Politics of Vendetta in UP
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Political commentators were expecting a complete overhaul in the administration of Uttar Pradesh when Akhilesh Yadav became chief minister in March. He is a dynamic young face who had no past experience in the administration though he belonged to a powerful political family of the state. Akhilesh also tried to change the image of Samajwadi Party which was always considered to be anti development as well as anti English. The people of the state felt that he would work for a new Uttar-Pradesh with his developmental programmes and without the politics of vendetta. In Akhilesh, they found a man, who look ahead rather than clinging on the past so that a positive developmental agenda is set for future.
However they were deeply disappointed to see the absence of new faces in his cabinet. It looked a highly uninspiring cabinet yet people were ready to wait for Akhilesh in the hope that he would slowly start taking charge and come out of the coterie of his party which not only had criminal background but socially most of them had been working against the interests of the most marginalized communities. It was displayed during the oath taking ceremony when too many of the Samajwadi Party loyalists had created ruckus in front of the governor, much to embarrassment of the party leadership. In districts, the Dalits were targeted by Samajwadi Party workers during the victory processions of their leader. SP leaders and their cadres were openly flouting the rules in the state and it looked as if they were waiting for this day to create chaos in the state. For many days, Uttar-Pradesh remained under Samajwadi variety of celebrations which was turning absolutely caste-ist in nature by instigating violence against Dalits in the rural areas.
It was clear that both Mulayam and Mayawati have been playing the politics of vendetta whenever they came to power in the state. They have used state machinery for their own political agendas which revolve around symbolism of their respective communities. It is most unfortunate to the two parties who should have been working closely for the welfare of the people in the state are at the loggerheads today. In politics, differences are bound to happen but those differences are settled in humility and in great dignity. In the past, political leaders across the party lines have been friendly to each other despite their political differences and never lacked decency in their personal relationship. But that is not the order of the day today.
Though we cannot blame Samajwadi Party alone for this crisis in Uttar-Pradesh but it is also a reality that the party has not made any specific effort to do away with an image of it which is clearly anti Dalit. It has made no effort to reach out the Dalits. In fact, it seems to promote political leaders and activities which clearly reflect that it does not want them to be counted as its voters. Its cadres know it well that the party supports their activities and will openly protect them if caught. Most of the leaders of the party have a history with anti dalit agendas. Many of them had actually threatened to withdraw ‘Prevention of Atrocities Act’ in Uttar-Pradesh which is derogatorily and deliberately termed as ‘Harijan Act’ despite the known fact that the government of India has specific instruction for not using the term ‘Harijan’ in any of the official communiqué.
The Samajwadi party leadership in the state has targeted Dalits in such a way as if they alone have been the beneficiary of all the government programmes. The recent orders of changing the names of various schemes as well as disbanding some of them reflect the mindset of the political leadership in the state. Mayawati might be political rival of Samajwadi Party but she has also initiated many schemes which were very innovative and helped the most marginalized people in the state. It is shocking to see that the state government has decided to close Ambedkar Gram Vikas Yojna which was the most important project of the BSP government. This actually brought various schemes of the government in the villages like Primary Health Centre, connecting road, primary schools etc to make it a comprehensive developmental package for the most marginalized villages with substantial Dalit population. One does not know what exactly will be the nature of the schemes but it has been disbanded and now a new scheme for village development has been initiated as Lohia Gram Vikas Yojna. The state government is also targeting various new districts developed by Ms Mayawati.
None can deny the facts that Dalits have not got due share for their contribution in India. The revolutionaries of the Dalit Bahujan movements in India never found space in the central locations or mainstream political discourse which was reserved for the high caste Hindus. Uttar-Pradesh which has so many important Buddhist destinations did not even recognize them before Mayawati initiated the process of renovating them and restoring them to their historical root. In fact, despite all her short comings and distances with people, Mayawati should be credited to restore the Buddhist heritage of India. That contribution of her needs to be acknowledged and respected. India as land of Buddha has unfortunately never adopted as his ideas threatened the status quo of the brahmanical elite in the country.
When Akhilesh Yadav assumed office of the chief minister of Uttar-Pradesh, many of us had felt that it was a wise decision by the SP chief Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav in the interest of the state. In his initial press conferences, the incumbent chief minister actually refused to be drawn in the controversy of parks but added that it would be his endeavor to build either hospitals or schools in the vacant land of the parks. State government has full right and authority to investigate the corruption charges in building up memorials and parks but it should desist in targeting the parks or memorials as they are symbols of the rich legacy of the Dalit Bahujan movement in India. They were the people who we can proudly say propagated humanism in India. The Samajwadi government has no authority to undo a historical monument just because it wants to placate the upper caste votes. It would not serve any purpose as it might face wide ranging protest from its own people.
It is unfortunate that the Uttar-Pradesh government is not working with a positive agenda. The Samajwadi Party came to power with a number of promises to youths and farmers. It promised to pay unemployment allowance to youths and distribution of laptop to every student who has passed his intermediate exams. Now, after coming to power, they seems to have realized that all these promises are difficult to fulfill hence unearthing everything that Mayawati did during her tenures and blaming her for ever failure of the government.
Governance has been the biggest casualty during the past few decades in Uttar-Pradesh . It is not that the upper caste lead Congress and BJP were doing great business there but what was expected from both the Samajwadi and Bahujan Samajwadi Party has merely been reduced to politics of symbolism. .
Both Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati are responsible for this dirty game of pitching these great political ideologues against each other. Ram Manohar Lohia has been a great political leader and there is no doubt that his political action resulted in empowerment of the backward castes politically in Uttar-Pradesh. However, Akhilesh and his advisers must known that Ram Manohar Lohia was a great admirer of Baba Saheb Ambedkar and actually talked of making him the prime minister of the country.
Samajwadi party must also think that though Ram Manohar Lohia is a great political philosopher, it would be a grave injustice to push him as the leader of backward castes in the state. The Samajwadis need to read Jyoti Ba Phule, Shahuji Maharaj, EV Ramasamy Naicar Periyar apart from Baba Saheb Ambedkar who worked for annihiliation of castes and for an egalitarian society. Lohia cannot be clubbed with this revolutionary class of Dalit Bahujan movement as at the end of the day Lohiaism culminate at Gandhi-ism.
Akhilesh still has not lost good will of the people though their patience is running out. It would be better if he focuses on governance and development and not on creating caste animosities among various segments of the society. At the end of the day, his government will have to deliver otherwise people of the state will not wait for too long.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Democratise the political structure
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Appointment of non political people at important political position is a dangerous thing. Similarly, former bureaucrats have found their ways into important autonomous institutions and commissions after their retirement. Even governor’s positions in many states are handed over to former policemen much against the wishes of the state leadership.
A report in the ‘Indian express’ reveal how the IAS lobby has hijacked senior positions at various autonomous bodies of the government including Union Public Service Commission, Power Grid Corporations and many such public sector unit after the retirement. The report rightfully suggest that the government ‘babus’ never retires as they have got various opportunities to survive and serve their political masters even after retirement. Over the years, the political parties have found it useful to ignore their faithful cadre to promote not only these Babus but also ‘experts’ who can manipulate and lobby for them. In the dirty world, the corporate lobbyists are now respectable political leaders and holding important positions in the political parties.
The trend of appointing the Babus and ‘well connected’ people in the important administrative and political position is dangerous and need to be exposed and resisted. While no one will have any objection to the appointment of any officer who is well qualified and has done exemplary work during his tenure. But if this has become a trend then it must be questioned as it clearly mean that the government and political parties feel that no one in the country is eligible or capable of handling the situation other than these ‘well connected’ Babus.
How would one explain the appointment of former Generals and IAS officers as the vice chancellors of various prestigious universities? Has the government run out of ideas or does it feel that there are no teachers in the universities who can improve their working pattern. What is the job of a ‘so-called’ administrator in the academic institutions? Is government afraid of the academic freedom and therefore want to control these institutions of academic excellence if there are any? The problems with these administrators is that they consider everything as law and order problem hence rather than speaking with students and academics they behave as ‘lord’ and ‘my baap’. Most of them have been averse to student politics and politicization of the campus even when we know how glorious were the role once upon a time played by various universities in the political movements of the country. A number of our political leaders actually emerged from the student politics in their campuses.
So many government commissions have space for social activists, academics and journalists but at the end of the day these positions are filled by ex babus. There are institutions like National Human Rights Commission, Scheduled Caste Commission, Schedule Tribe Commission, Planning Commission and we will find not only Babus but also those who the party wants to satisfy in lieu of its inability to make them minister in the cabinet. How can disgruntled people do justice to their work? People devote their lives for the causes and yet never get recognized as whenever the opportunity comes such people heads these positions who have rarely contributed anything for the job. For example, if someone has to become General Secretary of People’s Union for Civil Liberties ( PUCL), he or she will be the person who must have done remarkable work in the field of human rights. Even the contestant for those positions would be people who are contributing for the human rights but how come the government appointed bodies has people who have virtually no previous record of social action whether in the field of human rights or women or any such body. Many times the body would be headed by the persons who have exactly the opposite view. Why is there no space for social activists who have devoted their lives for the cause to join such institutions where they can influence the power? The authorities may say that they put social activists also in these positions but they are those whose track record would be difficult to find in the social movements.
It is not that only Babus are being appointed in these positions. The political masters are using the former intelligence people, high ranking police officers, and former generals for the positions of Governor. And many states in India are witnessing these policing of political establishment at behest of the union home ministry. Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, north Eastern States, Kashmir etc are regularly having non political governors during the past few years. These governors are mostly observing the political movements in the states and providing ‘administrative’ inputs to the centre. In democracy, you do believe in more democratic set up but Indian establishment seem to feel that all the talks of autonomy and federalism has no political base and need to be dealt with more policing and highhandedness.
When the issue of Telangana needed government action, it sends a former Intelligence fellow E.Narsimhan as governor of the state. Rather than acknowledging that the state of Telangana represent genuine sentiments of the people over 50 long year, the governor continue to treat it as a Maoist problem and lobbying against the same. Formation of a state cannot be stopped under such conditions of possible threat as they are part of any nation state and we will have to prepare ourselves with eventualities and how to handle them.
One of the reasons for Mr Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature for President of India is his being an important political functionary. Over the years, these high profile positions were filled with low ranking politicians or non political people whose understanding over the political conditions in the country were doubtful. A political man at the helm of the affairs of the country can handle the situation with much maturity. When India is at the coalition age and you do not know what kind of party formation is going to happen at Delhi, it is important to have a president whose political understanding is beyond doubt and who will give politics a chance in handling the situation.
India is facing the political crisis because the political parties dominating our discourse have continuously depended on ‘experts’ ignoring the grassroots political workers who sweat day and out for the benefit of their party. It is actually becoming ‘personality’ based which threatens the very edifice of democracy. When parties can win elections on the merits of an individual then there is a very much possibility of him turning a dictator and behaving autocratically. Massive mandates by people to political parties at the national level and regional level ultimately did not help democratization process as the parties in India remain highly individualistic and dynasties deciding everything. The middlemen then have their field day as they know well that if the party leader is happy, it does not matter whether people are happy or not. These ‘connections’ and ‘experts’ have damaged our political parties a lot and there is a need when parties would have to democratize their structure and make it more transparent so that anyone who is coming to the helm of affair come through the same democratic process. We have no problem with Babus or experts joining political parties and contesting elections as they have a right to do so as a citizen of the country. But drawing groom maneuvering would damage the parties and the entire democratic process as at the end of the day no party can afford to ignore the people and their issues. Let the government start the political process to resolve the complex issues and one is sure that the results would be excellent and better for the unity and integrity of the country. India cannot remain united with bulldozing dissent and tackling political issues with highhanded administrative way. It needs to start a political debate to tackle the situation politically so that people have faith in the democratic structure and constitutional values. That only is the way out for our complex political social issues.
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Appointment of non political people at important political position is a dangerous thing. Similarly, former bureaucrats have found their ways into important autonomous institutions and commissions after their retirement. Even governor’s positions in many states are handed over to former policemen much against the wishes of the state leadership.
A report in the ‘Indian express’ reveal how the IAS lobby has hijacked senior positions at various autonomous bodies of the government including Union Public Service Commission, Power Grid Corporations and many such public sector unit after the retirement. The report rightfully suggest that the government ‘babus’ never retires as they have got various opportunities to survive and serve their political masters even after retirement. Over the years, the political parties have found it useful to ignore their faithful cadre to promote not only these Babus but also ‘experts’ who can manipulate and lobby for them. In the dirty world, the corporate lobbyists are now respectable political leaders and holding important positions in the political parties.
The trend of appointing the Babus and ‘well connected’ people in the important administrative and political position is dangerous and need to be exposed and resisted. While no one will have any objection to the appointment of any officer who is well qualified and has done exemplary work during his tenure. But if this has become a trend then it must be questioned as it clearly mean that the government and political parties feel that no one in the country is eligible or capable of handling the situation other than these ‘well connected’ Babus.
How would one explain the appointment of former Generals and IAS officers as the vice chancellors of various prestigious universities? Has the government run out of ideas or does it feel that there are no teachers in the universities who can improve their working pattern. What is the job of a ‘so-called’ administrator in the academic institutions? Is government afraid of the academic freedom and therefore want to control these institutions of academic excellence if there are any? The problems with these administrators is that they consider everything as law and order problem hence rather than speaking with students and academics they behave as ‘lord’ and ‘my baap’. Most of them have been averse to student politics and politicization of the campus even when we know how glorious were the role once upon a time played by various universities in the political movements of the country. A number of our political leaders actually emerged from the student politics in their campuses.
So many government commissions have space for social activists, academics and journalists but at the end of the day these positions are filled by ex babus. There are institutions like National Human Rights Commission, Scheduled Caste Commission, Schedule Tribe Commission, Planning Commission and we will find not only Babus but also those who the party wants to satisfy in lieu of its inability to make them minister in the cabinet. How can disgruntled people do justice to their work? People devote their lives for the causes and yet never get recognized as whenever the opportunity comes such people heads these positions who have rarely contributed anything for the job. For example, if someone has to become General Secretary of People’s Union for Civil Liberties ( PUCL), he or she will be the person who must have done remarkable work in the field of human rights. Even the contestant for those positions would be people who are contributing for the human rights but how come the government appointed bodies has people who have virtually no previous record of social action whether in the field of human rights or women or any such body. Many times the body would be headed by the persons who have exactly the opposite view. Why is there no space for social activists who have devoted their lives for the cause to join such institutions where they can influence the power? The authorities may say that they put social activists also in these positions but they are those whose track record would be difficult to find in the social movements.
It is not that only Babus are being appointed in these positions. The political masters are using the former intelligence people, high ranking police officers, and former generals for the positions of Governor. And many states in India are witnessing these policing of political establishment at behest of the union home ministry. Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, north Eastern States, Kashmir etc are regularly having non political governors during the past few years. These governors are mostly observing the political movements in the states and providing ‘administrative’ inputs to the centre. In democracy, you do believe in more democratic set up but Indian establishment seem to feel that all the talks of autonomy and federalism has no political base and need to be dealt with more policing and highhandedness.
When the issue of Telangana needed government action, it sends a former Intelligence fellow E.Narsimhan as governor of the state. Rather than acknowledging that the state of Telangana represent genuine sentiments of the people over 50 long year, the governor continue to treat it as a Maoist problem and lobbying against the same. Formation of a state cannot be stopped under such conditions of possible threat as they are part of any nation state and we will have to prepare ourselves with eventualities and how to handle them.
