Jai Adivasi

Jharkhand has been victimized by corruptedly politics right from the beginning

2010-01-06T23:42:00.000-08:00

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Jharkhand Assembly Election is over. The people of Jharkhand did not give a clear mandate to any political party or alliance, which surprises many people across the country precisely because there was a hue and cry on corruption prior to the election and it was also an assumption that the people are fed up with the corruption, instability and uncertainty created by the unholy alliance, small parties and independent MLAs therefore the expectation was for a clear mandate. Unfortunately, everything went just the opposite. The corruption icon Madhu Koda's wife Geeta Koda, Enos Ekka and many other corrupt and tainted candidates won the election. In fact, among 81 elected members, 59 of them (73 %) are tainted with pending criminal cases like murder, kidnapping and theft. Therefore, what kind of governance is expected from these people other than corruption, crime and corporate terror?

The fact of the matter is the people did not give their mandates to the corrupt and tainted candidates but they got elected only because our democracy is on sale, which was clearly seen during the election. Now even the voters know that they can sell their votes at least once in five years. There is a major shift noticed in the villagers' minds. The slogan "no development, no vote" has changed into "no money, no vote", which the political parties have legitimated by openly distributing cash and kinds in the villages. According to Narottam Kumar of Dharampur village comes under the Mandu assembly constituency in Hazaribhagh district, a candidate of the national party gave Rs.50,000 to the villagers, carpets and Rs.10,000 to women group and provided liquor to men. Similarly, in Singhbhum region Rs.1000 packed in envelops distributed to each family and even the first time contesting independent candidates spent Rs. 5 to 10 lakh and secured 5 to 15 thousand votes.

According to the latest report, the corporate houses have spent more than Rs.300 crore in Jharkhand Assemble Election by giving money to the political parties so that they can buy the votes and bring policies in favour of them. Interestingly, the fourth realm of the democracy -the Media also adopted the culture of "coverage package", with the principle of "no money, no news". The media houses had told to the candidates that if they want good election coverage, they must pay them in forms of ads. Now, it is socially accepted that a candidate can buy the votes, voters can sell their right to vote and the elected members are free to bargain for money generating miniseries. But the most shocking fact is the Adivasis who are known for their honesty are also involved in buying and selling the democratic rights and also favouring the corrupt politicians.

Ironically, the holy priests are also in the part of unholy business of democracy. Will you be surprised if someone tells you that the corrupt politician Enos Ekka won the election and Benjamin Lakra with a clean image contested on the ticket of the Congress lost election only because the holy priests wanted that to happen? It is fact that the holy priests mobilized the people in favour of Enos Ekka on the basis of the work and benefits that he has ensured for the holy priests when he was minister before going to jail. Indeed, many Congress candidates lost the election only because the holy priests wanted to teach a lesion to the Congress. They believe that the Congress is the real culprit for Adivasis plight, which is of course not wrong. But the question is will they welcome the operation white hunt of Sangh Parivar against the Christians only because they hate the Congress? If the Christians are attacked in Jharkhand, they should not cry foul or pray to the almighty God to save them because they have handed over their houses to the devil for taking care of.

However, the things in the state have gone extremely wrong despite the strong secular forces prevailing in the state; the communal forces could able to grab the power. In the Jharkhandi market of democracy, the Congress, JVM, AJSU and JMM are the gainers and the BJP, JDU and RJD are the losers but the biggest loser is the BJP, who has lost 12 seats despite having favourable climate for winning the election. Ironically, the BJP was not ready to concede the moral defeat and formed government with the JMM, AJSU and JD(U). The BJP has become shameless party, who can do anything for grabbing the power. The Congress-JVM alliance did not go for any kind of horse trading despite emerging as the biggest alliance with 25 seats. It seems that they are looking for the long term politics. If they could be able to maintain their alliance, they would be in the driving seat next time.

Jharkhand is really an unfortunate state, where an independent MLA can become the state head, any one can manipulate the public opinion for grabbing power and swallow the huge public money. Take the example of the BJP, who defended its tie-up with tainted JMM leader Shibu Soren though they had tirelessly criticized the Congress for giving him ministry in the UPA-I. The BJP president Nitin Gadkari defended the party's decision of supporting JMM leader Shibu Soren to form the next Government in Jharkhand saying that stability and interests of the people of that state were the only concerns. Gadkari said it was Congress and not Soren who was responsible for corruption in politics. But he forgets that the JMM was the part of Madhu Koda government and not the Congress. It was supported from the outside but of course the Congress can not be given a clean chit. Both the parties – BJP and JMM seem to be the power hungry therefore they can justify everything. Another twist is Bandhu Turkey, who is supporting Sibu Soren to ensure that the investigation on purchase of games and sports materials for the national game halted. Most important question is will the BJP who tirelessly cries foul on the issue of corruption, shield Bandhu Turkey?

Sibu Soren is also unique in many ways. In the Assembly election of 2005, he had ensured the defeat of the JMM by adopting the dynastic politics and now he became another Jai Prakash Narayan in giving secular certificate to the BJP, who was the key player in the demolition of Babri Mosque, Gujrat riots and Kandhmal violence. He repeatedly said, "BJP is not a communal party". After joining hands with the BJP, now he knows that the BJP is a secular party at least better than the Congress. The question here would be if the BJP is a secular party why he was the part of the Congress alliance earlier and also did not go for the pre-poll alliance with the BJP? Can he be allowed to portray a lion as a lamb merely to grab the power? Most of the MoUs (54) are signed by Arjun Munda to sell forests, rivers and lands of Jharkhand in the hands of the MNCs and Sibu Soren fought to save these. Will he be able to save land, forest and water with the BJP supported government? Can he say that the BJP is not a capitalist party or only the Congress sold the Adivasis resources? How long Sibu Soren will carry on corruptedly politics for grabbing the power?



Jharkhand has been victimized by unholy politics right from the beginning. The state has witnessed the unholy politics brought by the BJP, flourished during the regime of the UPA and supported by the JMM. In these circumstances, Jharkhand can be saved only through two ways – i) a new regional party emerges with the understanding of Jharkhandi culture, socio-economy and politics of the indigenous people and ii) the almighty God, who can throw light over the power hungry and corrupt politicians for resurrection of the state. The unholy politics must be stopped if the state has to address the people's issues, engineer its destiny and grow with prosperity. Though Sibu Soren seems to be enjoying on his political move at this moment but he must be ready either to be jailed or leave the chair of the chief minister within next 6 months because he would be surely facing investigation agencies and one more Tamar test (election) as well and Jharkhand would be on sale, loot and robbery once again. Indeed, the future of Jharkhand seems to be dark under the unholy politics.

Gladson Dungdung

gladson@jharkhandi.com

http://delhi.ozg.in

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How Nehru’s Panchsheel ruined Adivasis?

2010-01-06T23:25:00.000-08:00

The India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nerhu, who is also known as the architect of modern India, once said, "Dams are the temples of modern India." According to him, the big dams would address the issues of hunger and poverty of India. Unfortunately, the big dams only created pains, sufferings and sorrows to the owners (mostly the Adivasis; the indigenous people of India) of the lands, which submerged into the temples of modern India. Similarly, the big industries like Heavy Engineering Corporation, Bokaro Steel Limited, steel companies, coal mining and other mining industries created only misery for the Adivasis. Consequently, the Adivasis became landless, daily wage labourers and servants of the bigwigs after losing their land, forest, water and other livelihood resources.

Ironically, the architect of modern India did not create space for the Adivasis in their own modern country. He only inspired them to add more sufferings in their lives for the sake of national interest, saying, "If you are to suffer, you must suffer in the interest of the country." Perhaps, the Adivasis never know what it means by the national interest because they are the people who have always suffered for the national interest but they never enjoyed the fruits of the national interest, they were also not given place in the India history and not even memorized in the holy land of martyrs in the national capital. Needless to say, the architect of modern India did not even bother to count the people who have suffered in the interest of the country, which counts nearly 50 million, who have sacrificed everything for the national interest. Among them 40 percent are Adivasis, 20 percent are Dalits and rest 40 percent are the people of other backward classes. Indeed, the elites never suffer for the national interest as they are born only to enjoy their lives and of course the country protects them in every possible manner.

However, when the issues of the Adivasis are discussed, Nehru is always remembered for his 'Panchsheel for tribal development', which is also called the five pillars of the tribal development. But does his panchsheel work for the Adivasis? Of course, it doesn't. In fact, Nehru himself went against of the principles of Panchsheel and so the Congress party and other Indian rulers. The history suggests that some policies were made only to close the Adivasis tongues. According to Vincent Ekka of the Indian Social Institute, whenever the Adivasis protest against unjust policies of the state, they are given some rights on paper to keep them silent like the barking dogs are treated. Obviously, Nehru's Panchsheel is the best in principle but the worst in practice as it was made for keeping silent to the barking dogs.

1. Non-imposition: The first pillar of Panchsheel says that the Adivasis should be allowed to progress according to their own pace and understanding of the situation. In principle, it seems to be very good but practically, the Indian government went against of it. The most important question is, how can you ask to the Adivasis to go with their pace and understanding if you snatch their livelihood resources in the name of the national interest and also do not provide them any support? The idea of Nehru was just like a day dreaming. The fact is the Adivasis' indigenous method of development was never counted by people of the mainstream of the society and the corporate development model was imposed on them instead. The Indian rulers never walk on their talk for the Adivasis. In the last 6 decades, many policies were made, which displaced, dispossessed and deprived the Adivasis from their livelihood resources but rehabilitation was never a concern for the Indian government at all but of course, they were much concerned for the corporate houses.

2. Respect of tribal customs: The second pillar of Panchsheel also did not work because the Adivasi tradition, culture and customs were never accepted by the Aryan invaders. Only the folk songs and dances of the Adivasis were romanticized in some extent but the tradition, culture and ethos, which are based on community living, equality for all and need based economy were always neglected, depicted as the worst and destroyed in many ways. Similarly, the religion of Adivasis was not recognized by the Indian constitution though many other religions emerged much later in India got recognition in the constitution. As a result, thousands of the Adivasis accepted other religions, religious enmity was created among them and thousands of their sacred groves were destroyed in the name of 'development'. Where is the principle of Panchsheel buried?

3. Development of tribal youth: The third pillar speaks about the leadership of the Adivasis. But the fact of the matter is the Adivasi leadership is not acceptable to the so-called people of the mainstream of the Indian society. The history proves that the Adivasis legend Baba Tilka Manjhi was the first man to fight against the Britishers in 1780 and hanged subsequently but he was not recognized by historians of the mainstream. Similarly, the other Adivasis leaders - Sidho-Kanhu, Birsa Munda, Fulo-Jhano, Nilambar-Pitambar and many others fought against the British government but they were not given space in the India history as they deserved to. Therefore, the Nehru's third pillar doesn't make any sense to the Adivasis. As far as the Adivasis are concerned, they have always groomed, inspired and promoted the youth leadership in their community.

4. Simplicity of Administration: The fourth Pillar of Panchsheel seems to be very well idea as the Adivasis' strong traditional self governance system exists even today, which the Britishers did not able to destroy and finally they accepted it and made laws for its protection and promotion. Ironically, the rulers of modern India including Nehru did not accept the Adivasis' TSG. Instead, he preferred the voluntary agencies for carrying out the development works in the Adivasi regions. The Adivasis' traditional self governance was not accepted precisely because it was a biggest threat to the authorities of Indian rulers. Though the Indian constitution has some provisions for the Adivasis regions as 5th and 6th schedules but there was no attempt made for strengthening of the traditional self governance of the Adivasis. In fact, the Indian rulers wanted the Adivasis regions under their control therefore they imposed numbers of legislations – forest Acts, Laws in the name of the protection of wild life, Land related laws, mining Acts and civil as well as criminal laws. Finally, they captured the natural resources of these regions and exploited it as much as they could.

5. Emphasis on human growth: The fifth pillar of Panchsheel emphasizes on human growth in term of the living standards, which is really appreciable. But as far as the Adivasis are concerned, they are not accepted as human being in India even today. They are always portrayed as uncivilized, sub-human, demons, forest-dwellers and mindless people. The Aryans invaders never treat the Adivasis as equal human beings. The Adivasis are always racially discriminated, exploited and dispossessed. The question is if you take away the livelihood resources of Adivasis without providing them alternatives, discriminated them and treat like sub-human then how can you expect their human growth? The Adivasis regions lack education, health facilities, drinking water, sanitation and shelter even today due to the deliberate inhuman treatment of the Indian rulers with the Adivasis.

Undoubtedly, Nehru is the architect of modern India, but it is also the fact that his modern temples of India, industrialization process and corporate model of development are the main reasons of the Adivasis' pains, sufferings and sorrows. Indeed, he is the architect of the Adivasis' misery. Today, millions of the Adivasis are struggling for their survival, which credit goes to Nehru and his Congress Party. Later on, the right wing and the left wing also added salt on the wounds. Therefore, now we (the Adivasis) must realize that no one can fight for us but we have to fight for ourselves. If we protect our natural resources today, we would be ensuring a better future for our children tomorrow. Before, we go for another movement against displacement, we must pray to our super natural God for not to forgive Nehru because he knew what he did for us. He created misery for us, he ensured that we must suffer and he turned our heaven into hell. His temples of modern India dispossessed us, his temples of modern India exploited us and his temples of modern India created graves for us.

Gladson Dungdung

gladson@jharkhandi.com

http://resume.ozg.in

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The sexual perversity of Indian officers

2010-01-06T23:14:00.000-08:00

SPS Rathore, a top police officer as sexual tormentor and killer of a young student; ND Tiwari, Governor of Andhra Pradesh who was caught on the camera in his sleazy sexual exploits, and forced to resign on 'Moral Grounds' - as the Congress party would have it, and Dinakaran, Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, involved in another scandal, but continues to be fortified, using among other things, the anti-Dalit bogey of Udit Raj, will continue to haunt Indian democracy and its psyche for a long time.

The sexual perversity of SPS Rathore, former police officer convicted of molesting Ruchika Girhotra after nearly two decades of the inhuman event, which caused her suicide and snuffed out a young life of playful innocence must have shaken all people of any conscience. It has raised more questions about the credibility and integrity of our law and order system and of men occupying responsible positions in India's governance's structures.

While, the debate on the issue anchored by Barkha Dutt on the NDTV channel was moving, serious and comprehensive, what of next, and how do we protect our more vulnerable children from the poacher-turned game-keepers, are serious questions which have no answers yet.

Though different yet related are the sexual exploits of Andhra Pradesh Governor, ND Tiwari [in Congress-Gandhi cap?], which going by reports have been going on for several years. That raises larger questions about what goes on in the Raj Bhavans, whether they are dens of sleaze, and the relevance of gubernatorial positions in the country. Should a democracy where about half the population are illiterate, homeless, and struggling to eke out a living, be allowed to waste its scarce resources on them who seem to make no positive contribution to the nation calls for a fresh look at our Constitutional provisions.

The claim of the Congress party that Tiwari resigned on "moral grounds" is a national joke! He resigned on "immoral grounds" as a person of depravity and debasement. One is not sure if he was caught on the camera with his Pyjamas and depressing things down and in what sort of perverted acts. The nation has a right to know what went on in the Raj Bhavan and the media should show it to the viewers so that they will know what kind of debased democracy we are living in. Tiwari should also be prosecuted for misusing his power and position and should return all the perks he enjoyed as Governor to the national exchequer.

The electronic media will do well to expose his exploits, contempt of court or not, which again is a fig-leaf and big national joke.

Though not related to sex as yet, Justice Dinakaran's scandal of corruption is also deeply immoral and anti-social. When hapless persons are picked up in thousands and harassed by the police and the judiciary on flimsy grounds, it is a national shame that this person continues to be fortified. Impeachment is no answer, as it has never worked and is not likely to work in India. He should be treated like any other criminal and prosecuted. That the scandal against him is "anti-Dalit" is a bogey. He crossed the Dalit Rubicon several years ago, and cannot be treated as a Dalit, in any sense of the term. In this context one might also probe who is funding Udit Raj, a self-proclaimed Dalit upstart.

