GJM leaders won’t toe Telangana line, for now
Madhuparna Das Tags, IE, Jul 06 2011, Kolkata: At a time when Congress MLAs from Telengana have upped the ante over the separate statehood demand, Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) legislators in West Bengal have decided to lie low for the time being and instead are looking forward to the proposed interim hill council.
Earlier, every time the Telengana issue erupted, GJM leaders in Bengal had used the occasion to raise the pitch for statehood.
This time though, the four GJM MLAs see hope in taking forward the tripartite agreement on the cards. They are also hoping a generous release of funds for the proposed hill council from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
When asked about the GJM's stand on the Telengana stir and the issue of separate statehood, GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said: "We are closely watching the moves of Telengana leaders. We will discuss these issues in our next central committee meeting. However, at present, we do not have any plan to go against the Mamata Banerjee government on any issue."
The GJM MLAs have a clear directive from their top leadership to cooperate with the new government. Trilok Dewan, MLA from Darjeeling, said, "We have just started negotiating with the government. How can we take any violent step? The approach of the new government is positive. We have to wait till the tripartite talks are over. The final call will be taken by GJM president Bimal Gurung."
Harka Bahadur Chhetri, MLA from Kalimpong, said, "This is a very big issue. We have to see the fallout of the Telengana stir. The central committee of the GJM will sit for a discussion soon."
"But if the situation demands, we will happily tender our resignation," added Chhetri.
According to sources, the GJM has started bargaining for a big development package for the hills.
A senior GJM leader is learnt have told government representatives that former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had asked them to drop the statehood demand against a special package of Rs 1000 crore package for the hills. But the GJM did not agree.
So this time, the GJM leaders will ask for a bigger package before signing the MoU with the state government, said a GJM leader.
मुख्यमन्त्री चामलिङलाई लण्डनमा नेपाली अन्तर्राष्टीय साहित्यिक सम्मेलनमा निम्तो -भारतबाट डा. जीवन नाम्दुङ सम्मेलनका सल्लाहकार प्रतिनिधिमा सामेल
विजय बान्तवा, गान्तोक, जुलाई 5: आगामी अगष्ट २५ देखि २७ तारिखसम्म संयुक्त अधिराज्य बेलायतको राजधानी लण्डनमा सम्पन्न हुनुगइरहेको अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय नेपाली साहित्य सम्मेलन(अनेसास)-मा प्रमुख अतिथिको रुपमा भाग लिन मुख्यमन्त्री डा. पवन चामलिङलाई औपचारिकरुपमा निमन्त्रणा गरिएको छ भने फेरि पनि अन्तर्राष्ट्रीय सम्मेलनलाई अझ मुख्यमन्त्री एक कवि तथा साहित्यकार पनि भएका नाताले हुनाले उनलाई फेरि सम्मान जनाउँदै औपचारिक निमन्त्रणाको लागि एक टोलीले भेट गर्ने अनेसासका केन्द्रीय उपाध्यक्ष तथा मूल संयोजिका जया राईले लण्डनबाट टेलिफोन मार्फत यस सम्वाददातालाई जनाएका छन्।यसका साथै भारतबाट प्रतिनिधिको रुपमा साहित्य अकादमी, नयाँ दिल्लीका नेपाली सल्लाहकार समितिका संयोजक एवं सल्लाहकार डा.जीवन नाम्दुङलाई पनि अनेसासका सल्लाहकार समितिमा चयन गरिएको औपचारिकरुपले पत्राचार गरेर जनाएका छन् ।सो सम्मेलनमा बेलायतमा नेपालका राजदूत लगायत विदेशहरूबाट विभिन्न ओहोदाका वरिष्ठ व्यक्तिहरू साथै साहित्यकारहरूको जमघट हुने जनाइएको छ। यो संम्मेलन विश्वका प्रमुख देशहरू अमेरिका, जापान सबैतिर फेलिएको तथा त्यहाँ समिति पनि गठन भएको जानकारी गराउँदै अनेसासले लामो सूची पनि जारी गरेको छ।सल्लाहकार समितिमा सल्लाहकारहरु -श्री ज्ञानेन्द्र गदाल - अध्यक्ष अनेसास केन्द्रीय कमिटी, श्री होमनाथ सुबेदी - अध्यक्ष अनेसास बोर्ड अफ ट्रस्त्री, ड़ा.सुरेश चन्द्र चालिसे - बेलायतका लागि महामहिम नेपाली राजदुत, श्री कृष्ण बजगाई - बरिष्ठ उपाध्यक्ष अनेसास केन्द्रीय कमिटी - बेल्जियम , श्री ईश्वर मानन्धर - साहित्यकार , समाजसेवी - बेलायत ,प्रो . सुर्य सुबेदी - बेलायत , प्रो .माइकल हट - बेलायत , ड़ा. पोषेन्द्र सत्यल - सस्थापक अध्यक्ष अनेसास बेलायत च्याप्टर , श्री . जनक बस्नेत - बेलायत , श्री . भगवान चामलिंग - बेलायत , प्रो. गोविन्दराज भट्टराई – नेपाल, ड़ा. सुषमा आचार्य - नेपाल . श्री विश्वविमोह श्रेष्ठ - नेपाल , ड़ा. श्याम कार्की - अमेरिका ,श्रीमती भारती गौतम - अमेरिका , श्री दिपक बिष्ट - अष्ट्रेलिया, श्री हरिहर अर्याल - फ्रान्स , श्री दुबसु छेत्री - जापान तथा डा. जीवन नाम्दुंग – दार्जिलिंग, भारत रहेका छन्। उल्लेखनीय छ, बेलायतका दक्षिण एसियाका नेपाली विभागका प्रोफेसर सर माइकल हट सिक्किममा पनि केही वर्ष अघि सिक्किम सम्मान सम्मिलनमा भाग लिनु आइपुगेका थिए।
यसका साथै विभिन्न समितिहरू पनि गठन गरिएको छ, जसमा साहित्य, भाषा समिति र प्रचार प्रसार समितिमा सिक्किम, भारतबाट पनि प्रतिनिधित्व गराइएको छ।यसका साथै यसपालि हुने दोस्रो अन्तर्राष्ट्रीय साहित्य सम्मेलनले विशेष महत्व राखेको जनाउँदै विश्वभरि छरिएर बसेका नेपाली साहित्यकारहरू र प्रतिनिधिहरूलाई लण्डनमा एक गरी साहित्यिक चिन्तन, गोष्टी र प्रकाशन समेत गर्ने निधो गरिएको जनाइएको छ तथा यसको लागि युद्ध स्तरमा नै काम चलिरहेको जनाइएको छ।
उल्लेखनीय छ, अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय नेपाली साहित्य समाजका केन्द्रीय अध्यक्ष श्री ज्ञानेन्द्र गद्दाल र केन्द्रीय उपाध्यक्ष जया राईको आग्रहमा नेपालका वरिष्ठ पत्रकार एवं लेखक डम्बरकुमार गिरीले मुख्यमन्त्री डा. पवन चामलिङलाई अनेसासको तर्फबाट केही दिन अघि मन्त्री सी.बी. कार्की पूर्वमन्त्री बी.एम. रामुदामुको साथमा औपचारिक रुपमा निमन्त्रणा पेश गर्दै भेट गरिसकेका हुन्।अनेसासले ६५ भन्दा बढी कृति प्रकाशन गरिसकेको छ। अन्तरार्ष्ट्रीय साहित्य सम्मेलन वा समाजबारे जानकारी लिनु तथा सहभागी बन्नुको लागि सम्मेलनको वेबसाइट www.inlsuk.org खोलेर हेर्ने पनि अनुरोध जनाइएको छ।
Evening Headlines- KalimNews:
A teacher of a private English school is allegedly held responsible for suicide of a student of Class VII by his parents in Kalimpong. School authority denies the charge.