One of the reasons for Mr Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature for President of India is his being an important political functionary. Over the years, these high profile positions were filled with low ranking politicians or non political people whose understanding over the political conditions in the country were doubtful. A political man at the helm of the affairs of the country can handle the situation with much maturity. When India is at the coalition age and you do not know what kind of party formation is going to happen at Delhi, it is important to have a president whose political understanding is beyond doubt and who will give politics a chance in handling the situation.
India is facing the political crisis because the political parties dominating our discourse have continuously depended on ‘experts’ ignoring the grassroots political workers who sweat day and out for the benefit of their party. It is actually becoming ‘personality’ based which threatens the very edifice of democracy. When parties can win elections on the merits of an individual then there is a very much possibility of him turning a dictator and behaving autocratically. Massive mandates by people to political parties at the national level and regional level ultimately did not help democratization process as the parties in India remain highly individualistic and dynasties deciding everything. The middlemen then have their field day as they know well that if the party leader is happy, it does not matter whether people are happy or not. These ‘connections’ and ‘experts’ have damaged our political parties a lot and there is a need when parties would have to democratize their structure and make it more transparent so that anyone who is coming to the helm of affair come through the same democratic process. We have no problem with Babus or experts joining political parties and contesting elections as they have a right to do so as a citizen of the country. But drawing groom maneuvering would damage the parties and the entire democratic process as at the end of the day no party can afford to ignore the people and their issues. Let the government start the political process to resolve the complex issues and one is sure that the results would be excellent and better for the unity and integrity of the country. India cannot remain united with bulldozing dissent and tackling political issues with highhanded administrative way. It needs to start a political debate to tackle the situation politically so that people have faith in the democratic structure and constitutional values. That only is the way out for our complex political social issues.
Are Indians racist in nature?
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
The incident of brutal assault on a student from Burundi is not isolated incident of our treatment to African friends of dark color. It shows deep rooted prejudices in our society towards dark skinned people. A country with so much hatred and prejudices cannot become world leader. India need to change or accept that we are still a discriminatory civilization and have a long way to go.
A few days back a number of people were discussing how British Prime Minister David Cameron waited for his coffee at a shop despite scolded by the waiter for lack of time. The prime minister did not try to impose his ‘status’ on her and waited till he is name was called for it accordingly. Such incident is impossible in India where even a street leader would come along with gang of his ‘followers’ and bulldoze on everything that come in the way.
Most of the Indian men actually are uncomfortable whenever they travel abroad. Unlike Indian situation where they are kings and princes at their homes, in Europe and America you have to work yourself and will not always be surrounded by the chamchas and ‘well wishers. Their moms are not there to clean the mouth and wash their ‘ugly’ garments. There won’t be many domestic chhottus who would carry their school bags. But whenever there is a crime against Indian, our media has turned that into a racial crime while completely ignoring the racial slur that happens in India on dark skinned people, and Dalits based on their caste and untouchability. Indians make huge noises on such issues even when it is clear that they do not face racial slur anywhere in the world. It may be possible that in certain parts of the world they might have faced discrimination as well as ugly spat with individuals but that is not a general way of life in those countries where we dream to live rest of our lives. In fact, Indians rarely reciprocated against racial prejudices and look down upon the native African people of dark color.
On 26th December 2011, Anuj Bidve, an M.Sc student in Lancaster University was stabbed to death brutally when he was visiting his friends. Anuj was from Pune and many in the Indian media tried to make it as a racial crime but the British people and their concern must be appreciated as they stood with the family of Anuj. The police officials came to Pune in person and participated in a prayer meeting and apologized to the family for this ghastly crime against their son. Even when one listens to Member of Parliament Keith Vaz in U.K., the concern comes automatically for the diverse section people. The police resolved the crime in three days and now the culprit is in the jail facing charges. Despite this immense grief, the British government and common people stood with the family of Anuj reflect how far the society has travelled there.
Contrary to this, ours is a history of racial discrimination against those who do not look like us. We would not like to put our houses on rent to Muslims, North Eastern people and Dalits and tribal. An owner of the house in Delhi feel that he has got fundamental right to investigate, humiliate you because of your ethnic character. Physical violence against the persons from North East in different parts of the country is example of this ‘liberal’ democracy.
Now in a gruesome incident, Yannick Nihangaza, a 25 year old computer science graduate was brutally assaulted in the street, outside his house in Jalandhar. He is now battling for life in a hospital in Patiala.Hailing from a war torn African nation Burundi, Yannick had come to India with big dreams as he was a bright student and thought of a new society for him where he can live in peace and respect. Little did he know that our youngsters are not ready to accept a person with color whom they always looked down upon as contemptuous Negros as term which is racial and done away with by any society claim to be civilized. Unfortunately, we still have these terminologies and tendencies in our blood which is sickening as well as frightening. How come such an incident in which a foreign student is assaulted and virtually killed goes unreported for three months. What about the civil society, human rights groups which cry about Punjab over the roof top. Why they kept quiet. How come our blood boil when the person is of fair skin and upper caste. The fact is that the scant carelessness and insensitivity which Indian authorities and our nationalist media showed for this incident shows the caste and color bias among our society. It only came to highlight when a few channels ran the story but none had time to follow it up after three months. It is sad that the incident occurred in April this year and now some of the news channels reported the incident and talked to the grieving father who is helpless in a country which is completely unknown to him. The Punjab government has now contributed Rs 5 lakh to boy’s father who had written a passionate letter to Prakash Singh Badal to think of his young son who has been brutally assaulted and now doctors are not hopeful of his life. The external affairs ministry has now taken note of it and ironically the incident has happened in the constituency of Minister of State for External Affairs and yet she did not know about this incident.
It is widely known that Indian society is not only caste conscious but skin conscious too. What is most unfortunate that Punjab which is considered to a non brahmanic region where the Sikh Gurus actually formed the new panth away from caste based hierarchical Hinduism towards an equitable society. More irony is that Sikhs were victim of racial prejudices particularly after the operation blue star in 1984 as well as in the aftermath of Mrs Indira Gandhi’s assassination later in the same year. Sikhs, who are a global community too suffer from such prejudices is the most shocking part of the Punjab story. While not much be expected from a society so conscious of its status, the apathy on part of the government is absolutely shocking. A government which is inviting international investment and which goes overboard if anything happen to Sikhs elsewhere is so callous that it did not have time to take action against the culprit. Why are Punjab and Haryana becoming most ungoverned states in India where no laws of te land are applicable simply because the murders, looters are the so-called powerful communities? How will these two states which want to portray internationally that they are the best infrastructure and network of educational institutions cannot guarantee of international students coming there for studies. Punjab can take a clue from United Kingdom and how it has been tackling cases related to South Asian communities. It has become accommodative to diverse view points and cultural sensibilities. It does not look down upon Indian expatriates simply because of their class. The important part here is the failure of the government to act. India can learn a lot from United Kingdom as how they have appreciated diversity and make every effort to accommodate it. Streets in London have sign board in Hindi, Urdu and Gurmukhi. At the Heathrow and other airports, you may find various ethnic people welcoming you speaking to you in your native language
It is tragic that South Asians communities have no respect for minority protection and democracy. We are hypocrite and have not learnt anything. Our laws are applicable when it does not disturb the status quo. That is why Punjab and Haryana government have rarely acted on complaints of honored killings. The economic benefit could not change the social mindset in both these states. The violence against Dalits is rampant and people still wait for justice. Girls are burden for them and have no rights and therefore should be killed in the womb itself and they preach us greatness of their culture. Stop this vulgarity of your money and muscle power. The problem is that racism has increased because we feel inferior to the white skinned and that in turn make us superior to black skin. We look down upon them and make them isolated. It is difficult to accompany an African native to Indian villages and cities where people would make numerous remarks on the color of the skin.
Looking for special treatment in every public platform is a South Asian trait.
We are habitually ghettoized in the den of identities which is rarely sensitized on the issue of human nature. It is pained only when there is identification with the other person. We protest for our person even if he or she is wrong but do not do the same when the other side is right. Our beliefs are still between us and them. That defeats us. Instead, we return home from these ghettos abroad we turn more fanatic Indians and look down upon others who are not like us and have dark skin. Indian government must take it seriously. A country, which think itself as a global player cannot really allow such criminal mindset amidst our society getting legal cover. The centre must ask Punjab government to take strict against on this issue and assure the African countries that they are most welcome here and can roam around freely in this country. The authorities have to be sensitized on the issue so that such incidents do not get unreported and action is taken immediately. In the meanwhile, we can only share the pain of the aggrieved father from Burundi in the hope he will get justice and his son would recover soon.
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
The incident of brutal assault on a student from Burundi is not isolated incident of our treatment to African friends of dark color. It shows deep rooted prejudices in our society towards dark skinned people. A country with so much hatred and prejudices cannot become world leader. India need to change or accept that we are still a discriminatory civilization and have a long way to go.
A few days back a number of people were discussing how British Prime Minister David Cameron waited for his coffee at a shop despite scolded by the waiter for lack of time. The prime minister did not try to impose his ‘status’ on her and waited till he is name was called for it accordingly. Such incident is impossible in India where even a street leader would come along with gang of his ‘followers’ and bulldoze on everything that come in the way.
Most of the Indian men actually are uncomfortable whenever they travel abroad. Unlike Indian situation where they are kings and princes at their homes, in Europe and America you have to work yourself and will not always be surrounded by the chamchas and ‘well wishers. Their moms are not there to clean the mouth and wash their ‘ugly’ garments. There won’t be many domestic chhottus who would carry their school bags. But whenever there is a crime against Indian, our media has turned that into a racial crime while completely ignoring the racial slur that happens in India on dark skinned people, and Dalits based on their caste and untouchability. Indians make huge noises on such issues even when it is clear that they do not face racial slur anywhere in the world. It may be possible that in certain parts of the world they might have faced discrimination as well as ugly spat with individuals but that is not a general way of life in those countries where we dream to live rest of our lives. In fact, Indians rarely reciprocated against racial prejudices and look down upon the native African people of dark color.
On 26th December 2011, Anuj Bidve, an M.Sc student in Lancaster University was stabbed to death brutally when he was visiting his friends. Anuj was from Pune and many in the Indian media tried to make it as a racial crime but the British people and their concern must be appreciated as they stood with the family of Anuj. The police officials came to Pune in person and participated in a prayer meeting and apologized to the family for this ghastly crime against their son. Even when one listens to Member of Parliament Keith Vaz in U.K., the concern comes automatically for the diverse section people. The police resolved the crime in three days and now the culprit is in the jail facing charges. Despite this immense grief, the British government and common people stood with the family of Anuj reflect how far the society has travelled there.
Contrary to this, ours is a history of racial discrimination against those who do not look like us. We would not like to put our houses on rent to Muslims, North Eastern people and Dalits and tribal. An owner of the house in Delhi feel that he has got fundamental right to investigate, humiliate you because of your ethnic character. Physical violence against the persons from North East in different parts of the country is example of this ‘liberal’ democracy.
Now in a gruesome incident, Yannick Nihangaza, a 25 year old computer science graduate was brutally assaulted in the street, outside his house in Jalandhar. He is now battling for life in a hospital in Patiala.Hailing from a war torn African nation Burundi, Yannick had come to India with big dreams as he was a bright student and thought of a new society for him where he can live in peace and respect. Little did he know that our youngsters are not ready to accept a person with color whom they always looked down upon as contemptuous Negros as term which is racial and done away with by any society claim to be civilized. Unfortunately, we still have these terminologies and tendencies in our blood which is sickening as well as frightening. How come such an incident in which a foreign student is assaulted and virtually killed goes unreported for three months. What about the civil society, human rights groups which cry about Punjab over the roof top. Why they kept quiet. How come our blood boil when the person is of fair skin and upper caste. The fact is that the scant carelessness and insensitivity which Indian authorities and our nationalist media showed for this incident shows the caste and color bias among our society. It only came to highlight when a few channels ran the story but none had time to follow it up after three months. It is sad that the incident occurred in April this year and now some of the news channels reported the incident and talked to the grieving father who is helpless in a country which is completely unknown to him. The Punjab government has now contributed Rs 5 lakh to boy’s father who had written a passionate letter to Prakash Singh Badal to think of his young son who has been brutally assaulted and now doctors are not hopeful of his life. The external affairs ministry has now taken note of it and ironically the incident has happened in the constituency of Minister of State for External Affairs and yet she did not know about this incident.
It is widely known that Indian society is not only caste conscious but skin conscious too. What is most unfortunate that Punjab which is considered to a non brahmanic region where the Sikh Gurus actually formed the new panth away from caste based hierarchical Hinduism towards an equitable society. More irony is that Sikhs were victim of racial prejudices particularly after the operation blue star in 1984 as well as in the aftermath of Mrs Indira Gandhi’s assassination later in the same year. Sikhs, who are a global community too suffer from such prejudices is the most shocking part of the Punjab story. While not much be expected from a society so conscious of its status, the apathy on part of the government is absolutely shocking. A government which is inviting international investment and which goes overboard if anything happen to Sikhs elsewhere is so callous that it did not have time to take action against the culprit. Why are Punjab and Haryana becoming most ungoverned states in India where no laws of te land are applicable simply because the murders, looters are the so-called powerful communities? How will these two states which want to portray internationally that they are the best infrastructure and network of educational institutions cannot guarantee of international students coming there for studies. Punjab can take a clue from United Kingdom and how it has been tackling cases related to South Asian communities. It has become accommodative to diverse view points and cultural sensibilities. It does not look down upon Indian expatriates simply because of their class. The important part here is the failure of the government to act. India can learn a lot from United Kingdom as how they have appreciated diversity and make every effort to accommodate it. Streets in London have sign board in Hindi, Urdu and Gurmukhi. At the Heathrow and other airports, you may find various ethnic people welcoming you speaking to you in your native language
It is tragic that South Asians communities have no respect for minority protection and democracy. We are hypocrite and have not learnt anything. Our laws are applicable when it does not disturb the status quo. That is why Punjab and Haryana government have rarely acted on complaints of honored killings. The economic benefit could not change the social mindset in both these states. The violence against Dalits is rampant and people still wait for justice. Girls are burden for them and have no rights and therefore should be killed in the womb itself and they preach us greatness of their culture. Stop this vulgarity of your money and muscle power. The problem is that racism has increased because we feel inferior to the white skinned and that in turn make us superior to black skin. We look down upon them and make them isolated. It is difficult to accompany an African native to Indian villages and cities where people would make numerous remarks on the color of the skin.
Looking for special treatment in every public platform is a South Asian trait.
We are habitually ghettoized in the den of identities which is rarely sensitized on the issue of human nature. It is pained only when there is identification with the other person. We protest for our person even if he or she is wrong but do not do the same when the other side is right. Our beliefs are still between us and them. That defeats us. Instead, we return home from these ghettos abroad we turn more fanatic Indians and look down upon others who are not like us and have dark skin. Indian government must take it seriously. A country, which think itself as a global player cannot really allow such criminal mindset amidst our society getting legal cover. The centre must ask Punjab government to take strict against on this issue and assure the African countries that they are most welcome here and can roam around freely in this country. The authorities have to be sensitized on the issue so that such incidents do not get unreported and action is taken immediately. In the meanwhile, we can only share the pain of the aggrieved father from Burundi in the hope he will get justice and his son would recover soon.
