Established 1946 1 Pages 16 Price : Rupees Five

Vol. 73 No. 37 Narendra Modi’s Paradoxical Claim October 7, 2018 on the Legacy of Gandhi Babasaheb Ambedkar and Neoliberal Economic Reforms: Part II Ramachandra Guha Anand Teltumbde Mahatma Gandhi: The Great India has established a marches and fasts to protect the Communicator committee to commemorate next rights of the millions of Muslims Nikhil Chakravartty year’s 150th anniversary of the who had stayed in India. He insisted birth of the “father of the nation”, that “India does not belong to Hindus What Mahatma Gandhi Said to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Led alone”. He told his compatriots that Those Who Wanted Beef by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, even if Pakistan persecuted its Hindu Banned in India the members include politicians and Sikh minorities, India “would Bhagat Singh and Savarkar: across party lines as well as some be betraying the Hindu religion if Two Petitions that Tell Us foreign representatives, among we did evil because others had done the Difference Between them the Nobel laureates Desmond it”. His “basic creed” remained what Hind and Hindutva Tutu and Al Gore. Hailing Gandhi it had always been—“that India is as “India’s greatest gift to human- the home of Muslims no less than kind”, whose “name finds resonance of Hindus”. RSS Supremo’s Public Relations Exercise across the continents”, the committee The RSS, on the other hand, Ram Puniyani plans a year-long programme of believed that, with the creation of celebration, commencing on his Pakistan, there was no place any Editor : G. G. Parikh birthday, October 2, and ending on more for Muslims in India. Their Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain the same day in 2019. hatred of Gandhi emanated from Mr Modi’s bid to appropriate the organisation’s head, a polemical Managing Editor : Guddi Gandhi is paradoxical. The prime preacher named M.S. Golwalkar. Editorial Board : minister spent most of his formative In December 1947, as Gandhi B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali years in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak continued to campaign for inter- Sangh, a hardline Hindu organisation faith harmony, Golwalkar made a Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah which reviled Gandhi for allegedly speech in which he declared that Nandu Dhaneshwar, being too soft on Muslims. The “no power on Earth could keep” Sandeep Pandey antagonism between the RSS and Muslims in India. “They would D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Gandhi was at its most intense in have to quit the country.” Golwalkar Naushir Bharucha Marg, the months after August 15, 1947, went on to say of Gandhi: “We have Mumbai - 400 007. when the subcontinent was freed the means whereby such men can from British rule but also divided be immediately silenced, but it is Email : [email protected] into the separate nations of India our tradition not to be inimical to Website:www.janataweekly.org and Pakistan. Gandhi went on peace Hindus. If we are compelled, we will 2 JANATA, October 7, 2018 have to resort to that course too.” Six of the nation. This latest celebration of Gandhi weeks later, Gandhi was murdered When Mr Modi became prime is just the most recent attempt by by a Hindu fanatic who had once minister of India in 2014, he had Mr Modi to link his name with been a member of the RSS. Though been in public life for close to 40 a man whom his own mentor this person may have been acting as years. Joining the RSS as a young cordially disliked. Might it be that a freelancer, the speeches made by man, he was weaned on Golwalkar’s he recognises that Gandhi is the Golwalkar showed very clearly that ideas (and prejudices) and even most widely admired Indian outside the organisation detested Gandhi. wrote an adulatory biography of India? And that he wishes to accrue Many RSS members were him. There is no evidence that he credit for himself by association? not sorry to see Gandhi being ever dissented from the RSS’s views That may be so, but it is hard to “immediately silenced”. The RSS of Gandhi, or of Muslims. However, see this exploitation of Gandhi’s was banned after Gandhi’s death. since becoming PM, Mr Modi has legacy as anything other than rank The ban was lifted a year and a half invoked Gandhi’s name often. He opportunism. In the four years that later, and in subsequent decades dedicated his flagship programme Mr Modi has been in power, Muslims the organisation grew steadily in to rid India of open defecation to have been attacked by Hindu lynch strength and influence. Its political Gandhi. And he has made it a point mobs and verbally abused by serving arm, the Bharatiya Janata party, to visit Gandhi’s ashram in the cabinet ministers. India has moved came to rule large parts of India. company of foreign leaders. He has further in the direction of being a While the RSS muted its criticism gone there with Chinese President Xi Hindu majoritarian state than at any of Gandhi, its hatred of Muslims Jinping, with Prime Minister Shinzo previous time in its history. How can remained intense. In his own Abe of Japan, and, most recently, Mr Modi promote Gandhi abroad writings, Golwalkar characterised with the Israeli Prime Minister while at the same time denying what Muslims and Christians as enemies Benjamin Netanyahu. he stood for at home?

A Practical Program to Give a New Lease of Life to Land Reforms

Bharat Dogra

At last some voices are rising to redistribution have been badly effective implementation of the strongly assert the need for better neglected in India in recent times. Forest Rights Act. As this legislation implementation of land reforms. At some stage, this phase of neglect once held up so much hope for On October 2, Gandhi Jayanti day, has to end and a new beginning adivasis and other forest-dweller nearly 25,000 landless workers and has to be made for land reforms as communities, it is important that adivasi peasants gathered at Mela this is too important an area to be all the processes related to it Maidan, Gwalior to raise a strong ignored for long. Here a practical be first completed so that these voice in favour of land reforms. program is proposed to give a new communitieis are better placed in This assembly was part of the lease of life to land reforms. We terms of land and livelihood rights. larger efforts of Ekta Parishad and propose that first of all, at least those Because of inadequate and even other Gandhian organisations for a initiatives that had been taken some faulty implementation of this Act, breakthrough in long-neglected land years ago but could not be taken to in many places, forest-dwelling reforms. a satisfactory conclusion must be communities are perhaps placed While the importance of land fully implemented. After this initial even worse placed than recognised reforms for bringing equality and phase, we can then plan for wider tribal communities in terms of their reducing poverty in rural areas is land reforms. claims having been rejected or widely recognised, nevertheless, First of all, much more can ignored. land reforms and in particular land be done to ensure better and more Another area where earlier JANATA, October 7, 2018 3 efforts need to be taken to their logical conclusion relates to the Babasaheb Ambedkar and Neoliberal distribution of homestead lands. Economic Reforms: Part II This work should have completed long ago, but still lakhs of people in rural areas lack a proper housing Anand Teltumbde place with legal rights. This makes Ambedkar and Globalisation relation to the poor masses, in its them vulnerable to exploitation by At the outset, to speak ruthless logic it favours the winner powerful and big landowners who about Ambedkar in relation to and discards the losers. Therefore, often claim that the landless are globalisation, which represents in its proclivities it is absolutely living on their land and hence should a paradigmatic transformation unsustainable. Translated into an provide them free or cheap labor. of global capitalism into its economic policy package, it is Land records must be jointly extremist version, is fundamentally familiarly known as privatisation, in the name of husband and wife. speculative. But there are enough deregulation and liberalisation, Women farmers who work so fools who rush in where angels fear without any concern for the weak hard but whose contribution is to tread . Since they cannot rationally and poor. This strategy of global often ignored should get proper justify their support to globalisation, capital has been enabled by the recognition. In the case of single they have been awkwardly invoking late 20th century information and women, while some efforts have Ambedkar, speculating that if he communication technologies and been made to help them retain their had lived, he would have supported emboldened by the collapse of the land rights, more needs to be done globalisation. In any case, there being erstwhile Soviet regime. It manifests for this. so little knowledge about economic itself in the form of accumulation All these efforts can be taken policies, the gullible listeners tend to by dispossession, unmindful of the forward together if there is a clear believe these tricksters, who pretend consequences for the survival of the land reforms policy and a national intellectual prowess and already human race itself. People are being task-force on land reforms can enjoy some social reputation. It is denuded of their meagre possessions ensure much needed continuity in futile to engage with them at such all over the world. While the State land reforms. These steps are also a speculative level. However, if we is actively facilitating this process needed for ensuring that we do not understand what globalisation is, of accumulation of global capital, stop merely with the completion we can objectively assess where it is withdrawning from its role as of pending works but have a much Ambedkar would stand vis-à-vis the provider of social goods such broader and well-thought out vision globalisation. as education, healthcare, etc. to the of land reforms ahead of us. Globalisation is an extremist people. These are also broadly the version of resurgent liberalism If this is the character of demands being raised by the ongoing in retaliation to its century long globalisation, would Ambedkar, mobilisation of Ekta Parishad and marginalisation by communist whose vision was to see human other Gandhian organisations for challenge and Keynesianism. It destiny in the ideals of liberty, better implementation of land is basically premised on extreme equality and fraternity, support reforms, which need to be supported individualism, competition as the it? Actually, if there is anything at a wider level. prime mover of progress, and free that can be conceived as being Email: [email protected] market as its prototype. Pitching ideologically opposite to Ambedkar, every individual in competition with it is globalisation. the rest of the world, it follows the social Darwinist justification for Globalisation and Dalits Janata inequality, exploitation, and social Perhaps Dalits, who are fed is available at injustice. While it is thus biased in on an identitarian diet, would not favour of the rich and powerful in be impressed by the picture of www.lohiatoday.com Part I of this article appeared in the previous issue. 4 JANATA, October 7, 2018 devastation globalisation has created reforms and jobs for socio-economic source may be, and adopting the the world over. For instance, there is empowerment; democratisation scientific outlook. Understanding no dispute that inequalities have risen for socio-political empowerment; the impact of globalisation on this at an unprecedented rate in every and modernity for socio-cultural proxy variable may not be easy, country in almost direct proportion empowerment. Let us now assess the because of the dominant discourse to the degree of free-market policies impact of globalisation on each of that associates globalisation with that country has followed. Loss of these proxy variables in a systematic cultural universalisation. That has jobs, democratic spaces, habitat, and somewhat scientific manner. not been true however. The true environment and social security for The greatest impact on people processes can be characterised vast masses of people are rampantly comes through the withdrawal by hybridisation, glocalisation observed everywhere. But identity of the State from its obligation and the likes, which means that obsessed Dalits would not relate towards people and privatisation globalisation assimilates what is with it. They will still argue that of what was public. Education, valued by the local elites with the they are a different people faced marked as the greatest enabler, is dominant global cultural resources. with the unique problem of caste getting increasingly beyond the As such, all the old traditions and and the heaps of contra-evidence reach of Dalits. One sees rampant customs of Hindus, including castes, do not mean anything to them. commercialisation of the sector, with which were apologetically spoken Although it is most unfortunate multilayered quality of educational about until 1980s, have resurged that Dalits should be so sectarian in institutions catering to different with a vengeance. The neoliberal their attitude, this argument impels segments of the education market. generation now speaks about them one to focus on the specifics of the It quite corresponds with the caste with pride. If caste atrocities are problems faced by Dalits. hierarchies that existed in olden taken as the indicator of casteism With the heuristic that the times. Health services were already (and I would take it as the best adverse impact of globalisation is one of the most privatised sectors in indicator), one will have to infer that felt by people in inverse proportion the country; now they have almost catseism is on a definite rise during to their placement in social hierarchy, disappeared from the public domain. the period of globalisation. it would not be difficult to see that As regards land reforms, the Tus, we can see that globalisation Dalits are the most affected people by entire discourse has vanished and has comprehensively damaged what it. But only saying this much may not is being replaced by corporate land can be called the emancipation appeal to Dalits, they may probably grab in the garb of development. It project of Dalits. There will certainly consider it to be too superficial. is leading to significant land loss and be a few Dalit individuals who We will therefore need to consider increasing landlessness of Dalits in have immensely benefited from it. the impact of globalisation on villages. Jobs are fast disappearing. Globalisation is structurally oriented Dalits within a more comprehensive The public sector jobs which were to benefit stray elements, creating framework, what I would call a accessible to Dalits have been fast an impression that individuals can project of their emancipation. decreasing since 1997, effectively achieve anything if they possess This project can be conceived marking the end of reservation there. the wherewithal to compete. The in terms of four empowerments: As regards democracy, it has only campaigners of Dalit capitalism, 1. individual empowerment; 2. remained in the symbolic façade of such as the Dalit capitalists or Socio-economic empowerment; 3. elections. Outside elections, there is the Dalit Chamber of Commerce, Socio-political empowerment; and no space for people to express their do not have even an elementary 4. Socio-cultural empowerment. opinion or dissent. The slightest understanding of the disastrous If these four empowerments are indication of dissent invites a naxal impact of globalisation on the accomplished, one can reasonably or Maoist tag, which is being stuck Dalits, leave apart the principle that say that the emancipation of Dalits is on Dalit youth with impunity to adopting enemy ideology is simply achieved. We identify salient proxy destroy their life. suicidal. variables to map each of these four Modernity, which means empowerments: education and health transcending decadent traditions Conclusion for individual empowerment; land and customs, whatever their Babasaheb Ambedkar occupies JANATA, October 7, 2018 5 an important space in Dalit psyche. as the latter needed to be provided the majority of people, the rejects He represents their ideal, ideology with wherewithal for reproduction of the market, who it believes and aspirations. Nothing that is and also the purchasing power to buy parasitically consume the planet's not compatible with him can be his finished products. Globalisation, resources. There is no intellect considered by Dalits. But this intoxicated with technology, has required to assess that such a creed assessment is mediated by the completely undermined labour or a system would be an anathema vested interests in various garbs. and has been out to discard it or to Babasaheb Ambedkar. They have iconised him among dispossess it of whatever little it had. the masses in reactionary ways. It basically desires extermination of Email: [email protected] The masses then tend to assess anything with reference to their false Mahatma Gandhi: understanding of this icon; if it is not attuned to this icon, it is summarily The Great Communicator rejected and vice versa, even in the face of contrary experience Nikhil Chakravartty of the masses. Globalisation is As a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi of cursory thoughts—based largely one such phenomenon. It is being on his 150th Birth Anniversary, on my personal reflections on our implemented in India for nearly we reproduce below the Gandhi struggle for freedom and how it three decades now, and the majority Peace Foundation Lecture 1995 acquired its unique characteristic of Dalits have actually suffered delivered by Nikhil Chakravartty, from the way Gandhiji built and its ill effects. But still they do not the renowned editor of Mainstream guided it. have an abhorrence for it, simply Weekly, in New Delhi on January Our freedom struggle needs to be because they believe that it is 30, 1995. assessed in a historical perspective. something supported by the image I am deeply touched by having Its dominant characteristic that marks of Ambedkar that is in their minds. been asked to deliver this year’s it out from other great revolutions in Dalits need to understand the real Gandhi Peace Foundation Lecture. history was its tremendous sweep. Ambedkar, they need to extricate Nobody is more conscious than I am No other revolution in history set the real radical Ambedkar as their about my inadequacy in speaking in motion so many millions of guide and beacon. The radical on this sacred occasion, the day of people. This is no idle boast but Ambedkar is surely the socialist the martyrdom of the greatest son the plain statement of a historical Ambedkar, who was in relentless of my country. Perhaps my only reality which is often missed by our search of truth, of the way which will qualification to talk about him is academics and politicians alike. lead the world to sustainability and that I belong to the generation that In late eighteenth century humans to their utopia marked by was witness to the historic transition France, the objective conditions of him with the three ideals of liberty, from subjection to freedom of our mass discontent and disenchantment equality and fraternity. Even if the great motherland, and as a young with the ancient regime no Dalits internalise only this, they reporter I cherish the memory of the doubt prevailed, but the actual would have extricated him from the exciting moments in the presence of revolutionary action involved a reactionary marsh created by vested Gandhi. small number of a few thousand, interests. I am no scholar of the study of mostly in Paris; once the fuse was Globalisation is a euphemistic Gandhiji’s great life, rather I spent my lighted, the revolution flared up in term for the imperialist strategy activist youth as an impudent critic of different parts of France without of global capital. In essence it is the elders in our national movement any coherent leadership. It was capitalism, but is actually an extremist for independence. Having spent largely a spontaneous upsurge, even version of it, which disregards its over half-a-century as a journalist, the leadership at the core could not own sustainability in pursuit of I have chosen as the subject of this hold its own and it changed hands unbridled profits. Capitalism had presentation: ‘Mahatma Gandhi— fast so that even those who led it set in place limits for exploitation the Great Communicator’. This is a at the beginning were soon either of surplus value from labour, insofar very subjective endeavour—a string left by the wayside or liquidated, 6 JANATA, October 7, 2018 giving rise to the classic phrase that Revolution, which relied more the Indian people were denied the the revolution had devoured its own on the working class, the Chinese right to defend themselves, was children. Revolution targeted mainly the turned into a symbol of strength, The Russian Revolution had a peasantry. Here too, the number of with the people depending on their more organised leadership than those people actively engaged in mass conscious non-violent strength to who had led the French Revolution, action was small—the same reliance ward off the foreign ruler. This but it was a small band of determined on a determined band. The form meant constant effort on the part militant revolutionaries under a of action was essentially armed of the leaders of the independence leader who had an uncanny sense guerrilla forays which harassed the movement to raise the consciousness of the configuration of forces ranged enemy and finally overpowered it. of the vast masses of common in a decadent imperial system. In this way, the authority of the State people—not just a small section of So, when the Czarist system itself was subverted until the citadel of determined revolutionaries as had cracked up with the fiasco of defeat power was finally captured by the been the case with the other great in the First World War, Lenin gave guerrilla bands of yesterday that had revolutions. the call for capture of power which come together to form the victorious This aspect of the Indian the Bolsheviks swiftly carried People’s Liberation Army. Revolution marks it out as distinct out. In terms of moving millions Compare these three great from the other revolutions in into revolutioinary action, the landmarks in modern history with modern times. Nowhere was the Bolshevik Revolution was mostly what happened in our country question of the gun permitted to be the handiwork of small groups of in the first half of the twentieth of supreme or decisive importance determined revolutionaries who, century. Stage by stage, the premier in the mainstream of our national everywhere, first captured the key nationalist organisation, committed struggle for independence. This does points of power and then sought to to the struggle for independence, not mean that the sacrifice of those redesign the social structure in the gradually brought in larger and revolutionaries who unwaveringly interest of the common people as larger sections of the people into the gave their lives by taking up arms they thought fit. In a sense it was vortex of struggle for power. The against the foreign ruler was of a sort of managerial revolution led only weapon for winning power was no consequence. From Aurobindo by a party which concentrated on to organise larger and larger sections Ghosh and Savarkar to Bhagat Singh the means of capturing power, and of India’s unarmed humanity and and Chandrashekhar Azad to Subhas power alone. involve them in mass action. By the Chandra Bose, all of them made the The Chinese Revolution time independence actually came, finest contributions to the struggle was also similar to the Russian the Congress commanded much for freedom. But the successive Revolution in its broad historical larger sections of the people than waves of mass upheavals that sweep. In this case also, it was a any organisation had so far done in decisively brought down the British small group of a few thousand led by history. rule in India did not depend on the a remarkable leader, Mao Zedong, The main feature of the Indian wielding of arms by a small minority and steeled in the Long March which struggle for freedom has been of dedicated revolutionaries, but was a sort of armed padayatra—a that it depended almost wholly on essentially on the raising of the level decade-old campaign to rouse the activating the masses by injecting of consciousness of the broad masses peasantry in some pockets of the into them the urge for independence of the people. vast sprawling domain of China, by emphasising the strength of the This was precisely the unique where the administrative system had Indian people vis-a-vis the colonial contribution of Gandhiji. When broken down and had been replaced rulers, and thereby set them free from historians and publicists talk of by an ineffective regime under the the fear of the ruler. The concept of Gandhi having taken politics Kuomintang. It was a very effective non-violence, as it was practised, from being the monopoly of the use of the guerrilla war approach emphasised on the strength of the intelligentsia to the wider world of which enabled Mao to spread his Indian people in relation to the ruler the common humanity, it was not network under conditions wherein who had to depend on the gun for just a question of broadening the the Japanese had occupied most of establishing his authority. In this base of the movement for freedom. the mainland. Unlike the Russian sway, the Arms Act, through which This was not merely a question of JANATA, October 7, 2018 7 quantitative increase in the number only much more comprehensive, it presentation to trace the history of participants in the movement. It also sought to open the eyes of the of the freedom struggle—what is was the emergence of a qualitatively millions left in darkness about the relevant for the purpose is Gandhiji’s different type of movement, with its limited capacity of the foreign ruler role as a communicator. He left out essentially distinct hallmark. and make them aware about the no means, no technique, to rouse the How was this achieved, what great possibility for the country’s consciousness of the people—instil was the weapon by which the mass advancement once the foreign ruler in them the imperative of their active consciousness was raised? How was forced to quit through the participation in the movement. For was the message of the freedom demonstration of strength by the this, he took up a wide range of struggle conveyed to the common people. activities pertaining to all sections people? Herein comes Gandhi’s role Gandhiji ran the pilot project of of the people—from education to as a great communicator. For, he his new technique in South Africa village welfare, from the spinning depended solely on communicating against the hated rule of apartheid. wheel to cattle protection. His the message of freedom to the There too he did not advocate effort at total identification with masses and thereby sought to lift the taking up of arms, but sought the village poor made him design their consciousness. That message to instil in the common people a even his personal attire and way of was not just a mere exhortation realisation of their own strength in living. Since he looked upon public for rousing the emotional urge blocking and muzzling the White activity as having an element of of a nation to be free—however ruler’s oppressive rule. From that moral purpose, he regarded the important might have been that task apprenticeship abroad, when he entire crusade for independence for welding the sense of unity among came back to India in 1915, he found as an experiment with truth. For the people. This had been done in a a country where political activity him the freedom of the country limited area during the Bengal anti- was afflicted with stagnation and was part of the struggle for truth— partition movement of 1905—which political forces, mostly confined an approach which perhaps the had assumed the character of a mass to the intelligentsia, were in unlettered villager, steeped in the movement in a particular region and disarray. The tour he undertook— tradition of customs, found easy to had been successful in forcing the Bharat Darshan—enabled him to grasp. British rulers to abandon their plan to understand the urges of the common This is an aspect of Gandhiji’s vivisect one of the militant pockets people. Following that, one of movement which was not easy of the national movement. his first acts was the Champaran for the Western educated liberal Gandhiji’s movement, on satyagraha, a form of struggle about intelligentsia of the city to the other hand, was much more which both the Indian politicians and understand. It is in this context that comprehensive: it tried to activate the British rulers were completely there took place the intense debate all the diverse sectors of the national unfamiliar. Drawing upon his South over the question of linking ends spectrum. From the affluent classes African experience, he made a with means. From the Marxists to the impoverished, from the special effort at cultivating the to the radicalists of all hues, the intelligentsia to the unlettered— minority Muslim community, which linking of ends and means could not nobody was left out. It was not led to his interest and subsequent possibly be a part of the domain of confined to only the people at compact with the Khilafat agitation. politics, where the supremacy of the the grassroots, as is being done The Rowlatt satyagraha and the objective of power was of paramount nowadays a multitude of activist Khilafat movement were his consideration, and hence there could groups. No doubt these efforts are subsequent excursions before he be no organised link between ends bringing some relief to the people launched his first major national and means. In the early 1930s, at the bottom. By their endeavour campaign in the form of the non- when Aldous Huxley reopened the these activist groups have certainly cooperation movement of 1920. question in his book, Ends and been educating and activating the For the first time in the annals of the Means, the Indian Marxist response uncared-for sections of society national movement, a countrywide was ‘Ends are Means’. This is where to stand on their own legs. What campaign involving the common Gandhiji’s insistence on politics distinguished Gandhi’s movement masses was initiated. and morality being inseparable for independence was that it was not It is not the purpose of this demarcated him from the Western 8 JANATA, October 7, 2018 educated liberals ands helped him as a true communicator: the Salt Satyagraha in 1930, there to a large measure to be attuned to To be true to my faith, therefore, was careful consultation within the the philosophical base of very large I may not write in anger or malice. leadership; it was not just the product sections of the corpus of India’s I may not write idly. I may not write of the brainwave of one individual socio-cultural heritage. This also merely to excite passion. The reader leader. Recent research on the subject denoted that for him politics—the can have no idea of the restraint by a very perceptive scholar in social struggle for independence—could I have to exercise from week to communication at Ahmedabad not be separated from the totality of week in the choice of topics and my has brought out significant details human conditions. In his scheme of vocabulary. It is training for me. It about it. (‘What Moves the Masses? things, the struggle for independence enables me to peep into myself and to Salt Satyagraha as Case-Study’ by was but a part of the wider struggle make discoveries of my weaknesses. Suchitra, Mainstream, January 28, for the regeneration of the entire Often my vanity dictates a smart 1995.) After the pledge to achieve society. expression or my anger a harsh complete independence, taken on As a communicator, Gandhiji, adjective. It is a terrible ordeal but a the banks of the Ravi at Lahore on like most of our great leaders, used fine exercise to remove these weeds. December 31, 1929, first came the the medium of the press apart from As a communicator, Gandhiji Independence Day declaration of the spoken word. In the midst of all was aware of the need to take into January 26, 1930 which catalogued his multitude of activities, Indian account the level of awareness of the injustices of the British Raj. Opinion, Young India and Harijan his target reader or listener. This Next came Gandhiji’s letter to came out regularly—a one-man can be seen in the very naming of Viceroy Lord Irwin, in which eleven endeavour—conveying his message each of the great upsurges. None demands were raised, including the to his countrymen. The importance of these were just spontaneous abolition of the salt tax. Meanwhile, that was attached to the written upsurges, but each one was preceded the leaders discussed the form of word by Gandhiji and other national by meticulous preparations. By the civil disobedience to be launched. leaders reflected their urge to spread correct standards of a communicator, Pandit Nehru and Subhas Bose their message to as wide a section of Gandhiji chose the form of struggle, suggested the setting up of a parallel the people as possible. The means the target and even the language of government while Sardar Patel to convey that message were often every campaign in keeping with proposed a march to Delhi or primitive, but no medium available the level of consciousness of the alternatively a countrywide breaking at that time was left out. From common people. In the first round of land laws. Gandhiji envisaged a handwritten posters and graffiti to it was Non-Cooperation (1920). Ten long drawn-out movement in which traditional interpersonal means, years later, it was more assertive— the masses would have to be drawn such as the travelling bards—the Civil Disobedience (1930–32). And in. He felt the British Government bauls of Bengal, for instance—to a decade later, having taken into would pounce upon the setting the educated student going out on account both the internal and the up of a parallel government or a literacy-cum-swadeshi missions and external circumstances, it was Quit march to Delhi. Gandhiji felt his the composing of patriotic songs India (1942). With every stage, target audience was the Indian and setting up of choirs in villages, the tempo was raised higher, mass society that needed to be unified mohallas and bustis to the immortal involvement was more intense and he was conscious of the need ‘magic lantern’—there was no and widespread than before, until to cultivate public opinion abroad. video then—nothing was left out. It the finale was reached with the So, the defiance of the salt law was was a gigantic operation, sustained battle cry of Do-or-Die. Here was taken up as the initial item of civil through the ups and downs of the the remarkable manifestation of disobedience. Resentment at the freedom struggle. the acute sensitivity of a great salt law had a long history. As early How true to his convictions communicator. as 1844, there were disturbances Gandhiji was in his actual functioning It may be worthwhile to refer protesting against this impost which as a journalist can be gathered from briefly to a couple of specific touched even the poorest of the many of his writings. Here is a instances of how Gandhiji operated poor. The Congress, at its inaugural passage from Young India (July 2, as a communicator. Before he session in 1885, had referred to it. 1925) about how he strove to serve undertook the Dandi March for During the 1905 swadeshi movement JANATA, October 7, 2018 9 in Bengal, the call was given for the against the Raj—Gandhi often used Socialist Party and the banned boycott of Manchester cloth and religious idioms as the best means Communist Party (that was then salt imported from Liverpool. At of arousing the rural masses familiar functioning as National Front the same time, focusing on this with religious lore. Incidentally, group after the name of its legal iniquitous tax, Gandhiji expected Gandhiji drew the correct lesson journal) to the so-called Nationalist to mobilise international support, at from the poor response to the repeat Congressmen representing by least to expose the exploitation of performance of the Dandi March and large the point of view of the Indian people under the British exactly two years later, in 1932— Hindu orthodoxy. There were arrest Raj. In his own hand he wrote out for after the failure of the Gandhi–Irwin warrants against the Communist the press: “I want world sympathy in pact. From this the lesson was drawn leaders, including the notification of this battle of Right against Might.” that the repetition of a specific form a handsome police reward for their Then came the form of the of campaign does not fetch the same capture. The Communists had sent struggle. A march from Ahmedabad results. This is a lesson which many one of their leaders, Bharadwaj, to to the seashore at Dandi passing of our political parties and mass participate in the Congress session. through villages would provide organisation activists need to keep With an arrest warrant against him sufficient space for non-stop in mind today. and the police and their informers propaganda for weeks against the Ten years after the Civil hovering all over the place, it was Raj and mobilise villagers along the Disobedience movement, I had a difficult for him to come out of his route, and its publicisation would personal experience of Gandhiji’s undisclosed shelter in the Congress bestir other volunteers in other parts remarkable style of communication nagar and place the National Front of the country and thereby propagate at the Ramgarh Congress session in point of view before the Subjects the vision of Purna Swaraj. The 1940. The Congress nagar had come Committee. The Communists march was undertaken by 80 persons up in a rural setting with bamboo approached Panditji for advice on including Gandhiji himself. The and local shrubs. During his early how Bharadwaj could come to the other 79 were chosen to represent morning walk, Gandhiji noticed Subjects Committee session. Panditji all the provinces in India, and they a red flag fluttering at a corner promptly went to Gandhiji for were drawn from all communities— of the enclosure reserved for the advice. Remembering the morning Muslims, Christians and Hindus, leaders’ camp. It appeared that the incident, we were almost sure that both upper caste and the depressed. fraternal delegation from Burma’s Gandhiji would be far from helpful. Abbas Tyabji and Sarojini Naidu Dobama party was put up there and A few minutes later, Panditji came were chosen as leaders in the event they had hoisted their party flag. out of Gandhiji’s camp and told of his own arrest—symbolically Panditji was sent for and he tried to us that Bharadwaj would go to the representing the Muslims and the explain to Gandhiji that this red flag, Subjects Committee pandal with womanhood of the country. And he being the party flag of the Burmese Gandhiji himself in his car. We were sent his letter to the Viceroy notifying delegation, should not be taken literally taken aback when we found his decision to break the salt law, as a defiant rival to the Congress the car carrying Gandhiji going through an Englishman, Reginald tricolour. But Gandhiji was adamant, right up to the back of the platform, Reynolds, who later recalled: and so Pandijit quietly managed to and out came Bharadwaj trailing I realise that Gandhi’s use of shift the Burmese delegation to the behind Gandhiji, and then sitting me was symbolic—it was to show nearby Dak Bungalow outside the on the dais and greeting the leaders that this was not a matter of Indians Congress nagar. Some of us thought from Maulana Azad, Rajen Babu, versus British but of principles. that the matter betrayed an attitude of Sardar Patel and Panditji to JP and The whole nation was electrified intolerance on the part of Gandhiji. all the others. Sardar Patel moved by this new form of mass action— In the afternoon of the same the official resolution, followed totally peaceful and non-violent, day, the Subjects Committee was by JP who placed the CSP point even in the face of police brutality scheduled to meet. In those days, of view. Then Bharadwaj placed when the satyagrahis tried to enter the Congress was a unique national the National Front point of view. the salt factory at Dharasana. platform, including within its fold Discussions went on, and in the end, In this campaign—the first different ideological and political replying to the debate, Sardar Patel truly nationwide mass campaign formations, from the Congress tore the CSP and the National Front 10 JANATA, October 7, 2018 amendments to pieces and carried Mahatma. Two days before the of his goal—the independence of the day. Meanwhile, unnoticed by Mountbatten Award, that is, on June the country—while at the same many, Bharadwaj slipped out, helped 1, 1947, Gandhiji had woken up in time, the menace of communal by Panditji and Dr Lohia. the morning earlier than usual and hatred was vitiating that newly-won This indeed was an amazing spent the time before the prayer freedom. The hour of fulfilment was experience. How could one reconcile musing: tinged with a horrendous tragedy. Gandhiji’s morning allergy to the Today I find myself all alone. For him therefore, the achievement red flag and the very same afternoon Even the Sardar and Jawaharlal of independence did not allow a sheltering a ‘wanted’ Communist think that my reading of the political moment of rest: the struggle had leader and allowing him to come situation is wrong and peace is to go on. Since he could not avert before the party forum and place sure to return if partition is agreed the partitioning of the country, he his point of view? I have thought upon. They did not like my telling had to meet the challenge of its over this incident many times the Viceroy that even if there was sombre aftermath—how to put out since. By his conduct, Gandhiji was to be partition, it should not be the hell-fire of communal animosity. transmitting two messages. First, through British intervention or And so he set out on this, his final by insisting on the removal of the under the British rule. They wonder, crusade—how to transform the red flag, Gandhiji wanted to convey if I have not deteriorated with age. millions of common humanity that the message to all, that within Nevertheless, I must speak as I feel, he had served to mould all his life the national platform which the if I am to prove a true, loyal friend and make each one of them his Congress represented in the struggle to the Congress and to the British brother’s keeper. In the midst of against the foreign power, there people, as I claim to be, regardless blood and fire, he strove—Noakhali, could be but one leadership and one of whether my advice is appreciated Beliaghata, Bihar and Delhi—until flag—no question of any ambiguity. or not. I see clearly that we are he fell a martyr to the cause which At the same time, he wanted to setting about this business the wrong is yet to be redeemed by his heirs convey the clear message to the way. We may not feel the full effect and successors. Till the last drop of British Raj that in its confrontation immediately, but I can see clearly life ebbed out of that frail body, the with the Congress, no party would that the future of independence great communicator never ceased for be on its side, that all were behind gained at this price is going to be a moment to transmit his message— the Congress. Subsequently, it was dark. the message which remains a sacred the breach of this commitment in Then after a pause, he pondered: injunction even to this day forty- 1942, when the Communists went I shall, perhaps, not be alive seven years later. against the Quit India upheaval, that to witness it, but should the evil I Today, this country needs led to their being thrown out of the apprehend overtake India and her a Gandhi to bring about the Congress. independence be imperiled, let regeneration of our democracy. The protracted negotiations over posterity know what agony this old With morality being banished from the transfer of power and the Muslim soul went through thinking of it. Let politics and public life getting League’s insistence on Pakistan it not be said that Gandhi was party corroded all around, this country finally led to the Mountabatten to India’s vivisection. But everybody today needs the Mahatma, the Great Award of June 3, 1947, by which the is today impatient for independence. Communicator, more than at any country was partitioned. As was well Therefore, there is no other help. time in the past. Seventy years ago, known at that time, Gandhiji was Here was a seer who could Mahatma Gandhi had said: opposed to partition. The difference communicate his premonition. For Real swaraj will come not by the between him and the leaders of those of us who were fortunate acquisition of authority by a few, but the Congress flowed from of his in watching him in person, those by the acquisition of the capacity premonition about the future. As a last days of his life—with his by all to resist authority when it is great communicator, Gandhiji could mind heavy with the unleashing of abused. not only transmit but perceive as Hindu–Muslim clashes even after This commandment alone can well about what was in store. This the foreign power had left—were enthrone social justice in this great is borne out by a very penetrating perhaps the most momentous. On the land of ours. passage in Tendulkar’s biography, one hand, there was the realisation JANATA, October 7, 2018 11 What Mahatma Gandhi Said to Those Who Wanted Beef Banned in India

An excerpt from Gandhi’s prayer in Pakistan, what will be the result? I have already answered this discourse of July 25, 1947, from Supposing they say Hindus would question. I again repeat that all the the Collected Works of Mahatma not be allowed to visit temples religions of India today are being put Gandhi, Volume 88, as published because it was against Shariat to to the test. It has to be seen how the online by the Gandhi Heritage worship idols? I see God even in a various religious groups such as the Portal. Translated from Hindi. stone but how do I harm others by Sikhs, the Hindus, the Muslims and Rajendra Babu tells me that he this belief? If therefore I am stopped the Christians conduct themselves has received some 50,000 postcards, from visiting temples I would still and how they carry on the affairs of between 25,000 and 30,000 letters visit them. I shall therefore suggest India. Pakistan may be said to belong and many thousands of telegrams that these telegrams and letters to Muslims but the Indian Union demanding a ban on cow-slaughter. should cease. It is not proper to waste belongs to all. I spoke to you about this before. money on them. If you shake off cowardice and Why this flood of telegrams and Besides some prosperous become brave you will not have letters? They have had no effect. I Hindus themselves encourage cow- to consider how you are to behave have another telegram which says slaughter. True, they do not do it towards the Muslims. But today that a friend has started a fast for with their own hands. But who there is cowardice in us. For this I this cause. sends all the cows to Australia have already accepted the blame. I In India no law can be made to and other countries where they am still wondering how my 30 years’ ban cow-slaughter. are slaughtered and whence shoes teaching has been so ineffective. I do not doubt that Hindus are manufactured from cow hide are sent Why did I assume, to begin with, forbidden the slaughter of cows. I back to India? I know an orthodox that non-violence could be a weapon have been long pledged to serve the Vaishnava Hindu. He used to feed of cowards? Even now if we can cow but how can my religion also be his children on beef soup. On my really become brave and love the the religion of the rest of the Indians? asking him why he did that he said Muslims, the Muslims will have It will mean coercion against those there was no sin in consuming beef to stop and think what they could Indians who are not Hindus. We have as medicine. gain by practising treachery against been shouting from the house-tops We really do not stop to think us. They will return love for love. that there will be no coercion in the what true religion is and merely go Can we keep the crores of Muslims matter of religion. We have been about shouting that cow-slaughter in the Indian Union as slaves? He reciting verses from the Koran at the should be banned by law. In who makes slaves of others himself prayer. But if anyone were to force villages Hindus make bullocks becomes a slave. If we answer sword me to recite these verses I would carry huge burdens which almost with sword, the lathi with lathi and not like it. crush the animals. Is it not cow- kick with kick, we cannot expect that How can I force anyone not to slaughter, albeit slowly carried out? things will be different in Pakistan. slaughter cows unless he is himself I shall therefore suggest that the We shall then lose our freedom as so disposed? It is not as if there matter should not be pressed in the easily as we have gained it. were only Hindus in the Indian Constituent Assembly. . . . Union. There are Muslims, Parsis, I have been asked, “Since Spectre of Fascism Christians and other religious groups in view of the atrocities being Contribution Rs. 20/- here. The assumption of the Hindus perpetuated by Muslims it is difficult that India now has become the land to decide which of the Muslims are Published by of the Hindus is erroneous. India to be trusted, what should be our Janata Trust & Lokayat belongs to all who live here. attitude towards the Muslims in the D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Naushir Bharucha Marg, f we stop cow slaughter by law Indian Union? What should the non- Grant Road (W), Mumbai 400 007 here and the very reverse happens Muslims in Pakistan do?” 12 JANATA, October 7, 2018 Bhagat Singh and Savarkar: Two Petitions that Tell Us the Difference Between Hind and Hindutva

On March 23, 1931, Shaheed to bring to your kind notice the apparatus. All these things make no Bhagat Singh and his two comrades- following:That we were sentenced to difference. in-arms, Shaheed Rajguru and death on 7th October 1930 by a British No matter, if your government Shaheed Sukhdev were hanged Court, L.C.C Tribunal, constituted tries and succeeds in winning over in Lahore by the British colonial under the Sp. Lahore Conspiracy the leaders of the upper strata of government. At the time of his Case Ordinance, promulgated by the Indian society through petty martyrdom, Bhagat Singh was barely the H.E. The Viceroy, the Head of concessions and compromises 23 years old. Despite the fact that he the British Government of India, and thereby cause a temporary had his whole life ahead of him, he and that the main charge against demoralisation in the main body of refused to seek clemency from the us was that of having waged war the forces. British as some well-wishers and against H.M. King George, the King No matter, if once again the family members wanted him to do. of England. vanguard of the Indian movement, In his last petition and testament, he The above-mentioned finding of the Revolutionary Party, finds itself demanded that the British be true the Court pre-supposed two things: deserted in the thick of the war. to the charge they laid against him Firstly, that there exists a state No matter if the leaders to whom of waging war against the colonial of war between the British Nation personally we are much indebted state and that he be executed by and the Indian Nation and, secondly, for the sympathy and feelings they firing squad and not by hanging. The that we had actually participated expressed for us, but nevertheless document also lays out his vision in that war and were therefore war we cannot overlook the fact that for an India whose working people prisoners. they did become so callous as to are free from exploitation by either The second pre-supposition ignore and not to make a mention British or Indian “parasites”. seems to be a little bit flattering, but in the peace negotiation of even the At a time when the Bharatiya nevertheless it is too tempting to homeless, friendless and penniless of Janata Party national executive resist the desire of acquiescing in it. female workers who are alleged to be has decided to make nationalism As regards the first, we are belonging to the vanguard and whom its rallying cry, and Savarkar its constrained to go into some detail. the leaders consider to be enemies national hero, it is useful to compare Apparently there seems to be no such of their utopian non-violent cult the patriotic attitude and vision of war as the phrase indicates. which has already become a thing Bhagat Singh with the petitions Nevertheless, please allow us of the past; the heroines who had by the Sangh parivar’s icon, V.D. to accept the validity of the pre- ungrudgingly sacrificed or offered Savarkar, seeking early release. supposition taking it at its face for sacrifice their husbands, brothers, The burden of his petitions: let me value. But in order to be correctly and all that were nearest and dearest go and I will give up the fight for understood we must explain it to them, including themselves, independence and be loyal to the further. whom your government has declared colonial government. Let us declare that the state of to be outlaws. Reproduced below are Shaheed war does exist and shall exist so long No matter, it your agents stoop Bhagat Singh’s last petition and the as the Indian toiling masses and the so low as to fabricate baseless petition V.D. Savarkar filed in 1913. natural resources are being exploited calumnies against their spotless by a handful of parasites. characters to damage their and their Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s Last They may be purely British party’s reputation. Petition, capitalist or mixed British and The war shall continue. Lahore Jail, 1931 Indian or even purely Indian. They It may assume different shapes may be carrying on their insidious To: The Punjab Governor at different times. It may become exploitation through mixed or now open, now hidden, now purely Sir, With due respect we beg even on purely Indian bureaucratic agitational, now fierce life and death JANATA, October 7, 2018 13 struggle. therefore war prisoners. And we disadvantages we are classed as The choice of the course, whether claim to be treated as such, i.e., we special prisoners. bloody or comparatively peaceful, claim to be shot dead instead of to (3) When the majority of which it should adopt rests with be hanged. the casemen were sent outside you. Choose whichever you like. But It rests with you to prove that I requested for my release. But, that war shall be incessantly waged you really meant what your court although I had been cased (caned?) without taking into consideration the has said. hardly twice or thrice and some petty (illegible) and the meaningless We request and hope that you of those who were released, for a ethical ideologies. will very kindly order the military dozen and more times, still I was It shall be waged ever with department to send its detachment not released with them because I was new vigour, greater audacity and to perform our execution. their casemen. But when after all, the unflinching determination till the Yours, order for my release was given and Socialist Republic is established and Bhagat Singh when just then some of the political the present social order is completely prisoners outside were brought into replaced by a new social order, based V.D. Savarkar’s Petition, the troubles I was locked in with on social prosperity and thus every Cellular Jail, Andamans, 1913 them because I was their casemen. sort of exploitation is put an end to (4) If I was in Indian jails I To: The Home Member of the and the humanity is ushered into the would have by this time earned much Government of India era of genuine and permanent peace. remission, could have sent more In the very near future the final I beg to submit the following letters home, got visits. If I was a battle shall be fought and final points for your kind consideration: transportee pure and simple I would settlement arrived at. (1) When I came here in 1911 have by this time been released, from The days of capitalist and June, I was along with the rest of this jail and would have been looking imperialist exploitation are the convicts of my party taken to the forward for ticket-leave, etc. But as numbered. The war neither began office of the Chief Commissioner. it is, I have neither the advantages with us nor is it going to end with our There I was classed as “D” meaning of the Indian jail nor of this convict lives. It is the inevitable consequence dangerous prisoner; the rest of the colony regulation; though had to of the historic events and the existing convicts were not classed as “D”. undergo the disadvanatges of both. environments. Then I had to pass full 6 months (5) Therefore will your honour Our humble sacrifices shall be in solitary confinement. The other be pleased to put an end to this only a link in the chain that has very convicts had not. During that time anomalous situation in which I accurately been beautified by the I was put on the coir pounding have been placed, by either sending unparalleled sacrifice of [Jatin] Das though my hands were bleeding. me to Indian jails or by treating me and most tragic but noblest sacrifice Then I was put on the oil-mill—the as a transportee just like any other of Comrade Bhagawati Charan and hardest labour in the jail. Although prisoner. I am not asking for any the glorious death of our dear warrior my conduct during all the time was preferential treatment, though I [Chandrashekhar] Azad. exceptionally good still at the end of believe as a political prisoner even As to the question of our fates, these six months I was not sent out that could have been expected in please allow us to say that when you of the jail; though the other convicts any civilized administration in the have decided to put us to death, you who came with me were. From that Independent nations of the world; will certainly do it. time to this day I have tried to keep but only for the concessions and You have got the power in your my behaviour as good as possible. favour that are shown even to the hands and the power is the greatest (2) When I petitioned for most depraved of convicts and justification in this world. promotion I was told I was a special habitual criminals? This present We know that the maxim “Might class prisoner and so could not be plan of shutting me up in this is right” serves as your guiding promoted. When any of us asked for jail permanently makes me quite motto. The whole of our trial was better food or any special treatment hopeless of any possibility of just a proof of that. we were told “You are only ordinary sustaining life and hope. For those We wanted to point out that convicts and must eat what the who are term convicts the thing is according to the verdict of your rest do”. Thus Sir, Your Honour different, but Sir, I have 50 years court we had waged war and were would see that only for special staring me in the face! How can I pull 14 JANATA, October 7, 2018 up moral energy enough to pass them policy of the government have gratitude to the government, who in close confinement when even thrown open the constitutional line knows how to forgive and correct, those concessions which the vilest once more. more than how to chastise and of convicts can claim to smoothen Now no man having the good avenge. their life are denied to me? Either of India and Humanity at heart will Moreover my conversion to please to send me to Indian jail for blindly step on the thorny paths the constitutional line would bring there I would earn (a) remission; (b) which in the excited and hopeless back all those misled young men would have a visit from my people situation of India in 1906–1907 in India and abroad who were once come every four months for those beguiled us from the path of peace looking up to me as their guide. I who had unfortunately been in jail and progress. am ready to serve the Government know what a blessing it is to have Therefore if the government in any capacity they like, for as my a sight of one’s nearest and dearest in their manifold beneficence and conversion is conscientious so I every now and then! (c) and above mercy release me, I for one cannot hope my future conduct would be. all a moral—though not a legal— but be the staunchest advocate of By keeping me in jail nothing can right of being entitled to release constitutional progress and loyalty to be got in comparison to what would in 14 years; (d) also more letters the English government which is the be otherwise. and other little advantages. Or if foremost condition of that progress. The Mighty alone can afford to I cannot be sent to India I should As long as we are in jails there be merciful and therefore where else be released and sent outside with cannot be real happiness and joy in can the prodigal son return but to the a hope, like any other convicts, to hundreds and thousands of homes parental doors of the Government? visits after 5 years, getting my ticket of His Majesty’s loyal subjects in Hoping your Honour will kindly leave and calling over my family India, for blood is thicker than water; take into notion these points. here. If this is granted then only but if we be released the people will V.D. Savarkar one grievance remains and that is instinctively raise a shout of joy and Courtesy: The Wire that I should be held responsible only for my own faults and not of RSS Supremo’s Public Relations Exercise others. It is a pity that I have to ask for this—it is such a fundamental right of every human being! For as Ram Puniyani there are on the one hand, some 20 Do organisations say what they clear the gentleman was replying political prisoners—young, active intend to do? Not necessarily. This to the criticism of his organisation and restless, and on the other the came out clearly from the three long by its critics, and there are plenty regulations of a convict colony, by lectures by RSS Sarsanghchalak of them. What appeared novel the very nature of them reducing the Mohan Bhagwat. The event was was the change in the language liberties of thought and expression to supposed to be a dialogue, but the of the RSS, from that of its major lowest minimum possible; it is but maximum dialogue one could see ideologue Guru Golwalkar to Mr. inevitable that every now and then was his answering a few questions Bhagwat, the current chief. While some one of them will be found to at the end of the lectures. That Golwalkar had bluntly appreciated have contravened a regulation or two he answered a few questions was the Nazi methods of exterminating and if all be held responsible for that, strongly underlined, as probably this the minorities, Bhagwat appeared as now it is actually done—very little must have been a novel thing for this to be accepting the existence of chance of being left outside remains organisation. religious minorities. While the for me. What did Bhagwat say which Guru had declared that Muslims, In the end may I remind your was new? He did say that Hindutva Christians and Communists were an honour to be so good as to go includes Muslims, RSS respects the internal threat to the Hindu nation, through the petition for clemency, Constitution, RSS is not opposed to Bhagwat went on to say that today that I had sent in 1911, and to reservations, RSS is not dictatorial they don’t fully agree with Guruji, sanction it for being forwarded to and that there is place for opinions and so his book, Bunch of Thoughts, the Indian Government? of others apart from that of Shri has been republished with sentences The latest development of the Bhagwat, RSS respects the diversity that threaten minorities and assert Indian politics and the conciliating of this Hindu nation, etc. It became JANATA, October 7, 2018 15

Hindu nationalism in a blunt way temple) and Mohammad Ghori minorities that they also take up omitted. (who betrayed Prithivraj Chouhan); arms to indulge in violence. The So has the RSS changed? Hindu kings like Maharana Pratap violence prevalent in our society As should be the case with most and Shivaji saved the Hindu society; today is the outcome of issues raked organisations, the RSS should also during the freedom movement, while up by the RSS to generate emotions be judged by its actions, or by the Savarkar put forward the concept in the service of Hindu nationalism. outcome of activities and programs of Hindu nationalism, the likes of Communal violence went up across of the organisations which come into Gandhi–Nehru and their followers the country in the wake of the Ram being due to RSS ideology. That is regarded people of foreign religions Temple issue. If the country belongs what will tell us the true character, also as belonging to this land; to all, all religions are respected, why the real agenda of the RSS, and will Gandhi appeased the Muslims due commit the crime of demolishing help us assess why a pleasant face is to which Muslims got emboldened a five-hundred-year-old mosque? being presented now? and demanded Pakistan; it is due Why spread a communal view of The core activity of the RSS to the faulty policies of Nehru that history to polarise society? Why has is structured around shakhas Kashmir, an integral part of India, the cow become a political issue, (branches). In these shakhas, young has become a problem; and so on when Swami Vivekanand himself boys are given physical training, and so forth. has stated that beef was eaten during one component of which is wielding After this training, the pracharaks Vedic times, and Gandhi posited that lathis (batons). This is what is the / swayamsevaks start work with state should not take up the banning most visible part of its activities. different segments of society, or go of cow slaughter or banning of beef? Running parallel to this is ideological into organisations directly floated One can only conclude that the training, that takes place in the by the RSS, such as the Bhartiya RSS, having gained in confidence bauddhik (intellectual) sessions. Jansangh, ABVP, BJP, VHP, Vanvasi during last four years, is now trying This is where the real agenda of the Kalyan Ashram and Seva Bharati, to to spread its net by mouthing liberal RSS manifests itself. It is from these name a few. Technically, these are language. This velvet glow is the shakha bauddhiks, which are backed all independent organisations, but contribution of Mr Bhagwat to cover by long training camps leading to they are run and controlled by the up the deepening divide created in a three-year training program, that trained pracharaks of the RSS. So society due to the all round work of the Swamyamsevaks / Pracharaks the RSS does not have to act as a the numerous progeny of the RSS, emerge, who are ready to take on remote control, as its ideology runs which while sounding independent the mantle of RSS programs in an in the DNA of these organisations. are totally loyal to the training they independent way. The RSS module of indoctrination have got while attending the shakha These bauddhiks indoctrinate has created hatred in society, it has baudhhiks. We need to recall that the young boys into believing that spread hatred against Muslims and when the Jan Sangh component of India has been a Hindu nation partly against Christians as well the Janata Party was asked to severe from times immemorial. Roughly as against those upholding secular its links with RSS, it preferred to speaking, the RSS training module, values. One manifestation of this break the party and re-emerge as as gleaned from various sources, hatred was the murder of Gandhi by the BJP. We need to remember that follows the following lines: ‘We’ Godse, who was a trained pracharak the late Prime Minister Vajpayee, in ancient times had a great society, of the RSS. Sardar Patel must have while addressing NRI Indians at all castes were equal, women had a been the first one to articulate this a meeting in Staten Island, USA, honorable place in the society; the and see beyond the murder of reaffirmed his primary loyalty to the society was attacked by foreigners, Gandhi. He could see that the core RSS. Clearly, the claim by Mohan the Muslims, leading to inequality reason behind Gandhi’s murder Bhagwat that the RSS respects the among castes and degeneration of was spread of hatred in society by Indian Constitution is a sham as the status of women; the Muslim the RSS. according to the Indian Constitution, kings destroyed our temples and While it is true that the volunteers we are a secular democratic country, imposed Islam by force; the Muslim of the RSS also do relief work, we which is directly opposite to the soul kings were very cruel, prominent must not forget that these same of the RSS agenda, its espousal of the examples being Mohammad Ghazni volunteers have been so much concept of Hindu nation. (who destroyed the Somnath indoctrinated with hate against Email : [email protected] R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 16 JANATA, October 7, 2018 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2018 Published on Sunday, October 7, 2018 & Posted on Wedenesday, October 10, 2018 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 73 No. 38 Babri Demolition: October 14, 2018 Need for Reconciliation with Justice Bhagat Singh on Netaji Bose and Nehru Ram Puniyani Apoorvanand In a recent judgment, the Allahabad High Court had divided The Mahatma and the Earth: Supreme Court in a 2-1 majority the land into three parts, the basis Gandhi’s Ecological Vision verdict refused to refer the Dr. of that was not land records but the Vandana Shiva Faruqui verdict to a Constitution faith of large number of Hindus— bench. This said verdict had stated that Lord Ram was born there. How National Convention that the mosque in not an essential do we solve land disputes—through of Workers, New Delhi part of Islamic practice. In the recent land records or through the faith of India’s Private Banks and judgment, the dissenter judge felt the people? This faith has been an Private Investors: that the matter needs to be referred to outcome of the political campaign False Theory, Dangerous the seven judge Constitution bench. for Ram temple orchestrated by Consequences There was a feeling that “mosque the RSS combine, led initially by Hemindra Hazari not being a part of essential Islamic VHP and later by BJP. Can this practice” might have had an impact faith determine the direction of our Hating Muslims in the on the 2010 Allahabad Court verdict judicial system? Age of Trump which had divided the Babri mosque As regards the claim of Ram Juan Cole land into three parts, and be given temple having been destroyed in to the Sunni Waqf Board, Nirmohi Ayodhya over five centuries ago, this Editor : G. G. Parikh Akhara, and the party representing is very doubtful. One recalls that at Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain ‘Ram Lalla Virajman’. The argument the time when the Ram temple was in favor of the Faruqui case was that supposed to have been demolished, Managing Editor : Guddi Namaz can be offered in an open one of the biggest devotees of Lord Editorial Board : place as well, so the mosque is not Ram, Goswami Tulsi Das, was living B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali an essential part of Islamic practice. in Ayodhya. He has not recorded it in Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah On the other side the argument any of his writings. On the contrary Nandu Dhaneshwar, was: there are so many mosques Tulsi Das, in one of his couplets, Sandeep Pandey worldwide, why are these mosques writes that he has can very well live there if a mosque is not a part of in a mosque. The faith that Lord Ram D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Islamic practice? Surely this point was born in the said Ram temple and Naushir Bharucha Marg, did deserve a deeper consideration as that it was demolished and Babri Mumbai - 400 007. it has larger implications for society. Masjid constructed in its place has Email : [email protected] Now the path is paved for the been constructed over a period of Website:www.janataweekly.org hearing of the land dispute related time, and this has intensified during to the Ayodhya case. Though the the last few decades. 2 JANATA, October 14, 2018

One of the great documentary Sunni Waqf Board for centuries. issues of society. We do need to built film makers of our times, Anand In 1885, the Court did not permit hospitals and schools; we do take Patwardhan, in his classic Hindus to construct a temple on a measures to generate employment. documentary Ram Ke Naam (In the raised platform (chabutara) near the In place of debating on this, the Name of Ram) shows many Pujaris mosque. Even now the land records coming up of the Ayodhya issue just (Priests) of many Ram temples in should be clear on the issue. when elections to several states and Ayodhya claiming that Lord Ram There are attempts by some the Centre are due, is so unfortunate. was born in their particular temple. people for a ‘peaceful’ ‘out of Rather than discussing the core This clearly proves that the claim Court settlement’ of the issue. issues of society, the question of that Lord Ram was born in the place This initiative fully articulates the Temple and Mosque will take the where Babri Masjid had stood is wishes of the RSS combine. They centrestage during the elections! a myth that is being deliberately are asking Muslims to forgo their How can we as a nation bring propagated by the RSS combine for claim on the land and allow the back the people’s agenda to the its vested interests. temple to come up there. In lieu of centrestage should be the central There are other problems too that that they are being promised that concern for all those committed to are related to this dispute. One is the they will be given land to build the marching towards a society that has crime of installing Ram Lalla idols mosque somewhere else. There are justice, equality, democracy and inside the mosque, which is very well also threats that when the BJP gets secularism as its central focus. recorded. We know that efforts to a suitable majority in Parliament, Email: [email protected] remove the idols immediately were the temple will be constructed thwarted by the district magistrate there through a legislation of the of the region, K.K. Nayyar, who Parliament. after his retirement joined the BJP Reconciliation is a process Janata predecessor Bhartiya Jansangh. The wherein both parties are listened to, second crime, the one of demolition and with some ‘give and take’ on is available at of the mosque in broad day light, both sides, the issue is undertaken despite the undertaking given by the for resolution. This formula that www.lohiatoday.com then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh the Muslims give up the land to the Supreme Court, is very well for temple construction is a very known. The Liberhan Commission highhanded attempt to browbeat Janata Subscription which went into the issue tells us them into a total submission. What that it was a conspiracy. BJP leaders we need is an honest attempt to Annual Rs. : 260/- Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar punish the guilty and abide by the Joshi and Uma Bharati who were on law to solve the problem. There Three Years : 750/- the stage from where Kar Sevaks can’t be peace without justice. The Demand Draft / were being incited were rewarded crime of Babri demolition is being for their crime as they later became valorised as ‘Hindu Shaurya Divas’ Cheque ministers in the Central Government. (Hindu Bravery Day) by the RSS on Whatever happened to the dictum combine. As such, it a shame on ‘punish the guilty’? our democracy! It is an outcome of Mumbai Bank The nation was witness to divisive communal politics, and is in favour of journalists being beaten and their pushing our society into the dark cameras being broken when they abyss of stagnation and diversion. were recording the act of crime. Our core issues are actually bread– Janata Trust Surely, the crime of demolition butter, shelter and employment. The D-15, Ganesh Prasad, must be punished. Secondly, the RSS combine has built its social and Naushir Bharucha Marg, land dispute needs to be resolved political strength around emotive on the basis of land records. The issues like Ram Temple and Holy Grant Road (W), land has been in possession of the Cow at the cost of the genuine Mumbai 400 007. JANATA, October 14, 2018 3 Bhagat Singh on Netaji Bose and Nehru

Apoorvanand

September 28 is the birthday of the two—Bose and Nehru? What although both of them are supporters Bhagat Singh—a day to remember could have been his trajectory had he of Poorna Swaraj, they are worlds him and his legacy. Even 84 years lived longer? Would he have joined apart in their thoughts. after his death, he remains an eternal Bose when the latter broke away He refers to a public meeting youth icon. Indeed, there are often from Gandhi and Nehru and went in Bombay in which Bose was complaints that the overarching on to found Azad Hind Fauj and the speaker and Nehru the chair. presence of Gandhi and Nehru collaborated with Tojo and Hitler Bose’s speech, including the remark has deprived Bhagat Singh and against the British? Who was his that India has a special message revolutionaries like him their ideal between the two? for the world, is described as a due place in Indian history. The crazy rant in the Kirati article. It complainers cite Subhash Chandra 'An emotional Bengali' remarks that Bose finds the origin Bose as the other example. In 1928, Bhagat Singh, a young of everything, including Panchayati Bhagat Singh and Bose, we are man of 21, published an article in the Raj and Socialism, in ancient India reminded, were revolutionaries who journal Kirati, titled Naye netaon ke and notes that Bose believes that the took the violent path to fight against alag-alag vichar (Different thoughts old times were great. Bhagat Singh the British. The two are seen as of new leaders). In this, he compared finds the nationalism of Bose narrow uncompromising fighters, whereas the worldviews of Bose and Nehru. and self-obsessed. Gandhi and Nehru are portrayed as Bhagat Singh wrote the article to He then moves to Nehru's manipulators who negotiated their help the youth of Punjab choose presidential speech. Nehru way to power. It is believed seriously their political path at a time when contradicts Bose and says that all by many that had India achieved there was dejection all around over nations feel that they have some freedom through the means used by the failure of the Non-Cooperation special and unique message for Bhagat Singh and Bose, the Indian Movement and the division among the world. “I do not find anything story would have been different. Indians was reflected in the Hindu– special in my nation. Subhash Babu In popular Indian perception, Muslim conflicts. Which way should believes in such things.” What is the Bhagat Singh and Bose were made they go? difference between the two? Bose of the same metal, while Bose and Bhagat Singh was not a wants freedom from the British Nehru were the two poles of pre- Congressman, nor was he a member because they belong to the West and Independence Indian politics. Nehru of the Communist Party of India. we are from the East. Nehru wants was the one who supposedly led a The young man had not spared even freedom because, according to him, comfortable life, whereas Bose was Lala Lajpat Rai, the revered leader we can change our social system the one who renounced the glorious of the freedom struggle, for his by establishing self-rule. For social Indian Civil Service and later his communal views. So, how did he transformation, we need complete position in the Congress to launch look at the two nationalist leaders? In independence and self-rule. a more authentic nationalist battle the article, Bhagat Singh pronounces Bhagat Singh says that for Bose, against the British. The same with Bose as an emotional Bengali, a international politics matters only Bhagat Singh. He courted and chose devotee of the ancient culture of to the extent that it addresses the death over life. Nehru outlived them India, and regards Nehru to be an question of India’s defence and its both, using cunning to enjoy power. internationalist. In his view, Bose is development. On the other hand, It was he who kept Bose away from a soft-hearted romantic and Nehru Nehru has come out of the narrow India: so scared was he that he even a revolutionary. After reading the confines of nationalism and into the asked his spy agencies to keep the speeches of the two leaders at the open fields of internationalism. After whole of Bose family under watch. Amritsar and Maharashtra Congress comparing the two leaders’ thoughts, But how did Bhagat Singh see sessions, Bhagat Singh says that Bhagat Singh asks: “Now that we 4 JANATA, October 14, 2018 know their views, we must make of dejection and defeat they do not the source, they said, well, this our choice.” Bose, according to him, get deviated.” article was not significant enough. has nothing to give to the youth to This article of Bhagat Singh is The clarity with which Bhagat quench their intellectual thrust. He ignored even by the Left. A few years Singh could see the danger of the has nothing for their mind. ago, I was asked by my friend Kavita narrow and militant nationalism of Srivastava, a well-known human Bose is amazing. But this is what sets Shunning militant nationalism rights activist, to write a leaflet on him apart from other revolutionaries. It is remarkable that Bhagat the occasion of the martyrdom day of Three years after the publication Singh was not impressed by the Bhagat Singh. I had quoted heavily of this article, Bhagat Singh was nationalist rhetoric of Bose and from this article to give a glimpse of hanged. Nearly 12 years after this, finds Nehru intellectually more the intellectual make-up of Bhagat Bose was to flee India to shake challenging and satisfying. The Singh. I found to my shock that the hands with some of the biggest war youth of Punjab need intellectual organisers of the event who were criminals. Bhagat Singh’s fears nourishment badly and they can to use this leaflet had deleted these about Bose were confirmed. He was get it only from Nehru: “Panjabi portions. Srivastava explained that not there to see them come true. How youth should go with him [Nehru] Leftist friends of the forum refused is it that we refuse to see them even to understand the real meaning of to believe that these were Bhagat today? revolution… The youth should firm Singh’s thoughts. When told about Email: [email protected] up their thought so that in the times The Mahatma and the Earth: Gandhi’s Ecological Vision

Vandana Shiva The Earth has enough for significantly, violent economies I have taken inspiration from 3 everyone’s needs but not for a few need violent governance where principles that Gandhi distilled people’s greed. Gandhi distilled his governments pass laws and make from the struggles and practice of ecological wisdom in this famous policies to prevent people from freedom through history—Swaraj saying. using their resources sustainably (self organisation, self rule, freedom Gandhi recognised that and equitablity for their basic needs, as autopoiesis), Swadeshi (self ecological sustainability and in order to ensure that the earth’s making, self reliance and creating socio-economic justice are two resources can be monopolised by local economies) and Satyagraha sides of the same coin because we violent economies of the greed of (force of truth, of creative Civil live in an interconnected world. a few. Disobedience) And he brought his philosophy of While times have changed, the compassion and nonviolence to bear patterns of colonisation stay the Swaraj on our relationship with the earth. same, based on violence, destruction Swaraj is the basis of Real Whenever we engage in of people’s freedoms and economies, Freedom in Nature and Society, production and consumption patterns taking what is not yours, collecting beginning at the smallest level that are non-sustainable, we are unjust rents, creating constructs of and emerging at higher levels. It engaging in violence and triggering divide and rule, and supremacy. allows the thriving of biological and further violence. Nonsustainability On the other hand, the patterns of cultural diversity both of which are leads to taking others share of their liberation and freedom are perennial. under threat today. ecological space, and shrinking And these contours of freedom were “Swaraj” defined India’s ecological space for nature’s comprehensively shaped by Gandhi. freedom movement. It encompassed renewal and other’s rights. A violent Over the past four and a half not just political freedom, but also economic model based on greed decades of serving the earth, ecology economic freedom. Gandhi’s Hind therefore leads to violent conflicts in movements, and building movements Swaraj has been, for me, the best society, and even conflicts between against Corporate Globalisation, teaching on real freedom in the humans and other animals. Most greed and the rule of Big Money, context of Industrialism and Empire. JANATA, October 14, 2018 5

It has become even more relevant the economics of ‘localisation’ and grow indigo.” But it was Gandhi’s in the search for freedom in times local self rule. arrival to support the peasants of of corporate rule (also referred Champaran, and being stopped to as corporate globalisation and Satyagraha by a magistrate on his arrival, that neoliberal economic reform). Satyagraha, or the force of triggered the Satyagraha. truth, is Gandhi’s word for The British had introduced Swadeshi non-cooperation with and non- Salt Laws to prohibit the Indian Swadeshi literally is self making, participation in systems, structures, populace from producing or selling of creating local living economies laws, paradigms and policies that salt independently; instead, Indians based on local resources, indigenous destroy the earth and rob us of our were required to buy expensive, knowledge, and community. It humanity and our freedoms, that heavily taxed salt that often was reduces our ecological footprint crush our potential for compassion imported. To protest against these while enlarging our consciousness and sharing, that atrophy our hearts, unjust laws, Gandhi undertook the and intelligence. It allows the our minds, our hands. Salt March, walked to Dandi Beach, expression of our fullest creativity as The force of truth is the highest picked up salt from the sea saying, human beings and as Earth Citizens. power for change, for freedom “Nature gives it for free, we need it In Swadeshi we are co-creative with from unjust rule, the power to seed for our survival. We will continue nature’s intelligence, creativity, freedom and through our freedom, to make salt. We will not obey and regenerative potential, and the seed the future. your laws.” The Salt Satyagraha creativity and intelligence of our As Gandhi said, As long as the spread rapidly to the forest regions, fellow human beings. Co-creativity superstition exists that unjust laws and became the Forest Satyagraha with nature creates abundance by must be obeyed, so long will slavery against the British appropriation of combining production, conservation, exist. community forests. Chipko, which renewal, and regeneration in one Gandhi first used Satyagraha I call my university of ecology, had continuous cyclical and circular in South Africa in 1906 to refuse its roots in the Forest Satyagraha of economy of permanence, based on to cooperate with the laws of 1930 in Tilari in Garhwal. The Salt the law of return, of giving back the apartheid regime imposing Satyagraha inspired Navdanya’s to nature and society, on sharing compulsory registration on the Seed Satyagraha and Seed Freedom and caring. This is the foundation basis of race. The contemporary movement. of sustainability. It is not a linear movements against apartheid— Satyagraha, the force of truth, is extractive economy that is polluting, “separation”—on the basis of more important than ever in our age degrading to the planet and to human religion and race, are a continuation of “post truth”. Satyagraha was, and communities. of the spirit of Gandhi, Mandela, has always been, about awakening Swadeshi is the core of economic Martin Luther King. our conscience, our inner power, to democracy. It is the source of Real When Gandhi returned to India resist external, brute power. It is an Wealth, of well being and happiness from South Africa in 1915, he was autopoeitic response to an externally for all. called to Champaran by our freedom imposed cruel and unjust system. Swadeshi is based on local fighters—like Dr Rajendra Prasad, Satyagraha is the deepest economies that grow into national who became the President of India practice of democracy, a “No” from economies, and finally into a after we gained Independence—to the highest consciousness—the planetary economy, in alignment strengthen the movement of peasants moral duty to not cooperate with with nature and people’s real against the forced cultivation of unjust and brute law and exploitative freedoms, and real wealth creation Indigo . and undemocratic processes because and well being at every level. 2017 was the hundredth there are higher ecological and While the international financial anniversary of the Indigo Satyagraha laws of humanity we must obey and trade organisations coerce and in Champaran. The Indigo Satyagraha to be members of one planet, one push the government into a blind was based on the refusal to grow humanity. and indiscriminate experiment with Indigo. The peasants had repeatedly globalisation, Gandhi reminds us of said, “We would rather die than Email: [email protected] 6 JANATA, October 14, 2018