Prof P Radhakrishnan

The case related to Sri SPS Rathode, the ex Haryana DGP is one that has brought the IPS service again to the forefront of public imagination. While it is a fact that the public perception of police as an organization is not very good (for various assignable and non-assignable reasons), that of the IPS as the premier service has so far been decently high. But unfortunately in the recent few years, there have been many such infamous incidents of high-profile nature where senior officers of this Service have been found to be the perpetrators of the worst forms of crime.

The latest in this is certainly the Ruchika case where it is alleged that this 14 year old girl was forced to suicide because of Sri Rathode, the then IGP. What is even more alarming is the fact that it is being claimed that once this now deceased girl made allegations against Mr Rathode, the police officer used all means of personal and departmental power and influence to ruin the family members of Ruchika, including registering many cases against her brother and sending him to jail.

An interesting and noteworthy fact here is that even the then DGP Sri RR Singh has come out in the open to speak against a member of his own fraternity as has an IAS officer, the then Home secretary.

The way the media has taken up the issue and the way the fact that Sri Rathode was an IPS officer who supposedly misused his position, is being highlighted in the media has certainly added one more black spot to the service and to the police department as a whole. One can only hope that justice will prevail at the earliest.

Amitabh Thakur, IPS

http://delhi.ozg.in

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Madras Institute of Development Studies

2010-01-06T23:04:00.000-08:00

This is the birth centenary year of Dr. Malcolm S Adiseshiah, founder and chairman till his death (1994) of the Madras Institute of Development Studies. The petty power play of the few weaklings who control this institution now has reduced it to a metaphor for a malaise, a menace to the academia, and a drag on the public exchequer. Rueing the day he founded it and seeing the centenary jubilation turned into macabre Adiseshiah's soul might be hovering around restlessly, if there is anything as a soul.

Dr. Adiseshiah (April 18, 1910 to November 21, 1994) was an internationally reputed educationist from Tamil Nadu. In recognition of his outstanding services to the country in 1976 the Government of India awarded him Padma Bhushan, one of the top civilian honours. Since 1998 UNESCO has been awarding every year 'The Malcolm Adiseshiah International Literacy Prize' in recognition of his outstanding contribution to education in general and to literacy in particular.

After retirement as Deputy Director General of UNESCO in 1970, Dr Adiseshiah founded the MIDS in Chennai. In 1977, MIDS was reconstituted as a national institute for social science research under the joint sponsorship and joint funding of the Government of India through the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and the Government of Tamil Nadu. To ensure its national character, at the instance of the ICSSR in 1978 Dr. Adiseshiah made extensive changes to the MIDS Deed of Trust. This amended Deed governed MIDS till 2003.

The reconstitution of MIDS as a national institute was in keeping with the mandate of the ICSSR, which was set up in 1969 by the Government of India with the specific objective of promoting socio-economic research by establishing institutes in different parts of the country, funded jointly by the Central and state governments. The Council has so far set up 27 institutes. These institutions have been a heterogeneous ensemble partly because some of them were registered as Trusts and others were registered as Societies; and partly because the tracks of some of the institutions like ISEC, Bangalore (founded by Dr VKRV Rao, a former Union Education Minister, as a society, with hardly any self-interest) were well-laid. Compared to ISEC, MIDS was a mere hobby-horse.

Despite this, the liberal academic atmosphere which Adiseshiah brought with him made MIDS an international institute. His death did not leave an immediate void in MIDS as the ICSSR managed to appoint a highly reputed liberal historian, Professor S Gopal, as Chairman of the MIDS Governing Council. During Gopal's Chairmanship MIDS also had a good Director in Professor S Neelakantan. Neelakantan's self-effacing and accommodative nature, and respect for colleagues and scholarship, found him in good stead in emulating the liberal style of functioning of Dr. Adiseshiah.

Shortly after Gopal's term ended and Neelakantan's retirement, began the sordid saga of MIDS. As this was brought under public scanner in an earlier write-up MIDS ignores its long serving Professors in the Asian Tribune of 7 February 2009, the details are not repeated here. Only some of the flagrant acts since 2001 are highlighted below:

• Flouting the healthy practice of nomination of two Professors at a time for a period of two years to the MIDS Governing Council on rotation basis (till recently MIDS had only four Professors) to exclude, as a spiteful, vengeful act, one Professor who had filed a case against the MIDS Governing Council against its gross misdeeds;

• Flouting the rules of faculty recruitment merely because the Director wanted to appoint her cronies;

• Misguiding the judiciary through an affidavit that MIDS has its own resources, though from 1977 till date MIDS has been funded to the extent of 95 to 98 per cent every year without any break; to effect which a memorandum of understanding signed between the ICSSR and the MIDS at the time of reconstituting MIDS as a national research institute;

• Flouting the norm of consulting senior Professors to ascertain their willingness to serve as Director as established by Dr. Adiseshiah, and appointing an outsider whose only concern is his survival and well-being; and

• Suspending the well-conceived provision of retaining retiring Professors with a minimum of six years service as Professors in MIDS, as Professors Emeritus with all the facilities they had enjoyed before retirement, merely to drive out the Professor who had filed the case against the MIDS Governing Council.

• That the last violation was indeed a calculated malicious and mendacious act should be evident from the fact that well before the retirement of this Professor in October 2009 the MIDS Chairman wanted all the related provisions to be included in the agenda for the Governing Council meeting scheduled in October as the existing provision allowed for only review of the time-frame and not for denial or suspension of the position of Professor Emeritus.

The last minute change in the agenda abolishing the position of Professor Emeritus on the ground of "space crunch" showed that the new Director of MIDS was not only self-serving with no concern for academic development of the institution, but also an inveterate liar as MIDS then had enough vacant faculty rooms and there was absolutely no space crunch.

That only two members of the Governing Council spoke firmly for retaining the provision for Professor Emeritus, whereas most others spoke in one voice against it clearly showed that the decision was taken well before the meeting. That no member cared to get details of the use of floor space and thus call the bluff of the Director, showed the casual and partisan nature of decision making at the highest level.

The Professor who retired in October 2009 was served an "eviction notice" one month in advance, with a stern warning that if the room occupied by him was not vacated and the keys were not handed over to the administration his retirement dues will not be settled.

That is precisely what MIDS did as its "parting gift" to him. His salary for October 2009 and retirement dues were not paid until the media took up the matter.

To avoid personal inconvenience, in a hurry the Professor shifted all his belongings to his residence in the first week of November and sent a letter to the MIDS Director for arranging to collect the keys from the Professor's residence after settling his dues. When a journalist began investigating the matter the Director got away with lies and damn lies. As the report was no doubt poor journalism, insiders in MIDS discussed in disgust the low level to which the MIDS Director had stooped to save himself from adverse publicity.

The report in The Times of India dated 12 November 2009, by Assistant Editor Jayaraj Sivan ran thus:

Centre of excellence in city struggles for space

Chennai: Hardly a week passes by at the Madras Institute of Development Studies without students from colleges in Tamil Nadu and nearby states visiting the campus for referring to its rich collection of books.

The nearly four-decade-old institution is now crumbling under its own weight, primarily owing to lack of space and also because of a financial crunch, feels its director R Maria Saleth. MIDS is gearing up to celebrate its founder's birth centenary.

"But there is hardly anything to cheer about at this juncture. The condition of this centre of excellence is pitiable - owing to lack of space in our library we have virtually stopped purchase of new books. Our library racks are packed and many books get damaged as they are pulled out. To top it all, the 70-year-old building leaks during rain."

The institute is located on eight grounds (one ground is 2,400 sq ft) donated by Adiseshiah, in upmarket Gandhinagar, Adyar. It has 20 faculty members and 32 research scholars. "Our primary source of funding comes in the form of grants (Rs. 79 lakh each) from ICSSR and the state government. Still, we will fall short of roughly Rs. one crore in meeting budgetary requirements during the current financial year. When the institute faced a severe financial crisis a few years ago, it sold another [sic!] property in the city, donated by Adiseshiah, for Rs. five crore and deposited the amount in the bank. We are able to fulfill our salary commitments only out of the interest from the deposit," said Saleth.

The institute has been following the practice of absorbing its retired faculty as professors emeritus (they enjoy all facilities but do not get salary). "We were forced to do away with this system recently when one of our eminent sociologists, P Radhakrishnan, retired. Three more professors will retire in the next one year. Though we want them to continue, we do not have space to accommodate them," lamented Saleth, adding, "The institute has been making representations to the government to allot some land. There is no progress on that front so far. The only alternative is to pull down the present building and construct a new one, taking advantage of the additional floor space index (FSI is the ratio of land area to built-up area) permitted in the new master plan for the city. But that won't be a permanent solution."

None of the issues mentioned above is true. On an average MIDS gets only 3-4 students a day from outside. They are allowed to use the library only if they are doing M Phil or Ph D. Even then they are not allowed in the stack rooms. As MIDS continues to buy books and journals, if the statement to the contrary comes to the notice of the funding agencies it will be forced to repay a major chunk of the grants already received. MIDS has three buildings. The frontage, which is just about one-tenth of the entire floor space, is probably 70 years old. The main building after the frontage was built in the 1980s, and the annex was built in the 1990s.

In the report the Director admits that the primary source of MIDS funding comes in the form of grants from ICSSR and the state government. Contrast this with the statement that "it is the case of the first respondent, that it has got its own sources of funding." This is from the Madras High Court judgment dated 23 November 2006 in the writ petitions filed by two faculty members against the MIDS Chairman and Director for violating the faculty recruitment rules which went against them. If MIDS has its own resources why blame governments and also cringe before them. In any case, the additional one crore mentioned in the report is an exaggeration, just to misguide the report.

MIDS did not sell its land for want of money. The land was Dr Adiseshiah's estate bequeathed to MIDS. The Trustees and the Governing Council had discussed at length how best the estate could be used, and decided that the best thing to do was sell it and add the proceedings to the MIDS corpus.

As the report was in poor taste, an angry scholar from the JNU replied to it through an email dated November 17, which was in circulation among various discussion groups. The email captures the deception of both the MIDS Director and the journalist:

The problem of MIDS is partly historical because it was registered as a Trust; - Trusts by their very nature are vulnerable to manipulation and lack transparency -; partly the persistence of white-collar slavery as one sees the abject surrender of the MIDS Chairman and Director to the Trustees; and partly absentee landlordism, with the Bangalore-based Chairman of the Board of Trustees lording the Hyderabad-based MIDS Chairman, who being indecisive relaying the Kurien commandments to the Chennai-based MIDS Director, who being inexperienced in the working of ICSSR institutions leaving everything to the whims of a humpty-dumpty in the administration and another humpty-dumpty in the accounts section.

As money spent on institutions like MIDS is money thrown down the drain, it is high time the funding agencies seriously thought about the future funding of MIDS. Meanwhile, to bring about a modicum of transparency, the ICSSR and Tamil Nadu Government should insist that MIDS subjects itself to the purview of the Right to Information Act and display the relevant details on its website. It is strange that MIDS has not done this so far though other ICSSR institutions have done it long ago. The Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal, should also order an immediate review of the functioning of these institutions; more so, when huge funds received from foreign agencies are not shown anywhere.

Prof Radhakrishnan

http://chennai.ozg.in

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UPSC increases Civil Services intake from 580 to 965

2010-01-03T21:51:00.000-08:00

With the government deciding to recruit more IPS officers to meet growing security needs, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has substantially increased the total intake into the Civil Services from 580 in 2009 to 965 in 2010 -- an increase of 385 seats.

Though the total vacancies (965) to be filled through the 2010 Civil Services Examination (CSE) will be meant for all 24 services, including IAS, IFS, IPS, IRS and others, the police services will see a major jump in intake. The police services include IPS and Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar, and Puducherry services.

The decision on increased intake was announced by UPSC through its notification for the CSE-2010 on Saturday.

In fact, home minister P Chidambaram had in November last year announced the decision "to increase the annual batch size of IPS officers from 130 to 150".

As Chidambaram said, even the batch of 2009 - which has just taken its CSE (Main) - will see a few more IPS officers when the final result is announced sometime in May.

In 2008, UPSC had taken 791 candidates, including 120 in IAS, 26 in IFS and 130 in IPS.

"Since the UPSC notification clearly says that the number of vacancies is liable to alteration, it can easily induct 150 IPS officers through the 2009 CSE," said an official.

According to the notification, the Preliminary Examination of the CSE for recruitment to the 24 services will be held on May 23. "The number of vacancies to be filled on the results of the examination is expected to be approximately 965," it said, adding the number of vacancies is liable to alteration.

The decision to increase the intake of IPS officers was taken on the basis of the recommendation of a one-man committee headed by retired IPS officer Kamal Kumar. The report, submitted on October 15 last year, confirmed the home ministry's earlier concerns that there was grave neglect in determining the number of candidates to be recruited to IPS in the CSE during the four-year period 1999-2002.

"As against the number of 85, only 36 candidates were recruited each year, resulting in a shortfall of 49 candidates a year or a total shortfall of 196 candidates," said an official.

The report had recommended that the annual recruitment between 2009-10 and 2019-20 be fixed at 130 and that a Limited Competitive Examination may also be conducted for 7 years to recruit an additional 448 candidates. The ministry had, however, subsequently decided to increase the intake from 130 to 150 to meet the shortfall.

TNN 4 January 2010

http://delhi.ozg.in

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America tells its citizens to be careful and defer travel to Andhra

2009-12-30T22:27:00.000-08:00

The US government has issued a fresh travel alert asking its citizens to be cautious and defer their travel to Andhra Pradesh as violence continues there over the issue of a separate Telangana state.

"The US government continues to receive information that terrorist groups may be planning attacks in India," the State Department said Tuesday in the third travel alert issued since Oct 29. The new alert expires Jan 31.

"Terrorists and their sympathisers have demonstrated their willingness and capability to attack targets where Americans or Westerners are known to congregate or visit," the advisory said while alerting US citizens to continuing security concerns in India.

"In addition, there continues to be a possibility of violence in the south-central Indian state of Andhra Pradesh over the contentious issue of creating a separate state," the State Department said.

"The November 2008 attacks in Mumbai provided a vivid reminder that hotels and other public places are especially attractive targets for terrorist groups," the alert said, asking US citizens to always practice good security, maintain a heightened situational awareness and a low profile.

"Americans are advised to monitor local news reports and consider the level of security present when visiting public places, including religious sites, or choosing hotels, restaurants, entertainment and recreation venues."

The advisory suggested that US citizens defer all non-essential travel to Telangana and certain parts of Hyderabad, especially the assembly and secretariat, Osmania University, Panjagutta, and Ameerpet areas.

There has also been sporadic unrest in the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, most notably in the cities of Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Ongole, Kurnool, and Chittoor, it said.

"Andhra Pradesh continues to experience episodic civil unrest as pro- and anti-statehood political groups rally supporters to their respective causes. A number of strikes have shut down schools and businesses, making it at times difficult to obtain essentials such as gasoline," the advisory said.

Protesters have targeted public transport, attacking trains and burning numerous buses. Public transport networks have been forced to shut down several times, it said.

Washington, Dec 30 / IANS

http://andhra.ozg.in

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UK and US protest new Indian visa rules, NRIs affected

2009-12-24T04:12:00.000-08:00

Britain and the US have lodged a diplomatic protest with India after the government in Delhi introduced rules barring tourists from returning to the country within two months of any visit.

The new visa rules, which also apply to other foreign nationals, are apparently a reaction to the arrest in the US of a Mumbai terror suspect, David Coleman Headley, who had entered India on a multiple-entry visa.

The British high commission in Delhi has urged the Indian government to rethink the policy, which is expected to hit tourists planning to use India as a base for touring the region.

It will also be a blow to thousands of Britons living in India on long-term tourist visas. Many foreigners living in India prefer to use tourist visas rather than go through the complicated process of trying to secure a visa that would grant them the right to residency.

