99% of Indian Journalism Is Stenorgaphy

The journalism in action and in question

 

The question of media and control is very serious and complex to maintain sanctity and honesty is toughest of all jobs as media person in situation where ground reporting is not encouraged, corporate interest overpowers everything. And also the communal presence in the media has been effectively influencing the nature of the public discourse not only in particular state but across the country.

In time of overwhelming expression, information overload and in extreme production of image breaking, silence is not the question but giving meaning to silence is challenging. The ‘Google Journalism’ has produced information based on inputs of establishment and pain to meet, interact, listen and report is becoming a lost art of journalism. While information technology is medium to express and cybersphere is a vast space of abstractness where spontaneity works sometime and whose logic is still unknown but very often its absorbing performance beat the gravity of a black hole.

Still a physical presence or his empathic relationship with the victims breaks many barrier and silence. In my own brief experience of reporting I found that listening and giving them space to speak their trauma not only gives confidence to the victim but to the community which is at the heart of any ‘attack’.

People must be empowered to express, to report, to register their fear and trauma but to give them a meaning, the journalism of courage and fearlessness is required else it will not sustain.

Network | cloud model

Particularly in the age of  Information Technology one needs a proper network or cloud model where we can connect the commoners with media group or with space where they can represent themselves and rights group must be the part of network to take further action on the report recorded or presented.

CGNet Swara is a very good example which can be further elaborated, experimented, and can play a very powerful role in any network model. One can record his problem over phone which will be published in web and other media group can investigate more on it and present detail report on it and in similar way Rights group can take up the issue ranging from Human Rights violation to PDS functioning

This is primarily voice-based portal, freely accessible via mobile phone, which allows anyone to report and listen to stories of local interest. Reported stories are moderated by journalists and become available for playback online as well as over the phone.

In its own words: Many of the estimated 80 million members of India’s tribal communities lack access to any mainstream media outlets. This often poses serious barriers to their socio-economic development, as their grievances about government neglect and economic exploitation remain unvoiced. In addition, certain factions (such as the Maoist insurgency) can exploit their frustration and isolation to violent ends. To address this important problem, we have built and deployed CGNet Swara: a voice portal that enables ordinary citizens to report and discuss issues of local interest. (http://cgnetswara.org/about.html)

The three dimensional would be to get benefitted by such platforms and many other independent groups. Secondly, we network with the civil society and activists which give us privilege to engage in issues which bothers very few media houses and lastly we do our own stories and investigation be spending time on ground.

Facebook and other social network sites must be used as space to engage, interact, network and access but it must not become a barrier, a limitation and a journalistic end.

This is my sincere opinion that more technology will be brought, more powerful such virtual spaces will become, more sincere ground report and investigation we will need because tampering, fabricating, overpowering of narratives, ignoring the important and forgering any news and report will become more easy. This is a routine practice at social networking sites where we see that different images are forged to make a news and get it circulated.

The ‘google journalism’ opens a serious challenge for scholarship and journalism both. To encourage even journalists to report from ‘war zone’ is not easy as veteran Journalist Robert Fisk questions that how many editors have first- hand experience of war? The question is at the time when Reliance is buying most of the big media houses with an amazing speed, the editor necessarily need to act as manager rather than en editor, so the question of one visiting any kind of ‘war zone’ is simply insane .

Strictly in facebook terminology any ‘like’ doesn’t change much nor does it channelize public opinion in a serious way rather semiotics of such spaces leaves one in anxiety and middle of nowhere where confusion is perpetual and sponatenity is bombarded.  The average Facebook user clicks ‘like’ 3.5 times every day on wide range of issues hence giving a ‘formidable reason’ to marketing companies for their success and reach.

The revolution in Egypt was not certainly harnessed by just social media but it has its own long history of movements and action culminating years after at Tahrir. Certainly mobile phones and social networking sites helped in connecting people, networking and bringing a spontaneous movement out of it – this is the potentiality and the limitation of it. A ground movement, ground reporting and actions on ground networked in such spaces bring a positive change but not just floating audience of revolution in virtual space.

The individual, community, action groups and journalist must use these technologies to connect, to network, to support and create an avenue where voice can be heard and such spaces must be a true reflection of what is present and what is not!

The different shades of spaces available within the Internet must be used powerfully to advance in strengthening the process of democratization.  Hence, there should be an efficient and sincere place for deliberation and free and open discourse, which must not be gulped by madness of spontaneity

Musab Iqbal

Note:  Musab Iqbal is Editor in Chief of News Portal Newzfirst. The above article was first published in his blog http://dcritique.wordpress.com. 

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Mangalore Attack - Detailed Story

Violence is the weapon of choice for the impotent. Those who don't have much power often attempt to control or influence others by using violence- Hannah Arendt, political philosopher

A repeat of the infamous 2009 pub attack in Mangalore, the hindutva hot bed in Karnataka, was played out on a birthday partying group of students this Saturday with more than 40 activists of the Hindu Jagran Vedike pouncing on them, molesting, slapping the women, and beating up the men in the home stay where they were partying all in the name of curbing vices and up holding Indian values. While visuals like these were etched in the nation’s memory three years ago, what shocked many was the re-appearance of it after a gap of three years.

