Nuclear India at Crossroads!

To Nations existing in the Cold War era discovering the atom's secret  was a supreme aim as it signified arrival at the zenith of its power. It was  natural that newly independent India should accord top priority to this mission and leave no stone unturned in reaching its destination. In Dr.Homi Bhabha we had the right person to lead our nuclear programme which as we loudly proclaimed was only for peaceful purposes for we were then a civilisation living up  to the ideals of that apostle of non violence Mahatma Gandhi..In 1973  a nuclear explosion was conducted at Pokhran and I remember the Illustrated Weekly coming out with an issue titled 'Poor India joins the Nuclear Club'. For we were then on e of the first ten countries to have conducted a nuclear explosion. Pakistan Prime Minister Bhutto declared that even if his people had to eat grass they would do so for their country to join the atomic club. This invited sanctions from many countries and Canada denied us the heavy water required for the Trombay Atomic plant.

I'm sketching this history to point out the transition from an earlier state of affairs when ruling elites convinced their subject populations that atomic energy signified the height of their nation's prowess to the present times when the masses are up against their governments demanding a total scrap of nuclear programme stating that it no  way helps the ordinary folks. this began with a spate of nuclear accidents starting at Three Mile Island  in USA. Chernobyl in Russia exposed the helplessness of might governments when a nuclear reactor decides to run riot. The latest of these at Fukushima in Japan was relayed in to millions of homes through the revolutionary transformation in communication systems and alerted people of their sheer vulnerability in the event of a nuclear accident which could transcend barriers of nature and time in minutes.

It was in these troubled times that India's Planning Commission formulated, in 2006, an Integrated Energy Policy to create capacity to generate 63,000 MW of nuclear power by 2032. This was after the Congress Govt signed a nuclear deal with United States in July, 2005.It was decided to import 40.000 MW's worth of Light Water Reactors which would cost about Rs.8 lakh crores at current prices. All this was done without any transparency as Nuclear Policy in India is not subject to parliamentary scrutiny in the way other departments of government are.

The ongoing agitations against a nuclear plant at Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu and  one to be set up at Jaitapur in Maharashtra show that people have strong doubts about the safety, integrity and requirement for such projects.The  state responded to these protests in a repressive manner and even the courts could offer little solace. The agitation and the repression are continuing while writing this and it is too early to predict what prevails.

P.V.NARASIMHA RAO - Victim of Dynasty Rule!

'P.V. Narasimha Rao, whose 91st birth anniversary was marked last week, came from a humble home. His intellectual centre was India. Unlike Nehru his knowledge of Sanskrit was profound. His speech on Mahatma Gandhi at UNESCO on May 11, 1995 was a masterpiece. One has only to read his address 'India's Cultural Influence on Western Europe since the Age of Romanticism' given at Alpach, Austria on June 19,1983 to realise that PV was a man of learning, a scholar, a linguist and a thinker of the first order. His roots were deep in the spiritual and religious soil of India. He did not need to Disocver India'.
I am quoting K. Natwar Singh , diplomat and former Foreign Minister. ( The Hindu, July 2, 2012).

PV as he is fondly referred to had his failings as a political leader and head of government but his grand vision for India and its people is what redeems him from his shorcomings and make us look back at the person and  his times with nostalgia and fondness. He was the first Prime Minister from outside the Nehru-Gandhi clan and  proved to us that India could be ruled ably by a man who did not hail from its premier  political dynasty or had to look up to it for political survival. The economic reforms initiated under his leadership have been praised and criticised but the final word of their impact is to be evaluated by future generations. We are too close to the event. But PV displayed boldness to depart from ritualistic adherence to empty ideological systems and dealt a final blow to many vested economic interests.  I often wish he lived for a few more years in good health which would have allowed him to actively participate in public affairs.

Chemical Warfare in Kerala!

V.S.Achuthanandan, Chief Minister of Kerala, leads a day's fast, at Martyrs Column, Trivandrum, seeking nation wide ban on Endosulfan.

