Another Teacher’s Day, another day of children going to school, worrying about how many cards and gifts they should take for which teachers. Teachers and principals will stand on the stage and praise themselves, and students will perform on stage. Teacher’s Day is one of those nauseating remnants of Nehruvian India that needs to be abolished, now. The sanctimonious institution of teacher’s day puts teachers on a pedestal, like gods to be worshipped, thus coming in the way of academic culture where teachers and students are equal, where teachers are judged as professionals. Teacher’s Day only serves to further institutionalise the teacher as figure that commands authority rather than respect, a figure who is to be feared rather than loved. It is certainly not a day that inspires students to mull over Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan’s tomes on the superiority of Indian philosophy over Western philosophy.

Teacher’s Day is certainly a cruel joke in government schools where teacher’s never turn up, or turn up and make students do their private work. The abolition of Teacher’s Day should be the starting point of changing student-teacher relationships in rural India where, studies have shown, a vast number of girl students drop out because of sexual abuse by teachers. One wonders how the Jaipur’s Maharaja Secondary School will celebrate Teacher’s Day considering the owner of the school is in jail for allegedly raping a 14 years old girl student. One the same day, a class 3 student in Faridabad was stripped for not paying fees. If Teacher’s Day is to be retained, it should be a day when educationists should sit together and ask themselves what sort of student-teacher relationship encourages people like 27 years old Manju, a teacher in a government-run school in Delhi to punish an 11 year old student Shanno so badly that she died two days later. Shanno had been asked to sit like a hen in scorching heat with two bricks on her back. She is not the only one: countless dozens of students die every year in this country because of corporal punishment. Teacher’s Day should be used to remember these students who never got a chance to see what a good teacher could be.

By SALMAN USMANI
with apologies to Mirza Ghalib

Ghalib and BJP (quite like Iqbal’s Shikwa and Jawab e Shikwa) in Bazm-e-Bhajpa where the ’shama’ is lit right in fornt of LK.

Advani to Jaswant:

Yeh kahan ki dosti hai, ke bane hai dost naseh,
Na tu mera yaar hota, na yeh Kaandahar hota.

Jaswant to Advani:

Kahoon tujh se main ke kya hai, Yeh Jinnah buri Bala hai,
Na tu qabr pe jata na mujhe yeh bukhaar hota.

Brijesh (from somewhere in the audience)

Tere waade pe jiye ham, to yeh jaan jhooth jana,
Na yeh interview hota, na tu beqaraar hota.

The current crisis of leadership in the Bhartiya Janta Party reminded me of this evocative 2006 photograph published in all papers the morning after a remembrance meeting for Pramod Mahajan.

Readers of this blog familiar with Indian politics will recognize the faces of the BJP leadership. Others unfamiliar with those faces will nevertheless find in the clothes that the people are wearing, and also in their sombre expressions, the presence of defeat. There is no corpse visible. One can guess that the people are waiting for Pramod Mahajan’s body–and that would not be inaccurate–but is that all that fills this space with questions? [Amitava Kumar]

As Siddharth Varadarajan says, it is perhaps our turn now to say, ‘Ek Dhakka Aur Do’.

In an excellent article by an MNC executive, Sudhir Sitapati, there’s the refreshing willingness to try and understand what Mayawati is trying to do with the monuments she is building in Lucknow.

At an estimated expense of Rs 3,000 crore, a criminal waste of resources one could say, but then, how different from the Keynesian nregs which is appositely accused of “digging trenches and filling them up”. Certainly not very different from the baroque and purposeless Bada Imambara here in Lucknow itself. Nawab Asaf-ud-Daulah, in response to the 1784 drought, paid people money to build it by day and then break it by night! [Read the full article.]

Here’s my article written some months ago.

I am addicted to Sach Ka Saamna. Initially I was skeptical, but with sms-es from friends after  11 pm (“watch sach ka saamna”), I’ve become a regular. Initially I felt there’s no voyeuristic fun to be had with the secrets of an unknown Indian – I mean if you got Amar Singh on the show to admit whether he’s been in a relationship with XYZ, it’s be far more interesting. Or so I thought.

But Sach Ka Saamna gets these ordinary people and politely tries its best to destroy that person’s relationship with his/her family and the world at large. The contestants play on till they lie, knowing they’ll lose the money they came for but the truth became too much to justify the money. Or they just run away with a few lakhs rather than doing the full monty of 21 questions for a crore. If someone goes that far some day and then commits suicide, I won’t be surprised.

The set, sounds and anchoring of SKS seems very similar to that of Kaun Banega Crorepati. Like KBC, the purpose of SKS is to make money. If KBC was middle class India’s way of saying we’re no longer apologetic about wealth, SKS does away with KBC’s reluctant excuse of knowledge as a harbinger of wealth. Sach Ka Saamna is about making money for your best kept secrets, for simply providing millions of viewers the voyeuristic pleasure of knowing whether you’re cheating on your husband. SKS tries to say we’re out to make money by hook or crook.

That is not to take away from the power of that show to show the mirror to an Indian family. There’s something to be said about a show which gets an about-to-be-married woman in an executive job and asks her, in front of her separated parents, “Were you secretly happy when your father beat up his second wife?” I can imagine family members aross India looking at each other, or looking away, and saying nothing, as though an outsider was revealing their secrets.

And so I’m hooked. My only complain is that the show is too slow. I’d just be happy knowing the person, and let’s go past the questions like a rapid fire round. It wouldn’t matter much if I missed the show because I can read the questions on Sach Ka Saamna’s Facebook page. Samples:

Questions that one Zara has successfully answered, with her mother, estranged father, sister and fiancee Imran in the audience:

1. Have you ever used your looks to get work done easily?
2. While out with your boyfriend have you ever worn a burqa just to avoid getting caught?
3. Have you ever secretly been through any of your boss’ personal documents?
4. Do you feel inferior to your sister Sara for being less educated than her?
5. Have you ever tried to convince someone other than Imran to leave his fiancée and marry you?
6. Have you spent a week away with Imran without your parents’ knowledge?
7. Have you ever quit a job in fear of being confronted about your credentials?
8. Do you love your father inspite of him physically abusing your mother?
9. Were you secretly happy when your father beat up his second wife?
10. Would you accept another man in your mother’s life?
11. Have you ever been in a relationship with two men at the same time?
12. Have you lied to Imran about the extent of your physical intimacy with your ex-boyfriends?
13. Have you cheated on Imran since your engagement?
14. Do you regret getting engaged to Imran?
15. Would you leave Imran if you feel that he is trying to control your life?
16. Do you truly love Imran? (Yes, she said, and the polygraph test said yes.)

Over the past four months, some of Delhi’s most important monuments have been swarmed by the faithful offering prayers. The law is clear on the violations, the lawmakers are not

(An edited, shorter version of this article by me has appeared in Open magazine.)

Within the space of a week in March this year, just before Lok Sabha elections, mosques in some of Delhi’s most important monuments suddenly started having namaz again – after hundreds of years. Around 200 namazis broke into the Muhammadwali Masjid at Siri Fort on 17 March for Friday prayers; they did the same at the Sultanate-era Nili Masjid in Hauz Khas and at a small mosque at the entrance of the Qutub Minar complex – inside the ticketed area. On 23 March they started namaz at the Jamali Kamali mosque.

Who could have a problem with the devout following the call of the muezzin? A 1958 law does. The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act says that there can be no religious installation or worship where it had ceased. The law seeks to protect such “non-living” monuments for history’s sake. “Once worship or prayers starts, people start affecting the shape of the place,” says writer-filmmaker and die-hard Dilliwallah Sohail Hashmi. Despite FIRs filed by the Archeological Survey of India, the police is allowing namaz to carry on.

The common thread between the imams and maulvis of all the mosques being taken over is that they belong to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, an organization of nationalist Muslims formed in 1919 in support of Gandhi’s Khilafat movement. All of them are also on the payrolls of the Delhi Wakf Board. The Delhi Wakf Board chairperson, Matin Ahmed, is the tallest Muslim leader of the Delhi state Congress. “Due to migration the Muslim population of Delhi has increased and there aren’t enough mosques,” says Ahmed, “How can I tell people not to pray at a mosque? And the properties the ASI is claiming as protected, we have Gazette notifications showing they are also under the Wakf. Tourists go there wearing shoes, what is the problem with namazis who pray barefoot? ”

The problem is pointed out by Hashmi. “Take the case of four mosques built by Juna Shah Telangani, a noble in the court of Firoze Shah Tughlaq (1309-1388),” Hashmi says. “Two of them are protected and two are not. You can see the difference.”

Kali Masjid in old Delhi’s Turkman Gate and a Jama masjid in Nizamuddin are not protected as they were living monuments in 1958 with daily namaz. Both mosques have been painted green, pink and blue, the Kali masjid has had marble chips added to the front gate, steel brackets with ceiling fans have been added, and so has cement-concrete construction. The domes of the Kali masjid has been painted green and several families live in the basement. “Who will recognize it today as the finest example of Tughlaq architecture?” asks Hashmi. In the Nizamuddin mosque, the ceiling of broken domes has been flattened, women are not allowed inside even to see the mosque and photography is also debarred.

On the contrary are other two of Telangani’s mosques which are under the ASI’s protection – one in Begumpur and the other in Khirki. The restoration work took place only very recently, its malba is still lying outside, people drink on the terrace, smack addicts huddle around a fire on winter evenings. “Such dereliction becomes ammunition for those wanting to revive prayers,” he says.

*

In the late thirteenth century, when South Asia’s greatest Sufi saint Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti was leaving Delhi for Ajmer, he asked his disciple Qutubuddin Bakhtiar Kaki to follow him. The people of Mehrauli, which was all of Delhi then, said they would follow Kaki. Seeing this, Chishti asked Kaki to remain in Delhi. The Mehrauli area came to be known as ‘Qutub sahib’.

Niazmuddin Auliya was Kaki’s disciple’s disciple. It is in Mehrauli that Kaki died and was buried, and everyone from then to the time of Bahudur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal ruler, wanted to be buried near Kaki. Even today there are people who want Zafar’s remains to be brought from Rangoon and placed at the place in Mehrauli, Zafar palace, where Zafar wanted to be buried.

Mehrauli has seen a thousand years of building, and the remains that are being excavated and conserved even now are studied by historians to research such details as the mosque architecture, houses, domes and living practices and how they changed over a period of thousand years.

A number of Mehrauli’s monuments, still be excavated, conserved and studied, are in what is called the ‘Mehrauli Archaeological Park’. The most important is the mosque of Jamali Kamali, where a Sufi saint, Sheikh Jamaluddin is buried. The mosque marks an important link between the Sultanate and Mughal periods. Prayers are being held by around ten people every day, three times a day. On Fridays, there could be as many as 200 people. On Friday 24 July, we found a crowd of around hundred people eating biryani in paper plates. The jumma namaz just got over. Some men rush to us, preventing us from taking photographs. You can’t shoot us while we’re eating, they say, you haven’t taken permission from our imam. Namaz is being offered three times a day and nails have already started being hammered into the walls of the Jamali Kamali mosque. “If this is not stopped you will soon find a maulvi living here with his family,” says Hashmi.

ASI field officers who tried to file FIRs with the police were surprised to see the police inaction. It was only on 30 March after a letter was written to the Delhi police commissioner. On 24 July, when we visited Jamali Kamali and the Qutub Minar, we saw the police allowing namaz to take place. “We have taken legal action against whoever has broken the law,” says a Delhi Police spokesperson. Does this mean they will prevent further worship in these monuments? “We have taken legal action,” he repeats. His reluctance to speak beyond the five authorized words may be due to the involvement of ruling Congress politicians such as Matin Ahmed.

The Union culture secretary has written in this regard to the Lt. Governor of Delhi, Tejinder Khanna. “The LG has asked the Delhi police commissioner to strictly implement the prevailing law and maintain communal harmony,” says Ranjan Mukherjee, OSD in the LG’s secretariat.

With the ASI calling up the police every now and then, the imam at Jamali Kamali, Abdul Raziq, proceeded to meet the superintending officer of the Delhi circle of the ASI, Muhammed KK, explaining that they had been allowed by the Delhi Wakf Board. “He is a Muslim, yet he calls up the police to complain against us,” says Raziq. Muhammed, on his part, gave Raziq examples from his earlier postings, where he has refused to allow people to worship in churches, temples and most crucially, a maqbara in Sasaram, Bihar, where the Vishwa Hindu Parishad wanted to offer puja, claiming it to be a temple. But imam Raziq does not buy any of this. “A masjid is forever a masjid,” he insists, proudly showing a letter by Union Minorities Affairs minister Salman Khursheed asking Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit to look into the problems faced by them in offering namaz.

Around the Mehrauli Archaeological Park, other monuments have also been taken up too. At the Mandi mosque, we even found them cooking. At Rajon ki Baoli, the prayer mats are left even after the namazis leave – markers of a claim. An old, unidentified mosque that INTACH would have restored there is now a madarsa and a grave. Another large, unidentified building was taken over just before INTACH was going to start restoration, and yet another one which was taken over after restoration – whitewashed and painted, all signs of history removed.

At the Qutub Minar, the small mosque which historians say was probably once part of a Mughal-era sarai, has been whitewashed and painted for many years. A maulvi who sits there every day distributed talismans, says an ASI field officer. But the maulvi, Maulana Shair Mohammed, claims he’s been performing namaz for 33 years now, something the ASI denies. “They’re asking the namazis to buy tickets!” complains the maulvi.

There is an added problem at the Qutub Minar. The grand Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque there, on one side, has a small idol of what looks like Hanuman – no surprise because the mosque was built from the ruins of temples. The Bajrang Dal in 2001 wanted to worship the idol, and tp prevent that the ASI covered it with grills so thick the idol is hardly visible. Now again, around 50 Hindus from Mehrauli reached Quwratul Islam and demanded the right to worship the idol because namaz was allowed at the small mosque. An altercation between them and the namazis followed. More recently, the Jama Masjid’s Imam Abdullah Bukhar has also joined the cause.

“This has the potential to open a pandora’s box all over the country,” says the ASI’s KK Muhammed. “There will be demands from Buddhists at Ajanta, Hindus at Konark and Elephanta and in Ellora Hindus, Jains and Buddhists could all lay claim,” he says.

These events have raised the hackles of conservationists and historians. A release from SAHMAT, signed by the likes of Irfan Habib and DN Jha, has appealed to the Prime Minister, who is also in-charge of the culture ministry, to take action. The convenor of the Delhi chapter of INTACH, AGK Menon, points out the case of the Taj Mahal, which is closed on Fridays for prayer at its mosque. “If at all prayer is to be continued then it should be ensured that people don’t make any changes in the monument at all,” he says, adding that often there are encroachments in and around such places once regular prayers start.

*

The namazis even point out that the ASI couldn’t be too bothered about conservation if its own Delhi circle office is inside Madarsa Safdarjung! Incidentally, Friday prayers are also held in Madarsa Safdarjung – they had once been allowed by an order from the prime minister’s office, remembers an old ASI hand. Haji Aminuddin knows very well how that happened. We meet him at his house , deep inside old Delhi’s Pahadi Imli Gali. In 1978 he was 15 or 16, he says, “when 10-12 of us kids got together and offered namaz at the Bhoori Bitiyari masjid”. The mosque was inside the campus of the Maulana Azad Medical College and the doctors would call the police. Prevented from offering namaz there they raised such a movement in old Delhi that the government had to not only allow them to offer namaz, but despite being arrested five times the members of what became the Masjid Basao Committee managed to get the land area around the mosque increased. Members of the committee became big Congress politicians, one became a Wakf board chairman and the Jama Masjid’s Abdullah Bukhari became its patron.

“I have more photographs than my weight,” says Aminuddin. These are photographs, mostly, with Congress politicians – you name them, he has them. He remembers well the day in 1983 when he met Indira Gandhi who asked him to support the Congress. Amongst the people who fought cases pro-bono for him was HL Bharadwaj, who later became union law minister. The Masjid Basao Committee of 1978 managed, over the next few years, to revive prayers in not only old the defunct old mosques of old Delhi but also Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque at the Qutub Minar in Mehrauli. He remembers how his group started prayers at ASI-protected Kotla Firoz Shah. “We took a welding machine and cut iron bars and entered. The ASI keeps getting them welded and the community keeps breaking in every now and then, even today,” he says. He is not aware that the mosque’s architecture was liked so much by the invading Timur the Lame that he took a map of it along with Delhi artisans to replicate it in central Asia.

The movement, he says, was later ‘hijacked’ by ‘elders’, but Aminuddin remains a prominent Muslim community ‘face’ in Delhi, invited regularly by politicians. The present Wakf board chairman, Matin Ahmed, is clearly not arguing for something history has not seen.

As Muslim-Han violence recedes in China’s Xinjiang, an exlied Uyghur longs for freedom in Delhi’s bylanes

(A shorter, edited version of this story by me has appeared in Open magazine this morning.)

“Ey pekir Uyghur, oyghan!” (Hey poor Uyghur, wake up!)
- Abduhalik Uyghur (1901-1933), killed by a Chinese warlord for inciting Uyghur nationalism through his poetry

“Kashmir ke peechay hamara mulk hain,” says Abdullah Dawood, 49, sitting in a guest house in Nizamuddin, in a room hired by a fellow-Uyghur visitor from Istanbul. “Just beyond the Karakoram pass,” smiles the vistor, Osman Uzturuk. Uzturuk adds in Turkic, and Abdullah translates: “In the olden days, much before India’s independence, we had great links with India.”

As Uzturuk fills us with information about the riots in Xinjiang since 5 July, Abdullah’s mind returns to that night twelve years ago in the old city of Ghulja, officially known as Yining. 5 February 1997: Abdullah, who ran a grocery store, let go of his reticence about politics and decided to join a rally demanding freedom. The protests were sparked by the execution of 30 Uyghur independence activists accompanied by the crackdown on attempts to revive traditional Uyghur culture such as traditional gatherings called meshrep. The demonstrations were crushed by the People’s Liberation Army, who killed nine.

The trigger for Abdullah to join those protests was the enforcement of the two-child norm. Abdullah had four daughters and had just adopted a son, and though he could get away with bribes, those who couldn’t, had to see their children killed, he says. Plainclothesmen made videos and took pictures, and Abdullah got wind that the army would come knocking in the night looking for all those who took part. Fearing that he may become part of the long list of the ‘disappeared’, Abdullah ran away – first to ürümqi (pronounced Oroomchi), the capital of the province 800 kms away, then to Tibet, and from there to Nepal. In 2003, when Nepal was threatening to deport him to China despite his refugee certificate from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, he came to India.

“Xinjiang” is Mandarin for “new territory”; the local Muslim population still calls it “Turki” and separatists want to establish a new country, “East Turkestan”. This is part of a vast swathe in Central Asia once called Turkestan. The region today is divided between the West Turkestan countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan – countries once part of the Soviet Union. Culturally, the Turkic-speaking Uyghurs of Xinjiang are closer to these people. “All the nations Russia had captured are free today,” says Abdullah, “Only we are still chained.” Abdullah looks at a map of China and shows how much smaller China would be without Xinjiang, whose land area is double of Pakistan.

Under the Qing dynasty, even before the formation of the People’s Republic of China under Mao, the Uyghurs tried several times, in armed uprisings, to be free from the control of Chinese warlords. The Chinese Republic’s main strategy of dealing with the separatism of the Turkic Muslim Uyghurs has been, like Tibet, to give incentives to the majority Han to settle in Xinjiang. Today, there are 7 million Han Chinese in the area, and 8 million Uyghurs. The capital ürümqi has 75% Han Chinese and only 16% Uyghurs. “These Chinese census figures are lies,” insists Abdullah, “There are only 2.5 million of us left there.”

Such were the disputes Abdullah had with the news this past week on TV and radio. “The Chinese government says only 184 died. But my friends in Istanbul say it was 3,000.” These were riots sparked on 5 July in ürümqi when the confrontation between the police and Uyghur protestors led to the Uyghurs targeting the local Han population. The Han backlash lasted several days. The riots were caused in the first place by the killings of two Uyghur workers in Guangdong, in another end of China. The Uyghurs claimed that the Chinese did not protect Uyghur workers and let off the Han killers without punishment. The murdered workers were accused of raping a Han woman, charges later found untrue by Chinese authorities.

Abdullah is worried about his family’s safety, though they live 800 kms away from ürümqi. Over the years there has been little contact, and Abdullah doesn’t know English and is not familiar with using the internet. Between the violence that led to Abdullah’s exile and the riots past week, there have been many such instances. “Kashmiris also ask for freedom, but India does not brutally repress them the way China does,” says Abdullah. “There have been instances when they deliberately organise rallies by their informers amongst us to see who comes out, and then those persons disappear. Bodies are found months later,” he says with anguish. “All this never comes out.” He speaks constantly of Chinese brutality, of zulm, claiming that Uyghurs are not even given the right of assembly, their culture is being destroyed and human rights violated on a daily basis.

When on 17 April 2008 the Olympic torch arrived in Delhi, says Abdullah, Tibetans were allowed to protest, but he, a lone Uyghur in Delhi, was detained at a police station in Seelampur in north-east Delhi. “The Chinese had told them that Uyghurs are terrorists. But the police were very nice with me. I called a friend and got addresses of websites that document Chinese torture on us. The officer couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw those images,” he says.

The Chinese have restricted religious freedom. Abdullah says he couldn’t keep a beard, the syllabus in Islamic schools were regulated and only the government-approved version of the Qu’ran that could be published. China, on its part, has found it easier to quell separatism since 9/11, branding them as terrorists. China claimed that some terrorist incidents before the Olympics had Uyghur groups behind them, and suspects that they may be getting help from the Taliban in the Af-Pak region.

The Han migration to Xinjiang has made the Uyghurs feel alien in their own land. The alienation is visible when Abdullah says: “There’s a reason why the Chinese oppression is so brutal. They don’t believe in god and fear no one. They eat rats, frogs, dogs and monkeys!” The disgust changes to ridicule when he adds: “They even eat donkeys!”

Abdullah’s friend from Istanbul is similarly exiled, and both say they’d rather be exiled than live under Chinese rule. Abdullah did not agree to be photographed as he may be recognized and his family back home harassed. A photograph in a Kathmandu paper in 2003 did him great harm. After the newspaper article about Uyghur refugees appeared, Nepal deported four of them under Chinese pressure, he claims; Abdullah and seven others escaped to Delhi. They have since then been re-settled by UNHCR in Sweden; it’s been years and Abdullah is waiting for his turn, too. It’s the heat he wants to escape the most. “My home was colder than Kashmir! ” he says, cutting coriander leaves that he will mix with his soup. “It’ll help against the itch and allergies I get from this heat.”

“In Nepal we got enough money from UNHCR to live by, but here we get only 2,245 rupees a month,” says Abdullah. India does not allow employment for international refugees. He survives thanks to the visiting Uyghur and Turkish businessmen from Istanbul. They come here to buy scarves, shawls and cushion covers, selling them in Istanbul at thrice the price. Abdullah, who has picked up enough Hindustani in all these years, helps the Istanbul businessmen with translation and bargaining, and then takes a commission from them as well as the Indian wholesalers. That’s how he’s able to afford a room in Delhi.

When friends come from Istanbul, they bring traditional naan and cook mutton without Indian spices, and he asks them to take him away. It is from one of them that he got the number of Washington based Rebiya Kadeer, head of the World Uyghur Congress, whom China has accused of fomenting the present riots. “I keep calling her and she has promised help in re-settling me,” he says, “India is good but there’s no Turki here. I get very lonely.” Freedom, he concedes, will never come. “I am prepared to die here.”

Khairlanji: A Strange and Bitter Crop
By Anand Teltumbde
Navayana, New Delhi, 2008, 214 pp., Rs 190
ISBN 978-81-89059-15-6

[An edited version of this review by me has appeared (.pdf here) in the May-June 2009 issue of Biblio.]

Anand Teltumbde is a noted Bombay-based Dalit intellectual who also wears the hat of a business executive. He has written this book about the lynching of a Dalit family in a Maharashtra village in 2006 to ensure that the incident is not easily erased from memory. He quotes Milan Kundera: “The struggle against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” In other words, he sees this book as being a seminal work on the Khairlanji atrocity.

The book begins with Abel Meeropol’s song Strange Fruit, written in 1936 (and not 1939, as the book incorrectly states) about the lynching of two black youth. It is from this song that the book derives its sub-title, “A Strange and Bitter Crop,” which once again reinforces the book’s ambition. Billie Holiday’s rendition of Strange Fruit (in 1939) soon became an anthem for the anti-lynching movement in the US, but does Teltumbde’s book achieve its ambitious goal?

The book’s first chapter is a narration of the events of 29 September 2006, when Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange’s family was lynched to death. The atrocity is reduced in this narrative to a dry report, as if it were from the file of a district magistrate. Sample this:

Farming is the predominant occupation of the village with 373 hectares of agricultural land, of which 262 hectares—over 70 percent—are under irrigation from the Pench canal. In Khairlanji, 178 families own agricultural land. Though they are mostly marginal landholders, owing to assured irrigation the villagers harvest multiple crops such as rice, wheat and pulses… [pp. 29-30]

Instead of a crisply written reconstruction of the bone-chilling lynchings, one is burdened with too many irrelevant details, stitched together so wryly that they are unlikely to hold the interest of the general reader. Books on caste that have withstood the test of memory, such as Baby Kamble’s The Prisons We Broke or Om Prakash Valmiki’s Joothan, have invested in the craft of storytelling. To move the indifferent about the everyday caste violence, that is what we need the most: good storytelling.

The dry telling is made worse by self-righteous rhetoric. Teltumbde writes, for instance: “Khairlanjis are not confined to villages… They are manifest even in our towns and cities, sections of which have clad themselves in metal and glass in recent years… Every day millions are crushed and killed in spirit…” (pp. 13-14). Our cities do have caste, but do we see public lynchings? Such liberal (and repeated) use of “Khairlanjis” takes something away from the tragedy of Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange.

In the absence of original research and fieldwork, the telling of the Khairlanji incident gives us nothing new. Teltumbde mentions that when Bhaiyyalal’s daughter Priyanka had stood first in class ten, the Khairlanji villagers had felicitated her. But then how did the same villagers rape and murder her because of her caste? There’s something here that is amiss. Teltumbde seems to have not even interviewed Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange— 200 pages later that seems to have dawned upon him and an appendix titled “Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange Speaks” has been added. This is a transcript of Bhotmange’s press conference on 6 November 2006. He is asked whether he saw the incident with his own eyes. “He takes a deep breath and sits quietly. He does not speak.” How much of the lynching did Bhaiyyalal see, if at all? There’s a version of Bhaiyyalal’s eyewitness account in the book. Bhaiyyalal had initially claimed to have seen everything, and then, in court, retracted, thus becoming a ‘hostile witness’ in his own case. These are the ambiguities that a book published two years later should address and resolve.

That is not all: it is not just the CBI that gave a clean chit to many of the accused. It is also Bhaiyyalal himself, who first named and then stopped naming a local Nationalist Congress Party leader; in fact, he now lives with another NCP leader. So much so that he is estranged from his wife’s cousin Siddharth Gajbhiye, the prime witness in the case. What happened in the intervening months? Did Bhaiyyalal become the victim of a larger politics? Sadly, the book sheds no light on any of this. Teltumbde seems not to have attended any court hearing or interviewed any witnesses.

The protests over Khairlanji were led by the people; Dalit leaders were shamed into following. A book that claims to be analytical could have benefited from contextualising Khairlanji within Maharashtra’s Dalit movement and Dalit electoral politics. Instead, Teltumbde is content with telling you the obvious: that Khairlanji broke the myth of a progressive Maharashtra of Phule and Ambedkar.

The book’s only value is in the chapter “Post-Khairlanji”, which tells you of the repression of the anti-Khairlanji protestors, of the humiliating harassment by the police of people such as Dr Milind Mane and Ashu Saxena that the mainstream press had mostly ignored.

The media’s prejudice is explained at length in another chapter. Teltumbde does point out that it is not only the caste-composition of newsrooms but also commercial considerations that come in the way of the media while covering Dalit issues. But that does not explain why the media ‘ignored’ the Khairlanji incident for nearly a month. He dismisses the idea that the remoteness of the village had something to do with this. But really, how many national dailies have reporters in villages? For such coverage the media depends on the language press, which took the side of the perpetrators in this case and thus prevented news from coming out. The single most instrumental role in the media finally covering Khairlanji was played by Kishore Tiwari of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti who emailed its fact-finding report to journalists. The VJAS’ role is underplayed. Teltumbde does not mention even once that the incident got wide attention after Sabrina Buckwalter’s story appeared in The Times of India. Where local Dalit activists have come together as a network and duly informed the press, several reports of Dalit atrocities from far and wide have appeared.

Chapters Five to Eight, which make up half the book, are not about Khairlanji at all. You are left wondering what thoughts like these are doing in a book on the lynching of a Dalit family:

It is an interesting paradox that while globalisation is euphorically spoken about as rendering nation-states increasingly irrelevant, compressing the world into a global village, security considerations about the same nation-states have created the paranoia of war against terror…

Teltumbde writes about whatever crosses his mind: neoliberalism, Naxalism, socio-economic zones and land-grab, Hindutva and Gujarat, Nandigram and police high-handedness, Salwa Judum. The book begins to read like an anthology of activist pamphlets. That is not to devalue activism, for activist literature in our times makes for a more authentic first draft of history than our newspapers. But one expects much more from a book.

The next chapter is an analysis of anti-caste laws and their implement-ation. This is not the first time such an exercise has been undertaken, and it seems like a space-filler in the absence of greater material on Khairlanji. The chapter, “The Political Economy of Atrocities,” tells you less about atrocities and more about the rise and consolidation of OBC politics, without co-relating those developments with the increase in Dalit atrocities. Teltumbde mentions how the post-1991 rural crisis hit Dalits, but not why most of the farmers committing suicide are OBCs. Another chapterclaims to be about “Exploding Myths”, but the sketchy arguments again leave you with more questions than answers. For instance, Teltumbde says that atrocities as public spectacles have increased, yet the tables he produces say that the incidence of arson, which is presumably both a kind of atrocity and a public spectacle, has declined. He does not even seek to explain the anomaly. Then, he disagrees with those who see caste atrocities as nothing but land disputes, thus ignoring the role of caste consciousness. He attributes this school of thought to those in the business of “marxist economic determinism” and yet, a few pages later, argues that future “Khairlanjis” can be prevented by “building of true class consciousness”! The argument is not elaborated. Teltumbde complains of increasing caste violence in Maharashtra by quoting a statistic that says that Maharashtra’s position amongst other states in cases of caste violence actually came down from number three in 1998-1999 to number ten in 2005. He complains about Mayawati diluting the Pevention of Atrocities Act in Uttar Pradesh (in 2007, she gave orders to her officers not to register too many cases under the Act), without acknowledging that if Dalit assertion under Mayawati had meant increasing numbers of FIRs, then scholars like Teltumbde would be quoting those to show how Dalit violence had actually increased under her rule. Heads you win, tails you lose.

