Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
VOLUME 33
ASSE M B L Y E L E C T I O N S
NUMBER 10
ISSN 0970-1710
WWW.FRONTLINE.IN
UR B AN I S S UE S
C O V ER S T O RY
Tamil Nadu:
Complex scene
Flood of troubles
Money & politics
Interview: Rajesh Lakhoni
Battle for Puducherry
West Bengal:
Nervous phase
Kerala: Uncertain state
CONT R O V E R S Y
Manufactured anger
Bhagat Singh on terrorism
Wakf property scam in
Karnataka
Some of the
encroachments
WOR L D A F F A I R S
Brazil: Coup begins
Unrest in Mexico
Saudi Arabia in a bind
India-China visa row
19
28
31
32
35
36
40
44
46
97
S OC I A L I S S UE S
Karnataka:
Dalits entry into temples 101
LI TE R A TUR E
Interview:
Sukrita Paul Kumar
106
LAB OUR I S S UE S
Resisting reforms
108
ESSAY
59
61
48
51
54
57
DR OU G H T
RELA T ED S T O RI ES
Telanganas thirst
63
H E R IT A G E
111
S P OTLI G HT
Innocents of Malegaon
The scapegoats
Double betrayal
123
124
126
M OVE M E N TS
JNU: Witch-hunt
& protest
128
C OLUM N
Jayati Ghosh:
Societal involution
104
BOOKS
LE TTE R S
Yoga: Ancient gift for
the modern world
67
Rashtrapati Bhavan:
A peep into the past
90
Interview: Thomas Mathew 94
83
130
On the Cover
The corridor of a court in Dharwad, Karnataka.
COVER DESIGN: T.S. VIJAYANANDAN
PHOTOGRAPH: B.M. KEDARNATHESHWARSWAMY
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FRONTLINE
COVER STORY
JUSTICE
AND THE
TWO IDEAS
OF INDIA
MONICA TIWARI
IN TH E C O R R I D O R S O F T H E S U P REM E C O U RT
FRONTLINE .
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of India, a le photograph.
4
SHAHBAZ KHAN/PTI
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RAJEEV BHATT
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COVER STORY
Beyond rhetoric
The problem of pendency of cases in the judicial system must be examined
on the basis of data and not anecdotal evidence. B Y ALOK PRASANNA KUMAR
BUT FOR THE CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIAS
outburst against the government, ostensibly due to the
delay in the process for appointment of judges, the biennial Chief Justices and Chief Ministers Conference, 2016,
would have gone unnoticed and mostly unremarked beyond a closed circle of the legal fraternity. What it has
instead done is to bring back the focus on the Indian
justice delivery systems perennial failingsdelays in the
disposal of cases and high pendency of cases.
The words delay and pendency have been used
rather loosely and lazily by policymakers and academics,
which has left the nature of the problem undened and
poorly diagnosed. An absolute number of cases pending
in the Indian judicial system3.5 crore cases, or some
similar numberis trotted out by way of complete explanation without trying to put it in proper context. Likewise, when it comes to delay, everyone has a story akin to
Dickens Jarndyce v Jarndyce from Bleak House but few
offer data or a statistical analysis of the problem.
When one digs through available data, one nds a
much more complex picture of the working of the judiciary that is beset by myriad problems that require different kinds of interventions by the various actors. In this
piece, I discuss the vital statistics of the Indian judiciary
in the context of pendency and delay with the hope that
the discussion on how to improve the functioning of the
Indian judicial system will be more informed and datadriven, rather than emotional and anecdotal.
PENDENCY
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FRONTLINE .
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DELAYS
Even if all the posts are lled, there is also the further
requirement of ensuring adequate support staff and infrastructure for the judges to be able to function properly.
Even then, all of this will ultimately prove to be futile if
the procedural laws and rules are not updated, keeping in
mind modern trends in judicial process.
The problems of the Indian judiciary, therefore, require both the State and Central governments, along with
the High Courts and the Supreme Court, to work in
coordination and concert. Instead of broadly trying to
address delay or pendency in the abstract, what is
needed is focussed attention to the many aspects of the
Indian judiciary that require repair. At the district court
level, each State will require a solution tailored to its
specic needs depending on the exact nature of the problem being faced by it. This requires the High Court and
the State government to work in close coordination to
properly identify and remedy this problem. The Central
government and the Supreme Court may at best play a
supervisory and advisory role in this matter but in assessing whether more judges are needed, and ensuring that
existing vacancies are lled up, adequate infrastructure is
built and quality judges appointed, it is the duty of the
High Courts and the State governments to tackle the
problem.
At the level of the High Courts themselves, the immediate pressing problem is one of a severe shortage of
personnel. The latest gures from the Department of
Justice show that as of April 1, 2016, 462 posts or 43 per
cent of the posts of High Court judges are vacant. Even if
the Central government clears the 169 pending appointments, it still leaves nearly 30 per cent of the posts vacant.
As the numbers have shown, the pendency problem (and
quite likely, the delay problem) is much higher in the
High Courts than in the district courts and requires
immediate action. For better or worse, the collegium
system is here to stay, and it is incumbent on the Supreme
Court and the Central government to ensure that it functions at its efficient best.
The Indian judiciary, one of the largest in the world,
bestowed with wide-ranging powers of judicial review
and rigidly protected from executive interference in the
Constitution, cannot be seen to succumb under the
weight of its responsibility.
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COVER STORY
PTI
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12
meetings and recommend new apin consultation with all the stakepointments until the new reformed
holders, the existing Memorancollegium is put in place.
dum of Procedure (MoP) a series
Thus newspapers reported on
of guidelines for making appointMay 5 that the collegium recomments and transfers to the higher
mended four new judges to the Sujudiciary, which was drafted way
preme Court. They are Chief
back in 1999in the light of its
Justice of the Madhya Pradesh
suggestions for reform.
High Court A.M. Khanwilkar,
As on May 6, 2016, the governChief Justice of the Allahabad High
ment has not yet completed this
Court D.Y. Chandrachud, Chief
exercise of revising the MoP as it
Justice of the Kerala High Court
sought to see in it an opportunity to
Ashok Bhushan, and former Addiindirectly clip the powers of the
tional Solicitor General and senior
judiciary, which it could not do diadvocate in the Supreme Court L.
rectly. Thus, one of the clauses in
Nageswara Rao.
the draft MoP said, according to
In the light of the Supreme
reports in the media, that the govCourts own standards of transparernment could reject a recommenency, the collegium could have andation of the collegium for
nounced these recommendations
J U S T I C E Rajiv Shakdher and Justice
appointment on the grounds of naofficially through its website. But it
Abhay Mahadeo Thipsay (below), known
tional interest or national security
chose to announce its recommenfor their legal acumen and impeccable
concerns.
dations through selective leaks to
integrity. Their recent transfers
Another clause in the draft
the media, which did little credit to
were disappointing.
MoP says that in case the governits credibility.
ment rejects a recommendation,
The reports also said that the
the collegium cannot send it again.
collegium recommended the transThis is not the case in the current
fer of Uttarakhand High Court
MoP, according to which if a recChief Justice K.M. Joseph as the
ommendation, after reconsideraChief Justice of the High Court of
tion, is reiterated by the collegium,
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
then it is binding on the governJustice Joseph was recently in the
ment.
news for quashing Presidents rule
Media reports suggested that
in Uttarakhand and passing severe
Justice Thakur, after consulting
strictures against the Central govthe collegium, did not give his conernment for misusing Article 356
sent to these clauses. Another
of the Constitution for the purpose.
clause in the draft MoP reportedly
Justice Josephs judgment was subfavours keeping the deliberations
sequently stayed by the Supreme
of the collegium out of the ambit of
Court, which is currently hearing
the Right to Information Act,
the Centres appeals against it. It is
which is likely to disappoint innot clear whether Justice Josephs
formation-seekers and proponents
transfer was a consequence of his
of transparency. In the revised guirecent judgment setting aside Presdelines suggested by the Supreme
idents rule or a result of his own
Courts Constitution Bench to reform the collegium, transparency is one of the key factors. request to the collegium on health grounds. As the colleThe other factors that were suggested include the giums proceedings continue to be condential, the truth
creation of a secretariat, a mechanism to handle com- of his transfer may not be known immediately.
But the collegiums two recent transfers of judges
plaints, the xing of eligibility criteria and interaction
between the collegium and the appointees. In the ab- evoked considerable disappointment in legal circles. The
sence of transparency over the draft MoP itself, it is not transfer of Justice Rajiv Shakdher from the Delhi High
clear whether the government, through the Group of Court to the Madras High Court and that of Justice
Ministers headed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Abhay Mahadeo Thipsay from the Bombay High Court to
the Allahabad High Court were both looked upon as
Swaraj, incorporated these suggestions in it.
The government has reportedly offered to reconsider unfair. Both Justices Shakdher and Thipsay are known
the draft MoP in the light of the CJIs concerns and it is for their legal acumen and impeccable integrity and they
likely that its nalisation may take a few more days. This have delivered judgments that went against the Central
inordinate delay appears to have forced the CJI to aban- government in some cases, involving the rights of citi
don his self-imposed restraint not to hold the collegium zens.
13
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COVER STORY
FRONTLINE .
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H.S. MANJUNATH
W H E N TH E S U PR EM E CO U R T B EN CH
comprising the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice T.S.
Thakur and Justices R. Banumathi and U.U. Lalit decided on February 26 to hear a public interest litigation
(PIL) petition seeking the courts directions to the Centre
to establish a National Court of Appeal (NCA) outside
Delhi, it took legal circles by surprise. The surprise was
mainly because the court had found an opportunity to
initiate a debate on the subject by entertaining a petition
led by a well-informed litigant from Chennai, V. Vasanthakumar, although it had remained lukewarm to the
idea when it was expressed from time to time by the
bench and the Bar.
But soon realisation dawned on the practical difficulties in realising the idea, even if the bench appeared
sympathetic to it initially.
Vasanthakumar led a similar petition in October
2014 requesting the court to direct the Central government to consider his representation on the setting up of
the NCA, which he had submitted in 2013. The court had
given the Centre six months to consider Vasanthakumars representation, as it found that his petition had
raised an issue that was of a positive nature.
But in its reply to Vasanthakumar, the Centre confused the plea to set up NCAs in the four regions of the
country with the opposition of the successive CJIs to the
proposal to set up a bench of the Supreme Court outside
Delhi. The Centre failed to understand the distinction
between an NCA and a Supreme Court bench.
Article 130 of the Constitution, which refers to the
seat of the Supreme Court, says that the Supreme Court
shall sit in Delhi or in such other place or places, as the
CJI may, with the approval of the President, from time to
time deem t. It is true that successive CJIs have opposed
the idea of setting up Supreme Court benches outside
Delhi on the grounds that it would affect the prestige and
integrity of the apex court. But the proposal to set up
NCAs has nothing to do with the setting up of benches of
the Supreme Court outside Delhi.
In his fresh petition, Vasanthakumar challenged the
governments reply as erroneous and arbitrary. Vasanthakumar is not the rst petitioner to propose the setting
up of an NCA as a solution to the mounting docket crisis
facing the Supreme Court and to address the problem of
access to justice being aggravated by the geographical
distance of Delhi for litigants living in other regions, and
the time it takes to seek justice at the Supreme Court.
As K.K. Venugopal, amicus curiae appointed by the
Supreme Court in this case, points out in his submissions
to the Supreme Court, the former judge of the Supreme
Court, late Justice K.K. Mathew had, in an article published in 1982, contemplated Courts of Appeal to relieve
the huge backlog of cases in the Supreme Court.
