The Undercover Indian: society

Showing newest posts with label society. Show older posts

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Strange logic of Delhi Police

Delhi Police commissioner can easily be a politician or a diplomat. After all we know that people in these two professions are given to high degree of deflection, diversion and obfuscation in their talks. Delhi police , the commissioner or for that matter police in general in India will not be found wanting in this aspect.

Recently there was ghastly incident in Delhi when a girl from North East working in a BPO was gang raped in a movie vehicle. As 2 girls were dropped by their company vehicle late at night, bunch of men driving a tempo truck kidnapped one of the girls and fled away. Other girl, her friend, called the police control room soon after. Kidnapped girl was found next day dropped at some location after being raped. That Delhi is not just a political and national capital of India but also a rape capital is not a secret. This is a city where 1 rape is 'reported' every day. In year 2010 itself there have been around 398 rape cases so for. It is also not a secret that Most of North India and Delhi region is unsafe for women and a sexually aggressive culture is one of the reasons. Girls from North east are often the target primarily because of cultural insensitiveness and stereotyping which tag them as 'loose and easily available'. But this is not the point I want to disuses here. Why does North India and Delhi in particular has a certain attitude and behavior towards women is not what concerns me in this post. What concerns me is what Delhi Police commissioner said on a TV debate while discussing the aforementioned gang rape incident.

The commissioner argued that had BPO vehicle stopped for some time more , the incident would not have happened and that BPO and other employers need to be more responsible around safely of women employers. Now these are fair points. But fact is that commissioner was indulging in diversion here. Let me tell you why. Main responsibility of police is to maintain law and order so that citizens of country can lead normal lives without fear, day or night...yes day or 'night'. What if woman in question was not a BPO employee but just another woman on her own returning home after a late night train or flight or dinner or party or after work or after just taking a night stroll ? Would she then be a legitimate target for kidnap and gang rape? This is ridiculous argument. Agreed that one has to be careful at night and specially knowing that Delhi is not safe. But does Delhi police has no role to change this status quo ever? Point I want to make is that commissioner was conveniently shifting blame on BPO whereas maintaining law and order is Police's job. After kidnapped girl's friend called the police helpline, the vehicle carrying those criminals passed as many as some 10 ( or in that range) police checkpoints and was never stopped. Why? According to commissioner Police has to know make of vehicle and its number to look for vehicle . This is preposterous. If Police gets a distressed signal of a kidnap of a girl at 1 am in morning, shouldn’t it stop and check all vehicles in that area! Don’t we see arbitrary, traffic stopping checking at peak hours during day sometime, so why couldn’t it be done in this case at 1 am in morning when traffic is thin. It could have saved a girl from getting raped for god sake. From what we hear, police hardly reacted on time after getting the distress call and a girl was raped in vehicle as it was moving around the national capital streets passing police check points. How tragic and what a failure.

There are many aspects to this case which speak a lot about how bad our policing system is (e.g. the culprits were routine offenders and should have been under watch) and I don’t want to comment on it here. But it is unnerving that commissioner of police instead of accepting that there are things that are not working and need to be changed is indulging in diversionary talks. There is a little hope of change when that happens.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

What is Indian Culture!

I recently visited Ladakh which I always thought as a magical and mystical land. And so it is. The Place is so stunning that when you see it for first time you can’t help but get overawed. What make it mystical, apart from moon like terrain, are its denizens, most of who practice Buddhism, a mystical religion and way of life. Ladakh literally means land of high passes, surrounded by greater Himalayan passes, some of which are highest in world. Being in rain shadow, it hardly ever rains in Ladakh which explains the harsh, rocky dessert terrain. Ladakhis have a unique culture of their own which was created by various influences from traveling mendicants of Tibet to tradesmen stopping -by en-road the legendry skill route.

The joy of travel and seeing a new place increases when you can indulge in a culture different than yours. While on a trek in Ladakh with my friend, I stayed with a Ladakhi family in a village as there were no hotels or lodges in the area. It was wonderful to spend time in a traditional Buddhist family. They invited us in their kitchen, let us see Buddhist prayer being performed by a lama, all the while supplying us Thukpa and hot tea. We got to know why our search for a local climbing guide called Norbu was fruitless, because every second ladakhi boy has Norbu as his middle name. While we were soaking in this new culture, we observed how kids of house were glued to television kept in a corner of kitchen. And no, they were not watching any Ladakhi channel or program, but some Hindi serial on zee TV. One of those serials which show beautiful women draped in glamorous saris plotting against each other and men who are rich but never seem to work and still live in palatial houses. So how would this exposure to Mumbai- Delhi culture (TV), change new generation of Ladakhi kids? It is said that Ladakhis never waste anything. They use and reuse everything which is locally available. Their houses are made of sand bricks, because sand is all around them. Water is scarce so where-ever get little water, they turn the land into a mini green oasis. Instead of using water to flush toilets, they use pits to store the human waste and convert it into manure for their farms. Nothing really gets wasted there. But it is changing slowly. Now a new supply chain is opened from rest of India and locals don’t have to be frugal anymore. Many will call it Ladakh’s integration with India. Or would it be Ladakh's dependence on India!!

Renowned lyricist Gulzar was in Tribal district of Chamba in Himachal recently and he was aghast and angry by change in art and music tradition of locals. During a function he found tribal singers singing bollywood songs. In a public speech he lamented this “erosion of culture”, or as he termed it.

Then while browsing TV, I happened to watch some program where a little 5 years old girl was performing in a talent hunt. She danced to a very garish bollywood item song as her mother watched adoringly. One of the Judges, Sonali Bendre was shocked and other judge Shekhar Kapoor asked the kid to stop midway. They couldn’t understand why a little kid was asked to perform on a number which was way beyond her age. But after the episode, Shekhar Kapoor while reflecting on incident said something which is very pertinent question. He said "We can’t really blame these kids. They are merely doing what they see on TV everyday. And they see Indian culture. If Indian culture today is not Bollywood music and dance, then what is it". What is Indian culture, indeed?

If Indian culture's richness came from its diversity, if it came from a Ladakhi tradition or a Chamba's tribal folk, then how long will it survive against a bollywood cultural onslaught which is beamed into every house and which has defined a certain lifestyle which Indian middle class aspires for.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Muthalik, Sri ram sene - a Coward and his impotent followers

India is country of paradoxes. If it has generated some incredible spiritual thoughts in times when rest of world was walking around the planet naked and hunting deer, it has also at same time, produced some insanely stupid men in times when world has progressed from caves to computers.

One such men is one called Muthalik in Bangalore (or Bangaluru) . Now this Muthalik is a head of fringe group called Sri Ram Sene which nobody in this country knew until few weeks back. Until these guys walked into a pub in tow with TV cameras and beat up women present in the pub to protect Indian culture. Since then these guys have been making all kinds of comments on what they think Indian culture is and how they will beat anybody to protect this culture against any (perceived or real) corruption. Now I can analysis this logically and write a erudite piece here to explain this phenomenon, and how it is a tussle between India and Bharat, but that would be useless. Because neither these guys understand any logic or reasoning, nor do they deserve it. All they deserve is an answer in their own language which is one of violence and hatred. I hate people like Muthalik because he is as ugly as an asshole and he stink badly. He needs good thrashing. And that is what all of his so called supporters need as well. They need to be fought against in their own language. Using language of violence.

Muthalik is a pest. He cant be a Hindu because he is not even half a man. Just by wearing vermilion on his forehead he does not become a Hindu or its spoksperson. He is sort of guy who would not even respect his own mother. Because he thinks that beating women is Hindu culture, on one or other pretext. For me he is not any different than the Muslim Mullah who wants to marry 10 women and want to keep them covered in name of culture and God.

So I support all these protests against Muthalik and his fringe sex-starved (presumption but so be it) group of supports. There are women who want to send him pink chaddies this valentine's day, and I say, women, do it, by all means. There are people who want to hug publicly this valentines’ day and there are those who want to "pub bharo"... do all of this. But I say, go beyond it. If these people come in herds (like cowards usually come) to beat you, you retaliate. Beat them back. Break their heads. Hit them hard where it hurt the most. Don’t be afraid.

We need to do it now because these fringe groups, these Taliban like forces are spreading deep and wide and faster than we think. They are spreading like weed which needs to be uprooted now or else it will be too late.

