SNS, KURSEONG, 23 AUG: Tension gripped Chimney near Deorali under Kurseong sub-division this morning when GJMM and GNLF supporters clashed with each other. It has been learnt from the GNLF sources that the GJMM activists had physically assaulted the party convener for the sub-division, Mr Sangay Rumba. His house was ransacked and later set on fire. The GJMM activists also allegedly torched a vehicle and a two-wheeler, which were parked in front of the residence of the GNLF leader.
The GNLF leadership has termed the incident as GJMM retaliation against the GNLF rallies and meetings held yesterday in Mirik and other areas in Kurseong, including the Majua Busty near the Chimney, in connection with the observance of the DGHC Accord Day. This is the first GJMM-GNLF clash after Subash Ghisingh left the Hills in May this year.
The wife of Mr Rumba, Mrs Byangmu Rumba, alleged that some GJMM supporters had barged into their residence this morning and took away her husband. “Meanwhile, another group of GJMM activists came and started ransacking our residence. I was scared, me and my daughter fled through a window. We both got injured. After the police arrived we went back to find that our house, car and two-wheeler were reduced to cinders. They also broke open the cupboards and vandalised the residence,” she said.
However, the local GJMM leader, Mr Nuri Sherpa, said that the allegation was fabricated. “The fact is that Mr Sangay Rumba and his associates have actually stoned the residence of one GJMM leader, Mr Padam Bahadur Rumba late last night. “When the GNLF supporters attacked his house only the women members of his family were present. We have no idea who attacked the residence of Mr Sangay Rumba. But no GJMM activist was involved in it,” he added. Interestingly, Mr Sangay Rumba and Mr Padam Bahadur Rumba are brothers.
Kurseong SDPO, Mr Nima Narbu Bhutia, said that the incident was a sequel of inter-party rivalry involving the GJMM and the GNLF. “The residence of the GNLF leader was partially damaged. A car and a two-wheeler were torched. When we arrived at the spot fire was billowing out of the house and the vehicles. We summoned the fire brigade and extinguished the fire with their assistance,” he said.
He said that both the parties had lodged FIRs against each other. “We have not yet arrested anybody. The probe has started,” he said. A large contingent of police has been deployed in the area in view of the prevailing tension.
Young footballers back from Munich
Prabin Khaling, KalimNews, Gangtok, Aug 23: Two teenage footballers from Sikkim have returned back to Gangtok after spending an ‘unbelievable’ fortnight at Munich where they, along with four other kids from Kolkata and Shillong, got exposed to the latest training modules developed by European football powerhouse Bayern Munich and also gawked at the likes of Barcelona and AC Milan superstars.
Ram Chettri and Suman Rai, both fourteen years old students of Boys Club Gangtok football academy had been selected with four others among 600 kids all over the country for a short sponsored training camp by Bayern Munich at Germany. The selections had been conducted at Kolkata last year and the quintet had flown to Munich on August 7 and returned to India on August 19.
After spending some more training days with Northeast football giants Lajong FC at Shillong, Ram and Suman reached back to Gangtok last week and spoke to mediapersons here today though they still apparently were under the Bayern Munich trip hangover.
“We had a training camp for ten days and then spend the remaining days touring Munich city. Though the training was of short duration for two hours daily, it was hard. We learnt a lot of new techniques”, said the duo.
For Ram, who plays as a midfielder, the Bayern Munich trip helped him to ‘distribute the ball to all parts of the pitch, set pieces and moving up and down in support of forwards and defense’.
“I learnt about dribbling skills, crossing the ball to other players in the attack zone and also move down the pitch to help the defense in case of counterattack by the opposition players”, said Suman, who wants to become a striker.
“The camp also gave us new insight on how to hold the ball, using your body to shield the ball and also about ‘off the ball’ movement. We gained new knowledge on tackling. Earlier we used to panic but now we are confident that we can hold the ball and not allow opposition team players to snatch our ball in a match”, said Ram.
They were given training by the Bayern Munich coaches under the close observation of club chief talent Hermann Hummels.
The highlight of the Bayern Munich training camp was the opportunity the Indian boys to watch two semifinals and the final of Audi Cup at Munich where European giants-Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Barcelona and Brazil champions Internacional played.