Justice P.N. Bhagwati, in Bihar Legal Support Authority vs Chief Justice of India [(1986) 4 SCC 767], said:
The Supreme Court of India was never intended to
be a regular court of appeal against orders made by the
High Court or the sessions court of the magistrates. It
14
attempts to adjudicate all the pending cases, it will necessarily accumulate vast arrears over a period of time and
the court is bound to fail in hearing and disposing of cases
within a reasonable time frame. This is likely to erode the
condence of litigants in the effectiveness of the court in
delivering justice.
Venugopal, therefore, suggests the creation of four
regional or zonal Courts of Appeal, which would absorb
the 140 categories of cases relating to matrimony, rent
control, labour, service, and land acquisition, among
others, entertained by the Supreme Court. These cases
would belong to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of
Appeal.
The Supreme Court would then be left with only
those cases that would fall within the jurisdiction vested
in it by the framers of the Constitution and covering
essentially the following matters:
I) All matters involving substantial questions of law
relating to the interpretation of the Constitution or of
national or public importance;
II) Validity of laws, Central and State;
III) The judicial review of constitutional
amendments;
IV) Resolving conicts between States and the Centre
as well as the original jurisdiction to dispose of suits in
this regard;
V) To settle differences of opinion on important issues of law between High Courts; and
VI) Presidential references under Article 143 of the
Constitution.
Thus, Venugopal has proposed that the Constitution
be amended by adding Article 136A, whereby the NCAs
would exercise the powers, which were hitherto being
exercised by the Supreme Court under Article 136 of the
Constitution. Article 136 (1) enables the Supreme Court
to use its discretion to grant special leave to appeal from
any judgment, decree, determination, sentence or order
in any cause or matter made by any court or tribunal in
the territory of India.
The Attorney General, Mukul Rohatgi, however, opposed the plea for setting up the NCAs, as in his view, it
would further delay the process of justice delivery by
adding one more layer of appeal between the High Courts
and the Supreme Court.
When pointed out that the decisions of the NCAs
would have nality over matters that are exclusively under their domain, the Attorney General modied his
concerns by asking what would happen to the constitutional guarantee to every citizen under Article 32 to move
the Supreme Court through appropriate proceedings for
the enforcement of the rights conferred by Part III of the
Constitution, dealing with Fundamental Rights. Rohatgi
has also opposed the reference of the case to the vejudge Constitution bench, as suggested by the CJI, claiming it would be a waste of the courts precious time.
Despite the Centres opposition to the idea, the Supreme Courts three-judge bench has reserved its decision on whether to refer the case to a larger bench to
debate the issue by hearing all the stakeholders.
was created for the purpose of laying down the law for the
entire country and the extraordinary jurisdiction of
granting special leave was conferred upon it under Article 136 of the Constitution so that it could interfere
whenever it found that the law was not correctly enunciated by the lower courts or tribunals and it was necessary to pronounce the correct law on the subject.
More to the point, the Constitution bench in that case
declared: We think that it would be desirable to set up an
NCA which should be in a position to entertain appeals
by special leave from the decisions of the High Courts and
tribunals in the country in civil, criminal, revenue and
labour cases and so far as the present apex court is
concerned, it should concern itself only with entertaining
cases involving questions of constitutional law and public
law.
The Law Commission of India, in its 229th Report
(2009), recommended the setting up of a Cour de Cassation in each of the four regions to have these Courts of
Appeal as nal courts with regard to the matters entrusted to them.
Venugopal also cites the research paper published by
Nick Robinson, a Yale Law School Research Fellow, that
10 per cent of the cases led in the Supreme Court
emanate from Delhi, 6.2 per cent from Punjab and Haryana, and 6.2 per cent from Uttarakhand, with only 1.1
per cent and 2.4 per cent from large States like Tamil
Nadu and Karnataka. According to Venugopal, this implies that the distance of the Supreme Court from the
southern States would, in fact, be an impediment to
access the apex court in Delhi.
According to information provided by the Supreme
Court on its website, as on September 30, 2015, the
number of pending cases stood at 59, 910. Of these, even
if one excludes connected matters as suggested by the
court itself, the result would be 36,414.
The number of Constitution bench matters, which
have been pending for many years, was 29. Although this
number is minuscule, the early disposal of these matters
would have resulted in lling the grey areas in law, which
could lead to early and expeditious disposal of several
pending cases as well. When the present CJI, T.S. Thakur, set up three Constitution benches of ve judges each
after taking over office in December last year, members
of the Bar felt relieved that the court had nally woken up
to the need to give priority to Constitution bench matters
and that as a result they could expect authoritative court
rulings on key issues.
According to Venugopal, merely augmenting the
number of judges in the Supreme Court will not solve the
problem of pendency of cases. Even if the apex court
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COVER STORY
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16
R.V. MOORTHY
K.K. Venugopal.
Contact : @Razkr
let all decisions rest nally with the High Court because
they, off and on, or sometimes, deliver decisions which
are aberrations and perverse judgments, and therefore
this will require judges sitting in appeal who are selected
in the same manner as judges of the Supreme Court. This
would mean that the Courts of Appeal will be manned by
judges who are elevated from High Courts by the collegium, applying the same yardstick, the same guidelines,
which they use for elevating High Court judges to the
Supreme Court.
So, qualitatively, they will be the handpicked judges
known for their integrity, judicial acumen, experience
and wide knowledge. Four courts of appeal, manned by
15 judges each, in each one of the four regions, namely,
southern, northern, western and eastern, would take
justice closer to the litigants. Today, we nd people from
the south not approaching the Supreme Court with the
same number of cases with which persons from States
close to Delhi come to the Supreme Court. The distance,
not being able to access the lawyers quickly, not knowing
whether their cases are coming up, not being able to
travel long distances, cases are posted suddenly to the
next day, all these problems will also get solved.
More importantly, you will have 15 or 20 judges
manning the Supreme Court, who will be able to spend
sufficient time for each case by patiently listening to the
lawyers, not being overwhelmed by the 70 cases which
currently get listed for the day. You will nd a totally
different Supreme Court, where the judges will have
leisure to read the textbooks, the jurisprudence available
from different parts of the Commonwealth countries, so
that knowledge and quality of justice will increase. According to me, there will be only 2,500 cases led every
year instead of 60,000 cases which are led every year
now. The Supreme Court will be able to dispose of 2,500
cases in one year instead of seven to eight years.
Will the constitutional guarantee to every citizen to
approach the Supreme Court directly under Article 32
remain if the NCA comes into being?
If you are creating courts of the same quality of judges
as the Supreme Court, there is no reason why Article 32
power also should not stand transferred to the Courts of
Appeal. But that is a matter of policy. However, if a
substantial question of interpretation of law or the Constitution arises, it can be done only by the Supreme Court.
Article 136, with the new restraint which will be
applied by the Supreme Court, will continue. But Article
136 A will be there, where the wide discretionary powers
which are exercised by the Supreme Court today can be
exercised by the Courts of Appeal. If that be so, 80 per
cent of the cases now dealt by the Supreme Court will be
considered by the Courts of Appeal under Article 136 A.
These are easy amendments. The structure can easily be
changed. And I do not think that the basic structure will
be affected because you are enhancing the efficacy of the
judicial system. You are bringing into existence a Supreme Court which can spend more time listening to
constitutional issues and at the same time an equally
competent Court of Appeal to try other cases.
FRONTLINE .
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18
ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS
Complex scene
M. GOVARTHAN
With multiple fronts in the fray and several issues, from prohibition
to power supply, at stake, the election scene in Tamil Nadu is making
the guessing game difficult. B Y T . S . S U B R A M A N I A N
AIADMK MP T H A MB I D U RA I receiving a copy of the party manifesto from Chief Minister Jayalalithaa at Perundurai in
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A. SHAIKMOHIDEEN
April 28. She believes this is an auspicious time as per her A I A D M K CA D R E S in front of the party office in Kovilpatti.
horoscope and that this will ensure victory for the
AIADMK. This is a record, for 233 candidates will be Makkal Katchi, the Puthiya Tamizhagam and others as
ling their nominations simultaneously at a particular its constituents; the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK)-led Peoples Welfare Front (PWF); the
time.
Jayalalithaa led her nomination papers on April 25 Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK); the Bharatiya Janata Parfrom the Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar constituency in Chen- ty(BJP)-led alliance; and the Naam Tamizhar Katchi, an
nai. The AIADMK is contesting 227 seats and its minor ultra-nationalist Tamil party led by lm director Seeallies are contesting the remaining seven seats on the man. The DMDK is led by its founder and lm actor
Vijayakanth. The PWF comprises the Marumalarchi
two leaves symbol.
Kadambur Raju visited the Shenbagavalli Amman Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) founded by Vaitemple in Kovilpatti before ling his nomination papers. ko, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Tamil
This correspondent waited on the main
Maanila Congress (TMC) and the Viduthroad expecting to see him accompanied by
alai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), a Dalit
his entourage, but he materialised from a
party which has a strong presence in
side lane. When asked about his election
northern Tamil Nadu. The PWF has proplank, he instructed one of his cadres to
jected Vijayakanth as its chief ministerial
give us his propaganda pamphlet. It was
candidate and has promised voters that it
printed on thick paper, and carried the
would form a coalition government if it is
headline in Tamil: The historical projects
voted to power.
implemented in the last ve years during
the golden rule of honourable Amma in
the Kovilpatti Assembly constituency.
ISSUES AT STAKE
Tamil Nadu is witnessing a six-corOne issue that is being hotly debated
nered contest involving the ruling
across the State is prohibition. Be it Saroja,
AIADMK and its six allies; the DMK-led K A D A M B U R S . R A J U,
a vegetable seller at Chettymandapam
alliance with the Congress, the Indian the AIADMK candidate for
near Orathanad in Thanjavur district; a
Union Muslim League, the Manithaneya Kovilpatti.
group of Dalit women seated on the roadFRONTLINE .
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20
gradual prohibition? he sarcastically asked about Jayalalithaas assurance. We are for total prohibition, he
emphasised.
On April 9, at an AIADMK rally on Island Grounds in
Chennai, which marked the start of her campaign, Jayalalithaa said that although she was for total prohibition
it is not possible to bring about total prohibition with
one signature and that it can be reintroduced only in
stages. She promised voters that if the AIADMK was
given another term, it would rst reduce the working
hours of the liquor shops, then limit the number of shops,
close the bars attached to the liquor shops, and open
rehabilitation centres for addicts, all in stages.
MOOD IN THE WEST
A. SHAIKMOHIDEEN
People see a link between sales in the liquor shops and the
lack of money circulation. Shah Jehan said: When a
labourer who earns about Rs.350 a day spends much of it
on liquor, how much money can he give his wife to buy
groceries, vegetables or milk? The entire money goes to
TASMAC, where it gets locked up. Still the government
says it has a decit budget. E. Ayyamperumal, standing
at the intersection on the national highway from Coimbatore that led to Sankagiri constituency in Salem district, went ballistic when this reporter struck up a
conversation with him. There is no money circulation at
all. Real estate has crashed. If one acre of land costs Rs.1
crore, I am able to sell it only for Rs.25 lakh. I am not able
to sell any parcel of land. There are no buyers for ats
either. I am an AIADMK man but am upset that there
has been no money circulation for the past few years. He,
however, praised Jayalalithaa for setting up Amma canteens and Amma pharmacies and initiating the scheme
to sell Amma cement bags. Yet, he predicted that a
change will come about in the State.
Other issues that have come to the fore are lack of
S.S. KUMAR
side at Indira Nagar in Periyakulam (reserved) constituency; the elderly M. Gopal, seated at a tea stall at
Dasarayapalayam coming under the Avinashi constituency near Coimbatore; J. Shah Jehan, who sells sunglasses and helmets on the footpath near Quarry Office at
Madukkarai on the CoimbatorePalakkad highway; A.
