Desicritics Category: Politics: Governance

This is Not Cricket

temporal — Tue, 3 Mar 2009 22:19:19 EST

The Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked in Lahore yesterday by terrorists. SSS terms this a "shift". I think it is a "deterioration" or "escalation" of lawlessness. If Pakistan is to retain its independence this tide will not be curbed easily by a solitary act (like the restoration of the judiciary) nor by the efforts of one individual or one institution. Both Zardari led government and the Army under Kayani have appeared ineffective to stem this.

More pertinent is to view Tuesday's attack in the context of the peace deals in the Swat Valley and the tribal areas .. Prior to the signing of the deals, the matter of the release of militants who did not belong to the Swat area was raised, that is, non-Pashtun militants... However, after deciding on the level of compensation packages for the families of militants killed or injured by the security forces and other matters related to Swat and the tribal areas, the matter of non-Pashtun militants was deferred and the peace agreements were signed. In effect, non-Pashtun militants have been ignored and the attack in Lahore could be a bloody message to the government that the "Punjabi militants" have the capacity to cripple urban centers at any time and place of their choosing. Syed Saleem Shahzad

So what should the ordinary citizen do? Packing up and leaving is NOT an option. Burying their heads in the sand? More prayers to Allah? Joining the orthodox fringe? Or if not joining, then fighting them for their rights?

If the citizenry continues to be uninvolved, then by default the grounds will be left for a battle royale between forces of status quo and those of orthodoxy.

There is no dearth of external players who want to nudge and support these dark forces.

The Saudi Wahabi sponsorship of the fringe groups in Pakistan is hushed up or swept under the rug. Their role should be examined more closely. They have supported the orthodox fringe in the past (Afghanistan-Mujahideen nexus) and continue to do so to date.

Right now, collectively, (media, bloggers, political parties and government) all search for escape goats elsewhere - primarily the focus of their diatribes (not in any order) is the US Administration, the Talibans, the Indians (Raw...if you hear Hamid Gul croaking after the CID report was released) and the euphemistically termed Agencies.

But the blame game should be exposed for its fallacies.

If the ordinary citizen remains detached and uninvolved, then the march into disarray would continue unabated till it reaches the edge of the precipice - a rather uncomfortable and disturbing thought for all the players in the region.

And the world.

Educating our Kids - The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

Shantanu Dutta — Mon, 2 Mar 2009 13:17:16 EST

A school that I visited last week in Dehradun awakened me to one of the many changes that are quietly taking place in the country. The school, which usually fell silent after the last student had left for home in the afternoon, is buzzing with activity all through the day. Till the evening shadows lengthen, the class rooms are full, the play grounds abuzz with activity and the staff room is busy. No, the school is not running a double shift. It is just that after the regular fee paying students have left, another batch of students from the near by slum communities come in and utilize the school facilities and the classrooms. The arrangement is sponsored and paid for by the government under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) program.

Contrary to the usual belief that nothing in the government works, the SSA is a great endeavor to universalize elementary education. Although the 1990s saw noteworthy progress in education indicators in India, wide-ranging gaps were prevailing across states and districts. For example, the net primary enrolment ratios ranged from 63 percent in Bihar to 98 percent in Kerala. Inequity across scheduled castes and scheduled tribes was pronounced. However because of efforts like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the number of Indian children out of school went down from 25 million in 2003 to about 7 million in 2006 (exceeding the target), thus steadily moving towards universal enrolment (about 185 million children were enrolled at the elementary level in 2006).

Although, there is no doubt that the average drop-out rate in primary classes suggests a consistent decline; but the same is still too high to attain the status of universal retention at the primary level of education. Universalisation of education comprises four components- universal access, universal enrolment, universal retention and universal quality of education.

The SSA has ambitious goals. It was launched in 2001 to universalize and improve the quality of elementary education in India through community ownership of elementary education. In order to effectively decentralize the management, it has involved Panchayati Raj institutions, School Management Committees, Village and Urban Slum Level Education Committees, Parents' Teachers' Associations, Mother Teacher Associations, Tribal Autonomous Councils and other grassroots level structures.

SSA, apart from being a programme with clear time frame for Elementary Education, also offers opportunities to the states to develop their own vision of elementary education. It had set 2007 as the deadline for providing primary education in India and 2010 as the deadline for providing useful and relevant elementary education to all children in the 6 to 14 age group. In order to improve the quality of elementary education in India, the SSA has emphasized on improving the student teacher ratio, teachers training, academic support, facilitating development of teaching learning material and providing textbooks to children from special focus groups etc.

The SSA is getting carried out in collaboration with state governments to cover the entire country and address the needs of its children in 1.1 million locations. Keeping an eye on sanitation and the girl child, the government has built under the programme nearly 222,000 toilets at primary schools. Similarly, nearly 187,000 new schools have been opened in the last seven years - courtesy the SSA.The campaign has also helped construction of over 656,000 additional classrooms and provided drinking water facilities at 175,413 schools.

The programme seeks to open new schools in locations which do not have schooling facilities and reinforce existing school infrastructure through provision of additional classrooms, toilets, drinking water, maintenance grant and school improvement grants. In the budget of the last two years (2007-08, 2008-09), the government has allocated over Rs.262 billion ($6 billion) for universalising elementary education to achieve the millennium development goal (MDG) of universal primary education.

