Dear Indians
Do you want a daughter ? No of course not, why will you want a girl child , she is such a burden and a son will only carry on the family name etc etc… blah blah.
Oh No ! you dont want to have a girl child !!!
Well in shillong specifically and allover india generally, the Indian army is giving the incentive, to have a girl child. Wow, this advertisement will go a long way in balancing child sex ratio ? and it might also give impetus to the ‘ Laadli Campaign, which is in deep shit for now, 42% girls dropped from Laadli scheme over 2 years
So above in the advertisement you see— PRIYANKA Chopra, Gul Panag, Preity zinta, Anushka Sharma , Celina Jaitley , Simmi Garewal, Amrita singh, Chitrangadha , Sakshi Tanwar, and it says -‘If you want to have beautiful and successful daughters join INDIAN ARMY”,.
Now , Indians this is your chance dont let ti go away.. RUSSSSHHH TO INDIAN ARMY, if you want to have BEAUTIFUL daughters who will become a hit Bollywood or television actresses, and will make you PROUD and will add to the great HONOR of your family, ie if they save themselves from honor killing.!
Also all women in the ad are BEAUTIFUL as per what is ingrained in our brains. The super-skinny, super-tall, and amazingly gorgueous figure; The Super-Models and Actresses.The certain typecast images fed on physical appearances and . If you don’t fit into those notions, you feel terrible – that’s why people are unhappy about their bodies. This advertisement further promotes, the fact that to succeeed you need to have a hour glass figure ?. How do you define beauty ? Who said “big” isn’t beautiful? Who said curves aren’t sexy?
Who told you to change who you are, loosing the weight that you’ve gained so far. For me Tuntun, Manorama all were beautiful also. beauty has nothing to do with your body but your innerself , your personality as a whole. For me Sheetal Sathe, Soni Sori, Aparna Marandi, Irom Sharmila are all BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, and SUCCESSFUL as well.
The Fact that whether you will have a daughter or son THE MANS SPERM WILL DECIDE, if you have a daughter, she has to decide her life and what’s success for her ?
This sexist advertisement further strengthens the stereotypes feminist have been fighting. Women are human being and not relationships , think about them outisde their roles as daughters mothers and sisters. Valourising women as daughters, sisters, , mothers, bhabhi, dadi and Nani. Today women are screaming at top of their voice-– ” I am not your Mother, Wife, Sister or daughter . I am a PERSON. So this ad, adds to all the sexists ads which are defining every woman by her relationship to another person rather than as a person in her own right; and that relationship (by implication if not stated overtly) is usually with a man. The self-sacrificing mother who bravely sends her son to war; the devoted sister who pampers her brother, the obedient daughter who makes her PARENTS proud, as stated in the ad . Women are fed up being boxed into traditional roles. They are angry at being told what to wear, how to behave and lead their lives. Respect women”, we tell our sons, “for they are all someone’s mother, sister or daughter.” Aha,,,,, yes….. But the childless woman; and a woman whose husband is no more or whose father has died and has no brother to ‘protect her honour’ — well, she’s fair game, isn’t she? This is the kind of logic we perpetuate when we glorify a woman by her relationship rather than as a person.
I wonder if all these ‘ SUCCESSFUL DAUGHTERS’ have given their permission to be on the Advertisement and if they agree
and gulpanag tweets says so,
About the join army ‘ad’.Whether in jest or not,I have no problem with it.I owe 100% of what I am to my AF upbringing. Proud of it. @rwac48
— Gul Panag (@GulPanag) April 14, 2013
I wonder, if all of them are proud of The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act . which is to-date the single most direct instrument violating the democratic rights of the people of the North East and of Jammu and Kashmir. The Act is implemented when an area is declared ‘disturbed’ by either the central or the state government. Since 2 November 2000, she has been on hunger strike to demand that the Indian government repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA), which she blames for violence in Manipur and other parts of northeast India. Having refused food and water for more than 500 weeks, she has been called “the world’s longest hunger striker”.
What is rationale for keeping AFSPA , thinking that security persons who rape innocent women should enjoy impunity in the name of national security? For whose security was the law enacted, for that of the country or of the criminals in uniform? Whenever some change is suggested in the Act the army seems to oppose it and the civilian government buckles under its pressure. For Eg , when the Jeevan Commission appointed to inquire into the alleged rape and murder of 30-year old Manorama Devi of Imphal in Manipur arrested by the Assam Rifles suggested AFSPA should be repealed ,the Government did not even publish the report.
