E magazine oct2015 lokayat

Vol 5 < Issue 8 < October, 2015 < INSIDE

6 Group Editor M.K. Tiwari Editor Vinod Varshney Executive Editor Dr. Bhagya Rajeshwari Ratna Assistant Editor Anjalika Rajlakshmi Campus Editor Adithi Sonali Cine Editor Meera Singh Special Correspondent A.K. Chaturvedi Regional Editor M.P. Aaditya Tewari Regional Editor C.G. Gopal Thawait Senior Graphic Designer Ashi Sinha Regional Office Incharge Tamanna Faridi U.P.: B-120 / 121, 1st Floor, Prince Complex, Hazratganj, Lucknow-226001 Ph.: 0522-4003911 E-mail: lokayatlucknow@gmail.com M.P. : Paraspar Colony, Chunabhatti, Kolar Road, Bhopal-462003 Ph.: 0755-4030162 E-mail : lokayat01@gmail.com C.G. : Thawait Bhawan, Kankali Talab, Main Road, Raipur Ph.: 0771-4221188 E-mail: lokayat_rpr@yahoo.com Sub Office Ram Bhawan, Manohar Cinema, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh Ph.: 07752-428835 E-mail: lokayat_bsp@yahoo.com Head Office 133, Pkt-D, Mayur Vihar Phase-II, Delhi-110091 Ph.: 011-22723900, 32550442, 43062417, 43082859 E-mail: lokayat01@gmail.com Subscription: For 3 year : Rs. 1,500.00 For 5 years : Rs. 2,500.00 For 10 years : Rs. 5,000.00 (Inclusive of postal charges)

Website: lokayat.co.in

Reservation

questioned

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World 12 Modi Pushes for UN Reforms Uttar Pradesh 23 Dadri Killing Ruined India’s Image Globally Delhi 25 Dengue Kills, But Does not Scare Selfish Politicians Haryana 28 Haryana Local Body Elections: Get Educated to Get Elected?

Chhattisgarh 30 Another First by Dr Raman Singh Madhya Pradesh

Bihar Results to Decide the Future of Modi

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Twin Blasts in Petlawad Exposed rampant Illegal Mining Punjab 36 AAP Stands Divided in Punjab

20 UP Govt, Governor on Collision Course

Uttarakhand 40 Illegal Mining Damaging the Beauty of Uttarakhand

48 Rahul Challenges the 56-inch Chest REGULARS

Himachal 38 Being ‘Smart’: Dharamshala Vs Shimla

West Bengal 42 Prestige Fight for TMC in Two Corporations Gujarat 44 New Twist in Hardik-led Agitation for Reservation Andhra Pradesh Banking on Foreign Support

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< 05 With Candour < 58 Business & Economy < 65 Health is Wealth < 54 Campus < 62 Sport < 68 Filmworld <76 Book <78 Funny Times

Published, printed, edited & owned by M.K. Tiwari Published from 133, Pocket-D, Mayur Vihar Phase-II, Delhi-91 Printed at Vrindaban Graphic, E-34, Sector-7, Noida (U.P.)

Letters

Desire of the powerful to become OBC

The comments of the group editor on this issue are absolutely correct. Congratulations to him for this fine article. No one could have thought a day would come when the powerful and wealthy would like to declare themselves as backwards. This is real social change. Now the backwards should have no complaints against the forwards. But actually the people are being cheated by all this.

I feel there is no harm in ending the reservation. But there should a fool proof system of giving facilities to backwards to help them get quality education. But the society is corrupt that all the good things are grabbed by the powerful people and that had become the reason for demanding reservation to protect themselves from the grabby tendencies. But only the lower caste people are not weak. A poor person of higher caste can also be equally helpless.

Shakti Sinha, Patna (Bihar)

Beginning of a New Future in Nagaland

This article by Kusum Varshney gives the exhaustive treatment to the Nagaland problem. The historical facts are rightly presented in the proper perspective. The new generation does not know what had happened during Nehru’s period and then Indira’s period and then during other prime minister’s periods.

People need to be told about the history always so that the new generation could see things in right perspective. Wish Lokayat would continue to give such good articles in future as well. I am a regular reader of this magazine on the website. Why Lokayat does not go for introducing an App? This is the new trend everywhere.

Hope the Lokayat management would pay heed to my suggestion.

Paramjit Trikha, Chandigarh (UT)

Hip Hip Hurray, Kochi

I read the article of MR Dua on Same Sex Marriage twothree times. It is such a harrowing development. How can anybody think of spoiling the natural healthy relationship between man and woman? Yes, these people of western world can. Their society is based on high degree of crass individualism and extreme selfishness. They do not understand the meaning of marriage. They look for only sexual pleasure. Dirty people! That is reason these western countries’ people are disliked in India. Hope the same people who have approved same sex marriage would find a few years later that they made a mistake. Let us wait for that day.

Indians can do a lot of firsts if they so want. There is no dearth of talent and resources. Only that our systems have been made weak by politicians who are not prepared to amend themselves.

A few months back I had read a good story on a solar plane experiment which was a fantastic development. And now this Kochi international airport’s becoming fully solar. It seems the future is bright for solar power. I came to know through this article that the price of generation of solar power is coming down. This is very encouraging news. Hats off to the scientists, engineers, planners, governments and entrepreneurs who are dedicated to protect the earth from the climate change disaster.

Jugal Kishore Rai, Meerut (Uttar Pradesh)

Trupti, Bangalore (Karnataka)

Same Sex Marriage

4 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

Fights in Football

I am a regular reader of Ramu Sharma’s column. They are always full of rare information written in interesting style. I was surprised to read this time that countries went to war going mad from their passions for football.

This is no sport if it can make people’s thinking so combustible.

Looks like that the fighting is in the nature of humanbeings.

Originally they were animals. I am wrong?

Ashok Rana, Rohtak (Haryana)

Jobs not degrees!

Please, policy makers of the country, listen to what Dr Pushker Srivastava has suggested in his very good long essay on the degrees which do not fetch jobs. The youth needs jobs, not degrees. Are you listening?

Champa Upreti, Dehradun (Uttarakhand)

s at E-mail your letter l.com, lokayat01@gmai hotmail.com vinodvarshney@

With Candour

Yes, Black Money Comes Back, Rs 18 in Every Bank Account!

S

o, the Vishnu Avatar, as Ram Jethmalani had once chosen to describe Narendra Modi, has accomplished his job of bringing back the black money from abroad as much as Rs 18 in every bank account in 16 months. Forget that the promise was of Rs 15 lakh in every bank account in hundred days. So, now Modi’s this old friend is using all kind of expletives for him, including the totally unacceptable ‘cheat’.

I do not support this name calling. For me this is a sign of continuing degeneration of public behaviour of our leaders. When you are friends with him, you call him Vishnu Avtar and when you fall out, you call him a cheat. This is extreme depravity of behaviour.

This is true that a lot of hype was created about the black money stashed in foreign banks. This indeed was the major election promise of Modi and a few other BJP leaders. BJP used its paid social media team to make it viral influencing the GenNext in cities, small towns and in rural areas too, which had no idea of how to pick grain of correct information from the chaff. They believed him and helped the BJP achieve what any political party had not been able to do in the last twenty five years—a clear one party majority.

Indians cannot be faulted if they were expecting Rs 80 lakh crore back, and now dismayed when the government succeeded to bring back only Rs 3,700 crore. The figure is truly dismal. Compared to this the voluntary disclosure of income scheme of 1997 had succeeded many times more. The income disclosed then was Rs 33,000 crore. So, the question will definitely be asked why the Modi government failed on this front despite making a stringent law of ten years imprisonment if caught. There was an incentive also that no legal action will be taken against persons who would disclose their concealed incomes abroad.

So what went wrong? Does this mean that there is no concealed income of Indians abroad to the extent Baba Ramdev and Narendra Modi had been telling the Indian public? Or does this mean that whatever is concealed abroad is well protected and their owners do not feel threatened from this government? Or the black money has already come back to the country in some form or the other during these 16 months as smuggled gold or investment in properties, shares or commodities?

The black money law is truly stringent. If a person gives inadequate information in his return then also he can be sent for seven years’ rigorous imprisonment. Why then black money holders are not scared?

The truth is that neither generation of black money within the country has stopped nor its movement across Indian borders. Simply framing a stringent law is insufficient and some out of the box solutions need to be tried out. The problem of black money can only be solved at the point of its generation. First, allow it to come into existence and shut eyes when it crosses borders and then make a political hoopla about bringing it back, is chicanery.

The main method of generating black money and sending it across involves misinvoicing of import and export. The other big generators are phantom companies. It is so easy to float a phantom company abroad, much easier in those countries, which claim high ranking in the index of ease of doing business. United States is reported to be the 2nd easiest place in the world for criminals to incorporate a phantom company for clearly illegal activities, behind only Kenya.

So how can Modi government bring black money back without tackling these issues?

OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

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Cover Story

RESERVATION QUESTIONED

Since Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Independence, the reservation policy has remained a tool in the hands of political parties and a few communities to get maximum leverage, leaving others with just fingers crossed. Though it was started for a limited period to uplift the weaker sections of our country, and it did benefit communities to come out of the backwardness and become part of the mainstream socially and economically, yet because of its faulty implementation by successive governments at the centre and in states, more deserving people have been left out high and dry. After a controversial statement in an interview by RSS chief Mohan

By Lokayat Correspondent Bhagwat in Organiser and Panchjanya last month, a passionate debate has erupted on SS chief Mohan Bhagwatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statement on current state of the reservation system.

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reservation has turned out a bombshell of high TNT at a time when sensitivities over the issue are much heightened and fresh demands seeking quota benefits are being made with threats of agitations by newer caste groups like Jats, Patidars, Marathas, and even Brahmins, creating new faultlines in the social equilibrium in the country. Bhagwat asserted that reservation policy was not implemented as had been envisaged by the constitution-makers, and politics has continued to be played with it and now to make amends, a committee of people genuinely concerned for the interest of the whole nation and committed for social equality, including some representatives from the society, should decide which categories require reservation and for how long.

Having passed scrutiny from the apex court of the country several times, the affirmative action in the form of quotas has become an established reality of modern India.

And to be fair, it has helped millions and millions of backward people to come out of the morass of the

6 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

Cover Story pervert social system, which had continually subjected them for a couple of thousands years to abject humiliation and social discrimination. But at the same time it is no secret that the way quota system has been implemented in the country, a small well-off section within the backwards has cornered the entire benefit of the bigger pie, creating imbalances in the backward community itself.

This apart there is no exiting provision for those who do not need it anymore so that the benefit can be transferred to others who need it more. There had been occasional voices from among the reservationbeneficiaries also seeking an exit provision. For example they agree that those families which have benefitted from it for three generations, can be excluded.

At the same time there are demands to extend reservation to areas, beyond government jobs and education. They want private sector also to implement quota system as new job opportunities and educational facilities are being created more in the private sector.

They also want reservation to be implemented in government licencing and procurements so that businesses owned by backwards benefit.

Lately, the reservation system has indeed become a headache for governments with demand for quota is aggressively being made by powerful and well-off communities, like Jats, Patidars, Marathas, and even Brahmins. To

douse the simmering discontent, the Rajasthan government acting on the line of what RSS chief had expressed in his interview, implemented 14 percent reservation to poor among all castes. Other governments may also find it politically useful to do the same sooner than later.

All this has led to a genuine fear among the backwards that the BJP governments may, following their ideological mentor at the earliest opportunity available to them, dilute the prevalent reservation system if not finish it all together. That is why in Bihar the central focus of election campaigning has shifted to the issue of reservation. Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar both condemned with their strong comments the Bhagwat suggestion. Nitish dubbed it a ‘dangerous’ suggestion. Lalu in his characteristic style dared Modi to scrap the quotas with a tweet, ‘If you have drunk your mother’s milk, then have it scrapped...’ The CPI (M) also, which for decades had kept itself less interested in caste politics, condemned Bhagwat’s demand terming it an effort to undermine whatever little social justice the country has achieved.

The suspicion of various political parties with huge vote banks among backwards appears genuine seeing what Bhagwat had said, was not something new. It has been one of the core ideals of the organisation. The RSS had been

resisting bitterly the caste-based reservation ever since. A key ally of the BJP in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena also had done so and therefore welcomed Bhagwat’s call.

Congress surprisingly made no official statement. But what two former union ministers, Manish Tewari and Jitin Prasad, spoke on the issue reveals the confusion that prevails in the party. Manish Tewari even questioned the relevance of reservation in the 21st century. ‘If it is required at all, the economic condition, and not caste, should be the basis for it,’ he opined.

Bhagwat’s suggestion is also being examined by political observers in the backdrop of sudden eruption of anti-reservation movement in Gujarat led by a hitherto unknown 22 year old lad, Hardik Patel who is accused of camouflaging his main agenda of seeking an end to the reservation

Cover Story system by demanding reservation for Patidars. The controversial Bhagwat suggestion is being seen as an attempt to protect BJP following in the powerful Patidar community in Gujarat and elsewhere. The RSS stand has also been seen as an attempt to consolidate upper caste support in Bihar elections has the BJP is confident that its electoral allies would be able to ensure votes from the SC, ST and backward sections.

The BJP has given a very large number of tickets to upper castes in Bihar, highly disproportionate to their population.

Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar both have come out with their strong comments at the suggestion made by Mohan Bhagwat.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar dubbed it a ‘dangerous’ suggestion and former chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav dared Modi in his characteristic style to scrap the quotas with a tweet, ‘If you have drunk your mother’s milk, then have it scrapped...’

However, anticipating an adverse impact on BJP prospects in the Bihar elections, a number of BJP leaders rushed to assert that the reservation would not end as it is the settled issue. It is essential for their social and economic development and empowerment and therefore BJP is not in favour of any reconsideration of reservation being extended to these groups, said senior party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad. However, the BJP assertions are not being taken on their face value by backwards. Why? They cite that only a year ago BJP’s current ideological mentor, Mohan Bhagwat had declared at a book release function, ‘We support reservation. Till the time there is 8 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

inequality in the society, reservation is needed.’ But within a year he has taken a u-turn and talking of review.

So, why the BJP leaders would not change their ideas when it would suit them, they ask.

New social faultlines developing There are new faultlines developing among backwards which may create fresh social shock waves as there are several sections in the deprived Dalit groups, who did not benefit from the existing quota system and

the reservation system. There are around 1,200 Dalits castes, and all have not been benefitted from it.

Though smelling a rat in the statement of Mohan Bhagwat intended to consolidate upper castes in BJP’s favour, the Congress whose following in the OBCs, SCs and STs has shifted their loyalty to other parties like JD-U, RJD and BSP, continued to remain in utter confusion. Some party strategists like former union minister Jitin Prasad feel that Congress should show nerve and junk Mandal politics and support the left-out backward castes and

I

f we would have implemented this (reservation) policy as envisaged by the Constitution-makers instead of doing politics over it, then present situation would not have arrived. Since inception it has been politicised. We believe, form a committee of people genuinely concerned for the interest of the whole nation and committed for social equality, including some representatives from the society, they should decide which categories require reservation and for how long. The non-political committee like autonomous commissions should be the implementation authority; political authorities should supervise them for honesty and integrity.

--Mohan Bhagwat

had demanded sub-quotas in their favour. No wonder then that Rashtriya Dalit Bachao Andolan president OP Shukla, a retired Valmiki bureaucrat supported the statement of Bhagwat, questioning what was wrong in saying that reservation be reviewed.

Valmikis in North India, Mangs in Maharashtra and Madigas in Andhra Pradesh also known to have a common grouse against the current reservation system. They argue that a tiny percentage of certain well-off castes from among the Dalits have over-benefitted several times their population share. So at least a review is required to know which caste got what during the last 68 years from

poor among the upper castes in reservation. They feel without this change in the Congress policy, the party cannot revive itself in important states like UP where it is continuing in a decimated state for two decades.

According to some, the change in RSS’s attitude within a year might also be the result of the supreme court verdicts of last year that opened a window of opportunity to have a comprehensive relook on the entire issue of reservation when it struck down the inclusion of Jats and Marathas in the OBC list. The judgement was clear in stating that caste cannot be the sole criterion for reservation. <

Bihar

Bihar Results to Decide the Future of Modi Bihar assembly elections are no different this time too. Caste equations are ruling the roost, forcing each political party to pursue the same age-old formula, where apart from caste, money and muscle are the pre-requisites to be fielded and elected. Even the BJP which claims to represent an aspirational society is relying more on caste calculus for the required number to come out victorious in the 243-member state assembly.

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By Umanath

hile, Prime minister Narendra Modi is heading the campaign of the BJP in the state, it is a ‘do or die’ situation for the regional satraps—former CM Lalu Prased and incumbent CM Nitish Kumar. Modi is slated to speak in around 20 rallies in view of the big challenge thrown at him by the Mahagathbandhan amidst fears expressed in some quarters that any complacency might lead to a repeat of Delhi drubbing when despite all the fume and fury of the BJP campaign, it could win only 3 seats out of the total 70.

The Bihar election has rightly been dubbed as the biggest electoral test for Modi and, therefore, no wonder, the BJP has pressed into campaign all its resources. Yet, by all counts there is a close contest between the two alliances—one

headed by the saffron party and the other by Lalu and Nitish. This is yet another matter that national party president in his characteristic hyperbole is claiming that the NDA would emerge victorious with twothirds majority.

There is little doubt that the outcome of Bihar elections will be felt far and wide. This is why the BJP which rules at the Centre, has launched a massive campaign using 243 video raths and door to door convassing with the help of 40,000 booth committees knowing it well that a defeat would not only dent Modi’s chances of consolidating power and speeding up economic recovery process, but it will also make its political going much tougher in the next major election in Uttar Pradesh. The UP election is merely a year away which will finally decide whether Modi’s hegemonic politics is here to stay or not.

Positive results in Bihar may

pave way for the BJP to win UP as well and a defeat will subdue its morale to carry on the Modi juggernaut forward. Moreover, Bihar, UP and West Bengal are very important states for the BJP to also secure a comfortable position in the Rajya Sabha to get crucial bills passed.

On the other hand, Bihar election is even more crucial for Lalu and Nitish as all accept the fact that if these two important leaders fail to retain power, then this would be easier to write their political obituary. While, conviction in the 1996 fodder scam has kept Lalu away from the electoral contest as a candidate, a defeat is sure to render Nitish weaker and paler, who has already lost some of his sheen after his party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha elections.

The mahagathbandhan initially appeared quite robust and able enough to take on the communal politics, but the disintegration OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

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Bihar

PM modi addressing the Parivartan rally in Banka

appeared in it sooner than later, and the head of the grouping, Mulayam Singh Yadav, deserted it to form his coalition with the NCP and Pappu Yadav’s Jan Adhikar Party. This was expected given the behind the curtain role of the money bags who had their own favourites.

Contradictions with Nitish But, it is contradictions that are causing more damage to the prospects of the incumbent chief minister. The common refrain is that Kumar is a good leader with a well-defined developmental agenda, but has picked the wrong side—a reference to Lalu. People still remember the ‘jungle raj’ that Lalu had created when there was no rule of law in the state and development had been pushed 10 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

to the brink. All give credit to Nitish for the developmental work done during the last 10 years and bringing back the rule of law in the state. It is really an irony that Nitish who once cultivated the image of a development-oriented statesman by many was also seen as a prime ministerial material, is now not taken seriously when he talks of good governance and development. Such is the impact of his association with Lalu.

On the other hand, Lalu the enfant terrible of Bihar politics is creating formidable political waves with his frontal attack on the ‘communal’ politics of the BJP. He has made good use of the OBC factor which was initially introduced by BJP’ president Amit Shah who asserted, ‘BJP gave in Narendra Modi the first OBC prime minister to the country’.

This made Shah a laughing stock not only in Bihar but in the entire political circles of the country as the first OBC prime minister was HD Deve Gowda, not Modi.

Then the interview of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in the Organiser expressing the need to review the reservation introduced a new casteoriented debate in Bihar. Lalu and Nitish took it as an opportunity to make it a big issue claiming that the BJP would follow its ideological mentor and would try to finish reservation for the OBCs and others. He came out openly with his own interpretation of his message, ‘there is a war between the backwards and forwards in this elections.

The question arises as to why Nitish was forced to go with Lalu.

It was because the JDU of Nitish lacked political grassroots structure,

Bihar resources and caste affiliations that Lalu has. Even Mahadalits, whom Nitish went all out to help, now appear divided if not completely drifted away. He has continued to win back Mahadalits by announcing several welfare schemes for them when he returned to power removing Jitan Ram Manjhi at the popular demand within the party from the chief ministership, belonging to the very Mahadalit who earlier constituted the core of Nitish’s vote-bank.

Having got the issue from

has done everything to bring his castemen closer to his organisation which he has created after coming out of the Lalu fold. And then the tie-up of Pappu Yadav with Mulayam Singh Yadav has made a real dent in Lalu’s Yadav vote bank. And by fielding many Yadav candidates, the BJP is also trying to create further division of the Yadav votes.

