Saturday, March 20, 2010
Editorial Note
From this edition onwards we are going to carry articles and news items sent by our readers. Due to space constraints we will however edit these articles but at the same time save the original article in case any reader wishes to read the entire piece.
Media Abetting Crimes Against Women
Nirjhari Sinha
A century has passed since 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. In 1910 the first international women's conference was held in Copenhagen in the labour-movement building. Ever since, the 'International Women's Day' has been observed and the next was held on March 19, 1911 in Germany, Austria, Denmark and some other European countries.
Russian revolutionary and feminist, Alexandra Kollontai, had helped to organise the event in Germany wrote that it had exceeded all expectations...Germany and Austria were seething and trembling in the sea of women. Meetings were organised everywhere…..in the small towns and even in the villages, halls were packed so full that they had to ask (male) workers to give up their places for the women.
A hundred years after that glorious march of the women, what is the image of the Indian Woman that is being beamed into our living rooms every day? What stories do Santu, Jyoti, Amoli, Anandi, Sia and scores of other women tell us every evening? To be a true Indian woman, you have to accept the traditional rule of the patriarchal hierarchy and completely sacrifice her own wants and desires! Nay, not just wants and desires but her own identity and existence!
Law today emphatically prohibits female infanticide, child marriage and sexual abuse of any woman. But what does Amma do in LAADO? Openly murders the female child and reduces the rebel Sia into a servile maid servant. Anandi, the helpless child bride of BALIKAVADHU, is abused harassed and kicked around by Dadidsa who can get away with every type of ill treatment of her Bahus (daughter-in-law). In Jyoti serial allows Shushi to be used as a prostitute to satisfy the material needs of her husband and Jyoti herself is kicked out on false charges of adultery with her “loving' husband turning a “blind eye”. In BANDINI, Santu enjoys her captive role and tolerates the abuse as a “low caste woman” as a good virtue in order to become a role model for all mothers. The worst ofcourse is “Bairi Piya” that for nights together shows the sexual exploits of the “Thakur”(landlord) on Amoli whose own husband is portrayed as the spineless servant who gifts his married wife to his master for his sexual pleasures! One wonders why the different woman's organization are so conspicuously silent ; does it not concern the National Woman's Commission when the national channels beam such vulgarity about women?
The two channels that promote such disgusting and loathsome serials are ofcourse making loads of money. NDTV Imagine {Bandini, Jyoti etc}and COLORS (Laado, Balikavadhu, Bairi Piya etc.) have increased their TRP substantially and millions watch these serials with bated breath. Both these channels belong to very reputed groups; the former being a part of NDTV and the latter being a part of Viacom 18 that partners with Network 18, the CNN-IBN group. Wonder whether people like Barkha Dutt, Pranay Roy, Rajdeep Sardesai etc ever watch their own group's productions and deal with such issues in their “We the People” and “Big Fights”!
Be that as it may, on this day of International Woman's Day, it is a tragedy what we have reduced this day to a ritual, unconcerned about the real state of the woman in this country. The media which can influence a large section of the populations portrays her as a “BANDINI”. Are we going to accept this image?
A century has passed since 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. In 1910 the first international women's conference was held in Copenhagen in the labour-movement building. Ever since, the 'International Women's Day' has been observed and the next was held on March 19, 1911 in Germany, Austria, Denmark and some other European countries.
Russian revolutionary and feminist, Alexandra Kollontai, had helped to organise the event in Germany wrote that it had exceeded all expectations...Germany and Austria were seething and trembling in the sea of women. Meetings were organised everywhere…..in the small towns and even in the villages, halls were packed so full that they had to ask (male) workers to give up their places for the women.
A hundred years after that glorious march of the women, what is the image of the Indian Woman that is being beamed into our living rooms every day? What stories do Santu, Jyoti, Amoli, Anandi, Sia and scores of other women tell us every evening? To be a true Indian woman, you have to accept the traditional rule of the patriarchal hierarchy and completely sacrifice her own wants and desires! Nay, not just wants and desires but her own identity and existence!
Law today emphatically prohibits female infanticide, child marriage and sexual abuse of any woman. But what does Amma do in LAADO? Openly murders the female child and reduces the rebel Sia into a servile maid servant. Anandi, the helpless child bride of BALIKAVADHU, is abused harassed and kicked around by Dadidsa who can get away with every type of ill treatment of her Bahus (daughter-in-law). In Jyoti serial allows Shushi to be used as a prostitute to satisfy the material needs of her husband and Jyoti herself is kicked out on false charges of adultery with her “loving' husband turning a “blind eye”. In BANDINI, Santu enjoys her captive role and tolerates the abuse as a “low caste woman” as a good virtue in order to become a role model for all mothers. The worst ofcourse is “Bairi Piya” that for nights together shows the sexual exploits of the “Thakur”(landlord) on Amoli whose own husband is portrayed as the spineless servant who gifts his married wife to his master for his sexual pleasures! One wonders why the different woman's organization are so conspicuously silent ; does it not concern the National Woman's Commission when the national channels beam such vulgarity about women?
The two channels that promote such disgusting and loathsome serials are ofcourse making loads of money. NDTV Imagine {Bandini, Jyoti etc}and COLORS (Laado, Balikavadhu, Bairi Piya etc.) have increased their TRP substantially and millions watch these serials with bated breath. Both these channels belong to very reputed groups; the former being a part of NDTV and the latter being a part of Viacom 18 that partners with Network 18, the CNN-IBN group. Wonder whether people like Barkha Dutt, Pranay Roy, Rajdeep Sardesai etc ever watch their own group's productions and deal with such issues in their “We the People” and “Big Fights”!
Be that as it may, on this day of International Woman's Day, it is a tragedy what we have reduced this day to a ritual, unconcerned about the real state of the woman in this country. The media which can influence a large section of the populations portrays her as a “BANDINI”. Are we going to accept this image?
Editorial
The End of the Mixed (Fixed?) Economy
Kamalnath speaking in the NDTV program on Budget was indeed candid. In reply to a question by Pranay Roy, he stated without the slightest hesitation that the objective of the present budget was to shift the development of the country to the private sector unlike the 1970s when the onus was on the Public sector to push the economic development. The Nehruvian era is finally over!
But the issue is not one of just making political statements. Hard money is required to be transferred to the private kitty and the finance minister as well as the railway minister does this job remarkably well. Disinvestments, reduction of farmers subsidy, massive investment in infrastructural development (20km of highway per day!), increase in NREG to upset the land-loss of the rural poor due to industrial SEZ and reduction of tax rates in different income slabs to increase the purchase power of the urban middle class are all green signals for the private sector.
The Finance Minister has targeted Gross tax receipts of Rs. 7.46 Lac Crores. To achieve this target the Finance Minister plans to get a net revenue from direct tax proposals to the tune of Rs 20,500 Cr and indirect taxes Rs 46,500 Cr. No tax on Income up to Rs 1.6 lacs. . 30% tax on income above Rs 8 lacs. 20% tax on income between Rs5 lacs to 8 lacs. 10% tax on income between Rs1.6 lacs to 5 lacs. Finally increase in petrol and diesel price to reduce the deficit. Defence Capital Expenditure raised to Rs 60000 Cr. Allocation fund to defence raised to Rs 1.47 lac Cr.
It won't be long before defense production is shifted to the private sector as well. All is well for the Tata Ambanis and hell with the aam admi!
Rape, Murder and Dowry Death in Gujarat
Gujarat has been set as a standard for development. Whenever Narendra Modi is called to other states to campaign for BJP in any election, he never forgets to announce the great heights achieved by Gujarat. He never forgets to boast how safe women are in Gujarat. The figures of crime against women recorded in Police-register are an eye-opener.
Two activists had sought information under right to information act in October 2007, about crime against women during the years 2002-2007.Additional DIG, crime and railways, Gandhinagar refused to part with information. Finally an appeal was filed to chief commissioner, Gujarat. After two years of persuasion following information was obtained.
The following statistics are devastating. It proves that women are most unsafe in 'Swarnim' Gujarat and this insecurity is increasing with time! A Century after the first International Womens' Day, there is indeed nothing to celebrate for.
Kamalnath speaking in the NDTV program on Budget was indeed candid. In reply to a question by Pranay Roy, he stated without the slightest hesitation that the objective of the present budget was to shift the development of the country to the private sector unlike the 1970s when the onus was on the Public sector to push the economic development. The Nehruvian era is finally over!
But the issue is not one of just making political statements. Hard money is required to be transferred to the private kitty and the finance minister as well as the railway minister does this job remarkably well. Disinvestments, reduction of farmers subsidy, massive investment in infrastructural development (20km of highway per day!), increase in NREG to upset the land-loss of the rural poor due to industrial SEZ and reduction of tax rates in different income slabs to increase the purchase power of the urban middle class are all green signals for the private sector.
