Month-In-Perspective

MAHARASHTRA: The so-called White Paper by the Prithviraj Government in Mumbai, on the scam tainted irrigation projects in interior Maharashtra was indeed a bit of white-wash-or rather as Kejriwal calls it, ‘Black Paper’. It has been in the media that there have been some Rs: 7000/- crores per year allocation during the last 10 years, leading to Rs: 70000/- outlay for the decade, for irrigation purpose. But the growth is anywhere between 0.01% to some 8.9% for the entire period. In the wake of disclosure by a whistleblower, an executive engineer with the Maharashtra irrigation department and the consequent public outcry, Ajit Pawar, the Deputy CM, a Pawar nephew and minister in charge of irrigation had resigned. He is now cooling his heals and waiting to comeback after his hasty step to ‘prove his innocence’. The White Paper, released for political reasons, probably scripted by the Congress High Command to accommodate the UPA ally in the larger picture, has not made any reference to the charges and therefore of innocence of Ajit Pawar, if any. There is another dimension to this murky affair, the politics of Pawar family. The one-up manship between Ajit Pawar and Supriya Sule, the daughter of the Maratha strong man. Sharad Pawar certainly would like to push his daughter to the top of NCP, rather than his nephew Ajit. All talk of democracy is only for public consumption. Sharad Pawar probably wants to use this development to keep Ajit Pawar under check without really pushing Prithviraj Chawan govt for a clean chit. The truth that there has been massive corruption in the department has been endorsed in the Marathi media reports and NGOs besides Kejriwal’s new Aam Aadmi Party seems to have details of it. But will anything happen to those crores vanished into the ‘canals’? is a question lost in the political games of both NCP and the Congress, and country has come a cropper. Same old story of all corruption going unaccounted and unpunished, and main stream media chasing yet another sensation.

UTTAR PRADESH: One more 6th Dec has come and gone. Ayodhya’s Babri imbroglio, happened 20 years ago, did not simmer. Yes, the men and matter have moved on. Verdict by the Apex Court, 2 years ago, had temporarily put the lid on the divisive issue. The nation has taken it in its stride, except some mischievous NGOs and vested interest groups. Some of them did try to fish in clam waters assuming they are troubled underneath. Apparently Indians are growing to be more mature. Trouble makers were disappointed. No untoward incident took place anywhere across the country. However, those who are only interested in seeing the issue dragged, on and on, have gone to the Supreme Court with a review petition. Hope, the legal eagle, takes its own time, and proposes to the civil society, to deliberate to ponder, how it can be amicably settled so that it is a win-win situation to all, in the context of India as a model pluralistic state. Hope it happens for the larger good of the society and therefore the country.

KARNATAKA: That journalists in India have more standards than one was never in doubt. Public memory and by extension, the memory of these journalists in Mangalore/Bangalore, it is believed to be short. These days, ever since the ‘Morning Mist-Home Stay’ episode in Mangalore, we have been witnessing the drama in the media about the alleged one-up manship of police as also of media. Both have been blaming each other in some way or the other. The latest in this murky affair is the arrest of a T.V. videographer, who was reportedly at the site, of the home-stay attack by some hoodlums. There are lots of contrasting accounts of the TV man, but our journo friends in a show of solidarity got to-gether both in Mangalore and in the state capital to present the case of this arrest as they thought it to be unfair, and the detention of the TV journo as an attack on the media freedom. Of course since the issue is in court and is therefore sub judice, it may be inappropriate to discuss it beyond this point. However it is very pertinent to raise the issue of one BV Seetharam, the editor of Karavali Ale Kannada daily, also of Mangalore. He had some years ago, in March 2007, reportedly published stories on Jain Munis of Digambar sect. And the local strongman of Jain community had him arrested under some allegedly trumped up charges. Then, our very same friends in the media were no-where near BV See (as he is known) to cry hoarse, either with the police or with the government. Since, BV See was probably a bad manager of professional friends in the media, no media man or woman came to talk or protest on his behalf. He had to perforce fend for himself. That is the media in Mangalore for you.

