Bangaru Laxman and the Thehelka Scam: Th as it is illegale Conviction will be overthrown

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books Bangaru Laxman, the Dalit face of the BJP, was trapped by a Congress friendly mediam outfit called Thelka accepting cash to the tune of Rs 100,000 for favouring an entity called Westland. It turns out that there was no such defence deal and that ther whole episode caught on camera was only play acting. Corruptiuon as defined by the law involves giving a bribe to a public servant for obtaining tangible gains. When there was no deal and the reporters were only pretending to be defence contractors then no publiic interest was affected in the whole fictitious transaction. In fact if Bangaru Laxman can be convicted then the 2 journalists involved must also be proscecuted for induling in bribery of a public funtionary. I think the whole episode reeks of entrapment and Bangaru Laxman, though not innocent certainly cannot be called the only guilty party. It appears that the quantum of punishment was set high so as to deny him bail. I feel such vicious political proscecution will undermine peoples faith in the judiciary which must be seen to be above board. Now contrast this to the Bofors case. In that case, it has been established above any reasonable doubt that bibes were givnen in the form of " winding up charges' to the tune of 64 crores. It is known from investigation from Sweden, India, Switzerland and other parts of the world that the money trail led to Quatrrochi, an Italian known to be close to the resident non-Indian first Dynasty of India, the Gandhis. Yet, the CBI being a piable politicasl tool did not conduct any reasonable and sustained investigation so much so that after 25 years not a single conviction has taken place. Furtehr even in the 1984 anti Sikh riots organised by the cngress party, the CBI has been able to file the charge sheet against Sajjan Kumar only last month. This shows that the CBI operates on the basis of political pressure. When there is a real and tangible case of corruption then the CBI and the Courts are unable to act. However when there is no case of corruption based on public interest as is the case with the bangaru Laxman episode the CBI and the coutrs are quick to convict. Bangaru Laxman incriminated himself and self incrimination is not admissible evidence. Furtehr, the Courts must be sure that public interest was affected by the act of bribe taking. In this case no public ionterest was affected as there was no defence deal. Henc there was no corruption. Entrapment is not a judicially permissible method of evidence gathering. Laxman at best was guilty of an indiscretion and I wonder why the Thelka "journalists" are not brought into the judicial priocess as "bribe givers". In this case we have judicial overreach. Thelka thinks that the Abhishek Manu Singvi CD is not evidence of misconduct as they want to protect the image of their paymasters, the Congress, while pioor Bangaru Laxman is found guilty. I venture to say that this judgement will be set aside during the appeal. Why is it that only dalit and tribal politicians are convicted. We have Raja, Madhu Koda, now Bangaru Laxman all of whom belong either to the SC or ST category. A Karunanidhi or Sonia Gandhi seem to be above the reach of law.

Seedy Congressmen, CDs and the slime of Indian dynastic Politics

Congressmen are known to be corpulent, corrupt and criminal and yet our countrymen will continue to vote for them. A fee days back Mahipal Sigh and Manders both Congressmen from the same state of Rajasthan to which late L M Singvi's son Abhshek Manu Singhvi belongs were in the news for the wrong reasons. A seedy CD was tbhe reason. When the 3 BJP MLAs from Karnataka were caught peehin at what appeared to be salicious scenes, the Congressmen went to town demanding action against the 3 politicians. They were not caught with their pants down like this congrssman called Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi. The BJP, factiona ridden and likje a striken monster unable to think is as usual letting slip this important scandal. I think bnecause Singhvi is personally close to Hon'ble Arun Jaitley, the BJP is not attacking the Congress over the issue. Even the articulate spokeswoman, Nirmala, is unusually quiet over this scandal. I think the BJP must move a resolution to have Manu Singvi's membership of the Rajya Sabha terminated and should not take the heat offt his scandal.n fact with Hon'ble Narendar Modi vindicated, the BJP can draw huge electoral gains by attacking the congressmen on the conduct front. Unlike the other infamous Congressman, N D Tewari whose sexapades were caught in full camera glare, there is still no word from the seedy Congressman about what he was doing with the married lady lawyer. The rumour that a position on the bench was being talked about as the return for the favour bestowed makes this scandal a political dynamite and the BJP cannot let the heat off even for a moment. Therefore this particular scandal involving a seedy Congressman and a CD is far owrse than the N D Tewari affaire. A full investigation is needed. Manu Singhvi's driver of 25 years has been made to take the rap for the seedy CD. Nothing can be far from the truth. That man is just too old and too much of a loyal naukar in the north Indian sense of the term to do anything so siister. Why does the police not book a case against him on the basis of Manu Singvi's statement in the Court which enable him to an injunction against the distribution of the seedy CD. Unfortunately for this seedy Congressman, the internet does not obej Court injunctions as US web sites carry the offending CD and can easily be viewed by anyone interested in the criminality of the dynastic fascists who are ruining this country. The BJP must bring a privilege motion against this man and have him expelled from the Rajya Sabha. This courtier is known to be close to the dynasty hence he must be scalped.

Agni Missile does little to enhance Indian security

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books The early morning launch of the Agni V missile from the Wheeler Rocket Launcing base has been hailed as a great strategic breakthrough by self styled "defence experts" and "secuity analysts". The reginme in power has a stable of "tele intellectuals" who will justify each and every mistake of the Congress dominated UPA regime. Not one of them asks the question: How does the possession of the intermediate range inter continental ballistic missile capability help or enhance Indian security. I think for purely ideological reasons some self styled experts like Bharat Karnad who want India to embrace the US strategic doctrine vis a vis China are hailing the launch as a major security boost. Nothing can be more far from the truth than the delusion that ICSMs help India deter China. The reginme sponsored "strategists" want to use the non existent threat from China to drive India into the deadly embrace of the USA. The range of the missile is around 5000 kms which means that much of China is actually not in the range of the missile. This missile is only an empty gesture of provocation by projecting China as threat. China does show its disdain from time to time and that is an expected reaction from a great power which no longer sees India as a rival or even as a threat but only as hired gun slinger for the USA. By taking the US strategic doctrine which posits China as a threat, India is making a grave mistake because the interests of the US and India do not converge. USA will always use Pakistan as its proxy and it is not worth the while for India to treat China as an adversary. India's difficulties with China are purely bilateral and there is no need for India to jump on to the American divide in order to settle its bilateral issues with China. On the contrary, China has shown great statesmanship in dealing with India and by using the Tibetan Independence issue to annoy China, India is not doing its national security or interests any good. China does not need missiles to punish India. And India does not have the political strangth to use its missiles against Chia. In fact the USA will [put pressure on India to "show restarit" and India will as ususal make virtue of neccisity. So in what way does this 5000km rage missile contibute to Indian security. Against Iran, India is again making a grave mistake by taking the American argument that Iranian nuclear ambitions are a threat to the region. Iran is only reacting to Israel and it is a well known fact that Israel has nuclear capability. Any regional peace plan must recognise the Israeli capability as well. China will soon emerge as the world's largest economy and India has a lot to learn from the Chinese experience. Even in human rights I think China has a better track record than some Indian states. Chinese universities have become the cynosure of the world and India cannot hope to catch up for decades to come. Instead of just aping the US let India rethink its strategic options.

The importance of being Shah Rukh Khan

The United States has a policy of subjecting all foreign nationals with suspicious sounding names to a very close body scan, check. I do not endorse this policy and so I choose not to travel to the USA. I was educated there and have had a few invitations to lecture in some rather good Universities. Not Yale, of course. Shah Rukh Khan who made a film about the US preoccupation with security called My Name is Khan make it a habit to travel to the US and he gets hauled up at the Airport and he makes the whole country i. e. India believe that the prestige of India is damaged because of the security check he undergoes. The US State Department issues a perfunctory "apology" and the matter forgotten until the next episode of Shah Rukh Kan at the US airport. I think this third rate India actor should realize that he neither represents Muslims nor India and the US immigration officials are only doing their job and if he has any issues with it he can just refuse to travel to the USA and cause such a huge embarrassment to the country. He is only a private citizen and when the Government of India bends backward to assuage his ruffled sensitivities, the country is outraged.Shah Rukh Khan can stay at home and smoke his cigarettes and keep out of trouble both for himself and the country. I think it is high time India said that Shah Rukh Khans of the world are not representatives of India and if Airport authorities detain him for questioning, then they are only doing the job for which they are paid. India has evolved a VIP culture and USA is still by and large free from that taint. In India Shah Rukh Khan can strut about and Indians will applaud him. Fortunately Americans are not enamored of the VIP culture.