The challenge has been a sizeable one but the rewards have been many. The achievement stories range from children in far-flung villages to slum clusters in India's many expansive cities. As always, it is evident most effectively not in figures but in real life stories like the children in the school I visited in Dehradun last week, whose education is being taken care of by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. And for once I am happy that the educational surcharge levied every time I pay a service tax on any transaction is reaching the right people in the right way, and the government machinery is working. The story is not all bad.

Fake Charities and Real Charities

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Sun, 1 Mar 2009 12:51:51 EST

We are working on the technology for a long term sick and disabled children charity on a shoe-string. There is a bunch of about 50 odd people, part and full time, who are working on a shoe string salary and mostly free. We have to force our CEO to take a minuscule salary. But we manage to keep on going and have managed to get more than 5000 pieces of technology to individual children over the past so many years.

What does that mean? It means that we are actually improving disused pieces of equipment, saving companies money which would have gone to recycling the equipment. This improvement is done by long term unemployed kids who have been in trouble with the law or long term unemployed or what have you and they get training on PC repair and maintenance. The equipment goes to the hospital schools, or special needs teachers or kids who are at home on long term illness cover. We are struggling every year to get pc’s and laptops. Laptops specially are important as the kids cannot use big pc’s when they are bed-ridden.

While government departments offer us with equipment which we actually take away, refurbish and recycle on our costs (we actually save taxpayer money), we do not get any assistance from the government in terms of equipment or funding. And in these days/times of recession, it has further dried up. So it was a a joy to love and behold when I read that there are fake charities out there which are hitting the existing charities hard.

What do they do? take a look at these charities and their background:

Alcohol Concern—an anti-drinking lobby group that receives less than 1% of its income from public donations
Campaign for Better Transport Charitable Trust—strong opponents of road building. Funded by the Department of Transport
Christian Aid—anti-free marketeers, campaigning for "justice on climate change and tax" on your pennies.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)—the original fake charity, formed by the government in 1971. It receives just 2% of its funding from public donations.

And then there are many more. What really gets me going are two things. (1) why on earth are taxpayers monies being paid to these charities? (2) what’s the point of the government giving charities money to lobby the government? Can somebody explain this?

Well, seems like this blogsite tried to explain this. Just read the article, you will find the amount of hypocrisy and stonewalling gobsmacking. One wonders what these people are doing? How can they do it? By taking monies away from legitimate charities and misallocating public monies, the government is actually stealing twice.

I agree, any charity which accepts government funding is fake. Period. The situation is much more horrible, take a look at this proposal. The proposal is good, but Barnardo’s (78% state funded); NCH (88%); and Leonard Cheshire (88%) are pokes in your eyes. One weeps, on seriously weeps at the tremendous waste of resources done by this government and the fake charities, the scabby leeches on the body of the state.

To Censor Or Not: Bloggers' Duties and Liabilities

Vinod Joseph — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:52:50 EST

Recently a young blogger from Kerala named Ajith got into some serious trouble after having started an anti-Shiv Sena community on Orkut. Anonymous commentators posted nasty and vile comments on Ajith’s ‘I Hate Shiv Sena’ community website. The Shiv Sena’s youth wing filed a complaint with the Thane (a city on the outskirts of Mumbai) police station against Ajith following which charges were brought against Ajith under sections Sections 295A and 506 of the Indian Penal Code 1860.

Fearing arrest, the young blogger approach the Kerala High Court and obtained anticipatory bail. Later, Ajith approached the Supreme Court for an order quashing the criminal complaint filed against him. The Supreme Court ruled against Ajith and directed him to travel to Thane and face the charges filed against him.

My initial reaction on hearing of this was on the same lines as my friend Jo who has written an article on this issue here:

However, on reflection, I have come to conclusion that the Supreme Court of India was absolutely right in its ruling.

My reasons are as follows:

Section 295A of the IPC says as follows:“Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of citizens of India, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise, insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.”

Section 506 of the IPC says as follows:“Whoever commits, the offence of criminal intimidation shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both;If threat be to cause death or grievous hurt, etc.: -And if the threat be to cause death or grievous hurt, or to cause the destruction of any property by fire, or to cause an offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years, or to impute, unchastity to a woman, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, or with fine, or with both.”

Though Sections 295A and 506 sound reasonable, they can be (and are) interpreted to cover a wide variety of sins. It is interesting to note that the Indian Penal code of 1860 was created by the British Parliament for its Jewel in the Crown which had mutinied in an unprecedented manner just three years ago (in 1857).

Over sixty years after independence, the IPC has not seen many amendments. As we all know very well, it is not the Supreme Court’s job to make the law. It only interprets the laws that are made by the representatives of the people in the legislature.

Let’s assume that Ajith were a journalist who writes a regular column in a newspaper. Also, let’s substitute the Shiv Sena for an individual Mr. X who is mild and meek and has difficulty melting cheese in his mouth. What would be your reaction if Ajith were to write an article in the newspaper saying that he hates Mr. X, who is the scum of the earth and should ideally be lynched. Would Mr. X have a cause of action against Ajith? You bet he would! Ajith would be liable for both criminal intimidation and defamation.

One of the fundamental principles of law is that every one is equal before the law. Though the intention behind such a principle is to ensure that the weak and the meek do not lose out to the strong and the dominant, the law cannot discriminate against the strong and the powerful either. This would mean that even a nasty piece of work such as the Shiv Sena should have equal protection of the law from criminal intimidation and defamation. If Ajith were to write a newspaper article against the Shiv Sena defaming it and criminally intimidating it, he would be liable under the IPC. The publisher of the newspaper would also be liable.