Pawan Chamling Chief Minister of Sikkim is invited as the chief guest of the International Nepali Literary conference to be held on 26 and 27 August at London by the Uk chapter of International Nepali Literary Society. Chamling will also be felicitated by the INLS. Dr. Jiwan Namdung is nominated in the Advisory Board of the Society.
Tribals pin hope on PC - Parishad off to Delhi on July 9
TT, Alipurduar, July 5: The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad has decided to meet P. Chidambaram in New Delhi next week after appeals to Mamata Banerjee to give them a hearing on the hill territory issue were allegedly unheeded.
The tribal outfit also made it clear today that it would not allow “even an inch of land” from the plains to be brought under the jurisdiction of the proposed administrative set-up for the Darjeeling hills.
The Parishad also shot down the claim of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha — which has been demanding the inclusion of the Dooars mouzas in the hill set-up — that it was in touch with the tribal leaders.
“A month ago, we wrote to the chief minister, expressing our wish to meet her, but there was no response from her end. On July 9, we are going to New Delhi and on 11th or the 12th we will meet (union home minister) Chidambaram to make him aware of the situation in the Terai and the Dooars. Till now, Chidambaram has heard only the Morcha. We will tell him that there will be a law and order problem if the mouzas in the Terai and the Dooars are included in the hill council,” said Birsha Tirki, the president of the state committee of the Parishad.
Morcha chief Bimal Gurung, who had held two back-to-back public meetings in the Dooars this week, had said that it was for the government — and not for the Parishad — to decide whether some pockets of the region should come under the proposed authority for the hills.
The Dooars Terai Nagarik Mancha, another anti-Gorkhaland outfit, today alleged that Gurung was only whipping up tension in the region by his presence.
Lari Bose, the working president of the Mancha, said: “We have written to the chief minister that the Parishad should be included in the high-level committee formed (to look into the Morcha territory demand).”
SC rejects judge plea
PTI, New Delhi, July 5: The Supreme Court today rejected Sikkim High Court Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran’s plea to invalidate the inquiry by a Rajya Sabha-appointed panel into his alleged corrupt practices and misconduct.
A bench of justices G.S. Singhvi and C.K. Prasad, however, asked the Rajya Sabha chairman to replace one of the three members of the panel, advocate P.P. Raom, whose unbiasness was questioned by Dinakaran. The bench also accused Dinakaran of adopting tactics to delay the submission of the panel’s report.
Forest guard injured
TT, Jaigaon, July 5: A forest guard was injured when a gang of timber smugglers attacked him in Khariabandar beat under the Chulsa range of Jalpaiguri forest division yesterday.
Guard Bazler Rehman was patrolling the beat along with two colleagues when they spotted the group of timber smugglers. The guards challenged them and fired a round in the air. But the smugglers put up a resistance and attacked the guards with sharp weapons. Rehman was taken to the Malbazar subdivisional hospital with an injury on the head. He was later shifted to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital. The forest department has lodged a complaint with the Metelli police.
Bantawa, Homnath receives PCS Award, Rasaily to be felicitated
Prabin Khaling, KalimNews, Gangtok, 5 July : Senior journalist Bijay Bantawa was today announced as the recipient of the ‘Kanchandzonga Kalam Puraskar’ awarded by the Press Club of Sikkim (PCS) for the year 2011.
Bantawa,the editor cum publisher of weekly newspaper Himgiri, will receive the award constituted by the PCS during the 9th foundation day function of the organization on July 17 here at Gangtok.
During their first meeting today at the club office, the newly elected PCS executive members also unanimously decided to felicitate Arun Kumar Rasaily during the foundation day celebrations.
Rasaily, the Kalimpong correspondent of Nepali daily Sunakhari Samachar published from Siliguri, will be honoured for his valuable contributions in the field of journalism for more than a decade. He is also president of Kalimpong Press Club.Continuing with its initiative to encourage upcoming journalists, the PCS selected Homnath Davari for the ‘most promising journalist’ award for 2011.
Davari is the South district correspondent based at Namchi for Gangtok published Nepali daily Samay Dainik. During the meeting, the PCS executive team also took strong objection of the recent circulation of an anonymous SMS and pamphlets against some members of the organization. Condemning this act, the PCS executive members have taken a decision to terminate the club membership of any member found involved in such defamatory practices against media persons.
