Fight against corruption good; what about the method? - Democracy, Civil Society and the State

Even as Anna Hazare’s protest demanding an anti-draft bill gains nationwide momentum and nears a solution, there has been some criticism of the methods the veteran social activist has adopted in his crusade.

While everyone seems to agree with demands of more transparency in the system and more accountability in governance, Hazare’s fasting to force the government to accept his demands has led to some calling his tactics as being unconstitutional and unreasonable.

The primary argument is, if a single man can launch a protest, and within four days can virtually force the government to come up with a tweaked version of a legislative bill, does it augur well for a democracy?

“The movement behind the Jan Lokpal Bill is crossing the lines of reasonableness. It is premised on an institutional imagination that is at best naïve; at worst subversive of representative democracy,” wrote political analyst Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express.

In a column titled “Of the few, by the few,” Mehta says the claim that the “people” are not represented by elected representatives, but are represented by their self-appointed guardians is disturbing.

Anna Hazare wins anti-graft bill demands, ends hunger strike

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

NEW DELHI | Sat Apr 9, 2011 2:52pm IST

(Reuters) - Veteran activist Anna Hazare ended on Saturday a five-day hunger strike after the government gave in to his demands for tougher anti-graft legislation which had drawn the support of thousands.

Septuagenarian Hazare's demands for a bill that gives an independent ombudsman police-like powers to prosecute ministers, bureaucrats and judges had tapped into widespread anger over a spate of graft scandals that have tarnished the country's image and weakened the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Global Call to Release Imprisoned Indian Human Rights Activist Dr. Binayak Sen

Indian Human Rights Activist Dr. Binayak Sen Sentenced to Life in Prison in Widely Criticized Ruling

Time To End War Against The Earth - Vandana Shiva

When we think of wars in our times, our minds turn to Iraq and Afghanistan. But the bigger war is the war against the planet. This war has its roots in an economy that fails to respect ecological and ethical limits - limits to inequality, limits to injustice, limits to greed and economic concentration.

A handful of corporations and of powerful countries seeks to control the earth's resources and transform the planet into a supermarket in which everything is for sale. They want to sell our water, genes, cells, organs, knowledge, cultures and future.

The continuing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and onwards are not only about "blood for oil". As they unfold, we will see that they are about blood for food, blood for genes and biodiversity and blood for water.

  

The war mentality underlying military-industrial agriculture is evident from the names of Monsanto's herbicides - ''Round-Up'', ''Machete'', ''Lasso''. American Home Products, which has merged with Monsanto, gives its herbicides similarly aggressive names, including ''Pentagon'' and ''Squadron''.This is the language of war. Sustainability is based on peace with the earth.

A history of tragedy and farce

It was Karl Marx who said that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.

I have never really been sure what he meant. But as the recent history of US-Pakistan relations churns onward through multiple repetitive cycles, the results, while perhaps verging at times on black farce, have been clearly and consistently tragic. More tragic still, history seems poised to deliver yet more of the same.

“Media Subdues The Public. It’s So In India, Certainly” - Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky has a veritable cult following among those who are sceptical about views the liberal media espouses and government propaganda machinery spawns to suit their often overlapping agendas. Compelling is his criticism, breathtaking is his knowledge, persuasive is his voice, and deep runs his humanity. This 82-year-old Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, has written over 100 books and is considered the doyen of modern linguistics. To the world outside the academia, though, he’s more famous as America’s leading dissident intellectual whose instinct it is to expose the hypocrisy of the powerful. His awesome credentials inspired The New York Times to describe him as “arguably the most important intellectual alive”.

On the 15th anniversary of Outlook, Ajaz Ashraf and Anuradha Raman talked to Chomsky over the phone on aspects of the crisis plaguing the media. These included the questions you readers have often wondered about: Is the media really free? Or is it the handmaiden of the elites, the state? And how does one distinguish propaganda from news? Speaking with the candour and brilliance typical of his writing, Chomsky says the crisis in the media is not a result of its declining revenues as much as its intellectual dishonesty. He also sprang a few surprises—for instance, he finds the media in Pakistan more vibrant than it is in India. Excerpts:

Jayaprakash Narayan (JP): the prophet of people's power

The welfare of the common people constituted the leitmotif of his philosophy and exercise. In democracy he placed `demos' above everything else and this concern for `demos' had its fructification in his concept of `Total Revolution'. An anatomy of this concept would reveal that Total Revolution is the logical culmination of Gandhi's concept of village self-rule. A complete overhaul of the social structure was its aim, because the system, in his opinion, was touching the cesspool of degradation and a moral and egalitarian society could not be formed without throwing out the existing system completely. JP served the country without any desire for return