The books leaves several other issues unresolved. Such as the question of who put up that banner across Vidarbha, with photographs of the almost naked dead bodies of the female victims, and a call to Dalit men to rise in protest?And what happened to Khairlanji after? What is Bhaiyyalal doing now? What about the court judgement in the case? The OBCs have been demonised through-out the book to the extent of giving the impression that the twice-born upper castes don’t commit atrocities. But Teltumbde fails to tell us anything about the Kunbi and Kalar castes of Khairlanji village, who lynched Bhaiyyalal’s family, beyond the fact of their being peasant castes? What, for example, is the history of their relations with Dalits? What are their political affiliations as a community? These are details that would significantly impact our understanding of the Khairlanji incident. Finally, the postscript mentions many atrocities that took place in Maharashtra after Khairlanji. Perhaps they could have been done justice by being written about in some detail. One wonders if the great post-Khairlanji Dalit uprising against caste violence had an impact on caste violence in the region thereafter? Did the possibility of another Dalit outburst affect the state’s response to later incidents?

All Teltumbde wants to talk about is Shudra oppressors, neoliberalism, Naxalism and the State—Khairlanji being a mere symbolic peg on which to hang all these ‘larger’ issues. Which is why you are surprised to read, on the second-last page:

Khairlanji soon got transformed into a symbol — a symbol of atrocity —shorn of reality. Dalits ceased to see any other caste crime beyond Khairlanji. This tendency to create symbols out of reality, and to discard reality thereafter, can be easily seen among dalits.

There’s another problematic symbol used here. The book is part of a series on atrocities called ‘HoloCaste’. This is not just a bad pun; it devalues both the Holocaust and violence against Dalits. It is time to use our own idioms, to tell our own stories, because the Dalit movement is still waiting for its own Abel Meeropol and Billie Holiday.

By Shivam Vij in Unnao

“Come in,” says Munisa, “it’s such a large house you’ll be surprised.” The room isn’t big enough for a single person, and Munisa, a widow at 30, shares it with six children and her mother-in-law. She’s trying to turn the courtyard into a room even though she knows the impending monsoons will was away the mud thatch. She works as farm labour, earning Rs 35 a day, and can’t make use of NREGA because the chronic pain in her legs won’t let her do hard labour.

Two years ago, an NGO did a survey in the village and found her to be the poorest. They gifted her a cow. “It gave milk because I fed her. And then, six months ago, she died.” But Munisa is not ungrateful: she will still vote for the candidate who runs the NGO that gifted her the cow. So will her neighbours who didn’t get anything: “Here’s someone who has at least proven her concern for the poor,” says one.

Annu Tandon, the Congress candidate who’s been running this NGO is unabashed about such doles and its contribution in her campaign. She only insists it’s not an NGO: “It’s a private charitable trust set up in my father’s name in 2002, funded entirely by my family.” She won’t give you any figures, because it’s the quality of her work that she wants you to appreciate, she says.

“NGO’s typically take up projects and do them in an ad hoc manner. I do things differently. I establish an emotional connect,” she says, sitting in an old haveli in Unnao town, built by her zamindar-lawyer grandfather. For instance, the cataract operations conducted by Shri Hriday Narayan Dhawan Charitable Trust conducts are followed up with visits and care for a month. “When somebody commits suicide I don’t give money to the family. Instead we buy a milching animal for 20,000 or so that earns them some money and makes sure there’s milk for the children,” she says. “We have distributed hundreds of these,” she says, “to widows and large families.”

A local journalist in Unnao estimates 800 animals have been distributed. That is 1.6 crores for just the animals. And this is just one of many schemes. It can safely be said that the trust must have spent more money in less than five years than the ten crores allotted to MPs for local development.

Free buffaloes. Wonder why no party put that in their manifesto. But there’s more to the emotional connect: anyone in Unnao who invites Annu to their son or daughter’s marriage gets a gift kit worth nearly Rs 15,000. A bed, an almirah, some clothes, some cash.

Her opponents, however, disparage her as a ‘Reliance candidate’. Until eight months ago, she was the MD of a software company floated by Reliance. She is a trustee of the Reliance-supported policy think-tank, Observer Research Foundation, a director with Observer Group of Publications, and most of the 41 crores of wealth declared by her is in the Reliance equity shares she and her husband hold. Her husband, Sandeep Tandon, is one of RIL’s directors, a ‘group advisor’, a confidant so close to Mukesh Ambani that he has been at the forefront of the dispute between the two brothers. A former Enforcement Directorate official, he had once raided Tina Ambani, before she married Anil, and is now the key Reliance man regarding taxation and overseas investments.

“My husband does not work for Reliance. He is a lawyer and Reliance is one of his clients,” Annu says, “And I’m proud about that. Why is corporate considered bad?”

Annu says her corporate experience has helped her in Unnao. “Corporates do research before they enter a marker. Before my trust started work in Unnao, I got local unemployed youth to do a survey of every hamlet to know the district’s problems,” she says. One of the problems was the high incidence of disability caused by fluoride in drinking water, thanks to the polluting leather tanning industries. Countless free crutches and wheelchairs followed.

Ask her if this amounts to buying the electorate, she does not go into defence modeas you would expect. “Who asked my opponent to spend 5 crores buying his ticket from Mayawati? I’m proud of the money I have spent. They don’t know how to spend their money.”

But what about being a ‘Reliance candidate’? “These are just Amar Singh’s ideas,” she says, and stops. “I don’t want to speak much on Amar Singh. He is a creation of the media. You guys should simply shun him,” she says, the only time she gets agitated.

Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh had gone on record saying that the Congress-SP alliance in Uttar Pradesh did not materialize because Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh is refused to leave the Unnao seat for the SP. Amar Singh had also said that this was because he was favouring a candidate who worked for the same company as Digvijay’s son. “This is rubbish. Digvijayji’s son does not work for Reliance,” says Annu Tandon.

“All this is because of the dispute between the (Ambani) brothers,” says Tandon. The political clout that younger brother Anil Ambani has through the Samajwadi Party, some say, is being countered by elder brother Mukesh in ways such as this.

“You will see on 16 May that the people of Unnao will reject money and power,” says the SP candidate Devendra Kumar. But her main candidate is from the BSP, Arun Kumar Shukla alias Anna. If Annu is about money, then Anna is about muscle power. The case against Anna for being part of the group that attacked BSP leader Mayawati in the infamous ‘guesthouse incident’ of 1995 is still going on, even as he joined the BSP last November. The Unnao seat is currently held by the BSP, which is banking on Anna fetching Brahmin votes alongwith the BSP’s committed Dalit votebank. “I found to my surprise that there isn’t so much crime in Unnao as some people have made it famous for,” is how Annu takes a jibe at Anna.

The people of Unnao couldn’t be bothered less about where the Annu Tandon-run NGO’s money is coming from, or what these corporate rivalries are all about. They can’t be thankful enough to her for the schools she runs, the Yashoda Vatikas that employ educated village housewives to take care of children after school, or the support the trust gives to anyone whose house is destroyed by fire.

To be fair, Annu’s trust has been working for several years and her candidature was announced only recently. Such is the impact of her social work in the country’s largest constituency that the electorate is willing to vote for her across caste barriers. A day before the election on 30 April, in the village of Nanda Kheda, people in the Dalit, Thakur and Brahmin settlements alike said they were planning to vote for Annu.

She joined the Congress, she says, on the insistence of friends such as Salman Khursheed and Jitin Prasada. Salman Khan came down to Unnao, but not to campaign, she defends. “Salman came for the Holi celebrations. He’s a friend. There was not a single politician on the stage,” she says.

“Except you, that is!”

“Yes, except me!”

The campaigning has drawn to a close, the poor are still thronging to her haveli with request letters the way they throng outside the DM’s office, and her supporters want to burn an effigy of Amar Singh. “Please stop this, I don’t want any of it,” she says, sipping Diet Coke, her manicured nails looking freshly polished. “I can lose now only if the opponents take to dirty tricks.” Incidentally, they same about her.

(An edited, shorter version of this article by me has appeared in the 15 May issue of Open magazine, where I work.)

THE ATTIC 36 REGAL BUILDINGS, NEW DELHI TEL: 23746050

wednesday 12th november

5.00 pm Book Release of Boki by Nitoo Das. Publishers: Virtual Artists Collective

Boki, Nitoo Das’ first poetry collection, plays around with given grammars, words and voices. With the skill of a ventriloquist, she gives language to several personae in her dramatic monologues and her soundscapes create a sensory world with words that slip and slide into each other. Das’ painterly eye captures precise and stark visual images that make us look at the ordinary with fresh eyes. Boki–a word that means nothing in English, but in “Doiboki”, the poem it’s in, it stands for a shouted syllable, a taunt, a song, a deconstruction of someone’s name…A ‘nonsense’ word that brings so much from its two syllables is surely what poetry is about–the creation of image from sound. To bok in Assamese, Das’ first language, means to mutter/speak meaninglessly and repetitively. The Sanskrit word, Vak, from which this irreverent Assamese derivative takes its origins, means Speech. And Nitoo Das’ Boki speaks in an explosion of images in which she demonstrates an uncanny ability to create poems that surprise us, hold us and move us.

Boki will be released by teacher, critic, novelist and poet, GJV Prasad and will be followed by readings from the collection by Nitoo Das.

Nitoo Das is a Senior Lecturer of English at Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi. She was born in Guwahati, but came to Delhi for her higher studies and decided to stay on and learn various survival skills in this ancient city. She runs a blog that began as an experiment over three years ago while working on a research project on poetry as hypertext. Her interests include fractals, caricatures, comic books, horror films, and studies of online communities. Boki is her first collection.

Blog | Interview | Virtual Artistes Collective

Eight convicted, three let off in the Khairlanji case, the news tells you. The news also tells you of hostile witnesses. But they won’t tell you how and why Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange himself became a hostile witness in a case he wanted justice done tone; the papers and TV channels won’t tell you why Bhaiyyalal is estranged with his own relatives, how some local NCP leaders who were accused in the case were never charge-sheeted, how Bhaiyyalal’s biggest grouse with life is the guilt that he cowardly ran away, as the head of the family, despite knowing what was being done to his family… it’s much more difficult to be Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange than you think.

[An edited, shorter version of this report by me appeared this morning in Sakaal Times.]

Supaul (Bihar) / Sunsari (Nepal): Even as Bihar has ordered a judicial probe into all embankment breaches in the Kosi river since the embankment was built in 1953, water resources minister Vijendra Yadav has blamed Nepal for the August 18 incident.

Yadav has said that the Bihar government was aware of the impending crisis but could not do anything because of lack of cooperation from the Nepalese side. He said that the water resources ministry’s secretary had written a letter to the Indian embassy officials in Nepal, a copy of which had been marked to the irrigation department at the center. He said that on August 14, CM Nitish Kumar had approached external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee requesting him to intervene.

“I did not want to reveal all this earlier because external affairs are under the centre’s jurisdiction but I have been forced to do so because I am being painted as the villain who caused the flood,” he told Sakaal Times.

He listed four reasons to explain how the Nepalese side was responsible. Firstly, embankment repair and flood-fighting work was halted because of a strike by labourers. He said that the strike was instigated by local political elements. At the breach point in Kusaha, however, there were conflicting versions from people about why the strike took place. Some said they were demanding higher wages, some said one group was demanding that no other group be allowed to work, and some said they were striking because they hadn’t been paid wages for five days. One contractor, Babloo Kumar of Surya, who has been hired now to help the public sector company HSCL with the repair work, said that the Bihar government often delayed payments to contractors and water resources department officials used discretionary powers to give contracts to small upstart companies.

Everyone, including local Nepalis, were in agreement with minister Yadav’s contention that flood-fighting was badly hit because Indian officials couldn’t cut trees and work in the night as the area had been decalred a reserved forest. The work was often delayed because officials wouldn’t be given passes to go into the reserved forest, which came up along the embankment India built as per an agreement with Nepal in 1953. “Even the previous water resources minister was once not given permission and had to return,” said Virendra Prasad, the official manning the Kosi barrage at the Indo-Nepal border. Locals there also confirmed that Bihar government officials were often afraid to visit the site for inspection because of the bad law and order situation in Nepal, which has improved drastically.

Prasad also confirmed the allegations that the two engineers had been attacked and firs thus filed. Upstream in Barakshetra, which is the catchment area of the Kosi river, the gauge tower that measures the water discharge, had been brought down by Maoists in May.

“Sharad Yadav, who was invited to Prime Minister Prachanda’s swearing-in on 18 August, had taken up the matter with him, but it was too late,” minister Yadav told Sakaal Times, “The new government in Nepal, however, is giving us all co-operation now.”

When asked about Nepal’s role in the breach, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar told this reporter, “Some questions are answered by time.”

Yadav’s clarifications come in the wake of sever criticism against him from the opposition and local media which blame him for negligence. Union minister of state for water resources, Jai Prakash Narain Yadav, who is from the RJD, has already said that the state government is blaming Nepal to hide its own negligent role, and that it should not have claimed in its daily embankment bulletins that all embankments are safe if they were in the know.

The opposition RJD has also called the judicial probe an eyewash as it does not seek to probe the state’s role in the August 18 floods and divert the attention to all embankment breaches since 1953.

[An edited, shorter version of this report by me appeared this morning in Sakaal Times.]

SUPAUL: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced here today that his government had set up a committee to study the rehabilitation and reconstruction experiences of post-earthquake Bhuj and the Tsunami before drawing up a massive resconstruction plan for 5 districts of the Koshi region.

Kumar promised that the five distrcists would be re-made anew and turned into better shape than they were even before the unexpected floods on 18 August. “We will rebuild roads, houses, tubewells, everything. We will give financial assistance to people to make their land worthy of agriculture once again and even help them with the first crops. This will also provide employment for people who have lost their livelihoods for the next few months,” he said after inspecting three relief camps here.

He said that the camps would run until people could return and when they do, they would be given money for clothes, utensils and even children’s books. Responding to reports of thefts in abandoned houses, which has led to people staying in their flooded homes or even returning to them, Kumar appealed that FIRs should be filed in every such case and that all thieves would face legal action. “How far can a thief run away in the floods? They must be around in the same village,” he said.

Kumar inspected three camps where he instructed the organizers to take care of the food timings of those who were observing the Ramadan and ordered that everyone be given mats rather than polythene sheets to sleep in their tents. Flood-displaced people were seen approaching him with their complaints, saying that some didn’t even get polythene sheets or some had tents in unhygienic conditions.

While Kumar spent less than two hours in Supaul, coming and going in a helicopter, traveling from camp to camp from 8 am till late night was railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. Yadav’s cavalcade was greeted with zindabad slogans from people throughout the district and people were also heard chanting slogans against the Nitish government. Lalu stopped randomly at places to deliver short speeches in which he said, “Nitish government said they will build a new Bihar. They are doing so by flooding your houses.” Lalu also announced free rail service for flood-displaced people who wanted to leave Bihar, and also announced 1 lakh rupees from the railway relief fund for everyone whose house was destroyed in the flood, “irrespective of caste and financial status.” He announced the railways’ help in rehabilitating the victims.

The Rashtriya Janta Dal had lost many seats in the Koshi region in the last Vidhan Sabha elections. Lalu would be traveling to other flood-affected districts tomorrow.

[An edited, shorter version of this report by me appeared this morning in Sakaal Times.]

The sorrow of Bihar has turned into a PR opportunity for everyone with a cause – everyone is here with big banners proclaiming their work and pressing the media to not forget mentioning them. Even media organizations are doing the same themselves. Even the Bihar government has been forced to put up painted boards on its cars, saying “District administration.”

A substantial presence is that of the RSS and its affiliates like Seva Ashram and ABVP. “Do put ABVP’s name in your story,” says an in-charge as children play with saffron flags. Yoga guru Baba Ramdev came all the way to Patna to flag off 25 truckloads of relief, though his banners have already been outshining those of Asaram Bapu in the flooded districts.

There’s Mayawati and the National Street Vendors’ Association, Christian missionaries and madrasas, ActionAid and local trade bodies – nobody wants to be left out in the bazaar. You don’t have to do much to start a relief camp: take over a government building with relief material and the evacuated will come. The international agencies have a minuscule presence, but their tents have the largest official logos.

One camp is run by “Friends of Anand Mohan,” as the banners proclaim. But you can’t find Anand Mohan there because he’s a former MP on death row – his “friends” hope such PR will help in his appeal before the President of India.

At a camp set up by the opposition Rashtriya Janta Dal, a truck was distributing cattle fodder by a roll call – until the crowd forced them to give all of it away at once and the crowd fought over it like a riot. The Congress has already turned its offices into relief camps and is busy planning a whirlwind tour of general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

People get free food in the camps, but the Red Cross Society has already started thinking of the long-term. They distributed utensil sets in three camps in Sahersa, never mind that it will be some months before the water recedes and village kitchens come to life again.

“We were there in the Bhuj earthquake and the Tsunami as well,” says the son of a Bihar president of the Marwari Yuva Manch, whose camp in Supaul is no doubt filling in the gap left by the Bihar government. His mother Sarita Bajaj insists you write down her name and starts dictating statements like a politician, not letting flood victims speak of their problems. “One call from me and Marwaris from all over India have sent relief material,” she says.

Are you doing this to save lives or to further you caste organizations? “Our organizations was set up to save lives,” pat comes the reply, “You must write that.”

[An edited, shorter version of this report my me appeared this morning in Sakaal Times.]

TRIVENIGANJ, SUPAUL: The Bihar government claims there’s nobody now who’s stranded amidst flooded waters and hasn’t been rescued. And that those who are refusing to leave are also being persuaded.

But in Supaul, which shares a border with Nepal and was the first district to be flooded, many are still stranded – 21 days after the Kosi embankment was breach inside Nepal. The worst reports are coming from Manganj pachayat in the Triveniganj block of Supaul, and also from the Chatapur block. Supaul’s flood affected areas have the strongest water current.

In Manganj, 11 have died of diarrhea on a school’s roof, and many are still pouring in to the relief camps. Sanjay Yadav of Maniganj took a private boat today out of Manganj. Now at the Marwari Yuva Sangh’s relief camp, he says, “We were stranded at home for so many days but the army boats would be full of people from neighbouring Koria Patti village and would have no space for us,” he said. “Somebody in a small boat came and gave us food but it was too small for people to be carried back,” he added. There are still more people at home, and Sanjay plans to go back in a boat to rescue them on Monday.

“We were stranded all these days and only three days ago did an army boat rescue us,” said Bachia Devi from Datra village in Manganj. Banshi Yadav of the same village, who arrived here just yesterday, says that quite a few were washed away from the village’s Dalit basti and their bodies were seen at the nehar. “Nobody even goes there,” he said. Vijay Anand Yadav of the same village said that at least a few thousand are still stranded in Manganj and Chatapur. “Koi mai-baap nahin hain Manganj ka,” he said, alleging that those with “approach” were being rescued faster.

His allegation seemed to have some substance at the Triveniganj block co-ordination center, where Mrityunjay Kumar has received only two calls on the helpline number since morning. “One was from an MP’s representative asking for a relief camp to be set up near a relief camp for 1,500 people in Rajshree panchayat,” he said, “and the other was from the Deputy Development Commissioner requesting that the army boats be sent in to rescue one Md Shah Alam from Bighora village.”

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a jawan of the 109 Engineers’ Regiment told Sakaal Times that six army columns are able to rescue only about 1,500 people a day in this area and many more who keep waving are unable to find a space in the boats between 8 am and 4 pm. Supaul District Magistrate N. Sarvanakumar denied that anybody was stranded, but admitted that Manganj and Chatapur have been accessible only since the army moved in with their motor boats a week ago.

(An edited, shorter version of this report by me appeared this morning in Sakaal Times.)

SAHERSA and MADHEPURA: The generous boats with boatmen provided by the Bihar government, dispatched on generous daily wages from Patna, are a boon as well as a bane. During the day they ferry people to and fro for free – so they can see if their houses are okay, assess water levels on their land, carry food for those still at home. In the unlit nights, the same boats are used for theft. This is the reason why thousands are not leaving their homes for relief camps.

Meet Bibi Hadisa of Majrahat village in Madhepura, perched atop a flooded school building with all her belongings and five children. Three children who had been dispatched away to her mother’s house were washed away. And while she was in a relief camp, cut off from her house for 12 days, someone stole the stored food: 50 kilo of potatoes, half a quintal of wheat and 1.5 quintals rice. “Almost everything we had,” she says. Now whatever she has is here, and a fireplace makes enough food to survive.

She is not the only one. Theft and the fear of it is as common as the flood – people are dealing with it as a fact of life.

“People are not leaving because they have a sentimental attachment with their houses and land,” says RK Singh, Principal Secretary with the Bihar government’s disaster management department. The civil administration as well as 35 army columns in five districts have been appealing to people to not return to their houses just because the water has receded somewhat – the cusecs count keeps climbing up and down a bit like the stock markets.

“The worst is yet to come,” says disaster management additional commissioner Pratyaya Amrit. “There will definitely be more rainfall and the water level could rise. We can’t be sure of anything till 15 October,” he told Sakaal Times.

But on the ground, in the worst-affected Madhepura district, everyone said the reason why people weren’t leaving their homes or returning was theft – whatever was at home was being stolen by unknown people in the night. And the government can hardly be expected to provide security in flooded areas.

Embarrassed by pictures of people still marooned, the government has been pained to clarify that the rescue and evacuation operations are almost over as far as they are concerned – unless these remaining people change their mind. The government estimates their number to be less than 20,000.

The Bihar government has been airdropping yellow-coloured appeal pamphlets in the 5 Kosi river flood-affected areas, asking people to abandon their houses and move to relief camps. But, the government says, several thousand are unwilling to do so, preferring to starve on their rooftops or rickety machans.

For the first time since the army was called in since 26 August, the government requested Brigadier PS Rathi, in-charge of the rescue operations in Sehersa, Madhepura and Supaul, to hold a press conference. Rathi repeatedly assured the media that he was happy with the “excellent efforts” of the civil administration.

“In one case a man waived at our team and when we reached there they only wanted food, but refused to come with us to the relief camp,” Rathi said. They didn’t leave despite being told by army persons that the flood water level might increase fatally.

Rathi said that there may be rare cases of people marooned who want to get to a camp but the army hasn’t been able to reach them. “But figures are not important,” he asserted, “the people have to be psychologically motivated to move to relief camps.”

According to the figures released today, the government is running 315 relief camps, 184 health camps, and 62 cattle camps. The relief camps are housing 2,76,656 people which is a fraction of the 8,82,189 the government t claims have been evacuated by co-ordinated relief efforts of the army, national disaster relief force and the government.

(An edited, shorter version of this report by me appeared this morning in Sakaal Times.)

PATNA: The disaster management control room of the Bihar government secretariat has bureaucrats co-ordinating relief efforts in five districts at a war-footing. The bureaucratic efficiency is remarkable not only by Bihar but India standards. The walls are plastered with maps and whiteboards where someone constantly updates the figures of relief camps, health centers, quintals of food airdropped and distributed, number of evacuees, number of houses erased, pucca, kachcha and jhopdis and even the number of fresh handpumps.

All these figures increase rapidly in a day, but there’s one figure that, on 5 September, increased from 22 to 23. That is the number of human beings that have lost their lives.

That’s right: a big-intensity, unexpected flood that has affected 27,26,132 citizens has claimed only 23 of their lives. In two of five districts, Supaul and Araria, nobody has died, claims the government.

But activists, local journalists and relief agencies working in or returning from the five Kosi flood affected districts say the figure is grossly under-estimated. “These claims of the government have been proved wrong since pictures of the dead have appeared from Supaul and everywhere,” says Rajendra Jha of Kosi Seva Sadan. “I have seen 20 dead bodies in a single day. The total number must be in thousands,” he says on the phone from from Sahersa.

“These figures are rubbish. The government does not want to pay huge ex-gratia compensation,” says Santosh Jha of the local NGO Gram Bharti.

His organization is collecting data to challenge the government’s claim. “By the government’s own figures they have managed to evacuate only 8,39,331 people. The rest 20 lakh odd are either stranded or dead,” he said, adding that a few thousand is the minimum that have lost their lives. The disaster management office says at the most 20,000 people are still marooned and were refusing to leave, hoping the waters will recede. For this purpose an appeal pamphlet was airdropped today.

These activists fear that this discrepancy may not be corrected at all: releasing a high body-count would play into the hands of the opposition Rashtriya Janta Dal whose leader Lalu Prasad Yadav has declared he is going to make the government’s handling an election issue in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The affected areas of north-east Bihar are a RJD stronghold but in view of the Nitish Kumar government’s aggressive development agenda, political analysts here feel Lalu’s party was on a losing wicket.

Senior Commissioner in the disaster management department, Pratyaya Amrit, denied that the body count was being suppressed. “Bodies float and there’s no way could have hidden that if we wanted,” he told Sakaal Times.

“I have acquired TATA Steel shares as much for the company’s reputation as a socially responsible corporate, as for its financial reliability. I am deeply disappointed to see my company abdicating its environmental responsibilities on this project and not honouring its commitments.”

But TATA Steel is still skirting the issue.

This photo had appeared widely in the papers. Nobody seems to have advised Pratibha Patil how kashmiris will interpret this picture. This was much before the uprising since the last wek of June.

Via the best blog on Kashmir.

I want to say that India’s continued repression in Kashmir is not in my name. I don’t want to meet a Kashmiri and not be able to see him/her in the eye with the guilt of being an India.

Please consider signing this petition.

by Shivam Vij in Baltal

[An edited, pruned version of this aticle by me appeared in Sakaal Times on Monday, 8 July 2008. Pictures by SHOWKAT SHAFI]

“Kabhi bulawa nahin aaya (God never called us),” says Subhash Adlakha, explaining why he never visited Amarnath before 1989, even though he had often visited the Vaishnu Devi. A retired government officer from Gurgaon, is head of Jai Baba Shri Amarnath Sewa Samiti – “Registered,” he says proudly – which collects donations from industrialists in Gurgaon, some 20 lakhs this year, and uses them for free ‘langars’ or food and accommodation in Manigam, half way between Srinagar and Baltal. 

As he waits for ‘yatris’ who will return in the evening, have food and perhaps halt here rather then go to Srinagar, he shows around the arrangements. “We have excellent food,” he says as he offers us lunch, “and arrangement for as many as two thousand people to sleep.” 

Next to his langar is one run by an association of traders from Lucknow’s busy Pratap market. “They are much bigger because they have been doing this for 17 years,” says Adlakha. Pilgrims coming from Srinagar have to compulsorily halt here and then the cars and buses leave for Baltal in a convoy escorted by heavy-duty CRPF security.

“The Mohandans in Baltal are very hostile to us,” says one of Adlakha’s assistants, “they extort money in Baltal by charging as much as five thousand ruppes a day for a tent!” When we reach Baltal we find the tents to be just a hundred rupees per person per night.

On our way, just a few kilometers ahead of the Manigam langars, a cleric’s Friday sermons from an old mosque were loudly heard in Kashmiri, exhorting the local population to ‘love’ Hindus and Sikhs just as they lovedfellow Muslims. But perhaps Adlakha’s assistant didn’t know Kashmiri. He also forgot to mention that these ‘hostile Mohandans’ didn’t trouble them at Manigam even as their protest processions passed by the previous week, demanding the revocation the government’s decision to transfer the Baltal site’s ownership to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board.

120 kms from Srinagar, in Ganderbal district, Baltal is a bit of a mela – tents as far as you can see, stalls selling artificial Shivlings and over-priced Pepsi, a large helipad with helicopters disappearing beyond impossibly high mountains, taking six hundred yatris every day to the holy cave. Prefabricated huts and heavy security – CRPF, Army, J&K police, all of them. Langars with religious flags and messages of service, ponywalas and ‘doliwalas’ taking pilgrims on the 14 kilometres long route. “But 90% pilgrims walk; the difficulty of the  trek is part of the pilgrimage,” says BS Negi, a langar manager from Ludhiana adding that the traditional route, “as recommended by the scriptures” is the Pahalgam one, which requires 32 kilometres of walking.

“India can build large dams but not even a road up the mountain?” asks a pilgrim, oblivious to Negi’s idea of treaking up a treachrous mountain as part of the pilgrimigae, the ‘bulawa’. Legend has it that the Amarnath cave, where a lingam-like ice structure is formed, has existed for ages, but was ‘rediscovered’ by a Muslim shepherd from Batakot, Buta Malik, in 1848. Until some decades ago, it was visited by only a few hundred sadhus, led by the head priest of the Dashnami Akhara in Srinagar. Malik’s family would receive a third of the offerings, and also involved was the Purohit Sabha, Mattan. 

When the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board was created, all three parties were devoid of their role in organizing the yatra – Mahant Depender Giri of the Dashnami Akhara only performs the ‘chari mubarak’ ceremonies to begin and end the yatra a the Akhara in Srinagar. He is opposed, however, to the establishment of the shrine board, its decision to extend the yatra from 15 days to two months, its communal decisions such as removing the Malik family, a symbol of Kashmiri syncretism, and also the provision of the Governor as chairman of the shrine board ‘only if the Governor is a Hindu’. Should the Governor be a Muslim, he would appoint a Hindu to head the Shrine Board.

The Shrine Board was established in 2000 by an Act of the Assembly, passed by the then National Conference government. This was done on the lines of the Vaishnu Devi Shrine Board, set up in 1988, in order to make the pilgrimage more comfortable for modern-day middle class yatris, thus increasing the number of pilgrims every year. As many as 75 lakh pilgrims visit Vaishnu Devi every year. It is a curious fact that the number of Hindu pilgrims to Amarnath should increase despite a deacde and a half of militancy in the state.

“Until 1990 a very small number of pilgrims used to go,” says lawyer Miya Abdul Qayoom, president of the Action Committee Against Land Transfer (ACALT), “but in 1991 Murli Manohar Joshi came with a large number of people in a convoy and went to the cave and put up a BJP flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar and proceeded to the Amarnath cave. That’s the point when the number of yatris started increasing.” This, he says, was a “double provocation: One, to tell the people of Kashmir that you can’t take the Valley from India, and two, to tell militants that we are not afraid of you.”