In the past week, reports of women being molested, slapped and thrashed have made cover headlines of various media outlets. While in most cases it was the act of few individuals who wanted to get at women who dared to anger chauvinistic men. In the case of the Mangalore incident, it was a political group which has been relentlessly campaigning against women and men who do not adhere to the hindutva culture.

 While the minorities and dalit groups have been targeted for long in Mangalore in the name of Love Jihad, terrorism and of forced conversions, those who have been upwardly mobile have been crunched as people with  ‘loose morals’, ‘pub goers’ and as proponents of ‘ vulgar western culture’.

In the latest episode of hindutva bigotry, on 28 July Saturday, activists of Hindu Jagran Vedike (HJV) brutally attacked people partying at a resort on the outskirts of Mangalore city (350km from Bangalore). At around 7.30 pm around 50 HJV activists barged into Morning Mist resort and pushed around boys and girls who were celebrating their friend’s birthday party. A girl who tried to escape was from the clutches of the hoodlums of the moral policing brigade was dragged back and thrashed.  Even when the girls pleaded that they were attending a birthday party, the HJV activists slapped them and forced them to reveal their faces to the media crew who was present there. Not only were the HJV activists unwilling to listen to them, the lampoons of the hindutva brigade jostled, slapped and even slashed a few of them forcing them to take cover in other rooms. One of the local tv channel crew which documented this incident said that there were other scenes which the channel didn’t aired which were no short of rape.

The Saturday’s event was reminiscent of a similar attack by Sri Ram Sene activists on a Mangalore pub attack on January 24, 2009. Sri Ram Sene which had owned up for the incident shot to national lime light after this particular incident. In fact for many of the fringe communal elements, this method has given their five minutes of fame ensuring further attacks whether in the case of Mangalore incident or in the case of attack on Bangladeshi writer Taslim Nasreen by activists of All India Majilis e Ittehadul Muslimeen. However, like the expose on Sri Ram Sene Chief Pramod Muthalik by Tehelka illustrates that, under the façade of hindutva or communal politics it is the game of popularity, and vote bank politics which determines much of their action. Or in the case of Tehelka expose, money was the reason for the Sene Chief willing to orchestrate a riot. In the case of latest incident too, a theory doing the round is that, the home stay had refused to give ‘hafta’ to the HJV activists which prompted them to attack their premises.

As Marlon D’ Souza one of the victims said the attackers were more drunk than them. ` We could smell alcohol even at a distance’’.  

The state BJP government too, which harps on to the moralising theory of pub goers had no qualms in organising a rave party at the St Mary’s Island in Malpe for foreign tourists. And neither did the HJV or other innumerable hindutva brigades operating in Mangalore raise a finger at their saffron government over this event. And lastly not to forget, three ministers of the current government had to resign over charges of watching porn while the assembly session was on.

Karnataka police on Monday arrested four more persons in connection with the assault, bringing the total number of persons arrested to 12. “We have arrested four more persons on the basis of information given by the eight activists who were taken into custody on Sunday for their alleged involvement in the incident. Investigation into the case is progressing in the right direction,” Mangalore police commissioner Seemanth Kumar informed. The arrests of the pro-Hindu Jagarana Vedike (HJV) were made under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Karnataka Prevention of Destruction of Property Act. They were also booked on charges of assault, outraging the modesty of girls, criminal intimidation and intrusion.

“We have booked cases against all the accused for the offences they had committed. We are on the lookout for another 10 activists of the outfit who were also involved in the incident,” Kumar said. The victims, including eight boys and five girls, all students of three local colleges in the coastal city were asked to file statements giving their version of the events.  Police intends to produce all the 12 accused in a local court for remand and custodial interrogation after completing the preliminary investigation based on evidence collected at the home stay, victims and eye witnesses.

The police however have also booked cases against the media house which exposed the Saturday’s incident. Speaking to Tehelka, Naveen Soorinje, a journalist with the private channel said, he was not abetting the acts of the vedike members but was recording the incident as part of evidence gathering. In fact, he insists due to our footage, the police were able to arrest 12 of the victims, who otherwise had run away in the thick of darkness by the time police had arrived. Contrary to the police claims, he says he made several calls the local inspector Raveesh Naik, who didn’t receive his call. ` You can check my call records to confirm it’ he says.

In a related development, high schools and colleges in the port city were shut as students stayed away from classes protesting against the attack on the students. Meanwhile, opposition Congress leader Siddaramaiah condemned the attack during a discussion on the incident in the state legislative assembly and sought stringent action against the accused. “Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2008, the state has been witnessing a series of attacks by the Sangh Parivar activists on women, especially college-going girls in the guise of moral policing. This amounts to Talibanisation of our peaceful society,” Siddaramaiah said

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Here is a detailed account by Naveen Soorinje, the reporter from Kasturi channel, of the July 28th incident in Mangalore in which girls and boys at a birthday party were attacked and abused by members of Hindu Jagarana Vedike.

