All posts by J Devika

Debates, Ecology/Environment, Genders, Identities, Language, Left watch

Jazeera in Delhi: Who Can Speak Against the Sand Mafia? : Bindu Menon M

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This is a guest post by BINDU MENON M

Jazeera V, who began her fight against sand mining mafia in Kerala one and a half years ago in the North Kerala coastal hamlet Neerozhukkumchal, is now on a sit-in, in front of the Kerala House near Jantar Mantar New Delhi.  She had first approached the village office, the local panchayat, police station, the district authorities and Kerala State government with the appeal to stop sand mining in the beach which grossly violated the Coastal Zone regulations. Ridiculed by the local media and intimidated and physically assaulted by the supporters of the sand mining mafia, she sat in front of Kerala State Secretariat for several weeks before moving to Delhi.  She demands that the central government should immediately take action against the gross violation of laws for protecting the coastal zones. Her struggle in front of the Kerala secretariat at Thiruvananthapuram for 68 days against the inaction of Kerala Government forced Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to invite her to his chamber for discussion. Although he assured her that he would take necessary actions against sand mining on the coast, he was reluctant to give her any written reply. She finally decided to shift her sit in from Kerala to Delhi in protest of Chief Minister’s callous attitude.

Continue reading Jazeera in Delhi: Who Can Speak Against the Sand Mafia? : Bindu Menon M →

Bad ideas, Government, Images, Law, Media politics

Thejas Daily: A Newspaper’s Encounters with the Ruling Powers : N P Chekkutty

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This is a guest post by N P CHEKKUTTY

In normal circumstances, journalists are not people in the limelight– they are supposed to be the first witnesses to history in the making. Their role is as observers of incidents and purveyors of what goes on in the public sphere. And they discharge their duties as representatives of the citizens, generally enjoying the public confidence. That explains the key role of media in a democratic polity, as representatives of the various segments of people and as a forum where a dispassionate debate of public issues can take place. Like the Red Cross personnel on a war front, media-persons are expected to do their job without hindrance of harassment, keeping away from the sound and fury of public life.  Continue reading Thejas Daily: A Newspaper’s Encounters with the Ruling Powers : N P Chekkutty →

Culture, Debates, Identities, Politics

Onathallu Redux? Some thoughts on Onam

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I remember, as a young child, going with my father one Onam in our ancestral home to watch the local Onam sports-and-games.My admittedly-fuzzy memory is of a large crowd of men gathered in an open paddy field or ground (I remember a lovely cloud of dragon-flies hovering above doing some sort of crazy-excited dance), getting ready for Onathallu — physical combat between
two men. Continue reading Onathallu Redux? Some thoughts on Onam →

Debates, Empire/ Imperialism

Iran-U.S. ties in the wake of Rouhani’s election: Maroosha Muzaffar

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This is a guest post by MAROOSHA MUZAFFAR

After eight years of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s presidency, Iran elected to power the reformist leader Hassan Rouhani, 64, in elections held in June this year. On Sunday, August 4, he was sworn in as the President of Iran in a ceremony attended by dignitaries from at least 52 countries. Rouhani now holds a job that in the current political landscape of Iran entails, well, a lot of hard work. And his diplomatic skills that so many have already sung paeans to, will now be put to test.  Continue reading Iran-U.S. ties in the wake of Rouhani’s election: Maroosha Muzaffar →

Capitalism, Countryside, Ecology/Environment, Government, Law, Movements

A Fight till Death, A Fight for the Commons – The Story of Kathikudam, Kerala: Parvathy Binoy

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This is a guest post by PARVATHY BINOY

“There is a lot of polluted rivers and lands in India…but this is not a big issue in Kerala”, Kerala Pollution Control Board Chairman (KPCB), 2011

“We have no one with us now, neither the party in power nor its opposition, we only have the people with us” – Daisy Francis, Kadukutty Panchayat President, June 2013 Continue reading A Fight till Death, A Fight for the Commons – The Story of Kathikudam, Kerala: Parvathy Binoy →

Countryside, Ecology/Environment, Government

Interim report of the Kathikudam Fact Finding Commission THRISSUR, 30 and 31 July 2013