“We watched the semifinal match between AC Milan and Bayern Munich and were ball boys during the second semifinal match between Barcelona and Internacional. We also watched the finals on July 27 which was won 2-0 by Barcelona against Bayern Munich”, said Ram.
“We saw all our favourite players like David Villa, Andres Iniesta, Abidal and captain Carles Puyol of Barcelona. Unfortunately Lionel Messi was not in the tournament for Barcelona. We saw all players from Bayern Munich like Arjen Robben, Thomas Mueller and Klose. We even saw Robino playing for AC Milan. It was unbelievable and we never thought we could see the players in action”, said Suman.
Both Suman and Rai, both hailing from economically weak families, said that the most memorable part of the trip was to see the Bayern Munich stadium. They have returned back home with Bayern Munich kit including tracksuits and jerseys.
Both are from the football academy of Boys Club Gangtok and have been training here at Tathangchen ground ever since the academy was started by former footballers of Sikkim in 2008. They study in Class VIII in local schools in Gangtok.
According to the club, Chettri is fatherless and her mother works in a shop to take care of her family. Rai’s father is a mason, it is informed.
“More than what they have learnt during the short training camp conducted by Bayern Munich, I believe these kids have become more mentally though having being exposed to a superior football environment. They now have knowledge of football system and hence, should show improvement when they play here” Boys Club Gangtok general secretary and former East Bengal player Nima Bhutia.
The Boys Club Gangtok academy presently has 40 kids who practice daily at Tathangchen ground here under the watchful eyes of former players of Sikkim. They practice for two hours in the morning before attending their schools. The club gives free training to the kids.
Sikkim Film “Kina Maya Ma” nominated at CG Film Award at Nepal
PR, KalimNews, Gangtok: Channel Ace Production presentation Samir Pradhan’s Nepali Feature Film “Kina Maya Ma” Directed by Chunilal Ghimeray is nominated for Best Story – Chunilal Ghimeray and Best Choreography – Govind Rai in CG Digital Film Awards 2068 at Kathmandu Nepal. Film is totally shot at Sikkim and the responses captured by this film in Nepal made this film in top of the nomination list along with Bato Muni Ko Phool, Kas leh choryo mero mann, Thegana & Sriman.
“Kina Maya Ma” have a various actors from Sikkim and Darjeeling districts with the main lead role by Indian Idol Prashant Tamang and Sumina Ghimeray.
Star Chote Ustad 2nd Runners up Pragriti Giri from Darjeeling also nominated for Best Playback Singer award for her debut playback in “Bato Muni Ko Phool”.
CG Digital Film Awards 2068 is scheduled to be held on 8th September.2011.
The premiere show of this film is scheduled to be held on 27th of this month at Vajra Cinema Hall.
MARG in action
KalimNews:In the past few weeks Mankind in Action for Rural Growth (MARG) has been visiting schools of Darjeeling where it has been Igniting Smiles of the underprivileged children by sponsoring their education since 2006.
MARG has been distributing books on mathematics, geography, economics, encyclopedia, literature and grammar to be kept in the school libraries and this has been donated to MARG by Confederation of Indian Industries, North Bengal by Ms. Laxmi Limbu Kausal.
MARG would like to thank Ms. Laxmi Limbu Kausal and all the board members of CII, North Bengal for IGNITING SMILES of the hills of Darjeeling.
CPRM march from Darjeeling to Siliguri for Gorkhaland
TT: Supporters of the CPRM take out a Gorkhaland March in Darjeeling’s Chowkbazar on Tuesday. The rally demanding a separate state started from Chowkbazar around 11am and is expected to reach Sukna on Thursday before proceeding to Siliguri. CPRM leaders said the deal on the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration was signed to dilute the demand for a separate state. “Identity is still a problem for us and only a separate statehood can solve this problem. The GTA has been formed only to silence the Gorkhaland demand which is the aspiration of the hill people,” said Govind Chhetri, the spokesperson for the CPRM, a rival of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha that has signed the GTA. Superintendent of police of Darjeeling, DP Singh said there were certain conditions imposed on the rally. One of them is that the marchers can go till Darjeeling More in Siliguri and not beyond. Leaders of the CPRM that does not have much clout in hills said although the march started with around 100 supporters they expect more people to join it. A similar rally in support of a separate state was taken out by the party from Mirik and Kalimpong on Tuesday. Text: Vivek Chhetri Picture by Suman Tamang
Govt mum, planters fear unrest return
TT, Siliguri, Aug. 23: Tea planters are apprehending that peace prevailing in the gardens in the Dooars and the Terai will be vitiated any moment as the state government has not made any move in the past three weeks to broker a deal on the revision of workers’ wages.
