Bad ideas, Capitalism, Government

How to know if (when) your bank is insolvent

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Analysing a bank’s financial statements is a bit like suing your family lawyer for malpractice; the jury may be on your side but the evidence is invariably circumstantial.  However, in times such as these  when even charities are screwed by their bankers – it is best not to trust anyone. Worry not, we at Kafila are not just concerned with playing theory-theory and pseudo-secular Hindu-bashing, we are also deeply concerned about the financial crisis – it has a direct impact on the bonuses taken home by our CEO and board-members. Accordingly, I offer you a simple step by step way to figure out when your bank will go under.Written in an easy conversational style, this post is an invaluable tool pedagogic for Kafila readers both young and old. Stay with me guys, this is going to be fun.

First a bit of background: In May 2008, Vikram Pandit finally stamped his authority on the behemoth company that he had been chosen to lead. Signalling a bold break from the past, he replaced Citigroup’s 2007 slogan “Let’s get it done” by reviving Citigroup’s 1970s slogan “The Citi Never Sleeps”.   While the new/old ad campaign is sure to bring back memories of more profitable times, the firm’s precarious financial situation suggests that The Citi apart, Pandit won’t be getting much rest either. Mystery Question: What will it take to wipe Citi out?

Continue reading How to know if (when) your bank is insolvent →

Frontiers, Law, Movements

‘Lahoris woke up and joined their son’

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What a moment it is, what a moment it must be. Ordinary people on the streets of Lahore on Sunday, countless thousands of them, have forced the Pakistani government to re-instate the deposed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. What a moment of hope in a country the rest of the world believes is about to ‘implode’. What a resurrection of yourself, Mian Sa’ab, who will now remember how unpopular you were when Mush had ousted you!

Here’s an extremely illuminating account of what happened in Lahore, an anonymous account circulating on some mailing lists. This is apart from some excellent citizen reportage on Twitter by Pakistanis.

The Army, the Presidency, the Americans and the Prime Minister, were all ready to throw peanuts at Nawaz Sharif. The assessment was that 500 will reach constitution avenue (read Salman Taseer). In Pindi, we had halwa puri at a friends house today. A PPP friend who knew my passion for the CJ, at 11-00 am said, looking at me, “Yar Imran, there is a bigger long march in my house than in Lahore.” A PML N friend told me from Lahore, “Punjabis dont get out in the face of danda. The long march will fail.” Continue reading ‘Lahoris woke up and joined their son’ →

Capitalism, Debates, Empire/ Imperialism, Left watch, Theory

Evangelist Zizek and the End of Philosophy – II

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Idea of communism? Courtesy Oscar's global blog
Idea of communism? Courtesy Oscar’s global blog

Today was the third and final day of the ‘Idea of Communism’ conference and it was the truly most bizarre experience – bizarre philosophical experience, I should say – of my life. Let me start backwards today.

The preacher from Ljubliana was in full form and he closed his own hour-long (or was it 55 minutes) presentation ‘To Begin from the Beginning, Over and Over Again’ with the following: “If the rumour that Gilles Deleuze was writing a book on Marx before he died, is true then this should be seen as a sign that after having spent a life time away from the Church he wanted to come back to its fold…We welcome all those anti-communist Leftists who have spent their lifetimes attacking us to come and join us.” Continue reading Evangelist Zizek and the End of Philosophy – II →

Capitalism, Debates, Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Left watch, Movements, Theory

Re-booting Communism Or Slavoj Zizek and the End of Philosophy – I

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Zizek - the postmodern Lenin?
Zizek - the postmodern Lenin?

Today, 13 March, a whole galaxy of philosophers and theorists got together for a three-day conference “On The Idea of Communism” under the auspices of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, London University. The Conference opened to a jam-packed hall where all tickets had sold out (no jokes, this was a ticketed show where the likes of Alain Badiou, Slavoj Zizek, Jean Luc-Nancy, Toni Negri, Jacques Ranciere, Terry Eagleton and many many others are to perform on the ‘idea of communism’). The huge Logan hall with a capacity of about 800-900 was so packed that the organizers had made arrangements for video streaming in another neighbouring hall – and that too was half full! Very encouraging in these bleak days.

