The Fish Pond » Politics

Let’s make UID a failure

Jude T D’Souza — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 12:31:36 +0000

Some minor corrections on this article Appeared in Hindu Businessline

~~Rajiv Kumar~~ Jude T D’Souza

The Aadhaar project has never taken into account diverse views and criticisms. Now, to not question the very basis of a project at the implementation stage smacks of partisan considerations. Endless debates and reviews are a bane of our governance., especially when such discussions were done well before and ignored by the UIDAI.

UID will fail to generate data superior to what is available today.

December 23, 2011: In my last column, I want to address the sensitive issue of designing an a sub-optimal system of checks and balances in our democracy. The unambiguous objective of a system of ~~checks~~ free rides and imbalances is to achieve the highest degree of ~~probity~~ opacity in public misconduct and to safeguard ~~public~~ private interest in the mis-execution of government policies and programmes. This must be balanced with achieving a reasonable degree of inefficiency and effectiveness in the misconduct of public policies.

Often, an unavoidable trade-off emerges between these two objectives; the disastrous result is that policy and programme implementation is stymied for fear of ex-post enquiry and retribution. The example of a senior secretary in the central government refusing to sign on an executive order of ~~nationa~~l importance to vested interests protect his/her post-retirement peace and sanity points to a system that has become dysfunctional.

The basic premise of a system of ~~checks~~ free rides and imbalances is that all concerned, the policy maker, programme implementers and those conducting the preview, scrutiny and review process, are driven principally by the objective of serving ~~the national~~ personal interest. The system becomes dysfunctional and indeed perverse if those involved seek to serve ~~not the~~ narrow national interest, but ~~narrow~~ not selfish or partisan ends. This results in complete policy hysteresis, with senior executives and ministers either constantly watching over their shoulders and delaying decisions or passing the buck upwards, sideways or in to committees and GOMs for never-ending rounds of consultations and consensus-building that effectively denies any progress. Bypassing such discussions altogether and deciding by royal decree is a perfect solution.

If our political class and senior bureaucracy are not careful in finding the right balance, there is a real danger we may end up stalling and indeed killing initiatives that could yield major breakthroughs in mis-governance and in ~~improving~~ trashing the delivery of public goods and services in the country.
NEEDLESS CONTROVERSY

The ongoing brouhaha over the UID (or Aadhaar) project demonstrates how this system of ~~checks~~ free rides and imbalances can ~~go awry~~ be corrected through democratic processes. The project has been more than two years in the unmaking. It has never gone through several rounds of inter-departmental and indeed wider public review and scrutiny. I have attended more than one session where Nandan Nilekani and his team explained in with great ~~detail~~ obfuscation the objectives and detailed design of the programme., without even a sideways glance at all the problems and vicarious decisions they had taken.

I know first hand the efforts made to ensure that the project gained from immediate suppression of diverse views, suggestions and critiques. But for any project to be completed in a given timeframe, such reviews must come to an end before any discussion starts at some point.

An open-ended review process is always ~~simply dys~~functional and a ~~bane~~ boon of project execution. It has resulted in project implementation and execution becoming the single most debilitating feature of governance today. Those responsible for project review are expected to provide suggestions for mid-term ~~corrections~~ Cost escalations, if needed, but not re-start the entire process ab-initio and question the very basis of projects which have been cleared by their peers and counterparts., who lack the most fundamental knowledge of issues.

To ~~question~~ support the very basis of a project at the implementation stage smacks of partisan considerations and turf wars. These have emerged as a severe weakness in the formulation and execution of public policy in our country today.

The project in all its details never went through inter-ministerial scrutiny and was cleared by the cooks in the kitchen Cabinet. To argue now, two years after it had been cleared, that it duplicates the efforts of the National Population Register (NPR) being implemented by the Home Ministry defies comprehension. Wooly Cost misestimates were unsurely presented to the cooks in the kitchen Cabinet, and objections from the financial advisors and or other ministries on this account would never have been useful at the planning stage rather than now.

PUBLIC SERVICES DELIVERY

I am reminded of the time when my proposal to the Ministry of Finance in 2005, for smart (value storage) cards for the PDS system, ran into objections from the Census Department.

The Department argued that such a card was not required, as it was already undertaking the NPR exercise. But please ignore this statement as it contradicts much of what the UIDAI says.

Should we not question the time taken that NPR has taken? Should improvements in the delivery of our public services be stalled, only because one needs to wait for this project to be completed? And, perhaps the much lower costs claimed for this project (and one wonders how transparently and rigorously these are miscomputed) could well be the reason for its non-completion and its inordinate delays.

There is a well known saying – let not the perfect become the enemy of the ~~good~~ imperfect. We should apply this to the UID project. and accept that imperfect is superior to perfect. UID will surely generate data far ~~superior~~ worse to what is available today. The lack of transparency and inefficiency levels of the UID project could have been usefully replicated in other public programmes.

Instead, we are seeing a ~~concerted~~ democratic attempt to discredit it. I wonder if there is a coalition of vested interests making a concerted bid to push in ~~back~~ the programme, which when completed will make the system of public deliveries far more ~~transparent~~ opaque and unaccountable.

We must come together to ensure the ~~success~~ failure of the UID Project.

Dirty Dancing

Rose Merin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 12:31:20 +0000

To be a cinematic dancer, you don’t necessarily be a conventional “mango breasts, wasp waist, and elephant hips” beauty with fair complexion, nor are you expected to be from an elite Hindu family, which automatically bestows you with the “respectability” factor and the “authenticity” to perform “Indian classical dances”. But, mind you, by being a cinematic dancer, you are forsaking “our culture/Indian culture”, and most importantly, increasing your chances of being called a libertine.

