Jaya should not encourage Tamil Nadu's 'suicide frenzy'

AIADMk followers crying outside the party office, Chennai (IBNLive photo)

Taking one’s own life because of the misfortune suffered by a political leader or a public personage is nothing new in Tamil Nadu, or even Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. So it came as no surprise when, according to the AIADMK, 193 people committed suicide on hearing of then Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s brief incarceration in a Rs. 66-crore disproportionate assets case. But in what seems like a gesture condoning these deaths, the AIADMK leader has announced a cash relief of Rs. 3 lakh to the families of those who died. It does not end here. She also announced a payment of Rs. 50,000 to the three who tried to commit suicide. Attempted suicide is a criminal offence under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code and so in effect Jayalalithaa is supporting a criminal act. To be rewarded for showing such ‘devotion’ to a leader will only encourage this pernicious trend.
When former TN chief minister MG Ramachandran died in 1987, around 30 of his followers were alleged to have committed suicide. When Kannada actor Rajkumar died in 2006 there were rumours that many of his followers had taken their lives. When the then Andhra Pradesh CM YSR Reddy died in a helicopter crash in 2009, there were reports that more than 100 people died of ‘shock’. In a sub-culture where the popularity of a leader is measured by the vandalism his/her followers indulge in or by the number of followers who either hurt themselves or commit suicide when their leader suffers a setback or has died, the AIADMK’s gesture may seem perfectly rational to the faithful. The move appears to be an attempt by Jayalalithaa to exploit the sentiments of the people. More dangerously, her ‘generosity’ comes across as a reminder to her followers that mindless devotion will be compensated.
Jayalalithaa is a popular leader who enjoys enormous support in Tamil Nadu. As a progressive leader, she should have no truck with this practice and should take steps to end this trend. She is an able administrator and has done commendable work for the disadvantaged. But this is a blot on her copybook which she must erase without delay.

Is there a NaMo wave south of the Vindhyas?

Till now the BJP has not been able to make considerable gains south of the Vindhyas, except in Karnataka. In 2009, from the four southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which together have 129 Lok Sabha seats, the BJP won only 19 seats, all from Karnataka. The BJP-led NDA marked its presence in 1999 in other southern states through regional parties like the DMK in Tamil Nadu and the TDP in Andhra Pradesh. The South has been a blind spot for the party for quite some time but this time round, the BJP is focusing extensively on these states and hopes to do much better. BJP president Rajnath Singh has said that the party’s performance in Tamil Nadu will surprise poll pundits and some senior leaders even claim that the BJP will win 50 seats from the South alone. Many top BJP leaders, including its prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, and senior leaders like LK Advani have toured the South to boost the party’s electoral prospects.

In Karnataka, the return of BS Yeddyurappa and B Sriramulu to the BJP fold is a shot in the arm for the party, which lost the 2013 assembly election to the Congress. The BJP hopes to win more than half of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state. In Tamil Nadu, where the BJP has got into an alliance with five regional parties, the saffron party might upset the poll equation. The AIADMK, with which, it is likely to enter into a post-poll alliance, is expected to win a majority of the 39 seats in the state. However, the BJP may eat into the AIADMK’s upper caste vote share and this will help the DMK. In Kerala, the BJP has an outside chance of winning in Thiruvananthapuram and Kasargod. In Andhra Pradesh, the BJP has pinned its hopes on N Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP. There is anger against the Congress for its mishandling of the bifurcation of the state and that might help the BJP-TDP alliance.
The BJP has big expectations from these four states. There is a ‘Modi Wave’ in the South, where many people are aware of the Gujarat chief minister and his development agenda. This might increase the BJP’s vote share but it is to be seen if this will result in an increase in the number of seats the party will win. However, for a party that has not seen an active presence in the South, this is in itself an achievement.

