We, the following citizens of India are shocked to understand our e-mail ids have been included in an official letter (dated November 3, 2011), SENT BY THE Special Branch Superintendent of Police, K..K. Jaya Mohan, on behalf of A.D.G.P. Of Kerala Police, A. Hemacahndran, to the Asst. Commander of [...]]]>

leaked Letter (courtsy : IndiaVision)

We, the following citizens of India are shocked to understand our e-mail ids have been included in an official letter (dated November 3, 2011), SENT BY THE Special Branch Superintendent of Police, K..K. Jaya Mohan, on behalf of A.D.G.P. Of Kerala Police, A. Hemacahndran, to the Asst. Commander of High -tech Crime Enquiry Cell. The letter says `Please find enclosed a copy of the e-mail IDs of individuals who have connection with SIMI activities. You are directed to identify the individuals behind the e-mail IDs contained in the list by verifying the registration and log in details with concerned email Service providers and forward the names and addresses of the individuals who own the email IDs, and furnish the report to this office urgently.‘ We also came to know from the various newspapers that the authorities have demanded the service providers of these IDs to provide the login details of the IDs which we have been using. We express our deep horror and dissent to note that the State Government is keeping a sceptical eye on us.

The Government elected by people like us has a duty to protect the privacy of the citizens of this country. We are shocked to see that the same Government is in reality infringing upon our privacy through such a move. We consider this as an open violation of one of our basic human rights enshrined in the Indian Constitution.

This official action violates a number of basic rights of the citizens guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution of India including Articles 14, 15, 17, 19 and 21 viz., the Rights to equality, dignity, privacy, expression and the right not to be discriminated against.

The Chief Minister of Kerala has openly admitted that the SIMI connection in the above letter issued by K.K. Jaya Mohan, was a `mistake’. However, no action on this police officer has yet been taken. We demand an immediate action against the police officials involved this encroachment of privacy of citizens.

This unfortunate incident has affected many of our lives in many ways for being targeted by the Government. We are not yet ready to reshape our own lives for such surveillance by the police for leading `suspicious’ identities. We are also threatened in our day today social, cultural and economic spaces for being included in the `watch list’ of the intelligence department. We demand an open apology from the Chief Minister of Kerala and the Police Department for having played with the lives of innocent citizens. We request the media, social activist organisations and human rights groups to create adequate pressure on the Government for a just intervention on this matter.

1. Adv. Shanavas (Activist & lawyer)
2. V.M.Ebrahim (Journalist)
3. C.Dawood. (Columnist )
4. N.P.Jishar (Journalist)
5. Fasal Kathikod (Writer)
6. S.Kamarudheen (Academician)
7. A.Sakker Hussain (Journalist)
8. Riyas .P.A. ( Marketing executive)
9. Navas.K.A (Activist)
10. Abdul Rasheed kadampott ( Retired Teacher)
11. Solidarity Youth Movement, kerala,
12. Minority Watch (Human Rights organization)
13. ISA KERALAM (Student organization)
14. Prabhodhanam Weekly
15. MIT.Hospital Kodungallor.
16. Cresecnt Hospital, Aalathoor.
17. Camal bags (Small scale industry)
18. Cochin Orchids. ( Designing Centre)
19. Classy digital ( Designing Centre)
20. Badaru (P.K.Seal) ( Business)
21. K.M.Muhammed Mukthar,
22. Sajeer,
23. Haris.K.K. (Abroad)
24. Shabeer (Abroad)
25. Sameer (Abroad)
26. Jalauddin Pullisseeri (Abroad)
27. Shakeer Kathiyalam (Activist)
28. Aliyar .K.M. (Abroad)
29. Althaf.M.S.
30.  Haris Eriyad
31. Fasalurahman Melattur (Abroad)
32. Fayiz Cmr (Abroad)
33. Fazil Fareed
34. Hanif K.T.
35. Ahammad Salih Anwar
36. Mahion Abdul Rahman ( Graphic Designer)
37. Majeed. M.T. (Business)
38. Rasheed.N.M. (Activist)
39. Kayyoom Kolliyil
40. Mukthar K.M. (Abroad)
41. Noor.K.V.MElattoor (Volunteer, Pain & Palliative)
42. Roshan F.S ( Student)
43. Shafeeq Chennara (Abroad)
44. Abdul Khadar Kodinji (Abroad)
45. Abboobakkar Vadakkangara ( Academic Scholar)
46. Anvar Vadakkangara (Abroad)
47. Atheeq Rahman (Abroad)
48. Iktiyar Pang (Abroad)
49. C.S. Ibrahim Kutty ( Retired Teacher)
50. Abdul Salam.N.M. (Abroad)
51. Noufal Velam ( Activist)
52. Am Nadwi
53. HAseena Sajid
54. Firoz Thirurkad
55. Hakeem (Business)
56. Faissal Mimmi
57. Dhabin
58. Cmarti2
59. Aachies (Business)
60. Nisam
61. Abdul Rasheed Kadambot
62. Sajid Rahman
63. Shabeer Kareem (Abroad)
64. Sabu Bin Habeeb (Abroad)
65. Haris (Abroad)
66. Rashid. (Abroad)
67. Riyas Kodungalloor
68. Riyas Kodungalor
69. Niyas
70. Muhammed Seethi
71. Muhammed rasheed (Abroad)
72. Humayun Kabeer (Abroad)
73. Fasalurahman
74. Aliyar KM (Abroad)
75. Mujeebulla k.v.
76. TC Mahboob ( Teacher)
77. Mohammed Ishaque Madari (Abroad)
78. Moidu Chalikkal (Abroad)
79. Abdul Ahad
80.  Ali Modern
81. Haris Kannipoyil
82. Mohammed Rafeeque Thangal
83. P.A Mohammed

