Beyond The Rainbow Stereotype

Me, Myself and my Gender, a documentary which explores the life of male sex workers in Karnataka is headed for the international gay film festival in Slovenia. Directed by the husband-wife team of G K Vasuki and Maya Jaideep, both journalists hailing from the state, the film is the first look at communities of male sex workers and other MSM (Men having sex with men) communities in the state, which are slowly starting to emerge from the confines of social stigma and trying to carve out a place for themselves in the social mainstream.

The film is based on a research project by an NGO called Ashodaya Samithi, a street-based sex workers collective based in Mysore, which documented the lives of the MSM community in the districts of Mysore, Belgaum and Bellary. The twenty three-minute-documentary, narrated in a matter of fact style, revolves around a set of interviews with men in these districts who talk about their difficult journey, which commenced when they came to terms with their desire for men while living within a traditional and conservative milieu. With no social legitimation available for same sex desire, most of them chose the only options available: sex work, sex-change operations and religion. The documentary explores the role of religion, especially the Jogappa cult, a variant of the devadasi system prevalent in north Karnataka, in giving social sanction to sexual taboos like same sex desire and transgender identity.

“Jogappa is a ritual through which the male is allowed by the society to don the form of a female. In this case, this ritual is performed for them to take on the female form and only after this ritual is over, do they lead the life of women, most of them undergoing the process of sex change. This is prevalent in north Karnataka and is also known as the Yelamma ritual in the Belgaum region where females are dedicated to the god and they get social sanction to be sex workers. It is a ritual where they are wedded to the god and are thereby deemed to be in “the service” of the god,” says Maya Jaideep.

For all the protagonists in the film, the most difficult part of the journey of transformation from the sexual and gender identity they were born with and the one they have fashioned for themselves was the friction with their families. Unlike bigger cities, there was no counselling available and there was no gay community they could turn to for support. But once they joined traditionally accepted communities like Jogappas, Kothis or transgender communities like hijras their families have come around to accepting them. And with the intervention of NGOs like the Ashodaya Samithi, these men are struggling for a larger social acceptance, for the right to a life with dignity and an understanding of their own identities and desires. Many of them are involved in raising awareness about HIV and other communicable sexual diseases and the risks involved for sex workers. The activism not only helps them bolster a sense of community, but allows them to contribute to society in a way that can be recognised by others.

“I find myself giving lectures on HIV and how to combat it, and policemen who formerly used to harass me come to my classes and learn from me now. It is quite a change,” says Prakash, a male sex worker in the film who has been actively involved in the anti-HIV campaign.

The film which sets out to deconstruct the western myths and concepts of gays by bringing vivid aspects of their lives is also primarily a film about love and celebration of their identity. As Nagendra, one of the MSM interviewed in the film, says, being a sex worker and a lover was initially a conflict but he was able to negotiate with the support of his lover. “When I fell in love, for a year, I did not do sex work. My lover convinced me to do sex work; as sex is common but you can have intimate love with only one person’’. Nagendra and his partner now dream of together adopting a child.

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Karnataka government’s war on journalists continues

The Karnataka government’s war on journalists continues

The Karnataka BJP has chosen to hit back at the journalist who reported the infamous homestay attack where a few partying girls and boys were roughed up by more than 50 Hindutva goons. The images of the brutal attack captured by Kasturi channel reporter Naveen Soorinje created an outrage at the national level forcing the BJP government to invoke the Goonda act against them. A vengeful district administration and police responded by including Naveen in the charge sheet, alleging that he orchestrated the attack collaborating with the Hindu Jagaran Vedike (HJV) activists. A magistrate court, which is hearing the homestay attack case, has given a warrant for his arrest.

On July 28, around 50 activists of the HJV barged into the Morning Mist homestay located on the outskirts of Mangalore, and attacked a few boys and girls who were celebrating their friend’s birthday. The activists of the HJV not only beat up the boys but also stripped and molested the girls for not adhering to ‘Indian Culture’. While instances like these are an everyday affair in Mangalore – considering the hindutva factory in Karnataka; the presence of Kasturi TV Channel reporter Naveen Soorinje, however made the issue a national headline.

The BJP government stung by the exposé, initially, made claims to go hard on the perpetrators of the crime by invoking the Goonda Act which specifies harsh treatment and gives police the power to shoot on sight. However, in the recently filed charge sheet, no such act has been invoked. In 2008 too, during the infamous Mangalore pub attack case, the state administration had claimed they would come down hard on the Sri Ram Sene activists. However, even after three years, the trial hasn’t started in the case. In fact, one of the attackers in the July 2012 attack, Subhash Padil had also taken part in the 2008 incident.

Since the beginning of the investigation, Naveen Soorinje held that the local administration and the cops were doing their best to protect the perpetrators. And he cites the recently filed charge sheet as proof of their collaboration which contradicts the events which took place on that day.

According to the charge sheet, the police received the information of the attack around 9PM that day. However, the camera recordings show that, Ravish Nayak and Manikantha Neelswany of the Mangalore rural police were with the attackers while the attack was taking place. Tearing apart the police version, images captured on that day, even show, investigation officer TR Jagannath arriving at the spot at 19:28 and taking a local corporator into custody “which means the police before hand had the Information; not as claimed in the charge sheet. There is even video evidence of the assaulters being escorted to a safe place by the police,” says Naveen.

