India: The cycle of violence

The shameless impunity of the power fuels the cycle of hatred that endangers India. Which is why it is essential to implement the recommendations of enquiry commissions, however late they may be.

by Antara Dev Sen
Deccan Chronicle, 26 November, 2009

 

It has been exactly a year since the horrific terror attacks in Mumbai that killed at least 170 and wounded the entire nation. Never again, we roar in desperate anger. The guilty must be punished, we scream. And a year later we have Force One, a special counter-terror unit on the lines of the National Security Guard, in place in Mumbai. The trial of Kasab goes on, the exasperating dialogue continues with Pakistan about “proof” and its tangible and philosophical dimensions. Meanwhile, we have also embarked on the Headley chase.

The 26/11 attacks were certainly the most dramatic in our recent history — especially since they played for almost three days on live television, and happened largely in luxury hotels, shocking the privileged classes into the realisation that they too are vulnerable. But the attacks were in no way an isolated event — these belonged to a larger terrorscape that took shape over two decades as sectarian polarisation laid us open to hate attacks and counterattacks and plunged us into a murderous cycle of violence. And this week we are revisiting perhaps the biggest fountainhead of that religious polarisation, with the Liberhan Commission’s report being tabled in Parliament.

Almost 17 years ago to the week, the Babri Masjid was demolished by Hindutva forces with the blessings of the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership. The ground had been prepared by L.K. Advani’s rath yatra in 1990 and with the destruction of the mosque, the dominance of politicised Hindutva over other religions, as well as over certain constitutional guarantees, was established. “The state had become a willing ally and co-conspirator in the joint common enterprise to announce the revival of a rabid breed of Hindutva, by demolishing the structure they had denounced as a symbol of Islam”, states the report. And it took 17 long years just to place before the country the facts of the event as found by this enquiry commission set up 10 days after the demolition on December 6, 1992.

Such a long wait just for the facts defies the very purpose of an enquiry and the hope of justice. Several of the accused are now dead. And the rest may never be punished. For with every passing year we have lost eyewitnesses, individual memory, official documents and trust in the secular fabric of India. With every passing year the polarisation between Hindus and Muslims has hardened, making us more vulnerable to terrorism both from within the country and beyond its borders. Once the cycle of violence is established, any spark can set off the next attack.

Especially when there is no justice in sight. What passes as spontaneous fury is usually a response to the spectacular failure of governance and law. The Mumbai riots in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition left at least 1,000 dead and almost 3,000 wounded in two phases of bloodshed. Then the retaliatory bomb blasts in March 1993 killed another 300 and left about 1,000 wounded. The Srikrishna Commission’s report on the 1992-93 Mumbai riots still remains unimplemented and the guilty remain unpunished.

This shameless impunity of the powerful fuels the cycle of hatred that endangers India. Which is why it is essential to implement the recommendations of enquiry commissions, however late they may be.

Justice Liberhan’s report mentions the guilty in clear and precise terms, holding 68 people individually culpable. We need proper action against them, at least against those still alive. It is criminal to spend crores of the taxpayers’ money on a report if its recommendations are not implemented.

But the report gives recommendations beyond its mandate. And this, I believe, was most important. There is hardly anything in the report about the day’s events that we — except perhaps the post-Babri generation — did not know. The report vindicates those truths that were in danger of being erased by organised lies.

And it also points out other things that we know, but still need to see in official recommendations. Like, it hits out against the cosy nexus between politicians, the police, bureaucrats and other power-mongers: “The nexus between the politicians, religious leaders, civil servants and the police officers should be disrupted and rooted out”. It suggests police reform, which has been identified repeatedly by commissions and individuals as the primary step to improve both security and governance.

The report also comes down heavily on the misuse of religion for political gain. It suggests a “separate law providing exemplary punishment for misuse of religion, caste, etc for political gains” — and the government has accepted the recommendation. The government is thinking of the Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, and will set up special courts, they said. And it promised to expedite the hearing of three cases registered in connection with the Babri Masjid demolition.

In the same thread of thought, Justice Liberhan’s report suggests that the Election Commission must ensure that any complaint by any Indian citizen about “attempts to misuse religious sentiments” for the sake of votes would be dealt with immediately and could result in the candidate’s disqualification. It has also recommended that members of the civil and police services are periodically screened to “identify and weed out the communal or biased elements”.

Curiously, it has also asked for a body to regulate media with a permanent tribunal, in the lines of the Medical Council or the Bar Council. Given that neither the councils mentioned have managed to contain either corruption or negligence among the members of their respective professions, I am not sure that this will have much effect. But the report does mention the very important role played by the media in reporting the truth, braving considerable danger and harassment by the Hindutva fanatics.

In short, Justice Liberhan has indeed offered a rather comprehensive and balanced report. Let’s hope it will not go the way of the Srikrishna Commission report — tucked away and forgotten. For unlike other enquiry commissions, the Liberhan Commission investigated the original sin — the demolition of the Babri Masjid that is till today the reference point of all incidents of sectarian strife and any violence that may have sectarian elements.

What happened on December 6, 1992 made India less safe. And by not punishing the guilty we have continued to make India more dangerous for us all. At least now that we have a formal report and recommendations, hopefully the government will take appropriate action. The guilty need to be punished, the flaws in the system need to be corrected if we really want a safer and more secure India.

* Antara Dev Sen is editor of The Little Magazine.