So guys, stamp on them wherever you see them. Indian culture can do far better without these insane, half witted, men who use sacred vermilion to cover their own cowardice. So Mr. Muthalik , I am Hindu. I believe in God and I don’t. I celebrate Khajuraho as much as I celebrate messages in Gita. I will do all that which this country lawfully let me do. You keep out of my life, our life, and if you don’t like what we do, burry yourself in sand and if you coward come and want to fight with me, come like a man, alone, .........not with your cowards sena, not with your herd of impotent followers. And Muthalik did nobody tell you even that ...you look more like Ravana than Ram!!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Indian State - Losing its potency?

Blame it on coming elections, in past couple of months, large tracts of India have singed in senseless violence. Many parts of India are witnessing riots between Hindu and Muslims. Violence against Christians which started in Orissa has spread to many other states. This happened after a prominent Hindu leader was killed by Maoists which have large number of converted Christian recruits in their ranks. Hindu fanatics then systematically targeted converted Christian tribal by killing them, burning their property and raping nuns.

* State by and large remained spectator. Many people commented that even though the violence is not the solution, there remains a problem with conversions. Symbol of state power, Police stood on the sidelines letting Bajrang Dal to run amok. They moved in only after substantial damage was done and “the lesson” was taught to convert Christians.

Cut to few years back, in state of Gujarat, a train carrying VHP’s Ram sevaks was burnt by rioting Muslims which sparked off massive religious riots across the state. Some say the attack on train carrying hindus was a Muslim conspiracy and some say it was a natural reaction of Muslims after being provoked by Hindus shouting religious solgans. In one of worse riots thereafter, Muslims were hounded, burnt and killed. Their women were raped and villages set on fire.

* State by and large through out the riots remained mute spectator. Many people commented that even though the violence must be condemned, the riots were natural reaction to a violent act of train burning. Symbol of state power, Police stood on sidelines letting hordes of Hindu rioters burn cornered Muslims. They moved in only after substantial damage was done and “the lesson” was taught to the Muslims.

Rewind little more, year 1984, Prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi was killed by her Sikh security guards. This was a revenge killing by Sikhs as Gandhi was blamed for flushing out the terrorists from holy Sikh temple. Ironically, the Sikh terrorist leader who was killed in raid was raised by Gandhi herself to keep Alkalis way from political power. Her killing sparked, large scale violence against Sikhs throughout the country and they were rounded up, insulted and burnt.

* State by and large through out the riots remained mute spectator. Many people commented that even though the violence must be condemned, the riots were natural reaction to a killing of popular leader like Gandhi. Symbol of state power, Police stood on sidelines letting hordes of rioters burn cornered Sikhs. They moved in only after substantial damage was done, “the lesson” was taught to the Sikhs.

This week, in Maharashtra, we were witness to ugly scenes of goons of MNS and Shiv Sena beating students from North India. The hate campaign has been going on for quite some time and North Indians have been attacked since early this year. All this ostensibly on the pretext ranging from outsiders are taking up jobs meant for Marathi manoos to outsiders diluting Marathi culture. After Raj Thackeray was arrested this week, large scale violence mainly in Mumbai erupted and ”supporters” of MNS torched and damaged taxis and autos and beat up poor shopkeepers and vendors in perfect show of Marathi culture.

*State by and large through out the hate campaign has been spectator. Many people commented that even though the violence is not the solution, the migration of outsiders remained a problem. Symbol of state power, Police stood on sidelines letting MNS activities run amok. They moved in only after substantial damage was done, “the lesson” was taught to outsider North Indians.

In all of these incidents, one thing is starkly common. The collusion of State or police with the perpetrators of violence. If you are a Hindu or Muslims or Sikh or North Indians or South Indian or Tamil, Marathi or Dalit of whatever and you are being taught a lesson, the Police will stand on sidelines and let the Law of land rip to shreds. In this country where everybody is a trying to teach lesson to everybody else, and where State has lost its potency, the only minority left is an individual. In such a lawless State where an individual and his property can not be protected, the question which needs to be asked is if such a State needs to exist or not!!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Terror Crackdown - Post Delhi Blasts, A defining moment?

In a highly polarized environment, truth is often the victim. In fact in such a scenario, there are many versions of truth. The recent crackdown on suspected terrorists in India is an example of how polarized our society has become.

Following is Police version:

From SIMI to IM: It all started with death of MC Sharma, a decorated police officer of Delhi Police, who while raiding a hideout of suspected terrorists was killed by gun shots. Two persons suspected to be terrorists belonging to Indian Mujahideen (IM) were also killed in encounter and 2 other were caught. Sharma was hailed as hero by media and Delhi Police which also claimed that with this encounter they had busted the IM module which was largely responsible for multiple terror attacks in country for past 2 years or so. The arrest of terrorists soon triggered a chain of events, and in next few days many raids were conducted throughout the country and suspected terrorists were nabbed in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and other parts of country. Police claimed that the success of operation was due to inteligence sharing among various states and central agencies. The terror jigsaw is not yet fully solved but pieces are falling in place, they claim. So if one accepts police version as truth, then IM is responsible for recent series of bomb blasts in country, and is a splinter group of banned SIMI (Student Islamic Movement of India). IM was born out of SIMI soon after Gujarat riots, ostensibly, to avenge killing of Muslims. SIMI had its root in Aligarh Muslim University and had thousands of members throughout country. As per Police, SIMI was a moderate group to start with but got increasingly radicalized over the years with radical elements being driven by Safdar Nagauri, the secretary general of SIMI (a 8 years old interview with him is here, proving his radical views). The friction between Nagauri and moderate faction ultimately let to Breaking of SIMI, which police says can be compared with that of breaking up of Hamas, where one breakaway group became millitant by violence and terror tactics.

The Onset of Hunt: IM was unique in the way that its members were educated youth, many of them even engineers and MBAs. They operated in small and largely independent modules. The anger which Muslims felt after Gujarat riots was used by people like Nagauri to get young , educated members into his unit. He also specifically looked for technically qualified youths and those who had some angst or grudges against the state or police. IM also got hooked to LeT (Lashkar e Toiba) which helped it with initial trainings and funds. Trainings were conducted in various parts of country in Jungles of Kerala to Karnataka. Recruits were taught to swim, fire pistols, and make bombs. After a camp, these recruits would then fan out to many places and build their network of terror. Police started the hunt after the bomb blasts in UP and name of IM for first time emerged. Unlike in past, when most of bomb blasts used to be handiwork of Pakistanis, this time evidence was pointing out to homegrown terror groups. As many bomb blats followed in many Indian cities, Police found it tough to crack the cases and it was due to nature of IM and how they operated. Things were also tough for police as the intelligence was scattered and every state police acted independently. The real break came with arrest of Safdar Nagauri a secretary general SIMI from Madhya Pradesh and then later with arrest of Abu Bashar a recruit of IM , soon after Ahmedabad blasts. These two key members provided vital clues in functioning on IM and after Delhi blasts, the proverbial camel's back was broken. There was tremendous hue and cry throughout the country to act tough on terror. The central government which was slack in taking tough steps until now (perhaps thinkning that it will upset muslim community) was jolted out of its reverie. All states were asked to coordinate their efforts, share intelligence and act as one team. The bits and pieces of intelligence collected over the years by various state police were sewn together and sketchy leads were formed, good enough to act upon. And this is how MC Sharma was asked to raid a flat in Delhi which eventually led to killing of 2 suspected IM terrorists and capturing of 2 more. Unfortunately, Sharma who was not wearing his Bullet proof jacket also lost his life. Two suspected terrorists were reported to have escaped during encounter. Sharma was hailed and quite deservingly, a hero, and his funeral was attended by many politician including home minister, who untill few days ago was about to be ejected out of his office.

The Jigsaw getting solved : There have been various press conferences by different state police, and the final picture is pretty much consistent, albeit with some loose ends which could raise doubts. I think it is primarily due to the fact that even though various states collaborated in operation, the news conferences were done independently and in hurry. So we had a scenario that mastermind of terror was changing every day. In my opinion, considering the sensitive nature of crackdown, police should have been more careful with press conferences. One gets an impression that either state police departments were competing against each other, trying to stake the claim of cracking the module or they were pressurized by Government to go public, keeping in view of the upcoming election. Regardless of this, If one has to believe this version of police story as the truth, and I use if because, unfortunately, past shenanigans of Police in India, do not give it much credibility, then the picture of terror in India looks frightening and grim. Terror now is pretty much home grown. The catchment area of terrorists seems to be in UP and profile of terrorists have changed dramatically. They are now well educated young men with normal lives. An MBA here, two Software engineer there. So are these guys terrorists? If we believe police, then yes, they are. They are driven by hatred for Government and for majority community and they want to avenge atrocities which they think are done on their community. They are also fed by people like Safdar Nagauri to do jehad for Muslim Caliphate. They are indoctrinated to extent that they place bombs in children's parks and even hospitals. They plant bombs, come back to their normal lives, watch blasts news on TV and celebrate their success.

