Err... where did you get the info about the order being dead wrong? None of the links in your post say so.
BTW, any legal gent in India would tell you that a court martial is only the result of a Board of Enquiry. Depending on time n space, this would be a month to 3-6 month period.
Which actually tilts the balance in favor of the Air Force.
However, as I said, my point isn't about the actual merits of the case. It is about pre-judging just because it is so conveniently both anti-Establishment and "feminist". Not to mention Davidesque.
"I'm willing to be proven wrong. As it stands right now, however, the order of events is strongly suggestive."
Hullo ? Would you convict an individual on "suggestive" ( actually assumed) evidence as readily as you do the State?
Actually, the Mid-Day article does say that she filed an FIR against Sq Leader Chaudhury in February. The GCM (court-martial) was only initiated in April.
" a court martial is only the result of a Board of Enquiry. Depending on time n space, this would be a month to 3-6 month period".
Seems touch n go. But to belabor a point
"Would you convict an individual on "suggestive" ( actually assumed) evidence as readily as you do the State?"
I'm not convicting anyone of anything here on this blog.
Rather, I'm raising questions about something that looks fishy.
Comment posted at desipundit.
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This is a ridiculous post. Please check before posting links to such posts whether the series of events was true on which they are based. While accepting that some arm-chair pajama clad bloggers without the resources of media professionals will commit mistakes, Desipundit bears a higher standard of responsibility due to its self-appointed role as a filter for the ‘Best in Indian Blogsphere’.
The posts pretend that the officer in question was court-martialled in response to the sexual harassment charges. Bullshit. She made the allegations after a series of disciplinary/unprofessional conduct reports from her superiors finally leading to the court martial.
I am appalled by the lack of knowledge demonstrated both by the bloggers and Desipundit in this case. Linking to such posts will not add to the long-term credibility of Desi-Pundit.
"Don't even think about claiming sexual harassment if you're a woman in the Indian Air Force. First, your charges will be dismissed. Then, you'll be put in jail, "for your own protection." And finally, you'll be court-martialled on trivial charges"
You didn't raise a question, Amardeep. You found the AF guilty. And emblazoned it at the start of your post.
"Oh, said the piggy
that's not fair
Ho said the engine driver
I don't care"
look, am not qualified to make either a legal or journalistic comment, but i was visiting the af station where ms gupta served, and some of her colleagues (male officers) simply rolled their eyes when i mentioned her name ('ugh!jaane de yaar!')and had to be persuaded to open up and speak off record...
they collectively hated how women cadets/officers got away with really pathetic gender based excuses ('cannot fly, i have cramps!')('how can i do 50 push ups!'), and the cousin who is an instructor said that the boys get verbally abused ('bastard' being the most common abuse) but they were not allowed even the instinctive 'fuck!' if the women cadets made errors while flying...
besides, ms gupta did not show up for court dates, offered very parveen babi-ish excuses of 'i'm going to kill myself', even claimed headaches as reason for not showing up for hearings...did you miss that bit of the news?
i understand it's fashionable to damn institutions, and am not even saying the reasons like embezzlement are not ridiculous, i am only saying we instinctively choose to sympathize with the small guy...
you and the rest of the world will never hear about the very pretty girl cadet plotting to malign her instructor with two other women cadets simply because he insisted they 'attend early morning PT' and they couldn't carry out the plot simply because the conversation was inadvertantly taped by a cell phone...
i don't know if i want to be counted as a woman when i hear such things...but then as the lawyers will say, 'it's hearsay'
In all this chaos, I wonder who is protecting India if officers are bunch of drukards, alcoholics, swingers etc. I think British were smart to realize the potential of Sikhs in armed forces. Every Sikh had to be an Amritdhari Sikh to join forces. That way they could not drink, smoke or do other intoxicants. To me, the Indian forces have no moral or ethical responsibilty left them anymore and just copying everything from the west. No originality of their own at all. It is a sad thing for me to see, especially being born and raised in India, but now looking as an outsider from the U.S.
I am a serving lady officer in air force for the last 12 years . What stopped her from raising her outcry for justice, why did she wait for a court martial to be convened. Sexual harrasment was a fall out of her defence. It adds a spectrum of colour to otherwise a normal court martial. It is sad that the law made to protect women is mis utilised.It is how you project that you get treated.
I am an ex IAF pilot and officer in the US . You comment has nailed it on the head. It is a shame that laws that are made to protect women are misused
I know guys who have worked with her, both her sub-ordinates as well as her superiors in rank, and even people who have seen her from her training days. Nobody had a good opinion on her whether it is her behaviour towards sub-ordinates, colleagues or her superiors, they think she had a mental problem that had to be treated from the beginning, but they did not treat it , and it later resulted in all these things. Just because she is an officer, her superior commanders did not advise or recommend psychiatric treatment for her. Infact I think in a way they were waiting for this to happen naturally, All personnel who have worked under her ie her subordinates or Airmen are happy that she is out of IAF, because she was such a bad officer ,a bad example of an officer, she was very rude and her behaviour towards her subordinates was very bad.