Declaration (edited by us) adopted by National Convention of Workers 28 September 2018, Mavlankar Hall, New Delhi

The National Convention increasing its onslaught on the rights survey conducted by the Labour of Workers jointly called by the and livelihood of the working people Ministry has been discontinued. ten Central Trade Unions, in of the country. Both the organised The anti-labour authoritarian association with all independent as well as unorganised sectors are character of the government is National Federations of Workers victims alike. all the more evident in its refusal and Employees, of both Industrial Unemployment situation is to implement even the consensus and Service sectors viz., Banks, getting aggravated with employment recommendations (in which the Insurance, Central Government generation practically turned negative Government was also a party) and State Government employees, even in the most labour intensive of the successive Indian Labour Defence Production employees etc., sectors. The phenomenon of closure Conferences (ILC) in respect of expresses serious concern over the and shut-down of industries and equal pay and benefits for equal deteriorating situation in the national the forecast of huge job-loss in the work for contract workers, economy due to the pro- corporate, IT sector is adding fuel to the fire. formulation of minimum wage anti-national and anti-people policies Price-rise of petroleum products and based on the norms agreed by 15th pursued by the Central Government, essential commodities, including ILC / Supreme Court Judgment and grievously impacting the livelihood public transport, electricity, grant of workers' status for scheme of the working people across the medicines, etc, is increasing pressure workers, viz., Anganwadi, Mid- country. on daily life of the people in general, Day-Meal, ASHA, MGNREGA and This National Convention leading to widening as well as domestic workers etc. Shockingly, unanimously condemns in deepening of impoverishment. The the present Government is even strongest terms the conspiratorial implementation of GST has further refusing to implement the recent and authoritarian attack of the compounded the hardships. Even judgments of the Supreme Court present Government to deprive the essential and lifesaving medicines on the most genuine issue of "equal biggest Central Trade Union in the have been subjected to hefty wage and benefits for equal work" country, the Indian National Trade GST. Drastic cut in Government and on EPS, 1995 on contribution Union Congress (INTUC) from expenditure in social sector and and calculation of pension on actual all representations in the tripartite various welfare schemes has made pay and dearness allowance. and bipartite fora and committees, the condition of workers, particularly In the vast construction sector, including the international forum. those in unorganised sector, more which has a huge unorganised This is nothing but a severe and precarious. workforce, the government is not heinous onslaught on the rights of The estimates by independent taking proper action on the ruling the entire trade union movement. surveys and those sponsored by of the Supreme Court regarding The Convention notes with utter employers' organisations revealed construction workers cess fund dismay that the Government has been loss of 70 lakh jobs because of and its utilisation in the interest of continuing to arrogantly ignore the closure of 2.34 lakh small factory the construction workers. Nearly 12 point Charter of Demands being units in the first few months after 2.5% of the population of every city jointly pursued by the entire trade demonetisation. The livelihood loss are the street vendors. The Street union movement of the country. of another 6 crore people in informal Vendors (Protection of Livelihood Despite numerous nationwide joint economy and about 17 lakh job losses and Regulating Street Vending) Act, strike actions, the most prominent in organised sector speaks about the 2014 has been enacted to protect being those of 2 September 2015 grim ground reality. Faced with such them, but it is being systematically and 2 September 2016, participated pathetic records, the Government is scuttled. by crores of workers against the busy concocting statistics to make Despite opposition of all the policies of the Governments, the fraudulent claims on employment trade unions in the country, the ruling regime at the centre has been generation. The regular employment government has been aggressively JANATA, October 14, 2018 7 pushing through its programme products so long being produced to be hiked, hurting the common of pro-employer and anti-worker by the Ordinance establishments, people and benefiting the private labour law reforms. It has decided to including weapons and critical profiteers. amalgamate 44 hard-earned Central equipments,. More than 250 items The exposures of various Labour Laws and replace them by manufactured by Ordnance Factories corruptions by the BJP led NDA four anti-worker, pro-employer have been notified as non-core. Government at the centre shows the Labour Codes to allow the employers Orders are being given to private real face of the ruling clique, the to ‘hire and fire’ in the name of 'Ease players for supply of some of these latest being the unearthing of the of doing Business', 'Make in India', items. Government is determined Rafael deal, which is the biggest 'Start Up', etc. This is going to to close down 5 Ordnance Factories scam to date. impose conditions of slavery on the manufacturing items used by our Public Sector Banks are under working people. The latest onslaught soldiers and officers and this would attack through various legislative is the move to evolve a 'Social render thousands of workers jobless, and executive measures. The Security Code' by dismantling and including 1600 female tailors. ultimate target of the government is demolishing the existing statutory The move to privatise the defence privatisation and extending undue Social Security infrastructure sector will destroy manufacturing favours to the very same private under Employees Provident Fund capability and research initiatives corporate crooks whose default in Organisation, Coal Mines Provident developed by the country over last paying back the loans given to them Fund and Employees State Insurance six and half decades. has put the banking sector in severe Corporation and many other welfare Step by step, the government difficulties. Instead of addressing statutes, abolition of welfare related is moving to completely privatise the problems of NPA and acting cess, and usurp the huge social the railways. Operating private against the corporate defaulters, the security fund contributed to by the trains on the existing tracks built government is going ahead with its workers, amounting to more than Rs by railways is being permitted. scheme of merger of banks, which 24 lakh crore and make it available Private operators are being offered in reality will lead to closure of for speculation in share market under free access to railway yards, sheds numerous branches, resulting in job- the most deceptive and fraudulent and workshops for maintenance of losses and narrowing of the outreach camouflage of 'universalisation of private coaches, wagons and engines of the PSU Banks. social security'. etc. Already 23 railway stations, all NPAs have crossed Rs 13 lakh The proposed code on in metro cities, have been shortlisted crore. After Vijay Mallya, now Occupational Safety & Health for privatisation. More than 600 Neerav Modi and Mehul Choksy (OSH) is very dangerous move Railway Stations along with land have also dodged the Indian system related to Occupational Safety and around them have been identified for and run away after looting Indian Health including the welfare of the development through private players people's money. The government factory and service sector working in the name of "redevelopment of brought the FRDI Bill, which was class. Railway Stations and land around opposed tooth and nail by the unions, Privatisation of all strategic them". Workers not only in Railways forcing the government to withdraw PSUs, including defence production, but in all Government and Public it. But now the government has public sector banks and insurance, Sector Undertakings shall be the come out with the ‘Insolvency and railways, public road transport, worst victims of privatisation in Bankruptcy Code’, which is aimed oil, power, steel, coal, etc. through terms of job security, democratic at allowing corporate defaulters to disinvestment, strategic sale, trade union rights and protection default on a major part of their debt outsourcing in favour of private of achievements in the areas of under the camouflage of so-called sector, promoting 100 per cent pay, perks, social security, etc. "resolution process of insolvency". FDI in many vital and strategic Like Central Electricity Regulatory Banks will get back hardly 30 per sectors is increasing day by day. Authority (CERC), a Railway cent of their due loan amount. This Stripping all the cash rich PSUs of Development Authority (RDA) is another big scam in the making the investible cash reserves is an has been created. Given the sky- which would further damage the added assault. The worst and most rocketing increase in electricity tariff crises ridden economy. dubious step of all is the game plan by CERC, under RDA too, railway Attempts are being made by to outsource more than 50 percent fare and goods freight are poised many state governments to dismantle 8 JANATA, October 14, 2018 public sector road transport by issues. It is disrupting the unity of INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, issuing route-permits to private the workers and the toiling people, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, parties. The central government so vital to carry forward the ongoing LPF, UTUC, and Independent intends to get the new Motor Vehicle struggles against the anti-people Federations / Associations Of (Amendment) Bill 2017 hastily policies of the government. Working Workers And Employees passed in the Parliament, which will class must raise its strong voice of allow wholesale privatisation of road protest. 12 Point Charter Of Demands transport on the one hand and impose This anti-people, anti-workers 1. Urgent measures for draconian measures on the road and anti-national policy regime has containing price-rise through transport workers, including those not only been imposing increasing universalisation of public in private sector. The Rajasthan miseries on the toiling people at distribution system and banning Road Transport Workers Union is large, it is also severely damaging speculative trade in commodity spearheading a militant struggle the national economy and destroying market. against a precursor of this bill (Road its indigenous productive and 2. Containing unemployment Transport & Safety Bill, 2014) by manufacturing capabilities to serve through concrete measures for forging alliance with other trade the interests of the multinational employment generation. unions in the sector. This Convention companies with Indian corporates as 3. Strict enforcement of all condemns the state governments’ their junior partner. This anti-people basic labour laws without any and Central Government's anti- and anti-national policy regime exception or exemption and people and anti-worker moves in the must be defeated squarely to force stringent punitive measures for transport sector. pro-people changes in policies on violation of labour laws. The National Convention of all fronts. 4. Universal social security cover Workers extends full solidarity to For this, the task before the for all workers. the fighting farmers in various states Joint Platform of Central Trade 5. Minimum wages of not less as well as under the Joint National Unions and independent national than Rs 18,000/- per month with Forums of Peasants' Organisations, federations is to further intensify the provisions of indexation. and also the struggle of STs for surging struggles in various sectors 6. Assured enhanced pension not implementation of Forest Rights through a concerted united agitation less than Rs 3,000/- per mont for Act, 2006. It is the same set of pro- and mobilisation at national level the entire working population. corporate, pro-landlord policies to be followed by countrywide 7. Stoppage of disinvestment / which have created a severe crisis general strike action as a culmination strategic sale of Central/State in agriculture, biggest livelihood and consolidation of all sectoral PSUs. provider in the economy, leading struggles. The National Convention 8. Stoppage of contractorisation to continuing suicides of farmers in of workers therefore adopts the in permanent perennial work the country. following programmes: and payment of same wage and This National Convention l State level, district level and benefits for contract workers as of Workers records its strong industry/sector level joint regular workers for same and denunciation of the communal and conventions to be held during similar work. divisive machinations in society October–November 2018 9. Removal of all ceilings on being carried on with the active l Joint Industry-level gate payment and eligibility of bonus, patronage of the government meetings, rallies, etc. during provident fund; increase in the machinery. The BJP Governments November–December, 2018 quantum of gratuity. are using draconian UAPA, NSA l Two days countrywide General 10. Compulsory registration of trade as well as the agencies of CBI, Strike on 8–9 January 2019. unions within a period of 45 NIA, IT to harass and suppress days from the date of submitting The National Convention calls any dissenting opinions. The peace application; and immediate upon working people across the loving secular people in the country ratification of ILO Conventions sectors and throughout the country C 87 and C 98. are facing a stark situation of terror irrespective of affiliations to make 11. Against Labour Law and insecurity all around. Communal the above programmes a total Amendments. forces are cultivating an atmosphere success. 12. Against FDI in Railways, of conflicts in the society on non- Insurance and Defence. JANATA, October 14, 2018 9

Letter to Editor Killing of Apple Employee Vivek Tiwari and Lawlessness in UP

Umar Khalid In their moment of grief, I wish a month, and were picked up from We should demand that in all to express my complete solidarity their homes, shot dead, and after the cases of encounter killings that with family members of Vivek their death branded as criminals. have taken place in UP, there has to Tiwari. His killing by the trigger They had no crime record in the be an independent investigation. The happy UP police is a direct outcome past. It is so easy to kill someone UP police or any other investigative of the policy of complete impunity and then brand them as criminals. agency that comes under the direct given by the Yogi Adityanath to the Moreover, can the claims of UP be control of BJP led goverments police to kill citizens. We can’t even ever taken on face value? The same can’t be expected to carry out a fair imagine the pain and grief of Vivek’s UP police that a few days back beat enquiry. An enquiry, under a sitting family. But it is time we ask some up a woman for being friends with judge, has to be initiated to reach the difficult questions to the lawless a Muslim man? The same UP police truth of each encounter killing. The Yogi government. that supervised the lynching of onus is on the police to prove that Even as media has woken up to Qasim in Hapur? There is complete they actually shot in self-defense. the reality of fake encounters, they breakdown of law and order in Uttar After all, the dead can’t come back are not reporting that there have been Pradesh under Yogi Raj! to prove their innocence. over 1400 encounters in UP since Yogi Adiyanath became the CM. Prof. G. D. Agarwal dies in efforts to save the Ganga Vivek Tiwari is the 68th person to die at the hands of the trigger happy UP Prof. G.D. Agarwal, who has environmental causes. police ever Yogi Adityanath became been on an indefinite fast since Dr. Agarwal has died due to the CM. Just two days back, some 22nd June demanding effective the callousness of the Government of us from #UnitedAgainstHate action to clean Ganga, has died of not taking action to stop the river’s had gone to the meet the family a cardiac arrest at the age of 86. pollution. He has also died due to members of Mustakeem (22 years Dr. Agarwal refused to take the unwillingness of the Judiciary water two days ago, as none of the old) and Naushad (17 yrs), two to enforce multiple rulings about State Governments of the Gangetic tackling the river’s pollution. From youth who had been shot dead in a basin, the Central Environment the high reaches of the Himalayas fake encounter in Aligarh about 9 Ministry, the Water Resources to the Bay of Bengal, this mighty days back. The police had not only Ministry or the Prime Minister’s river is being intensely polluted killed the two youth (one of them Office did anything at all to respond and and its watershed extensively a minor), they had terrorised the to his Sathyagraha and take action destroyed. Yet, no one has gone to family members (all women). The to clean the Ganga and save her jail. But the one man who gave inhumanity of the government can for posterity. Dr. Agarwal also everything he could to save the be gauged from the fact that when demanded government must stop river, has now been put to death. we reached their homes, the family construction of hydroelectric We must force the Government of the deceased was without food for projects along the river’s tributaries to take immediate steps to stop almost 2 days as the police was not and enact the Ganga Protection destroying the Ganga, and all other allowing anyone to meet them, or Management Act to ensure the river rivers. The Indian Government is even give them food. The police had has a chance to come back to life. seriously compromising the nation’s raided their homes and had seized all Dr. Agarwal has served as a ecological, economic and health their identity proofs such as Aadhar faculty member of IIT Kanpur, security by promoting reckless dam card and PAN cards. guided the Central Pollution building, over extraction of water, In each case of encounter killing Control Board as Member Secretary deforestation, wanton industrial prior to Vivek’s killing, the police has in taking tough action against and urban pollution, sand mining, justified its action stating that they industrial and urban polluters, and river linking, and promoting land- had gunned down dreaded criminals. ensure our rivers flow free and use changes destroying riverine Naushad and Mustakeem were poor healthy. He inspired thousands by watersheds. This must end. labourers earning 2000–2500 rupees his ascetic life and dedication to 10 JANATA, October 14, 2018 India’s Private Banks and Private Investors: False Theory, Dangerous Consequences

Hemindra Hazari India’s private sector banks were shareholders’ interests. Under the directors, played the role of either held up for years as the standard of eagle eye of private investors, mute spectators or cheerleaders for efficency and corporate governance corporate governance standards in the delinquent managements. to which public sector banks should these banks would rise. What has not been remarked aspire. But now it emerges that on is that this has happened despite private bank after private bank has Private sector governance on significant foreign institutional in fact been harbouring bad debts, display holding in these listed entities, and fudged accounts, engaged in corrupt Indeed, a few years ago, the despite the presence of prestigious deals and gross mismanagement, and Committee to Review Governance foreign and domestic institutional overly paid CEOs and delinquent of Boards of Banks in India (the investors’ nominee directors on boards. Nayak Committee) raised the alarm the board of the IL&FS (which is These revelations should not over the “fragile” state of bad debt- unlisted). Where scattered, less- be treated as an unrelated series of ridden public sector banks (PSBs). In informed shareholders might not be incidents. It is time to question the its Report of May 2014, it contrasted able to influence the management theoretical underpinnings of the the weak and disempowered state of of a firm, these were cases of Reserve Bank of India’s hitherto PSB boards with the relatively active concentrated, well-informed, and at ‘hands off’ style of regulating these and engaged nature of the boards times board-represented investors. banks. And time for us to realise of private sector banks. It therefore According to the reigning dogma, that what goes on inside the banks recommended that the government the significant foreign and domestic concerns not only the banks but the stake in all PSBs be brought below institutional ownership in these economy as a whole. 50 per cent. Further, it called for the entities should have resulted in better According to the currently creation of a category of Authorised corporate governance standards in reigning economic doctrine, self- Bank Investors, who could hold them, failing which they would have interest ensures efficient outcomes. a stake of 20 per cent in the bank been disciplined by the market. But We are told that the private sector, without regulatory approvals, or 15 in reality, no such thing took place. acting in its rational self-interest, per cent if they also had a seat on the chooses wisely, but the public sector bank board. Cooking the books tends to be guided by political This notion of the superior In the case of Axis Bank, on July pressures and corruption. Hence quality of private sector governance 27, 2017, nearly 10 months before the alleged “phone banking” of has not fared too well in the last few Shikha Sharma’s (managing director government-owned banks: that is, months. The newspaper reading and CEO of Axis Bank) term was public sector bankers were said to public has witnessed the spectacle coming to an end, the board of have taken credit decisions based of Chanda Kochhar’s brazen directors announced a fourth three- on phone calls from bureaucrats conflict of interest at ICICI Bank, year term for her, commencing from and politicians for favoured Shikha Sharma’s mismanagement June 1, 2018. This was after the bank industrialists. at Axis Bank, the lack of accounting had reported a 56 per cent fall in net Correspondingly, the reigning integrity at both Axis Bank and profits for the year ended March 31, doctrine presumes that when banks at Rana Kapoor’s Yes Bank, and 2017, and simultaneously reported are listed on the capital market, and the complete collapse of corporate that it had fudged its accounts for foreign and institutional investors governance by Ravi Parthasarthy’s the year ended March 31, 2016 by buy sizeable stakes in them, the team at Infrastructure Leasing & overstating its net profits and under- boards and managements of these Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS). reporting its non-performing loans. banks would exercise due diligence, In all these cases, the boards of the Shareholders received a further ensure transparency and protect banks, decorated with ‘independent’ jolt a few months later on October JANATA, October 14, 2018 11

17, 2017, when the bank reported meeting held on June 12, 2018 15 per cent by March 31, 2020. In that the Reserve Bank of India had with an “overwhelming majority” all, that amounts to an extension of found that Axis had misreported approved the decision. The majority five years. As on June 30, 2018 the its financials for March 31, 2017 shareholders, consisting of foreign promoter’s stake in KMB was 30 per as well. and private sector institutional cent while foreign portfolio investors In the capital market, cooking investors who manage other people’s was 39.93 per centand Indian mutual the books is meant to be an money, were content to appoint a funds was 6.85 per cent. extremely serious offence, as the serial mis-reporter for another 3-year Thus as KMB’s share price market valuation of companies is term. has consistently risen (from Rs said to be based on the financial Interestingly, the Nayak 657 as on March 31, 2015 to Rs accounts, as is senior management’s Committee did mention the 1,342 as on June 30, 2018), the compensation. Therefore, following incentives for ‘evergreening’ (i.e., regulator’s forbearance has resulted any mis-statement of accounts, covering up bad debt by extending in a huge notional loss to the non- the board should have held the more loans to the borrower to avoid promoter shareholders of KMB, CEO responsible and removed the default) in private banks, and it and corresponding undue gain to individual, and if the board failed called for some measure of RBI the promoters. The undue gain is to do it, institutional shareholders random inspection to check this. estimated by this writer to be $ 2.3 should have exerted pressure on But this point of the Committee’s bn (Rs 156 bn, or Rs 15,600 crore). the board to adopt this stringent report, however inadequate, has been This analysis factors the gains punishment. The shareholding selectively buried, and only its pro- (capital + dividends) accruing to pattern of Axis Bank on July 21, ‘liberalisation’ recommendations the promoters by not selling their 2017 reveals foreign holding of have been publicised. excessive shareholding (i.e. beyond 52.55 per cent and Indian mutual 15 per cent) on March 31, 2015. fund holding of 7.54 per cent. Promoter rewards himself at the The foreign portfolio and Indian Despite information in the public cost of shareholders mutual funds did not protest that domain that Axis Bank had fudged The case of Kotak Mahindra this huge gain could have accrued results for the year ended March Bank (KMB) is also interesting. to them instead of the promoter if 31, 2016, not only did the board In its February 28, 2005 guideline, the RBI had insisted on the promoter prematurely announce a fourth the RBI emphasised diversified shareholding being reduced to 15 per three-year term for Shikha Sharma, ownership, and laid down that a cent by March 31, 2015. Worse, in an but the majority of shareholders single entity or group of related audacious move, the board of KMB did not seem to object to such an entities could hold a maximum of issued ‘preference capital’, which is individual being appointed by the 10 per cent in a bank; higher levels akin to debt and has no ownership board for a fourth term. required RBI approval. and voting rights, and tried to include A similar story unfolded in Thereafter, as per the RBI’s it in ‘paid-up capital’. They thereby Yes Bank, where the bank reported revised guidelines for licensing claimed that, following this issue, two successive years of fudged of new private banks issued on the promoter stake came to 19.7 per accounts for the years ended March February 22, 2013, it stated that the cent of capital, conforming to the 31, 2016 and 2017. The bank’s promoter should have a maximum RBI norm. The RBI rightly rejected shareholding pattern as on March shareholding of 15 per cent this classification. 31, 2018 shows foreign portfolio “within 12 years from the date of investors’ holding at 42.6 per cent, commencement of business of the Passive ‘sophisticated’ investors Indian mutual funds at 10.3 per cent, bank.” For KMB, the RBI’s latest The combined market and insurance companies (excluding guideline meant that by February, capitalisation of KMB, Axis and Yes Life Insurance Corporation) at 14.2 2015, the promoters’ shareholding Bank, at Rs 417,727 crore, is very per cent. In Yes Bank’s case, not should have been 15 per cent. significant as compared with SBI’s only did the board decide to re- However, for Uday Kotak, the RBI Rs 236,502 crore. In all three cases of appoint the promoter–CEO Rana gave extraordinary ‘regulatory private banks, foreign investors and Kapoor for another 3-year term forbearance’ (i.e. leniency) to reduce Indian mutual funds own collectively commencing September 1, 2018, but the promoter holding in KMB to 20 either the majority of shares, or the shareholders at the annual general per cent by December 31, 2018 and more than the promoter, but in none 12 JANATA, October 14, 2018 of the cases did these shareholders only did the independent directors which the RBI has been following in exert their influence on the board of fail in their responsibilities, but the recent years, particularly for private directors to adopt measures which foreign portfolio investors, Indian banks, is based on the notion of a would benefit the non-promoter mutual funds and private sector perfectly-informed, rational, self- shareholders. In all the three banks, insurance companies also failed to regulating capitalism, and within the board of directors completely influence the management of these that a self-regulating financial failed to protect the non-promoter institutions. sector. That notion should have shareholders’ interests. If it had not Much is made about the lack been debunked once and for all by been for the banking regulator which of corporate governance in the the experience of the global financial rejected the decisions taken by all PSBs and public sector financial crisis which began in 2008; at any three bank board of directors, the institutions, but the recent rate, the current mess in India’s non-promoter shareholders would shenanigans in the private sector private banks has certainly refreshed have lost out. banks and financial institutions that lesson. In IL&FS, an unlisted company reveal that mismanagement is not It is important to realise, focusing on developing infrastructure only rife in the board of directors, but moreover, that the fate of the banks as a project owner and as a financer, that it is tolerated by the institutional cannot be left to their boards. the long reign of mismanagement of investors, whose presence, it was The ‘stakeholders’ in banks are a single CEO finally resulted in huge claimed, would improve corporate not limited to the management losses for the consolidated entity governance and performance. What and shareholders, or even their in the year ended March 31, 2018, then of the claimed benefits of depositors. Banks by their nature and the company began defaulting lowering the government stake in are highly ‘leveraged’ institutions— on its financial obligations by early public sector banks? their borrowings are very high in September 2018. What is interesting relation to their capital, and hence to note is that it had pre-eminent Myths take a beating any sizeable deterioration of a bank’s shareholders who had their nominee The abject failure of major assets threatens the bank itself. At the directors on the board, such as foreign and domestic investors same time, banks are critical to the LIC, Orix Corporation, Abu Dhabi to monitor the banks in which functioning of the whole of a market Investment Authority, State Bank they invested remains something economy—no sector of the economy of India and HDFC. Yet during this of a mystery. Why would profit- can function without finance, and entire duration, senior management oriented investors, endowed with so when there is a banking crisis, remuneration kept increasing, even armies of analysts and with the the entire ‘real economy’ too goes while consolidated losses were power to demand detailed answers into crisis. Even when there is not a rising. Despite having nominee from managements, remain passive full-blown banking crisis, a slump in directors on the board, these spectators as the banks went astray? bank lending, as at present, slows the prominent shareholders presided One possible explanation is that, entire economy. over a company where the important as long as the going remained Hence the ‘stakeholders’ of the risk management committee only good, these investors behaved banking system are all participants met once in the last four years, like any ordinary retail investor. in the economy, that is, the entire and apparently were unconcerned Like consumers who stick with a citizenry. Any laxity with banking at how the business strategy was well-known brand when buying regulation can bring the economy to unravelling. toothpaste or detergent, it seems its knees. This calls for highly active, The purpose of diversified these supposedly sophisticated intrusive, and continuous regulation ownership, listing on the capital investors did not bother to open by the regulatory authorities, in markets and the presence of nominee the lid and look inside the box, particular the Reserve Bank of and independent directors is to but stuck to the big ‘brands’—the India. The sorry story of India’s ensure that the promoter and the management personnel celebrated stellar private banks tells us what executive are kept in check, that they in the media. That is, they preferred happens when, under the spell of do not exceed their authority and that to remain passive rentiers, with no some dubious theory, the RBI fails independent directors protect non- positive role to play. So much for to do that job. promoter shareholder interests. But the mystique of private investment. in all these celebrated companies, not The ‘light touch’ regulation JANATA, October 14, 2018 13 Hating Muslims in the Age of Trump

Juan Cole These days, our global political is, with bewildering rapidity, he that outlandish conspiracy theory alliances seem to shift with suddenly gives us the “good” (that may be part of what lay behind the remarkable rapidity, as if we were is, oil-rich) Muslims again, willingly president’s blatantly unconstitutional actually living in George Orwell’s performing a sword dance with the 2015 call for a “total and complete 1984. Are we at war this month Saudi royals, seemingly entirely shut-down” of Muslims coming to with Oceania? Or is it Eastasia? In comfortable with the scimitar of the the United States. Consider it a great that novel, the Party is able to erase Saracen. irony, then, that some significant part history, sending old newspaper of the turmoil in the greater Middle articles down the Ministry of Truth’s Islamophobes Galore East that helped provoke waves “memory hole” and so ensuring that, While the president oscillates of refugees and an Islamophobic in the public mind, the enemy of between abusing and fawning over backlash here and in Europe was, the moment was always the enemy. the elites of the Muslim world, his at least in part, the creation of this Today, there is one constant, though. true opprobrium is reserved for the country, not Muslim fundamentalist The Trump administration has made poor and helpless. His hatred of madmen. Muslims our enemy of the first refugees uprooted by the horrific The Islamophobes like to argue order and, in its Islamophobia, is Syrian civil war, for instance, that Islam is an inherently violent reinforced by an ugly resurgence of stems from his conviction that religion, that its adherents are quite fascism in Germany, Italy, Hungary this population (predominantly literally commanded to such violence and other European countries. women and children, as well as by its holy scriptures, the Qur’an. It’s It’s hard today even to imagine some men fleeing the fighting) a position that, as I explain in my that, in the late 1980s, the rightwing might actually be adherents of the new book, Muhammad: Prophet of Christian Voice Magazine published so-called Islamic State group (also Peace Amid the Clash of Empires, is a “candidate’s biblical scoreboard,” known as ISIL, ISIS, or Daesh) and both utterly false and ahistorical. As urging its readers (and potential so part of the building of a secretive it happens, you would have to look voters) to rate their politicians paramilitary force in the West. He’s to far more recent realities to find by how “biblically” they cast even speculated that “this could be the impetus for the violence, failed their ballots in Congress. One key one of the great tactical ploys of all states, and spreading terror groups measure of this: Did that legislator time. A 200,000-man army, maybe.” in today’s Greater Middle East. Start support the anti-Communist Muslim This summer, he also tweeted: with the Reagan administration’s jihadis in Afghanistan, a cause “Crime in Germany is way up. decision to deploy rag-tag bands of warmly supported by evangelist Pat Big mistake made all over Europe Muslim extremists (which al-Qaeda Robertson in his 1988 presidential in allowing millions of people in was first formed to support) against campaign? Now, attempting to who have so strongly and violently the Soviet Union in Afghanistan appeal to twenty-first-century changed their culture!” And a day in the 1980s. That set in motion evangelicals, President Trump has later claimed it had risen by 10%. massive turmoil still roiling that announced that “Islam hates us.” Though immigrant communities can country, neighbouring Pakistan, and The kaleidoscope of geopolitics indeed produce some crime until beyond, decades after the fall of the and Islamophobia is now spinning they find their footing, the crime rate Soviet Union. so fast that it should make our heads in Germany, despite the welcoming Of course, al-Qaeda notoriously spin too. At times, it seems as if of two million immigrants in 2015 blew back on America. Its September Donald Trump is the anti-Ronald alone, has fallen to a 30-year low, 11, 2001, attacks on New York Reagan of the twenty-first century, as have crimes by non-German and Washington were then used idolizing former KGB operative nationals. by American neoconservatives Vladimir Putin, but seeing former Nor, of course, is there an army in the administration of George US allies in the Muslim world like of terrorists the size of the active- W. Bush—some of whom had Pakistan as purveyors of “nothing duty forces of France or Italy among served in the Reagan years, cheering but lies and deceit”—until, that those hapless Syrian refugees. Still, on the American-backed Afghan 14 JANATA, October 14, 2018 fundamentalists, as well as their East. Executive Order 13769, were generally not sources of Arab allies—to set the United States President Trump’s abrupt January significant immigration. It was also on a permanent war footing in the 2017 visa ban, which created chaos remarkably arbitrary, since it did not Muslim world. The 2003 invasion of at American airports and provoked include Iraq or Afghanistan, where Iraq, promoted on the false pretext widespread protests and court violent insurgencies and turmoil that Saddam Hussein’s government challenges—many of its elements continue but whose governments supported al-Qaeda, kicked off a were, however, ultimately upheld by host American troops. It does, set of guerrilla insurgencies and the Supreme Court—appears to have however, include the relatively provoked a Sunni-Shiite civil war been premised on the notion that a peaceful country of Iran. that spread in the region. Trojan Horse of Muslim extremism Trump’s Muslim ban has broken Hundreds of thousands would was headed for American shores. up families, even as it harmed die and at least four million people, In reality, the relatively small American businesses and universities including staggering numbers of number of terrorist attacks here whose employees (or in the case children, would be displaced over by Muslim-Americans (covered so of colleges, students) have been the years thanks to George W. Bush’s much more intensively than the more abruptly barred from the country. boondoggle. The al-Qaeda franchise common mass shootings by white The restrictions on immigration from ISIL (formed initially as al-Qaeda in nationalists) have most often been Syria and Yemen are particularly Iraq in the wake of the US invasion) carried out by “lone wolves” who cruel, since those lands face the arose to expel American troops “self-radicalised” on the Internet most extreme humanitarian crises there. Ultimately, its militants made and who, had they been white, on the planet and the United States inroads in neighboring Syria in 2011 would simply have been viewed as has been deeply implicated in the and 2012 and the US allowed them mentally unbalanced. violence in both of them. Moreover, to grow in hopes of putting pressure Still, realities of that sort don’t Iranians who do emigrate to the US on the Syrian government of Bashar make a dent in the president’s are, for the most part, members of al-Assad. agenda. In 2018, the Trump minorities or political dissidents. In As is now all too clear, such administration will likely only fact, no nationals from any of those policies created millions of refugees, admit about 20,000 refugees, far five banned states have committed some of whom streamed towards less than last year’s 45,000, thanks lethal acts of terrorism in the United Europe, only to be greeted by a to administration demands that the States in the last 40 years. rising tide of white Christian bigotry FBI carry out “extreme vetting” of The Islamophobia of President and neo-Nazism. There’s no way all applicants without being given Trump, Secretary of State Mike to measure the degree to which any extra resources to do so. Of the Pompeo, National Security Advisor America’s wars across the Greater refugees admitted in the first half of John Bolton, and others in the Middle East and North Africa have, this year, only about one in six was a administration, aided and abetted in fact, changed our world. When, Muslim, while in 2016, when 84,995 by the megaphone that Rupert for instance, British Prime Minister refugees were admitted, they were Murdoch’s Fox News offers, has had Tony Blair signed on to Bush’s equally divided between Christians a distinct impact on public opinion. illegal invasion and occupation of and Muslims. Attacks on Muslim-Americans Iraq, how could he have foreseen On average, the US still admits a have, for instance, spiked back to that he was helping set off events that little more than a million immigrants 2001 levels. A recent poll found would result in a British withdrawal annually, of which refugees are a that some 16% of Americans from the European Union (a decision small (and decreasing) proportion. want to deny the vote to Muslim- in which anti-immigrant sentiment Since 2010, more immigrants have Americans, 47% support Trump’s played an outsized role)—and so the come from Asia than any other area, visa restrictions, and a majority diminishment of his country? some 45% of them with college would like all mosques to be kept Having helped spread extremism degrees, which means that Trump’s under surveillance. (A frequent, if and set in motion massive population very image of immigrants is wrong. completely false, talking point of displacements, Western elites then His ban on immigrants from five the Islamophobes is that Muslims developed a profound fear of the Muslim-majority countries (Iran, here have a single ideology and are millions of refugees they had Syria, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia) focused on a secret plan to take over helped chase out of the Middle was largely symbolic, since they the United States.) You undoubtedly JANATA, October 14, 2018 15 won’t be surprised to learn that such 1990s were hard on the Republican Hunter (indicted for embezzling unhinged conspiracy theories are far Party and its plutocrats (with a $250,000 in campaign funds) more prevalent among Republicans popular Clinton in the White House), continues to broadly insinuate that than Democrats and independents. and on the arms manufacturers facing his opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, Similarly unsurprising is the a public increasingly uninterested in a Christian American of Palestinian fact that Americans in the Trump foreign adventurism with no sense and Mexican descent, is a Muslim era give a lower favorability rating of threat from abroad. The Pentagon Brotherhood infiltrator seeking to to Muslim-Americans (a little over budget was even briefly cut in enter Congress. 1% of the US population) than those years, producing what was Still, despite all the sound and to virtually any other religious or then called a “peace dividend.” (It fury from the White House, the US ethnic group (though feminists and wasn’t.) And though it’s now hard to Muslim population continues to evangelicals are runners-up). By imagine, in 1995 the United States grow because of immigration and a spread of about 20 points, they was not involved in a conventional natural increase. Over the past 30 believe that Muslim-Americans are hot war anywhere in the world. years, between 3,000 and 13,000 both more religious than Christian In this no-longer-so-new immigrants have arrived annually Americans and less likely to respect century, the Republican Party, from Egypt, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the country’s ideals and laws. like the Trump presidency, did, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Turkey, and They slam Muslims for according however, find the bogeyman it a handful of other countries. Their women and gays low status, though needed and it looks remarkably like governments are close geopolitical a majority of Muslim-Americans a modernised version of the rabidly allies of the US and to interdict say that homosexuals should be anti-Communist McCarthyism of their nationals would be politically accepted in society, a belief that the 1950s. In fact, the endless embarrassing, as Trump discovered Muslim-American women hold in demonisation of Muslims may be when he attempted to include Iraq the same percentages as the rest less a cudgel to wield against the on his list of banned countries and of the American public. As for small Muslim-American community was persuaded to change his mind those women, they are among the than against Democratic opponents by Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. best educated of any faith group in who can be lambasted as “soft on Of course, not all Americans the country, suggesting extremely terrorism” if they resist demands share Trump’s bigotry. Two- supportive families. to demonise Muslims and their thirds of us actually disapprove of In reality, Muslim-Americans are religion. politicians engaging in hate speech remarkably well integrated into this In my own state of Michigan, toward Muslims. Some 55% of us country and have committed little Elissa Slotkin, an acting assistant believe that Muslim-Americans terrorism here. In the past decade secretary of defense for international are committed to the welfare of and a half, on average, 28 Muslim- security affairs in the Obama the country, a statistic that would Americans a year were associated years and a former CIA analyst, break the 60% mark if it weren’t with acts of violent extremism out of is running as a Democrat in the for evangelicals. Two Muslim- a population of 3.5 million and most 8th District against Congressman American politicians, Rashida Tlaib of those “acts” involved traveling Mike Bishop. Slotkin played a and Ilhan Omar, won Democratic abroad to join radical movements. role in developing the anti-ISIL primaries in Detroit and Minneapolis Muslim-American extremists killed strategies that Trump adopted when and so are poised to become the first 17 people in 2017, a year in which he came into office. Nonetheless, Muslim-American women in the white gunmen killed 267 Americans our airwaves are now saturated with House of Representatives. in mass shootings. pro-Bishop ads smearing Slotkin, Such an outcome would be one a third-generation Michigander, way in which Americans could begin Changing Bogeymen for her supposed involvement in to reply to the wave of Islamophobia The Islamophobia that Donald President Obama’s Iran nuclear that helped lift Donald Trump Trump has made his own arose in deal and so for being little short of a into office in 2016 and has only the decade after the collapse of the Shiite terrorist herself. Similarly, in intensified since then. The decency Soviet Union, once the bogeyman of San Diego, California’s 50th district, of Middle America has certainly Communism was removed from the the scandal-ridden campaign of been tarnished, but as the polls quiver of the American Right. The Republican Congressman Duncan indicate, not lost. Not yet anyway. R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 16 JANATA, October 14, 2018 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2018 Published on Sunday, October 14, 2018 & Posted on Wedenesday, October 17, 2018 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 73 No. 39 Sacrifice at the Altar of Development October 21, 2018

Unraveling the Truth: Medha Patkar and Sandeep Pandey Gujarat Carnage 2002 The legendary Professor Guru 2017 and updated it in 2018. The two Ram Puniyani Das Agrawal, who got promoted draft Bills however, differed in their Jayaprakash Narayan: from a Lecturer directly to Professor basic perspectives. An Idealist Betrayed – Part I at the prestigious Indian Institute of During his sixth and last fast, M. G. Devasahayam Technology at Kanpur after having Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand wrote finished his Ph.D. from University to PM Narendra Modi on 5 August Under the Yoke of Neo- of California at Berkeley in two 2018 that whereas the National Imperialism: A Fake War of years, who had laid the foundation of Environmental Appellate authority Patriotism and Treason Prem Singh India's anti-pollution regimen as the of the previous Manmohan Singh first Member-Secretary of Central government had suspended the How South Africa’s Pollution Control Board, and who Lohari Nagpala hydroelectric project Shack Dwellers’ Movement had become Swami Gyan Swaroop on his clearly articulated demands, Is Fighting Back Sanand in 2011 at the age of 79 despite some construction having Celina della Croce years, ultimately failed to convince taken place there, and declared a Scientists Warn Extinction a government about his viewpoint length of over hundred kilometres Now Outpaces Evolution on rejuvenation of river Ganga and of Bhagirathi from Gangotri to Cheyenne Macdonald had to pay for this with his life. He Uttarkashi as an Eco-Sensitive died on 11 October 2018 after 112 Zone, which means no destructive days of fasting on lemon water and activity could take place here, the Editor : G. G. Parikh honey, last three days of which were present government had not done Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain without any water at all. a thing for conservation of Ganga It may be intriguing why the even after four and a half years of Managing Editor : Guddi government, which rode to power being in power. He repeated his four Editorial Board : on a Hindutva agenda, did not listen demands which he had intimated to B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali to a Hindu saint, on an issue of PM before going on fast: (1) The Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah ecological and religious significance draft prepared by him along with Nandu Dhaneshwar, of Ganga, which was at the core of Advocate M.C. Mehta and Paritosh Sandeep Pandey Prime Minister's election campaign. Tyagi, among others, be placed Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand had before and passed by the Parliament; D-15, Ganesh Prasad, put forward a draft for National (2) All under-construction and Naushir Bharucha Marg, River Ganga ji (Conservation and proposed hydroelectric projects on Mumbai - 400 007. Management) Act in 2012. The streams directly flowing into Ganga Email : [email protected] government came up with The in the upper reaches, downstream Website:www.janataweekly.org National River Ganga (Rejuvenation, and its tributaries be scrapped with Protection and Management) Bill in immediate effect; (3) All mining and 2 JANATA, October 21, 2018 deforestation activities be banned believed that to preserve the unique as is now well established, yields in the Ganga basin; and (4) Form a qualities of water of Ganga—its sufficient kickbacks to fund the Ganga Bhakt Parishad whose aim non-putrefying, disease destroying, next electoral cycle. Hence even would be to work to protect the health enhancing and pollution though a senior functionary of interests of Ganga. He never heard destroying properties—it was Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, from the PM till his death, even necessary to ensure its Aviral flow. who tried to mediate, said he agreed though during his fifth fast in 2013, Similarly, Nirmal doesn't mean theoretically with Professor G.D. Rajnath Singh as the then Bhartiya merely meeting the standards Agrawal's vision on Ganga, the Janata Party president had promised on water quality related to pH compulsions of realpolitik sealed to him that all his demands related to (measure of acidity or alkalinity), the fate of Professor G.D. Agrawal Ganga would be met if the BJP came Dissolved Oxygen, Biological and by extension that of Ganga. This to power at the Centre. Oxygen Demand, Chemical Oxygen threat will loom large on life and Professor Agrawal wanted Demand, Total Dissolved Solids, livelihoods of people living in other Ganga to be declared a national Free Chlorine and Total Chlorine or river valleys too. symbol. His main emphasis was on water treated by Reverse Osmosis Professor Agrawal had fasted five conservation of Ganga in its natural process and Ultraviolet rays. He times during the United Progressive pristine glory, unobstructed natural concluded scientifically that the Alliance regime. However, he never flow, which he called asAviral , and special 'self-cleaning' property faced a threat to his life. The only unpolluted water quality, which he of Ganga and its unique coliform time he fasted during the National described as Nirmal. He wanted a destroying capabilities were because Democratic Alliance government's ban on discharge of any untreated of the presence of bacteriophages, tenure proved fatal for him. This also or treated sewage or industrial large amounts of exo-cellular demonstrates that the development effluents in Ganga. Another of his polymers coming from trees present paradigm is not sensitive to socio- demands was complete prohibition in Himalayan uplands, unique mix cultural issues, including religion, of incineration of any kind of solid of heavy and radioactive metals, or environmental issues, in spite of waste, setting up of units discharging and ultra fine silt or micro nucleii in the PM having won a United Nations pollutants, deforestation, illegal the water. It is essentially the rocks, award, and is more brazenly pro- stone quarrying and sand mining, sediment and vegetation, including corporate and less humane under the building of river-front development medicinal plants or ecology of the present government. structures and use of chemicals upper region, that contributes to the The vacuum created by Professor or hazardous substances in the special property of Ganga described G.D. Agrawal's demise is unfillable. vicinity of Ganga. These have as Nirmal. Where is another strong voice for become necessary if any river is Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Ganga? To many religious minded to be protected against destruction Water Resources, Riven Basin people, Professor G.D. Agrawal and degradation. It is important to Development and Ganga appeared to be in the mould of know that Professor G.D. Agrawal's Rejuvenation, is known to have the mythological figure Bhagirath, important learnings emerged from publicly said that he understands almost single-handedly taking up his engineering experience with the concept of Nirmal but not that the cause of Ganga. the Rihand dam while working for of Aviral. It is quite obvious that A true condolence to him would the Uttar Pradesh State Irrigation accepting Professor Agrawal's be to brace ourselves for fight Department. concept of Aviral would disallow against governments which believe As a true scientist, Professor construction of any more dams. in concept of ‘development’ with Agrawal precisely defined Aviral Another view emanating from the attendant destruction of nature, to mean minimum environmental/ ruling BJP government is that they corporations which implement ecological flow at every place, don't care about the country, religion such misplaced and misgoverned including the downstream of each or its people but are only interested projects, and contractors plundering dam, and at all times with universal in 'Development.' It is very clear that natural resources including sand bed, lateral, open-to-air, longitudinal the BJP’s concept of ‘Development’ from the river bed and its catchment and temporal connectivities. He is clearly corporate driven and, area. JANATA, October 21, 2018 3

The fight for conservation of Ganga is far from over. Swami Unraveling the Truth: Shivanand, the chief priest of Matre Gujarat Carnage 2002 Sadan, the ashram in Haridwar that Professor Agrawal chose as his fast site, has warned Narendra Modi that Ram Puniyani he and his disciples will ensure that Communal violence has been in the meeting. Justice Suresh who the chain of fasting begun by Swami a major painful sour of our body was part of the Citizens tribunal Sanand doesn't break. One Swami politic. The post-partition violence to investigate Gujarat violence Gopal Das had also begun fasting not only shook the nation no end, it also confirmed that such a thing soon after Swami Sanand started also resulted in the biggest ever mass was said in the meeting. Now his fast on 22 June, 2018. Earlier migrations in the world. But that this has been confirmed yet again Swami Nigmanand, also associated was not the end of the story as far in the autobiography of Lt. Gen. with Matre Sadan, laid down his as divisive violence is concerned. It Zameer Uddin Shah, The Sarkari life in 2011 on the 115th day of his resurfaced, and went on intensifying, Mussalman, which was released fast—it is widely believed that he more so after the decade of 1980s on October 13 by the former Vice was actually murdered at the behest when the Ram Temple movement President of India, Dr. Hamid Ansari. of a mining mafia associated with started deepening the emotions of In his memoirs, Lt. Gen. Shah the then ruling BJP government in a section of society. There was a states that on the instructions from Uttarakhand. How many more lives parallel rise of the temple movement General Padmanabhan, the then will be sacrificed at the altar of on one side and communal violence Chief of General Staff, he reached development? on the other. A series of ghastly Ahmedabad in the night of February Email : medha.narmada@gmail. com, episodes of communal violence 28. As he was landing in Ahmedabad, [email protected] shattered the fabric of the nation he could see the burning city. From seriously, one such being the Gujarat the airport, Gen. Shah went straight carnage of 2002. This carnage was to the residence of Chief Minister Janata orchestrated on the pretext of burning Narendra Modi, where the then of a train in Godhra. The real truth of defense minister George Fernandez is available at who was responsible for the burning was also present. It was 2 am. He of the train is still mired in mystery. gave the Chief Minister a list of www.lohiatoday.com It led to the death of 58 innocent immediate requirements to enable lives, those of Kar Sevaks and their the Army columns to fan out across Janata Subscription families. At this point, it was the the city to restore law and order. At duty of the state, that is, the state 7 am on March 1, 3000 army jawans Annual Rs. : 260/- government and administration, to landed at Ahmedabad airfield. But undertake a damage control exercise the army jawas were forced to Three Years : 750/- and limit the future losses of lives camp at the airport for one full Demand Draft / and property. day, as the Gujarat government Cheque on Unfortunately, there are reports did not provide them the necessary which indicate that the state transport, even though the city was Mumbai Bank government acted in the opposite burning. It was only on the morning in favour of manner. It appears that in the of March 2 that the army road aftermath of the train burning, a columns reached Ahmedabad, and meeting was called on the same so did the requisitioned civil trucks, Janata Trust evening by Chief Minister Narendra magistrates, police guides and maps. D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Modi. He allegedly told the officials This seems to confirm what Justice Naushir Bharucha Marg, to go soft against the possible Suresh commented in his report as a Grant Road (W), reaction to the train burning. This member of Citizens tribunal. has been stated by Sanjeev Bhat, a The ‘Tehelka Stings’ on Babu Mumbai 400 007. senior police officer who was present Bajrangi, who is in jail for his role 4 JANATA, October 21, 2018 in the Gujarat carnage, had stated Modi had a communal mindset, he mindset of our police machinery. that Modi had given them three visited Godhra which was 300 km It’s time we as a society learn days to do whatever they wanted to away but did not go to any refugee from the pangs of past, as recalled do. Shah’s memoirs reconfirms this. camp right within the city till much by the likes of Lt. General Zameer The delay in army deployment for a later when Mr. Vajpayee came to Uddin. The other experiences shared day clearly sent out the signal to the visit Juhapura camp. The SIT had by him in his memoirs, both as an rioters that they could continue with also observed that the decision to army man and a Muslim in India, their mayhem. hand over the bodies of Godhra are also very instructive. Shah also observes that once tragedy to Jaideep Patel of VHP In his endorsement of the book, provided with support, the army was harmful. The SIT also admits General Padmanabhan writes that brought the mayhem under control that Sanjeev Bhat had attended the many eyebrows were raised when he in two days time. This brings forth meeting where the administration assigned Lt. Gen. Shah the task for the question that why is it that was told to go slow. Finally, the SIT controlling the violence in Gujarat, in India, incidents of communal had also criticised the transfer and but he stood his ground and told the violence continue for several prosecution of upright police officers seniors objecting to his decision that days? Why is it that they are not like R.B. Sreekumar, Rahul Sharma, the choice of troops and their leader quickly brought under control? Dr. Himanshu Bhat and Samiullah was a military decision and not open Vibhuti Narain Rai, a retired DGP, Ansari, who were penalised by the to debate. He also compliments the says in his path-breaking study, Modi regime. ability, impartiality and pragmatic ‘Combating Communal Conflicts’, This shows that it is not just the decision making of Lt. Gen. Shah that no communal violence can go communal mindset of the people, but that quickly brought the situation on beyond 24 hours unless the state also the decisions of those in power, under control. administration is complicit in it. His that are responsible for the loss of A lot to learn and set right from study draws attention to the biased lives and destruction of property in the memoirs of an upright officer! nature of our police machinery, a fact communal riots. We also need to Email: [email protected] which is brought out in Gen. Shah’s take steps to tackle the communal book also. The inquiry report by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Jayaprakash Narayan: An Idealist Investigative Team (SIT) records that there was no delay in deploying Betrayed – Part I the armed forces. However, Gen. Shah categorically says that the SIT M. G. Devasahayam lied; it never approached the army The imposition of the Emergency JP: The Quintessential Rebel for its testimony on the matter. During the freedom struggle, Gen. Shah affirms that these facts in June 1975 by Indira Gandhi led to a general uprising across the country are recorded in the ‘After Action JP was the frontline foot soldier of under the leadership of Jayaprakash Taken’ report that he had submitted Mahatma Gandhi. He never sought Narayan, popularly known as JP. to General Padmanabhan, and are power and did not enjoy it even for It also brought together strange also mentioned in the military ‘war a day. Well before Indira Gandhi bedfellows—the socialists and the diaries’. was anywhere near politics, JP had Jan Sangh, the political face of There is also an impression that been offered the posts of Union the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh the SIT gave a clean chit to Modi. It’s cabinet minister, prime minister (RSS). In this personal epitaph not true. The Court appointed amicus and President of India in quick on Jayaprakash Narayan, former curiae Raju Ramchandran in his succession and he turned down each civil servant M.G. Devasahayam, report to the Apex Court on the SIT one of them. Though considered the who was "the only person who had natural successor to Nehru as prime report had stated that there is enough unrestricted access" to the late JP minister, JP chose to withdraw from in the SIT report to prosecute Modi. when he was prisoner during the power politics to engage in the more While the SIT did say that there is Emergency, explains how the JP enduring struggle against poverty, no prosecutable case against Modi, movement fizzled out due to what social evils and violence. JP was it simultaneously also observed that he terms the "betrayal of the RSS". JANATA, October 21, 2018 5 an iconoclast with compassion and the entire Indian society. For him, the at Wisconsin, was introduced to a product of the Magadha legacy political system had to be responsive Karl Marx's Das Capital. His Ohio which "not only produced relentless to the aspirations of the poorest of professor observed in the young fighters and exterminators of kings" the poor; the glaring inequalities that man “germs of leadership” and but "hearkened at the same time to our economic system breeds had to “aggressiveness of thought”. When the devout teachings of Vardhamana end; the educational system should he returned to India in November Mahavira and Gautama Buddha". be geared to the needs of the nation; 1929, he was "a mature young man The man who could have the canker of corruption in India’s with an enquiring mind, original in become India’s second Prime political and administrative system his thinking, and with the fierce, Minister, and possibly finished had to be eradicated; the various idealistic desire to devote himself to off the Nehru–Indira dynasty rule social ills that afflict our country serve society". And he fully involved for ever, unwittingly became its had to end. This, in simplistic and himself in the freedom struggle. perpetrator by declining to take pragmatic terms, is what JP meant In February 1940, JP was office. Instead, he became, after by “Total Revolution”. The kind of arrested for speaking against Indian Mahatma Gandhi, the second sweeping reforms JP had in mind participation in the Second World redeemer of the nation, freeing appear like a utopian abstraction, but War and sent to the Deoli detention the country from the shackles of a nobody can contest their fundamental camp in Rajasthan. He was again home-brewed dictatorship, which desirability. Evidently, the initiative arrested in 1942 for participating was imposed by an unprincipled for such a revolution has to come in the Quit India Movement. In Indira Gandhi. Sometimes, leaders from society as a whole, not just the November 1942, Diwali night, JP, scale such lofty heights of national government. along with five others, escaped eminence that they become too JP was a dreamer and an idealist from the high-security Hazaribagh big for mundane office. In post- to a fault. It was Maulana Abul jail by scaling a 17-foot-high wall Emergency India, JP never occupied Kalam Azad’s fiery oratory and his while the guards remained distracted any official seat of power and was call to "lift up to the skies like leaves by the festivities. A reward of Rs regarded as the nation’s patron saint. before a storm” that drew JP to the 10,000 was offered for JP's capture, Jayaprakash Narayan was born freedom movement. Jayaprakash dead or alive. This electrified a on October 11, 1902, in Sitabdiara, took the Maulana's words to heart languishing Quit India Movement, a village on the border of Uttar and left Patna College with just 20 eventually leading to independence. Pradesh and Bihar. Because of the days remaining for his examinations. But JP had to pay a very heavy price Ganga often changing course, JP’s He joined the Bihar Vidyapeeth, for this. After nearly one year of ancestral house has been shown a college run by the Congress. hunt, he was arrested in Amritsar alternately in Bihar and UP. He After exhausting the courses at the on September 18, 1943 while on became a natural leader among Vidyapeeth, Jayaprakash decided to his way to Rawalpindi to meet the village boys. JP was married go to America to pursue his studies. Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Gaffar to Prabhavati, daughter of lawyer To pay for his education, Jayaprakash Khan. He was taken to Lahore Fort, and nationalist Brij Kishore Prasad, picked grapes, packed fruits, washed notorious as a "torture chamber’. in October 1920. Prabhavati was dishes, worked as a mechanic, sold Sixteen months of mental and very independent-minded and, on lotions and accepted teaching jobs. physical torture followed. JP was put Gandhiji's invitation, went to stay All these jobs gave Jayaprakash in solitary confinement for the first at his ashram while JP continued insights into the problems of the month. Then came interrogations, his studies. Because of Prabhavati’s working class. physical torture and humiliation. vow of celibacy while JP was away JP’s sojourn in America for He was released on April 12, 1946. in the USA, and his honouring the seven years at the prestigious A.P. Sinha, a jail-mate and close same on return, the couple did not universities of Berkeley, Iowa, friend whom JP tried to persuade to have any children and, therefore, had and Wisconsin only increased his join the Hazaribagh escapade, had no immediate family. passion for freedom. He was a this exhortation to make to the latter As he grew up and cut his teeth student of Professor Edward Ross, prior to the escape: in public life, JP wanted to overhaul the father of sociology, and, while “J.P., I am sorry I cannot make 6 JANATA, October 21, 2018 the break with you. I want to come the workers, such as minimum wage, age of 72 when student unrest for the love of you and keep you pension, medical relief and housing against corruption, unemployment, company and support you. But my subsidy. Seeing the totalitarian ways and high inflation spread like wild health is poor and I’m not sure I and bloody purges unleashed in fire, threatening to turn violent and could be effective. I’m too deeply Soviet Russia, JP turned away from go beyond control. In the face of Gandhian. All I’ll do is to hide Communism. terror and repression unleashed on myself. I’m only used to attending the students by the governments political meetings and passing From Swarajya to Revolution of Bihar and Gujarat, JP took resolutions. I would not be able to He decided to dedicate himself charge and thus was born the ‘JP give you the help you need. Let me totally to Mahatma Gandhi’s ideal Movement’ that shook corrupt and help to cover your getaway. You of ‘sampoorna swarajya’ and authoritarian governments to their have got the passion that can make pursue his efforts towards ‘people’s very foundation. people’s spirits soar up. You can participatory governance’ and As part of the movement, inspire them to self-sacrifices, to corruption-free, value-based public on April 8, 1974, JP led a silent accept sufferings. You are a great life. In 1954, he blended himself procession at Patna. The procession national leader.” with Vinoba Bhave's Sarvodaya was lathi-charged and this created Independence finally came on movement. He gave up his landed a mass upsurge against corruption August 15, 1947. Within a year property and withdrew from all and autocratic rule. On June 5, Gandhiji was assassinated. The political activity to devote the 1974, riding the crest of a popular Socialists lost to the Congress in rest of his life to the movement. upheaval against all that was rotten the 1952 elections. Nehru invited He set up an ‘ashram’ in poor and in governance and public life, JP JP to join the Cabinet. When Nehru backward Hazaribagh, trying to give declared at a massive rally in Patna: could give no assurances on the Gandhian concepts a new dimension "This is a revolution, friends! implementation of JP's 14-point by using modern technology to uplift We are not here merely to see the plan to reform the Constitution, the the villages. Even Prime Minister Vidhan Sabha dissolved. That is administration, the judicial system, Nehru’s suggestion in the late fifties only one milestone on our journey. nationalise the banks, redistribute that JP could be his successor did not But we have a long way to go. . . . land to the landless, revive swadeshi lure him back to politics. After 27 years of freedom, people and set up cooperatives, he refused JP believed that every village of this country are wracked by the offer. should be like a small republic— hunger, rising prices, corruption . . . On the attainment of politically independent and capable oppressed by every kind of injustice independence, when people of taking its own decisions. It was . . . it is a Total Revolution we want, scrambled for loaves of office, a marriage of Gandhian–Indian nothing less!" JP stood apart, concentrating his concepts and modern Western When, on June 12, 1975, the efforts on leading the Congress Party democracy. His thoughtful, well- Allahabad High Court held Prime towards the socialist path. Those were researched and brilliant book, The Minister Indira Gandhi guilty on the years when some of the finest Reconstruction of Indian Polity, won charge of corrupt practices in the intellectuals-turned-activists in the him the Ramon Magsaysay Award. election, JP advised her to resign national movement, like Narendra He was involved in the resolution until her name was cleared by Dev, Yusuf Meherally, Achyut of the Naxal and Naga issues and the Supreme Court. Instead, she Patwardhan and Rammanohar Lohia was also a key person in acquiring clamped the Emergency on the joined hands with him, or more the surrender of dacoits in the nation. JP was the first to be arrested correctly, spurred him on in the new Chambal Valley. On April 15, 1973, under the Defence of India Rules. endeavour. He politely turned down Prabhavati died of cancer, leaving Pandit Nehru’s repeated invitations Jayaprakash alone and devastated. JP and India’s Second Freedom to join his cabinet. Instead, he turned This man who had turned a India’s first freedom, achieved his attention to the trade unions he recluse refusing positions of high on the midnight of 14/15th August led. With the help of the unions, he power and authority returned to 1947, ended on the midnight of was able to get many facilities for active politics in 1974 at the ripe 25/26th June 1975, when the then JANATA, October 21, 2018 7

