India ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: L'Inde

C.R .Shridhar

The Ruling elite of our nation is in the grip of delusions of grandeur. The GDP growth rate of 8% is trotted out as a sign that India is on the threshold of becoming an economic superpower. A bright future awaits India with its revitalized economic policy of liberalization, privatization and an open door policy of attracting foreign capital. A new animal energy is infusing corporate India, which is headed for gigantic growth propelled by innovation and its ability to create anything from nanoparticles to giant rockets. It appears that India's tryst with destiny is unstoppable.

To the less gullible, the picture appears less rosy as India is in the throes of a shocking agrarian crisis fuelled by falling returns from agriculture coupled with debt and crop failure. More disturbing is the violence that the State inflicts on its citizens through encounter killings, police torture and custodial deaths.

Though the Left party has questioned the gains of the new economic policy formulated by the UPA government, there appears to be very little concern about gross human rights violations, which occur throughout the country. While there have been impassioned debates for the Washington consensus favouring MNC's in the media, there has been at best a token concern for the marginalized poor facing police brutality on a day to day basis. There is deafening silence in our media about the fact that though India has signed the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), there has been no ratification on the pretext that existing laws have adequate provisions to prevent torture, in addition to constitutional safeguards.

Respect for human rights is the sine qua non of any civilized society and the disrespect for human rights is inimical to civil liberties granted to its citizens by the state. By this standard, the Indian State lamentably fails and is a cause for concern for those who value civil liberties. The prevalence of torture and other human rights violations occurs both in communist and non-communist states in India. Both the states of West Bengal and Kerala have witnessed police brutality even with the Left parties in power.

The Amnesty International in its report dated 10-08-2001 about torture in West Bengal observed, "Police are being urged to use whatever means necessary to deal with crime and are often allowed to use torture as a substitute for investigations, while action is rarely taken against the perpetrators. This system of policing is having little if any impact on crime." CPI (M) leader Benoy Konar, defending police brutality once said, "It must be viewed whether police is carrying out torture with a correct aim or an incorrect aim...In a class divided society, the police has the duty of carrying out repression.... You [journalists] have the pen in your hands, the police has the stick." Hence, it would be a mistake to view human rights abuse from an ideological perspective.

The wide prevalence of encounter deaths or extra-judicial killings at the hands of the police has been documented by human rights organizations and remains a part of our dark history in post independent India. A study conducted by the Asia Pacific Human Rights Network noted that encounter killings were not isolated incidents but occurred throughout India. They are part of a "deliberate and conscious state administrative practice" for which successive Indian governments must bear responsibility. Indeed, successive Indian governments have adopted a de facto policy sanctioning extra-judicial killings by members of the police forces, army and security personnel.

The most horrific examples include the operations against Naxalite movements in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and the operations against Punjab extremists. Tamil Nadu and Kerala committed the excesses of encounter killing during the days of Emergency. The Vimadlal Commission took the lid off so-called encounters in Andhra Pradesh during the mid-1970s. Uttar Pradesh is noted for it's encounter deaths and this has assumed alarming proportions in recent times. The paramilitary operations in Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur and Assam cause grave concern as human rights activists report wide spread instances of encounter killings, rape and torture of militant suspects.

The complicity of State and Central governments in encounter killings could be gleaned by the fact that they do not vigorously conduct prosecution of the guilty nor is the investigation thorough to bring the guilty to book. The National Human Rights Commission has not proved very effective in checking encounter killings, as it's recommendations are not implemented by the State and Central governments. The guidelines issued by the NHRC in matters regarding encounter killings are rarely followed. The long delays in courts in prosecuting the guilty police personnel creates a climate of impunity for such crimes to flourish. The governments also reward policemen or paramilitary personnel, which actually encourage encounter killing. The compensation paid to the surviving members of the victims murdered by the police personnel remains a pittance.

The use of torture and third degree methods against suspects in police lockups remains standard operating procedure in post-Independence India. Human Rights organizations note that torture is used against secessionist groups, against suspects belonging to the poorer sections of our society for extracting confessions and bribes and also used as extra-legal punishment (teach you a lesson).

In areas such as Jammu & Kashmir, there exist a number of detention cells where militant suspects are beaten and electric torture is meted out as routine punishment and to extract confessions or information. The methods of torture vary. For instance, in Assam, Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab (particularly in areas where the Punjab police or Punjab paramilitary units operate) dislocation of ball and socket of the suspect appears to be the preferred mode of torture. Sometimes the choice is more eclectic with a judicious combination of aeroplane treatment (tying the hands of the suspect behind his back and suspending him over a beam, leading to shoulder dislocation), electric torture with cattle prod and roller treatment (crushing the muscles of the suspect with a wooden log being rolled on his leg). Of course, beating of suspects with belts and lathis is standard fare in most police lockups. Human Rights groups have recorded cases involving rape and sexual humiliation of woman suspects.

