MONTH THAT WAS
Friends
Come October, it’s a reminder, that we have completed another eventful year. Yes we have just turned 11 years young in the print media. A big THANK YOU to all our readers, patrons, friends & well wishers. Having started in Nov. 2000, it has been an extremely bumpy ride with its own highs and lows. During all these 11 summers, winters and monsoons and an occasional tsunami thrown in, we had our share of disappointments and feelings of exhilaration. It was in Nov. 2009, that Doordarshan Kendra in Bangalore, CHANDANA, called us for a live interview in their programme BELAGU (meaning the DAWN) after some readers of I & C with the in-depth knowledge of our activities informed the TV channel. Kind souls, who witnessed the interlocution with an extremely competent anchor Dr Chaitra, a practicing dental surgeon, came back with their response “Super”. It made us feel deeply satisfied and goaded us to raise the bar of our own standard of commitment. Of course there were those, who were tight fisted, as is their wont, in their being more open to praise. And such individuals, unfortunately, outnumber those with larger heart, where a kind approbative word also amount to giving. But then this is how the larger world of fact is, take it or leave it. Then we had an invitation early last month to participate in a national seminar on ‘Corruption’ and ‘Vyavastha Parivarthan’ in New Delhi, where we had the honour of meeting intellectuals like Subramaniam Swami, S. Gurumurthy, Arif Mohd Khan, who had famously quit the cabinet of Rajeev Gandhi as a fallout of Shah Bano case. It was indeed an honour, since the invite was directly addressed to the Editor, Issues & Concerns. That was truly a stamp of approval that there are souls who recognise that we have indeed made a difference and hence are to be counted. Such occasions do make us feel better in the otherwise gloomy situation, where paid readership is still way below our brake-even point. Participative readership, which we tried to cultivate by giving complimentary copies to a large number of ‘activist’ readers, did not yield the result that we expected. Of course our expectation, as always, has been tempered by the vision of wanting to ‘make the difference’, whatever little that is possible. It is our undiluted perception that every one of us can leave his or her ‘footprints’ on the shifting sands of time. Thus whether there is increased paid readership or not we shall keep going forward. Of course, growth of paid readership is slow but certainly positive and as Prof B M Hegde, one of our friend, philosopher and guide, had observed last year, and we quote “To-day he commands the attention of quality readership, though the numbers sold do not impress one at the first glance. There has been a steady rise in his readership. If linear laws hold good, we should see this become a journalistic force to reckon with, in this part of the world. He tackles untruth and falsehood head on without fear or favour and has been alive and healthy so far! May his tribe grow” unquote. Such observation and there are many, keeps us alive and kicking, never mind the numbers. Yes, as we complete 11 years, we remember with gratitude Dr M.V. Kamath, the nonagenarian, who stood by us for all these years. His rock like support made our journey less painfull. We at Issues and Concerns wish him good health and longivity as he turned 90.
Month began with the news from Srinagar “Omar plays to the gallery on Afzal”. Politicians playing politics with issues around them to score brownie points is not new. But Omar Abdullah, the grandson of ‘Lion of Kashmir’ Sheikh Abdullah was clearly fishing in the troubled waters as a survival trick. As a sequel to the resolution by the Tamil Nadu assembly requesting the President of India to review the death sentence and instead convert the punishment for Rajeev Gandhi assassins to life imprisonment, the J&K Chief Minister was reacting, on the hanging of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri, convicted for his role in Parliament attack, in Dec 2001, in which many security guards died. In fact, even the resolution of the Tamil Nadu assembly too is a political interference in a law and order issue which caused deaths and mayhem. It was not just Rajeev Gandhi who died, but there were others as well. Of course, political parties can take rallies etc in support but to pass a resolution in the assembly or the Chief Minster of a state making a public statement of an issue of far reaching socio/political ramification is absolutely incorrect and media must take home the truth to people at large. Of course, purely as a consequence of the process of law, it is an open and shut case and law must take it course without recourse. At this point it is very pertinent to inform everybody who matters that there was also a car parked outside the parliament with bombs in it, and Afzal Guru had wondered, according to the jail suptt. “how it failed to explode”, and what could have been the result of such an explosion! It is indeed very difficult to imagine. And comes Wikileaks leaking, the mood of the moderate Huriyat Conference who don’t mind if Afzal Guru is hung, if found guilty, but questioned if he was really guilty, informs Assange.
The news that, Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari is out of Lokpal panel need not be a news. In fact people like this Tiwari are a disgrace to any political outfit. Not only he thinks he is too intelligent, he is also arrogant with his bombastic linguistic skills. Like Palaniappan Chidambaram, the other ‘highly intelligent Yale University lawyer’, who had reportedly remarked to the PAC chairman Dr Joshi that ‘certain issues are beyond your level of intelligence’, this Tiwari too suffers from a serious superiority complex. In a democratic polity like that of India, they are misfits like a round peg in a square hole.
A New York date lined report had a divergent information. At one place ‘hijab clad women were barred from some rides at an amusement park’, and in the same report, in a box, informed about ‘Sikhs being allowed to wear turban and to grow beard’ and made into a law, by the New York city corporation. While signing it as a law, the city Mayor Michael Bloomberg had reportedly stated that employers must make a reasonable accommodation for an employee’s religious practices, unless following it causes ‘undue hardship’. While, the hijab could be at times security risk, there may not be such risks in the wearing of turban or growing beard. But in any case all three practices are not being adhered to by a vast section of both Sikhs and Muslims for its irrelevance. It is more important to get along life as good human beings rather than as practitioners of diktats of religious fundamentalism.
For one book sensation Arundati Roy ‘grapes are always sour’. She had reportedly stated that “Jan Lokpal Bill ‘is a regressive piece of legislation’ and Anna Hazare has been ‘used as a prop by foreign funded NGOs”. After having won the Booker’s prize for her book ‘God of Small Things’ Arundhati thought that she can emerge as a ‘big time activist’ with the help of her media friends. She tried to fish in the troubled waters of Narmada, she tried her hand with Kashmiri separatists as if she is the only champion of human rights. In both she failed to corner the glory, since her involvement was not because she was concerned, but because she was only trying to promote herself. In Narmada Bachao Andolan, she tried to upstage Medha Patkar, a truly concerned individual, hence couldn’t bask in the sun-shine she tried to usurp from Ms. Patkar. And her utterances in Kashmir was highly controversial due to which after a while even media dumped her. Again media tried to help her rehabilitate in presenting her views on Anna movement – ‘I would rather not be Anna’, but there were few buyers. For an activist, the honesty of purpose and sincerity are the only bench marks, and Arundhati Roy is neither honest nor sincere. It is time even media should ignore her. But will the sensation hungry media oblige?