That sentiment was the reason behind a ban on the yatra by a militant outfit in 1993. The number of yatris that year was a few thousand, and the number reduced substantially again when 200 yatris died in 1996 due to a landslide. The Nitish Sengupta committee then recommended that at one time very few yatris should be allowed to go up to the cave for reasons of both safety and ecology. 
However, the Amarnath Shrine Board has been trying to take as many people as possible, also increasing the duration of the yatra from 15 days to two months in defiance of the J&K government’s refusal. Last year, 2,14,000 pilgrims went to Amarnath for ‘darshan’, this year the number is already over 3.5 lakhs and is likely to cross 5 lakhs by the time the yatra ends with ‘raksha bandhan’ on August 16. The increase has been achieved partly by the opening of the Baltal route some years ago.

Politicians and commoners alike in Srinagar feel that the Shrine Board and its aggressive promotion of the Amarnath is part of a strategy to increase India’s stake in the Valley. This has been accentuated, locals in Srinagar say, by yatris waving ‘V’ signs at armed forces and shouting ‘Bharat mata ki jai’. In Baltal, an army vehicle bringing soldiers back from the ‘darshan’ had an army jawan waving at this reporter, shouting, “Bum Bum Bholay” even as Kashmiri tentwalas looked on. Armed forces’ personnel visiting the shrine are not counted as part of the registered number of yatris, and that is the sort of thing that is confirmation for Kashmiris that Amarnath is more politics than religion. 

Stoking the fears in the current agitation against permanent transfer of the Baltal land to the SASB was the idea that this was similar to what Israel did in Palestine: “civil occupation after military occupation”. The ACALT committee said that the transfer of land was against Article 370, which disallows outsiders from buying land in the state. Technically that is not true, given that the SASB was a body established by the J&K legislature. But people felt it was a violation in spirit, as permanent ownership and residential structures could mean that ‘outsiders’ (Indians) could stay there as long as they wanted. 

The establishment and activities of the shrine board have been dubbed as a deliberate, political act of ‘cultural aggression’ which, perhaps, backfired in the current agitation. The SASB started construction of permanent structures at Baltal even before the land could be officially demarcated, paid for and handed over. This could be done easily because the ‘CEO’ of the SASB, IAS officer Arun Kumar, could get the files signed quickly because his wife was secretary in the forest department. The government denied that permanent structures had been built, trying to save the day by giving the impression that the decision was still under consideration. Kumar, who has maintained that the SASB is not answerable to the government, quickly held a press conference saying that permanent structures had indeed been built. He has since been removed for violation of service rules. “In any case his continuation as CEO of the board was against deputation rules,” says Qayoom.

“And what is the need for langars? Langars are not part of the Hindu tradition,” says one leader, pointing out that businesses by Muslims have been hurt over the years. The culture of langars has seeped into Vaishnu Devi and Amarnath pilgrimages because of Hindus from Punjab, who form the largest regional group amongst the pilgrims, followed by Haryana, Delhi and UP, in that order. A large number of these are businessmen who visit every year, and at some point decide to start langars. These are done by establishing religious trusts.

“The main reason for increase in number of yatris is langars – free food and accomodation. Some also offer free bus service from Jammu. And the media has played a very big role in popularizing the Amarnath yatra,” says BS Negi.

But the langar trusts aren’t exactly happy with the Shrine Board. “They charge twenty five thousand rupees and don’t provide half of the services they promise,” says Adlakha in Manigam. The SASB collects compulsory ‘taxes’ from various people, but the receipts issued call them voluntary donations. Rs. 1,500 if you want to put up a tent or a stall to sell, money for advertisements from companies, six thousand rupees from ponywalas and doli-walas, and twenty five thousand rupees from langar walas. It spends money on prefabricated huts (for offices, not pilgrims), toilets and water supply. There are charges of corruption against the SASB: “Why don’t they publish their accounts?” asks Miya Abdul Qayoom.

The decision to transfer land came from the Governor and the cabinet passed it. As is well known, the PDP ministers didn’t object. A lot of red tape was expended on whether the Supreme Court’s 2006 ruling that any transfer of forest land would need permission from the apex court applied to J&K, given that the ruling was in the context of a central government act which didn’t apply to J&K, which had passed its own, similar act for forest conservation in 1997. “But then why did the government go to the Supreme Court for permission for building the Mughal road [which connects Kashmir with Jammu’s Muslim-dominated districts], whereas all government departments ruled that they didn’t need to do the same for the Baltal land?”

“We got scared when the shrine board said they were planning to build a dam and generate electricity,” says Dr Mubeen Shah, president of the Kashmir Chambers of Commerce, “so we joined the ACALT committee to protest against the SASB which became a parallel government on the two routes, resulting in losses to the tourism department.” The Baltal land is now with J&K tourism.

What confirmed communal designs for most was the character of Gen SK Sinha’s governorship – he wanted to establish a Hindu university, Sharda Peeth, in Srinagar, and develop other sites of Hindu pilgrimages such as ‘Sita Haran’ in Anantnag, “but he never did anything for Muslims,” says Miya Qayoom.

“Why was a board setup only for Amarnath, why not one to look after the other 200 Hindu temples and shrines in the Valley?” asks Sanjay Saraf, a resident Kashmiri Pandit and J&K president of the Lok Janshakti Party. He also rues how Kashmiri Pandits were marginalized by the shrine board. “We are Shaivites, Shiva is our father, we and the Malik family are the rightful custodians of the shrine,” he says. “When SASB CEO Arun Kumar was asked by the cabinet why Kashmiri Pandits were being kept out, he had the guts to say he doesn’t care for Pandits.” Sikh organizations and many Pandits and in the Valley thus came out in support of the ACALT demand to revoke the order, and have even demanded dissolution of the shrine board, even as Pandits in Jammu and Delhi were, ironically, protesting against the demand.

Separatist leaders and commoners alike have been at pains to explain that this was not a communal agitation. “We have carried Hindu pilgrims on our backs for 150 years,” says a taxi-driver. “The agitation was largely secular and motivated by Kashmiri concerns rather than Muslim ones,” says the CPI-M MLA from Kulwama, Yusuf Tarigami. 

As Jammu simmers with violence, the Valley appeals for calm. Both mainstream politicians and separatists in the Valley have been pointing out how not a single yatri was touched. Indeed, when this reporter arrived on 1 July, it was difficult to get a taxi from the airport because of the general strike: the protestors would pelt stones at vehicles who defied the bandh. But vehicles carrying yatris were not touched. Ordinary Kashmiris and the tourism department both organized langars and free accommodation for stranded pilgrims. “We never touched a single yatri despite six of our people being killed in unprovoked firing by the CRPF,” Yasin Malik of the JKLF clarified to pilgrims at Baltal on 3 July. And the torching of Muslim houses and beating up of Kashmiri taxi drivers carrying pilgrims in Jammu is there for all to see. “So who is being communal?” asks Miya Qayoom.

The Bihar police now has a website, like latesht.

And you expect to go there and read of crime. You must be too obsessed with the present, too oblivious of history, you realise, when you find on the homepage:

Bihar Police: A Voyage of Excellence

Policing in Bihar is more than 3000 years old; there are historical references to policing practices adopted by the Magadh Empire. Policing in the Modern era in Bihar began in the year 1862 after the introduction of the Indian Police Act of 1861. With the creation of the province of Bihar in 1912, the basic structure of police as it exists today was laid. There have been several officers of the Bihar province in pre-independence India whose names are etched on the sands of time. To name a few; Mr. Walter Swain of Swain Beat system fame, Shri AK Sinha, the first Indian to become an IGP of any province and Shri BN Mullick, the founder of the Intelligence Bureau leaps readily to the mind. Post-independence, Bihar Police holds the legacy of a rich tradition with the introduction of innovative policing and welfare practices such as creation of a Police Welfare fund, Police Hospitals and Police Information Room (PIR) in 1952. A Police Commission was also set up in 1958, whose mandate was to bring the police closer to the people. The Bihar Policemen’s Association which came into existence in 1967 was the first of its kind to look after the interests of the policemen. Today, Bihar police, with the cooperation of the people that it is mandated to serve and its rich traditions of excellence is firmly committed to confront and surmount the numerous challenges it faces.

Hmmm…

Could deeper fears than just Income Tax Department notices be behind the Bahujan Samaj Party’s eagerness to help topple the UPA government on Tuesday? Analysts and political observers say the survival of the UPA government could seal a pre-poll alliance between the Congress and SP for the fifteenth Lok Sabha polls.

This could possibly hurt the BSP’s stated ambitions to win around 50 of 80 seats, going by arithmetic figures from the 2007 UP Vidhan Sabha elections. Should the government fall early polls are called, the impact of such an alliance could be contained.

The BSP’s voteshare in 2007 elections was 31%, up from the previous 24% thanks to its policy of appealing to all caste blocs. But the SP had also maintained its tally of 25%, but lost 48 seats.

“The Congress with its 8% vote-share could help the SP in a pre-poll alliance as lesser votes will be divided,” says political scientist Sudha Pai, author of a book on the BSP. “It would definitely limit the number of seats the BSP could get,” she says.

However, past experience shows that vote blocks don’t shift easily. In 1996 the Congress and the BSP had an alliance in which some of the Congress traditional voters voted for the BSP but not vice-versa. “The same is likely to happen if the Congress allies with the SP,” said Pai, “This could be a calculated move on the part of the SP.”

“Mayawati is standing on a fragile vote-share combination,” says Kanpur-based political scientist AK Verma, adding, “Using the Muslim card on the nuclear deal issue could drive Muslim voters to the Congress-SP as Muslims may not appreciate being pitted against something in national interest,” he said.

But not all feel that Mayawati is worrying about a SP-Congress tie up. “Vote shares are not cast in stone,” says Ajoy Bose, author of a political biography of Mayawati. “Mulayam has shot himself in the fott by joining the UPA at this time and facing defection from his party and potential loss of votes. Mayawati stands to gain the most,” he says.

AK Verma cautions that even if the Congress and SP achieve a collective vote-share of 30% plus, it is not necessarily a magic wand. “In 1996, the BJP had 34% vote-share but only 175 of 403 seats,” he says. Varma says that winning an election in UP requires building what he calls a “vertical social coalition” rather than one that is horizontal. “A vertical social coalition of several castes has the winning weight in the assembly,” he says.

To that extent the BSP may not be under threat as no other party is trying to cut through its Sarvajan Samaj politics. “The SP and the Congress are both acting in desperation to save their 19 and 39 MPs from UP respectively,” says Ramesh Dikshit, Uttar Pradesh chief of the Nationalist Congress Party. Maywati with her prime ministerial ambitions is clearly not taking any chances, numbers firmly in mind.

[An edited, shorter version of this article by me appeared this morning in Sakaal Times.]

The European Union sub-committee on human rights will hold tomorrow a hearing in its Brussels tomorrow on the discovery of mass graves and alleged intimidation and attacks on human rights activists in Kashmir. The hearing will be attended by Indian embassy officials as well as human rights activists.

This comes in the wake of the European Union Parliament’s resolution calling upon India to investigate not only the recently discovered mass graves but also the alleged attack by security forces on human rights activist Parvez Imroz. Imroz, an award-winning activist who is with the Association of Parents of Displaced Persons (APDP), has survived two assassination attempts in the past. The APDP has been coordinating the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir.

The resolution “Expresses its concern for the safety of Parvez Imroz and other human rights activists investigating unmarked graves and human rights abuses… and calls on India to ensure their protection and allow them to operate without fear of harassment and violence; urges the authorities to conduct a prompt and impartial investigation into the attack on Parvez Imroz.”

The eleven-point resolution has also asked India to remove restrictions it has placed disallowing the UN Special Rapporteurs on Torture and on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, and the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, from visiting the Indian side of Kashmir.

At 10:10 pm on 30 June, says Imroz, a group of CRPF and J&K police personnel arrived at his house in Kralpura village, 8 kms from Srinagar city. “The broke the bulbs outside the house and started banging.” Fearing for his life, Imroz didn’t answer, rather calling his nephew who raised an alarm from the mosque and a crowd started collecting there. “So they shot at my nephew and he escaped,” he said, “and they also fired a grenade-like thing in the compound and five shots in the air as they left.”

The police, he alleges, refused to file an FIR the next day and which has still not been filed. “The charges are preposterous but we are investigating them,” SM Sahai, Inspector General of Police (Kashmir zone) told Sakaal Times. Asked if there were any charges against Imroz, Sahai said, “None at the moment but if he does something suspicious we will definitely investigate that.”

CRPF spokesperson P Tripathi, however, blamed it on the police: “The local police station received a call from Imroz that around 45 militants had laid siege to his house. The CRPF only assisted the police and was not involved in any attack on his house.”

Imroz has since then been living elsewhere, fearing for his life. Another member of the people’s tribunal, Angana Chatterji, has alleged that when she was at the airport, leaving India on 4 July, she got a call from an unknown caller who said, “Madam, we know you’re leaving. Think wisely before coming back.” Chatterji will be representing the APDP in Brussels tomorrow.

[An edited, shorter version of this interview appeared in Sakaal Times on 7 July.]

Even as the PDP tries to occupy the moral high-ground in the aftermath of a successful azadi-inclined agitation against the transfer of land to the Shrine Board, its President Mehbooba Mufti admits in an interview with Shivam Vij that the party has suffered a jolt.

Do you accept that the PDP has suffered a political jolt in the current controversy?
In politics you have to be prepared for ups and downs. This has definitely been a jolt. People had high expectations from us and we did achieve in restoring the credibility of mainstream parties. People had started looking at mainstream parties as not being untouchable anymore. Ghulam Nabi Azad’s parting gift to the outgoing Governor has affected that.

You blame Azad but the PDP forest minister and Deputy CM were responsible for the passage of the order.
But the Chief Minister is the head of the government. Certain policies were dear to Governor Sinha and he had the habit of getting his way through. He is now accusing my father [former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed] of being separatist and communal. He forgets that it was my father who had made land available to the Vaishnu Devi shrine board.

But the Congress says that the file was thrice approved by Baig which is Deputy CM as well as law minister.
That was only about whether the Supreme Court order on transfer of forest land applies to the state. But yes our ministers did make mistakes by being persuaded. Ghulam Nabi Azad was very close to the Governor and it seemed that he had to do him a favour. He has today even admitted that he would send reports about the PDP to New Delhi.

But ultimately a cabinet has collective responsibility…
Yes, and that’s why we have punished ourselves. Haven’t we, by sacrificing from the cabinet. It was only after we withdrew, and because of the resulting political pressure, that the order was revoked. Yes, people are angry with us, but you can be angry only with someone who is your own and there can always be a meeting ground.

You have called the Governor communal.
Just go to the Raj Bhavan and see how he has turned it into a temple with gods and goddesses all over the place. And tell me, in Tirupati or other such places, which state government has transferred hundreds of acres of forest land to temple boards?

Whose brainchild was the shrine board?
The law to establish the shrine board was enacted when the National Conference in Srinagar was a partner of the BJP in Delhi. The two parties were obviously in partnership and this was part of their give and take. Governor Sinha was sent here when my father was the chief minister so that he could take this kind of agenda forward and my father resisted a lot.

So your father and Governor Sinha didn’t have good relations.
Oh the relations were very bad. As soon as Governor Sinha arrived he started holding district level meetings and was very aggressive about the shrine board. He started asking officials to brief him directly and bring him files. He’s not supposed to do that.

Do you think the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board should be dissolved?
I think its purpose should be confined to rituals. And there should be a CBI enquiry into its finances as also those of the vaishnu Devi Shrine Board. I have heard many allegations that the Governor had turned the two boards into money making machine and they don’t even publish accounts. There were protests in Katra two years ago. They are charging huge fees from punywalas and labourers. We want to know if somebody got commissions from langars and chopper companies. People here want to know if Governor Sinha went back a rich man.

The NC is being said to be the one which is going to benefit, but more than the BJP in Jammu and even nationally.
The BJP thrives on communalism and that is what they are doing. But as far as the NC is concerned I am sure people will look at our performance between 2002 and 2005.

It is being said that the popularity of the agitation will affect voters’ participation in the assembly polls in November.
We are apprehensive that the boycott call may work to some degree in towns and cities. These events have been the biggest setback to the democratic process the PDP had started. The turnout in municipal elections was as high as 90% in some places and even in by-elections we saw 70% voting. When my father took over in 2002 he purused the ‘healing touch’ policy that was gaining success but Ghulam Nabi Azad undid all that. What we saw on the streets for nine days against the transfer of land to the shrine board, was giving vent to pent-up anger about many other things.

What were the achievements of three years of PDP rule?
When we took over there was a sense of great insecurity on the streets. The issue wasn’t jobs or development but whether one would be back home at the end of the day. We also tried to move Delhi towards reconciliation between India and Pakistan so that the Kashmir issue could be solved. Our healing touch policy was showing success and the space for violence started shrinking. We also made sure we were fair to Ladakh and Jammu regions, you can ask the people there.

But demilitarization didn’t happen, and isn’t security in the hands of Delhi anyway?
Well we did persuade Delhi to withdraw troops from schools and administrative buildings. Can you imagine a BJP prime minister (Atal Bihari Vajpayee), despite having an alliance partnership with the National Conference, praised us? Can you imagine he was able to address a crowd of thousands in Srinagar without worrying about security? People came to listen to Sonia Gandhi despite an encounter going on in the city. That is what we changed. In November 2004 the prime Minister announced that Delhi found a sea change  and was considering withdrawal of troops. But when Azad took over he started opposing withdrawal. Our tenure saw the opening of the Muzaffarabad road [for a bus service]. He did not pursue anything in the direction we had given. We had given Kashmiris the feeling that they were moving forward politically. We managed to bridge the gap between Kashmiris and New Delhi.

So what according to you were Azad’s achievements?
Well he harps on development and reducing corruption but if you talk to common people they will tell you we did more on that front.

The Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society has documented that during the PDP years there were 127 custodial killings and 173 disappearances, whereas during the Congress tenure there were 56 custodial killings and 104 disappearances. This could no doubt be because of decline in militancy but it still shows the PDP in a bad light.
I personally went to the house of each and every family whose members had disappeared or killed in custody or a fake encounter, so I know that these figures are not right. We were able to impress upon Delhi that fake encounters were happening for money and promotions.

The azadi sentiment remains strong and has only received a fillip with the anti-land transfer agitation. As a Kashmiri, as an observer, and not as a PDP leader, what do you think is the way forward?
We can find a way out, we had started bridinging gap between Kashmiris and Delhi…

But a substantial number of people want azadi, they don’t want to bridge the gap with Delhi.
The Prime Minister and General Musharaff had declared that boundaries can’t be changed. So we suggested the setting up of a regional council. Representatives from both Kashmirs could be me members. This could also function as the joint mechanism between India and Pakistan. So we have given a roadmap.

But Delhi seems to be happy with the decline of militancy and seems to be suggesting the problem is over.
Unfortunately my father is now being projected as a separatist, but he had warned Delhi: don’t take this normalcy for granted. But Ghulam Nabi Azad changed the tune to say that these azadi slogans were hollow, self-rule was meaningless. He thought his hollow slogan of development could answer everything.

So what should be done now?
The alienation of people can be addressed be pro-people policies to some extrent. But you also need a roadmap to solve the Kashmir problem. This has to take into account three things. Firstly, regional balance between Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. Secondly, the gap between Delhi and Kashmir. And thirdly, the Pakistan factor. All three of these things are equally important.

[An edited, shorter version of this interview appeared in Sakaal Times on 29 June.]

What is the status of the government at this moment?
The Left position is clear, it is the Congress and the UPA which has to decide. We have been consistent and reasonable. This has been our stand when the government had signed the new framework with the US. When Manmohan Singh and George Bush signed a joint statement, we had opposed it. We protested outside Parliament when the nuclear deal was signed. The UPA said let us just go to the IAEA and negotiate. The UPA-Left committee was set-up to take a final view on the nuclear deal, its impact on our foreign policy, etc.

Is there still any hope?
That is for the Congress party to decide. They think the nuclear is the number one priority before the nation when it was not even there in the common minimum programme.

Is there a time-frame to your negotiations with the UPA?
Once the safeguard negotiations are over, they had to come back before the committee. The negotiations are frozen, neither India nor IAEA can change them. They want to go ahead with the deal without the UPA_Left committee’s approval. That cannot be accepted by the Left.

Is this the single issue or are there other issues?
That is why I raised the issue of priority. There’s inflation and price rise. We have been doing demonstrations, bandhs and strikes from April onwards. There are farmers committing suicides in the country, there are struggles over land acquisitions. And what is the government’s priority? The nuclear deal!

How much of what was promised in the CMP has been delivered?
The rural employment guarantee act was an important legislation, though we wanted it in urban areas as well. But a beginning was made, first in 100 districts and now all over the country. Then there was the RTI Act, a detrimental amendment to which we blocked. But then the women’s reservation bill is still stuck. The Forest Rights Act was important but it is not being implemented properly, there are violations even now. We opposed the organized workers’ bill but they have been trying to push through financial sector liberalisatiion.

So what will you tell the people about your achievements in the past four years?
I am not discussing elections at the moment, I don’t want to send out the wrong signals.

Whereas you are blocking the deal and threatening to withdraw support, you want to give the impression that the Congress is responsible.
This impression being created in a section of the press is incorrect. There were debates in Parliament on the nuclear deal, and it is not the Left alone but a number of other parties which are opposed to it. A majority of MPs are against it. The Left has a position, a point of view, and we have the right to do so in a democracy. Give us counter-arguments. The joint Manmohan-Bush statement said that India and the US have a shared economic and political perspective. Endorsing that means we endorse the Amerccan occupation of Iraq, its position on Palestine, its threats to Iran.

What is to be made of joint Indo-US naval and military exercises? The nuclear deal is more about deepening Indo-US cooperation. The US is looking towards India as a huge market for its nuclear business. The US has a grand design in Asia, a global strategy that it wants India to be part of. We have to ask ourselves what are political the costs of the nuclear deal?

They keep painting us as being against nuclear energy. The Left is not opposed to nuclear energy as such. India already has 17 nuclear reactors which provide 2.6% of our energy and the deal could increase it by just another 3-4%. And at what cost?

Why don’t you push the government to sign the CTBT and the NPT and then the nuclear fuel embargo would go away, without India having to sign the deal.

The NPT is discriminatory, it perpetuates nuclear haves and have-nots. The Left has always been for nuclear disarmaments, ask the Congress if they are, ask them what Rajiv Gandhi had declared.

What if the Samajwadi Party saves the government after you withdraw support?
Let things happen, they have a meeting on 3 July to decide their stand. Why should I comment on something that hasn’t yet happened?

Isn’t it strange for you to support Iran which has an authoritarian regime that imprisons leftists?
Iran is a part of the NPT, it is part of an international nuclear regme, and therefore they are facing this situation. I should attack the US first. They have the biggest nuclear arsenal, have been weaponising space and sea-surface.

Isn’t your stand helping the BJP?
I object to that language. We have been supporting the UPA for four years now only to keep communal forces out. We have been fighting communal forces uncompromisingly and they regard us as their enemy number one. Ask the Congress if they aren’t helping the BJP by wanting to precipitate elections over the nuke deal when inflation is sky-high.

[An edited version of this article by me appeared in Sakaal Times on 8 July.]

New Delhi, 7 July: On Thursday, 4 July, the Congress’ social welfare minister Abdul Gani Wakil showed this reporter the list of MLAs in the J&K assembly, claiming that even the lone BJP MLA would abstain in order to save the Ghulam nabi Azad government. Since 28 June, when the PDP withdrew support, the Congress always insisted that it had the numbers. On allegations of horse-trading by the PDP, Wakil had said, “We have asked all MLAs to vote from their conscience.”

So what went wrong? The Congress was banking mainly on a rebel group of PDP MLAs who were unhappy with PDP President Mehbooba Mufti’s decision to withdraw support. This rebel group, sources say, was led by Deputy CM and law minister Muzaffar Husain Baig, who wanted to stay on with the government and clear the air about his own role in allowing the land tranfer to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board.

Of the PDP’s 18 MLAs, one, Ghulam Hasan Mir, had been suspended from the party in connection with the sex scandal. Mir, who has formed his own party and was supporting Azad’s government, told Sakaal Times, “Azad could have proved majority this morning as several MLAs from the PDP and even the NC were planning to vote for the government against their party whips.” The anti-defection law, passed in J&K by Azad, was also taken care of: Mir said that 5 PDP MLAs were ready to go against their party whip. “But Azad chose to resign honourably as it would not have looked good in a democracy,” said Mir.

However, other rumours had it that this rebel group backed out at the last moment.

[An edited version of this article by me appeared in Sakaal Times on 3 July.]

In Valley it is V for Victiory
Srinagar, 2 July:  The writing is on the wall: the Kashmiri demand for independence from India is not over yet. Separatist leaders and commoners alike have hailed the withdrawal of the land transfer order as the victory of the Kashmiri people and called for revitalizing the azadi movement. This is clearly a turning point in the 20 years old militant struggle. There is also talk of boycotting the forthcoming assembly elections and reunification of the two factions of the Hurriyat Conference.

The mood was reflected in every local daily’s frontpage headlines. “PEOPLE WIN,” said Greater Kashmir.” “Kashmir Savours Victory,” said the “Kashmir Observer”. “Kashmir win,” said “Amroze Kashmir”.  “VICTORY!” shouted the “Etalaat”. “People win, Order revoked,” said the “Kashmir Monitor”. The Urdu “Srinagar Times” had a cartoon showing a common Kashmiri with a ‘V’ sign, the caption reading “Man of the Match”.

The emphasis that it was a people’s agitation rather than one of leaders is shared by everyone. The sentiment is shared by every taxi driver, shopkeeper, houseboat-owner, journalist – too widespread to be brushed away as anybody’s political gimmick The agitation was lead by the ACALT committee which had, apart from Hurriyat leaders, apolitical religious leaders, representatives from trade and transporters’ organization’s, the Kashmir Chambers of Commerce and the Bar Council. Vehement support was given by the Valley’s Sikhs and most Kashmiri Pandit organizations as well.

The biggest winner is Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who was the first to begin mobilizing the public with a signature campaign. He held a press conference this morning in which he emphasized the non-violent nature of the agitation, the widespread support of youth who took to the streets.

“This punctures New Delhi’s theory that our movement is standing on Pakistani support,” he said, adding, “Did you see a single agitator using violence?” He announced a special gathering on Friday at the Hazratbal shrine which would be addressed by him as well as Mirwaiz Omar farooq, leading to speculation that Hurriyat reunification is on the cards. “The movement lives on in the hearts and minds of the people,” he told Sakaal Times.

The relatively smooth rule of the PDP-Congress coalition and the decline in militancy had led observers to believe that people’s participation in elections could increase. “Nobody will vote now,” said Etalaat editor Zahiruddin. In fact NC’s Omar Abdullah is believed to have said as much to the NSA in his meeting with him in Delhi.  “Mainstream politicians in the Valley who believed the movement was on its deathbed have got a rude jolt,” he said. “This is very unpleasant for the Indian government and intelligence agencies who were already talking of a post-conflict scenario,” says human rights activist Parvez Imroz.

[An edited, shorter version of this article by me appeared yesterday in Sakaal Times.]

New Delhi: The agitating Gujjars may have got a special place in the reservations pie in Rajasthan, but is this is a case of an elite class cornering benefits in the name of the poor of their community? Some academics and actvists certainly think so.

In Alwar, Aman Singh heads Krapavis, an NGO that works chiefly with Gujjars on pastoral issues. Singh says that in his interactions poor Gujjars in villages have said that they are not concerned about reservations as they are uneducated, and are more bothered by state policies that are making it difficult for them to earn a living by rearing goats, sheep or buffaloes.

Singh told Sakaal Times, “Most Gujjars were herded into the agitation by whipping up a frenzy in the name of caste honour. The Gujjar mahapanchayat had issued diktats that anyone who does not send one family member for the agitation would be ostracized from the community, which nobody would marry in that family. They were also threatened with a fine of Rs. 11,000 per family.” Most leaders of the agitation are ex-servicemen, doctors and lawyers.

Singh’s NGO has been working on several issues faced by Gujjars in their traditional occupation. Similarly, ecologist Purnendu S. Kavoori of the Institue of Development Studies in Jaipur has been reseraching on pastoralism for twenty years now. “Behind the Gujjar uprising is the destruction of the way of life of pastoralist communities, including Gujjars,” he says, adding, “the state has been focusing on agriculture at the expense of pastoralism.” Pastoral communities need public fields to graze their cattle, but such fields, traditionally called ‘gochars’, have been taken over by agriculture.

Gujjars in eastern Rajasthan have also been facing the problem of being denied the use of forest areas that are under the forest department or have been turned into sanctuaries, as in Sariska in Alwar. “The orons or the forests that surround the villages are crucial for pastoralism but the Rajasthan government is taking them over for jatropha cultivation,” said Singh.

“The animal husbandry policies of the government has been promoting hybridization of cattle with foreign breed which results in breeds that need high inputs and yield low output. The state policies have been resulting in sedenterisation of animals,” said Kavoori. Kavoori is part of an experiment, along with Krapavis, to find such varieties of grass that may be more suitable as cattle feed.

Kavoori had in fact made a representation before the Justice Chopra Committee last year on these issues but the committee’s recommendations did not take them into account. Instead, it recommended a package for building roads, handpumps, schools and clinics. “The state cannot think beyond its own idea of development,” said Aman Singh.

“Internationally, governments have made special provisions for pastoralists and it is time we realized the gravity of the issue,” said political scientist Shail Mayaram, who has worked on marginalized communities in Rajasthan.

“Reservations will not solve the problem of livelihood for Gujjars,” said Kavoori, “we need to do much more.”

[An edited, shorter version of this article by me appeared this morning in Sakaal Times.]

The Rajasthan government will send a letter to the Centre on the Gujjar demand of ST status, the draft of which it will release on Thursday. However, the government refused to reveal its contents. It is however clear that ST status won’t be recommended.

This will be in addition to the ordinance it will soon issue to create a new reservations category, “most backward castes” with 5% quota; this will include Gujjars, Banjaras, Garadia Lohars and Rebaris. “However, the government could include some other OBC castes when the ordinance is turned into a Bill,” BJP state president Omprakash Mathur told Sakaal Times. This is in line with the BJP’s proposed formula for resolving the Gujjar agitation as first reported by Sakaal Times on 6 June.

The Rajasthan cabinet will meet on Thursday to decide when the next session of the House would be called. This will have to be done soon because the model code of conduct for the November elections could soon come into force. Along with the MBC ordinance the government would also introduce 14% reservations for the economically backward amongst the upper castes. “Rajput, Vaishya, Brahmin, yeh bhi to sab lagey huay thay,” Mathur told Sakaal Times. With this move the BJP seeks to placate upper castes who were miffed with the Gujjar agitation and could have been alienated from the party had they been ignored even as the Gujjars were being appeased to end their rail-block agitation.

