Category Archives: Bad ideas

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Countryside, Ecology/Environment, Media politics

An Open Letter to Mr Adani on the Occasion of Onam

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Dear Mr Adani

Writing to you from Thiruvananthapuram, where you recently signed an agreement with the Kerala government, undertaking the construction of the international container terminal at Vizhinjam off the Thiruvananthapuram coast.

The Malayali press went wild in their delight ; the politicians beamed in triumph (well, most of them. Some of them –guess who — could not, having discovered that they had shot themselves in the foot); the contractors and sundry middlemen in the construction sector rubbed their hands in glee. This is Onam season in Kerala, and Onam, you may know, is our national festival. You are very much in the talk here. To the contractors and our miserably corrupt and craven political class, you are Maveli reborn in flesh and blood. To the poor fisher people on what is arguably Kerala’s poorest coastal stretch, you are a newer version of evil Vamanan himself, threatening to banish them to the nether-world. There was a time when the political left in Kerala reinterpreted the Maveli myth as a vindication of the Welfare State. But since the welfare state has been almost as good as dead in the minds of Kerala’s mainstream political classes, the throne has also been conveniently empty.The mainstream press has set you up on it indirectly but definitely, and that’s pretty much evident. But Malayalees who love this land and are not blinded by hollow –false– national sentiment can see that not only are you the very opposite of Maveli, but also that this Emperor-figure has no clothes at all.

Continue reading An Open Letter to Mr Adani on the Occasion of Onam →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Identities, Mirror Worlds

Of Hanuman, Pakistan and Bhaijaan: Prabhat Kumar

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Guest post by PRABHAT KUMAR

Hanuman in the Enemy Land

What did our Ram-bhakt Hanuman do in Lanka, the land of his master’s enemy when he went there in the golden past? Everybody knows. What will Hanuman do, if today he is sent to Pakistan? Lankan voyage of Hanuman then, and cinematic expedition of his modern counterparts now (Sunny Deols of Border, The Hero, Ghadar, etc.), leave no room for imagination. Pakistan – the enemy land of India’s nationalist imagination – must be taught a lesson, as Rashtra-bhakt TV news anchors keep shouting from behind fire and embers on the screen.

We have seen on almost daily basis the bhakts, posing variously as Rashtra-bhakt or Ram-bhakt or lately as NaMo-bhakt. Bhakts, who persistently wish to annihilate the enemy land in TV studios, social media, or movie theatres. However, what a latest Hindi film Bajrangi Bhaijan shows is an unusual, or should I say, an abnormal bhakt. A bhakt, who does not want to destroy Pakistan! Lo and behold, he is a Hanuman-bhakt! He is called Bajrangi-Bhaijaan (Salman Khan). For, the word Bajrangi is a synonym of Hanuman, the ubiquitous monkey-god. He is bhaijaan because he is unable to lose his affection for a cute little girl even after knowing that she is a Muslim and, more than that, a Pakistani! Continue reading Of Hanuman, Pakistan and Bhaijaan: Prabhat Kumar →

Bad ideas, Countryside, Everyday Life, Excavation, Media politics, Movements, Politics, Violence/Conflict

Public Secrets Now Proven – Ranveer Sena Terrorists Caught on Camera by Cobrapost: Kavita Krishnan

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Guest Post by Kavita Krishnan

The ‘Operation Black Rain’ film released by the web portal Cobrapost, based on secretly filmed boasts of the Ranveer Sena terrorists with detailed accounts of massacres of Dalit and oppressed caste labourers in the 1990s, has only confirmed public secrets that everyone in Bihar already knew.

Continue reading Public Secrets Now Proven – Ranveer Sena Terrorists Caught on Camera by Cobrapost: Kavita Krishnan →

Bad ideas

Upward Futility – The ‘Servant Class’ and Everyday Forms of Discrimination: Joyeeta Dey

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This is a guest post by JOYEETA DEY

Clubs in Delhi bar ayahs from from common spaces. It is not uncommon to find employers tacitly or overtly restricting domestic workers’ access to their toilets. In some multi-storey apartments, the refusal to share space extends even to elevators.