So, it was politics over sports. Everybody, especially politicians, like their fiefdom, however small, to continue. The Sports Development Bill aimed at regulating Sports Federations and giving central government a hold over the BCCI had to, per se, fail. In India everything is politicised. Everybody is promoting himself and his friends and cronies. Nobody has the interest of the sports, sportsmen or the country. Despite Prime Minister and Home Minister supporting the bill, it couldn’t muster enough support. It was pure and simple, a blatant case of conflict of interest of these individual ministers that saw the day through ‘Yeh Dil Maange more’ and still more. The 70 years age limit, RTI ambit to sports bodies and even a suggestion of submitting a long term plan for the body were dismissed as interference. Sports minister Maken may have had good intention of doing some good to the Indian sports and sportsmen, and hoped that his Prime Minister would strongly put forth his views in support of the bill. In the event, although the PM wanted the accountability of these bodies, he succumbed, as usual, to the negative pressure of his colleagues in the cabinet. Sharad Pawar, was most vociferous as usual, against the BCCI coming under RTI ambit. Yes, national interest can wait for another day and PM didn’t see anything wrong in pandering to the whims and fancies of his cabinet colleagues. Cabinet agreed that the bill has to be recast without its ‘intrusive elements’. Probably, without consulting anybody PM should call a meeting of like minded ministers and have a brain storming session with prominent sports personalities who have interest of the youth of the country. Especially after the Anna Hazare episode, certain amount of accountability and transparency shall only do good to the government’s bruised standing.
If you thought Hansraj Bhardwaj is an aberration to the office of Governor, think again. There is one more in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. If Karnataka has a BJP government, Gujarat too has BJP government. If you thought the central government of Manmohan Singh was fully occupied with the crisis management of Anna movement, you are wrong. It did find time to advice Madame Kamla Beniwal, the governor of Gujarat to appoint a hand picked retired former justice R.A Mehta as the Lokayukta of the state without the consent of the state. That it did raise the hackles both in the media as well as that of BJP central leadership is not the point. But, it was a move that smacked of political brinkmanship and constituted an unconstitutional attack on the federal structure of the country, just to create trouble for an opposition ruled state-by using the office of governor, unilaterally. It surely will not win friends for the central government.
All kinds of things happening in India, from bizarre to ridiculous, has allowed the media free run. While it is true that they are undoubtedly doing some service to the people in general to an extent, they do have an unwritten agenda of promoting themselves. Every time, they report about something which a channel or paper thinks as very important or rather sensational, it claims, “the first channel to report”, “Only on this channel”, “our exposure” etc. The latest is the one from THE WEEK. The Sept. 11, 2011, issue of this weekly had this on the cover “EXCLUSIVE – TAMING AL QAEDA” “First Indian magazine to get inside the rehab camp for terrorists in Saudi Arabia.” It would have been quite dignified if it had written “The WEEK gets inside the rehab camp…” Now by crowing, it had reduced itself as all else. It is very evident that they all have an agenda to impress the advertising agencies or advertising managers of the corporates, who have big budget for these ads. So its only for making money, and making more money is the priority, and serving the public or the nation comes second or lower in the order. Also, they do tend to have an agenda of propping political ideologies. Other day some electronic media spent hours to-gether, about the PM candidate from BJP, as if that was the most important news. The election is more than 2 years away in 2014 and we are already hyping a distant mirage. Then there was this boldly printed news “Advani did not talk about Electoral reform when he was in power” in print. In the same news, the freedom fighter speaker also dismissed Anna Hazare for his association with NGO, instead of people. But who will organise meeting for people like Anna, these speakers did not bother to think or speak on. But the news paper highlighted only the negatives on Advani, although he was only in power for 7 years of the 64 years of free India, probably it suited the agenda of the newspaper. So quite frankly they are only serving themselves most of the time. And people, society, nation or values come down in the vertical space.
“Circumstantial evidence enough for conviction” observed Apex Court while dismissing the appeal of one Birender Poddar facing a life term for torturing his wife to death. Birender Poddar took the plea that his conviction was erroneous as his wife died due to jaundice, and that, ‘there was no direct evidence of his crime’.
Contradicting the stand of the accused, appreciating that, it is very difficult to find direct evidence within the matrimonial home where death took place, court reiterated that the case has to rest only on circumstantial evidence. However, it stressed as a matter of abundant caution that “Chain of circumstantial evidence must be complete and conclusive to unmistakably point to the guilt”.
This stand of the Supreme Court is in complete contrast to the enactment that union government recently cleared where it excluded specifically the human rights of female domestic helpers, where the logic was, it is difficult to prove the case of the violation inside the homes of the likely accused masters. Court intervention suo-moto is a welcome development and the proposed enactment can hold out hope for one of the most exploited and vulnerable section of the unorganised female work force.
That a film star with a sizeable name and fame would beat his wife black and blue need not raise the eyebrows. But certainly it would raise hackle. That men, whatever their background can, at times, some time even more often, be cruel to their wives or live-in-partners is no news at all. It becomes a news if media decides it. High profile the man, higher profiled becomes the news. There may be any number of households, across the country, may be even across the world, where violence against women take place, and where those affected, lived life traumatised and in silence. In most places, the issue of violence against women and children remain buried within the four walls of their houses. Sometime it spills into the public domain and becomes a news. Hype depends on the position of the perpetrator and that of the victim, period. There will, at times, even media trials. But the issue at the core, the violence and the brutality towards women and children remain unaddressed. Laws are there, depending upon your position, for redressal. But, for this malaise, of this type of violence to be eliminated, slowly but surely, there has to be a realisation in the social upbringing of children through their medium of curriculum. An awareness has to be created among growing young minds through their social studies text books to appreciate the evils of this wife and child battering. In the present case, in Bangalore, it appears so macabre that the so called producer friends of this Darshan, the perpetrator of violence on his wife and child, without reprimanding him, declaring the other woman, a co-star, out of Kannada films for 3 years, is a kind of khap panchayat diktat, a le Kangaroo court. And how do they expect that his battered wife will again live with him with the image of her husband holding their child by the neck and threatening to throw the child? Yes, in all fairness, this Darshan should be given an extended ‘darshan’ of Bangalore prison instead.
