Arundhati Roy Interview

I don't read many interviews these days, but when it's Arundhati Roy, it's compelling for me. She always thinks and talks in a different way.

How would you categorise your politics?
I find it unnecessary for me to classify what my politics are. It's really time to break out of thinking in so many of the ways in which we have thought. You stop thinking country-wise, then, you stop thinking Left and Right, because now the greatest capitalist nation in the world is Communist China, so all these things get overturned in some way or the other.
I think, now, with what's happening ecologically, we need a different view. But one thing I do want to say is that, for all the things that are wrong here, the real worry is that there are so many things that are right, which are being dismantled and destroyed. For example, we still have people here who know the secrets of how to live lightly on this planet; people who know that when you challenge a consumerist society, it's not as if you have to live with less happiness and less satisfaction; people who know that there is the possibility of ecstasy -- all this is lost in other countries. It's here still, and this is what makes one extreme, you know. You're fighting to protect something, and that is fundamental to what I am-- I think, when you fight to protect something, your anger is huge, because you just see this juggernaut of destruction destroying what ought to be at least the seeds of a future way of thinking, and we still have it.
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Arundhati Roy's Letter to the Economist

Even when Arundhati Roy writes a simple letter to a newspaper, it reads like a riveting document.

'Sometimes they say the Free Market provides a level playing field -- but then when questioned, they ask us to wait for Trickle Down. But things only Trickle Down slopes don't they?'

Post-journalistic age!

In a post-journalistic society, there is no disinterested voice. There are only the winning side and the losing side.

Biggest Land Scam?

As Rajarhat land scandal rolls out gradually each day, I suspect it's the biggest land scam to have ever happened in India since independence. The land mafia, active in the area long since, have grabbed land from the poor and marginalised by force - in many cases on gun point. It is hard to believe that the Government(Oh,the Marxists!)did not know about these activities.

The scam could be of thousands of crores.

It seems it started modestly since the regime of Jyoti Basu. Basu had special fondness for some Marwari businessman who were friends of his son Chandan.Kamal Gandhi seemed to be the kingpin, but later Rajkishore Modi and others took over.

Gaffar Molla, the main accused in the Vedic village incident, was on Modi's pay-roll. Modi paid him 20k every month for his services. In just two years' time, Gaffar earned two crores as cut money from his armtwisting land deals.

Behind Gaffar, there are lots of other men with brains and strategies who have earned many times over. Ministers, bereaucrats, land dept officials..

It's significant that the government has cancelled the Rajarhat IT project overnight. Sure, it wants to hush up, but the spillage continues and the people are knowing it all.

What a shame for the Marxists!

Who is India's new rulers?

The Americans are our new rulers, we are in awe of them—even though they frequently kick our butts.

Rahul Gandhi: a talented man?

Dr Amartya Sen, our Nobel Laureate, has given an interview to Outlook Magazine, in which he states, among many other things, that Rahul Gandhi is very talented and committed.

Q:What impressed you about Rahul?

A:I think he is very talented. He is a Trinity man, we had a meal together when I was Master of Trinity and we chatted about what he was planning to do. At that time, politics was not part of his plan at all, and he told me that. I believe those were his genuine views and he changed his mind later. It was very clear to me that he was very committed to Indian development. I pointed out to him there were ways for him to dazzle the world with the money he could make. But he wasn’t in the least interested. I would say, since I have known Manmohan at the same age, that there was a very similar commitment in both of them, in terms of being deeply concerned about deprivation in India and wanting to make a change

Subhas Chakraborty in death

Subhas Chakravorty, who died on August 3 of cancer, seized the city of Kolkata and its surroundings as one million people behaved like crazy to have a last glance of his body. In death, he caught up with such Bengal greats as Tagore and Ray.

I can't simply explain how so many people mourned the death of someone who had a bully's image in public life. He was a controversial political figure, what with his outrageous boasts("Except giving life to a dead man, I can do any job whatsoever"), and behaviour(He offered puja at Tarapith despite being an avowed Marxist).

But he was also generous in a mythical way. His door would always remain open to everybody. And he helped any one who dared approach him, irrespective of caste, class and political affiliations.

In TV footage, celebrities cutting across different arenas spoke highly of him. But most of these were second-rate and dubious. Chakraborty made them launch their career.

The convoy that followed his body had 400 cars.

The mammoth gathering seemed embarrassing for his party CP(I)M, which never favoured him despite his huge contribution to the party.

His party used his clout to fill the Maidan with crowd when it so required. He had the stunning ability to gather one lakh people at the drop of his Panama hat which was part of his appearance.