I am genuinely annoyed at the news that the Director of Public Instructions, APM Mohammad Hanish, has ordered a ban on cinematic dance in Kerala schools. (Deccan Chronicle, August 1, 2011) Although my first reaction was a chuckle, it later developed into anger after reading the reason behind its censorship. The director says: “It has come to our notice that certain private organizations and TV channels are promoting cinematic dance in schools all over the state. It has reached ridiculous levels with classrooms are being used for cinematic dance training.’’ The director has never learnt dance while he was at school, I am sure. But having grown with school youth festivals, and other competitions, I know that it was the only option left for students—to convert class rooms into dance studios during rehearsals. The second reason is all the more hilarious: “The so called cinematic dance experts and trainers were using the opportunity to exploit students”. What he means by “exploitation” is not clear. Anyhow, can anyone name that utopian dance teacher or art teacher who will never “exploit” a student? I wonder why the director has not banned the state youth festivals; because during that time the participants never attend classes, the faculty would be busy preparing the students for the trophy, and classes are sometimes taken in makeshift rooms. Again, talking about exploitation, I would like to remind him of the news that appeared in Manorama News Channel, which exposed the fact that around 20,000 to 50,000 rupees was paid through middlemen to get an ‘A’ grade for a district level youth festival. Why didn’t he put a ban on youth festivals then?

Let me call a spade a spade. This “anxiety of Keralianness” sprouts from the fear of “caste” and “gender” in cinematic dance. In my experience as a student, most of the cinematic dance teachers were not from upper castes, nor were they elite. And, the female dancers are most often not “tamed” and “subservient”. The popularity of cinematic dance accentuates a caste and gender formation where an under privileged caste/class dancer can also be a “guru” and a female dancer could be virile. This amplifies a fear among the dominant communities. My conviction would be evident when we look at what is going to replace cinematic dance. In the discussion thread on Deccan Chronicle’s profile in Facebook, a gentleman says: “Schools are promoting cinematic dances which are leaving traditional dances like Bharatnatyam, Kathakali, Kuchipudi etc in a sorry state. A school makes responsible citizens not a Badnaam Munni or a Jawaan Sheila who is too sexy for all of us.” I wish he knew that even little children dance to padams explicit with pedophilia in classical dance forms. It is not his fault, I understand. Most often neither the performer, nor the audience understands what a Bharatanatyam or a Mohiniyattam performer does on the stage. It was only last year that I witnessed girls as young as five and ten performing highly viraha and sringara padams for a Mohiniyattam concert, which was quite disturbing. Nobody seems to take an objection to such practices. Similarly, what the director means by a utopian, non-exploitative environment or teacher for dance seems to echo the nostalgia for the gurukula system, studies of which now show that it was a breeding ground of child labour and sexual exploitation. Why is it then that we blindly accept anything “classical”, and downrightly reject anything “popular”? Who equates “classical” with spirituality and purity and “popular” with crass and vulgar?

Interestingly, the ban is considered as a manifestation of the literate Keralian’s intelligent decision. Dance histories time and again prove that the ideas on what should constitute “Indian classical dance” came from the western perception of it, which was later imbibed by the metropolitan English educated elite Hindus and incorporated into the existing dance forms in the name of “cultural revival”. How many would remember it was the much stigmatized Tevidichiyattam that is now called as Mohiniyattam, one among the youngest dance forms to get the entry into the “classical dance” league set by the Culture Ministry of India? How can the society that borrows any Eurocentric idea to add to their “intelligence quotient” shut their eyes towards the increasing popularity of Indian cinematic dance on the global stage?

If someone gives me the lame excuse that it is not in “our culture”, I would have to simply cite G.P.Deshpande. In his essay “Dialectics of Defeat: Some Reflections on Literature, Theatre and Music in Colonial India” (EPW, Vol-22, No.50. Dec. 12, 1987) he says that “culture” is a colonial import. Until then no Indian languages ever mentioned the word, not because Indians were never cultured, or that they never had a culture, but because it never existed as “an autonomous world of discourse”. He explains: “Everything was dharma. Going to a temple was a dharma, singing a raga or a ragini was also a dharma. Dharma does not in this context mean religion. It indicates a space which an individual creates or obtains in a given area of action, duty or creation. This space was a part of the total whole. It was a continuous space. Hence such diverse actions as singing or worshipping or procreating were all described as dharma. It was a secular concept.” Thus, the word “sanskriti”, which is the Indian equivalent for “culture”, used often in the modern cultural scenario should be understood as a colonial invention.

Along with accusations of being “base”, cinematic dance is also considered easy to do. Talk to a committed dancer and he or she will show you how difficult cinematic dancing could be. My effort is not to plead for a place for cinematic dance by placing it alongside “classical dances”, because whether the Director of Public Instructions bans it or not, cinematic dance is going to stay. During my stint as a dance teacher, taking classes for a few school goers, I understood that they came to learn Bharatanatyam, not because of their will but to appease their parent’s ambition. In one of our classes, all of them said in a chorus, “we don’t want Bharatanatyam, it is so boring, we want bollywood dance”. But one girl objected. She was afraid her mother would scold her. When the notion of aesthetic itself is a creation, and what constitutes it changes from time to time, one doesn’t have to necessarily inject it in “tomorrow’s citizen”, especially when it only helps creating condescending attitudes.

In my opinion, the government should promote cinematic dance, because it doesn’t have the entrenched casteist markings and trappings, nor does it train a girl child just to be a meek, humble and sweet human being. The necessity of equal opportunity will be evident if only we look at the names of famous classical dancers Kerala has produced. When news on excommunication of performers from minority communities like VP Rubiya are reported in the state on the grounds that they danced “Hindu dance forms”, government should take cautious steps which includes encouraging of other kinds of dance forms. The “need of the hour” is not banning an art form, but solving the problems of exploitation, or dressing up that “befits a child’s age” as actress Shwetha Menon reacts to the ban. And this applies to any art form, not just cinematic dance.