By Sudhanshu Ranjan

October 11, 2002, marks the 100th birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly called JP, who is described as the second Gandhi for liberating people from the tyranny of their own government. A hero of the 1942 Quit India movement, JP emerged as the Loknayak in 1974, when he assumed the leadership of the Bihar movement to extirpate corruption. Today the people at the helm of affairs in the Government of India as well as in the Bihar Government owe their allegiance to JP, but have completely forgotten the leitmotif of his ideology— State power must be subservient to people's power.

Binayak Sen: redefining health care in an unjust society. "health care is always Political"

On May 14, 2007, Binayak Sen was arrested by the Chattisgarh police under sections of the Chhatisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005, and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (2004) for alleged links with the banned Maoist groups (1). His arrest was the upshot of his attempts to raise issues of human rights violation in government-sponsored violence, both within and outside Chattisgarh, in his capacity as the General Secretary, Chattisgarh People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). What makes this event of particular interest to the readers of IJME is that Binayak Sen is a practising doctor who sees his activism as intrinsic to his work as a health professional. Binayak is a graduate of Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, an elite institution known for its exceptional teaching. One of the top students of his batch, Binayak completed his post graduation in paediatrics in the early 1970s. For most of the years since then, he has devoted his life to health care in poor communities. For this, in 2004, he was conferred the college’s prestigious Paul Harrison award “in recognition of his outstanding contribution to society”, as stated on the citation presented with the award. His contribution was not seen so much in his capacity as a physician, but (as the citation notes), for having “... redefined the possible role of the doctor in a broken and unjust society, holding the cause much more precious than personal safety”.

Tehelka Interview w/ Arundhati Roy Regarding Sedition Charges.

As a section of the political class and the media bays for her blood, author Arundhati Roy tells SHOMA CHAUDHURY why her opinions do not amount to sedition.

Speaking her mind Arundhati Roy’s views on the Kashmir issue have invited brickbats from all possible quarters PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

The State has been contemplating charges of sedition against you for your speeches in Delhi and Kashmir. How do you understand sedition? Did you see yourself as being seditious? What was your intention in speaking from those two platforms in Delhi and Srinagar under the rubric — Azadi: The only way.

Sedition is an archaic, obsolete idea revived for us by Times Now, a channel that seems to have hysterically dedicated itself to hunting me down and putting me in the way of mob anger. Who am I anyway? Small fry for a whole TV channel. It’s not hard to get a writer lynched in this climate, and that’s what it seems to want to do. It is literally stalking me. I almost sense psychosis here. If I was the Government of India I would take a step back from the chess board of this recent morass and ask how a TV channel managed to whip up this frenzy using moth-eaten, discredited old ideas, and goad everybody into a blind alley of international embarrassment. All this has gone a long way towards internationalising the ‘Kashmir issue’, something the Indian government was trying to avoid.

One of the reasons it happened was because the BJP desperately needed to divert attention from the chargesheeting of Indresh Kumar, a key RSS leader in the Ajmer blast. This was a perfect opportunity, the media, forever in search of sensation, led by Times Now, obliged. It never occurred to me that I was being seditious. I had agreed to speak at the seminar in Delhi way before it was titled “Azadi: The only way”. The title was provocative, I guess, to people who are longing to be provoked. I don’t think it is such a big deal frankly, given what has been going on in Kashmir for more than half a century.

The Srinagar seminar was called ‘Whither Kashmir? Enslavement or Freedom?’ It was really meant for young Kashmiris to deepen the debate on what they meant by and what they wanted from azadi. Contrary to the idea that it was some fire-breathing call to arms, it was really the opposite — it was about contemplation, about deepening the debate, about asking uncomfortable questions.