Yes, its already out, the height of insensitiivity of the planning commission of govt of India, when it comes to dealing with poor and poverty. We had always maintained that, it’s a crime to be born poor in India. Believe it or not, even Ripley of ‘Believe it Not’ fame, would be shocked beyond belief, that, if you can spend Rs: 26, a day, in your village or Rs. 33 in your city then you must be rich enough to be called not poor.
In response to an apex court order of May 14, this year, planning commission submitted to the court an affidavit which has reportedly stated that “an individual’s income of just Rs. 25 a day constitutes adequate private expenditure on food, education and health”. Taking Suresh Tendulkar Committee (STC) report, which based its calculation on 2004/05 prices, the commission had fixed its poverty line at Rs. 781 for rural household and at Rs. 965 for urban households. STC report had pegged this figure at Rs. 447 a month or Rs. 15/- a day for rural area and Rs: 600/- or Rs.20/- a day in urban area. In a country where social equity is not a virtue, we have CEOs getting as opulently high as Rs: 70 crores as their annual pay packet and this very same planning commission members getting over Rs: 1 lakh per month, this dichotomy of India being rich and Indians being poor continued unquestioned for all the 64 years of free India. N C Sexana, a member of the National Advisory council, reportedly expressed his feeling while agreeing that Planning Commission ‘could have been more sensitive, despite the NSSO survey statistics’. Yes, for all its redistributive exercise of 12 five year developmental plans, successive governments in India has let down its poor.
Justice Santhosh Hegde, as former Lokayukta of Karnataka has rendered signal service to the country by exposing the politician/mining lobby partnership in looting the nation’s resources. The whole country is now aware of the magnitude of the loot of public money. It is already reverberating in Andhra, now may be the turn of Goa. The Congress leadership of Goa is asking for the scalp of its Chief Minister Digambar Kamath to make him truly ‘Digambar’ (meaning naked) for similar offence of conniving in illegal mining and illegal exports of iron ore. According to report, over 100 million tons of iron ore has been illegally exported. Thus, the loot is exponential in scale and magnitude and these politicians have to be made accountable along with their private sector partners in the national loot. Unless this happens, the nation's wealth will continue to be concentrated in few hands of powerful politicians and their friends in industry and bureaucracy.
There was this news on illegal trafficking in humans in Karnataka. But actually the title trafficking was misleading. It was basically a case of kidnapping and trading in women and children. According to the report there were, on an average, some 4000 women and children reported missing every month, from their places of residences, and were caught in this unfortunate trading of humans. It is an issue of serious concern. The report informs that Karnataka is slowly emerging as a state with highest number of women and children caught in this sorry quagmire, and according to the police it’s a Rs: 25 crore worth business. The question is what is the law enforcing authorities are doing about such a despicable and wanton crime by the well heeled anti-social operators in this trading, except reporting that state has recorded every year 40 to 50 thousand missing women and children. It is an issue the media has to extensively talk and debate to make the society and the administration realise its bounden duty towards weak and vulnerable, and not just report in the middle pages as an innocuous news. But then isn’t this how things concerning poor are treated in Indian media, more as an addendum rather than as a focus?
Responding to the claims of dirty tricks by the Income Tax Deptt. by sending notice of recovery to Arvind Kejriwal, the law minister Salman Khurshid had reportedly remarked “No vendetta, just routine”. But without holding any candle to this Kejriwal of Anna Panel, it can be argued that for all the 4 years after his quitting the Indian Revenue Service, the I.T. deptt. slept. But woke up only recently just around the middle of Anna Panel’s agitation. Besides, notice of recovery of dues by the I.T. deptt., flies on its face, if Kejriwal is right that his Provident Fund dues are still with his employers, that is government of India. There are clearly conflicting claims by both parties to the dispute and deptt. has the responsibility of setting the record strait. But one thing is clear, that whenever there is an element of disagreement with the government of the day, the authorities do have a practice of setting investigating hounds on unsuspecting members of the opposite side. Although it is sinister and patently bad, government do not seem overtly bothered about the immoral aspect of such mud slinging or dirty tricks. It is indeed very unfortunate. But then this is Yeh Mera India.
That China is not an easy country to work with is known to all, the world over. Every country has its own priorities but China has its own ways how it can arm twist its way. Countries with communist ideology has not survived anywhere only because it killed the individual in the human beings. But in China it survived because of the brute force the leadership used. They had the advantage of oriental intelligence coupled with the ruthlessness of Mongols. Of course Buddhism did make its inroads in the east Asian countries, but Mongol nature managed to remain one-up. This combination helped it grow from strength to strength both economically and militarily. Despite killing the individual, probably the only country in the world who looked straight into the eyes of uncle Sam and survived on its own terms. Henry Kissinger probably would have something to add to this thinking. In a deeply polarised world, the U.S. Secretary of State under Nixon, had made the first trip by any modern day American to Peking, underlying the clout the Chinese commanded. And now comes the news that Asian Development Bank, may not be funding the ‘Flood Management Project’ after all, in Arunachal Pradesh. Despite the entire board, barring Chinese director having supported the project which India wanted. This was despite the fact that the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) included in the ADB charter bars the bank from evaluating a project on non-economic criteria. But the truth is, as soon as China objected to the funding of the project saying Arunachal Pradesh is a ‘disputed area’ the ADB was seized of the issue, and had in fact admitted that it was ‘a mistake’ and withdrew the project in 2009 itself, according to Wikileaks. Besides, despite unofficially admitting that ADB was simply not a place for China to raise the issue, it forced its way and nothing could be done about it.
