Editor: Rekha Saraswat

Vol. 78 No 3

JUNE 2014

Rs. 20/month

THE RADICAL HUMANIST (Since April 1949) Formerly : Independent India (April 1937- March 1949) Founder Editor: M.N. Roy

Historical Role of Islam: An Introduction —M.N. Roy A Message from Delhi —Uday Dandavate Stop giving a 5 year Blank Cheque to Delhi Sevaks —Rakesh Manchanda Post Elections Analysis —Kuldip Nayar What Is the Real Face of Political Parties?

—Rajindar Sachar Why AAP Model is unsafe for India?

—K.S. Chalam Importance of Humanism in India —Jugal Kishore The Rise of the People’s Power in Delhi —Mahi Pal Singh Indian Urban Youth and Marxism in Our Times —Amandeep Vashisth M.N. Roy in a Dictionary — Dipavali Sen Delhi Elections: Redefining Democracy! (Editorial Comment) —Rekha Saraswat

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Dr. Gauri Bazaz Malik & Ms. Malladi Subbamma have gone back to their elements, creating a void in the humanist family —never to be filled again!!

Ms. Malladi Subbamma Dr. Gauri Bazaz Malik Yet another blow to the Radical Humanist Movement!

These two ladies were so different from each other. One (Gauri Bajaj) was from the northern most part of the country; the other (Subbamma Malladi) was from its southern end. One lived in the capital of the nation; the other in one of its states quite far off from the capital. One had the opportunity to achieve high professional qualifications in her parents’ family before marriage; the other was married off in her childhood itself without the facility of even a primary education. One acquired the values of humanism through books and surroundings; the other faced the brunt of traditions and orthodoxy in her life and realized the importance of humanism as her savior. One could see and empathize with the misery of women through happenings and incidents around her; the other was herself its victim till she revolted against it. One was instrumental in getting her humanist ideals implemented; the other was action incarnate. One burnt like a sublime flame for the vision of humanism; the other burnt fiercely with the mission of humanism. But, they both had one thing in common. They both were radical humanists; and since the time they inculcated these values of life they lived by them till they breathed their last, believing in them, practicing them and propagating them in their own unique ways.

The aura of Gauri Bajaj and the enigma of Subbamma Malladi will continue to inspire the humanist family- always! —Rekha Saraswat

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Tributes paid to Dr. Gauri Bazaz Malik & Ms. Malladi Subbamma on their sad demise

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Indian Renaissance Institute with complete equanimity. It is unfortunate that for the last about 4 to 5 years, we could not have the good fortune of her guidance.

—Shri B.D. Sharma Chairman, Indian Renaissance Institute New Delhi *****************

Dr. Gauri Bajaj Malik: Dr. Gauri Bajaj Malik, being a Radical Humanist, came in contact with me in the year 1960, when Ellen Roy was alive and a study camp was held at Dehradun in June 1960. Thereafter when I shifted to Delhi in the year 1968, I came in close contact with Mr. Suyesh Malik, Sr. Advocate and Dr. Gauri Bajaj Malik, and since then I remained in close contact with them. We often met at their residence at Neeti Bagh, Delhi. It was always a very warm welcome from them and we used to have fruitful discussions on various issues of national and international importance.

After Mr. V.M. Tarkunde shifted to Delhi in the year 1969, we used to meet once in a month at Mr. Tarkunde’s residence at Defence Colony, Maharani Bagh and then at his bungalow in Noida.

Dr. Gauri was always alert and took keen interest in discussions and put forward her views clearly and forcefully. When Dr. Gauri was elected as Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of IRI, we began to often meet at her Neeti Bagh Bungalow for usual meetings. As Chairperson she used to give valuable suggestions for the spread of Radical Humanism and publication of humanist literature.

She often wrote on current topics and her articles were regularly published in the Radical Humanist.

Dr Gauri was failing in health during her last 4 years of life and had been living with her son in U.S.A. where she died on 15.05.2014. One remarkable quality of Dr. Gauri was that after the sad demise of her husband in 1992 she went on all alone with the help of a maid and continued to shoulder the responsibility of the work of the

Ms. Malladi Subbamma: Ms. Subbamma did not have the advantage of going to school or college but after her marriage, her husband Mr. M.V. Ramamurthy had encouraged her to educate herself and with the help of her husband she learnt English and Telugu languages and felt enthused to work for the eradication of superstition, illiteracy and ignorance among the people, in general, and women in particular. She acquired firm belief in the philosophy of Radical Humanism and the principles of justice and equality; she wrote large number of books in Telugu and used to deliver lectures on rationalism and Radical Humanism.

She worked as a crusader for the emancipation of women. She was one of the strong pillars of the rationalist and humanist movement in the country.

She was awarded by many prestigious institutions.

Her life and work will always remain a source of inspiration for all of us.

—B.D. Sharma Chairman, Indian Renaissance Institute New Delhi *******************

Subbamma Malladi was a greater social reformer and woman liberator than VeeresaLingam in Andhra Pradesh.

—Somayya Ravela, Veteran Rationalist and Humanist, Hyderabad

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The Great Malladi Subbamma!!

It is not that the late Malladi Subbamma was the only person who fought for amelioration of conditions of women. Most, if not all, of them are provoked to enter the fray after seeing the sufferings of other women. But Subbamma was a person who suffered actually and gathered courage to defy and fight. Married at the age of eleven and becoming a mother at the age of fourteen, she lived under the watchful eye of her orthodox mother-in-law who was herself humane, but, nevertheless bound by the traditions and rituals with self-assumed responsibility to follow and protect the same. That is the pity of women.

Everyone suffered but passed on the same sufferings to coming generations. All the persons around her were quite loving and helpful, but when the question of tradition and rituals came, they were different. Unbearable sufferings and deterioration of health did not matter to them. At that time Subbamma was not grown enough to defy but matured enough to get hurt. She kept these feelings to herself but the bitterness started provoking her from inside. She became a volcano that was ready to burst at the first opportunity. By the time she was 24, she gave birth to five children and lost one. The only solace was her husband. But he too went out for studies after marriage.

During his student days, her husband, M.V. Ramamurty, the veteran humanist, became influenced by the leftist ideals and decided to resort to violence against the British government. To keep him away from these activities his parents sent him out of town and in the name of further studies sent him to Banaras to study M.A.LL.B. But there too he was entangled in anti-government activities and had to return with a LL.B. discarding M.A. Even after coming back with a law degree he did not care to enter into legal practice to earn a living. He was forced to carry on the practice of his father-in-law but he had scant regard for it. Fortunately they were not that poor and carried on with what they had.

She never complained about it.

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The leftist leaning of her husband, which she refused to appreciate earlier, began to make her think and learn about them. It helped her at least to think for herself and gain courage and confidence.

Her inner feelings were gradually taking shape. But her experiences under the traditional orthodox family system were not allowing her to keep quiet.

Her husband by that time got disillusioned with violent activities and was attracted towards M.N. Roy and became one of his staunch followers. He was actively involved with the study camps and activities of Radical Democratic Party in the state.

But the Radical Democratic Party was dissolved in 1948 adopting party-less politics. Gora, the staunch atheist of the time, was also for party-less politics and he contested the 1951 elections on that platform with M.V. Ramamurty and his wife Subbamma actively helping him. While adopting the rationalist and humanist approach, Subbamma was consciously concentrating more on emancipation of women and turned out to be an invincible force in that activity later on.

In 1968 she contested the Municipal Council elections of Bapatla town where they were staying.

They, husband and wife, started their campaign on a rickshaw with a loud speaker. She criticized the Municipal schools for the insincere and inefficient teaching, but finally it was the teachers in those schools who voted for her mainly. She declined the offer of supporters to purchase some votes for her to win and she strongly objected to that. She lost with a minor difference of 70 votes.

She formalized her association with the radical humanist movement by joining it in 1969. In 1967 M.V. Ramamurty contested from Bapatla. The difficulty with our people is that they do not contest to win. They contest to avail the opportunity to bring their ideology to the attention of the public.

So defeat was not a disappointment. The couple was busy conducting study camps and participating in the movements that were in line with their purpose.

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In the year 1973 there was an intensive movement in Andhra to get Telangana separated from Andhra Pradesh. Both joined it in 1956. Earlier there was an agitation from Telangana demanding separation in which the women from Andhra were vilified and humiliated. At that time the leaders of Andhra showed restraint. But the discontent was simmering and finally exhibited as a demand for separation. But Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister at that time stood her ground and refused to allow bifurcation of the state in view of long term consequences. In one of the meetings conducted by Subbamma the followers were singing songs denigrating Indira Gandhi mentioning that she was a widow. Subbamma roared aloud and chastised them for denigrating the Prime Minister for being a woman and a widow. She asked them what Telangana problem had to do with her widowhood.

How can you humiliate her for that? It was a political matter and needed to be fought on that level only, she said. Such an upright woman was Subbamma!

In 1975 JP started a movement against the corrupt government of Indira Gandhi. Ramamurty and Subbamma were the strong supporters of the movement. JP had many fans, but Subbamma was literally a big fan. When JP was sitting on the dais in a meeting in Vijayawada, she was standing behind him waving a hand-fan. When emergency was declared, Ramamurty was one of the persons arrested and sent to a distant jail in Rajahmundry.

She had to cope up with all the children and joint family with her deteriorated health and also had to visit him.

She was more active in feminist movements and organized many meetings. She felt convinced that women were increasingly coming out and her struggle was yielding results. In 1980 elections she contested on behalf of Citizens for Democracy.

More than the defeat what disappointed her were the fact that the votes she got were far less than the women who used to attend her meetings.

After hearing her fiery speech, one of the audiences

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asked her why she is bearing the surname of her husband. She said, she was married as a child and the name changed according to tradition. I could have changed it to my parents’ surname. It would have confused many of you because I am already known as Malladi Subbamma. I could have remained only as Subbamma. But in each village there are hundreds of Subbammas. Surname is necessary for identification. But if I am divorced I will bear the surname of my parents. But there is no such possibility, she said laughing.

In 1987, when the self-immolation of Rup Kanwar on the funeral pyre of her young husband was announced, she became a Kali herself and organized many meetings condemning the practice, involving Kumud Ben Joshi, the governor of the state at that time. The people at Visakhapatnam arranged for a meeting and police permission was obtained to hold the meeting in the premises of the district library. But when the organisers and invitees went there, they found the place occupied by police who told them that the permission was withdrawn.

Everybody was silent and disappointed. Subbamma was not to take it lying down. She argued with the police authorities, raised slogans and provoked the people to gate-crash and entered the premises. But there was no electricity. She raised her tone and addressed the meeting. There was a ‘Yagna’ going on in the adjacent building, because of which the permission was withdrawn.

A monastery was constructed at Eluru and it was to be inaugurated on 12-11-1987. The monastery was one of the cruelest traditions of Catholic Church.

Young girls were made to get imprisoned in the building that had no windows and even the diet had to be supplied regularly through a narrow hole. The inmates had to live like that until they got ‘natural’ death. Even the pits to bury them were dug by each of them at the entrance of the monastery. When Subbamma came to know of it she raised a hue and cry. She revolted against the practice. Why only girls are required to get enclosed? Why not men?

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Mr. Ramamurty. The court sent a commission to investigate. By that time the bishop got windows arranged and made it look worth living. The commission could not call it inhuman. Court did not object.

When her friends and admirers suggested celebrating her Shashti Poorty (60 years) she firmly refused. But the idea struck to her that it was an occasion for her to do something significant. She pondered over it the whole night and decided to form a trust and donate all her personal property to it in furtherance of the feminist and rationalist movements. And she did it with full consent of all her family members. That is how her spirit permeated all the people around her.

She was honored on many platforms and every honor made her more resolute in her activities. She was a dynamic figure until she was bedridden. She breathed her last on the 17th day of May, 2014.

That was Malladi Subbamma!! —Jawaharlal Jasthi, Veteran Radical Humanist & Rationalist, Hyderabad ***********************

Condolence Meeting organised in Memory of Dr. Gauri Bazaz Malik & Ms. Malladi Subbamma A Report Renaissance Institute and the Indian Indian Radical Humanist Association organized a meeting in the evening of 22nd May 2014 at Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi in memory of Dr. Gauri Bazaz Malik and Ms. Malladi Subbamma.

Both were dedicated members of Indian Renaissance Institute and the Indian Radical Humanist Association with Dr. Bajaj passing away on 15th May 2014 and Ms. Subbamma on 17th May 2014.

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At the start all the participants stood for 2 minutes in silence in memory of the departed.

N.D. Pancholi, Secretary of the Indian Renaissance Institute gave a brief account of the lives of Dr. Gauri Bazaz Malik and Ms. Malladi Subbamma.

He said that Dr. Gauri Bazaz Malik was the daughter of Prem Nath Bazaz who was a renowned freedom fighter for the cause of Kashmir in particular and for Indian freedom in general and was a close associate of Shri Sheikh Abdullah with whom he had spent many years in jail. Prem Nath Bazaz was also a close associate of M.N. Roy and was co-founder of the Radical Democratic Party along with Roy. This party, after its dissolution in 1948, was converted into the Radical Humanist Movement. Dr. Gauri Bazaz Malik imbibed the values of rationalism and free thought from her father. She, in her young age, joined the Indian Radical Humanist Association. She, along with her father, worked for and promoted the philosophy of Radical Humanism and during such activities she came in contact with another fellow Radical Humanist, S.C. Malik whom she soon married.

S.C. Malik in his early years was very prominent in the trade union movement under the banner of the Hind Mazdoor Sabha and achieved great heights in legal profession as well as senior advocate of Supreme Court. She along with S.C. Malik, devoted herself to the promotion of democratic values and humanist principles in society. She wrote articles on important public issues, especially on gender issues, and regularly contributed to The Radical Humanist. In the year 1995 she became Chairperson of the Indian Renaissance Institute which was founded by M.N. Roy in the year 1946 with a view to promote the values of renaissance, rationalism and scientific thinking in society and continued to guide its activities for about 15 years. On behalf of the Indian Renaissance Institute she was instrumental in organizing several study camps and conferences in various parts of the country on issues of public importance. She was also the National Council member of Citizens For Democracy (CFD),

THE RADICAL HUMANIST founded by Jayprakash Narayan in April, 1974, for several years and founder member of the PUCL, a prominent human rights organization, established in 1980.