While the reported cases of custodial deaths are increasing in India, statistics are difficult to come by, as there is government apathy to transparency. However, on 12th May 2006, The Indian Evidence (Amendment) Bill, 2006 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha with a view to curb custodial deaths. The amendment provides the presumption that when a suspect dies in police custody it is presumed that the police have caused the death and the onus of proof rests on the policemen to prove their innocence. While the amendment is certainly a welcome change in official attitude towards custodial deaths, it remains to be seen whether it would be effectively implemented in the courts.

Human Rights activists have also warned against Anti-terrorism and security laws in India as facilitating human right abuse by primarily targeting lower castes and minority communities. The security laws abuse specially targeted groups by prolonging detention without trial and by inflicting torture, which is responsible for custodial deaths. On September 25, 2006, the Committee on International Human Rights of the New York City Bar Association released a report, Anti-Terrorism and Security Laws in India, calling on the Indian government to limit its application of anti-terrorism laws. The report notes "Attentiveness to these human rights concerns is not simply a moral and legal imperative, but also a crucial strategic imperative. As the Supreme Court of India has recognized, 'terrorism often thrives where human rights are violated' and 'The lack of hope for justice provides breeding grounds for terrorism.'"

The report chillingly concludes that the sweeping powers given to the authority in such enactments as TADA [Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act], POTA [Prevention of Terrorism Act], and UAPA [Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act], were used predominantly not to prosecute and punish actual terrorists, but rather as a tool that enabled pervasive use of preventive detention and a variety of abuses by the police, including extortion and torture. Another unpopular act called the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act has been sharply criticized for its 'oppression and high-handedness' by the Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee and has asked for the scrapping of this draconian law. This act (AFPSA) was the rallying point of widespread protests in Manipur and in other parts of North East as it offered immunity to the army personnel guilty of indiscriminately killing innocent people.

Legislation to eradicate torture, encounter killings and custodial deaths may be effective up to a point and may decrease human rights abuse marginally. But laws need the backing of robust public opinion to be fully effective. Here, Sunshine India is seriously flawed. The middle class and the upper class seem to be totally self-absorbed in greed creed and its consumerist pretensions. Moreover, there is wide acceptance of 'tough police tactics' by the middle and upper classes. The issues of liberalism, values for a just and humane society do not resonate well with this class. Instead there is, in the words of Praful Bidwai, a social commentator, "growing illiberalism and intolerance... lack of moral clarity among large sections of middle class on issues of justice, fairness, pluralism, secularism and other constitutional values, leave alone compassion for the underprivileged."

With public opinion fragmented, human rights violations would continue unchecked with the brunt of abuse borne by the marginalized poor. A prospect, which we must admit, bodes ill for our Republic.

DesiCritics.ORG

By Ravikiran Shinde

31 October, 2006,Countercurrents.org

To,
Rajdeep Sardesai,
Editor-in-Chief,
CNN-IBN and IBN 7

Dear Rajdeep,

Do not get surprised by this open letter written by one of your million viewers. Yes, I know it is established Journalists like you who normally write open letters to celebrities. But then two gigantic and yet contrasting incidents that took place in last few weeks made me go for this exercise. I chose you since you are the latest and perhaps youngest of the Media tycoons. But then, this letter equally applies to others in the same business.

1. 2 Oct 2006: The Golden Jubilee of conversion to Buddhism at Nagpur.

2. 29 Sep 2006: The gruesome rape and killing of four Dalits in Bhandara, Maharashtra.

Both events that took place in Vidharbha, Maharashtra were very critical to the entire Dalit-Buddhist movement in India. While the former was a cause of major celebrations for Dalits and Buddhists, the latter was a terrible shock to them. However, they both exposed the grossly biased "Global Age" News medium like yours. Here is how.

1. Ignoring the DhammaChakra

Every year Dalits and Buddhists gather at Nagpur to remember 14th Oct 1956. They number anywhere from 800,000 to 10,00,000. According to solar calendar, this is the day when Dr Ambedkar led the biggest conversion sans bloodshed or allurement in the history of the world. On that day alone, around 500,000 Dalits had converted to Buddhism leaving behind the cobwebs of caste ridden Hindu society.

But this year, an estimated 2 Million, yes, a whopping 20, 00,000 people gathered from across the world to mark the 50th year of Dhamma Chakra Pravartan din on 2nd October! According to local reports, some 200,000 Buddhist Bhikkhus (Monks) wearing saffron clothes, forming a 6 Km long chain took the procession turning the entire orange city into saffron and blue. The Celebrations lasted for more than a week.

Now, for an Indian media- that is always looking for something sensational- that's a huge gathering, isn't it? And how many white collar Journalists holding Handy Cams from the leading electronic media turn up, including your own? None! Reason? Ignorance? No.It is what I call an absolute boycott!

Like the Upper caste villagers boycott Dalits in Villages, their caste Hindu counterparts in the media boycott almost everything that is related to Dalits. Otherwise, which news channel in the world would ignore such a huge gathering, repeatedly? Annual gathering of around a million people on 6th December at Chaityabhoomi, Mumbai - where Dr Ambedkar's last rights were performed - is also never reported. Since the people who gather at these two places are Dalits, Adivasis and Buddhists, they get blocked. But a Hindu festivals like Ganesh festival or Kumbh Mela gets not only full coverage by the Media but discussions and special features running for hours. As I write, your website www.ibnlive.com opens with a Happy Diwali page.

