My New Year resolution: Clear garbage

I've decided to get rid of all kinds of garbage in all forms in 2011. Actually, I started this process long ago,and would like to complete it this year.

What do I mean by garbage? Well, this is what piles up in an alarming way around us every day in our modern life. It blocks,threatens,intimidates, stifles and chokes us. The most dreaded enemy you should guard yourself against right now.

Some examples of garbage: TV reality shows, most print media, books by politicians, Facebook, current Hollywood flicks, MMO blogs, sponsored medical seminars, medical representatives, Nitin Gadgiri,Biman Bose, Manmohan Singh.

Ashok Mitra interview

With so much of poverty and destitution, a billionaire has the audacity to build a house worth Rs 5,000 crore when half the population of Mumbai lives in jhopad pattis. This is what economic liberalisation has brought about.

Ashok Mitra, well-known economist and writer, is interviewed in the Outlook Magazine. . Former Bengal finance minister is still as harsh and fascinating as ever.

Dr Binayak Sen Sentence: Raipur judge B.P.Varma under fire

Savagery is unbelievable

Statement by top academics and public intellectuals condemning the life sentence handed down by a Raipur sessions judge to Binayak Sen:

We are deeply shocked by the judgement of a Chhatisgarh court holding the human rights activist Binayak Sen to be guilty of sedition, and sentencing him to life imprisonment. Sen never resorted to violence against any other person, never incited anyone else to resort to violence, never entered into any conspiracy against the Constitutional order of the country, and never entered into regular service of any organisation that was involved in any such conspiracy for furhering its cause. On the contrary, as a doctor he served the people with devotion and helped to save many lives; as a human rights activist he stood up in defence of the rights of the downtrodden. And yet he has been handed down this sentence whose savagery is unbelievable.

Such an action on the part of the State in the name of preserving the constitutional order will only serve to undermine that Constitutional order itself. It will inevitably raise the thought in the minds of many that an order within which the activities of a person like Sen can be held to be seditious is not worth defending.

Such an impression must be be avoided. The damage done by this shocking verdict to our Constitutional order must be undone. The higher judiciary of the country must hear his appeal expeditiously, must grant him bail till the end of the appeal process, and must judge his cae with enlighened reason.

(Among the signatories are Prabhat Patnaik, JNU, Noam Chomsky, MIT,Amiya Kumar Bagchi, Institute of Development Studies, Romila Thapar, JNU,Vina Majumdar, Rajeev Bhargava, Centre for Study o Developing Societies, Akeel Bilgrami, Columbia University, Partha Chaterjee and Joya Hasan, JNU

On Binayak Sen's Life Sentence

"Dr Sen, who is considered a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, was convicted under laws that are impermissibly vague and fall well short of international standards for criminal prosecution. Instead of persecuting Dr Sen, authorities in Chhattisgarh should be acting to protect the people of the region from the abuses committed by the Maoists, as well as state security forces and militias."

Bengal's Macabre Politics

So, cadaver is the new game in Bengal politics.

In these hot and violent days before the crucial Assembly election, nothing is more welcome to the ruling CPI(M) and its rival Trinamul Congress Party than a fresh cadaver, preferably of a young man. Each of these parties parade its own cadaver to whip up the emotion of the public in its favour.

It's not exactly a new trend in the state. Bodies of party members have long been a rallying point for the political parties. Only recentlly they get a new dimension.

Just imagine this scenario: a huge procession of people carrying party flags on the city's main road with a body laid down on a van in its midst and well-known party leaders pulling mournful faces to show to the electronic media.

But it's not really a moving sight. You may have pity for the hapless soul, but what engulfs you in the end is a wave of repulsion and disgust. Is it the new face of civilization? Is this the attitude of our leaders about someone killed or dead?

On december 17, West Bengal Chief minister put a wreath on the body of Swapan Koley who was killed in his college campus fight. And it was followed by a well-attended march with the body. Three days later, Trinamul replied in kind by pulling in a corpse - that of 27-year-old Sanatan Hembram - from farway Lalgarh to take around the city.

Poor Swapan Koley! Poor Sanatan Hembram! Their parties literally used and exploited them till the end of their funeral journey.

So much for the tastes, culture and behaviour of the two parties that now dominate Bengal.

Unfortunately for the people, they would have to choose, in the coming election, one of these two parties. There is no third option in our Indian democracy.

How do you describe Julian Assange?

I've begun to like Julian Assange, but have a problem with him. I can't exactly describe him. I've thought various labels for him: messiah of speech freedom, anarchist who relishes the discomfort of the powers that be, poster-boy of web-journalism seeking transparency in behavours of super-powers. Assange is practically each of these things separately, and all of these put together.