The Finance Minister has targeted Gross tax receipts of Rs. 7.46 Lac Crores. To achieve this target the Finance Minister plans to get a net revenue from direct tax proposals to the tune of Rs 20,500 Cr and indirect taxes Rs 46,500 Cr. No tax on Income up to Rs 1.6 lacs. . 30% tax on income above Rs 8 lacs. 20% tax on income between Rs5 lacs to 8 lacs. 10% tax on income between Rs1.6 lacs to 5 lacs. Finally increase in petrol and diesel price to reduce the deficit. Defence Capital Expenditure raised to Rs 60000 Cr. Allocation fund to defence raised to Rs 1.47 lac Cr.
It won't be long before defense production is shifted to the private sector as well. All is well for the Tata Ambanis and hell with the aam admi!
Rape, Murder and Dowry Death in Gujarat
Gujarat has been set as a standard for development. Whenever Narendra Modi is called to other states to campaign for BJP in any election, he never forgets to announce the great heights achieved by Gujarat. He never forgets to boast how safe women are in Gujarat. The figures of crime against women recorded in Police-register are an eye-opener.
Two activists had sought information under right to information act in October 2007, about crime against women during the years 2002-2007.Additional DIG, crime and railways, Gandhinagar refused to part with information. Finally an appeal was filed to chief commissioner, Gujarat. After two years of persuasion following information was obtained.
The following statistics are devastating. It proves that women are most unsafe in 'Swarnim' Gujarat and this insecurity is increasing with time! A Century after the first International Womens' Day, there is indeed nothing to celebrate for.
Reader's Article - 69 farmer commit suicides in Adilabad district
V.L. Padma Priya
Sixty-nine farmers from Adilabad district committed suicide during the Kharif season that lasted from August to November. The number grew to 93 by December 15. If reports from the Non Governmental Organisations and farmers' associations in Andhra Pradesh are to be believed, failure of Kharif crop and mounting debts are stated to be the reasons for the spate of suicides across various mandals of the district.
In the first week of November itself, over 16 suicides were reported in vernacular newspapers and that's when we put together this committee to ascertain the facts. The committee came up with a report confirming 69 cases of suicide during the Kharif season. Majority of the farmers who took the extreme step had taken large amounts of loans from private usurers and micro-finance operators at high interest rate in order to cultivate cotton, revealed the report.
Confirming the report by the committee, S. Malla Reddy, vice president, Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangham says over 93 suicide deaths were recorded by the Sangham by December 15, 2009. “The minimum cost of cultivation per acre is around Rs.12,000 so a farmer would require a harvest of six quintals per acre merely to break-even,” he points out. Though the minimum support price for cotton in Kharif 2009 stood at Rs.3000, the low yield-- almost half of the previous year-- pushed the farmers deeper into debts”, the report points out.
Sixty-nine farmers from Adilabad district committed suicide during the Kharif season that lasted from August to November. The number grew to 93 by December 15. If reports from the Non Governmental Organisations and farmers' associations in Andhra Pradesh are to be believed, failure of Kharif crop and mounting debts are stated to be the reasons for the spate of suicides across various mandals of the district.
In the first week of November itself, over 16 suicides were reported in vernacular newspapers and that's when we put together this committee to ascertain the facts. The committee came up with a report confirming 69 cases of suicide during the Kharif season. Majority of the farmers who took the extreme step had taken large amounts of loans from private usurers and micro-finance operators at high interest rate in order to cultivate cotton, revealed the report.
Confirming the report by the committee, S. Malla Reddy, vice president, Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangham says over 93 suicide deaths were recorded by the Sangham by December 15, 2009. “The minimum cost of cultivation per acre is around Rs.12,000 so a farmer would require a harvest of six quintals per acre merely to break-even,” he points out. Though the minimum support price for cotton in Kharif 2009 stood at Rs.3000, the low yield-- almost half of the previous year-- pushed the farmers deeper into debts”, the report points out.
Charles Robert Darwin: 200 years after evolution
Mukul Sinha
Life on earth has been evolving since millions of years but we realised of it just 200 hundred years ago. The credit ought to go to Charles Robert Darwin, the author of the “On the origin of Species”. He was born on 12 February 1809 in England and was a naturalist who realised that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors. He proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection. He published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 1859 book “On the origin of Species”.
The popular perception of Charles Darwin and his work is that, the present day human has descended from the ape. This concept may appear scientifically acceptable today but was wholly rejected by the Christian world of the early nineteenth century. As per the Christian ideology of those days, the origin of the human race could only start with Adam and Eve and therefore the evolutionary theory was rejected. The Archbishop was one of his sternest critics and had sarcastically wanted know which of his grandparent was a monkey. One of Darwin's disciples had retorted by saying that Darwin certainly did not descend from a pope!
Darwin's understanding of the evolution of the different life forms came during his five years of sea voyage on the H.M.S.Beagle between Dec. 1831 - Oct. 1836. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean Beagle arrived at St. Helena Island from South Africa and then went on to South America.
It was in Santiago in Cape Verde Island that Darwin made his first curious discovery. He found a horizontal white band of shells within a cliff face along the shoreline of Porto Praya. The fact that this layer was forty-five feet above sea level raised some interesting questions for Darwin.
The arrangement of the shell layer appeared to support Lyell's theory of a world slowly changing over great periods of time, a novel concept in Darwin's day. This observation, and many others like it, would later lead Darwin to develop his own theory of rising continents and sinking ocean floors.
Darwin's theory of evolution and the survival of the fittest brought to fore the concept of change and the mechanism of change. From a metaphysical outlook, Darwin took the first step towards the dialectical materialistic world view which was later enormously developed by Karl Marx and Engel. Darwin died on 19th April 1882.
Life on earth has been evolving since millions of years but we realised of it just 200 hundred years ago. The credit ought to go to Charles Robert Darwin, the author of the “On the origin of Species”. He was born on 12 February 1809 in England and was a naturalist who realised that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors. He proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection. He published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 1859 book “On the origin of Species”.
The popular perception of Charles Darwin and his work is that, the present day human has descended from the ape. This concept may appear scientifically acceptable today but was wholly rejected by the Christian world of the early nineteenth century. As per the Christian ideology of those days, the origin of the human race could only start with Adam and Eve and therefore the evolutionary theory was rejected. The Archbishop was one of his sternest critics and had sarcastically wanted know which of his grandparent was a monkey. One of Darwin's disciples had retorted by saying that Darwin certainly did not descend from a pope!
Darwin's understanding of the evolution of the different life forms came during his five years of sea voyage on the H.M.S.Beagle between Dec. 1831 - Oct. 1836. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean Beagle arrived at St. Helena Island from South Africa and then went on to South America.
It was in Santiago in Cape Verde Island that Darwin made his first curious discovery. He found a horizontal white band of shells within a cliff face along the shoreline of Porto Praya. The fact that this layer was forty-five feet above sea level raised some interesting questions for Darwin.
The arrangement of the shell layer appeared to support Lyell's theory of a world slowly changing over great periods of time, a novel concept in Darwin's day. This observation, and many others like it, would later lead Darwin to develop his own theory of rising continents and sinking ocean floors.
Darwin's theory of evolution and the survival of the fittest brought to fore the concept of change and the mechanism of change. From a metaphysical outlook, Darwin took the first step towards the dialectical materialistic world view which was later enormously developed by Karl Marx and Engel. Darwin died on 19th April 1882.
Boribundhs or Choribundh? Development or Fraud?
Compiled from RTI data collected by Bharat Jhala
Disasters have become opportunistic events for the government to undertake much needed development work. The State Government was aware that due to the disasters and man-made floods from 2005 to 2008, there was a change in the course of rivers in 23 zillas. As a result, lakhs of farmers' fields were washed away rendering them unfit for cultivation.
If the Government had undertaken long term measures such as increasing the depths of the rivers, pitching both the river banks and constructing check dams at every kilometer, perhaps the past disasters could have been avoided and the future safeguarded. But instead, the Government suddenly decided to construct boribundhs, claiming that the water could be prevented from flooding the villages or the fields by such “boribundhs”! However, the boribundh is not a permanent structure and they have been built without any planning for disasters or stopping the runoff of rain water!
On 13th January, 2010, Bharatsinh Jhala submitted a RTI to the Chief Minister's Office requesting amongst others the following information:
1.The general regulation released by the State government on constructing boribundhs in the villages of Gujarat and the names of the ministers responsible for taking the decision for the same.
2.The details of the villages, taluka and zillas where the boribundhs were constructed and the costs incurred.
The following reply was received:
1. On 17th August 2009, Mr. Narendra Modi made an announcement to commence the construction of the boribundhs, through a video conference from Sachivalaya, Gandhinagar.
2. Boribundhs had been constructed at a cost ranging from Rs. 7 lakhs to Rs. 23 lakhs. But since there were no rains during the next month, there has been no collection or containment of water.
3. All the costs have been incurred utilising the funds from the Central Government's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).
As per the NREGS policy, the villagers have to take decisions on such kind of development work in a Gramsabha, which the Gram Panchayat then implements but none of the villages had passed a prior resolution regarding the same. Thus crores of NREGS funds were wasted away without any long-term benefit to the villagers only to fuel the Chief Minister's propaganda of development.