Such indignities constitute acts of “gratuitous humiliation,” according to Delhi School of Economics sociologist Satish Deshpande. Think of it this way. Police officers and auto drivers wear uniforms, which separate them out from the public. This serves a purpose because the ability to identify them has direct bearing on the execution of their duties and the provision of services. With domestic staff and lifts? No such need is satisfied. “There is no justification for it,” Deshpande suspects, “other than the fact that affluent, upper-caste people cannot tolerate proximity with those whom they consider their social inferiors.”

Naturally, it would be hard to find segregators admitting as much, on the record.

So, what do they say?

“The foremost reason is security.” Continue reading Upward Futility – The ‘Servant Class’ and Everyday Forms of Discrimination: Joyeeta Dey →

Bad ideas, Law, Violence/Conflict

The State Playing God and Magician – Thoughts after Yakub Memon’s Death: Sharib Ali

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Guest Post by Sharib Ali

With a finality that only history possesses, Yakub Abdul Razak Menon, an accused in the Bombay blast case, has transformed for many over the last few days, including me, into just Yakub. His name pronounced with a deep felt sadness that has come to characterize so many of our days. Days leading to terrible, terrible nights.
It is indeed sad, when a criminal -a sauve 20 year old looking for a way out- is, in death, turned into a rallying symbol of injustice. Flowing white beard, and a bloated body, suddenly turned around into an idea draped in flowers, garlanded, and marched on the shoulders of thousands of men through narrow streets- in complete silence. There were whispers, though, in the sweltering heat of bodies. But the pact was made. There would be no sloganeering. The state was there- to keep peace, no less. And it did what it does best: lined the streets with policemen. The policemen were out there defending a strange paradox: That it is right to kill to punish those who kill, so that others are deterred from killing. Stithi niyantran mein hai, still, they said. The rest, were silent.

Continue reading The State Playing God and Magician – Thoughts after Yakub Memon’s Death: Sharib Ali →

Bad ideas, Culture, Education, Government

औसतपन के दिन

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भारतीय फिल्म एवं टेलीविज़न संस्थान  के छात्रों की हड़ताल लम्बी खिंच रही है. उनका ऐतराज स्थान के अध्यक्ष पद पर ऐसे व्यक्ति को नियुक्त किए जाने से है जो फिल्म और टेलीविज़न की दुनिया में औसत से भी नीचे दर्जे के माने जाते हैं.फिर उनकी किस योग्यता की बाध्यता थी कि वे उस स्थान पर बैठाए गए जिसके साथ मृणाल सेन, अडूर गोपालकृष्णन,श्याम बेनेगल,गिरीश कर्नाड, विनोद खन्ना सरीखे श्रेष्ठ निर्देशकों और अभिनेताओं का नाम जुड़ा है?एक अनुमान शासक दल से उनके जुड़ाव को लेकर लगाया जा रहा है. यह अनुमान मात्र नहीं है, संस्थान की शासी परिषद में भी सत्तधारी दल से जुड़े अनाम लोगों को जगह मिली है, जिन्हें फ़िल्मी या संस्कृति की दुनिया में कोई नहीं जानता. इन नियुक्तियों के प्रति छात्रों के विरोध को यह कह कर लांछित किया जा  रहा है कि वे उनका विरोध मात्र उनकी विचारधारा और शासक दल से उनके संबंध  को लेकर कर रहे हैं.लेकिन क्या ऐसा कहना उचित है? Continue reading औसतपन के दिन →

Bad ideas

Sex Workers And Women’s Organisations Condemn DCW Chair Swati Maliwal’s Statement On Sex Work

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[While in complete agreement with the statement posted below, I would like to add a personal note. I am a citizen of Delhi who believes that in its short stint in office so far, and despite every attempt by the central government to paralyze its functioning, the Aam Admi Party has taken decisive, creative and positive steps in several fields – education, health, and above all in its strong assertion that water is a natural resource that should not be treated as a commodity.

Nevertheless, it is unfortunately increasingly clear that on gender related issues, AAP’s functionaries exhibit the deepest conservatism – from Kejriwal’s speech on March 8th, which thanked his wife for keeping “his” home running, to Somnath Bharti on making Delhi safe enough for even “beautiful women” to be out at night, as if sexual violence is a tribute and compliment to the beauty of women, to Swati Maliwal’s aligning herself with the deeply conservative abolitionist position on sex work.