Rajasthan has 21% quota for SCs, and 28% for OBCs. Adding 5% for MBCs and 14% for EBCs would take the total to 68%. However, the Supreme Court’s judgement in the Indira Sahani case in 1991 said that total reservations under Article 16 (4) of the Constitution cannot exceed 50%. “This can be struck down but only if somebody goes to the Supreme Court against it,” PS Krishnan, advisor on reservations to the HRD ministry, told Sakaal Times. Maharshtra has 52% quotas and that has survived, he said, only because nobody has challenged it. Tamil Nadu has 69% reservations under the 9th schedule of the Constitution, which means it cannot be struck down by the courts. However, the Supreme Court is currently examining the case.

The Indira Sahni judgement says that the total quota may exceed 50% under “extraordinary circumstances.” Krishnan said, “It would be very difficult for the Rajasthan government to justify it in court”

Mathur claimed that the EBC quota was a first in the country. However, Krishnan said that the Narasimha Rao government had tried to bring about 10% quota for the economically backward amongst upper castes but this had been struck down by the Supreme Court.

The letter to the centre whose contents will be revealed tomorrow will be in continuance of the correspondence that began in December 1999. At the time the Centre had written a letter to the state asking for population data and ethnographic material to take forward the process of including several communities in the ST list. The Rajsthan government had replied the letter in January this year along with the Justice Chopra Committee report, to which the Centre had said that it should formally recommend ST status.

“The 1999 letter does not amount to a letter of intent,” said Krishnan. Even if the Rajasthan government does recommend ST status, the supporting evidence will have to be verified by the Registrar General of India and then the Parliament would have to pass a bill.

[An edited, shorter version of this article by me has appeared in Sakaal Times.]

Jaipur: The Rajasthan government could be bringing fresh proposals to the table to give Gurjars reservation benefits without alienating any other major caste group. Rajasthan BJP state President Om Prakash Mathur told Sakaal Times that he expects the deadlock to be over in a few days. Other sources said that the government has also been talking to Jat community leaders to see if a compromise formula can be evolved.

“We have never said no to the Gujjar demand and some route will have to be explored,” he said. One route, he said, was that of giving Gurjars reservations by considering them a ‘denotified tribe’; the Raje government had already indicated this as early as in January. DTs are communities classified as ‘criminal tribes’ by the British. Some states have a separate quota for them, some include them in the Scheduled Tribes list, some in the OBC list. Rajasthan’s Gurrjars are OBC, and it is unclear how the state proposes to give them community-specific reservations without reducing the pie for others. Rajasthan already has 49% reservations and can’t exceed 50% by law.

However, Mathur pointed out that a letter by the central government had notified Gurjars as STs back in December 1999, along with 22 other castes. However, this was never implemented. “So we are looking into all these things, doing our homework,” he said.

There have always been ample solutions to the Gurjar impasse, but the Gurjars have refused to look beyond the ST demand as they want parity with the Meenas. The state  government, too, had so far only been postponing the crisis. But with elections in mind the state government is believed to be sincerely looking for a way to satisfy the Gurjars.

The Justice Chopra committee setup by the state government as a way out for the Gurjar impasse last summer did not in its report suggest tinkering with the reservation system as a solution. However, a deposition before the committee by Kavita Srivastava, general secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, had shown alternatives that other states are successfully using.

The alternative involves dividing either the OBC or the ST quota to ensure that communities get reservation benefits in consonance with the proportion of their population. In 2006, the Rajinder Sachar report on the state of Muslims had pointed out how other states have done this. Karnatakahas three OBC lists – Most Backward, More Backward and Backward. Bihar and Kerala similarly have two lists. Tamil Nadu has had an advanced formula which, for instance, allows Vanniyars 20% of the total OBC pie in the name of Extremely Backward quota.

Another alternative is to divide the Schedule Tribes list into two parts, Lists I and II, in the manner that Punjab has done with the state SC list there to ensure equal opportuinities for Balmiki and Mazhabi Dalit communities.

Yesterday, three days before Kumari Mayawati completes a year as Uttar Pradesh chief minister, a Union minister in the Manmohan Singh cabinet quit the Congress and joined the Bahujan Samaj Party. So did some other Congress leaders and more are said to be on their way. This comes after a massive campaign in Uttar Pradesh by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

A year is a very long time in politics. After Mayawati was sworn in on 13 may, heading the first stable, non-coalition government in UP in 17 years, the BSP-Congress bonhomie had made the latter look like the BSP’s B-team. “The turning point was the Gujarat election,” says JNU political scientist Sudha Pai, author of a book on the BSP. The BSP didn’t win a single seat but cost the Congress more than a dozen seats by eating into its vote bank. Around the same time it won only a single seat in Himachal Pradesh but increased its voteshare from 0.7 to 7 percent. In the Delhi municipal elections last year it won 10 percent votes and 15 seats. And then in the last week of December Mayawati went on a whirlwind tour of the country- Chandigarh, Punjab, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Bihar – often promising thir or that to particular caste groups, poaching local politicians from other parties and urging voters to accept its ‘Sarvajan Samaj’ formula.

A senior Congress leader in Lucknow says that the Congress strategy since then has been to force Mayawati to battle it out on home turf. Hence the Rahul Gandhi offensive on Mayawati not doing enough for Dalits. “Even if it does not impress voters in UP for the moment it does send out the right signal to Congress’ dalit base in other states like Haryana and MP,” the leader explains.

Mayawati’s critics were delighted when the BSP lost the Ballia (in eastern UP) assembly bypoll in January. “Around 20% dalit voters didn’t vote at all,” says Saharanpur-based Dalit activist Ram Kumar, “the Brahmin candidate who represented the BSP there was a particularly unpopular one.” It seemed that the BSP’s ‘Sarvajan Samaj’ alliance was hurting its heels.

“But she has Jat leader Mahendra Singh Tikait to thank,” adds Kumar. In March the Bhartiya Kisan Union leader hurled unmentionable caste slurs at Mayawati at a rally in Bijnore. Mayawati had him arrested but as a compromise had him released on bail. “By not taking Tikait’s insult lying down she sent a message to Dalit masses who their leader was,” says Pai. And at the same time she made sure she didn’t take so drastic an action against him that it would hurt her efforts to woo the Thakurs.

Three state assembly and and two Lok Sabha bypolls in April were won with handsome margins in April. The Congress and BJP candidates lost their security deposits in four of these seats. Political analysts say because of the consolidation of dalit votes because of the Tikait incident. “But it could also be because the crucial Brahmin votes that make it a tipping point for victory are more easily had in western UP,” says Vishwanath pandey, registrar with the Benares Hindu University. Pandey, a keen political observer, explains that the newfound Brahmin love of the party has been restricted to the Kanyakubja Brahmins, which is the sub-caste of the party’s Brahmin mascot Satish Chandra Mishra. “Eastern UP is dominated by Saryupari Brahmins who are still close to the BJP,” he explains, adding, “most of the posts in the government have been cornered by the Kanyakubjas.”

The BSP’s social engineering with Brahmins may be copied by Mulayam Singh yadav and Lalu Yadav, but as far as the BSP is considered it is a big ploy, says psephologist Yogendra Yadav of CSDS. Indeed, CSDS survey show that only 17% of Brahmins in UP voted for the BSP in the assembly polls last year and that Brahmins are still largely with the BJP. However, the impression of a Dalit-Brahmin alliance helps the BSP give an impression of an all-inclusive Dalit party that attracts all castes, particularly the lower OBCs who are the party’s second biggest voteblock after Dalits.

Ram Kumar, who runs an NGO that works on cases of atrocities against dalits across UP, says that while Brahmins have gained a lot from this government, violence against Dalits has increased. “Mayawati’s orders to the police brass to not register cases under the SC/ST Atrocities Act has sent out a signal in the rural areas that you can do anything to a dalit and get away with it,” he says. The relaxation of the Atrocities Act, which Mayawati officially denies but is there to see on the ground, has always happened in Mayawati’s regimes because an increase in the number of FIRs later shows up badly in the crime records. Her opponents wave the reports in the state assembly, point out how Dalits are suffering under the Dalit CM’s nose. “Also that the harshness of the Atrocities Act creates animosity against the BSP amongst the rest,” explains a BSP worker in Lucknow. He says that it deflects the party from marching forward. “The most important task at hand is to make Behenji the PM,” he says, “and the Dalits understand this.”

This time the BSP has been careful enough not to openly indulge in making money out of mass administrative transfers, but its agenda to build statues of Dalit icons and publish literature about them remains unabated. “This is a state where farmers are dying! And she wastes public money in putting up her own statues!” says former Lucknow University vice-chancellor Roop Rekha Verma. “The statue politics is part of the BSP’s mobilization strategies over the last two decades. You may see it as wasteful expenditure but for Mayawati it is investment,” says Badri Narayan, author of a book on the BSP’s use of mythology and history to win Dalit votes.

Mayawati rarely visits the secretariat in Lucknow, signing files at home. While Shashank Shekhar Singh and his team of bureaucrats run the administration, Mayawati likes to devote the better part of her time to building the party. When in October last year there was uncertainty over mid-term general elections, she had party workers from Jammu to Tamil Nadu visit Lucknow for a massive rally. The BSP is widely expected to do well in Haryana and Madhya Pradesh assembly elections.

The BSP typically contests all seats in every election even if it knows it is going to forfeit its deposit in most places. It is said about the BSP that it contests the first election to lose, the seond one to defeat and the third one to win. Considering 2009 is the first time the BSP will be seriously pitching itself as a national party for the Lok Sabha, why is there so much talk about Mayawati as the next Prime Minister? “There definitely is a sense of panic,” says Pai, “it is too early to make such predictions. And who can predict Indian politics either way?”

[An edited, shorter version of this article by me has appeared in Sakaal Times.]

As inflation hit a 42-month high on Friday, consumers’ anxiety also hit a new high, even as big retail stores are exploiting the opportunity by offering special discounts that purportedly negate the price rise.

At Future Group’s Big Bazaar in the Great India Place in Noida, one of the biggest retail stores in Delhi-NCR, floor manager Mukesh Negi explained how they were offering 20% discount on all food items provided customers also bought non-food items worth the same or greater amount. “This is a part of our campaign to help consumers fight unprecedented inflation,” he said.

He said that the greatest rise has been in prices of edible oils and rice, two most essential commodities. From Rs. 60 a litre three months ago, edible oils at Big bazaar are now retailing for upto Rs. 78 a litre.

Amongst pulses rice has been the worst hit. In some types of rice, said Negi, the price rise in the last three months has been 20% – and since Diwali last year, 90%. Sales have however not been affected, he said, as “people are not going to stop eating.”

“It is definitely beginning to pinch,” said Madhu Arvind Srivastava, a housewife carefully buying groceries at the retail chain. “When I bought rice stocks three months ago, regular Basmati was at 32 rs a kg. Now it is 38,” she said.

However, kkirana store owners say loosely sold groceries are begiing to stabilize – despite the Wholesale Price Index’s unrelenting upward trend. Two kilometers away from Big Bazaar, a small provision store owner, Pawan Jaiswal, said that mustard oil prices had come down from Rs. 78 a litre two months ago to Rs 68. Sugar prices had dropped from Rs. 18 to 17 a kgand rice from Rs 18 to 14. “I’ll go to the wholesale market again on Sunday and see if prices are increasing again,” he said.

“Prices dropping at kirana stores could be because of various reasons such as adulteration or PDS supplies being diverted into the market,” said consumer activist Bijon Mishra. He added that the overall inflation scenario is only the beginning and due to supply side reduction prices could go up further. “But the rise is not hurting the middle class that badly thanks to growing incomes, but savings are getting affected,” he said.

Another consumer activist, Shriram Khanna, said that the poor must be protected through PDS subsidies which should be made more effective. “Price rise is inevitable if the economy has to grow,” he said.

Kashmiri Pandit groups have reacted sharply to media reports that the Jammu and Kashmiri Police has prepared a report saying that ‘only’ 209 Kashmiri Pandits have been killed in the Valley since 1989. The police, however, deny having prepared or published any such report.

Some recent media reports had claimed that the first such report by the J&K police said that 209 Kashmiri Pandits had been killed by militants since 1989. In only 24 of these cases had chargesheets been filed whereas in 115 cases the killers remain unknown. The 24 chargesheets resulted in 31 local militants being booked but the only conviction that has taken place is of three militants for gunning down rights activist HN Wanchoo on 5 December 1995.

“We have not prepared any such report and don’t know what these media reports are alluding to,” Kashmir IGP SM Sahay told Sakaal Times. The six pages long report is said to list more names of more than 1500 minorities, but most of them Sikhs and non-Pandit Hindus from Jammu.

“This is a grossly under-reported figure,” said Agnishekhar of Panun Kashmir. “I have myself made a presentation before Amnesty International in 1993 about 450 killings and AsiaWatch NGO has recorded 1,200,” he told Sakaal Times from Jammu. He demaded that this list of 209 be published so that families of those who have not been named can make there representations before the police.

“That it took them 18 years to even make such a report speaks of their callousness,” said Agnishekhar of Panun Kashmir. “It shows they never wanted to do it in the first place as they want to hide the truth about the ethnic cleansing and Islamic communalism.” He alleged that this comes at a time when the government is trying to force the Pandits to return to the Valley without a guarantee of peace. “It is part of an effort to hoodwink the nation and the world,” he told Sakaal Times.

Ajay Churjoo of another faction of Panun Kashmir said that the Relief Commissioner recognizes 750 killings and even in the 90’s the J&K government recognized 450 and granted ex-gratia compensation to more than 350. “Many killings were not even recorded. Instead of investigating them they are busy reducing the figure,” he said.

“Even if one goes by a layman’s account of Pandits killed in Jammu and Kashmir since 1989 the number would be higher than 1000 but it isn’t about mere numbers,” said Aditya Raj Kaul of ‘Roots in Kashmir’, a Kashmiri Pandit organization.

“The Panun Kashmir website itself lists around 300 names. I don’t know how they claim 1,200″ said Zahiruddin, editor of the Kashmiri paper Etalaat. “Even if one Pandit was killed it is bad enough. It is not about numbers,” he said, adding, “but some groups want to exaggerate the numbers and then compare it with the Holocaust. That does not make sense.” The website http://www.kashmiri-pandit.org/projectr3/ lists names and details of 363 Pandits killed between 1990 and 20003.

Khurram Parvez of the Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society said that while the killing of even one Pandit was condemnable, his organization is investigation how many of the known Pandit killings were due to the religious identity of the victims and how many due to their political identities. “If a Kashmiri Pandit politician or intelligence agent was killed he is not killed because he was a Pandit,” said Parvez, adding, “And many are listed as unknown. If you don’t know their identity how do you know they were Pandits?” He alleged that the police was denying making such a report as the elections are approaching and the ruling Congress party does not want to alienate the small but powerful voting block of Pandits in the Valley who have traditionally been Congress voters.

The alleged report has rekindled communal fissures in the valley. Khurram’s colleague Parvez Imroz said, “A lot of people in the majority community (Muslims) who have sympathy for the plight of the Pandits are discomfited when Pandits get national media attention but not the killing of innocent Muslims. The recent discovery of a mass anonymous grave of over 900 Muslims has been largely ignored by the Delhi media,” he said.

Amongst the accused for Pandit killings are Yasin Malik and his organization, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front. JKLF member Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karatay, called “Butcher of Pandits” by Pandit groups, was released in 2006 for want of evidence. He had already spent 16 years in jail. JKLF president Yasin Malik refused to comment. “There are no charges against me and I have nothing to say,” he said.

Leader of the Opposition in the J&K Assembly, Abdul Rahim Rather of the National Conference said the the reason for almost no conviction was a practical problem: “When militancy was at its peak in the valley nobody would dare to come out and be a wwitness. Militants would often be masked and kill in the night. You couldn’t identify them,” he said.

Agreeing with him, People’s Democratic Party spokesperson Mehbooba Mufti told Sakaal Times: “Conviction rates are low even for killings of Muslims as well. We can’t see violence against Pandits in isolation. And why forget the Sikhs of Chattisinghpora or the Hindus of Jammu who have been killed?”

She refused to comment on the Pandit groups’ demand for an enquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation or by a committee heahed by a Supreme Court judge. However, Mukul Sharma of Amnesty International supported such a demand, adding that one good option for an inquiry are the UN agencies who have been banned from doing so in Kashmir by the Indian government.

[An edited, shorter version of this article by me has appeared in Sakaal Times.]

New Delhi: A new political biography of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kumar Mayawati sheds fresh light on her relationship with her mentor Kanshi Ram, amongst other little know things about the life of the BSP supremo.

Written by senior journalist Ajoy Bose, the book, “Behenji: A Political Biography of Mayawati” described in detail the Mayawati-Kanshi Ram encounter and how it became one of the most significant political partnerships of contemporary Indian politics.

“The only intense personal relationship she seems to have had is with her mentor, Kanshi Ram… The exact contours of this often tempestuous and clearly obsessive relationship remain a mystery, although there are enough people who had the opportunity to observe them at close quarters who suggest that the close personal bond between the two was multi-dimensional,” he writes in the book.

There have been rumours about Mayawati and the late Kanshi Ram having been in a physical relationship and this peaked when a Hindi newspaper in Lucknow had claimed in the late nineties that Mayawati had a daughter from him. This had led to violent attacks on the paper’s office by BSP workers. “This is irrelevant except for salacious tittle-tattle considering what they shared was much more sweeping and had far wider implications than a mere affair… it was the political association between the two that acquired such huge significance.” Bose said that Kanshi Ram used Mayawati like a weapon, leaving her to work in UP and himself trying to expand the BSP base in the rest of the country. “And yet it is in UP where the BSP has been successful. In Kanshi Ram’s home state, Punjab, the BSP’s support has actually eroded,” he said.

Kanshi Ram first met Mayawati in 1977, the book says, after he heard of the how the 21 year old Dalit schoolteacher publicly protested against Janta party leader Raj Narain using the Gandhian term ‘Harijan’ to describe dalits. Kanshi Ram’s drawing of mayawati into his BAMCEF movement did not go down well with her father who forced her to move out of the house – in the slum of Inderpuri in Delhi. Mayawati moved into a rented house with Kanshi Ram. Maywati has always defended these slanderous allegations by saying he was like her elder brother or father.

Yet the book is largely supportive of the BSP project, showing the how the BSP employs different strategies than the BJP, Congress or Left parties. “It is amazing that in 30 years of politics Mayawati has never been to jail. The BSP is a mass mobiliser but does not believe in` agitational politics. It has no middle or second rung of leaders,” he said.

The book comes at a time when the politicial circles are abuzz with the thought of Mayawati as a possible future PM. “I have noted with some bemusement that those who are now lauding Mayawati to the skies after the BSP’s stupendous victory in 2007 UP assembly polls earlier dismissed her as a crude, corrupt and unscrupulous politician,” he said, adding that the past derision and current hype around her both hide the media’s lack of understanding of the Bahujan Samaj Party.

About whether she could be PM, Bose argues in the last chapter that the BSP could well get as many as 50-70 seats in the 2009 assembly elections and be the third largest party in the Lok Sabha. “The next general elections need to usher in a period of considerable instability if Mayawati is to have a crack at the top job,” he writes.

Mayawati, the book says, grew so important in the BSP scheme of things that kanshi Ram sacrificed many of his friends and old associates just to keep her in the saddle. “We all underestimated Mayawati, always, but by taking the BSP from strength to strength even after kanshi Ram’s stroke in 2003 and death in 2006, Mayawati has proved us all wrong. The way she has pulled off UP with a complete majority is evidence that she is a smarter politican than even her mentor, ” Bose told Sakaal Times.

But there is a more difficult relationship that Bose has credited with being responsible for Mayawati’s zeal to excel in life: that with her father Prabhu Das. Das had three daughters and then six sons, and the book mentions how she was discriminated against at home, and allowed to study and prepare for the IAS only for her father’s benefit. So much so that when the BSP-SP alliance government came to power in Lucknow in 1993, Das approached his daughter to announce special development schemes for their native village, Badalpur, in Ghaziabad. Mayawati sarcastically replied that she thought it were his sons who were going to bring him laurels.

While Bose has covered the BSP for years and has known its leaders, he did not seek direct access to them lest his independence be compromised. “Her two-volume autobiography was a big goldmine of information, and plodding through the voluminous Hindi tomes was worth the exercise,” he said.

A Hindi translation of the book will be released in Lucknow next month.

[An edited, shorter version of this article by me appeared in Sakaal Times.]

Shivam Vij, Sakaal Times, 5 May 2008

On Monday morning, many including TRAI chairman Nripendra Mishra got an sms from offering premium mobile numbers. The message promised premium mobile numbers wherein the first seven digits would be the number 9, and the rest three of your choosing. The price: Rs. 15,000.

“I have asked somebody to find out whether it was a promotional offer from AirTel or an unsolicited message,” Mishra told Sakaal Times.

AirTel denies having sent any such message. “When we get requests from customers for premium numbers they are processed accordingly in different circles. But we do not offer this as a service,” said AirTel CEO Manoj Kohli.

AirTel officials refused to reveal how much is charged for premium numbers. “There is a procedure, you have to apply for the number and only then we can comment,” said an AirTel spokesperson.

TRAI’s Mishra says he heard of premium numbers being sold in Punjab for as much as a lakh some time ago. “There is nothing in the license agreement of the telcos that prohibits this.” He said that he will be taking up with officials in TRAI as well as the Department of Telecommunications whether a tax should be levied on the sale of premium numbers. “One could explore such an idea,” he said.

TV Ramachandran, Director-General of the Cellular Operators Association of India, refused to comment. “I am not aware of this,” he said.

However, last month Tata Indicom had announced online auction and bidding of premium mobile numbers. The numbers offered ranged from those ending with 12345 to those ending with numbers with religious indications, such as 786.

Many shops selling mobile connections entertain requests for special mobile numbers that are sold at a high price. According to some reports the prices can be in lakhs. Sources said that some special numbers are never released in the market and are exclusively offered by telecom marketers to VIPs.

After a meeting in Shastri Bhavan the other day, I was lunching mutton biryani at that open air dhaba in the small market between Shastri Bhavan and Press Club. I was sitting alone at the table when four gentlemen arrived and, because there was no unoccupied table, asked if they could share mine. Please, I said. They had beards of various sizes and their appearances gave away that they were rather devotional Muslims. Only one of them was wearing a blazer, his beard was the shortest and he addressed the one with the longest beard as Maulana. Short Beard seemed to be the host. As the mutton and chicken qorma arrived, Short Beard narrated a story.

‘I was at the AICC headquarters the other day,’ he said, ‘AICC mane Congress ka kaaba, jahan se aaj kal samajh lijiye desh par raj chal rahan hain. There I saw an old man thought I should test my political acumen on him. I asked him if he was in the Congress. Now what would an old man do hanging around at the AICC office if he wasn’t a Congressi? He was obviously angry at my question. So I asked him what he was doing in the Congress for so many years. Arre yadi aap kisi aur party main hotay toh ab tak Chandra Shekhar ki tarah vazir-e-azam ban gaye hotay! Yeh sun kar to usnay mujhay aisay dekha jaisay nigal jaye ga! He looked at me as though he was going to devour me! But I was playing a trick on him. I thought even if my trick failed, I’d learn something after all. But my trick worked! For all his anger, he spent half an hour with me, mourning about the state of the Congress.’

Achcha, I said, aur aap kya kartay hain? And what do you do?

‘Hum waisay Bihar se hain,’ he said, indicating that the rest three were visiting him from his native place, ‘aur hamara yahan Dilli main karobar hain. Aur hum Dilli Congress Pradesh Committee main sachiv hain.’

Achcha, I said. My bill paid, greasy hands washed, curry stains removed from the upper lip, I started to go. Hamey zara der ho rahin hain, I said.

‘Aur apnay apna parichay to diya hi nahin?’ asked Short Beard.

‘Hum patrakaar hain,’ I said, handing him my visiting card, ‘kabhi koi zaroorat pade to phone kariye ga.’

‘Arre, arrey, arrey…’ said Short Beard as I left. As though I had cheated him by not revealing that I was a journalist before he could tell me the Congress party’s worst kept secrets.

Actually, I would have stayed longer, had Long Beard not interrupted the storytelling to offre me to partake in the chicken qorma. I would have loved to, just that he addressed me a chuchaa, or uncle. A maulana who must be at least seven years older than me is calling me chuchaa, how dare he!

A movie elegy.

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Everybody knew it all along, and now Mayawati says it in her own words: that the BSP’s alliances with other parties were made always with a view to decimate them. Decimation by friendship, the elephant as serpent! Very Brahminical, I must say!

Haathi nahi Ganesh hain,
Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh hain…
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From CSE, via Jeebesh Bagchi:

• There are 1.5 million private cars on the road.
• 3 million two-wheelers, a lot of these will convert to cheapest small cars
• And only 6,800 city buses.
• The city adds 41 vehicles every hour, 31% of them being private cars.
• Last 5 years have seen a 43% increase in vehicles, and 9% in road space.
• Road area is already 20% of land area. Green area is only 10%.
• There is a limit in extending roads and flyovers.
• Our collective automobile experience ends with traffic jam.
• And slower vehicles spew more.
• We should be ashamed that all we gained out of converting public transport to CNG has been offset by rising number of cars!
• A car pays Rs 400 a year as tax, while a bus is charged Rs 13,000.
• Government subsidises private vehicles with low tax, cheapest parking lots.
• Public investment in roads and flyovers are cornered by private cars only.
• Private cars take up 75% of the road space, while buses get only 8%.
• Hence, there is no money left for public transport investment.
• All these, while private transport only 20% of passengers, and buses still carry 61%.

What an amazing speech.

The reader is a paradox. He frequently complains about negative news being constantly reported. But for all his clamouring for positive news, surveys show that people are more interested in negative news, sensational news, news about crime, violence and corruption. The reader, ladies and gentlemen, is not king; actually he is a nice hypocrite. [Link]

A prayer.

Narendra modi is not bachelor

The swaamsewak who wanted to be a bachelor.

Hindi Blog Writing Workshop
Date: 11th December, 2007
Time: 2 to 5 pm
Venue: Seminar Room, CSDS, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi

Today blogging has become an important tool of communication. Diverse things from ideas, analysis, critiques and memoirs to travelogues are all being written and shared through blogs. Blogs in Hindi are gradually becoming popular as writing in Hindi on the internet is no more a problem (there is a huge variety of tools to start with). But we still have to go a long way before Hindi blogs become much favoured, the main drawback being lack of knowledge among the public. The Hindi Blog Writing Workshop at Sarai-CSDS is an attempt to involve people who are interested in blogging in the world of Hindi and would like to learn more.

Go here. [.pdf]

Desi ghee.

PROGRAMME

Working Questions: the 2007 Sarai-CSDS Independent Fellowship Workshop3-7 December 2007

Each year Sarai-CSDS’s unique fellowship programme gives grants for all kinds of practitioners—artists, performers, writers, filmmakers, working professionals and academics too—to pursue their own (sometimes serious, sometimes quirky) research projects. The results of this research can be applied in any direction and, in recent years, has eventually led to all kinds of things, from comic to public actions to films to books. This year, Sarai’s yearly Independent Fellowship workshop will be a special gala event, in the centre of town, looking back over the five years of the fellowship. It will feature presentations from this year’s
Independent Fellows, who will be coming in from various corners of the country, as well as some previous recipients of the Fellowship. Expect an unconventional convention. Expect talks (both academic and non-academic), musical and theatrical performances, books, videos, listening booths, slide shows, arguments, dialogues, merriment and controversy. A special curated multimedia exhibition accompanies the
events.

Monday 3 December
Venue: Sarai-CSDS, 29 Rajpur Road, CSDS

6.00 – 8.00 pm
Launch of Working Questions (the Sarai-CSDS Independent Fellowship Book)

Opening Remarks
by Professor Rajeev Bhargava
Director, CSDS

Reflecting on Five Years of the Sarai-CSDS Fellowship Programme
Shuddabrata Sengupta
Vivek Narayanan
Debjani Sengupta
Mahmood Farooqui

Tuesday 4 December
Venue: LTG Auditorium, Mandi House

10.30 – 12.00
History Versus Reminiscence
Chair: Debjani Sengupta

Anuja Ghosalkar
Papa Ajoba: My Grandfather, the Film Make Up Artist

Renee C. Lulam and Julius L. Basaiawmoit
Changing Faces of Democratic Spaces in Urban Cosmopolitan Shillong

Sugata Nandi
Eventful Adolescence, Memorable Youth: The Politics of Personal
Reminiscence in Calcutta, 1947-1967

12.15 – 1.15
Proving Residence
Chair: Shveta Sarda

Ajit K. Dwivedi
Sealing ke Nazar Mein: Sealing Banam Pusta ka Visthapan (Media Study:
Comparative Reporting on Land Ceilings and Displacement from Jamuna Pushta)

Bipul K. Pandey
The Residence Proof

1.30 pm – 2.30 pm
Sub-metropolitan Dreams
Chair: Iram Ghufran

Nalin Narain Mathur
B-Grade Engineering College Culture

Syed Zaigham Imam
Sapno ke Rail (The Train of Dreams: Narratives from the
Allahabad-Jaunpur Passenger Train): a short documentary film

2.45 – 4.15
Hearing Spaces, Seeing Spaces
Chair: Aarti Sethi

Shahnawaz Khan
Entertainment Ghosts in Srinagar: A Tale of Cinema Halls in the City

Zubin Pastakia
A Photographic Study of Bombay’s Cinema Halls

Sayandeb Mukherjee
Corridors: An Exploration of Sound and Space

4.30—6.30 pm
Special Panel: The Past of Research and the Present of Practice

Featuring: TP Sabitha, Yousuf Saeed, Mahmood Farooqui and Rahaab Allana
Discussant: Shuddhabrata Sengupta

7.00—7.30
(In Upstairs Gallery Space)
Performance Art: “This Evening Too: From Lal Ded to Abdul Ahad Zargar”
by Inder Salim: Space limited to 25 persons only—first come, first serve.