Kumar at Manapparai; or R. Das, DMDK councillor of
Ulundurpet, the categorical demand is the closure of
liquor shops run by the Tamil Nadu State Marketing
Corporation (TASMAC). Women are more vociferous in
their demand. Mariammal of Indira Nagar in Periyakulam said: These brandy shops have ruined most of the
families. Sumathy said: If the TASMAC shops are shut
down, Tamil Nadu will be clean. The reason she felt so
strongly about the need for prohibition was that her
husband was killed when he was hit by a car near Indira
Nagar. The suspicion is that the car was driven by a drunk
driver. Another group of voters wondered if it was possible to bring back prohibition in one stroke or implement it in stages. Their stand depended on their political
affiliation. While DMK president and former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has promised to bring back total
prohibition, Jayalalithaa has promised to reintroduce
prohibition in stages.
Taking into account the ills of liquor consumption,
our rst signature after assuming office will be to implement total prohibition, Karunanidhi told an election
meeting at Mayiladuthurai on April 24. What is that
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BIJOY GHOSH
said: Real estate is down. There is less money circulation. Registration charges for buying properties is high.
Agriculture has taken a beating because the rains failed
last year [2015]. Agricultural land has become housing
sites. But there is no buyer for them because people do
not have paisa. In Sembanur, Thazhiyur, Madhampatti,
Narasipuram and Kuppepalayam, elephant-human conict is on the rise. So people do not want to buy land there
although these are scenic places.
However, there is praise for Velumani for providing
drinking water facilities and good roads. The assessment
is that he may not have to ght hard to retain his constituency because Syed Mohammed of the MMK, who is
contesting against him, is not considered a tough opponent. Yet, in the analysis of S. Thamaraiselvan, the DMK
representative for the Thondamuthur panchyat union, it
will not be a cakewalk for Velumani because there are
about 43,000 Muslim voters in the constituency. If most
of them vote for Mohammed, it will become a tough
contest.
There were other imponderables too, such as the
three parties that claim to represent the interests of
Gounders, who form a sizable chunk of the population in
the Kongu mandalam, consisting of Coimbatore,
Erode, Tiruppur, Salem, Namakkal and Karur, in the
western region of the State. The parties are the Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi (KMDK) led by E.R. Eswaran,
the Kongu Nadu Jananayaga Katchi (KJK) headed by
G.K. Nagaraj, and the Kongu Nadu Munnetra Kazhagam
(KNMK) led by Best Ramasamy. Velumani is a Goun-
Contact : @Razkr
22
der, but a split of the Gounder votes can affect his chances, Thamaraiselvan said.
23
Contact : @Razkr
nesh, a lightweight, as the AIADMK candidate for Kovilpatti. However, when the news was out that Vaiko was
planning to contest from Kovilpatti, she brought back
Kadambur Raju, who could pose a challenge to Vaiko. All
the three, Vaiko, Ramanujam Ganesh and Kadambur
Raju belong to the Naidu community.
Vaiko dropped a bombshell on April 25 when he
announced that he was opting out of the contest at
Kovilpatti, alleging that the DMK was planning intercaste tension in the constituency and blaming him for it.
Vaiko turned a bitter foe of the DMK after his expulsion
from the party and he went on to form the MDMK in
1994. He said he took the decision not to contest because
a group of people in Vadakku Thittangulam village in the
constituency prevented him from garlanding the statue
of Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar. The group did
not want Vaiko to garland the statue because Vaiko
reportedly spoke ill of the Thevar community at Udumalpet in Tiruppur district after a Dalit youth, V. Sankar, was
murdered there on March 13, for marrying a caste-Hindu
girl.
However, Vaiko went on to garland the Thevar statue
at Vadakku Thittangulam. Vaikos decision to withdraw
from the contest drew jibes from the DMK, the AIADMK
and the BJP. They said he was running away from the
MADURAI WEST
A. MURALITHARAN
Contact : @Razkr
24
R. ASHOK
TIRUVARUR
Contact : @Razkr
NANGUNERI
Businessman H. Vasanthakumar of the Congress is contesting again at Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district. His
main opponent is the AIADMKs M. Vijayakumar. In
2006, Vasanthakumar was elected from the constituency
but he lost to A. Narayanan of the All India Samathuva
Makkal Katchi by 12,280 votes in 2011. The entire constituency knows that Vasanthakumar will not take any
bribes, asserted A.S.A. Karunakaran, his campaign
manager. A factor favouring Vasanthakumar is that Narayanan, who contested on the AIADMKs symbol of
two leaves, is not in the fray this time. (Vasanthakumar,
Narayanan and Vijayakumar belong to the Nadar community. There is a substantial population of Thevars in
the constituency.) Thevars have a predilection to vote for
the AIADMK. Since the All India Forward Bloc [which is
backed by Thevars] has elded a candidate this time,
fewer Thevars will vote for the AIADMK, and the chances of Vasanthakumar winning are good, said
Karunakaran.
Vasanthakumar said, if elected he would revive the
Rs.24-crore project announced by Stalin when the DMK
was in power from 2006 to 2011 for laying irrigation
channels from the Nambiaru in 46 places. The Rs.356FRONTLINE .
Contact : @Razkr
B. VELANKANNI RAJ
thing for the constituency, Ravi said. But they are unhappy that he has allied with neither the AIADMK nor
the DMK. People want to vote for Sundaram but he has
no backing from either the AIADMK or the DMK. Yet,
we cannot predict the outcome, Ravi said.
PENNAGARAM
Contact : @Razkr
ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS
Flood of troubles
The AIADMK may nd the going tough in the ood-affected
constituencies in Tiruvallur, Chennai, Cuddalore, Kancheepuram
and Villupuram districts. B Y R . K . R A D H A K R I S H N A N
and after the oods, and in the run-up to the Assembly
elections, said this was not so. People in the ood-affected districts were reduced to begging for food and water,
images that refuse to fade away from the memory of the
ood victims.
How can I forget the stench that remained for
months in my house? asks Mohan Babu, a resident of
Khuber Nagar in Madipakkam, a suburb of Chennai.
We cleaned the house every day for 10 days. But when we
came back the next day, the stench would still be there.
Our apartment was totally damaged, he said. It took him
a few months of cleaning and repair works to make the
house liveable. Thousands of families in Chennai and
other districts faced similar hardships.
The government did expedite the process of depos-
Contact : @Razkr
28
S.R. RAGHUNATHAN
29
Contact : @Razkr
K.V. SRINIVASAN
Contact : @Razkr
30
ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS
The M factor
The use of money to buy votes is expected to signicantly inuence the
result of the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, despite the Election
Commissions best efforts to thwart the practice. B Y I L A N G O V A N R A J A S E K A R A N
was a fake ambulance with a fake registration number.
The team seized 12 currency-counting machines,
empty corrugated boxes and rubber bands (possibly to
bundle the cash), envelopes and also copies of electoral
rolls in the godown. Apart from the fake ambulance, the
godown had four high-end cars, a tractor and an SUV
with the word G indicating government. The seized
articles, according to a police officer, were handed over to
the Velayuthampalayam police station.
The ECI alerted the Investigation Directorate of the
Income Tax Department, which in turn dispatched a
team of senior officers to carry out raids on the house of
the businessman in question, identied by now as C.P.
Anbunathan, 46, a nancier-cum-businessman who is
also claimed to wield considerable clout with politicians
of all parties, especially the ruling All India Anna Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).
The I-T team reportedly unearthed Rs.4.7 crore and
several documents from Anbunathans house. We seized
TH E PA R K I N G S H E D at Ayyampalayam in Karur district from where election officials seized Rs.10.33 lakh on April 22.
31
Contact : @Razkr
A dependable
strategy
BY ILANGOVAN RAJASEKARAN
Contact : @Razkr
the money and asked him [Anbunathan] to appear before us with supportive documents linking to the seizures. He is yet to appear, said a senior I-T officer in
Chennai on April 30. Anbunathan approached the Karur
court on April 28 seeking bail, but his plea was rejected.
In the meantime, the Velayuthampalayam police registered cases against Anbunathan under Sections 420
and 484 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with Section
5 of The Emblems and Names (Prevention and Improper
Use) Act, 1950. On May 3, Anbunathan led a petition
before the Madras High Court Bench at Madurai seeking
FRONTLINE .
It is a massive endeavour
involving a massive
workforce. The disbursement
of the money to smaller nodal
points by the parties, it is
R A J E S H LAKHON I ,
Chief Electoral Officer. claimed, is almost
accomplished. Everyone
speaks about cash for vote.
We have set in motion a strong mechanism with
which even rural pockets are brought under our scanner. We have formed village youth vigilance committees
in 16,000 villages in Tamil Nadu. If a consignment of
unsolicited money is sighted anywhere, the same will be
intimated to us, which in turn will be conveyed to the
flying squads and multi-disciplinary committees
through short messaging services. The exercise is transparent since every member in the squad would receive
the SMS about the location to be raided, thus eliminating even a strand of suspicion in the whole operation.
M. VEDHAN
32
Contact : @Razkr
D. Ravikumar, a senior politician of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi who is contesting from the Vanur segment in the Villupuram district, said: How can you
expect us to ght the might of money? The VCK is part of
the Peoples Welfare Front, a rainbow coalition that includes the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam, the
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Tamil
Maanila Congress, the Communist Party of India and the
Communist Party of India (Marxist). Its aim is to provide
a credible alternative to the Dravidian giants that have
been alternately ruling since 1967.
While the bigger and richer parties buy votes with
money, the smaller players struggle to meet election
expenses. The VCKs candidate in the Kunnam segment,
Aloor Sha Navas, is crowdsourcing funds while Ravikumar has posted desperate appeals for funds on social
media. At least a minimum of Rs.50,000, which is a
conservative estimate, is needed to meet a days basic
expenses, such as providing water and food to volunteers,
printing and distributing pamphlets, buying fuel for vehicles, etc. We will not be able to spend half of even the
ECI-permitted amount of Rs.28 lakh per constituency
for the elections, Ravikumar said. Only those who are
rich can contest. Where is the level playing eld here?
Gopalaswami told Frontline that the chances of having a level playing eld in elections were remote in the
near future unless an effective crackdown could stop
vote-buying. The sinister nexus between political funding and black money has to be ruthlessly eradicated. Can
you expect the ECI to exercise its limited powers to
control this serious menace whenever elections are
held? he asked.
The ECI, though, is doing its best to ensure a level
playing eld. It has been implementing a slew of stringent measures to neutralise the money factor. Rajesh
Lakhoni said, As the bad money seeps into the deep rural
pockets, we have taken the initiative of roping in about
22,000 rural youth to alert us on suspicious transactions.
We are getting positive results. Also, for the rst time, we
have deployed Income Tax officials in all districts to
monitor cash movement and strengthened ying and
static squads, which include officials from Central agencies (see interview).
FRONTLINE .
Contact : @Razkr
34
S.S. KUMAR
35
Contact : @Razkr
ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS
Nervous phase
ASHOKE CHAKRABARTY
Contact : @Razkr
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come under Trinamool Congress rule after the 2008 ments made by senior Trinamool Congress leaders which
panchayat elections, and there is a possibility of an anti- served to damage the image and credibility of the party.
incumbency factor working against the ruling party here. These factors compelled Mamata Banerjee to increasingNorth 24 Paraganas has thrown up an interesting ly project herself, rather than the partys candidates, a
parallel in the Basirhat Uttar and Basirhat Dakshin seats. move that is interpreted as a desperate effort to cling to
The Trinamool Congress wrested the Basirhat Uttar seat, her voters.