Professionally she was an eminent doctor and retired as head and professor of pathology at Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi and also worked in the same capacity at Patel Chest Institute, New Delhi for some years. In the last couple of years she had been residing with her son and daughter-in-law in her home at Potomac, Maryland, U.S.A. where she, at the age of 87, died peacefully in her sleep on the night of 15th May, 2014.

N.D. Pancholi on behalf of the Indian Renaissance Institute and on behalf of all the participants in this memorial meeting expressed their sincere and heartfelt condolences on her sad demise to the members of her family namely Ms. Sushma Malik (sister-in-law), Dr. Rajat Pamposh Malik (son), Dr. Shakun Munshi Malik (daughter-in-law), Dr. Raeva Malik and Hersh Malik (grandchildren).

N.D. Pancholi also spoke about the valuable work done by Ms. Malladi Subbamma. Ms. Subbamma was the important member of the Indian Radical Humanist Association and was a relentless champion for the cause of women and their upliftment. She all through her life, fought against injustice and oppression of women. She was born in Potarlanka village near Repalle to Gunter district and was brought up in an orthodox family. After marrying veteran Radical Humanist and advocate M.V. Ramamurthy, she moved from orthodoxy to progressive ideas. She discarded her Mangalsutra and other ornaments and became a humanist and rationalist. Even though she did not go to any college, her innate abilities and compassion for fellow women made her a relentless champion for the cause of women. She started a number of organizations for providing legal education, counseling for marital discord, promotion of inter-caste and casteless marriages, fighting social evils such as consumption of alcohol and became a champion of women education. She participated in

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a number of agitations. She joined her husband M.V. Ramamurthy in his struggles against superstition and blind faith. From Chirala in Prakasam district, the couple had shifted to Vijayawada and was actively associated with Gora and Saraswathi Gora and the activities of the Atheist Centre. Later on the couple moved to Hyderabad and operated in a wider arena of social reform and championing of women-upliftment.

She was awarded Thomas Award of Vigil India Movement, Bangalore, for her outstanding contribution championing women’s rights. She published scores of books in Telugu highlighting women’s problems and some of her books were translated to English. She edited Swetchalochana, a monthly for nearly a decade. She donated land near Ramoji Film City for starting Manava Vikasa Kendram, a Humanist Centre and also for establishing a library for conducting training programmes and inculcation of humanist and scientific outlook among children and youth. In her name, the Telugu University instituted Malladi Subbamma Award to honour the champions of women’s rights. Malladi Subbamma donated Rs. 36 lakh to the University Department of Women Studies, University of Hyderabad, for constructing a building for the department. Earlier she donated Rs. one crore to various educational institutions.

She died in Hyderabad on 17th May, 2014. She was 90 and is survived by her son Malladi Kameshwara Rao and daughter Parsa Vijayalakshmi, four grandsons and three granddaughters. As per her wish, her mortal remains were donated to Gandhi Medical College on Friday.

N.D. Pancholi on behalf of the Indian Renaissance Institute an on behalf of all the participants in the memorial meeting conveyed their sincere and heartfelt condolences on her sad demise to her family members.

Justice Rajinder Sachar, Former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Shri. Vinod Jain, President Indian Radical Humanist Association, Mr. Iftikhar Gilani, renowned journalist from Kashmir and Mr.

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B.D. Sharma, Chairman of Indian Renaissance Institute spoke on the occasion and said that the lives and the activities of the departed were great inspiration for all to work and follow.

Condolence messages were also received from Shri Gautam Thaker, Gen. Sec. of Indian Radical Humanist Association (Gujarat), Dr. Innaiah, Shri Vir Narain, Shri V. Suresh, Gen. Secretary of PUCL. Delhi High Court Bar Association also expressed its sincere and heartfelt condolence.

Advocates, doctors, members of many organizations including PUCL and Indian Renaissance Institute, and also members of the family of Dr. Gauri Bazaz Malik participated in the meeting.

Prominent among them were: 1. Mr. Krishna Kumar Gogna; 2. Mr. Narottam Vyas;3. Mr. Badridas Sharma; 4. Advocate K.N. Kataria; 5. Advocate Daljit Singh; 6. Mr. Bhuvan

Chandra; 7. Advocate Vijay Kishan; 8. Mr. Vikram Jery; 9. Mrs. Manik (Tarkunde) Karanjawala; 10.

Mr. Vijay Singh; 11. Ms. Tripta Wahi; 12. Ms. Sushma Malik; 13. Ms. Rama Goyal; 14. Mr. Iftikhar Gilani; 15. Mr. Ramdeen Nanki; 16. Ms. Manisha; 17. Dr. Shalini Agarwal; 18. Ms. Sugandha Bazaz; 19. Mr. Naveen Agarwal; 20. Ms. Asha Bazaz; 21. Mr. Virni (Barar) Aggarwal; 22.

Mr. V.P. Diwan & Mr. Sanjay Dewan; 23. Mr. Prem Chand; 24. Mr. Pramod Mishra; 25. Mr. Azzruddin Khan; 26. MR. Sohaib; 27. Mr. N.D.Pancholi; 28. Mr. Rajender Kumar; 29. Mr. Mahipal Singh; 30. Justice Rajinder Sachar; 31.

Mr. Sameer Lal; 32. Dr. Mrs. Neera Lal; 33. Mr. V.K. Jain; 34. K.K. Guptaji; 35. Mr. & Mrs. D.R. Thadani with their daughter; 36. Mr. Shiv Raj Singh —Report sent by N.D. Pancholi, Secretary IRI

An Appeal to the Readers Indian Renaissance Institute has been receiving regular requests from readers, research scholars, Rationalists and Radical Humanists for complete sets of books written by M.N. Roy. It was not possible to fulfil their demands as most of Roy's writings are out of print. IRI has now decided to publish them but will need financial assistance from friends and well-wishers as the expenses will be enormous running into lakhs. IRI being a non-profit organization will not be able to meet the entire expenses on its own. Initially, following 15 books have been ordered for print: New Humanism; Beyond Communism; Politics, Power and Parties; Historical Role of Islam; India’s Message; Men I Met; New Orientation; Materialism; Science & Philosophy; Revolution and Counter-revolution in China; India in Transition; Reason, Romanticism and Revolution; Russian Revolution; Selected Works-Four Volumes; Memoirs (Covers period1915-1923).

Cheques /bank drafts may be sent in the name of ‘Indian Renaissance Institute’ at (address): Shri B.D. Sharma, Advocate, Chamber No.111 (Old), Supreme Court, New Delhi-110001 Online donations may be sent to: ‘Indian Renaissance Institute’ Account No: 02070100005296; FISC Code: UCBA0000207 UCO Bank, Supreme Court Branch, New Delhi (India) We make an earnest appeal to you to please donate liberally for the cause of the spirit of renaissance and scientific thinking being promoted in the writings of M.N. Roy. Thanking you B.D. Sharma N.D. Pancholi, Narottam Vyas President (IRI) Secretary (IRI) Treasurer (IRI)

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The Radical Humanist Vol. 78 Number 3

www.theradicalhumanist.com Contents

June 2014

1. Tributes paid to Dr. Gauri Bazaz Malik & Ms. Malladi Subbamma on their sad demise.

1 2. Condolence Meeting organized in their Memory —A Report 4 3. From the Editor’s Desk: It is Modi Modi all over the place!!

—Rekha Saraswat 8 4. From the Writings of M.N. Roy: Historical Role of Islam: The Mission of Islam 9 5. Guests’ Section: Evidence that the Meritocracy is made up of Poor People —Paul Buchheit 11

Monthly journal of the

Indian Renaissance Institute Devoted to the development of the Renaissance Movement; and for promotion of human rights, scientific-temper, rational thinking and a humanist view of life.

Founder Editor: M.N. Roy Editor: Dr. Rekha Saraswat Contributory Editors: Prof. A.F. Salahuddin Ahmed, Dr. R.M. Pal, Professor Rama Kundu Publisher and Printer: Mr. N.D. Pancholi Send articles to: Dr. Rekha Saraswat, C-8, Defence Colony, Meerut, 250001, U.P., India, Ph. 91-121-2620690, 09719333011 E-mail articles at: rheditor@gmail.com Send Subscription / Donation Cheques in favour of The Radical Humanist to: Mr. Narottam Vyas (Advocate), Chamber Number 111 (Near Post Office), Supreme Court of India, New Delhi, 110001, India n.vyas@snr.net.in Ph. 91-11-22712434, 91-11-23782836, 09811944600

The National Food Security Act —R.K.A. Subrahmanya 13 Who bothers for the National Litigation Policy?

—S.N. Shukla 16 6. Current Affairs’ Section: Importance of being Nawaz Sharif; Future of Congress —Kuldip Nayar 19 Priorities for Modi Government —Rajindar Sachar 22 Victory for Political Marketing in India —K.S. Chalam 24

Please Note: Authors will bear sole accountability for corroborating the facts that they give in their write-ups. Neither IRI / the Publisher nor the Editor of this journal will be responsible for testing the validity and authenticity of statements & information cited by the authors. Also, sometimes some articles published in this journal may carry opinions not similar to the Radical Humanist philosophy; but they would be entertained here if the need is felt to debate and discuss upon them.

Rape: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow —Sharu S. Rangnekar 26 7.IRI / IRHA Members’ Section: Understanding the verdict 2014 —Vidya Bhushan Rawat 29 8. Academicians' Section: Strengthening of Regional Level Foreign Policy of Nepal —Vijay P. Jashwal 9. Book Review Section —Austin Cline 10. Humanist News Section:

—Rekha Saraswat

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From The Editor's Desk:

It is Modi, Modi all over the place!!

“Mirror, mirror on the wall Who’s the fairest of them all?”

Modi, Modi, definitely Modi This is what has said the poll!

Caste, class, creed, communityAll have dissolved into one name Modi!

32% Indians have voted for Modi!

282 MPs have won for Modi!

Rahul, Kejri now need to restBecause people say Modi is the best!!

But opponents say he is not so greatHe is only enjoying some good fate!

All parties’ agenda have mingled into oneModi’s schedule needs space for none!

Water, woman, poverty, inflationJobs, food, shelter, educationAnd, of course, the problem of corruptionGive Modi ten years’ intercessionHe’ll sure come out with every solution!

Minority majority are part of one wholeFilling their gaps will be Modi's goal!

Skills in all minds and works in all handsWill free our society from reservation bands!

What the other saviours of democracy do nowVoters have asked us to wait and watch and not to ask how Just hopefully, be ready to say to Modi, wow!!

—Rekha Saraswat

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stages of social evolution, these two professions of robbery and trade are usually distinguished by a thin and elastic line of demarcation. The trader makes his profit by purchasing things at the cheapest price and selling them at the highest. The cheaper the price he pays, the greater is his profit.

Robbery or theft places him in possession of things at the lowest price. Therefore, once the morality of the fundamental principal of trading is admitted, the right of the trader to act so as to make the greatest possible profit becomes legitimate. Then, competition keeps the price of his wares down. The most convenient way of eliminating competition is to rob the rival. By the stratagem, not only is the competition kept away from the market, but his goods go there as the property of the more efficient party. Further, robbery is an effective weapon to establish monopoly on trade-routes and markets. In its earlier stages of development, trade is everywhere conducted with these practical policies which must shock a modern merchant. Still, robbery was the weapon with which his less orthodox predecessors established the noble profession which he now carries on so righteously with the laudable maxim: Honesty is the best policy.

Besides, robbery imperceptibly ripens into the manly political virtue of warlikeness, so much glorified in the savage adolescence of mankind.

Given to robbery by the physical aspects of their homeland, the Arabs were naturally destined to develop unusual talent in trade as well as in war.

Their braver and warlikeness were almost legendary. The famous historical work, “Ayam al Arab”, composed in the most flourishing days of the Saracen Empire, records no less than seventeen hundred memorable battles fought by the Arabs before the rise of the Prophet. So, if the Saracens distinguished themselves as warriors, they did not derive the virtue from their Islamic faith. They had been warriors before they were called to wield he sword in the service of God. The military achievements of Islam should be credited not so much to the religious teachings of the Arabic

From The Writings of M.N. Roy:

Historical Role of Islam Chapter III

Social and Historical Background of Islam Religion of Peace—was not the Islam—the creation of Mohammad any more than other religions were of those to whom their origins are respectively attributed. No religion is the creation of any single individual, nor does it appear all of a sudden, revealed to this or that Seer as it is always claimed. Islam, like any other religion, was the product of the conditions of the time, and of the surroundings in which it flourished.

Though living on the side of the fateful road on which the conquering armies of the Assyrians, Persians, Macedonians and Romans had marched back and forth, the inhabitants of the vast Arabian Peninsula maintained their freedom by virtue of the natural aspects of their country and the mode of life moulded by these aspects. But the fierce love of freedom, together with the exigencies of the nomadic existence, had split the inhabitants of the Arabian Desert into a number of tribes perpetually engaged in feuds and warfare.

Separated from the rest of mankind, the Arabs took the stranger for an enemy. The poverty of his country had added to the growth of the spirit. These two factors went into the making of the codes of law and morality of the Arabs. They believed that, as descendants of the outlawed Ismael, they were doomed to live in a dreary desert while rich and fertile lands were assigned to the other branches of the human family. Consequently, they felt justified in recovering by force a portion of the heritage, they believed, they had been deprived of.

The Roman historian Pliny, six hundred years before he appearance of Mohammad, found the Arabs occupied with two lucrative professions, robbery and trade, in addition to their naive calling of sheep-raising and horse-breeding. In the earlier 9

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Prophet as to the social conditions of the country in which it was born. The wars conducted by the Arabs before the appearance of the Prophet were mostly internecine feuds fought with savage fierceness, but strictly according to the quaint codes of honour, chivalry and nobility. The profuse spilling of blood did not fertilise the sands of Arabia, but it did, eventually, become prejudicial to the profitable economic consequences of robbery, the legitimate profession of trade conducted by the primitive Arabs. Economic necessity demanded termination of the proud but ruinous virtue of internecine wars, and diversion of the traditional Saracen valour in more profitable channels. The ideas, born out of that necessity, eventually crystallised into the “Religion of Mohammad”.

Itself a vast stretch of sandy wilderness, Arabia, however, is surrounded on three sides by populous countries – homes of ancient civilizations, where industry and agriculture thrived from time immemorial. On the south is the ocean on which navigated vessels carrying the trade of India.

Thanks to her geographical position, Arabia was intersected by the routes of Caravan trade and maritime commerce, interchanged among India, Persia, Assyria, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Abyssinia. In earlier days, the trade routes connecting Africa and Asia lay through the south

and north of the Peninsula, avoiding the unknown interior of the sandy wilderness. But the exorbitant taxation of Byzantine despotism, supplemented by the endless extortion of its local officials, drove the traders to hazard the encounter of the fierce but hospitable Beduin in the heart of his home.