The conference began in the afternoon with brief opening remarks by Alain Badiou and Slavoj Zizek. Badiou made his general point (see below) about the continuing relevance of the ‘communist hypothesis’. Staid and philosopherly. Continue reading Re-booting Communism Or Slavoj Zizek and the End of Philosophy – I →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Frontiers

Israel(i Man) seduces India(n Woman)

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Here’s how a state-owned Israeli defence firm tries to get business from India’s Defence Ministry:

The Danger Room blog said the text implied that the “Indian military is somehow like a helpless woman who needs to feel safe and sheltered.”

Rafael dismissed the criticism of its film and said that it made movies with a local theme for every international defense expo. A movie, one company source said, made for a defense expo in Brazil focused on soccer and weapons. Another movie, for a US audience, focused on football.

“We try to make the movies about the place where the defense expo is located,” the company source said, adding that in previous years Rafael had won prizes for its pavilions and marketing techniques. [The Jerusalem Post]

Bad ideas, Debates, Left watch

Save the left from left scholars

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I have just returned from an atrocious talk delivered by a famous Nepal expert, David Seddon, who claims to belong to the ‘old British Marxist tradition of Eric Hobsbawm and E P Thompson’.

So this Mr Seddon is well known in Nepal for a book he wrote three decades back – Nepal in Crisis. More recently, he got along with a local activist to edit a book on the People’s War.

Now, Seddon sahib comes here. He tells a Nepali audience how he is worried about the rising violence and the ‘law and order’ problem. He links the violence with identity – “people feel they have a legitimate basis to pick arms and throw stones because they belong to a caste and ethnic group.” He tells the audience, many of whom have struggled for long to bring some change in the exclusionary Nepali state structure, that ‘identity politics is profoundly undemocratic and federalism is not necessary.” And here is the clincher, “When your constituent assembly members adopted a federal democratic republic, I am sure they were thinking only about the republic part. No one really thought about the federal part.” Continue reading Save the left from left scholars →

Law

And then Suresh Sankhyan wanted to do the post-mortem

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amank1
Aman Satya Kachroo, left-most, in his school days. Photo by Vaibhav Chhabra via Facebook

Before he died of brain haemorrhage (and not cardiac arrest as the papers incorrectly claimed), Aman Satya Kachroo wrote a note about who beat him up. In the note he named the four accused who are all now in jail. The note reads like a dying declaration and is signed by 12 witnesses. It seems unlikely that even one of the 12 witnesses will have the courage to say in court that they saw the lynching happening before their eyes. Even as they came down to Gurgaon for the cremation, they must have been getting calls from their parents, ‘Beta, just say you didn’t see anything. Why get into these court hassles and potential threats from the families of the accused?’ Continue reading And then Suresh Sankhyan wanted to do the post-mortem →

Culture, Everyday Life, Genders, Movements

Women’s Day 2009, Thrissur

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Countryside, Everyday Life, Identities

Smile Pinki, Pinki Sonkar

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If you’ve recovered from your Post-Slumdog Stress Disorder, may I dare to write a short post about Smile Pinki, the short documentary that also won an Oscar and that is also set in India? Continue reading Smile Pinki, Pinki Sonkar →

Law

Why Aman Kachroo’s won’t be the last ragging death, and what his family should do

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thumbcms1Update 2: And then Suresh Sankhyan wanted to do the post-mortem

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Update: Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam, who is I think the amicus curae in the ongoing case, says he will ask the Supreme Court to take note of the case and charge the Principal and Vice-Chancellor with “contempt, inaction, negligence and failure.” But who will charge whom for lack of implementation of the SC orders on ragging?And Himachal Pradesh has an anti-ragging ordinance too. (The ordinance had expired in 1998 1992, I gather, as it had not been turned into a law within six months)