The labour department or ministers entrusted with the task of holding talks with the planters and the trade unions have not got back to either parties after a tripartite meeting was held on August 5.
As the impasse continues, all trade unions, except the one affiliated to the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad, will be holding a convention on Monday to decide on the next course of action.
All the unions have put on hold their agitation for the higher wages, after weeks of general strikes, cease-work and the embargo on the despatch of processed tea from the plantations.
The garden owners said they wanted the government to intervene immediately to end the impasse.
“We are apprehensive about the current state of affairs in the tea gardens and want the government to act promptly to arrange talks to resolve the wage issue. It is a matter of concern that no negotiations have taken place after a tripartite meeting ended inconclusive on August 5. There is a chance that the unions might re-launch their agitation if no decision is reached immediately,” said Prabir Bhattacharjee, the secretary of the Dooars Branch of Indian Tea Association, a planters’ body.
The planters have also pointed out that until and unless a settlement is reached on the wages, they cannot fix the Puja bonus.
“Only a week is left in the current month. We are worried that if the wage issue is not resolved soon, there would be delay in fixing the Puja bonus. Even though fixing bonus rates would be easier than the wage negotiations, it would also take some time,” said the secretary of the tea association.
According to tea industry sources, the bonus will be fixed as a percentage of the revised wage. “As the pujas are round the corner, the wage and the bonus have to be fixed in quick succession. On the other hand, if the trade unions go back to their old demands of Rs 250 and Rs 165 as daily wages and call strikes, the situation will be complicated further. Now that the trade unions have scaled down their demands, the government must sit up and help us offer a realistic hike in the wages,” said a garden owner.
The garden labourers in the plains are paid Rs 67 currently. A new wage agreement was supposed to have come into effect on April 1 for a three-year duration.
Although the Progressive Tea Workers’ Union, affiliated to the Parishad, had initially sought a wage of Rs 250, it later said even Rs 130 would do. The union’s informal stand now is that any rate above Rs 90 will be acceptable to it.
Two apex bodies of labour wings — Defence Committee for Plantation Workers’ Rights and the Co-ordination Committee for Tea Plantation Workers — also reduced their demand from Rs 165 to Rs 130.
“The Parishad had conveyed its decision at informal talks with the ministers and the estate owners. So, any decision taken at such meetings will not be acceptable for us. We have repeatedly requested the labour minister and written to the chief minister to resolve the problem,” said Samir Roy, the convener of the Defence Committee for Plantation Workers’ Rights.
“There has been no communique from the government after the August 5 talks. We have no idea what the government plans to do.”
Roy said the apex bodies of the trade unions would hold a joint convention on August 29.
“We will chalk out our strategy at the convention. However, it seems that the situation will not change unless we approach the chief minister again for her intervention. A settlement on the wage revision has to be reached immediately. Otherwise, it will be difficult to fix the the bonus,” he said.
North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb said a tripartite meeting would be held soon to decide on the wage rate.
Sikkim Film “Kina Maya Ma” nominated at CG Film Award at Nepal
PR, KalimNews, Gangtok: Channel Ace Production presentation Samir Pradhan’s Nepali Feature Film “Kina Maya Ma” Directed by Chunilal Ghimeray is nominated for Best Story – Chunilal Ghimeray and Best Choreography – Govind Rai in CG Digital Film Awards 2068 at Kathmandu Nepal. Film is totally shot at Sikkim and the responses captured by this film in Nepal made this film in top of the nomination list along with Bato Muni Ko Phool, Kas leh choryo mero mann, Thegana & Sriman. “Kina Maya Ma” have a various actors from Sikkim and Darjeeling districts with the main lead role by Indian Idol Prashant Tamang and Sumina Ghimeray.
