i beg your pardon!!!

BAREFOOT BENEVOLENCE

2010-11-10T02:59:00.001-08:00

After its success in Andhra Pradesh, the Paralegal Volunteer Scheme is being extended to the whole country to provide legal aid to rural people. Avijit Chatterjee on the ‘barefoot lawyers’ who will soon fan out to every village in India

Giving a voice: Paralegal workers will also help rural women who are unaware of their legal rights
Mathamma, a landless tribal woman from Ulnoor village in the Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh, had been awarded a plot of land by the government — only to be deprived of it by middlemen. Encouraged by village elders, she filed a case in 1993 to gain possession of her land. But even after 17 years and endless visits to the court, there seemed to be no end to her ordeal.

Then one day earlier this year, Jagan Reddy, a paralegal volunteer, arrived at her doorstep and persuaded her to bring her case to the local body set up by the government to look into land disputes. The case was resolved within two months and Mathamma won back her land.

In yet another incident, a case related to a family dispute filed by a widow in Rangareddy district in Andhra Pradesh was referred to the Lok Adalat at the intervention of a paralegal volunteer and the matter was resolved amicably in a month.

To the downtrodden and the dispossessed in Andhra Pradesh, paralegal volunteers, sometimes referred to as barefoot lawyers, have proved to be a godsend. Now, four years after the Paralegal Volunteer Scheme was introduced in the state — it was started in Andhra Pradesh in October 2006 — the National Legal Services Authority (Nalsa), a body constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, to provide free legal services to the weaker sections of society, is trying to replicate the scheme across all districts and villages in the country.

Nalsa recently announced plans to provide training to around one lakh paralegal volunteers who will help poor peasants exercise their fundamental rights and make them aware of different government schemes and their benefits.

“Our aim is to create an army of paralegal volunteers who would act as agents of legal awareness and provide legal aid to all sections of people. They are expected to act as intermediaries between the common people and the legal services institutions and help remove barriers to accessing justice,” says Nalsa member secretary U. Sarathchandran.

Initially, the volunteers would be identified from the National Service Scheme units in colleges, non government organisations, social organisations and women’s self-help groups. They would be trained in the basics of law relating to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, consumers, bonded labour, senior citizens, disaster victims, the disabled and so on.

The authorities say that the scheme would be particularly beneficial to women in the villages. Nalsa would train women volunteers in marriage laws, anti-dowry provisions, the Maternity Benefit Act, Child Marriage Restraint Act, domestic violence, maintenance and labour welfare laws. “Awareness of all these provisions of the law will help an aggrieved woman approach a legal aid committee at the taluka (subdivision) level for redress,” points out Sarathchandran.

In fact, a national committee has already been set up by Supreme Court Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia to promote paralegal training and legal aid activities. The committee, together with Nalsa, organised a “training of the trainer” programme at the Chandigarh Judicial Academy in September this year. Under this programme, member secretaries of the state legal services authorities, along with lawyers and law teachers selected by the state and Union Territories legal services authorities, were trained as trainers for paralegal workers.

Each of these trainers is supposed to train around 50 persons identified by the District Legal Services Authority in each district. The three-month training is meant to produce a cadre of paralegal volunteers, who would span over 6,400 blocks in 623 districts in the country.

Andhra Pradesh, which pioneered the concept, has so far trained 6,831 people, including 179 senior citizens and 431 prisoners. Says L. Ravi Babu, member secretary, Andhra Pradesh State Legal Services Authority, “We found the scheme to be very effective in providing justice to the people. Illiterate rural folk, who were earlier wary of approaching us, are now making their voices heard through these volunteers. The volunteers, on the other hand, are also bringing to the notice of legal services authorities cases which need legal assistance. Thus they are acting as an important bridge between the government and the people.”

However, some experts feel despite its altruistic objective the programme may not yield results across the country. “It is a novel initiative no doubt, but I think it will be difficult to extrapolate the scheme across such a diverse landscape,” says Arijit Banerjee, barrister, Calcutta High Court.

There are others who point out that success of the scheme hinges on the initiative and dedication of paralegal volunteers who would have to work virtually gratis. According to Nalsa, these volunteers would only have their actual expenses, such as bus and train fares or telephone bills, reimbursed. “How proactive they will be in helping people is a question that’s bothering us. I think we would have to pick volunteers from amongst the most vulnerable sections of the society, who would be eager to work free in their own interest,” says Madhusudan Saha Ray, senior advocate, Calcutta High Court and one of the two trainers from West Bengal who received training in Chandigarh.

But then why was the scheme so successful in Andhra Pradesh? “It was due to the initiative shown by the state government which marshalled all its forces to make the programme a success,” says Ray. Agrees Veer Singh, vice-chancellor, Nalsar University of Law, Hyderabad, “The state’s rural development department, the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty as well as experts and students from the university pitched in to make the programme a success. As a result, we were able to help around 3 lakh poor people in the state.”

Vijay S.T. Shankardass, a barrister who practices both in India and the UK, sounds a note of optimism. “If the exercise is carried out with due honesty, it can be useful for rural people who are otherwise quite clueless as to what their rights are,” he says. After all, paralegal volunteers have been successful in providing justice to people in the US, Australia and even in Bangladesh and Malwi, he adds.

One only hopes that the scheme will find similar success in India as well.

Economists call for deep reforms of global financial system

2008-12-03T06:11:00.000-08:00

World output will reach a meagre one per cent in 2009

Developing world will surpass five per cent growth

Borrowing costs for developing countries will rise

CHENNAI: United Nations economists have called for deep reforms of the global financial system to prevent a recurrence of the current crisis, including stronger regulation of financial institutions, adequate international liquidity provisioning, an overhaul of the international reserve system and a more inclusive global economic governance.

They wanted coordinated global economic stimulus packages, linked with sustainable development measures, beyond liquidity and recapitalisation steps already taken, to counter the worldwide economic meltdown.

“World per capita income is expected to decline next year, export growth and capital inflows will fall, borrowing costs for developing countries will rise as contagion spreads from the major economies, and the U.S. dollar is set to resume its decline, with a possible hard landing in 2009,” according to the UN annual economic report, issued at the international Financing for Development review now under way in Doha, Qatar.

The report on World Economic Situation and Prospects 2009 notes that according to the baseline scenario, world output will reach a meagre one per cent in 2009, compared to 2.5 per cent in 2008 and global growth rates of between 3.5 and 4 per cent in the preceding four years. The 2009 projection includes a decline in output of 0.5 per cent in developed countries and 4.6 per cent in the developing world.

Optimistic scenario

“Under a more optimistic scenario, factoring in fiscal stimulus of between 1.5 and 2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) of the major economies and further interest-rate cuts, developed economies could post a 0.2-per cent rate of growth, and the developing world would surpass five per cent growth, the economists calculate.

“But given the great uncertainty prevailing today, a more pessimistic scenario is possible.

“If the present credit squeeze prolongs and confidence in the financial sector is not restored in the coming months, developed countries could enter into a deep recession, causing world output to fall and GDP growth in the developing world to drop to 2.7 per cent, dangerously low for the ability of countries to sustain poverty reduction efforts and social and political stability.”

Broad range of steps

To shore up weaknesses which led to the extraordinary damage brought on by the downturn and prevent this from happening again, the UN economists recommend a broad range of steps including: Fundamental revision of the governance structure and functions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank for enhanced international policy coordination and more inclusive participation of major developing countries; Fundamental reforms of existing systems of financial regulation and supervision to stem past excesses; Reform of the present international reserve system, away from the almost exclusive reliance on the U.S. dollar and towards a multilaterally backed multi-currency system; Reforms of liquidity provisioning and compensatory financing mechanisms backed, among other things, by better multilateral and regional pooling of national foreign exchange reserves, and avoiding onerous policy conditionality, says a United Nations press release.

'Embarrassing welcome' for Anand on return

2007-10-14T21:59:00.001-07:00

New Delhi, October 15: Unruly scenes were witnessed at the airport when chess world champion Vishwanathan Anand arrived in India after winning the crown.

The organisers, one of the top IT education companies of the country for whom Anand is a brand ambassador, failed to control the situation as a result of which the champion had to unceremoniously make his way out from the airport amidst chaotic scenes.

The waiting posse of photographers and cameramen almost climbed over each other to get a shot of the champion which didn't amuse Anand, who quickly made his exit. There was a lot of hackling, shoving and pushing and even Anand was not spared as the organisers as well the Delhi Chess Association

officials tried to get photographed with him.

Anand, who became the undisputed chess world champion in Mexico city recently, arrived well passed midnight and was supposed to talk to the waiting media persons at the airport but the situation got out of control and he had to leave without doing so.

The organisers had hired a large number of 'volunteers' who were supposed to greet Anand wearing especially prepared T-shirts but they were the once contributing to the chaos which precipitated the embarrassing situation.

It was surely not the type of welcome that the world champion would have envisaged on his return after winning the title in Madrid.

Several chess players including prodigy Sahaj Grover were there at the airport but did not get a chance to meet their idol.

Indian children work despite ban

2007-10-14T21:50:00.000-07:00

By Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

Thousands of children work in roadside food stalls

A year after India banned children under 14 from working as domestic servants or in food stalls, millions continue to be employed, a study says.

The study released by Save the Children says these children are routinely subjected to different forms of abuse and a lot still needs of be done.

Many of the child workers are denied food, and are beaten up, burnt or sexually abused, the study says.

According to official estimates, India has more than 12 million child workers.

Of these, about 200,000 are estimated to be working as domestic servants and in teashops, restaurants, spas, hotels, resorts and other recreational centres - the areas from where they were banned last year.

No difference

But unofficial figures, quoted by groups working with children, say the country has up to 20 million children working at homes and in food stalls.

And the ban does not seem to have made any difference.

"I recently met a 12-year-old girl, Sonali, in the eastern state of West Bengal. She had been working for the last two years as a domestic servant in the city of Calcutta," Anuradha Maharishi of Save the Children told the BBC.

(Pic: Geeta Pandey)" border="0" height="152" hspace="0" vspace="0" width="203">

Current child legislation is not effective

Sonali's job was to cook for a five-member household and clean a three-storey house. One day there was a delay in serving dinner and her employer poured burning hot food on her hands.

She managed to escape with help from a neighbour and Save the Children have now restored her to her family.

"Although she is 12, she looks like she could be eight or 10. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she showed me her burnt hands. She didn't cry, she's a very brave girl," says Ms Maharishi.

Save the Children says that in Delhi alone, close to a million children are still employed at homes or in food stalls. Another 40,000 work in the southern city of Hyderabad and 50,000 more work in Calcutta.

Lax laws

Since last year when the government announced the ban, officials say only 2,229 violations have been reported.

Save the Children - which works in the states of West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra - says that most of these child workers are routinely subjected to abuse and are in unsafe working conditions.

The study says in Delhi 99% of child domestic workers are girls and in a large number of cases they are open to sexual abuse.

Poverty forces parents to send their young children to work

"Most of these young girls who come from poor families are forced to work up to 15 hours a day with no breaks and little or no pay," Ms Maharishi says.

She says protecting children working as domestic servants is difficult because it is carried out within the confines of private homes and information about their condition does not filter out easily.

Announcing the ban last year, the government had warned "firm action against those violating the law".

Punishments range from a jail term of three months to two years and/or a fine of 10,000 to 20,000 rupees ($225 to $450).

But child rights activists question the effectiveness of the ban in India.

India bans the use of young workers in hazardous industries, but thousands of children continue to work in firecracker and matchstick factories or are involved in carpet-weaving, embroidery or stitching footballs.

Many parents say crippling poverty forces them to send their children, sometimes as young as five or six, to work in other people's homes or in factories.

Higher education a sick child: Arjun Singh

2007-10-10T22:04:00.001-07:00

Thursday October 11 2007 01:43 IST

IANS

NEW DELHI: Exhorting over 300 Vice-Chancellors to accelerate the pace of higher education in India, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh on Wednesday said the sector is a “sick child and time has come to face reality”.

“Higher education in India is a sick child of education either by design or default,” Arjun Singh said in a conference of Vice-Chancellors here, which began on Wednesday.

“It is not a place for reproach or accolades but the academic world should come to terms with reality. Neglecting higher education is no longer serving the cause of young India.

“I am not blaming anyone but we have to come out of this. As VCs, you have the opportunity and duty to find a way out for it. To prescribe is not my ideology. Let us now inscribe. Give the country a roadmap of higher education,” he told the VCs from across the country.

“The Eleventh Five Year Plan will give enough room to experiment in education,” the Minister said.

These educational experts along with officials of the HRD Ministry and the UGC will finalise a roadmap for India’s higher education sector for the next five years.

“India is not knocking at the doors of the world, but the world is knocking at the doors of India. It is up to us to open the door or keep it shut,” he said.

Five pc of GDP for education in 11th Plan

2007-10-10T22:03:00.003-07:00

IANS

NEW DELHI: Confessing that higher education in India has not peaked adequately since independence, Planning Commission member B. Mungekar on Wednesday said that the country will spend five percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the 11th Five Year Plan on education.

“Since 1966, India has had a mission to spend six percent of its GDP on education but failed so far,” Mungekar said. Currently, India spends nearly 3.5 pc of its GDP on education. Addressing the national conference of vice-chancellors in Delhi, he said education had somehow “divorced” from the realities of the country.

Over 300 Vice-Chancellors are participating in the discussion to prepare a higher education roadmap for India.

“Currently only 9-10 pc of students passing out of colleges are skilled enough to get employment. There is a need to drastically restructure the university set up, curriculum, and the examination system.”

“The annual examination system in India is completely useless. We should scrap it and go to semester system. I think we have done little for the upward mobility of the higher education sector and there is a need for skillbased education system,” Mungekar said.

He said a few thousand students passing out from the IITs and IIMs every year will not take India to greater heights.

“We have to go for a holistic approach. The fourth largest economy of the world cannot lag behind in education,” he said, and added that the aim in the next five years is to achieve a growth of 10 percent in the enrolment in higher education.

On revision of fee structure and introduction of large-scale self-financing courses at the university level, Mungekar said: “The fee hike fees should be reviewed properly before putting a system in place.”

University Grants Commission chairman S.K. Thorat said: “For the benefit of students and overall development of higher education, the semester system should be adopted by the varsities.”

He said the conference will deliberate on six major issues: access, inclusiveness, support to needy colleges and universities, bridging the quality gap, focus on colleges and universities in the states, and the issue of finance.

Doctor couple arrested for son's bizarre death

2007-10-10T22:03:00.001-07:00

IANS

ROHTAK: A doctor couple has been arrested here for causing the bizarre death of their son by attempting to transfuse into him the blood of his more intelligent sibling, police said.

In the process, the younger and intelligent Piyush died while Abhishek is battling for his life in a hospital.

All this happened because the mother wanted Abhishek to clear the medical entrance test and study to become a doctor.

The Rohtak police on Wednesday arrested the couple - Ashok Malik and his wife Promila - in this Haryana town. Both of them hold MBBS degrees.

"The couple has been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. They wanted their elder son to become a doctor and the mother cut arteries of her sons (to transfuse blood between the siblings)," district police chief Hanif Qureshi said here.

Investigating officers said that Ashok Malik told them that his wife recently had a dream in which their "guruji (godman)" told her that if she transfused Piyush's blood to Abhishek, he would clear the medical entrance test.

The couple brought instruments to their home and attempted the transfusion by making an incision near the neck of both boys. While doing so, the younger one died of excessive bleeding.

Seeing the whole thing going horribly wrong, the mother slit her wrists. She is now being treated at a hospital here.

The couple initially tried to mislead the police by saying that unidentified masked men had attacked them and killed Piyush.

The police are also investigating whether the mother was under the spell of a "tantrik (mystic)"

The police have seized the instruments used in carrying out the illegal operation on their sons.

