Hugo Chavez Will Miss Inauguration; Three of Five Men Charged in India Gang Rape Plead Not Guilty; Gender Bias in Bollywood
ANDERSON: You're watching CNN, I'm Becky Anderson in London for you. Time for your news headlines, and I want to get you back to a story that we've been following the past couple of minutes out of Venezuela. CNN has confirmed that President Hugo Chavez will not attend his inauguration for a new term this Thursday. For more on that, we're joined by Paula Newton in Caracas. Something that we were sort of anticipating. What do we know, and what's going to happen at this point?</s>PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What we know is that the constitution, this blue book here, Becky, says that the president, in order to take his term, must be sworn in in person at a national assembly. The government has now said, look, that's just impossible, it's not going to happen. President Chavez is too sick. But what the government is saying now is that it doesn't matter what it says in this blue book, they think that this is all a formality and that Hugo Chavez, for all intents and purposes, will remain the president and that he can actually take his oath before the Supreme Court at a later date. And this, Becky, has us heading head-first into a political crisis in this country, the opposition here saying in no uncertain terms that look, this government's finished, it's over. These people voted for a president, a president that cannot be sworn in, and according to the constitution, it means that we must call elections in the next month. Becky?</s>ANDERSON: Yes, let's remind our viewers: Chavez undergoing cancer surgery, we believe, in Cuba. What do we know of his health situation at this point?</s>NEWTON: Very little, and they've continued on that track here with the government. Late last night, we had an update from the government. Their discussion was so vague, saying that he remains in a delicate state, but that he is stable and that he continues to, quote-unquote, "respond to cancer treatment." By all intents and purposes, though, this is a president fighting for his life. I don't think many people have tried to dissuade -- anyone from the government has tried to dissuade anyone from actually thinking that. We've been all over the city, Becky, and Chavez supporters are now praying for him. They do believe that his cancer is quite serious. The problem is because there has been no transparency about when he could ever take office again, whether or not he's ever going to return again to Venezuela to be able to take that oath of office, it's left this country completely in a stalemate, and there really isn't a lot going on. And again, Becky, just to remind our viewers, this is a country in a lot of economic trouble right now, and they really do need some leadership at the helm.</s>ANDERSON: The news this hour. Hugo Chavez will not attend the inauguration, which is scheduled for Thursday, where of course he would once again be sworn in as president of Venezuela. Paula, thank you. In other news, the UN's food relief agency warns of a deepening humanitarian crisis in Syria. It says there are serious bread and fuel shortages across the country and estimates about a million Syrians may be going hungry. Strong winds and record-high temperatures are creating what officials are calling, at least, "catastrophic" fire conditions in southeastern Australia. More than 130 fires are burning in New South Wales right now. The fire service says about 40 of them are not contained. And India says two of its soldiers have died in a firefight with Pakistani troops in Kashmir. The Indian army says a group of Pakistani troops crossed the line of control in what is a disputed area, but the Pakistani ministry says that's a baseless allegation. Tensions have been high since Sunday, when Pakistan accused Indian troops of crossing the de facto border and killing a Pakistani soldier. It's a case that has outraged the nation, and it could get even more controversial. Three of the five men charged in the gang rape and killing of a young Indian woman last month are to plead not guilty. That's according to their lawyer, at least, Manohar Lal Sharma. The five men appeared in a New Delhi court on Monday, where they were charged with murder, rape, and kidnapping. The next hearing will take place on Thursday behind closed doors. This sparked outrage. The brutal crime in New Delhi has sparked some serious discussion of gender bias in Indian society, specifically in the media. There are those who say the television and the film industries foster stereotypes by frequently portraying women as sex objects. Have a look at this report from Malika Kapur.</s>MALIKA KAPUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Some say it's sexy. Others call it offensive. Not just the dance moves, but the lyrics, too. "I am a piece of tandoori chicken," this actor goes on to sing in a popular Bollywood film. "Wash me down with alcohol." Many in India argue that films portray women in a derogatory way, particularly in so-called item numbers, songs that have no relevance to a film's plot but appear in several commercial movies.</s>SHABANA AZMI, ACTRESS AND ACTIVIST: You see fragmented images of a woman's bosom, of her swinging hips, of her swiveling navel, and it makes the woman lose all autonomy and surrender to the male gaze.</s>CHITRANGADA SINGH AS MAYA LUTHRA, "INKAAR": Come and get me!</s>KAPUR: This actor feels it's unfair to blame item numbers. Chitrangada Singh's upcoming movie is about sexual harassment. She says it's really about the way men think.</s>SINGH: When you buy a cigarette pack, it shows you what cancer looks like and people still buy it. So I don't think it makes so much of a difference what you see. It's what's in your head.