The another version:

But this is one version of truth. There is another version which in unfolding on Muslim blogs and discussion forums and generally in that community. They believe that recent crackdown are nothing but part of conspiracy to corner the community. Many of them have raised doubts about authenticity of Delhi encounter and they suspect that it is fake. In fact many don’t suspect but believe that encounter was fake and many conspiracy theories are doing rounds. They would even believe that Sharma was killed as part of larger plan to pass the encounter as real and to use it to target muslims. They think that people caught by police are innocent young Muslim men and they are being targeted for being Muslims. They even question why terrorists were paraded in muslim scarves (even though I have seen otehr criminals being hooded in same scarves).They ask questions of how good students, doing their MBAs could be terrorists. People of Aajamgarh, the native place of most of terror suspects, dont believe that there is any iota of truth in Polcie version. They think that thier good studious sons have been wrongly caught or killed and made a scapegoat. Many theories are doing rounds and generally the community is in fear and suspicion. They suspect the Police, the media and the Government. Even a legitimate voice trying to reason often gets lost as the level of mistrust are high.

And the Politics :With upcoming elections, when all parties would try to consolidate their vote banks, the polarization is bound to increase. The BJP would pressurize governments to have tougher terror laws. Muslims would perceive tougher terror laws as being a tool to harass them. Police, will catch some more terrorists including some innocents who will be counted as collateral damage. Muslims would huddle together and raise noise about them being targeted. BJP would raise fears in majority community by citing resistance of Muslims against tough terror laws. Jamia Milia Islamia would stand by its students caught as terrorists and Hindu Nationalists would brand it as against national interests.

And to those who care, let it be known that this is start of a defining time in life of this secular republic.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Aarushi Murder Case - Media circus and Police incompetency

So Finally Aarushi Talwar murder case is solved. Finally I hope. Unless there is some other hidden twist in this tale. After all, what can you expect when a murder investigation is done in full public view and media glare and when every day you have a new person being suspected for murder? It is not unusual for some investigations to take longer but Arushi murder case stands out not for investigation but the way it was (un)done by Police and circus which media created around it. Every news channel followed this "breaking story" like a mad hound. As if it was only murder committed in this country. What was even worse was the way all news channels shamelessly hounded Talwar family and others involved and ran theories as breaking news. There were stories of Aaruhsi's father being the murderer, insinuation of his affair with a woman and worse of all stories on Aarushi's character and hint of incest.

That there is something rotten with law and policing in this country is not something unknown. This is a country where suspects can be kept in jails for years waiting for their cases to be judged, police can be easily bribed and investigations are often botched up and superficial. But in Arushi's case, the media had created an unholy alliance with incompetent Police to feed us half cooked stories and lies as breaking news just to keep their 24 hours channels running. Every news channel was trying to come out with its own version of truth and investigations. Investigations, done in studio rooms with graphics and animation and by hyper news presenters asking viewers to vote who they think were the murderers. An Entire nation was turned into detective. A new form of collective wisdom perhaps where murder mysteries would be solved in news rooms and by news polls and not by hard and objective investigation. All ethics of journalism were compromised on alter of one- up-manship and TRP race. Firstly, illiterate police officers leaked absolutely private details of Arushi to media and then Media did nothing but feed on it. Whatever happened to a minor's rights of privacy? Few things come out of this case for us a society to introspect:

police force is unable to do any investigation in a scientific and modern way. They are too prejudiced and biased to employ objective judgement to crack a case. They also appear virtually illiterate and have no knowledge of a person’s (dead or suspect) right to privacy. If CBI has to be called out in every other case, then what happens to all those cases which don’t get as much press and CBI involvement as this one did? And when police officers who botched up the case would be punished, if at all? Dont we need massive overhauling of our police force to bring them out of medieval mindeset and methods or is it that Police has forgotten how to investigate as it has beocme merely a coercise tool in hand of state?

News Media is fast turning out into a parody and circus of speculations and theories. It has forgotten all journalistic values and ethics and is high on its power and privileges. It thinks nothing about runing speculations as stories on a 14 years old girl's private life. It thinks that it is not answerable to anybody and can do anything in name of freedom of press. It is not able to self-regulate it and it is about time that someone else (State!!) did it. As my friend, says "you can’t really expect bunch of kids to self-regulate, they need bit of parental control". And presently, Indian news media, especially news channels are nothing more than quarrelsome bunch of kids. They need little rap on their knuckles.

There no privacy laws in this country. Anybody suspected of anything can be hounded by media, their names and pictures splashed 24 hours on TV. All kinds of insinuations can be mixed with fiction and drama to cook up a truth. Can Talwars now sue all those news channels which ran day long stories on them and had camped in front of their house? And why not!

A voyeuristic society ? As the case was unfolding "live" on news channels, there were reports of some production house planning to make movie or TV show based on Arushi's life , even before truth was revealed and investigations were over. That was clearly insensitive and indication of how voyeuristic we have really become . Afterall, if there is 24 hours coverage of a murder , trial by media and attempt to make TV shows on a tragedy, then there must be because many of us want to watch this on our TV sets. Is it an indication that we are becoming a voyeuristic society now where news , entertainment, gossips, halftruths are all mixed together in a heady concoction of 24 hours news sprinkled with advertisement breaks?

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Reality Kid Shows - warped reality anyone!

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The recent incident of a 15 years old girl from Kolkata losing her voice due to reprimand by judges during a Bengali reality show is being widely discussed in TV and print media. Central Government has announced that it would soon come out with guidelines and regulations for such reality shows on TV where minors and kids are involved. Even as girl is being treated at a Bangalore hospital for reportedly severe mental shock, the show producers and parents are blaming each other in media. Times News ran the snippets of event last night with English subtitles and seeing them, I think the comments passed by judges were little harsh considering that the girl was in tears and visibly shaken.

Both the parties are to be blamed here. Both the Producers of such shows which try to make money by staging drama by encouraging unnecessary provocation and comments and parents who are ready to go to any extent to ensure that their kids become celebrities. Most of reality shows for kids are about songs and dances where kids enact popular movie numbers. Shows are sold to audiences as a quest to search for new talent and parents go to any length to make their kids participate in them. Some parents even quit their jobs to support their kid in this quest of this mini-celebrity hood. Now I might be little slow here in understanding but I don’t understand what sort of talent is found in these shows!! Often you see kids dancing to raunchy numbers which they don’t even perhaps understand. There are little girls who sing "beedi jalile jigar se piya...." and judges comment "fantastic...your expressions were excellent". That is preposterous. How can little kids be expected to or even required to understand such songs and then emote them either through song or dance!

In India parents often derive their own sense of achievement or failure by what their kids achieve or don’t achieve. This adds lots of pressure on kids to perform. You could see this behavior on so many reality shows for kids. You can see parents fighting with show organizers when kids get eliminated as if their whole world has crashed down. You can see parents staging emotional drama or using parchocial appeals to get votes from audiences. What sort of reality does it create for a kid who is still trying to get any comprehension of world around him/her?

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Consumerism consumption and waste - Template for development?

As per Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), as the world's leading spenders, Americans (5% of world population) use:

20 % of the world's metals,
24 % of the world's energy
25% of the world's fossil fuels.
Own twice as many cars,
Drive two-and-a-half times as far
Use 21 times more plastic than their 1950 counterparts.
American ownership of air conditioners also increased from 15 to 64 percent between 1960 and 1987; color TVs from one to 93 percent.

In past few months , increasing food prices have made headlines throughout the world. US president Bush even blamed increasing prosperity of Indian middle class for food shortage. In India itself, Agriculture minister has attributed food crisis to India's changing diet patterns. South Indians are eating more wheat and north Indians are cooking more rice, he said, leading to food crisis. Indian Prime minister, on other hands think that food crisis is due to diversion of arable land from food crops to bio-fuels. In this spate of global blame game, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general said something which should have been so obvious to all, that "world has consumed more than it has produced."