Advocates to continue indefinite court boycott

2007-10-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

A. Subramani

CHENNAI: Not satisfied with Law Minister Durai Murugan’s assurance to striking advocates that penal action would be taken against the head constable who allegedly assaulted two advocates on October 1, the Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA) has resolved to continue its indefinite court boycott. Alleging that yet another advocate was assaulted by a police patrol team near Anna Nagar on Tuesday night, the MHAA members took out a rally in the morning and entered all court halls exhorting advocates to join the agitation. The extraordinary general body meeting of the association also adopted a resolution to continue the strike, reiterating its demand that the head constable, who had allegedly attacked two advocates at Stanley Hospital, be arrested forthwith.

The MHAA president, R.C. Paul Kanagaraj, said the Anna Nagar incident of advocate Thirumalai Nambi being assaulted by the police had turned the advocate community against the police yet again. “Though Tuesday’s meeting with Mr. Durai Murugan had assuaged the temper of advocates to a large extent, the latest incident left the association with no option but to reiterate its demand for the arrest of the erring policeman,” he said. “I have no answer to our members’ apprehension that such excesses would continue if a deterrent action was not taken now,” he said. G. Mohanakrishnan, secretary of the MHAA, said advocates took out a campus rally on Wednesday morning holding aloft the bloodstained clothes of Mr. Thirumalai Nambi.

The decision to continue the boycott was taken after the MHAA general body felt that the proposed action against the head constable was inadequate, he said.

K. Santhakumari, president of the Women Lawyers’ Association (WLA), said an extraordinary general body of the forum would meet on Thursday. The court boycott entered fifth day on Wednesday, affecting normal court proceedings.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/10/11/stories/2007101157620100.htm

27 per cent OBC quota is fair and reasonable: Centre

2007-10-10T21:58:00.000-07:00

Legal Correspondent

“The quantum of reservation mandated under the Act is justified”

Reservation itself cannot be struck down on the principle of reverse discrimination: Centre
No systematic work to identify OBCs after 1931, Centre lacks any scientific data: SC Bench

New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday asserted in the Supreme Court that the 27 per cent quota for the Other Backward Classes in educational institutions as determined by Parliament was within the overall reservation of 50 per cent and therefore legal.

Making his submissions before a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, the former Attorney General and senior counsel K. Parasaran said, “The quantum of reservation mandated under the Act is justified. It is just, fair and reasonable.”

Mr. Parasaran told the Bench, comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat, C.K. Thakker, R.V. Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari, that the quantum of reservation within 50 per cent had been determined by Parliament.

He said: “Legislative facts are conclusive and the courts do not exercise the power of judicial review by examining facts. Population is a relevant consideration in fixing the quantum of reservation.

“The Act cannot be invalidated on the ground that the exercise of the power under the Act by the Executive is bad. If, in any given case, the exercise of the power is invalid, it is that which will be invalidated and not the Act itself.”

Mr. Parasaran argued that Article 15 (5) of the Constitution, which enabled the exercise of power and the impugned Act, was not invalid on the ground of reverse discrimination.

He said, “Reservation itself cannot be struck down on the principle of reverse discrimination. It is in the nature of handicap in favour of backward classes. Reservation brings the reserved class on a level playing ground with open category applicants. Bringing them to a level playing ground by reservation cannot by itself be held to be bad as a case of reverse discrimination.”

Additional Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam justified the identification of socially and educationally backward classes on the basis of caste in view of the societal structure in the country. He said caste should be construed as a unit leading to reservation. The total OBC population as per the Mandal Commission was 52 per cent and as per the National Sample Survey Organisation survey, 41 per cent.

Bench poser

The Bench said, “Till date, you [Centre] don’t have any scientific data whether it is 41 per cent or 52 per cent. The 1931 census was taken when Burma [now Myanmar], Pakistan and Bangladesh were part of India and how can you take this as the basis now? No systematic work has been done to identify OBCs after 1931.”

India job scheme 'disappointing'

2007-10-09T22:03:00.000-07:00

By Soutik Biswas
BBC News, Delhi

Villagers build local infrastructure under the scheme

India's most ambitious scheme ever to lift people out of poverty has met with largely disappointing results in its first year, studies suggest.

The $2.2bn scheme, which was launched by the Congress-led government in 200 districts, guarantees 100 days of work a year for every rural home.

It has been described as India's New Deal for the poor in a country where 70% of its people live in villages.

Critics say the scheme squanders public money and builds wasteful assets.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme was launched in February last year to provide employment to millions of people in India's poorest villages to work on building local infrastructure like village roads, small dams, ponds and buildings.

Uneven progress

Supporters of the scheme insist that it is essential to bridge the growing gap between the rich and poor in developing India.

Critics counter that it is a mere retread of similar programmes in the past which have been plagued by corruption and lack of direction.

The report card of the first year of the scheme - April 2006 to April 2007- culled from various parts of the country seems to be largely uneven, though there are some bright points.

NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME

The government has pledged $2.2bn for the scheme

Scheme covers 330 poorest districts in the country

Total days of employment generated in 2006-2007: 900 million

Women comprise 40% of the beneficiaries of the scheme

The backward scheduled caste and tribes comprise 62% of the beneficiaries

Employment has to be provided to worker within 15 days of demand

"Judging from available reports, the scheme is not doing particularly well, whether we look at the levels of employment generation, or wage rates, or the extent of corruption, or the quality of assets generated," says leading economist Jean Dreze, who is also a member of the employment guarantee scheme council.

The government spent nearly $2,250m in generating nearly one billion days of work for the people of the poorest 200 districts in India where it has been implemented, according to government data available.

This is substantially lower than a target of generating more than two billion days of work during the same period.

Studies in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, found that the rural people in many areas were ignorant of the scheme because they had not been informed by the officials.

In Chitrakoot, for example, a survey found that most participants were willing to do manual work at 58 rupees ($1.45), the minimum wage payable under the scheme.

But when they were asked who had actually worked, very few people responded.

Top performer

Also, some states have implemented the scheme better than others.

Rajasthan, for example, has been found to be the top performer among all major states - every rural family has got 77 days of work and 67% of the women have got work. Moreover 73% of the funding has gone on wages, rather than other spending, which is much higher than anticipated.

The small north-eastern state of Tripura, run by the Communists, has done even better than Rajasthan generating 87 days of work under the scheme for every rural family in 2006-2007.

Women comprise 40% of beneficiaries of the scheme

There are some surprises too. Kerala, a front ranking state for its human development record and run by Communists, is at the "rock bottom", one study has found.

Analysts say this could be because a lower demand for employment under the scheme in the state rather than a failure to provide.

The scheme seems to have flopped in the western Maharashtra and eastern West Bengal states, the first known for its administrative acumen and the second for its pro-poor Communist government.

The implementation of the scheme by various state government have also dispelled a few traditionally held notions.

One of them is that southern and western Indian states (Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu) routinely perform better than most of the northern and eastern states when it comes to rural development works.

But the employment guarantee scheme shows that only one of the southern and western states - Karnataka- has generated more than 10 days of work for every village family in 2006-2007, while the eastern and northern states have done comparatively well.

Among the positive points, surveys suggest that:

Women's share of employment under the scheme is about 40% nationally, rising to a huge 81% in Tamil Nadu. Among the laggards here are Indian-administered Kashmir (4%), Himachal Pradesh (12%) and Uttar Pradesh(17%).

Twenty districts have spent more than one thousand million rupees ($25m) on the scheme. Studies suggest many of the benefits are showing in these districts - increased economic security, rising farm wages, slower migration, creation of productive infrastructure and independence of women.

Some farmers are still ignorant about the scheme

It is still unclear how much the scheme has been hit by corruption, which, like similar food-for-work scheme in the past could wreck its prospects and become, as an expert, said "a horribly expensive gravy train".

Public funds in Indian rural works projects are routinely embezzled by fudging the work attendance registers, which also serve as a receipt to claim government funds.

The funds are to be paid to workers based on their attendance recorded in these registers.

Unscrupulous contractors and local officials usually connive to open up a separate register where worker attendance is recorded on the site of work.

Workers are paid on the basis of the records of this rigged attendance register, and the funds are claimed using records in the other register. The difference is pocketed.

Transparency safeguards

Jean Dreze says the scheme's transparency safeguards, helped by the landmark right to information law, can go a long way in preventing corruption.

A recent verification of workers rolls in two districts in Chhattisgarh found that 95% of wages paid according to the workers registers had actually been received by concerned workers.

Some say the scheme could be a "horribly expensive gravy train'

"This is a significant achievement, especially in contrast with massive levels of fraud observed in the same area two years ago under the federal food for work programme," says another study.

At the same time, a verification of the attendance registers in a district in eastern Jharkhand state last October found that only 15% of the wages paid had actually reached the workers.

"It is wrong to say the scheme is a failure. It is doing better than earlier employment schemes, though the yearly report card has been uneven," says Jean Dreze.

There is an interesting political sidelight to the scheme - early data is showing that three of the top performing states - Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh - in terms of generating employment are ruled by the opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

With speculation of early elections in India, this may not be good tidings for the governing Congress party, which gave birth to the scheme.

Mystery buyers for barren border land

2007-10-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

By Narayan Bareth

Jaipur, Oct. 9: The land of the Thar desert adjacent to the India-Pakistan border in Rajasthan’s Barmer district grows nothing. But buyers from other states are queuing up to buy plots in this region.

In the last six months, over 85,000 bighas of land has been sold by local farmers in Gadra tehsil of Barmer district. The state government has asked the district administration for a report on the sudden rise in land deals.

According to sources, buyers from states like Punjab and Haryana have purchased over two lakh bighas in the border area. "Even land adjacent to the border fencing is sold out. It is a new phenomenon in this desert. We don’t know these buyers are," said Ganpat Singh, a villager from the border area.

Rajasthan revenue minister R.N. Doodi said he finds nothing wrong in such land deals, saying, "Any Indian citizen can purchase land here. What is wrong in it?" But state home minister Gulabchand Kataria said the issue has been brought to the notice of the government. "I have asked the local administration to send a report on it. It is serious when people from other states purchase land in the Munabao area," he said.

The issue has caused concern among the local people, who submitted memoranda to the government. "The desert people preserved their culture and traditions against all odds for centuries. These aliens may cause a threat to our culture," said Seemant Lok Sangthan [SLS] president Hindu Singh Sodha.

Barmer MP Manvendra Singh also expressed concern over the land deals. "The Centre and state governments should jointly probe such land deals. I sent a letter to the Prime Minister in this regard," he told mediapersons in Barmer.

The border are has a mixed population of Hindus and Muslims who enjoy good relations and maintain communal harmony. Mr Sodha fears outsiders may spoil this.

According to the villagers, the price of land was Rs 1,000 per bigha but has now increased to Rs 8,000 per bigha. "Shiva tehsil of Barmer got 17 land deals registered in a single day on September 16," said Mr Ganpat Singh, a local resident.

District magistrate Subeer Kumar told this correspondent he had sent a report to the government. "It could be possible that real estate companies are purchasing land here to build their land banks because land is so cheap here," he said.

The size of Barmer is 28,234 sq km, but the population density is only 69 persons per km. Agriculture is based on monsoon rains and average rainfall just 277 mm. But the district received 549 mm of rain between August 16 and August 26 in 2006, which resulted in more than 100 deaths and huge losses.

"We have a list of 80 buyers who belong to other states. We are contemplating moving the high court to seek justice against such deals," said Mr Sodha of the SLS. "We cannot understand the reason why outsiders are purchasing land (in Barmer)," said Mr Harish Choudhary, a local Congress leader. "It may be that middlemen and property dealers are projecting Barmer as a new investment destination after the discovery of oil and the reopening of the Munabao-Khokhrapar rail route between India and Pakistan," said D.S. Bhati, a Barmer resident.

http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/news/top-story/mystery-buyers-for-barren-border-land.aspx

Where The Farmers Commit Suicide...

2007-10-07T22:06:00.000-07:00

Where The Farmers Commit Suicide...
And Naxals rule the roost: all the six Maoist-affected districts in Maharashtra fall in the Vidarbha region. And the recent police 'successes' do not mean that the Maoist challenge is over


Bibhu Prasad Routray

Considering the fact that only six of the state’s 35 districts are affected by Left Wing extremism (LWE), Maharashtra has, over the years, registered a significant number of extremist incidents and related fatalities. According to the ministry of home affairs (MHA), incidents of Maoist violence in Maharashtra rose from 75 in 2003 to 84 in 2004, to a further 94 in 2005 and 98 in 2006. Related fatalities were 40, 17, 56 and 61 in the corresponding years. 16 fatalities were reported in 58 incidents in the first six months of 2007.

Whereas the MHA designates Maharashtra as one of the states where LWE has been kept under control, these figures, at least for 2007, are certainly comparable with the states like Orissa where the problem is present in 22 districts out of a total 30. Between January and June 2007, Orissa registered 17 fatalities in 45 incidents. Similarly, Andhra Pradesh, where all 23 districts of the state are affected, though strong police action has brought the problem down to a low scale, registered 61 incidents and 40 deaths in the first six months of 2007.

All the six LWE affected districts in Maharashtra (Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, Bhandara, Gondia, Yavatmal and Nanded) are located in the eastern part of the state, in the economically backward Vidarbha region, sharing borders with Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. Geographical contiguity with, and the ‘spill over’ from, the Maoist affected districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar and Nizamabad in Andhra Pradesh, as well as Rajnandgaon, Bastar, Kanker and Dantewada in Chhattisgarh, have been described as the principal reason for the extremism in Maharashtra.

The Maoists have also exploited the geographical conditions and terrain of these districts for their activities. According to the Maharashtra state Forest Department, 47.08 per cent of the total area in Gondia district is designated as 'forest'; in Gadchiroli the forest area is 90.96 per cent; in Bhandara, 45.58 per cent; in Chandrapur, 46.69 per cent; in Yavatmal, 27.35 per cent; and in Nanded, 11.35 per cent. The scheduled tribe population – populations that have been highly vulnerable to Maoist mobilization – in these districts is also comparatively higher. With the state tribal percentage at 8.8 per cent, Gadchiroli's tribal population is 38.3 per cent; Yavatmal, 19.2 per cent; Chandrapur, 18.11 per cent; Gondia, 18 per cent; Nanded, 8.8 per cent; and Bhandara, 8.6 per cent.

Given the existing challenge, the Maharashtra police, especially its Anti-Naxal Cell overseeing counter-Maoist operations, has claimed to have secured several successes in the recent past. Arrests and surrenders of the CPI-Maoist cadres are said to have been a major accomplishment of the Anti-Naxal Cell. Some of the incidents in which Maoist cadres were neutralised in just 2007 include:

January 15: Seven Maoists were arrested following a joint operation by the Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh police in a border village in the Gadchiroli district.

April 8: Four senior CPI-Maoist cadres surrendered at an unspecified location.

April 14: CPI-Maoist cadre, Kata Mainu Zuru, involved in several cases, was arrested near Fulbodi in the Pendhari area of Gadchiroli district.

April 14: Three Maoists, identified as Chhaya, Dilip and Shiva, surrendered before the Superintendent of police of Gadchiroli district.

September 13: Police neutralised a base training camp of the CPI-Maoist in Etapalli Tehsil (revenue division) in Jambiagatta range in the Gadchiroli district and arrested four unidentified teenage boys and three girls.

The Maharashtra police have also claimed to have curtailed the flow of cadres to Maoist ranks.

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20071004&fname=maharashtra&sid=1

Azadi: Theirs And Ours

2007-10-07T22:05:00.000-07:00

COUNTERPOINT
Azadi: Theirs And Ours
By the logic of the Indian state, India is free and Kashmir is a part of India, ergo, Kashmir too, must be free. But Sanjay Kak’s documentary provides visual attestation for something diametrically opposed to this logic: the reality of occupation.