2. Ghatkopar, Seoni, Jajjhar, Kherlanji..the shame continues!

On Sep 29, in one of the most gruesome and dreadful incidents of Dalit atrocities, Bhaiyyalal Bhootmange, a Dalit-Buddhist farmer in Kherlanji (Bhandara, Maharashtra) witnessed his wife Surekha (44), daughter Priyanka (18), sons, Roshan, 23, and Sudhir, 21 being killed by the Landlords in front of the villagers. Worst, the mother and daughter were first paraded naked; gang raped, and then sticks were pushed into their private parts. The sons were stabbed repeatedly and their private parts mutilated. And what was their fault? Surekha had dared to fight for getting back a portion of their farm, which was grabbed by the landlords.

The local police and doctors completely covered up this incident but the Ambedkarites made sure the news of this cruelty spread like wild fire amid the Golden Jubilee celebrations. DNA (Daily News and Analysis) was the only English daily that published this news and that too after 18 days! Seeing the hue and cry, not among media but the people, some VIP politicians including Dy. CM R.R. Patil visited this place after weeks and made some arrest drama and suspension of local police officers. But knowing the history of the Maharashtra government's handling of Ramabai Case (Killing of 10 Dalits by Police in Mumbai in 1997), I do not believe the culprits will be brought to book.

Just see the scale of atrocities against Dalits. India's National Crime Records Bureau working under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Home affairs has reported that in the year 2005 alone, 26,127 crimes were committed against SC/ST's including 1172 rape against Dalit women and 669 cases of Murder (Reference: http://ncrb.nic.in). To summarise, every day, while three Dalit women are raped and two Dalits are murdered, two Dalit homes get torched. If you add to this the thousands of unreported cases, the picture is abysmally inconceivable!

And how does the News media, including your own medium, react to the above facts and figures? While a soft atrocity news like "Dalit Entry banned in Hindu Temples" gets a little space once in a while, graver issues like daily rape and massacre of Dalits constituting about 1/4th of India's population are literally ignored. As if this section of population means nothing to you. Why no news channel, ever holds any discussions on "How to stop atrocities on Dalits"? If this is not Media's discrimination based on caste, what else it is? You, the news medium, is as responsible for these inhuman crimes as the Kheranjali oppressors by just being selective and dishonest.

Such is the intensity of this inhuman caste-killing in Bhandara that the world media took the cognizance of it. Some western Human Rights based organizations like ACJP (Ambedkar Center for Justice and Peace) who take up atrocity cases in India are going to publish a detailed report on this case soon. And your continued blockage of such incidents will not only expose your bias but also raise question on your ethics and compatibility.

What a Shame, Rajdeep! Having shown a balanced opinion on the OBC quota issue by highlighting the pro-reservation side too, you had us believe that you were going to be a moral and diversified media face. But now it is clearer that such tactics were aimed at merely adding some extra spice for your politics loving class. I had always believed in power of the Media but I am realizing now that if it is run by an upper caste establishment then it is not more than a 'Money-Machine'. And this is where the now famous proverbial label "Manuwadi" fits best.

If you feel you have been at fault, then better be late than never. Cover the Kherlanji case and its legal proceedings. Awake the people on the gruesome caste realities in India. Telecast a half and hour program dedicated specially to Dalit atrocities every week. Send your stylist English speaking field reporters to the remotest part where Dalits are suffering and order them to cover unbiased news and help the due process of Justice. Will you?

Remember Media is one of strongest pillars of democracy. Strengthen it.

Only then you would be doing your true duty! And then Dalits would forgive you, since they believe in Buddha's teaching of forgiveness.

There is still time, Rajdeep!

With Metta Bhavana (Loving Kindness),

Ravikiran Shinde

Yoginder Sikand

Bias against Muslims is deeply-rooted in large sections of the Hindu-owned media in India, even in influential sections of the English press that prides itself in its claim of being ‘secular’ and ‘progressive’. Two ongoing controversies—the Vande Mataram affair and the Malegaon bomb blasts—suffice to confirm this argument.

Some weeks ago, Indian newspapers were awash with reports about Muslims protesting against the suggestion that all children studying in schools be forced to sing the Vande Mataram song, which, numerous Hindu-owned newspapers, television channels and politicians declared, was India’s ‘national song’. Refusal to sing this song, they claimed, was a thoroughly ‘un-patriotic’ act, suggesting, thereby, that Muslims, by definition, were ‘anti-national’. Consequently, Muslims were forced, as they often are, to prove their patriotic credentials, and the overall result of this sordid controversy was to only further reinforce deeply-rooted anti-Muslim feelings among many non-Muslim Indians.

