Desicritics Category: Politics: Asia

Women's Reservation Bill: Lottery System to Replace Democracy in India

Sumanth — Fri, 5 Mar 2010 05:38:43 EST

Italy was a fascist country before and during World War II. Edvige Antonia Albina Maino (Sonia Gandhi) like a Monarch feels like giving a special gift to Women on International Women’s day on March 8th. She wants the sacred Constitution of India to be amended just for that wish. (Gift)

On 8th March, 2010 the puppet Government at New Delhi controlled by Sonia plans to introduce a special bill in upper house (Rajya Sabha) of Indian parliament for amending the sacred constitution. This amendment is to stop 110 million Indian Men from contesting elections in their own constituencies, so that women can win these elections. Sounds ridiculous? Is not it? Yes. That’s where the Indian democracy has degenerated into.

If this fascist action succeeds, then the Indian democracy will be reduced to a Lottery. Yes, you heard it right. According to Abraham Lincoln “Democracy is government of the people, by the people, for the people”, but according to Sonia Gandhi democracy is: Lottery.

Imagine, Manjunatha Gundappa(name changed) wants to contest in Mandya and he heads towards the local election commissioner office (or registrar office) for filing his nominations. As he reaches to the office, Manjunatha is told by the officials, “Sir, please wait. In another one hour there will be a Lottery and then we all will know whether you have the right to file your nomination or not. If the Lottery does not favour you, then you can get lost and come back to us after 5 years”.

WTF?!!

If constitution is amended according to the current women’s reservation bill, then the democracy in India will be governed by this Lottery System. The main opposition party BJP also has joined this drama and wants to mutilate the constitution written by Dr. Ambedkar.

It seems “Women’s Reservation “is very close to Sonia Gandhi’s heart. Sonia Gandhi is a member of parliament and she went to people last year for votes so that she gets a chance to serve the people. She should keep the matters of her heart to herself. Being a servant of the citizens, she has to follow not her heart, but the hearts of the citizens of India. (link)

Now, what does the citizens of India say? A poll conducted by NDTV has more than 89% opposing the “women’s reservation bill”, while 10% supported it. (NDTV Poll)

Does Sonia Gandhi, having Italian origin respect the verdict of the people? It does not seem so. May be she feels her heart’s desire is more important than the people’s wishes.

Now, it is claimed that Sonia’s Congress Party, BJP and the Communists (CPI/CPM) want 33% seats be reserved for women in parliament and state Assemblies. These parties fielded 40,42 and 5 women candidates respectively in last Lok Sabha elections for 544 seats. (detailed article).

Now, if women’s reservation is so important and no one can wait any longer, then I have a much better solution. Sonia Gandhi of Congress, Sushma Swaraj of BJP and Brinda Karat of CPM can tell 30% of their existing male Parliament members to resign based on a lottery on Monday, March 8th. In 2 months, we will have bi-elections, where Sonia, Sushma and Brinda will field only female candidates. So, we get 30% representation of women in parliament in just 2 months instead of waiting for another 4 years.

For that, no constitution amendment is needed and men will not lose their right to contest in elections and democracy is saved. Can the Monarch have some mercy on us, the citizens of this country?

Poetry: Maqbool Fida Hussain - A Qatari Citizen

Amitabh Mitra — Tue, 2 Mar 2010 17:30:12 EST

they hounded him
off the blue skies
off the bold strokes
past the giant canvases
and color streams
they hounded him out
because he painted
strange life forms
and stranger
shadow times
he painted unframed pride
in stretched bylanes
he painted you
and me
in the darkest of nights
and its aroma
in the kindest
thoughts
he painted the earth
in a fallacy of stillness
his bare feet burnt
the collage of seasons
shed in sudden travails
unveiled to raptures
of quietude
today a wind blew
stopped and fell
familiar colors blurred
a nation stayed speechless
a ninety-six years old
became a foreigner
to himself.