</s>KAPUR: But what's in the public's head is often colored by what it sees on screen, a subject that's being heavily debated in India following the New Delhi gang rape that has outraged the country and made it question how its popular culture portrays women.</s>KAPUR (on camera): Bollywood and television serials play a huge part in shaping Indian society simply because they reach millions of people. Take a look at this slum. There's no sanitation, there's no running water, but almost every home has a television set.</s>KAPUR (voice-over): Entertainment channel Star Plus says it alone reaches 80 million households. Its serials center on women, often playing the role of a dutiful wife or daughter-in-law.</s>NACHIKET PANTVAIDYA, STAR PLUS: You want to make it identifiable. We don't want to make situations in our shows which are alien to consumers, because then we simply don't get people watching them. But we want to show particularly how these situations change with effort.</s>KAPUR: Azmi, who led a silent march of theater and film personalities to condemn the New Delhi gang rape, says it's time for the industry to reflect on its role</s>AZMI: But -- but -- we do not want the morality brigade to appropriate us. We don't want somebody else to tell us, "You do this, and you do that." We have to indulge in soul-searching and talk about self- regulation.</s>KAPUR: At Star Plus, the introspection could result in a new show, one that targets a male audience.</s>PANTVAIDYA: How do we tell our male audiences, this is right, and this is wrong? And that's something that we haven't fully evolved a model for, but that is something -- that is something that we're reflecting on.</s>KAPUR: TV and film folk say there's no point blaming their industry for recent events. The only people to blame for rape are rapists. Malika Kapur, CNN, Mumbai.</s>ANDERSON: Earlier, I spoke to Ira Trivedi, who's an author and former Miss India contestant, and I started by asking her how much she thought the media were actually to blame.</s>IRA TRIVEDI, AUTHOR, "INDIA IN LOVE": I think we need to keep in mind that women are sexualized and commoditized the world over, so this isn't unique just to India. But if we go one --</s>TRIVEDI: -- here, and when you impose this sort of portrayal on an extremely patriarchal society, it can only be detrimental.</s>ANDERSON: Why do you think this particular case has resonated with people in India?</s>TRIVEDI: We have to understand, this is a youth movement. I was out on the streets in Delhi protesting, and everyone around me was young. And so we understand and I think why it resonated in particular was because the woman who got raped, the woman who died, she could have been anyone. She was a 23-year-old young woman. She wanted to work. She was ambitious. She didn't want to get married. She wanted to grow up and support her family. And we see so many young men and women could relate to that. She was coming back from watching "Life of Pi." She'd gone with her friend to go watch a movie, and she was on her way home. So, when people saw this -- and she was very, very close to one of India's largest universities, IGNOU, that's where the rape happened, just minutes away from this university, so you can understand what went through the minds of these students.</s>ANDERSON: You were, as you say, on the streets protesting at the back end of 2012. Seven years ago, you were competing for Miss India in 2005. And to a certain extent, some people might criticize you as playing a part in the objectification of women at the time. My first question is, would you do that again? And secondly, would you buy that argument that you did women of India no good, but actually some harm, as it were?</s>TRIVEDI: Becky, that's -- as to the first question, no, probably not. But I do think that a book was written, I did write a book out of my experiences, and I do -- I did that as a way to hopefully -- where people would read this book and understand what actually goes on behind pageants. But what's interesting to actually look at is that I think -- this is seven years ago, so when you -- at that point in time and earlier than that, as well, the Miss India pageant was actually kind of a very vanilla- coated beauty pageant. It was -- Miss India was a paragon of virtue, and that was what she was looked upon. There was on swimsuit competition -- swimsuit round in the Miss India competition. But now, the scene has changed quite a bit.</s>ANDERSON: Hand on your heart: do you think this case will change anything in India, or change the perception of women by men will prevent this sort of tumultuous numbers that we've seen of rape in India going forward?</s>TRIVEDI: Being a young, single woman myself, I can tell you that I don't really feel safe on the streets of Delhi. I don't. So, not today. Not after what happened.</s>ANDERSON: You say that you don't feel safe on the streets of Delhi. Is it much worse, do you think, there as opposed to those other places that you've lived?</s>TRIVEDI: Hundred and ten percent. Streets of New York, I lived -- I was at Columbia when I was in New York, so I was all the way up in Harlem, and I felt safer there than I felt safer here. And in India, I lived in central Delhi behind the president of India, and I definitely don't feel as safe here. When you go out to the streets, on the streets of Delhi at night, you only see groups of young men. You do not see any women. Even -- at 9:00 PM onwards, 90 percent of the people that you see on the street, in most -- in the best areas of town, will be groups of men.</s>ANDERSON: Ira Trivedi speaking to me earlier. You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD live out of London. Up next, a portrait of a lady, but forget Henry James. We're talking of a pioneering modern artist. That's next.