SHAME PART 2

TASLIMA IN `HIDING'

By Manuwant Choudhary

Taslima in `Hiding' resembles a pre-independence newspaper headline Subhash in `Hiding'.
My father would recall those early years when people would believe every word written in the newspapers as the truth and with a poor understanding of the English language one person actually came up to my father with an Atlas. He was looking for a place called `Hiding'!
But that was colonial India. Those who fought for India's freedom, not even Subhash Chandra Bose, would have imagined that in free India anyone needs to be in `Hiding'. But India's secular central government and the Congress Party have decided this is the best way to `protect' Taslima Nasreen, whom the West Bengal CPI (M) government has thrown out from their state.
If the CPI (M) cannot protect Taslima in West Bengal then it is another sure proof that law and order has failed in West Bengal and President's rule should be imposed in the state. Only then can Taslima and the rest of Bengal can be protected.
Its an irony that a communal Narendra Modi has promised Taslima asylum and protection in Gujarat - a state where ordinary Muslims do not feel safe.
Why Bengal look at Assam where protesting tribals were brutally assaulted and their women paraded naked in front of the camera's and no word from the Congress high command Sonia Gandhi. The police do nothing to stop the assault on tribals.
So its not surprising that top cop Kiran Bedi announces her decision to quit to dedicate the rest of her life in the service of India, something she could not do within the police establishment. Again no word from the politicians at a time when India needs tough officers to restore the people's faith in the system.
But India's politicians are very busy. Busy organising mass rallies. First it was Laloo's Chetawani (Warning) Rally, then Nationalist Congress Party's Pol Khol (Expose) rally and finally Ram Vilas Paswan's `Sankalp (Pledge) rally. Pledging not to make India free or to help the downtrodden but pledging to become India's Prime Minister at any cost, anyhow.
Crores are spent on such rallies and in todays India setting up a political party is perhaps a better business venture than starting a manufacturing unit.
Politicians do not manufacture products, they manufacture dreams and lies.
Not to be left behind Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United celebrated their two years in office. Celebrating what I do not know.
People in Bihar are just about trying to make ends meet after a real bad flood season, there is no electricity in any part of Bihar except Patna.
Forget ordinary people who have no access to the politicians, Nitish Kumar may have been in power for two years but my home does not have a transformer for a year now and three meetings with Bihar's minister of electricity and his orders to the electricity department has not yielded results.
Earlier I thought the government moves slowly but now I wonder if it moves at all.

Commonwealth

Commonwealth Human Rights Forum Recommends suspension of Pakistan from Commonwealth

After two days the Commonwealth Human Rights Forum came out with a Concluding Statement and Recommendation. Find pasted below some of the key recommendations of the forum. To read the whole statement and recommendations of the Commonwealth Human Rights Forum, please read the document in pdf format attached with this mail.

SOME OF THE IMPORTANT RECOMMENDATIONS ARE:



· The immediate suspension of Pakistan from the councils of the Commonwealth, investigation into The Gambia, and Commonwealth engagement with the people of Zimbabwe.

· Commonwealth governments should recommend that CMAG remain seized with the situation in Fiji and engage with all political parties to ensure early elections and the restoration of the independence of the judiciary and fundamental freedoms.

· An Expert Group on Policing should be established to develop best practice guidelines on all aspects of policing, training and in order to monitor police practices across the Commonwealth.

· Commonwealth governments must comply with past human rights commitments and, in order to ensure such compliance, establish a formal mechanism to monitor compliance with such commitments.

· The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) should devise a formal system for consulting with civil society.

· Ensuring that the procedure the UNHRC adopts for Universal Peer Review should be independent and meaningful, with appropriate participation of experts (and not merely by other member states).

· Commonwealth governments should work actively to ensure the adoption of and effective implementation of Access to Information laws in order to enable democratic participation.

· Commonwealth governments should revisit the Commonwealth’s election monitoring role, including the examination of ways to strengthen such a role via civil society consultations.

· Commonwealth governments must ensure the independence of National Human Rights Institutions, and accord them due recognition including adequate resources, ensuring strict conformity with the Paris Principles.

· Commonwealth governments should work to develop Commonwealth best practices around freedom of information.

· The Commonwealth should uphold previous commitments to enabling space for civil society participation.

· The Commonwealth should call on Uganda to exercise special leadership as it takes the chair of the Commonwealth to improve its human rights record including the protection of civil society space,

· Commonwealth governments should sign, ratify and implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities to realise their potential.

Relevance of a Swatantra Party Today

To Save freedom
From, "Why Swatantra," 1960, by C. Rajagopalachari

The Swatantra Party stands for the protection of the individual citizen against the increasing trespasses of the State. It is an answer to the challenge of the so-called Socialism of the Indian Congress party. It is founded on the conviction that social justice and welfare can be attained through the fostering of individual interest and individual enterprise in all fields better than through State ownership and Government control. It is based on the truth that bureaucratic management leads to loss of incentive and waste of resources. When the State trespasses beyond what is legitimately within its province, it just hands over the management from those who are interested in frugal and efficient management to bureaucracy which is untrained and uninterested except in its own survival.

The Swatantra Party is founded on the claim that individual citizens should be free to hold their property and carry on their professions freely and through binding mutual agreements among themselves and that the State should assist and encourage in every possible way the individual in this freedom, but not seek to replace him.

The new party seeks to oppose the trend of the ruling Congress Party to adopt the ways and ideals of the Communists in its eagerness to prevent the Communists from going forward. The Swatantra party believes that going over to the enemy is not defence, but surrender.

The Swatantra Party, apart from the ideology here explained, hopes to furnish a real opposition to the Congress Party so that parliamentary democracy may be properly balanced. The absence of a true opposition has led to the rapid deterioration of democracy into a kind of totalitarianism. Voices have been heard from all quarters calling for a strong opposition and the new party is supplying a felt want.

This party of freedom is further making a novel experiment in restricting disciplinary control over party members to essential issues, giving freedom in all other matters to vote according to individual opinion. This is not mere strategy to "net in" discordant miscellaneous elements as at first might appear. It is really an answer to the constantly expressed sense of dissatisfaction with party rigidity, and to the complaint that it often amounts to suppression of opinion and rule by a minority in the name of a majority. A majority in the ruling caucus can always, under present conditions, impose their views on all and every issue in the Parliament of the nation.

The Swatantra Party intends to initiate a departure from the usual practice of political parties and, true to its name, give Swatantra or freedom to its members to vote according to their own convictions and conscience on all but the party's fundamentals so that the decisions of Parliament may on those issues truly reflect the prevailing opinion, and not be just, a replica of the majority opinion of the ruling party or the fads of the ruling clique.

Without the inconveniences resulting from proportional representation and, in particular, the instability of governments formed under such a system, the reduction of voting in accordance with whips to the barest minimum, as proposed by the Swatantra Party would be a healthy example for all parties. If followed generally or even by the more important ones among the various parties, the freedom given to members on all but essential issues would result in government more in accordance with the ideals of those who conceived the system of proportional representation and laid high hopes thereon. In this matter, the new party may claim to have initiated a great democratic advance worthy of trial in all countries really believing in democracy, and not willing to be subjected to a form of dictatorship in the name of party discipline which often serves only the ambition of individuals or groups.

The new party does not believe that legislative compulsion, any more than the violence that preceded and enthroned Communism in certain countries, can contribute to true or lasting human happiness. We must depend on the moral sense of the people in order to equalise without destroying freedom.

It may be that there are a large number of people in our ancient land who have now lost the capacity to respond to moral appeals, who are impervious to the call of dharma. There have been causes that have brought about this state of things. But this large number of bad and successful men of the world should not blind us to the fact that in the large mass, dharma still rules and supports our society. The millions that make up our nation are still moved and guided by their sense of dharma and the voice of their conscience. If the cynics who deny this were right, our society would have broken down long ago and perished. We should have been hearing of starvation deaths in thousands every day. If we take a survey of the numerous charitable foundations and trusts that work as a matter of routine in the country and which were born of a sense of dharma, without any kind of State compulsion, we can cure our cynicism with irrefutable and abundant facts. The charitable motives and compulsions of the heart which prevailed in the days when these trusts and charitable institutions were founded can prevail today, for we are the same people after all.

"There is no need for charity when there is an obligation; let the State compel". This is the slogan of the Socialists. But it is forgotten that this will lead irresistibly to total serfdom.

The cynics are not right. Our society is still maintained by the inner law. The outer laws can touch but the fringe of life. They deal with criminals and keep order going. Normal life 'does hot depend on the laws. It depends on the moral consciousness of people. This moral sense has not been effaced whatever changes may have taken place in the rituals and observances of forms. It is by dharma that society is sustained, Lokah dhriyate. It is on dharma we must build, and not on the sands of material motives and our capacity to satisfy them quickly and get votes to be in power. The good seed is not lost. It is still there. We must not ignore its availability. The soil also is good and God will send us the rains. Let us not fail to look after it.

