Tehereer

Hazare dare to India, Hurriyat style - Disdain for democracy common link

2011-08-26T20:20:00.000-07:00

SANKARSHAN THAKUR

New Delhi, Aug. 26: Between television and the real thing lies a deceptive parallax. That insistent image — a portly frame shifting, screaming at the bottom of a cinemascope Gandhi, almost an appendage to the plastered muse of his mesmeric ventriloquism — is barely even accessible to the naked eye at close range.

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Malnutrition reaches epidemic proportions in Madhya Pradesh

2009-11-29T22:40:00.001-08:00

Over 25 children died in two villages of the Jhabua district in the past four weeks. Agasia and Madarani villages, falling in the Meghnagar block of the predominantly tribal district, registered 27 deaths since October 19

Malnutrition has reached epidemic proportions in most parts of Madhya Pradesh, with children being the most vulnerable group.

This, along with a general deterioration in the health conditions of children and continuing government apathy towards tribal regions, has resulted in a large number of child and infant deaths being reported.

Alarmingly enough, most of these children were in the 0-6 age group and most weren’t even registered at the local anganwadi centre. Agasia and Madarani are just a small part of the larger story that has emerged. Recent reports from Sidhi district mention the death of 22 children in 48 days since August 2009. Malnutrition, especially among the tribal populations of the State, according to the reports of the Supreme Court Commissioners and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, is much higher than in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-III, 60 per cent of the children in the 0-3 years category in Madhya Pradesh are malnourished, while 82.6 per cent in this category are anaemic. The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in the State stands at 70/1,000, while the same indicator for tribal areas is 95.6/1,000.

In October, The Hindu first reported severe malnutrition among the Kol tribal group in Jawa block of Rewa district. Recently, the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) issued an international appeal to several organisations urging them to persuade the State government to address the issue. The AHRC report mentions that over 80 per cent malnourished children are in Rewa.

The deaths in Jhabua have reportedly been caused due to symptoms resembling those of dengue and malaria along with high incidence of anaemia. However, the alarming levels of malnutrition in the region could be the primary cause, leading to a fall in immunity levels.

“We have discovered 14 deaths till now and the primary causes are severe malnutrition, anaemia and falciparum malaria,” says Meghnagar Block Medical Officer (BMO) Vikram Verma.

“Anganwadis are located far from these regions and the ANMs [Auxiliary Nurse and Midwives] too hardly ever reach there. This, along with the remoteness of these tribal regions, compounds the problem. We are taking this seriously and efforts are on to address the situation.”

While the BMO’s statements acknowledge the seriousness of the situation, the ambiguous position of the Health Department comes to the fore with an entirely different version of the story from the joint director of Health. “There have been only four deaths and that too, in early October. I have ordered action against the supervisor and the ANM and served a show cause notice on the BMO over the delay in reporting this situation,” said K.K. Vijayvargiya. He refuted any role of malnutrition in the deaths. “Although the reasons are not clear, there definitely is no malnutrition, maybe just seasonal fever.”

The apathy and indifference displayed by the health officials have led the villagers to seek medical help from quacks and private practitioners. “The children here appear extremely weak and show malaria and dengue like symptoms and die within an average span of four days,” says Ajit Singh, a local journalist.

While the Health apparatus is obviously not serious about handling the issue, other social welfare schemes do not seem to be helping either. The fathers of all the four children who died in Agasia village were not with their families as they had migrated to seek employment since their National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme cards were being withheld by the village sarpanch.

The displacement of tribal groups from their traditional forest dwellings, where they had access to minor forest produce like berries and other fruits to feed their children, has made matters worse in a scenario where the Public Distribution System shops in tribal areas often open only once a month.

The last reports received from the region said one more child died in Madarani. The situation in Agasia, where four deaths have taken place, was deteriorating, with eight children in the 0-6 age group being critical. The district administration’s response, however, continues to be cold.

Keywords: children, malnutrition, epidemic proportions, Madhya Pradesh, vulnerable

Mahim Singh

No room for 3/12 in the algebra of tragedy and outrage

2009-11-29T22:33:00.000-08:00

Twenty-five years after the world’s worst industrial disaster occurred at midnight on December 3, 1984, the only fact that seems worthy of being reported is that there is nothing about the disaster that is hidden anymore. Nothing that has not been written about; nothing more required to point fingers.
And yet, as the nation mourns the first anniversary of 26/11 through war-like visuals on TV, questions about Bhopal linger. While the perpetrators of 26/11 are being tried in court, justice has not been delivered to the victims of chemical poisoning here. Even after a quarter century of protests, of misery, of lives lived in the shadow of death.
The media finds catharsis for the trauma of 26/11 in its footage of the restored Taj Mahal hotel. But there is nothing redemptive for TV about slums full of poor survivors living on contaminated water demanding their right to justice, which are the only images 3/12 has to offer.
Victims of the Bhopal disaster note that while the Indian government submitted several dossiers of evidence to Pakistan over 26/11, it has failed to get one man, a declared fugitive, extradited from the U.S. even after every piece of evidence against him and the corporation he headed, Union Carbide, is public knowledge.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal, while issuing a second non-bailable warrant for the arrest of Warren Anderson earlier this year, held that the “wilful non-execution” of this warrant was a “punishable offence under sections 217 and 221 of IPC” on the part of the Union government and “public servants” concerned.
It also held that the “public servants” responsible for the execution were “Cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrashekhar and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon.”
The industry-sponsored trivialisation of the Bhopal issue, including the Dursban bribery scandal, is not news anymore. There is enough on-the-record information about the captains of India Inc pitching in for Dow Chemical, which now owns Carbide, asking the government to free the U.S. conglomerate of the responsibility of cleaning up the Union Carbide factory premises.
Documents obtained by Bhopal activists through RTI reveal Ratan Tata's personal letters to Manmohan Singh, Home Minister (then Finance Minister) P. Chidambaram and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia in 2006, urging them to let Indian industry clean up the Bhopal site as it was “critical for Dow to have the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers withdraw their application for a financial deposit by Dow against the remediation cost.”
Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris was more forthright. In a letter to Ronen Sen, Indian ambassador to the U.S. at the time, he wrote:“Certainly, a withdrawal of application would be a positive demonstration that the GOI means what it says about Dow's lack of responsibility in the matter.” In return he offers, “economic growth in India, including key foreign investments that will promote job creation…”
For the media, Bhopal is not as glamorous as Mumbai. While he 26/11 attacks “featured” the Taj Mahal hotel, Café’ Leopold et al, all that Bhopal had to offer was slums full of poor survivors living on contaminated water protesting for their right to justice.

Further, the attack on Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, involved rich citizens and international tourists. Finally, while the attack on Mumbai was an attack on industry, what happened with the people of Bhopal was an attack by the industry
“When we met the Prime Minister in 2008 and brought up the issue, he raised his hands and said he didn't want to hear a word about Dow, saying tragedies happen and this country needs to move on,” says Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action.
But for those who still live with the contamination all around them, moving on is something they find impossible to do.
26/11 targeted a nation. 3/12, unfortunately, could manage only people.
Keywords: Bhopal tragedy, victims, Twenty-five years, Union Carbide factory, Bhopal Group for Information and Action, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers
Mahim Singh

Rapid Inclusive Economic Growth: The Only Way Forward

2009-08-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

I picked this one from Mainstream Weekly ( Dated: January 24 2009). It takes into consideration different aspects of development and how economic development, which is only a sub-set of the development sector, is over emphasized. Lack of focus on health, education and agriculture has ultimately lead to economic deprivation of Indians, putting the government on a contradictory stand.

Rapid Inclusive Economic Growth: The Only Way Forward

Monday 26 January 2009, by Suhas Borker

The only way forward, to put it simply in four words, is rapid inclusive economic growth. It is restoring the Idea of an inclusive India—which is as much an integral part of the Idea of India as a democratic and secular India, to the people of India. The Idea of an inclusive India (inclusive socially, culturally and economically) that lies in the very core of the history of the freedom struggle can be best seen in the image of Gandhi, on the eve of Independence Day in August 1947, in Kolkata, away from the pomp and glitter of the transfer of power in New Delhi, trying to bring succour to the riot afflicted. “To suffer with the afflicted and try to relieve their suffering has been my life’s work,” he had said.

The global economic crisis and the financial meltdown have brought us to a moment of truth. The writings on the wall are clear. Find opportunity in adversity. Apply the TINA factor. Prioritise, focus and push forward.

For launching an intensive programme of Rapid Inclusive Economic Growth (RIEG), there are two types of disorders that inflict our mindset which have to be recognised and got rid off immediately. The first type of disorder is schizophrenia. This has two elements. The first is a split on the role of the state in the economic development of the country, which is manifest in the general withdrawal of the state and encouragement of privatisation of profits and nationalisation of losses. The second is the split on the role of the real economy and the financial economy, which is evident in making the former subservient to the latter. The second type of disorder is the obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). This also has two elements. The first is the fixation with rate of growth, ignoring the Human Development Index (HDI). The second is the obsession with the Sensex, making it the barometer of India’s economic health, though all are aware that FIIs have been manipulating its rise and fall and that their vanishing trick led to the stock exchange crash last year.

These two disorders are symptomatic of the psychosis of the Indian state caused by economic subversion led by elements inimical to inclusive economic growth. Elements of India Incorporated, aided and abetted by other comprador elements, in different spheres and sectors, are part of the concerted hostile takeover bid of the Idea of India.

♦

THERE is no point talking here of how over the years the economic content of the Idea of India was hijacked and transmuted from the inclusive to the exclusive. But some questions of here and now have to be raised. While no one denies the importance of growth, how does social welfare and elimination of poverty become a function of growth and not of policy? How can India sustain a high growth rate while continuing to allocate abysmally low fractions of its GDP on Health and Education? How does India steadily move up on the Human Development Index—where with a HDI of 0.609, we are currently placed 132nd out of 179 countries.

At another level there are also other questions. Can the collapse of Satyam bring us closer to satya? Can this expose of the innards of our financial system help the cleanup process? Can the most stringent penalties be imposed on the scamwallas and those who did the great cover-up on the fudging? Can mechanisms be put in place to keep accountants, bankers, auditors, and analysts under a constant scanner? Can corporate governance be made beyond reproach?

There is a contradiction between the market and inclusive economic growth. The market cannot be inclusive by its very nature. It only admits those who can play in the market, that is, those who have the money to spend. While the market which plays such a dominant role in the economy cannot be wished away, the state has a constitutional and ethical duty to regulate the market in a way that the vastly excluded population is brought into the mainstream. For this the state has to play a very proactive role. The state should not become an extension of the market to grab land without people’s consent otherwise it will meet with growing resistance as we can see today.

PPP (public-private partnership) is fine if the partnership is between equals anchored on accountability and a share in profits and losses but in no case can it be turned into a tool of looting the family silver. The sham of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) should not even be talked about. Can there be anything more perverse than the fact that the Chairman of Satyam, B. Ramalinga Raju, was chairing the Committee of Corporate Social Responsibility of the CII till the scam broke?

The psychosis of the Indian state caused by economic subversion involves divesting the inheritance and ownership of the economic content of the Idea of India from the vast majority of people of India—the adivasis, the Dalits and other poor and marginalised sections to the exclusive club of the politico-bureaucrat-moneybag nexus through a diabolical combination of subterfuge, stonewalling, disinformation, disconnect and non-recognition of the realities of the underbelly of India. The subterranean impact of this divesting on the democratic and secular content of the Idea of India has still not been fathomed. Indian Democracy has been undermined and the feudal mai-baap attitude of the exclusive club is still impregnable. The first impact is that the passwords of parentage, big money and criminal mafia linkage have become exclusive keys to gain entry into Parliament or the State Legislative Assembles through the political party process. This in turn has led to the intra-party subversion of the democratisation processes, development of democratic structures and delivery of inclusive agendas by the parties. (India’s Communist Parties, though largely immune from the above cited password abuse, have suffered from derailment of intra-party democracy due to other factors.)The second impact is that fascist elements, of many hues and plumes, are digging in their heels into the body politic bidding their time to wrest power at New Delhi, using whatever means they can. Remember how the Reichstag was burnt down? The danger to our secular fabric from the present economic crisis cannot be ignored at all.

