Saturday, November 29, 2008

VP Sinagh, Progressive Marxist West B...


VP Sinagh, Progressive Marxist West Bengal and Social Justice in Global Zionist White Brahaminical Hegemony and The Defence Against Terror stimulating BLIND NATIONALISM, Brain Washing and Muslim Hatred!

 

Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 114

 

Palash Biswas

 

Mandal Commission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Here we shall present the study of the Mandal Commissions’s list of the OBC for the state of West Bengal only for the sake of brevity. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandal_Commission - 97k - Cached - Similar pages

 

Demographics : Other Backward Classes (OBCs) / Primitive Tribe ...
Indiastat.com is india's comprehensive information portal, that provides recent, authentic & exhaustive socio-economic data/information.
www.westbengalstat.com/india/ShowData.asp?secid=16897&ptid=7&level=2 - 30k -

 

PDF]

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL DIRECTORATE OF INDUSTRIAL TRAINING ...


File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
Do you belong to SC/ST/OBC of West. Bengal? If so, mention your sub-caste :. b). Are you Physically Handicapped ? :. c). Are you a Govt.Servant? (State ;Yes ...
wbtet.nic.in/INSTRUCTORS.pdf - Similar pages


The Hindu Business Line : OBC new branch in eastern region


14 Jun 2007 ... OBC, as Mr Sharma points out, has plans to open seven more branches in the region in the current financial year - three each in West Bengal ...
www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/06/14/stories/2007061404760600.htm - 18k - Cached - Similar pages

 


Supreme Court allows OBC quota at IIM Calcutta, West Bengal News ...


Supreme Court allows OBC quota at IIM Calcutta, West Bengal News, ... The Calcutta High Court Wednesday stayed the implementation of the OBC quota at IIM- C ...
www.samachaar.in/West_Bengal/Supreme_Court_allows_OBC_quota_at_IIM_Calcutta_38014/ - 48k - Cached - Similar pages


Why Reservation For OBC Is A Must By V.B.Rawat


Why Reservation For OBC Is A Must By V.B.Rawat. 18 April, 2006 .... His wife who was working with Government of West Bengal was not given medical ...
www.countercurrents.org/dalit-ravat180406.htm - 33k - Cached - Similar pages

 


Mr. VP Singh passed away


Former Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh, a pivotal figure in the Indian politics, passed away at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital on Thursday. India has lost a great patriot and builder of the nation. He was 77.


 

It is Brain Washing once again!


It is well played Mind control game once again!


Imperialism and fascism Justified!


Corporate FDI economy justified!


Nuclear Parks, strategic Re alliance in US Lead justified! Justified are SEZ, development for Displacement and destruction, Big Dams, Chemical Hubs, Retail Chain, VRS, ERS, Hire and FIRE, IT based Americanised Economy tagged global.


World Bank Rule justified!


Zionism Justified!


War against terrorism justified!


It is time for Narendra Modi to take over!


It is time for prime Minister waiting!


Raj thakre and bal Thakre did not dare to Encounter the Terror as they are known to lead the Hate campaign against North Indians!


it is time for Blind nationalism and Hindutva and RSS!


It is time for intense MUSLIM and DALIT Hatred.


It is time for Tribal annihiliation.


It is all over RED and Shaffron FASCISM speaking the Ultimate TRUTH!


TRUTH ABEGGING!


No Clue! No Evidence!


But we are predestined to Die! To share the US Destiny! To enjoy ZIONISM!


I was in my PAARA in Sodepur, right into a ADDA before RAMOO`s Shop. Every one seemed to be thrilled with the Defence against TERROR STRIKE thanks to detailed PRINT and ELECRTONIC LIVE Coverage. The Rescue Operation was never witnessed so live. People were habitual to feel the Terror and watch the rescue in Hollywood films!TV News channels hit a all time Higher TRP rate certainly as the Video Game Plyaing, Chatting Generation Next was involved in a Crisis situation unprecedented. Interantional connection involving so many foreign guests stranded in Taz, Oberoy and Nrimon was also a greater TRP item! Msulim Terrorism and the Role of pakistan have become once again PASSTIME Topics sideling every other issue whatsoever important and vital!


The discussion was very hot. I beleieve, Entire India and Indian people are involved in such discussions everywhere.


I faced them in train, RLY stations and Market Places.


 It is very hard to convince the Brainwashed People with ready made Mindset. Specilly in West Bengal, where the Ruling Hegemony is Militarily regemented and the Impact is overwhelming. party cadres control every sort of discussions. Marxists here allow only those mass Movements or whatsoever resistance led by only CPIM!


A local lady interluded with a declaration most common, `I won`t Vote anyone this time’


`Why’. the question was asked in chorus.