Ananya Vajpeyi

Sanjay Kak’s new documentary Jashn-e-Azadi ("How we celebrate freedom") is aimed primarily at an Indian audience. This two-part film, 138 min long, explores what Kak calls the "sentiment", namely "azadi" (literally "freedom") driving the conflict in the India controlled part of Kashmir for the past 18 years. This sentiment is inchoate: it does not have a unified movement, a symbol, a flag, a map, a slogan, a leader or any one party associated with it. Sometimes it means full territorial independence, and sometimes it means other things. Yet it is real, with a reality that neither outright repression nor fitful persuasion from India has managed to dissipate for almost two decades. Howsoever unclear its political shape, Kashmiris know the emotional charge of azadi, its ability to keep alive in every Kashmiri heart a sense of struggle, of dissent, of hope. It is for Indians who do not know about this sentiment, or do not know how to react to it, that Kak has made his difficult, powerful film. And it is with Indian audiences that Kak has already had, and is likely to continue having, the most heated debate.

Between 1989 and 2007, nearly 100,000 people--soldiers and civilians, armed militants and unarmed citizens, Kashmiris and non-Kashmiris--lost their lives to the violence in Kashmir. 700,000 Indian military and paramilitary troops are stationed there, the largest such armed presence in what is supposedly peace time, anywhere in the world. Both residents of and visitors to Kashmir in recent years already know what Kak’s film brings home to the viewer: how thoroughly militarized the Valley is, criss-crossed by barbed wire, littered with bunkers and sand-bags, dotted with men in uniform carrying guns, its roads bearing an unending stream of armoured vehicles up and down a landscape that used to be called, echoing the words of the Mughal Emperor Jehangir, Paradise on earth. Other places so mangled by a security apparatus as to make it impossible for life to proceed normally immediately come to mind: occupied Palestine, occupied Iraq.

Locals, especially young men, must produce identification at all the check-posts that punctuate the land, or during sudden and frequent operations described by the dreaded words "crackdown" and "cordon and search". Kak’s camera shows us that even the most ordinary attempt to cross the city of Srinagar, or travel from one village to another is fraught with these security checks, as though the entire Valley were a gigantic airport terminal and every man were a threat to every other. As soldiers insultingly frisk folks for walking about in their own places, the expressions in their eyes--anger, fear, resignation, frustration, irritation, or just plain embarrassment--say it all. In one scene men are lined up, and some of them get their clothes pulled and their faces slapped while they are being searched. Somewhere beneath all these daily humiliations burns the unnamed sentiment: azadi.

One reason that there is no Indian tolerance for this word in the context of Kashmir is that the desire for "freedom" immediately implies that its opposite is the case: Kashmir is not free. By the logic of the Indian state, India is free and Kashmir is a part of India, ergo, Kashmir too, must be free. But Kak’s images provide visual attestation for something diametrically opposed to this logic: the reality of occupation. Kashmir is occupied by Indian troops, somewhat like Palestine is by Israeli troops, and Iraq is by American and coalition troops. But wait, objects the Indian viewer.

more: http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20071004&fname=ananya&sid=1

No trace of tonnes of stolen explosives

2007-10-07T21:54:00.000-07:00

Monday October 8 2007 02:01 IST

EXPRESS INVESTIGATION

NAGPUR/NEW DELHI: Every time there is a terrorist or a Naxalite attack anywhere in the country, alarm bells ring in the fifth floor office of the Chief Controller of Explosives in Nagpur’s lush Seminary Hill neighbourhood.

For long, these bells have gone largely unheard but so loud is their ringing now that the entire security establishment is beginning to wake up: the colossal theft and diversion of explosives from the over 21000 licensed explosive manufacturers across the country.

Official records accessed by this website's newspaper show that in just two years, 2004-2006, for which data collection is complete, the scale of theft is staggering: 86,899 detonators, 20,150 kg of slurry explosives, 52,740 metres of detonating fuse and 419 kg of gelatin sticks. Not just this, huge quantities of explosive cartridges and boosters have been stolen from magazines (stores for explosives) and explosive vans.

Theft on such a scale, officials say, is an ominous foreshadow of what could lie ahead: for, not only is there no record of what has landed in whose hands, once a terror attack or a Naxalite strike takes place, even the trail of such material is virtually impossible to track. Add to this the rising concern over ammonium nitrate, a chemical freely sold in the country but mixed with fuel oil and sulphur used for lethal strikes with devastating effect.

Ammonium nitrate was mixed with RDX and used in the Varanasi blasts in March 2006 that killed over 20 people; it was also used in the Mumbai rush-hour train blasts last year; in Malegaon, too, ammonium nitrate was used in a cocktail of RDX and fuel oil. In the twin blasts in Hyderabad on August 25 this year, Neogel 90, an ammonium nitrate-based explosive, was mixed with steel pellets.

It was as early as April 13 that an alert sent by Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta had, in fact, acknowledged the problem. “Some of the issues that concern us fall in the areas of manufacture, supply, transport and storage of explosives in the Naxalite-affected areas,” the order said. “Serious concern has also been voiced about the free diversion of substances like potassium chlorate and ammonium nitrate, which used in conjunction with sulphur and fuel oil acquire explosive proportions.”

“When RDX was used, it was easier to decode the fingerprints on the attack,” says a senior intelligence official who is investigating the Hyderabad attack, “but when explosives like these, the ones commonly available and stolen, are used, our job gets incredibly difficult.”

These explosive heists have been reported by Deputy Chief Controllers located in Kolkata, Rourkela, Vadodara, Bhopal and Vellore. What is more shocking is the fact that all these offices have sent in identical comments that add up to nothing: “No reply received from police authorities regarding retrieval."

Only in one case in the last two years, after 51,000 m of detonating fuse were stolen from an explosive manufacturer in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu, were the police able to recover 14,250 m, barely a third of the loot.

“This is the major impediment we face,” Chief Controller of Explosives M Anbuthan told Express. “Even after major thefts from licensed magazines, some located in terrorist and Naxalite-affected belts, we never hear from the state police. The result of the investigation must be shared with the licensing authority but we have been left completely in the dark.”

Anbuthan, who heads the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation, says the other problem is shortage of staff, the reason why just about a fourth of the manufacturing units could be inspected last year.

So serious is the issue now that a series of high-level meetings have been held in New Delhi attended by the top brass of the internal security and intelligence establishment. First on the agenda: control and regulation of ammonium nitrate.

Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta confirmed to Express that a committee headed by Intelligence Bureau official D.P. Sinha is looking into setting up of a mechanism to regulate the sale and storage of explosives, especially ammonium nitrate. Even amendments in the 1983 Explosives Act are on the anvil related to keeping digital records and mandating inspections. It’s not going to be easy.

“Given the diversity of usage of ammonium nitrate from the fertilizer, quarrying and coal sector, it is impossible to ban its sale. The challenge is to stop leakage and step up enforcement keeping in mind the limitation to the extent of regulation and monitoring you can have. As far as pilferage and theft is concerned, state police agencies have to be sensitised on the issue and the Chief Controller’s office given better manpower and infrastructure.”

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20071007154000&Headline=No+trace+of+tonnes+of+stolen+explosives&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=-399&

Explaining India's silence over Burma

2007-10-04T22:06:00.000-07:00

By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Calcutta

India has kept a diplomatic silence over recent Burmese protests

India has been slow to break its silence over street protests across Burma this month even though it has strong geographical, political and strategic links with its eastern neighbour.

On Wednesday, the foreign ministry spokesman expressed concern at developments over the border, calling for peaceful and "broad-based" political reforms.

But Delhi's unease over the protests was clearly illustrated when Petroleum Minister Murli Deora left for the troubled south-east Asian country at the weekend.

Before leaving, he ran into a protest by Burmese pro-democracy activists in Delhi.

The protesters carried placards reading "Deora, don't go for gas, go for democracy" and "India stop supporting Burmese military rule".

As Mr Deora reached Burma, the huge street protests against Burma's military rulers were beginning to peak.

'Watching developments'

India's reticence over developments in Burma dates back as least as far as 1988, when the military brutally crushed student protests.

We cannot have democracy at home and support military tyrants in the neighbourhood. India must do all it can for the restoration of democracy in Burma

Nandita Haksar,
Human rights lawyer

A senior Indian external ministry official said on Wednesday that India was "closely watching the developments in Burma".

But he was quick to add: "We have no desire to interfere in the internal affairs of Burma."

An official statement on Mr Deora's visit said: "He had wide-ranging discussions to explore the possibilities of enhancing bilateral co-operation in the hydrocarbon sector with Burma's Energy Minister, Brig Gen Lun Thi."

Mr Deora was also present on Monday at the signing of Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) for three deep-water exploration blocks between India's ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) and Burma's Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) .

"These contracts are a happy development and augur well for expanding the co-operation between the two neighbours," Mr Deora said on his return to India.

When it comes to Burma, the priority for the world's largest democracy under economist Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is now quite clear.

With a fast-growing economy, India is desperate to access any major source of energy in the neighbourhood from Iran to Burma and beyond.

'Vital for the economy'

Burma's huge natural gas reserves in the country's western province of Arakan and the adjoining seaboard, estimated at more than 30 trillion cubic feet or even more, is a great attraction for energy-starved India.

"India and not China should be getting this gas. It is vital for the economy of eastern India," said Nazib Arif, former secretary general of the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

India says it is getting help from the Burmese army to fight insurgents in its troubled north-east, many of whom have bases in Burma's Sagaing Division.

We have strategic and economic interests to protect in Burma. It is up to the Burmese people to struggle for democracy

Pranab Mukherjee,
Indian foreign minister

"We value our growing military relations with Burma," said India's outgoing army chief, Gen JJ Singh last week. India has given Burma some military hardware and may give more.

But in the 1980s, India wholeheartedly supported the Burmese pro-democracy movement - both in the region and in the UN.

It opened its doors to the refugees who fled the brutal military crackdown in 1988.

And Burma's military rulers even accused India of funding dissident groups including the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) and the Democratic Alliance of Burma (DAB) .

But while the West imposed sanctions and stepped up pressure, India has been boosting its relations with the Burmese military junta since the mid-1990s.

'Double standards'

"India is desperate to counter Chinese influence in Burma. This, more than anything else, explains India's complete reversal of its Burma policy in the 1990s," says Rene Egreteau, author of an acclaimed book on India's Burma policy, Wooing the Generals.

India is now developing ports, building roads and railways and is competing with China for Burma's oil and gas reserves as part of its "Look East Policy".

Civil society activists and human rights campaigners in India are very critical of Delhi's silence on the mounting pro-democracy protests in Burma.

"We cannot have democracy at home and support military tyrants in the neighbourhood. India must do all it can for the restoration of democracy in Burma," said the country's top human rights lawyer, Nandita Haksar.

"India's Burma policy is full of double standards and it must change now," agreed leading editor Sumit Chakrabarty.

Former spymaster and Burma specialist BB Nandy says the Burmese military junta has done nothing to make India beholden to it.

"The gas from the explored blocs in Arakan have been given over to the Chinese. The Burmese army has not undertaken a big operation against our north-eastern rebel groups like Bhutan did in 2003. The junta has taken us for a ride, so we have no reason to support their survival," he said.

But two months ago, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee defended the country's Burma policy at a meeting in the north-eastern town of Shillong.

"We have strategic and economic interests to protect in Burma. It is up to the Burmese people to struggle for democracy, it is their issue," he said.

But with the situation fast changing in Burma, pressure may mount on India to act.

"We have to take a stand, we cannot merely wait and watch," said Mr Nandy.

"India has to use all its influence to get the Burmese generals in a dialogue with the leaders of the pro-democracy movement. If we don't do it, that's the end of all our pretension as a regional power," said Anasua Basu Roychoudhury of Calcutta University's Southeast Asian Studies department.

Taking computers to rural India

2007-10-04T22:05:00.000-07:00

By Harsh Kabra
Pune

Getting technology to India's 650,000 villages is a challenge

Kalyan, a thickly-forested village located in western Indian state of Maharashtra, did not have a telephone connection until about six years ago.

Then one day in 2001, the village's only secondary school received a computer as a gift.

The students, who had never even heard of a computer, were visibly excited.

When a girl student, Shraddha Dimble, was asked to key in her name, she sweated and fumbled nervously and took a good five minutes to do so.

But a few months later, when the crew of an American news channel visited the village, they were impressed by the ease with which Shraddha was using the computer.

They were specially surprised when they learnt that she had first seen a computer only a few months ago.

'Useful tool'

Shraddha went on to become a computer teacher. "I wanted others to understand that the computer is a useful tool, not something to be afraid of," she says. Her school has received two more computers since.

Taking computers to a remote village like Kalyan is a Pune-based entrepreneur Pradeep Lokhande.

Mr Lokhande has gifted more than 450 used computers, obtained from organisations and individual donors, to secondary schools in rural Maharashtra.

Mr Lokhande says every Indian has his roots in some village

"Issues like English language keyboards or frequent power outages do not deter these rural computer enthusiasts," says Mr Lokhande.

"For most students who often have to walk several kilometres to reach the school, the computer has come as an incentive to go to the school."

Mr Lokhande is the founder of Rural Relations, a 14-year-old Pune-based rural consumer relations organisation. He supports his work through his own earnings.

Hailing from a poor village family, Mr Lokhande braved numerous hardships to complete his graduation.

In 1984, he joined the marketing division of a multinational company. His 18 months of work there involved frequent travel.

He realised that although villages constituted more than 50% of the market for consumer goods, not enough marketing data was available for companies to reach out to rural consumers.

'Non-resident villagers'

In 1993, he gave up his job. Over the next three years, he travelled across more than 4,000 villages in five states, looking at village life and collecting data.

He built rapport with the villagers and regularly kept in touch with them through handwritten postcards, something he continues to do even today.

The letters he gets in response - an average of 100 per day - inform him about the developments in these villages.

These responses provide an insight into rural consumer trends. For over 14 years, Mr Lokhande has made a living by providing this information to private companies, which use it to analyse rural markets and consumer behaviour.

Villagers have been recruited to work as "village developers"

"I only interface between the villagers and the corporates," he says. "I've never sold their products."

Mr Lokhande has also been using a part of his fee to help village schools.

In 2001, he launched the Non-resident Villager (NRV) movement to enable Indians to do their bit for the development of their native villages.

"Every Indian, irrespective of where he is based, has his roots in some village. This makes every Indian an NRV," he says.

The movement has generated encouraging response from people like Sanjay Jagtap, a US-based computer engineer.

Mr Jagtap has donated a computer with a printer and an internet connection to a school in the Jaitapur village of Satara district where his father studied.

"It is an extremely fulfilling experience. I couldn't have done this otherwise for want of time and opportunity to visit Jaitapur," says Mr Jagtap.

Mapping villages

Mr Lokhande has now embarked upon a programme to compile audio-visual data on Indian villages.

These videos are aimed at drawing attention to the condition of these villages, inviting contributions by way of ideas or money for their improvement, and keeping the contributors informed on the action taken.

Mr Lokhande has already organised videos on 2,000 villages across nine states, and eventually wants to create videos on 75,000 of India's 650,000 villages.

The computer room is buzzing in the village schools

These videos are shot by local village youth, who were helped by Mr Lokhande to buy camcorders and trained as "village developers" to spread the message of development across the villages in their region.

Ganesh Yeole, 23, from Wahegaon village in Aurangabad district is one of the 240 "village developers".

Mr Yeole used to work at a roadside tea stall in his village until he met Mr Lokhande four years ago.

Today, equipped with a camcorder and a laptop, he travels across villages in his region to film the conditions there. "I had never imagined I could lead such a respectable life," he says.

In these videos, the villagers talk about their villages and the efforts undertaken by them to improve their condition.

