Indian Reflections

What are 10 Million people doing today? - story of subjugation forewarned...

2011-11-26T08:44:00.011+05:30

Union Minister, Anand Sharma, has said that "10 million jobs will be created in 3 years through FDI in retail" in his bid to promote the entry of Wal Marts and other large retail chains into the Indian soil. The government has shamelessly held that "farmers will benefit as well!

Question arises as to what are these 10 million people doing, so helplessly awaiting the FDI in retail to come and save them from 'unemployment'?

The reality is that the Government really doesn't KNOW how our people are employed! According to their own report, only 7% of employable India is in the 'organized sector' and 93% is in 'informal or unorganized sector'. So, whenever the government talks of 'under employment' or 'unemployed', they are talking of the 7% people and their status. And in the same report, when it talks of the 'open unemployment' or those it knows of as being unemployed, it places the no. of unemployed at 9 million!

In fact, The Directorate General of Employment, when it first encountered the suggestion that FDI be opened to retail by global (and globalizing) consulting firm, says, that such a recommendation if implemented, will have '...the labour market and entire economy run by external forces' and goes on to say that 'the job loses may outsmart the additional employment generated'!

Another Government Committee, 'Parliament Standing Committee on Commerce', examined this issue and in its recommendations, said, "Blanket ban should be imposed on domestic and foreign corporate retailers from entering into retail trade in grocery and food items, and restrictions should be imposed on sale of other consumer products. Further licences should not be issued for ‘cash and carry' retail. Reservation policy should be adopted for small and medium retailers, and financial assistance should be provided for their modernization."

So, Anand Sharma, when he says about 10 million jobs will be created, he is not talking of the unemployed being employed, he is talking of re-employment of at least a million people. And, what pray were these million people doing earlier?

It will be directly from those who are currently practicing farming and involved otherwise in localized rural retailing. A 2008 report has the following to indicate the overall employment of rural work force in the 'non-farm' sector. There has been a consistent decline in what is known as 'secondary' sector in rural areas, this is those who are involved in areas other than that of farming. Many of those who live in the cities complain of non-availability of service providers for manual labour and other such work. However, it is far more difficult in rural area today.

While the no. of people who service the mobile phone has increased, those who know how to build and service a plough has decreased. The so called, value addition to the primary agricultural (why do we continue to call it 'primary' sector if it is of such least importance to the government?) sector that includes rural manufacturing / crafts and tradesmen have been on the decline (obviously this can even be seen by their share to GDP, though one wonders how that no. is captured).

Similarly, all through the last decade we have seen the reports of how several rural entrepreneur ventures that have been created by women SHGs have been largely failures than successes. Though this has been documented and the NGOs and MFIs blamed for the situation, one of the missing links has been that any worker who is skilled with a reasonable level of understanding of enterprise, has already migrated to the urban area or has been lured away by one of the large scale industries, rendering rural industries utterly people less. Rural manufactures and overall manufacturing and production industry (the so called 'secondary' sector) is being forced to adopt 'technology' based less human processes and despite their contribution to GDP are largely going the way Western countries have gone, employing less people.

Studies have reported the decline in labour for agriculture, but, it is even more difficult to find a priest to perform any local rites, it is difficult to find someone to fix the roof or make a chair, clean or dig a well or pond, deepen channels, produce fertilizer, produce the thousands of types of food items that were locally sold through the shops in the villages. A simple survey that we conducted last year showed that the 'branded' products today occupy close to 90% of rural retail shops as against about 40% ten years back.

Another study (yet to be published) by a college in Chennai indicates that a small agricultural village with a predominant population of agriculturists, found that except for agricultural produce of a few items, almost all other products that were sold came from outside the village and there was no production of any kind happening within the village. There is a gradual shift of those who were earlier in the manufacturing of products in the villages into 'salesmen' for items from large industrial production centres in urban and semi-urban areas. So, we have people selling everything from candies, cookies to mobile phones (not produce or service them though) available in the villages today, with no knowledge whatsover on how they can protect themselves from such products being done.

Basically, FDI in retail is process of re-categorization of the 'informal / casual sector' into the 'formal' sector. The issue is not about the nature of the sector as much as the sense of freedom of those who are employed in it. Across India it is common to find bureaucrats, bank managers, IAS / IFS officers...and all those counted as 'formal' sector, volunteering to work in the 'social' sector post-retirement (or if they were more courageous, take a voluntary retirement) and all of them have the same claim, 'I want to do what I couldn't do while in Service'! The structure that the 'formal' sector has become is closest to being in shackles if one were to think of the role of such functionaries as that of contributing to the national welfare. The sense of helplessness is highest for those in the 'organized' sector and despite the informal sector not share as per person economic contribution, people who love their freedom cannot with conscience work in this sector.

So, FDI in retail (and other such sectors that employ predominantly in the 'informal' sector) is a process of monetarily subjugating people who have otherwise pursued being free and practice their vocation without being a burden on the national exchequer.

The most unfortunate development is that such subjugation was not unanticipated, it was foretold, by the babus ad committees within the same 7%, the shackled ones.

But, we are in a hurry to align our economic growth curve with a deceptively 'global' one, deceptive as the contribution, control and contours of the global economic formation is changing in front of our eyes. But, weak vision is the current government's obsessive dysfunction.

Mobile Phone tower woes...

2011-10-15T11:45:00.002+05:30

Precautionary principle has been evoked by at least one government 'expert committee', in this case on the dangers caused by indiscriminate mobile phone towers springing up all over our city and rural landscape in the last decade. Earlier this year, Tehelka had recorded in different parts of the country the rather high radiation caused by mobile phone towers, way above the recommended limit (in some cases several times more). Now the expert committee that has done a preliminary study of existing material on the impact of mobile phones has in its introductory note states that our recommended limit itself is at times 100 times more than 'safe limits' in some other parts of the world, indicating exponential hazard status of our cities! and these are the cities where P. Chidambaram wants many more millions rural people to migrate into!!

Down load full report from source: http://www.moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/final_mobile_towers_report.pdf

Recommendation and Conclusion includes:

Microwave and radiofrequency pollution appears to constitute a potential cause for the decline of animal populations and deterioration of health of plants and

humans living near radiation sources such as phone masts. Studies have indicated the significant non-thermal long-term impacts of EMFs on species, especially at genetic level which can lead to various health complications including brain tumours (glioma), reduction in sperm counts and sperm mobility, congenital deformities, Psychiatric problems (stress, ringxity, sleep disorders, memory loss etc.) and endocrine disruptions. However similar aspects are yet to be studied

among animal populations.

Well-designed long-term impact assessment studies would be required to monitor the impact of ever-increasing intensities of EMRs on our biological environment. Meanwhile the

precautionary principle should prevail and we need to better our standards on EMF to match the best in the world.

Studies on impact of Cell phone tower radiation on Birds and wildlife are almost nonexistent from India. There is an urgent need for taking up well designed studies to look into this aspect.

lest we forget 25/6...

2011-06-25T09:43:00.000+05:30

25/6/75 was the day Emergency was enacted in India under Indira Gandhi's premiership. A black day for Indian Democracy, it is important to recollect some of the characteristics and see how we score today.

If you look up, "India Emergency" on the WiKi, the page gives the criticism and accusation on Emergency period that includes the following:

Criticism and accusations of the Emergency-era may be grouped as:

Detention of people by police without charge or notification of families
Abuse and torture of detainees and political prisoners
Use of public and private media institutions, like the national television network Doordarshan, for propaganda
Destruction of the slum and low-income housing in ...Delhi.
Large scale and illegal enactment of laws

The Emergency years were the biggest challenge to India's commitment to democracy, which proved vulnerable to the manipulation of powerful leaders and large parliamentary majorities.

Now, look up the most recent news items and try and categorize the governance in recent times.

- Tribals being evicted in the name of industrialization, 'development' and growth in almost every part of the country, in other parts there is either blissful negligence to address or deliberate ignorance of issues of the marginalized (which are as good as clamping a death warrant on them)

- Detention and Intimidation of people who protest the State, despite having a active Judiciary

- The smear campaign that the government ran against Baba Ramdev, Anna Hazare, et al continues unabated, thank God we do have some lever of independent media, however, they are shrinking in space by the day and there seems to be growing list of issues in which a general gag order is being placed through friendly suggestion and coercion to the media rather than a overt order to shut up (that is if you forget the bumping off of a random journo here and there).

- Laws that are slated for enactment (and many that are already in the process of getting implemented) in the coming days in the Parliament, will all pave way for a unchallenged corporate take over of the key services of the State, including education, food security, health care, housing, social security and definitions of 'development'.

I was too young to understand what was Emergency all about when it happened, but, whatever I have read since then gives me the impression that we seem to be dangerously close to the phenomena of emergency, except for some amount of independent media and an active judiciary now (and, of course, the uncensored internet!). The images of very unlikely leaders who protest against the State and gather the public around them is similar. If the declaration of Emergency was a bold move by a desperate PM, the current PM has seems to invoke all that went under such a situation through gentle persuasion, blatant denial, covert brute force and bad cover up operation where it is visible. People never seemed to matter less to a government. The corruption charges against Indira Gandhi that the Allahabad High Court found valid is a speck of dust in comparison to the cosmos of corruption of the current set-up.

There were many who supported Emergency (and regret/explain it for the rest of their lives). We need to ensure that the ranks of such is not swelling currently, while there are many who are touched by the large scale movements, there are many who are happily busy with their lives, to them, it is important to remind what happened during 25/6/75, lest history revisit us in a different form!

Judges are humans too...

2011-06-17T20:11:00.000+05:30

Three years ago the Law Minister said, 'have a heart', to a lady reporter about why Judges needed to take their spouses on official foreign visits and went on to say, 'you are a women, you should understand!' (my blog entry on that here).Few months ago the entire nation heard Niraa Radia that a SC judge has been 'taken care of'. Two days back a Judge of the Kerala High Court said, that the former CJI was 'approachable', whatever that meant.

Now, it transpires that the Government was planning to gag the Honourables in its own quirky way. The news item (link) on the foreign visit by the Judges has been ridiculed by the Delhi HC. I haven't read the guideline itself and am unable to comment. The two questions that I have in relation to this news are:

1. What if the Government sends the Judges on 'sponsored trips' that are hosted in other countries by 'private individuals/interests' (that is such a round about way to avoid the word, 'corporate'!), can the Judge say 'no' to the government? - such a programme was organized for the Judges about 8 years ago to USA, to understand the complexities of the new bio-tech related cases that may come up in India. We all know who 'teaches' bio-tech in USA with its revolving door policy.

2. What will prevent the Judge from receiving such a largesse in India itself? - after all it is a free country. So, what measure is being proposed by the government to ensure that the Judge is not invaded by foreign nationals or for that matter, Indians, with their 'hospitality'! We had amongst other things, the Tihar Raja calling a sitting Judge of Chennai HC on his phone for a favour. The Judge was bold enough to state it in the open court the next day, but, what is the protection the 'competent authority' in the government gives the Honourable Judges against such invasion?

I do think that the Judges should voluntarily accept these regulations and indeed turn it back on the bureaucracy and politicians. As equally powerful pillars of Democracy, they stand to be influenced by the global corporate establishment as much as the Judiciary, if not more.

frenzy, cheap and dirty - Congress response to Baba Ramdev...

2011-06-03T01:54:00.000+05:30

Lets face it, the issue is not of Baba Ramdev.

The issue is a Minister sitting in a Cabinet meeting called by the Prime Minister to discuss how to tackle Baba Ramdev's fast against corruption, while every newspaper across the country has carried the said Minister's photo in the morning on corruption charges!

The issue is the anger of the common man against an insipid, uninspiring and unimaginative (except when they define the BPL) government with a even more unimaginative, uninspiring and insipid Congress party heading it.

The newspapers spoke of 'Ministers grovelling before the Baba', well, don't we know? it has grovelled before the Government of USA for the Nuclear Deal, it has grovelled before the DMK several times over for protecting its own government and the nakedness of the DMK King and his entire family, it has grovelled before the Supreme Court, the Sri Lankan Government...it is so bereft of any accomplishments of any kind that the Congress party chief is left to celebrate only the swearing-in of Mamta Banerjee and Indian cricket team winning the world cup in recent times. She had nothing to do with either of these and that made her perfectly happy!!

The way the government has responded to the Baba is setting a much lower standard for itself than what it had done during the earlier fast by Annaji Hazare. The reaction is obviously poorly orchestrated (how they miss someone now in Raj Bhavan, Kolkatta), so, we have Manmohan Singh in a frenzied move, trying to browbeat the Baba by sending 4 Cabinet colleagues, lead by the moral professor Pranab Mukherjee himself (who can be a candidate for next Papacy)...apparently the Baba was not impressed and it created a very bad media item. So sad for the frenzied effort.

The cheap is the babu-neta nexus response. A series of news releases in the last week has been directed at NGOs, from IT to ED to every government agency that is involved in regulation, vaguely indicating and in a veiled manner threatening the civil society from in any way jumping into to inconvenient political activism. Of course, the media too has been roped in with the usual line of argument being adopted. Simplistic and cheap,

(a) he is a Baba, so he must be RSS; RSS = communal = bad; Baba = RSS = bad

(b) he goes around in a private jet = he must be rich; rich in India = against poor; so, Baba = against poor

(d) He has differences of opinion with Annaji; differences in politics = undercutting each other; so, Baba = against Anna

(e) he is a yadav (oh yeah! every "progressive and secular" media story has mentioned his pre-monastic name with the caste title in tow) = he cannot be more intelligent than Lallu or Mulayam; Baba = small town lower caste ambitious politician (this is mostly implied through the choice of visuals that are endlessly looped in media and choice of questions posted to others, never articulated directly)

(f) he runs a business = he has to be corrupt; Baba = corrupt

(g) Baba is against large corporates, so, he must be anti-development, he is not popular like a cricketer or a movie star = he should be countered by movie stars and cricketers (this will happen in the coming days) and other 'intellectual' public personalities (they can net several i am sure)

This cheap campaign, (again poorly orchestrated) has lead the Manmohan Singh government to look absolutely cheap and foolish. Every one of the 'perception' that they would like to promote and respond of the Baba are applicable to many in the Congress several times over and every time they make such points and try to pull down the Baba or Annaji, they pull down themselves deeper into a grave.

The outright dirty in Congress has been fully 'inside' outsourced to Diggy Maharaj! he epitomises the foot-in-the-mouth diseases that has plagued Congress for more than a year now. 'Baba is not as clean as Anna', says Maharaj, thereby declaring who has the right to cast a stone on him (and his party). He has issued several 'warnings' to the Baba (while others in his party are busy saying, 'regardless of how corrupt they are, we are wedded to DMK'), cribbed about how the Baba charges for teaching yoga (while his party is fine with K-family swindling the nation through every crevice they could sight in the government) even calling Ramdev's ashram a land grab according to reports, (while his Party's another senior partner has all but sold an entire state of Maharashtra to the land grab mafia).

The issue is not Baba Ramdev or Annaji. The issue is corruption as a culture of governance and polity that has been perpetuated by the successive governments of any colour in all states. A culture that has inhibited corporate, academia and media too leaving very thin margins for truth and fair deal to survive in society. Truth and fairness is what every citizen aspires for despite his or her social, political and economic standing. The acceptance of this corrupt culture has been mandated to succeed in any endeavour that involves the State. For too long, 'chalta hai!' attitude has penetrated our governance! Some time somewhere, people should stop and say, 'nahin chale ga!', that this shall not go on - not because they hate these politicians, nor because they want to cleanse the system, but, an expression of self-preservation of the Nation, to retain sanity, sustain faith and hold on to a vision that was articulated by self-less giants of the past.

The government may arrest Baba, it can justify the same in the "nation's interest", such measures have been done before and will be done again.

The government can continue with the smear campaign, this too has been done before and will done, and, with the Baba, the media is already playing the government's (no newspaper carried all the demands of the Baba's team!!) side.

But, when will Congress and the Government wake up to the real power that propels the Annajis and the Babas? the anger of the ordinary people and their intention to now step out and be counted. That cannot be addressed by any number of frenzied, cheap or dirty campaigns.

Hind Swaraj times...

2011-06-02T13:01:00.000+05:30

Interestingly, Baba Ramdev's demands letter submitted to the Prime Minister (one of the versions that has appeared on-line) has a reference to this small book written by Mahatma Gandhi in 1909.

In the Appendix submitted, it states:
3. To end foreign laws, customs and culture prevailing in the independent Bharat so that every Indian can get economic and social justice. We should follow Mahatma Gandhi’s book named Hind Swaraj mentioning that after independence we need to remove British system and adopt Bhartiya system.

It is important to know that one of the fundamental disagreements between Gandhi and Nehru was over the views Gandhiji expressed regarding the future development and governance of India in the book Hind Swaraj. Gandhiji time and again had reiterated that he stood by what he said in this book written much before his arrival in India or leading the Indian freedom struggle.

Some of the important differences are part of the publication "Quintessential Gandhi" published by Samanvaya in 2005. Later republished in English and Tamil by Kizhakku Padhippagam.

Here below are few excerpts that may be of interest and quite relevant in the context of the on-going debate:

The key … is to realise that it [Hind Swaraj] is not an attempt to go back to the so-called ignorant, dark ages. But it is an attempt to see beauty in voluntary simplicity, poverty and slowness. … the modern rage for variety, for flying through the air, for multiplicity of wants, etc., have no fascination for me. They deaden the inner being in us. Therefore, even whilst I am travelling at the rate of 40 miles per hour, I am conscious that it is a necessary evil, and that my best work is to be done in little Sevagram … and in the neighbouring villages to which I can walk. But being a highly practical man I do not avoid railway travelling or motoring for the mere sake of looking foolishly consistent”.

Harijan, October 14, 1939.

Gandhi's vision of Hind Swaraj was countered, however, b many, including by one of his young close associates, Jawaharlal Nehru, as early as 1928. Provoked by Gandhiji's letter (dated January 4th, 1928), Nehru elucidated the reasons for his dissent as follows:

You know how intensely I have admired you and believe in you as a leader who can lead this country to victory and freedom. I have done so in spite of the fact that I hardly agreed with anything that some of your previous publications – Indian Home Rule, etc., - contained. I felt and feel that you were and are infinitely greater than your little books… Reading many of your articles in Young India – your autobiography, etc., - I have often felt how very different my ideals were from yours. ”

Letter from Jawaharlal Nehru, Allahabad, January 11, 1928.

"...You misjudge greatly, I think, the civilization of the West and attach too great an importance to its many failings. You have stated somewhere that India has nothing to learn from the West and that she had reached a pinnacle of wisdom in the past. I certainly disagree with this viewpoint and I neither think that the so-called Ramaraj was very good in the past, nor do I want it back. I think that western or rather industrial civilization is bound to conquer India, maybe with many changes and adaptations, but none the less, in the main, based on industrialism. You have criticized strongly the many obvious defects of industrialism and hardly paid any attention to its merits. .... It is the opinion of most thinkers in the West that these defects are not due to industrialism as such but to the capitalist system which is based on exploitation of others”.