Poem and Drawing by Amitabh Mitra

Amar Singh and the Great Uttar Pradesh Divide

Amitabh Mitra — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:13:33 EST

When Thabo Mbeki was unceremoniously ousted in September 2008 from the presidency by his party colleagues and friends, the African National Congress got split inevitably at the centre and within the different provinces. Essop Pahad, Minister in the Presidency cried foul on the television, claiming that a great injustice has been done to his friend. Soon a new political party, Congress of the People (COPE) was launched with great fanfare at Johannesburg which included political leaders who are close to Thabo Mbeki along with general people who have been disillusioned with the African National Congress. Interesting enough, Thabo Mbeki and the Pahad brothers never joined the party.

At the parliamentary nominations, I found one of my nurses been given a seat from the ANC while many leaders who had jumped the boat to join COPE did not find their names in the final list. They have wriggled back to African National Congress while infighting rages within the newly formed COPE.

I wanted to put forward this example as we can feel a new party coming into existence after the expulsion of Amar Singh from Samajwadi Party. His many friends and common people have put their faith in a possible new organisation that would oppose the Samajwadi Party at the polls in the near future.
In his latest blog, Amar Singh talks about Purvanchal, Harit Pradesh, Bundelkhand, Vidarbha and Telegana and his support for smaller provinces.

The country knows about Jharkhand and Chattisgarh, their formation and eventual grab of mineral rich tribal lands by corporate sectors the deforestation of these regions by illegal tree fellers and the hike in Naxalite activity after the formation of these provinces points to the inevitable corruption that is a way of life in such poorly managed regions. Madhu Koda is an icon of corruption and the resultant misfortune to smaller states. Guruji has also been linked to scandals involving Madhu Koda.

The Bahujan Samaj party led by Mayawatiji has also supported the formation of smaller states in Uttar Pradesh primarily because she knows that her party would win in each one of them.

At a massive rally in Mathura in support of Amar Singh on 21 February I was worried after he declared his caste equation with Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Kushwahas, Kurmis and Chouhans. It was the same like in South Africa where everything is color related. This also reminded me of an incident in 1979 when a certain backward caste illiterate minister of Health in Madhya Pradesh by the name of Rewanath Chourey threatened me in a drunken stupor to transfer me from Gwalior. I told him about his dim political future and about a doctor who would be able to serve his fellow human being even in his own death bed.

In global changes, Amar Singh is perfectly aware that borders, margins and colors have become inconspicuous in art, culture music and poetry, yet hobnobbing in the political sphere with such a caste related cause would mean its imminent death. The BJP has understood from its failure and have regrouped by changing its strategy and bringing the right people to steer away from radical right.

A political organisation which would have intellectuals of all colors and yes that includes even Naxals, people who are not power hungry, people who are willing to form a think tank to liberate India from home grown evils, people who are humble and are willing to give a hand in upliftment, this would not be a dream because I know Amar Singhji if you cannot form it somebody else would do it.

Rahul Gandhi has taken similar steps and that is the proof of his mass acceptance. India is moving away from narrow constricted visions, from politicians sleeping at the back benches of the parliament, from longhaired bearded politicians stinking of alcohol and spitting in the corridors of the parliament, from deceit and unfaithfulness to norms of democracy, instead it is a living mind in many layers, of auras and cohesion throbbing to be heard and felt in a resounding success.

Drawing by Amitabh Mitra

Poetry: West Midnapore

Amitabh Mitra — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:14:58 EST

forty thousand kilometres
parched land defying boundaries
of hunger and rights of existence
rights of a sun to drench its own
nobody talked to the broken sky
the broken heart
the broken earthen pots
once harbouring tears
instead rifle butts broke
but not the bones
nor the lame mind
and one day
at west midnapore
somebody
cut open the sun
people looked in awe
at the lame mind
corporate confines shook
on a stolen territory
a country talked
and talked.

Poem and Drawing by Amitabh Mitra

Amar Singh - Creativity Beyond Politics

Amitabh Mitra — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:12:16 EST

During the rabid summers in India, Amar Singh first showed his symptoms of sickness during a campaign trail in Uttar Pradesh which he exposed to the media. I am not well; he said and hopefully would take a long rest after the elections are over. The writer, a keen follower of Samajwadi politics immediately felt that there is far more than that catches the eye. It was this statement that prompted me to write the article 'Being Amar Singh' in these columns which exposed the occupational disorders in the health of an Indian politician for the first time.