It is very important to hear his version of the story considering that he is being made out to be the villain of the piece by the police. Cases have been booked against him under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and several sections of IPC. While ethical debates on the manner in which such an event should be portrayed by the visual media are not to be undermined, there is no denying that in this particular case there is a clear attempt to fix the reporter.

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At 6.45 in the evening on July 28, one of my news sources from Padil (in Mangalore) called me. This was all he told me: "Naveen, around 30 men have gathered near the Timber Yard in Padil Junction and I overheard them talking to someone trying to coax them to gather some more people. They were instructing someone to be prepared with their motorbikes. It looks like they are planning to attack the guest house in Padil. I overheard them saying something like Muslim boys and Hindu girls.”

I asked him to find out which organization the men belonged to. All he could gather was that they were from some Hindutva organization, though he could not find out the name of the exact organization they belonged to.

The immediate thought that crossed my mind was this: “Should I inform the police right away or should I not?” The dilemma was because there was no accurate information as to who belonging to which organization was to attack whom and where. I just had very rudimentary information on hand. If the members of the organization had called me themselves, I could have indeed informed the police instantly. As the news came from a my source, I thought I should inform the police only after confirming the news. Having come to this decision, I set out on my bike to Padil along with my cameraman.

In a while, my cameraman and I were outside the guest house/ home stay named Morning Mist located on the hill in Padil. None of the attackers who eventually turned up were present at the spot then.We stood there for five minutes unable to understand why anyone would plan to attack that particular home stay which is located half a kilometer away from the highway cutting through Padil. The home stay is surrounded by a tall compound wall on all four sides. There is only one gate and 60 meters from the gate is the home stay. I stood near the gate and watched. There was nothing happening inside that could conceivably provoke an attack. A girl was sitting outside on a chair and two boys in another corner of the bungalow were absorbed in their mobile games. They were not indulging in any activity which can be considered illegal. That is the reason why I did not inform the police at that point of time. If my information turned out to be wrong, it would be an unnecessary anxiety for the entire police department.

While I was making all these calculations in my mind, I saw a group of over 30 people marching towards the home stay. Out of curiosity I asked them in Tulu: “Do you know what the matter is? What is happening here?” Some boys in the group pointed to the girl sitting outside saying: “Look, there is the girl and there are the guys…” They ran towards them, all set for attack. The girl, who realized that the group was there to attack, ran inside the bungalow and tried to close the door unsuccessfully. The group of 30 managed to run to the door and open it before the girl could close it completely.

Only at that point was I completely aware of what was happening and my conscience was also awakened. I immediately called Ravish Nayak, Inspector, Mangalore (Rural)(+91-948085330) from my official number (+91-9972570044). That must have been around 7.15 p.m. Ravish Nayaka did not receive my call. On the other hand, the assault had just begun. The girls started running helterskelter failing to understand what was happening. The police personnel were not receiving the calls being made. I asked my friend Rajesh Rao of TV-9 to call the police and Ravish Nayak did not receive the call made by Rajesh Rao either.

While I was trying to get in touch with the police inspector, the cameraman ran behind the attackers and got started on his duty of recording the action. Till then only my cameraman and I were present at the spot but were soon joined by the cameraman of Sahaya TV, Sharan, and a photographer, Vinay Krishna. I was a mute witness to all that was happening there, with the guilt of not being able to do anything. More than half the attackers had consumed alcohol and were not in a position to listen to anything. I have been witness to violent incidents in my life, but never before violence of this scale and nature. Our cameraman was running wherever the group was attacking individuals. I was watching it and screaming and requesting, “Don’t hit the girls.” My request reached the camera sound recorder but did not reach the attackers.The boys who were attacked were pleading, “Please leave us. We are having a birthday party here. Please…” and were falling at the feet of the attackers. But nothing moved the attackers. If it were to be just this, probably I could have forgotten the incident. But I saw something much more terrible and shocking. 

The girls who saw the boys being trashed were shocked at the sight and ran in all directions only to be followed by the attackers. Believe it or not, one of the girls jumped down from the first floor but was caught by nearly 20 attackers who began to pull out her clothes. They slapped her and pushed her to the wall. By then the girl in pink clothes managed to run away. When the attackers caught her, she was literally stripped naked. Leaving her with only one piece of cloth the assailants molested her. This sight sent a chill down my spine. Never in my life had I seen something as horrific as this, though I had heard of such things. These were the scenes which could not become visuals for the news. Only a portion of the incident was shot. Later on, all the boys and girls partying there were locked inside a room. All this happened in a matter of 15 minutes.

When the attackers were done with one round of their planned action, Inspector Ravish along with Police S.I. Manikantha Neelaswamy and others arrived at the spot. It appeared as though the police had a tie-up with the attackers. For over half an hour the police were in conversation with the attackers. I was utterly shocked by the scene of police conversing with the them. While they were conversing, one boy who was in the partying group tried to escape, but was caught by the police. When in the custody of the police, the attackers trashed him.

