In my post a few days ago I had mentioned a survey who source I could not reveal, except that the BSP is looking at these figures. Truth be told, I don’t know who conducted that survey. But, to back the conclusions, I had a little more than just that survey. Continue reading CSDS data on caste voting patterns in UP LS ’09 elections
The Future
Tarun Tejpal to Sonia Gandhi:
And yes, as I bid you speed and strength, with the extra god by your side, may I make a final plea. You have given us of yourself, and of your son. Now will you kindly also give unto us your luminous daughter.
YOURS EXPECTANTLY,
TARUN[Link]
An Ounce of Panic is Worth a Quintal of Surveillance!
Did you know terrorists are running amok in Delhi University??
Continue reading An Ounce of Panic is Worth a Quintal of Surveillance!
When Buddha Did Not Smile: Monobina Gupta
This is a guest post by MONOBINA GUPTA
- Buddhadeb with a laterally inverted Tata as backdrop, courtesy Calcuttans.com
As the true magnitude of the West Bengal election results sank in, a sulking Buddhadeb responded, stonewalling the media as if to say that had it not been for them the Party would have romped home victorious! Here is a conversation reported in The Telegraph (May 18,2009). The reporters in Writer’s Building asked the Chief Minister:
Is it true that you have offered to resign?
No reply.
Will you step down as chief minister owning moral responsibility for the party’s debacle?
No reply.
Why didn’t you go to Delhi to attend the CPM politburo meeting?
No reply.
Silence has rarely been so eloquent in the corridors of Writers’ Buildings as when a grim-faced Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee walked out at 1.30 pm for lunch at home.
Faced with a volley of questions whether he had offered to resign, the Bengal chief minister left without replying. The Telegraph had reported that the chief minister had offered to resign but CPM boss Prakash Karat had been trying to make him change his mind.
This is not the first time Bhattacharjee has faced tricky questions but he usually deflects them by saying “I don’t reply to questions flung at me from the corridors’’.
But this afternoon, he opted for silence.
UP’s Dalits Remind Mayawati: Democracy is a Beautiful
| Party | Vote-share | Seats |
| BSP | 27.42% | 20 |
| SP | 23.26% | 23 |
| Congress | 18.25% | 21 |
| BJP | 17.5% |
10 |
The higher you fly, the harder you crash. Kumari Mayawati has just learnt this lesson, and is finally giving her ever-expanding fleet of air-crafts some rest. There was clear evidence before the results were out that Dalits were not going to the polling booths to vote; if they did they wouldn’t be able to press any button other than the elephant. Dalit activists in UP had been telling me this for some time now. There were rumours that the UP police has also informed the administration of this trend. Continue reading UP’s Dalits Remind Mayawati: Democracy is a Beautiful
‘Either we finish what we started, or get finished’
The most dangerous and worrying feature in the last two weeks is the resurgence of visceral anti-Maoist politics.
The line between the liberals and right wing has suddenly blurred and they are united in their hatred of the former rebels. The Kathmandu middle class, a part of which gave the benefit of doubt to the Maoists in the polls, had to cough up concessions under Baburam Bhattarai’s fiscal regime. With the recent video revelations, they have veered away even further. The urban lower middle class suffered during eight months of misgovernance with price rise, and collapse of services and is hoping the next government may provide some relief.
The army establishment has reasserted itself and is actively hatching plans to undermine Maoists. Most of the press, with ownership and editorial staff affiliated to ‘mainstream’ parties’, is toeing the NC-UML line. And erstwhile sympathisers in the Indian establishment are now sick of what they see as Maoist duplicity – the recent rediscovery of the ‘nationalist’ rhetoric has put them off further. Continue reading ‘Either we finish what we started, or get finished’
Vaikom Viswan and Little Bo-Peep
If I weren’t aware of Kerala’s more vibrant political past,I’d have died laughing this elections. The election campaign in Kerala was impossibly funny. Just to give you an example — in Thiruvananthapuram, in the middle of the campaign, we were treated to the spectacle of all the three major contenders — of the CPI, the Congress, and BJP — don the costume of the chivalrous knight — indeed, pushing and shoving each other quite unchivalrously– determined to rescue the damsel in distress. However, there was no damsel waiting to be rescued! Continue reading Vaikom Viswan and Little Bo-Peep
People of the Vaish Community Honouring Shri JP Aggarwal…