President of India signed a crisp fought and died for the triumph of freedom and democracy to India. four-line proclamation virtually freedom’ in a country wherein live This he did despite being in the on command from the then Prime one-sixth of the human race. And frailest of health and living on Minister Indira Gandhi: he did it not once, but twice—as a borrowed time. “In exercise of the powers fiery fighter for freedom from alien All nations, most of all India, conferred by clause (1) of Article 352 rule under Gandhiji’s leadership need an icon to which they can of the Constitution, I, Fakhruddin and later winning it back from cleave when times are bad, which Ali Ahmed, President of India, by a native ‘durbar’ under his own can unite them across barriers of this Proclamation declare that a stewardship. Elsewhere in the world, caste, creed, clan and language. The grave emergency exists whereby the such a man would be celebrated with mid-seventies were bad days and security of India is threatened by gratitude. But here in this ‘Republic through the draconian and repressive internal disturbances.” of Jumlas’ and land of ‘cash-and- regime of National Emergency and This extinction of freedom crime politics’, he is near-totally the ‘era of discipline’ positioned in the country brought about an forgotten. against ‘anarchy and chaos’, Mrs. eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation During the 20 months of active Gandhi was building herself up as between Indira Gandhi, the self- Emergency spanning the years 1975 that icon. appointed dictator, and Jayaprakash to 1977, people moved in hushed If she had succeeded, she would Narayan, popularly known as JP, silence, stunned and traumatised have got a clear mandate in any the congenital democrat. While the by the draconian goings on. Across ensuing election, since majority former was the epitome of power the nation, groveling academicians, would have voted for her instead of and pelf, the later abjured all desire advocates and accountants vied opting for a vacuum. When firmly for power, but wielded immense with each other to sing paeans of in saddle, with Emergency endorsed moral authority. By the time the glory to the Emergency rulers, by the people, the ‘iconship’ would confrontation ended in March 1977, some signing pledges of loyalty and have passed on to Sanjay Gandhi JP had won with India regaining its servitude in blood! The bulk of the who was waiting in the wings. With Freedom. civil service crawled when asked to age in his favour and his known Acknowledging this, veteran bend. Higher judiciary was willing dislike for the democratic process, journalist Kuldip Nayyar said in his to decree that under the Emergency India would have drifted from ‘direct 24th JP Memorial Lecture: regime, citizens did not even have democracy’ to ‘directed democracy’, “He wasn't built to be a hero: the ‘right to life’. Politicians of all a euphemism for dictatorship. An slight of figure, racked by illness, hue and colour, barring honourable alternative icon was needed to battle-worn. Yet, he proved to be exceptions, lay supine and prostrate. prevent this tragedy from happening the outstanding hero who won us the There was gloom all around and it and JP with his towering personality second freedom in 1977, 30 years looked as if everything was over and his aura as the hero of ‘Quit after the first one.” and the world’s largest democracy India Movement’ eminently filled Freedom has been India’s path was slowly but surely drifting into the bill. ever since independence, a path dictatorship. JP’s emergence as an alternate chosen by the founding fathers But through this all, one single icon to take the nation back to of our Republic under extremely soul, one lonely spirit continued freedom and democracy was not trying circumstances. Despite all to stir in anguish and agony, for an easy task. The Sarvodaya leader trials and tribulations and its many the first few months in captivity was out of circulation and public imperfections, India today is being at Chandigarh, later attached to view for several years before he lauded as the largest democracy a dialysis machine at Bombay’s surfaced in 1974 to lead an uprising, on earth practicing freedom, Jaslok Hospital, and then in a spartan which mostly involved the youth. however imperfect it may be. For house in Patna. Yet, this defiant, Mainly students spearheaded this JP, considered among the greatest indomitable spirit in the person uprising, popularly known as the revolutionaries of the last century, of Jayaprakash Narayan dared “JP Movement”. Outlining its raison freedom had always been a passion. the might of Indira’s dictatorship d'etre, JP wrote: JP had ‘worked and marched, and defeated it, thereby restoring “The movement was started 8 JANATA, October 21, 2018 with certain specific demands. The woman proposing to be the icon Education and Research (PGI), chief among them were: removal of of 750 million people and the JP was a haggard and ‘defeated’ corruption, curb on inflation, solving unquestioned leader of the vast individual who felt that all hopes the problem of unemployment, subcontinent of India for years to were gone and freedom in India and basic changes in the system of come and then pass it on to her stood extinguished. He had also education.” progeny. Using the Emergency as mentally reconciled himself to die Emphasising on the movement’s a whip to ‘discipline the nation’ in confinement ‘as a prisoner of main thrust, JP said, “We have and building her up as “Indira is Indira Gandhi’. But the Almighty always raised our voice against India”, she would have eminently and the Ultimate Arbiter had other corruption. Prevention of corruption succeeded with individuals and ideas. He wanted this man, who was the main aim of our movement.” institutions collapsing one by one once symbolised all that was fiery These were indeed genuine and and falling by the wayside. Barring in India’s freedom struggle and all unassailable demands and should sporadic murmurs of dissent, she that was noble in pursuing a cause, have received positive response had no opposition whatsoever and to resurge, rise again and re-emerge from any government run on all roads were clear as far as eyes as the nation’s hope and the alternate democratic principles. Instead, a could see. But God has his own way icon to lead the people back to power drunk ruling coterie chose of disposing. freedom and democracy. As the then to respond brutally with harsh During the initial days of the District Collector & Magistrate of repressive measures resulting in the Emergency, within the confines Chandigarh and custodian of JP-in- strengthening and spreading of the of the yet to be commissioned Jail, I had the privilege of witnessing JP movement. intensive care ward of Chandigarh’s this history-in-the-making first hand. The Allahabad High Court Post Graduate Institute of Medical judgement of June 12, 1975 unseating Mrs. Gandhi from Parliament for Under the Yoke of Neo-Imperialism: ‘corrupt practices’ gave a big fillip to the movement, which was poised A Fake War of Patriotism and Treason to sweep the country. But before it could gain momentum, Mrs. Gandhi struck and in one swift move declared Prem Singh Emergency and incarcerated all Civil life in India, especially affected by this phenomena. leaders who commanded public during the last two decades, has This war has picked up speed following. been afflicted by the twin war cry since the present government On top of the list was of patriotism (rashtrabhakti) and came to power. The reasons are ‘enemy-number-one-of-the-state’ treason (rashtradroh). The four obvious. The idea of patriotism and Jayaprakash Narayan. By this pillars of the Indian democracy— treason are closely linked with the time, JP had come to symbolise the legislative, the executive, the idea of nationalism. Nationalism, the conscience of the nation and judiciary and the press—as well on its part, is associated with uncompromising opposition to as the education and research capitalism. Aggressive capitalism, corruption and despotism which had institutions as well as independent in order to flourish, needs aggressive become the hallmarks of Congress and committed intellectuals of the nationalism. Exploiting the national party and governments. By locking civil society and activists working in identity and spirit of people, this up an ailing JP in confinement, the different fields / peoples' movements aggressive nationalism is being used ruling coterie thought they could have been actively participating in as a cover to hide the capitalist loot of break his body and spirit and thereby this war of words. Even the country's national resources. In this process, a eliminate the only hurdle they defense establishment is these days fake enemy is constructed before the had in enjoying uninterrupted and seen voicing its opinion on this people and given the label of traitor. unfettered power. subject. There is no reason to believe People forget about the real enemy What ‘man proposes God that the lower and lower-middle of the nation, which in the present disposes’. In this case it was a stratas of the society have not been era is corporate capitalism, and JANATA, October 21, 2018 9 start fighting against that imagined allegations of treason, those who some self-criticism. But that can enemy. The emergence of aggressive claim to be the true defenders of the take place only when one does not nationalism in India and many Indian Nation, are often as shallow consider oneself beyond criticism. other countries in the world is a as those who believe in the Hindu However, the Marxist, modernist manifestation of this very aggressive Rashtra theory (and who are always and libertarian defenders of the capitalism, in one or the other form. ready to provide the certificate of Indian Nation are simply not ready The ongoing false war between patriotism to themselves). for this kind of discussion that would patriotism and treason in India does A recent example would be quite call for owning up responsibility. not have at its core a well-thought- adequate to explain the point. There They only want to make strategic out and serious ideological content was a considerable debate about use of the idea of Indian Nation in concerning the nation. There is no the former President, Shri Pranab order to oppose the Hindu Rashtra need to give extensive details of Mukherjee, agreeing to deliver a of the RSS. Their strategy is to the various ideological–strategic speech at the headquarters of the portray the RSS as the sole enemy. contexts and dimensions of this Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Ironically, this applies to the RSS as war to prove its truth. The way (RSS). When his speech was over, well because it too wants to pursue the roles, characters, thoughts, those who opposed him for accepting the strategy of limiting the debate to narratives, issues, symbols, goals, the invitation immediately changed around this issue. strategies etc. change every moment their tune and began to build a The idea of the modern make self-evident the futility as monument of praise upon him. They Indian nation had been discussed well as craftiness of the war of explained that Shri Mukherjee had and nurtured from the time of patriotism and treason. The absurd taught a good lesson on the idea of colonial domination to the time of and ridiculous nature of this war the Indian Nation to the RSS, right independence. This idea, with its becomes clear by looking at just at its headquarters. strengths and weaknesses, is still three episodes related to it. One, The important question, as to being discussed and continues to the attempt to keep a military tank why has the concept of Hindu take shape. Unfortunately, many in the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru Rashtra become so dominant today, Marxists, modernists, libertarians University (JNU) in the name of despite the presence of the far and even liberals do not want to inculcating patriotism in the students more meaningful idea of the Indian come clear about their faith in it. and teachers; two, the binding of a Nation and the large number of They seem to be more interested citizen to the bonnet of a military its intellectual supporters, was not in intellectual manoeuvres so that jeep by an army officer in Kashmir even touched while eulogising Shri the debate remains focussed only while confronting the protesters; and Mukherjee’s speech. The idea of on nationalism, so as to allow the three, the bizarre diktat given to the a fanatic Hindu Rashtra has been conflict between the defenders of Muslim pilgrims from India going present in the country for the last 80 the Indian Nation and the advocates to Mecca to perform Haj to display years. Notwithstanding the presence of the Hindu Rashtra to drag on. the national flag. and influence of the supporters / Most of these English-language bred The concept of nation, in modern adherents of the Indian Nation in all intellectual elites are not ready to India, is essentially linked to anti- the academic, educational, literary, understand that the toiling masses of colonialism. If any narrative of the artistic and cultural institutions and India have paid a heavy price for such nation does not address today's neo- big NGOs of the country, one needs intellectual manoeuvres, and these imperialism, then it is clearly fake. to seriously ask as to why have the masses have now become victims of This is not to say that politics alone educated and well-off Indians, in a variety of misconceptions. exists in the center of national life; India and abroad, along with the In the context of Shri but politics is important. Politics can ordinary masses, come to support the Mukherjee's speech, the defenders be real, but can also be fake. When Hindu-fascist mindset today? of the Indian Nation did not make the fake politics prevails collectively To a large extent, the defenders remotest effort to raise the pertinent and with pomp and show, everything of the Indian Nation are themselves question that every camp seems to be goes fake in national life. This has responsible for this situation. joyfully accepting the yoke of neo- been happening in India for the last However, they do not want admit imperialism. The opponents of RSS nearly three decades. The arguments this. Admitting their mistakes will may oppose fascism and plead for propagated by those who face the require introspection and maybe democracy. But the RSS knows that 10 JANATA, October 21, 2018 the BJP government will not always on the people of India by capitalism. the caste-equation (OBCs–Dalits– be there. It therefore has no problems People cannot be cloistered for long Muslims) politics is an antidote with inviting any defender of the by putting NGO fences. Sooner to communalism in elections. It Indian Nation to its headquarters, or later, their anger is bound to was cloaked in nomenclatures like provided it has gathered adequate erupt—if they do not come together 'politics of social justice'. However, political strength. This is not an as citizens in a political battle against the RSS went ahead and turned that appropriation. This, to say the capitalism, their anger will erupt in idea to its own advantage, because least, is a unity of two fake groups the name of religion, caste, region the defenders of the Indian Nation did working in favor of neo-imperialism. and language. All conflicts between not place the politics of social justice The collaboration between the two the defenders of Indian Nation and on the constitutional–ideological has been strengthened since 1991, believers in the Hindu Rashtra aim axis of socialism, secularism and the year when the New Economic at channelising this anger of the democracy. ‘Social justice’ politics Policies were imposed. people in their favor. They do not became confined merely to 'social * * * want to leave a middle path. It is not engineering' with the sole aim of It is not without reason. Both surprising that India is turning into winning elections. The rest of the these ideas of nationalism are a 'mob-nation'. 'task' was completed by the casteist– unrealistic in the context of modern It is a matter of concern that dynastic leaders! India. The 'Golden Age', fetished by the civil society activists who are There is no need to explain that the supporters of Hindu Rashtra, is defenders of the Indian-Nation call the worst kind of misery in this 'mob- located in a distant time and age. upon caste / religious communities nation' is being faced by Muslims. The one created by communists, (Dalits, Muslims, tribals, OBCs etc.) The majority of the Muslim society, modernists and libertarians is to come together on one platform being isolated from the process of situated somewhere in a remote against the fascist attack of the RSS– politicisation, is bound to become a 'place', which keeps changing BJP. These intellectual defenders lackey of this or that caste-equation according to their convenience. Not of the Indian Nation think that all under this or that political party/ surprisingly, the journey of these wisdom / knowledge is their sole leader. There is no place for them two unrealistic ideas of the Indian property. The strategy of the RSS in the Hindu Rashtra, at least with nation essentially culminates at the since its inception has been to equal status. Unfortunately, even in doorsteps of corporate capitalism. mobilise communities along identity the Indian Nation, they do not have As a result, Manuvad is tagged on lines and that makes the RSS the an equal status as Indian citizens. to the Hindu Rashtra, while, on biggest hurdle in the path of creating They are treated even by their the other hand, the defenders of in the people the modern sense of so-called saviours with a scornful Indian Nation tag on to a bizarre citizenship. Have the civil society charity mentality. Such behavior is mix of many isms while aspiring to activist defenders of the Indian accepted as secular and comes in build a 'digital India'. In the process Nation also decided that the Hindu handy to encash for posts, awards of struggle and dialogue with Rashtra of the RSS is not contrary and grants from willing regimes. colonialism, the historic enterprise to the idea of a citizen-nation? There * * * of redefining, reinterpreting and was a time when, during the early All narratives of the Indian reorganising the spirit of Indianness years after the imposition of the Nation are together in their opposition (bharatiyata) in the midst of global New Economic Policies in 1991, to Gandhi. They sometimes beat developments has almost come to serious efforts were being made Gandhi with the stick of Bhagat a dead end. The stagnant idea of to create an alternative politics by Singh, sometimes with that of 'nation' often turns into a mentality, bringing together various issue- Ambedkar, sometimes with the which can be simultaneously violent, based resistance movements of whip of Subhash Chandra Bose, conspiratorial and cowardly. different areas in order to defeat sometimes under the pretext of As capitalist oppression the neo-imperialist attack. Now we Jawaharlal Nehru and sometimes intensifies, people ultimately rise are witnessing calls given by those even with Jinnah. But as soon as to resist it. To dilute their struggle, ensconced in the lap of corporate they confront the RSS, they all start capitalist regimes have created a politics to various communities to to rail against the organization for its network of NGOs. But there is no unite in the name of Indian Nation! role in the assassination of Gandhi. end to the devastation being wrought At one time it was believed that While doing so, they do not mean JANATA, October 21, 2018 11 the Gandhi who blasted the evil face thankful to Gandhi for this teaching. of the RSS. All of its 'cultural' and of capitalist industrial civilization However, in India, the country’s 'nationalist' pomposity was only even when it was at the heights of intellectuals hate Gandhi. There is meant to grab and capture the left- its popularity worldwide, nor the no such example in the world where overs of capitalist markets. The Gandhi who gave a new meaning to a person who devoted his life to the RSS's 'Hindu Lion' Mohan Bhagwat, politics and a new mode of protest freedom struggle and did not want who roared in Chicago recently, against injustice / suppression in or take anything in exchange for his did not even raise a whimper a violence-ridden world. Both the role in freeing the country from the on the government's decision of defenders of the Indian Nation and colonial yoke, got boundless hatred allowing 100 percent Foreign Direct the supporters of Hindu Rashtra and disregard from that country's Investment (FDI) in the defense are unanimous in their support intellectuals. sector. The small and medium for corporate capitalism and thus * * * traders have given their physical, deny Gandhi's political philosophy It is not surprising that almost mental and material resources to the and vision. The Hindu Rashtra all the defenders of the Indian Jana Sangh and now the BJP from supporters openly oppose the tag of Nation do not even talk about any the very time of the establishment ‘Father of the Nation’ for Gandhi. political alternative despite the of these political parties by the Even if the defenders of the India intensity of the crisis posed by the RSS. However, as soon as RSS Nation do not declare it openly, corporate–communal nexus. Rather, became a crony of multinationals the tag of 'Father of the Nation' for they have successfully destroyed and corporate houses, it abandoned Gandhi is not acceptable to them all the possibilities of an alternative them, and is now permitting FDI in too. The latter should actually politics built up after 1991 by retail. immediately release Gandhi from building complete solidarity with the There is no discussion among the the shackles of 'Father of the Nation'. anti-corruption movement of India defenders of the Indian Nation about There will be no problem in building Against Corruption (ICA) and the the phenomenon of neo-imperialism a consensus in the country on this resulting party of that movement. spreading in India and all over subject. The Hindutva-minded It may be noted that Bharat Mata the world, of which communal people, who still derive vicarious and Tricolor were made brand- fascism is a by-product. They are pleasure, however unexpressed, in equipment of patriotism in the not concerned about the loss of our the killing of Gandhi will readily public domain by the mentors of freedom that was earned through accept the idea of removing Gandhi the anti-corruption movement and huge sacrifices. Their basic concern from that position. the subsequent Aam Aadmi Party. is only to defeat RSS's fascism. In this Gandhi had successfully linked Intellectuals used to enjoy a huge exercise, the defenders of the Indian the collective consciousness of reputation and praise in India from Nation do not hesitate to misguide the vast Indian society, which had the very beginning. It is ironic that the whole debate. They take away been divided into varna–caste despite the worsening crisis before attention from the neo-imperialist for centuries and was weakened the nation, these very intellectuals attacks by presenting the debate as by imperialist loot, with the anti- today do not show any inclination fascism versus democracy, Hindutva imperialist spirit. Gandhi went for chalking out a new path of versus Hinduism, Brahminism further and forced the then various resistance. versus Dalitism (or dalitwad), intellectual streams to unite with the When the Congress introduced Brahminism versus Backwardism anti-imperialist spirit of the people. the New Economic Policies in 1991, (pichhadawad), etc. Their whole Gandhi's unique contribution to Atal Bihari Vajpayee had said that emphasis is on making strategies to the modern Indian nation was that now the Congress has adopted their fight these conflicts. It is a fact that in this venture he did not have the ideology and work. The corporate due to democracy, some deprived sentiment of hostility towards the friendly decisions of both the BJP- castes and communities have got imperialist British rulers, and also led coalition governments that have political power. They are struggling tried to prepare fellow Indians for came to power at the Centre, first to maintain and consolidate their the sentiment of antipathy-less under the leadership of Atal Bihari hold on power. They should use opposition. From Martin Luther Vajpayee in 1999, and now the democratic means only to advance King Jr. to Nelson Mandela, many present one under Narendra Modi, their struggle, as whatever gains they activists the world over have been have thoroughly exposed the reality have made have been because of 12 JANATA, October 21, 2018 democracy. But it is seen that some appears depressing, and the loot or or later, rejuvenation of the national intellectuals seek to find 'militant' our wealth and natural resources by spirit is bound to take place, and then elements in these communities and corporate houses is going to continue people will rise and throw away this want to connect them with violent for some time, however, this loot yoke of neo-imperialism. resistance against the Indian state. cannot continue indefinitely. Sooner Email: [email protected] Is the intention behind this kind of strategy against fascism honest by any stretch of imagination? How South Africa’s Shack Dwellers’ * * * At the time of imposition of the Movement Is Fighting Back New Economic Policies in 1991, Kishan Patnaik tried to provide and delineate a relevant perspective Celina della Croce and direction to the debate on patriotism and treason. He based In one of few appearances since were instead given to a private his thoughts on the experience of he was forced to go underground, S’bu developer. Shack dwellers took to two centuries of colonial occupation Zikode, a founder and leader of the the streets to protest, blockading of India. He linked the beginning Shack Dwellers Movement of South major roads. The uprising “was out of neo-liberalism in India with the Africa (Abahlali baseMjondolo), of anger, hunger and frustration. It beginning of slavery once again, spoke at the People’s Forum in was out of need,” says S’bu. “There and blamed the intellectuals of New York a few days ago. This is weren’t any clever individuals that India for this. He argued that the not his first time in hiding—he has sat around the table and thought minds of Indian intellectuals are faced threats and attempts on his life of building this movement.” Since unable to work freely against neo- throughout the years—and many 2005, however, the movement has liberalism and neo-imperialism. leaders of his movement have been developed structures to strengthen Kishan Patnaik proposed a formula assassinated. In New York, S’bu and grow its membership and set of 'economic nationalism' (arthik spoke of the struggle of his people a vision that goes far beyond their rashtrawad) to counter neoliberal and how they are moving forward initial demand for housing. economic subjugation. According in the face of brutal repression. While South Africa’s to him, the real patriots were those How, in his words, they are not only constitution—a victory of the anti- who opposed the plunder and loot of living but marching forward “in the apartheid movement that elected its the country's resources by domestic shadows of death” despite frequent first democratic president, Nelson and foreign corporate houses, while raids, evictions and assassinations. Mandela, in 1994—guarantees the traitors were (though he did not Despite what he faces at home— the “right to adequate housing,” at say so explicitly) the supporters of violence, separation from his family least 13.5 percent of South Africans neo-liberalism. To sum up, aggressive capitalism and his community, betrayal by his continue to live in shacks in informal is not only looting our resources comrades—S’bu is calm, collected settlements without access to basic and labour, but also hollowing our and kind. He walks into the room services such as roads, sanitation national spirit (bodh). Actually, with the confidence and wisdom of and electricity. There is a large gap it would be more appropriate to a leader and the humility of a soldier. between the rhetoric around human say that since our national spirit The movement that S’bu belongs rights and the reality of people on has become hollow, it has enabled to, Abahlali baseMjondolo, is the ground. Despite claims from the the loot of the country's resources among South Africa’s largest social African National Congress (ANC) and labor. Our national life cannot movements, with 50,000 members government, which has been in office be enriched if there is no national in 40 settlements throughout five since 1994, that the development of spirit. In fact, the present aggressive of South Africa’s nine provinces. public housing “normally takes nationalism is a futile exercise to The movement started in Durban about 30 days,” many families have fill the hollowness caused by the in 2005 when public lands that had been in temporary camps for years. enfeebled national spirit. While been promised to shack dwellers Residents complain of corruption, it is true that the present scenario for public housing development harassment and bribery if they JANATA, October 21, 2018 13 attempt to gain access to public health care, and education, constant mobilisations. “We try to make a housing, the allocation of which assaults on their dignity—or to risk distinction between organising and currently lies at the discretion of dying fighting, in S’bu’s words, mobilising,” he explains. “People those in power. Residents allege that “because we have no choice but to will tell you, ‘we have 100,000 every election season, government live like human beings.” members.’ But if you ask them just to officials appear and paint the shacks At the heart of Abahlali’s call a meeting, people don’t show up. with numbers with the promise that demands, and a key part of what Because people happen to sign up houses are coming—if they count makes them such a threat to the a few years ago, you think they are the shacks and families, they will current system, is something much part of you. They’re not following know how many houses to deliver. deeper than the demand for land and you. That’s why we try to make a But year after year, houses have not dignified housing that attacks the distinction between organising and appeared for many of South Africa’s core of the profit-driven capitalist mobilising. If you mobilise people, shack dwellers, and the old numbers system not only in South Africa, but they will come for that particular are crossed out and replaced with across the world. S’bu explains that day because somehow you have new ones as the settlements grow “we are opposed to the idea that land managed to attract them. But you and promises of public housing fade. should be bought and sold, and we have not organised them because you In the interim, the same government struggle from below to allocate land have not been able to sustain such a officials surface only to destroy the on the basis of human needs rather gathering of them.” In Abahlali, he shacks and force residents from their than private profits. We have come says, “our movement belongs to homes, using the number system to up with a principle in Abahlali that its members. We are committed to indicate which shacks have appeared the social value of land must come building the democratic power of between election seasons and are to before its commercial value, and the oppressed from below.” be torn down. During these raids, our lives as such must come before S’bu stands before a small the shack dwellers’ homes are profits. The land was stolen from audience in Manhattan. He is destroyed, and some residents have the black majority people in South wearing a suit, dark blue and freshly even been killed. Africa, [and] the majority of land pressed. He has a small frame but the The threat of violence looms in South Africa is still in the hands presence of a giant, carrying with over the lives of Abahlali members, of minority white farmers. So, as a him the voices of tens of thousands many of whom have been killed at way to redress that, then occupation of shack dwellers. “I have always protests, during evictions, and in becomes key. Because how do you likened Abahlali to a sea, as waves targeted assassinations. S’bu says buy something that belongs to you? in the sea which reject any trash you this is why, when members want That’s the political intervention: to put in it. If you put trash in the sea, to join the movement, they make say, we were dispossessed of our the waves will kick it out,” he tells sure they understand what the land, now it’s the time to slowly, the audience, speaking of the trials risks are: “We tell comrades from slowly get our land back.” Abahlali that Abahlali is facing. S’bu returned the onset when they sign up that threatens to expose the reality to South Africa shortly after the you die here. We make sure that of many of the country’s most event. He worries about the risk for people are clear about the terrain marginalised voices and question his wife and young children. But he that they are entering, that it is the very value system on which it is believes in the power of Abahlali’s not just risky, but we have buried based. This is not a demand that can membership. The waves will cleanse comrades, and we continue to bury be settled with a mere parcel of land. the sea. “We have no choice but to comrades.” They know the risks. Despite the attacks that Abahlali live like human beings,” he says. But what choice do they have? S’bu has faced—both from the state and On Sunday, October 14, continues: “Comrades will take that from within the movement—they after months in hiding, S’bu was risk, because they do not want to have remained firm in their demands welcomed back by his fellow shack die slowly and surely.” The choice and have continued to grow. S’bu dwellers in what marks a return to that they face is slow and certain attributes much of their success to his public life. The threats have not death—to succumb to extreme a structure that gives power to the dissipated. But, S’bu says, “I have poverty, violent land invasions, lack many rather than the few, and to deep taken a decision that I will rather of access to proper infrastructure, organising rather than surface-level perish than bow to my oppressors.” 14 JANATA, October 21, 2018

Letter to Editor Ambedkar and Capitalism

Nischay Mhatre

Prof Anand Teltumbde's two-part Anyone who studies the working is liberty to the landlords to increase article, "Babasaheb Ambedkar and of the system of social economy based rents, for capitalists to increase hours Neo-Liberal Economic Reforms" on private enterprise and pursuit of work and reduce rate of wages. This that appeared in the September 30 of personal gain will realize how it must be so. It cannot be otherwise and October 7 issues of Janata were undermines, if it does not actually . . . In other words what is called a necessary rebuttal to those who violate, the last two premises on which liberty from the control of the State is are fraudulently using Dr Babasaheb Democracy rests. How many have to another name for the dictatorship of Ambedkar's name and aura to relinquish their constitutional rights the private employer. promote an economic model which in order to gain their living? How Such an explicit criticism of he despised. I would like to give many have to subject themselves to be capitalism is more than any 'liberal' here three additional statements by governed by private employers? Ask would dare venture, let alone a Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in support those who are unemployed whether 'supporter of neo-liberalism'. It is of that article. In these statements, what are called Fundamental Rights worth noting that from Ambedkar’s he explicitly denounces capitalist are of any value to them. If a person perspective, a capitalist economy economy and supports socialist who is unemployed is offered a choice was an enemy of liberty and social economy. between a job of some sort, with some justice. As far as he was concerned, the The first statement was made at an sort of wages, with no fixed hours of scheme of 'State Socialism' was by no early stage of the Constitution making labour and with an interdict on joining means a dirigistic scheme to prepare process. It was when the “Aims and a union and the exercise of his right the ground for Indian capitalists. It Objectives Resolution” was taken up to freedom of speech, association, was necessary for Democracy itself. for debate on the floor of the Assembly religion, etc., can there be any doubt Thus, one may rightly say that while on December 13, 1946. Babasaheb as to what his choice will be. How his struggle was not for 'bread alone', made the following remark in his can it be otherwise? The unemployed it is clear that he recognised the speech: are thus compelled to relinquish their impossibility of achieving human I do not understand how it could Fundamental Rights for the sake of dignity and liberty without resolving be possible for any future Government securing the privilege to work and to the question of 'bread'. which believes in doing justice socially, subsist. The need to reach a consensus on economically and politically, unless its What about those who are the Constitution may have led him economy is a socialistic economy. employed? Constitutional Lawyers to tone down his insistence on using The second statement is a part assume that the enactment of the word 'socialism' explicitly until of the excellent explanatory notes Fundamental Rights is enough to the Constitution was approved. But which he included as an appendix safeguard their liberty and that in May 1950, just months after the in his Memorandum submitted to nothing more is called for. They Constitution came into force, he made the Constituent Asssembly in March argue that where the State refrains a telling statement during an informal 1947 and that was later published from intervention in private affairs— interview with the famed author Mulk under the title of States and economic and social—the residue is Raj Anand: Minorities. One could say that this liberty. What is necessary is to make Indeed liberty so far seems to be memorandum reflects the vision of the residue as large as possible and the liberty of the landlord to increase India as Babasaheb saw it on the eve State intervention as small as possible. rent. The capitalist always wants to of independence. In the explanation It is true that where the State refrains reduce wages and increase hours of of Article 2, Section 2, Clause 4, from intervention what remains is work. Capitalism is dictatorship of the titled “Protection Against Violation liberty. But this does not dispose of the private employer.'' of Fundamental Rights: Protection matter. One more question remains to Can there be stronger words with Against Economic Exploitation", be answered. To whom and for whom which one can denounce capitalism? Babasaheb wrote, is this liberty? Obviously this liberty JANATA, October 21, 2018 15 Scientists Warn Extinction Now Outpaces Evolution

Cheyenne Macdonald Humans are now driving to recover from the biodiversity 3. The Middle Permian: Scientists mammals to extinction at rates much losses they have incurred since the have recently discovered another faster than Earth’s species may be emergence of modern humans. And, event 262 million years ago able to recover from, a new study it would take 3 to 5 million years to that rivals the 'Big Five' in size. warns. Even in the best-case scenario, reach the levels they’re at now, even This event coincided with the worrying new estimates suggest it will if humans cease destructive practices. Emeishan eruption in what's now take upwards of 5 million years for In the next 50 years, we could lose China, and is known to have mammal species to bounce back to several species, with the black rhino caused simultaneous extinctions current biodiversity levels following and Asian elephant both feared to be in the tropics and higher latitudes. the extinctions expected to occur over at risk of dying out before the end of 4. The Late Permian: The Late the next five decades. The researchers the century. Permian mass extinction around say evolution will not be able to keep 252 million years ago dwarfs all up with the rate by which mammal When were Earth's 'BIG Five' the other events, with about 96% species are dying out unless we ramp Extinction Events? of species becoming extinct. up conservation efforts. Traditionally, scientists have The extinction was triggered by While Earth has experienced five referred to 'Big Five' mass extinctions. a vast eruption of the Siberian mass extinctions in its history, the Of these, perhaps the most famous Traps, a gigantic and prolonged current phenomenon is unique in that mass extinction was triggered by volcanic event that covered much it is caused by humans, not natural a meteorite impact that brought of modern day Siberia, which led disasters. about the end of the dinosaurs 66 to a cascade of environmental In the new study, researchers million years ago. But the other effects. from Aarhus University and the major mass extinctions were caused 5. The Late Triassic: The Late University of Gothenburg used an by phenomena originating entirely Triassic event, 201 million extensive database of mammals both on Earth, and while they are less well years ago, shares a number of in existence today and those that known, we may learn something from similarities with the Late Permian have gone extinct since the rise of exploring them that could shed light event. It was caused by another Homo sapiens to assess the future of on our current environmental crises. large-scale eruption, this time of mammalian biodiversity. 1. The Late Ordovician: This ancient the Central Atlantic Magmatic Large mammal species, crisis around 445m years ago saw Province, which heralded the the researchers warn, are two major waves of extinction, splitting of the supercontinent disproportionately at risk of dying both caused by climate change Pangaea and the initial opening out altogether. associated with the advance and of what would later become the “Large mammals, or megafauna, retreat of ice sheets in the southern Atlantic Ocean. such as giant sloths and saber- hemisphere. This makes it the “Although we once lived in a toothed tigers, which became only major extinction to be linked world of giants: giant beavers, giant extinct about 10,000 years ago, were to global cooling. armadillos, giant deer, etc, we now highly evolutionarily distinct,” says 2. The Late Devonian: This period live in a world that is becoming palaeontologist Matt Davis from is now regarded as a number increasingly impoverished of large Aarhus University, who led the study. of 'pulses' of extinction spread wild mammalian species,” says “Since they had few close relatives, over 20m years, beginning 380m Professor Jens-Christian Svenning their extinctions meant that entire years ago. This extinction has from Aarhus University, who heads a branches of Earth’s evolutionary tree been linked to major climate large research program on megafauna. were chopped off.” Davis says, “There change, possibly caused by an “The few remaining giants, such as were hundreds of species of shrew, so eruption of the volcanic Viluy rhinos and elephants, are in danger of they can weather a few extinctions. Traps area in modern-day Siberia. being wiped out very rapidly.” There were only four species of saber- A major eruption might have We need to identify and prioritise toothed tiger; they all went extinct.” caused rapid fluctations in sea at risk species before it’s too late. “It is According to the study, it will levels and reduced oxygen levels much easier to save biodiversity now take mammals 5 to 7 million years in the oceans. than to re-evolve it later,” Davis says. R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 16 JANATA, October 21, 2018 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2018 Published on Sunday, October 21, 2018 & Posted on Wedenesday, October 24, 2018 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 73 No. 40 Another Assault on Academic Freedom October 28, 2018 Apoorvanand The Indian Economy in a Tailspin A former professor at the administration adopted the directive Prabhat Patnaik Jawaharlal Nehru University told to make its teaching staff compliant me that his vice chancellor once to Civil Services Conduct Rules. Is India Heading Towards called him to speak to him about The JNU teaching community Militarism? the regular commentaries he wrote is up in arms, fearing the decision Anil Sinha in the newspapers. He thought that will take away their freedom to the vice chancellor probably did not pursue their work without fear. Jayaprakash Narayan: An want him to waste his time writing The administration is accusing the Idealist Betrayed – Part II opinion pieces and instead use it complaining teachers of spreading M.G. Devasahayam to produce academic work. But half-truths. It maintains that the what the vice chancellor said next conduct rules will kick in only Anita, Christine, and Me put his unease in perspective. I can where the JNU Act or relevant Belle Chesler get in trouble for what you write, ordinances are silent. But the laws the vice chancellor told him. The governing universities such as JNU UN Report: RevolutionNeeded professor returned amused, he was are silent at many places. For one, to Prevent Climate Disaster not concerned about the security of they do not explicitly state how the James Plested his job. faculty should conduct themselves Those were gentler times. A vice in matters of politics, or public life chancellor asking a faculty member generally. Editor : G. G. Parikh not to make life difficult for him by Civil servants are not supposed Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain criticising the government knew that to criticise the government, it was embarrassing to discuss this their employer. This may be Managing Editor : Guddi in the open. If the professor decided understandable even if we now Editorial Board : not to listen to him, he could do little. see many civil servants writing or B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali Today, vice chancellors have a speaking rather freely. Their views Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah reason to shut up their teachers. They can embarrass the government, yet are being directed by the University Nandu Dhaneshwar, they are being tolerated. Grants Commission to treat teachers Teachers have enjoyed freedom Sandeep Pandey as government servants—bar them in this regard. Not only can they D-15, Ganesh Prasad, from speaking their minds which air their political views openly, Naushir Bharucha Marg, more often than not goes against they need not resign to participate Mumbai - 400 007. the power. in active politics. They can join The regulator sent the directive political formations, organise or Email : [email protected] to universities in May. But it is lead political campaigns, even fight Website:www.janataweekly.org making news now after the JNU elections while still in service. The 2 JANATA, October 28, 2018 government has now moved to curb to the next generation but also to freedom in India. this freedom. The UGC, having create new knowledge. How can In countries such as China, forgotten that it must act on behalf this be done uncritically? How, for Russia and Turkey, universities of universities and chosen to be the example, would a critique of atomic are seen with suspicion and, thus, government’s post office, has asked energy or the building of mega tightly controlled by government. universities to frame ordinances to dams be treated by the government? In India, however, campuses have bind teachers to the Civil Services When any word against the Sardar been largely liberal. Academics have Conduct Rules. Sarovar Dam is deemed sacrilege in been allowed to have their views To understand how dangerous Gujarat, or when atomic energy is and no government has dared treat this is, look at the Tribal Central seen as being essential to national a university teacher as just another University of Amarkantak, which is development, how can a teacher of its employees. Until now, that is. already implementing the conduct discuss them without risking being Since the Bharatiya Janata rules. An ordinance issued by the treated as anti-government or even Party took power four years ago, university directs all its employees anti-national? leaders of the ruling party and even not to speak, write or publish In any modern democratic ministers have frequently denounced without prior permission from the society, the academic community universities as dens of “anti- authorities. This means no employee has a function beyond the classroom. nationals”. Most recently, liberal will be able to speak critically about They are expected to help the public campuses have been projected as the the government, the university or the make informed choices, and not only stomping grounds of “Urban Naxals”. UGC. The rules do allow writing in elections. How else are citizens The government has unleashed for “purely scientific or academic” expected to assess government propaganda that anti-national purposes but are silent on who will policies that affect their lives if and “anti-development” elements make such a determination. Further, specialists are prevented from are operating out of universities, not only are the employees barred explaining their import without masquerading as teachers. For India from associating with any political fear or favour. In recent years, we to achieve peaceful development, the party or activity, they are expected to have seen how intervention by government says, campuses must dissuade their family members from economists like Jean Dreze led be weeded out of such undesirable doing so as well. to the enactment of the Right to elements. It appears a wide section JNU has also resolved to Food Act. And it’s constant public of the public is receptive to the idea implement the service rules while intervention by scholars like him that of purging campuses of people who the Central University of Gujarat and has kept the debate on Aadhaar alive. do not confine themselves to jobs the Maulana Azad National Urdu Scholarship will flee India’s public they are supposedly being paid for— University, Hyderabad, have already universities if teachers are restrained and the government is now using started framing ordinances. from speaking their minds. this popular sentiment to ensure The government has always In any case, it is not the UGC’s compliant campuses. held the teaching community to be business to keep bombarding This will greatly damage a nuisance, although many members universities with suggestions about public universities. Already, some of the ruling class have been teachers internal governance. Universities are eminent scholars have left esteemed themselves. We have often heard autonomous institutions governed institutions such as Delhi University bureaucrats wondering how teachers by their respective acts. The UGC is and JNU for private establishments can be allowed to criticise the meant only to ensure that standards such as the Ashoka University or government when it pays their are maintained. Yet, in the last few the Jindal University. It is wrong to salaries. years, successive governments assume they were lured by money. A have used the regulator to dictate feeling of being under siege robbed Feeling under siege to universities and meddle in them of their peace. Scholarship Knowledge, in the true sense of their internal affairs. And weak cannot take place in this atmosphere. the term, is criticism. It questions leaderships of universities have It would be really sad if our society authority in all its forms. A teacher’s allowed it without much protest. left teachers to fight this battle on job is not only to facilitate the Forcing the conduct rules on teachers their own. transfer of available knowledge is the latest assault on academic Email: [email protected] JANATA, October 28, 2018 3 The Indian Economy in a Tailspin

Prabhat Patnaik

The Indian economy is in a Arun Jaitley announced a slew of petrol and diesel prices, whose tailspin. This cannot be attributed measures on September 14 to attract effects are felt even by the poorest only to innocence in economic finance into the economy to stem the persons because they increase the matters of the command-centre of rupee’s slide. transport costs of all goods, is to the NDA government. While that is The sliding rupee is raising lower the taxes on these goods which indubitably a contributing factor, the import costs, especially of crude oil; make up the bulk of their prices. current travails of the economy point and the latter get passed on in the Some state governments, of whom to something deeper, namely the form of higher petro-product prices. Kerala was an early example and dead-end to which neo-liberalism This fact, together with the rise of Karnataka the latest, have indeed has brought the economy. Without crude prices in the world market, reduced their taxes on petro-products moving away from the neo-liberal following an agreement within the to provide relief to the people. But trajectory, the economy cannot come OPEC itself, has now raised petrol there are limits to the extent to which out of its current difficulties. and diesel prices in India to dizzying such relief would be forthcoming, India’s success in raising the heights; and the rise continues daily. for two obvious reasons, both related GDP growth rate, the main selling Here again there is no question of to the neo-liberal regime. point for the neo-liberal regime, any respite within the neo-liberal One is our overwhelming was, unlike China’s, built upon regime from the relentless impact reliance on indirect taxation, and the quicksand of a persistent trade of this exchange-rate-depreciation- the eschewing of direct taxation, and current account deficit on the cum-inflation syndrome. The only because of the compulsion to retain external front. This was covered all thing Arun Jaitley can think of so-called “investors’ confidence”, this time by financial inflows, which doing is to attract sufficient financial so that finance flows in adequate were large enough even to add to inflow to stabilise the rupee, but that quantities to keep the balance of the foreign exchange reserves. A as suggested above is now more payments on an even keel. The major factor contributing to such difficult; and even if there is some second is the disastrous move inflows in recent years was the much temporary reprieve through such towards a Goods and Services lower interest rates in metropolitan inflows, it cannot but be temporary. Tax, again in conformity with the economies, especially in the US Manmohan Singh and demands of a neo-liberal economy, where they were virtually pushed Chidambaram attack the NDA for which has affected government tax down to zero to revive the economy its economic incompetence, which revenues adversely. after 2008, compared to India. is undeniable, but they have hardly In the face of this already But now the US itself has any better ideas. At the most they adverse effect, the need to maintain started raising the interest rates; and may jack up interest rates a bit more, government revenues becomes even uncertainty over the future of neo- but that, while its effects on financial more pressing, and puts a limit to liberalism in the wake of Trump’s inflows would be dubious for reasons the degree to which taxes on petro- protectionist measures is making already mentioned, would amount at products can be lowered (unless globalised finance flow massively best to merely papering over the greater direct taxation is resorted to the US as its safe “home base”. cracks (since the basic problem of to). Indeed the only reason that some The dollar, for both these reasons, the current account deficit would states have been able to reduce taxes, is rising relative to other currencies, still remain unaddressed); besides for lowering petrol and diesel prices, especially relative to the rupee. This it will worsen unemployment, and is because these goods fall outside state of affairs is not going to be damage further the economy of the the GST ambit; but naturally they reversed in the foreseeable future, small producers. cannot keep doing so beyond a point which is why the rupee continues to One way of providing relief to without raising revenue in other slide vis-à-vis the dollar, even after the people against the skyrocketing ways. (And such ways are no longer 4 JANATA, October 28, 2018 available to state governments even the form of productive assets. In minimum number of occupants per to the limited extent they were addition it has the effect of keeping car is insisted upon; this also acts earlier). wealth inequality in society in check, as a measure of directly controlling The way out of the current which, as is commonly accepted petro-product consumption. In other economic predicament however is now, is an essential prerequisite for words, measures of petro-product obvious, though invisible to eyes democracy. rationing would also kill several blinkered by neo-liberalism. Since It is shocking that in India, where birds with one stone: they would the inflow of finance will no longer wealth inequalities have been rising reduce road congestion; they would cover the current account deficit, so sharply of late, there is hardly reduce environmental pollution; the slide in the rupee would require any wealth taxation. Using direct and they would also reduce the controlling this deficit; and this taxation on wealth as a substitute for consumption of petro-products with can be effected only by directly indirect taxation on petro-products beneficial effects for our balance of controlling inessential imports. Even will thus kill several birds with one payments. in 2013 when the rupee was sliding, stone: it will prevent the inflationary A combination of direct the government had controlled gold squeeze on the people that rising import controls on inessential imports as a means of stemming petro-product price are imposing, items, reduction of petro-product this slide. Wealth-holders then were and at the same time bring greater prices, measures for reducing the moving from rupees to gold. This wealth equality in society which is consumption of such products and had boosted gold imports, and direct desirable per se. direct taxation, especially on wealth, controls over such imports played Lower petro-product prices, it is the obvious way of getting out a significant role in reducing the may be argued, would encourage of the tailspin in which the Indian trade deficit and halting the rupee’s larger consumption of such products, economy is currently caught. But slide. The ambit of import controls which, in the current context of this combination of measures which now will of course have to be wider, rising world crude prices, would is desirable, not just for getting out but there is no escape from such raise the country’s import-bill, of the current travails, but on other, controls. The rupee will have to bringing pressure on the rupee more long-term considerations as be stabilised immediately with a once again. Alongside controlling, well, runs contrary to the direction of combination of import controls and and lowering petro-product prices neo-liberalism. There is however no use of foreign exchange reserves. therefore, the government has to alternative to them if we are to avoid But this may not be enough to take steps to control petro-product the fate of countries that eventually stabilise petro-product prices in view consumption directly. Since much of run to the IMF and get caught in the of world market trends. These prices this consumption occurs within the vice-like grip of “austerity”. will have to be not just stabilised, government itself, with the defence but actually lowered to prevent sector in particular being a major The Unemployment down-the-line cost-push inflationary consumer, controlling consumption Crisis: effects on commodities in general. can be effected through a set of This can be done by significantly directives within the government. Reasons and lowering taxes upon them, and As for consumption outside the Solutions making up for the revenue shortfall government sector, several measures caused by such lowering through can be taken which effectively ration Contribution Rs. 25/- larger direct taxation, in particular the use of petro-products. wealth taxation. Many of these measures are Published by Wealth taxation in any case is the advocated and even implemented best way to finance public expenditure on environmental grounds. The Janata Trust & Lokayat as it has no adverse effects upon any “odd-even” scheme for instance D-15, Ganesh Prasad, investment “incentives”: since all that was implemented in Delhi Naushir Bharucha Marg, forms of wealth are taxed without was also a means of petro-product Grant Road (W), discrimination, there is no special rationing. In many countries, to Mumbai 400 007 disincentive for holding wealth in avoid congestion in peak hours, a JANATA, October 28, 2018 5 Is India Heading Towards Militarism?

Anil Sinha It was unusual for a country the country. Former minister and trying to promote the concept of like India to accept the fact eminent journalist Arun Shouri has a polity which gives the military that it invaded a territory of the given an account of the surgical an important role. The climax of neighbouring country. But Prime strike carried out by the Atal Bihari the campaign can be seen in Amit Minister Narendra Modi and the Vajpayee government. If we go by Shah launching his ‘Sampark BJP president Amit Shah are not his claims, the earlier strike during for Samarthan’ campaign with a tired of mentioning the valour of Vajpayee’s time seems to be much visit to the residence of ex-Army a strike across the Line of Control bigger than one under the Modi chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag. on the Kashmir border. The strike government. Obviously, the visit has given rise which they claimed to be surgical The deterioration in the Kashmir to speculations that General Suhag one became the focus of a month- situation is all too visible. Life is may contest the coming Lok Sabha long celebration two years later in more difficult than before. Terrorists elections. September 2018. The celebration have been frequently striking civil The BJP, an avtar of Bhartiya of the ‘Surgical Strike’ made on and military establishments. Pakistan Jan Sangh, was in the forefront of a Pakistani post on September has also shown not any sign of the anti-emergency movement and 29, 2018 was not only a show of timidity, as we were made to believe used the movement for an image military strength of India, but also an soon after the exercise. Then, what makeover. Obviously, it is relevant affirmation to a newly acquired faith. is the rationale behind celebrating to compare its attempt to change Indian polity has made a turn towards a strike? Is it not irresponsible on the idioms of democracy with the militarism, in a clear departure from the part of a democratic country authoritarian moves taken by the the policy the country had adopted like India to glamourise a military then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. even before it became independent. operation? It has an adverse effect She had a bigger opportunity of Another dark side of the story is on regional peace. A country like dealing with army generals. Indira the ruling party’s attempt to make it India is known for its efforts towards Gandhi took over from Lal Bahadur an electoral plank in the 2019 Lok promoting peace. It is really a matter Shastri immediately after the 1965 Sabha elections. of concern that we are ignoring war was over. She had generals There is any hardly need to the role we are known for. The like General J.N. Chaudhary and emphasise that the much hyped Modi government must be held Lieutenant General Harbaksh Singh surgical strike could not achieve responsible for abandoning the ethos to deal with. Both of them had led a its objective to check cross border of our traditional foreign policy. decisive win over Pakistan and were terrorism. The celebrations to The government is carrying forward household names by the end of the commemorate the operation two a creed which has been proved a war. Chaudhary did not show any years later had nothing except the failure during the World Wars. inclination to politics, nor did Mrs. intent to mobilise people around Militarism has inspired some Gandhi encourage him to do so. an idea which goes against the more acts of the BJP government. He went to Canada as India’s High democratic interest of the country The induction of General V.K. Singh Commissioner. and the sub-continent. A dramatised into the party and later into the Lieutenant General Harbaksh version of the story ran across the ministry despite his being a general Singh had led Indian soldiers to screens of TV channels. Statistics with a controversial background is victory on the western sector, but do not favour the claim of the another example of BJP’s inclination he did not even become the Chief government that terrorist attacks towards militarism. of the Army. However, both the in Kashmir have come under In its four years of focused generals were recognised for their control. An objective analysis campaign in favor of the army and distinguished services and given the only reveals that the operation only endorsement of every single act of highest civilian honour, the Padma achieved distrust and bad name for the army, the BJP has always been Vibhushan. 6 JANATA, October 28, 2018

The classic case is of Lieutenant comes to the subcontinent, it will General Jagjit Singh Aurora. He was be a game changer, and we have General Officer Commanding-in- lots of advantages in the Rafale Chief of the Eastern Command when deal,” he asserted, at a time when the Bangladesh war was fought in the controversy regarding the Rafale 1971. He led the Indian soldiers deal is being talked about in the to victory and forced 90 thousand French media as well. Pakistani soldiers to surrender. He does not stop here and However, Indira Gandhi did not goes on to criticise the HAL. He encourage him to join politics. He accused the public sector company later became an MP with the help of delaying deliveries, “there is a of Akali Dal. He also received the three year delay in the delivery of Padma Bhushan. Sukhoi-30, a six year delay in the BJP’s inclination cannot be Jaguar, a five year delay in the LCA, dismissed as an act of opportunism. and a two year delay in delivery of This is a case of political faith. If we Mirage 2000 upgrade.” look at the ideological background The negotiation for the 126 of the BJP, it is not surprising to see aircraft deal for the Rafale had it attempting this. The RSS, the reached an impasse. Speaking like parent organisation of the party, has a spokesperson of the government, been a supporter of militarism since he stated, “The option before us its inception. The organisation has was to keep waiting, or issue a fresh been advocating military training RFP and waste more years, or go for every able bodied individual and in for an emergency purchase. The wants it to be a part of the curriculum government took a bold decision.” in schools and college. The final The Air Chief’s defense of the training given to an RSS cadet has government only confirms that in fact been given the name Officers’ militarism has made its way into Training Course. the polity. However, the Opposition The attempt is obviously does not seem to have realised the bringing some uncommon trends into danger militarism is going to pose country’s polity. Serving generals to Indian democracy. It seems to are issuing political statements. They have no concern for it. How can are not hesitating in commenting on we forget that militarism led to two issues which are purely political. World Wars? How can we forget the General Bipin Rawat speaks on catastrophe it has brought to human foreign affairs and asserts that Nepal civilisation? We have also seen that and Bhutan have no option except to any country chooses militarism to its incline towards India. own peril. People lose democratic The latest example of pro- rights in the name of nationalism. government comments by senior Hitler and Mussolini are the best military officers is that of Air Chief examples. Contemporary examples Marshal B.S. Dhanoa. He said can also open our eyes. In both that in making the Rafale deal, the Myanmar and Pakistan, the army has Indian Air Force was consulted at captured everything from economy the appropriate level. It was decided to culture. All attempts of restoring to buy two squadrons through a democracy in these countries have ‘government to government deal’ failed so far. Do we want to go the to meet the emergency requirements same way? of the Indian Air Force. “When it Email: [email protected] JANATA, October 28, 2018 7 Jayaprakash Narayan: An Idealist Betrayed – Part II

M. G. Devasahayam

What a marvelous experience! These opening words of JP’s Prison conveying his decision “to go on fast When I received ‘prisoner JP’ Diary–1975 dated 21 July—a full until death” unless the Emergency at the tarmac of Chandigarh Air three weeks after his arrival in was revoked and all prisoners Force base on the night of July 1, Chandigarh—amply describe a released within two weeks. JP had 1975, Emergency was only a few sense of defeatism and extremely authorised Prasad to announce this days old. JP had been taken into fragile state of JP’s mind and spirit to the outside world. Considering custody by the District Magistrate, during the initial days. Then he the grave implications this could Delhi on 25/26 June night, moved started taking stock of things and bring forth, I took upon myself around nearby areas of Haryana did some hard soul searching, the task of dissuading JP from this and Delhi’s All-India Institute of introspection and evaluation of disastrous move, but did not make Medical Sciences, and was being events leading to the imposition of any headway even after two hours brought to Chandigarh for safe Emergency and its aftermath. This of highly surcharged nail-splitting custody and medical care. To me intense ‘solo-brainstorming’ led JP verbal duel. JP refused to relent and at that time, JP was an enigma as to believe that the ‘intellectuals’ who said that his decision was irrevocable well as a mystery. My memory of had egged him on saying ‘JP you because in his opinion Mrs. Gandhi him as the ‘Quit India Movement’ are the only hope of the nation’ and will only bring more destructive hero of the forties was hazy and the whom he counted upon as bulwarks measures now that ‘intellectuals’ perception of his recent campaign of democracy had buckled and had had totally buckled and there was for ‘total revolution’ was rather deserted him. no resistance whatsoever. I contested confusing. This deep mental hurt was the it vehemently and eventually During the 22 weeks JP was main cause for some disturbing succeeded in persuading JP to give in my custody, I did come to developments later, including his up the idea of fast. know him very intimately. And conclusion that at least for the Sensing the distress of JP, I having understood the nobility of foreseeable future, democracy in initiated the process of political his struggle and the intensity of the country was dead. And even dialogue and reconciliation, which his commitment, I partook in all if “it was put together after a long I had been thinking about for some matters concerning him and the time” he will not be there to see it. time. I got working on this, quietly State, shared his intimate thoughts So, over a period of several days, putting this thought in the mind of JP, and feelings, discussed political he drafted a “letter of farewell” to and increasingly getting a positive events and happenings, played Mrs. Indira Gandhi pouring out his response. My efforts culminated in ‘Devil’s Advocate’, participated in heart in anguish, pleading with her a warm gesture by way of a letter brainstorming and strategy sessions, to mend ways and “reconciling to die from JP to the PM on September took charge of his mental and a prisoner under her regime”. This 17 expressing hope of an early end psychological well-being, initiated letter—indeed an epistle—sent on to the Emergency. In response to the reconciliation process between July 21, 1975 to the Prime Minister this, at the behest of Mrs. Gandhi, him and the Prime Minister, and caused quite a ripple in the corridors Sheikh Abdullah issued a positive succeeded in reviving his faith in of power. statement setting the ball rolling on himself and his people which he was A couple of weeks later on reconciliation. on the verge of losing. Sunday, August 10, 1975, I had JP responded to Sheikh Abdullah “My world lies in shambles permitted JP’s brother-in-law S.N. through a letter which inter alia said: all around me. I am afraid I shall Prasad an interview for one hour. However, in spite of all that not see it put together again in Around noon, the Jail Superintendent has happened and is happening, my lifetime. May be my nephews delivered to me a letter from JP I am prepared to seek the path of and nieces will see that. May be.” addressed to the Prime Minister conciliation. I shall, therefore, be 8 JANATA, October 28, 2018 much obliged if you kindly see me and treated properly. and democracy. as soon as possible so that I could This conviction led me to initiate Fourteen months later, discuss this matter with you. I being silent and swift steps to launch a emboldened by the reports of the villain of the piece, the arch- multi-pronged assault through PMO ‘success’ of the Emergency regime conspirator, culprit number one, a emissary Das Gupta, JP’s brother and the perception that opposition return to true normalcy, not the false Rajeshwar Prasad, Chandigarh to her rule was crumbling and JP, one established by repression and Chief Commissioner/Union Home the only mass all-India leader was terror, can only be brought about Secretary and my personal channel sick and demoralised, Indira Gandhi with my co-operation. I am herewith to the PMO with the same message called for the Sixth General Election offering you my full co-operation. content—“If JP dies in Jail”—to to Parliament in January 1977. And This letter was delivered at create a crisis mindset in Delhi so that in his inimitable style, JP went into Delhi on September 24 forenoon JP could be released immediately. action despite being tied down to and the response from PM’s Office, This worked admirably resulting a dialysis machine twice a week. particularly P.N. Dhar, Principal in a flurry of activities leading to JP’s Without wasting any time, he put Secretary to PM, was swift. A release on ‘unconditional parole’ on into effect the political blueprint he special emissary (Sugatha Das November 12, by an order served had worked out while in detention Gupta, Director, Gandhi Institute on him by the Chief Secretary and and refined later and put together a of Studies, Varanasi, of which JP District Magistrate of Delhi who “Janata Parivar” with one flag and was the Chairman) arrived on the flew into Chandigarh by a special one symbol. 25th morning to initiate efforts for BSF aircraft. This was followed Due largely to his untiring a political dialogue between the PM by high intensity drama in the next efforts, immediately after coming and JP. There were some more visits few days when the panicked ‘Delhi out of jails, the opposition leaders by Das Gupta and the preliminary Durbar’ made desperate efforts to announced the coming together of work on reconciliation was going retain JP in Chandigarh. However, I Congress (O), Jan Sangh, Bharatiya apace. prevailed upon the PGI to discharge Lok Dal and Socialists under the As hope for the success of JP and commandeered seats in the Janata Party umbrella. Congress was reconciliation efforts and restoration Indian Airlines flight to take JP to dealt a body-blow by the sudden of democracy was rising, certain Delhi en route to Bombay Jaslok defection of Jagjivan Ram, H.N. mysterious and intriguing things Hospital! Bahuguna and Nandini Sathpathy happened culminating in the whole As he departed from Chandigarh who formed the Congress for process being sabotaged by Sanjay on November 16, I saw him off at Democracy and, along with the Gandhi and his cronies. JP’s letter the airport wishing him well and DMK in Tamil Nadu and the Akali to Sheikh Abdullah was never requesting him to look after his Dal in Punjab, forged a common delivered but was returned through health. JP’s reply still rings in my front with the Janata Party in order to Das Gupta during one of his visits. ears: “Devasahayam, you are like give a straight fight to the Congress Certain other disturbing events a son I never had. My health is not and its allies in the election held in followed. important. The health of the nation March 1977. Mysteriously, in early November and democracy is. I will defeat ‘that The Emergency and its 1975, JP’s health started deteriorating woman’ and have them restored.” excesses were the major issues of fast and from the doctor’s hedgy And then the aircraft departed. the election campaign. JP created replies about his health, I suspected I came back home feeling a public upsurge by touring the that something was amiss. As later completely drained but relieved. The country intensively and addressing events proved, JP’s kidney was last words of JP showed that the fire mammoth gatherings. At several getting irrevocably damaged! Under was back in him and the transition places where he could not go, the circumstances, I was convinced of the ‘Lok Nayak’ from a defeated large crowds intently listened to that it would be unsafe to keep JP individual to a defiant icon was JP’s speech through pre-recorded in Chandigarh any longer and he complete. I was confident that with tapes. His message was simple and should get to a place where his this new spirit he would fulfill his straight—if you want autocracy and ailment could be diagnosed correctly pledge of returning India to freedom corruption, vote Congress; if you JANATA, October 28, 2018 9 want democracy and honesty, vote and do his best to defeat Indira at for facing elections at short notice. Janata. the hustings, he said. He hoped the Parties like the DMK in Tamil With the popular upsurge thus people wouldn’t be fooled again. Nadu and the Shromani Akali Dal created, the Janata Parivar captured “This lady must be defeated. She in Punjab would provide the much- 345 parliamentary seats with the has ruined the country enough,” JP needed regional base. Congress and its allies far behind used to fume. I was astonished and pointed out with 189. The Congress was virtually I played the devil’s advocate. Was that JP’s views on several occasions wiped out in North India with the she not the hope of the minority— had been sharply critical of the Jan party winning only two out of 234 both linguistic and religious—and Sangh and its communal hue. I constituencies in seven states. Both their champion? I also pointed out specifically quoted his article in a Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi that minorities were the majority in journal way back in 1968: “When, were defeated. Indeed, JP lived up this country. Would it not be very following Gandhiji’s murder, the to his promise of redeeming India’s difficult to defeat her at the polls, RSS was under a shadow, there were freedom and I was happy that I had I queried. The Jan Sangh had a many protestations made about its a small part to play. communal image and non-Hindus being entirely a cultural organisation. did not feel comfortable with them But apparently emboldened by the Why JP brought RSS into the because of the RSS. Most non-Hindi- timidity of the secular forces, it Janata Parivar speaking people were suspicious has thrown its veil away and has While under detention in about the Jan Sangh because of emerged as the real force behind, Chandigarh, JP was making his own their linguistic fanaticism. Congress and controller of, the Bharatiya Jana plans for elections as and when they (O) was a divided house, and their Sangh. The secular protestations of took place and the ways and means leader, Morarji Desai, was a suspect the Jana Sangh will never be taken to remove the Congress from power. in South Indian eyes because of his seriously unless it cuts the bonds that He was of the firm conviction that perceived pro-Hindi views. His role tie it so firmly to the RSS machine. unless a viable and working political prior to and during the 1965 anti- Nor can the RSS be treated as a alternative to the Congress emerged Hindi agitation had antagonised cultural organisation as long as it and sustained, the ruling party would the Tamil population. His rift with remains the mentor and effective continue to revel in the ‘There is Kamaraj had led to the DMK manipulator of a political party.” no alternative’ (TINA) syndrome coming to power. Because of the I asked JP that despite such and an Emergency kind of situation above reasons, South India would a categorical disapproval, how would get repeated. JP planned to vote en bloc for Indira. This was he could associate with this devote whatever life was left in him particularly so since the Emergency, ‘communal organisation’ in his to accomplish this mission of uniting its harshness, and perceived excesses fight against the Emergency rule the Opposition. were no issues in the South, because and its eventual overthrow. JP was This was the main subject these were not felt in that part of the candid in describing the causes, of discussion when JP and I met country. criteria and compulsions leading frequently in the month of October About the composition to the decision to associate the Jan 1975. During our interaction, JP of the united party that JP was Sangh with the united opposition used to analyse the chances of the contemplating to take on the party. The main reasons were two. Opposition winning in the event Congress (I), he had only a broad One was JP’s unwillingness to opt of elections as per schedule in framework in mind and details were for the alternative of associating with February/March 1976. As of now, to be thrashed out when the party the Communists, the other cadre- they were a divided house, he said. would actually take shape. The based party, since according to him, Would the trials and tribulations framework would have Congress “Communists were professional of the Emergency unite them, he (O) with the socialist faction of collaborators. They collaborated wondered. Would a single, viable Congress and the Bharatiya Lok with the British and must now be Opposition be formed? Once Dal as core components. The RSS- collaborating with the Emergency elections were announced and he backed Jan Sangh would provide coterie.” Indeed, they were! was released, he would go all out the cadre base, which was essential The second was the solemn 10 JANATA, October 28, 2018 pledge taken by top RSS and the fact that the party opposed a ban given by the Jan Sangh of merging Jan Sangh leaders—RSS on its ties with the RSS, which was with Janata Party and ending RSS– Sarsanghchalak Balasaheb Deoras, sought to be imposed by the Janata Jan Sangh ‘dual-membership’ within previous President of Jan Sangh Party leaders. RSS sahasarkaryavah, six months as had been agreed by it A.B. Vajpayee, then President of Jan Madandas Devi, who presided over earlier. Sangh L.K. Advani—in his presence the function, put it more bluntly True to his nature, Chandra to totally give up communal politics when he said: “The BJP stands on Shekhar went about his task in all in the event of coming to power at the the backdrop of the Jan Sangh and seriousness. During those days, Centre. They had also categorically the Jan Sangh stood on the backdrop the land-based telephone system assured him that within a short period of the RSS.” was managed by the Department of of coming to power, the Jan Sangh Flashback to post-Emergency. Telecom and the Subscriber Trunk will merge with the parent party (yet After a delay of one-year, Dialing (STD) between cities was to be formed) and they will terminate Indira Gandhi made the election very porous and cross-talk was the ‘dual-membership’—RSS and announcement on January 18, 1977. common. I used to call Chandra Jan Sangh—making the former a When opposition leaders sought JP’s Shekhar once in a while to keep purely cultural organisation. They support for the forthcoming elections, in touch. During one such call, I also assured JP that if any hurdle he insisted that all opposition parties could hear a conversation between came up for this, they would not form a united front. Accordingly, him and Raj Narain, the clownish hesitate to even wind up the RSS. the Janata party was officially socialist who had defeated Indira And JP, being a man of his words, launched on January 23, 1977 when Gandhi at the hustings. When I had no reason to doubt the honour the Janata Morcha, Bharatiya Lok heard the word RSS repeatedly, I and integrity of these senior leaders. Dal of Charan Singh, Swatantra got interested and listened to the JP was clear that the monolithic Party, Socialist Party of India of entire conversation that lasted for and servile Congress Party had to Raj Narain and George Fernandes, about 15 minutes. It was all about be defeated if democracy was to be and Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) the Jan Sangh / RSS U-turn on revived in the country. There was joined together, dissolving their the ‘dual membership’ issue. The finality in the voice of JP when he separate identities. The merger of conversation was in Hindi and both said: “These parties merging and all these party organisations was of them used abusive language and providing a viable alternative is the to be completed after the elections. choicest epithets about the RSS. only hope for our democracy.” And Although the political ideologies of They ended the conversation with I thought it prudent to leave it there. the various Janata constituents were a mutual understanding to force the diverse and conflicting, the party issue. Accordingly, soon thereafter, The Great Betrayal: Dual was able to unite them under the the Janata Parliamentary Board membership gave birth to the BJP over-arching leadership of JP, who (JPB) passed a resolution barring In 2005, as BJP was celebrating was seen as the ideological mentor Janata functionaries from their day- its silver jubilee, its president LK of the anti-Emergency movement to-day activities in RSS. Advani openly admitted that the and now the Janata party. With a tradition of lies and party would not have been born in Morarji Desai was elected the double deals, it was obvious that 1980 had the Janata Party not raised first party chairman, Ramakrishna the Sangh parivar was never serious the issue of dual membership in the Hegde became the party general about keeping its promise and was manner it did. “The Janata Party secretary and Jana Sangh politician waiting for an excuse. It came in parliamentary board put forward Lal Krishna Advani became the the form of the JPB resolution. the excuse of our dual membership party spokesperson. After the Janata The situation was manipulated by as they thought that they would not victory in March and elevation of Jan Sangh hardliners and the RSS be able to progress if we stayed with Morarji Desai as Prime Minister, Pratinidhi Sabha refused to ratify them,” Advani said after releasing a JP appointed his close confidante the proposal when presented by book on 25 years of the BJP. Chandra Shekhar as the Party Balasaheb Deoras. That was the end According to him, the rationale president with a clear mandate to of the ‘dual-membership’ issue and behind the birth of the BJP lay in enforce the solemn undertaking merger of Janata Parivar as a single JANATA, October 28, 2018 11 entity. Said a saddened Janata Party president, Chandra Shekhar: "I did Anita, Christine, and Me expect that Deoras would fulfil his promise. But I'm not surprised at Belle Chesler the recent stand taken by the RSS. However, I fail to understand it." It’s been three weeks since school in Oregon where I’ve taught Vijay Kumar Malhotra of the Dr. Christine Blasey Ford gave visual art and film studies for the past Jan Sangh, who was president of her testimony before the nation 14 years. Taking in her testimony, I the Delhi Janata Party, tried to and I’m still struggling to move found myself growing distraught. rationalise this perfidy when he said: on. As talk turns toward the As her voice quavered, I felt a surge “We are proud of our association impending midterms, I find myself of emotion so strong it seemed to with the RSS. We can't accept a mentally pushing back against the paralyze me. I couldn’t stop looking decision on our association with the relentlessness of the news cycle as it even though I knew something RSS from the Janata Party which plows on, casting a spell of cultural inside was tearing me apart and makes the RSS appear as something amnesia in its wake. I’m still mired that, no matter my emotional state, undesirable. But if the RSS itself had in the past, shaken by the spectacle I would still have to pull myself decided to bar us, it would have been of the Kavanaugh hearings, and together to face my first class of the a different matter.” Morarji Desai pulled across the decades into the day, only moments away. As the tried some patch-up but failed. darkest crevasses of my memories. camera zeroed in on Dr. Ford’s face, Nanaji Deshmukh, former RSS In October 1991, I sat perched her nervous gesturing at her hair, and political commissar of the Jan Sangh on a stool in Mr. Bundeson’s seventh the tears shimmering in the corners and the one closest to JP, tried to grade woodshop class listening with of her eyes, I couldn’t shake the apply some balm: “The Jan Sangh fascination as Anita Hill testified feeling that I was watching a woman would do nothing to wreck the party about her experience of sexual sacrificing herself before the nation, unless we are compelled.” But it harassment by then Supreme Court just as Anita Hill had done so many appeared that the point of no return nominee Clarence Thomas. To a years before. had been reached. Malhotra pulled seventh grader, the details, both As she recounted her experience the curtains down when he said: “To surprisingly specific and appealingly with Brett Kavanaugh and Mark me it seems the time has come for lurid, were especially intriguing. Judge, the internal wall of fortitude a parting of ways. There is no other What 13-year-old could have resisted I’d built up over the years started option. But it should be done in such the simultaneously bizarre and gross to crumble. That wall, which had a way that there is no bad blood so testimony regarding a pubic hair bricked in so many experiences— that we can have at least an honest placed on a can of Coke? We were the catcalls, the comments from a coalition in the future.” riveted. Who could make something high school teacher who praised my like that up? Over the course of the muscular legs in front of the class, hearing, our teachers rolled out TVs the years spent with an abusive on carts and let the proceedings play boyfriend, the boss who liked to during our classes. It felt like we show me his favorite porn, the men were sharing a significant national who exposed themselves to me in moment and watching together a park, on a bus, from a van—all meant we were all a part of history started to spill out. There were too being made. many experiences to catalogue so The full import of that experience many years later, but they’d been wouldn’t hit me, however, until the there the whole time, ever present week I turned 40 and watched Dr. yet totally unmentionable. I had no Ford telling her story in front of idea how I’d make it through the day. another judiciary committee. This Walking into my first-period time, I was looking at the computer class on the history of motion on my desk at the suburban high pictures, it was clear that many of 12 JANATA, October 28, 2018 my students had been watching Dr. a circle as a way to connect. We put thinking, I used all of my strength to Ford’s testimony as well. Looking down our phones, make eye contact, shove him away. The rest is a blur. at them as they huddled around their and simply share what’s going on I know that somehow I ran from phones, I was transported back to the in our lives. Sometimes we chat the room and found my friend, but seventh grade. I remembered how, about the inconsequential details of I don’t remember how we left, who during the Hill–Thomas hearings, our days: our weekend plans, what packed my things, or how we got we chatted at our small table in classes are stressing us out, funny to the bus that would take us from that woodshop class, making jokes, anecdotes. Sometimes we go deeper. that town. All those details are gone. both confused and titillated by the As we gathered in our circle His face, his smell, and that machete spectacle. It was surreal to hear that morning, I looked out at my are not. adults recounting interactions both students’ sleepy faces and that veil intimate and grotesque in the most of professionalism and privacy Will it matter? formal setting imaginable. unexpectedly fell away. Suddenly, As the Kavanaugh hearings At that time, I’d never so much I was saying out loud what I’d went on, more and more students as kissed a boy, but I intuited that the only told a few close friends and became invested in watching them. nation’s fascination with what had family members: I, too, had been Some asked to listen on headphones transpired between Anita Hill and sexually assaulted. I’d spent a while we worked, some just wanted Clarence Thomas had something to lifetime, I explained, being brave to talk about what they’d heard. As do with the way that older men had and strong, moving on with purpose each class began, I addressed the started to look at me that year. My and determination, and ensuring that fact that I’d been crying all day—no absorption in the hearings ultimately the experiences I’d withstood had point in pretending, teenagers notice manifested itself in a project I been formative yet not definitive. everything—and explained why. created that fall. I designed and made My students sat in stunned silence. As I talked, I noted certain students a cutting board with a silhouette of I told them that sometimes the around the room crumpling. Bodies a fish carved out of black walnut messiness of the world seeps into pulled in on themselves, heads surrounded by a sea of white pine. I the classroom and that today, despite lowered. Some students shyly wiped named that cutting board Anita Hill. my best efforts, I’d been unable to away tears. A few of them asked to shut it out. leave the room to get some air. The messiness of the world What I didn’t tell them were the One student, bubbly and cheerful Teaching is often a balancing details of my story. That it happened as she entered, became despondent act between revealing enough of in Peru. My friend and I were staying when her peers told her about what yourself to be seen as approachable at a small guest house in a surfing was happening in Washington. and genuine and maintaining the town on the northern coast. We’d Unable to listen to the descriptions privacy and distance that is part and been there for a few days, enough of the hearing, she swiveled so that parcel of professionalism, while time to become friendly with the her body was facing away from the keeping personal boundaries clear. owner, his wife, and their small child. circle and put her head down on a Much of my teaching philosophy So when I ducked into our room one table. I waited for a quiet moment stems from the belief that individual afternoon to get something—what, to sit down next to her. Without and community relationships are the I can’t remember—and found that any pretense and in a no-nonsense foundation upon which all learning man suddenly in the room with me, monotone, she informed me that she should take place. Students, I’m I was taken off guard. He quickly was just one of a group of girls who convinced, learn best when they pinned me against a wall, one hand had been assaulted by a senior boy feel comfortable in your classroom. on my breast, the other clutching the previous year. She was unwilling Delivering content is sometimes the machete he had been using to tell her parents, fearful that they’d less important than creating an just minutes before to hack away never let her out of the house alone environment in which they feel at overgrown shrubs around the again. While I was sitting with her, visible and know that their voices are property. He told me that my eyes our school security officer came into heard. In order to establish that sense were the color of the sea. He pushed the classroom to get her so she could of community, I start each class with his hips against mine. Without be interviewed by someone already JANATA, October 28, 2018 13 investigating the case. The timing fascinated me was not the obvious of the rapes and attempted rapes of was impeccable. cruelty of his series of low blows, loved ones and friends, of the stories The hardest part of that day but the beaming smiles and laughter my students shared with me during wasn’t sharing my story or opening of the men and women in that the hearings, as well as in the years up to groups of teenagers about the crowd of supporters in Southhaven, that preceded them. It was a weight intimate details of my past. It was Mississippi. that made it hard to speak, let alone listening as my students argued I couldn’t help but wonder how lead my students. In the end, I ran about whether or not Dr. Ford’s many of them, beneath that veneer out of words and fell back on silence. testimony would even matter. In their of laughter, had felt a twinge of Ultimately, of course, Christine comments, I heard echoes of my own something familiar in the pit of their Blasey Ford’s testimony, though internal struggle. The experience of stomach as they listened to Ford’s deemed credible by those on watching Anita Hill being picked testimony. How many of the men both sides of the political aisle, apart and ultimately dismissed by in that crowd had given a passing didn’t alter the course of Judge those male senators in front of the thought to that one beer-soaked Kavanaugh’s trajectory. He will sit entire nation had a powerful effect night in high school they barely on that hallowed bench, the residue on my burgeoning seventh-grade remembered, the one that might have of those hearings fading into an sense of how to conduct myself as been the single most painful night of inconvenient stain on the CV of an a woman: that even though I now someone else’s life? How many of otherwise charmed life. For those of had a name for what I, too, might those laughing women were secretly us still struggling to move forward, experience—sexual harassment—if reminded of something painful the memory of the hearings, and I called that thing out or made too buried deep in their own pasts? How all it represented, will be seared, as much of a fuss, I would be the one many of them would not or could Dr. Ford might have put it, into the who paid the price. not dredge up experiences long hippocampus, never to fade. One of my students came up suppressed, fearful of the personal to me after class and told me that, toll that such a reckoning might though her stepbrother had assaulted take? How many of them would Janata her when she was younger, no one in be shocked to know about assaults her family believed her. She assured suffered by their own children? is available at me that she was fine now because I wish I could say that, while she had moved away and didn’t the hearings consumed the nation, www.lohiatoday.com have to see him anymore. As she I stood in front of my students and was telling me this, I couldn’t help made powerful speeches about imagining her, 10 or 20 years down moving forward with hope and Janata Subscription the line, reflecting with startled pain courage, about telling the truth and Annual Rs. : 260/- on the way her own family dismissed respecting one another. I did try, but I her, the way the people charged have no faith that I did a particularly Three Years : 750/- with her love and care wouldn’t or good job of it. Demand Draft / couldn’t believe her. Instead, in a sometimes halting, sometimes teary voice I talked about Cheque on Those laughing faces consent, about kindness, about how Mumbai Bank At a rally in Mississippi on compassion and empathy can be October 2nd, President Trump transformative. I told them that I in favour of made a point of mocking Dr. Ford’s would listen, even when it seemed testimony, joking about whether like no one else would. I believed Janata Trust or not she had really consumed what I was saying and yet there was D-15, Ganesh Prasad, only one beer and highlighting her still that enormous emotional weight Naushir Bharucha Marg, inability to remember certain details in my chest, the weight of Anita Hill’s of the night she claimed that Brett legacy, of Dr. Ford’s testimony, of a Grant Road (W), Kavanaugh had assaulted her. What lifetime of unwanted encounters, Mumbai 400 007. 14 JANATA, October 28, 2018 UN Report: Revolution Needed to Prevent Climate Disaster