Hon'ble Narendar Modi Stands Vindicated

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Since 2002, the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendar Modi, has been battling charges ranging from criminal conspiracy, rioting, instigation to violence, abetment to murder and a host of imagined atrocities he is supposed to have committed. In the entire history of India no Chief Minister has had such a tough agni pariksha, a trial by fire. And the Hon'ble Chief Minister has come out unscathed. Witnesses were tutored, statements were fabricated, evidence manufactured, police officers dragooned into the campaign, but all these conspiracies fell by the wayside. The Special Investigation Team appointed by the Court has stated that there is not a shadow of doubt about the innocence of Hon'ble Narendar Modi. My question is quite simple: Sonia Gandhi called him a "merchant of death" (moth ka saugagar). Where was she when 15,000 Sikhs were massacred on the streets of New Delhi when her late husband Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister and Congress goons ( in fact every Congressman is indeed a goon) went from street to street armed with the electoral rolls and pulled out Sikh men and mercilessly killed them. I have another question: Why did the Congress shield all the criminals involved and even appointed the ring leaders to important cabinet positions. Why was the investigation so shoddy that not a single convictions has been secured in spite of major Commissions of Inquiry. I think the answer is also simple: Congress is a violent dynasty obsessed party and it protected its goons and I am somewhat surprised that Atal Behari Vajpeyee did not reopen this issue when they had the opportunity.

Hon'ble Narendar Modi has repeatedly won the elections in Gujarat and even the Muslim population of Gujarat seems to have reposed its trust in him. The Congress brand of identity politics has lost ground in Gujarat and therefore under the compulsions of electoral politics the party tries to keep hounding him and Modi always bounces back looking smarter than ever before. When the Courts have found no evidence to even summmon Hon'ble Narendar Mosi I am somewhat shocked to see that Congress courtiers always bring up the alleged complicity of Modi in the post Godhra riots. As for as the Congress MP who was killed in the Housing Society incident, it is well known that he had a terrible reputation and his own enemies in the so called Congress party may have used the riots to have his butchered and Congressmen are known to indulge in factional fighting.

Teesta Setavad has been convicted of perjury in the Best Bakery Case in which she was found guilt of influencing the testimony of the witness. With sucgh a record the Bar Council of India should have debarred her but she still soldiers on spewing venom against the Chief Minister from Evey Television channel. The Hob'ble Chief Minister has been proven innocent and it is absolutely criminal pon the part of anyone to claim that he is implicated in the post Goshra riots. I agree that the Hon'b;le Chief Minsister has unconventional methods of dealing with organised crime, but his methods of course are effective. Gujarat has emerged as the fastest growing state in India, and the infrastructure and power situation are the envy of the nation. The rapid strides made in the field of solar energy makes Gujarat a pioneer and you have just to take a look at the mess in Rajasthan to understand where Gujarat stands in this field. Law and Order are of course on track and there are no major incidents of atrocities on tribal and SCs in the state. The Congress brand of politics hinged on the manufacture of communal violence and the state had paid a heavy price for that. Since Modi came to power, the Congress brand of street fascism has been checked and we have no one but the Hon'ble Chief Minister to thank for that. In spite of all this, Modi carries the Cross of Godhra and it will take him some more effort to wipe the stains off. Already the judicial verdicts have given an immense boost to his national standing and I hope that the faction ridden BJP closes ranks around the Hon'ble Chief Minister.

One last point. Gujarat is perhaps the only state where the Chief Minister is not corrupt, his ministers and officers are afraid of corruption and there is a modicum of moral authority.

India is a soft state and hence cannot carry out the death sentence

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

India became a soft state the day Nehru in his utter stupidity sated on the day Gandhi was shot that his assassin was a "hindu". This silly but devilishly perverse statement of Nehru introduced an element of ;communal ism: in the judicial process of India. Forever more the religious identity of the perpetrator of the crime became a mitigating factor in the execution of the judicial sentence. Shri Nathuram Godse was killed by Independent India solely because Nehu had decided that his Hindu identity made him far more culpable of the crime than anyother identity. Nearly 60 laong years later India is still to overcome the Nehruvian trap that makes the judician sentence hostage to the religious or ethnic identity of the convict. Among the many horrible things that Nehru was guilty of this is perhaps the worst.

Cut to the present. Nehru's grandson (given the dynastic fascism inherent in India the dynsty too pays for the crimes of the patriarch) was killed by a group of radical Tamils who were probably close to a faction within the Tamil nadu Congress. I cannot imagine how all the bigwigs of the party arrived only after the deed was done. They seem to have had prior information of the killing and hence carefully avoided shadowing him. The 3 killers of Rajiv Gandhi cannot be hanged because their ethnic identity as Tamil protects them. It is ironic that the grandfather of Rajiv Gandhi was primarily responsible for introducing the principle that a crime became serious or less serious depending on the identity of the criminal. The very parties that arranged to have Rajiv Gandhi eliminated are now sharing power in New Delhi and along with power they also share pelf and so the killers cannot be executed even though the Supreme Court has upheld the verdict and the President of India has rejected the mercy petition.

Now take he case of Rajoana, the convicted killer of Beant Singh, sometime chief minister of Punjab. The fact that the Congress Party organised the largest massacre of innocent citizens soon after the untimely death of Indira Gandhi has to be borne in mind while deciding the fate of this man. He has said that the sole motive for killing the Congress Chief Minister was to extract revenge for the 1984 anti Sikh Massacre in which Congress Party and its goons killed nearly15,000 Sikhs in New Delhi alone. This criminal organisation went on to appoint the ring leaders like Jagdsish Tytler and H K L Bhagat ministers in the Union Cabinet. So much for the so called secularism of the Congress Party. (The day the Congress Party is declared an illegal organisation and banned will be the day India can stand proud). Shri Rajoana did not plead for mercy from the criminals who carried out the worst atrocity in the history of Independent India. Quite rightly the death sentence cannot be carried out.

Do you think Kasaab will be hanged. I do not think so. The UPA may not give him their Bharat Ratna but I do not think the soft state like India can carry out this sentence either. Bad precedents have been set and the net result is that every political assasination is now hostage to a powerful identity based group in the political process. The Tamils think that Rajiv Gandhis killers represnt their "racial" pride, the Sikhs think that Shri Rajaona waged war for the self respect of the "panth" and I will not be surprised if Kasaab too like Afzal Guru finds supporters.

SHOULD GENERAL V K SINGH BE SACKED

The Chief of the Indian Army, General V K Sngh is acting in a highly irresponsible manner when he makes allegations against the civilian leadership on a daily basis. This is not to say that the bureaucracy is not withoutits fault. For too long the top brass has had to siddle up to the officers of the Defence Ministry in order to protect their interests and in the process the whole structure of civil-mlitary relations has come unstuck. Further, ever since the Bofors deal, corruption on a gigantic scale has been taking place in the procurement of equipment and aircraft for the Indian Armed Forces. Unfortunately, the Defence Ministry has institutionalised corruption and even A K Anthony who is said to be fairly straightforward is unwilling or unable to do anything about it. It is time to have a rethink on the whole question of procedure for defence procurement. Even serving Army, Navy and Airforce officers act as agents for defence suppliers thereby muddying the waters, General V K Singh knows about al this but chose tokeep quiet until the very last leg of his term as Chief of the Arny Staff. His eloquence at this statge is not to be viewed as a patriot out to do good to his country, but rather as a frustrated man venting his spleen at all and sundry. If he is happy bringing out a scandal a day let him do so. The question is: What did he do as Army Chief to stem the rot. The answer to the question is simple: He did nothing. He was part and parcel of a corrupt organisation though he himself may have been very circumspect.