Endosulfan is an effective pesticide used by farmers against pests likely to destroy their crops. It is said to be cheap and affordable to farmers belonging to marginal and low income groups owning small and medium farm holdings. It also comes in dirt cheap for big farmers owning large tracts of land where economies of scale are in operation.
The use of Endosulfan is found to cause harmful effects to humans and biodiversity and hence many countries prohibit its production and use.Perhaps the absence of a cheap and effective alternative made India overlook these hazards and continue with the use of Endosulfan. Today, one of the major producers of Endosulfan is the Government of India owned Hindustan Insecticides Limited.
The Plantation Corporation of Kerala is a state government owned undertaking formed to accelerate agro-economic development. Cashew farming is one of their major occupations and the Company owns and manages cashew farms in Kasargode, the northern most district of Kerala. To protect its cashew crops the Company decided to opt for aerial spraying of Endosulfan using helicopters. It was to be supplemented with manual pumping. This practice started in the 1970's and continued up to the early years of this century.
The sudden appearance of deformities in many new born babies and disorders in their central nervous system puzzled doctors and the public. Concern on this count led investigators to the presence of high levels of Endosulfan in soil, air and water in the area. Levels of Endosulfan in human blood were found to be many times higher than the maximum residue level of Endosulfan in water.
Indiscriminate aero spraying of Endosulfan over long peiods of time led to this situation. Chemcals got mixed with water bodies and were consumed by humans. Even if one accepts the Industry's side of no evidence being available regarding occurrence of genetic diseases from other parts of India where Endosulfan is used, it cannot be denied that aerial spraying is vastly different from manual application .
This aerial spraying which can be compared to chemical warfare resulted in large quantities of Endosulfan being deposited in the water bodies, soil and atmosphere of the area. Humans and animals were affected by this contaminated water and air and the rich biodiversity of the area disappeared.
It took years for the conscience of the public of this politically active state to be shaken and help and succour to reach the afflicted. NGO's working in the field of environment and health were responsible for this awakening. Sri.V.S.Achuthanandan as Chief Minister and earlier as Leader of the Opposition was deeply concerned about this issue and sympathetic to the plight of the victims.
Today it is the focus of attention at the national and international level. Demands are made that India support Endosulfan ban at the Stockholm conference on Persistent Organic Pollutants. The government has resisted this. It is also suggested that Tribunals be set up to decide on the quantum of compensation to be paid to the victims.
The 'polluter pays' principle is the cornerstone to determine legal liability in such situations. It is not denied that aerial spraying through helicopters and manual pumping caused damage to plant and animal life, killed hundreds and to thousands being born with genetic problems which has led to their leading lives of untold misery.
The Plantation Corporation of Kerala is the polluter and they should bear the costs of compensation to the families of those who died and rehabilitation and treatment of the unfortunate surviviors. The entire assets of the Corporation should be utilised for this.
In such a grave offence it is important that criminal liability be established. The officers and directors of the Company who conducted aerial spraying whould be made to stand criminal trial.They are guilty of 'culpable homicide not amounting to murder', a charge the CBI is now trying to invoke against the accused in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Case.
The Officials of the Plantation Corporation can only be compared to Nazis who killed Jews in gas chambers. They deserve no mercy or repreive. To facilitate payment of compensation and fixing of criminal liability, the Government should enact a special legislation.
To let the guilty go scot free is to render meaningless the values and ideals that the people of this country hold dear to their heart.

Dr.Jayaprakash Narayan on electoral reforms!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Shashi Tharoor - Run Out!

Shashi Tharoor's resignation from the Council of Ministers closes an innings in Indian politics. Tharoor was a poor batsman. His performance fell short of his promise. His stay in a 5 star hotel in Delhi, albeit with own funds to the tune of Rs.50 lakhs, wasn't ideal for a Minister who claims tall to be the change he wants in the world. His tweets attracted attention and controversy but they didn't end to his advantage.

The proverbial last straw was the latest round of auctions for IPL Cricket teams.

Tharoor shouted from rooftops of his role in binging IPL cricket to Kerala and a team for his home state. He was proud of his association with the Kochi team as 'Mentor' and all was well. The beans started spilling when Lalit Modi, the IPL Commissioner, revealed in a tweet that a certain Sunanda Pushkar held sweat equity worth Rs.70 crores in the team Tharoor happened to be mentoring.

All hell broke loose in media and Parliament while Tharoor failed to convincingly explain his association with the Kochi team as 'Mentor', his association with Sunanda Pushkar as fiancee and sweat equity being awarded to her. Even at the time of his resignation, many things remain a mystery.

Were Tharoor more transparent, this ignoble exit could have been averted. That he couldn't, confirms suspicions, there is more than meets the eye!

Free Anand Jon!

'Out of sight,Out of mind', the adage pierced my senses last evening when a call came from Shashi Abraham, mother of Anand Jon. In the last many months, attending to the routine, unimportant bsuiness of life, Anand Jon receded from my consiousness and I felt a prick of conscience talking to his mother. I was one of the early birds to express my solidarity with Anand Jon for it was clear he was on trial for charges that were false and trumped up. I hoped the trial court would see this and declare him 'not guilty'. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Anand's trial got vitiated by many external factors and ended in his being sentenced to 59 years in jail. Not having read the judgment of the trial court, I won't comment on it. Judicial veridcts, in civil society, are sacrosanct and our earnest belief is that they are pronounced by the Judge in a fair and independent manner. However, even without reading the judgement, from familiarity with the facts of the case and the events connected with it, I am sure, the verdict indicting Anand Jon leaves a lot of questions unanswered and issues unexplained. Anand was a victim of racial prejudice and of his own professional success, to say the least. The judgement does not succeed in allaying these suspicions which is why the movement to free Anand Jon remains vibrant, growing and active. The people associated with it are fair and honourable citizens who don't want to be identified as supporting a sex offender or criminal. That they risk their reputation in continuting to lend support to Anand is a testament to their faith in in his innocence and protest at a free and fair trial being denied to him. I hope the Judiciary and the Government of the United States of America will heed demands arising from civil society the world over and ensure justice to Anand Jon. The Indian Government should sincerely do whatever it can in this matter.