James Plested

Only a revolution can save may be gone by the middle of the most apocalyptic scenarios won’t us. That’s the take home message century. eventuate. These include, for of the latest report from the UN Under a 3 degree warming example, the rapid release of methane Intergovernmental Panel on Climate scenario, large areas of the world will and other greenhouse gases trapped Change (IPCC), released on 8 be rendered uninhabitable. Deserts in the Arctic permafrost, which October. will expand into vital agricultural could cause runaway temperature Based on emissions reduction land. Sea level rises, which will rises well beyond current forecasts. commitments made under the 2015 continue for centuries as the polar ice The IPCC report was authored Paris agreement, the world is on caps melt, will force tens of millions by 91 scientists from 40 countries, track for an average temperature to vacate coastal towns and cities. referenced more than 6,000 scientific increase of 3 degrees Celsius. Those Tens of millions more will works, and was reviewed by commitments, however, are hardly be turned into refugees by severe 42,000 experts and government worth the paper they’re written on. food shortages caused by declining representatives from around the Australia has promised to reduce agricultural yields, the destruction world. If anything, it’s highly its emissions to 26–28 percent of fisheries and so on. Already, conservative. below 2005 levels by 2030. Yet with 68.5 million displaced people Commissioned in 2015, its aim since signing the agreement, in the world, countries everywhere is merely to outline the benefits emissions have continued to rise. are transforming themselves into and necessary steps for achieving The government is headed by a authoritarian, anti-refugee fortresses. the Paris agreement’s stated goal man whose passion for coal led In an era of climate migration, this of limiting the rise in global him to bring a lump of the stuff into tendency will intensify. temperatures to 1.5 degrees. parliament—waving it in the air and The world’s imperialist powers, When the agreement was made, passing it around to the delight of his including those, like Australia and the scientific consensus was that 2 Coalition colleagues. the US, that are doing nothing to degrees was the “safe limit” beyond Donald Trump has pulled the US address climate change, are ensuring which we risk being propelled into out of the agreement. that their militaries are “climate dangerous runaway warming. The Even countries that have voiced change ready”. We’re entering an era new report makes it clear that even support for the Paris agreement of increasing geopolitical tensions 2 degrees is too great a risk. continue to expand their own caused by competition over scarce The difference between 1.5 fossil fuel industries. The British natural resources—an era of climate degrees of warming and 2 degrees is government is pushing to allow wars. significant. As the report outlines, for gas fracking. Norway, Western The global average temperature example, a 1.5 degree warmer world Europe’s largest oil and gas producer, is already 1 degree above pre- would likely lose 70-80 percent of recently defeated a legal bid to block industrial levels. We’re already its coral reefs; at 2 degrees warmer, exploration of its Arctic territories seeing an increase in the frequency more than 99 percent of coral would for new resources to exploit. and intensity of extreme weather die. Failure to change course rapidly and natural disasters such as heat At 1.5 degrees warmer, the will spell disaster for hundreds of waves, droughts, cyclones, floods report notes, “9.6 percent of insects, millions of people. The destruction and fires. At 3 degrees warmer, such 8 percent of plants and 4 percent of of the Great Barrier Reef, and events will be a “new normal”— vertebrates are projected to lose over all other coral reefs around the with death and destruction visited half of their climatically determined world, will come first. These natural on communities with increasing geographic range”. At 2 degrees treasures, on which 500 million regularity. warmer, the figures double to 18 people depend for their livelihoods, All this assumes that the percent of insects, 16 percent of JANATA, October 28, 2018 15 plants and 8 percent of vertebrates”. service of the fossil fuel barons and the most profitable and politically Perhaps the most striking thing associated capitalists and investors, influential in the world. No amount about the report, however, is its who are more than prepared to watch of rational argument will stop them description of the steps necessary the world burn if it means a few extra from continuing their social and for the world to have a chance of billions in profits. environmental vandalism. limiting warming to 1.5 degrees. If there’s one thing the past The Paris agreement This would require, the authors three decades of inaction on climate was welcomed by mainstream argue, “rapid, far-reaching and change has shown, it’s that we can’t environment groups as a major unprecedented changes in all aspects rely on governments—in Australia’s breakthrough. The Australian of society. . . . Global net human- case, either of the Liberal or Labor Conservation Foundation, for caused emissions of carbon dioxide variety—to heed the warnings instance, said it “signals the end would need to fall by about 45 of scientists and take the steps of the fossil fuel age and will turbo percent from 2010 levels by 2030, necessary to halt our slide towards charge the clean energy revolution reaching ‘net zero’ around 2050.” climate catastrophe. None of them already underway.” To continue Achieving this would involve are prepared to break with the with such illusions now would be an immediate and sharp turn from logic of capitalism, in which the fatal. The IPCC report, just like the the current emissions trajectory— competitive drive to profit rules, and Paris agreement, will change nothing one that the world’s major emitters anything that gets in the way of that without mass, determined action show no sign of being prepared to is to be shunned. from all who want to save us from undertake. The time for tinkering around the looming catastrophe. The Australian government the edges is long gone. To achieve In the 17th century, Galileo is determined to continue with its the rapid emissions reductions called got into hot water with the Roman criminal inaction. Prime minister for in the IPCC report requires Catholic Inquisition for promoting Scott Morrison told Sydney’s radio a total reshaping of society and the “fable” that the earth revolved 2GB: “We are not held to any of the economy. This can’t happen around the sun. Today, the the [IPCC recommendations], and under the auspices of free market persecution of such figures is rightly nor are we bound by them.” Deputy capitalism. regarded as a last gasp of medieval prime minister Michael McCormack The environment movement superstition protecting the privileges defended the coal industry, arguing it would do well to reflect on this of the religious elite against the would continue to play an important point. Over the past few decades, encroachments of modern science. role in Australia’s economy for it’s poured its energies into lobbying The capitalist ruling class’s decades to come. He says the governments and big business— refusal to act on the observations government shouldn’t change its trying to convince them to curb of contemporary climate science policy “just because somebody emissions on the basis of scientific is more regressive and damaging might suggest that some sort of arguments about the consequences than anything the Inquisition could report is the way we need to follow for the planet if they fail to do so. muster. The world could have and everything that we should do.” This strategy has been a disaster. survived a few more centuries under Environment minister Melissa It’s not that the global capitalist the boot of religious despotism. Price made perhaps the most elite and their political servants A few more centuries under the bizarre comment—that it would don’t understand the consequences despotism of free market capitalism be “irresponsible” for Australia to of their actions. It’s that they know will leave it damaged probably commit to phasing out coal by 2050. a serious effort to address climate beyond repair. “I just don’t know how you can say change will put their wealth, power Our situation is aptly summed by 2050 you are not going to have and privileges at risk. up by Nathan Robison, editor of US technology, good clean technology, The CDP Carbon Majors magazine Current Affairs: when it comes to coal”, she said. Report, released in 2017, found that There is a famous old left phrase, The government’s response just 100 companies are responsible ‘socialism or barbarism’: there confirms what most already know: for more than 70 percent of global is no choice but to find a way to that they run the country not on greenhouse gas emissions since stop capitalism’s destructive logic, behalf of all its people, but in the 1988. These companies are among because if left unchecked it will create catastrophe. R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 16 JANATA, October 28, 2018 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2018 Published on Sunday, October 28, 2018 & Posted on Wedenesday, October 31, 2018 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 73 No. 41 It was Death by Mob Lynching and November 4, 2018 State Sponsored Killing From Allahabad to Prayagraj: What’s in the Name? Sandeep Pandey, Lubna Sarwath and Gurumoorthy M. Ram Puniyani Whether it was a slightly high critical issues like violence against Backdoor Entry of GM Foods dose of potassium at the All Indian Muslims, Dalits and the ‘Me Too into India Institute of Medical Sciences at campaign’. Bharat Dogra Rishikesh which ultimately caused Governments play the trick Who Will Speak Truth to cardiac arrest or deliberate neglect by of making an accused out of a Unfreedom? the government about his 112 days of victim to politically coverup, and Neera Chandhoke fast-unto-death to demand a law for it has become more of a wont conservation of Ganga by Professor under the present Bhartiya Janta Jayaprakash Narayan: An Party government in power. Some Idealist Betrayed – Part III Guru Das Agrawal turned Swami M.G. Devasahayam Sanand, the Central Government and unknown person is being accused especially the Prime Minister will be by the authorities of not letting The American Economy is held responsible for his death. Matre Professor G.D. Agrawal give up Rigged Sadan, the ashram in Haridwar his fast. Those who know Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz where Professor Agrawal fasted, has Agrawal well are aware of his Socialism frightens Trump accused the government of murder steely resolve. He would tell his Martin Varese, Michael Blosser by poisoning him. A 2011 case of well wishers during the marathon murder by poisoning of Swami fast, 'Worry about Ganga, not about Editor : G. G. Parikh Nigmanand, a young hermit also me.' He had chosen the beginning Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain associated with Matre Sadan, who of his fast on Ganga Dussehra, fasted for 115 days against illegal giving up water on the first day of Managing Editor : Guddi sand mining in Ganga, is pending Navratra and predicted his demise Editorial Board : in court. before Vijayadashmi. As a true B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali Professor Agrawal had scientist he even planned his death forewarned the government about meticulously. The government Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah his fast by writing to the PM twice. by accusing Professor Agrawal of Nandu Dhaneshwar, He then again wrote to him twice continuing his fast under duress Sandeep Pandey during the fast. The PM, otherwise wants to divert attention from the D-15, Ganesh Prasad, known to open his mind regularly in main demands that he was making Naushir Bharucha Marg, public broadcasts known as Mann ki of the government: to enact a law Mumbai - 400 007. Baat, chose not to respond, until after for conservation of Ganga, to halt Professor Agrawal's death when all hydroelectric projects on it, Email : [email protected] he tweeted a condolence. The PM to ban mining and deforestation Website:www.janataweekly.org has similarly maintained silence on activities in its vicinity and to form 2 JANATA, November 04, 2018 a council consisting of people the mass hysteria created by Anna give an example, during his fast, a sensitive to Ganga to oversee its Hazare's short fasts a few years copy of the draft 'The National River interest. It was too embarrassing back, which the RSS had helped Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and for the government whose PM build up, to the conspicuously Management) Bill, 2018’, prepared contested his parliamentary election absent response from anywhere in by the government was given to him from Varanasi declaring that he the country to Professor Agrawal's by Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director got a call from mother Ganga, long fast. Was Professor Agrawal General of National Mission for which altered the name of Water raising an issue less important than Clean Ganga, for his comments. Resources ministry to include Ganga corruption? Corruption can probably In this, he changed the sentence Rejuvenation in it, which committed be fixed more easily than the damage 'Parliament declared it expedient and itself to clean Ganga by 2019 and to environment being caused by in larger public interest to take control then revised the deadline to 2020, our developmental policies. The for prevention, control, abatement of which has already spent 23% of the support to a retrogressive stand pollution and rejuvenation of river sanctioned Rs 23,323 crore budget on Sabarimala temple entry by Ganga,' to 'Parliament declared for the purpose, to admit that the RSS–BJP is as shameful as their it expedient and in larger public health of Ganga has worsened insensitivity towards the progressive interest to lay down the responsibility instead of improving during its issue of Ganga rejuvenation. Even for maintaining desirable flows and regime and therefore Professor though the RSS chief has vehemently water, sediment and ecological Agrawal was forced to go on fast. resented that it is always Hindus who quality and thus rejuvenation of The country and the world is face persecution, the BJP should river Ganga.' The government has witnessing horrific protests against answer why Muslim women were conceived of a 'Ganga Protection the entry of women of all ages to chosen for 'equality' through an Corps' as an armed force which Sabarimala temple in Kerala, which ordinance which jails husbands on shall follow the Code of Criminal has been facilitated by an order of a civil matrimonial issue of triple Procedure, 1973, for the purpose the Supreme Court. These protests talaq while denying equality to of enforcement, rejuvenation, have received a stamp of approval Hindu women who laid claim to protection and management of by chief of Rashtriya Swayamsewak visit the Sabarimala temple as their river Ganga under the proposed Act Sangh, the ideological parent of fundamental right? and treat offences under this Act ruling BJP. On the other hand, Professor G.D. Agrawal was punishable as cognisable and non- these very same cadres of Hindutva an extraordinary scholar not just bailable. Professor Agrawal on the organisations, with proclivity in the modern sense of knowledge contrary wanted people sensitive for various degrees of militancy but also in the traditional sense to and with a deep understanding and who leave no opportunity of wisdom. On top of it he was a about Ganga to form a council of exploiting people's religious saint in the true sense, not the kind which would take responsibility for sentiments, have maintained an eerie whose sectarian outlook exacerbates protection of the river. It has been silence on the issues raised by Prof. religious polarisation in society, alleged that Professor Agrawal G.D. Agrawal related to protecting resulting in strife. In fact, Professor wanted a religious body to decide Ganga. It exposes the true nature of Agrawal was against exhibitionist on how Ganga ought to be taken care these right wing organisations. It tendencies of religion. The death of. This is not true. He wanted the is clear that politics of polarisation of such a saintly figure is going to PM to provisionally nominate a 20 takes precedence over religious– cost the government dear. The saints member Ganga Bhakta ('Devotee') cultural–nationalism issues. RSS has of Matre Sadan have decided to Parishad (till June 2019), who various weapons in its arsenal. This continue the struggle of Professor were to take an oath standing in time it chose ostracism of Professor Agrawal by resorting to fasting from the waters of Ganga to act in its Agrawal on a mass scale and hence 24 October, 2018. interest. He nowhere said that these it was mob lynching by adopting The outlook of Professor 20 people have to be necessarily stoic silence and managing the Agrawal was at variance with that religious. In fact, Professor Agrawal media so that Professor Agrawal's of government, because of which didn't want pliant bureaucrats, who fast isn't highlighted. Compare no reconciliation was possible. To have been commercially exploiting JANATA, November 04, 2018 3

Ganga in nexus with their political masters, to head the body tasked From Allahabad to Prayagraj: with taking care of Ganga's interest. What’s in the Name? In less than five years, the head of National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) has been changed seven Ram Puniyani times. Professor Agrawal wanted Adityanath Yogi, the Chief to re-change them. Before Yogi, autonomy on the lines of that given Minister of UP, seems to be on a Mayawati had indulged in this name to Indian Institute of Technology name changing spree. In his latest changing game, which was to some for this supreme body on Ganga. move, he has changed the name extent reversed by her successor Thus, in contrast to the bureaucratic of Allahabad, a famous city of Akhilesh Yadav. Now, in a more approach of the Government, that UP, to Prayagraj. Prayag is the persistent way, Yogi is identifying wanted to protect Ganga by policing, meeting point of rivers and since the Muslim sounding names and Professor Agrawal's outlook was this city is the meeting point of changing them one by one. humane and ecological and he Ganga, Yamuna and probably of the Adityanath Yogi is the Mahant wanted to protect Ganga by people's invisible Sarswati, this name might of the famous Gorakhnath Math. His participation. have been chosen by him in his predecessor in the Math was also Email: [email protected] , attempts to remove the Islamic touch in politics, and the Yogi has been a [email protected], [email protected] to the names of our cities. There are major player on the political chess many versions about the origins of board in UP. He comes from the the name Allahabad. One is that it Hindu Mahasabha stream of politics. Janata was Ila-vas, Ila being the mother His dominance has been very visible of mythological Pururva. Another as his slogan, UP mein rahna hai to is available at version says it was named after Alha Yogi Yogi kahna hoga (If you want to of Alha-Udal (part of popular folk stay in UP, you have to chant Yogi- www.lohiatoday.com lore) fame. Historical records and Yogi) had been prevalent in parts of the coins of that time tell us that UP. His Hindu Yuva Vahini has been Akbar had named it Illaha-bad or in the news off and on, not for right Janata Subscription Illahi-bas. Illaha is a generic term reasons. He is one among the large for God. He regarded this city as a number of holy men like Sakshi Annual Rs. : 260/- holy city of Hindus and Illah-bas Maharaj, Sadhvi Uma Bharati, in Persian means ‘abode of Gods’. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, etc. who have Three Years : 750/- This reflects the inclusive spirit of been a part of the Hindu nationalist Demand Draft / Akbar. Before this, the Yogi had agenda. As such, holy men are changed the name of Mughal Sarai supposed to have renounced the Cheque to Pundit Deendayal Upadhayay world to focus on spiritual pursuits, on Junction, Urdu Bazar to Hindi Bazar, but this lot seems to be more active Ali Nagar to Arya Nagar, etc. He in worldly pursuits. Mumbai Bank regards all Muslim sounding names This phenomenon of holy men– in favour of as being alien. women entering politics seems to be In an interview, Yogi said he has there in many post-colonial states. to change many more names. On his In these countries, there has been an Janata Trust agenda is to change the name Taj absence of radical land reforms and D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Mahal to Ram Mahal, Azamgarh to the hold of the landlord–clergy has Naushir Bharucha Marg, Aryamgarh, and to cap it all, change continued, which seems to be the the name India in our Constitution to reason for holy people to be in the Grant Road (W), Hindustan. According to him, these political arena. These holy men and Mumbai 400 007. places were renamed after invasion women oppose democratic values of Muslim kings, so there is a need as being Western or alien, and claim 4 JANATA, November 04, 2018 that these values are against the spirit state is suffering a severe crunch state sponsored moves to trample on of ‘our’ land. They in a way harp with regards to health care and their livelihood, such as the order to on the pre-industrial values of birth other infrastructure related issues. shut down ‘illegal’ slaughter houses based hierarchies. One of the most There have been several incidents and meat shops that was issued soon prominent of these holy men was of young children and infants dying after Yogi came to power in UP. Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran, who was in hospitals for lack of facilities. Yogi has also bluntly stated that later succeeded by many Ayatollahs. The cities whose names have been secularism is a big lie. His actions In Pakistan, the Mullahs have been changed languish because of bad are showing how he is forcing the working closely with the military infrastructure. UP state continues march of the state in the direction and landlord elements to undermine to ranks at the bottom in human of Hindu nation, without any qualms democratic possibilities in society. A growth indices. The human rights for the secular values enshrined in prominent name that emerged there condition in the state continues our Constitution! was that of Maulana Maududi, who to be abysmal. The condition of worked closely with Zia Ul Haq to minorities is worsening because of Email: [email protected] further Islamisation of Pakistan. In neighboring Myanmar, monks like Backdoor Entry of GM Foods into India Ashin Wirathu, also called ‘Burma’s Bin Laden’, are active in politics and oppose democracy and target the Bharat Dogra religious minorities there. The ability of civil society to grown in our country is generally In India, we see these holy prevent the cultivation of genetically regarded as only a commercial men dominating the political scene modified (GM) brinjal and mustard crop and not a food crop, the in various ways. Most of these was so far seen as a big achievement cottonseed oil obtained from this godmen–women have been part of of India’s democracy as, in a David home-grown crop is being widely Hindu nationalist movement and are vs. Goliath fight, activist groups used to produce snack foods and very vicious as far as hate speech is had managed somehow to defeat other commonly used foods as it is concerned. One recalls that Sadhvi very powerful lobbies with huge much cheaper than other edible oils. Niranjan Jyoti had used the word moneybags. However, as more and (iv) Because they are much cheaper, haramzade, while Sakshi Maharaj more evidence of the backdoor entry both imported and domestic GM was booked for blaming Muslims of GM foods into India surfaces, the oils are being used in a big way to for population growth. Yogi himself earlier feeling of pride in a hard-won prepare hydrogenated oil or the so- has many cases pending against as battle is being replaced by a deep called vanaspati ghee. (v) The dairy far as hate speech is concerned. The worry that very serious risks related animals which feed on GM cotton worst of these was when he advised to GM foods already exist on a large- crop residues and GM cottonseed the rape of dead Muslim women. scale in India. oilcake are likely to produce milk Yogi has intensified the This backdoor entry of GM which has GM ingredients. In fact communal agenda to no end. The UP foods has taken place in five ways. research at several places has already state is organising Hindu religious (i) Due to glaring failures on the part revealed that a large number of farm festivals. One recalls that on the of regulating agencies, GM food animals who fed on GM cotton crop occasion of Diwali, a helicopter imports have been taking place in residues have suffered serious health carrying Lord Ram and Sita landed a big way for several years. These problems. and the gods were received by Yogi include edible oils (mainly canola It is truly shocking that the food himself. UP State also organised the and soyabean oil), several breakfast safety implications of growing GM lighting of lamps in big numbers. foods and snacks and even infant cotton have been ignored for so Recently Yogi has again been in formulas. (ii) Several domestic food long by the regulating agencies. It the news for declaring that the state processing units have been using is equally inexplicable how, despite government will spend Rs 5,000 these imported GM oils to produce GM foods being illegal in India, crores for the Kumbh mela. All this snacks and other food products on the import of GM foods has been is taking place at a time when the a large scale. (iii) While GM cotton allowed for so long on a large JANATA, November 04, 2018 5 scale. All available evidence points being sold without any labeling, and of all health implications and at to massive negligence and worse. even in the very few cases where the same time make the regulating While closing their eyes to GM some information is given on the authorities more committed to imports, the very same authorities packaging, people are not aware of fulfilling their responsibilities in at the same time illiberally placed its implications. Clearly we need a more honest and careful ways. many curbs on organic farmers in big campaign to make people aware Email: [email protected] India and the marketing of their produce. Recent testing by the Centre for Who Will Speak Truth to Unfreedom? Science and Environment of 65 food products (35 imported, 30 domestic) Neera Chandhoke suspected to be GM contaminated found evidence of GM ingredients It is time to re-read the politically expand our imaginations and our in 32 per cent of these 65 products. charged play, The House of Bernarda commitments. When societies turn Almost 80 per cent of these products Alba (1936), by Federico García inwards, they construct barricades were imported. Only 4 packaged Lorca. After their father’s death, five between themselves and the outside foods admitted to the presence of GM young women are forced to live in world. At some point members ingredients. Most of these products a barricaded house of mourning for transfer the notion of the outsider to simply did not carry any information eight years. The doors are latched, parts of the collective self. Political about GM content; while in 2 cases windows are curtained with thick subjugation carries heavy costs. ,false information was provided. black fabric, and every nook and Ruled by a government that GM ingredients were found even in cranny closed. The consequences verges on authoritarianism, Indians imported infant formulas for very of living in claustrophobic spaces have turned savagely on their own vulnerable children. without men are tragic. The sisters fellow citizens, sometimes in the All this is very disturbing as the repeatedly attack each other in name of cow-protection, and often high health risks of GM foods have grotesque performances of frustrated because someone has identified A been well-established by the work desire. or B as a kidnapper. Sometimes of several senior scientists who Bernarda, the mother, is the individuals are attacked because they refused to accept the sponsorship poster-girl of fascism. One of her are migrant workers and therefore of very powerful multinational daughters dares to wear make-up, ‘outsiders’, and often because they companies promoting GM foods Bernarda snatches the make-up and are represented as ‘infiltrators’. and crops. Eminent scientists viciously smears it on the face of the Disorder is the order of the day, and from several countries, who came young woman. Beyond the barred violence is the currency of social together to launch an Independent room, we catch tantalising glimpses transactions. Sane voices have to Science Panel on GM, said about of sunlight. Within the house we speak up. GM crops, “Sufficient evidence encounter pitifully deformed psyches But where will these sane has emerged to raise serious safety and disturbed minds. Lorca authored voices come from? The party in concerns that if ignored could result a formidable play. It was to be his power has identified and cracked in irreversible damage to health last. Shortly after, he was murdered down on three sites of debate and and the environment. GM crops by fascist forces in Spain. His dissent, the media, civil society and should be firmly rejected now.” message remains with us, repressed the public university. Incalculable This is confirmed by dozens of sexuality is a powerful metaphor for damage has been done. Public studies and reviews of these studies political frustration. universities are accessible and by very eminent scientists. What affordable. They provide training is most worrying in the context of Costs of subjugation in skills, but more importantly, they India is that most of the millions Lorca proved prophetic. Open expose young minds to nuanced of consumers of GM foods are not societies encourage us to accept debates in the social sciences and even aware that they are consuming and welcome different ideas the humanities. The objective is to GM food, as in most cases it is and practices. They liberate and fine-tune sensibilities and push back 6 JANATA, November 04, 2018 horizons, familiarise young people latest avatar of capitalism in the organisation. In JNU, the decision with the best in literature, philosophy, 1990s, neoliberalism, devalued has been adopted without regard political science, history, sociology, social sciences and humanities. for procedures of rule-making: the aesthetics and psychology, and keep Capitalism demands docile bodies passage of a proposed policy through alive the spirit of critical inquiry. and submissive minds. In 2010, the Academic Council, the Executive Terry Eagleton, the celebrated Council and the University Court. Power of the humanities literary critic, spoke of the death Starkly put, these regulations That is why imaginatively of universities. Academia, he rued, stipulate that academics cannot designed courses in the humanities has become a servant of the status protest, howsoever grave be the and social sciences lie at the heart of quo. Can we have a university provocation. In the academic world, any university worth its name. They without the humanities? It would invitations to join editorial boards of encourage students to challenge and be like a bar without alcohol! If prestigious journals are rightly seen interrogate, even as they explore history and philosophy vanish from as a justifiable reward for academic the past and the present. Teachers academic life, they may be replaced excellence. This is now banned. inspire students to understand the by a technical training facility Faculty members cannot criticise the complexities of the human condition, or corporate research institute, policies of the government in their to know what should be done for he wrote. But this will not be a research work. Nor can they dare to human beings, and what should not university in the classic sense of the critique a flawed foreign policy. And be done to them. Above all students term. Eagleton is perceptive. Without they cannot join political parties. are introduced to categories that critical disciplines, universities allow them to think, reflect, and are no more than teaching shops, Just court history critically engage with people, places producing so much unthinking The policy strikes at the very and things. labour for the market. idea of a public university that When academics acquaint The second attack on the embodies the spirit of critical students with Indian politics through university has come from the current inquiry. Now no academic can the searing prose of Shrilal Shukla’s government. Shortly after they ask her students to reflect on the Raag Darbari, communicate the came to power in 2014, leaders of shortcomings of economic policies densities of human emotions through the Bharatiya Janata Party began to that reproduce inequality, on social King Lear, acquaint them with demonise one of the finest centres of practices that foster gender and spectres of domination and the academic excellence and enlightened caste discrimination, on the politics exhilarating prospect of resistance debate, the Jawaharlal Nehru of intolerance, on historical inquiry, through the poetic lens of Antigone, University (JNU). Ignoble attempts or on cultural practices that disable or convey the horrors of communal to subjugate the faculty and students rights in the name of tradition. conflagration through the powerful followed. This was replicated in Academic research has been reduced pen of Yashpal in his Jhootha other Central universities by the to court history. Sach, they do not just transmit appointment of Vice-Chancellors of It is clear that holders of power information—they contribute questionable merit, and the elevation and their academic courtiers have to the making of knowledge. In of storm troopers of the ruling party extracted retribution and punished the process, university teachers to faculty positions. those who have dared to speak back promote the notion of citizenship as Now the government has to unfreedom. But in the process, solidarity with the less advantaged decided that teaching and research the ruling party and compliant Vice- and warn students of the horrors have to be controlled. University Chancellors have shot themselves of authoritarian rule that seeks to administrations have ruled that in the foot. A society is known control and dominate. The idea is faculties of Central universities ultimately by the knowledge its to produce aware and enlightened will be subject to Central Civil universities and research centres citizens conscious of their own Services (Conduct) Rules. This, it is produce, by the excellence of the power and the responsibilities of an said, is the diktat of the University faculty and by the curiosity of the elected government. Grants Commission, which is at students. Today, knowledge has This is precisely why the best a funding and administrative been replaced with trite information. JANATA, November 04, 2018 7

Mediocrity rules, and eminent daughter. The difference is that a training ground for citizenship, academics are crudely harassed. now the censor board will gag the government has deliberately Above all, the order demeans analytical and insightful scholarship. weakened an academic structure that reputed academics the precise way Instead of strengthening the public has great potential to chart a route to in which Bernarda, the mother university, which was meant to be opportunity and social justice. in Lorca’s play, humiliated her Jayaprakash Narayan: An Idealist Betrayed – Part III

M.G. Devasahayam The third part of a personal decades. Its swayamsewaks now emphasise that RSS is the “most epitaph on Jayaprakash Narayan hold the top four constitutional posts democratic organisation” with a past by former civil servant M.G. of President, Vice President, Prime in the freedom struggle and a desire Devasahayam. Minister and Lok Sabha speaker. to work for society while shunning They occupy 20 Raj Bhawans as all publicity. RSS—A Reality Check Governors, some of whom even Bhagwat also came out with This is what RSS claims itself actively participate in and manage several sweeping statements on to be in its website: “A unique shakhas! Hindutva, Ram Mandir dispute, mob phenomenon in the history of Bharat Eighteen of them are chief lynchings, women empowerment in the twentieth century is the ministers. Half the Union Cabinet and religious conversions which birth and unceasing growth of comprises RSS members. The were in sharp contrast to the actions Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. political initiation of over 1,000 of the Sangh parivar on the ground, The Sangh’s sphere of influence MLAs and 250 MPs has been indicating callous hypocrisy! Here has been spreading far and wide, through the RSS. About a million are few instances: not only inside Bharat but also Indians daily attend the over 55,000 • Mohan Bhagwat said, “We abroad, like the radiance of a many- shakhas across the country. Its 500- want a Hindu Rashtra but that splendoured diamond. Sangh- odd frontal organisations manage does not mean we don’t want inspired institutions and movements colleges, schools, media, hospitals, Muslims in it.” In 2017, RSS today form a strong presence in and tribal and Dalit NGOs. Ten leader Kundan Chandrawat social, cultural, educational, labour, thousand full-time pracharaks are boasted of killing 2,000 Muslims developmental, political and other active in politics, culture and various in Gujarat and said, “Have fields of nationalist endeavour. think tanks at home and abroad. you forgotten Godhra? You Sangh-initiated movements— Despite such impressive killed 56, we sent 2,000 to be they social-reformist or anti- achievements and claims, there is a the graveyard. We—this same secessionist—evoke a ready sense of guilt among the RSS brass Hindu community—shoved response and approbation from and it feels isolated. To undo this, [their corpses] underground.” the common multitudes as well as RSS chief Dr Mohanrao Bhagwat • On Mob lynchings, he said: from vast numbers of the elite of organised the Bhavishya Ka Bharat “Why just cows, taking law different shades. It has increasingly (India of the Future) talk-show into one's own hand, violence, been recognised that the Sangh is to over 1,000 prominent citizens destroying property for any not a mere reaction to one or another from across the national spectrum reason are totally unacceptable.” social or political aberration. It at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, In 2015, the RSS chief called the represents a corpus of thought and from September 17 to 19, 2018. lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq action firmly rooted in genuine The idea was to start a meaningful in Dadri a “small episode” that nationalism and in the age-old dialogue between the powerful and cannot damage “Hindu culture”. tradition of this country.” the hopeful. Bhagwat took an array After another Muslim man, Indeed, RSS has grown of questions and responded to them Rakbar Khan, was lynched in phenomenally during the past five with aplomb. He made it a point to Alwar over suspicion of cow 8 JANATA, November 04, 2018

slaughter, RSS leader Indresh to create a narrative of the RSS’s to the Lok Sabha to be void. She Kumar remarked that lynchings participation in India's anti-colonial put her political opponents behind would stop if people stopped freedom struggle. This project got bars, imposed press censorship, eating cow meat and protected impetus after the electoral victory in suspended fundamental rights, them instead. 2014 of the RSS / BJP (which was extended the life of the Lok Sabha, • On conversions, Mohan celebrated as the return of Hindu rushed through the Parliament the Bhagwat said, “If all religions rule after 1,000 years). But there 42nd Constitutional amendment are equal, then what is the need is overwhelming evidence to the to undermine our democracy, for conversion?” And he added, contrary and a lot has been written attempted to give herself immunity “Gods cannot be sold in markets and spoken on the subject. The fact from criminal proceedings, nullified or forcefully worshipped, hence is that the RSS did not participate the High Court judgment, and even forceful conversions must stop.” in the first freedom struggle and, in made serious moves to discard the In 2014, according to India fact, had colluded with the British in Constitution itself by convening a Today, an offshoot of the RSS perpetuating the colonial rule! Constituent Assembly to establish a claimed to have converted What we should be concerned presidential system. at least 57 Muslim families with now is the role played by But, in his correspondence to Hinduism at a Purkhon ki the RSS in the second freedom with Indira Gandhi during the ghar vapsi ceremony in Uttar struggle—the JP Movement, the Emergency, the RSS boss, Balasaheb Pradesh's Agra district. Emergency and after. The fact is Deoras, never criticised these sordid • On gender equality, Mohan that the Emergency rendered the moves nor called for a return to the Bhagwat said, “Women are Jana Sangh, the BJP's predecessor, democratic order. Instead, on his also coming out in the field respectable and paved the way for advice and instructions, his men and working equally with men it to enter the mainstream of Indian from the RSS gave unconditional and they must do that. So, we politics. Indeed, RSS literature undertakings to get out of prison. need to ensure they are secure. describes the Emergency as the The government prepared a standard Hence, empowerment of both "second freedom struggle", with form which RSS detenus happily men and women are needed." the Sangh at the head of it. The signed. Some of them did not wait The sarsanghchalak himself has struggle of others in opposing the for the form. They gave unqualified been in the eye of a storm for his Emergency, in this account, was undertakings in their own language, controversial remarks on women incidental; it was the RSS that saved if only to get out. and rape. In 2013, he blamed democracy, it claims. The role of The Government’s draft “pro- western culture for incidents of peoples' movements is erased here; forma undertaking” read thus: crimes against women. the Sangh itself is the people. I, Shri...... Detenu • On the RSS’ role during freedom The reality is that the RSS Class I ...... prisoner agree on struggle, Mohan Bhagwat went and its flock in the BJP have no affidavit that in case of my release ballistic and said: “When the locus standi to make such claims I shall not do anything which is Congress passed the resolution about Emergency, because its own detrimental to internal security and for Purna Swaraj [complete leaders groveled before the Congress public peace. Similarly, I shall not independence], Doctor Saheb dispensation to win reprieves from do anything which would hamper [Hegdewar] issued a circular jail terms and have the ban lifted on the distribution of essential goods. asking all [RSS] shakhas to their organisation. So also, I shall not participate in any march past with the tricolour.” Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s illegal activities. I shall not indulge imposition of the Emergency was in any activities which is prejudicial RSS and Freedom Struggles no mere mistake; it was a sin, a to the present emergency. All pretensions notwithstanding, constitutional crime committed for The RSS men did not opt for it is an open secret that the RSS is purely personal reasons, namely, prison. They were thrown into averse to the concept of freedom as to nullify the judgment of the prison. The Emergency was declared expounded by JP. But the ideologues Allahabad High Court of June on June 25, 1975. Deoras was of the RSS clan are working overtime 12, 1975 declaring her election arrested and put into prison on June JANATA, November 04, 2018 9

30. The RSS was banned, along This letter, indeed, the entire the country and asked for nothing in with 23 other bodies, on July 4. correspondence, was conducted return. So, I shall be content to die a The RSS’ initial response was to behind the back of the members prisoner under your regime . . . wait and watch. Then they decided of the Lok Sangarsh Samiti, with Would you listen to the advise to compromise. Accordingly, whom the RSS and its pointsman, of such a man? Please do not destroy Deoras began shooting off letters to Nanaji Deshmukh, were associated. the foundation that the Fathers of Indira Gandhi, S.B. Chavan, Chief They were all stabbed in the back the Nation, including your own Minister of Maharashtra, and the by the RSS’ cowardly betrayal. noble father, had laid down. There ‘Sarkari Sant’ Vinoba Bhave. These Indira Gandhi ignored him and his is nothing but strife and suffering letters, along with letters by others, letters. Deoras’ first letter to S.B. along the path that you have taken. were placed on the table of the Chavan, dated July 15, 1975, said: You inherited a great tradition, noble Maharashtra Assembly by Chavan. “The Sangh has done nothing against values and a great democracy. Do The very first para of Deoras’ the government or society even not leave behind a miserable wreck first letter to Indira Gandhi, dated remotely. There is no place for such of all that. It would take long time August 22, 1975, read: “I have heard things in the Sangh’s programme. to put that all together again. For the speech you delivered on August The Sangh is engaged only in social it would be put together again I 15, 1975, from the Red Fort, Delhi and cultural activities.” have no doubt. A people who fought on A.I.R. The speech was balanced Former Intelligence Bureau British imperialism and humbled and befitting to the occasion and has chief T.V. Rajeswar has claimed it cannot accept the indignity and prompted me to write this letter to that the RSS had supported the shame of totalitarianism. you.” Unctuous and false, as ever. Emergency and the then Sangh The spirit of man can never be “The aim of the RSS is to unify chief Balasaheb Deoras had tried to vanquished, no matter how deeply and organise Hindu society. . . . establish contact with Indira Gandhi suppressed. In establishing your There are people who allege that and Sanjay Gandhi. personal dictatorship, you have RSS is a communal organisation. I am myself privy to such buried it deep. But it will rise from This also is a baseless charge. surrenders and apologies. RSS the grave . . . Although at present the activities activists detained in Chandigarh While 73-year old JP, despite of the Sangh are confined to the were only a handful and all of them his poor health, refused to ask for Hindu society, the Sangh never except one gave apology letters parole, defied the Emergency and preaches anything against any requesting for pardon and release. struggled to make India free, a bulk non-Hindu. It is absolutely wrong Needless to say, these requests of the RSS ‘sevaks’ were prostrating that the Sangh is anti-Muslim. were rejected. When I told JP that and surrendering before the Imperial We don’t even use an improper many RSS / Jan Sangh activists Indira. There were also reports that word regarding Islam, Mohammad, detained under MISA were tendering some top brasses of the RSS were in Kuran, Christianity, Christ or the unconditional apology and were cohort with Sanjay Gandhi, the real Bible.” M.S. Golwalkar’s books resigning from their party in order Emergency master trying to run a We or Our Nationhood Defined and to get released, he just called them fascist state! Such an entity whom Bunch of Thoughts expose the falsity traitors. JP called ‘traitors’ claim that they of the denial. As against the letters of fought the Emergency and were the The concluding para of Deoras’ surrender by ‘RSS-nationa lists’ ones to win India’s Second Freedom letter read: “I request you to please to the Emergency regime, this is a struggle! What a nerve? reconsider the case of the Sangh brief extract from the letter JP wrote Spectre of Fascism without any prejudice. In the light from jail to Indira Gandhi on 21 Contribution Rs. 20/- of the democratic right of freedom July, 1975: to organise, I beseech you to rescind You know I am an old man. Published by the ban imposed upon the RSS.” And My life’s work is done. And after Janata Trust & Lokayat no more. Not a word about lifting Prabha’s going I have nothing and D-15, Ganesh Prasad, the Emergency or releasing others no one to live for. . . I have given all Naushir Bharucha Marg, from prisons. my life, after finishing education, to Grant Road (W), Mumbai 400 007 10 JANATA, November 04, 2018 The American Economy is Rigged

Joseph E. Stiglitz

The US Census Bureau recently within our command. It is not the released 2017 statistics which laws of nature that have led to Deaths of Despair showed that almost 45 million this dire situation: it is the laws of Wealth is even less equally Americans are living in poverty and humankind. Markets do not exist distributed, with just three Americans 28 million do not have healthcare. in a vacuum: they are shaped by having as much as the bottom 50 Americans are used to thinking rules and regulations, which can be percent—testimony to how much that their nation is special. In many designed to favor one group over money there is at the top and how ways, it is: the US has by far the most another. President Donald Trump little there is at the bottom. Families Nobel Prize winners, the largest was right in saying that the system in the bottom 50 percent hardly defense expenditures (almost equal is rigged—by those in the inherited have the cash reserves to meet an to the next 10 or so countries put plutocracy of which he himself is a emergency. Newspapers are replete together) and the most billionaires member. And he is making it much, with stories of those for whom the (twice as many as China, the closest much worse. breakdown of a car or an illness competitor). But some examples America has long outdone others starts a downward spiral from which of American Exceptionalism in its level of inequality, but in the they never recover. should not make us proud. By most past 40 years it has reached new In significant part because of accounts, the US has the highest heights. Whereas the income share high inequality, US life expectancy, level of economic inequality among of the top 0.1 percent has more than exceptionally low to begin with, developed countries. It has the quadrupled and that of the top 1 is experiencing sustained declines. world's greatest per capita health percent has almost doubled, that of This in spite of the marvels of expenditures yet the lowest life the bottom 90 percent has declined. medical science, many advances of expectancy among comparable Wages at the bottom, adjusted for which occur right here in America countries. It is also one of a few inflation, are about the same as they and which are made readily available developed countries jostling for were some 60 years ago! In fact, for to the rich. Economist Ann Case and the dubious distinction of having those with a high school education 2015 Nobel laureate in economics the lowest measures of equality of or less, incomes have fallen over Angus Deaton describe one of the opportunity. recent decades. Males have been main causes of rising morbidity— The notion of the American particularly hard hit, as the US has the increase in alcoholism, drug Dream—that, unlike old Europe, moved away from manufacturing overdoses and suicides—as “deaths we are a land of opportunity—is industries into an economy based of despair” by those who have given part of our essence. Yet the numbers on services. up hope. say otherwise. The life prospects of a young American depend more on the income and education of his or her parents than in almost any other advanced country. When poor-boy- makes-good anecdotes get passed around in the media, that is precisely because such stories are so rare. Things appear to be getting worse, partly as a result of forces, such as technology and globalisation, that seem beyond our control, but most disturbingly because of those JANATA, November 04, 2018 11

Defenders of America's Today we have replaced this open to a service-based economy is partly inequality have a pat explanation. exploitation with more insidious to blame. At its extreme—a firm of They refer to the workings of a forms, which have intensified since one person—the service economy competitive market, where the laws the Reagan–Thatcher revolution of is a winner-takes-all system. A of supply and demand determine the 1980s. This exploitation, I will movie star makes millions, for wages, prices and even interest argue, is largely to blame for the example, whereas most actors make rates—a mechanical system, much escalating inequality in the US a pittance. Overall, wages are likely like that describing the physical After the New Deal of the 1930s, to be far more widely dispersed in a universe. Those with scarce assets or American inequality went into service economy than in one based skills are amply rewarded, they argue, decline. By the 1950s inequality had on manufacturing, so the transition because of the larger contributions receded to such an extent that another contributes to greater inequality. they make to the economy. What Nobel laureate in economics, Simon This fact does not explain, however, they get merely represents what they Kuznets, formulated what came to why the average wage has not have contributed. Often they take be called Kuznets's law. In the early improved for decades. Moreover, out less than they contributed, so stages of development, as some parts the shift to the service sector is what is left over for the rest is that of a country seize new opportunities, happening in most other advanced much more. inequalities grow, he postulated; in countries: Why are matters so much This fictional narrative may at the later stages, they shrink. The worse in the US? one time have assuaged the guilt theory long fit the data—but then, Again, because services are often of those at the top and persuaded around the early 1980s, the trend provided locally, firms have more everyone else to accept this sorry abruptly reversed. market power: the ability to raise state of affairs. Perhaps the defining prices above what would prevail in moment exposing the lie was the Explaining Inequality a competitive market. A small town 2008 financial crisis, when the Economists have put forward in rural America may have only bankers who brought the global a range of explanations for why one authorised Toyota repair shop, economy to the brink of ruin inequality has in fact been increasing which virtually every Toyota owner with predatory lending, market in many developed countries. Some is forced to patronise. The providers manipulation and various other anti- argue that advances in technology of these local services can raise social practices walked away with have spurred the demand for skilled prices over costs, increasing their millions of dollars in bonuses just labor relative to unskilled labor, profits and the share of income going as millions of Americans lost their thereby depressing the wages of to owners and managers. This, too, jobs and homes and tens of millions the latter. Yet that alone cannot increases inequality. But again, why more worldwide suffered on their explain why even skilled labor has is US inequality practically unique? account. Virtually none of these done so poorly over the past two In his celebrated 2013 treatise bankers were ever held to account decades, why average wages have Capital in the Twenty-First Century, for their misdeeds. done so badly and why matters are French economist Thomas Piketty I became aware of the fantastical so much worse in the US than in shifts the gaze to capitalists. He nature of this narrative as a schoolboy, other developed nations. Changes suggests that the few who own much when I thought of the wealth of the in technology are global and should of a country's capital save so much plantation owners, built on the backs affect all advanced economies in that, given the stable and high return of slaves. At the time of the Civil the same way. Other economists to capital (relative to the growth rate War, the market value of the slaves blame globalisation itself, which of the economy), their share of the in the South was approximately has weakened the power of workers. national income has been increasing. half of the region's total wealth, Firms can and do move abroad His theory has, however, been including the value of the land and unless demands for higher wages are questioned on many grounds. For the physical capital—the factories curtailed. But again, globalisation instance, the savings rate of even the and equipment. The wealth of at has been integral to all advanced rich in the US is so low, compared least this part of this nation was not economies. Why is its impact so with the rich in other countries, that based on industry, innovation and much worse in the US? the increase in inequality should be commerce but rather on exploitation. The shift from a manufacturing lower here, not greater. 12 JANATA, November 04, 2018

An alternative theory is far anti-trust laws and weakening innovative not only in the products more consonant with the facts. unions. Using mathematical models, they make but in thinking of ways Since the mid-1970s the rules of the economists such as myself have to extend and amplify their market economic game have been rewritten, shown that this two-way feedback power. The European Commission both globally and nationally, in loop between money and regulations has imposed fines of billions of ways that advantage the rich and leads to at least two stable points. If dollars on Microsoft and Google disadvantage the rest. And they an economy starts out with lower and ordered them to stop their have been rewritten further in this inequality, the political system anti-competitive practices (such perverse direction in the US than generates rules that sustain it, as Google privileging its own in other developed countries—even leading to one equilibrium situation. comparison shopping service). In though the rules in the US were The American system is the other the US, we have done too little to already less favorable to workers. equilibrium—and will continue to be control concentrations of market From this perspective, increasing unless there is a democratic political power, so it is not a surprise that it inequality is a matter of choice: a awakening. has increased in many sectors. consequence of our policies, laws An account of how the rules Rigged rules also explain why and regulations. have been shaped must begin with the impact of globalisation may have In the US, the market power anti-trust laws, first enacted 128 been worse in the US. A concerted of large corporations, which was years ago in the US to prevent the attack on unions has almost halved greater than in most other advanced agglomeration of market power. the fraction of unionised workers countries to begin with, has increased Their enforcement has weakened— in the nation, to about 11 percent. even more than elsewhere. On the at a time when, if anything, the (In Scandinavia, it is roughly 70 other hand, the market power of laws themselves should have been percent.) Weaker unions provide workers, which started out less than strengthened. Technological changes workers less protection against the in most other advanced countries, have concentrated market power in efforts of firms to drive down wages has fallen further than elsewhere. the hands of a few global players, or worsen working conditions. This is not only because of the shift in part because of so-called network Moreover, US investment treaties to a service-sector economy—it effects: you are far more likely to such as the North Atlantic Free is because of the rigged rules of join a particular social network Trade Agreement—treaties that were the game, rules set in a political or use a certain word processor sold as a way of preventing foreign system that is itself rigged through if everyone you know is already countries from discriminating gerrymandering, voter suppression using it. Once established, a firm against American firms—also protect and the influence of money. A such as Facebook or Microsoft is investors against a tightening of vicious spiral has formed: economic hard to dislodge. Moreover, fixed environmental and health regulations inequality translates into political costs, such as that of developing a abroad. For instance, they enable inequality, which leads to rules that piece of software, have increased as corporations to sue nations in private favor the wealthy, which in turn compared with marginal costs—that international arbitration panels for reinforces economic inequality. of duplicating the software. A new passing laws that protect citizens entrant has to bear all these fixed and the environment but threaten Feedback Loop costs up front, and if it does enter, the multinational company's bottom Political scientists have the rich incumbent can respond by line. Firms like these provisions, documented the ways in which lowering prices drastically. The cost which enhance the credibility of a money influences politics in certain of making an additional e-book or company's threat to move abroad political systems, converting photo-editing program is essentially if workers do not temper their higher economic inequality into zero. demands. In short, these investment greater political inequality. Political In short, entry is hard and agreements weaken US workers' inequality, in its turn, gives rise to risky, which gives established firms bargaining power even further. more economic inequality as the rich with deep war chests enormous use their political power to shape the power to crush competitors and Liberated Finance rules of the game in ways that favor ultimately raise prices. Making Many other changes to our them—for instance, by softening matters worse, US firms have been norms, laws, rules and regulations JANATA, November 04, 2018 13 have contributed to inequality. exacerbating inequality is favorable It is no surprise that, on average, Weak corporate governance laws tax treatment for the rich. In the people living in unequal societies have allowed chief executives in US, those at the top pay a smaller have less equality of opportunity: the US to compensate themselves fraction of their income in taxes those at the bottom never get the 361 times more than the average than those who are much poorer—a education that would enable them to worker, far more than in other form of largesse that the Trump live up to their potential. This fact, developed countries. Financial administration has just worsened in turn, exacerbates inequality while liberalisation—the stripping away with the 2017 tax bill. wasting the country's most valuable of regulations designed to prevent Some economists have argued resource: Americans themselves. the financial sector from imposing that we can lessen inequality only by harms, such as the 2008 economic giving up on growth and efficiency. Restoring Justice crisis, on the rest of society—has But recent research, such as work Morale is lower in unequal enabled the finance industry to done by Jonathan Ostry and others societies, especially when inequality grow in size and profitability and at the International Monetary Fund, is seen as unjust, and the feeling has increased its opportunities suggests that economies with greater of being used or cheated leads to to exploit everyone else. Banks equality perform better, with higher lower productivity. When those who routinely indulge in practices that growth, better average standards of run gambling casinos or bankers are legal but should not be, such living and greater stability. Inequality suffering from moral turpitude as imposing usurious interest rates in the extremes observed in the US make a zillion times more than on borrowers or exorbitant fees and in the manner generated there the scientists and inventors who on merchants for credit and debit actually damages the economy. brought us lasers, transistors and an cards and creating securities that are The exploitation of market power understanding of DNA, it is clear designed to fail. They also frequently and the variety of other distortions that something is wrong. Then again, do things that are illegal, including I have described, for instance, the children of the rich come to market manipulation and insider makes markets less efficient, leading think of themselves as a class apart, trading. In all of this, the financial to underproduction of valuable entitled to their good fortune, and sector has moved money away goods such as basic research and accordingly more likely to break the from ordinary Americans to rich overproduction of others, such as rules necessary for making society bankers and the banks' shareholders. exploitative financial products. function. All of this contributes This redistribution of wealth is an Moreover, because the rich to a breakdown of trust, with its important contributor to American typically spend a smaller fraction attendant impact on social cohesion inequality. of their income on consumption and economic performance. Other means of so-called than the poor, total or “aggregate” There is no magic bullet to rent extraction—the withdrawal demand in countries with higher remedy a problem as deep-rooted of income from the national pie inequality is weaker. Societies as America's inequality. Its origins that is incommensurate with could make up for this gap by are largely political, so it is hard to societal contribution—abound. For increasing government spending— imagine meaningful change without example, a legal provision enacted on infrastructure, education and a concerted effort to take money out in 2003 prohibited the government health, for instance, all of which are of politics—through, for instance, from negotiating drug prices for investments necessary for long-term campaign finance reform. Blocking Medicare—a gift of some $50 billion growth. But the politics of unequal the revolving doors by which a year or more to the pharmaceutical societies typically puts the burden regulators and other government industry. Special favours, such as on monetary policy: interest rates officials come from and return to extractive industries' obtaining are lowered to stimulate spending. the same industries they regulate and public resources such as oil at below Artificially low interest rates, work with is also essential. fair-market value or banks' getting especially if coupled with inadequate Beyond that, we need more funds from the Federal Reserve at financial market regulation, often progressive taxation and high- near-zero interest rates (which they give rise to bubbles, which is what quality federally funded public relend at high interest rates), also happened with the 2008 housing education, including affordable amount to rent extraction. Further crisis. access to universities for all, no 14 JANATA, November 04, 2018 ruinous loans required. We need afford to not do these things. We economic progress have been so modern competition laws to deal are already paying a high price unequally shared, there is a real with the problems posed by 21st- for inequality, but it is just a down danger that they will become open to century market power and stronger payment on what we will have to a demagogue blaming the country's enforcement of the laws we do have. pay if we do not do something—and problems on others and making We need labor laws that protect quickly. It is not just our economy false promises of rectifying “a workers and their rights to unionise. that is at stake; we are risking our rigged system.” We are already We need corporate governance democracy. experiencing a foretaste of what laws that curb exorbitant salaries As more of our citizens come might happen. It could get much bestowed on chief executives, to understand why the fruits of worse. and we need stronger financial regulations that will prevent banks Socialism frightens Trump from engaging in the exploitative practices that have become Martin Varese, Michael Blosser their hallmark. We need better enforcement of antidiscrimination The White House’s Council of progressive candidates are rising laws: it is unconscionable that Economic Advisers (CEA) released in the polls and gaining popularity women and minorities get paid a a report towards the end of October with more people. The CEA thought mere fraction of what their white 2018 on “The Opportunity Costs of it would be a good idea to use male counterparts receive. We also Socialism,” apparently based on the tactics from the 1950s when the need more sensible inheritance laws fact that “coincident with the 200th “red scare” and the “witch hunt” that will reduce the intergenerational anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth, against communism and communists transmission of advantage and socialism is making a comeback in were a horrifying reality during disadvantage. American political discourse,” even McCarthyism. The basic perquisites of a though Marx’s birth was in May The report comes weeks before middle-class life, including a secure (1818). the elections, and weeks after a old age, are no longer attainable Reading through the report, it new study from the Pew Research for most Americans. We need to becomes abundantly clear that the Center unveiled that “six-in-ten guarantee access to health care. Trump administration is afraid of Americans say it is the federal We need to strengthen and reform this “comeback” of socialism in the government’s responsibility to make retirement programs, which have US, as more left-leaning and self- sure all Americans have health put an increasing burden of risk proclaimed politicians are gaining care coverage, including 31% who management on workers (who are space in the country’s politics. support a ‘single payer’ approach expected to manage their portfolios The Democratic Socialists of to health insurance.” Whereas 30 to guard simultaneously against America has grown to more than percent of voters believe that health the risks of inflation and market 50,000 members, with socialist care is the “most important” issue, collapse) and opened them up to policies such as universal healthcare, followed by jobs and economy with free education and taxes on the 21 percent, while both immigration exploitation by our financial sector rich and corporations now being and gun policy are at 15 percent. (which sells them products designed supported by the majority of the Republicans, represented by the to maximise bank fees rather than US population. The study equates Trump administration and the White retirement security). Our mortgage this rise of socialism to the 200th House, are trying to minimise the system was our Achilles' heel, and anniversary of Marx; however, rise of the “self-declared socialists we have not really fixed it. With it conveniently “forgets” to (that) are gaining support in such a large fraction of Americans mention the rise of fascism and Congress and among much of the living in cities, we have to have discriminatory politics, ascendent electorate,” which really explains urban housing policies that ensure since the electoral triumph of Donald the sole purpose of the CEA’s report. affordable housing for all. Trump in November 2016. The words of Democratic It is a long agenda—but a doable This “coincindental” report was congressional candidate Alexandria one. When skeptics say it is nice but published just before November’s Ocasio-Cortez given in August not affordable, I reply: We cannot midterm elections, at a time when seem to be more appropriate now JANATA, November 04, 2018 15 than ever: The CEA report wants people of facing Latin America’s problems; Why is it that our pockets to think that Cuba has no freedom, and the path farthest away from the are only empty when it comes to which isn’t actually true. Not only neoliberalism practiced and praised education and health care for our is there a solid democracy in Cuba, by Friedman and implemented in kids? Why are our pockets only but also the basic needs of the other parts of Latin America by his empty when we talk about 100 country’s population are satisfied. apprentices, “the Chicago Boys.” percent renewable energy that is “To many, freedom is an absence With sovereign initiatives going to save this planet and allow of worry. The desire and need for enacted by President Evo Morales, our children to thrive, (but) we write a social fabric knit well to support Bolivia’s socio-economic model unlimited blank checks for war. We the basic prerequisites: food, shelter, used income from export resources to just wrote a US$2 trillion check for health and education. None of them diversify the economy, created social that GOP tax cut and nobody asked are a charity, because they are an programs aimed at redistributing those folks how they are going to investment in the fundamental riches, and reduced poverty over the pay for it. source of a society’s well-being: last decade. This report tries to cloak itself human capital,” wrote Dr. Arshad The report also neglects to in an allegedly “academic” aura, M. Khan in 2017. mention Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and is essentially based on Milton The report later takes on Colombia and Mexico, countries Friedman’s economic system, an Venezuela, a country with “highly currently suffering under extremist free market and minimal socialist policies (that) are peacefully governments that unequivocally intervention policy. Friedman’s implemented under the auspices of follow neoliberal recipes mainly thesis promotes the dismantling democracy,” to try and debunk the backed by the US and enforced by of public services like firefighters, Bolivarian Revolution specifically, the International Monetary Fund police, libraries, schools, hospitals, and generally the “XXI Century (IMF). or anything else that can save or Socialism” or “National and Popular These right-wing governments help people that can’t afford it. Projects” of the Latin American lay the foundation for their economic The benefits go to a rich minority countries. “These countries are model in inequality, disguised in in society, to the detriment of the examples of a more general pattern free-market policies, and the idea masses. of socialism’s negative output that the state must not intervene— The report first talks about effects,” reads the report. exactly the opposite of those qualities countries like Cuba, calling them However, it also conveniently the CEA’s defines as “socialism.” “nondemocratic governments” leaves out a staggering number of Similarly, during the “golden” and rapidly discrediting them for facts. First, it omits yet another decade of neoliberalism in Latin “substantially less food production murderous blockade and economic America in the 90s, in which right- and tens of millions of deaths by war waged by the US against wing governments implemented starvation.” Venezuela; the same Venezuela that Structural Adjustment Programs by The authors of this report has built over two million houses for the IMF and the World Bank and conveniently fail to mention US the poor, and who, with Cuba’s help, followed the wishes of their US and involvement in the murderous 60- gave medical care to people who had Western European capitalist masters, year US-backed blockade imposed on never seen a doctor in their life; the the region became one of the poorest the island, and of course, they refuse same Venezuela that managed to and most unequal in the world and to mention the various achievements redistribute for the sake of wellness also demonstrated poor or negative that the Cuban Revolution has and raise millions out of poverty. economic growth. accomplished. A 99-percent literacy The report also erases Bolivia, a Latin America has shown to rate, free education from elementary country that has democratically and the world, during more or less the school through university, universal independently achieved the highest past decade, that socialism can health care praised by the United economic growth rate in South work and indeed, works better than Nations, and one of the lowest America. Under the first indigenous capitalism. During the past few infant mortality rates in the world. President Evo Morales, the country years (depending on which country All of these achievements despite instituted a series of economic and we are talking about) the return the genocidal US blockade that has social reforms that encapusalted and of neoliberalism has brought back cost the island $134.5 billion over faithfully executed theories of 21st crisis, poverty, and inequality to the six decades. Century Socialism; a different way region. R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 16 JANATA, November 04, 2018 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2018 Published on Sunday, November 4, 2018 & Posted on Wedenesday, November 7, 2018 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 73 No. 42 Rebellious Scientists Issue November 11, 2018 Urgent Appeal Activists’ Arrests: Govt Wants Only One Voice Apoorvanand Robert Hunziker, Alex Kirby

The Way Forward for Socialists On October 31, 2018, a select rebels like ‘Give me Liberty or in Brazil group of UK scientists launched a Give me Death” Patrick Henry of Claudia Fanti interviews Joao Stedile Declaration of Rebellion against the American Revolution circa late 18th UK government at the Houses of century, these rebel scientists are Jayaprakash Narayan: An Idealist Betrayed – Part IV Parliament: “For criminal inaction willing to make personal sacrifices, M. G. Devasahayam in the face of climate change to be arrested, to go to prison, as catastrophe and ecological collapse.” they firmly believe it’s proper to Netaji Bose, Nehru and According to the scientists, start a planetary emergency global Anti-Colonial Struggle now is the time to act as a planetary effort in the UK where the industrial Ram Puniyani emergency is already upon us. revolution commenced. Essentially, The Wealthy Barely Pay Taxes: Nearly 100 British scientists, full circle back to the beginnings of Will the Govt Make Them Pay? academics and writers are willing the fossil fuel era. C.P. Chandrasekhar, Jayati Ghosh to go to jail to make their point According to Extinction Statues Rise and Fall, Mr Modi, that anthropogenic (human- Rebellion the sixth mass extinction is Only the People Remain caused) climate change is a surefire already strutting its mettle in spunky Prabir Purkayastha provocateur that’s already starting to fashion. For example, a recent decimate ecosystems. Worldwide Fund for Nature report Editor : G. G. Parikh Additionally, these scientists claims a wipeout of 60% of animal Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain also launched ExtinctionRebellion, populations has already occurred an international movement that over the past 50 years alone. Managing Editor : Guddi will use mass civil disobedience to All of which begs the provocative Editorial Board : force governments to immediately question: What does it imply for the B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali establish a WWII-type effort to fight next 50 years as climate change / climate change. global warming indicators firmly Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah Yes, civil disobedience is the crank up to rapid-acceleration mode, Nandu Dhaneshwar, way forward, as the group promises: in some cases exponentially? Thus, Sandeep Pandey “Repeated acts of disruptive, non- the next 50 yrs zoom-zoom will be D-15, Ganesh Prasad, violent civil disobedience” if the supercharged. What then? Naushir Bharucha Marg, government does not respond For example, an extremely Mumbai - 400 007. seriously to demands, and they alarming new study, ‘Climate- anticipate “there will be mass Driven Declines in Arthropod Email : [email protected] arrests”. Abundance Restructure a Rainforest Website:www.janataweekly.org Similar in tone to early American Food Web’, Proceedings of the 2 JANATA, November 11, 2018

National Academy of Sciences, biggest reflector of sunlight, l Underwater kelp forests reveals a mind-boggling cataclysmic exposing subsea permafrost decimated all along California falloff, up to 60-fold, of the “food methane trapped over the northern coasts and Australia’s web” in tropical rainforests with eons in clathrates, thus risking giant kelp forest declared temps up 2.0-to-2.5°C over baseline, runaway global warming with “endangered ecological zone,” indicative of an ecosystem in early concomitant wipeout of mid- as a steady increase in ocean stages of disintegration. latitude agricultural crops. temps by nearly 3 degrees Fahrenheit in recent decades A falloff of “up to 60-fold” l The entire surface of Greenland is extremely difficult to fathom. (22 feet of water) turned to slush, was all it took. It’s almost like an out of body freaking-out scientists. l Colorado River Basin water flow down 40% in worst drought in experience from far above, watching l China’s Lancang River (1,330 rainforests, over time, crumble into miles in China), the Danube 1,200 years, threatening major thousands of piles of grey dust in a of the East, lost 70% of its cities and agriculture. dark nightmarish dream sequence. headwater glaciers to global l Middle East / Northern Africa The climate is changing much warming, threatening an Mediterranean coastlines drying faster than nature normally functions irregular flow of this major river up faster than anywhere on because human-charged climate for all of SE Asia sometime in the planet because of global change works against the regular the distant future. warming. Where will eco migrants go next? flow of nature, leaving it choking / l The World Bank warns that 100 gasping / disintegrating in the dust. million people are at risk of loss l One hundred nature reserves in Ecosystems from the Arctic to of irrigation, drinking water and Europe experienced 80% drop Antarctica are starting to crumble hydropower because of rapid in flying insect abundance, right before our eyes, but nobody melt of Andes’ glacial water confusing scientists. lives where it happens. So, nobody towers. l NOAA says CO2 increasing 100 times faster than end of last Ice sees it first-hand, as for example: l Pingos imploding in Siberia, spewing methane; 7,000 Pingos Age, which is hyper-speed in l Vavilov Ice Cap (700 sq. miles) identified, as Siberia enters geological time. in the Russian High Arctic ecosystem collapse phase. slipping / sliding by 15–35 feet Signatories to the Declaration l Alaskan permafrost emitting 220 per day versus normally 2 inches of Rebellion include established million tons of carbon every 2 per day—a real shocker. names in academics like Professor years as it reverses from carbon Danny Dorling of University of l Three 100-year droughts (which sink to a carbon emitter. Ouch! normally happen once every 100 Oxford and Dr. Ian Gibson, former l Too much heat and CO2 are years) hit the Amazon Rainforest chair of Parliamentary Science and changing ocean chemistry, like clockwork over the past 10 Technology Select Committee. as acidification disrupts years: 2005–2010–2015—an Green Party MP Caroline Lucas is the base of the food web; unprecedented occurence. also a signatory. Other backers are Pteropod reproduction and/or probably better-known for their l The Totten Glacier (16 feet of development threatened. water), which comprises less achievements beyond science, l One-half of the Great Barrier than 1/10th of East Antarctica’s including the former Archbishop of Reef killed by excessively heated ice mass, is destabilising Canterbury, Rowan Williams, now ocean water conditions 2016- 100-years ahead of previous the Master of Magdalene College at 17—scientists flabbergasted. climate modeling. the University of Cambridge, and the l Ocean plankton production journalist George Monbiot. l West Antarctica’s rate of ice loss off by 40% past 50 years, triples over 15 years, way ahead diminishing oxygen production. of scientific modeling. Cry of desperation l Thermohaline worldwide ocean Another supporter is Andrew l Arctic multi-year thick ice circulation slowest in 1,600 infrastructure melts, losing Simms of the New Weather Institute. years has negative worldwide Northern Hemisphere’s In an interview, he stated: “This is impact. almost a cry of desperation. People JANATA, November 11, 2018 3 are bewildered. But almost every profound change in British society, Activists’ Arrests: Govt Wants Only from the abolition of slavery to the One Voice improvement of shipping safety, has involved people risking arrest. “The signs I am getting from Apoorvanand the UK government now are that it The judicial custody of groups. Instead of probing them, is a reckless administration putting Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bhardwaj the Pune Police introduced an its own people and others at risk and Vernon Gonsalves has been entirely new angle to the whole by putting climate change virtually extended till 19 November by the story, claiming that the event by nowhere. Pune sessions court. They were the Dalits at Bhima-Koregaon was “The Declaration alone won’t arrested by the Maharashtra police actually funded and supported by bring about change: we’ll need for allegedly planning large-scale the Maoists, and was part of a larger people working practically to make violence in collaboration with the design to create unrest in the country. change happen on the ground. But Communist Party of India (Maoist). Though multiple raids across we need ExtinctionRebellion as part It again shows that the lower India on activists and intellectuals— of the mosaic of responses to the judiciary in our country can hardly openly active through their writing, extremely precarious situation we be expected to stand for individual speaking, and known for their now find ourselves in.” liberty and the right to dissent when record of standing up for the Dalits, Simms, convinced that an the state says that it is threatened. tribals and the marginalised—an entirely new potential for rapid It was, therefore, a surprise when impression of a hidden network of societal change now exists, says: the Delhi High Court granted bail to Maoists was sought to be created. “We know what’s needed, and Gautam Navlakha. Gautam has also The Hindi media and a section of the resources to do it are there. got relief from the Bombay High the electronic channels helped the ExtinctionRebellion is one example Court, which has restrained the Pune government drive this theory deep of how new ideas can spread quickly Police from arresting him, Anand into the popular mind. and rapid shift—and radical action— Teltumbde and Stan Swamy till 21 The people were made to can come closer.” November. believe in the fiction of gangs of The Pune Police made an nation-breakers being sheltered by Janata Subscription explosive claim that it has also universities like JNU and Hyderabad uncovered a conspiracy to assassinate Central University by a helping Annual Rs. : 260/- the Prime Minister and suspects a media. That narrative has now Three Years : 750/- large nationwide network secretly been made more sensational by working for it. adding this new element of ‘anti- Demand Draft / national, violent’ Maoists active in Cheque The Brazenness of the State our backyards. The absurdity of these It was not a coincidence that on discoveries has since been discussed the outfits affiliated to the BJP and Mumbai Bank at length in the media. the RSS launched a campaign at the But more than that, we need Delhi University a year ago to free in favour of to admire the utter brazenness of the campus from red terror. Meetings the State, which has, through these and seminars are being held across Janata Trust raids and arrests, nearly buried the India to enlighten people about question of responsibility of the the threat of dangerous Maoists D-15, Ganesh Prasad, violence that took place after an masquerading as teachers, students, Naushir Bharucha Marg, event on the eve of New Year at artists, filmmakers, etc. Grant Road (W), Bhima-Koregaon. It is said that the very openness Mumbai 400 007. It was alleged that it was planned of the urban spaces is being misused and executed by some Hindutvavadi by the Maoists to further their 4 JANATA, November 11, 2018 agenda. A high-decibel campaign a great confusion in the minds of is important for this government to supported by the ministers of the the people. It is bizarre but even intimidate and silence this privileged central government is bound to the Congress party is portrayed and noisy class. The raids and arrests impact the people who have no other as conspiring with the Maoists or are part of this strategy. channel of getting information than Naxals, since Rahul Gandhi chose to A situation is being created in the Hindi newspapers and popular speak against the attack on student which the articulate section of the TV channels like the Zee TV. leaders like Kanhaiya or criticised society, which keeps disturbing A nationalist narrative is being the recent raids and the arrests of the nationalist narrative of the woven by them in which the State these activists. government, would just disappear. is made one with the nation. And There is no use talking about The meaning of these arrests the government is the sole carrier of the significance of the work people would be clear if we put them this nationalism. Any criticism of the like Anand Teltumbde, Stan Swamy, together with the attempt to take government automatically turns into Sudha Bharadwaj or others are away from the University academics an attack on the State and the nation. doing. The design to club different the right to speak and write freely, to kinds of people together needs to be disallow non-State views to be aired The Great Confusion among understood. on campuses. People We must recall the warning the The objective is to let only one It is only 10 months and all Prime Minister gave to to the judges voice get echoed from all corners. of us have forgotten about the just after taking over. He had told What is disturbing is that most of us violence against the participants of them that their judgments should don’t find it disturbing at all. the Bhima-Koregaon event. not be influenced by the perception Email: [email protected] Instead, we are busy discussing created by the five-star activists. It whether the arrested or raided activists are Maoists or not. The Way Forward for Socialists It looks absurd but it remains a reality that in the popular in Brazil imagination, Maoists are seen as dangerous terrorists armed to Claudia Fanti interviews Joao Stedile their teeth and flushed with funds. They are funding Kanhaiya Kumar, The devastating victory of We suffered an electoral defeat Umar Khalid, and everyone who extreme right-wing candidate Jair as progressive and people’s forces. is doing something that is critical Bolsonaro in Brazil’s presidential This does not mean that the majority of the policies and actions of this elections on October 28 left many of people chose fascism. Bolsonaro government. When the writers across the world shocked and received 56 million votes, Haddad and artists started their protest by wondering how someone who openly 45 million, and 31 million did not returning State awards, the finance preaches hate and violence could vote or they cast a blank ballot. minister suggested that they were have won. Claudia Fanti, an Italian On the other hand, the country is being funded by anti-nationals. journalist, spoke to João Pedro divided. In the north and north-east There are different kinds of Stedile of the national board of the we elected 12 governors, which activists working all over India. Landless Rural Workers’ Movement is an area that will serve as our Some of them are openly sympathetic (MST) about the elections and the trenches, geographically. In the to the Maoist ideology and there are way forward for the left in Brazil. last week, a national coordination others who, even when differing or was formed with intellectuals, disagreeing with the Maoists, would How is is it possible that millions musicians, teachers, churches, defend their human rights as a matter of Brazilians voted for an pastors, progressives, in defense of principle. It does not mean that openly fascist project? Does the of democracy, that will remain as a they indulge in or support violent manipulation of data and fake bastion of society. acts. news through WhatsApp explain We lost electorally because the But the government has created what happened? Brazilian capitalist class, dominated JANATA, November 11, 2018 5 by finance capital and transnational and its distancing from grassroots done, something different? companies, abandoned the Macron work and from the poorest and the Well, there is always a lot formula and opted for the Pinochet working class in general. of analysis and hypothesis, and method. They propose a repressive everyone has their own evaluation. I government, with fascist methods, Bolsonaro presented himself as an think that the PT was more prepared and with no state presence in the anti-system candidate although he to do a campaign with Lula, who is economy with ultra-neoliberalism. had supported some of the worst the central leader of the masses in They put all of their economic measures of Temer? How did he Brazil. With his imprisonment and weight and hegemony behind do it? his being barred from even speaking Bolsonaro. To win, they used bots Bolsonaro’s campaign was based to the people, the right-wing took and had support from outside Brazil, on lies and was a farce. He never away our principle force. Then, there from Trump and Steve Bannon, in once discussed a plan of government; was a weakness in not realising the addition to the right-wing forces he never wanted to participate power and manipulation of the social from Israel, to bombard the Brazilian in any debates on television or networks, especially Whatsapp. people with systematic lies. It must in other media. He hid behind a They were sending messages from not be forgotten that Brazil is the false image, of the courageous outside, millions of lies every half country in the world with most cell military man. He hid from the an hour. Imagine for example, that phones and the highest level of use population that his government on the last day, they even spread the of social media, with Whatsapp, will be a government of military lie that Haddad was a pedophile . . Facebook, twitter, etc. They also personnel, repressive, and one that . in the end, we lacked the will and were supported by a conservative would further the imposition of the time to do a campaign more linked to network of evangelical pastors, and interests of finance capital and the the people, to go house by house, a from the conservative sectors of the transnational companies. The only campaign that listened to the people. Catholic church. two ministers that he announced In the PT, there were many They created an anti-PT, anti-left during the campaign were Paulo people who trusted the power of wing environment, as if we were Guedes, a banker and a ‘Chicago the television, but they were proved the ones responsible for the crisis boy’, for Economic Minister and the wrong. The television is no longer of capitalism. retention of the current president of a sufficient instrument to change an On the other hand, they used the central bank, who is an Israeli election. the state apparatus in two ways: citizen and defers to the interests of the principal and most fanatic Itau bank. Many say that it all started with the militants of Bolsonaro were the Today the declarations of protests in June 2013. Following military police, the people from the Steve Bannon have been all over this came the many protests armed forces and members of the the bourgeois news. He was the against the PT government, the Stonemasons sect. They had a reach campaign coordinator of Trump illegitimate overthrow of Dilma, across the whole country. They also and was behind Bolsonaro, which the persecution of Lula and had the support of the judiciary, who shows just how important this finally, the unstoppable growth since the coup against Dilma are campaign was for the global right of Bolsonaro. If the PT had better loyal to the interests of capital. To wing, with all of the new methods understood the protest in June give an idea, last week, the judicial of mass manipulation through social 2013, could history have been different? authorised a search and arrest in 17 media. Here, we are confronting the Of course. However, behind Brazilian universities. interests of the global right, which all of this lies the strong and deep They also used the judicial power has transformed us into an electoral economic crisis of the capitalist way to illegally prevent the possibility of laboratory, to apply this formula in of functioning. When the economy Lula participating in the elections the rest of the world. grows, everyone can win. When the that he would’ve won in the first economy does not function, each round. Was the electoral strategy of the class just wants to save itself. It is Added to this was the Workers’ Party (PT) correct? like what happened in the Titanic. organisational weaknesses of the left, Could something else have been 6 JANATA, November 11, 2018

