Civil Society should go beyond Lok Pal Bill
Civil Society should go beyond Lok Pal Bill *By Sai Prasan *A nation-wide debate and discussion have intensified on the pros and cons along with the effectiveness of the proposed Jan Lok Pal Bill to check corruption in India. More and more experts are expressing their reservations on the Lok Pal Bill stating that it may override the democratic process and promote a centralized authority. The critics of the Lok Pal Bill have started saying that the proposed new office may contain corruption to an extent. But, it may not solve the root cause of the corruption which has been institutionalized after the introduction of the liberalisation in May, 1991. The globalization and liberalisation of the economy in the last twenty years have witnessed a steep rise in the corruption. The post-liberalisation has witnessed a culture of consumerism in the society which required a huge money. The language of money has overtaken all the good virtues for which the individual was respected in the Indian middle class society. The value of an individual was no more considered on the basis of his education or good behavior or conduct. The concept of `Simple Living; High Thinking’ has become outdated. The society while judging a person has started giving more emphasis on money, position and the materialistic goods that he or she possess. In this materialistic race, the people started aspiring to have new brands of cloths and shoes. The new brands of watches like Rolex, Swiss and Fastrack have replaced HMT, Blackberry has become more popular than the old handset Nokia. Similarly, in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector, the craze among people to possess the latest costly brands have gone up. Similar is the story in the motor-cycle and car segment where more and more newer brands have replaced the old ones. All this requires money. Huge money which is beyond the earning capacity of an average Indian. This has encouraged the people to acquire money by hook or crook where means does not matter. This growing consumerist culture is one of the main reasons for the growth of rampant corruption in the society, polity and economy. The liberalisation has turned everything commodity in the market. A saleable commodity. The privatization of two important sectors – education and health care – have further worsened the situation. The private English medium schools have mush-roomed both in the rural and urban areas. Even the rickshaw-wala and Paan-wala’s also prefer to send their sons and daughters to the private English medium schools for the primary and secondary education because it has become a symbol of social status. After the higher secondary education, the middle class send their children to the private owned Engineering, Medical and Management collages, if the student fails to get a seat in the state owned collages, where students need several lakhs to complete their education. The family life has become expensive for an average Indian. This has further necessaciated more money for the people which forced them to adopt abnormal means. The rise of the private sector has encouraged the corporate culture to flourish. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)’s corporate governance norms are just on paper. For the corporate world, the ethics and morality have become dictionary words in the rate race to earn profit. The employees working in the private sector have been trained how to get the work done by all means. If the company has to get any work done from a bureaucrat or the minister in the government, the executives have been given a brief that no matter how much money is spent, the work has to be done at any cost. This is how we have witnessed multi-crore mega scam 2G where the top company officials of various telecom companies including Reliance ADAG were involved along with the former Union telecom minister A Raja. Moreover, the leaders of the political parties also require money as the elections in the post-liberalised economy have become more expensive. The cadres of the political parties expect good food, liquor and daily allowances from the party leaders during the election time. Now, running a political party has more or less similar to running a corporate firm which involves cost. Monthly salaries and allowances. The use of a big time money was seen during the general elections and for the four state Assembly polls including Odisha and Andhra Pradesh in April, 2009. Andhra Pradesh was one of the states where the use of money was abnormal. The political parties pumped money in Andhra Pradesh to win both Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The MLA candidates in most of the Assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh had on an average spent around Rs 3 crore which is much higher than the limit fixed by the Chief Election Commission (CEC) office. So, one can image to what extent the MP candidates have spent in Andhra Pradesh to get success. The need of huge funds in the poll is another major reason