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The news of police action against those agitating against the Nitta Gelatine India Ltd.,(NGIL) formally known as Kerala Chemicals and Proteins Ltd.)plant on 21 July 2013 in Kathikudam,Kerala, shocked the members of the civil society of the country. Various organizations across the country have come together in the form of this Commission to look into the matter. The team visited the site of the agitation of the NGIL Action Committee and some of the spots which are affected by the pollution of NGIL. The team also interacted with the affected residents and the members of Kadukutty Gram Panchayat to get a better insight into the pollution that the villagers have been alleging and the event that transpired on 21 July 2013. Continue reading Interim report of the Kathikudam Fact Finding Commission THRISSUR, 30 and 31 July 2013 →

Bad ideas, Identities, Images, Law, Media politics

Minority Report – Deaths followed by Executions : Ramray Bhat

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This is a guest post by RAMRAY BHAT

The collective conscience of our prominent democracies works in very strange ways. India is yet to come to terms with the killing of a nineteen-year-old Mumbaiite student Ishrat Jahan in an encounter by officers of the Gujarat Police in collaboration with the Intelligence Bureau. Along with three other individuals, Javed Sheikh (for whom Ishrat worked as a secretary), Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar, Ishrat was first announced to have died in police firing and the alleged plan hatched by these four individuals to assassinate prominent politicians of India, thereby thwarted. Inquiries at the level of the Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrate court as well as by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as directed by the Gujarat High Court confirmed what had been suspected all along, that Ishrat had been murdered in cold blood while she was in police custody. Continue reading Minority Report – Deaths followed by Executions : Ramray Bhat →

Bad ideas, Debates, Empire/ Imperialism, Identities, Images, Law

GUANTANAMO II : K Satchidanandan

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This is a guest post by K SATCHIDANANDAN

A poem by Ibrahim al-Rubaish, a Guantanamo Bay prisoner written in the tragic circumstances of illegal incarceration  has given rise to a baseless controversy in Kerala as it was included in a section titled ‘Literature and Contemporary Issues’ of the English  text book for the third semester undergraduates in the University of Calicut. The poem was recommended for inclusion by the Board of Studies chaired by Dr K. Rajagopalan, and rightly so as the section dealt with creative writing based on contemporary issues including the issue of human rights. The poem goes like this: Continue reading GUANTANAMO II : K Satchidanandan →

Bad ideas

Kathikudam – Rabid War on the People: Faizi S

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Shri Oomen Chandi

Chief Minister of Kerala

Dear Shri Oomen Chandi,

I am shocked to hear from colleagues in Kathikoodam of the brutal attack by the police on the people peacefully removing the illegally laid effluent pipe of the Nitta Gelatin Company. The people were discharging the legal responsibility of removing the pipe laid through a private citizen’s land without his consent and through the Panchayat land against the order of the Panchayat. While it was the natural duty of the police to support the Panchayat and the people in enforcing the Panchayati Raj Act of Kerala, they launched a rabid war on the people. Continue reading Kathikudam – Rabid War on the People: Faizi S →

Bad ideas, Countryside, Ecology/Environment

We do not want to see a repeat-performance of Muthanga: Appeal against Police Violence at Kathikudam

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[When he finished recounting a glorious story of struggle by fisher folk against an obnoxious, oppressive feudal lord in a coastal village in Kerala, a senior activist told me: “But we can’t rest … the places where the poor live in Kerala are being taken over again … this time to be waste-dumps of the rich. This village can’t be an exception.” He was referring to the heavy pollution caused by the high-end pleasure resorts mushrooming around the village. Indeed, in all districts of Kerala, local struggles are becoming all the more frequent against the pillage of the earth to satisfy consumerist greed of the predatory rich and the shameless dumping of waste in areas where the poor live. The people of Kathikudam have been fighting a long battle — not just against the Nitta Gelatine factory’s heavily polluting practices which have nearly destroyed the Chalakudi river, wetlands in the area, extracting a huge toll on animal, and plant life in the region  and causing immense difficulties to local people there.  They are also condemning the company’s stealthy attempts to dump waste in distant border adivasi areas. Yesterday the police unleashed bestial violence against protestors, which has been widely condemned in the state.