Disasters have become opportunistic events for the government to undertake much needed development work. The State Government was aware that due to the disasters and man-made floods from 2005 to 2008, there was a change in the course of rivers in 23 zillas. As a result, lakhs of farmers' fields were washed away rendering them unfit for cultivation.
If the Government had undertaken long term measures such as increasing the depths of the rivers, pitching both the river banks and constructing check dams at every kilometer, perhaps the past disasters could have been avoided and the future safeguarded. But instead, the Government suddenly decided to construct boribundhs, claiming that the water could be prevented from flooding the villages or the fields by such “boribundhs”! However, the boribundh is not a permanent structure and they have been built without any planning for disasters or stopping the runoff of rain water!
On 13th January, 2010, Bharatsinh Jhala submitted a RTI to the Chief Minister's Office requesting amongst others the following information:
1.The general regulation released by the State government on constructing boribundhs in the villages of Gujarat and the names of the ministers responsible for taking the decision for the same.
2.The details of the villages, taluka and zillas where the boribundhs were constructed and the costs incurred.
The following reply was received:
1. On 17th August 2009, Mr. Narendra Modi made an announcement to commence the construction of the boribundhs, through a video conference from Sachivalaya, Gandhinagar.
2. Boribundhs had been constructed at a cost ranging from Rs. 7 lakhs to Rs. 23 lakhs. But since there were no rains during the next month, there has been no collection or containment of water.
3. All the costs have been incurred utilising the funds from the Central Government's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).
As per the NREGS policy, the villagers have to take decisions on such kind of development work in a Gramsabha, which the Gram Panchayat then implements but none of the villages had passed a prior resolution regarding the same. Thus crores of NREGS funds were wasted away without any long-term benefit to the villagers only to fuel the Chief Minister's propaganda of development.
Reader's Article - BT Brinjal Bartha: The Gender Dimension
Meera Velayudhan
Brinjal entered the Indian food chain four thousand years ago, India being the home to its 2500 varieties. Brinjal is the second highest consumed vegetable in the country after potato and is cultivated over 5.50 lakh hectares, providing livelihood to over 15 lakh farmers and 50 lakh vendors, mainly women. With the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee giving its sanction to BT Brinjal, the way is being paved for GM food crops as staple diet of the people, thereby threatening India's food sovereignty.
What is food sovereignty? According to the World Food Summit+5 in 2002, food sovereignty is about the rights of the people, communities, and nations to decide their own agricultural, labor, land, fishing, food policies. It goes beyond a food security agenda since it addresses the rights of the people not only in accessing food but also in determining how to use their own natural resources to ensure sustainable food security. Where do women's rights figure in the issue of food security and why? The large majority of poor women in south asia in particular play a key role in agriculture, the main source of livelihood. Women form 40% of agricultural workforce, with this percentage rising. To date, 53% of all male workers, 75% of all female workers and 85% of all rural female workers are in agriculture.
Crop diversity is therefore a gendered domain. It highlights the following:
(a) women's roles in agriculture for which they have specific skills and use different practices- processing, selection, storage, preservation of food grains. They have ethno botanical knowledge and skills.
(b) women's choices of crops point to the multiple roles they perform- as farmers, household cooking, keepers of cooking traditions, seed keepers, medicinal plant and health care givers.
(c) Women have the most stakes in crop diversity as they see its link with food security for their households. “We mix and sow” -is an often heard statement.
The introduction of new crop-cash crop- varieties lead to changes in roles and practices that have a specific and adverse impact on rural women. What is at stake here is control and power. Rural women are most vulnerable since they are denied, within their households and outside, ownership and control of resources, such as land, limiting their opportunities to have a say in changes in cropping practices, the modes of crop use, etc. So, maintaining biodiversity is linked with a range of women's rights including the rights of women from marginalized communities.
In the past few decades, the reproduction of seeds has moved out of the hands of farmers, women in particular, into the spheres of formal science, experimental plots of institutes, gene banks, commercial seed suppliers, bureaucratic procedures of seed certification. Women's seed and biodiversity knowledge is not recognized, documented or integrated into agricultural research. Efforts need to be made to ensure that such knowledge of women remains in the public domain and is backed up by a strong intellectual property rights regime that protects their rights and prevents monopolistic trade practices so that there concerted efforts to ward off the threats posed by commercial seeds in the name of technological control, economic efficiency, rational management.
Brinjal entered the Indian food chain four thousand years ago, India being the home to its 2500 varieties. Brinjal is the second highest consumed vegetable in the country after potato and is cultivated over 5.50 lakh hectares, providing livelihood to over 15 lakh farmers and 50 lakh vendors, mainly women. With the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee giving its sanction to BT Brinjal, the way is being paved for GM food crops as staple diet of the people, thereby threatening India's food sovereignty.
What is food sovereignty? According to the World Food Summit+5 in 2002, food sovereignty is about the rights of the people, communities, and nations to decide their own agricultural, labor, land, fishing, food policies. It goes beyond a food security agenda since it addresses the rights of the people not only in accessing food but also in determining how to use their own natural resources to ensure sustainable food security. Where do women's rights figure in the issue of food security and why? The large majority of poor women in south asia in particular play a key role in agriculture, the main source of livelihood. Women form 40% of agricultural workforce, with this percentage rising. To date, 53% of all male workers, 75% of all female workers and 85% of all rural female workers are in agriculture.
Crop diversity is therefore a gendered domain. It highlights the following:
(a) women's roles in agriculture for which they have specific skills and use different practices- processing, selection, storage, preservation of food grains. They have ethno botanical knowledge and skills.
(b) women's choices of crops point to the multiple roles they perform- as farmers, household cooking, keepers of cooking traditions, seed keepers, medicinal plant and health care givers.
(c) Women have the most stakes in crop diversity as they see its link with food security for their households. “We mix and sow” -is an often heard statement.
The introduction of new crop-cash crop- varieties lead to changes in roles and practices that have a specific and adverse impact on rural women. What is at stake here is control and power. Rural women are most vulnerable since they are denied, within their households and outside, ownership and control of resources, such as land, limiting their opportunities to have a say in changes in cropping practices, the modes of crop use, etc. So, maintaining biodiversity is linked with a range of women's rights including the rights of women from marginalized communities.
In the past few decades, the reproduction of seeds has moved out of the hands of farmers, women in particular, into the spheres of formal science, experimental plots of institutes, gene banks, commercial seed suppliers, bureaucratic procedures of seed certification. Women's seed and biodiversity knowledge is not recognized, documented or integrated into agricultural research. Efforts need to be made to ensure that such knowledge of women remains in the public domain and is backed up by a strong intellectual property rights regime that protects their rights and prevents monopolistic trade practices so that there concerted efforts to ward off the threats posed by commercial seeds in the name of technological control, economic efficiency, rational management.
Friday, February 19, 2010
THE REPUBLIC ON SALE
Mukul Sinha
As 26th January approaches each year, we find little children in tattered clothes scurrying across the traffic signals to sell their tricolor merchandise to the occupants of the whizzing cars that stop at the red signals. The approaching “Republic Day” gives them some hope to sell their stock of plastic flags for perhaps a better meal!
While the poor to survive have to sell the symbol of our republic, the rich are selling the republic itself. The choice of who would be the Chief Guest of the Republic day celebration is also decided not on the stature of our guest but on financial consideration. This year, the President of South Korea Mr. Lee Myung Bak was invited to preside over the Republic day parade, guess for what reasons? Because the South Koreans are investing the highest amount to establish the gigantic POSCO!
POSCO, is the world's fourth largest steel producer and one of the most competitive steel companies in the world. POSCO-India's proposed investment is the highest ever Foreign Direct Investment in India. The company has ambitious expansion plans in India, hoping to invest some $19 billion in the country. Five years ago Posco unveiled plans to build India's largest steel mill in the State of Orissa on the Bay of Bengal.
Because of local opposition, though, the project has suffered extensive delays and Posco hasn't even secured a 4,000-acre property promised for the steel plant. For more than four years the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samity (PPSS) has been bravely resisting attempts to displace over 30,000 people in Jagatsinghpur District of Orissa by POSCO, which wants to set up a steel company and a port on their lands. The Korean steelmaker is hoping the visit to New Delhi by South Korean President Lee Myung Bak will clear the way for its $19 billion in proposed investments in India.
The republic which was meant to be of the people by the people and for the people to empower the common man has now become the podium for auction to the highest bidder. May be in the next republic day we find the displaced children of Jagatsinghpur of Orissa selling their tricolor flags in your city with the small prints behind the flags “made in South Korea”!
As 26th January approaches each year, we find little children in tattered clothes scurrying across the traffic signals to sell their tricolor merchandise to the occupants of the whizzing cars that stop at the red signals. The approaching “Republic Day” gives them some hope to sell their stock of plastic flags for perhaps a better meal!