ANDHRA PRADESH: “Indian couple jailed for child Abuse” informed a Oslo datelined news from Norway. This is the second instance where an Indian couple from Andhra is being pulled up for bad and wrong treatment of growing small children. In this case, the 7 year old child of one V. Chandrashekhar working for Tata Consulting Services (TCS) in Norway, reportedly told his teachers in the Scandinavian country that his parents had threatened that he shall be sent back to India if he did not stop “bed-wetting and urinating in school and on the road”. Reportedly child Sai Sriram is suffering from “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” (ADHD). In an attempt to ‘discipline’ the child, parents allegedly subjected him to physical violence like burning his leg with some hot object causing a burn of 3x5cms, beating him with belt on several occasions, so also threatening him that they would burn his tongue with a hot spoon. Quite frankly, if these details are true, this is indeed bizarre to say the least. Even animals wouldn’t be as cruel to one of their own as this literate couple from India. It is a very poor reflection on India and Indian culture as a whole. Surprisingly nobody from Women & Child Welfare deptt. of any ministry, no Child right group, no Amnesty International, no media member or Human Rights group has taken up the cause of this Sai Sriram, who has suffered at the hands of those who are his protectors, his parents. That is the travesty as we observe the International Human Rights Day. While, what the authorities in Oslo are doing has their own justification, they must ensure that child is not made to suffer emotionally by their action of jailing the parents and denying the parental love to the child. In the meantime there has to be a mechanism in place that parents while being appropriately counselled do not repeat the physical violence on the child. Something a governmental intervention in India can help ensure.

GUJARAT: Victory of Narendra Modi, was a foregone conclusion. It was only the margin of victory that was in question. Yes his victory margin has come down, by 2 seats at 115, as compared to 5 years earlier, which was lower by 5 seats to the earlier 5 year. Thus, on the paper he is arithmetically coming down. Narendra Modi, as a politician, is liked and disliked across the national spectrum, like no other politician. And he is unlike many in the political scene. He has his strong points, but has a controversial image of being a Hindu fundamentalist in the mould of RSS. While some of the charges may stick, the fact remains, ‘Jo Jeetha Wohi Sikandar’. How justified is the apprehension that his rise in the political firmament in the country, is an open question. There is no way he can deny the role of his administration in Gujarat in failing to check the mob fury in 2002. It is therefore essential that he reaches out to those suffered, as a statesman, cutting across the communal divide. Only then may be he will be acceptable to the larger Indian crowd. But unfortunately, his king sized ego, has so far held him back from apologizing for the suffering of people in the 2002 pogrom across Gujarat. Now that he has won for the 3rd consecutive term to the seat of power in Gandhinagar, he could be gracious in victory. A minor indication was already in the air. On the announcement of his victory on 20th Dec., he has reportedly remarked while speaking to his partymen “If there has been a mistake somewhere, I seek apology from you, the six crore Gujaratis”. Hope for the nation's overall good, an emotional connectivity takes place besides the economic development which is just as important.

NEW DELHI: Finance Ministry under minister Chidambaram has withdrawn the search & seizure power of the new elite criminal investigation wing of Income Tax Deptt., informs a print media report. There is no explanation available in the public domain why this move was put in place. The move to create this Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) was started only an year ago, and it has, reportedly, already done a good job in such a short time, with 128 search warrants executed in 2011/12 and already issued 8 search warrants upto Sept 2012, including that of Ponty Chadha, who was killed, only some weeks ago, at his farm house outside Delhi. DCI which was created to combat the black money menace and to identify cases of illegal funds of criminal nature, will only be doing, from now on, to develop data base to aid the regular investigation wings of I.T. Clearly there is some “Daal Mein kuch Kaala Hai”. We thought Pranab Mukherjee is no more the Finance Minister, but his ghost through the babus must be active to thwart any attempt at reining these looters of public money. Surprisingly there has not been any outcry in the media for this diabolic move of the finance ministry. Surely somebody is playing mischief due to some unknown pressure source, to protect some unseen players in big bad money. This is an unfortunate development and some RTI activists will have to expose the move.