its nice to have mixed comments on such case. what we all forget or tend to forget is that we are very much judgemental. see there was a case between anjali and iaf and a court was convene. but we all try to make something of whatever little we know. i can gurantee that none of us knows more than anjali or iaf. they are the only ones who knows what was right and what was wrong. i have served in iaf for about 15yrs now and also knows most of the happenings. coming to the face value of it i think we should learn some lessons from this and stop crying without thinking on women's rights. yes most of the women are getting harassed on a lot of occassions but does that mean the moment we hear some women shouting of harrasment we make opinion on the men. by doing so we are not only living in the false world but also depriving some men of their dignity. not all men are cruel. even after seeing all this Mahila Morcha and other women organisations are not learning anything. resulting in men losing their dignity. what if sqn ldr chaudhary did not do anything? what if anjali is actually wrong and just trying to save her skin by putting some false allegations? even after been proven false in courtmartial life of sqn ldr chaudhary will never going to be same. he lost his reputation for ever, as people always says no smoke without fire.
Secondly we all knew what is the case and why iaf took such step, its that no one is talking. as far as money embezzlement is concerned we know its difficult to justify iaf stand. infact in any govt organisation there is always money embezzlement at some stage or the other. govt feels that giving pea-nuts and some name or appointment will fulfill all the needs. we all know when we approach a private sector undertaking the job is done by rules and not bribes. (i am talking lower levels where day to day customers are involved) try approaching any govt organisation. may be police, judicary, it department or for that matter any govt organisation. so this is just making of a case against an individual to remove her form the job. this case can be made blindly against any government servant if the organisation is against that individual. ( i would have raised a lot of eyebrows, but its a fact. my apologies to those who are not part of it but they will accept that they are very few in numbers, more in defence as there are not much occassions to be exposed to curruption.)
my idea is tell you what ever happened has happened because of something that we dont know fully and we cannot comment on it by being biased. anjali or iaf either could be right.
The kind of comments that Iam reading here is appalling.
Just because everybody "had a bad opinion about her", doesn't mean that everybody has a license for sexual harassment.
The fact that Ms. Gupta has been cashiered for a minor charge of embezzling Rs. 1080 (ha!!!) is proof enough that the IAF wants to brush the serious charges of bribes and sexual advances under the carpet.
It is not a Man vs Woman issue. It never was. The issue is of an individual vs an institution. An individual who believed in the sanctity of the institution that is rotten to the core. Iam ashamed as an Indian, as a man, and as a human being that we have such people in the force, who want to justify harassment of a woman.
i think u need not be ashamed too much about this case, If only you had a chance to see or meet this particular anjali gupta, I dont think any sane person would ever think of making sexual advances to her, I am one of the individuals who has seen this lady very closely and worked with her for four years, with the kind of behaviour she has, anybody could go mad, she is psychic, and worse humanbeing, she thought , because she is an officer, she can say, do, behave as she likes with her subordinates and airmen, she used to treat airmen like slaves, even people who are old and experienced in iaf, she never had any respect for anyone, she was a sadist and used to punish the trainees for no reason at all, all because she was an officer and nobody would dare complain against her,
She deserves to be dismissed from Iaf. She should have been stripped of her rank too, but the chief of iaf showed some sympathy and let her keep that.
everybody is shaant now... heh heh. But why the hell do people of this world indulge in discussions, when they don't know, or CAN know the facts? Indians are too free to do that, eh? Man I like this last comment (one above this)!
Thanks friend anonymous
I am a son of indian airforce officer ... my father has served in the IAF for more than 30 years .. Even if I dont have a first hand experience of all this , I have seen the IAF quiet closely ... To start with it is the most corrupt and indiscipline organisation I have ever seen ... We talk about discipline in the forces ... I guess a city coorporation office will have more discipline than in the forces ... I have not seen such sadistic people ever ... the only fun is to screw someones ass .. If he or she is not a party to crime, they are fininshed ... his or her career in the forces is over ... I know a person called wing commander Mathew ... He supported his fellow office who had met with a air crash in a court of enquiry where a air marshal was present. This air marshal was blaming the pilot for the crash when there was no fault of his ... even the black box said it was a technical error ... but when mathew supported the pilot ... he knew his carrer was over ... this is the sadest part of the whole thing ... you cannot be good ... the IAF officer, most of them are living on the sympathy they get from the civilian public ... but in real they are the biggest ass licker of the whole world ... I am sorry to say that but thats the whole reality ... the biggest problem is that these guys are bloody uneducated and are brutal from the day they land into NDA. whatever brains hey have also stops working during the training at the NDA. They see life as a freekin joke ... I am from a military school and I have alomst bath of mine in the forces .. I have seen the change in there attiture when they were with me and now when they are in the forces ... I think if all this corruption is stopped half of the half of the money the indian government sppends on the forces can be saved ...
Well in this world of strong openions, hardly anybody has the time to analyse a situation and opine on it. Everybody feels he is right. The general feeling is that an individual will always be right and yhe organisation will always be wrong. The ritiousness of the individual will be at a much higher level if it happens to be a women.
Wish people had the clarity on all issues befor they start giving a verdicts.
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