The first class, the capitalists, took school and land. In this respect, it people. the life boats to save themselves will be a repressive government but We have to strengthen the alone, and the second and third class the people will have to confront the political education work. The passengers drowned. The Dilma contradictions and mobilise. development of our popular media government and the left-wing parties We do not have another option to communicate with the people, did not have the clarity, the capacity besides learning from the historical including through social media, and the political will to explain to lessons in the struggle for humanity. in a much more organised way, is the people the nature of the crisis, First, we must organise a broad essential. the nature of the corruption, the democratic front to confront this Lastly, engaging in grassroots nature of all of the problems. By fascist government. We have a strong struggle, that is the only way of not explaining this, the advantage institutional base of opposition with defending rights and improving shifted to the right-wing who had 12 governors and more than a third quality of life. more ability to put all of the blame of the parliament. And we have We have many years ahead of a on the Dilma government, then on people’s organisations to resist. right-wing, repressive government the PT and then on Lula. We must, however, double down that does not have an organised on our grassroots work, to explain social base. His central support base What comes next is a war on to the people, listen to the people comes from a militarised, fanatic and labor rights, on the black and and organise people’s committees sectarian grassroots base. indigenous population, on the in all of the neighborhoods and This also demands that the left environment, on the MST and all municipalities around what we call works on the processes of renovation of the social movements. What the People’s Congress, to debate and bringing together the people’s will be the strategy ahead for the the project of the country, with the forces. movements? We are still in the moment of Jayaprakash Narayan: An Idealist evaluation, debates and preparing for the next period, that will be a Betrayed – Part IV long one. We will have a right-wing, fascist, repressive government but M. G. Devasahayam without a classic movement of The fourth part of a personal with a 14-point list describing fascist masses like there was in epitaph on Jayaprakash Narayan fascism in different dimensions: Europe. This is why we say that there by former civil servant M.G. will be a government more similar Devasahayam. 1. Powerful and Continuing to Pinochet and to that of Duterte Nationalism: Fascist regimes in the Philippines. They defend an What is Fascism? tend to make constant use ultra-neoliberal program to save This is the dictionary definition of patriotic mottos, slogans, the banks and the transnational of fascism: “a political philosophy, symbols, songs, and other companies, including the Europeans movement, or regime (such as that paraphernalia. Flags are seen who support them. At the same of the Fascisti) that exalts nation everywhere, as are flag symbols time, it has also been proven that and often race above the individual on clothing and in public neoliberalism, the minimal state and that stands for a centralised displays. and complete freedom for capital, autocratic government headed by a 2. Disdain for the Recognition of will not resolve the fundamental dictatorial leader, severe economic Human Rights: Because of fear problems of the people. We have and social regimentation, and of enemies and the need for 14 million unemployed people and forcible suppression of opposition.” security, the people in fascist another 33 million with precarious In an article, “Fascism Anyone?” regimes are persuaded that work. We have almost 60 million Laurence Britt (an active writer and human rights can be ignored in workers outside the economy, the commentator on political, historical certain special cases. The people people need jobs, income, housing, and economic affairs) comes out tend to look the other way or even JANATA, November 11, 2018 7

approve of torture, summary major tenets of the religion treasures to be appropriated executions, assassinations, long are diametrically opposed to or even outright stolen by incarcerations of prisoners etc. the government’s policies or government leaders. 3. Identification of Enemies / actions. 14. Fraudulent Elections: Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause: 9. Corporate Power is Protected: Sometimes, elections in fascist The people are rallied into a The industrial and business nations are a complete sham. unifying patriotic frenzy over aristocracy of a fascist nation Other times elections are the need to eliminate a perceived often are the ones who put manipulated by smear campaigns common threat or foe: racial, the government leaders into against or even assassination of ethnic, or religious minorities, power, creating a mutually opposition candidates, use of liberals, communists, socialists, beneficial business–government legislation to control voting terrorists, etc. relationship and power elite. numbers or political district 4. Supremacy of the Military: 10. Labor Power is Suppressed: boundaries, and manipulation of Soldiers and military service Because the organising power of the media. Fascist nations also are glamourised. Even when labor is often the only real threat typically use their judiciaries to there are widespread domestic to a fascist government, labor manipulate or control elections. problems, the military is given unions are either eliminated or Does the RSS miss even one of a disproportionate amount of severely suppressed. these points? The ‘Saffron Summit’ government funding. 11. Disdain for Intellectuals, neither addressed nor resolved even 5. Rampant Sexism: The Centers of Education, and one of this points to prove that it governments of fascist nations the Arts: Fascist nations tend is not fascist. On the other hand, tend to be almost exclusively to promote and tolerate open freedom is just the antithesis of all male-dominated. Under fascist hostility to higher education and that fascism stands for. regimes, traditional gender academia. It is not uncommon roles are made more rigid. for professors and other Was JP a Fascist? Maintenance of a patriarchal academics to be censored or Anyone interested in the recent status quo is the norm. even arrested. Free expression in history of the Jan Sangh-turned- 6. Controlled Mass Media: the arts is openly attacked, and BJP’s rise to power should know Sometimes the media is directly governments often refuse to fund that they used JP to the full, sucked controlled by the government, the arts. the blood out of him and not only but in other cases, the media 12. Obsession with Crime and abandoned him but betrayed him. is indirectly controlled by Punishment: Under fascist What is worse, Sanghis portray him government regulation, or regimes, the police are given as their patriarch and a fascist. As sympathetic media spokespeople almost limitless power to enforce proof they quote JP’s words—“if and executives. Censorship of laws. The people are often you are fascist, then I too am a the media is very common. willing to overlook police abuses fascist” at a Jan Sangh-RSS rally! 7. Obsession with National and even forego civil liberties in Every time I hear people berate JP Security: Fear is used as the name of patriotism. in my presence blaming him for the a motivational tool by the 13. Rampant Cronyism and rise of Sanghis and the horror that government over the masses. Corruption: Fascist regimes is India today, I shiver in anguish 8. Religion and Government are almost always are governed because I know it is not true. Intertwined: Governments in by groups of friends and JP has pronounced himself on fascist nations tend to use the associates who appoint each various aspects which rings truer most common religion in the other to government positions today: nation as a tool to manipulate and use governmental power and • On Freedom: “Freedom became public opinion. Religious authority to protect their friends one of the beacon lights of rhetoric and terminology are from accountability. It is not my life and it has remained common from government uncommon in fascist regimes so ever since. . . . Above all it leaders, even if sometimes the for national resources and even 8 JANATA, November 11, 2018

meant freedom of the human the fabric of the nation, of through executive diktats; rapes, personality, freedom of the which Hindus form such a vast lynchings and killings take place mind, freedom of the spirit. This majority.” with abandon; political rallies are freedom has become a passion • On Cow Slaughter: “I do not held to rationalise these gruesome of my life and I shall not see think that Hinduism has ever crimes; and predatory, nature-killing it compromised for food, for thought that the life of any ‘development’ projects are being security, for prosperity, for the animal, no matter how sacred, is pushed through state terror; those glory of the state or for anything more sacred than human life. All who oppose these are branded else.” life is sacred, but the most sacred as extremists and anti-nationals • On Communalism: "Although of all is human life.” He then and draconian laws, including almost every religious contextualized the emergence sedition and National Security community had its own brand of the cow as a sacred animal: Act, are invoked against them; of communalism, Hindu “The Hindu concept that a cow’s power is centralised and institutions communalism was more life is inviolate is the outcome of democratic governance are pernicious than the others not of any primitive taboo, trivialised. because Hindu communalism because beef was a common Let us take a closer look at the can easily masquerade as Indian food of Hindu society at one declared Emergency of June 1975 nationalism and denounce all time, but of the gradual moral and the undeclared Emergency opposition to it as being anti- and spiritual development of prevailing in the country in the past national.” the Indian people in which non- few years. There was no lynching • On the RSS: “Some like the Vedic Hindu religions such as of Muslims, killings or assaults on RSS might do it openly by Jainism and Buddhism perhaps Dalits, communal riots, political identifying the Indian nation took the lead. In course of time, killings, Hindutva majoritarianism, with Hindu Rashtra, others respect for human life grew and targeted killing of left liberal might do it more subtly,” he non-violence came to be more intellectuals and journalists, political said. “But in every case, such and more emphasised in human rally in support of gruesome rape, identification is pregnant with relations”. cow vigilantes roaming the streets national disintegration, because attacking and killing animal traders members of other communities Calling such a man a fascist? and meat eaters with impunity during can never accept the position of the Emergency as it is happening second-class citizens. Such a Governance by Fear—Fascist now. situation, therefore, has in it the Style There were also no religion- seeds of perpetual conflict and Under the Emergency onslaught, based senas, dals, vahinis of goons, ultimate disruption.” India’s institutions and instruments louts, and street lumpens harassing, • India is not Hindu – JP: “Those of democratic governance—the extorting, assaulting and killing who attempt to equate India Legislative, the Judiciary, and the defenceless citizens. There was no with Hindus and Indian history Executive—were running in panic. arms training to young innocent girls with Hindu history are only Individuals were moving in hushed and boys in parks and institutions. detracting from the greatness silence traumatised by what was There was no fear of majority of India and the glory of Indian going on. The irony is that today, community among minority history and civilization. Such even without a formal proclamation communities. There were no hate person, paradoxical though this of the Emergency under the RSS crimes against fellow citizens, may seem, are in reality the rule, institutions and individuals no pub attacks or private kitchen enemies of Hinduism itself and are running in panic. Parliament searches for beef, no restrictions the Hindus. Not only do they passes harsh laws as Money Bills; on food and clothes of citizens, no degrade the noble religion and the Reserve Bank ‘demonetises’ moral policing in parks and public destroy its catholicity and spirit currency throwing people on the places, no forcible closure of NGOs, of tolerance and harmony, but streets; ‘voluntary’ Aadhaar is being no fellow citizen was declared they also weaken and sunder rammed down people’s throats extremist or anti-national or asked JANATA, November 11, 2018 9 to go to Pakistan or Europe. around like headless chicken by legitimacy. This, in turn, is used to Though the character and destabilising his life and livelihood. justify vigilante violence. Perversity contents are different, there is ‘Liberalisation and privatisation’ rules. a common thread between the have turned educational institutions Never before have constitutional Emergency and the situation at into windowless fortress preventing freedoms guaranteed to citizens come present—‘Governance by Fear’. The young minds from blossoming into under such a sustained attack from only difference is that the method fruitful citizens and future leaders. the very people expected to protect adopted then was ‘Jhatka’ (single Never before in recent history them. Institutions of democracy and chop), and now it is ‘Halal’ (slow has the politics of hate, intolerance, governance have been weakened killing). The effect on freedom and division, and exclusion been so and checks and balances removed liberty is the same, probably a shade dominant and the poisonous ideology to clear the passage for the march of worse now! which informs it gone so deep into bigotry, prejudice and intolerance. In order to concentrate political the body politic. Never before The media has been suborned or and administrative power in few has hate been directed with such emasculated so that dissent can be hands, the instruments of public calculated intent against minority silenced even before it is articulated. service are either demolished or communities, adivasis, dalits, and In the life of our nation, in post- made to self-destruct in order to women; hate which is nursed, aided, independence India, this is possibly snatch them away from the people and abetted by those in power. It is our bleakest moment. and hand them over to a small coterie cruel in the extreme and it spares The challenge posed by the RSS of oligarchs who own over 75 per no one, not even innocent women is deep, dangerous and disastrous: it cent of India’s wealth today. In recent and children. Violence has been challenges the very idea of India, the years, well-orchestrated communal given social and political sanction swadharma of the Republic and the hatred and polarisation agenda has by those in power and perpetrators cornerstone of our Constitution—“to been unleashed to strengthen the of violence have been felicitated and promote among people fraternity, hold of these oligarchs on India’s serenaded while victims have been assuring the dignity of the individual economy and polity. punished and harassed. and the unity and integrity of the ‘Development’ has become a Never before have the coercive nation.” Such a fascist outfit calls farce to hand over massive amount of instruments of state power been itself nationalist and patriotic. What public money to private individuals used with such impunity to silence a travesty? through predatory ‘infrastructure’ those who dare to raise their (to be continued) projects while starving the critical voice on behalf of the oppressed. agriculture and social sectors. Notions of majoritarian supremacy This has made India the most non- couched in the language of cultural inclusive and inequitable country nationalism have found renewed in the world only next to Russia! support and a gigantic Goebbelsian Most of the mainstream media propaganda and disinformation owned or controlled by the oligarchs machinery with seemingly unlimited have turned mercenary and are resources has been used to distort singing the paeans of those who our understanding of history and are systematically devastating the negate our pluralistic and syncretic Republic and the institutions of heritage. Institutions of higher people’s power. learning that stand for nurturing the ‘Fear’ seems to be the spirit of enquiry have been forced to overarching tool of governance. In promote a hyper nationalist agenda the past few years, ‘demonetisation’, which treats doubt and dissidence as Aadhaar, and, to some extent, GST anti-national. Intolerance has been have been used to ‘terrorise’ the made acceptable and communal and common man and make him run caste hatred normalised and given 10 JANATA, November 11, 2018 Netaji Bose, Nehru and Anti-Colonial Struggle

Ram Puniyani

India’s anti-colonial struggle has his initiative. Patel regarded Nehru his religious path, but not link it to been the major phenomenon which both as his younger brother and his political and other public issues. built modern India into a secular leader. Some time ago, Modi tried to Throughout his career, he reached democracy. Many political streams propagate that Nehru ignored Sardar out to Muslim leaders, first of all were part of this movement, and all Patel and did not attend his funeral in in his home province of Bengal, to of them struggled in their own way Bombay. Moraji Desai’s biography make common cause in the name of to drive away the British. There were refutes this claim too. He says that India. His ideal, as indeed the ideal also some political streams, the ones Nehru did attend the funeral; this of the Indian National Congress, who upheld a narrow nationalism in was also reported in the newspapers was that all Indians, regardless of the name of religion, who were not a of that time. region, religious affiliation, or caste part of this movement; today, in order As far as Netaji Bose is join together to make common cause to gain electoral legitimacy, either concerned, Nehru and Bose were against foreign rulers.” they are making false claims about close ideological colleagues. The major difference between their being a part of it, or are trying Both were socialists and part of Gandhi–Nehru on one side and Bose to distort events to denigrate the the left wing of the Congress. on the other was on what should leaders of the freedom movement, Unlike the followers of Hindutva be the role of the INC during the particularly Jawaharlal Nehru. This politics, Bose was very secular. Second World War. The INC in due came to the surface yet again when Hindu nationalist leaders attacked course came to take an anti-British Prime Minister Modi was hoisting Subhas Bose incessantly as he stance and Gandhi launched the the Indian flag on the occasion of dared to reserve jobs for Muslims Quit Indian movement in 1942. 75th anniversary of the proclamation when he was elected to lead the Bose was of the opinion that an of the Azad Hind Government. On Calcutta Corporation. Bose was alliance with Germany–Japan may that occasion, Modi claimed that aware of the tremendous injustice give freedom to India. It was indeed the contributions of Bose, Patel and that Muslims faced in recruitment. doubtful whether an alliance with Ambedkar have been ignored by the Bose opposed both the Muslim and fascist forces was the right way. In ruling Nehru–Gandhi family. Hindu communalists. At the Tripuri case of their victory, India might Nothing can be farther from truth Convention of the Indian National have come under the control of the than this statement of his. One knows Congress (INC) held in 1939, Bose Japan–Germany axis which would that Ambedkar was given the task of was elected President. Gandhi have pushed India back by many being the Chairman of the drafting opposed to him mainly on the steps. While Congress opposed the committee of the Indian constitution; ground of non-violence. Bose tended British through a mass movement, he was also made a minister in the to support violent means. Due to Bose launched the ‘Azad Hind first Cabinet of India, and was asked opposition within the INC, Bose left Fauz’ (AHF). Be that as it may, Bose to draft the Hindu code bill. Sardar Congress to form Forward Block, strongly believed in Hindu–Muslim Patel was the Deputy Prime Minster, a left party, which has been part of unity and this was again exhibited looking after the Home ministry. The the left coalition in West Bengal for when he offered a Chadar on the compilation of Sardar Patel’s letters, a long time. Bose and Nehru were Mazar (tomb) of Bahadur Shah ‘Sardar Patel Correspondence’, has on the same page as far as future Zafar (the leader of 1857 uprising) been edited by Durga Das. From this of industrialisation and role of the in Rangoon, Burma, and pledged to book, it becomes clear that Nehru public sector were concerned. Bose’s bring his mortal remains to Delhi and Patel were very close, and till biographer Leonard A. Gordan and bury them in the Red Fort. In Patel was alive most of the decisions writes that Bose believed that: “Each contrast, the Hindu Mahasabha taken were with his consent or due to [person] should privately follow actively supported British war JANATA, November 11, 2018 11 efforts by urging Indians to join the British army. Savarkar urged upon The Wealthy Barely Pay Taxes: Will his followers to be part of the official the Govt Make Them Pay? war committees set up by the British; the latter in turn accommodated leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha on C.P. Chandrasekhar, Jayati Ghosh these committees. India is often mistakenly the poor are more likely to consume Savarkar also declared “No seen as a country with relatively their income or even more, while the support to armed resistance against low economic inequality. In fact, rich can save out of their incomes. British”. It is interesting that while there were always very significant Official survey data indicate that Netaji was fighting the British from economic inequalities in India, the Gini coefficient increased from across the border, Savarkar and which intersected with social and 31 per cent in 1993–94 to around Hindutva Nationalists were helping locational inequalities in complex 34 per cent in 2011–12, but this is the British army which was fighting ways. More significantly, the clearly an underestimate of even the AHF of Subhash Bose! The claims country’s inequalities widened after extent of consumption inequality. that Modi and Co. are following the internal and external economic The further limitation is that data the footsteps of Netaji is absolutely liberalisation measures from the are only available up to the last large false. The fact of the matter is that early 1990s, which attracted global sample survey that was undertaken the efforts of Savarkar directed financial investors and boosted in 2011–12. against the interests of the army economic growth considerably. Predictably, income inequality raised by Netaji. In contrast, even The estimates of low inequality estimates reveal greater inequality. though it did not agree with Netaji’s are usually based on the fact that the The India Human Development line of action, it was the Congress Gini coefficients of consumption Surveys of 2004–05 and 2011– which raised the legal support to expenditure have not been so 12, which provide longitudinal fight the cases of the personnel of high in India (although they have information on a reasonably large AHF after the war ended. Bhulabhai increased over time). The National sample of households, suggest a Gini Deasi, Kailashnath Katju and Nehru Sample Survey data on which coefficient of 55 per cent, which is himself came forward to battle in the such estimates are based tend to not only much higher than that for courtrooms on behalf of AHF. understate the extent of inequality consumption, but also similar to Today, when we are witnessing because they underestimate the tails countries generally seen as very name changing of all Muslim of the distribution, excluding the unequal, like Brazil. sounding names by the BJP rulers, very rich and the very poor. Further, these false claimants of Netaji’s legacy need to be reminded that in AHF, both Hindustani and Muslim Chart 1: Gini Coefficients of Wealth Distribution, 2018 sounding names were very common. The Provisional Government formed by Subhas Bose in Singapore was titled Aarzi-Hukumat-Azad Hind (Provisional Government of free India). The name Azad Hind Fauz is on similar lines. Several Muslims were a part of this Provisional Government. What we need today is to revive the spirit of amity, which Netaji stood for and which was being practiced in AHF. Email: [email protected] Source: Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report, 2018 12 JANATA, November 11, 2018

But the wealth inequality in So only 1 per cent of Indians per cent of the population crossed India is only too apparent. India hold more than half of the estimated that of the entire bottom half of has one of the most unequal wealth wealth of the country. Incidentally, the population somewhere in the distributions in the world. The annual this refers to only the recorded mid-2000s, and since then the gap Global Wealth Report brought out by wealth held within the country; it is between the income shares of these Credit Suisse estimates that the Gini safe to assume that many of these groups has widened much further. coefficient of wealth distribution in rich persons also hold significant So, after a period of nearly half India in 2018 was as high as 85.4 wealth abroad. a century after Independence, when per cent (Chart 1). This was only What is more, this category of income share fluctuated around slightly below that of Russia (widely highly privileged rich people also a broadly flat trend, there was a recognised to be the most unequal); manages to avoid or evade taxes in significant break in trend in the it was even slightly above Brazil India. Estimates by Lucas Chancel period of globalisation and neo- and the United States, where wealth and Thomas Piketty suggest that liberal economic reforms. inequalities are much discussed. the top 1 per cent of the population This sharp inequality is reflected What is more, such wealth account for around 22 per cent of in tax collections. The overwhelming inequalities also increased over the country’s income. They use majority of individuals either fall time in India, as shown in Chart 2. a combination of data from tax below the minimum tax threshold, The top decile increased its share of returns, consumption and income while a much smaller proportion are estimated wealth from nearly 70 per surveys and national accounts data, able to conceal their incomes to avoid cent in 2010 to nearly 81 per cent in and extrapolate their numbers to paying tax. As it is, only around 1.7 2016, and since then its share has more recent years, using the tax data. per cent of the Indian population pay fallen only marginally to 77.4 per Their results show a really startling income tax. However, even within cent in 2018. Meanwhile the trend increase in income inequality in the the group of tax payers, there are in the share of the top 1 percentile past decade in particular. significant inequalities, as workers is even more shocking: from 40.3 The figures also point to a and salaried persons at the bottom of per cent to as much as 58.4 per cent dramatic increase in the share of the the scale whose taxes are paid out of in 2016, going down since then top decile from 1990 but especially their wage incomes have much lower (largely because of changes in stock after 2000, mirrored by a decrease in incomes than the top tax payers. market valuations etc.) to around 52 the share of the middle 40 per cent. But even within this limited group, per cent. The share of the bottom half as Chart 3 shows, the richest pay a of the population also fell over falling share of the income taxes. this period. The share of the top 1 The Credit Suisse Report implies that around 3,500 Indians hold Chart 2: India – Share of Wealth of Top 1% and 10% wealth that would provide annual rentier incomes in excess of ₹500 crore. But the CBDT data show that only 179 individuals reported this level of income in 2017–18. Clearly, the only way to deal with this poor level of self-reportage is with proper investigation by an efficient and honest tax administration. But this requires genuine political will to tax the rich, not bombastic statements that are not backed by any real actions. The inability to tax high net worth individuals—or to collect Source: Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report, various issues corporation tax from profitable companies—in turn means that the JANATA, November 11, 2018 13

Chart 3: Share of Top Individuals in Total Tax Payable, % government has turned to relying more and more on indirect taxation. This is very regressive and puts the burden of raising fiscal resources onto common people. The share of direct taxes in total tax revenues has fallen from 38 per cent in 2009–10 (under the currently much-maligned UPA government) to only 32 per cent in 2017–18. It is no secret that India has some outrageously rich people whose incomes should and could Source: Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report, various issues be taxed to provide revenues for important public spending. But it is also increasingly not a secret that this government has no desire to do this. Statues Rise and Fall, Mr Modi, Only the People Remain

Prabir Purkayastha

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s the British. These two elements— today. These are the institutions that unveiling of the “tallest statue in secularism and development— need to be dismantled, along with the world” has been accompanied distinguish all the leaders of the Jawaharlal Nehru. by a high-voltage campaign on national movement, whether Patel, The “Unity” Statue of Patel has Sardar Patel’s contribution to nation- Bose, Ambedkar, Nehru or others, been built at a cost of Rs 2,989 crore. building. Of course, we know—and from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak As Dhirubhai Patel, the 91-year-old Modi has made it repeatedly clear— Sangh (RSS). For the RSS, the grandnephew of Sardar Patel, has that this recognition of Patel is a British were not the enemies; the said, Patel would not have approved part of the campaign to dismantle nationalists, secularists and the of this statue. He knew the value of the legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Muslims were. money. Sardar Patel has been often first Prime Minister of the country. The RSS is the only political quoted on his priorities for India: “I In the game of opposing pairs formation that wanted an India based have one wish: that India becomes a of icons, sometimes it is Netaji on religious identity; it had nothing productive nation; no one should cry Subhas Chandra Bose versus Nehru; to say about development either. for food and remain hungry.” Patel sometimes, Babasaheb Ambedkar For RSS, Indian and foreign capital would certainly not have approved versus Nehru; and often, Patel versus should develop the Indian economy, of wasting Rs 2,989 crore on a Nehru. Nehru remains the constant with the state only playing the role of statue which will produce nothing enemy for Modi and the RSS–BJP. a facilitator. This is similar to what but dubious vainglory for Prime Why is Nehru the constant Modi has managed in the Rafale Minister Modi. enemy? As Prime Minister, Nehru deal. It is such a vision of the state A number of people have made embodied the vision of the national in the RSS ideology that kept the calculations to list more productive movement: a secular state as the RSS and its allied movements out uses of this amount of money. Or instrument of development for of the independence struggle. And with the money our most travelled lifting Indian people out of poverty. this is why the secular institutions PM has spent on his frequent foreign This was the central impulse of the of the state and the public sector are tours. Prime ministers are “allowed” independence movement against seen as key enemies by the RSS–BJP their vanity expenditures. We pay a 14 JANATA, November 11, 2018 much higher price when we procure see them when you look at the lake an open letter to the PM, saying Rafale aircraft at eight billion that has submerged 377 square that they would not welcome him euros, and that too without any kilometres of land. for the inauguration. They wrote, technology transfers, and indigenous What is missing in this picture “These forests, rivers, waterfalls, development. And we might have of development? The people who land and agriculture supported to “compensate” the US now for have paid for the statue and the lake us for generations. We survived daring to buy Russian S-400 missile that has submerged their homes and on them. But, everything is being defence systems, by procuring lands. The people Patel talked about destroyed now and celebrations US made, outmoded F16s at an when he envisioned a productive are also planned. Don’t you think even higher price. So, perhaps, we nation. it’s akin to celebrating someone’s should overlook the “small” price It is always true that the poorest death? We feel so.” So much for tag of about $400 million for the pay the most in development Modi’s unity. 182-metre, world’s tallest statue! projects involving dams and mines. It also appears that there Their lands are taken away, the were other issues with the statue A Monument For The Indian Elite compensation is either not given, project. The relevant environmental Consider, instead, who this or meagre; they have no alternative clearances were not taken, nor magnificent monument been built livelihood. The gains are for the villagers consulted, as the law for; and who has paid the price capitalists, who make money out of requires for such projects. for it. If we look at the website of the projects, then enjoy the continued Modi’s statue project brings this Statue of Unity, it is clear it is benefits. The landed peasantry and to mind the relationship between meant for the Indian elite, who can big landowners benefit from the monumental architecture and fascist stay in an opulent hotel (a part of irrigation provided downstream. imagination. From ancient rulers to the statue complex), and look at the Even the electricity from the power modern “strongmen”, they all seem Sardar Sarovar Lake. The website house of hydro-electric projects do to be fascinated by size. And let us states, “. . . two guest-room levels not reach the villages nearby, only also understand Patel’s attraction above a public floor containing towns and industries far away. This for Modi: if Patel was the Iron Man meal services, a ballroom, and other is how capital views development of 20th century India, Modi wants meeting and event spaces. King and that is how it operates under to be his 21st-century version. This rooms and suites are located on the capitalism. is as much statue of himself as it is river side of the building, where they of Patel’s. have access to balconies overlooking Tribals Badly Hit And Displaced History knows how to deal with generous gardens.” The Narmada Dams—Sardar such vainglory. Shelley, the English Further, “A heavy-load open Sarovar and Indira Sagar—are romantic revolutionary poet, wrote lift with a panoramic view will be no different. The tribal villages about the remains of a mighty statue: that have been displaced for the built alongside the Statue of Unity. And on the pedestal these words dams are yet to receive water or Visitors will be able to rise up appear: electricity, the affected people their within statue, walk into a viewing "My name is Ozymandias, full compensation. The villagers gallery and enjoy a panoramic king of kings: near Sardar Sarovar say that 28 view of the Sardar Sarovar project Look on my works, ye Mighty, villages near the Sardar Sarovar Dam and the surrounding region from and despair!" are yet to receive water. 72 tribal an astounding height of close to Nothing beside remains: villages kept a day’s fast on October 400ft.” In other words, this statue is round the decay 31, the day Modi inaugurated the a monument to the Indian elite, who Of that colossal wreck, statue. There have been widespread can come, look at a beautiful lake, boundless and bare, protests by the tribals in the area. rise without any effort to a height of The lone and level sands Posters of Modi and Rupani have 400 feet and have a panoramic view stretch far away. of the surroundings. It is about elite been blackened, requiring police “consumption” of nature. protection for posters! Statues rise and fall, Mr. Modi, You know what you don’t see The “Unity” Statue has fared no only the people remain. from 400 feet? People. Nor do we better. The heads of 22 villages wrote JANATA, November 11, 2018 15 R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 16 JANATA, November 11, 2018 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2018 Published on Sunday, November 11, 2018 & Posted on Wedenesday, November 14, 2018 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 73 No. 43 Fasting Saints Could Become a Curse November 18, 2018 for Politics of Hindutva The Reason for Renaming Places Apoorvanand With Due Respect, Finance Minister Sandeep Pandey Arun Kumar #Me Too: A Voice that Awoke Former Indian Institute of Dehradun, who were visiting him the Drowsy Technology (Kanpur) Professor that if anything happened to Swami H.S. Anupama Guru Das Agrawal, who became Sanand, then he and his disciples Chhattisgarh’s Mineral Wealth an ascetic in 2011 at the age of 79 would continue the unfinished task Not Benefiting People Subodh Varma years and came to be known as undertaken by Professor Agrawal. Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand, died Professor Agrawal's fast was the Corbyn Triumphant at Labour Conference on 11 October, 2018 on the 112th 59th fast by a saint associated with Veronica Fagan day of his fast, demanding a law Matre Sadan, and Atmabodhanand's Jayaprakash Narayan: An Idealist for conservation of river Ganga. fast is the 60th. 62-year-old Swami Betrayed – Part V M.G. Devasahayam Inspired by Professor Agrawal, Punyanand of Matre Sadan gave 40-year-old Sant Gopal Das, a Jain up foodgrains and is on fruit diet Mahila Samvad Yatra: Sabarmati to Srinagar saint, who has fasted earlier for since Atmabodhanand started his Uttar Pradesh Tops List of States release of encroached grazing land fast on 24 October, and is prepared Targeting Christians in India for cows in Haryana, also sat on fast to shift to a water diet in the event Pentagon Socialism: Militarising the for the same cause two days after of Atmabodhanand becoming a Economy in the Name of Defense Professor Agrawal began his fast, casualty. William D. Hartung on 24 June, 2018, at Badri Dham Earlier Swami Nigamanand, Editor : G. G. Parikh temple in Badrinath. Presently he then 35 years of age, also associated Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain is in the Intensive Care Unit of with Matre Sadan, died on the 115th AIIMS, New Delhi. As a sequel to day of his fast in 2011 demanding Managing Editor : Guddi Professor Agrawal's fast, 26-year- curbs on mining in Ganga. Matre Editorial Board : old Brahmachari Atmabodhanand Sadan claims that he was actually B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali began his fast on 24 October at murdered by a mining mafia Matre Sadan, which Professor associated with the BJP that was in Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah Agrawal had chosen as the site power in Uttarakhand then. Swami Nandu Dhaneshwar, of his fast. Even when Professor Gokulanand, who fasted with Swami Sandeep Pandey Agrawal was alive, the head of Nigamanand from 4 to 16 March, D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Matre Sadan, Swami Shivanand, 1998, a year after Matre Sadan Naushir Bharucha Marg, had warned persons belonging to was established, is also believed Mumbai - 400 007. Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, to have been murdered by mining the ideological parent of the mafia in 2003 while he was living in Email : [email protected] ruling Bhartiya Janata Party that anonymity at Bamaneshwar temple Website:www.janataweekly.org is now in power both at Delhi and in Nainital. Baba Nagnath died at 2 JANATA, November 18, 2018

Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi in four demands raised by Professor while fasting for the sake of Ganga 2014 fasting for the same demand G.D. Agrawal—halting of ongoing keeps piling up, and resolve of more as that of Professor Agrawal—to and proposed hydroelectric projects of them to embark on the same path let Ganga flow uninhibited and on Ganga and ban on any mining becomes stronger, it may be difficult unpolluted, aviral and nirmal, in it as an expression of homage for the country and its government respectively. to Professor Agrawal on behalf of to ignore this phenomenon. The Both Swami Shivanand and the country. Atmabodhanand has BJP, now busy raking up the Ram Brahmachari Atmabodhanand in criticised the government for having temple issue in Ayodhya and the their separate letters to the Prime considered Professor Agrawal's fast Sabrimala issue in Kerala, can Minister have quoted Srimadbhagwat as 'one man's intransigence.' He says ignore the issue of Ganga at its to say that since Ganga has become that Professor Agrawal represented own peril. People haven't forgotten polluted with sins, it is the duty of the pain felt by what he describes that the PM claimed that he got a saints to rid her of these sins by as 'tradition of saints willing to call from Mother Ganga to contest sacrificing their lives. But they have sacrifice themselves for the sake of his parliamentary election from not remained content by considering Ganga. These saints are all deeply Varanasi. There is a high profile it their duty to fast for Ganga as concerned with the deteriorating Namami Gange project in place a religious exercise. They have condition of Ganga, state of global with a huge budget that is aimed at chosen to criticise the government, environment, immoral development cleaning Ganga, but which seems its ministers, its policies and also its policies promoting crime and to have achieved little. Ganga has attitude. Both saints have accused corruption and the irrational man become more polluted as much the Prime Minister of adopting bent upon destroying all living water has flowed through it since consumerism driven development beings, environment and the culture Naremdra Modi won his election policies which view Ganga as merely of co-existence. He feels that it is from Varanasi. In fact, the issue water resources to be exploited the arrogance of power because of of Ganga could become Narendra for profits. They have reserved which the government refuses to Modi's and BJP's achilles heel in the their harshest criticism for the recognise this concern of saints. 2019 general elections. Minister of Water Resources, River As the number of saints dying Email: [email protected] Basin Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Nitin Gadkari. Swami The Reason for Renaming Places Shivanand has in fact doubted his capacity for appreciating the Apoorvanand dignity of Ganga. Atmabodhanand has condemned Gadkari for having We fail to see in the excitement and “vulgar” name like Gurgaon lied just before Professor Agrawal's generated by the incessant renaming was elevated to Gurugram. The death that his demands have been of towns and railway stations in defence used for the change was met. Both saints have been especially India that the past, which these the myth of Gurugram having been critical of the corporatisation of new old names allude to, is an the abode of Dronacharya. Gurgaon water—the bottled water industry imagined land that we are being has been flaunted as a futuristic city. and the marketing of 'holy Gangajal.' invited to inhabit. We are not exactly However, there was no protest from Swami Shivanand has come down recovering lost ground, because as the citizens of this postmodern city heavily on Modi for his love for the Hindi poet Bodhisattva wrote, to the name change. No question foreign sojourns and attempts to there never was a Prayag that the was raised about why the tradition make the cultural city of Varanasi Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and of Dronacharya, who had tried to into Kyoto. Atmabodhanand thinks the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) disable his student Ekalavya by that this government is 'nationalist' claim to be restoring now. What cutting his thumb, needed to be only for namesake, otherwise it has is being sold in the defence of celebrated. a western view of development. capturing the glory of the past is an He has demanded from the PM ideological construct. An imagined past immediate compliance of two of the This was clear when a nativist Why is the BJP getting away JANATA, November 18, 2018 3 with this? Simply because, for a India look like a Muslim country. might be extreme for some people, long time, we have been fed with We take comfort in the so-called but for Raphael Lemkin, the man nostalgia about an India that was fact that nearly 95% of Muslims who coined the term genocide in “taken away” from us 1,200 years in India were originally Hindus his book Axis Rule in Occupied ago. We have been told—and we who were later converted, and it is Europe, the cultural destruction believe—that Bharat was once a therefore possible to restore them to of a group is as important as the sone ki chidiya (a golden bird). The their Hinduness. It is the same belief physical annihilation of its members. era of the Guptas is referred to as that plays out in the quest to rename According to Lemkin: “The world Swarna Yug (golden period). This places and monuments—they don’t represents only so much culture and historical imagination leads us to need to go, they only need to be intellectual vigour as are created believe that the golden age ended renamed and rehabilitated. by its component national groups. with the coming of the Muslims It has been argued that even after Essentially the idea of a nation and all we have to do now is go centuries of ‘Muslim rule’, neither signifies constructive cooperation back to that period. When I heard Prayag nor Ayodhya vanished. and original contributions, based an old, seasoned socialist lament Ayodhya coexisted with Faizabad, upon genuine traditions, genuine the cowardice of the Indian people and Allahabad kept Prayag alive in culture, and well-developed national which kept them under different it. But the ‘originalists’ will rest only psychology. The destruction of a forms of slavery for more than 1,000 after erasing Muslim or ‘alien’ names nation, therefore, results in the loss years, I realised that this is so deeply which have covered the original of its future contribution to the world. ingrained in us that it has almost Hindu names. But Indian culture . . . Among the basic features which become a part of our subconscious. presents a unique challenge for them. have marked progress in civilisation This can also be the reason for For example, how should Patna are the respect for and appreciation Prime Minister Narendra Modi not be rechristened? As Pataliputra, of the national characteristics and facing censure in Parliament when Bankipur or Patna Sahib? How do qualities contributed to world culture he said, while speaking after the you deal with Sheikhpura? It has by different nations—characteristics debate on the motion of thanks to Sheikh, a Muslim-sounding name, and qualities which . . . are not to be the President for his address, that plus Pura, which comes from a measured in terms of national power the slave mentality of 1,200 years Sanskrit ‘pur’ or ‘puri’. What do we or wealth.” continues to trouble us. do with mohallas? We need to stress on original The subconscious feeling is This brings us to the real intent, contributions, on the genuine that nothing new was created in this which is something else. In some traditions that Lemkin mentions. A period, especially during the time villages in Haryana, Muslims live community feels diminished if it is of Muslim rule. It is that everything disguised under Hindu-sounding made to think that it has not made new was created before these rulers names. This is seen as their any genuine, original contribution came here, and what they did was willingness to assimilate into ‘Indian to the life of a nation of which it break what was created, distort them, culture’. Culture is manifested in is a part. The drive to free India or simply defile them by giving them names, clothing, food habits, etc. of Muslim influences is a clear new names, their names. So, the Muslims are constantly asked to message to the Muslims that this Babri Masjid could not be a new adopt so-called Indian ways, which nation is not the result of cooperation monument; it had to necessarily means accepting Hindu norms in all between them and other religious be built on the ruins of an earlier aspects of their life. It is now being communities. It is a message that existing structure. Nor was the Taj argued that even mosques are not they have made no contribution to Mahal; it was built on a Hindu essential for their religious identity. India’s cultural life. temple. This feeling is of ownership In The Discovery of India, as well as authorship. It feeds on Cultural genocide Jawaharlal Nehru describes India a deep-seated inferiority complex The renaming of places and as an ancient palimpsest on which among Hindus that the symbols ‘reclaiming’ of monuments are layer upon layer of thought and representing India largely bear a part of a large and long process reverie have been inscribed, Muslim identity, thereby making of cultural genocide. The term and yet no succeeding layer has 4 JANATA, November 18, 2018 completely hidden or erased what had been written previously. Nehru With Due Respect, Finance Minister understood the way cultures grow. They are not ordered from above. Arun Kumar He does not propose that we go back to our origins to feel authentically The government did not now the currency in circulation is Indian because there is no original celebrate the second anniversary of about 10 per cent more than the Rs point as such in the life of a nation. demonetisation, one of its biggest 18 lakh crore that existed prior to In the same vein, Kwame Anthony policy initiatives. It has celebrated demonetisation. To be fair, it is less Appiah, in The Lies That Bind, says the anniversary of all other big than what it would have been if the a nation is a “fabric to be woven, not policies. Why the diffidence? increase in currency in circulation a mineral to be mined.” The finance minister did come had continued at the pace prior to We must be clear that the present out with a statement listing the demonetisation. regime is not interested in culture. It achievements of demonetisation. The FM has cited three is interested in capturing the nation But his statement must be seen in achievements of demonetisation. by making Hindus feel that they light of the Minutes of the RBI Board First, an increase in digital have conquered this land and taken Meeting on November 8, 2016, that transactions. Second, expansion it back from “aliens”. A drug is being recommended demonetisation. in the tax base with more people generated and it is putting people on The Board had made it clear that paying taxes. Third, the creation a high. It is the drug of victory. demonetisation was not the way to of paper trails that will make it The nationalist project of the tackle black money or counterfeit difficult to generate black incomes present ruling party is based on currency. Thus, two of the main in the future. Interestingly, echoing the idea of making invisible and objectives that were emphasised the RBI Board, he said confiscation subjugating an entire population to in the PM’s announcement on of currency was not an objective of keep the majority in a permanent demonetisation were undermined the demonetisation. state of dominance. This renaming very day the policy was announced. The line earlier was that black is part of a cultural genocidal project. No wonder, soon after it became money, held in the form of high Email: [email protected] clear the money was flooding into denomination notes, would not the banks, the government started return to banks since that would Janata Subscription talking of a cashless economy. create paper trails. The then Attorney And then it started talking about General had told the Supreme Court Annual Rs. : 260/- a less cash economy, digitisation that Rs 3 to 4 lakh crore would not Three Years : 750/- and formalisation of the informal return to the banks. Soon it became economy. It was said that these clear that all the money would come Demand Draft / deposits would create a paper trail back since those holding black Cheque and black money generation would money had worked out ways of become difficult. converting their old notes to new on Initially, there was a spurt in notes. The government then started Mumbai Bank the use of electronic means of saying that was good since now the transactions but this pace could people who had deposited large sums in favour of not be sustained as more currency of money could be investigated. became available. The country The government issued about Janata Trust had anyhow been slowly moving 18 lakh notices to those who had toward a less cash economy prior deposited more than Rs 5 lakh into D-15, Ganesh Prasad, to demonetisation and this has their bank accounts. However, there Naushir Bharucha Marg, continued. It was said that the is a misperception that equates Grant Road (W), government would restrict currency cash with black money. Cash is Mumbai 400 007. in circulation to less than what needed by businesses as working existed on November 7, 2016. But capital and households keep cash JANATA, November 18, 2018 5 in hand for transactions and as a However, most of the increase will economy. So, digitisation does not precaution against contingency. So, be in the category of those who necessarily check black income a petrol station may have deposited have just entered the tax net. So, the generation. Rs 20 crore in the demonetisation increase in tax collection will not be Finally, formalisation does not period of 50 days, based on its daily much. The increase in the number of help reduce the black economy since collections. This is not black money. those who filed tax returns is a result the informal sector hardly generates Most of those who deposited large of other factors, and only marginally any black incomes. Most incomes in sums of cash would have worked due to demonetisation. this sector are way below the taxable out how to show the deposits as Increased digitisation could limit which is rather high in India at cash in hand in their balance sheet. have been achieved without causing three times the per capita income— So, it would be difficult for the tax pain to the economy. Nigeria has with concessions and deductions department to prove that the money a low cash–GDP ratio but a big it can be five times the per capital deposited was black. Finally, data black economy. Japan has a high income. shows that the department does not cash–GDP ratio but a small black Email: [email protected] have the capacity to audit so many accounts, in addition to the usual audits it conducts. #Me Too: A Voice that Awoke the Drowsy Yes, the number of returns being filed and tax being collected has H.S. Anupama increased. But, the direct tax to GDP ratio has hardly increased compared Inferiority complex is the gift upon male domination, and cinema to the pre-demonetisation period. that women in India receive as part and media are not an exception to The black economy is more than of their socialisation, indoctrinated this. The colorful world of cinema 60 per cent of the GDP and even if at every stage. The main goal of and media that foster patriarchy and 10 per cent of it had come into the social institutions such as marriage, male domination are the prominent tax net, it would have yielded 2 per family, motherhood and others is the sites of sexual harassment. cent of the GDP as additional tax repression of women. Not fighting Talking about sexual harassment collection. This has not happened. this repression and embracing it as that women face in workplace is It is well-known that 67 per cent the natural state of being is the main perceived to be an act that violates of those in the tax net file either cause of all the issues that women the dignity of the organisation, thus nil return or very low returns. The face in this country. it is a tool that men use to control effective number of taxpayers has Hence, a sigh of a woman speaks women in the workplace. Most always been low in India. Even in what even thousand pages cannot men believe in the Freudian idea the case of GST, the FM is on record comprehend. of female sexuality, according to saying that 5 per cent of those under ‘Me Too’ is a collection of which it is ‘inactive, hysterical and GST pay 95 per cent of the tax. many such sighs. The stories that innately submissive’, and women Further, he has lamented that even have come out are not personal are socialised into believing that she though 1.1 crore have registered experiences of pain, of either Priya is the one to be desired by men and under GST, only about 67 per cent Ramani, Tanushree Dutta, Shruti is incapable of desiring. This is the pay tax. Hariharan or Kangana Ranaut, sentiment that runs through across The spurt in filing of returns is they are the repressed stories of classes. This in fact is obstructing partly due to the fine being imposed oppression suffered by innumerable liberation of women in its true sense. from this year for late filing. So, women. ‘Me Too’, just like any many more have filed returns in time. other campaign or movement, ‘Me Too’ in India Earlier many waited till March 31 to aims for achieving equality: the ‘Me Too’ has set the stage for file returns. The numbers have also oppressed should organise and the voices against sexual harassment increased because of the increase in fight for equality, and ‘Me Too’ has that cuts through these oppressive salaries after the implementation of organised certain sections of women. sentiments prevalent in the worlds the Seventh Pay Commission report. Most social organisations thrive of cinema and media. The discussion 6 JANATA, November 18, 2018 around the violation of self-esteem Karnataka the same developments them to their office meetings. It is and respect of female actors was took place and ‘Me too’ has become because of this same kind of mind started in the Malayalam film the centre of all discussions: most of that some women are criticising industry following the accusation the men who have been accused are those women who are speaking out of sexual harassment against actor busy formulating ways to destroy in the #Me Too movement. All such Dileep in 2017 by a female actor. the careers of the women who instances show the influence of the The prominent female actors of the are speaking out and repress their centuries-old ideology that makes industry came together to form the voices. They are also making efforts women submissive and enslaved. ‘Women in Cinema Collective’, and to erase all the available evidences This is also the main reason why this rolled out the movement across against them. women find it difficult to talk about the nation. The same year in October, the harassment they face. Even when Alyssa Milano, a female actor of ‘Metro Feminism’ ? they dare to speak out, their voices Hollywood, accused director Harvey #Me Too is also being strongly are silenced by arguing that they are Weinstein of sexual harassment criticised by a few. subjective experiences. Campaigns giving rise to the Me Too campaign Some are branding these women and movements like #Me Too aim as ‘hashtag Me Too’ (#Me Too). It who are raising their voices as precisely to break this notion and started in Hollywood and in no time homosexuals and some female claim the universality of these the movement spread like wildfire colleagues of accused actors are experiences. Those women who across the globe. Elite women began busy giving clean chit in their are speaking up are saying, “My to out the perverted behaviour of their defence, claiming that they are problem is not only mine. Sexual prominent elite male counterparts. innocent. Many women are seen harassment should be discussed The true colours of the heroes, arguing that these women who are openly just as caste–class–religion directors and other male members raising their voices are doing so based violence is discussed and the of the cinema fraternity came out to gain cheap publicity. All such solution should be sought publicly.” in public. criticism makes one wonder, what Some women have criticised In September 2018, during is it that is making women to turn the #Me Too campaign as ‘Metro the anniversary of the #Me Too, their backs on other women who are Feminism’ and ‘Corporate Tanushree Datta, a former actor in the speaking up? Feminism.’ This criticism is based Hindi film industry, publicly accused In the history of human social on the increased attention that the Nana Patekar of sexual harassment. development, the first one to be narratives of sexual harassment of She had to pay a heavy price for the enslaved were women. As Frederick the upper class and famous women harassment that she had faced in the Engels had said, woman has been are receiving from the same media hands of the actor—the harassment a slave of a slave of a slave of a that has always ignored the plight of had pushed her towards depression slave. The state of mind that was working class women. and she had turned towards eastern responsible for this enslavement Yes, it is true that these women spirituality, Buddhism, Vipasana, can still be felt thriving around us are upper class, elite and famous. and Christianity to recover from even in 2018. Even though none But then, who made these women depression. She also had to bid adieu of the scriptures ban the entry famous? It is the personalising of life to her career in the film industry and of menstruating women into the that has generated a market for the is currently settled in the United Sabarimala temple, and the Supreme private lives of these women, in turn States. Court has also passed a verdict making them famous. The society This led to more women permitting the entry of women, and media have both forgotten that speaking out. Priya Ramani, a senior we still see women themselves these famous women and men are journalist, accused M.J. Akbar, protesting against the verdict and just like any other human beings who a senior journalist and a Central insisting that women should not eat, drink, cry and celebrate. If one minister, of sexual harassment; enter the temple. In just the same peeps into their personal lives and following Ramani, horrific stories way, there are democratically elected reports, it becomes ‘breaking news’. of harassment of many more women female representatives who insist Let us not forget, that historically, by Akbar began to roll out. Even in that their male relatives accompany it has been the responsibility of JANATA, November 18, 2018 7 women to guard the honour, name anybody, but a Nirbhaya would drag us, to be there for those who confide and fame of a certain community, the whole nation out on the streets.” about harassment and to ensure it clan and/or class. This responsibility does not happen with anybody again in turn has forced women to remain What is the Truth? in future. The women’s movement silent until death. After centuries Violence is the only truth. today has to break the boundaries of enslavement, some women have Mathura was a tribal girl; Aruna of community, class and sexuality. taken advantage of the limited Shanubaug was a nurse; Nirbhaya Standing with all those who are opportunities made available by was from Delhi; Soujanya was from oppressed is feminism. It stands for modern society to step outside a poor family near Dharmasthala, the liberation of all oppressed human their homes and some of them have Karnataka; young girls of Vijaypur beings, both women and men. If become so successful that they have and Kashmir were Dalit and campaigns like #Me Too, Happy to made a name for themselves. It is Muslim—true. But irrespective Bleed, Kiss of Love and the temple hurtful to see these women who took of their caste, religion, class, entry movement aim at shaking at a step forward towards change, being nationality, organisation or party least one stone in the foundation criticised for the wrong reasons. This affiliation, when someone says they of the casteist patriarchal Indian campaign no doubt should not be were hurt, it should shake one’s society, then it is our duty to support limited only to the famous and upper conscience. This is the only truth. It them. They should be supported by class women but should also reach is the responsibility of each one of every woman. out to the working class and lower strata women; but the question is, whose responsibility is it to make Chhattisgarh’s Mineral Wealth Not this possible? Such criticisms also assume Benefiting People that the working class and lower strata lack the ability to think. This Subodh Varma assumption in itself is a reflection of feudal values. There exist working As the people of Chhattisgarh wealth was extracted from the state. class women who are empowered go to polls to elect another state What do the state’s people get to make all the decisions in their Assembly and government, out of this? Have a look at the chart lives on their own, and in the same dominant political parties have below which shows the value of class there are also women who are completely ignored a vital question: minerals extracted and the revenue forced to become prey of the rich and what are they going to do about that the state government earned for mighty. Behind the walls of palaces the state’s rich natural resources? the past few years. there are women who are lazy and That’s because the current model As can be seen, only roughly lavish and also there are women who of unbridled private exploitation of 16–17% of the value flows to state cry due to oppression. In Karnataka, minerals, land and water, and the government coffers. The rest of it when a female Ramakatha singer blind denudation of forests, is the is swallowed up by the predatory (an upper caste woman who went favourite model of choice. And there mining companies that had been to court) was sexually harassed by is no plan of changing it. granted leases of over 24,000 a ‘God man’, the community of the Remember: Chhattisgarh has hectares of mining blocks till 2016, singer had claimed, “if she was of deposits of 28 minerals, including as per the Indian Bureau of Mines. a lower caste then it would have over 52 billion tonnes of coal (18% India’s political establishment become international news, but since of India’s deposits), 2.7 billion has created the impression that this she is from the upper caste, no one tonnes of high-quality iron ore (19% is normal. How else will natural is interested to listen to her voice.” of India’s deposits), and over 37% resources be managed if not by On the other hand, such groups also of India’s tin ore deposits, besides giving leases to private companies exist which say, “When Dalit women bauxite, limestone, dolomite, who will mobilise resources to in Khairlanji–Vijayapura–Malur are quartzite, etc. In 2016–17, some extract the minerals and process raped and killed, it doesn’t move Rs 23,339 crore worth of mineral them? But this is not the only way! 8 JANATA, November 18, 2018

wage in the scheme. Table : Chhattisgarh – Value of Minerals and Govt Revenue Had the resources of Chhattisgarh (Rs crore) been used more equitably, 38% of children under 5 would not have been stunted, 42% would not be anaemic, nor would a stunning 47% of all women be anaemic, as per the latest data from National Family Health Survey-4. Female literacy rate in the state is just 66% and only 27% of women have had 10 years of schooling. If the ongoing elections throw up a strange result, see it as a cry for help from the state’s people— they hardly have any choices as the dominant narrative is tilted against them.

Consider this: the extraction of sector (education, health, etc.) or on Janata natural resources could have been general development programmes? is available at executed and managed—in a much A quick look at RBI’s data on social www.lohiatoday.com more sustainable way—by state sector expenditure as a share of agencies so that its benefits could the gross state domestic product have directly belonged to the people. (GSDP) shows that this spending After all, before the current hysteria has stagnated at around 11–12% for the private sector began, India for the past several years. So, the was mining coal and iron and all the great growth rate of Chhattisgarh’s other mineral resources. economy by over 10% in the last This would have given an decade, spurred by mining and additional benefit: the coercive power plants and cement factories, displacement of people from lands has not meant any relief from in order to get at the rich stores grinding poverty in the state’s of minerals below it would have vast hinterland. Naya Raipur is, of been—perhaps—tempered. It would course, on the road to becoming a definitely have been more subject to smart city (whatever that means!) accountability and oversight. but in distant tribal hamlets and Dalit But currently, such is the habitations, there is no change in life. overwhelming desire of the state Chhattisgarh has also done well government—held by the Bharatiya in terms of agricultural production, Janata Party (BJP) since the state was yet its farmers are seething with hived off from Madhya Pradesh—to anger because their back-breaking please powerful private entities that labour is not worth much. The prices all rules and laws are reportedly they get for their produce barely meet broken to grab land from hapless expenses. The rural job guarantee villagers. scheme (MGNREGS) provides a Perhaps, the state government daily wage of Rs 174 only. Last year, has been spending a lot on social some 42 lakh persons worked at this JANATA, November 18, 2018 9 10 JANATA, November 18, 2018 Corbyn Triumphant at Labour Conference

Veronica Fagan

After a summer in which Labour proposals—which were not reflected neoliberalism. This was partly leader Jeremy Corbyn faced endless in the report. achieved by changing party structures vitriol from the right in the party While the environment was not and destroying the sovereignty of and the media, Labour’s conference debated, Corbyn’s speech saw key the conference—it became a media in October 2018 was a triumph. commitments to lead by example show, not a place for the membership Commitments from the platform on climate change: with a pledge to to make policy. and the decisions of delegates on transform Britain’s energy sources Labour Party conference crucial areas will lead to an even and the introduction of over 400,000 2017 set up a democracy review, more radical manifesto for the next skilled green jobs on union rates taking submissions and organising general election than that which had to achieve a 60% reduction in discussions across Britain with the such a positive impact in 2017. greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 intention of bringing back proposals On heath, housing, education, and going further with plans to to this conference. The context was welfare benefits, nationalisations, reduce emissions to zero by the clear—to codify the shift to the left opposition to racism, closure of middle of the century. made under Corbyn, in particular the two immigration detention centres, The right was noticeable by massive increase in membership, by solidarity with Palestinian state and their absence—their fringe meetings deepening democracy. much more, the conference set out an were thin, they had no impact on The review was extremely impressive anti-austerity, antiracist the conference floor and there was wide ranging and the conference and internationalist agenda. Labour’s no mass exit for Corbyn’s speech as took a series of crucial decisions. economic programme included a there has been in the preceding years Proposals to set up or strengthen programme of investment swivelling since he was elected democratic structures for women, away from London and the South Delegations from the CLPs black members, disabled members, East towards the ‘left behind’ areas in particular were impressively LGBT+ members and young of Britain. diverse with a significant number members were overwhelmingly Sometimes the proposals came of passionate speeches from black passed. The conference itself will from the Shadow Cabinet—such women and disabled delegates in future be structured primarily as with Margaret Greenwood’s contributing to an electric around resolutions from members welcome pledge to completely atmosphere. The sea of Palestinian and affiliates rather than MPs, overhaul the social security flags, waved by the overwhelming councillors and the Shadow Cabinet system when we win a Labour majority of delegates when that having all the power. government—a commitment made motion was moved, was a particular There were some limits to after delegate after delegate had high point. The conference heard this progress. Proposals to change called for Universal Credit to be time and again tales of the cruel the way decisions about local stopped and scrapped. On other reality of Tory Britain and people’s government—as much a bastion of occasions, the conference referred urgent determination to get Corbyn the right wing as the Parliamentary back weak formulas coming from elected Prime Minister. Labour Party—are taken were the National Policy Forum—for thrown into the long grass by the example to demand that Labour Deepening Democracy National Executive Committee should abolish Grammar Schools Under Tony Blair, Labour (NEC) for some unknown reason. and not just freeze them. The other promoted reactionary policies on Parliamentary selections were context was the reiteration of left most issues. British involvement not part of the review, but due to victories at last year’s conference— in the Iraq war was the nadir be dealt with through rule changes for example that tenants must accompanying a domestic policy including one which would have be consulted over regeneration that was accommodating to introduced a system of ‘open JANATA, November 18, 2018 11 selection’ by which the members in excluded. which conference concluded, was every constituency would have the It was clear in the discussion the most self-assured Corbyn has right to decide on their prospective that significant differences still given. With a confident leader and candidate for parliament. However remain but the motion was passed an exhilarated membership, there is the NEC brought forward a weaker overwhelmingly and most are a strong sense that getting a Corbyn proposal which was discussed and claiming it as a victory. government is really within touching voted through—thus blocking a And the leader’s speech, with distance. formal debate on the more radical idea. What was agreed is a step forward, and almost certainly would Jayaprakash Narayan: not have happened without a vibrant An Idealist Betrayed – Part V campaign for open selection—but it’s not as good as it could have been. Most puzzlingly, the NEC M.G. Devasahayam brought forward a rule change for The fifth and final part of a Kuan residence at Patna. He was the election of future leaders which personal epitaph on Jayaprakash on dialysis but made me sit beside actually makes the current situation Narayan by former civil servant him. That he had taken Janata’s worse in terms of the ability of MPs M.G. Devasahayam. collapse to heart was evident when to block a successor to Corbyn from he said with tears welling in his the left. It was a needless own goal. Betrayal most foul—JP in tears eyes, “Devasahayam, I have failed JP was treated as the patriarch yet again.” Then he opened up and Brexit of the Janata Parivar, even though told me as to how the RSS/Jan Sangh It was inevitable that Brexit he was six years younger than was responsible for the 'destruction' would be a major discussion at the Morarji Desai, the country’s first of the Janata Party which he had conference. The issue is a complex non-Congress prime minister. JP laboriously put together as an one for the party and the leadership. was also the same age as Charan alternative to the Congress party so The great majority of Labour Singh and six years older than the that a healthy democracy could be members supported remaining other claimant in the bitter struggle sustained in the country. in the EU in the referendum, but for the prime ministerial position, He then narrated the beginning there was a strong leave majority Jagjivan Ram. JP remained revered of the JP Movement and the ideals in many traditionally Labour as the grand old man of the Janata it represented. Since the Movement constituencies, especially those that Party because he took himself out was almost entirely spearheaded have suffered most from the ravages of the race for positions and power by unorganised youth, he had to of deindustrialisation. Corbyn has and became its conscience keeper. take the help of cadre-based entities been rightly cautious about not There is another reason why today’s like the RSS and rely on them. For seeming dismissive of them by governing leaders of the RSS–BJP instance, he declared after Lok backing a second referendum too must hold JP in high regard and Sangharsh Samiti’s formation that precipitately. venerate him: they owe the party’s Nanaji Deshmukh was to be handed But with increasing divisions inclusion in the mainstream and its leadership in the event of his inside the Tory Party and the strong subsequent capturing of power pan- arrest. It didn’t cross his mind that possibility of a constitutional crisis if India to him. But what has been Deshmukh’s appointment would Parliament votes against the options happening is just the opposite. provide undue advantage to the on the table, the conference moved The Janata Party government RSS in leveraging the agitation. So the party closer to this commitment collapsed in mid-1979 due to deep was JP’s faith in the ‘words than ever before by overwhelmingly intrigues and betrayal indulged in of honour’ by the Jan Sangh–RSS agreeing to a motion on the subject. A by the RSS and the Jan Sangh and leadership. general election is still the preferred other elements who were part of the The RSS took full advantage option, but a further referendum— Morarji Desai government. Shortly of this and spread their tentacles. and the option of remaining—is not after this, I visited JP in his Kadam The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi 12 JANATA, November 18, 2018