I Pity The Nation That Needs To Jail Those Who Ask For Justice-- Arundhati Roy

For her talk on Kashmir (videos to the right), writer Arundhati Roy has come under the threat of “sedition” charges in India. These speeches are currently being analyzed by Delhi police. Her response to the threat is below and was issued from Srinagar:

See video of her speech on Kashmir here

I write this from Srinagar, Kashmir. This morning's papers say that I may be arrested on charges of sedition for what I have said at recent public meetings on Kashmir. I said what millions of people here say every day. I said what I, as well as other commentators have written and said for years. Anybody who cares to read the transcripts of my speeches will see that they were fundamentally a call for justice. I spoke about justice for the people of Kashmir who live under one of the most brutal military occupations in the world; for Kashmiri Pandits who live out the tragedy of having been driven out of their homeland; for Dalit soldiers killed in Kashmir whose graves I visited on garbage heaps in their villages in Cuddalore; for the Indian poor who pay the price of this occupation in material ways and who are now learning to live in the terror of what is becoming a police state.

Yesterday I traveled to Shopian, the apple-town in South Kashmir which had remained closed for 47 days last year in protest against the brutal rape and murder of Asiya and Nilofer, the young women whose bodies were found in a shallow stream near their homes and whose murderers have still not been brought to justice. I met Shakeel, who is Nilofer's husband and Asiya's brother. We sat in a circle of people crazed with grief and anger who had lost hope that they would ever get 'insaf'—justice—from India, and now believed that Azadi—freedom— was their only hope. I met young stone pelters who had been shot through their eyes. I traveled with a young man who told me how three of his friends, teenagers in Anantnag district, had been taken into custody and had their finger-nails pulled out as punishment for throwing stones.

In the papers some have accused me of giving 'hate-speeches', of wanting India to break up. On the contrary, what I say comes from love and pride. It comes from not wanting people to be killed, raped, imprisoned or have their finger-nails pulled out in order to force them to say they are Indians. It comes from wanting to live in a society that is striving to be a just one. Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds. Pity the nation that needs to jail those who ask for justice, while communal killers, mass murderers, corporate scamsters, looters, rapists, and those who prey on the poorest of the poor, roam free.

Arundhati Roy
October 26 2010

The Narcissism of the Neurotic : The End of the Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games over, we can now return to those of everyday Indian life. For all the protests, though, there was nothing in the corruption that marked the Games that does not permeate every town and city, all the time. Just that, in these Games, it got concentrated in one very high-profile event, under constant public and media gaze. Much of the agonizing over what was routine corruption  was occasioned by “what the world will think of us.” For ‘world' read Western world. We care little about what Tuvalu or Tonga or Papua New Guinea think of us.

The corruption — or its public manifestation — hurt us because it messed with our self-image and our need to be accepted as special by the Western elite, in every way, even at sports. After all, we are knocking at the door of the G-8. Else, there were no surprises in the corruption. Shocking, yes. Surprising, no. Dirty contracts handed out to sleazy builders? That's business as usual in Mumbai, any day in the past three decades. Most of the city's 36 MLAs are builders or contractors, which is its own comment.

Is it Micro Usury? Ethics runs smack into profit in the debate on the small loan business

Micro Gain, Macro Pain
Microfinance institutions make big claims, but critics point at the holes.

Financial inclusion		Opaque benefits
By March-end 2009, over 22 million people were beneficiaries Rs 25,000-30,000 crore deployed in the system Large funds flowing to sector from banks and equity investors Reach out in areas where banks have been tardy in providing service Rapid scaling up through innovation/ technology to cover remote areas Loan repayment remains over 95%		A significant percentage of clients exist only on loan books Poor may be benefiting but high MFI profitability raises questions Steep interest rates, sometimes over 40%, defeat purpose of helping poor Tight schedule of weekly repayments putting tremendous pressure Proxy agents flourishing due to lack of checks and balances No data available on indebtedness

---

India’s microfinance institutions (MFIS) have often hit the headlines. But this time, they are doing so not necessarily for the right reasons. They have been accused of making huge profits and ensuring their own topline growth at the cost of the poor whom they aim to help with easy and affordable credit. SKS Microfinance, one of the biggest MFIS, hit the high streets with a very successful IPO and listing in August. But this raised questions about the firm’s operations and profit motives. What particularly drew strong criticism was SKS chairman Vikram Akula and other top management making millions through stake sale and ensuring high returns to equity investors. This criticism came from none other than the father of modern microfinance, Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus, with whom Akula first worked at Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Questions are also being raised about the coercive tactics used in many cases to ensure weekly repayments and the steep interest charged by the MFIS, sometimes over 40 per cent. In what way are these charges justified?
Though the avowed intention of MFIS and banks providing microcredit is to help small borrowers, there is increasing evidence to show its cumbersome processes are forcing landless farmers and traders to seek out the traditional moneylender. On the flip side, loan beneficiaries often face undue pressures. Last month,  over 1,000 women members of 50 self-help groups in Bhubaneswar protested against the high interest charged by MFIS. The first farmer suicide in drought-hit West Bengal this year is also traced to the harassment over loan repayment.