Media projection and coverage of the Vande Mataram controversy was cleverly contrived to put Muslims in the dock and to defend a certain vision of Indian nationalism that is framed in ‘upper’ caste Brahminical Hindu terms, in which Muslims, Dalits and other non-’upper’ caste Hindu communities have little or no space for their identities, aspirations and interests. Few ‘mainstream’ Indian papers cared to mention crucial facts of the history of the controversial song. The Vande Mataram is part of a novel, the Anandmath, which reeks of anti-Muslim hatred and is the rallying cry of Brahminical Hinduism that is premised on an unrelenting hatred of Muslims. The was the novel written by Bankim Chandra Chatterji, a late nineteenth century Bengali Brahmin, a major cult figure in Hindu ‘nationalist’ circles.

The crux of the novel is an ardent appeal to Hindus to rally against and slaughter Muslims and drive them out of India. The Vande Mataram, sung as a war-cry to rouse Hindu mobs against Muslims, exhorts Hindus to do all this for the sake of the Mother—India deified as the Brahminical goddess Kali or Durga. Curiously enough for a song that is projected by its advocates as the emblem of Indian nationalism, the novel ends with the hero welcoming the British take-over of India. ‘Now the British have arrived’, the hero exclaims with ill-concealed glee, ‘and our wealth and lives will be safe’. ‘The subjects [Hindus] would be happy in the English kingdom’, he goes on, ‘[…] [so] refrain from waging war with the Englishmen […] Your mission has been successful—you have performed [sic.] well-being of the Mother—the English reign has been established’. Now that the Muslims have been killed and driven out and their place has been taken by the British, the hero concludes, the Hindus should accept the British as their ‘ally’.

Hardly the stuff that one would expect from a song that is bandied about as the herald of Indian nationalism and anti-imperialism. Even more curious in this regard is the fact, which the ‘mainstream’ media probably has deliberately sought to conceal, that Bankim Chandra Chatterji was hardly the ardent ‘nationalist’ that he is made out to be. In 1858 he was appointed to the post of Deputy Magistrate by the British, the first Indian to enjoy that dubious distinction in the immediate aftermath of the failed Indian Revolt of 1857. When he retired from that post he was conferred with the titles of Rai Bahadur and Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire by the British, an ‘honour’ reserved, of course, only for pro-British toadies.

From the very start, when Brahminical revivalists in the Congress and the Hindu Mahasabha began insisting that the Vande Mataram must be made India’s national song, Muslims and other non-Hindu communities angrily protested. There was no reason, they argued, why non-Hindus should be forced to worship a Hindu deity, even if in the form of ‘Mother India’, suggesting that the equation of Indian nationalism with Brahminical Hinduism was aimed at excluding non-Hindus from the definition of the ‘national mainstream’. The Muslim argument, which has been repeated ad nauseum and highlighted in the Urdu press in the course of the recent controversy, is that the novel of which the song forms a part is clearly anti-Muslim and, furthermore, the Vande Mataram’s appeal to prostrate before to and worship the Mother, in the form of Durga incarnated in the guise of India, is forbidden in Islam, a fair enough point that any non-Hindu would make.

However, in the heat and din of the recent controversy, the ‘mainstream’ Indian media, some notable exceptions aside, shamelessly shed all pretensions of ‘secularism’ and made it out to be that by refusing to sing the song Muslims were demonstrating that they had no love for India and that they were ‘anti-national’. The point of how a mere song could be the test of Indian nationalism, the issue of the political context of the song, the clearly anti-Muslim thrust of the Anandmath and Bankim Chandra Chatterji’s own collaboration with the British, were all carefully glossed over. Nor did the ‘mainstream’ media raise the obvious point that forcible extraction of demonstrations of ‘patriotism’ by Muslims unwilling to sing the song were pointless and completely farcical. And the fact that the mounting insecurity and threats to their life, property and identity that many Indian Muslims face today at the hands of the votaries of the Vande Mataram, a situation that is hardly conducive to promote passionate demonstration of love for the country, was completely lost on the ‘mainstream’ media, which was awash with stories of Muslims singing or not singing the song.

It is not that both the Congress, votary of ‘soft’ Hindutva, the hardcore Hindutva lobby and the ‘mainstream’ media were unaware of the fact that appealing to or forcing all Indian school-going children, including Muslims, to sing the song would be stiffly opposed by most Muslims, for there has been a long history of Muslim opposition to this. In fact, it appears that it was hardly the intention of the ardent advocates of the song to promote patriotism by advising that all school-children sing it. Rather, it seems obvious that the brouhaha about the song was simply yet another stick for Hindutva fascists to beat Muslims with, to force them to accept their diktats and to terrorise them with threats of being expelled from India simply because of their refusal to sing a song that even most Hindus do not know and which fewer Hindus know the meaning of, being in highly Sanskritised Bengali. But this, of course, was a point that few ‘mainstream’ newspapers refused to point out, thus clearly revealing their underlying anti-Muslim bias and the fact that their perception of Indian nationalism is firmly within the framework of Brahminical Hinduism.