Star Chote Ustad 2nd Runners up Pragriti Giri from Darjeeling also nominated for Best Playback Singer award for her debut playback in “Bato Muni Ko Phool”.
CG Digital Film Awards 2068 is scheduled to be held on 8th September.2011.
The premiere show of this film is scheduled to be held on 27th of this month at Vajra Cinema Hall.
MARG in action
KalimNews:In the past few weeks Mankind in Action for Rural Growth (MARG) has been visiting schools of Darjeeling where it has been Igniting Smiles of the underprivileged children by sponsoring their education since 2006. MARG has been distributing books on mathematics, geography, economics, encyclopedia, literature and grammar to be kept in the school libraries and this has been donated to MARG by Confederation of Indian Industries, North Bengal by Ms. Laxmi Limbu Kausal.
MARG would like to thank Ms. Laxmi Limbu Kausal and all the board members of CII, North Bengal for IGNITING SMILES of the hills of Darjeeling.
CPRM march from Darjeeling to Siliguri for Gorkhaland
TT: Supporters of the CPRM take out a Gorkhaland March in Darjeeling’s Chowkbazar on Tuesday. The rally demanding a separate state started from Chowkbazar around 11am and is expected to reach Sukna on Thursday before proceeding to Siliguri. CPRM leaders said the deal on the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration was signed to dilute the demand for a separate state. “Identity is still a problem for us and only a separate statehood can solve this problem. The GTA has been formed only to silence the Gorkhaland demand which is the aspiration of the hill people,” said Govind Chhetri, the spokesperson for the CPRM, a rival of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha that has signed the GTA. Superintendent of police of Darjeeling, DP Singh said there were certain conditions imposed on the rally. One of them is that the marchers can go till Darjeeling More in Siliguri and not beyond. Leaders of the CPRM that does not have much clout in hills said although the march started with around 100 supporters they expect more people to join it. A similar rally in support of a separate state was taken out by the party from Mirik and Kalimpong on Tuesday. Text: Vivek Chhetri Picture by Suman Tamang Govt mum, planters fear unrest return
TT, Siliguri, Aug. 23: Tea planters are apprehending that peace prevailing in the gardens in the Dooars and the Terai will be vitiated any moment as the state government has not made any move in the past three weeks to broker a deal on the revision of workers’ wages.
The labour department or ministers entrusted with the task of holding talks with the planters and the trade unions have not got back to either parties after a tripartite meeting was held on August 5.
As the impasse continues, all trade unions, except the one affiliated to the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad, will be holding a convention on Monday to decide on the next course of action.
All the unions have put on hold their agitation for the higher wages, after weeks of general strikes, cease-work and the embargo on the despatch of processed tea from the plantations.
The garden owners said they wanted the government to intervene immediately to end the impasse.
“We are apprehensive about the current state of affairs in the tea gardens and want the government to act promptly to arrange talks to resolve the wage issue. It is a matter of concern that no negotiations have taken place after a tripartite meeting ended inconclusive on August 5. There is a chance that the unions might re-launch their agitation if no decision is reached immediately,” said Prabir Bhattacharjee, the secretary of the Dooars Branch of Indian Tea Association, a planters’ body.
The planters have also pointed out that until and unless a settlement is reached on the wages, they cannot fix the Puja bonus.
“Only a week is left in the current month. We are worried that if the wage issue is not resolved soon, there would be delay in fixing the Puja bonus. Even though fixing bonus rates would be easier than the wage negotiations, it would also take some time,” said the secretary of the tea association.
According to tea industry sources, the bonus will be fixed as a percentage of the revised wage. “As the pujas are round the corner, the wage and the bonus have to be fixed in quick succession. On the other hand, if the trade unions go back to their old demands of Rs 250 and Rs 165 as daily wages and call strikes, the situation will be complicated further. Now that the trade unions have scaled down their demands, the government must sit up and help us offer a realistic hike in the wages,” said a garden owner.