In this instant case, it was not Ajith who wrote those nasty comments, but some anonymous individual. However, Ajith is in the position of the publisher of a newspaper who is responsible for whatever is written in his newspaper. It is true that the internet is a free medium where everyone has the freedom to express himself or herself. However, there is no reason to take the view that rules regarding defamation or intimidation shouldn’t apply to the internet.

Bloggers and website owners should ensure that no one publish comments on their blogs or websites unless the blog-owner or website owner has approved the comment. Even DesiCritics should, in my opinion, follow this approach, rather than edit comments after they are made.

Finally, let me add this. It seems unbelievable that the Shiv Sena, a party that has specialised in intimidating and harassing minorities in Mumbai should file a complaint against a teenager in a faraway state merely on the basis of comments published on his Orkut community website. I’m sure that the Shiv Sena has not been intimidated by Ajith’s orkut community. It has surely been defamed, but one of the defences to a charge of defamation is that the alleged statement or writing that caused the defamation is ‘true’.

I’m sure that there will be hundreds of lawyers in Mumbai who are happy to defend Blogger Ajith (now a cause celebré). However, travel to Thane Ajith must, as directed by the Supreme Court of India, and answer those ridiculous charges.

India's Post-Independence Fight For Freedom

Aditi Nadkarni — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:55:37 EST

Let me cut right to the chase here. This is unacceptable. Let me say it again for emphasis. It is not just bothersome or even upsetting. It is unacceptable. In the 21st century, in a democratic, secular nation, what has been going on, festering like a recurrent lesion, sprouting in every part of India, is just, simply unacceptable and will not do.

In case you are wondering who it is that's going to stand up to it: we are. We will not allow our freedom to be violated and we will make sure we protect the independence we fought long and hard to get the first time around. We have come a long way. We have seen the change and been the change. So who better than our pioneering, hot-blooded breed to stand up to the revolting and shockingly regressive acts of a few who feel threatened by progress.

They are just acting out of fear. It is obvious, isn't it? They attack in packs, afraid to be the lone ones incriminated. They target women and assault safely from behind the vague curtains of culture. But we all know that it isn't their culture that is in grave danger. Their position, their power and the extent of their bullying is in great peril. The places where they once ruled the roost are now turning into big, bustling cities making them feel like small, insignificant fish in a big sea.

Institutions and companies have transported the educated, smart crowd into the vacuum in which these bullies once enjoyed unfettered omnipotence. Now, in place of the void, there is a young, vivacious bunch of professionals, men and women who work hard and party hard and do so shoulder to shoulder. These people are harder to manipulate. This crowd has not just taken over, they threaten to pull into their growing ilk, the younger ones too. Business are bending over backwards to accommodate the needs of this new species and everything that once belonged to the bullies is now up for grabs. So they are retaliating. They are like petulant little children who couldn't have all that they demanded, hated sharing and so now are acting up. Therefore it is up to us, the educated class to teach these spoiled little brats to grow up and stop reacting so bizarrely to change. We must do it in a manner that is as different from theirs as is humanly possible.

So now comes the big question: how do we do it? How do we make our presence known? The answer may seem too simplistic because it sits smack in front of our faces. Think about it: we travel through these cities like one stream of blood, flowing steadily, keeping the city alive, stuffed in trains, piled into buses, walking along the teeming streets. Even partying and a trip to the movie theater is all the more fun with a group. We work in teams and are all the more effective for that. We discuss films, fashion, clothes, the economy, the job market and even our health problems. Yet this fear of walking out on the streets of a free country seems like a personal problem, like we were alone in that walk, like when a bully arrived with his little gang and punched us in the face, we would be all by ourselves and the world around us would just suddenly go blind. What we forget is that in this lonely fear too, we are still together. In this anger against the unfairness of the situation, we are together. We can if we decided, be together in the one resolute determination of not letting a handful of insecure men undo all that we have put into making our cities. So the answer is simple. Whatever it is we do, we do it together.

We celebrated Valentine's Day battling fear and took the threats in our stride defanging the demons with the pink disarming humor of our proud underwear. With the International Women's Day approaching, it is time to get serious. In our busy, routine lives we have underestimated the power of silent, non-violent protests. All it takes is for people to stand at a side-walk with banners to get word around. Some major struggles were won with this strategy and somewhere along the line we just shrugged and rolled our eyes at the quiet potential of public demonstrations and satyagrahas. Maybe we started taking our precious freedom for granted and needed to be reminded that we simply cannot. We have to earn it and when someone tries to snatch it, we fight for it.

It is important, I feel, in today's world to use media smartly. Instead of constantly criticizing media's inadequacies, we could use it as a tool. Find a niche and throw yourself into the swift current of this ever growing medium. Find a female leader in your area who is looking to make an arrival on the political scene. Do a little research. If one political party is making your life difficult for wearing jeans and celebrating Valentine's Day and there damn well must be another party that will fight for your votes, or can be persuaded to do so.

Find a celebrity who is willing to make your cause their own or give your movement their support and voice. Find a television network, a newspaper or a magazine that will run your story and provide your opinions with a voice. Find an artist who will put your thoughts into a slogan or a creative, riveting poster. Write to your city officials, your ministers and drown their offices in letters of your indignant protest. Just remember that one or two voices are easy to be ignored. If you are fuming over a coffee mug at your kitchen table, take that rage to a medium that will express it in the most noticeable manner possible.