Below is an appeal in protest signed by concerned intellectuals and activists. If the present UDF government considers itself to be above being a bunch of wheeler-dealers whose sole interest is grabbing the crumbs that fall from the table of predatory capital, they must act decisively and justly against this wanton disrespect to democracy on the part of the police they control. Those who wish to endorse the appeal may please indicate so in the comments]

We, the undersigned, are shocked to hear and read about the unfortunate and avoidable response of the police in the handling of the peaceful protest against thee pollution by Nitta Gelatin Company Limited has been creating in the village of Kathikudam in Thrissur District of Kerala.
The police attack on the protest has been brutal and the violence is against the people of the village who have been denied justice in the wake of insufferable pollution, which has been causing severe damage to the air, water, soil and agriculture of this region for three decades. This is what prompted the protestors to take action in the form of removing the pipe that carries effluents to the river. Continue reading We do not want to see a repeat-performance of Muthanga: Appeal against Police Violence at Kathikudam →

Bad ideas

The BJP’s 2014 bid: A state-wise look and three key states where Modi may be risking party fortunes : Manish Dubey

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This is a guest post by MANISH DUBEY: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lacks effective presence in several States, including large ones such as Andhra Pradesh (AP), Kerala, Tamil Nadu (TN) and West Bengal (WB) and others in the North-east (NE) barring Assam to an extent, and is unlikely to mount a credible challenge in the 168 Lok Sabha (LS) seats these account for.  Its 2014 tally from these States will remain in the lower single digits, as it was in 2004 and 2009. Odisha and Punjab, with 34 LS seats between them, are unlikely to add substantially to the party’s tally either. In Odisha, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Indian National Congress (INC) are better entrenched. In Punjab, seat sharing arrangements with the locally dominant partner, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)- Badal, will limit potential (individual) pickings for the party. Pickings are also likely to be limited from Jharkhand (14 LS seats) where besides the INC, a number of regional parties, each with strong local bases and candidates, would be in the fray. Till recently, even Karnataka (28 LS seats) would not have provided much hope but things may look up a trifle with Yeddyurappa reportedly negotiating a return or at least some kind of electoral understanding.

The small States and UTs, i.e., those with 10 LS seats or lesser, account for 40 LS seats and the BJP has a mixed LS election record on these, a record much dependent its performance in Delhi’s 7 LS seats.  Of the 284 LS seats (over half the 543 LS seats) accounted for by all the above mentioned States and UTs, a realistic tally for the BJP would be about 40, similar to that of the LS elections of 2004 (40 LS seats, including 18 from Karnataka) and 2009 (again 40 LS seats, including 19 from Karnataka) with potential gains in some places offset by a reduced tally in Karnataka (Yeddyurappa’s return or even an electoral understanding with him will reverse the misfortune of the recent Assembly elections only partly for the BJP). No Narendra Modi Magic is likely to boost the BJP’s tally here given mainly the state of the party itself.  Continue reading The BJP’s 2014 bid: A state-wise look and three key states where Modi may be risking party fortunes : Manish Dubey →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Debates, Law, Media politics, Sex

‘Ladies Still not Empowered in Kerala?’ Questions Raised by the Solar Scam

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How does one respond critically and effectively when non-politics, non-government, and non-sense, all rolled together, assail the political public? I have been thinking about this recently — surely, this is a question that troubles all those who would wish to keep the focus of public life on politics and power. We witness, in present-day Kerala,politics being reduced to the internal bickerings over power indulged in by the powerful elite interest-groups that constitute the ruling UDF. Or, reduced to ‘sex scandals’ or ‘domestic squabbles’ when gender politics surfaces.  Simultaneously, we are witnessing the era of non-government and the severing of the link between public politics and government. While the bickerings between the coalition partners of the UDF continues unabated, news of infant deaths and severe malnutrition continue to flow from tribal hamlets in Attappady; the problems of mounting waste in both towns and rural areas continues to be criminally neglected; dengue and other dangerous fevers continue to exact daily, rising tolls all over the state. And even as the consequences of widening social inequalities become more and more visible, this government’s discourse of welfare remains pegged insistently on human mercy and charity. It continues to be dismissive of concerns of social justice and power — even as these harrowing tales continue to appear in the press, there is no dearth of advertisement of the goverment’s kaarunyam. And in the midst of all this, the Chief Minister being projected as the exemplar of human goodness and chairty! Or, the UN, ever-interested in ‘innovation’, conferring an award on his Mass Contact Programme at a time when his government has been least innovative or imaginative in solving problems that now stare us in the face. the This of course is the non-sense — the absurdity of it all. Continue reading ‘Ladies Still not Empowered in Kerala?’ Questions Raised by the Solar Scam →

Bad ideas

Uphold the Freedom of Expression, Condemn the Fabricated Cases Against Film and Media Persons

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The space for dissent has been shrinking steadily under the predatory-capital-friendly government in Kerala. The police has been smelling the presence of ‘Maoists’ and ‘Islamic terrorists’ in strategic parts of the state; though hard evidence for the presence of such forces is almost entirely lacking, this move is surely not unexpected. There has been  a spurt in the number of arrests under the UAPA. In the bargain, all expressions of protest against the suppression of human rights may be interpreted as ‘unlawful’ and ‘obstructive’. The following is a petition signed by prominent persons in film and media protesting against the most recent instance of the ongoing repression.

