Facts and The World Around

To The Moon and Back !

2011-08-14T07:54:00.003+05:30

The three humiliating defeats at the hands of England have stripped India of their No.1 Test status along with it, the series.

Dhoni - To The Moon and Back !

Federal India’s Ideal on Trial in Kashmir

2010-10-14T17:53:00.004+05:30

Federal India’s Ideal on Trial in Kashmir
Sailendra Nath Ghosh

Two momentous developments took place in the second half of September. An all-party delegation of Parliamentarians visited Kashmir to study the ground reality at first hand; and following the visit, an eight-point package was announced by the Government of India. The all-party delegation of MPs symbolized the whole of India’s interest; (i) in Kashmir’s sentiments and views about their future and (ii) in knowing precisely the factors that gave rise to the unrest.
The eight-point package includes (i) advice to the state government to release all students and youths detained or arrested for pelting stones; (ii) advice to the state government to review the cases of detainees under the Public Security Act and withdraw detention orders in apt cases; (iii) decision to appoint a team of four interlocutors to begin sustained dialogues with all sections of J&K populace; (iv) decision to appoint two special task forces, one each for Jammu and Ladakh to examine the regions’ developmental needs; (v) request to the state government to convene a meeting of the Unified Command (consisting of the military, the state police, the CRPF and the civil administration) to review the deployment of forces in Kashmir and to withdraw the application of Disturbed Area Act wherever possible; (vi) a grant to the state government to immediately re-open educational institutions and conduct the year’s examinations in time; (vii) grant of ex-gratia to bereaved families @ Rs.5 Lakhs per person killed in the civil disturbances since June 11, 2010; and (viii) provision of Rs.100Crores to improve educational infrastructure across the state.

Area-wise review of the need for continued application of the Disturbed Areas Act would automatically mean the withdrawal of AFSPA from the areas that come to be denotified.
Although this announcement may be welcomed as the first minimal step, there are reasons to feel that the process of reconciliation is yet to begin. The politics in Jammu and Kashmir – and also in the Indian Union as a whole – are highly fractious and the road map for reaching a consensus has not yet been thought of. A mere two-day visit by the all-party delegation was far from sufficient for understanding the ground reality. Visits to the lanes and by-lanes of the towns and cities, from where allegations of CRPF vandalism came, needed to have been part of their itinerary. While they listened to the separatists, they did not engage the latter in a dialogic process.

For example, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who often accuses India of not honouring its plebiscite pledge, ought to have been asked if Pakistan had demilitarized the POK then to create the condition for the plebiscite. He needed to be asked if he would undertake to prepare the necessary condition, even now, for the plebiscite by (i) securing the demilitarization of Pak Occupied Kashmir (ii) by giving guarantees that there are no Jihadi’s ammunition dumps buried within the territory of J&K; and (iii) by ensuring that the people of Gilgit, Hunza and Baltistan would be enabled to participate in the plebiscite and be accessible to public pre-vote addresses by the Valley’s leaders. The Mirwaiz, too, needed to be asked (i) if he was sure that the separated Kashmir would not be gobbled up by Pakistan and later ceded to China, as Gilgit and Baltistan has been; (ii) what would be his reaction if the regions of Jammu and Ladakh, which have been clamouring for fuller integration with the Indian Union, seek separation from the valley in the event of latter’s insistence on secession; (iii) does his Hurriyat recognize that the Kashmiri Pundits should be rehabilitated within the valley with guarantees for their security; (iv) would he like to revive the Nund Rishi’s Islam in the Valley?

The PDP ought to have been drawn out of its shell and asked to explain how free movement across the LOC, free trade and economic cooperation with POK could be feasible in the context of Pakistan’s one-point programme of India bashing. And both the National Conference and PDP leaders needed to be asked (i) what kind of autonomy they are prepared to allow for the two regions of Jammu and Ladakh and what kid of devolutions they are prepared to allow for Valley’s districts and the other two regions’ districts; (ii) why despite the greater autonomy enjoyed by this state, the J&K panchayats enjoy far less democratic rights than in India’s other States; (iii) why the people of J&K are prevented from taking decisions about their locales through the local self governance institutions; (ii) why the Human Rights Commission and the Women’s Commission of the State are dysfunctional and why the Right to Information Act, which could be a powerful instrument in the people’s hands against authoritarianism and corruption at different levels, has remained virtually unimplemented in this State.
Off course, the future interlocutors would have to probe these questions. But the MPs, the lawmakers of India, were the most appropriate personages to ask these crucial political questions.

II - Genesis of the Stone-pelting Civil Disobedience in the Valley
There is no doubt that after the repeated failures of the waves of infiltrating armed terrorists since 1989, the ISI masterminded this stone-pelting civil disobedience in the Valley in 2010, borrowing the technique from Palestine. Several considerations motivated ISI. Stone pelting would make the world feel that Kashmir is in India’s siege as the Gaza strip of Palestine is in the seige of Israel.
Secondly, where individual or group level armed terrorists could not succeed, stone pelting civil population, particularly teenagers and women could possibly do. If the Indian security forces could be provoked to open fires and kill some protestors, the cycles of stone pelting and killings could snowball into a mass uprising. In which case, Indian security forces would appear to the world as an “external force of occupation”.
There is also no doubt that the 5 billion dollars, which the ISI obtained out of the largesse the US doled out to Pakistan as development assistance plus grant for “war on terror” – which amount the ISI could not account for before the Pak establishment’s audit agency - were covertly used by it to build extensive network of hardliner India-haters and fanatical protestors in Kashmir Valley.
However, facts about conspiracies from Pakistan must not obscure the stark fact that the Kashmir’s alienation from Indian Union has reached a new height due to several factors. No civil population can bear the visible presence of large numbers of armed personnel within their habitation zone. The sight itself becomes a source of anguish and dismay and frays the nerves. Unless all members of the security forces become conscious fraternizers of civil population, many of them become exploiters by forcing the local people to do unpaid labour for them; they also tend to occasionally indulge in sexual exploitation. It must not be forgotten that the protest movement that began on June 11 last was against the killings of three men in fake encounters in Kupwara district. According to the J&K state police, these men were lured to serve as workers, taken to LOC, and in a staged encounter, killed in cold blood. Were these soldiers seeking easy ways to get gallantry awards? Our Defense Minister, Mr. A. K. Antony, who has a high reputation for personal honesty, fails to grasp that a few incidents like this can undo all the good work done by the Army over the years. Such events turn the local populace against the forces that have been defending them from infiltrating terrorists. The entire defence potential gets subverted by the hostilities in the rear.
In fact, it is the people of India as a whole - not of the people of Kashmir alone – who demand the trial of the accused army men. They have disgraced India’s name and brought disrepute to the Indian Army which had possibly the highest reputation in the world for patriotism, integrity and dedication.

III - Need for Real Power in People’s Hands
A basic question comes up here. Why do we have to station a huge battalion of Army among the civil population when no foreign Army is visibly approaching to violate the LOC? A popular leadership like Sheikh Abdullah’s, would have raised a huge volunteer force from among the local populace and given them training in arms wielding to cope with emergent situations. In recent decades, the failure of the political leaders to create and maintain such a popular base is an index of the deficits in their popularity.

But why do I talk of such leadership deficit in J&K alone? In no other state of India now, there is any coalition of political operatives who can rouse and unify the entire populace. It is possible only where democracy has taken deep roots and is vibrant in people’s lives. This is possible only when the assemblies of villages (gram sabhas) take the basic decisions governing their own lives.
This is the magic that the Gandhian model can work. This is the reason why, I had fervently pleaded for vesting the basic power in Kashmir’s gram sabhas, for changing the Panchyat Act, and taking this as the starting model for J&K to be followed in the whole of India. This is a model, not only for “holding together” the federation but also of “pulling others” towards it. This will attract the people of Pakistan and even of China, for nowhere else democracy is allowed to work so deep. In Indian Union, this transformation of villages has been resisted by vested interests because the MPs and the MLAs and the bureaucrats, who now boss over the people, will find their leverage gone. Let today’s crisis in Kashmir force this change and bring a boon to India and the world.

IV - The Key Task is to solve Kashmiri Youth’s Identity Crisis
Appraisal of Kashmir situation marks it as a revolt of the youth. They have no faith in either the Government of India or in the Government of the State. They have lost faith in everything and have no hope to live for. Hence they cry for “azadi” without knowing its contents. This is the reason why Prof. Susheela Bhan, herself a Kashmiri, says that the central task is to re-orient the youths’ consciousness by breaking the hold of the debilitating distortions of Kashmiriyat on their consciousness and to help them get over their alienation from state power and even from the adult people around them except those who titillate their imagination by dispensing counsels for destruction. They have grown up in the period when sublime and unique Kashmiriyat, which had been shaped by Shaykh Nooruddin (Nund Rishi) and Shaivite Yogini Lalleshwari and had held sway since early fifteenth century, got largely eclipsed by the tide of sectarian, soul-killing Muslimism from West Asia and Pakistan in the post-partition-of-India period. They also were haunted by the fear of rise of Hindu communalism in India. It is only when they can be buoyed up with a new vision that the tide of insecurity feeling and destructivity can be turned.
In fact, it is not the sense of insecurity of the Kashmiri youth alone. The decline of traditional values and the erosion of the primary bases of sustenance and support created in the youth a sense of insecurity all over the world. In the tropical countries, which emulated the globally dominant powers development paradigm, the youths’ sense of insecurity is even more. This is a paradigm which throws up some billionaires at one end and gives rise to vast numbers of malnourished people on the other. Its genre of technologies enables exploration of outer space at one end and creates climate change threatening life’s extinction at the other. It promotes the culture of “self first” and cut-throatism on others. In both India and Pakistan, there has been an exacerbation of this ense of insecurity. In the specific case of India, the high ideal of “sarva dharma samabhava” having gone astray, has produced diverse distortions such as “minority aggressivism alternating with deep frustration”, “majoritarian assertion” and “pseudo-secularist appeasement”. All these evil traits are reinforcing one another and cumulatively raising communal animus and sense of insecurity. If the said lofty ideal of samabhava had been implemented along with the befitting use of traditional tools – I.e. soulful reinterpretation of religious scriptures such as the Koran and the Upanishads - the outcome would have been very different.