Parishad (ABVP), the student Indira Gandhi and, simultaneously, as the PM but could not garner wing of the RSS, was used to to Raj Narain, Nanaji Deshmukh, sufficient numbers to face Parliament penetrate the student movement and Atal Behari Vajpayee. Shortly and resigned within weeks. Elections through the Lok Sangharsh Samiti after Indira Gandhi lost power in followed in 1980 and Indira Gandhi route. When the Janata Party was 1977, she summoned Kapil Mohan returned to power. Kapil Mohan in power at the Centre, the RSS to her house and expressed concern also played a significant role in was making secret attempts to regarding the safety of her younger softening the RSS towards the establish a hold on the party and son, Sanjay Gandhi. Consequently, Congress, resulting in Balasaheb implement its divisive agenda in Sanjay was surreptitiously shifted Deoras extending his organisation’s the country. In this direction, the to Summerhall, the Mohan Meakin covert support to the Congress in Jan Sangh was conducting parallel guest house in Solan, where he the 1980 parliamentary polls “in the meetings and discussions. The RSS stayed for nearly a month in the interest of the nation”. is an organisation which is expert at company of Kapil’s nephew Anil Janata Party did not recover scheming against others. Therefore, Bali. from this body-blow and faded it was difficult to face them from The industrialist was again away, except for a few sparks here within. It is no wonder that the summoned by Indira Gandhi to be and there! JP was inconsolable founders of the Janata Party thought briefed about the highly egoistic when he narrated the account of that instead of handing over their personalities of Morarji Desai, this ‘betrayal most foul’. The hard- party to the RSS, it was better to Jagjivan Ram and Charan Singh boiled revolutionary, who was a dissolve it. and told him to work on ways and foot-soldier for the Mahatma in his JP was extremely anguished means of creating a wedge in the fight for India’s first freedom and with the Sanghis portraying him as government. Raj Narain, who was who almost single-handedly won their patriarch and a fascist. For this, the Health Minister and a frequent India’s second freedom, was a sad they used an innocuous statement visitor to the Mohan residence, man when he died of a broken heart made by him at a Jan Sangh–RSS was selected as the man who could weeks later on October 8, 1979, with rally out of context. He was aware execute the near impossible task. a sinking sense that he has ‘failed the of the sinister conspiracies and He was chosen because of his nation again’! intrigues indulged in by the RSS closeness to Charan Singh who and Sanjay Gandhi to destabilise nursed ambitions to become the An unreleased ‘telefilm’ the Morarji Desai Government and Prime Minister. Shanta Kumar, the JP passed away in October demolish the Janata Party. RSS–Jan Sangh Chief Minister of 1979 and the Congress returned The intermediary used for the Himachal Pradesh, was at hand to to power in January 1980. Despite purpose was Kapil Mohan, head of facilitate. being a crucial chapter of India’s the Mohan Meakin Group (based Several meetings between Raj post-Independence history, the JP in Solan, Himachal Pradesh), best Narain and Sanjay Gandhi followed Movement and the Emergency have known for its assorted liquor— in the presence of Kapil Mohan. been blacked-out from school-texts, whiskies, beer, and rum. He had As part of the strategy, Raj Narain books, forums, media and other actively abetted in the conspiracy was asked to rake up the ‘dual- avenues. Neither the Congress nor hatched by Raj Narain and Sanjay membership’ issue and demand that the BJP have been disinterested in Gandhi to topple the government, erstwhile members of the Jana Sangh perpetuating the memory of JP and, which was losing its equilibrium should sever links with the RSS. At in fact, have been suppressing it. due to its inherent ideological his instance, Charan Singh quickly Even during JP’s birth centenary contradictions. raised this bogey, asking for the year (2002–03), when the BJP It was at Kapil Mohan’s New removal of Jan Sangh–RSS members was in power at the centre, the Delhi residence that Raj Narain and from the Desai government. The government did practically nothing Sanjay Gandhi held more than a boat began to rock and Indira Gandhi to commemorate or celebrate it. It dozen meetings over lavishly hosted goaded Charan Singh to take over as was only some followers / associates lunches and high teas. The Mohan PM, promising him outside support. of JP, including me, who convened family was extremely close to Charan Singh finally took over at Wardha Ashram and tried to do JANATA, November 18, 2018 13 what we could. from wilderness and facing political the nobility of his ideas. But Here is a personal experience extinction. For these worthies, Jayaprakash’s did. . . . His ideas were of BJP’s callous attitude towards there is a couplet in the Tamil creative, compassionate, original celebrating JP’s birth centenary. classic ‘Thirukkural’ written by the and powerful. But the man in his During the time when Vajpayee was legendary Thiruvalluvar: “Ennandri courage, integrity and humanity was the Prime Minister, Yashwant Sinha Kondraarkkum Uyvundaam Uyvillai greater still.” was the Union Finance Minister, Seynnandri Kondra Makarku.” It Such a man deserves our tribute whom I personally knew. We had means: “Those who have lost their in the manner of Rudyard Kipling in been colleagues in the IAS. Being virtue may yet have salvation; but the Poem Recessional (1897): there is no salvation for those who from Bihar, he claimed very close The tumult and the shouting dies; are ungrateful.” JP was the victim proximity to JP and left the IAS in The Captains and the Kings depart: of such ungratefulness and betrayal. 1984 to join the Janata Party to carry Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice, The betrayal has continued till on the ‘unfinished tasks of JP’. I, too, An, humble and a contrite heart. this day and the present government left the IAS in 1985 and associated Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, at the Centre headed by Prime myself with the fledgling Janata Lest we forget—lest we forget! Party in Tamil Nadu. We formed Minister Narendra Modi, who has into a small group and moved with proclaimed JP as his icon, is acting Chandra Shekar who became Prime totally opposite to everything JP lived Spectre of Fascism Minister for a short period. When and died for—freedom, liberty, civil Contribution Rs. 20/- both of them came to Chennai few rights, communal harmony, power to Published by months later, they had breakfast with the people, decentralised democracy, Janata Trust & Lokayat me at my house. Sometime in mid- and democratic governance. D-15, Ganesh Prasad, nineties Yashwant defected to the But then the battles continue— Naushir Bharucha Marg, BJP and became its spokesperson. “For when the One Great Scorer Grant Road (W), Mumbai 400 007 Since then his ascendancy was rapid. comes to score against your name, Sometime in 2002, when I called He writes not that you won or lost, him with a view to discuss the JP but how you played the game!” centenary celebrations, he initially God as my witness, I dare say that tried to avoid me. Since I kept JP might have lost the game, but he persisting, he agreed to meet me for played fair and brave to the best of a few minutes at his imposing office his capacity, thereby enriching the in the North Block. The moment nation and redeeming its democracy I took up the subject, his facial and freedom. Let us never ever expression changed and showed forget the struggles and sacrifices total disinterest. Obviously, he was of this great son of India. Indeed, JP under direction from the BJP or has proved Leo Tolstoy’s famous the RSS not to entertain the matter, dictum: “It is by those who have even from a ‘friend’. I did not want suffered that the world has been to embarrass him and quickly left advanced.” without even touching the cup of tea For JP, there cannot be a better placed before me. epitaph than the one written by his ageing Australian friends Allan In Memoriam and Wendy Scarfe in their book There is a saying that the saddest Remembering Jayaprakash: “We thing about betrayal is that it never have written this memoir to share the comes from one’s enemies, but only privilege of knowing Jayaprakash, from friends. For JP, it came from to bring alive the warm, charming, his ‘friends’ and ‘followers’ whom gentle, sweet man we knew. . . . Not he had brought to the mainstream everyone’s personal life matches 14 JANATA, November 18, 2018 Mahila Samvad Yatra: Sabarmati to Srinagar 20 October to 1 November 2018 The world is celebrating Gujarat Vidyapeeth in Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad, and passing through Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary. a university that was established by Shamlaji near the Gujarat–Rajasthan And this is not just because of the Mahatma himself. border, Udaypur, Ajmer, Jaipur, the calendar, but because of his Most of the participants of the Delhi, Karnal, Ambala, Jalandhar, contributions to mankind. He gave yatra were also activists and believed Gurdaspur, Samba, Jammu ended at an alternate perspective to human in the core values of democracy, Srinagar. En-route the team created civilisation and a unique way to were against communalism and had bridges of dialogue in around 40 fight injustice. To the world, driven set ideas of how the socio-economic- schools, colleges, hostels, with by the idea of might against right, political order of the society should around 11,000 students and 1,500 Gandhi propagated sympathy and be. The core content of the yatra citizens. Citizens meetings were compassion. His mode of struggle was that the bridges of dialogue held in villages and towns. Various proved that the world can be made are collapsing amongst citizens, gatherings organised by local social a better place for all, even when you sometimes in the name of religion associations were addressed by the are fighting for a cause. or caste, sometimes in the name of girls. Special efforts was made by For the Mahatma, each and a nation or political party, or at times the yatris to make the discussion every human being was an agent of on gender issues. These cracks have interesting, interactive and thought change, but he considered women to appeared within our homes also. provoking. The team carried a be the natural soldiers of his struggle. Hence this team was traveling to laptop and portable projector, on He believed that they possess the create the bridges of dialogue— which photographs of thousands qualities and force of unbelievable revive the process of dialogues of known and unknown women strength that replaces violence with between our families, relationships who participated in the freedom self-sacrifice. Even the Satyagraha and the society. struggle as well as Gandhiji’s in South Africa had women at the We decided to ask questions quotations on the subject were centre of it. This aspect of Gandhian without pointing fingers. Is it shown. The presentation challenged movement demands more attention possible for a scared, uneducated, the traditional conception of bravery than has been given till date. exploited and half dead woman to that is associated with physical In this light, the idea of a Samvad make a healthy family or a strong strength, weapons and wars. Boys Yatra Or the Bridges of dialogue society? Can a relationship between from the audience saw how women tour by an all women team to pay a scary boy and a timid girl sustain? faced the brute police purely on the tribute to Gandhi in his 150th Birth Does the solution lie in killing, basis of moral strength. Girls from Anniversary year was thus born. humiliating and raping women of our the audience were inspired to rise The Gandhian youth organisation society? Or is it in ending the gender above self and recognise the rich Rashtriya Yuva Sangathan took based wrong practices, giving her a heritage of women who fought for the initiative and formulated the legit space and in helping to create the freedom of the country. program. Gandhi: 150 platform an independent human being out of The all-women team was unique created under the leadership of a girl. The Yatra aimed to inspire and got a wholehearted welcome national Gandhian organisations and generate confidence in girls, even by groups that are conservative provided the all-round support for sensitise boys and girls towards each towards gender issues. The media its execution. other’s point of view, and change also responded well to the yatra. The Around 25 women from various the outlook of the society towards Yatris sold literature, mainly books organisations and background the man–woman relationship. The by Gandhi, worth around Rs 40,000. showed interest in the yatra. The ‘only girls’ team was symbolic. The People also generously contributed preparations began in March 2018. reality was that these were the youth to the Yatra expenses: of the total It was decided that the Yatra would of India working to create a society budget of around 2 lakh, the yatris be conducted from 19th to 31st that is both honest and fearless. collected around Rs 60,000 through October. A one-day training program The Yatra started form donations during the Yatra. was organised on 19th October at JANATA, November 18, 2018 15

Statement by Religious Liberty Commission of the Evangelical Fellowship of India Uttar Pradesh Tops List of States Targeting Christians in India The Religious Liberty only in Uttar Pradesh but across the worshippers. Videos have surfaced Commission of Evangelical country and take measures to curb on social media, in which the Fellowship of India (EFIRLC) impunity and to ensure the rule of police are seen blocking roads and expresses serious concern on the law. discouraging people from attending systematic targeting of the Christian The months of September and worship services and asking them community in Uttar Pradesh, October 2018 have been particularly to go away. Right-wing mobs have especially in the last two months. troublesome and have witnessed the beaten up pastors and misbehaved According to the documentation maximum number of incidents in the with people who come for Church compiled and available with the state. September saw 28 incidents meetings and have indulged in RLC, there has been a sharp rise in while 16 incidents were recorded vandalism. A large disinformation incidents of violence and targeted in October. campaign is accompanying the hate against the Christian minority Last year RLC documented targeting of the Churches and in the state this year. 50 incidents of targeted hate and the primary vehicles of it is the The state of Uttar Pradesh is violence against Christians in the vernacular press, the electronic the most populous state of India state of Uttar Pradesh, which was media as well as the social media. and is home to almost 17% of in itself a high figure in comparison Many Pastors and Christians the total population of the nation. with the past years. However, this have also been arrested or detained Christians make up 0.18% of the year till October alone the number on the pretext of investigation. Many total population of the state. The state of incidents recorded in the state are of the arrests have been in the late is currently led by Yogi Adityanath, 64 and counting. evening or even after midnight and who along with being the Chief The origin and epicentre of this have been a source of harassment Minister, is also the high priest of systematic campaign was the district rather than help for Christians who the Gorakhnath temple situated in of Jaunpur located in the eastern are already under much pressure Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. part of Uttar Pradesh. Jaunpur is because of opposition from Hindu EFIRLC appeals to the about 60 kilometres from Varanasi, right-wing groups. Government of Uttar Pradesh, the parliamentary constituency The documentation for the particularly the Chief Minister Yogi of Mr. Narendra Modi. Starting months of September and October Adityanath, to restore the confidence from Jaunpur the incidents have 2018 also includes incidents of of the Christian community by also spread across other districts violence and targeted hate against enforcing law and order and through including: Azamgarh, Pratapgarh, Christians that have taken place in exemplary punishment to communal Siddharth Nagar, Barabanki, other states of India and the total elements who attack peaceful Ghazipur, Gorakhpur, Agra, Kanpur number of incidents recorded for Churches and worship services on and Varanasi. these two months stands at 71, flimsy and made up charges. Churches have been targeted with 44 incidents recorded from Since the Christmas Season by right-wing groups and the police Uttar Pradesh, 6 from Jharkhand, is fast approaching, we appeal alike using the convenient allegation 4 from Tamil Nadu, 3 each from to the Chief Minister to ensure of “conversions through force or Bihar and Telangana, 2 each in the that Churches are given adequate fraud”. The media has seemingly states of Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, security so that the community can become a willing partner with Chhattisgarh, and West Bengal and observe the festival of love and political elements who are leading one incident each in the states of universal hope in peace. the assault from the front. Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and EFIRLC also appeals to the Both the police and the right- Madhya Pradesh. A total of 195 Home Minister Mr. Rajnath Singh wing mobs have been disrupting incidents have been documented and the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra worship services and harassing the from January 2018 till October 2018. Modi to take note of the situation not 16 JANATA, November 18, 2018 Pentagon Socialism: Militarising the Economy in the Name of Defense

William D. Hartung

Given his erratic behavior, from organisation that represents 1,600 summary of the new industrial base daily Twitter eruptions to upping companies in the defense sector. report, which appeared as an op-ed his tally of lies by the hour, it’s hard Before jumping into its substance in the New York Times, the key to to think of Donald Trump as a man and implications for the American the Trump plan is the president’s with a plan. But in at least one area— economy and national defense, let belief that “economic security equals reshaping the economy to serve me pause a moment to mention two national security.” When it comes the needs of the military–industrial other small matters. to weapons manufacturing, the complex—he's (gasp!) a socialist in First, were you aware that administration’s approach involves the making. the Pentagon even had an Office building a Fortress America His plan is now visibly taking of Defense Industrial Policy? It economy that will depend as little shape—one we can see and assess sounds suspiciously like the kind as possible on foreign suppliers. thanks to a Pentagon-led study of government organisation that Consider it just the latest variation on with a distinctly tongue-twisting engages in economic planning, Trump’s “America First” economic title: “Assessing and Strengthening a practice anathema not just to strategy, grounded in its unapologetic the Manufacturing and Defense Republicans but to many Democrats embrace of nationalism. As a slogan, Industrial Base and Supply Chain as well. The only reason it’s not a “economic security equals national Resiliency of the United States.” The national scandal—complete with security” doesn’t have quite the analysis is the brainchild of Trump’s Fox News banner headlines about populist ring of “Make America adviser for trade and manufacturing the end of the American way of Great Again,” but it’s part of the policy, Peter Navarro, who also life as we know it and the coming same worldview. happens to be the key architect of of creeping socialism—is because In a flight of grandiosity (and the president’s trade wars. it’s part of the one institution that flattery) that must have made his Navarro, however, can has always been exempt from the boss swell with pride, Navarro hardly take sole credit for the dictates of the “free market”: the suggested in his op-ed that the slogan administration’s latest economic Department of Defense. might go down in the annals of plan, since the lead agency for Second, how about those 300 history alongside other famed pearls developing it was also the most subject matter experts? Since when of presidential wisdom. As he put it: interested of all in the project, the does Donald Trump consult subject McKinley’s . . . ‘Patriotism, Pentagon itself, in particular its matter experts? Certainly not on protection and prosperity’ . . . Office of Defense Industrial Policy. climate change, the most urgent catalyzed strong economic growth. In addition, those producing the issue facing humanity and one where Roosevelt’s ‘Speak softly and carry report did so in coordination with an expert opinion is remarkably unified. a big stick’ helped transform the alphabet soup of other agencies from The Pentagon and its contractors Navy into a military force capable the Department of Commerce to the should, however, be thought of of projecting power around the Director of National Intelligence. as the ultimate special interest world. And Reagan’s ‘Peace through And even that’s not all. It’s also group and with that status comes strength’ inspired an unprecedented the product of an “inter-agency special treatment. And if that means rebuilding of the military that task force” made up of 16 working consulting 300 such experts to make brought the Soviet Union to its groups and 300 “subject matter” sure their “needs” are met, so be it. knees. . . . History will judge whether experts, supplemented by over a Donald Trump’s ‘economic security dozen industry “listening sessions” A Slogan for the Ages? is national security’ joins the ranks with outfits like the National Defense Now for the big stuff. of great presidential maxims. Industrial Association, an advocacy According to Peter Navarro’s The essence of the Pentagon’s JANATA, November 18, 2018 17 scheme for making America safe chose the wrong 300 experts. The like rebuilding America’s crumbling for a never-ending policy of war new plan, reflecting their collective infrastructure and developing preparations (and war) is to organise wisdom, is an economic and security alternative energy technologies that as much of the economy as possible disaster in the making. can help address the urgent dangers around the needs of military Consider it beyond irony posed by climate change. production. This would involve that some of the same experts The biggest economic challenge eliminating what Navarro describes and organisations now suggesting facing the United States today is how as the “300 vulnerabilities” of the that we bet America’s future on to organise an economic transition defense economy—from reliance on pumping up the most inefficient that would replace jobs and income single suppliers for key components sector of our economy—no, no, generated by dysfunctional activities in weapons systems and the like, to I didn’t mean the coal industry, like overspending on the Pentagon dependence on foreign inputs like I meant the military–industrial and subsidising polluting industries. rare earth minerals from China, to complex—are conservative experts The argument that the Pentagon is a shortage of younger workers with who criticised the Soviet Union for crucial to jobs production in America the skills and motivation needed to the very same thing. They still claim has been instrumental in blocking keep America’s massive weapons that it imploded largely because constructive changes that would manufacturing machine up and Washington cleverly lured its leaders benefit both the environment and running. China figures prominently into devoting ever more of their true American security. Members in the report’s narrative, with its trade resources to the military sector. That, of Congress are, for example, afraid and investment policies repeatedly they insist, reinforced a rigidity in to jettison questionable weapons described as “economic aggression.” the Soviet system which made it programs like the F-35 combat And needless to say, this being virtually impossible for it to adapt to aircraft—an immensely costly, the Pentagon, one of the biggest a rapidly changing global economic underperforming fighter plane that desires expressed in the report is a landscape. may never be ready for combat—for need for—yes, you guessed it!— Our military buildup, they still fear of reducing jobs in their states more money. Never mind that the fervently believe, bankrupted the or districts. (The same is true of the United States already spends more Soviet Union. Other analysts, like coal and petroleum industries, which on its military than the next seven the historian Lawrence Wittner, endlessly play up the supposed job- nations in the world combined (five have questioned such a view. But creating benefits of their activities.) of whom are US allies). Never for the sake of consistency, shouldn’t Where could alternatives to mind that the increase in Pentagon conservatives who claimed that Pentagon job-creation programs spending over the past two years is excessive military spending did in come from? The short answer is: larger than the entire military budget the Soviets be worried that President invest in virtually anything but of Russia. Never mind that, despite Trump’s policy of massive tax cuts buying more weapons and waging pulling tens of thousands of troops for the rich, increased Pentagon more wars and Americans will be out of Iraq and Afghanistan, this spending, and trade wars with better off. For instance, Pentagon country’s spending on the Pentagon adversaries and allies alike might spending creates startlingly fewer and related programs (like nuclear do something similar to the United jobs per dollar than putting the same warhead work at the Department States? taxpayer dollars into infrastructure of Energy) will hit $716 billion in repair and rebuilding, alternative fiscal year 2019, one of the highest What Would a Real Industrial energy creation, education, or levels ever. Face it, say the Pentagon Policy Look Like? health care. A study conducted and its allies on Capitol Hill, the US Industrial policy should not be by University of Massachusetts won’t be able to build a reliable, a dirty word. The problem is: the economist Heidi Garrett-Peltier all-weapons-all-the-time economic– Pentagon shouldn’t be in charge of for the Costs of War Project at industrial base without spending yet it. The goal of an effective industrial Brown University found that, had more taxpayer dollars. Think of this policy should be to create well- the government invested in civilian as a “Pentagon First” strategy. paying jobs, especially in sectors activities the $230 billion per year As it happens, the Pentagon that meet pressing national needs wasted on America’s post-9/11 18 JANATA, November 18, 2018 wars, that sum would have created government needs to run a permanent capabilities in the Kingdom of Saudi 1.3 million additional jobs. A more war economy (and also fight never- Arabia.” And keep in mind that these equitable tax policy that required ending wars across a significant are the jobs from so many of those wealthy individuals and corporations swath of the planet), some of the Saudi weapons sales that President to pay their fair share could similarly Pentagon’s recommendations might Trump keeps bragging about. Of fund a $2 trillion infrastructure almost make sense. But a foreign course, while this may be bad news program that would support 2.5 policy that put more emphasis on for American jobs, it works just fine million new jobs in its first year, diplomacy—one that also thought as a strategy for keeping the profits according to a proposal put forward it important to address non-military of US arms makers stratospheric. by the Congressional Progressive dangers like climate change— Making the transition from Peter Caucus. wouldn’t require such a large military Navarro’s “economic security equals As for the president’s much production network in the first place. national security” to an economy touted, dramatically overblown Under this scenario, the alarmist far less dependent on over-the-top claims about the jobs to be had from argument that the US won’t be able military spending would mean a arms exports, the global arms market to defend itself without stepping major shift in budget priorities in represents only a tiny fraction of up the militarisation of our already Washington, a prospect that is, at the growing market for renewable exceedingly militarised economy the moment, hard to imagine. But if energy technologies. If the goal is to suddenly becomes unpersuasive. the Pentagon can plan ahead, why produce jobs via exports, developing But let’s give the weapons shouldn’t the rest of us? technologies to tap the huge future sector some credit. Its CEOs are market in renewables, which one working assiduously to build up study suggests could hit $2.1 trillion local economies—overseas. Saudi by 2025, would leave weapons Arabia’s long-term economic plan, systems in the dust. After all, that’s for instance, calls for 50% of the about 20 times the current size of the value of its weapons purchases to total global arms trade, which clocks be spent on building up its own in at about $100 billion annually. But military industry. US weapons an analysis by Miriam Pemberton giants like Raytheon and Lockheed and her colleagues at the Institute Martin have been quick to pledge for Policy Studies indicates that the allegiance to that plan, setting up United States spends 28 times as subsidiaries there and agreeing much on its military as it does on to have systems like helicopters genuinely job-creating programs assembled in Saudi Arabia, not the designed to address the threat of United States. Meanwhile, Lockheed climate change. Martin is helping the United Arab Such actions would be a good Emirates develop the capability to start—but just a start—when it produce robot-controlled machine comes to reducing the dependency tools that are in great demand in the of the United States economy on defense and aerospace industries. guns and pollution. Of course, the And the F-35 program is creating Trump administration doesn’t have production jobs in more than a dozen the faintest interest in any of this. countries, including assembly plants (It would apparently rather cede the in Italy and Japan. lucrative future market in renewable Raytheon CEO Thomas Kennedy energy to China, with barely a fight.) summed up this approach when he Still, the question remains: What discussed his company’s growing would such a shift in priorities mean partnership with Saudi Arabia: for the defense industrial base? If “By working together, we can help you accept the premise that the US build world-class defense and cyber JANATA, November 18, 2018 19 R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, November 18, 2018 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2018 Published on Sunday, November 18, 2018 & Posted on Wedenesday, November 21, 2018 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 73 No. 44 Bernie Sanders to Launch November 25, 2018 International Progressive Front For an International Progressive Front Bernie Sanders Against the Far-Right The Long Search for Killers of 1984 Sikh Massacre United States Left-leaning announced a plan to launch the Shamsul Islam politician Bernie Sanders, and organization with an inaugural Making of the Indian Constitution former Greek finance minister, summit in Bruxelles, January 2019. Salil Misra Over 100,000 Farmers to March to Yanis Varoufakis have announced Sanders says the far-right India’s Parliament on Nov. 29–30 the formation of an international regimes, like those of United States Pavan Kulkarni progressive movement. The President Donald Trump and others Court Orders Dutch Government to initiative, announced in October, supported by "The Movement", Cut Greenhouse Gases Ben Cowles is set to combat the rise of an share distinct characteristics such Climate-Heating Greenhouse Gases at “authoritarian axis” and “The as a “hostility toward democratic Record Levels, Says UN Movement,” a far-right nationalist norms, antagonism toward a free Damian Carrington front with an international reach. press, intolerance toward ethnic and Fact Check: Spin-Master Jaitley’s Brazil’s Fernando Haddad, the religious minorities, and a belief that Claims on Demonetisation former 2018 presidential candidate government should benefit their own Subodh Varma Statement Condemning Attack on of the Workers’ Party, has been selfish financial interest.” Classical Musical Expression invited to join the initiative. Sanders and Varoufakis’s Rhythm of Resistance: When T.M. According to media reports, Haddad counter-initiative is set to launch Krishna Did Sing has confirmed his participation. Dec. 1, 2018 in New York. “Our task Daniya Rahman “All around the world, in Europe, is not unprecedented,” Varoufakis Editor : G. G. Parikh in Russia, in the Middle East, in writes. Asia and elsewhere we are seeing “Fascists did not come to power Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain movements led by demagogues who in the mid-war period by promising Managing Editor : Guddi exploit people’s fears, prejudices and violence, war or concentration grievances to achieve and hold on to camps. They came to power by Editorial Board : power,” Sanders said in an article for addressing good people . . . looked B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali The Guardian (re-published in this at them in the eye and promised to Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah issue of Janata). restore their pride. . . . gave them a Nandu Dhaneshwar, The far-right threat, the “The sense that they belonged to a larger Sandeep Pandey Movement”, was formed in 2017 ideal, while inventing a threat of a by Belgian right-wing politician, lurking ‘alien’ who threatened their D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Mischael Modrikamen. It has been revived hope,” he says. Naushir Bharucha Marg, gaining publicity since Steve Bannon, The Us-versus-Them tactic Mumbai - 400 007. former White House chief strategist Varoufakis cites can be seen in the Email : [email protected] for the Trump administration, joined United States President Donald Website:www.janataweekly.org him. Bannon and Modrikamen Trump’s rhetoric around immigrants 2 JANATA, November 25, 2018 from Central America and in Brazil’s unifying rightwing—a Nationalist be remembered for a successful President-elect’s treatment of Afro- International—that sprang out humanist challenge to this menace latinos. of the cesspool of financialised depends on the willingness of “Our era will be remembered for capitalism,” Varoufakis writes in progressives.” the triumphant march of a globally his blog. “Whether it will also Courtesy: Telesur For an International Progressive Front

Bernie Sanders There is a global struggle taking This trend certainly did not begin much farther along this kleptocratic place of enormous consequence. with Trump, but there’s no question process. In Russia, it is impossible Nothing less than the future of the that authoritarian leaders around to tell where the decisions of planet—economically, socially and the world have drawn inspiration government end and the interests environmentally—is at stake. from the fact that the leader of the of Vladimir Putin and his circle of At a time of massive wealth and world’s oldest and most powerful oligarchs begin. They operate as income inequality, when the world’s democracy seems to delight in one unit. Similarly, in Saudi Arabia, top 1% now owns more wealth than shattering democratic norms. there is no debate about separation the bottom 99%, we are seeing the Three years ago, who would because the natural resources of the rise of a new authoritarian axis. have imagined that the United States state, valued at trillions of dollars, While these regimes may would stay neutral between Canada, belong to the Saudi royal family. differ in some respects, they share our democratic neighbor and second In Hungary, far-right authoritarian key attributes: hostility toward largest trading partner, and Saudi leader Viktor Orbán is openly allied democratic norms, antagonism Arabia, a monarchic, client state that with Putin in Russia. In China, toward a free press, intolerance treats women as third-class citizens? an inner circle led by Xi Jinping toward ethnic and religious It’s also hard to imagine that Israel’s has steadily consolidated power, minorities, and a belief that Netanyahu government would have clamping down on domestic political governments should benefit their moved to pass the recent “nation freedom while it aggressively own selfish financial interests. These state law”, which essentially codifies promotes a version of authoritarian leaders are also deeply connected the second-class status of Israel’s capitalism abroad. to a network of multi-billionaire non-Jewish citizens, if Benjamin We must understand that these oligarchs who see the world as their Netanyahu didn’t know Trump authoritarians are part of a common economic plaything. would have his back. front. They are in close contact with Those of us who believe in All of this is not exactly a secret. each other, share tactics and, as in democracy, who believe that a As the US continues to grow further the case of European and American government must be accountable and further apart from our longtime rightwing movements, even share to its people, must understand the democratic allies, the US ambassador some of the same funders. The Mercer scope of this challenge if we are to to Germany recently made clear the family, for example, supporters of effectively confront it. Trump administration’s support for the infamous Cambridge Analytica It should be clear by now that rightwing extremist parties across (a British political consulting firm), Donald Trump and the rightwing Europe. have been key backers of Trump movement that supports him is not In addition to Trump’s hostility and of Breitbart News (a far-right a phenomenon unique to the United toward democratic institutions syndicated American news, opinion States. All around the world, in we have a billionaire president and commentary website), which Europe, in Russia, in the Middle East, who, in an unprecedented way, operates in Europe, the United in Asia and elsewhere we are seeing has blatantly embedded his own States and Israel to advance the movements led by demagogues who economic interests and those of same anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim exploit people’s fears, prejudices his cronies into the policies of agenda. Republican megadonor and grievances to achieve and hold government. Sheldon Adelson gives generously on to power. Other authoritarian states are to rightwing causes in both the JANATA, November 25, 2018 3

United States and Israel, promoting public view. Our job is to build on our common a shared agenda of intolerance and It is not acceptable that, with humanity and do everything that illiberalism in both countries. the cold war long behind us, we can to oppose all of the forces, The truth is, however, that countries around the world spend whether unaccountable government to effectively oppose rightwing over $1 trillion a year on weapons power or unaccountable corporate authoritarianism, we cannot simply of destruction, while millions of power, who try to divide us up and go back to the failed status quo children die of easily treatable set us against each other. We know of the last several decades. Today diseases. that those forces work together in the United States, and in many In order to effectively combat the across borders. We must do the other parts of the world, people are rise of the international authoritarian same. working longer hours for stagnating axis, we need an international Yanis Varoufakis’ (former Greek wages, and worry that their children progressive movement that mobilises finance minister) comments on will have a lower standard of living behind a vision of shared prosperity, Bernie Sanders’ piece: than they do. security and dignity for all people, Bernie Sanders is spot-on. Our job is to fight for a future and that addresses the massive Financiers have long formed an in which new technology and global inequality that exists, not only international “brotherhood” to innovation works to benefit all in wealth but in political power. guarantee themselves international people, not just a few. It is not Such a movement must be bailouts when their paper pyramids acceptable that the top 1% of the willing to think creatively and boldly crash. world’s population owns half the about the world that we would like More recently, xenophobic planet’s wealth, while the bottom to see. While the authoritarian axis rightwing zealots also formed their 70% of the working age population is committed to tearing down a post- very own Nationalist International, accounts for just 2.7% of global second world war global order that turning once proud people against wealth. they see as limiting their access to another so that they control their Together governments of power and wealth, it is not enough wealth and politics. the world must come together to for us to simply defend that order as It is high time that Democrats end the absurdity of the rich and it exists now. from across the world form a multinational corporations stashing We must look honestly at how Progressive International in the over $21 trillion in offshore bank that order has failed to deliver on interests of a majority of people on accounts to avoid paying their fair many of its promises, and how every continent, in every country. share of taxes and then demanding authoritarians have adeptly exploited Sanders is also right when he that their respective governments those failures in order to build support says that the solution is not to impose an austerity agenda on their for their agenda. We must take the go back to a status quo whose working families. opportunity to reconceptualise a spectacular failure has paved the It is not acceptable that the fossil genuinely progressive global order ground for the rise of the Nationalist fuel industry continues to make huge based on human solidarity, an order International. profits while their carbon emissions that recognises that every person Our Progressive International destroy the planet for our children on this planet shares a common must lead with a vision of the and grandchildren. humanity, that we all want our green, shared prosperity that human It is not acceptable that a children to grow up healthy, to have ingenuity is capable of providing— handful of multinational media a good education, have decent jobs, as long as democracy is given a giants, owned by a small number of drink clean water, breathe clean air chance to enable it. billionaires, largely control the flow and live in peace. To that end we need to do of information on the planet. Our job is to reach out to those in more than campaign together. Let It is not acceptable that every corner of the world who share us form a common council that trade policies that benefit large these values, and who are fighting draws out a common blueprint multinational corporations and for a better world. for an International New Deal, a encourage a race to the bottom In a time of exploding wealth and progressive New Bretton Woods. hurt working people throughout technology, we have the potential to the world as they are written out of create a decent life for all people. 4 JANATA, November 25, 2018 The Long Search for Killers of 1984 Sikh Massacre

Shamsul Islam

For last 34 years, on every not less than nine commissions elections in Jhansi, UP (October 25, anniversary of 1984 massacre of of inquiry were instituted. For the 2013), Modi asked Congress leaders Sikhs, this author has been reminding Indian State it became routine to to explain who “killed thousands the Nation how Indian State and announce the constitution of some of Sikhs in 1984” and “has anyone judiciary did not bother to punish new commission or some more been convicted for the Sikh genocide the perpetrators of this horrendous compensation to the families of so far”. Modi during the Punjab mass killing of the innocents of the the victims in order to deflect the elections and 2014 general elections second largest religious minority of mounting anger at the times of kept on referring to ‘qatl-e-aam’ or our country. On every anniversary elections. Highlighting the anti- genocide of Sikhs. the author hoped that by next year, minority bias of such commissions, After becoming PM, Modi in a justice would be done and he would H.S. Phoolka, a renowned lawyer, message (October 31, 2014) said that not have to write the painful story commented that instead of getting the anti-Sikh riots in the aftermath of once again as reminder. Another year convicted many of the political Indira Gandhi’s assassination were has gone by; the saga of the criminal perpetrators get promoted as rulers. like a “dagger that pierced through betrayal by the Indian Republic In the latest development, the India’s chest. . . . Our own people continues. Supreme Court of India on August were murdered, the attack was not 16, 2017 ordered the constitution of on a particular community but on Betrayal by Governments till 2014 a panel comprising two of its former the entire nation.” After giving free run to the killer judges to examine the justification Hindutva icon, RSS whole-timer gangs, the government appointed for closing 241 anti-Sikh riot cases and PM Modi lamented the fact that a one-man Marwah Commission probed by SIT and give its report culprits were yet to be booked and to find out the perpetrators of the within the next 3 months. It is tried for this massacre. However, 1984 ‘riots’. As this exercise was November 2018, 15 months have Modi did not tell the nation what proving inconvenient, it was asked gone by since the order was passed, NDA governments which ruled this to disband itself within a short period and these three months are yet to country from 1998 to 2004 did to of its existence and a sitting Supreme be over! persecute the culprits. Modi also Court Judge Ranga Nath Mishra was forgot to share the fact that as per asked to conduct an inquiry into the Betrayal by the Present RSS–BJP the autobiography of L.K. Advani 1984 ‘riots’. He submitted his report Rulers (page 430), it was his party which in 1987. Shockingly, this fact finding The RSS claims to have always pushed Indira Gandhi to go for (or fact-hiding) commission headed stood for Hindu–Sikh unity. It army action, infamously named as by Misra observed that “the riots occasionally expresses its gratitude ‘Operation Blue Star’, which killed which had a spontaneous origin later to Sikhism for saving Hinduism large number of Sikh pilgrims. attained a channelised method at the from Muslim aggression. It may Renowned journalist Manoj hands of gangsters.” not be irrelevant to note here that Mitta, author of the book When The ‘apostle of justice’, Mishra, the RSS does not treat Sikhism a Tree Shook Delhi: The 1984 was not unable to find out from where as an independent religion which Carnage and its Aftermath straight these gangsters came! According to discarded casteism and Brahmanical forwardly says that: Jarnail Singh, author of the book I hegemony, but considers it to be a Despite the BJP rule, there has Accuse: The Anti-Sikh Violence of part of Hinduism. The RSS–BJP hardly been any will to enforce 1984, for this service to the State, leaders have repeatedly blamed the accountability for the massacres that Justice Mishra was awarded a berth Congress for the 1984 anti-Sikh took place under the Congress. It’s in the Rajya Sabha. violence. While addressing a public as if there is a tacit deal between the Over the next two decades, rally during the last parliamentary sponsors of 1984 and 2002. JANATA, November 25, 2018 5

A perusal of contemporary this document among prominent Sikhs into a militant community, RSS documents reveals that the politicians. It has a historical cutting them off from their Hindu major focus of the RSS in the days significance. That is why we have roots, thus inviting attacks from following the 1984 genocide was decided to publish it, violating nationalist Indians. Moreover, on condemning Sikh extremism, the policy of our weekly. This he treated all Sikhs as part of eulogising Indira Gandhi and document highlights the new the same gang and described welcoming the crowning of Rajiv affinities developing between the attacks on them as a reaction of Gandhi as the new prime minister Indira Congress and the RSS. We the nationalist Hindus. after Indira Gandhi’s murder. produce here the Hindi translation 8. He described Indira Gandhi as of the document.” the only leader who could keep RSS Ideologue’s Dehumanised Here is a brief summary of the country united, and stated Attitude Towards Sikh Massacre Deshmukh’s defence of the 1984 that following the assassination The most important proof carnage: of such a great leader, such of such a dehumanised attitude 1. The massacre of Sikhs was not killings could not be avoided. towards the massacre of Sikhs is the handiwork of any group 9. Rajiv Gandhi, who succeeded a document circulated by Nana or anti-social elements but the Mrs. Gandhi as PM following Deshmukh, a prominent whole result of a genuine feeling of her killing and justified the timer and an ideologue of the RSS. anger. nationwide killings of Sikhs by This document titled Moments of 2. Deshmukh did not distinguish saying, “When a huge tree falls Soul Searching was circulated by the action of the two security there are always tremors felt”, Deshmukh on November 8, 1984. personnel of Indira Gandhi, who was lauded and blessed by Nana In this document, Nana Deshmukh happened to be Sikhs, from that Deshmukh at the end of the justifies the massacre of the Sikh of the whole Sikh community. document. community in 1984. According to his document, the 10. Shockingly, Deshmukh equates This document also shows the killers of Indira Gandhi were the massacre of Sikhs with the true degenerated and fascist attitude working under some kind of attacks on RSS cadres after of the RSS towards all the minorities mandate from their community. the killing of Gandhiji, and so of India. The RSS has been arguing 3. Sikhs themselves invited these he goes on to advise Sikhs to that they are against Muslims and attacks, thus advancing the suffer silently. Everybody knows Christians because they are the Congress theory of justifying the that the killing of Gandhiji followers of foreign religions. massacre of the Sikhs. was inspired by the RSS and Here we find them justifying the 4. He glorified Operation Blue Star Hindutva ideology, whereas the butchering of Sikhs who according and described any opposition to common innocent Sikhs had to their own categorisation are the it as anti-national. When Sikhs nothing to do with the murder followers of an indigenous religion. were being killed in thousands, of Indira Gandhi. This document was published he was warning the country of 11. There is not a single sentence in the Hindi Weekly Pratipaksh Sikh extremism, thus offering in Deshmukh’s document (edited by George Fernandes, who ideological defense of those demanding from the then later became the Defence Minister killings. Congress Government at the of India in the NDA regime) in 5. Sikh community as a whole Centre remedial measures its edition of November 25, 1984 was responsible for violence in for controlling the violence under the title “Indira Congress– Punjab. against the minority community. RSS collusion” with the following 6. Sikhs should have done nothing Remember that Deshmukh had editorial comment: in self-defence but showed circulated this document on “The author of the following patience and tolerance against November 8, 1984; it was during document is known as an ideologue the killer mobs. the period November 5–10 when and policy formulator of the RSS. 7. Sikh intellectuals and not killer the maximum killings of Sikhs After the killing of Prime Minister mobs were responsible for the took place. Deshmukh was (Indira Gandhi) he distributed massacre. They had turned just not concerned about these 6 JANATA, November 25, 2018

killings. and consideration”. RSS archives do not contain any 12. It is generally believed that Organiser also carried instructions from RSS top brass Congress cadres were behind the statement of RSS supremo, ordering RSS cadres to mourn the this genocide. This may be true, Balasaheb Deoras, titled “Balasaheb Sikh martyrs. but there were other forces also condemns assassination, Delhi So, the search for finding the which actively participated in carnage” in a single column. He perpetrators of the Sikh massacre this massacre and whose role has mourned and condemned the of 1984 continues endlessly. The never been investigated. This carnage but not even once referred present RSS–BJP rulers who claim could be one of the reasons why to the fact that Sikhs were under to be co-religionists of Sikhs the actual perpetrators remain attack. For him it was “infighting have proven no different from the unknown. in the Hindu Samaj”. According to Congress. The only hope is that this statement, “swayamsevaks have those Indians who have a stake in The circulation of this document been instructed to form or help in continuation of democratic–secular by Deshmukh did not happen in forming Mohalla Suraksha Samitis” Indian polity will come forward to isolation. It represented the real for restoring peace and rehabilitation force the Indian State to identify and RSS attitude towards the Sikh of the sufferers. However, there punish the killers. genocide of 1984. It may be relevant are no documents available in Email: [email protected] to know here that RSS cadres did contemporary RSS archives to show not come forward in defence of how these Samitis functioned. It is the Sikhs. The RSS is very fond a fact that RSS which is fond of of circulating publicity material, displaying photographs of its cadres Janata especially photographs of its khaki doing social work has not published shorts-clad cadres doing social work. any visuals of the activities of these is available at For the 1984 violence they have Samitis. none. Deshmukh’s article also makes www.lohiatoday.com In the above mentioned no mention of RSS cadres going to statement, Deoras reacts to the the rescue of Sikhs under siege. assassination of Indira Gandhi in The RSS English organ, the following words, “It is shocking Organiser in its combined issue dated beyond words to express the feelings November 11 & 18, 1984 carried an Janata Subscription at the murder of PM Mrs. Indira editorial titled “Stunning Loss” Gandhi by some fanatic elements. Annual Rs. : 260/- which praised Indira Gandhi in the She had been carrying on almost the following words: “It will always be Three Years : 750/- entire burden of the country since difficult to believe that Indira Gandhi 1966. She was loved and respected is no more. One had got so used to Demand Draft / not only in this country but all over hearing her myriad voices for so Cheque the world. Her passing away at this long, that everything looks so blank critical juncture will create a void in without her. The violent manner of on India and also in the world.” her death is the most shocking horror The same issue of the Organiser Mumbai Bank story, giving the nation the creeps. . also says: “RSS Sarkyavah, . . It is a case of treacherous fanatics in favour of Rajender Singh issued instructions stigmatising the whole nation by to all the branches in the country to butchering a remarkable specimen Janata Trust hold a special meeting in Shakha of Indian womanhood. . . . She condemning the dastardly murder D-15, Ganesh Prasad, literally served India to the last drop of the PM and paying homage to of her blood according to her own Naushir Bharucha Marg, the departed soul. He also issued lights.” The same editorial ended Grant Road (W), instructions to cancel all public with the words supporting newly Mumbai 400 007. functions to be held by RSS during installed PM, Rajiv Gandhi, who the period of mourning.” Of course, according to it “deserves sympathy JANATA, November 25, 2018 7 Making of the Indian Constitution

Salil Misra

By and large, it can be said that candidate against him from Bombay Indian constitution by comparison most constitutions of the world presidency. Above all the expertise has continued uninterrupted and has have been made in two different of top Congress leaders—Jawaharlal retained its basic features. Except ways—the democratic–consensual Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad three major amendments, first, 42nd way and the elite–bureaucratic way. and Rajendra Prasad was constantly and 73rd–74th, all the amendments In the first way the constitution is pressed into during service during have been in the nature of nuts-and- made by the genuine representatives 1946–49 to prepare a blueprint for bolts, without really altering its basic of the people keeping in mind modern India that would be both, character. popular aspirations. In the second the best and the most representative. The story of the making of Indian way, the constitution is made by the There is no doubt that some of constitution is long and goes back to specialists and the experts, keeping the successes, durability and tenacity the beginning of the 20th century. in mind the legal and technical points of the Indian constitution can be The actual making of the constitution and necessities. The second exercise easily attributed to this combination. during 1946–49 constitutes a small, is necessarily an elite exercise Indian constitution continues to be though significant part of its long and the accomplishment of a tiny a relevant and a vibrant document story. The earliest documents minority. The experts decide in their today, even after sixty years. No resembling a constitution for India own wisdom, what is best for the fundamental changes have occurred were the various Council Acts people. The constitution made thus in its structure. In its basic spirit it passed by the British parliament is for the people, but not necessarily continues to be the same document for India as its colony. These Acts by the people. that it was in 1950. To fully enabled the British to rule India. The Quite characteristically, Indian understand the relevance of this, a early nationalist leadership accepted constitution was a combination comparison with India’s neighbours this right of the British and only of the two. Both the impulses, the would be instructive. Sri Lanka demanded that better Acts be passed democratic–consensual, and the acquired a constitution immediately by the British parliament for India. technical expertise of the specialists, after its independence in 1948, In the 1920s, leaders like Motilal were equally active during the through the elite bureaucratic way. Nehru and C.R. Das added a new making of Indian constitution. The In less than five year’s time, the dimension to this by insisting that an document carried the mandate of a constitution was heading towards Indian constitution should be made Constituent Assembly which was obsolescence. By now Sri Lanka only by Indians themselves. The a large body consisting of over has had three different constitutions. Indian leaders followed this demand 300 members who were elected by Pakistan acquired a constitution as by actually preparing a full-fledged the representatives of the people late as in 1956, nine years after its constitution for India in 1928. It from India’s central and provincial birth. The Pakistani constitution too was known as Nehru Report, after legislatures. But the choice of was made by legal experts without Motilal Nehru, one of its architects. the elected representatives was seeking any democratic mandate. It Representatives from all the major deliberately done in such a way so to was abolished in two years time, in political parties had participated in bring some of the best constitutional 1958 and was replaced by another preparing this Report. minds into the Assembly. Experts constitution in 1962. The second Nehru Report was a remarkable like B.R. Ambedkar, K.T. Shah, constitution too did not last long and document. It recommended K.M. Munshi and N. Gopalaswami was replaced by yet another one in fundamental rights for the people, a Ayyangar were thus brought into 1973. In the first three decades of parliamentary form of government, the Assembly. Ambedkar’s election its existence, Pakistan had as many a bi-cameral legislature, universal was ensured by not fielding any as three different constitutions. The adult franchise, administrative units 8 JANATA, November 25, 2018 to be formed on linguistic basis and proposal and resolved that the only movement in August 1942. A panic an independent judiciary with a satisfactory alternative to the British stricken British government arrested Supreme Court at the apex. None proposal “is a constitution drawn up all Congress leaders and ruthlessly of the British Acts, both before by a Constituent Assembly elected suppressed the movement. Congress and after the Nehru Report, ever on the basis of adult suffrage or was banned, the national movement talked about either adult franchise as near it as possible.” From this came to a standstill and all talk of a or fundamental rights of the people. point onwards, the demand for Constituent Assembly faded into the The British granted voting rights a Constituent Assembly became background. only to the rich and powerful and the linchpin of the demand of the The end of the War and the did not consider any mention of the national movement led by Nehru. In victory of the Labour party in the fundamental rights of the people at an interesting debate between Nehru British elections in 1945 once again all necessary. and Gandhi in Wardha in 1940, while brought the Constituent Assembly As was to be expected, the Nehru insisted that the British must proposal back to life. By this time British government refused to accept first declare India independent and Indian independence had begun to the Nehru Report. Unfortunately, then call for a Constituent Assembly; be seen as inevitable. The question some of the Indian political parties, Gandhi argued that the Assembly was not whether, but when, India Muslim League in particular, also should be called first and be left would become free. It was in these withdrew their support. As a result free to decide on the question of circumstances that the Viceroy Lord the Nehru Report was reduced to independence. Wavell, announcing the India policy being a mere paper document and not It was as late as in August of the new Labour government, a powerful and vibrant constitutional 1940 that the British government promised to convene a constitution alternative for a modern India that conceded for the first time the idea of making body for India as soon as it was expected to be. Yet if look a Constituent Assembly. The second possible. The British government at the Nehru Report and the Indian world war had broken out and, declared that a Cabinet Mission constitution closely, we would find desperately needing Indian support would be sent to India to resolve that the Indian constitution was in the war effort, Lord Linlithgow, the two questions of freedom for profoundly inspired by the Nehru the Viceroy, declared that the framing India and constitution making. The Report. The Report had enlisted 19 of the new constitution should Cabinet Mission arrived in March human rights of the people, ten of be primarily the responsibility of 1946 with a blueprint for both. which were included in the Indian Indians themselves. The government It was finally in July–August constitution. offered to set up, after the end of 1946 that a Constituent Assembly The next major step towards the the War, a Constituent Assembly was set up through indirect elections. making of an Indian constitution was consisting of representative Indians. It was envisaged as a large body the birth of the idea of a Constituent It was still not spelt out how this consisting of 389 members (296 from Assembly in the 1930s. The Nehru Assembly would be constituted—by British India and 93 from princely Report had been prepared in a direct or indirect elections, based on states). Initially only the members conference mode. It was a young adult or a restricted franchise. The from British India were included. Jawahar Lal Nehru who expressed proposals in their totality were found The first session of the Assembly his dissatisfaction with this method to be unsatisfactory and rejected by was held on 9 December 1946. of making a constitution. He started all the major political parties. This indeed was a historic day for insisting from 1933 onwards that In the meanwhile the War came independent India. Initially only 207 an Indian constitution should be close to the Indian shores. The members attended the first session prepared by a Constituent Assembly, possibility of a Japanese invasion of as the Muslim League had decided elected for that purpose, on the basis India appeared imminent. Growing to boycott the Assembly. Rajendra of the widest franchise possible. The increasingly frustrated by the British Prasad was elected as the president idea of a Constituent Assembly soon effort and restless at the thought of of the Assembly. Nehru moved the began to gather momentum. In 1934, India becoming a major site of the famous Objectives Resolution which the Congress Working Committee War, Indian people under Gandhi’s became the guiding principle for rejected the British constitutional leadership launched the Quit India the entire exercise of constitution JANATA, November 25, 2018 9 making. B.R. Ambedkar became social and economic justice. As a blueprint has to be emancipatory. A the head of the drafting committee. result the Indian people had begun to truly emancipator document would With India becoming independent look upon these values as their own not be fully representative. If, on on 15 August 1947, the Constituent and not as alien impositions. The the other hand, it is rooted in the Assembly became a sovereign body Indian constitution was therefore social structure, it would cease to be and doubled up as the Legislative for rightly seen as a document of the transformative. the newly independent Indian State. people as a whole and not of a few And this perhaps is the biggest It was now responsible for framing at the top. strength and achievement of the the constitution as well as for making So how has the constitution Indian constitution. It is sufficiently ordinary routine laws. fared as a blueprint for the rooted in the Indian conditions and One of the earliest decisions transformation of Indian society the people see the constitution as taken by the leaders of the Assembly and polity? There is no doubt that their own. Yet it does not represent was to resolve not to take any the pace of transformation has been the conservative side of the Indian decision through the majority vote. slow. But the transformation has to social condition. It is sufficiently The Assembly decided at its floor be eventually brought out by the emancipatory to be able to carry that the majority decision was not people. The constitution can only out a transformation of the existing the most satisfactory way of making play an enabling role. Constitutions conditions with the help of the a constitution. Once a proposal was do not work on their own; they people. The Indian constitution in moved and there was a minority have to be worked. It is however this respect is the finest gift of the opinion opposed to it, it was then undeniable that even though the national movement to its people. It the responsibility of the majority much needed transformation has is truly a constitution of the Indian view to appease and satisfy the not occurred, the constitution has people, for the Indian people, and by minority opinion and thus arrive created enough space for the socially the Indian people. at a consensus. Nothing short of marginalised people to organise their Email: [email protected] a consensual decision was to be struggles for a better life and a share entered into the constitution. Thus in the social benefits. every effort was made to protect One success of the Indian the constitution by the tyranny of constitution has been its ability to the majority view. This decision chalk out a middle path between not to go only by the majority view conflicting conditions. One such and keep trying till a consensus was middle path is between being fixed reached, naturally implied that there and unchangeable on the one hand, would be delays in arriving at a and being very volatile on the decision. It was therefore inevitable other. The real challenge has been that the entire exercise took nearly to ensure that the letter of the three years. A total of 7,635 constitution should not become an amendments to various clauses were obstacle to genuine social change placed of which 2,473 were actually and the constitution should be able moved. Yet in the end, this procedure to modify itself in the light of real produced a constitution which was societal change. At the same time, if owned by the entire Assembly, and it were to be too volatile and prone through the Assembly, the entire to change, it would not really be nation. Above all, what made the effective. Indian constitution truly consensual Finally, the real big challenge was that the national movement, is to find a middle path between during its long life of over three being too emancipatory and being decades, had popularised the completely rooted in the social ideas of parliamentary democracy, structure. The real dilemma is this: republicanism, civil liberties and in order to be transformative, the 10 JANATA, November 25, 2018 Over 100,000 Farmers to March to India’s Parliament on Nov. 29–30

Pavan Kulkarni On November 29 and 30, more the planet. As on 2013, according no price controls in place, multi- than hundred thousand farmers from to a World Bank’s estimate, the national agri-businesses, which have across India will converge in the percentage of children suffering monopolised the production of many capital city of New Delhi. They will from malnutrition in India was twice crucial inputs, have ratcheted up march to parliament, highlighting that of sub-Saharan Africa. the prices further. This has resulted the agrarian crisis which has lasted 38% of Indian children under the in a situation where the price a in India for decades, and the role age of five suffer from stunted growth farmer receives for his produce is of the far-right Bharatiya Janata or irreversible brain damage due to often lower even than the cost of Party (BJP)-led government in undernourishment, and more than production. intensifying this crisis. half the women of reproductive age This lack of profitability in Marching along with them in are affected by anemia. This agrarian cultivation has forced a large portion solidarity will be organisations of crisis, marked by immiseration of of peasantry to borrow money to students, industrial workers, retired the peasantry and a decline in the meet the expenses of cultivation. soldiers and the oppressed castes. average nutritional intake of the Between 1991 and 2013, the The demand of all these sections is country, has been unfolding for percentage of farming households for a special session of parliament decades now. in debt rose from 25.9% to 35%. to discuss the agrarian crisis as well Debt–asset ratio, which is a measure as the 2006 report of the National A decades-old crisis of the extent to which indebtedness Commission on Farmers. The latter After India’s entry into the is draining the value of one’s assets, had recommended crop acquisition WTO in the 1990s, following almost doubled in this period. by the state at a minimum support the liberalisation of the country’s While bank loans for the price (MSP) which is 50% above economy after accepting a loan agricultural sector were prioritised the full cost of production and from IMF, the protection afforded before liberalisation, starting from redistribution of ceiling–surplus to Indian peasantry was dismantled. 1991, the credit allocation, in line land to the landless, among other This threw open the borders for with the neoliberal diktat, was measures to alleviate the farm agricultural commodities produced increasingly made along the lines distress. in advanced industrial countries. of profitability rather than for the One of the key demands of the While exports of agricultural purpose of meeting the most basic protesters is the adoption of a bill commodities declined, imports, of national needs. by parliament to waive off farmers’ which were worth $4.19 billion While 64% of the debt of rural debts which have led hundreds of in 2004–05, rose to almost $12.6 households were owed to banks and thousands of them to commit suicide billion by 2014–15. By 2016, it had cooperatives in 1992, by 2013, it had over the last two decades. Other risen further to almost $21 billion. declined to 56% as the government demands include ensuring forest This flooding of the domestic market reduced the credit available to the rights for indigenous communities, with subsidised agricultural goods cultivators. As more and more policies enhancing the country’s produced with heavy subsidies farmers, desperate for capital, turned food security, affordable education in western countries has caused a to informal sources, the share of debt and health care. sharp decline in food grain prices owed to moneylenders, who charge The world’s largest producer domestically. usurious rates of interest, almost of wheat, rice, pulses, sugarcane, On the other hand, the cost of doubled. cotton and milk, and the second agricultural inputs has seen a sharp This debt owed to moneylenders largest producer of fruits and increase due to reduction of subsidies is widely recognised to be the most vegetables, India is home to 40% on fertilisers and other inputs. With important reason driving farmers of the undernourished children on to commit suicide. Between 1995 JANATA, November 25, 2018 11 and 2015, over 300,000 farmers demanded an MSP of over 50%. turned out to be, as the renowned have killed themselves, according However, they were told, “These are rural journalist P. Sainath put it, a to data from the National Crime just election promises; they cannot massive scam. As on last year, a Records Bureau (NCRB). Suicides be implemented.” The national handful of insurance companies committed by women and lower president of the currently ruling BJP which had monopolised the sector, caste farmers are largely excluded party has dismissed the promise as were reaping profits of over $100 from this figure, because they are not “election tricks”. million a month amongst themselves, often counted as farmers in official A year after this government while the number of insured actually statistics due to not possessing was formed, when the Consortium declined. In one district, farmers the title for the land they own and of Indian Farmers’ Association filed whose soybean crops were destroyed cultivate. a Public Interest Litigation to hold were paid between half a dollar and the government accountable, the seven dollars as ‘compensation.’ Promises betrayed government told the Supreme Court Farmers’ suicides, which the It was in this context that during that it was not possible to provide BJP had promised to put an end to if the 2014 election campaign, the the promised MSP, because doing elected, rose by 40% in the first two current prime minister, Narendra so would distort the market. years of its government. In 2015, Modi, who was the BJP’s prime Earlier this year, the government when the issue was becoming more ministerial candidate, presented claimed that it had provided the MSP and more politically sensitive, the himself as the savior of farmers. of 50% over the cost of production NCRB stopped publishing data on Attacking the previous government as promised by it. However, by farmers’ suicide. headed by the Indian National using a different formula to calculate As many as 12 States and six Congress party, he promised to the production cost from the one union territories declared the number address this agrarian crisis. in the commission’s report, the of farmer suicides that year as “zero”. Appearing before masses of government underestimated the cost State governments selectively peasants—sometimes in person of production by 40%. The real price leak figures about suicides to the and sometimes as a 3D hologram— that the farmers are actually getting media using data from the revenue Modi promised that if elected, his are even less than this MSP the department. Being responsible for party would provide farmers with government claims to have provided. handing out compensations to the remunerative prices of 50% over the Having promised that no land families of farmers who commit cost of production, as calculated in acquisition would be undertaken suicide, the revenue department has the 2006 report. without farmers’ consent, Krishnan high stakes in understating the real The party’s election manifesto said, the government, “within number of farmer suicides. “was literally a wishlist of the six months of coming to power.. While this has been the plight farming community. Except for land came up with the land acquisition of the approximately 119 million reforms, almost every other demand ordinance which literally mentioned cultivators in the country, the [of the poor peasants] was featured that there is no need for any consent situation of the approximately 144 in it. Cheaper credit, cheaper inputs, of farmers when [their] land is being million landless agricultural laborers remunerative prices, insurance for acquired for different projects. . . . is no less dire. So low are the wages crop loss, [the promise that] no The entire livelihood of the farmers they earn that, according to one land would be acquired without the and agricultural workers depends analysis based on data collected consent of the farmers, water for on land, and this government was from 17 villages, “a family of five each farm” were all assured during telling you need not ask [them] for (a male worker, a female worker the election campaign, said Vijoo their consent.” Agricultural land of and three dependents) would Krishnan, the joint secretary of All an area “at least twice the size of require more than 600 days of India Farmers Federation (AIKS), at Britain is potentially under the threat employment [in a year] at currently a public meeting recently. of acquisition,” he warned. prevailing wages in order to obtain Krishnan recalled how they While crop insurance was earnings equivalent [to] the [World met the agriculture minister of the promised, the scheme that was Bank’s] dollar-a-day poverty line,” newly formed Modi government offered – under the name of ‘Prime states a fact sheet released by the a few days after the election, and Minister’s Insurance Scheme’— organisers of the upcoming march. 12 JANATA, November 25, 2018

This situation has brought together the farmers and agricultural laborers Court Orders Dutch Government to in a common struggle—two groups Cut Greenhouse Gases who have often been at odds with each other. The distress in the agricultural Ben Cowles sector as a whole, which today On October 9, cheers erupted in “We won on every practical employs almost 55% of India’s a Dutch appeals court as it upheld a point and I think this is a good thing workforce, has been forcing 2015 ruling ordering the government for everybody in the world who cultivators to give up farming. would also like to start a court case.” Between 2001 and 2011, 9 million to cut the country’s greenhouse gas farmers have quit agriculture. emissions by at least 25 per cent by In its appeal, the Netherlands’ 2020. conservative government argued Mass migration Hague Appeals Court Presiding the ruling meant the court was A majority of them have been Judge Marie-Anne Tan-de Sonnaville formulating government policy. migrating to small towns and cities rejected the government’s appeal, However the court rejected in search of jobs. In a country which reaffirming the country’s legal this notion, saying that judges is also suffering from an acute obligations to protect citizens must uphold international treaties unemployment crisis, there are against dangerous climate change. such as the European human rights not enough jobs to accommodate “Considering the great dangers that convention to which the Netherlands them. Not being able to find are likely to occur, more ambitious is party. formal employment, most end up measures have to be taken in the In a statement following the living in crowded slums in cities, short term to reduce greenhouse decision, the government said it working as casual laborers who are gas emissions in order to protect the would study the ruling “with an eye heavily exploited by a network of life and family life of citizens in the on possible further appeal,” but at contractors. Netherlands,” the court said. the same time pledged to carry out The low wages they end up The original 2015 ruling was the court’s order. receiving for working for long as a result of a case brought by The ruling comes a day after the hours in the absence of labor rights the environmental campaigning UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on is further driving down the already organisation Urgenda on behalf Climate Change urged governments abysmal average wage rate of two of 900 Dutch citizens. The court’s to cut carbon emissions to zero by dollars a day for casual laborers in decision was the first time a judge 2050 and a summer in which forests India. legally required a state to take action all across the Northern Hemisphere, “Such upheaval as being on climate change. including in the Arctic circle, were currently witnessed in rural India Speaking in a video posted on up in flames. Many of these are still cannot leave its cities untouched. As Twitter after the ruling, Urgenda burning. distress migration from rural India director Marjan Minnesma hailed continues unabated, and intensifies, the victory and hoped it would the pressure would be as much on inspire others around the world. Spectre of urban India. The very model of “I am extremely happy with the our social, economic, and perhaps outcome of this ruling,” Minnesma Fascism political organisation, is under said. “They said that all industrial Contribution Rs. 20/- threat,” states a document released countries should reduce emission at by the organisers of the march, least by 25 per cent by 2020 and the Published by arguing that the agrarian crisis is the faster the better. Janata Trust & Lokayat nation’s crisis. It is, the document “Based on human rights, they D-15, Ganesh Prasad, concludes, “myopic for anyone to said that not acting is not allowed Naushir Bharucha Marg, feel insulated from the rural tragedy any more and we should act as fast Grant Road (W), that is unfolding right now.” as possible. Mumbai 400 007 JANATA, November 25, 2018 13 14 JANATA, November 25, 2018 Climate-Heating Greenhouse Gases at Record Levels, Says UN

Damian Carrington

The main greenhouse gas levels. About 40% of N2O comes Efforts to cut emissions are emissions driving climate change from human activities including increasing and on Wednesday the have all reached record levels, the soil degradation, fertiliser use and UN’s climate change body published UN’s meteorology experts have industry. a report on the commitments made reported. The WMO also highlighted the in 2018. It found 9,000 cities in Carbon dioxide, methane and discovery of illicit production of 128 countries were taking action, nitrous oxide are now far above CFC-11, a banned chemical that also along with 240 states and regions in pre-industrial levels, with no sign both warms the planet and destroys 40 countries and more than 6,000 of a reversal of the upward trend, a ozone. Investigations indicate that businesses in 120 countries. World Meteorological Organization at least some of the production is report says. in China. Patricia Espinosa, head of the “The last time the Earth In October the world’s scientists UN framework convention on experienced a comparable said global warming of even 1.5ºC climate change, said: “On one hand, concentration of CO2 was 3–5m would have severe consequences greenhouse gas emissions have yet years ago, when the temperature for humanity. International climate to peak and countries struggle to was 2–3ºC warmer and sea level was agreements had for two decades set maintain the concentrated attention 10–20 metres higher than now,” said 2ºC as a limit. and effort needed for a successful the WMO secretary general, Petteri “Every fraction of a degree response to climate change. On Taalas. of global warming matters, and the other hand, climate action is “The science is clear. Without so does every part per million of occurring, it is increasing and there rapid cuts in CO2 and other greenhouse gases,” said the WMO is a will to do more. I highlight this greenhouse gases, climate change deputy secretary general, Elena because falling into despair and will have increasingly destructive Manaenkova. “CO2 remains in the hopelessness is a danger equal to and irreversible impacts on life on atmosphere for hundreds of years complacency, none of which we can Earth. The window of opportunity and in the oceans for even longer. afford.” for action is almost closed.” There is currently no magic wand Levels of CO2 rose to a global to remove all the excess CO2 from The Unemployment average of 405.5 parts per million the atmosphere.” in the atmosphere in 2017—almost Prof Corinne Le Quéré, of the Crisis: 50% higher than before the industrial University of East Anglia, said she Reasons and revolution. was not surprised by the new record Solutions Levels of methane, a potent levels of greenhouse gases. “But greenhouse gas responsible for about I am very concerned that all three 17% of global warming are now gases most responsible for climate Contribution Rs. 25/- 2.5 times higher than pre-industrial change are rising upwards unabated. times owing to emissions from It seems the urgency and extent Published by cattle, rice paddies and leaks from of the actions needed to address Janata Trust & Lokayat oil and gas wells. climate change have not sunk in. D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Nitrous oxide, which also warms Low-carbon technologies like wind, Naushir Bharucha Marg, the planet and destroys the Earth’s solar, and electric transport need Grant Road (W), protective ozone layer, is now over to become mainstream, with old- Mumbai 400 007 20% higher than pre-industrial fashioned polluting fossils pushed out rapidly.” JANATA, November 25, 2018 15 Fact Check: Spin-Master Jaitley’s Claims on Demonetisation

Subodh Varma

Flying in the face of his own rate before the Bharatiya Janata announcement. The only people Prime Minister’s statements, Party (BJP) government came to who benefited were digital payment the Reserve Bank of India’s power. Demonetisation has done companies, who remain thankful notifications and all manner of nothing to increase the numbers. to Modi for this bonanza, even if it evidence, Finance Minister Jaitley Incidentally, the numbers quoted by lasted for a few months. has made the astounding claim that Jaitley are inflated at the very origin So, what about black money? the demonetisation of November 8, because they include everybody who Jaitley has conveniently forgotten 2016 was not about confiscation of files a return. This includes over two about the claim repeated ad nauseum cash but was the means to achieve crore people who had no taxable by Modi and all BJP leaders that ‘formalisation’ of the economy. income though they filed the returns. demonetisation would lead to The RBI notification of This is a phenomenon that happens unearthing of thousands of crores November 8, 2016 said that every year. of black money. That’s because, the measure was “necessitated Table 1: Number of Taxpayers (in million) to tackle counterfeiting Indian banknotes, to effectively nullify black money hoarded in cash and curb funding of terrorism with fake notes.” Incidentally, the government notification (#2652) of that date is no longer available on the Finance Ministry website. PM Narendra Modi’s famous speech to the country is still available though in which he holds forth on how this will unearth black money, curb corruption and nip terrorists in the bud. Yet Jaitley is weaving a new Now look at another claim often after taking two years to count fiction without batting an eyelid. made about demonetisation: that it the returned Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 The Finance Minister says pushed the economy towards more withdrawn notes, the RBI had to that demonetisation has led to digital transactions. As shown in the admit finally that 99% of these had formalisation of the economy. As graph below, currency in circulation been returned to the bank. Far from an example, he says that the number was Rs 17.5 lakh crore on October unearthing black money, several of taxpayers has increased from 28, 2016 according to RBI data, thousand crores worth of black “3.8 crore in May 2014 to 6.86 barely a week before the disastrous money got converted to white in crore in four years of the BJP-led demonetisation. It was wiped out in the process, through diverse means, government”. This is not a lie but the notebandi days and has slowly including proxy deposits. a rather foolish attempt to deceive. but relentlessly climbed back and Only a minuscle amount of The number of taxpayers has been stood at Rs 19.02 lakh crore on Aug fake currency was unearthed in the increasing in any case, as shown 31, 2018. Cash remains the dominant process. In fact, weeks after the new in graph below, drawn from data mode of transactions, although under Rs 2,000 notes were issued, militants put out by Central Board of Direct coercion, it had crashed during in Jammu & Kashmir were found in Taxes. It was increasing at the same the immediate weeks after Modi’s possession of fake versions. 16 JANATA, November 25, 2018

Chart: Notes in Circulation (Rs, billion) Jaitley is unwilling—or perhaps unable—to admit that the demonetisation move was one of the biggest economic disasters India has ever experienced. It made a laughing stock of the Modi government across the world, heaped untold economic ruin and distress on a majority of Indians, and has left the country fumbling and floundering ever since. One foolish action, and the government has had to continue telling lies for two years. Such is the nature of this government of which Arun Jaitley is a leading spin-master.