Some apply for six-month tourist visas and then travel to nearby countries, such as Nepal, to renew them. Those on longer-term tourist visas ‑ for five or 10 years ‑ are also required to leave the country every 180 days and tend to fly out for a couple of days before returning. Under the new rules, that would no longer be an option.

Posts on internet travel forums suggest that some British tourists have already fallen foul of the rules and have found themselves stranded and unable to return to India after visiting neighbouring countries.

On the IndiaMike forum one poster, from London, described how he had been renting an apartment in Goa and had travelled to Nepal to apply for a new six-month tourist visa, only to be informed that he would not be allowed back in for two months.

"This is insane," he wrote. "How can you introduce a rule without any prior warning and let ppl [sic] make plans and pay for flights etc and mess everything up for them … I now have no option but to get a transit visa and leg it back to Goa, get my stuff and leave … all this achieves is me and 1000's of others having to cut their plans short and spend none of that cash into the system … Well done!!"

A spokesman for the British high commission said the high commissioner had written to protest. "We have discussed this matter with the government of India. As yet there is no real clarity over the details of the proposals or of how they might be implemented. We understand that the Indian government is reconsidering its plans. We shall keep a close eye on this as it develops because it has the potential to impact on a large number of British nationals."

Details of the plans are yet to be published but reports in India suggested that people of Indian origin living in the UK will also be caught up in the rule change.

Many British passport holders with Indian origins use tourist visas to visit relatives in India rather than tackling the bureaucratic minefield involved in applying for a Person of Indian Origin card, which would allow them entry into the country. They will also be subject to the no return for two months rule.

The Indian government has apparently sought to defuse the row by giving consular officials the power to grant exemptions in exceptional cases, although there is as yet no clarity on how that might be applied.

British diplomatic sources also suggested the changes had alarmed some Indian companies with nationals working overseas, who feared that their business interests might be affected if other countries introduced reciprocal arrangements.

The decision, by India's home ministry, comes after officials reviewed the case of Headley, who is under arrest in the US accused of scouting targets for terrorist attacks, including the Mumbai attacks last year which left 166 people dead.

He was found to have used a multiple entry business visa to make nine trips to India, during which time he is alleged to have visited a number of potential targets.

India has already cracked down on business visas this year, informing thousands of holders that they must return to their home countries and prove that they meet much stricter criteria before new visas will be issued.

Ironically, the clampdown comes as the country attempts to boost its tourism industry. Last week the home minister, P Chidambaram, announced the trial introduction of a visa on arrival scheme for citizens of Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, Luxembourg and Finland and said a country the size of India should be attracting at least 50 million visitors a year. About five million tourists visit India every year, including an estimated three quarters of a million Britons.

A final draft of the visa regulations is expected to be issued next month but in the meantime a number of embassies in India have notified their citizens of the changes. The Indian embassy in Berlin has also posted the rule on its website, noting that "a minimum gap of two months is mandatory between visits as tourists to India".

The introduction of the new system coincides with a visit to India by the business secretary, Lord Mandelson, who has been trying to calm Indian concerns over changes to Britain's immigration rules.

Monday 21 December 2009 / Guardian, UK

http://delhi.ozg.in

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Now voting compulsory in Gujarat

2009-12-21T16:13:00.000-08:00

It is interesting -- no, not ironical -- that chief minister Narendra Modi was not present when the state assembly had passed the Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2009 making voting compulsory on Saturday. It shows that sincere intentions do not always translate into action.

There is the clichéd slip between the cup and the lip and all that. And this could very well affect the pattern of implementation of this law. This is indeed a practical difficulty and most objections seem to hinge on this alone. The Election Commission, jurists, Modi's opponents like the Congress politicians, grudgingly admit that the idea is good but it is impractical. Everyone seems to think that compulsory voting is a way of promoting, deepening and strengthening democracy. That is where the danger lies.

The idea is bad in itself because it is punitive in nature and this is antithetical to democracy whose foundational principle is freedom.

That is, it implies that you are free to vote and not to vote, you are free to believe and not believe -- many, but not true democrats, would baulk at this - in democracy. India's democracy evangelists are willing to pursue any wild idea, including imposing it because they believe in it as an article of faith. It is not surprising that in Taliban fashion they want to impose it on people. In doing so, they are only too willing to trample upon the spirit of democracy.

There is loud lamentation among the articulate classes that there is a need to counter the rising democratic apathy, seen especially in the low voter turnout in election after election. And that somehow and in some way, civic virtues -- and voting is one of them -- need to be imposed in the old-fashioned tyrannical way. The presumption behind this thinking is that of pushing things from above instead of letting them emerge from below.

Modi's specific arguments need to be countered as well. He thinks that this law will help in increasing voter turnout. A higher voter turn out is always a good thing, if it is voluntary.

Gujarat's chief minister is not averse to authoritarian tactics, something he shares as member of a right-wing political party which is prone to totalitarian thoughts, and this law betrays the tendency. There is a need to declare loudly and clearly that India is a liberal democracy and not a people's democracy of the communist and fascist kind. There is no place in the liberal ideology for mandated civic virtues.

December 21, 2009 / DNA

http://gujarat.ozg.in

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Ram and Rahim as Good Neighbours

2009-12-20T19:11:00.000-08:00

The leak and tabling of Liberhan Commission report has created a big turmoil in the country. While most of the sides have been shouting hoarse about their own position on the issue, not much has been talked about the future solution of this vexed problem.

We recall that the mosque built by Mir Baqui around five centuries ago has been deliberately dragged into the controversy. At the time of Independence it was a mosque, no political party had claimed anything to the contrary. As per the understanding in the constitution, the status of 1947 was to be maintained in cases of places of worship. The installation of Ram lalla idols by deceit in midnight of 22nd Jan 1949 sowed the seeds of controversy. Later in 1975 the dispute between two local groups was taken up by Vishwa Hindu Parishad and in 1989, BJP decided to make a political issue out of it. The tragic demolition and the making of makeshift Ram temple there have added new dimensions to the issue.

It is around this issue that Hindu and Muslim communalists raised the emotional pitch and the tragedies which followed, the demolition, the post demolition communal violence and communalization, polarization of society along religious lines are too well known by now. The court case regarding the same is dragging from last several years without any outcome so far.

Where do we go from here? Do we let this sore to continue on the body politic of the nation? This may act as the trouble spot for the future. It is time that we look at all the aspects of the issue and try to bring a peaceful solution to the issue.

The first step in the issue is to realize that it the communal forces from both communities which have claimed that they represent the community and so they will decide on behalf of Hindus or Muslims respectively. The fact of the matter and, this has been confirmed by Liberhan Commission report, is that these communal groups neither represent the community nor reflect the opinion the communities as a whole. It is imperative that we look forward to the liberal sections, leadership from these communities to come forward and talk in the language of reconciliation. The liberal sections are those who have so far been ignored, but they are the one's who have talked of peace and accommodation. The election results have also shown that those claiming to represent the aspirations of a particular community have been routed in popular elections. The elected representatives of the area have a major role to play in bringing the consensus. We cannot undo the past but we can definitely chart a peaceful path for future. The peaceful talks between these sections along with the local people of Ayodhya are the central core for solution.

The people of Ayodhya have also been the victims of the demolition and other offshoots of the dispute. What they think should be done at the site has to be taken seriously. They have to be taken on board along with the liberal leadership of the communities. Today the most amicable solution has to veer around respecting Ram and Allah both. Both temple and mosque can be accommodated in the area, with equal importance and respect.

Along with temple and mosque in the same spot we need to bring up a museum dedicated to the great tradition of Ayodhya. Ayodhya has not only been popular for Lord Ram, but it had also been a place for Buddhists and also people of other faith as well. It has been a sort of 'No War zone' (A- no, Yudhya-War, Ayodhya- A no war zone), and that spirit has to be cultivated all around. The emotive and divisive appeals need to be rejected by the nation as a whole. In that light the museum-memorial has to be the one of syncretic traditions, of saints who were followed by Muslims and Hindus both, of Sufis who again were respected by Hindus and Muslims both. While the history has been made to degenerate into hoarse shouting, a cool reasoned archeological based understanding should help us to go further. The negotiations between the communities have to be encouraged to the last.

The second line of action has to relate to the court verdict. The court verdict should be final for all of us. The formulation that faith will decide the birth place of the Lord has no place in a society governed by law and reason. The community leaders must give undertaking to respect the court verdict and act accordingly. Those not having faith in the courts cant be the part of the process of reconciliation as reconciliation has to be done in the framework of Indian Constitution. We have invested too much in this issue and it is time that not only this but even other such issues are not given any importance to ensure that the country, nation, can focus on the issues related to bread, butter shelter, employment and health.

Ram Puniyani

http://bombay.ozg.in

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Uncivilized Practices of the Civil Society

2009-12-19T22:33:00.000-08:00

The term 'Civil Society' is mostly used for voluntary organizations, non-governmental organizations and non-profit institutions. These are also called as civil society organizations. Interestingly, most of these organizations are always busy in criticizing the state (which is of course not wrong as the state is a failure), but they themselves behave like the state when it comes to the issues of Adivasis, Dalits and Women of D-section (deprived sections), even though they have also failed in delivering justice to marginalized peoples. Most of these organizations are led by elites even after 62 years of Indian independence. They enjoy corporate rate salaries, luxurious accommodations and air travel in the name of Adivasis, Dalits and women of D-section. The misappropriation of funds in the name of marginalized groups remains uncounted, despite that they are masters in lecturing on the issues of responsibility, transparency and accountability.

There are very interesting kinds of so-called civil society organizations – 1) based in the small cities or villages and getting less funds, 2) headquartered in Delhi and other big cities and bagging huge funds, and 3) NGO federations called people's organizations. Perhaps, the secretary, director and chief functionaries of these organizations are never replaced against their will, though they talk much about democracy. These civil society organizations also bring the mass organizations, social movements and displacement movements into their clutches and cash these in dollars, euros and pounds. Don't be surprised if some organizations based in Delhi show you a beautiful power point presentation about the Adivasi movements against displacement in Jharkhand, Orissa or Chhatishgarh.

There are also the holy cows called 'funding agencies' (national and international), who love to be called civil society organizations, whose prime job is to collect the money, enjoy most of it and give the rest to other organizations. Ironically, these organizations fund those NGOs headed by non-Adivasis for the revival of Adivasi tradition, culture and ethos, but at the same time they avoid joining hands with Adivasi-headed organizations for the same purposes. The sad part is, the Adivasis are still unqualified for the funding organizations; therefore, a few Adivasis can be seen in the lowest strata of these organizations, despite their professional qualities, commitment and dedication. There are also some organizations who advocate for the Adivasi Chief Minister for the state of Jharkhand, but when it comes to the matter of their organizations, they cannot bear to see an Adivasi in the driving seat. They also advocate for promotion and protection of Adivasi languages, but their doors are always closed for the non-English speaking, marginalized people.

These organizations tirelessly use the connotation 'empowering the marginalized', 'voice to the voiceless' and 'women empowerment,' but when it comes to the question of leadership, they just escape in one way or the other. Why did the civil society organizations fail in bringing up the Adivasi leadership was the most important question repeatedly asked in the National Consultation on Adivasis of India organized by the National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS) in Delhi on December 15-16, 2009. A noted Gandhian and founder of the Ekta Parishad, P.V. Rajgopal, accepts in denial mode that the civil society organizations have failed in bringing up the Adivasi leadership but he also advocates for a united fight by saying, "The issue like displacement is not just limited to the Adivasis but it is also hitting the farmers, vendors and fishermen." But does it mean that the question of Adivasis get less priority?

Ironically, the non-Adivasi leaders of the civil society organizations not only respond diplomatically but also justify their leadership of the Adivasis. While responding to the questions of Adivasis leadership, a prominent social activist from Jharkhand, Sanjay Bosu Mullick, says, "Since the Adivasis do not know about the exploitative system and structure of our (non-adivasis) society, therefore we are fighting with our people on behalf of them." One can only appreciate this diplomatic response and thank the God who has given wits, wisdom and knowledge only to the non-Adivasis for not only understanding their society but also the Adivasis, and shame on those Adivasis (like me) who do not even possess the wisdom to understand their own society.

The reality is that the Adivasis are racially discriminated, exploited economically and denied their rights in the civil society organizations. Similarly, the Dalits are treated like untouchables, uneducated and inhuman, and the women of D-section are not only exploited socially, economically and mentally but they are also exploited sexually by the Big-bosses of the civil society organizations. The irony is, our participation is for them is to listen to our sorrows patiently through their tongues in a conference hall, give our consent to their words and always make sure that they are our messiahs. How would you explain it when your wisdom, commitment, dedication, capacity and efficiency do not matter for them but your race, caste, class, colour and relationship possesses multiple values for them instead?

When the Adivasis enter into these organizations, especially in the funding ones, their years of work experience are counted as one or two years (so that they can be kept in the lowest strata), they are compared with their counterpart (always a non-adivasi is used as a parameter for them) for further promotion and their ten achievements are not enough to beat the couple of achievements of a non-Adivasi. When one raises these issues in the organizations, they would manipulate, manufacture consent with their colleagues and dilute the whole debate to ensure that the Adivasis lose the game. Finally, if the Adivasis leave these organizations, they would frame them as opportunists, non-committed to the Adivasi cause and counted as one more enemy of the Adivasis.

One can question that why are the marginalized people of these organizations keeping quiet in these circumstances? The instant answer is, a wage labourer bears all kinds of discrimination, exploitation and torture only because he/she knows that the day a question is raised, he/she would be thrown out of the job. Similar theory is applied to the marginalized people, who are ensuring their daily bread from these civil society organizations. How can one dare to question the big-boss, when he/she is just struggling for survival? Can you imagine how the marginalized people are being exploited, denied and discriminated against in those organizations, who tirelessly talk about participation, empowerment, rights, equality and justice?

The fact of the matter is the perception, attitude and behaviour of the elite heads of civil society organizations towards Adivasis, Dalits and women of D-section are no different from the common people of the so-called civilized society. They talk much about participation, empowerment, rights, equality and justice merely to ensure themselves a luxurious life, bag awards and become a role model in the name of Adivasis, Dalits and Women of D-section; therefore, they also play the game of words just like the politicians do. Can anyone remind me about how many Adivasis, Dalits and women of D-section were awarded (megasese) for their extraordinary work and became a role model for all Indians?

Interestingly, the vision of these organizations is more or less the same – formation of an equitable and just society, but the pertinent question is how the utopian vision can be achieved through discriminatory, inequitable and unjust practices? In fact, the elite heads of the civil society organizations should stop their uncivilized practices, which they are carrying out for decades. It is the right time to let the marginalized people play their own game, become umpires and take over as the match referee. And the elites should only become the fourth umpires rather than playing match for the marginalized people. Then only their talks about the empowerment, equality and justice can be fulfilled.

Before civil society organizations organize the next consultation, convention or conference on Adivasi, Dalit or Women's Rights, all marginalized people should stand up and say strongly that enough is enough, let the Adivasis, Dalits and women of D-section speak for themselves. The time has come to tell them (non-Adivasis heads) that we are grateful to you for advocating on behalf of us for the last six decades, but no more manipulation please. We are tired of hearing about our grievances through your holy tongues; therefore, we want the world to listen to our grievances through our mouths. We want to speak for ourselves and we are capable enough to save our culture. But the question that may remain unanswered is, will you, the Messiahs of the Adivasis, Dalits and women listen us?

Gladson Dungdung

http://jharkhandtourism.ozg.in

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Jharkhand vote mining

2009-12-14T05:42:00.000-08:00

The truth that prevails in Jharkhand is that, all political parties are treating people of Jharkhand for granted, as if they are fools. Blood group of almost all the political parties are + C. Short form of PLUS CORRUPTION.