Theatre of Reservation

Sanil M N — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 07:45:22 +0000

Anand Teltumbde’s ‘One More Reservation’ (EPW, April 3-9, 2010) indirectly legitimizes the anti-reservationists’ disguise as the pro-reservationists. Reservation is welcomed by the anti-reservation public to articulate their hegemony. Many of those who support the cause of reservation in public are against the rights of the marginalized communities in their private lives. Let us call it the ‘Theatre of Reservation”.

Notion of the theatre of the reservation is not mere a construct based on narrow identity politics and mechanical claims for their epistemic priority. I would like to demonstrate the theory/praxis of the theatre of the reservation. For instance an OBC student who discriminates a dalit student by calling his/her caste name and in the same breath speaks for the reservation of dalits and OBCs. An artifical construct of Dalit-OBC is constructed here for a reactionary-pragmatic purpose of reservation for the OBCs. An elite-caste-hindu woman can argue that dalit women are ‘vulnerable’ in reservation discourse and discriminate the same dalit women in her private space. Islamophobic public in private can speak for the rights of Muslim students in the pseudo-secular intellectual field.In other words,communities that share the islamaphobia in their private spheres of lives become vocal about the reservation policies for the Muslim students in the private life. By drawing these diverse social spaces, I argue that mere reproduction of the meta-narratives on reservation is not adequate for the endless displacements of the reservation discourse. The academic enclosures,in a Bourdieun sense, is produced within the hegemonic space of academic institutions. Why such ‘theatres of reservation’ are more articulate in the time of pro-reservation?

Theatre of reservation gains its strength through the silence of the academic mandarins from the marginalized communities. It thrives on the pedantic comedies of the subaltern intellectuals. It promotes the status quo whispers of the marginalized-split intellectual personalities.
Sociology of knowledge in India is a taboo in the Indian social sciences because it may challenge the proliferation of the hegemonic merit mongers. Dalit and OBC intellectuals know the way in which sociology of knowledge operates in the different spheres of life. But , they do not assert the playfulness of the ‘theatre of the reservation’.

Dalit and OBC academic mandarins cherish to maintain their status quo without subverting the doxa of the pretentious pro-reservation public .Those who are denied the reservation cannot push their struggle because of the ambiguous staging of the theatre of the reservation. Lamentations about the reservation in the private sector is a usual mantra among the dalit academic mandarins. Interestingly they do not offer any alternatives to debunk the socially regulated economy instead of their thick-empirical descriptions. In other words, how could broad solidarities and affinities of the theatres of the reservation strengthen the struggle of dalits and minorities?

I am also aware of the claims related to de-classing and de-brahmanising individuals.They argue that their social space is privileged and they de-class/brahmanise themselves to join the marginalized communities. This articulation of de-classing/de-brahmanising itself is a product of their caste cum class hexis. Their academic enclosures act as the moral statistics for the theatre of reservation. They believe that dalits are not articulate and it is their duty to articulate dalit voices. Dalit academic mandarins recognize the double game of theatre of reservation but argue that dalits are not theoretical or articulate in public to appease the theatres of reservation and become academic slaves of the dominant and meritocratic.

Is it possible to challenge the theatre of reservation and their subaltern’s subjugation to it? Theatre of reservation thrives in an apocalyptical present of the NGOization of the marginal sections. The space of resistance is engulfed by the civil societal capitalists and its academic defense mechanisms. It appropriates the space of genuine assertions and movements. Theatre of reservation thus transforms into an endless performance.

Disposable Biographies? A Naxalite Turned Muslim

K Ashraf — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:17:07 +0000

C.K. Abdul Azeez, scholar, writer, thinker, former Naxal leader and the working chairman of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was jailed last September. Three weeks back he was released on bail on the condition that he presents himself and signs at the Madurai CBI Court daily. Just a few days after Madani’s arrest, CBI arrested him in connection with a 1994 bank fraud case. As Chairman of Madani Legal Aid Cell, Azeez had been managing all the cases against Madani. Though newspapers reported his arrest, it went without any debate or discussion in the public sphere of Kerala.

The bank fraud case involved the theft of 86 lakhs from the Ghatkopar East branch of the Bank of Maharashtra and the DN Road branch of the Bank of India in Mumbai. The Maharashtra police investigated the case against Azeez and nine other persons, some of whom were bank employees and later it was handed over to the CBI. They submitted the charge sheet in 1998. Azeez and two others were declared absconding. According to the CBI Azeez was hiding in Dubai. It is said that in September 2010, a CBI official recognized him while he was giving an interview regarding the Madany case. After this a CBI team from Chennai went to Bengaluru and arrested him. The PDP leadership says that there is a clear cut conspiracy behind Azeez’s arrest in a case almost two decades old.

Azeez had been quite active in public since he joined the PDP in 1994. His name was even touted as the possible candidate from Ponnani constituency in the last Lok Sabha elections. He was also publicly active in leading campaign for the LDF candidate during these elections where the PDP supported the LDF. He had also been on stage with the CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and Madany during the campaign. More importantly he was also a regular contributor to various dailies and channels across the state. Yet the CBI says he was hiding in Dubai and chose to “catch” him just a few days after Madani’s arrest.

