From: Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC <pmarc2008@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 1:33 PM
Subject: [PMARC] Dalits Media Watch - News Updates 24.03.10
To: Dalits Media Watch <PMARC@dgroups.org>
Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 24.03.10
White paper sought on funds for Dalit welfare - The Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/24/stories/2010032460820400.htm
Delhi Govt to set up SC/ST commission - PTI
http://www.ptinews.com/news/578664_Delhi-Govt-to-set-up-SC-ST-commission
Out Of Proportion - The Times Of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/Out-Of-Proportion/articleshow/5716631.cms
Upper-caste conspiracy' - Front Line
http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20100409270701000.htm
The Hindu
White paper sought on funds for Dalit welfare
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/24/stories/2010032460820400.htm
Special Correspondent
| Dalits allege improper implementation of schemes |
HYDERABAD: A delegation of Dalit Bahujan Front (DBF), led by its president Korivi Vinaya Kumar, called on Chief Minister K. Rosaiah on Tuesday and demanded a discussion in the Assembly on 'neglect of Dalit welfare' and 'improper implementation of schemes meant for their uplift'.
In a memorandum, they wanted government to publish a white paper on the funds allocated to SC and ST welfare and how they were spent.
They sought implementation of the Koneru Ranga Rao Committee report on government land distribution. Among those who expressed support to the front's agitation at a public meeting and a 'Chalo Assembly' rally at Indira Park earlier were CPI(M) State secretariat member Y.V. Rao, CPI State council member K. Ramakrishna, Jalli Wilson, MLC, RPI president Bojja Tarakam and new State BJP president G. Kishan Reddy.
Mr. Vinaya Kumar said of an estimated Rs.1,500 crore allocated for SC/ST welfare in 2009-10, the government only spent Rs.700 crore, with the rest remaining either unspent or diverted.
PTI
Delhi Govt to set up SC/ST commission
http://www.ptinews.com/news/578664_Delhi-Govt-to-set-up-SC-ST-commission
STAFF WRITER 19:49 HRS IST
New Delhi, Mar 23 (PTI) Delhi Government will soon set up a commission for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe to ensure all round development of these communities.
"We have taken a decision to form a commission for SC and ST population in the national capital," Delhi Revenue Minister Raj Kumar Chouhan said in the Assembly.
Chouhan, who is also in charge of SC/ST Welfare department said the Government will bring in a bill to the assembly for formation of the commission.
"We have felt the need for having the commission to ensure alround development of the two communities and the process for setting up the commission will start soon," he said replying to a question on the issue.
The Minister said the government will spend a total amount of Rs 23.5 crore on various welfare schemes to benefit the two communities."We are determined to ensure providing all help to these communities," he said.
The Times Of India
Out Of Proportion
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/Out-Of-Proportion/articleshow/5716631.cms
Dileep Padgaonkar,
Mar 24, 2010, 12.00am IST
Political correctness has now reached such depths of degeneration in our liberal opinion that we no longer dare to call a spade a spade, let alone a bloody shovel. A recent example is the criticism of Mayawati for flaunting her diamonds and garlands of currency notes at BSP rallies. It took little or no account of her dogged belief that as a Dalit she is entitled to exercise that privilege.
This belief, her apologists argue, explains, indeed justifies, her utter indifference to what the 'elites' in the media and the rest of the political establishment think about such outrageous displays of wealth. The thought that she might have accumulated it through illegitimate means does not make them lose their sleep either. After centuries of oppression, runs their dirge, the trespasses of Dalits need to be overlooked.
Some apologists go further than that. Mayawati's most lethal weapon, they claim, is her candour. Unlike other leaders in our public life, she makes no bones about her greed for money and lust for power. She does things in broad daylight what others do only after dusk. And she says aloud what others mutter beneath their breath. She might be guilty of this or the other misdemeanour. But no one can accuse her of double-speak and double-think.
Arguments of this nature are flawed on two counts. They are patronising at best and, at worst, rooted in mawkish cynicism. To say that Mayawati's 'core constituency' isn't bothered about its leader's shenanigans is to suggest that the Dalits are bereft of a moral sense. Such a view is offensive in the extreme. The main reason why bahujan samaj leaders of the past Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Shahu Maharaj, Ramaswamy Naickerand, B R Ambedkar are revered by all sections of society today is precisely because their comportment, in private as in public, was above reproach. Even while they berated the upper castes for their deep-seated prejudices against those at the bottom of the social pecking order, they drew their strength from universally accepted notions of equality and justice.
Not once did they suggest, late alone assert, that as victims of caste oppression for several millennia, Dalits should be permitted to observe a lax moral regimen. What is good for the Brahmin must be good for the Dalit. They would have been appalled to hear that Mayawati's greed must be condoned because of her community's sense of victimhood.
Nor would they have shared Mayawati's antipathy for the 'elites'. In their own time, they were at the receiving end of Brahmins who held sway in public life, including the press. But they fought the critics armed with knowledge and reason and, above all, with a heightened sense of moral purpose. Ambedkar's critique of Gandhism was often acerbic. What lent it levity was his closely argued stand that the Mahatma chose not to attack the roots of social evils in the country: the varna system.
Our political establishment has strayed far away from this path. But the one who takes the cake for vagrancy is Mayawati. Her only service to her icon is the erection of his kitschy statues across the length and breadth of Uttar Pradesh along with those of her mentor Kanshi Ram. She has cast herself in stone as well. To claim, as her apologists do, that her Dalit flock applauds this megalomania is to have a poor opinion of their intelligence.