Even though, there were other reporters including those from channel TV 9, Sahaya Tv (local right-wing channel in Managlore) and a reporter from the newspaper Jaya Kirana, the police have registered cases against only Naveen (accused number 44) and Sharan of Sahaya TV. This despite the fact that Naveen did not film the incident (as their camera man was sick that day), and had obtained the video from the other news reporters. However, he was the first to relay it on Kasturi New channel under the headline “Taliban Culture”. So far the police have arrested 27 persons in the case out of the 50 accused. They have been booked under section 120 (b), 143, 147, 148, 447, 448, 114, 341, 323, 324, 325, 504, 506, 509, 354 and 358 of the Indian Penal Code. The police have not yet arrested Naveen.

Local civil society groups are of the opinion that due to Naveen’s consistent reportage on the activities of the communal forces in the district and his regular reports on human rights violations on the part of the police, he had come under their scanner. “In the last two and a half years with Kasturi News 24, some of my reports have brought shame and legal actions to the police and communal forces. Hence I was made the target,” claims Naveen.

Corroborating Naveen’s statement, TV 9 reporter Rajesh Rao says, “former Mangalore Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar had called him in the middle of the night and had told him that he was angry with Naveen and he would see to it that he is booked under stringent laws.” Rajesh however said that he doesn’t know why his name didn’t crop up in the charge sheet.

Local civil society groups however are angry over the fact that Naveen is being punished for just doing his job; and a prime witness to this case is being eliminated. Says Vidya Dinker- coordinator of Citizens Forum for Mangalore Development “they have added an additional charge of indecent display of women on him, whereas, he was displaying the indecency of the Hindu Jagran Vedike and the state BJP government which was stripped due to the exposé. By targeting him, they are shooting the messenger.”

It’s not the first time that the Karnataka BJP government has targeted journalists. In the past four years, the state administration has intimidated reporters who went out of their way to report a story. In 2009, a reporter of Prajavani (a local kannada daily) did an interview of the commander of the banned Maoist party. Immediately, the police issued a notice to him to depose before the jurisdictional station C and reprimanded him for reporting on such issues. Though the reporter was objective in his reporting, his organisation, buckling under police pressure, transferred him to a desk job and later asked him to move out of the Bangalore bureau.

Noted political writer and columnist TK Thyagaraj has been harassed and cases have been filed against him for writing an article on The Gita. A similar fate has been meted out to another famous social commentator Sanath Kumar Belagali.

In Tehelka’s case too, a former reporter of this organisation Shahina KK was not only intimidated by the Karnataka police for writing an article on Kerala PDP leader Abdul Nasir Maudany, but cases were filed against her, due to which, once in every 15 days, she has to be present in Bangalore to depose before the state CID. She has been doing this for the past one year.

While the above cases do not reflect the extreme fate of some other journalists who had to pay with their lives in order to bear witness to a truth or report a story, it shows an increasing trend of intolerance on the part of the state against those who refuse to toe the official line.

Note: This post was first published in the Tehelka blog. 

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The ‘Koodankulam Conflict’ Map