"This can be a strong motivator for others to act," says Mr Lokhande.

"I look at my work as an investment that has both monetary as well as social rewards," he says. "If I can achieve all this, even a few thousand more entrepreneurs like me can make a huge difference."

India tribals begin massive march

2007-10-04T22:04:00.000-07:00

By Chris Morris
BBC News, Delhi

Tribal people say they are being robbed of their rights Pic: Simon Williams

Thousands of landless farmers and tribal people in India are setting out on a massive protest march to the capital, Delhi.

The march begins on a national holiday marking the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, the man who introduced the idea of non-violent protest to the nation.

It is intended to raise awareness about land rights and due to last for nearly four weeks.

The organisers hope 25,000 people will take part in the march.

Thousands of people began gathering in the city of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, chanting and singing. Most of them are low caste and landless labourers or tribal people demanding legal rights over their land.

They are calling for a national authority to oversee land reform and a system of fast track courts to deal with the long delays in resolving land disputes.

Land reform is a huge issue in rural India. The system is often corrupt and unjust.

So over the next few weeks these protestors will walk more than 300km (180 miles) to Delhi, where their leaders hope to meet, among others, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

It is a huge logistical exercise.

Those taking part are being broken down into groups of one thousand, to make sure everyone gets fed.

The march has been dubbed Janadesh - People's Verdict - and it is described as non-violent civil disobedience.

India 'fair price' shops attacked

2007-10-04T22:03:00.000-07:00

By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Calcutta

The government subsidises the cost of rice and wheat for the poor

Mob violence against dealers of government-licensed "fair-price shops" has spread to at least three districts in the Indian state of West Bengal.

Thousands of dealers have surrendered their licences after the protests.

Angry crowds set on fire six shops on Wednesday in protest at corruption in the public food distribution system.

So-called fair-price shops, commonly known as ration shops, operate under licence from the state government to sell subsidised grain to India's poor.

Tear gas

Police fired on a mob at Ketugram in Burdwan district on Wednesday. Locals say one villager was killed and at least three others were injured in the firing, but police have not confirmed the deaths.

All this is going to affect the political support base of the left in rural West Bengal

Political analyst Sabyasachi Basu Ray Choudhuri

A district official said at least 10 rounds were fired by police as they baton-charged the protesters and discharged tear gas shells to stop them from attacking dealers of two fair-price shops.

Locals in Ketugram allege that the local "fair-price" dealer has not been providing them with cheap grain for 17 months.

On Wednesday, six "fair-price shops" - two each in Bankura, Birbhum and Burdwan districts - were set on fire by angry mobs.

This follows similar attacks against at least 17 dealers over the last two days in these three districts.

The "fair-price shops" are the backbone of India's public distribution system.

The government provides them with licences to procure grain and other essentials such as kerosene, in order to sell it to the rural and urban poor at rates which are supposed to be much cheaper than the open market.

'Insecure'

West Bengal's poor track record on the theft of public grain is second only to that of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, the authorities say.

Protests against "fair price shops" erupted in Bankura on 15 September, when thousands of angry villagers attacked dealers in the villages of Sonamukhi and Kotalpukur.

Since then, the violence has spread.

The West Bengal government has now cancelled the licences of 40 dealers and sued many of them for embezzlement.

About 1,300 dealers of "fair price shops " in Bankura district have closed down their shops, saying they had no intention to continue in business as they felt "insecure".

That may seriously affect the availability of food grain in the district in the same month as the big Hindu Durga Puja festival and the Muslim Eid festival.

Analysts say the incidents are a source of major embarrassment for West Bengal's left-wing coalition government - in power since 1978 - which usually prides itself on the issue of food security in rural areas.

Ulfa trains new cadres in Bhutan border area

2007-10-04T21:59:00.001-07:00

By Manoj Anand

Guwahati, Oct. 4: The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom is using the border areas of Bhutan to train its new recruits in Western Assam’s Nalbari and Baska districts.

Disclosing this here on Thursday to this newspaper, highly-placed security sources said they had come across instances of Ulfa training its cadres in makeshift camps located the hills on the Bhutan border.

In batches of about 15-20 cadres, the new recruits are given training in small arms and handling of explosives, the security sources said, adding that the self-styled "commander" of Ulfa’s "709 Battalion", Hira Sarania, was instrumental in organising these camps. Admitting that the success of security forces in counter-insurgency operations had pushed Ulfa to the wall, the sources, however, said that the outfit was also getting a fresh lease of life through its incursions across the Burmese border. This year alone at least 60 hardcore Ulfa militants had been killed and 170 arrested.

The sources said that more than 250 Ulfa cadres were now holed up in camps across the border in Burma, and that the headquarters of the dreaded "28th Battalion" of Ulfa was also operating from Burma. These camps were operating with the active support of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang faction), the security sources said, adding that Ulfa had a separate "Council Camp" in Burma headed by Ulfa rebel Jeevan Moran, who is responsible for liaison with the Naga insurgents.

The security sources, quoting intelligence reports, claimed that the Ulfa cadres did not have too many modern weapons, and trained their cadres more in setting off bomb blasts and the use of timer devices.

Stressing the need to maintain constant pressure on the outfit, the security sources said that arrested Ulfa leader Prabal Neog had been using helicopter services frequently to travel between Guwahati and Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh.

The sources said lack of coordination among the security agencies, and particularly with district police units, was hindering the campaign against Ulfa. Several district police forces were disinclined to acknowledge Ulfa’s presence in their areas, so that they would not have to get into a confrontation with the terrorist outfit, the sources added. The matter, they said, had been reported to the Union home ministry.

***

Lalu tells his party: Get ready for poll

Purnia, Oct. 4: Hinting at mid-term Lok Sabha polls, railway minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Thursday urged his partymen to prepare for the next elections.

"I appeal to all my party workers to prepare for the next elections," he said near Purnia railway junction. (PTI)

Gujarat transfers come under EC scanner

2007-10-04T21:56:00.000-07:00

Special Correspondent

Keep State police off poll duty: parties

Gopalaswami calls for list of ‘tainted’ officers

Not many complaints of “ghost” voters

AHMEDABAD: The Election Commission has taken a serious note of complaints that the Narendra Modi government effected large-scale transfers of police officers, and agreed to consider the possibility of holding the Gujarat Assembly elections with outside security cover. Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami said several political parties expressed an apprehension about the role of the Gujarat police, particularly in view of the transfers of senior officers made recently, and wanted the State police kept away from poll duty.

“We are looking into the matter seriously,” Mr. Gopalaswami said. He had asked the State Election Commission to send a list of the “tainted” police and administrative officers transferred back to the places where they had been posted before the 2002 Assembly polls.

The full Election Commission, including Commissioners Navin Chawla and S.Y. Qureshi, arrived here on Wednesday night for the last round of discussions with the parties, government officials and State Commission officials on poll preparedness. Delegations of several parties, including the Congress and the BJP, submitted memoranda. Later Mr Gopalaswami, flanked by Mr. Chawla and Mr. Qureshi, had a brief chat with mediapersons but declined to give any indication of when the election dates would be announced. “I am as ignorant about it as you are,” he said with a smile. The term of the present Assembly would expire on December 25 and “we are duty bound to complete the election process before that date.” Mr Gopalaswami also refused to indicate whether the elections would be held in one or more phases in all 182 constituencies. Asked whether it would be possible to hold the entire elections with police posted from outside the State, he said, “It is not difficult.”He said there were not many complaints of “ghost” voters. But EC officials found that about 51,000 names were “duplicated” in the voter list. The EC was verifying whether they were all bogus voters or the names were inadvertently duplicated.
Congress complaint

The Congress, in its memorandum, complained of large-scale displacement of genuine voters in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and other urban centres under the garb of widening of roads. It was not possible to issue voter identity cards in their new places of residence, it said.

J&K govt invokes Article 370 to deny help to ailing boy

2007-10-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

JAMMU: Vipul Kaul is too ill to hold the Constitution responsible for his plight but the fact is - if the Jammu & Kashmir government officials are to be believed - the statutory provision of Article 370 is coming in the way of his treatment.

Life has turned for the worse for Vipul and his family after the state government cited Article 370 - that gives the state a special status in the Indian Union - as the reason why it won't pay for the teenager's treatment as directed by the Centre.

Afflicted with a rare disorder called crytorchism - a condition in which a male child's testicles remain undescended - Vipul has been undergoing treatment for this and other complications at AIIMS for the past six years. Then CM Farooq Abdullah had promised to bear the entire expenditure.

While the Abdullah government did pay Rs 14 lakh for the boy's treatment, after the National Conference was ousted in 2002, the Kaul family has been running from pillar to post for compensation.

"I wrote to the subsequent chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, saying we needed Rs 26 lakh more to settle all the bills," says Vipul's father Ashok Kaul.

Kaul then wrote to then President Kalam, who asked the Union Home Ministry to direct the state to help the family. A letter from the Home Ministry advising action in the matter arrived at Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad's secretariat in July this year.

"We were shocked to receive a letter from the secretary to CM Azad informing us that under Article 370, the government isn't bound to obey orders of the Union Home Ministry," says Kaul.

Former Deputy CM and now J&K Health Minister Mangat Ram Sharma said he wasn't aware of the letter. On Thursday, the state government ordered a probe into the origins of the letter.

World observes October 2 as Non-Violence day

2007-10-02T22:08:00.001-07:00

New Delhi, October 2: On the 15th June of the current year United Nations decided to observe the International Day of Non-Violence on 2nd October, the birth anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi.

It was in a way the official ratification by the world body, of the relevance of the Gandhian ways in the modern society, which is still grappling with violence and economic disparities all over the globe.

The resolution stresses the need for non-violence, tolerance, full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, democracy, development, mutual understanding and respect for diversity as reinforcements for peace and growth of mankind.

This move to get the world community together in paying tribute to the unflinching faith in non-violence of Mahatma Gandhi came after the developments which happened after the Satyagraha conference held by Congress this year and the campaign followed by the Government in this regard.

The idea, originally gained ground when Sonia Gandhi in the month of January this year, speaking at a conference titled ‘Peace, Non-Violence and Empowerment - Gandhian Philosophy in the 21st Century’ in New Delhi called for steps to get Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday marked as the international day of Non-Violence.

Gandhi who is better known throughout the world as a freedom fighter of the sub-continent who led the unarmed masses to raise their voice for freedom against the powerful and armed establishment in whose empire it was said the Sun never set. The adoption of his birthday as an International Day for Non-Violence is yet another stamp on his ideas which endeavoured to fight for the poorest of the poor in the most democratic ways.

Today when the world is armed with the most destructible weapons which can wipe out human civilization in a matter of hours and the world progress is challenged by the ever increasing gaps between the rich and poor where equitable distribution of wealth still remains an unfulfilled dream, this declaration can be said to have come at the most appropriate time.

As Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, Shri Md. Ali Ashraf Fatmi says, that the country is still being guided by the ways of the Mahatma Gandhi when it comes to the development of human resources.

Mr Fatmi says like yesterday Gandhi is relevant even today and will remain so in the times to come. “His ideas of education kept all the oppressed and disadvantaged sections of the society in mind. We are following in his footsteps by making provisions of higher education to the greater number of people with each passing year,” the minister elaborated.

He also added that the country’s Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (India's flagship programme for achievement of Universalization of Elementary Education) is also guided by the Gandhian values wherein the programme strives to provide the basic education to all including the downtrodden sections of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled tribes and the minorities.

“We are trying to increase the infrastructure in all aspects to make the dreams of Gandhi come true, who, earnestly desired all his countrymen to be educated and hence empowered ” Fatmi said.

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/World-observes-October-2-as-NonViolence-day/223623/

A Scream In The Silence

2007-09-30T22:11:00.001-07:00

A horrific gangrape in Rajasthan raised a rare tide of support for the victim, says MITA KAPUR

THERE WERE about a hundred and fifty of them. Heads covered in flaming reds, burnt oranges, shocking pinks to hide their faces. Arms raised and fists curled tight. One breast-fed her child as she joined the chorus, “Para Devi ko nyay do, nyay do. Hosh mein aao, hosh mein aao.” The woman next to me murmured quietly, “There was no such demonstration when I was raped. I walked 11km all alone that night.”

Reality is known to be stark but this was in the face. But which was more in the face — those 150-odd women from Chandlai, Bir Santoshpura, Rampura, Sikar in their ghunghats, shouting for Para’s rights at Chaksu thana, or the woman who lived with the silence that raped her further?

Those gathered that day gave voice to a sense of group and selfidentity, an awareness that justice was being denied and that they weren’t minions to the limbo of denial that most surrender themselves to. Indenting the two realities was a group of men who had gathered around to ‘look’ and to snigger: “What are you going to get out of all this naarebaazi?”

On June 23, Para, a Dalit daily wage labourer from Santoshpura, left home for work at 8am with her husband, Ranglal. Feeling unwell during the day, she set out for the hospital; on the way, her neighbour Kalu Ram offered her a ride in his car. Two other men, Harsahai and Kajod, were in the same car and three others, Sohan Lal, Indraraj and Jagdish, were later picked up. For the next three days, the six men drove Para from village to village, raping her in turn. When she protested, they beat her; when she asked for water, they gave her country liquor mixed with Limca. She was made to urinate in the car and given no food.

On June 26, Para was dropped, wounded, torn, only half-conscious, at the Phagi bus stand with Rs 20 and a threat not to open her mouth or her family would be killed. When her husband tried to lodge an FIR, he was turned away; the complaint was registered only after the intervention of the state Women’s Commission. Even then, Para, her husband and uncles had to sit outside the thana for six hours; the police also tried to get them to water down their statement with comments like: “There is no need to say everything,” and “Para, you ran away with them, they didn’t abduct you.”

Dalit women are 16.3 percent of the Indian female population, i.e. one in every 12 Indians. The moment they demand a recognition of their rights, they face a fresh spate of degradation and cruelty for raising their voices. Certain kinds of violence are exclusively reserved for Dalit women — extreme verbal abuse, naked parading, dismemberment, being forced to drink urine and eat faeces. Police statistics averaged over the last five years show that 13 Dalits are murdered, six are kidnapped, five Dalit homes burnt and 13 Dalit women are raped everyday. And these figures take no account of the fact that most anti-Dalit crimes aren’t even reported.

Of Para’s six rapists, only two were arrested at first. After the dharna outside the Chaksu thana, the police was forced to take action to arrest the others, but all of them are out now on bail. Para and her family live in fear of social boycott and have no work—their village has 20 families from the Bairwa scheduled caste, all of them under the poverty line. Economically, socially and politically challenged, they don’t have ration cards and don’t know what a voters’ list is.The village response to Para’s gangrape has been a systematic crushing of the spirit, a continuance of the culture of silence. Within her family, however, she has received the support that normally is hard to come by for a woman in our society. Says her husband, “We will fight and face all pressures.”

If that kind of positive change is taking place in the mindset of those who are the targets of inhumanity, why is it not possible to make the police and the courts more humane and faster at their work?

TRACING the writing of the Constitution, Ramchandra Guha’s book, India After Gandhi, describes it as a liberal, humanist credo which protects numerous basic rights, but has also provided reservation for “untouchables”. Scholars like Sunil Khilnani argue that by identifying caste as an organising principle in India, Nehru and his allies inadvertently laid the ground for a more schismatic political culture and a greater discrimination towards the ‘lower castes’. To take it for granted that India’s social psychology did not need to and would not ever evolve out of its caste prejudices was a trifle short-sighted. If, after 60 years, we have reached a saturation point where crimes against the underprivileged are on an ugly incline, wasn’t a more futuristic stand required? Now that the Constitutional deed is done, what is being done to bring about humanistic amendments and a more user-friendly implementation of the law?