Micro-level Conflicts

Scanning Page 11 of New Indian Express dated Jan 11th, Monday, brought these news items to my notice:

a)Strained relations between Malays and ethnic Chinese and Indians that the country is being Islamised resulted in firebombs being thrown at many Christian churches. Authorities described these as pranks and not organized attacks for they caused only minimal damage.

b)The town of Rosarno in Southern Calabria region of Italy witnessed clashes between immigrant labourers from Sub-Saharan Africa and locals. The immigrants, mostly fruit pickers, were protesting about the appalling living conditions and low wages, while the locals wanted them thrown out of the country.

c)Analyzing data of survey conducted in Britain, David Voas, Prof of Population Studies, Manchester University pointed out that majority believed the multi-cultural experiment had failed, there was increasing opposition to Islam than to any other religion and those surveyed were even willing to limit the freedom of speech to contain religious extremism.

These news items makes me aware that many micro-level conflicts are happening around the world.They centre around geographically small areas and small populations. Unfortunately, they don’t receive the notice they deserve. Our entire attention is captured by major conflicts like Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and so on. Is it a conspiracy of big media and big governments to entrench themselves?. Ultimately, our maturity in tackling and resolving micro-level conflicts will go to determine how safe the world will be for future generations.

Read Seneca - Prithvi Theatre!

While in Mumbai last week, I couldn't resist checking out Prithvi Theatre. 'ART' by Poor-box productions was on in the evening. It's a play that won wide acclaim and enjoyed watching it. Followed up with Irish Coffee at Prithvi Cafe.

Buzzintown published my jottings on the play and its link is provided here:

http://www.buzzintown.com/mumbai/article-review_arguing-the-sake-arguing--id_936.html

Kovalam Literary Festival

The third day of the Kovalam Literary Festival turned out to be one of those occasions when performance falls short of the promise. The organizers though are not to be blamed. Perhaps situations beyond their control caused it. Shobha De failed to turn up and the first session of reading and questions by her became a cropper. The South African writer Rozena Mart who was to speak on Apartheid Literature couldn’t make it to the festival. Amitabh Kant, a senior bureaucrat in the Tourism Ministry also didn’t turn up to make readings and presentation on tourism in India. All this was disappointing but it was partially made up by the other speakers and through the endearing presence of Nanditha and Om Puri making the discussions vibrant and humorous .

Sunny weather makes blue seas off Kovalam a feast for the eyes. The festival was blessed with clear blue skies and the view of the sky and the sea from the conference hall of Taj Green Cove was magnificent, keeping you on high. The third day’s session began with rendering of poetry by Chandrakanta Muratsingh, Korobok poet from Tripura. The poems were rendered in Korobok with translation in English. It was nice to hear a poet from the North-Eastern corner of India reciting his poems in the South-West tip of the country. It gave a glimpse of the vastness and variety India truly boasts of.

Following it were readings by young Indian writers. Ira Trivedi, pretty and smart, full of energy and vivacity that took her to the reckoning in the finals of the Miss India contest read out from her book ‘The Great Love Story’. The excerpt on the life of an Indian girl in the United States and her partying and meetings with boy friends were marked by the cultural shock that happens when two traditions encounter .. The moment when the doctor informs her of her pregnancy and her tremendous effort to comes to terms with it are portrayed by Ira in graphic detail. Passages from the book she is writing are about the experiences of an 18 year old girl dying of pancreatic cancer. Ira writes this from personal experience, having spend time with the girl and seen her come to terms with her death which is imminent. Her description of the ‘divergent cell’ that causes cancer in the body and the thousands of healthy cells that fight this wayward cell are told in the form of a battle. Ira took questions from the audience and when asked as to choose between commercial success which her books have been and critical acclaim she replied in a lighter vein that it will be nice to have them together. Becoming more serious, Ira said that in life, grass appears greener on the other side and it is normal to yearn for what you do not have.