Soon after the elections, he left for Singapore to have a kidney transplant. It was only after he came back that we found a changed Amar Singh. The first inkling of his new understanding came from his blog that he started recently. It seems that during the period of his sickness, none of his political friends bothered to visit him other than a few of his close friends and relatives.

The rest obviously is history.

It is a well known fact from the spectrum of Indian politics, creativity in any sphere is a restricted word partly because of lack of interest in venturing beyond the run of the mill of local politics.

The saga of Amar Singh started from Kolkata, reached Bhopal where he became close to Madhav Rao Scindia and finally ends in Delhi where he showed his deft political acumen in bringing Samajwadi party to a national status.

But we are not keen about Amar Singh the politician but more about his creative pursuits beyond politics. Even before he left for Singapore he had acted in a couple of Bengali films. His acting abilities have landed him a number of roles in Hindi films the latest one being in Devanand's ' 'Chargesheet' where he would be seen in the role of a Home Minister. He is seen acting opposite party colleague Jayaprada in the Bengali Film, 'Sesh Saghat' which has sympathetic undertones for the Naxalites.' Bombay Mittayi' is his next film where he has a role opposite Dimple Kapadia.

Jaswant Singh, a close friend of Ruskin Bond and an author of many books was expelled because of his creative pursuits and writing a book on Jinnah. He made many enemies in BJP primarily because of his openness and ability to quote from history at BJP meetings. An intellectual to the core he was shunned by party leaders who were not happy in seeing him rise in the political sphere

The late Vishwanath Pratap Singh, the former Indian Prime Minister who gave an exhibition of his paintings at London once said that if only he knew earlier the happiness that his creativity can bring, he would never have entered politics.

At the regional level in West Bengal, Subroto Mukherjee, the former Mayor of Kolkata starred with Moonmoon Sen and George Baker in the Bengali serial titled, 'Chowdhury Pharmaceuticals'. It ruffled many a feathers in the Congess I during that period of his screen debut and a few swimming pool sequences with Moonmoon Sen. Satyajit Ray had once remarked to Victor Bannerjee that he would not like to miss any sequence of the telefilm starring Subroto Mukherjee.

Mamta Bannerjee of Trinamool Congress is an exponent of Rabindra and Adhunik sangeet and has many recordings to her credit.

Creativity in the Indian political sphere is a sequestrum that refuses to be rejuvenated; such rare talents usually go unnoticed by pot bellied, intellectually restricted politicians. Bureaucrats and Technocrats too fail to understand the lateral dimension of such an intellect that remains mortally compartmentalised.

Sri Lankan General Sarath Fonseka Arrested

Kalugu — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 00:39:35 EST

In a shocking new development the Sri Lankan military arrested its ex chief and retired general Sarath Fonseka who was celebrated as a national hero not long ago. The arrested retired general who lost the recent election to Mahinda Rajapaksa by 17 percentage points, was taken into custody by dozens of military police officers at his office, where he was meeting with several Parliament members to discuss coming legislative elections.

At the time of his arrest, Gen. Fonseka was having a meeting with JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe, SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem and Democratic People's Front leader Mano Ganeshan on the possible strategies to contest the upcoming general election and on filing a petition against the alleged election malpractices on polling day.

"They arrested him and carried him out like a dog," Mr. Ganesan said in a telephone interview to the New York Times.

Mr. Hakeem said Gen. Fonseka was taken out in a despicable and disgraceful manner "No civilized government would resort to this kind of action," he said adding that they were flabbergasted to see a military hero being treated in this manner.

Sarath Fonseka lead the ruthless military campaign against the Tamil rebels of Sri Lanka which culminated in the tragic humanitarian crisis with over 80,000 civilians killed during the last phases of the war. During this period numerous war crimes are known to have been committed by members of Fonseka's army.

Several videos have surfaced on the internet and were broadcast by leading media channels in UK, Canada, USA and India that depict the serious crimes committed by Fonseka's army members.

Earlier on Feb 02, Brigadier Duminda Keppetiwalana, aide to the former Sri Lankan army chief General Fonseka, was arrested over the murder last year of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunga.

Brigadier Keppetiwalana, who served as the former army chief's military assistant, was among 13 senior officers associated with General Fonseka who were ousted following President Rajapaksa's election victory.