Arjun Munda had gone all the way to London to the residence of Mr. Laxmi Mittal to pursuade him not to withdraw from the soil of Jharkhand. WHY? Fact is natural wealth of the state is for looting in the name of mining but instead of taking up the remedial measures to correct the mistakes, he tried to justify his actions in the name of development. Whose development he is talking about? He has no moral right to point his finger at others as corrupt.

BJP talks of farmers rights and not to forcibly acquire any farm land but at Chhattisgarh where they are in power have bluntly hijacked the constitutional rights of tribals, even at the cost of making mockery of PESA to forcibly acquire land of over 1500 tribal familes at Lohandiguda for greenfield steel plant of Tatas.

Salwa Judum has resulted in destruction of over 644 villages displacing about 3.5 Lakh tribals in Dantewada area of Chhattisgarh.

Salwa Judum is led by a congress leader with support coming in from the BJP run state government. This is the area where best quality of iron ore reserves are located beneth the soil. But in the name of combating naxalites, all the mischiefs are made with innocent tribals, many of whom have been killed in fake encounters. But none of the party speaks a single word about what is going on. Why? But in Jharkhand, they show a different face.

Congress has also miserably failed to discharge its duties as the opposition party in Odisha, to safeguard the interest of the tribals but talks big as if they are the only party championing the cause of tribals, despite mining scam has been well exposed now. Do Congress have any moral right to point finger at the sins of corrupt Madhu Koda, who was in power with their support only. Can Koda alone swallow the cake of Rs. 5000 crore or even much bigger than that without the blessings of the supporting parties?

About Mr. Editor: Now a day, most of the Media has gone in to the hands of corporations who have their own priorities rather than to perform their duties as the fourth pillar of the democracy. Mr. Editor of the leading daily you are talking about is doing what he is asked to do for which he is paid. Owner of that leading newspaper must have his own interest to bake the cake in the oven of that particular party for whom Mr. Editor sings the song. Such persons have no moral right to stay there for even a single day. This is one more example to expose how media is sold out playing as a tool in the hands of political parties.

What does that Mr. Editor wants to say by saying now or never? Does he think that this is the last election and end of democracy for the people of Jharkhand, if they do not vote for a particular party of his choice? Ridiculous!

Jharkhandis have suffered a lot and much more after the sate was carved out of undivided Bihar. Spineless, corrupt and inefficient people have not only mortgaged the long term interest of the people of Jharkhand but have also been instrumental in large scale demographic attack on the tribal areas resulting in to erosion of their centuries old well preserved culture.

In the name of development, these leaders, who got an opportunity to come to power have sold the state. Are all those corrupt faces any less than the Mir Jafars or Jaychands? What both these biggest traitors of our history have done is now being done by the present day rules of the state, irrespective of which party they belong to. By redefining the definations of development, the only agenda for them to to pocket large sums of money by inking Mous and allow natural wealth for loot in the name of captive mining at a laughably low rate of royalty. Why no body talks about inviting global tender for mines when we talk of globalisation and are a member of WTO. But if this is done, games of inking Mous will be over, which no politicians will like.

Rich land but Poor People is no more a puzzle to crack. Even poor tribals have understood the secret of inking MoUs.

Tragedy is that the very police who are duty bound to protect the lives and property of the citizens by the virtue of oath they have taken under the constitution of India are behaving as the private army of the eagle eyed corporations.

Pravin Patel

The Jharkhand Assembly Election is at its peak. The Congress promises for prosperous Jharkhand, the BJP assures for free lunch (rice and wheat at Rs.1per kg and salt at 25 paisa) and the JMM vows for overthrowing the fear, hunger and corruption into bay, the communists bat for better state and the other smaller parties dream of glorious Jharkhand. The film stars are engaged in the operation vote hunt, the security forces are deployed for ensuring the people's democratic rights (only right to vote) and the Maoists are engaged (by their Netas) in the activities of disrupting it. However, Mr. Editor of a leading daily is also busy in his own invented media election campaigns. He writes in his special column, "If you miss the opportunity, you have to pay for it". He goes on writing, "You have undergone through the painful experienced for last nine years therefore at least, vote for your children, family, society, Jharkhand and India, of course."

I just laugh on the passionate aspiration of Mr. Editor. Precisely, because how can one expect any miraculous change for the state, from those corrupt politicians, who are born only to grab the public money. How can one suddenly forget about the corruption icon Madhu Kora, who was mines minister in Arju Munda (BJP) led NDA government and of course, he bagged huge public money in UPA term. Can you vote for those politicians who replaced Babulal Marandi with Arjun Munda (flag bearer of corruption) only because he did not allow them to grab the public money? The foundation stone of corruption was laid down in Jharkhand by the blackmailers (MLAs) of JD(U) and Samta Party (now all co-travelers of Nitish Kumar) supported by the BJP in 2003, now making lots of noises against corruption indeed.

What would you name them who had hijacked Jharkhand Party's MLA, Enos Ekka by special chopper and later on transported to Jaipur by a chartered plane with other 4 Independents and 36 NDA MLAs in 2005 after the election results was declared? They decided about the fate of Jharkhand in the five-star Hotel in Jaipur. Similarly, how can we believe in the Congress, who betrayed the Jharkhand for many times, defeated its own supported Chief Minister (Sibu Soren) and engaged in doing all possible attempts to acquire power in the state? But when we have no option in the so-called democracy, we have to choose our leaders among bad and the worst leaders. Even if we boycott the election, the government will be formed in one or other way. Therefore, the voting is on and we are praying to the God, "Give us at least bad leaders not the worst, let win the less corrupt leaders not the most corrupted ones and let's breathe peacefully for choosing small criminals not the Dons.

Most of the Jharkhandis (believe, talk and walk on the values of Jharkhandi culture) are afraid, anxious and worried about their destiny as the National Election Watch regularly reports us, "Your expected MLAs, whom you would be handing over your destiny for the next five years are Millionaires, Tainted and Criminals. However, the dance of democracy is underway. The percentage of the vote is overwhelming with 52 %, 54 % and 55 % in the first, second and third phases respectively, which seems to be resulting in favour of the Congress-JVM alliance. If the trend continues the congress-JVM alliance can get nearly 30 to 35 seats and form the government with the support of the JMM which is expected to bag nearly 10 to 15 seats.

If everything goes well, the JMM would like to join the Congress alliance for three obvious reasons - one to avoid further trouble of the investigation agencies, second, it would like to bring more central fund to Jharkhand with the holy relationship between the centre and state governments and third, to stop the operation green hunt as many Maoists have joined the democratic process through the JMM. In that case, the UPA's unwelcome alliance partners – Lalu and Paswan will be marginalized once again. Obviously, there would be some impact of the Liberahan Commission's Report in the election as some sort of polarization in the favour of the Congress alliance is well noticed and if it continues the JD(U)'s Muslim voters can desert the party which would be clear loss to the NDA.

However, if some quick changes take place in the polls of 4th and 5th phases, the BJP alliance can reverse back and change the game by winning nearly 25 to 30 seats, which would surely result in forming of the government with the support of the AJSU and the JMM. Don't' forget, the JMM will not hesitate in joining hands with any alliance for acquiring power in the state (apparently, now the party seems to become power grabbing party rather than the Jharkhandi party, which fights for the Jharkhandi identity, culture and ethos). Obviously, Guruji Sibu Soren would remember Madhu Kora's recent jail journey (when the Congress was unable to digest the huge turn out in Madhu Kora's election campaigns despite a hue and cry on misappropriation of 4000 crore and regular attack from the all corners).

Another factor needs to be mentioned here is, if the Maoist Bandh hit the state, the BJP will be in the driving seat. The history suggests, in the Lok Sabh election 2004, the BJP had won merely 1 seat despite it was ruling at the centre and the state as well. In the general election 2009, it won 8 seats despite losing many states. Apparently, it is not because the BJP is very popular in the state but the Maoists bandh worked in favour of the BJP. The rural voters did not turned out in the large numbers due to Maoist threat and the urban voters (mostly the business community) voted for the BJP. But let's not forget, the situation has rapidly changed and despite the Maoist thereat, the rural people are voting and the urban voters are not very keen in casting their votes, which can shock to the BJP.

The BJP is also suffering from the leadership crisis, which is in the public domain. The congress is campaigning with Sonia, Manmohan and Rahul in the front page but BJP still wants the Vajpayee's charisma. Its ads show Vajpayee as prominent leader followed by Advani and Rajnath. In that case, how can voters would be interested to vote for a person, whom they have not seen for such a long time? It is also very clear that Vajpayee was part of the Ayodhya movement, which Murli Manohar Joshi publicly revealed in Varanashi recently, which would surely cost the BJP and the NDA at large. It is also because the BJP sings the same song every time.

However, there is no hope for the Adivasis, in whose name the state was formed. The Adivasis would be the most suffers for another five years. If the Congress alliance forms the government, the operation green hunt will be started, where Adivasis would be humiliated, tortured, raped, jailed and killed in the name of the Maoists on the one hand and the corporate development model would be promoted under the shadow of the guns and the democratic people's movement would be crashed on the other. Similarly, if the BJP alliance forms the government, there would be another operation white hunt against the Christian Adivasis operated by the RSS with the supported of the state government. The BJP would also make operational of 54 MoUs singed by Arjun Munda government with the support of operation green hunt. There would be more and more police firing, torture and brutality on the people's democratic movements (it was seen during the last NDA regime). The natural resources of the state would be sold to the multinationals and people will remain the poor.

Unfortunately, the Jharkhand is treated merely like an economic and political state by both the national parties – the Congress and the BJP. Their leaders failed to understand that the Jharkhand was formed as a cultural state followed by political and economic bindings. Therefore, only the regional parties (who understand about the Jharkhandi identity, culture and ethos) can meet its aspirations. There is a thrust need of a regional party like DMK, who can engineer the destiny of the state. The JMM could have played that role but it has lost the track in capturing the power. Indeed, the national parties will lead the coalition government with the instructions of the Big Boss and the regional parties would not be in the position to form the government. Therefore, the mandate of the Assembly Election 2009 would not be for engineering the destiny of Jharkhand but it would be for the operation Jharkhand hunt, no matter whether it would be in the form of operation green, white or red hunt.

Gladson Dungdung

http://jharkhand.ozg.in

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Make prostitution legal if you can't curb it: Supreme Court says to Govt

2009-12-10T01:00:00.000-08:00

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre whether it could legalize prostitution if it wasn't possible to curb it.

"When you say it is the world's oldest profession and when you are not able to curb it by laws, why don't you legalize it? You can then monitor the trade, rehabilitate and provide medical aid to those involved," Justices Dalveer Bhandari and AK Patnaik told Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam.

The court said legalizing sex trade would be a better option to avoid trafficking of women and pointed out that nowhere in the world was prostitution curbed by punitive measures.

Subramaniam said he would look into the suggestion. "They (sex workers) have been operating in one way or the other and nowhere in the world have they been able to curb it by legislation. In some cases, they (the trade) is carried out in a sophisticated manner. So, why don't you legalize it?" the judges asked.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by NGOs Bachpan Bachao Andolan and Childline complaining about large-scale child trafficking in the country and seeking directives to contain it.

The apex court also wondered why 37% of the country's population continues to reel under below poverty line at a time when then there is much talk of growing GDP rate in the country.

The bench said child trafficking and sex trade were flourishing because of poverty which needs to be tackled.

"We are taking about growing GDP. I do not know what is the development we are all talking about when the number of BPL families is at 37% which has increased from 30%.

"Growth of GDP does not mean some four or five families have developed. If this is the state of development, we can't help it," the bench said while posting the matter for further hearing to January 5.

The contention of the petitioner is that a number of minor children, particularly girls and those of tender age, are being pushed into sex trade.

Childline counsel Nandita Rao alleged several minor girls are being sexually exploited by circus owners and there has to be adequate legal framework to prevent such exploitation.

Responding to her suggestion, the Solicitor General told the bench that government was contemplating a legislation to declare circus as a "hazardous industry" to prevent abuse of child labourers.

PTI / 10 December 2009

http://delhi.ozg.in

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The Telangana turmoil

2009-12-10T00:33:00.000-08:00

'Telangana is my birthright' reads a slogan on Osmania University campus / A Radhakrishna.

"In this day and age with technology at our disposal we can govern even from the moon, so why small states for better administration?" was the question of a 'status-quo' ist.

Telangana, if formed with its current 10 districts will be larger than Kerala or even West Bengal. It is a vast region in a large state - Andhra Pradesh. Fifty years after the formation of Andhra Pradesh, the administration with all the available technology has not given a sense of belonging to the people of this region.

"Linguistic States cannot be dilated, we Telugus are one and so the idea of two Telugu speaking states does not even gel," asserted a good-natured scholar.

The neglect of Telangana, particularly of its language and culture is palpable. Telugu films often use Telangana Telugu for comedy or to portray villainous guile. In all my travels in the Telangana districts, I have heard some of the sweetest and may even say, a distinctly chaste Telugu. The people are very affectionate and have clung on to their traditions - both folk and classical - with great zeal. They instantly compose little verses, which they gladly sing and dance even if the composition cries about the poverty or about lack of rain. All these have only a 'nukkad' value here and that's the neglect.

"Inherently, the people in these districts are not enterprising - their agricultural skills were rudimentary, they could not bring in newer small or big technologies to enhance production. Tangible changes happened, post 1956, only with the migration of dynamic people - workers and investors," claimed a hard-nosed economist.

The region lived under utter shameful feudal oppression for centuries. The razakar violence is fresh in the minds of several families even today. This was followed by Left extremism, which was a product of years of neglect and resultant hopelessness.

The violence, destruction of person and property could not be justified but only extended the oppression. Drastic land reforms could not benefit the poor who did not have the wherewithal to cultivate. Irrigation helped the resourceful and the enterprising but not the deserving poor who formed the bulk of the population. Farmers' suicide in Warangal and Nalgonda are well documented.

Soon came globalization with its urbancentric vulgar unnatural growth resulting in the further neglect of rural areas. Hence, layer over layer neglect has piled up, each strengthening the other.

"6 out of 15 Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh hailed from Telangana," anguished a seasoned political leader.

It is very well to argue that several Chief Ministers of AP hailed from this region. A rough calculation tells us that from 1 November 1956 there were about 15,414 days (leaving aside the current CM's tenure and days under President's rule) of governance under elected governments. Nearly 54 per cent of this time was under CMs hailing from Rayalaseema, about 25 per cent under CMs from Telangana and 21 per cent under CMs from the Coastal area. We can only conclude that both Telangana and Rayalaseema did not gain anything substantial on that count.

"Hyderabad, the state capital with a world class airport is here. Only regions which are far flung from the Capital, for want of attention, long for separate statehood. Telangana's demand is perplexing" said a leader from distant Delhi.

The development in and around Hyderabad is like a bubble, which an aam Hyderabadi is unable to grasp. He lives in his crowded warm 'basti.' We have heard of one hell-hole - Bholakpur - but there could be a few more. Anyone who argues that this contrast is because of globalization, is only talking of the top layer of neglect referred to earlier.

We have heard all this and more in denying Telangana its rightful role in the national arena for sixty long years. The demand for Telangana is drowned in the cacophony of the self-serving politicians, the din of the omnipresent 24x7 media and in the violent agitation. Violence is frightening away well wishers and policy makers.

10 Dec 2009 /expressbuzz.com

http://telugu.ozg.in

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Dantewada Satayagrah and Jan Sunwai to stop Adivasi genocide

2009-12-07T03:10:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

You are aware that the Tribals of Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh State are continuously facing large-scale displacement from their homes, fields and forests. Activists, journalists and scholars working in this area have also provided evidence of tribal genocide in the last five years by State and its various agencies, including the police.