Ira was followed by Mathew Menacherry, a Keralite born and brought up in Mumbai. Mathew who is the grandson of the eminent Malayalam
writer and critic, the late M.P.Paul read out passages from his book ‘Arrack in the Afternoon’. It is the story of life in the setting of Mumbai and Mathew surprisingly describes the bar dancers and their approach and outlook towards their customers with great scientific precision. Mathew remarked that a lot of research had gone in to the writing . His descriptions of a Malayali Christian couple and their failed attempts at copulation on the first night bordered on the hilarious. This he said, emphatically, was not autobiographical. Mathew was candid enough to admit of a hangover from bacchanalian revels of the previous night and this lead to comments on dangerously rising levels of liquor consumption in Kerala.

Anuja Chauhan, author of ‘The Zoya Factor’ is an advertising professional and she brought all the charm and fizz of her profession on stage. Dimunitive, dressed casually with a beautiful necklace, she sat cross-legged on a chair, comfortable and at ease with herself and read passages from her book as though she were reading out bedtime stories to her children. The film rights of Zoya Factor, she announced, is brought by Red Chilies Entertainment. Anuja tells the story of life in a world of glitz and glamour, of cricket, advertising, movies, of astrology and luck It’s a make believe world Anuja has seen at close quarters. Anuja narrated her efforts at writing, caught between the demands of a high profile job in JWT and her responsibilities as a wife and a mother.

Palash Mehrotra author of ‘Eunuch Park’, sub-tittled ‘Stories of Love and Destruction’ made a sober difference. Deeply read and with fine intellectual tastes he is a product of Doon School, St.Stephen’s College and Balliol College, Oxford. In Palash’s stories, the protagonist is a distant figure, reflecting on events and incidents. One of the stories he read out was of life in a small –town and its Christian missionary school. The moralistic position one is forced to assume by life in small towns is vividly described in his stories. To my question, Palash pointed out that life in small towns is claustrophobic and there is very little space to dissipate one’s energies, something available in abundance in big cities.

Anita Jain breezed on stage brimming with confidence that literary success and fame brought her. Dressed in black top and skirt she seemed business-like in an American sense and proceeded to read out from her book ‘Marrying Anita’ which describes her and her parent’s search for a groom in India. Anita said it was a confessional book though her confessions were timid by American standards but shocking in India. Anita did her schooling and college in the United States and lives in India while her parents continue to reside in the United States. She read out passages describing her visit along with her parents to her maternal aunt’s house in Meerut and meeting her married first cousins after a gap of 18 years and exchanging notes . She also read out another passage where she invites a Sikh friend to her apartment and their first kiss. .Anita stated that her intention was to portray the fast changes in metropolitan India in the course of her search for a husband. Anita was told from the audience that parts of her book could be exaggerated as in urban and semi-urban India, women are free to go out, search for partners, find them and enter in to matrimony with the consent of parents and the larger family.

The post-lunch session was a talk by Prof. Sanjay Srivastava on ‘Streets, Footpaths, Gated Communities – The Cultures of Indian Pornography’. Prof. Srivastava teaches Sociology at the Institute of Economic Growth in New Delhi. The well-researched talk was aided by slide presentations. Sanjay pointed out that pornography creates in the mind of millions of Indian males, images of the sensual woman they like to aspire for but is unattainable and unavailable. There are also ideas of a true sexuality which has to be found and failing which a man’s life remains unfulfilled. The sensual woman is white, upper class and represents in their minds, modernity. Sanjay dwelt on the explicit sexual discussions held in the columns of women’s magazines, both English and Hindi. He also referred to the badly printed magazines with pornographic tales sold on streets by small time vendors along with other magazines which exhort readers to lead ideal lives. He also spoke of gated communities where women could swing between modernity and tradition. He narrated how Karva Chauth would be observed along with drinking and dancing for Diwali parties. Prof. Srivastava has done a lot of research in his topic from a sociological viewpoint and his findings and conclusions need to be discussed more seriously.

Suresh Kohli the veteran documentary film maker was present to show his documentary on Kamala Das, the eminent writer who died recently. The women writers who read their works in the morning session stayed away from viewing it. I would say it was disrespect on their part. Kamala was an endearing person and I still cherish the moments spend in her company. Though Kamala was a bi-lingual writer, the film was restricted to her writing in English. The film was shot in the last years of her life, when she embraced Islam and started wearing Muslim dress. The frail Kamala had stopped moving out of her apartment and the entire shooting had to be done indoors. It was a poignant moment when Kamala says that she made a dinner of her past and invited all to come and share in its food and wine . It was perhaps an understatement of the anguish and suffocation she had gone through. Kamala ‘s literary life beginning with her first collection ‘Summer in Calcutta’ and comments of othe r poets like Keki Daruwalla are included in the documentary. Suresh Kohli has done a wonderful job and his work deserves a far wider audience.