Haven't we whined about a dysfunctional system for too long? When has this "system" ever worked? Maybe we just don't realize that we are one of the appendages of this faulty system. If the system is not working, we, as a group could propel in into motion. What will it take for us to get off our bums and make a placard with a strong message on it? This is not a women's liberation movement at all. Genders cannot be fighting alone in a battle such as this one. It could be your sister wearing jeans, coming home from work. It could be your teenage daughter walking back from school or college, the neighborhood aunty who brought you food when you were sick, a dear friend or your colleague. Most importantly, it is them today and it could be you next.

Let us review what the odds are of your being targeted next. You have a very high chance of being next on the hit-list if you answer 'Yes' for any of the following questions. Are you considered an "outsider" in Bangalore or a non-Maharashtrian in Maharashtra? Do you party? Do you meet up with friends at pubs? Do you wear jeans or clothing that may not be considered "Indian"? Do you eat pizza or meat? Do you drink alcoholic beverages? Does your religious persuasion always match that of the political party currently raging a mini-war in the nation you know of as secular? Do you send children to convent or English medium schools? Do you have a spouse of a different religious persuasion than yours? Do you have friends of the opposite sex? Are you married to the girl you are driving home from work or who you happen to be having dinner with? Are you non-conversant in Marathi in Mumbai or in Kannada in Bangalore? Are you a blogger or a journalist who expresses their opinions about politics, culture, media and religion? In spite of your qualifications and the six figure salary, do you have no clout with the local law enforcement or political activists? Before you fall asleep at night you should take a moment to wonder which one of these labels will be tagged onto your identity and turned into a vice or a disqualification; which one of these labels will plant nagging fear into your routine as you go about working to make a living, partying to rid your stress and walking on the streets of a country whose freedom you celebrate once a year on a public holiday. India did fight a freedom struggle years ago and it is high time that yet another quest for independence begins.

As a civilized society, we must remember that curbed freedom is a disease, an epidemic that does not spare a gender or a certain religion. It has uprooted saplings of modern, free thinking from Afghanistan and left it barren under the regime of the Taliban school of thought. This disease feeds on your fear and on the social inertia that has settled over our generation. An active, proud and independent public cannot let this inertia set in. Let it be known that this disease feeds most of all on the little disabling voice in your head which tells you that this is not your struggle, that it isn't your battle to fight. Sadly, this malady spreads, swallowing in its wake our hard-earned progress, until the feeble voice in your head is one day replaced with the grim realization that your own struggle has arrived. The assailant and his prejudice have changed form and you are the next prey. And there is nobody left to fight for you or with you.

Meeting The Congressman For The Sri Lanka LTTE Crisis

Kalugu — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 01:21:20 EST

Well finally I have met a US Congressman - I mean a personal meeting with a politician for the first time in my life.

Living in the relatively remote Midwest region of USA with a very small Indian community, the inaction of the Indian government over the human sufferings in Sri Lanka has been a factor of frustration for quite some time now, not just for me but for quite a few family friends here. Watching the human suffering and the brutality of the Sri Lankan forces for several weeks has finally thrust me to swing into action. Consultation with friends lead us to conclude that meeting the district Congressman and presenting the evidences for human rights violations would be the most logical step.

After launching a swift online signature campaign with area residents of Indian origin, we started working with the congressman's office to get an appointment. We were hoping to have a personal meeting at the Congressman's office so that we can show the videos and images that have bothered us much. However the scheduler/Office Manager of the Congressman informed me that the Congressman is busy until a month or so and asked if I would be interested in meeting him at an event in two days. I was aware that the US Senate foreign relations committee is planning to discuss the Sri Lanka crisis in a week and thought the timing would be perfect.

With a decent number of signatures by several area Indians (Not just Tamils, but the entire Indian community signed it displaying a sign of solidarity) and the disturbing videos and images burned to a CD, six of us were all set to meet the Congressman.

We were quite apprehensive about discussing the issue openly since the Tamil rebels are still proscribed in the USA. We all agreed that we will not make any references to the rebels in our discussion but focus on the excesses committed by the Sri Lankan forces.

The meeting was to take place at the Health Care field hearing scheduled at the downtown church. We arrived early and were waiting for the District Director & Staff Agent who was supposed to brief us about the standard procedures of meeting the Congressman and facilitate the meeting.

The Staff Agent arrived and was indeed very helpful and appreciated us for bringing the issue to the Congressman's attention. He also appreciated us for having run the signature campaign. After listening to the information we provided, the Staff Agent collected the file folder with the signed petition and the CD's and informed us that we will be able to meet the Congressman prior or after the event. He also advised us to forward the petition and evidences to other committee members, especially members on the foreign relations committee.

The Congressman arrived and was greeted by few public that were waiting to meet him just like us. The Congressman engaged in a long conversation with a lady who appeared to be in despair due to a loss of a family member. The Congressman was very polite and listened to her long story and hugged her to offer some solace. We knew then that we will have to sit through the meeting and will be able to meet the congressman only at the end of the event. Some of my friends decided to drive home and come back later, while three of us decided to stay.

We found the Health Care field hearing very informative. I was very impressed at the way the hearing was organized.