`We are so UNSAFE. It happened in Mumbai. Next time it may occur in Kolkata. We may be Struck right at our Home! What`s the use of Any Government whatsoever? ‘ She answered.


The topic diverted to Politics immediately. Without any slightest Provocation. They discussed administrative failure of West Bengal government in dealing with Lalgarh Insurrection and maoism. No one seemed a little bit sympathetic with tribal Indigenous grievances.


 So deatched they are!
 So detached is the Mainstream!


 We discuss Kashmir, tamilnadu or North east as if they were FAR AWAY ISLANDS foreign! We have nothing to do with the People persecuted threre!


We treat the Voices of DISSENT as Disintegration and the MASSES alien our Enemies for no justified cause! We never may be able to identify the Enemies of the Nation who speak PATROTISM and we surrender to them. But anyone speaking genuine grivances is recognised and spotted as Anti National, Extrimist!


We never FEEL anything about AFPSA! We are not concerned with the Wefare of Minorities but we never see any wrong Branding them as terrorists or Extremists and advocating strong STATE, MILITARY SOLURTION and POTA like legislation!


We never face Police or Military Rule around us but plead for Military Rule and Police Rule in under previlege areas against ethnic minorities aboriginal and Indigenous! We emphasise National Security but never detect National and Interantional, Gloabla and galaxy Threats! We are never habitual to trace or spot Anti Nationals and they tend to become National Leaders and ICONS! We are disgusted with parliamentary system but do everything to gain in caste Discrimination based system and polity! We are never concerned with the health of Nature and Man! We support Nuclear energy and sing WORLD PEACE! We talk so much on Global warming and Environment but never think about those straving and displaced, all the aboriginal and indigenous communities.


VP Singh, indeed, had been out standing. He tried to tame FASCISm! He allied with Marxists! He dared to challange the Corporate Global Imperialism, Swiss bank accounsts, International Weapon Industry and its Agenst in Highest Sacred Palces! He was the Prime Minister of India and ABDICATED for the best interest of OBCs. In this sense, he was a GREATER Leader than AMBEDKAR as far as the  OBCs are concerned! We may hate him but we may not wipe out his presence in Indian politics as long as Lalu, Sharad Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Ram Vilash Paswan, Mulayam singh Yadav, Uma Bharati, Mayawati, Ajit Jogi and the like eople are Active in Indian politics! Even Dr Manmohan Singh is not a Hindu. He is  a SIKH. VP opened the door for him!



I was noting and watching reactions of the people belonging to different spheres of life. No one was referring the background and causes of terrorism. No one sees anything wrong with the Ruling hegemony! No one seemed aware of Ethnic realities in India. Why should they be? Manusmriti is just like OXYZEN for sustenance! Globalistion, Liberalisation and privatisation are justifed as mandatory for Development, Urbanisation and Industrialisation! I had to encounter the SUBHUMAN Psyche in Sub Urbans! All of these people believe in Money, Prosperity, Relax, Enjoyment, Adventure, Romance, Reatil Chain, SEZ, FDI, Private services, Ideologies, Caste System, Untouchability, Apartheid, Metro Life, Partying, Affluence! you may not debate with them!


All of them Blind with nationalism and never recognise ethnic or nationality Identities!


All of them believe in the sanctity of Indian Armed force!


They would never be prepared to acknowledge the possibility of othre stories. they would never be ready to discuss Malegaon despite boasting to be Marxists and Secular. Unlees the Foreign agencies from different countries invent the new stories for the real cause of the death and suffering of their own citizens!


We are never ready the face the TRUTH!


A committed Cadre well known in the locality exclaimed,`The Politicians and the Media persons should be THRASHED top to bottom whenever seen in PUBLIC!’


The general complaint was that Politics as well as media mislead the People and the Public opinion! They were sad that the security personnels had to sacrifice their lives for security and political lapses. They complained that Media as well as Politics have become CORRUPT never before.


At thsi point,I just commented, ` Demise of VP Singh has been overlooked!’


The reaction was no less VIOLENT. Nearly everyone present exlaimed in chorus,` So, What? He manipulated the Politics with Mandal commission!’


It was a Caste Hindu Urban general reaction on the role of late VP Singh! It is not unexpected in West Bengal where the SC, ST and OBC people dare not to feel proud or even express their Caste Identities! West Bengal is a place where 41 percent of total population is OBC. They have got a state Minister in the Left front Government after our respected friend Anthropologist PASHUPATI MHATO pointed out in his article Bam Front Naa Brahamn Front, published in Anand Bazaar that ther had been no OBC minister in the Left fron Government. Mr MICAP was sworn in as a state minister very soon. You may not get caste certificate or Voter Identity card or Ration card without green signal from LC. caste Hindu Officers dealing the matter, it is never easy! You amy not hope Posting, Appointment or Promotion without being loyal to the ruling Hegemony. Reserved Quotas would remain alwys VACANT as Worthy Candidates are never available and ultimately the vacancies would have to be filled with General quota!


