The Ron Paul Campaign Video

Our Prime Minister Defends His Ministers, Only

By Manuwant Choudhary

Every Indian Prime Minister have their own style like Nehru's white sherwani's with thered rose, Lal Bahadur Shastri's simple dhoti-kurta, Indira Gandhi's sarees, Morarjibhai's Gandhian cap, Rajiv's shawl slung across his shoulders, Vajpayeejee's poetry, VP Singh's Muslim cap, Chandra Shekharji's brutal honesty that India's parliament should not discuss corruption, and Manmohan Singh's sky blue turban.

But Manmohan Singh looks more peculiar by the day.

Before it was just an intellectually high forehead and his wave that looks like he is dusting his home furniture.

Now its not just his gestures but what he has been saying makes one feel its time for him to go.

Like his latest from abroad, "I will defend my ministers."

But if you defend your ministers then who will defend the people?

I would say he is responsible for the 2 G Mess. Like if it was public policy that the spectrum prices be kept low then why doesn't the Prime Minister say so.

His ministers are going to jail one by one so its hard to believe the Prime Minister is even defending his own ministers.

And his other statement aimed at the western powers that they must not be involved in regime change. Did the Libyan leader Muamma Qaddafi call Dr. Manmohan Singh and should he have been allowed to bomb his own people?

I wonder what our Prime Minister has to say on Indira Gandhi's role in the creation of Bangladesh?

Milking The Nation - Finally A Supreme Court Verdict

Mr. Rama Reddy a prominent liberal from Hyderabad has spent the last three decades fighting for genuine cooperatives in Andhra Pradesh and opposing State Control over cooperatives and now finally a Supreme Court verdict on the issue confirms that he was right and the politicians we elect were wrong. Mr. Rama Reddy himself outlines the struggle for freedom of cooperatives.

Supreme Court endorses Cooperative Principles and says Protection under Articles 14 and 19 is available to Cooperatives

Supreme Court’s judgment of 2nd September 2011 in Andhra Pradesh Dairy Cooperatives case:

Dear friends of cooperatives,

1. These are the days of the Reddy Brothers of Karnataka, Jagan & Kiran Reddys of Andhra Pradesh, etc. More than proverbial twice, I asked myself whether it was the right time for Rama Reddy of Hyderabad to get into circulation. Since I have to share with you a significant event on a subject of mutual interest to you and me, there is no escape from writing a note, after a long time, for your perusal. I hope that it will be informative and interesting. If it is not so, my apologies to you for taking some of your precious time.

2. My training in and practice of Journalism have not changed my thought process much; on most occasions, my narrations will be in chronological frame. I am an avid reader of print media and a keen viewer of electronic media. However, it is of not much help when I start to write a news story. Your level of tolerance has to be quite high when you read my notes.

3. This is once again a story of “Goliath and Davids”. In this story, the Government of Andhra Pradesh is “Goliath” and Dairy Cooperatives in Andhra Pradesh are “Davids”. All-powerful governments rarely learn lessons from experiences and, therefore, ordinary citizens have to teach them tirelessly the same lessons repeatedly.

4. NT Rama Rao (NTR) never thought of himself as a social and political animal like you and me; he thought of himself as a divine incarnation, who takes birth on this planet once in a millennium. As the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, he was in the habit of granting boons occasionally. In 1995, he saw to it that the State Legislature enacted a new liberal cooperative law, without repealing the old regressive law on cooperatives. The old law is titled “Andhra Pradesh Cooperative Societies Act 1964” (henceforth the 1964 Act) and the new law is titled “Andhra Pradesh Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies Act 1995” (henceforth the 1995 Act). The new law is also known as the MACS Act. The new law was one of those few boons that NTR granted to the ordinary mortals like you and me. He, thus, sown a seed that sprouted to start a significant change in the course of cooperative history in the country. On similar lines, state legislatures enacted liberal and parallel laws in eight other states.

5. Thrift Cooperatives and Dairy Cooperatives flourished and continue to flourish under the 1995 Act. Most of the thrift cooperatives are newly registered under the 1995 Act and most of the dairy cooperatives have migrated from the 1964 Act to the 1995 Act. The process of migration is permissible under the law.


