सोमवार, 30 जून 2014

Is this the mint-fresh and shining new India?

Sunday, 29 June 2014 – 6:09pm IST Updated: Monday, 30 June 2014  | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

I’m so excited about the new  around us. Times are changing for the better, we’re told. Employment is going to improve by leaps and bounds, children will go to school and learn much more;  rivers will be linked and dams, ports and miles upon miles of (densely green) freeways will be built. In return, we must learn  new ways of working, living, worshipping, dressing and behaving. Just a small price to pay for a new .
But, all this will only happen if we do the right thing. Absorb the evidence being presented and passively accept the transformation taking place before us. No questions asked, no varied points of view  solicited or needed. Dispensable are  people, organisations, forests and animals getting in the way.  We can share facts through our friendly media and convince the masses about their inherent anti-social nature.
So let’s start with facts:
Fact # 1:  cause untold harm to the nation. 
NGOs are a money-grabbing lot, more concerned about how to extract money from a foreign donor and where their next junket will be. They are also concerned with pushing the agenda of the said (foreign) donor, rather than working for the betterment of the country. Which is probably a good thing, because if they really do get down to work, things would actually become worse.
Fact # 2: People’s movements are anti-development.
All that these “movements” want is to bring down the GDP of our nation (thus causing it significant “economic insecurity”); indulge in anti-development activities (by asking all those pesky questions and inciting local communities against big dams, hydropower and mining projects and other pro-poor activities) and generally make a nuisance of themselves.
Fact # 3: NGOs and people’s movements should be put in their place. 
That’s easy. Pick an organisation that is following all the laws of the land, accuse it of indulging in anti-national activities, then threaten to (if not actually) revoke its ability to work within the country. And if they claim — as some of them claim of working well within the mandate of the country’s laws (including raising their own resources and filing their audited returns), scare them into silence.
Fact # 4: Women’s rights groups and  are ruining the image of our country. 
Women’s rights activists make (unsubstantiated) claims about the rising cases of violence against women and girls. They do their own (so-called) research and pull out (inconvenient) government statistics about the increasing brutality of the crimes. They hold forth about how the structural nature of violence is worsening gender violence. They demand more accountability from the criminal justice system. Yada, yada.
But good news, folks! We have found the root cause of all this bellyaching about the violations of human rights. It is not caused by patriarchy corroded by neoliberalism and the corresponding rise in inequalities. The answer is actually much easier.
It lies in the unchecked activism of people’s movements and funded groups allowed to grow in this country. It is because — in the past few decades — a benign and naïve State assumed that a democratic society has a right to diverse voices. That communities have a right to share their opinions and be consulted. That the right to speech and expression are actual freedoms that have been written into our Constitution.
It’s time to put an end to all this posturing! Time to stop students from bringing out college magazines, classical singers, dancers and cultural artists from sharing their (banal) thoughts about the political climate, people from sharing even remotely dissenting opinions on social media. That is the only way the new India can ever move towards happiness.
The author is an activist working
on issue of women’s rights (and wrongs!)
Read mor ehere  http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-is-this-the-mint-fresh-and-shining-new-india-1998501
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बुधवार, 25 जून 2014

SOOT KASOOT



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Pune = A hub for culture, education, IT, now communal violence hub ?


Posted by :kamayani bali mahabal On : June 25, 2014
0
ATUL LOKE
Students’ Wing Collegegoers at a rock concert
MAHARASHTRA:  VIOLENCE
A City Interrupted
A hub for culture, education, IT. But Pune,  hub?
It has been three weeks since a young Pune techie, 28-year-old Mohsin Sheikh, was killed in a mob attack on the outskirts of Pune, but Punekars are yet to recover from the shock. Until May 31, when the Hindu Rashtra Sena unleashed a weekend of bloody mayhem in the Unnati Nagar and Satav Plot area of the Hadaspar suburb, they would have vouched for their city’s cosmopolitan and secular fabric. Suddenly they are not so sure anymore. Some are even wondering if it existed at all.
“Pune has a very complex social fabric,” says Dr Abhijit Vaidya, a practising cardiologist, well-known health activist, socialist and Pune resident. “Here we have had Mahatma Phule and Dr B.R. Ambedkar, and at the same time Brahminical organisations like the RSS or Sanatan Prabhat also flourished; it had many left-leaning socialist leaders as well. Pune stayed relatively safe bec­ause of the dominance of secular and progressive forces—small in number but with towering personalities like S.M. Joshi. “What needs to be understood is the timing and the place. The polarisation of Hindu votes helped the BJP in UP after the Muzaffarnagar riots. Now, the assembly elections are around. One cannot say there is no connection.”
Unnati Nagar and Satav Plot essentially house middle-class and lower-middleclass families. Despite a few Muslim-dominated localities, in most areas they live with an overwhelming majority of Hindu neighbours. Many like Mohsin would live on a cot-share basis in the only Muslim household in their lane and get tiffin from outside. The congested byla­nes, in fact, have both a small temple as well as a mosque, betraying no apparent undercurrent of any communal angst.   “No one ever had any problem with azaan or puja. We celebrated all festivals, Diwali or Id,” says Shakil Hamid Shaikh, one of the ‘original’ residents of Unnati Nagar. “We have often voted Shiv Sena and Muslims have served on several party positions.”