WRITER’S EMAIL:
mita.kapur@gmail.com

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main34.asp?filename=cr061007ASCREAM.asp

Caste Colour to Varsity Blues

2007-09-30T22:10:00.001-07:00

Varanasi’s academics are miffed at an alleged Thakur take-over at Banaras Hindu University. The controversy is doing the institution little good

SHIVAM VIJ
New Delhi

RAJESH KUMAR Mishra, Congress MP from Varanasi, is leading a campaign against casteism at his alma mater Banaras Hindu University (BHU), alleging that its Vice-Chancellor Dr Panjab Singh has appointed Rajputs to all important posts and new recruitments. The “Thakurvaad” in BHU has Varanasi’s Brahmin academics up in arms, the Prime Minister’s Office has been requested to order an inquiry and fingers have been pointed at Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh, himself a Thakur from Madhya Pradesh.

In a letter to the press, Mishra has accused Panjab Singh not only of caste bias in appointments but also of nepotism, financial irregularities and saffronisation and of violating the Banaras Hindu University Act, 1915, in the process. The letter includes a list of appointments of 105 teachers made since May 2005, all of whom are Thakurs. This is alleged to be about 30 percent of the total teaching appointments in the same period. However, these are allegedly concentrated in a few departments. Says a dissenting academic in Varanasi, “Of the available seats, 22.5 percent are reserved, so the percentage of Thakurs among the general category who have been appointed is inordinately high.”

RIGHT-HAND MAN
DELHI-BASED HUMAN rights activist Ashok Dubey has alleged in an open letter that Panjab Singh has been saffronising BHU, despite having been appointed by a Congress government. Describing Singh as a ‘local Thakur of Banaras’, the letter accuses him of being an old RSS man. “Though HRD Minister Arjun Singh projects himself as a champion of progressive politics, he has appointed such RSS people as Panjab Singh and Surg Singh Chauhan,” it reads. While BHU issued show-cause notices to two of its teachers asking why action should not be taken against them for attending RSS meetings, they were not followed up on. Dubey’s letter also claims that RSS literature is distributed on campus and slams DP Singh, head of the BHU alumi cell, for publicly calling the RSS a cultural organisation and saying that participating in it is an individual’s right.

The letter includes a number of allegations indicating that many of these appo - intments have been made illegally. For instance, the letter includes documents that say that the Rajesh Singh and Shravan Kumar Singh were appointed professors in the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding on the basis of forged documents. In the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, the appointments of DP Singh and Jai Singh were challenged on similar grounds by RK Pandey of the same department. Although the Vice-Chancellor constituted an inquiry, the letter expresses dismay that the inquiry is headed by BD Singh, also a Thakur like the two under scrutiny.

Another controversy is over the Assistant Public Relations Officer Rajesh Singh, also a Thakur. While he has a journalism degree from an open university, his background is in agricultural sciences. The short-listing committee that chose him allegedly had no person with a media background and was dominated by Thakurs and those teaching agricultural sciences. Incidentally, Panjab Singh also has a similar academic background — his previous assignment was as Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research — and it is thus alleged that he is favouring his former associates, mostly Thakurs.

Thakurs have been preferred over others in administrative posts too. They are the heads of as many as 19 committees — from Raj Kumar Singh of the VC’s technical cell to DP Singh of the alumni cell, RG Singh of the sports board and Anil Singh of the beautification committee. It is not surprising that Brahmins, used to dominating academia, are feeling marginalised. On the occasion of the Third BHU International Alumni Meet, most of those the VC felicitated, it is claimed, were Thakurs.

IT IS even alleged that the VC’s relatives have been favoured, including his nephew, Anil Kumar Singh in the Ayurveda Faculty, and another relative by marriage, PS Singh of the Institute of Agricultural Sciences. Though the VC abstained from presiding over their interviews as there was a conflict of interest, the Office of the Selection Committee has said in a reply to an RTI application that “no record was available to show that they were relatives of the Vice-Chancellor”. Rajesh Mishra’s letter states, “This confirms manipulation at various stages of the selection process.” The letter goes on to name the VC’s “close cohort” in these matters, Sushila Singh, who allegedly holds two positions simultaneously. Similarly, Rajkumar Singh was appointed professor in two departments to extend him the maximum benefit of seniority and money.

Panjab Singh is himself from Varanasi and, claiming that caste and personal equations rather than academic merit have become the criteria to get a job at BHU, Mishra’s letter alleges that under his Vice-Chancellorship too many teachers from degree colleges in and around Varanasi have been appointed, sometimes bypassing norms such as experience in postgraduate teaching. In violation of rules set by the University Grants Commission, it further states, back-dated promotions have been granted to in-service teachers. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has reportedly sought a clarification on the salary bill inflated by Rs 2 crore thanks to these back-dated promotions. Similarly, medical officers who do not have academic experience have been given academic posts.

The charges are not limited to “Thakurvaad”. Mishra has also demanded an inquiry into allegations of “financial irregularities” at BHU, most focused around the BHU South Campus, coming up at Mirzapur, 80km from BHU and very near the VC’s village. While Panjab Singh was away in the United States and thus could not be contacted as of this writing, his response is awaited on e-mail. Academics and students alike in the university were unwilling to say anything on record but the Varanasi press has been buzzing with regular news items on the controversy severely denting the reputation of the prestigious university.

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main34.asp?filename=Ne061007CASTE.asp

‘Secularism has become another religion’

2007-09-30T22:08:00.000-07:00

French Marxist philosopher Étienne Balibar was in New Delhi last week for a series of lectures

Étienne Balibar is a Marxist philosopher who is critical of hardline French secularists for their xenophobic intolerance of issues concerning French citizens of Arab and African descent. In the 2007 French presidential election, he was among the two hundred intellectuals who expressed support for the candidature of Marie-Ségolène Royal of the Socialist Party. Professor Emeritus of Moral and Political Philosophy at Université de Paris X – Nanterre, and Distinguished Professor of Humanities at the University of California, Irvine, Balibar gave a series of lectures in New Delhi last week. S. Anand of TEHELKA joins Nivedita Menon, Reader in Political Science at the University of Delhi, and Aditya Nigam, Fellow at the Centre for Study of Developing Societies, in discussing with Balibar the overlap of racism, Islamophobia and secularism in a global context.

Menon: You have written about the race riots in 2005 in the French banlieues, the suburbs, as a ‘revolt of the excluded’ and have linked it to the contradictions of globalisation. What were the dynamics of these riots?
Balibar: I am surprised these events provoke such curiosity in places as far away as Chicago and New Delhi since I think these riots were extremely banal in the sense that they are a type of urban disorder that has repeatedly taken place all over the world for a long period, owing to similar issues of “difference”. Perhaps the French were exceptional in thinking that the typical effects of the redistribution of populations created by globalisation, involving race and class factors, would not affect France. There’s also been extreme reluctance on the part of French commentators, not only of the Right but also the Left, to use race and racial categories.

In France we have been trained to understand politics - whether secular ideologies, parliamentary politics, or social movements and campaigns - in universalistic terms. I don’t say this tradition is completely over, that there’s nothing left of it. But this tradition has been forced to reckon with the wrongs of French colonialism. The French citizens of African descent, the inner-city youth, formed a group in February 2005 calling themselves Indigènes de la République—Natives of the Republic. They were the children and grandchildren of colonialism, French-born youths of Arab and African extraction, who viewed the consequences of colonialism as anything but positive. This nomenclature is ironic since the word ‘native’ was used in the colonies to refer to the subject-race while the French referred to themselves as citizens. By claiming to be “natives” of the “republic”, they are underlining the fact that the colony is now inside the republic - the neighbourhoods where the French Muslims are like colonial enclaves.

Natives of the Republic assert their “difference” against a perspective based on civic and national integration. But the French Interior Minister [Nicolas] Sarkozy, now the president, saw Islam as a challenge to French citizenship.

But these youth do still have faith in French democracy. For instance, when a group of rap artistes and others made a public intervention urging the rioters to re-direct their legitimate anger by registering as voters, I thought it was a naive suggestion. But in fact they did register in large numbers, and in the recent elections, the Left won massive majorities in the violence-affected banlieues.

Read more: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main34.asp?filename=Ne061007SECULARISM.asp

The Garden Goes to Pot

2007-09-30T22:07:00.000-07:00

Kashmiri farmers are increasingly turning to cultivating cannabis and poppy, the crops fetching them higher returns both within the state and outside

Peerzada Arshad Hamid
Srinagar

Cannabis and poppy are burgeoning in Kashmir’s fields. Cultivated illegally, the two crops produce enough charas (hashish) and afeem (opium) to drive a flourishing drug trade and sustain a substantial part of the state’s agrarian economy. In south Kashmir in particular, the crops have struck deep roots. There seems to be no village, no matter how small or remote, where people are not growing the crops and ensuring their steady supply in and outside the Valley.

Despite severe inhibitions towards their cultivation in the past, the crops seem to have found acceptance among the farmers, who raise them in lieu of other traditional crops. Cannabis and poppy witnessed a surge in cultivation in the late 80s and are now a common sight in the rural areas. Officials in the state’s Excise department attribute the growth in their cultivation to the collapse of law and order since the onset of militancy in the state in 1989. “The era of militancy witnessed lawlessness in the Valley and subsequently led to proliferation of cannabis and poppy fields. It became difficult for the department to bridle the violators. At that time we could not even think of prohibiting them to stop its cultivation, leave alone talk of using force in destroying the crop,” said Qasim Wani, deputy commissioner at the Excise department. In 2001, Excise officials initiated a drive to destroy the crops but met little success.

The real reason for the surge is the well-organised network of smugglers that delivers the final product to major cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. "Since 2001 we have been destroying the crop but we have not managed to wipe it out. Our efforts are still in infancy as these fields reappear time and again. Earlier, we used to launch the drive in September but this year we started it in May to achieve the desired results,” Wani said. Officials not only hire labourers for destroying the standing crop but also take with them contingents of state police and sometimes of the Army to quell any resentment.

Earlier, there were assertions of an existing nexus between militants and drug traffickers in Kashmir. However, Excise officials rule out any such nexus and say they have never come across any resistance from the militant outfits. “It is the people who resist during the destroying of the crop,” said Shams Din, field inspector in the Excise department. Farmers cultivating the crop say inadequate irrigation facilities and dry spells in past years are reasons that have compelled them to grow the crops. Both cannabis and poppy do not require much moisture.

Excise officials, however, dismiss the argument and say it is only the incentive of money that drives farmers towards cultivating the banned crops. “The crop earns them enough bucks and this is the only motive that prompts the farmers to cultivate the banned crops,” says Shamas Din. As per estimates provided by the Revenue department, poppy cultivation is spread over 500 acres of land. A farmer gets 20 times more money from poppy than from paddy and that too with minimal efforts.

Likewise, cannabis is cultivated over 2,500 acres of land in south Kashmir. In the two south Kashmir districts of Anantnag and Pulwama, more than 60 villages have gained notoriety for cannabis and poppy cultivation. Bijbehara, Tulkhan, Wagahama, Marhama, Dupatyaar, Ladroo, Sangam, Naioonu, Kawan, Melharoo, Wachi, Mooman, Tral and Hari Parigam are some villages where the cultivation has flourished over these years. Some villages in even the higher hilly regions are increasingly raising cannabis in place of paddy. These areas, generally in the interior of the villages, remain outside the sight of officials of the Excise department, who generally carry out their surveys from the roads in their vehicles.

The cultivation of poppy and cannabis requires licence from the government. Officials inform that not a single farmer in Kashmir has been issued the required license by the Central Bureau of Narcotics. The poppy pods are generally cut with a blade and the latex is collected in a can, which is then processed to make opium. In Kashmir, the latex is collected only rarely. Farmers after collecting the poppy seeds sell the shells to smugglers, who grind it to form a fine powder called fukki. The fukki is smuggled outside the state and is used for smoking.

Although the government claims that people are being booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS), on the ground it has not yielded any visible change. Officials say 40 people were booked for cultivating cannabis and poppy last year. “We launch our drive in association with police and revenue officials. After destroying the crop, the police get the details about land from revenue officials and file FIRs against the farmers. We take action generally against the big landholders as a warning to the smaller ones,” Wani says.

Central enforcement agencies like Customs and the Central Bureau of Narcotics too visit these fields once a year to destroy the plantations. On an average, a farmer earns Rs 14,000 to 15,000 per kilogram of fine charas, the final product of cannabis. The traffickers who peddle it outside get an equal amount as freight and in cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad, its price goes up to Rs. 40,000 to 60,000 depending upon the quality.

In the process of peddling the charas and fukki outside the state, many agents get arrested. Yet, thousands of kilograms are smuggled outside every year. In the valley itself there has been a sharp increase in the number of addicts. Dr Arshad Hussain, a prominent psychiatrist in the state, says: “When you have free availability of drugs in the area, there is every possibility that youngsters will fall prey to it. There are thousands of people who are addicted to charas and other harder substances.” Psychiatrists say weak policing and security measures make it easy for traffickers to expand their lucrative trade.

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main34.asp?filename=Ws061007The_Garden.asp

Gandhian institutions in dire straits

2007-09-30T22:05:00.001-07:00

New Delhi, Oct. 1 (PTI): As nation gears up to celebrate Gandhi Jayanti with usual fervour, some of the prominent Gandhian institutions in the capital are in dire straits with leaking roofs, peeling plasters, torn curtains and crack in walls.

National Gandhi Museum, the two-storey building situated opposite Rajghat, is equipped with good collection of books, photographs, documents and memorabilia on Mahatma Gandhi, but the building has not got a fresh coat of paint for years.

While seepages and peeling of plasters are common sight in the building, the library does not have proper facilities for readers. Even the dimly lit galleries exhibiting Gandhi relics and memorabilia are also in a pathetic condition.

Admitting the need for the urgent attention, the museum director Varsha Das told PTI: "The whole building needs to be repaired and painted, including our galleries. Some of the photographs and relics exhibited in our galleries need to be arranged aesthetically and should have better lighting facilities. We are trying to improve the condition here."

When her attention was drawn to the library, she said: "It has a rich collection of 40,000 books and journals on Gandhi. We are introducing certain facilities like expanding the seating arrangement and installing computers so that more readers will come."

"We have got Rs 5 crores this year to carry out necessary development works. However, there are certain issues involved before spending on repair and upgradation of the building. The governing body is meeting on October 28 to sort out the issue."

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200710010340.htm

Government doctors’ stir from today

2007-09-30T22:04:00.000-07:00

To boycott Sabarimala medical duties, NRHM work

KGMOA threatens hunger strike on November 1

ALAPPUZHA: Government medical officers under the aegis of Kerala Government Medical Officers Association (KGMOA) will launch an indefinite non-cooperation strike from Monday.

Announcing this after a State committee meeting of the association here on Sunday, KGMOA State president Sunny P. Orathel said the government doctors would boycott Sabarimala duty and work under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scheme as part of the agitation.
Government criticised

The strike, Dr. Orathel said, will be in protest against the State government’s failure to keep the promise made to government doctors a year ago. Immunisation duties, pay ward duties and medical camps too will be boycotted.

A day’s hunger strike will be staged in front of the Secretariat on November 1 if the government did not respond positively to the association’s demands, he said.
Major demands

A major demand raised will be implementation of the recommendations made by the Dr. Prathapan Commission in 1993 and a seven-member committee of the government last year calling for urgent pay-scale revision for government doctors.

The association said that with vacancies of doctors in the State Health Services crossing 600, the government was roping in retired doctors, but had not made any effort to improve the working conditions or remuneration of government doctors.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/10/01/stories/2007100160110100.htm

DPA to work against religious fanaticism

2007-09-30T22:02:00.000-07:00

What is required now is communal harmony: Karunanidhi

CHENNAI: The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led Democratic Progressive Alliance will work against religious fanaticism, M. Karunanidhi, Chief Minister and DMK chief, said on Sunday.