For a Background Read this post in Kafila : Confuse and deceive – Email interception in Kerala and the formula for political survival: Yaseen Ashraf

Two years ago on the 17th of May the Kerala police entered the Muslim residential area of Beemapalli, a small seaside town in Thiruvanathapuram, and shot down 5 men and injured 52 other men. They also killed a sixteen year old boy by attacking him with the [...]]]> Ashraf K & Jenny Rowena

Two years ago on the 17th of May the Kerala police entered the Muslim residential area of Beemapalli, a small seaside town in Thiruvanathapuram, and shot down 5 men and injured 52 other men. They also killed a sixteen year old boy by attacking him with the bayonet of a gun. This was one of the biggest police firings that had ever happened in the history of modern Kerala. The police claimed that it was done to control the “communally inspired mob” of Beemapalli that was trying to attack the neighboring Latin Catholic community and Church. However the fact finding reports by the PUCL (People’s Union for Civil Liberties) and the NCHRO (National Confederation of Human Rights Organization) tell us a different story. According to the findings of these organizations, there were no communal conflicts at that point in Beemapalli, which caused the Police to fire at the crowd.

What is most shocking is that this incident was almost completely ignored in the public sphere of Kerala. There were no political protests against this firing other than a small and partial hartal called by a few Muslim organizations. More importantly, there was very little coverage about the firing in the print and visual media. Whatever news that did come out reported the police story faithfully without conducting any sort of investigation into what had happened.

The silence over the Beemapalli continues to this day. Though only two years have passed, even in the present legislative assembly elections that happened in April this year, this issue was not mentioned by any of the political parties involved.

It is commonly perceived that what happened in Beemapalli was a result of the “communal tensions” existing in the locality. Such a perception surely works to “erase the memory” (as Gyanendra Pandey rightly puts it in his study on the Bhagalpur riots of 1989) of this incident, which is seen as nothing but a momentary lapse in the secular structure of Kerala. However, recent enquiries into religion, secularism and violence tell us that communalism does not stand outside the purview of secularism, but is the very substance that defines the contours of the secular. In fact it is Kerala’s modern, secular emphasis that helps construct a communal discourse around Beemapalli which is then used to suppress the larger issue of police violence and render it invisible – an invisibility that mar(k)s the progressive claims of Kerala. This invisibility was indeed challenged by some Muslim organizations and community-based Newspapers like Madhyamam, Tejas, and the fact finding committee reports of various human right organizations. All of them wrote and spoke against the police version within a few days after the firing. But their voices were not properly ‘heard’ in the secular public sphere of Kerala.

Revisiting the Police Firing

Beemapalli is the name of a Masjid in the seaside town of Beemapalli around which about 28,000 Mulims live, most of whom are lower-caste converts (especially from the Nadar community) who make a living by fishing. Beemapalli is famous for its “informal economy” based on the selling of “illegal” foreign goods. It is especially famous for the huge ‘black’ market for DVDs and CDs of both Indian and foreign films. Beemapalli lies near Cheriyathura which is dominated by Latin Catholics who are classified as OBCs among Christians. Both these communities have lived in this area for quite a long time and there have been certain incidents of conflict between them. However, the incidents that led to the Police firing were not connected to any of this.

According to the Beemapalli residents everything started on 8th of May when a local ‘goon’ named Kombu Shibu from the Cheriyathura area came to their area and started a fight with them regarding the Uroos ceremony of the Beemapalli Dargah, which he threatened to stop. This went on till May 16, Saturday evening, when Kombu Shibu and friends stopped the buses to Beemapalli filled with the devotees who were on their way to the Uroos ceremony. Though it is well known that the Uroos ceremony is central to the life of the Beemapalli residents, the police did not take any action against Kombu Shibu. This led to clashes between some of the Beemapalli residents and Kombu Shibu and his accomplices. With the police refusing to intervene, the tension increased and led to more clashes. On May 17, Sunday, around 2.30 in the afternoon, the police suddenly entered the scene and moved hundred meters into Beemapally and started firing at the Beemapalli residents who were engaged in various activities on the beach.

However, the police put forward a totally different picture of what happened in Beemapalli. According to them, the “violent mob’ of Beemapalli entered Cheriyathura area with “explosives from Nagpur,” and tried to attack the Church and the small Latin Catholic community of Cheriyathura. Once the media reports legitimized the police story, the Latin Catholic Church authorities also started claiming that they were attacked by the Beemapalli residents. By propagating such a story the police was able to successfully frame the whole incident as ‘communal violence’ instigated by the Beemapalli Muslims. This framing was quite calculated and done with the intention of creating a particular public opinion about the firing. For instance, look at the way in which the incident was referred to in the print and visual media as the ‘Cheriyathura firing’. This takes away the attention from Beemapalli to Cheriyathura and re-asserts the police version that it was the Muslim fishermen of Beemapalli who attacked Cheriyathura, at which point they had to fire at them. Once the media thus collaborated with the police to bring this incident under the purview of “communal violence,” the police could easily use the same to cover up their attack on Beemapalli.