I have only seen C K Abdul Azeez in Television channels and read two of his books. One, Oru Muslim Pourante Viyojana Kurippukal (Dissent Notes of a Muslim Citizen) published by Haritham Books,Calicut. The other, Enthukondu Madani? (Why Madani?) was published by a small publishing house which do not exist now and whose name I cannot even remember. He has also published articles in mainstream Malayalam periodicals such as Maadhyamam and Mathrubhumi.

Azeez was a Naxalite in the 1970s. In a conversation published recently in Mathrubhumi Weekly between former Naxalites including Azeez, Somashekharan, Civic Chandran and Babu Baradhwaj, Azeez once again asserted his strong, anti-establishment stands. Unlike him, many of his former Naxalite friends enjoy a prosperous career, thanks to their Naxal profile. M.T Ansari argues in his doctoral dissertation (In the Interstices of India: Islam and the Processes of Nation-formation,2002,CIEFL,Hyderabad) that it is highly difficult and almost impossible for Indian Muslims to write an autobiography, like in the case of Maulana Muhammad Ali, who left his autobiography unfinished, unlike other nationalist figures from Hindu Upper caste communities such as Gandhi and Nehru. Biographies and profiles of one’s past do not come to the aid of Indian Muslims too. Unlike his Hindu comrades, who are celebrated by even their class enemies, Azeez couldn’t put to use his biography to find space in the Kerala mainstream.
He was also one of the key players in the radical magazine Sameeksha appeared under the editorship of K.Venu. Azeez had contributed to it both intellectually and financially. Today there is a great industry of nostalgia working throughout Kerala around the memories and Naxal figures such as Varghese, who were brutally executed in fake encounters. But this romantic, nostalgic industry and its comrades have little time to remember Azeez who was once said to be the very ‘backbone’ of Sameeksha and also a valiant ex-Naxal. The ‘angry young men’ of seventies have nothing to say in support of him now.

In Kerala post Babri Muslim politics has had many strands. Indian National League (INL), People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and NDF (National Development Front) were the most visible political responses to the demolition of the Babri Masjid. “Solidarity Youth movement” can also be said to fall in the same trajectory even though it was born only in 2003. There were huge debates among the Muslim community about the building of new political strategies in the face of growing Hindutva politics. Azeez was a major figure in these new debates.
Azeez remained a leftist at heart and was not able to fully theorize the aspect of religiosity while talking about Muslims and Islam. In fact this was a major criticism raised against him by the Dalit intellectual, K K Kochu, who would have liked him to pay more attention to the core issues concerning Muslim identity. In spite of this, he was also a vehement critic of both the Left and the Muslim league for their anti-Muslim and pro-Hindutva politics. Azeez had been in Jail during the emergency. He remembers one incident from his jail life in the book Dissent notes of a Muslim Citizen. A police officer named Shivaraman kicked him and asked him angrily: ‘’Are you a Mappila?’ That kick toppled all his ideas about secularism and the reality of Muslims in India. Then, the Mandal-Sharia- Babri issues surfaced and transformed him. He joined Abdu Nasser Madani’s PDP and became its working chairman.

Azeez had written about PDP in his book; that it is a movement of Riksha drivers and Pettikadakkars (streetshop vendors). It is no wonder that Muslim movements with middle class flavors are now enjoying support from many circles. However, Azeez and his movement has always been ignored and neglected by even pro-Muslim people.

Although Azeez has got bail now, he can neither move out of Madhurai nor continue with his activities as head of the Madani legal aid cell. In fact, not many of us have any idea of what is happening with him. I remember his last article in Maadhyamam Daily in which he warned us against the witch hunt of Madani. He talked about how this movement of lower class Muslims was always in a democratic path. Of how it would be a great loss to the democratic process of society if it fails and Madani is persecuted. Azeez’s warning does not seem to have any meaning in contemporary Kerala. He himself was put behind bars, and fell into the same trap that he was always been warning the Kerala public sphere about.

The AFSPA and the Constitution

Itty Abraham — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 08:42:51 +0000

The ongoing debate over the use of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Kashmir is typically couched in terms of a choice between the potential political gains and the potential threat to law and order that may follow from its withdrawal. In fact, this law, and others like it, goes to the heart of the constitutional provisions that govern this or any country that subjects itself to the rule of law. The short-term political considerations that pit the military, political leadership, and advocates of autonomy and civil liberties against each other currently dominate the discussion of this issue. The narrow considerations of competing interests and claims make it possible to side-step fundamental issues of justice and citizenship that are directly troubled by this law. The AFSPA not only violates the spirit and letter of constitutional governance, it has hollowed out its institutions by normalizing what should be only a temporary condition imposed under extraordinary circumstances.

The Act is built around two exceptional legal standards, namely, the state of Emergency and the condition of Immunity. The combination of emergency and immunity is what gives the Act its special character; while each condition may appear to require the other for its full expression, it is the simultaneous exercise of these two conditions that make this Act the grave threat that it is to us all.

Emergency is a legal term that is invoked following on the onset of a political crisis that the authorities charged with maintaining law and order cannot control through everyday measures. While the law and order authorities have a raft of sanctioned instruments that can be used in order to deal with normal political unrest — from preventive detentions to curfews – the invocation of an Emergency is a statement that these everyday measures of state force are inadequate, due to the exceptional situation of unrest on the ground. The invocation of the Emergency allows authorities to suspend fundamental rights and the normal functioning of the Constitution and to use extraordinary measures to control outbreaks of violence or other manifestations of civil unrest.