Telegraph Report on Intelligence official in Sahmat net

TelegraphIndia 12 Sept, 2009 

‘Spy’ who got caught- Intelligence official in Sahmat net

ANANYA SENGUPTA

New Delhi, Sept. 12: A “spy” sat staring at his polished shoes locked up in the small office of cultural group Sahmat for almost an hour today, after hamhanded snooping blew his cover and gave a telling insight into the working of the Intelligence Bureau.
“I am an FCRA (foreign contribution regulation) official and am here on official duty,” Praveen Sharma (name changed) insisted, fidgeting with his phone.
But Rajendra Prasad, the Sahmat member he had first approached with the introduction and a long list of queries, was not buying this any more. He had called police.
Sahmat, set up in January 1989 after actor, poet and political and street theatre activist Safdar Hashmi was killed performing a play 20km from Delhi, brings together a cross-section of people to defend democracy and freedom of expression.
In white T-shirt and grey pants, the bespectacled Sharma had walked into its office posing as an FCRA official under the home ministry.
“He wanted to know every detail of the organisation, and I gave it to him. I didn’t even ask for his identity card. He initially started with who the members of the organisation were and also details of the kind of work we do. He asked me if Sahmat took foreign funds for their work, and when I said no, he said if I was offered, would I take it? I had no problems answering those questions,” Prasad said.
Then he named two people, who he said were connected with the Maharashtra blasts, and asked me if I knew them. I realised he was asking me if our group had connections with terrorists. That’s what made me suspicious. I asked for his identity card and he just flashed some card at me. I asked him which blasts he was talking about, and he couldn’t even answer that,” the Sahmat member said.
Soon, Sharma had been locked up and the police called.
“It’s the recent blasts in Maharashtra,” Sharma said in answer to this correspondent’s question as he tried to contact his bosses.
So where was his office? Sharma didn’t remember.
When the police arrived, the mystery was solved. “He is with the Intelligence Bureau and it was his mistake that he barged into Sahmat’s office and intimidated them. Sahmat can officially register a case if they want,” the Parliament Street SHO, Vijay Chandel, said before the police took him away.
It is not uncommon for officials of the Intelligence Bureau, the country’s internal spy agency, to make discreet enquiries about organisations. But to go about it as Sharma did provides a clue perhaps to the intelligence failures blamed for blast after blast.
“What’s completely unacceptable is that at the time of the incident, there were two artistes in the room — young women, one from Pakistan and the other a Bangladeshi, who are in the country for an international art workshop. He made such a fuss about their nationalities that they ran away from the spot,” said photographer Ram Rahman.

Myths about Urdu

Urdu means different things to different people. It is only by separating the myth from reality that we can appreciate its true nature.

by Tariq Rahman
dawn.com, 26 November 2009

‘Modern Hindi was created by weeding out Persian and Arabic words and using only the Devanagari script for writing. These new languages, Sanskritised Hindi and Persianised Urdu, drifted apart from each other and still serve as identity markers for Hindu and Muslim nationalism in South Asia.’

Pick up any Urdu textbook and the chances are that it will endorse the following myths: (a) the term ‘Urdu’ means military camp. Our language is called ‘Urdu’ because it was created in the army camps of the Mughals especially during the reign of Shah Jahan; (b) Urdu is a mixed language (khitchri zubaan); © Urdu is a Muslim language.

Now let us deal with these myths one by one.

All the histories in Persian about medieval India use the Turkish word ‘Urdu’ (which means ‘camp’ in original Turkish) for ‘city’. The word is not used in the original Turkish meaning in Indian sources in Persian for the most part. Sometimes the terms ‘Urdu-i-mualla’ and ‘Urdu-i-badshahi’ are also used. During Shah Jahan’s time, Urdu-i-mualla referred to the language spoken in the city of Shahjahanabad (Delhi).

The language we now call Urdu has an ancestor referred to as Hindvi and Hindi in most medieval Persian sources. In Gujrat, however, the language is called Gujri and sometimes Gujrati. In the Deccan it is called Dakani and around the Delhi area it is also called Dehlavi. During the 18th century the word ‘Rekhta’ was also used for it.

Meanwhile the British, and also some other outsiders, call it Indostan, Moors and then Hindustani. In fact, the name ‘Hindustani’ was used so much by the British that both Muslim and Hindu scholars often used it themselves for their common heritage during the 1930s and 1940s.

Syed Sulaiman Nadwi and some other thinkers who wanted Hindu-Muslim unity in British India even suggested that the term ‘Urdu’ be abandoned in favour of ‘Hindustani’ because the former conjured up the image of a military conquest and war whereas the latter had no such symbolic baggage.

The word ‘Urdu’ is a contraction of the phrase ‘zubaan-i-Urdu-i-mualla’ (i.e. the language of the exalted city) which came to be used during the late 18th century. It is, in fact, the most recent name for a language which certainly existed even in the 13th century. There are words and sentences which we can recognise even today in the malfuzat (sayings) and tazkiras (biographies) as well as other records of that period. They refer to the language used in the marketplace, songs, conversation and in homes. The military reference does not exist though the language must have been used among soldiers also.

It was certainly used in religious circles because even in far-off Kaniguram in Waziristan, a religious reformer called Bayazid Ansari wrote a book called Khairul Bayan in 1560 which has over 16 lines in this language which the author calls Hindi.

Now for the myth that Urdu is a mixture of other languages. If a language is really a mixture it is called pidgin which is nobody’s mother tongue and a reduced language. It may become a creole when it is developed and becomes somebody’s mother tongue.

Urdu’s ancestor — call it what you will — existed in India (probably in the vicinity of Delhi) as a full language. Words of Persian and Arabic origin crept into it. This was not because of military activities but ordinary everyday interaction.

This is a natural process and modern English came about in exactly this manner. That is why about half the vocabulary of English is from Latin and Greek via Norman French. But English is not called a ‘mixed language’ so why should Urdu be stigmatised as such?

If one starts calling languages mixed in the sense that there was no base for them and words from different languages combined then Urdu is not that kind of product. Urdu is mixed in the same way that English is: it has absorbed words from many languages. The third myth that Urdu is a Muslim language is more problematic. For about 500 years of its existence nobody called it Urdu. It was called Hindi and had many words of Sanskrit origin as do other texts — until the 18th century.

Then a language reform movement initiated by Muslim poets (Hatim, Mirza Mazhar, Nasikh’s students etc) threw out certain words from the corpus of the language. Among them were words like chinta (worry), prem (love), sundar (beautiful) etc. The movement was actually an attempt to create a linguistic marker for the cultural elite which was mostly Muslim. However, instead of being merely a class movement it became a religious one. Thus, Urdu was imbued with distinctive Perso-Arabic cultural content and served as an identity symbol for the Muslims of India.

In the same way, after 1802, modern Hindi was created by weeding out Persian and Arabic words and using only the Devanagari script for writing. These new languages — Sanskritised Hindi and Persianised Urdu — drifted apart from each other and still serve as identity markers for Hindu and Muslim nationalism in South Asia.

During the Pakistan Movement, Urdu became a symbol of the identity of South Asia’s Muslims. It was invested with emotional force and Maulvi Abdul Haq, who used to term it a composite language while in India, started calling it the mainstay of Muslim separatism.

Similarly, Sanskritised Hindi became the symbol of the attempt to eliminate the share of Muslims in Indian culture. This political gulf between the two sister languages remains to this day — although at the spoken level, Urdu and Hindi remain the same language as all Indians who watch Pakistani dramas and all Pakistanis who watch Hindi movies will testify.

However, while Pakistani Muslims insist that Urdu is a Muslim language, the Muslims of India refer to it as a composite language. This is because it is in the political interests of Pakistani Muslims to emphasise the differences between themselves and the Indians while the opposite is in the political interests of Indian Muslims.