There are two other aspects to the unpardonable attack on Beemapalli. One is that it points to an ongoing struggle between the State and the Beemapalli residents around the issue of the flourishing Beemapalli black market and the conduct of the Uroos Ceremony. The police constantly seek to control these but they often slide out of their hands because of the alternative community structure and consciousness in Beemapalli. In Beemapalli the Mahallu Jamaat (which is a kind of autonomous Islamic body that looks after the affairs of many Muslim communities) is quiet strong and even gives out an identity card to all the residents, which is used for various welfare measures. This social structure gives a certain kind of autonomy to the Beemapalli residents and do not give much space for the police to intervene. The second important aspect of this attack is the fact that Beemapalli as a lower caste Muslim seaside ghetto stands highly marginalized in Kerala.

Inhabited by fisher men and others engaged in the illegal market, the ghettoized Muslim location of Beemapalli has come to be marked as a deviant space that stands away from the mainstream of the capital city of Thiruvanathapuram, which is seen as a chaste (Hindu) space inhabited by well-settled government officials. The festivals, rituals and social life of Beemapalli is viewed with suspicion and stereotyped in popular media and discourses. Even some Salafi orators (the inheritors of the 20th century Islahi (Reformist) Movement among Muslims), constantly refer to the Beemapalli Muslims as ‘Kafirs’ and ‘terrorists’. Thus Beemapalli is distanced even from the mainstream of the Muslim location.

It is clear that Beemapalli and its lower caste Muslim inhabitants are already marked out as “violent” or as falling outside the purview and privilege of the reasonable, secular public sphere in Kerala. Such a process works to justify and overlook any sort of violence done to them and makes them an easy prey to the excesses of the State. On the occasion of its second anniversary, it is important to remember the Beemapalli firing and think carefully about the silence and amnesia regarding it. In fact, it is time we realize that to remember Beemapalli is to remember the political contours of contemporary Kerala.

Another fateful moment for the 140-year old Indian Circus fraternity: on Monday, April 4, 2011, the Supreme Court banned the employment of children below fourteen years in circuses. Acting on a petition filed by the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, the Hon’ble Court directed the Union government to conduct simultaneous raids in all circuses [...]]]>

Another fateful moment for the 140-year old Indian Circus fraternity: on Monday, April 4, 2011, the Supreme Court banned the employment of children below fourteen years in circuses. Acting on a petition filed by the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, the Hon’ble Court directed the Union government to conduct simultaneous raids in all circuses to liberate the children. In order to, “To implement the fundamental right of children under Article 21A [right to education], it is imperative that the Central government issue suitable notifications prohibiting the employment of children in circuses within two months.”(The Hindu, April 19, 2011). In their petition the non-government organization noted that at least 500 girls were employed illegally in about fifty circuses across India. The petitioners proposed to notify circus as a “hazardous industry” and prohibit the employment of children less than fourteen years in circuses. The group also held campaigns in front of many circuses.

The Indian circus fraternity, which includes approximately 295 circus companies, has been going through a severe crisis since the Union Environment Ministry banned the training and performance of wild animals such as bears, monkeys, tigers, lions and panthers in 1991. The order, based on the 1960 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act had dislocated the lives of thousands of humans and about 400 animals overnight.

Indian circus has now lost two of its major entertainers and this could bring down its edifice for good. However, unlike in the case of animals the circus community is divided in its stand regarding children. The Indian Circus Employees’ Union had moved court along with the Circus Owners’ Federation against the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests’ Order banning the training and performance of wild animals. But in this new case the Workers’ Union joined hands with the petitioners, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, seeking the ban on employing children.

In a letter to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court the Joint Secretary of the Indian Circus Employees’ Union points out that, “A child takes at least one year to learn an item. But s/he might be sent to the ring for parades or some balancing acts after six months. But no salary is given to the child during this period and after two-three years of training s/he might get a maximum of fifty rupees per month”.

What will happen to these children now? The Supreme Court has directed the Union Government to frame a proper scheme of rehabilitation for the rescued children. We may remember that neither compensation nor rehabilitation has been provided yet to the 40,000 animal trainers/caretakers/handlers who had lost their jobs and with whom a grand historical culture of animal training is vanishing. And in the case of “rescued’ animals the situation had exactly been out of the frying pan and into the fire. Most of them were sent to the overfull zoos around the country.

Children have always figured prominently in the history of physical training and culture in circuses. There are items in circus exclusively for child acrobats: boneless, high wire, seesaw acrobat, item of the bamboo pole and china Plate, to name a few. In fact, an item like ‘boneless’ cannot be taught to a grown up person. We must not forget that circus acrobatics is a great physical culture structured on the modulations of the body. Anyone who has closely observed the similarities and links between Kalaripayatt/ Indian wrestling/gymnastics and circus in this part of the world would easily understand the stringency and rigour the training procedure demands. One has to follow a tough diet as well as continuous and strenuous training. An interesting thing to be noted here is that many of the initial exercises children practice in the circuses are those done in these physical cultures.

During fieldwork for my ongoing doctoral work as a historian, many circus artistes have narrated their ill-treated childhoods where they had to undergo beatings and starving as part of their training. Sexual abuse is also not uncommon. Most children came to the circuses as per the agreements and the advance money their parents get from middlemen. Some of them had to spend more years than the agreed period in the tents while some never returned.

But how could one forget legendary teacher-artistes such as Keeleri Kunhikannan or Ambu Master who sensed the temperament of the body and the accidents seconds before it happened or treated effectively with their own preparations of medicinal herbs. Over the past century the circus rings have witnessed the heroic transformation of many ordinary children into great performers. Numerous children from Maharashtra, Kerala, Assam, Bengal and Nepal have found shelter in the tents of Indian circus. For many of them whose otherwise option would have been prostitution or beggary, it was a home with a living as well as a life.

The circus academy being established at Thalassery by the Kerala Government could become a major centre in this scenario. It should be designed accordingly so as to provide a living space, formal education and professional training to these children. Such centres should also be established in other states with a rich tradition of circus, such as Maharashtra. Let us try and keep the promises we make.