Another glaring instance of clear anti-Muslim prejudice in large sections of the ‘mainstream’ Indian media is the coverage of the recent blasts outside a mosque in Malegaon that claimed almost forty Muslim lives. While the Mumbai train blasts this July hogged the headlines for days, the Malegaon tragedy has received relatively little attention, probably because the victims in this case are Muslims. The identity of the perpetrators of the Mumbai train blasts is yet to be ascertained, but police, intelligence agencies and the media are insistent on what they claim, was an ‘Islamist terrorist’ hand. Consequently, hundreds of Muslims were arrested in the aftermath of the blasts. The contrast with the Malegaon blasts could not have been more striking. While it is entirely plausible that they could have been the handiwork of Hindutva activists and while the likelihood of Muslims being behind them extremely remote, if not impossible, the media is awash with stories that argue the unlikely thesis of a hidden ‘radical Islamist’ or Pakistani ISI hand behind the blasts and the theory that they could have been the fallout of intra-Muslim sectarian rivalries. It is as if Hindus could never commit such an act of terror, the hundreds of anti-Muslim pogroms in India which thousands of people have lost their lives in recent decades notwithstanding.

That probably explains why it is that, in contrast to the massive wave of arrests and harassment of Muslims in the wake of the Mumbai train blasts, the police have not deemed it necessary to arrest or question rabidly anti-Muslim Hindutva activists, who may possibly have been behind the blasts, on any significant scale in Malegaon and thereabouts. Nor is the ‘mainstream’ media demanding this. Instead, the Malegaon blasts appear to be fast disappearing from the screens and pages of the ‘mainstream’ media, being replaced now with stories about the court cases relating to the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in which some Muslims are said to have been involved. Even here the reporting is obviously biased and skewed, for few newspapers have cared to view these blasts, as they should be, in the backdrop of the widespread anti-Muslim violence in large parts of India just a year before in the wake of the destruction of the Babri Masjid, in which thousands of Muslims were slaughtered in cold blood by Hindu mobs. Needless to say, the non-Muslim Indian media, by and large, is supremely unconcerned about justice to the families of the several hundred Muslims slain by Hindu gangsters in league with the elements in the police and the administration in Mumbai itself just weeks prior to the serial blasts and which must have provoked the perpetrators of the blasts to do what they did. Nor is the media talking about justice for the almost three thousand hapless Muslim victims of the state-sponsored massacre in Gujarat in 2002 and their relatives, and the victims of innumerable other such bouts of bloody anti-Muslim violence that do not seem to deserve any more than passing mention, if at all, on television screens and in obscure corners of some odd newspaper.

So much, then, for the ‘secular’, ‘patriotic’ pretensions of the Indian ‘mainstream’ media.

The author works with the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, and moderates an online discussion group called South Asian Leftists Dialoguing With Religion
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saldwr/

Tuesday, 23 May 2006

R Arun Kumar, People's Democracy

THERE is an interesting story whose moral we all need to understand. A highly educated professional had gone to a village to meet his childhood friend who was a shepherd. Through the course of their conversation, the talk shifted to technology. The city-bred, foreign-returned friend claimed that he could tell the exact number of goats owned by the one who stays in the village without counting. The bet was that if he wins, the shepherd was to part with one of his goats. While the shepherd was wondering how would this be possible, our friend took out his laptop, connected to the net using bluetooth technology, got to know the total number of livestock in the country, that particular state, district, village and then the exact number owned by his friend. He closed his laptop and declared that his friend owned 32 goats and being so sure of his victory said that he has already taken the goat that was promised to him and put it in his car. Hearing this the shepherd started laughing aloud. When asked for the reason for his laughter, he said that the number of goats owned by him was indeed 32 but the goat taken as trophy was in fact not a goat but a dog. The moral is that however ‘knowledgeable’ one is, he should not be blind to local realities and common knowledge.


The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) has been constituted at a specific point of time, with specific objectives due to the existing realities. The aam admi’s decree through the Verdict 2004 is loud and clear. This message has again reverberated in the 2006 election results: cater to the socio-economic needs of the poor and middle classes of the society or get ready to be shown the door. All the actions of the government therefore should be guided by this consideration and nothing else. However some of the technocrats in the government are blind to this historic reality because history teaches us to plan our future by understanding the present and drawing lessons from the past. It is true, as the chairman of the NKC, Sam Pitroda says, that “we cannot go back to what it was” but if we “have to think about what it ought to be tomorrow” this is imperative. It is unfortunate that the majority members of the National Knowledge Commission have voted against reservations ignoring the existing socio-economic realities. Is it really unfortunate or is it something expected knowing the profiles, economics and politics of the members? In fact, it is something that is expected.


In the words of our prime minister, to "leapfrog in the race for social and economic development" by establishing a knowledge-oriented paradigm of development, the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) was established on June 13, 2005 and given a timeframe of three years from October 2, 2005 to achieve its objectives. The prime minister stated that the agenda of the commission will be shaped by a knowledge pentagon with five areas of action, “to increase access to knowledge for public benefit, develop new concepts of higher education, rejuvenate science and technology institutions, enable application of knowledge by industry to enhance manufacturing competitiveness and encourage intensive use of knowledge-based services by the government to empower citizens”. So the concept of ensuring social development and ‘increasing the access to knowledge for public benefit’ are some of the important functions of the Commission. The stand taken by the majority members of the Commission on the issue of reservations is quite contradictory to these two objectives.