Obviously, post-death, he had no active role in having one million people following his body. This is something which will have many of us think over to demystify the weird personality that Subhas was.

Vara Vara Rao: Incorrigible Optimist

A news item in The Hindushan Times has Vara Vara Rao, the revolutionary writer, saying that Lalgarh is the last hope amid the disaster in Sri Lanka and the disappointing developments of Nepal revolution.

He says,"I support the Maoists because of my conviction and no government can bar me from adopting any belief."

The July 21 Big Rally

It’s the biggest rally ever, in recent memory. People poured in spontaneously from every corner of the state. I was scanning the morning papers for an estimate of size of the mass. Most papers described it just as "lakhs of people”. Actually, it was kind of inestimable. However, it could be anything between seven to ten lakhs.

The sea of mass was enough to evoke a flutter in the heart of present rulers. The police took a detour to make Buddhadeb reach his home – late by half an hour flat.

Mamata Banerjee has really made it after a long time. I liked her call of restraint to her supporters. I was also impressed by her gesture towards Mahasweta Devi, one of our geart living Bengali authors.

Mamata, it seems, has gone past all her vices and antics to become herself. She gets to be credible day by day. I don’t buy her all her promises, but for now she’s a better choice than any other Bengal politician.

Bengal burns

Bengal is burning.
Violence, and more violence, grips the state, thanks to Buddhadeb's inefficient and callous administration.
The state observed a 12-hour bandh today to protest against the ghastly attack of eight legistators by CPM thugs when the legislators went to visit Mangalkote in Burdwan district with relief material for the violence victims.
A TV footage of chased Congress legislators running across fields throgh sleaze and water without any slipper on their foot was enough for Congress supporters to take to the streets and indulge in vandalism. Many govt buses were burnt to ashes, blockades were everywhere, and the admistaion failed to rise up to the occasion.
Thursday's wanton vandalism was followed by Friday's bandh.
The attack on Congress was of course ghastly, and a shame for any democracy.
The left has now been pushed to the wall, and is desperately trying to hid its atrocities in Mangalkote.
But there is no way it can turn around.
Buddhadeb government is sitting on a keg of serial blunders to be blown away any day.

Lalgarh: People, Maoists, Government

I have wanted to write about Lalgarh long since, but I was kind of dumb seeing what were happening in there: companies of security forces were pouring in everyday, the Maosists on the run, and people leaving their homes in panic. All this gave me a writer's block, and I could not figure out what to write about Lalgarh, which had a tiny population of 3,70,000 - mostly tribal people, arguably the poorest of Indians, who scarcely can manage one square meal a day.

Lalgarh is Buddhadeb's last show of power. He forcibly acquired farm land in Singur for Tata's automobile project. The farmers fought it out with all of their might and resources. And finally Ratan Tata, the owner of Nano projct, backed out. Buddhadeb tried to take farm land in Nandigram for a chemical hub. There too farmers resisted hard and for a long time, and sent the Government back with an empty hand.

Now it's Lalgarh long known to be Maoists' stronghold. An industrialist had booked it for its steel project. Since the Maoists took over the tribal belt amidst the govt's apalling indifference and callousness about the conditions of people here, Buddhadeb played his Maoist card here very well. The UPA government at the centre, who considers the Maoists the greatest security threat to India, swallowed the bait, and helped Bengal's pathetic ruler with paramilitary forces - companies after companies, just for the asking.

Today is the eighteenth day of Lalgarh operation. The security forces have not been able to nab a single confirmed Maoist. Where were they gone? If they escaped, how could the forces allow them to? Now on TV screen, you see uniformed men marching along roads, the tiny huts on each side without any men amd women, and the huge land looks deserted and gloomy. And where were all those people gone?

People of Lalgarh could not fight back. How can they against such a sophisticated paramilitary force with copters guiding them?

Chhtradhar Mahato, the flambuoyant leader of the Adivasis, is no where to be seen.

So, has the Government won?

I'm not sure.

Dr. Binayak Sen in Kolkata

pic: Samudra Saikat Mukherjee

If you can’t recognize him now, it’s because his trademark beard is gone, and he’s a thinner person now. Two years in jail have taken a toll of his physique. But his spirit is intact and undiminished. He says the same things in his soft and elegant manner just as he did before his incarceration days.

Dr Sen is not your average icon. He studied medicine with care, equipped himself with skill, and had visions for the suffering humanity. In stead of letting people come to him, he decided to reach out to them for their treatment. He was deeply influenced by Sankar GuhaNeogi, the legendary political worker who was then making waves in Chhattishgarh by revolutionizing the bottom line of workers and poor people of the state. At one point, he was part of Neogi’s hospital that catered to the poorest of the poor.