Apart from this contradiction, the consolidation of upper castes— Brahmins, Bhumihar, Rajput, Kayasth and others in favour of

Lalu and Nitish have extended their vociferous support to the OBCs and Mahadalits. Alarmed, the BJP is now making repeated statements that the reservation issue is finally settled things and it would not be stopped. They have also declared that the NDA chief minister would not be from the higher caste.

Ramvilas Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi, have their own following among Dalits and Mahadalits, and have made the task easy for the BJP. However, unlike last parliamentary elections, Muslims who constitute

Finance minister Arun Jaitley released the vision document of the BJP for Bihar

Mohan Bhagwat, Lalu leaves no occasion to raise the caste reservation issue and dares the BJP to scrap it. However, his not being a candidate himself has made his castemen who constitute around 14 per cent of the Bihar population a little disinterested in mahagathbandhan. Though, he has fielded both his sons Tejashwi and Tej Pratap Yadav, but people see little hope in them. Hence, a section within his caste has now started looking at the RJD MP Pappu Yadav as an alternative to Lalu. Pappu

the BJP, is proving a boon for the party, as they are also considered aggressive mobilisers. Bhagwat’s reservation review message has acted like steroid to boost their morale. Then the vision document of the BJP listing so many benefits like scooties and laptops to the meritorious students has been interpreted by the forward caste as a favour to them. BJP government in Rajasthan has already given 14 per cent reservation on economic basis to all castes which has also enthused higher castes in Bihar. In retaliation,

for around 15-16 per cent of the state’s population, have no doubt this time round solidly rallying behind Lalu and Nitish. However, with the right-wing MIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi also contesting on many seats in Muslim-dominated Seemanchal Bihar, split in Muslim votes is also expected. Owaisi is spewing fire on the issue of the Dadri killing which is helping the BJP to polarise Hindu voters. In Lok Sabha elections, this was done using Muzaffarnagar riots, this time Dadri killing has come handy.< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

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World

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By Nilova Roy Chaudhury

rime minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States between September 22 and 28, his second since he assumed office, focused on both politics and technology, to give the Indian economy a boost.

His visit was clearly demarcated; the first part of the New York leg was for business and global politics while his much-hyped visit to Silicon Valley and San Jose, to meet with all the significant technology giants, from Google to Apple to Tesla to Facebook and Microsoft was designed to further his Digital and Skilled India programmes.

The tech-savvy prime minister made a strong pitch for India, seeking commitments from the technology majors, several of them headed by people of Indian origin, to invest in the India of the future.

It was in the less hyped, more substantive leg of the visit, in New York, that Modi, after offering the US a large defence contract worth $ 3.1 billion for 15 Chinook and 22 Apache helicopters, met CEOs of Fortune 500 companies to urge them to invest and ‘Make in India.’

Modi utilised this visit, partly to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, to give a strong push to India’s claim for a permanent seat at the UN’s high table, the Security Council. He hosted a summit-level meeting of the G-4, comprising Brazil, Germany, India and Japan, the first in a decade, to get the message across to the UN general body and, more particularly, to the P-5, that UN reforms could not wait.

The G-4 push, seeking reforms within a fixed time frame, was especially significant given that the UN General Assembly had, earlier

12 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

Modi Pushes for UN Reforms We live in a fundamentally different world from the time the United Nations was born. But it reflects the wisdom and the mindset of the century we have left behind, not the century we live in. India, Germany, Brazil and Japan are making a strong bid to change this by trying to get a permanent seat for each in an expanded Security Council, which currently has five permanent members—China, France, Russia, Britain, and the United States. The move had started long ago when Manmohan Singh took it up aggressively, which has been given a new impetus by prime minister Narendra Modi.

World in the month, finally agreed on a text to take UN reforms forward. In a significant decision for UN reform, the UN General Assembly decided to carry forward the text presented by the president of the General Assembly on the issue of Security Council reform.

UN General Assembly president Sam Kutesa convened a plenary meeting in New York last week to take action on the draft decision on the ‘Question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and related matters’. During the meeting, he also circulated letters containing the positions of key countries, including Russia, the US and China, which refused to contribute to the negotiating text. There was no voting on the decision to continue text-based UNSC reforms in the 70th session of the General Assembly and it was adopted by consensus.

Kutesa and Courtenay Rattray, chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) process, decided to carry forward IGN towards a text-based negotiation process. The draft decision contains a negotiating text which has positions of UN member states on Security Council reforms and how the powerful 15-nation body should be expanded in its permanent and non-permanent categories.

The Indian government had welcomed the move saying, ‘This is a significant development as after more than two decades of discussions, we can now commence text-based negotiations,’ Vikas Swarup, MEA spokesperson said.

Calling the decision ‘historic and path-breaking,’ Asoke Mukherji, India’s ambassador to the UN, said, ‘‘This decision sets the IGN process formally on an irreversible textbased negotiations path. This is the first time in the history of the InterGovernmental Negotiation process that a decision on UNSC reform has been adopted through an official formal document of the UNGA. This is a most positive and unique development over the last 7 years we have only been making statements in

the air, or at each other.”

Speaking to his G-4 colleagues, Modi noted that ‘some movement’ had been witnessed recently in the decades-old endeavour when the UNGA took the ‘significant step’ to commence text-based negotiations on the reforms but said it has to be taken to its logical conclusion during the current 70th session of the global body.

‘Our institutions, approaches, and often mindsets, reflect the wisdom of the century we have left

A joint statement was issued after the summit in which the G-4 leaders stressed that ‘a more representative, legitimate and effective security council is needed more than ever to address the global conflicts and crises, which had spiralled in recent years.’

The leaders ‘strongly emphasised that the process underway in UN to bring about the reform of the Security Council should be conducted given its urgency, in a fixed time frame.’

PM Modi in the G-4 summit with Brazilian PM Dilma Rousseff, German chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe

behind, not the century we live in.

This is especially true of the United Nations Security Council,’ he said.

Thus, ‘Reform of the Security Council within a fixed time frame has become an urgent and important task,’ Modi said at the summit with G-4 heads, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, German chancellor Angela Merkel, and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe. ‘We live in a fundamentally different world from the time the UN was born,’ Modi said, insisting that the UNSC ‘must include the world’s largest democracies, major locomotives of the global economy, and voices from all the major continents’ to carry ‘greater credibility and legitimacy’.

Modi, who met three of the five P-5 country heads, Barack Obama, Francoise Holland of France and Britain’s PM David Cameron, attended the Leaders’ Summit on Peacekeeping called by US President Obama and stressed on India’s credentials as a solid contributor to peace-keeping.

The PM addressed a UN Sustainable Development Summit, which unanimously adopted the SDGs 2030, and met several world leaders, including the Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, the President of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, and the King of Jordan, among others.

Though staying in the same hotel, he did not, however, meet Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif.< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

13

World

Europe Re-discovers Humanity

For over a long period now, unending streams of thousands upon thousands of extremely stressed people from the Middle East and Africa—men, women and children—forming steady waves of humanity have been rushing into many places in Europe at a relentless pace. The world is indeed facing a refugee crisis of Himalayan proportions with an estimated four million people having fled Syria since the start of the civil war there in 2011. Lately thanks to the lead given by the German chancellor Angela Merkel, the Europe has started accepting refuges in large numbers offering them shelter, food and medicine to survive. The social media played a big role in changing the attitude of European leaders by making viral images of people in distress. The US has also, though late, realised the human crisis and agreed to accept refugees.

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By M R Dua from Bloomington,

F Illinois, USA

or over a long period now, unending streams of thousands upon thousands of extremely stressed people from the Middle East and Africa—men, women and children—forming steady waves of humanity have been

rushing into many places in Europe at a relentless pace.

Among the latest migrations, Syria has been the most prominent location from where people have been fleeing in extraordinarily large numbers to European countries, but it’s not only for the Africans and Syrians from the Middle East that Europe has been the most favourite destination for

World

Fleeing from Syria taking all kinds of risk for survival (Courtesy: blogs.ft.com)

migration. In the past too, refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Niger, Somalia and Eritrea have headed towards Europe.

However, the current heavy influx of migrants and refugees in Euro-zone from Syria since early this year has been rather unprecedented ever since the armed conflict erupted in that country around four and a half years ago.

And, unfortunately Syria continues to be to date the greatest exodus

center of refugees in the world, mostly to the 28 the European Union countries.

Abandoning their homes flattened by perennial torrent of bombs, the Syrians have been in desperate search for a safe shelter, food, drinking water and healthcare.

They are on the run to seek some place, any place, secure enough to escape from the brutal, cruel regime of president Bashar al-Assad. The unending vagaries of war in Syria,

and clutches of extreme poverty continue to drive droves of people to hasten off from their ancestral homes, and look for a safe place.

The world has no clue on how to stop Assad’s tyranny Meanwhile, it’s pertinent to recall here that the fatal day of March 15, 2011, when Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, clamped OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

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World down on his own people with his gun power as they staged frequent massive pro-democracy protests in the nation’s capital city of Damascus, and elsewhere in the country. The nation has been under the state of national emergency for many years, and with unrest unabated, death toll goes on swelling by the day.

Even though Assad has recently lifted the emergency, these protests have already developed deep roots, and pro-democracy movement has gained prodigious support. And as Assad regime’s atrocities continued unabashedly, with repressive antipeople policies still in force, his reigning Ba’ath Party’s government got further alienated from his people. The number of protestors killed day in and day out has exceeded 2,500 so far, though deaths continue daily.

With not being able to stand the repression any further, popular demand for Assad’s resignation roared all over the country like wild fire; posters with slogan like ‘Bashar Step Down’ hit the nation’s all major towns. Simultaneously, innumerable protestors were taken prisoners without charges; strict censorship imposed; no political meetings were

This picture of 3-year old Syrian child, Aylan Kurdi’s on a beach in Bodrum was made viral by social media sending shockwaves round the world. This changed the mood of European leaders who started accepting refugees.

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It is not just humanity but permitted, and incessant monitoring of social media and internet by the also a practical sense that is Assad regime has been the order of shaping the mood in Europethe day till today.

The country continues to be an governments. The Europe cursed with an armed siege in needs young people, able bodmany towns, thus preventing any succour to the suffering hapless ied and skilled, to sustain its people. Callous, indifferent attitude economy and manufacturing towards the profusely suffering which remains threatened due people angered many senior military officials. As a result, one of Assad’s to its ageing population. Euclose military officers, Col Riad aldefected, formed Free Syrian rope in facts needs 40 million Assad, Army, and declared himself as its new workers over the next five commander. International moves to resolve the Syrian imbroglio in the years. Immigrants are always United Nations Security Council have been repeatedly thwarted by seen as best workers, hardand Chinese veto. working, disciplined, who try to Russian Meanwhile, as the Assad adapt to the ways and culture government was seen losing its grip over the country’s administration, of communities in which they armed conflict spread fast. Also, to go to live. But there are right- meet the shortage of manpower to fight rebellion against his rule, the wing political parties also in people refused to enlist as reservists all the European countries who to serve in the army. The pressure prompted many Syrian youths to are opposing arrival of immiescape from Assad regime’s forced conscription. grants in such large numbers.

Youths are fleeing with They suspect that it would mean inviting the risk of radical ‘Arab Spring’ crushed violence in their countries.

World

Fatima Kurdi was heartbroken as she spoke to the media following the death of three of her family members, including 3-year old Aylan Kurdi

As the conflict intensified, the Gulf Council member states withdrew their ambassadors from Syria; Arab League also suspended Syria’s membership.

Another edition of the ‘Arab Spring’ dream was believed to be ending up in smoke with unhappy, unsettled environments. Assad’s opponents formed a political outfit by the name of the Syrian National Council to reinforce the pro-democracy struggle in the country; Syria’s prime minister Riad Hijab quit the Assad government.

In the continuing violence, Syria’s economic fabric got frayed; people had little work to do to make a living, support their families, and had zero hope for peace returning.

In addition, the regime’s increasing prosecution of the people continued apace. Disappointed, vast multitudes of the Syrian youth started fleeing the country for refuge in Europe and look for the pastures anew.

Flight to Europe was not easy; it was facilitated and induced by human traffickers. With any amount between $2,000 and $3,000 paid to local agents, hundreds of them made good their escape to many Euro-zone states. Escape to Europe looked alluring as travel for refugees was made less expensive; also quick words went around that Germany would welcome any number of ablebodied young refugees.

So, some 1,500-mile-long journey via Turkey to Greece leading to Berlin despite risks seemed feasible. Thus, after reaching the shores of Europe, the refugees sought asylum applying for refugee status. Many succeeded and were granted asylum with shelter, food, healthcare, including pension and other basic facilities.

The flight from Syria initially seemed tough and complicated, with pathway to any European country fraught with immense risks, unlimited danger, riddled with multifarious hurdles: Journey means lasting weeks and months on trucks, boats, ships, buses ferrying refugees in unaccounted numbers. But many young people frustrated with totally hopeless situation back home, were ready to take the plunge. As a result, many died while their boats sank due to overloading, and some died in road accidents; many others died due to lack of adequate sanitation, healthcare, food, water and shelter.

Those who tried to swim drowned in the frightfully rising waves and choppy sea conditions.

A news report put it aptly thus: ‘It was not as if the refugees chose their plight… even as they sank in the sea and Austrian police found 71 dead refugees in an abandoned truck, the people in flight don’t begrudge the traffickers…there’s no question of not going…the risk of suffocating in the back of a truck or sinking in the Mediterranean is acceptable.’ Heart-rending words of a desperate refugee!

Thus, while the journey was entirely uncertain and unsafe, the greatest worry of the refugees was utter bewilderment at their final destination. But the hope for a better life ahead sustained them along.

Meanwhile a horrifying scene came alive of the lifeless body of the three-year-old Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi that was found on a beach in the Aegean town of Cesme in Izmir province of Turkey. It shook the head and heart of every compassionate, sensitive human being the world over; the social media network did the rest.

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Marital Bliss to All, Good Future to All Chhattisgarh Government is with the Physically Challenged Persons

 6% reservation in employment to physically challenged persons  Rs 21,000 as a motivation for the marriage of physically challenged persons. Benefit given to 1,062 newly-wed couples  Regional Rehabilitation Centre for healthcare, education and selfreliance in Rajnandgaon  Establishment of a Speciality College for hearing-impaired persons  Free 1,000 battery-driven motorised cycles to physically challenged persons

Released by the Public Relations Department, Government of Chhattisgarh

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World As innumerable such incidents kept surfacing, European nations took serious view of a good portion of humanity perishing by day and night. As the number of such deaths kept multiplying, the head and heart of the many people were shaken

easy to tread on their way to benign EU countries, such as Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Serbia, Croatia, Greece, Belgium, France and Serbia. And since the number of refugee rose to a level unacceptable by Hungary, Budapest

Syrian refugees sleeping at the floor of Keleti railway station (Courtesy: Commons.wikimedia)

Noticing unhappiness of some its members on receiving unusually high numbers, the European Union fixed a precise number of refugees, a quota system, for every country in consonance to their administrative, employment, economic, political, and civic capacities. Of the approximately 200,000 refugees, Germany instantly agreed to accept 120,000 and provide them housing and other basic facilities. to the core. They were reminded of humanitarian obligations and moral responsibilities towards the vast endangered humanity out in the open looking for a safe secure abode.

Too many refugees that Hungary can afford to accept Meanwhile, Syria’s neighbouring countries including Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon that had given shelter to over three million refugees also looked towards the West, particularly to the European Union countries, for help and support in this humanitarian crisis. At the same time, many refugees continued sneaking into Hungary, being easy to access and

used force to stop further influx in the midst of violent scenes against refugees.

Noticing unhappiness of some its members on receiving unusually high numbers, the European Union fixed a precise number of refugees, a quota system, for every country in consonance to their administrative, employment, economic, political, and civic capacities. Of the approximately 200,000 refugees, Germany instantly agreed to accept 120,000 and provide them housing and other basic facilities.

Germany’s chancellor Angela Markel openly announced Berlin’s willingness to take several thousand more migrants in the near future.

Thus, migrants’ flow in Germany from other EU countries by trains, roads, and even by walking along

the train lines intensified. Germany could accommodate the refugees so willingly because the country needed a large labour force to man its manufacturing units and its sprawling infrastructure construction works.

With a view to properly settling down refugees and providing them food, shelter, healthcare, education and other facilities the European Union allocated sufficient funds.

The international refugee agency, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has also announced substantial aid. The United States agreed to take around 75,000 refugees, the figure may ultimately touch 100,000, mostly Syrians, and sanctioned $2 billion to support these refugees in the country plus another $4 billion for the UN’s effort for refugees.

While the US and many European nations, have joined hands in grappling with this deteriorating refugee problem, it’s remarkable that China and Russia have so far not extended any worthwhile support in this humanitarian task of Himalayan proportions since the second World War. Though most western nations are scared of any untoward radical, violent Islamist activity that may occur during refugees’ stay in their countries, a number of measures for evaluating background and credential checks of those accepted have been put in place. However, the fears of such incidents taking place have not been ruled out.

Also, host nations have made it amply clear to these migrants, particularly the ‘economic migrants,’ that they will have to return to their native lands after the normalcy returns there. They have been made to sign proper contract in this regard. Those failing to honour these contracts will face deportation under strict police supervision.

The pity is that though there seems to be no lapse in the murderous assaults of the Assad regime against its own people even after four years, Russia and China are still stalling every global attempt to resolve the Syrian imbroglio.< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

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Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh Raj Bhavan

UP Govt, Governor on Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik has been accused of making comments, observations and statements which do not behove his constitutional high position. SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has requested prime minister Narendra Modi to either restrain him or remove him. Meanwhile, a section within the ruling party in UP is getting restive and demanding to launch a ‘hallabol’ against him in the same style as was done against governor TV Rajeshwar during the UPA rule in 2007. However, the BJP has chosen to back the governor as it finds his stand legitimate or perhaps politically useful to the party.

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By Ratan Mani Lal

he confrontation between the Samajwadi Party government and the Raj Bhawan in Uttar Pradesh is likely to get worse as neither side appears relenting on the issue of the appointment of the lokayukta. Prior to this issue, too, the Akhilesh Yadav government has seen governor Ram Naik stonewall many government decisions.

The situation took a turn for the worse as Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav rushed to

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Delhi to complain against Naik to prime minister Narendra Modi.

Mulayam’s unscheduled meeting with Modi lasted for about 45 minutes and it is learnt he apprised Modi how Naik has been repeatedly ‘creating obstacles’ in the working of the Akhilesh government in Lucknow. The latest instance conveyed to Modi, it is learnt, was regarding the reluctance of Naik to approve the appointment of retired judge Ravindra Singh Yadav as the lokayukta. Earlier instances include the reluctance of the governor to clear the list of nine names proposed to be nominated as members of the legislative council.

The appointment of the lokayukta has become a bone of contention between the Akhilesh government and the Raj Bhawan.

The government sent the name of Justice Yadav to Naik five times, and each time Naik returned it, citing two main reasons. First, the three-member selection panel — comprising the chief minister, leader of opposition and chief justice — never sat together to discuss his name. Second, Justice Yadav’s name was sent despite objections raised by the chief justice.

However, on August 27, the last day of the assembly session, the government brought a bill in the assembly that sought to eliminate the chief justice from the process. The Bill sought to amend the existing Act that would finish the role of the chief justice in the process of selection. The bill was passed by both the Houses within one hour amid loud protests by the

Uttar Pradesh

SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav complained to the PM about the obstructionist attitude of the UP governor

Collision Course entire opposition, which staged a walkout. It will now be sent for the governor’s assent. The new bill replaces the chief justice with the Vidhan Sabha speaker in the panel to select the ombudsman. Besides, it introduces a new member—a retired judge of either the Supreme Court or the High Court.

Meanwhile, the present lokayukta, justice (retired) NK Mehrotra, who has held office for nine years now, continues to function despite stringent comments from the Supreme Court over the state government showing no urgency to appoint a new lokayukta in his place. Justice Mehrotra’s sixyear tenure had ended on March 15, 2012. But the Akhilesh government extended his tenure by two more years, which also ended in March last year. The Supreme Court had on July 2 issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on a plea seeking Mehrotra’s removal and till that date, the state had failed to find a replacement. The court sought a reply from the state in four weeks on a PIL filed by one Mahendra Kumar Jain. In April 2014, the Supreme Court had given the state six months to find Mehrotra’s replacement.

However, there are hints that the UP government may suggest

Ram Naik completed one year in office on July 22 and in this period, he has written about 175 letters to the UP chief minister and his cabinet ministers, majority of which were on law and order and issues of land grab. Naik had recently reportedly sought detailed information from chief minister Akhilesh Yadav to run background checks on nine persons that the state government has recommended to the state legislative council under the nominated members category.

another name for appointment as lokayukta, although there is no official confirmation of this. Even if this happens, the unpleasantness between the government and Raj Bhawan might still persist for other reasons.