The recent past of gross human rights violations has consisted of the aggressive onslaught by the State sponsored vigilante group called the Salwa Judum. Simultaneously, an anti-democratic draconian law called the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 was brought in to silence all dissent. In the last four years it has been systematically used against human rights defenders, journalists, film-makers, lawyers, intellectuals and ordinary citizens whenever they have the State has felt the need to silence people. The latest move regarding elimination of the tribal people has been an escalation of the offensive by the State, in the name of Operation Green Hunt in the heartland of Dantewada. Paramilitary troops along with the state armed police deployed in very large numbers by the Central and the state governments have been carrying out military operations against the tribals in the name of curbing Maoists and retrieve territories from them.

In order to build public opinion and to support the tribal people in their demand to stop this displacement and genocide and to reclaim their right to life with justice and peace, several community based and people's organisations, trade unions and human rights groups from Chhattisgarh and outside are planning a series of activities in Dantewada in Chhattisgarh.

This letter is being sent to you so as to ensure your presence and participation between 14 December 2009 and 7 January 2010 at Dantewada and express your solidarity and raise your voice in support of the tribals. The list of events and dates are as follows:

1. Padyatra: 14 December to 26 December 2009

The first phase of this three week campaign consists of a padyatra from Nendra village to Dantewada town via Lingagiri. This padyatra will be led by Himanshu Kumar of the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram and other tribal leaders of this region and will pass through more than 17 villages.. A group of approximately 40 students, journalists, academics and activists from different parts of the country will also join the padyatra. The main objective of the padyatra is to restore a sense of confidence amongst the tribals who are living in acute fear due to the continuous onslaught of the security forces. The padyatris will also document the atrocities that the tribals have been subjected to including the situation of hunger, food insecurity, lack of health and educational facilities and other forms of deprivation faced due to the ongoing displacement and war in the region.

2. Dantewada Satyagrah: 25 December 2009 to 5 January 2010

Tribal people from all over Dantewada and other regions of Chhattisgarh will launch a Satyagrah on 25 December 2009 which will have the support of tribals from Jharkhand, Orissa, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh among other states. We are hoping that large groups of people from these states and from all networks, unions and organisations working on diverse people's issues will respond to this call and join in the Satyagrah for atleast a few days. The objective of the satyagrah is to bring together concerned people from all over the country to demand in one voice an end to displacement of people and to the war that is underway in this region, apart from demanding the implementation of the SC orders on rehabilitation in the context of displacement due to the violence of salwa judum.

A Raipur Support Group coordinated by Chhattisgarh Unit of PUCL has been set up for the Satyagrah. This group will provide assistance to the people coming from the Northern, Eastern and Western regions India as well as from other parts of Chhattisgarh. Raipur is situated on the Mumbai-Kolkata route and is well connected by train from most parts of the country. Dantewada is situated 400 kms from Raipur and direct buses are available between the two towns through the day and night that take about 12 hours each way

People coming from the South can take trains or buses from Vishakhapatnam or bus it down from Hyderabad. The distance between Hyderabad to Dantewada via Bhadrachalam is 500 kms and takes about 16 hours.

3. Jan Sunwai: 6-7 January 2010 (the date may be advanced or postponed by a day)

The Satyagrah will culminate with a Jan Sunwai where tribal residents of this region will share their experiences of the Salwa Judum, Operation Green Hunt and their struggle for justice. This Jan Sunwai will be witnessed by a panel of ex-justices, senior activists from various people's movements, ex-bureaucrats and policemen, journalists and intellectuals including those from among the tribals.

This letter is a request to you and your group/organisation to begin preparing for your participation in the series of events given above. A more detailed invitation shall be sent to you soon. For more details please contact at the phone numbers provided below.

We are:

Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, People's Union for Civil Liberties (Chhattisgarh), Chhattisgarh Visthapan Virodhi Manch, Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha – Mazdoor Karyakarta Samiti, Nadi Ghati Morcha, Human Rights Law Network (Chhattisgarh), National Alliance of People's Movements, Chhattisgarh Mahila Jagriti Sangathan, Chhattisgarh Bal Shramik Sangathan, Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF)-Chhattisgarh, Gram Sabha Parishad, Tribal Welfare Society, People's Union for Democratic Rights, Committee for the Release of Binayk Sen-Mumbai and others (endorsments by other organisations are awaited)

http://chhattisgarh.ozg.in

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Climate Justice in the Northeast

2009-12-07T03:02:00.000-08:00

The Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP 15) beginning at Copenhagen on December 7, 2009 is the most important COP after the Kyoto Protocol of 1997. In that protocol the rich countries made a commitment to reduce by 5.2 percent by 2012 with 1990 as the base, their emission of four greenhouse gases (GHG) that damage the ozone layer and cause climate change. But all of them have backtracked on it and are putting pressure on India, China, Brazil and South Africa to reduce their GHG emissions. Because of such pressure the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting was turned into a climate change meeting. There was pressure on India during the G-8 summit to reduce its carbon emissions. President Obama phoned to Dr Manmohan Singh on 1st December.

The rich countries are thus trying to escape their responsibility. They focus on emission reduction and ignore resource sharing. But more and more analysts recognise that climate change is a development issue that questions the fossil fuel based model which the world has known for two centuries. The GHG emissions it causes are threatening the earth's sustainability but the rich countries do not want to change their consumerist lifestyle that depends on it. So they are trying to shift the burden to the poor.

Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) is one of their ways out of the Kyoto protocol. A country gets points for emission reduction according to the number of projects it has under it. That is good in itself but the rich countries have found a subterfuge by inserting a clause that allows them to get points for emission reduction by funding CDM projects in poor countries without changing their own lifestyle. The first CDM is low emission technology. Some rich countries transfer their outdated technology to the poor because it is less GHG emitting than what they have at present but it is not clean.

More important are carbon sinks that are forests or greenery meant to absorb the GHG emissions. The carbon sinks do not have to be in the polluter's region or continent. For example, Northeast India has been identified as a possible carbon sink for Europe. It is never mentioned explicitly but during the negotiations a proposal is made every now and then to turn this biodiversity rich region into a carbon sink. Most carbon sinks are commercial monoculture forests. The Northeast is one of the world's 25 mega-biodiversity zones. So turning it into a carbon sink will involve planting a series of commercial forests that will destroy the biodiversity on which is based the identity and livelihoods of the people of the region. This aspect is ignored in the international negotiations that treat it as a CDM.

That brings two facets of the justice issue to the fore. The first is international justice. The fossil fuel based development model and overconsumption of resources by the rich is responsible for the problem. But they are trying to shift the burden to bigger countries in the developing world that want to invest in their own development. The USA with 6 percent of the world's population contributes 25 percent of its GHG emissions. Europe and USA account for 20 percent of the population and for 80 percent of its emissions. India, whose per capita emissions are about a hundredth of those of the USA and less than a fiftieth of Europe, is asked to reduce them because in recent years it has been investing in projects that are increasing GHG emissions.

The second issue is justice within the poor countries. The most vulnerable groups like the agricultural labourers, fish workers and small farmers do not leave their "carbon footprints" behind i.e. they do not contribute to GHG emissions. If they do, they are "survival emissions" such as methane gas produced by paddy cultivation and animal husbandry while the rich countries and the Indian middle and upper classes produce "luxury emissions" through fossil fuel and synthetic materials. These vulnerable groups, particularly women among them pay the highest price of climate change but they are ignored in the negotiations.

This issue is crucial for India where 70 percent of the population depends on climate sensitive sectors like agriculture and fisheries. Climate change has enormous implications for them particularly for the Northeast which is one of the world's 25 mega-biodiversity zones but has become a biodiversity hotspot in which biodiversity is being destroyed fast. One of its impacts is greater intensity and frequency of floods and droughts. The landless, fish workers and small farmers are its worst victims. Turning the region into a carbon sink will destroy it further. But the Government of India seems to have accepted commercial monoculture as a CDM. For example, the Bhadrachalam Paper Mill in Andhra Pradesh has planted eucalyptus for raw material on 300 acres of land taken from the tribals. That has impoverished the tribes. So for sheer survival they resort to the only alternative available to them of overexploiting the forests around them for sale as timber or firewood. That damages the environment much more than what the paper mill claims to preserve. But the eucalyptus plantation that is responsible for their impoverishment and environmental degradation has been declared a CDM and gains points for it.

The Northeast can face a similar situation. If this policy is followed in the region and its people are impoverished and forced to overexploit the resources for survival, they will be declared enemies of nature. Consumerism of the rich nations and of the middle and upper classes in poor countries has caused the problem. These classes invest in more and more vehicles. The state is investing on coal-based GHG emission producing thermal power plants. The 48 major dams it is planning in the Northeast will destroy its biodiversity and impoverish its people. Scarcity of resources will be one of its consequences. That will result in competition for scarce resources and more ethnic conflicts.

These justice issues do not figure in the climate change negotiations. Awareness of climate change is low in the region though it is paying a high price for it. Time has come for persons committed to justice to join hands to demand an equitable climate justice policy that goes beyond emission reduction and protects and develops people's livelihoods. The region has to accept the challenge of evolving a climate justice based development model that creates jobs for its estimated 40 lakh unemployed backlog and for the youth coming out of its universities, while preserving its resources and avoiding further damage to the environment.

Walter Fernandes

Director, North Eastern Social Research Centre, Guwahati

http://delhi.ozg.in

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Liberhan Commission; Painful wait for Justice

2009-12-06T18:04:00.000-08:00

Liberhan commission submitted its four volume report to the Government on 30 of June 2009. It might have been one of the longest times taken by any commission. Liberhan's claim that the report got delayed due to non cooperation of leaders involved may have some truth as one knows Kalyan Singh avoided appearing before the commission for long time, and so was the attitude of many of those alleged for demolition. Still all the hearings were complete by 2004. Did it take 5 long years to write the report? Such a long delay in the report coming out, defeats half the purpose of the same. One of the minor reasons of delay has also been the differences in the approach of Justice Liberhan and its chief counsel Anupam Gupta. Gupta after he interrogated Advani, Justice Liberhan allrently told him to apologize to Advani for being harsh. While Gupta maintains that Justice Liberhan had been soft on Advani, despite his role of the chief mobilizer for demolition.

One awaits the report to be tabled and see what the commission has to say about things which have been reported in the media and seen on the TV by most. One also await to see the attitude of this Government towards this commission, is it going to be forthright objectivity or dictated by political exigencies. That apart, since the report was submitted some of the accused have been hiding for cover, and some others are saying that since already 17 years have lapsed how the report can be meaningful, if at all? Some of them have questioned the timing of the report.

To expect that those involved in demolition will own up the crime and honestly confess to that is something not to be expected. Still Uma Bharati was honest enough to say that "I definitely wanted Ram temple to come up (in Ayodhya) and I definitely wanted that building (Babri Mosque) to come down but not in that manner. But I am not going to apologize. I am ready to be hanged for it." It was the same Uma Bharti, who along with Sadhvi Ritambhra was exhorting the Kar Sevaks by saying, Ek Dhakka Aur Do: Babri Masjid Tod do". (Give one more push, break the Babri mosque) She also expressed her joy after the demolition by hugging another accused, Murli Manohar Joshi who was sharing dais with her. Amongst others who shared the dais, when the demolition work was in progress, were Lal Krishna Advani, Ashok Singhal and ex- RSS chief K. Sudarshan himself.

How do people respond to the crime after executing it, is a matter of great variance. Same Murli Manohar Joshi, who before the demolition had said told his followers "…demolish the masjid, nature of Kar Seva will be determined by Sants and not by courts/demolition is prerequisite for temple building", in the hearing of the commission he said that "With all humility, I say that the incident was never remotely conceived by us". This despite the fact that Vinay Katiyar, the then Bajrang Dal chief had asserted that "Masjid will be demolished and debris will be thrown in river Sarayu". During the deposition he distracted form the main issue and doubted the need of commission and said that Ram Lalla is the owner of the place. While Lal Krishna Advani had stated the Kar Seva will done with Bricks and shovels, kar sevaks are not going to Ayodhya to sing Bhajan and Kirtans, later he declared that the day of demolition was the saddest day of his life. Which is the real Advani is difficult to say.

K.Sudarshan, who later became RSS Sarsnghchalak, stated that he heard Nirmala Deshpande saying that Mosque fell due to the explosion inside. Nirmala Deshpande disowned the statement. Kalyan Singh takes the cake as for as turn arounds are concerned. Before the demolition he committed to National Integration Council and through a sworn affidavit to Supreme Court, that he will protect the mosque. When demolition began he did not deploy 20000 central forces stationed barely 10 minutes from the place. Later he was imprisoned for a day and he proudly justified his inaction in the path of Ram Temple. He filed a 300 page affidavit, taking a line, which was in accordance with his the then Party's line, stating that it was a spontaneous act by uncontrollable Kar Sevaks. With his problems beginning with BJP, he hit out at A.B.Vajpayee, Advani and Joshi saying Babri was destroyed on the instructions of senior BJP leaders.

The then Prime Minister P.V. Narsimha Rao was famously having the afternoon siesta when the Babri was being demolished and he covered his inaction by putting the blame on Kalyan Singh. Immediately he promised that Babri will be restored at the same spot. It all raises the question of political morality. How the actors in the tragic act have been taking stances according the political necessities. How they regard that public memory is short and they can wriggle out of their crimes by mere play of words.

And now with report on the table of the Congress Government can one expect justice? The experience so far is far from optimistic. Congress weighs the issues on the scale of political advantages or otherwise. On one hand it tries to put a show that it will do justice and when the crunch time comes one finds it wanting in resolve to stand firmly for secularism and justice. Political calculations have been its guiding load stones. So even now one is not sure about the real justice coming through after 17 long years of wait.

BJP on its part is a divided house. It has used the Ram Temple agitation and the consequent demolition and the violence for politically strengthening itself. It is around this agitation, demolition and violence that it came to occupy the major position on the political scene in India. Now having been in power and having seen that Lord Ram cannot eternally help it to keep coming to power, some of its major leaders have been rethinking the political line to be adopted. What one sees around is the total opportunism for the sake of power. They realize the necessities of such issues to be in power, they also see that beyond a point it can be counter productive. Now it's up to them to keep adopting double standards or to come to adopt democratic issues as their political base. Can BJP shift away from such issues and take up the issues of the poor and downtrodden? This is a million-vote question. This is also a question related to the goals of its political father, the RSS. How does RSS evaluate its future role in Indian political chessboard? Indications are RSS will stick to Hindutva and Ram temple type of issues, come what may. One only hopes in despair that people concerned have honesty to own up their acts and face the legal consequences for their commitments!

Ram Puniyani

http://delhi.ozg.in

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Issue of Operation Green Hunt

2009-12-06T17:54:00.000-08:00

It has been in practice of the human beings that when a baby cries, the mothers' heart beats faster, she gets worried and put her all efforts to comfort the baby. But have you ever read any fiction, heard the story from your grandparents or seen a mother feeding her baby, getting toys and buying clothes for her/him only when (s)he stops crying? If not, at least, you can get the holy ideas of parenting from our corporate Home Minister P Chidambaram, who keeps telling to the Adivasis these days that the government (parents) will do everything for them (kids) only when they stop resistance. He has taken for guaranteed that all the Adivasis living in the forests are Maoists or at least their supporters therefore he tells them, "Abjure violence and give me 72 hours" to do the miracle for readdressing the historic socio-economic, cultural and developmental injustices done to them for the centuries.

It amazes me that how the holy idea of miracle of 72 hours impressed Chidambaram and made him so passionate about it? As far as the 'miracle of 72 hours' is concerned, it has ensured the pain, suffering and endless sorrow for millions of Indians. The Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Mode created a hell for the Muslims in those 72 hours, where more than 2000 Muslims were killed, thousands were attacked and many of them lost their shelters. Similarly, the terrorist attacks of 26/11 shook the Mumbai for 72-odd hours, created fear, insecurity and uncertainty in the lives of the millions of people across the country. However, P Chidambaram does not bother about whatever happened in the past and he just wants to create heaven for the Adivasis within 72 hours if he is given by the Maoists (he ratified that Maoist have come Messiah for the Adivasis).