Koodanlulam Nuclear Plant 

	Anti Nuke	Pro Nuke
Actors	Fisherfolk, farmers, workers, Dalits, Muslims, women, children etc.   Supporters in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and rest of India.   Supporting political parties, Social movements, Human rights groups etc.   Some sections of Media   Some international friends	Government of India   Government of Tamil Nadu    Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, CISF, Tamil Nadu Police, Central and State intelligence agencies etc.    Atomic Energy Commission, DAE, NPCIL, AERB etc.   Political parties such as Congress, BJP, DMK, AIADMK etc.   Indian Bureaucracy   Much of Indian Media   US, Russia, France governments   MNCs of these countries   Spy agencies of these counties   IAEA etc.
Positions	Nuclear power is bad, ugly and expensive.   Nuclear power plant is dangerous and unwanted.   Let us think like a creative leader and look beyond thermal and nuclear energy.   Let’s consider ‘New Energies’.   Let’s put Indian citizens’ interests first.	Nuclear power is good, clean and cheap.   Nuclear power plant is safe and badly needed.   Let us continue our colonized thinking and persist with thermal and nuclear energy.   Let’s consider nuclear energy.   Let’s put foreign countries’ and their MNCs’  interests first.
Interests	Safeguarding India’s natural resources such as sea, seafood, land, ground water, air etc. Protecting ordinary people’s livelihood and sustainable development.   Ensuring everyone’s food security, nutrition security, water security etc.   Avoiding health problems of ordinary people; and protecting the progeny.   Protecting Nature, Life, Future	Producing more electricity and ensuring energy security and national security. Promoting the development agenda of the rich and famous and powerful.   Ensuring the power brokers’ profits, commissions and kickbacks.   Ignoring such hidden costs and persisting with short-term gains.     Money, Money, Money
Gain	A few menial jobs   Low income from shops, services	Lots of good jobs   Lots of contracts, sub-contracts   Money, Power, Prominence   Electricity   Good life
Loss	350+ serious cases and legal hassles   Police action and harassment   Loss of income and wealth   Loss of public money on pro-nuclear campaigns   Loss of privacy and governmental intrusions   Natural resources   Livelihood   Displacement   Health   Wellbeing of children and grandchildren   Future
Attacks Faced	Dangerous false cases such as sedition, waging war on the State etc.   Arrests, imprisonment, torture.   Imprisoning women, juveniles, and children.   Legal hassles, refusing bail.   Police searches, attacks and harassment.   Having anti-social elements vandalize private properties and homes with police connivance.   Attack on negotiating team.   Intelligence departments’ psychological warfare.   Tear gas attack, lathi charge, firing.   Murder by police.   Aerial harassment of Coast Guard planes.   Death threats.	Nonviolent and peaceful siege, processions and agitations (for a few hours).
Slanders Faced	Instigated by opposition parties.   Small group’s protest.   Fishermen struggle.   Christian struggle.   Foreign countries’ and agencies’ plot.   NGO-funded struggle.   Missionaries’ and priests’ protest.   Struggle promotes smuggling in the sea and coasts.   Undertaken to harass governments.   Struggle promoted by incentives such as Rs. 500, biriyani and alcohol.   Misguiding innocent people.   Stubborn and unwilling to listen.   Receiving foreign money.   Using human shield.   Character assassination of leaders, casting aspersions on leaders’ integrity etc.   Accusing of using violence.   Publishing leaders’ addresses, contact numbers, emails in a newspaper.   Doubting people’s sanity and sending psychiatrists.   Arresting foreigners and connecting with struggle.   Linking us with Naxalites, terrorists, ISI spies etc.   Insulting women and questioning their morality.
Machinations		Telling half-truths and non-truths to people.   Dividing people with the help of immoral media persons.   Setting up corrupt media persons against the struggle.   Spreading rumors and  harassing people.   Dividing people along caste and religious lines.   Trying to instigate violence in the protest programs.   Trying to ‘buy’ weak protestors.   Splitting people by creating gangs and planting goons.   ‘Buying’ media and media persons.   Instigating businessmen and industrialists against people.   Using scientists and experts to confuse people.   Setting up proxy protesters against the struggle.   Setting up religious leaders to influence people’s opinion.   Distributing freebies.   Canvassing students and youth in colleges with government influence.   Doing campaigns with government influence.   Creating artificial power cuts.   Sending in spies and agents to endanger peace.   Promising houses, roads and other “development” projects.   Promising crores of rupees and wooing panchayat leaders and local leaders to the government side.
Favored Solutions	Abandon all NPPs   Focus on ‘New Energies’	Start more NPPs   Produce nuclear energy
The Way Out	·         Announce a moratorium on all nuclear activities all over the country. ·         Present a Cost-Benefit-Procedural Impact analysis of NPPs. ·         Do financial, energy, environmental, social audit of the existing NPPs. ·         Set up an “empowered and independent” regulatory authority. ·         Ensure transparency, accountability, and popular participation in nuclear installations. ·         Facilitate a national debate on nuclear deals, Uranium mines, reactors, waste dumps, and nuclear bombs. ·         Let people decide what they need!

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A house for Mr. Narayan

                                                    

The Karnataka government's plan of converting English fiction writer RK Narayan's house into a museum has created a storm in the state's literati circles. Calling the well-intentioned move on the part of the state government a wastage of tax payer's money, well known Kannada authors have branded one of India's most loved English writers a non-Kannadiga and an outsider of Tamilian origin.

Though Narayan lived most of his life in Mysore and spent most his writing life at his Yadavgiri home, a group of well-known Kannada writers and intellectuals have taken umbrage at the state government promoting a non-Kannadiga writer while allegedly ignoring regional ones. Their September 18 petition released to the media says that, ''Narayan was from Tamil Nadu. He was born in Madras (now Chennai) and received his education there.  All his novels were in English and most of them were published from America. He did not acquaint himself with the Kannada language and never had any relations with the local Kannada people’’. The signatories to the petition included noted writers like SL Bhyrappa, GS Shivarudrappa, LS Sheshagiri Rao, DA Shankar, G Venkatasubbiah, M Chidanandamurthy, GS Siddalingiah and Sumathindra Nadig.

Addressing press, DA Shankar, retired English professor from the University of Mysore and one of the signatories to the petition said, "Why should the government spend taxpayers' money? How relevant is it linguistically and culturally? Narayan didn't relate to Kannada". Echoing similar sentiments, noted Kannada writer GS Shivarudrappa says, "RK Narayan, though he stayed in Mysore, didn’t socialize with the people here. He didn’t participate in any of the movements which tried to empower the Kannada language and neither did he promote the language in any platform."

The writers are particularly miffed over the fact that the state government is spending more than Rs 2 crore to convert Narayan's house into a heritage site, and are purchasing the house at the current market price from the author's family. They have questioned why the government has not undertaken similar projects in the case of Kannada writers like Masti Venkatesh Iyengar, DR Bendre and Kuvempu, who they feel have contributed much more to literature than Narayan. The writers have demanded that if the government still wants to go ahead with the plan, Narayan’s family should donate donate the house, instead of selling it to government.

While there has been opposition, there has also been outpouring of support for the government’s initiative. Liberal writers and intellectuals in Karnataka have severely criticised Byrappa and others and feel that labeling Narayan, who’s famous Malgudi days achieved nation-wide popularity when it was televised on Doordarshan by actor and director Shankar Nag, a non-Kannadiga, smacks of linguistic chauvinism. Noted playwright and theatre personality Girish Karnad has rubbished the idea of Narayan being an outsider, saying that he is as much a Kanndiga as anybody else. When contacted Jnanpith awardee and noted Kannada writer UR Ananthamurthy said, "RK Narayan is a great writer. He was as much part of Mysore and the state as anybody else. To say that he does not belong here shows the mean-mindedness on the part of those who are opposing the government’s initiative. It doesn’t matter whether wrote in urdu, Konkani or Marathi, as long he lived the state, he belongs Karnataka."