Do you all know of woman called Manorma ? In 2004, the women of Manipur held a protest after the brutal murder of Thangjam Manorama who was taken into custody from her home by the Assam Rifles under suspicion of having links with rebels. Her bullet ridden body was found a few kilometres away from her home, bearing signs of torture. Twelve Manipuri women came out naked, holding a banner saying ‘Indian Army Rape Us’ to protest against the paramilitary forces of the Assam Rifles demanding justice and taking a stand against the many rapes of other girls. Despite the curfew imposed, the protests by the women continued as they wanted the men responsible to be punished
One of the major rape cases in the history of Kashmir and indeed whole of India is the Kunan Poshpora mass rape incident. A village in northern Kashmir’s Kupwara district, Kunan Poshpora, on February 23, 1991 witnessed incidents of alleged mass rape of 20 women by the Army troops in one night. The incident drew the attention of national and international media. However this was soon forgotten and the womenfolk of the village landed in unending troubles. Women who deserved the respect and honor of the society, were not secure anymore form the cruel face of the armed forces and since that incident, numerous other cases of rape and enforced disappearances have come to fore in the last three decades. Another case which shook the region was the 2009 Shopian rape and murder case which resulted in protests rocking the whole Valley and several families lost their loved ones in the agitation.
Some more cases of rape and sexual assault against personnel of the Army and central forces in Kashmir:
Case against Harbhajan Singh and Gurtej Singh
May 15, 1994: Rashtriya Rifles men entered the house of a couple and took the husband to Qazigund Hospital. When he returned the next morning, his wife told him she had been gangraped. A case of rape an other charges was filed at Qazigund police station. Responding to an RTI application, the home department said it sought sanction on January 23, 2006, to prosecute the Army men and have not yet got it. In a 2009 affidavit in the high court, the defence ministry said the state was informed that both accused, Nk Harbajan Singh and Rfn Gurtej Singh, had been tried by a summary general court-martial for rape, sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years and dismissed from service. “A retrial for the same offence will be in contravention to Article 20 (2) of the Constitution,” it argued.
Case Against Major Arora
January 3, 1997: A family comprising a 60-year-old, his two daughters and a grandson were preparing to go to bed at Manzgam, Kokernag, when some soldiers allegedly broke in. They were allegedly led by Major Arora of 5 Rashtriya Rifles. “He slapped me and dragged my younger sister (then 16) into a room and raped her,” the elder daughter told The Indian Express recently. The elder daughter’s husband had joined the Hizbul Mujahideen and the local army unit would often raid her father’s house. The day of the alleged rape, the Army allegedly picked up the father, who remains untraced 15 years on. The younger sister is now married with children, the elder one said, while her own husband surrendered to the army, divorced her and remarried.
The police registered a case of rape at Anantnag and the government sought the defence ministry’s sanction to prosecute the officer. In an affidavit in the J&K High Court on June 5, 2009, then defence secretary Ajay Tirkey said the ministry received the request in December 2006 and it is “under consideration in army headquarters/Ministry of Defence”. On January 10, 2012, the ministry, responding to an RTI query, said permission was denied on April 21, 2007. “There were a number of inconsistencies in the statements of witnesses… The lady was forced to lodge a false allegation by anti-national elements,” the MoD said.
Case against Major Aman Yadav
December 5, 1999: Army men led by Major Aman Yadav of 28 Rashtriya Rifles, along with a few counter-insurgents, raided a house at Norpora, Kitter Dhaji, in Rafiabad. The officer allegedly raped a housewife, whose husband wasn’t home, while his men allegedly robbed the house. The family later left the village.
On January 4, 2000, based on a complaint by the victim’s husband, Panzala police lodged an FIR, one of the charges being rape. In an affidavit to the high court on June 5, 2009, then defence secretary Tirkey said the ministry received the request for sanction in January 2009 and “the case is under consideration in Army headquarters/Ministry of Defence”. In response to a separate RTI query, the MoD said sanction was denied on September 23, 2010. It has argued the allegations are “baseless and framed with mala fide intentions to put army on the defensive” Intriguingly, the ministry has cited it as a case of torture leading to death. Calling the allegations “mala fide” was effectively an indictment of J&K police, for it was on the basis of the police probe’s outcome that sanction was denied. There was, however, no follow-up government action. In response to an RTI application, police said they closed the case on August 19, 2011, having declared the accused “untraced”.