Earlier, the outgoing executive members handed away the official papers of the PCS to the new team. The PCS has also set up a 7-member advisory committee with veteran
journalist and former president CD Rai as the chief advisor. The other senior journalists in the advisory committee are Santosh Nirash, Subash Deepak, Ashoke Chatterjee, Bijay Bantawa, Amalendu Kundu and Kishore Moktan.
Bengal police arrests Gurgaon job firm staff
Aditya Dev, TNN , Jul 4, Gurgaon: Three persons, including the manager of a Gurgaon-based recruitment firm and the general manager of a Singapore-based placement agency, were arrested by the enforcement branch of the Darjeeling police in West Bengal on Saturday. They were conducting a placement drive for domestic helps when the police barged in, suspecting that everything was not above board. They were charged with not having the requisite licence for carrying out the drive.
The accused have been identified as Sukhvinder Kaur, general manager of Singapore-based KOOSH placement agency and her husband Manjeet Singh, and Mohan Singh, manager of a Gurgaon-based firm Innovision Ltd. They were arrested from Sinclairs Hotel where interviews were supposed to take place. Sources said four Nepali residents were also arrested for assisting them.
Innovision placement agency, which has its main office on MG Road, was conducting a placement drive for its Singapore client. The Darjeeling police had registered a case under sections 41/102 (arrested under suspicion for verification of recruitment licence) of CrPC at the Pradhan Nagar police station in Siliguri.
The accused were released on interim bail on Sunday by the district magistrate court, which ordered the police to verify if the licences held by the employees were authentic. D P Singh, superintendent of police, Darjeeling, said, “They could not furnish valid licence papers. They did not have permission from the Protector General of Emigrants, Kolkata, for conducting the drive, which is mandatory.”
The additional superintendent of police, Gaurav Sharma, said the police are verifying the credentials of the company.
West Bengal Movement For Release Of Political Prisoners
Ranjit Sur, Countercurrents.org, 04 July: Its almost one and half a month since a New Government has sworn in West Bengal under the leadership of Ms Mamata Banerjee. Yet, not a single Political Prisoner is released, as promised . No one knows when and how they will get much expected release or whether they will get it at all. Not a single case slapped on the political workers by the previous autocratic left front regime has been withdrawn. As a result hundreds of political workers are languishing in jails in inhuman conditions for years and thousands of political workers released on bails earlier are running from courts to courts for attending cases and thus ruined economically. Who ever and whenever the Government is asked about their release and withdrawal of cases a patent answer comes ‘ lets wait for the review committee report’. But what is this committee about ?
In continuation of the decision taken by the Cabinet in its first meeting on 20th May’11 the new Mamata Banerjee Governement has notified in the Kolkata Gazatte the formation of the Review Committee for the release of Political Prisoners in West Bengal. The 4th June notification published the names of the 13 member committee along with the terms of reference. Retired Justice Moloy Sengupta of Kolkata High Court is the Chairman of the Committee. Out of the 12 others there are 4 IPS Officers and 2 IAS Officers. The IPS Officers are ADG( Law & Order), Special Commissioner of Police, Kolkata, Director of Prosecution and IG( Prison).The notification claimed to include 6 members as “ Representatives from Human Rights Organisation/Social Organisation/Legal Profession”.They are : Debabrata Bandopadhyay, Sujato Bhadra, Debashis Bhattacharjee, Rajdeep Majumdar, Subrata Hati and Ansar Mondal.
But no names of the organizations are mentioned from where they are chosen. Last three named persons are all practicing lawyers close to the ruling Parties. All the other members are close advisers of the Chief Minister. One of the members is a known Human Right activist and fought well during the last regime.
The terms of reference has 7 clauses. These are : 1) to identify the politically motivated FIR ; 2) to identify the under-trial political prisoners who have been undergoing trial for the offences pertaining to political movement as per section 24 of the West Bengal Correctional Services Act, 1992; 3) to identify the persons who have been convicted for the offences pertaining to political movements as per section 24 of the West Bengal Correctional Services Act 1992 ; 4) to identify the nature/characteristics of the offences and the background leading to the commission of such offences ; 5) to examine the conduct of prisoners in the correctional homes ; 6) to ascertain the probability of their reverting back to the commissions of offences; 7) to examine the probability of instigating others to commit offences.
The Review Committee will have to submit its report within a period of three months from the date of the resolution.
The formation of the Review Committee clearly ignored the demand of the right bodies of the state for Unconditional Release of Political Prisoners. Now, selecting the persons close to Chief Minister and bearucrats as review committee members even without consulting the Human Rights Organisations has made the bodies very doubtful over the intention of the Government. Humiliating terms of reference forced all the bodies to hit the streets with mass programmes one after another against the new Government.
Now, let us have some discussion regarding the terms of reference. The first three clauses mentioned the basic task of identifying the politically motivated FIRs and finalizing the list of political prisoners as per West Bengal Correctional Services Act 1992. But the subsequent four clauses are very objectionable to any rights activist. These clauses are added to divide the political prisoners according to Government’s plan. These clauses clearly indicate that the Government is planning to ask for an Undertaking from the Prisoners to be released. Clauses 6&7 are very humiliating and insulting as well as unconstitutional.
These clauses will find whether the released prisoners will be involved in politics again or whether the released prisoners will influence others to join in their politics. Joining and preaching politics is ones fundamental right. So ascertaining their chance of joining politics again as a precondition of release or demanding undertaking of not doing politics of his choice or preaching to others is highly objectionable. In 1977 late Charan Singh, Home Minister of the then Janata Dal Government raised such a demand as a precondition for release of political prisoners. But a thunderous protest across the Nation forced him to withdraw the humiliating proposal. Now, the Mamata Banerjee government wish to place the same demand through back door and that too with consent from a section of leading Human Right activists. This is alarming in all respects, particularly for the Human Rights Movement of the State in future.
Moreover, the Committee will look into the behaviour of Prisoners inside the jail. History shows that the Political Prisoners always demanded their dues inside the jails and initiated movement against the jail authority for corruption and high handedness . So jail authority will never certify them of good conduct . Interestingly IG (prison) against whom they fought will finally prepare the report and will judge the report as well as a Review Committee member . So what could be the outcome ? What is the intention of the Government ? Do the Government really want to release the political prisoners or just wish to release some persons of their choice to show that they kept their Election Promise ! This is a lakh rupee question hovering over the minds of every right activist of the state.
