PRESS RELEASE: SIFF Calls for a Peaceful Protest March Demanding Rollback of Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill 2010 (IrBM).

PRESS RELEASE

Subject: SIFF Calls for a Peaceful Protest March Demanding Rollback of Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill 2010 (IrBM).

Theme of the Protest:

The theme of this protest is to register Strong Protest against the Marriage Law Amendment Bill (2010), commonly known as IrBM (Irretrievable Breakdown of Marriage) OR No-Fault Divorce. It is a common practice to ask men to make huge financial payment to his wife when a marriage breaks. The same injustice to men is now being extrapolated by this new Bill which incentivizes a Wife to take Divorce for NO FAULT of the Husband with minimum 50% of his owned / acquired / inherited / inheritable / moveable / immoveable Properties. Often, the man is implicated in false cases in order to coerce him towards a settlement. Even the state machinery is hand-in-glove with the wife in this financial extortion of men.

1. SIFF being men’s rights organization identifies such abuse of men as a violation of the human rights of men. It vehemently objects to men being forced to pay huge and hefty Property or amounts to end marriages.

2. SIFF vehemently opposes upcoming laws like Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill which talks of giving away at least 50% of the property owned by husbands at the time of divorce apart from possible division of other properties like inherited, gifted, acquired properties.

3. SIFF also opposes all forms of pressures being put on a man to cough out huge alimonies and maintenance including the existing maintenance laws (Domestic Violence Act, Section 125 CrPC).

4. Such laws act as a great motivator for a woman to marry and break the marriage in order to enrich herself at the cost of the man (her husband).

No Money in Alimony

Does it sound like a self-contradictory statement when I say, “No Money in Alimony”? Because, everyone knows that alimony is the money that a husband pays when he gets divorced from his wife, so when we say, “No Money in Alimony”, what exactly does it mean?

It simply means, “Abolish Alimony”. And do we have the eyebrows already raised?

Well, yes, then I guess this article is pretty much needed. I have often experimented by talking to people asking them, “Is it OK to abolish alimony?”

And the answer has been a majority NO, even from many of those men who are themselves paying alimony/maintenance.

And when I asked them as to why would they support alimony, the answer was, “I know my wife doesn’t deserve alimony, but there are many genuine women who should get?”

And this made me ponder and wonder, “Is it OK to burden a husband with the financial burden of his ex-wife even when the relationship is over?”

SIFF Demands Exclusive Litigation Clause to be introduced in Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill

From:
Coordinator, Save Indian Family Foundation

Bangalore

To,

Dr. Manmohan Singh

Honorable Prime Minister of India

Subject: SIFF Demands Exclusive Litigation Clause to be introduced in Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill

Respected Sir,

Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF) is a non-profit non-funded NGO creating awareness about men’s problems and concerns and sensitizing the society about men’s rights. SIFF takes pride in its expertise in providing guidance and coaching to men facing crisis situation in their marriages, especially in extravagant situations like men facing false cases of dowry harassment (498A), Domestic Violence Act, maintenance cases etc.

Brief Background:

We have been following up the ongoing debate in the media and Govt. circles about an upcoming law, Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010 which seeks to introduce a new ground for divorce in the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and Special Marriage Act, 1957 – The Irretrievable Breakdown of Marriage Ground providing for a quick no-fault divorce after three years of separation.

Dangerous Ramifications of the proposed bill:

What looks as a convenient way to dispose of the ongoing marital disputes in the country, which is seeing a splurge in divorce cases being filed, contains a few very dangerous provisions whose ramifications can be far-reaching and taxing for the society. Research conducted by SIFF leads it to believe, at the onset, that this bill is anti-male in nature and seeks to promulgate state sponsored financial extortion targeted against husbands.

The Gender Discriminatory Laws of India

An article authored by me titled, “The Gender Discriminatory Laws of India” has appeared in the Glimpse Magazine, Chandigarh. Here’s a scanned version of the article below. In case you find it difficult to read, you can download the image, enlarge it and read it.

Candle Light March in Bangalore

We had a very good event yesterday. Around 110 SIF members joined the march. Around 25-30 people from the neighbourhood came.

We started the march from the victim Manoj Kumar’s brother’s residence. As soon as we started assembling, immediately two TATA SUMOs came there tagged with “Election Duty”. The Vigilance Department of Election Commission had come to inquire what was going on as polls are announced in Karnataka and election code of conduct is ON. They were given proper anti-misandry antidote and sensitization about abuse of men and misuse of laws.

They left the place smiling and told us not to make noise or break the discipline. They were handed over a copy of the press release.

After that, we waited for some more time, and then started forming the queue with 2 people in a line. A banner made by Marital Justice group, printed by us on a size of 4′X2′ was held by both the brothers in the front who led the march.