Naik completed one year in office on July 22 and in this period, he has written about 175 letters to the UP chief minister and his cabinet ministers, majority of which were on law and order and issues of land grab. Naik had recently reportedly sought detailed information from chief minister Akhilesh Yadav to run background checks on nine persons that the state government has recommended to the state legislative council under the nominated members category. In addition to his concern over the crime and law and order situation, Naik had last month expressed concern at the dominance of a particular caste in the state government’s bureaucracy, following which Ram Gopal Yadav demanded his recall.

Ram Gopal Yadav asked prime minister Modi to remove Naik from the governor’s post and instead make him a ‘BJP candidate in the forthcoming UP elections.’ In a hard-hitting statement issued in late July, Ram Gopal had sought an OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

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Uttar Pradesh apology from Naik for ‘denigrating’ the dignity of the post. The ruling party also warned the governor not to ‘overdo’ it or party workers will take to the streets to oppose him.

Naik has been making critical comments regarding several issues including law and order, education and general administration. The most recent provocation appears to be a conversation with the mediapersons in Raj Bhawan in

Senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav

Lucknow, where Naik made an observation about the ‘importance of a particular caste in UP administration.’

administration. ‘Yadav caste people are occupying higher posts in negligible numbers,’ he said.

As example, he quoted ‘Out of 53 chief secretaries and 21 secretaries, there is only one and two Yadav respectively. There are total 338 IPS posts out of which Yadav caste people are in 19 posts only.”

Senior minister Mohammad Azam Khan has said on various occasions that the Raj Bhawan had

Governor Ram Naik

‘lost its glory’ and had become a ‘Rajneeti Bhawan’. He had also quipped that Naik looked more like a priest (pujari) than a governor.

Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik made a political comment about the UP government that a particular caste dominates the bureaucracy. In a bid to contradict his observation, senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav produced data debunking his claim that out of 53 chief secretaries and 21 secretaries, there is only one and two Yadavs respectively and out of the total 338 IPS posts, Yadavs occupy just 19 posts.

Not too many Yadavs on senior posts In a bid to contradict Naik’s observation, Yadav leader produced the data of Yadav caste people occupying senior posts in UP 22 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

Senior SP leader Naresh Agrawal had gone one step further, saying that the governor ‘must not function as an agent of the RSS or the BJP, otherwise the SP would be forced to launch a halla-bol against him.’

The sequence of events is quite similar to what had happened in

Lucknow in February 2007 when the SP had launched a full-fledged confrontation against the then governor TV Rajeshwar. At that time, all SP seniors including the then assembly speaker Mata Prasad Pandey, who is not supposed to attend any party’s political rally, had joined the anti-governor protests.

Pandey, incidentally, is also the present speaker of the assembly.

Rajeshwar had been critical

UP lokayukta justice NK Mehrotra

of the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. Besides Pandey, other SP leaders including late Janeshwar Mishra had dubbed Rajeshwar as a ‘Congress agent’ and had decried the then UPA government and the Congress of using the Raj Bhawan for political conspiracy against the SP government. Ram Gopal Yadav had then also said that the governor ‘was behaving like the chief minister.’

Hundreds of slogan-shouting party workers had headed towards the Raj Bhawan in Lucknow where a strong posse of police personnel stopped them.

Although the SP has so far not announced its plans to have a similar campaign against the present occupant of the Raj Bhawan, it is learnt that a section of leaders is pressing for such a confrontation, hoping that it might effectively divert the attention from repeated criticism of the state government over the law and order situation.<

Uttar Pradesh

Dadri Killing Ruined India’s Image Globally Lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq, the father of an Indian Air Force employee in Bishada village in Dadri, Noida, provoked by rumours that he had slaughtered a cow and stored beef in his home is indeed a horrific incident unbecoming of modern India. The incident not only occupied profuse media space in the country, but was covered extensively in major international news channels, websites and newspapers across the world including, Al Jazeera, Voice News, New York Times, Huffington Post, Yonhap News and Time magazine. Opposition parties and intellectuals of the country have criticised silence of the prime minister on the incident. However, in a book release function the president Pranab Mukherjee made an extempore appeal for tolerance and endurance, reminding these were the core values of our great civilisation. Writer Nayantara Sahgal, the niece of Jawahar Lal Nehru, who had opposed Indira Gandhi for imposing Emergency, and Hindi poet Ashok Vajpayee returned their Sahitya Akademi Award miffed at the attitude of the PM.

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By Tamanna Faridi

hile prime minister Narendra Modi tried to boost Indian image in the western world hard-selling India as the best destination for investment, the brutal killing of Mohammad Akhlaq, the father of an Indian Air Force employee in Bishada village in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, ruined all that. The incident was described as unfortunate by the IAF chief, Air Marshal Arup Raha and offered to shift the family near the air force base. The incident not only occupied profuse media space in the country, but was covered extensively in major international

news channels, websites and newspapers across the world including, Al Jazeera, Voice News, New York Times, Huffington Post, Korean news service Yonhap News and Time magazine.

The widow suspects a big conspiracy behind this. She said there were two right-wing groups which were spreading communal sentiments in the area. In the condemnable incident fifty-year old Mohammed Akhlaq was lynched to death by a mob of odd 200 people after a beef-related rumour and his 21-year old son Danish was also beaten rendering him semi-dead.

Akhlaq’s widow told to the IANS that when her husband was returning home on the day of Eid, some youth miscreants called him a Pakistani, and said they would not let a Pakistani live in the village.

They even threatened a repeat of Muzaffarnagar riots. ‘Some goons suddenly entered into our house on Monday night and killed Akhlaq

alleging him of cow slaughter. Our family is a patriot one. Our elder son is in the Indian Air Force.

Danish will complete his graduation this year. He also wants to join the army’, said the widow. The victim family denied the allegations of storing beef or beef-eating.

Sources say that some persons of Pratap Sena and Samadhan Sena were active in the area. They incite the youth of 18-25 years vitiating the communal harmony. However, Anurag Singh, area police officer, Dadri, said that he did get some tips about these organisations from people of the area, but there was no clear confirmation yet of their involvement.

A lot of politics is being played meanwhile on the incident. Senior BJP leader and former deputy prime minister LK Advani indirectly attacked the Modi government on September 5 when he reached Agra to release a book—Meri Kahani Meri Jubani saying that whatever OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

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Uttar Pradesh was happening these days shows the deficiency in the government, but avoided to give a direct answer on the Dadri killing saying, ‘If I would speak anything on this issue, Atalji would be angry.’

The home minister Rajnath Singh and finance minister Arun Jaitley however called this incident unfortunate and said the visits of leaders of different parties at the spot and their objectionable statements would create more tension. Rajnath Singh said the

incident was very painful and it should not be given a political colour. AAP leader Ashutosh slammed Modi for remaining silent even after continuous threatening postures adopted by local BJP leaders.

But much uproar was triggered when UP cabinet minister Azam Khan wrote a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for his intervention to stop the campaign against Muslims in the country. The minority and

President of India Pranab Mukherjee pained at the Dadri killing appealed for tolerance and endurance

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urban development minister told that he has personally sought to meet Secretary-General Banki Moon on the issue. He has mentioned in the letter that the RSS and the fascist forces in the country are destroying our GangaJamuni culture and want to make India a Hindu rashtra. Though the government at the Centre had promised to protect this culture, but it favours the organisations like the RSS which are working with other 40 groups to make this nation a Hindu rashtra. Khan said fascist forces in the country want to create a divide in the society by starting a campaign of hatred against Muslims.

The BJP condemned the act of senior Samajwadi Party leader of writing the letter to the UN, as anti-national. BJP legislative party leader Suresh Kumar Khanna responded saying, ‘Majority of Muslims in the country feel that India is the safest place for them. Khan is wrong when he says that Muslims in the country, particularly Uttar Pradesh are in a state of fear.’

BJP legislator from Sardhana, Sangeet Som, who is an accused in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, visited Bishada village and targetted the Akhilesh Yadav government saying that the investigations in the case was only one-sided. Earlier union minister Mahesh Sharma had visited the family and called the killing as an accident. Among others MIM chief Mohammad Owaisi, CPM’s Vrinda Karat, Delhi CM Arvind Kerjiwal and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi also visted the village to console the family.

UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has charged that dirty politics was being played on Dadri incident. He said, ‘Don’t know, who poisoned the environment, but the family will get justice and strict action will be taken against the culprits. We will help the family.’ His government has given Rs 30 lakh to the widow and Rs 5 lakh each to the three brothers of Akhlaq as ex gratia.<

Delhi

Dengue Kills, But Does not Scare Selfish Politicians Dengue returned to Delhi with its heaviest death toll of 37 after six years. It exposed the extremely selfish nature of our politicians and health care delivery system, especially private hospitals. Gaim, political or monetary, ruled the roost without any sense of guilt. It also exposed the failure of AAP government to act proactively and anticipate and plan in time to tackle the scourge that visits Delhi every year.

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By Kusum Varshney

elhi witnessed the worst dengue crisis this year since 2010 with 37 deaths reported by hospitals.

Prima facie much of the trouble might be ascribed to the ongoing tussle between the BJP and AAP. The general perception is that not only the NDA government at the Centre but the three BJP-controlled municipal corporations also, did not lose any opportunity to see that the AAP government got a bad name no matter dengue or what.

So sometimes the MCD employees would go on strike leaving the city stinking with garbage, at the other time they would not undertake the fumigation operations till the death toll from dengue did not reach 17. All this shows the callousness of the politicians who all the time worry more about their turf rather than public interest.

Delhi government veritably

appeared panicking when every day fresh cases of dengue deaths were reported. Most deaths occurred due to private hospitals refusing to admit dengue patients who kept on running desperately from one hospital to another. Some deaths occurred due to resorting to self medication to down the fever.

The Delhi government decided to bring a Delhi Health Bill to take on private hospitals who reportedly rushed to their political supporters for protection. The said Bill had been discussed and developed in the Delhi Dialogue Commission and was in the process of seeking comments from the public, but as cases of refusal to admit patients by private hospitals kept on rising, Kejriwal government hurriedly announced to bring the Bill sooner than later, by calling a special session of the Delhi assembly. The Bill would have empowered Delhi government to take action against private hospitals for refusing to admit dengue patients and overcharging.

Some private hospitals realised their social responsibility amidst all this talk, but the trend of overcharging and refusal to admit dengue patients continued. The attitude of hospitals in Delhi even evoked a strong reaction from the

chief minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, who urged Kejriwal to act against them.

When the dengue curse was at its peak the lieutenant governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung shockingly issued a directive to Delhi government officers not to follow orders of the chief minister in case they thought they were against the directive of the Centre. Kejriwal rushed a letter to the prime minister urging that the Centre should stop fighting with his government for two more months till dengue was over.

Deterred by media criticism MCDs started a fumigation drive and the AAP government initiated an ad campaign to sensitize people on what precautions patients running fever should take. It opened fever clinics also across the city. Media also started playing its positive role in educating people about dengue.

But deaths continued to occur. Delhi health minister undertook visits to the hospitals in the night and caught as many as 16 doctors either sleeping during duty hours or loitering in other wards. They were issued notices. But all this too late!

The question remains why the doctors and hospitals do not act responsibly even during such crises.< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

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Delhi

It used to be the pet theme of Narendra Modi when he was the chief minister of Gujarat. But after he assumed power in the Centre, his style of functioning appears totally in defiance of the federal structure of the national polity. Not one meeting of the NDC has taken place in his 16 months’ rule, which is a forum where states can raise their issues. The Planning Commission is already finished which used to take care of financial needs of the states. There are accusations that Centre is running parallel governments through governors and lieutenant governors in the non-NDA states. All this does not augur well for the country and democracy. The first attempt to organise a ‘Conclave of Chief Ministers on Cooperative Federalism & CentreState Relations’ did not succeed as only two chief ministers turned up from among the five who had evinced interest, but this does not mean the issue is going to die down any time soon. It would continue to acquire fresh energy and momentum until the Centre amends its ways, AAP leaders say.

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Federalism Under Threat ?

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Bannerjee in the chief ministers’ conclave

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By Bodhi Shri

on-NDA governments in states have one common complaint against the Centre since the new government under Narendra Modi has came into existence that there is unwarranted interference of the Centre in the functioning of state governments. So much so that parallel governments are being run through the governors and lieutenant governors, state chief ministers say.

The worst victim of this attitude has been the Delhi government of Aam Aadmi Party, which badly mauled the BJP in the assembly elections early this year despite the vigorous campaigning undertaken by prime minister Narendra Modi which was also hugely energised by the RSS. The BJP could win only 3 seats out of 70 in Delhi.

Decency and public ethics require that BJP leaders should

have become humble after the defeat, but the opposite happened and all kinds of dirty tricks are being played to harass the Delhi government of Arvind Kejriwal.

Any neutral observer would say that the Centre is creating hurdles in the functioning of the Delhi government on one pretext or the other out of vindictiveness.

All limits were crossed when the lieutenant governor wrote to officers of Delhi government last week of September not to follow any orders from the chief minister, which they thought were in contravention of Centre’s directive. Who can say that this is not an open encouragement to rebel against an elected government?

It is not just the Delhi government which is at the receiving end from such an attitude of the Centre. The experience of several state governments is similar, though the degree of the interference might be varying.

The Samajwadi Party last month protested the interference of UP

Delhi governor Ram Naik who has earned the reputation of making comments, observations and statements which do not match his constitutional high position. Seeing the level of undue interference (he wrote 175 letters to the chief minister in a year raising numerous issues) crossing the limits, party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav requested prime minister Modi to either restrain him or remove him. The situation is so bad that a section within the ruling party in UP demanded to launch a ‘halla-bol’ against him.

The behaviour of other governors is also reported to be not much different.

it citing one reason or the other. And out of the two chief ministers, Manik Sarkar of Tripura was counselled by the CPM’s central leadership not to share the dais with Mamata Bannerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar did not come as he was involved in the ‘do or die’ kind of electoral battle in his state.

Kumar’s letter, however, scathingly accused the Centre of crushing the federal structure by taking unilateral decisions on a number of issues like cutting Centre’s share in several important centre-sponsored schemes without consulting the chief ministers. Nitish reminded,

Pradesh CM Virbhandra Singh’s residence in connection with a disproportionate assets case. She recounted how the Modi government was breaching the boundary of political ethics and propriety and ‘running down’ constitutional provisions. She told that she was shocked to know that the Bengal governor had written a letter asking for central forces for civic elections in the state. She accused the governor of summoning police chief and other officers to the Raj Bhavan though law and order is state’s prerogative.

Kejriwal spoke about how since the Delhi assembly was constituted in 1992 no LG had interfered with

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Tripura CM Manik Sarkar after the chief ministers’ conclave on ‘Cooperative Federalism and Centre-State Relations’ in Delhi

This is yet another matter that these chief ministers did not turn up in the ‘Chief Ministers Conclave on Cooperative Federalism and Centre-State Relations’ organised

by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Five chief ministers had given their consent to attend the conclave—West Bengal, Bihar, Mizoram, Tripura and Puducherry.

Uttarakhand chief minister had responded to the invitation, but chose to stay away, ostensibly due to strong rivalry between the Congress and AAP in Delhi.

The Conclave also seen as Arvind Kejriwal’s efforts to emerge as a national leader, as a matter of fact flopped since only two chief ministers turned up and others excused themselves from attending

‘Before elections, BJP used to talk about federal structure but now the behaviour of the Centre is against cooperative federalism’. The Bihar chief minister proposed detailed deliberations among the states after the Bihar polls.

Mizoram CM Lal Thanhawla of the Congress could not come as the assembly session was to begin, but he sent his views in a letter.

Mamata Banerjee stole the who roared like a lioness in the conclave making a convincing case by citing examples how the federal structure of the country was under threat. She accused that the Centre was using CBI, ED and Income Tax Department to bulldoze state governments.

She proved her point by citing the case of CBI raids at Himachal

chief minister’s decisions. But in his case 30 decisions have been changed. By doing so Centre was not only insulting the democracy but also the judiciary. If I am wrong there are courts to take care, why this interference, he asked. He gave an example how Delhi Police under the Centre chose to remain mute spectator when ESMA was to be implemented during the DTC strike causing innense hardship to millions of commuters on a wroking day.

Some political observers feel the attempt to bring together chief ministers of various non-BJP parties at one platform may one day convert into a political alternative to take on the BJP. But this interpretation was vehemently denied by Arvind Kejriwal.< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

27

Haryana

Haryana Local Body Elections: Get Educated to Get Elected?

Following Rajasthan, Haryana became the second BJP-ruled state to fix minimum educational qualifications for those contesting panchayat polls despite facing flak over the move from opposition parties and social activists. The critics say that 83 per cent of Dalit women and 71 per cent women in general and 56 per cent males would be excluded from contesting the panchayat polls by this law. The matter is before the Supreme Court which has to decide whether the new law affects fundamental rights of the candidates.

F

By Lokayat Correspondent

ollowing Rajasthan, Haryana became the second BJP-ruled state to fix minimum educational qualifications for those contesting panchayat polls despite facing flak over the move from opposition parties and social activists.

But even as the Supreme Court (SC) has stayed the operation of the Haryana Panchayati Raj (amendment) Act, 2015, and the ongoing process for elections to local bodies remains on hold till the apex court decides its validity, the Manohar Lal Khattar government appears in no mood to take back the controversial provisions.

In its appeal before the SC, a determined Haryana government made it clear that it was not willing to compromise on the introduction of minimum educational qualification norms for candidates.

Despite being under fire from the opposition on the issue, Khattar

28 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

remains hopeful of convincing the SC on the need to have minimum education norms for panchayat poll candidates. Justifying his government’s decision to lay down the academic criteria, he said only educated representatives could ‘ensure overall development of villages’.

The BJP government remains confident of clearing the SC hurdle as there is precedence. ‘Rajasthan brought an ordinance prescribing minimum qualification for candidates and that was challenged

Former Congress chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda terms the new legislation as ‘undemocratic and unwarranted’ because there is no such educational bar for contesting the Lok Sabha or the Vidhan Sabha elections.

in the court. The SC referred it to the high court that refused to grant a stay since the poll process was on. Meanwhile, the assembly also passed an Act that was not challenged and the matter ended,’ said a government functionary requesting anonymity.

The legislation and its provisions According to the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2015, passed on 7 September by the state assembly, while general candidates must have passed class 10 examinations, women and Dalit candidates are required to have cleared class 8 to contest the panchayat polls. For the post of ‘panch’, the educational qualification for SC candidates would be class V. According to the new law, candidates should also not have a criminal conviction or chargesheet by any court of law, unpaid electricity bill and any loan default.

Haryana They should also have a functional toilet to qualify to contest.

‘Prescribing minimum standards of education will not only help in augmenting the performance of the panches, sarpanches and members of panchayat samitis and zila parishads but also reduce the chances of being misled besides ensuring accountability. In view of good literacy rate in the state, election of educated candidates to panchayati raj institutes will prove a catalyst for faster and sustainable development of villages,’ said the statement of objects and reasons of the Act.

Activists term the law unconstitutional Activists opposing the new law maintain that it violates the 73rd constitutional amendment that provided for local self-governance in rural areas.

The civil society activists maintain the purpose of the 73rd constitutional amendment with reservation for marginalised social groups was to

empower these groups and deepen their participation in governance. But due to abysmally low levels of literacy in these marginalised groups, it is obvious that only the elite will be able to contest elections, and not those who are poor or marginalised.

They say it’s anti-democratic as it also places constraints voter’s choice of a candidate who may not be educated but understands the local problems or issues better.

Considering that an estimated 30 per cent population in India is illiterate, they say majority of elected panchayat samiti members and panchayat samiti representatives will now be debarred from contesting due to lack of required educational qualification. It will bar large number of women and people from underprivileged sections of the society from contesting, since their proportion among the illiterate is higher.

BJP weathers a storm Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar justified the legislation saying it will enable elected representatives to be more accountable, as they would no longer be able to cite illiteracy as an excuse.

But the BJP government is facing flak over the move with some suggesting that the new laws have been introduced by the upper caste Hindu dominated BJP to eliminate competition.

Khattar’s predecessor, Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Congress, sees the legislation as ‘undemocratic and unwarranted’ because there were no such qualifications for contesting the Lok Sabha or the Vidhan Sabha elections. The main opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Singh Chautala quoted the example of educationally backward Mewat district where villagers were marrying educated girls from far-off places like Hyderabad to put them as proxy candidates in elections.

Chief minister Khattar is, however, unperturbed and dismissed these allegations by saying a large number of educated youngsters are now coming forward to contest elections at every level and there should not be a problem in getting educated contestants.

Supporting the new rules, BJP MLA from Nangal, Chaudhary Abhe Singh Yadav said illiterate sarpanches often blindly sign on resolutions and papers without realising their import.<

All eyes are set on Supreme Court

B

y the time the Supreme Court (SC) stayed the provisions of the new law, the nomination process for panchayat elections, scheduled to be held in three phases on October 4, 11 and 18 this year, was already over.