It's an astounding feat for any individual to take on a state, and US at that. I don't see anything wrong in his exposure of US military's atrocities on civilians in Iraq. Nor is there morally any wrong-doing in the revelation that the rulers of Saudi Arab like to drink and party hard. Assange's exposure wakes us up to the truths around us. And who but the badass politicians and rulers would not like it?

It was a foretold assumption that Assange would ultimately be gagged.So he's in jail now for some absurd crime (having sex with a broken condom!)

Is Assange doomed? No, never. He's actually going to be a winner. He has already quite successfully demonstrated how the powerful behaves when it confronts a true whistle-blower. He has more things to offer to the human corpus.

Anish Kapoor, the artist

In the Hindustan Times,Sumati Mehrishi writes an interesting profile ( sorry, no link,perhaps not available online)of Anish Kapoor, the artist. I like what Kapoor says about being an artist:

Being an artist is a complicated job. I am really interested in knowing how I need to grow. I am interested in knowing how to be free as a person, as an artist. Of course one is full of prejudice and full of ' this I can do and that I can't do.' You have to be free of yourself to be really doing anything properly. Do anything really. That's the only way to keep alive creatively.

Vir Sanghvi stops "Counterpoint"

Vir Sanghvi, caught in the recent leaked tapes, stops his political column "Counterpoint", as if to prove his innocence. In his last column titled Setting the record straight, he writes:

The whole episode has left me feeling battered. Perhaps it will drag on. Perhaps more muck will fly around. I have no desire to subject Counterpoint to this filth. It deserves better. So, Counterpoint will be taking a break. When life returns to norman, so will Counterpoint.

So, what do you think Vir Sanghvi is? A phoney hack, or a journalist with intregity? in any case, it's a relief to get rid of his fluffy column.

Two Cheers for Nitish Kumar

Nitish Kumar's watershed victory in Bihar's Assembly election is something I really relish. Not only does he win, but he routs Lalu, Ram Vilash and Rahul Gandi - all unworthies - at the same time. He has always been a brilliant player,and I like him for his unpretentious, sensible, educated and above-cast attitude. His alliance with the communal BJP, though, is beyond my comprehension.

Two cheers for this great victory. I reserve my third cheer for Nitish Kumar when he would shun BJP, and would go on his own.

India on sale!

The tapes also paint a dismal picture of how everything—from cabinet berths to natural resources—is now available for the right price. The now controversial 2G allocation was just one of the many manipulations orchestrated by players in high places. There are conversations on civil aviation with 1980-batch IAS officer Sunil Arora, publicist Suhel Seth and many others which have not been included here. The worst fallout, however, is that it has besmirched the hitherto ‘fair’ name of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who agreed to take Raja back in the same ministry that now stands exposed in the biggest scam in independent India, despite knowledge of the tapes.

Resurgent India and boiled eggs

Indian nationalists and the government seem to believe that they can fortify their idea of a resurgent India with a combination of bullying and Boeing airplanes. But they don’t understand the subversive strength of warm, boiled eggs.

Arundhati Roy on mob and media

What is the nature of the agreement between these sections of the media and mobs and criminals in search of spectacle? Does the media which positions itself at the ‘scene’ in advance have a guarantee that the attacks and demonstrations will be non-violent? What happens if there is criminal trespass (as there was today) or even something worse? Does the media then become accessory to the crime?

Noam Chomsky interview

Q:Do you think the people in the West—and it is now happening in India as well—are giving up newspapers and turning to the internet largely because they do not believe what the newspapers say?

Noam Chomsky: In the US, it’s partly true. But that’s also part of a much broader phenomenon which you can easily see in polls. A large majority of the population is disillusioned with everything. They are anti-government, anti-business, opposed to the political parties, Republicans even more than the Democrats; they dislike Congress, they don’t believe the professions, the scientists. It’s as if their lives are falling apart. So, yes, they don’t like the media. Then there is also the propaganda—how the media is socialist and so on.

via Outlook

Be honest or don't bother to do it

“My feeling is that I have to be very honest or I shouldn’t bother to do it."

David Grossman on writing novels

"When I write novels, I write them as though no one would read them. That's a very, very intimate act."

Howard Jacobson on Philip Roth, Woody Allen

"I still think Philip Roth is the most wonderful writer but he has essentially stopped being funny. He is perfectly within his rights to have stopped being funny, but I feel: ‘Now more than ever I want you to be funny... now that you are in the toils and at any moment you're going to die and you are fed up with everything and everybody.' I feel the same with Woody Allen: ‘Fine, it was easy before. Joke now.' It's never too serious to laugh."

