Open letter of a martyr's mother.

Kamal Kant Batra, 69, is running for Parliament from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh as a candidate of the Aam Aadmi Party. In 1999, her son, Captain Vikram Batra, was killed in the Kargil War. He was 24. "Yeh dil maange more," he had declared famously in an interview to NDTV, appropriating an advertising slogan at the time to convey the courage of the Indian soldier.

Dear Mr Modi:

In your campaigning, you have used the name and slogan- yeh dil maange more- of my Sher beta.  People call him the Sher Shah of Kargil. He was just 24 when he was killed in the Kargil war.  

Now you are using Vikram's name and slogan. I ask you - in 15 years, how come neither you nor the BJP used either? Just for the elections, you have suddenly remembered it and are using the sacrifice of a brave soldier. This is corrupt politics.

Mr Modi, if you really care for the army and respect  martyrs, a soldier's family for you should be like God. If I were in your place, I would have withdrawn the BJP candidate who is running against me.

If  you respect Captain Batra's family, you should think of me like his mother. If you used "yeh dil maange more" to praise my son...please realise...it is not enough to praise him...you should think of what can be done to honour a martyr's family. 

Why was no one from a soldier's family given a chance by the BJP earlier to run as a candidate?

For me, this is not a fight with an individual. It is a fight against corruption. People want relief from  corruption.

All of India knows Vikram Batra.  

In some villages, Aam Aadmi Party workers say "this is Shahid Vikram's mother." There is nothing wrong with that. He did sacrifice his life for the nation. He would be proud that I want to serve his country. Even if my son's name comes up, isn't it my right? 

Your name is everywhere in this campaign.

Only Arvind Kejriwal's party thought of honouring us this way, asking us if we would like to contest. I want to help people.  

I am not just a woman but a citizen. I have the right to join politics. Every citizen has.

When I got the offer from AAP to contest the election from Himachal Pradesh, I could not refuse.

Other parties have failed us.

Sincerely,

Kamal Kant Batra.  

New legislation for Persons with Disabilities.

The Central Government is all set to introduce a new legislation replacing the law of 1995. Known as the  Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2014, seeks to repeal the Persons with Disabilities Act of 1995 and to replace it with a comprehensive rights based law in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). The timeline of this bill is as follows:

1. 2007: India signed UNCRPD.
2. 2010: Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment had, through its OM (PDF) constituted a Committee under the chairpersonship of Dr. Sudha Kaul, Vice Chairperson, Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy, Kolkata, to draft a new legislation for persons with disabilities, replacing the present Persons with Disabilities (Equal Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.
3. 2011: The above Committee submitted its Report including a draft bill called The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2011 and a note on its financial implications to the Ministry.
4. 2012: The Ministry released a Draft Bill in 2012, (which are both on the Ministry’s website). But this Draft Bill of 2012 is not as comprehensive and inclusive as the 2011 one, and there were certain serious issues raised before the Ministry on the notification of the 2012 Draft Bill.
5. 2013: Some version of this Bill was cleared by Cabinet in December 2013. Thereafter, organizations of persons with disabilities, confident that the 2012 Draft was intact, began protests for the speedy introduction and passage of the Bill. 
6. February 2014: Bill was criticised to be not in consonance with the UNCRPD.

Reason behind the present legislation.

The need for bringing about amendments was soon felt after its enactment in December 1995. Amendments Recommended by High Level Committee 1999 was constituted by the Government under the chairmanship of Prof. Amita Dhanda to suggest appropriate amendments in the Act. The Committee, accordingly, submitted its report to the Government and thereafter the report gathered dust in the government offices. The Government revived the amendment process around 2006 , when UNCRPD was being negotiated, but yet not adopted by the UN General-assembly.

The government organised series of a few consultative meetings which were conducted by the Government before the ratification of the UNCRPD, and only one (in Goa) post ratification were merely symbolic, ritualistic, and of no use at all. They lacked informed and systematic participation of persons with disabilities. While requests calling for suggestions were posted on its website by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, this is far from being enough, more particularly, in the face of the fact that not too many persons with disabilities have access to websites.

It goes without saying that the UNCRPD, particularly, vide its Article 4.3 enjoins it upon the states parties to consult and actively involve persons with disabilities in respect of making any laws and policies, and also in respect of any matter which affects their lives, or which concerns them. Hence, active participation by persons with disabilities is amongst the core and non-negotiable principles which the UNCRPD envisages. It is therefore of paramount importance that the Government honours and respects the compulsions which was undertaken for fulfilment.
The PDA has been constructed by adopting a medical perspective wherein disability is perceived as an individual deficit which has to be socially compensated. UNCRPD looks not individual impairments but social discrimination that results from disability. This therefore mandates the State to formulate policies and law by adopting the social model of disability.

Provisions in the Bill.

• Broadening the ambit of disability from seven to 19 sub-categories such as sickle cell disease, thalassemia and muscular dystrophy besides autism, spectrum disorder, blindness, cerebral palsy, chronic neurological conditions, mental illness and multiple disabilities.
• Increasing reservation for the disabled in public sector jobs from only 3% in the ratio of 1% each for the physically, visually and hearing-impaired persons to 5% (extend the quota by 2%, covering two new additional categories - mentally disabled and people with multiple disabilities).
• The Bill also provides for setting up National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, which will have statutory powers and also for establishing a dedicated National Fund for Persons with Disabilities.
• Besides making provisions to prevent people with disabilities from harassment while getting disability certificates, the proposal legislation also provides for stringent punitive measures under which anyone violating the provisions could face from six months to five years of imprisonment and a fine from Rs 10,000 to five lakhs.

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Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2014