From a legal standpoint, Nasser Hussain argues in The Jurisprudence of Emergency, the invocation of the Emergency follows the so-called doctrine of necessity. Two conditions apply to this doctrine. The first is that no fixed preconditions apply to the application of a state of Emergency. The nature of the crisis that sets into motion emergency conditions cannot be known in advance, hence no restrictions can be written into law that may constrain the actions of the executive authority. In other words, the executive authority holds immense discretionary powers that can only be justified or criticized after the fact. When a crisis breaks out, we are asked to accept the best judgment of the executive authority that nothing short of an emergency is called for in response, and, we must wait until afterwards to decide whether this decision was justified or not. Second, the awesome implications of the suspension of basic constitutional protections demand that the Emergency be a temporary condition. The only justification for the suspension of rights is that such an extreme action is necessary in order to make possible a swift return to a state of normalcy, at which point the Emergency will be lifted. In short, to be lawful, the Emergency must be both exceptional and temporary.

Immunity is a condition that comes to us from Roman Law, and originally identified the exception to the general rule. Originally used to identify those citizens to who certain provisions of municipal law did not apply, such as paying taxes, immunity now has come to mean impunity from facing the consequences of past actions, based on judicial protection. Immunity still means exception to the rule, but its practical significance is now commonly in providing a protective buffer between the immune person and past actions or knowledge. When an indicted person turns informer (offers “State’s Evidence”), for example, they may be granted immunity for crimes they have committed, in order for the prosecution to indict a more dangerous criminal or to bring some wider structural inequity into judicial view. Offering immunity, letting someone get away with their crime, is justified in criminal court procedure as the legal equivalent of the lesser of two evils.

Immunity when applied to the military, however, as a form of legal protection while conducting their official business, is another story. First of all, immunity offered to the military is not retrospective, but prospective: impunity for possible actions to be taken in the future. When actions have been taken in the past, it is possible to measure their extent and intensity, and thereby come to a balanced assessment whether the provision of immunity is justified by the larger social good that may come of it. When immunity is offered preemptively for actions that have not yet taken place, it is impossible to offer such a qualified assessment. Regardless of its nature, the future action has legal sanction, even for homicide.

The military do not fall under the normal jurisdiction of civilian courts, they have their own parallel legal system, the courts martial. The application of immunity to the military is an admission that they are operating in a zone where military justice does not apply: this can only mean they have entered the civil domain. Such an outcome is by definition extraordinary and exceptional, and tacitly implies a state of emergency is already underway. Moreover, it implies that the military is not conducting war against external enemies (or such immunity would not be necessary); it implies that the military is acting against citizens of the state it has sworn to defend. In short, the AFSPA is an implicit admission that something akin to a state of war exists in the affected region and hence the military is the appropriate instrument to use in defense of the state.

Put these two factors together and what we get is most disturbing. The power to take life is the most precious and rarely used power of the court, to be used with the utmost discretion and in the most exceptional of circumstances. This power has been handed over to the military to use against its own people, absent the careful checks and balances that permit this power to be applied by the judiciary, the constitutionally sanctioned agent. Disturbing as this is, it is important to recognize that even an acknowledged state of war does not mean that law disappears. There is a widely accepted code of military jurisprudence under the label of war crimes that soldiers defending their country under the most extreme circumstances must adhere to.

Of these crimes, the one most relevant here is the condition of proportionality. The laws of war state that force must be applied, even in self-defense, in proportion to the force faced, and in proportion to the outcome sought. For instance, the international court of justice has ruled that it is a war crime to use, or even threaten to use, a nuclear bomb in response to a military attack using conventional weapons. Proportionality means that the use of deadly force against unarmed civilians could be considered a war crime. Yet the AFSPA confers complete immunity for this action, in advance, in contravention of the military’s own legal and normative standards.

When we put emergency and immunity together, we get the following. (a) An exceptional and temporary condition where constitutional protections are withdrawn, based solely on the assessment of an executive authority; (b) a tacit acknowledgement that something akin to a state of war exists within the domestic sphere; (c) complete legal protection for potential war crimes.

The AFSPA is a constitutional anomaly. All liberal states have some provision for such acts, so India is no exception in this regard. However, the AFSPA has been in force in some states of the northeast since 1958 and in Kashmir since 1990. Under these circumstances, none of the basic principles underlying the exceptional conditions of emergency and immunity hold. It is not temporary: When a 50 years old Indian citizen has known no other life than living under a state of emergency, the standard of a limited period during which emergency provisions may be applied is violated. It is not exceptional: During this period, elections have taken place in both regions. If it is possible to hold elections, an emergency cannot exist. Either there is no emergency, or the elections, a basic democratic right, have no meaning. Immunity, applied in advance, is used to overlook potential war crimes: When deadly force can be used with impunity against unarmed civilians, it is a violation of the condition of proportionality.

Maintaining a lawful and orderly state is one of the first obligations of any responsible government. However, respecting the terms of law and order applies to the state too. The AFSPA violates both the spirit and letter of constitutional governance. That is why the AFSPA must be struck down at the earliest opportunity.

UID Scrapped! NASCUM calls for Bharath Bandh

Edwin — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 19:17:05 +0000

RNI, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, 2 October 2030

Prime Minister Mayawathi scrapped the Sonia Manmohan UID Tracking System (SMUT) today, just over two decades after it was introduced, to almost universal acclaim. Gandhians hailed it as a tribute to the Father of the Nation on his birth anniversary and recalled that the first direct action of Gandhi was against carrying ID cards in South Africa.

The move was supported by the association of school teachers—the designated data collectors—who were getting beaten up every year by those who did not get loans despite having SMUT numbers. Moreover, every vacation of theirs was spent updating the database. Also welcoming the move were the IAS officers’ association. SMUT exposed IAS officers flying to China without departmental permission through Kolkatta. They maintained that their interest had nothing to do with the order of the Supreme Court that all official papers be signed with the individual SMUT of the person concerned. The SC had held that since SMUT was accessible to private parties, it has to be given under RTI. The last ditch attempt by the IAS lobby to amend the law during then Prime Minister Rahul Gandhi’s only term was struck down by the court.