The garden labourers in the plains are paid Rs 67 currently. A new wage agreement was supposed to have come into effect on April 1 for a three-year duration.
Although the Progressive Tea Workers’ Union, affiliated to the Parishad, had initially sought a wage of Rs 250, it later said even Rs 130 would do. The union’s informal stand now is that any rate above Rs 90 will be acceptable to it.
Two apex bodies of labour wings — Defence Committee for Plantation Workers’ Rights and the Co-ordination Committee for Tea Plantation Workers — also reduced their demand from Rs 165 to Rs 130.
“The Parishad had conveyed its decision at informal talks with the ministers and the estate owners. So, any decision taken at such meetings will not be acceptable for us. We have repeatedly requested the labour minister and written to the chief minister to resolve the problem,” said Samir Roy, the convener of the Defence Committee for Plantation Workers’ Rights.
“There has been no communique from the government after the August 5 talks. We have no idea what the government plans to do.”
Roy said the apex bodies of the trade unions would hold a joint convention on August 29.
“We will chalk out our strategy at the convention. However, it seems that the situation will not change unless we approach the chief minister again for her intervention. A settlement on the wage revision has to be reached immediately. Otherwise, it will be difficult to fix the the bonus,” he said.
North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb said a tripartite meeting would be held soon to decide on the wage rate.
USEFUL SPECTACLE - Anna’s high drama will keep people focused on corruption
Ashok Guha, Opinion, TT:In the current hullabaloo about the lok pal bill and the Anna agitation, one question has frequently been raised, both by protagonists of the Congress and the government and by constitutionalists and legal experts: however laudable the goals of Anna and his supporters, aren’t the methods adopted by them illegitimate? Doesn’t a fast unto death amount to blackmail of the legislature? Isn’t it an attempt by the unelected to usurp the functions of Parliament and thereby to undermine the foundations of democracy?
In answering this question, a basic principle needs to be kept in mind: laws can only be promulgated by Parliament. The government’s adversaries are under no illusion that they can by themselves produce a new law against corruption without first engineering a violent revolution, an option that they specifically — and, given the age and health of the main actors, very credibly — abjure. All that the advocates of the jan lok pal bill — or the diffuse mass of their supporters — can do, or are trying to do, is to persuade or pressure our representatives in Parliament to their point of view. Our question therefore boils down to a much simpler issue: are the methods being employed by the agitators to persuade or pressure the legislators legitimate tactics? Shouldn’t they have walked the path being so thoughtfully laid out by the government for them — quietly making representations before the select committee or asking legislators who agree with them to introduce private member’s bills or amendments to the government’s bill and then awaiting Parliament’s sovereign decision? Why create so much of a public rumpus?
Once we rephrase the government’s objections to the current agitation in this way, the charge that the agitators have launched an assault on democracy appears singularly hollow. So long as neither violence nor bribery is employed, democracy does not impose any further restrictions on the methods we use to persuade our representatives. It is at least partly a matter of taste whether one goes about it in the genteel fashion that would have pleased Messrs Manmohan Singh and Kapil Sibal or with high-visibility fasting and high-decibel drama.
In large part, however, our techniques of peaceful persuasion must depend on the urgency of the issues involved, the technology available for the dissemination of protest and the kind of people we have to persuade. No one can doubt that the issue we are presently concerned with is absolutely central to the future of our republic. Over the last several years, the members of this government have plundered the country on an unprecedented, indeed, astronomical, scale in the shelter of a supposedly incorruptible prime minister who adopted as his role models the Japanese monkeys of legend who saw no evil, heard no evil and spoke no evil. The credibility of the Indian State is in tatters.