 


In India, the lists of classified matrimonial ads in the newspapers are almost endless. Caste is always mentioned, invariably. However, personal ads today also mention religious affiliations and professions. Doctors, engineers, even computer-software specialists are advertising in India for mates.


 


Social distinctions can still be discerned in modern India in many ways. Even a highly educated Brahmin physician (a Brahmin is a Hindu of the highest caste) wraps the wrist of a Sudra (or low-caste person) with a band of cloth before feeling for the patient's pulse. That way, the Brahmin will not to be "defiled" by touching the Sudra's skin. Low-caste people are forbidden to use the wells in villages that high-caste Brahmins use for fear they will pollute the water. A low-caste family is refused the right to bury a family member near their village, where both high and low castes live, because of a superstition that the dead person's ghost will haunt the high- caste people. And a Brahmin bachelor living in a state with only a few surviving Brahmin families has to wait for five long years while his parents search for a suitable mate of the same high caste as he.


 

The Left ahs been always most LOUD to support VP singh and Manadl commission report. ironically, West Bengal has not identified OBCs till thsi date!


The Aboriginal Indigenous SC, ST OBC and Minority Communities are never allowed any space in sphere of life in West Bengal.


Thus, VP Singh may be MOST RELEVANT in West Bengal than anywhere else!But the caste Hindu Media,intelligentsia and Civil Society are not interested to evaluate his role in details.

 

The fact that the 3500-year-old caste system should survive in India today almost defies comprehension. It has been an aberration of the Hindu psyche. Indians who use lofty rhetoric about progress, characterizing their society as "united in diversity," seem to be simply perpetuating the system of social gradation that has blighted so many lives.


 


Even the discussion on personalities like Dr Ambedkar, Harichand Guruchand Thakur, Jyoti Ba PHULE, Kanshiram, Mayawati, Social jsutice, Caste identities, BSP and BAMCEF, Dalit and tribal Literature, Reseravtion and Quota, Manusmriti and Brahminism, Human Rights and Civil rightys, Plight of refugees and minorities, Tribal rights, Jogendra Nath Mandal is DESPISED.


My Maoist Marxist Friends brand me EXTREMIST as I raise these Issues continuously. And I am not a REPUTED person with Good name in West Bengal. My articles are published worldwide in different alnguages. But no body dares to publish me in West Bengal, not even in HINDI!


What is the status of our people in Progressive Marxist Bengal, just Evaluate!


What is about the Demise Of VP Singh?


A former Prime Minister is dead. That`s All!


Is it? Was he not more wiegty than any former Prime Minister? Mandal controversy wiped out his role in BOFORS DEAL Exposure, his secular role against Fascism and his continuous Fight for the Peasants in India!


It is true that OBCs must thank VP singh for their resurrection in Indian society and Politics as, hitherto means just before VP Singh all the Prime Ministers delayed or subverted mandal commission Report. He had the GUTs to implement thsi, though he belonged to a dominating indian Higher caste, Rajppot, the Rulers! He introduced the Concept of SOCIAL JUSTICE in Indian politics, but personally he may never be blamed for practicing any form of castism.


Indian Media overlooked Lalgarh Insurrection, demise of VP singh, Global Financial Crisis, FREEsenSEx, Reality Show, Price rise, Elections in a few States during all these Sixty Hours of War against terrorism right into our heart. It was so absorbing!


But in normal conditions also, VP Singh has always been UNDERRATED and UNDERPLAYED Politician just because of his CRIME to be Committed to Social Justice. Anti Reservation Movement had always been a movement against VP Singh which later shifted against Arjusn Singh, the Current Human resource Minister of India, also a Rajpoot!


Former Indian prime minister V.P. Singh, known for championing the rights of the country's poor, died Thursday after a long battle with illness.Singh, who was suffering from leukemia and renal failure, died at a New Delhi hospital. He was 77 years old.Singh served as finance minister where he relentlessly tracked down tax evaders and later as defence minister under former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.He ultimately broke away from Gandhi and spearheaded a coalition known as the National Front which won the 1989 elections, but served as premier for less than a year.


V.P. Singh is best remembered for a controversial plan to sharply increase the percentage of jobs reserved for poor castes, which triggered huge unrest among upper castes.Singh was forced to quit and the plan was shelved.