Nandigram

UNDECLARED EMERGENCY IN WEST BENGAL

IMPOSE PRESIDENT'S RULE

By Manuwant Choudhary

The past year has seen largescale violence in West Bengal's Nandigram over the Special Economic Zone issue where farmers refuse to give up their land for SEZs but the past week has seen violence unimaginable in democratic India and if ever President's Rule can be justified its for cases like this and Narendra Modi's Gujarat.
Yet, we see the centre falter once again. The media says `Congress reacts strongly to Nandigram' but we don't hear even a whimper instead a dignified Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi (a real Gandhi descendant) going to buy peace from Marxist veteran Jyoti Basu.
If Mahatma Gandhi were alive he would be walking the paddy fields of Nandigram and perhaps in todays India he would be attacked by the Marxists just as they are killing ordinary people, undermining the judiciary and attacking the press and Governor.
Yet, there is no President's Rule in West Bengal.
And no President's Rule in Gujarat.
Article 356 when used in India is mostly for political reasons and now when its not used also its for political reasons only.
So if this constitutional provision cannot be used for the right reasons by our elected representatives then it just needs to be scrapped.
Let the people of India defend themselves from the political parties.

Emergency in Pakistan

It’s just not cricket:

Commonwealth must suspend Pakistan

Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Says Musharraf Fails To Keep His Promise to Restore Democracy in Pakistan

Things have gone very wrong in Pakistan.
Its journey towards democracy was further derailed last Saturday, when General Musharraf, the head of army, declared a state of emergency that suspended the Constitution, sacked members of the Supreme Court and suppressed all dissent across the country.
The declaration came days before the Supreme Court was due to hand down a decision that may have stripped the General of the presidency, on the basis that it was illegal for him to head both the army and the Government.
The response of the global community has ranged between outright condemnation of a virtual coup to reserved comments based in alliance, rather than recognition of the absolute disregard for democracy, the rule of law and judicial independence.
Next Monday – the 12th of November – a little known mechanism, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, or CMAG, will meet to consider the declaration of emergency in Pakistan. The Group will look at whether the declaration of emergency represents such a strong blow against the commitments to democracy and human rights underpinning Commonwealth membership that Pakistan should be suspended.
This is a critical moment, both to confirm the fundamental political values of the Commonwealth, but also for the world, as CMAG is one of the few mechanisms that has the power to sanction a government treading so far from globally accepted standards of good governance. The United Nations doesn’t have this power – and its actions are moderated by eternal deliberation.
No one – least of all its South Asian neighbours – want an unstable, fragmented and ungovernable Pakistan. General Musharraf claims that the emergency is a move to ensure stability – and uses the threat of terrorism to justify the suppression of political opposition. The reality is that the emergency is creating exactly the environment that it seeks to prevent, and is putting regional security, democratic governance and the wellbeing of Pakistani communities at grave risk.
CMAG is the opportunity for the Commonwealth to reaffirm unequivocally that democracy, democratic processes and institutions, the rule of law and just and honest government are the fundamental political values of the Commonwealth (as set out in the Harare Declaration, the set of principles that CMAG is mandated to protect). Swift action signalling total disapproval of the General’s actions will reinforce that membership of the Commonwealth is predicated on an absolute promise to protect and promote these values. CMAG has taken action before – in Nigeria following the imposition of military rule in 1995 and in Fiji late last year, after Commodore Bainarama overthrew the democratically elected government.
Pakistan itself was suspended from the Commonwealth following General Musharraf’s military coup in 1999. It was readmitted as a member of the Commonwealth in 2004, on the basis of a promise to entrench democratic governance. General Musharraf also promised to hang up his army uniform, in recognition of the clear breach of democratic standards that comes with a leader heading up both the army and the government. General Musharraf has not kept this promise, despite further prodding from the Commonwealth Heads of Government in late 2005, international pressure, and the latest rounds of legal action inside Pakistan that precipitated the declaration of emergency. Pakistan has remained on CMAGs agenda since it rejoined the Commonwealth, in recognition of the tenuous state of democracy and human rights in the country.
CMAG must suspend Pakistan from the Commonwealth on Monday. It is a particularly significant moment, as the Commonwealth Heads of Government come together in a little over a fortnight for their biennial meeting, to discuss issues of concern in the Commonwealth and to set policy for the next two years. Pakistan’s attendance at this meeting as a member of the Commonwealth would make an absolute mockery of the very basis of Commonwealth membership. It would also be the loss of a real chance for the world to demonstrate that internationally accepted principles of good governance and democracy are true standards and not just comforting words.

Naxal Violence Jharkhand

NAXALS KILL SON OF FORMER JHARKHAND CHIEF MINISTER BABULAL MARANDI

By Manuwant Choudhary

Former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi's son Anup is among the 17 killed in a naxal attack in Jharkhand's Chilkhadi village around 1 a.m. today.
50 naxals in CRPF uniforms sat amongs the crowd at a village performance and attacked during the end of the cultural show...naxals included women.
In March Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MP Sunil Mahto was similarly shot dead by naxals.
This just goes to prove that the creation of the new Jharkhand state was a big. big mistake.
As a journalist covering Bihar..I was quite alone in opposing the bifurcation of the state.
The BJP thought they could never defeat Laloo in a united Bihar so why not divide the state and keep Jharkhand to themselves and leave a divided Bihar to floods and Laloo.
Its an irony that Laloo is ruling Jharkhand and BJP and Nitish have to now deal with the serious problems of poverty and floods in Bihar.
Meanwhile, naxals have grown in strength, they enjoy political patronage and even when Babulal Marandi was chief minister of Jharkhand he offered money to the naxals to surrender. Many did surrender, took the governments money and rejoined the naxals again.
Indiavikalp condemns the recent naxals violence in Jharkhand even while Sonia Gandhi tours communist China.

California Fires

Arson behind California fires: BBC Reports

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger facing the heat

BBC reports the US police have offered a $70,000 reward and called in FBI investigators to capture an alleged arsonist they believe started one of the larger fires.
Orange County officials are convinced the Santiago Canyon blaze, which broke out on Sunday, was no accident.
Around 15 blazes remain untamed but fire chiefs said they had "turned the corner"
The firestorm has ravaged at least 704 sq miles (1,825 sq km) of land from Santa Barbara down to the Mexican border.
More than 1,600 homes have been incinerated and over $1bn (£488m) of material damage caused by the wall of fire. US President George Bush after an aerial survey of the fires praised the Governor, "There is no mountain he is not willing to charge, no problem he is not willing to solve."

PM resignation call

RED-FACED MANMOHAN

By Manuwant Choudhary

New Delhi: I don't like Delhi.
But everytime I have stayed here for more than a few days governments start falling.
The last time was a few years ago when I just joined NDTV as a reporter my first cub assignment was the Jayalalitha-Sonia tea party, in that order.
In those days Sonia Gandhi made only a few public appearances and when she did she did not speak.
In the lobby of the venue there was only one man in a lungi on a cellphone - Subramanian Swamy - the maverick politician who runs a one-man political party called the Janata Party.
And everyone wondered whether Jaya and Sonia would come. The hall was empty except for a few scribes.
But soon more and more lungi clad South Indians all in white appeared followed by some commotion that was a huge almost Maharani-like Jayalalitha. But there was no sign of the other Maharani - Sonia.
Dr. Swamy remained steadfast...making a few more calls on his cell.
No sign of Sonia or even her Congressmen.
But soon a Kamal Nath appeared and one could be sure that `Madam' is coming.....
Come she did and what a tea party....The 13 month Vajpayee's NDA government fell.
But Sonia's crony's said madam after Rajivji only you deserve to be Prime Minister and the Italian Maharani fell for it...though the Congress did not have an outright majority she wanted to be PM. Mulayam spoilt it for her and elections were called. Vajpayee was back with a safe majority for the next five years. Godhra and Gujarat followed and the Congress Party just watched from the sidelines even when one of their former MPs was burnt alive.
So when the Congress Party got another opportunity for government formation they were wiser and Sonia `sacrficed' her PM chance to a Dr. Manmohan Singh - an architect of India's liberalisation.
Once PM Manmohan did everything the Congress Party, particularly Sonia asked him to.
Manmohan the finance minister did everything to save a bankrupt country.
Manmohan the PM does everything to save a bankrupt Congress.
A decade ago at one of his last fund-raising swimming pool party's in Bombay when Dr. Singh was still India's finance minister I had asked him if he would like to be the finance minister of any other political formation and he had replied, "I am a Congressman."
I had sensed that the United Front - goup of regional party's - would be coming to power. And India's liberalisation was so critical and another coalition which did not go forward on the liberal agenda would push the country back to bankruptcy.
But Manmohan is no Todar Mal.
Todar Mal was the finance minister of Sher Shah. But when Akbar became emperor after Sher Shah died and the Mughals took charge of India, Akbar continued with Todar Mal as India's finance minister simply because he was the best man for the job.
So Akbar became Akbar the Great.
But Manmohan the Great became Manmohan the Prime Minister, thanks to Sonia and then he thought the Congress Party was Supreme.
And so he got into a nuclear deal with Bush thinking that his allies would be with him just as they tugged along on the issue of economic liberalsation.
It backfired.
And most newspapers in the past week have been full of calls for the PMs resignation.
Should he go?
Everyone's watching a red-faced Manmohan these days!