By then many media persons had arrived at the spot. My cameraman and I returned to the office and uplinked all the visuals to the Bangalore office. At 8:45 p.m. the news was aired. Within no time the visuals of our channel was used by national channels and thus the incident became national news. This angered city police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar who called my friend Rajesh Rao of TV-9 who then was with me. Rajesh put the call on loud speaker while Seemanth Kumar was saying: “Why should Naveen have reported the incident? I will teach him a lesson. He not only compared this incident to the Assam incident, but also said that Mangalore is being Talibanized. This time he will be taught a lesson. We will fix him in this case and none of his contacts at any level will be of any help.” It is crystal clear from the words of Seemanth Kumar that his concern was not the attack itself, but the fact of the attack being reported.

This morning I received yet another shock. The attacked boys and girls had given statements against me at the Mangalore Rural Police Station. I was sure that those statements were given under pressure. I guess the boys and girls had heard me requesting the assailants not to trash them. By evening my doubt was cleared. Speaking to the media the attacked boys and girls said: “We haven’t complained against the media. They have stood in our support.”

Mangalore (Rural) police have filed a case against me under the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The police have arrested eight of the assailants with the help of our visuals. The incident we have reported is shameful, not the visuals we have shown. The 28 July incident at Mangalore is neither a stray incident nor are such attacks in Mangalore a new phenomenon. Every week such incidents take place. Fundamentalists not only attack boys and girls mixing with the boys and girls of another religions but also take them to the police station. This incident would have taken place even if I had not shot it. Our recording has revealed the inhuman face of the fascists and has led to the arrest of eight attackers. No matter what is said and what cases are booked against me, I believe I have done my duty as a reporter and that is the only satisfaction to my hurt self.

It doesn’t matter to me that there are complaints filed against me and an FIR has been lodged. I will be happy if the attackers are punished because of the FIR lodged against me. If I am to be freed of these charges because of some pressure and if that is going to benefit the the attackers in any way, then I do not need such freedom. No matter what punishment is given to the attackers, it will never do justice to those girls who were assaulted right in front of my eyes. Yet they need to be punished.

There is more to write, but time does not permit. If any individual or association needs more information to fight the cause or if any investigation team needs more information, I can be contacted at any time of the day.

My address:
Naveen Soorinje
Reporter
Kasturi News 24
Mangalore
Mobile: +91-9972570044. +91-8971987904

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Discrimination of RTE Kids in Karnataka - An Analytical View

The recent incident in Karnataka which shocked the state and civil society of cutting of hair of poor students admitted under Right to Education (RTE) to differentiate them with other shows a deeper tension within the society.

Parents and Dalit groups protest Outside School - Pic by Imran Khan

The story of these students is not stories from margin and hence must not be read in obscurity. The private schools are opposing the idea of RTE and its implementation since long. KUSMA (Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association) an organization of private schools has been fiercely opposing the idea since its inception and has gone long in criticizing it. The president of KUSMA GS Sharma had to quit on July 18 following a row after he had stated that students getting into private schools under RTE were like sewage flowing into clean water body and polluting it.

In case of Oxford Public School an up market school and member of KUSMA, it has been alleged that the management of the school in order to differentiate students coming from economically backward and poor sections under RTE cut tufts of their hair. According to the parents of the children whose hair was cut, the school has been systematically discriminating them from the beginning and even to get the RTE form they had to resort to protest only then the management relented. In a class of 40 students of 1st standard at Oxford, eight children have been admitted under RTE.  `` they were made to sit at the last bench, their names were not included in the attendance registrar, no books was provided to them, they did not give them any homework and over it the teachers there used to check the tiffin boxes of our children – taunting them whether you have brought yesterday’s left over food since you are poor’’ says Geeta one of the Victim’s mother. 

The above incidents not only shocked the people of the state, but also sent seismic waves across the nation. What perturbed many was of the fact that such a thing could occur in Bangalore, one of the modern cities in India known for its cosmopolitan culture and IT hub and presumed to be a liberal and open place.  What shocked even more was a deeper tension exhibited in subject matter like education which was meant to bridge gaps within classes and communities.  Even though it has been more than 60 years since independence, the recent events have shown that the gap has not been bridged, rather in a neo liberal set up where governments are getting rid of ‘ welfare schemes’ and handing them over to private players, education as new found ‘commodity’ has certainly become a major bone of contention. Even in fields like water and mid day meals too, the Karnataka government has been more than enthusiastic in handing over to private players.  While n certain districts the state government has handed over the supply of drinking water to Tata and sons ( it wants to emulate the model to the entire state), the supply of nutrients in mid day meals is slowly being handed over to the mining giant Vedanta. 