6. The Congress Party, under the leadership of YS Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR), won the 2004 General Election and formed the Council of Ministers, YSR as the Chief Minister. For two full years, the Congress Government explored all possible executive actions to replace the elected boards of the eight District Dairy Unions, which were working in the 1995 Act, by its party nominees. Finally, it realised that no provision in the 1995 Act allows the Government and/or the Registrar to take such step. The 1995 Act is designed in such a way that a mutually aided cooperative has to always have an elected board accountable to its general body.

7. YSR almost succeeded in creating an image for himself as a messiah of all people - poor and rich, illiterate and literate, weak and strong, powerless and powerful, backward and forward, etc. Under the guise of being a messiah, he was, in fact, building an empire for himself and his only son, Jagan. He had a coterie of selected rich, clever and influential persons who were being helped, left and right, by him by transfer of public resources - material and financial - to them. It was not in his nature to tolerate the existence of any individual or institution that was not amenable to him. The autonomous functioning of dairy cooperatives, particularly district dairy unions, was not to his liking.

8. On 2nd February 2006, the YSR Government amended the 1995 Act. The 2006 Amendment stated:

(a) All dairy cooperatives that were working as on that day under the 1995 Act would stand transferred to the 1964 Act;

(b) All dairy cooperatives would be treated as if they have always been under the 1964 Act;

(c) All dairy cooperatives would be treated as if they never existed under the 1995 Act; and

c) Henceforth, no dairy cooperative would be registered under the 1995 Act.

9. The same night, by executive orders, the Government appointed District Collectors as persons-in-charge (one may say “administrators” or “special officers”) of all eight district dairy unions. In turn, the District Collectors appointed thousands of small and big government employees as persons-in-charge of more than 3500 village dairy societies, in the place of elected boards. The same night, all these government employees assumed charge of their additional assignments. The YSR Government thought that it was a clever step forward to get the Congress Party members into the boards of dairy cooperatives.

10. When dairy cooperatives and Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF) filed writ petitions in the High Court challenging the constitutional validity of the 2006 Amendment Act and statutory validity of appointment of persons-in-charge, the High Court suspended the executive orders, as an interim relief. In effect, the elected boards continued to be in office.

11. After prolonged hearings, on and off, spread over 15 months, on 1st May 2007, the High Court declared all provisions of the 2006 Amendment Act as violative of Article 14 (equality before law) and Article 19(1)(c) (right to form associations) of the Constitution. Thus, the dairy cooperatives continued to function under the 1995 Act, with their own elected boards. YSR was not an ordinary mortal; he was a messiah. The State Government filed an appeal in the Supreme Court with a plea to quash the judgment of the High Court.

12. The process of admitting, hearing and disposing the Government appeal is a separate story in itself. One may have to write a separate note on that process. For the present, let us confine to the final result. On 2nd September 2011, the Supreme Court delivered the judgment. The Supreme Court said that it found no reason to intervene in the judgment of the High Court, which had declared all provisions of the 2006 Amendment Act as unconstitutional. The essence of the Supreme Court’s judgment would be found in the reasons it gave in support of its conclusion.

13. For the first time since 26th January 1950, Republic Day, the day from which the Constitution of India came into force, the Supreme Court emphatically speaks of voluntary association, principles of cooperation, voluntary action, free will, etc in respect of cooperatives. The Supreme Court judgment states:

(a) The cooperative, by its very nature, is a form of voluntary association where individuals unite for mutual benefit in the production and distribution of wealth upon the principles of equity, reason and common good. Therefore, the basic purpose of forming a cooperative remains to promote the economic interest of its members in accordance with the well-recognised Principles of Cooperation.

(b) Members of an association have the right to be associated only with those whom they consider eligible to be admitted and have right to deny admission to those with whom they do not want to be associated.

(c) The right to form an association will be infringed by forced inclusion of persons unwanted by the incumbent members of an association. Right to associate is for enjoying in expressive activities. The constitutional right to freely associate with others encompasses associational ties designed to further the social, legal and economic benefits of the members of the association.

(d) By statutory interventions, the State is not permitted to change the fundamental character of the association or alter the composition of the association itself. Any significant encroachment upon associational freedom cannot be justified based on any interest of the Government.

(e) However, when an association is registered under a statute, the provisions of that statute govern it. In case the association has an option/choice to be registered under a particular statute, if there are more than one statutes operating in the field, the State cannot force the association to get itself registered under a statute for which the association has not applied.