Everything that goes up has to come down that’s the law of the nature. Nothing more could exemply the above truth than the rise and fall of Bellary brothers. If the resignation of Sriramulu, a close associate of Reddy brothers, on Sunday was a climax, the arrest of his mentor Janardhan Reddy by the CBI plunged his world into utter darkness of anti climax. A fellow who would take chopper ride with his family from Bellary to Bangalore, for a dinner is suddenly behind bar in Hyderabad, in one of the worst case of reversal of fortune. For far too long Bellay Brothers, and their cronies were calling the shot not only in and around Bellary but also in Bangalore, making life difficult for state BJP leadership because of their money. Hence, while BJP may overtly complain about witch hunt by centre using CBI, the state leadership under Sadananda Gowda is quietly happy without showing it. In life it pays not to over do.
If Bellary brothers were intoxicated with money and therefore the power that money could buy, Mayawathi is in a class of her own, again drunk with political power, the power that people gave her. A power that she usurped like a dictator that came to her democratically. The latest of the Wikileaks titled “Portrait of a lady” informs that not only she sent a plane, from Lucknow to Mumbai to fetch a pair of her favourite sandal, she was suffering from eccentric paranoia and hence had employed 9 cooks – two to cook – 5 to check and two to taste - , all at government cost. The trip to Mumbai and back for a Rs 1000 sandal cost the exchequer Rs. 10 lakhs. Paranoia about her personal safety is an obsession with her which led to the deployment of not only outsized security apparatus, but she also constructed a private road from her house to the office, which is cleaned immediately after every time she passes that road. When will Indians dump such leaders in the electoral dustbins is a question only making rounds indefinitely. That is indeed sad.
Have you ever heard of an R.T.O. Inspector causing the death of a truck driver for a mere Rs: 500 bribe that driver failed to pay? In UPs Sayyadraza area’s vehicle inspection centre, truck driver Anantlal Gupta was allegedly beaten to death by the RTO official, after the driver could only offer Rs: 500/- as against the demand of Rs: 1000/- as bribe for allowing the allegedly overloaded truck to go. Report informs that Supt. of Police has apparently acknowledged the bizarre incident, after the locals blocked the highway. But the question is how will the police make good the loss of life for a mere Rs: 500/- that too bribe? So there is a double case of demanding bribe with case of murder as well, not just homicide. When will our police be more humane?
The blast that rocked the Delhi High Court complex is an unfortunate reminder that somehow, we as a government cannot contain this scourge. The charge that the terrorist could attack any place of their choice at any time they decide, in the present security set up, is increasingly being felt that it is not misplaced. We the people are sitting ducks, especially when it happens in the heart of the capital city of Delhi. The sad fact is that the authorities claim no inputs and this is despite the alert the terrorists have given in May this year when there was a mild explosion in the same premises. So we have been proved, time and again, that we are poor learners. All the tall claims by the security agencies about the safety of national capital has fallen flat. And this is despite the 99% success claim articulated by Rahul Gandhi about the occurrence of terror attacks. This government must seriously debate the issue of security with all opposition parties without fooling itself and the nation.
That Air India is in trouble is not a news at all. For many years now, whether it was Indian Airlines or the old Air India have always been in the news for all wrong reasons. After the merger of both these government owned carriers it has only become problem 2 (PxP). Whether it is the balooning employee strength, which grew without reference to the cost benefit ratio, or the ministerial shenanigans and their own agenda of awarding lucrative routes to their friends and cronies or giving up altogether such profit making routes in favour of Indian private players, they have only added to the loss these national carriers were incurring. Now this latest acquisition of air crafts has really landed the Maharaja in a mess, that it looks difficult for it to come out. The report “AI acquisition plan a recipe for disaster ab initio: CAG” said it all. Yes despite assertion by Praful Patel, the Civil Aviation Minister, he has got to be probed for all the mess the airline got into during his ministership.
Its CAG everywhere. The constitutional watchdog has got to be given it’s due publicity, at least by the media. It has again struck a lethal blow. This time the machinations by the government. The Director General of Hydrocarbons and Oil Ministry are at the receiving end for causing loss to the nation by favouring Reliance in its high value contracts. So, its everywhere, at the cost of national resources, private players are allowed benefits so that men manning the government machineries are also allowed some big sized crumbs to enrich themselves. It’s the same story of fence eating the crop. Two cheers to CAG for its proactive discharge of its legitimate constitutional duties.
The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Bangladesh was slated to have far reaching effect on the bilateral relations with our eastern neighbour. While it was not on expected lines, it did manage to have broad agreement on many areas of accommodation and good neighbourliness. Two of the three very important areas were agreed upon. Border was resolved to the satisfaction of both, so was the duty free excess for Bangla textiles into India, despite some resistance from Indian textile industry. Of course the heavily tilted trade imbalance in favour of India was the primary reason for this concession. However the most important of the three, the river water sharing agreement could not be agreed upon, since Mamata Banerjee, the CM of the most affected state vis-à-vis-Indo-Bangla agreements, called off her visit to Dacca, for what she perceived as unfair distribution of river water proposed in the agreement. Sheikh Hasina, the truly mass leader of Bangladesh would have really felt happy if this water sharing would have been agreed upon. Of course it is a very contentious but equally humane issue, and therefore there has to be a respectful agreement from both side to share equitably the nature’s most important bestowal to mankind. Mamata, despite her love for her people should realise that other side too have similar dimension which cannot be bulldozed. In a socio-political situation that India will continue to experience, it is very imperative that we should address the Bangladesh expectation with complete reasonableness, especially when the Sheikh Hasina government has been pro-active and sensitive, unlike all earlier regimes in Dacca, in being truly helpful in containing cross border irritants and intransigencies from Bangla soil. Hope this water sharing agreement too is attended without much delay to the overall satisfaction of both sides of the geographical divide.
Month of October always brings back the memory of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. The anti-corruption campaign by Anna Hazare and company, brought once again the relevance of Mahatma to our drawing rooms. Hence we thought we shall go back in time to the evolution of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi into the Making of Mahatma, to keep the memory of the great soul alive. We have discussed Gandhiji under Focus for its relevance. Surely our readers shall find it interesting. Do revert with your inputs, we do value them. Rest as usual.