General V K Singh has exceeded all limits in his tirade against the civilian leadership. We know that the MOD is stuffed with agents, crooks, double dealing criminals and what not. We do not need General Singh to tell us that. After losing his battle on the age issue with the Government he has opened up not just a second front but a whole series of skirmishes with the Government. The BJP which has jumped into the fray with alacrity should ponder over the conseqiences of Sinhg's actions. I think supporting V K Singh may not be in the political interest of the BJP though it certainly embarasses the Government

The Government of India, rocked as it is by a blizzard of scandals does not have the moral authority to dao anything and the man refuses to go quietly. He must be shown the door otherwise the civil-military relations will be dameged beyond repait. The actions of General Singh in writing to the Prime Minister, bypassing the chain of command, raking up old scandals whose only purpose is to create confusion constitute misconduct and indiscipline and the Govenment must reduce Singh in rank and turn him out.

THE AFGHAN MASSACRE: SOME QUESTIONS ON US HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD

Staff Sgt Robert Bales of the 3rd Stryker Brigade on his 4th tour of duty left his military base, loaded his kit and set off for the village of Panjawi in Kandhahar province of Afghanistan and went on a killing spree that will cost the US quite a lot of political goodwill and credibility. On several past occasions I have drawn attention to the systematic rampage of US military personnel in Iraq and even when the killers were identified as was the case in the Mahoumadiya incident, the culprits were acquitted after a perfunctory trial in which the pretence of "human rights" and the US military's commitment to civilised values is paraded before the whole world. Of course the order to kill does not come from the top political or military leadership, but the lack of systemic checks and controls make it easy for such rampages to take place. It now transpires that Staff Sgt Robert Bales was involved in a firefight in Iraq in which 250 Iraqi civilians were killed without the loss of a single US soldier. He received a military decoration for his heroism. No wonder.

Afghanistan is largely out of US control/ President Karzai commands neither loyalty nor respect among the people. He surrounds himself with hired American Security Guards and the burning of the Koran, the desecration of Afghan bodies by US soldiers and now this killing spree by Staff Sgt Bales, a decorated war hero, only add to his cup of woes. Barack Obama's policy of counter insurgency has become unstuck and is unlikely to lead to any great US success. Pakistan is on the boil and there is also growing resentment against the US drone attacks on Pakistani targets. The NATO attack on Pakistani military base in which 29 Pakistani soldiers were killed is still simmering. All in all the US is getting deeper and deeper in a mess from which retreat may be well neigh impossible.

Already there is an attempt to shield the soldier who was responsible for the massacre. He suffered a head injury and therefore had diminished competence. If this is so why was he not discharged on the grounds of psychological impairment. The foreclosure of his house upset him, according to one report. Millions of Americans have suffered due to the absolute depravity of the Wall Street thugs and they do not go on a killing spree. Another pointed out that this soldier actually enjoyed killing civilians as he was very proud of his "heroism" in which 250 Iraqis were killed during the course of just one hour of fighting. When soldiers are dehumanized in this manner you can expect consequences.US diplomats go round the world preaching "human rights" and issue threats to heads of state who are involved in deadly conflicts with known terrorist groups. Is not the US military responsible for the actions of this man. By what law should this Staff Sgt Robert Bales be prececuted: as a war crime he should face the Hague. The US has created a kangaroo court whenre Black and Slavic "war criminals" are araigned. Staff Sgt Rober Bales was secretly removed from Afghanistan and he is now in Fort Leavenworth. The US like the old Anglo-Saxon countries is asserting the right of extra territoriality and unfortunately the rest of the world seems to acquiesce in this. It is time for people of the world to say that even in normal rules of engagement during conflict, civilian life must be protected. Robert Bales may not be acting on the explicit instructions from his superiors and that may well be a defence, but that fact has to be established in a credible non partisan manner. US military cannot protect its own by sitting in judgement and then announce to the whole world that the US is a champion of human rights. The conduct of US military in Iraq and Afghanistan has already made such assertion laughable and sonner Barack Obama realises it the better for the world.

THE UNION BUDGET IS A NON STARTER; MANY POLITICAL AND LEGAL ISSUES

The political crisis that has overtaken the UPA II is largely of its own making. The dynastic fascist party, the Congress, seems to forget that it not not the master of its own house and therefore behaves as though it has an absolute majority like the bad old days. It has learnt the very difficult art of making policy announcements only to sheepishly retract them later. The FDI in Retail sector and the National Counter Terrorism Center both ran into rough weather and the Center looked very sheepish. Now we have the fiasco of the Railway Budget with Mamta claiming a new constitutional provision. A minister from her party must seek approval from the party supremo to present the budget. The Railway Budget itself is a relic of the early days of Independence and we need toive up this senseless practice of having a separate budget for the Railways: it gives the Railway minister a false and illusory sense of his importance. Lalu Prasad Yadava as a Railway Minister made a mockery of the budget and the fellow even fooled the Harvard Business School.



Dinesh Trivedi has no legal or constitutional constraint to consult his Party supremo over the budget. He is accountable to the Lok Sabha for the budget and the Budget is a Cabinet document. If Mamata has any problems with the budget she should withdraw form the UPA and vote against the regime in power. But like every Congress politician, she too has learnt the fine art of barking and not biting. She wants to threaten the regime by attacking her own minister, but not the Government on whose behalf Dinesh Trivedi has presented the Budget. The present regime headed by ManMohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi set a wrong constitutional and political precedent when they succumbed to the old DMK gangster from Tamil Nadu, Karunanidhi, when he forced the UPA regime to sack his nephew Dayanidhi Maran from the Cabinet ehen there was a feud between the sons and daughters of the several wives of that old fossil from Chennai. Since Man Mohan Singh created a bad precedent both constitutionally and politically by sacking Dayanidhi Maran, he is now hoist on his own petard. Had that Karunanidhi not done that act of having his nephew sacked, then the 2G scandal may not have happened and one of his daughters, Kanimozhi, may not have been caught in the biggest scandal of Independent India. Serves that old bandicoot right. The Minister for Railways is accountable to the Lok Sabha and Shri Man Mohan Singh must have the courage to tell the cotton sari Didi from Kolkotta that she cannot demand the sacking of a Minister on purely partisan grounds. As usual the Regine will prevaricate and in a day or two Trivedi will be shown the door and the same budget will be passed without anymore storms in Bengali tea cups.

The Union Budget is caught between two diametrically opposite objectives. It want to slightly bridge the growing fiscal deficit and at the same time raise resources by way of taxes without incurring the wrath of the allies who will face the wrath of the people in the next elections in a few months from now. The Budget does little to enhance growth and stimulate the economy. In fact the Budget will add to the inflationary pressure that already exists. Inflation will push up interest rates and hence the overall growth of the economy will around 5 to 6 % only. Social spending must be curtailed and the badger does little in that direction. The move to amend the foreign transactions taxation provision retrospectively from 1962 is legally questionable but that is the only way the Government can come out of the Vodofone mess. I think this provision must be passed on the grounds of necessity and I hope the Courts concur.

The budget remains a flawed document and in all probability will be tha last budget of this regime. The sooner it goes the better.

MAFIA CULTURE IN INDIA; WHY INDIA CAN AND WILL DO NOTHING ABOUT IT

The BJP always claims that it is more civilised than the Congress Party with its dynastic fascism and courtier culture. Many may be inclined to wonder after the recent train of events. Like the Congress Party, the BJP is riven with factionalism and the appointment of the National President, a man virtually unknown in the rest of India was a big mistake and the party is paying the price for this. I blame the leaders like Susma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley for dividing the Party on favtional lines. Every bJP Government in India ia as corrupt and criminalised as the Congress Government and we wonder as we approach the next election: What is the alternative for India. Instead of introspecting and understanding the loss of its support base and the rapid erosion of its popularity, BJP is as usual indulging in gimmicks. With the exception of Gujarat all other BJP ruled states are as bad as the Congress rule, in some respects even worse.