(f) The very existence of a Cooperative is based on voluntary action of its members. Once a cooperative is formed and its members voluntarily take a decision to get it registered under the X Act, the registration authority may reject the application for registration if conditions prescribed under the X Act are not fulfilled. The registration authority does not have a right to register the said applicant-cooperative under the Y Act. Even an authority, which is superior to the registering authority, is not competent to pass an order that the applicant-cooperative would be registered under the Y Act. Such an order, if passed, would be in violation of the first Principle of Cooperation, which states that its members should voluntarily approve every action of a Cooperative. Introducing an element of compulsion would violate Article 19(1)(c) of the Constitution. It is not permissible under the Constitution or any law to do something indirectly, if it is not permissible to be done directly.

(g) The Legislature has a right to amend the 1995 Act or repeal the same. Even, for the sake of an argument, if it were considered that the Legislature was competent to exclude the Dairy Cooperatives from the operation of the 1995 Act and such an Act was valid i.e. not being violative of Article 14 of the Constitution, etc, the question would arise as to whether the Legislature could force a Cooperative registered under the 1995 Act to work under the 1964 Act. Importing the fiction to the extent that the Cooperatives registered under the 1995 Act could be deemed to have been registered under the 1964 Act would be tantamount to forcing the members of the Cooperative to act under compulsion/direction of the State rather than on their free will. Such a provision would be violative of the very first basic Principle of Cooperation, which states that its members should voluntarily approve every action of a Cooperative. More so, the Act would be vitiated not only by non-application of mind but also by irrelevant and extraneous considerations.

14. It is time for cooperatives and their members, whether working in the regime of the old regressive cooperative law or in the regime of the new liberal cooperative law, to identify provisions in the said laws. which militate against the Concept and Principles of Cooperation, and advocate for their deletion and/or modification both in the Legislature and in the Judiciary.

15. During my active professional career in the field of cooperation, voluntarism and local governance, I have had the opportunity to go through most of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh and Supreme Court of India judgments that dealt with the subject of cooperation. Almost none have touched the widely accepted definition of cooperative and/or the principles of cooperation. It means that the contesting parties before the courts did not feel the necessity to bring them to the notice of the courts. It is strange that the courts have been adjudicating the disputes relating cooperatives without giving a serious thought to the definition of cooperative and/or the principles of cooperation.

16. In my view, cooperatives, labour unions, societies, associations, public trusts, etc, whether registered or unregistered, are the most appropriate and potent instruments in the hands of the powerless and the dispossessed to protect and promote their legitimate interests through collective action.

17. It will, certainly, be rude on my part to say that the communication ends here. I will be happy to hear from you. If you are interested in the full text of this note, please let me know. I will respond at the earliest.

All the best,

Rama Reddy of Hyderabad
(formerly of Cooperative Development Foundation, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh)

India's Gross Domestic Politics!

By Manuwant Choudhary

As Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi begins his three day fast for `communal harmony' under national media spotlight, its hard, really hard to miss the grossness of India's politics.

And even the media give him the airtime he needs to showcase his `makeover'.

Under Gandhiji's portrait and loudspeakers blaring Gandhiji's favourite bhajans its hard, really hard to forget thata member of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) who killed Gandhiji on January 30, 1948.

Gandhi had planned to walk across the border to Pakistan.

The white turban replacing the saffron, its hard, really hard to forget the riots in Gujarat or Godhra.

What Modi needs is not the outer, but inner - a change of heart.

And that I don't see.

The tamasha is just to project him as India's next Prime Minister.

And God forbid.

Sau choohe khakar billi chalee haj karne. (after eating a hundred rats the cat is going on a Haj!).

Just Want To Walk

By Manuwant Choudhary

Its just impossible walking in India's cities.

And when we have all kinds of rights I wonder why there is no Right To Walk?

Every pavement is occupied by pavement dwellers and hawkers (who are useful but they need a place) and so people are forced to walk on the roads.

In Bombay you can see the traffic police hold thick ropes to stop people like they would do to cattle!

In Delhi, even after a yearof the Commonwealth Games and with Kalmadi & gang in Tihar jail the dust hasn't settled at Cannuaght Place...I asked shopkeepers when the dug up roads would return to normal and they just shrugged.

If you get into New Delhi you will see its not really a city...the only green cover is some thorny bushes, there are no pavements even on the main roads, and if they exist they are usually broken and in poor shape.