The photograph above has been sent to me, in my capacity as a journalist, by the PR company hired by Jai Prakash Aggarwal. He was the Congress candidate from the North East Delhi seat, a replacement for Jagdish Tytler. Aggarwal is also the president of the Delhi unit of the Indian National Congress party, that has returned to power with a less encumbering coalition than the one it ran for five years. JP Aggarwal was a reluctant replacement: he was also a Rajya Sabha MP and feared he might lose to the BJP, which would be a great embarrassment for him as the president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee. But the Congress insisted they wanted a ‘baniya’ for the seat. Happily for him, he has won, and this press release is about how the Vaish community has honoured him. Continue reading People of the Vaish Community Honouring Shri JP Aggarwal…
The Commissar in his Labyrinth
Look carefully at this grey, arrogant and humourless face: The face of the Commissar, who on 22 July went into Lenin-in-October 1917 mode, predicting an uprising in the country if the Indo-US Nuclear Deal was pushed through. However much one might have sympathized with the man and his party on this issue, there was something strange and inexplicable in the game he started playing at that point. At least publicly, that seemed to have been the beginning. For those who have known him and his ways from closer quarters, know him to be an utterly vindictive man with a blood-curdinlingly cold and calculating mind. Ruthless inside the party, he was now playing out this same game outside. His stance on Somnath Chatterjee (and let there be no mistake, it was entirely his), leading to the latter’s expulsion, was just an instance of his style. This time he made a serious error. Continue reading The Commissar in his Labyrinth
How to be TV-free on election results day
Avoid the pundits on the nauseating news channels, keep your peace of mind, cut the noise and save your aspirin bills. Watch the results live tomorrow morning 8 am onwards on http://eciresults.nic.in/
जारी है ‘जनपक्षीय हिंसा’ का तान्डव
खबर मिली है कि छत्तीसगढ़ में माओवादी हमले में ग्यारह से ज़्यादा पुलिस के जवान मारे गए हैं. इस महीने ऐसी हत्याओं की संख्या पचास से अधिक हो गयी है. इसके साथ ही बंगाल के चुनाव में हिंसा के समाचार किसी भी दूसरे राज्य से अधिक मिले हैं. बंगाल की हिंसा में संसदीय राजनीति में भाग लेने वाले एक मार्क्सवादी दल के सदस्य शामिल हैं.संसदीय राजनीति को भटकाव बताने वाले और उसे रणनीतिक रूप से इस्तेमाल करने वाले, दोनों तरह के मार्क्सवादी या माओवादी दलों को हिंसा के अपने इस्तेमाल के जायज़ होने में कोई शक नहीं है.दोहराव का खतरा उठाते हुए नंदीग्राम और सिंगुर में सीपीएम की हिंसा के पक्ष में उसके बुद्धिजीवियों के तर्कों को याद कर लेना उचित होगा.इन तर्कों में एक तर्क रक्षात्मक हिंसा का था. इस बार चुनाव में अपने पक्ष में न होने के लिए सीपीएम ने नंदीग्राम में हत्याएं कीं और तृणमूल कांग्रेस के कार्यकर्ताओं ने सीपीएम के समर्थकों को मारा.बंगाल के पिछले एक साल के अखबार को उठा कर देख लें, हिंसा उस समाज के स्वभाव को परिभाषित करती जान पड़ती है.
Continue reading जारी है ‘जनपक्षीय हिंसा’ का तान्डव
Why Delhi voted and Mumbai didn’t
These have been doing the rounds on Facebook.
Ten reasons why South Mumbai did not vote
by Abhinav Dhar
10. Clashed with Salsa class
9. Election whites not drycleaned
8. No candidate a hottie
7. Tony Jethmalani contesting from suburbs. Sigh
6. No valet parking at booth
5. Spotted servant in queue ahead of us
4. Driver not come
3. “Elections over dude, Obama won!”
2. No party tackling real issues, eg, reduce Gold Gym rates
1. No home delivery!
Why Delhi turned up to vote
By Madhavan Narayanan
1. They loved the Tata Tea ad
2. They saw the Chopras go out, and thought they must overtake the Lancer from left
3. Bunty’s girlfriend wanted it when they were going out for some Chinese
4. Diwan Saheb on second floor persuaded them. He is jaaaint saactry in DPCC
5. Without stable government, real estate will not revive
6. Election Commission directly asked Pappu. So nice of them
7. Grandfather started talking on Partition, and they had to run
8. Auntyji hoped some TV crew will come and take a soundbite
9. Baba Ramdev said it is good for health
And finally
10. They had to beat the Bambaiyaas. Izzat ka sawaal hai, hainji?
Naagbanton, Binayak Sen and Kampala Declaration
Patrick Barigbalo Naagbanton is a well-known human rights activist. Born in Rivers State, Nigeria, he trained as a journalist before working as a trade unionist at the Port Harcourt factory of the Union Dicon Salt PLC, where he was elected chairman of the workers union, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN). He was eventually fired for campaigning for improvement in working conditions. Naagbanton recruited many workers to join human rights/pro-democracy groups like the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Campaign for Democracy (CD), and Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR). Naagbanton served as a board member of Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), representing the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. He also worked with the Environmental Rights Action (ERA) and Friends of the Earth Nigeria (FOEN), documenting, researching and campaigning against human rights and environmental degradation in Nigeria. In recognition of his role in promoting and defending victims of rights abuse in Nigeria, Naagbanton received the Indianapolis University Human Rights Award in 2001; and in 2002, the Rivers State branch of the CLO conferred on him the Saro-Wiwa Award for human and environmental rights defender.