While the poor to survive have to sell the symbol of our republic, the rich are selling the republic itself. The choice of who would be the Chief Guest of the Republic day celebration is also decided not on the stature of our guest but on financial consideration. This year, the President of South Korea Mr. Lee Myung Bak was invited to preside over the Republic day parade, guess for what reasons? Because the South Koreans are investing the highest amount to establish the gigantic POSCO!
POSCO, is the world's fourth largest steel producer and one of the most competitive steel companies in the world. POSCO-India's proposed investment is the highest ever Foreign Direct Investment in India. The company has ambitious expansion plans in India, hoping to invest some $19 billion in the country. Five years ago Posco unveiled plans to build India's largest steel mill in the State of Orissa on the Bay of Bengal.
Because of local opposition, though, the project has suffered extensive delays and Posco hasn't even secured a 4,000-acre property promised for the steel plant. For more than four years the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samity (PPSS) has been bravely resisting attempts to displace over 30,000 people in Jagatsinghpur District of Orissa by POSCO, which wants to set up a steel company and a port on their lands. The Korean steelmaker is hoping the visit to New Delhi by South Korean President Lee Myung Bak will clear the way for its $19 billion in proposed investments in India.
The republic which was meant to be of the people by the people and for the people to empower the common man has now become the podium for auction to the highest bidder. May be in the next republic day we find the displaced children of Jagatsinghpur of Orissa selling their tricolor flags in your city with the small prints behind the flags “made in South Korea”!
NSM remembers Gandhi on 30th January his death anniversary
When Godse pumped bullets in the frail body of Gandhiji on 30th Jan 1948, he really killed the greatest leader that the indigenous capitalism had ever produced. The prominence of his image as a man of peace and non-violence has really covered up his real historical role as the mass organiser. On this day we try to recall some of his strategies of mass movement that shook the British Empire.
The picture of Gandhiji which is perhaps well-known is one where he is spinning yarn with traditional 'charkha.' That charkha was the symbol that countered the great spinning mills of Britain that heralded the industrial revolution of Europe. The traditional charkha thus became the focus of unity of nascent Indian bourgeois. Having created the most powerful symbol of struggle, Gandhiji's call for boycotting foreign clothes and goods was a natural consequence of resistance of nascent national capitalism to imperialistic market domination. The masses of people coming out in the streets to burn foreign clothes became the powerful tool of resistance to imperialism. It would be incomplete if we do not remember the famous Dandi-March in this connection. He had defied the authority of British Empire on one hand and highlighted the indigenous production on other hand.
In the era of globalization the present Indian big bourgeois would however like us to remember Gandhiji not as the agitational leader that took on the British imperialism but as a harmless icon of peace and non-violence.
EDITORIAL: Post-Copenhagen Conference, The Farce Continues on Climate Change
Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is now deeply red-faced by the exposures of its lies about its profound claims on the 'disappearance' of Himalayan Glaciers and occurrence of extreme weather conditions related to global warming. IPCC has now admitted that these are not based on any scientific evidence. The Copenhagen meet, as expected, achieved nothing to protect our planet instead caused huge spending of natural resources.
The IPCC has never addressed the real issue of the lavish life-styles of the rich people and the rich nations as reflected by their per-capita CO2 emissions. The IPCC, dictated by USA, refuses to accept per-capita CO2 emission as the yardstick and continues to use per-country CO2 emission instead, which shifts the blame to China and India, who emit substantial amount of CO2 simply because of their large populations. Thus India and China are squarely blamed for their large populations. This however is not true.
NSM has computed the climate-normalized per-capita CO2 emission ratios of various countries vis-Ã -vis India (using average annual mean temperature). The figures are quite revealing: Australia is the worst offender (the ratio is 11.1) followed by Saudi Arabia (7.8), USA (6.7), Canada (3.8), and Japan (3.5). European Union has modest ratio of 2.6 followed by Russia (2.5), Brazil (1.2), China (1.2) and India (1.0).
Per-capita release of CO2 of USA is 6.7/2.6 = 2.6 times that of European Union (by our method)! Question is why should the IPCC not take cognizance of this fact and demand that USA's per-capita CO2 emission be reduced to match that of EU at least? (This means reduction in emission of 3.7 Billion tons of CO2 per year alone from USA). Much of the problem will be taken care of even at the current rate of emission of CO2. But since the expense of IPCC and other UN bodies is mainly borne by the USA how can they take such a correct stand? As the saying goes do not bite the hand that feeds.
The greatest pity is that the Minister for environment, Jairam Ramesh himself rejects the per-capita yardstick and supports the per-country cap that will only help the rich nations. We want to ask Mr. Jairam Ramesh, the IPCC and others, two questions: (1) is the food intake for proper diet is based on per-capita or per-country basis? If it is by per country, then average Indian will eat only once per day compared to three times of EU and 6 times that of USA. (2) Is the CO2 emitted by breathing human beings based on per-capita or per-country basis? If it is by per-country basis, then every two Indians out of three have to be choked to death to fulfill the wishes of the IPCC, USA and other rich nations.
NSM states that climate-normalized per-capita CO2 emission can be the only basis for computation of emission norms. This value for the European Union should be taken as standard (with a prescribed capping factor); this will cap that of USA and other wasteful countries while allowing India, China etc to improve the living standard of their citizens. Of course, new technologies must be developed and used to improve the efficiency of use of energy and material in all aspects of our life, which will reduce the emission.
Hero of “dev” becomes brand ambassador
Nirjhari Sinha
It is a common belief in India that the tourism in Gujarat has not taken off primarily because of the prohibition policy of the Gujarat. Amitabh Bachchan on Monday accepted the Gujarat government's offer to be the new “brand ambassador” for the State to promote “tourism”; Does he have plans to bring in his famed “Madhushalas” in Gujarat?? Ironically, the greatest ambassador of Gujarat, Mahatma Gandhi would have swooned at the idea of “madhushala” being promoted to develop Gujarat!
In his letter of acceptance to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Bachchan said: “You have very graciously considered my appointment as brand ambassador for Gujarat. I accept the offer with great humility. I hope we will be able to work together for the betterment of Gujarat.” While it is always welcome for any person to come and work for the benefit of the State, in the instant case, it started with the tax exemption for his film “Paa”. It is also heard that Amitabh Bachchan has plans to establish a major Film establishment for which he is looking for land in Gujarat. The development is thus not one sided but involves a quid pro quo.
From being a close friend of Rajiv Gandhi, being bailed out by Amar Singh during the ABCL debt-crisis to being a ambassador of Narendra Modi's Government are really very contradictory relations. One may say totally different roles. But then isn't he the greatest actor of all? In Govind Nihalani's film “Dev” he with great élan had played the role of the Police Officer who gave up his life to give justice to a Muslim boy as a sequel to the 2002 Gujarat riots. We may also recall his famous dialogue from that movie when the Chief Minister tells him that the ratio of the deaths of Hindus and Muslims in police firing was not fair. Would Shri Bachchan remember that memorable role of his and also remember that there cannot be any genuine development without peace and justice?
It is a common belief in India that the tourism in Gujarat has not taken off primarily because of the prohibition policy of the Gujarat. Amitabh Bachchan on Monday accepted the Gujarat government's offer to be the new “brand ambassador” for the State to promote “tourism”; Does he have plans to bring in his famed “Madhushalas” in Gujarat?? Ironically, the greatest ambassador of Gujarat, Mahatma Gandhi would have swooned at the idea of “madhushala” being promoted to develop Gujarat!
In his letter of acceptance to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Bachchan said: “You have very graciously considered my appointment as brand ambassador for Gujarat. I accept the offer with great humility. I hope we will be able to work together for the betterment of Gujarat.” While it is always welcome for any person to come and work for the benefit of the State, in the instant case, it started with the tax exemption for his film “Paa”. It is also heard that Amitabh Bachchan has plans to establish a major Film establishment for which he is looking for land in Gujarat. The development is thus not one sided but involves a quid pro quo.
From being a close friend of Rajiv Gandhi, being bailed out by Amar Singh during the ABCL debt-crisis to being a ambassador of Narendra Modi's Government are really very contradictory relations. One may say totally different roles. But then isn't he the greatest actor of all? In Govind Nihalani's film “Dev” he with great élan had played the role of the Police Officer who gave up his life to give justice to a Muslim boy as a sequel to the 2002 Gujarat riots. We may also recall his famous dialogue from that movie when the Chief Minister tells him that the ratio of the deaths of Hindus and Muslims in police firing was not fair. Would Shri Bachchan remember that memorable role of his and also remember that there cannot be any genuine development without peace and justice?
'ALVIDA' TO JYOTIBABU
Mukul Sinha
Jyotibabu is a perfect study of contradictions; a leader who rose during the Great Debate that shunned the “bourgeois parliamentary road to socialism” but will be forever remembered as the longest surviving communist Chief Minister of the bourgeoisie assembly! His elite upbringing in an affluent Bengali family, legal education in London and Marxist indoctrination during the pre-second world period, made him into the Jyotibabu as we knew him, a communist aristocrat. A distant taciturn leader who managed his party, Government and the people like a patriarch. But his ascent to the leadership was rather radical.