Moreover, the deep penetration of mobile telephones into the countryside, the rapid expansion of rural television viewership, of literacy and computer-literacy, and the proliferation of social networks have changed the parameters of dissent. Victims of endemic corruption in the remoter reaches of rural India had been condemned earlier by sheer isolation to suffer in fatalistic resignation what they believed to be the unalterable order of things. Now they have the option of being part of a nationwide upsurge of outrage and protest. To fully exploit this potential for reaching out, a non-violent protest must be dramatic and telegenic. Invisible representations before a standing committee deep in the chambers of the Lok Sabha cannot compare in media impact with a very public fast unto death in full view of thousands of spectators and participants with flags, speeches, music and all the works. The outreach of the former method will fall far short of the latter, and so will its capacity to influence parliamentarians concerned about their future electoral prospects. Anna and his allies are creating a public spectacle that is keeping the voter’s attention firmly focused on the question of corruption and thus generating enormous electoral pressure on our legislators.
None of this is undemocratic in the least. Perhaps it is ungentlemanly: it hits members of parliament below the belt; it seeks to force them to vote in a particular way regardless of the dictates of their logical faculties or their moral sensibilities (not to speak of their party whip). Is this quite cricket?
A few facts are pertinent at this point. In 2004, the Election Commission, for the first time, made it mandatory for all candidates for the Lok Sabha to disclose their criminal histories. It turned out that 128 of the winners in the elections of 2004 — nearly 25 per cent of the Lok Sabha membership — had criminal records. This led to much heartburn and breast-beating and many campaigns against voting for criminals. However, in the 2009 elections, the number of winners with criminal histories rose by 20 per cent — to 153. This does not include individuals who achieved celebrity status later, such as A. Raja or Suresh Kalmadi. Nor does it include people like Mohammad Azharuddin, the former Indian cricket captain, convicted of match fixing by the Board of Control for Cricket in India and banned for life from the game, but now the Congress MP from Moradabad. There are no doubt many others whose criminal activities have gone unrecorded because of the extreme reluctance of the powers that be to register cases against them. Despite these exclusions, almost 30 per cent of the members of the present Lok Sabha have criminal records.
These distinguished gentlemen are far from being the least influential members of the House. Mohammad Shahabuddin, four-time MP from Siwan, debarred from the 2009 elections by the EC on account of his conviction for murder, was the Union minister of state for home affairs (in effective charge of the police, no less) in the government of H.D. Deve Gowda, now a close ally of the Congress in Karnataka, until vociferous media outrage led to his omission. During the first United Progressive Alliance regime, Shahabuddin was wanted by the police on many non-bailable charges (from murder to kidnapping, to smuggling and to the possession of a vast cache of military weaponry, some of it with Pakistani markings). But the Delhi police simply could not trace this elusive Scarlet Pimpernel who, like Osama of blessed memory, had been ‘hiding in plain sight’, in his MP’s house and regularly attending Parliament as a loyal supporter of the government. It was only after Nitish Kumar’s victory in Bihar in November 2005 that a posse of Bihar police succeeded in arresting him (from his MP’s house, where else?) by the simple expedient of not informing Delhi about the plans. Another four-time MP and convicted murderer, Pappu Yadav, wielded a degree of influence nearly as great. Shibu Soren of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha was accused and convicted of murder while coal minister in Manmohan Singh’s government, though the conviction was overturned on appeal. One could multiply examples indefinitely.
The author is a former teacher of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is currently affiliated to ISI, Delhi
In answering this question, a basic principle needs to be kept in mind: laws can only be promulgated by Parliament. The government’s adversaries are under no illusion that they can by themselves produce a new law against corruption without first engineering a violent revolution, an option that they specifically — and, given the age and health of the main actors, very credibly — abjure. All that the advocates of the jan lok pal bill — or the diffuse mass of their supporters — can do, or are trying to do, is to persuade or pressure our representatives in Parliament to their point of view. Our question therefore boils down to a much simpler issue: are the methods being employed by the agitators to persuade or pressure the legislators legitimate tactics? Shouldn’t they have walked the path being so thoughtfully laid out by the government for them — quietly making representations before the select committee or asking legislators who agree with them to introduce private member’s bills or amendments to the government’s bill and then awaiting Parliament’s sovereign decision? Why create so much of a public rumpus?
Once we rephrase the government’s objections to the current agitation in this way, the charge that the agitators have launched an assault on democracy appears singularly hollow. So long as neither violence nor bribery is employed, democracy does not impose any further restrictions on the methods we use to persuade our representatives. It is at least partly a matter of taste whether one goes about it in the genteel fashion that would have pleased Messrs Manmohan Singh and Kapil Sibal or with high-visibility fasting and high-decibel drama.