The demographic advantage of having more than 54 per cent of our population in the below 25 years age group would be lost unless these human resources are tapped for national development. This can be achieved only by ensuring to the majority of our population access to the best of our knowledge building avenues. Unfortunately, majority of our population is poor, marginalised and deprived in economic terms. To identify them in sociological terms they belong to the dalit (16.23 per cent), adivasi (8.3 per cent) and other backward castes (little more than 52 per cent). Thus if the ‘majority’ of the Commission members are serious of their task, they should think of empowering them instead of taking a stand against reservations.


Expressing their opposition to the government's proposal of reservations to the OBCs, the majority has stated “How we go about doing this in a way that is compatible with the goals of a knowledge society is a difficult task and requires more social debate and careful thought.” With the above statement they have subtly stated that reservations are not ‘compatible to knowledge society’. Through this they cast aspersions on the achievements of the dalit, adivasi and other backward caste communities so far as also on their potential. This demonstrates not only their ignorance of the 93rd Constitutional Amendment but also of the Indian realities. More so when their objectives state affirmative action as "a cogent government policy on eliminating discrimination and widening access in education and employment”. It also clearly accepts: “So far efforts in this direction have been fragmented, compelling the judiciary to step in and make decisions that do not always sit well with government policy and public opinion”.

RESERVATIONS AND QUALITY

The issue that quality does not get affected by providing reservations has been discussed earlier in these columns. As the majority of the Knowledge Commission members raised this issue, it needs to be reiterated. All the premier institutes while calling for applicants prescribe a minimum level of qualifying marks necessary for appearing for the entrance examination. In the case of IIT it is 60 per cent. This is not decided randomly but with a scientific understanding that the students with this threshold level of knowledge would be able to cope up with the rigours of the course work prescribed in that institute. Likewise the exemption of a maximum of 5 per cent of the marks offered to the SCs and STs has been decided with the same rational understanding. The students are admitted in these institutes only after clearing these initial hurdles.

The course work in these institutes is known for its scientific design and the methodology adopted in teaching is also modern. Every class, and this includes even a class constituted without taking into consideration reservations, has in it a top-ranking student and also one at the bottom. A preliminary rule in teaching is that one should not teach only to the top one/few or the bottom one/few, but to the class in its entirety. So, it is this scientifically moulded system that ensures quality and not the caste of the student. Moreover, there is no exemption or consideration shown to any student on the basis of his or her caste at the passing out examination. All the students are expected to clear the exam, which is again scientifically designed to ensure top class quality for the award of degree.

Here some bring the argument of coping with the stress of the course. Leading from the above argument stress is not caste specific but student specific and it is the concern of the education system to reduce the stress. A recent report in the Hindustan Times talks of a suicide of an IIT Kanpur student. He is not from the castes that ‘enjoy’ reservation but is from the forward caste. The above quoted report states low grades and the failure to cope up with the stress as the reason for the suicide. Shall we infer from this that students from that particular forward caste cannot cope with the stress of IIT course and thus be advised not to enter? That would be ridiculous to state the least. The cases of students from the dalit and adivasi communities too should be viewed in the same way. Hundreds of students are committing suicides at the pass out stages of 10th and +2 examinations. It is the failure of the education system, the increasing stress on getting a ‘good’ result, depleting opportunities of higher education and employment that are leading them to commit suicide and not the caste into which they are born.

That these arguments against reservation in the name of stress and quality are emanating from some of the members of the Knowledge Commission, in spite of their assertion that they are for ‘social inclusion’, is really sad for the country. This reminds one of the obsession Hitler had about the superiority of the Aryan race and responsibility for the progress of civilisation and nation. Hitler argued that all other races were inferior and associated them with the decay in civilisations. He further argued that all the inferior races should provide with physical labour subjugated and put under the command of the Aryans. (Hitler Mein Kampf) The argument that SCs, STs and OBCs are not fit for premier institutes but can be allowed in other institutes appears to hinge somewhere to the argument made by Hitler and other fascist forces. At least Hitler was more explicit.

All those who are expressing concern about the quality of education are not so much concerned with the vacant teaching faculty posts in the IITs and IIMs. According to sources, out of a total of 406 posts that exist in the IIT Kanpur only 330 faculty members exist, leaving the rest 76 vacant. This would indeed adversely affect the quality of education more than anything else.

DENIAL OF JUSTICE: FOR WHOM?