The primary differences between the Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU) and the Communist Party of China (CPC) in the early 1960s were (1) whether socialism could be built in one country, (2) whether the socialist system and capitalist system could coexist and (3) whether the communist parties could use the bourgeois parliamentary system to achieve socialism. All these three issues arose from the CPSU thesis that the “class struggle” had largely come to an end after the establishment of the Soviet Union!
The debate over these issues that came to be known as the “Great debate”, had split the communist parties world over. The undivided Communist party of India (CPI) had also split in 1964 into the CPI and CPI (M). CPI (M) led by Namboodripad and Jyotibabu opposed the CPSU line of parliamentary road to socialism.
At a CPI National Council meeting held on April 11, 1964, Jyotibabu sided with the radical Council members who walked out in protest, accusing Dange and his followers of "anti-unity and anti-Communist policies". They later on organised a convention in Tenali, Andhra Pradesh July 7 to 11. A large portrait of the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong at the Tenali convention indicated the tilt of the radical faction.
In 1967 a peasant uprising broke out in Naxalbari, in northern West Bengal. The insurgency was led by hardliner district-level CPI (M) leaders Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal. The hardliners within CPI (M) saw the Naxalbari uprising as the spark that would ignite the Indian revolution. “Spring Thunder over India” was published as an editorial in People's Daily, organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on 5 July 1967, hailing the Naxalbari movement. The Naxalbari movement was however violently repressed by the West Bengal government of which CPI(M) was a major partner, causing an abrupt break in CPI(M)-CPC relations. Jyotibabu was the home minister of that Government!
Thus ended the radicalism of Jyotibabu and for the next one decade {1967 to 1977}, he retraced his steps back to the CPI position of parliamentary road. In 1977 he became the Chief Minister of West Bengal as the leader of CPI (M), a position he held till his retirement in 2000. From the era of “Great debate” to being the longest surviving communist Chief Minister of a bourgeois assembly, is indeed a long march. We cannot give you a parting red salute Jyotibabu but we do say alvida!
Jyotibabu is a perfect study of contradictions; a leader who rose during the Great Debate that shunned the “bourgeois parliamentary road to socialism” but will be forever remembered as the longest surviving communist Chief Minister of the bourgeoisie assembly! His elite upbringing in an affluent Bengali family, legal education in London and Marxist indoctrination during the pre-second world period, made him into the Jyotibabu as we knew him, a communist aristocrat. A distant taciturn leader who managed his party, Government and the people like a patriarch. But his ascent to the leadership was rather radical.
The primary differences between the Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU) and the Communist Party of China (CPC) in the early 1960s were (1) whether socialism could be built in one country, (2) whether the socialist system and capitalist system could coexist and (3) whether the communist parties could use the bourgeois parliamentary system to achieve socialism. All these three issues arose from the CPSU thesis that the “class struggle” had largely come to an end after the establishment of the Soviet Union!
The debate over these issues that came to be known as the “Great debate”, had split the communist parties world over. The undivided Communist party of India (CPI) had also split in 1964 into the CPI and CPI (M). CPI (M) led by Namboodripad and Jyotibabu opposed the CPSU line of parliamentary road to socialism.
At a CPI National Council meeting held on April 11, 1964, Jyotibabu sided with the radical Council members who walked out in protest, accusing Dange and his followers of "anti-unity and anti-Communist policies". They later on organised a convention in Tenali, Andhra Pradesh July 7 to 11. A large portrait of the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong at the Tenali convention indicated the tilt of the radical faction.
In 1967 a peasant uprising broke out in Naxalbari, in northern West Bengal. The insurgency was led by hardliner district-level CPI (M) leaders Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal. The hardliners within CPI (M) saw the Naxalbari uprising as the spark that would ignite the Indian revolution. “Spring Thunder over India” was published as an editorial in People's Daily, organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on 5 July 1967, hailing the Naxalbari movement. The Naxalbari movement was however violently repressed by the West Bengal government of which CPI(M) was a major partner, causing an abrupt break in CPI(M)-CPC relations. Jyotibabu was the home minister of that Government!
Thus ended the radicalism of Jyotibabu and for the next one decade {1967 to 1977}, he retraced his steps back to the CPI position of parliamentary road. In 1977 he became the Chief Minister of West Bengal as the leader of CPI (M), a position he held till his retirement in 2000. From the era of “Great debate” to being the longest surviving communist Chief Minister of a bourgeois assembly, is indeed a long march. We cannot give you a parting red salute Jyotibabu but we do say alvida!
Struggle of brick-kiln workers under the banner of Int-Bhatta Union affiliated to GFTU
Ramesh Srivastava
Those sitting in high-rise buildings of Gujarat can't even imagine about the plight of workers who have made the bricks for those buildings. Most of the workers working in Int-bhattha (brick-kilns) come from other states like Rajasthan, UP, Chhattisghath etc. They are covered by inter state migrant workers act but the irony is that not a single owner of the brick-kilns comply with the provisions of the act. As a result all the workers are deprived of all the benefits entitled under the said act. Government is not bothered about these workers and has never taken any action against the brick-kiln owners for contravening the law.
In support of their seventeen demands thousands of workers went on strike from 14 to 25 January 2010. The strike was total. On 15th January a mass meeting was held at Adalaj. Owners of Bhattha tried to stop the meeting with the help of local police but workers showed their strength and solidarity and turned up in meeting in big number. Workers held another major rally cum Dharna at income-tax circle on 19th January and submitted their demands to labour authority.
On 25 January after twelve days strike when management did not respond workers held a meeting at Prabha Hanuman Mandir, Adalaj decided to go back to their native place as they had no means of survival.
However brick manufactures did not allow them to return home as they were demanding advance money they had given to workers at the time of joining.
Brick-kiln workers Union moved to Gujarat High court through its advocate Mukul Sinha. It was argued that since they have no money to return to owners they are being subjected to bonded labour. Workers had also appraised Gandhinagar SP and other official about their condition but no action had been taken.
Taking a strong note of the plight of the brick kiln workers Justice Akil Kureshi Of Gujarat High court has directed SP and collector to visit brick-Kiln units in Gandhinagar district and submit a report about labourers' condition.
The court also asked officials to take steps if necessary for release of brick kiln workers who are subjected to working conditions similar to bonded labourers by brick-manufacturers .The matter has been posted for further hearing on February sixteen
But this wont be the end of struggle. The workers and their organizations are determined to carry through the struggle to achieve their goal of higher wages and better facilities.
Those sitting in high-rise buildings of Gujarat can't even imagine about the plight of workers who have made the bricks for those buildings. Most of the workers working in Int-bhattha (brick-kilns) come from other states like Rajasthan, UP, Chhattisghath etc. They are covered by inter state migrant workers act but the irony is that not a single owner of the brick-kilns comply with the provisions of the act. As a result all the workers are deprived of all the benefits entitled under the said act. Government is not bothered about these workers and has never taken any action against the brick-kiln owners for contravening the law.
In support of their seventeen demands thousands of workers went on strike from 14 to 25 January 2010. The strike was total. On 15th January a mass meeting was held at Adalaj. Owners of Bhattha tried to stop the meeting with the help of local police but workers showed their strength and solidarity and turned up in meeting in big number. Workers held another major rally cum Dharna at income-tax circle on 19th January and submitted their demands to labour authority.
On 25 January after twelve days strike when management did not respond workers held a meeting at Prabha Hanuman Mandir, Adalaj decided to go back to their native place as they had no means of survival.
However brick manufactures did not allow them to return home as they were demanding advance money they had given to workers at the time of joining.
Brick-kiln workers Union moved to Gujarat High court through its advocate Mukul Sinha. It was argued that since they have no money to return to owners they are being subjected to bonded labour. Workers had also appraised Gandhinagar SP and other official about their condition but no action had been taken.
Taking a strong note of the plight of the brick kiln workers Justice Akil Kureshi Of Gujarat High court has directed SP and collector to visit brick-Kiln units in Gandhinagar district and submit a report about labourers' condition.
The court also asked officials to take steps if necessary for release of brick kiln workers who are subjected to working conditions similar to bonded labourers by brick-manufacturers .The matter has been posted for further hearing on February sixteen
But this wont be the end of struggle. The workers and their organizations are determined to carry through the struggle to achieve their goal of higher wages and better facilities.
HIGH COURT QUESTIONS SO CALLED 'DEPORTATION' OF ALLEGED 'BANGLADESHIS'
S.H. Iyer
A division bench of the Gujarat High Court comprising Chief Justice Mr. S.J. Mukhopadhaya and Mr. Justice Anant S. Dave, after preliminary hearing of a Public Interest Litigation filed by Shri Rajesh P. Mankad of Jan Sangharsh Manch challenging illegal arrest, detention and deportation of the hutment dwellers near Chandola lake of Ahmedabad city by the Special Operation Group (SOG) of Crime Branch on the ground of their being `Bangladeshi' nationals, directed the Government to file detailed affidavit on or before 8-2-2010. Division bench also framed the following the questions (1) When and why did the police arrest and detain the persons in question (2) Whether the Sessions Court or any other competent authority has passed any order of remand against the persons in question? (3) Whether the persons deported have been declared as Foreign Nationals by the competent tribunal under the Foreigners Act?