The Other Bhutto

Fatima Bhutto: "BENAZIR'S RETURN WILL PLUNGE PAKISTAN INTO TURMOIL"

Fatima, neice of Benazir Bhutto, says Pakistan's former Prime Minister should own up for the death of 139 people whom she sacrificed for the sake of her `personal theatre'.
Fatima's father Murtaza was killed during the premiership of Benazir and her columns in Pakistan and on internet sites are highly political and although she is not entering politics right away she is definitely the other Bhutto to watch out for.

SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 124 INJURES 320

ATTACK ON BENAZIR'S CARCADE

BENAZIR ESCAPES UNHURT

CNN reports how a suicide bomber first throws a handgrenade to distract attention and then triggers another powerful blast just as Benazir Bhutto gets inside her bullet and blast proof truck, killing 124 and injuring 320.
A vehicle just behind Benazir's truck has been blown up and some 20 People' Party of Pakistan's leaders have been killed. But most of those killed are security persons.
This just shows that the return of democracy to Pakistan is not going to be easy.
Besides, it exposes President Musharaf's security arrangements. Just before the blasts CNN reported how easy it was to get close to the vehicle carrying Benazir.
Its said to be among the top ten most powerful blasts in the past ten years and observers say it was nothing but a plot to assassinate Benazir Bhutto.

PAKISTAN POLITICS

BENAZIR BHUTTO RETURNS TO PAKISTAN TODAY

DOES THIS MARK THE RETURN OF DEMOCRACY?

By Zeeshan

United Kingdom: There have recently been talks of National Reconciliation in Pakistan. My personal opinion is that it is going to be in the best of federation's interest.
BENAZIR BHUTTO (the chairperson of the biggest political party in Pakistan) had suggested it to be the most appropriate way of transition to democracy. The general outlook of reconciliation aims at allowing the dictator Gen. Musharaf to be elected as president for the next term and in return he will shed his military uniform. On the other hand, political parties will get all politically motivated cases dropped against their leaderships. Accordingly to a rough estimation about 550 cases are dropped out of which about 13 cases were against BENAZIR BHUTTO and her husband. One more bargain has been made and that is on elections issue. The elections will be held under neutral care-taker government and there will be no intervention by the military or by its agencies. On paper it looks like a real chance of taking the country to democracy where there will be no biased laws restricting any political leader from contesting elections and there will be no role of military in politics.

But in reality it is totally different. Gen. Musharaf has recently been on the back-foot because of insurgent independent media and judicial activism. The general public & civil society are sensing blood and they are in no mood to let Gen. Musharaf to hold on to power even as a civilian President. But what people are unable to understand is that if Gen. Musharaf is pushed too much to the wall he might end up taking drastic decisions which could see folding up everything including media, judiciary and the parliament. On ground people are blaming BENAZIR BHUTTO to helping the man-in-power to linger on. But in reality BENAZIR BHUTTO is ensuring that this down fall is not stopping by emotional decisions. In fact, she has made it institutional by reaching to an understanding that Gen. stays as president without the army uniform and political parties are given level-playing ground with independent election commission, media and active judiciary which in no way is a bad start to a journey towards real democracy.

As a result, PPP have taken all the mess of last 8 years of military rule on their shoulders as they did in 1988 (towards the end of last martial Law) but still provided a ray of hope which only history can judge. Current players and audience are just not good enough to evaluate it.

In my personal opinion, if BENAZIR BHUTTO has secured the following three things then she has saved her future and of her party's (party’s future is linked with Pakistan’s future given PPP is the biggest party in the county);

1. Dropping of all politically motivated cases
2. Securing 3rd term as Prime Minister (A biased Law was introduced by Gen. Musharaf banning her to be a Prime Minister for the third time)
3. Last but the most important, a security from the west regarding establishment's support for an extended period. It is important because party is an anti-establishment party and has had serious confrontation with establishment which saw BENAZIR BHUTTO’s father (elected prime minister) hanged and three brothers killed. Since the judicial-murder of late Bhutto during the last martial law Pakistan’s politics has been divided into Pro-Bhutto and Anti-Bhutto. There has not been any third political force in Pakistan. Traditionally, the anti group includes Pakistan Muslim League (different fractions) and MMA (the religious Alliance). Both these actors are pro-establishment which makes them anti-Bhutto. In today’s changed world these pro-establishment groups have little leverage because of their sympathies towards fundamental & radical Islam. However, PPP has over the years aligned itself with Washington. Gen. Musharaf has cleverly used these pro-establishment groups for black mailing west and prolonging his power by rigging the last general elections and giving these pro-establishment groups huge political space. The Pakistan Muslim League is heading the government whereas the religious alliance is having opposition leader and the PPP that won the highest number of votes is systematically denied power. It is important to note that MMA were playing a double game; they were openly criticizing Gen. Musharaf for acting on US agenda and behind doors were strengthening him. It was MMA that helped him to pass a constitutional amendment which allowed him to be a president in uniform. And today this MMA is again preparing to go into the next general election on anti-musharaf campaign so that all the anti-musharaf voters can be controlled. In such scenario the role of BENAZIR BHUTTO and PPP becomes very significant as she is the only real opposition to military rule (the other big opposition name is NAWAZ SHARIF who is in exile because of a deal he stuck with Gen. Musharaf in 2000 that allowed him amnesty for not taking part in politics for next 10 years). Therefore we will switch back to the understanding she has reached with Gen. Musharaf.

The National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) has taken account of the first point mentioned above. And Secretary of states’ recent statement is a clear indication about the third point in which she categorically highlighted the political role BENAZIR BHUTTO can play in setting forth the future priorities of Pakistan. We will see that the second point will be addressed before the next general elections as well-abolishing the law of banning the third term as premier.

There has recently been severe media trail of BENAZIR BHUTTO and PPP. But the question is;

Do people listen to media commentators who criticize BENAZIR BHUTTO on behalf of the alternative which is Pakistan Muslim League, MMA and Gen. Musharaf himself?

For these commentators, it is not very difficult to see that they have seen their analysis proving wrong regarding NAWAZ SHARIF’s return when they predicted that a storm of people would welcome NAWAZ SHARIF on his return but not even a few hundred people turned up. And given their criticism of BENAZIR BHUTTO they will again see their analysis going wrong when she will return home on 18 October 2007. It may be noted because of historical reasons the present media is largely pro-establishment.

It is very important for analysts to note that if people are not happy with the deal between the PPP and the government then why these analysts forget that people are also not happy about the underground relations among MMA, Pakistan Muslim league and the military.

Time and again it has been proved that when BENAZIR BHUTTO said she is not going to make an opposition alliance with the religious elements or Nawaz Sharif needs to stay away from religious alliance, she was absolutely right. The people of Pakistan have seen how these religious elements have helped Gen. Musharaf to hang on to power. Why in the final analysis, the leadership of PPP forget this. Due to the anti-military roots of PPP even the middle-to-lower level leadership of PPP is criticizing BENAZIR BHUTTO for reaching an understating with the military. It is understandable that PPP supporters are definitely not considering this reconciliation as a perfect solution but they ALSO understand that there is no other way. Does the leadership think that the PPP worker is going to vote for Pakistan Muslim league or even to the religious alliance just because of this reconciliation with army? History says, in bold, NO.

The middle-to-lower leadership of PPP doesn’t even understand the dynamics of their own vote bank-starting from Itzaz ahsan (main character in recent judicial activism & PPP’s member of national assembly) to Raza rabani (leader of the opposition in Senate) to every one (these leaders are apparently not comfortable with the understaffing with military). The important question for these PPP leaders is that why BENAZIR BHUTTO had to turn to army once again? What good has this leadership done when she gave them a free hand to take the party into elections of 2002 while she was in exile? They gifted PPP workers and supporters with First-ever friction within. It saw party members joining Gen. Musharaf’s government while hindering from the party stance. Were these leaders able to ensure a safe return of BENAZIR BHUTTO into the county without turning to military? And now they are putting everything on her shoulders and walking away from the mess they have created. It is not her fault. It is the fault of those who are criticizing BENAZIR BHUTTO for talking to military. These 'great' leaders left no other option for her. I am talking about those leaders of PPP, who are dissenting. And people, at large, understand this.

Now there are only two ways in front of PPP workers in particular and of common voters in general. (NAWAZ SHARIF is out of the picture, credit goes to religious elements again) First of all, dissent with BENAZIR BHUTTO and get ready to be governed by black marketers, ex-offenders and fundamentalists happened to be the current setup. And listen to middle-to-lower leadership who can not do any harm to this clan supported by the establishment. The evidence of that is the last 8 years during that time both BENAZIR BHUTTO and NAWAZ SHARIF were exile and middle-to-lower level leadership of both the parties could do nothing to bring them back.

Alternatively, get ready to welcome her and make sure she is strengthened. Even NAWAZ SHARIF supporters will get what they want-the return of their leader, if she is strengthened. Therefore, NAWAZ SHARIF supporters need to vote for BENAZIR BHUTTO as well and they need to strictly avoid their middle-to-lower leadership’s point of view. They need to remember that if today NAWAZ SHARIF is not among them then it is only because of this leadership. If the common Pakistani understands this thing then I do not see the storm starting from Karachi airport on 18 October 2007 stopping before putting every single fragile tree off its roots.