Petition to the Chief Minister, Kerala

We the undersigned strongly condemn the blatant attempt by the Kerala police to intimidate five colleagues from the field of film and media by filing fabricated cases against them for ‘rioting’, ‘unlawful assembly’ and ‘public obstruction’ (IPC Sections 143, 147, 149 and 283 ). These five individuals- K.P.Sasi, noted filmmaker and activist, I. Shanmukhadas, film critic, Prasannakumar T.N., film activist, Shafeek, journalist and Deepak, filmmaker and film society activist- were participating in a peaceful protest on February 11 at Thrissur, Kerala, along with many others, outside the venue of the Vibgyor Film Festival 2013 against the concept of capital punishment and the summary execution of Afzal Guru. The peaceful protest which lasted for an hour, in no way disturbed public order or caused communal unrest. For this act of democratic expression, these fraudulent and trumped charges have been filed against them. Continue reading Uphold the Freedom of Expression, Condemn the Fabricated Cases Against Film and Media Persons →

Bad ideas

The Fatherly Sphinx and the Riddle of the Researcher: Anirban Kapil Baishya and Darshana Sreedhar

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This is a guest post by ANIRBAN KAPIL BAISHYA and DARSHANA SREEDHAR

Ratan Tata Library, Delhi School of Economics…3rd June, 2013. The time was 11:30 AM, the weather outside, a little more than merely hot. The head librarian sat in his armchair in an air-conditioned room, a television screen playing back CCTV footage from each and every corner of the library. Continue reading The Fatherly Sphinx and the Riddle of the Researcher: Anirban Kapil Baishya and Darshana Sreedhar →

Bad ideas

Back to ‘family’ at CDS – How to push false pride under the carpet! Anonymous

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This is a guest post by Anonymous

I went to the CDS campus today hearing of the great tumult there, news of which has been appearing off and on in the press. I was just curious. I know personally one of the SEWA ladies; she told me her version of events. The students, of  course, have been venting their ire amply. In the past few days, I have also seen many of their comments in FB which made me want to puke, partly because of the fact that the faculty members who they revile now were fawned upon just a few days back. Normal people cannot help marveling at such extraordinary ability to reverse emotions towards the same object and at the same time, land on all four emotional feet. Continue reading Back to ‘family’ at CDS – How to push false pride under the carpet! Anonymous →

Culture, Debates, Everyday Life

The Golchakkar of Premier Institutions: St. Stephen’s College as a Public Concern: N P Ashley

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This is a guest post by N P Ashley: For a teacher, it feels strange to defend one’s workplace in public against the experiential remarks of an individual who happens to be in some ex-student capacity in the same college. “I didn’t like X’s classes” or “I found academic excellence in St. Stephen’s College a myth”  are statements that need no attempt to be disproven precisely because the writer, Thane Richard, makes no attempt to prove them in the first place. The narrative is anecdotal and validation is through “personal experience” which can only be countered, rather weakly, through other anecdotes. Hence, I won’t get into it. But there are certain methodological problems with the entire exercise, which, if not countered, will wrongly define the concerns of the readers.   Continue reading The Golchakkar of Premier Institutions: St. Stephen’s College as a Public Concern: N P Ashley →

Capitalism, Debates, Everyday Life, Genders, Violence/Conflict

Students vs. SEWA or Dalit Student vs. Dalit Women Workers? Student ‘Politics’ on CDS Campus: Praveena Kodoth, J Devika, Sonia George

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There have been reports in the media of an agitation by students of the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram,  because a fellow student was asked to leave the hostel  to facilitate an investigation of a complaint against him by the Self Employed Women’s Association, which runs the cafeteria on campus.  These reports and some exchanges between faculty have been circulated on the web / social media and has led to wider discussion of this event.  We consider it imperative to put forward our shared perspective as women activists as well as bring together our views as women faculty members of CDS and co-ordinator of SEWA respectively.