The Chief Ministers actions and words started to
near the Bangladesh border, from the CPI(M) in a byelection in 2011 following the death of the incumbent betray her insecurity, which in turn had an effect on the
MLA. Although the ruling party maintained its lead in voters. In a last-ditch effort to salvage the situation, she
even started acknowledging the
this Assembly segment in the 2014
crimes committed by her party
election, the margin was greatly releaders. If I have done anything
duced. To add to the Trinamool
wrong, give me two slaps. If you tell
Congress woes, Raqul Islam Monme to, I will go and wash your utendal, one of the most inuential leadsils. But if you call me a thief, if you
ers of the party in the region, joined
spread lies, if you insult Bengal, it
the CPI(M) and was propped up
hurts, she said at a public rally
against the ruling party MLA,
before the fth phase of elections.
A.T.M. Abdullah. Mondals deparOn another occasion, she even
ture left the Trinamool Congress
railed against the State police apconsiderably weaker. He told Fronparently for doing their work proptline: The moment people realised
erly in ensuring free and fair
that I am the candidate of the jote
elections. The nervousness in the
[Left-Congress tie-up], their reacrank and le of the party is also
tion has been one of spontaneous
apparent as the whisper that began
delight and enthusiasm. The ideolbefore the electionsthat the inogy with which the Trinamool was
vincible Trinamool Congress may
set up is no longer present in the
losegot louder with every phase
party. It has now become a destrucof the elections.
tive party that hires goons to supThe dole politics of Mamata
press democracy and establish
RA F I Q U L I S LAM M ON D AL, former
Banerjee, guaranteed to bring elecdictatorship.
Trinamool Congress leader who is the
toral success, and the development
The CPI(M) won the Basirhat
CPI(M)s candidate in Basirhat Uttar.
work that has undoubtedly taken
Dakshin seat in 2011, but in the byplace in large parts of rural Bengal
election that took place following
the death of the sitting MLA, the BJP won it, its lone seat have been offset by the rule of terror perpetrated by
in the State, by a narrow margin. Riding on the crest of members of the ruling party. Even basic democratic
the pro-Narendra Modi wave, the BJP registered a strong rights, such as voting without the fear of violent repercuslead in the Assembly segment in the 2014 election. The sion, have been denied to citizens in many areas. Even
main contest here this time is between the BJP MLA, children have not been spared to keep dissent at bay, as
Shamik Bhattacharya, and former footballer Dipendu was evident in the post-election violence in different
Biswas of the Trinamool Congress. The jote has not parts of the State.
Nandigram is a prime example of the latent violence
really matured here, and my ght is to increase my
margin. The jote and the Trinamool Congress are ghting prevailing in the State, kept hidden under an illusion of
for the second place, Shamik Bhattacharya told peace and stability. Mamata Banerjee not only failed to
keep her promise of returning the land to the people of
Frontline.
Singur, but also failed to establish peace and ensure
security in the State. Polling has largely been free and fair
THE FEAR OF DEFEAT
With the ruling party not expected to do well in north under the surveillance of a huge contingent of Central
Bengal, and uncertainty looming over its prospects in forces. If the issue of suppression of democracy outBirbhum and Bardhaman, the partys performance in weighs the governments claims of development, then it
North and South 24 Paraganas is crucial for Mamata will be almost impossible for the Trinamool Congress to
Banerjee to return to power. Apart from facing a com- return to power. But if Mamata Banerjee emerges victobined opposition, the Trinamool Congress came under rious, she will have to make a serious attempt to solve the
further pressure following a series of incidents on the eve issues within her party and government which conjured
of the electionsthe Narada sting, the collapse of a yov- up the spectre of defeat even before the elections were
er in Kolkata in which 27 people lost their lives (which over. An unsmiling, ashen-faced Mamata Banerjee briefalso brought to the fore the nexus between local Trina- ly ashing the customary victory sign after casting her
mool Congress leaders and the subcontractors engaged vote and striding off, spoke more than all the rhetoric of
in the construction), and indiscreet comments and state- the opposition combine.
39
Contact : @Razkr
ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS
Uncertain state
In Kerala, the ruling UDF and the opposition LDF realise that this
round of election is like no other as the BJP seeks to break fresh
ground with new allies. B Y R . K R I S H N A K U M A R
against all UDF Ministers, the Leader of the Opposition
V.S. Achuthanandan has shown me mercy in this issue
as well. He has made me the chief minister in this
respect too. But the truth is that there is not a single case
against me. That is what I am going to declare before the
Election Commission when I le my nomination papers
tomorrow. If my declaration is wrong, my nomination
will be rejected. They are raising baseless allegations
because they have nothing else to say against the government. But our faith is in the thinking people of Kerala,
who hear and know everything, and see through such
games as the voters here at Aruvikkara did last year.
The Chief Ministers appeal was not the only one that
set the tone of the stretched-out election campaign in
Kerala. Right at the beginning, Achuthanandan of the
Communist Party of India (Marxist) asked voters in the
north Kerala constituency of Dharmadam in Kannur
district to present a proud victory for the partys former
State secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan. The rivalry in the party
between factions owing allegiance to the two leaders
dominated Kerala politics in the past two decades and
decided the fate of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in all
elections held in the State during that period.
Two days before the Chief Ministers speech at Aruvikkara, Kerala waited eagerly to see what Pinarayi Vijayan would say as he campaigned at Malampuzha in
Palakkad district, where Achuthanadan is seeking another term. Pinarayi Vijayan said: Malampuzha is a
constituency that has stood strongly with the LDF forever. Many would like to try and do some kind of a miracle
here. There is such a talk in some inner circles. But people
take decisions on the basis of their experiences. There is
no need to introduce V.S. Achuthanandan to the people
of Malampuzha. They have accepted him like a member
of their family. His activities have gained much acceptance among society. There was also a note of caution at
the end of the speech: An election is a political battle. It
has its own ethics and principles. In this battle there
should be no laziness, negligence or overcondence. It
will all weaken our struggle. We should work without
mistakes and present a bright victory for V.S. by voting
for the hammer and sickle symbol.
Contact : @Razkr
40
S. GOPAKUMAR
BJP OFFENSIVE
Contact : @Razkr
FRONTLINE .
Contact : @Razkr
S.K. MOHAN
K.K. MUSTAFAH
CP I ( M )
VE TE R AN V.S.
Achuthanandan
(above)
campaigns in
Dharmadam in
Kannur district
for party
colleague
Pinarayi Vijayan,
and (left)
Pinarayi Vijayan
campaigns for
the former in
Malampuzha
constituency
in Palakkad
district.
ed candidates, such as Kovalam, Kuttanad, Vaikom, Ettumanoor, Ranni, Udumbanchola, Kodungalloor and
Kaipamangalam, the BJP-led alliance claims it can make
or mar the prospects of prominent front candidates.
Traditional wisdom is that minority votes, in general,
go in favour of the UDF (especially because of the presence of the Muslim League and the major Kerala Congress factions in it) and a large chunk (over 70 per cent) of
Hindu votes are often polled in favour of the LDF. But
with the BJP alliance seriously getting into the fray, this
election could see the strengthening of the trend that was
evident in the local body elections, where the minority
vote seemed in general to favour the candidate who has
the best chance of defeating the BJP in any given constituency. In many local body seats, this favoured the LDF,
which also, unlike the UDF, succeeded in its efforts to
check the BJP from eroding its traditional vote bank.
The LDFs consistent and rm stand against the Hindutva agenda vis-a-vis the UDF has over the years gained
a lot of admirers, especially among the minority communities in the State. The BJP/RSS untested claim, however, is that their alliance has the potential to win at least 18
seats in Kerala and offer a strong triangular ght in 69.
The result of such well-publicised theories could be a
possible secular/minority mood against it, and a section
of the minority voters, traditional UDF supporters, may
decide to vote in favour of Left candidates, except in
places where there are Muslim League or Kerala Congress candidates. But with the recent spilt in the Kerala
Congress (Mani), one section, named the Democratic
Kerala Congress, has now joined the LDF and its candidates are ghting their former colleagues in many Christian stronghold constituencies.
Clearly, within the UDF, only candidates of the Muslim League are perhaps in a comparatively secure position, with the partys continuing domination of the
Muslim vote bank.
THE BDJS FACTOR
Contact : @Razkr
CONTROVERSY
Manufactured anger
EVEN before the dust on the nationalism debate settled down, a new
controversy has erupted over the
portrayal of Bhagat Singh in a history
book. The determined effort of the
Bharatiya Janata Party-led National
Democratic Alliance (NDA) government to correct historical wrongs
in the education system took a new
turn during the Budget session of
Parliament. On April 27, Anurag
Thakur, a BJP Member of Parliament, while commenting on the role
of history in nation building, referred
to events that happened in February
on the Jawaharlal Nehru University
(JNU) campus and launched a fullblown attack on a book authored by
the late historian Bipan Chandra and
four others. Pointing to a reference to
Bhagat Singh as a revolutionary terrorist in the book, he claimed that
the same professors had depicted the
Congress vice president (Rahul
Gandhi) as a charismatic leader. The
book in question is Indias Struggle
for Independence, covering the period from 1857 to 1947, and published
in 1988. It had already sold over one
lakh copies. While the usage of the
term terrorist could be a matter of
debate, given the context in which it
was written, the accusation that the
historian had described certain contemporary political leaders as charismatic was preposterous as the book
covered the period ending 1947.
Reliable sources point out that
the book, which was translated into
Hindi by the Delhi University (D.U.)
FRONTLINE .
Contact : @Razkr
B H A GA T S I N G H.
44
B I P A N C H A N D R A.
In a letter to D.U. Vice Chancellor Yogesh Tyagi, some of the coauthors said Bipan Chandra had
stopped using the description in his
later writings and that he had even
publicly stated that he would not like
to use the word terrorist any more.
Aditya Mukherjee, Professor of History, JNU, and one of the co-authors
of the book, sent to the Vice Chancellor a statement issued by Bipan
Chandra in 2007 (the centenary year
of Bhagat Singh), which was published in a mainstream newspaper. Bipan Chandra was quoted in the
newspaper article as saying: It was a
phrase of praise and was used to distinguish Bhagat Singh from the other streams of freedom struggle. But
the word terrorism has assumed a
different meaning now. I would not
like it to be used any longer. He also
said that all the co-authors had de45
Contact : @Razkr
Contact : @Razkr
self-sacrice. For all, the inspiring ideal should not be to die for
the objective but to live for it and
that too to live a purposeful and
worthwhile life.
It goes without saying that
we are not completely disassociating ourselves from terrorist activities. We seek complete
appraisal of it from the viewpoint of the workers revolution.
Those young men who are not t
in mature and silent organisational work can be used in a different manner. They should be
freed from monotonous work to
live their desired life. But the
parent organisation should beforehand assess the impact of the
party and its work, its impact on
the masses and the strength of
the enemy. Such kind of works
can divert the attention of the
masses from combative mass
struggle to sharp and amboyant
work and thus can become an
excuse to attack the very roots of
the party. Hence, this ideal
should not be carried forward in
any circumstance. But the secret
military department is not a
curse. In reality, this is the frontline. The ring line of the revolutionary party has to be linked
to the base, which is the dynamic
and progressive peoples party.
There should be no hesitation to
collect funds and arms for the
organisation.
Bhagat Singh
Pages 281-283, Bhagat Singh
Ke Sampoorna Dastavez, foreword Kultar Singh; preface,
compiled, and edited by Chaman
Lal, Aadhar Prakashan, Panchkula, Haryana, 2004.
The translation has been done by
Aditya Mukherjee and Mridula
Mukherjee, Professors of History in JNU and co-authors of Indias Struggle for Independence.
46
SANDEEP SAXENA
M E MBE R S O F T H E B I R K H A LS A
DAL during a protest outside the
In a statement, Penguin
Books India said: Since
rst being published in
1988, Indias Struggle
for
Independencehas
been a recognised au47
Contact : @Razkr
thority and positive appraisal of Bhagat Singh and his associates huge
contribution to Indias freedom
movement. At the time of writing,
the author made it clear that the
phrase revolutionary terrorist was
used without any pejorative meaning and for want of a different term.