This conservatism is at odds not only with “elite activists”, as AAP may think, but with the views of the majority of ordinary people, who poured out into the streets after December 16th 2012, and sent scores of petitions to the Justice Verma Committee, expressing basically the belief in the rights of all women to public spaces at all times, and condemning victim blaming; sex workers are ordinary people too, and so are housewives, who even while they run homes with devotion and efficiency, are not unaware of the unfairness of the shared domestic space being considered to belong to the husband and “his” family. A March 8th message could have recognized women in their different roles, as housewives, domestic servants, CEOs, political activists. As a party that has learnt from other social movements, AAP needs to urgently start a conversation with women’s organizations of different kinds, including sex workers’ organizations.]

The statement follows:

The National Network of Sex Workers and women’s organisations in India strongly condemn the observations and statement of Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), Ms. Swati Maliwal calling sex work and prostitution akin to “rape” and calling for its “eradication”. We call on her to immediately withdraw her statement and tender an unconditional apology to the all women in sex work, whose dignity has been impacted by her observations.

The Honorable Supreme Court has recognized the need to ensure that sex workers are able to live a life of dignity. The Court set up a panel to discuss “Conditions conducive for sex workers to live with dignity in accordance with the provisions of Article 21 of the Constitution.” (Budhadev Karmaskar vs. Government of West Bengal).

 The Chairperson of DCW should do her homework before launching into a campaign that has not engaged with the ongoing debates and dialogues to recognize the rights of adult consenting workers to remain in sex work and ensure that their human rights and dignity are protected, such a short sighted and uninformed perspective demeans the office of a Commission set up to protect the rights and dignity of women. Continue reading Sex Workers And Women’s Organisations Condemn DCW Chair Swati Maliwal’s Statement On Sex Work →

Bad ideas, Culture, Everyday Life, Identities, Law, Right watch

Of Housing, Jobs and Everyday Communalism: Saidalavi P.C.

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Guest post by SAIDALAVI P.C.

“True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity”

Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

On the evening of 21 February, 2015 I and my friend walked through the narrow lines of Vasant Kunj, New Delhi looking for an accommodation for him. On both sides of narrow roads, three-storied buildings blocked sun rays reaching the ground. Here and there scrapheap assaulted our nostrils and a flock of bees and mosquitoes hovered around the area keeping watch. Our eyes waded through the gates of the buildings looking for a signboard announcing vacancies. We pushed a gate open and entered the building looking for the owner. A middle-aged man announced his presence pushing his belly in front of him. We asked, room koi khali hai, bhayya (Is there any room vacant, brother?) He scrutinised us for a moment. May be nonplussed by seeing no marks of our identity (we are clean shaven, well-dressed, normative secular self with supposedly a neutral identity in public) he was bit confused and his lips contorted a bit towards the left. Impassively, he nodded us to follow him since the room was on the second floor. My friend was visibly satisfied by the room, it was well-furnished, with a bathroom, kitchen and a balcony. He said he would take it. Listening to it, the owner’s face had taken a bit more serious expression, and at last he asked what our names are. It seemed our neutral identity was the bomb he wanted to diffuse. The moment we uttered our names, his facial expression changed into one who is caught by colic, he was startled and flushed, and his ears instantly became red. We were unable to make sense of what he was thinking. Then, he spoke hoarsely and told us to leave immediately. He said that if he had known earlier that we were Muslims, he wouldn’t have invited us to see the rooms. He never let rooms to Muslims. We tried to reason with him by asking why he is not renting it to Muslims.

Continue reading Of Housing, Jobs and Everyday Communalism: Saidalavi P.C. →

Bad ideas, Feminism

Coming up! Must-have new products for women

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Thanks to Kalyani Menon-Sen!

 

Porcupine Jacket – free hugs to molesters

 

Bagzilla – portable monster assist

 

Intergalactic Pest Control

Bad ideas, Debates, Everyday Life, Government, Identities, Language, Law

Who gets caught – From death row convicts to ‘criminals by birth’: Anuja Agrawal

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Guest Post by Anuja Agrawal

The recent reports regarding the findings of the Death Penalty Project of the National Law University, Delhi, confirm some of the worst fears we have about our criminal justice system: the system is exceedingly tilted against the interests of the poor, disadvantaged and the marginal while the rich and the advantaged often get away, literally, with murder. The results are very important as such systematic studies help in confirming what are often vague impressions and unconfirmed suspicions.