With this curtains fell on the second Kovalam Literary Festival and a word of appreciation is due to Binoo John and his wife Rebecca who worked untiringly to make it a success. They did a wonderful job and in my view they should continue to organize the Third Festival in similar manner and in the same venue that the first two were held..

Kovalam Literary Festival

The Second Kovalam Literary Festival was held at the Taj Green Cove, Kovalam from Oct 7 to Oct 9. The organisers aim to make it a very prestigious event in the years to come. Taj Green Cove where the festival was held provides an ideal ambience to the whole event. The inaugural session of Oct 7th was a brief meeting in the evening while a splendid sun set against the backdrop of the Arabian Sea! Buzzintown.com published my account of it and here's the link : http://www.buzzintown.com/bangalore/article-review_great-poetry-needs-good-readers--id_873.html

My write up of day two of the litfest also got published on the same site and the link is being provided: http://www.buzzintown.com/bangalore/article-review_voices--dissent-myanmar--id_874.html

'Bharat' Murali and the aesthetic experience!

Bharat Murali, the gifted Malaylam cine actor and stage personality died last night. He left us at his prime , 55 years, and rightly had many more years to live . He was Chairman of Kerala Sangeet Natak Akademi at the time of his death. In 2002, his acting in the film 'Neyythukaran' won him the National Award for the best actor in India. My last meeting with Murali was in the Senate Hall in Trivandrum when we were there to pay our last respects to the writer Kamala Das. Little did I imagine that my next visit to Senate Hall will be to pay my last respects to him. Some months ago, while chatting on a cosy evening ,he made me recite Macbeth:
To-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale,
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
The theatre actor in him loved Shakespeare and these lines moved him. Murali was deeply touched when I told him of my mother's remarks about an article he had written. On every occassion we met after that, he would inquire of her and ask me what she was reading .
Murali was not merely an actor who gave his best performance. He went beyond the performance to unveil the basics of the aesthetic experience that makes art so appealing to the human mind. This led him to the Kashmiri thinkers who lived and thought over this many centuries ago. He was astounded at how they could reach such solid conclusions and was always inquiring about the processes that enabled them. Abhinavagupta was, according to him, the most prominent of the lot. He read them seriously and often would ask me to spend time to read and understand their works.
The recent advances in neurosciences which led to path-breaking research on the neural basis of aesthetics attracted his attention. Murali would affirm this research was only a confirmation of what these great Kashmiri thinkers on aesthetics intuited centuries ago. 'Phantoms in the Brain' the wonderful book by Dr.Vilayannur Ramachandran, the famous Indian neuroscientst who lives and works in the United States influenced him deeply. He was confident that neuroscience would soon read out to us the workings of the human mind as it appreciated all forms of art. Murali drew parallels between the writings of the great Kashmiri thinkers on aesthetics and Dr.Ramachandran. He felt it was the continuance of a great Indian tradition. This led him to invite Dr.Ramachandran to visit Trivandrum and deliver a talk on the subject. The picture of Murali, on the podium, welcoming the great neuroscientist and explaining to a rapt audience on how and why the human mind gets drawn to all forms of art is deeply etched in my memory. Not even his greatest characters on stage or screen can surpass that image!

Thoughts on a Suicide!

A colleague commited suicide last Tuesday, the 21st of July. He hanged himself in his office late that evening. It was a holiday for in our part of the world Hindus perform rituals by the sea and rivers to honour their ancestors. He did all the rituals for his ancestors in the morning and returned to his office where he remained all alone through out the day. In a note he has mentioned that he's taking his life and no one else is responsible for it.

A lawyer known for his integrity he was the District Government Pleader and Public Prosecutor at the time of his death. Under India's Civil and Criminal Procedure Code's it is a vital position in the administration of justice at the district level.

Though my senior in age and experience we enjoyed a comfortable relationship as a host of incidents and circumstances brought us close, personally and professionally. From that vantage point, I can see no reason why he should commit suicide. Yet, he did! Why? One can only speculate!

Is a person's decision to take his life an act on the spur of the moment, done abruptly and without forethought? Or is it done after deep thought and reflection? Does the situation, more important than the disposition of the person , trigger it?

I would link this incident to what happiness researchers like Martin Seligman and his colleagues say about the mental health of lawyers. Though their research was done in an American context, its findings can be applied in all countries. The study found that lawyers were the most highly paid professionals in the United States but the rates of depressive disorders, illegal drug abuse, alcoholism and divorce (even in women) were disproportionately higher than in any other profession or occupation. Lawyers are trained to foresee what might go wrong for their clients in every situation and defend them from it. This pessimistic outlook is a great professional asset but the danger is it seeps in to personal life and wreaks havoc. Along with it, the shift in emphasis on legal practice from good counsel about justice and fairness being the primary good to making it a big business turns lawyers more and more unhappy.