Frankly speaking, the Chidambaram's miracle of 72 hours does not convince me, precisely, because he is playing a mighty double standards game. Suddenly, he took U turn on the issue of Operation Green Hunt (OGH), when there was immense pressure for withdrawal of the OGH, from the civil society organizations like the Citizens Initiative for Peace (CIP). On November 7, 2009, Chidambaram denied and even blamed to the media by saying, "There is no operation Green Hunt. It is a figment of imagination and creation of the media." "Show me one government official saying this and I will take action", he dared. Ironically, on December 4, 2009, Dantewada-based DIG anti-Naxal operations SRP Killuri unmasked Chidambaram by telling to the media, "As of today, Operation Green Hunt is underway in districts like Bijapur and Dantewada." Unfortunately, Chidambaram neither took any action against his officer (as per his earlier promise) nor stopped to the media for misusing (according to him) the right to freedom of expression.

Secondly, how can one believe in the miracle of 72 hours when the victims of Bhopal Gas tragedy did not get justice even after 25 long years despite thousands of deaths (according to the government 3500 deaths and non-government sources confirm 20000 to 25000 deaths) and millions of sufferers, not a single person was punished? Similarly, the victims of anti-Sikh riots 1984 are still waiting for justice and protest in the streets of Delhi all most every year. And 30 millions displaced masses of India including150000 displaced of Hirakud Dam (1948) the Nehru's Temple (Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, once said, dams are the "temple[s] of modern India.") yet to be rehabilitated (though the Indian government does not care about them).

Thirdly, the government authorities are blaming to the Maoists for everything. For instance, there are several state governments failed in ensuring the forest rights to the Adivasis according to the Forest Rights Act 2006, now blame to the Maoists for their failure. Similarly, in the failure of so-called development projects and justice delivery only the Maoists are alleged. Do the Maoists not allow the government to give land pattas (entitlement papers) to the Adivasis? Do we say that every Adivasis would have been prosperous if the Maoists would not have born in India? Can Chidambaram tell us why the corporate houses comfortably run their factories in those areas where the police can not even walk? Can he explain us why the roads of the state capitals and districts headquarters of many states are extremely bad despite huge expenditure made on these? Do the Maoists not let the government to build good road in the capital cities? Can he tell us why the benefits of the welfare schemes meant for the poor do not reach them? Of course, no one can deny the Maoist menace but can we blame them for everything?

The fact of the matter is the state has completely failed in upholding the constitution and fears of backlash therefore the operation green hunt has been launched in Chhatisgarh and will be extended to the state of Jharkhand once the Assembly election is over, which is quite evident from the statements of Chidambaram given in the Parliament on December 3. He said, "Attempt was to restore civil administration and the follow it up quickly with development. The security forces being used only to reassert authority in areas where it lost control." The statements clearly indicate about the security forces being used to regain the control in the Adivasis regions though he may not use the phrase 'operation green hunt', which would be materialized in the large scale from January onward, surely result as the mass torture, assault and killing of thousands of the Adivasis in the name of the Maoists, which needs to be strongly opposed by the people of the civil society who believe in the Human Rights of each and every one.

Obviously, Chidambaram's miracle of 72 hours is not really miracle to redress the grievances of the Adivasis but it is a strategy to get the sympathy of the civil society for the operation green hunt. He is essentially batting for the corporate with the intention to get the Adivasis' land clear and hand it over to the corporate houses. He would also ensure the landing of the global investors, which would lead the India's economy from 7 to 9 percent; of course, that makes no sense to the Adivasis. The Chidambaram's miracle of 72 hours can only create hell for the Adivasis not the heaven indeed. "If you are to suffer, you should suffer in the interest of the country," this is what Jawaharlal Nehru, the architect of the modern India told to the Adivasis (victims) of the Hirakud Dam (Orissa) in 1948, which clearly means the Adivasis must have to suffer in their own country and the sunglasses (mostly invaders) are only born to enjoy their lives. Perhaps, Chidambaram's miracle of 72 hours is to make sure the suffering of the Adivaisis continues.

Gladson Dungdung

http://jharkhand.ozg.in

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Security forces raid in the Naxal village

2009-12-04T14:26:00.000-08:00

On the 9th of November, 2009, security forces had raided the village of Tatemargu of Konta Block, Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.

Once news of the approaching forces reached the village, all the villagers ran into the jungle with what they could carry. They scattered in all directions and only returned once they got news that the security forces had left their village. They returned to find burning homes and distraught villagers who were taken into custody by the security forces, and then released in the village itself. They told the rest of the villagers their stories and identified those who was taken away. Many took their time to return from the jungle. And only once all the villagers were back and reunited, did they begin to piece together what had happened – and who was missing.

Eventually, the villagers received news from villages closer to Kistaram, some fourteen kilometers away, that seven people were killed near the police station.

One of them was Madkam Idma from Tatemargu who ran with most of the villagers when news of the approaching forces reached them. However, he turned back to his home to collect some food to survive in the jungle. He was inevitably captured with some 14 other villagers, and was one of four of his village, who were taken towards Kistaram police station, where they were reportedly shot dead on the 10th of November.

Two villagers from Doghpar, who were working in the fields, were apprehended prior to the raid on Tatemargu, and were also shot dead.

Security forces had also raided the village of Pallodi, some 12 kilometres from Tatemargu, where they reportedly burnt some 30 homes and apprehended Madvi Joga, who was also shot dead as a Naxalite, taking the total dead to seven.

'With so much difficulty I bring my children up, and this is what happens.' Says Madkam Jogi, mother of the young Madkam Idma, who was described as a shy reclusive young man of twenty. She also had to clear the rubble from her home with her remaining son, who is around fourteen years old. She has around 10 acres of land and lost around 20 quintal or rice in the fire that consumed her home.

Eventually, a few of the villagers decided to go to Kistaram police station to recover the bodies. At the police station, they were told that the bodies were taken away. They returned, dejected and confused, and would eventually begin to assess all the damage to their homes and their produce.

Some villagers would also begin to rebuild their homes with whatever they could find. However, most of them are still afraid to return to their homes out of fear that the security forces would return. They now live in the fields or in the jungle.

At Tatemargu, there were around sixty burnt homes disproportionately damaged. Some were raised to the ground, and others were partially saved from the fire by the villagers. Some were made of brick and cement and others were smaller homes made of mud and hay. Some homes survived in their entirety with all their produce while others were burnt to the ground with everything in them – along with bicycles, clothes, money, radios and even the bell-gaadis.

One villager, Kalmu Soma, who has around 30 acres of land, lost around 60 quintals of rice, around 20 quintals of Mahua, a solar plate and its battery, a motorcycle and his home. Another, Vanjam Mungdroo, who has around 3 acres of land, lost around 3 quintals of rice, 1 quintal of Mahua, 2 goats, a chicken and his home.

Vanjam Idma lost 10 quintals of rice, 2 quintals of Mahua, 30 kilograms of imli and both of his homes.

Sodi Sukda, lost around 40 quintals of rice, 7 quintals of Mahua and a house of cement and brick that took him five years to build.

Hoongi Madkam, age forty, managed to save her house and her produce but lost her husband, Oonga Madkam.

Sukda Raja, age 50, lost his brother, Dodhi Raja.

'These kinds of things happen in war' – is what the visiting Naxalites would tell the villagers.

The Combing Operation

On the day of the raid, which started around 11 in the morning, a few villagers, were apprehended by the security forces and then eventually released. They were kept in separate groups under different guard. Five were kept in one group, and ten in another. The two villagers from Doghpar were kept in the group of five.

According to the ones who were released, the security forces numbered to more than five hundred and they would begin to capture the goats, the chickens and the ducks of the village of Tatemargu and start cooking them in separate areas. There is no exact estimate on the number of animals eaten by the security forces but each home out of the 27 interviewed, claims to have lost an average of around two-three chickens. One villager claimed that six of his pigeons were missing. There is a rough estimate that around ten-fifteen goats and five-ten ducks were eaten.

The police had also taken the group of 10 villagers to a monolith painted in red that had been built to commemorate a fallen Dalam member Chutey Khoja, who was shot dead in Bijapur last year. He had apparently joined the Dalam as a ten-year old, claiming to be an orphan. In fact, he had joined the Dalam after an argument with his mother, who now lives alone at Tatemargu.

Eventually the police started to question the villagers about the Monolith. Who built it? Who is this person? Why is Comrade Chutey Amar Rahe written on it? When the villagers feigned ignorance out of fear, they were beaten. They eventually confessed that the Naxalites had asked them to build it and the police would begin to chip away at its base, hoping to destroy it. However, the structure remained – the security forces would only rip off the sickle and hammer that stood on the crest of the monument.

Around the same time, a few of the Special Police Officers (SPOs) would begin to misbehave with the six women that were in their custody. They would deliberately start cutting the hair of eighteen-year-old Jogi Madvi with a knife. According to the witnesses, who were eventually set free, a senior 'adhikari' in uniform, who spoke Hindi came to her rescue.

'How can you do this to your own people?' said the officer who apparently snatched the knife from the perpetrator and threw it away. The women weren't mistreated after that.

The same officer also refused the food that was made from the livestock of Tatemargu..

The security forces left the village of Tatemargu around five in the evening and camped across the mountain in the jungle with the four villagers from Tatemargu and two from Doghpar. The next day, they entered Pallodi, where they allegedly burnt down 30 homes, and captured one villager.

Somewhere, on the way, all seven of them were shot dead.

Tatemargu, a Naxalite Village?

Most of the Muria villagers from Sukma first settled at Tatemargu around fifty years ago. They brought their techniques of cultivation from Jagdalpur and the abundance of resources made Tatemargu an ideal location for cultivation. They had an ample supply of water, and they have never used pesticides on their crops. Reportedly, agriculture has never failed in their village, even though cultivation has all but ceased in the majority of Dantewada and Bijapur districts of Chhattisgarh – ever since the inception of the Salwa Judum.

At Tatemargu, long before the Naxalites came, a villager was beaten or chastised by a forest official for cutting too many trees for cultivating land, or for some other discretion. 'To live here, you must bear a few beatings.' – was what the old women of Tatemargu would tell their children.

Eventually, the village would begin to thrive. The villagers started to build large homes with bricks and cement. Some of them would spend around five years building their homes. Many families had produced an average of around 30 quintals of rice per season. Two villagers, one Deva Kovasi, claims that a Special Police Officer (SPO) stole some Rs.30,000 from him when he was trying to escape the raid; the other, Oonga Kanmu, claims that he lost Rs.15,000, along with some jewels from his home.

Some families had around 30 acres of land, some around 100 cattle. There are currently around 800 people and a majority of the families have over 10 acres of land, yet there are still many poorer Muria who have only five to three acres. Most of the homes have goats, cattle, chickens and even some ducks. The village of Tatemargu, is unofficially described as the number one village at Konta block.

The Naxalites had imposed prohibition – restricting the intake of liquor rather than completely banning it. They also ensured that everyone worked on everyone's land. Those who drank too much and did little work, weren't allowed more than three acres.

The government opened an angaanbadi centre. There were 10 cases of polio in the village before the angaanbadi services started, but as anti-polio vaccines were made available through the angaanbadi service, there have been no cases of polio. However, angaanbadi services have been discontinued since the Salwa Judum started. Healthcare is now minimal. Only the leftover medicines for sore throats, fevers and headaches remain. Most have expired. If people are capable of traveling to a city for healthcare, they often choose to. If they are incapable of traveling and afflicted with a severe illness, they often just die.

In fact, Tatemargu in Konta Block has been left completely untouched by government influence ever since the Salwa Judum. One handpump was installed during Ajit Jogi's last tenure and it has stopped working over a year ago. There is no one to repair it.

There has never been any electricity at Tatemargu. Two villagers had two solar panels which were wrecked by the security forces. They even vandalized whatever remained of the angaanbadi centre and the school.

In 2005, the only remaining teacher was given a choice to teach in one of the Salwa Judum camps near Konta, or to discontinue his service. He has around twenty acres of land and more than a hundred cattle at Tatemargu, his home – he claims that he can produce around 30 quintal of rice, and 20 kilograms of ghee a year – why should he be a teacher in some Salwa Judum camp where he and his family would have nothing? As it is, his family grew up in Tatemargu and refused to budge, and he wasn't ready to abandon them. Is this what makes me a Naxalite? Is this why I deserve to die?

Yet families were still split apart. Many families of Tatemargu have relations at Konta or Sukma, living in Salwa Judum camps. Quite a few of the villagers of Tatemargu keep that fact a secret for fear of retribution, or incurring the wrath of the Maoists. They seldom meet one another and only manage to do so clandestinely. When the villagers of Tatemargu travel, which they seldom do, they always claim to be from some other village.

Their markets have also shifted – they have to sell their produce to middlemen from Andhra Pradesh, for a price of Rs.600-Rs.700 per quintal for rice, or to Kistaram market, for Rs.990 per quintal. They barely sell their wares at Kistaram for fear of being apprehended, or branded off as 'Naxals'. This market situation also led to the hoarding of rice. Additionally, the hoarding is also an indication of a man's wealth – the more rice you have, the richer you are.

This has been their situation since the Salwa Judum started.

'When Muria kill Muria, who benefits?' Asks Poodiyan Lakhma of Tatemargu, regarding the Salwa Judum. He was in Andhra Pradesh when he got news of the attack on his village by security forces. The news was bittersweet – while his three children and his young wife managed to escape unhurt, his home was burnt to the ground. He lost two quintals of rice, one quintal of Mahua, forty kilograms of corn and 20 kilograms of salt. He has only three acres of land and is one of the poorer inhabitants of Tatemargu.

by Javed Iqbal / For The New Indian Express

http://chhattisgarh.ozg.in

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Workshop on Climate Change-Challenges and the emerging issues in Orissa

2009-12-04T01:51:00.000-08:00

Dear Friend,

Greetings from FOCUS ORISSA FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE!

A year ago FOCUS ORISSA had organized a two-days' workshop on Climate Change on 15th and 16th November, 2008 at the Redcross Bhavan, Bhubaneswar. Since then, while the concerns and actions of civil society and people in general is multiplying to prevent climate change, the world has been witnessing frustrating and non-serious approaches by the world governments including Indian counter part in policy level dialogues and necessary follow ups to reverse the trend. It has been painfully marked that there is hardly any change in the rate of increase of global warming.

You might be knowing that COP (Conference of Parties) 15 – the 15th Conference of United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is going to be held during 7th to 18th December at Copenhagen involving environment ministers and concerned officials of 189 countries to review the progress till now after the its 1st Conference in 1995 at Berlin and to reconcile the protocols on climate change. About 10000 participants including representatives of business groups, non-governmental organizations and others as observers may participate in it.

After 15 years of engagements by world governments, corporations through such COPs; it hardly achieved anything in terms of controlling CFC emissions, global warming and minimizing the trends of climate change. Even, it failed to bring out a consensus among leading countries. Many are not much hopeful about the outcomes of the COP 15 other than some giveaways to corporations and continuance of failed Kyoto protocol. The alternatives by COPs attempted so-far are basically profit based corporate friendly solutions such as Carbon Trading, Green Technology, Clean Development Mechanism, Agrofuels etc. Unfortunately, our country India like China instead of taking a pro-active role in controlling GHG emissions, it is seeking for maximum monetary inflows through the CDM, and the undue importance India is also giving to domestic trading in credits under its mitigation programmes.

In contrast with the approach taken up by India and China apart from G8 countries for letting to hand over the future of the human civilizations in the hands of corporates, now, many climate activists drawing from different countries have raised their voices. They call for changes in the agenda of COPs and policies governments. According to them, there are needs to stop the use of fossil fuels, community control over production, re-localising food productions, reduction of over-consumption by northern countries, respecting rights of indigenous, forest dwelling people, fisherfolks, recognizing ecological and climate debt owed to the people of Global South and making reparations.

In this context, we need to discuss the issue intensively and take a position viewing forthcoming COP 15. We need to inform our concerns as regards to the policies and approaches of the Government of India and participants of COP 15. Keeping this purpose in view and to workout our future action plans, FOCUS ORISSA FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE is going to organize a State level Workshop on Climate Justice - Our Message to COP 15 on 6 &18, December, 2009 in Bhubaneswar.