In the Kashmir Valley, the youth’s identity crisis and the underlying sense of insecurity got accentuated further, due to Indo-Pak conflict and the tug-of-war between the traditional Nund Rishi version of Islam and the new incoming tide of Wahabi Islam which is at odds with all Sufi versions of Islam. This sense of insecurity can be overcome only by a cultural renewal.
In Kashmir’s case, the much needed cultural renewal is restoration to the pristine values of Kashmiriyat shaped by Lal Ded and Shykh Nooruddin (Nund Rishi) whose core messages were “Religious Tolerance”, “Peace for All” and “Service to Humanity” (Service to humanity brings men nearer to the Creator, the Sufis taught). Lal Mother had rebelled against oppressive social order encrusted by casteism. Shaykh Nooruddin had decried the soul- killing dogmatism and narrow-mindedness of the ulema; fought against injustice and exploitation; preached the dignity of manual labour; and advised everybody to evolve on his / her own strength in total dependence on the Creator (not on any human agency). Restoration to Lal Ded-cum-Nund Rishi’s percepts, all of which are in accord with the universally recognized modern values of democracy, social justice, and secularism (in the sense of equal treatment to people of all faiths) - will open up a new vista.

Restored to these values, the youths of Kashmir can be the harbingers of Hindu- Muslim unity in the whole of India. By their transformation as sharers of political power with other religious communities, they will be the potential peacemakers in the world of Islam (spread from Africa to the shores of South East Asia) which is now riven by shia-sunni conflicts and ethnic strifes. The uniqueness of Kashmiriyat can give them this spiritual power. By continuing as Indians, they can be stakeholders in India’s technology power as well as its universally acclaimed civilizational ideal. By adopting a positive outlook and embarking on constructive thinking, they will find a new strength in themselves.

V - The Kind of Initiatives needed for the Valley Youth’s Cultural Renewal
A vigorous movement for cultural renewal needs to be launched by the state and the civil society. Its programmes should include:

(i) Organising discourses on Kashmir’s ancient mediaeval and recent political and cultural history. Kashmiris claim that their history is 5000 years old and this consists of three volumes. The Kashmiris are said to have contributed more than 35 percent of India’s ancient literature in Sanskrit. Their history would also show they fought their rulers – be they Afghans, Mughals, the Sikhs or Dogras - as Kashmiris, not on the basis of religio-communal considerations. Their geography – location as a valley surrounded by mountains – has given them a distinct identity and helped them retain their individuality.
(ii) Publishing lakhs of nominally priced booklets of Lal Ded and Nund Rishi’s shortest verses, in Kashmiri, Urdu, Hindi and English languages so that these can be the “oft-quotes” in daily conversations and leave their lasting impress on people’s consciousness. Their appreciation by both Kashmiris and non-Kashmiris will give the movement a new impetus.
(iii) Introducing the practice of taking pledges in the schools, colleges and educational institutions for living these gurus’ (Lal Ded’s and Nund Rishi’s) teachings. Their verses are, even now, widely recited on ceremonial occasions but these get lost in life under the weight of politically partisan rhetoric.
(iv) Since “service to humanity” and “dignity of manual labour” were pillars of their percepts, these can be made the bases of all humanitarian and socially uplifting activities and also of programmes for ecological restoration such as reforestation of Kashmir, depollution of lakes, control of atmospheric pollution, water conservation, harnessing of microhydels and their use for improvements of particularly the poor people’s lives, for fighting injustice and all forms of exploitation, for enhancement of community health etc.. In this age of climate change when life on this planet is in peril, Kashmir alone cannot be saved. Therefore, the youth of Kashmir will have to turn their energies to saving the Earth and also to saving themselves from floods and other kinds of disasters.
(v) Adopting the kinds of activities which IPRA (Institute of Peace Research and Action) has been pursuing in Kashmir under its CROKSY (Cultural Renewal of Student Youth) programmes. It has been running myriad kinds of programmes, among which are activities such as essay competitions and debates on subjects like “The Kashmir of My Dream”, “If I were the Chief Minister”, “If I were the Prime Minister of India”, “Corruption in Public Life”, “Negative Aspects of Scientific Inventions” etc.
(vi) Starting Cultural Club and Debating Society in every village and every educational institution. Through music and other cultural performances and through challenging intellectual pursuits, they will be able to usher in a renascent Kashmir.

Whereas Kashmir’s youth power is now being spent on negative and unwittingly self destructive activities such as stone pelting or social networking through Facebook, they can hence turn to Internet for co-ordination with the youth power of India and the world, for creative activities and earn for themselves a new role.

Up to now, Kashmir’s youths could not even imagine the powerful support they could get from India’s human rights activists if only the latter were apprised of why they feel alienated and oppressed. India’s human rights activists also mistook the former as being wholly inspired by Pakistan’s agents in the valley. Cultural renewal movement has the potential to bring a sea change in the situation.

VI - Need to draw out Kashmir’s Principal Actors’ Inner thoughts
Among the principal actors on the Kashmir scene, the foremost is the Abdullah-led National Conference. This is the single major political force which is sincere in its belief that Kashmir’s future lies with India and which alone has the understanding that a separated Kashmir will be either swallowed by Pakistan or be a hot bed of intrigues by bigger powers. But, the National Conference- led administration always had some very undesirable features. During the Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Abdullah’s time, it was dictatorial but was tolerated by the people because of his charismatic leadership in the past. During Farooq Abdullah’s and Omar Abdullah’s time, the administration was, and is, inefficient. Because of these leaders’ habit of spending fewer days in Kashmir than in Delhi or abroad, their coterie usurped power and became steeped in corruption. The State suffered from lack of development and remained mired in poverty.

PDP, led by Mehbooba Mufti and her father Syed Mohammad Mufti, is a major mainstream political party in competition with National Conference in Kashmir’s state politics. To have an edge over National Conference, the Muftis occasionally indulge in communal stances on local issues and mildly secessionist rhetoric but are not pro-Pakistanis. They talk of free trade across the border and economic co-operation with Pak-occupied Kashmir but do not spell out how this could be feasible when Pakistan, which has a tight grip over PoK, single-mindedly practises “India-bashing” policy.

JKLF, led by Yasin Malik, and the larger faction of Hurriyat led by the Mirwaiz are moderate separatists. They want Kashmir separated from Indian Union but do not want to join Pakistan. Yasin Malik viewed Pakistan-inspired terrorism as subversive of indigenous movements. They have never expressed what kind of arrangement they would like to have and with whom to maintain azadi, if they succeed in securing it. They are not so naïve as not to know Pakistan’s or China’s intentions. Do they believe that if both India and Pakistan give assurance of non-interference in Kashmir, they can maintain their independence? In these days of power politics and international intrigues, and in view of Pakistan’s drive towards establishing a strategic depth by bringing Afghanistan to its fold, is that a realistic expectation? Can they not see India’s – and their own – great danger from a neighbouring grabber nation’s sudden thrust into a separated valley’s power vacuum, as had happened in Tibet. The team of interlocutors would have to engage them in strategic talks. Will they make a compromise with offers of greater autonomy? They must be persuaded to speak out their mind clearly.

The faction of Hurriyat led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani is a confirmed pro-Pakistani separatist group. The Pakistani establishments’ atrocities in Baluchistan, Pakistan’s use of artillery and rockets on its own people in tribal areas (on the very people they had trained as jihadis), do not weaken their faith in Pakistan. Pakistan’s evident moves to bring Afghanistan under its tight control do not open their eyes. Even then, the Geelani group should be asked to give comments on these events.

Geelani is not at all interested in these talks. Therefore, his interest is to re-start stone pelting and provoke the security forces. If there is any possibility of his success in re-launching these misadventures, the best answer would be to immediately organize a delegation of 100-150 “Mothers and Sisters” hailing from Ladakh to Kerala and from Rajasthan to Arunachal, to visit the valley and stand between the youth and the police.

Dukhtarani-i-Milat is a considerable female force of protestors in the valley, led by Asiya Andrabi. Andrabi has an interesting background. She had taken bio-chemistry as her subject of study but is a fanatical Islamist now. Obscenities in the TV, alcoholism and prevalence of prostitution drove her to crusading against these vices. Was it necessary for her take to narrow- minded Islamism, hateful of other faiths, she and her followers need to be asked. They could have found many more male and female allies in Indian Union in this crusade. She would be better advised to join the all-faith crusaders in the rest of India to exterminate these evils on an extended scale and to get the women of her state more scope for better education.