Losing The Drive Will the Punekar be able to ride free of fear on these roads? (Photograph by Atul Loke)
Which is why the Sena found itself caught in a tricky situation. The Facebook content that sparked off trouble riots was on Shivaji and Balasaheb Thackeray. Yet the Sena chose to distance itself from the protests and violence unleashed by the HRS because, ironically, the party has many Muslim supporters in the same pockets where the HRS went on a rampage and if they want their support, they cannot be seen as anti-Muslim. The balance in its alliance with the BJP in the state has shifted in the Sena’s favour, with the death of BJP leader Gopinath Munde.
“There is no question about our revere­nce for Shivaji but we’re certain the Pune Muslims had nothing to do with the post,” says Shiv Sena MLA in the area, Mahadev Babar. Some Muslims spoke of his efforts in ensuring no violence took place in his areas. “He made teams of Hindu and Muslim youth who would protect members of either community when mobs attacked,” says Shakil Sheikh. “We have nothing to do with HRS,” says Babar on his part. “It is our demand that the culprits be caught and punished.”

Just a few days before he was killed, Mohsin had celebrated his 28th birthday at work, cake, song and all.
The police have already made controversial HRS head Dhananjay Desai an accused in the Mohsin murder case. Another 21 people have been arrested. There are reports of a special public prosecutor being appointed in the case and the trial may be expedited.
Yet, several issues remain. Anwar Shaikh, a former police official and now a member of the Socialist Party, voices them: “So why is this happening in the outskirts where vulnerable and isolated Muslim groups stay? These incidents don’t happen in areas like Mominpura as there’ll be a strong reaction from the other side.”
And that is what worries Akhalaque Shaikh, Mohsin’s cousin, a Pune resident by birth. “We have never felt threatened in Pune. In fact, fear has not been a factor. But there are different groups with different agenda. Just like the militant Hindu groups, there will be those who want to retaliate among Muslims too. I did not inform many people of Mohsin’s death until the body had been sent to Solapur because it would have increased communal tension,” he says.
“It takes only a few people to start riots but what needs to be investigated is the funding of such organisations and the protection they receive in the event of such vandalising incidents,” says Anwar Shaikh.
The Hindu Rashtra Sena, which fancies itself as a reincarnation of Nathuram Godse’s original, is a relatively new outfit, active only for the past five years. In this time, its head Dhan­anjay has already totted up over 20 cases pertaining to making inflammatory speeches and instigating violence.