Shahina K K, a journalist with Tehelka went to Karnataka to prepare an investigative report on the case on Abdul Nasar Madani, the Chairman of PDP. Madani had spend almost 10 years in Jail as an undertrial in the 1998 Coimbatore blast before he was [...]]]> K Ashraf & Jenny Rowena

Shahina K K, a journalist with Tehelka went to Karnataka to prepare an investigative report on the case on Abdul Nasar Madani, the Chairman of PDP. Madani had spend almost 10 years in Jail as an undertrial in the 1998 Coimbatore blast before he was let off without any charges on 1 August 2007. In her report (Why is this man still in prison?, Tehelka, December 4^th, 2010) Shahina tried to look into the police story that Madani had conspired in the Bengaluru blasts in separate meetings two years ago — one which took place in Madani’s rented home in Kochi and the other in the Lakkeri estate in Kodaku Karnataka.

Here, she not only talks of the reports about the many people who have questioned the police story – like James Varghese, the owner of Madani’s rented house in Kochi, and Madani’s brother Jamal Mohammed – but she also investigates the witnesses whose accounts have led the court to deny Madani bail. According to her investigations Shahina finds out that many of the witnesses have things to say that goes against the police story. For instance, Yoganand, a BJP worker whose testimony is recorded in the charge sheet, Shahina reports, does not even know that he is a witness in the Madani case !

Now this is a case of good investigative journalism, which has the power to unsettle the stories that are constantly being planted in the media by the police. However, just a few days after her report comes out, the Karnataka police slaps a case against Shahina under IPC 506, for “intimidating the witnesses.” No stretch of imagination allows one to view the attempt of a journalist to talk to the witnesses in a particular case as ‘intimidation.’ Yet, in this age of embedded journalism and paid news and the likes of Praveen Swamy and Burkha Dutt, this critical attempt at investigation which challenges a given police story, can easily be labeled thus and the journalist targeted. More importantly, Shahina’s case is further mediated through other important issues, which includes the political career of Abdul Nasar Madani, whose case she was investigating and her own identity as a Muslim woman.

Shahina’s attempt to investigate goes deep into the whole issue of how Abdul Nasar Madani, who holds a particular and important political position in Kerala, was incarcerated in jail for long years, without trail, and then acquitted with all charges against him unproved. This gross case of injustice was further extended when the police tried to implicate his wife Sufiya in the Bengaluru blasts that took place on 25^th July 2008. Three months back, in spite of protests from various quarters in Kerala, Madani was arrested once again for conspiracy as one of the accused in the Bengaluru blasts. Later, his bail application was also dismissed considering what the court called the “nature and gravity of the offence.” The repercussions and the backlash on Shahina’s investigations are clearly connected to the case of Abdul Nazar Madani.  In fact, even to bring up the issue of Madani is to evoke anxieties about Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. In the words of Charles Hirschkind and Saba Mahmood,

“a whole set of questionable assumptions, anxieties, and prejudices [are] embedded in the notion of Islamic fundamentalism.” (From their article: Feminism, the Taliban, and Politics of Counter-Insurgency.)

This then is used as a bogey to deal with any kind of response, activity or political action from the location of a Muslim identity. However, no one worries that this political leader has been in jail for 10 long years without trail and that now, he is back in jail and being systematically denied bail. An issue that Shahina’s report addresses too, with its title: “Why is this man still in jail?” In fact, today, the question of terrorism and the Muslim can obfuscate all other questions about equality and justice. The Muslim, is caught in a construction that implicates him/her as inherently capable of terrorizing this country and therefore easily punishable. S/he is always already someone who can be easily pushed outside the ambit of the discourses of human rights and legal justice.

In fact, Madani is an important political voice in Kerala who addressed the question of Muslims and dalitbahujans after the Mandal-Masjid phenomenon of the 90s. Rooted in a discourse that drew from Islamic tenants, Madani’s vision focused on the inherent inequalities in Kerala society, both in terms of caste and religion. However his new political language was found ‘deviant’ and ignored or attacked by dominant discourses, mainly because of its allegiance to Islamic discourses and the Muslim identity. Thus Madani, who had been able to organize some of the most unprivileged sections in Kerala, is shorn of all his political credentials from within the stand point of the construction of the Muslim as the fundamentalist other of a Secular State/Culture.

The media has always stood strongly on the side of such dominant constructions all through the political career of Madani. Recently when his wife Soofiya Madani was alleged to have been involved in a conspiracy that led to the burning of a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus at Kalamassery, Kochi in September 2005, reports in the media found her guilty even before Judicial processes could start. Similarly we have seen the media conniving with the Police/State on other issues concerning the “others” of Kerala. One can recall the maligning of the Dalit Human Rights Groups (DHRM) as terrorists and the false case of Love Jihad, where young Muslim men were accused of converting Hindu women into Islam after starting romantic relationships with them. However, when in May 17, 2009 6 Muslim men from a fishing community were killed and 47 others injured (27 of them had bullet injuries) in a police firing in Beemapally, most of the Malayalam media kept completely silent about this incident, which was one of the most violent incidents of police oppression that Kerala had ever witnessed. All this are surely signs of the impunity with which the Malayalam media treats issues that are related to its “others,” especially the Muslim.