VII - Points for All-Indian Parties’ and Civil Society’s Consideration
Thorough- going public debates in India on the issue of more autonomy to the state of J&K are the need of the day. The Abdullah-led National Conference had its Autonomy Resolution in 2000. Whether it has made any change in its later report is not known. Broadly it is known that it wants the Union Government’s jurisdiction to be limited to (i) Banking and Currency (ii) Communication (iii) Foreign Affairs and (iv) Defence. To this, the Union Government may not have much objection. Will Home Affairs and Intelligence in civilian matters be completely excluded from the concurrent list? This should be discussed at the experts’ level. National conference wants the State’s Sadar-i-Riasayat to be elected from among the people of the state instead of the Governor being appointed by the Union Government. This also should not be objectionable if constitutionally the Sadar-i-Riasayat is obligated to report to the President of India. This is a crucial issue. If the Sadar-i-Riayasat is not to be under this obligation, then, it is azadi (secession), under the cloak of autonomy, which is unacceptable.

Does the National Conference seek to exclude the Supreme Court of India’s, the Election Commission of India’s, and the Comptroller & Auditor General of India’s jurisdiction? If these are sought, then, it will be a scheme of denying the people of the state better quality of services. If the state depends on the federal government’s subsidies, CAG’s jurisdiction would be inescapable. Without this safeguard, the government of the state would be exposed to the charge of corruption from the people of the valley themselves.

The people of Jammu and Ladakh regions have been complaining that more autonomy to this state meant more denial of democratic rights to these two regions. They would rather like their fuller integration with the Indian Union. The Valley’s parties would have to come clean on this point. What measures of autonomy would they like to concede to these regions? Or will they like the State to be divided? Every party needs to do hard thinking.

A word to BJP is in order. It is an all-India Party, the largest opposition party in Indian Parliament and a force in Jammu region. It seeks withdrawal of the special autonomy that has been given to this state, far from conceding more autonomy. It feels “more autonomy today will bring demand for azadi (secession) tomorrow”. This is being too suspicious. Too much of unitary-ism leads to dissolution of the federation. In my previous article, I had given the example of Switzerland, where the twenty-five federating units have widely differing constitutions and are near- sovereign in many aspects but all are under one President who is elected annually. Nobody there has wanted secession.

Our own experience from the pre-independence days showed us the disastrous results of excessive suspicion. Nehru’s overmuch suspicion of the Muslim League led to his refusal, after the Congress’s resounding victory in the 1937 election, to honour the pre-election understanding (Lucknow Pact). And his overmuch suspicion, again in 1946, led him to declare that the Congress would not be bound by the Cabinet Mission Plan as the price for a United India. These led to unbridgeable divergences and were partially responsible for the country’s partition. Jinnah, too, realized too late – after the Partition – that his excessive bargaining had boomeranged: he told his confidants that he would “tell Jawaharlal of his desire to go back to Bombay and settle there”. History is unforgiving. Hyper-nationalist unitary-ism breaks federations.

Conclusion
Alienation of the Kashmir valley people has reached the limit and is now at the boiling point. Maximum possible autonomy is an imperative need to retain India’s federal hold over Kashmir. The extent of autonomy suitable for a federating unit is decided by particularities and distinctive situations. Each state, in its own interest, should continuously lend itself to - rather invite - assessments by agencies constituted by fellow states. In its absence, insularity sets in and corrodes from within. Kashmiris must remember this.

In nature, autonomy is differentiation within the continuous process of integration. Autonomy is most productive through maintenance of organic linkages with other constituents of the body. The Valley’s political parties as well as the Union Government must remember these fundamental principles which are valid in nature as well as in politics.

One word at the end. To heal the wounds in the valley people’s hearts and to revive in them the longing for the Indian federation of states, a large delegation of Mothers and Sisters and another delegation of youths from all over India should visit the valley soon and invite Kashmir’s youths and their Mothers and Sisters to visit India’s other states and to see for themselves the feelings the latter have for them. Besides, a group of devout Imams who feel happy and secure in India – and if possible, some travelling saints form different Sufi orders – should visit this troubled state to prevent the growth of the canker of communalism.

Epilogue
Recently, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah attacked the Union Government for most of his problems. Certainly, the Union Government is blamable for not educating the CRPF in time that in dealing with the civil population, it must use only non-lethal weapons. But both the Chief Minister and his party President were pathetically out of touch with the reality: they had no inkling that high discontent was simmering against them, too. Besides, their idea that no improvement was at all possible until the Union Government acceded to all their autonomy demands was just wishful thinking. If they had devolved some of their powers – which were more than those of any other state of India - on to the districts, blocks and villages, people would have had more powers to take decisions about their own lives. Now, they find total denial. Besides, their devolution of autonomy could have strengthened their case for greater autonomy from their state.

The Union Government must realize that the need is to reach out to the people at the grassroot levels, in all the 22 districts of the state. It is a state of hugely diverse cultural communities. Within the same religious community, within the same district, there are different cultural habits and expectations for different political set-ups. At least five or six task forces are needed to engage the people of all the blocks in the state in talks about their political as well as developmental aspirations.

The idea of gram of gram sabhas taking the basic decisions about their own lives – i.e. the Gandhian model of village republics – needs to be offered. For there is no greater freedom possible in any system and any other country of the world. This author is convinced that ultimately, this will emerge as the only solution acceptable to all. This model has to be adopted in the whole of India as the solution to problems arising from skewed development, as the answer to Maoism, brewing peasant unrest, tribal unrest etc.

Please Don't Forget Our Urban Poor !

2010-03-02T09:30:00.003+05:30

Financial Inclusion: Please Don’t Forget our Urban Poor!

Respected Pranab da,

While the nation lauds the Government’s single-minded drive to take banking to rural doorsteps, the Finance Ministry and the RBI are sadly neglecting a key constituency: the impoverished millions on the doorsteps of urban banks, denied access for lack of ‘papers’. Despite the Government’s clarion call to financial inclusion, my friends and I continue to find it difficult - if not impossible - to open accounts for our cooks, maids, drivers and gardeners.

Breaking the Gordian knot of identity and address documents
Partly responsible are the Reserve Bank of India’s 2002 ‘Know Your Customer’ rules. As you know, these require banks to check the background of prospective applicants to guard against money-laundering and terrorism financing. Applicants must prove both identity and residence through one of six documents. Passport, PAN card, voter’s card, driving license, identity card, or letter from a recognised public authority/ public servant in the first case; and telephone or electricity bill, ration card, bank account statement, or letter from employer/recognised public authority in the second.

Predominantly rural migrants, most of our urban poor do not have the correct combination of identity and address documents necessary to open accounts. The key sticking point is ‘local address’. This I learnt when I tried to open an account for Mahesh, the young Uttaranchali who lives and works in my house. He has a high-school I.D., a ration card, and a voter’s card (three KYC-approved identity documents), but these were insufficient to prove his bona fide. For, they display an Uttaranchal, not a Delhi address. Sona, our Maharashtrian ayah has no documentation at all, so hers was a ‘shut-before-opening’ case.

Recognising this Gordian knot, the RBI relaxed the documentary requirements for small deposit (or ‘no frills’) accounts with a total balance of Rs 50,000. In its Master ‘Know Your Customer’ Circular of July 2009, it ruled that a written introduction/certification from an account holder was sufficient to open such accounts, provided the account was “over six months old and showed satisfactory transactions.”

Continuing violations by urban banks
Yet, eight months later, in direct contravention of this ruling, banks across the country continue to refuse to honour letters of introduction from account-holders/employers as sufficient evidence of identity and address. I thus face the ridiculous situation of living two doors away from the bank (in which my family has had six accounts for a decade), but which insists it cannot open Mahesh’s account since it does not have the wherewithal to verify the Uttaranchal address on his identity documents. Completely illogical, since he has now lived for five years with me in Delhi, visiting Uttaranchal only four times since then.

Bank branches have either not been properly briefed about the July 2009 relaxations, or they are using the 2002 KYC obligations as a convenient smoke-screen to duck opening unremunerative accounts for the poor. No surprise then that just 2% of our over 33 million ‘no frills’ accounts are urban, as the Skoch Institute estimates.

In real terms, this is just 60,000 accounts. Minuscule in the context of India’s urban poor population of between 80 million to 190 million. We could immediately bring much of this population into the formal banking system, merely by pressuring the banks to adhere to the RBI’s July 2009 relaxations. The national drive to financially empower the poor must thus strategically invest in tracking and pushing inclusion in urban areas.

It is essential we start immediately. UNDP’s ‘Indian Urban Poverty Report 2009’ shows India’s urban population doubling from 286 million to 575 million by 2030. More worryingly, it projects continued growth in our urban poor population, due to expanding rural in-migration and lack of public services. Continuing exclusion from formal banking services will only aggravate this unfortunate trend.

Bringing the poor into the banks is also essential to establishing their identity within other formal skills and livelihood systems. For, when I tried to sign Mahesh up for Delhi driving classes to upgrade his skills and salary, he was turned away for lack of a ‘local’ bank account. I dread to think how many millions of bright, hard-working, young urban migrants are similarly held down by this ‘Catch 22’ of identification and ‘local address’.

The banks’ need for caution is understandable. But our system’s dogged insistence on ‘local address’ is misplaced, given an expanding ATM network and growing geographic mobility and. In any case, most small depositors use their accounts primarily to store and save money. Thus, should they vanish with all their money, it is theirs and nobody else’s. Moreover, small deposits do not easily lend themselves to the kinds of scam seen on stock markets.