ODISHA

This is widely expressed that Orissa needs to have a Task Force on the Climate Change which has been emerged in a two-day consultation organized by Focus Orissa during 15-16 November, 2008 at Red cross Bhawan, Bhubaneswar. It is also consented that to have various research studies and action programs in the line of adaptation and mitigation of climate change. That must be people's focus and environment friendly. At the same time it is very important for having a network of all sections of people to take this campaign forward under the banner of Focus Orissa.

It is mentioned in the conference that Puri, Gopalpur Satabhaya and Kantiagarh sea beaches are mostly vulnerable and prone to sea erosion while Titilagarh, Talcher, Sukinda and Jharsuguda are recorded as the highly warming up areas so far as geographical areas of Orissa is concerned. Unprecedented floods, cyclone, drought and sunstroke are being experienced every year where thousands of causalities and loss of habitats & livelihoods are reported. This concern was widely felt over by the workshop and subsequent needs also emerged to have research upon it for taking up various adaptation & mitigation measures.

Orissa has never experienced any such year where it does not have any natural disaster. So far as the issue is concerned, one hundred disasters are recorded in last 100 years. Orissa Govt. has already installed radar in Paradeep with an investment of Rs 12 crore for Tsunami & cyclone warning assessment with an aim to protect life and livelihood of human being as well as domestic animals. Accroding to govt sources several other projects are also in the pipeline and to be installed in collaboration with Govt. of India. Notebly among the developments as has been claimed by the govt is that the state is now equipped with all technology to enable us to evacuate at least two lakhs of people within a span of 2/3 hours during any disaster waning.

We would take the opportunity to invite you to, please, participate in the Workshop and make your valuable contributions to make a successful programme.

Date: 6 & 18, December, 2009 (10am to 6pm)

Venue: REGIONAL SCIENCE CENTRE, Acharya Vihar, Bhubaneswar, Orissa

Sincerely,

Sudarshan Chhotray

Convenor & Moderator-

FOCUS ORISSA FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Mangaraj Panda, Dhirendra Panda, Pranab R Choudhury (co-Convenors)

Advisory/Organising Committee

Dr.S N Patro(Orissa Environment Society),Dr.Bhagawan Prakash(Columinist),Achyut Das(Agragamee),Praffula Sahoo(CYSD),Dr.Shahid Ummer(Sr.Geo-Sciencetist),Binayak Swain(BAT-NET),Amar Jyoti. Nayak(Action Aid),Md.Amin(Adhikar),Tapan K Padhi(NID),Kailash C Dash(RCDC),Prashant Mohanty(Vasundhara),Dhanad K Mishra(HDF),Manas Ranjan(Social Researcher),Dr.Manoj Mohapatra(Social Researcher),Prabhat C Sutar(Kalinga Devlopment Foundation)),Mrs.Gitanjali Swayin(IT Proffessional),Ms.Aurosmita(Actress),Ms.Swapna Pati(Actress),Ms.Monalisha Behera(Bio-Care),Jagannath Chatterjee(Living Farms),Umi Daniel(Aid-de-Action),Bisikesan Jani(Odisha Adivasi Pratishtan),Kishore Patnaik(ODAF),Sai Prassan(JVM),Ashish Senapati(Journalist),Sripati Mohapatra(Coastnet),K. Aleya(Orissa Traditioal Fish Workers Union)

http://orissa.ozg.in

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Sexual Discrimination of Northeastern women in Delhi

2009-12-03T17:18:00.000-08:00

Mary, 23, managed to escape the lustful hands of her landlord, who had forcibly entered her room. Her resistance made him so violent that it took her a few days at the hospital to recover. Although physically fine now, her psyche has still not healed.

"For years, my family in Manipur saved money so that I could work in Delhi. This incident happened two days after I moved to the city," she recalls.

Unlike Mary, who has stayed put in Delhi to fight her case, many Northeastern girls have left the city permanently after similar harassment. Some like Ramphanchy Hongray, 19, could not even live to share their harrowing tale. Ramphanchy was murdered in cold blood in October 2009 by an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi researcher, when she resisted his sexual overtures.

The incident has pushed Delhi police and the state government to offer more than mere words against the rising crime against Northeasterners, especially women. Are these cases only of sexual violence or are they racial attacks in the garb of sexual crime? Do race and gender intersect to create double discrimination for the Northeastern woman in Delhi? Sadly, the answer may be "yes".

The rape capital

Sexual violence against women – in the house or on the streets – is not new to Delhi. In fact, the city had gained notoriety as the 'rape capital' of the country.

According to statistics by the National Crime Record Bureau 2005, Delhi records the highest incidents of crime against women – rape every 29 minutes, molestation every 15 minutes, and sexual harassment every 53 minutes.

However, crimes against women from the Northeast seem to have risen. According to research by Madhu Chandra and his team at the Delhi-based North East Support Centre & Helpline, a large percentage of reported crime against women in Delhi is against women from the Northeast. Of the nearly 100,000 Northeastern people estimated to be living here, 86% have reported racial discrimination, and 41% of total cases handled by the Support Centre were regarding sexual abuse. Though men have been harassed too.

The issue at hand has two dimensions – racial discrimination and sexual harassment. Racial discrimination involves prejudice and violence against a certain group whose skin colour, hair texture, facial features, and so on, are different from a larger set of people.

Paying for their distinctive looks

People from the Northeastern states have distinctive looks that make them stand out in Delhi. Yarom Sho Ngalung, affiliated with the Naga Students Union of Delhi, is convinced that these attacks are racially provoked.

"People in Delhi often refer to Northeastern people as 'Nepali'. They do not know that Indians from the Northeast come from a different racial stock. They also do not know that there are many different tribes in each of the seven states. They assume that people from China, Nepal, Tibet, and the North East are all the same," he says.

While this may appear incredible, a small, random vox pop, particularly in the working class pockets, will vindicate this claim.

Northeastern people are generally called "Chinky", a popular slang for Chinese. In fact, not just them but even the 6,000-odd Burmese refugees settled in Delhi complain of discrimination and harassment.

Nunu Ping, a volunteer with the Women's League of Burma, says, "Since we look very different and do not speak their language, we are treated in a shoddy manner. Recently, two minor children died hours after a doctor at a city hospital refused them admission. The mother could not explain how seriously ill the two children were. We face prejudice and discrimination every day. Burmese women are harassed sexually and often mistaken for Nepalis."

That all Indians look similar or that people from the Northeast or China are one homogenous group reeks of naïve ignorance. Such ignorance creates havoc when people with little knowledge of cultural differences and pre-conceived notions migrate to a metropolis for education or employment. They live next to each other with no knowledge of and no interaction with the other.

For decades now, Delhi has been a patchwork city with communities from different socio-economic and cultural settings inhabiting various pockets, especially in the fringes of Delhi's urbane landscape.

Construction of the 'self' and 'others'

Since the construction of the 'self' and the 'other' is based on borrowed notions of race and ethnicity, it gives rise to lawlessness and new vectors of inequality, suspicion and conflict in cities. In such settings, where the 'other' is relegated to social peripheries, misperceptions are bound to grow.

The Northeastern woman, for one, looks different and thus becomes the 'other'. Besides, the perceived morals of the other as fast or loose and the consequent stigma also triggers such attacks. Men and women in the Northeast interact freely. This, too, is misunderstood by people as indication of the 'poor character' of Northeastern women.

Talking about women from the Northeast, a 25-year-old corporate executive from Delhi said, "I have never had a friend from the Northeast but I think these girls are carefree and footloose. They stand out with their different facial features. They are attractive so men lust after them."

New Delhi-based Patricia Uberoi, a distinguished professor whose research interests span gender, kinship, the Northeast and China, says, "Traditionally, in India, the ideal of masculine beauty has been located in the north while that for feminine beauty is towards the Northeast."

In the northern parts of India, feminine modesty comprises, among other things, a social and physical distance from men. This notion, however, is not free from ambiguity. While a working woman is liked for financial reasons, her being seen out on the streets is not. So the freely moving woman from the Northeast is seen as vulnerable, unprotected and, thus, fair game for sex.

More than cultural alienation

However, there are larger reasons behind such aggression, besides the cultural alienation. Uberoi explains, "The varied landscape of India – geographically and culturally – is lost in contemporary times. Since the colonial and post-colonial times, all eyes are on the West and the richness of the country's Asian connection has been disregarded. Thus, civilisation continuities established by the Northeast as an ancient bridge between China or South East Asia and the rest of India have been lost. In fact, there is prejudice in north India about people who look like the Chinese. Even in cinema, China has been left off the horizons unlike Indo-Pak ties that have been the subject of popular and art cinema."

This answers the question about why it is not just Northeastern girls who are subjected to discrimination but men as well. At the Support Centre, there are frequent complaints from men about harassment from landlords or employers, and even incidents of stray violence.

While women's groups and civil society organisations have protested against the rising crime against Northeastern women, the Naga Students Union has submitted a memorandum to Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister, Delhi, asking for immediate steps to ensure the safety of their community living in the National Capital Region.

As the fabric of the city undergoes rapid and radical transformation, there is urgent need to educate people about India's cultural and racial diversity while sensitising them about gender.

Source : Women's Feature Service (wfsnews.org)

http://delhi.ozg.in

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Bhopal: 25 years of poison

2009-12-03T12:59:00.000-08:00

In September 1982, Bhopali journalist Raj Keswani wrote a terrifying story, the first of a series of articles, for the city's Jansatta daily. Bhopal was about to be annihilated. "It will take just an hour, at most an hour-and-a-half, for every one of us to die."

Keswani's information came from worried staff at the Union Carbide factory, where a worker, Ashraf Khan, had just been killed in a phosgene spill. The first world war gas was used in the production of MIC (methyl-isocyanate), a substance 500 times deadlier than hydrogen cyanide, and so volatile that unless kept in spotless conditions, refrigerated to 0C, it can even react explosively with itself. Cooling it slows reactions, buys time, but MIC is so dangerous that chemical engineers recommend not storing it at all unless absolutely necessary and then only in the tiniest quantities. In Bhopal it was kept in a huge tank, the size of a steam locomotive.

Far from the shining cathedral of science depicted in Union Carbide adverts, the Bhopal factory more closely resembled a farmyard. Built in the 70s to make pesticides for India's "green revolution", a series of bad monsoons and crop failures had left it haemorrhaging money.

Union Carbide bosses hoped to dismantle and ship the plant to Indonesia or Brazil, but finding no buyers, went instead on a cost-cutting spree.

Between 1980 and 1984 the workforce was halved. The crew of the MIC unit was cut from 12 to six, its maintenance staff from six to two. In the control room a single operator had to monitor 70-odd panels, indicators and controls, all old and faulty. Safety training was reduced from six months to two weeks – reduced in effect to slogans – but as the slogans were in English, the workers couldn't understand them.

By the time Keswani began his articles, the huge, highly dangerous plant was being operated by men who had next to no training, who spoke no English, but were expected to use English manuals. Morale was low but safety fears were ignored by management. Minor accidents happened routinely but were covered up. There were so many small leaks that the alarm siren was turned off to avoid inconveniencing the neighbours. A Union Carbide memo boasted of having saved $1.25m, but said that "future savings would not be so easy". There was nothing left to cut. Then bosses remembered the huge tank of MIC. They turned off its refrigeration to save freon gas worth $37 a day.

A 1982 safety audit by US engineers had noted the filthy, neglected condition of the plant, identified 61 hazards, 30 critical, of which 11 were in the dangerous MIC/phosgene units. The audit warned of the danger of a major toxic release.

Safety was duly improved at Union Carbide's other MIC plant in West Virginia. In Bhopal, where six serious accidents had occurred – one fatal, and three involving gas leaks – nothing was done.

If safety was ignored inside the plant, Union Carbide had no plan at all for the surrounding densely packed neighbourhoods. As the situation worsened, factory staff, fearing for their own lives and those living nearby, put up posters warning of a terrible danger. Keswani wrote begging the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh to investigate the factory before Bhopal "turns into Hitler's gas chamber". His sensational style, perhaps, caused him to be ignored. His final article, "We are all about to be annihilated", appeared just weeks before the gas disaster.

As night fell on 2 December 1984, none of the factory's safety systems was working. The vent gas scrubber lay in pieces. The flare tower was undersized. The siren stayed silent. Years later – too late for the thousands who would now die in unimaginably hideous ways – a prosecuting attorney would say that Union Carbide had demonstrated a "depraved indifference to human life".

'That night'

3 December 1984, just after midnight. Death came out of a clear sky. From Union Carbide's factory, a thin plume of white vapour began streaming from a high structure. Caught by the wind, it became a haze and blew downwards to mingle with smoke coming from somewhere nearer the ground. A dense fog formed. Nudged by the wind, it rolled across the road and into the alleys on the other side. Here houses were packed close, shoddily built, with ill-fitting doors and windows. Those within woke coughing, their eyes and mouths on fire. Across the city countless women were saying, "Hush darling, it's only someone burning chillies. Go back to sleep."

Survivors' leader Champa Devi Shukla says, "We woke with eyes crying, noses watering. The pain was unbearable. We were writhing, coughing and slobbering froth. People just got up and ran in whatever clothes they were wearing. Some were in their underclothes, others wore nothing at all. It was complete panic. Among the crowd of people, dogs, and even cows were running and trying to save their lives and crushing people as they ran. All climbed and scrambled over each other to save their lives."

In the stampedes through narrow alleys many were trampled to death. Some went into convulsions and dropped dead. Most, struggling to breathe as the gas ripped their lungs apart, drowned in their own body fluids.

Aziza Sultan had two young children and was pregnant with her third. When the panic began, her entire family ran out of their house. They were in night clothes and it was bitterly cold, but nothing mattered except to run. Outside in the lane, it appeared that a large number of people had passed that way. Shoes, slippers and shawls were strewn about. A thick gas cloud enveloped everything, reducing the streetlights to brown pinpoints.

"In the panic," Aziza recalls, "lots and lots of people were running, screaming for help, vomiting, falling down unconscious. Children were wrenched from their parents' grasp. Their cries were heartbreaking. I was terrified of losing my children. I was carrying my baby son Mohsin. My daughter Ruby was holding on to my kurta, she did not once let go. We had gone about 500 metres when my father-in law spotted a truck and told us to climb aboard. We couldn't, but he was tall and strong so he got in. In the confusion, instead of lifting up his grandson, he grabbed another little boy who was running around on his own. My mother-in-law was vomiting. She was a heart patient and Hamidia hospital was still two kilometres away, much of it uphill. Soon Mohsin was being sick on me. Ruby was also vomiting. We all fell on the ground. I had a miscarriage right there in the middle of the street, my body was covered with blood."

At least 8,000 people died on "that night". Half a million were injured. In the years since, as more people died of their injuries and illnesses caused by inhaling the gas, the death toll has risen above 20,000.

The long-predicted gas leak at Union Carbide was, and remains, the worst industrial disaster in history.

The aftermath

Light came to city streets full of corpses sprawled in the agonised poses in which death had found them. They lay in heaps, limbs twisted, faces contorted.

In some places the dead were so many that it was impossible to walk without stepping on them. These were scenes from an apocalypse. The sun came up on choking, blinded people making their way to the hospitals. Some, desperate to relieve the agony in their eyes, were washing them in sewage water from the open drains.

The hospitals were full of the dying and doctors did not know how to treat them because they did not know which gas or gases had leaked, and Union Carbide would not release the information, claiming it was a "trade secret".

A quarter of a century later, Union Carbide and its owner, the Dow Chemical Company, which acquired it in 2001, still refuse to publish the results of studies into the effects of MIC. With or without these studies, 25 years of suffering prove that mass exposure to MIC destroys bodies, minds, families and a whole society.

