Q@9: Salman’s Acquittal, UN Climate Meet, Sushma in Pak and More

Read the top stories from The Quint.

Suzette Jordan, the Park Street rape survivor, at Slut Walk Kolkata (Courtesy: Facebook/Suzette Jordan)

1. Salman Acquittal: High Court’s Stunning U-Turn From Lower Court

The Bombay High Court’s Justice A R Joshi has demolished all the reasons Additional Sessions Judge D W Deshpande had given for convicting Salman Khan.

In a stunning U-turn from Lower Court, Justice Joshi in his judgement, has held that the prosecution has failed to conclusively prove who was driving the car on that fateful night, and hence, the entire case against Khan collapses. He refused to believe the prosecution’s charge that it was not Ashok Singh but the Bollywood star who had rammed the Toyota Land Crusier into Bandra’s American Express Bakery.

2. Sushma in Pak: Nothing Substantial Likely On ‘Comprehensive’ Talks

The Modi government has embarked upon a major review and reset of its roller-coaster Pakistan policy and this was evidenced in Islamabad where Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced, on December 9, at a joint press conference with her Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz, that the stalled dialogue process was firmly back on track. But will anything substantial happen on Indo-Pak’s ‘comprehensive’ talks?

3. UN Climate Meet: India Takes on Rich Countries for Greenwashing

In most negotiations, it helps to follow the money trail and the UN climate summit in Paris is treading this well-worn path. On the second day of global environment ministers deliberating on the text of the agreement, there is no clarity on the level of funding.

The top US climate negotiator, Todd Stern, who has been around since Copenhagen, referred approvingly in Paris to the report by the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation which asserted that rich countries have already provided $62 billion last year by way of climate funding.

Indian finance ministry officials have issued a lengthy paper, showing that it amounts to “double-counting”, includes private sector financing and loans, amounting to “greenwashing”.

3. AAP Offers Even-Odd Formula, but What About Evening the Odds?

The AAP government’s controversial executive order to reduce dangerous levels of air pollution in Delhi is unlikely to make a sufficient dent in it. We are talking about between three and 14 times above the safe limit in different parts. Nevertheless, it seeks to halve the number of private cars allowed to ply on any given day.

Meanwhile, we burn unsorted garbage and leaves despite the bans. We bury toxic waste and foul the water and sub soil. Carrion birds feast in overflowing, putrefying, garbage dhalaos. We have no modern garbage processing plants at all.

Gautam Mukherjee analyses the need for a greater intervention.

5. Park Street Rape Case: A Tribute to the Lioness of Kolkata

On the evening of February 6, 2012, Suzette Jordan went to a nightclub in a hotel on Park Street in Kolkata. A 30-something year old, she was a single mother of two daughters...

A conservative estimate is that approximately 90 percent of conventional romantic comedies begin this way. Suzette Jordan’s reality, however, was a far cry from any comedy whatsoever. Jordan was raped by five men, in a moving car, at gunpoint.

Read Peter Jordan’s beautiful tribute to his daughter, whom he calls the Lioness of Kolkata.

6. Terrorism, Murder or Mental Illness? The Politics of Name-Calling

The San Bernardino shooting in California by Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook on December 2 is being investigated as an act of terrorism according to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation.

By these standards, Zack Davies shouted “white power” as he attacked Dr Sarandev Bhambra with a machete in Flintshire, United Kingdom. And what of the “white supremacists” who shot five Black Lives Matter protesters in Minneapolis, USA? These racial attacks were acts of violence aimed at intimidating a group of people based on an ideology of racial superiority.

Why is one mass shooting a ‘terror attack’ and the other an unfortunate consequence of ‘mental illness’?

7. Andhra to Frame Rules to Rehabilitate Devadasis

Devadasi translates to the ‘servant of God’, and in the devadasi system, young girls served and were sometimes married off to the local deity of a temple. However, the Indian government had banned the practice as the women were subjected to sexual exploitation.

The Andhra Pradesh government has finally begun to frame rules for the devadasi Prohibition Act that was adopted 27 years ago.

8. Why a Former Journalist Is Bidding for Dawood Ibrahim’s Property

Former journalist S Balakrishnan won the final bidding of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s property called Delhi Zaika at Pakmodia Street in South Mumbai on Wednesday.

Balakrishnan put in the highest bid of Rs 4.28 crore for the ground-plus-one structure. Balakrishnan, who runs an NGO, Desh Seva Samiti, wants to set up an education centre for poor children there. In the past, 11 of Dawood’s properties were put on auction but no one came forward to bid for them.

Subramani Balakrishnan in an interview to talked about his experience of buying Dawood Ibrahim’s property.

9. Delhi, I Love You: Painting Stories of Love For Delhi

Delhi, I Love You , a project initiated by film-maker Thomas Ellis and sculptor Aastha Chauhan has been trying to capture – the fleeting past of Delhi. As it describes itself, Delhi, I Love You, is a socio-cultural movement of love in the city.

For over three months, the connoisseurs of this movement have been collecting poems through a poetry competition that they had launched on Twitter, and on December 9, 2015, sign-board painters of Delhi, adorned the walls of the city with six such poems.