However, BENAZIR BHUTTO has got tough challenges for her third tenure in terms of bad law and order situation in the country, rising fundamentalism and extremism alongside Afghan border and apprehensive silence by eastern neighbor on peace process.

While concluding, it is not difficult to see that Pakistan is coming back to normal and democratic institutions taking course of the country. And history will define the critical role BENAZIR BHUTTO played in ensuring so. She has showed her political maturity that she is fighting against the role of an institution in politics and not rule of any individual. The current ‘deal’ has ensured the victory for BENAZIR BHUTTO’s point of view. But leaders who are now fighting for personality change have no agenda. BENAZIR BHUTTO has understood, hopefully others will, as well. SOONER THE BETTER.

Always respect free and informed will.

BURMA SILENCED BY THE GUN

BURMA'S MILITARY JUNTA IMPRISON AN ENTIRE PEOPLE

INDIA'S CONGRESS PARTY FRIENDS OF BURMA'S BRUTAL MILITARY JUNTA

By Manuwant Choudhary

Its not just Aung San Suu Kyi who is under house arrest for 11 of her 18 years in Burma...recent events show that the military junta has imprisoned an entire people. And shockingly India's Congress government says that democracy in Burma is an `internal' issue of Burma.
Why was the same logic not used for Bangladesh by the Congress Party?
Well, Congress politicians will tell you its strategic and economic reasons that compels the silence.
In reality India is gung ho about Burma's military regime. Congress politicians enjoy a good rapport with the Military Junta. India's Border Road Organisation builds wide world class highways in Burma even while most of India are without roads.
Its oil, road and arms.
The Indian Ordnance factories supply pistols and INSAS rifles to the Burmese army.
But why just the Congress. India's former defence minister George Fernandes is known to be a vocal supporter of pro-democracy activists of Burma. Many activists are known to have lived and worked out of his official residence. Yet, India's relations with the Burma Military Junta started during the last NDA regime with BJP foreign minister Jaswant Singh visiting Rangooon.
So there is no support to the Burma cause from India's main opposition party as well.
The recent happenings in Burma have opened a debate and many feel the time has come to free the people of Burma.
A debate on Facebook went like this,
"If the US can free Iraq and Afghanistan ..surely it can free Burma..."
"No, a military solution to Burma is no solution. What is happening in Burma is a non-violent struggle. We must respect that."
"Just Send the army."
"Why army, Just Send More Monks."

It's Oil

CNN EXPOSES INDIA'S SILENCE OVER BURMA

INDIA'S PRIME MINISTER SILENT ON BURMA

INDIA'S OIL MINISTER SIGNS OIL DEAL WITH MILITARY JUNTA

Last Sunday India's Petroleum Minister Murli Deora signed an oil deal with the Burmese miltary junta for India's ONGC even when monks marched on Burma's streets for freedom.
Indiavikalp has been questioning the Indian governments silence on the Burma issue for the past week even when dozens of monks, activists and a journalist have been killed by the Burmese miltary junta.
India's Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has not uttered a word on Burma.
Despite sanctions 9 foreign companies are exploring 16 onshore blocks for oil and gas, while 9 companies explore for offshore oil and gas.
Burma's democracy activists call the companies doing business with the junta `The Dirty List'.

A Martyr For Truth

THE WORLD MOURNS THE DEATH OF KENJI NAGAI

By Manuwant Choudhary

Japanese photojournalist Kenji Nagai shot dead at point blank range by Burmese troops, his only crime was that he was a journalist telling the world the truth about Burma.
Video footage shows clearly a soldier in uniform firing the shot.
But the military junta says Nagai was shot dead by a stray bullet.
The bullet actually pierced his heart.
After Japan orders its own inquiry and the growing international condemnation forces the Myanmar military government to apologise.
Japan mourns the death of its brave journalist.
Nagai broke free of the ban on independent media in Burma to do his job and at the moment he was shot by the soldier, he shot back but with his camera. The last footage shows Nagai lying in pain on a Rangoon street but holding his camera up, not letting it go - trying to save his photos for the world to see.
Not just Japan but the entire free world mourns Nagai's death.

Aung San Suu Kyi

For Freedom and Democracy

A MUTED INDIAN VOICE FOR BURMA

"The only prison is fear, and the only freedom is freedom," Aung San Suu Kyi.

By Manuwant Choudhary

13 killed in Burma and more than 300 monks arrested by the military junta but there has been a muted reaction from the government in India.
Thankyou Karan Thapar for taking on the government of India on Burma on CNBC as well as exposing the response of the Indian media on Burma.
On the show former Indian Prime Minister Mr.I.K. Gujral said he was ashamed of the Indian response to Burma. "The Burmese fought for freedom alongside us against the British. We owe our freedom to them. Aung Saan's father was a student leader during our freedom struggle and I am shocked at the Indian governments response on the matter."
A two line printed text from India's foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee calling for restraint in Burma is all that India has offered.
Its certain the Indian government and the Congress Party are cowards.
No word from our Indian communists also who take to the streets at the drop of a pin.
News is also that China and Russia veto a resolution on Burma in the UN.
But the world is watching and internet sites like Facebook have a huge response on the Support Burma Campaign with more than 75,000 members worldwide in just a few days.
The campaign has emergency UN telephone numbers in Burma for people needing help and the movement calls upon all world citizens to wear red on Friday for freedom in Burma.

SUPPORT BURMA FOR FREEDOM

By Manuwant Choudhary

Latest news from BBC is that police have arrested a few monks and attacked several others...even as thousands of monks take to the streets for the ninth day.
Analysts fear there could be violence just like what happened in 1988 but its also understood that the Buddhist monks in Burma are a moral authority and respected by all sections of society.
So its going to be a lot more difficult for the military junta to take BIG action against them.
CNN showed visuals of a junta Brigadier squatting on the floor reading a few lines of prepared text to the senior monks requesting them to abandon the protests or else the military will have to take action against them.
A few key monasteries in Rangoon have been surrounded by troops.
There is no doubt there is a relationship between pro-democracy activists and the monks and one report says when the monks protest reached Aung Saan Suu Kyi's residence the imprisoned leader was given a chance to have a glimpse of the outside world from her gates and she had a quiet tear.
Yes, no word from the Indian government on Burma.
Indian television channels are celebrating India's win in the T-20 World Cup but such is the overdose of celebrations that politicians like Sharad Pawar and Co...sit on the front row at Wankhede stadium while Team India sits at the back - hidden from the cameras.
And no Indian TV channel has a reporter in neighbouring Burma.
If Indian TV have a way..they would decide everything..right from the Indian Idol to T-20 World Cup to even settling Burma...through SMS.
As for the Congress Party, Rahul Gandhi quietly becomes the general secretary of the party after losing the UP polls but to become India's Prime Minister one day.
If there is one family which loves Indian-style democracy its the Nehru-Gandhi family.
There is only one difference between Burma's military junta and the Nehru-Gandhi family - the latter don't belong to the official military - they call their army the Congress Party..
Not to be left behind the BJP's national president Rajnath Singh also appoints his son as general secretary.
And Sonia Gandhi's visit to China is final.

Burma Marches For Freedom

WHY IS THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT SILENT ON BURMA?

By Manuwant Choudhary

More than 10,000 Buddhist monks and a lakh protestors march on the streets of Burma ...what started off as a protest against fuel price hike is now a protest for freedom..even as monks distribute photos of detained opposition leader Aun San Suu Kyi, despite threats from the military junta.
BBC Reports one monk telling AP, "Do not tolerate the military rule any longer."
Is this a fight to the finish?
Even as the German government has come out in full support of the peaceful protests and America plans further sanctions against the military regime..India is silent.
Yes, no Indian media organisation thinks it fit to even ask our Congress leaders why they support the military regime in Burma.
But that may be because our foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee is busy talking to China on the sidelines of the UN Assembly and basically anyone who is willing to support India on the 123 Agreement.
What a price to pay? Nuclear engery in exchange for values like freedom!

Independence Day Now

This Part of...
India
Is Brought To You By....