Case against Captain Ravinder Singh Tewatia
February 14, 2000: Captain Ravinder Singh Tewatia and three special police officials allegedly entered a house at night in Nowgam, Banihal. Captain Tewatia and one of the SPOs allegedly raped a mother and her daughter in separate rooms. A case of rape was filed in the Banihal police station. Two chargesheets were prepared for house trespass, assault, wrongful restraint and rape, and submitted to the Banihal chief judicial magistrate’s court on April 1, 2000.According to information gathered by rights group International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice through RTI applications, the case was split between a court-martial and criminal courts (in Banihal, Ramban and Jammu). The court-martial found Tewatia guilty of rape, sentenced him to seven years of imprisonment and dismissed him from service. He challenged the findings on October 1, 2000. On December, 31, 2002, the high court set aside the court-martial’s ruling. In 2003, the defence ministry filed a letter patent appeal in the high court, where it is pending. The state government didn’t challenge the high court order.
Rape case against BSF Personnel
April 18, 2002: Personnel of the BSF’s 58 Battalion allegedly gangraped a 17-year-old in front of her mother, relatives and neighbours, all held hostage at gunpoint in Kullar, Pahalgam. Some 15 or 16 men in a BSF patrol party, passing through their village, had been beating up the girl’s uncle and she had tried to rescue him. A medical examination confirmed rape, while then BSF inspector general (Kashmir Frontiers) G S Gill, too, conceded that BSF personnel had committed rape. The girl identified three men at a parade. The same day, a case of rape was registered at Pahalgam police station. The police say that they submitted a chargesheet before the chief judicial magistrate in Anantnag. There hasn’t been any progress since.
Case against Major Rehman Hussain
November 6, 2004: Troops of 30 RR raided the home of a horsecart driver at Badhra Payeen village in Handwara at night. The man’s younger brother said, “The officer went into my brother’s room and pushed him out.” “He dragged my daughter (then 10) into the kitchen,” the wife of the targeted man this correspondent, adding the officer left and returned after an hour. This time, the woman alleged, she was raped in the kitchen.
The police registered a rape case and the district administration ordered a magisterial inquiry. The Army invoked the AFSPA . The accused officer, Major Rehman Hussain, was tried by a general court martial, which absolved him of rape. He was, however, found “guilty of using criminal force with the intent of outraging the modesty” of the 10-year-old girl and dismissed from service. But he challenged the decision in court and returned to service.
Even the comments by apex court few days back while hearing PILs filed by families of victims of alleged fake encounters in Manipur, are a stinging rebuke of the lack of political will on revoking laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). In this instance, the government’s response to the damning report of the SC-appointed committee set up to probe six such cases in Manipur was that it agreed that such fake encounters should not take place. But mere “taking note” will not do any more. The government must speedily act to revoke this black law from wherever it is in effect, be it the north-east or Jammu and Kashmir. Blanket immunity for security forces has led to murder, rape and other crimes. And when the legal framework vests such crimes with impunity, it vitiates the basic principles of democracy and the rule of law that are necessary for the citizens of these areas to feel part of the national mainstream.
The Court also sharply brought attention to another vital fact: keeping these laws, and thereby maintaining an unnatural state where the armed forces are seen as the primary representatives of government, mutates the whole political, democratic system itself.
Now after getting a glimpse of AFSPA, what the supreme court of india says of Indian army ?
I wonder if you all are still proud of Indian Army
This sexist advertisement should be immediately removed,
It will be great if women part of the advertisement ask to do so.
best
Kamayani Bali Mahabal
Not proud of Indian Army
Not a Proud Indian
A Person , A Feminist and a Human Rights Activist
April 15th, 2013
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kracktivist 
Apr 17, 2013 @ 09:32:52
Dear Kamayani Bali Mahabal,
I often wonder why so called “Human Rights Activists” like you NEVER document and raise the rapes, murders and violations by terrorists, naxals and the likes. Is it that they don’t take place, or that people are too scared to talk about them in general? Or that they don’t really much such a good story?
I also wonder if any of the armchair activists in this country have any real understanding of the situation – or whether they only thrive on rhetoric and rabble rousing without logical application of mind. Reading your post today really makes me wonder.
Firstly, do you really think that such a hoarding would have been put up by the Army? If you do, then you really don’t have the moral and intellectual right to comment on matters related to the forces. The board seems to have been put up by someone to derive just the kind of mileage this post is deriving from it.