It is this entrenched attitude of the media that Shahina’s report tries to confront, head on. However, it is a Shahina who is doing this and not just another journalist; like Madani, she too is caught in the same issues that haunt the Muslim location and identity. In fact, Shahina herself has reported how, when she went to the village to investigate, she was stopped by the police and asked whether she was a terrorist. Many of the papers in Karnataka like Sakthi, Prajavani and Kannada also reported the incident as a “suspicious” visit by a “group of Muslims !” Here, just as Madani’s Islamic roots could tarnish the weight and importance of his political career, Shahina’s Muslim name could do away with all her other identities.

It is no wonder then that a report in the Mathrubhumi faithfully reports the police version that Shahina and the others in her group tried to “threaten” the witnesses. Such a report, without even a preliminary kind of investigation, quickly reiterates the police story, putting the blame squarely on Shahina’s shoulders. This is exactly how much of the media has behaved in the case of Madani too. In many ways, it was the media in Kerala that raised the alarm against Madani so high and shrill that it was so easy for the police to get him back in jail and keep him there. We need to think seriously about all these issues raised in connection to the Shahina case.

Surely, as Shahina writes in her status message in Facebook:

“this is not a case against me as an individual, but it is a warning to the entire press community not to try to quash the cooked up stories by the police.”

Moreover, this is also yet another instance where the complex and often oppressive relationship of the Indian state and the Muslim minority is clearly revealed – a relationship in which the media has always played a highly dubious and questionable role. It is not surprising then that Shahina’s alternative mediation, to investigate into this and to reveal the fissures within many of our consensus has met with such a reaction. It is important that we reflect on these issues and extend our support to Shahina and to Madani, who is still in jail, also as a result of all these various, anti-minority mediations.

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 [...]]]>

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.

]]> http://thefishpond.in/itty/2010/the-afspa-and-the-constitution/feed/ 0 http://thefishpond.in/anivar/2009/sharmilacall4action2009/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sharmilacall4action2009 http://thefishpond.in/anivar/2009/sharmilacall4action2009/#comments Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:38:10 +0000 Anivar Aravind http://thefishpond.in/?p=766 Image courtesy : Tehelka

[Cross Posted in ManipurFreedom.org]

Dear Friends,

On 2 November 2009, Manipur poet and activist Irom Sharmila, will enter the 10th year of her hunger strike demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).

Introduced in 1958 the AFSPA grants the Indian military special [...]]]>

Image courtesy : Tehelka

[Cross Posted in ManipurFreedom.org]

Dear Friends,

On 2 November 2009, Manipur poet and activist Irom Sharmila, will enter the 10th year of her hunger strike demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).

Introduced in 1958 the AFSPA grants the Indian military special powers throughout North-East India to:

• Arrest citizens and enter their property without warrant;
• Shoot and kill anyone on mere ‘suspicion’;
• Enjoy immunity against legal action.

Under the cover of the Act the Indian armed forces have indulged in killing, torture, enforced disappearances and rape, bringing great shame to India and much misery to the people of Manipur. According to the government appointed Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission ‘the Act has become a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of discrimination and high-handedness.’ The United Nations Committee on Racial Discrimination has urged the Indian government to repeal the law.

On 2 November, 2000 Irom Sharmila Chanu, a Manipuri poet decided to go on a hunger strike after the Indian Army massacred ten civilians in Malom, Manipur. On 6 November 2000 she was arrested by the police and charged with attempt to commit suicide under section 307 of the Indian Penal Code. Her health deteriorated gradually and she did not accept even a single drop of water.

On 21 November 2000 a plastic tube was inserted into her nose and liquid nutrient was inserted into her body. She has been surviving on this liquid diet and in solitary confinement as a high security prisoner for the last nearly ten years. She is routinely released every year only to be re-arrested again. This ritual has been going on for a decade now.

In solidarity with her local civil society, particularly the women, have been on a relay hunger strike since December 10, 2008. On the occasion of her struggle entering the tenth year, they are poised to celebrate her resilience as a “Festival of Hope, Justice and Peace”.  We the following organisations are convinced that Sharmila’s struggle is not just to defend the human rights in Manipur, but in reality it is reshaping the very foundations of democracy in India. Therefore, it is important that all those who defend justice, peace and democracy to support her struggle. Hence, we wish to celebrate Sharmila’s courage and resilience as her struggle enters the 10th year from 2 to 6 November 2009 . We call upon all people’s movements, women’s organisations and human rights forums to initiate the following actions:

1. Protest or symbolic hunger fast in support of Sharmila’s demand to repeal AFSPA on November 2nd or November 6th.
2. Protest in front of Indian embassies all over the world.
3. Organise students in schools and colleges to write poems in support of Sharmila’s demands. These can be publicised through Manipurfreedom.org
4. Organise Human Rights Film Festivals in support of Sharmila Irom from November 2nd to November 6. A package of films will be available through INSAF, insafdelhi@gmail.com phone: 011-65663958
5. Highlight all cases of human rights violations in Manipur and the North-East India
6. Popularise the poster for action available at manipurfreedom.org from October 15th onwards (the poster can be freely used to be printed and circulated according to your local needs.)
7. Write letters to  Chief Minister of Manipur and Prime minister of India with copies to solidarity@manipurfreedom.org and hramanipur@gmail.com
8. Organise public meetings in support of Sharmila Irom’s demand to repeal AFSPA.
9. Organise book reading sessions / interaction / discussion / talks with the latest book on Sharmila by  Deepti Priya Mehrotra called `Burning Bright’ (published by Penguin Books). Priya Mehrotra can be contacted at: 9711793492, or 011-26011078
10. Any other action you may think appropriate to express solidarity with the tenth year of struggle by Sharmila Irom.

Please inform details about your actions with photographs to solidarity@manipurfreedom.org so that a wider section of people can be informed.