By T.V. Vinu

Cochin: I still remember those days. Only a few owned television sets at that time. On Independence day, I and my friends would run home from school, after the morning "mass assembly", to reach in time to watch the parade telecasted from Delhi.
We would watch the school children march by; the tableaus and the dancers; the armed forces - on foot, on horses, on camels...and there would be the fly-past. The fly-past used to give us goose bumps. The bands would march by, playing tunes
that excited us. We would watch with awe, as the tanks and missile carriers rolled by.
There would be the Presidential Address, which none of us would really listen to (that was a boring part, then.).
And in the end there would be the National Anthem. We children would stand up in 'attention', in front of the television. In the end, we would cry at the top of our voice "Jai Hind"!
August 15th, 2007 just passed by and it was just another holiday. I slept a little longer than usual.
When I woke up, I could hear the national anthem being played in the nearby school. I didn't even think of turning on the TV. Watching the celebrations live from Red Fort on Doordarshan is...a cliché. But then, no other channel broadcasts the celebrations live.
There are "Independence Day Special" programs and "Independence Day Special Movies" on every other channel. Any programme with the tricolor as background is an "Independence Day Special" programme. Any film in which Shah Rukh Khan or Amithab Bachan is seen with the national flag is an "Independence Day Special" movie. Every programme or movie has a "short break" every 10
mins, lasting 10mins. All the companies, especially the MNCs, are eager to wish the viewers a Happy Independence Day.
A good part of the TV viewing is spent viewing the advertisements. But then, it is only a matter of choice - to see or not to see.
So, I picked up the newspaper and felt it heavier than usual. There were some additional pages to commemorate the 60 years of Independence. There were some rare pre and post independence photographs, editorials and articles. They were inspirational and gave a feel of India at that time. But the most depressing part was that, the articles and photographs filled only half of every page. The other half was full with advertisements. Almost 3/4th of the page on which the famous "Tryst with Destiny" speech of Shri Jawaharlal Nehru was printed, was filled with advertisement.
Did I tell you I was reading a national daily which celebrated a Hundred years long back in 1978? The paper claimed that the press had played an important part towards an independent India and boasted of their commitment to the people of India. Well I see it!!
My mobile phone beeps as the Independence Day messages keep pouring in. My Orkut scrap book is full of Independence Day wishes and Gmail inbox is full of messages asking me to change my photo to that of a tricolor.
But I don't find that old excitement. As I lie on my favourite arm chair, with a TV remote and a copy of the national daily by my side, I remember the good old days. That excitement, that togetherness, those goose bumps... Some day I would like to be free... Some day I would like to stand in attention...to sing the national anthem... Some day i would like to cry on top of my voice....."JAI HIND"!

Courtesy: Mindtext, an e-journal brought out by students for Centre For Public Policy Research, Cochin, Kerala.

The Best Broadcast Journalist

Robert Atkins or Bob as we knew him made me a broadcast journalist. He passed away recently and for all those who knew him or studied under him, we deeply mourn his death. Journalists like Bob are the reason why BBC reporters are a cut above the rest. We miss him deeply.
Manuwant Choudhary, student at the School for Journalism Studies, University of Wales, Cardiff, UK, 1998.

An Obituary
Robert Atkins 1943- 2007
By Terry Threadgold

Bob Atkins, who, with Colin Larcombe, headed the postgraduate Diploma in Broadcast journalism in the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies for the past fifteen years, died suddenly just over a week ago. Bob had been associated with the school, and with the teaching of broadcast journalism within it, since its beginnings in 1983. In that year, Mike Ungersma, now retired, arrived to teach broadcast under the leadership of Sir Tom Hopkinson.
This week, from Germany, Mike has recollected Bob’s fervent support then, as Editor of BBC Radio Wales, ‘for well educated and trained young people’ who wanted a career in broadcast journalism. Before he joined the Centre for Journalism (the CJS), long before it was the school we know today, he spent more than 20 years at the BBC as a journalist, editor and manager. He worked as an editor at BBC Radio Wales, an executive producer for the World Service news and current affairs, and was a current affairs producer at BBC Television.
But Bob was not only committed to the best of broadcast journalism, he was also committed to Wales. He was extraordinarily well informed about the country, its people, its history and culture and he had learned the Welsh language and supported the training of Welsh speaking journalists throughout the time that he taught at Cardiff. He was a great defender of the idea of ‘Welshness’ and had no patience with those who did not appreciate the value of the Welsh language.
In October 1992, Bob was appointed to the position he held until he died. Between that time and last week he trained many well known broadcast journalists, including BBC foreign correspondents Damian Grammaticas and Chris Hogg, as well as Newsround presenter Laura Jones. Dozens and dozens of broadcast students have reason to be thankful for Bob’s years as a teacher and for the 110% he always gave to his students and the course. Broadcast journalism in Great Britain and beyond is better today because of the dedication of Bob Atkins.
He was one of those wonderful, demanding teachers who would not tolerate mediocrity, and whose students all felt that he took them to places they would never have gone alone or without him. The broadcast course was Bob’s life and soul. He was unfailingly generous with his time and his energies and he worked tirelessly to make sure all his students were trained well. He took enormous pride in the prizes they won and the things they went on to do. He was a loyal and caring friend and mentor.
The broadcast course at Cardiff is now recognised as the premier course in the country and that is because of Bob. He is, and will be, sadly missed by all his present and past students and by all of those who have worked with him over the years. He leaves a huge gap and he will be a hard act to follow. As Colin Larcombe has said: ‘He was simply the best.’
Terry ThreadgoldHead, Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural StudiesJune 7, 2007

DEMOCRACY'S SHAME

PEOPLE FALL AT POLICE CHIEF FEET FOR HELP!

By Manuwant Choudhary

Bihar chief minister's Janata Durbars are now just Durbar with mothers of kidnapped victims literally touching the police chief's feet begging for help and the top cops enjoy the worship!
And with no trace of many of the kidnapped victims and the growing pressure from the media...the telephone calls from 1, Anne Marg, to the news offices have become regular. Even the DGP sends an SMS to the reporter who telecast this story.
DGP: "Be A Good Friend."
Reporter: "We Are."

Revive Swatantra Party

NEED A POLITICAL PARTY OPPOSED TO INTRUSIVE STATE

By Jaithirth Rao

Tired of Socialists

Don’t we need a new political party that defends free markets and opposes an intrusive state?

Milton Friedman once mentioned that both Japan and India imitated Britain when they embarked on their transitions. In 1868, after the Meiji revolution, Japan imitated Britain as it was in 1868—committed to free markets, vigorous global trade and laissez-faire market capitalism. Japan saw Britain in this incarnation as its role model. In 1947, free India noticed that Britain had a Labour government committed to socialism, nationalizing the coal and steel industries, restricting free markets, and India decided to imitate this version of Britain, one that was largely inspired by the Fabians. Laski and Attlee, the London School of Economics gurus, had an emphatic influence on free India’s leaders.
One could argue that it was indeed a pity that India did not get its freedom in 1868. The zeitgeist of the times would have ensured that India would have committed itself to a market-oriented growth option instead of one that was focused on redistributing wealth before it was created. Instead, even leading Indian businessmen approved of, and advocated, nationalizations and state interventions as enunciated in the well-known Bombay plan.

As the predations, restrictions and interventions of socialistic India got stronger, a point of view emerged which argued that not only was the infamous permit-licence raj crippling the Indian economy, it was becoming a menace to individual liberties. A baneful nexus was developing between the Indian elite and the Indian government, which was inimical to markets and supportive of a state which could all too easily slide into a fascist prototype.

What we today call crony capitalism was shown up by economist R.K. Hazari, who came up with data that influential Indian businessmen were cornering licences (a formal barrier to entry for less well-connected entrepreneurs) and frequently not setting up the businesses and factories that they were licensed to start. The era of shortages suited the business and political elite.

It was at this time that C. Rajagopalachari and Minoo Masani founded the Swatantra Party as a defender of private property rights, an opponent of the permit-licence raj (an expression coined by Rajagopalachari) and of the ever-growing Indian state. It is interesting to note that the Swatantra Party got its support from the disappearing princely order—the maharajas and nawabs of India, not from businessmen who preferred a Faustian bargain with state socialism rather than press for free markets.

By 1967, the Swatantra Party, with its emphasis on minimalism in government, gained ground and in at least a couple of states, it was on the verge of power. But the party never fully matured into an alternative to the socialism-obsessed Congress or to the numerous parties based on regional chauvinism, caste followings or religious ideology that have since developed on the Indian scene. After its ill-fated merger with the Janata Party and the fragmentation of that party, people even gave up the hope of campaigning on a quasi-libertarian platform. But the Swatantra Party ensured that India did not drift into the worst of socialist excesses such as collective farming. That remains one of its most enduring legacies.
With the possible exception of Narasimha Rao (and that, too, for a short period), no Indian leader or party seems to have a genuine sympathy for, or commitment to, market-friendly principles in a political sense. At best, they pay obeisance to the market when forced to. By upbringing and temperament it is an interventionist state that they are comfortable with. At the first chance, or under the slightest pressure, they revert to the tired socialist doctrines of envy and distribution of largesse. The BJP preferred not to privatize oil companies when it had the chance. The patronage associated with doling out petrol dealerships was too important to lose. The Congress seems to suffer from nostalgia for the “Hindoo” rate of growth because if no one gets wealthy, there is no one to envy!

That is why we are forced to ask ourselves: should we not have a political party that is a khullam-khulla defender of markets and an opponent of an intrusive state?

S.V. Raju of the Indian Liberal Group has been trying to register a political party that is expressly opposed to socialism. He is making very little headway. The broader question is whether, even if he did, would such a party have electoral success? The general view is that without the benefits of caste permutations, religious zeal, regional passions or dynastic PR, no political party can succeed in contemporary India. Does this mean that we concede the intellectual forum to leftists and obscurantists? Once we do this, as citizens of the republic we lose the right to complain as they perpetuate our poverty and ensure that we will never catch up with the Koreas and the Chinas. Whatever our decision, in the practical realm we must take heart from the Swatantra experience. The Party members did not become ministers—but by their very existence and by their bold articulation, they did influence the polity for the better. Herein lies an opportunity.