♦

THE big-money media, which has now largely become an adjunct of India Incorporated through direct ownership inroads, large equity stakes, media-corporates’ private treaties for editorial-advertorial-equity trade-offs, open no holds barred ad-spend manipulations and predatory pricing, abets the big picture of India Inc to be hoisted on the country. The big-money media, of course, at times also indulges in very selective and limited tinkering with this big picture to maintain its garb of credibility. Also there is a part of the media, especially the regional press, which is playing a very positive role. But one cannot be naive to think that trivialisation, depoliticisation, 3C (crime, cinema and cricket) domination of media content and metamorphosis by the media of the citizen into a client-consumer are unrelated. While the media goads you through gloss, glamour and razzmatazz to ‘splurge’, the PLU (people like us) syndrome plays out in studios of TV channels, like strutting on some high-fashion ramp with a cordless mike, in replay mode, offering instant solutions and pocket remedies to national crisis form farmer suicides to terror attacks. On top of all this, a fast forward mechanism is unleashed by anchors, in their self-appointed avatars as oracles of public opinion, who do not bat an eyelid, make-up made-up in extreme close-up, in short-circuiting the political processes of a billion-plus nation. The only saving grace is that the reach of these oracles are limited by Below Media Line (BML) and further by the language they use. Forget that the anchors in question would not have even heard of the concept of BML and would be at her or his wit’s end to know that the vast majority of the country (840 million plus) is below that line.

Just take the fate of the two recent reports of the Government of India to underline the point how inclusive economic growth is subverted.

Take the Report of the Arjun Sengupta Committee on the Unorganised Sector based on the Nation Sample Survey’s 61st round (2004-05) which shows that 77 per cent of India lives at less than Rs 20 per person per day. Please do not forget that this is a report about 836 million of our people. It goes under the carpet.

Take the Report of the Planning Commission Expert Group on “Development Issues to deal with the Causes of Discontent, Unrest and Extremism”. The Expert Group (chaired by D. Bandyopadhyay) submitted its report, Development Challenges in Extremist Affected Areas, in April 2008. It indicts the Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh, critiques SEZs and spotlights the complete failure of instruments like the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 and the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. Please do not forget this is a report about 155 districts and 11 States to which the Extremist Corridor of India now extends. It goes under the carpet.

To illustrate the point further take Health and Education, which are at the core of any inclusive economic development paradigm. First, take Health: though the UPA Government promised to spend three per cent of the GDP on health, still the total public spending is around one per cent of the GDP. The People’s Verdict—a civil society review of the UPA Government’s implementation of the CMP—said in May 2008 that the “spending on health by the Centre is stagnant at about 0.3 per cent of the GDP from 2003-04 onwards”. This review further claimed that government expenditure in proportion to the total health expenditure was “even less than countries like Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Pakistan”.

Let us now take the most critical healthcare delivery programme started by the present government. The GOI launched the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) for 2005-2012 in April 2005. The aim of the NRHM is to bring about dramatic improvement in the delivery system of health care in rural India. The Mission seeks to provide “universal access to equitable, affordable and quality health care, as well as to bring about an improvement in the health status of the underprivileged sections of the society, especially women and children”. The annual budget allocation for 2008-09 for this mission was Rs 12,050 crores. One is not doing an evaluation of the success of NRHM here but to buttress the point about the disconnection made earlier. Take a look at the following scenario: last month an apex India Inc federation with sponsorship from GOI, Ministry of Health, organised the “Fifth India Health Summit” on “Optimising Healthcare Delivery in India: A Patient Centric Approach”, in a prime five star hotel of New Delhi. Now look at the twist of the context in this summit communication:

The Indian Healthcare industry is undergoing a radical transformation… (and) is estimated to be US $ 40 billion industry, growing at 15 per cent every year. Today we stand at the threshold of an exciting opportunity to design and engineer sustainable delivery systems, develop numerous commercially viable and customisable delivery formats for the growing, demanding and health conscious Indian populace.

Can you bet that they discussed the NRHM threadbare? Or that how the 300,000 rural women health workers called Asha, will provide frontline healthcare to the community?

Do you think the corporate honchos at this “health summit” had any time for the likes of Dr Prakash Amte and Dr Mandakini Amte working in the backwaters of the country (Bhamragad, Gadchiroli in Maharashtra), who have given their lives to bringing healthcare to the most tormented and marginalised sections of our people? Of course, one cannot expect them to sign a petition for the release of Dr Binayak Sen from the jail in Chhattisgarh. But what about some of the Professors in our top Government Medical Schools and Hospitals just a few kilometres away from the venue of the summitry, who go through the daily grind of treating the miserable rickshaw-pullers and top politicos with the same dignity and respect because of their beliefs and faith in their mission. Like this AIIMSonian, now a Professor at MAMC, New Delhi who has the following written on the whiteboard in his room for all his students to read: “I cannot afford to waste my time making money.” Surely, they can teach us one or two simple things about optimising healthcare delivery. So why do we have to go through this great farce and subterfuge, to sell the idea of medical insurance as the panacea of all ills to go in tandem with further opening up of the insurance sector to FDIs? Yes, that is the way a chain of attempts are made to outmanoeuvre inclusive agendas or even derail the process of inclusive economic growth. Why are we wasting our meagre public resources in terms of time and money of supporting such disconnected activity? I have not heard of a health summit organised by the GOI of all the Docs who are committed to “I cannot afford to waste my time making money” to improve our healthcare delivery system.

♦

NOW take Education. Our allocation to education is still around 3.5 per cent of the GDP despite the target of six per cent having been set as far back as 1966 by the Kothari Commission. The UPA Government’s CMP had also proposed to spend six per cent of the GDP on education with at least half the amount being earmarked for primary and secondary sectors. However, the civil society review quoted earlier reported that the “combined outlay for the education departments of the Centre and States remain at a meagre 2.84 per cent of the GDP in 2007-08”.

It is estimated that only 56 per cent of children in the age group of five-to-nine are attending schools in our country. And most of these schools are without buildings, without books and without teachers. One is not talking of whiteboards or blackboards. Only less than 10 per cent of university eligible youth have real access to higher education. In October 2007, the Planning Commission Member in charge of Education, addressed the national conference of Vice-Chancellors, called in Delhi to discuss and prepare a higher education roadmap for India. He told the over 300 Vice-Chancellors present that education was ‘divorced’ from the realities of the country. He said that “currently only 9-10 per cent of our students passing out of colleges are skilled enough to get employment.” He further said that a few thousand students passing out from the IITs and IIMs every year will not take India to greater heights. “The fourth largest economy of the world cannot lag behind in education,” he said, adding that the aim in the next five years is to achieve a growth of 10 percent in the enrolment in higher education.

So what do we have right now: a news report datelined the Capital of the country reporting on a proposal of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to convert some Municipal Schools into Shopping Malls. Fortunately the brazen proposal was shot down. This goes without comment. But the disconnect is blatant. We all need to be re-educated but surely not a re-education of the ENRON type.

Apart from manifold increase in public spending on Health and Education, RIEG needs to transform our entire economic agenda. It needs agriculture to be brought centre-stage. A sector which provides employment to 58 per cent of our country’s workforce cannot be allowed to be pushed to the margins. How many more farmers’ suicides will it take to wake us up? What is our perception when there is a waiver of farmers’ loans? Compare it to the endless bailouts that the corporate sector demands and gets on a silver platter.

RIEG needs a total revamp of the PDS with scans to set the alarms ringing when there are leaks. The NREGA’s net has to be widened and strengthened. The roots of the RTI have to be made to go deeper and deeper into our body politic. Prasar Bharati has to be turned into a blue-blooded Public Service Broadcaster from the pretender it is now so that it can become an instrument of empowerment and socio-economic transformation in the country. Community Radio and TV Networks have to do likewise at the micro level. Also IT has to be used more and more to fight corruption and empower people especially in rural areas and marginalised quarters in urban areas. The list is very long. Fifty per cent of our people still do not have access to clean drinking water.

But there are two very uncomfortable areas where intervention is required urgently. First, think of the Lota syndrome: sixtyone years after independence, 65 per cent of our people, that is, 66 crores, defecate in the open. Can you visualise what that means? Two hundred thousand tonnes of faeces is discharged in the open everyday. All this is linked to a very high spread of diarrhea and other gastro-intestinal diseases. This results in a death count of 1000 children per day. The second is about sanitary napkins. Think of our poor womenfolk who cannot use sanitary napkins because they cannot simply afford them. Dirty rags are used which leads to severe infection and even tetanus if there is a metal hook or something in them. Why can’t our scientists of the CSIR come out fast with that Re 1 polymer strip to save these women from this horrid state?

But more than anything else RIEG needs a mindset change. So that we can think and act inclusively and our marginalised and poor citizens and their needs and aspirations can be taken onboard. What better time can there be to change than when there is a mind blowing crisis?

We have three advantages to make this change. First, fortunately, we are still somewhat insulated and not so deeply entangled in the pincer-like grip of international finance capital, so if we need to press the eject button it will work. Second, we have a high domestic savings rate of 35.5 per cent of the GDP which can be harnessed for huge investments in social infrastructure projects to uplift and connect the poor and marginalised of our country and also cushion us from the travails of the flight of foreign investment. Related to this are reports that suggest that NRIs and PIOs in the US and other Western countries are sending more money home as a result of the severe crisis there. The depreciation of rupee and rising rate of interest for fixed deposits in foreign currency have made NRI deposits attractive. Third, 54 per cent of our population is young—below the age of 25. They have tasted pride in India’s knowledge and technology centred achievements in IT and Space, for instance, as well as seen the worst crisis of neo-liberalism at such an impressionable age that they would be enthused to demand a more stable and just international economic architecture externally and build a better, new, inclusive India internally.

♦

I would like to end with a personal anecdote. In October 2007, I was covering along with my crew, the 340-kilometre march of 25,000 landless workers from 12 States to Delhi demanding land reform. Enroute near Kosi Kanal, a 100 kms away from Delhi, one of the marchers—a frail woman in her forties—told me: we have nothing to lose now, we have already lost everything; you put us in jail or kill us, we will not return empty handed, we want our jal, jungal aur zameen back. I had never in my life seen such a disciplined march—men and women marching in column after column like an army. Their white and green Janadesh flags emblazoned in the flaming sun. They had already traversed more than 240 kms in 18 days. Only two days before, a truck had run into the marchers’ column and killed three of them but their spirits were very high. They represented the last man and woman of our country. It would have warmed the heart of the most cynical of today’s scribes. On my return to New Delhi I read the following comment in a report on the march in a national weekly:

When the marchers finally hit the streets of Delhi on October 29, they will no doubt attract the attention of irate motorists. But will anyone else care, and will their march lead to any concrete action?

The disconnect could not have been more palpable.

In the year of the centenary of Hind Swaraj, the critique of the Western civilisation which Gandhiji published in 1909, can we simply rethink of a model of development where the voiceless are not driven to the wall? Can the marginalised and poor be given access to basic resources of jal, jangal aur zameen to sustain their livelihood? Can we bridge the chasm between a splurging India and a starving Bharat? This is a moment of truth. Moments of truth do not come easily by. Our tryst with destiny can go on and on. But let us grab this moment of truth. So that we can “redeem our pledge”, which has remained unredeemed for more than sixty years, to make conditions for the last men and women representing the adivasis and Dalits, the marginalised and poor people of India to give unto themselves what is truly theirs.

(Courtesy: Economic Journalist, the quarterly journal of the Forum of Financial Writers)

The author is the Convener, Working Group on Alternative Strategies [Vaikalpik Rananiti Karya Samuh]. He is also the Executive Director and Editor, CFTV News (Citizens First Television News) and an independent documentary filmmaker. He can be e-mailed at suhasborker@ gmail.com

Sickbed ruminations

2009-08-20T07:13:00.000-07:00

Lying in bed all day, I ruminate over whether Jaswant Singh feels stupid for writing anti-party statements, or if he has a grand plan in mind to over throw the BJP and the RSS for their closed-natured ideology and start a new kind of Hindutva which is more openminded than its older counterpart. I have been in bed for the past four weeks, of which one was spent in a hospital. The other three, of course, has been spent in the comfort of my own airconditioned bedroom with attached bathroom; under the care of loving parents who could provide me with literally anything I want. In spite of all these comforts, the fevers in the morning, and the acidity (due to the never-ending pills I take) all day drain me out, making sure I cannot step out of the house. But I don't need to. 'Cause like I said, I have everything I need right here.

This brings me to think about friends I have, who are equally, (or perhaps even more) susceptible to the disease I bear. These are friends stay away from home and work in order to send money back to the village. Something as dastardly as a severe TB attack would rent this person living alone absolutely helpless. For self-preservation, he'll have to cook for himself, wash his own clothes, clean his own house and come to work everyday in spite of high fevers, dizziness, acidity and horrible coughing.