Shivraj Chaouhan, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, promised good governance and what he did was to hand over the state to various mafia groups who seem to enjoy the protection of the BJP big wigs. The routine murder of RTI activists and more recently the brutal killing of Shri Narendar Kumar an IPS officer by the timber Mafia is a brute reminder that the BJP ruled states are as bad as Congress ruled ones. What is worse, the government made an attempt to pass off the brutal killing as a mere accident. If police officers are killed so brutally while performing their duty then we have cause to be worried. Each time such events occur we in the media refer to the killers using a broad generalisation"mafia". We are unable to pin down the names behind the abstraction called the "mafia".The biggest mafia groups in the country are the political parties themselves and unless the Election Commission of India is empowered to audit their accounts nothing serious will happen.

Just think of the endless lists of mafias we read in the newspapers: Tendu leaf mafia, timber mafia, coal mafia, oil mafia, tanker mafia, NRGEA mafia, railway mafia, defence contractor mafia, infrastructure corridor mafia, dalit mafia, OBC mafia, muslim mafia, jat mafia, labour union mafia, land mafia. I can go on and on. The point is made. In India after successive Congress regimes the MAFIA have inherited the land. And the people van do nothing about it. It is time to make attack on public servants a serious offence. The police have lost all credibility due to the absolute spinelessness with which they fawn at the feet of the illiterate ministers and it is time the police took law into their own hands and protected themselves. If the police kill criminals then the wind call goes off that it is a"fake encounter" like the cry against the Tamil Nadu Police when they gunned down Veerappan. HumanRights's activists have nothing to lose and hence they court cheap popularity by indulging in inane rhetoric. If criminals are armed the police must be empowered to shoot to kill as is done is Western democracies like UK, France and USA. Even the Bhattala House event in which a police officer was killed is termed "fake encouter" by the like of Digvijaya Singha.

In 280 districts of India, some kind of mafia is operating and the Home minister is unable to do anything because his own political legitimacy is in question. Unless organised crime is dealt not as a mere law and order problem but as a serious political issue more honest officers will die. In Tamil Nadu when Kanimozhi's father was misruling the state 6 Thasildars were killed by the "sand mining" mafia. After a meagre compensation nothing more was done. Even Jayalalithaa has done nothing which only goes to show how deep rooted the rot is.

BJP kept Yeddurappa and his mining mafia, the Bellary Reddy Brothers, in power and the result is that in Karnataka the BJP will not be re elected ever again. It is time the politicians realise that the purpose of politics is service not crime and the people of India must not vote for criminals.

CHINA VS INDIA: THE TIME DEBATE

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

In the latest issue of Time is featured a debate, Which Economy will Rule the World? This debate sputters intermittently in the pages of News Magazines. While China receives a bad press because of the perceived threst to Western economic hegemony, India escapes scrutiny aas it hides behind the facade of dynastic fascism bolstered by periodic elections, as if India is an exemplar of a flourishing democratic state. Between India and China, I can say with all authority at my command that China, though a one Party state, the social indicators are all in favour of China. The country has been able to built world class educational institutions, provide clean water, housing and education along withnhealth care to its citizens. The standard of living oof an ordinary Chinese citizen is quite a few trimes better than it is in India. Even on the so-called human rights point of view China is quite a few notches higher. The Chinese policy of land acqusition makes it possible for those displaces to acquire stakes in the industry/ or enterprise that is established on their land. In India, as the example from Mayawati's UP and West Bengal show land is acquired by the state Governments in order to cater to the needs of private developers. India has a lot to leatrn from China.
Unfortunately since the time of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress regimes have encouraged rivalry with China. India and China have shared 2000 years of peaceful coexistence which was disrupted by the foolish and perverted policies of Nehru. India should not have interfered in the internal affairs of Tibet. The policy of provoking the Chinese over Tibet turned out to be counterproductive as it did not serve the national interests of India. Even now, India is allowing itself to be used by the Western powers against China and this policy is not in India's interest.
China has pursued the policy of economic growth by stimulating the domestic demand and by developing a niche market for its products abroad. I remember when my daughter was a small child she used to play with little antique models of cars and all of them were made abroad in China. Today the Haier, a Chinese Company has entered the consumer electtronic market and already in Infdia the washing machines made by this Company enjoys a very good reputation. And China makes quality products for less than third the price.
China has emerges as a pioneer in fast trains. It is now possible to travel from Bejing to Lasha is 24 hours and this is a technologicaL FEAT that China can be legitimately be proud of. India on the other hand is still stuck in the nineteenth century and fast trins in India trave at 9- to 100 km per hour, a far cry from the sppeds in China. India claims that it is aleading soft ware power. Even here internet usage in China is higher and China has emerges as a global player in the hard ware market. The world's fastest computer with 3 trillion tetra flops was made by China.
India is held back by a corrupt and criminal political class represented by the Congress party. Dynastic fascism has led to corruption on a scale that is now threatening to tear the country apart. A criminal political class aided and abetted by the bureaucracy is riding rough shod over the civil society. While judicial activism has brought some relief to the people, there is no rule of law. Politicians still commit crimes with impunity and in spite of some high profile politicians cooling their heels in Tihar jail, there is no rule of law in India. In China politicians are executed for corruption and I would like to see this law in India as well.
I personally feel that China has surpassed India in every sphere and there is no point is taliking about competition between the two. CHINA is superior in every aspect.

A TRIBUTE TO A SPECIAL WOMAN ON WOMAN'S DAY

I cannot say for certain when she came into my life. I cannot even say whether I mean anything to her more than a dear friend. But her presence in my life has enriched me and made me a positive and committed human being. As I look back on the women in my life somehow my entire life seems to arranged such that our meeting was inevitable. The rough patches in my life, and there were several, all seemed stepping stones leading me to her. Like a breath of fresh mountain air, she cleansed my soul of many many horrible thoughts and she taught me the absolute virtue of leaving to God the judgement of our deeds and those who have tresspassed against me. By teaching me the simple but profound lesson of bhakthi she opened my mind to the endless vistas of spiritual awareness and I am richer for it. She taught me to take lefe as it came along and not demand of it what it cannot and will not offer. She taught me to accept the reality of my life with utter equanimity. And, yes, I am a better human being for that.

She taught me the virtue of simplicity. To lead a life without rancour and self hatred. She taught me to forgive and move on because her presence in my life makes this life so beautiful. She brought healing when the wounds were raw and putrid. She taught me to hold on to the values that make life worthliving and she brought God back into my life. For this I remain eternally grateful to her. She keeps me in her life with grace and dignity and this very act make my life secure and keeps me from falling off the deep end. My heart is heavy when I think of her. But life goes on. Memory has built a shrine for her in my heart and there she resides in all her glory. She is mine in memory and will always be. I have not been a light presence in her life and yet not once has shown her impatience to me. She treated me with grace and I worship this goddess of truth, beauty and love. Sometimes I am angry at what has happened. But then I look back and grasp in my minds' eye the enormity of her presence in my life. And I think to myself that it was destiny that brought me to her and her to me and I cannot escape destiny. This is a wonderful world and on Woman's Day I thank the Almight for having made the paths of our life cross.

2012 Assembly Elections and their Implications for UPA II

he results of the 2012 Assembly Elections are finally out and just as I predicted the Congress was soundly routed in all states except Manipur. The defeat of the Congress in the politically significant states of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh will have a bearing on the survival of the U PA regime in New Delhi. The dual headed hydra--Sonia and ManMohan--never the best of constitutional arrangement has been decisively rejected by the people. Even in Uttarkahnad the difference between the Congress and the BJP is only one seat and so the Congress cannot crow about its victory. Pretty Face, Rahul Gandhi, has been shown to be an electoral non-starter and with an encore performance as in Bihar, the significance of the "dynasty" in the politics of Northern India stands considerably diminished. I cannot say that the electorate has dealt a death blow to dynastic fascim as Akilesh Yadava, the son of Mulayam Singh Yadava has been given a mandate to rule and his only claim to fame is that he is the son of Mulayam Singh Yadava. Until the people of India learn to disregard birth and lineage and start voting on the basis of the merits of the candidates on offer, India cannot be regarded as a mature democracy.