Even if it is not a formal party, only a society, it is important that the argument for economic and political freedoms (which are intertwined) must be made loudly, clearly and cogently. In this area, we can learn from the Fabian Society, not their ill-conceived ideas but their organizational methods. They kept talking, writing, communicating—and over time, their ideas became fashionable among politicians who may have never heard of the Fabians. The revived Swatantra should, at a minimum, aim to fulfil this role.

This article was published in the Mint, on 8 June 2007. Please read the original article here.
Author: Mr Rao is an entrepreneur and a writer based in Bangalore.

MOB JUSTICE

10 ALLEGED THIEVES KILLED IN BIHAR

By Manuwant Choudhary

Patna: Villagers kill 10 alleged thieves in Dhelphodwa village in Vaishali in Bihar and only one of the thieves are rescued by the police.
This is just one amongst a series of such incidents that have taken place in recent months and ironically the name of the village `Dhelphodwa' denotes violence ..in Bihari it could mean `throwing stones'.
So nothing has changed in modern Bihar from the days when it was accepted that any offender could be stoned to death.
Just a few days back two youth suffered the wrath of the public when they were attempting to steal a motorcycle and when caught the public blinded the youth.
And a few weeks ago the TV footage of a policeman dragging a thief tied to a motorcycle made headline news after he was severely beaten up by the mobs.
In Dhelpodhwa village people take law into their own hands after several dacoities in the past few months and police inaction. So last night the villagers laid a trap and when the thieves entered the village under cover of darkness, the villagers arrest them and beat them to death.
There is no remorse about this from at least the villagers who say this is their only way to protect themselves as the police are often hand-in-glove with the criminals and justice has no chance.
At the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Darbar (where ordinary people come and complain directly to the CM), this Monday there were 1600 complaints against the police.
One couple complained that their son had been kidnapped 5 months ago and the police give no information. When the Chief Minister asks the Bihar Director General of Police Mr. Aashish Ranjan Sinha to inquire, the top cop calls the police station and without much conversation coldly informs the victim's mother..."Wo to maara gaya....He has been killed.."
But no further information is given whether the boys body has been recovered or at least some clothes or who the criminals are behind the kidnappings.
And the kidnapped boy Aakash's parents are simply directed to the CMs private chambers instead of the Janata Durbar where the CM has nothing new to say except, "My sympathies are with you."
The Janata Durbar itself now has hundreds to victims crying for help and senior policemen just shouting them down, all in front of TV cameras.
One news channel said, "Now its no longer a Janata Durbar, Just Durbar."
Indiavikalp, a year ago, wrote to the Bihar chief minister to install CCTVs on all major roads in Patna. But there was no reply and no action either.
The Bihar police have an English speaking spokesman who just gives soundbites to keep the media in good humour, while another top cop runs a coaching institute Super 30 to secure Bihari's a place in the IITs, but every minute he teaches physics there is someone in Bihar under the custody of kidnappers.
And the latest is that he is only doing this to win the Magsasay Award.

LIBERALS OPPOSE SEZ

By Manuwant Choudhary

Hyderabad: Liberals from different parts of India oppose the policy of the government acquiring land for building Special Economic Zones (SEZ).
Some 30 liberals condemned incidents such as Nandigram and Singur in West Bengal where the Communist government has acquired large tracts of cultivable land of farmers for building a chemical hub and a car factory.
This was unanimously opposed by those present at the two day Roundtable Conference to decide on the future of liberal politics in the country held at the Sitara Hotel, Ramojirao City, Hyderabad.
Mr. Jerry Rao, CEO of Mphasis, encouraged liberals to revive the Swatantra Party and warned that the country cannot be left to the existing political parties.

PAXMAN'S LAW IN INDIAN TV

By Mr. Vinod Mehta in Outlook diary

Indian TV channels competing furiously for eyeballs should learn from Jeremy Paxman (he once called all British politicians `lying bastards'), the highest paid British TV journalist, as he attacks the 24/7 news channel culture: "In the very crowded world in which television lives, it won't do to whisper, natter, cogitate or muse. You have to shout.
The need is for constant sensation...We have a dynamic in news now that is less about uncovering things than it is about covering them."
"My point is," Paxman adds, "that there comes a point where frenzy has to be put on one side, the story halted, so that we can make sense of things. Television journalism's justification should be the justification of journalism through the ages: to inquire, to explain and to hold to account. The news may have been dull, but it was respected because it made sense of the day. That involved people assessing, filtering, separating froth from what mattered. It was, in short, the exercise of clear judgement. And in return it demanded-and got-the trust of the audience."

Blog TV

For Breaking News Search Blogs!

This is what we call empowerment. Just click the TV links alongside and watch the Hyderabad Bomb blast news right here on the Blog in real time if you're using a broadband.
Blog TV is unique and you can even edit and post your stories using YouTube at your own blog and if you have a great footage mainstream media may just be chasing you all the way!
The Right to Know! For this we thank Google.

Jodhpur Prison Diary

What did Katrina Kaif tell Salman Khan in the Jodhpur prison?
Katrina: `Just Chill'!

Yerwada Prison Diary

Will someone gift Sanjay Dutt a T-shirt that says `WARNING: Please Do Not Shake My Hands'?
If only Sanjay had worn such a T-shirt the prison guards would not be sentenced and jailed.
But if I was Sanjay Dutt I would simply shake hands with the Director General of Police, Maharashtra!

India-EU Free Trade

“The Indian Parliament and us are sold out”,
says Bihar’s Agriculture Minister.

Ministers outburst at European Union-India Free Trade Workshop

By Manuwant Choudhary

Patna: “Slaves we will become anyhow..what we are doing here is conducting a post-mortem of our very own dead body…this country is doing that job..these people you see here sitting on the dias..are doing that job…those people sitting there in the `Gumbaj’ (round) building..those sold out people…people like me who are sold out…we have come here to sign the missive of death….”, said Bihar’s Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh.
Ironically, his outburst was against the Free Trade Agreement between India and European Union but what shocked everyone was how the minister attacked the very forum that invited him.
The workshop was not to debate Free Trade per se but essentially to discuss and get a feed back from exporters, businessmen and farmers about how India must conduct itself when the Free Trade regime happens.
In a Free Trade regime its been decided to free 90 per cent of the 5,700 items from customs duty. Essentially, free trade means no custom duty at all on any product from either country but here the agreement is to free 90 per cent of the items while 10 per cent will be kept under what is called `Most Sensitive List’. This list the Indian government explains has been kept in order to protect our own sensitive sectors where our production level is high and will suffer if there is an duty-free import.
But it was strange to see that this regional meet for West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand was being organized in Bihar where there are very few exporters if any. And so apart from the speech of the minister there was virtually no feedback from the public, except two persons:
….one said how if milk and milk products are kept under the sensitive list as planned by the government of India then what will happen to the milk sugar that’s used as a base for Homoeopathy medicines which are consumed mostly by the poor. A 25 kilo bag of milk sugar that cost Rs.750 some time back costs Rs.8,500 now and only because the three Indian factories making them have shut down long before the Free Trade Agreement for other reasons. A custom duty on milk sugar would make this even more expensive.
And the second spoke of maize, “If maize seeds are put under `sensitive’ list it will mean a custom duty on high yielding maize seeds although Indian farmers need those seeds as there is a maize shortfall in the country.”
Having got few fedbacks the minister did some face-saving and said that the Indian government must have got feedback from traders in Punjab and Andhra Pradesh so Bihar's opinion on such matters will be the same as Punjab and Andhra Pradesh, "After all we are Indians."
Having attended this meet one wondered how these bureaucrats and politicians were in charge of deciding customs duty on a 100 per cent products for the past 60 years and now I fully comprehend how and why India did go bankrupt.
I cannot say of other items but if any then Bihar’s Agriculture Minister deserves to be on the `Most Sensitive List’.

Nepal Crisis

I'M NEPALI TOO

Even as Nepal announces elections and political parties still debate on what to do with their King and Country the real issues remain unaddressed - among them on how the continuing political violence is destroying the livlihood of ordinary Nepalese and the Madhesi issue cofronting Nepal.
Prashant Jha - a journalist from Nepal - who has worked with magazines like Himal, Tehelka and was recently with the International Crisis Group, and now a freelance journalist, gives a first person account on what it means to be a Madhesi in todays Nepal.