In short, Urdu means different things to different people. It is only by separating the myth from reality that we can appreciate its true nature.

Full text of the Liberhan Ayodhya Commission of Enquiry Commission Report

This is the full text of the 1029-page report of the Liberhan Commission, which was tabled in Parliament on Nov. 24, 2009.

Liberhan Commission Report (FullReport)

Click to Download from The Hindu Archive  Single file (PDF) - 80 mb

To facilitate easier downloads, the report is available in five parts below (in PDF):

http://beta.thehindu.com/multimedia/archive/00014/Liberhan_Report_Part_14078a.pdf

Liberhan Report - Part 1 (22.6 Mb)

http://beta.thehindu.com/multimedia/archive/00014/Liberhan_Report_Part_14079a.pdf

          Liberhan Report - Part 2 (21.2 Mb)

http://beta.thehindu.com/multimedia/archive/00014/Liberhan_Report_Part_14080a.pdf

          Liberhan Report - Part 3 (22.7 Mb)

http://beta.thehindu.com/multimedia/archive/00014/Liberhan_Report_Part_14081a.pdf

Liberhan Report Part 4 

http://imc-usa.org/files/Liberhan_Report_Annexures.pdf

Liberhan Report - (Annexures)

Act Now on The Liberhan Commission Report - ANHAD

It was essentially an attack on Indian constitution & the plural-democratic fabric of the nation. And from there it began the process of erosion of secular-democratic values

Wednesday 25 November 2009,
ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy)  Release

The Liberhan Commission have brought to our attention once again the real forces behind one of the biggest tragedies of Independent India. It has now become clear from Liberhan Commission’s work that the demolition was not an act of spontaneous anger as claimed by the communal forces. It was a well planned crime coordinated by RSS and executed by different progeny of RSS. The political leaders, some of whom were trying to hide behind different shields stand completely exposed as far as there role in the demolition was concerned. In this meticulously planned attack leaders line Vajpayee, Advani, Joshi, Kalyan Singh etc. played their part assigned by their controller the, RSS.

Whatever be the motives of the leak, which it self may be a planned one by some political forces, it is once again clear that rather than debating the issue, mulling over the truth coming out, BJP adopted its usual method of disrupting the proceedings of Lok Sabha. It does not believe in proper discussion so every such time it resorts to the mayhem and the discussion is avoided. What becomes transparently clear is that the whole top leadership of ’BJP and company’ was involved and RSS, the organization expert in making the things opaque from public, had undertaken the demolition for political goals. RSS did go on to bring immense suffering to the nation through this demolition. In addition the mask of Vajpayee as the moderate political person also stands torn apart and the scheming, calculating politician, behind the mask stands exposed. Incidentally on 5th December Vajpayee did give some hint about the happenings of the next day.

The government needs to take this report with utmost seriousness as the demolition was not just a destruction of age old mosque, and archeological treasure of the country, but this act was essentially an attack on Indian constitution. It was also an attack on the plural-democratic fabric of the nation. It became a turning point of sorts, which changed the direction of politics and society in the adverse direction. Tragically this paved the way for communal forces to come to the center stage of the politics, this led to massive communal violence in Mumbai, Bhopal, Surat and other places, leading to the loss of over two thousand innocent people and the loss of over 10000 crores of social wealth. It demonized the minority community and began the process of erosion of secular-democratic values. Tragically this led to relegation of minorities to the status of second class citizens. It gave political muscles to the divisive forces, forces which have no faith in the values of Indian Constitution.

While the society at large needs to condemn the ideology of perpetrators of this act once again, it is also time to recapitulate that this was the same ideology which killed the father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi. While at social level we need to resolve to strengthen the values of Freedom movement and comprehensively reject the divisive politics being propagated by RSS and its progeny, it is also time that the demonization of minorities which got triggered due to this demolition needs to be fought against.

We fervently appeal to the Government to take urgent steps to punish the guilty of the demolition and the consequences which followed. Government must act with full strength and forthrightness to take political and legal steps against the culprits to ensure that the law of the land prevails and guilty are punished without any fear. Be it RSS top brass, be it BJP top leadership, starting from Vajpayee Advani to Joshi and other, be it the VHP leaders or the Bajrang Dal leaders, law must catch up with these criminals.

We demand

1. An urgent legal action against those indicted in the Liberhan Commission report.
2. We urge upon government to undo the damage done by communal forces to our mixed culture, to ensure the promotion of values of communal amity and national integration.
3. We also call upon the Government to reach the message of plural values to the society through different communication channels.

ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy)
 23, CANNING LANE
 NEW DELHI-110001
www.anhadin.com

Like we have Islamists, are there Brahminists too?

Mushrif a former DIG of Maharashtra police accounts in his book "Who killed Karkare?" Karkare’s death on the first night of the gunbattle with terrorists hints at the possibility that the secular Brahmin had big enemies among Brahminist supremacists. It reads though more like an instinctive conjecture than a well-grounded thesis.

by Jawed Naqvi
Dawn, 23 November 2009

S.M. Mushrif may have thrown up an important question which he believes will almost certainly be killed by the media.

He describes Hemant Karkare as a noble Brahmin and his detractors as Brahminists. It seems that Mushrif, a former DIG of Maharashtra police, admired Karkare for his avowed secularism like most Indian Muslims would swear by Pandit Nehru.

Nehru was a Kashmiri Brahmin who detested the obscurantist nationalism of those Brahmins who belonged to the RSS stable from Maharashtra.

The battle-lines between secular Brahmins, represented by Karkare, the fallen anti-terror police chief who was killed in last November’s terror attack in Mumbai, and Brahminist supremacists whom he was moving to neutralise, thus goes back a long way in history.

The Indian political class of all religions including their caste categories is essentially lined up behind these two opposite types of Brahmins – secularists and supremacists.

At least this is what Mushrif’s book about Karkare’s mysterious death suggests in its core thesis.

Mushrif’s account of Karkare’s death on the first night of the gunbattle with terrorists hints at the possibility that the secular Brahmin had big enemies among Brahminist supremacists. It reads though more like an instinctive conjecture than a well-grounded thesis.

The book ‘Who killed Karkare? The real face of terrorism in India’ accuses the all powerful Intelligence Bureau (IB) of representing Brahminist lobbies. And it says that India’s external spy agency RAW is relatively free of Brahminist influence.

This is a serious observation and it has come from someone who was once part of the system at a fairly high level. Should there be a debate at least about the character of these agencies, all the more because of the clout they seem to wield in the shaping of India’s national consciousness.