I started comparing the meeting with that of meetings involving Indians. Be it in India or the USA a meeting involving similar crowd would have been really noisy and full of confusion and chaos. I think we have to accept that confusion and chaos have become part of the Indian culture.

Americans sure have mastered the art of organizing events. Simple process's put in place by the organizers made the event progress in a smooth fashion. The Congressman was very polite and had a fair sense of humor and handled the questions well. A native Indian member who was full of humor asked the Congressman if he needed a job, referring to the acute shortage of doctors and paramedics in his clinic operating in the nearby Indian reservation. The Congressman also did not hesitate to ask for assistance from the folks in the crowd when he was not sure of some statistics.

Finally the meeting got over and we got the opportunity to talk to the Congressman. When I introduced myself and my friends, I mentioned that our roots are in India and we wanted to highlight the crisis in the South Asian nation of Sri Lanka. The congressman immediately said "I have a Tamil Tiger in my office". Looking at our blank reaction, he continued "That was a Joke...". He was making a reference to a Sri Lankan Tamil who works in his office. The Congressman seemed to be very knowledgeable about the happenings in Sri Lanka (obviously).

We informed about the evidences we have compiled and requested the Congressman to take up the issue appropriately and help bring justice to the people. The Congressman said before ending the conversation that he would like to one day visit Sri Lanka and have a vacation there.

That day may be too far away with the approach taken by most involved parties that have a stake in the region.

We all left home with a sense of relief that we have done the right thing. We do not know if the Congressman will be able to stop the terror faced by the people in the war zone, but we are happy based on what is mentioned in Bagavath Geethai - "Do your duty, Do not expect returns".

Can the Suspension of Civil Rights Ever be Justified?

Vinod Joseph — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:13:47 EST

I was moved to write this piece after reading an article by Irfan Husain, a Pakistani journalist who divides his time between London, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Husain writes about the situation in the Swat Valley of Pakistan where civil society has ceased to exist. The Taliban have chased the administration away, closed down girls’ schools and imposed the Shariah (beheading, floggings and all) on an unwilling populace. Husain wonders if in such a situation the suspension of civil rights will be justified. If those fundamentalists inflicting so much damage on the common Swat resident are to be tried under normal laws, most will get away since it will be very difficult to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt, assuming a judge can be persuaded to try them.

Husain asks his readers in anguish: “So we return to the dilemma of how to treat these people: are they citizens who deserve the same rights as the rest of us, or do we subject them to the rigours of the benighted law they seek to impose on society? If we descend to their level of barbarism, do we not become their mirror image? And yet, if we play by conventional rules, we run the real risk that they will win.” You will find Husain’s article here.

I found myself asking the question, should we ever agree to relax the rules of civil society that most of us take for granted? The basic rules of civil liberty are as follows: no punishment without a fair trail, and not until one’s guilt is proved beyond reasonable doubt, no detention for a period of more than a few days without charges being framed and legal representation provided, a right to be freed on bail during the trial period, unless there is a very good chance that the detainee will flee, and the right to not to be tortured or have to suffer degrading treatment while in custody.

Every once in a while, there arises a situation, usually involving insurgency or terrorism, when a law is enacted suspending these rights to some degree. There can also be a situation where the government turns a blind eye to the informal suspension of these rights.

At the height of the Khalistani insurgency in the Indian state of Punjab in the 1980s, scores of people ‘disappeared.’ Usually they were suspected militants who could be tried and punished only with a great deal of difficulty, even if they were captured alive. It was convenient for the government to do them away using hit squads who also used that opportunity to settle personal scores and make some money. I’m sure many honest mistakes were also made. All this meant that many, many innocent people died in Punjab, though militancy was stamped out.

Now, with the benefit of hindsight, if Indians were to be asked, was the Indian government right to have done what it did in Punjab, what would the answer be? Presumably at that time, the Indian government thought that such a hard-nosed approach was the only way of quenching the militancy. It thought that it had a choice between losing Punjab and using hard-nosed tactics. From anecdotal evidence, I feel most Indians would say that the Indian government took the right approach. I am not too sure, but I too just can’t bring myself to say that the Indian government was wrong.

The situation in Swat is much worse than that which prevailed in Punjab in the 1980s. The state has definitely withered away. Many Pakistanis have more than a sneaking sympathy for the mullahs, though they would personally not want to be under the Taliban. Coupled with the common man’s disdain for what is perceived to be a weak and corrupt government, Pakistani society has not been effectively mobilised to meet the Taliban’s threat.

Let’s assume that Pakistan can be so mobilised and that most Pakistanis would support a harsher approach, one where anyone with suspected ties to the Taliban is arrested or abducted and imprisoned or killed without a trial. Would such an approach be justified?

If the Taliban were to come to power, they would take away the civil rights of everyone in Swat. If there is a harsh crackdown on the Taliban, many fundamentalists who would otherwise not be punished will be killed after suffering torture. A few innocents may also die. I know this will be controversial, but I feel that if it is a choice between losing control of Swat to the Taliban and suspending civil rights, I would prefer the latter.

Generally, when civil rights are suspended, an enactment such as the Patriot Act or Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (POTA) is enacted, after which security forces lower the standards to a level even below what’s provided in the enactment. After the 9/11 attacks, the US government and its allies have arrested many suspected fundamentalists from all over the world, put them in detention in various places including Guantanamo Bay and tortured some of them using a variety of procedures such as stress positions, exposure to cold and heat and cultural shocks. Is such treatment justified? I would argue that it is.