Addressing a public meeting at Mylapore to focus on the implementation of the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project, he said religious fanaticism, originating from any quarters, would be defeated by the alliance. “Till then, we will not rest,” he said.

Asserting that fanaticismwas not acceptable, he said what was required now was communal harmony.

Accusing the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam of stalling the project, the Chief Minister read out portions of the AIADMK’s poll manifesto which, he said, talked of implementing the project, cutting across Adam’s Bridge. Now, the AIADMK, anticipating early elections, was now raking up the issue of “Ramar Sethu.” This was why it wanted to kill the project.

At the national level, the issue was being raised by those who were against the secular forces such as the Congress and the Left and who were banking on the plank of religious fundamentalism.

Responding to the request of leaders, including Pattali Makkal Katchi founder S. Ramadoss and Communist Party of India State secretary D. Pandian that in view of his advanced age it would suffice if he initiated the fast slated for Monday, Mr. Karunanidhi said he would take a decision on the matter.

On the Supreme Court’s order on Sunday restraining the DPA from staging a bandh, the DMK chief said this would make people ponder over the issue and come to a conclusion on their own.

M. Krishnasswamy, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president, said several development projects were being implemented because of the efforts of the Central and State Governments.

Assuring his party’s support to the execution of the project, the TNCC chief said the Congress always respected the religious sentiments of people.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/10/01/stories/2007100157690100.htm

Anand is now undisputed World champion

2007-09-30T22:01:00.001-07:00

He won four games and drew the rest to stay undefeated in the 14-round competition

— Photo: AFP

THE KING: Viswanathan Anand drew with Hungarian Peter Leko in the final round to win the World chess championship.

NEW DELHI: It took Viswanathan Anand just over half an hour to complete the formalities of putting the finishing touches to his winning campaign in World chess championship in Mexico City on Saturday.

Needing just a draw against Peter Leko to reach an unsurpassable winning tally of nine points, the World’s top ranked player did it without much ado. After just 20 moves, the players agreed to settle for a draw that gave Anand the title and Leko, the fourth spot.

The title was worth $390,000 for Anand who stayed undefeated in the 14-round competition. He won four games and drew the rest to claim the title with a one-point margin.
Undisputed champion

Anand’s first world championship title came in 2000 in Teheran at a time when the chess world faced a rival claim for the “title” from Vladmir Kramnik.

As a result, the Indian ace was not acknowledged as the universal champion of the world. This time, Anand has proved to the world that he is indeed the undisputed world champion.

In November 2000, nearly two months before Anand won against Alexei Shirov of Spain, Kramnik had dislodged Garry Kasparov as the “world champion” by winning their 16-game match, 8.5-6.5 with a game to spare. Kramnik successfully defended his “title” against Leko in 2004 and last year defeated the 2005 champion Veselin Topalov to become the first undisputed champion of the game since 1993.

This time, Kramnik tied for the second spot with Boris Gelfand at eight points. In the final round, Kramnik defeated Levon Aronian while Gelfand drew with Alexander Morozevich.

As per the revised World championship regulations, Kramnik holds a one-time right to challenge Anand for the world crown in 2008.

“It is really funny that just a few hours have passed after I won the title here (in Mexico) and I am being asked about the match against Kramnik,” said Anand when contacted by The Hindu after his triumph.

“Right now I am not looking that far. I will surely deal with it when the time comes. At present, I am almost as happy as I was after winning my first (world) title in 2000.

“This time it’s somewhat special because the field was very strong. It feels nice come through without a defeat in 14 rounds,” said Anand.

The champion performed at the playing strength of 2848 against his own rating of 2792.

As a result, Anand looks set to breach the coveted 2800-mark in rating for the second time in his career when FIDE releases its new list on Monday.

When asked to compare his 2000 triumph with the present one, Anand said, “Both (titles) came off quite smoothly. I was able to focus right through.

“In 2000, I got a scare in the match against Alexander Khalifman and I was virtually eliminated.

“This time, it happened against (Alexander) Grischuk on the penultimate day of the championship. A defeat against Grischuk would have ruined all the plans. Honestly, I was fortunate to salvage that half point,” the champion admitted candidly.

Anand is expected to come to India in mid-October after fulfilling his club commitments in Turkey. The All India Chess Federation is planning a fitting reception for the champion.

The results (14th round):

Viswanathan Anand (9) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 7); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 8) bt Levon Aronian (Arm, 6); Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 6) drew with Boris Gelfand (Isr, 8); Peter Svidler (Rus, 6.5) drew with Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 5.5).

Standings: 1. Anand, 2-3. Kramnik and Gelfand, 4. Leko, 5. Svidler, 6-7. Morozevich and Aronian. 8. Grischuk.

US cops taught about Sikhism

2007-09-30T21:58:00.001-07:00

PATIALA: A beautiful gurdwara in Pittsburgh notwithstanding, a police detective Julie Stoops is among those who openly admit she was completely ignorant of Sikhism.

But last Wednesday, a seminar sponsored by the US department of justice’s community relations service, designed to teach local agencies about Arab, Muslim and Sikh cultures, taught 75 Pennsylvania law-enforcement officers about these communities during a four-hour seminar at the Allegheny County Police Academy.

Under an environment of ignorance, any officer can commit a blunder that could hurt a specific community, it was stated. This seminar informed the officials that removing a Sikh’s turban in public is the same as a strip search. Not all Arabs are Muslims.
A kirpan is not a concealed weapon, reports Pittsburgh Tribune. Rajbir Datta, a Pittsburgh native and associate director of Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said though Sikhs speak a different language, practise a different religion and generally come from a different continent, they are often mistaken in America for Arab Muslims. Datta said many Sikhs carry a kirpan, a 3 to 6 inch sheathed dagger that symbolises a Sikh’s commitment to protect the weak and promote justice.

Bahadur Shah's descendants will lay claim to Red Fort

2007-09-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

NAVI MUMBAI: The direct descendants of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, who have long been bitter with the Indian government for not giving them their due, have now said that they will be suing to claim the Red Fort, which was the emperor's last main residence in India before he was exiled to then Burma.

"My mother Sultana Begum only gets a pension of Rs 400 a month from the Indian government for being associated with the Mughal dynasty. We surely deserve better," said the great-great-granddaughter of Bahadur Shah Zafar, Raunaque Zamani Begum, 34, who lives in a small, one-room apartment in Nerul's Sector 11 with her family.

Sultana Begum was married to the great-grandson of Bahadur Shah Zafar, Mirza Bedar Bakht, who died in Kolkata in 1980. The family also wants the pension paid to Sultana, who continues to live in Kolkata, to be increased. Raunaque said, "We, the children of Bedar Bakht, are now planning to legally fight to claim the Red Fort in Delhi, because that was the main residence of our ancestor Bahadur Shah Zafar."

Her 27-year-old sister, Zeenat Mahal Shaikh, who lives with her family at Mira Road, said, "The Mughals ruled India since the time of Babar. The Indian government should appreciate this fact, as it also concerns us. Even Zeenat's seven-year-old son Aman Abdul Shaikh knows who Bahadur Shah Zafar was. "He was my 'bade nana' (big granddaddy)," he answered coyly.

Raunaque's husband, Iqbal Nawab, is supporting the sisters. "We are identifying a lawyer to fight the case for the Red Fort and will file a court petition within this year. Many Indian kings who bowed down before the British are now very rich, but Bahadur Shah Zafar paid a huge price for standing up to the British in 1857," said Nawab, who is in the construction business but has run into losses.

Nawab pointed out that in 1857, during India's first war for independence, British forces arrested Bahadur Shah Zafar in Delhi and executed two of his sons. The 84-year-old Bahadur Shah was then exiled to Burma, where he died five years later. At the time, he had several wives, one of whom was Zeenat Mahal, who is the direct ancestor of Raunaque and her sister. Bahadur Shah's grave is in Yangon.

When asked if it would be an uphill task to claim the Red Fort, Raunaque reasoned, "If the government cannot give us our Red Fort, then at least compensate us properly.

In fact, we are only asking for one of the many properties of the Mughals." Nawab cited the recent example of the Raja of Mahmudabad, Mohammed Amir Mohammed Khan, who won back his royal properties after a long legal battle in Lucknow.

In 1980, when Bedar Bakht died, a question was put in parliament to the then minister of state for home affairs about whether the Indian government was aware who he was and if anything would be done for his family. The reply was that the government was aware and would continue the Rs 400 pension, which could be increased on sympathetic grounds if a request was made.

The last emperor's surviving son was Jawan Bakht and the latter's son was Jamshed Bakht. Eventually, Jamshed Bakht had two sons, Mirza Sikandar and Bedar Bakht. The latter married Sultana Begum.

"It was mainly due to the efforts of freedom fighters Maulana Azad and Subhash Chandra Bose that the British were forced to allow Bedar Bakht to return to India, but only on condition that he not publicise his Mughal roots. He settled in Kolkata, earning a monthly pension of Rs 10 in the 1920s. Later, his pension was increased to Rs 16. Now, only Rs 400 is being awarded to Sultana," said Nawab.

Raunaque recalled, "I remember my mother telling us the story of how my father Bedar Bakht was secretly brought back to India in 1925, hidden in a basket of flowers." Bedar and Sultana had six children, including one son who is now settled in Saudi Arabia.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Descendants_will_lay_claim_to_Red_Fort/articleshow/2417737.cms

'Don't Divide The Country'

2007-04-01T12:56:00.000-07:00

'Don't Divide The Country'
The Supreme Court stays implementation of the 27% OBC quota policy and asks the government not to divide the country because of its "vote bank" and to "determine who are the socially and economically backward".

In a severe setback to UPA government and the pro-reservation lobby, the Supreme Court (SC) has stayed the controversial provision in the Central Educational Institution (Reservation in Admission) Act of 2006 enabling 27 per cent quota for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in all government aided higher educational institutions, including elite central educational institutions like IITs, AIIMS and IIMs.

The SC Bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and L S Panta today ruled on the batch of petitions filed by various organisations and individuals challenging the 2006 Act as being ultra vires the constitution. These organisations had further challenged the centre's decision to implement the quota, claiming that there was no relevant data on the number of OBCs in the country.

The Bench ruled, "We are of the view that the impugned notification and enforcing the reservation for OBCs in the educational institutions must be put on hold as the government has failed to provide any authentic or reliable data to justify its policy of reservation. What may have been relevant in 1931 census may have some relevance but cannot be the determinative factor.

Vote Bank Politics

The lawyer for United Student's Forum, one of the petitioners against the Act, M L Lahoty, said that the Bench had reprimanded the centre by saying: "Don't divide the country only because of your vote bank ...the consequences of this quota would be very bad'."

"Reservation cannot be permanent and appears to perpetuate backwardness," the Bench observed, pointing out that the centre should stay away from dividing the society on caste basis and should behave in a more responsible way, and that the government's decision to implement the quota system was full of flaws.

Today's order effectively puts into jeopardy government's plan to implement the new quota regime in the elite institutions and central universities from the coming academic year; coming as it does just before the UP elections, the political cost of the Supreme Court justice is immediate.

The judgement has therefore predictably come under immediate attack from pro-reservation parties who have called it "retrograde, uncalled for and unfortunate" while those opposed to the Act are understandably relieved. HRD Minister Arjun Singh, the so-called brain behind the law, meanwhile maintains that Parliament will stick to the provision.

Who Are The Backwards?

The centre had maintained that in the absence of data after 1931, there was no alternative but to project population proportion of socially and educationally backward classes and OBCs from the only source available. Holding that the government failed to explain as to why a firm data base could not be evolved first, the Bench kept on hold the operation of the relevant provision of the Act dealing with reservation for the OBCs.

Disposing off the petitions against the Act passed in December last year, the court said it will examine on merits the constitutional validity of the Act in the third week of August. However, it allowed the government to initiate the process for determining on a broad-based foundation as to what constitutes "Other Backward Classes".

"The centre has to determine who are the socially and economically backward people of India, before the Central Educational Institutions Act can be given effect," the Bench stated. "We are of the view that the impugned notification and enforcing the reservation for OBCs in the educational institutions must be put on hold as the government has failed to provide any authentic or reliable data to justify its policy of reservation". It, however, clarified that the benefit of reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes could not be withheld and the centre can go ahead with the identification process to determine the OBCs.

"...It would be desirable to keep on hold the operation of the Act so far as it relates to Section 6 thereof for the OBCs category only. We make it clear that we are not staying operation of the statute, particularly, Section 6 so far as the SC and ST candidates are concerned," Justice Pasayat, writing the judgment for the Bench, said.

Creamy Layer

The Court said that while dealing with reservations, the concept of "creamy layer" becomes important as the centre has maintained that it was applicable to only Article 16 (4) and not Article 15 (5) of the Constitution.

While Article 16 (4) empowers the state to make provisions for reservations for any backward class not adequately represented in the government jobs, Article 15 (5) enables the state to provide quota for socially and educationally backward classes.

Observing that the concept of creamy layer cannot prima facie be considered to be irrelevant, the court said "it, therefore, needs no reiteration that the creamy layer rule is a necessary bargain between the competing ends of caste based reservations and the principle of secularism. It is a part of Constitutional scheme".

However, the Bench noted with pain, "Nowhere else in the world do castes, classes or communities queue up for the sake of gaining backward status. Nowhere else in the world is there competition to assert backwardness and then to claim we are more backward than you. This truth was recognised as an unhappy and disturbing situation in Indra Sawhney (Mandal) case".

Although the state, the Bench clarified, is constitutionally empowered to enact affirmative action measures for backward classes, "differentiation or classification for special preference must not be unduly unfair for the persons left out of the favoured groups".

Confronting The Judiciary

With the final hearing postponed till the third week of August, the government is faced with the task of providing adequate and sufficient data on OBCs to the Supreme Court. Would the government be able to do within four months what it has not been able to do for the past so many years? Clearly, the UPA government's main agenda for wooing the OBCs has hit a constitutional road-black.

But the government cannot act surprised or shocked.

freedom to dress

2006-10-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

i read this intresting story in newspaper related to the " i did not ask for it" project by blank noise . read here , though i would also like you to visit the blank noise project blog

What struck my mind was that men dont like wearing that dhoti and paijamas and stuff and thus they switch to shirts and trousers . Infact, there are many like me who dont even know how to wear a dhoti . But when it comes to the fairer sex in India they dont have much of a choice . they have to think a lot more about what they choose to wear . it is a natural tendency to look trendy and fashionable , but there is not much to choose from . Just imagine if men had only kurta and paijama in their wardrobe , all could still look trendy but not comfortable exactly . hey men would like to have women looking at them , coz they may feel they are kewl and handsome and what not but then that would be some kinda appreciation . how ever men looking at women is not for any kind of appreciation . Flaunting body is no great deal . appreciation for having what they have as their biological construction. i think it is disgusting and waste of time . so stop day dreaming and get back to work .