Increasing Consumerism - Who is world's largest consumer? Without doubt it is USA and then Europe. In decade of 1990, 20% of world's population (mostly in USA and west) consumed 80% of world's resources and generated 80% of world pollution. USA which is template for modernity and progress in our times is biggest glutton of all.In modern world which we live in, progress and development is often equated with increasing consumption. I am not economist, but don't most of economic indicators like GDP, PPP etc.. ultimately indicate a society's "capacity to consume"? The more you can consume, the more developed you are. India is developing at rate of 8%/year and China is probably 10%/year. It means demand and consumption is increasing at same rate every year. Same is true for most of other developing and developed countries. Consumerism is at all time high. The whole society seems to be in a big orgy of demand and consumption. Wanting more is fashionable. "thode main hi satisfy kyon ho? " SRK tells us on TV. All pervasive advertisement machinery keeps blaring messages of new wants constantly. Not needs, but wants. You are constantly reminded that you need to buy, you need to consume. Creating collective illusions of needs. It keeps society moving. Like electric current needing potential difference to flow , wants and consumption is what we need to move.

Urabanisation boon or bane? - Economics tell us that Modernity has always come with urbanization. Most of modern countries are hugely urbanized with mega cities. Cities which are are den of consumerism and consumption. Cities which are collection of men living in concreted forts, in their own self obsessed cocoons. Cities demand and consume, very often never being aware of environmental cost at which demands are met. Cities only see finished products, never the process or the waste. Shopping malls sell products you would never need. Be modern, buy tinned food. Buy more plastic. Blinded by gloss, glitz and lights of city , its denizens are on self administered anesthesia, never aware of pain. Cities, for whom, environment is nothing more than artificially created gardens , ponds and caged animals in zoos, all within its perimeter.

Led by USA, more and more countries are adopting a template of development which in long run is going to harm our collective well being. unfettered Growth, voracious consumption and consumerism has already made a serious impact on our environment and there are enough signs of fragile balance of our ecosystem being dented. Annual growth, increased productivity, urbanization, would ultimately lead us where? How long would it continue? Isn't it time to stop for a while and think!Instead of copying a model of development which is undeniably focussed on materialism, isn't it time that we also look into some eastern thoughts which have always preached a simple, balanced lifestyle in harmony with our nature!!

Is it a time to downshift !

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Murder On Beach - Goa, is party over?

A young British girl, Scarlett was raped and murdered on a beach in Goa and murkier side of Incredible India bared its face for all to see. It is a face we all know. It lurks behind all the time, behind those shiny visit India tourism posters and beneath glossed up broachers. One would say…..hold on; one swallow does not make a summer. After all, it is just one silly, drugged girl who died in way that she could have died anywhere in world. If you are a foreigner in a strange land you need to be careful where you go at midnight and what company you keep. The girl paid the price for being indiscriminate, gullible and reckless. Horrible that it might sound, it is akin to playing with fire and hoping that you don’t get burnt.

White Skin fascination: That is only one face of story, especially in context of scene of crime, Goa. Goa is a heady mix of pristine beaches, easily available drugs and accommodating locals. But, The undeniable fact is that this incident only adds an embarrassing chapter in already growing book of what foreigner female tourists are facing in India. Many incidents of sexual harassment of foreigners have been reported in past one year. From backwaters in Kerala, to bazaars of Orissa, foreigner women (mostly white skinned) have been bottom-pinched, squeezed, raped and murdered. The reason being given is that Indian men have a thing or two about white skinned ladies. They have this notion that these women are an "easy lay" and that they have lose morals and hence easily beddable. Most of Indian men , and I mean men in bharat, not just those living in shining India have only one source of their knowledge of western culture , and that is through cheap, pirated C-grade porn movies available in most of India's small towns. And all the foreigners they see in those movies are...well quite obviously sexually busy, promiscuous and "lose". All these white foreigners do is, take drugs and have sex. This becomes their only truth about how they perceive westerners, especially women. So it is not hard to fathom what would happen if Incredible India campaign succeeds in bringing in more tourists to India and opens up those places in hinterland for tourism which were till now undiscovered. In a country like India which is prudish and even balks at couples holding hands in public, influx of westerners would open up murkier sides of Indian society. If most Indians equate westerners with sex and drugs, then most Westerners have the notion that India is all about spiritualism and yoga. When twain shall meet, we shall see.

Chor Sipahi: Coming back to Goa, it seems that Goa is up for a massive cleanup, triggered by recent and some past events. Cleanup of Indian kind. It means that Police would now patrol beaches and harass tourists in name of protection. All bars and those gorgeous shacks would be closed before 11. No music would be allowed to play after 11 again and everybody would be asked to switch off their lights and sleep . Partying would be outlawed and you would be watched. You have to explain to Police your motive of roaming on beach if you are caught after 11. You will be asked to cover your bodies so as not to offend Indian culture and you would be asked to keep short hair. Preferably you would only be allowed in Goa with your mommy in tow. The biggest party place in world would be shut down. And all this would be in pretext of cleaning up Goa. Right. But who is going to do it? Police? Same police which is hand in glove with drug runners, pimps and all those who provide the infrastructure for illegal activities. Everybody in India knows that Police is one helluva corrupt institution. All local drug dealers and mafia are let to operate with full knowledge of local police for a hefty sum of weekly money. If it was not true, then why did Goa Police initially try to suppress the truth about Scarlett's murder as a drowning death!! Because they wanted to protect their own!!

There, You can't have the robbers doing cleanup. All it means is that people who want to enjoy a midnight stroll on beach with couple of beers would be put in jail and all those who want to be little nasty would still do that , behind closed doors under protection for little more money than before. In India cleanups are about shoving dirt beneath the bed.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Raj Thackeray, MNS, Clashes with North Indians- Migratory stories

There are so many ways in which current fiasco of MNS lashing out at migrant North indians in Mumbai and state of Maharahtra can be seen and I believe that fundamentally it reflects conflict between two social groups happening because of pressures of migration and changing demographic profiles . It is a conflict to gain space, political and economical power, even though some of us would so easily blame it on politics and assume that everything is fine afterall if it wasn't for dirty politic played by few. But Politics is only played on faultlines that exist and more so in societies which have more of them, like ours.

Migratory Ways of Indians : In past century, we as human species have made amazing progress and forces of globalisation and ease of travel have led to massive cross-migration of people. Migration from one state to another, from one country to another etc. Not that migration of people is new. Evolution of species tell us how we evloved and how different races were formed and spread across the planet through migration. It is in animal's nature to migrate to places where it can find food and water and where its survival is most likely. Humans have not been any different. But as we know, with advancement in technology and healthcare and capitalist economy becoming more or less default way, migration of humans have been unprecedented in past 200 years. Think about it in our context, just around turn of last century, there were not many "indians" who lived outside of sub-continent and there wasn't a term called NRI (Non resident Indian). Now, indians are found everywhere and are conspicuous largely for their economic success (exept perhaps in Malaysia). They are in large numbers in UK where they are already in third generation. Malaysia has 9% of its population who are ethnic Indians (um..or shall I say ethnic Tamilians!) Indians are third largest ethnic group in Singapore. There is a huge population of indians in middle east (mostly from state of Kerala). In Mauritius , 70% of people are from Indian roots. Huge Indian population was found in east african countries of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania before some of them were forced out by local governments (remember Adi Amin). Large scale migration of Punjabis to Canada is something we all know of. Such migration is not limited to Indians alone but is also found across other nationalities, like chinese for example. As indians have gone to other countries to settle down, they have naturally also migrated within the country itself. Most of big indian cities have people from all parts of country. Some ethnics groups have been migrating for centuries ;like Gujratis are found everywhere where they could setup businesses.