Before I justify my response, let me tell you that my response is a very subjective one and is largely determined by my values, education and cultural background.

The threat from Islamic fundamentalists is very real. The fundamentalists do not subscribe to the values of civil society. Western society and non-Islamic chunks of the developing world are especially vulnerable to the fundamentalist since they all have many citizens who are disenchanted with their current situation and are willing to support the fundamentalists. Intelligence about the fundamentalists is very poor and precision arrests etc are not easy. Even more difficult is the obtaining of proof that will stand up in a court of law.

It is all very well to argue that the disenchanted sections of society must be integrated and intelligence must improve and that the state should never stoop to the level of the fundamentalists. The reality is different. We know that such an improvement will not happen within the required time. More importantly, the chances of a genuine secularist being arrested and detained on suspicion of being a fundamentalist are not very high. In fact, they are pretty low. No, I’m not talking of time spent at airports clearing security. I’m talking about the chances of an individual being picked up from home and sent off to Guantanamo without a trial.

Again, water-boarding and stress positions are definitely torture, but do not constitute third degree torture in my dictionary. If the authorities have a suspect who might have information that could prevent a terrorist attack or help capture other terrorists, I don’t see anything wrong in using such tactics to force a confession out of such person. A lot has been written about how torture doesn’t work. Silly me, but if torture doesn’t work, why is it so widely used? It is widely used, because it usually works.

If Mr. X is captured, water-boarded and discloses verifiable information such as having hidden a bomb in a particular place, you know that torture has worked. If it turns out that there is no bomb in that place, you know that it didn’t work. If one doesn’t like the idea of torture, one should take the morally high position that torture shouldn’t be used even if it works, rather than say torture doesn’t work. The Americans also used cultural shocks to force confessions, such as interrogators insulting the Quran or having female interrogators touch the detainees. As far as I am concerned, I don’t consider such tactics to be torture though someone else might feel they are worse than third degree methods.

The actions of American secret service agents have been conducted largely in accordance with the Patriot Act and various internal regulations and memos. They might not stack up in a court of law which applies the usual high standards of care and proof. However, I don’t think any one was harmed just because he failed to pay a bribe or had a personal enmity with a federal agent. The war against Islamic fundamentalism is one we just can’t afford to lose and for this reason, I feel that civil rights can be suspended. I can’t think of many other situations where civil rights can be suspended.

I don’t think the Sri Lankan government is justified in imposing a White Van culture in the south of the Island. I don’t think the Indian government would be justified in following this approach in fighting the Maoists in the east of India. I do think that this approach can be followed in Jammu and Kashmir against foreign mercenaries there, though I wouldn’t support the use of such tactics against Kashmiris from Indian Kashmir.

Once again, these are very subjective views and can be controversial. A different person may say that the Maoist threat is greater and they should be dealt with greater seriousness. In any event, I can tell you that I wouldn’t want to be in the place of one of those many innocent human beings who are caught up in such insurgencies and suffer for no fault of theirs so that people like me can stay and secure.

Inaction of State Governments is a Great Concern for Civil Liberty

Madhu Chandra — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 08:41:30 EST

Be it the post-Godhra episode in Gujarat 2002 or the ethnic cleansing of Christians in Orissa 2008 or the Mangalore Pub attack on women, the inaction of the ruling state government in dealing with fanatic outfits is a grave concern for Indian secularism.

The BJP Karnataka Government’s home minister making a decision to wait and watch the Sri Ram Sene outfit to carry out their diktat on "couples celebrating Valentine’s Day will be forced to marry in temples" is the clear sign of inaction of the state government.

Attacks on civil society carried out by religious fanatics of Hindutva brigades appear in mushrooming of their outfits. The Sri Ram Sene is the latest version and chose the mode of communalism to promote and propagate their outfit.

Sri Ram Sene’s chief Pramod Muthalik with multiple criminal records, who led the propaganda of promoting his organization through attacking the individual rights and the response of the Government allowing him to have an open press conference and uttering diktats on any couple found celebrating Valentine's Day will be forced to marry is the repetition of what has witnessed by the nation and the world in BJP-ruled Gujarat and Orissa, where massacres of religious minorities allegedly took place.

Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to express one’s love to loved ones or family members, it brings a smile on their faces. What is wrong with expressing one’s love with one’s lover or family members in the manner one likes? It can be done in Indian ways, or in the way of a love affair between Laila-Majnu or Romeo & Juliet! It is the right of every individual.

The open declaration over the Mangalore pub attack as victory and as a means to increase publicity of the Sri Ram Sene outfit and choosing the mode to promote their propaganda is very apprehensive. The modes of promoting one’s organization through propaganda like the Mangalore pub attack is a serious concern.

Communalism erupts in almost every state of India but how they are tackled is the difference. One recalls the communal genocide of post-Godhra, the one-sidedness of the Modi government to curb the riots and the Naveen Patnaik Government’s inactive response to anti-Christian violence in Orissa, where in the previous case, thousands of innocent Muslims were massacred and in the latter, over 50,000 innocent tribal Christians were forced homeless.

Surprisingly, Hindutva’s brigade did not stop there, but moves to attacking the innocent civil societies. Today they are targeting the youngsters in the name of Indian culture. Tomorrow, nobody knows, but could happen to those of you who see everything but keep mum.