Domestic workers: the low-hanging fruit
India’s 95-100 million domestic workers present the lowest-hanging fruit in the urban financial inclusion campaign. For, they all have close, organic links to households already within the banking system, significantly reducing the risk for banks. Since 90% of these workers are women, the implications for social empowerment are significant.

This category of worker is also likely to make larger and more regular deposits than most urban and rural poor counterparts. In bigger cities, average domestic worker salaries range from 3,500 to Rs 5,000, and average monthly savings from Rs 500-Rs 1,000. Employers would be happy to pay salaries via recurring monthly deposits. Account holders are likely to make one or two withdrawals a month. Urban ‘no frills’ accounts are thus likely to be continually active, cutting to the heart of the banks’ complaint that only 11% of the nearly 33 millon rural accounts are.

The Government must thus do some quick and clever thinking on how to incentivise our banks to, first, admit and, then, effectively serve our urban poor. To quote S.S.Tarapore, “No individual should be denied the right to open an account.” Some ‘carrot’ and some ‘stick’ might be required. But, judging from India’s telecom experience, energetic attention to enforcing banks’ urban ‘universal service obligation’ is more likely to trigger a low-cost system of ‘mass banking’, than crores of Budget spending on technology platforms and rural banking infrastructure.

- Premila Nazareth Satyanand is an independent policy analyst.

FASADI, NOT JIHADI

2008-11-12T08:26:00.000+05:30

Tuesday, August 19, 2008
FASADI, NOT JIHADI
By M J Akbar
(Sunday Column in Times of India)

It is safe to assume that the Indian Mujahideen, which prides itself on being a terrorist organization, killed innocents in Gujarat, uses a logo displaying guns on either side of the Holy Book, sends threatening email signed by a split personality (both "Al Arbi" and "Al Hindi"), would like to be judged by Quranic law.

I presume they would not suggest the application of Sharia to non-Muslims. We Indians are unique in many ways: include among them the depressing fact that we have had terrorists from four major faiths - Muslims in Kashmir, Christians in Nagaland, Sikhs in Punjab and Hindus in Assam’s ULFA.

Terror has been a constant weapon of Maoists and Naxalites, none of them waving a green banner. The Quran makes a very clear distinction between legitimate war, a jihad, and illegitimate violence that spreads havoc among the innocent, a fasad. A fasadi is one who "spreads mischief through the land". The Quranic word entered our language and is used commonly for a communal riot. The Urdu-English dictionary in my office lists some of its meanings as "disturbance, trouble, outbreak of rebellion, dissension, mischief...."

It appears in the Quran, in Verse 32 of Surah 5, in the context of the first murder, when Cain killed Abel, his brother, who had done no harm. The verse is a powerful indictment of anyone who kills innocents: "That if anyone slew a person (through fasad) it would be as if he slew the whole people. And if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people." An innocent’s death kills something in the whole community; protecting an innocent individual is akin to saving the whole. The worst mischief is, in the words of Abdullah Yusuf Ali, "treason against the state, combined with treason against Allah, as shown by overt crimes." For this crime, "four alternative punishments are mentioned, any one of which is to be applied according to circumstances, viz., execution, crucifixion, maiming or exile". I have used Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s translation and notes because they are accepted internationally. The message is supplemented by other verses (as for instance Surah 30:41).

It is instructive to note how the two most Islamic states, Saudi Arabia and Iran, one Sunni and the other Shia, punish Muslim terrorists. Saudi toughness is now exemplary to those who believe in tough methods. On Tuesday, August 5, Iran executed Yaghoob Mirnehad in the city of Zahedan because he was found guilty of involvement in Jundallah, an armed group operating along the Iran-Pakistan border along Baluchistan. Afzal Guru would not stand much of a chance in either Saudi Arabia or Iran.

When a fasadi calls himself a jihadi, it is an attempt to gain legitimacy among Muslims. The intermittent use of Quranic verses by the Indian Mujahideen is designed to reinforce the impression of Quranic sanction. Even a cursory examination shows how this terrorist group has snatched text out of context. Take the deliberately provocative quotation in one of their emails: "We are guiltless of you and whatever you worship besides Allah: we have rejected you and there has arisen between us and you enmity and hatred forever - unless you believe in Allah and Him alone." The idea clearly is to establish a Quranic sanction for hatred and enmity between Hindus and Muslims. You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to reach this conclusion.

They have arbitrarily plucked out lines from a much longer verse about the great patriarch Abraham, who left home after his father began to worship many gods instead of the One Allah. But the "hatred" is for apostasy, not the person. Where the Indian Mujahideen have put a full stop, there is only a colon in the original. Abraham also says that he will pray for his father. He does not threaten to murder his father in the name of Allah, which the Indian Mujahideen seem to believe is their wanton right.

The Quran insists that that while there are differences among faiths, it is up to Allah, and not man, to be the judge. For man, there is a clear principle (Surah 2:256): "La iqra fi al deen (Let there be no compulsion in religion)." (This instruction, incidentally, comes just after Ayat ul Kursi, a magnificent evocation to the power of Allah and his protection of man.) A second principle is equally unambiguous: "Lakum deen-e kum wal ya deen (Your religion for you and my religion for me)." It was not an accident that Ottoman Sultans gave shelter to Spanish Jews after they were driven out by the Catholic Inquisition.

Every jihad is a war fought by a Muslim, but every war fought by a Muslim is not a jihad. Yusuf Ali explains in his note on Surah 9:20: "It may require fighting in Allah’s cause, as a form of self-sacrifice. But its (jihad’s) essence consists in a true and sincere Faith, which so fixes its gaze on Allah, that all selfish or worldly motives seem paltry and fade away...Mere brutal fighting is opposed to the whole spirit of jihad, while the sincere scholar’s pen or preacher’s voice or wealthy man’s contributions may be the most valuable forms of jihad." The Jihad-e-Akbar, or the greater jihad is a struggle to cleanse oneself; war is only the Jihad-e-Asghar, or the lesser jihad. However, if jihad were only an internal struggle for purification, we would not be discussing it. Islam sanctions war, but with very strict rules. The call for a jihad cannot be given by a maverick. The killing of innocents, women and children is strictly forbidden. The first Caliph, Abu Bakr, laid down the rules when he sent the first armies out to battle: a jihadi could not betray a trust, misappropriate booty, mutilate a body, kill the old, women or children; he could not even destroy trees or slaughter an animal except for food. Terrorism has no place in jihad. There is one justification, in Islamic law, for jihad: when a nation becomes a Dar ul Harb (House of War) rather than a Dar ul Islam (House of Islam). Can India be declared a Dar ul Harb?

A Big 19th Century Question has seeped into the 21st.

The collapse of the Mughals from around 1720 witnessed the rise of regional powers, and substantial Muslim populations began living under the rule of Marathas and Rajputs. In 1803, the British broke through Maratha resistance and reached Delhi, where the wobbly Mughals became a protected species. That year, Shah Abdul Aziz, heir of Shah Waliullah and the most respected theologian of his time, declared India a Dar ul Harb because British law would prevail over the law of Islam. This inspired a jihad by his disciples (principally Ahmad Saeed Barelvi and his successors) that lasted till the last quarter of the century; 1857 was only one episode in a long war.

The interesting point is that there had never been a similar fatwa against any Hindu ruler of India, and the Barelvis sought and received help from the Marathas. Muslims never considered living under Hindu rulers a cause for jihad because Hindu rulers respected their right to practise their faith as they wished.

As late as in 1871, Sir William Hunter, the famous ICS officer, was attempting to answer the question, "Are the Indian Mussalmans bound by their Religion to rebel against the Queen?" He recorded the considered views of a number of alim. The answer, in essence, was that if a Muslim was permitted to live by his own law, the Raj could be considered a House of Islam. Muslim personal law was incorporated into the Raj code. Free India, through Constitutional statute and practice, permits Indian Muslims full rights to the exercise of their faith. You may not be able to hear the amplified azaan in London or Washington, but you can in Delhi.

Aberrations like riots do not change this fundamental reality. If that were so, Pakistani Shias would be entitled to declare a jihad against Pakistan since they have repeatedly suffered from communal violence.

Justice and equality are the heart and soul of the Quran, and the Holy Book knows what justice would do to a fasadi.

Volunteer to remove Criminals and Cash from Indian Politics

2008-11-03T21:59:00.000+05:30

We all dream of an India in which our politicians are honest, public-minded, and deliver effective governance and development to citizens. While we all want to contribute to this dream, we do not know how...

Now is your chance to act!

With six State Assembly Elections scheduled for Nov/ December 2008, the Association for Democratic Reform (http://www.adrindia.org/home/index.asp) desperately needs your support with their national Election Watch effort.

Among other things, this effort will involve:

1) Assembling information on contesting candidates (criminal records, assets/liabilities, educational qualifications),

2) Monitoring election expenses incurred by electoral candidates and political parties,

3) Disseminating all this information to the public to help them make an informed choice, using a variety of channels such as media, SMS campaigns, e-mailers, etc

Most importantly, ADR is in the process of setting up a toll-free helpline to enable people to get candidate data and related information easily. Interested citizens from any of the six states going to the polls will be able to call into the hotline.

So, do your bit for the country! Volunteer with ADR for 8-10 hours a day over November/ December 2008. While you will receive a small honorarium to cover travel etc, you will - more importantly - have the satisfaction of knowing that you have contributed to a nationally crucial cause.