Letter from Jawaharlal Nehru, Allahabad, January 11, 1928.

Gandhiji seems to have been taken aback by such an outburst and wrote to Nehru:

The differences between you and me appear to me to be so vast and radical that there seems to be no meeting ground between us…I suggest a dignified way of unfurling your banner. Write to me a letter for publication showing your differences. I will print it in Young India and write a brief reply”.

Gandhi to Jawaharlal Nehru, January 17, 1928.

But Nehru was not prepared to have a public discussion of his views.

Seventeen years later in 1945, similar differences relating to the shape of indenendent India’s polity arose again between Gandhiji and Jawaharlal Nehru. In Oct 1945, Gandhiji had said:

You will not be able to understand me if you think that I am talking about the villages of today. My ideal village still exist only in my imagination. Men and women will live in freedom, prepared to face the whole world. … Nobody will be allowed to be idle or to wallow in luxury. Everyone will have to do physical work. Granting all this … a number of things … will have to be organized on a large scale. Perhaps there will even be railways and also post and telegraph offices. I do not know what things there will not be. Nor am I bothered about it. If I can make sure of the essential things, other things will follow in due course”.

Gandhi to Jawaharlal Nehru, October 5, 1945.

I believe that if India, and through India the world, is to achieve real freedom, then sooner or later we shall have to go and live in the villages - in huts, not in palaces. Millions of people can never live in cities and palaces in comfort and peace. Nor can they do so by killing one another, that is, by resorting to violence and untruth. I have not the slightest doubt that, but for the pair, truth and non-violence, mankind will be doomed. We can have the vision of that truth and non-violence only in the simplicity of the villages”. - Gandhi to Jawaharlal Nehru, October 5, 1945.

Nehru however demurred again as in 1928 and wrote:

The question before us is not one of truth versus untruth and non-violence versus violence…I do not understand why a village should necessarily embody truth and non-violence. A village, normally speaking, is backward intellectually and culturally and no progress can be made from a backward environment. Narrow-minded people are much more likely to be untruthful and violent”.

Nehru to Gandhi, October 1945

Indeed as freedm seemed imminent, the elite openly began to be drawn to modernity and its institutions.

Eighteen years later, however, when India had been launched on the Western road by the British and the Indian elite, Jawaharlal Nehru spoke in a somewhat sombre mood in September 1963, conceded:

My mind was trying to grapple with the problem of what to do with more than 5,50,000 villages of India and the people who live there. …If we were to think purely in terms of output, all the big and important factories in India are not really so important as agriculture. ...what Gandhiji did was fundamentally right. He was looking all the time at the villages of India, at the most backward people in India in every sense, and he devised something. It was not merely the spinning wheel; that was only a symbol. He laid stress on village industries, which again to the modern mind does not seem very much worthwhile.

…People think that he was against machinery. I don’t think he was against it. He did not want machinery except in the context of the well-being of the mass of our people. What he suggested – cottage industry - was something which immediately benefitted the people, not only in regard to employment but also in production”.

Speech by Jawaharlal Nehru, to a seminar on ‘Social Welfare in a Developing Economy’, New Delhi,

Septmeber 22, 1963.

In the Indian Parliament in December 1963 again he spoke:

I begin to think more and more of Mahatma Gandhi’s approach. It is odd that I am mentioning his name in this connection. I am entirely an admirer of the modern machine, and I want the best machinery and the best technique, but, taking things as they are in India, however rapidly we advance towards the machine... the fact remains that large numbers of our people are not touched by it and will not be for a considerable time. Some other method has to be evolved that they become partners in production, even though the production apparatus of theirs may not be efficient as compared to modern technique, but we must use that, for otherwise, it would be wasted. That idea has to be kept in mind. We should think more of the very poor country men of ours and do something to improve their lot as quickly as we can. This problem is troubling me a great deal”.

Reply to the Debate on Planning, Lok Sabha, December 11, 1963

What does it take to save the life of an infant? Ekam experience...

2011-04-30T23:11:00.000+05:30

The infant struggling to breath was 3 days old and went by the cryptic hospital title of ‘son of lakshmi’, by the name of the women who happened to deliver it. I saw the son of Lakshmi for the first time in the neo-natal ICU of the Ramnathapuram Government General Hospital yesterday at around 3 p.m. The staff nurse was manually pumping oxygen into its lungs, it was so tiny, that the infant could hardly be seen under all the machinery attached and the oversized diaper strapped around it. Dr. Sailakshmi walked in and for a moment the young staff nurse turned around and gave a big smile along with the senior nurse who immediately recognized Sai from her reputation and offered all of us (along with Sai two of us had gone there) to show around the ICU. Sai immediately looked at the child, asked a few questions and said that pumping was inadequate and the nurse had to pump a bit more forcefully (‘you should be able to see the lung expand’) and more frequently. She showed it to the young nurse and explained why this was important. Then looking at what the child was being given through the chart, she enquired why a particular type of antibiotic was not given to the senior nurse. She noted down the number of the doctor on call and called him to enquire why the antibiotic was not given, suggested it be administered. The Doctor immediately calls the senior nurse in her phone and informs her to procure the antibiotic and administer the same.

Meanwhile, Sai has started to instruct the junior nurse about how the manual pumping operates, what it does to the child and how it is supposed to respond, also enquiring why there is no ventilator in the ICU. It turns out that there is a ventilator, a brand new one at that, it hasn’t been ‘set-up’ for reasons no one knows. The bio-medical engineer in-charge of the district hasn’t visited to do the installation. In Sai’s assessment, the child hasn’t responded to the medication and if it doesn’t , the nurses cannot go on with the manual pumping endlessly. The junior one bravely tells us that she will go on doing manual pumping as long as it required! But, all the same it looks improbable. So, with no ventilator, Sai starts to enquire as to the nearest hospital where she can refer the infant to. The nearest one is to Madurai and only private hospitals there have the facility to transport the baby with care and a ventilator from Ramnad to Madurai. Thankfully, Ekam has an MOU with one such hospital and as the junior nurse now starts pumping more vigorously, Sai is already asking Rajesh to get in touch with Madurai private hospital to ask if they will take the child. Meanwhile, she is on the phone to the doctor again to seek his opinion on the referral, getting his consent, she turns to the nurses and instructs them on the kind of medication required for the child to be transported; meanwhile Rajesh starts to locate the parents.

Obviously ‘Lakshmi’ is in the labour ward, some uncle of the new born responds and later brings another man who says he is the grandfather of the infant. Rajesh and Sai explain the status of the child and how it is important for the infant to be shifted to Madurai where the ‘machine’ that is required for the child to be treated is available, the same is not available here. They don’t exactly say these words, but, that is what they translate it as…apparently, the family is that of agriculture labourers and Sai very fast explains to them that they don’t have to pay anything and the entire expense of the treatment will be borne by Ekam. They don’t know how to respond and are too shocked by the suddenness of the whole thing to respond, there is an expression of utter incomprehension in their faces. When Rajesh tries to find out more about the family, Sai stops him saying that, they are emotionally not fine and he should not ask any questions to them at this time. ‘they have come to the GH and didn’t go to any private clinic for delivery, they must be poor, good enough for us to support don’t bother’, she silences him.

It’s 3.15 and the family gives its consent, Sai is holding phone with the Madurai hospital contact all through her conversation and as soon as they say, ‘yes’, she confirms for the ambulance. There is one more call later from the ambulance people to get details of what they should come prepared for and also to get the phone no.s of the nurses and the parents, they call the nurse as well as the family waiting outside and have a confirmation even as they leave for Ramnad.

Meanwhile, we are leaving and our local host says it will take about an hour and half at least and he doesn’t expect the ambulance before 5 p.m. The ambulance beats him by 15 minutes and as we sit for a meeting with local community members in an old school for setting up of the community health care monitoring cell, we already have got the confirmation that the infant is in the ambulance. When we finish the meeting couple of hours later, the infant has already been admitted to the private hospital in Madurai. Ekam needs to send a letter as per the MOU recommending that the child be treated, but, the paper work can catch up later, they take the phone call as confirmation and start treatment. Sai instructs Rajesh to ensure that the letter is emailed that evening itself. She is now on the phone to someone in the Madurai hospital discussing the case of the child. We leave Ramnad after a few more meetings by 9.30 or so.

This afternoon, we visit the Madurai hospital. The NICU is in the ground floor and the smiling staff nurse informs us that only one person is permitted inside at a time and that too only with the mask on…the government hospital yesterday didn’t have any masks and the small dark nurses desk was in a crowded corner of the passage with all the relatives of the 5 infants (including ‘lakshmi’s child’) squatting in the narrow passage at one end. The Madurai hospital is amazingly clean and the nurse is insistent that only one person can go inside, so Sai dons the mask and is permitted inside, after she spends a few minutes, she comes out and says that that ‘lakshmi’s child is recovering and the breathing has stabilized’, I am permitted a peak for whatever it is worth.

We walk out to see the grandfather and the same uncle we had met yesterday in the hospital, faces that we had only registered briefly, but, beaming now as they themselves see us as friendly faces in an alien place and situation. We meet Lakshmi herself in a corner, sitting all by herself and sobbing, Sai consoles her and says that she should visit the child and talk and sing to the child, that children respond to the mother’s voice and recover faster. She informs the grandfather that the child is responding to the medication and that the next 24 hours will be important. She enquires as to where they are sleeping and where they buy their food, suggesting that the food in the canteen may be cheaper than in the outside hotels. The grandfather looks dumbstruck with nothing but gratitude all over his face, he doesn’t have words, just puts his hands together in the universal gesture of respect and gratitude.

As I leave with Sai, I realize it is another day of work for her She is responding to several such calls each week. I have just witnessed how a life can be saved through the Ekam experience, a life that would have otherwise stopped when a tired nurse stopped pumping oxygen or gave up on the lack of response to medication. The life would have stopped for want of better facilities, the poor family would have accepted it as their fate, the nurses would have registered another case of death in their ‘death register’ (they had 6 for the previous week). I realized that Sai doesn’t even know the name, village or any background of the child, it will be just ‘lakshmi’s child’!

Ekam helped save 65 such children in the past year, caring for them, getting them better equipment, facilities, support and better care, ensuring that all this is done within the government system so that the poorest of the people never see a child die for want of better facilities. Now Ekam has initiated an ambitious programme to replicate the model in each district across Tamilnadu with local civil society support and participation. Now every neo-natal ICU ward in every government hospital will have a poster with a phone no. of the local Ekam coordinator, to call whenever they think they may give up, but, don’t want to, to dial for hope. More about Ekam and donations details in the Ekam website, www.ekamoneness.org

Aesthetic and Safe Wiring, the most visible Indian Government need...

2011-04-29T16:58:00.000+05:30

Why can't they have a safer and more cleanly done wiring?

Who is responsible for the wiring, particularly for changing old ones and introducing new ones?

As I sit waiting for a Collector to meet us in yet another Collectorate, my gaze wanders to more hanging wires in the corridor, a familiar sight in most parts of India in all govt offices. I always wonder why is it so hard for the wiring to be neatly done and why can't they remove old ones.

Sent from BSNL with my BlackBerry® smartphone

Vote now, will pay later!!

2011-04-01T10:41:00.000+05:30

The latest strategy by the ruling alliance in Tamilnadu to tackle the election commission toughness - Vote for us now, we will pay you after the elections once the commission is off our backs!

Sent from BSNL with my BlackBerry® smartphone

Black Money Trails...

2011-03-29T06:20:00.000+05:30

It is not as much about the magnitude of the money as much as who are Hasan's clients. It is Chief Minister, prominent Actor, prominent Businessmen, Chief Secretary, Ministers, family members of Politicians, Builders...all those category of people every common man in the street knows to be corrupt. So, who is surprised? The System is designed to ignore these and continue as though nothing is the issue. Then it stumbles upon this information (thanks to some activist judiciary) and doesn't know what to do with it. The system is not designed to handle such cases, it can't.

The Cops mention that ever since they have arrested another Kolkatta aide of Hasan Ali, they have been under 'severe pressure' and in a first ever (as far as I know), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) executives have sought protection for themselves and their families!!!

The system that absorbs such large black money obviously has a violent side, they go together, no wonder, arms dealer, Kogeshshi's name has made a come back into our midst.

Like the 2G that is fast being buried (literally in the case of poor Sadic Batcha), this case too will be buried so that more people can live safely and the system in ignorant bliss.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comments by the Supreme Court
The apex court also expressed its dismay that the government's probe into the issue of black money was focussed only on the case involving Pune stud owner Hasan Ali Khan and no name of any other person involved in stashing funds abroad has come out.

"No further information is coming out. Only one individual is there. What about others?" a bench of justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar asked Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, who submitted to the bench, in a sealed cover, the Enforcement Directorate's status report of its probe in the case.

After perusing the status report, the bench criticised the steps taken by the government in the investigation of the matter including that relating to the passport case against Khan.

"It is very difficult to be calm and quiet after seeing the status report," the bench remarked.

"Why all these agencies were sleeping since 2008? Why it moved when we stepped in? If writ petition had not been filed, nothing would have happened," the bench observed. The court was hearing a PIL seeking retrieval of black money stashed by Indian citizens in banks abroad. The PIL had been filed by former Union Law Minister Ram Jethmalani.

The court reiterated its idea of setting up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising officers of Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing, Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate to probe the entire issue related to the black money stashed in banks abroad.

News Source: http://www.timesnow.tv/Blackmoney-SC-slams-govt-for-not-probing-source/articleshow/4368928.cms

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Latest revelations

A former Andhra Pradesh chief minister had his black money routed back from abroad through Ali.
Ali helped a popular Telugu film producer-actor to get his money moved around for financing his films in mid 2000s.
Another Andhra leader and two regional parties banked on Ali to access their money parked abroad.
Certain politicians in Kerala and Tamil Nadu also used Ali's help for similar work.
An Andhra Pradesh party brought back close to Rs 200 crore from abroad through Ali for the 2009 elections.
An actress whose accounts are managed by her brother also had money routed through Ali.
A popular Maharashtra Congress leader had funds for his election campaigns routed through Ali.
Ali spent crores of rupees for the wedding of the son of a senior Maharashtra politician.

Those named earlier

Hasan Ali laundered money for three former chief ministers of Maharashtra.
Amlendu Kumar Pandey, a Congress leader from Bihar, allegedly helped Ali obtain a passport from Patna on the basis of forged documents and open an account in Singapore to park his black money.
Investigations exposed Ali's links with four Maharashtra bureaucrats, who are also involved in the Adarsh housing society scam.
Ali laundered money for a Maharashtra builder, a close associate of a former CM who resides in a plush apartment at a famed Nariman Point building in Mumbai.
Ali is believed to have pumped in money into the businesses of the son-in-law of one of these former CMs.
Ali also had close connections with Adnan Khashoggi, an international arms dealer.

News Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/133587/top-stories/black-money-hasan-ali-banked-for-andhra-pradesh-former-chief-minister-film-stars.html

how much more shit?

2011-03-17T22:38:00.000+05:30

The 2G spectrum someone blew a whistle 3 years ago, the PM didn't notice, it visited in all dirtiness last year end thanks to Radiaa tapes and a court order, so, he relents...still some how maintains he is 'clean'

The CVC appointment, the leader of opposition gives an information, the PM chooses to ignore, later the same is quashed by a court order, so, he says 'I take the responsibility', great, but, does it make him better? 'clean?'

Now the WiKiLeaks reveals that when the Left opposed him and pulled out the support, he actually 'bought' the votes, (if we remember, the Left has been forever rubbished based on this pull out and Congress converted the winning of the vote of confidence to a national referendum on nuclear policy, irony that this leak occurs after another nuclear leak in other part of the world raises question about our nuclear safety) and would he still get written about as the 'clean' PM?

whose PM is he any way??

this is the absurd...

2011-03-09T08:24:00.001+05:30

the government later withdrew this tax after much protest, particularly from this one Ad placed by the doctor.

Judicial Accountability - new evidence on the former CJI's case...

2011-02-27T09:30:00.000+05:30

..."We are investigating how they have got the black money. We will again question the relatives", the Income Tax Director General said...."

Through this blog we have followed the case of the former CJI and several complaints against him (more recent summary), recently a bench headed by the current CJI rquested CBI to tell them in open court the status of the investigation. Just now see the headlines that the Kerala IT Department had definitely found the members of the former CJI's family in possession of black money (link to the news story).

Judicial Accountability - strides in the right direction

2011-02-19T13:35:00.000+05:30

It is good to see that the current bench in the SC has taken this bold step to acknowledge that the complaint on the ex-CJI as well as to ask the Govt to file a status report. The ex-CJI has been under the shadow of suspicion on several grounds at the same time, whether he helped to hush-up the call to a sitting judge in the Chennai High Court (the one that had dubious Raja in the other end) by a Central Minister, whether his children acquired property not in line with their known sources of income (Kerala government has an investigation on this I think) and whether he did enough for Judicial Accountability.

It is important that he clear himself from such shadows, particularly as he has immediately assumed the office as the Human Rights Commission head. He has had earlier problems too (I have blogged earlier on an RTI by a popular channel here). In fact, during his tenure, he maintained that he would keep the asset details of the Judges in a 'sealed envelop' as the only incentive he granted for Judicial Accountability. This was not agreed upon by many even then (note on Judge disagreeing with him on Accountability here) and some Judges have declared their assets online. It is amazing that we have such straight forward judges.

It is not enough if the former CJI clears his name and comes out clean. It is important that others don't have to go through such suspicion. We still have the pending suspicion of who was the judge that was neutralized as per the Radia tapes (there is a reference in one of her conversations about a judge being taken care of for a certain amount).

Tell us status of complaint about ex-CJI assets: SC

In a rare step towards judicial transparency, a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) S H Kapadia revealed in full public glare today that the Union Home Ministry had, in 2010, received a complaint seeking an investigation into the assets of former Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan.

the worst ever government of India?

2011-01-09T09:09:00.000+05:30

what a state we are in today -

Kapil Sibal, the Min. for Science & Tech till the other day is busy picking holes (or knocking a few as though it matters) with another government accounting body (CAG)

Chidambaram, the Home Minister, is wondering about how the Fin. Ministry will bring down inflation, while

Sharad Pawar, the Min for Food (when he doesnt do Cricket) is advising the Min. for Environment as to why environment unfriendly food should be permitted,

Jairam Ramesh, the Min. for Environment is telling Min. for Ext Affairs, why they are wrong in policy towards China,

and Pranab Mukherji, Min. of Finance (and self-appointed moral headmaster of India), is busy informing the Prime Minister, why he would not do what the PM does,

while all this happens, Prime Minister, considered by all as Mr. Clean is busy trying to defend the ex-Minister responsible for perhaps the biggest scam in the world!

All of these people are making these statements on others' departments through the press, wonder if they ever meet as a Cabinet and discuss anything at all? meanwhile they all collectively complain of the opposition stalling the Parliament, what would these people talk in parliament if they can't talk to their own cabinet colleagues directly??