Sambar to Samba: Karnataka minister go a long way

In January if you were to spot a group of dhoti-clad, middle-aged, potbellied, Ray Ban flashing men speaking in Kanada at the Iguazu Falls at the Brazil-Argentina border or at the Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro make sure not to disturb them — they are the latest batch of MLAs from Karnataka who are on a ‘study tour’ to various South American destinations. These ‘crusaders’ have set out with the consecrate purpose to imbibe the best Latin America can offer and reproduce it in their respective taluks and panchayats back home in Karnataka. The state legislature’s committee on estimates is planning to send 30 of its MLAs to visit Argentina, Brazil, Peru among other places at a cost of around Rs. 7.5 lakh per MLA.
Such ‘study tours’ to exotic destinations are perhaps as old as the republic and are not unique to MLAs from Karnataka. Last month, the Goa deputy chief minister Francis D'Souza-led 38-member team visited Italy, Germany and Austria to study solid waste management. In 2012 the Kerala sports minister landed in soup when he and the sports secretary planned to enjoy the Olympics on the taxpayers money even when many athletes were not getting paid. What is surprising though is the gumption and alacrity with which public servants choose to go on such trips. Even as this batch of MLAs plans to go to Latin America a group is currently soaking the wonders Down Under. All this at a time when not less than 65 taluks in the state have been declared drought hit.
 The committee head and Congress MLA Mallikaiah V Guttedar justifies the trip by saying “don’t you send school children on vacation….similarly MPs and MLAs are being sent through the legislature committees.” Fellow MLA BC Patil shares Guttedar’s views: “Why shouldn’t we go on a junket? It’s our privilege as legislators” — and it is this false notion that it is the prerogative of a legislator to waste the taxpayer’s money that baffles the common man. The lack of concern shown by the legislators, including chief minister Siddaramaiah who thinks it is not a big issue, at a time when the state’s finances are in the red is alarming even by the low standards set by our leaders — considering this Nero at least played the fiddle.
Many state BJP leaders, perhaps after understanding the public mood, have decided to not go on the ‘study tour’. However the saffron party cannot claim the political moral high ground because when it was in power CM Jagadish Shettar had to recall his legislators who were touring Argentina and other countries. Thanks to an increasing presence of media and social network sites, coupled by a growing demand for transparency and accountability, the ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ arrangement by MLAs across the political divide will not sell anymore.
In this age of Internet where information is just a click away, it is foolish to justify such expensive trips. The MLAs should rather listen to the people who have elected them and search for solution in consultation with them and experts in the field. Expensive trips are not the answer. And this time the people might be gracious to forgive them even if they were to search for such information on their iPads in the assembly while a session is on.
(This appeared in Hindustan Times on December 28)

NCTC: Congress gives terror plan a quiet burial

With home minister Sushilkumar Shinde saying that the government will not bring a Bill on the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) in Parliament it is almost certain that it is curtains on P Chidambaram’s proposal for an integrated counter-terrorism centre. The main reason cited for not pursuing the NCTC idea is that there has been vehement opposition to the centre from various chief ministers. What seems to have turned the tide against the move was the opposition from Congress chief ministers. The June 5 chief minister’s meeting on internal security highlighted one crucial aspect that when it comes to matters regarding internal security there is no cohesion between the Centre and states. The Mumbai 26/11 attacks and the many other attacks that followed exposed, beyond doubt, the gaping holes in India’s security network. With the May 25 Maoist attack still fresh in the mind it was hoped that states, looking beyond federalist confines, would come together to address some of the pressing internal security problems India is facing today.
Law and order is a state subject and state governments fear that the proposed NCTC will compromise the existing structure and give the Centre superseding powers tampering the current autonomy they enjoy. The National Intelligence Grid (NatGRID), meant for gathering intelligence from various sources, was opposed for privacy violations and safety of information. Even the Multi-Agency Centre (MAC), which was praised by Shinde at the June 5 meeting, hasn’t been fully operational. The Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS) is yet to take off. More than a dozen chief ministers expressed their reservations and even after the government proposed a watered-down NCTC, after agreeing to keep it out of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and curtailing its power to make arrests, there seems to be not many takers. These also included Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and recently elected Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah.
In the territorial wrangles between different states and the Centre, the point politicians miss is that the extremist forces, both within and outside the country, do not factor state boundaries —they use it to their advantage, and make the most of a dithering government. For any tangible progress to be made, a co-ordinated approach is required in which all states are equal stakeholders. The Centre and states should come together and form a comprehensive plan to tackle terror. The communion between agencies will have to be in tandem with more intelligence gathering at the ground level. Even for a proposal like the NCTC to make a difference, there is a need for getting more forces that can gather information at the ground level and hawk-eyed surveillance wherever possible. Unless such progress is made, for which greater political will is required from all parties, the government will still fail to protect its citizens.