Wednesday, July 04, 2012
Prisoners of prejudices
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
India and Pakistan have not been able to reconcile with the fact that they came into being nearly six decade ago and it is time to move ahead with peace and reconciliation. It is also a fact that you can change everything but very difficult to decide about your neighbors. Hence making good relations with each other is the only option. Even if the governments of both the countries make honest move to improve relations, the haws in both the countries thwart the peace process.
Hundreds of prisoners are languishing in the jails of both the countries without facing trials on accusations of spying for either ISI or RAW. Anyone who is caught in India is an ISI agent while the one who is caught in Pakistan is a RAW agent. They are paraded on their TV channels and embedded journalists’ sale their stories like hot cakes. We also must understand that spying has been a business with most of the powers in the world and hence it is natural when people are caught they are charged with being agents of each others. Unfortunately, such cases in India and Pakistan are not really dealt on a priority basis and taken to a logical conclusion. Even when somebody is caught on a ‘duty’ for its agencies, it is imperative for the states to provide them legal aid. Unless, they are indulged in instigating violence or directly engaged in act of terror, such cases should be dealt at the foreign ministry level and people should be left in exchange of the others.
Some months back Dr Mohammad Khalil Chisthi, an 80 years old virologist from Pakistan was released on humanitarian grounds by the Supreme Court of India and finally allowed to return to Pakistan. Dr Chishti had suffered in Indian jails for over thirty years for allegedly murdering a person which he denies as he was in India to see his ailing mother. One does not know what do we get by keeping an 80 years old man in the prison for murder charges that he did not do. It is not the matter of criminalization but failure of our judicial system to provide free legal aid to an old person. How can he be a threat to India’s vast security apparatus? In a reciprocal gesture, Pakistan too released an Indian prisoner Gopal Das who was languishing in Pakistani jail.
But the most celebrated prisoner in Pakistani jail is Sarbjeet Singh who was arrested for alleged bombing in a Pakistan city. Police could not frame charges against him and look mistaken identity as suggested by his family and lawyers. The police produced him as Manjeet Singh but ultimately he turned out to be Sarbjeet Singh. Now, the issue is if he has not got fair trial in the Jail, why was he being kept there? It is astonishing how prisoners could be allowed for more than 20 years in jail for petty crimes or no crimes without facing fair trails. When Pakistani president Asif Ali Zaradi was here on his famous Ajmer visit, Sarabjeet’s relatives tried to meet him in Ajmer though they were not given opportunity to do so but media had already raised the issue. At the highest level of talk this issue had come up and it seems that Pakistani government had promised to look into the matter. In fact, the Indian rights activists also asked the President to use his pardoning powers to get Sarabjeet released but that did not happen.
Indian media raised the hype during Zardari’s visit but nothing materialized but Pakistani authorities had promised indirectly that it would be a give and take release. It is unfortunate that no one from India or Pakistan is willing to take initiative towards peace and we are still bargaining people for our political purposes.
It is important that people to people contact be increased so that these falsehoods being spread by the authorities in both the countries could be countered by a strong civil society movement. There is a dire need to find how many prisoners are languishing in both India and Pakistan and to look into the charge sheets and case files against these people. We must lobby to get people released who do not have serious charges against them but it is important that both the countries need to provide exact numbers of people languishing in their jails.
Sarbjeet’s case and that of Dr Chishti actually point out two important things. That innocent people will become victim of the age old prejudices in our minds. Now, in the name of war against terror, the authorities are picking up people without charges. The political parties in both the countries are jingoistic and used such cases to use as propaganda material for their domestic constituencies. Hence Dr Chishti’s case was important for the hard core infringe groups to blame Indian establishment as anti Muslim and not anti Pakistani while for BJP and like minded parties Sarabjeet’s case reflect Pakistan’s dishonesty in dealing with the case. Every Indian feel he is honest just because he is in Pakistan jail and without any trial. Such sweeping statements and generalizations damage the cause of peace in the subcontinent. It is also important to salute to human rights activists in both India and Pakistan working for the release of these prisoners. Can anyone ignore the role being played by eminent Pakistan human rights activist Ansar Burney in trying to get justice for Sarabjeet. Similarly, Dr Chishti’s case in the Supreme Court was heard on the petition filed by People’s Union for Civil Liberties. The role of media and civil society is very important in bringing people together and raise the issue where they are unfairly being victimized by the authorities. Such issues should not be trivialized by the media to raise jingoism and then handover to groups which will be using them for nurturing further hatred to spread their own political agenda. The legal fraternity should also help the human rights activists in both India and Pakistan to file cases in the courts and get speedy justice to the people. India and Pakistan cannot afford to fight all the time to fulfill the agenda of the ruling elite and political groups desperate to gain power. It is opportune time when the authorities should settle cases of Sarabjeet and others like him so that we can move ahead with peace process without feeling guilty of the action of our agencies as well as glorifications of villains as heroes in certain quarters. Peace is a process and for that the baggage of the past prejudices need to be undone and that is why music can play a big role in the reconciliation of our hearts and minds. Sports would have been greater but then commercial pressures on sports are turning them as another version of communal fascist political forces spreading jingoism and fanaticism. Certain small gestures on parts of people will bring peace and justice in India and Pakistan. It is hoped that these gestures will ultimately make us understand futility of war and hostility between the two nations unfortunately divided on communal lines and deepening prejudices stereotyped by mass media and sectarian political outfits and strengthened by the respective governments to suit their own interest. Continuation of hostilities in the subcontinent would only gladden the hearts of external forces who want to use our differences to market their weapons as well as capture our market. Let us build peace brick by brick so that there are no Sarabjeet Singhs and Dr Chishti languishing in our jails for the lack of evidences and because of highhandedness of our authorities. We must note that authorities and governments will only bow to a strong public pressure and time has come when media and civil society have to work for it so that a stable peace could be established in the region.
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
India and Pakistan have not been able to reconcile with the fact that they came into being nearly six decade ago and it is time to move ahead with peace and reconciliation. It is also a fact that you can change everything but very difficult to decide about your neighbors. Hence making good relations with each other is the only option. Even if the governments of both the countries make honest move to improve relations, the haws in both the countries thwart the peace process.
Hundreds of prisoners are languishing in the jails of both the countries without facing trials on accusations of spying for either ISI or RAW. Anyone who is caught in India is an ISI agent while the one who is caught in Pakistan is a RAW agent. They are paraded on their TV channels and embedded journalists’ sale their stories like hot cakes. We also must understand that spying has been a business with most of the powers in the world and hence it is natural when people are caught they are charged with being agents of each others. Unfortunately, such cases in India and Pakistan are not really dealt on a priority basis and taken to a logical conclusion. Even when somebody is caught on a ‘duty’ for its agencies, it is imperative for the states to provide them legal aid. Unless, they are indulged in instigating violence or directly engaged in act of terror, such cases should be dealt at the foreign ministry level and people should be left in exchange of the others.
Some months back Dr Mohammad Khalil Chisthi, an 80 years old virologist from Pakistan was released on humanitarian grounds by the Supreme Court of India and finally allowed to return to Pakistan. Dr Chishti had suffered in Indian jails for over thirty years for allegedly murdering a person which he denies as he was in India to see his ailing mother. One does not know what do we get by keeping an 80 years old man in the prison for murder charges that he did not do. It is not the matter of criminalization but failure of our judicial system to provide free legal aid to an old person. How can he be a threat to India’s vast security apparatus? In a reciprocal gesture, Pakistan too released an Indian prisoner Gopal Das who was languishing in Pakistani jail.
But the most celebrated prisoner in Pakistani jail is Sarbjeet Singh who was arrested for alleged bombing in a Pakistan city. Police could not frame charges against him and look mistaken identity as suggested by his family and lawyers. The police produced him as Manjeet Singh but ultimately he turned out to be Sarbjeet Singh. Now, the issue is if he has not got fair trial in the Jail, why was he being kept there? It is astonishing how prisoners could be allowed for more than 20 years in jail for petty crimes or no crimes without facing fair trails. When Pakistani president Asif Ali Zaradi was here on his famous Ajmer visit, Sarabjeet’s relatives tried to meet him in Ajmer though they were not given opportunity to do so but media had already raised the issue. At the highest level of talk this issue had come up and it seems that Pakistani government had promised to look into the matter. In fact, the Indian rights activists also asked the President to use his pardoning powers to get Sarabjeet released but that did not happen.
Indian media raised the hype during Zardari’s visit but nothing materialized but Pakistani authorities had promised indirectly that it would be a give and take release. It is unfortunate that no one from India or Pakistan is willing to take initiative towards peace and we are still bargaining people for our political purposes.
It is important that people to people contact be increased so that these falsehoods being spread by the authorities in both the countries could be countered by a strong civil society movement. There is a dire need to find how many prisoners are languishing in both India and Pakistan and to look into the charge sheets and case files against these people. We must lobby to get people released who do not have serious charges against them but it is important that both the countries need to provide exact numbers of people languishing in their jails.
Sarbjeet’s case and that of Dr Chishti actually point out two important things. That innocent people will become victim of the age old prejudices in our minds. Now, in the name of war against terror, the authorities are picking up people without charges. The political parties in both the countries are jingoistic and used such cases to use as propaganda material for their domestic constituencies. Hence Dr Chishti’s case was important for the hard core infringe groups to blame Indian establishment as anti Muslim and not anti Pakistani while for BJP and like minded parties Sarabjeet’s case reflect Pakistan’s dishonesty in dealing with the case. Every Indian feel he is honest just because he is in Pakistan jail and without any trial. Such sweeping statements and generalizations damage the cause of peace in the subcontinent. It is also important to salute to human rights activists in both India and Pakistan working for the release of these prisoners. Can anyone ignore the role being played by eminent Pakistan human rights activist Ansar Burney in trying to get justice for Sarabjeet. Similarly, Dr Chishti’s case in the Supreme Court was heard on the petition filed by People’s Union for Civil Liberties. The role of media and civil society is very important in bringing people together and raise the issue where they are unfairly being victimized by the authorities. Such issues should not be trivialized by the media to raise jingoism and then handover to groups which will be using them for nurturing further hatred to spread their own political agenda. The legal fraternity should also help the human rights activists in both India and Pakistan to file cases in the courts and get speedy justice to the people. India and Pakistan cannot afford to fight all the time to fulfill the agenda of the ruling elite and political groups desperate to gain power. It is opportune time when the authorities should settle cases of Sarabjeet and others like him so that we can move ahead with peace process without feeling guilty of the action of our agencies as well as glorifications of villains as heroes in certain quarters. Peace is a process and for that the baggage of the past prejudices need to be undone and that is why music can play a big role in the reconciliation of our hearts and minds. Sports would have been greater but then commercial pressures on sports are turning them as another version of communal fascist political forces spreading jingoism and fanaticism. Certain small gestures on parts of people will bring peace and justice in India and Pakistan. It is hoped that these gestures will ultimately make us understand futility of war and hostility between the two nations unfortunately divided on communal lines and deepening prejudices stereotyped by mass media and sectarian political outfits and strengthened by the respective governments to suit their own interest. Continuation of hostilities in the subcontinent would only gladden the hearts of external forces who want to use our differences to market their weapons as well as capture our market. Let us build peace brick by brick so that there are no Sarabjeet Singhs and Dr Chishti languishing in our jails for the lack of evidences and because of highhandedness of our authorities. We must note that authorities and governments will only bow to a strong public pressure and time has come when media and civil society have to work for it so that a stable peace could be established in the region.
Tuesday, July 03, 2012
Politics of VP more powerful than anti emergency crusade of JP
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Two important events in the post independent India marks an important date in the political history of India. They are coincident yet important. Both events people want to forget and ignore for their own reasons. On June 25th, 1975 the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi imposed emergency on the country suspending the fundamental right particularly right to freedom of expression and peacefully assembly was suspended immediately. President Fakhruhdinn Ali Ahmed, perhaps one of the most undeserving persons to have occupied the highest office of the land signed on the dotted line to proclaim emergency in the mid night of June 25th. Thousands of political activists, human rights defender, journalists, editors and columnists were arrested and put in jail. This was an unprecedented situation that Mrs Gandhi had put the country but the response of the country was equally harsh. India witnessed one of the biggest movements against emergency which ultimately resulted in the ousting of Indira Gandhi and our first non congress government at the centre in 1977 under the leadership of Morarji Desai. Though the Janata Party government fell amid way because of the over ambitions of various political leaders but that was a great lessons for the all powerful prime minister that they should never think people’s mandate for granted and that people will protest if their rights are suspended or taken away. No government or authority have right to control people’s right. A government’s mandate is to govern and not to deny people their fundamental rights.
Though Indira Gandhi came back to power in 1980 yet she behaved in a much matured way. It gave lessons to other political parties in the country that playing with people’s right is like playing with fire and none would tolerate it. Mrs Indira Gandhi’s highhandedness during emergency was the reason of her down fall added by the uncontrolled power in the hands of her son Sanjay Gandhi. She was charged of promoting her son at the cost of the senior political leaders of her party who would bow to him and had no shame in taking order from it.
Proclamation of Emergency gave people an understanding that governments want to control their rights and unless they speak against it these rights are going to be seized away. That is why the middle classes, students, workers, intellectuals all opposed suspension of rights such as free political movements, independence of judiciary and media. The role of many news papers during emergency was remarkable and must be appreciated.
It is a co-incident that 25th June is also the birthday of our former prime Minister late V.P.Singh, a name which attracts lots of condemnation as well as admiration. V.P. Singh is appreciated all across the party line for his impeccable honest credentials and commitments to the cause of social justice and probity in public life. As a finance minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s government V.P.Singh ran a campaign against the corrupt industries which resulted in his unceremonious departure from the Finance Ministry to Defence Ministry. There too he exposed the corruption in HDW submarine purchased from Germany. V.P.Singh was expelled from the Congress Party and he was hounded by Congress Party so much that those who followed him realized that Rajiv Gandhi behaved worst than what Indira Gandhi did during emergency.
V.P.Singh was a political leader who could connect with masses very easily and people lapped on each words that he spoke related to corruption. Finally, he was responsible in forming of the Second non Congress government at the Centre in 1989 with the outside support of both the left parties and BJP. But the biggest jolt to Congress party came in the form of implementation of Mandal Commission report by his government which resulted in wide scale violence in Delhi and other parts of North India. The entire upper caste India rose against him and turned him the biggest villain of Indian polity. He became one of the most hated politicians for the upper caste Hindus. It is another matter that the media had no time in reporting about those who loved him and admired him.
V.P.Siingh’s Mandal report changed the polity of India permanently with wide participation of backward communities. It paralysed the Congress Party permanently and yet the party has not yet reconciled to the growing reality of the hunger for participation in power among the marginalized communities. It strengthened the hands of the OBC political groups and brought them together with the Dalits. Unfortunately, V.P.Singh became victim of the identity politics in India. The forces which got benefited with his various schemes actually found their own caste leaders in politics and sided with them without understanding their political opportunism. His support for the cause of Dalits was immense though may not have got acknowledged widely including putting Dr Ambedkar portrait in Parliament, honoring him with Bharat Ratna and finally accepting neo Buddhists to claim reservation under SC category. In fact, the Ambedkar centenary celebrations enjoyed the best hospitality from his government when a large number of Dr Ambedkar’s work was published by the Central government.