So, according to the news coming from the capital, the global retail giant WAL MART, has spent Rs: 125 crores for lobbying in the corridors of power, to get the bill on FDI in multi brand retail cleared, by the Indian parliament. The opposition, smarting under the passage of FDI bill, due to the machinations of Mayawathi and Mulayam Singh, held on to the proverbial straw to go to market to cry hoarse. But then this is how the West works, especially American Multi-nationals. According to a party spokesman, such spendings are in order, to educate our people and politicians. Yes indeed educational levels of our politicians, most of them atleast, is such, they may need orientation courses in globalised market scenario to understand the nuances of international trade and commerce. Of course, Rs: 125 crores is not a small money, besides it is certainly indicative of what is at stake. There is indeed a huge money in India. The Wal Mart–the 450 Billion US $ company-is reportedly upbeat about the Indian retail market, expected to be around $: 500 billion currently, with the potential to grow upto a $ trillion by 2020. That is indeed very huge. So they are not coming to India, because they are in love with India, they are coming only to make money and more money. Of course, this opening up, as and when it happens, has very serious and far reaching implications for India, where selling country’s interest, sadly does not raise much eyebrows, forget about public outcry. Elected representatives have a huge responsibility of protecting the nation from being plundered by multi-national corporations.

News involving two editors of TV channel, Zee TV, that they were demanding Rs: 100 crores, to desist from airing/broadcasting the alleged negative news of Jindal group is outlandish, by any stretch of imagination. Not lakhs anymore, its crores, and that too not in the single digit, but in 3 digits! Money has lost its relevance and ethics in the media has gone out of the window. So it was a black-mail of a weird kind. That the police have acted based on the forensic findings, and the two journos have been booked and are in custody, is not a news at all. But it is incredible that they thought, so non-challently, that they could get away with murder. If they could do it to an educated, savvy politician industrialist like young Jindal, how would they deal with lesser mortals. God save India from such media group and media men.

There is this New Delhi date lined report. Attributing to Ministry of Finance, the report informs “Recovery of Rs: 91859 crores arrears from Hassan Ali not possible”. Is it outrageous, shocking or amusing that Union Ministry of Finance has admitted to its failure to nail the high profile horse breeder and an international charlatan! Can such thing happen in any civilised part of the world, except, of course, banana republic! That this man owes the nation some Rs: 100,000 crores in respect of income tax since some years, is a documented truth. Yet there have been apparent dereliction of duty by all those concerned-from the Finance Minister down to the recovery apparatus. Of course Finance Minister is the bottle neck, which probably was blocked, for reasons unknown to the public domain. This is an issue the main stream media and opposition members of the parliament must take up, for that minimum transparency that these government machineries should ensure.

The current Press Council of India-Chairman, Justice Markandeya Katju is all over the print media these days. Of course, more so because he is the boss at PCI, the big brother from Delhi, rather than for its news content. Because he is high profile, his sound bytes are taken on the face value. But at times what he says makes sense. Of course he is very outspoken unlike many in public life. Some of these headlines says it all. “Katju calls Mamata intolerant and whimsical”  “India, Pakistan should unite” “90% Indians are idiots” “80% Hindus and 80% Muslims are communal”. Talking to law students in Mangalore he said “Most youths are selfish”. These are some of the headlines he adorned in the print media in less than 15 days this month, from places as far as Mangalore, Kolkatta & New Delhi. Despite all these loud thoughts, he appears to be a person, one can talk to. He always presents an intimidatory posture, but is open for discussion and searching questions. Some of his observation can be very controversial especially his observation that 80% Hindus are communal so are Muslims. In a country where 80% of 1200 millions are Hindus, his 80% works to some 768 million. If 768 million Hindus are communal, according to Katju, how can this country be called secular and what chance a minority of 240 million have of surviving in this communal country? Fortunately the fact is otherwise. Country is indeed a model of secularism, with few aberrations of divisive activities by elements from across the national spectrum, cutting across all religions. Justice Katju needs to update his knowledge of social dynamics by reading MJ Akbar’s thought provoking book “India: The Seize Within”.

The suspension of IOA (Indian Olympic Association) by IOC (International Olympic Committee), should surprise nobody. In fact, it is indeed a good development, in the context of the rot that has set in, in our sports bodies-both state and national. All Indians are privy to the knowledge that sports administrators have always exploited the system and abrogated to themselves all the comforts to be enjoyed by the powerful and their cronies including their families. This has resulted in the poor treatment of all sportspersons including athletes, by officialdom. We have heard of, half a dozen or more sports men and women, made to use a single room with common ablution facilities, when these administrators and their families spending the public money, for their comforts, in 5 star hotels with all the luxury that goes with it. We are also aware how these athletes and sportsmen are paid pittance as their daily allowance. So, when the public money is spent on persons who are not sportspersons, how do you expect sportspersons to win medals? That will never happen. Whatever the medals have come our way, it is due to the individual hard work and sacrifice of these sportsmen. The latest election fiasco, where a person, Lalit Bhanot, was elected to the high office despite having been jailed for alleged CWG embezzlement, along with his boss Suresh Kalmadi, is a case in point. Lalit Bhanot, inspite of objection from IOC, was elected as Secretary General of IOA. How can anybody with any sense of justice and fairness elect a man to preside over the sports and its budgets, who is so badly tainted? Hope the sports minister takes the call and address and redress the issue as soon as possible. 

