Taste of their own medicine



In Kerala, on the Kochi-Aluva highway, you can see a dilapidated Apollo Tyres factory. The legend has it that the factory was the first tyre unit in Kerala opened 15 years ago, and within a couple of years, it was closed down due to an agitation by the worker’s union. Till date apparently no resolution had been brought on and – try to believe this – the workers are being paid part-salaries till today.

That is the way of communism working in India. If you had an opportunity to live in Kerala in the early 90s, you would have witnessed union rallies every week, which meant some or other business establishment was facing the brunt of the strike. Fearing this, many establishments kept out of Kerala. Today’s it is different they say and there are a lot of reasons to believe this. Even West Bengal must be different today considering the way Chief Minister Bhattacharya is so obsequiously pleading the Tatas to stay in Singur.

One of Jawaharlal Nehru’s dreams was to create powerful heavy industries in India. Today communism wants a private industry and Trinamool Congress does not. Weird are the ways of Indian polity.

However, the issue is not as straightforward. Singur agitation is not an entire manifestation of Mamta Banerjee’s vengeance. All over India, Special Economic Zones have faced massive agitations from the people because our governments have been brazenly ignorant about the plight of the rural populace. The governments have behaved like the feudal lords of yesteryears and have not hesitated to use force in evacuating the semi-literate, peasants out of their own lands. They have offered pittance to farmers for their land to be handed to the conglomerates and multi-nationals who would be making millions in future. This is not capitalism. This is tyranny and despotism.

Special Economic Zones are an aberration of our democracy and help only the ultra-rich and also our wily and stupidly arrogant politicians. That does not mean that industries shouldn’t flourish. They should but it should happen on its own efforts. For nearly forty years, politicians have tried to curb businesses and destroyed our economy. Today, politicians are trying to help business and destroying our societies. If business and society were to flourish they must keep their dirty selfish hands off the businesses.

For years, the communists have worked to stoke worker and farmer agitations. Karl Marx predicted that bourgeoisie capitalism will soon end and give way to proletariat self-rule. Today Marxism is recoiling by curbing the farmer’s agitation and helping a capitalist bourgeois.

Tata may stay in Singur or leave. Whatever they do, their financial loss is something that they can absorb. But the farmer’s who have lost their lands and livelihood can’t. And this is not communism. This is humanism.

Image sourced from: www.indiamike.com

Whither the War?

CNN IBN conducted a panel discussion that explored whether Modi has won the War on Terror. Three distinctly non-related panellists were made to discuss on what seems to be an irreverently biased topic. One of the specifically objectionable aspects was the the term 'War on Terror.' The Indian media and public often insouciantly use terms that are quite irrelevant to the context and this is clearly one of them.

War on Terror is essentially an international phenomenon emerged after 9/11. It is the term that actually wages 'war' on terror, which means conducting the battle on the states believed to be sponsoring or encouraging terror activities. Often these wars are preemptive. India has been bearing the brunt of terrorism long before 9/11 and we have never been waging any war on terror. Even if we were to reduce the term to the Indian context, we should be raiding terror camps, apprehend suspects, initiate economic restrictions on the organisations believed to be funding the groups, and proscribe religious institutions suspected of breeding grounds.

We are doing absolutely none of them. What we are doing is merely conducting investigations after every terror incident. It is nothing more than a crime investigation that the police do after a robbery or an accident. In no stretch of imagination can this be called a war. Besides, even the crime investigation is not carried out successfully. Quoting one of the panellists, of the last 11 terror incidents, not one person has been convicted so far. If this claim is true, then India houses one of the least effective police squads in the world. To deviate a little, if this is the attitude exhibited for crime investigations related to terrorism, it is dreading to think what happens to 'everyday' crimes like robbery or kidnap, or even casual murders.

Returning to main theme, to answer the main question of the panel discussion, Modi has not won the War on Terror because there was no such war. Modi has not even won the Investigation on Terror because there hasn't been any conviction yet. There have been arrests in the past too but the confidence can begin to develop only upon convictions.

Until then, India will remains a softest state on Terror. If anything, so far we are only waging the War of Words on Terror. We have – due mainly to communal politics of Sena and BJP, Lalu, Mulayam, etc. – been confusing minority rights with fighting terrorism. Somehow, we find a need to talk about protecting the minorities about every incident. We failed to realise that by doing this, we implicitly link a certain community with terrorism. Or at least this is how the people are going to understand. Instead of talking about minority rights, which has nothing to do with fighting terrorism, we need to make strong resolve to train our focus on the extremists.

The War on Terror is seriously long overdue and India has to kick-start it urgently. Investigations are for everyday crimes. The war must start before terrorism becomes an everyday crime.

Portrait of a government



Here is a quiz question. If you answer correctly, you get ten bonus points and get to participate in Kaun Banega Crorepati, if this game show is still running that is. Well, here's the question: Who is India's Home Minister?

If you have answered it correctly, you can go ahead and call the KBC helpline and that you're certain to get admitted. If not, never mind because you're one of the millions of educated Indians. The answer is Shivraj Patil, who quite mysteriously is turning out to be the quietest Home Minister India ever had. This is especially contrasting considering the vociferous Advani as the previous chair-holder. It is even more annoying when you think that he is sitting in a chair which people like Bismarck of India, Sardar Patel once adorned.

Here's why. One hasn't seen a single statement or action plan from Patil during and the aftermath of serial bomb blasts across India last week. One hasn't again heard anything when the agitation has spread violently across Jammu and Kashmir and now threatening to escalate into a full-scale nationwide riot. Perhaps he is in a Rip Van Winkle sort of slumber from which he would wake up a few years later to figure out that Kashmir has been split and many of the states in India are bombed to oblivion. He wouldn’t worry as he may not even have his portfolio then. This hyperbolical polemic perhaps is inappropriate. But the anger that caused it isn’t.

The brief reprise the Singh government had from the likes of yours truly due to successful progress with Nuclear Deal is fast erased by a gnawingly inactive state of affairs in every other department of governance exhibited. Kashmir had not seen such a worst crisis in 13 years. Neither has the economy. Terrorists playfully dangle bombs on the trees and shove them behind street hoardings, where men usually huddle to urinate discreetly. Wands of currencies are brandished like a sword in the middle of Parliament's hall as the bewildered public gawk at the degenerate demonstration of our glorious democracy. Kashmir has fallen hook, line and sinker to the fanatics of both the sects whilst threatening to take the state to partition days. If the camera-shy, indolent home minister has a least bit of respect left in him, he should resign. Or if the most educated prime minister has any, he must ask Patil to go.

Clinton once called Kashmir the most dangerous region in the world. Our government has proved him right. Kashmir is falling out of our hands. If delayed, much of India will.

Image sourced from: The Telegraph