Language has evolved since the book
was rst published and we are already working with the co-authors to
update and revise the phraseology to
reect both modern usage and the
hugely important role Bhagat Singh
played in the creation of modern India. The publisher said it was open
to changes but at the same time acknowledged the merit of the text concerned, the context and especially
the appraisal of Bhagat Singh and his
associates.
The reason for the present controversy may not be difficult to discern. The views and concerns of one
section of the family seem to be in
concert with the views of sections
within the government. Chaman Lal
said the issue was raised during the
tenure of the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA), too, and Bipan Chandras Modern India was
attacked for showing Jats in a poor
light. I think they are targeting universities and, in particular, those that
do not conform to their denition of
nationalism. The Hindi version is very popular among young graduate
students and therein lies the problem, Chaman Lal told Frontline.
Bipan Chandra, who passed
away in 2014, was the author of several books on colonialism, nationalism and communalism. He was also
the chairperson of the National Book
Trust. His colleagues and students
are shocked not so much about the
specic nature of the charge but
about the BJP leaders ignorance of
Bipan Chandras commitment to
Bhagat Singh and his views.
If D.U. decides to pulp Indias
Struggle for Independence or take
some drastic measure, it will be dealing a blow to intellectual and academic freedom and research and
doing a disservice to the book, which
remains one of the best ones to have
documented the national movement
in detail.
ERALDO PERES/AP
WORLD AFFAIRS
Contact : @Razkr
48
of the current coup mongers in civilian garb look nostalgically to that dark era, which only ended in 1985. Dilma
Rousseff spent three years in military prisons where she
was routinely tortured.
OPERATION LAVA JATO
P R E S I D E N T D I L M A R O U S S EF F at a press
conference on April 18 in Brasilia, Brazil, a day after the
Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the parliament,
voted for the motion to impeach her. (Facing page) A day
before the impeachment vote, Eduardo Cunha, President
of the Chamber of Deputies (seated top), presiding over a
debate in the house on whether or not to impeach her.
Opposition lawmakers are holding signs in Portuguese
that read Goodbye dear and Impeachment now.
Contact : @Razkr
UESLEI MARCELINO/REUTERS
prominent role in the unfolding coup. Temer is the leader elites. Six of her Cabinet Ministers had to resign last year
of the Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement, for their roles in the Petrobras scandal.
Dilma Rousseff, facing the biggest political challenge
which until recently was helping the Workers Party run
in her life, has decided to ght on regardless of the
the government.
The Workers Party has never had a majority in the shadow of a looming impeachment. During a recent visit
countrys parliament since it was rst voted into power to the United Nations headquarters in New York, she
more than 14 years ago. In fact, since 1995, no ruling said that she would never let the coup against her sucparty has got more than 20 per cent of the seats. The ceed. She told the media in New York that there were no
Brazilian Constitution, while envisaging a strong presi- legal grounds for her impeachment. In the past, coups
dency, made provisions to ensure a multiparty legisla- were carried out with machine guns, tanks and weapons.
ture. In the vote in the lower house to refer the Today all you need are hands willing to tear up the
impeachment motion to the upper house, the majority of Constitution, she said. She said that if the Senate apthe members of all the right-wing and centre-right par- proved the impeachment motion, then she would appeal
ties, which form the overwhelming majority in the to the international community and that she might go to
Chamber, voted against Dilma Rousseff. Only the Work- the Mercosur, Latin Americas major regional grouping,
to get its support to thwart the uners Party, the Communist Party of
folding coup. She said that she would
Brazil, the Democratic Labour Party
ask the grouping to implement the
and the Socialism and Freedom Party,
democracy clause in its constitution
along with seven members of the Vice
if there is a rupture in the democratic
Presidents party, voted against the
process in Brazil.
motion.
The impeachment process, she
According to observers of the Brasaid, had all the characteristics of a
zilian political scene, it will be difficult
coup as it had no legal basis. The
for Temer to form a government given
left-wing parties in the region have all
his abysmal approval ratings and corcome out in support of their belearupt image; 58 per cent of the electoguered comrade. The Permanent
rate wants Temer also to be
Conference of Political Parties of Laimpeached. This will leave the door
tin America and the Caribbean, comopen for Eduardo Cunha, who is at the
prising 60 Left parties, issued a
moment instrumental in protecting
statement condemning the instituthe Vice President from impeachtional coup in Brazil. The statement
ment. His approval ratings among the
rejected any destabilising intent to
Brazilian public are also dismal. A
undermine democracy in Brazil. It
group of Senators is calling for a new
V I C E P RES I DE N T Michel Temer.
drew comparisons to the 2009 coup in
presidential election to be held in NoHonduras and the 2012 impeachment
vember this year along with the municipal elections. This is the only way, they say, to keep of Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo.
The Brazilian President said that she had received
venal politicians out of the presidency after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, which they consider a foregone messages of solidarity from many world leaders. Brazil,
conclusion. The lead public prosecutor of Operation Car along with Russia, India, China and South Africa, is a
Wash, Deltan Dellagnol, has expressed his fears about member of the important BRICS grouping, which was
the regime that will displace the Workers Party-led gov- formed to challenge the economic dominance of the
ernment. He has said that with corrupt legislators form- West. If a right-wing regime took over in Brazil, the
ing a new government, there will be concerted attempts countrys interest in the grouping could wane. Top oppoto derail the ongoing investigations which have implicat- sition leaders from Brazil have been ying to Washington
to brief senior officials in the Barack Obama adminised leading gures from the opposition.
During the vote in the lower house, Dilma Rousseff tration on the neoliberal economic policies they would
forcefully pointed out that she was never mentioned in implement once Dilma Rousseff is ousted from power.
any documents or witness accounts relating to Operation But the U.S. seems to be having second thoughts about
Lava Jato and that the impeachment process should not the impeachment process. The U.S.-backed Organisahave been allowed in the rst place as at the most she was tion of American States (OAS) has been critical of the
guilty of administrative errors. Brazils Supreme Court whole exercise. After meeting with the Brazilian Presihas so far refused to step in and give a legal ruling on the dent in mid-April, OAS secretary general Luis Almagro
constitutionality of the impeachment proceedings. The issued a statement that said: Her constitutional mancourt, like all the major institutions in the country, seems date must be ensured, in accordance with the Constituto be split along ideological lines. Dilma Rousseff empha- tion and the laws, by all the powers of the state and all the
sised that the reforms her government had instituted had institutions of the country, and any undermining of her
empowered the judiciary to thoroughly investigate the authority should be avoided, wherever it may come
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50
WORLD AFFAIRS
MEXICO
GINNETTE RIQUELME/REUTERS
B Y VIJ A Y PR A S H A D
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The Mexican state, says Aurelia Gomez, efficiently dismantles social movementsworkers and peasant
unions, teachers and students organisations. But the
drug cartels remain intact. Plan Merida of 2008 links
Mexico to the U.S. Global War on Terror, with the new
term of art being narco-terrorism. Funds from the U.S.
government ood Mexican law enforcement agencies,
which use this new money and equipment to break one
drug ring in order to prot another.
Blood, death, threats, exploitation, weapons, unlimited prots; this is the big business created by the illegality of drugs, writes Rodriguez in The Femicide Machine.
There is little hope in the states institutions for the
families and friends of the 43 and for those who marched
on April 24. Drug cartels are in the blood stream of
Mexican institutions. To expect the Mexican state to
tackle this would be like presuming a heart surgeon could
do an open-heart operation on herself. At protests for the
43, a common slogan is Fue el estado (the state did it).
At the last public meeting of GIEI, the families and
friends of the 43 shouted: No se abandona (do not
abandon us).
There was a feeling, says Francisco Goldman, that
with the departure of the international commission,
nothing will happen. It is a feeling shared by the families
of those who have disappeared. Justice eludes them.
They indict the state. Who will give them justice from the
state? These people live in an abyss, Goldman told this
writer. They are forced by the state to live in the shadows, as a ghost with your ghosts.
In his book The Femicide Machine, Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez writes of the people who are considered of little
value. These are the 43 students, surely, but also the tens
of thousands of women whose murders have not been
investigated.
Ten days before the April 24 protest, Luisa Carvalho,
the regional director of the Americas and the Caribbean
53
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WORLD AFFAIRS
SAUDI ARABIA
In a bind
The diplomatic and economic clout of
Saudi Arabia suffers as its moves to
back terror groups backre.
B Y JO H N C H E R I A N
Contact : @Razkr
After the peace deal with Iran was signed, the Saudi
government, in an apparent act of pique, executed a
leading Shia cleric, Ayatollah Nimr al Nimr, along with
46 others. That move led to widespread protests in Iran.
International public opinion in Europe and elsewhere
turned even more against the Saudis after the hanging of
the popular cleric, who was a leader of the Shia Saudi
minority. European countries were anyway upset with
the Saudi support for Wahhabi and Salast preachers
who have been instrumental in the rise of groups like the
Islamic State (I.S.) and Al Qaeda. Many of their own
citizens were inuenced by the Salasts and embraced
extremist groups like Al Qaeda and the I.S. The terror
attacks in Paris and Brussels were launched by European
citizens inuenced by the puritanical strain of Islamic
theology.
After King Salmans accession to the throne, his son,
Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, seems to
be pulling the levers of power. Unlike previous royal
scions, the young prince seems to be a man in a hurry. He
has been pushing for Saudi Arabia to lead from the front
on military, political and economic issues. Going to war
in Yemen is said to be his idea. He reportedly played a key
role in scuttling the recent move by leading oil producers
54
STEPHEN CROWLEY/NYT
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REUTERS
DE P UT Y C R O W N PR IN C E M O H A M M ED B I N S A LM A N
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56
WORLD AFFAIRS
INDIA-CHINA
Hasty diplomacy
The Indian government crosses the diplomatic red line by issuing and later
withdrawing visas to Chinese separatists, in line with its recent acts based on
think-tank diplomacy. B Y J O H N C H E R I A N
THE NARENDRA MODI GOVERNMENT, IT
seems, revels in scoring self-goals while conducting diplomacy with its immediate neighbours. First, it was the
red line it had drawn with Pakistan on the issue of its
diplomats holding consultations with representatives of
Kashmirs Hurriyat Conference. Then the government
decided that it was in the national interest that a de facto
economic blockade be slapped on Nepal over the Madhesi issue. India has been riling its biggest neighbour,
China, in many different ways. New Delhi has virtually
signed up with the anti-China military coalition being
forged by Washington in the Asia-Pacic region. The
latest indication is Indias decision to sign a Logistics
Support Agreement (LSA) with the United States. The
Chinese government, while taking note of the development, responded with discretion. But New Delhi apparently crossed a red line when it issued a visa for one
of the leading gures of the armed Uyghur separatist
movement, Dolkun Isa, to attend a conference in Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh), the Dalai Lamas headquarters.
The conference was organised by the U.S. Commission of International Religious Freedom and the U.S.
Congress-funded U.S. Institute of Peace. Besides Uyghur
dissidents, representatives of the banned Falun Gong
movement and other anti-Beijing Chinese individuals
were invited for the conference. The presence of Isa on
Indian soil at the invitation of the Government of India
would have led to a major hiccup in Sino-Indian relations. Better sense seems to have prevailed at the eleventh
hour in the corridors of power in New Delhi. The e-visas
for Isa and a couple of other Chinese dissidents, including Omar Kanat of the Washington-based World
Uyghur Congress, were cancelled. The Indian government, however, let out the information that a few other
less controversial dissidents, including one Uyghur Chinese, were allowed to attend the closed-door conference.