Why limit myself to bachelors! When one could ignorantly think that a person could always find comfort in a family in times of sickness, he doesn't realize that the Indian family is basically like a broken toy fixed by a child using superglue; Permanently, but not perfectly joined. And who is the one to suffer the most? The lady of the house of course! Just in case she falls to some severe illness, she is first of all diagonized late, because the fevers, chills and dizziness she might be having would be taken extremely lightly by the rest of the family; meaning that she'll have to do all the cooking cleaning washing, water collecting, bazar buying, etc. all by herself. The moment things get worse, and the husband finds out she has a serious disease that could be harmful, she is carted off to her parents place, where she might find some respite.

I've quoted one of the most mildest, most treatable diseases of this time; (may be not as mild as swine-flu. What a loud noise that made!) but imagine the woman shivering from pneumonia, suffering from breathlessness at night, while the drunk husband walks in, finds is wife too cold to touch, and is sexually turned off. making him angrily sleep on the other side of the bed, leaving her to shiver through the night. And we wonder why the world's largest number of deaths (2.94mill a year) have a cause in pneumonia.

The lack of love in our community might sound overexaggerated (and believe me, it's not) in this piece, but one definitely cannot exaggerate the lack of basic facilities to treat a simple illness. What does one do when his beloved is suffering from extreme diarrhoea due to food-poisoning? and since there is no water in the well, only muddy water from the river the factory spoiled, what does he do? He will have to feed her the water that gave her the diarrhoea in the first place. The local quack would charge a hundred rupees for an IV line, (which costs under Rs 30)when all she would need is a 12 rupee ORS packet and some clean water to get better. Obviously the family cannot afford such luxuries, and the husband will have to watch his bride die of a disease that people with attached bathrooms wouldn't give two hoots about.

It is amazing to watch how living in different classes bring out different perspectives of the same disease. I post on facebook that I've been sick for a month and everybody's there for me asking me to take care of myself. I wonder if the poor housewife would ever think of one month's fever as something abnormal!

"It was an incident, not an accident"

2009-08-07T12:02:00.000-07:00

As the 25^th anniversary of the world’s biggest industrial disaster draws closer, victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy continue to live in abject indifference from the union as well as the state government.

Also, as the CBI has failed to get Warren Anderson, the chairperson of the Union Carbide pesticide plant at the time of the tragedy, extradited to India even after two non-bailable arrest warrants, Union Carbide America has gone on record for the umpteenth time saying that the tragedy was a result of negligence on the part of the workers and the management was not at fault.

Further, just to put things into perspective, as over 300,000 victims that the tragedy spawned still make frequent rounds of city hospitals; with over a 100,000 of them rendered permanently affected, life in the West Virginia unit of the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), goes on unperturbed and Mr. Anderson continues to live in a posh Manhattan neighbourhood.

And finally, what did the tragedy, that sent shockwaves across the world in 1984, cost the UCC? A mere $470 million in compensation, as agreed upon in a 1989 Supreme Court brokered settlement based on 1,20,000 injured and another 3000 dead, without any consultation with the victims.

That, as the SC directed the government of India at that time, was it. No more claims or complaints could be made to the UCC after that, as the corporation had settled all claims for good. Later, however, the value of the amount in rupees went up due to the rise in the American dollar and the SC ordered the government to distribute the surplus amount to victims on a pro-rata basis.

In May 2007, the SC turned down a plea for more compensation and directed the case to the state welfare commissioner, who rejected it on January, 31^st 2009.

The situation today

At last count, made in 2004 during the settlement of compensation claims, there were 5,74,000 people who were proven to be seriously injured as a result of the disaster.

These, along with another 15,274 who were dead, were lucky. They received monetary, compensation in return for their loss; whether or not it was adequate is another matter. The actual story, told by civic organizations working for the cause, involves many more who weren’t as fortunate.

There were two “rounds” of identification of victims. The first, from 1985-1989, saw 5,97,000 claims being filed, while the second, from 1996-2004, took that figure to 10,29,000. What’s interesting, or stupefying rather, is the fact that only around 300,000 were medically tested in the first round, while in the second round, not even a single claimant was tested.

Medical testing was required to prove that the claimant was actually a victim. The burden of proof in this case, which effectively translates into getting through innumerable bureaucratic cobwebs, lay on the victim.

This effectively meant that no matter how many died or were injured because of the “negligence” of the management, only those who could prove that they suffered would be compensated.

Contaminated drinking water

“The disaster didn’t just end in ’84,” says Abdul Jabbar, an activist working for the victims ever since the tragedy occurred. “For those permanently affected and living around the Carbide factory and the pond where all its effluents were dumped, and which still have hazardous chemicals, the disaster continues,” he adds. The contamination, he says has spread five Kms around the main site. Yet, there has been no separate lawsuit filed against the company for this continued massacre.

Reports compiled by various research organizations, including Greenpeace, Citizen’s Environmental Laboratory (Boston, USA) and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute among others, reveal that the Carbide factory, waste stockpile, disposal sites, waste dump and the soil around it, contain at least 18 toxic chemicals.

These include carcinogens like Chlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) and Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and toxins like Chlorinated Naphthalene, Hexachlorobutadine, Lead and Mercury among others. The reports clearly state that exposure to these can cause excessive damage to the brain, nervous system, liver, kidneys, and lungs; it can further result in skin lesions, fragile skin, stunted growth and damage to developing foetus.

The pond, as Carbide officials stated, had a plastic coating underneath it to stop seepage into ground water. However, the black soil of the region develops cracks and seepage occurs easily, polluting the ground water.

Slums and colonies have come up around the site and residents of these are forced to drink contaminated water due to the lack of safe drinking water. Toxins like Hexachlorobutadine, besides harming humans, are extremely hazardous for the ecology of the area as they may cause sustained damage to animals, birds, fish and plants.

“The work for clean water supply to the affected localities, being carried out on a order by the SC, is on at the moment and should be done by the end of November this year,” says Gopesh Shrivatsava, Sub-Engineer, Bhopal Municipal Corporation.

Health situation precarious

There is no convincing specialized health-care apparatus available to the affected population. The Bhopal Memorial Hospital trust, established with the Rs.290 crore obtained from selling Carbide properties after a SC order of 1991, started services only in 2000, and that too partially.

Further, because of the government’s apathy, the affected people have to depend on private practitioners, most of whom, activists claim are professionally under-qualified to handle diseases of such serious nature.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) conducted 24 studies in Bhopal since the disaster which were concluded in 1994. The full report submitted by the ICMR has still not been made public.

Besides, there has been no official documentation of gas-related deaths, which are still happening, since 1992. (ICMR reports till 1992 are with this reporter)

Rehabilitation

2490 residences were built with the assistance of the central government for widows of the dead. Today, this colony is just another ill-planned slum. The more than 2000 families staying here are living in abject poverty and inhabitable conditions. Activists claim that more than 1100 widows, with no family supporters, continue to live without proper food or healthcare.

Carbide’s continued refusal

“They are just trying to save themselves,” says T.R.Chauhan, who was a control room operator at the plant during the tragedy and the author of “Bhopal-The Inside story”, a book describing the events that led to the tragedy.

“There is enough evidence to prove that the management was responsible for the cost-saving steps that led to the safety lapse that caused the leak,” Chauhan says.

Shahnawaz Khan, an advocate, had served two notices (copies with this reporter) to the Carbide management highlighting exactly the same dangers from the plant that actually came forward during the tragedy in 1983.

In a written reply to the notices (copies with this reporter), the plant manager J.Mukund, termed the allegations baseless, saying the plant had the requisite permits to operate from the union and the state government.

“He told me in person that the workers were safer in the factory than they were in their homes,” says Khan. “Every concern about things that would lead to the tragedy later, was termed baseless by Mukund. That is precisely the reason that we call it an incident and not an accident and also why we have been arguing in the court to change the section from 304 (a) to 304,” he adds.

According to reliable sources, Carbide had big political connections in the state. Madhavrao Scindia, the erstwhile ruler-cum-political icon from Gwalior had shares in Carbide and so did Congress veteran V.C.Shukla.

“Arjun Singh’s Chourhat lottery received a donation of Rs.15 lakh from the company on record. The BJP’s central committee received donation worth lakhs from Dow chemicals in last year’s assembly elections. How do you expect any political will to prosecute the company coming out of such people,” a source said.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Bhopal, recently issued another non-bailable warrant for the arrest of Anderson and held that the “willful non-execution” of this warrant is a “punishable offence under sections 217 and 221 of IPC” on part of the union government and the “public servants” concerned.

It also held that the “public servants” responsible for the execution are “cabinet secretary K.M.Chandrashekhar and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon.”

Full version of Taimur Rahman's interview that appeared in The Hindu- Coimbatore, today

2009-07-16T00:12:00.000-07:00

Pakistani fusion music band Laal has catapulted to fame with their uplifting music and poetic lyrics. Pheroze L. Vincent interviews Taimur Rahman, the music composer of the band. A former teacher at the Lahore School of Economics and the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Taimur used to play the guitar in classes to entertain and teach. Infact, Shahram Azhar, the lead vocalist of the band, was his student at LUMS. Taimur is also famous in Pakistani theatre as a producer, director and actor.

The band became popular after their video Maine Usse Yeh Kaha (I told him so) which was based on a poem by Habib Jalib. Taimur’s cousin and Laal’s flutist Haider Rahman has trained under Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and Akmal Qadri.

The Laal brigade fan club has chapters in many cities of Pakistan. Laal wears their communist leanings on their sleeves and have successfully exploited the appeal of poetry to most Pakistanis. "Arguably, we are the most politicized youth out there, something that was lacking in the 1990s," says Taimur, who is currently doing his PhD on the class structure of Pakistan from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.

Q1: A communist at the LUMS. Isn’t it surprising?
Its not surprising. Its shocking!First, given the preponderance of reactionary organizations like the Jamiat in public universities, sometimes the space for open debate is more open in such private universities. Second, LUMS now has a liberal arts undergraduate program. And what is a liberal arts program if it does not include at least some understanding of Marxism.

Q2: The Lawyers movement is over; Zardari continues in power, Pakistanis plagued by terror and the army’s decisive action in Swat has theirpopularity in the country at an all time high. What lies ahead forPakistani communists?
The three main political forces of oppression in Pakistan are imperialism, fundamentalism and military dictatorship. It is a very complex situation where reactionary forces are pitted against other reactionary forces. And progressive forces are relatively weak. Nonetheless, by taking advantage of the contradictions between reactionaries, we hope to widen the political space for democracy. Its a form of Gramscian positional class war. At the moment, we are pushing against religious fundamentalism but if the military were to attempt to take power again, we would oppose them tooth and nail.

Q3: A lot of underground music, in Pakistan, happened after Gen. Musharraf’s “enlightened moderation.” Will the grudging admiration for the military among urban youth prove as a stumbling block in mobilising them?
It was a stumbling block but not an insurmountable one. As time has shown, urban middle class mobilization forced Musharraf to resign. I think the liberals that admired Musharraf were relatively few in number. By and large, people have come to recognize that the political forces in play in Pakistan are unable and/or unwililng to address the structural changes that we need to make Pakistan into a representative and prosperous state.

Q4: Could you tell us something about the Laal brigade? What are its aims and activities?
The Laal brigade is a broad organization of young leftist fans of Laal. Its principle objective is to study revolutionary thought in order to consolidate an organization that can bring about revolutionary change in Pakistan. Students from other cities have been inviting us to form Laal brigades in their cities but so far we have been too busy to organize to the full extent of its popularity. We hope to make that up this Autumn.

Q5: Your music is largely popular among urban English speaking youth.What are the revolutionary prospects for them, despite their class character?
Is it largely popular among English speaking youth? I'm not entirely sure about that. Album sales indicate a much broader mainly urban audience. But the English speaking fans are able to reach us through facebook and the internet. Hence, I can understand why such an impression is created. Actually our music originally became popular among the workers of Lahore in industrial areas. And we are very mindful that progressive poetry must reach the people and not become the exclusive preserve of an elite intelligentsia. To accomplish this further we are thinking of organizing a tour across Pakistani towns and villages. The notion that workers and peasants cannot appreciate poetry and music is far off the mark in the context of Pakistan. Poetry and music have a popular appeal in Pakistan, arguably beyond any other form of art.

Q6: Your party, the Communist Mazdoor Kisan Party (CMKP) has fraternalties with the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM)? How What is theCMKP's view of the agitations against the CPI (M) in Nandigram, Singur and Lalgarh in West Bengal?
I can follow these events from a distance. Hence, I do not claim to have a clear grasp of the entire situation. However, I would like to add that we have seen that reactionary classes also have the ability of organizing trade unions and peasant organizations in order to defend feudal or capitalist interests. Take for instance the trade union "Solidarity" in Poland. It was ostensibly a workers organization but it restored the most naked form of capitalism seen in the former Soviet Union. Similarly, anything that is organized under the hegemony of reactionary political forces (such as the Trinamool Congress) will objectively bring about results that are anti-working class (whatever the subjective desires of misplaced individuals that support such a movement).