Liu Xiaobo dedicates the Nobel Peace Prize to people killed in 1989 crackdown

Reuter reports that Nobel Peace Prize-winning Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo dedicated the award to people killed in the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests, reports said on Monday, while Chinese media said the prize showed the West feared China.

Mario Vargas Llosa : conversation

As I find, there are not many interviews with Mario Vargas Losa on the net. but just now I got " A conversation with Mario Vargas Llosa".

Congratulation Liu Xiaobo!

I'm glad the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded this year to the Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo, who is serving a 11-year prison sentence now.

Liu Xiaobo is now 54 years old. In 1989, he participated in the riots in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, and then fell into disfavor with the authorities in China. After the riot, Liu Xiaobo spent about 20 months in prison. Then, in December 2009, he was arrested for the organization in recent years of propaganda activities aimed at undermining state power and overthrowing the socialist system, and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Liu Xiaobo was said to be one of the authors of the letter to the Chinese authorities demanding respect for human rights.

Rohinton Mistry's novel dropped: a moral victory for Gustad Noble

Such a long journey is an objectionable book,says Aditya Thackeray, grandson of Siva Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, drop it from the syllabus. The Mumbai university VC readily nods in agreement, calls in a meeting of his senior officials,and unanimously takes the decision to drop it. Yes, it is as fast as that.

No protests: not a murmur, let alone any howl. The VC of course does it to save his hide, ditto with his officials, but what happened to Mumbai intellectuals? Do we have any reaction from Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, and our ever-belligerent Arnab Goswami?

Of course, it's a risky venture to say anything against the Thakerays who, though out of power, still seem to rule Mumbai. If you want to live in Mumbai, you must learn to be afraid of Thackeray. That is democracy, Mumbai style.

But it's a moral victory for Gutad Noble, the Rohinton Mistry novel's protagonist, who struggled with what's right and what's wrong. What better proof to vindicate his experiences than this here-and-now display of Shiv Sena's strength!

What is Facebook for?

Ask any kid what Facebook is for and he'll tell you it's there to help him make friends. What else could he think? It's how he *does* make friends. He has no idea the real purpose of the software, and the people coding it, is to monetize his relationships. He isn't even aware of those people, the program, or their purpose

Looking to Coca-Cola to save the planet?

The Sustainable Planet Forum is holding a three-day international conference on environmental issues in the French city of Lyon. Many political thinkers - Paul Aries among them - would share thier ideas and thoughts for a new sustainable planet for all.

New Hope for Mankind?

In a new essay in the Outlook weekly, Arundhati Roy, the great writer and thinker, criticises the excesses of both capitalism and communism, and offers a new alternative that may arouse new hope for mankind.

The first step towards reimagining a world gone terribly wrong would be to stop the annihilation of those who have a different imagination—an imagination that is outside of capitalism as well as communism. An imagination which has an altogether different understanding of what constitutes happiness and fulfilment. To gain this philosophical space, it is necessary to concede some physical space for the survival of those who may look like the keepers of our past, but who may really be the guides to our future. To do this, we have to ask our rulers: Can you leave the water in the rivers? The trees in the forest? Can you leave the bauxite in the mountain?

On Azad's death

In India, you can't believe a police statement. The police is the salve of the ruling class, and always acts on its behalf. So when the Andhra police rufuted the popular charge ( to which Swami Agnivesh and even Mamata Banerjee subscribed)that Maoist leader Azad was killed by the police, we didn't give it a damn, and stuck to our initial perception. Now the
post-mortem report reveals that the police shot him from a distance less that 7.5 cm or less.

Vedanta's benevolent enterprise!

Vedanta's Vedanta might appear as a benevolent enterprise to Verghese, but life has taught the adivasis what it stands for. Even as Verghese comes forth as an apologist for the worst perpetrators of crimes against humanity, we find organisations like the Church of England, and several shareholders in Vedanta exhibiting better rationale by withdrawing their shares from Vedanta. Even the colonialists seem more humane and rational than the slavish intellectuals in their former colonies! Moreover, even the Supreme Court of India and the environment ministry have raised objections to the proposed Vedanta University and mining venture. Only a Chidambaram, who served as a member of its board of directors until 2004, and Verghese, with his “compassionate” colonial mindset of “civilising” the backward people, can stand up in support of vultures like Vedanta, Tata, POSCO, Jindal....
--In A last note to a neo-colonialsit by slain Maoist leader Chemkuri Azad Rajkumar

India's International prestige

Mani Shankar Aiyar has an interesting article in the OUTLOOK on India's current economic policies.

our value system has become so distorted that we link our international prestige to providing a 10-day Commonwealth Games whose chief characteristic is hiding beggars from public gaze so that foreign dignitaries will perhaps be fooled into believing that India has no beggars. This distortion of values is proved by Suresh Kalmadi getting Rs 1,600 crore for the games while the victims of Bhopal have now been given a supplementary amount of 1,500 crore. The games, for which the perfectly good roads of Lutyens’ Delhi are being paved all over again, get Rs 100 crore more.