Unfortunately the statements against reservations made by the ‘names’ among the majority in the Knowledge Commission and their like are misguiding students. One of the important demands being raised by them in the course of their protests is their ‘right for justice’. They are also saying that they are being ‘denied’ by their ‘own country’. However, they have to understand the Indian reality and look behind the media prisms. Only through this will they understand that in our country there are millions of people who are really denied social justice and economic justice. And added to this, the policies of successive governments at the centre have denied them their just due. Reservations are only one of the means that gave succour to them. While majority of the dalits are landless agricultural labourers, majority of the OBCs are from the artisan class. Out of the 2.8 crore OBC population of Andhra Pradesh, 1.87 crores are engaged in 63 types of activities are artisans. These are the very sections that are hit hard by the neo-liberal economic reforms. We have heard and seen of hundreds of weavers committing suicide in Andhra Pradesh unable to bear the distress under which they were subjected to live because of these neo-liberal policies.

On top of this, their social status heaps more insults and binds them to subjection. In Rajasthan, last year a dalit woman magistrate was removed from her post as she dared to go against the upper caste people of that region. After nearly 59 years of Independence, even today there are many such instances where dalits are not allowed to sit in the front benches in the class rooms, wear new uniform to the school, ride a bicycle to the school (the recent example of police protection provided to a girl in Orissa who rides to her school on a bicycle to save her from the upper caste people's threats) and wear chappals. These are some of the forms of social oppression on students in educational institutes not to speak about those prevailing in the society. The most shameful incidents reported in UP are about teachers refusing to take classes in the schools where majority students are from the dalit families. Thus in our country students are denied access to education not just on economic grounds but also on social grounds. Providing them with reservations is not denying others their due but sharing the fruits equitably.

It is true that 55 years have passed since India was proclaimed as a Republic and its Constitution adopted. Reservations have become part of the Constitutional guarantees to the Indian people because of the social reform movements, the freedom struggle and the aspirations harboured by the people on them. Reservations initially were intended for only 10 years. But so was the case with the achievement of universal literacy rate among the age group of 0-14 years in 10 years. The same is the case with the Act on untouchability passed in 1955. Official statistics prove the prevalence of untouchability and the growing incidence of atrocities against SCs and STs and the State’s inaction in most of the cases.

However, all this should not lead to the conclusion that we abandon all these endeavours because of the failure in achieving the set target, as some seem to suggest in the case of reservations. These people forget that through this argument they are in fact demanding punishment for the people who were deprived of the promised rights instead of making a case against the government. It is not the people but the caged political will of the ruling parties at the centre that is responsible for this non-implementation. Time and again it has been proved that only through popular vigil and pressure would we be able to actualise a right promised to us and this is true even in the case of reservations.

DEBATE NEEDED ON ALL ISSUES

The chairman of the Knowledge Commission in a press conference has stated that the time has come to ‘review all these issues’ and that ‘reservations have to be thought ‘in terms of where we are headed in the 21st century’. ‘Social debate and careful thought’ is necessary on all the issues concerning social life but in this name things cannot be put in abeyance forever. It speaks of bias if we speak of ‘social debate and careful thought’ only on the question of reservations, shunned from all other issues like disinvestments, closure of public sector units, trade and economic policies.

The Knowledge Commission terms this as a ‘historic opportunity to craft more effective policies to make educational institutions more socially inclusive’. If the majority of the Commission is sincere about this they should immediately recommend for the implementation of the land reforms act, protection of the interests of the artisans and small producers. Pitroda himself has promised that the body will not come out with a "voluminous report that gathers dust but give concrete actionable points". This is a good actionable point even for the government as it increases productivity and address their ‘growth’ concerns. Together with this another suggestion should be made to direct the entire government machinery towards a time-bound eradication of social discrimination in our country. The government should take the campaign to the ‘deserving’ people, involve its officials as in the pulse polio campaign and make them lead peoples’ action against discrimination. The government and the judiciary should be asked to be ‘pro-active’ in disposing off the cases dealing with the atrocities on these marginalised sections. These alternate and effective steps will really empower people and then may be we can think of doing away reservations.

One heartening fact is that the chairman of Knowledge Commission has asked for the increase in the number of IITs and IIMs. Of course the mention of private-public partnership is part of the suggestion. The deputy chairman of the Planning Commission immediately joined with the proposal for the establishment of private education companies. All these suggestions are being made in spite of the knowledge that worldwide the experience of expansion in higher education shows it to be possible only through government action. The apathy of the central government towards this is apparent from the fact that it is sitting on the unanimous recommendation of the state legislature of Andhra Pradesh for establishing an IIT in the state, which was passed not once but twice and forwarded to the centre. The offer, together with the promise that the state government will provide land and other infrastructure facilities, fell on deaf ears. The government should immediately start many new educational institutes and thus do its duty for the expansion of education.