The Human Rights Commission Chairman was a Judge who faces charges of corruption during his Judicial day (but refuses to resign), while a honest man who fought for human rights is charged with sedition and given life sentence (Binayak Sen); the Vigilance Commissioner earlier as a bureaucrat got co-opted into the big scam, however refuses to resign as he is sure to be more vigilant now!

CBI is the investigating body that every one wants to utilize, and CBI is the agency no one wants to believe either! The IT and Enforcement department taps phones and these are leaked by whom no one knows. Files with information from other (CWG) departments supposedly disappear meanwhile, and, no one knows where. IT department knows a commission was paid in a defence transaction and CBI has closed investigation on the same because they couldn't find it! CBI doesn't know where is Anderson, television channels know.

Even what the Ministers say to the media, may not be reproduced in full! we don't know for whose sake the media prints anything any longer, the popular joke is, 'do you work for the media or do you work for radia?' and Radias of the world work for Tatas and Reliances. Tata thinks that his talk on coats and ties being leaked is a violation of human rights, but, no one who has discussed about several hundred crores of money being exchanged feel that the leaking of their conversation is violation of any of their rights!!! while, the Corporate houses compete to control the politicians, the agriculture minister registers his political party as a corporate in USA and no one thinks something is wrong about it!!!

is this the worst ever central government we have? can it get worse than this?? should we thank Pranab Mukherji for the suggestion (well, he issued it as a moral threat as is his wont) that the government should go for a mid-term poll and put a stop to this mediocre and headless existence???

Destroy the Ashram of Himanshu Kumar, Case against Arundathi Roy...Life Sentence for Binayak Sen,

2010-12-25T07:28:00.000+05:30

In the on going war between the State and its people, often the collateral damage are those who are able to articulate the voice of the people with clarity and integrity and are not afraid to do so in public glare.

So, Himanshu Kumar's ashram has been run down, he has been displaced, Arundathi Roy has a FIR for seditious speech and Binayak Sen for spending 30 years in medical care, is life imprisoned. Those who cannot command such media attention meet a fate more worse. Please find below an appeal from the 'Free Binayak Sen' campaign. Do sign the petition for whatever it is worth.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Friends,

Please sign and circulate the following petition created by the Free Dr. Binayak Sen Campaign, asking for the Release of Binayak Sen, who as you might know has been sentenced today for life imprisonment on trumped up charges by the Raipur court.

http://www.petitiononline.com/sen2010/petition.html

To: The President of India, Rashtrapati Bhavan, New DelhiWe, the undersigned are shocked at the conviction of well-known public health doctor and human rights worker Dr Binayak Sen by a Raipur Sessions Court on charges of "sedition" and "waging war against the Indian State". The conviction carries a sentence of life imprisonment, a drastic and completely unjust fate, to be handed out to one India's finest social activists.
We call upon the higher Indian judiciary to uphold principles of law, justice and the rights enshrined in the Indian Constitution and undo the severe damage done to the reputation of the judiciary itself through the Raipur court's flawed judgment.

The charges against Dr Sen, of allegedly aiding outlawed Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh, have not been corroborated by any of the witnesses or evidence produced in court so far. On the contrary there have been numerous instances of the prosecution resorting to use of fabricated documents and contradictory testimonies to press its case.

We further believe that the charges against Dr Sen, made under draconian "anti-terrorist" laws, are trumped up and intended to "punish" him for his outspoken criticism of the Chhattisgarh government for its human rights violations against its own tribal populations. Dr Sen, a heart patient, has already spent over two years in prison from May 2007 to May 2009 and was released on bail by the Indian Supreme Court.

That the world's largest democratic country cannot tolerate criticism and non-violent human rights activism is a matter of shame to Indian citizens everywhere and this attitude of intolerance needs to be roundly condemned. Such low quality of justice, routinely delivered in our courts, is indeed itself a threat to Indian democracy.

Not only should Dr Sen be released immediately from imprisonment and charges withdrawn, there needs to be a thorough inquiry against all those who have framed him so maliciously. We also demand adequate compensation to Dr Sen for being deprived of his basic freedoms and his family for being subjected to the most inhumane mental torture and persecution.
Sincerely,

Adv Kamayani Bali Mahabal
+919820749204
--------------------------------------------

Indian has overcome 'Brain Drain' says PM with Radia in mind!!

2010-12-03T08:28:00.000+05:30

I have a feeling PM couldn't escape the shadow of Niira Radia and must of remembered her PIO status and her contribution to the Indian Politicians (income), Industry (investment) and Media (expertise) respectively, when he made the following remark!

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday that India has overcome the problem of 'brain drain' and is drawing on the global 'brain bank' of people of Indian origin.

In a speech at the Hiren Mukherjee Memorial Lecture in the Parliament House today, Dr. Singh said: "Today, we in India are experiencing the benefits of the reverse flow of income, investment and expertise from the global Indian diaspora."

Wah Sardar! Did anyone say he didn't have a sense of humour?!

Have your say...

2010-11-29T23:23:00.000+05:30

Gandhian LC Jain passes away...

2010-11-15T11:39:00.001+05:30

He was 85 and suffering from illness for over a year this morning's news papers inform us (link, link). But, Sri. Jain was much younger at heart and one of the last symbols of what Gandhian's were, in their lifestyle, their way of working and attitude to people.

I had been introduced to him by a friend and when he first met and enquire what I did in his elegant Gandhian way (most Gandhians of a certain era had this elegant charm about them, Dharampal did), he quickly got into the family details, 'are you happy?', 'can you sustain?', 'is your family supportive?', the query that is always asked of any youngster by a generation of people who knew what it was to suffer under less resources.

I have had the privilege to have met with him several times at his impressive and simple residence in Bangaluru and he always had a appreciative work, 'if you want I will vacate my space for you', 'call me whenever you want, if my body permits I will be there',...the kind of encouragement that is rare amongst people of such illustrious accomplishments. He had at one time spoken with great enthusiasm about the work he and Dharampal did under Kamala Markendeya in the refugee camps in Delhi immediately after the Partition and Freedom.

The last time I had a long meeting with him was along with Sri. J. Prabhakar, the coordinator of a network of volunteers across Tamilnadu. He heard him out and turned to me and said with a glitter in his eyes, 'so, you have come to flaunt to me how rich you are interacting and working with all these amazing people' and laughed heartily. The humour is another characteristic feature of such elders. He told JP clearly at that meeting, 'these people whom you work with, these are the real government of this country, don't think or talk about petitioning. I have no hopes that the Government in the Centre or any State will be able to help the people any longer, their priorities and ideas are all different, people will have to help themselves'. His life long passion and much of his work seems to have been in de-centralization and Swaraj as a vision.

While on that, he was also against Social Activists entering the political arena. He once named couple of prominent social activists whom he had dissuaded from entering the political arena because he maintained that their influence in society would come down if they enter the parliament in its current status.

When Dharampal died, he wrote a fond letter recollecting their joint work and saying, 'I will meet you someday in a different world, my friend', he will be among several friends in another world I am sure. This world is poorer by another endearing Gandhian; and the Gandhian values of Swadeshi and Swaraj lost another prominent voice.

Condolences to Madam Devaki Jain and his two sons, Gopalkrishna Jain and Srinivasan Jain.

awaiting a judgement...of a decision foregone!

2010-09-18T08:11:00.000+05:30

since the promise of the Ram Mandir a decade and more back, about a 100,000 farmers have committed suicide, we don't even now have a policy or a government that is sympathetic towards their cause, tribal lands across the country seems to be under siege by the Nation State itself, in the name of caste, young couples are killed almost every week, one state burns for couple of decade and continues with or without external forces stoking the fire...should there be another temple or mosque or should we erect a monument of national shame?

the babri masjid judgement from Allahabad expected in a few days will not decide anything. a local issue to begin with, that people of two faiths wanted to resolve on their own, that was hijacked and kept alive by a new form of hypocrite politics (Congress holds the monopoly for the old form), an issue that has been sustained by successive generation of politically ambitious septuagenarians, is seen by several as another possible occasion for publicity stunt now.

babri masjid - ram mandir is not a place nor an event, both of which the court may stamp its words the coming week. it is a process of a dialogue choked, a dialogue that could have resolved issues, instead, hijacked, abused, mutilated...a dialogue that brought to the fore unnamed people leaders with confidence and faith in a dialogue process, but, then the politicians came along and the media and both took over and handed the issue to the judiciary and the bureaucracy at the cost of the ordinary person. now the politician and the media both stand in silence and ask the ordinary people to have faith in the legal apparatus to deliver justice!

babri-masjid was the beginning of an end of a process of dialogue, a dialogue that an ever optimist citizen sustains despite facing spite and stymie. a nation state can recognize the process and strengthen it or shrink from its responsibility, push a flaccid judiciary as impotent defence scaffold supported by violence against its own people. the judgement seen as another step in a dialogue process or possibility could lead to peace, of ordinary people of different faiths sitting across the table in a million places across the land, to dialogue if only the police will not charge on them, seeing every crowd as sign of disturbance!

dialogue amongst people can resolve and lead to peace, dialogue is a political tool of control for a State, meant as a palliative and doomed indecisive. the decision on the masjid was made at the time the people gave up and the State took over, the judgement will be a statement of incompetence, will be celebrated by the State and the Media and the ordinary citizen will go about hoping all this will die down soon and she can start another dialogue process of peace yet again.

...and a week later, the State and the Media will shamelessly parrot, 'ishwar-allah-tere-naam sabuko-sanmati-de-bhagwan' to reminiscence a Man whose spirit personified the dialogue of peace.

UID and salary hike of MPs

2010-08-25T20:43:00.000+05:30

...but, the allowance (they being elected and not eligible for a salary I presume) of our Members of Parliament has been raised from Rs.17,000/- to Rs.60,000/- and the MPs have been demanding that they be paid more than the Cabinet Secretary, which is Rs. 80,000/-

i think it is sad that these MPs should be paid so less, maybe they should be paid Re.1 per vote for the number of votes they secured, so, some would take a few lakh more than others, but, they were voted by that many people. we will have rich and poor MPs. but, the accountable factor ought to be left in the hands of the voter. what if i use the unique id (UID) Mr. Nilakeni bestows me to say that I don't want to pay my Rs.1/- to my MP? then the payment is directly linked to the support the MP sustains. it would be a kind of share market with a difference. the MPs can only sustain their salaries by openly doing something to their constituency, the less they do, the more people are dissatisfied, the less they take home. each month people can register the performance of their MPs (and maybe also MLAs?) by swiping the plastic UID in their local kiosk and hit the 'I continue to support Mr. blah-blah with my Re.1/-' (perhaps a green circle around the MPs face as against the red one around the MPs face? some parts of India may have a special option of a black one also just in case someone want's to do mukh kaala). one rupee per green click, this service will become the largest accountability exercise in the world (and several thousand man hours of back office generated in the process). imagine about a billion and more clicks per month, the entire infrastructure and bandwidth required can be recovered by the Ads. placed by the companies on top of the MPs face! there could be localized advertisements for the constituency! maybe even the advertisement of the competitor on top asking people to click red and promising better performance, if (s)he is elected!! Google may consider this as a free service if it estimates the advertising potential!!

C'mon Mr. Nilakeni why not dare to imagine a different India? a more accountable one and use the UID to serve something better than what the earlier duplicate ration cards and duplicate voter Ids have served!!

Going into Hibernation...

2010-08-04T23:00:00.001+05:30

I have not posted anything on my own for several months now and don't feel I can devote time as of now...till I feel so, this blog will remain as it is now with old entries, but, no new entries. This hibernation is for at least the next 5 months...

Anderson is not the Bhopal villain...

2010-06-09T13:35:00.000+05:30

The media has started its regular damage of looking for a hero or a villain post Bhopal verdict. Anderson is a convenient face. But in their hurry to portray someone as a villain for every perceived and real disaster that the country faces, the commit the same mistake of sacrificing sense for sensationalism.

We are the real villains of Bhopal.

To continue to place our hopes on a judiciary that has failed repeatedly to dole out justice, particularly against the powers of the day; to continue to put up with a government that relaxes every rule of the land for accommodating corporate expansion and multinational profiteering; to give our homes for paltry compensation so that roads can be expanded and their loot can be carried away, to sacrifice our claim on our environment as a living culture and lineage so that someone can convert it as a natural 'resource' to be exploited and profited from, to continue to put up with the executive that bends backwards to every foreign delegate with blood in their hands, to put up with corporate heads who sermonize on the virtues of foreign investment and try and buy out or silence every dissenting voice through pilanthropic 'development' and 'progress' programmes...we have become so insensitive that we can put up with all this and admire and defend our own 'resilient' nature and carry on. Aren't we the villains?

Watched the movie, 'Wednesday' recently in which the protagonist common man at one point tells the police commissioner, 'we are resilient by force and not by choice', how long would it take for the citizens of Bhopal to breakdown the building that houses their High Court? How long will it takes for those who sympathize with the victims and are generating several heated debates across the country in the last few days if they put their hands together to pull down the law ministry or supreme court in Delhi?

But, we don't resort to violence as we are not tuned to it, it is not in our nature.. Violence is not in our nature as a response, we are a non-violent (not necessarily translate to 'peaceful') people, but, practitioners of non-violence deserve a more sensitive government, something the hard headed Congressmen have never been able to understand. Our governments have managed to relegate all forms of non-violent protests to some corner and a insignificant entertainment. Gandhi could hold a fast to protest in a central location in a slave nation and the world can await on the sidelines, in the free country he would be asked to do it in the remotest part of the city/town or village and the state would ensure that no one knows of it through the control of the media. The media will gladly give repeated space for throwing petrol bombs and shoot out incidents than peaceful protests. It is violence and noise centric and cannot appreciate silence nor peace.

So, we the non-violent villains continue to write petitions, group around and debate the issues among those whom we are comfortable with, sign online petitions and write comments and blogs (like this) to vent our outrage at such occurrence and at the most resort to some token form of protest. Maybe some like Arundathi Roy end up justifying the violence of Maoists with their anger. But, violence cannot be a scaled up response in India, you cannot get a nation of a billion plus people to become violent at one go and change the system, that is impractical and the Maoists will fail.

But, the anger is already reached a scale and without adequate strong mediums of expression it is leaching into the psyche as acceptance of violence by a majority, this will be dangerous. Acceptance of violence as a response cannot be divorced from understanding of ethical behaviour, but, people may not want to practice ethics with the State, after all, it has no stakes in the ethics of the people nor has it ever recognized or acknowledged it.

Most practice their non-violent anger through any act of subverting the State that they can indulge in without being affected (and if they can also benefit, even better), so, we evade tax, violate traffic rules, throw garbage everywhere, scribble our names in monuments protected by the State and in a million ways express to the state our willingness to degenerate our own existence and thereby the Nation, acceptance of degenerated society of the country by the majority is the sign of a unhappy people. It is no different from acceptance of violence in an otherwise non-violent society.

If violence as a power is accepted by large numbers without practising it, those who are capable of practising and their directions may find easy ground in society. The groups that foment violent responses are already finding fresh grounds.

Political change is a tool of peaceful response, but, political change without courage to change the system of ineptitude is useless. Executive powers could change (thanks to the long gap, a retired CBI man has actually confessed that they went soft on Anderson because of government intervention, this must be happening in several cases even now and we may never know), but, changing them without the change in their orientation and priorities will be useless too. Judiciary can change, instead of conducting tours to remote countries for learning how judiciary can work, they can travel to remote villages in our country and learn how villagers understand and administer law, but, if judicial jobs are contracts, this will not auger well for return of investment. Media can reduce decibels and reward peaceful protests with their consistent patronage and coverage, but, that would not fetch them advertisement revenues and incidental perks.

So, what can change? Maybe, we being villains?

We can make a start by not getting carried away by media portrayal of someone as hero or a villain, Anderson is 89 and seems to have lived comfortably for close to 26 years without no remorse or consciousness, what good will it do to get him to spend whatever remaining time of his life in an Indian prison? what will it compensate for us? Would not curtail the growth of several people with same attitude of remorselessness and lack of consciousness in our society, in our midst, be a better compensation for the memory of the Bhopal victims?

Chief Minister decides to stay at farmer's house

2010-05-25T08:21:00.000+05:30

Karnataka Chief Minister seems to have some say in agriculture atleast!

This is a positive move and certainly needs to be applauded.

Ram
******
Steps will be taken to promote organic farming: Yeddyurappa
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90,000 farmers have taken up organic farming in the State
Steps being taken to prevent migration of farmers to cities
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Source <http://www.thehindu.com/2010/05/24/22hdline.htm>
Karnataka <http://www.thehindu.com/2010/05/24/22hdline.htm>
KUDALASANGAMA (BAGALKOT DISTrict): Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Sunday said that he would stay in the house of an organic farmer overnight every month to popularise organic farming among the farming community.
Inaugurating the first convention of organic farmers here by sowing nine varieties of seeds, Mr. Yeddyurappa said that during his stay in the village, he would discuss with the farmers and explain to them the benefits of organic farming.
He said at present 90,000 farmers had taken up organic farming in the State and "we will extend all benefits to the farmers to adopt organic farming and increase the total number of farmers adopting the organic farming to at least 1.9 lakh". "Our ultimate aim is to increase the number of farmers adopting the organic farming to at least 50 per cent of the total number of farmers in the State."
Mr. Yeddyurappa said that the State Government had taken steps for the welfare of the farmers and said that the introduction of the Bhagyalakshmi scheme providing insurance scheme for the girl child was one step in the direction to help them. Similarly, the extension of subsidised loans to farmers was meant to help the farming community.
The Chief Minister said the State Government initiated measures to make villages self-sufficient to prevent migration of farmers to urban areas in search of employment. "Cottage industries will be established to provide employment to the rural youth and all the basic amenities will be provided in villages."
He said that the panchayat raj system would be strengthened and newly elected members of gram panchayats would be provided training to ensure effective governance and implement government schemes effectively to help people living in the rural areas. "I have invited the former President Abdul Kalam to participate in the convention of the newly elected gram panchayat members," he said. Mr. Kalam said that the farm products cultivated using organic farming were popular among consumers, and at present 200 million tonnes of organic produce was being imported. "Organic produces is the future and it has large potential and the farmers should make the full benefit of it," he added.

KUDALASANGAMA (BAGALKOT DISTrict): Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Sunday said that he would stay in the house of an organic farmer overnight every month to popularise organic farming among the farming community.
Inaugurating the first convention of organic farmers here by sowing nine varieties of seeds, Mr. Yeddyurappa said that during his stay in the village, he would discuss with the farmers and explain to them the benefits of organic farming.
He said at present 90,000 farmers had taken up organic farming in the State and "we will extend all benefits to the farmers to adopt organic farming and increase the total number of farmers adopting the organic farming to at least 1.9 lakh". "Our ultimate aim is to increase the number of farmers adopting the organic farming to at least 50 per cent of the total number of farmers in the State."
.... The Chief Minister said the State Government initiated measures to make villages self-sufficient...
He said that the panchayat raj system would be strengthened and newly elected members of gram panchayats would be provided training to ensure effective governance and implement government schemes effectively to help people living in the rural areas. "I have invited the former President Abdul Kalam to participate in the convention of the newly elected gram panchayat members," he said. Mr. Kalam said that the farm products cultivated using organic farming were popular among consumers, and at present 200 million tonnes of organic produce was being imported. "Organic produces is the future and it has large potential and the farmers should make the full benefit of it," he added.
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Save Jairam Ramesh, Sack Pawar!