Please circulate this appeal to all your friends so that a strong campaign can be initiated to generate maximum pressure to repeal AFSPA.

We do hope that you will do everything within your means to make this campaign successful.

Manipurfreedom.org | Adishakti Lokbikash Sangthan (Orissa) | Adivasi Adhikar Abhijan Mayurbhanj (Orissa) | Adivasi Bikash Parisad (Orissa) | Adivasi Chetona Manch(Orissa) | Adivasi Moolvasi Asistva Raksha Manch, Jharkhand | AID, Delhi Chapter | Akhra, Jharkhand | Anchalik Bikash Parisad(Orissa) | Anchalik Jungle Surakshya Sangthan (Orissa) | Anchalika Adivasi Unnayan Parishad(Orissa) | Ancholia Unnayan Parishad(Orissa) | Ancholiko Unnayan Sangh(Orissa) | Ancholiko Vikas Parisad(Orissa) | ANHAD | Anti SEZ struggle organisation, Kakinada, AP | Antyodaya Chetana Mandal (Orissa) | Balmianni Kutomi (Orissa) | BHARATIYA MUSLIM MAHILA ANDOLAN | Bharatiya Muslim Women’s Movement | Centre For Research on New International Economic Order (Orissa and TN) | Citizen for human rights movement, Tamil Nadu | Citizens’ Committee on Communal Harmony | Common Concern, Orissa | Dalit Women Forum, Secunderabad, AP | Deo-mali Mahila Sangh(Orissa) | EKTA ( committee for communal amity) Mumbai | Forum for Women’s Rights & Development (FORWORD), Tambaram, TN |FOrum Kerala | Gana Chetana Sangthan (Orissa) | Ganglamaa Vikash Manch(Orissa) | Ganjam Jilla Adivasi Manch, Ganjam, Orissa | Gram Sahajog(Orissa) | Gramanchal Bikash Parisad(Orissa) | Himalayan Niti Abhiyan, HP | Ho Munda Bhasa Bikash Manch (Orissa) | Human Rights Alert, Manipur | Human Rights Law Network, Delhi | Indian Association for Women’s Studies ( IAWS) | INSAF , Delhi | Institute of Human Rights  Education, Chennai | Integrated Rural Development of Weaker Sections in India (Orissa, AP and TN) | Jahar Surkshya Manch (Orissa) | Jan Pahal , Madhya Pradesh | Japadhar Bachao Andolan , Orissa | Jatadhar Banchao Andolan | Jungle Jivan Surakshya Parisad(Orissa) | Just Peace Foundation, Manipur | Kabani -The Other Direction | Kasti Dakua Adivasi Mohasangha(Orissa) | Kerala Swatantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation | Kisan Morcha, Bikaner, Rajasthan Dalit Sena, Jodhpur, Rajasthan | Kriti Team, Delhi | Kuvi Bdayu (Orissa) | Kuvi Kulomi (Orissa) | LOK MANCH, Aurangabad, Biha | Loka Adhikar Manch | Loka Unnayan Sangha (Orissa) | Mahendragiri Adivasi Adhikar Samiti (Orissa) | Mahila Morcha, Banswara, Rajasthan | Malaygiri Bikash Manch(Orissa) | Moving Republic, Bangalore | Mukti Sanghthan(Orissa) | Munigiri Gana Sangthan (Orissa) | Nari Bikash-Women Organisation(Orissa) | National Adivasi alliance | National Alliance of People’s Movements | National Alliance of Women Organisations, Orissa | National Coastal Women’s Movement | National Hawkers Federation  | New Socialist Alternative ( Bangalore) | Niyamgiri Surakshya Abhijan | Niyamgiri Surakshya Manch, Orissa | Niyamgiri Surkshya Manch(Orissa) | Odisha Adivasi Adhikar Abhijan (Orissa) | Orissa Development Action Forum (Orissa) | Orissa Human Rights Forum, Bhadrakh District,Orissa | Pahadi Sangrami Manch(Orissa) | Pathabhedam Magazine, Calicut | Peoples Movement Against Nuclear Energy , Koodankulam | Peoples watch , Madurai | POSCO Pratirodh  Sangram Samiti, Orissa | Project level committee (Orissa) | Reach Out , Delhi | Roopankan , Indore, Madhya Pradesh | Rural Action for Development (Orissa) | Rusimal Anchalik Unnayan Parishad (Orissa) | Sahaya(Orissa) | SAJAG ( Sahariya Jan Gath Bandhan ) | Sajukodi Dhorti Surkhya Porisod(Orissa) | Samajik Vikasa Kendram (Orissa) | Samajika Parivartan Vikas Kendra (Orissa)  | Samvedan Sanskritik Manch, Ahmedabad, Gujarat | SANGAT , Delhi | Saura Adivasi Ahikar Abhijan (Orissa) | Seva Bharati (Orissa) | Shaheen (Women Resource Centre), Hyderabad, AP | Shakti Sangthan(Orissa) | SICHREM, Bangalore | Socio Economic Development Programme (Orissa and West Bengal) | SUDHANTHRA, rehabilitation centre for victims of domestic violence and torture, Madurai | Theeradesa Mahilavedi, Kerala | VIBGYOR Film Collective | Visual Search, Bangalore | Zailaitmu(Orissa)

Cartoon by K.P Sasi

Scene Five:

Kamdev is speaking to someone on the phone. Puts the phone down.

Kamdev: Nickkerji. The American consultant will come soon.

The consultant Jatasar comes in with his suitcase, wearing a hat [...]]]> Read Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Cartoon by K.P Sasi

Scene Five:

Kamdev is speaking to someone on the phone. Puts the phone down.