V.P.Singh died as unsung hero with media busy with Mumbai’s attack and the people he fought with not much keen on even acknowledging his contribution. It was a painful sight to see just a handful of people at his Teen Murti Lane residence on his last journey in Delhi. While his power politics may have many critique it need to be appreciated that V.P.Singh did mass politics and worked to set people’s agenda. Even if he was continuously in dialysis he would go and express solidarity with various social movements in the country. He did not care for his health when the cause was for the slum dwellers and even slept in the slums of Delhi to protect their rights very unusual for a former prime minister to have been doing so.
While emergency was an event people want to forget and move ahead for the better future of democracy. V.P.Singh’s actions and ideas actually strengthened democracy in India and made it much more participatory when for the first time the marginalized communities saw the real participation in power and now asserting their identities. It is good to assert these identities but at the same point important to acknowledge the contribution of those too who do not happen to come from your caste too. Some people play heroic role for in the social change but do not hail from our communities and it is important we consider them part of our heritage. Emergency made Indira Gandhi a villain for everyone but now the people seem to have ignored that while V.P.Singh for all his honesty and good work is considered as villain just because some of his actions have not gone down well with the upper elite caste forces of the country. It is important for us to learn lessons from both the events of history and move ahead with them that political powers cannot really stop growth of democracy now and with mandalisation process the marginalized communities are now asserting their democratic rights and will not allow anyone to encroach upon their political rights. Hence while emergency threatened the very concept of democracy and weakened it, the work of V.P.Singh has made democracy such a strong entity that it would not be possible for any political leader to become dictator in India by imposing democracy.
His Mandalisation has successfully countered fascist forces in the country and provided space for millions of marginalized people from the country to participate in democracy and strengthen it further. It is ironical that V.P.Singh was on the side of Mrs Indira Gandhi during emergency which many of his colleagues always questioned but there is also a fact of life that people change and that happened with V.P.Singh also when he transformed himself from a staunch Congress loyalist to a great votary of social justice and socialist politics in India. His fight against Rajiv Gandhi’s tyrannical regime in 1986 and then his exemplary work for the rights of marginalized after he demitted his power and possessions after 1990 are great example for politicians of today. Today, V.P.Singh has become more relevant when we see pervading corruption surrounding us but helpless inability of our political class to make it an issue and fight the battle politically so that forces against our democratic process do not hijack the anti corruption mood of the nation. That could only happen when political class fighting against corruption has its own house in order as people inside it with impeccable credentials and honest track record. In the absence of that it will only be the communal forces who would use such unrest to pursue their own agendas. Jai Prakash’s movement legitimized many of them and fight against corruption has also strengthened in the similar way the anti democratic forces. It is time for the forces of social justice to rise up and stop the march of such forces to our power structure. A statesman of V.P.Singh’s stature has the capacity to do so but unfortunately he is not there and his absence from political arena is being felt tremendously because of lack of our political class who could rise above their partisan interest and think for the country.
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Two important events in the post independent India marks an important date in the political history of India. They are coincident yet important. Both events people want to forget and ignore for their own reasons. On June 25th, 1975 the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi imposed emergency on the country suspending the fundamental right particularly right to freedom of expression and peacefully assembly was suspended immediately. President Fakhruhdinn Ali Ahmed, perhaps one of the most undeserving persons to have occupied the highest office of the land signed on the dotted line to proclaim emergency in the mid night of June 25th. Thousands of political activists, human rights defender, journalists, editors and columnists were arrested and put in jail. This was an unprecedented situation that Mrs Gandhi had put the country but the response of the country was equally harsh. India witnessed one of the biggest movements against emergency which ultimately resulted in the ousting of Indira Gandhi and our first non congress government at the centre in 1977 under the leadership of Morarji Desai. Though the Janata Party government fell amid way because of the over ambitions of various political leaders but that was a great lessons for the all powerful prime minister that they should never think people’s mandate for granted and that people will protest if their rights are suspended or taken away. No government or authority have right to control people’s right. A government’s mandate is to govern and not to deny people their fundamental rights.
Though Indira Gandhi came back to power in 1980 yet she behaved in a much matured way. It gave lessons to other political parties in the country that playing with people’s right is like playing with fire and none would tolerate it. Mrs Indira Gandhi’s highhandedness during emergency was the reason of her down fall added by the uncontrolled power in the hands of her son Sanjay Gandhi. She was charged of promoting her son at the cost of the senior political leaders of her party who would bow to him and had no shame in taking order from it.
Proclamation of Emergency gave people an understanding that governments want to control their rights and unless they speak against it these rights are going to be seized away. That is why the middle classes, students, workers, intellectuals all opposed suspension of rights such as free political movements, independence of judiciary and media. The role of many news papers during emergency was remarkable and must be appreciated.
It is a co-incident that 25th June is also the birthday of our former prime Minister late V.P.Singh, a name which attracts lots of condemnation as well as admiration. V.P. Singh is appreciated all across the party line for his impeccable honest credentials and commitments to the cause of social justice and probity in public life. As a finance minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s government V.P.Singh ran a campaign against the corrupt industries which resulted in his unceremonious departure from the Finance Ministry to Defence Ministry. There too he exposed the corruption in HDW submarine purchased from Germany. V.P.Singh was expelled from the Congress Party and he was hounded by Congress Party so much that those who followed him realized that Rajiv Gandhi behaved worst than what Indira Gandhi did during emergency.
V.P.Singh was a political leader who could connect with masses very easily and people lapped on each words that he spoke related to corruption. Finally, he was responsible in forming of the Second non Congress government at the Centre in 1989 with the outside support of both the left parties and BJP. But the biggest jolt to Congress party came in the form of implementation of Mandal Commission report by his government which resulted in wide scale violence in Delhi and other parts of North India. The entire upper caste India rose against him and turned him the biggest villain of Indian polity. He became one of the most hated politicians for the upper caste Hindus. It is another matter that the media had no time in reporting about those who loved him and admired him.
V.P.Siingh’s Mandal report changed the polity of India permanently with wide participation of backward communities. It paralysed the Congress Party permanently and yet the party has not yet reconciled to the growing reality of the hunger for participation in power among the marginalized communities. It strengthened the hands of the OBC political groups and brought them together with the Dalits. Unfortunately, V.P.Singh became victim of the identity politics in India. The forces which got benefited with his various schemes actually found their own caste leaders in politics and sided with them without understanding their political opportunism. His support for the cause of Dalits was immense though may not have got acknowledged widely including putting Dr Ambedkar portrait in Parliament, honoring him with Bharat Ratna and finally accepting neo Buddhists to claim reservation under SC category. In fact, the Ambedkar centenary celebrations enjoyed the best hospitality from his government when a large number of Dr Ambedkar’s work was published by the Central government.
V.P.Singh died as unsung hero with media busy with Mumbai’s attack and the people he fought with not much keen on even acknowledging his contribution. It was a painful sight to see just a handful of people at his Teen Murti Lane residence on his last journey in Delhi. While his power politics may have many critique it need to be appreciated that V.P.Singh did mass politics and worked to set people’s agenda. Even if he was continuously in dialysis he would go and express solidarity with various social movements in the country. He did not care for his health when the cause was for the slum dwellers and even slept in the slums of Delhi to protect their rights very unusual for a former prime minister to have been doing so.
While emergency was an event people want to forget and move ahead for the better future of democracy. V.P.Singh’s actions and ideas actually strengthened democracy in India and made it much more participatory when for the first time the marginalized communities saw the real participation in power and now asserting their identities. It is good to assert these identities but at the same point important to acknowledge the contribution of those too who do not happen to come from your caste too. Some people play heroic role for in the social change but do not hail from our communities and it is important we consider them part of our heritage. Emergency made Indira Gandhi a villain for everyone but now the people seem to have ignored that while V.P.Singh for all his honesty and good work is considered as villain just because some of his actions have not gone down well with the upper elite caste forces of the country. It is important for us to learn lessons from both the events of history and move ahead with them that political powers cannot really stop growth of democracy now and with mandalisation process the marginalized communities are now asserting their democratic rights and will not allow anyone to encroach upon their political rights. Hence while emergency threatened the very concept of democracy and weakened it, the work of V.P.Singh has made democracy such a strong entity that it would not be possible for any political leader to become dictator in India by imposing democracy.
His Mandalisation has successfully countered fascist forces in the country and provided space for millions of marginalized people from the country to participate in democracy and strengthen it further. It is ironical that V.P.Singh was on the side of Mrs Indira Gandhi during emergency which many of his colleagues always questioned but there is also a fact of life that people change and that happened with V.P.Singh also when he transformed himself from a staunch Congress loyalist to a great votary of social justice and socialist politics in India. His fight against Rajiv Gandhi’s tyrannical regime in 1986 and then his exemplary work for the rights of marginalized after he demitted his power and possessions after 1990 are great example for politicians of today. Today, V.P.Singh has become more relevant when we see pervading corruption surrounding us but helpless inability of our political class to make it an issue and fight the battle politically so that forces against our democratic process do not hijack the anti corruption mood of the nation. That could only happen when political class fighting against corruption has its own house in order as people inside it with impeccable credentials and honest track record. In the absence of that it will only be the communal forces who would use such unrest to pursue their own agendas. Jai Prakash’s movement legitimized many of them and fight against corruption has also strengthened in the similar way the anti democratic forces. It is time for the forces of social justice to rise up and stop the march of such forces to our power structure. A statesman of V.P.Singh’s stature has the capacity to do so but unfortunately he is not there and his absence from political arena is being felt tremendously because of lack of our political class who could rise above their partisan interest and think for the country.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Human Rights activist Seema Azad's wrongful sentence.
Miscarriage of Justice
Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Human Rights Activists Seema Azad and her husband Vishvavijay have been awarded life imprisonment by a lower court in Allahabad on charges of sedition, waging war against nation under the provision of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The district judge Sunil Kumar Singh also slapped a fine of Rs 70,000 on the couple. It has to be noted that both Seema and Vishwavijay were shown arrested in police record at the Allahabad Railway station when they were returning from Delhi after participating in the World Book Fair on February 6th, 2010 by the Special Task Force. The police had ‘recovered’ ‘offensive’ literature of Mao, Che-Guevara and Lenin from them. According to police they were associated with Communist Party of India (Maoist) which is banned in the country. Since then, all the efforts to get the release by the human rights organizations have failed. Now, this judgment by a lower court has shocked the nation as they are again questioning whether any association if it is with any one makes you criminal. Whether possession of so called ‘banned’ literature is crime? Can the government of India come out clearly what is a ‘banned’ literature?
Hundreds of activists, theatre artists are facing police torture in different jails of India for promoting ‘banned’ literature. They are being charged with ‘war against state’. Even writing an article or doing a fact finding in the forest areas where big companies have ravaged our beautiful forests and suppressed innocent tribal are act of ‘war on nation’. Any protest against the current mode of governance is a war on nation. Seema and Vishwvijay had been scholars at Allahabad University. Both of them were sensitive to the human rights issues of the poor particularly the Dalits and farmers. Seema Azad was the editor of bimonthly magazine ‘Dastak’ which has been publishing reports about land acquisition as well as terror of mining mafia in the Bundelkhand regions particularly adjacent to Allahabad such as Koshambi and Shankargarh. In both these regions, Dalits and the Kol Adivasis are exploited by the stone and quarry mafia and any effort to organize them is met with the severe terror by these mafias. As reported, Vishwavijaya was active in the University politics and ideologically closure to the marginalized communities and their efforts to get justice against exploitation. They investigated many cases and published their fact finding reports. As members of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) they were part of many human rights investigations and protest movements all across the country. They brought out report against the malpractices in the Ganga Express Highway which was displacing thousands of farmers and poor people in Uttar-Pradesh. We all know Ganga is the latest victim of not just mining mafia but ‘developmental terrorists’ too. ‘Dastak’ reported how the Muslim youths in Azamgarh were being branded as ‘terrorist’ by the investigating agencies and their parents were facing allegation and humiliation in public.
The arrest itself was dramatic from the railway station. They were charged for being member of CPI (Maoist) and shown to have possessed Maoist literature. Now the court has found them guilty and pronounced a harsh verdict of life imprisonment and a fine of Rs seventy thousand. The two sensitive souls who dare to write against the state terror are now declared ‘terrorists’ by the court. It is shocking how the lower courts do not even follow the preceding verdict of similar nature in the Binayak Sen Case when the apex court actually suggested that reading any kind of literature is not a crime. The court has also said that even being member of a banned organization does not amount to a crime unless somebody is directly linked with any kind of terror activities. It is unfortunate that the lower courts did not question the police version and went on for harsher punishment without really hearing the other side of the story.
The time for human rights activist is tough as the courts which have always upheld fundamental rights of individuals in the past through their historic judgments are unable to carry the same legacy. Why are the authorities so much worried on our writings even when all of us are expressing nonviolently and arguing for the human rights of the people? Our assemblies and Parliament have number of people who have criminal cases of serious nature against them. They are not simply political cases but related to heinous crime like rapes and murders and yet they become our law makers. In Uttar-Pradesh, Mafias are still enjoying their day as most of them have greater stake in mining, quarrying and other government programmes which are meant to serve the poor. The courts have not covered them with great glory and we have seen person who should have been in the Jail are now ruling the state. It is deeply dissatisfying moments that scholars who defy the popular myths have to face the people’s terror but those who defy the stated position of the state are being targeted in such a way that it would be difficult for ideologically strong people to join the people’s movement. It is shocking that bright young scholars who could have got fanciful job elsewhere decided to devote their lives for the cause of the people and the outcome is disappointing. Rather than appreciating their contribution for the cause of human rights and dignity of the people, an issue which Indian state should have done it long back, and the state apparatus is terrorizing them and branding them with different names.
Can Indian state really challenge the power of ideas? A country where literacy rate is dismal and where the gender discrimination is growing and showing negative growth, sending ideologues to jail will only prove that we are afraid of ideas. The state can accommodate the goons to become political leaders. It can accommodate all kind of people who are not a ‘threat’ to the stated anti people position of the state. All those are in the good books of the state as ‘people’ have ‘elected’ them but ‘writer’ or an ‘activist’ is not ‘elected’ hence you are free to arrest them and humiliate them. It is a great sign of depression. Nothing much will happen if we do not attain 9% growth but more and more writers, activists, film makers face threat from the Indian state for loving freedom and expressing solidarity with those who are victim of ‘developmental terrorism’ and such a situation will send India into real depression. We faced the state repression during emergency in 1975 but what is being seen today is much larger as State is not alone in its activities against people. It is using mass media and ‘developmental’ agencies against ‘people’s voices. It is justifying its misdeeds in the name of ‘democracy’ where ‘majoritarian’ voices even if they are wrong, have to be ‘respected. That is why, despite cry of Bastar’s tribal or Kudankulan’s people to save their lives, the Indian state and its middle classes still talk about ‘nation building’ even when the cost of human lives is too high in the affected regions.