Continued..............

[Publisher’s Note: This book, first published in 1939, was written when Roy was in jail in the early thirties under a sentence of twelve years rigorous imprisonment, later reduced to six, for ‘conspiring to deprive’ the king-Emperor of his sovereignty in India. Looking back at events in the intervening period, one might wish that this book had been read more widely in the decade before the Indian sub-continent became independent and at the same time partitioned into two States. A better knowledge and more objective understanding of the history of Islam on the part of Muslim as well as non-Muslim India might have prevented much of the later tragic developments and human suffering.

But it is never too late for knowledge and understanding to undo the harm that the lack of them has done. Hence, this small book on the historical role of Islam, in East and West, may itself have a historical role to play, apart from its intrinsic value as a scholarly treatise, beautifully written, on a fascinating chapter of human history.]

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THE RADICAL HUMANIST

Guests' Section:

Evidence that the Meritocracy is made up of Poor People —Paul Buchheit wealthy Americans believe that Many dysfunctional behavior causes poverty.

Their own success, they would insist, derives from good character and a strict work ethic. But they would be missing some of the facts. Ample evidence exists to show a correlation between wealth and unethical behavior and between wealth and a lack of empathy for others, and between wealth and unproductiveness.

The poor, along with a middle class that is sinking toward them, make up the American meritocracy.

Here is some of the evidence.

1. The Poor Don’t Cheat As Much: An analysis of seven different psychological studies found that “upper-class individuals behave more unethically than lower-class individuals.” A series of experiments showed that upper-class individuals were more likely to break traffic laws, take valued goods from others, lie in a negotiation, and cheat to increase their chances of winning a prize. And this doesn’t even begin to examine the many, many significant cases of fraudulent behavior in the banking industry. Or private equity firms that cheat their investors over 50 percent of the time. Or the many unscrupulous corporate tax avoidance strategies!

2. The Poor Care More About Other People: Numerous reputable sources have concluded that lower class individuals tend to be more generous and trusting and helpful, compared to the upper class. As people gain in wealth, they depend less on others, and thus they have less reason to understand the feelings and needs of the less fortunate. The poor are better at interpersonal relationships because they need other people. In addition, careful studies have determined that money pushes people further to the right, making them less egalitarian, and less willing, as a practical consequence, to

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provide broad educational opportunities to all members of society. One neuro-imaging analysis even suggested that the super-wealthy view photos of impoverished people as things rather than as human beings. They react to the poor not with sympathy, but with contempt.

3. The Rich Focus on Me, Me, Me: The authors of a recent psychological study argue that rich people are different because they have the freedom to focus on self. In support of this, a number of studies have demonstrated that higher social class is associated with increased narcissism, even to the point of looking at themselves more frequently in a mirror.

The rich feel entitled.

They attribute success to their ‘superior’ traits, while people from lower economic backgrounds attribute success to societal values, such as educational opportunities.

4. The Poor Give a Greater Percentage of Their Money to Others: Research has shown that low-income Americans spend a much higher percentage of their income on charitable giving results from three studies average out to 4.5% from low-income people, 2.7% from those with high incomes. With respect to helping people in need, the rich give even less. As Robert Reich notes, about two-thirds of ‘charitable’ donations from the rich go to their foundations and alma maters, and to “culture palaces” – operas, art museums, symphonies, and theaters. Charles Koch said, “I believe my business and non-profit investments are much more beneficial to societal well-being than sending more money to Washington.” The well-being of high society perhaps!

5. Entrepreneurs are in the (Sinking) Middle Class: The meritorious behavior of job creation comes from the middle class, which is quickly sliding toward lower-income status. The very rich generally don’t risk their money in job-creating startup businesses. Over 90% of the assets owned by millionaires are held in a combination of low-risk investments (bonds and cash), the stock market, and real estate. With the demise of the

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middle class, entrepreneurship is decreasing. These people merit our admiration for persevering

According to a Brookings Institute report, the “firm entry rate,” a measure of new firms and thus of entrepreneurial startup activity, fell by nearly half in the thirty-plus years between 1978 and 2011. America’s average entrepreneur is 26 years old, but most of our 26-year-olds are burdened by student loan debt.

Meriting Our Respect and Appreciation:Lower-income Americans serve our food, care for our sick, and clean up after us, with minimal benefits and few complaints. More and more middle-income workers are falling into this struggling group, as 9 out of 10 of the fastest-growing occupations are considered low-wage, generally not requiring a college degree.

in a society where a privileged few are taking almost everything.

Published on Monday, May 19, 2014 by Common Dreams. Source URL: https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/05/ 19-1 [Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, an active member of US Uncut Chicago, founder and developer of social justice and educational websites (UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org), and the editor and main author of “American Wars: Illusions and Realities” (Clarity Press). He can be reached at paul@UsAgainstGreed.org.]

Please register yourself on the RH Website (http://www.theradicalhumanist.com) ¨Please log in to it to give your comments on the articles and humanist news which are uploaded from the world over on the Website almost daily. ¨You may also send in news and write-ups from your part of the land for uploading on the Website. ¨Please send in your views and participate on the topics of debate given in the debate section. You yourself may also begin a debate on any topic of your choice in this section. ¨Please suggest themes for the coming issues of The Radical Humanist, discuss them in the Themes Section of the Website; the content of which may be later published in the RH journal. ¨It is your own inter-active portal formed with a purpose of social interaction amongst all Radical Humanists as well as Rationalists and Humanists from different forums also. ¨Do make it a practice to click on the RH Website http://www.theradicalhumanist.com URL daily, ceremoniously. ¨Please utilise the RH Website to come closer for the common cause of ushering in a renaissance in our country. —Rekha S.

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The National Food Security Act —R.K.A. Subrahmanya clothing and shelter constitute the Food basic needs of the people. Meeting these needs is a function of social security. Food security aims at ensuring that all people have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food at all times to maintain a healthy and active life.

The Public Distribution System (PDS) is the major instrument of government’s economic policy for enhancing food security to the poor. Under the PDS the Central Government bears the responsibility for the procurement and supply of five commodities, viz., rice, wheat, sugar, imported edible oils and kerosene to the States and Union Territories. Some states add a few more commodities for distribution under PDS. The States/UTs arrange distribution of PDS commodities to the consumers through a network of about 4.5 lakh retail outlets or Fair Price Shops.

The system has undergone several changes in course of time. Until 1992, the PDS had universal targeting, being available to all consumers. GoI introduced a revamped PDS (RPDS) in 1992 in limited areas, primarily drought prone, tribal and hilly, and remotely located. This was substituted in 1997 by the Targeted PDS (TPDS), specifically aimed at BPL people in all parts of the country.

State-wise BPL quota is fixed on the basis of the adjusted poverty share determined by the Planning Commission based on official poverty lines in 1993-94, adjusted for growth in population in the interim.

Under TPDS each poor family was entitled to 10 kgs of food grains per month at specially subsidized prices. The allocation of food grains for the BPL families was increased to 20 kg wef April 2000, and to 25 Kg. per family per month with effect from July, 2001. It was further increased to 35 kg in 2003-04, which corresponds to 84 kg per annum per unit, taking the average size of family as five. The central issue price for wheat and rice has 13

remained unchanged since April 2000.

According to the National Sample Survey about 5% of the total population in the country sleeps without two square meals a day. This section of the population can be called as “hungry”.

In order to make TPDS more focused and targeted towards this category of population, the “Antyodaya Anna Yojana” (AAY) was launched in December, 2000 for one crore poorest of the poor families. AAY contemplates providing them food grains at a highly subsidized rate of Rs 2/ per kg for wheat and Rs 3/ per kg for rice. The States/UTs are required to bear the distribution cost, including margin to dealers (In actual practice, none of the states give margin to the dealers, thus forcing them to corrupt practices.) and retailers as well as the transportation cost. Thus the entire food subsidy is being passed on to the consumers under the scheme. The scale of issue that was initially 25 kg per family per month has been increased to 35 kg per family per month with effect from 1st April, 2002. The AAY Scheme has been expanded from time It is now applicable to about 2.5 crore beneficiaries representing about 38 % of the BPL household.

The TPDS has now been replaced by the National Food Security Act with multiple objectives. The Act marks a paradigm shift in addressing the problem of food security—from the current welfare approach to a right based approach. Besides expanding coverage of the Targeted Public Distribution System, the proposed legislation would confer legal rights on eligible beneficiaries to receive entitled quantities of food grains at highly subsidized prices. It will also confer legal rights on women and children and other Special Groups such as destitute, homeless, disaster and emergency affected persons and persons living in starvation, to receive meal free of charge or at affordable price, as the case may be.

The Indian National Food Security Act, 2013 (also Right to Food Act), was signed into law September 12, 2013, retroactive to July 5, 2013. This law aims

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to provide subsidized food grains to approximately two thirds of India’s 1.2 billion people .Under the provisions of the bill, beneficiaries are to be able to purchase 5 kilograms per eligible person per month of cereals at the following prices: Rice at 3 per kg; Wheat at 2 per kg; Coarse grains Millet at 1 per kg.

Pregnant women, lactating mothers, and certain categories of children are eligible for daily free meals. The bill has been highly controversial. It was introduced into India’s parliament in December 2012, promulgated as a presidential ordinance on July 5, 2013, and enacted into law in August 2013 Salient features: 75% rural and 50% of the urban population are entitled for three years from enactment to five kg food grains per month at 3, 2 , 1 per kg for rice, wheat and coarse grains (millet), respectively. The states are responsible for determining eligibility.

Pregnant women and lactating mothers are entitled to a nutritious “take home ration” of 600 Calories and a maternity benefit of at least Rs 6,000 for six months. Children 6 months to 14 years of age are to receive free hot meals or “take home rations”. The central government will provide funds to states in case of short supplies of food grains. The current food grain allocation of the states will be protected by the central government for at least six months.

The state government will provide a food security allowance to the beneficiaries in case of non-supply of food grains. The Public Distribution System is to be reformed. The eldest woman in the household, 18 years or above, is the head of the household for the issuance of the ration card. There will be state- and district-level redress mechanisms.

State Food Commissions will be formed for implementation and monitoring of the provisions of the Act. The cost of the implementation is estimated to be Rs1.25 lac crore, approximately 1.5 % of GDP. The poorest that are covered under the Antodaya yojna will remain entitled to the 35 kg of grains allotted to them under the mentioned scheme.

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Although the targeted population as well as the quanta of supplies has increased the delivery mechanism has remained the same.

PDS is operated under the joint responsibility of the central and state governments, with the former responsible for procurement, storage, transportation (up to the district headquarters) and bulk allocation of food grains. The state governments are responsible for distributing these food grains to consumers through a network of Fair Price Shops. This responsibility includes identification of families below poverty line (BPL), issue of BPL cards, and supervision and monitoring of the functioning of the Fair Price Shops. States are also responsible for movement of food grains from the district headquarters to the PDS shop, which requires storage at the sub-district level. As food was always a non-plan subject, such an infrastructure is often weak in the northern states.

Although the PDS has been in force for several years there are several defects in the system.

The different weaknesses in the targeted public distribution system (TPDS) include ration cards being mortgaged to ration shop owners, large errors of exclusion of BPL families and inclusion of above poverty line (APL) families, prevalence of ghost BPL cards with weaknesses in the delivery mechanism leading to large scale leakages and diversion of subsidized grains to unintended beneficiaries, section of the APL households holding BPL cards actually not lifting their ration quota and thus a part of the entitlement of these households leaking out of the PDS supply chain.

The basic defect lies in the fact that effective targeting of Below Poverty Line (BPL) families has been found to be administratively difficult task and there was a genuine risk of the people most in need of food security being left out. According to a computation by the World Bank almost half of the poor are left out from the appropriate category of ration cards. Governments like Tamilnadu have therefore opted for universal coverage and are therefore held up as model for effective

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implementation of a comprehensive food security system.

The other defect in system lies in the fact that responsibilities for storage, transport and distribution within districts are contracted out to “fair price” shops and the associated contractors.

This has created substantial scope for fraudulent practices due to large gap between market prices and prices in fair-price shops. According to a study by the Planning commission: about 58 per cent of the subsidized food grain issued from the Central Pool does not reach the BPL families because of identification errors, non-transparent operation and corrupt practices in the implementation of TPDS. There are errors of wrong inclusion of ghost cards and non-BPL households; only about 57% of the BPL households are covered by it. Over 36% of the budgetary subsidies on food are siphoned off the supply chain and another 21% reaches the APL households. Only about 42% of subsidized grain issued from the Central Pool reaches the target group. The FPSs are generally not viable because of low annual turnover and they remain in business through leakages and diversions of subsidized grains.

A recent study by the independent evaluator appointed by the Government the government spends Rs 3.65 to deliver Re 1 of food while 57% of subsidized food grains do not reach the intended beneficiaries.

The National Food Security Act is regarded as “biggest ever experiment in the world for distributing highly subsidized food by any government through a ‘rights based’ approach.”

Professor Jean Drèze, reputedly one of the architects of the original, 2011 version of the bill, described the National Food Security Bill “...the Bill is a form of investment in human capital. It will bring some security in people’s lives and make it easier for them to meet their basic needs, protect their health, educate their children, and take risks."

The Minister of Food and Civil Supplies has claimed: “The day is not far off, when India will be

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known the world over for this important step towards eradication of hunger, malnutrition and resultant poverty.

By providing food security to 75 percent of the rural and 50 percent of the urban population with focus on nutritional needs of children, pregnant and lactating women, the National Food Security Bill will revolutionize food distribution system” These claims cannot however be realized unless the existing defects in the system are rectified. Several suggestions have been made to improve the working of the Scheme .These suggestions impinge on the scope of the scheme and are not likely to make any qualitative change in the system. The basic flaw in the system seems to lie in the fact that is based on the principle of public private partnership which is not working well. The governments of Chattisgarh and Tamil Nadu have deprivatised the system and it is reported to be working well there. This conference may consider whether it would recommend similar measures to be taken elsewhere.