Ananthmurthy however is not sure that the idea of converting writers' houses into memorials is a good one. Citing his reservations, he says, "It is a bit of a risky step. Our experiences have shown that, it is easy to buy a house but to maintain it is the difficult part and our government is not good at that’’. Meanwhile the government has reiterated that it would go ahead with the project.

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Water Wars

The Cauvery issue

The recent order of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as head of the controversial Cauvery River Authority (CRA) asking Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu till October 15 has brought out once again the century old debate of sharing of Cauvery river water between the two states. While both states claim that justice has not been meted out in the recent order, several farmer groups in Karnataka are up in arms against the prime minister’s decision as they feel the recent order is not only unjust towards the state but that which threatens their share of water for agriculture. With Supreme Court ruling in favour of the CRA decision on September 28, emotions are running high in the state, the battle for control of water, like in the past, threatens to spill blood in the coming days.

Sharing of Cauvery water has always been a contentious issue between both the states. The heart of the conflict is a century old agreement signed between the erstwhile Madras presidency and Mysore princely state in 1892 and later at1924 — which talks of interstate water sharing and development of irrigation in the Cauvery river basin which is 800 kilometres long. With power resting in the then British government, Karnataka has always maintained that, it suffered discrimination at the hands of the colonial government wherein the right to irrigate land and build dams could not have been done without the prior consent of the British masters, while no such restrictions were imposed on Tamil Nadu which was then under the Madras Presidency.

Even after India became independent, these agreements were not made obsolete in 1947. They continued to remain till 1974, when the 50 year agreement came to an end; which led to Karnataka taking initiation in constructing dams and increasing its irrigation area. This resulted in a situation where in total availability of water was just sufficient to cater to the existing projects leading to periodical altercation and violence with the neighbouring Tamil Nadu, which over the period has become an emotional issue as Tamil Nadu does not control the Cauvery headwaters (as it is in Karnataka) it controls tributaries Bhavana and Moyar. There is relative peace when both the states receive ample rainfall, but daggers are drawn, when the monsoon fails. And that happened in the failed monsoons of 1995 and reached a height when the current external affairs minister SM Krishna was in power in 2002, wherein due to continuous three year drought, the problem complicated due to displacement of local farmers in Karnataka who were dependent on the Cauvery river for their livelihood. Tempers were inflamed when a farmer ended his life by jumping into the Kabini reservoir over the Cauvery water sharing issue. A mass movement erupted, drawing even film stars, resulting in violent attacks on the sizeable minority Tamil population in Bangalore. Subsequently Tamils attacked Kannadigas in their state and vehicles with Karnataka license plates entering or leaving Tamil Nadu were burnt.

The matter came up before hearing several times in the Supreme Court with both parties going for endless round of appeals whenever a judgment was given not to their liking. The Supreme Court finally set up a tribunal to address the issue, which gave a judgment in 1991 asking Karnataka to release 205 thousand million cubic (tmc) of water every month to Tamil Nadu, which was not seen as favourably by Karnataka. The tribunal while delivering the judgement remained mum on the issue of sharing of water when there is a shortage of rainfall, which has become a bone of contention between the states till today. In the meanwhile, Cauvery River Authority (CRA) was constituted in 1998. The CRA was chaired by prime minister and had the chief ministers of the four contending (including Kerala and Pondicherry) parties as members. On 8 September, 2002, CRA ordered Karnataka to release 0.8 tmc ft of water to Tamil Nadu, which Karnataka refused to comply. The matter was again referred to the tribunal which after full seventeen years finally announced its final ruling on February 04, 2007. The tribunal allocated Tamil Nadu 419 tmc ft of water as against its demand of 562tmc, Karnataka was awarded 270 tmc as against its demand of 465 tmc ft. Kerala and Pondicherry were awarded 30tmc ft and 7tmc ft. The Karnataka government has again filed a review petition with the tribunal.

In the recent CRA order too, Karnataka initially refused to release 9,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu. Karnataka contested that; it cannot release waters overlooking the interests of its farmers. Recent drought and deficit of south west monsoon rain were the reasons cited for refusing to comply. However, in the meanwhile, Tamil Nadu approached the Supreme Court, which reprimanded Karnataka government for refusing to comply with the prime minister’s orders. Finally, reluctant state government had to release waters.

Last Saturday, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who convened an all party meet announced that the state government would appeal to the PM to grant an interim stay on the original order of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA). “If the PM had revised the order, we would not have had this problem. We will shortly file a petition,” said Shettar.

Meanwhile, in a repeat of 2002, a mass movement has erupted again with religious mutt leaders, film stars, Kannada cultural organisations and farmers threatening to hit the streets if the CRA order is not withdrawn.

Note: The above post was first published in the Tehelka blog. 

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Why do left and right mean liberal and conservative?

During the election season the words left and right denote political affiliation more than spatial direction. But where do these associations come from?