Statement Condemning Attack on Classical Musical Expression A number of prominent artists In the climate of social policing capacity to be understood and bring and performers, former judges and restrictions on writers, thinkers together people across boundaries. It and bureaucrats, academicians, and artists, the recent attacks on underscores the cross-cutting links social activists, public intellectuals, Carnatic musicians of repute, has amongst religions, blending the journalists and other concerned again raised the sceptre of fear. This plurality into the oneness of sound citizens from various walks of reflects the failure of the rule of law and its appeal to all human beings life, have released a statement and constitutional guarantees. It is and has reinforced beliefs in plurality condemning the attacks on south alarming that neither independent and tolerance. While the content Indian musicians for performing institutions such as the courts nor and the lyrics bring in the varied interfaith music at classical music the governments whose duty it is perceptions and understanding of concerts. to protect democratic space and people and communities, music The full statement (published in freedom of expression, have stepped establishes the universality of a The Citizen on September 20, 2018): in to take decisive steps to end this multi-cultural society. In a recent occurrence in South menace. Carnatic music is a system of India, eminent classical musicians It therefore falls upon artists, classical music which over the have been intimidated, their concert civil society groups and citizens centuries has absorbed the cultural engagements cancelled, due to to come forward and protect the milieu of contemporary times pressure from intolerant forces democratic and constitutional right and while the compositions were that claim to speak on behalf of to creative expression. We cannot composed in the classical style, Hindus; thereby seeking to dictate allow the intimidation and threat of they celebrated differing perceptions the content and nature of cultural violence by a (small) group which of divinity. While the majority performances and music. We, the arrogates to itself, the role of being religion and its composers have undersigned, register our strong the keeper of culture, tradition and predominantly occupied musical protest and condemn this continual heritage. This has largely gone space, there have been composers harassment, intimidation and the use unchallenged by the rest of civil whose lyrics have been in praise of of other undemocratic methods to society, except by some musicians different religious denominations. silence voices. These are expressions themselves. That is how it should be. of creativity, unity, humanity which Music is an expression of Many musicians have received are helping shape the building of a the universal truth of harmony threats by right wing Hindu modern syncretic tradition in Indian of existence and connects people organisations, for bringing people classical music. through its appreciation. It has the and religions together on a musical JANATA, November 25, 2018 17 platform. Some of them have been stepped in and hosted his program. people gathering at the Garden of bullied into making apologies and Here is a small article on this Five Senses to listen to the genius cancelling concerts. O. S. Arun program, which received an from South sing. Below is a small was invited by T. Samuel Joseph overwhelming response from piece on his mesmerising program a long time student and teacher of Delhiites, with more than a thousand in Delhi. Carnatic music to render Carnatic compositions on Christ. He was Rhythm of Resistance: attacked online and pressure was put on him to cancel. When T.M. Krishna Did Sing He cancelled citing personal reasons. Within days, WhatsApp and Daniya Rahman social media clippings of Nithyasree Mahadevan rendering a Christian On November 17, when people languages, traditions, religion in the song began circulating with gathered at the Garden of Five concert. I will not speak much.” And comments to establish disapproval. Senses in Saket, it was not just while Krishna refused to talk about The SSVT Temple in Washington for their love of music, but also in politics, his music spoke for him. DC which had invited T.M. Krishna solidarity with a particular kind of He struck a mesmerising to sing, cancelled the invitation at politics. The evening was special and chord against the on-going the behest of self-appointed Hindu the performance important because cultural barbarism that the country gatekeepers. T.M. Krishna was performing is subjected to. Starting with an T. M. Krishna in a statement said: in Delhi three days after the all-denominational prayer that "Considering the vile comments Airports Authority of India (AAI) Mahatma Gandhi had instituted at and threats issued by many on “postponed” an event featuring the the Sabarmati Ashram, Krishna’s social media regarding Carnatic Carnatic singer, owing to a backlash performance included a Malayalam compositions on Jesus, I announce from right-wing trolls who called rendition in praise of Jesus Christ, here that I will be releasing one Krishna an “anti-national” “Urban an adaptation of Nagoor Hanifa’s Carnatic song every month on Jesus Naxal”. Islamic Tamil song, Kabir, Tukaram, or Allah". The threats could not budge Basava, Perumal Murugan and much We want to express our support T.M. Krishna who made a public more. and appreciation for the very announcement asking for a stage, Around the same time when positive efforts of these musicians anywhere in Delhi on November AAI decided to postpone Krishna’s and register our protest against 17, for him to come and sing. performance, the organisers of stigmatising them. We reassert the Responding to his appeal, Manish another event hosting T.M. Krishna universal truth that music is not Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister of also received threat calls. Krishna and cannot be denominational, Delhi, stepped in and invited Krishna is scheduled to hold a concert and and an exclusive domain of any to perform. “No artist should ever be music workshop on “Rare Krithis one religion. All music is open denied an opportunity to perform. of Sri Muthuswamy Dikshithar” on to participation to people of all I have invited T.M. Krishna to 22–23 November at Gana Bharathi communities, and musical heritage perform on November 17 for the in Mysuru’s Kuvempunagar area. belongs to humanity. We condemn people of Delhi. It’s important to The organisers, however, went ahead the nascent attempts to limit and maintain the dignity of the art and with the event. “There is no need to stifle free expression and invite you artists”, Sisodia said. bow down to the pressure by some to join in voicing your protest. Politics and art, thus shared the random elements”, Himanshu C.R., Sd/- by hundreds of intellectuals same stage at the Delhi government’s one of the organisers said. from all over the country. event, “Awam ki Awaz”. Krishna In the times when expressing The right wing trolls have said before commencing his a dissenting opinion mean threats, continued their offensive, and it performance, “The spirit of the day vandalising venues and cancellation nearly led to the cancellation of has transformed over the few days of events, Krishna’s performance T.M. Krishna’s program in Delhi. and keeping with the spirit, I will try was loud enough to reverberate a However, the Delhi Government and see if we can see multiple voices, rhythm of resistance. 18 JANATA, November 25, 2018

Letter to Editor Atrocities Upon Minorities in China

Chandrabhaal Tripathi

I recently read the story of that area which was the locale of the after 40 years I visited that country torture and exploitation of followers story of that book. I was dismayed by in 1997. Anyway, coming back to of Falun Gong in China, ‘The SOS the response of the great scholar who our main story, the last nail in the in my Halloween decorations’, wrote to me in Hindi on a post card: coffin of the Soviet Union was by Jon Kelly. When I visited the “It is nothing but propaganda by the hammered by Boris Yeltsin and US for the first time in 1997 I decadent capitalist system. You will Mikhail Gorbachev during 1985–91 came across information in this find similar propaganda books and through their policies of 'perestroika' regard by the local Chinese people. literature circulated by the American and 'glasnost.' Initially, I thought that it might be agents. Please read them and you It is no wonder that in Communist American propaganda, but later will realise how well oiled this anti- China, which has acquired all the I came across cases of atrocities Soviet machinery is.” No direct vices of the decadent capitalist by the Chinese authorities upon reply to the specific facts mentioned culture, democracy and free speech Tibetans and Uighurs and I had to in the book. I was disappointed as I are victims. change my opinion. I also recalled had great personal regard for Rahul the parallel in the erstwhile Soviet ji as a Buddhist scholar, supporter Union. We in our youth read stories of Hindi and leader of the peasant and novels about the atrocities movement. Some time earlier the in the Stalinist era but our Indian celebrated book The God that Failed communist friends would merely had appeared and the episode of the laugh these away as American escape of Stalin's daughter Svetlana propaganda. A great scholar like from Russia and her being helped Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan by Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia in her who taught at Leningrad University asylum and migration to the US had and was not allowed to bring his already created waves in intellectual Russian wife Lola with him to India circles in the free world. At the CPSU in 1947 had been brainwashed like Congress in 1956, Khruschev's the other Indian communists. (Rahul speech fell like a bomb shell. But ji resigned from the CPI over the the Indian communists financed issue of Hindi and not over any and controlled by the CPSU were so political ideological differences). much brainwashed that an old friend While doing anthropological field and classmate of mine did not believe work in Jaunsar–Bawar in Dehra that Chernobyl had happened, Dun District in 1955–56, I read a and he called this catastrophe as book by a Russian writer, who had American propaganda. Not that I am fled from Russia, that described the a supporter of the US. On the other atrocities committed on dissenters hand, I was a victim of McCarthyism by the Stalinist regime. The locale of in 1958 when I was selected as the that book was Leningrad. Therefore, only Fulbright scholar from India I wrote a letter to Rahul ji who was from the discipline of Anthropology living in Happy Valley, Mussoorie, at but was denied the US visa as I was that time, requesting him to comment considered to be a communist. I on the book as he happened to live in decided never to visit the US but JANATA, November 25, 2018 19 R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, November 25, 2018 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2018 Published on Sunday, November 25, 2018 & Posted on Wedenesday, November 28, 2018 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 73 No. 45 Uniqueness of the Indian Constitution December 2, 2018 Salil Misra The Maratha Agitation for Reservations What is the importance of the quality of this blueprint was that Neeraj Jain Indian Constitution? It is true that it was not created by one or two all constitutions are products of exceptional minds, but a fairly large P. Viswambharan: their own histories and the specific number of political leaders chosen A Real Gandhian Socialist circumstances of the societies in indirectly by the people. P.M. Dev which they were germinated. If so, The Indian Constitution was a then isn’t each constitution equally product of many encounters among US: History of Violent Theft unique and specific in its own a large number of ideas and ideals of Land and Capital way? Why should then the Indian that sometimes clashed with, and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Constitution be privileged with sometimes complemented, each compliments such as unique and other. All of them fed into the Major BDS Victories in 2018 special? Constitution in some way or the The journey to the making other. It was thus founded on multiple Our new international of the Indian Constitution was ideational sources. For instance there movement will fight rising neither smooth nor uniform. It was was the traditional Indian idea of fascism and globalists complex, varied, multi-stranded maximum autonomy with least Yanis Varoufakis and contested. A large number control, which was tremendously of ideas, positions and ideals enriched by the modern liberal idea competed with one another to find a of freedom and choice in political Editor : G. G. Parikh significant place in the holy–legal– and entrepreneurial life with limited Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain foundational–axial book containing governance. The synergy of the the collective aspirations of the two played an important role in Managing Editor : Guddi people of independent India. The curbing the tendency towards Editorial Board : Indian Constitution, as it emerged absolutisation of state power at the B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali from the three-year long proceedings time of constitution making. Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah of the Constituent Assembly, was Not all the ideas complemented Nandu Dhaneshwar, much more than simply a book of each other. Some actually clashed. Sandeep Pandey legal code or a treatise on Indian There was a British colonial idea— politics or a governing manual for developed during the period of the D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Indian state. It was also a blue-print British rule—of gradually preparing Naushir Bharucha Marg, for the transformation of a large the Indian society for constitutional Mumbai - 400 007. Indian society—almost one-sixth advance so as to prolong the British Email : [email protected] of the world population, with strong rule. The idea was to use the façade Website:www.janataweekly.org continuities from distant past—in a of constitutionalism which would modern direction. One important enable the alien British rule to 2 JANATA, December 2, 2018 establish a firm footing on Indian completely segregated from each But a delay in the introduction of soil. According to this idea, an other and were constituted into these two great ideals created doubts illusion of constitutional advance separate political domains. The in the minds of Indian leaders on was to be maintained in order to Indian leaders offered a more how to eliminate social hierarchy create legitimacy for British rule in imaginative system of weightage, yet maintain unity and diversity. This India. In the light of this imperative, safeguards and reservations as really was the essence of the debate the British implemented a series against complete political separation between Gandhi and Ambedkar. of constitutional measures since between groups and communities. Gandhi believed that it could be 1858. Each measure introduced This alternative idea was codified done by opting for a democracy in some change and was an advance in the Nehru report. which political representatives would over the previous measure. Each There was thus an interesting be responsible and accountable to all was intended to delay or defer the encounter between the British irrespective of caste. The burden ultimate change from an alien British idea and the Indian alternative on of responsibility would moderate rule to a representative rule of the reservation versus separate electorate and dilute the impulse to dominate Indian people. and which of the two was a superior and exclude. Ambedkar on the This British idea of introducing idea. However, the British–Indian other hand felt that a system of change in order to prevent larger debate was conducted over religious separate representation—only Dalits change came into clash with the communities. It took an interesting representing the Dalits—would Indian idea—developed since turn in the 1930s and manifested create better conditions for justice the late 19th century—of greater itself on the question of caste. and would eventually lead to social Indianisation and democratisation This debate was conducted mainly and political equality. of the political structure. The between Gandhi and Ambedkar, These two ideas—of separate Indian leaders critiqued the British two of the greatest leaders of the political representation and initiatives and took their critique to 20th century. The debate was on accountability and a system of joint a new height in the 1920s when they how to distribute political power accountability—were prima facie prepared an alternative constitution under democracy among groups opposed to each other. But each for India, popularly known as Nehru and communities but in such a had its merit and both the ideas Report, named after Motilal Nehru, manner so as not to accentuating eventually found their way into the one of the main architects of the political divisions among them. This Constitution, albeit in a modified Report. Nehru Report was the indeed was an important question. form. first serious attempt by Indians to Indian traditional plurality was of Perhaps the most important prepare a constitution for India and an unequal kind. A small numerical idea in the constitutional journey it differed from the British initiatives minority of upper caste Hindus developed in the 1930s. This was the in some crucial respects. had traditionally dominated over idea of a constitution to be made, not The British had attempted a majority of the lower castes and by the tiny minority of the best minds to modernise Indian politics by excluded them from social benefits alone, but by a Constituent Assembly legitimising and perpetuating and entitlements. They were able chosen by the people. Jawaharlal differences—particularly along to do it by invoking the sacred Nehru was the main proponent of the religious lines—in the Indian society. authority of religious doctrines. This idea. He married the constitutional They created democratic openings social domination by the minority idea with the democratic idea and but also created separate political over the majority on the basis of argued that nothing short of a domains for Hindus and Muslims. divine sanctions was possible at Constituent Assembly would satisfy In a way they created separate and a time and in a society that had the nationalist aspirations for a competitive democracies for Hindus not experienced either democracy constitution. The British eventually and Muslims. They did so by dividing or secularism. It was also hoped conceded the demand. It was in elected candidates, constituencies that under modern conditions— 1946 that a Constituent Assembly, and even voters along religious lines. engendered by democracy and elected indirectly though restricted In the British version of democracy, secularism—such domination and franchise, was created which started Hindus and Muslims were politically exclusion would be unsustainable. deliberating on what kind of a JANATA, December 2, 2018 3 constitution was best suited for the simultaneously. Ambedkar himself the distribution of power between Indian people and society. The may have experienced this dilemma the central government and other members debated for over three when, on the one hand, he argued federating units. On this issue the years—from 9 December 1946 till 24 forcefully for the “Annihilation of members were pulled in both the January 1950—over virtually every Caste”, but on the other hand, also unitary and the federal directions. aspect of the collective political life proposed, during the deliberations Pressures of national security, of the people. The 12 volumes of in the Constituent Assembly, that imperatives of national unity, and the Constituent Assembly Debates caste be made the criterion for the the recent anxieties created by the spread over nearly 5,500 pages are practice of positive discrimination. partition and the making of Pakistan, an ample testimony of the kind of On the face of it, the two appeared tilted the balance towards greater challenges that were confronted by contradictory: you cannot wish to centralisation. On the other hand, the makers of Indian Constitution. annihilate the caste while at the same the impulse of maintaining diversity When the slightly over 200 time make it the basis for a whole and the fears of an authoritarian members of the newly constituted range of institutional arrangements. Centre justified the need for a federal Constituent Assembly sat down to Caste could be annihilated when framework with enough distribution deliberate, they knew the supreme it was removed not simply from of power. In the end, a consensus importance of the task they had the social structure but also from developed through a compromise been entrusted with. People drawn the minds and the consciousness which created a strong Centre (to from different cultures, regions and of the people. But how could it be maintain security and unity) but also backgrounds had to create consensus removed if it became the bedrock of balanced it by vesting enough power among themselves and prepare a the official policy in the distribution in the federating units (to preserve document that would serve as the of jobs and other benefits? diversity and democracy). guiding principle for the future. It This certainly was a huge One big question is: how could was no easy task. The members had dilemma. It was simply not possible all this be possible? How was it to set aside their personal and group to wish it away. However it was that the representatives from a interests, their rivalries, ideological addressed by making a distinction traditional, Brahmanical, upper- predilections and strive towards between the short-term priorities caste dominated, male-oriented general agreement through engaged and the long-term goals. It was society were able to rise above reasoning. certainly a priority to promote a their inherited traditional baggage A large number of contentious policy of positive discrimination to and create a blueprint which issues confronted the members. One compensate for historical wrongs contained the possibility of a modern of them was the conflict between done to the lower castes. It was then transformation? Some part of the the modern impulse for equal hoped that the short-term measures answer has to be found in the very opportunity and the idea of positive would eventually feed into the long- nature of the Indian nationalist discrimination for those who had term goal of the removal of caste movement which created a huge been historically discriminated from our social life. Whether the ideational churning during the against. This dilemma was obviously short-term measures will feed into initial decades of the 20th century. most conspicuous on the question the long-term goal, we do not know The national movement was not of caste and how to deal with and it is too early to conclude either simply a struggle against the alien it. It was recognised by all that way. For the moment, it does seem British imperialism. It was also caste as an institution had been that caste consciousness, instead of a great project which mobilised a source of great injustice to the diminishing, has shown a revival the Indian people and harnessed lower castes. This injustice had to in recent times with a degree of their creative energies towards a be removed by working towards the stridency. However the resolution modern direction. The national removal of the institution of caste of this question lies in the womb movement triggered many debates and also by providing safeguards of time. around the nature of the future, to the victims of caste oppression. Yet another issue of debate was on which were eventually taken up in a However, the dilemma was that the role of the State as the centralised systematic manner by the members the two goals could not be pursued decision making institution, and of the Constituent Assembly. In this 4 JANATA, December 2, 2018 sense the Constituent Assembly leaders. The failure to institute a on them and, in the process, they represented more of a continuation proper mechanism to ensure gender also became great. They transcended and a culmination of the national justice must be ranked as one of their group interests, class location, movement, rather than a separate the great failures on the part of the inherited privileges and got involved process altogether. It may be Constitution makers. in creating a blueprint for India’s argued that the Indian people and The failures and silences modern transformation. They gave their leaders had begun preparing notwithstanding, it has to be themselves a project—how to their constitution much before recognised that the period 1946– transform a large traditional society the convening of the Constituent 50 is truly an axial period of our with multiple diversities into a Assembly. The mammoth constitutional history. It was modern society, without endangering transformational experience of during this period that around 200 the diversity, but by removing its the national movement eventually representatives of the Indian people undesirable, hierarchical aspects. culminated in a transformational got together to create history. By In other words, they took up the document, the Constitution of India. any reckoning they were normal challenge of how to retain the There is no doubt that the Indian unexceptional people—mostly positive elements of Indian traditions Constitution has withstood the test middle-aged men, drawn from and yet create a transformational of time and thus lived up to the traditional backgrounds, and from pull in a modern direction. There expectations of the makers of the the privileged upper strata of the is no doubt that they were largely Constitution several decades ago. society. Nonetheless, they knew successful in preparing the roadmap. However, one should also remember that they had been entrusted with a It is now for the people of India and the Constitution for some crucial great task. And, to paraphrase Nehru, their representatives to work towards omissions and missed opportunities. the greatness of the task was so translating that roadmap into reality. One such missed opportunity was overwhelming that it cast its shadow Email: [email protected] the question of gender justice. Even though women were granted Maratha Agitation for Reservations : Part I the equality of citizenship by the Constitution, this equality in a Neeraj Jain deeply unequal society could only serve to perpetuate inequality. It is On November 29, 2018, both the the Maharashtra State Backward truly unfortunate that the principle Maharashtra legislative assembly Class Commission on social and of positive discrimination, which and council passed a bill granting economic conditions of the Maratha was applied to the question of caste, 16% reservation to the Maratha community. The Commission had was not extended to the question of community. The bill provides for recommended grant of quota to the gender. It turned out to be a naïve reservation of seats for admission community. optimism to believe that merely in educational institutions and posts The Maratha community, which the creation of equal opportunity in public services to the Marathas, constitutes over 30 per cent of the would create conditions for gender who have been declared as socially state's population and is one of the equality. The great reluctance of and educationally backward class dominant communities of the state, our current political class to take up of citizens. The reservation can be has been demanding reservation in the issue of women’s reservation in availed by those below the “creamy government jobs and education for the Parliament is ample testimony layer” in the community, which a long time. Likewise, over the last that the Constitution makers placed has been defined as those with an few years, several other dominant a certain faith in their political annual income of Rs 8 lakh and castes in other states, like the Patels successors, which turned out to more. Existing quotas for the OBCs (or Patidars) of Gujarat, the Jats be completely misplaced. It is and others will not be touched. This of Haryana and the Gujjars of undeniable that the Constitution therefore takes the total percentage Rajasthan, have also raised similar makers made a huge mistake in of quotas in the state from 52% to demands. They are all demanding leaving this question to be settled 68%. The tabling of the bill followed that they also be given reservations. by the future generation of political the submission of the report by In Maharashtra, bowing to the JANATA, December 2, 2018 5 clout of the Maratha community, criterion of “social and educational continues to pervade Indian society. the previous Congress–NCP backwardness” as the basis for Instead of that, massive rallies are government in 2014 had passed an making its recommendations.2 taking place and bandhs are being ordinance giving 16% quota to the Dr Ambedkar and our called to voice the demand for Marathas. Likewise, Haryana has Constitution framers had, therefore, reservations on the logic of present also attempted to placate the Jats envisioned reservations as a scheme economic backwardness, and the and in 2016, gave them reservation to foster social inclusion, social major political parties, for political which hiked the total quotas in the equality and social justice. It was expediency, are trying to come state to 67%; while in Rajasthan, a programme to cement the notion up with all kinds of schemes to the state government has sought to of citizenship. As Dr Ambedkar somehow fulfil this demand. grant reservation to Gujjars which explained in his final speech to the took the total quotas in the state to Constituent Assembly on November Limitation of the Reservation 54%. However, all these moves have 25, 1949, political equality, the Demand been struck down by the courts, on principle of one person one vote, One of the demands being the ground that the quota violated does not automatically bring about raised by these dominant castes is the decision of the Supreme Court social equality. And the fact is, that they be given reservation in that had in 1992 capped the total there is complete absence of social higher educational institutions. One reservations in a state at 50%. equality; there is no fraternity (the becomes eligible for reservation in sense of brotherhood amongst all these institutions only after passing Reservations in the Constitution Indians) in Indian society. This is Class XII. This is also the minimum Because of competitive populism because of the presence of castes in eligibility if one wants to take the and electoral calculations, no major India, which bring about separation benefit of reservation in government political party in any state has in social life. Without overcoming jobs. However, in India, only 16% of opposed the demand of erstwhile this, without genuine fraternity, all children enrolling in Class I cross dominant castes for reservation, equality and liberty will be no the Class XII threshold, the majority even though this demand changes deeper than coats of paint, the idea of (84%) drop out before that. the entire logic for reservations citizenship cannot truly be realised, This implies that even if the on the basis of which this policy and in fact, we will not even become government somehow finds a way measure was specifically included in a nation in reality. to give reservation in government the Constitution by our Constitution The policy of reservation was jobs and educational institutions to framers. The Constitution of India, in thus a scheme to realise this larger these dominant castes, and the courts its Article 15 (4) and 16 (4), clearly dream of Indian democracy. It was too allow it, only a small percentage allows the state to make special neither thought of as a poverty of the population of these castes is provisions, including reservation alleviation programme nor as an going to be eligible for this ‘benefit’. in any post in the services under employment generation scheme by [This is true, actually more true, for the state, “for the advancement our Constitution framers. the Scheduled Castes and Tribes and of any socially and educationally Unfortunately, the demand for Other Backward Classes too. Barely backward classes of citizens or reservations by the Marathas, Patels 10% of the OBC students, 8% of for the Scheduled Castes and the and Jats completely negates this the SC students and 6% of the ST Scheduled Tribes”. Elaborating on perspective on the basis of which students (out of those admitted to these provisions, the Supreme Court the policy of reservations has been Class I) cross the Class XII barrier. of India has ruled (State of Kerala sanctioned in the Constitution. This means that the social justice v. N.M. Thomas) that they are not It is a sad commentary on the provisions of the Indian Constitution exceptions to the equality guaranteed democratic consciousness of Indian continue to elude the overwhelming under Articles 14, 15(1) and 16(1), society that even seven decades majority of these most marginalised but rather are aimed at achieving after independence, there is no sections of the Indian society even the equality guaranteed under these powerful social movement in the today.]3 articles.1 The Mandal Commission country demanding an end to the Therefore, if the Maratha / Jat in the late 1980s too had adopted the humiliating hierarchical setup that / Patel / Gujjar youth are genuinely 6 JANATA, December 2, 2018 concerned about uplifting their has been established by several classified as rich farmers.”5 caste brethren, the demand that studies and commissions. More than These small and marginal they should first raise is that the 75% of the land in the state is owned Maratha farmers, who constitute government should take steps to by the community. Nearly 54% of the overwhelming proportion of the ensure genuine universalisation of the educational institutions in the Maratha population of the State, are school education. This would require state are controlled by them. Of the finding themselves facing severe the government to: i) ban all forms 105 sugar factories, 86 are headed livelihood concerns because of of commercialisation of school by Marathas, while 23 district the neoliberal economic policies education; ii) ensure genuinely free cooperative banks have Marathas as being implemented in the country education of equitable quality to chairpersons. Marathas dominate the over the past nearly three decades. all children up to Class XII, and universities in the state, with 60 to These policies have pushed Indian gradually improve the quality of all 75% presence in the management. agriculture into a severe crisis. government schools to at least the About 71% of the cooperative Because of this, the youth in the level of Kendriya Vidyalayas; and, institutions are under the control of villages, the children of small and for this, iii) increase its educational this community. In addition, all the marginal farmers, are no longer spending (Centre + states combined) milk cooperatives and cotton mills interested in staying in the villages to at least 6% of GDP as mandated are either owned or controlled by and doing farming for a livelihood. by the Kothari Commission, of them.4 They are migrating to the cities in which the Centre should spend 25%. Why is such a dominant search of jobs. But there are no jobs This is actually a demand that should community, which had once opposed in the cities too! The very same be raised / supported by all people caste-based reservations during the neoliberal economic policies that of this country, across all castes, late 1980s at the time of the anti- have pushed agriculture into crisis which would also increase fraternity Mandal Commission agitation, now have also resulted in a drying up amongst all Indian people. trying to seek it for itself? of jobs. Employment generation in the private sector has virtually About the Maratha Community in Growing Economic Crisis collapsed. There are very few jobs Maharashtra The reason for this is that it is available in manufacturing and other Let us however keep aside only a small section of the Marathas private sectors—and the few jobs these arguments about the faulty who are rich and control the sugar available are insecure, contractual and limited logic behind the factories, cooperative banks, milk jobs offering very low salaries. demand of the Maratha / Jat / Patel cooperatives and educational Therefore, the youth believe that / Gujjar youth for reservations, institutions. The majority of the the only way out of this employment focus on Maharastra, and try and Marathas are small and marginal crisis is to try and get a government understand the reasons behind the farmers. A survey by the Centre for job, which is the only secure job mobilisation of lakhs of Maratha the Study of Developing Societies available today with a decent salary. youth for reservations in educational (CSDS) found only 3% rich Marathas Of the government jobs available, institutions and government jobs. among the sampled families in 2014. around 50% are reserved, for the The Marathas are undoubtedly On the other hand, around 20% of Scheduled Castes and Tribes and one of the most dominant the sampled Maratha respondents Other Backward Classes. And so, communities in Maharashtra State. were landless labourers and 15% had the Maratha youth are out on the They have a stranglehold on state less than three acres each. Another streets, demanding reservation in politics. From 1962 to 2004, of the survey by two prominent political government jobs, in the belief that if total of 2,430 MLAs, 1,336 or 55% scientists—Rajeshwari Deshpande they are given reservations, many of were Maratha. Of Maharashtra's and Suhas Palshikar of Savitribai them will be able to get these secure, 18 chief ministers since the state Phule Pune University—found that good quality jobs. was formed in 1960, 10 have been “land ownership patterns suggest In this article, we first discuss the Marathas. Economically too, the nearly 65% of Marathas are poor, agricultural crisis in the country, and Marathas are one of the most whereas hardly 4% own more than then the worsening unemployment dominant castes in the state. This 20 acres of land and thus may be crisis. Finally, we examine the JANATA, December 2, 2018 7 demand being raised by Maratha Table 1: Average Growth Rates of Area, Production & Yield youth for reservation in government Under Foodgrains, Non-Foodgrains & All Crops8 jobs.

The Agricultural Crisis While the contribution of agriculture to the country’s GDP has come down by half over the period 1983–84 to 2010–11,6 from the point of view of livelihoods, this continues to be the most important than 1 hectare, total income from of farm produce. At the same time, sector. Of the total workforce in all sources (cultivation, farming input subsidies to agriculture, such as the country, 53% people depend on of animals, non-farm business fertiliser subsidy, have been further this sector for their livelihoods (in and wages) has fallen to less than reduced.11 Despite the worsening 2009–10). consumption expenditure.9 This, debt crisis, the Central government For the past nearly three in turn, has led to a huge increase has refused to waive farm loans decades, as a part of the neoliberal in rural indebtedness. According (finally, farmers’ movements across policies, successive governments to the National Sample Survey the country forced some states to at the Centre have been gradually Organisation (NSSO), in 2012– waive these loans). It would have eliminating subsidies given 13, 52% of the total agricultural cost the government at the most to agriculture and ‘freeing the households in the country were Rs 3 lakh crore,12 while benefiting market’. They have reduced public in debt. The average debt was Rs crores of farmers across the country. investment in agriculture, cut 47,000 per agricultural household, in As we show later, it is not that the subsidies given on major inputs a country where the yearly income government does not have money needed for agriculture (such as from cultivation per household was for this; it is a question of priorities. fertiliser, electricity and irrigation only Rs 36,972.10 The total budget allocation subsidies), gradually eliminated Under the Modi Government, for the Ministry of Agriculture output support to agriculture (in the implementation of neoliberal and Farmers' Welfare in Union the form of public procurement of policies has accelerated. It has led to Budget 2018–19 is miniscule—only agricultural produce), gradually a severe worsening of the agricultural Rs 57,600 crore, a mere 2.36% phased out subsidised credit given to crisis. The Modi Government has of the total budget outlay, for a agriculture (by public sector banks) made a complete U-turn on its 2014 sector on which more than 50% and allowed imports of heavily election promise to provide farmers of the population depend for their subsidised agricultural produce Minimum Support Prices (MSP) livelihoods (Table 2). from the developed countries into that would ensure them a 50% profit Three decades of battering by 7 India. This multi-pronged onslaught over cost of production. There is hostile policies and the worsening on Indian agriculture has pushed complete silence on the issue of debt crisis have pushed the hardy this sector into deep crisis. In all strengthening public procurement Indian peasants into such despair important indicators that measure the performance of agriculture, be Table 2: BJP Government Allocation for Agriculture Related it area or production or yield, of Sectors, 2014–1813 (Rs crore) foodgrains or non-foodgrains, the contrast between pre-globalisation and post-globalisation periods is quite stark (see Table 1). The net result of these anti- small farmer policies is that for nearly 70% of Indian farmers who have land holdings of less 8 JANATA, December 2, 2018 that they are being driven to commit workers, hire and fire them at will, since globalisation began, there has suicides in record numbers. More and pay them rock bottom wages. been a slowdown in employment than three lakh farmers have This has worsened the quality of the growth rate in the country. The committed suicide in the country few jobs available in the country. compound annual growth rate since 1995. It is the largest recorded Big corporations don’t create (CAGR) of employment in the wave of such deaths in history.14 jobs. They employ the latest labour country fell from 2.44% during the Because of the worsening saving technologies, and employ the period 1972–73 to 1983 and 2.04% agricultural crisis, employment minimum possible workers.16 And during the period 1983 to 1993–94, generation in this sector has virtually with the government dismantling to only 1.3% per annum for the entire collapsed. Total employment in labour laws, even the few jobs post-globalisation period of 1993–94 agriculture during the 16-year period being created by them are low to 2009–10. Employment growth 1993–94 to 2009–10 has risen by a wage, contract jobs. On the other during 1999–2000 to 2009–10 miniscule 2.4 million, or just 1% hand, because they are so big, these was 1.49% per annum, lower than (Table 3). companies destroy many more jobs any previous ten-year period. This than they create, as their entry forces slowdown has taken place despite a Table 3: Agricultural Employment, many small companies to close sharp acceleration in the country’s Pre- and Post-Reform Years15 down or merge with them. GDP growth rate (Table 4). (in million) This is precisely what is It is estimated that in India, the Agricultural happening in India too. While total number of new people who Employment three decades of globalisation enter the job market every year in has led to a huge entry of foreign search of jobs is around 13 million.19 1983 207.23 corporations into the country, the That means that during the decade 1993–94 242.46 country has rapidly industrialised, 1999–2000 to 2009–10, a total of and the GDP growth rate has 130 million people entered the job 2009–10 244.85 significantly increased, it has not led market. The NSSO data given in to the creation of jobs. To illustrate, Table 4 indicate that of these, only No Jobs in Cities the total employment (workers 63.5 million or 48.8% got any kind As a part of the conditionalities plus sales and supervisory and of jobs. imposed on the country by the World managerial staff) in all of India’s Worse, all these jobs were Bank, successive governments at the registered factories (both small and only informal jobs—jobs with low Centre since 1991 have gradually large scale industries combined) wages, probably even below the been removing all restrictions on increased by only 3.01 million minimum wage, insecure jobs, and the entry of foreign multinational during the 16-year period 1993–94 with little or no other benefits like corporations (MNCs) into the Indian to 2009–10. This means that only compensation in case of injury, economy. During the four years it 1.5% of the total people who entered paid leave, sick leave, and so on. has been in power, the swadeshi the job market during these 16 years None of the jobs created during the Modi Government has announced (3 million out of 208 million) got any decade 2000–10 were formal sector such a huge liberalisation of rules kind of factory jobs. In other words, jobs—where workers have at least governing foreign investment in the despite the massive entry of foreign some legal rights such as security of country that it has proudly declared corporations into the country since employment, minimum wages, sick that India has become the most open the beginning of globalisation in leave, compensation for work-related country in the world! Not only that, 1991, very few factory jobs have injuries and right to organise— the entire economic policy is now been created. The total number of because of the contractualisation of being re-oriented to suit the profit people working in factories after two jobs taking place in the economy maximisation of big corporations. decades of globalisation, in 2010, due to the deliberate dismantling For instance, the government is was only 11.72 million, or 2.5% of of labour laws in the country by relaxing all labour laws so that big the total official workforce in the the government. According to the corporations can employ contract country of 460 million.17 Planning Commission of India, workers in place of permanent The net consequence is that ever during the decade 1999–2000 to JANATA, December 2, 2018 9

Table 4: Total Employment, Employment Growth Rate and GDP than 90% of the workforce—first, Growth Rate, 1983 to 2009–10 18 demonetisation (announced in November 2016), and then the rollout of the GST (in July 2017). Both these policies had a devastating impact on the informal sector, resulting in closure of thousands of small scale units and loss of lakhs of jobs. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has estimated that post-demonetisation, roughly 1.5 million jobs were lost during the four month period from January to April 2017. 24 And so, the Demand for Reservations While globalisation has led to a sharp increase in wealth of the rich, especially the top 1%— and to a 2009–10, the total number of formal house to house selling cosmetics / lesser extent the top 10%—of the jobs in the economy actually fell sarees / books, unorganised sector population,25 for the vast majority of from 35 million to 33 million (Table construction workers working in the people, these economic reforms 5)! dangerous conditions at construction have destroyed employment and The result is that the total sites, farmers toiling day and night in livelihood opportunities and pushed number of formal sector workers an attempt to extract the maximum crores of people into destitution. in the country, who have what the possible from their tiny holdings. Amongst the worst hit have been the Economic Survey of the Government The acceleration of neoliberal farming communities, such as the of India calls ‘good jobs’21 , constitute policies under the Modi Government Maratha community in Maharashtra, just 7.2% of the total work force.22 has led to a further worsening of the Patels in Gujarat and Jats in The remaining 92.8% workers are in the employment crisis. According Haryana. The youth of these hitherto informal jobs—such as fruit sellers to a recent study, there was an dominant castes, who earlier either selling a few dozen bananas on hand absolute decline in employment took to agriculture, or were absorbed carts, peanut sellers hawking peanuts during the first two years of the Modi in industry / services on moving and other such snacks on bicycles, Government (2014–16), possibly the to cities, are now facing a huge roadside hawkers selling clothes or first time this has happened since crisis of unemployment. Crafty other sundry items, scrap collectors independence.23 politicians have channelised this collecting old newspapers and scrap As if this was not enough, the disenchantment of the youth into from homes, graduates running tiny Modi government then announced raising the demand for reservation telephone recharge shops or driving two economic policies that directly in government jobs. autorickshaws for 12 hours every assaulted the informal sector that The gullible youth have come day, sales boys and girls going from provides employment to more to believe that government jobs are Table 5: Formal and Informal Employment in India20 available in significant numbers, (in million) and if their castes are included in the category of OBCs and become eligible for reservations in government jobs, then large numbers of them would get decent jobs. The reality is that there are no government jobs too! As it is, 10 JANATA, December 2, 2018 total public sector employment transport to community, social and References in the country is only around 4% personal services.28 1. “Part-v Chapter – ii of the total employment in the Had employment generation Reservation and Constitution country.26 Furthermore, as a part continued at same pace as 1981–91, of India – Shodhganga”, http:// of the neoliberal economic reforms public sector employment would shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in. being implemented in the country, on have risen to 295 lakh in 2012, 2. Suhas Palshikar, “The New the one hand, the Indian Government implying the creation of 1.04 crore Reservation”, August 1, 2018, has been privatising public sector jobs. Instead, the total number of https://indianexpress.com. enterprises and welfare services jobs declined, by 14.5 lakh. 3. Estimates made by Prof. Anil such as education and health, and on To conclude, even if the Central/ Sadgopal, one of the most the other hand, it has been reducing State government finds a way of renowned educationists of public employment in all areas—the giving the Maratha youth reservation India: Lokesh Malti Prakash, vacancies arising out of retirement in government jobs, it will in “Education in the Neo-Liberal are not being filled (the government actuality not result in creation of any Limbo”, November 2, 2012, admitted in the Rajya Sabha a few significant job opportunities for these http://khwabesahar.wordpress. days ago that nearly 24 lakh posts youth. The demand for reservation in com. are lying vacant with the Central and government jobs is nothing but a 4. Meena Menon, “Nation in a state governments27 ), employment is mirage. The reason why the upper State: That Maratha Demand, being forcibly reduced by ‘Voluntary caste youth, like the Maratha youth Once Again”, June 12, 2012, Retirement Schemes’, and several in Maharashtra, are facing such a https://www.thehindu.com. jobs are being contractualised. huge crisis of joblessness is not 5. Akshat Kaushal and Mayank This has led to a drastic fall in because there is reservation for Mishra, “Why Dominant Castes public sector recruitment. Public the Dalits and OBCs, but because Want Other Backward Classes sector employment in the country there are no jobs, and reason why Status”, October 29, 2015, continuously increased in the there is stagnation in job creation is https://www.business-standard. decades after independence, from because of the neoliberal economic com. 70.5 lakh in 1961 to 190.6 lakh in policies being implemented in the 6. “Gross Domestic Product from 1991. But with the beginning of country. If the youth of Maharashtra Agriculture & Allied Sectors globalisation, this has got reversed. are serious about finding solutions and % Share to GDP 1950–51 Public sector employment [including to the employment crisis, they will to 14–15 at Constant 2004– every form of government—Central, need to think more deeply about the 05 prices”, taken from Data state, local government as well as real reasons for the unemployment Tables, Planning Commission, quasi-government (public sector crisis, challenge the economic model December 23, 2014, http:// enterprises, electricity boards, being implemented in the country, planningcommission.nic.in. road transport corporations, etc.)] and raise meaningful demands that 7. For more discussion on this, see: over the period 1991–2012 has will genuinely lead to the creation of Neeraj Jain, “Budget 2018–19: fallen in absolute terms, from 190 a large number of jobs. What is in it for the People?” lakh to 176 lakh (Table 6). This In the next issue of Janata, we Janata, April 15, 2018, http:// decline has taken place in every will discuss some of the demands janataweekly.org; Spectre of sphere of economic activity, from that need to be raised for meaningful Fascism, Janata / Lokayat manufacturing, construction and job creation in the country. Publication, Pune, 2016, pp. Table 6: Total Government Employment 54–59, http://lokayat.org.in. (Centre+State+Local Govt.+Quasi Govt.) (in lakh) 8. Raghbendra Jha, Investment and Subsidies in Indian Agriculture, Australian National University, Canberra, https://devpolicy. crawford.anu.edu.au. 9. “A Budget Amid Agrarian Crisis Pt. III”, Research Unit JANATA, December 2, 2018 11

for Political Economy, https:// Employment in India, March in Five Charts”, December 8, rupeindia.wordpress.com; also 2012, http://isidev.nic.in.; 2014, http://www.thehindu.com. see ibid. CAGR for 1972–73 to 1983 26. Total public sector employment 10. “Farmers Indebtedness: Into taken from: S. Mahendra Dev, is only around 18 million, out of the Abyss?” January 30, 2015, “Employment and Growth in a total workforce of 460 million, http://www.downtoearth.org.in. India”, http://www.aiggpa. in 2009–10. 11. For more discussion on this, mp.gov.in; employment figures 27. “Central and State Governments see: Neeraj Jain, “Budget 2017– for 1983 and 1993–94 taken Sit Over 24 Lakh Vacancies 18: Is it Indeed a Pro-Farmer from: Economic Survey, 2001– Amid Debate Over Job Budget?” Janata, February 12, 02: Social Sectors – Labour and Drought”, August 5, 2018, http:// 2017, http://janataweekly.org; Employment, http://indiabudget. timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Spectre of Fascism, op. cit., pp. nic.in; employment figures for 28. R. Nagaraj, “Public Sector 57–59; Neeraj Jain, “Budget 1999–2000, 2004–05 and 2009– Employment: What has 2018–19: What is in it for the 10 taken from: Twelfth Five Changed?” Indira Gandhi People?” op. cit. Year Plan: Volume 3 – Social Institute of Development 12. “India Faces Rs 3 Lakh Cr Farm Sectors, op. cit., p. 160; CAGR Research, 2014, http://www. Loan Waivers – 16 Times 2017 calculations done by us. igidr.ac.in.; T.S. Papola, Partha Rural Roads Budget”, June 17, 19. Muthukumar K., Seetharaman Pratim Sahu, “Growth and 2017, http://www.business- R., “In Search of a Job”, Structure of Employment in standard.com. April 10, 2017 http://www. India”, op. cit. 13. All figures from Union Budget thehindubusinessline.com; documents, available at: Union S.A. Aiyar, “‘Drive in India’ Email: [email protected] Budget, http://indiabudget.nic. Can Generate More Jobs than in. ‘Make in India’”, February 26, 14. P. Sainath, “The Slaughter of 2017, http://blogs.timesofindia. Suicide Data”, August 5, 2015, indiatimes.com. http://psainath.org. 20. Twelfth Five Year Plan: Volume 15. Figures for 1983 and 1993–94 3 – Social Sectors, op. cit., p. taken from: Economic Survey, 131. 2001–02: Social Sectors – 21. Economic Survey, 2015–16, Labour and Employment, http:// Volume 1, p. 140, http:// indiabudget.nic.in; figures for indiabudget.nic.in. 1999–00, 2004–05 and 2009–10 22. Twelfth Five Year Plan: taken from Twelfth Five Year Volume 3 – Social Sectors, Plan: Volume 3 – Social Sectors, op. cit., p. 131. http://planningcommission.gov. 23. “Absolute Decline in Jobs, Says in, p. 160. New CDS Study, Drop Sharpest 16. For more on this, see our booklet, in Last Three Years”, October 2, The Unemployment Crisis: 2017, https://www.outlookindia. Reasons and Solutions, Lokayat com. publication, p. 42, http://lokayat. 24. Mahesh Vyas, “1.5 Million Jobs org.in. Lost in First Four Months of 17. Annual Survey of Industries 2017”, July 11, 2017, https:// 2010–2011 (Factory www.cmie.com. Sector), mail.mospi.gov.in/ 25. “The Richest 1% of Indians index.php. Now Own 58.4% of Wealth”, 18. GDP growth rate figures taken November 24, 2016, http:// from: T.S. Papola, Partha Pratim www.livemint.com; S. Rukmini, Sahu, Growth and Structure of “India’s Staggering Wealth Gap 12 JANATA, December 2, 2018

Book Review P. Viswambharan: A Real Gandhian Socialist

P.M. Dev the change he envisioned. Gandhi Ninth December 2018 is the protagonists of genuine socialism, was the brightest star in the socio- second death anniversary of P. but its detractors and enemies. political firmament at that time. Viswambharan, prominent socialist It is often difficult to distinguish He wholeheartedly embraced the leader, well-known to the readers the genuine from the spurious. Gandhian socialist vision as his of Janata. He was member of Socialism, as the yearning of the guiding philosophy of life. both Travancore–Kochi (1954) human spirit for universal sharing, Many people have taken to the and Kerala Legislative Assemblies is a potent and challenging dream. socialist path. But few have stayed (1960) and the Parliament (1960). Living this dream, realising it in on it till the end. Opportunism had He was the state President of the the concrete situations of one’s life, the upper hand over most votaries of Socialist Party (1971), Janata Party is one of the basic challenges of socialism. The merit and greatness and Janata Dal (1980–1993), and has leading a rational human life. of P. Viswambharan is that he never the distinction of having been the Mahatma Gandhi was one who swerved from the path he had chosen. first convener of the Left Democratic relentlessly followed the demands Threats and temptations were galore Front (1973) in Kerala. of this dream. Gandhi did not study in his political career that spanned P. Viswambharan: Gandhian socialism to become a socialist. more than six decades. But he stood Socialist, a biography in Socialism was the very inner firm in his resolve and commitment Malayalam by senior journalist orientation of his being. Genuine to the cause he espoused. He was a Ajith Venniyoor, published by socialism is based on truth and it can ‘political sanyasi’, who preferred to Kerala Institute of Languages, not be realised only through peaceful forgo everything for being faithful to only provides a comprehensive means, Gandhi believed. Violence his ideal than betray it, as did many view of P. Viswambharan’s life begets violence and is the negation of his contemporaries. Not desiring and achievements, but also paints of a socialist attitude. any personal gain, he found joy in a brilliant picture of the evolution From his early days P. giving unreservedly to others. There of socialist movement in India and Viswambharan was fired by the ideal were trying times, when he felt particularly in Kerala. of socialism. He derived inspiration neglected, belittled, misunderstood, Socialism is a word that has been from outstanding national leaders wounded, betrayed, but he would used too often and too loosely to such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jayapraksh rather bear with the suffering than mean anything concrete. There have Narayan, Acharya Narendra Dev, forsake his ideal. been and there still are parties and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, Achyut Was Viswambharan’s life a groups which carry that label. There Patwardhan, Yusuf Meher Ali, success? Did he attain what he had have been also many advocates and Ashok Mehta and M.R. Masani. sought? The answer would depend votaries of socialism in our country. It was a humiliating experience on one’s definition of success and For many it is a fashionable habit to of social discrimination he fulfillment. He succeeded to a swear by the word socialism. had in childhood that opened large extent in strengthening the The idea of universal equality, Viswambharan’s eyes to the injustice socialist movement, of which he most solemnly proclaimed by the involved in social segregation and was a part. But he failed in making French Revolution towards the end inequality. His young sensitive mind it a decisive political force in the of the 18th century, is at the heart started reflecting on the irrationality country, which he wanted it to be. of the concept of socialism. There and inhumanity of the prevailing Desire for personal gain as against have been socialisms of sorts and social system and ethos. His heart passion for social change was what socialists of different hues with longed for change and he decided motivated most of the leaders. no concern for this fundamental to dedicate his life to bring about Viswambharan’s heart bled seeing human orientation. They are not the JANATA, December 2, 2018 13 the party he had built up with much journalist and author T.J.S. George: “This book, which tells the story toil and sweat split into meaningless “Blessed was Viswambharan’s life. of that dedication and contentment factions. But he nursed no rancour The gentlemanliness that even his is a timely good reminder. Over or animosity towards any one. His political rivals admired emphasised and above being the narration of success lies in the fact that he was Viswambharan’s uniqueness. He Viswambharan’s life, these pages able to hold aloft the flag of political must have enjoyed the sense of direct our attention to the importance transparency and decency even in self-fulfillment in having kept of goodness in our society. In this the midst of failures and catastrophe. his conscience clean against the epoch, when cynicism is recognised Viswambharan has left a rich legacy ambitions and temptations that as the distinguishing feature of of high political morality. May characterized the political scenario parties and their leaders, why the be his life is more relevant to the in those days. In the final analysis idealists cling to their ideals is a future than to the immediate present. is that not what gives joy to a man? topic worth pondering.” Viswambharan’s life shines as Peace of mind. The comfort of self- P. Viswambharan will always a brilliant example of honesty, control. The knowledge that one live in our hearts as a beacon of selflessness and commitment in the has not pained any one in life. The perennial humanistic values such as personal as well as political spheres contentment of having done what socialism, democracy, secularism, of life. lay in one’s capacity for the good of and nationalism. The biography has Viswambharan always wanted fellow-human beings. In one word great relevance in the present socio- to believe that socialism has future self-fulfillment. Viswambharan, political context in our country. in India. It is that faith that sustained above all, was a contented person. his life. He believed that sacrifices made today would not be in vain US: History of Violent Theft of tomorrow. Optimistic futurism was a strong trait of his character. Land and Capital Ajith Venniyoor’s book P. Viswambharan, Gandhian Socialist, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz published in August 2017, after Vishwambharan’s demise in The United States has been at empire-building. They should. The November 2016, has done a great war every day since its founding, origin of the United States in settler service to the cause of socialism often covertly and often in several colonialism—as an empire born from in our country by highlighting the parts of the world at once. As ghastly the violent acquisition of indigenous themes of honesty and dedication as that sentence is, it still does not lands and the ruthless devaluation of in public life that characterised capture the full picture. Indeed, prior indigenous lives—lends the country Viswambharan’s checkered political to its founding, what would become unique characteristics that matter life. Through the narration of the United States was engaged—as it when considering questions of how relevant anecdotes and linking would continue to be for more than to unhitch its future from its violent them with the political history of a century following its founding—in DNA. the country, the author has painted internal warfare to piece together its The United States is not an inspiring picture of a man, who continental territory. Even during exceptional in the amount of violence till the end of his last breath, never the Civil War, both the Union and or bloodshed when compared to compromised with the ideal of Confederate armies continued to colonial conquests in Africa, Asia, genuine socialism and made sincere war against the nations of the Diné the Caribbean and South America. efforts at promoting Gandhian and Apache, the Cheyenne and the Elimination of the native is implicit socialism, which alone holds Dakota, inflicting hideous massacres in settler colonialism and colonial promise for our country, plagued upon civilians and forcing their projects in which large swaths of by the evils of hatred, religious relocations. Yet when considering land and workforces are sought for bigotry, obscurantism, fanaticism, the history of US imperialism and commercial exploitation. Extreme factionalism, corruption and the like. militarism, few historians trace their violence against noncombatants To cite from the preface by eminent genesis to this period of internal was a defining characteristic of all 14 JANATA, December 2, 2018

European colonialism, often with fighters” outside any organised applied to fighting the Mexican genocidal results. military institution. While large, Republic. At the time of its The privatisation of land is at highly regimented “regular” armies independence from Spain in 1821, the core of the US experiment, and fought over geopolitical goals in the territory of Mexico included its military powerhouse was born to Europe, Anglo settlers in North what is now the states of California, expropriate resources. Apt, then, that America waged deadly irregular New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, we once again have a real estate man warfare against the continent’s Nevada, Utah and Texas. Upon for president. indigenous nations to seize their independence, Mexico continued the Rather, what distinguishes land, resources and roads, driving practice of allowing non-Mexicans the United States is the triumphal them westward and eventually to acquire large swaths of land for mythology attached to that violence forcibly relocating them west of development under land grants, with and its political uses, even to this the Mississippi. Even following the the assumption that this would also day. The post–9/11 external and founding of the professional US mean the welcome eradication of internal US war against Muslims-as- Army in the 1810s, irregular warfare indigenous peoples. By 1836 nearly “barbarians” finds its prefiguration was the method of the US conquest 40,000 Americans, nearly all slavers in the “savage wars” of the American of the Ohio Valley, Great Lakes, (and not counting the enslaved), colonies and the early US state Southeast and Mississippi Valley had moved to Mexican Texas. Their against Native Americans. And regions, then west of the Mississippi ranger militias were a part of the when there were, in effect, no Native to the Pacific, including taking half settlement, and in 1835 became Americans left to fight, the practice of Mexico. Since that time, irregular formally institutionalised as the of “savage wars” remained. In the methods have been used in tandem Texas Rangers. Their principal state- twentieth century, well before the with operations of regular armed sponsored task was the eradication War on Terror, the United States forces and are, perhaps, what most of the Comanche nation and all other carried out large-scale warfare in marks US armed forces as different Native peoples in Texas. Mounted the Philippines, Europe, Korea and from other armies of global powers. and armed with the new killing Vietnam; prolonged invasions and By the presidency of Andrew machine, the five-shot Colt Paterson occupations in Cuba, Nicaragua, Jackson (1829–37), whose lust revolver, they did so with dedicated Haiti and the Dominican Republic; for displacing and killing Native precision. and counterinsurgencies in Columbia Americans was unparalleled, the Having perfected their art and Southern Africa. In all instances, character of the US armed forces in counterinsurgency operations the United States has perceived itself had come, in the national imaginary, against Comanches and other Native to be pitted in war against savage to be deeply entangled with the communities, the Texas Rangers forces. mystique of indigenous nations—as went on to play a significant role Appropriating the land from its though, in adopting the practices of in the US invasion of Mexico. stewards was racialised war from the irregular warfare, US soldiers had As seasoned counterinsurgents, first British settlement in Jamestown, become the very thing they were they guided US Army forces deep pitting “civilisation” against fighting. This persona involved a into Mexico, engaging in the “savagery.” Through this pursuit, certain identification with the Native Battle of Monterrey. Rangers also the US military gained its unique enemy, marking the settler as Native accompanied General Winfield character as a force with mastery in American rather than European. Scott’s army and the Marines by sea, “irregular” warfare. In spite of this, This was part of the sleight of hand landing in Vera Cruz and mounting a most military historians pay little by which US Americans came to siege of Mexico’s main commercial attention to the so-called Indian Wars genuinely believe that they had a port city. They then marched on, from 1607 to 1890, as well as the rightful claim to the continent: they leaving a path of civilian corpses 1846–48 invasion and occupation of had fought for it and “become” its and destruction, to occupy Mexico Mexico. Yet it was during the nearly indigenous inhabitants. City, where the citizens called them two centuries of British colonisation Irregular military techniques that Texas Devils. In defeat and under of North America that generations of were perfected while expropriating military occupation, Mexico ceded settlers gained experience as “Indian Native American lands were then the northern half of its territory to JANATA, December 2, 2018 15 the United States, and Texas became have a real estate man for president, make themselves visible—as they a state in 1845. Soon after, in 1860, much like the first president, George have for the past decade, and now Texas seceded, contributing its Washington, whose fortune came more than ever with a vocal white Rangers to the Confederate cause. mainly from his success speculating nationalist president—they are After the Civil War, the Texas on unceded Indian lands. The US dismissed as marginal, rather than Rangers picked up where they had governmental structure is designed being understood as the spiritual left off, pursuing counterinsurgency to serve private property interests, descendants of the settlers. White against both remaining Native the primary actors in establishing supremacists are not wrong when communities and resistant Mexicans. the United States being slavers and they claim that they understand The Marines also trace half of land speculators. That is, the United something about the American their mythological origins to the States was founded as a capitalist Dream that the rest of us do not, invasion of Mexico that nearly empire. This was exceptional in the though it is nothing to brag about. completed the continental United world and has remained exceptional, Indeed, the origins of the United States. The opening lyric of the though not in a way that benefits States are consistent with white official hymn of the Marine Corps, humanity. The military was designed nationalist ideology. And this is composed and adopted in 1847, is to expropriate resources, guarding where those of us who wish for “From the Halls of Montezuma to them against loss, and will continue peace and justice must start: with the shores of Tripoli.” Tripoli refers to do so if left to its own devices full awareness that we are trying to to the First Barbary War of 1801–5, under the control of rapacious fundamentally change the nature of when the Marines were dispatched capitalists. the country, which will always be to North Africa by President Thomas When extreme white nationalists extremely difficult work. Jefferson to invade the Berber Nation, shelling the city of Tripoli, Major BDS Victories in 2018 taking captives, and blockading key Barbary ports for nearly four years. Four decades ago, in 1977 the as a Special International Regime The “Hall of Montezuma,” though, United Nations General Assembly for Jerusalem. refers to the invasion of Mexico: (UNGA) named November 29 as The UN Secretary-General while the US Army occupied what the International Day of Solidarity Antonio Guterres reaffirmed the is now California, Arizona and New with the Palestinian People. Since 1947 resolution on November 28, Mexico, the Marines invaded by then, every year on this day the UN, 2018, saying that the leadership sea and marched to Mexico City, different countries, rights groups and of Israel and Palestine should take murdering and torturing civilian activists express their solidarity with “bold steps and restore faith in the resisters along the way. Palestine. promise of Resolution 181, of two So what does it matter, for Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces, states living side-by-side in peace those of us who strive for peace the President of the 73rd Session of and security, fulfilling the legitimate and justice, that the US military the UNGA wrote on Twitter, "Let us national aspirations of both peoples, had its start in killing indigenous demonstrate our commitment to the with borders based on the 1967 lines populations, or that US imperialism Palestinian people by strengthening and Jerusalem as the capital of both has its roots in the expropriation of multilateralism and making the states - East Jerusalem being the indigenous lands? @UN work for all people—for capital of the Palestinian state." It matters because it tells us human rights, peace and security and India and South Africa also that the privatisation of lands and sustainable development.” showed their solidarity with other forms of human capital are at Thirty years prior to the Palestinian people. the core of the US experiment. The declaration of November 29 as the While this symbolic message of militaristic–capitalist powerhouse international day for solidarity with solidarity with Palestinian people of the United States derives from Palestinians, in 1947, the UN adopted is seen every year, the reality and real estate (which includes African resolution 181 (II), which called for brutality of Israel’s occupation bodies, as well as appropriated the establishment of an independent remain unchanged. land). It is apt that we once again Israeli and Palestinian state as well Diplomatic delcarations and 16 JANATA, December 2, 2018 resolutions may not affect Israel's Yousef Munayyer, responded: match with Israel. ongoing occupation, human rights "When a civil society movement After announcing the decision violations, and outright colonisation of oppressed people asks you not to cancel the match, Israel tried of Palestinian land, as they represent to play in the state that oppresses to spin the story as the result of no tangible cost for Israel. them and uses cultural performance frightened football players and However, far away from to whitewash their image, rejecting violent Palestinians. However, diplomatic centers, the Palestinian- their request *IS* a political days after the announcement the led Boycott, Divestment, and statement and it is not one history president of the Argentine Football Sanctions (BDS) movement will judge kindly." Association Claudio Tapia said, has scored major victories that After enough pressure she and 14 “I hope everyone understands this threaten Israel's normalization of more artists refused to "whitewash" decision I made as a contribution to the occupation of Palestine through the Israel occupation. world peace” and player Gonzalo economic pressure and increasing Higuain said in an interview with cultural and academic isolation. 2. Filmakers Boycott Tel Aviv ESPN, “I think at the end we were The non-violent BDS movement, LGBT International Film Festival able to do the right thing.” founded in 2005 by 170 Palestinian In June, the BDS movement In July Adidas stopped unions, political parties, refugee celebrated that 14 film directors sponsoring the Israel Football networks, and among others, women from Brazil, France, Ireland, Spain, Association (IFA). The decision organizations has gained such Pakistan, and more cancelled their came after over 130 Palestinian renown that it was nominated for participation in the Tel Aviv LGBT football clubs urged the company the Nobel Peace Prize. International Film Festival citing to end its sponsorship to IFA, which Inspired in South Africa’s anti- BDS. includes clubs based in settlements, apartheid movement, BDS calls "In total, fourteen filmmakers "stolen land." for non-violent pressure on Israel and other artists canceled their through boycotting organisations participation or declared their 4. Ireland's Ban of Goods Produced linked to Israel, withdrawing support for boycotting the festival in Illegal Israeli Settlements investment from Israeli companies, because it is sponsored by the Israeli BDS secured another victory and sanctioning the county until government, and is therefore clearly when in July, Ireland became the Israel: 1) recognises the right of subject to the Palestinian call for first country to approve a ban on all Palestinian refugees to return; 2) cultural boycott until Israel ceases its trade with illegal Israeli settlements ends the military occupation of systematic violations of Palestinian in the occupied West Bank. Palestine; and 3) ends the apartheid human rights. Filmmakers also The Irish senate approved the regime by recognising equal rights expressed their opposition to the Occupied Territories Bill. The Irish for Palestinians. festival’s “pinkwashing,” or cynical government opposed the legislation, Here are five of the BDS use of LGBTQI rights to cover up but 25 independent and opposition Movement's main victories this year: and normalise Israel’s regime of lawmakers secured its approval. oppression against Palestinians," 1. Meteor Festival Dropped by 15 BDS stated. 5. Academics Turn Their Backs to Artists Apartheid After calls by BDS activists, 3. Argentina Cancels Friendly This May, students of the 15 artists boycotted Israel’s Meteor Match with Israel Department of Philosophy and Festival in September. Among the Under the hashtag Humanities of Chile’s largest public most important artists to cancel their #NothingFriendly BDS activists university, Universidad de Chile, performance in Tel Aviv was Lana and footballers in Gaza who had voted to endorse BDS. Del Rey from the United States and sustained injuries due to Israeli As the Israeli army was shooting Of Montreal from Canada. use of live ammunition against and killing Palestinian protesters Del Rey was reluctant at first, Palestinian protesters taking part in in Gaza, and the United States arguing that her performance was the Great March of Return, urged the inaugurated its new embassy in the not political. Argentine team to cancel a friendly occupied city of Jerusalem, students JANATA, December 2, 2018 17 in Chile voted to sever ties with BDS supporters have faced semitic. the University of Tel Aviv and the growing criticism by Israeli officials BDS’ most symbolic Hebrew University of Jerusalem. and Zionist organizations that insist endorsement this year was by In the US, in September, a in accusing them of being anti- prominent Israeli theatre actor and professor and a teaching assistant semitic. Pink Floyd’s former member director, Itay Tiran, who came out from the University of Michigan Roger Waters and BDS promoter has in defense of the BDS movement denied writing recommendation responded to this accusation arguing in September, calling it “a perfectly letters to two students whose that defending the human rights of legitimate form of resistance.” destination of study was Israel. They Palestinans cannot be called anti- Courtesy: Telesur cited BDS. Our New International Movement Will Fight Rising Fascism and Globalists

Yanis Varoufakis United States socialist politician had been treated for too long like Brexiteers’ sudden appreciation Bernie Sanders and former Greek livestock that had lost its market of a National Health Service they finance minister Yanis Varoufakis value. Instead of treating them like had starved of funds for decades, have announced the formation “deplorables”, fascists looked at or the energetic embracing of of an international progressive them in the eye and promised to democracy that Thatcherism had movement to combat the rise of restore their pride, offered their subordinated to the logic of market an “authoritarian axis” and “The friendship, gave them a sense that forces? Are these not the ways Movement,” a far-right nationalist they belonged to a larger ideal, of the hard right governments in front with an international reach. allowed them to think of themselves Austria, Hungary and Poland, of Below is a statement by Yanis as something more than sovereign Greece’s Golden Dawn Nazis and, Varoufakis on the reasons for the consumers. most poignantly, of Matteo Salvini, initiative. That injection of self-esteem was the strongman steering the new Our era will be remembered for accompanied by warnings against Italian government? Everywhere the triumphant march of a globally the lurking “alien” who threatened we look today we see manifestations unifying rightwing—a Nationalist their revived hope. The politics of of the resurgence of an ambitious International—that sprang out of the “us versus them” took over, bleached Nationalist International, the likes cesspool of financialised capitalism. of social class characteristics and of which we have not seen since the Whether it will also be remembered defined solely in terms of identities. 1930s. As for the establishment, they for a successful humanist challenge The fear of losing status turned into are behaving as if with a penchant to to this menace depends on the tolerance of human rights abuses first repeat the Weimar Republic’s every willingness of progressives in the against the suspect “others” and then mistake. United States, the European Union, against any and all dissent. Soon, But enough of the diagnosis. The the United Kingdom as well as as the establishment’s control over pertinent question now is: what must countries like Mexico, India and politics waned under the weight of we do? A tactical alliance with the South Africa, to forge a coherent the economic crisis it had caused, the globalist establishment is out of the Progressive International. progressives ended up marginalised question. Tony Blair, Hilary Clinton, Our task is not unprecedented. or in prison. By then it was all over. the social democratic establishment Fascists did not come to power in Is this not how Donald in continental Europe are too the mid-war period by promising Trump first conquered the White compromised by their monetary violence, war or concentration House and is now winning the links to a degenerating financialised camps. They came to power by discursive war against a Democratic capitalism and its accompanying addressing good people who, party establishment? Is this not ideology. For decades they relied following a severe capitalist crisis, reminiscent of the Conservative on free market populism: the false 18 JANATA, December 2, 2018 promise that everyone can become can be revived in richer and poorer population owns more wealth than better off as long as we submit to countries at once. the bottom 99%, that multinational commodification. They’d like us to Even more ambitiously, our corporations and the wealthy stash believe in a never-ending escalator Progressive International must over $21 trillion in offshore bank that will take us to the heights of propose an International Monetary accounts to avoid paying their fair consumer satisfaction, but it doesn’t Clearing Union, of the type John share of taxes, and that the fossil exist. Maynard Keynes suggested during fuel industry continues to destroy the Our generation’s 1929, which the Bretton Woods conference planet because countries are unable occurred in 2008, shattered this in 1944, including well-designed to cooperate effectively to combat illusion. The establishment continued restrictions on capital movements. climate change. as if it were possible to mend things By rebalancing wages, trade While the very rich get much via a combination of austerity for the and finance at a global scale, richer, people all over the globe are many, socialism for the very few and both involuntary migration and working longer hours for stagnating authoritarianism all around. All the involuntary unemployment will wages, and fear for their children’s while, the Nationalist International recede, thus ending the moral panic future. Authoritarians exploit has been riding to victory, fuelled over the human right to move freely these economic anxieties, creating by growing discontent. To counter about the world. scapegoats which pit one group this power, progressives must And who is going to piece against another. specify very precisely the causes together this desperately needed The solution, as Varoufakis and nature of the people’s unrest Progressive International? Happily, points out, is an international and unhappiness: namely, the global there is no shortage of potential progressive agenda that brings oligarchy’s intense class war against initiators: Bernie Sanders’s working people together around a the burgeoning precariat, against “political revolution” in the US, vision of shared prosperity, security what is left of the western proletariat Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party, our and dignity for all people. The fate and, generally, against weaker Democracy in Europe Movement of the world is at stake. Let us go citizens. (DiEM25), Mexico’s president- forward together now! Next, we need to demonstrate elect, the progressive elements of that the only way the many can regain the African National Congress, the control of our lives, our communities, various movements fighting against Janata our cities and our countries is by bigotry and austerity in India. coordinating our struggles along the Let us begin today. More will is available at axis of an Internationalist New Deal. follow us the moment when hatred www.lohiatoday.com While globalised financial capital and anger yield to rational hope. can no longer be allowed to tear Yanis Varoufakis is the former our societies into shreds, we must Greek finance minister and co- Janata Subscription explain that no country is an island. founder of DiEM25 whose New Deal Annual Rs. : 260/- Just like climate change demands for Europe will be put to European of us both local and international voters in the May 2019 European Three Years : 750/- action, so too does the fight against Parliament elections Demand Draft / poverty, private debt and rogue Bernie Sanders’ comments on Cheque on bankers. To illustrate that tariffs are Yanis Varoufakis’ piece: Mumbai Bank not the best way of protecting our Yanis Varoufakis is exactly right. in favour of workers, since they mostly enrich At a time of massive global wealth local oligarchies, we must campaign and income inequality, oligarchy, JANATA TRUST for trade agreements that commit rising authoritarianism and D-15, Ganesh Prasad, governments of poorer countries to militarism, we need a Progressive Naushir Bharucha Marg, legislating minimum living wages International movement to counter Grant Road (W), for their workers and guaranteed these threats. It is not acceptable Mumbai 400 007. jobs locally. That way communities that the top 1% of the world’s JANATA, December 2, 2018 19 R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, December 2, 2018 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. 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Vol. 73 No. 46 Manifesto of Indian Farmers December 9, 2018 Adopted by an assembly representing the farmers of India on the occasion of the historic Kisan Mukti March organised by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Babri Masjid: What Should Coordination Committee, Delhi, 30 November 2018. Muslims do? Irfan Engineer We, The Farmers of India, Fundamental Rights and The Ease of Killing a Policeman The producers of primary Directive Principles of State in Adityanath's Uttar Pradesh agricultural commodities; Policy; Harish Khare • including women, dalit, nomadic Another Time, Another Mosque and adivasi farmers; Recognising Our Responsibility Dilip Simeon • landowners, tenants, • as honest hard workers who face The Maratha Agitation for sharecroppers, agricultural numerous odds; Reservations: Part II labourers and plantation • as bearers of historical Neeraj Jain workers; knowledge, skills and culture; Climate Activists Take Civil • fishworkers, milk producers, • as agents of food safety, security Disobedience World-Wide poultry farmers, livestock and sovereignty; and Chloé Farand rearers, pastoralists, and • as guardians of biodiversity and The Protests in Argentina and collectors of minor forest ecological sustainability; France: Where is the Co-relation? produce; and, Peter Koenig • everyone engaged in crop Recalling the Principles of Open Letter to Senator Bernie cultivation, shifting cultivation, • economic viability; Sanders apiculture, sericulture, • ecological sustainability; and vermiculture, and agro-forestry; • equality with social and Editor : G. G. Parikh economic justice; Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain Convinced that • well-being of farmers is not just Yet Alarmed at Managing Editor : Guddi about economic survival of a • economic, ecological, social Editorial Board : majority of indian households, and existential crisis of Indian B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali it is about retaining our national agriculture; Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah dignity and our civilisational • ecological degradation and Amarendra Dhaneshwar, heritage; destruction affecting farmers and their livelihoods; Sandeep Pandey • farmers are not just a residue from our past; farmers, agriculture • unprecedented increase in D-15, Ganesh Prasad, and village community are diversion and destruction of Naushir Bharucha Marg, integral to the future of india and agricultural land, privatisation Mumbai - 400 007. the world; and, of water, forced displacement, Email : [email protected] • the demands of the farmers’ deprivation and migration Website:www.janataweekly.org movements are fully consistent affecting security of food and with our Constitutional Vision, livelihood; 2 JANATA, December 9, 2018

• persistent state of neglect of Agricultural Commodities Bill, Resettlement Act, 2013 at the agriculture and discrimination 2018. state level; and evolve land use against farming communities; and agricultural land protection • increasing vulnerability of And Also Demand that the policy; farmers to extortion by powerful Government of India Must: 7. Mandate the sugar mills to pay village and government officials; 1. Increase the number of interest @ 15% p.a. if cane dues • deepening penetration of large, guaranteed employment days are not paid to the cane-growers predatory and profiteering under MGNREGS to 200 days within 14 days of the delivery of corporations that are already in per family, and ensure wage cane; FRP of cane to be fixed by control of significant sectors of payment within the period linking it to 9.5% recovery of Indian agriculture; guaranteed by statute and at par sugar; • spate of farmers’ suicides across with legal minimum wages for 8. Withdraw pesticides that the country and unbearable unskilled farm labour; have been banned elsewhere burden of indebtedness; 2. Reduce the cost of inputs for and not approve GM seeds • widening disparities between farmers either by regulating without a comprehensive farmers and other sectors in our industry price or offering subsidy needs, alternatives and impact society; and, directly to farmers; assessment; • growing attack of governments 3. Provide comprehensive social 9. Disallow Foreign Direct on the farmers’ struggles; security for all farm households Investment in agriculture Solemnly Affirm Our Constitutional including pension @ at least and food processing, and Right to Rs. 5,000 per month per farmer remove agriculture from Free • life and dignified livelihood; above the age of 60; Trade Agreements, including • social security and protection 4. Universalise the benefits of the proposed Regional against natural and other the Public Distribution System Comprehensive Economic calamities; including cereals and nutri- Partnership (RCEP); • land, water, forest and all natural cereals, pulses, sugar and oils 10. Require identification resources including common without linking it to Aadhar and registration of all real property resources; or biometric identification and cultivators including tenant • diversity in seeds, food systems without shifting to direct cash farmers, sharecroppers, women and sustainable technological transfer; farmers, lessee cultivators and choices; and, 5. Address the menace of stray rural workers etc. for purposes • freedom of expression, animals by removing all legal and of accessing benefits of all organisation, representation and vigilante-imposed restrictions government schemes; and struggle through constitutional on cattle trade, compensating 11. Stop uprooting adivasi farmers means for realisation of our farmers for destruction of crops in the name of afforestation, demands and shaping our future; by wild and stray animals and ensure strict implementation supporting animal shelters; without dilution of Panchayat Therefore, Call Upon the Parliament of India to Immediately 6. Stop land acquisition or land (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Hold a Special Session to address pooling without informed Act and Forests Rights Act, the agrarian crisis by passing and consent of the farmers; no 2006; enacting the two Kisan Mukti Bills acquisition or diversion of And, Further, Urge the that are of, by and for the farmers of agricultural land for commercial Government to Evolve Policies to India, namely, land development or for creation 1. The Farmers’ Freedom from of land banks; prevent the 12. Provide land and livelihood Indebtedness Bill, 2018; and bypassing or dilution of The rights to the landless, including 2. The Farmers’ Right to Right to Fair Compensation agricultural and homestead land, Guaranteed Remunerative and Transparency in Land water for fishing, mining of Minimum Support Prices for Acquisition, Rehabilitation and minor minerals etc; JANATA, December 9, 2018 3 13. Ensure timely, effective and Babri Masjid: What Should Muslims do? adequate compensation for crop loss due to natural disasters; implement a comprehensive Irfan Engineer crop insurance that benefits farmers and not just insurance A section of Hindu supremacist court. They are also interfering in the companies and that covers all organisations are once again dispensation of justice by resorting types of risks for all crops and mobilising to demand the to intimidation. Why is the apex for all farmers, with individual construction of Ramjanmabhoomi court not proceeding for contempt of farm as the unit of damage temple (RJT) in Ayodhya on the court suo moto against all those who assessment; reverse anti-farmer spot where Babri Masjid once make such provocative statements changes in the Manual for stood and was demolished on perhaps tells its own story. Drought Management; 6 December 1992. Provocative The Hindu supremacists are 14. Build assured protective speeches are being made and threats deliberately twisting the facts irrigation through sustainable are being issued. Sentiments of about the issues involved in the means for farmers, especially in Hindus are being aroused around the Babri Masjid–RJT case. Basically the rain-fed areas; construction of Ramjanmabhoomi the case pertains to title suit of 15. Ensure remunerative temple. Media too is playing the 2.77 acres of land on which guaranteed prices for milk and ball and faithfully publicising the Babri Masjid once stood and was its procurement for dairies claims of Hindu supremacists that demolished on 6 December 1992. and to supplement nutritional sentiments of all Hindus are being Who was the legal owner of the security through Mid Day Meal hurt and that the temple needs to parcel of land in question and the Scheme and Integrated Child be constructed immediately. The structure on it? Development Scheme etc; Hindu supremacists remember RJT Through political mobilisation, as elections approach. the Hindu supremacists have been 16. Waive off all outstanding Most of the public speeches successful in converting the title agricultural loans of farmers seeking to arouse the sentiments suit into an issue of faith according from suicide-affected families of Hindus around RJT accuse to which Hindus believe the land and provide special opportunities the Supreme Court of India to be parcel to be the birth place of Lord to children of such families; insensitive to the feelings of Hindus Ram. Since they believe so, their 17. Protect the farmers from and even discriminating against faith should reign supreme, and corporate plunder in the name them. They argued that a terrorist, disregarding legal issues, the parcel of contract farming by reviewing Yakub Memon, was given hearing at of land should be handed over to the Contract Farming Act 2018; 3.00 am on 30 July 2015, as he was them for construction of RJT. They 18. Promote procurement, to be hanged till death the following further argue that Muslims have processing and marketing under morning. Adjourning the matter not prayed in the Babri Masjid Farmer Producer Organisations would have required a stay on his since 1949 and therefore the place and Peasant Cooperatives hanging, and not hearing his final is not a mosque any more. Further, instead of corporatisation of plea would have left the court open they argue that Muslims can pray agriculture and takeover by to the charge of not doing justice. anywhere and therefore it is not MNCs; and Therefore, the charge that the apex essential and integral part of their 19. Promote an agro-ecology court does not have time to hear the religion. Some even argue that since paradigm that is based on “issues of Hindus” is without any the Babri Masjid was constructed suitable cropping patterns and basis. after the demolition of a temple, it local seed diversity revival, Besides comparing apples and was done so in violation of tenets so as to build economically oranges, their outbursts also amount of Islam and therefore it was never viable, ecologically sustainable, to contempt of court as they are a mosque. Be as it may, it is for the autonomous and climate resilient discourteous towards the court and apex court to do justice on the basis agriculture. seek to lower the dignity of the of laws as applicable in the land. 4 JANATA, December 9, 2018

