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IMC-USA Weekly News Digest - January 4th, 2010

In this issue

Communal Harmony

News Headlines

Opinions & Editorials

Communal Harmony

Communal harmony campaign (Dec 28, 2009, Express Buzz)

A Communal Harmony Campaign was organised in DM School, Regional
Institute of Education here recently. A host of activities including
drama, dance, short skit lecture were carried out to sensitise the
students about the need for fostering communal harmony and national
integration as well as a sense of fraternity.

Principal of the
institute Prof UK Nanda addressed the students during the communal
harmony campaign while headmaster of the school A Mishra motivated
them. Activity coordinator Dr Ramdas Ray initiated the fund raising
which is one of the components of the campaign.

A sum of Rs 3600 was raised and a draft of the same amount was sent to the National Communal Harmony Foundation too.

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/print.aspx?artid=5KRE8cRsksQ=

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News Headlines

To get job in Surat, Muslim took Hindu name; revealed when he was killed (Dec 29, 2009, Express India)

All Mehboob Pathan (50) of Valak village on Surat's outskirts wanted
was a job in the city. Having a Muslim name, he felt, came in the way.
So, to get himself a job in Surat's diamond units, he passed himself
off as Jayenti Bhatti, and managed to find work in two separate units
in the Kapodara area. Early this week, his "cover" was blown, after he
was brutally killed over a monetary dispute. As the distraught family
stepped forward to admit that Jayenti Bhatti was indeed Mehboob Pathan,
they worried that having been cremated as a Hindu, the practising
Muslim's soul may not find peace. In the ledgers of Surat's diamond
units, there are many leading a double life like Pathan. His son
Mushtaq is registered as Mukesh and daughter Samina as Sharmila, and
both are afraid of losing their jobs if the fact was known.

Diamond
industry sources and workers say many Muslims assume Hindu names to
find work in the city's lucrative diamond business. One of them,
Allarakha Khan, admits to having passed himself off as a Hindu like
many others from his village. "We would not get a job if we are known
to be Muslims. We have been doing this for a long time, and we take
great care not to reveal our real names or addresses at work," he told
The Indian Express. Rohit Mehta, president of the Surat Diamond
Association, however, denied knowledge of Muslims passing themselves
off as Hindus for jobs. "We will inquire into this," he said. Pathan's
story came to be known after his body was found in a farm at Antroli
last Monday, with the head smashed in. The police registered a case and
kept the unclaimed body in the Palsana Primary Health Centre mortuary
till Thursday. Then they arranged to give Pathan alias Bhatti a Hindu
funeral, with all the rites.

His family, who had been looking
for Pathan, had filed a missing complaint. Then, seeing news stories in
local newspapers about an unclaimed body, Mehboob's brother-in-law
Iqbal Pathan decided to check. By that time, Pathan had been cremated,
but the brother-in-law identified him from a photo of the body. The
family says Pathan was a pious Muslim and the change of name was just
so that he and his children could find and keep a job. "We are too poor
to do anything, but how could the police dispose of his body the Hindu
way?" asks son Mushtaq. "A genital examination would have shown he was
a Muslim."

Sub-Inspector of Kadodara police V R Malhotra said
they had kept the body in the mortuary hoping someone would turn up.
"We disposed it of according to Hindu rites not knowing he was a
Muslim. The family turned up too late and we are now helpless."
Kapodara police inspector S J Tirmizi, who is probing the murder,
confirmed that Pathan had passed himself off as Bhatti for work. Manoj
Rokad, who is the manager of the Varachha unit in which Pathan's
daughter Samina works as a diamond polisher, has reportedly confessed
to the murder.

According to the police, Rokad had become a
family friend of the Pathans and knew their real identities. Two years
ago, Pathan had reportedly loaned Rokad Rs 60,000 for an emergency,
which he never returned. Pathan used to call Rokad repeatedly asking
him to return the same, and the latter reportedly asked Pathan to meet
him on December 20. They went to Antroli village, where Rokad allegedly
killed Pathan with the help of two other diamond polishers, who have
been identified as Chhanya Rathod and Sanjay. While Rokad has been
held, and has reportedly admitted that they beat Pathan to death,
Rathod and Sanjay are on the run.

http://www.expressindia.com/story_print.php?storyId=560929

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Paswan demands ban on RSS and Bajrang Dal (Dec 27, 2009, Yahoo)

Lok Janshakti Party president Ramvilas Paswan today charged the RSS
and Bajrang Dal with disturbing communal harmony across the country and
demanded a blanket ban on them.