The Americans lionise the CIA and the FBI but they also keep very close tabs on what their agencies are up to. Revelations on Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib were examples of a healthy check placed on runaway and usually misplaced nationalist zeal.

Even in the Pakistani media, the ISI and other powerful state institutions are often put under public scrutiny. In the Indian media these institutions are either not discussed, or if they are treated like holy cows.

Mushrif has broken new ground by becoming the rare high-ranking police officer to put a sharp focus on an un-discussed subject. It is another matter that the book sounds a bit shrill in expressing its concerns, and there will be criticism, if the claims are not altogether ignored and hidden from public gaze.

Mushrif goes into history to make his point. Right or wrong, I believe it needs to be discussed, criticised but certainly not ignored.

According to Mushrif, the first pre-planned Hindu-Muslim riot was caused by Maharashtrian Brahminists of Pune in 1893. They did so to divert the attention of common Hindus from the reformist movement of Jyotiba Phule and others, which was sweeping the region in the last half of the 19th century. Is this a valid view that needs to be studied?

Mushrif lists 48 incidents connected with ‘terrorism of Brahminist organisations,’ As many as 35 were located in Maharashtra. ‘Though in some of the cases, common Hindu youths appear to be involved, a detailed enquiry into them would reveal that the Brahminists have been their masterminds.’

Mushrif says a recent conspiracy unearthed by Karkare to destabilise India’s constitutionally established democratic republic and to form a Brahminist Rashtra was hatched in Maharashtra and most of the accused persons, including the main alleged conspirator, Lt Col Purohit, were Maharashtrian Brahminists, as distinct from secular Brahmins.

Mushrif believes that Abhinav Bharat, an extremist group being investigated by Karkare when he was killed, was ‘the fountain of inspiration’ for anti-India terrorism. Its national president was Himani Savarkar ‘a staunch Brahminist and daughter-in-law of V.D. Savarkar’s brother, who hails from Maharashtra’.

Doubts are raised in the book about attacks blamed on Muslims. Mushrif thinks these were false flag attacks staged by Brahminists.

‘The Ahmedabad bomb blast and Surat unexploded bombs case of July 2008 had a Maharashtra connection, as the emails received by some TV channels minutes before the blasts were traced to New Mumbai. The vehicles used for the blasts were stolen from New Mumbai and passed through Talasari toll post in Thane district of Maharashtra, presumably by tampering the CCTV cameras installed at all the toll posts. Some of the unexploded bombs were found wrapped in Marathi newspapers.’

Mushrif’s accusations seem to be superficial but they are too serious to be ignored. That includes his claim that ‘the Brahminists in Maharashtra managed to give the investigation a totally different twist with the help of their brethren in the IB.’

Taking up a controversial encounter killing of two young alleged terrorists in the so-called Batla House raid in a Muslim locality in Delhi last year, Mushrif says the SIM cards of mobile phones found with the killed men were traced to Aurangabad district of Maharashtra.

‘The SIM cards were also found to have been used by the terrorists to contact somebody in Aurangabad. However, only a superficial enquiry has been made into the matter and no action has been taken against the real masterminds. If probed deep and taken to its logical end, it would expose a Brahminist connection.’

Clearly Mushrif would gain by writing with more care and he does lose valuable points by making charges that will be difficult to prove.

Mushrif quotes another incident to make the Brahminist link. ‘In the Kanpur explosion of August 2008, Maharashtra connections have been disclosed. In this case, two Bajrang Dal activists (Rajiv Mishra and Bhupinder Singh) had died while making explosive devices. The investigation revealed that they had plans for massive explosions in the minority-dominated Ferozabad, and that they had frequently called up on two mobile phones in Mumbai since two months before the blast. But the police have not yet been able to identify the persons concerned, apparently under the Brahminist-dominated IB.’

About the Mumbai attack of November 26, last year, Mushrif raises a key doubt. ‘During the Mumbai terror attack of 26/11, the mobile phones used by the terrorists who wreaked havoc at the CST Station have been traced to Satara District of Maharashtra. In whoevers’ name the SIM cards may stand, an in-depth investigation would lead the trail to Brahminist organisations and their leaders. But this matter has been frozen by the IB and the Crime Branch in Mumbai, for obvious reasons.’

The trouble with Mushrif’s book is that it is not so ‘obvious’ that he is essentially right on all his claims. But that could hardly be a reason to not take his perspective with a degree of seriousness that a fair fight against terrorism deserves.

25th Anniversary Bhopal Gas Tragedy 1984, 3 December 2009

Bhopal gas tragedy occurred on the night of 02/03 December 1984. However, neither the Government of India nor the Government of Madhya Pradesh seems to have drawn appropriate lessons from the gruesome tragedy. Instead, they have been pursuing such reckless policies that have the potential to create Bhopal-type situations at several places across the country

Invitation and appeal for funds

by Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Saghathan
Thursday 19 November 2009,

The 25 anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy, which occurred on the night of 02/03 December 1984, will be observed from 01 to 03 December 2009. However, neither the Government of India nor the Government of Madhya Pradesh seems to have drawn appropriate lessons from the gruesome tragedy. Instead, they have been pursuing such reckless policies that have the potential to create Bhopal-type situations at several places across the country. In fact, millions of citizens across the country have since been exposed to a verity of toxic substances at their place of work as well as from exposure to other hazardous materials that have been released into the environment by multinational companies and local industries.

It will not be exaggeration to say that these companies have been emboldened to act in such thoughtless manner because no action has been initiated against the culprits involved in the Bhopal gas tragedy in the last 25 years and there is no sign that any action would be initiated against them in the near future. Especially, the multinational companies seem to have drawn the inference that they can destroy the health and environment of this country without fear of being punished or ever held accountable in any way for their outrageous actions.

Even 25 years after the Bhopal disaster:

• The culprits responsible for the crime are yet to be punished.
• The gas-victims have not been awarded just compensation.
• 6000 gas-victims continue to seek medical treatment for disaster-related ailments.
• Scores of gas-victims continue to die due to lack of proper medical treatment.
• Government’s financial rehabilitation program has almost come to an end.
• No provision to provide pension to thousands of widows of gas-victims, orphans and other handicapped.
• Under environmental rehabilitation programme, the Government has failed to provide safe drinking water, toilets or clean environment to the needy gas-victims.
• Large quantities of toxic materials lying in and around the Carbide plant and toxic waste discharged into the Solar Evaporation Pond has leached into the ground and contaminated thousands of tones of soil and ground water near the plant in approximately 5 sq. km of area.
• The plan for a memorial for the victims of the of tragedy is still on paper.