To volunteer and/ or to find out more, please contact:

Anil Bairwal
National Coordinator, Association for Democratic Reforms
B 1/6, Hauz Khas,New Delhi – 110 016
Tel: 91 11 6590 1524
Email: adr.delhi@gmail.com; abairwal@gmail.com

PS. A minimum commitment of 2 weeks is required.

World Deaf Week 2008

2008-09-28T23:49:00.004+05:30

World Deaf Week 2008

On the 27th of September, 2008, Guwahati marked celebration of World Deaf Week with the launch of the Chapter of Deaf Children’s Foundation held at Guwahati Gymkhana, Guwahati.

"The Crusaders"
Mrs. A Gohain, State Programme Officer (left) with Mrs Inky Sen, Vaani, Kolkata

Speaking on the occasion, Mrs. Inky Sen, Programme Officer, VAANI, Kolkata stated that “VAANI, Deaf Children's Foundation hopes to bring issues around deafness to the forefront during this week with various activities planned to raise the awareness of the general public. VAANI hopes to also get the attention of corporate groups who can support us in our activities”. India celebrates Deaf Awareness Week in the last week of September. The last Saturday in September, that is 27th of the month this year, is celebrated as World Deaf Day.

“Deaf children do not gain access to language in the same way as hearing children”, Mrs. Sen said. During this World Deaf Week, “the VAANI team will be visiting prominent English and regional-language schools in Kolkata and Guwahati to conduct a programme on awareness about childhood deafness and the emotional and social needs of deaf children”. “We feel it is important that children themselves understand the problems their deaf peers face”

VAANI, Deaf Children's Foundation will also be coordinating a meeting with some prominent personalities in Assam to garner support and create a resource base for VAANI’s activities in the State on World Deaf Day.

VAANI, Deaf Children's Foundation will also be coordinating a meeting between parents of deaf children and heads of some prominent schools in Kolkata to discuss the special needs of deaf children in educational institutions.

VAANI, Deaf Children's Foundation is supporting an annual awareness programme for students of regular schools, coordinated by Anwesha, a registered group of parents of deaf children, on 26 September 2008 at the Jadavpur University campus. This meeting will also include an elocution competition for deaf and hearing children from regular schools.

VAANI representatives will also be present at the launch of an information kiosk at the Dr. S.R.Chandrasekhar Institute of Speech and Hearing in Bangalore. This kiosk, which will be providing information on issues around deafness to families of deaf children and deaf adults, is being set by the Institute with support from VAANI, Deaf Children's Foundation. World Deaf Week 08 was felt to be an appropriate time for launching this kiosk which will be an invaluable information provider.

In Gujarat, VAANI’s technical partner SSGB Vidyavihar School in Nadiad will be organising a parents’ meeting, a rally and other events to spread awareness about deafness during the World Deaf Week.

About VAANI, Deaf Children's Foundation

VAANI, Deaf Children’s Foundation (earlier known as IDCS-India) is a registered Trust and works to empower deaf children and their families across India. VAANI’s role is to act as a catalyst. Rather than delivering services, VAANI supports the development of accessible sustainable services for deaf children and their families whilst working closely with the overall development strategies of the country. VAANI works with local organisations to build on existing good practices, develop a resource base and understand what works for deaf children and their families in India. All of VAANI’s work is need-based and our strategy responds to gaps in the current system identified through state level feasibility studies and baseline surveys, using a participatory approach with active participation of all stakeholder groups.

VAANI, Deaf Children's Foundation is working on projects in West Bengal, Assam, Karnataka, Meghalaya and Gujarat.

Kashmir and the Denting of the Idea of India

2008-09-17T18:51:00.002+05:30

Kashmir and the Denting of the Idea of India - Arun Kumar

Kashmir is on the boil and itching for Azadi. Clearly, even if the idea of India was ever present in some rudimentary form in the psyche of the average Kashmiri, it has long since evaporated from their consciousness. Not only during the phase from 1987 to the late Nineties when the movement for separation was strong but today after a lull of about a decade, it has become clear that this is indeed so.

What to a non Kashmiri is a non issue has become the emotive trigger for the fresh expression of the Kashmiri’s alienation from the idea of India. The issue underlying the demand for azadi (from India) can hardly be the transfer of 100 acres of forest land to the Amarnath Shrine Board. After all, the land was allotted to a Board headed by the Governor who is the head of the State, even if he is seen as an imposition of Delhi. It was in no sense being alienated from the State. It was also not the case that it was being colonized in any permanent sense by non Kashmiris. It was only to be an assistance to the Amarnath yatris (no one is as yet asking for the stoppage of the yatra) and was most likely to be manned entirely by the local people rather than people from outside the state. Further, this area was anyway being used for the yatra and no new activity was proposed.

The event triggered a deep seated fear/suspicion about India in the Kashmiri mind. This is because the average citizen of the valley has not accepted or understood what India is about and even though a part of the blame has to be borne by the Kashmiris themselves, the major part of it has to be that of the Indians themselves and especially the Indian government.

Instead of providing the much needed healing touch so that the idea of India could seep in to the Srinagar Valley, the Indian rulers have played politics. A short term view has been taken. More recently while the problem was brewing, the Centre was busy with the Indo nuclear deal to the exclusion of all else.

Of course, there has been interference from Pakistan encouraged by the US and China. This has kept things on the boil but it was for Delhi to devise a strategy to counter these aspects of geo politics. Delhi has failed in doing so due to its narrow focus. Leadership in Kashmir has been manipulated rather than allowed to naturally develop along democratic lines. The state has for long been ruled with the help of the army and coercion has played a large role in keeping it as a part of India.

Some have recently appealed to let Kashmir go because that is what the Kashmiris want. Spoken like a true democrat or a tired fighter? But what if that strikes at the root of the Idea of India. It may lead to terrible communal clashes. This is not idle speculation because there is no clean slate to write on.

Today, Hindutva and Islamic fundamentalists are active over large swaths of the country. They are waiting to take advantage of the situation to their own political benefit and will play politics with the idea of independence for Kashmir valley. If Kashmir gains independence it will only be the Valley, given the ground reality and this could lead to blood letting all around because the idea of India would be further damaged.

Secular leaders of India realized that all communities need to live in harmony in a multi community society like ours. Nehru believed that majority communalism is more dangerous than minority communalism and therefore there has been a constant appeasement of muslim political leadership and its elite. The mistake has been that there has been little trickle down to the muslim masses who have been perhaps kept backward by the elite as a bargaining chip with the rest of the communities in India’s vote bank politics of MAJGAR.

It has been a failure of our short termist leadership that the socio economic conditions of the Muslims have hardly changed over the long run; statespersonship has been lacking. It has strived to maintain itself in power by any means. The idea of `India is Indira and Indira is India’ pervaded the early Seventies and led to the domination of the interest of a few over the national interest. While Indira withstood the US pressure over Bangladesh, for the sake of internal consolidation of power she subverted democracy through Emergency, let the situation in Punjab aggravate and later it happened in Kashmir – all for narrow ends. The idea of India was dented.
The people of South Asia have a common destiny. They are in the most backward part of the world and need peace to develop. It was the vision of the national movement which drew inspiration from all parts of the country and from all communities and this contributed to its success. So, India was set up as a secular entity and the pressure of creation of Pakistan did not sway the leadership to go for a Hindu rashtra.

Much has changed since. It is not just Muslims that have a grievance against the Indian state but all the deprived sections of the population. The Dalits, backward castes, etc.

The Indian ruling elite is responsible for it since it slowly lost faith in the idea of India, especially since the Sixties. It has indulged in corruption on a large scale which has led to failure of policies and to the erosion of the idea of collective good. Today, globalization means maximizing ones gains and devil may take the hindmost. People all over the country are struggling against these policies while the elite is concentrating power in its hands to deal with them.

Yet, the idea of India is a powerful one for all regions and communities of the country and it needs to be strengthened rather than dented as is the case today. Even if the elite is committing hara-kiri, the common people (whether in Kashmir or in Gujarat) need this idea for their own sake and cannot abandon it.

Kashmiris need to be a part of a wider national democratic upsurge rather than reacting to the wrong policies of both the ruling elite of India and the Kashmiri leadership. Much of the Kashmiri leadership has been compromised by the intelligence agencies of either India or Pakistan or the US (or some combination) and hardly represents the true interest of the Kashmiri.

Independence is a powerful idea but an independent Kashmir will have to trade with the very same nation that it would separate from. Indo-Pak trade is important for both the nations and used to take place through the mid East till recently, to the detriment of both. This suggests that closer relations based on secular ideas remains important. Today nations, especially the smaller ones in the world, are coming together in trade agreements to enhance their well being and Europe is even trying closer political integration.

In brief, Kashmiris need to change their vision just as Indians need a better leadership than they have had over the last four decades. Democracy needs to be deepened to strengthen the idea of India which remains as powerful as ever.

arunkumar1000@hotmail.com.

Strengthening Indian Democracy

2008-07-22T16:33:00.002+05:30

Proposal for the coming General Elections in 2008-09
Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR: www.adrindia.org)July 8, 2008

About ADR
ADR was founded in 1999 by a group of Professors from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad and some alumni to work towards strengthening democracy and governance in India by focusing on fair and transparent electoral processes. Since its founding, it has worked with over 1000 NGO partners around India, disseminating information on candidates and political parties to voters. ADR has also worked closely with the media, the Election Commission of India and eminent citizens around the country. Its founder was elected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2008.