Wed 5 December
Venue: LTG Auditorium, Mandi House

10.00 am – 11.30
Distant Communities
Chair: Ravikant

Surya Prakash Upadhyay
Guru on the Air: Televised Hinduism in Contemporary India

Neelima Chauhan
Blogit Hindi Jati ka Linkit Man: Blogon mein Hindi Hypertext ka
Adhayayan (The World of Hindi Blogs)

Raman Jit Singh Chima
The Regulation of the Internet by the Indian State

11.45 – 1.15
In the Midst of Conflict I: Looking Back and Looking Ahead
Chair: Ravi Sundaram

Arvind Kumar
Caste Violence in Urban Maharashtra: A study of the 1974 Worli Riots in
Mumbai and the Dalit Panthers Movement

P. Jenny and C. Christy
Chitralekha’s Burning Autorickshaw: Caste, Class and Gender in the Urban
Space of Keralam

Meena Menon
Recovering Lost Histories: Riot Victims, the Communal Polarisation of
Mumbai and Its Impact on People and Perceptions about Communities

11.00 – 11.30
(In Upstairs Gallery Space)
Short film on ragging—Listen, Little Man– by Madhavi Tangella;
[See also discussion with Shivam Vij on Friday’s programme below.]

1.30 – 3.00
In the Midst of Conflict II: Reading Between the Column Inches
Chair: Sanjay Sharma

Shiju Sam Varughese
The Public Sphere as a Site of Knowledge Production: Science in the
Malayalam Press

Alok Puranik
Bazaar Reporting in Hindi Newspapers

Shubhra Nagalia
The Representation of Communal Conflicts in Hindi Media: A Case study of
the 2005 Mau Riots

3.15—4.45
Other Traditions
Chair: Priya Sen

Priya Babu
Traditions of the Aravani (Transgender) Community in Tamilnadu

Mithun Narayan Bose
Tracing Life from the Stroke: Documenting the Rickshaw-Painting of
Kolkata Streets

Deepak Kadyan
Popular Musical Traditions and Configuration of Jat identity in Haryana,
1900-2000

5.30 – 6.00 pm
(In Upstairs Gallery Space)
Performance Art: “This Evening Too: From Lal Ded to Abdul Ahad Zargar”
by Inder Salim: Space limited to 25 persons only—first come, first serve.

7.00 – 8.15
(Back in main auditorium)
“Creeper”, a play written and directed by Ram Ganesh Kamatham, recasting
the Vikram and Vetal myth in a contemporary urban setting. Featuring
Mallika Prasad and Abhishek Majumdar.

Thurs 6 December
Venue: LTG Auditorium, Mandi House

10.00 am – 11.30
Medicine and Modernity
Chair: Awadhendra Sharan

Gyaltsen Lama
Shamans in Gangtok: A Graphic Novel

M.S. Harilal
Adopting Modernisation and Negotiating Modernisation: Placing Modern and
Traditional Ayurvedic Sectors in the Context of Transformation

Burton Cleetus
Urbanisation, Western Medicine and Modernity: The Rockefeller Foundation
in Travancore

11.00 – 11.30
(In Upstairs Gallery Space)
Short film on ragging—Listen, Little Man– by Madhavi Tangella; see also
discussion with Shivam Vij on Friday’s programme below.

11.45 – 12.45
Two Views of the Changing Industrial Landscape
(short documentary films & discussion)
Chair: Jeebesh Bagchi

Ranu Ghosh
The Story of a Laid-off Worker’s Resistance to Eviction in Kolkata

T. Venkat and Meghna Sukumar
Building the Indian Dream: Living and Working Conditions of Migrant
Workers on Chennai’s IT Corridor

1pm – 2pm
Tracking Literatures
Chair: Ravikant

Rajiv Ranjan Giri
Saraswati ki Sarvajanik Duniya, 1900-1920 (The Popular World of the
Journal Saraswati, 1900-1920)

Gopal Ji Pradhan
Hindi mein Uttar Purv (The North-east in Hindi Literature)

2.15 –4.15
Special Panel: Where Does Research Go?
Featuring: Zainab Bawa, Parismita Singh, Madhavi Tangella and Prasad
Shetty.
Discussant: Vivek Narayanan.

4.30 – 5.45 Work In “Progress”: Feature-length video by 2007 Sarai-CSDS
Associate Fellow Debkamal Ganguly

6.15 – 6.45
(In Upstairs Gallery Space)
Performance Art: “This Evening Too: From Lal Ded to Abdul Ahad Zargar”
by Inder Salim: Space limited to 25 persons only—first come, first serve.

7.15pm – 8pm
Solo Performance: Pritham K Chakravarty
The Life of an Actor in Chennai’s Sabha Drama

Fri Dec 7
Venue: LTG Auditorium, Mandi House

10.00 – 11.00
Proofreading: Identity and Publishing
Chair: Mahmood Farooqui

Vijay Kumar Pandey
Meerut ka Prakasan Udyog (The Publishing Industry in Meerut)

Yoginder Sikand & Naseemur Rahman
Islamic Publishing Houses in Delhi

11.00 – 12.15
(In Upstairs Gallery Space)
Side Effects: Collaborations and Conversations Between Independent Fellows.
Short film on ragging—Listen, Little Man– by Madhavi Tangella;
discussion and commentary by Shivam Vij, who studied ragging for his
Sarai-CSDS Fellowship. Introduced and moderated by Iram Ghufran

11.15 – 12.15
Maps for Lost Cities
Chair: Shuddhabrata Sengupta

Surojit Sen
The Displacement of Prostitutes: A Tale of Two Cities in Two Centuries

Mohit K. Ray & Soma Ghosh
Heritage Ponds of Kolkata: A Contemporary History
Dates available: 5,6,7

12.30 – 1.30
Rethinking the Social
Chair: Vivek Narayanan

Santana Issar and Aditi Saraf
Rethinking Animal Activism in an Urban Context

Arnab Chatterjee
Beyond Private and Public: New Perspectives on the Personal and
Personalist in Social Work

1.45 pm – 3.45 pm
Special Presentation: The SARAI-CSDS Associate Fellowships

Nancy Adajania: A New Journal for the Arts: Prototype Issue, 2007

Debkamal Ganguly: An Imaginative Text Based on Contemporary Travel
Through the “Forests” Described in Bibhuthibhushan’s Memoirs (see
complete video by Debkamal Ganguly on previous day.)

Chair: Monica Narula

4.00 – 5.30 pm
Towards a Future for Independent Research: Interactive Open Discussion

7.00 – 8.30 Punches Ponytails Ringtones: Women Boxers in India
A film by Pankaj Rishi Kumar (82 mins)
Introduced by Shuddhabrata Sengupta

Like all things in the world the ground beneath your feet is a chimera. Am writing this from my phone at five am. The earthquake was strong but south Delhi survived it. Heaven knows what news the rising sun will bring.

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Significantly, Modi’s ratings (6.87/10) are higher on macro-economic issues — industrial growth, infrastructure development, agricultural growth, economic growth — and lower( 6.0/10) on micro-economic issues — creating jobs, eradicating poverty and controlling inflation — that affect the common man.

What the figures indicate is that though at the ground-level, Modi’s claims about ensuring Gujarat’s development seem to be taken seriously, on daily bread and butter issues—often the deciding factor at the polling booth—his sheen seems to lose a coat. [DNA]

…they make very good bloggers. Like Professor Gaurav Dikshit, who doesn’t want no Occupation.

India’s ability to commission 70,000 MW of power by 2012 is questionable. Even Ultra-mega Power Projects (UMPPs) have got embroiled in controversy, and their plans have been postponed. While there is no dearth of funds, most of the companies in the power sector have full order books, and their ability to deliver still remains questionable. Meanwhile, non-renewable energy is catching up across the world, with India leading the innovation curve. We have about 7% of power coming from coal, a big achievement for a country the size of India. However, a large part of smallhydro plants and wind power plants thrive on government subsidies. One important question we will have to answer in our quest for energy security is: Can we afford to care for the environment in our path to development?While energy is required to power our growth rates, it is also required to enlighten a large number of villages in India that do not have access to electricity. This could have ramifications on all social indicators for the country.

And on those line, Shravan Sampath is looking for bloggers to help him on a new team blog on India’s energy sector. You could be that person.

There are bloggers who will never stop writing about Mallika SHerawat or Ralkhi Sawant to jack up their hits.

I have to do no such thing. These days more people land up on this blog looking for Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, or other combinations of those three words, than for anything else. Heck, they don’t even land up here these days looking for necrophilia.
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Here goes a sample list:   

meenakshi reddy madhavan
princess kimberly
ashok chatterjee indian restaurant
intresting urdu website
ling
hindu terrorism
mahakaal
liver wanted
prerna raje
poverty and crime against dalit in tamilnado
which caste do gautams of india belong to
hindi chini bhai bhai [what will sisters do?]
solutions for dalits in india
to what cast does the surname chandra belongs to
post of safai karamchari [looking for the application form?]
baniya history [great idea for a book!]
backward class movement in karnataka chandrabhan prasad
em blog reddy
childline india hyderabad
do teachers have the right to punish students by using canes
nostalgia in kamala das poetry [college assignment type!]
viduthalai chiruthaigal website
undo blocked sites [yeah right, just click Cltrl+Z]
parveen sultana chetan anand
film about refugees selling a liver [guys I'm not selling my liver, please!]
email contact of jat sikh @ yahoo.com [looking to hook up?]
em meenakshi madhavan
dubey caste up [they're Brahmins every where yaar]
ruhaniyat [go kill yourself but I won't give you the Baba's fax number!]
national highways vacancy [no thanks]
bab ramdev
phacebook facebook
harmukh college of education results
diwali and national integration [no, i was talking about Muslims and Holi]
alwar rajasthan police result
hindu superstition
video showing life in india [cowdung, bullshit]
times of india -victory over dna newspaper mumbai
em meenakshi blog
umrao jaan lyrics vertaling
enquiry no. of ndls rly. station [All lines to this route are busy. Please Google after some time. ]
songs by balli singh cheema
between the spider and the la
bus delhi lucknow
em
kalar samaj
blogs – em – meenakshi madhavan
list of manual scavengers in delhi [want their mobile numbers too?]
indian village secret nude pictures [rural kinks]
the compulsive confessor orkut page
balli singh cheema [who is he????]
recent laws passed in india [am I the law ministry website???]
national high way [and low way?]
bus delhi to gorakhpur
yadav meen conflict in rajasthan [story idea!]
indians,kiss [the all important comma without a space]
stupid indian people [must be a Paki!]
rajasthan state government school vacancies 2007
history punjabi brahmin [go do some field work]
mahatma ghandi and india’s flaws [next wil be gandhi and india's claws]
famous skin doctor in gurgaon
princess kimberley
what is your caste? [you're not supposed to ask such questions]
happy diwali comment
pravin mahajan sexual [what?]
coke –cola aims and objectives how does it help [is Coke the name of some government policy? I won't be surprised.]
sri ramakrishna played with little penis [chee, chee]
em meenakshi
mahatma gandhi – a curse for bharat, written in hindu and english by anand prakash madana, [idea: Gogle sentence search!]
nose job india
pressures of being an editor
uttar pradesh obc list gupta [Guptas are not OBCs baba]
photographs of indians making ugly faces [don't you have a mirror?]
nagpur nude [what is about Nagpur? enduring obsession]
somebody telling about his/ her problem and write an answer
em ,meenakshi
divali mubarak what does it mean [that you're dumb]
indian kiss [Mmmmmmuah!]

[Photo credit: Janak Patel]

Looking for farm house in the green fields? Or a bungalow with a garden? An evening with a play and [sic] dinner thereafter? An art class? A plunge in a cool pool? A sun-drenched afternoon watching cricket? We have a suggestion: Live in Gujarat.

- “Vibrant Gujarat” website

[In Tehelka this week, story by me.]

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s sustained campaign to project himself as an efficient administrator whose priorities lie in development rather than communal politics has garnered approval from the national media since 2002. That Gujarat‘s development indicators seem better than the “Bimaru” states helps. The December 2007 elections, then, could also be a referendum on these claims of development.

However, a lot of these claims are related to industry and private sector investments and even if they make a difference in people’s lives, they are often exaggerated in Modi’s speeches. The claims are often belied by the Gujarat government’s own admissions in the Assembly or in response to RTI applications.

An unpublished report by development worker Avinash Kumar, based until recently in Ahmedabad, pins these lies. For instance, the chief minister likes to say that the state’s growth rate is 12 percent, three percent higher than the national average of nine percent. But a report by the Gujarat government, Review of Socio-Economic Status in Gujarat: 2006-07, puts the growth rate at 8.11 percent. Besides, Gujarat is one of the highest indebted states of the country as its liability swelled from Rs 70,228 crore in 2005 to Rs 95,000 crore this year, an average of Rs 19,000 debt per citizen (Gujarat has a population of five crore).

“Gujarat has only regained a high growth rate in the last few years, just like the national growth rate,” says Prof Darshini Mahadevia, who teaches at CEPT Ahmedabad, “The Gujarati middle class is happy with the path Modi is taking Gujarat on,” she adds, “but the picture might be different for farmers and the poor.”

According to the third round of National Family Health Survey, anaemia and malnutrition in Gujarat have in fact increased from the second round by a sharp 60 percent. For instance, in the 6-35 month age group for children, the percentage of anaemia has gone up to 80.1 percent in 2005-06 from 74.5 percent in 1998-99. Incidentally, Gujarat is taking the lead in privatising public health infrastructure.

The state has found a simple way of showing a decline in poverty figures. It has redefined poverty lines for both rural and urban areas. So you would be counted as poor in a Gujarat town if you earn Rs 541.16 a month ($0.45 a day) or less. In a Gujarat village, the figure is even lower — Rs 353.93 a month or 30 cents a day. Most of the other states, including the poor ones like Jharkhand, keep the poverty net wider. The internationally accepted figure is a dollar a day. This removes large numbers from the BPL list and prevents them from receiving the benefits of poverty alleviation and development programmes.

Planning Commission figures show that the gulf between the rural and the urban population in Gujarat is only widening. The state has 63.49 lakh (19.1 percent of the rural population) BPL people in rural areas as compared to 27.19 lakh (13 percent of the urban population) in cities. Thus, despite the jugglery of BPL figures, Gujarat’s rural BPL population is greater than that of urban areas, both in percentage and absolute terms, just like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh or Jharkhand.

According to the census of 2001, roughly 46 percent population of the state is dependent upon agriculture (27.67 percent cultivators and 17.91 percent agricultural labourers). Together they contribute only 15 percent to the state’s GDP, while industry and services contributes 39 and 46 percent, respectively. Consequently, there has been a gradual decline in food grain production (from 65.71 lakh tonnes in 2003-04 to 51.53 lakh tonnes in 2004-05), raising doubts about the food security of small and marginal farmers. An NSSO survey in 2005 found 40 percent of the farmers saying that given an option, they would give up agriculture.

The NSSO 2005 figures say that Gujarat’s farmers are reeling under an average debt of Rs 15,526. The official government policy about the agrarian crisis has been of denial, but Modi finally admitted in the Assembly that between January 2006 and January 2007, 148 farmers had committed suicide. His reasons were, however, attributed to anything but agrarian debt. Last month, in response to an RTI application the government admitted to as many as 403 suicides in five years. The real numbers are much higher, as NGO surveys reveal.

A study by the Vadodara-based Centre for Culture and Development says that between 1997- 2004, two million people in Gujarat have been displaced in the name of developmental projects. Displacement from land for industries only intensified with Modi’s policy of wooing industries at any cost.

The Gujarat government repeatedly advertises that it is the country’s only electricity ‘surplus’ state, even selling power to neighbouring states. But the Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited said in April 2007 that the state was facing a shortfall of 900 mega – watts. While cities continue to get uninterrupted power, rural areas often face shortfalls. Many rural areas get only 4-5 hours of power supply a day, badly affecting irrigation during the sowing season.

Farmers also face irrigation problems as the canals of much-hyped Sardar Sarovar Pariyojana carrying the Narmada waters hasn’t reached them and is unlikely to be operational in the drought prone areas of Kutch, Saurashtra, northern Gujarat and Panchmahal before 2021. The Comptroller and Auditor General’s report has objected to an unauthorised sub-plan being added to the Sardar Sarovar dam scheme. Under this sub-plan, 255 MLD (million litres per day) water is to be diverted to Gandhinagar and to the water intensive industries of Kutch. While the need for Gandhinagar was estimated to be around 49 MLD, it was allocated 90 MLD water.

Although Gujarat has been marketed as an ‘already prosperous’ state that’s becoming even more prosperous with investment worth lakhs of crore, it has three of the 100 most backward districts of the country, as listed by the Planning Commission. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme allocated Rs 22 crore for Gujarat but the state government has barely used half of it, stating shortage of officials to implement the scheme. The chief minister did announce early this year a combined package of Rs 39,000 crore for the upliftment of specific segments of the poor. But no money was actually being allocated in this year’s budget of Rs 43,000 crore. The plans, nevertheless, look good in Vibrant Gujarat. “Vibrant Gujarat is nothing but event management,” says Ahmedabad- based activist Gagan Sethi.

THE JUGGLERY of figures extends even to the most hyped aspect of “Vibrant Gujarat” — investment from corporates. Modi claims that MoUs worth Rs 4,60,000 crore have been signed with private industry and investment worth two lakh crore has been received. But these declarations take a long time to materialise. For instance, in a written reply to the consultative committee of the General Administration Department, the chief minister admitted that out of a total of Rs 66,068 crore worth of MoUs signed during 2003 and Rs 1,06,16 crore during 2005, only Rs 25,450 crore worth of investments till January 2007 and only Rs 13,170 crore, respectively, have fructified so far.

Despite these investments, employment has remained stagnant. That is because Gujarat has as many as three lakh small-scale industry units. Many of them are languishing as only a paltry Rs 115.20 crore has been invested in them in the past five years.

The figures about Gujarat prove how it is just another socio-economically vulnerable state. In that sense the “Vibrant Gujarat” campaign is reminiscent of the NDA government’s “India Shining” campaign of 2004, which the Congress countered with the “aam aadmi” rhetoric. This is why the Congress in Gujarat wants ‘development’ to be the key issue in the elections. Modi is likely to use the Ram Setu issue. Even after TEHELKA’s exposé, the VHP is once again distributing communal CDs to foment polarisation in the state and use it as its trump card. Gujarat’s voters have time till December 9 to decide.

In Bombay briefly, for the first time, I really liked the city. I don’t want to say whether I liked Bombay for this reason or that, because in my mind that would reduce the whole experience. But perhaps one thing that took me by surprise represents my impression of Bombay/Mumbai.

It was a copy of Saamna, the Hindi version, on a newsstand. It had, predictably, a big Bal Thackeray picture on the front page, saying something or the other about something or the other. The attitude was, ‘This is Mumbai, you better listen to me.’

Below the picture was a small news item wondering whether a three hours long meeting in a Mumbai hotel between Yuvraj Singh and Deepika Padukone meant they were going out.

That’s right – on the front page of Saamna, with a photo of Deepika Padukone.

Tonight, October 25th, Tehelka breaks a groundbreaking investigation of national and international importance on Aaj Tak and Headlines Today at 7 pm.

Gujarat 2002: The Truth

The entire story will also be available in a 108-page special issue of the Tehelka weekly magazine which hits the stands tomorrow morning.

It can also be read on Tehelka’s website, www.tehelka.com and www.tehelkahindi.com from 8 pm (IST) tonight.

The investigation establishes the chilling truth of one of the worst societal ruptures in modern Indian history.

Bhanwari Devi is most angry with those who made the film Bawandar, based on her life. She recalls how the director, Jagmohan Mundhra, promised her money and land, called her his sister, and couldn’t stop praising her bajra rotis. “I told him I don’t want money but at least try to get me justice,” she says. Mundhra asked her not to allow others to make a film on her and she complied, even refusing to be interviewed. Now, she feels cheated.

She was uncomfortable with the project in the first place. “Villagers would say let’s go see Bhanwari getting raped,” says Srivastava. When she tried to watch it she couldn’t get past the rape scenes.

She says that the actress Nandita Das, who played her in the film, told her that they were sisters. But after the shooting, she never came back. “It was not a biopic and one moves on to other projects,” says Das in her defence. “Bhanwari is a very brave woman but it is also the story of so many others. Beyond a point you’re only playing a role.” It is hard to appreciate Das’s defence, but you can see where she is coming from. When you say goodbye to Bhanwari Devi and she wants to know when you are coming back.

“Perhaps next year,” you say. “Next year?”.

Here.

Photograph by Salman Usmani.

Assembling and programming any form of communication content like signs, signals, writing, pictures, images and sounds, and placing it in electronic form on electro-magnetic waves on specified frequencies and transmitting it through space or cables to make it continuously available on the carrier waves, so as to be accessible to single or multiple users through receiving devices either directly or indirectly.

- Definition of broadcasting in the draft Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, 2007

Free speech activists fear this definition can be used to extend the Bill to cover the Internet. “Of course, they will censor the Net using this Bill,” says technology commentator Arun Mehta. “In any case, the Internet can also be used for broadcasting.” That means not only video or TV broadcasting over the Net, or Internet Protocol TV, would be covered, but just about any online activity. The fourth draft in 10 years and the Union information and broadcasting ministry has still not been able to so much as introduce the Broadcast Bill in Parliament, due to massive media opposition. It’s expected to be tabled in Parliament in the winter session. But so far only television news has been the subject of debate on the “draconian” law.

The definition of “broadcasting” in the 2006 draft included a crucial string of words that has now been removed — “continuously streaming it in digital data form on the computer networks”. But experts say the definition as it now stands could still be extended to the Internet. “It also covers point-to-point wireless, even CB/walkie-talkie!” says Mumbai-based Vickram Crishna of Radiphony, a technology resource group. “It can even be used to cover microwave communication through which large parts of the country are still connected.”

At a seminar in New Delhi, the law firm Amarchand Mangaldas had pointed this out in the presence of I&B Secretary Asha Swarup. “That’s not our intention,” Swarup had replied. The firm pointed out that intentions would be immaterial in a court as the law defines broadcasting as being more than just TV channels.

Casting aside this ambiguity in the Broadcast Bill, the I&B ministry is now working on a new set of rules that would bring under its jurisdictionnews and current affairs content on the Internet — all of it. This is being done, sources said, as part of a draft amendment in the Press & Registration of Books Act, 1867. So bloggers writing about news will have to be extra careful, for instance, but the ministry mandarins even expect websites of international media to register in India with an authoritylike the Registrar of Newspapers (RNI).

That the ministry’s intentions do not stop at television channels is also clear from the definition of “programme” in the proposed “Content Code”. The Code is a separate document that would be enforceable through the Broadcast Bill when it becomes an Act. The purpose of the code is to regulate the “quality” of programmes, to “protect the consumers’ interests”, the national interest and the right to privacy. These could give the proposed Broadcasting Regulatory Authority, to be run by bureaucrats answerable to the I&B ministry, as much discretionary powers over the Internet as over television.

In India, the Internet is already regulated by the IT Act, 2000, which is governed by the ministry of communications and information technology. Through this Act, the government created the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN), which among other things is tasked with ensuring a “balanced flow of information”. Aided with a Gazette Notification, CERT-IN arbitrates on requests from various government functionaries for blocking websites. CERT-IN, the department of information technology, as well as the ministry do not reveal the reasons for blocking a website even on requests made through the Right to Information Act.

Experts thus see the I&B ministry’s move to regulate online content as part of its long-running tussle with the communications and IT ministry over who will regulate the Internet. The Convergence Bill, 2000, was supposed to solve it, but it died a premature death.

[First published in Tehelka newsweekly.]

You live and work in south Delhi, you don’t have a car or a bike, you travel by auto or bus, and can’t decide which is worse, the autos or the buses… like me, you must be looking forward to 2009, when the metro will be all around you. Lech here.

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Pervez Musharraf at Exit

“A funny personal Testament on punjabi poem on the current political situation of Pakistan.”

Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan writes her Sex and the City-style blog under the pseudonym “EM”, aware that although her material would not seem outrageous to a British audience, in India sex remains a taboo and anti-obscenity laws are strict.

[...]

Her book, due out early next year, promises to be racier than previous Indian chick-lit novels, yet some Indians believe that will not help sales. A fellow blogger, who did not wish to be identified, said: “She has a dedicated following but I’m sure a lot are voyeuristic men seeking titillation. I find it a bit superficial myself.”

Meanwhile, Madhavan is apprehensive that news of her real identity will spread even further when the book is published, making it harder to be frank in her internet journal. “It will be harder to write when you’re no longer anonymous,” she said.

Will she carry on? “My blog is an integral part of my life but it’s not my life,” she said. “I’d be upset if it vanished tomorrow, but I wouldn’t be heartbroken.” The Compulsive Confessor, it seems, is defiant to the last.

Here.

 A “climate of terrorism” has been created. Many players — political parties, intelligence agencies, militant outfits — benefit from the attacks. Nothing is ever investigated; if an enquiry is ever set up, it’s usually a smokescreen, a way to defuse a crisis.

…says Arundhati Roy.

And she recounts what happened has been happening in Gujarat:

After the carnage in which thousands of ordinary Muslims were butchered and about 1,50,000 driven from their homes, the man who presided over it all, Narendra Modi, is still the chief minister. No one from the UPA government has so much as squeaked about it. Of the 287 cases filed under POTA, 286 are against Muslim and one is against a Sikh. Offences under POTA, as we know, are non-bailable, so they’re all still in jail. The property of those accused in the Godhra massacre was attached. The property of those who were released on bail in the post- Godhra carnage was not. Different laws for Hindus and Muslims. In the case of several massacres, the lawyers that the Gujarat government appointed as public prosecutors had actually already appeared for the accused. Several of them belonged to the RSS or the VHP, organisations that proudly owned up to the killings. Survivors found that when they went to the police to file FIRs, the police would record their statements inaccurately, and refuse to record the names of the perpetrators. In several cases, when survivors had seen members of their families being burned alive, so their bodies could not be found, the police would refuse to register cases of murder. In massacres, in order to reduce the magnitude of the charges and elide the detailing of individual crimes, thepolice clubbed FIRs together to make it all very vague and subvert the process of the criminal justice system.

The massacre at Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad, in which Ehsan Jaffri — who made the mistake of campaigning against Modi in the Rajkot elections — and 70 other people were killed and 10 women wereperiod of ten-and-a-half hours. A mob of thousands of armed people began to assemble inside the Gulberg Society colony. That day, Jaffri made 200 phone calls, including many to senior police officers, to Modi and LK Advani. At about 10.30am, the then Commissioner of Police, PC Pandey, visited Gulberg, which is not far from the police headquarters. At about 2.30pm, Ehsan Jaffri surrendered himself to the mob, hoping the others would be spared. The mob stripped him, hacked off his body parts, paraded him half-alive around the colony to terrify people and then burned him alive. Subsequently, 70 people were killed and 10 to 12 women were gangraped before being burned alive. KG Erda, the inspector of the Meghaninagar police station, stood by and watched. PC Pandey was promoted to Director General of Police, Gujarat. As public prosecutor, the Gujarat government appointed a man called Chetan Shah who had already appeared for the accused in the same case!

Today, more than five years later, the killers remain free. And PC Pandey has continued to be an efficient servant of the State. As DGP, he has been instrumental in covering the tracks of the policemen involved in the macabre murder of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kausar Bi. Newspapers have reported how he transferred police officers who were investigating the case when he realised they would not play by his rules. How he detailed two policemen to be part of the investigation when they were themselves accused in the same case. All this involves the overt and covert support of the full range of government machinery, the police, the courts, the administration — this is how it all works. Sheer terrorism disguised as democracy. And I haven’t even begun to talk about what’s happening in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa.

The point is that when people feel they have nowhere to turn for justice, and that they can be jailed, raped and butchered even when they have done nothing at all, then why should they not fight back? When the whole elaborate machinery of this democracy fails you at every stage, why not fight back? Is it surprising that in a quarter of India’s districts, the State has no control?

All here.

To speak what few dare to, to continuously be the madman in the accidents deaths of anarchists – that’s why I so religiously follow Arundhati Roy’s polemics.

This is the second post in a series that seeks to ponder how people describe themselves. I offer no comments and leave them to the 4.5 people who read this blog to use the comments box. The first one was Sanjay Jha, and now Meena Kandaswamy.

Poet/Writer/Translator (though i am just an enthusiastic woman most of the time who abhors labelling herself, labelling others). . .I believe in the Gloria Steinham quote: “Writers don’t like writing, they like having written.” If you want to know about stuff I have written, go to google, you shall find some food for thought. If you like to know what it feels to be a young woman writer writing-in-English in India (and admittedly, a very depressed young woman writer) you will find something in this blog…(or try this)

tamil. brown woman. born in 1984. 22 years going on 44. pursuing a phd at the moment. wrote a book of 84 poems. called it touch. kamala das wrote a foreword (the only one in her life). translated lots of books from tamil to english and enjoyed doing it (you could google for more info). i love revolutionary dr.ambedkar. i hate caste (and if you know me for ten minutes i would be asking you to do that too). that is all i can say for the moment. these are enough reasons why i am happy…

(or try this)

Meena Kandasamy is a twenty-three year old writer, poet and translator based in Chennai, India. Two of her poems Mascara and My Lover Speaks of Rape have won first prizes in pan-Indian poetry contests. Her poems have been published widely in India and abroad through journals like The Little Magazine, Indian Literature, Kavya Bharati, Cerebration, Indian Horizons, Sweet Magazine, Muse India, Great Works, Slow Trains and the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore.

She was the Editor of The Dalit, a bimonthly alternative English magazine of the Dalit Media Network in its first year of publication from 2001-2002. As a woman writer who dreams of a casteless India, she has contributed quite a few book chapters and research articles in various journals like Communalism Combat and Biblio.

She has translated more than a dozen books that run into over thousand five hundred pages. Significant among her translations are the writings and speeches of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal (Dalit Panthers of India) leader Thol. Thirumavalavan (Talisman: Extreme Emotions of Dalit Liberation (2003) and Uproot Hindutva: The Fiery Voice of the Liberation Panthers (2004), Samya, Kolkota). She has also translated the poetry and fables of Tamil Eelam poet Kasi Anandan.

She is a contributing editor to the literary e-zine www.museindia.com and considers herself lucky to be one of twenty-one woman writers from South Asia selected for 21 under 40: New Fiction for a New Generation, the Zubaan Anthology of Young Women Writing published in February 2007.

Having majored in Linguistics and English Literature, she is pursuing her Ph.D. specializing in language teaching, technical translation and other deeply boring, easily forgotten topics. She can be reached at meena84@gmail.com.

Her first collection of poems, Touch, with a foreword by Kamala Das, has been published by Peacock Books (Frog Books, Mumbai) in August 2006.

(the last one is a direct lift-off from Kala Kahani)

[From here.]

I find it very interesting how people describe themselves. A new series on this blog where I’ll be picking out bios of people from the internets and offer them without comment. The 3.5 people who read this blog will, I hope, have a comment and a half to enlighten me.