The SC stay came on a petition filed by Kamlesh, a resident of Kaimari village in Hisar. An aspirant for sarpanch, she had lost the previous election by just 11 votes. She considers herself a strong contender this time. However, she was rendered ineligible due to the criteria of educational qualification set by the Haryana government.

Kamlesh, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste community, claims that she is literate but does not possess a certificate to prove her credentials.

The lawyer for the petitioner said that 83 per cent of Dalit women and 71 per cent women in general and 56 per cent males would be excluded from contesting the panchayat polls by this law, which affected fundamental rights of the candidates.<

OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

29

Chhattisgarh

Another First by Dr Raman Singh Dr Raman Singh has become the first chief minister in the country using radio for communicating his views a la Narendra Modi’s ‘Man ki Baat’, and also the first CM to interact live on Facebook with his followers on important issues of public welfare and development. He is also profusely active on Twitter.

With mobile internet penetration increasing rapidly in Chhattisgarh, he has gainfully adopted social media to keep people on real time basis aware of what he is doing and plans to do, also seeking their involvement in pushing forward projects to make the state modern and vibrant.

Social media savvy chief minister, Dr Raman Singh posting his views on Facebook

C

By Adithi Sonali

hhattisgarh is fast getting digital. And thanks to the initiative of chief minister Dr Raman Singh, people of the state are finding more and more e-services to usher a new quality in governance and delivery of services.

With number of people in the state accessing internet through mobile is increasing rapidly, soon there might be a big change in the overall scenario of official communication and outreach.

Though 4G mobile broadband is not available in the state, 3G broadband is ubiquitous in urban

30 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

areas and also reaching in rural areas. There are six companies offering four types of internet services in 80 places in the state.

Among these 80 places, 10 are municipal corporations, 17 are municipalities, one is notified area, 37 are towns and 16 are villages.

Dr Raman has undertaken one more initiative. Just like prime minister Narendra Modi uses radio to reach out to masses through his ‘Man ki Baat’ on a regular basis, Dr Singh followed him to become the first chief minister who would be sharing his views regulary on radio.

This he would do on every second Sunday in a programme ‘Raman ke Goth’ which would help him to

Chhattisgarh communicate to people in far flung areas.

The chief minister has also started using social media in a big way to reach out to people especially the GenNext which is known as mobile savvy. In fact, he is again the first chief minister who has started interacting with people on Facebook. He answers queries of people every month on this social media platform. His live questionanswer sessions with the common man may prove quite useful in more ways than one. The first such programme took place on September 26 for an hour. The topic was ‘skill development’.

This has been acclaimed as laudable initiative since it creates a refreshing openness and interactivity in social and political dialogue with common people. Seeing the way his followers can freely express their views on his Facebook page, it can be said that a new age of live communication between the leader and public has come in Chhattisgarh.

For example, a citizen Somesh Sharma on September 28 hit at the policies of Chhattisgarh government asking for more jobs to the youth of the state before they are offered to the people abroad.

On social media people sometimes do not observe the kind of decency which is otherwise normal with most Indians. Sharma wrote further that due to ‘senility’, there is no farsightedness left among the leaders of the country. Another person, Raj Banchhor commented: Big businessmen get loans promptly but farmers or poor people find it so hard to get any. Similarly, Ankit Pandey raised the issue of pollution in Raipur due to tempos running on diesel. Kanhaiya Patel commented on Dr Raman Singh’s post on September 27: sir aap digital india ki bt krte h waha tak to thik h.. .pr yaha kisi ko computer me copy or paste ke liye kon sa key use krte h utna b ni aata h yaha k computer dhariyo ko.. kyoki sb farzi degree le ke baithe h. Sir aise m kaha hoga digital india ka sapna pura...(Sir, you talk of digital India, and to this extent it is all right… but the people having

computers do not even know which key is used to cut and paste, because all have acquired fake degrees. Sir, how will the dream of digital India ever materialise in this scenorio?)

Such comments do reveal the truth at the ground level or at least how people think on various issues no matter they are wrong or right. There is a risk that many malicious assertions based on false and pervert notions may also be posted as comments, yet Dr Singh has welcomed it. He tweeted on

example, a day before the Gandhi Jayanti, he informed in Hindi: ‘The flyover between the old bus stand and Guru Nanak Chowk in Rajnandgaon would be brightened by a cleanliness drive with the help of people. On the occasion of the Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti, the local people’s efforts to do this under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a laudable step. This new initiative of the citizens would induce other people also to take up similar cleaning drives’. This post was

Dr Raman Singh dedicates an OxyZone in Kamal Vihar project area

September 28, ‘I respect each opinion received on social media.

It helps me to do better & also helps government to frame better policies’.

The chief minister is using another social media platform Twitter also profusely. For example, he informed his followers on Twitter that the students of Naxal- affected Bastar region are cracking IIT entrance examination. The followers may retweet his tweets or just endorse them. So this becomes yet another channel of direct communication.

Those who do not agree with his opinion may also Tweet giving their suggestion or comment.

The outcome is great. Many things which the traditional and mainstream media is not able to tell due to space or time constraint or as a matter of policy are coming out in public domain.

There are hosts of interesting examples of how the chief minister has used this media. For

liked by over a thousand people by the early morning of October 2 and was shared by 19.

On August 18, Dr Singh informed by his Facebook post: ‘Today in Kamal Vihar Project area, plantation of 2,200 plants of local and exotic varieties have been undertaken to develop a 5 acre OxyZone with the help of school children and citizens of Raipur in memory of late president, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. In OxyZones, such species are planted which are of medicinal value and release more oxygen. We want to develop such OxyZones in other cities also of the state. The target is to plant 10 crore trees. I appeal everbody to join the Vriksharopan Maha Abhiyan, to help the state become green’. In another post he informed that by using online monitoring of schools, teacher attendance has gone up now to 80 per cent.

Indeed, good use of the technology in making govermance more effective!< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

31

Madhya Pradesh

Twin Blasts

CBI Drive

O in Petlawad Exposed rampant Illegal Mining

The twin blasts caused by unauthorisedly stored gelatine rods in Petlawad which completely destroyed two buildings and killing 80 persons have raised many inconvenient questions, the satisfactory answers to which may never come out given the political susceptibilities. The blasts have revealed the existence of large-scale unauthorised trading in explosives as it is used in illegal mining that is alleged to be rampant in Madhya Pradesh like several other states.

By Chandrakant Naidu

A

fortnight after the twin blasts that killed nearly 80 persons in the Petlawad town in Madhya Pradesh,

32 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

the people are grappling with many questions while shrill claims and counter-claims by political rivals amid gut-wrenching images that have left neutral observers crosseyed and nauseated.

Was a ‘dead man’ trading in the explosives?

Is Rajendra Kasawa, the main culprit behind the blast, already

ver two months after being handed over the investigations into the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) churned up 40 premises of the accused that include the aides of Madhya Pradesh governor, Ram Naresh Yadav and former minister Lakshmikant Sharma and a major financier of the BJP and Sangh Parivar, Sudhir Sharma.

The CBI raided 40 suspected spots in 23 towns across Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. An action-packed month ahead could give sleepless nights to the high and mighty in the establishment.

Few examination ripoffs can match the enormity of the scam involving the Professional Examination Board aka Vyavasayik Pariksha Mandal or Vyapam that led to more than 40 deaths; swindle of over Rs 3,000 crore and more than 1,800 arrests. Nearly 500 persons have managed to evade police dragnet through the unending investigation.

The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government was accused of manipulating the inquiry as the scam involves Sangh parivar members, politicians, senior government officers, ruling BJP’s financiers and inter-state fraudsters.

Nagging doubts, however, persist if the raids conducted two years after the exposure of the scam could yield enough incriminating material to match the sensation created in the media. The CBI has kept quiet

dead? Was he a key financier of the ruling party and the Sangh parivar?

Did the Congress play the dirty trick of morphing Kasawa’s picture to show him in RSS uniform to

Madhya Pradesh

Gives Sleepless Nights over its findings, but the media went to town with speculation over passports, bank documents, pan cards and papers related to property and other investments gathered by the 400-strong team that included staff from Income Tax department, Central Excise and some banks. Over 100 vehicles were summoned. A strong squad of officers from Delhi was also backing up the team.

The CBI expressed apprehensions about noncooperation from the Special Task Force (STF) when it took over cases at the trial stage. The Supreme Court handed all inquiry to the agency.

‘Whatever is the stage of the case, you (CBI) will have to take over all the matters,’ the bench headed by chief justice H L Dattu had said. The CBI’s slow progress as attributed to the delaying tactic of the STF. Vijay Raman, a member of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was monitoring STF’s performance at the direction of the Madhya Pradesh High Court said, ‘The CBI should continue its job without being distracted by the lapses of the agency that was investigating the matter earlier. If it finds any issues worth reinvestigating, it should include it in inquiry.’

The raids reflect the CBI’s concerted effort to make up for the lapses and lost time in the probe handled so far by the STF of the state police. In the absence of charge-sheet by the STF, Lakshmikant Sharma and several others got bail in some cases. The STF never raided Sharma’s houses at Bhopal or at his hometown Sironj. It went slow against Sudhir Sharma despite recovery of documents that showed he had paid for the air travel of the Sangh and the BJP leaders.

There was resistance to the CBI operation from the former principal systems analyst and kingpin of the scam, Nitin Mohindra. His family prevented the CBI team from entering the house. Mohindra, a close confidant of the BJP activist Dr Ajay Shankar Mehta, has 11 cases pertaining to the scam pending against him. His house has been raided several times by the STF. The CBI recovered documents that the STF overlooked for over a year. The STF also sat over nearly 1,200 complaints of omission and commission. The CBI also raided the house of Congress leader Sanjeev Saxena, who is under arrest for over six months now.

The selective action of the STF was also questioned over the special treatment given to personal assistant of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Prem Prasad, whose daughter secured admission to the pre-PG course in medicine by unfair means. Prasad’s daughter was allowed to continue the course despite the revelation. The CBI did not raid the houses of Amit Pandey, husband of retired IAS officer Ajita Vajpayee Pandey, Dr Ajay Shankar Mehta and Gulab Singh Kirar, another close confidant of Chouhan and who continued to hold the office of member of MP Backward Classes Commission even while he was absconding for nearly a year. Similarly, a former head of the Vyapam, Ranjana Chowdhary, has escaped attention despite finding mention in the confessions of former controller of examinations, Pankaj Trivedi.

The agency has so far registered 105 FIRs and launched 12 preliminary inquiries into the scam. The CBI is also investigating 40 deaths linked to the scam. The Supreme Court has directed the agency to submit a status report before it on October 9. <

malign the Parivar?

Conjectures, more than facts, have driven both the administration and the media leaving the people confused about the progress in the

case. The official death toll that was put at 89 earlier has come down to 78. The government explained this saying the list carried some names multiple times. While hunt is on for

Rajendra Kasawa, missing since twin blasts brought down two threestoreyed buildings, it was revealed that he was operating on behalf of his brother and original licensee OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

33

Madhya Pradesh Jhamaklal who died in a detonator blast eight years ago.

District superintendent of police G G Pande of Jhabua that covers Petlawad tehsil says, ‘Rajendra had the licence to conduct blasts for mining and digging wells.

However, he was not authorised to stock or sell the explosives found on his premises. He was dealing with the explosives apparently on his brother’s licence that was not renewed in past nine years.’

The police claimed on the basis

the reasons for large-scale unauthorised trading in explosives.

Kasawa’s shop, dealing in agricultural inputs like seeds and fertilisers, was selling gelatine and detonators ostensibly to facilitate boring wells in the rocky terrain.

Petlawad had stocked more than five times the explosives it would need for five years. Most explosives used for unauthorised mining were not accounted for. In a report last week, the Naidunia claimed that over 70 per cent

Petlawad blasts destroyed buildings completely

of CCTV footage that Rajendra Kasawa was seen driving away along with Manoj Gadia on a two-wheeler. Gadia claimed it was Rajendra’s brother Narendra who was on his pillion. Narendra has already been arrested. Kasawa family claims he might have died in the blast. The police refuse to buy this theory. A protest rally taken out in the town demanded a lie-detector test of all relatives of Kasawa. The protesters alleged the police was going soft on Kasawa.

Illegal mining is one of

of mining licences are with the BJP activists who misuse them by illegally extending the area operation. The state administration has been a mute spectator to the high-handedness of the mining mafia.

The Congress incurred instant condemnation by the Sangh parivar for circulating a ‘morphed’ photograph of Rajendra Kasawa in the RSS uniform. This could potentially turn the public opinion against the ruling party.

But Congress spokesperson K K

Mishra insisted it was a genuine photograph and dared the parivar and the BJP to move the court if it was spurious.

Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan braved the protesters’ rage and heckles to handle the situation during his two visits to the site on successive days. He ordered a probe by a retired judge and by Special Investigation Team (SIT).

The tragedy couldn’t have at a worse time for the BJP. Just as the party prepares to retain the Ratlam Lok Sabha seat amid reports of disillusionment with the central government, it has to do plenty of explaining over the Petlawad tragedy. The death of Dilip Singh Bhuria, a prominent tribal face of the BJP has caused the byelection for Ratlam spread over eight assembly segments of Ratlam, Jhabua and Alirajpur districts.

The Congress has lost the seat only twice since Independence. But, last time around, former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria lost the election to the BJP’s Dilip Singh Bhuria by a heavy margin. Prior to it, the Congress had lost the election from the seat in 1977. The BJP has stoked another controversy by announcing that its workers will recite ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ twice every week near the 2,000 polling booths in Ratlam Lok Sabha seat ahead of the by-election. The Congress was quick to react. ‘The BJP is looking up to heavens as the Modi wave is now over. Besides, the tribals have come to know the real face of the BJP after the expose of the Vyapam scam,’ former MLA from Jhabua, Javier Meda, said.< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

35

Punjab

AAP Stands Divided in Punjab When Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) put a stunning show in Punjab during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls winning four Lok Sabha seats, the newly-formed party was expected to emerge as a leading force before the 2017 elections.

But the tussle among its leaders leading to a vertical split in the party’s rank and file has started belying that hope.

Gandhi and Khalsa and others. The third group is led by Dr Manjit Singh which has joined hands with expelled party leaders Dr Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan.

Swaraj Abhiyan smells an opportunity

AAP’s ‘Punjab Joro’ rally

W

By Lokayat Correspondent

ith promise of new brand of politics and clean image, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was expected to present itself as a viable alternative in the state which has only seen traditional political parties like the Congress, the Akali Dal and the BJP at the helm. But the hope of the AAP posing a serious challenge to the SAD, the BJP and the Congress has been dashed with no end to troubles for the Arvind Kejriwal-led party in the state. In fact, the continuous squabbling and lack of leadership in the state unit has cast a shadow over

36 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

the AAP’s plans for 2017 polls.

In a recent setback, the leadership suspended two of its four MPs, Dharamvir Gandhi and Harinder Singh Khalsa, for their alleged anti-party activities.

In fact, the party now stands divided in three groups. One is the mainstream group led by state president Sucha Singh Chhotepur, Sanjay Singh, HS Phoolka and Bhagwant Mann. Senior advocate HS Phoolka has, however, announced that he was quitting all posts of the AAP to focus on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases that he has been fighting.

The other is a volunteer group led by Sumail Singh Sidhu and supported by Dr Daljit Singh,

The rift in the AAP’s Punjab unit is only set to widen in coming days with the two suspended MPs refusing to curb their criticism of the party’s top leadership and the Yogendra Yadav-led Swaraj Abhiyan throwing its weight behind them. Party rebels and oustees joining hands with the Abhiyan could pose problems for the AAP which sees itself as a strong challenger to the SAD-BJP combine in Punjab.

‘Workers and volunteers in Punjab who are feeling sidelined by the central leadership are keen on forming a party. There is not one member from Punjab in the Political Affairs Committee (PAC),’ said suspended Fatehgarh Sahib MP, Khalsa.

With the ouster of Gandhi and Khalsa, Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann is spearheading the AAP campaign in the state but even his loyalty to the party leadership was questioned after an audio clip of a telephonic conversation between him and Patiala MP Gandhi went viral.

Punjab over, the party is not moving as a collective force.

In fact, the party has not shown its collective resolve to fight a big battle on big issues such as drugs, lawlessness, mafia operations, crisis in farm sector, declining economy, unemployment and chaos in urban areas.

The split in the Punjab AAP is a fine music to the SAD-BJP and the Congress ears as it can benefit the ruling combine and the main opposition.

All is not lost Punjab AAP president Sucha Singh Chhotepur

But all is not lost yet for the AAP in Punjab despite all the

To a party testing the waters in the Malwa, Doaba and Majha regions before it heads into the Punjab elections about 16 months from now, the public response to the ‘Punjab Jodo’ mass mobilisation campaign has been overwhelming.

Not that the Congress (out of power in Punjab for about nine years) or ruling-alliance partners, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), hold thinner rallies; but the difference is stark. At the AAP rallies, people gather without any inducement of transport, food, money, liquor and drug-allurements that have become synonymous with

In the four-minute long audio clip, comedian-turned-politician Mann is heard criticising the party leadership over the way it is handling the Punjab unit. Mann is heard criticising the party high command for not allowing elected representatives to choose their own teams, and state convener Sucha Singh Chottepur for wanting to issue party tickets without consulting anyone in the party.

Mann is alleged to have said in the clip that the high command is being told that local MPs were ‘good for nothing’. The voice also claims that ‘Punjab is not Delhi where the party could win elections with ease.’ The voice alleges that the party won elections not just because of the broom symbol but on the basis of the personality in their respective constituencies.

Too many CM aspirants pose problems The reason for mounting trouble in the AAP is race among its top leaders, including all four MPs and state incharge Chhotepur, for the next destination—the office of chief minister.

Most of these leaders have presumed that people in the state would elect the AAP in the next elections. They thus are sparing no opportunity to project themselves as most suitable candidates for the top job. As individualism has taken

AAP members of Parliament, Harinder Singh Khalsa and Dharmvir Gandhi suspended from the party for their alleged anti-party activities

setbacks in the recent past and its support base is still, by and large, intact. The AAP’s membership drive has got a good response and party leaders claim to have already added 22 lakh members.

Traders, shopkeepers, teachers, farmers, construction workers, and daily wagers—coming on bicycles, motorcycles, tractor-trailers, and self-hired tempo travellers—are thronging the Aam Aadmi Party rallies.

the Akali, the Congress, and BJP rallies over many years.

Political scientist Harish Puri said people throng the AAP rallies as they are fed up with the SADBJP government that had failed to deliver. ‘In Punjab it is a kind of anarchy that prevails. The Congress too doesn’t give the people much hope,’ he added.

But the AAP needs to set its own house in order to mount a real challenge in Punjab.< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

37

Himachal

Being ‘Smart’: Dharamshala Vs Shimla

Dharamshala, the winter capital of Himachal Pradesh, will be the first smart city in the state which means it would get central assistance to develop its basic infrastructure like water supply, sewerage, storm water drainage, urban transport, quality education, healthcare etc, and also would be equipped with e-governance technologies. This will make the tourist city, which attracts 15 lakh tourists every year, even more attractive. But unfortunately due to political reasons a controversy has been generated that Dharamshala has been chosen bypassing the claim of Shimla. Interestingly local BJP and CPM are speaking the same language on this issue.

W

By Lokayat Correspondent

ith Shimla losing out to Dharamshala in the race for selection in the first list of 98 cities picked for the ‘Smart City’ project, the issue has brought opposition BJP and ruling Congress face to face.

As Dharamshala is the assembly segment represented by state urban development minister Sudhir Sharma and the only city from the hill state selected for the ambitious project, the BJP is accusing Con-

38 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

gress government of not putting forward the case of Shimla effectively so that minister’s constituency could benefit.

Congress on its part is accusing the opposition party of being anti-Kangra (the district which has Dharamshala as its headquarters) which has over the years remained a strong-hold of the saffron party.

The minister’s defense The minister Sharma has clarified that Dharamshala had scored more points than Shimla in the parameters laid down for selec-

tion. ‘Dharamshala scored 87.5% whereas Shimla scored 85%.’ Major reason for Shimla being placed at the second place was extremely poor implementation and non-completion of projects sanctioned under JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission) was poor as it scored zero marks out of five in the score card.

Schemes such as improving water supply distribution system for Shimla (Rs 72.36 crores), rejuvenation of sewerage network in missing lines and left out areas/ worn out sewerage in various zones

Himachal

All about Dharamshala

D

haramshala lies on the snowy slopes of the Himalayas and the lofty peaks of Dhauladhar range which remain under the ice-cover round the year. Britishers, who annexed the area now known as Dharamshala in 1848, brought into prominence as a hill station. The then viceroy of India Lord Elgin was so much in love with this place that after his death in 1863 he was buried in the cemetery of St John in the wilderness.