I left nainital and the HILLs, the Himalayas for ever and invested myself into the HELL of Plains just after the results of M.A finals decalred. Despite 55 percent marks in the finals and a Rnak in the University Exam, I could not cross the UGC  qualification Marks 54 percent then to be appointed in a campus college whic had been my ambition. Nine Colleges opened in the Kumaun Region but I hated to be out of either Almora or Nainital. I could not imagine myself in Inter Mediate college! While all my friends including those who got less than 48 percent, adjusted  in different colleges.


I wanted to be staying in Nainital for ever. I ronically, I am out of Nainital, out of Himalays for ever!


I landed in Allahabad to have  Phd Degree to enhance my chances of re entry in Nainital DSB College! Two Persons Mrs MADHULIKA DEXIT from department of English and Dr Batrohi , from department of Hindi convinced me  going to Allahabad University. batrohi assured me that I would get a room in the house of Shailesh Matiyani, a Prominent Hindi writer, with whom batrohi himself stayed during his studies in Allahabad in sixties. Mrs Dexit adviced me to be a research student under the guidance of Dr Manas Mukul das, with whom I debated on Modern Poetry for nine or ten hours without any break in my fanal year!


It was last meeting with Mrs dexit who used to teach me English Literature in graduation as well as Post graduation days. She alwyas encouraged me analysing and innovating. She also left nainital just after I Left. she quit the job and hence, I could never trace her. But I MISS HER very much! I had been involved in some cases of CALF LOVE. I had a brief support from MS Veena Pandey in my Class Ten last months in dineshpur Highschool. For the first time, in DSB, I got the support from Opposite gender so continuously. Our English department could boast of ladies like Mrs Neelu Kumar, Mrs anil Bisht and MS Geeta Sharma. In M.A final I had friendly relations with MS Chitra kapahi who passed her M.A. while I passed the first year. It was only MRS Dexit who cared for me continuously for years and always adviced me to focus academically. moreover, she recognised My BACKGROUND of a dalit Bengali family as Tarachandra Tripathi and Batrohi used to recognise. I had friends in every department in the college but no body could try to guide me except these three teachers!


Let me accept the GUILT after so many years!


I knew nothing about manusmriti at the time and my pshe was toatlly Brahaminical. i could never tolerate a Woman daring to guide me. Hence, I always tried to distance from Mrs Dexit. Now I recognise that not only Mrs Dexit, but MRS Bisht and Mrs Prema tiwari from the Department of sociology and Mrs Kavita pandey from the department of physics and Mrs UMA BHATT from Hindi, all had been the best well wishers I could ever boats of! I learnt to understand the role of women in my life so late! SORRY!


It may be said TRUE for VP Singh also. Indian People now underestimate the Man but it is sure if CHANGE is destined in India, he would be remebered as USA remember Martin Luthre King. VP Singh was the first man after DR AMBEDKAR who hit the Caste Hindu, Brahaminical Hegemony so strongly!Knowingly or unknowingly, Manmohan Singh expressed the National condolence,` His empathy for weaker sections will always be etched in national consciousness!’


It was an OCTOBER Morning I reached Allahabad without any reseravtion. We were never habitual of RLY journey and never knew about Reservation. I got a Rickshaw and reached Matiani Home in COLONEL Gaunge. The room was not vacant. Then, Matiayni suggested me to do my Phd in comparative Literature and I had to meet Dr Raghuvansh. I also met DR Das who informed me that his quota was full. He introduced me to OP Malviya and Malviya agreed to be my guide.


I never got any help from Home just after I passed B.A... As I was contributing to different papers and mags during my Post Graduatio days. I had not consulted my Parents who were in dire need of Financial Help as our farming was not enough to run the Home and the Family was Big in size. I could not ask any help from them. I had to earn and sustain myself in Allahabad. I got Shelter in Lookerganj, in a very generous and homely family of Shekhar Joshi, another prominent writer from Kumaun belong to SOMESHWAR. I stayed there for few weeks and Mr Joshi tried his best for getting a job for me but failed. Then I got some friends in the University. Anugraha Narayan singh was the President of the University Student`s Association. Manglesh dabral was the magazine editor in AMRIT PRABHAT. He was staying in also Lookerganj with another prominent Hindi Poet Biren Dangwal. I met Ramjee Roy in the University and Neelabh in Civil Lines. I had contacts with all the writers and poets residing in Allahabad at the time. Bhairab Prasad Gupta and amarkant wer in Mitra Prakashan and they helped me as I was working as freelance Journalist to sustain myself. A bunch of SFI friends including Gayatri ganguli, her brother gautam ganguli, Shailendra, OP and Master helped me a lot. I was struggling for shelter and food at the time. I shifted from Lookerganj to Mamfordganj, in the house of Master. I got some Tutions thanks to OP and group.  I could not pay for Rickshaw or Ekka so that I used to walk from Mamfordganj to Chowk for the Tution. But I adjusted myself in Allahabad within a month!