Come October, it’s a reminder, that we have completed another eventful year. Yes we have just turned 11 years young in the print media. A big THANK YOU to all our readers, patrons, friends & well wishers. Having started in Nov. 2000, it has been an extremely bumpy ride with its own highs and lows. During all these 11 summers, winters and monsoons and an occasional tsunami thrown in, we had our share of disappointments and feelings of exhilaration. It was in Nov. 2009, that Doordarshan Kendra in Bangalore, CHANDANA, called us for a live interview in their programme BELAGU (meaning the DAWN) after some readers of I & C with the in-depth knowledge of our activities informed the TV channel. Kind souls, who witnessed the interlocution with an extremely competent anchor Dr Chaitra, a practicing dental surgeon, came back with their response “Super”. It made us feel deeply satisfied and goaded us to raise the bar of our own standard of commitment. Of course there were those, who were tight fisted, as is their wont, in their being more open to praise. And such individuals, unfortunately, outnumber those with larger heart, where a kind approbative word also amount to giving. But then this is how the larger world of fact is, take it or leave it. Then we had an invitation early last month to participate in a national seminar on ‘Corruption’ and ‘Vyavastha Parivarthan’ in New Delhi, where we had the honour of meeting intellectuals like Subramaniam Swami, S. Gurumurthy, Arif Mohd Khan, who had famously quit the cabinet of Rajeev Gandhi as a fallout of Shah Bano case. It was indeed an honour, since the invite was directly addressed to the Editor, Issues & Concerns. That was truly a stamp of approval that there are souls who recognise that we have indeed made a difference and hence are to be counted. Such occasions do make us feel better in the otherwise gloomy situation, where paid readership is still way below our brake-even point. Participative readership, which we tried to cultivate by giving complimentary copies to a large number of ‘activist’ readers, did not yield the result that we expected. Of course our expectation, as always, has been tempered by the vision of wanting to ‘make the difference’, whatever little that is possible. It is our undiluted perception that every one of us can leave his or her ‘footprints’ on the shifting sands of time. Thus whether there is increased paid readership or not we shall keep going forward. Of course, growth of paid readership is slow but certainly positive and as Prof B M Hegde, one of our friend, philosopher and guide, had observed last year, and we quote “To-day he commands the attention of quality readership, though the numbers sold do not impress one at the first glance. There has been a steady rise in his readership. If linear laws hold good, we should see this become a journalistic force to reckon with, in this part of the world. He tackles untruth and falsehood head on without fear or favour and has been alive and healthy so far! May his tribe grow” unquote. Such observation and there are many, keeps us alive and kicking, never mind the numbers. Yes, as we complete 11 years, we remember with gratitude Dr M.V. Kamath, the nonagenarian, who stood by us for all these years. His rock like support made our journey less painfull. We at Issues and Concerns wish him good health and longivity as he turned 90.
Month began with the news from Srinagar “Omar plays to the gallery on Afzal”. Politicians playing politics with issues around them to score brownie points is not new. But Omar Abdullah, the grandson of ‘Lion of Kashmir’ Sheikh Abdullah was clearly fishing in the troubled waters as a survival trick. As a sequel to the resolution by the Tamil Nadu assembly requesting the President of India to review the death sentence and instead convert the punishment for Rajeev Gandhi assassins to life imprisonment, the J&K Chief Minister was reacting, on the hanging of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri, convicted for his role in Parliament attack, in Dec 2001, in which many security guards died. In fact, even the resolution of the Tamil Nadu assembly too is a political interference in a law and order issue which caused deaths and mayhem. It was not just Rajeev Gandhi who died, but there were others as well. Of course, political parties can take rallies etc in support but to pass a resolution in the assembly or the Chief Minster of a state making a public statement of an issue of far reaching socio/political ramification is absolutely incorrect and media must take home the truth to people at large. Of course, purely as a consequence of the process of law, it is an open and shut case and law must take it course without recourse. At this point it is very pertinent to inform everybody who matters that there was also a car parked outside the parliament with bombs in it, and Afzal Guru had wondered, according to the jail suptt. “how it failed to explode”, and what could have been the result of such an explosion! It is indeed very difficult to imagine. And comes Wikileaks leaking, the mood of the moderate Huriyat Conference who don’t mind if Afzal Guru is hung, if found guilty, but questioned if he was really guilty, informs Assange.
The news that, Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari is out of Lokpal panel need not be a news. In fact people like this Tiwari are a disgrace to any political outfit. Not only he thinks he is too intelligent, he is also arrogant with his bombastic linguistic skills. Like Palaniappan Chidambaram, the other ‘highly intelligent Yale University lawyer’, who had reportedly remarked to the PAC chairman Dr Joshi that ‘certain issues are beyond your level of intelligence’, this Tiwari too suffers from a serious superiority complex. In a democratic polity like that of India, they are misfits like a round peg in a square hole.
A New York date lined report had a divergent information. At one place ‘hijab clad women were barred from some rides at an amusement park’, and in the same report, in a box, informed about ‘Sikhs being allowed to wear turban and to grow beard’ and made into a law, by the New York city corporation. While signing it as a law, the city Mayor Michael Bloomberg had reportedly stated that employers must make a reasonable accommodation for an employee’s religious practices, unless following it causes ‘undue hardship’. While, the hijab could be at times security risk, there may not be such risks in the wearing of turban or growing beard. But in any case all three practices are not being adhered to by a vast section of both Sikhs and Muslims for its irrelevance. It is more important to get along life as good human beings rather than as practitioners of diktats of religious fundamentalism.
For one book sensation Arundati Roy ‘grapes are always sour’. She had reportedly stated that “Jan Lokpal Bill ‘is a regressive piece of legislation’ and Anna Hazare has been ‘used as a prop by foreign funded NGOs”. After having won the Booker’s prize for her book ‘God of Small Things’ Arundhati thought that she can emerge as a ‘big time activist’ with the help of her media friends. She tried to fish in the troubled waters of Narmada, she tried her hand with Kashmiri separatists as if she is the only champion of human rights. In both she failed to corner the glory, since her involvement was not because she was concerned, but because she was only trying to promote herself. In Narmada Bachao Andolan, she tried to upstage Medha Patkar, a truly concerned individual, hence couldn’t bask in the sun-shine she tried to usurp from Ms. Patkar. And her utterances in Kashmir was highly controversial due to which after a while even media dumped her. Again media tried to help her rehabilitate in presenting her views on Anna movement – ‘I would rather not be Anna’, but there were few buyers. For an activist, the honesty of purpose and sincerity are the only bench marks, and Arundhati Roy is neither honest nor sincere. It is time even media should ignore her. But will the sensation hungry media oblige?