Conflicts of Migration: Migration of people from one geography to another or rather from one social group to another start creating problem when there is contention for resources or a threat is percieved by host group that thier numbers would be undermined because of large numbers of migrant influx. At that point of time host group is bound to react naturally to protect its identity which could be based on religious, lingustic or racial or sometime combination fo them all. Some time the migration could be such that the migrant is much more powerful, hostile and violent than the host and host would be cleaned up wholesale to make way for migrants. Like it happened in America or Australia to name a few instances. But such events happended in medieval, ancient times. In modern time where nation states are more or less well defined and stable, the migration related conflicts manifest in various ways, mainly in terms of identity clashes. For example, UK after many decades of soft immigration policies now want to stiffen the rules. Xenophobia is rising throughput the world as a natural opposite force of migration and globalisation. Australia has a test for desiring immigrants to test thier "asussiness", . Few people in UK had mooted idea of "cricket based loyality test" to test Asian immigrants loyality. Nothing wrong with that perhaps, while in rome do as the romans do. But can a greek "become" roman if he is merely "doing" what a roman does! How does one become Indian or English! Do only whites of anglo-saxon stock qualify to be an English? Is Sonia Gandhi (a Catholic , Italian married to a Hindu-parsi Indian) an Indian?

Hyphenated-Identities In modern times, individual carries complex set of criss-crossing identities resulting from his/her affliations with diverse social groups. For example, One can be hindu (religion), born off Indian parents (ethnicity), citizen of USA (nationality) making him an American- Hindu- of- Indian origin. In some cases it can be as complex as American-Hindu-Indian-Gujrati-kutchi. Within India itslef , where we have staggering cultural diversity both ethnic and linguistic, the hyphens in one's identity can be mind blowing. Migration of people and cross-pollination (;)) have made question of identities more complex.

Problems with Inter-state Migration in India: So with Indians have been migrating to other parts of world for greener pastures, one would think that migration within the country , from one state to another would be an assumed thing. As an Indian, citizen can live and work anywhere in 26 states, as per constitution. But In India states are mainly formed based on linguistic identities and not purely from Administrative reasons. This means that state has an underlying sub-nationlism, making it a more cohesive unit than a state formed on purely administrative reason would have been. So when a person migrates from one state to another, even if it is neighbouring state, the dynamics of migration and resulting conflicts are more accute. That is the reason we see certain conflicts more in India than anywhere else in world. We are highly tribal and ethnically cohesive people, may be only less than Afgans. Remember riots which happened in Bangalore, city in Karnataka state , between Kandigas (locals) and Tamilians (migrants from neighbouring Tamilnadu)! Kanigads felt than Tamilians were ruling the roost in thier capital city and that they were undermining thier local culture. Tamilains controlled some flourishing business in Bangalore. Bihari migrant labourers are regularly killed by ULFA in Assam and most of Assames feel that bihari "outsiders" comes in large numbers and are threat to thier "culture". There lies the problem, our diversity becomes our bane. We can huddle around language, state, ethnicity, raise the fences and point out that "outsider" who must be kept out if our identity as a group has to be protected. This is potentially true for every state in indian union. The faultlines are there to be exploited by just raising bogey of culture, language being underthreat by influx of outsiders.

Story of migration in Maharashtra: The script being played in Maharashtra is familiar. Initially it was played by Shiv Sena in 1960 when mere 5% of South Indian migrants to Mumbai were occupying most of government jobs , possibly because they were more educated than the locals at that point of time. But large section of Marathi middle class at that time resented this fact (contention of resources) and that led to rise of Shiv Sena. Shiv Sena galvanised people by siting pride in local culture and making "others" from outside standout like sore thumb. Now script is same, but actors are slightly different. Now south Indians are gone (because they are running software companies down south or in US) and government jobs are with locals (and deservingly so) . Now target is low wage earnerers and north indian migrant who does jobs in unorganised sector, like driving 50,000 odd taxies in Mumbai and selling vegetables. The noise is still same, about marathi culture, language and pride beig undermined by Migrants. The same could be true in Tamilnadu or Karnataka or anywhere else in country.

It is free market economic and Identities are many: According to some Marathi historians, Marathis as community or group have always been low on business quotient. Even when Shivaji, the great maratha warrior was winning new territories , he would invite marwari seths to take care of business in new districts (Marwari anyway, is most business savvy community in India). In modern times, it was Parsi and Gujrati migrants who setup big enterprises in Maharastra (specially in Mumbai). Why did they come here? Answer is same ...for why peple migrate. Why indians go to US. Economic benefit, better life. Answer is stil the same why a poor north indian migrates to Mumbai and runs a taxi. Because he earns 4 times more than he could in his native and because there is still demand enough for him to ply his taxi here, meaning that demand is not met by locals. If a mason from North comes and charges less , it is becuase he is being competitive in market and that is resented by locals, just like Indian software programmers would be resented in USA. Migrants are usually hard working as they come to compete and earn and that can be a reason for locals to feel economically threatened. That is the primary reason. But since we are such an emotionaly wired people, we usually raise such issues with lots of emotional spice like culture and language etc. Most of times they are red herrings, specially in context of migration within a country. Why would a north indian migrant not learn marathi , the local language in Maharashtra! That is quite aburd because language is first based on need before it becomes an emotional issue. If migrant from north india can come here and speak with locals and his customers in Hindi, he wouldn't learn Marathi. It is not because he comes here with intent of insulting local language or culture. In fact, most of migrants anywhere are more law abiding since they migrate for economic reasons and dont want to get on wrong side of law or locals. And if one expects a north Indian or south indian or east indian or whatever indian, to become a Marathi or Tamil or Malyali after he/she migrate to respective states,then the question is who is a marathi or tamil or malyali? The one who speaks the language? Would that suffice if a migrant learns the language, eats similar food and dress same? Or would he only become a Marathi-Tamil or marathi-punjabi .........but he would never be a marthi-marathi or tamil-tamil ?

And in all this where does Indian get lost? That is for next post.........

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Rushdie, Knights and Intolerance

There is lots of humors in world. Salmaan Rushdie , the controversial writer who wrote Satanic Verses and then spent entire decade running and hiding from people who perhaps never read his book but wanted to chop off his head, was recently awarded knighthood by UK. That is funny. I mean, I thought Knights belong to bygone era. I just can not imagine Salmaan Rushdie as a mounted combatant, carrying sword and galloping on a horse with a nice damsel for a company. Stereotypes.

I think these days everybody is in good humor, or how else would you respond to this news that "Pakistan parliament protests Knighthood honors to Rushdie". Parliament in Pakistan!! Hello! I thought Pakistan had military rule since last few years so what does its parliament do, apart from arguing and dreaming over Kashmir endlessly! Another funny reaction is from Iran which accused British leaders of Islam-o- phobia , which though is quite understandable, given the recent hostility between two countries.

Now call it clash of civilizations or whatever and enough has been said and written on it. But what these guys protesting over Rushdie do not perhaps understand that countries like UK are free, tolerant , liberal societies where an individual enjoys rights and freedom of speech and opportunities which most of people in countries like Pakistan, Iran etc. can only dream of. These countries also dont persecute people based on religion as much as other supposedly slef-righteous countries do. I will give an example from my own experience. Couple of years back when I was working in UK, on one of lazy Sunday afternoons I happened to be in city square in Birmingham where about 3 dozens Muslim (quite visible form skull caps and beards) protestors were gathered to protest against I don’t remember exactly what. There were half a dozen Policemen watching the whole proceeding from distance and a thin crowd of curious onlookers mostly made up of weekend shoppers. One of the protestors, on stage was lecturing and bemoaning the persecution of Muslims in Britain, intolerance of British society and how they were made to suffer in UK. I found it funny since here was a muslim man who was living in UK and was free to stand on city square and criticize the country and people which had given him home when he had probably come looking for job and better life. Is this persecution! Is this intolerance! Nobody hurled a stone at him, nobody stopped him and nobody from white crowd jeered him, the same people he was trying to accuse in his talk. I felt like asking him, if his own country which I presumed from his talk was Pakistan, would even let anybody so openly stand in city square and do someting like him without risking injury or jail! If you are in Iran perhaps and happen to be let’s say Christian and you gather on Tehran’s city square and do the same thing, you would perhaps be butchered! If you are a hindu in Iran , would you be allowed to build temples and follow your religion without fear! Now how much is that for tolerance and accusing others of phobias and intolerence .