Charging the Nitish Kumar
government and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi with giving a free hand to
"communal organisations" to spread its wings in Bihar, Paswan, a former
Union minister, alleged, "Nitish Kumar is helpless as he is dependent
on the BJP to complete his term as chief minister of Bihar.

"He
alleged the RSS drill, conducted in Patna after a gap of 15 years, did
not augur well for the state as the drills had been followed by
communal troubles in the past.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/20/20091227/1416/tnl-paswan-demands-ban-on-rss-and-bajran.html

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DIG raped Rajasthan woman 13 years ago, now absconding (Dec 29, 2009, Times of India)

Close on the heels of Ruchika Girhotra's 19-year-old molestation
case making waves, another episode in which a top cop allegedly raped a
tribal woman 13 years ago but has not been brought to justice has
surfaced in Rajasthan. The victim, hailing from Rajasthan's Dausa
district, who was allegedly abducted and raped by an IPS officer, today
sat on a dharna here along with her family members and Independent MP
Kirori Lal Meena after she was not allowed to meet Chief Minister Ashok
Gehlot at his residence.

Around 50 people led by the MP are on
the dharna at civil line railway crossing demanding justice for the
victim. "Gehlot had given us appointment for the morning, but the
police officer on duty at the CM's residence denied us entry," the
victim's husband Khyali Ram Meena told reporters here.

The
woman was allegedly abducted and taken to Noida in Uttar Pradesh in
January 1997 where she was allegedly raped by former Deputy Inspector
General (DIG) Madhukar Tandon, then posted in police headquarters and
is now said to be absconding.

State Home Minister Shanti
Dhariwal said that the event took place some years ago and the
government will find out why the official was not arrested and whether
he is alive or dead. The government will go into the matter, he said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5392355.cms

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Rathores anticipatory bail plea rejected, fresh probe on (Dec 30, 2009, Hindustan Times)

The district and sessions court in Panchkula, adjoining Chandigarh,
turned down an interim bail plea by former Haryana director general of
police S.P.S. Rathore on Wednesday, while the Haryana government formed
a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the Ruchika Girhotra
molestation case. Rathore had filed for anticipatory bail following two
fresh first information reports registered against him on Tuesday. The
court fixed January 1 for the next hearing.

The FIRs were based
on the complaints by Ruchika's father S.C. Girhotra and her brother,
Ashu, that Rathore, after molesting the teenaged Ruchika in 1990, had
pressured the family to withdraw the charge by implicating Ashu in
false cases and trying to kill him, till she committed suicide. They
also accused Rathore of manipulating the post mortem report that
followed Ruchika's death. A Haryana official on condition of anonymity
stated that since the SIT was headed by a senior police officer, "it
will be hard to influence or manipulate the probe".

The Home
Ministry also showed interest in the case. Ruchika's father and his
lawyer Pankaj Bharadwaj met Home Minister P. Chidambaram in Delhi on
Wednesday. Bharadwaj told mediapersons the discussion centred on the
possibility of reopening the case, as Rathore had got away with a light
sentence of six months. In his bail plea, Rathore claimed he was being
targeted due to media activism. His lawyer wife, Abha, said not only
was petitioner Anand Prakash manipulating the media, but some
mediapersons were also playing a partisan role.

"We had sued them
(the media) when they carried similar concocted stories 19 years ago.
The cases are pending in different courts to this day," she said. All
this while, Rathore chose to keep silent at the court on Wednesday,
barring one barb for the media: "The day you satisfy me that you have
constitutional powers to decide judicial matters, I will speak to you.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/492076.aspx

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Hang Rathore, says Ruchikas father (Dec 30, 2009, Hindustan Times)

With support for teenaged molestation victim Ruchika Girhotra coming
from all quarters, her family and friends are now seeking the death
penalty for former Haryana top cop SPS Rathore, who molested her and
allegedly hounded her till she killed herself. Ruchika's father Subhash
Chander Girhotra said that Rathore should be hanged till death. "He has
killed my daughter by misusing his official position. He has ruined my
son and my family. We are virtually homeless today. We want the death
penalty for him (Rathore)," Girhotra said here Wednesday.

Girhotra's
family has virtually been living in hiding for over 16 years after
Ruchika was molested by Rathore, a former director general of police
(DGP) of Haryana. She committed suicide three years after the
molestation as Rathore allegedly used illegal means to harass her
family and got her brother arrested in a false car theft case. Anand
Prakash - father of Ruchika's friend Aradhana, who fought the legal
battle against Rathore for 19 years and got his conviction in the
molestation case by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in
Chandigarh last week - also demanded the death penalty for Rathore. "We
want life for life. This man should also suffer for his deeds," Prakash
said.