One thing leads to another, and he was eventually drawn to basic human rights of people. When he was arrested two years ago, he was PUCL’s vice-chairman, and secretary of its Chhattisgarh unit.

Dr. Sen was targeted when he criticized Salwa Judum – government’s new policy of supplying arms to selected civilians to counter the Naxalites - and encounter deaths. Incidentally, Chhattisgarh had become the hot centre of Maoist activities due to the state’s repressive economic policies. To please the industrialists, the state government had usurped a lot of land from the tribals, in many cases muzzling their protests brutally and even killing when necessary.

The charge the Chhattisgarh government brought against Dr. Sen was a ludicrous one: that he had links with the Maoists. There was however no evidence that could prove this charge. Here’s the rub of much-touted Indian democracy: the state can implicate any person under its draconian law,( most Indian states have their own laws) and throw him down in jail with impunity.

But for the ever increasing pitch of protests not from various quarters from India alone, but from across the world, Dr Sen would still be probably languishing in jail. Among those who demanded his release were Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, and several Nobel Laureates including Amartya Sen.

So, what did the good doctor say at the media meet at Kolkata, his first interaction with Kolkata media after his release from the prison? “There was no question of stopping our opposition of Salwa Judum”.

And he would of course return to his countless patients who are waiting for his healing touch.

Dr Binayak Sen Released at last!

A happy news for all of those who were worried about Dr. Binayak Sen, the well-known civil rights activist and humanitarian physician: he was released from jail after a little more than two years by the Supreme Court of India despite strong opposition from the government.

Welcome, Dr. Sen!

Mamata Wave in Bengal

There's an unprecedented Mamata wave here in Bengal right now. While the media is all agog with Mamata Banerjee's new Raliway portfolio and its benifis for the state, her fans have gone really crazy celebrating their Didi's success in a big, but restrained, way.

I'm no Mamata fan, but to be fair, she has mellowed and matured in a wonderful way now. She no longer shrieks, and has learnt to speak sensibly and with decency. Her talks, though not as sophisticated and polished, seem natural and sincere.

She is now talking against SEZ(Special Economic Zones)in the fashion of a real Leftist. I wonder where she musters this courage from. Has she really changed, or, is this a transitional attitude?

During Singur-Nandigram rising, Mamata had to keep company and interact with some hard-core Maoists. I strongly suspect the latter might have something to do to change her attitude and viewpoint about an anti-people programme like SEZ.

These days she frequently says that she's not against Leftism as such.

I like to watch the way Mamata seems to be changing.

Election India 2009: Congress is India

Prices of daily commodities may have soared, the story of contained inflation may be something ridiculous, the farmers may have died in hordes due to the country's new neo-liberal economic policies, but the people have voted the Congress to power. Reason? I've yet to find out. The one thing I suspect is that the people hate L.K.Advani and his party BJP, who have shredded the secular fabric of the country.
So you have no other choice but to see Manmohon Singh, Sonia's most obedient man, as the king for next five years.

I'm happy Advani's dream of being PM has been dashed for ever. Did you notice that he had inserted "Advani as PM" ads pervasively all across the net? Another upside of the election result is that Sharad Powar, another asshole who aspired to become PM, has also been screwed.

But the debacle of the fake Marxists' party CPM in Bengal has really given me a high. It has got only 15 seats while TMC and ally have bagged 26 seats. It's very likely the so-called Marxists would be totally wiped out in coming Bidhan Sabha election.

I had a very good impression of Prakash Karat. But he's a renegade, and is devoid of any principles. He's going to pay a heavy price for his misdeeds.

Election India 2009: Last Round of Polling

Woke up in the morning to a soft music being played out somewhere in the vicinity. It was as serene as a Mahalaya morning. I was a voter today.

Our booth was at Promodamoyee school. A govt primary school-now-turning-into a -community-hall on its final morph into an apartment.

My wife stood in the short line of females. My line was way long. Some innocent looking personnel was around. But no CRPF men. No part goons to bully the voters. I found a very sick and handicapped woman entering the booth with a crutch, and an attendant. The polling was peaceful.

What really marred my enthusiasm was a lady in my adjacent line. I saw her after about thirty years, but I spotted her without any mistake. But she did not seem to recognize me. What an ugly woman she had turned into after all these years! I was relieved when she went inside for voting, and exited without so much as casting a glance around.