Re: About getting Rid of my caste and surname
*Dear Mr Amitabh Thakur now changed to only Amitabh, Glad to know that you have realised at the Age of 42 that annihilation of caste is important for the Indian society which Dr BR Ambedkar advocated 60 years back. But, only removing of title may not help much as Dr Ram Manohar Lohia said that the caste system has inculcated a different kind of mind-set among the upper and lower castes. The upper got egoist and arrogant and the lower caste developed frustration due to the 3,000 years old caste system. In fact, the realisation of caste system has come among the upper caste because of the Dalit assertion in Indian politics, for example the BSP rule in UP has forced the upper caste to realise the ill-effect of the caste system. Caste system is very old, it will take 10% time of its existence - 300 years - to wither away. I wish the Dalit-Tribal rule extend to all the states as well as at the Centre which can accelerate the decadence of the caste system in India. Wish you a good luck, Sai Prasan *=== On Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 8:56 PM, Amitabh Thakur amitab...@yahoo.com wrote: Friends, Today I made a formal Affidavit before the Oath Commissioner in Meerut whereby I have declared that considering the overall adverse and undesirable effects of Caste system in India, from today onwards, I shall be having no caste of mine. Thus, in all administrative, official and social documents, records and acceptances, wherever caste is needed,in my case it shall be deemed to be “No Caste” or “Caste-less”. I have also removed the “Thakur” surname attached to my name “Amitabh” so that henceforth I shall be called only “Amitabh” instead of “Amitabh Thakur” in all administrative, official and social documents, records and acceptances. At the same time, I shall also be working in my own little way towards the cause of a Caste-less society. How would my friends react to it? Amitabh Meerut Email: national-forum-of-in...@ozg.in
National Forum | Police harassing the RTI activists in Orissa [2 Attachments]
*Dear All, Please read the attached news clippings of the The Times of India dated Feb 23, 2011. The report shows how the police is harassing the RTI activists in the state. JVM condemns this incident and demands the state government to immediately suspend the concerned police officials and set up an enquiry committee to probe the incident. The police is claiming that the matter has been settled with the RTI activists which the later are denying the same. Regards, Sai Prasan Member JVM * -- Forwarded message -- From: Jyotiram Dash jrdash_...@yahoo.in Date: Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 2:32 PM Subject: Need your advice and suggestion to restore my dignity and self-respect Dear Friends On 14th of February 2011, I along with five others had been to Thakur munda Police station, Mayurbhanj, Odisha to collect some information as per the section 4(1b) of the Right to Information Act 2005. Not only we were denied the information but also severely humiliated by the Officer in-Charge (OIC) of Thakurmunda police station. The details are given below. We, the following signatories, volunteers and RTI activists belonging to Mayurbhanj district bring to your kind notice the following complaint seeking your urgent intervention and remedial justice. 1) That on 14.2.2011, we visited Thakurmunda Police Station to seek some information, which are supposed to have been proactively disclosed and kept ready for public inspection with effect from the 12th October 2005 as mandated under Section 4 of Right to Information Act 2005. On reaching there, we found the gate of Police Station closed. We informed the gate keeper about the purpose of our visit. Requesting us to wait, she went inside to consult the OIC and after a few moments she returned and opened the gate to ensure our entry to the premises of the Police Station. We went straight to meet Mr. Bhagawan Jena, OIC and appraised him about the purpose of our visit i.e., to get some proactively disclosed information under Section 4 of the RTI Act. The OIC suddenly got irritated and shouted at us saying that no information was available in his office and asked us to get out. We returned back from there in silence and empty handed. 2) Then, when we were on the way back, a police jeep carrying SOG Jawans reached at us and asked us to visit the police station again.The said jeep carried us also to the police station and the Jawans put us before the OIC, who immediately started hurling abusive words at us. When we enquired to know about the reason of his misbehaviour, Mr. Jena suddenly became furious and scolded us in an aggessive manner saying “bloody nonsense, you are bloody Maoists, I will teach you a lesson” and the like. Then he used these very words like “sala besi dekhei hauchha, netagiri dekhauchha” For one hour at a stretch he continued his unruly and abusive gestures and utterances against us. We were not allowed to open our mouth.We also could not understand why he dealth with us so savagely. 