Even after 25 years, Bhopal is the worst example of black deeds of multinational companies and government’s irresponsibility towards citizens. For many of the gas-victims, the situation is not very different from the day of tragedy. Till date, neither proper compensation has been awarded nor have appropriate arrangements been made for their treatment and rehabilitation. More than 25 thousand gas victims have apparently died so far due to the toxic effects of the gases while more than three lakh victims have been issued health cards to enable them to get continuous treatment for various disaster-related ailments. Instead of attempting to medically, economically and socially rehabilitate the gas victims, the Central and State governments are working against their own people and defending the interests of Union Carbide.

Moreover, the 1989 Bhopal Settlement between the Union of India and Union Carbide was based on assumption that only 3000 gas-victims had died in the tragedy and another 1,02,000 had suffered injuries in varying degree. However, the Claims Courts established by the Welfare Commissioner, Bhopal, has determined that there were in all 574,367 gas-victims including dead, which effectively meant that the magnitude of the dead and injured was at least FIVE times more than what was assumed at the time of the Settlement.

Criminal cases against Union Carbide and its accused officials are proceeding at a snail’s space and it is still before the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bhopal. Medical, economical and social rehabilitation work undertaken by the State and Central governments have been inadequate and far below the requirements.

Due to all these reasons BGPMUS has been continuously fighting for justice for the gas-victims for past 24 years. We are engaged in agitational work and as well as legal struggle in association with the Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahyog Samiti (BGPSSS) from the Supreme Court to the District Court. Now the legal struggle for enhancing compensation by a factor of FIVE has shifted to the Madhya Pradesh High Court at Jabalpur. BGPMUS needs at least Rupees Two Lakhs to organize 25 anniversary program and to carry on the legal struggle for justice.

BGPMUS, therefore, not only invites you to participate in the commemorative programme on the 25 anniversary of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy from 01 t0 03 December 2009 but also appeals to you for financial contributions to help us carry on our struggle.

You can help us by sending a bank draft or by sending a money order to the following address:

Abdul Jabbar
 Convener,
 Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udhyog Sangathan
 51, Rajendra Nagar,
 Bhopal — 462010
 Telefax: 0755 2748688, 2730241
 Email : swabhimankandra@rediff.com
 Mobile: 9406511720

25th Anniversary Program:
 01.12.09: Poster / Photo Exhibition 02.12.09: A full day Seminar organized by Jan Sangharsh
 Morcha on Terror of Multinational Companies at
 Yadgar Shahjahani Park, Bhopal. 03. 12.09: A public meeting at 11 am at Yadgar Shahjahani Park (In front of Sultania Zanana Hospital)

Invading the Secular Space

The 'living God' Satya Sai Baba got invited by the Maharashtra Chief Minister designate, Ashok Chavan to his official residence for blessings. There are many charges of sexual abuse by Sai baba. Magician of fame P.C. Sarkar also said his miracles have nothing to do with divinity but are mere magical tricks!

By Ram Puniyani
13/11/2009

Satya Sai Baba of Puthaparthi in his recent tour of Mumbai (Nov. 2009) was invited by the Maharashtra Chief Minister designate, Ashok Chavan to his official residence, Varsha, for blessing the house and for the associated puja (invocation). When criticsed for inviting the Holy Guru to his official residence he said that since he is a devotee of the Baba from last many decades it is a privilege for him. There are many other news items where state functionaries mark their presence for the programs of Gurus and Babas (God men).

As far as Satya Sai Baba is concerned he is regarded as the living God by his devotees, while he himself claims to be the reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi. This Sai Baba is also a miracle person and a spiritual Guru. His miracles have been exposed by the Rationalist Associations and his trick of producing Gold chain was brought up in the court, as production of gold is illegal. This case was not pursued for various reasons. There are many charges of sexual abuse by Sai baba. Magician of fame P.C. Sarkar also said his miracles have nothing to do with divinity but are mere magical tricks.

Use of official residence for such functions is in total violation of the secular constitution of the country where religion is a private matter of the individual and state functionaries can’t wear their religion on their sleeves in official capacity and in official places. Contrary to that norm, lately this norm is known more for its violation than by adherence to it. Gone are the days of Nehru when he could stand up and snub such actions by whosoever it is in the official capacity. Of course, Gandhi, Father of the nation and Nehru the architect of Indian state were no devotees of any Baba or Guru. Over a period of time such principles have been violated with impunity. Uma Bharati during her brief tenure as the Chief Minister ship of Madhya Pradesh converted her official residence in to a Gaushala (Cow shed) with saffron robed Sadhus forming the main residents of her official residence.

India has quite a broad fare of God men. There are Gurus, Sants, Maharajs, Acharyas and Purohits (clergy) in the main. Their role has been changing over a period of time. Last three decades seem to be the time of their major glory, with their presence in all spheres in a very dominating way. Their number has also proliferated immensely and while some of these are big players, Sri Sri Ravishankar, Baba Ramdeo, Asaram Bapu to name the few. There are hundreds of them scattered in each state. Many of them are working in close tandem with Hindu right, Swami Assmanand, Late Swami Laxmananad Sarswati, Narendra Mahraj etc. These are the one’s who have created their own niche with different techniques, while Shankarachayas,  are associated with the Mutts coming from historical times, the Akshrdham chain is also not very old a tradition. The Pramukh swamis (Chief Guru) of these temples wield enormous clout. One recalls Anand Marg came up during the decade of seventies and not much is hearing of that now.

Overall religiosity has been on the upswing and not many are protesting the promotion of blind faith by many such God men. The rational thought and movement is on the back foot and political leadership, social leaders, of many hues are bending over backwards to please these Babas, some of whom are also dispensing health and some of them claim to be looking into the crystal ball of future.

There is an interesting correlation between the coming up of adverse effects of globalization, rise in the anxieties and deprivations and the current dominance of God men. Many an interesting observations about these God men are there, the major one being the rise in alienation in last three decades along with the rising religiosity in the social space. Many a remarkable studies on this phenomenon are coming forth. One such is by a US based Indian scholar of repute, Meera Nanda. In her book, The God Market, she makes very profound observations. She points out that this rising religiosity is manifested in boom in pilgrimages and newer rituals. Some old rituals are becoming more rooted and popular. She sees a nexus between state-temple-corporate complexes also. Secular institutions of Nehru era are being replaced by boosting demand and supply of God market.