Finally, I pressed my vote button. This is the first time in my life that I gave my vote for a non-left candidate. I don’t claim I’ve much rationale for this action. The non-left candidate, though educated, soft-spoken and logical compared to his counterpart,is, sure, not going to deliver a plethora of goodies if elected. It's very likely that he would perform as badly as the Left, if not in a worse way. But I can no longer put up with the Buddha-Biman propagated lies. I want an end to it.

Voter turnout in this phase is more that 71%. Little violence. Now, wait for the result.

Election India 2009: Crucial Phase 2

Crucial Phase 2 in Bengal (Phase 4 all India) was bloody too. 3 deaths, widespread violence, arson, bombs, firing, booth capturing, even proxy votes. Anisur Rahaman, a minister of the Bengal Government, was personally involved in bullying the voters, and he was seen - thanks to TV footage - running away in his car when the people chased him and his associates. Interestingly, Maoists kept on a low profile during this phase, and probably watched the polling without any intervention.

Impressive turnout: more than 75 per cent way ahead of the rest of the country, which was only 57%. The opposition should have an edge.

Lakshman Seth, three-time-siitting-MP of Tamluk, looked haggard and dejected in all TV footages. Seems he's read the writing on the wall and is all set to lose in a big way. It would be a big triumph for the strongman takes a beating.

Election India 2009: Election boycott

This is round 3, but phase 1 in West Bengal. For the first time you see disgruntled people boycotting the election from Dooars' tea-gardens down to tribals in Jhargram, Purulia and Bankura. There was no voter in 96 booths across the state. It was a great challenge for the Bengal Government as well as the Election Commission to ensure a good and peaceful election at tribal-dominated Lalgarh. They must be disappointed by the voters' response to various arrangements by them. People did not show any interest, for whatever reasons, in casting their votes. According to an estimate, just about 15% of the voters turned out.

The Maoists' call for election boycott is , sure, a reason for this low turnout. But people's disenchantment is another definitive cause.

But the election boycott is actually going to help the ruling leftists, and increase the odds of the Trinamul-Congress alliance.

Election India 2009: Phase 2

An average 55 per cent voter turnout in 140 Lok Sabha seats across 12 states and Union Territories. The prevailing heat wave may be a reason for the low turnout.

Barring some Maoist violence reported from Jharkhand and Bihar, it was peaceful compared to the first phase.

But the interesting thing about the election at this point is that politicos, unsure of the electorates' mood, are singing in different tunes now. Lalu Prasad has already pipped the Congress by commenting that the Prime Minster would be decided by all members of UPA after the election. Lalu, Paswan, Pawar - all primeminister- wannabes - show their leanings towards the Left. Even the Congress has publicly pronounced that the Left are not untouchable to them, and if necessary, it would seek help from them to form the government. Left Supremo Praksh Karat, still smarting under the blow dealt during Anti-nuclear deal, states that the Left would under no circumstances join the Congrss.

All these are of course crap. The fact is that these persons would move anywhich direction that would suit their purpose. It is all about power as well as Indian democracy.

Election India 2009: The show begins

The biggest reality show of the biggest democracy begins today. Today is the first phase of Loksabha election 2009.

So, how has it been so far? Mostly bloody. Five states - among them Jharkhand and Chhatisgrh and Bihar- face Maoists attack. Eighteen deaths so far. Security personnel, election workers, one common man. But no leader or political person as such.

No Maoist has been arrested so far. On the contrary, in a polling booth some policemen were so scared that they all fled to a Border Security Force camp for their life. Yet another proof that the Maoists are a formidable force, and can take on the administration any time in a lot of areas in India.

No doubt there would be more paramilitary force in sensitive areas in next four phases of the election. Especially in West Bengal. In Lalgarh, an adivasi belt, there's already a face-off between the tribals and the Government. People over there, recently victims of police atrocities, have driven the police out of the area, and would not let them in even during the election. Maoists are backing them. Since the administration seems to teach them a lesson, it would take this election time to enter the area with the election commissioner's blessings. Ther's going to be another bloodbath as in Nandigram.

Election India 2009: Slanging match intensifies

For me, it's more shocking than amusing.

I've never imagined India's top leaders could get to attack one another in such a lowly manner. Manmohon Singh, PM, usually regarded as a decent and dignified man, has also participated in this slanging match.

While the media - especially the electronic media - reports them all with glee, I hate to even hear or read them. It's sad that Indian politicos' electioneering speech does not have any real issue the country faces today. Which tells us about the exact status of Indian democracy and its custodians.

I liked L.K.Advani's proposal of a live debate on TV like we've seen it in US. Manmohon Singh dimissed it on the ground that that would amount to admitting Advani as a prime ministerial candidate. If Advani is not a candidate for prime minister, who is?