Interestingly, in the rst week of May, the government also backtracked on the issue of Hurriyat leaders
meeting Pakistani diplomats. The new official line is that
the government has no issues with Hurriyat representatives meeting the Pakistani High Commissioner or any
other diplomat, as all Hurriyat members are Indian citizens. Foreign Secretary-level talks between the two countries have remained derailed for almost two years since
the Modi government called off the talks in 2014 over the
Hurriyat issue.
The invitation was extended to Isa although the Indian government was aware that China had designated him
as a wanted terrorist. There was also a pending Interpol
red corner notice against his name. The Union Ministry
of Home Affairs told the media that it was unaware of the
Interpol warrant against Isa when it issued a visa. Had
Isa arrived for the conference, the Indian government,
being a signatory to Interpol protocols, would have been
in a piquant situation. China would have demanded that
he be arrested and handed over to the Chinese authorities. The decision to issue a visa to Isa and later withdraw
it must have been taken at the highest levels of govern57
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PTI
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58
CONTROVERSY
K. MURALI KUMAR
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60
BIDAR DISTRICT
BENGALURU URBAN
DISTRICT
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Survey no. 22: 3.16 acres belonging to Mushtak Shah Makan in Nelamangala.
KOPPAL DISTRICT
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62
DROUGHT
Telanganas thirst
AT 3 a.m. on November 28, 2015,
residents of Bommareddigudem village in Telanganas Medak district
woke up to the familiar drone of a
borewell rig in operation. It is common practice in the village, like in
most other rural habitations of Telangana, to dig deeper and deeper to
nd water to irrigate the parched
lands. The clandestine drilling takes
place mostly at night as the residents
fear that the local authorities may
attempt to stop it as proper procedures are not followed to drill new
borewells.
Kumar Ramulu, 45, belonging to
the dominant Mudhiraju community, has been raising sugarcane in his
four-acre (1.6 hectare) eld for more
than two decades. For several years,
the yield had been poor. In 2014 and
2015, the crop failed. The wells Ramulu had previously sunk are dry.
The 150-foot-deep well he frenetically got dug in the wee hours of November 28 also did not yield water.
Ramulu had hired a contractor for
Rs.40,000, borrowing the money at
36 per cent interest. The contractor
was in a hurry to nish the digging
before dawn and be out of plain sight
but a desperate Ramulu urged him to
drill another well about 200 ft away.
It was 6:30 a.m. As the contractor
began drilling, Ramulu once again
went to the moneylender to borrow
another Rs.40,000 to pay the contractor. The second attempt also
failed.
At daybreak, the Dalit neighbourhood in the vicinity of Ramulus
land began to wake up. Rakesh and
Many villages in the State are reeling under acute water scarcity. The
government departments are trying to tap every available source to
supply water to them as the rural economy is collapsing. B Y K U N A L S H A N K A R
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season. The GWD has based this estimation on the requirement of irrigated dry, or ID, crops such as
maize, millets, chillies, vegetables
and cotton. They are considered the
best crops for a semi-arid, waterstressed region. But as Telangana
reels under the worst drought in 60
years, the authorities have relaxed
the spacing between wells to 500 ft,
but only in canal-irrigated farmlands. Neither Ramulus rst failed
borewell nor the second one would
have met the criterion, as his fouracre land, split into two equal plots,
does not have a 500-ft radius.
Most of the digging happens
outside the purview of the government authorities after the Water
Land and Trees Act (WALTA), of
2002, came into force G. Sambaiah
of the GWD said. He was referring to
the Act implemented by undivided
Andhra Pradesh, which Telangana
has adopted. The Act not only mandates spacing but also disallows any
commercial borewell within 820 ft of
64
KU MA R R A M UL U, on whose land the borewell was dug, seen here with his
wife. The borewell did not yield any water.
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66
HERITAGE
ANCIENT GIFT
for the modern world
D H Y A N A , Swami Sitaramananda,
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material world. In the words of the Katha Upanishad: When the ve sense organs of perception
become still, together with the mind: that is called
the highest state.
The Upanishad says: When all desires dwelling
in the heart cease, then the mortal becomes immortal and attains the true self.
The purpose of yoga is to free its practitioners
from the shackles of desires, awaken the true knowledge within them and help them be in harmony
with all that there is.
Yoga helps people to be in the moment in which
they live. Gradually, they become aware, rst of
their bodies and of their breath. Yoga brings them to
look at it, to control it. Once that has been achieved,
the transformation has begun.
From there, the next step is awareness of the
mind. Yoga and ancient Indian thought do not consider the mind to be consciousness itself. The mind
is, in many ways, like the body. People have to see it,
be aware of it. The ancient texts point out that the
mind is like a monkey, which jumps about. It its
from thought to thought, and people usually have
no control over it. In yoga, they become aware of it
and step aside, to become observers of the mind.
They are no longer carried away by the uctuations
of the mind.
The yoga sutras, written by the ancient sage
Patanjali, say that yoga is a state of Chitta Vritti
Nirodha, a state in which the waves or perceptions
of the mind have been stilled. In this state, a person
may be able to direct his or her consciousness to the
search for what is true and lasting.
Scientic research done on yoga in the past 40
years has conrmed that yoga contributes to the
health and happiness of people in all walks of life.
Meditation is not about nding anything new. It is
about letting go of what is not ones self. When a
person learns to observe himself or herself, the outside world no longer has control over him or her.
Good health and joy are the natural outcome. At the
end of the path of self-transformation is the reward
of true knowledge: when we are deeply aware of our
oneness with all that there is: the state of yoga.
P A D A N G US THA P AD M A UTKA TA S A N A,
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70
71
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S I R S A S A N A,
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KAP O T A S A N A
( VA R I A T I O N ).
Ambeeka and
Bhargavi at
Sivananda
Ashram, Neyyar
Dam, Kerala.
KAP O T A S A N A ,
Sivananda Yoga
Farm, Grass
Valley, U.S.
FRONTLINE .
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74
MA YUR A S A N A ,
M AYUR A S A N A,
Sasha Belousova,
Zorba the
Buddha, Delhi.
75
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76
P A R I V R T T A A R D H A C H A N D RA S A N A , Sasha
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HANUMANASANA,
Ayurvedagram,
Bengaluru.
EK A P A D A
S I RS A S A N A ,
Sivananda Yoga
Farm, Grass
Valley, U.S.
Gardens, Delhi.
79
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FRONTLINE .
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80
S A RV A N G AS AN A ( VA R I A TI ON ) , Sasha Belousova,
D H AN UR A S A N A, Ayurvedagram,
Bengaluru.
81
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82
BOOKS in review
Green future
The book explores the possibility of sustainable use of biodiversity and
associated traditional knowledge with economic benet for the
communities and countries that have conserved them for generations.
BY S . G O P I K R I S H N A W A R R I E R
Commercial Use
of Biodiversity
Resolving the
Access and
Benet Sharing
Issues
By Shivendu K.
Srivastava
Sage
Publications
Pages: 344
Price: Rs.995
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84
S. MAHINSHA
THE NAGOYA
PROTOCOL
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The protocol aims to facilitate access to genetic resources and share benets
from their commercial use
with the communities in
an internationally acceptable manner, which has legal
certainty
and
transparency.
Interestingly,
India
had most of the elements
of the Nagoya Protocol as
part of its Biodiversity Act
of 2002. Thus, it has much
of the framework required
for commercialising biological diversity and associated
traditional
knowledge in a sustainable
manner.
Srivastava concludes
with three recommendations to strengthen benet
sharing. He says that there
is a need to develop a cadre
of professionals with scientic and legal expertise
to facilitate access and
benet sharing. Each of
the stages of developing a
benet-sharing project has
to be gone through with utmost care, since there is no
one-size-ts-all solution.
The
biodiversity-rich
countries should continue
to work towards making
TRIPS more amenable to
benet sharing through
the international negotiations mechanism.
Srivastavas
conclusions and recommendations may not be the last
word on the subject as it is
constantly evolving. But,
his effort to comprehensively include in the book
all aspects of access and
benet sharing will certainly enable managers,
researchers, activists and
representatives of the indigenous community to
negotiate better deals in
the future.
S. Gopikrishna Warrier is
an environment journalist
and blogger.
FRONTLINE . MAY 27, 2016
BOOKS in review
New facets of
the Mughals
The book frees Mughal history of preconceived
notions and carefully brings out the strands of
pluralism that helped weave the Mughal fabric.
BY Z I Y A U S S A L A M
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Culture of
Encounters
Sanskrit at the
Mughal Court
By Audrey
Truschke
Penguin Books
Pages: 364
Price: Rs.699
86
AKBARS
TRANSLATION
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NEW FACETS
88
BOOKS in review
Britain and
Arab Unity
A Documentary
History from the
Treaty of Versailles
to the End of World
War II
By Younan Labib
Rizk
I.B. Tauris
Pages: 261
Price: 25
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DR THOMAS MATHEW
HERITAGE
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90
IN 1973, Rashtrapati Bhavan ofcials received an uncommon request just ahead of the visit of Leonid
Brezhnev, the general secretary of
the central committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
(CPSU). The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had just managed to neutralise the United States
tilt towards Pakistan, and India,
therefore, viewed Brezhnevs friendly-official visit as a great possibility
to strengthen its relationship with
that country. Brezhnev had visited
India in 1961 as the president of the
CPSU, but this visit as the general
secretary of the party was deemed
much more important because of the
unwavering support the Soviet
Union extended to India during the
Bangladesh war of 1971.
The unusual request was to place
a Lifebuoy soap bar in every room.
Lifebuoy was a soap which India
manufactured and made popular
among the masses. It was meant as a
token of respect for India. Although
bewildered, the officials put Lifebuoy soaps, along with other brands
of soap, in each room.
Similarly, Premier Zhou Enlai of
the Peoples Republic of China, during his visit to India in 1956, speci-
VIC E PR E S I D E N T S. Radhakrishnan with USSR President Leonid Brezhnev at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in December 1961.
91
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P R E S I D E N T Rajendra Prasad and Queen Elizabeth II arriving for the Republic Day parade on January 26, 1961.
P R E S I D E N T R A J E N D RA P RA S A D and Yugoslavian President Josip Tito trying their hand at music at the Rashtrapati
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92
P R I M E M I N I S TE R
Jawaharlal Nehru
and the First Deputy
Chairman of the
USSR, Anastas
Mikoyan (right)
enjoying Holi at the
Rashtrapati Bhavan
in March 1956.
(Left) Nehru,
Radhakrishnan,
Chinese Premier
Zhou Enlai and
Rajendra Prasad in
June 1954.
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looked at banquet
speeches, declassied
documents of the United States, autobiographies and biographies.
A new nation, the
second most populous
country, had broken
free from the colonial
yoke; India interested
the world. The West did
not know on which side
the huge human resources and great
natural resources would be. India,
under the leadership of Prime Minister [Jawaharlal] Nehru, became a
powerful voice in international diplomacy. The New York Times
called us the hotspot of diplomacy.
The idea was to befriend India
because it was a great democracy.
People were astounded by the mysticism of the country, the pluralism
of India, and what the future held
for the country. In that context, we
have tried to document as much as
possible the views of foreign leaders,
what they saw in the country, and
how they would help it build its
democratic traditions. People were
curious about the future of this
country. For instance, the AIIMS
[All India Institute of Medical Sciences] was constructed with the
help of the New Zealand government. Canadian Prime Minister
PTI
DR Thomas Matthew,
Additional Secretary to
the President, is a man
of many interests. Apart
from being a prolic
commentator on national and international
issues, he is an accomplished photographer
and an enthusiastic
birdwatcher. The enthusiasm with which he
talks about Rashtrapati Bhavan and
its characteristics reects his strong
passion for Indias syncretic culture
and heritage. His published works
include In Search of Congruence:
Perspectives on India-U.S. Relations under the Obama Administration, Development of Nuclear
Energy Sector in India, and Winged
Wonders of Rashtrapati Bhavan,
the most comprehensive documentation on the birds at the presidential residence. In this interview with
Frontline, he speaks about his latest
book, Abode Under the Dome, and
explains what inspired him to write
it and the efforts he and his team
had to make in the process.