3) When the OIC was at the peak of his infuriated rage against the group of RTI users, Mr. Pradip Pradhan a prominent RTI Activist fromBhuaneswar and a Trainer cum Resource Person on RTI reached the Police Station accompanied by Mr. Jyotiram Dash of jagatsinghpur and Mr. Brahmanad Swain of Thakurmunda. When Mr. Pradip Pradhan was about to sit on a vacant chair, the OIC Mr. Jena started abusing him with vulgar language. His words were “You are a bloody nonsense; Who are you to sit here? Is it decent to sit before a police officer without permission? What is your academic qualification? How dare you to sit before me like this? When Mr. Pradip Pradhan started explaining him about the purpose of the visit and asked him to know about the arrangements made in the Police Station to provide the information under RTI Act, the OIC irritatedly retorted, ‘Why shall we provide the information? It is SP office, which should provide the information? Who are you to ask for information? and so on and so forth. The OIC also meted out similar kind of unruly misbehavour to Jyotiram Dash and Brahmanand Swain using abusive words and scolding them. The OIC also called the SOG Jawans to heckle Jyotiram Dash, but Mr.Dash vehemently protested against it. Still one of the SOG Jawans physically assaulted Jyotiram. After scolding and threatening the RTI activists for abut an hour to his fill, Mr.Jena the OIC’ asked us to leave the Police Station. 4) The act of unruly misbehaviour by the OIC Thakurmunda towards the RTI activists has badly damaged our sense of dignity and self-respect as citizens of India and also instilled into us a very scary feeling of fear, threat and insecurity amongst us about our local police and police station. We still continue to harbour an anxiety that our life may be endangered by the above Police Officer at any moment our of his deeply ingrained malice and hatred against the cause of RTI and RTI activists. 5) That we had
Re: National Forum | Re: Kandhamal Interim Report
Dear Sir, Thanks for your your feed back. I am writing a detailed analysis on the tribunal and a public meeting on Aug 25th at Jantar Mantar which will be released next week. Regards, Sai Prasan On Sat, Aug 28, 2010 at 10:15 AM, John Dayal john.da...@gmail.com wrote: Dear Sai Pleasde give the full report of the Tribunal on your forum, and then give your point of view. Othewise readers willd raw thconclusion that you are on just one side of the situation. Thank you John Dayal On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 9:13 PM, Prabir Chatterjee prabi...@yahoo.comwrote: It seems that any group who uses muscle power, sexual attacks and kills is certainly in the wrong. Any forcible acquisition of land or false caste certificates are also crimes and should be countered in a court of law and through the press and elections. I doubt that the Ramkrishna Mission and NGOs have any problem working together in any state in India. However land mafia, job racketeers and goondas who pretend to be religious should not be encouraged in any way. Prabir *Dear all,* ** *The National Solidarity Forum (NSF), the organisers of National People's Tribunal (NPT) on Kandhamal held in New Delhi on 22-24, 2010, have sent the below report. * ** *In the Press Conference held on 24th afternoon, the attention of the chairman of the Jury Justice AP Shah, former chief justice of Delhi HIgh Court was told that the report is silent on two important issues - land and fake certificates - which were responsible for the violence in Kandhamal. * ** *Justice Shah's attention was also drawn that SCs and STs are caught in the cross-fire between Christian and Hindu organisations. And, the Preliminary findings also did not suggest how to bring these two opposite groups - Christian and Hindu organisations - closer to work for the overall development of SCs and STs since Christian organisations enjoy money power and Hindu organisations possess muscle power in terms of people.* ** *A volley of questions were pressed on how to tackle the conversion and re-conversion activities carried by Christian and Hindu organisations which were also another important reason responsible for the violence in Kandhamal.* ** *Going by the views of the participants from Kandhamal, the violence can erupt again in Kandhamal as the important issues still remain unresolved. * ** *Please read the below report and send your suggestions and comments.* ** *Thanks Regards,* ** *Sai Prasan* * * -- John Dayal www.johndayal.com http://johndayal.sulekha.com/blog/posts.htm
National Forum | PESA Report-Censored Chapter [1 Attachment]