Rathore, meanwhile, was slapped with two fresh first
information reports (FIRs) by the Panchkula police Tuesday evening. The
former DGP has been booked on serious and non-bailable criminal charges
like attempt to murder, criminal intimidation, forging evidence,
wrongful confinement, fabricating false evidence and criminal
conspiracy. Other police officers who had allegedly colluded with him
have also been charged. Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily Tuesday said
that his ministry was exploring all possibilities of legal action
against Rathore. He said that the Ruchika molestation case was being
treated as a "model case" for dealing with such cases in the future.

Moily
said that the law ministry was examining whether the harsher Section
305 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) - abetment of suicide of a minor,
which entails death penalty or life imprisonment - could be imposed
against Rathore instead of Section 306 (abetment of suicide). Ruchika,
15, a budding tennis player was molested by Rathore here Aug 12, 1990.
After she and her friends complained to the Haryana government, Rathore
allegedly harassed and tortured her, her brother and the rest of her
family, misusing his position as a senior police officer. Ruchika,
unable to cope with the harassment of her family, committed suicide
three years later by consuming poison.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/492052.aspx

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Manipur for CBI probe into fake encounter case (Jan 2, 2010, Express Buzz)

Manipur government is examining the legal aspects of handing over
the investigation into the killing of a youth in an alleged fake
encounter here on July 23 to the CBI, Chief Minister O Ibobo Singh has
said. "The state government is in consultation with legal experts
whether the investigation can now be handed over to CBI or not since a
related case is pending before a court," he said yesterday.

On
December 23, the Guwahati High Court (Manipur bench) passed an order
directing that the investigation be carried out by an agency not
controlled by the state government. He said the state cabinet would
take a decision to hand over the probe to CBI after getting a directive
from the court where a case was pending following a writ petition filed
by family members of the victim Chungkham Sanjit. Police claimed that
27-year-old Sanjit was killed by commandos in an encounter at Imphal
market complex on July 23.

However a major social organisation
Apunba Lup (AL) alleged that the encounter was "fake", leading to wide
protests across the state. The chief minister said talks were being
conducted with the organisation AL, which has been agitating for more
than four months demanding his "resignation on moral grounds" and
dismissal of the commandos. On three student organisations - All
Manipur Students Union (AMSU), Manipur Students' Federation (MSF) and
Kangleipak Students' Association (KSA) boycotting classes since
September, Singh reiterated his appeal for its withdrawal.

The
chief minister said the government was in touch with authorities of
private schools for which his government could provide security during
the day, but they had demanded security at night. Buildings of at least
four schools who had defied the 'diktat' of the three students bodies
had been set ablaze for holding classes.

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/print.aspx?artid=I|yvkJmgXbM=

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Communal clashes at 3 districts (Dec 30, 2009, Times of India)

Tension prevailed in three districts, including Rajsamand, Bhilwara
and Pali following sporadic incidents of communal violence on Monday.
The police worked overtime to keep the situation under control. Later,
markets were closed and a protest rally was taken out in theses
districts. According to the police, some people in the Rajnagar police
station area of Rajsamand district alleged that cows were burnt on
Monday following which some Hindu organisations called a bandh.

Processions
were taken out in protest of the alleged incident. The organisations
threatened to stop tajia processions in the town until the police
arrested the people involved. Divisional commissioner Arpana Arora and
IG P K Vyas rushed to spot on Tuesday and held discussions with
representatives from both the communities. Similarly, tension prevailed
in Sanganer town in Bhilwara district on Tuesday following a clash
between two groups on Monday. SP (Bhilwara) P Ramji tried to appease
the people who refused to take out a tajia procession if the attackers
were not arrested.

In the third incident, some family members
of former MLA Amrit Parmar were allegedly beaten up in Bali town of
Pali district late on Monday night following which clashes which took
place between two groups. Some agitators clashed with policemen also.
Hindu organisations demanded arrest of those involved in the attack.
Police officials said that situation was under control in the three
districts, but additional police force has been deployed.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5393440.cms

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Cash at judges door: Court unhappy with CBI report (Dec 24, 2009, Hindustan Times)

In a new twist to the 'cash-at-judge's-door' scam, a CBI court on
Thursday said it was not satisfied with the investigating agency's
report for closure of the case and sought a response from the
complainant. Special Judge Darshan Singh observed that the CBI filed
the closure report after it failed to get permission from the Chief
Justice of India to prosecute the judge. He said the CBI could have
initiated action against the other co-accused as no sanction for their
prosecution was required.