The major impact of ADR’s work is at four levels:
1. Lobbying lawmakers and implementers (various Courts, Election Commission, parliamentarians, etc.) to institute laws and procedures to increase accountability and transparency2. Strengthen the monitoring of candidates and political parties on accountability, funding and for transparency.3. Increase awareness among the public about important facts and issues regarding candidates, funding, political parties, elections and democracy.4. Cause a shift in the profile of candidates winning elections towards people with clean backgrounds.

Sample Impact of ADR’s work
Here is a representative list of impact achieved by the activities of ADR:
1. ADR filed and won two landmark judgments on candidate disclosure of criminal and financial records from the Supreme Court in May 2002 and March 2003.

2. Made transparent the financial details of political parties using the Right to Information Act in 2008 after 14 months of persistence with the Income tax Authorities and the central Information Commission.

3. Has established a network of over a thousand NGOs around the country to do Citizen Election Watch for all major elections since December 2002, disclosing candidate background information to the media and the public.

4. Has initiated Civil Society non-partisan Election Watches in different states:a. In the Lok Sabha 2004 Elections, 19 States and 5 Union Territories carried out Election Watches.b. Have conducted Election watches in about 20 states

5. Bihar Election Watch in Oct-Nov 2005 resulted in intense pressure on the Chief Minister designate for the first time perhaps in decades to have a Council of Ministers without any known criminal record.

6. Clearance of lakhs of rupees of outstanding dues to the Government for rent, electricity, phone bills, etc. by Members of Parliament (MPs) before standing for (re)elections.

7. A measurable impact in the fielding of non-tainted candidates by applying pressure on political parties to filed clean candidates.

Objectives for Lok Sabha elections April-May 2009
The coming national elections in April-May 2009 provide a unique opportunity to leverage the network already in place, and the information already collected, to carry out a campaign to further improve democracy. ADR wishes to take a campaign to:

1. Improve the profile of candidates contesting elections: ADR has already achieved this in the past in state assembly elections, but we expect to take this nationwide through the proposed campaign. Political parties have started reacting to media exposure and have begun cleaning up their Act (e.g., see in Sample impact for Bihar)

2. Enable voters to make an informed choice: As of now, the information available to voters is limited, and the existing database of over 25000 candidates with ADR will be used to raise voter awareness significantly.

3. Help keep election expenses transparent and within the legal limit: Again, information dissemination is key.

4. Strengthen democracy by making candidates and parties more accountable to voters and citizens: Our experience shows that in pockets where dissemination was intense, the candidates and political parties did respond. The campaign will take this nationwide.

5. Create a platform or platforms beyond the elections to help citizens and Governments work more closely together: We will use our network of over thousand NGOs in the campaign to achieve this.

ADR has information on all major National and State elections in India since 2002. Specifically, ADR will disseminate information to voters around the country through following means:
1. Traditional print and electronic media,

2. The Internet (though its reach is still limited in India),

3. The network of NGOs,

4. Through mobile technologies(which has grown rapidly in the recent past) ,

5. And Voice technologies.

One time support needed for Lok Sabha elections April-May 2009:
ADR is currently supported for its establishment expenses by the Ford Foundation. However, it does not have financial support for next year’s general elections. This involves 543 seats to the Parliament (Lok Sabha), and involves around 670 million voters. It is the largest democratic election held anywhere in the world. We estimate that a modest $750,000 can help us do the campaign. We are looking for a one time support for these elections.

How the fund will be utilized
The broad strategy is to use the existing information base, supplement it with more research, and disseminate it steadily starting now until the general elections. As mentioned earlier, this will be done traditional print and electronic media, the Internet, the network of NGOs, mobile and voice. Previous experience of such limited campaigns in Gujarat and UP showed good results with positive reaction from political parties.

For instance, we will build Member of Parliament profiles, political party profiles, and election expense information from our existing data base. Dissemination will be done in English and Hindi (the major language that about 35% of India knows) at the very least. We also hope to do it in 7 other major languages.

Data on Criminals in the Indian Parliament

2008-07-22T16:18:00.002+05:30

July 19th, 2008
Anyone familiar with the disastrous state of India should not be overly surprised to learn that the Indian parliament has an overwhelmingly greater percentage of criminals than the general population. How effectively a nation functions and how successful it is depends on its leaders who make public policy and thus critically determine the outcome. India’s failure to develop and achieve its potential is proof positive that its leadership is lacking.

Underdevelopment, poverty, and all other ills that plague India are an unavoidable consequence of poor public policies and choices.One suspects that criminals cannot make good public policy makers. For support of this position, one has to look at the dismal record of the criminals in charge of public policy in India. It is not that every single politician in India is a criminal; only that a significant number of them are criminals. But it is unbelievable that even one member of the Indian parliament should be a criminal. That we don’t rise in revolt against this outrage shows that we have come to accept it as par for the course and have resigned ourselves to it. Worse, it could mean that the Indian population is so morally bankrupt that it finds crime so normal that it elects criminals to political power.

All this lends support to the claim that the people deserve the government they get. Perhaps because the people in general are immoral criminals that they accept — perhaps even promote — criminals to represent them. The resulting Hobbesian existence — solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short — the majority live is something that they are ultimately responsible for. Until the people change, there is no possibility of a change of leadership, and the consequent change in the circumstances.

But there is still some hope; as long as there is life, there is hope. India has not yet descended to the depths plumbed by its western neighbor because it still has as part of its civil society people who deeply care about the quality of leadership. One organization of note is the Association for Democratic Reforms. I got introduced to it when I met one of its founder members, Prof Jagdeesh Chhokar, in New Delhi last week.

ADR’s mission is “to work towards improving and strengthening democracy and governance in India.” I will leave you to take a look at their many achievements since they started in 1999. Here I would like to share with you some statistics that ADR has compiled. (Thanks to S Ramachandra for forwarding the files.)

Here’s an excerpt from a press release dated July 10th, 2008:

The coming general elections to the Lok Sabha do not forecast a bright future if the composition of the Lok Sabha 2004 at present is any indication. There are 120 MPs with criminal cases against them out of 543, or 22.1%. Among the major parties, the BJP has 29 MPs with a criminal record, the Indian National Congress (INC) 24, the SP 11, RJD 8, CPM 7, BSP 7, NCP 5 and CPI 2.

The number of cases of serious crimes is 333, with several MPs having multiple cases. If we look at violent crimes like murder, attempt to murder, robbery, dacoity, kidnapping, theft and extortion, rape, other violent crimes like assault using dangerous weapons or causing grievous hurt, the Samajwadi Party (SP) leads with 80 cases, followed by BSP 43, BJP 17, INC 16, RJD 9, CPM 5, CPI 1, NCP 2. Other crimes like cheating, fraud, forgery, giving false oaths to public officials and so on have BSP 23, RJD 22, INC 21, BJP 11, SP 11 and CPM 6.

Becoming informed is the first necessary step to bringing about change. So do talk, write, blog, etc., about this. Spread the word. Most of all, blog about this frequently enough that it becomes impossible to not know about it. And put your money where your mouth is — for starters, you could help support ADR. They need Rs 3 crores (US$ 750,000) for the coming 2009 Elections campaign

G-8 endorses halving global emissions by 2050

2008-07-08T15:40:00.000+05:30

RUSUTSU, Japan - The Group of Eight leading industrial nations on Tuesday endorsed halving world emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, edging forward in the battle against global warming but stopping short of tough, nearer-term targets.
The G-8 countries — the United States, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy — also called on all major economies to join in the effort to stem the potentially dangerous rise in world temperatures.
"The G-8 nations came to a mutual recognition that this target — cutting global emissions by at least 50 percent by 2050 — should be a global target," said Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who announced the endorsement.
The G-8 last year at a summit in Germany pledged to consider the 2050 target, and this year's Japanese hosts had hoped to solidify that commitment at the meeting in Toyako, northern Japan.
The G-8 has been under pressure to secure commitments by wealthy nations to push forward stalled U.N.-led talks on forging a new accord to battle global warming by the end of next year. Tuesday's statement, however, addressed world emissions rather than just those produced by wealthy countries.
The United States hailed the agreement, which Washington said fit with its stance that all major economies — such as China, India and others — need to participate in reducing emissions. Major developing nations have urged wealthy countries to take the first step in cutting greenhouse gases.
"It has always been the case that a long-term goal is one that must be shared. So the G-8 has offered today is a G-8 view of what that goal could be and should be but that can only occur with the agreement of all the other parties," said Jim Connaughton, chairman of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality.
Environmentalists criticized the statement for failing to go beyond the G-8 statement last year.
"So little progress after a whole year of Minister meetings and negotiations is not only a wasted opportunity, it falls dangerously short of what is needed to protect people and nature from climate change," said Kim Carstensen, director of the World Wildlife Fund's Global Climate Initiative.
Environmentalists have argued that the 50 percent reduction target is insufficient, and have clamored for ambitious targets for countries to cut emissions by 2020. Japan itself has set a national target for cutting emissions by between 60 percent and 80 percent by 2050, but has not set a midterm goal.
Such shorter-term targets have been much more difficult to reach consensus on. The United States, for instance, has argued that meeting a Europe-supported goal of reducing emissions by between 25 and 40 percent by 2020 is unrealistic.
In a nod to such disagreements, Fukuda said the G-8 countries would set individual targets.
"The G-8 will implement aggressive midterm total emission reduction targets on a country by country basis," he said.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the agreement constituted a "new, shared vision by the major economies" that would support the U.N.-led effort on a new global warming accord.
"This is a strong signal to citizens around the world," he said in a statement, calling for a renewed push behind the U.N. talks, which aim to conclude a new pact at a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009.
By JOSEPH COLEMAN, Associated Press Writer

COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM: DO WE HAVE AN OPTION?