2010-05-13T23:49:00.000+05:30

A handful of Scientists 'disheartened' and Pawar is 'worried', 14000 farmers committed suicide and he was busy organizing cricket!

Should he be called the 'Cricket Minister' instead of Agriculture Minister has been a critic for long. But, increasingly he seems to represent the scientist corporate lobby rather the interest of any farmer in this country. Sharad Pawar, if anyone has to go from his Ministry (read the compelling story of why this man should not be Indian Agriculture Minister in Tehelka, March 2010) he has several reasons.

But, just as the clouds gather over the re-election of Jairam Ramesh from a Rajya Sabha seat in Andhra Pradesh (earlier blog entry), Pawar has to add his bit to the possible exit of Ramesh with a statement that is even more ridiculous coming from a man who never visited the farmer suicide belt in his own state for a decade in which 14,000+ farmers committed suicide (watch the video as part of 'the world according to Monsanto')!!

Jairam Ramesh: A Minister with a mind (and no one likes that!)

2010-05-12T10:09:00.000+05:30

Mass media have a problem with public persona who have a mind of their own. Media refuses to accept or understand people whose behaviour cannot be predicted or influenced by the media. This UPA government has few such people, media didn't know (and despite Lilawati still doesn't know) how to interpret Rahul Gandhi's rural visits as he avoids the media, they didn't like Tharoor bypassing them to talk to citizens through his infamous Tweets...

...Jairam Ramesh has proved to be difficult to the media. He has not been predictable, he has said things that the media doesn't approve and he has said it at times when they were not looking at him for stories. They are also stuck with the problem of his allocated Ministry. If he was some inconsequential Minister of Panchayat Affairs or some such department, they could even concede that he is a thinking minister. He is with the Ministry that most Corportes would like to have in control, and media opinion is always controlled by corporates anyway. That he says things that cause Corporate heartburn also makes appreciating him difficult for media, and that is an understatement.

So mass media doesn't have any love for him. The unhidden glee in reporting his spats with cabinet colleagues gives their real feeling away.

Saw just now a media report in which the Megsasay Award Winner Sandeep Pandey calls Jairam as doing to Environmental Ministry what Seshan did to Election Commission, telling comment. Particularly as one of his enterprising predecessors had converted this Ministry into an ATM, especially the environmental clearances that could be downloaded and photocopied and submitted with money for approvals we are told. To bring a functioning character of respectability any public institution must have transparency, public adherence to norms of engagement and very high quality of communication. If any of these are lacking, then the media and corporate can intrude the space for their own benefit.

Jairam Ramesh seems to take his job seriously and actually look at the Environmental clearences, he seems to care to actually look at the coastal zones or the permission for mining. Obviously the corporates don't like a man they cannot corrupt easily. They will keep trying and meanwhile also see if there is an easy way of either defaming him or ousting him. The media has already started to report that he may not get the Rajya Sabha seat from the state where he was nominated last time around.

The decision to engage with civil society in an open and transparent manner with general public on an issue of dangerous consequence such as introduction of GMO was a true act of courage and sticking out for a Minister. Jairam Ramesh conducted these consultations with an admirable equanimity and his announcement of the decision was one of the most proactive moves by any Minister in recent history. It may take another 20 years for most to understand the significance of this move. To me it is one of the most high points of practising Democracy in India. As an Indian here is a Minister that I can be proud of. Some one who thinks with his own mind and is willing to act based on thought. Something that his own political party has left to the Courts to do in recent times glad to merely follow. The sad comment by a Supreme Court Judge couple of days ago that the Government ought not leave all controversial issues to be only sorted by the Court and take the burden off the Judiciary by taking some proactive steps is actually a statement on the lack of courage of the current government to stick its neck out on any issue at all. It is in this backdrop that Jairam (and I will say Sashi Tharoor) becomes contrastingly significant.

In a sense the Congress has always represented the aspirations of power hungry Indian, there you have the power hungry farmer Indian of the 60s (albeit commodity and futures trading, working with international markets and a multi-millionaire now), you have the power hungry traditional conventional business man for all times (a true stickler to norms and always with the power centre), the power hungry bureaucrat of the 70s (many are beyond their prime now), you have the power hungry entrepreneur of the 80s and the power hungry MNC manager of the 90s and the white collar criminals of the 2000s. Each of these stereotypes of a fair share of their representation in the Congress party (the problem with BJP is it doesn't have a equal proportion of all of these).

The problem is when someone defies these rules and still makes it to their ranks. Jairam Ramesh (and a few others) probably stick out because of that.

So, the media is not particularly favourable, there are enough money bags corporates who would be happy to see some friendly raja in his place and the political party itself has several players who have their daggers out for him. And what is this man's problem? being a Minister with a mind?!

Fatwa is only a principle, not an order: : Darul Uloom Deoband

2010-05-03T22:11:00.000+05:30

I wish that the above title was highlighted instead of the cheap one below under which the news item appeared.

Modelling, acting in movies un-Islamic: Darul Uloom Deoband

I think the pronouncement of the Deputy VC of Deoband, Maulana Abdul Khaligue Madrasi, '"A Mufti issues a fatwa only if someone comes to him for guidance. Fatwa is not an order but a guidance of principal and even the person seeking guidance has the option to follow it or not", Madrasi said.
' is a very significant one.

Ever since the infamous Fatwa against writer Salman Rushdie, the world has assumed the Fatwa to be some kind of a dictatorial order passed by retrograde Mullas that is irreversible and will eventually push the world backward by several centuries. Here is a clarification that is worth pausing, examining and understanding.

The Deoband seminary has time and again broken the global stereotyping of Islamic image in India through their work, including the issuing of Fatwa against terrorism last year. Of course, a fatwa by a Islamic clergy in India is not as powerful as that emanating from among the powerful political ones in Iran, the Arab countries or USA, but, still for the quality of what is being said, this is to be noted and acknowledged as significant one.

What price the 76 (or more) policemen lives?

2010-04-07T17:41:00.000+05:30

First, the massacre of the policemen in such a large number is an act of violence that needs to be condemned and the people behind the attack need to face the law of the land whether they believe it or not. These policemen were also citizens of this country and except that they were in the wrong place and time doing their duty the way they were directed to do, they had no reason to die. It is unfortunate and dangerous precedence.

The '76 policemen' will remain just that in the coming days, while we know the names of each of the military men that died during the Mumbai terror attack, we won't know the names or backgrounds of the policemen who died yesterday morning. They don't make a good story beyond the first few days. No one wants to know the details of those who are defeated. They too are the victims of the State, but, they will not have celebrity authors visiting them and writing long stories either.

The Ministry of Internal Security, under the Home Ministry has been going through several changes in recent times. P. Chidambaram (PC), has taken his own image more seriously than any one else. No one is asking for his head to warrant those media friendly statements few days back that sounded more like G.W. Bush's rant rather than an Indian Home Minister. (Madhi got it right as usual in his cartoon yesterday, the three monsters behind PC while he talks about rooting out Naxalites in two years are labelled 'unemployment', 'corruption' and 'poverty' and the label in the podium reads, '52 years of Congress rule' courtesy: Dinamani). Today, as I write this, he has already hinted at using Air Force against Maoists, what next, Carpet Bombing in Sri Lankan style and a victory speech atop an air ship with mining company logo?

The issue is Maoists are not visible terrorists, they merge into the invisible angry citizen mass. These are the State's angry citizens, armed because of the State only recognizes violence and these arms are available to them rather freely through a few who espouse this ideology.

The State can stop people getting angry with itself by being more sincere with its 'development' agenda, by replacing sops with genuine opportunities and most importantly valuing the rights of people over their resources. Both tribal rights activists and environmentalists are 'anti-development' in the books of PC, who believes that the natural resources are there to be exploited. The exploitation of the poor for the betterment of the rich is an old large war, India had some amazing social systems that by-passed this to benefit both. But, PC won't know, he thinks any Indian history that talks of a better time is all humbug, he is not going to respect or refer any tradition or culture to understand social inclusion. Yesterday's newspapers carried a half page advertisement from the Home Ministry as proof. Obviously, the citizen is angry.

You can have peaceful methods of listening to the angry citizen. It is not always that the angry citizen has to resort to violence as a means to be heard / noticed. It need not be. But, how much is the State listening to Himanshu Kumar or Arundathi Roy? Beyond ridicule what has the state offered to these people? Every naxal attack is followed by 'what will the intellectuals say now?' debate, as though the intellectual condemnation or approval has any respect either for the State or for other perpetrators of violence. Why should the MoU between the State and Mining Companies be kept secretive? Does the State listen to a peaceful protest of a citizen, if the citizen is not backed up by either the power of money, media or visible majority? Does it understand the voice of justice? The angry citizen thinks violence is the only medium the State recognizes.

You can stop illegal arms production, you can ensure that arms are not smuggled across your border, you can ensure that the chemicals that are raw material for arms are strictly regulated and ensure that these are not freely available. But, that would mean rooting out corruption in governance, which cannot be done. You may point out that they have no legitimate right to carry arms or kill, but, your government has shown that this can be done by the rich and no law of the land can reach them, time and again. Someone for his own benefit in this government, at some level is permitting the few Mao followers to smuggle a lot of weapons that can be distributed to angry citizens whose' peaceful protests you don't recognize.

One thing I am sure, Indians cannot buy into any alien ideology whole heartedly or for a long period of time. The claim of Maoists that they will overthrow the State is stupid. Arundathi Roy in her article in Outlook last week chronicles the tribal culture and its manifestation in the camps of the Maoists, that is ideologically contradictory. This is the land of Gandhi and Gandhi lives in the attitude of the masses, given a chance between peace and war, the citizen would gladly take peace and that is the proof. So, if there are ideologues out there in the jungle, I am sure they are no better than the ideologues in Kolkatta or think tanks in Washington/Beijing or virtual groups in the web or others hiding in caves of NWFP, they are all equally unsuccessful in trying to convert the Indian masses into a single ideology of violence, some people can buy into it for some period of time to suit their own purpose. But, it is time bound and will not work in India. I cannot see a Maoist State of India.

PC needs to step down, not from his power, but, the moral authority that he has granted himself vis-a-vis the Naxals. It can only push him in the path of more State violence against Maoists while seeking them to abjure violence all the time. He also needs to not succumb to the media pressure that personalizes the issue as though he is s Superman and this is his time to deliver or vacate the space for another Superman. Making statements like the one he made are neither warranted nor wise as he may have realized by now. But, the politician in him may not permit that. Maybe, he should step down to a humbler man?

What would Gandhi have done under the circumstances?

Maybe visit the 76 houses that have lost a son, a husband, a father or a brother in full media glare and seek their forgiveness for the government's stupidity in sending them to an area so unprepared. Seeking their help to non-violently fight the menace of terror. Break the chain of terror in the hearts of the colleagues of those killed by talking about peace. If he had the power, remove all policemen from that area immediately. Maybe even seek the nation to go on a day of repentance and peace. Maybe, he would also sit on a indefinite fast in the middle of the jungle against all armed violence and request Arundathi Roy to visit him!

Pic Post: from the streets and ghats of Varanasi

2010-03-16T00:28:00.001+05:30

From Recent-Pictures

elegant Varanasi...in the crowded noisy narrow streets, the man's well crafted stole and the women's burkha bordering the tattered rickshaw's canopy

also attended a traditional festival called 'budva mangal' that Varanasi people say is about 1000 years old and which has been revived thanks to the efforts of the late shehnai maestro, Ustad Bismillah Khan (did you read my obit on him?). while there are private efforts that I am told are held with more authentic style sitting in floats on the ganges while the masters of local classical music (of which there are several) played or sang, the audience sat also sat and cruised up and down the river...there is amazingly crafted beautiful dressing, showering of rose petals to show appreciation and a sense of festivity in celebrating the river and the music. the one I attended (bad pic here) was sponsored by the government, and hence had a mixture of some good music, some light classical bad stuff, loud noise and too much lighting and the float stayed stationary on the ghats!

From Recent-Pictures

State of Republic 60 years later...

2010-01-24T22:40:00.000+05:30

Buying Peace with WMD is another title.

The Republic nation is in conflict with its own citizens like never before. The war rhetoric that can be drummed by outside powers, can occupy the minds of our government and can deafen them to the basic rights plea of our own people.

The paranoia of insecurity whether it be in food, energy or border issue can be named by the perpetrators of 'solutions' and our government can believe them without adequate thought or vision.

Our perceptions are on sale through the visual media, our rights are on sale for a wee-bit more of FDI, our life style is on sale in urban centres of living, our children are on sale for the education factories, our best minds are on sale for sustaining someone else's profit, our lands and rivers are on sale for washing and retaining others' synthetics, our lives cannot be sold, because the majority of us are so poor, we will fetch no price unless sold in bulk...in the sixtieth year of Republic, we sell our votes, not as a mark of protest to the republic, but, to be part of a national culture, a culture that is most practiced by the State.

If the State thinks stocking more WMDs is way to Peace, selling votes is no less valid way to practice Republic.

However, the promise and potential remains because, the young still learn their mother tongue at home, learn a few peaceful traditions in society, pride in communities, aesthetics in culture and some understanding through religion. These have existed despite the State's best efforts to destroy them. Our Republic will survive if these don't give up on the State.

Bt Brinjal: A Robert Clive arrives...will we commit the blunder of our ancestors??

2010-01-12T00:19:00.000+05:30

It is said that when Robert Clive marched into the streets of Calcutta, there were just a few hundred white soldiers marching in with him, while several thousands watched them marching in from the road side. Though armed and aided, if only each of those had thrown a stone on the invading murderers, Indian history could be different today, say our historians.

Aided by twisted authority and Powered with Money, Bt Brinjal is about to invade our midst, will we remain the mute spectators our ancestors were? Do we have the courage to act in our own small way and say 'no' to this mindless technology and meaningless product?

Several civil society organizations have forged alliance to jointly say 'No, we don't want Bt Brinjal or any GMOs for India', indicating that this is no longer a issue of farmer or technocrat alone, but, also the issue for every citizen and consumer.

Do whatever you can, attend the consultations if you happen to be living in any of the towns where it is happening. Write a letter to mark your protest, sign a petition, get others to sign, talk to neighbours, friends, un-friends, strangers...tell people that this is a time to act or history will never forgive us, just like we will never forgive those sods who watched Clive walk in awestruck and didn't think it was their right to do something and act.

Don't wait and be a victim, better act today and say 'no' to all GMOs, including the bt Brinjal.

'I Want to become a Terrorist', says a victim

2009-11-25T17:43:00.003+05:30

this following article is Courtesy Deepti from Benaras, a moving story of a weaver pushed to becoming a terrorist due to the combination of liberal market and indifferent state.
It is in Hindi, do use the online translation tool if you cannot read it in Hindi.
-- ram
-----------------------
मै आतंकवादी बनने जा रहा हूँ .
ये तस्वीर है वाराणसी के राजेंद्र वर्मा की जो जल्दी ही आतंकवादी बन जायेगे , राजेंद्र आख़िर आतंकवादी क्यो बनना चाहते है ?
ख़ुद राजेंद्र के अनुसार उनके सामने हालत ऐसे बन गए है की अब कई दूसरा रास्ता पेट पालन का नही बचा है ,राजेंद्र कुछ साल पहले बनारसी साड़ी के बड़े व्यापारी थे उनके ४०० लूम चलते थे ,निचीबागमें दुकान थी जिसका किराया ही वे ६० हजार देते थे ,मगर बनारसी साडी के कारोबार में पिछले कुछ सालो से जो मंदी आई है उसने उन्हें इस कदर तोड़ डाला की अब सारे लूम बंद हो चुके है
दुकान वापस चली गई ,बाद में आशापुर में एक स्कूल खोला लेकिन वो भी नही चला , अब दुसरे बुनकरों से साडिया लेकर घूम घूम कर बेचते है कभी बिक गई तो भोजन नसीब होता है नही बिकी तो सर पे उधारका बोझ थोड़ा और बढ़ जाता है
कभी ४०० बुनकर परिवारों को रोजगार देने वाला राजेंद्र अब अपने बेटो को पढ़ने की फीस जुटाने को मोहताज हो गया है ,विगत दिनों वाराणसी के शिल्प मेले में वो घूमता नजर आया उसके हाथ में एक थैला था जिसमे कुछ अच्छी किस्म की बनारसी साडिया थी ,जिन्हें वह शिल्प मेले में बेचने लाया था लेकिन अफ़सोस की उसे कोई खरीदार नही मिला ,क्योकि उसकी साडिया असली सिल्क की थी, जिसके कारन महगी थी और नकली तथा सस्ती साड़ी की कद्रदान बन चुके बनारसी लोग उसके साड़ी को खरीदने की हिम्मत नही बना रहे थे ,हताश हो चले राजेन्द्र को घर में बुझे चूल्हे को जलने की चिंता खाई जा रही थी ,अचानक एक दुकान पे कुछ देर गुमसुम खड़ा रहने के बाद उसके मुह से निकला , अब मै आतंकवादी बन जाउगा क्योकि दूसरा रास्ता दिखाई नही पड़ता ,
वहा खड़े लोग राजेन्द्र की बात पे हस कर आगे बढ़ गए लेकिन उसके शब्दों में छिपे अर्थ को शायद ही कोई समझ पाया हो ,
राजेन्द्र के ये शब्द बता रहे है की किस कदर बनारस की खुशहाली का पर्याय रहा बनारसी साड़ी उद्योग अब अस्तित्व बचाने की जंग लड़ रहा है ,किस कदर नकली और चीन के सस्ते सिल्क से बने बनारसी साड़ी ने असली साड़ी को संग्रहालय की वास्तु बना दिया है ,किस कदर आधुनिक और रेडिमेड कपड़ो ने बनारसी कपड़े को लगभग समाप्त ही कर दिया है ,रही सही कसर सरकार ने बाल श्रम कानून की आड़ में पुरा कर दिया है जिसके कारन बुनकर अपने घर me भी बच्चो को बुनकारी नही सिखा सकते क्योकि उन्हें बच्चो से काम कराने का दोषी बनाकर या तो जेल भेज दिया जाता है या फिर इतना जुरमाना लगा दिया जाता है की उसे भरने में आधी जिंदगी गुजर जायेगी , ऐसे me भला कोई आतंकवादी बनने की सोचे तो बहुत आश्चर्य नही होना चाहिए ,राजेंद्र की बात और हालत देखकर मन ये सोचने को भी मजबूर करता है की जो लोग आज आतंकवादी बन चुके hai उनकी भी कहानी का नायक कोई राजेन्द्र ही तो नही होता ।

राजेंद्र वर्मा का पता -

७२ लोहिया नगर

आशापुर , वाराणसी

Judicial Casteism?