While this study focuses only on the convicts on death row, what we urgently need is data which give us a caste and community wise breakup of the incarcerated population as a whole. While some may think that this would be useful in establishing the ‘criminality’ of some social groups, in fact this data, when juxtaposed with degrees of conviction, will help in establishing not only the conditions in which people take to criminal activities but also how our system is systematically biased towards particular groups.

Continue reading Who gets caught – From death row convicts to ‘criminals by birth’: Anuja Agrawal →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Language, Law, Violence/Conflict

All That Remains for Us to Consider in the Wake of the Death of Yakub Memon

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Yakub Menon was murdered yesterday morning. Apparently it was his birthday. When his brother Suleman and his cousin Usman met him on Wednesday afternoon his words to them, as reported in today’s Indian Express, were – “Agar woh mujhey mere bhai ke gunahon ke liye sazaa de rahe hain, toh mujhe kabool hai. Par agar unko lagta hai ki mein gunehgaar hoon aur sazaa de rahe hain, toh yeh galat hai. Main bekasoor hoon.” (If they are punishing me for the sins of my brother, then I accept this verdict. But if they are punishing me because they think I am guilty, then it is wrong. I am innocent.)

Continue reading All That Remains for Us to Consider in the Wake of the Death of Yakub Memon →

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Goodbye Dr Abdul ‘Strangelove’ Kalam: Satya Sagar

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GUEST POST by SATYA SAGAR

They say one should not speak ill of the dead. And yet I propose to do precisely that about Dr Abdul Kalam, the `Austere, Hardworking, Diligent’ and now recently departed ‘Missile Man’.

I am willing to break convention on this occasion for several reasons.

The first one is a very simple and practical one. I have always found it very safe to speak ill of the dead. For, not only do dead men ‘tell no tales’, they also ‘pull no triggers’. And since neither me nor Dr Kalam (as far as I know) have ever believed in ghosts I doubt he is coming back to haunt my house anytime soon.

Secondly, I find it difficult to subscribe to the popular media fiction that Dr Kalam rose from a modest background to the highest positions in the country merely through dint of learning, commitment and a burning passion for great achievements in his heart. While there are many good, sincere, hard-working scientists in the variousinstitutions Dr Kalam was part of,mostof themwill not rise to any big administrative or political positions as only afew know howto play the game of ‘patriotism’ to promote their own careers. Continue reading Goodbye Dr Abdul ‘Strangelove’ Kalam: Satya Sagar →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Debates

याकूब मेमन को फांसी – न्याय के लबादे में अन्याय ?

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Sify.com cartoon on Yakub Memon hanging by Satish Acharya

(courtesy : sify.com cartoon by satish acharya)

‘क्या आतंकवाद से जुड़े मामलों में अदालतें एवं अधिकारी भारतीय समाज की रक्तपिपासा की भावना से सामंजस्य दिखाने की कोशिश करते है ? आतंकवाद से जुड़े लोग, फिर भले ही वह उपरोक्त अपराध को अंजाम देने में हाशिये पर रहते आए हों, उन्हें दोषी करार देकर सूली पर चढ़ाया जाता है ?’

वरिष्ठ पत्रकार मनोज जोशी ने याकूब मेमन को फांसी देने के निर्णय को प्रश्नांकित करते हुए यह बात पिछले दिनों लिखी। /देखें http://www.thewire.in व्हाय याकूब मेमन शुड नाट बी हैंग्ड, 17.7.2015/ गौरतलब है कि 1993 में मंुबई में हुए बम धमाके के एक आरोपी याकूब मेमन की प्रस्तावित फांसी के प्रति असहमति प्रगट करने में महज जनतांत्रिक अधिकारों के लिए समर्पित लोग एवं संगठन ही आगे नहीं आए हैं बल्कि सिविल सोसायटी के अन्य लोग मसलन पत्रकार, लेखक, अभिनेता आदि भी आगे आए हैं। Continue reading याकूब मेमन को फांसी – न्याय के लबादे में अन्याय ? →

Bad ideas, Right watch

Animal rights or Hindutva Wrongs? Sriranjini R

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Guest Post by SRIRANJINI R

Finally it has happened. ‘Debeefing Kerala’ has arrived. That’s not what the leader of Hindu Makkal Katchi said, though. He said that he’s out to defend animal rights. Really? Then, do animal rights in India help to protect all animals or only specific animals?