The number of applicants to the IIT entrance at the time of its inception and today has increased many times – much more than the seats available to them have increased. The Indian society has not achieved the saturation point vis-à-vis the number of engineers and doctors required to it. In Rajasthan, for example, the number of doctors per thousand population has in fact come down. In 1996-97 there was one doctor per 7418 population while now it is one doctor per 9816. The Indian average for doctors too is not encouraging and stands at 52 doctors per 10,000 population (1998). These statistics prove the fact that we need more and more numbers of professionals to serve the people of our country. So it is towards this end the fight should be directed and not towards getting ourselves divided. The Knowledge Commission has to do its duty by equipping the people with ideas necessary in this fight and never play a divisive role. These are the answers for the Knowledge Commission as one year has already passed and they have only got two more years. Otherwise its whole concept of access to knowledge being “about increasing the reach and opportunities of individuals or groups excluded from mainstream knowledge systems” would be mere empty talk bereft of action.


http://pd.cpim.org/2006/0521/05212006_%20r%20arun%20kum...

Have you heard of Vinod Jose and of Free Press? If you haven’t then it is time you heard of him because there is no free press in this country without the Free Press and the Free Press, unfortunately, is no more.

I wholly sympathise with those anguished editors, who have demanded that the PoMo Muslims, my acronym for poor and moderate Muslims, ought to speak up more often. However, the PoMo Muslims are so called because of the poverty of what they have left to say.

Besides they are easily outnumbered by the genuine PoMo Muslims. On the other hand, for the last 25 years, more particularly in the last five, they have climbed the podium so many times that their muscles ache and their tongues freeze.

Condemn 9/11 they were told, condemn suicide bombing, condemn Islamic terrorism, condemn Imrana fatwa, condemn Gudiya fatwa, condemn Taliban, condemn cartoon protests, give the buggers a break, I say.

Will you flog an ass and turn it into a horse? The insatiable urge of the modern public to invite PoMos to demonstrate their self-hatred will only make extremists of them I say.

Besides don’t moderate Muslims have occupations other than condemning atrocities in the name of Islam? Aren’t they scientists, executives and butchers too! How many times will they take time out to say look here we are good, those guys are bad? And should PoMos only comment on Muslim affairs?

Why should I be forced to engage with bunches of people, who find nothing better to do than to go around destroying buildings and sport in incendiary and juvenile acts. It is not my problem, mate, I didn’t incite them, I didn’t invite them and if you think that my condemnation will make them go away you are living in a fool’s world.

Even Gandhi couldn’t condemn the revolutionary terrorists, as they are still called in our textbooks, like Bhagat Singh out of existence. The more forcibly you make this bloody problem the exclusive business of the PoMos, the more you wash your hands off it and that would be very gauche, because it ain’t their problem alone.

On the other hand, in this country what we need is not so much more of freedom of expression and criticism but the willingness to defend those that already exist.

Have you heard of Vinod Jose and of Free Press? If you haven’t then it is time you heard of him because there is no free press in this country without the Free Press and the Free Press, unfortunately, is no more.

Free Press was a Malyali monthly magazine, put together and printed in Delhi by a group of journalism students led by Vinod Jose. Jose used to be with the Indian Express and was at the Parliament when the December 13 attack took place.

When his firsthand understanding of events and the subsequent police investigations and the media coverage seemed at odds with each other he found no outlet to express his views or to defend SAR Geelani, the Delhi University lecturer who was recently freed by the Supreme Court.

Along with a group of recently-graduated journalism students Jose started a Malyali monthly called Free Press.

The first issue, in January 2004, featured Geelani on its cover and RSS workers immediately destroyed the newsstand copies of Free Press in the Mayur Vihar area in Delhi. The vendors were warned against selling Free Press.

Delhi distributors backed off and they had to distribute the magazines through the Diaspora chips and bakery-items distributors, who had access to all the south Indian provision shops.

The next issue was even more radical — a cover story on Reliance and the black economy that systematically uncovered how Reliance and scores of benami companies associated with it had palmed off thousands of crores from state banks.

Relying on the extensive Malyali Diaspora networks, ranging from West Africa to Dubai and South East Asia, Free Press listed names of companies and accounts, covered its tracks by getting many renowned economists to comment on it and questioned why a book on Reliance Polyester Prince, written by Australian journalist Hamish McDonald, was not available in India for the last 10 years.

The Reliance issue of Free Press sold over one lakh copies. Other investigative stories included one on Intel Microsoft project in Kerala to impart computer education that had been riddled with corruption.

The surveillance on Free Press was mounted from the word go. Bundles of magazine on their way to Kerala would be picked up by the intelligence agencies.

Increasingly no press in Delhi was ready to print the magazine and for some time it was printed from a press in Meerut.

The newsprint suppliers too refused to supply newsprint under pressure from the state agencies.

Distributors of the magazine as well as the Kerala-based reporters were harassed and pressurised to leave the Free Press. Jose’s family and acquaintances too were questioned by the police. An attempt on Jose’s life was made in mid-October that year.

The Interstate wing of the special police wanted to know why he was writing on ‘problematic issues.’

Employing some 20 people and with a circulation of some 62,000 copies at its peak, which means a readership 300 times of that number, Jose was forced to shut down the magazine because of covert repression by the state.

He still gets hundreds of letters. Readers are ready to pledge their salaries to help him run it. He has the money, he has the readership but still he can’t run the monthly

Let us find out why his freedom of expression was denied — you can reach him at thirumelli@yahoo.com