A few months ago, we all showed our solidarity with Salman Rushdie when he was wrongly denied visit to Jaipur Book Festival as his visit would cause ‘law and order problem’. We all know why Rushdie is an unwanted man in India despite being citizen of this country. We felt that as a writer he has a right to speak and his freedom of expression must be respected. Our media and their loudspeakers continued for days for the freedom of expression hounding Muslims as if all other religious minds respect that freedom. People like us supported Rushdie’s right to express his views despite our differences of his depiction of Islam. But what is most unfortunate is that this freedom of expression is reserved for the power elite of this country and therefore there would not be such special shows on our mainstream programmes and newspapers which condemn the illegal arrest and detention of Seema Azad. How can you deny me my write to read something? Should the state has the power what I should read and what not? If reading Maoist literature is a crime then this crime is being committed by millions of Indians and let the government send all of them to jail. Government must act on the things where it is wanted to work and not to decide about our choices to read or write.
The threat to freedom of expression in India is real particularly if you are speaking against the stated policies of the state which have a near ‘unanimity’ among political parties. Of course, we will have to think whether Indian people are only represented by political parties or are there other elements also who represent people. But as a writer and activist and not claiming to speak on anybody’s behalf, I would like to state that has not freedom to read and write come with my fundamental right and it is not necessary for me to justify my writing and speeches as how many people read it or like it. It is time for us to respect international covenants and human rights laws so that we really become a society which respects freedom to read and write despite political and ideological differences. Let the government of India respect of fundamental rights and not afraid of our ideas to serve our people. The essence of a true democracy is in respecting the dissenting voices and trying to integrate them by accepting their viewpoints too. All those dissenters who are writing are not asking anything for themselves. They too have worked tirelessly for the people and it would not bring any glory to Indian democracy if we continue to treat our dissenters as terrorists. We hope the higher courts will rectify the error committed by the lower court by releasing Seema and Vishwavijay unconditionally as well as honorably.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Human Rights Activists Seema Azad and her husband Vishvavijay have been awarded life imprisonment by a lower court in Allahabad on charges of sedition, waging war against nation under the provision of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The district judge Sunil Kumar Singh also slapped a fine of Rs 70,000 on the couple. It has to be noted that both Seema and Vishwavijay were shown arrested in police record at the Allahabad Railway station when they were returning from Delhi after participating in the World Book Fair on February 6th, 2010 by the Special Task Force. The police had ‘recovered’ ‘offensive’ literature of Mao, Che-Guevara and Lenin from them. According to police they were associated with Communist Party of India (Maoist) which is banned in the country. Since then, all the efforts to get the release by the human rights organizations have failed. Now, this judgment by a lower court has shocked the nation as they are again questioning whether any association if it is with any one makes you criminal. Whether possession of so called ‘banned’ literature is crime? Can the government of India come out clearly what is a ‘banned’ literature?
Hundreds of activists, theatre artists are facing police torture in different jails of India for promoting ‘banned’ literature. They are being charged with ‘war against state’. Even writing an article or doing a fact finding in the forest areas where big companies have ravaged our beautiful forests and suppressed innocent tribal are act of ‘war on nation’. Any protest against the current mode of governance is a war on nation. Seema and Vishwvijay had been scholars at Allahabad University. Both of them were sensitive to the human rights issues of the poor particularly the Dalits and farmers. Seema Azad was the editor of bimonthly magazine ‘Dastak’ which has been publishing reports about land acquisition as well as terror of mining mafia in the Bundelkhand regions particularly adjacent to Allahabad such as Koshambi and Shankargarh. In both these regions, Dalits and the Kol Adivasis are exploited by the stone and quarry mafia and any effort to organize them is met with the severe terror by these mafias. As reported, Vishwavijaya was active in the University politics and ideologically closure to the marginalized communities and their efforts to get justice against exploitation. They investigated many cases and published their fact finding reports. As members of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) they were part of many human rights investigations and protest movements all across the country. They brought out report against the malpractices in the Ganga Express Highway which was displacing thousands of farmers and poor people in Uttar-Pradesh. We all know Ganga is the latest victim of not just mining mafia but ‘developmental terrorists’ too. ‘Dastak’ reported how the Muslim youths in Azamgarh were being branded as ‘terrorist’ by the investigating agencies and their parents were facing allegation and humiliation in public.
The arrest itself was dramatic from the railway station. They were charged for being member of CPI (Maoist) and shown to have possessed Maoist literature. Now the court has found them guilty and pronounced a harsh verdict of life imprisonment and a fine of Rs seventy thousand. The two sensitive souls who dare to write against the state terror are now declared ‘terrorists’ by the court. It is shocking how the lower courts do not even follow the preceding verdict of similar nature in the Binayak Sen Case when the apex court actually suggested that reading any kind of literature is not a crime. The court has also said that even being member of a banned organization does not amount to a crime unless somebody is directly linked with any kind of terror activities. It is unfortunate that the lower courts did not question the police version and went on for harsher punishment without really hearing the other side of the story.
The time for human rights activist is tough as the courts which have always upheld fundamental rights of individuals in the past through their historic judgments are unable to carry the same legacy. Why are the authorities so much worried on our writings even when all of us are expressing nonviolently and arguing for the human rights of the people? Our assemblies and Parliament have number of people who have criminal cases of serious nature against them. They are not simply political cases but related to heinous crime like rapes and murders and yet they become our law makers. In Uttar-Pradesh, Mafias are still enjoying their day as most of them have greater stake in mining, quarrying and other government programmes which are meant to serve the poor. The courts have not covered them with great glory and we have seen person who should have been in the Jail are now ruling the state. It is deeply dissatisfying moments that scholars who defy the popular myths have to face the people’s terror but those who defy the stated position of the state are being targeted in such a way that it would be difficult for ideologically strong people to join the people’s movement. It is shocking that bright young scholars who could have got fanciful job elsewhere decided to devote their lives for the cause of the people and the outcome is disappointing. Rather than appreciating their contribution for the cause of human rights and dignity of the people, an issue which Indian state should have done it long back, and the state apparatus is terrorizing them and branding them with different names.
Can Indian state really challenge the power of ideas? A country where literacy rate is dismal and where the gender discrimination is growing and showing negative growth, sending ideologues to jail will only prove that we are afraid of ideas. The state can accommodate the goons to become political leaders. It can accommodate all kind of people who are not a ‘threat’ to the stated anti people position of the state. All those are in the good books of the state as ‘people’ have ‘elected’ them but ‘writer’ or an ‘activist’ is not ‘elected’ hence you are free to arrest them and humiliate them. It is a great sign of depression. Nothing much will happen if we do not attain 9% growth but more and more writers, activists, film makers face threat from the Indian state for loving freedom and expressing solidarity with those who are victim of ‘developmental terrorism’ and such a situation will send India into real depression. We faced the state repression during emergency in 1975 but what is being seen today is much larger as State is not alone in its activities against people. It is using mass media and ‘developmental’ agencies against ‘people’s voices. It is justifying its misdeeds in the name of ‘democracy’ where ‘majoritarian’ voices even if they are wrong, have to be ‘respected. That is why, despite cry of Bastar’s tribal or Kudankulan’s people to save their lives, the Indian state and its middle classes still talk about ‘nation building’ even when the cost of human lives is too high in the affected regions.
A few months ago, we all showed our solidarity with Salman Rushdie when he was wrongly denied visit to Jaipur Book Festival as his visit would cause ‘law and order problem’. We all know why Rushdie is an unwanted man in India despite being citizen of this country. We felt that as a writer he has a right to speak and his freedom of expression must be respected. Our media and their loudspeakers continued for days for the freedom of expression hounding Muslims as if all other religious minds respect that freedom. People like us supported Rushdie’s right to express his views despite our differences of his depiction of Islam. But what is most unfortunate is that this freedom of expression is reserved for the power elite of this country and therefore there would not be such special shows on our mainstream programmes and newspapers which condemn the illegal arrest and detention of Seema Azad. How can you deny me my write to read something? Should the state has the power what I should read and what not? If reading Maoist literature is a crime then this crime is being committed by millions of Indians and let the government send all of them to jail. Government must act on the things where it is wanted to work and not to decide about our choices to read or write.
The threat to freedom of expression in India is real particularly if you are speaking against the stated policies of the state which have a near ‘unanimity’ among political parties. Of course, we will have to think whether Indian people are only represented by political parties or are there other elements also who represent people. But as a writer and activist and not claiming to speak on anybody’s behalf, I would like to state that has not freedom to read and write come with my fundamental right and it is not necessary for me to justify my writing and speeches as how many people read it or like it. It is time for us to respect international covenants and human rights laws so that we really become a society which respects freedom to read and write despite political and ideological differences. Let the government of India respect of fundamental rights and not afraid of our ideas to serve our people. The essence of a true democracy is in respecting the dissenting voices and trying to integrate them by accepting their viewpoints too. All those dissenters who are writing are not asking anything for themselves. They too have worked tirelessly for the people and it would not bring any glory to Indian democracy if we continue to treat our dissenters as terrorists. We hope the higher courts will rectify the error committed by the lower court by releasing Seema and Vishwavijay unconditionally as well as honorably.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
'Greatest Indian'...
The Politics of the ‘greatest’ Indian
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Indian’s have always been fascinated in comparing people and using the best available adjectives for their favorite leaders and sports stars. It is unknown to us to respect the diversity of these people and understand that each one of the leaders had their own qualities which influenced us. It is also important to understand that different political leaders and sports persons were born in different era and had different sets of challenges before them hence a comparison cannot be made. Of course, it is important that when we do such surveys, we keep in mind growing realities of the time and their relationships with the people. The fact is that, you would find it difficult to vote for a writer or a philosopher as the ‘greatest Indian in this age when Saas Bahu serial are so powerful that an Smriti Irani could find way for the ‘greatest’ Indian slot than a writer who might have influenced our thoughts. It might also be possible that a Cricket Star or a Film star may get more votes than many of the personalities who dedicated their lives for the nation building.
There is no problem in organizing such contests as they help the TV channels linked with various sections of people and at the end work towards increasing their TRPs. However, the manner in which some of these channels have done their surveys makes everything laughable. We have to also understand, can we make people ‘greatest’ by just a few votes online. For example, a recent survey on greatest Indian Bollywood Star reveal that Shahrukh khan was the ‘greatest’ Indian film star of the film Industry at No 1, followed by Amir Khan and then Salman Khan. Amitabh Bachchan came at no 4, while Dilip Kumar at No 5. The greatest showman of India and arguably the first Indian International Star Raj Kapoor fell at no 14. Now, anyone who knows films in India will laugh at this whole drama of greatest Indian film star. Is Shahrukh Khan the best and most popular Indian film star even today leave aside the claims of the ‘greatest’ in last one hundred years. For voting on these things impartially, one will have to understand the work of all the people who have been posted for the slot. If you do not know about the era of Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, and Devanand then how would one comment on their film making. Can anyone speak of Indian cinema if does not know about Guru Dutt, Kamal Amrohi or Sanjeev Kumar? Why do our channels make joke of themselves. If cricketers are to be voted, then definitely Sachin Tendulkar will get such a support that none will come close to him but after 5 years, when Sachin would be out of the game, one should not be surprised hearing Virendra Sehwag, the greatest Indian. Not long ago when Virendra Sehwag broke record of Pankaj Roy in the first class cricket and he was informed about the same, he was not amused as he did not ever hear of Pankaj Roy. The greatest problems with Indians are their understanding of history which is very limited. So, the present day boys would not even know in what circumstances Tiger Pataudi played or how wonderful was to see Gundappa Vishwnath in full flow or how Chandrashekhar used to bowl. This generation, clearly cut from the past, end up with the latest players and their best revolve round them. We, as a nation, have no sense of history in any stream. That is why these polls are farcical and cannot decide about the greatness. You cannot decide who is great and who is not based on these surveys. The problem with such a poll is that they are unscientific and are meant to promote certain individuals and provide legitimacy to them for fixing the agendas of the nation.
Now, we are hearing about the ‘greatest’ Indian and that include people from different streams. So, you have so many people in the list including businessmen, cricketers, film stars, and off course, political leaders of different variety except for Mahatma Gandhi who we have already anointed as ‘greatest’ Indian. Why and how come Gandhi has been declared as India’s ‘greatest’. Which survey or referendum is making Gandhi the ‘greatest’. When you are putting Gandhi’s contemporaries on the poll, why Gandhi was left aside? Was it a fear that Gandhi might be defeated in the online survey and that would expose all the hollowness of Gandhian greatness? It is a very smart move by the channel to save them from the wrath of the government who might feel offended with any reference to Gandhi.
The interesting part of the online poll is the hollowness of the idea itself. Now among Jawahar Lal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad, Rajendra Prasad and Mahatma Gandhi the poll is easier and undoubtedly Gandhi will be the greatest Indian and you can always claim who is the next one after Gandhi if we have to discuss among ourselves. But when there are diverse issues and history is being reevaluated with Gandhi and Congress party’s role being scrutinized in a more scientific way then it was done earlier, a poll who is greatest Indian after Gandhi is a betrayal of the sentiments of the country as we would like to ask when was the survey for ‘greatest’ Indian ever done and who got what? The greatest Indian need contemporariness and cannot be found which look like a match fixing event. Definitely, it could be the person who influenced India or maximum number of Indians. Now, if we say, Gandhi influenced our psyche the most, then we must analyze what is that point of Gandhi that influenced us and where do we stand. Just by voting who is the ‘greatest’ by random online voting will not change the realities of our life.
Our question is not that channel should not do it. They should do it and sit and analyze it. But why who is greatest Indian after Gandhi when we are talking about the contemporaries of Gandhi himself. During his life time, Gandhi was projected to be the greatest among the upper caste Hindus. Definitely, any poll would have left Jinnah on the support of the Muslim votes only and Ambedkar did not have a possibility of winning the poll that time as the Dalits had not come to the age as middle classes. If you opt for a referendum today in India about the greatest Indian, Gandhi may not get that walk over as our people think and Ambedkar may easily push him down. The editors can depute their reporters on four important days and find how people celebrate them. Yes, depute your reporter on October 2nd or January 30th which are Gandhi’s birthday and the day he was shot by Nathu Ram Godse. Find, how many people attended the programme and whether these programmes were government sponsored or self sponsored. Let us also depute our reporters on April 14th and December 6th, the day of Ambedkar’s birth and when he passed away respectively. And you will realize who influenced India the most and who is the greatest.
Let us not forget that this is growing Ambedkar era with rising Dalits sentiments which were never ever accepted and respected during Congress lead freedom movement when Gandhi was at the helm of affairs. That time, the Dalits were just marginalized and their voices were drowned in the upper caste hatred, contempt and anger. Today, things have changed. Despite efforts by the power elite to deny Dalits their history and glory, they have traced their history and did not depend on what the upper caste intellectuals have been projecting them about the greatness of others. Ambedkar remained the tallest and unquestionable the greatest icon for the Dalits who changed their lives. There is no other thought and no second person who can come near him. That is why the Dalits feel hurt when the poll suggests the ‘greatest’ Indian after Gandhi. None of them would ever accept Gandhi as ‘greatest’ Indian.
It is a very questionable motive to start the online poll as who is the ‘greatest’ Indian after Gandhi. Perhaps, they had feared it in advance that Ambedkar can easily over take Gandhi in these voting as with growing number of Dalit middle classes online users whose life was vastly influenced by Dr Ambedkar will never settle for anything less than the greatest. India is a subcontinent and it would be difficult to decide about such things as the ‘greatest’. The greatest of the upper castes may not be the greatest for the Dalits and other marginalized communities. If ‘greatest’ has to be done through the referendum then the government must come out with a referendum as who are the greatest. Let these TV channels not play politics with people’s sentiments. India cannot have ‘greatest’ Indian after Gandhi when we have engaged contemporaries of Gandhi who differed with him sharply and never ever called him a Mahatma leave alone the ‘greatest’. It is time when we evaluate our people impartially and agree that there were weaknesses in them and they too made mistakes. The business of ‘greatest’ Indian must stop as it exploit the sentiments of the people and do not allow them to think rationally that all these ‘greatest’ people were human being and acted according to situation that time and made mistakes too.