Dharamshala caught further attention of international community after Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama established the Tibetan government-inexile here in 1960. Even Hollywood stars visit the place to meet Dalai Lama.

Over the years, Dharamshala has emerged as important tourist destination both for domestic and international visitors. Construction of cricket stadium surrounded by snow-covered Dhauladhar ranges has further added to its popularity.<

of Shimla phase-I (Rs 54.74 crore), Ashiana 1, e-governance project (Rs 20 crore) were not even started. The government of India had to cancel these projects, he added. Against this shoddy record, Dharamshala got full five marks as efficiency of implementation of projects sanctioned for the town under UIDSSMT component of JNNURM was 100%.

Documents fudged alleges BJP But this Congress clarification has not stopped the BJP from seeking a CBI probe into the alleged ‘fudging of documents’ to ensure Dharamshala a place on the list.

State BJP chief and Shimla MLA, Suresh Bhardwaj urged governor Acharya Devvrat to order a CBI inquiry into the exclusion of Shimla.

The BJP chief alleged the high-powered committee headed by the chief secretary was misled as the Dharamshala Municipal Council (MC) had given itself five points for publishing e-newsletter whereas the fact was that there was no such letter on its website.

Similarly in Part IV of the score card, the Dharamshala MC had given itself five points for placing electronically project-wise budget information for two financial years, but there was no such provision on

the website. In Part 14 of the score card, the MC had given itself 10 points for implementing 100 per cent JNNURM reforms whereas the fact was that there were no reforms such as online payment of property tax and water tax, unit area method and double entry accounting.

Moreover, Dharamshala was not a JNNURM city and the question of completion of any project or reforms did not arise and no marks could be given, the BJP said.

In Part 15 of the score card, the Dharamshala MC had given itself 10 points for completing all the projects sanctioned before 2012, but the fact was that the MC had not been sanctioned even a single project of JNNURM and as such there was no question of getting 10/10 marks, the party pointed out. The BJP has alleged that Dharamshala could have got only 24 marks whereas the state-level committee gave it 87.5 marks which were unfair.

The CPI (M), whose members are Mayor and deputy Mayor of Shimla MC, has joined hands with the BJP on this issue and even moved the High Court challenging the decision and supported Bhardwaj’s allegation that facts had been ‘fudged’ for including Dharamshala in the project ‘for certain political considerations’. The mayor Sanjay Chauhan alleged that since Dharam-

shala is represented by the minister of urban development, additional chief secretary (urban development) acted on his instructions.

Congress eyes gains in politically important Kangra Congress maintains that the state government was not opposed to bring Shimla or any other city under Smart City project, but Dharamshala was selected as per the guidelines of union government.

Making use of BJP’s opposition to the selection of Dharamshala in Kangra which has maximum 16 assembly seats, the Congress leader says the saffron party will never be forgiven by the people of district.

Brushing aside concerns over the central government’s decision to develop Dharamshala as a smart city, chief minister Virbhadra Singh said capital city Shimla enjoyed a ‘special status’ already and enjoys more than a smart city status as it is the state capital and the state government will not spare any effort to develop Shimla.

Even as the matter is now to be examined by the High Court, the row over smart city is far from over and the project will continue to divide state politicians in the days to come.< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

39

Uttarakhand

Illegal mining damaging the beauty of Uttarakhand Illegal mining of boulders, sand and gravel to meet demands of the thriving real estate business in Uttarakhand remains unabated. Swami Nigamananda who sat thrice on fast in protest against illegal quarrying on the river Ganga ultimately died in the hospital when his condition deteriorated on June 13, 2011, yet his noble sacrifice did not stir the conscience of the powers-that-be. No concrete steps have been taken to check the crime of illegal mining. No wonder then, the nation watched the natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reprisal at Kedarnath in June 2013 for the ecological destruction of Uttarakhand. Yet, the politicians and policy-makers havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t learnt the right lessons.

By Ramesh Joshi

A

lmost all the districts in Uttarakhand are facing the environmental threat as illegal mining of sand, stones, timber and other precious minerals is going unhindered from the river banks, forests and roadside hills.

This is happening despite stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one of the worst calamities in June, 2013 due to ecological destruction caused by vested interests in which over 6,000 people were killed in the Kedarnath flash floods.

Visit the state and one would find that stone crusher plants have mushroomed all over Uttarakhand. The gravel and concrete manufactured by them is readily consumed by the booming construction industry. But the large-scale mining and quarrying

40 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

of sand and stones has depleted the groundwater level in hilly areas, deepened the riverbed, made thousands of acres of farmland uncultivable, destroyed the neighbouring forests, polluted the air and forced hundreds of farmers to migrate. People at the helm of affairs must realise that it is the forests, stones and sand which held the rivers and hills together and their depletion may cause grave threat of serious disasters in the event of flash floods.

Stone crushers in Uttarakhand are not only damaging the environmentally sensitive hills, but are violating the conditions incorporated in the licence accorded to them. The dust emanating from these crushers has reduced the agricultural production in many villages. The

illegal mining has also caused soil erosion in large swathes along the Ganges. A major crusher company has indulged in violating the Mining Policy, 2001, which mandated that crushers should be at least 5 km away from any human habitation.

It seems politicians and policy-makers have not learnt any lesson despite a harrowing disaster at Kedarnath in 2013 and are still playing their destructive game with the nature blinded by their selfish interest. One can witness dozens of truckloads of sand and stones everyday moving from one place to another. One can see earthmovers working near roadsides or river banks, some crushing boulders into gravel and others loading it into trucks. The scene in every hill

Uttarakhand district is similar from Rishikesh to Rudraprayag and Kedarnath to Hardwar, the towns that had witnessed extensive damage in June 2013 disaster of cloud burst.

This is despite the fact that the government authorities had also acknowledged the link between the indiscriminate mining and the disaster and the National Green Tribunal had put a blanket ban on sand mining and strict safeguards were set in place by the Supreme Court.

Destroying the river bed and hilly terrains with machines has devastating effects on the environment. Unscrupulous people do not realise that sand and big

Uttarakhand government has repeatedly been coming under attack from the opposition for widespread illegal mining of sand and other minerals in every district of the state. They ask the government why the mining policy was changed so many times and why illegal mining could not be brought under control by the much hyped special mining force that the state government claimed was its pioneer initiative.

Swami Nigamananda Saraswati

boulders prevent rivers from changing their course. Removing sand gives a bigger space for rivers to play with and within no time it changes its course with disastrous effect. Since river beds and small hills provide cheap construction material to contractors, the plundering by contractors continues as government officials and police work in tandem to look the other way.

After the Uttarakhand high court’s ruling that mining cannot be done without clearance from the Centre, the state government could seek mining clearance on more than 2,000 hectares of land from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. The Centre is equally insensitive and has approved mining of riverbeds even in some terai regions which are part of the Shivalik elephant reserve in Uttarakhand.

Development of Uttarakhand is necessary, but it should not come at the expense of environment.

The current worrying state of illegal mining reminds of Swami Nigamananda, when in January 1998 and again in June the same year, he in his ‘Save the Ganga’ crusade undertook fasts for over 70 days against the stone-crushing activity around the holy river between Hardwar and Rishikesh.

He again raised the issue in February 2011 when he started his fast unto death and he slipped into comma and was taken to hospital on April 27, the 68th day of his fast. On April 30, he was allegedly given an injection by an unknown person dressed as a nurse. At the Himalayan Institute Hospital he was diagnosed with unknown poisoning. On June 13, Nigamananda died in the hospital. The saga of the decade-

long struggle to save the river is also one of bureaucratic and judicial apathy and unscrupulous exploitation of the river by the sand mafia in Uttarakhand.

The Uttarakhand high court expressed concern over the degradation of the river’s ecology while hearing a petition by Swami Nigamananda, filed just before he began his fast along with his associates of Matri Sadan Ashram in Haridwar. On May 26, the high court delivered a judgment that could become a precedent for banning all such activity on the Ganga river bed, but the order came a bit too late, 25 days after Nigamananda had slipped into a coma and 16 days before he passed away.

Such was the influence of the stone crushers with the government and bureaucracy that the concerns raised by the social activists and surrounding population proved fruitless. In fact, the nexus of politicians, administration and sand mafia is active in Uttarakhand.

Unfortunately, this illegal trade is still flourishing in the hill state with the backing of politicians and police. Even today, one can hear

dynamite blast sounds to crush stones in several hill districts.

The dust being released by these crushers is causing several diseases like tuberculosis, asthma to local villagers.

When this assault on nature would stop, ask so many concerned and enlightened people of Uttarakhand, but only to hear a deafening silence.< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

41

West Bengal

Prestige Fight for TMC in Two Corporations Despite chief minister Mamata Banerjeeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s development mantra, Trinamul Congress candidates are facing a tough situation, from semi-urban areas to tea plantations in the Siliguri sub-division that go to polls.

W

By Lokayat Correspondent

ith the assembly elections due next year, the upcoming civic elections to the newly-formed Asansol and Bidhannagar Municipal Corporations is a prestige fight for Mamata Banerjee to prove that the electorate was still firmly behind her, although there has been criticism against the government for economic stagnation and the deterioration of law and order in Bengal. The elections will be held on October 3 and the results are to be announced on October 16.

The contest, which will be a four-cornered with the Trinamul Congress, the CPI-M, the BJP and the Congress as the key

42 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

players, holds immense political significance as it will be the last poll before the assembly elections in April-May next year.

The ruling TMC, that had registered a massive victory in the last municipal and Kolkata

Municipal Corporation elections in April, is looking to inflict a whitewash on opponent parties.

The party said it was looking for a full tally in the Bidhannagar and Asansol municipalities, which have 41 and 106 seats, respectively.

Poll campaign after Puja

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he Trinamul Congress will begin its poll campaign for 2016 assembly polls after the Pujas. Mamata Banerjee has instructed all her party leaders that they should organise block level meetings just after the Puja and should campaign about the different development works that the Trinamul government has done during the past four years.

Banerjee has instructed party leaders to stop factional feud and work unitedly for fighting the coming assembly polls. She has warned the senior party leaders not to indulge in factionalism.<

West Bengal

CITU shock for TMC in union polls

T

he CPM labour arm CITU defeated Trinamul-backed INTTUC in union polls at Durgapur Steel Plant, the win at the factory of 10,000 workers enthusing the beleaguered Left ahead of the Greater Asansol Municipal Corporation elections.

The CITU not only retained the top position, it also increased its vote share to 42.72 per cent from 38.74 per cent in 2011.

The INTTUC secured the second spot with 38.49 per cent votes while the Congress’s INTUC came third with 13.08 per cent.

The Left has been winning the union elections at the Durgapur Steel Plant since its inception in 1955. The plant goes to polls every four years.

Grievances of workers and other issues were taken up by the Joint Bargaining Council, comprising the first three unions in terms of vote share. But CITU will be the recognised union at the DSP this time, in keeping with the Centre’s ‘one factory, one union’ policy.<

Election campaigning in Bidhannagar

The Asansol Municipal Corporation was formed by merging Raniganj, Jamuria and Kulti municipalities while the Bidhannagar Corporation was constituted by merging Bidhannagar and RajarhatGopalpur municipalities.

Although the TMC has been on top in every poll in Bengal since its historic win in the 2011 assembly elections, the Lok Sabha polls last year had seen the party take a beating in several wards at the hands of the BJP in Bidhannagar despite clinching the Barasat

Lok Sabha constituency, under which Bidhannagar and RajarhatGopalpur fall.

Despite chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her cabinet colleagues’ development mantra, Trinamul Congress candidates are facing a tough situation, from semi-urban areas like Matigara to several tea plantations under the four blocks in the Siliguri subdivision that will go to the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad (SMP) polls.

A large number of people have arguably rejected the TMC after the party decided to delay the

three-tier rural polls. As a result, people have suffered a lot in the absence of elected gram panchayats and panchayat samitis in their respective areas for over a year.

Although the TMC-led state government has termed the formation of the municipal corporation a necessity to get more funds from the Centre, the move is being seen as a ploy in some

quarters as Rajarhat-Gopalpur has been a bastion of the TMC with sizeable minority votes.

The conviction of Raniganj MLA Mohammad Sohrab Ali forced Trinamul to hold back the announcement of its civic candidates for Greater Asansol because the legislator was one of its 106 nominees. Sohrab Ali was handed a two-year jail term recently in a rail scrap theft case and he stares at the prospect of losing his assembly seat.

Apart from the BJP’s rise in various wards, another factor that the TMC has to deal with is factional fights between various groups of the TMC in RajarhatGopalpur and Bidhannagar.

The seriousness of the infighting issue can be gauged from the fact that Mamata Banerjee herself had conducted a meeting with various TMC groups led by MLA Sujit Bose, MLA Sabyasachi Dutta, and Tapas Chatterjee, a CPI (M) leader who had recently switched over to the Trinamul.< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

43

Gujarat

New Twist in Hardik-led Agitation for Reservation The Patidars’ agitation is taking new twists and turns under the leadership of their enigmatic youth leader Hardik Patel. He represents the aspirations of the GenNext, especially of small towns, angry and parochial, confused in the flood of globalised information, looking for instant results in everything, in the ‘cut and paste’ style. Only time will tell what shape this agitation would acquire in coming days. Let us all wait and watch.

H

By Koomitara

ardik Patel, the enigmatic super duper quota leader from Gujarat is giving tough time to the Anandiben government. After his allegedly provocative speech, followed by brutal police action which took 10 lives and injuring hundreds of Patidars in Ahmedabad on August 26, the main pressing issue before him now is not the quota for Patidars but seeking punishment to the police officers who were hyperactive on that fateful day.

To force the government on this issue, he has been announcing agitational programmes in quick succession, and also re-designing them with similar speed, including the reverse Dandi march reviving the memory of Mahatma Gandhi’s

44 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

Hardik Patel’s Ekta Yatra

historic Dandi March.

Not getting instant results, there is an element of frustration in the Hardik pack, which is announcing restlessly one programme after another in quick succession. One headline-hitting programme was the threat to withdraw money from banks by Patidars if Anandiben government did not take strong action against the oppressive conduct of police officers on August 26.

Chief minister Anandiben Patel, mature politician as she is, invited Hardik Patel to discuss his demands and succeeded in convincing him that Patidars would have to approach the Gujarat Backward Commission to present their claim if they really are serious about the reservation. Hardik

Gujarat agreed on this. But he could not seek commitment from her on punishing the ‘guilty’ police officers.

So he proceeded with his Ekta yatra defying restrictions imposed under section 144. It led to a

given as scholarships to students of poor families of all castes.

This essentially had been in line with the central idea propagated

by Hardik that the reservation system was faulty and poor among

Hardik is able to ensure media attention

strange drama. Hardik disappeared suddenly. The media flashed he had been arrested. Police denied of the arrest creating suspense all around and making his supporters restive. Two persons filed a habeas corpus petition accusing he had been kidnapped by the police.

Their petition was heard in the midnight. But it finally turned out a hoax; he himself had disappeared.

Naturally, the high court chided the petitioners for misusing the legal system. Hardik, however, alleged that he was abducted by some unknown persons and his life was in danger. He even branded the Anandiben government as worse than the British raj which did not at least so mercilessly crushed democratic rights of people to raise demands and launch agitations. The government, however, maintained whatever it did, it did for the sake of maintaining peace and order. There was indeed a fear of law and order situation getting out of hand when the yatra would have passed through the OBC majority villages.

Meanwhile, the Gujarat government in order to tackle growing frustration among the youth announced a financial package of Rs 1,000 crore to be

the Patidars were left behind in getting government jobs and seats in medical, management and engineering colleges.

But viewed in the context of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s opinion that there should be a review of the reservation system as it had only been benefiting a few castes within the broad ambit of OBCs, SCs and STs, the Gujarat government’s move was in accordance with this thinking and intended to placate disgruntled forward castes. The way had already been shown by the Rajasthan government which had passed an act to provide 14 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections in education and government jobs across all castes.

But this would not satisfy Hardik as though he was working on some bigger scheme, and dismissed the government offer as ‘lollipop’ and announced again a headline catching announcement that Patels would stage a protest in the US when the prime minister Modi would be there on a five-day visit.

Somehow, the non-resident Patels in the US did not fall prey to this populist plan of disrespecting the prime minister.

All this shows that Hardik is losing his appeal, which many observers say, was a flash in the pan. Many political analysts also suspect someone behind him pulling the reins with a design. Whatever the truth, there was no stopping him from newer announcements on the agitation. The latest is the formation of ‘Akhil Bharatiya Navnirman Sena’ which is intended to unite Kurmi, Gujjar, Maratha and Patel communities under one umbrella in the country. Media reports suggest that he is working on a plan to hold a ‘ big rally’ at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi in November.

As though the reservation plank is not strong enough to carry out the momentum of the agitation, he now says that the purpose of this new organisation is to fight for the cause of farmers, labourers and youth. According to media reports, the Sena would organise a ‘Mahasammelan’ of five lakh women in Gujarat on October 4, then on October 10, a Mahasammelan of Patidars in Madhya Pradesh.

His casteist utterances are being used by political hacks who have to write juicy stories on Bihar elections. So, it was a lead headline in Bihar newspapers when Hardik extended his support to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. Why did he support him? Because he belonged to his community!

He is facing charges from many OBC quarters that his secret motive is to end reservation and is toeing the RSS line. To counter all this, he suddenly lobbed a sensational charge that on the contrary the RSS was trying to hijack his movement. So going by this the RSS sarsanghchalak is Hardik’s follower.

There is nothing unusual in all this. This is in the nature of politics of the GenNext, especially of small towns, angry and parochial, confused in the flood of globalised information, looking for instant results in everything, in the ‘cut and paste’ style. Only time will tell what shape this politics would acquire in coming days. Let us all wait and watch.< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

45

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh Banking on Foreign Support

YSR Congress chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is at the forefront to raise the issue of special category status to Andhra

With the Centre yet to keep its promise of providing resources after the state’s bifurcation, both Andhra and Telangana now largely banking on foreign investment and assistance to fulfil people's aspirations.

F

By S Santhanam

or two decades (from 1991 to 2011), the united Andhra Pradesh was viewed as one of India’s more progressive states, and a good destination for investment. However, over the past few years, the erstwhile united state itself had begun to slip and now the

46 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

two independent parts leave many questions waiting to be answered regarding the direction and quality of their fiscal health and necessary investment to carry out various promises made by the ruling party leaders.

Incidentally, CMs of both the states are seen exerting maximum energy in an entirely avoidable competition of personalities. The most pronounced competition between the two states has been taking place to attract foreign direct investment. One major impediment in Andhra’s development process seems to be

the central government’s failure to deliver on its assurances to bridge resource gap in the first year after bifurcation.

Now, the entrepreneurship approach of the Singapore government has led it to agree to support Andhra Pradesh in building its new capital city which would be built in a stupendous 7,235 square kms, 10 times the size of Singapore’s own 716 square kms.

The new city is expected to cost $16.5 bn (Rs 1 lakh crore).

Singapore has signed an agreement with the Andhra Pradesh government to prepare

Andhra Pradesh the master plan and develop the new city. The first phase of construction, which includes government, commercial and residential buildings, is expected to be completed within five years. Prime minister Narendra Modi is expected to lay the foundation stone for Andhra Pradesh’s new capital city, Amaravati on the auspicious day of ‘Vijaya Dashami’ on October 22.

The central government meanwhile said it would provide a special assistance of Rs 1,000 cr during the current financial year for development of Andhra Pradesh. The funds will be utilised for the development of backward districts of Andhra Pradesh and creation of its new capital, including the Raj Bhawan, the high court, the secretariat, the Legislative assembly, the legislative council, and other essential infrastructure.

Telangana hopes on foreign bank loans The Telangana government is also pinning hopes on new foreign banks to secure loans for its ambitious development projects. While World Bank and Asian Development Bank remain the major foreign lenders, their tough conditions are forcing the Telangana government to look for alternatives.

Proposals are being drafted by the government to facilitate borrowings from the New Development Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu under attack from the opposition for not leaving Bank (NDB) the NDA despite the Modi government at Shanghai, not granting special category status to launched Andhra Pradesh

by BRICS countries recently, besides the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Such funds would help the state take up irrigation and infrastructure projects.

The government is in need of nearly Rs 1 lakh cr for irrigation projects alone in the next four years and the government says the Centre has given green signal to states to take loans from new foreign banks.

World Bank remains the most sought-after among all the foreign lenders due to its lower interest rate -- about 4 per cent. But it is difficult to secure loans from it as it imposes tough conditions on timely execution of projects.<

Clamour for Special Status to Andhra intensifies

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s clamour for special status for Andhra Pradesh reaches a crescendo, prime minister Narendra Modi is likely to announce a special financial package soon. The heat of strong sentiments over this issue was witnessed in the Rajya Sabha as well when Congress members from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh joined hands on August 11 to demand special status for Andhra.