Kamdev: Nickkerji. The American consultant will come soon.

The consultant Jatasar comes in with his suitcase, wearing a hat and sunglasses.

Jatasar: Good morning gentlemen!

Nickkerji: Good morning? It is already night here!

Jatasar: I react only to the time in America. It is morning there right now!

Nickkerji: And why is your name Jatasar?

Jatasar: I am the permanent advisor to Jindal, Tata and Essar and hence the name Ja-Ta-Sar.

Nickkerji: But these are Indian companies. What is American about them?

Jatasar: Any corporation that grows above a certain size and uses certain evil methods to grow further automatically becomes American. I don’t care where my clients come from. I am interested only in where they are going and how much they are paying.

Nickkerji: Sounds like the right man for our job. What can you do to cure our Chief Minister of his sudden habit of telling the truth on every occasion? Surely there must be a solution for this in America?

Jatasar: Sure, we just murder people who tell the truth. No problem, can be arranged. Tell me when and where.

Kamdev: No, Jatasar. You don’t understand. This CM is our man and is valuable to us. We just want to cure him of his habit of telling the truth. We don’t know what happened to him. He was telling perfect lies all his life and suddenly changed overnight.

Jatasar: Ok, I understand. If he has started telling the truth abruptly I suspect there must have been a contamination of his heart and mind for some reason.

Nickkerji: What do you mean?

Jatasar: It is not easy to convert people from telling lies to telling the truth unless there is a great shock of some kind. Maybe he got poisoned with something.

Kamdev: I hope he was not experimenting with some herbs that make people tell the truth! He told me once that he wanted to prove that narco-analysis was practiced in the Vedic period also! That is what must have happened- he found the herb and took it by accident!

Jatasar: The only way out now is to do a brain and heart transplant. It will be expensive but can be done. We will replace them with artificial ones that are specially manufactured by the Pentagon’s psychological warfare division. Many politicians and leaders around the world have them these days- particularly in the Third World countries.

Nickkerji: We don’t want him to have a completely American heart and brain. That will make it difficult for us to do politics in India. Can you make them in such a way that there is a Vedic touch to them?

Jatasar (laughs): Of course we will make the heart and brain with a big ‘Om’ inscribed on them if you want. We can tailor all American warfare products to suit local needs. That is…if you pay the right kind of money!

Nickkerji: You must give us a discount though from your usual prices. The CM has a very small brain and is practically heartless! So there is not too much to replace I think and the work should be quick! He was always a good liar in the past!

Jatasar (becoming serious): That is what they say about all the politicians around the world we have operated on. OK, I will give you a concession if you promise to get me more such clients in India in the future.

Scene Six:

The CM has woken up and is trying to get up. The Dakutar, the male nurses and Jatasar have just finished operating on him. Everyone around cheers.

Shouts of the crowd: Mukhya Mantriji ki jai ho! Jhoot bolney waley Mukhya Mantriji ki jai ho! Nickkerji, Balwa Julum, Kamdev, Jatasar and Ghulam are standing and watching the CM from the sidelines.

CM: (addressing the crowd): I am completely cured now! Whatever truth I may have uttered due to the contamination of my brain and heart in the past few days are all deeply regretted. Please forget them and believe only the lies I am about to tell you from now on. Now I am ready to continue my mission to give you all the Ram Rajya my party has been promising. I will serve you so well for the rest of my life that all of you will remember it all your life…. ( his voice tapers off)

Nickkerji: ( wiping tears from his eyes) This is a truly emotional moment for me. He has already told five lies in the first sentence he spoke after the operation. He remembers everything I taught him when he came to me the first time in his half-pants. He used to be so cute with his long, smooth legs!

Balwa Julum: Thank God he is back to normal once again! I thought I was going to be unemployed soon, the way he was going on exposing our attacks on the tribal people.

Kamdev: He was the most corrupt chief minister we had before he started telling the truth. Now I think he will beat all his former world records in corruption. Thanks to you Jatasar of course!

Jatasar: No need to thank me. This is a professional job, which has been paid for with money stolen from your country’s ordinary folk. And this will help my corporate clients too, from whom I will make additional money. In fact I should thank you for getting me this contract.

(turning to the audience) What I have not told anyone so far is that the artificial heart and brain of the CM can be manipulated with a remote control that is still in America. He can be switched off and on like a color TV set any time the Americans want. In fact, he can be controlled easily with a mere phone call from America.

Presses the remote control button and the CM walks like a robot turning around to the command of Jatasar’s finger movements.

Ghulam: Only the people of India can now save India from these remote-controlled politicians running a remote-controlled democracy.

END

Cartoon by K.P Sasi

Scene Two:

Ghulam goes off to get the tea, into which he crushes and puts a few of the truth-telling herbal leaves. All this with a wicked smile on his face.

Ghulam [...]]]> Read Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Cartoon by K.P Sasi

Scene Two:

Ghulam goes off to get the tea, into which he crushes and puts a few of the truth-telling herbal leaves. All this with a wicked smile on his face.

Ghulam gives the tea to the CM. Just as he is about to drink it Balwa Julum comes in and the CM keeps the teacup aside.

Balwa Julum: You called me sir? What do you want me to do now? Murder, rape, arson, communal violence, civil war. I can organise everything except nuclear war. Am still trying to get hold of the right material for that from Dr Khan across the border!