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Caste wars - Gujjars burn public property

Recently around 140 countries agreed to make October 2 as international day of non violence to respect Mahatma Gandhi and his philosophy of non violence. In his own home country though, what we have witnessed last week was not only shameful shameful but also made a mockery of rule of law. Gujjars, who are some sort of caste and tribe in Rajasthan, went on massive protestation throughout the north India to demand them being categorized as Schedule Tribe (ST), so that they could get benefits of reservation in education and jobs meant for other lower castes listed as SC and ST. If we ignore violence which these men resorted to, I find it funny that there are people who so vehemently want to be categorized as lower caste tribe. Talk about upward mobility here! I am always perplexed by staggering number of castes and sub castes we have and how we keep sticking to them instead of making such archaic ideas redundant. I don’t know if Gujjars deserve to be listed as ST and given benefits of reservation or not, but what really stands out from the whole episode is the utmost disregard these men showed to public property and other citizens who had nothing to do with Gujjars getting into ST list. Crowds of these men went on rampage, blocking highways for days, burning, looting and destroying public property at will. Many of high valued machinery used for National Highway project in Rajasthan was destroyed and whole work on highway construction was brought to halt. What were these people trying to say? That they don't need highways and buses! Didn't they know that by doing all this they were only harming other innocent people caught in cross fire and this way they would have lost any goodwill they would have had! Even Capital Delhi was untouched by the violence. In one of the visuals shown on news, a dozen protestors were seen burning buses in full view of camera. After burning the bus, they unabashedly, stared at TV cameras and laughed and smiled as if they had just done a great act of bravery. Anybody who follows news regularly would see a pattern of behavior here. Group of people resort to violence mostly without any provocation, and in their minds protest is equated with burning and looting, and unless highways are blocked, trains are stopped and cities are brought to standstill, protest is not said to be effective. Then they openly peek into TV cameras and celebrate as if they are heroes. You don’t need to be expert to tell that such people who indulge in such activities understand nothing about what they are demanding and are mostly people who are bored in life. It is such a shame that nothing is done to punish these people. The rule of law can not be relaxed because a group of men, a caste felt that they were denied something legitimate and were angry with the system which they think is hijacked by another caste of Meenas. It is not an excuse to cause extensive damage to public property and cause nuisance and inconvenience to others. There are other means of protests and raising your demand, burning building and buses are not any of them. I think, it is high time that an example is set and police should catch all those who were captured in TV burning buses and blocking highways and persecute them. Come on, people, you are not fighting some foreign regime here.

How stupid it all sounds. Gujjars were demanding listing in ST category and Meenas (another one of 10 million castes) who are already in ST bracket started opposing it fearing that thier benefits from reservation would be diluted if Gujjars were also to be listed as ST and we almost had a caste war between Gujjars and Meenas. What will be next! Would it start a race where someone would be trying to prove that they are more backward than the others and others would fight back saying that only they are backward! So utterly ridiculous. A social problem, instead of being socially mended has been hijacked by politicians and lines of divisions are being further accentuated. May be it is not right to blame just the politicians alone as the fact is that we don’t have leaders in this country anymore, we just have men who are doing business of politics, otherwise so called leaders of Gujjars would have known that they can only lead their community into next century by making it aware of education and opportunities beyond few government jobs which they want to get through reservations. But regardless, all those who indulged in senseless violence and destroyed public property should be caught and put in jails.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Business of caste - Dalits convert to Buddhism

In one of largest mass conversions in India, thousands of lower caste men and tribals converted to Buddhism recently in Mumbai. In a hope that they would finally be ejected out of a discriminating religion which categorizes men into higher and lower merely based on which families they are born into. It is a futile hope. In India, you can never shake off your caste identities even if you change your religion. For example, there are dalits who are lower caste Hindus, and then there are Muslim dalits, Christian dalits and even Sikh dalits. Identity like Christian dalit sounds misnomer as Christianity does not have any notion of caste but when a dalit converts into Christianity he takes his caste along with him and there is even attempt to legitimize these identities when politicians demand reservation for converted dalits. Castism is a social problem and caste identities are so deeply ingrained in rural India that even if a person converts into a different religion he can not escape his caste. People in his village, in his neighborhood, in his social circle would always know what caste he belonged to. I said rural India because it is village which is really the den of caste based discrimination. Cities are product of migration of people and often in cities caste identities tend to evaporate. Even if it does not totally become irrelevant, it blurs as cities are melting pots. Cities provide certain amount of anonymity and loosely coupled social fabric which makes caste based identities less visible. Cities are also about economic activities and ability of a person to contribute in them takes precedence over his caste background .I am not saying that cities are about equality but a dalit person is less likely to be identified by his caste and stopped from entering a Hindu temple in a city than he is in his own village. As India become more urbanized, would caste identities become irrelevant is something left to be seen.

Ambedkar, the first dalit leader of modern India and author of our constitution realized this fact that caste in India is difficult to escape when he was stopped form entering a temple in Nasik in 1930. So dismayed was he with incident that he proclaimed that though he was born a Hindu he would never die in that discriminating religion and eventually few months before he died, he converted en-mass with his followers to Buddhism. What has been happening in Punjab is also a stark reminder of how deeply rooted castism is in Indian society. Sikh religion was created during a dark period in Hindu religion when it was under threat from Mugul (arab-muslim) invaders and from its own ritualistic distortions and brahmnical corruptions. The main teachings of Sikhism were based on equality and outright rejection of caste. So it is quite ironical that in today's rural Punjab, large number of backwards and dalit Sikhs feels discriminated and left out by mainstream Sikhism which is controlled by a body which is brahmnical equivalent of Sikhism. The Dera phenomenon which has gathered momentum in rural Punjab is a reaction to this very fact. People, who have felt marginalized by high body of Sikhism, flock to deras to get their fix of religion. The recent violence in Punjab between a dera followers and Akali Sikhs can be understood in this light as a power struggle between those who control the religion and those who feel left out and seek other alternatives. As I had mentioned in my post on social groups, it is a classic case of a social group (Sikh) conflict when members of a group desert it to form another group.

The mass conversion of dalits and tribals can perhaps be termed as political stunt by certain dalit politicians of Maharashtra but it is important to see it from another perspective which is that of emergence and assertiveness of dalits as political force in India. The fact that last month a dalit party, BSP, won elections with majority seats in most populous state of India and a dalit is chief minister is indication of this fact. What is unique about this new found political awareness is the fact that instead of being used as a pawn and vote bank in political equations by national parties, BSP has forged its own alliances to seize the power, signaling a shift in political maturity of the party. How interesting is it that BSP a party of dalits and lower caste has forged alliance with higher caste Brahmins and even fielded high caste candidates to seize the power taking most of national parties by complete surprise. What it would do to political landscape in India and how it would change social profile of dalits would make an engaging spectacle.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Miscarriage of Justice

Alistair Pereira , the man who killed 7 construction workers, crushing them under his vehicle in south Mumbai was acquitted of culpabale homicide and was given jail punishment for mere 6 months. Somebody needs to ask the question that why such incidents keep happening in Mumbai! Where Rich kids driving after drinking ram into pavements killing people! One of the the resasons is that Mumbai has large number of homeless who sleep on pavements and large number of poor laborers who have no place but to build their shacks along the pavements. In other parts of the world also, people, have accidents and ram into pavements, but in Mumbai if you lose control of your vehicle and swerve to the side of road, you might end up killing at least half a dozen people. In case of Alistair Pereira, he obviously lied that axle of his car broke and it went out of control and hit the huts along the road, but it is a genuine possibility that such things can happen with vehicles. A lot needs to be done to make our city roads and pavements safer. But this is beside the point. The fact is that there were 7 people killed and 8 injured when a man driving rashly under the influence of alcohol, lost control of his vehicle and rammed into the huts of poor laborers who were perhaps sound asleep after back breaking day's work. He knew that driving with few drinks under your throat is risky and that it can casue harm to others on the road And all this man has to go through is mere 6 month of imprisonment and pay a meager fine of 5 lakhs. The judge while delivering the judgment castigated city Police of doing a shoddy job with investigations and making a weak case against the accused. How many times have we heard it, before!