They wanted a reply also from the prime minister as to why the promise made in this regard in the Parliament was not being honoured. The atmosphere in the House became surcharged when Congress members waved placards that read ‘Implement Special Status to AP’. Congress member J D Seelam spoke emotionally about how a Congress activist succumbed to burns he had suffered after self-immolation in support of the demand in Tirupati. V Hanumantha Rao, another Congress MP from Telangana, asked if the promises made by the government in the House are valid or not. A day earlier, YSR Congress president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had held a dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi and the Communist Party of India called for a statewide bandh in support of the demand which was supported by the state Congress.

Later the issue rocked the monsoon session of the Andhra Pradesh assembly on the very first day on August 31 when the proceedings of the House were disrupted.

YSR Congress members in the house raised the issue of three persons who had committed suicide being upset over the state being denied the special category status.

The Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly finally adopted a unanimous resolution urging the Centre to grant special status. Meanwhile, the speculation is making rounds that the Modi government may announce a package for Andhra. Sources said the prime minister had put Andhra Pradesh on the priority list as he is aware of the risk to the NDA popularity in the wake of pressure mounting on its ally, N Chandrababu Naidu, to secure special status, besides a special package for the cash-starved state.

Special category status indeed ensures more financial aid but it can be given to states that fit into specific criteria. According to PRS legislative research, the criteria include hilly and difficult terrain, sizeable share of tribal population, economic and infrastructural backwardness, low population density, strategic location along the borders with neighbouring countries and non-viable nature of state finances.

Right now there are 11 states that have been granted a special category status: Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura, Uttarakhand and Mizoram.

All the eight North-eastern states have been brought into the special category as most of them have hilly terrain and have a considerable tribal population.

Around 90 per cent of funds, that is allocated to the special category states, is given as grants, which is not required to be paid back, while only 10 per cent as loans which have to be returned.< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

47

Rajasthan

Rahul Challenges the 56-inch Chest Rahul Gandhi has seasoned in his party’s emaciating defeat in the last Lok Sabha elections. He is now more balanced and full of wits so far as his public speeches are concerned. Not only his hard-hitting jibes are drawing wide public attention, his witty comments are sending people into splits in his meetings. He is seen no more a youth leader who was despised secretly for his frightening efforts to throw seniors out of the party’s power centres. He is trying to emerge as a leader who talks of a fair mix of ‘josh and hosh’ to make the party peppy and sinewy.

B

By Lokayat Correspondent

irla Auditorium, Jaipur had a tryst with Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi yet again.

It is the same venue where he had delivered his most popular, oft-quoted and emotional speech that satta zehar hai … (power is poison) at the Congress Chintan Shivir two years ago.

Ahead of the polls in 129 municipal bodies in Rajasthan, Rahul was in the desert state again in July to enthuse party workers and public representatives. Unlike his previous emotional speech, this time he sounded witty leaving the audience in splits. He sounded relaxed, more interactive and practical. The change was due to a change of heart or speech writer would be interesting to investigate.

He instantly wooed the young party workers who kept cheering and clapping for him and the auditorium echoed with 'Rahul

48 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

Gandhi zindabad' many times.

It was here that he hogged all the limelight with his sharp dig at prime minister Narendra Modi.

‘Hamare 56 inch ki chhati wale pradhan mantri kuch nahin bol rahe. Yeh Rahul Gandhi ki nahin, Hindustan ki janta ki aawaaz rakh raha hun. Main Janta ki aawaaz rakh raha hun. Ordinance par ordinance laaye jaa rahe hain. Dekh lena. Congress chhah mahine me 5.6 inch ka kar degi unka seena.’ (Our Prime Minister with 56 inch chest doesn’t say anything at all. His 56 inch chest will be reduced to just 5.6 inch within six months. Who will do it?

The people. You wait and watch.

This is not Rahul Gandhi stating but the people of India. I am simply echoing public sentiments on Modi government’s bringing ordinance after ordinance.)

Rahul began his speech with his love for Amir Khan-starrer ‘Lagaan’ and shared his new found knowledge on the practical use of pagdi. The Gandhi scion

also took a padyatra in the canal areas of Rajasthan and realised the importance of pagdi for the first time. Clad in jeans and kurta, Rahul said pagdi always looked beautiful to me but having walked for 10 kms in Sriganganagar in scorching heat, now I know why Rajasthanis wear it.

He tried to woo farmers by criticising the Modi government’s efforts to bring in the Land Amendment Bill. ‘We won’t let them take even an inch of land.

A farmer has the land as his second mother,’ he said. He didn’t forget to take a dig at the BJP’s hidden ‘remote-control’ either and amusingly said the British officers in the movie ‘Lagaan’ found himself helpless in helping farmers because he had his remote control in London. Even today, the government’s remote control is in London. He said ‘Rajasthan mein Lalit Modi sarkar to Madhya Pradesh mein Vyapam sarkar.’

It is nothing unusual to train guns at the ruling party and the

Rajasthan government, but what came as a rather surprise to party workers was his advocacy ‘for not so young leaders’ in the party.

For the public representatives and party workers expecting some announcements in favour of promoting the youth in the party, Rahul Gandhi’s revelation came as a surprise. He delivered in a witty manner the factual situation in the party and perhaps a self-assessment of his own leadership ability that mere biological age can’t do any miracles. He categorically stated that despite the growing discussion over retirement age for politicians over 65, it is just not possible. What the party needs is leaders ‘young at heart’ but still doing great job like Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, He said youth matters but so does experience. He admitted that former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot was far more experienced than him and even pradesh Congress chief Sachin Pilot.

After his party’s emaciation in last year’s general elections, it seems Rahul Gandhi has introspected about hard realities of politics and his party’s prospects. Politics might be poison, as he stated at the Chintan Shivir, but how to get going in this highly competitive world of politics and taste the sweet success is the moot question. He made some very frank admissions about the party structure as well. The Gandhi scion admitted that his party was like a family where its members would always have some differences, disagreements and tugs of war. He can’t set them right. He even doesn’t want to do it. What ultimate message then he wanted to give to the party workers? ‘You may keep fighting within the party or have difference of opinion, but when it comes to the opposition, please be united. What the Congress needs is both ‘josh and hosh’ (youth and experience).<

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Rajasthani turban during a rally

OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

49

Rajasthan

Tribal Health Care through Innovation and Mentoring

Rajasthan is poorly ranked on maternal and infant mortality parameter. Some initiatives do demonstrate that big changes can be brought about by some very basic and simple things. So why not introduce them in the entire spectrum of healthcare delivery system? Government efforts do not succeed more often than not, but when there is a govt partnership with organisations that have a motivation to work out innovative solutions, then the situation changes dramatically.

An insightful feature on the issue of tribal healthcare in Rajasthanâ&#x20AC;Ś 50 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

Rajasthan

amna Kesulal Gameti of Pachkoda village, Badgaon block of Udaipur lost her first two kids before they could celebrate their first birthday. She can’t tell her age of marriage but looks like she became mother at a rather early age. Living in a one-room kuchha ghar, where the verandah-cumkitchen also houses her goat and hen and water dripping from the

J

doesn’t catch cold. But there are things her well-meaning advice can’t improve, she knows. When it’s raining cats and dogs, the family has hardly any place even to dry the new-born’s nappies. And nothing can be done of the mixed odour of goat shit and wet fodder in the verandah either.

With bad approach roads, full of potholes in the monsoon months, life for the tribal families in this part of Rajasthan is so difficult. The post-partum care

thatched roof, one needs to keep fingers crossed that her third child, also a weak neonate, survives against all odds.

‘The baby needs warmth. Wrap her in soft cloth or scarf and hold her close to you’, Swapneil, Head of Services Unit, Action Research and Training for Health (ARTH), tells Jamna to ensure that the baby

is mostly neglected putting the mother and new-born at high risk of infections. Dr Sharad Iyenger of ARTH has been working in tribal areas of Udaipur district since 1997. He says, the 1st week is very crucial for a new-born and highest number of deaths, almost 22 per cent occur on the first day of birth in India.

By Abha Sharma from Jaipur

Service Innovation Programme

Enabling frontline health providers do help in delivering sensitive and quality care but mobilising communities is of equal importance. ARTH has done it successfully in southern Rajasthan.

It has been an active research supporter in many government programmes related to women and children.

ARTH is operating service and surveillance programmes in 50 villages covering a total population of over 60,000. It has ‘appropriately trained’ staff working round the clock. The region has high fertility and mortality, but due to various reasons—either illiteracy or formidable distances or lack of awareness, the tribal population has worrying maternal and infant mortality statistics.

Rajasthan government is aware of the high maternal and infant mortality rates in the state.

The Janani Suraksha Yojna has resulted in a remarkable increase in institutional deliveries but unfortunately, maternal mortality rate has not declined appreciably, says Dr Iyenger. The numbers are still alarming, particularly in tribal areas of Rajasthan. Blame it on low human resources in tribal regions, lack of infrastructure or quality care, over 50 per cent under 5 mortality and 67 per cent (as per Annual Health Survey 2012-13) infant mortality takes place in the neonatal period.

Rajasthan has reason to worry as its infant mortality rate is higher than the national average. Reasons are many but a prominent one is infection. ‘Babies with low birth weight have greater chances of malnutrition or diarrhoea or other infections’, he says.

Mentoring Experiment It would be a matter of grave concern if the mother and new-born get infection from the hospital. Say, if one had a look at one of the publc health centers at Genji in Bicchiwada block, of OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

51

Authorised Farming on Forest Land

Chhattisgarh number one in distribution of forest land titles  3.37 lakh forest dwelling families got land ownership  Ownership rights given on 2.58 lakh hectare of land  Made them eligible to seek agriculture loan  Arrangement done for free seeds and fertilisers

Rajasthan Dungarpur a few years back, one could easily imagine the plight of other health centres in remote areas. Broken windowpanes, cluttered shelves, no mattresses, dirty mackintosh and rickety labour room furniture... Not a single piece in the room had an aura of freshness or comfort zone to the lady in labour pain. As if it was not enough, even cats often made headway from the broken window. At one point of time, it could be perhaps rated as the worst labour room in whole of Dungarpur district.

Managing serious patients was an additional problem for doctors as no specialist was available in the periphery. So cases even with slightest complications were referred to the district hospital.

Transportation was a big problem and many women lost their lives due to excessive bleeding during commuting.

In an area which is mostly hilly and majority of tribal population would fall in below poverty line population, it is not difficult to envisage the poor health scenario. Due to the difficult geographical terrain and poor healthcare services at PHCs, patient load shifts towards, district hospital. Illiteracy and lack of awareness make things worse for the tribal women and child.

‘Anaemia cases are pretty high in this region. The saddest part is that many a time, the families wouldn’t realise seriousness of the problem due to illiteracy. It is not uncommon to have some pregnant women having hemoglobin as low as 3 gm’, says Dr Shashikant Kumawat at Dewal PHC.

Normally, it should be between 10-15 gm.

Things are, however, changing for good. Neatly stacked medicines, a neat and clean labour room, fullyequipped with radiant warmers, clean wash station and garbage bins. The Genji PHC wears an entirely changed look. Upgraded from PHC to CHC in 2013, Genji caters to a substantial number

of patients daily who happily return homes without an eventful experience. Dr Bhavit posted there, says, ‘from January 2013 to January 2015, the service delivery in OPD has almost doubled. Even the in-patient number is almost three times high. What is most heartening to note is that there is drastic improvement in the institutional deliveries, which is also almost double. In 2012, there used to be on an average 20 deliveries in a month, which have now gone up

to 44.’ Today it can be rated as one of the best health centres in this tribal region offering quality basic healthcare services.

Things have changed a lot with the supportive supervision offered by UNICEF’s Onsite Mentoring Programme started in October 2013. Health expert Dr Anil Agrawal says, ‘the objective of Onsite Mentoring is preparing healthy environment in hospitals and labour rooms to ensure institutional deliveries.

By ensuring basic infrastructure, having more facilities in the periphery, there would be less burden on the district hospital.’

The change has been brought about by doing very basic and simple things, by developing the concept of team functioning and staff training to manage basic emergencies. The doctors, nursing and other staff have been trained on theme basis like resuscitation of the new-born baby and care at birth, intra-partum care including complication management, low birth weight management and infection control practices.

There is more to do and miles to go in serving the tribal mothers and infants of Rajasthan before reaching the Millennium Development Goals. But small deeds done are always better than great ones planned! If governmental efforts are complemented by organisations successfully working in the field with innovative ideas and proven experience, it is indeed a happy indication.< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

53

Campus

Needless Politics over IITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Location in Karnataka

Jagdish Shettar, the leader of opposition in Karnataka assembly

The Centreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decision to locate one of the new IITs in Dharwad, known as the twin city of Hubbali, is creating controversies rather than jubilation.

Instead of welcoming the move, politicians in the state are busy fomenting trouble, accusing the Centre of ignoring the interests of backward districts like Raichur in what is called the Hyderabad-Karnataka region.

By Lokayat Correspondent from

P Bengaluru

olitics has erupted over the location of the recently sanctioned Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) for Karnataka. The ongoing shrill battle of words relates to whether the prestigious institute should be established in an area which is an existing education hub or the one which is backward in all respects and needs to be brought at par with

54 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

more developed districts of the state. But the way the controversy has snowballed, a concern has grown with many people fearing that it could lead to the state losing the IIT all together. This is what happened in the mid-90s. The then chief minister, Deve Gowda, sought to push Hassan as the location while leaders from north Karnataka wanted the prestigious institute to be set up there.

The ensuing fight then saw the project slip away from Karnataka,

something that could well happen today as well if the needless controversy over the location is not sorted out by the Siddaramaiah government.

However, this is something that the ruling party does not seem to be interested in, going by the manner in which Siddaramaiah is fanning the fire. Ironically, he himself had recommended Dharwad as one of the three locations after Mysuru and Raichur, to the Centre. Following the shortlisting of the areas by the

Campus state government, a central team had surveyed the areas concerned and chosen Dharwad.

One would have thought the state would be happy to get an IIT irrespective of the location.

That, however, is not happening as the issue has now become too political. Congressmen from the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, including Mallikarjun Kharge, have been vocal about plugging Raichur instead of Dharwad as the IIT location.

is also using the Raichur factor to undermine the BJP’s growing clout in Karnataka-Hyderabad belt.

In 2008, the party had swept the region which was retrieved by the Congress in 2013, to a large extent. The ruling party now wants to paint the BJP in poor colours with the refrain being that the state unit of the party failed to persuade its government in Delhi on this issue.

Instead, the argument goes, it forced the issue in favour of Dharwad at the cost of Raichur. This criticism has,

loyalist, however, challenges the argument. The people of underdeveloped HyderabadKarnataka region deserve an IIT more than any other district as it will boost the otherwise backward region’s development, is the common refrain.

On the face of it, the argument may have its merit, considering the pitiable state of infrastructure and related logistics in Raichur. A big project like the IIT could easily usher in the required development, something that the Congress has

First, Siddaramaiah’s letter to the Centre seeking a change in the location sparked off massive protests in Dharwad, which is a BJP bastion today. Party president, Prahlad Joshi and Jagdish Shettar, leader of opposition in the assembly, are supporting the choice.

Leaders from Hubbali -Dharwad, on the other hand, are happy with the choice and are not willing to concede their ground. All of them are forgetting the fact that either way, it is Karnataka which would benefit.

The argument does not appear to be holding good for Siddaramaiah as well, seeing how Kharge is spearheading the demand for Raichur. Considering the latter’s clout with the Congress supremo in Delhi, the chief minister is singing a different tune now.

In a shocking turnabout, he has now written a letter to the Centre urging it to shift the IIT’s location from Dharwad to Raichur ‘as Dharwad was my last choice.’ Can anything be more pitiable?

All this also highlights the rift within the ruling party in the state as the controversy has divided the leaders into ‘pro-Dharwad and proRaichur factions.’ Nobody is talking about Karnataka as a whole. It is this mindset which is causing hurt to the people of the state as they helplessly watch Siddaramaiah playing games. This apart, the Congress

obviously, unnerved the BJP as it shows its local leaders in Raichur in poor light.

Meanwhile, ruffled by the politics Siddaramaiah is playing, Congressmen and the BJP in Dharwad appear to be coming together to ensure that the city remains the undisputed location for the IIT. That a needless controversy is being allowed to drown saner voices for the development of the state can be gauged from the comments of the parties concerned.

First, Siddaramaiah’s letter to the Centre seeking a change in the location sparked off massive protests in Dharwad, which is a BJP bastion today. Party president Prahlad Joshi and Jagdish Shettar, leader of opposition in the assembly, are supporting the choice. According to them, the Centre chose the place as it is an education hub with good infrastructure and the CM is betraying the people of Dharwad, after himself citing it as one of the possible locations after Mysuru and Raichur.

Sharan Prakash Patil, medical education minister and a Kharge

Karnataka BJP president Prahlad Joshi

neglected over the decades. It, however, also raises one important question: Is it worthwhile to locate a major institution like the IIT in an area which has nothing to show by way of development at present? Would the students not want some change of environment from their studies, occasionally?

What would they do in a barren, undeveloped district till the related infrastructure comes up? In short, it throws up the chicken and the egg dilemma.

Controversies apart, it is time the warring parties realise that the important thing is that Karnataka is set to get a major institute of repute, something that is being forgotten in the ongoing spar. In the process raising the apprehension that the 90s may well be repeated this time too as the on-going squabble could force the Centre to shelve the project totally, if only to avoid a needless controversy.< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

55

Campus

University of Rajasthan Convocation Politicised Rajasthan governor Kalyan Singh’s controversial statement over the need to make changes in the national anthem by replacing ‘adhinayak’ with ‘mangal’ has created ripples in the academic circles and has even invited criticism from some scholars who have accused him of limited understanding of the great poet’s sentiments towards the motherland.

C

By Lokayat Correspondent

onvocations are special events in the history of educational institutions.

While it is a joyous moment in the life of a scholar to receive an award or medal at the dais, it is equally prestigious for the institutions bestowing these distinctions to meritorious students.

The University of Rajasthan too held its 26th Convocation in July but the wait was rather too long for hundreds of recipients, as long as 25 years.

Hence, it was no surprise to see a galaxy of young, aged and old at the Convocation function where governor Kalyan Singh gave away DLitt and PhD degrees as well as gold medals to meritorious scholars.

The first one to be honoured on the occasion was Sanskrit scholar Narayan Lal Kaankad, 85 who was

56 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

conferred a DLitt degree for his research on Panini, the authority on Sanskrit Vyakaran.

The university officials said degrees had piled up since 1990 due to a number of technical and official reasons. While the University administration tried to bask in

the glory citing a record number of 20 lakh degrees prepared for the occasion, many scholars said they had really forgotten about the distinctions they achieved in their student days. It would have been good if they got it on time, but better late than never…

Campus Breaking away from the ceremonial British gowns and headgear at previous convocations, the dress code allowed women scholars to wear white sareeblouse or salwar kameez and men were seen dressed in white kurtapyzama. The dignitaries at the dais, however, were all seen in traditional Rajasthani colourful turbans.

The congregation of scholars, old friends and teachers on the occasion must have revealed many emotional tales and amusing anecdotes. But, the governor’s speech hogged all the limelight leaving no room for things in a lighter vein. His controversial statement over the need to make changes in the national anthem by replacing ‘adhinayak’ with ‘mangal’ was bound to create ripples and hit the headlines.

After completing his printed four page long speech, the governor said, ‘I have full faith and respect for Rabindranath Tagore but the word ‘adhinayak’ in our national anthem should be replaced. He asked ‘ye adhinayak kaun?’ It is to praise the ‘angrezi shaasak’…the British. It is about time that it amended and replaced by ‘jan gan man mangal gayen’.

Just a few days before the convocation, the governor had also compared Maharana Pratap with Mughal emperor Akbar at a recent function to felicitate donors in the field of education, where he said that the brave and courageous Rajput ruler was a great figure who had great attributes to inspire the whole nation. He revisited similar thoughts during his convocation speech by saying that the education department should run courses on Maharana Pratap’s life to highlight his struggle.

The governor said, ‘Queen Victoria was not great, it was Jhansi ki Rani Laxmi Bai who had fought wars. He emphatically said, ‘Aurangzeb was not great, it is Shivaji.’

He said that the term ‘Mahamahim’, or his or her excellency should be dropped as a prefix for the governor and the word ‘manniya’ should be used in its place since that’s also a British

Congress state unit spokesperson Archana Sharma alleged and condemned the fact that scholars close to RSS and BJP were called to the podium to hand out degrees. The Pradesh Congress objected that those with affiliations to the Congress party were not invited to the ceremony nor were they given their degrees or medals. salutation.

The demand raised by Singh revived a recent controversy stirred up by primary education minister Vasudev Devnani. The minister, who is a prominent RSS face in the state government, had said that school textbooks in the state were being re-written to focus on great Indian legends like Maharana Pratap and Aryabhata instead of foreign rulers.