With Sri Lanka's recent close alignment with countries such as China, Russia and Iran, the countries democratic norms and standards are taking a severe blow. With the Army General who commanded the ruthless army and the President who ordered the war at loggerheads, more and more human rights violation by several parties involved are likely to come to the light of international attention in the coming days.

While Sarath - the darling of most Sinhalese nationalists during May 2009, is now close to biting the bullet, Rajapakse has gained a seven year rule of the nation and remains the sole national hero for several Sinhalese nationalists today.

Book Review: Looking East To Look West - Lee Kuan Yew's Mission India

Linette Lim — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 05:46:38 EST

A recent book by veteran Indian journalist, Sunanda Datta-Ray, has sparked some controversy here.

In Looking East To Look West - Lee Kuan Yew's Mission India, Datta-Ray proposes that the Singapore's engagement with India is not a recent phenomenon. The Indian fever raging in Singapore has less to do with India's rise as a global power and more to do with India and Singapore's shared history. The India-Singapore love affair, according to Datta-Ray, has had its seeds sown since Lee was a law student at Cambridge. An admirer of Nehru, the young Lee was at that time, also spearheading a political movement to overthrow British rule. P N Balji, reviewing the book in the Singapore daily Today, called this angle 'audacious'.

An audacious angle is always good for getting people to think and discuss what they have never considered before. In this aspect, Datta-Ray has succeeded. But he goes beyond making bold and original claims simply for the sake of raising eyebrows. The book gives a first-hand view into India-Singapore relations, and is peppered with anecdotes from key diplomats. To Datta-Ray's credit, the book also discusses the pragmatism behind the India-Singapore relationship: Geo-politics. Singapore needed good relations with India to demonstrate that the city state with an ethnic Chinese majority, was not going to become a satellite of China.

Singapore is India's second largest investor in terms of Foreign Direct Investments, beating countries with far larger economies, like the United States and Japan. Not many people know this. And even fewer know that Singapore is a net recipient of migrant workers from South Asia. These workers with their blood and sweat, build the modern Singapore that we see today. India and Singapore's destinies have been intertwined since the conception of their national identities and one will not do without the other. Indeed, as Lee Kuan Yew said, Asia would be submerged if India did not emerge.

China - Censored Growth

sufferingsocrates — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:20:46 EST

I am extremely proud and happy to be in India. India could have multiple issues, both regional and religious. But that speaks volumes about the strong emotional bonding that India has enjoyed all through the 62 years of Independence. Notwithstanding hostile neighborhoods, India has continued to be peace loving, and sometimes even too docile for its own good. There is honestly no comparison of India with either Pakistan or China. While Pakistan has been the rogue nation, owing to a politically mismanaged nation and a nation with radicals lurking in every corner, China has been the nation trying to bully around, not only its own citizens, but other Asian nations as well.

Thomas Friedman noted in an article that China is at cross roads of whether to adopt a new age China, or get subdued under the Communist rule. He goes onto mention how China is grappling to come to terms with an increasing knowledge consuming world, which would force the nation to embrace and gain knowledge through multiple channels for its own development. What this would do is inhibit the stringent measures of the Chinese rule, because the exchange of knowledge information needs vast amount of transnational interactions. Human rights violation has been a long discussed issue in China, with executions for crimes being very common, and no freedom for citizens.

Not surprisingly, this is the very reason the Chinese officials are wary of the Web 2.0 revolution and want to monitor human rights activists' actions. One wonders what insecurities should the Chinese have, when it is in the cusp of becoming the second largest economy in the world. The Chinese government is increasingly insecure of uprisings which could arise out of their strict policies. Why else would it raise a cyber army just to track down, hack computers across the world and steal vital information ? Google is threatening to pull the plug from China for this very issue of China hacking into accounts of human rights activists. What China is not realising is, more the restrictions, more are the chances of uprisings and revolts.