The complainant, Amrik Singh, the camp
peon of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, has been asked to respond to the notice
by January 11. An amount of Rs 15 lakh was delivered at the residence
of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on
August 13, 2008, following which she reported the matter to the police.

Former
Haryana Additional Advocate General Sanjeev Bansal's clerk, the prime
accused in the case, allegedly delivered the money. The police
registered an FIR on August 16 and the case was handed over to the CBI
on August 28. High Court Judge Nirmal Yadav denied the allegation that
the money was actually meant for her. She had to proceed on leave and
is still not conducting judicial work in the court.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/490261.aspx

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AP loses property worth over Rs 250 cr over Telangana issue (Dec 27, 2009, Indian Express)

As Andhra Pradesh boils over the Telangana issue, public and private
properties worth over Rs 250 crore were destroyed by protesters in all
the three regions of the state so far, government sources said. Adding
the loss caused to businesses because of the seemingly unending spate
of shutdowns in Telangana, the figure could be a few hundred crores of
rupees more. Of the total loss to properties, about 80 per cent was
caused in Telangana region alone where people demanding a separate
state have been more "violent," the sources said. As many as 52 public
and 28 private properties were burnt while 62 public and 114 private
properties were damaged in the violence that broke out in Telangana
region from November 29 to December 9, after TRS chief K Chandrasekhar
Rao began his indefinite fast demanding separate statehood for
Telanagana.

The agitations supporting a united state recorded
37 public properties and 11 private properties being burnt and 46
public and 47 private properties damaged between December 10 and 23,
statistics compiled by the police reveal. The state-run Andhra Pradesh
Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) bore the brunt of the strife with
35 buses being burnt and another to 214 damaged. 50 private buses were
also damaged and seven were set on fire by Telangana protesters.

Pro-Telangana
groups went on a rampage and damaged as many as 268 buses in the state
capital and other districts of Telangana region on a single day
following the Centre's announcement on the statehood issue on December
23. Besides, over 50 public and over 150 private properties were also
badly burnt or damaged in the second round of "protests" in Telangana
so far. According to Transport Minister S Vijayarama Raju, APSRTC
suffered a loss of over Rs 110 crore since November 29. "These are only
bare estimates as the destructions are still continuing in Telangana
region," a top ranking bureaucrat said.

The protesters also
targeted railway properties causing a loss of several crores of rupees
due to burning of four railway stations and other damages at various
places in all the three regions of Andhra Pradesh. The protesters
damaged railway signalling panels and equipments besides burning two
bogies and pelting stones on two Express trains. "Apart from attacks on
railway properties in view of bandhs, rail rokos and demonstrations,
railways are also losing particularly due to non-transportation of
goods and parcel which are lying at different railway stations," a
senior official of the South Central Railway (SCR) said.

The
protesters did not spare telephone exchanges, cell phone towers. They
also set fire to optical fibre cables at a BSNL warehouse in Anantapur
causing over Rs 30 lakh loss. The number of persons who ended their
lives demanding Telangana state was three times higher in the region
with 18 persons resorting to the extreme step while six persons
committed suicide in support of unified Andhra Pradesh. As many as 82
persons tried to end their lives for Telangana state while 49 attempted
suicide in Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, police sources said.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/559730/

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Minority for Muslim in BPL census? (Jan 2, 2010, Times of India)

The Centre is veering round to accepting the N C Saxena committee's
methodology for identifying below poverty line (BPL) families through a
census but may go in for a crucial change — replace "Muslim" with
"minority" for extra weightage on poverty index. The Union rural
development ministry is considering minorities as a whole, in place of
only Muslims, who are to be given an extra point weightage in BPL
identification. The ministry conducts a census to identify BPL
families, which is now due this year.

Sources said a rethink on
whether Muslims as a community should be retained as beneficiary of
special points in BPL census started after a few states said it was not
prudent. In their comments on the Saxena report, the states, reported
to be mostly BJP-ruled ones, felt it would send out a wrong message.
Sources said the ministry is still to decide between "Muslim" and
"minority" and a final view is to be taken on Saxena report's
methodology for the BPL census. The debate, however, seems interesting.