Q7: The CPI (M)’s campaign album last general elections didn’t attractmuch of an audience? Many leftists in the country feel that your songscan make a huge difference in articulating the policy of the IndianLeft Front to the people? Have you ever considered cross border collaboration?
We are all honoured to hear that leftists in India would hold our work in such high esteem. We are internationalists and would like to collaborate with oppressed and working class movements of all countries. Our message to all leftists in South Asia is that we consider our music to be the product of, and a contribution to, our common struggle.In fact, when we recorded our first single, Aamir Khan's studio was quite interested in taking one of our songs and using it in one of their films about peasants and suicides. As a matter of fact, we even read the script and were working on further collaboration. But then we got too busy with recording our album and the democratic movement in Pakistan.Aside from the glitter of the film world, what really interests us is to be able to perform and connect with the people of South Asia as a whole. To share with them and to work for peace and friendship in South Asia.

Q8: Will the current agitations in Indian Jammu and Kashmir be used byreactionaries to whip up bellicose patriotism and an aura of emergency?
Isn't it always? But it won't work because at the moment, we Pakistani's have too much on our plate to deal with domestically. With suicide bombers rampaging through our cities, I think we need to focus on getting our own house in order at the moment.

Q9: How is London? How are youth and South Asians in Europe receivingyour music?
To be honest, I'm dying to finish my Phd and get back to my homeland to do more work and build a revolutionary movement. Although I've spent many years out of Pakistan for my higher education, I've never enjoyed being away from my country and my people. Being in London is like being in self-imposed exile.Nonetheless, London was where we were based when we recorded our first single. But so far we have not had the opportunity to perform in London (with the exception of raising slogans and singing in demonstrations). Expats normally download pirated versions of our album from the net. Hence, it is difficult to keep track of album sales and popularity in those terms. But when the album was first released I would get tons of emails a day asking me how people could get copies of our album in France, Britain, Canada, US, Spain, and even Germany. Moreover, GEO's network is massive. Hence, I suspect that we have a number of fans in other countries that we can and should connect with in the near future.

Q10: South Asians in general and Indians in particular have been underracist attacks in Australia and elsewhere? Most of the attackers arebelieved to be from the economically weaker sections of the whitecommunity. As a socialist, a teacher and as someone who has been inthe UK for his education, how do you view this situation? Can musicbuild bridges?
Pardon the cliche, but doesn't the recent international grieving over the death of the King of Pop Michael Jackson prove just that?There is racism that we South Asians face and there is also the racism that we South Asians mete out to each other. Both have to be countered to bring about the solidarity of all oppressed peoples against the multi-billionaire ruling elite of the world today. A ruling elite that feeds off the suffering of millions of people. Enough we say! Oppressed people's of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!

An Open Letter to The Hindu

2009-07-05T11:51:00.000-07:00

A friend asked me to look at the last page of the Hindu today (July 4th, 2009). At a first look, it appeared as though there were a lot of advertisements on the page. After a closer observation, I found out that I was not far from the truth. The lead article “Visiting the Vavuniya IDP camps: an uplifting experience” is nothing short of an advertisement for the Lankan government. The article flows like a good corporate ad - the (non-existent) virtues of the Lankan state have been overstated while its miserable failures have been understated.

I’ve been associated with the media enough to know how the Hindu functions, what are its holy cows, and its perception of “ethics.” I understand ‘Manufacturing Consent’ well enough to know how your dependence on being in the good books of the government and the corporates influences your paper’s stance. But what I don’t understand is your paper’s belief that your reader will accept your stories as gospel truth - this reflects in the quality of quite some your articles which are ideal cases of pamphleteering. And today’s article by Mr N. Ram takes the Oscar.

I fail to understand how a visit to any refugee camp can be an ‘uplifting experience,’ as Mr. Ram describes it. Every refugee is a tale of tragedy, a product of unfavourable circumstances beyond her/his control. And in Sri Lanka, they are products of an ethnic war, the roots of which lie in decades of state sponsored discrimination against the Tamils. Do you seriously think that all of your readers would fall for those pictures of all smiles and no tears? Do you think that we would believe that the Tamils would be happy in camps set up by a government that massacred their people by the thousands to apprehend a handful of so-called “terrorists”?

Never would the Hindu publish a story that is even mildly in praise of Israel. Never would the Hindu miss an opportunity to highlight the plight of the Palestinians. But different standards for genuine movements in India, Sri Lanka and China. But then, you have no interests worthy of concern in Israel. The Israeli govt doesn’t give your journalists free access like Sri Lanka or China. You don’t ruffle feathers in the Indian govt by adopting a pro-Palestinian stance but you might lose your precious government ads by being pro-Tamil or even mildly supportive of those brave tribals of Lal Garh. And let us not forget the Sri Lanka Ratna conferred on your Editor-in-chief by the Lankan state. Thus, the mistakes of the Lankan govt and the misery of the Tamil people - they don’t exist for the Hindu.

You try to portray a picture of being an “ethical” newspaper but your selective morality stands exposed in your coverage of people’s movements in and around India. You are no where near radical - you want to play it safe, be on the good side of the establishment. And your leftist stance? A farce, that will dropped at the first instance of trouble. I am willing to bet that if the Maoists target your interests tomorrow, you will sing paeans to the Salwa Judum. Even pro-right media orgs are better than you. At least they are honest about their stance.

PS I know that this letter will not be published. Truth hurts, and a paper like yours that lives in a world of constructed falsehoods wouldn’t want to face it. This exercise was to let you know that your readers are not fooled by your stories. That there are quite some who know the Hindu for what it is - a pro-establishment, bordering on the reactionary newspaper. There are others who are willing to wage an ideological war against such forces of reaction - through written letters, e-mails and blogs. Of course, we do not have a media mafia to back us, only the truth. And our conscience which we haven’t sold for some Ratna.

I wrote this letter as a response to the article "Visiting the Vavuniya IDP camps: an uplifting experience," by N. Ram in the Hindu, Saturday, July 4th, 2009. A reliable contact within the Hindu told me that it was highly unlikely that my letter would get published. It was expected. My intention was to get the point across to the paper that there is resistance to their propoganda.

R.I.P MJ

2009-06-28T06:09:00.001-07:00

Infamous as I am for making sweeping generalizations, and not to be done in by all the foot-soldier work I’m being made to do as my first month at work at a 90-year-old national daily comes to an end, here’s another one to keep your ridicule of yours truly alive – Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, as Elizabeth Taylor (his dear friend) addressed him in the early 80s soon after the world realized that his skin tone was not much of a reason to keep the euphoria he inspired below that which his ‘white’ peers could generate, was a socialist at heart.

I’m sure you’ve started laughing by now, but as always, I’m going to try and corroborate this one, too. Everyone who’s anyone in any part of the world knows who MJ was and has heard most of his songs somewhere of the other. It is here that I would like to draw the reader’s attention to some of his songs.

Think back and try to remember the first time you heard the Earth Song, or Heal the World. Mind you – he was no mere social worker trying to maintain the status quo in society by just drawing people’s attention to issues which had been ignored by many and for too long – but an activist with a socialist outlook. This can plainly be seen in his attempt to drag people into action. The earth song video is a very good example.

The dead animals and the barren earth are not surrounded by groups of people (read ‘social workers’ a la the NGO culture of today) ‘healing’ the wounded animals or ‘awakening’ the people into recognizing their rights and demanding them from their governments. There is no UN (whose footage is visible more in his music videos than anywhere else) with its multiple agencies engineered to further the interests of the developed world, but the people.

The people who have lost loved ones in a war-torn land. People whose natural habitat has been polluted and left dead by the activities of companies based in a foreign land. People who want it back; people who shed tears at their own loss. The emphasis is not on fixing responsibility on anyone – but on reclaiming what is lost. In this attempt they fall to the earth on their knees and attempt to revive their mother earth by feeling it and comforting it with their bare hands. What better metaphor or symbolism for grass-roots activism can there be?

Here’s another example, then. His epic hit single, Bad. Now come on. Even a 7 year old who has watched the video will tell you it’s anarchic. He/she may not say it in such a way, but something to this effect shall indeed be said. Again, the emphasis on recognizing the under-ground culture, of understanding the cultural significance of it, on saluting the power of unity – even if it is the unity of those considered the scum of the metropolis, living at the subway station – it is a call to the people. The people who are not in the mainstream to keep faith in themselves.

Black or white. Do I even have to explain this one? This is the best attempt at positive social engineering that I consider plausible and tangible. Here you have a black man right in your own living room telling you it’s ok to be who you are. Telling you something that anthropologists and sociologists have been trying to articulate in a popular way for ages. And he does it in a few minutes on television. Again, what is appealing is the fact that the song can be seen as a metaphor for MJs own life. This was a time when MJ was putting a lot of junk in his body to get rid of a psychosis that he had developed very early in his life – one that was caused by his skin tome and the baggage that came with it. This was incidentally also the time when the media had gone all guns on his changing skin tone. One should view it with that in mind too. The iconic MJ was asking for acceptance. For the same love that he got when he was black. It was his way of saying ‘I’m the same guy. I have a lot of problems in my head. Please help me get over them.”

“If you’re thinking of being my baby, it don’t matter if you’re black or white.” It went. He was black and now he was white and would become whiter before he left the world in shock and agony last Thursday. It truly didn’t matter if he was black or white. He was, and always will be our baby.

Is Eelam Over?

2009-05-30T01:43:00.000-07:00

And though their hopes and dreams were shattered
let their deaths not be in vain
We must keep forever burning
freedom's torch, the victor's flame.

-Cheryl Berger

The Tamil Tigers are over, Eelam is over. So claimed the Sri Lankan government on the 18th of may - a claim which was echoed by many sections of the Indian media as well. Gory images, of what the Lankan government claimed to be, the bodies of Velupillai Prabhakaran and his son, Charles Anthony were telecast on news channels. The Lankan government also claimed that the entire top brass of the Tigers, including Pottu Amman and Soosai, were killed in the “final assault” on the Tigers. Till now, however, the Tigers have confirmed only the deaths of Nadesan and Pulidevan. They claim that the high command is still alive and active.

Yet, the images had their effect. Many in my family were horrified when they saw the image of a “dead Prabhakaran” on TV. Some wept. So would have thousands of Tamils across the world, for the charismatic leader of the LTTE meant many things to them. A cherished son to the old, an inspiring Annan to the young, a Sooriyathevan (sun god) to some fanatic supporters, a revolutionary icon, a romantic hero, a guardian. Above all, he symbolized hope. Even those Tamils to whom he was a ruthless despot now feel that the strongest voice that represented their cause has been silenced.

On the other side of the racial divide, among the Sinhalese, there was jubilation. Many news channels showed vulgar public display of triumph by the Sinhalese in Colombo. They were seen bursting crackers, beating drums, feeding sweets and cakes to “their heroes,” the security personnel. For them, it was not merely a victory of the army over the LTTE - it was the establishment of Sinhalese superiority over the Tamils. A Tamil contact from Sri Lanka told me that Tamils were harassed in many parts of the country, especially in the capital city. He said that Tamils were forced to shell out money to Sinhalese mobs so that they could buy sweets for the victory celebrations. Back home in Tamil Nadu, a friend who is closely associated with the Sri Lankan Tamils Protection Movement (SLTPM) said that if at all there is justice in the world, the Sinhalese would pay with their blood for every drop of tear shed by the Tamils. The victory of the Lankan army, if anything, has only accentuated the existing Tamil-Sinhala divide.

Prabhakaran dead?

After the news channels flashed disturbing images of “Prabhakaran’s body,” many theories emerged on his death. Some say he committed suicide. Some say that a close aide shot him. The Lankan army claims that they finished him off - and the Sri Lankan government has given half a dozen versions of the final encounter. Pro-LTTE outfits say that the body is not Prabhakaran’s, that it is a decoy. They also claim that the Lankan Army has used this ploy to divert attention from the large scale massacre of Tamil civilians that occurred in the last one month and to demoralize the Tamils. In fact, even the Tigers don’t seem to be unanimous in their stance. Selvarasa Pathmanathan, LTTE’s head of International Relations, claimed on May 24th that Prabhakaran “attained martyrdom fighting the military oppression.” This was promptly denied by the Tiger’s intelligence wing the very next day. Controversy, it appears, would not elude the elusive leader ever.

So is Prabhakaran dead? Or will he remain a mysterious disappearance like Subash Chandra Bose? The loopholes in the government’s versions have been pointed out by many experts on the issue. At the same time, unless there is a concrete proof that he is alive nothing much can be said on the Tigers’ contention that he is still active. What needs to be analyzed at the moment are the factors that led to the fall of the Tigers.