Honor the 100th Anniversary of Gandhi's Nonviolence

2006-09-11T11:02:00.000-07:00

Honor the 100th Anniversary of Gandhi's Nonviolence

On September 11, 1906 Mohandas Gandhi convened a meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, to mobilize his community to oppose racially degrading legislation. That September 11th, more than 3000 people solemnly pledged to disobey the proposed law, despite the consequences, without the use of violence. This fall, Nonviolent Peaceforce invites you to resolve to break the new cycle of violence that began on September 11, 2001.

http://www.nvpf. org/np/english/ workadayforpeace /index.asp. html
~~~

A brief history of September 11, 1906: the Birth of Satyagraha

Adapted by NP volunteer Derek Mitchell & NP staff from the writings of Professor Michael Nagler, Professor emeritus and founder of the Peace and Conflict Studies program at University of California, Berkeley.

"During my half-century of experience, I have not yet come across a situation when I had to say ... that I had no remedy in terms of non-violence." - Mahatma Gandhi

One hundred years ago a historic meeting took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, that would change human history. Mohandas K. Gandhi, at the time a struggling lawyer, had arrived in South Africa in May of 1893 to serve as legal adviser for an Indian merchant. He quickly ran headlong into "man's inhumanity to man" in the form of a racism that was shameless in the African colonies. He was thrown off a train scarcely one week after his arrival for presuming to sit in a first-class compartment for which he had a valid ticket. The affront precipitated "the most creative night of his life," as he struggled with his feelings at the cold, mountain station of Pietermaritzburg. During that night, Gandhi overcame both his impulses to run back to India and to fight the railway company. He decided instead to turn his attention-his anger-to the much larger questions of racial prejudice, injustice and exploitation directed against his fellow Indians by the European colonists.

Gandhi launched a careful, stepwise campaign to rescue the dignity and the rights of the 100,000 'free' and indentured Indians in South Africa, who up to that time had borne the abuses heaped on them with helpless resignation. He oversaw the establishment of the Natal Indian Congress, organized the first petition ever submitted by Indians to a South African parliament, and founded Indian Opinion , the first of several newspapers that would be the communication organs of his movements. Then, in September 1906, the Transvaal Assembly introduced the Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance, intended in effect to reduce Indians and Chinese to a semi-criminal status. On September 11 th three thousand Indians, both Hindu and Muslim, 'free' and indentured, gathered at the Empire Theater in Johannesburg to voice their outrage.

Gandhi first called on all present to pledge non-cooperation with the proposed law, irrespective of what penalties they might face-civil disobedience (the term coined by Thoreau that Gandhi would later borrow to describe their novel method). Then a Muslim merchant, Seth Haji Habib, sprang to his feet and declared that the resolution must be passed "with God as a witness" that Indians would never yield in cowardly submission to such a law. The implications of such a solemn oath took Gandhi aback. While no stranger to vows in his own spiritual development, he realized that invoking God in a political struggle would demand an unswerving fight until the end. He was personally prepared to take on such a duty but would the community follow him? Twenty years later he recalled the memorable scene:

The meeting heard me word by word in perfect quiet. Other leaders too spoke. All dwelt upon their own responsibility and the responsibility of the audience. and at last all present, standing with upraised hands, took an oath with God as witness not to submit to the Ordinance if it became law. I can never forget the scene, which is present before my mind's eye as I write. The community's enthusiasm knew no bounds.

Satyagraha was born. The struggle was to last eight years. There were many ups and downs and more than one bitter occasion when only Gandhi's vision kept resistance alive, but in the end it conceived a new relationship between Indians and whites in South Africa-and a new method of struggling against violence.

What is Satyagraha?

The term was coined after the Johannesburg meeting, when the Indians realized that the prevailing _expression for the campaign they sought to wage, 'passive resistance,' failed to convey the active vitality of their method and could also lead to fatal confusion (as passive resistance, in the manner the term was used at the time, did not rule out the use of violence). Satyagraha literally means 'clinging to truth.' But 'truth' ( satya ) has broader meanings in the Indian languages than it does in English. It does mean truth as opposed to falsehood; but it also means 'the real' as opposed to the unreal or nonexistent, and the 'good' as opposed to 'evil.' The tremendous work Gandhi would go on to launch in India was based in this vision.

Satyagraha is a kind of force. It changes people for the better through nonviolent persuasion. No matter how brutal and dehumanized people become, the capacity for what Gandhi calls reason (or a kind of personal sensitivity) is always there.

http://www.nvpf. org/np/english/ workadayforpeace /briefhistory. asp.html
~~~

SATYAGRAHA - 100 Years of Nonviolence
This is a trailer for a documentary short to air on September 11th. This 9/11 will not only mark the 5th anniversary of the New York terrorist attack, it is also the 100th anniversary that Mahatma Gandhi first used non-violence against oppresion in South Africa.

The film chronicles the 100 years following the 1906 protest. We get to see many, many non-violent movements (many not well known in the U.S.) that changed history.

We'll also get to see "regular" people (many inspired by Gandhi) doing extraordinary things to change the world around them.