An Evening at Prithvi Theatre!

Prithvi Theatre in Juhu, Mumbai, is a place of pilgrimage to drama lovers the world over. A love of theatre makes me check out Prithvi whenever I am in Mumbai. Prithivi Cafe and Samovar are my favourite haunts as it is to many. Last week, while in Mumbai, I took time off to watch the late evening show of 'Grey Elephants in Denmark' at Prithvi. The play in English on the lfe of Vinay Iyengar, the youngest of the Palangad Iyengars, a traditonal family of magicians is well scripted and acted out. It depicts the transformation of young Vinay at different stages of life and as he travels the world and encounters others of his tribe. His monologues, his discussions, his cousin Anita, herself a magician, describing him, are all quite fascinating to keep the audience spell bound. Vinay is frustrated when he discovers the 'willing suspension of disbelief' of the audience that enables a magician's stage performances to be successful. From 'sleight of hand to sleight of mind' is how he describes his transformation and growth. Vinay's realisation of his limits as a magician and the attempts to overcome them are the 'mis-theme' of this play and they are depicted through him and through people close to him. Whether they are futile or successful is left to the the viewer. Leaving the final question unanswered and to the viewer to interpret is ultimate achievement in art and the playwright has 'mis-directed' it with great skill.
After the play I went backstage and congragulated the actors.Without their tremendous effort and hardwork the play could not have been acted out so well. They even had to master some magic. May 'Out of Context' present us with more such gems.

Trivandrum Golf Club and an encounter with Shashi Tharoor!

Pic - An emergency ambulance at the trivandrum golf club - signs of troubled times?

I wrote in this blog, two years ago, (http://shajikrishnan.blogspot.com/2007/06/in-greens.html) , of my introduction, to the lovely game of golf. In May 2007, I became a Member Elect of the Trivandrum Golf Club. In 2008 December, I was made a Member. The guidance of expert coaches helped me grasp the fundamentals of the game. I am regular in my golf and enjoy it.
The Trivandrum Golf Club found itself in the eye of a storm in 2008, when on May 30th, the Government of Kerala decided to resume ownership of the 25 acres of land and buildings in its possession. . The obvious reason cited was that the 25 acres of prime land and facilities within it were being enjoyed by a handful of people for their private pleasure and the public at large are denied access. The incidents connected with this action of the Government became subject of a legal and political controversy, the ripples of which are yet to die down . The High Court of Kerala quashed the orders of the Government on procedural infirmities but permitted appropriate action to be taken in compliance with the rules. Government is going ahead with taking over the land of the golf club and a protracted litigation is in place. Unfortunately, the public perception of clubs as places of exclusivity where the elite rub shoulders is yet to change and the Trivandrum Golf Club found very little support even when the government’s actions were arbitrary and heavy handed.
The above narration is only to give the reader a better understanding of the events of 22nd March 2009. The Extraordinary General Meting of the golf club was held at the club house that evening to consider two alterations to be made to the bye-laws and approve of the budget for 2009-10. The President, Mr.P..M. Abraham, was in the chair and the items on the agenda unanimously approved by the 36 members in attendance. Pity that in a club with 600 members, hardly a handful turn up .
Immediately after the meting was adjourned, a gentleman took the stage and mentioned that members of the Club should exercise their franchise in the Parliament Elections of 2009 to register their protest at the state government’s action towards the golf club. A second person ,in more explicit terms, said that members should use their clout to defeat the candidate of a particular political party bent on taking over the lands of the club The President of the Club was a voice of sanity when he stated that voting should be left to the individual choice and Club should seek recourse to legal remedies. . Unfortunately, many members refused to tow this line. I was in a minority when I said that though the actions of government were arbitrary and illegal, it is improper to use the club, even informally, to plan and discuss political action or retaliation. As responsible citizens of this country, club members ought to focus on graver issues facing the nation and not be myopic.. My comments invited a harsh reaction from the Secretary who categorised me a ‘new comer’. I still don’t get its implications.. Is a new comer not supposed to dissent.? Or is he not allowed to express his views in a meeting? Over the last two years, I went through the metamorphosis of being a Member-Elect, a Candidate member and finally a Member. Karl Marx's insights on the bourgeois patterns of thought are relevant in many contexts.
In the midst of all this it was announced that Shashi Tharoor, the Congress candidate from the Trivandrum Parliamentary Consitutency will be reaching the Club. The Congress Party is in the Opposition in Kerala where the Communists are at the helm of government. Mr Tharoor, who is a Honorary Member of the Golf Club, . arrived and spoke of the need for Trivandrum to grow in to a global city and secure recognition internationally. Some listeners were impatient and couldn’t wait to hear him out. They interrupted to ask his views on the Government’s resumption of ownership of the lands of the Club. Dampening their enthusiasm, Mr.Tharoor stated that the Club is regarded in the surrounding community as a exclusive zone with facilites being monopolized by a few hundred members. There must be a attitude change on the part of the members too, he said.. Mr. Tharoor agreed that in a city, facilities for leisure and recreation, like golf courses are necessary and what exists should be preserved. . Mr. Tharoor minced no words when he said ‘there is an egalitarian streak in Kerala society and you are on the wrong side of it’. Thanks, Mr. Tharoor for a sober response.
It’s often said ‘a politician thinks of the next election, a statesman thinks of the next generation.’ Mr.Tharoor displayed statesmanship during the few minutes he spend at the golf club. Sorry, Mr.Tharoor, that I can’t help you in this election.. The ‘egalitarian streak’ you mentioned in passing, is a contribution of the Left movement in Kerala, built through heroic struggles spanning many decades of the last century and I trace my roots to it.
But my respect for you as an individual has been built by our first encounter in the golf club and it will always be there. If the people of Trivandrum, elect you, I will only be happy to welcome you as our Member of Parliament .
Wish you all Success!