How the Tiger was trapped

The single greatest factor that contributed to the defeat of the Tigers was their transformation from guerilla warfare to conventional warfare. The Tigers were considered masters of guerilla warfare, placed on par with the Viet-Minh. They waged successful battles against the Sri Lankan army in Eelam Wars I, II and III and managed to capture huge swathes of territory. During the IPKF operations in Sri Lanka from 1987-90, the LTTE, who had a cadre strength of around 3000, were able to secure a decisive victory over a 100,000 strong army by deploying guerrilla strategy.

For an insurgent outfit, the greatest asset is fluidity. By Maoist terminology, the discontented Tamil masses were the “water” in which the guerilla fighters, the “fish,” could swim freely. But the transition to conventional warfare restricted the fluidity of the Tigers. In their transition, the Tigers flouted two main rules of insurgency - not to engage in battles that cannot be won and to be on the move continuously. The conventional mode of war is more suited for a state’s army - not for non-state actors. The Tigers functioning as a state’s army, providing no space for criticism and self-criticism, weakened them internally.

The defection of Karuna in March 2004, partly engineered by the Lankan government, came as a great blow to the LTTE. Karuna, who was the Eastern commander of the Tigers, took along with him a sizeable group of experienced fighters. They provided the Lankan army the much needed inside information on the Tigers. Soon after his defection, the Eastern provinces under the control of the Tigers fell to the military offensive like a house of cards.

‘World opinion,’ or the opinion of politically and economically powerful countries of the West, turned against what they dubbed ‘terrorism’ post 9-11. The governments of these countries saw no difference between one group and another - any non-state actor waging an armed struggle against a recognized state was considered terrorist. The eventual proscription of the LTTE in the US, Canada and the EU hit them where it hurt the most - their endless supply of funds from the Tamil Diaspora.

The political isolation of the Tigers in the South-Asian region, though it didn’t matter initially, worked against them in the long run. India, Pakistan and China, each having strong economic interests in Sri Lanka, went head over heels in their attempts to woo the Lankan government. While Pakistan and China were overt in their military assistance to Sri Lanka, India could not afford to do so, fearing a backlash in Tamil Nadu. It, however, covertly provided military equipment, training for Sinhalese soldiers, intelligence inputs and radars. Plus, Israel and Russia also provided military support to Sri Lanka through arms deals. One similarity about all these countries is that all face some form of secessionist-liberation struggles back home. Without any support from any government in the region, the Tigers were fighting a full fledged war against not one, but six forces. They were outnumbered and outgunned.

To sum it up, an analogy can be drawn between the predicament of the Tigers and the fate of Abhimanyu in the Mahabharata. Like Abhimanyu, the Tigers entered a form of battle that they were partially accustomed to. They fought against larger forces, with all odds against them. And like Abhimanyu, they fought valiantly to the last. The dubious role of Jayadratha, the character who prevented the Pandavas from reaching Abhimanyu in time, is best suited for India. In the past, India had prevented many an arms consignment from reaching the Tigers at crucial times in the war. So what was the role of the Lankan army in the Kurukshetra of the Vanni jungles? Similar to the role of Dushasan’s son who dealt the death blow to a battered and bruised Abhimanyu. They killed a wounded Tiger.

The idea of Eelam

“There is no end for Prabhakaran,” thundered Vaiko at a massive rally organized by the SLTPM on May 21st in Chennai. There is an element of truth in his statement. Prabhakaran was synonymous with an idea. An idea of Tamil Eelam, that emerged as a concrete concept after the Vadukkodai resolution of 1976. An idea of an independent state that the Tamils could call home. An idea of an egalitarian society sans bias, sans discrimination where free men and women would progress and prosper. An idea of struggle for justice and freedom. Prabhakaran is among those individuals who were identified with certain ideas and who survive in public memory through the ages. Prabhakaran used to say that history was his guide. The history of Prabhakaran and the Tigers serve as guides for any future action towards securing justice for the Tamils. Whether he is alive or dead, the idea of Prabhakaran lives in the hearts of millions of Tamils world over. And as long as that survives, the dream of Eelam will persist among the Tamils and will haunt Sri Lanka as a nightmare. This critical moment in the timeline of the Eelam struggle signals only the end of a phase, not the struggle as such. Tamil Eelam is not over. It has reached a new beginning.

Atithi Devo Bhava for us, “curry bashing” for them

2009-05-30T00:23:00.001-07:00

The Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) has added another weapon to its “Incredible India” arsenal. Yes, the same campaign which seeks to sell India as a safe, oriental and culturally exciting destination to the rest of the world. This latest “weapon” is simply the new advertisement that the ITDC has been circulating on most television channels lately – that of a culturally sensitive and clearly right-wing Aamir Khan saving the day for two white, foreigner girls as they shop around in the back-lanes of Bombay – that oriental paradise that Gregory David Roberts (incidentally from Australia himself) hails as the city of cities and one that is closest to his heart.

Anyway – so there’s this ruffian, see? And he tries to touch the girls and then tries to sell them a cheap hotel room, and then he’s joined by taxi drivers, tourist guides, auto rickshaw drivers et cetera – each selling his own…er…”service”. As the two unassuming and helpless girls drown in a sea of invitations and echoes of “Madamji, madamji”, their knight in shining armour appears – to reprimand his own countrymen for the ill treatment that they are subjecting their foreign guests to and reminds them of their ancient heritage – of their land being that of guest worship (read deifying anyone with a less-flatter nose and better skin tone – you know, as part of our continuing respect for our erstwhile colonial masters). What he does is all too visible. However – what is of consequence, in my opinion, is what he says. Aamir Khan of the Narmada Bachao aandolan and Lagaan fame says “respect them because its from them that you get your income. If you cause them displeasure – believe you me – they’ll go back with a very bad impression of our company (oops! I meant country) and never come back!” How…beautiful! This is certainly a great service that Aamir does the country, you know – no matter how right-wing and begging for the love and respect and (don’t forget) money of the global tourism community he seems. A country which is so firmly entangled in the web of international politics, the neo-liberal economy and needs resources from the world market to fuel it’s ever-expanding capitalist fantasies. We surely must respect the world community then, shouldn’t we? Of course!

As the idea for this post gets formed in my head – I change the channel as soon as Khan’s tirade is over – to a news channel. The events in Australia – quite well-referred to as “curry bashing” present a sad irony, to say the least. So I realize, that as I watched Aamir Khan reprimand his countrymen for the lack of respect that they show their foreign “guests” (who come here to do nothing except get their illegal income exchanged for the US dollar, or buy cheap drugs, or smoke the best hashish in the world, or to molest minors or participate in ‘rave’ events) some hooligan in Australia stabs an Indian student at a party just because his skin is a few tones darker. Some good for nothing “mate” with another one of his “mates” with nothing to do, decides to throw a Molotov on an Indian student who's reading in his front yard. The media – as we know it – was surely sent into a tizzy. Coverage – yes. Adequate coverage – I don’t think so.

Compare this group of incidents (I believe 4 at the time of writing) to the hullaballoo that had been created when a Swiss and a German tourist had been molested in Rajasthan and raped in Delhi, respectively. The Tourism Ministry went into denial initially, but was soon forced to acknowledge the incidents and apologize to the world's tourist community. Similar was the case of Scarlett Keeling – the teenage neo-hippie girl of a classic hippie mom who had come to India to have a “nice time” (read mixing psychotropic drugs like LSD and Ecstasy with alcohol for that ultimate kick) – but ended-up getting raped and killed instead. The country was again criticized for not being able to provide a better environment for drug-crazed junkies and a few police officials were suspended and their seniors transferred. The media ate it up and barfed it for months. However, is the media acting with the same “responsibility” now?

Sure. We’ve got the Australians saying that the attacks were not racially motivated. Then we have Indian officials saying that they were. Then the Australians say, “Yeah – I guess” and then the Indians say “How bad! How rude, I say!” and the victims of these assaults lie in hospital – either in coma, or nursing head injuries, or 30 per cent of their burned bodies.

MR S.N MISHRA, SHRIMATI SONIA GANDHI (it is an established fact that YOU run the government) MR. PRIME MINISTER – I’m sure you know about these attacks. But – what are you doing about it/them? Does your dialogue with Australia depend only on nuclear energy raw-material sharing agreements? Like the time you were in constant touch with that country when you needed plutonium so that you could go ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal?

What is more aggravating is the fact that there are completely ludicrous reactions coming in AND being reported – that Indian students are more vulnerable to such attacks - being one of them. Oh please! Wouldn’t they be? Because they hail from a country whose government is more into making money from its foreign trade and tourism? Which has recently bent over backwards to the US on a million counts and occasions? A country which WANTS to send scapegoats to these rogue states in the name of bilateral relations? The establishment clearly doesn’t care about what happens to these people after they’re out of the country’s borders (as if they really did while they were inside it either, hah!). So while Air France routinely ill-treats passengers of Indian origin, Sikh sects clash in Vienna and Indian students in Russia (oh dear) as well as the US are targeted – we should all sit in our homes and watch the story unfold on the corporate media’s stage (most of their bosses are American, Russian or European anyway). We watch what they want us to watch. We read what they want us to read – after doctoring it, deleting whole paragraphs of information which is considered “sensitive” for us brownies. As the white man expresses his dejection at being knocked-off the world’s stage and Indian middle class families indoctrinate their kids with “ideals” such as minding their own business while in another country – the establishment kisses the international community’s feet. After all – we can’t blame the parents, can we? They’ve been privy to the Indian government’s disregard and lack of involvement for a long, long time and hence, are in a position to give such advice.

Well – I’ve got a solution. Something that LTTE supporters may approve of. MISTA PRIME MINISTA – why don’t you send the IPKF to Australia? They can go there – have a few drinks, check out the Sydney Opera House and then get down to doing what they did when they were sent to Sri Lanka to quash the embryonic eelam struggle; something that they’re best at – raping women of all ages and sizes (lets keep the looting and plundering details to orselves this time at least!). But hey – this time it’ll be better than the last. There’s no Prabhakaran to blow-up a war criminal in India. Besides, guess all those who believe in punishing such wrong-doers by death have started looking to America, the European Union and Israel. Which is a good thing for the Congress and especially the UPA government.

Humari zaroorat, humara bank!

2009-05-22T22:36:00.000-07:00

(OUR NEED, OUR BANK)

It’s a true Robin Hood-esqe tale with a modern twist. Cadres of the much-despised Communist Party of India (Maoist) are literally giving the establishment that THEY despise a run for their money (read: financial gains wreaked on unsuspecting and economically unstable farmers in the form of interests to be paid on loans for business and other purposes). The CPI (Maoist) has successfully implemented a parallel system of banking in the Pashim Champaran, Purvi Champaran, Sheohar and Sitamarhi districts of North East Bihar – providing financial assistance to those who need it at terms which vary according to the purpose for which the money is required.

While the rate of interest for the purpose of financing education and/or marriage varies from two to four per cent, the rate of interest for financing business activities that the applicant desires to undertake is slightly higher. Two things need to be pointed out here: not only is this a fitting reply to those critics of the Marxist ideology – that is, the naysayers and doomsayers who reprimanded the Indian Left for it’s “anti-people” and “totalitarian” policies, rejoicing in its failure to garner support in West Bengal and Kerala, and hence concluding that its stint in the country was over, but also a wake-up call to the degenerate scum that the more liberal Left political groups have become. THIS is what a socialist setup is supposed to look like, people – not like the abominations that you’ve created in Kerala and West Bengal.

Not only is this parallel system of banking more “people-friendly” – advancing loans on easier financial terms and according to the needs of those who need it (Marx did predict a Communist society in which the mantra was to be “From each according to his ability, and to each according to his need) – but also in perfect symmetry with Marx’s own critique of the extent to which business activity becomes the reason for the existence of man in a Capitalist setup. Hence, not only is there a sort of “preference” – if you will – for the causes most crucial to the development of the “human potential” that Marx believed was the ultimate goal of man’s existence (through cheap finance for activities such as marriage and education) but by the extra interest being charged for business activities, the banking system seeks to reduce the rural sector’s emphasis on business activities rather than undertaking productive activities such as agriculture et cetera – activities more sited to a rural setup.

Needless to say, the money being got is from bank hold-ups and kidnappings – activities that characterize the Maoist ideology and rightly target individuals/establishments that nourish themselves by the blood that they suck from the villager in the form of the ridiculous amount money that they charge as interest. The fact that the outfit has been able to formulate and implement this system – in spite of all governmental and other hassles - is reason enough to laud it and cherish it as an articulation of the fact that there is hope, still.