CM: Shaabaash! Balwa Julum! Spoken like a true mercenary! This time the task is much simpler- to drive thousands of poor tribals out of the forest where they live. All these past centuries we the ‘Aryan’ outsiders have driven the tribal communities into the forests by taking away their lands and now it is time to drive them out of the forests into out city slums! Who knew before, that the land beneath the forests could be the source of so much wealth! These tribal’s don’t understand this, but they are sitting on our treasure!

Balwa Julum: Will be done sir. You have to give my boys some police uniforms, guns, lots of money and impunity for any crime we may commit. And of course, before I forget – you have to keep the human rights fellows and the nosey journalists off our backs. They will make life difficult otherwise. I don’t like publicity!

CM: Don’t worry Balwa I have the right medicine for these human rights wallahs. We will accuse them of being ‘accomplices’ of the terrorists and put them away in prison. Once captured, we will give them this new truth–telling medicine that I have discovered!

And as for nosey journalists, a few expensive advertisements to their newspapers and magazines will shut them up!

Pulls out the leaf from his pocket and at the same time picks up the cup of tea and drinks it. Suddenly his head starts spinning and he lets out a weak cry and falls to the ground unconscious.

Balwa shouts to Ghulam: “Call a doctor quick. The CM has fainted’.

Ghulam: Which doctor should I call? All the best doctors in the state have been put away in jail already!

Balwa: I don’t care who you call. Call any quack you want. We can’t take responsibility if this fat politician dies alone with the two of us. If there is no doctor available get the DakuTar, that dacoit doctor!

Scene Three:

Two men, dressed as male nurse, come rushing in and put the CM on a stretcher and take him away. He is taken to Dakutar, who checks his heartbeat with a stethoscope.

Dakutar: I don’t hear any heartbeat but I think that is normal. A politician of the CM’s stature could not have any heart anyway. I think he will be all right if we give him some electrical shocks. As long as there is no power cut I think we can do this successfully.

Dakutar proceeds to give the CM shocks while the two male nurses hold him down. CM convulses a few times and then wakes up screaming.

CM: Where am I? What happened? Who are all of you?

Dakutar: I am a Dakutar, the Daku Doctor. You are the Chief Minister of our state. I just now saved your life. So you should give me half your property when you die. In fact I will make sure you die very soon. No, no- what I mean is that you will live very long sir if you give me half your property!

CM: I don’t know. I am feeling very strange right now. I feel like telling the truth all the time. I have never ever felt like this all my life. Even as a baby I used to tell lies and my mother though I was the cleverest child in the whole world and was so proud of me.

You mentioned property. I want to tell the truth about the property I own. I have one apartment in Paris, two in America, three in London, a dozen in Delhi and maybe fifty here in our state capital. I have millions of dollars stashed away in a Swiss bank and also own at least ten percent of the Bombay stock market. I stole all this money from various people, but mostly from the people of India. I am the most corrupt Chief Minister I have ever personally met and I meet myself every morning when I look into the mirror. I have committed crimes that would make the Satan go back to kindergarten and start his schooling all over again!

Dakutar: Wow! That is pure honesty on your part to admit all that! And now that I know how much you own I feel like charging you a little more for ‘saving your life’!

CM: (continuing) I am going to tell the truth and nothing but the truth from now on. I am going to tell the entire country about the crimes committed by my government, my party, the ministers in my cabinet. How we have been paid by the big companies to steal land from the people and hand it over to them. How we have given away valuable public property to private businessmen in return for their bribes. How we have arrested our opponents by planting false evidence on them and calling them terrorists. I have the details, the records, the evidence against all my colleagues in the government. They will all go to jail, bloody rascals………

CM is led out by the two male nurses, still babbling about exposing his government to the people.

Scene Four:

Nickkerji is discussing the CM’s condition with Kamdev

Nickkerji: Kamdevji, what I hear about the CM’s behaviour is very disturbing. He is revealing all the truth about his government, his cabinet colleagues, the party, our goals and objectives. If this continues we can forget any idea of establishing the AaRam Rajya we have been aiming for. .

Kamdev: Aaram for us and Ram, Ram for the masses you mean. Yes, this news about the CM is very disturbing indeed. Truth from the mouths of people in power is dangerous- for the people in power. For speaking such truths our government has arrested so many people and now the CM is saying the same things openly.

Nickkerji: You are supposed to be a master of yoga and ayurveda. You have made a lot of money out of twisting yourself into all kinds of positions on television channels, encouraging people to deep breathe polluted air and by selling a lot of spurious herbal medicines. Do you have anything from our ancient Indian wisdom that can cure the CM and make him tell lies again? Surely there must be something?

Kamdev: Telling lies always came naturally to my ancestors. They did not have to do yoga or take any herbal medicine for that. Every time they told a lie a new god was born and that is why we have so many of them. Yes, for making people tell the truth there was a special herb that was used. If there was no herb available a simpler technique was used- the danda, which is still being used by the Indian police for extracting confessions from prisoners. Let me think deeply about what we can do to make the CM tell lies again?

Nickkerji: I don’t trust you one bit and know you are a very devious fellow. That is why I am talking to you. You are the only one who can solve this problem. Give me a solution using your knowledge of ancient Indian wisdom. We need to solve this problem or else we are all doomed.

Kamdev: I know from my understanding of ancient Indian wisdom that the best solutions to our local problems are always those that are imported from America. Even in the Vedic period we had good relations with America. I would suggest – for getting the CM to tell lies once again- we need to hire the services of an American corporation that specialises in this kind of work.

Nickkerji: Kamdev, you are a genius! I knew our ancients were smart but did not realize how smart! Importing solutions from America is indeed the way forward. After all American politicians tell bigger and better lies than even our local ones. They must have some special technology for telling lies, apart from their smooth tongues!

Read Part 3