Is the Indian State anti-people?

Neerja Chowdhury in an edit page article titled ‘The decline of democracy’ published in the New Indian Express dated June 16, 2008 refers to two observations of a German student visiting India .

The first observation, ‘Delhi is not India’ ,though often repeated as to become cliché, is but a truth. In most countries, the national capital holds in a gist, the character and characteristics of the whole. But, in India, a foreign visitor who sees Delhi first and thinks it as India is in for a shock when he travels to other regions. So amazing and unbelievable is India’s diversity on all counts.

The second and more important observation made by our German visitor, says Neerja, is that while there is much hype of we being the world’s largest democracy, there is little evidence of democratic functioning in many parts of the country ------- be it in the police, local authorities, political parties and even families. Neerja cites numerous happenings in the week prior to her article as proof.

Excepting the fact that elections in India are conducted, by and large, in a free and fair manner, the ordinary Indian has been at the receiving end in the hands of the state apparatus. Large sections of Indian officialdom still consider it their birthright to lord over their subjects and put them to trouble and misery. The state is unresponsive and unyielding. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar bemoaned this in his writings when he stated that individual rights and personal freedom were alien concepts in India’s civilisational history. The Emergency of 1975 is a fine example.

The observation of the German student, confirmed by our experience, indicates that sixty years of being a Republic has not led to any attitudinal shift in the rulers over the ruled. Their mentality is fossilized in the colonial era with little prospects of change.

'Survival Mode'

This blog has been dormant for quite some time. My inspiration or creativity had died down. The feeling was nagging me that whatever I write may be imperfect, stupid or simply fail to reach up to the standard of my previous entries. I was in the dark on ways to escape from this dead-end till I read of a similar situation faced by my friend Katie in http://www.getfreshminds.com/2008/05/get-out-of-that.html. Like for her, blogging ,became for me 'just another thing that cluttered my already - lengthy to do list'. And from her blog I have learnt the way to bypass the overpowering feeling of being blocked or exhausted. Let me start writing again. Thanks a lot, Katie!

Justice J.M.L.Sinha - A Tribute

Justice Jag Mohan Lal Sinha, former Judge of the Allahabad High Court, died on Thursday at the age of 87. Many may not even have heard that name or might vaguely recollect it. But Justice Sinha goes down in history as one of the few judges who with a single judgement radically and dramatically altered the course of a nation or a people’s destiny. His judgement, delivered on June 12,1975, in the Rae Bareilly election case, where he declared as void the election of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to Parliament on the ground that she indulged in corrupt electoral practices, set off a train of events, political and social, beginning with the Emergency , the reverberations of which continue even today in the lives of generations born much later. Justice Sinha remains in my mind as a hero. So do two other people associated with that case, Raj Narain, the Socialist Party opponent of Indira Gandhi who filed the election petition and the redoubtable Shanti Bhushan, the lawyer appearing for the petitioner.
Yahoo contains an interesting report of Justice Sinha’s demise and I am providing the link : http://in.news.yahoo.com/indianexpress/20080322/r_t_ie_nl_politics/tnl-justice-sinha-who-set-aside-indira-g-0058794_1.htm
One more point must be stated. The rise of India’s opposition parties to political power after more than 30 years of unbroken Congress rule, in the Union and in many States, owes a lot to Justice Sinha’s judgement. Justice Sinha never attempted to cash in on this, something he could have easily done. He preferred life incognito after retirement. No further evidence is needed for his personal integrity and judicial urprightness.