2008-06-27T10:38:00.005+05:30

- Prof. Anil Sadgopal

1n October 1997, as I walked out of the international airport of Toronto (Ontario, Canada), my eyes caught the newspaper headlines announcing “State-wide School Teachers’ Strike’. Coming from India, this was nothing unusual. However, the next headline puzzled me. It read: “Joint Rally of Teachers and Parents.” It made no sense at all. How can the teachers and the parents join hands in a protest? In India, parents would be furious if teachers go on strike but here they were marching and shouting slogans together.

The protest was so massive that the entire state of Ontario came to a standstill for the next seven days. It was a common political issue for all. The faculty and the students of the University of Toronto extended full support. Seminars and sit-ins were held at the university campus, addressed by the leadership of the unions of school and university teachers alike and supported by student organizations and parent groups. I was amazed at this solidarity. The provincial government was under fire for two issues. First, the government had declared major budget cuts in school education. Second, the autonomous elected school boards, responsible for decentralized management of school clusters (including teacher appointments, curriculum and exams) were to be merged to form larger boards in order to save money. To the parents and teachers, the larger boards signaled decline in the quality of management.

I was in Canada to attend a conference against globalization. My hosts explained that both of these government decisions were indicative of the neo-liberal policy shifts. These were designed to increasingly result in abdication of the State’s role in the social sector, particularly education and health, eventually affecting the whole of Canada. This, however, did not explain the people’s solidarity. In India, too, similar neo-liberal policy shifts in education were evident. Yet, neither the teachers nor the parents seemed to be concerned. The educated middle class apparently did not care how the neo-liberal policies were destroying the vast government school system, with consequent increase in the pace of privatization of school education. On the contrary, the middle class, though unhappy about the increasing cost of education, implicitly supported privatization.

The explanation became apparent as I studied the Canadian school system. In Canada, the public-funded school system essentially covered the entire population and was maintained at a high level of quality. The private schools played a negligible role. In spite of public funding, the government control or interference was at its minimum. The school boards, comprising, on average, 50-60 schools, were responsible and accountable for teacher appointments, placement and promotions, curriculum and textbooks, exams, maintenance of quality and all other aspects of management.

Each school was essentially a neighbourhood school. All children, irrespective of their socio-economic or cultural background, studied in these schools. It did not matter who you were – university professor or a factory worker, senior government official or a garbage truck driver, prime minister or a farm labour, corporate executive or a police constable – if you had a child, she would go to the neighbourhood public-funded school. Period. There was no choice. Now, this explained the people’s solidarity. This was so since the quality of education received by everybody’s children was going to be equally but negatively affected by the two political decisions taken by the provincial government. All citizens of Ontario had a common political stake in maintaining the quality of the public-funded school system.

An entirely contrary scenario was witnessed in Bhopal in February 2008. About 30,000 lowly paid under-qualified and untrained para-teachers appointed in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’s (SSA) 27,000 odd Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) centres of Madhya Pradesh were on strike. Euphemistically called guruji, they were demanding regularization as teachers after several years of service. Each year they would go on strike to draw state government’s attention but to no avail. This time, however, realizing the significance of the election year, the guruji union decided to intensify its battle. In the beginning, the gurujis sat at the usual dharna site and were ignored. The gurujis then shifted their dharna to block one of the roads leading to a high profile market serving the upcoming middle class of the city. There was a hue and cry. The media openly criticized the state government – mind you, not for the closure of 27,000 centres in tribal, dalit and other backward hamlets but for its inability to keep the access to the market open. Not a word of sympathy was uttered by anyone – not even by the political leaders – either for the loss of studies suffered by 7-8 lakh poor children or the discriminatory treatment given to the gurujis.

What else would you expect? None of those who shop in the high profile Bhopal market, including the political leaders residing in the state capital, send their children to government schools, least of all to the inferior quality single-teacher EGS centres of SSA. Neither the powerful IAS and IPS officials nor the media personnel have any stake in the government school system. Even more deafening was the silence of the teachers’ unions. The neo-liberal policy decisions taken in the second half of 1990s had fragmented the teachers’ cadre into six categories – the regular teachers (declared by the then CM as “a dying cadre”), Shikshakarmis, three separate cadres of Samvida Shikshaks (i.e. contract teachers) and finally the lowly gurujis. Each cadre fought its battle separately, holding dharnas at different times of the year. Apart from this division of teachers’ voice, the irony is that the teachers themselves have no stake in the parallel layers of schools they teach in since their own children also go to private schools!

The Great Escape : Loss of a Common Political Stake
The government, kowtowing to the World Bank policies, has established a multi-layered school system from the mid-eighties onwards, each layer with its own teachers’ cadre and meant for a separate social segment.* This led to rapid deterioration of the quality of government schools during the past 15 years as all the privileged sections of society, with any political voice or lobby worth the name, shifted their children to private schools. The creamy layer among the SCs, STs, OBCs and muslims, by and large, also followed suit. Today, the multi-layered government school system has only the weakest, mostly the marginalized dalits, tribals, extreme OBCs and muslims, particularly girls in each of these sections of society. The only exception to this phenomenon is the miniscule number of elite schools like the Kendriya or Navodaya Vidyalayas of the central government and similar high profile schools set up by various state governments. Education has become a commodity, rather than an entitlement or a Fundamental Right. Those who can afford to buy education do and those who can’t are compelled to accept the government system. Unlike Canada, there is no common political stake in the nation’s education system. Even the Members of Parliament and state legislatures have hardly any interest left in the government system in spite of voting budget allocations or cuts therein year after year.

Few realize that, like Canada, other G-8 nations also have a well-functioning public-funded school system built on the principle of neighbourhood schools. This is particularly true for the USA, France, Germany and Japan, though neo-liberal policies are steadily making inroads in these countries too. Without a Common School System in some form or another, none of the developed nation would have reached where they are today. This includes U.K. which earlier boasted of its privileged grammar schools but had to move towards an inclusive Comprehensive Schools System under rising democratic pressure in the 1970s which did away with selection for admissions. What is true for the G-8 nations is also true, by and large, for the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, China, South Korea, Cuba and former members of the Soviet Union - all of which achieved almost universal school education decades ago. This success transcends ideological history or present economic persuasion. Can India hope to be an exception to this historical experience?

We were also moving towards a Common School System (CSS) until mid-1970s. The only aberration was a handful of the so-called Public Schools, designed in the elite English tradition, serving the top echelons of the Indian privileged classes. A substantial proportion of the people of that generation who are still leading national institutions in various critical sectors had received quality education in either government, local body or private but government-aided schools. It was around this time that the elite and upper middle class started shifting to private unaided fee-charging schools, primarily in pursuit of English-medium education and competition-based and career-oriented curriculum. No one can blame this section of society since the government policies had failed to establish the relevance of either the Indian languages or the prevailing school curriculum for entry into civil services, judiciary, business or industry, S&T, and professional services. This “great escape” is precisely what triggered the decline of the quality of one of the world’s largest public-funded school systems (a total of 12 lakh schools today).

The crisis was foreseen by the Education Commission (1964-66), popularly called the Kothari Commission, which recommended CSS as the National System of Education with a view to “bring the different social classes and groups together and thus promote the emergence of an egalitarian and integrated society.” The Commission warned that “instead of doing so, education itself is tending to increase social segregation and to perpetuate and widen class distinctions.” It further noted that “this is bad not only for the children of the poor but also for the children of the rich and the privileged groups” since “by segregating their children, such privileged parents prevent them from sharing the life and experiences of the children of the poor and coming into contact with the realities of life. . . . . . also render the education of their own children anaemic and incomplete.” Both the 1968 and 1986 policies resolved to move towards CSS.

Common School System : Defining, Debating and Discourse Building
There are three confusions regarding CSS that are deliberately created by the powerful private school lobby, neo-liberal ideologues and the representatives of the global market forces. First, CSS is misperceived as a uniform school system. On the contrary, it is the present education system that follows a rigid curricular and pedagogic framework circumscribed by Boards of Examination and now international affiliations. All this has worked against children’s natural attributes such as creativity, curiosity, questioning, dissent or tendency to explore and chart new paths. It reinforces compulsion, comparison and competition that restrict options, academic freedom, co-operation and team functioning. Such a framework pushes children to adopt dishonest and immoral practices in exams. The 11th Plan is talking of using secondary education for building skilled labour force for the global market. This means even greater regimentation rooted in a mechanistic approach. Modern educational theory, however, expects each school or a cluster of schools to be able to respond to the local contexts and reflect the rich diversity across the country. The rigidity of the present system can be challenged only when flexibility, contextuality and plurality are accepted, among others, as the defining principles of CSS. Indeed, it should certainly be possible to conceive of a national system wherein, in principle, no two schools shall be identical and each will be known for its unique conception of quality, albeit within a broad national curriculum framework. In this sense, CSS can be visualized as the most urgently needed reform.