So, it was politics over sports. Everybody, especially politicians, like their fiefdom, however small, to continue. The Sports Development Bill aimed at regulating Sports Federations and giving central government a hold over the BCCI had to, per se, fail. In India everything is politicised. Everybody is promoting himself and his friends and cronies. Nobody has the interest of the sports, sportsmen or the country. Despite Prime Minister and Home Minister supporting the bill, it couldn’t muster enough support. It was pure and simple, a blatant case of conflict of interest of these individual ministers that saw the day through ‘Yeh Dil Maange more’ and still more. The 70 years age limit, RTI ambit to sports bodies and even a suggestion of submitting a long term plan for the body were dismissed as interference. Sports minister Maken may have had good intention of doing some good to the Indian sports and sportsmen, and hoped that his Prime Minister would strongly put forth his views in support of the bill. In the event, although the PM wanted the accountability of these bodies, he succumbed, as usual, to the negative pressure of his colleagues in the cabinet. Sharad Pawar, was most vociferous as usual, against the BCCI coming under RTI ambit. Yes, national interest can wait for another day and PM didn’t see anything wrong in pandering to the whims and fancies of his cabinet colleagues. Cabinet agreed that the bill has to be recast without its ‘intrusive elements’. Probably, without consulting anybody PM should call a meeting of like minded ministers and have a brain storming session with prominent sports personalities who have interest of the youth of the country. Especially after the Anna Hazare episode, certain amount of accountability and transparency shall only do good to the government’s bruised standing.
If you thought Hansraj Bhardwaj is an aberration to the office of Governor, think again. There is one more in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. If Karnataka has a BJP government, Gujarat too has BJP government. If you thought the central government of Manmohan Singh was fully occupied with the crisis management of Anna movement, you are wrong. It did find time to advice Madame Kamla Beniwal, the governor of Gujarat to appoint a hand picked retired former justice R.A Mehta as the Lokayukta of the state without the consent of the state. That it did raise the hackles both in the media as well as that of BJP central leadership is not the point. But, it was a move that smacked of political brinkmanship and constituted an unconstitutional attack on the federal structure of the country, just to create trouble for an opposition ruled state-by using the office of governor, unilaterally. It surely will not win friends for the central government.
All kinds of things happening in India, from bizarre to ridiculous, has allowed the media free run. While it is true that they are undoubtedly doing some service to the people in general to an extent, they do have an unwritten agenda of promoting themselves. Every time, they report about something which a channel or paper thinks as very important or rather sensational, it claims, “the first channel to report”, “Only on this channel”, “our exposure” etc. The latest is the one from THE WEEK. The Sept. 11, 2011, issue of this weekly had this on the cover “EXCLUSIVE – TAMING AL QAEDA” “First Indian magazine to get inside the rehab camp for terrorists in Saudi Arabia.” It would have been quite dignified if it had written “The WEEK gets inside the rehab camp…” Now by crowing, it had reduced itself as all else. It is very evident that they all have an agenda to impress the advertising agencies or advertising managers of the corporates, who have big budget for these ads. So its only for making money, and making more money is the priority, and serving the public or the nation comes second or lower in the order. Also, they do tend to have an agenda of propping political ideologies. Other day some electronic media spent hours to-gether, about the PM candidate from BJP, as if that was the most important news. The election is more than 2 years away in 2014 and we are already hyping a distant mirage. Then there was this boldly printed news “Advani did not talk about Electoral reform when he was in power” in print. In the same news, the freedom fighter speaker also dismissed Anna Hazare for his association with NGO, instead of people. But who will organise meeting for people like Anna, these speakers did not bother to think or speak on. But the news paper highlighted only the negatives on Advani, although he was only in power for 7 years of the 64 years of free India, probably it suited the agenda of the newspaper. So quite frankly they are only serving themselves most of the time. And people, society, nation or values come down in the vertical space.
“Circumstantial evidence enough for conviction” observed Apex Court while dismissing the appeal of one Birender Poddar facing a life term for torturing his wife to death. Birender Poddar took the plea that his conviction was erroneous as his wife died due to jaundice, and that, ‘there was no direct evidence of his crime’.
Contradicting the stand of the accused, appreciating that, it is very difficult to find direct evidence within the matrimonial home where death took place, court reiterated that the case has to rest only on circumstantial evidence. However, it stressed as a matter of abundant caution that “Chain of circumstantial evidence must be complete and conclusive to unmistakably point to the guilt”.
This stand of the Supreme Court is in complete contrast to the enactment that union government recently cleared where it excluded specifically the human rights of female domestic helpers, where the logic was, it is difficult to prove the case of the violation inside the homes of the likely accused masters. Court intervention suo-moto is a welcome development and the proposed enactment can hold out hope for one of the most exploited and vulnerable section of the unorganised female work force.
That a film star with a sizeable name and fame would beat his wife black and blue need not raise the eyebrows. But certainly it would raise hackle. That men, whatever their background can, at times, some time even more often, be cruel to their wives or live-in-partners is no news at all. It becomes a news if media decides it. High profile the man, higher profiled becomes the news. There may be any number of households, across the country, may be even across the world, where violence against women take place, and where those affected, lived life traumatised and in silence. In most places, the issue of violence against women and children remain buried within the four walls of their houses. Sometime it spills into the public domain and becomes a news. Hype depends on the position of the perpetrator and that of the victim, period. There will, at times, even media trials. But the issue at the core, the violence and the brutality towards women and children remain unaddressed. Laws are there, depending upon your position, for redressal. But, for this malaise, of this type of violence to be eliminated, slowly but surely, there has to be a realisation in the social upbringing of children through their medium of curriculum. An awareness has to be created among growing young minds through their social studies text books to appreciate the evils of this wife and child battering. In the present case, in Bangalore, it appears so macabre that the so called producer friends of this Darshan, the perpetrator of violence on his wife and child, without reprimanding him, declaring the other woman, a co-star, out of Kannada films for 3 years, is a kind of khap panchayat diktat, a le Kangaroo court. And how do they expect that his battered wife will again live with him with the image of her husband holding their child by the neck and threatening to throw the child? Yes, in all fairness, this Darshan should be given an extended ‘darshan’ of Bangalore prison instead.