Thanks for keeping the war on Jug Suraiya

2009-05-21T11:57:00.000-07:00

Jatin, i don't know how to thank you for bringing to my eyes one of the most valuable pieces of knowledge ever crafted in Indian Press. Shit, what did i write? sorry, that can be attributed to consciousness being held on momentary ransom by some, green, hallucinogenic substance--found in nature though. Okay, here goes. Jatin, i don't know how to thank you for bringing to my notice one of the most shameless, unapologetic pieces in support of free-market propaganda and corporate governance i have ever come across in the Indian Press. Its crass, rude and unimaginably insensitive. I must say i am amazed, truly. They say news media shape opinion, manufacture consent and serve as the vigiante fourth-effin-estate (The last bit endorsed by more idealists than Chomskians).

Jug Suraiya, unashamedly supporting an economic system that is guided solely by the motive of profit maximisation, describes people supporting Socialism and Nationalisation as "doomsayers". Beautiful. He also calls the debt-ridden exploitative Social Darwinist societies and economies of the West as having reached "great heights". Great imperialist, colonising, expansionist societies that developed at the cost of the un-development of their colonies. Great societies that are responsible for each and every single problem faced by the contemporary global village.

The worst, and also the funniest, thing about this article is that Suraiya is trying to make us all believe in the good samaritanism inherent, by default, in capitalism; or trying to convince us how liberating full-blown liberalism is. Sorry sir, but before your very enlightening article could save us, we kind of got indoctrinated by a belief system that strives to achieve liberty by 'propagating' equal redistribution of wealth through state-intervention as opposed to the concentration of it in a few hands through free-market fundamentalism. Bad, no?

And he goes to great lengths to substantiate this point by constantly harping on the unparalelled success of Grameen Bank in bailing out the ailing common man through the generation of tough, gutsy, immune to economic crises--micro credit. How romantic. But hey, what did Grameen Bank succeed in? Oh, yes, it succeeded in taking capitalism beyond capitalism; beyond urban industrial consumerist societies to agrarian rural ones; it succeeded in taking capitalism from Big capital intensive industries and corporations to the common man, the farmer; it succeeded in taking control of food production; in making the helpless farmer give away his/her land for ecologically inconsistent, cash farming because the state simply didn't care. It succeeded in making way for Monsanto (The Monsanto-Grameen bank initiative. http://www.greens.org/s-r/17/17-15.html).

And thats not all. He saves the best for the last--by appealing, giving out the ultimate call to complete corporate governance--hoping, almost in teenage dreaminess, of corporate India contesting the next General Elections by forming a secular, economically liberal political party. Whoa, you really took it far sir.

And then, he ends by dreaming, concealing his dreadful vision as the heart-warming naivete of a teenager, of a beautiful alliance being formed between the common man (I don't know why did he leave out the women) and India Inc.Hey, i remember someone talking about co-production someday (Professor Nigel Thrift, talked of co-production as a new, smarter, more evolved form of capitalism, in his lecture on "The new forms of capitalism")

Seems like Modi, Advani, the BJP, the entire Hindutva spectrum AND the UPA (led by the Chicago School slave economist Dr. Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister )with its desperation to initiate more 'reforms' not enough to satiate the needs of the capitalists of our country.

Ab aur kya kahein yaar...ee toh saala parliament ko hee privatise karne ka baat kar diya....!!

Mahim

We have our Mussolini - lets recreate Italy too!

2009-05-20T21:07:00.001-07:00

Indian fascism should come of age?

Now this is something that immediately caught my eye (and made me suppress an unusually strong impulse to retch as I went through it). It seems there are no limits when it comes to being featured on the "SUBverse" column that the TOI carries every alternate day, I believe. The following text is that of the same column. The date of publishing was the 27th of April. The article/opinion piece was called "Right way to go". Please read through it before you read my reaction to it at the end of this post. I wasn't surprised when my reaction didn't get published. However, I was actually taken aback when they published a...well...I believe RIDICULOUS is the word I'm looking for - "opinion" in support of Suraiya's argument was published THE VERY NEXT DAY.

Right way to go

27 Apr 2009, 0000 hrs IST, Jug Suraiya

India's political spectrum is incomplete: it lacks a credible right-of-centre party which represents private enterprise. A capitalist party. To

talk about capitalism in the midst of a global economic crisis caused by unbridled greed in the fountainhead of the market economy, the US, might sound as inane and insensitive as Marie Antoinette's remark about people eating cake if they couldn't afford bread. With the American government having had come to the aid of stricken financial institutions in a move similar to nationalisation, the US has been renamed the USSR by those who would celebrate the death of capitalism and the rebirth of socialism. Such doomsayers overlook one point: it was capitalism not socialism which enabled the western economy to scale the heights from which it has, temporarily, fallen. Far from being dead, capitalism is merely gaining its second wind to lead the race again. (Even as the US government bails out bankrupt organisations, the founder of 'barefoot capitalism', Grameen banker Muhammad Yunus has started operations in the US to rescue small businesses through microcredit schemes, suggesting that the evils of capitalism are best solved not through state intervention but through more capitalism, appropriately applied.)

In India, with the vote of the aam aadmi the cynosure of all political ayes, no party can afford to talk about economic liberalisation. Economic reforms have remained on the back burner for the greater part of the UPA government's tenure, thanks to Left opposition. But despite the populist rhetoric churned out on his behalf, India's aam aadmi remains an endangered species. In Maharashtra alone, debt-ridden farmers on an average commit suicide at the rate of two every day. State intervention, in the form of much-touted loan waivers and employment guarantee schemes, has been unable to break the lethal, centuries-old stranglehold of the rapacious moneylender, whose usurious rates of interest continue to ruin millions of rural households through successive generations.

Both in order to break the shackles of its age-old poverty and to rise to the challenge of the global economic crisis, perhaps what India really needs today is what it does not have: a liberal capitalist formation, like the Swatantra Party of old. Contrary to popular belief the BJP has not filled this political vacuum. Far from espousing competitive free market dynamics which are the hallmark of true capitalism, the BJP with its base of petty traders represents monopoly interests which are anathema to economic liberalism.

As the success of Grameen banking has shown in Bangladesh and elsewhere (which now hopefully includes the US) the proper deployment of private capital to generate enterprise and wealth is not an exploitative privilege of the rich; it is the enabling prerequisite for the poor. Poverty alleviation measures based on state capital (loan waivers, employment schemes) are like leaky sieves; corruption and inefficiency drain almost everything away, leaving little or nothing for the targeted recipients. Private capital, through microcredit and other non-state financed systems, has to be efficient in order to survive.

It is too late for this election. But perhaps for the next polls which could well be sooner than anyone wants corporate India should think of forming its own secular, economically liberal party to contest at the hustings for its legitimate space in the political sphere. Why should India Inc fund this or that party, be it the Congress or the BJP or any other, which time and again not only fails to deliver on business expectations but also on providing succour to the common man? It's time aam aadmi and corporate India realised that their mutual fortunes are inextricably interlinked: if rural India prospers so does India Inc; if rural India hurts so do the sales figures of India Inc. So next time around might we see a party which stands for the common, capitalist good of corporate India and aam aadmi? Right on.

NOW READ MY REACTION TO IT.

This is in response to Jug Suraiya’s ‘Right way to go’ (Apr 27). Mr. Suraiya’s endorsement of a fascistic right wing political group representing the interests of India Inc. is ridiculous, to say the least. By dismissing state intervention in the form of farmer loan waivers, employment schemes and other such measures aimed at improving the economic conditions of the rural poor, only in the name of socialism, Mr. Suraiya makes a ludicrous sweeping generalization. May one remind him that it is ‘implementation’ where these state sponsored schemes lose out. It is the money-mindedness and corruption – or capitalist outlook – of those in bureaucratic positions which is to blame for their ineffectiveness and not state intervention. Is not the recent Satyam scandal enough to demonstrate the effect of the unbridled greed that capitalism entails? And as far as farmer suicides in Maharashtra are concerned – has heard of a little American corporation called Monsanto and its hegemony over the BT cotton market – a direct consequence of the neo-liberal policies of the Indian government ushered in after the economic liberalization of 1991? With its new-found tainted image – thanks to Mr. Raju’s misadventures in the global IT corridors of power – the aam aadmi stands to lose out on more due to capitalism than socialism. Mr. Suraiya, while reprimanding the country’s Left for keeping economic reforms on the back burner for years – should also acknowledge the fact that it is the same Left’s opposition to neo-liberalism that the Indian market has been insulated to the effects of the global financial meltdown to a large extent.

Jatin Anand

Delhi

The Revolution - now and forever

2009-05-20T20:40:00.000-07:00

Hey...Karthick dude - this is for you :)

Revolutionary guerrilla warfare has gradually become an accepted alternative to the more conventional forms of organized war craft, as can be interpreted from various guerrilla offensives cropping-up all over the world in general, and the Indian sub-continent in particular. Though the historical roots of subversive warfare lie in the unorganized, nationalistic offensives of less-developed and militarily inferior countries against the hegemony and exploitation of Imperialist nations, the tenets of guerrilla warfare, or ‘camouflaged war’ have also been used in retaliation to the cultural, ethnic and economic atrocities of modern-day repressive, neo-imperialist and neo-fascist regimes against unsuspecting, and ill-equipped peoples and communities.

While nationalist outfits such as the Hamas in the war-torn Gaza strip and the Hezbollah in Lebanon - which have risen in retaliation to the expansionist and exploitative ambitions of Israel in the Middle East, the Al Qaida and the Taliban with their roots in the Afghani offensive against Soviet imperialism – are examples of the former, outfits such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka, the Naxals and the Telangana struggle in Eastern and Southern India, the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) are but a few outfits crusading against the cultural and economic imperialism of repressive regimes.

Guided by the principles of Karl Marx and campaigning for the establishment of an equitable social setup using the force of subversive warfare to overthrow repression and exploitation – whether that of an invading aggressor or of an oppressive government, these outfits differ only on the basis of their motivations. However, experts and commentators are divided not only on the relevance of such grass-root struggles in this era of techno-based military strategy and armament, but also on whether or not to classify them as guerrilla forces. The purpose of this piece is to analyze these dichotomies from an informed point of view.

The relevance of guerrilla warfare was first questioned on the achievement of what is considered the epitome of modern military might – the nuclear bomb. This might was further amplified by the development of the thermo-nuclear H-bomb in 1954.

The United States of America was at the helm of a new world order inaugurated by various political and technological developments during the second world war and on account of its new-found diplomatic and military power adopted the policy and strategy of ‘massive retaliation’ as a deterrent to all kinds of aggression. The then-Vice President of the U.S, Richard Nixon announced: “We have adopted a new principle. Rather than let the Communist nibble us to death all over the world in little wars, we will rely in future on massive mobile retaliatory powers.” The implied threat of using advanced nuclear weaponry to thwart myriad bands of ill-equipped guerrilla warriors in terrain inimical to conventional warfare such as mountains, heavily-forested areas and urban centres was absurd. In his foreword to the writings of Mao Tse-Tung and Che Guevara, Guerrilla Warfare, Capt. B.H Liddell Hart compares it to “talk of using a sledgehammer to ward off a swarm of mosquitoes.”

Capt. Hart goes on to underline the fact that the use or even the threat of using the nuclear deterrent against the unconventional form of warfare practiced by guerrilla warriors actually increases the possibilities of limited war pursued by widespread local aggression and testifies to the fact that guerrilla warfare is not only relevant, but the only retaliatory response to such massive military force – making ‘camouflaged’ offensives the future of warfare.

According to Professor S. Irfan Habib, Historian and Research Analyst, “America’s proclamation was ridiculous. God only knows how and why they thought their tracking equipment and nuclear missiles capable of locating fluid bands of nomadic warriors acclimatized and fully-informed of the terrain of some of the most thickly-forested and naturally covered areas in the world. In addition to this, these guerilla fighters had also created subterranean networks of supply chains and communication, for instance in South Vietnam, as well as other routes which America, in my view had no capability of discovering whatsoever. What did they plan to do? Throw grotesquely expensive and powerful nuclear bombs and missiles in every cave and crevice they found in the countryside?”

In the words of Professor S S, Department of Political Science, Delhi University, “There should be no qualms about the fact that guerrilla warfare has indeed succeeded the conventional forms of war that characterized the conflicts of the pre-WW II era. Guerrilla warfare is the only kind of war that fits the conditions of the modern era well-suited as it is to take advantage of social discontent, racial ferment and nationalistic fervour – conditions that have shaped the contours of conflicts after WWII.”