Excerpts:
94
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L OR D A N D L A D Y M O U N T B A T T EN and the Maharani and Maharaja Padma Shumsher Jang Bahadur Rana of Nepal
climbing the steps to the Durbar Hall of Government House (now Rashtrapati Bhavan) in March 1948.
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96
URBAN ISSUES
Killer lifeline
IT is 5 p.m. on a weekday at
Mumbais Churchgate station. The
rush hour is beginning and every
inch of free space on the four platforms is lling up fast. By 5:30 p.m. it
is a sea of office-goers waiting to
catch their regular train home. As
each train approaches, a crush of
people race to enter the coaches.
Somehow, there appears to be a
method in the madness because
thousands of people eventually manage to nd, if not a seat, at least a
foothold in the compartments. It is
not any better in the morning, say
commuters. Peak hours begin as
early as 7 a.m. for commuters to reach Mumbais business district or
government offices by 9 a.m. Each
day is a struggle, but there are few
alternatives.
For lakhs of regular commuters
this is a daily routine. Twice a day
they push their way into crammed
trains, travel long distances to workplaces, spending an average of four
hours commuting. Mumbais suburban rail lines form a well-oiled system that transports a staggering 75
lakh people to various destinations
every day. Unfortunately, the burgeoning city and its rapidly growing
population are putting the local railway network under huge pressure
and it is now struggling to cope with
the massive overcrowding.
A dreadful consequence of the
overcrowding and poor infrastructure has been the alarming rate of
accidents and deaths on the tracks.
Mumbais suburban railway network
records an average of nine deaths on
VIVEK BENDRE
Contact : @Razkr
the tracks every day. The injuries sustained are innumerable. According
to figures released by the Government Railway Police (GRP), there
were 3,305 accidental deaths in
2015; the gure was 3,429 in 2014.
For the January-March period this
year, the GRP reported 694 deaths.
According to the railway police,
Mumbai records the highest number
of deaths across the worlds metropolitan cities that have a public rail
transport system. Some 60 per cent
of the deaths reportedly happen because of trespassing. The rest are owing to falls from trains, suicides or
natural causes. The statistics show
that in 2015, 846 people died after
falling off trains or slipping through
the gap between the train and the
platform, which typically happens
when coaches are overcrowded.
It took the case of 21-year-old
Bhavesh Nakate, who slipped from a
footboard and was crushed to death
under the tracks in November 2015,
for the authorities and even the commuting population to rise out of their
inertia and address the issue. Nakates death is no different from the
many reported daily. He jumped on
to a moving train and held on to a
pole at the entrance of a compartment that is meant as a support for
standing commuters. As the train
gathered speed, Nakate lost his balance and fell. In his case, however,
the tragic incident was caught on a
mobile phone by another commuter.
The clip went viral and the outrage
grew. Eventually, the Railway Ministry took cognisance of the case and
the issue of accidental deaths and
began to implement remedial
measures.
The problem is that at rush hour
all trains are crowded. We heard
about Nakates case but every day
people put their lives at risk. He was
unlucky. How much earlier does one
come to manage a seat or standing
space? Commuting to office is a
nightmare, said Rihan Majumdar, a
banker who travels about 25 kilometres from the Andheri neighbourhood in the west to the business
district of Nariman Point ve days a
week. I do not step out of my area
during the weekends or go near a
FRONTLINE .
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98
PTI
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100
PTI
P R OTE S TE R S
SOCIAL ISSUES
In the name
of tradition
Discrimination against Dalits thrives in Karnataka as mainstream
political parties continue to frame the issue of Dalits entry into temples
or other public spaces in terms of tradition and custom instead of
basic rights. B Y S A T H I S H G . T . IN HASSAN
Vijay Kumar, 36, a journalist and a
native of the village, narrated the
events that followed the death of Dasappa, an aged Dalit, on December
11, 2001. The 11th day ceremonies,
which mark a closure to the period of
grieving in many communities in India, was conducted in the community hall that had been constructed a
few months earlier. Following tradition, non-vegetarian food was served
at the event, which was also attended
T H A Y A M M A and other Dalit women who were ned for entering the
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PRAKASH HASSAN
FRONTLINE .
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S A T H IS H G . T .
102
S A T H IS H G . T .
allowed entry into the sanctum sanctorum; they want access to the temple just like everybody else in the
village. Revanna is an MLA for all
the people in the constituency, but he
has openly sided with the upper
castes on this issue, alleged
Thayamma.
Twenty-nine people of the upper
caste were sent to judicial custody
after the recent clashes. On April 4,
Revanna and other Janata Dal (Secular) activists staged a protest in
front of the Deputy Commissioners
office in Hassan opposing the arrests. Revanna maintained that a few
people, including Vijay Kumar, were
behind the incidents in the village.
People of the upper caste and Dalits
have been living in harmony in my
constituency. There were no differences all these years, said Revanna.
He alleged that clashes broke out only after Vijay Kumar submitted a
memorandum to the district administration seeking unfettered access to
the temple. I cannot intervene on
matters of traditions and customs
followed by a certain section of people. The tradition should not be altered, he remarked.
The Bharatiya Janata Party,
whose Hindutva ideology supposedly espouses a pan-Hindu identity,
has been noticeably silent on the is103
Contact : @Razkr
sue. The party, which has only a feeble presence in the district, has not
organised any protests against the
denial of basic rights to Dalits.
Across the State, upper castes
have restricted the entry of Dalits
into temples. Wherever Dalits have
protested, they have faced opposition and physical assaults. Three
young men were murdered at Badanavalu in Nanjangud taluk of Mysuru on March 25, 1993, for
demanding entry into the renovated
Siddeshwara temple. Similarly,
Kemparaju, a Dalit in Mandya district, was assaulted after he entered
the Chowdeshwari temple in March
2012. Similar incidents were reported from Gani village in Bagalkot district in April 2014, where two Dalits
were severely beaten up for entering
the Hanumantha temple.
Some Dalits are of the view that
instead of ghting for the right to
enter temples the community should
reject temples because they are unequal spaces. However, Dharmesh
does not agree. A temple is a public
place. The issue is of the right to
access a public place, not just about
Dalits attaining moksha [salvation]
by visiting a temple. When any person or even a dog can enter the temple, why must Dalits be prevented
from doing so? he asked.
Societal involution
Recent social and political trends in the U.S. and in parts of Europe
point to regressive tendencies that seek to recreate a past that now
seems less complicated, but only manage to intensify unhappiness.
HE term involutionwhich
means to turn into oneself, or
to shrink, or to reverse a process of evolvingmay seem like a
strange one to apply to societies. Yet,
that is the term that increasingly
comes to mind when considering recent social and political trends in the
United States and in some parts of
Europe.
Consider the United Kingdom,
currently in the throes of a heated
debate before the referendum that
will be held about whether or not Britain should stay in the European
Union (E.U.). Many issues and concerns have been raised on both sides,
and politicians and business leaders
inside and outside the country, from
top nanciers to U.S. President Barack Obama, have pitched in with
their own views and warnings about
the implications of Brexit. But within the country, public discussion appears to be focussed essentially on
only one issue: immigration.
Rightly or wrongly, in the British
public imagination today, membership of the E.U. appears to have become a proxy for more open borders
for the movement (or inow) of peoFRONTLINE .
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LUCY NICHOLSON/REUTERS
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LITERATURE
ZIYA US SALAM
V.V. KRISHNAN
FRONTLINE .
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106
S. SUBRAMANIUM
FATHER
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LABOUR ISSUES
A self goal
The NDA government restores the EPF interest rate under pressure
from trade unions, but it will have to pay a heavy price for its move to
trie with working peoples social security. B Y T . K . R A J A L A K S H M I
ALL we have from the National
Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is empty rhetoric. It promised
to adopt pro-people policies after it
came to power in 2014, but the actions by some of the Ministries, particularly the Ministry of Finance,
have proved that the government is
keen more to project a pro-industry
Contact : @Razkr
manner in which it moved these proposals took even the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the trade union
ideologically affiliated to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), by surprise.
On April 16, the Central Board of
Trustees (CBT), a tripartite body
chaired by the Union Labour Minister and consisting of representatives
G.R.N. SOMASHEKAR
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G.R.N. SOMASHEKAR
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110
ESSAY
THE SHEIKH VS THE PANDIT
ROOTS OF THE
KASHMIR DISPUTE
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KASHM I R I N A T I O N A L I S M
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BERT BRANDT/AFP
NISSAR AHMAD
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115
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SRINAGAR, KASHMIR
23rd October, 1947
NEHRUS STAND
It is important to note that Nehru tried to secure Kashmirs accession to India while Sheikh Abdullah was still
in prison, regardless of his wishes or those of the people of
the State. His stand was revealingly summed up in the
blunt pithy assertion to Liaquat Ali Khan, I want Kashmir (Lionel Carter (Ed.), Weakened States Seeking Renewal: British Official Reports from South Asia, 1
January 30 April 1948, Manohar, Part I, pages 176 and
416; an invaluable collection of two volumes). Even before the Partition Plan was announced on June 3, 1947,
he began his campaign with a mention of Kashmir as a
difficult problem at a formal meeting with Mountbatten
and advisers on April 22, 1947. He followed it by a long
note to Mountbatten on Kashmir dated June 17, 1947, in
which he concluded: If any attempt is made to push
Kashmir into the Pakistan Constituent Assembly, there
is likely to be much trouble because the National Conference is not in favour of it and the Maharajas position
would also become very difficult. The normal and obvious course appears to be for Kashmir to join the Constituent Assembly of India. This will satisfy both the popular
demand and the Maharajas wishes. It is absurd to think
that Pakistan would create trouble if this happens. (Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru; Volume 3, page 229).
Pakistan did not count. He lavishly praised the Sheikh.
On July 4, he wrote to the Maharaja, whom he detested,
requesting a meeting and suggesting accession: I appreciate your difficulties (ibid., page 253). No talk here of
releasing Abdullah.
The sinister aspect of the plan became apparent when
the Maharaja asked for a standstill agreement on August
12, 1947. Pakistan agreed. India declined and asked for
negotiations. Nehru had himself revised the draft standstill agreement with all the States to include foreign
affairs (item 7); a virtual Instrument of Accession. Had
the Maharaja agreed, Abdullah would have been confronted, on his release from prison, the very next month,
with Kashmirs accession to Indiacarried out behind
his back. So much for respect for the popular will.
Nor were Nehrus later references to the Sheikh justied. His following was conned to the Valley. In Jammu
and the present Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas Muslim Conference held sway. Even
in the Valley Abdullahs voice was not decisive on the
crucial issue of accession (see Ian Coplands essay The
Abdullah Factor: Kashmir Muslims and the Crisis of
1947). The people followed him up to Kohala (that is,
locally) and Jinnah beyond it.
FRONTLINE .
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MAHARAJA
OF JAMMU & KASHMIR
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The interests of all coincided. Nehru, the Indian nationalist, and Patel, the Hindu nationalist, decided to renege
on the nations solemn pledges on plebiscite to the people
of Kashmir, to Pakistan, and as Nehru himself said, to the
world. Sheikh Abdullah, the Kashmiri nationalist, fervently went along because a plebiscite, as all three knew,
would have gone in favour of Pakistan. The Sheikh, therefore, sought desperately a settlement with Pakistan other
than by a plebiscite and retention of Kashmirs autonomy, meanwhile. The record shows that he was snubbed in
both ventures.