Then garbage....its such a stink.

Calcutta, its worse. Now they don't let you park your vehicle near the Victoria Memorial so its a breath of fresh air there but the rest is madness.

And in the monsoons,,,the lanes become the Hoogly.

Patna under Nitish sushashan still does not have street lights and in five years all he did was build road dividers which made the traffic situation worse.

In fact, Buta Singh has been the best ruler of Bihar since independence. His sons may have looted but at least he gave Patna's streets Cats Eyes.

Our rulers don't really love this country.

Anna The Fastist

By Manuwant Choudhary

I am getting many, many calls from Anna's supporters who now say they don't want the Jan Lokpal Bill passed.

But I ask them why? Isn't this why your Anna has been fasting for the past 11 days?

And they inform that some actress has offered to go nude if the Jan Lokpal Bill is not passed.

But there is a split in the camp especially those who sing Vande Mataram because another model has already gone topless and that too has bodypainted the Indian tri-colour?

Whatever happened to the flag code?

And even the Thackeray's are not protesting.

After all Anna is a Marathi manoos.

But the Thackeray's don't like him when he says he is an Indian.

Aaah how great would it have been to see Anna fast under a large photo of Balasaheb.

Apart from Anna's supporters I am also getting calls from Arundhati Roys haters after she wrote, I AM NOT ANNA.

They are more angry this time because she has written both Anna and the Maoists are out to destroy the State.

They ask me how can Anna - a Gandhian be compared to Maoists who kill by the dozen.

Look at Anna he sits on the dias fasting for 11 full days.

And the entire country has started wearing the Gandhi cap with `I AM ANNA' written on it.

But if everyone was Anna then why is Anna fasting alone?

Or is it because Anna knows how to fast and you and I don't.

I recall meeting Anna Hazare way back in 1994.

Like today, Anna was on his 11th day of fast at his village in Ralegan Siddhi, fasting against corruption in the Shiv Sena government.

We travelled by bus and truck to his village to meet Anna Hazare.

I sat with him in his one room in the temple.

He smiled at me.

I am not sure how many journalists would see him then but I was given a tour of his village.

Several projects had been undertaken to improve agriculture and irrigation in the village.

But there was no alcohol available.

Anna and his supporters had forcibly closed the last shop.

Congressmen today want to paint Anna as a fascist - someone out to destroy democracy.

The fact is the Congress Party has already destroyed both our democracy and constitution.

Liberals are not allowed to form a political party in India.

Anna is not a Gandhi either.

I would say Anna is just an activist who has perfected the art of fasting.

Even in 1994 when there was no Right To Information Anna ran a residential camp at his village where the youth from different parts of the country would come and he would personally impart training on how to get information from the different government departments, how to go to court, how to expose a minister.

So when I see him `centre stage' today I am not surprised.

Anna is an honest man so it hurts to see an honest man in prison for even a day.

But I do not support the Lok Pal idea.

We must address the root causes of corruption rather than trying to police it.

We are already a Police State.

Do we need another policeman?

What will our judges do?

Do we need a police to police the Lok Pal?

But yes fasting is a weapon and Anna has proved this many a time.

Even in 1994 he had a loudspeaker on the temple room where the government owned All India Radio News would be broadcast.

I recall Anna's fast entering its 11th day was the headline, the Maharashtra chief minister Manohar Joshi going to Singapore was the second news item.

Anna is still making headlines.

He does not have solutions.

All I want is an honest and hardworking India.

Border Crossings After 25 Years !

By Manuwant Choudhary

Its nearly 25 years since I finished school from St. Joseph's College, North Point, Darjeeling and so when an old friend Sanjay Sharma calls saying he is visiting my district in Bihar and that too will come by train (for the first time in his life) if I agreed to receive him is a sure surprise.

Sanjay and I studied together since class 2 and by some coincidence our parents always and I mean always stayed at the same hotel `New Elgin', owned and run by a great hotelier Diamond Oberoi.

Sanjay's father Mr. Tansen Sharma, a prominent businessman from Kathmandu, would come to Darjeeling in a very large white Ford, while our white amby would be parked just behind his Ford.

His father and my father got on pretty well. They would sit in a bar late into the evening. His father would order a Limca for my father (as my father did not take alcohol).

