Friday, January 1, 2010

Fighting it out on Wikipedia

The writeup is about Ruchika Girhotra Case in India. Today, that is January 1, 2010, fresh applications for fresh FIRs are being taken up in the court. The Ruchika Girhotra case is in news for many days for now and to be specific since the day the accused Mr. SPS Rathore, IPS (Retd) had been proved guilty and sentenced to six month imprionsment with a fine of Rs. 1000/- (around $22 ) in a case which continued for 19 years. This was even investigated by the CBI, the most prestigious investigation agency in India. As such, the case is  in news every day. It was while checking the Google News syndication of news, that I located that there was an article which was on Wikipedia.

The one of the best thing about this article is that it is very nicely written. It seems that it has been written by an expert.

It is being categorized under India group and there is no rider to it like that it is a current issue or other similar tags which are placed as per the Wikipedia Editing policy.

There is a little discussion hinged to it.

In the reference section, there are links for every available fact added in the body of the article and virtually all of them are from Print news media as well as Television media. In addition to that there are links to Rahul Rathore and Abha Rathore, the two persons who are related to the culprit Rathor IPS (Retd).

In case of external links, there is a link to the group which has shown courage to fight against the system in India.


In one of my earlier comments, I have objected to such articles, wherein some grievance is publicized through Wikipedia. The article in question is very nicely written. I personally admire the courage of the people who have shown courage to fight against the excesses of the high ups in India especially in the All India Services as well as the local government authorities. In democratic India, there still survives the Raj mentality and genetically implanted servile character which is legacy of a thousand years of servitude starting from 999 AD. Hence, when some courage is depicted here in India, I feel confident of my country India. However, even then, the issue remains, that should such articles be permitted on Wikipedia.

Last time, I was reading about a suspected Al Qaida operative from Nigeria who tried to blow up a flight from Europe to America. The article carried a tag of objection. I wanted to comment on that but just missed because I continued to explore further links and that took lot of my time. However, therein, I wished to state that the article should be retained. However, herein, the purpose of the article is something else. No doubt, it is rightly written and there is a balanced information. I do not think that the Rathore group would approve this article. They may take this issue with the government because the issue is now sub-judice. However, it is not going to effect Wikpedia at all as Wikipedia does not come under the jurisdiction of Indian judiciary. There should have been a section, wherein Rathore group version should also be incorporated.

On the whole, the article can be retained because of the fineness with which it is written. It can be useful for the people who desire to legal studies or undertake some research related to that field. Secondly, it is showing another dimension of possibility of the utility of Wikipedia. Wikipedia should shed it luggage of being called an Encyclopedia. It should call itself as Information Processing Site.