Yes, its already out, the height of insensitiivity of the planning commission of govt of India, when it comes to dealing with poor and poverty. We had always maintained that, it’s a crime to be born poor in India. Believe it or not, even Ripley of ‘Believe it Not’ fame, would be shocked beyond belief, that, if you can spend Rs: 26, a day, in your village or Rs. 33 in your city then you must be rich enough to be called not poor.
In response to an apex court order of May 14, this year, planning commission submitted to the court an affidavit which has reportedly stated that “an individual’s income of just Rs. 25 a day constitutes adequate private expenditure on food, education and health”. Taking Suresh Tendulkar Committee (STC) report, which based its calculation on 2004/05 prices, the commission had fixed its poverty line at Rs. 781 for rural household and at Rs. 965 for urban households. STC report had pegged this figure at Rs. 447 a month or Rs. 15/- a day for rural area and Rs: 600/- or Rs.20/- a day in urban area. In a country where social equity is not a virtue, we have CEOs getting as opulently high as Rs: 70 crores as their annual pay packet and this very same planning commission members getting over Rs: 1 lakh per month, this dichotomy of India being rich and Indians being poor continued unquestioned for all the 64 years of free India. N C Sexana, a member of the National Advisory council, reportedly expressed his feeling while agreeing that Planning Commission ‘could have been more sensitive, despite the NSSO survey statistics’. Yes, for all its redistributive exercise of 12 five year developmental plans, successive governments in India has let down its poor.
Justice Santhosh Hegde, as former Lokayukta of Karnataka has rendered signal service to the country by exposing the politician/mining lobby partnership in looting the nation’s resources. The whole country is now aware of the magnitude of the loot of public money. It is already reverberating in Andhra, now may be the turn of Goa. The Congress leadership of Goa is asking for the scalp of its Chief Minister Digambar Kamath to make him truly ‘Digambar’ (meaning naked) for similar offence of conniving in illegal mining and illegal exports of iron ore. According to report, over 100 million tons of iron ore has been illegally exported. Thus, the loot is exponential in scale and magnitude and these politicians have to be made accountable along with their private sector partners in the national loot. Unless this happens, the nation's wealth will continue to be concentrated in few hands of powerful politicians and their friends in industry and bureaucracy.
There was this news on illegal trafficking in humans in Karnataka. But actually the title trafficking was misleading. It was basically a case of kidnapping and trading in women and children. According to the report there were, on an average, some 4000 women and children reported missing every month, from their places of residences, and were caught in this unfortunate trading of humans. It is an issue of serious concern. The report informs that Karnataka is slowly emerging as a state with highest number of women and children caught in this sorry quagmire, and according to the police it’s a Rs: 25 crore worth business. The question is what is the law enforcing authorities are doing about such a despicable and wanton crime by the well heeled anti-social operators in this trading, except reporting that state has recorded every year 40 to 50 thousand missing women and children. It is an issue the media has to extensively talk and debate to make the society and the administration realise its bounden duty towards weak and vulnerable, and not just report in the middle pages as an innocuous news. But then isn’t this how things concerning poor are treated in Indian media, more as an addendum rather than as a focus?
Responding to the claims of dirty tricks by the Income Tax Deptt. by sending notice of recovery to Arvind Kejriwal, the law minister Salman Khurshid had reportedly remarked “No vendetta, just routine”. But without holding any candle to this Kejriwal of Anna Panel, it can be argued that for all the 4 years after his quitting the Indian Revenue Service, the I.T. deptt. slept. But woke up only recently just around the middle of Anna Panel’s agitation. Besides, notice of recovery of dues by the I.T. deptt., flies on its face, if Kejriwal is right that his Provident Fund dues are still with his employers, that is government of India. There are clearly conflicting claims by both parties to the dispute and deptt. has the responsibility of setting the record strait. But one thing is clear, that whenever there is an element of disagreement with the government of the day, the authorities do have a practice of setting investigating hounds on unsuspecting members of the opposite side. Although it is sinister and patently bad, government do not seem overtly bothered about the immoral aspect of such mud slinging or dirty tricks. It is indeed very unfortunate. But then this is Yeh Mera India.
That China is not an easy country to work with is known to all, the world over. Every country has its own priorities but China has its own ways how it can arm twist its way. Countries with communist ideology has not survived anywhere only because it killed the individual in the human beings. But in China it survived because of the brute force the leadership used. They had the advantage of oriental intelligence coupled with the ruthlessness of Mongols. Of course Buddhism did make its inroads in the east Asian countries, but Mongol nature managed to remain one-up. This combination helped it grow from strength to strength both economically and militarily. Despite killing the individual, probably the only country in the world who looked straight into the eyes of uncle Sam and survived on its own terms. Henry Kissinger probably would have something to add to this thinking. In a deeply polarised world, the U.S. Secretary of State under Nixon, had made the first trip by any modern day American to Peking, underlying the clout the Chinese commanded. And now comes the news that Asian Development Bank, may not be funding the ‘Flood Management Project’ after all, in Arunachal Pradesh. Despite the entire board, barring Chinese director having supported the project which India wanted. This was despite the fact that the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) included in the ADB charter bars the bank from evaluating a project on non-economic criteria. But the truth is, as soon as China objected to the funding of the project saying Arunachal Pradesh is a ‘disputed area’ the ADB was seized of the issue, and had in fact admitted that it was ‘a mistake’ and withdrew the project in 2009 itself, according to Wikileaks. Besides, despite unofficially admitting that ADB was simply not a place for China to raise the issue, it forced its way and nothing could be done about it.