2009-10-30T10:21:00.000+05:30

The Madras High Court had come up with couple of rulings on quashing of 'community ( read caste) courts' in the state at different instances in the last few years. But, if their ruling on the clashes within the High Court is any indication the Judges are no better in their clan mindset.

In a one sided judgement they have blamed police officers for the violence within the High Court clashes earlier this year. It is unfortunate that respected Police Officers like ex-Commissioner, Radhakrishnan have been named by the Court in an effort to protect and appease its own lawyers. The Judiciary has taken a partisan view on this issue from the first day onwards (my posts on this issue in February are available at 'Eggs for Swami and No Law for Lawyers' and 'Lawyers, Lawless Courts and Understanding the Growing Anger') was evident. But, it would have been wiser had the Judges (thank god, for a few sensible ones, otherwise I need to prefix 'honourable' to refer to them each time) realized the pressures with which both the Lawyers and Police Officers were functioning at that time. It is bad professional upbringing of the Lawyers that makes them behave with so much violence, for the Police, the response is what they are trained for. It should have also been recognized that the whole thing took place in the background of state-wide anger on the Srilankan Tamil issue and the lawyers forum had been frustrated with a series of unsuccessful efforts before this transpired.

I wonder what would have been the ruling if some Caste Court had decided to take on the Police and torched a police station in the process, would the court say that the caste group should 'rise up to the glory of their public image' (utter delusion in the case of lawyers if any) and leave them free? The loyalty to their own clan is very evident in the judgement. I find this leading to a new form of casteism, the caste of judiciary bonded by the common knowledge and authority of Law.

SpiceJet style of management of a situation: forgetting to load baggage

2009-10-13T16:39:00.000+05:30

Happened to travel by Spice Jet aircraft from Benaras to Chennai yesterday evening. Their website (and other websites through which they issue tickets) permits you to book a ticket from Benaras to Chennai, consisting of two flights, Benaras to Delhi (leaving Benaras at 4.05 and arriving Delhi at 5.35) and Delhi to Chennai (leaving Delhi at 7 and arriving at Chennai by 9.45).

Yesterday (saturday 10th Oct, 2009), the Benaras flight got delayed by over an hour to reach Delhi, and the airline rushed its connecting flight passengers from one aircraft to another in the parking bays. In such a rush, some one forgot to load the check-in luggage into the Chennai bound aircraft resulting in 19 passengers reaching Chennai (by 9.45 pm, the pilot making time despite leaving Delhi 20 mins later than scheduled) to find that their luggage hadn't accompanied them!
This can be accepted as one possible risks in air travelling. However, what we had to suffer in Chennai airport in the management of the situation was unexpected from a professional airline agency.

Ms. L sauntered towards few of us, a good 5 minutes after the last of the luggage had been taken away, while the small crowd around the luggage belt was wondering why our luggage didn't turn up. She enquired whether we had come from Benaras and informed us that our luggage didn't make it to the flight in Delhi and if we can wait till 1 in the night, it will arrive in by the next flight from Delhi. This is the first we hear of this situation. There was no sense of apology from the staff in the airport for the mistake.

The passengers consisted of a group of Doctors returning from Benaras after attending a conference, one of whom, had been ill through the Delhi-Chennai journey and needed medical attention. The Doctors demanded that the airline do better than ask people to wait. So, Ms.L produced a large book of 'Baggage Irregularity Report' (the name must have been conjured by a brilliant lawyer from the airline corporate sector) and asks us to fill-up so that she can send the luggage to us next morning. Then she queried, 'you are from the same group? can I send the luggage to one of you and the rest can pick it up from that person?'!. It looked like she was just reluctant to fill in so many forms, her own pre-occupation rather than being sensitive to passengers seemed to guide her action.

Now walks in the other executive, Mr. M, young, strong and chewing gum. He talks to the other group, senior citizen returning from a pilgrimage to Benaras. He too takes down all their addresses and phone numbers in the register (most of them over 60, they leave more out of tiredness than of any hope and comment 'we hope that the Ganges water arrives safe' as they leave) and generally maintains that everyone can go home and their luggage will be delivered at their houses next morning. This till he encountered the young doctor from Tirupathi! 'Tirupathi, we can't send Sir, you will have to stay and collect your luggage', says M. When the Doctor asks him whether the airline will provide him with any facility, M is rather silent. When the Doctor said that he would probably not find a bus at 2 in the night and 10 is more easier, Mr. M maintains that he cannot help. Later he talks to a taxi driver to drop the doctor at the bus stand (the Doctor has to pick up the charges of course). He didn't seem to understand what he could commit.

The young doctor and myself decide to wait for the baggage as one by one all the others depart in tiredness. When I enquire the staff (consisting of M alone now with Ms. L leaving us to attend to other issues), whether we can go out to catch some dinner and return, M informs that there is a important T20 match on and we can sit and watch that in the waiting area!!! When I insist that we need to eat some dinner, he takes us to the 'Chariot' restaurant and leaves us there saying we can have anything we want on the airline, but, it should be less than Rs. 50/- per person. Both the Doctor and myself refuse such a generous offer, considering that the menu card only had coffee and tea less than Rs. 50/-!! The airlines' ceiling for hospitality in such circumstances seems impractical.
Coming back in half an hour to take us through the security M does the funniest thing of the night. He takes us to one gate, and walks right in, while we trail behind. When we are stopped by the security personnel, he walks back as though in an after thought and informs the security personnel about our lost baggage status...when we are refused entry, he says, 'we will go through another gate...to enact the drama twice more before we are allowed inside. By now both the Doctor and myself are fuming in being humiliated thus and request M whether he has any higher authorities to whom we can talk, 'no sir, we are doing what we can do', says the young man. He simply didn't know whom to talk in the security set-up to facilitate our movements during the 4 hour wait.

The flight with our luggage came eventually from pune (not from Delhi as they had informed us earlier). 'We will reach you your baggage Sir', he disappears eventually. We take no chances and at 1.40 am, walk to the baggage belt and locate and pick up our baggages. Now, Mr. M comes to us and demands that we hand over the original of the Baggage Irregularity Report that we had given earlier in the night. When I refuse and seek a copy, he scribbles that 'I have received the baggage in full and good condition' and wants us to sign beneath that. When I ask him why does he want us to sign under his words, he replies that this is how the report has to be closed!! When I write a few sentences of my own and insist that I be given a copy, he does the same with utmost reluctance. The airline does not want to have any evidence of its act with the passengers by the look of it.

When I eventually leave by 2, the Doctor from Tirupathi was still trying to figure out how to reach home and was negotiating for a taxi all the way back because he would not get another bus till early morning hours and another couple of hours would mean further delay for him!

Spice Jet lost a few clients that evening not because they messed up the baggage, but, only because their ground staff were not adequately prepared or sensitive to handle such a situation.

the best Indian possible…

2009-10-03T00:13:00.000+05:30

It is safe to be away from television, not read the news papers beyond the initial glance in the morning and never bother to participate in the circus of Gandhi remembrance and celebration. I tried. But, the invasive world doesn’t leave one alone, there were two tele conversations with friends and several mails where he popped up. So, the thoughts on him and the need to think them.

Gandhi, represents one of the best manifestation of the Indian Civilization. He did that by a process of understanding, analysis, assimilation and constant innovation within the situations he found himself in. There is a part of Gandhi in each one of us born in this civilization and every one of us have it in us to surpass him several times in our life time. Surpass him not in terms of accomplishments or innovation, that is not necessary. But, in terms of the Indian character manifest through our lives.

‘How can we be the best an Indian can be?’ is a question. This needs an understanding of what is the best in Indian. The incentives and enticements for Indians not to discover what is best about themselves are rather high today. But, the majority believe in some aspect of this ‘Indian-ness’, it could come from their vocation, tradition, culture, art, religion, sense of quality, meditation or intense action. Its understanding is growth. It could remain at the level of the vocation, tradition, culture, religion…or it could transcend to that of the civilization. Not to differentiate or decry other civilizations, but, to understand that we are different. Today, the world could do with several of the better manifestations of India or Indian-ness. Gandhi is just one well recognized brand name of this manifestation.

Oct 2nd, 2009

More on Judiciary Accountability: A High Court Judge says the CJI's views are not shared by all

2009-08-21T16:40:00.000+05:30

We have seen repeated attempts to bring the Judiciary under the RTI being resisted at the highest level of the Judiciary, namely the CJI. The CJI has not only maintained repeatedly that the RTI doesn't apply to the office of the Judges, but, has also maintained that the it will harass the judges unnecessarily.

Now it transpires that every judge doesn't agree with the CJIs contention after all and there is one at least willing to speak his mind and willing to share his asset status with the public.

A Karnataka High Court judge has taken on the Chief Justice of India in a newspaper article writing that the CJI can't speak on behalf of the judiciary regarding declaration of assets by the judges.

"It's a misnomer to think that the judges of the superior courts, who enjoy constitutional protection and immunity are not ready to disclose their assets," Justice DV Shylendra Kumar wrote in the New Indian Express.

Justice DV Shylendra Kumar article in the newspaper shows that the judiciary is split over the declaration of assets.

Referring to CJI KG Balakrishnan's remarks that judges could be harassed if their assets were made public, Kumar wrote, "On a legal place the CJI does not have the authority to speak for all judges of the Supreme Court, or High Courts, unless any of them have either confided in the Chief Justice or have authorised him to speak on behalf of others."

Supreme Court Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan had remarked that judges could be harassed if their assets were made public.

The Government had to withdraw the Bill on Judges' Assets in the last session of Parliament after a chorus of protest from the Opposition against the provision that a judge's assets would be beyond the purview of the Right to Information Act.

Justice Kumar argued that it was the Supreme Court itself that pushed RTI and said that he was than willing to declare his assets in public.

Senior Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan supported Justice Kumar's stand to reveal judge's assets.

"The leadership of the Court i.e, the CJI and some other senior judges do not want to reveal their assets. As rightly said by the Karnataka judge that if the CJI doesn't have any authority to stop any judge of the Supreme court or judges of the High Court from declaring his/her asset if he is willing to do so. Any judge, who is willing to reveal his/her assets and wants to put it up on the website has every right to do so. If he is being prevented to do so by other judges of the Supreme court or judges of the High Court then it is very unfortunate," said Prashant Bhushan.

source: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/cji-cant-speak-for-all-on-assets-issue-karnataka-hc-judge/99640-3.html?from=rssfeed

Singh comes up with unexpected revival plan for Western Economies: India will help revitalise NAM!

2009-07-14T21:17:00.001+05:30

In its best times, Non-Aligned movement was a movement of pygmy have-nots flaunting their non-existent triceps to the global giants from the pavement while gawking and window shopping all the time.

Now, the prime minister says India will 'help' to revive the NAM. Singh has a sense of humour though, his statement clearly states that NAM is a moral high horse which India thinks it is no longer a part of (having ascended other horses meanwhile, I suppose). He says, 'India will play its part in helping NAM to regain its moral high ground'.

And why do we need to do that? says our prathan manthri who as the current biggest nuclear client is enjoying the hospitality of one of the vendor countries.

He says that NAM will now, '...address issues which are of direct concern and relevance to developing countries such as

- sustainable development (for which we demand 'technology transfer' forever),

- climate change (for which we demand 'technology transfer' again),

- food security (for which we demand food imports, suck up to technologies and seek loans),

- energy security (for which we will sign nuclear deals and seek more technology transfer),

- terrorism (which we get exported to us without asking for it any way and buy arms to counter) and reform of the architecture of international governance (whatever that means),” anything else left that can be 'non-aligned'?

Each of these issues and the way we address them will turn to the same vendors forever. Won't be surprised if Singh is very soon given grand honour by the western nations for coming up with such unexpected revival plans for their economies.

New Video on Mumbai Attackers

2009-07-02T11:48:00.000+05:30

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1184614595?bctid=27874456001

Islam and Obama's USA

2009-06-09T12:37:00.000+05:30

I saw the newspaper screaming headlines on Obama's 'reaching out to world Muslims' speech. So, didn't bother reading any further for couple of days. The sensationalism of our media these days compels you to not read further when headlines scream. The 'secular' ones have an obsession to overstate anyone 'reaching out to Islam'. I have not bothered reading much about people's response as I am sure much of this will be based on what West is saying or in its response. I saw one of the younger friends, very enthused by this speech and wish he could talk like that!

Just now, I read the entire transcript as it has been forwarded by a friend I respect much. It is an important speech with several new messages to the world.

My first thoughts were, why deliver this lecture in Egypt? Reminds you of the drama of G.Bush delivering the victory speech atop a aircraft carrier. While Obama has spoken at length about, 'countries of Muslim majority', I wonder why he didn't chose to give his speech in one of the two countries of Muslim majority, the largest population of Muslims in the world are Indonesia and India. Both relatively peaceful practitioners of Islam before the export of a globalized Islam. Why can't President of USA talk to the peaceful Islamic practitioners and strengthen them and make them assert their peace rather than talk in the midst of tension torn West Asia, where the chances that anyone knows how to transact peace, particularly with the Christian world, would require forgetting centuries of hatred and almost changing their disposition towards the world.

But, America can only talk to people in conflict and engaged in violence, their language is same. Interestingly, Obama's examples of both Islamic innovation(Algebra, Vaccination,...) as well as personal experience of tolerance are from India and Indonesia respectively. Not from the West Asian world.

To me one of the points that came across was the first clear indication of the American divestment of Democracy from the highest power centre. Days of promoting Democracy are over. Nations can take their own path to it.

The other interesting point about tailoring the laws of the nation to suit the religions practices, including tax laws that control contribution to charity by American Muslims, indicate extending statute liberties to religious edicts beyond Christianity, whenever it is politically convenient. Seen this way, it could also hurt many of our liberals and secular pundits.

The other issue that was pointed out to me was the pre-occupation of the American President with the Abrahamic religions as key players in constructing future world and him not mentioning Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. But, today, American government has acknowledged that the Islamic world is its nemesis, others are not.

I am happily ignorant of any responses to this speech. We need to recognize that this is the Americans trying to resolve their own problems with the Islamic world and we will all be impacted by these changes. Certain scenarios I foresee:

(a) if Pakistan goes back to Musharraf or his successors, Americans may support him and forget Democracy as long as it suits its interests, it may even start a dialogue with Taliban in the coming years

(b) Global violence (and violence dependent commerce and industry) may look for softer targets to occupy themselves, we in India can be one, if Americans as large arms exporters and Terrorists from Islamic world can find a common soft target in India, we will see more attacks from the later and more sales of arms from the former, bleeding our economy both ways

(c) the global Islamic agenda, particularly in financing social initiatives in Islamic countries may come to be dominated by American interests, this could mean more external funding for Islamic groups in India and elsewhere from American sources, promoting American idea of Islam

(d) a new global Islamic identity will be paraded across the world, the 'stereotyping of Islam' which we all suffered ever since Sept 11, will be corrected by American consent and collaboration and we will suffer a different 'stereotyping of Islam' now, perhaps with some sugar coating this time. With their global media domination, when America wants to change someone's image, the rest of the world has to suffer with it.

(e) when the President of America says, 'countries of majority Muslims', he does not mean where majority of Muslims live as much as the countries who prescribe to and control the Muslim identity of the world, largely from west Asia. This shows the American interests rest firmly with the globalized, centralized and controlled institutions, same for faith systems, same for economy, same for politics.

The full text is available at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090604/ap_on_re_us/obama_text

A Vote against...not for anyone!

2009-05-12T18:29:00.000+05:30

I want to vote against the Congress for all that it has DONE in the last 5 years, many of which I find unpalatable and not in the best interest of the country.

I find the BJP not too acceptable as it has people with same background, similar understanding and priorities as the Congress and would say and do the same things but with a different language.

I cannot understand what the Communists want, many in their coalition are there because of the same reason, but, they know what they want. I don't know whether the Commies can deliver what I desire.

So, as every other Indian, I will vote against the Congress because I have found to be not good, not because I found someone else to be good. I know there are those who will vote against the BJP and Communist for the same reasons.

We are heading for a confusion which will benefit slimy traders and scoundrels. I am aware of it and yet, helpless about it. Some day...things will be different.

Till then, to ensure that my share in the government formation is not lost, I will go and vote tomorrow. Wish everyone happy voting, be there earlier than others. Vote for anyone it doesn't matter. Just don't give up.

HINDU's politics and Faceless 'Eminent Historian'

2009-05-03T17:04:00.002+05:30

Since this post, I see that others have also noticed this article by HINDU and CPS has formally responded to the same. A detailed rebuttal organized neatly is available at the blog Non-Random Thoughts by Jayasree Saranathan.
http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2009/05/india-was-indeed-shining.html.

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Why would a national daily carry deep inside its Sunday edition a rebuttal to the preamble of a political party's manifesto?

I had earlier in this blog reviewed the BJP manifesto (link), in which I had mentioned about the preamble which looks like it has been written by someone with more scholarship and better writing abilities than those who have written the remaining parts of it. It goes under the name of Dr. MM Joshi. However, the academic contentions on some of the facts mentioned, long laid to rest through the research of quite a few people, including Dharampal , seems to have hit supposed 'eminent historians' enough (what if BJP manages to come to power?) for them to have raised questions. Actually, the piece does not raise any questions, just, negates each of the points with responses that look silly. It is pedestrian rhetoric in the name of 'eminent history' that could only gain scholarly currency under HINDU's partisan indulgences.

It is ironic that this nonsense writing has appeared in crude and silly manner on the same edition where there is a scholarly piece on Indic script by Dr. Iravadam Mahadevan.

The timing of this piece, its amateurishness and its crudity are self explanatory and does not even warrant a response in specifics. The HINDU's true colours come out in the last para again. I could think of 3 names that could have authored this and can easily escape under the 'eminent historians' tag, however, wonder which of these has enough cowardice to not put his/her name out.

Choice for the Left and the future of N-Deal!?

2009-04-18T06:19:00.000+05:30

What is preferable - on the 'right' of America or a 'right' India? This seems to be the CPI-M dilemma. Never given to project their own leaders as leader for the nation, they have unnecessarily created the 3rd front that will scatter votes, make even more regional, small sectarian, narrow minded political entities feel important and may eventually contribute towards a post-poll situation which would be no different from the last few times.

In a loud and self-righteous media environment, no one has posed this question to the Left yet, what is preferable for them, what is their choice. Karat and his team need to spell out whether they will side with BJP to ensure the end of the Nuclear Deal or will they go back to the old Congress in a post-poll situation giving up the Nuclear issue forever? Can they demand a different face to lead a Congress Government? Can they get the N-deal re-examined? Or will they wait and watch the group they put together be weaned through 'negotiations' in a post-poll situation by either of the two main parties while they hold their moral high and sit in the opposition for another 5 years by when the public would have forgotten the N-deal and anyway we will be too far into it to pull out?? the BJP has promised a 're-examination' of the N-Deal, whatever that means, but, would the Left side with them and provide outside support?