A new Hindu religiosity is getting deeply rooted in everyday life, in public and private spheres. The distinction between private and public sphere is getting eroded as the case of Sai Baba in Maharashtra Chief Ministers official bungalow shows. Hindu rituals and symbols are becoming part of state functions; Hinduism de facto is becoming state religion. Hindu religiosity is becoming part of national pride with the aspiration of becoming a superpower. She observes a trend of increased religiosity. In India there are 2.5 million places of worship but only 1.5 million schools and barely 75000 hospitals. Half of 230 million tourist trips every year are for religious pilgrimage. Akshardham temple acquired 100 acres of land at throw away price. Sri Sri Ravishanker’s Art of Living Ashram in banglore has 99 acres of land leased from Karnataka Government. Gujarat Govt. gifted 85 acres of land to establish privately run rishikul in Porbander. Most significantly Nanda argues that the new culture of political Hinduism is triumphalist and intolerant, while asserting to be recognized as a tolerant religion. While claiming to have a higher tolerance, its intolerance is leading to violence against minorities.

It is because of this that even if the BJP may not be the ruling party, the political class and other sections of state apparatus have subtly accepted Hindu religiosity and the consequent politics as the official one, and so the justice for victims of religious violence eludes them. The question is, can the struggle for justice for weaker sections also incorporate a cultural-religious battle against the blind religiosity and proactive efforts initiated to promote rational thought.

After Babri Demolition and Bombay's Riots - bitter battle for those who have sought a legalcourse of action

It has been 17 years since the Babri Masjid was demolished and Mumbai witnessed its worst communal carnage. It has been a bitter battle for those who have sought a legal course of action.

The long and winding road
by Meena Menon
The Hindu, 5 November 2009

— THE HINDU PHOTO ARCHIVES
RIOTERS HAVE NO RELIGION: A family tries to pick up what is left of the worst communal carnage Mumbai witnessed in the aftermath of the masjid demolition.

For Mukim Mumtaz Sheikh, 37, the Liberhan Commission and its report are not going to make any sense. He confessed to being too scared to testify before the Srikrishna Commission which investigated the communal riots in Mumbai after the Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992. He has no regrets as he believes that the people who testified before the Commission did not get justice in any case.

Mukim is a survivor in more ways than one. He has vivid memories of the riots in which his father died of suffocation and he barely escaped death. He has taken to photography recently and can be seen at all important political functions, a digital camera hanging around his neck. He has rods in his hand and it is difficult for him to drive. Mukim, who has studied till the tenth standard, was wary of his writing skills but now he runs his own paper, “Hindustan ki Awaz.” He is married with three children and has got on with life.

Slightly built, with wide eyes, he unravels a long and rather complicated story. In the second phase of riots in January 1993, chased by a mob he and his father ran across rooftops and seeing some of his neighbours in the mob, he extended his hand for help. What he got instead was an arm broken in three places. The mob robbed his watch, stripped off his shirt and dragged him to the main road and beat him up. When he regained consciousness, he does not know after how long, he found himself in what must have been a septic tank. His father was below him shouting for help. Soon his cries ceased. Some 30 hours later Mukim was rescued by a policeman, with whom he stays in touch in gratitude.
Promise not kept

He still has friends from his old locality. He is fond of his old home and he believes that rioters have no religion. He has left justice to Allah. It has been 17 years since the Babri Masjid was demolished and Mumbai witnessed its worst communal carnage which killed nearly a 1,000 people. While the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) keeps promising to implement the Srikrishna Commission report, there is every evidence to the contrary.

Unlike Mukim, Farooq Mapkar, a security guard who was injured in police firing at Hari Masjid on January 10, 1993, testified before the Srikrishna Commission. Seven people were killed when police barged into the mosque and fired. Mapkar’s is a long quest for justice which has still not ended. He was accused by the police of rioting and fought a case since 1993. He was only acquitted of all charges in February 2009. However, his persistence led to the first information report against the policemen being filed on 28 August 2006, 13 years after the offence.

Last year the Bombay High Court ordered a CBI inquiry into the Hari Masjid firing. While the State government had agreed to hand over the case to the CBI, the agency contended that it was not in a position to take it up because it was already overburdened with cases, among other reasons. Justices R.S. Mohite and F.I. Rebello of the Bombay High Court in their order of December 18, 2008, meticulously overruled the CBI objections and said that it is a primary duty of the State to ensure that no community should be left with the feeing that they have no forum to address their grievance or a feeling that the law is not uniformly applied to all its citizens. “We find that the action taken so far in this case is a matter of concern and requires urgent redressal,” the court said.

As the inquiry was in progress, in a surprising turn of events, on August 28, the Maharashtra government moved the Supreme Court and asked for a stay on the CBI investigation. The State contended that it had carried out a departmental inquiry against Nikhil Kapse, the policeman who was involved in the firing at Hari Masjid, and said the firing was not an indiscriminatory act. The apex court stayed the CBI investigation. For activists and lawyers fighting for Mapkar this was a final nail in the coffin. The Srikrishna Commission held that Kapse’s role in the entire incident was condemnable and he is guilty not only of unjustified firing but also of inhuman and brutal behaviour.

There are several petitions pending in the Supreme Court regarding the riots and one of them filed by lawyer Shakeel Ahmed relates to the involvement of 31 policemen named by Justice (retd) Srikrishna in his report. It has been a long and bitter battle for those who have sought a legal course of action. Advocate Yusuf Muchhala who has fought several cases, is quite convinced that the government is certainly not going to do anything about justice. Even the media has failed to keep the issue alive in the public consciousness.

While Mapkar has approached the Supreme Court, there was another setback. The Bombay High Court upheld a lower court order as just and legal and cleared the former Mumbai Joint Police Commissioner (crime), R.D. Tyagi, and eight other policemen accused of forcibly entering and killing nine people in another case, the Suleiman Usman Bakery firing, on January 9, 1993. This case was examined by Justice (retd) Srikrishna and he said, “the Commission is of the view that the story of the police does not inspire credence.”

Justice Mridula Bhatkar’s order of October 16 upheld that the trial judge has rightly observed that the firing in the Bakery was unnecessary. “Indeed it was a cruel and atrocious act on the part of the police. In the case of the communal riots, a humane and sensitive approach is expected,” she says. “However, it should be within the legal framework. Howsoever be the serious or heinous offence, an innocent cannot be put to trial,” the order continues. The court held there is no sufficient evidence against Tyagi and others that they either had common intention to murder the inmates in the Bakery or have committed or abetted the offence of criminal trespass.

The State government in 2001 had filed a case against 18 policemen, but nine of them, including Tyagi were discharged in 2003 by the trial court. Despite promises, the government did not appeal against the discharge. It was left to another victim of firing, Noorul Huda Maqbool Ahmed, a madrasa teacher near the bakery. It is now his turn again to approach the Supreme Court.