In another very disturbing move, China is going to scan text messages to filter out unhealthy or ill-content in mobile phones. What this means is, a Chinese citizen, who may share some passionate messages with his/her spouse over mobile phone could well be jailed and may even be executed ! It is truly unfortunate that China is imposing restrictions in citizens' private lives as well. Already, the rule of a single child in China is coming back to haunt the Chinese. It is resulting in a rapidly aging population in several important cities in China, forcing Chinese to rethink the single child rule. If the single child policy wasn't interference enough in private lives of citizens, scanning text messages is outright intrusive.

For precisely such restrictions and rules that the Chinese employ, it is hard to understand if there will be any emotion or sentiment left in a Chinese citizen. Being patriotic is great, but who would want to be patriotic for a nation which does not allow freedom, even in personal lives ? Who would want to be patriotic to a nation which is always monitoring every single step of any and every citizen ? Which citizen would like to continue in a country, where they live more in fear than for the love of the land ? Consequently, it is not difficult to understand why, any Chinese trained individual would be more robotic than human. Devoid of any emotion or sentiments, be it sportsmen or the army, would automatically tend to be more machine like. Without true love for the nation.

Now think of India. A nation highlighted as being poor, winning Oscars for its slum dwellers. But what India has is, freedom of speech and expression. Sometimes, a little too much of it one would say. But India has stayed on for 62 years with an incredibly diverse populace, and also embracing liberalization along the way. Corruption maybe rampant in India. But pray, where is corruption not seen ? The Indian growth story has been quite remarkable, and more and more honchos in businesses are from India. The world has confidence in an increasingly globalised India, in spite of its infrastructure woes and red tapism. The simple reason is the freedom and the confidence that businesses can flourish in, and that India has the brain power as well as the manpower.

Unlike a Pakistan, India has continued to vote democratically. Though there have been fragile governments, no Indian citizen can complain about the freedom (s)he enjoys.Pakistan is struggling against foes they themselves fostered over the years. India has been the victim of terrorism from Pakistan, and is increasingly under threat from an insecure China. China's insecurity is understandable, with India's increased presence both economically and diplomatically. China is certainly miles ahead economically and militarily, but India and Indians have their hearts in place.

Should China Have Executed A British National?

Arundhati Thapar — Fri, 1 Jan 2010 19:04:14 EST

Its a difficult time for British diplomacy. Despite intervention at the highest levels, the Chinese went ahead and executed Akmal Shaikh, the British citizen convicted of trying to smuggle 4 kgs of heroin into China. Gordon Brown himself made this a high priority case for himself.

It is beside the point that, given everything else the man has on his platter at the moment, including a crumbling economy among the very few still to officially come out of recession, it is surprising that he did. Also, given Gordon's recent luck (he seems to suffer from a case of reverse 'midas touch' syndrome - everything he touches, turns to mud) his last minute decision to butt in may have been ill advised on more than one counts. Certainly the outcome has made him lose face on the International stage and made the British side look decidedly sheepish.

The main crux of the argument from the British side seems to be that Mr Shaikh suffered from Bipolar disorder and hence the Chinese Government should have exercised clemency in dealing with his case.

The question remains whether this was a case of the Chinese committing a heinous crime against humanity by executing a 'mentally sick' man or was it just the British refusing to recover from their sense of pseudo global supremacy. Certainly the Chinese did not take kindly to attempts at external interference in their judicial system.

I am not going to go into the arguments for or against capital punishment but certainly a country has a right to convict a criminal according to the law of the land and no outside Government should be trying to supersede a country's judiciary. So, you do not agree with the way China deals with its criminals. Tough luck. The man, although he was British, committed a crime on Chinese soil knowing fully well that that country has a judicial system entirely different to the British.

I can sympathise with the family of the deceased man and any family would do all in its power to defend their dear one in this situation. But would it not be unfair to Chinese families who have lost family members for similar crimes, to say that this one would be pardoned because he is British?

As to how much weight the argument of 'bipolar disorder' holds in this case is also debatable.

Bipolar disorder is a 'neurosis' as opposed to a 'psychosis'. A neurotic person does not lose 'insight' or 'sense of reality' which is the hallmark of psychosis. So if someone colludes with drug peddlers when suffering from a bout of depression, it neither dilutes the effect of the crime nor makes that person any less culpable in the eyes of the law.