In large part, however, our techniques of peaceful persuasion must depend on the urgency of the issues involved, the technology available for the dissemination of protest and the kind of people we have to persuade. No one can doubt that the issue we are presently concerned with is absolutely central to the future of our republic. Over the last several years, the members of this government have plundered the country on an unprecedented, indeed, astronomical, scale in the shelter of a supposedly incorruptible prime minister who adopted as his role models the Japanese monkeys of legend who saw no evil, heard no evil and spoke no evil. The credibility of the Indian State is in tatters.
Moreover, the deep penetration of mobile telephones into the countryside, the rapid expansion of rural television viewership, of literacy and computer-literacy, and the proliferation of social networks have changed the parameters of dissent. Victims of endemic corruption in the remoter reaches of rural India had been condemned earlier by sheer isolation to suffer in fatalistic resignation what they believed to be the unalterable order of things. Now they have the option of being part of a nationwide upsurge of outrage and protest. To fully exploit this potential for reaching out, a non-violent protest must be dramatic and telegenic. Invisible representations before a standing committee deep in the chambers of the Lok Sabha cannot compare in media impact with a very public fast unto death in full view of thousands of spectators and participants with flags, speeches, music and all the works. The outreach of the former method will fall far short of the latter, and so will its capacity to influence parliamentarians concerned about their future electoral prospects. Anna and his allies are creating a public spectacle that is keeping the voter’s attention firmly focused on the question of corruption and thus generating enormous electoral pressure on our legislators.
None of this is undemocratic in the least. Perhaps it is ungentlemanly: it hits members of parliament below the belt; it seeks to force them to vote in a particular way regardless of the dictates of their logical faculties or their moral sensibilities (not to speak of their party whip). Is this quite cricket?
A few facts are pertinent at this point. In 2004, the Election Commission, for the first time, made it mandatory for all candidates for the Lok Sabha to disclose their criminal histories. It turned out that 128 of the winners in the elections of 2004 — nearly 25 per cent of the Lok Sabha membership — had criminal records. This led to much heartburn and breast-beating and many campaigns against voting for criminals. However, in the 2009 elections, the number of winners with criminal histories rose by 20 per cent — to 153. This does not include individuals who achieved celebrity status later, such as A. Raja or Suresh Kalmadi. Nor does it include people like Mohammad Azharuddin, the former Indian cricket captain, convicted of match fixing by the Board of Control for Cricket in India and banned for life from the game, but now the Congress MP from Moradabad. There are no doubt many others whose criminal activities have gone unrecorded because of the extreme reluctance of the powers that be to register cases against them. Despite these exclusions, almost 30 per cent of the members of the present Lok Sabha have criminal records.
These distinguished gentlemen are far from being the least influential members of the House. Mohammad Shahabuddin, four-time MP from Siwan, debarred from the 2009 elections by the EC on account of his conviction for murder, was the Union minister of state for home affairs (in effective charge of the police, no less) in the government of H.D. Deve Gowda, now a close ally of the Congress in Karnataka, until vociferous media outrage led to his omission. During the first United Progressive Alliance regime, Shahabuddin was wanted by the police on many non-bailable charges (from murder to kidnapping, to smuggling and to the possession of a vast cache of military weaponry, some of it with Pakistani markings). But the Delhi police simply could not trace this elusive Scarlet Pimpernel who, like Osama of blessed memory, had been ‘hiding in plain sight’, in his MP’s house and regularly attending Parliament as a loyal supporter of the government. It was only after Nitish Kumar’s victory in Bihar in November 2005 that a posse of Bihar police succeeded in arresting him (from his MP’s house, where else?) by the simple expedient of not informing Delhi about the plans. Another four-time MP and convicted murderer, Pappu Yadav, wielded a degree of influence nearly as great. Shibu Soren of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha was accused and convicted of murder while coal minister in Manmohan Singh’s government, though the conviction was overturned on appeal. One could multiply examples indefinitely.
The author is a former teacher of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is currently affiliated to ISI, Delhi
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