Though, to be fair, the way his party BJP has inserted ads everywhere, especially on the web, decaring Advani as PM, is ghastly, to say the least.

The truth is, neither Manmohon nor Advani has any quality for being India's PM.

Election India 2009: Congress sacrifices two tainted heavyweights

Jagadish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar are two Congress heavyweights who, the people believe, were hugely involved in Sikh massacres. But the Central Bureau of investigation, the country's top investigating agency, directly under Prime Minister's control, recently gave them a clean chit as if to facilitate their nomination in the election fray. They were duly nominated, and were set to have a go, but a size 9 Reebok shoe tossed at P.Chidambaram, home Minister, by Jarnail Singh, a reporter, in a press meet subverted it all. The duo were literally dumped. Tytler who was seen boasting that the Sikhs loved him, and he was of course going to contest the election, is now singing a defeatist tune: he does not want to cause embarrassment to the party.

Now, P. Chidambaram, the ever-smiling minister of Manmohan singh cabinet, said it with glee that he was indeed happy that Tytler had got a clean chit. He never expected that his words would trigger such a visceral reaction. Could he ever figure it out that in the end Tytler would finally be thrown out of the ring altogether.

So, the public wrath aptly symbolized by Jarnail's Reebok shoe does a good thing for the Congress: it sanitises the party in a way. Sure Mrs Sonia Gandhi has not totally lost her sense of perspective. But will the party fare well in the election, given its track record like its using the CBI to give Tyler a clean chit?

Election India 2009: It's time to be pro-poor

Rahul Gandhi, the redoubtable Congressman and India's Prime-Minister-in-waiting by his birthright, said in a meeting yesterday that the Congress is pro-poor. He could have come closer to the truth if he said the congress is pro-rich.

During the past five years of UPA rule - where the Congress was the dominant party - the country's poor people have slid further down into the abyss. Today, eighty per cent of more than one billion people, earn less than a dollar a day. They have been robbed of small things they possessed - a slice of land, for example- systematically by the Government's neo-liberal policies. They have not been provided any jobs even under the the 100-day employment scheme, promised during the last election. Manmohan Singh, the PM, has never really cared about the poor(remember the suicide of farmers in Nasik? He never did anything to get them out of their abysmal poverty).

It's not that the Bharatiya Janata Party has better track record. In terms of economic policy, it pursued the same neo-liberal line dictated by the World Bank during its rule, and is tied to Us of America in an abominable way.

Interestingly, both parties are now shouting for the cause of the poor. They are vowing to provide rice to the poor at Rs 2/3 a kg. Nothing can be more ludicrous.

Election India 2009: democracy's bad guys

IF it was Mulayam Singh distributing cash the other day, today it was Jaswant Singh, senior BJP leader, who was caught on camera doling out cash while campaigning in Rajasthan. This Singh has an army background, and was minister for defence in Atal Bihari vajpayee's government. No ordinary person by any means, but this is his sense of morality as far as the democratic election is concerned. The matter of the fact is that no political party is clean, and each of them is hell-bent to win at whatever means.

My morning paper - Bengali Statesman - has published a startling news: most hard-core criminals are now being bailed out of jails by political leaders for election purposes. They would be let loose to bully the people so the leaders can have their way into the ballot boxes in their respective constituencies.

Indian democracy has more facade than face. In terms of population, it may be greatest, but it is sleaziest too at the same time.

Election India 2009: Varun Gandhi drama

True Election Commission took note of Varun Gandhi's hate speech, and served him notice, but it really didn't take any action. Perhaps if he had not voluntarily surrendered to the Philvit court with his rough supporters, and made it a reality show, he would have got away with a simple warning. Now things have complicated with the UP government framing him with NSA (the new non-bailable act), and Varun is in real trouble.

So who masterminded his grand show of surrender to the court? It must be some top man in the BJP, who foresaw in the drama the potential of raking up Hindutwa which is not selling now. The whole operation has boomeranged. No doubt the party would now cry foul over Varun's framing in a dastardly act and the abuse of power associated with it. But given its falling credibility, it would not have much sympathy from the voters.

Poor Varun Gandhi!

Election India 2009: Charges against Mulayam Singh Yadav

As the election days draw nearer, you find more and more candidates brazenly violate the moral code of conduct laid down by the Election Commission. The most recent example is Mulayam singh Yadav, the Samajbadi Party supremo. He has threatened the lady district magistrate and state election officer-in-charge with dire consequences in an open meeting. The EC has filed an FIR against the leader, and also slaps a criminal charge against him.