[Sri R.K.A. Subrahmanya, former Accountant General in Assam Orissa, Tamilnadu and Kerala was Addl Secretary in the Union Ministry of Labor in 1979. He was Chairman of the Central Board of Trustees of the EPFO, the Standing Committee of the ESIC and the Central Board of Workers Education and represented the Government of India in the International Labor Conferences held in Geneva for four years. He was the Chairman of the Study Group on Social Security set up by the National Commission on Labor. He was awarded a Medal of Merit for his contribution to the cause of social security by the International Social Security Association in the year 2000. He is the Secretary General of Social Security Association of India since 1991. He may be contacted at: 573, 10th cross, J.P.Nagar, IIIPhase, Bangalore 560078, Telephone/Fax No.:91-080 -658 0797 ssanantha@yahoo.com; ssanantha@vsnl.net]

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Who bothers for the National Litigation Policy?

—S. N. Shukla (Union of India or the State of UP Theor state their instrumentalities) is a party in most of the writ petitions or appeals before the High Court and a sizeable percentage of these cases relate to service matters for which Central/State Administrative Tribunals were established under the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985. These tribunals were established to provide speedy justice and reduce the workload on the High Courts.

The National Litigation Policy (hereinafter referred to as the policy) announced by the then Union Law Minister in June 2010 provides as follows“Given that Tribunalisation is meant to remove the loads from Courts challenge to orders of Tribunals should be an exception and not a matter of routine.

In service matters, no appeals will be filed in cases where: The matter pertains to an individual grievance without any major repercussion.

The matter pertains to a case of pension or retirement benefits without involving any principle and without setting any precedent or financial implications.

Further proceedings will not be filed in service matters merely because the order of the Administrative Tribunal affects a number of employees.

Appeals will not be filed to espouse the cause of one section of employees against another.”

Evidently, the aforesaid stipulations in the Policy will apply with greater force in respect of appeals and further proceedings against the judgments of High Court Judges sitting singly or in Division Bench. However, it has been noticed that in utter disregard of the clear guidelines in the Policy Writ Petitions/special appeals/SLPs against the decisions of the Tribunal/Single Judge/Division Bench are filed in a routine manner resulting in not 16

only denial of justice and consequent loss of public faith in the fairness of the supposedly welfare State, but also in unnecessary burden on the High Court/ Supreme Court and avoidable huge waste of tax payers money which could be put to better use of providing basic needs of the poor people. The only beneficiaries of such unnecessary avoidable luxury of litigation at public expense are the government counsel and the Special counsel who are also supposed to assist the Court in doing Justice.

Some instances of gross violation of the Policy are narrated below1. Special Appeal D No. 780 of 2012 State of UP and Others Vs. Sanjeev Kumar Bajpeyi.

The petitioner respondent was working on consolidated wages in Uttaranchal Development Department. Upon creation of Uttaranchal state his services were placed at the disposal of the Uttaranchal Government against substantive post created for the new state. However, he was not given a regular appointment there. Instead of absorbing him in the state government his services were terminated. Thereupon he filed a writ petition no. 1920 (S/S) of 2001 which was disposed of in August 2004 with a direction to give similar treatment to the petitioner also which was given to a similarly circumstanced person and consider his absorption in the Estate Department. However, without even considering the case of the petitioner for absorption, the Estate Officer appointed 32 drivers in March 2006. Still the contempt petition was dismissed on 23.4.2012 saying that the order has been complied with. Meanwhile, against the order of the Estate Officer rejecting the petitioner’s representation for absorption, the petitioner again filed a writ petition no. 6435 (S/S) of 2008 which was allowed on 10.7.2012 with the observation that the concerned authority had failed to appreciate the directive issued in the earlier writ petition.

Despite this categorical observation the department again preferred a special appeal D No. 780 of 2012 in gross violation of the National Litigation Policy.

The said special appeal was ultimately dismissed

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on 18.9.2013. Then only the order of the Writ Court was complied with only after issue of notice to the Estate Officer for personal appearance in the second contempt proceedings. However, the poor driver was unnecessarily made to suffer for the last 9 years as it took another writ petition, 2 contempt petitions and 2 special appeals to get justice even after the first decision from the High Court.

2. Special Appeals D No. 294 & 903 of 2013 UP State Handloom Corporation Ltd./State of UP Vs. Krishna Bhagwan Pandey and another.

The petitioner respondent, a Depot Manager in the appellant Corporation had filed a writ petition no.

4075 (S/S) of 2004 against his prima facie illegal and unjustified retrenchment, even though admittedly he was not a workman. The High Court was pleased to stay the retrenchment order.

Subsequently, the writ petition was dismissed on 10.12.2007 on the ground of alternative remedy but the petitioner continued to work till attaining the age of superannuation on 31.12.2007. The petitioner’s special appeal was allowed on 15.9.2009 and the matter remanded for decision on merits. The SLP against it was also dismissed on 3.5.2010. Finally the writ petition was allowed by the judgment dated 5.4.2013. Still despite the orders in the earlier special appeal and SLP and ignoring the fact that the petitioner had already worked till his retirement on the strength of the interim order, instead of paying the balance salary and retirement dues, the aforesaid Special Appeals were filed in utter disregard of the National Litigation Policy even though the appellant corporation apparently has no case, as nonpayment for services rendered by him will amount to forced labour.

3. Special Appeal D No. 514 of 2013 State of UP and others Vs. Ram Charitra Misra.

The petitioner respondent was appointed as Stenographer in the Board of Revenue in August 78 and was confirmed in August 79. During the period from August 81 to May 92 he was attached to camp offices of different officers and the work of the post

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of Personal Assistant was taken from him. In May 1992 he was given ad hoc promotion on the post of Personal Assistant and in February 1993 he was treated to have been temporarily promoted to the post of Personal Assistant. On the matter being referred by the Board the UP Subordinate Service Selection Commission, it gave consent to hold a regular selection for the post of PA from departmental candidates. However, he was reverted to the original post of Stenographer. The petitioner challenged his reversion through writ petition no. 7449 (S/S) of 1993 and the High Court was pleased to grant an interim stay and the petitioner has been working on the post of PA for the last 20 years. Keeping this in view the writ petition was finally disposed of on 29.9.2012 with the observation that the petitioner shall be allowed to work on the post of PA along with consequential benefits. Still despite the facts that the Board has not been able to hold regular selection for the post of PA for the last 20 years and the petitioner has been working as PA during this period on the basis of ad hoc promotion given to him as per the provision in the Rules, the aforesaid special appeal has been filed belatedly with inexcusable delay of 10 months, completely ignoring the guidelines of the National Litigation Policy.

4. Writ Petition No. 308 (S/B) of 2014 U.P. Khadi and Village Industries Board Vs. Uma Shankar Pandey & Another.

The respondent Uma Shankar Pandey was working as ADO (Grade I) in the Board. He was reverted in December 1990 for non compliance of the transfer order in gross violation of Article 311 without any disciplinary proceedings or even a show cause notice. The reversion was made being prejudiced due to the stay order granted by the High Court while in other similar cases where persons were transferred from Hill to Plains cadre no such drastic action was taken. Subsequently, the reversion order was treated as ineffective by the Board. However, even then he was not given arrears of salary for reversion period, ignoring the clear provisions of Financial Hand Book Volume II to IV para 29-A(a) 17

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which provides that if the said order is set aside, he shall be given, for the period such order has been in force, the difference between the pay to which he would have entitled had that order not been made and the pay he had actually drawn.

The respondent no. 1 thereupon filed in the State Administrative Tribunal a claim petition no. 741 of 2006 which was allowed vide judgment and order dated 12.9.2013. However, in utter disregard of the aforesaid stipulations in the Policy, the Board filed a WP No. 308 (S/B) of 2014 in the High Court. At the preliminary hearing of the said WP the respondent’s counsel raised objection against the maintainability of the WP in view of the stipulations in the National Litigation Policy as the matter pertained to an individual grievance without any major repercussion and did not fall in any of the exceptions under which the Tribunal’s order could be challenged. It was also submitted that in view of this preliminary objection about maintainability of the WP itself, there was no case for grant of interim relief. To this the Presiding Judge remarked “you want to close the High Court?” and the Tribunal’s order was stayed without specifying the question of law involved in the WP. The stay order was extended on subsequent dates without deciding the respondent’s application for stay vacation, even though the petitioner did not file his rejoinder within the 1 week’s time allowed by the Court and the petitioner’s counsel was not present on the last two dates.

These are only a few instances of the glaring violations of the National Litigation Policy and gross abuse of the process of law at public expense.

There must be hundreds and thousands of similar other cases of the State and its instrumentalities harassing their employees because those indulging in such unnecessary litigation do not have to pay for it. If the guidelines of the National Litigation Policy are strictly enforced, it will not only drastically reduce the burden of unnecessary cases in the High Court and Supreme Court but will also save lot of public money.

This writer had sent a letter dated 24.9.2013 to the Principal Secretary, Law Department UP Government drawing his attention to the blatant violation of National Litigation Policy in the first three cases mentioned above. It was stressed that if the guidelines of the policy are followed it will also instill confidence among employees about the fairness of the government and its respect for the orders of the Courts. It was requested that in future action as per the guidelines in the Policy be ensured and responsibility be fixed in the aforesaid cases. A copy of the letter was sent to the Chief Secretary for recovery of the expenditure incurred in these cases from the officers who recommended and approved filing of special appeals against the Policy guidelines. A copy of the letter was also sent to the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister for the information and orders of the Chief Minister.

However, there has been no response from any quarter so far. So much for their seriousness to act on the Policy framed by the Central Government!

[S.N. Shukla, retired IAS is an advocate and General Secretary of Lok Prahari, Lucknow. He may be contacted at: shukla.sn@gmail.com]

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— Rekha Saraswat

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Current Affairs Section:

Importance of being Nawaz Sharif —Kuldip Nayar followed the visit of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to India from his arrival to the departure. I did not find any false note either in his observations or meetings. He did not mention Kashmir. Nor did he meet the separatists who are always keen to have talks with the Pakistani leaders, not the Indians. From all angles, it was a positive and constructive visit.

That Nawas Sharif’s advisor Sartaj Aziz reignited the embers of bitter hostility by briefing in Pakistan on Kashmir and several other counts is not understandable. He had to indulge in rhetoric for domestic consumption. Lobbies of the armed forces and maulvis were assured that Nawaz Sharif vented his annoyance in private while talking to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Still I wish Sartaj Aziz had not done so because the meeting had changed the climate of opposition in India. Even the rightists in the country had conceded that a new chapter of equation had begun in the history of India and Pakistan relations. Sartaj Aziz, whatever his compulsions, did not have to take us all back to square one. Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh’s statement may have queered the pitch, but Sartaj Aziz is not a bureaucrat and he should have kept India-Pakistan relations at a higher level.

Therefore, do not see a breakthrough in the stand that the two sides had taken from the time the two countries had parted company in August 1947. In fact, I have sensed more optimism on earlier meetings between the Prime Ministers on both sides. Nothing concrete has come out because the establishments in India and Pakistan are basically hostile to each other. No passage of time has lessened their influence or attitude.

Yet the relationship of love and hate smoulders all the time. People in the two countries yearn for friendship or at least normalcy. The meeting

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between Prime Ministers Modi and Sharif has once again evoked hope for better days. Once again, foreign secretaries of the two governments are to pinpoint what keeps the countries apart. If the past is any guide, the goodwill will not fructify into normal relations. The reason why I say so is the enmity which has been fostered in the minds of people. It was to be seen and believed the enthusiasm with which the visit of Nawaz Sharif was awaited in India. The nation should have been engaged in Narendra Modi’s resounding victory or the decimation of the Congress party which has ruled India for several decades. Instead the attention was focused on Islamabad.

Four or five days between Modi’s unexpected invitation and acceptance by Sharif dominated the Indian media and the drawing rooms with discussions on whether the Pakistan Prime Minister would come to Delhi at all. And it was all positive.

People wanted him to come and literally prayed that he would. That he had to bring round the armed forces and the extremist elements in his own country was conceded. But it was argued that his arrival would be an apt step to strengthen democratic ideas in Pakistan. Therefore, when he telephoned to say yes, a wave of relief swept through the country. Most newspapers made his acceptance as the first lead.

I recall how at the time of partition there was so much bloodshed—nearly 10 lakh people were massacred on both sides. Yet a few weeks later when I bought a few tapes of Noorjehan at Lahore, the shopkeeper refused to take money since I was from India. A similar treatment was meted out to the Pakistanis. The days of killing were only a few, an aberration of sort.

It is beyond me to make out why Pakistan has unilaterally ended the agreement to post two journalists from either country to cover the situation. Pakistan did not have its journalists in position for more than a year. I could have understood the reason if the two Indian journalists had violated any law or sent a dispatch which had

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hurt Pakistan’s sentiments. There was nothing like that.

Regretfully, news agencies and correspondents from the West are free to report.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to India took a similar zigzag path. Prime Minister Modi, considered a hawk, surprised even hardliners in both the countries when he invited all heads of SAARC nations. Nawaz Sharif was inclined to accept it. Yet the India-Pakistan animosity came in the way. The army and the extremists exerted so much pressure that the visit seemed abandoned.

Ultimately, Sharif asserted himself to attend swearing-in ceremony. His was not only a gesture because after meeting Modi, Sharif said that a new chapter had begun in the history of the two countries.

The fear that Modi is anti-Muslim was allayed when the two met. Modi realizes that he has to take the Muslims along to traverse the path of development, the slogan which has given him and his Bhartiya Janata Party a majority, 282 seats in a 543-member Lok Sabha. It is churlish on the part of Pakistan to question the credentials of a person whom the people of India have elected in fair and free polls. There are enough voices in India to force Modi not to go away from secularism, part of the basic structure of the constitution that even parliament cannot change. True, Modi’s party and its mentor, the RSS, are known for their Hindutva approach. Yet they would put the country in a big turmoil if they exerted pressure on Modi to build a temple where the Babri masjid stood or to tinker with Article 370 which constitutionally gives a special status to Jammu and Kashmir when it acceded to India. What kind of country Modi wants to build is the question. The cabinet he has constituted gives a message that he wants the different elements to feel that he will not discriminate against any segment of the society, religious or linguistic. The first heartening step of his government to appoint a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to unearth black money is a good omen. We should give him time to fulfill the aspirations of people he has aroused.

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Future of Congress: is not the first time that the Congress This has been decimated, getting only 44 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha. The party met more or less a similar fate in the 1977 election held after the emergency. Mrs Indira Gandhi, the architect of the emergency and her extra-constitutional son, Sanjay Gandhi, too lost in the polls. Yet the Congress retained the three southern states—Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.