Modi: The virtual is more powerful than the real

Narednra Damodardas Modi is an interesting phenomenon. I say phenomenon, and not person, owing two reasons: not much is being talked about Modi the person. While the media, along with other political parties, lose no chance to amplify and dissect the lives of other politicians, little is discussed about Modi’s life. The second reason is that there seems to be a conscientious effort to project Modi as a larger-than-life person. The latest effort in this direction was Modi’s virtual addressing of overseas Gujaratis in 20 cities in the United States on the occasion of Gujarat Divas. The subject of his talk was more or less on predictable lines — the prosperity Gujarat has seen under him, his vision for development and the peril the country is under the leadership of the Congress-led UPA. Interestingly, he also sought contributions for a statue — twice the size of the State of Liberty — of Sardar Patel.
This is not the first time Modi has made news for being the Lawrence of Arabia among Indian politicians for being the pioneer to use the World Wide Web to connect with the people. From 2005 Modi has been addressing the Gujarati community in the US on Gujarat Diwas. Modi became the first — and probably the only — Indian politician to address a rally using 3D hologram projection technology. His 3D virtual show that was simultaneously telecast at 53 places in December 10, 2012, using the Pepper’s Ghost Illusion technology entered the Guinness Book of World Records. News is that the BJP is all set to go bigger with the 3D show that in the next few months more such virtual appearances are expected where the Gujarat strongman will address people in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The NaMo Gujarat TV, a cable network channel that was launched prior to the Gujarat elections, is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of the BJP and it is all set to cater to a national audience.
On March 21, Modi spoke to thousands of netizens using Google+ Hangout on how IT technology has been used for better governance. Modi also has a very strong presence on social networking sites. When last checked he had more than 16 lakh followers on Twitter. That is a little shy of 17 lakh 70 thousand followers minister of state for human resource development Shashi Tharoor commands. Modi also has an active presence in Facebook, Youtube and Google+. This is an achievement not many chief ministers in India can boast about.

While in his virtual avatar Modi seems to be a towering edifice, in reality there appears to be chinks in the armour. Modi makes it a point to highlight the prosperity and development Gujarat has achieved under his leadership. The industry houses rushing to set shop in the state are proof of this. However, there is also the other side of the story where Gujarat has high levels of malnutrition and very poor social indices. Despite his juggernaut victories in the assembly polls in Gujarat, he has not been able to replicate that victory in any of the other states. His campaign speeches and visits during the 2012 Uttar Pradesh polls and the recent Karnataka elections seem to have a damp effect given that the party did not fare well in both the states. In the recent Karnataka debacle the party got such a thorough hiding that the effect of his campaign visits in the south is being questioned.
The allies in the NDA, of which the BJP is the principal party, are also not keen on projecting Modi as the coalition’s prime ministerial candidate. Nitish Kumar, Bihar’s chief minister and JD(U) leader, in April made it clear that his party was not for Modi. There is also an element of doubt surrounding the acceptability of Modi as the party’s candidate within the BJP. The party’s dilly-dallying in naming him as its candidate reflects this difference of opinion within the party and the RSS.
As of now, going by the results in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, among others, it seems that Narendra Modi has a virtual presence outside Gujarat. He has proved, three times in a row, his stature in the state, but beyond the state borders it is not as luminous as projected or perceived to be. However, there is a lot of time between now and the 2014 elections and it is hard to predict how things will shape up by then.
For now, the shrill cry of the thousands of Modi followers (fans) is akin to the fans of an Upendra or Mohanlal strongly pushing for their superstar to have dominance in Bollywood.

Veiling the right to education

Educational institutions should focus on improving the quality of education imparted to the lakhs of students, and stop short of moral policing is a point that seems to be repeated very often that the people who have to take note are missing frequently. Two news items that have appeared earlier this week in Bantwal and Uppinangady, both places in Dakshina Kannada, highlight a disquieting trend of increasing religious intolerance and how right wing extremists are blatantly using academia as a means to an end.

Aysha Asmin, a first-year student of Sri Venkataramana Swamy College, Bantwal, was given two options by her principal Seetharamayya --- ‘abide’ by the college rules or quit. That no such rules exist or were mentioned during the time of Aysha’s admission and the college union is managed by a right-wing group is not a mere coincidence. Similar objections raised by the college management at the Government First Grade College, Uppinangady, seem to have died down after Muslim girls have been permitted to wear a head scarf for the ‘time being’.