Abdul Mansuri speaks for thousands. "My breathing problems started after the gas and got worse and worse. I can truthfully say that I have never had a day's health, or a day without pain, since 'that night'." For some the pain, physical, mental, emotional, has been too much.

Kailash Pawar was a young man. "My body is the support of my life," he said. "When my breathing is normal I feel like living. But when it becomes heavy, thinking stops and absolute pain takes over. I have become worthless." He was still in his 20s when he doused himself in kerosene and struck a match.

Today in Bhopal, more than 100,000 people remain chronically ill.

The compensation paid by Union Carbide, meant to last the rest of their lives, averaged some £300 a head: taken over 25 years that works out at around 7p a day, enough perhaps for a cup of tea.

Over the years the survivors have received little medical help. Being mostly very poor, they were often treated rudely. Government doctors would refuse to touch them. They were theoretically entitled to free treatment but were prescribed expensive drugs they did not need and which in some cases actually harmed them. In 1994 the Indian government, eager to put the gas leak behind it, shut down all research studies into the effects of the gas, just as new epidemics of cancers, diabetes, eye defects and crippling menstrual disorders were beginning to appear.

Abandoned by all who had a duty of care, the survivors decided to open their own clinic. In 1994, an advertisement appeared in the Guardian, launching the Bhopal Medical Appeal. The generous response of this newspaper's readers and others enabled the survivors to buy a building, hire medical staff and begin training. In 1996 the Sambhavna Clinic opened its doors, offering survivors a combination of modern medicine, ayurvedic herbal treatments, yoga and massage. Consultations, treatments, therapies, medicines and post-treatment monitoring are all absolutely free.

The water poisoning

After the night of horror, the factory was locked up. Thousands of tonnes of pesticides and waste remained inside. Union Carbide never bothered to clean it. The chemicals were abandoned in warehouses open to wind and rain.

Twenty-four monsoons have rusted and rotted the death factory. The rains wash the poisons deep into the soil. They enter the groundwater and seep into wells and bore pipes. They gush from taps and enter people's bodies. They burn stomachs, corrode skin, damage organs and flow into wombs where they go to work on the unborn. If babies make it into the world alive, the poisons are waiting in their mothers' milk.

Atal Ayub Nagar is a slim strip of housing sandwiched between Union Carbide's factory wall and the railway line. It used to have no handpumps and fetching water meant a trek to a well in Shakti Nagar, half a mile to the south. People clubbed together to install two handpumps. At first the water seemed OK, but then oily globules began appearing. The water acquired a chemical smell, which grew gradually worse.

A private Union Carbide memo, obtained via a US court case, reveals that as far back as 1989 the company had tested soil and water inside the factory. Fish introduced to the samples died instantly. The danger to drinking water supplies was obvious, but Carbide issued no warnings. Its bosses in India and the US watched silently as families already ruined by their gases drank, and bathed their kids in poisoned water.

In Atal Ayub Nagar, many damaged babies were being born. The situation did not improve after the state government took possession of the site in 1998. The following year, when Greenpeace was testing soil and water around the factory, it visited this place and found carbon tetrachloride in one of the handpumps at levels 682 times higher than US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limits. People drank this water, washed their clothes and bathed in it.

In August 2009, a sample of water from the same handpump was analysed by a Greenpeace laboratory in the UK. Carbon tetrachloride was found at 4,880 times the EPA limit. In the last decade, the water has become seven times more poisonous.

Rehana is a nine-year-old from Atal Ayub Nagar. She was born without a left thumb, her growth is retarded, her mind is weak and she hasn't the strength to go to school. Rehana's vision is not good, she's plagued by rashes and is constantly breathless.

Her father sadly asks, "Why was fate so cruel to our poor child?"

Why was fate so cruel?

Long before "that night" there had been troubling rumours, mysterious deaths of cattle grazing near the factory. Babulal Gaur, a Bhopal lawyer, mediated a settlement between Union Carbide and the aggrieved farmers.

In 2004, Gaur became a minister in the local BJP government and to him fell the duty of caring for the city's gas survivors. He told the Christian Science Monitor that the Union Carbide factory had contaminated the groundwater, and complained that the previous Congress government had tried to hush the matter up.

In May 2004, India's Supreme Court ordered the state to supply clean water to the poisoned communities. Gaur's government ignored this order.

A year passed and a group of women and children went to the government offices to ask why nothing had been done. They were savagely beaten, punched and kicked by police. Weeks later Gaur, by now promoted to chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, announced an ambitious £120m plan to beautify the city with ornamental fountains and badminton courts.

To mark the 25th anniversary of the gas leak, Gaur, demoted to Bhopal gas tragedy relief and rehabilitation minister, announced that he would open the derelict factory site to the public. There was no water contamination, he said, echoing Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh, who, with curious naivety, told journalists that he had handled some waste and not become ill.

A cynic remarked that this was like touching a cigarette and saying, "Look, I haven't got lung cancer."

Denying that contamination exists clearly serves the company's interests. No doubt it is mere coincidence that the Dow Chemical Company, has made at least one donation to Gaur's party, the BJP.

This sordid little tale is itself an echo of the bigger machinations at the centre, where Dow has been trying to twist the arm of Manmohan Singh's Congress government into letting it off the Bhopal hook in return for a billion-dollar investment in India.

When people ask, "Why is the disaster continuing? Why has the factory not been cleaned? Why have Union Carbide and Dow not faced justice?", the answer is this: Union Carbide's victims are still dying in Bhopal because India itself is dying under the corrupt and self-serving rule of rotten leaders.

Indra Sinha is the author of Animal's People, a novel based on the Bhopal disaster.

3 December 2009 / © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009

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Jeans and tee shirt wearing terrorists

2009-11-27T07:39:00.000-08:00

Just a year ago, Mumbai witnessed worst of the terrorist attacks. 26/11 2008 will always be remembered for the wrong reasons. This was an operation planned meticulously by a group of jeans tee shirt wearing terrorists numbering nearly 10. It seems they high-jacked a Gujarat registered fishing vessel on the high seas, sailed near Sassoon docks and reached Gateway of India in dinghies. They were carrying heavy backpacks; and divided themselves into 5 teams and unleashed mayhem mainly at CST, G.T. Hospital, Metro Cinema, Hotel Taj, Hotel Trident and Nariman House. The blasts took place at these places and also at Colaba market, Cama Hospital, Nehru Road (Vile Parle), NB Road (Malad) and at Free Press Road.

The attack left 126 people-98 civilians, 14 policemen and 14 foreigners dead and 327 injured. The Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad Chief Hemant Karkare, who was investigating Malegon blasts, was also killed in this episode of violence. The major deaths took place at CST station and in Hotels Taj and Trident. Despite this what did not find much coverage was the attack on CST, while media could not take its eyes-lenses off the plight of affluent. It was said, 'enough is enough', meaning that Pakistan has been doing this to 'us' time and over again, now is the time to retaliate. The popular yoga Guru Baba Ramdeo said that India should attack Pakistan to avenge for this act and to ensure that these acts don't repeat. He even promised to fund the war from his own resources. His was not the only voice on the issue. Many others also felt Pakistan must be taught a lesson a la US, which attacked Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11. Some regard that it is due to these retaliatory attacks by US due to which the terror attacks did not recur there. This is a faulty logic on many scores.

The US intervention in Afghanistan has trapped US more than any time before. It seems to have been dragged in the murky waters of the oil rich zone, regretting the fateful moments when it launched the brutal attack. We need to realize that though the terrorist groups do emerge from the soil of Pakistan, they are more close to the Military not to the democratic regime which is in saddle today. The Pakistan based Military-Mullah Complex had been hand in glove with the policies of US. Now the democratic government wants to eradicate terrorism realizing that it is a Frankenstein's monster created by the US and today Pakistan is the biggest victim of the terror groups, so created.

There was a talk of making the anti terror laws more stringent. Here one can see that the very oppressive Patriot Act of US, which was brought in the wake of 9/11 WTC attack has served no purpose and the most horrendous Gunatonamo Bay torture chambers have not resulted in a single break through. The terrorist who have been trained to give their life for a 'cause' in the Madrassas set up in Pakistan by the US-CIA-ISI route, are not the one's who will buckle under third-fourth degree tortures. For them life is a mere preparation for entering the much promised Jannat, with all its goodies. Of course civic society was so rattled after 26/11 that in the candle vigil marches anti Pakistan hysteria was on open display. The failure to prevent this attack was attributed totally to the politicians and some of these marchers even carried the placards labeling politicians as a terrorist. This could have been the limit of frustration of the civic society!

We need to look beyond our frontiers to locate the cause of this painful phenomenon. One knows that Pakistan based terror outfits were the US outsourced stations to achieve its goal of controlling the oil wealth of the central Asian region. In addition, earlier the Pakistan military regime had been fattening itself with due support and encouragement from US state department. The military regime was playing the role of US outpost in this region. Also military regime was against the Indo Pak friendship. One recalls that when Vajpayee talked of peace and went in the bus to shake hands with Nawaj Sharif, Pakistan Prime Minister, the military boss Musharraf, silently, without sanction from the prime minister infiltrated in to Kargil. The idea of Musharraf, the army strong man, was to stall the process of peace between India and Pakistan. Strained relations between these two neighbors works to the advantage of Military complex. Even now one can see that since Zardari started talking peace, the attack by Al Qaeda outfit might have been the military's way to stall the peace process. So what one infers is, the stronger the democratic Government, more peaceful will be the region. More the Pakistan military is in its barracks, more of peace we can expect in the region.

Many other aspects got added up in the tragic incident. Since the 26/11 occurred slightly after the Malegaon blast, a blast after which Maharashtra ATS Chief was successful in nabbing Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Swami Dayanand Pandey and company. He was facing the ire of Hindu right wing for his work. Under pressure or for what other reasons, he was also killed in the 26/11 attack. Many confusing news came in, the place where he was killed was alternately told to be in front of Metro or in Cama lane. The then minority affairs minister A. R. Antulay's simple question as to whether Hemant Karkare was killed by terrorism plus some thing else remained unanswered and got submerged in the massive outburst which did not want to hear anything on this score. Karkare's post mortem report is still a secret, the committee which investigated the event Prdhan Committee, its report remains locked in the cupboards of state machinery. The bullet proof jacket which Karkare was wearing is missing. The widows of slain police officers have raised lot of questions, which remain unanswered. The demand for a sincere probe into Karkare's death remains on the margins, not being taken seriously at all. Does some one want to hide something?

The situation needs to be brought under control. Terrorism has to be rooted out. But surely terrorism is a symptom of a deeper disease, talking about the underlying reasons is not taken up seriously. The symptomatic measures of tightening security, bringing new gadgets are easier part of the story. Demand for police reforms from a section of Peace activists is good gesture but just a first step in the direction. We do need to punish the guilty of all the crimes, built around religion or language. We also have to look beyond our borders to see that primary source of cancer is also addressed in a rational manner. Emotional response will serve no purpose. We do need to induct professionalism in our security agencies, cover our flanks, encourage peace in the region and ensure that Kasabs are not fed on the diet during their training, which is provided by the carnages happening here in different parts of the country.

Ram Puniyani

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Judiciary exist in a social vacuum, where corruption is a way of life

2009-11-26T21:49:00.000-08:00

The distance between the portrayal of the courtroom in popular Indian cinema and the reality of the courtroom is almost unbridgeable. As a corollary, judges are rarely portrayed in negative roles as against the plethora of "evil" politicians, bureaucrats, lawyers and policemen. This is probably a reflection of the larger denial in public spaces of role and context of the judiciary in the Indian polity – displaying ostrich-like behavior – where we believe that what we do not see does not exist. An assumption that somehow forgets that inevitably it is always lawyers that become judges!!

If the quantum of collective silences is taken into account then the judiciary must exist in a complete social vacuum in a country, where corruption is a way of life and has been ranked 85th in the corruption perception index by transparency international. But unfortunately, as anyone who has had the briefest brush with the judicial system can vouch nothing can be farther from truth. I know of an upper middle class entrepreneur from Bombay who has turned to full time activism because of a single brush with the law! The judiciary without doubt is designed under the Constitution to be as much an integral part of the Indian political society as the legislature or executive. Despite the relative lack of transparency, the process of selection and upward mobility in the judiciary is very much political. Judicial trends respond, reflect, engage and influence politics. And corruption that is an integral part of the political life of the nation afflicts the judiciary as well. But a seemingly entrenched insularity has kept this out of public discussions. But this insularity has also meant that the as an institution, the judiciary has not managed to keep pace with the evolutionary processes of the other branches of government. The most obvious evidence for this would be the gross under-representation of Dalits and women in the higher judiciary.

So what explains this insularity? Let me present a few reasons that immediately come to my mind with the caveat that this is not an exhaustive analysis. Firstly, in terms of continuity, the judicial institution was the least affected in the transition from the 1935 Government of India Act to the Constitution. This meant that many of the traditions, rituals and privileges that constructed judicial insularity were uncritically carried forward The black coat, gown and the band are the most visible testimony to this. The colonial legacy also includes the structure of the language used in the courtroom – legal documents continue to be drawn in archaic English from the Victorian era. All of this is compounded by the attitude of the higher judiciary in protecting their privileges. This is more so when one of their "brethren" is subjected to critical scrutiny.

Recently, an eminent public interest lawyer was hauled for contempt of court proceedings for pointing out that Justice Kapadia, who passed orders in the Vedanta case held shares in Sterlite industries. Obviously when a senior lawyer can be taken to task, laity that does not understand legal intricacies can only be expected to tread with caution. Of course, there are instances of judges recusing from cases on their own even when conflict of interest is not pointed out – like Justice Raveendran – but exceptions always point to the need for the rule.

Moreover, even in the few instances, where sufficient evidence is marshaled against a sitting judge – the efforts come to naught. In the only case where impeachment proceedings were initiated against a sitting judge of the Supreme Court – political diktat, rather than democratic conscience saved the day for the judge, despite the fact that the Committee appointed under the Judges (Inquiry) Act headed by Justice P. B. Sawant found the allegations true. The reluctance to raise issues of integrity has to be seen in the light of the fact that the only recourse against errant judges of the higher judiciary (High Courts & Supreme Court) under the Constitution is impeachment under Articles 124 & 217, whatever might be the truth of allegations

In that context it has been opportune that the controversy around the elevation of Justice Dinakaran to the Supreme Court surfaced alongside the ongoing debate on whether the higher judiciary can be subjected to the provisions of Right to Information. Act and the Supreme Court Judges resolution to voluntarily declare their assets. This is definitely a shot in the arm for all those who have been demanding judicial reforms towards more transparency and accountability. Efforts of the New Delhi based Forum for Judicial Accountability and Judicial Reforms has been pivotal in bringing this debate into the forefront. The demand for increased transparency has also come from former Chief Justices. But somehow, judicary seems to be reluctant to let itself be scrutinised by a public or democratic gaze – in other words – there is a reluctance to subject itself to legislative checks – like the Right to Information Act – hiding behind the façade of self-regulatory mechanisms like the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct, 2002.

Now that the Dinakaran episode is behind us, the insularity of the judiciary in the larger discourse of corruption can be located squarely within judicial reluctance itself. Apart from former eminent members of the Judiciary, the Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution, the Dinesh Goswami Committee on judicial reforms and other bodies has stressed the need for effective measures to deal with judicial misdemeanor and have even recommended punitive correctives in the higher judiciary.

There can be absolutely no doubts in so far as the role of the judiciary in preserving the democratic ethos of the Indian Constitution. But Judges are also human beings and this role can continue to be more effective only when judicial integrity can stand to public scrutiny. Before other episodes of corruption or misdemeanor can crop up, it would be extremely graceful – if the higher judiciary itself takes a lead in the process of setting up verifiable transparent processes that provides adequate constitutional checks – through existing legislations or if necessary new ones. I do not think anyone needs to remind the Supreme Court or the High Courts – as the most important guardians of the Constitution – that fundamental legal maxim that Justice should be seen to be done.

Bobby Kunhu

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