Lamb Allies with Wolf: Kerala Christian Group and VHP join Hands against illusory Love Jihad

It must be a real ingenuity of Sangh Parivar to rope in the Kerala Bishops Council to fight against the Love-Jihad, a word coined by their propaganda mill, a word which combines two words and converts them in to a tool to torment the lovers, in case the boy happens to be a Muslim and the girl a non Muslim. It is the latest tool to launch attack against Muslim minorities

By Ram Puniyani

08/11/2009

At a point of time there was a slogan by RSS combine, Pehle Kasai Phir Isai (First the Muslims then the Christians). And lo and behold that was the pattern of communal violence. First it began against Muslims and in the decade of 1990s Christians were also put on the chopping block. It must be a real ingenuity of RSS combine, popularly called Sangh Parivar to rope in the Kerala Bishops Council to fight against the Love-Jihad, a word coined by their propaganda mill, a word which combines two words and converts them in to a tool to torment the lovers, in case the boy happens to be a Muslim and the girl a non Muslim. It is the latest tool to launch attack against Muslim minorities.

The level of communalization of society and institutions can be gauzed from the fact that this ‘love-Jihad’ was taken to be something real not only by a section of society but also by the High courts. In its ruling the Karnataka High court, in the case of Sijalraj and Azghar, said that the facts had “national ramifications… concern security, besides the question of unlawful trafficking of women,”! So it ordered the Director-General and Inspector-General of Police to hold a thorough investigation into to ‘love jihad’. Pending that, the girl was asked to stay with her parents. Nothing can be more illegal and influenced by the propaganda prevailing in the society. How can the court ask the adult married girl to separate from her husband just because the disapproving parents have complained against the choice of husband made by her, a citizen of the country?

In a similar case earlier the Kerala High court while hearing the appeal from two parents passed a similar order. Two Hindu girls had eloped and got converted to Islam and planned to get married. The court stated that this marriage of girls to Muslims smacks of a systematic plan, related to trafficking of Hindu women. Kerala court also ordered the Police authorities to investigate this phenomenon. The police investigation showed that there is no such phenomenon as Love Jihad. The Karnataka state PUCL enraged by the decision of the court to send the girl to her parents is planning to knock the doors of Supreme Court.

The propaganda began by organizations like Shri Ram Sene etc. They spread the word that over 4000 Hindu girls have been lured into conversions. The propaganda was that the Muslim youth are receiving money to lure Hindu-Christian girls to convert them to Islam. As per this propaganda the Muslim youth are given a brief to lure the girls for which, they are provided with a lakh of rupees to buy mobile and a two wheeler. They are made to pretend to fall in love, to elope, to convert the girl to marry and to produce four children. This concoction has been aggressively propagated through various mechanisms.

This laughable, figment of imagination spread like wild fire and frightened the parents. Shri Ram Sene associates helped couple of girl’s parents to go to court. In one such case the girl was made to stay with her parents by the court order. The trajectory of many of these girls who initially state about their love for the boy and voluntary conversion, changes after they are forced to stay with here parents. Under a sort of emotional blackmail, some girls give in and later say that they were brain washed, shown a Jihadi CD and what not.

We have witnessed such inhuman acts in the form of propaganda in Gujarat in the wake of carnage, that Muslim boys are luring Adivasi girls. There Babu Bajarangi, who was also a major participant in carnage, formed a goon-gang. This gang attacked couples and forced them to separate if they belonged to different religions. All this is presented as defense of religion! We have the case of Rijwan Ur Rehman where Priyanka Todi, daughter of an affluent and powerful business magnate also turned around under emotional blackmail from parents and relatives. Later Rijwan Ur Rehman was forced to commit suicide. In all such cases the role of police, state machinery, has been totally against the spirit and provisions of law, the protectors of law acting to support the things totally against the law.

Such campaigns against inter-religion, inter-caste marriages are not only against the spirit of national integration they also aim to control the lives of girls in the patriarchal mode. In addition the bogey against a minority is whipped up to aid the divisive politics. It is a double bonus for divisive politics. Since in patriarchal norms women are regarded as property of man and are made to live in the control structure defined by men, such an issue rouses high emotions. Communal politics targets to subjugate Muslims and to promote patriarchal norms.  And for achieving this they have succeeded in roping in another victim minority to ally in the communal project. It kills so many birds in one stone.

The committed social organizations have a long list of issues related to women. In Kerala in particular the psychological problems of women are immense. Women all around are victims of gender discrimination. The social organizations falling under the trap in the name of Love Jihad need to wake up and address the real issues of women rather than becoming an ally in a communal project.

 

It is a pity that the courts rather than clamping on Khap Panchayats, which are taking arbitrary decisions to separate the couples marrying in the same gotra, rather than clamping on Shri Ram Sene’s and Babu Bajrangis, they are snubbing the girls for their choices and letting the anti Muslim tirade grow through another of a make believe myth, a falsity with dangerous portents.

One recalls that it was during the freedom movement, that different communities started interacting more and inter-religion, inter-caste, inter-region marriages started taking place. These are the cement for Indian nationalism. The propagators of Religion based nationalism, any way are against the Secular Indian Nation so this one more fabrication to intimidate the society!

Maoism’s other side

The Maoist comrades view all their actions as part of a revolutionary war. Blast after blast, Firings after firings... Is it true that Naxalite brutality is only an aberration?

by Dilip Simeon
'Hindustan Times, November 09, 2009

There are crimes of passion and crimes of logic.
— Albert Camus

Spokesmen of Maoist extremism have recently expressed regret for beheading a police officer and explained their actions as a defence of the oppressed. Their comrades’ brutality, they say, is an aberration. They cite instances of state violence to justify actions they claim are undertaken in self-defence. There is more to this than meets the eye. Maoist theory holds that India is a semi-colonial polity with a bogus constitution that must be overthrown by armed force. The comrades view all their actions as part of a revolutionary war. Their foundational documents declare armed struggle to be “the highest and main form of struggle” and the “people’s army” its main organisation. In war, morality is suspended and limits cast aside. War also results in something the Pentagon calls “collateral damage”. Is it true that Naxalite brutality is only an aberration?

On August 15, 2004, the Maoists killed nine persons in Andhra Pradesh, including a legislator, a driver and a municipal worker. On August 14, 2005, Saleema, 52, a cook in a mid-day kitchen in Karimnagar was beaten to death by Maoists for being a “police informer.” This was the second woman killed by them in a fortnight. A former Naxalite, Bhukya Padma, 18, was hacked to death in Marimadla village on July 30. On September 12, 2005, they slit the throats of 17 villagers in Belwadari village in Giridih. Landmine blasts in February 2006 killed 26 tribals and injured 50 in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh. The victims were returning from religious festivals, and some from anti-Naxalite rallies. Another blast on March 25 killed 13 persons.