PRESS RELEASE: SIFF calls for Peaceful Candle March in the honor of yet another Martyr of Marriage

Morning Shocker:

It was a usual Wednesday morning to which Bangalore woke up, only to be shaken by the brazen news of a young man of 36 committing suicide due to alleged torture by wife leaving behind his 1 year old son, 2 married brothers, an old mother and an unfortunate suicide note blaming his wife and mother-in-law for the extreme step of ending his life. Techie by Profession, Manoj Kumar worked for Oracle, while his wife Pramila worked for Bharat Electric Limited.

Manoj has had a tumultuous marriage. Constant torture by his wife which reached unbearable limits as she forced him to stay away from his family under threats of getting him jailed under a false 498A (dowry) case led Manoj to write “Sorry Son” on his T-Shirt before hanging his body from the ceiling fan on the unfortunate night of 8^th April 2013. This was after his wife abused his entire family, physically assaulted his brother with a helmet and tried to attack his old mother before she dared them that she would get them jailed in false dowry case if her demands are not met.

Manoj is not a solo victim but amongst lakhs of men who are abused daily in marriages and with this suicide, he enters the thousands of unfortunate men who die a silent death in an insensitive society that refuses to protect men.

How many more martyrs do we need to awaken?

Morning Shocker:

It was a usual Wednesday morning to which Bangalore woke up, only to be shaken by the brazen news of a young man of 36 committing suicide due to alleged torture by wife leaving behind his 1 year old son, 2 married brothers, an old mother and an unfortunate suicide note blaming his wife and mother-in-law for the extreme step of ending his life. Techie by Profession, Manoj Kumar worked for Oracle, while his wife Pramila worked for Bharat Electric Limited.

Manoj has had a tumultuous marriage. Constant torture by his wife which reached unbearable limits as she forced him to stay away from his family under threats of getting him jailed under a false 498A (dowry) case led Manoj to write “Sorry Son” on his T-Shirt before hanging his body from the ceiling fan on the unfortunate night of 8^th April 2013. This was after his wife abused his entire family, physically assaulted his brother with a helmet and tried to attack his old mother before she dared them that she would get them jailed in false dowry case if her demands are not met.

Manoj is not a solo victim but amongst lakhs of men who are abused daily in marriages and with this suicide, he enters the thousands of unfortunate men who die a silent death in an insensitive society that refuses to protect men.

Differential standards by Indian judiciary harms the Indian society

At the outset I was not able to believe my eyes when I read the editorial piece ‘India’s Novartis Decision’ in The Newyork Times dated April 4 about the recent Novartis decision by India’s Supreme Court and the subsequent lauding of the judgment and its paramount significance as given in the editorial.

As a brief background, it would be pertinent to mention here that Novartis, a company that manufactures cancer drug called Gleevec, imatinib. Novartis filed a patent in India with a different form of the same drug claiming better absorption capabilities and better bonding with blood. However, the patent was rejected and the matter went all the way to the Honorable Supreme Court that was supposed to decide on the constitutional validity of Section 3(d) of the Patents (Amendment) Act 2005.

Section 3(d) provides for safeguards against obtaining patents for the same type of substance in different forms. Upholding the sanctity of the said section the Supreme Court ruled that Novartis has failed to provide substantial data to show “efficacy” of the drug as mandated by Section 3(d).

Why we shouldn’t even think of pardoning Sanjay Dutt?

Much ado about nothing. These are the only four words that one can possibly think of to describe what is occupying the media when it comes to the verdict passed by the Honorable Supreme Court on the 21 March 2013, upholding the conviction of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt.

Whether it is news articles, opinions, newspaper columns, online articles, TV debates, citizen journalism , or the pardoning petitions being filed, all are revolving around the question – “Should Sanjay Dutt be pardoned?” However, I have pre-question to that – “Why should we even think of pardoning Sanjay Dutt?”

Is it not enough that he was given a fair trial, evidence was found against him and the court convicted him and his appeals went all the way to the Supreme Court which also upheld his conviction?Now, after the trial and the verdict being upheld by the highest court of India, if we talk of pardoning such a criminal, then why do we have the judicial system in India in the first place, wasting billions of rupees of the public exchequer?

Men’s Rights Groups’ View on Newly proposed Rape Law: Importance of Gender Neutrality

The Rape laws are already misused and a lot of innocent young men have suffered due to false allegations by unscrupulous women. Misuse of draconian laws takes away people’s faith from Judiciary, courts, law enforcement system and finally democracy itself.

The famous false rape cases include ones against film director Madhur Bhandarkar, Deputy Speaker of Rajya Sabha P.J.Kurien and Rahul Gandhi. The other famous case is that of a false rape case filed by an American woman on 6 innocent young students of TISS (Tata Institute of Social Sciences), Pune. They were aged between 19 and 22. They spent 18 months in prison and then they were found to be innocent by the magistrate court and also the High Court.

We are also seeing a trend wherein media reports suggest that the Government has bowed down to pressure from women organizations. Who are these organizations? What credibility they carry? We, the people of India, have not elected these women organizations and will not allow hijack of the law making process by these organizations with vested anti-male interests. It does not look in good taste when the Government appears to be bowing down before a few women filled with hatred for men.