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Indian’s have always been fascinated in comparing people and using the best available adjectives for their favorite leaders and sports stars. It is unknown to us to respect the diversity of these people and understand that each one of the leaders had their own qualities which influenced us. It is also important to understand that different political leaders and sports persons were born in different era and had different sets of challenges before them hence a comparison cannot be made. Of course, it is important that when we do such surveys, we keep in mind growing realities of the time and their relationships with the people. The fact is that, you would find it difficult to vote for a writer or a philosopher as the ‘greatest Indian in this age when Saas Bahu serial are so powerful that an Smriti Irani could find way for the ‘greatest’ Indian slot than a writer who might have influenced our thoughts. It might also be possible that a Cricket Star or a Film star may get more votes than many of the personalities who dedicated their lives for the nation building.
There is no problem in organizing such contests as they help the TV channels linked with various sections of people and at the end work towards increasing their TRPs. However, the manner in which some of these channels have done their surveys makes everything laughable. We have to also understand, can we make people ‘greatest’ by just a few votes online. For example, a recent survey on greatest Indian Bollywood Star reveal that Shahrukh khan was the ‘greatest’ Indian film star of the film Industry at No 1, followed by Amir Khan and then Salman Khan. Amitabh Bachchan came at no 4, while Dilip Kumar at No 5. The greatest showman of India and arguably the first Indian International Star Raj Kapoor fell at no 14. Now, anyone who knows films in India will laugh at this whole drama of greatest Indian film star. Is Shahrukh Khan the best and most popular Indian film star even today leave aside the claims of the ‘greatest’ in last one hundred years. For voting on these things impartially, one will have to understand the work of all the people who have been posted for the slot. If you do not know about the era of Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, and Devanand then how would one comment on their film making. Can anyone speak of Indian cinema if does not know about Guru Dutt, Kamal Amrohi or Sanjeev Kumar? Why do our channels make joke of themselves. If cricketers are to be voted, then definitely Sachin Tendulkar will get such a support that none will come close to him but after 5 years, when Sachin would be out of the game, one should not be surprised hearing Virendra Sehwag, the greatest Indian. Not long ago when Virendra Sehwag broke record of Pankaj Roy in the first class cricket and he was informed about the same, he was not amused as he did not ever hear of Pankaj Roy. The greatest problems with Indians are their understanding of history which is very limited. So, the present day boys would not even know in what circumstances Tiger Pataudi played or how wonderful was to see Gundappa Vishwnath in full flow or how Chandrashekhar used to bowl. This generation, clearly cut from the past, end up with the latest players and their best revolve round them. We, as a nation, have no sense of history in any stream. That is why these polls are farcical and cannot decide about the greatness. You cannot decide who is great and who is not based on these surveys. The problem with such a poll is that they are unscientific and are meant to promote certain individuals and provide legitimacy to them for fixing the agendas of the nation.
Now, we are hearing about the ‘greatest’ Indian and that include people from different streams. So, you have so many people in the list including businessmen, cricketers, film stars, and off course, political leaders of different variety except for Mahatma Gandhi who we have already anointed as ‘greatest’ Indian. Why and how come Gandhi has been declared as India’s ‘greatest’. Which survey or referendum is making Gandhi the ‘greatest’. When you are putting Gandhi’s contemporaries on the poll, why Gandhi was left aside? Was it a fear that Gandhi might be defeated in the online survey and that would expose all the hollowness of Gandhian greatness? It is a very smart move by the channel to save them from the wrath of the government who might feel offended with any reference to Gandhi.
The interesting part of the online poll is the hollowness of the idea itself. Now among Jawahar Lal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad, Rajendra Prasad and Mahatma Gandhi the poll is easier and undoubtedly Gandhi will be the greatest Indian and you can always claim who is the next one after Gandhi if we have to discuss among ourselves. But when there are diverse issues and history is being reevaluated with Gandhi and Congress party’s role being scrutinized in a more scientific way then it was done earlier, a poll who is greatest Indian after Gandhi is a betrayal of the sentiments of the country as we would like to ask when was the survey for ‘greatest’ Indian ever done and who got what? The greatest Indian need contemporariness and cannot be found which look like a match fixing event. Definitely, it could be the person who influenced India or maximum number of Indians. Now, if we say, Gandhi influenced our psyche the most, then we must analyze what is that point of Gandhi that influenced us and where do we stand. Just by voting who is the ‘greatest’ by random online voting will not change the realities of our life.
Our question is not that channel should not do it. They should do it and sit and analyze it. But why who is greatest Indian after Gandhi when we are talking about the contemporaries of Gandhi himself. During his life time, Gandhi was projected to be the greatest among the upper caste Hindus. Definitely, any poll would have left Jinnah on the support of the Muslim votes only and Ambedkar did not have a possibility of winning the poll that time as the Dalits had not come to the age as middle classes. If you opt for a referendum today in India about the greatest Indian, Gandhi may not get that walk over as our people think and Ambedkar may easily push him down. The editors can depute their reporters on four important days and find how people celebrate them. Yes, depute your reporter on October 2nd or January 30th which are Gandhi’s birthday and the day he was shot by Nathu Ram Godse. Find, how many people attended the programme and whether these programmes were government sponsored or self sponsored. Let us also depute our reporters on April 14th and December 6th, the day of Ambedkar’s birth and when he passed away respectively. And you will realize who influenced India the most and who is the greatest.
Let us not forget that this is growing Ambedkar era with rising Dalits sentiments which were never ever accepted and respected during Congress lead freedom movement when Gandhi was at the helm of affairs. That time, the Dalits were just marginalized and their voices were drowned in the upper caste hatred, contempt and anger. Today, things have changed. Despite efforts by the power elite to deny Dalits their history and glory, they have traced their history and did not depend on what the upper caste intellectuals have been projecting them about the greatness of others. Ambedkar remained the tallest and unquestionable the greatest icon for the Dalits who changed their lives. There is no other thought and no second person who can come near him. That is why the Dalits feel hurt when the poll suggests the ‘greatest’ Indian after Gandhi. None of them would ever accept Gandhi as ‘greatest’ Indian.
It is a very questionable motive to start the online poll as who is the ‘greatest’ Indian after Gandhi. Perhaps, they had feared it in advance that Ambedkar can easily over take Gandhi in these voting as with growing number of Dalit middle classes online users whose life was vastly influenced by Dr Ambedkar will never settle for anything less than the greatest. India is a subcontinent and it would be difficult to decide about such things as the ‘greatest’. The greatest of the upper castes may not be the greatest for the Dalits and other marginalized communities. If ‘greatest’ has to be done through the referendum then the government must come out with a referendum as who are the greatest. Let these TV channels not play politics with people’s sentiments. India cannot have ‘greatest’ Indian after Gandhi when we have engaged contemporaries of Gandhi who differed with him sharply and never ever called him a Mahatma leave alone the ‘greatest’. It is time when we evaluate our people impartially and agree that there were weaknesses in them and they too made mistakes. The business of ‘greatest’ Indian must stop as it exploit the sentiments of the people and do not allow them to think rationally that all these ‘greatest’ people were human being and acted according to situation that time and made mistakes too.
Friday, June 08, 2012
Civil Laws verses Personal Laws
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Delhi High Court has held that a marriage of minor (Muslim) is valid even if she is under age but has attained puberty. A bench of Justice Ravindra Bhatt and Justice S.P.Garg said that ‘according to Mohamadan Law, a girl can marry without the consent of her parents once she attains the age of puberty and she has the right to reside with her husband even if she is below the age of 18.’ The girl in question was 15 years of age and had married to a person of her choice. Her parents filed a case in the Delhi High Court citing that the girl was minor and parents were still the legal guardian of her. The court has rejected the parent’s petition and allowed the girl to stay with her husband.
The judgment can be interpreted in many ways including right to privacy and freedom of choice. The court has respected girl’s right to choice. It has accepted albeit indirectly that age for consensual sex could be below 18 if the girl attained puberty. In other way, the judges suggest that a Muslim girl attaining puberty can have consensual sex even if she is below 18 which is legally defined age for consensual sex in our laws. It is clear that the court have accepted the supremacy of the Personal Laws and used it to give protection to the girl. Problem is that the same yard stick may not be applied to a girl from other religion. What will happen if the lovers are from two different religions and have gone for civil marriage and the age of the girl is 15. Will the ‘consensual sex’ not become rape even if she has attained puberty?
The Parliament has recently passed The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 which defines a child as any person below the age of 18 years and provides protection to all children under the age of 18 years from the offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography. Accordingly, the Act has strengthened our resolve to fight against Child Sexual Abuse.
Punishments for Offences covered in the Act are:
• Penetrative Sexual Assault (Section 3) – Not less than seven years which may extend to imprisonment for life, and fine (Section 4)
• Aggravated Penetrative Sexual Assault (Section 5) –¬ Not less than ten years which may extend to imprisonment for life, and fine (Section 6)
• Sexual Assault (Section 7) – Not less than three years which may extend to five years, and fine (Section 8)
• Aggravated Sexual Assault (Section 9) – Not less than five years which may extend to seven years, and fine (Section 10)
• Sexual Harassment of the Child (Section 11) – Three years and fine (Section 12)
• Use of Child for Pornographic Purposes (Section 13) – Five years and fine and in the event of subsequent conviction, seven years and fine (Section 14 (1))
Now the question is why the civil courts are using personal laws in their jurisdiction when their duty is to interpret the constitutional laws. If we accept the supremacy of our constitutional provisions then all other laws of the country including personal laws, must be subordinate to our civil laws. And this must come strongly in the judgments. Unfortunately, the Judges have been using these religious moralities to explain or strengthen their arguments which seem to be quite dangerous. The Court’s should not ignore the historic judgment that Supreme Court had given in the Shabano case about 25 years back which virtually challenged the supremacy of the Muslim Personal Laws which were adamant against a divorce woman getting any alimony. It is a landmark judgment with an equally retrogressive move by Indian Parliament to undo it when Rajiv Gandhi was compelled by the Muslim fundamentalists to do so. According to them, no law of the land is above the Muslim Personal Law and hence the government must respect these personal laws.
Over the years, we have seen that Sharia Courts have been established in different parts of the country which provide instant justice to Muslim families who go there. They are primitive in nature and their judgments mostly are absurd to say the least. These Sharia Courts give the clergy a leverage to control and direct the community and decide about their fate. Deeply rooted in traditional prejudices, these courts are openly anti women and have always justified their act in the religious terms. Muslim women who are victim of these courts are now challenging them and approaching the civil courts where they have often got justice.
There is no doubt that Delhi High Court has rescued the girl who might have married to her lover out of her own choice. That that a teenage girl is capable of making her choice related to her partner must be respected. It is also a fact that most of the parents who are unhappy with their children’s love relationships actually file cases of abduction and kidnapping on the boy. Most of the time, the police use this tool brutally to exploit both the families. If the boys’ family is unable to pay to the police then he is tortured and the family faces the wrath of all. Hence, as a judgment it need to be respected but the point of danger is that it is a communal judgment as it is applicable to one community only. The courts should not give judgments which are communal in nature. Their judgments should be useful for all the citizens of the country irrespective of their caste, color, religion and region as people look forward to these judgments for their benefit. Unfortunately, the Delhi High Court’s judgment is bound to create disharmony among people and will strengthen the supremacy of religious values. It is the duty of the court to encourage the values of the modern democratic traditions of equality, liberty and fraternity on which our constitution has been founded. Our constitutional provision and civil laws must supersede all the existing religious laws in the country so that each one of its citizen get justice according to our modern laws. It is the duty of the Court’s to see whether the interpretation of religious texts violate of the constitutional provisions in our laws. The court will have to stand up for our secular constitution which should be equal for all. Our laws cannot be interpreted in different ways for different communities particularly in an issue like sex and marriages. The Judgment will virtually make Child Protection Act 2012 invalid for the Muslim Children in the country who face a lot of victimization and sexual abuse like children for other communities and need strong legal protection.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Is there untouchability in Sri Lanka
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Sri Lanka’s mainland has returned to normalcy after decades of war in that country. It was the period when all the issues of social concern actually got sidelined in the bigger issues of ethnic nationalist identities. Unlike India, where the caste identities are very sharp and movement against brahmanical domination has reached to a new level, in Sri Lanka, the impact of Buddhism as well as Brahmanism are visible parallel in two distinct cultural identities called Sinhalese who practice Buddhism and Tamils who claims to be Hindus. Most of the mainland people converted to Therveda Buddhism which is also known as Hinayana in the third century BC.
It is not unknown fact that untouchability is a ‘gift’ to humanity by the ‘varnashram dharma’ popularly known as Brahmanism or Hinduism in India. Those of us who felt that it disappear once you converted to other religions or migrate to other countries should be surprised to see the prevalence of it outside India, particularly in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Of course, it is also a reality that while in Nepal it is too powerful as it remained a Hindu Monarchy state till a few years back where brahamnical rulers did everything to maintain status quo in favor of the brahmanical castes however in Pakistan and Bangladesh it is practiced with in the Hindu society which means wherever the popular way of life is not the brahmanical Hinduism, the impact of untouchability or caste system might not have been completely eliminated but definitely reduced though the governments there did not provide any legal protections to the untouchables just in the name of protection of minority rights as all of them were clubbed together in the Hindu category. In this context, Sri Lanka is the best example of the negligible impact of untouchability and caste system in their national lives.
On my recent visit to Sri Lanka, it was important for me to understand the dynamics of untouchability or caste system in that country which we all look upon as a Buddhist nation though in the post British colonial period the country is marred in ethnic violence and complete distrust between the major ethnic groups of Tamils and Sinhalese. Walking through the streets of Colombo and other regions, one does not find stream of beggars and people living in extreme poverty which are very much visible in the other countries of South Asia. In fact, the railway stations and airport normally in South Asia are preceded by millions of squatters and their filthy unthinkable living hell but in Sri Lanka they remain clean and better governed. While it would be untrue to say that I did not find people cleaning the street or the small roadside shops of shoemakers but the truth was also that they were nominal in number and secondly most of them never looked isolated and do not really have the caste attachment to their work. On the Vaishakh Poornima day, which is basically known as Buddha Poornima in India, SriLanka celebrate with great joy and thank giving when people not only have mass lunch programme but also share with others. My host wanted to distribute 25 packets of lunch to street people and it took us driving several kilometers to be able to give the food to different people. I do not know what the poverty ratio in Sri Lanka is but it is definitely not as chronic as exist elsewhere including India. The fact is that, to a large extent, the influence of Buddhism has vanished untouchability as well as caste system from Sri Lankan society. It is clear that though different Sinhalese groups may have distinct ethnic identities and may be marrying among those distinct identities yet there is no graded inequality among them as exist among the Hindus which has provided both untouchability and caste system a divine sanctity. Untouchability is not practiced among them. Most of the intellectuals as well as social activists that I met during this trip to Sri Lanka mentioned that it is the influence of Buddhism which has given them new identity and democratize socially a culture which suffered from the disabilities of caste system and untouchability.