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I don’t know why this report does not use the word lynching, because that is what seems to have happened at the Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College, Tanda. Continue reading Why Aman Kachroo’s won’t be the last ragging death, and what his family should do →

Bad ideas, Media politics, Technology

Fifteen Reasons Why Your Rant is Not Even a Good Rant

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‘In the wake’, as journalistic cliches go, of the Pink Chaddi campaign there’s a curious phenomenon of the Pink Chaddi campaigners finding more critics than those who went to a pub to and beat up women to get prime time attention. The latest is an article that, yawn, critiques internet activism as an echo chamber of the elite.

Since all that it does is nit-picking about online activism in India, it may not be a bad idea to do some similar frisking of the article itself. Continue reading Fifteen Reasons Why Your Rant is Not Even a Good Rant →

Law, Metropolis

The Survey Unfolds

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Guest post by SHVETA SARDA

lnjp1

Between 26 February, when it started and 6 March, yesterday, the survey of 220 houses has been completed in LNJP. There are roughly 1000 houses left to be covered. From the groundwork done end of last week by a group young women and men residents of LNJP, documents of many have been put in order, and the encounter with the survey teams this past week was much more confident. Continue reading The Survey Unfolds →

Media politics, Politics

Exclusive TV tamasha at Ashoka Road

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I was in Delhi for a few days last week to cover, among other issues, the pre-election mood for a few Nepali publications.

Now, it is not as if I am totally unfamiliar with the Indian media scene. We watch Indian news channels here in Kathmandu and know the nature of the beast. I have friends in the Indian TV business who had come to cover Nepal elections last year but ended up reporting on adventure sports despite the huge Maoist win. “Boss, no one is interested in Nepali politics. Rafting will sell,” they had said. And we saw India TV go hysterical when the Maoist government appointed Nepali priests in the Pashupati Temple to replaces the ones from Karnataka – the media induced pressure forced ‘secularists’ like Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh, on a visit to Kathmandu, to force the government to retract and got venom spewing Ram Yatris like L K Advani to make calls to Prachanda to convey his ‘disappointment’. Continue reading Exclusive TV tamasha at Ashoka Road →

Media politics

How ‘news’ became ‘interesting’

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Our friend, like all stringers, would send Lucknow a lot of stories but all would go waste. A story a month, at the most, just a thousand bucks. Something interesting, get something interesting, the input editor on the other side of the mobile phone would say. Continue reading How ‘news’ became ‘interesting’ →

Culture, Everyday Life

Civility, Harmuniya Bajaiyke: Prasanta Chakravarty

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This guest post was sent to us by PRASANTA CHAKRAVARTY

A recent exchange in a congregation addressing the nature of contemporary civil society caught my attention. This was a formal gathering where there was supposed to be a pitch on an idea tentatively christened civility index: that is, whether it was possible to empirically measure civility and come up with some conceptual conclusions, as well as have more practical usages once such indicators will have been developed. A searching question came from someone who had spent a lifetime fighting liberal centrism and opportunism. “Why do you call the whole thing civility index,” she inquired, “civility connotes propriety and manner and etiquette, when you are interested to scale human capacities, right?”

This is a fundamental and worthy question, especially keeping in mind that certain variants of civil society discourse has caught the imagination of many invested in democracy right now, even as they wish to steer clear of old leftist certainties and eschew easy liberal pluralism at once. Are propriety and etiquette wholly irrelevant to our understanding of modern civil society? Is manner rudimentary to civil society, counterproductive to doing anything worthwhile? Does civility dilute the associational potential of civil society—human capacities being robbed off by issues of mere conduct and comportment? Are traditional societies uncivil by definition? And does civility, more than just civil, civic or public, betray fashionable elitism unabashedly?