Palaniappan Chidambaram, Union Finance Minister, is he emerging as the new poster boy of Congress? Or so, it looks, with the “THE ECONOMIST”, the respected  London weekly, seem to have accepted him as the best alternative to the ageing octogenarian Dr Manmohan Singh, as the Prime Ministerial candidate post 2014 electoral arithmetic. Surely they have applied their abundant grey matter, up above the shoulder, to ponder and arrive at this latest decision to put their money on. Reportedly the magazine is convinced that P Chidambaram’s ‘growth oriented outlook’ can give the nation the much needed push. Of course, there is no doubt about his intellectual capability, which weekly particularly notes, but he is also arrogant, which many in the opposition as well as his own colleagues are not comfortable with. His high strung behaviour can become a stumbling block for building bridges with the opposition, which even mild mannered Dr Singh failed to develop. Here what is interesting is, despite the British govt’s reaching out to Narendra Modi, to open up to his ‘outcaste’ status, nobody in the U.K. media, spoke of the possibility of his future national role. Could it be, that Britain wants to deal with the Gujarat of Narendra Modi, while simultaneously wants Congress at the centre with ‘a big brained southern Tamil with a posh English accent’ as the PM! 

Problem of innocent Muslims being hauled up and imprisoned for unproved and vague charges, and languishing in jails across the country without trial and long drawn out trials have again come to the fore in the Parliament. Replying to questions about Muslim-under trails and convicted – in jails, the minister for state in Home Affairs, informed, that Muslims are about 21.2% of the total under trials and 17.8% convicts in the country’s jails, which is higher than the, 13% population ratio of Muslims in the country. Of course for the record he did say that law does not distinguish people on the basis of the religion, and that those who claim to be innocents can move the court for redressal at all stages, while adding that police must produce the arrested person before the magistrate, within 24 hrs and further detention, if any, shall be the domain of the magistrate and the law. These are statements for public consumption, but what is the ground reality? Many cases in recent times have been proved contrary to the police stand, by the courts of the land, where those jailed by the police spent years incarcerated for no fault of theirs. There have been justifiable hue and cry, whom to make accountable for this miscarriage of justice. These are very legitimate responses. Our governments, both in state and centre, have an obligation to sooth the feelings of betrayal. Of course, these are not just Muslims, there are those from the lower sections of Indian society, the Dalits and others who too have suffered from the high handedness of the police and other law enforcing authorities. It may be true to some extent that police do have a difficult job on hand to maintain law and order and are not always sure, if their actions are correct or right. This being so, the least police should and could do is to expedite the cases, to as short a time as possible to complete, especially when there are good deal of cases which are yet to go court. And courts on their part should equally act fast in the interest of fair play and justice. Hope the question raised by one Sabir Ali, a Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar, meets with the ends of justice to all innocents not just Muslims.

WORLD: Ricky Ponting, when he announced his retirement in Perth, playing against South Africa, that ‘this shall be the last appearance in first class cricket’ had unwittingly heated up the atmosphere in the Indian dressing room. Suddenly the entire Indian media was agog with terms like “Pressure on Sachin”, “Tendulkar, Ponting in the same boat” “Sachin twiddles his thumb as Ponting quits”. Surely, this sudden public move by the Australian former cricketer has indeed let the cat into the world of Sachin Tendulkar, still undecided, despite being older than Ponting and equally doing badly with his bat. Here it is pertinent to reproduce what Ponting had to say while announcing his exit from the international cricket, “My performance hasn’t been to the level required for batsmen and players in the Australian team. I haven’t been performing consistently over the last 12-18 months. I believe now is the right time to be making this decision. This is a decision not made by selectors, it was made by me. I am glad I have got the opportunity to finish on my terms”. Those were the frank admission of one of the greatest cricketers among his contemporaries, 2nd only to Sachin Tendulkar. This move by the Australian has certainly pushed the Indian legend harder, to call it a day, now that he was bowled for just 2 runs in the 1st innings at the Nagpur Test, after doing rather badly, except once in the previous six innings against the ongoing test series against England. Tendulkar must decide to take the call. 