For more information go to:
http://www.nyc- dop.com/gandhi

http://youtube. com/watch? v=IVdVBHvAs2A&search=arun% 20gandhi
~~~

We Must Build Our Own Dawn
An Offering in Memory of Mahatma Gandhi
by Jeff Knaebel

May humanity and all the living creatures of this earth benefit from the memory of Gandhiji and his works. May our children live long, live free. May we build a new dawn of peace on earth, goodwill toward all. May all beings be happy.

Mahatma Gandhi stood for and died for truth, self-reliance and integrity. He showed us the efficacy of integrity in human affairs to a depth seldom displayed among men: a man fully integrated in congruency of thought, word and deed. To think one thing, say another and do a third is to lie, to dis-integrate. Gandhi was an integral man: he did not lie, nor did he engage in secrecy. By contrast, todays world is a sea of lies in which the biggest decisions which affect the lives of billions of people, and perhaps even the future of all life on earth, are made in secrecy behind closed doors and sealed in classified documents. We live in a disintegrating society, one of escalating mindless violence.

Even language itself is being slaughtered, when, as Arundhati Roy notes (The Algebra of Infinite Justice, 2002), it is being systematically employed to mask intent and to create a breeding ground for exploitation in the space between what is said and what is done. The space of lies. It is in this space that a new kind of imperialistic war of scorched-earth destruction is being fought. The battleground is mind-space: the aim of conquest is human consciousness itself.

Without a moral compass, neither individual nor society can navigate the storms of life. Unless we can find the Pole Star of Truth, we are in big trouble, with the very survival of civilization in jeopardy. Even now, having created a world gone mad with the violence of its greed, can we say we are civilized? Are we humane?

The Mahatma is not with us except to the extent we imbibe his example of truth, self-reliance and integrity into our individual lives. We must build our own dawn.

---

At the University of Chihuahua in northern Mexico, an international conference was held in 1991 to debate the USA-controlled World Banks plan to finance a pulp paper mill project which would destroy the last remaining old-growth forest of the Sierra Occidental. Facing an audience of trade officials, bureaucrats, scientists and environmentalists stood an elder of the Tarahumara tribe, in his hand a cheap pulp magazine. Gazing calmly at the bankers and industrialists, the Tarahumara spoke softly: "You are cutting the last of our trees to turn them into this. The forest is the life of my people. When you have cut our trees, we will die and you will read this."

A few miles from the University, Tarahumara women and children live in burrows dug into mounds of garbage at the city dump. At a remote village in the Sierra, a Tarahumara elder had told me, "My young men want to fight. I tell them no. We must be patient."

Politically correct public statements of "concern" notwithstanding, the States actual volition was revealed to me by the request of a peace activist conference attendee for me to fly her to a remote village without filing a flight plan. She had just spoken at the conference to expose the timber mafia government nexus in which corrupt bureaucrats seek bribes in exchange for logging permits in protected areas. Visibly shaken, she said "My life is in danger, I must get away quickly." I dropped her off at the edge of a short, nasty little crosswind dirt strip on a ridge crest near Pino Gordo.

I had come to Chihuahua as a volunteer pilot for an awareness campaign to fly opinion leaders for a first-hand look at clear-cut logging devastation, aimed at generating motivation to stop the World Bank. The Gulf War was on. The juxtaposition of these two American-financed operations crystallized in my mind as a kind of epiphany. I determined to leave my country forever, to remove myself entirely from its economic activity, to cease paying the taxes that finance its war-mongering greed.

I could not then have foreseen how much further we would sink into barbarian depravity, thrust by lies into the pathological insanity of Bush-Cheney- Rumsfeld State Terrorism.

Here in India, I try to implement the other component of non-violent resistance discovered by Gandhi to be essential to remaining psychologically whole: a program of positive constructive action in support of social and moral uplift. Although I fall far short, Gandhis example continues to inspire me.

---

We are not ruled by an Emperor these days, nor by a Prime Minister, Parliament or Legislature, but by an inhuman, dehumanizing System-Structure which owns, controls, markets and operates all of the above as a machine. And this machine is out of control, run amok. It is a cancer of exploitation- greed which is destroying quite rapidly the biological web of life on earth and the living, organic social body of humanity. Democracy, Self-Rule, is a sham in world ruled within the institutional framework which has arisen to protect the interests of criminally corrupt corporations, the real rulers of the world (although it may be argued that the ultimate rulers are the Central Bankers who print, own and debase through inflation the money which fuels the engine of commerce).

This Government System-Structure is the originator of war and ecological destruction. It is a death-machine which could well annihilate humanity if not soon dismantled and sent to the scrap yard to be re-cycled in accord with the "Fourth Revolution" of TN Khoshoo in Mahatma Gandhi, An Apostle of Applied Human Ecology (Tata Energy Research Institute).

---

"In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the government alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful." (Leo Tolstoy).

"TO END TERRORISM, END STATE TERRORISM"

Johan Galtung, JUST Commentary, Vol. 2, No. 9, 2002

The title above says it all. Beneath the surface are the many documented case histories of States creating terrorists (e.g., the Reagan Administration s creation of Jihadism and the US training of bin Laden) and supporting their activities. States need opponents and war to justify their existence as pawns of the military-industrial complex and international bankers who control the States. These entities need wars in order to have clients (often on both sides) to whom to loan large sums. To find the origin of a particular war, follow the money. States need bogeymen like bin Laden and will either find them or create them.

Is not desecration of the planetary ecosystem through Corporate Warfare State economic weapons of mass destruction in fact tantamount to slow-motion terrorism? Where else are we going to live? Is not the angst of watching helplessly ones lands, waters, livelihood, culture be destroyed by stealth invasion of anonymous corporate financial forces the moral equivalent of genocide? Witness the current Indian States exercise of eminent domain to transfer hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland to multi-national corporations for industrial parks, displacing very large numbers of families from their ancestral lands, leaving them destitute and resulting in many deaths, especially of children. "Investigations" notwithstanding, huge bribes will never be disclosed.

Might Gandhi suggest we now ask ourselves: would I trespass my neighbors land, steal his crop, poison his well, cut his trees, rape his daughter? States and Corporations sponsored by them do it on a daily basis, financed by taxes on our labor. If I willingly support a political regime which does these things in order that I might have a higher standard of living and return them to office, do I not then have a derivative responsibility for their acts of destruction, terror and genocide? What is my responsibility if I merely acquiesce without protest? What is my responsibility to life itself? Is there some point at which, as a non-protesting tax-payer, I become an accomplice to murder, with blood on my hands?

The sitting President of a so-called "Democracy" is the same man who directs the extra-terrestrial ambitions of US security policy, pursuant to which laser and "kinetic kill" weapons systems are deployed in battle stations in space whereby "populations can be eliminated via remote control" (Admiral Eugene Carroll, USN, in JUST Commentary, Vol. 2, No. 6). Can there be any doubt that these deadly capabilities, in these hands, place into jeopardy our very survival? Did we the people consciously choose this destiny?

One of Gandhis clearest teachings is that on Means-As-End. It is the same as Buddhas teaching on the Law of Cause and Effect. The end of any action is defined, predicted and included in the means. Means is seed, end is tree. They are inseparably linked. A good end cannot arise from immoral means. A neem seed cannot beget a mango tree. It is Law of Nature. My every action affects directly or indirectly the welfare of my fellowmen. The first moral law is Do No Harm. Because non-violence is my most fundamental moral responsibility, it is also my most fundamental human right. This means that I cannot be required to support or approve of the State in breaching the precept of Ahimsa (non-violence) .

Gandhi said that one must be motivated by a great loyalty to humanity the whole of it which supersedes all other loyalties, racial or national. His concept of equality was based on the interconnection of all life; his rejection of tyranny and force was based on respect for divinity of all creation. His rejection of institutions such as Parliaments, armies and law courts arose out of his conviction that love is superior to force.

The System-Structure which holds us in thrall is inhuman and it dehumanizes. Gandhi writes, "The individual has a soul, but as the State is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned from the violence to which it owes its very existence." The State is organized violence, force, coercion. Power is the central motive of politics. Because of their financial and commercial power and their control of the media, corporations are the de-facto constituents of "representative" democracy, not individual voters. Our world is ruled, therefore, by corporations which exercise their sovereignty through the "Iron Triangle" of business-politics- military. The State is soulless and the corporations which control the State are soulless: nowhere is there personal accountability. We are controlled by a machine within a machine, neither of which has a heart. We have abdicated our moral sovereignty to the State, and thereby lost control of our destiny.

---

Beginning with Gandhis attribute of the State as "soulless machine," let us further examine the inhuman character of the System-Structure which rules our lives, the primary and most powerful constituent of which is the modern multi-national corporation.

A corporation begins life as a virtual entity on paper, a concept wrapped in words. It is a legal abstraction, its "body" is a judicial construct. It is a designed process, a machine intended for a single purpose: to generate maximum revenue at least cost. It is not a living being. It cannot feel pain, sorrow, remorse, shame or compassion. Most of all, it cannot love. When it hurts people or destroys ecology, it feels nothing. It is incapable of feeling. Yet, under law, it is deemed a natural person with all the legal and political rights of a person except for actual voting. This is why corporations are so dangerous: they act in human affairs without feeling and with wholly selfish motives, driven by greed only. And they have become very powerful, often being more powerful than the host government of which they are a parasite. And the fact of their immortality changes everything on the scale of human values.

For corporations, nature, ecology, animals, people, even their own employees are no more than ciphers on a balance sheet, mere disposable objects to be used and discarded. Witness the infamous management dictum, "Change the numbers or change the faces." They are absolutely ruthless in their exploitation. Look at Union Carbides behavior in the Bhopal disaster; Dow Chemicals CFCs depleting the ozone layer which protects entire humanity; Halliburton and Blackwater in Iraq.

There are two fatal design errors of the present institutional system which place our survival at risk: (a) the basic design parameter is to foster greed and endlessly increasing unnecessary consumption which gives rise to predatory competition, envy and delusion. This sets up the spiral of escalating violence, hatred and ecological destruction. Since greed is known to be as old as life itself, a more sensible design would be based upon nurturing and supporting contentment, compassion and love. (b) The system protects perpetrators of violence from the consequences of their actions through the legal constructs of limited liability and sovereign immunity. It establishes as the major actor in human affairs a soulless corporate entity endowed with the economic and political rights (except actual voting) of a person, but without corresponding moral reciprocity, social responsibility and full liability. These are the entities which control politics and governments and brainwash the populace and sponsor war. Representative government is an illusion. Corporations rule the world.

To be ruled by corporations is to be ruled by inhuman machines in the absence of love. Pursuant to the Law of Cause and Effect and Gandhis equation of Means-End, how can we expect to escape the effects of what we ourselves have caused? If the goal (end) is satiation of greed and the means is exploitation facilitated by lies and backed by unlimited State power, how can we expect a result other than violence and destruction? The evidence of current experience and history indicates that the worst among us are attracted to the top echelons of State: those addicted to power and domination.

The disconnect between humanity and its institutions is because the institutions are no longer controlled by human beings subject to their conscience. These institutions are controlled by corporations which are non-human entities genetically incapable of acting with conscience. And the consciences of their mentally conditioned "robot-human" operators are often subsumed by personal ambition or need to survive. The employees success depends upon his contribution to profitability of an abstract entity, typically described by a balance sheet. He has become a member of a corporate "tribe," and he draws his identity, esteem and security from approval of superiors and peers. To succeed within the tribe, which he must do in order to preserve his livelihood, he feels compelled to make his "tribe" successful at any cost. Other people outsiders dont matter except to extent they are his market. It is subtle parasitic predation: this other person is not my brother, he is my meat for today. We are cannibalizing each other and destroying the earth in the process.

If the company mans conscience is at all bothered, he may go into psychological denial because of his need to succeed within the corporate culture. This denial and dissociation extends beyond his inner self, to his relationships with others and the earth. Result is a subtle but profound alienation which desensitizes the mind to violence. According to Khoshoo, for an Indian, this dynamic will result in further alienation from his cultural inheritance: "Gandhi was no doubt a profound environmentalist, like Mahatma Buddha and Asoka the Great. The false idea that human beings hold supremacy over Nature is alien to Indian culture. Indians have been utilizers, not exploiters of natural resources. Had Indians in the past exploited anything like today, how could its great civilization have survived these 10,000 years?"

Khoshoo goes on to point out earlier agriculture- based urban civilizations that died because of their disregard for Nature: the Mediterranean, Lower Mesopotamian, Nile, Indus, Huang Ho and Mayan all peaked and crashed within the past 6,000-8,000 years. "Forests precede civilizations, deserts follow them." It is pure arrogance to think we are exempt from this fate, even if we do not first blow ourselves up. Ecological security is the foundation of economic security just as for the individual, "health is wealth." Gandhis message is about respect for life.

If the commons of humanity, our ecosystem of land-water-air- forests-flora and fauna, were managed by actual flesh and blood human beings who were personally accountable and would have to look us in the eye while proclaiming stewardship, our chances would be good, despite many problems. However, so long as the commons remains under control of the soulless, heartless, conscienceless State-Corporate combine whose design code is exploitation for money and power, we are in jeopardy. The sheer wanton waste of the destruction is daunting. Nothing is sacred before the death-bound juggernaut that destroys ecology, poisons air and water, generates mass extinctions, fosters war and genocide in order to fulfill artificial needs created by media hype so that a few may entertain themselves with expensive toys in idle and useless pastimes, while the many are oppressed and exploited by the corporations and central bankers who own and control the system and the governments that dance to its tune. It is a dirge of human devolution, a dancing with death, a trashing of all that is goodness, beauty and truth.

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To withdraw support from all-pervasive violence requires a certain love combined with Will. It demands one turn his back on all that is known and familiar, walk away from the battlefield (perhaps alone), and try to create a new life grounded in love and compassion. For the generation whose mind has been brutalized and desensitized by exposure since earliest childhood to the gratuitous violence of TV-internet- video games-MTV and cinema, it is difficult to conceive of withdrawal from a system which provides ones livelihood and also seems "normal." There is no mental ground on which can stand moral outrage. The ground has been washed away by mindless media, TV and deliberate State propaganda delivered through the public education system. The moral compass needle lies broken and useless. How can there be reverence for life when all one knows is an abstraction of it, a video image on a cathode ray tube?

Anyone who seriously considers Gandhi is eventually forced to confront himself and ask if he is part of the problem or part of the solution. Then comes the question, what next? Every person has both direct and derivative responsibilities for sustaining a peaceful society. The substantial abdication of these responsibilities is, I believe, a major contributing factor to our present situation. In the end, we collectively get the society we have earned: this is the Law of Cause and Effect.

Mind matters most. Each of us must begin with the only mind we can change: our own. It is possible to learn from direct experience that the natural mind of man in a purified state is one of love and compassion. One way this experience can be gained is through insight meditation practices. Mental purification through self-observation leads to inner peace. A compassionate mind can also be cultivated by intensive selfless service. A compassionate mind, being fearless, can act with detachment for the benefit of all. It can work in a peaceful manner to prevent exploitation, having learned to rotate anger into love. Only peaceful individuals can create a peaceful world.

Gandhi proved that all domination-exploita tion is based upon some level of cooperation of the exploited. The power of any tyrant depends entirely on people willing to obey. Power resides in the obedience, not the imprisonment or the guns (Shepard, 1990). Gandhi said, "I believe that no government can exist for a single moment without some level of cooperation of the people." He successfully employed outright civil disobedience, non-cooperation and tax refusal. He proved that ultimate responsibility rests with we the people. By virtue of his example, we have no choice but to face this reality of human culture. He is echoed by the recent Prime Minister of India, Mr. Atal Vajpayee, saying in August 2006, "Politics can influence society, but cannot run it …. Politics cut off from society cannot hold for long." (Times of India).

I think the modern System-Structure has evolved to some essential differences that render some of Gandhis methods inapplicable. We are controlled and manipulated by an inhuman machine that in turn dehumanizes us. It violates, brutalizes and desensitizes the human mind for the calculated profit of a few who are willing to murder. Those who hold sway over the mass mind manipulate our own mental defilements of greed, hatred and delusion for satisfaction of their greed, hatred and delusion. It is all a game played by manipulating the mass mind. Violence is everywhere because it is in the mind. The mental energy field of human consciousness is polluted. It is like the situation of a cancer that has metastasized throughout the entire social body.

Gandhis non-violent resistance was against overt physical occupation and oppression by foreigners. The struggle of Martin Luther King, Jr. in America was against oppression from a clearly identifiable source. By contrast, today we face a hydra-headed monster of pervasive moral oppression by defilements that have taken up occupation of the mass mind. There is no singular identifiable oppressor. We have participated in the creation of a System-Structure for which we support in office those who manipulate and oppress us. We are captives of our own ignorance, laziness and apathy. We permit our minds to be manipulated by media and hype and spin and everywhere lies. We must change our mind by resisting the urge of our own mental defilements which pull us to participate in the greed-artificial need-destruction cycle.

Those in power acting through and behind the shield of sovereign immunity and corporate limited liability will never voluntarily relinquish their dominion. And we cannot employ violence against anybody. The answer may be to withdraw participation and work to establish a parallel system based upon the highest human values, leaving the existing system to decay into irrelevance. If we can find a way to starve it of finance, it will collapse.

The best living cultural benchmarks before us are in remnants of agrarian cultures that have lived in relative isolation from modernization, such as Ladakh and Bhutan, where people actually know of healthy contentment and peaceful happiness even though living at material standards of comfort far below the so-called First World. We can study these societies for precepts of holistic community morality (although we must move quickly now, for they are rapidly being extinguished) . See, e.g., Ancient Futures by Helena Norberg-Hodge, as well as all of the works of the International Society for Ecology and Culture and of the Other India Press, Goa. We can also study what may be the longest-lived functioning democratic society, the society of monks in the Buddhist Sangha. Leaders can also learn much from research into the compassion-based governance of Emperor Asoka the Great.

We must work simultaneously at the levels of mind and form. Meditation techniques which generate individual inner peace are very helpful. There can be no world peace without peaceful individuals. One example is Inculcation of Values through Self-Observation courses, taught by Prof. PL Dhar, a Head of Department at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

At the level of System-Structure, the work of Ramaswamy Elango needs to be widely known. He has pioneered village-centered development on a large scale in South India. At a time when it is in vogue to belittle Gandhi, the great man is adored by Elango as the one who truly understood India. Elango came to understand early in life that there can be no individual happiness if there is misery all around. Elango is optimistic about village republics in India. He says "There is an emerging force not visible to the media and most people. It is at work changing India from below. This force cannot be stemmed."

JC Kumarappa strongly influenced Gandhi with his assertion that man is not a wealth-producing animal, but a social being with spiritual, moral and political instincts. He theorized that an economy of permanence could be wrought with mutual cooperation. Elango is successfully implementing the ideas of Kumarappa through development of village republics.

Ancient wisdom of India postulates the Universe as a great mental force-field in which the most subtle, yet most powerful vibrations cannot be detected by man. It appears to me that findings of modern physics do not refute this. Nothing is faster, more subtle, more immeasurable than thought. Yet, it is of immense potency. The fate of we denizens of this force-field depends upon the nature, the moral quality of thought vibrations emitted into the flux of consciousness.

With TV, internet, video games and cinema as moral preceptor and mind conditioner of childhood, there is reason for concern that we might be finished as a species, gone to history only. Our minds are being brutalized, desensitized, conditioned by violence, debauchery, public and private lies everywhere, betrayals, adultery glorified, commercial predation glorified, all manner of egoism glorified. A great cancer is growing in the body politic and the vector of its malignant cells is the corporate construct of personal non-accountability for ones decisions.

All beings love life and fear death. All of us suffer pain, disappointment, loneliness, fear, hope for dreams unfulfilled. Many suffer from physical privation, hunger, thirst, misery of grinding poverty in midst of filth. All of us have a tendency to do the wrong thing as well as to love. So we must live with compassion, we must love one another. We are all in the same boat. Again Gandhi: "The good of the individual is contained in the good of all." Only through duty and responsibility is there real unity. Absent these, we are totally alone.

I submit that much of our alienation stems from abdication to the State of our personal responsibility and moral sovereignty. In my view, the State as a system-structure is a vehicle of collective madness. As a species, we seem to be facing a terminal mental illness, and the State as vector bears the same relationship to our disease as rats to the bubonic plague. The mere existence of the State, conceived in and sustained by violence, is admission of the failure of the human spirit: that we cannot live in peace and harmony, that greed and violence dominate our consciousness. How much of what we know of other cultures is derived from TV reports of the latest State bombing of their women and children?

If actions of the State were to be examined by the parameters of clinical psychology applied to an individual human being, the diagnosis would be chronic paranoid delusions, a pathological tendency to commit murder and acts of extreme violence and cruelty, an obsessive acting out of ruthless domination: criminally insane.

I feel we are a species that has lost its way. Witness Khalil Gibron in Sand and Foam:

"Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.

We fell them down and turn them into paper

that we may record our emptiness."

Financing the drum beat of war by paying taxes levied upon the sweat of my brow has become intolerable for me. The pole star of peace beckons to quiet walks in the woods, or to comforting a child, or communing with a cow (so calm, gentle and nourishing, a cow). Communing with a cow reminds me of my identity with all that lives.

Unable to oppose its imperialistic destruction in any meaningful way, I left my country. It is my way of meeting my derivative responsibility as a member of the total human community. My choice was to participate as an automaton in the organized, systematic destruction of life or to withdraw from direct participation in the corporate-controlle d society. I live on savings accrued through sale of my enterprises. I am a temporary guest in a foreign land, paying no tax to any jurisdiction, except whatever portion of the price of daily rations may include some unknown sales tax.

My human-ness knows not of national borders or "national interests." My human-ness loves the life which conceived it. I would rob this life from no other being. We are interconnected and interdependent, all of us in the same boat trying to cross the ocean of samsara (incarnate existence). As Kurt Vonnegut says in A Man Without A Country, "We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is."

Freedom and moral sovereignty are my birthright. No one has the right to deprive me of them. Just as my birth into a family of slaves would not bind me forever to slavery, so my birth under a particular States political system cannot bind my conscience to its depraved values. I have entered no contract with a State pursuant to which I waived my rights, assigned my conscience. No institution created by a preceding generation has valid authority to control my life, to conscript me to murder. Nor can the wastrel foolishness of a preceding generation obligate me to its debt. I have contracted no debt save for that which bears my signature.

I stand free and whole now only how can the dead gone before me claim an enforceable contract over my life energy, of which they could not imagine or foresee, let alone bind by contract? I am bound by no constitution, nor by any tomes of so-called "law" created by forbears or so-called "representatives" unknown to me and to whom always I will remain unknown. Except I voluntarily agree or submit to forceful coercion, someone elses rules cannot bind me. How can there be a valid contract where one party is anonymous, unsigned, protected by sovereign immunity, and thus unaccountable, non-responsible, and non-liable for consequences or specific performance? And yet, is it not by just such nonsense that the State would bind us to its rules? There is no accountable individual at risk of personal liability for actions of the State. Without mutual accountability, how can there be a valid contract?

I conceive as a great error of humanity its attempt to institutionalize life. This urge seems to originate in fear. It is a grasping for security that robs us of liberty, and finally of authentic living. How can we grasp life, any more than we can grasp the wind? Better to be born free, live free, arrayed like lilies in the field, than to cower behind desks piled high with musty books of the laws of institutionalized serfdom.

Many are now enunciating a stark choice for humanity: evolve or die. We must exorcise our arrogant ideologies, belief systems and mythologies. We are pressed, hemmed in on all sides by minions of State. The horizon is darkened with clouds of lust for power, promulgated by America as "full spectrum dominance" to be established by tactics of "shock and awe." How to re-orient our minds? Each must find his own way, yet we must all help one another. This solitary work cannot be done alone. I offer brief recollections of experiences that might resonate with some, especially if the reader may be of the generation that remembers the movie Sound of Music, with lines of the song "I go to the hills when my heart is lonely."

The following diary quotes are words evoked by experiences in the Grand Himalaya of India. "Against this awesome grandeur, one witnesses human wretchedness and realizes the depth of his moral responsibility a universal responsibility toward all beings. May I learn from these mountain villagers fewness of wishes, and generosity. May I learn to simplify and to use least possible in order that others may live. Only qualities of heart and mind will accompany me to the next world, there to determine my destiny. May remembrance of untrammeled wilderness and a vibrant web of natural life not vanish from the mind of man. May beauty and the Mystery spark the latent urge to inquire within "Who am I? From whence have I come? Where am I going? How may I understand, penetrate the cause of birth, old age, decay and death? How shall I live?"

September 9, 2006
Jeff Knaebel [send him mail] is an expatriate American domiciled in India since 1995. He formerly practiced as a registered professional engineer, having been trained at Cornell Univ. and the Colorado School of Mines.
Copyright © 2006 LewRockwell. com
http://www.lewrockw ell.com/orig6/ knaebel4. html

Vande mataram

2006-09-03T04:39:00.000-07:00

well it just seems ironical that it is not a month that ustad bismillah khan saab passed away and he was a great devotee of the hindu godess saraswati and there is a furore in the parliament over the suggestion that every school in India be asked to include the national song in thier daily prayers ...
well now there is nothing new about the fact that why there is such hyped conversation about the same ...
the reason is precisely the same why Vande Mataram is our national song and not our national anthem...as informed in wikipedia

While Vande Mataram was treated as the national anthem of India for long, ultimately Jana Gana Mana, was chosen as the national anthem of independent India. The song was rejected on the grounds that Muslims felt offended by its depiction of the nation as "Ma Durga"—a Hindu goddess— thus equating the nation with the Hindu conception of shakti, divine feminine dynamic force; and by its origin as part of Anandamatha, a novel they felt had an anti-Muslim message

In 1937 the Indian National congress discussed at length the status of the song. It was pointed out then that though the first two stanzas began with an unexceptionable evocation of the beauty of the motherland, in later stanzas there are refences where the motherland is likened to godess Durga. Therefore, the Congress decided to adopt only the first two stanzas as the national song.

so as we see this is not a fresh controversy... but still it is a controversy and it has been there because it is a two sided sword ... on the one hand it hurts the sentiments of the muslims if they dont want to chant the names of hindu goddess and on the other hand it srises the question that is religion greater than the country ??? well the second is a trickier one ... well is a country asks to to forgo your faith for its sake then i suppose that the country is actually not greater than the religion ... so i think the decision taken by the government in power is actuallyt the correct one that is no one is bound to sing the national song .... it is not that just by singing a song that you show your patriotism ... and the plea was accepted showed that the future was bright as not often had the government heeded to any opinion until it was marked by widespread violent protests ... thus it seems preety much clear that the opposition in the house has taken up the issue to a senseless debate and has aptly found no support .... And my suggestion is that if it is the VHP that is provoking the opposition in raising such issues then i think that the institution must be banned for cultivating communal diaharmony...
moreover this issue should serve as a warning to the UPA government to not poke matters in to unnecessary issues like what the individual schools must recite on which day , better leave it to the schools to do whatever they want to do and i wonder if any student will object to sing the song .... so why complicated the things ... so i hope Mr. Arjun Singh , a highly qualified person , better takes care of the words he utters next time and dedicates his knowledge to let peace prevail in the nation ... (the quota bill might act as a refreshment for someone.)

well I am happy that the issue on its way out as September 7 happens to be my birthday...