On August 25, 1952, Nehru sent him a note that he
had written in Sonamargnalise the accession through
Kashmirs Constituent Assembly. Both the U.N. and Pakistan were impotent. Kashmiris would submit. It must
be remembered that the people of the Kashmir Valley
and round about, though highly gifted in many waysin
intelligence, in artisanship, etc.are not what are called
a virile people. They are soft and addicted to easy living.
The common people are primarily interested in a few
thingsan honest administration and cheap and honest
food (SWJN, Volume 19, pages 328-329). No Kashmiri
would utter those words for his own people. Nehrus
outlook was moulded in the political climate of Uttar
Pradesh, to which he really belonged. It was exposed also
to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Bogra,
when they met in New Delhi on August 17, 1953: Most
people, of course, were hardly political and only cared for
their economic betterment (Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Volume 23, page 332).
This is the Development Thesis of today: Kashmiris
have no soul. Feed them; they will submit. Abdullah
derived his power from the people. If their views on
accession to India continued to diverge, without any
hope of reconciliation, he refused to act as Indias stooge
and lose everything. Nehru, in contrast, was happy with
the facade of a popular regime headed by the Sheikh,
FRONTLINE .
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119
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120
PTI
NISSAR AHMAD
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122
SPOTLIGHT
Malegaons innocents
The nine Muslim men who were arrested and charged with serious
offences soon after the 2006 Malegaon blasts, but were not discharged
even after an evidence trail emerged to expose a possible Hindutva plot,
have been acquitted. Who will answer for the lost years of their lives?
PRASHANT NAKWE
SHAB-E-BARAT is considered
among the holiest nights by Muslims. Like thousands around the
world, the Muslim community in
Malegaon, a town 300 kilometres
from Mumbai, observes this night
with fervour and reverence. In 2006,
as the community prepared to attend
the prayers, a series of powerful
bombs exploded at Mushawerat
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The scapegoats
FRONTLINE met two of the eight
men acquitted in the Malegaon
blasts case and briey proled the
others through material gathered in
Malegaon.
Dr Farogh Iqbal Ahmed
Magdumi, 42
Magdumi has a popular unani
medicine practice in Malegaon. Local residents say he works hard on
his practice and often treats patients
for free if they cannot afford his fees.
He never turns anyone away and is
always willing to help the poor. He is
also deeply involved in spreading
religious learning. But he has a ery
temper and does not gladly suffer
fools. Magdumi, who fought his
own case, led 700 RTI (Right to
Information) applications while he
was in jail.
Following his acquittal, he
spoke to Frontline about the blatant
injustice and violations he has faced
ever since the 2006 Malegaon blasts
and his subsequent arrest.
They targeted me. I was coming
up in life and some people in the
town could not handle my success,
so they used the police, who came
after me. This was a vendetta game.
I used to help a lot of people and I
also taught the Quran to people. In
fact, I tried hard to make people
aware of fake godmen and other
such religious nonsense. I believe
some people wanted to get rid of me
and the police informers gave false
information to the authorities. I also
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S O M E O F T HE M E N acquitted by
the sessions court in April. (From
left) Maulana Abdul Hameed Azhari,
who provided legal assistance to the
accused men from Malegaon,
Salman Farsi; Dr Farogh Magdumi,
Noorulhuda and Raees Ahmed
Mansuri celebrating the verdict
outside the court.
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could not afford the travel to Mumbai for the acquittal hearing.
Abrar Ahmed Gulam Ahmed, 31
This is the most curious case of
them all. Ahmed was once a police
informer. He apparently told the
police that he overheard some
Hindu doctors say on the day of the
blasts It is our people who did this.
After this, he claims, the police
betrayed him, moved him to
different cities, told him that he had
a bad name in Malegaon because he
was connected to the blasts, and
that any relatives he tried to contact
DEEPAK SALVI
Contact : @Razkr
THIRTY-ONE-YEAR-OLD Abrar
Ahmed, soft-spoken and mild-mannered, does not seem like a rebrand of any sort. He was one of the
key accused in the case. Ahmed is an
electrician and also a real estate
businessman. Ahmed, who was reportedly a police informer before
the blasts, turned approver in the
case after his arrest. A few days after
his acquittal, he spoke to Frontline
at his Malegaon residence, narrating slowly and carefully the interesting and disturbing story of what
happened to him after the bombings. Sources in Malegaon say
Ahmed was a known police informant who ended up being used as a
scapegoat. His case is a curious one.
For those who follow the case, most
of his account matches information
out in the public domain. Here is
what he told this correspondent:
When I heard of the blast, I
went to help the victims and take
them to hospital. At the hospital I
overhead two doctors say our people exploded this bomb. We were at
the Farhan Hospital, and there is a
record of my giving blood at that
time. I did not know what to do with
this information and felt I had to tell
someone. My wifes brother, Farookh Wardha, was at home and I
told him. He told me not to tell anyone. Five days later, the police came
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ANUPAMA KATAKAM
Double betrayal
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MOVEMENTS
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The hunger strike in JNU over the action taken against students in
connection with the February 9 events marks the third month of the
protests and there is no truce in sight. B Y D I V Y A T R I V E D I
students take out a torchlight rally on the campus in New Delhi on April 27.
tion from the marginalised sections
of society to which most of the students under scrutiny belonged. Calling the report revengeful and
draconian, the students rejected it
totally and demanded a rollback of
all punishments, including the nes.
There is no logic in the differential
punishments. The constitution of the
HLEC was biased just as in Hyderabad [Central University]. The entire thing was a farce and we were not
asked to present our sides at all, said
Anirban Bhattacharya. The students
rejected the report and burnt a copy
of it at the administrative block,
which has come to be known as
Freedom Square, and began a hunger strike which they say will continue until all the punishments are
revoked.
Stating that the punishments
were not severe enough and that
some students had been let off light-
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In the midst of all this, a 200page report or dossier titled Jawaharlal Nehru University: The Den of
Secessionism and Terrorism submitted by 11 teachers to the JNU administration last year came to light.
It painted JNU as a den of an organised sex racket and suggested depoliticisation of the campus. It also
accused JNU teachers of engaging in
nefarious and anti-national activities. It racially proled Muslim and
Dalit students and students from the
north-eastern region and Kashmir
and took umbrage at the idea of a
discussion over a free Kashmir and
cultural practices of students from
the north-eastern region, among
other things.
It said: Almost 300 Kashmiri
and North-East separatist activists
are staying illegally in the hostels of
JNU. They are the main force behind
organising anti-India activities, protest demonstrations, talks and lectures by separatist leaders in the
JNU campus. Beef eating festival,
Mahishaswar Diwas, and Hate Hindu campaigns are the regular feature
in hostel activities and various seminars/ lectures organised by known
anti-Hindu and anti-national elements. In response to what the students from the north-eastern region
called ludicrous insinuations, hundreds of students gathered at Freedom Square and burnt a copy of the
dossier.
Meanwhile, a fresh set of notices
from the Proctors office were sent to
Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya for participating in the
screening of a lm, Muzaffarnagar
Baaqi Hai, last year. The organisers
of the screening had been hauled up
for it at that time and the matter was
thought to be closed, so it was a surprise when these two students were
singled out for being present at the
screening where hundreds of other
students were also present. It underlines the witch-hunt that we have
been talking about. I guess now we
should wait for more notices to be
sent to us for participating in other
events, said Umar Khalid.
A protest screening of the lm
was held amidst the hunger strike
and the ABVP attempted to disrupt
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it by playing aloud patriotic and religious songs from Hindi lms. The
disruption of the screening of this
lm in both JNU and University of
Hyderabad (UoH) in August last
year sparked a chain of events that
disturbed the state of equilibrium in
both institutions.
Nakul Singh Sawhney, who
made the lm, was unable to come to
terms with this offensive following
the screening of the lm. He could
not understand how the screening of
the lm by students could be unpalatable when the government itself
had screened it at the Mumbai International Film Festival in February. If screening the lm is wrong,
then [Maharashtra Chief Minister
Devendra] Phadnavis [who inaugurated the festival and [Arun] Jaitley
[whose Information and Broadcasting Ministry organised it] should be
sent notices rst, Sawhney said.
Meanwhile, Kanhaiya Kumar,
even while on hunger strike, visited
various parts of the country and met
students, workers, farmers, activists
and politicians with the purpose of
concretising a counter-fascist force.
What the exact shape or the platform
of such solidarity might be was not
clear yet, but he was condent that it
would solidify into an effective political force soon. Would it be a political
party? We are not looking for an
alternative in politics. We are looking for an alternative politics, he
said and added that passing the Rohith Act was a priority.
Meanwhile, the ABVP students
on hunger strike, who were far fewer
in number compared with the other
students, brought in outsiders led by
Delhi University Students Union
(DUSU) president Satindar Awana
to raise slogans against the hunger
strikers on the opposite side. Even as
the health of several students sitting
on hunger strike deteriorated, Kanhaiya Kumar was admitted to the
JNU health centre on the eighth day
of the strike following a bout of vomiting and a sharp fall in his blood
pressure and blood sugar levels.
However, the students are clear
about one thing: they will not budge
until the punishments are revoked
totally.
LETTERS
Temple entry
THE Bombay High Courts decision to allow women entry into the Shani Shinganpur temple is heartening (Cover Story,
Winds of change, May 13). It will be
interesting to see how the temple authorities react to this development. They
should not forget every person is equal in
the eyes of God, irrespective of gender or
caste. It is men, the so-called stronger
gender, who have created this divide and
restriction to boost their egos.
BAL GOVIND
NOIDA, UTTAR PRADESH
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Temple tragedy
IT is not uncommon for tragedies to occur during festivals at places of worship
across the world because at such congregations faith and traditions take precedence over logic and reason (Template
for tragedy, May 13). Accidents can be
avoided and festivals conducted safely if
temple authorities and law enforcers
work in tandem to ensure that safety
norms are adhered to. The Thrissur Pooram nale was a ne example of how this
can be done.
K.P. RAJAN
MUMBAI
Drug ban
THE article Faulty prescriptions (May
13) drew attention to the hazards of unsound xed-dose combination (FDC)
drugs and the professional patronage for
them. With FDCs,pharmaceutical companies can circumvent the drug pricing
and packaging regulations. It is surprising that State and Central drug authorities permit them to be marketed without
sound clinical data on their efficacy.
Meetings of physicians associations and
conferences and seminars that provide
Siddis
THE article African connection (May 13)
was a delightful journey to a forgotten
corner of Indian history and heritage.
Many more such stories, which nd no
place in our Anglo-centric history texts
and other writings, must be waiting to be
written. Some remarkably frank and perceptive observations regarding both Europeans and various native communities
can be found in the Australian John
Langs books based on his travels in India
in the 1850s. The extent of slavery in the
colonial period is perhaps worth a separate study because the practice was
prevalent the world over but is seldom
mentioned in the literature commonly
available here.
In a well-researched book mainly
about colonial Lucknow in the 18th century, Rosie Llewellyn-Jones says: Most
Europeans in Calcutta had one or more
slave children. Sir William Jones, the
scholar and founder of the Asiatic Society
of Bengal, had a slave boy called Otto.
Slave boats laden with children came
down the Hooghly, especially during
times of famine when parents would sell
them to traders. These children were Indians, but there were also negro slaves
from Africa, sometimes employed as domestic servants, but sometimes as soldiers, like the 25 Africans who fought for
Sir Eyre Coote during the siege of Pondicherry.
Elsewhere, she mentions that a proclamation against slavery had been issued
as early as 1789. There is surely a lot
more to all this, and one hopes that some
impartial historians can open up such
topics to the interested lay public for discussion.
T. THARU
CHENNAI
ANNOUNCEMENT
Letters, whether by surface mail or e-mail, must
carry the full postal address and the full name,
or the name with initials.
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