Continue reading Civility, Harmuniya Bajaiyke: Prasanta Chakravarty →

Capitalism, Centre watch, Countryside, Government, Movements, Politics

Silencing Social Activists

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An escalating wave of attacks on social activists has been sweeping the country. Several recent incidents indicate an increase in the number of cases alleging grave human rights abuses against social activists, and a shift from low-level targeting, such as intimidation and harassment, to more serious violations, such as detention, prosecution, imprisonment and threats to their physical integrity. The authorities are also trying to silence them through unfair trial, denial of bail and long prison terms. There is excessive use of force, torture and other ill-treatment by the police. Women social activists are facing further violations, as women and as human rights defenders, including sexist verbal abuse and derogatory accusations. Continue reading Silencing Social Activists →

Identities, Right watch

Dalits in ‘Hindu Rashtra’

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The Gujarat Earthquake in the year 2001 and the consequent relief and rehabilitation programme was an eyeopener to the outside world regarding the deep seated caste bias in the Gujarati community apart from the much talked about bias against the minorities. There were reports that at places the relief and rehabilitation work bypassed the dalits and the Muslims.

Interestingly Babasaheb Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar had asked his followers to stop Hindu Raj becoming a reality at all costs. Continue reading Dalits in ‘Hindu Rashtra’ →

Metropolis

The Survey Begins

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Guest post by SHVETA SARDA

LNJP is an old settlement at the edge of old Delhi, opposite Turkhman Gate, beside the LNJP hospital, from which it gets its name. It began to be settled in the late ’60s, and is now home to about 12000 people. With the planned changes in the city ahead of the Commonwealth Games, LNJP, one of the oldest and last surviving settlements, has also now been earmarked for eviction and demolition.

The survey that precedes demolition has begun in LNJP. A survey is conducted by representatives from the Slum Department of the Municipal Corporation, to produce knowledge about the settlement to be demolished, in order to ascertain how many of its residents are eligible for resettlement. According to a Central Government order of 2000, all those who have lived in a settlement since before 1998 are eligible for resettlement; those who have lived there since before 1990 will be allotted plots of 18 sq m, and those who settled there between 1990 and 1998 will be alloted 12.5 sq m. Continue reading The Survey Begins →

Bad ideas

SC Order on Blogger

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:)

finally the order, and so its definitely not precedent in any manner Continue reading SC Order on Blogger →

Law

When it’s not defamation

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In the context of the ongoing discussion on defamation and the Indian internet space, it may be useful to point out that an act of criticism has ten defences before it can be called defamation and the speaker/writer be sentenced to simple imprisonment for two years. Continue reading When it’s not defamation →

Capitalism, Everyday Life, Government, Law, Politics

The Arrest of Shamim Modi at Industrialists’ Behest

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Activist Working for Rights of Tribal People Arrested

Ms Shamim (nee Meghani) Modi, a law graduate working among the tribals in Betul district, Madhya Pradesh, has had to pay a heavy price for taking up the cause of tribal people and other industrial workers. Shamim, who works with the Samajwadi Jan Parishad (an organization of socialist-Gandhian orientation) has been put behind bars in Hoshangabad jail for exposing the corrupt nexus between politicians and the mining mafia.  She was arrested in gross violation of democratic rights on 10th February 2009 from her residence at Harda, M.P. The process of attempting to secure bail from M.P High Court is now on.

The arrest was made on false charges, one of instigating tribals to ‘attack forest officials’ and another of ‘kidnapping with the intention to kill’ these officials! These charges were brought against her (and her husband) two years ago in 2007. Subsequently no enquiries were conducted, and no follow-up was done but the fact that these charges hung over their heads was presumably meant to cow them down. These charges have suddenly been resurrected because the administration has been under pressure from industrialist lobbies. Earlier, the trial court had rejected her bail plea despite the fact that the person supposed to have been ‘kidnapped’ was said to be present in court and denied any such thing. Another evidence, if any was still required, of the deep nexuses of power that operate at these levels. Continue reading The Arrest of Shamim Modi at Industrialists’ Behest →

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