Promises to everyone: the BJP Manifesto

2009-04-04T00:30:00.000+05:30

Having blogged earlier on the CPI-M Manifesto and that of the Congress , I decided to read the rather longish BJP Manifesto (download here) too and blog on the same.

If you only read the preamble to the BJP Manifesto by Prof. MM Joshi, you would think this is some kind of a book on glory of Indian history, just about every piece of information that has been researched, documented earlier and recycled in the web in the last few years including a supposed speech by Macaulay in the British Parliament (this supposed speech has especially been recycled on the web for long, I could not find the source for this) have found its way to this introduction. Very impressive and could well pass of as a scholarly note, perhaps it is one.

However, none of this seems to have been read by the astute journalists who put together the remaining part of the manifesto. There are very interesting things, I particularly liked the part about saying no to GM seeds and producing 20% renewable energy. There are quite a few populist measures, including low cost supply of food, increasing the ceiling for Income Tax, sops for the farmers and elders, etc.

The bunch of technocrats who have contributed to this seem to be rather heavily drawn from the Information Technology sector, so, while there is too much of detailing on the part of IT based ideas and plans, there is hardly any mention of technology related solutions in any other field or how it would impact other areas. IT obsession seems to be a pre-occupation of the Manifesto team.

The foreign policy is rather elaborate as is the security related issues. The Ram Sethu, Ram Mandir, etc. and other BJP mainstay (as one would think they will be) are appended to the manifesto as an after thought without connecting elsewhere in the manifesto.

As a manifesto, this one covers a wide variety of issues and perhaps has had the advantage of larger team of contributors than either that of Congress or that of the CPM. But, the question on BJP is not about its literary ability, it is about the rank and file and what are the 'identities' (the identity work crops up rather frequently in their manifesto) they own upto? Obviously, though there are sections (rather carefully worded one at that) on Minorities and a para on holding inter-faith dialogue with the Vatican on conversion, there is no reference to attacks on minorities and their protection.

RTI for neta, babu and his honour too!

2009-03-26T01:04:00.000+05:30

When it comes to shying away from RTI, each self-proclaimed arm of Democracy seems to prove coy than the other. The PMO, the CJI,...now the Central Information Commissioner declared that Judges need to make their assets just like the MPs and MLA, so what does the Supreme Court do? Get a stay ordered by a High Court (!!) against the order. Even worse the High Court Judge gives a value lesson, 'don't treat us like you treat politicians', whatever does that mean!? Is he saying that he is a superior species? Judges have been rather high on the value pronouncements in recent years, but, this takes the cake. The Judge says, declaration of assets could put the Judge under pressure! How so? Beats me. These gentlemen have government paid security to guard them, red top cars to carry them around, half a working day to ensure they don't doze off and an annual holiday that would make a primary school kid blush.

With so many privileges being granted to them from the tax-payer money, there is no accountability as to what are they delivering to the nation. We read year after year about the piling up of cases and under-trials spending long months and years in custody. We have no performance indicators, monitoring mechanism or annual balance sheet as to what these revenue drains deliver to the nation. Now, here is a regulatory mechanism through which at least the public can get to know how much these gentlemen possess (not that it would matter if they did their job well and the public is satisfied with them) to keep themselves entertained while waiting for justice in the courts of these gentlemen, and, they feel offended!!

'Don't treat judges like politicians on assets issue'

"Public interest standards for the judiciary have to be different from other institutions. So judges have to be treated differently from people's representative on the issue (declaration of assets)," justice S Ravindra Bhat said. He was responding to a Right to Information (RTI) applicant who contended that judges should declare their assets like MPs and MLAs. It may be noted that the Supreme Court itself held in the Justice Veeraswamy corruption case that apex courtjudges are public servants.

Congress Manifesto - small as a commercial break! and as meaningful!!

2009-03-25T00:46:00.004+05:30

Having written about the Communist manifesto, I thought let me follow all the manifestoes released. The Congress released its manifesto earlier this evening. Seems to have been written by a young intern in an advertising agency with the scope defined as 'write anti-BJP, pro-Congress campaign material in English', the english barely manages to remain that. BJP is repeated a fewer times than Congress, the BJP should feel flattered! The put up dismissal of Third Front may prove costly. History, Common Sense, dwelling deeply in any issue and roots of any philosophy is given a go by. This is an extended jingle written by someone who has been fed only on mass media based issues and televised earlier jingles of Congress party.

Nuclear Deal and Elections 2009: The CPIM position

2009-03-22T18:30:00.000+05:30

The CPI-M was the most articulate party opposing the Indi-US Nuclear Deal in 2007. At that time I had put together a series of posts on the Deal and its consequences (link), and even thought that the clarity of the commies was exemplary leadership (link).

However, their 2009 Election manifesto is damp squib on the Nuclear Deal. In a scenario description part (Section I of their document) on the state of affairs today that runs to 13 pages, the Nuclear Deal is in page 8 as a built up to explaining away their withdrawal of support to the Congress government. Even in their promises, they are moderate now, their manifesto reads, 'reviewing and reworking of 123 agreement...', the kind of statement that was used by BJP during the debate on the Nuclear Deal. However, having placed the communal issue on top of the Nuclear Deal in their manifesto, they cannot join hands with the BJP to do it, so, in effect, the CPIM has all but washed its hands off as the leader of anti-Nuclear Deal. Unfortunate that the political parties seem to have even lesser memory than the public.

Death of the Indian Village or another failed World Bank pronouncement?

2009-03-16T13:54:00.000+05:30

Recent World Bank pronouncement that development is best if it were to increasing Urbanization and Migration to urban areas, has come as no surprise. If the Bank will have its way, India should stop worrying about its villages and start concentrating on the urban areas. So, schemes such as NREGA that seem to promise minimum wages against jobs and asset creation in villages is waste of resources. Though I don't exactly accept the current formulation of NREGA (you can check out my take about it here), I think the Bank has just written its will.

Government of India has been a sucker for WB projects and pronouncements, so what does this pronouncement (and its timing, just when the political parties are releasing their poll manifesto) imply to our politicians and bureaucrats? Would they re-align their priorities and policies with the WB recommendation? Will they know-tow the WB agenda? Would they also say, that the Indian village should die now?

Indian village as a backward and unnecessary appendage to the urban based and globally connected developed India is not a new discovery, Marx said it ages back, others influenced by his thought did think so both in India and from the West. Colonizers wrote theories on it, when free, we tried to base many policies on it. The debate is whether WB dictated mega-cities are the future of India or does the idea of Indian village still valid? We will see some interesting response to the WB I do hope, most importantly from the political parties.

On the politics of 'Slumdog' India...

2009-03-16T12:39:00.000+05:30

Two recent articles that I have read have both pointed to the debate around Slumdog Millionaire. In a recent interview, actor Nasuruddin Shah comments that 'it is not an Indian movie' and there is nothing much for us to rejoice. Earlier, Ustad Zakir Hussain too had made a comment saying that now the Hollywood movies have to be sold in India, so, makes sense if Indians win Oscars. Ofcourse, he hastened to add that that does not take the credit from Rahman or other Indians and their talents. Others including director Priyadarshan and Amitabh Bachan have expressed apprehensions on the movie itself or rather the politics of it.

Now of the two interesting reviews -
1. Religion, Marxism and Slumdog in this mornings Indian Express by Frncis Gautier
http://epaper.newindpress.com/NE/NE/2009/03/16/ArticleHtmls/16_03_2009_011_002.shtml?Mode=1

2. The Missionary Position in Tehelka by Tarun Tejpal, whom I have come to regard as one of the best Indian writers in English today
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main41.asp?filename=hub070309the_missionary.asp

Both talk of trivialising the Indian reality through western presentation in their own way. The Oscars are not connected to this, but, they do in a way. But, for me most interesting is the politics of the presentation of Indian Slums, humans, dogs, et al.

Kiran Bedi proposes community informal courts

2009-03-13T12:52:00.000+05:30

I found the following news item quite interesting.

Community Informal Courts so much like what prevails in most parts of the country as 'community / caste courts'. The institutions have not been recognized by the legal system and have always been seen as a threat. However, it cannot be denied that they have faster justice dispensing mechanism and the judgement is implemented without much ado. It would be interesting to track responses to this statement, particularly from the practitioners of law, whose careers would be the most directly threatened.

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Kiran Bedi proposes community informal courts

New Delhi, March 12 (IANS) Police officer-turned-TV anchor Kiran Bedi Thursday proposed informal courts for communities like Residents Welfare Associations (RWA) to resolve small issues amicably without being dragged to higher courts.

'Whether it's a fight over parking space or losing your pet dog, you run to the police for every small thing. The police is already so overburdened with terrorism and crime cases, and such cases simply add to their burden,' said Bedi, the first woman Indian Police Service (IPS) officer.

'To solve such cases promptly and amicably between parties without dragging them to higher courts, RWAs should set up their own Lok Adalats (people's courts),' Bedi told reporters here.

'In fact, I think colleges and even schools should start having their own Lok Adalats to solve problems,' said Bedi, who anchors a popular TV show on Star Plus, 'Aap Ki Kacheri', an alternate dispute redressal forum.

Bedi said it should be taken care that the panel in such informal courts should consist of 'an elderly citizen, a woman and a youth to give a balanced judgement'.

'Also the panel should change at regular intervals to ensure no partiality of justice,' she suggested.

Bedi was here to announce the second innings of 'Aap Ki Kacheri'.

The show sees parties involved in domestic disputes come forth and put their points across to Bedi who encourages a discussion to reach a conclusion. In its first season as an alternate dispute redressal forum, the show saw 52 cases being resolved.

source: http://newshopper.sulekha.com/newsitem/iansnews/2009/03/kiran-bedi-proposes-community-informal-courts.htm

Jai Ho! The Oscar Acceptance Speech!!

2009-02-24T15:45:00.000+05:30

I was pointed out to the acceptance speeches made by A.R. Rahman and Resul Pookutty. I think this is significant, I am reproducing this from what I could hear in the noisy videos on-line on Oscars, maybe more on this when I have some time:

1. A.R.Rahman, a converted Muslim, as part of his acceptance speech says, 'All praise and glory to God (in Tamil)...I have had a choice all my life to select between love and hate, I chose love and here I am'!!

2. Resul Pookutty, a Muslim from Trivandrum, says as in his Oscar acceptance speech, 'I come from a Nation and a Civilization that gave the first sound...which was preceded and followed by silence, the word is Aum'!!

The two acceptance speeches made by these artists have broken many stereotypes in which they may be cast based on their background. At the highest level in any vocation, the practitioner expresses whatever he thinks is the essence in himself or his land. That these men chose to express humility, glory of the civilization and sense of sanctity is an indication of the what they think is the spirit of the land as Swami Vivekananda had said, 'Every thought from this land has gone with meditation before and blessings behind'.

I didn't see the Oscar night live nor have I watched the movie, but, if this is what the Indian artists say when they are overwhelmed and want to express themselves in an international forum, it is great! they deserve all the greetings they get and more! Jai Ho!

media hurry to insert Taliban into Hinduism

2009-02-08T23:01:00.199+05:30

The goons in Mangalore deserve to be locked up and tried under law. But, the media's obsession with goons ensures that they grant the goonda leader a podium! And this person, goes on to make the kind of noise that would ensure attention on himself for some more time. He needs this publicity as much as the media needs his sensationalism. His following is meagre, his organization has representation in two districts of Karnataka, has contested 8 seats and lost deposit in all.

Bingo! next day, HINDU writes an editorial that we have Hindu Taliban now!! Remarkable this transformation of local goondas to Taliban! HINDU has decided to play (Hindu)God!!

Anbumani Ramdoss wants all liquor shops shut down early and consumption of liquor banned for everyone, that doesn't make him a Taliban. Recently, Madarassas in UP had declared that Muslim girls cannot study in co-ed schools, that doesn't make these groups Taliban. The Law Minister, some time back, when queried as to why wives need to travel with judges going abroad on duty, describes them as part of the 'comfort' for the Judge and asks the interviewer to 'understand' because, 'you are a woman'! That doesn't make him anti-feminist of course, and, certainly not Taliban. There have been numerous instances of women (particularly members of SHGs) marching to local liquor shops and forcibly getting them shut down as it is destroying their community, such acts have not been called Taliban.

But, the eagerness of our media to associate small town violence to global terror and thereby score political point seems outright cheap. The Taliban, its influence and power, is least because of its authority on Islam. It suited certain powers to promote a bunch of fanatics at some point for a short sighted purpose. Our media seems to play the same game now. This is not just ignorance of the Taliban, but, also dangerously irresponsible and sensationalism of foolish proportions.

On the Mangalore Pub incident: I think women have as much right to get drunk as men do, in public, in private, wherever. I also believe that local communities should have their say in whether or not license should be granted to pubs and liquor shops in an area. If it is seen as a problem to a community it is best shut down, for women, men and all. Communities can object to liquor shop because it destroys their productivity, increases addiction, drains the economy, is against the culture and tradition, is just seen as a bad influence, whatever. All of these are equally valid and ought to be respected.

Why didn't any Satyam staff resign in anger or shame?

2009-02-05T01:31:00.067+05:30

I have not bothered to blog on Satyam fiasco. Corporate India is the favourite child of our media, when the favourite child misbehaves our media can celebrate that too. Corporate Ethics and Governance issues have been forever written about ever since this news broke in the last week of December.

For a moment forgetting the one person being fraud, why haven't any of the 40,000 odd employees quit in anger or disgust. How can they continue to work for a company whose faith has been destroyed beyond repair? Does the ethics of a company mean anything to the employees at all?

I know it must be difficult to quit if you have post dated cheques with different agencies and if there is no immediate chances of employment, but, can people working for this company absolve themselves of the fraud? I don't know whether there were reports on this that I have missed out on. Everyone from the state government to the new directors are asking the employees to not lose heart, but, has anyone done so and actually made a statement by quitting the firm?

Would these people, 40 years from now be proud to tell their grand children that they actually worked for Satyam when this fiasco happened and continued to work despite knowing they have been cheated.

Some Andhra based employees actually see in Raju's admission a silver lining, we read that some of them held placards to greet him on Sankaranthi outside the jail where he is lodged. Their feudal loyalty is very sincere and needs to be appreciated.

But, what about the rest of their employees? Tried google with 'i am ashamed to work for Satyam' or 'I quit satyam' and all you get is the quitting of Independent directors at the early stages of this fiasco. Many employees have been applying elsewhere due to the insecurity they feel in this company now, that too has become difficult after rival companies denied to take them, we read. Our society consists of youth who commit suicide for failure of love affair every other day, a youth immolated himself recently in Chennai to show solidarity with the Sri Lankan tamils, we have people inflicting different forms of physical and mental pains on themselves for various causes all over the country, how come none of the 40,000+ was willing to cause the pain of joblessness than continue working for such a corporate? or are they willing inflicting the pain of working there as living out their shame?

Doesn't our sense of being wronged against any longer evince any action from us? Do we as a society accept fraud so much that even when it is committed in our name, we do not want to stand up and say we will not accept it?

I am sure Satyam employees are wonderful human beings with high ethical and moral lives, but, the fact that 40,000 of them can subsume it for the sake of continued monetary security / gains does show our society in a very poor light.

'Moral Police' - is it an Indian term?

2009-01-31T22:25:00.112+05:30

The Mangalore pub incident has brought fresh set of write-up on 'Moral Police' of India. Did a quick Google search and found that Indians seem to be exceptionally obsessed with this term with a wide spectrum of connotations and usage. We as a society like broad ambiguous terms that we can conveniently deploy to our advantage whenever required and this term seem to be one such.

Any one from hired goonda to political leader taking a stand on issue of behaviour can be branded as a 'moral police'. There is no need for any authorization as to who can declare someone to be a moral police, just about anyone who thinks she understands the term can use it liberally.

There are no common civic code of conduct in India as far as I know. The 'nuisance' case is celebrated as a prerogative of the authorities of law & order. The levels of economic and social inequalities has meant that the any code of conduct does not contain the dominant while the suppressed are made to feel that being permitted to live itself is a privilege. So, the dominant dictate and debate the code of conduct amongst themselves for themselves. But, they come from diverse traditions too and their aspirations and views of 'conduct' covers a vast spread.

As far as I know no political party has promised any 'liberate society' or 'moral conduct society' as part of its manifesto. So, ascribing 'moral police' to a political party or ideology is accusation by the lazy. Even worse is to ascribe moral values to the state apparatus.Neither the bureaucracy nor the judiciary have exhibited consistent standards on handling issues related to human behaviour, if anything they become wilful tools to censure the suppressed of undesirable behaviour. The law of the land is never seen as being fair to the suppressed and always seen as working on behalf of the dominant.

Media tends to decide whom to paint as the 'dominant' and whom to paint as the 'suppressed', thereby programming public perception. The liberals will oppose the conservatives, the communists will oppose the right wingists, the democrats will oppose the feudal, the global will oppose the local, the free world will oppose the culture,...as each one of these fight the 'other' in yet another cause and the most verbal express their inability or ignorance in many words, we stand divided. Period.

If only we don't give tall terms to simple civil expectations and start by adhering to some ourselves, we may be stronger and united.

A month after Mumbai, 4 years after Tsunami...differences in response

2008-12-27T15:20:00.001+05:30

The news paper reports are today replete with people paying homage to Mumbai terror attack victims as well as recollection and homage of those who died in the tsunami 2004.

One natural disaster that saw, in response, a resurgence of human compassion and voluntarism while the other disaster wrought by humans led astray is responded to with anger and animosity. As the year comes to an end, war on Pakistan is increasingly being spoken to as 'when' and not as 'if'. Pakistan itself seems to be under greater belief that India will go on a war with them.

The war is being already fought by the media. The media in Pakistan seems to be working overtime now. I am sure that makes better business sense, imagine Indians had terror attack and could get good TRP for a television for a week maybe, Pakistan is selling the response to terror and getting probably better TRP (or whatever is the equivalent there) for a month.

Modern technology and economic organization that provided Kasav and his people with easy access to guns, grenades, global phones and positioning systems has also provided the media in both countries with information on weapon capabilities, about the N processes, about the preparedness for attack, minutes for response, about weapons and their uses...the amount of knowledge we possess on instruments of violence seems endless.

Many Indians feel that we should show that we too, 'know' how to use these tools of violence, Pakistanis feel that they should show their superior 'knowledge' on the tools of violence, while fanatics on both sides tease each other about each others' ability to use such 'knowledge'.

If the sense of security of a nation comes out of its knowledge of violent tools and methods, it must be a extremely violent society to begin with. I don't think our knowledge (and possession) of tools of violence provides us with the sense of security. If the response to the Mumbai attack results in us getting increasingly aggressive in acquiring, possessing and exhibiting (using) tools of mass violence, then we only perpetuate the violence, not work against it. Response to human pain cannot be in causing more human pain, response to the sense of hurt in a nation's pride cannot be solved by hurting another nation's pride. We did not win our Independence by hurting the pride of the colonials. They did not become our 'enemies' despite causing greater damage to us and killing more people for longer duration.