The selection of the right time to carry out the communal attacks by these outfits has always a connection with upcoming elections, either for a state assembly or for the Parliament. The political leaders, particularly of those parties who sympathize with Hindutva outfits would keep quiet and watch until the matter worsens because that helps them gain political mileage.

Hindutva taking root in the southern part of the country through the gateway of Karnataka is another signpost of the attack on Indian secularism and is a grave concern for every Indian citizen. Open acclaim in the cities like Mangalore and the way the accused are left free, gives similar outfits the expectation that they can carry out such acts anywhere and at any time.

The Hindutva hatred has almost spread to every nook and corner of the country. In Western India, beginning from Gujarat to the east up to the North= east frontier, from Jammu and Kashmir in north to Kanyakumari in south, the social fabrics of society are targeted to break through communalism among different religious, ethnic, caste and linguistic groups.

What matters the most is the responsibility of the concerned state government whenever any form of communalism erupts. The inactive responsibility of the Hindutva-sympathetic governments to curb communalism is very unpleasant for civil societies!

Two Intelligent Men

Vinod Joseph — Sat, 7 Feb 2009 10:11:55 EST

Avid blog-readers would have noticed the presence of two very intelligent men in the blogosphere for some time.

One of them, Mr. Bahukutumbi Raman (Mr. B. Raman for short), has been writing columns for various magazines (especially Outlook) for some years now. Mr. B. Raman used to be with the Research and Analysis Wing, India’s external intelligence agency, where he headed its counter-terrorism division for more than a decade till his retirement in 1994. Presently Mr. B. Raman is the Director of the Institute For Topical Studies in Chennai. Mr. B. Raman’s blog can be found here.

The other ‘intelligent’ gentleman is Colonel Hariharan. Col. Hariharan’s blog informs us that he is a retired military intelligence professional with nearly three decades of experience in South Asian countries. Colonel Hariharan tells us in this very touching post of the time he spent in Sri Lanka as part of the IPKF.

Colonel Hariharan’s blog can be found here.

Mr. B. Raman’s articles tend to be very factual, with an abundance of information of the sort that is not usually available to lay persons. In that sense, they are a delight to read. For example, this article on the situation in Tibet is filled with facts with very little of Mr. B. Raman’s own opinions. However, there are other posts which contain Mr. B. Raman’s opinions and views. For example, in this post, he says that there is an urgent need to tighten Sonia Gandhi’s security due to threats from the LTTE.

Col. Hariharan’s posts are very different from Mr. B. Raman’s. They don’t contain as many facts, (other than what’s available in the public domain) and focus instead on conveying Col. Hariharan’s opinions on various issues. I can assure you that they are a delight to read. Here, you’ll find Col. Hariharan lamenting the fact that red tapism prevented the Defence Ministry from utilising its budget to the full, with the result that it had to surrender sixteen thousand crore rupees (that’s US dollars three hundred and twenty million) as unutilised money.

I think it is wonderful that Mr. B. Raman and Col. Hariharan have started blogging since their articles give lay persons access to expert analysis. So far, I think I have read every article written by each of these gentlemen. I don’t have any disagreement with anything that Col. Hariharan has written. I can’t say the same for Mr. B. Raman. In this article Mr. B. Raman argues that it would be in India's interest to help Sri Lanka destroy the LTTE's military capability, but not its political strength. Mr. B. Raman says that the current crop of LTTE cadres had no role in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. He argues that India should make a distinction between the ones involved in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination and the others. This is in line with his view expressed in this post calling on the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora and the LTTE cadres to overthrow Prabhakaran.

I don’t agree with Mr. B. Raman’s views. The LTTE is not the only Tamil movement in the picture even now. Leaders like Douglas Devananda of the Eelam People's Democratic Party and S. Thondaiman of the Ceylon Workers Congress are around. The Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal formed by Colonel Karuna is a political force in the East. Further, if Prabhakaran were to be captured or killed, the LTTE will cease to exist. The LTTE is centred on the cult of a supreme leader and without Prabhakaran, the LTTE cannot survive. I really don’t see why India should try and save the LTTE even if only as a political movement. Mr. B. Raman goes on to say in the same post that the ‘Indian political class never understands the importance of identifying and preserving our strategic assets in the neighbourhood. Jawaharlal Nehru let go our strategic assets in Tibet. I.K.Gujral, who was the Prime Minister in 1997, unwisely and in a moment of misplaced generosity let go our strategic assets in Pakistan. Manmohan Singh, the present Prime Minister, has let go our strategic assets in Nepal and Sri Lanka. It could be a great tragedy.’

What does Mr. B. Raman mean by ‘strategic assets’? Does he mean assets which give India the ability to cause trouble in a neighbouring country? For example, if the LTTE were to survive (on India’s patronage), greatly weakened, but with the potential to be re-armed, and Sri Lanka were to do something that is not to India’s liking, say, it were to cosy up to China, India could rattle sabres by threatening to re-arm the LTTE.

Is that what Mr. B. Raman has in mind? But it is exactly this attitude and approach that created the Sri Lankan mess in the first place! No country, however small or weak it may be, likes to be at the mercy of another country. India will not have a single friend in its neighbourhood if it follows this approach and tries to create ‘strategic assets’ in neighbouring countries! Mr. B. Raman says Nehru let go of India’s assets in Tibet. I don’t claim to have Mr. B. Raman’s expertise or knowledge, but I don’t think Nehru did anything of that sort. Under Nehru, India did not give much importance to defence and cut defence spending, as a result of which, we were unprepared for the Chinese assault in 1962.