Meantime, Manglesh Dabral, Viren Dangwal and Urmilesh convinced me to shift in JNU for modern studies. As a simple Kumauni I was convinced and left Allahabad.


During my Allahbad stay, I came to know the name of VP Singh , RAJA MANDA for the first time. Charan singh was dethroned and there was a midterm election . VP Singh was the Congress candiate for Loksabha from Allahabad. He was considered very honest and had a very clean image.


After a decade, I encountered VP Singh face to face in Bareilly in Mid term elections once again, this time Chandrashekhar lost the majority support in the Parliament. I interviewed him for dainik Amar ujala where I worked during 190 to 91 as chief sub editor. I had no note pad, no recorder with me. VP was very disturbed as I was asking questions and noted nothing. The Interview was published in Full Page length in the paper. Within a week I met him once again late in the night in the Air Force Aerodrum in Bareilly where he landed with Lalu prasad Yadav and chowdhuri Ajit Singh. I interviewed Lalu and Ajit. We all had  live discussion in the lounge!


VP Singh was very Clean in his speech and behaviour. He never deviated.



Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led the tributes to the former premier, calling him a "great son of India" and a "builder of the nation."


"As finance minister and prime minister of India, he consistently strove to translate his convictions into public policy," Singh said.


Another former prime minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, praised Singh for his "probity in public life" and his attempts to radically change the lot of those on the lowest rung of India's ancient caste hierarchy.

 












Shri. V.P. Singh - A Profile
 






Born on June 25, 1931 at Allahabad, Shri V.P. Singh is the son of Raja Bahadur Ram Gopal Singh. He was educated at Allahabad and Poona Universities. He was married to Smt. Sita Kumari on June 25, 1955 and has two sons.


A scholarly man, he was the proud founder of Gopal Vidyalaya, Intermediate College, Koraon, Allahabad. He was the President of the Students Union at Udai Pratap College, Varanasi in 1947-48 and was the Vice-President, Allahabad University Students Union. He actively participated in Bhoodan movement in 1957 and donated a well-established farm in village Pasna, District Allahabad.

 


He was the member of All India Congress Committee; Executive Body, Allahabad University, 1969-71 and Legislative Assembly, Uttar Pradesh 1969-71. He was the Whip, Congress Legislative Party, 1970-71; Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha), 1971-74; Union Deputy Minister of Commerce, October 1974-November 1976; Union State Minister of Commerce, November 1976-March 1977; Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha), January 3-July 26,1980. He was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, June 9, 1980- June 28, 1982; Member, Legislative Council, Uttar Pradesh, November 21, 1980-June 14,1981; Member Legislative Assembly, Uttar Pradesh, June 15, 1981-July 16, 1983.


As a Union Minister of Commerce in January 29,1983, he also held additional charge of the Department of Supply in February 15,1983. He was the Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) in July 16, 1983; on September 1, 1984 he was elected President, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee and on December 31, 1984 he became the Union Finance Minister.


 


http://pmindia.nic.in/pm_vpsingh.htm


 


Why V P Singh Remains Relevant







Praful Bidwai


http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/03bidwai.htm


 


July 03, 2006


If one were to identify just five leaders who have decisively shaped Indian politics since Independence, and given it its distinctive character, Vishwanath Pratap Singh will surely figure among them.


Singh rose to national eminence in the early 1980s as a leader of exceptional sincerity and personal integrity. A quarter century on, he not only retains an untarnished personal reputation, but more important, remains a towering political personality, far more important than any former prime minister in India's history, with the exception of Indira Gandhi in the period 1977 to 1980.

Even more significant, Singh continues to have considerable political influence, especially in the Hindi heartland.


His abiding relevance was reaffirmed when he turned 75 on June 25 and was felicitated by a cross-section of people from different walks of life, including former civil servants, academics and the poorest of slum-dwellers from Delhi.

His birthday celebrations turned into a major occasion for leaders from different political currents, ranging from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images] to Ram Vilas Paswan to the Communist parties' A B Bardhan and Sitaram Yechuri, to express solidarity with Singh and to show that they are willing to explore ways of working with him.

The event signified that Singh will have a major role in any political regroupment that occurs on the Centre-Left in the near future -- despite his rather complicated relationship with the Congress, which bristles each time he mentions Bofors. (In his just-released biography by journalist Ram Bahadur Rai, Singh claims that Bofors was willing to disclose the names of the recipients of the kickbacks in 1989-1990, but that the Congress scuttled the move.)