Some of these killings may be incorrectly reported, some carried out by local cadre on their own. But the comrades clearly believe in political assassination. Moreover, the decisions to kill are taken in a shadowy realm wherein the fault of the victim is decided by whim. Truth and falsehood are dispensed with because the Party Is Always Right. Their targets have no chance of appealing for mercy, and no one will be punished for collateral damage. And all this is justified because the Maoists are at war — a circular argument, because whether or not we are at war is another whim.

But there is an elephant in India’s drawing room. Maoists openly defy the Constitution, which they say is a mask for a brutal order. Are not our mainstream parties equally contemptuous of the law? Why did the NDA regime try and do away with Schedule 5 of the Constitution that protects tribal lands from encroachment? Why is it still being violated? Is there not prima-facie evidence of politicians’ involvement in massacres in Delhi and Gujarat in 1984 and 2002? Why haven’t they been brought to justice? In 1987, 40 Muslims of Meerut were killed in custody. Why did the case take 18 years to come to court? The BJP and the Congress both supported the private army named Salwa Judum with disastrous consequences for Chhattisgarh’s population. Even the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court criticised the States’ recklessness. In 2007 the West Bengal government despatched an illegal armed force to crush its opponents in Nandigram. India’s rulers regularly protect criminals, and part of the public is complicit in this. Policemen in dereliction of duty get promoted. Mass murderers are hailed as heroes. Why are we addicted to double-standard?

Those who believe in virtuous murder are today calling upon the democratic conscience. Does democracy include the right to kill? Our left-extremists have changed the world for the worse. Along with right-wing radicals, they ground their arguments on passionate rhetoric and a claim to superior knowledge. Fighters for justice have become judge and executioner rolled into one — in a word, pure tyrants. Every killing launches yet another cycle of trauma and revenge. Will Francis Induvar’s son ever dream of becoming a socialist? Should not socialists hold themselves to a higher standard than the system they oppose?

Symbolism counts for a lot in Indian politics. If the Maoist party is interested in negotiations, I suggest a demand that will expose the hypocritical nature of our polity: ask the government to remove the portrait of VD Savarkar from the Central Hall of Parliament, placed there in 2003. If it cannot do that, ask it to place Charu Mazumdar’s portrait alongside. Why not? Both were extreme patriots. Both believed in political assassination, both hated Gandhi and both insisted that the end justifies the means.

My suggestion will meet with indignation. But the deep link between these two currents of extremism is the unutterable truth of Indian history. Hindutva is the Maoism of the elite. In 1969, an ultra-leftist Hindi writer penned a diatribe titled Gandhi Benakaab that praised Godse as a true son of India. In 42 years of activity, Naxalites hardly ever confronted the communalists; although to be fair, one ultra-left group in Punjab did combat the Khalistanis. The assassination of a VHP Swami in Kandhamal in August 2008 is the only example. The Maoists owned the crime, but the Sangh parivar vented its wrath upon Christian villagers. Thousands were displaced and over 30 were killed. The comrades were unwilling or unable to prevent the carnage.

Savarkar’s acolyte Nathuram Godse murdered Mahatma Gandhi. In 1969, the Justice Kapur Commission concluded that the conspiracy was hatched by Savarkar and his group. Sardar Patel said as much to Nehru in February 1948. If Savarkar deserves to be honoured by the Nation, so does Charu. Since the government is unlikely to accept either option, we may finally come to a debate about why one kind of political murder is anti-national, while the other is patriotic virtue.

Dilip Simeon is a Delhi-based historian

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Nowhere To Hide

Corporate connections with bureaucrats are now under a new scanner

 
by SHANTANU GUHA RAY
Tehelka Magazine

THE MILLS of God, it’s said, grind slowly — though nothing as slow as those of the Indian justice system. But when the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) takes note of something, its pace is fortunately faster. Troubled by the charges and counter-charges between the Ambani brothers, the PMO has directed the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to track what it calls increasing corporate interface with bureaucrats of various ministries.
“The charges have been far too many,” a senior PMO official told TEHELKA, referring to the recent trading of charges between the ministry of petroleum and natural gas (read Minister Murli Deora) and Anil Dhirubhai Ambani, who blamed the former for intentionally and deliberately misleading the PMO on the vexed issue of pricing of KG-basin gas. “The PMO has sought comments from the oil ministry,” the official further said.
Senior PMO officials say Prime Minister Manhohan Singh is personally keen to clean up the stables and has said such checks by the IB should not be restricted to the petroleum ministry, but spread across other crucial ministries like telecom, commerce and railways. What prompted this? Crucial to the decision was a series of letters the PMO received from various members of Parliament who said corporate interfacing with bureaucrats was becoming a problem. “The favourite route of the bureaucrats now is to work as consultants with the private sector, because they have to follow the mandatory two year cooling period,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
While the PMO awaits a detailed report from the IB, initial notes offered by the bureau have hinted at two senior petroleum ministry bureaucrats — Sunjoy Joshi and Swami Singh — joining Reliance Industries (RIL) after handling crucial government decisions for the company. “One [Swami] works as a consultant for RIL while the other [Sunjoy] is associated with Observer Research Foundation, a RIL-funded think tank,” says former Advocate General of India Virendra Bhatia, adding: “It is important to look into these issues.”
The Left MPs had recently raised the issue of increasing corporate influence in the ministries and how bureaucrats were routinely flouting government norms to switch to the private sector almost immediately after retirement. “They have an insight no one has and it could benefit the corporate sector. We, the Left parties, have raised this issue with the government,” says Sudhakar Reddy, Communist Party of India general secretary, who has been demanding a totally transparent bureaucracy.

Reddy further clarified that the move to petition the government was not to cause a roadblock to any interaction between ministries and the private sector, but to have a transparent regime so that a situation like the KG-basin crisis does not occur again. “For example, the government has announced plans for road shows to attract investment in the latest round of NELP. Wouldn’t it be an embarrassment if an investor flags an issue involving a top bureaucrat?”
So, while Ambani v/s Ambani grinds its way through the Supreme Court, the PMO has asked the IB to submit its report by the end of next month. Once that happens, it’s crunch time: will there be any action taken? No one knows that. The PMO is grinding fast, but will it also grind exceedingly small? •

WRITER’S EMAIL:
shantanu@tehelka.com
From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 33, Dated August 22, 2009