I believe that during I.K. Gujral’s time, India stopped arming Baluchi militants. Were they a strategic asset for India? If India were still doing that, could India have used them as a stick to beat Pakistan with? Could we have told Pakistan, ‘you stop causing trouble in Kashmir, we will stop causing trouble in Baluchistan?’ I doubt if it would have worked, since the trouble in Kashmir is caused by militants outside Pakistan’s control. On the contrary, the enormous sympathy which Indian received after the Mumbai attacks wouldn’t have materialised if the international community believed that India was causing trouble in Baluchistan.

As for Nepal, the average Nepali doesn’t have much love for India since India continued to prop up the monarchy long after it lost the people’s support. India stopped supporting the monarchy only after its downfall became inevitable. It cannot be said that India voluntarily gave up its assets (the monarchy) in Nepal. Having said all that, I do hope that Mr. B. Raman continues to blog and write articles and express his views which are very interesting, whether one agrees with them or not.

Book Review: Down Memory Lane by Ravi Govender

Amitabh Mitra — Sat, 7 Feb 2009 00:49:37 EST

My friend Ravi Naicker is a poet and a teacher in Umzinto, Kwa Zulu Natal. I told him about my desire to publish a book of South African poets that would focus on the politics of New South Africa.He immediately asked me to contact his friend Ravi Govender in Durban.

I called him up and requested him to introduce me to South African poets from Natal who were affected during the apartheid regime. He was enthusiastic and promised me to do the same. The same afternoon I chanced upon Ravi’s book, Down Memory Lane at a used book shop in East London. Definitely, this is the same Ravi Govender I had been talking that morning.

Quoting from Radio Lotus FM website –
Govender.....Ravi Govender was born in Victoria Street, Durban just two blocks from the Indian Market on October 17th not too long ago.

He writes two popular columns for POST newspaper - of which he is also on the editing team. He is a public speaker, entrepreneur, serves on the board of a Durban Hospital and also a successful author. His hobbies are rugby, reading and watching movies and he is a Hollywood film buff as well as a James Bond nut. Ravi’s favourite actors are Anthony Hopkins and Al Pacino and his favourite movies are The Wild Geese and any 007 movie. His take on Bollywood is that "Priyanka Chopra is the cutest thing on two legs" and he rates Veer Zara as his best Eastern movie.

Ravi has a regular programme ‘Off the Shelf’ on Lotus FM which has gained immense popularity over the years.

Down Memory Lane is a book of historic value as it documents events through the eyes of a small boy growing in an apartheid era. This book had me engrossed as pages unfolded the Indian culture that blossomed even in severely restricted conditions of that time.

Aziz Hassim, Award winning Author of the Lotus People writes in his Forward, ‘There is a saying that if you forget your past you will be condemned to repeat it. When I read Ravi Govender’s essays and his reminiscences about our somewhat chequered history, I marvel at his ability to recall Durban’s bitter sweet past with touching finesse and a depth of perception’

Regarding the ‘bhais’ (gangsters) that prowled the Durban streets during that time, Ravi has aptly named this chapter as ‘Bada Bing, Bada Boom’. He writes, ‘Some of the cadres that ruled the streets were as follows: Victoria Street where I was sired boasted The Victorians, The Queens Brigade reigned in Queen Street. The Salots which consisted primarily of brothers operated taxis near Kapitan’s Balcony Hotel in the Grey Street area. The Dutchins laagered in Old Dutch Road and The Young Americans were united in Bond Street.

They were mostly ‘toothless tigers’ trying to live off their former reputations. You know the type: one guy initiates an argument and then edges backward into his mate, declaring “hold me back, hold me back, before I kill him”

Ram Gopal Verma can actually make a film based on such a story in Durban involving such characters.

In his column ‘ Proudly Indian – Our contribution to a better world’ Ravi recounts, ‘November 16 1860,the first vessel, the SS Truro, left Madras, sailed to South Africa and was borne along more through sheer human spirit than spook and diesel.
Another factor attests to our success. Foremost in the life of our forebears was the need for a place of worship and a place for education. Parents still sacrifice their own comfort and luxuries to ensure they give their children a good education and go on to further studies, to enable them to have good careers and be productive citizens. It also serves to preserve the hard earned reputation that Indians have as valuable contributors to this country'.

Not bad for people who arrived here to be cane cutters and who have gone on to produce doctors, educators and captains of industry.

Cato Manor is synonymous with the apartheid in South Africa. During1949 and 1950 when the Group Areas Act was passed on by the government, people were forced to move from the place to townships like KwaMashu and the Indians moved to places like Chatsworth and Phoenix. Cato Manor became an international symbol of resistance to apartheid by Indians.

Ravi has written about forced removals of Indians from a place called Magazine Barracks. He writes ’the murder weapon was the diabolic Group Areas Act and the misery and turmoil caused by its death blow is unpardonable. The action of its perpetrator was unconscionable.’

Ravi Govender’s book, Down Memory Lane is an unforgettable narration of the Indian community’s resistance to alien laws, their sacrifices and finally their victory over all odds. The present generation of youth in India and overseas have a lot to learn from reading this book, his words continue to inspire us all.