Even the overall tally was around 150. It was, indeed, a defeat but not a rout as it has been the case now. People were then angry over the excesses committed during the emergency. They felt relieved after punishing the Congress for all that it did. They brought back the party after they found the Janata Party, the successor, floundering. Theirs was anger, not alienation. This time it is a vote against non-governance and the scams which tumbled one after another from the party’s cupboard. The disillusionment is deeper than ever before, the belief that the party cannot give a clean and efficient government. If Narendra Modi and his Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) manage to deliver on the agenda of development and employment—they have secured 282 seats—then the return of the Congress will be difficult even in the next election in 2019. Much will depend on Modi. The speech he has delivered before the elected MPs of his party is so emphatic in tone and so promising in tenor that he looks like settling in at least for a decade. The delivery on progress and jobs may make the return of the Congress still more difficult in the foreseeable future. Modi is intelligent enough to realize that the Hindutva card is not necessary to play when the BJP-RSS combine has made inroads in the southern states as well. If the middle class had not been influenced by soft Hindutva, such a sweep would not have been possible. That is the reason why Modi is underlining development. He wants to show that the BJP is capable of pulling people out of poverty in which at least one third in the country are hopelessly stuck. True, the

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outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was an open book. But there was very little written in terms of performance. The ever-increasing prices and the arrogance of power botched even the average growth rate of nearly 8 percent. The Congress problem was never Manmohan Singh who, in any case, is a yesterday story. How does the party disentangle itself from the dynasty and stands on its own is the issue it is facing today. Party president Sonia Gandhi and her son, Rahul Gandhi, ran the government and the party. Now that both have failed who do the people turn to? Both have offered to resign but the working committee has refused to accept their resignations. After all, they are the ones who constitute the leadership. They have not allowed anyone else to grow or emerge. The Congress has nowhere to go except the dynasty which has run the party since independence. It was said about Jawaharlal Nehru that he was like a banyan tree which did not let anything beneath to grow. The Congress was dependent on him.

Consequently, none in the party emerged to be its natural choice when he died. Mrs Indira Gandhi, his daughter, whom he had groomed, was not acceptable to the party at that time. Lal Bahadur Shastri was the natural choice because he was the consensus candidate, although Morarji Desai threw his hat in the ring knowing that he had the support of most state chief ministers. But the then Congress president, K. Kamaraj, found him too rigid and preferred Indira Gandhi. The party of today is entirely different because Kamaraj and Mrs Indira Gandhi are rolled into one person: Sonia Gandhi.

The party does not have to introspect. She has to do so. Is she willing to give up control over the party, state leaders and others? Is she ready to accept the criterion of their working at the grassroots rather than being sycophants to her? The suggestion that the party’s office-bearers should be elected carries weight. But something similar was tried and found to be a mere exercise because bogus voters proliferated. Maybe, the office of party president and that of the Prime Minister should be combined.

Mrs Indira Gandhi did so. She, as Prime Minister,

found the Congress president in the way. This may be very much a presidential form of governance.

But that is how Narendra Modi is going to function.

His election campaign showed that. The presidential form is, no doubt, democratic but it gives room for authoritarianism. He has already announced that he would also head the National Democratic Alliance. The history is replete with such examples. The Soviet Union was run like that.

After several decades, it got disintegrated because of concentration of power at Moscow. Even now Russian President Vladimir Putin rules in the same style and this can be seen in Moscow’s attitude towards Ukraine. America has escaped dictatorship even though it has the presidential system because of the checks and balances. The Congress, the US parliament, is strong.

The Congress Party in India can bounce back because it is the only alternative available. In the minds of the people there are only two parties, Congress and the BJP. When they do not find one delivering, they return the other which they had rejected previously. They are stuck with the two.

The Aam Admi Party (AAP), a movement against corruption which converted itself into a political party, can be an alternative provided it expands its base. The AAP has secured less than three percent of votes in the election. Moreover, the anti-corruption stand it has taken is laudable. But there has to be an ideology or vision if it wants to attract voters. It messed up a great opportunity it got in Delhi. Even if the party has admitted its mistakes, though belatedly, it will take time for that blemish to go. The party has to work in the field. It cannot depend on slogans alone. Power that has got concentrated at the top, more specifically its leader Arvind Kejriwal, must spread. There is no other way. This holds good for Modi as well.

[Kuldip Nayar is a veteran syndicated columnist catering to around 80 newspapers and journals in fourteen languages in India and abroad. He may be contacted at:kuldipnayar09@gmail.com]

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Priorities for Modi Government —Rajindar Sachar Public disgust with Congress (UPA) Thegovernment of the last decade has seen it being defeated – no it is decimated. But BJP must not over exult by assuming that the majority has endorsed its policies. It should be politically honest enough to admit that it is corporate created TV, SMS, Publicity image of Modi that has scored.

A delusional image of development being unleashed by Modi has somehow temporarily sanitized the young into Modi club. BJP electoral expense Rs. 20,000 to 40,000 crore is considered a modest estimate. This strengthens the demand for prohibition of corporate funding in elections.

Modi is obviously a deeply religions man is shown by his doing Puja of Mother Ganga. No one can take any exception to his personal belief and action.

But Modi is now the Prime Minister of this country where 20% are non Hindu Minority, out of which 80% (nearly 18 crores) are Muslims. Modi has been proclaiming that he intends to function evenly and without any discrimination either in favour of Hindus or against Muslims and other Minorities.

Could Modi in this hour of his unimaginative triumph do only two humane gestures to clear the fear amongst Muslims – first could he pay a similar visit to Ajmer Chistis’ Dargaha and offer Chadar – this revered place has been for centuries a sanctuary of repose for men and women of all faith as an assertion that all religions are on equal pedestal.

As far Modi's developmental model which is similar to Congress model there is obviously going to be deep conflict – between the neo-liberal strategy of development and of decentralized development as envisaged by 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments of our Constitution.

On this matter the peoples' immediate resistance would be on the UPA sponsored Japanese financed Amritsar-Calcutta and Delhi-Bombay corridors development plan and which is going to displace 22

millions of small landholders and poor (and which Modi is likely to follow up because this fits in with his developmental pattern). So this is a continuing danger - one which Socialist Party and other human Right activists will collide with – this conflict is acceptable and is natural in any democratic nation.

But the biggest challenge facing Modi is as to how to act in a manner so as to avoid divisive conflict in the society – this is dependent on how he acts towards the Minorities, especially the Muslims.

This is because under our Constitution no religion can claim superiority of status against any other religion. All religions under our constitution have equal acceptance and status. It is a truism that in any country the faith and the confidence of the Minorities in the impartial and even functioning of the State is the acid test of being a civilized State.

This is accepted wisdom, and was expressed succinctly by Lord Acton; “A state which is incompetent to satisfy different races condemns itself; a state which labours to neutralize, to absorb or to expel them is destitute of the chief basis of self-government”. We need only substitute ‘minorities’ for ‘races’ in the above quotation to apply the test in India.

Thus inclusive development in India and for that matter in any country alone is the path to prosperity. It is an undeniable truth and needs to be irrevocably accepted by all in India, namely that minorities, Muslims and Christians are not outsiders. They are an integral part of India. This was emphasized by Swami Vivekanand, (whom Modi will certainly accept as one of the greatest Indians we have produced) thus; “He also told Hindus not to talk of the superiority of one religion over another. Even toleration of other faiths was not right; it smacked of blasphemy”. In his letter to a Muslim friend in 1898, he again emphasized.

“For our own motherland a junction of the two great systems Hinduism and Islam – Vedanta brain and Islam body - is the only hope……. the future perfect India.” Modi often purports to show his neutrality by proclaiming that he does not

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recognize any special rights for Minorities – he treats all people as Gujaratees or Indians. This apparently impartial approach for all is similar to the taunt by French Author Anatole France – who ironically commented at the neglect of the poor by French State thus; “Law in its majesty gives equal rights to the rich and poor to sleep under the bridges”. Thus to say that Minorities who are admittedly far behind in the race of development as against the others should not be given special treatment is not only sheer injustice but violative of the mandate of report of U.N. Human Right council, Forum on Minority issued on December 14th, 15th, 2010 which has said; “Consequently, the right of minorities to participate effectively in economic life must be fully taken into account by governments seeking to promote equality at every level. Governments should gather and regularly publicize desegregated data to measure and monitor the effective participation of minorities in economic life.” Thus it is a mischievous propaganda that targeted programme for Minorities is not legal or Constitutional.

Modi rightly reveres Gandhiji – (surely Modi would remember what he said in 1921 and March 1947) namely; “I would say that Hindus and Muslims are the two eyes of mother India-just as the trouble in one eye affects the other too, similarly the whole of India suffers when either Hindu or Muslim suffer.”

Would not Modi like to pay obeisance to the memory of Gandhiji if in his inaugural speech on being sworn as Prime Minister he was to declare

that Government of India’s 15 Point Minority Programme which has continued under different governments will continue as before and that he is open to meeting with Minority leaders so as to make it even more effective. This declaration, if made will act as a balm and relieve the tension in the country especially amongst Muslims, and thus enabling Modi to attend to other urgent problems.

Will Modi like to be remembered as a Statesman or as a partisan leader – he alone can decide, because this victory has given him an unparalleled position amongst his colleagues. This situation poses a danger to democracy as pointed out by Dr. Ambedkar thus; “There is nothing wrong in being grateful to great men who have rendered life long service to the country. But there are limits to gratefulness – For in India unlike in any other country in the world, Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul. But, in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship”. We must never forget this warning by the architect of our Constitution.

[Mr. Justice, Rajindar Sachar, Chief Justice (Retd.) High Court of Delhi, New Delhi; Chairperson Prime Minister’s High Level Committee On Status of Muslims (Ex.) UN Special Rappoetuer on Housing; Member, U.N. Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities (Ex.); President, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) India (Ex.) may be contacted at: rsachar23@bol.net.in; rsachar1@vsnl.net;Mob.:9810009644 ]

Insisting upon the method that the facts of known history must be referred back to their primitive origin, in order to be properly appreciated, Vico established what he called “this incontestable truth: the social world is certainly the work of man.” The corollary to this incontestable truth was “that one can and should find its principles in the modification of human intelligence itself.”

Young Michelet writing “on the burning pavements of Paris”, in the midst of the July revolution of 1830, was struck by Vico’s anthropological, philological and sociological approach to the problems of historical research. He was, as he himself declared, “seized by a frenzy caught from Vico, an incredible intoxication with his great historical principles.”

— M.N. Roy, Reason, Romanticism and Revolution, Vo. I, page 2

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Victory for Political Marketing in India —K.S. Chalam as a sub-discipline of Political-Marketing Political Management course in some Western universities became an academic success after globalisation and the expansion of market democracy. It looks that the subject has not yet attracted the mainstream academic disciplines like Political Science, Political Economy, and Public Policy in India. The recent amazing landslide of BJP particularly through its P.M. designee is a marker to be noted by every social scientist.

Though there is a small study on political marketing of BJP in Delhi elections, it has not attracted the attention of many. The role of media, internet, technology, consultants etc are very important in understanding the concept of political marketing. The subject of commercial marketing is applied here. This is how scholars Kotler and Levy, Mac Ginnis and others in the 1960s and 70s have produced studies on the subject. It is now a thriving business for consulting firms in the USA. It is noted that the services of famous political marketing consultants like James Carville who was strategist for Bill Clinton in 1992, Karl Rover for George W. Bush in 2000, Philip Goulder for Tony Blair in the UK, Mark Penn for Hillary Clinton in 2007 have been accessed to win elections mostly in the market democracies. We are told that our PM Narendra Bhai Modi had employed some famous consulting firms sometime after 2012 elections in Gujarat with an aim to seize power in Delhi while the Congress party had relied on some bureaucrats who had degrees in Management, AAP had psephologists etc.‘Business Today’ gave the names of the firms, Mc Cann World, Ogilvy& Mather etc. The left averse to the idea of market is devastated. In other words, it is now a full scale service activity that can be hired by political parties. The left averse to the idea of market is devastated. Market is understood as a place where buyers and sellers meet not 24

necessarily in a physical setup to transact. It is now possible to interact on the net, E-marketing.

‘Political marketing is about political organisations (such as political parties), adapting techniques (such as market research and product design) and concepts (such as the desire to satisfy voter demands), originally used in the business world to help them achieve their goals (such as win in elections)’. Ever since Anthony Downs published his famous book on ‘Economic Theory of Democracy’ that stimulated Buchanan, Gordon Tullok, Stigler, Jagadish Bhagwati and others who attacked the institution of state and made it vulnerable, market has entered all human activities. India is credited as one of the developing countries to have followed the model of growth prescribed by funding agencies. Though some of our commentators acclaim our leaders and policy makers for this, it is not their ingenuity that facilitated the turnaround of the economy, but meekly following the model set by them. However, it has almost reached the status of a western economy ending some of the traditional institutions that kept our identity except caste, religion and diversity. Now, it is anticipated that with the involvement of market in political game, we may also attain that status soon. At the same time, it is possible to make them imitate some of our institutions so that we can proudly say later that we are parallel in our structures and tastes. This is a win-win situation that pleases most of our leaders in Delhi, Hyderabad etc. It is in this context, political marketing is relevant here.

Political marketing requires some basic things like the product, brand image, political consumer, communication, delivery etc. Among the above fundamentals, product design is very important. In order to get to the brass-tacks, the analysts are supposed to get the feel of market demands by talking to party members, focus group discussions, opinion polls, segmentation of voters/consumers, views of public etc to design the product. The product design and development based on market intelligence is crucial here. It is said that Reagan

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made his product on ‘peace and economy’, Bush ‘no tax rises’, Clinton ‘change and economy’ Obama ‘yes, we can’ etc. We have seen Narendra Bhai using the language in several campaigns including the one in the L.B. stadium. After the product is designed like ‘development and change’ ‘Congress hatao’, etc, branding is very vital.

Branding is about how the political organisation or individual is perceived overall. If the organisation is found to be redundant, it is better to rely on individual and focus all resources for making him/her the brand equity. Brands are essential in the Electronic age to create a feeling of identity, help consumers/voters know about the party and its policies, and distinguish the brand from another brand of a competing party. Above all it is possible to examine the life cycle of the product and make changes when better products dominate the market.

In the recent elections, Narendra Modi is found to be a robust brand that captured the market compared to others. We have seen the media honchos using the above terms in their election coverage.