Second, CSS is irrationally projected as one that acts against quality, talent and merit. On the contrary, it is the present system based upon paying capacity, privileges and false sense of superiority that has alienated the most powerful sections of society from the government schools system, if not from Bharat itself! As a consequence of this “great escape”, the government school system has lost its voice of advocacy at the highest fora. Political leadership, corporate executives, academia, professionals, writers and the media personnel have no vested interest left in the improvement of the quality of government schools. Further, the neo-liberal Structural Adjustment Programme imposed on the Indian economy since 1991 has resulted in steady withdrawal of resources from the education sector, expressed as percentage of GDP. This has led to a policy of ‘multi-track’ education system based upon poor infrastructure, multi-grade teaching and para-teachers. It has meant exclusion of at least two-thirds of our children from quality education, thereby suppressing their inherent potential for contributing to social or national development. Less than a third of nation’s genetic pool is available for talent and merit development.

Third, it is wrongly claimed that CSS will not permit a privately managed school to retain its non-government and unaided (or aided) character. Again, CSS implies that all schools – irrespective of the type of their management, sources of income or affiliating Boards of examinations – will participate and fulfill their responsibility as part of the National System of Education. All what is expected of such schools is that they operate within the framework of the Constitution and function as genuine neighbourhood schools. With 86th Constitutional Amendment, ‘free and compulsory’ elementary education has become a Fundamental Right. This means that the very notion of fees or other contingent charges, at least until class VIII, have become anti-Constitutional! The Constitution has liberal space for philanthropy but not for commodification of education.

The Neighbourhood School and Other Essentials of CSS
Further, the CSS based on neighbourhood schools implies a heterogeneous classroom representing the diversity (along with disparity) prevailing in the neighbourhood. Only then, all sections of society, including the post powerful, will have a vested interest in improving the government school system. The neighbourhood school needs to be envisioned as a common public space where children of diverse backgrounds can study and socialize together. This is a pre-condition in a society like ours for forging a sense of common citizenship without which a healthy democracy can not function. Also, can there be a Fundamental Right to education of unequal and inferior quality education? Let me go a step further. The 86th Constitutional Amendment (2002) inserted a new Article 21A in Part III of the Constitution that made ‘Free and Compulsory education’ a Fundamental Right for the 6-14 age group children. Does the Constitution permit a Fundamental Right to education that violates the principles of equality and social justice enshrined in Articles 14, 15 and 16? Naturally, not. Given this, do we have any option other than the CSS based on neighbourhood schools that will be in conformity with the vision of education emerging from the Constitution?

The present school system structurally promotes discrimination. May be an example would be helpful here. The teachers of the government schools are pulled out of the schools frequently on a variety of non-teaching assignments, ranging from counting sheep and conducting Below Poverty Line Survey to organizing elections and doing the decennial Census. This implies colossal loss of teaching days. More importantly, this makes the teacher cynical about her profession and gives a misleading political message that everything else is important other than teaching children. In contrast, the private school children do not suffer any such loss. In a way, we can say that the poor children going to government schools sacrifice their education in order to sustain democracy in India and build a data base for social development and economic planning. This discrimination against government school children (almost 90% of the children enrolled at the elementary stage) will come to a halt only when the children of the ruling elite will start going to the government schools.

Let us also realize that any attempt to introduce curricular or pedagogic reforms, as the NCERT attempts to do periodically, in a hierarchical system is bound to increase discrimination and exclusion. The collapse of World Bank’s District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) in the nineties and now of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) provides historic evidence of this common sense thumb rule. Such arbitrary and temporary schemes or projects have no relevance to the crisis of education faced by the nation. This is because these schemes are not even designed to bring about any basic structural reforms that would open up space for re-construction of the endangered relationship between the child, the teacher and the curriculum. This is precisely why these schemes have failed to achieve their declared objectives. Nothing short of a radical transformation is required to move forward.

Let us briefly list eight essential conditions for building the CSS that will apply equally to the government-run elite schools and the private unaided schools:

All schools to be neighbourhood schools with a defined neighbourhood. Diversity would be optimized while delineating the neighbourhood.

All schools to fulfill a set of minimum Norms and Standards with respect to the infrastructure, teacher quality and status, pupil:teacher ratio, non-teaching staff, potable water, electricity and telephone, toilets, supporting systems for the disabled, teaching aids, ICT facilities, library and laboratory, playground and play equipment, facilities for fine arts and performing arts, curriculum and pedagogy and all other parameters for ensuring quality education.
As per Article 21A of the Constitution, all schools to provide absolutely Free education from nursery stage to Class VIII. As per Article 41 and its interpretation by the Supreme Court’s Unnikrishnan Judgment (1993), the government to regulate the fee structure of all schools, especially the private unaided schools, from Class IX to XII, preventing profiteering, parking of funds and income tax evasion.

All schools to follow the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) that would be reviewed from time to time. NCF will define a core curriculum that would be common to all schools except that the regional diversity will be appropriately reflected in the elements of the Core Curriculum. Apart from the core, there will be ample latitude and flexibility in the rest of the NCF to design curriculum at the level of the states, districts, Blocks or even the village panchayats in accordance with the local socio-cultural milieu, provided the broad principles of NCF are maintained. This would make it possible to institutionalize a decentralized practice of designing of curriculum, syllabi, textbooks, teaching-learning process and assessment such that the process would appropriately reflect the rich geo-cultural diversity of the country while maintaining a balance with the concepts critical for developing a national and global vision. The above framework also provides adequate space for curricular innovation, experimentation and even dissent at the level of the individual schools, teachers and students.

A common policy of language education founded on the principle of multi-lingualism of the vast majority of India’s children and the mother tongue’s critical role in the learning process, including the learning of the state/UT language as well as Hindi and English.

The curriculum, pedagogy, textbooks and the school ambience to ensure that no child feels excluded or marginalized due to the presentation of SCs, STs, extreme OBCs, minorities and the disabled and the women in each of these sections in a negative image. Inclusive education implies that the contribution made by all sections of society to the freedom movement and to the building of the post-independence India is appropriately brought alive in the school.

Critical Pedagogy to guide the transformation of the present multi-layered hierarchical school system into the CSS based on neighbourhood schools, since the CSS implies much more than a structural change; it implies an education that liberates the child’s mind, enabling her to resist injustice, deconstruct capitalism and neo-liberalism and struggle for social transformation.
Each school to have a management committee of its own, with at least 75% of the members being the parents of the children attending the concerned school; SCs, STs, OBCs and the minorities to have proportionate representation; and half of the members to be women. The functions and duties of the committee to be well-defined through a law.

If the above concept of the CSS and neighbourhood schooling requires a legislation by the Parliament, then this must be made into an urgent issue of a nation-wide political struggle. In light of the long-delayed Right to Education Bill, it may be worthwhile to seek to redraft the Bill with a vision of systemic transformation for building the CSS based on neighbourhood schools (see my article in TEHELKA, 14th June 2008).

Concluding Remarks
To be sure, there are powerful forces trying to divert public attention from the Common School agenda through clever devices. These include private schools running ‘afternoon centres’ for the poor, 25% reservation provision in the Draft Right to Education Bill 2008 for poor children of the neighbourhood in private schools and now the 11th Plan proposal of school vouchers and public-private partnership for backdoor funding of private schools out of public funds. These are ways of justifying and legitimizing the present exclusionary system. We have to also learn to identify and resist the market fundamentalists and neo-liberal consultants in the academia, media, policy making and their fellow-traveller NGOs who are working overtime to push the neo-liberal ideology in Indian education system in particular and the economic and democratic life in general.

The struggle for equality in and through education can’t be delinked either from the struggle for jal-jangal-zameen and jeevika or from the struggle for social transformation. The evolving discourse on Common School System will also have to deal with the eternal question: Can such a radical systemic transformation in education take place without a socialist revolution? While we may not have a clear answer, an operating thesis may be debated. This may not be seen as the proverbial chicken and egg question. Instead, a dynamic relationship based upon dialectical materialism between educational and socialist transformation may be assumed for moving forward. Both are democratic struggles in which the participation of the masses is critical and must be advanced together. The impact of participation in these struggles on the critical consciousness of the people must not be under-estimated.

This then provides a preliminary framework for developing a pedagogy of reconstruction of socio-economic and democratic institutions in the country. This includes the educational system. While debating theories and building strategies, we need to have clarity on the basic issue. By postponing the Common School System functioning through neighbourhood schools, we would only postpone giving every child an equal opportunity to fully develop her potential for knowledge acquisition, internalisation of humane and democratic values and, above all, articulation of her own vision of India. The reference to articulation of child’s vision implies a socio-political construction contoured by Critical Pedagogy, even if the vision conflicts with today’s so-called ‘mainstream’ vision rooted in class, caste, cultural, linguistic, regional and patriarchal hegemony, increasingly reinforced by neo-liberalism. All this is essential groundwork for political struggle. We may re-iterate, even if not over-emphasise, that the Common School System is the only educational framework known to us which will enable us to forge a sense of common citizenship to wage a united struggle for a democratic, socialist, egalitarian and secular society.

27 May 2008

E-8/29, Sahkar NagarBhopal 462 039, India
Tel.: (0755) 2560438 / Mo.: 9425600637 / Email: anilsadgopal@yahoo.com
#Published in JANATA magazine, Vol. 63, No. 19, 01 June 2008, Mumbai, India.

* Mr. Anil Sadgopal is my friend.