To begin with, Sanjay Jha, who makes films, and sees himself thus:

Son of a soldier, Sanjay Jha was born in Sultanganj in Bhagalpur district, Bihar. Childhood days were spent in an earthy rural life. Right from the beginning, he was deeply inspired by the rich folk culture of Buddha’s own land, Bihar. Grew up with real images of Melas, Ramleelas, Bahuripiyas, incredible rituals, strong religious milieu and the vibrant Mithila Art. Natural calamities like flood and drought gifted unforgettable images. Changing seasons of rural life on the bank of river Ganga matured into a sense of poetry and language. Wonder years passed chasing steam trains that passed through the fields of his native village. Listening to radio programs made for defense personals was the only window to the outside world. With such a treasure of inspirational experiences a story teller evolved. [From here.]

Sacredmediacow is collecting a usefularchive of a possible democratic revolution in Myanmar. HERE.

On September 29, there will be at least two main memorial meetings in Bhandara. One will be led by Naravane, Gajbhiye and various RPI sympathisers. The other will be held by the NCP camp; Bhaiyyalal will be present. There will be promises and remembrances and much media coverage. After a long day, Bhaiyyalal will go home and settle down with his transistor and listen to old Hindi film songs. Amongst his favourites is this one from Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai:

Ajeeb daastaan hai yeh,
Kahaan shuru kahaan khatam.
Yeh manzilein hain kaun si,
Na woh samajh sake na hum.

Here.

Photo credit: Cherian Thomas.

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That question many amongst the middle class consider taboo. I did, too, somewhat. Until somebody made me a journalist and I had to go around asking people their caste. For how do you ask a Dalit whether he would vote for Mayawati despite the Brahmin alliance without asking him if he is a Dalit?

I discovered, for one, that most Dalits still identify themselves as Harijans or even SCs. And also that they identify themselves by their caste names – Jatav or Pasi, Mala or Madiga.

And I once told Annie that I didn’t like the use of the word ‘oppression’ in a post by her. I said oppression is a very Big word and as such means nothing to me. She replied that she keeps subtlety for poetry. Since I don’t write poetry…

But I found that oppression is a very normal descriptor in rural India. The word in UP is “dabang”. Yahan Thakur dabang hain, yahan Brahmin dabang hain, yahan Yadav dabang hain – can change from village to village.

So I smile when I see this:

Jeevan Shri’s neighbours, who belong to the Dabang caste, set fire to her after her son eloped with a girl from their caste. [CNN-IBN]

..writes Arundhati Roy.

For the cover story on the Ram Setu controversy in Tehelka this week, I interviewed the VHP-man-in-the-BJP, BP Singhal, brother of Ashok Singhal. BP was more interested in talking about mind, body and soul than about Ram Setu. I listened to him in all seriousness and held myself back from laughing more than once. My photographer colleague, an atheist Muslim, did not reveal his name. So while a brief excerpt appears in the magazine, given below is the part I loved, and it has nothing to do with Ram Setu. Believe you me, it is transcribed word by word from a tape.

*

If there are alternatives, why do they want to demolish the ‘bridge’?
Simply because America is out – have you not been watching the way places of Hindu faith and shraddha have been denigrated!

But what is the motive?
Americans! Americans! Americans and the Christians. I mean, Christians because of Americans and Americans because of Christians, and Christians themselves.

But why?
Do you know what their academy of religion in America gives out? That the trunk of ganesha is like a phallus. For them phallus is visible everywhere. In India it has been called shiv ling. Ling is phallus? What is ling? Ling is the operational part of the particular thing. And what is Mahadev? Mahakaal! That is also Mahadev. Mahakaal ka ling kya hain? Time. Time consumes everything. There was an attempt by Brahma and Vishnu, ki dekhey iskay ling kahan hain. Kahin aadi aur ant hain kya? Toh Brahma ko kahan tum upar jaon hum neechay jaatein hain. And then if we come back with results then we will compare notes. So Vishnu went down, down, down, down, down, down, down and came back after that. Brahma also went up, up, up, up and came back. Usnay kahan ki Vishnu aadi mila? Kahan nahin. Tumko mila? Ant mila? Haan, haan mil gaya. So what is the proof? He said, he had already fixed up tulsi, the most revered flora, and gau, the most revered fauna. Yeh do they toh unsay saksh liya, and they said ki haan ant hain. It was discovered that it was all totally false. Gau ka mukh nahi puchta, aur tulsi ghar main nahi rakh saktay. You keep it outside in the angan. Ab Brahma ka mandir nahi milta. He is not worshipped the way Vishnu is. So that is the operational part, the ling, which is Mahakaal. Mahakaal ka ling kya hain? Time. So if they don’t want to understand that and make their own interpretations…

But why is the UPA government doing this?
Sonia Gandhi is reason enough. Shankaracharya’s humiliation and other things… there is a whole series of charges.

But she insisted the ASI withdraw that affidavit…
Anybody who wants to denigrate another religion, I call him a Christian. You must find out Ambika Soni’s religion. But I deem her a Christian anyway. Because only Christians have come out with voluminous literature denigrating our deities and sons. They call Ramakrishna Paramhans a sodomite. Sodomite!

Sodomite!
Yes, and Vivekananda as a catamite! This book has been written in protest against what they have been preaching there. I’ll just read out this part (reads from the blurb of the book Invading The Sacred : An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America by Krishnan Ramaswamy, Antonio de Nicolas & Aditi Banerjee): India, once a major civilisation and economic power that suffered centuries of decline, is now newly resurgent in business, geopolitics and culture. However, a powerful counterforce within the American Academy is systematically undermining core icons and ideals of Indic Culture and thought. For instance, scholars of this counterforce have disparaged the Bhagavad-Gita as “a dishonest book”; declared Ganesha’s trunk a “limp phallus”; classified Devi as the “mother with a penis” and Shiva as “a notorious womanizer” who incites violence in India; pronounced Sri Ramakrishna a pedophile who sexually molested the young Swami Vivekananda; condemned Indian mothers as being less loving of their children than white women; and interpreted the bindi as a drop of menstrual fluid and the “ha” in sacred mantras as a woman’s sound during orgasm.

Why is it all so sexual?
Yeah, they are obsessed with sex!  Because they are the followers of Freud for whom sex was the highest motivator. When you just vanish, the only real element is the soul. And you take the body as the final, material world, as Marx takes it, Freud took it, or Darwin – he also doesn’t believe in the soul! I consider them the three villains of the whole mankind. Because they divorce man from the only reality that exists in him.

Surprisingly the Muslims are not producing hate literature like this.
They don’t have those brains. They don’t have those brains. They have their sword. They know that once they are in a majority like Kashmir, they’ll either convert or finish off. So they believe in brute force. Unko itna dimag bhi nahin hain. Aur jisnay bhi analysis karnay ki koshish kari, whichever Muslim went deep into this, he became lover of Indian philosophy. Yeh hamari itni vaishvik hain philosophy, so universal and devoted to just human beings. Whoever goes into the depth of it, he becomes a slave of it. You may be a very devout Muslim, please continue your devotion, as Vivekanand says. He was a devout Hindu. What did he say? I want every Christian to be a devout Christian, he said, every Muslim to be a devout Muslim, every Hindu to be a devout Hindu. He never said that everyone should become a Hindu. The RSS and VHP don’t say everyone should be a Hindu. You can have a difference of opinion when they say that after all the Mughals didn’t bring any women, so after all they were all Hindus, their mothers were Hindus, from the m the progeny of Muslims came. They are if not full then half Hindus. Aap yeh keh do ki aap Muslim Hindu ho. They are known as Hindis when they go to Madina for Haj. Wahan Hindi kehlatay ho toh yahan Hindi kehlanay main kya takleef hain tumko? There should be an identity with the soil.

Partition Lecture Series

Continuing with our year-long programme of lectures, dialogues, and readings from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh under the Partition Lecture Series, Zubaan, the Heinrich Boll Foundation, Max Mueller Bhavan, and the India Habitat Centre have invited Dr Rita Kothari, Associate Professor, Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad, to present a lecture on

“The Persistence of Partition: The Sindhis in India”
on September 20, at 6:30 pm, Gulmohar, India Habitat Centre

Sixty years, and two generations after Partition, it is worth asking if as a historical event, or metaphor, Partition persists in the lives of the Sindhis. Is Partition a shared referential trope for the translocal Sindhi who does business in three continents, or the one who lives in an urban Indian city and runs a cloth shop, or the one who continues to live in what-were-once refugee camps, and waits for more gentrified (and therefore non-Sindhi) location? Kothari’s work on the Partition experience and resettlement of the Sindhis defies some of the oft-made generalizations about Partition. The focus shifts from the history to sociology of Partition, from the day of departure to the trauma of arrival, from collective memory to collective forgetting. The narrative is not plotted in terms of adversaries/friends from different religions, because the ‘other’ is absent from oral testimonies of the Sindhis. The ‘others’ had to be created, and believed as part of citizenship in the new nation-state, and boundaries of religion and culture had to be redrawn for membership in majoritarian circles.

The narrative of the Sindhis is shot through with irony: they emerge as winners by having escaped brutal violence, by rising spectacularly well out of the ashes of Partition and by putting behind the memory of pre-Partition lives. And yet, as Kothari illustrates through Gujarat, they paid some of the heaviest prices, and made losses which remain unacknowledged by everyone, including the Sindhis themselves.

No passes or invitations are required for attending the event.

The VHP website has a Hindu helpline. Do let them know their problems: http://vhp.org/hindu_helpline_frm.php

Two years ago, in a village in Jaunpur district in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Thakur Devendra Singh cheated Phulpatti Devi, a 45-year-old Dalit widow, of Rs 10,000. He told her he needed it to pay a bribe to ensure a Rs 60,000 bank loan for her daughters’ weddings — the loan never materialised and Phulpatti Devi had to manage with what meagre resources she could muster. Over the next two years, she often asked Singh for her money. He would put her off, telling her the bank had not yet processed her request. Sometimes, though, he would take her to the bank, some kilometres away, and make her wait there for hours, returning her to their village after dark. On at least two such occasions, he attempted to rape her but she escaped. On May 18 this year, he came to her house at 8 at night to tell her that her loan would be issued in two days, Naturally, Phulpatti Devi wanted to know, “Why couldn’t you have waited till morning to give me this news?”

“I was passing by,” said Singh, “I thought you’d be glad to know.” He then began to insist that she see him off, walking him to a neem tree some distance away. She didn’t want to, but her children said she shouldn’t be rude to someone who was helping them get money. Once at the tree, Singh tried to molest her once again. This time, however, Phulpatti Devi was prepared. She told him he needn’t use force and that she would give in voluntarily. Singh undressed, upon which Phulpatti Devi put a hand to her waistband, took out a knife and castrated him.

The next morning, Phulpatti Devi went to the police station with the knife and Singh’s amputated penis, and was arrested. After a few days of recuperation, the Thakurwas also sent to jail, charged with attempt to rape. Unlike others in the village, local Thakurs don’t find the incident funny, and its repercussions may have to be faced by all the village’s Jatavs. How then did Phulpatti Devi collect the courage to do this, TEHELKA asked her in Jaunpur Central Jail.

“I thought,” she said, “that now that Mayawati is in power, she will save me.”

The rest of this article is here.

The pleasures of the bloody internets! Through Facebook I find a picture of my school. I am not a big one for nostalgia – most often I find it a deliberately fake process of producing romantic memories – but sometimes Lucknow comes rushing to me. The swimming pool on the left, the audi on the right, this space is between the ‘front field’ and the ‘back field’. Is there a Franciscan worth his salt who can say I’m wrong?

Photo by Syed Kazmi.

Here’s a mail that’s been doing the rounds…

The Times of India is read by the people who run the country.

The Statesman is read by the people who think they run the country.

The Hindu is read by the people who think they ought to run the country.

The Indian Express is read by the people who think the country ought to be run by another country.

The Telegraph is read by the people who do not know who runs the country but are sure they are doing it wrong.

Mid-Day is read by the wives of the people who run the country.

The Economic Times is read by the people who own the country.

The Tribune is read by the people who think the country ought to be run as it used to be run.

The Hindustan Times is read by the people who still think it is their country.

The Asian Age is read by the people who would rather be in another country.

Not even a hundred days of BSP raj in UP and a Brahmin party MLA is accused of shielding fellow Brahmins in the murder of a Dalit.

(An edited version of this article by me has appeared in Tehelka.)

“He loved to run,” says Agnisen Gautam of his elder brother Chakrasen, in the Dalit (Chamar) basti of the village of Bhadevera in Pratapgarh, a district in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Chakrasen had returned 30 July from Allahabad University, where he had completed his BA. At 5 am on 1st August, Chakrasen set out for the morning ablutions and a kilometre-long run. The month of Sawan had set in, the month in which life is celebrated, but also Shiva, the god of destruction, worshipped. Chakrasen hadn’t had enough sleep, because Santosh Mishra in the neighbouring Brahmin basti had a loud kirtan going all night. But run Chakrasen must. As he ran from the bridge in front of Santosh Mishra’s general store to the other bridge in the village, Chakrasen’s mind that morning must have been occupied by anxiety about the future.

He had gotten into the prestigious B. Tech course of the Uttar Pradesh Technical University and on 20 August they would allot him a college. Becoming an engineer would get him a lucrative job, but that would be some years away. He had filled countless forms for government jobs and was to go to Dhanbad for railways’ exam on 5 August. “He had bought a new bag for the purpose,” Agnisen says, admiringly showing the bag, “from Big Bazaar, for 250 rupees.” He had studied in a government Hindi-medium school, but made up for the handicap by enrolling at the British School of Languages in Allahabad, whose certificate Agnisen proudly shows.

Chakrasen’s dilemma between a clerical job right away versus getting an engineering degree four years later would have been reinforced by coming home: his father had died while pursuing his BA, when Chakrasen was barely three years old. He and his two brothers had been recieving an education thanks mostly to his father’s father, 75 years old Shivmurti. The family had been doing particularly well for two years now, as they had been allotted a PDS shop by the gram panchayat – that the gram pradhan of the day was dalit helped. Taking up a job now would seem to be a Faustian bargain, but how long could his mother and grandfather support him? He had two brothers – Agnisen, 20, had just joined Allahabad University and Shaktisen, 15, was in high school.

An hour later, somebody else had solved Chakrasen’s dilemma. The newspaper hawker cycled to Chakrasen’s house and told his grandfather that he saw someone like Chakrasen being lynched. “They have bound him up like an animal and are beating him up,” said the hawker. His grandfather and Agnisen rushed outside, finding just outside the basti Chakrasen’s slippers and the bottle he had taken for ablutions. There he was, in the house of one Indrajit Paswan, a Dalit (Pasi), bound on the floor and being kicked all over by a few people, even as many in the crowd around them tried to stop them.

“How did you come here?” a shocked Shivmurti asked his grandson.

“Santosh and Akash,” said Chakrasen. And upon hearing that, Santosh and Akash started kicking him even more, says Shivmurti, who himself was kicked out and the younger Agnisen slapped and threatened. They wanted to similarly lynch Shivmurti and Agnisen, who ran to save their lives. Some time later the police was seen coming from Indrajit Paswan’s house, telling people not to go there as Chakrasen had already died, and the body was being brought to his house.

But why did Santosh Mishra and Akash Dubey do this? “How do we know?” asks Shaktisen’s wailing mother.

Actually, she knows. It has to do with the PDS ration shop. When the shop was alloted to the Gautams by the gram panchayat in May 2004, Santosh Mishra had one condition – he wanted much more ration from that shop than Mishra’s Above Poverty Line ration card entitled him. The Gautams say Mishra’s intention was to sell it at market rates in his kirana shop – the reason why they were also keen on getting the government PDS shop in the first place for themselves. “I said if we give you this much then what will we give to those with below poverty line cards?” says Shivmurti.

Denied the excess ration, Mishra had harbourerd a grudge against the family. Ten months ago, Mishra told Shivmurti: “Ladkay ko bhalay hi tumnay bahut padha likha liya ho, par tumharay kam nahi aayega. Your grandson Chakrasen has gotten a lot of education, but it won’t be of use to you.” The hint was that Chakrasen would be murdered. Shivmurti thus complained to the DM, the SP and the local police station. The police was taking Santosh Mishra away when Thakurs from the village pleaded to Shivmurti: “Apnay gaon ka mamla hain, jaaney do. It’s an internal matter of the village, let it be.” Santosh pleaded for forgiveness and Shivmurti withdrew his complaint. But then, Santosh would threaten again, and would intimidate Chakrasen every time he would come home from Allahabad. “Tumko barbad kar diye, chorey nahin. I’ll ruin you, I won’t forgive you,” is what Shivmurti says Santosh Mishra used to say.

“On Monday 30 July Chakrasen arrived from Allahabad, on Tuesday night Santosh organised his weekly kirtan, and on Wednesday morning he put his words into action,” says Chakrasen’s mother.

Santosh Mishra and co-accused Akash Dubey, both Brahmins, are absconding, while the police have arrested Indrajit Paswan and his two brothers. Another accused is a also Pasi but who, locals say, died four years ago. The Gautams did not want to name the Paswans in the FIR but the CO, they say, forcibly made them do so. “Santosh and Akash had stripped Chakrasen naked who ran into Indrajit’s home to save his life,” say neighbours, “so the two Brahmins shouted ‘Chor! Chor!’ and the Pasis therefore attacked Chakrasen unknowingly.”

Chakrasen’s family and neigbours allege that Santosh Mishra has visited the village often in the nights but the reason why the two Brahmin accused are still absconding is pressure from the local BSP MLA, Ram Shiromani Shukla, also a Brahmin, who was allegedly a close associate of Santosh Mishra. “This is false propaganda being spread by the Samajwadi Party people,” Shukla told Tehelka, claiming that he was the one who got a second FIR lodged at the police station under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, and that he also gave Rs 3,000 towards the expenses of Chakrasen’s last rites. “On the contrary,” says Chakrasen’s brother Agnisen, “Shukla offered us Rs 5 lakhs to drop charges against Santosh Mishra and Akash Dubey.” The Gautam family also wanted to take the body in a car and drive right up to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s residence. “But,” says Agnisen, “MLA Shukla and the police forced drivers of the two cars we had hired to go away.” Agnisen also accuses that Shukla told the Patti police station’s circle officer Martendu Prakash Singh to let off the Mishra and Dubey: “Woh kahen ki woh Pandit hain, unhay chor do, tumhay ashirwad denge. He said that they are Pandits, and they would bless you if you let them go.”

Agnisen also says that the secretary of the BSP’s Pratapgarh unit, RD Gautam, a dalit, had visited the family and promised justice, upon which the family told him that the BSP MLA was using his position to save the accused. In response to that, Agnisen says, Gautam said about his party colleague: “Unhonay kaha ki woh Pandit hain, apna jatigat kartavya nibha rahan hain. Lekin main tumko muabja dilwaonga aur un dono ko jail main dalwaonga. He is a Pandit, he is merely fulfilling his caste obligation. But I will get you compensation and make sure that the two are arrested.”

While the copy of the FIR given to the family is too faint to be readable – deliberately, says the family – the post-mortem report says the cause of death was “asphyxia as a result of acute mortem strangulation”. The family also says that the police did not conduct a panchnama on the spot. Agnisen says that Patti kotwal Babu Chand deliberately falsified Santosh Mishra’s father’s name in the FIR so that there would be ambiguity in who to arrest, and he would be given the benefit of doubt. Babu Chand has since been transferred to Allahabad. Pratapgarh SP Brij Raj Meena told Tehelka: “The panchnama had been done and the charges of political pressure are false. We have obtained non-bailable warrants against Mishra and Dubey and will soon attach their property if the remain absconding. The modalities for compensation under the Atrocities Act are also being worked out.”

“The SP has been saying this since 1 August,” says Agnisen, “the whole idea is to keep delaying until everyone forgets the matter.”

Regardless of whether Santosh Mishra and Akash Dubey are convicted, the Pratapgarh unit of the BSP’s local ‘Brahmin bhaichara committee’ will need a lot of moral courage now to walk around the Chamar basti of Bhadevera and chant the slogan, ‘Brahmin shank bajayega, haathi dilli jayega. The Brahmin wil blow the conch shell, and take the BSP to Delhi’.

How they sell you

India Incredible ad campaign

India a Failed State

On all the three points, Abdul Kalam’s views on a liberal law were illiberal and based on sheer ignorance. His four major interventions reflect common traits — enormous self-assurance, disregard for the Constitution, the law and the Supreme Court’s rulings and a passion to set his own rules, though nothing in his career had equipped him on these matters. He decided to act as a ‘man of science’ prescribing order and certainty to all.

Please read this excellent article by AG Noorani on why APJ Abdul Kalam was one of our more dangerous Presidents.

And on that note, this cartoon on the new President, Pratibha Patil, from the Times of India, by Jug Suraiya and Ajit Ninan:

Song of India

Written by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908, Russia). Performed by Ayane Iwanaga.

Begum Parveen Sultana: Queen of Indian classical music

Vocals — Parveen Sultana
Tabla — Mukundraj Deo
Harmonium – Shrinivas Acharaya

The ‘Queen of Indian classical music’, the “Poetess of Music’ and the ‘Ultimate Saprano’, Parveen Sultana is one of the most influential female khayal vocalists of the modern era. She has a distinctively sweet voice, which displays an incredible virtuosity, clarity and purity, and covers a range of nearly four octaves. A child prodigy at the age of 12, she has one numerous awards, and mesmerized audiences throughout the world.

In this evening’s performance to bring this year’s festival to a fitting close, she is accompanied by Yogesh Samsi on Tabla, Ajay Joglekar on Harmonium, Sandeep Mishra on Sarangi and Nina Virdee — talented vocalist in her own right on Tanpura.

Darbar Festival
13-15 April
Phoenix
Leicster

Book Now at www.darbarlounge.com for tickets

“Her matchless voice ….. held the audience spellbound” (The Times of India)

“Not since Ravi Shankar’s music took America by storm has the audience been treated to such a musical feast as Parveen’s music… the audience stood up applauding thunderously” (News and Cine India Review, New York, USA)

“We forget ourselves in the extraordinary and spiritual and blessed voice of Parveen Sultana. We do not need to think twice about her unrivalled position as one of the greats in terms of purity of voice”. (Kerala Kaumudi, India)

“Her voice flowed like a light, soothing breeze and the crowd was swayed by it” (Mathru Bhoomi, India)

To: citizens of Mumbai, India and the worldPunish the Guilty of the Anti Muslim Pogrom of 1992-1993

Justice for All

The convictions of the accused in the 1993 Bombay blasts case are intended to be a form of redress for the 250 families who lost dear ones in the serial blasts and aim to send the message that the Indian system delivers justice for all crimes, especially mass crimes of unspeakable brutality. But the bomb blasts of March 12, 1993 were only the external symptoms of a cancer that had gnawed away at Mumbai’s vital organs with the abject failure of the state machinery to protect the city’s Muslim population during the horrendous communal riots of December 1992 and January 1993. More than three times as many Mumbaikars were killed in the riots that preceded the bomb blasts but the lack of action against the perpetrators of the riots who are named in the Srikrishna report is clear evidence of the operation of a double standard of justice, one for the majority community and the other for the minorities. India and it systems of democracy, executive, judiciary and legislature, need to reflect.

The bomb terror of March 12, 1993 must be recalled with the same horror as the mob terror of December 6, 1992, in Ayodhya, resulting in the loss of hundreds of lives all over the country. The causes of the blasts, too, must be revived in public memory. As the Srikrishna report observed: “The serial bomb blasts were a reaction to the totality of events at Ayodhya and Bombay in December 1992 and January 1993. The common link between the riots and the blasts was that of cause and effect.”

Information obtained under the Right to Information Act makes it clear that successive state governments, no matter what their political persuasion, have decided to shield the guilty. The motivations of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena parties in refusing to implement the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission are obvious: among the individuals named in the report are several of their leaders and cadres, including Bal Thackeray, Manohar Joshi, Gopinath Munde and Madhukar Sarpotdar. What is more shocking is the role of the so-called secular parties. Though the manifestos of both the Congress Party and the Nationalist Congress Party in 1999 and 2004 promised to implement the recommendations of the report, these promises remain unfulfilled.

The report also lays bare the biased role played by 31 police officers, including RD Tyagi, who as then joint commissioner, shot dead nine persons at the Suleiman Usman Bakery labelling them “Kashmiri terrorists”. Another senior police officer, NK Kapse was promoted after a departmental inquiry exonerated him of any guilt in shooting down seven persons at the Hari Masjid located at Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Marg. Save one policeman who was dismissed from service, all others have escaped lightly despite being found guilty of complicity in acts of murder and arson.

The RTI findings also demonstrate a complete absence of vigour in pursuing riot-related cases through the judicial system. Cases have been closed in a seemingly arbitrary fashion and appeals have not been filed against acquittals in the lower courts. If a genuine peace is to return to Mumbai, there must be justice. Continued injustices cause schisms to widen, wounds to fester. Justice can only be truly served by implementing the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission report. We urge the state government to do so immediately. It must devote as much energy and resources to obtaining justice for the victims of the Mumbai riots as it mustered up for the victims of the Mumbai bomb blasts. We also believe that the process must be visible and transparent. Only then will the deep wounds caused by the targeted violence of 1992-1993 heal, bringing enduring peace.

Public Release of the Statement/Signature Campaign
Indian Merchants Chamber, Churchgate
August 9, 2007; 5.30 p.m.
Contact Justice For All Campaign
Telephone: 022-26602288/26603927
Email: sabrang@sabrang.com

Signature Campaign
Vijay Tendulkar
Anil Dharker
Naresh Fernandes
Ram Rehman
Teesta Setalvad
Nandan Maluste
Arvind Krishnaswamy
Javed Anand

Sincerely,

Sign the petition

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Love’s Fine Wit

Fahad and Deepti made this short film some time ago – seems like a long time. Two other college mates were actors, apart from Fahad, and I was spot boy.

This is a seismic shift in our region’s geopolitics. So it is puzzling why the Howard Government has been so slow to educate the public about what it means, and step up the institutional and intellectual investments to engage with the India being promoted as a major power by Washington. [Link]

Australian paper Brisbane Times reprimands the Australian government for not catching up with America’s ‘embrace of India’, nuclear deal and all, even as the Australian government signals it’s going to give Delhi some uranium after all.

Power, power superpower. With power came responsibility, but for now, enjoy the free lunch.

DAY 40 of the indefinite hunger strike

“Day 40 of the indefinite hunger strike by Dawa and Tenzing Lepcha, Satyagrahis and Members of ACT demanding to the Govt of Sikkim to scrap the mega hydel projects planned for Dzongu, a protected place for the Lepchas.”

Talking to Jatin about living on rent in South Delhi, of Jangpura Sardarjis and whether East of Kailsah is more posh, Jatin said hum to refugee ke refugee hi reh gaye.

What an endearing thought. Sannu teh refugee reh gaye.

A 35-year-old woman walked horizontally out of the seventh floor around 10:30 am. At around 2 pm, a man and a woman, both in their late-30s, leapt from the other side of the same building.

Walk across to the building in Lucknow where Uttar Pradesh’s legislators live, and you’ll never have to walk back. Never. Walk. Walk as if the earth was flat, as if these mountains of claustrophobia called buildings didn’t exist, walk. An entire city’s fears come to an end on the terrace of one single building – skyscrapers are meant to fall off from, to reach the top, to never again have to climb any building, to never again have to alight from any flight of stairs. Any.

Never.

Walk.

Quote of the day -

“If I have to choose between the market and my conscience, I shall choose the market.”

- QW Naqvi, editorial head of the Aaj Tak news channel [Link]

Bhagalpur. Bihar. Riots. 20 years ago. 14 accused. A thousand killed. Conviction. Finally.

The story doesn’t shake you. Another forgotten riot, another forgotten story of many lives.

The secularists, the pseudo-secularists, the not-communal-not-secular self-righteous nothings – nobody has nothing much to say.

But you sit up and take note when you see how that story is titled in a Reuters report published in the NYT.

14 Hindus Get Life in Killing of 116 Muslims

And then, did you ask, What Ails Indian Secularism?

Quote of the day:

“Consumption of narcotic drugs by others destroy the very fabric of the society and corrupts the mind of the users.”

- Additional Sessions Judge NK Gupta [Link]

On the way from Manoharpur to Chaibasa, West Singhbhum district, southern Jharkhand. Beautiful Naxal-infested state where tribals are taken for a ride by everyone, where people are needlessly rude. But an absolutely beautiful place.

Photo by my colleague Salman Usmani.

For the first time ever, the government has booked a criminal case against journalists associated with a sting operation. The case is on the 2005 cash-for-questions sting, which showed 11 MPs accepting money for putting up questions in Parliament. [Manoj Mitta]

I, often termed elitist (I also cover fashion, don’t you know?), found my calling in this story. The story of not finding the right space. I, who battle against being put in a neat box (business? politics? defence? bollywood??), identified more than anyone will ever know with people hunting for their space. Their corner, their little heaven. [Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........]

Hmmmmmmmm…….

I’ve been fed up of Orkut and I find LinkedIn quite pointless as well, so there was no point joining Yet Another Social Networking Site. After ignoring many invitations, though, I finally joined Facebook and I like it.

Apparently, I’m not the only one.

At the height of the Gurjat agitation in Rajasthan, I was talking to Colonel Kirori Singh Bainsla, the mastermind behind the agitation to grant Scheduled Tribe Status to Gurjars. This was the second time I was meeting him. I asked him all of one question, because he won’t let me ask. He was dictating me an extempore press statement in English. At one point he said, “The numbers in Patoli have neither increased nor decreased,” and after a pause, “Or what do you journalists write? Dwindled? Yes, yes, dwindle! The number of people in Patoli has not dwindled.”

At one point he asked me if his English was good. And after he was done with the dictation, he looked at his lawyer and said, “Tumko to angrezi bhi nahin aati!“

Col. Bainsla’s rise to fame, his obsession with English, particularly the word ‘gentleman’ – all came to make some meaning for me after I saw the above photo by TK Rajalakshmi in Frontline. There he isin a rustic setting, a thick Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary by is side.

You don’t need it, Colonel.

Rats turn to consumption of alcohol in Bihar

Rats were also attacking people near the police buildings, nibbling at their toes, although it was not clear if they were under the influence, officials and witnesses said.

Today, on World Refugee Day, instead of hosting meaningless functions in which they try to paint their hunky dory pictures of the status of refugees in India, these UNHCR officials should ponder whether, had they paid for the angiogram, Jehangir Eslah would still be alive today.

The United Nations ’s refugee agency in Delhi has shockingly been the least helpful for international refugees in Delhi. Iranian refugee Jehangir Eslah’s case is only the latest.