Secondly, lets get a few things about AFSPA in perspective:-
– The act has not been created by the Indian Army – it is the legislature of this country which has passed. it.
– It is not applicable all the time, or across the country. It is ONLY applicable in areas declared as disturbed by the government, and where the Army is deployed. The fact that the government has decided to use its instrument of last resort internally means that the situation is beyond the capability of the regular machinery to control. NOW, if the situation is extraordinary, how can it be dealt with using the ordinary laws.
– There certainly have been cases of excesses. But these have been aberrations. And for every genuine case of excess, there have been thousands of false complaints. Please stop spreading the fallacy that AFSPA grants immunity to perpetrators. You yourself have cited the case of Harbhajan and Gurtej Singh, where they got 10 years RI for rape. What AFSPA grants immunity against is the harassment of troops by false complaints. At the same time, the Army itself takes the matter of Human Rights violation very seriously, and takes appropriate action against any cases found genuine.
– If it wasn’t for the AFSPA, every soldier who served in Kashmir or North East for two years would spend the rest of their time and money traveling from one court to another trying to fight the false cases foisted by motivated and / or misguided parties.
As regards why no one talks about HR violations by terrorists and Naxalites, maybe because they are too scared of the repercussions, while there is no such danger from a disciplined force like the Army.
Fortunately for all people like you who trash the Army but enjoy a sound sleep because of them, the official machinery of the forces is too busy doing their job to worry about defending themselves against unwarranted attacks like this post. It is therefore left to old fogies like self to stand up for what we believe is true, and prevent people like you from getting away with saying what you please without really understanding issues or going into details.
Apr 17, 2013 @ 10:28:44
Dear Rohit
This advertisement is by Army i also happen to see it on the roads of Patiala, and if it is not they should say so and disown it but they have not so far.
Secondly, sure act is not created by army but obviously army endorses it and please read here what general v k singh said- AFSPA was a ‘functional requirement’ for the armed forces in certain areas . SO IF ARMY DOES not want it wont be there. The army which resists all attempts to lift AFSPA, says it has its own justice delivery systems and there is a strong and vigilant court martial process. But there is no transparency since one has no access to court martial proceedings and no information is shared either with the public or even the victims.” In several cases Right to Information applications are refused under exemptions.One of the key recommendations of the Verma Committee report has been that sexual offences by armed forces personnel be brought under ordinary criminal law, but this has not been acce[[ted under the new law.The real impunity of militarism lies in its use of land, indulgence in civil society and enforcement of militaristic rule. In a recent PIL hearing on fake encounter in manipur- the SC said ‘ It is clear that such laws have for long been part of the problem in these areas. Blanket immunity for security forces has led to murder, rape and other crimes. And when the legal framework vests such crimes with impunity, it vitiates the basic principles of democracy and the rule of law that are necessary for the citizens of these areas to feel part of the national mainstream. I agree Naxalism is a problem, but why are these poor people attracted to a politics that will end in death? Have we created such a heinous system that death is more attractive than the deprivations and humiliations this system doles out? If that is so, why should I defend this system? All that these people want is food, health care, school, clothes and their legitimate right over their land. Yet, instead of weaning them away by strengthening the democratic process, if we are going to run our democracy only on the strength of weapons, I fear we are entering a dangerous and irreparable state. WThe human rights accountability is to state, and when violence is permeated by the terrorists or naxalites it is equivocally state dby human rights activists, what we say due process of law should be followed which never is and they are killed brazenly in form of custodial deaths, fake encounters etc.
and BTW i do not have a sound sleep because of army, infact i do not have sound sleep thinking whats happening to soni sori in prison, when will rape survivors of konan poshpara will get justice, will irom sharmila will be alive the next morning who has been on hunger strike? You keep on writing without really knwoing whats happening on ground .I have sent letter to defense secretary and the advertising council, let them tell me its not army I am not an arm chair activist btu a kractivist, who is very much grounded and whats happening in the areas i have visited chhattisgarh and seen myself how system works.
Apr 17, 2013 @ 12:04:24
Dear Kamyani,
In case the ad has indeed been placed by the Army, and I take your word for it, then I agree that it is stupid and misplaced. But then you find stupid people everywhere.