The recent RTE row in the state and resistance that followed certainly exposes the design discrimination on the part of the state. The learning is that even if laws like RTE are passed, governments are least bothered to implement it with iron fist. The KUSMA body when refused to implement the scheme, and went on a week long strike, the state government which was well within the RTE law to take action against the body chose to overlook it.

On one hand the government has dilapidated its schools both in terms of infrastructure and teaching; leading to primary education becoming a tough job for the large section of the society. On the other hand, it has privatized the higher education at large. Recently in Karnataka, the BJP ruled government was on a drive in closing down schools that had fewer students; rather than resolving why the turnout is less.  Though, the government had plans to shut down more than 3000 schools, opposition from civil society forced them to bring the number down to 600. 

On the other hand, the schools run by private players who want to profit from the education business (hence RTE is not a good business) the clear indication sent by them is no entry for those who cant afford ‘quality education’. 

As Nayaz Pasha, an auto driver and father of the child Madeen Kausar (6 years) whose daughter’s hair was allegedly snipped by the Oxford management says, I was thrilled when I heard that through RTE even my daughter could afford a quality education. But looking at recent incidents, I am scarred to send my daughter; we may opt for government school now’’.

Karnataka boasts of getting nearly 45,000 students admitted under the RTE quota this year. But almost every second home that saw the RTE at play talks of some subtle discrimination, elitism or harassment. As RTE activist Yasir Mohammed points out, he spent more than two months convincing parents to send their children to private school, whereas convincing schools was next to impossible. Yasir says he approached nearly 18 schools to implement the RTE act, apart from 3-4 schools; the rest gave a cold shoulder. `` They did not entertain us, some even called the police’’ says he. 

RTE Kid whose hair was cut by Oxford Management School to separate Him from other Kids

Karnataka has a deep rooted sense of caste and the politics as such is here strictly caste driven, hence a duet of privatization and caste assertion goes hand in hand in the state. The caste root of the state certainly bring the fruit of discrimination may it be incident of cutting hair to differentiate or forcing lower class people to roll on the left over foods in temple or like in Mangalore, the Hindutva hot bed, where girl students wearing burkha are banned from coming to colleges. 

Take the case of upper limit of income in RTE act in Karnataka. Among Southern States, Karnataka has the highest upper limit for students to be admitted under the RTE quota. With the upper limit income of Rs. 3.5 lakh it beats even Tamil Nadu where it is Rs. 2 Lakh. In kerala only BPL card holders are eligible for RTE quota. This is certainly a critical point and consequently the deserving and deprived class will not get the fruit of this law. This is also argued that the government officials and employees will get the benefit of RTE and upper limit liberty.

The Oxford School management after two days of protest tendered an apology to all. However, the correspondent of the school, Ajith Prabhu clarified that there were hair cut of other students other than RTE children too, and it was done by a student of the first standard in the crafts class; while the teacher was busy drawing on the board. He also said that, there was no discrimination on the part of the school.

National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) however has asked the government to clarify on this issue. Taking cognizance, secretary of Karnataka primary and secondary education G Kumar Naik informed press that, they have initiated an inquiry and sought a report from zonal officers. However, even before the committee could inquire into the incident and bring out its report, minister for primary and secondary education Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri has cast aspersions on the dalit organisation ( Karnataka Dalit Samrajya Samiti) who helped in bringing out this issue. The minister on record has said that, the whole incident was created by the organization which had some problems with the management.

Box:

According to the District Information System for Education (DISE) data for 2011-12, the total number of government lower and higher primary schools (LPS and HPS) in Bangalore North is 511 and Bangalore South 891. The enrolment for Class 1 in government schools in these two divisions stands at 9,728 and 16,707, respectively, as on September 2011.

In contrast, the number of unaided private LPS and HPS schools in Bangalore North is 937 and 1,377 in Bangalore South. Class 1 enrolment in unaided schools in these two divisions, according to DISE figures, stand at 43,045 and 65,774.

If 25 per cent reservation is observed strictly in all unaided schools, the number of those currently going to government schools can be absorbed by the unaided schools over the next few years leaving the question of what will happen to the government schools then.

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Abdul Qaudeer- Ghost of a Communal Riot

Abdul Qadeer in his hospital bed. Pic by Imran Khan 

In 1990, a month after Lal Krishna Advani’s Rathyatra sent seismic shocks across India’s secular fabric, polarising it across the fault lines of communal identity, Hyderabad witnessed one of its deadliest riots. When the mindless slaughter and arson which started on December 8, were quelled four days later by the military, it left over 150 people dead.
Abdul Quadeer is one of the ghosts left behind by the riots.


It was in the early hours of December 12 that Constable Abdul Quadeer pulled out his gun against his superior ACP Sataiah and shot him dead at point-blank range. The Andhra Pradesh Government argued in court that Quadeer was a communal fanatic and demanded the death sentence for Quadeer. The judge did not buy the state’s evidence of a communal motive but in his judgement sentencing the 29-year-old ex-policeman to ‘life imprisonment’, chose to remain silent on Quadeer’s motive for shooting Sataiah from behind during patrol duty in the riot-torn Old City in Hyderabad.