As noteworthy as the presence of an impressive spectrum of leaders at Singh's 75th birthday was the absence of both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party, who were at one time crucial to the formation and (brief) survival of the National Front government which Singh headed at the Centre in 1989-1990. Until recently, the Samajwadi Party and Singh were politically close to each other.

The reason for Singh's continued political relevance is not that he held power for long as India's prime minister. In fact, the National Front stayed in office for just 11 months, one of the shortest tenures of any government in New Delhi.

Nor would it be right to attribute Singh's relevance largely to his stature as the 'Mandal messiah', who extended affirmative action, in particular reservations in government employment, to the lower and lower-middle strata of society, or the Other (educationally and socially) Backward Classes -- OBCs.

That action of 16 years ago cannot alone explain the present.

The real reason for Singh's relevance lies in his special, probably unique, role as The Transition Man, who has bridged or spanned many divides in India. Singh was influenced in his youth by Socialist thought, but joined active politics under the Congress banner.

Yet, he quit the Congress in 1987 and became the biggest rallying point for non-Congress parties in the 1989 election. He has since continued to be a focal point in all attempts to mobilise Centre-Left forces on a broad anti-communal platform. No other person has offered so many links or bridges across different parts of the political spectrum.

Singh stands at another junction, marking India's shift from a leader-driver, top-down, manipulative system of politics, to a politics of self-assertion by the plebeian classes, which is more democratically accountable.

It is not that leaders no longer matter -- of course, they do. But in relation to the period until the 1980s, the masses, especially subordinate groups like Dalits and OBCs, have become far more vocal and demanding. They want self-representation, rather than patronage-based indirect representation on their behalf by others.

This is altering the character of Indian democracy by increasingly reshaping it into a system that is seen by the people as capable of empowering them -- not just as a system of exercising power over them. The change has helped formal democracy, based on procedures such as representation and elections along with Constitutional rules and parliamentary norms, acquire a more substantive character.

This shift makes India's current politics -- with its many flaws, but also with its robust, rambunctious and vibrant character -- qualitatively different from the anaemic democracies of numerous countries, including many developed ones. Singh is one of the leaders who catalysed this shift.

Singh forms another bridge: between public morality and politics, symbolised by Bofors and his resignation over the issue of lack of probity in public life. Bofors was not only India's largest corruption scandal until the mid-1980s. It was located at many crossroads: that between military and civilian decision-making, between foreign arms manufacturers and potential domestic recipients of bribes, and between them and middlemen like the Hindujas.

The Bofors investigation by the media, and by official agencies, turned up an unprecedented wealth of information, rare in such cases. Equally unprecedented was the public outcry over the scandal. With Bofors, V P Singh too became a household name.

Equally important is the link Singh has formed through his work in the last five years or more between political parties, on the one hand, and people's movements, non-party political groups and NGOs, on the other. Singh has tirelessly worked to defend the rights of slum-dwellers, rickshaw-pullers and other informal sector workers in the cities, and landless workers, Dalits and victims of displacement in the villages.

No political leader has done more for the Right to Information campaign in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh or Bihar than him. Whenever movements of the downtrodden and the desperately poor need help, he tries to reach out to them.

Only his amazing dedication to the underprivileged can explain why 12 years after he was detected to have a nasty cancer, as well as kidney failure, he continues to be extremely active among groups who are nobody's constituency.

Every week, he addresses dozens of public meetings and activists' discussions in different cities and towns, taking a break only for his thrice-weekly dialysis. It's the energy that he gets from these flesh-and-blood people, the salt of the Indian earth, that keeps him going.

None of this minimises the importance of Singh's decision to implement the Mandal Commission report. This was done at a particular juncture partly to counter the growing influence of Kamandal or Hindutva politics, which was then making thrust after offensive thrust against the secular pillars of Indian politics.

But the real significance of Mandal lay neither in this, nor in the circumstance that it opened 15 per cent of all central jobs for OBC recruitment -- barely 14,000 positions a year, or a drop in the ocean.

Rather, Mandal's true significance is that the decision held up a mirror to society as regards entrenched discrimination and mainstreamed the principle of affirmative action. Since 1990, wider acceptance and extension of affirmative action has become irreversible.

Only a highly regarded upper-caste leader of impeccable reputation like Singh could have dared take such a bold step given that violent opposition to it was a foregone conclusion. It redounds to his credit that he did so knowing this would topple his government.

As he himself dramatically puts it: "I scored a difficult goal, but in the process, I broke my leg irreparably!"