This is not a saga of victimhood. To think of it in those terms would be an inaccurate representation of my life. I was born into an upper-class Kathmandu family. My parents are well ensconced in the capital's professional and social circuit. I went to good schools here, moved to India for higher education, got a job in Delhi with a Nepal-based magazine, and have rarely been made to feel like an outsider, at least publicly.
But things are never quite that simple. My forefathers on both sides are from Bihar, where we still have deep family links. My paternal grandfather settled in Rajbiraj, became a Nepali citizen six decades ago, and made the great leap to Kathmandu as it was getting out of the Rana rut in the 50s. I speak a mix of Hindi, English, and Maithili at home, in that order. My spoken Nepali is heavily interspersed with English and Hindi words. Reading the national language is a struggle and I don't plan to attempt writing in it anytime soon.
Language is a more substantive marker of distinction than we often acknowledge. In school, anticipating the move to India for further education, I opted for Hindi over Nepali. In class six, the significance of that hit home. While eating lunch, a friend said, in a mix of seriousness and jest, "You are a dhoti". When I discovered that the term—definitely derogatory—was associated with madhesis, who in turn were equated with Indians, I tried hard to run away from my identity. I hung around with Kathmandu kids, called the other Indians in school 'dhoti', and rationalised studying Hindi by saying it was what my parents wanted.
But I couldn't run too far. The differences were too many: we went vegetarian during Dushera as Kathmandu feasted on meat; we didn't do tika; Tihar was the one-day Diwali for me. My father, short and on the darker side, made it a point to wear kurta-pyjama. It was a dress I took to later and that, with the accented Nepali and the surname, often provoked the remark that we don't look Nepali. Telling people constantly that you are indeed a Nepali citizen is not pleasant. It's taken me time to come to terms with my identity. My liberal education and understanding of how the homogenising tendency works in society, and a sense of security, no doubt helped by the present political discourse of inclusiveness, allows me to be candid about my background. It gives me the confidence to give the brush off to those who question my 'Nepaliness'. In the last few years, I have reported occasionally on Nepal politics, which also gives me an added sense of citizenship and belonging.
My story is not representative. My family migrated from south of the border, while others' ancestors have been in the tarai for centuries. I was comfortable in English, the language of power, and moved out, which together allowed me to escape the handicap of not being Nepali enough for the self-appointed guardians of nationalism in the Valley. Besides some taunts and subtle insinuations, I was never deprived of opportunity. But spare a thought for the person who speaks only Maithili, Awadhi, Bhojpuri or, at best, Hindi, who lives, in the tarai, with the stigma of not 'being Nepali', has cultural practices distinct from the mid-hill mainstream, does not have access to the power structure, has memories of being mercilessly exploited through history, and whose identity brings discrimination and deprivation even today. Don't blame them for being alienated from the system. Understand the anger. Empathise with the bitterness.
A columnist in a style reminiscent of national integration Panchayat textbooks, carped against the 'divisiveness' sparked by politicians, and asserted that he was a 'Nepali first'. Whatever that means. How about creating conditions for those down south to have the comfort of saying that?

8 DIE IN FLOODED BIHAR

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CHIEF MINISTER OF BIHAR

Dear Chief Minister,
I write this open letter in the hope that you take urgent steps to help people with food, clean drinking water and medicines in flooded Bihar.
Our colleague photojournalist Vikram Kumar reports from Darbhanga that 8 persons, which includes 6 children and 2 women, have died from dysentry and viral fever in just two villages Hasanpura and Jaafra, 14 km from Darbhanga on the Sonki road. 35 children are in the Darbhanga Medical College Hospital, while most primary health centres are full with children being on drip. Lack of clean drinking water is the prime reason for such disease and death. Shockingly, halozen tablets which are the quickest way to clean water in such situations is simply not available even in the primary health centres.
When flood waters recede and people try to get on with their lives often they become victims of snakebites but anti-venom is also not available.
You could verify these reports at your own level but we would like to point that the people in flooded Bihar need help, even new areas are being flooded and your officers simply do not help people purely because the area has not been `declared' flood hit.
Flooded Bihar needs more doctors as well.
People need food, urgently, not affidavits in a High Court. This issue is not about scoring points, or denial or helicopter surveys, its about how efficiently your government can reach those that need help most urgently.
I have personally covered the Bihar floods for almost five years and know that the people of our state are very patient and courageous and take all calamity to be god-sent. The minimum we can do is provide relief until the water recedes and people return home.
Yours Sincerely,
Manuwant Choudhary

Bihar Flood Victims Hungry

HUNGRY FLOOD VICTIMS BLOCK BIHAR’S HIGHWAYS

By Manuwant Choudhary

Hunger forces flood victims in Bihar to block national highways leading to the capital Bihar, perhaps their only way to get their voices heard.
This is a first hand report of the plight of Bihar’s flood victims as fresh areas are flooded.
I was driving from my home in north Bihar to Patna and I personally witnessed eight road blockades within ten kilometers from Muzaffarpur to village Turkey, and initially there was no sign of the local police or administration.
Protestors said there was no way I would get to Patna today and being a journalist one is not used to taking a safe route I decided come what may I might as well experience not so much the misery of the flood victims but at least that of a traveler in flooded Bihar.
In todays Bihar the only way to get the government into action is not to call the politician or the police but the media and considering I myself was a TV reporter my first instinct was that this is national news and so I got the flash on all the news channels.
In 40 minutes a local Senior Divisional Officer accompanied by policemen arrived and got on with his job to clear the road.
He succeeded in clearing the first blockade within 5 minutes but then there was another blockade, then another, then another…
Hundreds of women blocked the road at the fifth blockade..”Water is in our homes, cattle have been washed away..where do we live? Straw homes have been destroyed…we do not have anything left to eat,” said Sakli Devi of village Madhaul.
Said Shivji Singh to the Muzaffarpur SDO, “If we did not block the roads..you sahibs will not have come but I understand even you have come because its your job. You must have got a telephone call from the chief minister. Where were you for five days? For five days these people have had nothing to eat.”
On assurances of food another road block was cleared but at the sixth road block it was a nightmare as even cellphone signals were weak and there was no sign of any police…just angry mobs..even children carrying thick sticks and threatening private vehicles.
And one agitator suddenly takes a decision that all those going to pray to Shiva on a pilgrimage be given right of way…so suddenly shouts of “Bol Bum” filled the air as vehicles forced their way out. A few Maruti 800s and autos were physically lifted aside to make way for the Bol Bum vehicles. And every time a Bol Bum vehicle found their passage out of the jam they would thank Shiva together amidst shouts.
It felt like jungle raj (Rule of the Jungle)
But Shiva helped us too and finally the lone SDO arrived and began talks in ernest.
Barely half a km from this we could see even Shiva fails when it comes to floods…the Bol Bum vehicles were stuck in yet another blockade – the eigth one and no these protestors were more angry – they knew no God, only hunger.
I spotted a dhaba (highway eatery) and took my chance…had a good meal and joined the blockade again.
Even a heavy downpour did not deter the protestors. It felt like being on a road on the Arabian sea.
Bihar’s chief minister Nitish Kumar says a 100 kilo foodgrains is being given to each flood victim but at least in Muzaffarpur there is no sign of his governance.
A ten km route took me more than 6 hours to cross but for once my patience did not run out.

Rains Flood Patna

INCESSANT RAINS FLOOD PATNA,
RAINS IN FLOOD DISTRICTS TOO

By Manuwant Choudhary

Rains bring Bihar's capital to a virtual halt - even schools shut down due to waterlogging after a 24 hour incessant rains.
The parks in posh Patliputra Colony turn into lakes with water entering ground floor homes even in those areas where this did not happen in the past.
Kankarbagh also remains waterlogged and in areas where the roads are not flooded there are traffic jams as people try to get on with life.
Patna's main problem is waterlogging due to clogged drains and a municipality that only collects taxes but does no work. The current flooding also exposes the Bihar governments claims that Patna's drains have been cleared. The Patna High Court monitors such issues but even they have not been able to improve the situation here.
Forget solving Bihar's flood problems if any government is able to solve Patna's problems the people of this state will be thankful.
Heavy rains continue in the flood districts as well and as Indiavikalp predicted Bihar could be in for a second round of floods.
For any problem Bihar's politicians think a package is the solution. No, Mr. Nitish Kumar Bihar does not need chief ministers with a begging bowl. Bihar needs a chief minister who can act and who make his government do some real hard work.

BIHAR FLOOD ALERT

Heavy rainfall in the catchment area of Nepal as well as in the flood districts of Bihar could bring severe floods for the second time within 72 hours.
Just when flood waters had receded and stranded people could move to safer places the second flooding could bring more harship, especially since there is still very little relief work being undertaken.
According to the latest Bihar government figures 183 people have died in the floods, 40 in boat accidents while 102 animals have died. But these are only government figures. Photojournalist Vikram Kumar who is in flood affected Darbhanga for the past two weeks says the number of people who have died due to the floods will be more than a thousand. "Even now people are facing great hardship living on embankments and on the roads with no shelter."
An embankment breach at Naugachia has already paralysed National Highway 31 and even the district of Champaran could face a severe second round flood.

BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS PHOTO:VIKRAM KUMAR

Bihar Floods

50 FEARED DEAD IN BOAT MISHAP
IN SAMASTIPUR, BIHAR

Early reports coming in suggest 50 persons have died in a boat mishap in Samastipur district in Bihar...its one of the many districts where people are fleeing the floods with no help from the government.