It is said that there are two categories of parties, the sales oriented party (SOP) and the market oriented party (MOP). The former relies on the method of persuasion to change the mind-set of voters while the latter, responds to the views and demands of the voters. However, both depend on the market strategies of communicating with the voter through brand image. The 4Ps of product (campaign platform), push marketing (grass roots efforts), and pull marketing (mass media) and polling (research) are used to communicate with the voter by using all means of communication. We have seen the use of not only internet, electronic screens etc , but also massive live programmes using TV channels, print media etc . The glamour of film stars as in the case of consumer products has been extensively used to improve the brand image of parties in recent elections. The technique is, of course, very

expensive involving expert teams from abroad.

However, parties with corporate support alone can afford this as in the USA. In a way, it is good that elections and political parties are slowly moving in to a regime that makes all this process standardised so that it can be monitored or regulated from any part of the world.

Branding of political leader and the product image of the party involve investment to be made to attract the young smart phone wielded, web surfed, TV addicts. But, what is missing in the whole exercise is that the message that the leader wanted to convey and the response of the voter and his needs seem to be lost forever. It is considered like a use-and-throw consumerism that influences the whole political process that may not be suitable for a country like India. At home, we have seen TRS in Telangana using the traditional method of reaching out to the voters to empathise with them through its manifesto, is a grand success. PM may be suitable in countries where party membership and voting are dwindling, traditional segmentation like class, family eroded, TV and internet are prime sources of information and where voters are critical about parties. Do the recent elections convey any symptom of the coming of age where we can outsource our polls including Election Commission to an MNC? [K.S. Chalam has been Vice- Chancellor, Dravidian University, Kuppam (AP), (2005); Member, Planning Board, Govt. of M.P., (2002-04); Founder Director, UGC Academic Staff College, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam (1987-2005); Director, Swamy Ramananda Tirtha Rural Institute, Pochampally, Hyderabad (1997-98); Professor of Economics, Andhra University (1990-2005). He is on several Committees as Hon’ble Chairman, Member such as UGC, NCRI, A.U. etc. He may be contacted at: chalamks@hotmail.com]

"The lack of confidence in the ability of the common people to manage public affairs has found political expression in the replacement of monarchy by the so called representative government."—M.N. Roy 25

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Rape: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow —Sharu S. Rangnekar Till yesterday, many cases of Synopsis: sexual violence were not considered as crimes, neither reported and nor punished. In view of the increasing awareness, this area of crime is getting greater attention today. However, the efforts to reduce the incidence of this crime are not properly focused. This paper is aimed at the appropriate short-term and long-term measures to deal with this crime.

Introduction: Recently with the Delhi Nirbhaya Case and Mumbai Shakti Mill rape Case, there has been an upheaval resulting in making the rape laws more stringent and the penalty much higher. This was a result of emotional outburst rather than a logical analysis. If there is going to be any effective impact on the problem some basic questions have to be asked: Why rapes take place?

Where the rape problem is more and where it is less? Why? Which measures can make an impact in this problem?

Causes of Rape: In all the creatures of this world, there are basically two castes: Male & Female. The rape problem seems to be more significant amongst human beings compared to other creatures. This is probably due to the following reasons: The sexuality among other animals is seasonal and lasts for a few months of a year. Among human beings the sexuality seems to be continuous all throughout the year.

Amongst other animals the sexuality is linked with power. A powerful male member of a herd is entitled to sexual access to the female members so the concept of rape does not exist. In human beings the power of the male does not give him the right to rape.

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In human beings there are relationships and taboos which in some cases (eg. incest) are equated with rape. In other animals such taboos do not exist.

Rape in Other Animals: Behaviour resembling rape is observed among non-humans like ducks, geese, dolphins, various monkeys like Chimpanzees. In some cases such copulations account for half of all matings. Thus, human rape does not appear to be an aberration but an alternative gene transferring strategy.

Non-recognized Rapes: a. War Rapes: In War situations rapes become very frequent as the victorious combatants are considered privileged and rapes committed by them are not recognized as rapes. Even in recent times, war rapes have been significant, e.g. 80,000 women were raped by Japanese soldier during the six weeks of Nanking Massacre. During World War II an estimated 200,000 Korean and Chinese women were forced into prostitution in Japanese military brothels.

200,000 women were raped during the Bangladesh Liberation War by the Pakistani army and at least 20,000 Bosnian Muslim women were raped by Serb forces during the Bosnian War. It was only in 1998 that it was considered as a crime against humanity. And action was started with indictment confirmed by the International Criminal Tribunal only from 2001. Before that most of these rapes were considered as rival propaganda. b. Commercial Rapes: An important aspect of rape is the existence of prostitution known as the “oldest profession in the world”. There have been various attempts to curb prostitution but without any significant success. In fact, with the porn industry becoming financially more and more rewarding, there is an increase in commercial rapes. c. Marital Rapes: Marital rape is non-consensual sex where the perpetrator is the victim’s spouse.

Once widely condoned or ignored by law, marital rape is now considered a crime by international conventions, still in most countries marital rape is legally allowed or is illegal but widely tolerated.

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d. Unreported Rapes: Unreported rapes which were condoned or ignored yesterday like the war rapes or marital rapes are getting punished more and more. But this does not necessarily mean that the cases of rapes will be reduced because of this change. As women are moving out of the house for work, these opportunities are increasing.

Rape is one crime where there is as much as 60% of the cases are never reported to authorities. The college rapes that are never reported to authorities in USA are estimated as much as 95%.

Incest is another situation where the rapes are not reported. Till about 50 years ago, there were child-widows in many high caste Hindu families which provided rape opportunities to the male members of the family. In 1947 when I happened to visit Pandharpur Orphanage which was well known in those days for receiving abandoned children majority of such children were result of incest.

One father-in-law brought his daughter-in-law (under the pretext of pilgrimage) every two to three years and went back with the daughter-in-law with the child left behind in the orphanage. With the prevalence of contraceptives such incidents are reduced considerably.

Abortions have been relatively easy and inexpensive and will result in non-reported rapes.

Changes for tomorrow: Yesterday and today rapes were mainly the male using force with the females. Recently cases have been coming particularly from USA and UK where female teachers are having relationships with boys below the age of consent and so legally considered as rape.

Similarly male to male rapes were common in Roman Catholics where celibacy of the priests gave them motivation and the position as “religious fathers� giving them opportunity to commit rapes on young boys (and also some girls). These have become criminal cases against the Catholic Church and compensations have been awarded.

Sigmund Freud maintained that the suppression of sex instinct is dangerous as it would erupt in

various forms of rape. The only method that seems to have reduced rape is sex education. Although it is accepted in theory still many parents are unwilling. In USA rapes have been reduced by 60% by sexual education. At present this is the immediate short term measure which can be effective.

Matrilineal & Patrilineal Systems: However, looking at the long term measures moving towards the matrilineal system seems to be a slow but steady method of creating anti-rape culture. When the human being started getting civilized, they formed groups which were part of the tribal group but smaller to make them more effective. This was the origin of the concept of family. To start with the family had female as the head since only women give birth to children and would be identified as most natural care takers. Although the world started with 100% matrilineal families, over a period these families have changed to patrilineal families where the father is the head. This change has created a culture which is male dominated. In this culture the anti-rape laws do not get implemented very effectively. In fact, in male dominated police stations, the complaints about rapes are not properly attended to and the Supreme Court had to pass instructions to ensure to all rape complaints are specifically reported and investigated. Even in trying rape case very often the trial becomes the trial of the victim rather than the trial of perpetrator.

The matrilineal system seems to have reducing effect on the incidents of rapes. About 5% of the world is under the matrilineal system. In India, the Nairs in Kerala and the Khasis in Meghalaya are examples of this system.

The system which covered most of the human civilization seems to have changed because of foreign invasions and now most of the human civilization has become patrilineal. In matrilineal system the family identity comes from the mother.

The youngest daughter takes care of the rituals of the family and inherits the family assets. Thus the

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females dominate the family system. In patrilineal system, the family is based on the relationships: Father-Son/Husband-Wife/Elder Brother-Younger Brother. This is a male-dominated society.

In the Twentieth Century, these three relationships got affected due to technology and female pressures to resist male domination. The males found this change beneficial to them also because the females started giving greater economic contribution and took greater family responsibility.

The change also created a mixed patrilineal-cum-matrilineal system which will be the system of tomorrow.

To conclude efforts towards sex-education and self-defense for females will immediately lead to lowering of the incidence of rapes. In the long term,

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however, the partial restoration of the matrilineal system will be the remedy to counter rape.

[Sharu S. Rangnekar, Chemical Engineer, Mumbai and MBA from the USA, has worked with Imperial Chemical Industries, UK, IBM and Union Carbide Corporation, U.S.A. He retired as MD, Searle (India). He has been a Visiting Faculty at Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Mumbai University Management Institutes. His books, translated in Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil and Kannada, In the Wonderland of Indian Managers, In the World of Corporate Managers, “How to Learn Management from Your Wife and Soft Skills in Management are considered as management classics. He can be contacted at: www.sharurangnekar.com]

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IRI/IRHA Members' Section:

Understanding the verdict 2014 —Vidya Bhushan Rawat here are huge lessons for every political party as well as people who aspire for a secular democratic space in this verdict 2014 which has brought glimmer in the face of a huge number of people who believed in a ‘dream’ sold to them but also apprehensions and fear among those who have fought against the process of communalization and corporatization. We cannot blame people if Narendra Modi led BJP has been able to get a thumping majority in Loksabha as in democracy you have to respect the verdict of the people. There are a lot of issues which need to be debated. Many talked about electoral reforms and switching over to Proportionate Electorate System (PES) as is in a majority of European countries which clearly give you equivalent number of seats according to your vote percentage and no vote goes waste in it. But why should we blame BJP for that as the Congress has always got benefitted with division of votes in the past which is now replaced by the BJP. So even when BJP got 33% of votes, it got nearly 55-60% seats in Loksabha while a party like BSP got nearly 4.5% of votes of the electorate and yet drew a blank. It is the problem of the electoral system but unfortunately even the BSP was not ready to listen to those who have been leading a campaign for electoral reform in India.

Coincidently, it was BJP which was receptive to the campaign apart from the left parties who supported Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India (CERI) of which I had been an active member for several years. In fact, now time has come to discuss these issues seriously and form a consensus among political parties but those who gain from First Past the Post System (FPTP) module do not want to even give a moment to think over it.

Whatever be the excuses as well as our reservation with Narendra Modi, we cannot take away the shine from him at this hour of glory. He single handedly campaigned much more than any of his

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contemporaries did and travelled across the country from East to West and North to South and used all mediums of communication with the people right from social media like twitter, Facebook and Whatsapp to mass contact programmes and public meetings. The BJP also was not depending on one vote catcher but their huge Sangh parivar cadre was diligently working to ensure that their candidates win. We know this election was fought with huge money that influenced our media and shaped public opinion. But the fact is didn’t other parties use them and who stopped a party like Congress to use media? After 40 years of ruling, did it not have enough ‘resources’ to match BJP? No, the congress’s media strategy was perfectly imperfect.

It tried to show that it did not have the money but then where has the money gone? Its Facebook page was only providing us ‘glimpse of Gandhi Nehru dynasty’ and their ‘contribution’ to India. There is no doubt about the contribution but India today cannot really live with the ‘contribution’ of one family or dynasty. Modi could sell the thought that Gandhi dynasty has destroyed India. He did not say that Gandhi Nehru dynasty did not do anything but directly suggested that it destroyed India and if they are poor it is because of them. And then he went on to proposed to use the Gujarat model which was accepted by most of the people who are mostly migrant voters from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and who have been depressed with the situation in these two states. We are witness to the completely abysmal social human development index in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar which has been thoroughly neglected and ignored by the political leadership who felt that only ‘identity’ fetches votes. This election has taught them also great lessons to come out of their ivory towers and stop treating people as their ‘praja’.

Elections are fought and won not on strategies alone but also on developing wider public perceptions. The perception of the common people had built up against congress party particularly after the UPA-2 government that it was the most corrupt government in the last 65 years and its 29

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ministers highly arrogant, unaccountable and unapproachable. Modi sold the perception that this is the most inefficient leadership and he could communicate very well that this is the ‘maa-bete’ kee sarkaar’ without any responsibility and accountability. There is no doubt that UPA passed some of the most important legislations in the past 10 years and credit must go to Sonia Gandhi for bringing such rights based legislations but people also realized that none of these acts are functional truly with such kind of governance which has already made procedures to thwart them. Secondly, most of the people also realized that Congress or UPA is not making any of these laws out of love for people but out of compulsion, hence attempt to show that Congress is fighting against corruption looked like a joke. Nobody in his dream would accept the fact that Congress party and its government at centre particularly UPA-2 was sincere in fighting against corruption. It is not a coincidence that the biggest beneficiary of anti-Congressism was the Bharatiya Janta Party. It was a non-entity before 1975 and Jai Prakash Narain legitimized it in the Janata Party government. Subsequently, they separated and contested as Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980. They never looked back since then. It is wrong to say that in 1984 they were defeated as Rajiv won with a thumping majority where opposition remained almost defunct. There is no ambiguity in saying that 1984 was a Hindutva mandate given to Rajiv Gandhi on anti-Sikh propaganda and India paid a price for defeating the entire opposition as the government ‘destroyed’ all the institutions. The next formation of the alliance of anti Congress forces under the leadership of Vishwnath Pratap Singh further helped the Hindutva forces in spreading their feet in the Hindi heartland. Their social base got extended with support to Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh. It is a fact that the Sangh Parivar is the biggest social engineer than anyone else. The Marxists never believed in social engineering which they felt was ‘tokenism’ and the Congress only gave ‘token’ representation to 30

puppeteers such as Meera Kumar and Sushil Kumar Shinde whose contribution to ‘Dalits’ and ‘Dalit cause’ is ‘well known’.

Congress governments at the centre have always been prone to corruption charges as perhaps the party always felt that it was never an issue and at the end of the day people would vote on caste and religion line. Being the largest party of the country gave it a certain advantage over others as the vote division among the parties and low voting trends always helped the party. Congress always used these techniques to gain power and perhaps did not even realize that India has changed a lot. It created a huge class of sycophants whose only accountability was towards 10 Janpath but who got their positions in power due to their proximity to the Gandhi family and not due to any work done among masses. Gandhis were surrounded by such brahmanical elite which claimed to work for ‘liberal’ ‘secular’ India but in fact kept them away from people. On the other side, the government of the day was competing to hand over India’s natural resources to big companies. Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Planning Commission deputy chairman, Montek Singh Ahaluwalia were actually nobodies but ‘agents’ of Washington lobby and it would be amusing if Modi can do anything different than them as far as economic policies are concern.