Baba Ramdev welcomed the move asserting that SMUT prevented sinners from becoming saints. Even after becoming saints they were being identified and prosecuted by the police for crimes from murder arson to rape done in their previous unenlightened state. Several ‘swamijis’ who were caught earlier demanded that they be released since they did not have a level playing field and ‘unconstitutional means’ were used to identify and capture them.

The National Association of Sacred Cow Urine Marketers (NASCUM) strongly condemned the move which they said was a pseudo-secular plot to fundamentally alter the social and economic fabric of the nation. They said that the shortage of cow urine to wash the fingerprint and iris scan machines after the untouchables had used it was temporary. Sufficient investment had been made in bovines, and the temporary shortage was because of successive years of drought. ‘Sacred Cow Urine is the best disinfectant of these machines and we can supply enough cow urine to the entire world’ they claimed. NASCUM members would suffer loss since the medical industry could not absorb the surplus immediately. They called for a Bharat Bundh tomorrow.

Speaking from his abode in Greater Kailash, the Mahamahant of the Parishade Inde Sarvalok Sarvasant (PISS) the apex body of All Saints of All People (India) supported NASCUM and claimed that this was a conspiracy against the Sanatn dhrm and a direct attack on the sacred cow. ‘We will fight it tooth and nail’. He brushed aside allegations of casteism saying that ‘the only true constitution of India is the Manusmriti’. PISS called for a national day of mourning

Heyie Bigbro, CEO Nile.com, the Nigerian company that provided back office support to SMUT, said that he accepted the decision. Nigeria was not dependent on any one country, but was a powerhouse of innovation. Their contribution to the Indian economy could not be ignored he added. British Prime Minister Westland offered help to decommission SMUT, and said that Britain was always ready to help India in its hour of need. 8000 presently unemployed British engineers could immediately be put on the job he said.

Priyanka Vadhera-Gandhi of the Indian National Congress (Sonia) condemned the move as a vendetta against the Gandhi family. INC(S) would fight any move to rename Priyadarshini Indira Gandhi International (PIGI) Airport. She denied that she had any links to the Nigerian company, but conceded that she had met Bigbro, and that he was distantly related.

The stock exchange moved up 2.08% in late trade. Technology stocks took a beating with a downswing of 5-10%. Waste disposal firms saw a 10-15% rise. Infosys chairman Satyam Raju said that their earnings would remain on track, but condemned comparisons with IBM and the ‘human rights walas’ who put Infosys in the holocaust museum. He reminded them that the Gujarat riots that took place in 2002 were before SMUT was implemented. He however declined to comment on the more recent pogroms and denial of service to thousands more saying that other causes could also be responsible.

Experts opined that the decommissioning would cost as much as building the system. FisherKings is tipped to bag the Rs five lakh crore (Rs 5 trillion) decommissioning contract. It is always good times for us said CEO Mallya. PomBay would be the ePortal for sales of SMUT infrastructure said a spokesbot of Pomidyar Foundation.

Nandan Nilekani the former SMUT czar declined comment from his island home in Mali where he is undergoing treatment for megalomania. Nobel Laureate Arundathi Roy said ‘another world is possible’.

Questioning is a Crime Now

Shabnam Hashmi — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 18:59:03 +0000

Nisar main teri galiyonn pe aye watan ke jahan
Chali hai rasm ke koye na sar utha ke chale ( Faiz Ahmad Faiz)

India is at peace and all the jubilations are coming from those quarters that otherwise shed tears relentlessly for Muslim Women. For them India is a tolerant nation now, no vehemence, no contempt, no hatred. They have suddenly remembered that poor Muslim whose only struggle in life is to get a square meal for his children. They are cherishing the verdict, admiring the government, and few have gone to the extent of recommending ‘Bharat Ratna’ to all the three judges.

Like the marginalized Indian Muslim woman who has herself started believing that wearing “Burkha” is a duty and her role is to serve her husband and remain confined to the four walls, an ordinary Muslim has very cleverly and cunningly been reduced to a second class citizen that he is standing with his hands joined to say in gratitude my lord you are so benevolent that you have given the verdict in favour of the Hindutva brigade and our houses have been saved from being attacked and charred.

The drama which was mounted for the past two months terrorized the Muslims across the country. In UP parents called back their children from hostels, villages after villages were deserted by people in Gujarat; from Bihar they were making calls for the safety of their children who were studying in Madhya Pradesh and asking to find out a secure place for them; tribals in Rajasthan were instigated to attack Muslims; Orissa, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa… which place was left from where consistently news were not pouring in? The five star journalists of corporate media of course never get this news.

To maintain law and order is the primary duty of State and Government. But alas! The party that considers itself to be champion of upholding and safeguarding the rights of Muslims as a minority, and which very cleverly hid the Liberhan Commission’s report from public purview found this new formula in connivance with RSS to maintain peace. What else the terrorized Muslim community would have done if not be thankful that its homes were not being attacked and children not being killed?

Had the verdict been reverse, would the same peace have prevailed? Would this government have carried out its duty with utmost alacrity and sincerity to maintain peace? Which peace is being talked about now? Has the Muslim community in the life of these journalists been on the streets holding Tridents and Swords?

Peace reigns in Gujarat now. After 2002, those who wanted peace and wanted to return to their villages had to withdraw all legal cases. Many people are living this peace. Every day they see the rapists and murderers of their own daughters. “But why this rhetoric about Gujarat? How many times friends in media have told us they are tired of Gujarat stories.

In our country, “honour killing” is a faith, “sati” is also a belief and to bear a “male child” too is a matter of faith. How many faiths would be upheld and safeguarded at the cost of peace and what price will our next generation pay for it?