I don't think India is a violent nation, it does not come to us naturally to be violent. Violent people are not majority in this country, violence does not stay in power too long either. Our tendency is to gravitate towards peaceful existence, and what we tend to, is our true stable nature, our own character. This is defined by the traditions we have built and the leaders we have come to revere. However, we don't seem to have created either pride in this character or suitable methods of applying it in all situations. Gandhi successfully applied it against the Colonials, and since then it has surfaced once in awhile in different policies almost inadvertently.

As the year draws to the end, the image of the Mumbai attack will overshadow all other images and moments for most of us. The response to this attack on the nation's pride could unite us as a nation. We could be united as a mob, faceless, identity-less, lynching an unequal but protesting and fighting 'enemy' or we could be united with an understanding of our true character that bring in spontaneous bonding and could make us stronger. Such understanding was seen after the tsunami, in the way many Indians bonded and worked together with complete strangers, in an understanding of compassion and peaceful co-existence. Our responses then were highly innovative, they were spontaneous and made us stronger. Our response now?

The last catalogue?

2008-12-24T10:36:00.000+05:30

It is rare that the release of a catalogue of a book shop can be a reason for celebration. But, Other India Bookstore is not your ordinary book store. It is probably the best alternate book store in the country today. From alternate Education to Philosophy, Earthworms to Gandhi, every form of useful idea that has not caught the eye of the mainstream publisher, are published by the Other India Books, the publishing wing of the Other India Bookstore. The Bookstore itself, in Mapusa, Goa is a delight for activists and alternate thinkers alike. A small book shop tucked away in the corner of a shopping complex with a friendly attendant who leaves you to do your browsing at leisure and the most remarkable collection of books on topics that would interest every book reader of serious kind. It is an experience worth trekking to Mapusa just for the pleasure of it.

I have had the pleasure of interacting with team and am all excited just to hold and go through the list of books on the Catalogue. The Catalogue itself is written in the characteristic style of Claude Alvares, with generous dose of humour and much wisdom. It must be the only book shop catalogue that people may be willing to pay to read. It is produced in the format of a tabloid to complete the look of a newspaper.

The current issue has for the first time a group photo of the OIB team and the story of the Bookstore too. For us at Samanvaya it is an important milestone too as three of our publications have been stocked up at the Other India Bookstore and we have made our entry into the Catalogue through them.

However, like all valuable work in recent times, the Catalogue too comes with a label of 'market for extinction soon' on it. The authors have mentioned that with the growth of the Internet, the current issue of the Catalogue may be the last one. The authors also add that if there are a hundred people protesting against the Catalogue being discontinued, then they may relent and continue with it. Here is one. May this bookstore nor the catalogue ever go extinct.

Indian Masters: Swami Ranganathananda's centenary

2008-12-16T11:43:00.000+05:30

It is not often I blog on individuals who have inspired me. It is very difficult to write and one always finds expressions inadequate. However, just saw the announcement of a stamp on Swami Ranganathananda and decided to put down associated thoughts for the benefit of those who are not aware of this Master and his work. - R

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The Ramakrishna Math & Mission as a policy does not promote any individual monk of the Order beyond their life time. As an order of monks, whatever personal belongings of each of the monk is cast into the sea after their cremation. So, despite being an order of a large number of monks who have much more to their credit than many of our current day, 'famous' social workers, one may never get to know about their work except when one visits the institutions some of these people have inspired or created. Even then the persona is not provided with the kind of glossy painted aura that is bestowed easily on many celebrities by our media these days.

Despite this institutional self-restraint, some times a stories of monks and their exemplary lives and enormous impact on society does come out. Swami Ranganathananda is one such persona.
The Swami hails from a small village in Kerala and at a very young age was attracted by the ideals of Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. He joined the Ramakrishna Mission and was deputed to be a cook at the Mission centre in Mysore. He says in some of his lectures, how he used to cook and clean and maintain the place while spending the remaining time reading the vedantic literature and Bhagavat Gita.

The Swami has been in many troubled places at difficult times, including being in the Lahore centre of the Mission at the time of partition and in Rangoon at the time of the Burmese turmoil, he walked back along with many Indians who had to leave their all and walk back to India. His memorial meeting (after his demise a few years back) drew three young men who had attended his lectures on the Bhagavat Gita in the Lahore centre and later have been the Prime Ministers of this country, Manmohan Singh, L.K. Advani and I.K. Gujaral.

His understanding and interpretation of Vedanta have renewed the interest in this subject among many people. The Swami not merely preached Vedanta, but, practiced it in his daily life too. His commentaries on the Bhagavat Gita for the modern times (in 3 volumes) is one of the most suitable for current times and one can read it for the pleasure of reading.

His emphasis of the synthesis of knowledge lead many scholars to believe that he was 'modern', however, his engagement with some of the top scientists only convinced him even more on his base of vedanta. Swami has engaged and delivered lectures along some very important scientists and Noble laureates of our times. He is one of the few who could talk about the aesthetic beauty of the upanisad's and the gita apart from their content, like Gandhiji and Swami Vivekananda before him.

A humble humanist he always had a good word for everyone who visited him, whether they be very young or the high and mighty. I was always struck by the first question he addressed to any young person who did voluntary or social work, 'does it provide you enough money to secure your life?', immediately followed by, 'are your family members happy with you?'. This concern for those who work for the society was something I find to come out of a great compassion towards such people.

He also has played some significant role in the political sphere, many credit him (though the Ramakrishna Mission has never made any such claims as such) with the important work the Mission did in the North Eastern states as a direct response to the concern on the Chinese infiltration and influence in those parts.

A great teacher, his lectures on the Upanisads and the Gita (thankfully they are available through the publications by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan) are simple and yet shows his depth of knowledge vast areas. A thorough scholar, many of his writings drew extensively from the Indian traditional scripts and literature also, apart from modern science. His lectures drew large audiences and many read the Gita and Vedanta for the first time after listening to him. Late Dharampalji once remarked that even in the 50s, whenever the Swami lectured, there was a large gathering in Delhi.

I have had the privilege of interacting with this Master on more than one occasion. We as an organization owe our name to him. It was a publication of one of his lectures, 'India's Vision of Samanvaya' that inspired us to call ourselves by that name. . Later, of course, he blessed our work saying, 'You have the name from me, what more can I bless you with'. The Swami passed away a few years back in his late 90s . His centenary is being celebrated by many individuals and institutions that have been inspired by him. The stamp was released day before in his honour.

got this simple poster by mail...

2008-12-10T15:05:00.000+05:30

Being careful on the cry for war

2008-12-08T16:21:00.002+05:30

The joint cry for 'war on terror' that India has to unleash on Pakistan has marched from the periodic rhetoric of political right to a sales pitch for mass media since 26/11. For more than a week now our media seem to precipitate the idea of war in our midst.

The westward looking among us have sucked up duly to this. We want our own version of American War on Terror. We want to be part of that global fight which would lead to many of us do not know what. 'Cold Start, 'Surgical Strike' are the kind of terms suddenly crowding our media space, seeking to suddenly educate us on offense strategies and technology about which none of us have any clue, I don't.

If the American example has taught us one thing, that is this, you can't win a war on terror by terror alone. They have been made to bleed in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are caught in the quagmire which was set-up by the trumped up war potential with the same 'precision bombing' and other such terms on their television after 9/11. More importantly, hate for America has not decreased in any part of the world. If anything people hate America more.

The Americans have not gone on 'war on terror' in their own land or that of their neighbours. This too holds an important lesson for us. Pakistan is an extension of India, we cannot root out the virus that is crippling the Pakistani society by destroying part of the society. The 'fundamentalist' virus will remain. India has for long stayed blind to the developments in its vicinity.

While we have been aware of and engaging in the economies of the western nations, we don't know how many people die of hunger in Afghanistan or Pakistan. While we are proud of our corporates getting listed in NASDAQ or other western markets, we don't know the threats of local markets in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma and other countries of this region (of course many of us don't know some of these facts about our own country, that is a different issue). If India wages a war in its neighbourhood, the war will drain India forever. We have the Sri Lankan example. A nation waging a war on parts of its own people has been bleeding now for decades and its economy crippled.

Let the feeling of being 'hurt' and 'anger' not lead us to approve or indeed demand a war. We may not be able to afford the consequences.

The other rhetoric that has emerged from the Mumbai 26/11 is more important. The need to cleanse our system of governance. I had earlier blogged on the need for an Indian character in our response to terror. Two interesting response for that post ensued, (1) my pointing out the inherent inefficiency in our governance systems was refuted by Joe. He took it as implying inefficiency on the part of the IAS officers. I have nothing against them and do think some of them are amazing individuals. What I implied was that they are often imprisoned by an archaic system that they cannot press F5 on. They have to navigate within the system for their survival. Some perhaps are efficient navigators, but, it cannot be denied that our arms of governance, the legal system, the system of public participation and the method of governance need a far more systemic assessment for their limitations. They have failed to deliver and those of us whose lives are not linked with day to day engagement with this system are the ones feel the impact the least. Indeed most of us who are hurt and angered today are often the least inclined to engage with the system.
(2) the second response was as a long phone call from Sathya, who said that India has no right to interfere in the affairs of Pakistan, after all they have a democratically elected government now. I don't agree. Reports make it clear that Pakistani democracy hangs by a thin thread with multiple players holding it up. India cannot today ignore the weakness of Pakistani democracy and demand action out of its government or by the same token denounce the government for inaction and bomb and destroy some of the terrorist places. The Pakistani government can only do the former at its own peril and will have to respond to the later through violence to survive. A mature approach is to help Pakistan build their democracy, we have ignored their weaknesses for too long only treating it as our strategic advantage. It could be a long haul, but, for too long we have ignored their societal problem through the infiltration of fundamentalism.

Indian governments have to stand up for a character of this region and build in that in its response to terror. Currently, there doesn't seem to be a great approach of our own, we are parroting (and indeed being encouraged to) 'our right to respond' because someone else has said it. This is what I had earlier written as lacking in character. If there was a 'Indian response to terror' that was built from fundamentals on the foundations of the Indian world view, then it would be different from that of others and rooted in our own strengths and understanding. I cannot accept that a civilizational entity that prides its record of not going to war for over 5000 years lacks the courage or vision to come up with its own response to terror.

Finally, any war in any part of the world today means more production and marketing of weapons of war. There are businesses that are dependent on production and servicing of war machines which rightfully look at any semblance of a new large scale war as a good opportunity. As part of their marketing strategy, one cannot find fault with them if they encourage the parties to move in the direction of the war. It is important to see how much of our public opinion on war is being influenced by such elements. It is important to see how much of the Pakistani public opinion on war is influenced by such elements. Being victims of such influence is something we share now and that could be a good point to start a dialogue.

Why hasn't anyone banned 'Rail Roko Dharna' yet?

2008-12-08T10:54:00.000+05:30

The Indian Railways transports large amount of our population from home to work every day and reaches much larger number of essential commodities for our people. It qualifies as an 'essential service' certainly.

So, why do we allow people to stop trains from going on time just to show their anger and dissent on one thing or another? Why does the state and the railway department permit people this photo opportunity?

Yesterday noticed yet another 'rail roko' announcement in a large poster, a group has announced that it would stop train to show their protest in different towns on different days! And has its leader stopping another train, sure enough for some other issue on an earlier occasion. It was as though the stopping of train was a birth right of any political party or movement for any kind of protest? Why does the nation state and department allow people's essential service to be held at ransom?

One can understand the spontaneous gesture of road roko that often happens in our rural areas where a group of villagers resort to it to ensure that people passing by their village pay attention to the status of the village, but, a pre-planned, announced (and celebrated) kind of rail roko does not stem from the same spirit. It was as though the state was happy as long as people were dissenting in certain ways that it can watch and manage.

response to crisis: what is our character?

2008-12-01T10:26:00.000+05:30

Each person responds to crisis based on his character. When institutions respond, they do so based on the characters that has been built into by their founders as well as the nature of its current occupants. When the staff of Taj hotel responded the way they did in putting their life in front of that of their guests, they represented a culture of safe guarding their guests interests first, this could have come from the management, the promoters and the culture they created and which the staff internalized.

When the government responds the way it did, it represents the impotence of the governance machinery as well the incompetence of the people currently occupying it. Strategically the political blunders are unimaginable.

1) What the purpose of summoning the ISI chief? Apart from the notional victory of having 'summoned' the chief of another country's intelligence agency, what does it provide the Indian Government? Did the PM actually believe that the ISI chief will come and provide RAW or whoever with all the information they need? To me it seems like asking for the impossible. We have forever blamed ISI for so many terror attacks in India, if that were true, then why ask them for help? If that were not true, then, what purpose will it serve?

2) Rushing the foreign secretary to brief Mr. Obama seems to be an equally unimaginative initiative. USA is not your larger governing structure. Why do it now? What purpose does it serve? The USA is looking at the rest of the world to bail itself out currently. The days of the uni-polar world is over, the very attack is the proof of that. You don't need to report to the 'boss' every time. You are the boss now. Can't you act like one?

We have not even called for a emergency meeting of the UN to pass a resolution against Pakistan, to declare it as a terror state. We have not even asked Pakistan to hand over LeT functionaries to us, instead wait and watch while the initiative has been wrested by them and their President makes a statement that, 'we will act based on the evidence'. If we believe that the current government in Pakistan is all 'goody- goody' then, we should have invited Zardari to Mumbai as a gesture and let him be grilled in public by the very articulate media. If we believe in retaliation, we should have said so straight away like Bush did after 9/11.

Instead, the entire international strategic initiative has been wasted. Now it is down to the bureaucrats who will wrangle over the syntax of what to write for some 'joint statement' with US government to be and what were the exact words used by the President of Pakistan at the time of his conversation with the India PM.

A moment when the entire international political focus was on India, by not making our statement, ANY statement on terrorism that reflects our own internal character, we have failed to stand for ourselves or stand up for ANYTHING. We have reduced a moment of significance to a wimpy, unimaginative, non-committal bureaucratic wishy-washy kind of nonsense thereby losing an opportunity to have our say in global fight on terror. This is unpardonable.

If this is the global scene, locally we are no better. Shivraj Patil has forever been criticized, and if you have to change him immediately after such an attack, it only gives a sense of success to the terrorists. When multiple-failures result in such a major crisis, it is not time to blame each other and call for peoples' heads to roll, it is time for a very serious review and corrective action. How is Chidambaram better than Shivraj Patil? And isin't the finance ministry equally important? Only a week ago, PC made a statement that he is watching the global financial crisis 24x7, now what happens? or does it mean that he is dispensable in the larger scheme of things in the finance ministry?

Character is the what is lacking in the way this government has handled the crisis. Character requires conviction, conviction of some sort, any sort. That, we have found wanting in a major way.

Systemically we need to look/ re-look at many of our safe guard institutions for us to understand why we fail every time:

1) When Intelligence agencies give a notice that there is a possibility of a terror strike, who delivers this note? to whom? what is the responsibility of that person? what is he supposed to do with it? how?

2) How are police men trained? how do they learn how to tackle emerging methods of crime and weapons?
3) Who is responsible for bringing down and escalating security to a person or institution based on whatever intelligence he/she possesses? Is there is a process in place which is governed by certain rules or does this person do that automatically? If there are such processes, how frequently are these reviewed and updated?
4) Who need to communicate to citizens of a city when the city faces crisis of any sort? From the government and bureaucracy? The problem is no one was talking to the citizen of the city of Mumbai except the news channel announcers and they were competing with each other all the time
5) There was absolute pandamonium the other day when media were finally permitted to question someone after one of the operations was supposedly over, not realizing that the operation was still on. What are the rules that govern the government's interaction with the visual media, particularly those that are broadcasting live during a time of crisis? Why was there not one centralized government source talking to the media, and, just about any one and everyone making statements (poor RR Patil lost his job for talking too much)
6) Who determines/governs the behaviour of the media in such times? While on news channel was supposed to have gone over board there was another self-congratulating itself all the time about how restrained it was. What are the rules that govern the telecast behaviour of the visual media?
7) What are the factors that determine who attends to a terror situation and how? Why did senior officers of the police walk in the front to take the bullets? Not to belittle the life of the junior officer or take credit from the senior ones, but, what are the governing principles under which a police officer decides that so and so has to attend to a certain issue or that he has to directly attend to it himself?
8) The CM of Maharashtra is supposed to have told the Home Minister from the Centre that he would require 200 commandoes, how did he arrive at this number? who does the estimation of the need of forces in any situation and based on what factors?
9) Many have questioned Modi's remarks made at time when the operations were still on in front of the hotel, the question is what are the reasons to let a politician to get a photo opportunity, is there any law that prescribes how far a politician can go near a place of terrorist operation even as the rescue work was on?
10) There have been far too many questions about NSG, its operational requirements and resources made available to it, etc. One does not have to go into it, but, if these are the only trained people to tackle terrorist attacks in the country, then, what is the level of preparedness in which they are maintained? Mr. Dutt, their chief in on of the many tele-interviews said, 'you don't expect this kind of thing to happen, so, it takes times to get ready' or words to that effect. If the chief of the only force trained to tackle terrorists in this country says that then there is something terribly wrong.
11) Everyone is surprised about the terrorist coming in from the sea, how many scenarios do our anti-terrorist groups prepare themselves against? Particularly in terms of urban warfare? How frequently and does the role of other coordinating agencies well defined in this process? What role do political leaders have to play in all this?
12) When there are so many ex-servicemen and police officers so readily available for the visual media to share their experience and knowledge for that 2 minutes of highly interrupted and often irritating public space, how and where does the government system utilize this knowledge?

How much amount of detailing we do in our governance is based on how much we understand its design, its character. We have a borrowed design that is out dated and patched up to cover its inadequacies. Most bureaucrats think changing the system is not the rule, adhering to it is; thereby making any changes based on response to external changes as an almost impossible task. Obviously, what we have not created, we cannot change. The one character that represents our bureaucracy that is its inability to respond to situations, any situation, particularly crisis AS PART OF ITS DUTY, not because few exceptional individuals STEPPED ASIDE THEIR DUTY to respond to the situation.

P.S.: I post this with much trepidation, the web and blog space is filled with too many people voicing their opinion on the terror attack. I am worried that all this energy should dissipate our anger as just words and not as actions. There are not many actions possible at the individual level at the time of a terror attack, but, much before and after and all the time. If some of the anger is directed towards that, it would be a productive energy rather than wasted in mere digital symbols that would be archived automatically in a month.

Anger can Wait!

2008-11-29T12:15:00.000+05:30

Anger can wait.

This is a time for mourning and sorrow and prayers for all those who got killed and solidarity with those who are bereaved.

Finally understood how Americans would have felt after Sept 11. The mix of emotions that hit you is heavy.

While the media surrounds us and pumps large amounts of information, filling us with its analysis and data and images. I will stop watching them. Anger can wait, its time for expressing sadness and sorrow.