The petitioner Jan Sangharsh Manch had stated in their petition that on 23-4-2009 the SOG had arrested and detained several persons including men, women and children who were residing in hutments near Chandola lake of Ahmedabad city on the ground that they were citizens of Bangladesh . Out of 75 persons arrested, 27 were `deported' to Bangladesh on 25-11-2009 and 20 were `deported' on 10-1-2010. It was contended by the petitioner that all the persons arrested, detained and deported to Bangladesh are the citizens of India and that the police have handed over Indian citizens to a foreign country without any authority and sanction of law and without following the procedure prescribed by the Foreigners Act and therefore, the action on the part of the police was violative of Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Further hearing of the case is fixed on 8-2-2010.
A division bench of the Gujarat High Court comprising Chief Justice Mr. S.J. Mukhopadhaya and Mr. Justice Anant S. Dave, after preliminary hearing of a Public Interest Litigation filed by Shri Rajesh P. Mankad of Jan Sangharsh Manch challenging illegal arrest, detention and deportation of the hutment dwellers near Chandola lake of Ahmedabad city by the Special Operation Group (SOG) of Crime Branch on the ground of their being `Bangladeshi' nationals, directed the Government to file detailed affidavit on or before 8-2-2010. Division bench also framed the following the questions (1) When and why did the police arrest and detain the persons in question (2) Whether the Sessions Court or any other competent authority has passed any order of remand against the persons in question? (3) Whether the persons deported have been declared as Foreign Nationals by the competent tribunal under the Foreigners Act?
The petitioner Jan Sangharsh Manch had stated in their petition that on 23-4-2009 the SOG had arrested and detained several persons including men, women and children who were residing in hutments near Chandola lake of Ahmedabad city on the ground that they were citizens of Bangladesh . Out of 75 persons arrested, 27 were `deported' to Bangladesh on 25-11-2009 and 20 were `deported' on 10-1-2010. It was contended by the petitioner that all the persons arrested, detained and deported to Bangladesh are the citizens of India and that the police have handed over Indian citizens to a foreign country without any authority and sanction of law and without following the procedure prescribed by the Foreigners Act and therefore, the action on the part of the police was violative of Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Further hearing of the case is fixed on 8-2-2010.
Monday, January 18, 2010
1991-2010: Two Decades of Globalised Decay
Mukul Sinha
We are about to complete the first decade of the 21st Century. If we add to this the last decade of the 20th century, we now have two decades of decay under the “glorious” capitalist globalization. After 20 years of globalization, people have started realizing the bankruptcy of the capitalist mode of production and the degeneracy of its socio-political system. The rot has gone to the roots. The citadel itself is crumbling and America finds itself entangled in one of its worst economic crises. Will it ever come out of this mess or will be the end of the road? That will perhaps be the story of the next decade!
The beginning the last decade of the 20th Century started with the two most important events that have influenced global politics. On January 16, 1991, American forces started the air attack against Iraq leaving 200,000 Iraqis dead. The second event was the fall of the Soviet Union. Yeltsin, president of the Russian republic, lead a coup against Gorbachev in August 1991 to grab power that led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Thus started the present phase of globalization.. With all its aberrations and distortions, the Soviet Union alone stood in the path of the Western Capitalist mode of production and the “free market” having a different ideal if not a true socialist system. Globalization bulldozed all that under the hypocritical slogan of freedom and democracy. The resistance however came from the Islamic militants who on February 26, 1993, tried to destroy the World Trade Center, killing five people and trapping tens of thousands of office workers in the tower.
George W. Bush was sworn in as the 43rd president of America on Jan. 20, 2001. This was hardly a good omen for heralding the 21st century! The top item on Bush's domestic agenda was a $1.6 trillion tax cut. By the time Americans began receiving their tax rebate checks in August, the country's budget surplus had indeed withered. On September 11, 2001 terrorist attack that destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Centre at New York killing several thousand people. U.S. and British forces attacked the Taliban in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001 which collapsed after two months of bombing. “War against terrorism” thereafter became a convenient slogan to hit at all those who opposed capitalist globalization and the total destruction of Iraq followed, leading to the death of Saddam Hussein.
The last five years of George W Bush was of course terrible. He presided over the collapse of the American economy which exploded with the sub-prime loan disaster in 2006/07. Dozens of major Banks and financial Institutions went bankrupt and the American economy is kept alive by pumping tax payers' money into the corporate sector.
Alongwith the receding economy, the political and moral standards of societies all across the globe have also crumbled. Three of the most heinous genocides have also been carried out in this period. The "ethnic cleansing" in Croatia left 25,000 dead till January 1992, when a UN supervised ceasefire took place. In 1994, over 800,000 innocent Tutsis were hacked to death by Hutu extremists in the Rwanda genocide. Closer at home, over a thousand innocent Muslims were butchered in Gujarat in 2002. Two countries, Afghanistan and Iraq have virtually been destroyed. Globalization has indeed globalised violence and degradation all across the globe!
We are about to complete the first decade of the 21st Century. If we add to this the last decade of the 20th century, we now have two decades of decay under the “glorious” capitalist globalization. After 20 years of globalization, people have started realizing the bankruptcy of the capitalist mode of production and the degeneracy of its socio-political system. The rot has gone to the roots. The citadel itself is crumbling and America finds itself entangled in one of its worst economic crises. Will it ever come out of this mess or will be the end of the road? That will perhaps be the story of the next decade!
The beginning the last decade of the 20th Century started with the two most important events that have influenced global politics. On January 16, 1991, American forces started the air attack against Iraq leaving 200,000 Iraqis dead. The second event was the fall of the Soviet Union. Yeltsin, president of the Russian republic, lead a coup against Gorbachev in August 1991 to grab power that led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Thus started the present phase of globalization.. With all its aberrations and distortions, the Soviet Union alone stood in the path of the Western Capitalist mode of production and the “free market” having a different ideal if not a true socialist system. Globalization bulldozed all that under the hypocritical slogan of freedom and democracy. The resistance however came from the Islamic militants who on February 26, 1993, tried to destroy the World Trade Center, killing five people and trapping tens of thousands of office workers in the tower.
George W. Bush was sworn in as the 43rd president of America on Jan. 20, 2001. This was hardly a good omen for heralding the 21st century! The top item on Bush's domestic agenda was a $1.6 trillion tax cut. By the time Americans began receiving their tax rebate checks in August, the country's budget surplus had indeed withered. On September 11, 2001 terrorist attack that destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Centre at New York killing several thousand people. U.S. and British forces attacked the Taliban in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001 which collapsed after two months of bombing. “War against terrorism” thereafter became a convenient slogan to hit at all those who opposed capitalist globalization and the total destruction of Iraq followed, leading to the death of Saddam Hussein.
The last five years of George W Bush was of course terrible. He presided over the collapse of the American economy which exploded with the sub-prime loan disaster in 2006/07. Dozens of major Banks and financial Institutions went bankrupt and the American economy is kept alive by pumping tax payers' money into the corporate sector.
Alongwith the receding economy, the political and moral standards of societies all across the globe have also crumbled. Three of the most heinous genocides have also been carried out in this period. The "ethnic cleansing" in Croatia left 25,000 dead till January 1992, when a UN supervised ceasefire took place. In 1994, over 800,000 innocent Tutsis were hacked to death by Hutu extremists in the Rwanda genocide. Closer at home, over a thousand innocent Muslims were butchered in Gujarat in 2002. Two countries, Afghanistan and Iraq have virtually been destroyed. Globalization has indeed globalised violence and degradation all across the globe!
Editorial
Old wine in young bottle: The new President of BJP with old habits
The first major decision that Nitin Gadkari took as the President of BJP on the last days of 2009 was to support Sibu Soren as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand! A momentous decision for a man like Gadkari who just a few days back in his first press conference ostentatiously declared that he did not touch the feet of any person whom he did not respect! Sibu Soren must be a very respectable man for Gadkari and his party to be their unanimous choice as the Chief Minister despite his highly corrupt background! So what is the difference between the “old Rajnath” and the “young Gadkari”? It is Old wine in young bottle? So far as the RSS control over BJP is concerned, Gadkari apparently is the nominee of RSS. Nothing can therefore be expected to change in the ideological level. At the political level, the first act of Gadkari in supporting the minority group of Soren having only 18 MLAs is clearly as opportunistic as his predecessors or else how could the BJP with only 20 elected MLAs get into the ministry in a house which has 81 MLAs?
Welcome 2010
The first decade of the 21st century has very few happy moments to remember. In Gujarat we had started 2001 with the worst earthquake of the country followed by the most shameful genocide of 2002. The last few years witnessed the unusual spectacle of a crumbling American economy having been earlier hit by the deadly airplane attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre.