Rahul Gandhi behaved as if he has the right of birth to high office. The result has been a know-out blow to the pretensions of the Congress "yuvaraja". The coutriers that his young yuvaraja had gathered, the likes of Salman Kurshid, Digvijaya Singh, Beni Prasad Verma and others, all stand exposed. The Congress played the worst kind of identityu politics when they raised the bogey of "reservations " for Muslims knowing well that it will polorise the voters. The voters of UP have right;ly rejected identity politics based on religion. The defeat of Mayawati shows that even identiry politics based on caste was rejected by the UP voter. Rahuls behavior on the campaign trail was erratic to say the least. Throwing garlands back to the crowd something his grandmother used to do, did not go down well with the voters. He is just too young for this kind of patronizing conduct. Tearing up paper in public and other such gestures was not liked by the people. Above all his comment that people of UP are beggars who work in Mumbai has cost the Congress dear. I belong to Gorakhpur and do not like my people to be so characterized.

The victory of the Samajwadi Party will unleash the forces of caste goondaism in UP. The 5 years of Dalit rule has made people of UP politically aware and conscious and they will not take kindly to Yadava hegemony. I think there will be an increase in the social temperature in UP because of the victory of the Yadava dominated SP. The Muslims have returned to the SP this time round and so we can expect a great deal of communal violence in UP as a consequence of SP victory. I think the victory of the SP will soon be regretted by the people of UP. And the prospects for the survival of UPA II have sharply decreased as a result. The performance of the Congress is so bad that in the next Lok Sabha elections if we are to extrapolate from these results, Congress will win less than n6 seats.

The BJP fared very poorly though there has been a slight increase in the voting percentage. I think the choice of candidates was faulty because of factionalism Uma Baharathi tried her best and failed. I think the Party must craft a social coalition based on a unity between upper castes, backward Rajputs and dalits. Only such an orientation will help the BJP in the next General Election. In Punjab as I predicted the Akalis and the BJP have won. The Congress stands humiliated. I do not know how the Congress could even hope to get Sikh votes after its criminal massacre of Sikhs in 1984. I hold the Congress Party responsible for this massacre and I think its leaders need to be punished. Anyway Punjab has redeemed itself by rejecting the Congress.

Political instability will now increase and I think India is headed for a poll in 2013.

The secrets of the Vatican Archives

The recent decision of the Vatican to reveal the secret documents that that lain hidden in its extensive secret achives is a welcome step. For centuries the Vatican has hoarded its documents and this tendency has of course fueled speculation that often results in conspiracy theories doing the rounds. If the Vatican had embraced the principle of openess and transparency, the sordid sage of the Da Vinci Code could have been avaided. Speculation enters where there is an opaque blanket of fog and the only way to dispel it is by exposure to the searching light of historical scrutiny and thia is exactly what the Pope has done.The Secret Archives of the Vatican extend over 85 miles of shelves and the alcoves are stuffed with records going back to the fall of the Raman Empire. It is sometimes said that the very altar of the cathedral on Capitol Hill is located on the tomb of Saint Peter. The velum documents and richly illustrated Bibles are really a treasure that belongs to the whole world and Vatican is doing us a favor by putting them on public displayThe secret documents contain records of the Trial of the Knights Templars when the entire order was proscribed and the Knights hunted and burnt at the stake. The record of the Inquisition form another interesting category of documents. The excommunication of the great reformer, Martin Luther, which unleashed the Protestant movement or the Lutheran movement is another interesting historical record. The signed retreaction of Galileo who was forced to withdraw his famous book in which he put forth his heliocentric theory of the universe in opposition to the theory favored by the Catholic Church is another interesting document. During the Second World War when the Germans were busy exterminating the Jews,the Holocaust, the Roman Catholic Church remained a silent spectator. There are also historians like David Goldhagen who argue that the Church was an active accomplce in the Holocaust. The secret archives may shed light on this rather sordid chapter in the history of the church.Openess and transparecy have never been the guiding principles of any totalitarian religious movement and the Catholic Church is not an exception. However the decision to display the secret archives and to upload part of the Archives on to the WEb site are certainly welcome.
Among the more tragic documents is the letter written by Jean'darc as she awaited her fate at the hands of the English.

The Murder of Gigapedia: The world stands impoverished

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Elizebeth Eisenstein in her study entitled The Printing Press as an Agent of Change argued that it was the availability of knowledge across class lines that paved the way for the great changes that we now associate with the Industrial Revolution and the Scientific Revolution. The printed book was empowering because it broke the monopoly of the clerical and the warrior groups to literacy and in the eighteenth century we see the sons and grandsons of artisans and peasants emerge as scientists and inventors. Just think of James Watt and George Stephenson. Unfortunately in the poorer parts of the world which became the site aggressive colonisation, the advent of the Internet in the first decade of the 20th century was in many ways the beginning of the print or knowledge revolution which Europe witnessed in the eighteenth century. It is this historic change that is being undermined and subverted by the hopelessly criminal act of the US Congress in forcing knowledge sharing sites like Gigapedia to shut down. Non White researchers and students who do not have access to world class libraries like New York Public Library, Harvard University Library or the Library of Congress were avid and dedicated users of Gigapedia and up to date knowledge was available at the click of a mouse. The forced shut down of sites like Gigapedia is a direct assault on the right of every human being to education and cultural improvement, rights enshrined in the UNESCO charter and several international conventions and treaties.

The Gigapedia was not a piracy site. It was only a file sharing site that was not doing business when it allowed students and teachers from the non white parts of the world to read and store books and journals. It did not make its vast collection of books into a monopoly. On the contrary, it allowed access in a truly democratic manner to all without any restriction. Even Microsoft which funded the Gutenberg Collection is slowly making access more and more difficult and everyday the number of books available for free download is actually decreasing. Gigapedia, like Wikipedia has supporters all over the world and we must educate,organise and agitate over the efforts to curtail our right to knowledge. The corporate interests of USA and Europe are making efforts to curtail our freedoms and the assault on Julian Assange and the Wikileaks is just one of the more egregious of such attempts. Gigapedia was not in the business of exposing corporate secrets or scandals. It only provided a platform for interested scholars and researchers to interact. The Book Reviews on the site were more impressive than those found in NYRB or the Times Literary Supplement. We were getting access to the best minds this globe had to offer and we all stand impoverished as a few smug white men in burlap suits sitting in the US Congress decide that our quest from knowledge can be equated to the corporate greed for profits. Like the battle against Slavery, this battle too has to be won and I know that our side will win. Welcome to the fight as Lazlo says in Casablanca.

I teach in an Indian University and my area of teaching includes Global History and Historiography. Every semester I used to burn CDs with all the important books downloaded in the pdf format and gave the cds to the students. In our University nearly 60% of the stdent population owns a Laptop or desk top computer and there are nearly 800 to 1000n systems on Campus including an all night reading room with Computers which run on the Linux Operating System. Gigapedia was heaven to us as we could now make are students globally competitive. That dream lies cruelly shattered due to the mistaken priorities of the US political class. And both the Democrats and Republicans are united on this one issue.

I appeal to all those engaged in Teaching, Research and connected with the industry of education to take up the cause of saving knowledge sharing sites like Gigapedia or library.nu.

WHY ARRANGED MARRIAGES ARE BETTER

After spending a great deal of time pondering over the question of marriage, I have come to the firm conclusion that arranged marriages are far superion than the so called love marriages. First, in an arranges marriage, the families of both the girl and the boy are involved in the decision and since the marriage is based on the social and cutural compatiablity of both the boy and the girl the chances of the marriage working out are much better. In the haze induced by the harmons running wild, the chances of the girl and the boy taking the wromg decision is very high. At first blush all seems well, but gradually reality starts assderting itself. Arranged marriages always have a strong safety net and if there are problems bewtween the wifew and husband, the safety net provides security. In the case of the so-called "love marriges", the only solution seems to be divorce as both are either unable or unwilling to compromise. I have cases where the wife willingly sacrifices her time, her carreer for the sake of her husband. In love marriges the burden of expectation is so high that the relationship collapes under the weight of unfulfilled rxpectations.