Everything that goes up has to come down that’s the law of the nature. Nothing more could exemply the above truth than the rise and fall of Bellary brothers. If the resignation of Sriramulu, a close associate of Reddy brothers, on Sunday was a climax, the arrest of his mentor Janardhan Reddy by the CBI plunged his world into utter darkness of anti climax. A fellow who would take chopper ride with his family from Bellary to Bangalore, for a dinner is suddenly behind bar in Hyderabad, in one of the worst case of reversal of fortune. For far too long Bellay Brothers, and their cronies were calling the shot not only in and around Bellary but also in Bangalore, making life difficult for state BJP leadership because of their money. Hence, while BJP may overtly complain about witch hunt by centre using CBI, the state leadership under Sadananda Gowda is quietly happy without showing it. In life it pays not to over do.
If Bellary brothers were intoxicated with money and therefore the power that money could buy, Mayawathi is in a class of her own, again drunk with political power, the power that people gave her. A power that she usurped like a dictator that came to her democratically. The latest of the Wikileaks titled “Portrait of a lady” informs that not only she sent a plane, from Lucknow to Mumbai to fetch a pair of her favourite sandal, she was suffering from eccentric paranoia and hence had employed 9 cooks – two to cook – 5 to check and two to taste - , all at government cost. The trip to Mumbai and back for a Rs 1000 sandal cost the exchequer Rs. 10 lakhs. Paranoia about her personal safety is an obsession with her which led to the deployment of not only outsized security apparatus, but she also constructed a private road from her house to the office, which is cleaned immediately after every time she passes that road. When will Indians dump such leaders in the electoral dustbins is a question only making rounds indefinitely. That is indeed sad.
Have you ever heard of an R.T.O. Inspector causing the death of a truck driver for a mere Rs: 500 bribe that driver failed to pay? In UPs Sayyadraza area’s vehicle inspection centre, truck driver Anantlal Gupta was allegedly beaten to death by the RTO official, after the driver could only offer Rs: 500/- as against the demand of Rs: 1000/- as bribe for allowing the allegedly overloaded truck to go. Report informs that Supt. of Police has apparently acknowledged the bizarre incident, after the locals blocked the highway. But the question is how will the police make good the loss of life for a mere Rs: 500/- that too bribe? So there is a double case of demanding bribe with case of murder as well, not just homicide. When will our police be more humane?
The blast that rocked the Delhi High Court complex is an unfortunate reminder that somehow, we as a government cannot contain this scourge. The charge that the terrorist could attack any place of their choice at any time they decide, in the present security set up, is increasingly being felt that it is not misplaced. We the people are sitting ducks, especially when it happens in the heart of the capital city of Delhi. The sad fact is that the authorities claim no inputs and this is despite the alert the terrorists have given in May this year when there was a mild explosion in the same premises. So we have been proved, time and again, that we are poor learners. All the tall claims by the security agencies about the safety of national capital has fallen flat. And this is despite the 99% success claim articulated by Rahul Gandhi about the occurrence of terror attacks. This government must seriously debate the issue of security with all opposition parties without fooling itself and the nation.
That Air India is in trouble is not a news at all. For many years now, whether it was Indian Airlines or the old Air India have always been in the news for all wrong reasons. After the merger of both these government owned carriers it has only become problem 2 (PxP). Whether it is the balooning employee strength, which grew without reference to the cost benefit ratio, or the ministerial shenanigans and their own agenda of awarding lucrative routes to their friends and cronies or giving up altogether such profit making routes in favour of Indian private players, they have only added to the loss these national carriers were incurring. Now this latest acquisition of air crafts has really landed the Maharaja in a mess, that it looks difficult for it to come out. The report “AI acquisition plan a recipe for disaster ab initio: CAG” said it all. Yes despite assertion by Praful Patel, the Civil Aviation Minister, he has got to be probed for all the mess the airline got into during his ministership.
Its CAG everywhere. The constitutional watchdog has got to be given it’s due publicity, at least by the media. It has again struck a lethal blow. This time the machinations by the government. The Director General of Hydrocarbons and Oil Ministry are at the receiving end for causing loss to the nation by favouring Reliance in its high value contracts. So, its everywhere, at the cost of national resources, private players are allowed benefits so that men manning the government machineries are also allowed some big sized crumbs to enrich themselves. It’s the same story of fence eating the crop. Two cheers to CAG for its proactive discharge of its legitimate constitutional duties.
The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Bangladesh was slated to have far reaching effect on the bilateral relations with our eastern neighbour. While it was not on expected lines, it did manage to have broad agreement on many areas of accommodation and good neighbourliness. Two of the three very important areas were agreed upon. Border was resolved to the satisfaction of both, so was the duty free excess for Bangla textiles into India, despite some resistance from Indian textile industry. Of course the heavily tilted trade imbalance in favour of India was the primary reason for this concession. However the most important of the three, the river water sharing agreement could not be agreed upon, since Mamata Banerjee, the CM of the most affected state vis-à-vis-Indo-Bangla agreements, called off her visit to Dacca, for what she perceived as unfair distribution of river water proposed in the agreement. Sheikh Hasina, the truly mass leader of Bangladesh would have really felt happy if this water sharing would have been agreed upon. Of course it is a very contentious but equally humane issue, and therefore there has to be a respectful agreement from both side to share equitably the nature’s most important bestowal to mankind. Mamata, despite her love for her people should realise that other side too have similar dimension which cannot be bulldozed. In a socio-political situation that India will continue to experience, it is very imperative that we should address the Bangladesh expectation with complete reasonableness, especially when the Sheikh Hasina government has been pro-active and sensitive, unlike all earlier regimes in Dacca, in being truly helpful in containing cross border irritants and intransigencies from Bangla soil. Hope this water sharing agreement too is attended without much delay to the overall satisfaction of both sides of the geographical divide.
Month of October always brings back the memory of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. The anti-corruption campaign by Anna Hazare and company, brought once again the relevance of Mahatma to our drawing rooms. Hence we thought we shall go back in time to the evolution of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi into the Making of Mahatma, to keep the memory of the great soul alive. We have discussed Gandhiji under Focus for its relevance. Surely our readers shall find it interesting. Do revert with your inputs, we do value them. Rest as usual.
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