One more point to add, right activists all over India are closely watching the movement for release of political prisoners in West Bengal.
{ The writer is a Secretariat Member of Association for Protection of Democratic Rights( APDR) . The opinion expressed here is his personal.}
LAND MARK
Opinion, TT, 6 July: Is resignation a better political weapon than the hunger strike? Legislators from Telangana — 81 members of Andhra Pradesh’s legislative assembly and 10 members of parliament who resigned en masse on Monday — seem desperate for an answer. They had witnessed the efficacy of the fast-unto-death of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, in 2009, which had made the Centre concede to the TRS’s demand for a separate Telangana. Assured of their strength in numbers, the Telangana legislators have now opted for the less taxing option of resignation to force the Central government to agree to the division of Andhra Pradesh. They are not entirely wrong in their assessment of the vulnerability of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government. The resignation of all 51 Congress MLAs from Telangana could destabilize the Congress state government. The withdrawal of all 118 MLAs from Telangana could even lead to the dissolution of the state assembly, leading to a declaration of emergency. The Congress’s weakened position in Andhra Pradesh, which has 33 MPs in parliament, could also have a serious impact on the health of the Central government. Unfortunately for the Telangana legislators, the Central government does not seem to be cracking up as fast as expected. It is staring political death in the eye and resisting the collective blackmail.
It is a bitter irony that the birth of Telangana, or similar geographical constructs such as Gorkhaland, Vidarbha, or Harit Pradesh, should be decided by the sudden loss or discovery of nerve on the part of the Centre. The case for the reorganization of states should depend on coherent reasoning and a formulation of a proper administrative procedure to address administrative neglect and the problems of cultural identities. If Telangana seeks consideration on grounds of poor administration, the option of having an autonomous council for the region could be explored. India’s experiment with bifurcation of states has not exactly been an encouraging one. The issue is more complex for a state formed on linguistic basis such as Andhra Pradesh, where identity politics could prove to be a bottomless pit. If the Centre has found rare courage to withstand the arm-twisting, it should hold on to it and explore a more scientific way of going about the business of truncating land.
Fasts, Hunger And Hunger Strikes
Anand Teltumbde, Countercurrents.org, 05 July, 2011: “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”
Even Harry S. Truman, the 33rd President of the U.S., the author of the infamous Truman Doctrine to contain Communism had this advice to the governments!
Fast and Hunger
It is amusing that the country having a dubious distinction of being a home to world’s most hungry people should be shaken by the threat of hunger by a few. But that is what has been happening since Mahatma Gandhi forged them into a weapon. Interestingly, he referred to it as fast, not hunger strike, which it actually was. Fast has a religious undertone, as Ed Cole, the founder of the Christian Men’s Network in the U.S, candidly stated: “A fast is not a hunger strike. Fasting submits to God’s commands. A hunger strike makes God submit to our demands.” It has class connotation too. For elites it is fast, for the commoners, it is hunger strike. After all how could elites go on strike? They need to be differentiated from the working classes whose business it is to strike. One is not sure but one commonly confronts this differentiation in practice. Bhagat Singh and his comrades had gone on hunger strike in Lahore jail in which Jatin Das became a martyr on 82nd day, marking the limits of human endurance and resolve in the longest hunger strike in the world history. On the other hand, fasts, ‘indefinite’ or ‘unto death’ were undertaken by Gandhi and Gandhians many times. The very label of fast, as it appeared, assured that it would not be stretched to death and would be concluded before long. But if it is a strike, one could not be a sure.
Mere use of labels would not however work. The system identifies what you are by the issue you espouse. Take for instance the case of Irom Sharmila from Manipur, who has entered the incredible eleventh year of her fast unto death. A poor soul, she thought, she was following Gandhian method and declared her protest as fast unto death whereas what she actually did was a hunger strike. Because, the issue she raised was the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which has virtually reduced the entire North East into a military state for the last five decades. It was too radical a demand for a fast; it had to be a hunger strike. The state understood and responded commensurately. While it has taken care in maintaining its Gandhian façade by not letting her die (the state has been force feeding her), it has never heeded her demand. Sharmila shames India for its pretentions to be a democratic republic. And she is not alone; there has been a long saga of struggles of Manipuri people, notably women of her ilk. In 2004 in the wake of rape and murder of Thanglam Manorama, these brave women had publicly unclothed themselves before the army headquarters with placard “Indian army, rape us”! Even such a shaming protest failed to move the government to stop AFSPA atrocities on hapless people.
Anna, Medha, Ramdev
During the past couple of months there have been four protest fasts led by three notable persons- Anna Hazare, Medha Patkar, Baba Ramdev and the repeat by Anna Hazare in condemnation of the government’s highhanded demolition of Ramdev show at Ram Leela maidan in Delhi. Of these Medha Patkar’s fast has been the least known despite being in the media savvy Mumbai. Medha Patkar, a veteran social activist who has been the face of non-violent peoples’ struggles for over the last two decades would certainly stand taller than Anna Hazare, despite media’s euphoric projection of him as our second Mahatma and certainly an upstart Baba Ramdev, whose antecedents are getting murkier with every passing day. Hazare’s first fast of 97 hours and second one from 10 am to 6 pm at Rajghat was painted by the media as the national movement. Ramdev had still more impressive start, the UPA’s senior ministers, Pranab Mukerjee and Kapil Sibal, having gone to the airport to receive him and almost yielding to his demands within hours from the start of the fast. However, the moment the Congress sensed the Saffron game plan behind Ramdev, it decided to demolish the drama in most unbecoming and shameful manner.
Medha’s fast was in process of the continuing movement against eviction of slum dwellers in the name of redevelopment. Mammoth slums are being demolished without slum dwellers’ consent under the controversial clause 3K of the Maharashtra Slum Areas Act. Taking up this issue being agitated against by the residents of Golibar slum, the second biggest in Mumbai, against the Shivalik ventures, she began her fast demanding immediate cancellation of the Golibar project and all other projects sanctioned under the Clause 3K along with the clause itself. This is the concrete issue that directly hit more than half the population of Mumbai metropolis that live in slums and arguably one of the major sources of corruption. As against this, Anna’s band has abstracted the entire issue of corruption reducing it to the lack of constitutional institution of a Lokpal. It has effectively diverted the public outrage over successive corruption cases to the parleys for drafting the Lokpal bill. Ramdev’s has been clearly a populist show, full of rhetorical noises, echoing saffron hyperbole, but carefully avoiding to point at the policy framework, shared by all the political class that gives rise to black money.