In the poorest country in the world, India, he government spends $6 billion on sports

The Commonwealth Games should never have been awarded to India, Australia's Olympic chief has said, pouring more fuel to a controversy sparked by chaotic planning and execution of the event.

John Coates' remarks come as Indian authorities struggle to complete venues, forcing some teams to take up temporary accommodation at hotels.

"I don't think it is a cultural thing. When you agree to host [the Games], you are required to provide the basics in terms of health and hygiene for the athletes," Coates said on Friday.

"The Games shouldn't have been awarded to Delhi in hindsight."

Athletes have complained about dirty accommodation, shoddy construction and security fears.

A portion of false ceiling in the weightlifting venue caved in on Wednesday, a day after the collapse of a footbridge at the main stadium, injuring 27 workers. In another incident, armed men shot and wounded two foreign visitors near a historic mosque in Delhi on Sunday in a suspected terrorist attack.

Scheduled to begin on October 3, the event is expected to cost Indian taxpayers close to $6bn.

Indian Enron

The Indian government has vowed to strengthen anti-fraud legislation after the chairman of the country's fourth biggest software firm said he had falsified company accounts.
Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Satyam Computer Services, resigned on Wednesday after admitting he had "inflated profits over a period of the last several years".

Archana Uttapa, a spokeswoman for Satyam, said the company's balance sheets were riddled with "fictitious" assets and "non-existent" cash.
She also said that Raju's current whereabouts was currently unclear.
News of the accounting scandal sent Satyam's stocks plummeting by nearly 80 per cent and also dragged down the benchmark Sensex stock index by 7.3 per cent on Wednesday.
Trading on India's stock exchange was closed on Thursday because of a public holiday.

Peepli [live]

Walking with the Comrads

The terse, typewritten note slipped under my door in a sealed envelope confirmed my appointment with India’s Gravest Internal Security Threat. I’d been waiting for months to hear from them. I had to be at the Ma Danteshwari mandir in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh, at any of four given times on two given days. That was to take care of bad weather, punctures, blockades, transport strikes and sheer bad luck. The note said: “Writer should have camera, tika and coconut. Meeter will have cap, Hindi Outlook magazine and bananas. Password: Namashkar Guruji.”

Namashkar Guruji. I wondered whether the Meeter and Greeter would be expecting a man. And whether I should get myself a moustache. 

There are many ways to describe Dantewada. It’s an oxymoron. It’s a border town smack in the heart of India. It’s the epicentre of a war. It’s an upside down, inside out town.

Red Shadow: Centenary celebrations of the adivasi uprising in Bastar; Sten gun at hand

In Dantewada, the police wear plain clothes and the rebels wear uniforms. The jail superintendent is in jail. The prisoners are free (three hundred of them escaped from the old town jail two years ago). Women who have been raped are in police custody. The rapists give speeches in the bazaar.

India Tries Using Cash Bonuses to Slow Birthrates

By JIM YARDLEY

SATARA, India — Sunita Laxman Jadhav is a door-to-door saleswoman who sells waiting. She sweeps along muddy village lanes in her nurse’s white sari, calling on newly married couples with an unblushing proposition: Wait two years before getting pregnant, and the government will thank you.

It also will pay you.

“I want to tell you about our honeymoon package,” began Ms. Jadhav, an auxiliary nurse, during a recent house call on a new bride in this farming region in the state of Maharashtra. Ms. Jadhav explained that the district government would pay 5,000 rupees, or about $106, if the couple waited to have children. Waiting, she promised, would allow them time to finish their schooling or to save money.

Bhopal-- US Suggest to India that there may be "too much noise" over the issue

WASHINGTON: The United States has denied reports that it was trying to link the Bhopal gas tragedy with India-US investment ties by suggesting a "lot of noise" over the issue could have a "chilling effect" on them. 

"The assertion that there was linkage between two separate and distinct issues is wrong, is incorrect," Benjamin Chang, Deputy Spokesperson of the National Security Council in the White House, stated. 

"We certainly recognize the importance and sensitivity of this issue in India. We are committed to building a strong, broad and deep relationship between our two countries," he said.