While Sachar commission and other surveys, from time to time,
have identified a vast section of Muslims as poor, sources said it was
suggested that use of the word "minority" would pre-empt any misgivings
that one community was being given preference in poverty welfare. It
would, while removing the possible grounds for social envy, also not
disturb other minority communities who could feel let down. Among the
families to be surveyed, there is certain weightage to be given to
social groups. While SCs/STs would get three points, Most Backward
Castes (MBC) would be given two points. The Saxena report added that
Muslims and OBCs be given one point each.

RD ministry feels the
methodology suggested by Saxena panel for BPL census is otherwise
strong, especially the method of "automatic inclusion and exclusion".
The concept is seen as "fair and robust". According to the concept,
certain families would not be considered for BPL category at all. They
include households which own double of a district's average irrigated
landholding or have a three-wheeled or four-wheeled motor vehicle or a
mechanized farm equipment or have a member who is a government employee
or have a private sector employee drawing above Rs 10,000 per month
salary. In contrast, the primitive tribal groups, households headed by
single-women or a minor, families which have disabled persons as main
bread-earners or the households of "mahadalits" would be automatically
included, without a survey, in the BPL list.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5403818.cms

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Opinions and Editorials

Sacred Heartless - Editorial (Dec 29, 2009, Indian Express)

There is no such thing as society," declared Margaret Thatcher. A
few decades before that, J.B. Priestley wrote An Inspector Calls, a
play about a police officer walking into a well-to-do family and
shattering their smugness by revealing how each one of them was
directly or unwittingly implicated in the social ruin and suicide of a
young girl. Ruchika Girhotra's life was something like that: after
being molested by an authority figure in her world, she was
systematically let down by every place of succour.

As her
classmates have since confessed, Ruchika was left violently alone in
school, the object of her peers' excitable gossip. Finally, she was
expelled on the flimsy charge that her fees had not been paid on time
(incidentally, she had been attending the school for 10 years).
According to Ruchika's father, this one supposedly safe space succumbed
to official pressure and asked the vulnerable teenager to leave.

Whatever
comes of the renewed investigation into the school's action, it should
not surprise anyone who is familiar with the way Chandigarh works.
Sacred Heart Convent sarkari kowtowing is emblematic of the city's
power-addled character. Few other cities are as implicated in the webs
of sarkari influence. It was designed exclusively as a seat of
government, and has three administrations jostling to make their
presence felt in every facet of daily life. VIPs abound; everyone feels
entitled to a free pass.

Unlike most other organically evolving
cities, Chandigarh sprang fully formed from Le Corbusier's brow - an
elegantly Cartesian capital with wide open spaces and identical houses,
with uses divided into different sectors. Unlike the anonymity and
sense of encounter that other urban spaces hold out, one's place in the
social grid is all too obvious, and matters crucially. Designed like a
capitol with an elevated head and an array of administrative buildings,
the city is simply an arena for the exercise of state power. The
competing claims of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh themselves ensure
that no one is immune to this favour-mongering, pompous administrative
ethos. That S.P.S. Rathore got away for so long and extracted consent
from all intervening institutions is of a piece with the control
fetishism and bureaucratic tyranny of the town he lived in.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/560841/

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FIRst response - Editorial (Dec 30, 2009, Indian Express)

First Home Minister P. Chidambaram and now the ministry that he
heads have joined a chorus - other members of which include judges of
the Supreme Court - that complaints submitted to a police station
should always be registered as FIRs. This cannot really be imposed, of
course, by fiat - law and order is a state subject, so the call has to
be taken by each state government. But the reasons that this chorus has
formed are impressive. After all, as things stand, the FIR is the only
way the criminal justice system can be set in motion.

But,
since then the police are forced to act, the local police have an
incentive to not register your complaint - over and above any
interference with the process, such as appears to have happened in the
Ruchika case. If your FIR isn’t registered, you have few - and
difficult - options. You can complain to a senior policeman (SP and
above); file a private complaint in court; or go to the NHRC.

Yet,
while there are excellent reasons to suppose that many legitimate
complaints are not being filed, and so action cannot be taken against
negligent cops - and even reasonable statistics on crime rates are hard
to come by - the states are likely to raise many objections to any move
to make the registration of FIRs compulsory. These concerns are very
valid indeed. Harassment once an FIR has already been filed, of
frivolous FIRs being taken advantage of by the occasional unscrupulous
official in the criminal investigation and even the judicial hierarchy
is already common.

Nor will compulsory registration mean the
system cannot be suborned later. It is a sobering thought that what is
being asked for is that the FIR - which is, in the end, a potent
instrument, the unleashing of the might of the law - be handed over to
absolutely anyone with a complaint against the world. Can an effort to
ensure the police do their duty merely legislate that their duty be
done?