Speaking from a bed in Gandhi hospital in Hyderabad, Abdul Qadeer, says paradoxically, that he did it to uphold the law. “What I did, I did it, in the interest of saving innocent lives. The police was firing on innocent Muslims. They were doing the rounds and shooting down people of one community. It was criminal and against the law, what they were doing,” he said. Looking much older than his 49 years, Quadeer, who is undergoing treatment for diabetes and hypertension, does not know that doctors at the Gandhi Hospital has advised amputation of his left leg.


Qadeer who has spent 22 years in prison had to undergo the pain of watching his four children (two sons and two daughters) grow up without their father. He was barely four years into his marriage with Sabira Begum (40) when he was incarcerated . Consigned to a life with nothing to cheer about, she laments the additional burden of raising her four children on her own. “My husband suffers from various ailments diabetes, blood pressure, and mental depression. He has already served his sentence, then what is the point of keeping him now?,” she asks.


In the inflamed communal atmosphere that polarised the state after the Babri Masjid
demolitions, Qadeer says he was severely tortured in jail and that the injuries he received from torture and maltreatment is responsible for his present condition. Even after completing 14 years of his life sentence in 2004, both the government and the courts have refused to remit his sentence. The same year, the AP government blocked his release through a government order (GO). In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in a different case that it was up to the government to decide whether to release life convicts after 14 years.
However, in AP as well as in other states, life convicts are automatically released on
completing 14 years and it is only in rare cases that the government decides to prolong their sentences. Quadeer alleges that top police brass of the state is interfering with his release to punish him for killing one of their own.


Quadeer alleges that ACP Sattiah was in the pay of politicians who manufactured the
riots for their own gains and enforced and sustained it through the men in khaki. He says the officer used the police force to fire shops in Muslims neighbourhoods and often directly targeted Muslims men, women and children fleeing from Hindu mobs or goons hired by politicians. While the actions of an individual officer in those strife-ridden periods are impossible to establish, activists and political observers say that the police force in the state had definitely become communalised in the aftermath of the riots. Noted Human Rights activist and revolutionary poet Vara Vara Rao points out that, many of the top police officials turned to Hindutva openly after retiring from service. Rao cites the example of Aravind Rao, who post-retirement has started discoursing on Hindutva.


The then Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Dr. Marri Chenna Reddy of Congress was a champion of the Telangana movement. In 1990 he was sworn in as CM for the second time when the riots took place. Political observers and various news reports of this period declare the riots to be an insider job, particularly of leaders from the Rayalseema region. Marri Chenna Reddy himself went on record in the State Assembly and blamed a group within congress of triggering the riots to dislodge him. His ire was particularly directed at YS Rajashekhar Reddy, then a factional leader within the Congress party.


In 2004 when Rajashekhar Reddy came back to power, several convicts who had
received life sentences were released including several Naxalites, underwold don
Suri ( convicted in the Jubilee hills bomb blasts case) and arms smuggler Mohammed
Mujibuddin who was serving life for killing an IPS officer, says Lateef Mohammed
Khan, General Secretary of Civil Liberties Union. “The Muslim community had
demanded for Qadeer’s release; in fact the community had objected to Mujibuddin’s
release. Muslims are not able to understand why he is not being freed,” adds Lateef,
whose organisation has petitioned the president for Qadeer’s immediate release on
humanitarian grounds. Interestingly Mujibuddin, who is rumoured to have been released at the behest of Jagan Mohan Reddy, is now serving time for crimes committed after he was freed.


Members of the civil society also suspect that Qadeer is a victim of the politics within the various Muslim political parties that command the Muslim vote in the state. As Qadeer is a hero in the community, various political groups within the community are vying to take the credit of his release for their political benefit, says Lateef Khan. Fingers are being pointed towards the largest and most dominant Muslim party of the city All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM or MIM) which has 7 MLA's and Asaduddin Owaisi as MP. Critics point out that, MIM which is the coalition partner in the ruling state Congress government had earlier got several prisoners released on the basis of their support. However this time it is alleged, they have not shown much enthusiasm as different players are also vying for the release


MIM supremo Asaduddin Owaisi however rubbishes all these claims and terms them as propaganda on the part of his opponents. According to Owaisi, the MIM has been unable to secure Quadeer’s release as the police establishment is actively resisting it. He said “I am not the President of India that I enjoy such an authority over the government that I can get Qadeer released in one day. But it is not true that we are not trying, we raised this issue in Assembly, and made a representation to the Chief Minister to release him. But whenever we try to push for his release police leadership comes in between the consultations and reminds the government that he killed a police officer of higher rank. The police lobby is the biggest hurdle in his release.”