Magic of the Media
It is interesting to see how media differentiated them. While the media went gaga over the fast of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev, it had almost ignored Medha’s although the issue it had raised related to life and death of the slum dwellers in Mumbai in contrast to the surreality of corruption or abstraction of black money, the formers blew up. All of them were Gandhian in their approach but they differed in their appeal. Medha’s fast being in support of poor slum dwellers was against the development vision of the growing middle class, which constituted target readership or viewership of the media, and hence had to be ignored. On the other hand, the campaign against corruption and black money has basically risen from these classes who are eager to see India as superpower but see it being thwarted by the politicians. The abhorrence of the latter is really a reflection of their loathing for the majority of people of the lower classes, who are seen to shape the politics. Naturally, media was all out to promote it to maximize their gain.
Media is ultimately a business and cannot ignore its business interest. But the timeframes with which various businesses envisioned their missions being long in earlier times, they appeared different. The globalization paradigm has compressed not only geographical space but also time and hence every business appears nakedly driven by short term profit. Media was always manned by middle class people but they had to transcend their class boundaries to be credible in their long term business interests. Today, they are conditioned by their own class vision as their customers, having disposal incomes are also of their own class. In process, media actually recreates the middle class world for you, which has little relation with the reality. With advanced technologies, media has become so powerful that it makes and unmakes the world for you, thereby shaping and conditioning politics too. It is therefore that peoples’ movements are marginalized; Maoists and Muslims are black-painted; and Dalits are stereotyped. The implication of this change in media to peoples’ politics has been ominous. For instance, civil rights movement, which is predicated on media to project instances of civil rights violations to the world and thereby create pressure on the state finds itself in vulnerable situation with increasing ignorance from mainstream media.
Might of the State
The above episodes of Gandhian fast also differ in the state responses they received. Medha Patkar’s fast had just reiterated the continuing demand of the movement ‘ghar bachao aandolan’, which was consistently ignored by the government. When she went on fast along with some activists from the slum, there was no response from the state, despite their having documentary proof that Shivalik Venture had forged signatures of people and indulged in many other frauds, the crime for which its functionaries should have been summarily arrested. On the eighth day, when her health showed sign of deterioration, the government yielded and constituted committees to review its decisions. In Anna Hazare’s case, the government’s response was much faster, in salvaging situation by constituting the drafting committee for the Lokpal bill. In Baba Ramdev’s case the government was embarrassingly receptive to start with and had reached some secret understanding with him. It only had a fascist somersault when it sensed uncongenial political angle in it and unleashed its police to tear gas people and forcibly drive them out of the Ramlila ground at the dead of night. It rightly invoked condemnation from every corner.
Notwithstanding the character of these episodes, there cannot be a doubt that they were peoples’ peaceful protests well within the constitutional framework. The argument dismissing these protests as disruptive of the parliamentary system is spurious because it would amount to giving blanket license to the so called parliamentarians to loot the country. The state should have ways and means to deal with any kind of protests in democratic manner. If it violates its boundaries and clamps down on peoples’ protest, it actually provokes people to try out their might in anyway they like. People, unless driven to desperation by the arrogant state, cannot challenge the might of the modern state. The fact that many peoples’ movements had to take up arms to express themselves should impel the state to introspect its behavior. The manner in which the media deals with peoples’ protests and the way the state patterns its responses, as exposed by these episodes surely puts the question mark on peoples’ democratic movements.
Dr Anand Teltumbde is a writer, political analyst and a civil rights activist with CPDR, Mumbai
Pawan Chamling Chief Minister of Sikkim is invited as the chief guest of the International Nepali Literary conference to be held on 26 and 27 August at London by the Uk chapter of International Nepali Literary Society. Chamling will also be felicitated by the INLS. Dr. Jiwan Namdung is nominated in the Advisory Board of the Society.
Tribals pin hope on PC - Parishad off to Delhi on July 9
TT, Alipurduar, July 5: The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad has decided to meet P. Chidambaram in New Delhi next week after appeals to Mamata Banerjee to give them a hearing on the hill territory issue were allegedly unheeded.
The tribal outfit also made it clear today that it would not allow “even an inch of land” from the plains to be brought under the jurisdiction of the proposed administrative set-up for the Darjeeling hills.
The Parishad also shot down the claim of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha — which has been demanding the inclusion of the Dooars mouzas in the hill set-up — that it was in touch with the tribal leaders.
“A month ago, we wrote to the chief minister, expressing our wish to meet her, but there was no response from her end. On July 9, we are going to New Delhi and on 11th or the 12th we will meet (union home minister) Chidambaram to make him aware of the situation in the Terai and the Dooars. Till now, Chidambaram has heard only the Morcha. We will tell him that there will be a law and order problem if the mouzas in the Terai and the Dooars are included in the hill council,” said Birsha Tirki, the president of the state committee of the Parishad.
Morcha chief Bimal Gurung, who had held two back-to-back public meetings in the Dooars this week, had said that it was for the government — and not for the Parishad — to decide whether some pockets of the region should come under the proposed authority for the hills.
The Dooars Terai Nagarik Mancha, another anti-Gorkhaland outfit, today alleged that Gurung was only whipping up tension in the region by his presence.
Lari Bose, the working president of the Mancha, said: “We have written to the chief minister that the Parishad should be included in the high-level committee formed (to look into the Morcha territory demand).”
SC rejects judge plea
PTI, New Delhi, July 5: The Supreme Court today rejected Sikkim High Court Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran’s plea to invalidate the inquiry by a Rajya Sabha-appointed panel into his alleged corrupt practices and misconduct.