What is news?

"News is something someone, somewhere does not want to read. The rest is PR.” (via ..)

When News is manufactured

"Now that Operation Green Hunt has begun to knock on the doors of people like myself, imagine what’s happening to activists and political workers who are not well known. To the hundreds who are being jailed, tortured and eliminated. June 26 is the 35th anniversary of the Emergency. Perhaps the Indian people should declare (because the government certainly won’t) that this country is in a state of Emergency. (On second thoughts, did it ever go away?) This time censorship is not the only problem. The manufacture of news is an even more serious one."

The Curious IB Communique

Even PUCL is suspect!

According to information available with TEHELKA, the Intelligence Bureau — the government’s prime sleuthing agency on internal security — has said that the PUCL is among 57 organisations nationwide that are working “for the cause of the Maoists”. The IB’s communiqué was sent recently to paramilitary forces and the director-generals of police (DGPs) of the various states affected by the Maoist insurgency. As per protocol, the advisory has been routed through the Union Home Ministry

Who are these three intellectuals?

"Post PC order, police zero in on 3 intellectuals", screams a headline in today's The Indian Express, Kolkata edition.

The report states,"After the Union Home Ministry issued a circular stating that intellectuals showing sympathy and allegiance to the Maooists could be arrested under the Unlawful(Preventive)Activities Act, the state police and intelligence agencies have zeroed in on three intellectuals from the state."

The report does not mention their names.

So the Arundhati Roy article impact begins at last.

I wonder who they could be. Mahasweta Devi, the noted writer-activist could be one. Sujato Bhadra, secretary, Association for prevention of Democratic Rights, might be another. I can't get around to even guessing the third one.Would it be Bibhas Chakrabarty, the playwright-actor?

Arundhati Roy's new essay

OUTLOOK has published a 32-page essay called "Walking with the Comrades" by Arundhati Roy, the activist-writer, in its recent issue. This looks somewhat unusual for a weekly newsmagazine, but Vinod Mehta, the editor, comes up with such risky ventures once in a while.(one of the reasons why I still adore him as an editor).

Walking with the Comrades is Roy's first-hand experience of the Maoists, and their life-styles in the camps as well as about their dreams and philosophies. It's Roy's daring exploration of a political party who India's Prime Minister describes as the biggest internal security threat to the country.

As you read the essay - it's journalism with a heart - you get instantly drawn in with its evocative portrait of real India with its huge oppressives on one side and some greedy corporate houses hand-in-gloves with politicians of different hues - specially those of the ruling party, on the other.

Only Arundhati Roy could write such an essay!

But how is the Government going to react to this explosive essay? As it has ripped off the Government's stand vis-a-vis its Adivasi policy, there should be a huge stirring in govt circles and among the political clique. But I don't see any sign of it until now. Perhaps they are all in a silent mode pondering what to do.

As it seems, it's not easy to arrest Arundhati Roy, or Vinod Mehta for that matter.

Arundhati Roy as mediator in Govt-Maoist peace talks?

Arundhati Roy never ceases to amaze me.

I'm not surprised Kishenji, the top Maist leader, proposes her name as a mediator. Not only is Arundhati savvy and knowlegeable about such an impotrant issue, her integrity is also above board.

But Arundhati does not want to be a mediator, saying she has not got the required skill-set of a mediator. She would rather act as an observer.

That is real Arundhati Roy who knows her limitations and understands how she could be useful to such a crucial talk.

But would the Indian govt agree to take her even as an observer? Nope.

Chidambaram Vs. Intellectuals

The person leading the campaign against the ‘sympathisers’ is Union home minister P. Chidambaram. I’m a great admirer of the HM, who is a man of formidable competence, vision and energy. Sadly, he thinks any attack on the way the state is handling the Maoist problem is a personal attack on him. Perhaps Mr Chidambaram’s insistence that intellectuals condemn Maoists has a psychological reason: he considers himself an intellectual and, consequently, craves for the support of his fraternity to justify his actions. But stories of state brutality—as spelt out in Outlook last week—pit the intellectuals against Chidambaram.