Be thankful in giving

2008-11-21T17:19:00.000+05:30

Some years back in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami when we have started to support couple of relief camps, we had a situation where people piled up enarmous amount of junk in the name of donation. We had made some rules later on stating that it would be better if they sorted out the donations as per its usage, hoping that people may take some time to sort in the process and discard junk.

Here is another example I just now read in a blog - link

The Buddha says, 'be thankful in giving', some merely look at giving as a relief.

Judge says, 'Medical oversight doesn’t call for criminal action'

2008-10-24T15:31:00.000+05:30

One of the largest reasons for deaths in hospital is medical negligence (see Wiki). Last year in a discussion a prominent doctor had called the mindless prescription of antibiotics by doctors as a 'ticking time bomb'. The popular perception is that private hospitals are minting money from the ignorance of the patients and we are all at the mercy of doctors. Second opinion and third opinion are taken as regular medical precautions though no one subsidizes these opinions. Under these circumstances, the Supreme Court ruling is important as it serves as a warning to the profession while granting it with the freedom to save life if backed by professional competence.

However the one question that remains is, how does the Court decide on professional competence? When it can make a statement about Hakims and local quacks without them even being part of this particular litigation, does it have the courage to challenge any profession stemming from modern science?

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Medical oversight doesn’t call for criminal action

Friday, October 24, 2008 02:42 IST

NEW DELHI: Doctors, hospitals and clinics can breathe easy after the supreme court ruled on Thursday that criminal action isn’t warranted for every negligence by medical professionals or death during treatment.

After a detailed evaluation of certain provisions of IPC like sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 304A relating to negligence, the court quashed criminal action under the former provision ag-ainst a doctor who faced criminal action for causing death by administering three injections to a patient suffering from acute pain seven years ago.

Allowing the appeal by Mathura-based Dr Mahadev Prasad Kaushik, a bench of justices CK Thakker and DK Jain said “criminal prosecutions of doctors without adequate medical opinion pointing to their guilt would be doing disservice to the community at large”.

Mere deviation from normal professional practices is not necessarily evidence of negligence. “An error of judgment on the part of the professional is also not negligence per se. Higher the acuteness in emergency and higher the complication, more are the chances of error of judgment,” the court ruled. “At times, the professional is confronted with making a choice between the devil and the deep sea and he has to choose the lesser evil,” the apex court said.

On the complaint by a person alleging that he lost his father after the doctor administered three injections, a criminal court had initiated action under section 304 IPC against him.

The defendant’s lawyer pleaded that at worst he could be tried for negligence and not for unintentional homicide. Agreeing with this argument, the apex court said “If the courts were to impose criminal liability on hospitals and doctors for everything that goes wrong, the doctors would be more worried about their own safety than giving all best treatment to the patients”.

While section 304 carries a maximum jail sentence fort 10 years, the amended section 304A provides two years imprisonment at the most. Concerned with the relationship of confidence between a patient and a doctor, the bench said “It would also lead to shaking the mutual confidence between the doctor and patient”.

The court further said “Every failure or misfortune in the hospital or in a clinic of a doctor cannot be termed as act of negligence so as to try him of an offence punishable under Section 304A of the Code”. While a hakim or a quack could be tried under section 304, a qualified doctor can’t face the same charge unless he has shown blatant negligence in treating a patient. In Dr Kaushik’s case, the complainant was supported by evidence of persons who saw his father’s complexion turning to blue after getting the shots. It was alleged that accused doctor didn’t act to save the patient.

A professional may be held liable for negligence on one of two findings: Either he was not possessed of the requisite skill which he professed to have possessed, or, he did not exercise, with reasonable competence in the given case, the skill which he did possess, the court added.

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1200619&pageid=0

The Indian State against Islam?

2008-09-15T22:18:00.019+05:30

Recent months has seen debate on Islam and its role within India as a nation reach a crescendo. No other time in recent history perhaps has so much written about Islam and its role in India. Tehelka has in a series of issues ripped apart the State's arguments against SIMI with a die-hard courage and journalism that is exemplary if not foolhardy in the current times. Who would sell a magazine that disproves the accusations on SIMI and defending them, when judgements are being passed against its members and every other day bombs go off across India immediately followed by SIMI name appearing in media as the main suspect. Tehelka is an exception in Indian journalism.

Apart from Tehelka, others too have openly voiced their opinion on the way the society and State treats Muslims including Shabna Azmi and other film world personalities. Arundathi Roy has written saying Kashmir wants Azadi from India and India from Kashmir. The statements from Hindu and Muslim leaders have been far more confusing. The secular writers are by far the worst, they try to defend violence by Muslims by writing about violence by Hindus and Christians, as though such acts justify each other, such arguments are in bad taste. The overall picture is bleak. Repeatedly, it seems that the State through its different wings, particularly the police and military is against Muslims as a whole. At least this is the scene that is hinted at though no one has said this overtly yet. There is a quote from our Railway Minister that says the bureaucracy has become communal as though that explains away everything. It is time we ask this question -

Is the Indian State against Muslims?

I am a Hindu and a proud one at that. However, that never stopped me from understanding other religions. There are Hindu Indians, who believe that India should have sent all Muslims to Pakistan and become a 'Hindu' state after Independence. These are Hindus who probably never grew up in a peaceful Muslim neighbourhood (as I did) and many perhaps today live without any apparent transaction with Muslims. Others may have transactions, but, no active socializing or engagement in a personal capacity. Though such people have increased in an political environment that is increasingly turning less tolerant, they are still not the majority of the Hindu population. The localized nature of the Hindu religion also means there is no one talking on behalf of all the Hindus of India (and indeed other parts of the world) at any point in time.

One way of interpreting Hindu caste system is based on the sanctity it attaches to food. As eating beef is considered least sanctified (in most parts, a sin), it is given the lowest order in society. In caste conscious regions, which is still most parts of India except to some extent in the metropolis, Muslims as beef eaters, are clubbed with this lower strata in the Hindu society with all others not interacting with them. This (though very simplistic) practical aspect has influenced the Hindu-Muslim interaction in the society historically.

Indeed the issue of cow slaughter is one of the oldest and most persistent Hindu-Muslim issue. It has featured in political negotiations, used as an intimidation tactic and also used to galvanize public opinion and popular upraising. Gandhi addresses this issue as a core issue in Hindu - Muslim interaction in his seminal Hind Swaraj, and elsewhere says that the 'British killed more cows that even the Mughuls' and there is a statement by the British Queen asserting the same.

Today, with the cattle any way being slaughtered for exports under State patronage, the slaughter of a cow is no longer that important an issue among ordinary Hindus (though it is very important in the agricultural circles), though sanctity of food still remains in certain absurd levels. Cow slaughter is a mere convenient political point. With the western influenced food habits, most younger generation Indians anyway believe that apparent hygiene is sanctity, which is another absurdity. It could still be an issue among smaller localities, locally sorted out if there is a good interaction among the two communities, this too is still visible across the country.

Such locally settled issues between Hindus and Muslims would be plenty across the land. I had earlier written about the localized peaceful Ganesh idol immersion procession in small neighbourhoods before it became a centralized show of strength by political Hindu organizations. In most parts of the country, still Hindus and Muslims do live in close proximity, do transact in a day to day basis, do have their own adjustments (like Muslims may never invite Hindus to dine in their houses, particularly if they know the Hindu to be a vegetarian and limit the exchange of safe market bought sweets and Hindus who ensure that their Muslim colleague's work load is minimised during the fasting holy month). However, such ordinary existence does not seem to influence the State and its machinery. While the powers of the State are happy to pose in Iftar parties or lock hands with well decked Pakistanis, this bonhomie does not seem to come in the way of how the State deals with Islam.

A most absurd report was of a young Tamil Muslim leader who was questioned because as a student couple of decades back, he had registered for the Student's Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), and everyone whose name was registered anywhere was being questioned by the State. That this person has since then been active in the social circuit, that he has facilitated and launched a Political Party and has been visible in the local politics does not mean anything to the State.

If ordinary Hindus and Muslims can coexist in major parts of this country, then what is the problem of the State? Why should it see Muslims anew in the global light on terrorism?

To my knowledge, Babri Masjid was the first Hindu political issue in recent history that was imposed top-down. There was a centralized expectation and mass action planned (and eventually enacted) in which the localized Hindu wisdom had no role to play. It was an attempt to centralize the Hindu society. Perhaps many a local Hindu wise men were undermined of their social standing and moral authority with this one political act. The claim to represent Hindu aspiration by leaders who lead this movement has only been furthered by the silence of the local Hindu leaders. Hinduism in its principle and practice is highly decentralized. No two villages have same Gods (atleast not in the same order), no two communities have similar cultures for birth, marriage and death, even the base philosophies are interpreted as per the local traditions. In such a society, the centralization of the Hindu aspiration on the hands of a few politicians is an assault that destroys the very foundation of this religion.

Indeed today, the most articulate and visible Hindu campaigners are those who have many centralized (or even worse globalized) ideas of Hinduism and are bothered about such aspirations of Hindu people (about whom their ideas will be limited to people like themselves). They have issues against Muslims that are not local (the Amarnath issue is different and one of the few local ones in recent times whose location and timing was bad, it could have been easily settled between Muslims and Hindus in Kashmir itself any other time and even now in any other state) any longer.

In response to such Hindus have appeared a band of Islamic representatives who's claim to fame would perhaps be not more than that they are easily available to the media. Like Shabna Azmi has pointed out, 'who says that the Mullah is the only representative of Islam', she goes on to say that 'Nehru represented Indian Muslims as much as any other Muslim leader'. It is very important to realize that just like the globalized Hindu leaders, there are globalized Muslim leaders who dominate the public sphere and often they are made of the same mould. These groups feed the mass media, particularly since Sept 11.

Much of the hype on terrorism has been created by the visual media in particular including terms and visuals to go with 'Islamic Terrorists' or 'Jihadists' that are used often and with not uniform responsibility. The need to utter words at a rapid speed to fill-up television time, particularly in live news channels (just watch Rajdeep Sardesai's lips closely with the television in mute you will understand what I mean), has ensured that the stereotyping of Islam, is incessantly strengthened.

The centralized view of Hindu and Muslim that suits global stereotypes and is perpetuated by the political analysts, bureaucrats and high speed media experts who influence the State more today has to be critically examined as one of the causes for the perception of the State against Islam.

If the media over kill plays a major role in the way we understand terrorism, its complete absence of information on other issues is equally striking. The Naxalite problem for whatever reason does not seem to attract the 'terrorist' lable in the media.In the entire Orissa reporting, there were so much news about the expansion of VHP in that state (very statistical ones have come to my mail box three times already) and similarly a very detailed one on the status of missionaries. But there were none that spoke about the Maoists.

Much of our media proclaims to be 'secular', however, I wonder how responsible they are in making allegations or re-cycling material (either from the government or some other media) without adequate verification? I don't know how many of them would have reviewed their own usage of the footage of the by now infamous Saddam statue being brought down in central Bhagdad when much later it came out that the entire episode was stage managed by US military and sucked up by the 'embedded' journalists. Similarly, I often wonder how can the media hold two parellel views on Modi so comfortably. The reporting of Modi's Gujarat as an well governed, efficient, industrialized, amazing example for every Indian state to emulate is almost insulated from the political news report that projects Modi as some kind of a Hindu Hitler. The media does not seem to find the contradictions in its own reporting.

Given that the media does play a powerful role in shaping public opinion and the State, their responsibility in projecting global stereotypes deserves to be more closely examined. How does the State view the media? In many cases the State seems to be almost guided by the media these days. The Home Minister's inability to creatively come up with new soundbytes for the media each time a bomb goes off is interpreted as his incompetence to be a Minister!

Read an interesting statement by one of the home grown corporate icons of the previous decade.He admits that the corporates have preferred to side with the State on social issues, however, we all know that it is not so. Whereas a Narayanamurthy and everyone else will come strongly when the government talks of implementing reservation in private firms, there is no voluntary statement that is visible on terrorism or the communal front. I don't believe that our corporate icons are unable to see beyond the political polarisation of the communal issue. However, their response to the US market crash is far more vocal than a blast in Delhi or elsewhere. Their inability today to influence the State today in areas beyond economy will be a historic blunder, they never had a government so willing to toe their line.

Even the vibrant civil society is not clear when it comes to the issue of terrorism and communal issue and the way the State handles it. We don't critically examine what the State and the media says. Intellectuals who populate the media and web are most often than not just don't want to touch the religious issue or deepen the discourse beyond the safe 'secular' idiom. At times I wonder whether it is because the articulate and visible civil society representatives are people who have become 'global' citizens and unable to relate to the issues from local perspective and common man any longer or whether it is their active participation on issues and initiatives can only come if it has been tried elsewhere (or atleast modelled on the west).

An interesting story on how a Judge termed an accused as a 'terrorist' even before the accusation could be proved in the court was carried recently in the media. The recent reports on the corruption of the judiciary is as most people have commented, just the tip of the ice berg that refuses to surface. Most common people think that if someone is innocent then the court will eventually release the person, that we do have a fair and unbiased judiciary. But, in the case of the so called terrorists (as indeed in other social issues such as environmental, economical, health, development, etc.), it does not seem to have the intention or capacity to stay independent. The State seems to take a long time to present its case in most 'terrorist' Muslim cases in recent times. However, this does not seem to bother the judiciary at all. Understandably our police system and judiciary has never witnessed such large number of cases of terrorist act. But, how does the Judiciary hold its own and ensure an unbiased look at what is being presented to it? In an environment where 'stricter laws' and 'more stringent laws' are being spoken of almost on a daily basis, there is no review mechanism for the independence and fairness of the judiciary and its inability to be independent of the State's opinion.

A tribunal set up to enquire the banning of SIMI lead by a judge who seemed to be exceptional has questioned the ban on this organization. However, even before the tribunal's ruling was made public, measures have been initiated by the State machinery to get the tribunal challenged. How is such speed possible by the otherwise lethargic State machinery unless it is driven by its own agenda?

Something most striking, for me, in the recent opinions being aired on communalisation of politics, political perception, the Muslim issue, the State's assertion against terrorism, etc. has been the absence of Gandhi in the discourse. I read through the various opinions by popular and intelligent persona and none wanted to take the name of the Father of Nation in the context of the communal tension. That his approach is seen as a closed chapter rather than a continuum is very sad.

What would Gandhi have done in the current context?

I think he would have walked all over Azamgarh to personally hold discussions with the Muslims of that region to try to understand why is it so many youth from that particular part of the country are suspected to be militants. He would have tried to understand the environment in which this phenomenon happens (if at all).

He would have utilized the Holy month of Ramzan to talk of the spiritual nature of Islam, highlight the sacred aspects of this religion and asked his followers to hold meetings with Muslims in the neighbourhood, particularly the youth, to use the sanctity of the month as a time for common reflection on the Nation. He would have requested ordinary Hindus and Muslims to come together in small neighbourhoods to assert their de-centralized nature and break the stereotypes.

Most importantly he would have apologized on behalf of the State to all the families who have lost lives in the bomb attacks as well as some of the innocent families that the State has held as suspects, holding both as equally detrimental to the peace in the state. He may have even invited Muslim youth groups to serve the injured victims of the bomb blast in hospitals to ensure their physical healing goes alongside their mental healing. He would have at the same time made a strong statement to the world to stop unnecessarily extrapolating and appending what happens in India to what happens in other parts and request them to look within their own societies rather than globize their problems.

I realize even as I write that this may be ridiculed and people may say that the global militancy is way beyond such peace 'gestures'. However, we do know what such a process did to an 'Empire on whom the sun never set'. It is a completely vision less State that needs to look outside models to make policies on every aspect of governance including its own security. It shows how weak and unimaginative we have become as a people and as inheriters of a legacy of a peace loving civilization. Even worse it shows how quickly we have forgotten the powerful immediate legacy of peaceful means as a valid method of fighting colonization, which is many times more dangerous than terrorism in its intent and design.

To me the State's handling of the entire terrorism issue is an inability to own up to a legacy, to approach issues with imagination, to have conviction on the ordinary people and their approach, to believe in the diverse and de-centralized nature of this civilization. Inability to lead its people with conviction that they are with the State and to provide the exceptional people in the media, judiciary and intelligentsia strength to say the inconvenient truth and engage to resolve them. It is not a State against Islam, it is a State that increasingly seems isolated and against majority of its own subjects.

In a few days from now, with their hands still stinking of the Nuclear Deal ink , Manmohan Singh and team will gather in an annual ritual to lay flowers on Gandhi Samadhi in Rajghat. They will bow before him with no conviction of his methods, Rajghat would have never been more dead and defiled before. The media will gather in large numbers to telecast this ritual to a uncaring nation that will swiftly switch channels from this mockery.

Two articles on Conversion

2008-09-01T15:57:00.001+05:30

Read two articles on conversion yesterday and today. The first one is from the tamil magazine Kalki where there is an interview with a person who goes about 're-converting' people to Hinduism, particularly Dalit workers in different parts of Tamilnadu. He claims to have already re-converted about 2000 people in different parts. (See The Kalki Online). His major reason being that those who get converted to Christianity find that this religion too is not democratic and the Dalit remains a Dalit first whether he is Hindu or Christian, hence they have been 're-converted' to Hinduism. He does confess that many of those re-convered perhaps may not understand the significance of their move.

The second is an interview with the noted Dalit voice Prof. Kancha Ilaiah who prescribes converstion to Christianity, Islam or Buddhist as the only way in which the dalits in India can practice democratic spirituality (see section of interview below). He says that the social restructuring need to happen, however, the change in identity through religious conversion is a major first step. He is talking of about 800 million dalits getting coverted in this interview.

I keep wondering why has conversion become such a major issue of debate in our country? How many countries in the world face such levels of conversions or re-conversions from one faith to another? Something must be wrong with the democratic system of governance that it needs a equally powerful 'democratic religion' (whatever that means, frankly, the existing empirical evidence on all three religions do not validate the statements of Prof. Iliah) to make the society democratic? why is 'conversion' and 're-conversion' so easy for our people? if someone has recently converted for whatever reasons, how could the person just like that re-convert? I could not understand the re-conversion at all? what is the significance of such incidents anyway?

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"Let The Hindus Also Do Missionary Work" By Kancha Ilaiah & Yoginder Sikand: "

...

So, conversion to Christianity, Islam or Buddhism is a must for our people. Let these three religions and their followers work among our people in a democratic manner. There are some possibilities of resuscitating egalitarian trends in Dalit-Bahujan religious traditions, but this project has its limits. In today’s globalised world why should our people stop at our local Pocchamma or Elamma or other such village goddesses? In their search for empowerment and liberation they must join one of the three global spiritual cultures. 800 million Dalit-Bahujans are ready to hear the word of God as the democratic spiritual traditions understand it. They have been kept ignorant of spiritual democracy for over three thousand years.

...

Q: But is mere conversion enough?

A: It depends on what one means by conversion. Conversion of self-identities and cultures through religious conversion is a major step, but this is must be accompanied by conversion of oppressive social structures through peoples’ struggles. Preaching is just part of the process. It also involves living with, empathising with and struggling along with the Dalit-Bahujans for liberation and emancipation from Brahminism."