Corrupt System: The fact that there is something rotten with our judicial system is hardly a secret. Poor who can't afford lawyers for themselves, keep lodged in jails for years for petty crimes, as their court cases keep piled up for years, waiting to he heard. Rich who do wrong "by mistake" easily buy their way out of legal system. Witnesses turn hostiles, or are bought, important evidences can be misplaced and entire case weakened. ”At almost every point where citizens are governed, at every transaction where they are noted, registered, taxed, stamped, licensed, authorized or assessed, the impressions of being open for negotiation is given" Pratap Bhanu Mehta, India's political scientist has noted in his book "The burden of democracy". We can easily include the whole machinery of justice dispensing in this list of "open for negotiations" label. In a city where majority of police force is over worked and under paid, and where bribe and hafta have become almost a legitimate source of income for policemen, it wouldn't be very difficult for a rich man to buy few policemen to weaken the case by deliberately ignoring vital evidences. Investigations could easily be made perfunctory and persecution could be slack as perhaps happened in Pereira’s case also. Why is it that some cases involving rich are put on so called "fast tracks" when other poor accused keep languishing in jails for years awaiting their cases to be heard, is a question which needed to be asked. Do we have different yardsticks for poor and rich when dispensing justice! Must it be that every case where rich and privileged are involved, justice can only be safeguarded and ensured when there is constant media attention and public outcry! Is it now required for public to constantly do a Rang de Basanti! May be yes, the reason is that corruption is not rotting the system, but it has become a system itself. Most of us from middle class who work in private sector and live their life mostly outside the sphere of governmental controls are not affected by corruption but that is not true for most of Indians who are at mercy of "the System".

Is Judiciary also to be blamed: In case of Alistair Pereira, fingers can be pointed at the judiciary as well. The judge convicted Pereira, of rash and negligent driving and handed him over just 6 months of prison. Was it of no significance that his "rash driving" had killed 7 people? Judge said that chemical analysis report mentioned alcohol levels in blood of the accused but no witness was produced to prove that accused had consumed alcohol! Wasn't the report itself proof enough that Alistair was driving under the influence of alcohol! RTO inspector had testified that car didn't have any mechanical failure and judge himself noted that if a car as sturdy as Toyota corolla had suffered such extensive damage where its engine was ejected due to impact, then it must have been driven at very high speed! Pereira was also accused of acquiring forged papers to obtain license when he as just 15 years old. People who were killed were not walking on the road but were sleeping in their huts along the pavement. Is punishment for driving drunk and rash and killing 7 people, mere 6 months? I don’t understand law in its nitty gritty, but the judgment defies the common sense and logic. This is a travesty of law and justice.

Media Trials: While speaking to DNA after the verdict, Pereira did not express any remorse about what he had done and almost blamed media for his 6 months prison term. "I will have to go in for six months, all thanks to the media." He said. It has been debated for quite a while that there has been a rise in cases where accused are tried by media and public and opinions are made about guilt even before cases are deliberated by court of law. This is obviously a wrong course for law and justice. Accused is innocent unless proven guilty, but the way so called justice seems to be dispensed when it comes to rich and mighty, it is quite easy to understand why media has to take up the cudgels and why punlic at large feels cheated. In Jessica Lall case, the accused was almost but hanged by public opinion and media outcry. Ram Jethmalani, one of topmost criminal lawyers of country fought his case in high court and was highly critical of media's role in the entire case. His point was that it is only law which can decide whether a person is guilty of a crime or not, not the media. But his arguments stood on tenuous ground by the very fact that he almost ended up showing how well this law functions and how law has been hijacked by black coats who use every trick possible to win a case. Where is the truth! Who fights for truth! Truth it seems can easily be fabricated by arguments. See what Pereira's lawyer told to the media after the verdict:

Pereira’s lawyers feel that the six-month imprisonment is too harsh and have decided to appeal against the order in the Bombay High Court. “He is a 21-year-old boy and an accident like this could have happened to anyone,” Majula Rao, his lead lawyer, told reporters.

Bollywood movies for all of their flaws, can be taken as indictor of reflection of our society. In decades of 80 and 90s it was a common theme in various movies where hero of the movie had to take law in his own hands and deliver the justice himself because courtrooms couldn't do that or justice was compromised by scheming lawyers and compromising Police. The images still linger on.

Justice for laborers :Are we going to see "Justice for poor laborers" campaign as we saw it for "justice for Jessica Lall"?. Hardly seem likely but I would be pleasantly surprised if it happens. Jessica Lall had her family fighting for her justice. In present case, poor and perhaps illiterate families of killed laborers were most likely already brought for few thousands of rupees. "Jo hona tha ho gaya, ye sab to unke karm the" They must have said. As for Pereira, his family would stand by him as he is a nice guy and whatever happened was just a mistake. "He is a nice guy, a gem of a person." Some of his neighbors have said in media. Unbelievable, but we do seem to have this logic where if a person is good and perceived as nice guy, we are tempted to pardon him for "mistake". Even if that mistake had caused death of 7 innocent people! As for family, family always stands behind you regardless how severe your crime be. In great epic of Mahabharata, King Dhritrashtra knew that his son Duryodhna was wrong and had caused the battle by insulting wife of his brother, but he opted to be silent.

bk_keywords:India books, The burden of Democracy

Monday, April 9, 2007

Uttar Pradesh - Pulling India Down

The biggest state of India in terms of population, Uttar Pradesh , UP is going to poll with first phase of voting already over, and the great circus of democracy is on display yet again. UP perhaps remains to be politically most important state in India, not only be shear number of MPs it provides but also by the huge and varied political leadership which it keep churning out with regularity, though quality of its leadership has gone downhill as has State’ s economic and social profile. It is generally said that one should avoid stereotypes, but they provide an indicator of larger trends which give us a vital understanding of our societies and cultures. During my college days, I used to be astounded by few of batch mates from UP, who had some kind of built in political awareness and which I later came to know was also pretty much the same with an ordinary, common men from UP, including taxi drivers and security men and paanwalas one meet in Mumbai .

Its Politics: UP is a cauldron of amazing array of intricately fragmented identities making it a virtual quagmire of divisive politics. If politics can be equated to a business, which to certain extent it is, then customers (voters) of UP are so much sensitive to their complex spectrum of sometime overlapping identities, that politicians do nothing more than catering to their identities and raising emotive issues to keep voters in good mood . State is polarized in various communities to such an extent that its political equations are made up of very intricate arithmetic where numbers of voters based on what social groups they belong, play most vital role. A miscalculation of this arithmetic can cost a party dearly. One has to know which assembly has how much percentage of voters belonging to a caste, sub caste, religion before deciding and tailoring the agenda for that constituency. To get the airthmetic right, alliances are struck and sometime they can be struck between parties who are ideologically at different poles In this year's elections, BSP has been wooing upper caste voters which could have been unimaginable till few years back as BSP has been vehemently anti-upper caste party. Votes are openly asked in name of caste and religion and most of voters see it as a form of social or political power. In state, social justice often means, deepening the caste based identities instead of making them redundant. If parties like SP (Samajwadi Party) and BSP (Bahujan Samajwadi Party) can be condemned for playing politics based on caste and minority appeasement in name of secularism and social justice, party like BJP has done no good by targeting majority Hindu upper caste votes by raising specters of Muslim dominance. Just before elections were to start, BJP had released an inflammatory CD as per media reports which were subsequently disowned when EC threatened it with disqualification. Congress is confused and has been since it lost its ground in the state. It was perhaps Congress's failure which led to emergence of regional and smaller parties which now influence national politics so heavily. Perhaps congress failed as a true national party and could not represent all segments of society who felt politically powerless and that then culminated in form of regional parties and quite understandably too. In case of UP, the political history of BSP is interesting as regardless of kind of politics it plays now, it can be credited with actually making a marginalized community's voice heard and making it realize how much political power they could wield. This is something which even leader like Ambedkar could not do but today he would be annoyed seeing what BSP is doing with the power it has now. Instead of using the power in uplifting the castes which were suppressed for many centuries, its leaders are merely looking backwards and in past and have done very little in terms of changing economic ground realities. Castism is a social evil and it will not go away unless there is a social change. A political party like BSP can atleast starts this social change from somewhere and not fiddle with emotive and regressive agendas like creating Ambedkar villages. Such ill placed policies don’t lead to any social justice and merely encourage ghettoisation.