The key problem is that there is no onus on the police
officer to register, no direct liability if he fails to register. But
dealing with excessive discretion by taking away all discretion will
clearly have severe repercussions. Enforcing accountability by statute
is, as our columnist pointed out on these pages recently, a problematic
idea. Getting more legitimate complaints registered is an unquestioned
necessity. But recording all complaints might not be the way to get
there.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/561117/

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Free willy - Editorial (Dec 29, 2009, Deccan Herald)

For someone who served as chief minister of two states, as Union
minister and was even mentioned as prime ministerial contender in the
90s, Narayan Dutt Tiwari is exiting public life under a dark cloud. The
former socialist-turned-Congressman was finally felled by charges of
moral turpitude that have dogged him all through his political career,
be it concerning his relationship with his Cabinet colleague Indira
Hridayesh or with Ujwala Sharma whose son last year claimed he was
Tiwari's illegitimate son. His inexplicable vanishing act for a couple
of days in 1995 in Gajraula in Uttar Pradesh or his public humiliation
in a Haldwani guest house in the mid-80s, when he was caught in the act
with a woman friend, were indicative of a personal flaw that the
Congress leadership, for whatever reason, tried to gloss over. But by
his ménage quatre in the imposing gubernatorial mansion in Hyderabad,
Tiwari has finally lived down the famous line about him: "Na nar na
naari, Narayan Dutt Tiwari".

Tiwari's tumble into the purgatory
of infamy has evoked much moral indignation in a society whose attitude
to sex sometimes borders on hypocrisy. True, Tiwari besmirched the
dignity of a Raj Bhavan by his romp with women young enough to be his
grand daughters. But Indian politics and sex have had a long
relationship. Also, while damning Tiwari, the babel of condemnatory
chorus seems to have ignored the dangerous implications of the woman
behind the exposure brazenly claiming that she sent the three women to
Tiwari, for she was seeking a mining licence. It is such trading of
public resources by powerful figures for favours, monetary or sexual,
that should concern all.

But corruption, financial or moral is
a global phenomenon, as Indira Gandhi would have reminded us. Power is
the most potent aphrodisiac, Henry Kissinger noted. Men in power are
drawn to dangerous liaisons with women, as also the other way round.
Such is the obsession that they tend to take unacceptable risks,
leading to inevitable disaster. This year alone, libido caused the end
of many distinguished careers all over the world, notably the United
States, where South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, Nevada Senator John
Ensign and golf legend Tiger Woods suffered ignominy. The year 2009 is
thus truly annus horibilis.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/43727/free-willy.html

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Solving Telangana - Editorial (Jan 1, 2010, The Tribune)

Union Home Minister Chidambaram's invitation to eight recognized
parties in Andhra Pradesh to meet him on January 5 for 'wide-ranging'
discussions to resolve the ongoing imbroglio for a separate state is a
step in the right direction. Coming after his assurance on wider
consultations on the issue in a statement on December 23, the
invitation is aimed at evolving a consensus. The political parties
cannot shy away from their responsibility to restore order and calm in
the state ravaged by unrest over the vexed issue. Significantly, the
Centre's in-principle nod to statehood for Telangana had come after a
consensus had emerged at an all-party meeting on December 7. However,
when the Telangana region on the one hand and coastal Andhra and
Rayalseema on the other began polarising along regional lines, all
parties, including the Congress, found themselves split down the middle
on the issue.

Parties like the TDP and the Praja Rajyam Party,
which had earlier pledged open support to the cause of the Telangana
state and had aligned with the avowedly pro-Telangana TRS in the
simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections, did a complete volte
face, after they found the non-Telangana regions opposing the
bifurcation of the state. It does not behove parties to shift their
position on key issues as per their political convenience. It is vital
that they behave responsibly, first by attending the January 5 meeting
and then by working with due sincerity to defuse the situation.
Indulging in doublespeak or dragging their feet in the restoration of
peace would eventually expose them before the people at large.