These were the questions that popped into my mind when I saw the news of Hindu rightwing activists physically preventing the export of beef from Tamil Nadu to Kerala (The Hindu, Trivandrum edition, July 21, 2015).  The trucks carrying the cattle for slaughter to Kerala, are being stopped by the Hindu Makkal Katchi and the Hanuman Sena on the Tamil Nadu border and taken to a Goshala near Coimbatore, where these animals are supposedly being taken care of. But according to the traders, the cattle are being mistreated in the Goshalas. If this is true, it is not only the traders who are in big trouble, it is also the cattle that probably prefer quick and painless deaths rather than life as pawns of the Hindutvavaadis in the Goshalas!

And all this is happening because the leader of Hindu Makkal Katchi, Arjun Sampath, claims that almost 50 heads of cattle are being stuffed into a truck during transportation, such that they are not able to drink water or even move. The Hindutvavaadis are out to stop this. This is where the animal rights card is being played. Even if we consider all these as violations of animal rights, then the question arises: why does the Hindu zealot have no mercy for other animals apart from cattle? Elephants, chickens, goats – these animals also go through terrible things humans do to them. Don’t they deserve animal rights?

Continue reading Animal rights or Hindutva Wrongs? Sriranjini R →

Bad ideas

तीस्ता हमारे खून की प्यासी नहीं

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तीस्ता के जेल जाने के मायने हैं भारत की आत्मा को कैद करना.यह कोई काव्योक्ति नहीं है.आत्मा कोई भौतिक यथार्थ नहीं है.वह है सत्य को पहचानने और उसके अनुसार काम करने का साहस अर्जित करने की हमारी आकांक्षा का एक दूसरा नाम. वह हमें अपनी सांसारिक क्षुद्रताओं को पहचानने और उनसे सीमित हो जाने पर लज्जित हो पाने की क्षमता है.आत्मा क्या है,यह आपको तब मालूम होगा जब आप सी बी आई के अधिकारियों से अकेले में बात करें और तीस्ता के साथ इस संस्था के व्यवहार पर उनकी प्रतिक्रिया सुनें.वे जो कर रहे हैं,उसकी अनैतिकता का उन्हें पूरा अहसास है.वे जानते हैं कि वे अपनी आत्मा को कुचल कर ही तीस्ता के साथ वह कर सकते हैं,जो अभी वे कर रहे हैं. Continue reading तीस्ता हमारे खून की प्यासी नहीं →

Bad ideas

Resolution of Feminist Economists on EU conditions on Greece

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Signed by over 135 delegates at 24th Annual Conference of International Association for Feminist Economics as  a personal expression of concern.

We are shocked that the EU institutions and European leaders are imposing on the people of Greece a further program of austerity that will severely undermine the living conditions of women and men and plunge them into a deep crisis of deprivation. This hits Greek women particularly hard as they will have to provide the safety net of last resort through intensified work of taking care of their families, friends and communities.

As feminist economists, as well as many other economists, have stressed over many years, the debt burden is unsustainable, this fact has recently even been acknowledged by the IMF. Thus, the hardship imposed on Greek people will not resolve the problem of its indebtedness, but it will rather worsen the great depression. Continue reading Resolution of Feminist Economists on EU conditions on Greece →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Identities

हेडगेवार का पथ: मिथक और यथार्थ

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‘आधुनिक भारत के निर्माता: डाक्टर केशव बलिराम हेडगेवार’ के बहाने चन्द बातें

(Photo : Courtesy – http://www.flickr.com)

राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ के आनुषंगिक संगठन भाजपा के केन्द्र में तथा कई राज्यों में सत्तारोहण के बाद शिक्षा जगत उनके खास निशाने पर रहा है। विभिन्न अकादमिक संस्थानों में अपने विचारों के अनुकूल लोगों की महत्वपूर्ण पदों पर नियुक्ति करने से लेकर, स्वतंत्रामना अकादमिशियनों पर नकेल डालने के प्रयासों से लेकर, पाठयक्रमों में बदलावों तक इसे कई तरीकों से अंजाम दिया जा रहा है। पिछले दिनों केन्द्रीय मानव संसाधन मंत्राी सुश्री इराणी ने संघ से सम्बधित शैक्षिक संगठनोें से प्रस्तावित नयी शिक्षा नीति के मसविदे के बारे में बात की, जिसका प्रारूप नवम्बर में रखे जाने की योजना है। इसके अलावा विभिन्न संस्थानों और विश्वविद्यालयों में खाली हुए या होने वाले पदों पर नियुक्तियों के मसलों पर भी बात हुई।

सूबा राजस्थान – जो केन्द्र में सत्तासीन भाजपा सरकार की कई नीतियों के लिए एक किस्म की प्रयोगशाला की तरह काम करता रहा है, फिर चाहे श्रमिक कानूनों में बदलावों का मामला हो, पंचायतों के चुनावों में खड़े रहने के लिए न्यूनतम शैक्षिक योग्यता तय करने का मामला हो – एक तरह से शिक्षा जगत में आसन्न बदलावों के मामले में भी एक किस्म की ‘मिसाल’ कायम करता दिख रहा है। स्कूलों के रैशनलायजेशन/ यौक्तिकीकरण के नाम पर सतरह हजार सरकारी स्कूलों को आदर्श स्कूल में मिला देने का मामला हो या पूर्ववर्ती अशोक गहलोत सरकार द्वारा कायम हरिदेव जोशी पत्राकारिता विश्वविद्यालय को बन्द करने का निर्णय हो या राजीव गांधी ट्राइबल युनिवर्सिटी को उदयपुर से डुंगरपुर जिले के बनेश्वर धाम जैसे अधिक दुर्गम इलाके में भेजने का मामला हो, उसने इस दिशा में कई कदम बढ़ाए है। अब अपने ताज़े फैसले में उसने संघ के संस्थापक सदस्य केशव बलिराम हेडगेवार की जीवनी को खरीदने की सिफारिश राज्य के कालेज पुस्तकालयों की है। अपने सर्क्युलर में शिक्षा विभाग की तरफ से कहा गया है कि कालेज के पुस्तकालय अकादमिक राकेश सिन्हा द्वारा लिखित ‘आधुनिक भारत के निर्माता: डाक्टर केशव बलिराम हेडगेवार’ नाम से किताब को पुस्तकालय हेतु मंगवा लें।

प्रस्तुत निर्णय की तीखी प्रतिक्रिया हुई है, राज्य सरकार पर आरोप लगा है कि वह शिक्षा के केसरियाकरण को बढ़ावा दे रही है। प्रस्तुत कदम को ‘देश के युवाओं के मनमस्तिष्क पर हिन्दू राष्ट्र की मानसिकता लादने के तौर पर, सामाजिक विभाजन पैदा करने के े कदम के तौर पर’ देखा जा रहा है। यह भी आरोप लगे हैं कि उसका मकसद है युवाओं के मनों को हिन्दू बनाम गैरहिन्दू के आधार पर बांटना, उपरी तौर पर सांस्क्रतिक और धार्मिक तौर पर बहुवचनी दिखना, मगर एक ऐसे समाज को प्रचारित करना जो हिन्दू समाज व्यवस्था से निर्धारित हो।’ Continue reading हेडगेवार का पथ: मिथक और यथार्थ →

Bad ideas

The Value of Fundamental Rights: A Study of the Implications of the Emergency, 40 years on: Vibhav Mariwala

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This is a guest post by Vibhav Mariwala

The 26th of June 2015 marks the 40th Anniversary of the declaration of National Emergency by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The Emergency (1975-1977) was one of the darkest periods in Indian history, a period in which people’s fundamental rights were repeatedly violated. Forty years on, I wanted to see if the youth today knows about the Emergency and what one’s fundamental rights are. But most importantly, I wanted to see if people today have the inclination to resist dictatorial rule if an Emergency-like situation were to occur again. This desire caused me to pursue a project on fundamental rights in India and it has taught me a lot about the Emergency, the implications of curtailing fundamental rights in a country as diverse as India and whether people think that an Emergency can occur and why they think it may/may not happen. Based on the responses I got from the various people I interacted with, I do have a feeling that there may be an Emergency like situation in the foreseeable future. On the other hand, I do have a feeling, that it will be far harder for the government to crack down on the public mainly because the current generation is more aware, better connected and will do anything to ensure that politicians do not exploit their power. This desire caused me to find answers to these fundamental questions.