Forget the UN, what are we Indians doing for those fleeing their own countries to save themselves from persecution? The least you can do is blog about it.

Got this as a forwarded email. A must-read

Hi,

I want to thank all my friends and other unknown people who have forwarded chain letters to me in 2003, 2004 & 2005 2006 and now in 2007.

Because of your kindness:

I stopped drinking Coca-Cola after I found out that it’s good only for removing toilet stains.

I stopped going to the movies for fear of sitting on a needle infected with AIDS

I smell like a wet dog since I stopped using deodorants because they cause cancer.

I also stopped answering the phone for fear that they may ask me to dial a stupid number and then I get a phone bill from hell with calls to Uganda, Singapore and Tokyo.

I also stopped drinking water outside for fear that I will get sick from the rat shit and urine.

When I go to parties, I don’t look at any girl, no matter how hot she is, for fear that she will take me to a hotel, drug me, then take my kidneys and leave me taking a nap in a bathtub full of ice.

I also donated all my savings to the Amy Bruce account. A sick girl that was about to die in the hospital about 7,000 times. (Poor girl! she’s been 7 since 1993…)

My free Nokia phone never arrived and neither did the free passes for a paid vacation to Disneyland.

Made some Hundred wishes before forwarding those Dalai Lama, Ganesh Vandana, Tirupathi Balaji pics etc..

Now most of those “Wishes” are already married (to someone else)!

I know how important my friends are to me, I’ll always remember them no matter I remember my work or not

If ORKUT deletes my account, it doesn’t matter BUT PLEASE DON’T SEND me “Orkut is deleting accounts: Due to sudden rush…” Otherwise I’ll delete my E-Mail account! (WHO THE HELL IS THIS DIANA)

IMPORTANT NOTE:
If you do not send this e-mail to at least 913760 people in the next 10 seconds, a bird will shit on your head today at 6:30 p.m.

Give me a break!!
“The World Is Filled WIth Foolish Ppl And Some Think They Got Talent Too !!!”

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“My family doesn’t allow people of other communities to enter the kitchen, it is because of hygiene problem. They don’t trust other communities’ hygiene regime,” says Abhishek Sharma, 24, a radio jockey.

“Marriages within the same caste help to rear a pure breed. I would not go against my parents’ will. After all they are the elders and we should protect our lineage,” says Preeti Singh, 25, an HR executive. Read that again: an HR executive.

Both in the Hindustan Times yesterday.

Shame on you, Abhishek and Preeti. By the way, what are your views on reservations?

Tehelka, 16 June 

In rural Rajasthan, as in much of rural India, the mode of travel on the highways is an archaic-looking ten-seater vehicle. Passengers hitch a ride for a few rupees to go from one village to another. They huddle together like sardines in a can. Some hang precariously outside the vehicle, holding on to a handle, their feet on the footboard. Others, particularly women who are not willing to risk their dignity and lives, just get left behind and wait for hours for another vehicle to arrive. Sometimes they don’t get a ride at all, and return home, their patience unrewarded. One such vehicle that Tehelka encountered in Alwar was appropriately blaring the Adnan Sami song, Lift Kara De.

The story of affirmative action for the Gurjars in Rajasthan is the story of a ten-seater passenger vehicle plying without a licence from the transport authority. Very little room and too many people waiting to hop on aboard.

Kailash Poswol, in his early forties, is one of those who managed to board the bus. A patwari in the state revenue department in Alwar’s Ramgarh tehsil, Poswol is erecting what seems like the tallest building in the area. It is called Gurjar Sadan, and perhaps because it seems a little out of proportion to the salary he draws that Poswol is unwilling to be photographed in the courtyard outside. But he is most happy to pose in his nearly-complete bedroom, which already has eight black and white photographs of him taken at different stages in his life. The social mobility gained by his family over three generations is as dramatic as the differences in Poswol’s features in the photographs. Poswol’s grandfather did what the caste system had ordained for the Gurjars: he reared goat and sheep, took them out to graze in the fields, sold their milk and offspring. But he did one thing different: he put his son in a school. Fateh Singh, Poswol’s father, read till Class v. This proved enough for him to become a primary school teacher. This was a few decades ago, and at the time he was the only school teacher between several villages. In time he studied further, completing his b.ed, and put Kailash through higher secondary. Kailash’s two children, both in high school, are dreaming even bigger.

Poswol’s house is the first one in this Gurjar basti. The ones after it don’t have similar stories. Some of them are not even pucca houses, with sheep and buffaloes jostling for space with people. Like Hira Lal’s, who works as a labourer in the fields. He lives in a joint family of 25 people and supports the agitation for granting Scheduled Tribe status to the Gurjars. “The general category is for children of the rich and those employed by the government,” he says, as if “general” was also “reserved”.

The story of the Gurjar unrest is a story of agrarian distress. Meet Male Khan, an old man grazing 20-odd goats in a field in Alwar. He earns at the most three thousand rupees a month from them, and has to feed two children who are in classes 9 and 10. He used to earn a lot more from his fields, but there’s no irrigation. Agriculture won’t work out and the cattle earn him peanuts. That can’t be the situation he can leave his children in.

But even if Male Khan manages to put his children through college, getting them jobs would be nearly impossible. Unemployment is the central reason behind the Gurjar upsurge. One of the agitators was Harmukh Singh, who has a ba from Alwar’s Rajrishi College. For three years, he has been filling up all the forms for government jobs in vain.

“Nowhere else in the world is there competition to assert backwardness and then to claim we are more backward than you.” These words of the Supreme Court, while quashing the Central law extending OBC reservations to all centrally-funded educational institutions, have been much quoted. But the truth is that the Gurjars want to downgrade themselves to st status only because that will help them elevate their status from shepherds to babus. Like Rajesh Kumar in Alwar, who doesn’t want to graze cattle and grow mustard and barley like his father. He hopes his ba in History, Political Science and Hindi will get him a job some day — if not in the police or the Army then in some government department.

Masters degree holder Sumer Singh of Nisura village in Dausa has also been hoping against hope. When the Rajasthan Public Service Commission advertised for 30,000 school teacher jobs, 30 Gurjars from his village applied. Despite 8,000 of the vacancies being reserved for OBCs, none of the 30 got in.

The police and the Army, school teachers and peons, railway clerks and village patwaris — these are jobs that won’t (legally) earn them more than a few thousand rupees a month, but even that job security is better than grazing cattle, selling milk, growing wheat and mustard on land that doesn’t grow anything anymore. Outside Jaipur, there is no such thing as the private sector.

Like Sumer Singh, Ram Kiladi is also amongst the 20,000 protesters who sat under the open skies in Patoli, 40 km from Dausa. “Seeing that education does not get us jobs,” says Kiladi, “many Gurjar families in villages see no point in putting children through school and college.”

The OBC list for Rajasthan includes more than 60 castes and though they together make up more than 40 percent of the population, the collective quota for them is only 27 percent. During the 1999 Lok Sabha election campaign, Atal Behari Vajpayee promised the Jats that he would include them in the OBC category, a move that remains controversial but won the Jats, who make up over 10 percent of the state’s population, over to the BJP. But the Gurjar Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti says that even before the inclusion of the Jats, the Gurjars were hardly able to exploit the 27 percent quota. Many states have solved similar situations by dividing the OBC pie into OBC and Most Backward Classes (MBC), but neither the Gurjars nor the Rajasthan government have made any noises for such a split.

For the Gurjars, this has to do with direct competition with the Meenas. “Gurjars are the other side of the Meena coin,” says Colonel Kirori Singh Bainsla. “It’s not envy,” says Ram Kiladi, an unemployed Gurjar youth.

“Our culture is the same, our status in the villages is the same, we live side by side, share the same well and smoke hookah together. Why then do they get the jobs and scholarships but we don’t?”

Bainsla says this is because the Meenas were given st status in 1954. “Reservations provide a sort of guarantee,” he says. “Give that guarantee to everybody or nobody.”

So if the BJP had promised the Gurjars st status during the elections, why did it not fulfil the promise? “Who says we made this promise? Have you read the manifesto?” asks BJP’s Rajasthan state cell president Mahesh Sharma.

Having pulled the rug from under the Congress’ feet by wooing Jats in the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP found itself facing another challenge in the Vidhan Sabha elections. During the fag end of Congress rule, Vasundhara Raje took out Parivartan Yatras wherein, in the words of a veteran BJP leader in Rajasthan, “she promised everyone everything.” In personal meetings with Gurjar leaders and in public speeches, she promised them st status. Her son Dushyant Singh, the mp from Jhalawar, is married to a Gurjar from Uttar Pradesh, and so Raje apparently called Gurjars her “samdhan”. When she came to power, though, she conveniently forgot the idea: Gurjar mlas weren’t a powerful enough lobby. In a House of 200, the BJP won 120. Of these, 20 were won by Meenas and six by Gurjars. The Congress tally was six Meenas and two Gurjars.

The betrayal of the promise has deeply hurt many ordinary Gurjars who say they had been completely wooed by the BJP. At the first barricade that Tehelka encountered in Dausa, manned by an ex-serviceman, one activist said, “Just because we graze cattle, they think they can treat us like cattle to be herded during elections. But we are not your cattle!”

Finally, the Gurjar Arakshan Samiti, a loose organisation of local Gurjar leaders backed by the pan-India Gurjar Mahasabha, called for a “Rail Roko” on September 3 in which protestors halted trains and destroyed rail tracks. As a result, the state government decided to ask collectors of all the 32 districts in the state to file a report on whether Gurjars in their district matched the traits of the Scheduled Tribes (such as, “shyness when in contact with outsiders”). But some of the districts have still not filed the reports and those filed have not been made public by the Rajasthan government. It is universally believed that most of these reports would be in the negative — because Gurjars say most of the collectors are Meena, and others say that Gurjars are not tribals. Although it is true that Gurjars are concentrated in villages in hilly areas and graze cattle, they are relatively more settled. But then, so are the Meenas.

Raje set up a group of four ministers to look into the issue, which kept dilly-dallying the matter and Bainsla says he lost patience. “Vasundhara Raje would never give me an appointment. I gave the ministers a deadline of May 20 and when they didn’t act, I told them there will be violence,” he told Tehelka. So the Samiti decided to collect Gurjars in large numbers in Patoli, at an intersection of three Gurjar villages in Dausa district. As many as 20,000 started turning up from 5am onwards, though the Samiti would have you believe they were two lakhs. They started putting up barricades on nh 11. The day before, May 28, Bainsla had called a press conference on the issue. Only two journalists had turned up. “Hum sakhti se nibtenge (We will strictly handle the situation),” Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria had responded at the call for chakka jam. On May 29 at 7am, the police in Patoli, led by sp Kalyan Mal Meena, decided to uphold the Home Minister’s vow in letter and spirit and shot down six Gurjars. Whether this came before or after the murder of a (Meena) constable depends on which side you speak to. On May 30, a cartoon in the Rajasthan Patrika described the home minister as Goli Chand Kataria.

In the next four days, 26 died in the violence, protests and blocking of highways spread across Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi, forcing the Supreme Court to issue notices to the three states as to why they could not contain the bandhs and the damage to public property. “This would not have happened had the police not killed unarmed people on May 29,” says Ganga Pratap Singh, legal adviser to the Samiti.

During this period, Meenas were getting ready to take to the streets and remove the barricades themselves. Tensions ran high and by the time seven people died in Meena-Gurjar clashes at Lalsot, 80 km from Patoli, Rajasthan seemed to be heading towards full-scale riots. Meenas collected at Meen Bhagwan temples across Rajasthan with weapons and occupied an important spot on nh 11 on the way to Patoli. During the day, they would, together with the police, prevent the media from going to Patoli, confirming to some extent the Gurjars’ allegations of police supporting the Meenas. If a large-scale conflict was avoided, it was only because the Meena leader Kirori Lal Meena restrained the Meena mobs.

“Success is not a journey. It is a destination,” reads a large hoarding outside a new mall coming up in Jaipur. The hoarding has a photo of Raje. Perhaps in keeping with this motto, Raje did little to assuage Gurjar anger except to issue an appeal for peace. It seemed the unabating violence and tension, which had brought life to a standstill in Dausa and neighbouring districts, would force the state government to make compromises. But the government was not even willing to relent to the demand of monetary compensation to the families of those killed on May 29. The bodies were kept in coffins, their ice replaced every morning, at Patoli. Many slept next to them in the night.

“Only a bullet or a letter to the Central government recommending st status for Gurjars can remove me from here,” Bainsla kept insisting in Patoli, the agitation base camp. The police killings on May 29 propelled Dausa into national headlines. TV channels beamed live images of buses being burnt, and Gurjars across north India started supporting their Rajasthani counterparts. Bainsla could not stop thanking the media.

Vasundhara Raje set up another committee of four ministers whose sole achievement by way of negotiations was to bring five Gurjar negotiators from Patoli to Jaipur. Yet she didn’t meet them on June 2. It was only because of pressure from the BJP central command that she met them the next day. Finally, Bainsla backed down on two of his demands: rather than the recommendation, a three-member panel headed by a retired high court judge would examine the Gurjar demand. The panel is to submit its report in three months. The demand of compensation to those killed on May 29 was also accepted. Thirty deaths and seven days later, Raje did what Bainsla had been asking for the last eight months: talk. Only that this time he faced her on equal terms and addressed a joint press conference.

The Congress in the state and the Centre tried to help pacify the situation as it could not come out in support of the Gurjar demand for st status. While Gurjars in Dausa shouted Sachin Pilot ki jai! members of the Samiti expressed dismay that Pilot visited Dausa for only half-an-hour. Sources confirmed that the Samiti is planning to field independent candidates in the next election.

Sources in the Samiti say they don’t expect much to come out of the panel and that the state government’s policy seems to be to delay the issue till the next elections, which are 14 months away. The BJP in Rajasthan has 14 months to reconfigure its caste calculations. Playing with fire will not be easy the next time around.

A mausoleum in Lucknow. A mazar.

If you go there, they offer you a cigarette.

Evereyday, they offer devotees hundreds of cigarettes. Hindus and Muslims.

Imagine, what kind of devotees would light cigarettes as a tribute to a dead saint.

Go there, light a cigarette, and all your wishes in life will come true.

The saint was Mohammad Ashim, also called Gore Baba in his lifetime.  He died during the mutiny. He was a Captain in the Indian Army. He like smoking Capstan brand cigarettes. So the devotess light cigarettes as well. Thousands of them every day.

But they don’t smoke. People light the cigarettes and insert them in cracked crevices on Captain Baba’s grave!

Suddenly, it was not about newspaper headlines about some people wanting a change of status, from OBC to ST, which sounded distant and quite unrelated to the urban cycle. Meenas and Gujjars killing each in Rajasthan, though only a few hours away, sounded far-away and not “my problem.” [Link]

Nice.

Tehelka, 9 May

Mohammed Nasim Khan has come to Chandni Chowk all the way from east Delhi on a hot Saturday afternoon to buy toys that his employer will sell for a profit. To relieve the heat he stops for a glass of lassi. “One good thing about the UPA government? What are you saying?” In its three years, the Manmohan Singh government has done nothing that managed to impress Mohammed Nasim Khan. Why? “Well, you tell me, has anything become cheaper? Have the prices of anything fallen by a paisa? They’ve all gone up,” he says. “All this talk of aam aadmi is jhooth. Lies.”

In the next elections, Khan says he would vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party. “Just to try it out,” he says. “After all the Indian Muslim was born only to keep trying.” Khan is disenchanted with the Congress party. He feels that it appeases the Muslims, but its rule only makes daily life difficult for them. It’s not just inflation but also his father’s pension that never seems to materialise.

On the other side of the thela is Ram Babu, an immigrant Dalit from Lucknow and a one-man lassi factory. While he can drink all the lassi as he wants to, looking for food every evening is not very pleasant. “In the footpath hotel where I eat,” he explains like a street economist, “the meal costs me 50 percent more than what it used to six months ago.” Wheat, says Babu, cost Rs 7 a kg last year. It costs Rs 12 now.

Meet the Congress party’s aam aadmi, exalted to VIP status just three years ago and used as a potent weapon against the India Shining delusions of the ruling National Democratic Alliance. India Shining became India’s most berated slogan, seemingly discrediting economic reforms along the way, and one thought the aam aadmi was back in the centrestage. But three years on, even the Congress seems jittery about not having kept its promise. For an electorate that does not understand the consequences of the rise and fall of the gdp, the only tool of measurement is the price of onions.

“Manmohan Singh is probably a nice man,” says Ram Babu as he offers you a glass of lassi with a layer of malai, “but he is an individual after all. The Congress party is what it is and its rule is what it always is.” Ram Babu used to vote for the Congress till 1990 and then started voting for the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Babu may not have voting rights in Delhi, and he may not even have his job because the Supreme Court would soon not let him make lassi on the Chandni Chowk pavements, but he does know that the BSP made significant inroads in the recent municipal elections in Delhi.

All that the aam aadmi wants is a significant improvement in his daily life. Beyond that, he may not even know what Mani Shankar Aiyar has said about him and his sarkar. Like Nem Singh, who makes a living selling pakoras and returns to the heartland during the harvesting season. Nem Singh doesn’t know who the Railway Minister is or whether he has turned the Railways’ balance-sheet around. His travel on trains is just the same. But he does know that the money his family earns from farming in Western UP is decreasing every year, and his pakoras in Delhi don’t earn him enough to bring his family to Delhi. Between the two, the village and the big city, the agrarian and the urban, he has to make a choice sometime soon, and he doesn’t see how government policies are helping him do that.

Sitting at the India Coffee House, once an adda of the archetypal Congressman, NC Mookherjee knows a lot more than Nem Singh. “Fact is,” he says, “the BJP handled the economy much better. It seems the UPA is deliberately creating a commodities crisis.”

“Koi sahayata nahin hai, there’s no assistance from the government,” says Qadir Ahmed Shah, selling fruits at the Okhla Mandi. Rising prices of fruits and vegetables affect the sellers too, and those who haven’t yet been included in the inclusive growth of the UPA government still look up to the mai-baap state for succour.

Ram Shankar from Gorakhpur works as a labourer at a construction site in Gurgaon. He says the price of every agricultural input has gone up in his region. “Bijli, paani, diesel sab mehnga ho gaya.”

In Seelampur, where two people were killed in protests against the Supreme Court-ordered sealings, shop owner Phool Singh says the government could have taken a stronger stand on sealings.

Sibanath Pegu, a security guard at the Central Park in Connaught Place, votes for a party of the tribals back home in Assam. “Tarun Gogoi and the Congress are not a party of the poor,” he explains. Pegu’s boss Ram Singh, a Dalit who is looking forward to voting for the BSP in the next elections in Delhi, says that the Congress will have to do a lot to change its image from a party of lies and deceit. “After so many years of being cheated by the Congress, you are asking me if I will still vote for them!”

“The problem with Manmohan Singh,” says Jagesh Kumar, a BJP voter from Bihar who works as a security guard at a Gurgaon mall, “is that he is too much into economics. He doesn’t take care of political issues.” Kumar maintains a diary of commentary on all political issues and thinks the dilly-dallying on hanging Mohammad Afzal Guru is going to be the hot potato in the next general elections.

In the 2004 general elections, advertisements put out by the Congress had loudly asked: “Aam Aadmi ko kya mila?” By 2009, the aam aadmi could be asking the Congress the same question.

The Muslims are producing babies like amoeba, and Hindus will be reduced to a minority ‘in their own country’, or so the Hindu right has long tried to convince you. Islam is indeed the fastest growing religion in the world, reveals a study by Foreign Affairs magazine. The number of Muslims in the world is growing at 1.84 percent because of high birth-rates in countries like India. The second fastest growing religion is the Bahai faith, founded in Iran in 1863 by Bahá’u’lláh who claimed to be the latest in a line of prophets ranging from Christ to Mohammed. And why are the Bahais growing so fast? High birth-rates in India. Number three is Sikhisim. Why? High birth-rates in India. Number four is Jainism. Why? High birth rates in India! At a growth rate of 1.52%, Hinduism is number five. The reason for this, as Foreign Affairs put it, is, “Surprise! High birth rates in India.” Christianity, with 2.2 billion adherents, is only the sixth fastest growing religion in the world, thanks to both the high birth-rate and conversions in the global south.

Now you know why they don’t want sex education in India, why Indians are shy to ask for condoms over the counter and why population explosion is no longer an issue in India. It’s all in the name of God, Holy sons!

Tehelka, 9 May 

The Supreme Court’s new order stops short of endorsing measures that would have a real impact

Tehelka, 9 June

The Supreme Court’s interim order on ragging has again put the issue of implementation of anti-ragging measures in a limbo, casting doubts over the potential impact on ragging of the recommendations of what is the second Supreme Court-appointed committee on ragging in seven years.

In 2001, the apex court had acted upon the recommendations of the Unnikrishnan Committee and had recommended that educational institutions that cannot curb ragging may be penalised in terms of funding or affiliation by the affiliating bodies such as the UGC or the aicte. These bodies, however, did not take such measures, not even against at least 15 institutions where students died because of ragging since 2001. Taking note of the deaths, the Supreme Court set up another committee in late 2006 under the chairmanship of former CBI chief RK Raghavan. In view of the inaction of the UGC and the aicte, the Raghavan Committee had submitted 50 recommendations that sought to do away with ambiguities so as to fix clear responsibilities at the school, college, university, affiliating body, district administration, state and central government levels. However, it is unclear whether the Supreme Court’s May 16 order endorses this.

The 2001 order had said that ragging should be dealt with within the institution and the police should be invited into the institution only by the principal. However, the Raghavan Committee noted that principals try to brush complaints of ragging under the carpet. The committee’s recommendation that the institution must file an FIR where the victim or parent is not satisfied, has been endorsed by the court’s new order but it may not have much impact as ragging victims mostly prefer anonymity while complaining. If the head of the institution chooses to ignore an anonymous complaint, there is no way to fix accountability.

Even when FIRs are filed, the committee has observed that there has not been a single conviction in a ragging case. This is primarily because there is often no evidence to prove ragging and eyewitnesses are rarely ready to speak in court. The committee had recommended that the onus of proving that ragging did not take place should be on the accused. The SC order is silent on this, as also on the idea that there be a separate cadre of hostel wardens.

The order assigns to anti-ragging squads within educational institutions the task of ensuring that all ragging-related regulations are implemented, but considering that these squads work within the purview of the head of the institution there is again the issue of external accountability. The order says that the committee “shall continue to monitor the functioning of the anti-ragging committees and the squads to be formed”. Members of the committee are, however, as yet clueless about their role hereafter. The committee had asked that the UGC be told to form a board that would monitor implementation.

The Supreme Court will again take up the case in September and is expected to decide on other recommendations such as the National Assessment and Accreditation Council taking into account the status of ragging while giving educational institutions a rating. Another recommendation of the committee is to begin classes for freshers seven days before that of seniors and the setting up of mentoring cells where seniors would be counsellors to freshers. It also asks for the Indian Penal Code to be amended to include ragging and define it as a criminal offence.

The order endorses the committee’s request for ragging cases to be tried in a fast track court but only as an exhortation, without commenting on the committee’s recommendation that the Criminal Procedure Code be amended to formalise this.

The coments on he previous posts could not be approved or responded to, and I could not post what I wanted to about the Gurjar protests, as I was away in Rajasthan for four days on assignment. We travelled day and night, persuaded Gurjar and Meena mobs, and more difficultly the Rajasthan police, to let us through blockades after every ten kilometres at NH8. I met scores of educated but unemployed Gurjar youth, scores of arrogant, almost militant Meenas, and the apathy and irresponsibility of the Vasundhara Raje government is apalling. And if the Gurjars were thanking the media, you can be sure that the TV channels had a big role in flaring up the protests. I mean, why do you have to show an already burnt bus being burnt again on a deserted street and say, “Dausa is burning”?

But I’ll stop there as I have to write all this by tomorrow in a long story for Tehelka.

Ah look, they’re saying about the violence in Rajasthan, reservations divides society! Didn’t we tell you!

But reservations can’t divide an already divided society. Here’s a long quote from Ambedkar’s The Annihilation of Caste:

The Hindus often complain of the isolation and exclusiveness of a gang or a clique and blame them for anti-social spirit. But they conveniently forget that this anti-social spirit is the worst feature of their own Caste System. One caste enjoys singing a hymn of hate against another caste as much as the Germans did in singing their hymn of hate against the English during the last war.

The literature of the Hindus is full of caste genealogies in which an attempt is made to give a noble origin to one caste and an ignoble origin to other castes. The Sahyadrikhand is a notorious instance of this class of literature. This anti-social spirit is not confined to caste alone. It has gone deeper and has poisoned the mutual relations of the sub-castes as well. In my province the Golak Brahmins, Deorukha Brahmins, Karada Brahmins, Palshe Brahmins and Chitpavan Brahmins, all claim to be subdivisions of the Brahmin Caste. But the anti-social spirit that prevails between them is quite as marked and quite as virulent as the anti-social spirit that prevails between them and other non-Brahmin castes. There is nothing strange in this. An antisocial spirit is found wherever one group has “interests of its own” which shut it out from full interaction with other groups, so that its prevailing purpose is protection of what it has got. This antisocial spirit, this spirit of protecting its own interests is as much a marked feature of the different castes in their isolation from one another as it is of nations in their isolation. The Brahmin’s primary concern is to protect ‘ his interest ‘ against those of the non-Brahmins and the non-Brahmin’s primary concern is to protect their interests against those of the Brahmins. The Hindus, therefore, are not merely an assortment of castes but they are so many warring groups each living for itself and for its selfish ideal.

There is another feature of caste which is deplorable. The ancestors of the present-day English fought on one side or the other in the war of the Roses and the Cromwellian War. But the descendants of those who fought on the one side do not bear any animosity— any grudge against the descendants of those who fought on the other side. The feud is forgotten. But the present-day non-Brahmins cannot forgive the present-day Brahmins for the insult their ancestors gave to Shivaji. The present-day Kayasthas will not forgive the present-day Brahmins for the infamy cast upon their forefathers by the forefathers of the latter. To what is this difference due? Obviously, to the Caste System. The existence of Caste and Caste Consciousness has served to keep the memory of past feuds between castes green and has prevented solidarity.  [You must read the entire essay.]

That is how caste is, that is how the Hindus are, that is how India is.  Your country is not a classless, casteless figment of you middle class air-conditioned imagination.

Reservations can’t divide an already divided people. Reservations challenge the divisions that exist. Change them. Reform them. There’ll be troubles along the way, and not all may be well, but reservations are an inalienable part of India’s journey to a casteless society.

Have fun.

In 2000, UP Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri had refused to support Lucknowites in requesting the British Council not to shut down the city’s only worthwhile library because it didn’t have Hindi books. TV Rajeswar’s worldview seems to be the other extreme. Delivering the Sampurnanand Sanskrit Mahavidyalay’s convocation address in February, Rajeswar told graduating students that English, not Sanskrit, was the god of mammon. Ignoring annoyed rumblings from the crowd, he went on with his diatribe on the market value of Sanskrit; students responded by throwing chairs at him. He abruptly ended his speech, hurriedly sung Jana Gana Mana and left in a huff. But Rajeswar must be used to this. For 19 years no Governor in UP had been allowed to complete his address to the UP assembly. Were it not for the fact that the Governor’s address to the assembly is written in the Chief Minister’s office, Rajeswar would probably not have bothered to come prepared with a 45 minutes long speech on May 21. The opposition didn’t create a ruckus because they’re too shell-shocked with the new seating arrangement. Like the proverbial tube light, they lit up only the next day, objecting to the Governor’s statement that the Mulayam government was unconstitutional.

[First published in Tehelka.]

The large number of protests by the civil society, both in Delhi and Raipur, over the arrest of a human rights activist in Raipur is the most significant sign yet that the Chhattisgarh government’s troubles over its policy against Naxalism are reaching a tipping point. While the Intelligence Bureau has asked the Chhattisgarh government to explain why Binayak Sen was arrested, the Union Home ministry is considering cutting down funding for the controversial Salwa Judum project. The Supreme Court, acting in response to a PIL, has also issued a notice to the Chhattisgarh government over human rights atrocities committed in the name of Salwa Judum, or “peace movement”, which is supported by the government.

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has been bringing to light cases where the police has claimed that it killed Naxalites, when in fact those killed were ordinary tribals whose only fault was that they did not join the Salwa Judum. Such cases are difficult to bring to light because they often take place in the remote interiors and the tribals often do not speak Hindi. The PUCL has been at the forefront of exposing these killings and other activities, wherein entire villages have allegedly been ravaged for not joining the Salwa Judum. Unfortunately for the Chhattisgarh government, the PUCL has been able to rally civil rights groups and the media across the country against the Salwa Judum. The arrest of Binayak Sen on May 14 is a result of this effort to put the truth out, says PUCL Chhattisgarh president Rajendra Sail.

The police also searched Sen’s organic farm without a search warrant in what, Sen and his family feared, was an attempt to plant evidence of Sen’s involvement in Naxalite activities by linking him to a jailed senior CPI (Maoist) leader, Narayan Sanyal. Sen often met Sanyal in jail and exchanged postcards with him, but this was all with the knowledge of jail authorities who were privy to these conversations. The PUCL says that Sen met Sanyal to enquire about his health and help him get medical attention. The immediate cause of Sen’s arrest was a letter found with Piyush Guha, a businessman, which was to be handed over to Sanyal. Guha has also been arrested and the police refuses to divulge the contents of the letter.

On May 21, the police searched Sen’s house and is now trying to use whatever they could lay their hands on as evidence. This includes CDs pertaining to five fake encounters, a computer CPU, books and pamphlets by or about Naxalites or Salwa Judum members.

Sen has not been arrested under the ipc or provisions of the crpc, but under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005 (CSPSA) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. The CSPSA, which was passed after pota lapsed, is said to be even more draconian. The Act has a provision that makes punishable verbal or written communication and representation or publication or broadcast of anything relating to Maoist activities. A number of local journalists have been threatened and silenced using these provisions.

Sen’s arrest came just when the Chhattisgarh administration was facing charges of having fake encounters conducted by the Salwa Judum. On March 31, seven tribals were killed in an “encounter” in Santoshpur village. Civil society activists say that the Chhattisgarh Police and Salwa Judum officers took the seven from Ponjer village to Santoshpur to kill them. The police claims they were members of the Sangham, the Naxalite wing composed of local tribals. An autopsy confirmed foul play but the state government has only ordered a police inquiry. Home Minister Ram Vichar Netam has gone on record saying that no action would be taken against the police officials. The police officials investigating the case say that the killings were committed by Naxalites dressed as policemen. However, an anonymously shot video shows the spo sarpanch of Santoshpur spilling the beans (available at cgnet.in/Santoshpur).