A bench of justices G.S. Singhvi and C.K. Prasad, however, asked the Rajya Sabha chairman to replace one of the three members of the panel, advocate P.P. Raom, whose unbiasness was questioned by Dinakaran. The bench also accused Dinakaran of adopting tactics to delay the submission of the panel’s report.
Forest guard injured
TT, Jaigaon, July 5: A forest guard was injured when a gang of timber smugglers attacked him in Khariabandar beat under the Chulsa range of Jalpaiguri forest division yesterday.
Guard Bazler Rehman was patrolling the beat along with two colleagues when they spotted the group of timber smugglers. The guards challenged them and fired a round in the air. But the smugglers put up a resistance and attacked the guards with sharp weapons. Rehman was taken to the Malbazar subdivisional hospital with an injury on the head. He was later shifted to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital. The forest department has lodged a complaint with the Metelli police.
Bantawa, Homnath receives PCS Award, Rasaily to be felicitated
Prabin Khaling, KalimNews, Gangtok, 5 July : Senior journalist Bijay Bantawa was today announced as the recipient of the ‘Kanchandzonga Kalam Puraskar’ awarded by the Press Club of Sikkim (PCS) for the year 2011.
Bantawa,the editor cum publisher of weekly newspaper Himgiri, will receive the award constituted by the PCS during the 9th foundation day function of the organization on July 17 here at Gangtok.During their first meeting today at the club office, the newly elected PCS executive members also unanimously decided to felicitate Arun Kumar Rasaily during the foundation day celebrations.
Rasaily, the Kalimpong correspondent of Nepali daily Sunakhari Samachar published from Siliguri, will be honoured for his valuable contributions in the field of journalism for more than a decade. He is also president of Kalimpong Press Club.Continuing with its initiative to encourage upcoming journalists, the PCS selected Homnath Davari for the ‘most promising journalist’ award for 2011.
Davari is the South district correspondent based at Namchi for Gangtok published Nepali daily Samay Dainik. During the meeting, the PCS executive team also took strong objection of the recent circulation of an anonymous SMS and pamphlets against some members of the organization. Condemning this act, the PCS executive members have taken a decision to terminate the club membership of any member found involved in such defamatory practices against media persons.
Earlier, the outgoing executive members handed away the official papers of the PCS to the new team. The PCS has also set up a 7-member advisory committee with veteran
journalist and former president CD Rai as the chief advisor. The other senior journalists in the advisory committee are Santosh Nirash, Subash Deepak, Ashoke Chatterjee, Bijay Bantawa, Amalendu Kundu and Kishore Moktan.
Bengal police arrests Gurgaon job firm staff
Aditya Dev, TNN , Jul 4, Gurgaon: Three persons, including the manager of a Gurgaon-based recruitment firm and the general manager of a Singapore-based placement agency, were arrested by the enforcement branch of the Darjeeling police in West Bengal on Saturday. They were conducting a placement drive for domestic helps when the police barged in, suspecting that everything was not above board. They were charged with not having the requisite licence for carrying out the drive.
The accused have been identified as Sukhvinder Kaur, general manager of Singapore-based KOOSH placement agency and her husband Manjeet Singh, and Mohan Singh, manager of a Gurgaon-based firm Innovision Ltd. They were arrested from Sinclairs Hotel where interviews were supposed to take place. Sources said four Nepali residents were also arrested for assisting them.
Innovision placement agency, which has its main office on MG Road, was conducting a placement drive for its Singapore client. The Darjeeling police had registered a case under sections 41/102 (arrested under suspicion for verification of recruitment licence) of CrPC at the Pradhan Nagar police station in Siliguri.
The accused were released on interim bail on Sunday by the district magistrate court, which ordered the police to verify if the licences held by the employees were authentic. D P Singh, superintendent of police, Darjeeling, said, “They could not furnish valid licence papers. They did not have permission from the Protector General of Emigrants, Kolkata, for conducting the drive, which is mandatory.”
The additional superintendent of police, Gaurav Sharma, said the police are verifying the credentials of the company.
West Bengal Movement For Release Of Political Prisoners
Ranjit Sur, Countercurrents.org, 04 July: Its almost one and half a month since a New Government has sworn in West Bengal under the leadership of Ms Mamata Banerjee. Yet, not a single Political Prisoner is released, as promised . No one knows when and how they will get much expected release or whether they will get it at all. Not a single case slapped on the political workers by the previous autocratic left front regime has been withdrawn. As a result hundreds of political workers are languishing in jails in inhuman conditions for years and thousands of political workers released on bails earlier are running from courts to courts for attending cases and thus ruined economically. Who ever and whenever the Government is asked about their release and withdrawal of cases a patent answer comes ‘ lets wait for the review committee report’. But what is this committee about ?
In continuation of the decision taken by the Cabinet in its first meeting on 20th May’11 the new Mamata Banerjee Governement has notified in the Kolkata Gazatte the formation of the Review Committee for the release of Political Prisoners in West Bengal. The 4th June notification published the names of the 13 member committee along with the terms of reference. Retired Justice Moloy Sengupta of Kolkata High Court is the Chairman of the Committee. Out of the 12 others there are 4 IPS Officers and 2 IAS Officers. The IPS Officers are ADG( Law & Order), Special Commissioner of Police, Kolkata, Director of Prosecution and IG( Prison).The notification claimed to include 6 members as “ Representatives from Human Rights Organisation/Social Organisation/Legal Profession”.They are : Debabrata Bandopadhyay, Sujato Bhadra, Debashis Bhattacharjee, Rajdeep Majumdar, Subrata Hati and Ansar Mondal.
But no names of the organizations are mentioned from where they are chosen. Last three named persons are all practicing lawyers close to the ruling Parties. All the other members are close advisers of the Chief Minister. One of the members is a known Human Right activist and fought well during the last regime.
The terms of reference has 7 clauses. These are : 1) to identify the politically motivated FIR ; 2) to identify the under-trial political prisoners who have been undergoing trial for the offences pertaining to political movement as per section 24 of the West Bengal Correctional Services Act, 1992; 3) to identify the persons who have been convicted for the offences pertaining to political movements as per section 24 of the West Bengal Correctional Services Act 1992 ; 4) to identify the nature/characteristics of the offences and the background leading to the commission of such offences ; 5) to examine the conduct of prisoners in the correctional homes ; 6) to ascertain the probability of their reverting back to the commissions of offences; 7) to examine the probability of instigating others to commit offences.