As regards the AFSPA, you still haven’t got my point. You make it sound as if the Army is keen to do policing or internal security duties, and thus is keen to ensure AFSPA. Rather than agitating for the removal of AFSPA, why don’t you agitate for the removal of the Army from such roles? Or do you want the Army to continue providing the security, but without a legislative protection from frivolous litigation? I am specifying protection from frivolous legislation because despite the AFSPA, ALL complaints are investigated and acted upon, and there are numerous examples to prove the same.
I agree with Gen VK Singh when he says that AFSPA is a functional requirement – and the sub-text is ‘in case army is to be used in such roles’. Because the act provides the legal framework for it to function in this role – like opening fire, pursuing, searching premises without warrants, destroying property and buildings. Yes, in the absence of the law, all these acts would not be possible. And a counter insurgency situation is akin to war, where the people operating, while chasing an insurgent, can’t be expected to go back and get a search warrant if he runs into a house. That’s the reason why these powers are given, because it is expected that the act will be enforced in situations that are war like. In case the situation is NOT warlike, as you all claim, then why don’t you ask the government to withdraw the army. You are just fighting the wrong battle.
In the case of the Naxalites, I agree with you that the problem is caused by abject poverty resulting from government policies. And incidentally, in these areas AFSPA is not in force, and the army is not deployed.So you are mixing up two issues.
As regards the lack of transparency in military trials / law, thank God for that, for it keeps them from becoming the media circuses that our normal high profile trials are in civil courts. However, despite the lack of such transparency, the justice in courts martial are swifter and surer. Remember the Tehelka case? The only people who have actually been punished are the armed forces personnel who faced court martial. What happened to others who were part of your transparent system? And what about the Delhi Gangrape case? Forget that, people who assassinated the Prime Minister of the country are still undergoing trial after 20 years!
It is very convenient to brand the army as the bogey and feel righteously good about it. Be thankful that you are in a country where the armed forces have the deepest request for the democratic institutions, and therefore you have the liberty to do so. You don’t have to look very far within the subcontinent to see what would have been the circumstances here had the Indian Army also been as ‘militaristic’ as you believe it to be.
Apr 17, 2013 @ 15:03:46
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Apr 18, 2013 @ 06:41:05
You mentioned that you have seen the same ad on the streets of Patiala – that doesn’t seem to be true in light of this – http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Tabloid/Want-to-have-beautiful-and-successful-daughter-join-Indian-Army/Article1-1045857.aspx
So it was stupidity of the local recruiting officer in Shillong, not an attitudinal issue of the army. What I am surprised about is your claim that you have seen it in Patiala too. Are you generally this liberal with the truth?
Apr 18, 2013 @ 08:30:36
btw, rohit hindustan times has taken the story from social media rom twitter, i did not have my phone camera on at that particular time when i saw the hoarding near a traffic light in patiala, but i will definitely get a picture of the hoarding there from someone, if its there . Why will I say patiala, I was travelling punjab and haryana but i saw it in patiala only, so why should i lie ? think !!!
Apr 19, 2013 @ 08:48:52
Here – please see this – http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1824161/report-want-beautiful-daughters-join-indian-army-ad-gets-recruitment-centre-into-trouble
So as per you, the Recruiting Office is Shillong put up these banners in Patiala too? Or is it just another ‘cover up’ by the Army?
Just goes to show how people like you use misinformation to target institutions and further your own cause.
Apr 24, 2013 @ 18:28:03
You clearly seemed to have taken the whole conversation to a different new level….Are you here to just defend the Indian Army? It wasn’t just about the ad…just goes on to say how casually rape is taken in our country. So you can go on and argue about who placed the ad, it doesn’t matter who did coz this post was about what goes on in the areas which are supposed to be protected by the army. And there is no possible vested interest that someone could have here…its not Kamyani’s cause alone, it’s our cause.
Apr 30, 2013 @ 21:11:54
Before you start slinging mud on the Indian Army or the defence of the country let me state that it probably is the only government machinery which is still the the least corrupt. The soldiers in RR or infantry units lead extremely harsh lives and are paid a quarter of what they deserve. Does this give them a license to rape and plunder? No. However a rotten apple spoils the lot. So yes there are cases of such hideous acts and they are more or less individual personality driven. I dont see anything offensive or derogatory in the advertisement at all. I have lived all my life in cants shuttling from one place to another. I know one or 2 people in that hoarding and let me assure you they are proud of their upbringing and so am I. “Lest we forget”, The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.!!!!!!!!!!
Jai HInd!