We of course have our struggle to celebrate. The last seven years have been testing times for all of us in Jan Sangharsh Manch and the New Socialist Movement. With heavy odds against us, we have firmly stood our ground to uphold secular democracy and during this time even register the New Socialist Movement as a political party. To advance the cause of the working people and guide the movement, we now have our newspaper, “Elaan”. So while we take lessons from the unhappy past, let us look forward to an eventful 2010. From all us at “Elaan” and New Socialist Movement, we wish our readers a very “Happy New Year”!
The first major decision that Nitin Gadkari took as the President of BJP on the last days of 2009 was to support Sibu Soren as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand! A momentous decision for a man like Gadkari who just a few days back in his first press conference ostentatiously declared that he did not touch the feet of any person whom he did not respect! Sibu Soren must be a very respectable man for Gadkari and his party to be their unanimous choice as the Chief Minister despite his highly corrupt background! So what is the difference between the “old Rajnath” and the “young Gadkari”? It is Old wine in young bottle? So far as the RSS control over BJP is concerned, Gadkari apparently is the nominee of RSS. Nothing can therefore be expected to change in the ideological level. At the political level, the first act of Gadkari in supporting the minority group of Soren having only 18 MLAs is clearly as opportunistic as his predecessors or else how could the BJP with only 20 elected MLAs get into the ministry in a house which has 81 MLAs?
Welcome 2010
The first decade of the 21st century has very few happy moments to remember. In Gujarat we had started 2001 with the worst earthquake of the country followed by the most shameful genocide of 2002. The last few years witnessed the unusual spectacle of a crumbling American economy having been earlier hit by the deadly airplane attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre.
We of course have our struggle to celebrate. The last seven years have been testing times for all of us in Jan Sangharsh Manch and the New Socialist Movement. With heavy odds against us, we have firmly stood our ground to uphold secular democracy and during this time even register the New Socialist Movement as a political party. To advance the cause of the working people and guide the movement, we now have our newspaper, “Elaan”. So while we take lessons from the unhappy past, let us look forward to an eventful 2010. From all us at “Elaan” and New Socialist Movement, we wish our readers a very “Happy New Year”!
Living in Hell: Struggle for Survival
Those who labor to build cities are destined to be excluded from the cities they built. This has been the history of the slum dwellers all over the world. Consigned to the fringes of the city, they make their jhuggi-jhopdis and live in the filth and dirt of the “effluent zones” of the cities. The residents of the “affluent zones” hate the sight of these miserable “encroachers” but have to tolerate their existence as they are still useful for maintaining the city as casuals and domestic workers. But as the city expands, the bull-dozers push them out farther just as garbage is removed. The story of the mega-city Ahmedabad is no different and thousands of slum dwellers have lost their shanties in the last few years to the bull-dozers.
For over two decades, Jansangharsh Manch has mobilized such slum dwellers to help them in their struggle for survival and scores of rallies and meetings have been held during this time to demand a proper housing policy for the marginalized sections. The struggle to save the 242 residence of Salatnagar has perhaps assumed epic proportions since this cluster of slums despite being demolished once by the Corporation and burnt down in the 2002 riots, stills survives.
On 19th December, a large meeting was held in Piplaj, the “new Andaman” for the slum dwellers of Ahmedabad. Whenever a slum is demolished, as an “alternative” accommodation, the slum dwellers are given a small plot of land in Piplaj, which till recently was a desolate, remote area in the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Though two years have passed after the establishment of this new cluster that houses the residents of Mahakali, Banas and other slums which were demolished, there are still no civic amenities like water, streets and gutters. The meeting resolved to fight for the JNURM facilities and a better future.
Earlier, on 4th December, a similar meeting was held in the Motera area by the residents of Valijibhai-ni-kuan to voice the same demand for improving the civic amenities like gutter, streets, drinking water and lights.
For over two decades, Jansangharsh Manch has mobilized such slum dwellers to help them in their struggle for survival and scores of rallies and meetings have been held during this time to demand a proper housing policy for the marginalized sections. The struggle to save the 242 residence of Salatnagar has perhaps assumed epic proportions since this cluster of slums despite being demolished once by the Corporation and burnt down in the 2002 riots, stills survives.
On 19th December, a large meeting was held in Piplaj, the “new Andaman” for the slum dwellers of Ahmedabad. Whenever a slum is demolished, as an “alternative” accommodation, the slum dwellers are given a small plot of land in Piplaj, which till recently was a desolate, remote area in the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Though two years have passed after the establishment of this new cluster that houses the residents of Mahakali, Banas and other slums which were demolished, there are still no civic amenities like water, streets and gutters. The meeting resolved to fight for the JNURM facilities and a better future.
Earlier, on 4th December, a similar meeting was held in the Motera area by the residents of Valijibhai-ni-kuan to voice the same demand for improving the civic amenities like gutter, streets, drinking water and lights.
Encounter with CBI: Apex Court transfers Sohrabuddin case to the CBI
Mukul Sinha
IGP D.G.Vanzara who was the de-facto Police Chief of the Gujarat State due to his proximity with the Chief Minister Narendra Modi could have never imagined that he would also be facing an encounter with the CBI. First, as the Chief of the Crime Branch, Ahmedabad and later as the Chief of the Anti-Terrorist Squad, he built up the dreaded team of encounter specialists. He and his team carried out seven “successful” encounters killing around 15 “dreaded terrorists” between 2002 and 2006. In one such encounter Sohrabuddin Sheikh was shot and killed on 26th November, 2005. His wife Kauserbi was injected with Pentothal and apparently burnt to death in the village of Vanzara. Her body was never found.
A letter from Rubabuddin, the brother of Sohrabuddin to the Chief Justice of India led to a preliminary enquiry by the CID and later to the filing of the writ petition before the Apex Court. The enquiry revealed that Sohrabuddin, Kauserbi and another person were kidnapped from a bus by the Gujarat Police when these persons were traveling from Hyderabad to Sangli. The third person, who was later identified as Tulsi Prajapati was also killed in another encounter by the same team in December, 2006 near Ambaji.
After notice was issued by Supreme Court, the investigation was handed over to DIG Rajnish Rai who did the unbelievable; he arrested D.G.Vanzara in April 2007 alongwith two other IPS officeres, namely Shri Dinesh M.N. from Rajasthan and Rajkumar Pandyan from Gujarat cadre. The arrests of the top Police officer close to the powers shook the foundations at Gandhinagar and Rajnish Rai was removed and the investigation was transferred to IGP Gita Johri. Ultimately, on 12th of January, 2010, the Apex Court passed its final Judgment and Order, directing the investigation to be handed over to CBI.
In most of these “encounters” Policemen from more than one State are involved. In the Sohrabuddin case, the Rajasthan Police, Gujarat Police, Maharashtra Police and the Andhra Police are involved. Tulsi, who was an accused in another criminal case registered in Gujarat was reportedly brought to Ahmedabad under the guise of producing him before the Ahmedabad Court and while taking him back to Rajasthan where he was lodged in the Udaipur jail, he was apparently shot and killed. At that time Dinesh M.N. IPS was the SP of Udaipur (now under arrest for killing Sohrabuddin) and the two Policemen who accompanied Tulsi to Ahmedabad were working under him and specially assigned to travel with Tulsi! In such inter-state conspiracy, the CBI alone can be efficacious. It will also help in finding out the political bosses who were pulling the strings from behind to create the bogey of “Islamic terrorism”.
IGP D.G.Vanzara who was the de-facto Police Chief of the Gujarat State due to his proximity with the Chief Minister Narendra Modi could have never imagined that he would also be facing an encounter with the CBI. First, as the Chief of the Crime Branch, Ahmedabad and later as the Chief of the Anti-Terrorist Squad, he built up the dreaded team of encounter specialists. He and his team carried out seven “successful” encounters killing around 15 “dreaded terrorists” between 2002 and 2006. In one such encounter Sohrabuddin Sheikh was shot and killed on 26th November, 2005. His wife Kauserbi was injected with Pentothal and apparently burnt to death in the village of Vanzara. Her body was never found.
A letter from Rubabuddin, the brother of Sohrabuddin to the Chief Justice of India led to a preliminary enquiry by the CID and later to the filing of the writ petition before the Apex Court. The enquiry revealed that Sohrabuddin, Kauserbi and another person were kidnapped from a bus by the Gujarat Police when these persons were traveling from Hyderabad to Sangli. The third person, who was later identified as Tulsi Prajapati was also killed in another encounter by the same team in December, 2006 near Ambaji.
After notice was issued by Supreme Court, the investigation was handed over to DIG Rajnish Rai who did the unbelievable; he arrested D.G.Vanzara in April 2007 alongwith two other IPS officeres, namely Shri Dinesh M.N. from Rajasthan and Rajkumar Pandyan from Gujarat cadre. The arrests of the top Police officer close to the powers shook the foundations at Gandhinagar and Rajnish Rai was removed and the investigation was transferred to IGP Gita Johri. Ultimately, on 12th of January, 2010, the Apex Court passed its final Judgment and Order, directing the investigation to be handed over to CBI.