The Review Committee will have to submit its report within a period of three months from the date of the resolution.
The formation of the Review Committee clearly ignored the demand of the right bodies of the state for Unconditional Release of Political Prisoners. Now, selecting the persons close to Chief Minister and bearucrats as review committee members even without consulting the Human Rights Organisations has made the bodies very doubtful over the intention of the Government. Humiliating terms of reference forced all the bodies to hit the streets with mass programmes one after another against the new Government.
Now, let us have some discussion regarding the terms of reference. The first three clauses mentioned the basic task of identifying the politically motivated FIRs and finalizing the list of political prisoners as per West Bengal Correctional Services Act 1992. But the subsequent four clauses are very objectionable to any rights activist. These clauses are added to divide the political prisoners according to Government’s plan. These clauses clearly indicate that the Government is planning to ask for an Undertaking from the Prisoners to be released. Clauses 6&7 are very humiliating and insulting as well as unconstitutional.
These clauses will find whether the released prisoners will be involved in politics again or whether the released prisoners will influence others to join in their politics. Joining and preaching politics is ones fundamental right. So ascertaining their chance of joining politics again as a precondition of release or demanding undertaking of not doing politics of his choice or preaching to others is highly objectionable. In 1977 late Charan Singh, Home Minister of the then Janata Dal Government raised such a demand as a precondition for release of political prisoners. But a thunderous protest across the Nation forced him to withdraw the humiliating proposal. Now, the Mamata Banerjee government wish to place the same demand through back door and that too with consent from a section of leading Human Right activists. This is alarming in all respects, particularly for the Human Rights Movement of the State in future.
Moreover, the Committee will look into the behaviour of Prisoners inside the jail. History shows that the Political Prisoners always demanded their dues inside the jails and initiated movement against the jail authority for corruption and high handedness . So jail authority will never certify them of good conduct . Interestingly IG (prison) against whom they fought will finally prepare the report and will judge the report as well as a Review Committee member . So what could be the outcome ? What is the intention of the Government ? Do the Government really want to release the political prisoners or just wish to release some persons of their choice to show that they kept their Election Promise ! This is a lakh rupee question hovering over the minds of every right activist of the state.
One more point to add, right activists all over India are closely watching the movement for release of political prisoners in West Bengal.
{ The writer is a Secretariat Member of Association for Protection of Democratic Rights( APDR) . The opinion expressed here is his personal.}
LAND MARK
Opinion, TT, 6 July: Is resignation a better political weapon than the hunger strike? Legislators from Telangana — 81 members of Andhra Pradesh’s legislative assembly and 10 members of parliament who resigned en masse on Monday — seem desperate for an answer. They had witnessed the efficacy of the fast-unto-death of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, in 2009, which had made the Centre concede to the TRS’s demand for a separate Telangana. Assured of their strength in numbers, the Telangana legislators have now opted for the less taxing option of resignation to force the Central government to agree to the division of Andhra Pradesh. They are not entirely wrong in their assessment of the vulnerability of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government. The resignation of all 51 Congress MLAs from Telangana could destabilize the Congress state government. The withdrawal of all 118 MLAs from Telangana could even lead to the dissolution of the state assembly, leading to a declaration of emergency. The Congress’s weakened position in Andhra Pradesh, which has 33 MPs in parliament, could also have a serious impact on the health of the Central government. Unfortunately for the Telangana legislators, the Central government does not seem to be cracking up as fast as expected. It is staring political death in the eye and resisting the collective blackmail.
It is a bitter irony that the birth of Telangana, or similar geographical constructs such as Gorkhaland, Vidarbha, or Harit Pradesh, should be decided by the sudden loss or discovery of nerve on the part of the Centre. The case for the reorganization of states should depend on coherent reasoning and a formulation of a proper administrative procedure to address administrative neglect and the problems of cultural identities. If Telangana seeks consideration on grounds of poor administration, the option of having an autonomous council for the region could be explored. India’s experiment with bifurcation of states has not exactly been an encouraging one. The issue is more complex for a state formed on linguistic basis such as Andhra Pradesh, where identity politics could prove to be a bottomless pit. If the Centre has found rare courage to withstand the arm-twisting, it should hold on to it and explore a more scientific way of going about the business of truncating land.
Fasts, Hunger And Hunger Strikes
Anand Teltumbde, Countercurrents.org, 05 July, 2011: “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”
Even Harry S. Truman, the 33rd President of the U.S., the author of the infamous Truman Doctrine to contain Communism had this advice to the governments!
Fast and Hunger
It is amusing that the country having a dubious distinction of being a home to world’s most hungry people should be shaken by the threat of hunger by a few. But that is what has been happening since Mahatma Gandhi forged them into a weapon. Interestingly, he referred to it as fast, not hunger strike, which it actually was. Fast has a religious undertone, as Ed Cole, the founder of the Christian Men’s Network in the U.S, candidly stated: “A fast is not a hunger strike. Fasting submits to God’s commands. A hunger strike makes God submit to our demands.” It has class connotation too. For elites it is fast, for the commoners, it is hunger strike. After all how could elites go on strike? They need to be differentiated from the working classes whose business it is to strike. One is not sure but one commonly confronts this differentiation in practice. Bhagat Singh and his comrades had gone on hunger strike in Lahore jail in which Jatin Das became a martyr on 82nd day, marking the limits of human endurance and resolve in the longest hunger strike in the world history. On the other hand, fasts, ‘indefinite’ or ‘unto death’ were undertaken by Gandhi and Gandhians many times. The very label of fast, as it appeared, assured that it would not be stretched to death and would be concluded before long. But if it is a strike, one could not be a sure.