In fact, home minister Rajnath Singh too in his recent visit to Chittorgarh in Rajasthan in May on the occasion of Maharana Pratap Jayanti had echoed similar sentiments. Why only Akbar the Great? The children need to know more of Maharana Pratap, who was even greater, he had said.

As far as Mahamahim is concerned, even Kalyan Singh’s adversaries would perhaps vouch for him because his predecessor in Rajasthan Margaret Alva too had done away with the usage of ‘her excellency’ during her tenure, calling it archaic.

The governor’s remarks ended the convocation function on a controversial note. While his views on national anthem will continue to be debated, what the state Congress objected more was the preferential treatment given to BJP and RSS at the function. Congress state unit spokesperson Archana Sharma alleged and condemned the fact that scholars close to RSS and BJP were called

to the podium to hand out degrees.

The Pradesh Congress objected that those with affiliations to the Congress party were not invited to the ceremony nor were they given their degrees or medals.

The governor also had some non-controversial words of wisdom for the youth. Stressing on the need for rural development, he said, ‘real India lives in villages where a two-thirds of the people live. By ensuring development of villages, India can rise, society can rise.’

He also had a word of caution for students acquiring fake degrees or grades by unfair means. He said ‘better beware of venomous degrees. Like people get physically sick due to adulterated food, fake degrees would cripple the young intellectually.’

So while an academic event turned into a hot political debate, inviting Tagore experts’ ire on governor’s somewhat limited understanding of the great poet’s sentiments towards the motherland, the Rajasthan Congress too was up in arms over politicization of the educational ceremony.<

OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

57

Business & Economy

Revival of Labour

Movement

in India?

An International Labour Organisation convention report says the real wages in India have declined and inequality has widened. The trend is of casualisation and contract hiring. Even in the organised sector, 50 per cent of the public sector workers and 70 per cent of the private sector workers are either temporary or contractual with no security of tenure.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi They are being paid much lower wages and other benefits than regular employees. A large section of workers do not have social security cover and the pension for workers is abysmally low for majority of them. On top of that the NDA government seems bent upon bringing about unilaterally labour reforms, masquerading as economic reforms part two, which has alarmed the working class in the country. No wonder the country witnessed a nation-wide labour strike on September 2, affecting the normal life and causing loss of Rs 25,000 crore to the national economy according to a business chamber.

58 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

T

By Janmesh Jain

he successful nationwide labour strike on September 2 against NDA governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proposed bills amending the labour laws whole sale, garbed as second phase of economic reforms, fulfilling the demands of the economy, more so of the national as well as international businesses, stunned many political observers both in the country and abroad. The Modi has been described by many political analysts as the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP

Business & Economy

Strikers in Mumbai raising slogans

Only one-third of the workers in the organised sector are unionised. The trade unions have been fighting a losing battle for the past two decades against the forces ushered in by a tacit approval of the central and the state governments.

who was supported by the Indian corporates as well as multinational companies with all kinds of resources at their disposal, which helped BJP scoring a resounding success in the last Lok Sabha elections fought on the issues of corruption, slackening economic growth and policy paralysis.

No wonder, Modi as the prime minister responded with alacrity to the demands of the businesses by undertaking numerous measures in the name of reviving the sluggish economy. The most salient step his government took was issuing ordinances thrice to nullify the fair compensation on land acquisition

act passed by the UPA government with the unequivocal support of BJP in the parliament. Modi government had to face enormous opposition across the country from farmers, even from the RSS linked farmers outfits and finally had to drop the idea to notify the ordinance for the fourth time.

Modi’s other major economic reform relates to the labour. Many economists say that because of the archaic labour laws, India occupies a very low ranking in the ‘ease of doing business index’ globally. Egged and lionised by such economists the Modi government took up the issue of labour reforms in the right earnest. But the move alarmed the labour class and their leaders forcing them to forge a unity among all central unions. The coordination committee of 12 central trade unions was formed to lead the fight against

Centre’s move to change labour laws threatening their job security and bargaining capacity for better wages.

Surprisingly, a couple of days before the strike, the RSS-linked Bhartiya Majdoor Sangh withdrew from the strike call taking the plea that Modi government was sincere in safeguarding labour interests and it should be given more time to honour its promises made in the meeting of all trade unions with the government ministers including the finance minister, Arun Jaitley. The other union leaders, however, accused that the government did not promise anything substantial and several months’ preparation to go on a national strike cannot be wasted away believing some specious promises.

The strike affected the normal life across the country as it covered all public and private sectors OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

59

Chhattisgarh Youth Information Revolution Scheme

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

THE NEW PEDESTAL OF DEVELOPMENT

Free Tablet - Free Laptop

To the Youth FIRST STATE IN THE COUNTRY GIVING TABLETS & LAPTOPS FREE TO THE YOUTH  Introduction to new knowledge and science, skill development and new opportunities for progress  Fifty thousand Tablets distributed free till date  Over 18 thousand Laptops also distributed free

 FREE LAPTOP TO FINAL YEAR STUDENTS PURSUING ANY STREAM OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION INCLUDING MEDICAL AND ENGINEERING.  FREE TABLET TO ALL FINAL YEAR GRADUATE AND POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS

Issued by Department of Public Relations, Chhattisgarh Government

Business & Economy

A couple of days before the nation-wide strike the RSS-linked Bhartiya Majdoor Sangh withdrew from the strike call taking the plea that Modi government was sincere in safeguarding labour interests and it should be given more time to honour its promises made in the meeting of all trade unions with the government representative including the finance minister, Arun Jaitley.

The 12 demands of the coordination committee of trade unions:  Take urgent measures to contain price rise,  Contain unemployment,  Strictly enforce basic labour laws,  Introduce universal social security cover for all workers,  Fix minimum wages at Rs 15,000 per month,  Enhance pension for workers,  Stop disinvestment in public sector units,  Stop contract system,  Remove ceiling on bonus and provident fund,  Ensure compulsory registration of trade unions within 45 days,  No unilateral amendment to labour laws, and  Stop FDI in railways, defence etc.

except the railways. Almost all the services including banks, transport, civil aviation and gas and oil supply were affected due to the strike which was complete in some states and partial in others but it has been described as a big victory for the labour movement which had been in the doldrums since the neo liberal policies had overwhelmed the country leading to a jobless growth.

The anger among the labour class was palpable. Their leaders felt worried at government’s decision to take factories employing up to 20 and 40 workers out of the labour laws respectively with power and non-power operations, as statistics reveal that the job security of seventy five percent work force in the country would be lost with this single change in labour laws. The proposed laws will also diminish the influence of trade unions leaving the labour at the mercy of employers.

The coordination committee of the central trade unions therefore put forward their 12-point demands to the NDA government. The strike call was announced in July when talks between union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya and trade union leaders hit an impasse.

Trade union leaders’ charter of demands reflected a fair share of issues related to their perception of political economy, like asking the government to shun plans to sell off stakes in public sector companies and shut down loss-making ones. They demanded that the government on the contrary should revive them. They also demanded not to bring FDI in railways and defence in the interest of national security.

Another prominent issue that had rattled the labour class was the low minimum wages proposed by the Modi government. Against Rs 15,000 per month as the minimum wages according to the decision of the 46th Indian Labour Conference, a tripartite body comprising representatives of labour, employers and government, the government wanted to fix only Rs 7,000. It is well known that contract and casual workers are entitled only to the minimum wages which also sometimes are not paid in full.

Union leaders have accused that the NDA government wanted a total overhaul of labour relations bypassing ILO conventions and trade unions through unilateral amendments to the labour laws. The strike call, they insisted, was a desperate response of the trade unions to the above situation. In the past, government had never dared to tamper with the labour laws to such an extent though they informally connived with the employers, but for the NDA government restructuring of labour relations seemed to be its top-most agenda.

It is reflected in the BJP-ruled states like Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh where labour laws have already been changed. The government thinks that by ensuring non-committal and flexible responsibility of the employers towards the workers can ensure better inflow of foreign direct investment as most multinational companies find that China does not remain attractive anymore with wages rising there. They for sure look at India to shift their manufacturing units. India should take advantage of the situation but not at the cost of low paid labour, especially in the unorganised sector.< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

61

Sport

Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pakistan

India-Pakistan series uncertain admit Rajeev Shukla, Shaharyar Khan

To play or not to play Pakistan is the big question. Whether it be cricket or hockey an India-Pakistan contest has an identity all its own but like two schoolchildren the respective countries just refused to grow beyond their first childhood. Both are boorish in their outlook, very immature in their approach and totally irresponsible in their behavior pattern. It is very difficult to pinpoint their respective weaknesses. Both suffer from the same malady. They swear by their gods, boast about their abilities but cannot or do not want to lose. The whole world is laughing at their petty quarrels but no one is willing to play the middleman.

By Ramu Sharma

T

he big question under review currently is whether India will fulfill its obligations to the

62 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

International Cricket Council and play Pakistan as scheduled in the Calendar chalked out for the near future. Pakistan is playing the role of the aggrieved party, ready to play India as scheduled while India is stalling, unwilling to commit itself one way or the other, pointing out to the frequent violations across the border and the regularity of the hostile moves by self proclaimed India baiters

Shaharyar Khan

Sport

Syndrome! in Pakistan. India appears to be injured by the smallest of any provocative gestures even by individuals, blaming the whole of Pakistan government each time.

It is not a one way quarrel since Pakistan too appears to have the same problem with regard to border irregularities. But when it concerns playing cricket Pakistan has shown more willingness than India. There is a big difference in the approach to the problem between the two countries.

Pakistan is at the receiving end since it cannot play host to any country in its own backyard. For all the infrastructure available within Pakistan it cannot host a home series at home.

Its homegrown terrorists just don’t like any team visiting Pakistan to play cricket. The Srilankans learnt that to their dismay though Zimbabwe showed considerable character in playing there recently. But the rest of the world and certainly India cannot afford to take a chance. Because of the threat to visiting cricketers Pakistan has been reduced to playing all its matches in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. It is rather hard on the Pakistan cricketers, this exile from their own homeland.

This love-hate relationship between the two countries has its final deciding factor when Pakistan was carved out of India to enable the ‘Muslim population to have its own representative country’, the plea being that being a minority community this segment of the population would not get a fair deal from the overwhelming Hindu majority. This was the stated position by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, an enigmatic but brilliant lawyer who unfortunately visualised problems where none existed.

For all the differences the two communities had been living

Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi reacted sharply at India’s reluctance to play Pakistan

When the Indian team went to play the World Cup in Lahore in the year 1990, the crowd with one voice kept haranguing the Indians. What was even worse was the impression fostered on schoolchildren led by a young teacher, shouting anti-India slogans day after day for the duration of the World Cup. The unfortunate impression created was that hate-India syndrome begins very early in Pakistan schools.

The great opener of Pakistan cricket, Hanif Mohammad

together for centuries in a shared civilisation, having virtually the same background, similar customs and a common past. The cost of partition was akin to a holocaust the like of which has not occurred anywhere else in the world. But the tragedy is that despite the countries having settled down to two independent entities it is the hangover of the partition days that still appears to haunt both India and Pakistan, the differences being somewhat accentuated because of the religious overtones of the radicals in both the countries.

Herein lie the contradictions.

India and Pakistan are two separate entities but continue to swear by each other because of past associations particularly at the cultural level. Pakistani TV plays are tremendously popular in India while Bollywood films and its personalties are a part and parcel of the average Pakistani citizen.

Pakistani theatre personalties, their fashion designers and literary figures are as popular in India as the Indian personalities are in Pakistan. It is, however, in sport that the differences often take on a hostile apparition. Pakistani cricketers are popular in India and are regularly making rounds of this country on a personal basis but as a team take on a different look.

It is not so much as the players themselves but the followers.

They want their team to play India but not lose to them. The same mentality governs the Indian supporters thereby introducing an element of unwanted hostility in the relationships.

There is a subtle change in the outlook of the supporters in the two countries. For long period Pakistan had made a place for itself among the top echelons of world cricket while India was still in the throes of settling down. It is still OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

63

Sport settling down after the retirement of Tendulkar, Laxman and Dravid.

Pakistan had generally had the better of India both in cricket and in hockey; such is the talent available in that country. Under normal circumstances the two teams should have been playing each other regularly, something like what England and Australia do. The rivalry there is equally strong and bitter but the supporters are more mature and they view the results in terms of superior play at a particular given time instead as seen by followers of India and Pakistan cricket. It is the game which is important and not winning or losing.

I remember vividly the incident during and after the Asian Hockey Championship in New Delhi in the late eighties. India and Pakistan were fighting for the title at the Shivaji Stadium where among the very large number of spectators were a few with transistors blaring a running commentary on a Test Match in Pakistan at the same time. Everything appeared to run smoothly when suddenly a section of the crowd started pelting the Pakistan hockey players with stones. This was in reaction to a related incident in the Test Match where a section of the crowd had entered the field and reportedly had words with Indian skipper Kapil

Shahid Afridi shaking hands of Sachin Tendulkar (A file photo)

In this context one remembers the first visit to this country by Hanif Mohammad. He was then but a lad of sixteen. The story that emanated during that tour in regard to this young cricketer is still not very clear and one is not sure of the authenticity of it. It appears that someone while shaking Hanifâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hands used some sharp instrument with the specific purpose of injuring the star youngster.

Fortunately for everyone Hanifâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s injury was not serious and he went on to establish himself as one of Pakistanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greatest openers. But the slur remained on Indian intentions.

There are any number of such minor irritations that have gone to make sporting relations a sour point between the two neighbours.

64 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

Dev. The match had been held up for a while. The situation at the Shivaji Stadium was brought under control soon but matters did not end immediately. Pakistan won the match 2-0 and boarded the bus for the hotel. Some mischievous lot of the public was reported to have hurled stones on the bus but barring minor scratches no one was injured.

The officials who had seen the Pakistan team off at the airport also reported that no one was injured and the matter was given up as one of the minor irritants. What transpired was quite something else. As per reports from Lahore the Pakistan hockey players, with most of them heavily bandaged, had given a totally different story

to the receiving supporters at Lahore Airport with the result that the whole atmosphere was vitiated. So much so that when the Indian team went to play the World Cup in Lahore in the year 1990, the crowd with one voice kept haranguing the Indians. What was even worse was the impression fostered on schoolchildren led by a young teacher, shouting antiIndia slogans day after day for the duration of the World Cup. The unfortunate impression created was that hate-India syndrome begins very early in Pakistan schools.

Thus for all the much publicized friendship on the cultural front there is a much stronger and willful sentiment of aggressive hate built around each other when it comes to playing cricket or hockey with the supporters, and sometimes even the players contributing to the hostile atmosphere. The latest example is the behaviour of the Pakistan team after beating India in the knock out stage of the Champions Trophy held in India recently. The Pakistan team in a vulgar display was hauled up by the organisers and the world body with the official incharge, Shahnaz Sheikh even tendering an unqualified apology.

But the minute the team went back to Pakistan a different story emanated with Sheikh also in a denial mood.

To play with each other India and Pakistan must first agree that the players would do their best not to aggravate the already hostile atmosphere and India at the same time must give an undertaking that it would not involve the politicians in the sporting arena.

Understandably it is too much to demand of the politicians to keep off sport. If that is not possible then the next best thing for Indian sports administration to do is to keep politicians away from responsible positions. If it is not possible to keep sport away from politics then at least try and keep politicians away from sport. Then only can India and Pakistan have a meaningful sports relationship.<

Health is Wealth

Additives in the Packaged Foods

Indulgence of fast food or packaged food is increasing day by day, thanks to the convenience and time-saving advantage offered by them. These foods are, therefore, also referred to as convenience foods. However, as this habit is growing from being an occasional indulgence into a staple kind of thing, time has come to fire some distress signals. As it is, health warnings are already all around us, with increasing incidences of obesity, heart disease and diabetes, not to mention of host of other problems like kidney and liver diseases, constipation etc.

T

Dr P K Mukherjee

he controversy that occurred a couple of months back involving the ‘Two Minute’ noodles of a popular food product of a reputed company, has given rise to a nationwide debate not only on the safety of packaged foods but also about their health benefits. While packaged foods, undoubtedly, offer convenience and,

therefore, become so tempting in the hustle and bustle of modern life, they are far from being the healthier dietary option. This applies not only to the controversial noodles but to lots of packaged foods.

Nobody can disagree that ketchup is not a sound substitute for home-made tomato chutney. In the same vein, packaged bread is definitely poorer than fresh rotis. And howsoever tempting heat-and-serve packets of rajma-chawal and matarpaneer may appear to be, they are

loaded with preservatives and so their regular consumption may cause many adverse effects on health.

It had to be recalled that food safety and standard authority of India found lead in excess of the permissible limit in Two Minute noodles and also violation of the ‘no added MSG’ declaration made by the company on the packets.

The general public thanks to the media taking up the issue in a big way now seems to be well aware OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

65

Health is Wealth of the ill effects of lead and MSG (monosodium glutamate). Lead has damaging effect not only on brain and heart but also on kidney and liver. It also gets stored in the teeth and bones after consumption, causing decay in the teeth and weakening of the bones. Lead can also pose risk to the pregnant women; high levels of lead can cause miscarriage, still-birth, premature birth, low birth weight and malfunctions in the baby.

Children are especially vulnerable to lead poisoning. It can cause mental retardation and behavioural problems in them. It can also slow the rate of growth of children and cause aggression in them.

MSG is the sodium salt of glutanic acid, a naturally occurring acid. While it occurs naturally in many foods, it is also prepared artificially (also known as azinomoto). MSG is a flavour enhancer. It is ‘generally recognised as safe’ by the US Food and Drug Administration. However, in some cases it has got a rap for causing headaches, stomach upsets, allergies and symptoms known as Chinese Restaurant Syndrome (CRS).

Although companies may declare that their packaged foods contain no added MSG, it may be present in other forms such as maltodextrin, sodium caseinate, antilysed yeast, antilysed vegetable protein, hydrolysed vegetable protein etc. As the role of MSG is controversial it is better to avoid it.

MSG is just an example of additive being added to the packaged or processed foods. Just looking at the list of ingredients on a packet of processed food, many more additives can be found. In fact, the list of additives seems to be interminable-yeast extract, emulsifiers, stabilisers, class II preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, acidity regulators, anticaking agents, so on and so forth.

What these additives are meant to 66 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

do to the food we eat and what are their effects on our health.

Yeast extract This is considered to be a condiment rather than a flavour enhancer; it adds flavour to the foods like a spice. It is used to give a savoury taste to soups, sauces and snacks. Prepared by adding sugar to yeast in a warm environment, yeast extract is of two kinds— autolysed and hydrolysed.

Yeast

the consistency and texture of the processed food including ice-cream, chocolate, bread, creamy sauces, confectionery and bakery products.

Some of the wellknown

emulsifiers are egg yolk, soy lecithin, monoglycerides and diglycerides, polysorbates and sorbitan monostearate. They are generally regarded to be safe. However, in a recent study conducted on mice in 2015, they were found to have affected their metabolism and make them prone to inflammatory bowel disease.

Stabilisers extract contains glutamates as well. But, it can sometimes be labelled as ‘natural flavour.’ Marmite and vegemite are well-known spreads made from yeast extract.

Yeast extract may be very high in sodium. Therefore, it should be better avoided by persons having problems with blood pressure or by those having another reason to limit sodium in their diet. Some people might also experience mild flushing of the skin and headaches on consuming food products containing yeast extract.

Emulsifiers These food additives help contrary elements like oil and water mix together, and are crucial to

They are additives used to maintain the consistency and prevent separation of ingredients bound by emulsifiers. Generally considered to be safe, they are used in ice-cream, margarine, low-fat spreads and dairy products.

Some of the popular stabilisers are alginic acid, guar gum, xanthan gum, gelatine, carrageenan, pectin, calcium chloride etc.

Acidity regulators They are additives that control the pH level of a food, which determines the extent of its acidity or alkalinity which affect the taste and food safety. Precisely, the role of acidity regulator is to prevent bacterial growth, which is a serious health hazard. Citric, lactic, fumaric, tartaric and malic acid are

Health is Wealth some well-known acidity regulators.

While citric acid is used in soft drinks, lactic acid finds widespread use in cheese, milk, meat and poultry products, salads, sauces and beverages. Fumaric acid is used in bread, fruit drinks, wine, jam and jellies etc. Tartaric acid is used in bakery, candies, jams, juices etc. while malic acid is used in tinned fruits and vegetables, jam, jellies and frozen vegetables.

Class-II preservatives While the natural preservatives such as sugar and vinegar belong to the category of class-I preservatives, class-II preservatives are chemicals like benzoate, butylate and butylated hydroxyanisole which are used to retard the activity of germs and insects and kill them, keeping food from going rancid or getting contaminated. However, the use of class-II preservatives above the prescribed limit may be dangerous as it can cause a host of ailments including allergies, asthma, brain, kidney and liver damage, high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol level. In view of the presence of these preservatives in packaged foods, extreme caution is, therefore, required in consuming these foods.