Moreover, to hail Mayawati for her candour is to forgive the sins of every demagogue in the land. The Thackerays, too, are candid. And so are Narendra Modi, Praveen Togadia and an assortment of maulvis. All of them nurse a sense of victimhood. All see conspiracies assailing them from all sides. All indulge in venomous rhetoric. And all manage to hoodwink their 'core constituency' again and again.
Yet this 'core constituency' is not frozen in time. It yearns for security, education, jobs and speedy justice. Sooner than later it has to repudiate the demagogues who are tall on promise and short on delivery. To assume that they will tolerate the megalomania of their leaders for all times to come is to hold them in contempt. Mayawati only succeeds in strengthening the vilest upper-caste prejudices about the parvenu Dalit.
The pity of it all is that her provocative speeches and gestures take attention away from her genuine leadership qualities. The former prime minister, P V Narasimha Rao, had once described her as a 'miracle of democracy'. Her grit and perseverance have enabled her to brave the heaviest of odds in our caste-ridden and male-centred polity. Time and again she has outwitted her political foes with her shrewd understanding of social forces. Few politicians in the country can match her talents for social engineering.
By embarking on a confrontationist path, she may well succeed in consolidating her support base among Dalits. At the same time, however, she is bound to alienate other sections of society. Her talents at social engineering would then come under intolerable strain. At present she is caught in a cleft-stick. She needs to revisit Ambedkar's teachings. He will have a thing or two to tell her about what it takes to prevail.
Front Line
Upper-caste conspiracy'
http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20100409270701000.htm
PURNIMA S. TRIPATHI
Interview with Sharad Yadav, Janata Dal (United) president.
Sharad Yadav, the Janata Dal (United) president, warned that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government might fall over the Women's Reservation Bill issue. He said "we will fight" against the passage of the Bill in the Lok Sabha in its present form. "We will allow reservation for women only when a quota within the quota, for Dalit, OBC and minority community women, is incorporated. In that case we will not mind if the reservation is even 50 per cent," he said in an interview to Frontline. Excerpts:
What is your objection to the Bill?
We want representation for women belonging to the really depressed classes. The Bill does not reflect the true picture of Bharat. It gives no representation to women from the majority bloc of Dalits, OBCs and minority communities, who constitute 90 per cent of the population of women. If we allow the Bill to be passed in its present form, the seats will be captured by a handful of upper-caste women associated with non-governmental organisations. Women political workers who have evolved through a long period of struggle in the political process will be left behind. This Bill is a well-planned upper-caste conspiracy to reduce Dalit, OBC and minority representation in the Lok Sabha and in the Assemblies. We will not let this happen.
But with both the BJP and the Left parties supporting the Bill, the majority is in favour of passing it. How will you stop its passage because you hardly have more than 50 MPs with you?
It is a misnomer to say that the majority is in favour of the Bill. All MPs, cutting across caste and party lines, are scared of losing their seats, but they are too scared to speak out. In private, they all beg us to protect their seats. For an MP, his constituency is as dear to him as his life and he will cling to it until his last breath. An overwhelming number of MPs are on our side on the issue although they may not say so.
But these MPs are bound by the party whip. Then how will you prevent the Bill's passage?
There is something called conscience vote, too. It happened once during Indira Gandhi's time. It can happen again. There is a revolt brewing within all parties.
But the government did get the Bill passed in the Rajya Sabha. It can do the same in the Lok Sabha too – use marshals to remove the protesting MPs.
We will see how they get the Bill passed with the help of the marshals. We will fight and will make the entire country rise in protest against the Bill. If they try to force the Bill on the people, it will create tension between communities.
Dalits, backward castes and minorities have suffered the hegemony of upper-caste people for centuries but we will not allow that to continue. We will fight and fight to the finish. Yuddh hoga [There will be war]. The government might even fall.
But why such stiff opposition? Why don't you first allow the passage of the Bill in its present form and then press for quota within quota?
Very good. You are asking us to allow them to behead us first. What is left after that? Unless they reserve seats for Dalits, OBCs and minorities, we will not allow the Bill to be passed.
The government says quota within quota is not constitutionally possible.
Women's reservation, too, is not constitutionally possible, but is the government not amending the Constitution for this purpose? Why can't they amend it simultaneously to provide for quota within quota.
Would that not delay the entire process?
So what? Besides, there will not be any delay if there is a will to give representation to the really suppressed woman, who toils in the fields, who gets raped by upper-caste people, who is not allowed to draw water from the same well as the upper-caste people, who is kept like a slave all her life. This is an upper-caste conspiracy to keep the lower castes suppressed forever.
Even the Left parties, which have always stood up for social justice, are supporting the Bill in its present form. How will you explain their support if what you are saying is true?
Who are the leaders in the Left parties? All upper-caste people. They have always opposed all other forms of reservation but are supporting this now because they all come from the upper castes.
You seem to have a basic distrust of all those who are supporting the Bill.
Why not? We have suffered centuries of discrimination by upper-caste people. There is no reason to trust them now. We want everything in black and white, clearly spelt out. If their intention is actually to give representation to women who are deprived or suppressed, then let them give a quota within the quota.
If the government agrees to your demand for a quota within quota, will you then agree for 33 per cent reservation?
By all means. In that case, they can even increase it to 50 per cent, we will not mind. All we are saying is that the majority among the suppressed women should get representation.
Alternatively, they can also leave it to the political parties, even that is acceptable to us. But this Bill is not acceptable to us under any circumstances because it is against all norms of political morality. There was no survey, no commission. How did the government arrive at this arbitrary figure without thinking about its implications?
--
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
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Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.
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