Fear Factor HRS head being led to court. (Photograph by Nitin Lawate)
“The spawning of organisations like the Hindu Rashtra Sena, with reportedly over 4,000 members, is not just worrying for inter-communal harmony but it is also a test for the law and order machinery,” says human rights activist Teesta Setalvad. “We know Dhananjay Desai was a suspect in the Narayan Dabholkar murder yet no direct evidence could be linked to him. The speeches he makes, circulating freely on social media like WhatsApp, are hate-filled and inflammatory. Why does action follow only after a brutal killing? Also what are the HRS connections with the Shiv Sena or the RSS?”
The answer perhaps lies in what Professor Joseph Pinto has to say. “The RSS/BJP/Modi want to see just sufficient polarisation so that they are able to gain ‘first-past-the-post’ majorities in the Lok Sabha, assembly and corporation elections. Learning from ‘the Gujarat model’ of the 2002 riots, these right-wing forces want to polarise the electorate. If they achieve that aim, the violence of the Right will have served its purpose. All the political parties are interested in pandering to the Hindu Right because it builds their res­pective bases among the poor youth.”
Meanwhile, a compensation of Rs 5 lakh has been declared for Mohsin’s family, and more might be coming from the min­ority affairs ministry and other government departments. The money is important for Mohsin’s family because they depended entirely on Mohsin. “He used to send his entire salary home and lived very frugally,” says Sujeet Mittal, Mohsin’s friend and boss at Ujwal Enterprises, the company in whose billing department the young techie was employed. “He was a most trustworthy person, a saint, the only one who had a key to the office apart from me. He had no friends in the  city, let alone enemies.” Mittal had rushed to the hospital when he heard the news and waited till Mohsin’s body was sent to Solapur.
In Solapur, Mohsin’s family is no longer willing to send their younger son to Pune, where he has got a job, thanks to Mohsin’s goodwill. “His mother is still in shock. We want justice for our son and have faith in the police and judi­cial system,” says his father Sadiq Sheikh over the phone from Solapur.
Mohsin’s relatives in Pune too feel the same. Says Akhalaque, “We want better laws and implementation so that no one tries to indulge in violence. But more importantly, we don’t want anyone’s safety and security to be compromised.”
“This has never happened here,” says Nikhil Bhat, a filmmaker who belongs to Pune and is now based in Mumbai. “Not even after the 1993 blasts and riots. It is a students’ city, with youth coming here from all over the world. This is some kind of vested outside int­erest at play here. No common man—Hindu, Muslim, anyone—wants to disrupt his own house. My family is still there. I don’t feel scared.”
By Prachi Pinglay-Plumber in Pune
Read more here - http://www.outlookindia.com/article/A-City-Interrupted/291102#.
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TWO WAYS TO BOOST INDIAN ECONOMY