It was here that my father met many underground Nepali Congressmen many of whom became Prime Ministers of Nepal in an unstable democracy.

Sanjay I remember was good at studies and sports and for us at boarding he sure had the most amazing taste for music and at our library reading post dinner sessions he played us the classics on a Sonodyne.

So I did receive him at the train station. He was here on a personal visit but he stayed at my place too but Bihar is not an easy place to visit and he was lucky enough that he only caught a `flu'.

But how does one really mark an event like meeting an old friend after 25 years?

Sanjay is `Global' having lived in most parts of the world as his father owned an export-import business so it was really interesting to know about his vast experiences.

I had my own share.

We had just too much to catch up on.

So I offered to drive him to Birganj, a border town in Nepal.

But I decided not to take the normal Muzaffarpur-Raxaul route instead try a new one - The East West Express Corridor.

So early 4 am we were on the road through Muzaffarpur-Darbhanga. But we were surprised that the Super Highway is still incomplete at many places so we had to take diversions and sometimes even a detour through Bihar villages.

We were told that a company owned by the son of India's former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao was given the road contract but because they did not pay local mafia work had been stalled. `But now locals have been taken care off.'

This was like driving halfway across the Bihar-Nepal border, then entering Nepal, and then driving again halfway across the Nepal border.

At Phulparas Sanjay's relative was ready with some home cooked parathas and medicines and then we took a left turn near Bhotaha Chowk (The Ghost Crossing) towards Kunauli border.

The road from then on was unmetalled so we could drive only in first gear.

I wanted this journey for long because I wanted to discover a new route, to drive through better roads and have to deal with lesser traffic.

But the road to the border was just too long.

And there was no traffic !

No fences either.

Suddenly we see armed Gurkhas under a tent and we ask if we were in Nepal and they confirmed, Yo Nepal Hunchha....

Sanjay asked them where we could take the permit for the car (bhansar) and they informed the office was on the left side road a kilometre away but that our car could not go there. We could only take it upto a point.

So we took the left side but suddenly we came across a culvert and I knew my Sonata would definitely fail here. Sanjay believed it would make it. I tried. And failed. So we decided to leave the car there and walk to the office.

Sanjay took my car papers and I followed him a little behind.

There was another culvert I was sure my car would not have manouvered.

Then suddenly I noticed Sanjay moving into the paddy fields. I thought my friend had truly lost it !

Until I came to that very spot I realised why - there was no road - water flowed across.

I too removed my shoes, pulled up my trousers and wade across.

When we arrived at the office we found the office was also marooned.

Water all around and so we carefully went across.

Inside a Nepali officer wearing just a vest was sweating it out. There was no electricity.

He seemed surprised that we took this route.

And asked us that he wanted to see the car.

We told him it cannot come here and was parked a kilometre away (He would need binoculors to see the number plate)

He just gave us the papers.

So very soon we were happy to be driving on the Nepal side on the border on the King Mahindar Highway.

Sanjay's fever was better after walking into the warm flood waters but the drive was too long so he was getting impatient.

Also we would have to drive across dense forests.

It was beautiful.

Forests on both sides and a straight road running into the sunset.

During the royal rule for every tree cut three would be replanted but now deforestation was severe and the rules mostly ignored

And we spoke about everything in our lives - our successes and failures - and about the one girl we really liked.

Sanjay said he was without news for a few days now and it would be great to watch television at the hotel.

Nearing Birganj we met up with a hail storm.

And the ice stones were large.

We inched our way into Birganj, could barely see the road.

At Birganj we stayed a hotel.

Dinner and brandy and some TV news.

Not much had happened.

Nepal's politicians were still quarelling over how to write a new Constitution.

The next morning Sanjay looked better and we drove him to the aiport before returning via Raxaul-Motihari-Muzaffarpur highway.

I smiled told him that now he will definitely remember me.

He threatened, ` Wait till you come to Kathmandu I will make you climb a mountain called `Manokamna'.

But my return journey was not so pleasant.

There were literally no roads from Raxaul to Motihari.

The photo you see above is taken at the Motihari bypass.

Trucks were stuck trying to jump across lake-size potholes or as they say `Sadak mein gaddha yaa gaddhe mein sadak'.

Its when you see this that you will truly understand that India is a very corrupt country and we need not one but a thousand Anna Hazare's.

And surely one Lokpal is just too little.