The left hand has long been associated with deviance. The word “sinister” originally meant “to the left” in Latin. The word “left” comes from the Old English word lyft, which literally meant “weak, foolish.” To avoid the negative and superstitious associations of the left side, many languages used euphemisms for it. In Old English the left side was called winestra, which meant “friendlier.” In Greek it was called aristeros or “the better one.”

When did the political affiliation of these two common words arise? In fact, the association is not American at all. It originated during the French Revolution. In the 1790s, King Louis XVI  was fighting with the Legislative Assembly. Like our modern-day House of Representatives, seating in the French Legislative Assembly was arranged based on political affiliation. The King sat in front of the assembly. To his right sat the conservative Feuillants who backed the king and believed in a constitutional monarchy. To his left sat the liberal Girondists and radical Jacobins who wanted to install a completely democratic government. Oddly enough, in the U.S. House of Representatives the tables have turned: members of the Republican party sit to the left of the House Speaker and members of the Democratic party sit to his or her right.

It wasn’t until the early 20th century that Left and Right denoted political affiliation in Britain and the US, and the more politically loaded terms “leftwing” and “rightwing” were not widely used until after 1960 according to Google’s NGram viewer.

Read more at http://hotword.dictionary.com/leftright/#kb86f1jjtoRJvDHz.99

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Discipline As Falsified Uniformity

At the risk of called foucauldian, although I was never a disciplinarian, even before Foucault (it means reading Foucault) am skeptical about discipline. Disciplining at first instance is a power construct and regulated by power.Discipline is not at behest of commoners but it is created, controlled  regulated and modulated by the power. In that very sense power creates and depends on discipline. Foucault calls it penopticism, which simply means that through discipline governing and controlling is very easy for Foucault- 19th and 20th century is the highest point of disciplinary society.

Discipline is nothing but creating a falsified uniformity to regulate and control the governing subject, to make the strengthening of power easy and unquestioned, drawing an analogy from there, in school, we are not allowed to question; but questions are already raised for us, and we have to just answer them in order to succeed. The success is to find answer within the frame of question produced and from the prescribed text and solution zone.Discipline thus deliberately kills creativity - the creativity to produce concepts and to be critical of one's own self.

School for me is the epitome of disciplinary idea and the most fundamental institution of discrimination and intellectual corruption. The problem is therefore the language the very economy of the language which produces school. The challenge is not to reform it but how to deconstruct it and create an open space of learning where disciplining and regulating is alien. 

The author of this post Musab Iqbal is editor in chief of news portal Newzfirst. 

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The Accidents of History

Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984. Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948

The accidents of history have a much bigger role in shaping a nation’s destiny than one usually thinks. That is because accidents cannot be broken down into causes and effects, which is the historian’s standard tool. Accidents are after all, just accidents. On a whimsical note I sometimes wonder about India’s tryst with assassinations and whether Naturam Godse, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, Thenmozhi Rajaratnam and whatever mysterious reason caused Sanjay Gandhi’s plane to crash have unknowingly done as much to further India’s ‘tryst with destiny’ as our national heroes.

While there is no doubting Gandhi’s greatness and his contribution to achieving India’s independence, one wonders whether Gandhi’s ideas about constitutional democracy completely aligned with Nehru’s liberal notions. And given the weight Gandhi’s opinions had with the Indian populace, making him a source of almost extra-constitutional power, I think Nehru would have found it far more difficult to lay the foundations of our democratic institutions. Indira Gandhi’s assassination, unfortunate as it was, ended her authoritarian brand of politics and paved the way for RajivGandhi’s limited but significant technological and economic reforms.  Something which would not have happened if Sanjay Gandhi hadn’t met the end he did.

What would India been like if Sanjay Gandhi had been alive and taken over after Indira Gandhi’s death? It is difficult to say with any certainty, but the emergency does give us some clues. And whether one thinks of the economic reforms, which Manmohan Singh inaugurated as a mistake or as progress, it is doubtful whether it could have come about if Rajiv Gandhi had continued to dominate the Congress. India had entered an era of successive coalition governments and it was doubtful if any party could have got anything near a majority based on politics alone. Rajiv Gandhi’s tragic assassination and the sympathy wave it generated meant P V Narasimha Rao, whom the Congress has written out of its history, had enough seats to steer forward unpopular reforms that a weaker government could not have.

If our national course has indeed been steered by political assassins, what does that say about us and our democratic political process?

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A Terror Tale With Plenty of Loose Ends

The Karnataka Police claim to have prevented a major catastrophe by arresting a dozen Muslim youth. But does it have a watertight case? Imran Khan finds out

The citizens of Bangalore, who have been limping back to normalcy after more than 30,000 north-easterners fled the city amidst rumours of communal violence, is now living with the grim specter of terrorists living in their midst posing as respectable, law-abiding citizens- as journalists, scientists, doctors and students.

The Karnataka police last week arrested 18 Muslim youths including two from Hyderabad and Maharashtra, for allegedly trying to assassinate several prominent personalities in the state.  The central crime branch of the Bangalore police claim that the arrested youths were part of the banned Pakistan based terror outfits Lashkar E Toiba and Harkat ul Jehad E Islami ( HuJI) and were running `sleeper cells’ in the southern part of the country.  The Bangalore police, who claim to have recovered two 7.65 mm Italian made Berretta pistols from the arrested youth, have officially charged them with attempting to assassinate two Kannada journalists Vishweshwar Bhat and Pratap Simha of Kannda Prabha known for their hindutva leanings, state Bajrang Dal leader Ganu Jartarkar and a Hyderabad based corporator.