Human rights organisations talk of an untouchable community named as Rodi which too is not visible very much. This community was engaged in various kind of menial work including manual scavenging but that too is does not exist in Sri Lanka. Moreover, there is an interesting story to Rodi’s becoming untouchable or lowest of the low in the caste hierarchy. Rodi legend suggests that they are descended from Ratnavalli who was the daughter of King Parakrama Bahu in the 12th century. Ratnawalli was also known as Navratna Valli. The historical background was recorded by a British civil servant Hugh Nevill about a century back.
It was found that Navaratna Valli had developed longing for human flesh which was being brought to her by Veddha hunter. The Veddha accordingly waylaid youths in the woods, and disposed of their flesh to the royal kitchen. The whole country was terrified by the constant disappearance of youths and maidens. When the king knew about this incident, he stripped his daughter of all the royal linkages and got her married to a scavenger community person compelling her to make her living from menial work such as sweeping the streets and cleaning.
Many of the intellectuals feel that Rodis that way is only a class factor as its lineages are definitely linked to royal family of the past and hence it cannot be attributed to caste system. That the king got his daughter married to the boy from this community even as a punishment may reflect that caste might not have mattered that much during those days.
The fact is that among the Sinhalese the caste system is actually not as pervert as it persists among the Tamils. Like any other country, Srilankan Buddhist society is also becoming class conscious. But it is equally important to analyse and understand the crisis of ethnic identities of Tamils and Sinhalese. It is also important for us to understand the Sri Lankan ethnic crisis from the caste angle and spread of Buddhism in the region resisted by the brahmaical Hindus represented by the Tamils who practiced caste system and untouchability in the worst form.
During the colonial period the British brought people from Southern India particularly poor Tamils, a majority of who belong to Dalit community, to work in the tea plantation estates. They got settled in Jaffna and other northern provinces. Later many of them were brought to up hills in Nuwara Eliya area about 70 kilometer away from Kandy in the huge tea estates. Their conditions were dismal and never a concern for the upper caste brahmanical leadership of Tamils who treated them as refugees and practiced untouchability with them. Even today, the condition of tea plantation workers in Jaffna and in the north is a matter of great concern. The interesting point is that the political leadership of the Tamils in Sri Lanka always came from the power elite of Tamil predominantly Brahmins from the mainland of Sri Lanka. The issue of Tamil Elam matter little for those who were fighting for their survival in the tea estates in the Northern Province of Jaffna. According to sources, the inter caste marriages are impossible and migrated Tamils from India, mostly low caste remain isolated and unwanted in the region. It is also a fact that as a leader V.Prabhakaran of the LTTE was not accepted as genuine representative of Tamils by leaders of major Tamil parties in Sri Lanka who actually hail from mainland in Colombo and the surrounding areas. The reason for this might also have been his low caste background. Though, unfortunately at the end, LTTE became ruthless and eliminated all those who came in its way. It is also true that the same LTTE had little concern about the caste issues in the region.
A fairly large number of the Dalits migrated from Tamilnadu are working as tea plantation workers in the Tea estates developed by the British in the hilly areas of Sri Lanka. Their conditions are not great and had never been a matter of concern for the political parties in Sri lanka. The high caste Tamils rarely raise their issues or mingle with them. In the din of the Tamil nationalism, the issue of the Dalits has been relegated to nothing as if they do not exist or face any caste discrimination. It also need to be understood in India that the battle for a separate Elam of Tamil Nation has nothing to do with the issue of Dalits or social justice unlike Tamilnadu where the anti caste movement actually dethroned the brahmanical forces from the state. The dominance of backward classes in Tamilnadu is the sign of strength of Periyarist movement in Tamilnadu though it is also a fact that the same movement could not really bring Dalits in its fold. But the situation in Sri Lanka is sharply different and that have nothing to do with the social justice movement in Tamilnadu. The Tamil identity is being constructed as unified without addressing the issue of the plantation workers. Culturally, the Buddhist temples are being countered with huge Hindu temples with active cooperation and support of the Tamil Brahmins. This has given a fertile ground for regrouping of the Hindu right wing forces in Sri Lanka.
One sincerely hope that one day the issue of Dalits in Sri Lanka will get international recognition and they will get fair deal in the administration. Hopefully, the Tamil groups which are highlighting the issue of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Sri Lanka will also be able to highlight the issue of isolation and ostracisation of migrated Dalits from Tamilnadu, a majority of those working in Tea Estates both in the high lands as well as northern province of Jaffna. Sri Lankan government must acknowledge this and start providing legal protection and support to Dalits in that country so that they too participate in the nation building process.
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Sri Lanka’s mainland has returned to normalcy after decades of war in that country. It was the period when all the issues of social concern actually got sidelined in the bigger issues of ethnic nationalist identities. Unlike India, where the caste identities are very sharp and movement against brahmanical domination has reached to a new level, in Sri Lanka, the impact of Buddhism as well as Brahmanism are visible parallel in two distinct cultural identities called Sinhalese who practice Buddhism and Tamils who claims to be Hindus. Most of the mainland people converted to Therveda Buddhism which is also known as Hinayana in the third century BC.
It is not unknown fact that untouchability is a ‘gift’ to humanity by the ‘varnashram dharma’ popularly known as Brahmanism or Hinduism in India. Those of us who felt that it disappear once you converted to other religions or migrate to other countries should be surprised to see the prevalence of it outside India, particularly in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Of course, it is also a reality that while in Nepal it is too powerful as it remained a Hindu Monarchy state till a few years back where brahamnical rulers did everything to maintain status quo in favor of the brahmanical castes however in Pakistan and Bangladesh it is practiced with in the Hindu society which means wherever the popular way of life is not the brahmanical Hinduism, the impact of untouchability or caste system might not have been completely eliminated but definitely reduced though the governments there did not provide any legal protections to the untouchables just in the name of protection of minority rights as all of them were clubbed together in the Hindu category. In this context, Sri Lanka is the best example of the negligible impact of untouchability and caste system in their national lives.
On my recent visit to Sri Lanka, it was important for me to understand the dynamics of untouchability or caste system in that country which we all look upon as a Buddhist nation though in the post British colonial period the country is marred in ethnic violence and complete distrust between the major ethnic groups of Tamils and Sinhalese. Walking through the streets of Colombo and other regions, one does not find stream of beggars and people living in extreme poverty which are very much visible in the other countries of South Asia. In fact, the railway stations and airport normally in South Asia are preceded by millions of squatters and their filthy unthinkable living hell but in Sri Lanka they remain clean and better governed. While it would be untrue to say that I did not find people cleaning the street or the small roadside shops of shoemakers but the truth was also that they were nominal in number and secondly most of them never looked isolated and do not really have the caste attachment to their work. On the Vaishakh Poornima day, which is basically known as Buddha Poornima in India, SriLanka celebrate with great joy and thank giving when people not only have mass lunch programme but also share with others. My host wanted to distribute 25 packets of lunch to street people and it took us driving several kilometers to be able to give the food to different people. I do not know what the poverty ratio in Sri Lanka is but it is definitely not as chronic as exist elsewhere including India. The fact is that, to a large extent, the influence of Buddhism has vanished untouchability as well as caste system from Sri Lankan society. It is clear that though different Sinhalese groups may have distinct ethnic identities and may be marrying among those distinct identities yet there is no graded inequality among them as exist among the Hindus which has provided both untouchability and caste system a divine sanctity. Untouchability is not practiced among them. Most of the intellectuals as well as social activists that I met during this trip to Sri Lanka mentioned that it is the influence of Buddhism which has given them new identity and democratize socially a culture which suffered from the disabilities of caste system and untouchability.
Human rights organisations talk of an untouchable community named as Rodi which too is not visible very much. This community was engaged in various kind of menial work including manual scavenging but that too is does not exist in Sri Lanka. Moreover, there is an interesting story to Rodi’s becoming untouchable or lowest of the low in the caste hierarchy. Rodi legend suggests that they are descended from Ratnavalli who was the daughter of King Parakrama Bahu in the 12th century. Ratnawalli was also known as Navratna Valli. The historical background was recorded by a British civil servant Hugh Nevill about a century back.
It was found that Navaratna Valli had developed longing for human flesh which was being brought to her by Veddha hunter. The Veddha accordingly waylaid youths in the woods, and disposed of their flesh to the royal kitchen. The whole country was terrified by the constant disappearance of youths and maidens. When the king knew about this incident, he stripped his daughter of all the royal linkages and got her married to a scavenger community person compelling her to make her living from menial work such as sweeping the streets and cleaning.
Many of the intellectuals feel that Rodis that way is only a class factor as its lineages are definitely linked to royal family of the past and hence it cannot be attributed to caste system. That the king got his daughter married to the boy from this community even as a punishment may reflect that caste might not have mattered that much during those days.
The fact is that among the Sinhalese the caste system is actually not as pervert as it persists among the Tamils. Like any other country, Srilankan Buddhist society is also becoming class conscious. But it is equally important to analyse and understand the crisis of ethnic identities of Tamils and Sinhalese. It is also important for us to understand the Sri Lankan ethnic crisis from the caste angle and spread of Buddhism in the region resisted by the brahmaical Hindus represented by the Tamils who practiced caste system and untouchability in the worst form.
During the colonial period the British brought people from Southern India particularly poor Tamils, a majority of who belong to Dalit community, to work in the tea plantation estates. They got settled in Jaffna and other northern provinces. Later many of them were brought to up hills in Nuwara Eliya area about 70 kilometer away from Kandy in the huge tea estates. Their conditions were dismal and never a concern for the upper caste brahmanical leadership of Tamils who treated them as refugees and practiced untouchability with them. Even today, the condition of tea plantation workers in Jaffna and in the north is a matter of great concern. The interesting point is that the political leadership of the Tamils in Sri Lanka always came from the power elite of Tamil predominantly Brahmins from the mainland of Sri Lanka. The issue of Tamil Elam matter little for those who were fighting for their survival in the tea estates in the Northern Province of Jaffna. According to sources, the inter caste marriages are impossible and migrated Tamils from India, mostly low caste remain isolated and unwanted in the region. It is also a fact that as a leader V.Prabhakaran of the LTTE was not accepted as genuine representative of Tamils by leaders of major Tamil parties in Sri Lanka who actually hail from mainland in Colombo and the surrounding areas. The reason for this might also have been his low caste background. Though, unfortunately at the end, LTTE became ruthless and eliminated all those who came in its way. It is also true that the same LTTE had little concern about the caste issues in the region.
A fairly large number of the Dalits migrated from Tamilnadu are working as tea plantation workers in the Tea estates developed by the British in the hilly areas of Sri Lanka. Their conditions are not great and had never been a matter of concern for the political parties in Sri lanka. The high caste Tamils rarely raise their issues or mingle with them. In the din of the Tamil nationalism, the issue of the Dalits has been relegated to nothing as if they do not exist or face any caste discrimination. It also need to be understood in India that the battle for a separate Elam of Tamil Nation has nothing to do with the issue of Dalits or social justice unlike Tamilnadu where the anti caste movement actually dethroned the brahmanical forces from the state. The dominance of backward classes in Tamilnadu is the sign of strength of Periyarist movement in Tamilnadu though it is also a fact that the same movement could not really bring Dalits in its fold. But the situation in Sri Lanka is sharply different and that have nothing to do with the social justice movement in Tamilnadu. The Tamil identity is being constructed as unified without addressing the issue of the plantation workers. Culturally, the Buddhist temples are being countered with huge Hindu temples with active cooperation and support of the Tamil Brahmins. This has given a fertile ground for regrouping of the Hindu right wing forces in Sri Lanka.
One sincerely hope that one day the issue of Dalits in Sri Lanka will get international recognition and they will get fair deal in the administration. Hopefully, the Tamil groups which are highlighting the issue of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Sri Lanka will also be able to highlight the issue of isolation and ostracisation of migrated Dalits from Tamilnadu, a majority of those working in Tea Estates both in the high lands as well as northern province of Jaffna. Sri Lankan government must acknowledge this and start providing legal protection and support to Dalits in that country so that they too participate in the nation building process.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Democratic deficit in Naxal affected areas..
Is Maoism a law and order problem
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
The abduction of Sukma’s District Magistrate Alex Paul Menon by the Maoists has raised serious issues of crisis of governance in India. According to the Maoists, he was ‘arrested’ on April 21 when holding a public meeting at a village. The Maoists have demanded that about 8 of their colleagues be released immediately and operation green hut be stopped.
It is a well known fact that a very large part of India is now under the Maoist or Naxal control but somewhere we miss an important fact of India’s ‘growth’ story which we have been speaking since 1990 in the post liberlisation era. Before India opened its horizons for the international brands and companies, the value of the areas where tribal were living was nothing for the big companies and government authorities as they were considered backward regions and none was interested to go there. We allowed them to languish in ignorance, miseries and humiliation. Our government never ever bothered to reach those zones which needed state to protect them, provide health care, housing and better schooling. Today, if you travel to these zones they look stark contrast to what you see in Delhi which we all claim is becoming one of the ‘finest’ capitals of the world, though with little ‘heart’. The problems of the tribal were aggravated by the greedy government officials who would never venture to those zones and forest department which is given the task of maintaining the forests actually exploit the tribal.
Indian state failed to work for the betterment of tribal. Rather than acknowledging the fact that it has not taken care of about 10% of its population which we call as Aadivasis, we made tribal like animals in the cage. The urban middle class go there on ‘Safaris’ to watch them naked and then comment on their life style. There were no attempt by the state as why people are dying of Malaria and other diseases in those regions. Now, in the post globalization era, these poorest regions of India have become virtually the most sought after areas. With enormous natural wealth in the form of mines, minerals and ores, the big industrial corporations are eyeing the region for their own benefits. The Indian state became a real estate agent and a facilitator to dislocate its own people and victimize them if they opposed acquisition of their land. India’s growth model became the death sentence for millions of Aadivasis and they rose up against it. Those who ignore these facts of tribal life must make a visit to Chhatishgarh, Jharkhand, Odhisa and agency areas of Andhra Pradesh and find out why the tribal resisting the state despite the power of Indian state.
The ‘Indian’ ‘ Nationalists’ want the government to give the military a free hand to ‘demolish’ these zones. Well, the military is already there in the form of operation green hunt. These are the soldiers who are well paid and trained to fight the guerilla war in the forest terrain. And they have played havoc in those regions as they go without any sympathy. For them, it is a war against ‘enemy’. How can a person protecting his or her land become ‘enemy’ in his own region? No army can win a war if the people have no faith in it. Indian army knows it well and therefore most of the generals were against war on its own people.
Often, we are reminded the example of Punjab and our security hawks want that story to be replicated everywhere. It is not possible. Much work was done to assuage the feelings of Sikh in Punjab. In fact, the congress party apologized too for the same. Before that, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi invited Harcharan Singh Longowal for negotiations which culminated in the famous peace accord which brought peace in Punjab. Punjab was never won over by army but by confidence building measures which brought Sikh back to Indian mainstream. Similarly, in Kashmir, it is the governance that would win us the day and not the army.
The problem with the ruling establishment in India is that it is playing a big mind game. It is not coming into picture but want to fight the battle by defaming a whole movement. Maoists or Naxalism is not going to end with so called ‘law and order’ game. They are political battles and without active politicization you cannot win a war like this. Where are our political leaders who can go to Baster and talk to Naxals or Maoists? When the government can speak to different terror outfits why is Chidambaram not asking them to come on negotiating table. But for that the government has to show its real inclination. Home Minister Chidambaram and his colleagues do not want to call this battle off because they have to push these greedy corporations inside the forests.