After the collapse of the United Front government in 1998, Singh concentrated on building up the political resources of secular parties although, in keeping with his decision to take sanyas from competitive politics, he didn't join any of them or create a new party. He brought to bear the power of his informal-sector mobilisation on the task of building a broad anti-communal front.

In the 2002 Uttar Pradesh election and in the last Lok Sabha campaign, he worked closely with the Centre-Left and regional parties, including the Samajwadi Party --because he regarded that as crucial to 'unhinging' the BJP from power. His input altered the outcome in a number of UP constituencies.

Now Singh has revived his Jan Morcha by joining hands with Raj Babbar, who was recently expelled from the Samajwadi Party. This has set him on a collision course with the Samajwadi Party and its backers. How this will influence the outcome of next year's election in UP is a big question. It seems likely that the Jan Morcha will erode the Samajwadi Party's base to some extent while indirectly helping the Congress and other non-BJP forces.

The outcome will also determine whether and how soon a Third Front independent of both the Congress and the BJP can be formed.

Whatever happens, platforms like Jan Morcha and poor people's organisations like Sajha Manch will continue to reshape public thinking in parts of India along broadly progressive lines. With them, the political space that V P Singh has come to represent will also expand.


One can only wish Singh well as he continues to fight for an equal, just and cooperative social order in which the poor can live with dignity and pursue the agenda of social emancipation.


 


 




Praful Bidwai


 


  An open letter to West Bengal Governor

 









Excerpts from an open letter from Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer to Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Governor of West Bengal, on October 31, 2007:


Venerable Gopal Gandhi: I write this letter reluctantly but feel it my duty to request you, as the head of the State of West Bengal, to consider what measures, if any, may be taken to see that the people of the State, particularly of Nandigram, enjoy security and liberty. Possession of property, without threat of deprivation in the guise of land acquisition for industrial development, and assuring peaceful co-existence of progressive agriculture and industry with promise of more employment, is true rural-urban harmony. Perverted priority for advanced technology inhibiting the peasantry from their traditional agrarian operations can provoke tension and showdown. Large investments with machine-oriented technology offers little prospect of new employment. The rich become richer, the poor poorer.


Nandigram is a traumatic mix of these confusing conflicts, maybe. This complexity of issues bringing into focus the Gandhian vision of advanced agrarian India is the central object of modern development and the reverse reality of villages suffering a setback on account of aggressive pressure of the technological illusion that foreign-funded profit-hungry, ‘Westoxicated’ Industrial Renaissance is the only salvation from privation for the Indian humanity. A magnificent compromise between these two rival views is possible if state violence for land acquisition and terrorism of unruly hostile political elements taking the law into their hands are controlled with social justice as the goal. That is statesmanship through a creative policy revolution.


It is unfortunate that disproportionate emphasis on industrial progress and disorganised political conflict opposing even necessary industrialisation have given rise to human casualties and damage to property in Nandigram and other parts of India. Development is not of things but of man, as the Cocoyoc Declaration by the U.N. defined it. The landless and the lawless create havoc in Nagaland making use of country-bombs. Is bomb-making a cottage industry, menacing peaceful rural life and productive activity?


Such a grave bedlam situation arose some time ago in Nandigram, which alerted political parties about escalating tension and terror and eventually generated restorative policies and humanist strategies. I thought -- and there are many like me -- that a positive resolution will come into play and Nandigram may emerge again as a symbol of developmental statesmanship and peaceful peasant-industrialist amity. That would be a tribute to the State’s political leadership and glory of governance.


Political polemics has the potential to create chaos and let loose anarchical forces lying latent in society. Whether the claims urged by politicians are just or not, resort to violence should never be even a last refuge. Even otherwise, incisive observers have described India as a functioning anarchy. All the more reason why traumatic tendencies injurious to peaceful public life, which make proclivities of tranquillity a lost cause, should be resisted by the state and by parties and right-thinking people.


A constructive process of reconciliation between rival political groups, a humanist perspective which envisions a happy accommodation between industrial and agrarian sectors, and, above all, an awakened public opinion which frowns upon any form of violence in public life which mars activities in public institutions and social centres, and rejects the bomb culture, the barbarity of explosives, must be a unanimous conviction.


Maybe the beginning of a new Nandigram initiative for a brave, patriotic Bharat is the desideratum of our time. A high-level commission, with the cooperation of political parties, may be one method of establishing a democratic Gram Swaraj process. Maybe there are other alternatives. This country’s politics and economy are not bankrupt yet and it is my conviction that West Bengal should blaze the trail consistently with the constitutional imperatives of a socialist, secular, democratic republic, being truly non-aligned and independent of foreign investments and lobbies with imperial intentions.