However, a number of statements from the Karnataka Home Minster R Ashok and the Union Home Secretary R K Singh hinted at a much larger plot, one that targeted vital national security assets including the Kaiga nuclear power plant and a series of conflicting stories in the media attributed to the alleged terrorists, plans to carry out bomb blasts at the Hubli Ganesh festival, to assassinate prominent legislators and even reported at armed terrorists camps operating in the forests of Hubli-. All these stories attributed the information to unnamed police sources and a leading English daily claimed that the LeT and Hujji are operating ‘sleeper cells’ in Karnataka and that their agents have infiltrated the mainstream media. Shiva Sunder, a political analyst says that unverified leaks from the police and irresponsible media reportage are creating an atmosphere of terror and suspicion in the state.

Tehelka looks at the police version and finds that at the moment the police have little more than two pistols they claim to have recovered and the confessional statements of three of the accused. According to the Indian Evidence Act, Section 36, confessions given to a police officer is legally not permissible as evidence in a court of law. Worse, even going by the confessions which form the basis of the FIR, there seems little evidence at this stage to link the other accused with the alleged plot, let alone with international terrorist organizations.

According to the details of the First information Report (FIR) and the confession statements extracted from the accused Abdul Hakeem Jamadar and Shoaib Ahmed Mirza obtained by Tehelka, the beginning of the alleged conspiracy stretches back a year ago, when Shoaib and Hakeem came in touch with a shadowy figure called Zakir alias Ustad. 

The confessional statements paint him as the main instigator behind the alleged plot, and a fundamentalist ideologue who moved the youngsters with his emotional appeals to retaliate against the persecution of Muslims.

The confession statement says that, Jamadar and Dr. Zafar Iqbal wanted to travel to Iran and then on to Pakistan to join the Taliban. They took a one month visiting visa from the Iranian consulate in Hyderabad by telling them that they wanted to visit the shrine of Fatima in Iran. Abdul Hakeem’s passport number is H-8028149 and was issued to him in 2009 by the Bangalore passport office. The police are yet to get hold of Zafar’s passport details.  

After this point, the event recorded in the statement takes a bizarre turn. The statement says that on December 11, 2011 Jamadar and Zafar took the Air Arabia flight from Bangalore International airport to Tehran airport. And from there it says, ISI agents took them through the border to Pakistan where they were met by Abdul Wahab, Deputy Director ISI Karachi, Hamd, Senior Director, ISI Karachi, and Mustafa a senior official of ISI Karachi.

Interestingly, he says that, the ISI officials questioned about whether they had any RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) connections and threatened. ‘’ They asked us to go to India and work for them as ISI agent. For that they have promised us to provide necessary information and money’’.  Most strangely the statement says that these wannabe Talibanis denied this offer and further that the ISI tortured them for 10-15 days.  Later the ISI took the two to the Pakistani border and they were allowed to travel back to Iran. They flew back to India through Shivaji International Airport and came back to Karnataka.

The assassination plot, according to the police confession, was hatched just before Ramzan when Zakir alias Ustaad got in touch with Jamadar and asked him to assassinate Pratap Simha a columnist with Kananda Prabha and its editor Vishweshar Bhatt. The ostensible reason was anti-minority and pro-Hindutva articles written by the two journalists.

Interestingly the confessional statements and the FIR make no mention of how the pistols and ammunition were procured by Shoaib and Jamaadar and whether it was supplied by the elusive Ustaad. Interestingly, according to the police, while the first pistol was recovered from the possession of Shoaib and Jamadar when the police allegedly intercepted their assassination mission on 28 August, the second was recovered from Akram, who was arrested from near the Bangalore central bus stand on September 1. The manner as well as timing of the arrest of Shoaib and Jamaadar also raises questions.  The FIR says that Shoaib pulled out the pistol and aimed at the policemen, but that K V Jithendranath the head of the police team pounced on Shoaib and disarmed him physically. According to the FIR after arresting Shoaib and Jamadar, their flatmates journalist Muthi ur Rehman Siddique, Reyaz Ahmed, Muhammed Yusuf Nalabund and DRDO engineer Aijaz Ahmed Mirza, elder brother of Shoaib Mirza were arrested at around 3:30 pm .However, contrary to the FIR report, a missing complaint filed by residents of JC Nagar area says that the accused were picked up by the police at around 9am.

Even the stolen Hero Honda splendor bike bearing number KA-27-E-1035 used by them, according to the police, turned out to be of fake. The bike’s registration number has been traced to one Mr. Datatre Mudri Marthanda Rao in Ranebennur town. The registration details reveal that it is a Bajaj M80 scooter bought in 1991. The police however claim that, the number plate on the bike was fake and are unwilling to reveal details of the registration number. 