The Indian corporate were always satisfied with the troika in the Congress. They only started dissociating with Congress Party after the later got several bills passed particularly the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Bill and then government’s inability to protect coal block corrupt businessmen, it started fueling anti-government sentiments. Till that time, Congress Party and government remained under the illusion that they did not have any ‘opposition’.

The Sangh Parivar knew it well that if it has to take up an opportunity, it needs to discredit the whole system and project congress and its allies as synonyms to corruption. BJP and its allies were not in a position to do it hence the entire Parivar pushed

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its force behind ‘non-political forces’ actively supported by corporate media. A larger than life image of Anna Hazare was created and entire system was sought to be discredited by his team.

Parliamentarians were abused openly and television channels broadcasted everything live.

Congress party till that time did not heed to any public opinion and termed them mere foreign funded NGOs. They played politics with it and tried to deviate from the issue. Initially, Ramdev was also planted and later when the thing went wrong, he too became active campaigner against Congress Party in particular. Leaders like Salman Khurshid, Kapil Sibbal, Sushil Kumar Shinde showed little respect for the people. While Congress did not try to put its house in order but tried to use the contradiction in Anna Team. Sangh Parivar on the other side was observing carefully the team Anna and its furious attack on Congress Party. Anti-Corruption campaign became synonymous to anti congress-ism and BJP was waiting for the moment. Unfortunately after the enormous media coverage and bad mouthing, Kejriwal had no other option than formation of a party. They were young activists and suddenly became ‘messiah’ of the nation hence it is difficult for them to understand the basics of politics. They wanted to run political party according to their ‘civil society’ action. The fissures divided the movement as pro BJP lobby openly opposed the formation of a political party and there were people who did not want to contest election but wanted ‘positions’ in power.

The anti-congress sentiments were further fuelled in December 16th 1912, Nirbhaya case. The problem with 10 Janpath was that it never reacted to people’s issues. It felt the best way to kill a movement is to make them tired through delaying tactics. Congress’s politics of dividing the movements and forcing people to retreat actually boomeranged on them. The Nirbhaya incident created a situation when any government could have gone in a public coup. The unfortunate part is that Rahul Gandhi who always tried to distance

himself from the government’s acts actually did nothing to douse the flames of anger among the youths. There was no attempt by the senior leadership of the party to join the protest and share the agony of the people. It is not that it was the first time such incidence had happened but the large scale resentment against it was actually convergence of many things. The congress was unable to see why small things were becoming bigger for it daily. It was trying to take comfort in forming committees and bringing a legislation rather than trying to fight against the perception that was being built assiduously against the party and the government that it is not just corrupt government but thoroughly criminal. By this time, the Facebook-twittarati also jumped in and became abusive and nasty against the party.

In the last session of 14th Lok Sabha, the government got the statehood to Telangana bill passed. The way it was done, made it clear that UPA-2 brought all the bills only under pressure and when things moved out of its hand. The congress leaders felt that they have undone the damage in Telananga but they were wronged. They were routed in both the places. Of course, they have chances in Talangana in future but in Seema Andhra the things will be very difficult unless they decide to talk to their old members to merge their parties. The biggest lesson was for the politicians who think that the voter is a fool. People know how you are getting your things done and that is why Congress could not satisfy any one as it wanted to ‘satisfy’ every one. The problem is it had no zeal in doing so and it was merely playing ‘politics’ with the sentiments of the people. Since 1984, Congress had lost the support of upper castes who have gradually switched over to BJP. The Dalits in Uttar Pradesh too have deserted the party. After the demolition of Babri Mosque, Muslims too deserted the party. Nothing was done. The Manmohan Singh government remained one of the most inefficient and insensitive governments whose solution to every problem was formation of a ‘committee’. People were frustrated with growing

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inflation and yet no effort by the government to control it. It had left the middle classes, which was slowly communalized to fend for itself. UPA party’s government was doing everything that Narsimharao did at the cost of Congress Party.

Today the media is deliberately blaming Rahul Gandhi for the debacle who was in a catch 22 situation of not to criticize the government for the sake of its stability and speak absolutely less due to the danger of disturbing the existing relationship between the prime minister and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. The fact is that Congress’s debacle are basically because of the economic policies of Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram and Montek Singh added with party’s failure to protect the interests of Dalits and minorities. Why should minorities vote for a party which has done nothing for them in the past 10 years. Rahul Gandhi’s problem was that he did not have any ideas about these policies. He rarely spoke on inflation, corruption and contunued to tell us what his party has ‘given’ to people. This language was more of an old feudal language where ‘raja’ gives to ‘praja’.

Rahul must understand that India is a new India and it does not like such language particularly in the age of communication when your speeches will be broadcasted and interpreted in different ways.

Rahul’s ‘fight’ against ‘corruption’ and ‘dissociation’ with the ‘corrupt’ government looked absolutely artificial. So, during the election he was on an uphill mission. His party felt that they needed a Gandhi name, which they do need but that alone is not sufficient. Elections today are to be managed. You need social media, you need media, you need cadres at the grassroots and above all, you also need leaders with integrity. Where are leaders with integrity in Congress? How many OBC leaders does Congress have who can be trusted to bring votes for the Party? How many Dalit leaders the party has who can win its votes? Let us not talk of Uttar Pradesh but outside the state? How many Muslim leaders does it have? Yes, it promoted leaders like Salman Khurshid and Sushil Kumar Shinde but they proved helpless. They can’t win 32

their own seats and Khurshid ended up at number five in his constituency of Farukhabad which shows how much arrogant and inaccessible he was to the people. Your fight against corruption and criminalization looks hollow when you field Shri Prakash Jaiswal, the coal block hero from Kanpur and Ajay Rai from Varanasi. Congress could have avoided fielding the candidate from Varanasi rather than fielding a candidate with criminal charges upon him.

Rahul Gandhi’s media interaction was not that of a leader who wanted to go for an election. He did not have much to give. He wanted to go to the elections with the ‘achievements’ of Manmohan Singh who as I wrote earlier would be second ‘Narsimha Rao’ for Congress glorified at the cost of the party. Rao finished the party and Manmohan though was not engaged anywhere in party circles too finished party through his lethargy, sluggishness, inaccessibility and inactivity apart from his inadequate economic model. No leader of any stature could have brought Congress back unless the party was bold enough to take action against its own erring government but it never did. The bold step could have been also like inability to run a coalition government but then Congress believed in running even a paralysed government. It was important for them to send the message to people that we only ‘know’ how to run a government. This has failed to attract and therefore the task before Rahul was gigantic in nature and he was not cut for the same.

These elections have not just exposed the hollowness of Congress party, its management and state of its organization but also deflated the hype build around ‘social justice’ groups in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Yes, the big jolt to Mulayam Singh, Mayawati and Lalu Yadav is warning for them to improve or you will be obliterated. The biggest lessons have to be taken by Mayawati who has been always proud of the Dalit vote. Amit Shah and others knew well that Maywati’s dalit loyalty was nothing but cobbler vote and hence they targeted other communities like Pasis, Khatiks,

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Dhobis, Chauhans, Mushahars, Rajbhars etc. The Hindutva party made right noises with OBCs where they attracted Kurmi votes through Apna Dal. Most of the non yadava OBCs shifted to BJP. Muslims were already looking for alternative and finished voting for different ‘contractors’ of ‘secularism’ such as BSP, Congress, SP and AAP. Mujaffarnagar riots and their mishandling created different convergence point for the Hindutva group. Dalits, OBCs, Jats became Hindus in the name of Muslim polarization. This technique helped them elsewhere too. That is the irony of being a Muslim in India and why they are unable to bring out any seats. It will continue unless Muslim seats too are reserved for them like Dalits and tribals.

Congress party will have to be rebuilt and it needs statesmanship, management and conviction. It mean that Congress will have to provide a huge platform to Dalits, OBCs, Muslims, Aadivasis and develop their leaders independently who could raise the issues. Congress will have to be developed as a cadre based ideological party with strong secular leanings. Today, in this hour, Congress did not get support of these segments as they never believed in the party. The Dalit vote that Congress got was in deep compulsion and not due to any positivity. With growing rapes in Haryana and inefficiency of Hooda government how can it expect the vote of Dalits. Congress may not need them in Haryana but definitely it has to act in greater interest of democracy and justice and secondly the track record would have helped it elsewhere. Today, a majority of Congress leaders subscribe to the Hindutva ideology or soft Hindutva and hence cannot fight for the cause of secularism. When its top ministers were unabashedly pro-corporations and had no intention to control inflation, how would anybody believe that it cared for the poor. Congress took the issue of land-acquisition seriously only when Mamta Banerjee made it an issue in West Bengal and won the election after the Singur movement.

Mulayam, Lalu and Maywati focused too much on

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their calculations and arithmetics without really preparing for the elections. Even when Mayawati had announced the names of her candidates a year back, the fact is, we did not hear her saner voice on Mujaffarnagar violence. We never heard on violence against Dalits in Haryana and elsewhere.

We never saw her visiting Dalit villages and meeting the women working at the field who sweat day in and out. It was surprising that while she had criticized Rahul’s visit to Dalit bastees, she did not find time to visit those areas where she was needed and her presence would have been a soothing balm for people. Least said about Mulayam is better. The Uttar Pradesh government failed to instill confidence among Dalits, Muslims as well as common people and hence the anti-incumbency vote which should have gone to Mayawati actually went to BJP resulting heavy outpouring of support for them. BSP has drifted far away from its Bahujan mission and therefore the non cobbler-communities were targeted by the Hindutva groups. The poll results have actually serious challenges for the Dalit Bahujan movement and their capacity to represent the communities as Hindutva forces have already incorporated a lot of them. That apart, mainstream left too was decimated completely. The situation has arisen when left have to support parties like AAP at various places and are almost begging Jayalalitha for an alliance. This reflect their condition today.

Prakash Kararth declared that Mulayam Singh Yadav would be the prime ministerial candidate without even consulting any other party. A lot has been written about Rahul Gandhi’s ability to lead who was definitely facing anti-incumbency but why Prakash Karath failed to deliver? Why he was unable to take a lead and develop alliances with different left parties and other secular democratic forces. The parties have no idea how to move ahead and now the situation has put them in serious crisis.

There is no other alternative then making a new beginning among all these parties and making a rainbow coalition which could rightfully represent the Dalits, Aadivasis, minorities, Kisans, mazdoors 33

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and even middle classes as threat to them is real.

The biggest lesson these elections have given us is that if you do not address the perceptional issues fast then you are decimated. All the kshatrapas who took people for granted actually got finished. None would actually shed a tear for Salman Khurshid, A. Raja, Sushil Shinde, Kapil Sibbal, Farukh Abdullah and various clans of Karunanidhi and Lalu Yadav. However, clan of Mulayam survived in Uttar Pradesh and all other got defeated. BSP could not get a single seat. Most of the leaders in parties including Congress who were sons and daughters got defeated except for a few. The voters are not going to vote just because you look more ‘secular’ as they need transparency and responsive government.

However, it is essential not to ignore the huge corporate money pumped into these elections. That media played an active role to propagate larger than life image of Narendra Modi. They became PR agencies of Narendra Modi. The media imposed self-censorship in hiding information about Gujarat and promoted issues that discredited other parties particularly Congress party. It shielded Modi and became its main propaganda machinery in its war against Congress. All other parties were completely neglected. AAP got more space than others which reflect that what media is looking forward is the parties and groups that serve the new economic interests as well as interests of the caste Hindus. The downfall of media is the biggest results of this election. I had long back visualized that this election was not being fought by political parties but purely corporate media which joined hands with Hindutva zealots to communalize the atmosphere wherever it was necessary. Assam saw violence and threatening speeches were made in Uttar Pradesh and Bengal by BJP leaders targeting Muslims without much action from the Election Commission. Modi himself challenged the Commission on many occasions. In fact, Bengal, Tamilnadu, Kerala and Telangana are new states to be watched as the influence of Hindutva is growing there. Earlier elections were fought on ideologies 34

and issues but this time they were fought on ‘perceptions’. The upper castes pro-liberal middle classes were sold to a dream and of course everything that is pro-social justice was to be despised and needed to be rejected. A majority of young middle class voters actually got attracted to Modi as none other tried to reach them. Modi is a natural choice as all others look casteist, backward and communal to them due to ‘appeasement’ and pro-reservation stand.

Whatever be the reason, it is time for all the political parties to sit and chalk out their strategy.

They will have to come to join hands together as these elections have shown us the mirror of our real strength. These have shown us what we lack and given us opportunity to join hands and fight against any attempt to deny people their right. If the government does better then no issues and should be given credit for it but it cannot take away the rights of the people to fight for their right. Many people say that calamity is the biggest opportunity and I think this is one of the biggest calamities upon secular parties, social movements and left political groups. They need to use this to rebuild the organisations and develop further links with people as their time for action has now begun. The election results are a warning for all secular progressive democratic forces to come together and work diligently as in the absence of work for the people mere identities and secular talks will not get you people’s vote. It is time to work for people as merely ideologies are not going to get you people’s support, leaders will have to promote young team and talk of their aspirations too. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar will not get back the forces of social justice by only claiming the legacy of Ambedkar and Lohia. They need to look beyond their caste, community and family interests and will have to become more democratized and large hearted.

More important, they will have to show that they know to govern and deliver. They need to sell their dream better but not through cycles and laptops but through new infrastructure, land reforms, jobs and opportunities to young voters who are desperate

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for the same. It is time for them to leave aside their egos and forge an alliance at national level. This must start from now itself so that whenever elections are due at any place such alliances can work better. In the meanwhile all parties must evaluate the work of their existing governments' doing and delivering. How is that BJP led state governments did not face any incumbency but all

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the Congress led governments and other governments faced it except for Mamata and Jayalalitha? It is time to seriously introspect and act on that.

[Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social activist, human rights activist, anti caste worker, and works against manual scavenging. He is the founder of Social Development Foundation. www.thesdf.org]

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Research Scholars' Section:

Strengthening of Regional Level Foreign Policy of Nepal —Vijay P. Jashwal traditional perception of Nepal's Theforeign policy has changed where Nepal is no more cursed for being the landlocked country.

It is taken as the “Land Linking Nation” today among the intellectuals. Foreign policy is the essence of any nation's international relations.

Strong foreign policy always strengthens its relations among other nations and weak foreign policy always weaken the relations. Nepal is traditionally perceived as a Yam between the two giants - India in the South and China in the North.