• How much does youth know about the Emergency?

• How far do individuals in India value their fundamental rights?

• Why was the emergency declared?

• How could it be declared?

• How did it affect the lives of businessmen, journalists and other professions?

• Do people believe it can happen again, and if so why?

• Do people believe that a dictatorial form of government is required in a country like India or not?

I would like to thank all the participants for taking out time from their lives to answer my survey or participate in my interviews. To those who lived through the Emergency, it was very difficult for you all to tell me about your experiences, but thank you for opening up to me. To the youth, thank you for your incredibly penetrative responses to my questions. Without you, this project would not have worked out. I would also like to thank my mentor, Rajni Bakshi, who is the Senior Gandhi Peace Fellow at Gateway House, for supporting me and working with me for the past four months in order to ensure that the project was successful. I went about this project by carrying out a series of interviews of people from different backgrounds – the army, journalism or education. I got very insightful, unique and unexpected responses to the questions that I asked. I also conducted two surveys, one for the youth (those had not lived through the Emergency) and another for those who did live through that time period. Youth surveys/interviews focused more on fundamental rights and the future of Indian Democracy while my adult surveys/interviews focused more on past experiences during the Emergency, the reactions to it and the future of Indian democracy, which was the crux of this project.

Continue reading The Value of Fundamental Rights: A Study of the Implications of the Emergency, 40 years on: Vibhav Mariwala →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Government

Statement by PADS following CBI raid at Sabrang Communications and homes of editors and publishers

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Statemeny by People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS)

PADS strongly condemns the CBI raids of 14 July 2015 at the premises of social activist Teesta Setalvad, her husband Javed Anand, Gulam Mohammed Peshimam and office of Sabrang Communications and Publishing in Mumbai. These raids are undertaken for purely vindictive reasons given the assurances of complete cooperation and submission of thousands of pages of documents to the CBI. It is by now an open secret that activists working for justice and truth with regard to the pogrom called ‘Gujarat Riots’ have earned the hatred and animosity of the Modi government; which does not hesitate to employ official state power to indulge in a witch-hunt.

Setalvad and Anand set up Sabrang Communications and began publishing Communalism Combat in 1993, and not after 2002. It was this company that published the Justice Srikrishna Commission Report on the Mumbai communal riots of 1992-1993 at a time when the state government would not make it available to the public. The state not only fails in its constitutional duty to protect all citizens from unlawful deprivation of life and liberty under Article 21, but hounds and intimidates all those who seek to uphold human rights and democratic values.

It may also be noted that a senior Public Prosecutor, Rohini Salian, has accused the NIA of showing a bias in favour of certain persons accused of terrorist crimes. None other than the respected Julio Rebeiro, retired Police Commissioner of Punjab, has asked the public to take serious note of what Ms Salian has alleged. Furthermore, a Gujarat special judge, Ms Jyotsna Yagnik, stated in May this year that she has received 22 threats since retirement, on account of her role in convicting those responsible for the Naroda Patiya massacre in 2002. Her security cover was not enhanced, but scaled down. It is also noteworthy that the final hearings in the Zakia Jafri Criminal Revision Application are due to begin on July 27. Mrs Jafri seeks to make top-level politicians, including the then Gujarat chief minister, and top-level policemen, including the present Commissioner of Police, Shivanand Jha, former joint CP, Crime Branch, AK Sharma (now in the CBI ) answerable for criminal and administrative culpability for their role in 2002.

Seen together, in their entirety, the above facts are a cause for grave concern to all Indian citizens. They portend nothing less than an undeclared Emergency. Lovers of democracy should resist the ruthless campaign of intimidation unleashed against Sabrang Communications. PADS demands that the Union Government abandon its hostile and vindictive stance towards human rights defenders and concentrate on upholding the rule of law and providing justice to innocent Indian citizens who have fallen victim to bloodthirsty communal politics.