On 30 August, commending CCB’s feat DG & IGP Lalrokuma Pachau said that – by this arrest the Bangalore police has prevented a major – ‘ catastrophe’.  Civil society activists however remain skeptical of the police’s claims. The family of the arrested men however, has accused the police of arresting them on false charges. And Muslim groups have accused the police of fabricating the case and victimizing the innocent members of the minority community. They point out to several previous instances where high profile arrests made by the police resulted in acquittals.  “All these cases followed the same pattern. All the arrested were youth mainly from the lower middle class of the Muslim community. After their arrest stories started appearing regularly in the media quoting unnamed police sources claiming that the accused were members of Indian Mujahideen, LeT or even the Al Qaeda.  After spending several years in prison the court finally acquitted many of the accused citing lack of evidence, ‘’ said Irshad Ahmed Desai of Association for Protection of Civil Rights.

Desai cited the last Wednesday’s acquittal of Faheem Ansari and Sabhuddin Ahmed who were wrongly charged by the Mumbai police for their connection in the 26/11 case.

In 2008, a month before BJP came to power in Karnataka; a bomb went off in the magistrate court in Hubli where seven SIMI members were to be produced. Police had blamed SIMI for that. Later however it turned out that, the blast was carried out by Nagaraj Jambagi, leader of a criminal gang with links to Sri Ram Sene. In 2008 again, in Belgaum (86km from Hubli and 499 km from Bangalore) the police arrested 15 people based on the material found on the hard disk. After spending three years, they were acquitted in December 2011 adds Desai.

 While the police investigation continues, the jury is still out on whether they have cracked a sinister terror plot that could have threatened the fragile communal harmony of an entire state, or whether the young men arrested and branded terrorists paid for nothing more than who they are

Note: The above article was first published in Tehelka magazine. 

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Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia

Hussain Zaidi is famous crime reporter of Mumbai and author of several books on the Mumbai mafia. A life time spent reporting on the mafiosi compared to bigger than any other mafia in the world, Zaidi has been its chronicler and historian of par excellence bringing detail and depth to his cherished subject.

Though, Zaidi has written three books earlier covering the Mumbai mafiosi, including the famous Black Friday and Mafia Queens of Mumbai, his latest- a chronological history of the Mumabi mafia brings out the best of him, both as a writer and the practioner of his trade. From Dongri to Dubai is as much a history book on Mumbai mafiosi which runs like nerve center of the entire mafia in India ; is as much a book on the rise of noted underworld Don and fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, about whom Zaidi says would be like no other.

Zaidi using his extensive field reporting experience and even digging out some old connections lists the famous dons of the Independent India. Karima Lala, Vardarajan Mudaliar and noted smuggler Haji Mastan's lives have been written about and have been also played out in the bollywood movies. But Zaidi manages to bring more tales and even details to the already said tales of these famous trio, who until early 70”s were the undisputed dons of Mumbai. Until, the three dreaded dons ruled the entire Mumbai, blood was not spilled on the streets of the city. However, that changed when new gangs emerged, especially the pathan gangs and Dawood's, blood flowed like water in the intra gang rivalry. The rise of Dawood also saw a corporate style of functioning of the underworld which until then had worked more on muscle.

Dawood says Zaidi changed that. And largely to his shrewd and cunning brain, he kept both police and politician in good terms which the other gangs failed to do so. Born, a constable's son, Dawood and his siblings very early in life took to crime like a bee to a flower. Their operation base Dongri, soon became the head quarter of "D'' company from where they came to rule the entire city. With Hindu don Chotta Rajan joining him as his manager operations, his strength increased and the Don increased his area of work to Dubai, South Africa and other asian countries.

But the riots in Mumbai changed everything for both Dawood and India. Large scale killing of Muslims in the 1992 riots had brougth resentment and a feeling of venegence for the blood of the innocent spilled. According to Zaidi, Pakistan's ISI contacted Dawood, who by then had shifted his base to Dubai for help in logistics and local network to carry out a serious of bomb blasts and bring the financal nerve of India to a halt. A relctuant Dawood budged later, says Zaidi and the rest in hsitory. One of the worst ever attacks happened in the Indian soil more than 275 innocent lives were lost. Mumbai came to a stand still, and a shocked nation chocked in breath at the large scale destruction.

Since then Dawood has been India's no 1 fugitive and has been residing under constant protection from Pakistan, partly thanks to Chotan Rajan because he surrendered to the India embassy, Dawood had to close his shop in Dubai. Zaidi who interviewed Dawood once recalls that he is a soft spoken and well behvaed Don unlike others who drop explectives before every sentence.

The book also touches Abu Salem and makes a passing mention of Chotha Shakeel. But, the main highlight of the book is to know the way the system uses Dawood to cut through the others and how Dawood uses the same system to establish his hold on both the mafia and the city.

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Drought in Karntaka

Even as the infighting among various factions continues within Karnataka BJP for the post of ministers and party president, the state is facing one of the worst droughts in the last 40 years. While, the state government claims that all the needed measures are taken in order to mitigate drought, critics however point out, the disaster have been brought about by lack of policy initiatives by both the central and state government.

`` Both the central and state government should have initiated contingency plans a week earlier. Now it would be difficult to rescue various crops in many areas.  Lessons haven’t been learnt from the drought of 2009. They cannot depend completely on rainfall for agriculture’’ says agri scientist Devinder Sharma.

According to the central met department there has been a 23 percent deficit of monsoon rains this year. Kharif crops in Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra are under severe threat with Karnataka the most affected had said union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar in July this year.