*===* *PESA, Left-Wing Extremism and Governance: Concerns and Challenges in* *India’s Tribal Districts* * “There has been a systemic failure in giving tribals a stake in the modern economic processes that inexorably intrude into their living spaces…The systematic exploitation and social and economic abuse of our tribal communities can no longer be tolerated.” ** Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, November 2009 ** “When I told a govt. official that PESA allows us to determine our policy on liquor trade in the village, he shot back, “Are you trying to teach me the law? If you are so knowledgeable about the law, why are you living here in your village in the forest? Why don’t you go and speak in the Orissa assembly?” ** Fulsingh Naik, resident of Mandibisi (Rayagada, West Orissa), December 2009, *recounting a conversation he had from inside a prison cell with a policeman, who had jailed him for leading community protests against a country liquor shop in their village. * “Is government meant for the people or the powerful?” ** Mahangu Madiya, a resident of Dhuragaon (Bastar, south Chhattisgarh), July 2009, *on the government’s efforts to forcibly acquire his village’s farmland for the private steel-manufacturing giant, Tata Steel Limited, ignoring opposition by village gram sabhas. This chapter explores the functioning of the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA from here on), which governs areas in nine states1 of India, covered by the Fifth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. Tribal communities make up 8.2% or approximately 8 in 100 Indians – an economically and culturally vulnerable and distinctive group. The 1996 landmark law recognized this, and the historic injustices meted to them. Its passage—an act of great political commitment—attempted to shift the balance of power towards the communities by providing a mechanism for self-protection and self-governance. By recognizing that tribal communities are ‘competent’ to self-govern, we were, in effect, recognizing the validity of their way of life, value systems and worldview (*See Annexure 1 - The Act*). Today, it is universally acknowledged that the law has much to achieve on its promise of securing people’s participation, as the keystone of a meaningful democracy. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj mandated the Institute of Rural Management to make an independent assessment 1 Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan of ‘the correlation between *the promise and the reality of self-governance *in selected states, especially those which have witnessed difficulties due to alternate mobilisations (and countermobilisations)… The report will seek to build an assessment of issues and some common grounds for institutionalisation of local self-governments in such extremist affected states.’ This analysis starts by sketching a brief background to PESA, and outlining how the act intended to improve the lives of some of India’s most beleaguered sections, when it was passed in 1996. It then analyses the key challenges to the effective functioning of PESA today. The second section then analyses in detail the unfinished legislative agenda regarding the PESA. It does this by firstly looking at the unfinished legislative and executive work on the law in some key states of India.2 The third section moves to the ground in order to put a human face to the neglect of the act through selected case studies. It thus attempts to capture some of the big themes that currently militate against PESA, as expressed by people, for whom life is increasingly a quest for survival. Placing at the centre stage, peoples’ experiences of PESA and governance might make the analysis appear skewed, or even one-sided. But we believe that these voices from the ground are poorly heard in policy making and implementation—for a complex of reasons, from the community’s entrenched marginalisation to the absence of written traditions for communication—and hence need be given primacy. It looks at the failure of PESA and the ‘alternate mobilisation’ that has happened. Though not included in this report, the larger research elsewhere also outlines the complex intersection of what would be justifiably called governance failure and alienation, and its coterminous relationship with the phenomenon of left-wing extremism, i.e. the currently banned Communist Party of India - Maoist (However, there are a range of left-wing Naxal groups operating on the ground in PESA areas). The experience of fieldwork, which even entailed physical dangers, suggests that there is a veritable crisis in several PESA areas, with despair, insecurity and a breakdown of the rule of law, and access to justice within the constitutional framework. A final section lists some ideas, which would help institutionalize and actualize PESA
National Forum - AICC fact finding report on Batala Hindu Christian violence