Now, Yadav is a senior leader, and some years ago was the defence minister at the centre. Does he really care about any law anyway? And do you think the Election commission has the clout to take any action against him? On the "Holi" day, Mulayam freely distributed hundred rupee notes to his potential voters and got away with it without even a warning by the commission.

Rest assured the EC would more or less behave the same way in this case too. This is indian democracy at the Election Commission level!

Election India 2009: Hate speech

Despite records of bloody communal riots, India has a discernible secular attitude. This is the reason why Varun Gandhi, a scion of the high-profile Indira Gandhi family, no less, is in trouble for his recent hate speech in his election meeting. Unlike other members of the Gandhi family, he's not a Congressman, and is fighting election from Pilibhit on a BJP ticket.

The Election Commission has gone overboard to file a criminal case against this greenhorn and is all set to award him punishment. The other political parties including the Congress and the leftists have already started clamouring for cancelling his candidature.

Varun, as expected, is citing crap in his defence (victim of political conspiracy, the voice in the CD is not his etc}. All of which show he's a very inexperienced guy, and not savvy enough. How could the BJP field him as a candidate? This is another downside of Indian democracy: as long as you have right connections, you need not be bothered about your qualification.

But the thing I would like to see how the Election Commission finally deals with the issue. Would it punish Varun Gandhi for violation of its model code of conduct?

Election India 2009: The Leftists

Leftists who were part of the UPA government for the better part of its tenure are in an unenviable position in Election India in 2009. While they are far far way from the masses because of their anti-people policies, their top leader Prakash Karat is busy cobbling a hotchpotch Third Front.

The leftists are morally bankrupt so much so that they have hardly an electoral issue this year except that cliched, over-trumpeted reforms. People are no longer buying this reform thing. In Kerala, the party is sharply divided over ideological issue. In West Bengal, the leaders are visibly nervous, and are uttering nonsense in public meetings. Buddhadeb Bhattachaya looks like a clown on screen. The so-called Marxists have to pay back the price for their betrayal of the masses.

Interstingly, they now fall back heavily on Jyoti Basu, the once-charismatic leader who is in the throes of death so to speak. How sad and cruel that the leftists are dragging the frail and wobbling nonagenarian on to the dais, and make him appeal to the masses for their mandate in elction 2009 in India!

Election India2009: Vote for cash

Many Indians like to tout it as the greatest democracy on earth, but it's just a quantitative statement. Qualitatively, this democracy glitters mostly on paper, and in our rulers' rhetoric. The truth is, most political parties routinely violate the norms that are at the core of a democracy.

One such glaring example is the vote for cash policy of some parties.

Electronic media has recently shown footage of Mulayam Singh Yadav of The Samajbadi Party, a senior politician of the country, distributing hundred-rupee notes to people who gathered at his residence on the occasion of the Holi.

In another incident, Amitava Nandy, a Left candidate for Lok Sabha election this year from Bengal, gives away cheques to workers from the dias of a workers' meeting.

The concerned parties have of course lodged complaints against these two leaders to the Election Commission, but there are little chances the latter would take any action against them.

Political leaders are kind of immune as far as any electoral law is concerned. This is again another downside of Indian democracy.

Vote for cash is not entirely a new thing. It was here in surreptitious way so long. Only this year it happens in the open.

Election India 2009

India is going to polls - Lok Sabha polls, to be more specific.

But do you feel any wind blowing?

Has this election any issue at all? Note that the Indira Congress, India's No 1 party, is this time trying to ride over a crappy film's "Joi Ho" slogan to victory. Another premier party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has only to show "Advani as PM" ad everywhere.

Is there any compelling choice for voters in respect of parties or leaders? Not really.

Does any body really care who will be the PM except the contenders?

From all indications, Lok Sabha election 2009 is going to be the drabbest election. But make no mistake about it: it's going to be a nasty election too, with all sorts name-calling, gimmick, and violence. Indian democracy will be made to dance in world's biggest reality show.

Colm Toibin interview

Colm Toíbín, the brilliant multi-award winning author of five novels and more than 10 works of non-fiction, is interviwed at TheManchesterReview.co.uk

Q:What do you enjoy most about your life as a writer?

A:The money. I never knew there would be money. It is such a surprise. And I like not having to leave the house in the morning. Yes, the money.

Q:Is there nothing else you enjoy about your life as a writer?

A:It is not for enjoyment. It has nothing to do with enjoyment. I like selling foreign rights, but that feeling would last no longer than 20 minutes.