The
state has indeed suffered enormous damage in the three weeks since the
Centre's nod on Telangana. Industrial production has been crippled,
investor sentiment jolted, tourism has been severely affected, work in
offices has been paralysed and education in schools and colleges has
been hit. It is, therefore, imperative that the January 5 meeting be
not a wasted opportunity. A durable solution must be found in a spirit
of give and take. For Mr Chidambaram too this is a challenge and an
opportunity to prove his negotiating skills.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100101/edit.htm#2

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Political opportunism to remain new BJPs creed - By Lalit Sethi (Jan 1, 2010, Central Chronicle)

The BJP led by a new party chief, Nitin Gadkari, has apparently
decided to throw out its tall claims to moral fiber by engaging in,
without having to admit to it, that political opportunism remains its
political creed: yesterday's foes are today's friends. Shibu Soren may
not have won the Assembly elections, nor the BJP in Jharkhand, but 18
seats each in a legislature of 81 and with the expected support of many
or some of the 13 odd Independents, they could hope to craft a majority
in the House. The grouping or alliance of the two parties, the BJP and
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, is the largest alliance. Thus, it is fair and
square and part of thee BJP's professed "cultural nationalism",
whatever that means. What does it mean anyway? "National cultural-ism"
of sorts, signifying anything or nothing more than a big hyperbole.

Gadkari
rolled out his resume with a Master's in law and a management degree.
The fixing of things in Jharkhand appears to be his first great fix.
Fixing the party in a mess was his mandate from the RSS and he appears
to be going flying colours. Gadkari insists that the voters have given
some kind of a mandate to Shibu Soren even if he faces grave charges in
a court of law, but since he has not yet been found guilty, in legal
parlance he would have to be deemed free to form and head a government
even if he had to lose his position as a Minister at the Centre a few
months ago. If he has not yet resigned from the Lok Sabha, he would be
only too pleased to do so now and rule the greener pastures he now
presides over.

The BJP may be a party on the run after a number
of political and electoral debacles and running battles and bickering
may have now become its hallmark, but the new party chief, said to be
just 52 years old and a bit of political worker from the cradle as his
mother took him along on her rounds, could be said to have been in the
political business for a long, long time and at least 30 years as an
RSS "karyakarta" and BJP or Jana Sangh worker for 30 years by initially
delivering Press releases at newspaper offices and trying to be pals
with journalists. The delivering of handouts is in any case the done
things for party underlings in India, if not the world, from a long
time ago. Thus Mr. Gadkari cannot claim that to be a duty unique to
him, but one has now heard of it as being used as a certificate,
besides the fact that he rolled out rugs at party meetings or public
meeting, something that is fairly common to all aspirants with great
hopes and dreams.

Gadkari now wants to create a new work culture
and desires to go in for a performance audit and infuse values or new
values such as engaging in social work or development work. Is that a
variation on the BJP slogan of shining India of more than five years
ago that led to its rout in the general elections of 2004? He has tried
to use one more hackneyed expression by insisting that BJP would not
oppose the Congress just for the sake of being in the opposite camp.
Have not the people heard of constructive Opposition before and do they
not know that it is a cliche?

He has already cracked the whip
by warning the would-be offenders that indiscipline would not be
tolerated in the BJP. Hoping that he enjoys the widespread support of
the cadres, he could be expected to punish those who do not obey his
commands. But he would like Dalit leaders like Ms. Uma Bharati, Mr.
Govind Acharya, a one-time ideologue, now ageing, and Mr. Kalyan Singh
back in the fold provided the State units agree to take them back. But
Mrs. Vasundhara Raje, former Chief Minister of Rajasthan and leader of
Opposition, who has been hoping to capture the party machine in the
State, may have gone into wilderness as district party unit in Jhalawar
has not had elections and has not been able to elect her as a delegate
for State level elections. She is petitioning Mr. Gadkari for a
reprieve, but she may have already lost ground. Meanwhile, Mr. Rajnath
Singh has had a dig at LK Advani by saying that Gadkari is more
powerful than the one-time iron man.

http://www.centralchronicle.com/viewnews.asp?articleID=23249

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Songs of shared living - By Harsh Mander (Jan 3, 2010, The Hindu)

The skyline of the village is darkened with smoke rising from
burning homes. The air is acrid with the suffocating odour of betrayal
and hate. An ageing resident, Wali Bhai, hides behind a wall, as a mob
lurches to his house, shouting murderous slogans. They loot what little
they can find in the modest dwelling of a landless worker, and then
torch the mud brick walls and thatch roof. Wali Bhai weeps, as he bears
silent, helpless witness to the destruction of his home and savings of
a lifetime, in one blizzard of hate. But he mourns more because he can
recognise each of the young men who torch his house. These were boys of
his village, who had played, studied and grown to manhood before his
eyes. They were boys who called him kaka, or uncle. Wali Bhai is almost
crazed with grief, and beyond caring about his own safety. He sends his
family to the security of a relief camp, but defiantly squats outside
the ruins of his home, for weeks, daring the people of the village of
his birth to take his life. His neighbour is a Patel farmer. The
Patel's wife is anguished and shamed by the injustice meted out to
innocent people by men of her community. It is 2002. Gujarat is
burning, in mass mob vengeance against a fire that broke out in a train
compartment in Godhra and killed 58 passengers. The mobs and their
leaders within and outside government believe that it was Muslims who
burnt the train; therefore all Muslims in the state are deemed guilty,
and must pay for their crimes.