Nepal’s independent foreign policy has often been challenged by International Community. We first encountered this in 1953 when we applied for the membership of UN. Some countries had reservations in granting it to us because our presence in the inernaional forums was not significantly meaningful for them till then. King Mahindra during 1950-1960 made it a point to make the Sovereignty of Nepal as the prime and focal point of its foreign policy. In those ten years Mahendra did good work to get us recognized. His participation in Afro-Asian Conference in Bandung, Indonesia in April 1955 was Nepal’s first foray in the international arena which allowed and assisted us to get admission in UN as member in 1955. This was our first exposure to the International Community. After 1955 we began to be recognised as an Independence and Sovereign country. Hereafter, the foreign policy of Nepal was institutionalized.

There is a great necessity of strengthening Nepalese regional foreign policy now when China is becoming the first Asian Super power in the world and India is supposed to take the 4th place by 36

the end of 2020. The current bilateral trade among these two countries is expanding in trillions. Our trade with India sometimes crosses 65 % and with China 20 % of our total trade. Yet, there is no specific regional or bilateral policy of Nepalese government to specify its position with these two nations. It is now the need to develop strong, sound, realistic and achievable regional policies for Nepal to establish its clear position with these two countries at first and with other nations later. "In fact, by challenging traditional symbols of power in the international system, such as geography and size, globalization has created new possibilities for Nepal to promote its core values and interests basically with India and Nepal."

Foreign policy is a substantive guideline but its efficiency and implementation always rests on the effective skills of diplomats which Nepal has been lacking. There is a great need to understand the interconnections between societies, institutions, cultures, and individuals on a worldwide basis in this era of globalization. Globalization implies “a shift in geography” whereby borders have become increasingly porous. There have been evidences, although, that Nepal had free trade with Tibet and India without any restrictions. We were very close with these two nations in the past. Our civilization had witnessed this modern form of Globalization in classical era also. Thus, Globalization is not a new phenomenon for Nepal. But as Nepal has been experiencing a sea of change in its internal political, economic and social state of affairs after the successful second pro-democracy movement, the country needs to examine its conduct of foreign affairs in the context of those changes and formulate and adopt its foreign policy correspondingly.

A country's size has nothing to do with its sound foreign policy. It is traditionally perceived that Nepal is smaller is size which is a hindrance for institutionalizing its foreign policy. But Nepal is not such a small country if compared with more than 100 nations which are smaller than Nepal in size while it ranks 40th among 90 nations in

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population. Thus, we need to develop a wholesome attitude while chalking out our foreign policy.

Trade, aid and developmental issues have a direct bearing on the formulation of Nepal’s foreign policy. We have to hone our diplomatic skills (communicating and negotiating capabilities) to effectively implement our foreign policy. Nepal since its recognition in the international world is using Track-1 diplomacy in which the State was actively involved. It is time to Promote Track -2 diplomacy, and also the third version of diplomacy Track-1.5 – meaning thereby, the involvement of both government and private sectors jointly in dealing with foreign governments. The concept of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) must also be recognized and furnished by the foreign policy of Nepal and we will have to implement the four basic characteristics (the 4-C) cooperation, competition, confrontation and conflict in our relationships with our neighbouring nations now.

Regional diplomacy has always been a strong element in global diplomacy. But its importance has been increasing due to the shifting of balance of power towards the developing countries and regional blocs, rise of regional economic grouping and trading blocs and increasing interdependence and economic integration of states. Countries are realizing the fact that they can easily influence global economy and power-politics collectively rather than individually. It has given ample opportunity to regional blocs and an emergence of strong regionalism. There are four regional organizations or initiatives where Nepal is a party and where India has taken lead: the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral-Economic Cooperation, the Indian Ocean Rim-Association for Regional Cooperation and the Mekong Ganga Cooperation Initiative.

Nepal's regional policy is confined to India first and to China second. But the critics are arguing that India is losing credibility in Nepal. India’s regional policy has been caught between the factors of pragmatism and principle. It’s time India revisited and rectified it. Nepal’s foreign policy always rests

on faith in the UN Charter, adherence to the principles of Non-alignment, Panchsheel, respect for international law and contribution to world peace. In the modern world, the traditional theories such as Theory of Isolation of state is no longer meaningful. Countries are coming closer each day and the world is squeezing. As said earlier, on the North side, Nepal has a 1400 km border with China while and on the East, West and South, Nepal has 1700 km border with India. Now, the two neighbors’ quest of becoming superpowers in the next 20 to 30 years and their incredible economic rise has compelled Nepal to rethink about its foreign policy basically regional policy from traditional buffer state mindset towards becoming a vibrant bridge between them. Nepal has to develop its regional policy in such a way where three governments from these three countries can sit and discuss together on equal footing about the development of Nepal. They are today concerned about the Trans Himalaya Security and Economic Cooperation (THiSAEC) where Nepal should take a stand clearly.

Political stability inside Nepal is also a concerning feature of these two countries' foreign policies. A key objective of Indian and Chinese strategic policy is the maintenance of a stable international environment which is conducive for their trade and internal development. The realist school of thought in international relation hypothesizes that states are primarily driven by security concerns and compete for power in order to survive in an anarchic world.

Both India and China are declared as nuclear powers and their conventional and nuclear capabilities are growing along with their economic muscles. Mutual hostility between these two countries could escalate any time in future. Nepal must consider these possibilities in coming days.

We must affirm to these two Nations that there is no possible threat from our border or via our land.

India is our strategic partner since time immortal.

Nepal’s foreign policy has always been guided by the foreign policy of India. But Nepal needs to review its regional policy with India continuing

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since 1950 now and should give a clear stand on it; stop acting as a puppet or platform for Indian foreign policy; yet, identify its soft power instiead of the hard power, because, hard power will not make any sense to these two countries. Nepal can’t challenge the military and economic strength of these two nations. Nepal must develop attractive soft power as key for its regional foreign policy.

Another urgency of Nepal’s regional policy is with China. Recently, both these nations have agreed on some basic points where the Chinese interests are considered a priority over our foreign policy. Nepal has established Consulate General’s Offices in Hong Kong and Lhasa and an honorary consul has been appointed in Shanghai. Our bilateral relations have always been marked by friendliness, mutual support, understanding and appreciation of each other’s aspirations and sensitivities. Both abide by the ideals of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence. Both are supporting each other in many regional and international forums, including the United Nations. Nepal has always been upholding ‘One China’ policy and is committed not to allow Nepalese territory to be used against our friendly neighbor China’s core interests. But Nepal’s China policy must be reviewed now. China today is not as it was in the past when we formulated our regional or foreign policy with it.

Foreign policy is not only confined to relationship maintenance now but also to mutual benefits to be gained from it. We should revisit our old policy with China. It must consider the interests of Nepal also now while concluding trade agreements with India. It must assist for the establishment of independent recognition and stand of Nepal in the International forum. It should stop looking at its sole interest in its regional policy.

Some considerations, needed urgently, for addressing Nepal’s Regional Foreign Policy are as follows: 1. Nepal needs to formulate its bilateral ties with US independently and stop being played with on the Indian card.

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2. Nepal should strengthen its internal capacity through some established forums such as SAARC. Indian diplomat J.N. Dixit has already written that “time has come for the SAARC not to shy away from becoming a forum for discussion on political issues which afflict the countries in the region and this forum shouldn’t limit to trade and co-operation in this regional level but must be a favorable platform to discuss each countries internal political conflicts.

3. Lastly, Nepal must develop her regional policy considering all socio, cultural and political conditions. It is time to reformulate its bilateral or multilateral ties with the international community.

We need to depart ourselves from the conventional ideas because they will not work in this advanced globalized era.

Conclusion: Regional Associations are working more smoothly than other global Associations.

International communities have felt that active participation at regional level can address a lot more than they can perform individually. It is now a compulsion for a country like Nepal to strengthen its sound and effective regional policy. Nepal has very strong historical, political, social and economic ties with both her neighbors. We have successfully kept these two at equidistance which is our strong achievement of traditional foreign policy. Nepal should now get the advantage of being a Land Linking Nation.

Nepal should present herself very strongly in coming times by actively participating in regional forums. It also should take lead in some of them. It should again remind its neighbors to support it for the “Zone of Peace Proposal” which has been put aside.

[Vijay P. Jashwall is a student of L.L.B. 4th year at Kathmandu School of Law. He is the Secretary of SOCH Youth in Nepal. He is also working as a human rights activist in association with Amnesty International. He may be contacted at: vijayjayshwal@yahoo.com]

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Book Review Section:

A Book For Curious Kids [BOOK: Humanism, What’s That? A Book for

Curious Kids, by Helen Bennett, Publisher: Prometheus Books, ISBN: 1591023874] —Review By Austin Cline in particular have trouble with Humanists the persistence of myths because so many religious conservatives treat secular humanists as a primary enemy in society.

Humanists are regarded as pawns or allies of Satan, responsible for many if not most of the social problems in society today. They are thought of as incapable of being moral, upstanding citizens or of being honest.

Clearly, there is a public relations problem here and reaching children might be one way for rectifying the situation. Helen Bennett’s book Humanism, What’s That? A Book for Curious Kids is designed to explain humanism and humanist beliefs in an informal, question-and-answer format. The context is a science teacher, Mrs. Green, who has to inform her class that a popular student has been injured and has been taken to the hospital.

Some want to conduct a group prayer, but Mrs. Green tells them that while personal and private prayer is OK, she can’t set aside class time for an official group prayer. Not everyone understands because they don’t understand how anyone can not believe in God and want to pray with the group — and this leads to a longer discussion outside of class about the religion, nature, theism, and more. The children ask direct, pointed questions (some of which are obviously based upon the many myths spread about humanism and atheism) which Mrs. Green answers in a forthright, understandable manner.

Mrs. Green presents humanism as if it were only an atheistic philosophy, rather than as a non-religious philosophy which tends to be mostly comprised of

39

atheists but which is accepted and followed by some theists as well. I think that this is a mistake not only because it’s incorrect, but also because emphasizing that being a humanist doesn’t necessarily require rejecting theism may encourage more people to serious consider humanism for themselves.

Humanism is best defined by what humanists affirm rather than what they reject, and while the affirmations exclude many traditional theistic ideas, they don’t force someone to adopt atheism.

Fortunately, the book focuses primarily on affirmations of humanism by emphasizing the essential worth an dignity of all people, the importance of optimism, and the lives of humanist philosophers who have helped advance the causes of reason, tolerance, and skepticism.

Who is the audience for this book? That’s difficult to say. Humanist and atheist parents would certainly benefit from having it because it presents basic humanist principles at a level younger children can comprehend — and it may even help them explain themselves to their friends. Religious parents who want their own children to be familiar with a variety of beliefs may also benefit from this.

Perhaps the biggest audience, though, is libraries — both community libraries and school libraries.

Most religious parents aren’t likely to buy this book for their kids, so those who know the least about humanism are never going to be exposed to it. They are likely the ones who would most benefit from it, however. If the book is in libraries, at least there is a chance that some kids will find it.

It might be a good idea to find out if your local libraries have it, and if not, what their policies are regarding donated books. You may have to donate a certain amount, for example, or submit proposed donations to someone for approval. Getting the book into a school library may be more difficult, but is probably at least as worthwhile.

Review Source URL: http://atheism.about.com/od/bookreviews/fr/H umanismWhats.htm

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

JUNE 2014

Humanist News: I

A Seminar on “Religion” and the existing “social order”: Mumbai Rationalist Association Gujarat is organizing a one day state level seminar on “Religion” as the challenge to the existing Social order”. There will be five speakers each on five religions namely Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism & Jainism. They will critically examine basic tenets of each religion on the basis of rationalism, science and modern knowledge.

Main SpeakersProf. Dhawal Mehta- Why I am not a Hindu; Dr. Sujaat Vali (M.S. DGO)- Why I am not a Muslim?; Prof. Dinesh Shukla- Why I am not a Christian?; Manishi Jani ( Social Activist) – Why I am not a Buddhist?; Rajendra Shah –( Chartered Accontant) Why I am not a Jain?; Members of our association will speak why they have left their parental religion or their religious sects inherited with their births.

Their names are as follows: Dr. Surupben Dhruv, (2) Mahaswetaben Jani, (3) Pratibhaben Thakkar (4) DR.Pradeep Martin, (5)DR. Sushma Aiyer (6) Rutul Joshi.

Date-venue-place: 13thJuly 2014 Ahinsa Shodh Bhavan, Gujarat Vidyapith, Ashram RoadAhmedabad-380014.

Coordinators of SeminarKiran Trivedi, President- Gujarat Mumbai Rationalist Association-mo-92272 34815, e-mail- gmra.gujarat@gmail.com; Bipin Shroff- Editor- Manav Vad Monthly, mo97246 88733, e- mail-shroffbipin@gmail.com.

There are two more proposals to organize the same seminar on the same subject in cities of Palanpur and Godhra in the state of Gujarat. Our institution had organized three seminars namely on Naxalism, Fascism and Emergence AAP Phenomenon in Indian Polity with the collaborations of likeminded institutions in last six months at the same venue in Ahmedabad.

—News sent by Bipin Shroff

II

Anhad has started a new YouTube channel - Women Speak.!!

Speak will present voices of Women women on social issues: democracy, gender equality, and violence against women, peace, justice, diversity, pluralism, secularism and a lot more. They have invited all women and men to send them videos related to these themes that they would like to be uploaded on this channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOTcxgLI vz6tN3oACrlIZ_Q Right now they have uploaded a selection of their existing videos. They wish readers to visit, see, share, and spread.

—News sent by Mohd. Aamir Khan (khanmaamir215@gmail.com)

"The principles of a humanist philosophy of history and society are deducable only from a general philosophy of nature and life, still to be elaborated on the basis of , cosmological, ontological, epistemological and ethical concepts and propositions."

—M.N. Roy

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THE RADICAL HUMANIST

JUNE 2014

FOUNDER EDITOR

EDITOR

M. N. ROY

REKHA SARASWAT

(Page 9)

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THIS MONTH'S CONTRIBUTORS

JAWAHARLAL JASTHI (Page 5)

KULDIP NAYAR

PAUL BUCHHEIT

R.K.A.SUBRAHMANYA

S.N. SHUKLA

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RAJINDAR SACHAR

K.S. CHALAM

SHARU. S. RANGNEKAR

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V.B. RAWAT (Page 29)

VIJAY P. JASHWAL (Page 36)

AUSTIN CLINE (Page 39)

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