Religious intolerance has been on the rise and Dakshina Kannada has been its epicentre in South India. The banning of burqas and the graphic visuals of hooligans, backed by Pramod Muthalik’s Sri Ram Sene, beating up boys and girls in Mangalore in January this year, details a disturbing malice that is gaining currency.

The show-cause notice issued by the district deputy commissioner is a move in the right direction and it is expected that the Department of College Education would take punitive action against the college. The state home minister, V Acharya, who has backed the college decision citing ‘discipline’, has overlooked a simple norm that ‘discipline’ and order should not be imposed or attained at the cost of an individual’s freedom as enshrined in our Constitution.

The question to be asked is why is it that the Universities Grant Commission and the ministry of education have not taken cognisance of the issue if there is a ‘rule’ in the prospectus of the government-aided college banning students from wearing a burqa, as claimed by Seetharamayya. As the ban is a clear violation of the fundamental rights, the college should be reprimanded and not just smacked on the knuckle.

The college principal’s statement ridiculing religious freedom and that he was under pressure from certain organisations, coupled with the Mangalore University vice-chancellor K M Kaveriappa’s assurance to Aysha that he would secure an admission in any college of her choice, are confessions in public that the system has bowed to antics of right-wing groups.

That colleges, and universities in some cases, insist on a dress code alibi discipline, is a reflection of the lack of maturity in thought and blinkered vision that is spreading among educational institutions at an alarming rate.

(The edited version of this can be accessed at http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Intolerance+in+academia&artid=8PA3IZ3a8eQ=&SectionID=RRQemgLywPI=&MainSectionID=RRQemgLywPI=&SectionName=XQcp6iFoWTvPHj2dDBzTNA==)

Yet another sign of Talibanisation

Some people believe that invoking God and tradition can sanctify a vile act. That seems true of the Sri Ram Sene thugs who raided a Mangalore pub on January 24, rounded up, groped and beat up the women present. The reason: “because of the attitude of the young women” and for “consuming alcohol, dressing indecently, and mixing with youths of other faiths”. In short, it was done “in the name of God”. Almost as an echo comes a statement from Krishna Palemar, minister in charge of Dakshina Kannada, that “obscene” dances will not be allowed in the district. Such a pronouncement from a government minister implies a worrying degree of support for vigilante hooliganism. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has “categorically” distanced itself from this incident, but this is the same party whose chief minister B S Yeddyurappa only four months ago excused the attacks on churches in the state on the grounds that conversions were the cause. This time he has said, “It is unfortunate”, and nothing more. But the signs are ominous. Three days have passed, and the police still have not arrested the main perpetrators. As for the Sri Rama Sene, it has admitted its responsibility, and its founder Pramod Mutalik is unrepentant, dismissing the public outcry as unnecessary hype. That will be their attitude as long as the Krishna Palemars provide tacit support for their agenda, which is nothing more than a creeping Talibanisation of society, where everything that does not fit a selfserving “tradition” is suspect.
Such incidents in an election year are fodder for political parties and some have grabbed the bait gladly. Women and child development minister Renuka Chowdhury has condemned the attack and so has the National Commission for Women. Chowdhury has gone a step further, saying that if needed she would personally intervene in the case. Unfortunately, the assurance rings a bit hollow, because activists report that the rate of convictions for crimes against women is near zero. It is not just crimes against women, though. It was the Sri Ram Sene that attacked an M F Hussain exhibition in Delhi last August. It has also been mentioned by Lt Col Purohit, a prime suspect in the Malegaon blasts, in a transcript as doing a “good job”. True, judicial custody for the arrested could be extended. Remember the case where 14 youths were granted bail after two NRIs were molested on Juhu beach while celebrating New Year in 2008?
The people in the Amnesia bar were doing nothing illegal. It was the intruders who broke the law and they must be made to pay for it. We cannot allow morality to be used as a cover for barbarism.
Published version of this post can be viewed at (http://epaper.newindpress.com/NE/NE/2009/01/28/ArticleHtmls/28_01_2009_010_001.shtml?Mode=1 or http://epaper.newindpress.com/NE/NE/2009/01/28/index.shtml)