Vinod Mehta on Slumdog Millionaire celebration

So, what’s changed with Slumdog Millionaire? As far as exploitation of poverty goes, Danny Boyle is up there with Katherine Mayo’s Mother India, which Gandhiji dismissed as a "drain inspector’s report". Why is the English-speaking elite going gaga, heaping extravagant praise? Beginning with the President to the PM to the leader of the Opposition to the Shiv Sena boss, it seems everyone wants a piece of the Slumdog pie. Could this unexpected triumph on Sonia Gandhi’s watch boost the Congress election prospects?

These are weighty questions best set aside. What disturbs me about the Oscar achievement is the collateral fragrance it spreads around our mushrooming slums. We are told Dharavi is a slum of vibrancy, enterprise, the triumph of the human spirit and a model of inter-communal living. Another collateral boon: superpower India has at last come to terms with its penury. It is comfortable with its poverty. If you will pardon my French, that’s bullshit!

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Slumdog Millionaire: is it about hope or a big lie?

Now that Slumdog Millionaire has bagged a bagful of Oscars, every Indian is celebrating it. Even those who criticised it only a few days ago. Barkha Dutta thinks it's about the innate fighting spirit that defines India. Suhel Seth says it's about the hope especially in these depressing times.

But there's one journalist Tarun Tejpal - intrepid and uncompromising and visionary - who rubbishes these things about the film, and tells the truth.

The awgee media tells us the film is about hope. And hope, as we all know, is greater than inconsistency, inaccuracy, implausibility, dodgy politics, and partypooper critics. And since the film is about the triumph of impossible hope, it is impossibly greater than all of the above. QED. And yes, of course it is also a fantasy, a fairytale. And since, for these poor sods, hope too is a fantasy, it all coheres, hangs together beautifully.

The slipper that was to hit Arundhati Roy

Did most Indian dailies block this news?

A slipper was thrown at Arundhati Roy when she visited the Delhi University on February 13 was auctioned for Rs 101,000 on Thursday, Hindustan Times reported. Asif Kumar, a member of the Youth Unity for Vibrant Action, threw his slipper at the acclaimed author in protest against her statement that “Kashmir should be given to Pakistan”, an official of the student group told the newspaper.

What's your take on this auction?

Twenty Years after the Salman Rushdie Fatwa

Thierry Chervel analyses Islamism's current grip on the west (via signandsight.com)
Rushdie's "Satanic Verses" show that enlightenment is not a path to bone-dry reason. The novel is packed with riddles and wonders, top-heavy with symbols and postmodern brouhaha, colourful as a Pakistani bus. It is a swift, inspired, extremely ambitious act of liberation. It is Gibreel's ham sandwich. Today one trembles at its impudence. The Prophet is called Mahound. Mohammed's twelve wives are reflected in the twelve prostitutes in a brothel. Not just enlightenment, it tells us, but blasphemy, too, leads humankind out of its self-imposed immaturity, an act of liberation which makes our hearts beat wildly, in euphoria and panic. The novel insists that we can ride our bicycles without stabilisers. It is beyond this act that the here and now awaits. This novel, written by an immigrant challenges Europe not to lose sight of its selfhood.

But Europe prefers not to listen.

Literature is not a heavyweight championship: Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe is the father of modern African writing. He has been writing fiction and essays over the past 50 years, and stands out, arguably, as the most reviewed Nigerian writer. In 1992, he became the first living author to be represented in the Everyman's Library collection published by Alfred A. Knopf. His 60th birthday was celebrated at the University of Nigeria; Nsukka (UNN) by the International Who's Who in African Literature. One observer noted: "Nothing like it had ever happened before in African literature anywhere on the continent."

Novelist Margaret Atwood called him "a magical writer one of the greatest of the 20'h century." Poet Maya Angelou lauded Achebe's Things Fall Apart as a book wherein "all readers meet their brothers, sisters, parents and friends and themselves along Nigerian roads."

Will Nuke Khan be at his old game again?

Nuke Khan alias A.Q. Khan is a free man again, thanks to President Zardari. Khan is a known nuclear proliferator and through his unique nuclear network, committed a crime against humanity. Though lionised by many Pakistanis as the father of the country’s atomic bomb, he confessed to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya in 2004.

It has been five years since he was put under house arrest. Now a Pakistani High Court releases him with the verdict that Nuke Khan has never been involved in any kind of nuclear proliferation or criminal activity.

Do you read anything into this release?

World of David Markson

David Markson - who? He's a writer's writer.