Market Journalism

Bombay Bomb Blast & Other Stories

By Manuwant Choudhary

Being a hack myself I usually prefer not to comment on my colleagues in the press and media but one truth is that I stepped aside from mainstream media when I found I couldn't stop the declining standards and the main excuse for all this is TRP and proximity of journalists to politicians and political parties.
If one gets the rating...journalists get cushy jobs, big shiny cars and airconditioned cabins - a big change from the early nineties when I set out to be a reporter.
I became a journalist because I love my country and while a student in Bombay, two incidents rocked this country - communal riots and the Bombay bomb blasts.
As a reporter with Bombay's Afternoon Despatch and Courier I got an opportunity to meet countless people involved in the riots and bomb blasts - ordinary people caught in an unending politics of hatred. Some genuinely involved in acts of terror, others just caught up in the mess indirectly because since they work for daily wages they can carry anything from flowers to RDX.
So when the judgements came I just watched like the rest of India but what the media showed us was not the full story but just Sanjay Dutt...
But todays Times of India was serious for a change when serious columnists who usually write in non-serious ways start writing seriously...like Bachi Karkaria's column "Sorry Sanju....this is not about you" "Instead of bombs and RDX the media reduced this whole thing to an unused gun."
And then Shobha De in Wake up India "China gobbled up Tibet..tomorrow it could gobble up our seven sisters..."
Wake up India...

Bihar Floods

FLOOD RELIEF IN BIHAR BEGINS....

Choppers begin flood relief for the first time in a month and what do they air-drop????
4 kilos Sattu (ground gram) and half a kilo of salt, no water and a candle that will burn only 15 minutes.
Bihar's chief minister Nitish Kumar now admits the flood scene is grim...
With almost 8 feet water in Darbhanga it clearly is a serious flood scenario but the rains have abated and hopefully things will be better in a few days.

Bihar Floods

NO BOATS OR RELIEF,
CHOPPERS CARRY ONLY POLITICIANS TO FLOOD HIT BIHAR

By Vikram Kumar

Darbhanga: Every year heavy rainfall in Nepal brings floods, misery and death to districts in North Bihar but despite this the district administrations in Darbhanga, Madhubani and Samastipur and other places do not have a single boat of their own.
And Bihar's chief minister Nitish Kumar finally returns from his Mauritius jaunt only to find most of his state Bihar under water and virtually no relief having been undertaken.
At a press meet in Darbhanga town where flood waters have inundated most on the town, the Commissioner of Darbhanga admits that the district administration does not own a single boat. "But we have pressed 55o boats into service, each boat in the name of politicians from the village head to the Member of Parliament."
But we see no boats ferrying people free of charge in flooded Darbhanga and most likely the 550 boats are only on paper for which money will be given to the people's representatives once the flood is over...Many in Darbhanga thrive on relief and floods!
The government admits to only few deaths with the number not being more than 30 but just at the Jhanjharpur embankment there are 33 breaches this year, every breach kills at least a few so the numbers of flood victims could be very high this year.
Meanwhile, there is petrol rationing in Darbhanga as its highways remain cut-off and there is no petrol supply to the district causing great hardship.
But one difference this year is that there is a 24 hour electric supply at least in Darbhanga town so people can get their flour etc ground and they have a fan to beat the humid heat and can watch their misery live on TV.....

A SECULAR TERRORIST!

"I'M NOT A HIJACKER, I ONLY WANTED WATER"

By Manuwant Choudhary

Frequent flier 39-year-old Krishna Kumar Kahnani prefers not to fly at all these days after his harrowing experience aboard Air Deccan Flight DN 342 from Belgaum to Bombay on January 22 2007...a date he will never forget.
"I went to the toilet and there was no water so I picked up a bottled water just to wash my hands and the Air Hostess tells me `Why have you taken this water? You Idiot'....?"
"I explained that there is no water in the toilet and I don't mind paying...."
But the matter did not end there...An altercation began and I said, "Even Laloo's train has water and your big plane does not have water."
"I ask them to give in writing that this flight didn't have water in the toilet and the Airhostess and the flight attendant do give that in writing."
Mr. Kahnani then goes back to his seat and as the plane lands and Bombay airport...and comes to a halt...a man goes up to him and assaults him. Said Mr. Kahnani, "More people came and hit me amidst announcements that all the passengers must alight as soon as possible as there is trouble."
"They then took me out of the plane and soon I saw CISF personnel who came and said, `Flight hijack kar raha tha...Kahan hai hathiyaar? (You were hijacking the plane..Where is the arms?)..they kept hitting me until I fell on the tarmac and then they kicked me...I managed to call STAR News in Patna and they promised to send their Bombay team."
"I had hid the signed complaint paper in my socks but as I was being beaten up I realised that I would be killed so I handed them the paper and the CISF personnel shouted `Mil Gaya Hathiyaar'...(Found the Arms)....
Mr. Kahnani says he remembers two CISF personnel who assaulted him D.S. Shukla and S.S. Chauhan who took away his Blackberyy Pearl cellphone handset.
He was then taken to the CISF cabin and then Mr. Kahnani being a distributor for Reliance in Patna called up Reliance who came to his help and the Airport police moved in..sent him to Cooper Hospital and Bombay's local newspaper MidDay also arrived on the scene...
Mr. Kahnani returned to Patna on a Sahara flight next day and still cannot believe why he was assaulted so brutally, "Sir, they hit me so hard that there was no blood!"
But why did they think you were a terrorist? "I don't know...Sir...I am not even a Muslim, I am a Marwari but yes on my visiting card that I gave it had my telephone number 9893845786...`786' means Bismillah so they may have thought I was a Muslim..."
"Sir, we are Marwari's and come from a village in Rajasthan but our family god is Sarvar Sultan - a Muslim saint...If you come to my house you will see Hindu and Muslim Gods side by side..."
Mr. Kahnani returned home to Patna only to face more trouble, "So shocked was my wife with what happened to me that on India's Republic Day January 26 she ate poison ...God saved her..."

CONGRESS PARTY'S POSITIVE DISCRIMINATION

RASHTRAPATI PRATIBHA PATIL IS A WOMAN, YES, BUT KIRAN BEDI?

By Manuwant Choudhary

Even as India's first woman President took her oath swearing to protect the Indian constitution and thanking the electors who elected her (Congress and the Communists did so because she was a woman) another story from New Delhi flashed across news channels...that Super Cop Kiran Bedi had been superceded by a man for the post of Delhi's police commissioner.
An upset Kiran Bedi told reporters, "I am going on leave and I am most upset that my seniority and merit have both been ignored. I will also take legal opinion whether I have a legal recourse to this."
When asked further on CNN IBN why the bosses did this to her, she replied, "The message is `Toe the Line', thats all...its not about policing....."
The Congress Party elected Pratibhaji as President because she is a woman but isn't Kiran Bedi also a woman?
The Congress Party discriminated positively for Pratibhaji but not for Kiranji as rightly Supercop Kiran Bedi is a Man, the only man in the Indian police force!
Mrs. Kiran Bedi is an icon....and for most children....girls and boys..she will always be a person to emulate and aspire to be...long after people have forgotten who was the first woman President of India or who is the new Delhi police commissioner?
Kiran Bedi you're a hero....fight on...

INDIA'S PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE - PRATIBHA PATIL - WHO???

"I Know Her Husband" says A.B. Bardhan, CPI boss.....

By Manuwant Choudhary

India's next President could be Pratibha Patil. Pratibha Patil, WHO? Thats how most reacted to the Congress Party's announcement of their nominee.
Most except the Indian Communists. What then happened to the Congress Party's original nominees Dr. Karan Singh and Shivraj Patil? Well, the Communists didn't like the UPA nominees?
But are the Communists in the UPA? No, they are just giving outside support.
Then why should they decide who the UPA nominee should be?
Congress says left support to any candidate is critical. But UPA itself was not consulted on the Presidential nominee and as Congressmen tell the media even they were not consulted. "Madam Soniaji decided the two names and when the Communists rejected them then Dr. Manmohan Singh announced Pratibha Patil's name and the Communists accepted." Why? "Beacuse Pratibha Patil is a woman....."
One Congressman defends the decision, "In 60 years India has not had a woman President."
Sure, but whose fault is that? You have `mis' ruled this great country for most of the past 60 years.
And CPI leader A.B. Bardhan took the defense to its limits, "I know her husband."
Sure, Mr. Bardhan I think you know other famous husbands as well. We think you know Shri Laloo Prasad better. So shouldn't Rabri Devi be India's next President?
Imagine, Laloo living in an outhouse of the Rashtrapati Bhawan and his cows grazing blissfully in the Mughal Gardens!
Forget Rabri, even Brinda Karat could be President...That reminds me when did the Indian Communists start championing women representation issues? In its entire history the CPI (M) did not have a woman as a politburo member. And Brinda Karat is the wife of Prakash Karat, the CPI (M) boss.
Even Outlook Editor Vinod Mehta tries his eloquence, "After all she has been MLA for four terms, minister several times and now she is the Governor of Rajasthan...so give her a chance...she can have a good set of advisors.she is loyal to the Nehru-Gandhi family!"
Mr. Mehta the politicians talk of 33 per cent representation for women in parliament without giving even 20 per cent tickets to women candidates in their own parties.
But why Pratibha Patil...we think Priyanka Vadra Gandhi could be a better choice!
So is there no criteria to select a nominee for India's topmost job? This time events indicate that the parties have lost their way.... only an invisible hand can save this country.