The main reason why "love marriages" are considered to be better, is that there is the element of choice for both the boy and the girl. These days when girls too are getting educated and are aware of their rights, it is just impossible to tie them with a man they just do not approve. So even in arranged marriage the girl is consulted. In the love marriage scenario, the economic and social distance between the couples may appear romantic in the beginning, gradually leads to frustration and in no time the happy couple is anything but happy. Worse they have noone to blame but themselves. In the case of the so called "love marriages", even if the parents accept the choice of thir children, there is always an undercurrent of suspicion and mutual distrust. Even after the birth of a child, the hostility persists and the chils grows up feeling weary and lonely within the family.

In the old days when arranged marriges were the norm, ther bread winner was usually the husband. Women accepted the fact that the husband's carreer was of primary concern and imortance. Now with both the wife and the husband working, particularly in the "soft ware sector" women have started asserting the right to their carreer and in many instances the marriage does not withstand the tensions created by the dual pressure of carreer and home. I do not know the solution to this problem, but I have seem far too many cases of double income families collapsing under the strain.

I think it is best to bring up children with the idea that the parents will take the right decision and we must not allow children to fall victim to the illusionary charms of love marriage.

Encounter Killings in Chennai

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Chennai, the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, was rocked by a spate of daring daylight heists. At least 2 banks were looted in broad daylight and nearly 50 lakhs was carted away. The Chief Minister, Ms Jayalalithaa, unlike here predecessor is extremely strong on the issue of Law and Order and her regime is usually marked by strong police law enforecement. Her quich intervention is many instances of "land grabbing" by DMK political goondas has created a good impression in the minds of the ordinary people. Obviously the bank robberies had dented this carefully crafted image and Tamil Nadu was being projected as a state without security in the vernacular media. This negative perception prompted the Chief Minister to instruct the police to act swiftly and decisively. And that the Police under J K Tripathi, IPS did. Was the police action justified?

At midnight, 23rd Feb 2012, a posse of policemen surrounded a house in Velachery, a subburb of Chennai and killed 5 young men in the building. The Chennai Police claim that they acted in self defence a claim strengthened by the fact that 9 sophisticated revolvers were recovered from the site. The fact that the men were armed and hence dangerous brings up the question of "propotionate force". Even in UK and USA when the police deal with armed criminals, the use of force including "shoot to kill" is conceded. The real problem is to assess the "real and present" danger confronted by the Police in the actual situation of encounter. Post facto one can make all kinds of speculation, but the fact remains that the 5 men were armed with sophisticated weapons.

The Newspapers, The Hindu and The Deccan Chronicle, have pointed out that there were no bullet marks onthe walls of the room in which the encounter took place. The washing machine and the television were both in tact. This fact makes the human rights activists suspicious. I too wonder how many rounds were fired. I would like to know whether the firing was from inside the room to which the police party responded or whether the firing was only after the police gained entry into the room, The latter fact does not necessariy mean that the encounter was "fake" because weapon swere found on the site that clearly belonged to the criminals.

It has beome customary to raise doubts about the police version of events because the credibility of the police force is low and the courts grant the benefit of doubt even when circumstantial evidence is strong.

Beyond Kilvenmani: The Dialectics of anti-dalit violence in Dravidian Tamil Nadu

BEYOND KILVENMANI: SUBALTERN IDENTITY, CASTE VIOLENCE AND THE STATE: AN ANALYSIS OF ANTI-DALIT VIOLENCE IN TAMIL NADU


Caste violence has become an important element in the political life of contemporary Tamil Nadu. We may define caste violence as systematic, organized and sustained acts of physical and cultural violence directed against the less powerful, marginal, and in a hierarchical sense lower social groups by members of the dominant landed groups. Though the latter are classified as Backward Castes and Most Backward castes in the case of northern Tamil Nadu, the BCs and MBCs are by far the most powerful social groups in the political and agrarian structures of rural Tamil Nadu. Both NGOs and the academic interpreters of the endemic caste violence in the countryside, conceptualize the growing social distance between Dalit castes and the BCs and MBCs as instances of “caste” conflict implying thereby that caste identities and loyalties are at the root of this problem. Such an interpretation while not inaccurate, skirts the more potent question pertaining to the structural linkages between the politically organized sections of the Backward landed communities and the violence directed against the Dalits in different parts of the Tamil region.

Rural violence is not a new and novel feature. Medieval inscriptions record numerous instances of burning down of entire villages in the fifteenth century during clashes between the idankai and valankai groups. Caste hierarchy was reinforced through a range of measures that included dress codes, restrictions on the use of certain musical instruments, habitat ional exclusion by creating tindacheris in which particular social groups were sequestered, limited access to common areas such as the sacred space of the temple, educational institutions and the like. Indeed the social history of the Tamil region can be plotted along the axes of caste, community and sect, though the boundaries between the three conceptual categories were always fluid and permeable. In the nineteenth century we find identity formation crystallizing itself around the twin poles of caste and race with the ethno linguistic category of Dravidian glossing over the different castes and sub castes of the society. Uniting in the divided population in the name of language, the concept of Dravidian defined the Tamil identity in terms of the cultural practices of the dominant non Brahmin castes thereby excluding the dalits and other communities.

Dalit intellectuals have in recent years mounted a serious challenge to the hegemonic claims relating to the libratory potential of the Aryan/Dravidian dichotomy in which the discourse on Dalit liberation and political praxis takes place. The literaey critic Raj Gauthaman in his excellent work entitled Dalit Parveyil Tamil Panpattu has shown that even in the earliest corpus of Tamil bardic poetry there is a stratum of communal and caste consciousness which effectively marginalized tribal groups which came to form the basis of dalit caste of the historical times. This interpretation alters the framework in which the emergence of caste consciousness is placed by conventional historians in that it situates caste in the context of autochthonous social trends. The importance of Raj Gouthamn’s work lies in his effort to reclaim the historical memory of the Dalits in order to assert an identity that is distinct from the one existing in the dominant Dravidian discourse. In his counter reading of Tamil literary and social history, Raj Gauthman is infact re interpreting the claims of Iyothee Das that Tamil cultural practices as depicted in the early bardic works are just as oppressive as that of the Aryan/Sanskrit other. He goes on to add that the ethic of valor and conquest enshrined in the puram genre of poems are mere ideological shibboleths to validate and legitimize the appropriation of agricultural surplus from the tribal sections of Tamil society, who he says were the ancestors of the present day dalit population. While this interpretation may not have all the sophistication of a well thought out historical thesis, it certainly points to a rupture in the dominant paradigm.

In this paper we attempt an analysis of the violence in the Tamil region in which the caste conflict between the BCs and the Dalits are contextualized in terms of (a) the groups inv9lved and (b) the reaction of the state. We examine the frequent outbreak of social conflict in terms of the denial of the dominant discourse of the very basis of this conflict. We examine the issue of the Kilvenmani Massacre in terms of the response of the state as well as the social groups which took part in the massacre. I also examiner the response of Dalit intellectuals and political leaders such as Comrade Tirumavalavan to the growing instances of anti Dalit violence.

On Christmas Day 1968, when C N Annadurai was the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, an incident took place that is regarded today as emblematic of caste relation in this part of India. A few days prior to this incident, a group of farm workers began agitating for more wages. 1967 had been a particularly bad year for the region because of the sustained drought. The workers of the CPI felt that it was an opportune moment to organize the peasants, particularly the landless pallan and other castes in view of the collapse of the communist led insurrection in the Tanjavur district led by Jeevanandham and other leaders. A day prior to the Kilvenmani Incident one of the petty land owners was assaulted and killed, allegedly by the organized group of landless workers. An armed gang was sent to the cheri where the landless laborers resided. However they had by that time taken refuge in a barn along with their wives and children. In a gruesome act of retaliation the building was burnt down killing 44 men, women and 8 children. The DMK government which was in power in the state was reluctant to register the case and even the news of the horrific massacre reached the public only through the questions raised in the Assembly by the CPI MLA of the neighboring Nagapattinam constituency. Left and Secular liberal hagiography sees the Kilvemanni Massacre as a mere class oppressor versus worker issue. In fact the CPM has even appropriated for itself the memorial for the 44 victims of the December 25 Incident and is reluctant to admit the caste identity of the victims. In short, the incident itself has become a bone of contention between those who prefer to see it as the Dravidian Movements ambiguity with regard to the question of Dalit identity and human rights and those who view it in ideological terms.Social conflict is also predicated upon the very morphology and distribution of social groups across the territorial limits of the region. The great historian, Burton Stein has argued that the territorial segmentation, a structural feature of South Indian Tamil society, reinforces the dominance of certain groups in specific regions and sub-regions. The introduction of Panchayati Raj in this kind of a socio-political configuration through the 73rd Constitutional Amendment introduced yet another volatile arena of conflict and violence.


