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."