Agrees Professor D G, Department of Sociology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, “In my view, the Naxalite movement in India is the biggest and most lucid example of the success of guerrilla warfare. In the four and a half decades since it has been operational, the movement has successfully carved out for itself a substantial part of the Indian mainland for itself. The debate centered on the morality of this struggle aside, it’s definitely a successful people’s movement and proves the mettle of guerrilla warfare.”

However, there are some who believe it is no match for the superior weaponry and techno-based manoeuvres that modern warfare entails. Believes Professor L K, Department of English, Delhi University, “Look at what has happened to the LTTE in Sri Lanka – they’ve almost been wiped out completely. And even the Hamas and Hezbollah in the Middle East are proving futile in the face of the carnage that the Israeli Defence Force is unleashing. Regardless of the plausibility and justness of the causes that these groups espouse, they are quite clearly succumbing to modern military techniques and weaponry.”

The other issue that experts and commentators are divided on – as has been mentioned before – is whether the motives and the causes that these groups espouse justify their classification as partly unorganized liberation groups practicing guerrilla warfare to achieve their ends.

In this regard, Professor Habib feels that it is fallacious to identify every unorganized anti-state outfit as a grass-roots organization modeled on the Russian, Chinese and Cuban revolutions just because their preferred means of retaliation happen to be those of guerrilla warfare, “I don’t agree with it. The Russian, Chinese and Cuban revolutions were struggles of emancipation from imperialist hegemony and economic exploitation. They were not ethnic or cultural movements in any way like the Naxalite movement in our country or the ethnic-lingual struggle in Sri Lanka. I think the only grass-root struggles that deserve to be recognized as being true to the spirit of these great revolutions are the Hamas and the Hezbollah’s actions in the Middle East – battling are they are against American hegemony and defending their inherent sense of nationalism in the process. I am not questioning the validity or the justness of the LTTE’s struggle for Eelam or the Naxalite movement. I’m just saying that it is erroneous to put them on the same plane as these great revolutions of the past.”

Professor G disagrees when he says, “What should form the core of this discussion is the fact of exploitation. I don’t agree with Professor Habib because these grass-root struggles should be seen as retaliation to exploitation – no matter whether it is nationalistic, cultural, lingual or ethnic. I think they are on these struggles are truly modeled and should be seen as being on the same plane as the great revolutions of the past.”

Professor S agrees with this view, “What are a handful of peasants and unarmed civilians supposed to do in the face of an armed and exploitative state that takes joy in sucking their blood to fill its own coffers? They pick-up the gun – just like the Bolsheviks, Mao’s followers and those who shared Fidel Castro’s dream of a Cuba free from the tyranny of Batista and his inhuman regime.”

As Capt. Hart argues, guerrilla warfare is a kind of war waged by the few but dependent on the support of many. Although in itself the most individual form of action, it can only operate effectively, and attain its end, when collectively backed by the sympathy of the masses. That is why it tends to be most effective if it blends an appeal to national resistance or desire for independence with an appeal to social and economic discontent, thus becoming revolutionary in a wider sense.

Grass-root struggles hence can be said to be justified as the last resort for the utterly exploited – whether politically, culturally, economically or socially – depending on the nature and severity of the exploitation and the discontent it entails among its victims. As long as there is exploitation - of whatever nature and degree - there will always be a struggle to destroy the source of that exploitation. Whether an expansionist aggressor, insidious economic discrimination or social degradation due to the hegemony of a biased government - the forms of exploitation and its agents may change, but exploitation will remain – in one form or another. It is as an answer to this that the revolution is – and shall forever be imminent.

Branding of the Lifeworld: Corporate Colonization

2009-05-20T06:23:00.000-07:00

I agree with Chetan about the hegemonic and dehumanizing influence of brands in our lives. I also concur with the importance of movements like the Swadeshi movement and how they are strong post-modern expressions of resistance against cultural imperialism. But when one talks of brands and the danger from them, I believe it would be naive to just stop at foreign brands. The colonization of the lifeworld occurs regardless of where a brand originates from. Brands are corporate identities. And a Corporation is a corporation, regardless of nationality. Its a psychopathic apparatus of exploitation and it remains that whether it exists in India, America, Europe or Pakistan.

Reliance is as exploitative as Wallmart and Tata as exploitative as Ford or Toyota. The fact that they are Indian does not change anything. Although they keep playing on their Indian-ness through high profile CSR campaigns and advertisements, making us believe that just because they are from the same country as us, they are more credible, less exploitative and are therefore less likely to engage in unethical business practices.

They make us believe that the money we give them will stay in India and be used for the development of India, when actually all it is used for is corporate expansion, sponsoring governments, altering policies pushing for more neo-liberalisation and less state interference and furthering their own profit. The biggest fraud that they play upon draws fuel from nationality. They propagate that becasue they are from India, they will work towards the advancement of this Nation. And unfortunately, the Government supports them in this opinion manufacturing process.

The fact that their only motive is to earn ugly, insensitive and irrational profits makes them all the same no matter which country they come from. Now they don't care where they get it from, as long as they get it alright. Coming to apparel manufacturers, they employ, like any other corporation, the same production methods designed to give out bare minimum wages and maximise profits. All they are concerned about is that they get their products made for the least possible cost. They don't care if this is achieved through making laboureres work under sweatshop conditions and extreme violations of human rights. The fact that they are 'Indian' or 'foreign' or even 'multinational' does not change anything.

More on these lines, Indian textile or apparel makers today, are following the same design trends as their multinational counterparts. This is such a dumb submission to cultural imperialism. They would never design ethnic Indian wear on a mass scale. The trends are dictated by the west and they follow it blindly. The corporation is therefore, a highly deterritorialized entity. It exists in the same way regardless of geography; it exists for the same purpose, for the same reason and for the same class of people everywhere.

The tragi-comedy of choice

2009-05-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

I don't get it! Why on earth was Amma cribbing over the Chennai Central seat (CPM was dying to have it) so much, when her party isn't even campaigning for it? D. Pandian, CPI’s state secretary and Chennai North candidate, may have had a better chance here against a candidate that can match his arrogance.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) isn't splitting too many hairs on the seat because they are sure of victory; the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) candidate S. M. K. M. A. Jinnah is sticking to his pocket borough of Triplicane while the Desiya Murpoku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) is going berserk printing pamphlets in English.

The BJP, which has forgotten Sukumaran Nambiar, hasn’t even fielded a candidate and the BSP’s Yunus Khan remains content with sending a campaign jeep into Triplicane Mosque in the dead of the night.

The Youth and Students Party, which seems strangely familiar to the Syrian Christian Youth Club, is parading its pathetic slogans on a tempo on Uttamar Gandhi Salai. As if all this wasn’t enough, Nungambakkam residents found themselves staring at Pyramid Party of India pamphlets (with a flowing white bearded Maharishi peeping out), as they started their vehicles in the morning.

I am sorry to say that I may have ended up voting for Hyder Bhai of the Manithaneeya Makkal Katchi (MMK), if I had a vote in the constituency. The joke that the Chennai Central campaign has been reduced to, has made even a party like MMK seem ideal to the few incurable romantic socialists that live in this constituency. No, there’s no sign of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI).

Coming home, to vote in Krishnagiri constituency, was fun. The Election Commission has played the perfect party pooper (literally) from the hinterland to the state capital, ensuring nobody has any campaign kondattam except the BJP.

This is the only party I find actually campaigning in Tamil Nadu. Kovai to Krishnagiri is dotted with saffron flags and banners with images of Advani, Karthik and Sarath Kumar and Subramanian Swamy on them. What a sangam;D

The flags don’t seem to bother either of the squabbling Dravidian twins, who are busy clashing from Luz Corner to Anchetti forest, apart from stoning the Central Industrial Security Force in Krishnagiri. The vinyl banners though, are a comic relief.

Much to the chagrin of my photographer roomie Kapil Ganesh, the election stalls of the DMK in Hosur are attracting more crowds than any others. I think I spotted late Com. Mohit Sen’s United Communist Party of India flag, among the many others, decorating a DMK stall opposite the town’s police station.

T. Rajendharr’s Latchiya Makkal Katchi’s teeny-weenie stall lay barren beside it. I actually appreciate the man for not joining the bandwagon of ‘election-parties’ that are the NDA in TN this time, but he really does push his luck to ensure the joke is on him doesn’t he?

The UPA may not be so lucky in Salem, where the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s mobilisation coupled with the Vanniyar loyalty to the PMK is punishing poor Mr. Thangkabalu. Yes, all you Tamil nationalists, I actually like Mega TV :)

Nowhere have I seen the DMDK so popular, as in my district. The night before polling two bubbly gentlemen came home to give our voting slips with the ‘Murasu’ (DMDK’s drum symbol) on it. These courageous poll code violators seemed like excited little children stealing mangoes in the dead of the night.

Despite their charm, I violated the Party line and pressed the ‘Udaya Suryan.’

Poll Punch:

1. All you Dakshin Kannada voters who think you did a favour to the cause of pub-going by voting for BJP rebel Ram Bhat, think again; he's backed the the Sri Ram Sene

2. Ever visited Kerala's Left Democatic Front website. There'a only CPM, CPI and Kerala Congress (Joseph). See Mr. smart pants RSP and AIFB, the CPM finally gave it to you tit-for-tat for South 24 Parganas and Dinhata. Long live saala Left Unity!

Naivety or something else?

2009-05-09T06:56:00.000-07:00

I just came across this picture on a news portal. Although it is a good thing to vote, but what is this middle finger doing here? It should be the index finger, right?

Is it naivety or something else?

Brands, what for?

2009-05-04T22:33:00.000-07:00

What a better can be of showing your love for your country than quitting on foreign brands.

Popular brands in India have ownership outside the country. We still do not know if it is because of the better quality of the product or some sort of subtle fetish for them because of, well, whatsoever reason. But more then possibilities, lets talk about realities. The reality is that the money you spent for going branded has just paid for someones vacation at the French Riviera or someones Hum-vee or a villa next to the Black Sea. It has just pushed the most ridiculed characteristics of the capitalism one step further, i.e., inequality.

Agree to the part that big brands with the selling part, also have factories in the (host) country which creates employment. But before that lets use some of our common sense. Trust me it wont hurt a bit. How expensive can a best possible white cotton t-shirt, made in India, cost? In any condition not more then 500 rupees after using best of cotton, spinning, weaving and labor. Now how much does the same t-shirt will sell in a showroom with a "tick" on its left chest. 1500 rupees? It is hard to believe that the impingement of these brands over our faculties is strong that we forget that quality cannot be ad infinitum. For the extra 1000 bucks, no further improvement has been there in the product. But contradictorily, most people buy brands for quality, when the same quality is available for a third of its price; what will one call this kind of behavior? The cost of raw material and labor is a fraction of the final price you pay for the "tick". And rest of the money go to those villas and vacation and yes, in advertisement that makes you believe that with a "tick" the Rs 500 thing becomes worth 1500.

Thus, the quality excuse alone is not enough for supporting the brands. But we said they create employment too. However, the ratio of employed compared to the the capital employed is far less in case. A 50 crore high tech plant at the most can employ 75 people. The expensive is the capital, the lower the number employed. And lets compare it agriculture sector where a 50 crore investment can employ no less than a thousand people. Obviously, The money that these branded corporates saved through cutting on employment is the money going to their pocket, the money spent on ostentatious luxuries and the money the money to that country has lost opportunity to. Instead buying a brand for that 1000 extra bucks, had it been spent on local products, it would have created much more employment and the money would have stayed in the country, helping it grow.

Brands thrive on our weakness of trying to be different. no! i wont say that being different is a weakness but yes, trying to show that you are off beat is definitely one. Brands are just inside people's mind, so they say. And they create inequality too, which no one talks about. So whats their use? go unbranded and or for local brands, they create relatively more employment and have huge multiplier effect. And no! they don't leave any corn or put extra strain on your spinal cord and at the end of the day they are worth their price!

PS- Worth reading will be Swadeshi Movement led by MK Gandhi.