Two Easy Ways to Boost India’s Economy

Posted by :kamayani bali mahabal On : June 25, 2014
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Surendra Gadekar of Vedchhi
How stupid can one get? Here I was, along with millions of other ordinary Indians thinking that the reason the Indian economy was stuck in the dumps was that the scam-ridden government of Dr Manmohan Singh was just not taking any decisions, and the few that it did take were, well, scams. That is why presumably, the people booted out these non-performing scamsters and voted the ‘Vikas Purush’ Shri Narendra Modi to power. As I said before, how stupid can one get?
According to a secret report meant to be sent to 12 important functionaries including the Home and Finance Ministers, Shri Nripendra Mishra and Shri AK Doval, the seretaries of Power and Coal, people at RAW and such others, the INTELLIGENCE BUREAU (IB) of the Ministry of Home Affairs, claims that the reason India’s economic growth is not touching stratospheric heights is just some fifty (count them 50) individuals and organisations whose activities have “Been noticed to have used people centric issues to create an environment which lends itself to stalling development projects. These include agitations against Nuclear Power plants, Uranium mines, Coal Fired Power Plants, Genetically Modified Organisms, Mega Industrial Projects (POSCO and Vedanta) , hydel projects (at Narmada Sagar and in Arunachal Pradesh) and extractive industries (oil, limestone) in the North East. The negative impact on GDP growth is assessed to be 2 to 3% p.a.”
Just to get these numbers in order. India is well over a trillion US dollars economy, so 2 to 3 percent of that works out to be more than US$ 30 billion each year. This is more than the entire trade we have with our former masters, the Brits.
And these fifty villians have been secretly robbing us to such an extent! You can imagine with what eagerness I perused this not so secret report since people in the know told me that my name figured in this infamous list. There it was on top of page 6 and in the interest of full transparency, let me quote the report itself. “Sonntag was in close contact with Surendra Gadekar, a prominent member of the Ahmedabad based anti-nuclear network and a son in law of Narayan Desai (reputed Gandhian).” I am definitely son in law of Narayan Desai and have been so for forty two years, but I am in no contact whatsoever (whether electronic or physical) with anybody named Sonntag or for that matter Rainer or Hermann ( which is supposedly this guys full name according to IB) and I have never lived in Ahmedabad for more than half a week all my life.
However, this is the INTELLIGENCE Bureau, man! And it is on this sort of intelligence that the government of this country operates. How can they be wrong. So I went further down the report looking for my name. After all, Surendra Gadekar is not a very rare name. It may not be the equivalent of John Smith in English but there could well be other Surendra Gadekars around and some of them may well be interested in antinuclear activism. A quick search on facebook itself reveals four such characters, one of them even a pretty looking girl remarkably similar to Kareena Kapur and another to an image of Mother Durga. So I figured that IB in its search of these villians had hit upon another previously unknown Surendra Gadekar from Ahmedabad. However, for this doppel-ganger (Ha, a German word) of mine to be also a son in law of Narayan Desai and for Narayan Desai to have concealed his other daughter from me for 42 years is taking things too far. Of course, if true one would have to admire these Gandhians for their ‘door drishti’.
For the sake of full disclosure let me announce the names of all the other individuals mentioned in this IB report. Well, to be really truthful this is not only for the sake of full disclosure but also to make all the people who think no end of their own activism, to go green with envy at their utter inconsequence as far as the IB is concerned.
The interesting fact about this motely crowd who have caused 2 to 3 percent in damages to India’s economic growth is that none of them have names like Mukesh Ambani or whatever Adani or even MS Dhoni. You will not find them on any Forbes list of go-getters. Except for a few like SP Udaykumar, Medha Patkar, Prashant Bhushan or Vandana Shiva, you would most probably have never heard of them and are unlikely to do so in the future. It is only the genius of IB that has been able to unearth them.
So without further ado here are the names:
All on page 4
Dr SP Udaykumar (3 mentions)
Father Ambrose
Pushparayan
Y.David
Mari Rajan
Father Jayakumar
On page 5
Sonntag Rainer Hermann He is not even an Indian national and has already been deported from India
On page 6
Surendra Gadekar of Ahmedabad (mentioned twice)
Dr SP Udaykumar
K Sahadevan
Kakaria Sajala
On page 7
Praful Bidwai
Achin Vinaik
Admiral Ramdass
Lalitha Ramdass
Medha Patkar
Banwarilal Sharma
Karuna Raina
Neeraj Jain
Fr Thomas Kochery
Arti Choksy
MG Devasahayam
Amongst the above, both Shri Banwarilal Sharma and Father Tom Kochery are already deceased.
On page 8
Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
On page 10
Vandana Shiva
Suman Sahai
Aruna Rodrigues
Prashant Bhushan
Kavitha Kuruganti
Karuna Raina
On page 11
Biju and Salini
Prashant Paikray
Aruna Rodrigues
Kavitha Kuruganti
Justice PK Mishra
On page 12
Bichitra Senapati
KP Sasi
Babloo Loitongham
On page 13
Bratindi Jena
On page 14
Eelco de Groot (a Dutch national)
On page 17
Bejamin David Hargreaves ( a UK national) mentioned twice
On page 18
Sujata P Shah
Father Vincent Mukan
On page 20
Lalji Desai
On page 21
Medha Patkar
The rest are names of organisations. A lot of the names mentioned above are those of eminent personalities who know no better than to advice the other riff-raff. In this short article I am in no position to do full justice to the hard work done by IB and would therefore urge everyone to read the original document which is available on the net at http://www.scribd.com/doc/229493571/IB-Report-NGO
Since the activities of some of these individuals has resulted in a two to three percent loss of economic growth to the nation, the easiest way to boost national output would be to ship the whole lot of them (of course not the eminent personalities who are guilty of nothing worse than not knowing whom to advice when and on what) to China. Their absence from India would automatically increase the Indian GDP by two to three percent and would have the additional benefit of reducing the Chinease GDP by the same amount. India would become China and China would become India. God help us.
On further reflection, this solution does not seem viable to me. Since the quality of the Intelligence displayed by IB through this communique seems so bogus my thoughts have turned to the second word in IB. Where ever there is a bureau, there are bureaucrats and as a new dispensation comes around after an election, these worthies feel threatened in their sinecure jobs. So my feeling is that by this report these bureaucrats are signalling to the new administration that they can become as loyal chamchas of the new powers as they were of the old order. After all India is definitely the land of the ever present and everlasting chamcha.
So my other recommendation for boosting the Indian economy, is for the new administration to summarily fire everybody associated with this rubbish from the IB. This step would not boost the Indian economy by two or three percent. The boost will come from the fact that important officials to whom this report is addressed, will not waste their time reading rubbish and would hopefully get time to address the real issues facing the Indian economy. These if properly addressed would in time yield results far in excess of two to three percent.
- See more at: http://www.dianuke.org/two-easy-ways-to-boost-indias-economy/#sthash.VwQGQ1br.dpuf
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