It is feared that Sen’s arrest may be followed by arrests of other activists in Raipur. Activists in other parts of the country could also be targetted. In Mumbai, the police have arrested one Arun Ferreira, who wanted to be a priest, for his alleged involvement in Naxalite activities. In February this year, the Union Home ministry was on the verge of acting against overground Naxalite symapthisers including academics and former bureaucrats, for statements they had made in a seminar in Delhi.

The Supreme Court, meanwhile, has issued a notice to the Chhattisgarh government asking it to explain its support to the Salwa Judum. This was in response to a petition filed by Nandini Sundar, Ramachandra Guha and EAS Sarma demanding an end to government support for the Salwa Judum; an independent inquiry into all killings, rape and arson whether by the Salwa Judum, security forces or Naxalites; registration of FIRs and prosecution of those found guilty; compensation to those affected by the Salwa Judum on the same lines as victims of Naxalites; rehabilitation of those who wish to leave the Salwa Judum; and preventing the state government from appointing minors as Special Police Officers.

But the Salwa Judum may die with a whimper even before the apex court passes a judgement. The Planning Commission, the Tribal Affairs ministry and the Panchayati Raj ministry have requested the Union Home ministry to stop funding the Salwa Judum and divert those funds towards development activities.

[First published in Tehelka]

That’s how anti-reservation students at AIIMS speak of Dalits. And then they say caste doesn’t exist.

Read this moving account of what it is like being a dalit student at AIIMS.

Amongst other things, he mentions this video.

We at the Church of Google believe the search engine Google is the closest humankind has ever come to directly experiencing an actual God (as typically defined). We believe there is much more evidence in favour of Google’s divinity than there is for the divinity of other more traditional gods.

We reject supernatural gods on the notion they are not scientifically provable. Thus, Googlists believe Google should rightfully be given the title of “God”, as She exhibits a great many of the characteristics traditionally associated with such Deities in a scientifically provable manner.

We have compiled a list of nine proofs which we believe definitively prove Google’s title as God.

“Give us this search our daily results. Forgive us our spam, as those that have spammed against us.”

Thanks to Apurva for the link.

Via Global Voices Online the English translation of a government advertisement in China to recruit officers for a new department, the Internet police. A must read for alarmist Indian bloggers who irresponsibly compare India with China when it comes to free speech.

Dujiangyan Personnel Bureau

Dujiangyan Public Security Bureau

Notice about recruitment of professional “Skynet” monitoring managers

Work needs require the recruitment of 96 professional “Skynet” monitor manager; pertinent information is included below:

1. Position name
Professional ‘Skynet’ monitoring manager, 96 individuals (10 women)

2. Recruitment scope and target
Any individuals with a vocational diploma or higher (recognized by the State Education Commission), who is a long-term resident of Dujiangyan and who fits the position requirements and the registration conditions may apply.

3. Basic conditions for the candidate
(a) Possess PRC citizenship and a citizen’s political rights;
(b) Support CPC leaders; love socialism;
(c) Respect the law, have an upright character, dedicated to work, and possessed of a spirit of serving the people;
(d) Men must be at least 1.68 meters tall; women at least 1.55 meters. In good health with all five senses; no communicable diseases; not hard of hearing; no internal hemorrhoids; age between 20 and 30; unassisted vision at least 4.8;
(e) Must know Mandarin, be able to use a calculator;
(f) Individuals who fit any of the following may not apply:
i. Been subject to criminal punishment, public security penalties, reform through labor, or juvenile discipline;
ii. Been subject to administrative discipline or who have had their status revoked;
iii. Currently the subject of an unresolved criminal investigation;
iv. Immoral, or have engaged in improper acts such as hooliganism or peeping;
v. Have a close relative, or a distant relative who has been a major life influence, who has been sentenced to death or who has engaged in overseas activities to topple the government;
vi. Have a close relative, or a distant relative who has been a major life influence, who is the subject of an unresolved criminal investigation.

4. Registration and review of qualifications
(a) Registration time and place
Registration time: 2007/04/16-20; place: PSB reception room
(b) Registration materials
Applicants must bring their residential ID card, their household registration, their diploma, unemployment card, discharge certificate (original), two photos (bare-headed 1 cm) to the designated place at the designated time and must fill in the Contractual Professional “Skynet” Monitoring Manager Qualification Inspection Form (two copies) for review.

5: Tests and administrative review
(a) Recruits should come to the registration location on 24 April 2007 to confirm their review status and obtain a test certificate.
(b) Computer exam will be held on 25 April 2007.
(c) Culture exam will be held on 28 April 2007.
(d) Physical checkup will be held on 8 May 2007.
(e) Interview will be held in one session on 11 May 2007.
(f) Group inspection will be held on 16 May 2007.
(g) Interviews, administrative review, and test results will be announced on 21 May 2007.

6. Contract signing
(a) For candidates who pass review by the administrators, the test, and the interview, a contract will be signed between the employer and the recruit.
(b) The probationary contract will last three months. At the end of the three month probation, satisfactory recruits will sign a formal employment contract. If within the probationary period there are violations, the employer may refuse the offer contingent on the specific situation.
(c) The contract comes in three copies and is prepared by the municipal personnel bureau. The contract lasts for one year; at the end of the contract period the employer will determine on the basis of work conditions whether to extend the contract; should the employer decide not to extend the contract, or should the employee wish to resign, then things will be handled according to the contract stipulations. Disputes will be resolved according to state law and relevant departmental regulations.

7. Salary and benefits
Monthly salary; retirement, medical, and unemployment insurance (according to relevant national regulations, paid by the employer). Salary: wages contingent on performance assessment; holiday and overtime wages; uniform fees. Total: 1300 [yuans] per person per month.
For the latest information, please inquire at the Dujiangyan Municipal Personnel Bureau and Public Security Bureau: 87110896, 87112383, 87132216

2007.04.13 (seals of Dujiangyan Personnel Bureau, Dujiangyan Public Security Bureau)

[LINK]

Ek Anek Cheediya

The reason why we all love this video is because it brings back memories of childhood innocence, even though there was no such thing. What seems like the ’simplicity’ of those days is a product of nostalgia and change.

But there’s another reason why I like the video so much. It is one of the last remnants of the Nehruvian idea of “national integration”. As is typical of the mai-baap state, there still are departments of national integration with modest budgets.

In Lucknow two weeks ago I was asking someone at the UP Information Department about postings and transfers. This guy was saying that bureaucrats who couldn’t cuddle up to Mulayam Singh were given bad postings. What is a bad posting? I asked. “Ek hamaray yahan department hota hain,” he said, “national integration”.

India’s War in the Woods

Neil Katz’s short film on Salwa Judum. The You Tube intro reads:

“The 78-kilometer road between Sukma and Konta is nearly deserted. Scores of villages, once bustling with tribal life, are now vacant. Across the rough orange and green terrain of the nearby forests, hundreds of other villages similarly have been abandoned. Tens of thousands of tribal people are simply gone.

“This is not war-torn Afghanistan or Sudan. This is central India, where super sleek call centers and software factories have brought millions of poor into the modern middle class.

“But the country’s drive to become a first world power has left many of its most vulnerable behind and frozen economic development across swaths of this vast country. At its most extreme and most dangerous — in remote forested areas — a four-decade-long rebellion has erupted into violent intimidation, exploitation of the young and dozens of murders.”

Picasso

A phone call in office. Gentleman in central Delhi says he was driving when a tyre got punctured. While he was repairing it, someone came and took away the other tyre. Please do a story?

We’re a weekly paper, replied my colleague, why don’t you approach a daily.

What an opportunity missed, I thought. And I wonder if it was a car or a two-wheeler…

Over at Kafila, I couldn’t resist responding to this post on Mayawati by CNN-IBN’s fashion correspondent.

When BSP founder Kanshi Ram passed away in October last year, I had written in Tehelka:

The one-point focus at capturing power replaced all ideas of social change, which Kanshi Ram now said would follow from power rather than the other way round. By the end of his political career he even turned hostile towards reservations, which he saw as a “crutch”. He said that the dalit-Bahujans should unite so that they could instead condescend to the dwija (twice-born) upper-castes and give them representational reservations. The millions who swear by Kanshi Ram’s name and vote for the BSP are still looking forward to it. [Link]

I didn’t know it would happen so soon! Maya wants quota for upper caste poor.

And look where it’s going!

Theory behind Mayawati’s Unprecedented Victory

I don’t agree with all that Dr KP Singh says in this speech but it’s thought-provoking, interesting and he speaks very well. The video’s YouTube intro reads: “These are the excerpts from a lecture delivered at the BAMCEF conference held at London [Wolverhampton] United Kingdom on March 9th 2002. Dr. KP Singh predicted this theoretical paradigm to achieve political success in India especially UP. Now you can see the results.” KP is an NRI Dalit active in the movement.

Namaste Bolo Beta

Film student Sourav Brahmachari’s successful attempt at satirising Indian family life from an adolscent boy’s perspective. Got this via Gaurav@Desipundit. Very cool.

In one word, untouchability.

Kudos to Urvashi Gulia for travelling all the way to a village in Panipat for a yuppie channel to show what is all too common across rural India. Read the story, watch the video.

I know the English media doesn’t know of any Dalit ‘intellectuals’ apart from Kancha Iliah and Chandrabhan Prasad, which is fine, but at least they should get their facts right about these two? CBP is not a political scientist. He is a columnist, a commentator, a writer, a consulting editor with The Pioneer, and at best, a journalist.

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To the first one, who was from Mumbai, I share your ambition. There’s a press conference 45 minutes from now at the gigantic redstone building she’s built in the heart of Lucknow, called the Bahujan Prerna Kendra – Bahujan Inspiration Centre. That’s the closest you’ll get.  

I arrived here last evening and went to all the party offices distributing my visting card.

“If there’s a press conference please give me a call.”

Sure, sure.

The Congress office looked like an abandoned monument, the SP office like a bar where all drinking would soon end. At the BJP office they were telling me the media exit polls were wrong, as if I were responsible for them and the the BSP office, well, I didn’t go there because from past experience I know they would send me to Behenji’s house half a kilometre away.

At Sushri Kumari Behen Mayawati’s house, the half a dozen security personnel let you go to the outhouse reluctantly when you tell them you’re a journalist. Man named Ganga Prasad is presiding there, claiming again the exit polls were wrong, and that the BSP was going to get a full majority, as if he had learnt this ”bite” from Behenji herself. A senior journalist from Delhi is also sitting there and Ganga Prasad asks with subaltern arrogance if we Delhi journalists even knew how they drink water in the villages. The other journalist and I made the mistake of chatting with each other in English, levaing Ganga Prasad out, who promptly intervened to say, “Achcha bus app log chaliye“. Time’s up.

Lucknow is home for me and I have lived under past Behenji governments. I took a rickshaw back home. These roofless rickshaws I tremendously miss in Delhi. I ask the rickshawpuller:

“Vote dala tha?” Did you vote?

“Haan.” Yes.

“Kisko?“ Which party did you vote?

“Siekul.” The Samajwadi Party. 

“Kaun jaati ho tum?” What caste are you?

“Pasi.” A Dalit caste.

“Par Pasi to haathi ko vote diye rahin?” But dalits vote for the BSP, don’t they?

“Diye to rahin.” They do. (Smirks.)

“Toh matlab tum humko c*****a bana rahein ho! Tum haathi ko vote diye rahin!” That means you’re fooling me? You voted for the BSP?

He laughs loudly.

You can follow the results here even as they pour in.

Yogendra Yadav and Sanjay Kumar on what Mayawati may really have achieved in this election:

While she strategically focussed her and media’s attention on the Brahmins, she quietly worked on other groups as well. She knew that the very possibility of ‘behnji’ coming to power was enough to galvanise her dalit votes.

The survey’s evidence suggests that she succeeded to some extent in both these objectives but in surprising ways. The BSP’s principal non-dalit vote came not from the Brahmins or other upper castes, but from lower OBCs and to lesser extent from the Muslims. [Read the full article.]

We will soon lose count of the number of Indian MPs in jail. While we’re still counting, we might as well keep track of their idiosyncrasies. One Pappu Yadav says his falling health would benefit if he were shown comedy shows in jail. Since he is in the acclaimed Tihar jail, I suggest Tihar authorities should start their own TV channel – produced, acted, directed only by Tihar inmates. It’ll be really good.

Amongst other things Google searchers reached this blog for, in the last 24 hours:

can you die from a nose job

When he opened his hospital in 2004, it was difficult to recruit high-caste doctors, many of whom would not contemplate working under him. Because the hospital, a few kilometres from the Taj Mahal, swiftly gained a reputation, attitudes changed and he now employs 25 upper-caste doctors. Even now, several of the Dalit doctors avoid revealing their surname, relying on initials so that they don’t alarm higher-caste patients. [The Guardian]

An Indian woman has kissed an Indian cricket star (male) in public. Here. Don’t expect the moral police to get in action this time. We Indians are like this only.

“Heroes, not wimps, make nations” is a headine in the BJP mouthpiece, The Pioneer.

Offered almost without comment.

MF Husian’s troubles seem to be increasing by the day. The latest one is over Bharat Mata. In protest against those protesting and acting against MF Husian, I have decided to put up an image of the ‘offending’ Bharat Mata painting. I urge all bloggers to do the same if you want freedom of speech preserved in India. (From here.)

Also see this statement.

The Canadian high commission has requested Delhi to clear diplomatic spouse privileges for two officials, a man and a woman, each married to a partner of the same sex… Foreign ministry officials, however, said the Vienna conventions bring immunity only from criminal procedure, not from the law of the land in which the diplomat is based.  [The Telegraph]

What the Naxalites are out to do is to establish a Communist state, they would have you believe. Why then was a senior leader of the CPI (Maoist) nabbed by Gaya police drinking beer! Resistance and a good life go together, do they?!

And what sort of an underground rebel uses a mobile phone?

It is a great tribute to the indefatigable Bezawada Wilson, and a small ego massage for me, that my short article about him in Tehelka has been reprinted by Oxford University Press (India) in a class VIII textbook on “Social and Political Life”.

This has been possible because of the NCERT’s renewed emphasis on caste in India – school children will not be in the situation I was, studying nothing more than the chaturvarna four-fold system and hearing lazy justifications of the idea of caste in an elite public school in Lucknow, even as waves of Dalit-OBC political upheavels went past the school boundary, literally.

The article is followed by these questions:

• Why did the children drop out of school?
• How did Wilson find out what the sweepers did?
• How did Wilson prove that manual scavenging still existed in India?
• Give your reactions to the story.

Some things never change.

In October 2006, newspapers reported that one Yugant Marlapelle had approached the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court with a Public Interest Litigation against the Google social networking website, Orkut. In his petition, Marlapelle said that some anti-India hate “communities” or forums in Orkut violated Indian laws.

Newspaper columnists and bloggers alike started railing against the move, complaining how India, and particularly Maharashtra, were becoming increasingly intolerant of free speech. A simple search revealed that there were even more “hate-Pakistan” Orkut communities, and even a few Indo-Pak friendship communities.

If Marlapelle came across communities which had hurt his nationalist sentiments, he was clearly a member of Orkut to begin with. Search for “Yugant Marlapelle” and, sure enough, he’s there. There are a number of “scraps” on his Orkut scrapbook — some commend his initiative, others berate him. The section on his professional qualifications reveals he’s a law student.

And so Mr Marlapelle, what about the anti-Pak communities run by Indians?

“If they have laws that don’t allow these, then Pakistanis should approach the Pakistani courts,” he says. Marlapelle is like the kid who tinkers around in the science lab, mixing chemicals just to see if something happens. Even if it means potentially blocking Orkut in India.

Since then many zeroes and ones have flowed flown down the Orkut servers. There is a Hate Shivaji Community and a Love Dawood Ibrahim community — a fit case for the Mumbai Police to start an Orkut Cell. Very soon you may be able to add as friends on Orkut officers of the Mumbai police.  

A little over 14 percent of Orkut members are Indians, their numbers exceeded only by the Americans and Brazilians. Nearly 72 lakh Indians are on Orkut, a majority of them between the ages 18 and 25. If you are not on Orkut, you don’t exist. So much so that there are many who are uncomfortable with Orkut, but can’t afford not being there.

You scrap someone: “Hey, how are you?” Unlike the traditional scrapbook, you can press the reply button here and a conversation ensues. Strangers will often bother you, including one gent whose aim is to get into the Limca Book of Records for having the largest number of Orkut friends.

“If you want to do social networking, hit the street yaar!” say the Net-unsavvy. No, no, no - online social networking is not only for the socially inept, the geeks or closeted gays, though you’ll find them there too. Social networking sites work on the assumption that everyone is linked to everyone else by six degrees of separation. The key reason why Orkut has clicked, as have most other popular social networking sites the world over, is because they have managed to make old school and college friends meet each other after years. People whose names you didn’t even remember and here they are, popping up in an e-mail: “Pratyush Chandra has sent you a friend request.”

Click on the link and go to Pratyush Chandra’s homepage. Type out a scrap: thank you for your friend request, but do I know you? A few minutes later comes the reply: “Dooode! We were in school together!” But you have already figured this out, by looking at Pratyush’s friends list and seiing that he si also a member of your school’s Orkut community. You have already added as friends ten more you had lost touch with since you left school. “Ah, so you’re working with Infosys, not bad!”

Up there on your Orkut profile page is a scared space that tells you how many people in your friends list are your “fans”, and percentage figures about how “trusty”, “cool” and “sexy” you are. On the left you will find whether the person is single, committed or married. There’s also the option of “open relationships” which means you’re all for free sex — and which many Indians on Orkut don’t understand, but never mind that.

Your folks think you’re a loser to be sitting in front of a computer, typing out “I’m fine, how about you?” every other hour. But when you meet all those old buddies the next Sunday, you realise the Internet is not about escaping humanity but embracing it.

And as for all those PILs against Orkut, worry not, Google has opened a “direct line of communication” with the Mumbai Police.

[An edited version has appeared in Tehelka.]

Tehelka has a special issue on the internet and youth in India. Read it online, or, better still, pick up a copy.

If the ongoing elections in Uttar Pradesh result in Mayawati becoming Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, she will be governing more people than any other woman leader in the world at this time.

But that record she has broken before. In fact, three times. But in those three terms put together, she ruled for a little less than two years. That is not surprising in a state where one Jagdambika Pal was chief minister for all of 48 hours. The BSP is hoping not just to form a coalition government but one that lasts five years.

The BSP was founded by Kanshi Ram, a former laboratory assistant in a Defence laboratory, in 1984, preceded by thirteen years of social agitations by dalit beneficiaries of affirmative action. The vacuum left by the Ambedkar founded Republican Party of India’s co-option by the Congress made Uttar Pradesh a fertile ground for the BSP. Mayawati is a former schoolteacher, has a degree in law who got her oily ponytail cut into a boy-cut as part of building her image as the Iron Lady of Lucknow. Conscious of her place in politics, she has marketed herself to dalit voter by telling them that she is one of them – an outcaste who whose rise to the highest post is to be seen as a symbol of the elevation of all dalits. She can’t wait for posterity to install her statues: she wants them now, and wants to worship her own statue, literally and figuratively, after that of Bhimrao Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram. This is the first election she is steering the BSP for without Kanshi Ram, who had passed the baton on to her.

In the 1989 Lok Sabha polls the BSP fielded 246 candidates and had its security deposits forfeited in 222 seats. But since then, in a very short while, the BSP has dominated the political scene in UP. The BSP’s vote-share in the 2002 Assembly elections was 23.1%, a little less than that of the Samajwadi Party and the Bhartiya Janta Party. With support from the BJP, Mayawati became Chief Minister for the third time on 3 May 2002. The 2004 Lok Sabha elections were approaching and the BJP was being more than a little persistent for a pre-poll alliance in which the BSP was being allotted seats less than what the BSP wanted. Besides, a pre-poll alliance with the BJP hurts the BSP’s small but important Muslim constituency even if the fixed Dalit vote-bank didn’t care. The last nail in the coffin was the Vajpayee government’s refusal to save Mayawati from the Central Bureau of Investigation’s proceedings in a case where she allegedly received kickbacks in allowing the construction of a commercial complex too close to the Taj Mahal in Agra.

That was Mayawati’s second experiment with the BJP. The first one had resulted in Mayawati occupying 5 Kalidas Marg, Lucknow, from 21 March to 21 September 1997. As per the BSP’s rather bizarre agreement with the BJP, Mayawati and Kalyan Singh would take turns as CM every six months. Kalyan Singh took over on 21 September 1997 and aggressively started reversing Mayawati’s policy decisions, including those regarding dalits. The BSP couldn’t stand it and four months later, on 21 February 1998, Vidhan Sabha was in search of another government.

The alliance with the BJP was meant to be strategic and short-term rather than ideological for both parties. Occupying the treasury benches was important enough to forgo the irony of a savarna-dominated Hindutva party allying with a Hindu-hating Ambedkarite outfit. Eager to co-opt dalits and OBCs rather than have a hostile relationship, the Sangh Parivar approved of Mayawati.

Before the 2002 Assembly elections, both the BSP and the BJP were vehemently denying he prospect of a post-poll alliance, even attacking each other in rallies. It’s the same this time. If the BSP emerges as the single largest party on 11 May, its alliance choices will depend on the number of seats it would need to reach the 202 majority mark. Relations between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress are more than a little strained, and if the Congress can get enough seats to be able to help the BSP, so be it.

The BSP and the Samajwadi Party together got nearly 50% vote-share in 2002, but an alliance between the two is like one between the Congress and the BJP. The BSP was formed on a “Bahujan” plank. The idea was to isolate the minority upper castes and unite dalits, Muslims and the intermediate ‘OBC’ castes. Being the Dalit party that it was, it was never able to woo OBC voters and the closest the alliance came to was on 3 June 1995 when Mayawati had for the first time become Chief Minister with support from the Samajwadi Party. But soon there was friction between the cadres of the two parties. SP leaders began breaking away BSP ones to their side and Mayawati saw the gameplan. Upon dissolving the government, the SP saw a golden opportunity in breaking away BSP MLAs to form a government. The MLAs were virtually under a BSP house-arrest in a guesthouse so that they could be prevented from being horse-traded. The guesthouse was gheraoed and attacked. The incident, known as the Guesthouse Scandal, sealed forever a relationship that was in any case doomed because dalits and OBCs are in violent conflict in he villages.

So when in 2003 Mayawati’s government fell and the Samajwadi Party managed to break away 37 BSP MLAs and form a government. The space of an ailing Kanshi Ram was filled by the reputed Lucknow lawyer Subhash Chandra Mishra, a Brahmin. Mishra was UP’s Advocate General when Mayawati was CM and is now the party’s national general secretary. He became the leader of an ambitious project to woo Brahmins and forge a coalition of extremes. The BSP started mobilising on a war footing, organising community gatherings for different castes. Capitalising on the Brahmin disenchantment with the baniya-dominated BJP in particular, the BSP is now selling the slogan of a Sarvajan Samaj, a society for all. Just like other parties, dalit candidates by the BSP have been given tickets in almost exclusively those seats that are Constitutionally reserved for the Scheduled Castes. 139 tickets have been given to upper caste candidates, 86 of them Brahmin. In Western UP, efforts have been made to win over Jats and break into the base of Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh whose campaign for a separate Harit Pradesh has run out of steam. Muslims have been sent out mixed signals – given 61 seats along with some murmurs about Islamic fundamentalism in order to assure the Brahmins that unlike the SP, BSP leaders won’t be found wearing skull caps and breaking bread with clerics. Although still largely with the SP, Muslims prefer to vote tactically in favour of the candidate most likely to win in order to defeat the BJP. The BJP may have aided this by its inflammatory election-eve CD and advertisements against Muslims, but the same may also prevent its savarna votebank from shifting to the BSP. The BSP’s Bahujan experiment has failed; the results on May 11 will tell whether its Sarvajan experiment succeeds.

The sorry state of law and order, which everyone except the Samajwadi Party admits is a result of “Yadavisation” of the state administration, is being used by the BSP as the chief plank to capitalise on the anti-incumbency factor that runs high. Voters across caste and religion are being told that the choice is between the SP and the BSP.

That doesn’t mean the OBCs are not being wooed – a good 110 seats have been given to them. The BSP wants to leave everyone foxed with reverse social engineering. Kanshi Ram used to scoff at reservations, saying that he Bahujans should capture power and give reservations to the minority savarnas. What seemed like bravado rather than rhetoric just might come true. Mayawati has been promising quotas for the upper-caste poor. She’s serious.

A whole new political realm might open up in what otherwise seems stagnant identity politics in post-Mandal north India. But some things won’t change: there will be criminal cases against SP leaders and harsh disciplinary measures against officials seen not to be obedient. Ranging from the constable to the senior-most IAS officers, everyone will line up before minister requesting to be transferred or to not be transferred. Nobody does as many transfers as Mayawati does. After all, mammon is the god of electoral politics.

The state treasury will again be strained earmarking money for the benefit of different sections of society, and the establishment of a Sarvajan Samaj would require more crumbs to be thrown than ever before. After all, the benefits have to be tangible if an election has to be fought fiver years later or even sooner. So what happens to the other BSP, bijli, sadak, pani? Wait for Behenji to establish the Sarvajan Samaj, will you?

[An edited version of this artucle by me has appeared in Tehelka.]

On the day DNA editor GAUTAM ADHIKARI put in his papers, I spoke to him about DNA and the Indian print media at large.

Why did you quit?

I have been with the company for two years, which is what the agreement was. The paper has had a phenomenal success. The print run is 4.2 lakh copies, we’re selling over 4 lakh copies every day. It’s got a certification of 5.39 lakh readers from the Indian Readership Survey. This is extraordinary for a paper that is so young in the English language paper. This is the only paper that has risen so much – 22.5% in six months when the last IRS survey was out. So I thought it’s time to move on, do a few other things in life.

Other things like?

I don’t know. I might move back to the US where I have an apartment but I may stay on in India as well. I am not sure. I am exploring options here as well as in the US. Since I am talking to those people, I don’t want to give out their names at the moment.

At such a senior level when people move on they generally do so with another offer in hand. Your resignation seems to be sudden.

It’s not sudden as far as I am concerned. I had informed the promoters of the company a few weeks ago. We have been talking about it, they have agreed and we want to move on from there. So as far as I am concerned, it was not sudden at all. The paper’s doing very well…

Precisely when the paper’s doing well, and has expansion plans, one would think your experience would be required…

I think I should let other people do that. Starting the paper, bringing it from zero to where it is, was I think the most difficult part. The next phase can be handled by other people.

It’s a little strange that the editorial command is being overtaken by the MD, Sudhir Agarwal, rather than your immediate deputy editor.

That’s because they haven’t made up their mind on whether they will recruit from outside or promote someone from inside. They will take some time to decide. Till then Mr Agarwal will head the editorial board and run the paper. But it’s not so unusual because many newspapers in India have the same person as editor, proprietor and publisher, be it the Anand Bazar Patrika, The Telegraph, The Hindu. Proprietors have a strong say in what they want to do with their paper, it’s their money.

Isn’t it true that a lot of DNA’s circulation figures come from free or as part of offers…

That is true for most papers today. The cover price doesn’t matter. The cost of producing a paper is much more than the cover price. We don’t give it out for free. There’s a low-priced, inviting subscription. But a lot of other papers have done the same. But ours has had more success. The main thing is the retention rate. Whether you can sustain the level to which you go, and that is where the content comes in. Bombay is a highly competitive market but so far dominated by almost a monopoly, a giant of a newspaper called The Times of India. To take any share of the market when people are habituated to reading the Times is not an easy task. That’s why we are so happy with what has happened so far.

But did the promoters of the company have even higher expectations considering about Rs 150 crores are said to have been invested?

Well, I don’t know how much was invested, that you can talk to them about. By and large I think they are extremely happy with the circulation and readership levels. When the circulation goes up too fast, it initially leads to losses and takes time for revenue to catch up. I think what they are looking for now is not circulation or readership but revenue earnings. That is what they will concentrate on now.

In terms of taking on the monopoly of The Times of India have you been as successful as you thought you would be?

It’s too early to say. You don’t break a monopoly in two years. That paper has been here for 168 or 169 years. But amongst the other broadsheet papers in this city we are right behind them (the Times). They do bring out a thing called the Mumbai Mirror but they distribute it free with The Times of India. We’ve beaten all the other papers behind and in the last IRS beat Mid-Day also.

DNA was said to be entering the Delhi market long ago. What has halted the expansion plans?

That is not true, we never said that, other people said that we are looking at Delhi. It’s not easy entering the Delhi market. It’s another whole enterprise and huge investment of capital. That will happen only after Bombay is consolidated. Delhi is quite a crowded market already.

As the editorial head of the paper how much pressure did you have to face from the marketing department?

That is always there, but I always consider it to be creative pressure. That is there in every paper. It’s after all team work that goes into producing a paper. I must say that for the two years I’ve been here, as far as the content, I have had by and large independence and very little interference in what goes into the paper. That changes over time, but in the two years that I’ve been here it was fine. I don’t know what will happen in the future.

In a sense the paper has two owners, Dainik Bhaskar and Zee, were there pulls and pressures from both sides?

Again, creative pressures. One side has a lot of experience in bringing out newspapers and the other side has a lot of experience in the media in general. So the two got together, it was a tremendous partnership. I didn’t have any hint of tension between the two sides. Absolutely none. They spoke more or less with one voice.

There were I believe ten editors at the top. Is there a feeling of excess flab?

Oh every newspaper has that. It’s just that our structure is such that we have an editorial board – it’s not ten by the way but six – and they each have departments and editors below them. There were six or seven people in the editorial board reporting to me. That’s more or less how it is in every paper.

How important is marketing, can it alone make or break a media product today?

I think marketing is extremely important in a competitive environment and the changing nature of the Indian economy. However, the thing about the print media is that it is heavy on content. So unless the content can sustain marketing efforts, marketing cannot succeed. It can succeed for a short while, but to keep up the tempo, to keep on rising in readership more than circulation, that requires strong content and a strong editorial position, whatever it is.

So in terms of editorial content how has DNA Mumbai been path breaking, in your opinion?

We have tried to aim at a new class of readership, mainly the young professionals, but it so happened that we went well beyond that, because Bombay is a market dominated by one newspaper nobody had any option or alternative. We came along, the Hindustan Times came along, and they haven’t done too badly either. So we offered people choices. So a lot of people started taking us may be not as the sole newspaper but may be as a second newspaper. But there’s increasing evidence that many people started reading DNA as their first paper gradually and those were mainly young people between 18 and 40.