Change

2009-04-24T02:56:00.000-07:00

It was just one of those days and one of those moments when you are overwhelmed with thought - with that passion surging you to do something, move forward, make a difference etc etc. And there you are, thinking of the days who have spent in the classroom, on the streets, on modes of transport, in strange rooms and lonely places, just trying to figure out what you are meant to do. And you hit one spot after the other, jumping from one solution to another, yet there's a blank. Why?
I watched a movie last night - Swordfish. It's pretty much run of the mill, one of those crazy Hollywood action flicks (you see the money where it actually is!) - bad guy wants money, figures an ingenious way to lay his hands on it, does what it takes to get what he wants and end of story. The film is interspersed with cool bits - magic tricks, concepts like misdirection etc etc. But what got my attention was the concept of change that was the backbone of the film. A self-confessed maniacal patriot who wants to make America so lethal, so deadly and so horrifyingly violent in its dealings with 'terrorist nations' that no one would dare to attack the mightiest nation in the world. Frustrated with the 'lacklustre' apporach of the government, the central character decides to take matters in his own hands - in fact, he manages to amass enough wealth to be able to buy quite a few nuclear weapons, that too at a discount! Change is all he wants.
Are we able to identify with this idea of change? Is this the kind of change that you want? I may touch raw nerves here, but is for example, 'destroying' Pakistan, the kind of change we're looking for? Is a mass genocide of the populace of this 'Islamic nation' the change we want? Will it put an end to the incessant spate of terrorist attacks that the world is subject to? Many people think so.
But again, many people don't. Change for example, is voting for the first time. It possibly wont make a difference - but its a change all the same. Change may be switching off lights and fans when there's no one in a room, or turning off the ignition when your stuck at a red light. Small, miniscule ways of invoking change, but something all the same.
The point is, the first step towards change is to understand change and in what ways it can come about. There are so many myths surrounding the idea of change - it's sad that it has been stereotyped as well. So people who are rich cannot induce change, and those who are poor cannot either - the rich are way too self involved while the poor are the victims, so what can they do? More stereotypes affect the ability to bring about change. Eventually, only those who are in power are entrusted to make a difference. Why?
Why can't victims bring about change? When the tsunami hit South Asia, a few affected communities in a South East Asian country fought off big TNCs that wanted to build 5-star hotels over their villages (a concept better known as disaster capitalism). That was change. If I decide never to use abusive language that demeans women and reinforces the gender hierarchy (behen**** or ma****), that is change. If I decide never to wear leather, that is change.
At the end of the day, everyone can bring about change. I'm attempting to make a difference by posting on this blog. You can live a comfortable life, and yet affect change. It's all a matter of perspective. Change starts with you.

2009-04-19T02:28:00.000-07:00

Hi people,

seems like nobody is contributing. Ok. No problem. I have been superbusy lately. Finishing up college work and working up on my transition to a working life. So yeah. But i join work tomorrow finally. Will start covering the MP Lok Sabha polls from Tuesday. So will start writing stuff on that. Lets see if something alternative comes out of it. And well... the blog should be more regularly updated i guess. but yeah. All remains contingent on whether i can access the internet.

Meanwhile i request all of you to please write something. It is a collective blog.

Thanks

Kp chillin

Mahim

2009-04-04T04:05:00.000-07:00

Can i have some marijuana with my coffee please?

why drink and drive when you can smoke and fly. Everyone ! Get on board the Gaanja bus...!!

I watched PINAPPLE EXPRESS recently. It is what you would call the quientessential stoner movie. But what i realized was that it was more than that. It is in some ways a post-feminist, almost a masculinist film, if i can use that word. The bonding shown between the three friends is more than just friednship. The climax, or in fact the entire last part, Dale (Seth Rogen) does not even care about his girlfriend. She is not on his agenda. For life, it seems. In friendship, he forgets about the need for a woman. In the last scene, he is shown happy along with his two friends, making promises for life.

Secondly, it got me thinking about society's reaction to marijuana/weed/pot/gaanja/skunk....or whatever you want to call it. Dale says, in one of his many conversations with a radio showhost, "I don't see the need for criminalising gaanja. It makes everything better. It makes music sound better, it makes food taste better, it makes shitty movies better. And the truth is, everybody is smoking it. So why not decriminalise it."

Technically it makes sense. Why not? So what explains society's recalcitrance towards it? The only reason that i can think of relates to the political economy of this whole issue. Society wants its members to be productive, in the strict economic sense. It survives on that. Weed, as anybody who smokes it knows, slows you down. It makes you calm. You are tranquilized. Too stoned to work. Too happy to wory about anything. Too dead to remain involved in life. To society: UNPRODUCTIVE. So a substance that can make you unproductive, obviously does not find favour with the custodians of the society.

Then, weed also makes you indifferent to authority. Now you do not intentionally defy authority, but you merely stop caring about it. And by that virtue, makes you defy it anyway. And so, working with the state police, powered by juridical authority, society gets it banned. Indian societies "traditionally" never had a problem with intoxicants. Ganja, hashish, alcohol, bhaang and all kinds of other psychotropic substances available in nature were also available to everybody who wanted them.

But even here, the society devises what Max Gluckman called "ritualized rebellion." So bhaang is legitimised on special occassions like Mahashivaratri and Holi. And nobody confronts any sanctions that otherwise would be imposed in response to an intake of similar substances on any other occassion. But with modernity redefining the contours of our society, those who mattered decided to make gaanja into a strong social taboo.

I say, why ban weed. In Amsterdam and a lot of Eastern European countries, weed is available over the counter. Its on the menu in cafes. You can order it in coffee shops, along with your coffee. That does not mean everybody there is stoned perpetually. People choose to do it, smoke. And thse who don't, don't.

So why even decriminalise it? Just make it legal. But no. That would probably kill the whole idea behind it. It would defeat the whole resistance inspiring, subaltern spirit of gaanja advocated by a varicolored spectrum of "anti-socials": from aghori sadhus to reggae singers.

in wonder??

2009-04-03T01:07:00.000-07:00

If the whole world ends, will God still exist???

Pain - Through the eyes of a social worker

2009-03-31T03:16:00.000-07:00

There’s this common line I see in movies when a guy asks a girl on his first date. "So then, what’s your story?" Why is the guy so interested in the girl’s life? He (I imagine) wants to know the series of events that has gone into making this beautiful person sitting in front of him. The more attractive the girl (at least on the first date), the more insipid her story. Generally, it’s the more unnoticeable people in the dark that have a more interesting story to tell.

It was only after I joined work, and was forced (by my employers) to go to houses and get to know poor families with people living with HIV/AIDS did I realize that I do not have many friends outside my class-group. It is human nature, I guess, to find security in relating with people who are of the same age, class, region, and language. After all, that’s what gives us our identity. No matter how strong and individualistic we think we are, we all constantly look to our circle of friends for approval. They are our support group. But there is another reason why we do not engage with the stories of those outside our group. This has much to do with the fact that it is those in pain that slip off our radar first.

Ram, a chaiwallah was once a bus-driver. As it happens to most people in his line of work, he slept around, got infected by HIV, came back home and his wife got infected too. The family has been through hell the last few years. But now, the wife actually tells us that HIV has brought our family closer together. Now how that happened would be an interesting story to listen to, and
praise God for. But who would have thought that the chaiwallah who slept around and got infected with HIV would have a story such as this?

There is another reason why, in the movies, the guy asks the girl that question. He wants to know what she is doing now, and what her future plans are, and tries to find his place in her scheme of things. He is working hard at trying to be a part of her life because he loves her so much.

Here, at our cramped hospital with ten beds, I know a five year old girl who takes care of her ailing mother, while witnessing at least two deaths that took place in nearby beds. To think at that age about the high chances of her mother dying anytime like those fellow-patients gives her a new perspective on life. She can now unflinchingly look at suffering and pain straight in the eye, that even when her father died, she cried for a week, accepted that her father died, and has taken things in a matter-of-fact tone. But she needs help. With her bed-ridden mother, and four sisters, the eldest in Std XII, and the man of the house being 7 years old, she needs a lot of support.

We try to sterilize every single uncomfortable thing that happens to us by hiding it, not talking about it, and covering it up with a smile. This is exactly the same reason why we are scared to engage with the poor. All we do is ‘Reach Out’. We prefer to go along with our gang of friends to the poor, interact with them and entertain them (and have them entertain us) and come back to our own lives, making the whole thing another "Slumdog Millionaire Movie Experience" where you really get into the minds of those in pain for exactly two hours.

But do we have the fortitude to actually love them? Do we have the fortitude to listen to their stories and try to find our place in them as they develop? Do we have the fortitude to make them one among us?

Do we realize that as we discuss global warming, and sigh in unison watching the antics of our political leaders, there are people groaning, lifting their hands and eyes to God and asking him to deliver them from their pain? Do we realize that we have this power to redeem them? Us who are able to make a difference (no matter how small it may be) if we only raise a finger. May be, we don’t know what exactly we could do.

How about listening to a story first?

keep watching!

2009-03-28T11:06:00.000-07:00

First, it is our problem that we associate the media with the corporate media...who says thats all the media there is??? Second, tell me what has not become a slave of capitalism?? Aren't we the ones who read TOI and the BIG newspapers?? Aren't we the ones who want to be journalists with a brand stamped on our foreheads?? Aren't we the ones who watch the glossy channels?? How many of us will really leave the glitter of money and brands to do something alternative? Yes, we can believe, we can control...but can we alter???...Its been so long that so many groups, from the marginalized, the oppressed and the 'different' have tried to alter...read their miseries, feel their pain, understand their struggle, follow their blood, take up their challenges...if you think you can alter... capitalism is so strong, powerful and invisible that altering a part of it is not easy...I mean even the capitalists themselves cant understand it now...nobody understands it...
Third, who calls who the 'left'?? Its us, we brand someone and something as right and left??? Tell me how many people really understand it?? There is no left and right in media...there could have been before, but now there is only a system of news production, competition and profit...

Fourth...if there will be a market and a state...there will be media...its funny how we criticize it and how we could never dream of state- controlled media...or where there is no freedom of the media...

freedom is a mystery!

Fifth, it would be exciting to watch it, how it moves, even TOI has done its 'good' share...maybe telling us that its time to vote (for those who believe in the state!!haha), hinted worries of climate change...i know for the millions who are poor (dont mind me talking like that, but everyone is poor, coz we strive for money and everyone struggles for existence)...so i know for the millions of poor, self-oriented, discriminated bunch, climate change is some shit...but still the capitalists can do one thing...they can reach out to the largest number of people, powerfully...and now with recession...its sooooooo cool...lets watch it...watch what happens....watch the world, the media, watch decisions being made, watch the world realize that there is something called 'control'...

media control, or state control...its time for people to think about 'self control'...

the art is to choose what you can take from the system and what you can throw away...

Mind the Media !

2009-03-26T03:52:00.000-07:00

So. We start. At this point, i should make it clear that i will be using the term 'MEDIA' in the singular and not as plural. So purists of grammar and literature need to chill.

I won't write any long complicated article here. All i wish to convey to all those who have shown faith in this idea is that the way the media functions today needs to be examined. Critically. I mean, do we need this media? Media, which is so lame that it merely ends up as a tool in the hands of corportaes and politicians, through which they can mobilize popular opinion and manufacture consent. Media, which cannot survive, leave alone function, without the support of corportaes. Do we need a media which is essentially a major profit-seeking corporation at the end of the day. All through our training, we have been fed with the fact that newspapers cannot function without advertisements and that advertisements are imperative for the survival of contemporary media. Now, is it not obvious to even the naivest mind that the news carried in such media would be dictated by their marketing departments to a considerable extent at least?

So, effectively, an entire newspaper, and not specific pages, gets reduced to an advertorial. The Times of India is a burning example of this. All they ask us to do, while we read our news, is to buy. Check out advertisements, leave the news out because its in black and white and dull and boring, as opposed to glossy, colourful ads. They publish ugly details of celebrity lifestyles and their consumption patterns, creating a covert, deceitful structure of culture industry. A structure that entices the masses by manufacturing desire and then selling these desires through content-based advertsising.

Well, let us not get carried away and blame one newspaper. At least the TOI is unapologetic about its faith in the market. That's perhaps a strong ethical advantage that the right-- economic, political as well as the cultural right--has over other ideological systems. It is explicit, overt and honest about its motives. Unlike, the so-called left 'leaning' newspapers like the HINDU. Now someone please explain to me. What the FUCK do they mean by left LEANING. If you believe in an ideology, you do it with conviction. You don't lean towards it. You have to take a stand. When struggles against the establishment are being scripted, you need to make it clear as to where you stand. With who do you choose to side? The point that i wish to make here is simple. Contemporary media is nothing but an adulterous bedfellow of the corporates, betraying the trust that billions of people invest in it.

And it is precisely for this purpose that we need to take control of any alternative avenues of generating public opinion and then believe in them and sustain them through this belief; and it is for this purpose that the subtext of our effort reads as CONTROL/ALT/BELIEVE. We need to give at least a little of our time to collective efforts like this where we can express any alternative opinions, analyses and interpretations of the news that we read or any events that we observe happening around us. Once again, to end, i would like all of us to think about this: DO WE NEED A MEDIA WHICH IS RUN BY CORPORATIONS, SUSTAINED BY ADVERTISEMENTS AND WHICH CANNOT FUNCTION AND SURVIVE WITHOUT CORPORATE PATRONAGE?

Thanks

Mahim

P.S. Please start contributing.