I submit to you, respected Governor, and through you, the innovative Marxian Chief Minister, to command the resources of the people for constructive ends so as to redeem our historic ‘tryst with destiny’. We are no longer feudal or colonial and must generate a great drive in fulfilment of social justice and distributive development, which is the first promise of our Constitution and the paramount obligation of Swaraj.


 http://www.hindu.com/2007/11/03/stories/2007110361061500.htm


 


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Few Indian political leaders have been as reviled as V.P. Singh. Few have made as lasting a contribution to Indian nation building. I refer, of course, to his decision in August 1990 to implement the Mandal Commission's recommendations and reserve 27 per cent of the jobs in Central government for the backward classes. I was privileged to witness the paradox at close quarters. This is how it happened.

Contrary to the impression that was assiduously spread by the media, his decision was no last minute, knee-jerk attempt to shore up his shaky minority government. VP had implemented the recommendations in Uttar Pradesh when he was its chief minister in 1980. In 1989, when the National Front obtained only seven seats in the south, 81 of its 144 MPs were backward-caste members of the Janata Dal. As a result the question of not implementing Mandal simply did not arise. What was knee-jerk was VP's decision to announce the implementation of the Mandal award without any warning on August 7. For this the coming confrontation with the BJP over the Ram Janmabhoomi temple issue was mainly to blame. In the beginning of July, I was asked to join a meeting between VP and the cabinet secretary, Vinod Pande. Apparently (this was when I was not present) the government had come to know that the BJP was going to break its pre-election promise not to allow the Ram temple to become an issue in its continued support of the government.


VP had called the meeting to work out a strategy for countering the threat to the government that this would pose. By then he had held around a dozen meetings with members of the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas and the Babri Masjid Action Committee (BMAC) and had got nowhere. It had become apparent to him that the roadblock was no longer technical, but the determination by the Sangh Parivar and the BMAC to piggyback on the issue to build their bases among Hindus and Muslims.


To avoid a confrontation with the BJP, VP first pinned his hopes on squeezing a decision out of the Allahabad High Court on the cases that had been before it for 41 years. Any decision from it would have given him moral and legal foundation for forcing his ruling upon the contending parties. It would have given the BJP a fig leaf it needed to not bring down the National Front government. But the court, which had slept over the issue for years, continued to slumber.


Pande must have reported to him sometime in July that the court was not willing to oblige. That was when VP decided to bring forward the Mandal decision. He knew the chances of his government surviving beyond October 30 were slight. He wanted to implement this part of the programme before it fell, partly because it was covered by his 61-point action programme, and partly because it would help consolidate a base for the Janata Dal. Where he went wrong was in the way he announced his decision. Instead of listening to Pande, and his principal secretary B.G. Deshmukh, and leaving open the proportion of reservation and other contentious issues to be decided after a national debate, he announced the figure of 27 per cent, and stuck to it till forced by more than a hundred deaths to refer the issue to the Supreme Court in October.


Hindsight also suggests that had he taken the BJP challenge head on, accused it of breaking faith when it announced the decision to support the temple agitation on September 14, and dissolved Parliament he would have come back with his strength enhanced. But he chose to present the people with a fait accompli and fell right into the BJP's trap.


The blame for this lies to a great extent on VP's tendency to seek reassurance from close advisers. This made him vulnerable to sycophants. Two of his ministers, Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan, prevailed on him to go for broke on Mandal. As Yadav told a crowd in Patna on October 8, 1990, the "Mandal rath" would crush the "Ram rath". Ironically Yadav and Paswan are now ministers in a BJP-led government.


In the end, however much VP may have erred in the way he implemented Mandal, he will go down in history as a key architect of a new, egalitarian and vibrant India. Far from having started a rebellion that he could not control, he stopped a revolution that would have plunged India into anarchy and threatened its disintegration. What Mandal did was to stop the gap between power and entitlement from widening to the point where those who wielded the former would smash the political system that made possible the latter. That was the democratic Indian state.


Ever since the '60s the middle castes had been accumulating economic power by virtue of the green revolution. But they had been shut out of the power elite because they lacked access to modern, English-based education. This was available only in the cities and therefore by default to an affluent, upper caste, bureaucratic elite. Mandal is giving access to the cities and therefore to the elite to the newly empowered backward classes. What is more it has started a chain reaction in which the Scheduled Castes and Tribes have joined. A grossly iniquitous system of stratification that made some humans inferior to others by birth is breaking down at a dazzling speed. And although a billion people are involved, it is happening almost without violence.


Prem Shankar Jha is a columnist and former media adviser to prime minister V.P. Singh.



 

 

1 comment:

Tony Liu said...

Thanks.
I need a peaceful mind.
Tony.
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香港仔時昌迷你倉