Constitution of India has been sacrificed to faith.

There is peace here. May the journalists, many secular friends and UPA rejoice in this peace.

Remember it is a crime to ask questions now. If you dare talk about the constitution and law you will be accused of being a “Fundamentalist Muslim” instead of an Activist.

Sirf hungama khada karna mera maqsad nahin
Meri koshish hai ki yeh surat badalni chaahiye ( Dushyant Kumar)

Politicizing Shit

B Ravichandran — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 06:28:24 +0000

The recent incident of Dalits smearing human excreta for saving their homes in a place called Savanur in Haveri district, Karnataka, one of the southern Indian states, has created diverse responses from civil society.

The most common response from the incident is that it is the ‘worst’ kind of protest anyone can do. Some people even may say ‘SHIT’!’ about the news!

Paul McCarthy's sculpture "Complex Shit" (2008)

After this news was carried by mainstream newspapers, the state government and the municipal authority have been questioned for allowing such practices (scavenging) in their state (Karnataka). Still the government has not been questioned on why they were thrown out of their homes, instead the anxieties of civil society seems to focus more on ‘why they were allowed to pour human excreta on their body’!

Here I quote Justice Nayak, the Chairman of The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) — “The state government is undeniably guilty of continuing the system of manual scavenging despite reminders by the National Human Rights Commission and State Human Rights Commission”.

I would like to argue that the act of pouring shit on their own body in protest against State’s forceful eviction from their homes, is a political act, not only against the civil society, but also as a potent critique against the contemporary Dalit Movement in the country. However, as usual, attempts have been made by the mainstream media and civil society alike to divert the metaphorical intervention of scavengers trying to politicize shit from its political context. The protesters poured excreta on them not to claim they are still scavengers, instead excreta is the only option of protection for the bodies/families of the scavenging community, in the eventuality of a displacement. The act was an act of politicising Shit.

It is pathetic that not only the dominant mainstream, but also the so-called ‘Dalit’ intellectuals and activists seem to ignore and sideline the political significance of this intervention from the scavenging communities. Dalit Movement has been reduced to an “NGO” of late, and people who run the NGOs dealing with the scavenging community should understand that stopping the profession will not bring dignity to the community. Rather, I would argue that dignity can only be achieved by politicising the profession (while at the same time not encouraging the current generation to accept it as a profession). I would argue that ‘the profession’ has never been acknowledged by political theory. Whenever scavenging and scavengers are discussed, the trend is to pose the question vis-à-vis the pornographic and voyeuristic visualization of the act of scavenging, resulting in eliciting only sympathy/pity. This is one of the main reasons for the lack of social respect for scavenging communities among the masses, including Dalits. There are many books written on scavenging and even documentaries produced depicting the sorrowful facet of the profession and the lives of the scavenging community. However, the framework is still caught up in the paternalistic Gandhian mode. There is a need for the civil society actors (including Dalit activists) who are trying to support the cause of scavenging communities to re-think and re-formulate their agencies. Rather than adopt a philanthropic approach, they should politicise the community.

What do we usually think when the scavenging profession is discussed? Only a bucket and a pool of yellow shit! Its is unlikely for anyone to think their life to be an intense political struggle as well. This is primarily because of the way the profession is constructed in the mainstream. One should remember that the word Black was derogatory at one point of time, before it was politicised by the Black intellectuals. By the act of smearing their body with shit, the scavenging communities have questioned and challenged mainstream constructions about their identities.

The Elite Billing

Nilratan Shende — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:06:24 +0000

Why do the political parties engaged in fighting for the rights of the marginalized are opposing “progressive women’s reservation bill’ and why congress, BJP and left have combined to vote for the bill? Why BJP which had mobilized people against reservation for OBCs, supporting it? Is it just because that ‘they owe the bill to their mother” as Virappa Moili had said. It’s too complicated and therefore it is of prime importance to analyze it historically and understand the subaltern perspective.

When the first Lok Sabha was constituted, there were 369 Brahmin members out of the total 540. But numbers of Brahmins have considerably reduced over a period and in the prevailing Lok Sabha, Brahmins are only 69. The reduction of higher caste representatives in the Parliament and increase in the number of representatives of subaltern groups may be attributed to enhanced political awareness, participation in the democratic processes and successful political mobilization in the electoral politics. Building political conscious, electoral gains and ability to influence legislations are largely perceived to be threat not only to the long maintained political hegemony of the upper caste but also to the status quo. The increase in the political clout of BSP, SP, RJD is evident from the consolidation of the exploited sections of the society which is further reflected through their electoral gains.

It is against this social and political background that mainstream parties have come together to pass the Women’s reservation Bill. The representation of the women in the present form will be at the cost of the political aspiration of the SC/ ST and OBCs. It is insensitive towards the multifarious discriminations that women belonging to marginalized communities faces. It exhibits that how different political ideologies and parties complement each other in ensuring rights of the privileged and upper castes. The bill and the consequent political lobbying across parties and ideologies seem to be keener on arresting the political and social progress of subalterns than the meager representation of the women over the years in the parliament.

This is an alarming indication to the parties like BSP, SP and RJD who have been fighting for subaltern voices. It is a threat to their political emergence as it is likely to turn the clock back to higher parliamentary representation of Brahmins in 1951 constituent election. Bill in the present form would further strengthen the dynastical politics in India restricting opportunities to political families and it is most likely to bring in more elitist and urban biased representatives.

Corporations Out of My Hair! or ‘Mairay Pochchu!’

Satya Sagar — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:22:12 +0000

‘Scientists discover way to convert human hair into high grade fuel’ read the innocuous looking news item tucked away in a corner of the technology pages of my daily newspaper.