In most of these “encounters” Policemen from more than one State are involved. In the Sohrabuddin case, the Rajasthan Police, Gujarat Police, Maharashtra Police and the Andhra Police are involved. Tulsi, who was an accused in another criminal case registered in Gujarat was reportedly brought to Ahmedabad under the guise of producing him before the Ahmedabad Court and while taking him back to Rajasthan where he was lodged in the Udaipur jail, he was apparently shot and killed. At that time Dinesh M.N. IPS was the SP of Udaipur (now under arrest for killing Sohrabuddin) and the two Policemen who accompanied Tulsi to Ahmedabad were working under him and specially assigned to travel with Tulsi! In such inter-state conspiracy, the CBI alone can be efficacious. It will also help in finding out the political bosses who were pulling the strings from behind to create the bogey of “Islamic terrorism”.
From Faith to Struggle: Struggle of the poojaris and employees of Jain temples
Bharat Bhatt
In 1989 a union was formed by poojaris and other employees of the major Jain temples of India managed by the Sheth Kalyanji-Anandji religious trust. The major establishment is in the temple town of Palitana. This trust has branches in four states and is one of the richest religious trusts. Ironically however, the workers were denied even minimum wages in the place of worship. Initially the union was affiliated to INTUC but felt betrayed. Thereafter the union joined GFTU and thus started a historical struggle.
In 1989 the poojaris and the employees went on strike in all the branches of trust. During the strike even the poojaris (priests) refused to conduct Puja (worship). It was a total strike for five days which shook the trust and the trustees were forced to pay minimum wages to all the workers. But the struggle continued and in the last two decades, a total of six settlements were signed and many contract workers were made permanent. The most important achievement is that they now get the same pay scales and dearness allowances as decided by the central pay commission from time to time.
The members of the union also participated in the struggle for democratic rights led by NSM and Jan Sangharsh Manch for housing rights and economic rights for other deprived sections of society. During the struggle in the last two decades, the employees learnt that divisive politics in the name of religion, region and caste are against workers unity and must be opposed. United we stand and divided we fall.
In 1989 a union was formed by poojaris and other employees of the major Jain temples of India managed by the Sheth Kalyanji-Anandji religious trust. The major establishment is in the temple town of Palitana. This trust has branches in four states and is one of the richest religious trusts. Ironically however, the workers were denied even minimum wages in the place of worship. Initially the union was affiliated to INTUC but felt betrayed. Thereafter the union joined GFTU and thus started a historical struggle.
In 1989 the poojaris and the employees went on strike in all the branches of trust. During the strike even the poojaris (priests) refused to conduct Puja (worship). It was a total strike for five days which shook the trust and the trustees were forced to pay minimum wages to all the workers. But the struggle continued and in the last two decades, a total of six settlements were signed and many contract workers were made permanent. The most important achievement is that they now get the same pay scales and dearness allowances as decided by the central pay commission from time to time.
The members of the union also participated in the struggle for democratic rights led by NSM and Jan Sangharsh Manch for housing rights and economic rights for other deprived sections of society. During the struggle in the last two decades, the employees learnt that divisive politics in the name of religion, region and caste are against workers unity and must be opposed. United we stand and divided we fall.
Shrinking Democracy: A Seminar Organised by Jan Sangarsh Manch
S.H. Iyer
Contrary to the claims made by the protagonists of the new economic order under Globalisation, democratic space has indeed shrunk. In a day long seminar on `Shrinking Democracy’ that was held at Vasudev Tripathi Hall, Shahpur, Ahmedabad on 20-12-2009 a large number of social activists, trade union leaders, industrial workers, and slum dwellers met to discuss the issue. Welcoming the participants, Dr. Mukul Sinha, Chairman of the New Socialist Movement introduced the subject and said that in the present era of globalization the voice of the common man was being throttled and democratic space was shrinking in all the spheres, be it the judiciary, legislature or executive.
Speaking on the occasion, former Chief Minister Shri Suresh Mehta was very critical about the functioning of the Gujarat Government in conducting the legislative and other businesses. He lamented that whatever little space the MLAs had in the existing democracy was also vanishing. He indicated that the assembly met only once in six months for two days. One day was reserved for condolence and obituary. The second day was reserved for shoutings and walkouts! MLAs have no say in the governance now. MLAs, media, and voters are all managed.
Speaking on the manner in which the democratic procedures to unravel corruption was being sabotaged, Shri Mehta spoke about a scam in the SUJALAM-SUFALAM SCHEME. While scrutinizing the accounts of a particular department in the above scheme, the CAG had noticed certain discrepancies and sought an explanation from the government, The government first initiated an inquiry through an IAS Officer, which, prima-facie, found that there were irregularities. However, for carrying out further enquiries, the government appointed another Committee which also came to same conclusion. Till date neither the report of the CAG nor the enquiry report has been tabled in the assembly! He also pointed out that in vibrant Gujarat, within a short span of three years, the number of people below poverty line has from risen from 78,000 to two lacs.
Coming down heavily on the demolition of hutments in big cities and urban areas, Shri Mahesh Bhatt said that though the right to shelter has been recognized as a fundamental right, it has still remained a dream for urban poor. The very object of enacting the Urban Land Ceiling Act was for the equitable distribution of surplus land so as to provide residential accommodation to the urban poor. Now this piece of welfare legislation has been repealed to make way for shopping malls. Moreover, section 40-J of the Town Planning Act provides for mandatory reservation of 10% land for housing the urban poor. However, the real question still remains – What has happened to the 10% land reserved for housing the urban poor?
Shri Amrish Patel, the General Secretary of GFTU, spoke against the creation of Special Economic Zones and the denial of labor laws within SEZs. Dr. Mukul Sinha spoke about the exploitation of tribals by of the corporate houses in connivance with the government who grab their land and other resources like minerals below their land. He said that the entire issue of “fighting” the Maoists was related to suppression of the tribal resistance. A common view emerging from the day long seminar was that the judiciary had failed to uphold its historical task of being the watchdog of democratic values and it was left to the people to rise for protecting their democratic rights.
Contrary to the claims made by the protagonists of the new economic order under Globalisation, democratic space has indeed shrunk. In a day long seminar on `Shrinking Democracy’ that was held at Vasudev Tripathi Hall, Shahpur, Ahmedabad on 20-12-2009 a large number of social activists, trade union leaders, industrial workers, and slum dwellers met to discuss the issue. Welcoming the participants, Dr. Mukul Sinha, Chairman of the New Socialist Movement introduced the subject and said that in the present era of globalization the voice of the common man was being throttled and democratic space was shrinking in all the spheres, be it the judiciary, legislature or executive.
Speaking on the occasion, former Chief Minister Shri Suresh Mehta was very critical about the functioning of the Gujarat Government in conducting the legislative and other businesses. He lamented that whatever little space the MLAs had in the existing democracy was also vanishing. He indicated that the assembly met only once in six months for two days. One day was reserved for condolence and obituary. The second day was reserved for shoutings and walkouts! MLAs have no say in the governance now. MLAs, media, and voters are all managed.
Speaking on the manner in which the democratic procedures to unravel corruption was being sabotaged, Shri Mehta spoke about a scam in the SUJALAM-SUFALAM SCHEME. While scrutinizing the accounts of a particular department in the above scheme, the CAG had noticed certain discrepancies and sought an explanation from the government, The government first initiated an inquiry through an IAS Officer, which, prima-facie, found that there were irregularities. However, for carrying out further enquiries, the government appointed another Committee which also came to same conclusion. Till date neither the report of the CAG nor the enquiry report has been tabled in the assembly! He also pointed out that in vibrant Gujarat, within a short span of three years, the number of people below poverty line has from risen from 78,000 to two lacs.
Coming down heavily on the demolition of hutments in big cities and urban areas, Shri Mahesh Bhatt said that though the right to shelter has been recognized as a fundamental right, it has still remained a dream for urban poor. The very object of enacting the Urban Land Ceiling Act was for the equitable distribution of surplus land so as to provide residential accommodation to the urban poor. Now this piece of welfare legislation has been repealed to make way for shopping malls. Moreover, section 40-J of the Town Planning Act provides for mandatory reservation of 10% land for housing the urban poor. However, the real question still remains – What has happened to the 10% land reserved for housing the urban poor?
Shri Amrish Patel, the General Secretary of GFTU, spoke against the creation of Special Economic Zones and the denial of labor laws within SEZs. Dr. Mukul Sinha spoke about the exploitation of tribals by of the corporate houses in connivance with the government who grab their land and other resources like minerals below their land. He said that the entire issue of “fighting” the Maoists was related to suppression of the tribal resistance. A common view emerging from the day long seminar was that the judiciary had failed to uphold its historical task of being the watchdog of democratic values and it was left to the people to rise for protecting their democratic rights.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)