Email: info-pads@lycos.com
Telephone contact: Srinivas Rao 09393875195

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Education, Identities

IMA, NCERT and Existing Inequalities – Issues Around Availability and Accessibility of Health Care: Sarojini N. B. and Deepa V.

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Guest post by SAROJINI N.B. and DEEPA V

[A story appeared on 11 July 2015 in some newspapers about the Indian Medial Association demanding deletions from a class VII NCERT textbook. An immediate response appeared in Kafila to some of the issues raised by IMA.

This post, whose authors Sarojini and Deepa were centrally involved in the writing of the textbook in question, here put certain things in perspective. They present this as an initial clarificatory response to the news report. ]

We are writing regarding an article “Docs oppose ‘negative’ portrayal by NCERT” that appeared in the front page of The Hindu on 11 JUly 2015, Delhi edition by Bindu Shajan Perappadan. The article refers to the chapter “Role of the Government in Health” in the NCERT’s social science textbook on Social and Political Life-II for Class VII students. The article reports that the IMA has written to President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Ministries of Health and Education, pointing to the “objectionable description” of private healthcare services. The IMA has also demanded “immediate remedial action” stating in their letter that the “matter should be taken seriously and the NCERT should be directed to delete or re-write this chapter”.

In 2007, several NCERT text books were developed, including the textbook in question Social and Political Life-II for Class VII, through a consultative and contributory process in which many of us were involved. The process led by NCERT was a progressive attempt at reviewing and developing content on a range of subject areas and issues in the country, in order to generate knowledge that is as contemporary and comprehensive as possible, and encourages critical and analytical thinking on the part of students.  While the issues were complex, authors / contributors as a group attempted to develop chapters that would reflect an understanding that is rooted in social, economic and political realities, while making them interesting and comprehensible for class VII students. The chapters foreground existing inequalities and discuss the issues around availability and accessibility of health care – including some key characteristics of the private and public health sector. Continue reading IMA, NCERT and Existing Inequalities – Issues Around Availability and Accessibility of Health Care: Sarojini N. B. and Deepa V. →

Bad ideas, Ecology/Environment, Government, Politics

Who cares about the environment? Some notes on the ecological crisis in India: Shashank Kela

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Guest post by SHASHANK KELA

The past few months have been exceptional, in one respect at least, for the Indian press: a serious structural problem has actually been given the attention it deserves. The Economic Times continues to play a prominent part in discussing air pollution in Delhi – there is no other city in the world where it is so bad. Nor is this all: including Delhi, India now boasts thirteen out of twenty cities with the worst air. More recently, the uproar over supposedly high levels of lead in a brand of junk food led to a (very) few articles on groundwater contamination: after all, the reason why lead and other poisons get into food is because they are present in the soil in which crops grow. Another piece, in the Guardian this time, speculated that the recent Sahelian heat wave in the Deccan might be a symptom of climate change (an “extreme” climate event of the kind likely to become all too common).[1]

These stories are only a tiny fraction of those that could be reported, for we are already in the throes of an unprecedented environmental crisis. Large swathes of our agricultural soils are contaminated or saline. Pesticide residues and heavy metals form part of our food. The air of our major cities is unfit to breathe. Freshwater availability is declining; most rivers, especially in the south, do not flow at all, or only seasonally, since their runoff is impounded in dams and used for irrigation (with very high rates of seepage and evaporation loss). Groundwater tables are falling as a consequence of over extraction and the disappearance of vegetative cover enabling percolation. The pattern of weather is being reset with gaps and lags – the available evidence indicates that the onset of the monsoon is changing and precipitation becoming more uneven. Our offshore seas are denuded of marine life thanks to trawler fishing at ever greater distances. Himalayan glaciers are shrinking with obvious long-term consequences for the hydrology of river systems dependent upon snow-melt. Sudden, destructive floods, exacerbated by embankments and dams, the building over of river valleys and floodplains, have become a regular occurrence. Continue reading Who cares about the environment? Some notes on the ecological crisis in India: Shashank Kela →