Anti-caking agents Food additives that keep powdered or granulated materials such as milk powder, powdered sugar, tea and coffee powders used in vending machines, table salt etc. flowing freely are called anti-caking

agents. In fact, these additives prevent the formation of lumps (a process called caking) making these products manageable for packaging, transportation and for use by the end consumers. Corn starch, magnesium carbonate, silicon dioxide, calcium phosphate, calcium silicate, calcium stearate are some examples of anti-caking agents. Many may not believe but calcium silicate is added even to table salt to keep it flowing freely. Acceptable daily intake of anti-caking agents is 0.025 mg/kg body weight per day. It can cause chemical degradation of vitamin C in the packaged food.

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) This additive is used in packaged foods as a substitute

of cane sugar (sucrose) being chemically similar to it. This cheaper alternative of sugar is a highly processed form of glucose converted into fructoseâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the type of sugar ordinarily found in fruits. HFCS is widely used in soft drinks and soda drinks from soda vending machines. It is also used in sauces and salad dressings, breads and pastries, breakfast cereals and processed snacks.

The case against HFCS ranges from claims that it inhibits leptin (the hormone responsible for telling your brain that you are full), damages tissue and can contain toxic levels of mercury.

The arguments against HFCS are inconclusive but one thing is certainâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;when used in excess of permissible limit, it can harm bodily processes in countless ways causing heart disease, diabetes, obesity, tooth decay etc.

The packaged or processed foods have literally dominated home cooking, mainly in view of their time-saving attribute. They have also made us a bit lazier.

However, home cooking needs to reconquer our dining tables.

Certainly, this will demand more than two minutes but the health benefits will be big. Home cooking should thrive as our primary dietary source, with, of course, occasional indulgence of fast or packaged food.< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

67

Filmworld

I Love the Feeling of Having the Spotlight on Me: Ruhi Singh The spunky new comer talks about how she bagged the coveted role in Madhur Bhandarkar’s latest film ‘Calendar Girls’.

68 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

Filmworld

By Jyothi Venkatesh

Did you struggle to get your big break with ‘Calendar Girls’?

N

ot really. The word struggle irritates me a lot because life is full of ups and downs. So I don’t know what is struggle all about. I just know that there were many battles that I have fought and eventually it’s all about winning a war and not battle. My motto is to never give up and I really enjoy doing that.

was very chilled out. I think I was the third to be cast. I play Mayuri Chouhan from Rohtak. I got a call from his office. He met and told me nice things about my film ‘World Before Her’. I never expected that he will offer me his film. I got a call again and they said they are starting your acting classes from now. I was done with the look test the next day after our meet.

Describe your role in ‘Calendar Girls’?

I

play a calendar girl called Mayuri Chauhan, who is full of spunk. I could relate myself. I think I have played myself. She hails from a small

choreographer. He is a perfectionist. I used to think I am a good dancer. But then after dancing with him I felt I was ok. There was a moment I cried, when I could not do a particular step for 3 hours. When I saw the song I had tears in my eyes. I was grateful to Vishnudeva for making me work so hard. I haven’t seen myself look so good.

How comfortable were you when you were asked to wear a bikini?

I

think I am most comfortable in a bikini and it is not only now. It’s always been like that. I have always loved to travel. I have almost seen the world except for few continents. I

Which were the battles that you had to fight?

A

long with a professional life you have a personal life as well and you have a family. Being a single girl in Mumbai I miss my parents a lot.

There is homesickness and sometimes some audition doesn’t go well and in some competition you do not win. That is when you want your parents to be with you. Initially I auditioned for 2 3 ads. Everybody does that. I was fortunate to sign up with my agency.

I love beauty pageants. I love being on stage. When I was a child I use to participate in all the competitions whether it was dance or poetry. I love the feeling of having the spotlight on me.

How did you bag Madhur’s project?

H

e saw my documentary film ‘World Before Her’ and had the character sketches of his 5 girls in his mind. He is a perfectionist. He knows his characters. He is not someone who will cast a person and make him act like a caricature. Madhur

town just like me but does not restrict her form dreaming big just like me again. She wants to be a inspiration.

She shares a good bond with her father. The film is about how my life changes after I become a calendar girl.

Have you signed any other film?

I

have completed my second film ‘Ishq Forever’ by Shabbir Boxwala.

It has Nadeem- Shrawan’s music. I play the protagonist of the film. The movie is about a girl and her quest for freedom. I have been cast opposite a new boy called Krishna Chaturvedi. I got to dance a lot. Vishnudeva is our

have lot of friends and I love beaches.

I remember I had this friend who was from Greece she was beautiful with most amazing body. I started working out. This friend of mine made me fall in love with my feminist side of me. I was always a tomboy. For me swim suit was never a glamour it was a basic thing you need to wear. I love scuba diving. I have always been a water baby.

Name the directors you want to work with?

R

ohit Shetty, Imitiaz Ali, Anurag Kashyap, Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra.

OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

69

Filmworld

FROM DOWN SOUTH WITH LOVE Today, every other actress from down South is making her debut in Bollywood since it has become a fad here in Bollywood not only to procure the rights of the Tamil hits and churn out hit-after-hit like Wanted, Bodyguard, Ready, Ghajini, Rowdy Rathore etc but also launch the Hindi versions with popular South heroines.

D

By Our Film Critic

rishyam in which Shreya Saran from South was cast opposite Ajay Devgn, was the latest Hindi remake of not only ‘Drishyam’ in Malayalam but also ‘Papanasam’ in Tamil. ‘Drishyam’ was also made in Telugu and Kannada.

Kamal Haasan’s daughter Akshara was seen in ‘Shamitabh’ while Shruti Haasan was seen recently in ‘Welcome Back’. There have been very few damsels from down South who have been able to sashay in Bollywood and achieve instant success as reigning queens till date.

Kajal Aggarwal who made her debut opposite Ajay Devgn in the Hindi remake of the Tamil hit ‘Singham’ followed it up with ‘Special Chabbis’ opposite Akshay Kumar.

Tamanna Bhatia who is a big name down South tried her lucky once again in Bollywood

70 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

with the remake of the 80’s hit ‘Himmatwala’ directed by Sajid Khan. Unfortunately for Tamanna, the film tanked at the box office.

So did her film ‘Entertainment’.

Deepika Padukone had made her debut in ‘Om Shanti Om’ after having made her debut with the Kannada film ‘Aishwarya’, which flopped miserably.

Vyjayanthimala Bali was perhaps among the first few who made it big in Bollywood, when she breezed in Hindi films with ‘Bahar’ which was the remake of the Tamil hit ‘Vazhkkai’ in 1951. After her success in Tamil films, she got roles in Hindi films like ‘Ladki’ and ‘Nagin’ (1954). Bimal Roy noticed her and cast her as Chandramukhi opposite Dilip Kumar in ‘Devdas’.

She also made it to Bimal Roy’s ‘Madhumati’ again with Dilip Kumar, with whom she also had several other successful films such as ‘Ganga Jamuna’ and ‘Leader’. She also worked with Raj Kapoor in ‘Sangam’, Dev Anand in ‘Jewel Thief’, Rajendra Kumar in ‘Suraj’, Shammi Kapoor in ‘Prince’ and Kishore Kumar in

Filmworld his inane and zany comedies. After getting married to Raj Kapoor’s personal physician Dr Bali, she took a mutual decision that she would quit films and move to Chennai.

Rekha who made her debut with the Hindi film ‘Sawan Bhadon’ has also stood the test of time in Bollywood. Hema Malini breezed in her way to Bollywood through ‘Sapno Ka Saudagar’ opposite none other than Raj Kapoor way back in 1967 and has been able to firmly entrench herself as a part and parcel of Bollywood. Today, Hema Malini wants to forget that she had made a small appearance in the Tamil film ‘Idhu Sathiyam’ and was rejected by director Sridhar when she was auditioned for a role in his film ‘Vennira Aadai’. The role went to Jayalalitha and ‘Hey Raam’ is till date the only Tamil film that Hema Malini condescended to act after she shot to greater heights famewise.

Though it was with Manoj Kumar’s ‘Painter Babu’ that Meenakshi Seshadri was introduced in Bollywood, it was Subhash Ghai’s ‘Hero’ that catapulted her to the top echelons of stardom. Meenakshi is one actress who cannot be dubbed an import from the South since she was a Mumbai based actress. Meenakshi was quite a popular actress of her time and had acted even with Amitabh Bachchan in ‘Ganga Jamuna

Saraswati’. It was only after she married to an investment banker in USA that she quit films.

While Jaya Prada made her debut with ‘Sargam’ opposite Rishi Kapoor and enjoyed a good innings in Bollywood, Sridevi began her tryst with Hindi films as a child star with K Sethumadhavan’s film ‘Julie’ in which she played Lakshmi’s younger sister, when she was just thirteen, before she made her debut as an adult with ‘Solva Sawan’ opposite Amol Palekar.

Though ‘Solva Sawan’ flopped, ‘Himmatwala’, with Jeetendra established her overnight as an actress.

Though Asin made it big with her very first film in Hindi—‘Ghajini’

Ajay Devgn—‘London Dreams’ flopped and she was back to square one till her film ‘Ready’ with Salman Khan and ‘Houseful 2’ with Akshay Kumar and ‘Bol Bachchan’ with Ajay Devgn once again catapulted her to stardom.

Not only that Asin who was the first actress to notch up the league of 100 cr plus collection film like Ghajini, happily walked away with two more films—‘Ready’ and ‘Bol Bachchan’ in her kitty which also collected a 100 plus cr at the box office. Unfortunately her latest— ‘All is Well’ cut a sorry figure at the box office and she is now all set to settle down after marriage.

Padmini could not sustain her success though at one time she was the dream girl in the real sense of the term even before Hema Malini had arrived in Bollywood with Sapno Ka Saudagar. Like Hema Malini she had Raj Kapoor

opposite a mega star like Aamir Khan, she has had a slow and steady rise in Bollywood. Her next release with Salman Khan and

as her leading man in films like ‘Mera Naam Joker’, ‘Aashiq’, ‘Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai’ etc. A terrific danseuse, Padmini OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

71

Filmworld proved that she was a good actress with her film ‘Mr Sampat’.

With films like ‘Guide’, ‘Pyaasa’, ‘Reshma Aur Shera’ and ‘Bees Saal Baad’, Waheeda Rehman who is also an import from the South proved that she had potential.

Jayalalitha, the current chief minister of Tamil Nadu proved to be a one film wonder as far as Bollywood is concerned, since after she had made her debut in ‘Izzat’ with Dharmendra as her leading man, she did not pursue her career in Bollywood and stuck to Tamil films before she plunged headlong into

politics.

Lakshmi could not consolidate her position in Bollywood and almost disappeared after her super duper debut film ‘Julie’, a remake of the Malayalam hit ‘Chattakkari’ in which she had essayed the same role that she was asked to play again in the Hindi remake. She was seen again in dismal flops like ‘Aangan Ki Kali’ and ‘Charandas Chor’ and Bollywood lost a good actress in the bargain. Sumalatha made her debut in Hindi films with K C Bokadia’s ‘Jawab Hum Denge’ in which her costars were Jackie Shroff and Sridevi. She followed it up with films like ‘Swarg Yahan Narak Yahan’ and ‘Dushman Duniya Ka’, ‘Aaj Ka Goondaraaj’, ‘Pratibandh’ and ‘New Delhi’ but after her marriage to Kannada super star Ambarish, she decided to take a sabbatical from acting in films.

Bhanupriya began her film acting career when she was just 17 years old, in 1983 in Tamil. Sivaji Ganesan had gone on record then that Bhanupriya is the only actress

Filmworld

from the younger generation who could match her acting ability with Savitri and Padmini.

Chiranjeevi mentioned that he enjoyed the chemistry with other actresses while dancing but with Bhanupriya he missed out on that as she always concentrated on the technical aspects of her footwork and treated him as a competitor instead of a co-star.

T Rama Rao introduced her in Bollywood with ‘Dosti Dushmani’ and she followed it up with ‘Insaaf Ki Pukaar’, ‘Khudgarz’, ‘Dav

Why actresses from down South end up as ruling box office queens in Bollywood whereas actors like Kamal Haasan and Rajanikant seldom get to continue to work in Hindi films? Rohit Shetty who cast Asin in ‘Bol Bachchan’, Kajal Aggarwal in ‘Singham’ and Deepika Padukone in ‘Chennai Express’ puts it succinctly, ‘There is always a demand for girls because a vast majority of the audience happens to be males who are susceptible to fantasies spawned by the damsels on the screen. It is always the males who drool over the unattainable females and not the other way round.’

OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

73

Filmworld Pech’, ‘Mar Mitenge’, ‘Tamacha’, ‘Gareebon ka Daata’, ‘Kasam Vardi Ki’, ‘Surya’, ‘Zehreelay’ and ‘Bhabhi’.

Shanthi Priya, sister of Bhanu Priya made her debut with the Akshay Kumar starrer ‘Saugandh’.

She has acted with Mithun Chakraborty in many hit movies like ‘Mere Sajana Saath Nibhana’, ‘Phool Aur Angaar’ etc. Shanti Priya had married actor Siddharth Ray, who had acted in films like

‘Baazigar’ and ‘Vansh’.

Unfortunately, Siddharth died of a massive heart attack, leaving behind his two kids Shubham and Shishya.

Siddharth Ray is the grandson of V Shantaram.

Priyamani, cousin of Vidya Balan made her debut in Hindi films with Ramgopal Varma’s ‘Rakta Charitra’ but could not click the way she has been able to in the South.

Vasundhara Das sashayed in from the South with Kamal Haasan’s ‘Hey Raam’ but after a couple of insipid films vanished back to the South. Taapsi Pannu made her debut in Hindi films with David Dhawan’s ‘Chasme Buddoor’ and later followed it up with ‘Baby’.

The list of Tamil actresses who tried their luck in Bollywood does not end there. There were also actresses like ‘Sadhana’ and ‘Akhalya’ who had made their debut with the C grade Hindi film ‘Badnaam’ but luck did not favour their tryst in Bollywood.

Charmie, who is quite a popular actress in Telugu and Kannada films also made her debut with ‘Buddha Hoga Terra Baap’ but has not been seen since then. So did Radha, sister of Ambika try her luck but could not make it at all after she appeared in a Hindi film with Jeetendra, though the producers tried to cash in on the brand name of Sridevi by having hordes of hoardings all over town proclaiming at that time that “She is Radha, not Sridevi.” < OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

75

Book

THE INVENTION OF NEWS: How the World Came to Know About Itself

Hankering for news has been integral to the evolution of the human society and civilisation. The tools to get and disseminate news continued to evolve with advancement of production systems and technologies. Then over the period news became a business, a political tool, and also a method to control public opinion and carry out reforms. A lucid account of an interesting journey of news over four centuries in 10 countries of Europe makes an interesting reading to everyone who is keen to know about the genesis of news and print journalism.

76 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015

L

By Our Literary Critic

et us first pose a question: when and how did we the readers, learnt about the news? Did we ‘invent’ the news? Or, did the news appear itself, as if from nowhere? And, what made all this happen?

After posing these queries, the reader would be hoping to get answers to these questions.

But, this book doesn’t instantly, adequately respond to these, and numerous other inquisitions. Therefore, to begin with, this is a big snag with this book. But, wait.

Truly speaking, it’s hard to determine and fix the exact date and precise time of it in

history; and to accurately spot a device, by which the news was ‘invented,’ is tough task indeed. However, one can at least surmise that the ‘news’ is as old as the humanity itself.

Or, perhaps, even older than that! But, professionally it’s unethical and completely perverse to ‘invent’ the news.

It can, therefore, be averred that the news cannot, and should not, be invented.

For, journalism principles tersely dictate that a ‘news’ is an account of an event, an occurrence, or a story happening, or an incident that’s been reported from any location, at any time, and is significant in its impact, consequences, effect, volume and dimension. This is an

Book

Author

:

Andrew Pettegree

Publisher

:

Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

Price

:

Kindle $ 16; Hard Cover $ 35; Paperback $25

Pages

: 445

established journalistic dictum.

Andrew Pettegree, the author of this book, however, perceives the meaning of the ‘invention of news’ entirely differently; and how does he do that, and provides the proof of that is all that this book is about. Being professor of history, and not of (print) journalism, Pettegree’s treatment, definition, including elements of the news will not appear relevant to a journalist, journalism teacher or media researcher.

Put in the author’s own words, ‘this book which traces the development of the European news market in the four centuries

between about 1400 and 1800, is the story of that transformation.

It follows the development of a commercial news market from the medieval period – when news was the prerogative of political elites – to a point 400 years later when news was beginning to play a decisive role in popular politics.’

He adds, ‘at the end of the 18th century, news publications were not only providing a day-by-day account of unfolding events, they could be seen to play an influential role in shaping them. The age of a mass media lay at hand.’

The book is a painstaking study of the growth of the so-

called ‘news-works’ before the beginnings of what Pettegree calls the ‘newssheets’ and, the newspapers of today. He also minutely describes the devices of collection and dissemination of the news. He has evaluated news content in imperial messages, recorded on wooden veneers to be conveyed by town criers to citizens and passed on to the elites and rulers by a team of horse riders stationed at fixed points. In a way, these news networks were the predecessors of the modern age’s most indispensable paraphernalia of mass communication.

All these messages are illustrated by drawings collected from multifarious unlikely sources from rural areas in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria and many other countries. These illustrations assist in elaborating the tales and present wonderful, jaw-breaking, fascinating accounts of the events to be reported. Then came the time when the news of war, revolution, crime and scandals, and disasters started reaching all nooks and corners of Europe.

Also, Pettegree investigates who controlled the news, its use for political, religious reform, and comic purposes. The book is indeed wide-ranging in content, and presents hugely readable account of the print media, albeit restricted to Europe. So far as Asia is concerned, growth of the ‘news’ doesn’t come in only for a brief mention.

It’s indeed an outstanding research supported by detailed citations from rare documents, travelogues and websites. This book would serve a precious research source for scholars of printing technology, print journalism, and even help lay readers in comprehending the various stages of growth and development of mass media business and industry, and their prodigious contributions to modern commerce and civilisation.

(MRD)< OCTOBER 2015 | LOKAYAT |

77

Funny Times

Sheer Barbarism

T

he murder of Akhlaq by a crowd of 200-odd villagers on the basis of a beef-eating rumour is a gruesome proof of how vulnerable Indian society has become. This is perhaps the most shocking murder of its kind in the recent memory and naturally got wide publicity even in foreign media in the globalised environment of information flow putting India in a poor light. Many insist to take it as a wakeup call for the countrymen. Certainly, we should not allow this great country to descend into an uncivilised and barbarous banana state where people can take an innocent life like this defying all sense of culture and the law of the land and Constitution.

Defending the murder as an accident by union minister Mahesh Sharma is all the more shocking. BJP leaders should also think what image they are creating of our great country before the world. A few years ago, the entire world used to marvel at our secular and inclusive culture and politics where the president was a Muslim, the prime minister a Sikh and the president of the ruling party a Christian. Indeed, it was the superb example of sarv dharm sambhava! Globally, intellectuals and leaders used to wonder what is there in India that despite such a plurality of caste, religion and language, there is so much harmony. But what Dadri murder proves now?

Most people rightly suspect that beef was not the real reason behind the murder. There is a very strong possibility that it was a political conspiracy to fan communal hysteria. In the days of irresponsible social media, it has become all the easier. It is a pity that the modern technology has become handmaiden of the dark-age mentality rather than serving for the betterment and welfare of the society.

Politicians indeed had tasted blood in the last Lok Sabha elections. They know the instant advantage of such things in terms of political returns. So why will they not try it out again when the most crucial elections after the last Lok Sabha polls are to take place in Bihar? There is great need for certain political interests to polarise electorate and reap the electoral advantage.

But such sinister methods in politics do not result into good outcome. People should realise that use of religion in politics creates only hatred, bad blood and misery. When politicians are allowed to use religion for their selfish ends, the inherent purpose of religion to create amity and unity among human beings gets lost.

The redeeming development is that a lot of people have come out in the open to oppose the current attempt of justifying the unfortunate killing for political gains. So far as beef-eating is concerned, some intellectuals have cited ancient Hindu scriptures to establish beyond doubt that even upper caste Hindus and great rishis ate beef in days of yore. Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar for one has mentioned Bhavabhutiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s play in this context. Vice-president Hamid Ansari has reminded that article 21 of the Constitution makes it incumbent upon the state to protect the right to life of every citizen irrespective of his or her religion. It speaks poorly of us that our guest at the Republic Day parade, US President Barack Obama had to remind us of this provision of our Constitution.

And last but not the least, paying huge compensation to the family of Akhlaq is not a solution to tackle the issue; it is like extending help to the saffron fringe elements to roam around and crying of Muslim â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;appeasementâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; hoarse polarising voters in Bihar.<

78 | LOKAYAT | OCTOBER 2015