The student was informed in a letter that the action against him was until such time as the investigation was completed.  Media reports have portrayed the agitation as having been motivated by the victimization of a Dalit student by the workers of the cafeteria. Also it is being propagated that the student was ‘turned out’ of the campus when the letter from the Director required the student to ‘leave’ the hostel and refrain from using the cafeteria until the investigation was over.  Deliberately enough, the action was not to prevent the student from entering the campus.  We present here the context in which the student was asked to leave the hostel, the politics of the portrayal of the incident by the students as an infringement of the rights of a Dalit student and the larger implications of their claims, that feminism has been used to victimize students on the basis of caste.

Continue reading Students vs. SEWA or Dalit Student vs. Dalit Women Workers? Student ‘Politics’ on CDS Campus: Praveena Kodoth, J Devika, Sonia George →

Bad ideas

Disciplining at Tuljapur: A First-hand Experience : Sunandan K N

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This is a guest post by SUNANDAN K N

From the earlier article by Hartman De Souza and comments here on recent incidents at Tata Institute of Social Science campus at Guwahati, we had a glimpse into how a Deemed University heavily funded by the UGC and by both the Central and State governments could conduct its business in totally autocratic and authoritarian ways. Even with the risk of repetition I want to share my first-hand experience at another extension counter of TISS Mumbai which is TISS Tuljapur where exactly same events unraveled six months ago. Continue reading Disciplining at Tuljapur: A First-hand Experience : Sunandan K N →

Bad ideas

Horn Tata Not OK! — Hartman de Souza

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This is a guest post by HARTMAN DE SOUZA

If you were to say that the right we give to those younger, to be contrary and different to those older, is not just their right after they turn eighteen, but that it is our need to let them speak so that learning continues, you would probably get a bigwig from the Tata’s sensing the USP of that and  using it in his next PPP to jack himself up the ladder.

So it’s a little puzzling that the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, a major beneficiary of the munificence of the Tata’s would not only fail to see the veracity of that statement, but appear to actively work against it.

Let me give you the background and context to that connection, and indeed to this post: Continue reading Horn Tata Not OK! — Hartman de Souza →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Centre watch, Empire/ Imperialism, Government, Right watch

Same Difference? The Politics of Development in Rajapakse’s Sri Lanka and Modi’s Gujarat: Anonymous

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This is a  guest post by ANONYMOUS

President Mahinda Rajapakse in Sri Lanka and Gujarat’s Chief Minister Narendra Modi in India have positioned themselves as champions of development and good governance. Hardly a day passes without a media comment in the two countries on their respective development achievements. By and large, claims and counter-claims regarding development in Gujarat and Sri Lanka have tended to focus on mobilising data and ‘facts’ pertaining to a range of vital indicators—economic growth, levels of foreign investment, per capita income, employment, industrial or agricultural output, housing, rural infrastructure, roads, electrification, social welfare allocations, etc.

While working with development data is useful and necessary, an approach that relies too heavily on them tells us little about why development matters to the two regimes and how and to what ends it is actually deployed and leveraged by them at this point in time—the focus of this commentary. The question is not just what Modi and Rajapakse are doing for development but also what development is doing for them. Notwithstanding the significant differences between Gujarat and Sri Lanka, as argued herein, there are many striking similarities with respect to how and why Modi and Rajapakse are constructing, invoking and championing the cause of development. Continue reading Same Difference? The Politics of Development in Rajapakse’s Sri Lanka and Modi’s Gujarat: Anonymous →

Bad ideas, Debates, Government, Law, Violence/Conflict

Because Presidency is an Idea – All You Need to Know About What Happened at Presidency University: Waled Aadnan

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Image

Guest post by WALED AADNAN: On 10th April, 2013, an unprecedented incident happened at Presidency University (erstwhile Presidency College), Kolkata. Now, unprecedented is a strong term when it relates to Presidency College, because it has, over its 196- year- long history,  seen much. It has been broken in by rioting mobs in 1926; in the 1960s and 70s, it was the so-called headquarters of the Naxal movement in Bengal; it has nurtured Indian Nobel Prize and Oscar winners and consistently over its history. It has been one of India’s elite colleges and a hotbed of left-wing politics.

Continue reading Because Presidency is an Idea – All You Need to Know About What Happened at Presidency University: Waled Aadnan →