N.B: In this context I should also pay my tributes to another fearless judge of those troubled times, Justice H.R.Khanna of the Supreme Court, who wrote the dissenting judgement in the preventive detention case which arose during the Emergency and was superseded for Chief Justiceship of the Supreme Court by Mrs. Indira Gandhi. He died hardly two months ago. The ‘New York Times; hailed Justice Khanna’s judgement in an editorial soon after it was delivered.

faceless Facebook?

The Goddess of Justice is blindfolded. This symbolizes Justice as strictly impersonal, unmoved by individual preferences. Facebook, the social networking site, is faceless when it comes to deciding on the fates of its users. Any user is free to report any other user and such reports are eagerly accepted at face value. The user against whom a report is made sees his account disabled forthwith. Any further inquiry with Facebook only elicits the mechanical response that Terms of Use agreed upon has been violated and the decision is final. No information is given on the nature of the complaint or the specific violation alleged as committed by the user. It is a harsh judgement, without trial, instantly dispensed, similar to that among Bedouin tribes. The guilty find themselves deprived of their contacts , the graffiti they draw, the pictures and messages they post, and the mails they receive with no access whatsoever. A trauma, barbaric in social terms, is inflicted on the hapless Facebook user. And the helpless individual user is left with no means to challenge Facebook. One patiently waits for a David who will match this Goliath. And going by the plenty of messages posted on the web alleging harshness, arbitrariness and unfair treatment from Facebook , I am sure the day is not far off when a David’s stone will fell this Goliath.

Disabled users of Facebook should’nt silently sit through the tyranny unleashed on them. They should network, share thoughts, discuss among themselves, and devise creative and innovative ways to face this injustice and expose the undemocratic and high-handed methods of Facebook. How about mounting a legal challenge to Facebook’s arbitrariness in US or European courts?

Michael O Leavitt

Michael O Leavitt, the US Secretary of Health, was in India to see for himself recent advancements in health care and the product facilities being developed. In an interview with ‘The Hindu’ he made two points worth pondering over.

Referring to the unsustainably high costs of health care in US ( in India too health care costs in the private sector is no different) he called for developing techniques to measure their quality and value. People should have access to information which enables them to compare the quality of health care they receive against its costs. In health care as in every other sector, says Mr.Leavitt, if people have information about the cost and quality, they will make choices that will drive the quality up and the costs down. A market based on value will emerge.

The second point he makes is on validating treatments and formulations from alternative and complementary systems of medicine. He says that the US National Institutes of Health have a centre that focuses on them. How different from India where there is very little interaction between modern medicine and the traditional systems, both of which occupy separate spheres and where the experts in each field encounter each other as adversaries in a battle!. Mr. Leavitt says that US policy is to take traditional systems of healing, understand it better, apply good science to it and apply it or use it. Mr. Leavitt mentions of the considerable time he spend in China looking at their traditional systems of medicine and his meeting with Mr.Chim, renowned in treating leukaemia , who successfully introduced arsenic in its treatment based on traditional practices.

The thrust on providing full information to users of health care and the positive approach to traditional systems of medicine being practiced the world over for centuries is proof that a change in approach, qualitative in nature, is taking place in health care in USA. The pace of change may be slow, yet the shift in emphasis is a welcome development. The United States should take the lead in integrating traditional healing practices with modern systems of medicine so that we gain the best of both. India's health administrators(and there's a surfeit of them) too should make sensible use of these suggestions of Mr.Leavitt.

An Yen for Narendra Modi

Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party has emerged victorious in the Gujarat state legislature elections. Their commanding majority proves that large sections of the voting population still repose trust in Modi and his party.

The print and visual media which loses no opportunity to highlight the Gujarat riots of 2002 holds Modi as the villain of the piece. The secular parties, Courts, Election Commission, intellectuals , artists, all of them, for various reasons, joined the Modi hunt in the last six years.
That their efforts have not yielded the desired fruits is evident from this result. If the people of Gujarat want Modi and the BJP and do not buy stories of the Modi baiters, it is time for them to introspect why they and their campaign did not impact on people’s minds.

It is not my case to prove that the Gujart riots were lesser in degree when compared with many other riots. The responsibility of the government to maintain law and order and protect the lives of its citizens is paramount. The Gujarat government of the day was found wanting in this respect. But haven’t many governments in India been so? To hound Modi using a specific incident is now a trend but doesn’t it turn out to be counter-productive over the long run?

The anti-Modi campaign has been shrill. The media helped its leaders bask in the limelight. They received support from a wide cross-section of the elite of Indian society. But they failed to build an organization, however clumsy it may be, to carry their message across to the millions of homes. The Gujarat results show that in a democracy, whatever may be the clout and prestige of the media, the elite and non-elected institutions, without an organizational network, doom awaits you. And building an organization demands much toil away from the glare of publicity.