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Deconstructing The Defiance of Yeddyurappa

Last week, the BJP finally gave in to former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa’s 10 month-long campaign to unseat Sadanada Gowda and installed Jagadish Shettar as Karnataka’s 27th chief minister. Catapulted to power in August 2011 by the very Yeddyurappa, who has now orchestrated his exit (to block then rival Shettar from getting the top post), Gowda dutifully carried out the difficult mandate that he was entrusted with by the party high command and the RSS. Tasked with running a corruption free administration to off-set the enormous damage caused to the party by Yeddyurappa and the Reddy brothers, Gowda managed to run his government for 11 months without causing any embarrassment to the party. And he kept Yeddyurappa’s attempts at further embarrassing the party at bay by forming an alliance with Yeddyurappa’s adversary in the party, state party president KS Eshwarappa, and by mobilsing the support of his fellow Vokkaligas MLAs and a motley group of anti-Yeddyurappa legislators. But the RSS and the national leaders, who had promised to support Gowda through a full-term as the chief minister in return, have now unceremoniously gone back on their promise.

Yeddyurappa had issued an ultimatum of two weeks to the party leaders in New Delhi, demanding Gowda’s ouster. A group of nine ministers headed by Shettar resigned citing loss of confidence in the CM. They played the caste card deftly, accusing Gowda of running the administration under JD(S) supremo Deva Gowda’s orders. The JD(S) draws its vote bank mainly from the Vokkaliga caste to which the CM belongs. It was a smart move—with a double advantage. First, of dressing caste rivalry in the respectable attire of party interests, and second, of putting Gowda and the party high command in an indefensible position. Gowda had secretly sought the support of the JD(S), in case Yeddyurappa carried out his threat of splitting the party.

Yeddyurappa and Shettar belong to the Lingayat community, which forms 17 to 18 per cent of the state’s population. The BJP wave in the state in 2008 rode on the Lingayat’s backing as they voted in large numbers for the BJP when the JD(S) pulled out of a coalition government with the BJP, denying Yeddyurappa his chance to become CM. This was seen as the Vokkaliga caste’s betrayal to prevent a Lingayat from assuming power. After assuming the charge of the first BJP government in southern India, Yeddyurappa started weeding out Vokkaligas from the party top rung and installing Lingayats instead. While the BJP increasingly became a Lingayat party, the process was kept in check by a parallel centre of power by the Reddy brothers. Janardhan Reddy’s arrest by the CBI in the illegal mining case removed the only challenge to Yeddyurappa’s dominance in the state BJP. But the illegal mining and land grabbing scandals also forced Yeddyurappa to relinquish the CM’s post in July 2011.

By forcing the BJP to appoint Gowda as his successor, Yeddyurappa hoped to prop a puppet through which he could continue to run the government. The deal was that Gowda would step down when the public anger over Yeddyurappa’s misdeeds blew over. This is where Yeddyurappa miscalculated. The anti-corruption campaign that the BJP had launched against the UPA government in the 2G scam case made it difficult for the party to make Yeddyurappa the CM again without losing all semblance of credibility. After four rebellions against the party high command to get back the CM’s chair, Yeddyurappa finally realised that he could not persuade the national leaders, unless he was cleared of the corruption charges against his name. And after the Supreme Court ordering a CBI probe against him, there was little chance of Yeddyurappa’s return to power in the near future. With Assembly elections due by May 2013 he was faced with the prospect of the BJP heading for polls under Gowda’s leadership. So he had to find a compromise candidate who would be acceptable to both the Lingayats and the other elements in the BJP. The choice was his old rival Shettar.

Fifty six-year-old Shettar is a former advocate from Hubli in north Karnataka, and comes from a family of Jan Sangh activists. Shettar was the revenue minister during JD(S)-BJP coalition in 2006 and became the Speaker when the BJP formed the government in 2008. When the Reddy brothers rebelled against Yeddyurappa, Shettar entered the Cabinet as the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj minister. He has been fairly untouched by the successive scams that rocked the party over the past four years. The BJP high command, which also wanted a Lingayat mascot for the 2013 assembly elections, agreed to Yeddyurappa’s demand this time. However, the news of Gowda being asked to resign did not go down well the powerful Vokkaliga community, who form close to 17 % of the state’s population. They are now lobbying for the party’s president post for Gowda.

Gowda too has not been averse to playing the caste card. When Gowda returned to Bengaluru after submitting his resignation to Nitin Gakari in Delhi, a crowd of around 1,000 Vokkaligas gathered in his house to show their support. He told the assembled crowd that he would talk to the BJP leaders to address the ‘injustice’ that has been done to them.

In a sense, the BJP is only harvesting what it has sown. Throughout the late 80s and early 90s, the party steadily grew in the state because of Yeddyurappa’s charisma and his mass agitations centred on rural issues. The mass support extended to Yeddyurappa by the Lingayats formed the bedrock of the BJP’s vote bank. However, the leaders who built the party, including Yeddyurappa, Eshwarappa and the late VS Acharya were core RSS members willing to work within the larger ideology of the Sangh Parivar. But when the BJP came to power through operation Lotus, the mass poaching of Opposition MLAs, financed by the Reddy brothers in 2011, led to a split in the BJP. The new MLAs were less aligned to the ideology and hence less controllable by the RSS. Traditional caste loyalties were bound to play a stronger role in the long run.