The Patel's wife cooks and packs
food, and carries it to Wali Bhai where he sits outside his home. 'For
as long as you are here', she says, 'I will bring you food'. In so
doing, she defies her husband and all the men of her community. As does
a friend from a local tribal community who visits Wali months later,
when his family returns from the relief camp. His eyes fill with tears
when he sees the burnt walls and roof of the ruined and ransacked home
of his comrade. He leaves without a word, but a few days later, a
tractor arrives unannounced overloaded with iron sheets and workers.
They inform Wali that they are under instructions to install a new
roof, and to ignore all protests that Wali may advance. That is how
Wali's home today has still burnt walls but a shining new roof. Gujarat
in 2002, and in the years that followed, was the site of unspeakable
brutality and cruelty. But that is not the full story. For every
narrative of hate and violence, I can testify to at least three stories
of extraordinary compassion and courage. These are luminous local acts
of resistance against the politics of hate and assaults to India's
secular democratic fabric.

We often assume that India's freedom
is defended most by its educated men and women, who bring to bear to
the country's future the illumination of modern liberal and egalitarian
ideas, rationality, and secular humanism, all of which are essential to
the survival of freedom in our land. My experience, however, has been
just the contrary. In the last two decades, influenced substantially by
the movement to build a temple at the site of a medieval mosque in
Ayodhya, and the 'global war against terror', there has been a
resurgence and legitimisation of irrational prejudice and hate among
India's most educated and privileged elite. This is reflected in the
unashamed and careless chauvinism of drawing room conversations, and in
the growing divide between communities in the spaces in which we live
and work, and where our children study and play. By contrast, I find
consistently that the least privileged Indian men and women - Hindu,
Muslim as well as of other faiths - are intuitively far more respectful
to the faith of others, even as they are very deeply devout in their
own faith. I recall sitting with women from one of the most oppressed
Dalit communities in Madhya Pradesh. It is evening, and the call of the
azaan is heard. The instinct of the women is to immediately cover their
heads, fold their hands and bow in the direction of the mosque. To them
there is no question, that a mosque is as worthy of reverence as a
temple. It is a lesson that I wish many of my educated friends would
learn - or re-learn.

It is this idea of freedom, fraternity and
secular democracy, which ordinary Indians intuitively comprehend, and
practise. It is a way of life rooted in millennia of lived experience -
including of Bhakti and Sufi traditions - which they defend. It is a
way of life in which reverence for one's own God or Gods, does in no
way exclude, but instead necessarily entails, equal respect or
reverence for all other Gods or God. It is this idea of freedom that
many Indians are losing as they read books, and accumulate wealth.
Central also is the notion of equal citizenship based not on a denial
of faith, but equal respect for every faith, including the absence of
faith. Freedom in India would not mean a bar on turbans or head scarves
in the classroom, as in France. It would be the defence of the right of
Sikh boys to wear turbans, and Muslim girls to wear head scarves if
they so choose. During the freedom struggle itself, this universalistic
idea of freedom was under assault from two flanks.

On the one
hand, the Hindu Mahasabha and RSS advocated the idea of second class
citizenship for people who did not share the religious beliefs of the
majority of Indian people. On the other, supporters of the Muslim
League argued that only if people of a single faith live together can
they secure lasting peace and equality. They fought for and secured an
independent Muslim nation. But 60 years later, Pakistan has lived with
far more ethnic and religious strife than India. Sameness is clearly no
guarantee for freedom, or for peace. Freedom instead is safe when we
understand, respect and indeed celebrate our diversities. And we can do
this best if we turn to our ordinary working people, to those who have
often not had the opportunities of formal education. We need to learn
afresh from their deep, wise, unshakeable respect for the beliefs of
other people who are different from us in some ways. We need to listen
to their voices, to their songs, to their worship and to their
irreverence, to their laughter and to the silences of their shared
suffering. And then maybe we would learn the most robust defence of
freedom in this vast and ancient land.

http://www.hindu.com/mag/2010/01/03/stories/2010010350170300.htm

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