The historic win for Palestine in its bid to become a non-member observer state is probably the minimum that the world body of 188 countries could have given for this hapless nation state. That this has happened despite the stiff opposition from Israel and its biggest patron United States, has only shown the world body in better light. World is slowly recognising that Palestinians as a section of the humanity are indeed wronged. Although the current development is not complete in itself, it is indeed a very positive development for this fledgling state. It is an irony of fate, that Israel has an established statehood in the Palestinian territory while Palestinians themselves are pariahs in their own homeland, as a result of international machinations. History of Palestine and the inflow of Jews from Nazi Germany into their ‘promised land’ is based on deep routed contradictions of Balfour declaration of 1917, drafted with good intentions of Arthur Balfour, the then Foreign Secretary of Britain. By allowing Jews to create Israel in Palestine which was under the then moribund Ottoman Empire, Arthur Balfour, had envisioned an ideal situation that ‘nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of non-Jewish communities in Palestine”. The ideal flew out of the window. No sooner the declaration was implemented in 1922, and the sectarian violence that erupted soon thereafter continued for all the 90 years, with the minority Israel dominating the scene with majority being pushed to the fringes of international political dynamics. It is indeed very sad to see Palestinians almost helpless in the prevailing Israeli intracigence, especially when U.S stand is heavily loaded in favour of the Zionists, with Israel cutting off all financial outgoes for Palestine and pushing ahead with their unlawful and vengeful settlement creation programme. Hope the latest U.N sanctioned observer status can help in its right for homeland which can be called its own, in not too distant a future.

All of us die one day. So did Sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar. He died in San Diego, in the Californian state of United States of America, where he lived reportedly since last two decades. Since his death, there have been reams of paper turned black & white. Tributes ran into pages in all parts of the world, where music reigned and where Pandit Ravi Shankar was a celebrated genius incomparable by any standard. He was the earliest to mix the East with the West. At 35 he was invited to perform in New York by no less a musical genius than Yehudi Menuhin. From then on he didn’t look back in his persuit of experimenting with the eastern and western music, which lands him the coveted Grammy award in 1967. The legend of Pandit Ravi Shankar grew to spectacular heights. In 1999 he was awarded with the country’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna. The accolades and tributes that he received posthumously he richly deserved them, if what is published and are in public domain are to be taken as such. And there is no reason why it should not be taken as such. There is this saying in Kannada, “Satta Yemmege Seru Benne” which means “Dead buffalo gave more than a kilo of butter”. Fair enough. We must as a civil society sing only paeans of the glory of the soul that passed away.

Yes, what most of the media wrote and discussed was his prodigious genius with the string. He certainly immortalised Sitar as an instrument of Indian music, which brought India much closure to world after Mahatma Gandhi. But he was an open practitioner of polygamy, which, not many have discussed. His first wife, the daughter of his Guru Allauddin Khan, is still alive. They had a son Shubhendra, who died rather early. Then he gets involved with Sue Jones, an American. In 1979, that is after some 38 years, he gets a daughter named Norha Jones. In India, this child would have been called ‘illegitimate’ rightly or wrongly. Yes, Pandit Ravi Shankar being in U.S. had no problems of U.P. politician N.D. Tiwari-battling with his private adventures-both in media and court. Then he gets his second daughter from his disciple Sukanya Rajan, in 1981, Anoushka. His legitimises this daughter, by marrying Sukanya in 1989. Believe it or not, nobody questioned it, even when he was made a Rajya Sabha member in 1986, and his first wife, his guru’s daughter Annapurna Devi, is still alive. For the contribution to Indian music and its popularisation in the West, he was awarded Bharat Ratna in 1999, when he was living in California, and sadly died too in California, not in Varanasi where he was born, where his first wife still alive, probably with only memories. Strangely, nobody in the media visited her in this ethereal moment of her fading life.

J.Shriyan