After four years of ruling Karnataka and a slew of corruption scandals, the BJP still retains the Lingayat vote bank; but it works both ways. The BJP cannot hope to rule Karnataka if they ignore the sentiments of the community. When Yeddyurappa was holding the reins of the state; the community was patronised immensely; money and other benefits were doled out to powerful Lingayat mutts and institutions. Unsurprisingly, when Yeddyurappa found himself in the thick of corruption allegations, it was the mutts who rushed to his defence.

The Lingayats who enjoyed unparalleled dominance in government and administration under the BJP government, got their first jolt when Yeddyurappa was asked to step down by the party, after he was indicted in the Lokayukta report on the multi-crore mining scam. The second blow came when instead of a Lingayat, a Vokkaliga was made chief minister. Since Karnataka’s formation as a separate state, it has been a constant grouse of Lingayat leaders that Vokkaligas and other castes have managed to wrest important positions, including the CM’s post from them. The third blow was dealt when the Vokkliga community, which had so far identified itself with the Janata Dal (Secular), started rallying behind Gowda. In the year-long battle to ward of off Yeddyurappa’s rebellions, the RSS, the party high command and Vokkaliga MLAs extended increasing support to Gowda, raising alarm among the Lingayats.

When Gowda presented this year’s state financial budget, there were significant benefits doled out to mutts belonging to Vokkailgas and other castes. In reaction, the Lingayat mutts sent signals to the BJP national leadership of the community’s reservations if the party were to head for polls without a Lingayat at helm. To make sure that their message was received, the mutts even invited Sonia Gandhi for the 104th birthday celebration of the powerful Lingayat sect leader Sri Shivakumara Swami in April, indicating that the community was not averse to exploring other political options.

“We are quite happy with CM Sadanada Gowda’s performance. But keeping the Assembly elections in mind, we had to go in for a change of leadership,” a BJP national committee member said on condition of anonymity. The party is also banking heavily on Yeddyurappa for the general election in 2014, where the party thinks he can ensure more than 10 MPs for the BJP. But things may not work out as smoothly as the BJP anticipates.

“Caste polarisation in Karnataka is almost complete. And the winner would be one who can assiduously manage viable caste alliances with other castes of electoral importance. The outburst of the Vokkaligas would not hurt the political fortunes of the BJP since traditionally, the Vokkaligas have been voting for JD(S),” says Shiv Sunder, a political analyst. On a cautionary note, however, he says that the internal group fights will intensify. “In a possible four corner contest, such group fights will take a toll on the seats the BJP will get. But what could come to their rescue is the lethargy and unpreparedness of the Oposition and the infighting within the Congress. This may increase the number of photo finish constituencies and result in a hung assembly,” he concluded.

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RAW - India's External Intelligence - An Insiders Story

( Source- Outlook Magazine)

Just finished reading VK Sigh's insightful book on the working of one of the premier external Spy agency in the world. Though RAW was created late unlike its Pakistani counter part ISI in 1950's, it has managed to prove itself a formidabble force with in a short span of time. However, the author of the book laments that, much of its history is shrouded in secrecy, which even the senior most officers working for the organisation is not privy to. This is such a loss as the  agency' contribution, sacrifice and the efforts it took to secure  the nation from external threats will be never duly recognised. Its over 'unnecessary' stress towards secrecacy has left most of the citizens of this country from not truely appreacit it, laments the author. Whereas on the other hand other agencies like CIA, Mossad and MI5's history is quite well known to their public, including their higheracrchy and the structure of the organisation.


Since VK Singh, an earlier Signal Intelligence man from the army, the book mostly focuses on the SIGNIT in the RAW. Almost the entire book ( barring few chapters) is about this aspect and it gets a bit too technical for an uninterested reader. As owning to its over secretive nature and the author's short duration, there isn't worth any single interesting mention of any raw operation.


But the author finds ample ink to dwell on the red tapism within the organisation; making the reader wonder whether the imagined 'James Bond' type RAW operatives are infact your everyday idli sambar eating uncle Mururgan. With enough evidences and personal experinces, the author illustrates that rather than a toughie looking, risk taking, go-getters; RAW is a top heavy, bloated and highly bureaucratic organisation. Though, the author commneds the work they have done, he inssts that, the organisation needs to become a lean machine and appoint more work personnel rather than secretaries.


Singh also touches on  the aspect of intra rivalry between  the several security agencies in India because of the overlap. And also, partially beacuse of no clear mandate, leading to intra fights and embarassment. He suggests a co-ordiantion organisation something like USA's NSA to hadle the intelligence coming from different agencies. But that might not be possible in the near future (since the IB wants to maintain its independent domain) leading to loss of intelliegence ( ex. Kargil ), says the author.


Accountability is one aspect the author stresses vigorously over the book. In fact, the entire books' premise is about how our intelligence agencies should be held accoutable. Failing of which, warns the author, our agencies are working like organisations in the totalitarian regimes.

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