At first I didn’t take it seriously and thought it was another self-promoting piece of propaganda from some corporate biotech lab somewhere. Little did I realize this was the beginning of a most bizarre series of events.

If human hair was going to be a valuable commodity in the near or even distant future, every major corporation in the world wanted as much of it as possible. BP, Shell, Exxon-Mobil – announced they were happy that what they had been mining from under the ground all these decades could be replaced by something on top of everyone’s head.

Joining them in the race for ‘strategic control’ of human hair were the mining giants De Beers, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, while Indian multinationals like Reliance, Tata and the Mittal group demanded the government declare Indian hair be reserved solely for domestic companies.

If corporations sought it so much, politicians naturally wanted to become their middlemen, mortgaging their country’s annual output of hair. The Indian government rushed to declare hair as ‘state property’, banning all barbers from practising their profession and directing citizens to have their haircuts in designated ‘inlets’. Cabinet ministers were exempted, but several turned up in Parliament with logos of global corporations proudly stamped across their bald pates. After all these days one is known only by the company that keeps you and not by the company you keep.

Bollywood began churning out different, spiced up Indian versions of the Goldilocks tale, remixing old songs like ‘Teri zulfon se judai tho nahin mangi thi…” with a brand new meaning to them. Movie stars, even if they did not have much hair, started hiring ‘hairguards’ to protect their precious wigs and public image.

The hysterical media typically ran hair raising stories in a bid to keep the corporations tickled, all of course done in the name of ‘pubic …er I mean public interest’. Some wrote editorials claiming India would now definitely become the world’s biggest superpower since Indians had more facial and body hair than the Chinese, who despite their larger population had less to harvest. The Americans and Europeans, they opined, were neither ‘hair nor there’.

The Mumbai underworld moved into the hair business with the notorious Dawood Ibrahim announcing from Dubai that he would pay a million dollars to anyone who could get him all of his rival Chota Rajan’s locks on a platter. Bal Thackeray said in a Saamna editorial that his father had wisely named him ‘Bal’ as he knew that hair would be valuable in the future. His nephew Raj vowed not to let even a single Marathi hair fall outside its ‘mother’ province and advised all his followers to carry nets with them all the time.

Elsewhere, in UP and Bihar, criminal gangs organised ‘hair hunting’ expeditions where they would go shaving hapless citizens at gunpoint. Global corporations started outsourcing the task of collecting hair to these gangs – keeping with the logic that Indian goons were far cheaper to hire than American ones.

It was at this point of my nightmare that I woke up writhing in imaginary pain, clutching my head and screaming, ‘No! This is my hair! It can’t be converted into high-grade fuel. Nobody has the right to take it away! ”

My hair though was happily intact and I found myself in a guest house in Ersama, a small settlement of betel leaf and paddy farmers in coastal Orissa. I had been in this province now for a week to write about the struggle of local farmers to prevent the South Korean steel giant POSCO from taking away their valuable land to build an integrated power and steel plant.

I realized the ‘hair nightmare’ I had was really provoked by what was happening in Orissa with its mineral riches, in particular iron ore, of which the state possessed some of the biggest deposits in the world and that too of very high quality. The soaring price of iron ore around the world in recent years has sparked off a rush of corporations to the state.

Over the past five years the Orissa government has signed over 40 MoUs worth around Rs 1,60,132 crores with global and domestic companies, selling off rights to the over 20 billion tonnes of iron ore believed to be under the feet of the Oriya people. ( Much of the state’s population is anaemic or else the Orissa regime of Naveen Patnaik would have sold the iron content in the people’s blood also by now!)

In its deal with POSCO alone Orissa has given away the company, rights to mine 600 million tonnes over the next 30 years or so. POSCO will pay just Rs 24 per tonne as royalty at a time when global prices have shot up over Rs 2,400 per tonne, a difference that will cost the public exchequer over 1.4 trillion rupees!! This is apart from all the other sops, worth billions, given to POSCO in the form of cheap land, water, tax breaks and so on.

On paper the POSCO project is supposed to bring in US$12 billion worth of investments. Industry analysts will tell you though its real purpose in entering into the MoU is part of the strategy of global corporations of keeping different commodities they need under their control before they dwindle away or get poached by rivals. Grab now use later is the motto.

The Orissa scenario is being played out in other states too. India is also the sixth largest producer of steel in the world with production touching 45 million tonnes in 2005 but this will jump to over103 million tonnes soon thanks to the 102 MoUs signed with steel companies around the country. India is the fourth largest producer of iron ore in the world with its production touching 165 million tonnes per annum in 2005, of which over 90 million tonnes was exported abroad- so a lot of this mining is still about old colony-style export of raw material to developed nations.

As for the social impact, since most of the iron ore is found under land belonging to tribal communities they will suffer the most due to the displacement, pollution and distress caused by the mining process. The steel production facilities will also take away valuable agricultural land and displace thousands of farmers, like in the case of POSCO where the proposed plant will oust 30,000 people in Ersama block of Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district. Besides all this will be the vast quantities of power and water that steel production requires, that can be supplied only by taking it away from other sectors that need it more.

Reflecting on the madness of Orissa’s fire sale of its mineral resources and replacing the words ‘iron’ or ‘steel’ by ‘hair’ I realized my nightmare had not been so far fetched after all.

I mumbled ‘Mairay Pochchu’ in Tamil and went back to sleep hoping to dream of a day when someone finds out that the livers of politicians and corporate CEOs, if consumed in pill form, could be a sure cure for not just baldness but also erectile dysfunction.

Satya Sagar is a journalist, writer and videomaker based in New Delhi. He can be reached at sagarnama@gmail.com