II VIOLENCE AND THE STATE
The Kilvenmani Incident is just one of a whole litany of violent encounters between socially dominant landed groups and lower status landless and marginal social sodalities such as dalits. After Independence the Tamil region has seen episodes of violent upsurge against dalit societies in alarming propotions. Given below are a few of the more prominent incidents:
Mudalukathur Massacre of 1957
Melvalavu Massacre of July25,1997
Gundupatti Incident of 1998
Tambraparini River Massacre of July 23, 1999
Kodiyankulam Incident of 31 August, 1995
Thinniyan Incident of October 25, 2002
In all these and other incidents the local dominant group was clearly involved in and complicit in acts of unspeakable cruelty and violation of human dignity, and in all these case there was hardly any action/reaction from the state. In one case however, the Tambraparini River Massacre, the then DMK regime was seen as the main instigator of the violence in which 17 people were killed.. The State appointed the Justice Mohan Commission of Inquiry and it camr to the magnificent conclusion that the “police were not at fault”and that the victime drowned because they “did not know how to swim”. The irony of the situation is that the very parties that soundly condemned the violence against the workers of the Majoli Tea Estate are today local allies of the very regime that perpetrated the massacre. Once again this reinforces the point I am arguing that there is considerable ambivalence with regard to the issue of state violence directed against the dalits. The Kudiyankulam Incident fared no better at the hands of the rival ADMK regime. The Gomathinayakam Inquiry declared the police innocent of any act of violence and thereby the state machinery that was deployed so ruthlessly against the dalits was absolved of all blame. It may be pointed out that even in the case of the Kilvenmani Massacre the state was at pains to absolve the perpetrators of any guilt. And the naidu landlord was declared innocent by the Madras high court after a lackadaisical trail. Shri Tirumavalavan,a noted dalit politician of the region has observed. “Only the explanation given by the court for releasing Gopalakrishana Naidu who committed such horrid murders is amusing and strange. It was: It is not possible to accept that a mirasdar who was very highly respected in the society could have involved directly in the murders”. He goes on to say that without a shred of evidence, and based on this conjecture, the court pronounced its judgement that day.From this we can say with some conviction that a general consensus with regard to violence against dalits had also infected the judiciary which by 1968 had come under the stress of Dravidian politics. The sad fact that the SC&ST Atrocities Suppression Act in Tamil Nadu has secured so far a single conviction shows that the administrative and political will to enforce compliance is lacking.

The introduction of Panchayatiraj government at the local level through the 73rd Amendment has resulted in the opening of yet another level of inter societal violence and there is no let up in the intensity of the attacks. The position of the president of the village governing council inappropriately called the panchayat, after the gandhian metaphor for the Indian version of village democracy,is increasingly becoming a contested one between sections of the dominat castes groups and the dalit groups in the case of reserved seats. It is obvious that a great deal of government contracts are routed through the Panchayats and hence the competition for the post. The murder of Leelavathi, a councilor of Madurai by DMK workers was direct fallout of the war over government funds and local development that ruffled the feathers of vested interests. In this case too the response of the then DMK government was luke warm and no one was either arrested or prosecuted for the murder.

Certain features of Dravidian political culture are deeply implicated in the rise of anti-dalit violence in parts of the state. Competitive electoral politics between the DMK and AIDMK has resulted in a situation wherein the two major formations account for nearly 56% of the votes polled, with an average electoral strength ranging from24% to 26% for each of the two parties. This polarized electorate has made it possible for weak political actors like the Congress and the BJP to forge alliances with the two giants of Dravidian politics. Further, the social morphology of the Tamil region, already alluded to with dominant castes and communities concentrated in specific regions of Tamil Nadu such as the vanniyars in the north, the mukkulathors in the south and specific zones in which the kallars and maravars are numerically dominant in areas of Madurai, Puddukkotttai and Ramanathapuram, has provided a fertile soil for the proliferation of caste and clan based political parties. We may add here while the political rhetoric of such parties in couched in the language of egalitarianism with regard to the elites in the areas where they operate, the practice of social and personal discrimination is prevalent in the context of dalit groups. Social domination and the resultant caste violence is predicated upon the situational strategy of asserting equality towards the upper castes and enforcing the ‘inferior” status of the lower castes, particularly that of dalits. Dravidian political ideology has not been able to bridge the yawning chasm between the imagined ideal of social justice and equality and the appalling reality of caste division and hierarchy that operates at the local panchayat levels.

The social scene of village Tamil Nadu is riven with the visible symbols of identity and oppression. The flourishing industry of human rights activism has already documented the existence of the “two tumbler” system in most parts of rural Tamil Nadu. The enforcement of the two tumbler system in parts of Madurai and Ramanathapuram and in the vanniyar dominated regions of South Arcot and Dharmapuri districts is a constant source of tension and violence. Along with this there are other visible markers of status that are enforced. In the habitation areas of the dominant castes the dalits are forbidden to wear footwear and the men folk are made to tie their upper cloth round their waists. Such conventions become the cause of violence, when educated youth resist such display of deference to the higher castes they invite serious retribution. The temple festival is yet another arena that generates conflict. In fact the southern districts see a spate of violence particularly during the annual festivals of the amman shrines or clan temples. Status assertions vis-à-vis the higher castes and its negation is another reason for the outbreak of conflict and in such conflicts the local police and the administration side with the dominant groups. Given the highly politicized nature of the society with caste factionalism and party based rivalries any local issue can become the starting point of a caste conflict.


The Ministry of Home Affairs in its Annual Report for the year 1996-97 has reported 282 violent castes conflicts in Tamil Nadu, and out of this figure 238 or 84% involved conflict between dalit groups and powerful landed groups such as the Maravars, the Kallars (often clubbed together as Thevars), Nadars, Vanniyars and Pallans and other SC communities. The table given below from the Justice Mohan Inquiry Report provides an index of caste violence in contemporary Tamil Nadu:
District
Number of violent anti-dalit incidents
Number killed in clashes
Madurai
18
9 3
Theni
41
NA NA
Dindigul
NA
NA NA
Virudhanagar
382
12 24
Ramanathapuram
18
2 NA
Sivagangai
NA
NA NA
Tirunelveli
60
14 NA
Tudikudi
1
1 Nil