Crime in UP: UP is also one of India's BIMAROU state and is a huge burden and concern in way of India becoming a modern, developed country. Most of UP is caught in a time wrap with some parts of it almost resembling Wild West, virtual badlands. Most of mainstream media has time and again run stories of virtual lawlessness in parts of UP. There is rampant gun culture, kidnappings and rapes. Ordinary people are afraid to even approach police because mostly it is police which is hand in glove with perpetrators of the crime, as was proved during Nithari killings also. Opposition has been constantly saying that there is unwritten dictate from government about not filling the complaints so as to fudge the crime members form state. In one of the funniest spectacle if it can be so termed, recently, ruling party in state used none other than Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan for showcasing how safe and progressive UP was. Amitabh Bachaan was seen saying that "UP main hain dum, kyonki jurm yahan hai kam". Ostensibly he was not paid for it as SP's "leader" (it is not a joke) Amar Singh is like Bachchan's younger brother. Bachchan who might not be spending even 2 weeks in state in entire year, says in the ad that he would like to be born again on the ghats of Ganges in the state. Obviously Bachchan has shot himself on foot for taking a wrong side and he should think hard about how much of his credibility he is going to put on stake for supporting his friends who happen to be on wrong side of argument. In a country where police is seen with fear by ordinary people, one would wonder how many people would have courage to go and approach police to register cases in a state where police has almost no credibility, as was also indicated by statement of one of retired senior officers of state police recently. There can never be any economic progress when there is crime and fear in a society and when large number of elected politicians are known criminals (24 out of 80 MPs from state have criminal records, 110 out of 400 MLA have police cases against them).

UP will pull India Down: What does UP stand for? Does it belong to new India which is trying to go towards modernity? UP has all the problems which will stop India from progressing both socially and economically. It is deeply divided based on caste, it is divided based on religion, divisions run deep and wide, democracy is extremely fragile as strong arm tactics are part of its politics, there are virtually no industries in the state and nobody wants to go there because of high crime rate, most of government institutions hardly function anymore and it is hotbed of corruption with even its legislatures being caught on camera , openly taking bribes and even willing to kill for money. Dismal politics in state has led to dismal economical performance. UP is economic battleground. The per capita income of the state has been declining over the years with the result that the gap between its per capita income and that of other states has widened. Its rate of urbanisation is dismal (20% urban population as compared to 44% in Tamilnadu). Bibek Debroy , an economist states that if India grows at 8 percent, in 2020 UP will have per capita income roughly at the level where Azerbijan is today, marginally ahead of Zimbabwe. Considering that UP has such a large population, (Larger population than UK, Germnay and France put together) if it does not do well, it would constantly pull India down and decelerate our country's march towards economically better future. If India has to do well, it is utmost important that UP does well. It is so much important to free UP from a medieval state it has fallen to. It is so much important for its badlands and bahubalis to be eradicated. It is so much important to de-polarize its masses who are always dissected based on caste and religion for political gains. But all of this can only happen when its people realize this fact. Unless there is a genuine awakening in its people, its politics would not change much and unless that happen its people of state would keep rolling in poverty. Election commission’s moral code of conduct, central government's policies, World bank assistance and NGOs can only be catalysts, but the real change has to come from within.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Transforming Rural India

Tech Talk, Transforming rural India
Deesha RISC
Vision for rural India
Digital Billion

Monday, April 2, 2007

No Sex for us please - Ban on Sex education

An old debate of implementing sex education in Indian schools has raised its head again with couple of state government banning sex education in schools even before it could be implemented. We Indian have a strange connection to this topic of sex. On one hand we have produced masterpiece like Kamasutra, on other hand, we squirm in our seats at the very mention of word sex. The debate as such is not new and has been happening for quite sometime even in liberal western countries where topic of sex is not a taboo and where sex education has been implemented for quite sometime. Even after that, they have had their own problems with teen pregnancies and unwed young mothers and this is something we need to learn from. On the contrary, in our Indian society, which is largely conservative, we tend to take a very moralistic and idealistic approach even though we know that we hardly live in ideal conditions and that man by nature is fallible. As always, the solution could be somewhere in middle, but for that to happen there needs to be a healthy open minded discussion based on facts and reality and not on just moral and high sounding cultural arguments and preconcieved notions which are are set in distant past. We can not teach kids in school that go have sex and produce babies but we can not keep pretending that they think that it is really about birds and bees and that babies fall from sky. In the whole debate on whether sex education in Indian schools is needed or not, there are couple of arguments which are extremely annoying. Those who vehemently argue against implementing sex education in schools usually say that:

It is against Indian culture
We need to implement yoga education and not sex education.

1. My reservation against first argument is that it is a big debate killer. The moment we don't want to confront a subject or even want to talk about it, we hurriedly term it as against Indian culture and want everybody to keep quite. It could be anything. It could be a movie showing an ugly slice from our past or it could be a festival celebrated by young couples. And nobody, I mean really nobody can perhaps substantiate what this Indian culture is, especially those who use it at drop of their hat. Has this so called Indian culture documented anywhere, engraved anywhere? Is this Indian culture a solidified object which has not changed since it was created, whenever it was created! What is the starting point of this culture? 5000 year back or 100 years back? Has this culture not changed since then! I believe that culture is like a flowing river and not like a pond where water stagnates and starts stinking. If there is anything which is part of Indian culture, it is that we are argumentative. We induge in arguments, we question, reason and try to understand things. This is how our ancestors were able to create some magnificent piece of philosophical literature many thousands of years back. Why do we now don’t deal with the questions just because they are little uncomfortable to our sensibilities? Is khajurao not part of Indian culture! Is kamasutra not part of Indian culture? If Indian culture is about beating young couples who are merely holding hands in public, if it is about vandalizing shops which are selling cards and flowers because young couple wants to buy them, if it is about honor killings where daughters are killed by their own fathers in full view and support of village because they married guys from lower or other caste, if it is about dowry killings, if it is about wanting to have sons and killing unborn daughters, if it is about a being piously hypocritical, if it is about trying to be a saint and not being a human, if it is about being poor yogi sitting in Himalya then I will happily say that I would prefer to be a westerner.

2. What makes us think that Yoga education and sex education are complimentary! Do we think that yoga education in schools would turn all children into spiritual gurus and sex education would turn them into sexual perverts! One of self acclaimed protectors and flag bearers of Indian culture, Ashok Shingal of VHS said on TV, on debate on same subject that "In Indian culture, we should remain celibate (brahamchari) for first 25 years of life, The Virya (semen) needs to be saved and not wasted and through yoga this Virya can then be transported internally to the mind converting it into spiritual energy". Fantastic as his views might sound to anyone, and without commenting whether there is really a truth in what he says about power of Virya, as I am sure he himself hasn't never tried that, I would have asked him if this is really what Indian culture is about, then how is that we are culture of 1 billion people! Obviously these many people could not have been born without Virya doing its bit. In fact on the contrary, it seems that we are in such large number because of over-active groins and juices that flow from there. In Hinduism, we have 33 million gods in the pantheon and some of them were sexually quite active. If one reads some of religious books, one soon gets confused about who was whose sons, like God A married God B and they had 4 children (they were also Gods obviously), A also had children from Z but A never slept with Z and used his spiritual force to make Z pregnant, like Lord Surya (sun) made Kunti pregnant in Mahabharata and she gave birth to a son called Karna. I am not trying to belittle our mythology which for most part is about allegorical stories and rely heavily upon symbolism with deeper meanings. The whole notion of Virya being needed to be conserved and abstinence might be good for those who decide to tread on the path of Indian yogic traditions (sanyas) but it is a choice made by an adult at a stage in life when he/she has understanding of such abstract things as God, religion, nirvana etc. Not everybody in this country is trying to become sadhu and sanyasi. We can not expect that by teaching yoga to children in school, they will grow up into sexless spiritual beings. It is like saying that if we teach math to all the children in school, they will grow up to become mathematicians. There is no reason why children can not be taught both sex education and yoga education. Purpose of Sex education is to teach scientific facts about sex to children who are otherwise prone to acquiring false notions and impressions about sex in the world where (mis)information is available at drop of hat. Yoga education teaches them how to keep physical fit and control their mind. Later when they grow up to be adults, they would be equipped to make better, informed decisions. May be some of them would grow up to become Swami Vivekanandas and rest of them would be happier being lawyers, engineers, doctors and enjoying a healthy sex life.

In a way, this whole topic of sex education is intersting from another perspective, in the sense that it is perhaps only topic which unites people who are otherwise always at loggerheads. For example from the mullahs to padri to pundits, all three of them would speak vociferously against implementing sex education. In thier eyes, somewhere, sex is a sinful activity which takes a man away form path of God, and hence it is not to be spoken about or indulged in and certainly not to be taught in schools. The unity of all religions on matter of sex raises a very interesting question...Why is that? For a later post.