Mere use of labels would not however work. The system identifies what you are by the issue you espouse. Take for instance the case of Irom Sharmila from Manipur, who has entered the incredible eleventh year of her fast unto death. A poor soul, she thought, she was following Gandhian method and declared her protest as fast unto death whereas what she actually did was a hunger strike. Because, the issue she raised was the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which has virtually reduced the entire North East into a military state for the last five decades. It was too radical a demand for a fast; it had to be a hunger strike. The state understood and responded commensurately. While it has taken care in maintaining its Gandhian façade by not letting her die (the state has been force feeding her), it has never heeded her demand. Sharmila shames India for its pretentions to be a democratic republic. And she is not alone; there has been a long saga of struggles of Manipuri people, notably women of her ilk. In 2004 in the wake of rape and murder of Thanglam Manorama, these brave women had publicly unclothed themselves before the army headquarters with placard “Indian army, rape us”! Even such a shaming protest failed to move the government to stop AFSPA atrocities on hapless people.
Anna, Medha, Ramdev
During the past couple of months there have been four protest fasts led by three notable persons- Anna Hazare, Medha Patkar, Baba Ramdev and the repeat by Anna Hazare in condemnation of the government’s highhanded demolition of Ramdev show at Ram Leela maidan in Delhi. Of these Medha Patkar’s fast has been the least known despite being in the media savvy Mumbai. Medha Patkar, a veteran social activist who has been the face of non-violent peoples’ struggles for over the last two decades would certainly stand taller than Anna Hazare, despite media’s euphoric projection of him as our second Mahatma and certainly an upstart Baba Ramdev, whose antecedents are getting murkier with every passing day. Hazare’s first fast of 97 hours and second one from 10 am to 6 pm at Rajghat was painted by the media as the national movement. Ramdev had still more impressive start, the UPA’s senior ministers, Pranab Mukerjee and Kapil Sibal, having gone to the airport to receive him and almost yielding to his demands within hours from the start of the fast. However, the moment the Congress sensed the Saffron game plan behind Ramdev, it decided to demolish the drama in most unbecoming and shameful manner.
Medha’s fast was in process of the continuing movement against eviction of slum dwellers in the name of redevelopment. Mammoth slums are being demolished without slum dwellers’ consent under the controversial clause 3K of the Maharashtra Slum Areas Act. Taking up this issue being agitated against by the residents of Golibar slum, the second biggest in Mumbai, against the Shivalik ventures, she began her fast demanding immediate cancellation of the Golibar project and all other projects sanctioned under the Clause 3K along with the clause itself. This is the concrete issue that directly hit more than half the population of Mumbai metropolis that live in slums and arguably one of the major sources of corruption. As against this, Anna’s band has abstracted the entire issue of corruption reducing it to the lack of constitutional institution of a Lokpal. It has effectively diverted the public outrage over successive corruption cases to the parleys for drafting the Lokpal bill. Ramdev’s has been clearly a populist show, full of rhetorical noises, echoing saffron hyperbole, but carefully avoiding to point at the policy framework, shared by all the political class that gives rise to black money.
Magic of the Media
It is interesting to see how media differentiated them. While the media went gaga over the fast of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev, it had almost ignored Medha’s although the issue it had raised related to life and death of the slum dwellers in Mumbai in contrast to the surreality of corruption or abstraction of black money, the formers blew up. All of them were Gandhian in their approach but they differed in their appeal. Medha’s fast being in support of poor slum dwellers was against the development vision of the growing middle class, which constituted target readership or viewership of the media, and hence had to be ignored. On the other hand, the campaign against corruption and black money has basically risen from these classes who are eager to see India as superpower but see it being thwarted by the politicians. The abhorrence of the latter is really a reflection of their loathing for the majority of people of the lower classes, who are seen to shape the politics. Naturally, media was all out to promote it to maximize their gain.
Media is ultimately a business and cannot ignore its business interest. But the timeframes with which various businesses envisioned their missions being long in earlier times, they appeared different. The globalization paradigm has compressed not only geographical space but also time and hence every business appears nakedly driven by short term profit. Media was always manned by middle class people but they had to transcend their class boundaries to be credible in their long term business interests. Today, they are conditioned by their own class vision as their customers, having disposal incomes are also of their own class. In process, media actually recreates the middle class world for you, which has little relation with the reality. With advanced technologies, media has become so powerful that it makes and unmakes the world for you, thereby shaping and conditioning politics too. It is therefore that peoples’ movements are marginalized; Maoists and Muslims are black-painted; and Dalits are stereotyped. The implication of this change in media to peoples’ politics has been ominous. For instance, civil rights movement, which is predicated on media to project instances of civil rights violations to the world and thereby create pressure on the state finds itself in vulnerable situation with increasing ignorance from mainstream media.
Might of the State
The above episodes of Gandhian fast also differ in the state responses they received. Medha Patkar’s fast had just reiterated the continuing demand of the movement ‘ghar bachao aandolan’, which was consistently ignored by the government. When she went on fast along with some activists from the slum, there was no response from the state, despite their having documentary proof that Shivalik Venture had forged signatures of people and indulged in many other frauds, the crime for which its functionaries should have been summarily arrested. On the eighth day, when her health showed sign of deterioration, the government yielded and constituted committees to review its decisions. In Anna Hazare’s case, the government’s response was much faster, in salvaging situation by constituting the drafting committee for the Lokpal bill. In Baba Ramdev’s case the government was embarrassingly receptive to start with and had reached some secret understanding with him. It only had a fascist somersault when it sensed uncongenial political angle in it and unleashed its police to tear gas people and forcibly drive them out of the Ramlila ground at the dead of night. It rightly invoked condemnation from every corner.
Notwithstanding the character of these episodes, there cannot be a doubt that they were peoples’ peaceful protests well within the constitutional framework. The argument dismissing these protests as disruptive of the parliamentary system is spurious because it would amount to giving blanket license to the so called parliamentarians to loot the country. The state should have ways and means to deal with any kind of protests in democratic manner. If it violates its boundaries and clamps down on peoples’ protest, it actually provokes people to try out their might in anyway they like. People, unless driven to desperation by the arrogant state, cannot challenge the might of the modern state. The fact that many peoples’ movements had to take up arms to express themselves should impel the state to introspect its behavior. The manner in which the media deals with peoples’ protests and the way the state patterns its responses, as exposed by these episodes surely puts the question mark on peoples’ democratic movements.
Dr Anand Teltumbde is a writer, political analyst and a civil rights activist with CPDR, Mumbai
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