III PANCHAYAT ELECTIONS AND VIOLENCE

The violence unleashed against Dalit aspirants to the post of President of the Panchayat is symptomatic of the larger issue of dalit empowerment under the Dravidian political dispensation. A problem that considerably complicate the issue is that the Tamil communities referred to as Adi-dravidas are themselves divided along lines of hierarchy and there is ethnographic and anecdotal information to show that the practice of social exclusion permeates even to the door step of communities that bear the brunt of anti-dalit violence. Thus arundhitiyars are generally regarded with a degree of socil distance by other members of the dalit communities. In the case of panchayats that are revered for the SC communities the dominant landed groups are quite willing to support an arunditiyar candidate and make him virtually a rubber stamp of the local vested interests. Thus the differences within the dalit communities are exploited by the dominant landed backward caste groups, supported by the political parties across the Dravidian spectrum. Shri P Jaggaiyyan, an arunditttiyar who was elected to the Presidentship of Nakkalamuthanpatti in Tirunelveli was killed by the dominant Maravar group when he refused to let his Vice President, a Maravar himself, to preside over the Panchayat meetings. This case has not been solved and the DMK regime is currently trying to arrange a compromise. Similarly, Shri M Servanan, President of Maruthankinaru village Panchayat was killed when he refused to allow the husband of the Panchyat vice president, a kallar, to act as [president in all but name. In this case also no arrest has been made. In Tirulelveli 10 Panchyat presidents have complained to the Government about threat to their lives, and all of them are arundittiyars. The State Government is yet to act. In the case of Shri Chinnan, President of Vakarai village in Dindigul district, even as President he could not occupy his chair and made to sit on a stool when the meetings were conducted. The compromise worked out by the state government when the dalit presidents complain of being threatened or humiliated involved getting the president accept his own subordination to the Vice President from the dominant castes. This unfortunate aspect of Panchayat Raj in Tamil Nadu needs to be investigated further. In the report of Vishwanathan in Frontline of May 5, 2007 is the following observation and it is certainly woth quoting: “The ill treatment meted out to elected dalit panchayat presidents indicates that untouchability is still practiced in Tamil Nadu villages, 60 years after the constitution abolished it.”. We may add that 40 of those 60 years were under the rule of parties representing the forces of landed castes classified in the argot of Tamil Nadu as BCs and MBCs. Therefore we may be right in being cynical about the claims that these parties represent the forces of equality and social justice. It is well worth exploring whether the competitive electoral politics in India, with its first-past-the-winning-post system servers to increase rather than decrease caste tension and its consequent violence.

The most horrific case of anti dalit violence engendered by the Panchayat election is the Melavalavu massacre of the dalit president and 6 of his associates on June 29, 1997.Melavalavu was a maravar dominated village that was reserved for the SC caste. Dalits who had earlier filed their nomination for the post of the President of the Panchyat had withdrawn their nomination when intimidated by the locally dominant groups who were also patronized by the ADMK. In spite of booth capturing and other acts of electoral malpractice, Shri K Murugesan was elected President. As has become routine in Tamil Nadu he was prevented from taking charge of his office and offered a representation to the government. A small police picket was posted at the village. Shri M Karunanidhi the Chief Minister of the state was informed of the threat to the lives of dalit presidents but no action was taken. On a bus on the way to Madurai Shri K Murugesan and 6 of his followers were killed in a brutal manner.

In the violence that followed several buses of the state transport corporation were burnt. The real cause for tension in the region was the decision of the Government to name a road transport corporation after Shri Veeran Sundranarlingam, a noted dalit leader. In the mayhem that followed caste violence was unleashed all across the southern districts.These instances show quite clearly that caste tension is simmering under the surface and that the political parties exploit cast in order to create disturbances that can be used to generate cast blocs and thereby consolidate the political base.

IV Conclusion
In this paper we have argued that contrary to popular perception, the political mobilization in the Tamil region takes place along caste lines and the Backward caste that form the backbone of the political support base for the 2 dravidian parties are not above using violence in order to generate electoral gains. We have also documented that the social morphology of the state with its layered and concentrated distribution of dominant castes allows for the exploitation of caste as a political resource. It may be said that the shift to proportional representation will considerably reduce the dependence of political parties on organized violence as a strategy for capturing political power.

We have examined the several instances of caste violence starting from the Kilvanmani Incident of December 25, 1968 to the more recent instances of such violence and have shown that there is little possibility of anti dalit violence declining as it is predicated upon the very logic of the political parties that compete for power. In a larger theoretical sense we can even argue that the post colonial nation state is in reality an engine of destruction in which innocent lives are lost.

The "Cyber State":Threat to Civil Liberty and Personal Autonomy

The most disturbing aspect of Orwell's dystopia in 1984 was the image of "big brother" watching everyone with his system of spying and invasion of privacy. The atomization of civil society into a million individual pieces so well brought out by Orwell has already become a reality in most parts of the world, especially those with a high degree of computer and cybernetic integration. In fact, many years ago, Robert Jnuk, the survivor of one holocaust, spent the rest of his life pointing out the dangers of wnhat he called the Atom Staat or Atomic State, a concept he used to gloss the national security-militatary-industrial complex. Where is the individulal in all this. As can be seen from quite a few studies, the work place in the US and parts of the developed world has become a "zone of engagement" in which the management is able to pry into the lives of ttheir employees, violating the bill of right and the fifth ammendment which protects individuals from self incrimination. I argue that privacy includes the right to protect e-mails and othetr personal documents that include weblogs, blogs and web sites from the prying eyes of the employer.Thirty years ago mangements had to rely on informal channels in order to get information about their employees, in less polite terms, tattlers from the shop floor. Now the scene has changed to the disadvantage of employees and it is time for the civil society organisations to think of legislation to protect the privacy of individuals in the AGE OF THE COMPUTER.

The fact that in Korea at least managements have installed software in all computers in the workplace which enables the management to track the entire usage of the computer and even provide access to the websites visited and documents sent and downloaded. In Japan and Korea and also increasingly, in South Asia as well, employers are engaged in spying on their employees and there by violating their personal space.I do agree that the employer has to protect trade secrets and data bases and I also agree that some employers have negotiated positions for themselves by trading the secrts of the organisation they work for. However, prying and spying are not solutions to the problem. In one country defence secrets were copied on to a pendrive and sold to interested parties and the Ministry of Defence responded by banning pen/flash drives. A poor solution to a difficult problem. Managers routinely use sophisticated soft ware to dredge the e-mails of their employees in order to get incriminating evidence. Just imagine how we would react if letters and correspondence were subjected to such search and seizure. My soulution to this problem is to ensure that the personal e-mail IDs are not handed over to the employees, and employers must assign mail IDs from their servers which alone the employees must use for carrying out their official work.The rise of a cashless economy and the use of plastic money has changed the pattern of consumer behavior. Now it is possible to track the spending habits of select targetted individuals by following the trail of plastic money. This technique is ofcourse used to track drug money, criminal enterprises, anti terrorist operations and the like. However when used against individuals for gatering evidence in divorce cases and other civil disputes, I think is not al all justified. One empyoyee in the US was sacked from her job for logging on to her blog site when in the workplace. A minor distractin like that should not call for drastic action.Companies are using software to monitor all transactions passing through their servers. The justification for such monitoring is to prevent unfair and illegal industrial/business spying. But cannot a better way be found.All in all, the rise of the computer and the increasing use of e enables transaction is posing a grave and present danger to civil liberty and it is time to fight back.

Where are the US primaries headed to

One may say that November is still far away, and so there is no need to hurry over the nominations. However, this is the first time in recent memory that so late into the primaries, and yet no clear front runner is in sight. For the Republicans it appears that John McCain will, falling short of a major catastrophe, be the Republican nominee. The Democrats are doing, as always, what they do best, destroy each other with a vehemence that even the Republicans cannot match. The exit of John Edwards, not unsurprising, takes place at a time when the electorate was beiginning to see that he was indeed a candidate with a message and a new direction. I think he will endorse Barack Obama and will be assured of a major role in a Obama administration. He was above the petty bickering that marked the Clinton campaign and at least I felt that he emerged as a credible voice after the Mrytle Beach debates. I still feel that since the Florida primary did not really matter, John Edwards could have gone on to Super Tuesday. But it is the end of the road and he did fight fair and square and unlike Clinton did not mount a negative campaign.The exit of Rudy was long overdue. He really did not jell with the Republicans and though he was a front runner at the start of the campaign. see how fortunes change in politics. The Mitt Rooney- John McCain exchanges were very rough and Mccain did throw a few low blows at Mitt. But at the end of the day, John Maccain will be annointed the Republican candidate and if the democrats make the mistake of nominating Hillary Clinton, then I am certain that Mccain will win the Presidency.Unfortunately, John Maccain is trying in bring in National Security as an issue in the elections while everyone knowns that it is the economy stu....The cutting of the Fed rate and the Bush tax plans will stimulate the US economy on the short run but the recession will take at least 6 months to abate. The credit crunch and the foreclosures that threaten the American dream of homeownership has not really been addressed by any candidate and Hillary Clinton's solution of a 90 day morotorium will not help at all. Obama does have a point when he says that the Federal Government will have to step in to prevent foreclosures but how is he to accomlish that.In November it will a tight to the wire finish