*Batala violence on the lines of Kandhamal* *REPORT OF THE ALL INDIA CHRISTIAN COUNCIL FACT FINDING TEAM ON INCIDENTS IN BATALA AND OTHER AREAS OF PUNJAB 18-21 FEBRUARY 2010* *EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ISSUED ON MARCH 2, 2010* The Punjab police are hiding the fact that Sangh Parivar-led hoodlums in Batala, Punjab tried to burn five Christians alive. The Christians were from two families who live in the Church of North India�s historic Church of the Epiphany compound built in 1865. Batala is a small business town in Punjab�s Gurdaspur district. On February 20th, the CNI church was set on fire and all its furniture burnt. Attempts were made to destroy a nearby Salvation Army church, raised in 1958, where the pastor was seriously injured. �We pleaded with the police to help, but they did not,� said the Pastor, Gurnam Singh. Even as the larger group of attackers focused on burning the CNI church, a group of men armed with sticks and rods, and came to the CNI Deacon�s house. The deacon, Victor Gill, and his wife Parveen, hid themselves under the bed. The assailants damaged the doors, tried to enter the room forcibly, and told the couple they would be burnt alive if they did not come out. Meanwhile, at a second CNI house, the group overturned a scooter, took out the petrol, and doused teacher Christopher Morris and his daughter Daisy with the fuel while the mother, Usha, cringed in their home. They tried to set the two on fire, but the matchbox had also been soaked in the petrol and despite three attempts to strike a match, the matchsticks would not ignite saving the family from being burnt alive. The police were watching. The fire brigade came later but was blocked by a mob for quite some time. *Police Bias* No police report has been filed on the attempted murders even as the top police and administrative officers enforced a one sided �peace accord� on the local Christian leadership. Christians were instructed not to press for charges immediately so that a number of Christian youth who were arrested � together with a few Hindu men � could be released. The strategy of the assailants was eerily reminiscent of what was practiced and perfected against churches in Orissa in 2008. Police forcibly cleaned up the Church of the Epiphany. They removed burnt furniture and made the presbyter whitewash the walls to remove traces of fuel oil used in the blaze. This was done before a formal enquiry could be conducted by the government.** *Background on Violence* The Christians, all of them of Dalit origin, were trying to enforce a closure or bandh in Batala markets to protest a blasphemous picture of Jesus Christ holding a can of beer in one hand a lit cigarette in another which appeared on roadside banners to celebrate the Hindu Ram Nauvmi festival. The banners were sponsored by a coalition of local political, media and business leaders, together with the trading community which is almost entirely Hindu. The Sangh Parivar reacted to the Christian protest by mobilising shopkeepers and youth in attacks that left many injured, two churches damaged, and clergy traumatised. We noted that local shopkeepers routinely enforce closures e.g. a bandh during the last week of February to protest the execution of two Sikhs by the Taliban in Pakistan. *Timeline* 16-17 February -- people noticed Jesus Christ image on banners, newspapers, posters 18 February -- Jalandhar protests; two people arrested for printing posters 19 February -- road protests in various villages, violence in Majitha 20 February -- Batala churches burnt; widespread violence 21 February -- police firing on Christian protesters in Tibbar village and others places; many arrested, injured; peace accord reached in Batala 22 February -- curfew partially lifted 23 February -- curfew completely lifted *Police Reaction* The police force was outnumbered and looked on during the violence. Despite intelligence reports of the Christian anger and the Hindutva plans to counterattack, the sub-divisional magistrate of Batala, Mr. Rahul Chaba, PCS, said he could not enforce a quick curfew until late on 20 February 2010 because most of the police force were sent to the Pakistani border nearby where Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram inaugurated a defence outpost. By the time the police returned and a curfew was imposed, violence had already occurred. The curfew was relaxed on 22 February 2010. *Results of Violence and Political Reaction* On February 21st, protest rallies were held across the western districts of Punjab and in Chandigarh against the desecration of the churches. There were reports of police who broke up protest meetings in villages with lathi charges and indiscriminate arrests. At present, there are no Christians or Hindus in police custody barring the printer and publisher of the banners. On February 23rd, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Prakash Singh Badal assured the aicc delegation�s head, Dr. John Dayal, aicc Secretary General and