Devinder says, ideally, Karnataka state should have invested in rain water harvesting years in advance to avert such a crisis, especially after the failure of the north east monsoon in 2011. `` Both the central and state government should evolve an agricultural plan that matches water consumption of crops to the arability of the land so that the crops can withstand lower then expected rainfall. While such plans have been under discussion for years nothing has been done about them.  Every drought effects not only production, but sets back the farming sector by at least three years’’, he says.

The failure of the measures as suggested, and truants by rains have wrecked havoc in Karnataka this year. According to the local meteorological department, the state has received more than sixty percent of short fall of rains this year. Barring the coastal belt, through out the state there has been a deficit of rain fall. According to the data, in some districts the deficit of rainfall is around somewhere between 60 to 90 percent. The state government itself out of the 176 taluks has declared drought in 163 taluks making Karnataka the Rajasthan of the south.

The situation is such grave that due to long spells of no rain many of the reservoirs in the country are going without water. According to the central water commission bulletin (July), important reservoirs are down to 55 percent of last years storage, and seventy six percent of the last ten years. Out of the 84 reservoirs of India monitored by the central water commission, the storage capacity has been reported to be just 36.321 BCM, of the total capacity of 154.421 BCM. Last year, the storage was 66.180 BCM.

In Karnataka too, out of the 14 reservoirs, there has been a deficit of more than 40% of water. The capacity holding of the largest reservoir in the state Almatti has been reduced to 24 tmc out of 123 tmc capacity holding. Last year, it was reported to be 80 tmc. According to officials of the state water board, this 24tmc was always stocked for contingency plans. But this year, first in such case, they had to release the reserved water not leaving even the last drop. Almatti has been a major source of water for farmers of the Northern belt. Districts like Bidar, Gulbarga, Bijapur, Bagalkot, Raichur form the North belt of the state; where in the people of the Lingayat caste is dominant, who form the back bone of the state BJP. In the recent Global Investors Meet, the state government has planned to supply water to 12 mega projects from the same reservoir. If these projects come through, there would be a need of 15 tmc of water from Almatti and the Krishna Basin.

Cities are also witnessing the pinch of the rainfall deficit. Whereas Bengaluru, Mysore, Mandya, receives their water from Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) dam, the deficit of rainfall this year (Mysore received 35 percent deficit rain, and whereas Mandya received a deficit of 45) has drastically reduced the capacity holding of the KRS dam to mere 1 percent, as compared to last year’s of 67 percent. If the situation persists, there might be an acute shortage of drinking water in the coming days, which in turn can lead into power crisis if the same situation persists.

The cumulative effect of the deficit of rainfall and non- availability of water for irrigation has resulted in heavy loss of crops to the 16 lakh drought hit farmers of the state. ‘’ Out of the 74 lakh hectares planned for Kharif cultivation, only 20 to 24 lakh hectares have been sown. And around 90 percent of the crops that have been sown have been affected by moisture’’ says Raje Gowda, agri meteorological scientist from University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore.

While this year, there has been no estimation done yet to ascertain the total loss of crops. An official of the disaster management wing of the revenue department says, last year, the total crop loss was Rs. 6,013 crores (4,245.84 – Kharif crop loss and Rs. 1768 crores Rabi crop loss). He says, on condition of anonymity, this year’s estimation would be known only by September end.  The state government however has been demanding a relief package of 2500 crore from the centre for this year’s crop loss. Secretary of the Revenue department was unavailable for comment.

In the meanwhile, the central government has announced that it will put into motion contingency plans for drought in all the states. The contingency plan announced by central govt will have farmers re-sowing kharif crops (like groundnut, gram, maize and ragi) in expectation that rains would hit the first week of October.  Farmers have also been asked to grow short term crops like jowar, sunflower and potatoes in uncultivated land. ‘’ But both sowing and re-sowing of crops needs seeds to buy, which small farmers would not be able to afford with even 50% government subsidy. The government should make efforts to distribute free seeds to farmers’’ says farmer leader and president of the largest farmer co-operative in the state Kodihalli Chandrashekar. Once we experience a drought, even after a relief of three years of good rain, the farmer will be unable to come out it. All the measures taken by the state BJP is inadequate and would have no impact in the long run. Says Chandrashekhar, `a joke is being played out in the name of relief’.

While the relief is yet to reach the distraught farmers, both the ruling government and the opposition are at logger heads over measures to mitigate drought. While newly inducted CM Jagadish Shettar thinks that Rs. 3500 crore farm loan waiver is enough to mitigate the crisis. Opposition parties however have accused the ruling government of doing an eyewash and publicity gimmick. Replying in assembly, Shettar said that, farmers who took loans up to Rs. 25,000 and defaulted from co-operative institutions between August 2011 and June 2012 are only eligible for this waiver. Condemning the government’s stand, opposition Congress leader Siddaramaih in the assembly said, `` around 90% of farmers have already repaid the loans and the interest. What about farmers who have obtained loans from nationalised banks? What about those who have taken loans more than Rs, 25,000? What about those who have not availed loans but are drought affected? The farmers have incurred a total loss of Rs. 10,000 crore due to drought and if the BJP government was serious about providing relief to drought victims, it should wave off the entire crop loan unconditionally’’.

With rains playing truant, the saffron party has now turned towards gods and recently splurged Rs. 17 crores from the state coffers to 34, 000 temples to pray for rain. The move highly critised by civil society and general public alike was however strongly defended by the government. 

Note: The above piece was written two weeks ago; so some of the data is old.

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