Twenty per cent of his novels contain the hero’s own jottings, the rest eighty percent are surprising facts about the isolation, despair and suicides of writers, musicians and thinkers in a discontinuous, non-linear, collage-like form. Much of his fiction looks at characters on the verge of madness, or after some great loss. The unnamed hero of his books is an aging writer working on a novel that seems stuck in his mind. In trying to think and write, the lives of other artistes crowd his consciousness and he notes them in the form of quotations, intellectual allusions and scholarly curiosities. All this is the residue of a lifetime’s reading. But is that all the hero of this book can now offer-his reading? Or will he, by the end of these numerous obscure literary factoids, conjure up a novel?

Slumdog Millionaire is right for top dog Warner Brothers

How absurd that Jamil, main character of Slumdog Millionaire, gets back to his life-experience to find out the answer everytime his host asks him a question in the biggest gamble TV show! And he gets it right too.

The depiction of Indian underbelly that emerges in the process is not exaggerated or unnatural, though not wholesome. The champions of 'India shining' brigade may have problem in accepting them, but it's unfair to say that the director Danny Boyle had any ulterior motive in showcasing this reality.

What I liked about the film is the director's taste, and sense of restraint. He could have made some scenes sleazier or sensual, but he didn't.

The film centres around a fantasy, and it's not easy to build up a believable plot on it. It's mainly for this lapse that the film suffers. And it's entirely an entertainment film.

But the lobotomized audience will love it. The top dog Warner Brothers of course had its hunch right. Slumdog, its first Indian venture, is quite OK for it.

How was George W Bush?

Expectedly, the debate has already started. Here is Vinod Meheta's take in Outlook newsmagazine.

"To see the exiting George Bush as a harmless, blundering idiot is grossly unfair to the man. He was, in fact, a dangerous, blundering idiot who inflicted (probably) irreparable damage on America and the free world. In the United States, the debate on how history will judge George W. fluctuates between—is he the worst president in the last 50 years, or is he the worst president ever? In his eight years at the White House, he successfully managed to destroy the twin pillars of the great American story: the blessings of democracy and the invincibility of free market capitalism...

Thanks, President Obama

If his inaugural address is any indication, President Barack Obama is on the right track. It takes guts to repudiate the Bush era and its foreign policy, with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney sitting just a few feet away from him. And he has not really minced words. He said turning around the limping economy was his first and top priority. And he would withdraw troops out of Iraq in 16 months.

But what would earn him praise from across the world is his order to stop all trials of "terrorists" of the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison - the ghastly legacy of Bush regime. This is a positive step on his way to keeping his promise of closing the prison for ever.

Rightly, Obama puts his stamp on his Presidency on the very first day.

Capitalism =adventure + amorality?

THE WORLD of tumultuous capitalist growth is a monstrous and complex thicket. The survivors in that jungle are often truly adventurous scoundrels, who harness their highest levels of ambition to create commercial juggernauts. Adventure and amorality are, in a sense, inextricably linked in the very DNA of capitalism.

Dilip Cherian, columnist and business editor, has an interesting article in Tehelka newsmagazine.

India's nasty industrialists

Ambani brothers - Mukesh and Anil-, and Sunil Mittal have rooted for Narendra Modi as next PM. Their argument: in Modi, they find a leader with a vision and the ability to convert the vision into reality.

Now, Narendra Modi is not really a respectable fellow. He is associated with Gujrat genocide, and though he dons a clean, fashionable makeover in his appearance these days, he's a dirty soul. Gujrat under him may have improved industry-wise, but he is a stifler of dissenting voice, and he's a dictator.

So, why are these industrialists behind him? In 1933, the German industrialists backed Adolf Hitler and his nazi regime. This is just an Indian version 2009.

Second novel after 35 years!

PW: Which was harder to write, the first novel or the second?

ES: The second novel was tougher because I knew a lot more. I think without the life experience of a couple of decades between the two books, I couldn’t have written The Disappearance. The first novel had a great setting—it was very pictorial and very plot driven, but when I compare those characters to the characters I labored over for The Disappearance there’s no comparison. It took a lot of life experience to be able to create characters that had a real feeling to them. Getting inside their heads was the key to finishing the novel and convincing someone that it could be published. Also, the second book took a lot of imagining of what would a person not that different from me in background would feel like—and to take that simple story idea—a child disappears and no one Efrem Sigel, whose second novel, The Disappearance, will be knows why—into a novel that really explores what this means for a couple, their relationship and the rest of their lives and whether they can rediscover a purpose to life out of this terrible tragedy. I didn’t just want to write a thriller—a child disappears, they look for him, eventually they find out who did it and bring the culprit to justice. I wanted to do something more complex than that.

Efrem Sigel writes his second novel, The Disappearance, after a 35-year hiatus.