Continue reading Naagbanton, Binayak Sen and Kampala Declaration
‘Our’ Violence Versus ‘Their’ Violence
The first three phases of the 200 Lok Sabha elections have passed off peacefully. When we say peacefully, we do not take into account the killings of poll officials and police personnel involved in election related work by the Maoists. The Maoists gave a poll boycott call in areas where they thought they are strong but were not heeded by the people. Even many tribals of Lalgadh in Bengal decided to risk their lives to exercise their hard earned right to vote defying the Maoist boycott call. Unable to convince the masses, the Maoists have resorted to the old strategy of ambushing poll parties and burning and demolishing of public properties to register their presence. Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra, Bihar and Bengal have been witness to violence by armed groups of Maoists. Interestingly, we have not seen any statement by them owning up to these acts. Continue reading ‘Our’ Violence Versus ‘Their’ Violence
Sri Lanka: A Tragedy Foretold – Rohini Hensman
guest post by ROHINI HENSMAN
Once a forest fire is raging, putting it out is difficult, and an enormous amount of destruction is inevitable. The same is true of the war in Sri Lanka. Even over the past fifteen years, there were several chances to prevent this tragedy, but only a tiny minority of those who are now grieving over the dead and injured were arguing then that a failure to take these chances would lead to a bloodbath. Continue reading Sri Lanka: A Tragedy Foretold – Rohini Hensman
Barter – is that what they’re calling it now?
It’s a world on the downturn out there.
And new and creative ways of handling the situation emerge. Imagine a journalist accepting some old jeans (in very good condition), some rice, atta and vegetables (and also sugar) from the newspaper proprietor in exchange for her reporting. Meanwhile, an ad agency employee opts for day-old newspapers and fruits for every successful slogan he coins.
Impossible?
Continue reading Barter – is that what they’re calling it now?
The resignation aftermath
This entire crisis complicates politics for the simple reason that no side feels that it has lost. Don’t mistake this for a win-win situation. It is a situation where all sides are smug, their ambitions are stoked, and they are even more unwilling to make any concessions.
This has actually been a problem right since the 12 point deal. The king got dumped. But besides that, no actor has had to relent on their fundamental interests and give concessions.
The army, after a temporary cooling-off period, was rehabilitated and its privileges were protected. For GP Koirala, April 2006 was a moment to take over the state apparatus and keep the seat warm for his daughter, while protecting the interests of the NC class base. The Maoists saw the entire process, and the polls, as a tactical victory on way to state control.
In the last fortnight, this tenuous situation has only got more retrenched. The NA’s political role and links and divisions within may have got totally exposed. But the top brass feels they have won a huge victory and will be even less amenable to civilian control. The Maoists may not have succeeded in throwing out Katawal, but they feel they have won a moral victory by resigning and are complacent that the political stalemate cannot be resolved without them. UML and MJF think this is their chance to lead the government. And NC is already thrilled at the money that will come with the ministries. Continue reading The resignation aftermath
Olive Ridley Turtles still wait for Ratan Tata to spare them their lives
The nationalist Delhi media and elections in Kashmir
There are times when nationalism supercedes journalistic objectivity. Such interesting times are often witnessed in the Delhi media’s relationship with that ‘integral’ part of India called the Kashmir valley, as we have seen before.
And this time:
If the participation of the people in the J&K assembly elections was a vote for India why is the non-participation this time being attributed to broken promises… [Naser A. Ganai]
On April 30 the turnout in the Anantnag constituency as in many other parts of the country was low, but the contrast in how the story was reported (and framed) in the national press, and in the local English press in Srinagar is significant. [Sevanti Ninan]
Buffalo Soldier
“Come in,” says Munisa, “it’s such a large house you’ll be surprised.” The room isn’t big enough for a single person, and Munisa, a widow at 30, shares it with six children and her mother-in-law. She’s trying to turn the courtyard into a room even though she knows the impending monsoons will was away the mud thatch: “At least the summer will pass.” She works as farm labour, earning Rs 35 a day, and can’t make use of NREGA because the chronic pain in her legs won’t let her do hard labour.
Two years ago, an NGO did a survey in the village and found her to be the poorest. They gifted her a cow. “It gave milk because I fed her. And then, six months ago, she died.” But Munisa is not ungrateful: she will still vote for the candidate who runs the NGO that gifted her the cow. So will her neighbours who didn’t get anything: “Here’s someone who has at least proven her concern for the poor,” says one. Read More…
Anatomy of a prejudice
The BSP’s politics may trouble the popular conception of Indianness, among English speaking middle classes, who understand India as one whole, where the ‘Indian’ identity dominates and the rest, which reflect real India (inequality and conflicts) are hushed up. On the other hand, the BSP’s politics reiterates that India is a country of various minorities (castes, religions, regions) who may be victimised by fellow Indians in different contexts. Emphasising the BSP or Mayawati’s Dalitness ignores the complexity of caste society and associated politics. Kanshiram in the past and Mayawati now raise issues of caste not to sustain inequality but to challenge them. What Mayawati and BSP’s growth represents is the deepening of democracy in India. [Suryakant Waghmore]
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 