Has Indian state ever apologized to tribal for its failure to protect their interest and identities? Australia and, Canada could do so with special session of their parliament when they acknowledge the indigenous people as ‘first nation’. Have we ever thought of showing our gratitude towards tribal for preserving our nature, our environment and habitat?
The Indian state has gone beyond all their reach to get its big people released from the Maoists heartland. The negotiators have refused to condemn the abductions as they say the state agencies have indulged in heavy violence against the tribal. That is a brute reality. The solution to the Naxalism lies in speaking with the people in the region and sincerely talking of peace. When Nepal could do so with Maoists why not India? More importantly, when Indian government could speak to various Naga nationalist groups or Mozo-Bodo groups demanding autonomy in the North east, what is wrong in inviting to Maoists to negotiations? At least the government must make political effort. We need a political home minister and not a bureaucrat. Unfortunately, most of the South block today is being handled not by the political class but the so called civil servants and right wing security hawks who have failed to understand India and its vast diversity. We need a political solution to these issues otherwise today it is Alex Paul tomorrow it could be some else and the Indian state would always be on its toes finding little time to do work for people. Let the government take initiative for peace talk and come with sincere proposal for the tribal zone. It is certain that Aadivasis too want to live in peace and develop their regions but they would definitely like their stake in whatever is planned for their regions. Any imposition of leadership and ideas from New Delhi would only be counterproductive and will never bring peace.
* already published in www.halabol.com
Towards a new political intolerance in Bengal
Is it Mamatagiri or Dadagiri in Bengal
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
West Bengal chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s antics are proving to be too dangerous for the country. It seems she is either blackmailing the already fragile UPA government or finding a way out to dissociate with it. Whatever are the differences, her posturing and unprofessional attitude have not helped strengthen her image. Moreover, they are proving too populists which will harm the interest of the people in long term.
Her stand against the railway minister Dinesh Trivedi was highly objectionable and absolute anarchist. The prime minister finally succumbed to her unreasonable demand by forcing the railway minister Trivedi to resign after presenting his maiden railway budget. Ms Banerjee is carefully nurturing her image as ‘messiah’ of the poor and has reacted undemocratically against all those who, she feels, are creating obstacle in her way. The way entire issue of resignation of Mr Dinesh Trivedi from railway ministry was dealth with by the United Progressive Alliance at the Centre does not bode well for the health of the country. India is in a coalition age and there is no chance of a single party government in Delhi in near future. It means stability at the policy level must be there despite coalition nature of the government otherwise all of us will have to pay for a heavy price of the instability of the political class. India has grown over the years and people of different regions are looking for their participation in power in Delhi. Therefore, it is more important for all the political parties to behave reasonably and not make their personal issues as national issues. Internationally, we will be reduced to non entity if the government ministers speak different tones according to their political ideology because they happen to be from different political parties. And Mamata’s action on Mr Dinesh Trivedi has rightly been criticized by journalists, writers and intellectuals who had supported her. In fact, one of the first persons who supported Mamata’s Singur and Nandigram movement was Mr Kabir Suman, MP of her party, has openly challenged her to take action against him. Even an icon like Mahashweta Devi is finding it difficult to support Mamata’t action.
In politics differences are natural and they are resolved democratically. There is no problem in Mamata’s asking for more from the Central government and demanding different schemes for her state but that need to be done according to coalition dharma not through humiliating your coalition partners or those who differ with you. Unfortunately, Mamata’s actions on the ground are looking like a person who is in a hurry to destroy the legacy of the left front government.
In her bid to control criticism, her supporters got a senior professor of Jadavpur University, Mr Ambikesh Mohapatra arrested for ‘spreading derogatory messages’ against ‘respectable’ persons. Actually, Prof. Mohapatra had circulated on email a political cartoon on Mamata’s treatment to Dinish Trivedi and appointment of Mr Mukul Roy as the new railway minister. Trinamul Congress workers continue to threaten the administration and politicizing the issues of public. Mamata has also asked the state education department to do away with the writings of Marx and Angels, two all time great political thinkers. Her actions are only proving that she is not different than her predecessors in playing vindictive politics and believe in politicizing the educational system according to her own ideological perspectives.
Mamata’s populist measures will cost Bengal heavily which is already reeling under severe debt crisis. Her continuous ranting of not increasing railway fares has already proving heavy on railways as it would be difficult to run railways on such charitable way. Just to make the train fare cheaper, she forced to compromise on the safety and infrastructure of railways. Unfortunately, like in Delhi where every wrong is thirst on the Congress party, Kolkata desperately wants to see changes which Mamata had promised before she took over the Writer’s Building.
Dictators are not really courageous but very cowards. They are afraid of public criticism as they fear the hollowness of their arguments will get exposed soon. Therefore, attempts are being made to divide the public opinion and blame the past for everything today. Despite all shortcomings of the political class, they did not carry the political differences home. Many of them were part of different political parties but would meet warmly on a tea party. But, the recent order by Mamata to her colleagues in the party that her party workers and sympathizers must not have any relationship with anyone who is close to CPM, is disgusting and sickening to say the least. Political differences do not make you enemy of each other and will not take our society anywhere.
We have seen differences of outlook and ideology between father and son, husbands and wife, between brothers, between mother and brother but that did not make them enemy of each other. It would be better for Mamata to concentrate on her work and leave the media doing its duty. She must not feel offended by media criticism. Now, she is in power and obviously the focus on the government’s work will automatically bring her in limelight. Is not it a fact that you like constant media glare when in opposition but when come to power feel they are offending you. Political satire keeps us going and we should be bold and liberal enough to accept our mistakes and allow this criticism to go. As Sudhir Telang, noted Cartoonist said that if people disappear from political cartoons means his or her political death. They keep politicians in lime light. Mamata would be damaging herself and her party if she feels that she can stop criticism by starting her own channels and dailies. We all know despite a dutiful Doordarshan and Aakashwani, people rose up against emergency in 1975 and defeated Congress Party in the general elections in 1977.
Power corrupt people and absolute power corrupt you more than anything else. Very few people survived this politically. In India such examples are too many where simple politicians got corrupted in the corridors of power. Their life style changed and they started maintaining distances with their own people resulting in their down fall. Mamata has got huge mandate and there is still a great good will towards her. She is considered to be honest and hardworking and it is time for her to concentrate on her work and not on her critiques. No politicians in India could survive because of their mouth pieces. If that were true then Ambanis would have been ruling India as they have everything at their disposal. Most of the big political families in the South have their own channels but they also got defeated. Karunanidhi, YSR and Jayalalitha have their own channels but they also have tasted heavy defeats and their corruption cases also unfolded. CPM has Gonashakti as their party mouth piece but then they were also defeated after 35 years. Mamata must not think that she would be able to control people’s mind through her newspapers. It is time for her to move beyond her critiques and focus on development of Bengal. People will take care of her critiques if her work help the people otherwise the same people would not wait till she is ousted.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Need to revive Kanshiram's mission in Uttar-Pradesh
A historic opportunity for Akhilesh in Uttar-Pradesh
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
It may be a co-incident that Akhilesh Yadav is taking over the reins of Uttar-Pradesh today on March 15th which is the birthday of Bahujannayak Manywar Kanshiramji but samajwadi party should utilize this day to reach out a wider section of people who are committed to the Bahujan philosophy of Kanshiram. That it was Kanshiram’s experiment with Samajwadi Party which brought Mulayam Singh Yadav back as chief minister of Uttar-Pradesh in 1993 after the Babari-Masjid demolition. We all remember the euphoria created all over the country over the merging of two icons of the Dalit-Bahujan movement though we knew it well that there were weak links and a political revolution will not succeed in the absence of a cultural revolution despite the good will this combination created all over the country. The counter slogan Uttar-Pradesh witnessed after the thorough communalization played by the Hindutva gangs was ‘mile mulayam kanshiram-hawa ho gaye jaishreeram’. It is a fact that this unity literally threw away the Ram Temple movement from Uttar-Pradesh. Hence a Ram mandir may be an issue for Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh or elsewhere for political reasons but for Uttar-Pradesh, the people have clearly understood the brahmanical agenda behind it and hence rejected it wholeheartedly.
That experiment of 1993 threatened to destroy the status quo in Delhi itself and many states were on the verge of following the same experiment. The hitherto political marginalized forces started taking centre stage and started deliberating their own future in the current polity and deciding about their strategies.
And the result was that the political changes which were threatening everyone were nullified by creating a permanent wage between the two. Mayawati was propped up BJP to break the alliance in Uttar-Pradesh and the rest is history now. Mulayam’s own behavior during this has been absolutely unfair and not worthy of a chief minister. The guest house incident shook not only Uttar-Pradesh but all of us who believe that parting ways in politics does not mean humiliating the person who was your partner just an hour before and that humiliation was not just political it threatened to be physical that time. Fortunately, the situation was saved from getting into worst and what followed rest is well known to us.
That is why I write today that Akhilesh is young and dynamic. He does not have a history of political manipulations. He seems to be forward looking and to make his success stronger he can actually follow the mantra of late Kanshiramji. He can restart the process of building the bridges between the Dalits and OBCs by bringing them together and vigorously following certain things which make Dalits a bit suspicious about Samajwadi party.
One of the major focuses of Kanshiram was actually cultural changes though most of them remain symbolic yet they were very important for us. Those changes are now permanent. Buddhism born in Uttar-Pradesh is given its due respect in the state by BSP and it will be good for Akhilesh not to touch upon any of these things. He could do well to promote it but should not anything in the negative that stop this cultural revolution in Uttar-Pradesh. Secondly, Akhilesh should implement the SC-ST Prevention of atrocities act more powerfully if there are cases of violence against Dalits. In Mayawti regime this act was actually made redundant and nobody could question that. Thirdly, it is time for government to evaluate its land acquisition policy. You need development but you cannot develop yourself at the cost of dislocating people and making them landless. UP must come out with a progressive policy where land must not be acquired at any cost if it makes people landless and impact on environment.
The government should continue with both Ambedkar village scheme as well as Mahamaya and Kanshiram Awas Yojna. They are important to empower landless Dalits. In fact, the government of Uttar-Pradesh must focus on land redistribution process which has been side tracked by the government in the state. Land Ceiling laws are being circumvented and huge track of lands are being acquired in the name of religious trust. Akhilesh would do well if he and his advisers can formulate policies where the thugs in the name of religion do not amass huge tax free property and absolute uncontrolled land. It is ironical that while government claims it does not possess much land to redistribute to landless people while at the same point it has enough strength and will power to distribute huge plots to religious gurus, big companies. It would be prudent not to destroy people’s livelihood.
Uttar-Pradesh needs development. It needs investment in education and health. It needs a lot of planning as the educational system in Uttar-Pradesh is in complete mess. Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav has already done a lot of damage to that system when he virtually ‘legalised’ mass copying forcing the teachers to pass every student. Such ‘favor’ to students will only kill them. Government schools and colleges should be made more accountable and workable. Let the teachers be accountable to village Panchayat. Government must stop the politicization of these schools which is the order of the day. Most of the new colleges and schools are mushrooming out of the MP and MLA local areas funds in connivance of both. It is a dangerous precedent. These colleges are nothing but political power to control. It is time we make them more accountable towards students so that they create better environments.
Thousands of children have died in Poorvanchal during the past 5 years because of Japanese encephalitis and yet nothing happened. Our medical colleges and hospitals are in pathetic shape. They do not give patience a confidence of his health and well being. Like a police thana, our hospitals too frighten the people to keep away from them.
Many of the Samajwadi party workers, MLAs have already become ‘ministers’ and are taking control of the districts. It is time when party send strong signal to them to behave. It is true that Samajwadi party has not compromised on the issue of Muslims and they voted the party in the largest. The faith of Muslims on Samajwadi party actually sealed the fate of Congress Party’s return in Uttar-Pradesh. So it has a bigger responsibility to take care of them particularly bringing the developmental programmes to Muslim homes. It would be difficult to implement all that is promised in the manifestoes and if they are able to do it, it will give people a confidence.
In the last term, Amar Singh and company had control of the Samajwadi Party. There is nothing wrong to invite investors to Uttar-Pradesh but it is also important that they do not take things for granted and given specific task. They cannot dictate to the government against people’s welfare. In Mayawati regime, law and order was relatively better than the previous regime of Samajwadi party. It is therefore important that party’s rogue element be sending clear message not to take law on their hands. Just by blaming the opponents for every criticism will take the government nowhere.
Today, when Akhilesh formally become chief minister of Uttar-Pradesh, he must realize one fact that Kanshiram’s biggest achievement was to bring together Dalit Bahujan communities and reviving the great legacy of Dr Ambedkar which was confined to academics and a few pockets, to general masses. It is this legacy of him which has empowered people in Uttar-Pradesh that even the most marginalized people in the state can speak of a political language and fight for their battle. Is it not great that when Bahujan Samaj Party lost power during this election, the new government of Akhilesh Yadav is Samajwadi Party by name but represent huge good will of the shudra communities and Muslims and not from the Brahmins or Thakurs? As a chief minister, he rightly says that the government was voted by all the caste and religions and there is no problem in admitting that but there is a reality also.
Nobody can deny that BSP was formed by Kanshiram and that he build up Mayawati to lead it but there is nothing wrong in implementing the vision of Kanshiram by Samajwadi party. Great people become not individual centric but anyone to follow. Kanshiram’s efforts to empower the most marginalized communities as well as bring a cultural change need to be strengthened further. In democracy, people make parties and part ways but it is also the beauty of democracy that we can always take good things from all. Dalit Bahujan history of India cannot ignore the immense contribution of Kanshiram for their political and social empowerment. Uttar-Pradesh today would not have been the same if Kanshiram had not come into the horizon. Both Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party may be fighting against each other but they can always implement and work towards the vision and mission of Kanshramji. And what else could be a better day then today when we celebrate his birthday. Let us salute him and his contribution for the vast Dalit Bahujan masses of India and take his message further. Therefore Akhilesh has a historic opportunity which his father lost in 1993. May be that time he was in the coalition government but this time he has got an absolute majority and Samajwadi Party can do well to strengthen the Dalit Bahujan movement initiated by Late Kanshiramji as people all over the country are watching them in great expectations for future.
One hope that Akhilesh’s tenure will not give leaverage to those powerful groups who have lost their political power but are manipulating people’s mandate to maintain status quo. These power communities are lying low but have not lost hope. They will try to create a wage between different communities by targeting Muslims particularly raking up the nondescript Ayodhya issue again and again. Therefore, it is important for Samajwadi Party to understand well the philosophy of Kanshiram in keeping a safe distance from these forces who are hell-bent to destroy our peace. Uttar-Pradesh has no place for the communal Hindutva forces and a big contribution for it is the unity of the Dalits and Shudra communities under the leadership of Samajwadi party and Bahujan Samaj Party. It is time to revive the thought of unity among communities. If leaders find time to unite well and good but people must be united towards a new enlightened agenda for future and not putting them to religious fanatics maintaining status quo.
Akhilesh has enormous good will of the people and one sincerely hope that he would be able to deliver if he overcome all the prejudices of his party in the past. Uttar Pradesh welcome him with open arm and great hope for future.
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