However it looks like the repercussions of this particular act might be more far reaching than just a tussle over which legal system is superior. The Chinese ambassador has been summoned at 10 Downing and given a dose of the bitter pill. The Chinese lost no time in retaliating either. In instant quid pro quo, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said: "Nobody has the right to speak ill of China's judicial sovereignty. We express our strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition over the groundless British accusations. We urge the British side to mend its errors and avoid damaging China-British relations." A firm well planted kick up the British backside.

The issue as far as I can see is related to the very low threshold western leaders have currently for attempting to take the moral high ground and preach values to developing nations. Had this happened in the US, I doubt Britain would have been as eager to interfere.

The State of the Indian Union

Somik Raha — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:36:39 EST

As the media debates the issue of statehood through the Telangana crisis, and we see other demands pouring in, from Gorkhaland in West Bengal to Harit Pradesh, Purvanchal and Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh, the common man is left wondering what to make of all these demands.

On the issue of Kashmir, and in general, ceding Indian territory to other countries, the emotional response comes pretty quickly, leaving no ambiguity. However, carving out new states is not an emotional issue for those who are not involved in the demand. The question boils down to one of efficiency and development, and the usual argument is that underdeveloped regions need more attention which they hope they will get with a smaller and more focused state.

Let us examine this question in the light of decision-making. There are two distinctions that accurately describe most government decisions - "isolated" and "distorted." We will start with decision isolation. Government decision-makers are mostly isolated from the people who are affected by their decisions. A central idea of governance is the idea of the head of the family, who acts in the best interests of the rest of the family. This metaphor breaks down pretty quickly, due to physical distance. As head of the family, we can see how our actions affect our loved ones. As head of the government, we simply cannot see all of those affected by our actions, and hence, we land ourselves in the isolation trap. We end up making decisions that we would never wish on our loved ones.

The decision isolation that results is inversely proportional to the size of jurisdiction of the government. Someone in New Delhi decides what is best for the country and this applies to people in Kannyakumari who are left scratching their head about what's going on. It is a lot better when most decisions about Kannyakumari are left to someone in Chennai. But the isolation is still very much there, and it is a matter of degree, not of kind.

The second issue is that of distorted decision-making. When making government decisions, the preferences of the decision-makers get distorted by the punitive incentive system. It is quite rare for outstanding government decision makers to be rewarded. On the contrary, it is quite common for those who've landed with bad outcomes to be punished. This distortion in the incentives results in long decision cycles where risk-taking is avoided as much as possible. The result - we shoot for mediocrity and mostly fail to achieve even that. There is a silver lining though. Unlike China, the Indian government has a low commitment to action. That would mean both good and bad decisions don't get implemented properly. Since good decisions are so rare, this really means India is somewhat spared from the aftermath of terrible policy decisions, simply because the government does not have the werewithal of implementing it. In China, once the government has decided that it is good to have one child, they make it happen. The disaster that has led from this policy is not yet fully understood by contemporary Chinese - most don't have brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles! Their culture has been transformed in a very artificial manner, and few remember it.

We can now see that if we have smaller states, we will begin to tackle the issue of decision isolation. We also end up taking away large concentrations of power - this is one of the best things we could do to gain more freedom in our society. One of the biggest reasons politicians are in a tizzy over the split is that they will now have less economic power (through corruption in a smaller state). For regular people, this is great! We also have a better chance at reducing decision distortion, as less and less can be done by a less powerful state government, and so, voluntary initiatives will have the chance of emerging, where politics is not the main driver.

I wish everyone and their grandmother would start asking for their own state. And while we're at it, we should ask for a couple of Union Territories as well. Since both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are fighting over Hyderabad, why don't the citizens of Hyderabad have their voices heard and get incorporated into a Union Territory or perhaps their own state (like Delhi)? That way, Hyderabad can avoid facing parochial pressures like Mumbai and retain its cosmopolitan nature.

An India which has tons of state governments, none of which is big enough to do too much damage would imply more power to the people to take over their own destiny, and develop the ability to think outside of traditional taxation-driven progress. It would mean unleashing the creativity of India's population of which there is no dearth. It would mean challenging linguistic, religious and economic identities that we have come to accept. It would mean accepting that the lines we draw are in our head, and not in the world out there.