The dispute is not for temple or been answered with certainty by and Shiv Sena. Their target was the mosque anymore most Hindus, including those in Supreme Court which they do not Although the dispute appears to Ayodhya. Overwhelming number seem to trust, fearing that Supreme be between the Hindu community of Hindus would have been clueless, Court’s outcome might not be based and the Muslim community, it is except saying that the Lord was on faith but law and justice. Their not so! That is what the Hindu born in Ayodhya. Ayodhya city has demand was that the Parliament supremacists want to turn the dispute more than 14 temples located in pass a legislation to hand over the into. If it becomes one between the various places claiming to be on entire land on which Babri Masjid two communities, then on the basis Ramjanmabhoomi which have now once stood for the construction of of sheer might of numbers and been demolished to make way for RJT. Construction of RJT on ruins levers of power controlled by the another one. The faith pertaining of Babri Masjid is simultaneously elite of the Hindu community, the to a precise spot where Lord Ram laying the foundation stone of Hindu supremacists stand to win was born has been constructed in Hindu Rashtra, a communal state hands down! Construction of RJT the late eighties using mobilisation that privileges the elite of Hindu has become a milestone in asserting for political outcomes aided by the community and relegates the rest ‘faith’ and power of the Hindu mass media. who do not subscribe to Hindutva supremacists. All Hindus are not The plea of supremacy of faith political ideology and its faith to Ram bhaktas and all Ram bhaktas over facts and law is not a religious second class citizens without any are not in favour of the RJT on the project but a political agenda. For, rights. very spot where Babri Masjid was to privilege faith of one section The conflict therefore is not demolished. of populace sharing a particular between Hindu community and Although the issue—whether religion over other faiths, and more Muslim community, but between Hindus believe that Lord Ram was importantly over demonstrable those who want India to be born on the very spot where Babri truths, requires a theocratic state, democratic, diverse and liberal, Masjid once stood, was answered not a democratic state which gives respecting all faiths, including that by the Allahabad High Court in space to all religions, faiths and of rationalists and atheists, dignity affirmative, the Hon’ble court did beliefs subject to certain reasonable of all individuals and equality of not have any sufficient material to restrictions in the interest of peace, all citizens on the one hand, and reach the conclusion. There was harmony, equality, liberties and those who want India to be one no referendum or even a fairly dignity of all individuals. The homogenous society with the state representative survey carried out mobilisation of gullible sections regimenting religion, where state to ascertain beliefs of the members willing to subscribe to the faith being and community elders overlook of Hindu community on the issue. propounded by Hindu supremacists, matrimonial alliances, where faith The constant mobilisation by Hindu forcing the state to hand over the and truth are what the community supremacist and the nature of media parcel of land based on their faith elites declare them to be so. That coverage may have coloured the for construction of RJT, is therefore latter notion is against Hindu religion judgement of the court. South of a political mobilisation to hammer as propounded by great saints like Vindhyas, the issue of RJT and place nails in the coffin of democracy. Kabir, Ravi Das, Mirabai, Chokha of birth of Lord Ram is of much More than construction of RJT, the Mela, Aakho, Narsi Mehta, Sree less consequence than the north. Hindu supremacists are keen on Naryana Guru, Basavanna, Swami The working classes and castes are dismantling the democratic state Vivekananda, Guru Nanak, Buddha, much less bothered as to where Lord which affords more or less equal and many other saints. Ram was born, although they have space to all faiths subject to certain Muslims should leave resolution firm faith in Lord Ram. Dalit leader reasonable restrictions. That is why of the dispute regarding Babri Chandrashekhar Azad has in fact there were series of mobilisations Masjid–RJT to the Supreme Court named himself “Ravan”. and show of strength by various and to those Hindus who follow the Before the year 1985, the Hindu supremacist organisations, saints mentioned above. It is more question, ‘where precisely was including Vishwa Hindu Parishad, important to defend the Constitution Lord Ram born?’ would not have Hindu Mahasabha, Dharmasabha and constitutional idea of diverse, JANATA, December 9, 2018 5 inclusive India where all citizens The Muslim community needs deepen democracy and build a enjoy equal rights, liberties of to focus on secular education as democratic state that is accountable thought, expression and conscience, Sir Sayyid did in the late 19th to its citizens. The Muslim political where dignity of all citizens is upheld century. Education would enable leadership should apply itself to and there is social justice. The members of the community to join building structures of accountability difficulty is that the religious leaders the civil services and other important and institutional mechanisms like and political elite of the Muslim professions. Matured intellectual Equal Opportunity Commission. community also do not desire the leadership of the community can The political, intellectual idea of India which is democratic come only from the educated class and religious leadership of the and respects the Constitution. They that can steer them out of their social community needs to apply itself to too give precedence to their faith and educational backwardness. reforms in family laws that are within over the Constitution, law, liberties The political leadership of the the framework of Islam as well as the and social justice. This was evident community needs to address itself to Constitution. Presently, it resists any from the affidavit they filed in the the issues of security and communal reforms even though many Muslim Supreme Court in support of triple violence along with discrimination, countries have carried out reforms. talaq denying equality to women seeking justice and remedies through Reforms should particularly ensure on the plea of right to follow their constitutional mechanisms. In order equality and equal status of women religious laws or Muslim Personal to be able to do so, the leadership in the community in accordance with Law. This was also in evidence will have to build alliances with the Quranic spirit. when they demanded ban on Salman other marginalised classes who face If these steps are debated within Rushdie’s book Satanic Verses, and similar discrimination, oppression the community and followed, it when they mobilised to oppose the and violence in their daily life. The would go a long way in weakening Shah Bano judgement that granted alliance with other marginalised the Hindu supreamacists. More than maintenance to a divorced Muslim groups should not be opportunistic Babri Masjid, we need a democratic woman under section 125 of the and only for political power, but India, educated India and an India Indian Penal Code. should seek political power to build that embraces gender justice and In fact the demand to open the robust democratic institutions that diversity. locks of RJT for darshan and worship defend human rights of all citizens, Email: [email protected] of Lord Ram and construction of a grand RJT got a tremendous boost The Ease of Killing a Policeman in after they forced the Rajiv Gandhi Government to bring in a law in Adityanath's Uttar Pradesh Parliament to reverse the Shah Bano judgement of the Supreme Court. Harish Khare The Muslim community and its political leaders are doing well A warning shot has been fired. The warning is unmistakable: by maintaining silence over the The bullet that killed inspector police officers who dare to stand up Babri Masjid–Ramjanmabhoomi Subodh Kumar Singh in Bulandshahr to the lumpen ‘gau raksha’ mobs and dispute. They are neither giving in carries a chilling message for every try to enforce the law do so at their to the pressure of mobilisation by policeman and policewoman across own risk. And the risks will multiply. Hindu supremacists, nor are they the nation: don’t mess with the May be the nation has been repaid a defiantly opposing construction of Hindutva warrior, he is armed with hefty Yogi Dividend. the RJT, and instead are subjecting a gun. And this is New India, where Perhaps it can be argued that themselves to the judgment of impunity has already been granted to ruling India is no longer just the the Supreme Court. The Hindu one and all for killing any Muslim in business of a Narendra Modi–Amit supremacist have succeeded only the name of protecting the cow. Now, Shah holding company. A new, in getting some degenerate leaders an entitlement is being claimed for aggressive partner, Yogi Adityanath, of the community to do the bidding meting out mob justice in defence has crow-barred his way into this for them. of the cow. exclusive partnership. No doubt, 6 JANATA, December 9, 2018 the Uttar Pradesh chief minister has streets and in defiance of the apex inspector raj is back with a bang. And infused new energy and new verve in court when necessary. now, we have Adityanath mocking an otherwise bankrupt and faltering In this officially sanctioned the dreams and designs of the enterprise; suddenly, this mofussil climate of retaliation and vengeance, ‘Modi-the-moderniser’ constituency, man has become the defining voice it was only natural that a mob of ‘gau located mostly in Corporate India. of the New India, and he is painting rakshaks’ should have shot dead While the corporates have the Modi dispensation in the colours police inspector Singh. The killer insulated themselves in their own of his own medieval nastiness. mob must have felt totally at ease islands of security and prosperity, Yogi Adityanath is an incongruity in Yogi’s Uttar Pradesh. it is the vast middle classes who in any civilised, modern polity, and The Modi dispensation has would be frightened to the very core his ascendancy to the Uttar Pradesh brought to India a new ease of killing at the prospect of empowered mobs gaddi mocks all our pretence at being policemen, just as it has the much gunning down police inspectors. a ‘world power’. Yet this mahant has touted ‘ease of doing business’ in They may have a very justifiable been elevated as a star campaigner in India. We must wait for those hired anxiety about terrorism from across the Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, economists and other pamphleteers the border but they can be relied Rajasthan and Telangana assembly at the NITI Aayog to square the upon to figure out for themselves elections; he seems to have been two “eases”, but it can be easily that what happened in Bulandshar armed with a licence to inject predicted that the global community was terror in the streets. This kind communal venom and divisiveness, is not going to be exactly thrilled of killing will not be acceptable to all cynically aimed at preserving the with an India that is degenerating them. BJP’s crumbling Hindu vote-bank. effortlessly into a battleground for India’s middle classes—who It should be no surprise that the settling medieval scores. are, incidentally, overwhelmingly Yogi’s onward march has worked up No foreign businessman is going Hindu—desperately crave stability a stink beyond the poll-bound states. to come and ‘make it in India’ if the and peace in their neighbourhood, The Uttar Pradesh chief minister headlines continue to sizzle with in their city and in the nation. has managed to carve out a national reports of violence and lawlessness. They want to be assured of some presence only because the Modi And, the Modi–Yogi–Shah regime kind of peaceful order prevailing. regime’s romance with violence would not be the first cabal to over- Because they are keenly conscious has prepared the nation for Yogi’s estimate its capacity to roll-back of the precariousness of our civic blunt messages. In the past four marauding crowds. No regime has order, they have a vested interest in years, mobs have been empowered ever succeeded in calibrating mobs preserving the efficacy and ability as an instrument of intimidation and on the streets. of the policeman to uphold the retribution. Whatever narrative the Sangh magistracy of the law. They frown The ceaseless invocation parivar spin-masters may be able to upon and disapprove of all those of “terror,” Pakistan and Islam invent for the cold-blooded murder who appear to be countenancing has produced a psychology of of a police officer, the reverberations lawlessness. implacable anger and animosity from Bulandshahr will continue They can see that lawlessness towards India’s own minorities. to linger. We do not know if the and defiance of the courts seem Starting with the discovery of emergence of Yogi Adityanath as to be main working principles in ‘sedition’ at Jawaharlal Nehru the new mascot of our New India New India. The Modi–Yogi–Shah University, we have established a has caused any disquiet among dispensation is quietly encouraging protocol that anyone suspected of all those who desperately want to the ‘mandir crowd’ to ratchet up lacking in deshbhakti can be placed believe in Modi and his promise of the truculence in Ayodhya. It is this at the mercy of the ‘nationalist’ economic modernisation. For many cynical molly-coddling of assorted mob; suspects can be lynched on of them, their hopes stood belied sadhus and sants, all chanting the campus and in television studios. when Modi inflicted on India that ‘aastha’ mantra, that has emboldened And recently, we have discovered experiment in Fiscal Maoism called the murderous mob in Bulandshahr. the overriding appeal of aastha, or demonetisation. Every businessman What should be truly worrisome to faith, which must be asserted in the is discovering that the dreaded the middle classes is that the gau JANATA, December 9, 2018 7 rashak’s violence and intimidation India will go to any length to try across the land. This all adds up to have come to be valued as tools of to perpetuate themselves in power, a calculated suborning of public electoral mobilisation. even if it means unleashing chaos authority, inspired from above. The message from Bulandshahr and violence in the cities and villages Bulandshahr today, India tomorrow. is that our new saviours in this New Another Time, Another Mosque

Dilip Simeon Gandhi’s Last Fast: January year not only by Muslims but by last? I say I do not blame anyone. 13–18, 1948 thousands of non-Muslims too. Last Who am I to accuse others? I have From September 1947, the September this shrine was subjected said that we have all sinned.” communal situation in north India to the wrath of Hindu mobs. The He continued: “I shall terminate became grievous. Massacres were Muslims living in the vicinity of the fast only when peace has returned taking place in Punjab and Sindh, the shrine for the last 800 years had to Delhi. If peace is restored to Delhi sparking off the migration of over ten to leave their homes. I mention this it will have effect not only on the million Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. sad episode to tell you that, though whole of India but also on Pakistan In September, hundreds of Muslims Muslims love the shrine, today no and when that happens, a Muslim of Delhi had been killed in Karol Muslim can be found anywhere near can walk around in the city all by Bagh, Subzi Mandi and Paharganj. it. It is the duty of the Hindus, Sikhs, himself. I shall then terminate the Tens of thousands of Hindu and the officials and the Government to fast. Delhi is the capital of India. It Sikh refugees from Punjab were open the shrine again and wash off has always been the capital of India. crammed into Diwan Hall, Chandni this stain on us. The same applies to So long as things do not return to Chowk and Kingsway Camp; while other shrines and religious places of normal in Delhi, they will not be thousands of Muslims, including Muslims in and around Delhi. The normal either in India or in Pakistan. Meos from Alwar and Bharatpur, time has come when both India and Today I cannot bring Suhrawardy camped in fear in Jamia Millia, Pakistan must unequivocally declare here because I fear someone may Puran Qila and Humayun’s Tomb. to the majorities in each country that insult him. Today he cannot walk The life of Dr Zakir Husain, VC of they will not tolerate desecration of about in the streets of Delhi. If he did Jamia Millia and president of the religious places, be they small or big. he would be assaulted. What I want is Hindustani Talimi Sangh, was saved They should also undertake to repair that he should be able to move about by a Sikh army captain and a Hindu the places damaged during riots.” here even in the dark. It is true that he railway official. Upon arrival in This was the background to made efforts in Calcutta only when Delhi on September 9, Gandhi was his last protest. There was also the Muslims became involved. Still, asked to stay not in the sweepers matter of the Government’s decision he could have made the situation colony (his preferred residence in to withhold payment of Pakistan’s worse, if he had wanted, but he did the city), but in Birla House. Gandhi share of undivided India’s sterling not want to make things worse. He plunged into the turmoil around him, balance. We may take it that the fast made the Muslims evacuate the travelling to nearby places, talking was undertaken both to restore the places they had forcibly occupied to refugees and cadres of social mosque and to convey to the public and said that he being the Premier organisations. On December 22, his feelings about ongoing events. It could do so. Although the places he made this announcement at his began on January 13, 1948 and was occupied by the Muslims belonged prayer meeting: announced at his prayer meeting that to Hindus and Sikhs, he did his duty. “Some eight or ten miles from evening. He said: “Now that I have Even if it takes a whole month to here, at Mehrauli, there is a shrine started my fast many people cannot have real peace established in Delhi, of Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Chisti. understand what I am doing, who it does not matter. People should Esteemed as second only to the are the offenders—Hindus or Sikhs not do anything merely to have me shrine at Ajmer, it is visited every or Muslims. How long will the fast terminate the fast. So my wish is that 8 JANATA, December 9, 2018

Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and a sacred juncture, they mislead me “We wish to announce that it is Muslims who are in India should with a view to terminating my fast.” our heart-felt desire that the Hindus, continue to live in India and India On January 18, Gandhi ended his Muslims and Sikhs and members of should become a country where fast. Over a hundred representatives the other communities should once everyone’s life and property are safe. of various groups and organisations again live in Delhi like brothers and Only then will India progress.” including the Hindu Mahasabha, in perfect amity and we take the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pledge that we shall protect the life, The People’s Reaction and Jamiat-ul-Ulema who had property and faith of Muslims and Delhi was visibly affected assembled at Rajendra Prasad’s that the incidents which have taken by Gandhi’s fast. Addressing a residence, called on Gandhiji at place in Delhi will not happen again. gathering of three hundred thousand 11.30 am. Those present included “We want to assure Gandhiji that people on January 17, Maulana Jawaharlal Nehru, Abul Kalam the annual fair at Khwaja Qutub-ud- Azad announced seven tests given Azad, Rajendra Prasad, INA General Din Mazar will be held this year as him by Gandhi to be fulfilled and Shah Nawaz Khan, Hifzur Rahman in the previous years. guaranteed by responsible people. and Zaheed Hussain, Pakistan’s “Muslims will be able to move They included freedom of worship High Commissioner. Dr Rajendra about in Subzimandi, Karol Bagh, to Muslims at the tomb of Khwaja Prasad reported that even those who Paharganj and other localities just Bakhtiar Chishti; non-interference had some doubts on the previous as they could in the past. with the Urs festival due to be held night were confident that they “The mosques which have been there; the voluntary evacuation by could ask Gandhiji with a full sense left by Muslims and which now non-Muslims of all mosques in of responsibility to break the fast. are in the possession of Hindus Delhi that were being used as houses As the President of the Congress, and Sikhs will be returned. The or which had been converted into Rajendra Prasad said that he had areas which have been set apart temples; free movement of Muslims signed the document in view of the for Muslims will not be forcibly in areas where they used to stay; guarantee which they had all jointly occupied. complete safety to Muslims while and severally given. Khurshid, the “We shall not object to the return travelling by train; no economic Chief Commissioner and Randhawa, to Delhi of the Muslims who have boycott of Muslims; and, freedom Deputy Commissioner of Delhi, migrated from here if they choose to to Muslim evacuees to return to had signed the document on behalf come back and Muslims shall be able Delhi.” That evening a procession of the administration. It had been to carry on their business as before. of citizens walked to Birla House decided to set up a number of “We assure that all these things where Jawaharlal Nehru addressed committees to implement the pledge. will be done by our personal effort them. Gandhi’s speech was read out Rajendra Prasad hoped that Gandhiji and not with the help of the police at the prayer meeting, attended by would now terminate his fast. or military. some four thousand people. Among Deshbandhu Gupta described scenes “We request Mahatmaji to other things, he said: of fraternisation between Hindus and believe us and to give up his fast “My fast should not be Muslims which he had witnessed and continue to lead us as he has considered a political move in any when a procession of Muslims was done hitherto.” sense of the term. It is in obedience taken out that morning in Subzimandi to the peremptory call of conscience and was received with ovation and Gandhi’s Speech on the Delhi and duty. It comes out of felt agony. offered fruit and refreshments by Declaration I call to witness all my numerous the Hindu inhabitants. A seven- In his reply, Gandhi said: Muslim friends in Delhi. Their point declaration in Hindi was read “I am happy to hear what you representatives meet me almost out solemnly affirming the people’s have told me, but if you have every day to report the day’s events. desire for communal harmony and overlooked one point all this will Neither Rajas and Maharajas nor civic peace. This read as follows: be worth nothing. If this declaration Hindus and Sikhs or any others means that you will safeguard Delhi would serve themselves or India Seven-Point Delhi Declaration of and whatever happens outside Delhi as a whole, if at this, what is to me January 18, 1948 will be no concern of yours, you JANATA, December 9, 2018 9 will be committing a grave error be than to claim that Hindustan is of both Hindus and Muslims are full and it will be sheer foolishness on only for Hindus and Pakistan is for of deceipt and treachery, why need I my part to break my fast. You must Muslims alone? The refugees here continue to live? . . . have seen the Press reports of the should realise that things in Pakistan “After listening to all that I have happenings in Allahabad. If not, will be set right by the example set said, if you still ask me to end my look them up. I understand that the in Delhi. I am not one to be afraid fast I shall end it. Afterwards you Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and of fasting. Time and again I have have to release me. I had taken the the Hindu Mahasabha are among gone on fasts and if occasion arises I vow to do or die in Delhi and now if the signatories to this declaration. may again do so. Whatever therefore I am able to achieve success here I It will amount to breach of faith on you do, do after careful thought and shall go to Pakistan and try to make their part if they hold themselves consideration. The Muslim friends Muslims understand their folly. responsible for peace in Delhi, but frequently meet me and assure me Whatever happens in other places, not in other places. I have been that peaceful atmosphere has been people in Delhi should maintain observing that this sort of deception restored in Delhi and Hindus and peace. The refugees here should is being practised in the country Muslims can live in amity here. If realise that they have to welcome these days on a large scale. Delhi these friends have any misgivings as brothers the Muslims returning is the heart—the capital of India. in their hearts and feel that today from Pakistan to Delhi. The Muslim The leaders from the whole of India they have perforce to stay here—as refugees in Pakistan are suffering have assembled here. Men had they have nowhere else to go to— acute hardships and so are the Hindu become beasts. But if those who but ultimately they will have to part refugees here. Hindus have not learnt have assembled here, who constitute company, let them admit it to me all the crafts of Muslim craftsmen. the cream among men, cannot make frankly. To set things right in the Therefore they had better return to the whole of India understand that whole of India and Pakistan is no India. There are good men as well Hindus, Muslims and followers of doubt a Herculean task. But I am as bad men in all the communities. other religions are like brothers, it an optimist. Once I resolve to do Taking into consideration all these bodes ill for both the Dominions. something I refuse to accept defeat. implications, if you ask me to break What will be the fate of India if Today you assure me that Hindus my fast I shall abide by your wish. we continue to quarrel with one and Muslims have become one, but if India will virtually become a prison another? . . . Let us take no step that Hindus continue to regard Muslims if the present conditions continue. It may become a cause for repentance as Yavans and asuras, incapable of may be better that you allow me to later on. The situation demands realising God, and Muslims regard continue my fast and if God wills it courage of the highest order from Hindus likewise, it will be the worst He will call me.” us. We have to consider whether kind of blasphemy. A Muslim friend Maulana Azad said that the or not we can accomplish what we presented me with a book in Patna. remarks about non-Muslims to are going to promise. If you are not Its author is an eminent Muslim. which Gandhiji had referred were confident of fulfilling your pledge, The book says: ‘God ordains that abhorrent to Islam. They were do not ask me to give up my fast. It a kafir—and a Hindu is a kafir—is symptoms of the insanity that is for you and the whole of India to worse than a poisonous creature. had seized some sections of the translate it into reality. It may not He should be exterminated. It is people. Maulana Hifzur Rahman be possible to realise it in a day. I one’s duty to be treacherous to him. insisted that Muslims wanted to do not possess the requisite strength Why should one treat him with remain in India as citizens with self- for it. But I can assure you that till any courtesy?’ If Muslims still respect and honour. He welcomed today our face was turned towards harbouring such thoughts assure the changed atmosphere in the Satan, we have now resolved to turn Hindus about their good behaviour, city as a result of Gandhi’s fast towards God. If what I have told you they will only be deceiving Hindus. and appealed to Gandhi to break fails to find an echo in your hearts or If you betray one you betray all. If I the fast. On behalf of the Hindu if you are convinced that it is beyond truly worship a stone image I deceive Mahasabha and the RSS, Ganesh you, tell me so frankly. no one. For me God resides in that Datt reiterated the appeal. Pakistan’s “What greater folly can there stone image. I feel that if the hearts High Commisioner Zaheed Hussain 10 JANATA, December 9, 2018 addressed a few words to Gandhiji. The Maratha Agitation for Reservations: He said he was there to convey the deep concern of the Pakistani people Part II about him and the anxious inquiries they made every day about his Neeraj Jain health. It was their hearts’ desire that circumstances might soon enable In the previous article, we In other words, the government him to break the fast. If there was had analysed how the demand needs to increase public investment anything that he could do towards for reservations being raised by in all agriculture related sectors. that end he was ready and so were the Maratha community and the It needs to be at least doubled or the people of Pakistan. Zaheed government bowing to their demand trebled. Where will the money come Hussain was followed by Khurshid and granting them 16% reservation from for this? We discuss this issue and Randhawa who on behalf of is not going to result in the creation later in this essay. the administration reiterated the of any significant jobs for these This will reverse the decline assurance that all the conditions youth. In this article, we discuss in Indian agriculture and bring mentioned in the citizens’ pledge some of the demands that need to be back employment generation to at would be implemented, and no raised, not just by the Maratha youth least the pre-globalisation levels. effort would be spared to restore but by youth of all communities Had employment generation in the Indian capital to its traditional together, for meaningful job creation agriculture during the post-reform harmony and peace. Sardar Harbans in the country. years continued at the same rate as Singh endorsed the appeal on behalf during the period 1983 to 1993–94 of the Sikhs. When Rajendra Prasad Some Proposals for Creating Jobs (when CAGR was 1.51%, see Table said: “I have signed on behalf of i) Increase Spending on Agriculture 3 in Part I of this article), total the people, please break your fast,” As discussed above, Indian employment in agriculture would Gandhi replied: “I shall break my agriculture is in crisis because have gone up to 308 million by fast. Let God’s will prevail. You all of the neoliberal economic 2009–10 instead of 245 million. In be witness today.” reforms. Because of this crisis, other words, instead of the net 2.4 Twelve days later, on January which is pushing thousands of million jobs created during the 16- 30, 1948, Gandhi was murdered at farmers to commit suicide every year period 1994–2010, 65.5 million his daily prayer meeting. year, employment generation in jobs would have been created in the Email: [email protected] agriculture has fallen to near zero. agricultural sector—an additional 63 To bring the agricultural sector out of million jobs! Janata Subscription this crisis and stimulate job creation in this vitally important sector, the ii) Provide Incentives for the Small Annual Rs. : 260/- government needs to make farming Scale Sector Three Years : 750/- profitable by: As discussed above, the Demand Draft / • reducing input costs by overwhelming proportion of increasing subsidies on employment in the country is Cheque on fertilisers, electricity, water, etc.; provided by the informal sector, Mumbai Bank • providing output price support; including what the government in favour of • increasing public investment in calls the Micro, Small and Medium agriculture—which is absolutely enterprises (MSMEs). The Modi JANATA TRUST essential for agricultural growth; government has announced a scheme and known as Mudra Yojana. Under this, D-15, Ganesh Prasad, • waiving all farm debts, including the government provides a loan of Naushir Bharucha Marg, debts to private moneylenders, between Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh to Grant Road (W), and ensuring availability of people wishing to be entrepreneurs Mumbai 400 007. institutional credit to farmers at and setting up micro enterprises. subsidised rates. According to official statistics, over JANATA, December 9, 2018 11 the last three years since the scheme mostly being created in small- has increased at an annual average was launched in 2015, nearly 13 scale industries. Consequently, of 7%, real wages of workers have crore people have been sanctioned small firms employing less than been virtually stagnant, increasing a total of Rs 6 lakh crore under 20 workers contributed 12% of the at an average annual rate of 1% only this scheme till May 25, 2018 (of manufacturing output in the country, between 1983 and 2013.3 which Rs 5.81 lakh crore has been but employed 72% of the country’s This has resulted in a huge disbursed). A simple calculation manufacturing workforce (in 2010– rise in profits for the capitalist shows that the average of sanctioned 11). Similarly, in the service sector, owners of these firms; they have loans under this Yojana comes to Rs a 2006–07 NSSO survey of service almost exclusively cornered the 46,530 while the disbursed amount firms found that the 650 largest gains resulting from the rise in is Rs 45,034.1 While the Modi enterprises accounted for 38% of the productivity. This can be clearly seen Government has been claiming that output of this sector, but employed from Chart 1 which shows that: this scheme has helped create several only 2% of service workers.2 • Wages as percentage of net value crore jobs, this is obviously another As it is, large firms employ less added in industries have actually of its big lies; the amount of loan workers due to high mechanisation fallen from 30.9% in 1982–83 being disbursed under this scheme levels. Now, taking advantage of the and 25.6% in 1990–91 to 12.9% is too inadequate for setting up any recent steps taken by the Government in 2012–13; kind of small scale business. of India to introduce hire-and- • On the other hand, profits as The government must fire policies in industry, they are percentage of net value added substantially boost the financial retrenching permanent workers and have risen sharply during the incentives it provides for replacing them by contract workers. post-reform period: from 19.9% entrepreneurs interested in setting up While these contract workers are in 1982–83 and 22.1% in 1990– MSMEs, including both the amount often forced to work longer hours 91 to 50.0% in 2012–13. of loan and the interest subsidy than permanent workers, they are These are average figures for for this loan, as well as provide paid much less and they also have all industries. Obviously, the large- other incentives, such as reserving no social security. Therefore, the scale industries must be earning even production of several items for this increase in productivity has not higher profits and paying out lower sector and banning imports of these benefited workers. Data from the wages than these averages. items to protect this sector from Annual Survey of Industries shows Such being the huge profits unfair competition with subsidised that while real productivity of being made by large-scale industries, imports by recession hit automated workers in the three decades to 2013 let us come together and demand that plants of multinational corporations. The money for this is there—we Chart 1: Profits and Wages as % of Net Value Added in Indian discuss this later in this essay. Industry, 1982–83 to 2012–134 iii) Create More Jobs in the Large Scale Private Sector As mentioned above, job creation in the Indian factory sector has slowed down considerably. With the result that only 2.5% of the total workforce in the country in 2009–10 was employed in factories, and this includes both small and large factories! The Niti Aayog, the government’s policy think-tank, has admitted in a report that the few jobs being created in India’s manufacturing sector are 12 JANATA, December 9, 2018 large factories increase the number public employment ‘cake’, when sector employees in India. This of workers employed by them by there is no cake on the table. means an additional 71.3 million or reducing working hours by half, Instead, we all need to unite, 7.13 crore jobs would be created— that is, to 4 hours per day (without across castes and communities, and that too, decent, formal jobs! reducing wages). That would result demand more government jobs. in a doubling of the number of To make an estimate of how many Table 7: Public Sector Employment workers employed in large-scale government jobs can possibly be per Lakh of Population8 factories. Orthodox economists created in India, let us compare Sweden 15,070 would call our proposal ridiculous, the number of government jobs in claiming it would lead to large-scale India with that in the USA and other France 8,760 industries suffering huge losses, developed countries, per lakh of USA 7,220 forcing them to shut down. But as population. India 1,430 we can see from Chart 1 above, in Unlike the propaganda being 2012–13, while wages as percentage daily fed to us by our politicians Therefore, instead of fighting of net value added were only 12.9%, and bureaucrats, public sector amongst ourselves on the basis of profits as percentage of net value employment in India is not high; caste, religion, region and so on, added were 50%. Therefore, if on the contrary, it is very low when let us unite and demand that the wage costs for large-scale industry compared to the developed countries, government should increase its doubled, they would not be driven all of whom are unabashedly free social sector spending, and create into loss, they would still be market economies (see Table 7). more public sector jobs. That would making considerable profits—their An important reason why public create at least a few crore jobs! profits would still be 37% of net sector employment in the developed Creation of such a large number of value added. Furthermore, since countries is high is because of their public sector jobs will lead to the employment would increase, it will high social sector expenditures. creation of at least as many private lead to an increase in demand, and Most developed countries spend sector jobs if not more, as the so large industries which today substantial sums on providing creation of so many well-paid jobs are working at much below full social security for their citizens, in the public sector will give a big capacity (capacity utilisation in including universal health coverage, boost to demand and will therefore Indian industry is at around 72% free school education and free or lead to a huge increase in private 5 today ) will be able to increase cheap university education, old sector production—as Keynes had production and improve capacity age pension, maternity benefits, pointed out several decades ago. utilisation, leading to further rise disability benefits, family allowance For instance, if in Maharashtra in profits. such as child care allowance, and State alone, the government decides There are 16 million employed much more. This obviously requires to take urgent and decisive steps in the organised manufacturing that they employ a large number of to send all children compulsorily sector. Of this, around 30% or 5 people in the social sectors to provide to school, and provide them free million are employed in large-scale these services to their population. and good quality education (of 6 industry, according to Niti Aayog. The USA has one of the lowest Kendriya Vidyalaya standards) up Doubling employment in large-scale levels of public sector employment to Class XII, this would require the industry would therefore lead to the (per lakh of population) among the opening of thousands of schools creation of around 5 million jobs, developed countries. Even if we take and recruitment of a very large and more via the multiplier effect. this as the level that India should number of teachers. How many? reach, that is, if India is to have We have estimated that for this, the iv) Create More Government Jobs the same number of public sector government would need to recruit Lakhs of youth are mobilising employees per lakh of population as an additional 19 lakh teachers in the across the country demanding the USA, then India’s public sector minimum!9 reservations for their castes—when employment would have to increase And if so many school teachers 7 there are no government jobs! They to at least 88.9 million. Presently, are recruited, that would call for a big are all fighting for a slice of the there are only 17.6 million public increase in the number of associate JANATA, December 9, 2018 13 staff, from clerks to laboratory reforms began. Over the 13–year such acute joblessness in the country, assistants to peons and so on. So period 2005–06 to 2017–18, is not because of the ‘other’— many schools would need to be these tax write-offs total a mind- unemployment is not because constructed, furniture made, school boggling Rs 58.6 lakh crore!10 reservation for Dalits and STs and textbooks printed, and so on. This • Over the 15-year period 2004– OBCs has snatched away jobs. The would lead to a big increase in jobs in 18, Indian public sector banks reason is that there are simply no all these industries. The recruitment have written off a whopping Rs decent, formal sector jobs. And that of so many school teachers and 4.6 lakh crore worth of loans is because of globalisation, because associate staff in schools would given to big corporate houses. of the neoliberal economic policies lead to a big increase in the demand Of this amount, Rs 3.1 lakh crore being implemented in the country. for consumer goods and so there has been waived by the Modi Once we well and truly realise this, would be much job creation in these Government during its four only then, instead of mobilising industries too. So much job creation, years in power.11 Apart from this, against the ‘other’, ‘we’ will unite in just a single state in the country, during this period, banks have with the ‘other’ and unitedly raise only by investing in providing also restructured loans—which demands that challenge the economic compulsory, good quality education is a more roundabout way of policy orientation in the country and to all children! writing off loans—given to these will truly lead to job creation and And it is not just education, but all high and mighty, probably to the enough decent jobs for all. welfare services, that are in a terrible tune of Rs 10 lakh crore or so.12 Email: [email protected] state in our country. Therefore, we Apart from this, other are not at all exaggerating when concessions being given to the rich References: we estimate that if the government include handing over control of indeed decided to provide good the country’s mineral wealth and 1. “Mudra Yojana is a Mission or quality essential services to all resources to private corporations Mess? 5-Point Fact Checker”, people in the country, it would lead in return for negligible royalty May 29, 2018, https://www. to the creation of several crore jobs. payments, transferring ownership indiatoday.in. of our profitable public sector 2. “Severe Underemployment More But Where Will the Money Come corporations to foreign and Serious than Unemployment: From? Indian private business houses at Niti Aayog”, May 28, 2017, Our readers will say—that is all throwaway prices, direct subsidies http://www.businesstoday.in. ok, but where will the money come to private corporations in the name 3. Prabhat Singh, “Higher from for all this? India is a poor of ‘public–private–partnership’ for productivity equals higher country, the government does not infrastructural projects, and so on. wages? Not for the Indian have enough money to implement These transfers of public wealth to industrial worker”, October 10, this. private coffers also total several lakh 2017, http://www.livemint.com. That the Indian Government crore rupees.13 4. Ibid. has no money is a myth, propagated If the government reduces these 5. “India’s Manufacturing Capacity by the government and its concessions / transfers of public Utilisation Weakened Further: propagandists. The reality is, the money to the country’s uber rich, RBI Survey”, October 4, 2017, Indian Government has been doling it can substantially increase its https://www.bloombergquint. out subsidies to the rich to the tune expenditure on agriculture and the com. of several lakh crore rupees every social sectors.14 That would lead 6. Prabhat Singh, “Higher year. To give two stunning examples: to a big increase in agricultural productivity equals higher • Successive governments at the jobs, as well as create several crore wages? Not for the Indian Centre have been giving tax government jobs. industrial worker”, op. cit. concessions to the country’s 7. Calculations done by us, from corporate houses and super-rich To Conclude references given in endnote 32. every year, for the last several Friends, the reason why there 8. Calculations done by us. years, ever since the economic are no jobs, the reason why there is Population and employment 14 JANATA, December 9, 2018

figures for developed countries 12. Dinesh Unnikrishnan, “For State- 13. More for examples of these taken from: “Sweden / France / Run Banks, Delayed Economic concessions given to the USA – Economic Indicators”, Recovery Would Mean More rich, see our booklet: Is the https://tradingeconomics.com; Pain from Restructured Loans”, Government Really Poor, public sector employment December, 26 2014, http://www. Lokayat Publication, Pune, percentage taken from Niall firstpost.com; “Infrastructure 2018, http://lokayat.org.in. McCarthy, “Scandinavia Loans Emerge as Banks’ 14. We have discussed the potential Leads The World In Public Biggest Stress Point”, April of how much money the Sector Employment”, July 25, 2014, http://www.livemint. government can spend on the 21, 2017, https://www.forbes. com; “Restructured Loans Cross social sectors by cutting down com. Note that the population Rs.2.27 Trillion; Pace Slows”, the subsidies it gives to the and employment figures are April 5, 2013, http://www. rich in our essay: Neeraj Jain, for 2017, while public sector livemint.com. “Budget 2018–19: What is in it employment figures are for for the People?” op. cit. 2015. India figure is for 2012; public sector employment in India was 17.6 million in 2012, Climate Activists Take Civil and population of India for 2012 taken as 1,230 million and Disobedience World-Wide calculated from figures given in: “Population of India”, http:// Chloé Farand statisticstimes.com. 9. Calculations done in our booklet, More than 100 people were ‘A game changer’ The Unemployment Crisis: arrested during a week of action From the US to Ghana and Reasons and Solutions, op. cit., across the UK as protesters New Zealand to Western Europe, pp. 66–68. demanded the government treat the campaigners have shown enthusiastic 10. “P Sainath on Corporate Bailout threats posed by climate change as support for Extinction Rebellion’s #Rs 36.5 Trillion #Budget a crisis and take drastic steps to cut declaration of climate emergency. 2014”, July 13, 2014, http:// emissions to net zero by 2025. Jamie Henn, co-founder of the www.indiaresists.com; Neeraj Thousands of people joined a campaign group 350, said watching Jain, “Budget 2018–19: What is mass protest that blocked roads and the launch of Extinction Rebellion in it for the People?” op. cit. bridges in central London, with some in London from the US had been 11. We have calculated this from the gluing themselves to government “incredibly exciting” and embodied following data: Loans written buildings to draw attention to what “a growing sense of anger and desire off by public sector banks over they see as climate breakdown. for radical solutions”. the period 2004–15 totalled Rs This was the birth of Extinction Henn said he was confident 2.11 lakh crore (‘PSU Banks’ Rebellion, a movement that calls Extinction Rebellion would inspire Write-Off of Bad Loans at Rs for mass economic disruption using similar non-violent direct climate 1,14,000 Cr in 2013–15: RBI’, non-violent direct action and civil actions in the US over the coming February 8, 2016, http://www. disobedience to halt the destruction months, but whether the movement domain-b.com); “PSU Banks of the planet and its wildlife and was one that could endure the test of Write Off Rs 2.49 Lakh Crore prevent catastrophic climate change. time was yet to be seen. of Loans in 5 Years”, August Around the world, environmental Margaret Klein Salamon, 7, 2017, http://economictimes. campaign groups and activists founder of the US grassroot group indiatimes.com; “Public Sector watched the action unfold. In Climate Mobilisation, said she Banks Write-Off Bad Loans London, there is a growing hope believed Extinction Rebellion is Worth Rs 1.2 Lakh Crore in that this could be the start to a new “a game changer” for the climate 2017–18”, June 15, 2018, https:// form of international mobilisation movement. www.businesstoday.in. for climate action. She is part of a team of dedicated JANATA, December 9, 2018 15 activists working on Extinction independence marches, the move in. It’s about doing something Rebellion’s international expansion, Suffragettes, the Civil Rights different and shifting what is ensuring it has a robust enough movement and Occupy, Extinction acceptable in the context of the infrastructure and resources to give Rebellion claims to aim to rally climate crisis. When society is ready the movement the capacity and support worldwide around a common to lose its sense of fear in the face stamina to organise in the long-term. sense of urgency to tackle climate of state authority, then everything Salamon said Extinction breakdown. crumbles and change can happen,” Rebellion was born as the climate Boardman said. movement was shifting away from International rebellion Extinction Rebellion has advocating gradual change to Robin Boardman, a coordinator attracted much support from demanding immediate action in line with Extinction Rebellion in the religious groups, including Christian with the scale of the climate crisis. UK, said the week of action that Climate Action, which had several She said that for the first time, took place across the country was of its members arrested in the UK Extinction Rebellion set out the “a prototype for what a global last week. full implications of climate change resistance could look like”. Caroline Harmon, from the on humanity and the planet’s Pointing out that the UK is Christian Climate Action, said that ecosystems without shielding people responsible for only one percent of her group has received messages of from the consequences of the crisis current global emissions, Boardman support from Christian communities for fear of being too alarming. added: “What happened in London across the world, who have been She added that Extinction is a drop in a pond compared to what inspired by last week’s actions. Rebellion was advocating solutions could happen worldwide in months The first Extinction Rebellion that may have long been seen as to come”. action on the African continent was impossible, but which the group Extinction Rebellion is working held earlier this month in front of believe could gather mainstream to establish campaign groups a church in Accra, Ghana, where momentum. beyond the UK, with coordinators dozens of climate activists carrying Above all, Salamon said the use already working in the US, Canada, Extinction Rebellion placards told of peaceful civil disobedience as a Australia, Switzerland, France, churchgoers about the global climate means to engage people in “power Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, resistance being born in the UK. struggles” against governments and Sweden, Italy and Spain. Mawuse Yao Agorkor, a grassroot demand meaningful change is what But much of the movement’s social activist from Ghana and the made Extinction Rebellion unique. international expansion is focused general secretary of the West African “There is so much momentum on the US. Vazoba network, said the launch of around Extinction Rebellion and “Like in the Arab spring, Tunisia Extinction Rebellion in London was what is needed is to be able to started the uprising but it was not “an exciting moment” and that he escalate the disruption,” she said, until it spread to Egypt that the was hoping larger protests would adding: “This is still a very young whole movement gripped the Middle “hit the streets of Ghana soon”. movement but there is tremendous East,” Boardman said. The Vazoba network has long enthusiasm for it.” Inspired by US Senator campaigned against deforestation, Extinction Rebellion’s first Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential the use of toxic chemical and mining public action was to occupy the campaign, Extinction Rebellion in the region and now hopes to use its Greenpeace headquarters in London wants to export its non-violent organising tools and contacts across — a move which took the climate rebellion model and ambition of a West Africa to spread Extinction movement in the UK by surprise and widespread system change but allow Rebellion’s message. aimed to warn environmental NGOs for autonomous campaign groups Agorkor said he was not afraid against becoming complacent about to organise independently across of using civil disobedience as a governments’ inaction on climate the world. means to ramp up pressure on his change. “It is up for local groups as to government. “I have been working Learning from past grassroots whether people should be taking on the ground for six years, and movements such as Gandhi’s up action and what direction they getting arrested for protesting in the 16 JANATA, December 9, 2018 interest of our planet is something of colour in its leadership and central London last week and read that my group is not afraid of,” he tackle issues such as equity and “Climate Change, We Are F**d”, said. environmental justice”. he added: gorkor is well aware that if the For Henn, the movement will “It is one thing to say such things movement is to spread through also have to ensure it uses a universal from the safety of London, but it’s Africa, it will have to adapt in places language that inspires urgency but another if you are living on the where police brutality is common respects and reflects the experiences frontline of climate impacts. fortune and protesters could be met of those living on the frontlines. “Some people don’t have the with open fire. But for now, Agorkor Referring to a banner that was privilege to give up”. believes the organising capacity dropped from Westminster bridge in of both Vazoba and Extinction Rebellion constitute “a good starting The Protests in Argentina and France: point”. Where is the Co-relation? Diverse Movement The emergence of Extinction Peter Koenig Rebellion also comes at a time of great change in the US climate What do Argentinian protesters precisely what neoliberalism wants. movement. have in common with French Decimating the number of poor For Henn, of 350, Sanders’ protesters? They both strongly people to a minimum needed for presidential campaign, which dislike their governments, and their useful slavehood and leaving those inspired Extinction Rebellion’s leaders. who vegetate along, struggling mobilisation strategy, gave place to The protests in Argentina against for one meal at the time without a new generation of young leaders the upcoming G20 meeting and education, without a job, so they including more women and people around the IMF are just a pretext don’t have the time, energy and of colour — a trend reflected in for an overall malaise—which political savvy to protest against the the US’ Congressional midterm is an understatement—vis-à-vis ruling class. elections. President Mauricio Macri and his Greece is another outstanding Newly elected liberals, led debt-driven austerity program, example. Within less than ten by the 29-year-old Alexandria that has left hundreds of thousands years the once cheerful, happy Ocasio-Cortez, are demanding the jobless. People who had decent jobs and economically relatively well- Democrats back a “Green New under the Kirchner governments off country was destroyed into Deal” to rapidly transform the have now joined the ranks of the misery by foreign imposed debt and economy to 100 percent renewable unemployed and are begging for austerity programs. By now, almost energy in a decade — a target largely survival. Macri has driven the all public assets have been sold or in line with Extinction Rebellion’s poverty rate from about 14%, where privatised to pay for the horrendous own demand to reach net zero by it was in November 2015, a months debt service. Public health services 2025. before the Presidential elections, to are on a drip, there is a lack of special Henn said that the only way more than 35% in September 2018— medication, like for cancer, schools in which the Extinction Rebellion and all the while increasing tariffs are closed or privatised, pensions cut movement would take off in the for transportation and basic services to unlivable levels, unemployment US would be by “moving away such as electricity, gas, water,health rampant—all leading to extreme from a climate movement that is care, education—in fact, privatising poverty and skyrocketing suicide predominantly made up of older, such vital public services to the point rates, about which nobody dares middle-class white people”. where only higher middle class and speaking. Instead, Henn said Extinction elite can afford them. Is Argentina going to become Rebellion had “to build a multi-racial That of course, will leave a vast under Macri the Latin American and multi-generational movement majority of the people uneducated Greece? Could well be. By now the which will include young people and without basic health care— country is encircled by neoliberal JANATA, December 9, 2018 17 and fascist neighbors—Brazil, to Greece. When common sense the Macron imposed increase of fuel Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay. Bolivia would dictate—stop, that’s it, that’s taxes. It then expanded rapidly into is a laudable exception. All the all we can take—there is an opening a movement of discontent with the others will do what Washington for even more to be squeezed out of continuous loss of purchasing power mandates; whatever it takes to the country. In Argentina there is still of the common people through support Macri and his IMF-imposed a lot of milking to be done. It has just budget cuts and soft but steadily economic killer policies, that—in the started. If nothing else, the newly increasing austerity imposed on the end—will sell out the resource-rich Washingtonshoed-in president of French citizenry. That, plus the decay country to foreign oligarchs and Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, will teach of public services, especially in urban corporations, to the US and NATO. Macri how to do even better for the peripheries, has transformed the Yes NATO, unbelievable, but true. western money sharks. Yellow Vests movement into a vivid NATO is officially in south America, In France, the Yellow Vests protest against Macron, an outright as Colombia by her own choice has protests against higher fuel prices and call for Macron’s resignation. become a NATO country. labor reform laws is just a pretext for Hundreds of thousands— From Colombia to Argentina and something much bigger—a growing cumulatively several millions—of actually to all of Latin America is awakening of the French people, Yellow Vests have demonstrated like a walk in the park, with all the a steadily increasing recognition and blocked at times most of Paris borders of the partly newly installed of how the slippery soft-speaker during the past two weeks, to reverse neoliberal / neofascist governments Emmanuel Macron is stripping the fuel tax increase and to basically wide open—for NATO forces, that France’s populace of most of their regain their social rights and financial is. Macri has already invited the civil and social rights, of their purchasing power, increase salaries US to establish several US military labor rights—and ultimately, still to at least keep pace with inflation. bases. In July 2018 Sputnik reported to come, of their jobs. A number of Diesel prices have already increased that President Macri has given green ‘false flags’ from Charlie Hebdo to in 2018 alone by 23% and gasoline light to establish “at least three US Bataclan to the Nice’s 14th July terror prices by 15%. These prices should bases in the provinces of Neuquén, attacks, have helped Macron to put increase further by 2019 according Misiones and Tierra del Fuego. Their a permanent State of Emergency— to a Macron imposed law. creation would be financed by the basically Martial Law—into the Can protests in the street remove US Southern Command.” French Constitution. By doing so, he a President? A President, who came And now, in the midst of has created a kind of French “Patriot to power with less than 27% of the this man-made—Macri-made— Act”, slice by slice reducing long French eligible voters, a President, socioeconomic calamity, he acquired social rights, transforming who built his power on a movement, invites the G-20 (30 November them into increased profits for called “En Marche” (something like to 1 December 2018) to feast on foreign and French corporations ‘moving on’) which hardly even Argentina’s goodies, to see for and banking giants. Big wonder, existed a year before Macron’s themselves what can be made of Macron is a Rothschild child. He has ‘election’ in May 2017, an election an otherwise prosperous country— been put into his position to uphold based on false propaganda, selling so that prosperity is ‘shared’ and and expand the Rothschild clan’s heaven to desperate people, who outsourced to foreign oligarchs, banking empire, expanding it way after socialist President François banks and corporations. Wonderful. beyond the French borders. Hollande deceived his country For that G-20 event, Macri mobilised Who are the Yellow Vests—or bitterly, leaving his presidency with some 22,000 military forces to ‘gilets jaunes’ in French? The name a popularity rate of less than 10%— guarantee the security of the chiefs refers to the yellow phosphorescent these people were ready to accept of state. vests that each and every French any ‘populist’ lie in the hope that life Surely, after the G20 summit, driver needs to carry in his vehicle would become better. new austerities will be imposed, for visibility and protection in case Well, as usual, the ruling class— because everybody sees there is of an incident on the highway. The almost always the financial elite— more to be milked from Argentina. movement started on 10 October, took advantage of the desperate They see what they were able to do propagated through facebook against situation—and bingo. Macron is 18 JANATA, December 9, 2018 legally in office for 5 years, until students started 40 years ago the occurring now. Will the people 2022. Removing him the ‘democratic 1968 student and workers revolt. prevail? Will France set an example way’, through a Parliamentary vote It began on the premises of “equal for the rest of Europe? of confidence, is a slim chance, rights and liberty” between men So, what do the people as he has an absolute majority in and women. It led to strengthening of Argentina and the people of Parliament, also called the French workers unions and eventually to France have in common? They National Assembly. many workers rights and benefits, both want to get rid of a despotic So far Macron has been able to precisely those that former President president, implanted by the western impose his ‘austerity’ without the Sarkozy attempted to dismantle and financial elite to steal the socio- open help of the IMF. But, be sure, for which Macron was installed to economic coffers of their heritage, with Christine Lagarde at the helm finish the job. and which, if not stopped, may of the IMF, a former French Finance There is a direct relation between continue throughout the Americas Minister, with close ties to Macron, what happened in 1968 and what is and Europe. he most certainly got IMF ‘advice’ on how to continue softly squeezing Press Release the juices out of the French people, of their, since the end of WWII, Open Letter to Senator Bernie Sanders accumulated and hard fought-for social benefits. May be also Greek style? [On Wednesday, November The names of the signatories can Curiously, the European 28, 2018, over 100 US scholars, be read at: https://worldbeyondwar. Commission and the ECB are much intellectuals and activists published org/bernie more generous with France than with the open letter to Senator Bernie Italy, when it comes to adhering to Sanders below and invited others to Text of the Letter: the arbitrary 3% deficit limit. Italy add their names to it.] We write to you as US residents was scolded, called to order and Sanders was working to force a with great respect for your domestic asked to submit a revised budget, new Senate vote on ending, or at least policies. when deputy PM, Matteo Salvini, reducing, US participation in the We support the position of more presented Italy’s 2019 budget with war on Yemen. Signers of the letter than 25,000 people who signed a a 2.9% deficit. France, on the other below wished to encourage such petition during your presidential hand, has been running a deficit steps and, in fact, to urge Sanders campaign urging you to take on above 3% for years, but is gently toward far greater opposition to militarism. militarism and support for peace. We believe that Dr. King was reminded to please look into its On Tuesday, Senator Sanders correct to assert that racism, extreme finances a bit more carefully. In other had published a new book, Where materialism, and militarism needed words, the EU is treating brothers We Go from Here: Two Years in the to be challenged together rather than and sisters with different yardsticks, Resistance. The book contains 38 separately, and that this remains true. thus, helping Macron to do whatever sections, of which one addresses We believe this is not only practical he sees fit to push austerity down foreign policy but lays out no concrete advice, but a moral imperative, the French citizens’ throats. And proposals. On Tuesday evening and—not coincidentally—good if they protest, well, we see what’s Sanders spoke for an hour at George electoral politics. happening now. There is the State Washington University, aired live on During your presidential of Emergency that allows the most C-Span 2. He discussed a variety campaign, you were asked brutal police crack-down, if needed. of topics, but never mentioned repeatedly how you would pay for And Macron may well need it, if he foreign policy—until a questioner human and environmental needs wants his presidency to survive. asked him for a progressive foreign that could be paid for with small The French people, are, however, policy, and Senator Sanders gave fractions of military spending. Your special. They prompted the French a 2-minute response focused on answer was consistently complicated Revolution in 1789, the legacy of Yemen, for which he received and involved raising taxes. We which still reverberates in legal possibly the loudest applause of the believe it would be more effective systems around the world. French evening. to more often mention the existence JANATA, December 9, 2018 19 of the military and its price tag. reason we are at risk of nuclear “I would cut 4% of spending on apocalypse. There is no area of the never-audited Pentagon” is a our social life that is untouched by superior answer in every way to any what Eisenhower called the military explanation of any tax plan. industrial complex. Much of the case that we believe The US public favors cutting ought to be made is made in a video military spending. posted on your Facebook page Even candidate Trump declared in early 2018. But it is generally the wars since 2001 to have been absent from your public comments counterproductive, a statement that and policy proposals. Your recent appears not to have hurt him on 10-point plan omits any mention of election day. foreign policy whatsoever. A December 2014 Gallup poll of We believe this omission is 65 nations found the United States not just a shortcoming. We believe to be far and away the country it renders what does get included considered the largest threat to peace incoherent. Military spending is in the world, and a Pew poll in 2017 well over 60% of discretionary found majorities in most countries spending. A public policy that polled viewing the United States as avoids mentioning its existence is a threat. A United States responsible not a public policy at all. Should for providing clean drinking water, military spending go up or down schools, medicine, and solar panels or remain unchanged? This is the to others would be more secure very first question. We are dealing and face far less hostility around here with an amount of money at the world; that result would cost least comparable to what could be a fraction of what is invested in obtained by taxing the wealthy and making the United States resented corporations (something we are and disliked. certainly in favor of as well). Economists at the University A tiny fraction of US military of Massachusetts at Amherst have spending could end starvation, documented that military spending the lack of clean water, and is an economic drain rather than a various diseases worldwide. No jobs program. humanitarian policy can avoid We compliment you on your the existence of the military. No domestic policies. We recognise discussion of free college or clean that the presidential primaries were energy or public transit should omit rigged against you, and we do mention of the place where a trillion not wish to advance the baseless dollars a year is going. idea that you were fairly defeated. War and preparations for war are among the top destroyers, if We offer our advice in a spirit of not the top destroyer, of our natural friendship. Some of us worked environment. No environmental in support of your presidential policy can ignore them. campaign. Others of us would have Militarism is the top source worked, and worked hard, for your of the erosion of liberties, and top nomination had you been a candidate justification for government secrecy, for peace. top creator of refugees, top saboteur Sd / - of the rule of law, top facilitator of By more than 100 US scholars, xenophobia and bigotry, and top intellectuals and activists. R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, December 9, 2018 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2018 Published on Sunday, December 9, 2018 & Posted on Wedenesday, December 12, 2018 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Printed and Published by G.G. Parikh on behalf of Janata Trust. Printed at Parijat Printer, Gaiwadi, Girgaum, Mumbai - 400 004 and published at D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Naushir Bharucha Marg (Sleater Road), Mumbai - 400 007. Established 1946 1 Pages 20 Price : Rupees Five

Vol. 73 No. 47 France's Yellow Vest Movement Spreads December 16, 2018 As the fourth wave of "Yellow have also witnessed the movement’s Declare Global Climate Emergency Now! Vest" demonstrations erupts across influence. BJP’s Use of Dates to France to protest high living costs In Iraq, where similar vests Undermine Ambedkar and President Emmanuel Macron's had been used as a symbol of Ravikiran Shinde anti-working class policies, the unity among protesters in 2015, Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Hinduism on Display’ and RSS–BJP’s Hindutva movement’s influence is spreading 100 protesters reportedly stormed Ram Puniyani across Europe and even the Middle Governor Asaad al-Eidani’s office Central Government Ensnares Itself in East. in Basra Tuesday to demand access Northeast and Kashmir In Belgium, a movement to basic services, like water and Sandeep Pandey inspired by the "gilets jaunes", or electricity. GMO Potato Creator Now Fears its Impact on Human Health yellow vests has been growing in the That same day in Serbia, an Ken Roseboro last month, as people express their opposition member wore the vest in Vilifying the Intelligentsia grievances over the cost of living Parliament Tuesday to protest high Prabhat Patnaik and demand Belgium's center-right fuel costs just as France’s President Anniversaries That Never Will Be coalition government be removed. Emmanuel Macron delayed his trip Tom Engelhardt Their national election is due next to the country amidst unrest back Venezuela’s Constituent Assembly and the Rise of Fascism May. home. Cira Pascual Marquina Police in Brussels detained more France’s so-far leaderless What’s Keeping the World from than 400 people Saturday, after movement began on November 17 to Ending AIDS demonstrators in yellow vests threw highlight the squeeze on household Vijay Prashad rocks and damaged shops and cars as spending brought about by Macron’s Editor : G. G. Parikh they attempted to reach the European fuel taxes. It has since evolved to Union and Belgian government's encompass grievances over social Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain headquarters. inequalities and what many are Managing Editor : Guddi Riot squads used water cannons calling "fiscal injustice" in France. and tear gas to keep a crowd, of what After weeks of relentless social Editorial Board : police estimate to have been 1,000 protest against the government's fuel B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali people, from reaching the buildings. tax increase, France's prime minister Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah It is the second instance of violence announced a suspension of the tax in Amarendra Dhaneshwar, of this kind in the Belgian capital in an attempt to demobilize protesters Sandeep Pandey eight days. and quell dissent. However, the Inequalities in Europe are movement is no longer about D-15, Ganesh Prasad, deepening and the European Union motorists and fuel. Now, students, Naushir Bharucha Marg, has increasingly been used to force pensioners, workers, and regular Mumbai - 400 007. the application of austerity measures citizens are rebelling against an Email : [email protected] despite high social costs. economic model that favors the few Website:www.janataweekly.org Other countries, such as Serbia, over the many. Hungary, Spain, Germany, and Iraq, Courtesy: Telesur 2 JANATA, December 16, 2018 Declare Global Climate Emergency Now!

Modern industrial societies are danger; that of conflict erupting the case presently. having a catastrophic effect on the around the world on account of This is essential to bridge the planet, accelerating contamination of climate migration. gap between the extremely alarming the air, water and soil, the destruction Therefore, we urge the United scenario outlined by the UN’s own of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, Nations to declare a Global Climate authoritative scientific research and mass extinction of species, and Emergency and to follow it up with the vastly inadequate and ineffective runaway climate change. A global an emergency action plan formulated actions being presently taken in economic system fixated with in consultation with all stakeholders, response to it. By doing so, the exponential GDP growth at all costs especially those most vulnerable to United Nations would only be doing is now not only damaging the natural climate impacts. Such a plan must the least that is rationally, ethically systems on which we depend, but necessarily pursue just, equitable and and politically expected of a body pushing them towards irreversible ecologically soundclimate policies, that is a collective of the earth’s breakdown. For all this, our world and steer clear of false solutions. As nations and its peoples. remains split between obscene a start, we demand that the United Petition drafted by Citizens’ wealth and privilege at one end and Nations—under whose auspices Campaign on the Climate Crisis, extreme poverty and exploitation at the COP process is currently being India. Please sign the petition at: the other. conducted in Katowice, Poland— https://www.ipetitions.com/ Climate change impacts were pressurise nations to commit to far petition/call-it-by-its-true-name- widely felt in 2018 in the form of greater emissions reductions than is declare-global-climate/ unprecedented extreme weather events—heat waves, droughts, floods, hurricanes, etc—on every BJP’s Use of Dates to Undermine Ambedkar continent. In the words of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Ravikiran Shinde humanity is facing nothing less than a “direct existential threat”, a scenario Millions of Dalits across the that you can recall well. confirmed by the Intergovernmental country will pay homage to Dr B.R. Panel on Climate Change’s 'Special Ambedkar on his death anniversary December 6 and Babri mosque Report on Global Warming of on December 6. Many will travel to Today, how do we remember 1.5°C' released in October 2018. Chaityabhoomi in Mumbai, where December 6? We remember it Worryingly, many climate experts his last rites were performed more as the anniversary of Babri have criticised this already grim Only two weeks separate masjid’s demolition than as the report for being too conservative and November 26 and December 6. But death anniversary of Ambedkar. reticent on the actual risks we face. the difference couldn’t be sharper. That is because BJP and its allies This alarming situation calls The former denotes Constitution chose December 6 to demolish Babri for much more than a change in Day, an anniversary of adaptation masjid in a systematically executed individual lifestyles. It demands of the India’s Constitution. The conspiracy that proved to be one of that the world’s governments, latter the destruction of the very the biggest blots on our democracy. corporations and international bodies foundation of it by the BJP, Shiv Seeds of anti-Muslim sentiment make climate action their absolute Sena and the Sangh parivar. were sown for political purpose top priority with immediate effect. Dates are important as they reveal during the Ram mandir agitation. As an agency mandated with the historical events. But according to Since 1992, TV images of people responsibility of keeping the world memory grandmaster James Ponder, wielding iron rods atop Babri a peaceful place for humanity, the if you want to memorise dates and mosque further reinforced the date United Nations is especially obliged events, it needs to be associated with in our mind. to forestall an imminent and related an individual image or information By erasing the mosque, BJP JANATA, December 16, 2018 3 achieved two objectives on the and Rajasthan loomed, the VHP constitution of Bharat is that there same day. While it symbolically organised a dharma sansad on is nothing Bhartiya about it. . . . tried to demolish the Constitution November 25. It calls this the ‘last There is no trace of ancient Bhartiya by disregarding law and order, it effort’ to clear the hurdles in the constitutional laws. . . . Manu’s Laws chose Ambedkar’s death anniversary construction of a Ram temple. Many were written long before . . . To this to do it. BJP leaders attended the event. day his laws as enunciated in the Every year since 1992, the BJP MLA from UP Surendra Manusmriti excite the admiration Sangh parivar celebrates December Singh once again warned that the of the world and elicit spontaneous 6 as shourya diwas or vijay diwas, sansad would break the law and go obedience and conformity. But to our suggesting that it was no coincidence. against the Constitution (on the eve constitutional pundits that means The VHP, which celebrated the event of the Constitution Day). nothing. nationally in 2017, calls it a moment Last year, the event was organised This was a direct attack on of glory, honour and courage. This on November 24, 25 and 26 in Ambedkar and the Constitution. It is year too, the Bajarang Dal and the Udupi, Karnataka, to deliberately important to note that Ambedkar had VHP have planned shourya diwas overlap with the Constitution Day. publicly burned the Manusmriti text celebrations. Notice the use of sansad. The move many years earlier, before drafting Clearly, the Sangh parivar chose from sansad (Lok Sabha) to dharma the constitution. In the Constitution, December 6 to demolish Babri not sansad is importantly worded. The he ensured that it was erased legally suggested ‘hurdle’ in the way of the despite the relevance of the date, but as well. because of it. Ram temple is the Constitution. The BJP has tried to change the Prime Minister Narendra Modi fundamentals of the Constitution leaves no opportunity to invoke How the BJP uses dates for its many times. In fact, Vajpayee Ambedkar, especially during programs had formed a Constitution review the elections. In his Man ki Baat Since it has come to power, the committee to alter it. radio speech on November 26, BJP has tried to associate dates with The Sangh parivar detests the Modi mentioned that Ambedkar’s its own leaders and agenda – whether Constitution and Ambedkar. So mahaparinirvan diwas (death its good governance day (December much so that, they go to the extent of anniversary) was on December 25) on A.B. Vajpayee’s birthday or 6. But who will forget that Modi inaugurating the statue of Sardar celebrating a day on which millions was part of the rath yatra, led by Patel on Indira Gandhi’s death mourn and pay homage to him. L.K. Advani, that concluded in the anniversary (October 31). The BJP destruction of the mosque on this is leaving its mark on all important day? dates. Even Vajpayee, as prime The Unemployment Even as the prime minister, minister, chose the birth anniversary Crisis: Modi has never reined in any of the of Gautam Buddha to carry out a BJP ministers or MLAs who talk nuclear test on November 11, 1998. Reasons and against the Constitution. The media obliged by saying, “And Solutions Clearly, the BJP is playing the Buddha smiled” “good cop-bad cop” to hoodwink Contribution Rs. 25/- the people. The BJP’s opposition to the Union minister Ananth Hegde Constitution Published by had publicly said last year that The BJP and the Sangh parivar Janata Trust & Lokayat the BJP was here to change the have been opposed to the very idea of D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Constitution, but he was not sacked. our constitution. As the Constitution Naushir Bharucha Marg, was finalised in November 1949, Dharma Sansad and Shourya the RSS’s mouthpiece Organiser Grant Road (W), Diwas (November 30, 1949) read: Mumbai 400 007 This year, as important assembly The worst about the new elections in MP, Mizoram, Telangana 4 JANATA, December 16, 2018 Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Hinduism on Display’ and RSS–BJP’s Hindutva

Ram Puniyani

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, polarization of communities along Mahasabha–RSS ideology and the father of the nation, did say religious lines, the path of divisive who represented the interests of the that he is a Hindu; at the same politics, the path of abandoning Hindu landlords, started saying that time he went on to say that religion material issues while creating the the Congress is appeasing Muslims. is a private matter for him. His haze of emotive ones like Ram After its founding, the RSS continued greatest disciple Jawaharlal Nehru Temple and Holy cow-beef? with this propaganda; it was the was a rationalist agnostic. He laid After its defeat in the 2014 Hindu Mahasabha–RSS propaganda the foundations of secular India general elections, the A.K. Anthony against the leaders of the Congress, where the matters related to religion Committee set up by the Congress especially Mahatma Gandhi, as were supposed to be dealt with at gave the report that an important being pro-Muslim that created the social or personal level. Nearly six cause of defeat of the Congress was hatred that led Godse to kill the decades after the death of the first the popular perception that people father of the Nation. Following the Prime Minster of India, matters looked upon it as a pro-Muslim winning of independence, in keeping have drifted beyond imagination. party, which by implication meant with the spirit of democracy, special Nehru’s great grandson who began that it was being regarded as being policies were initiated to support his political career with no signs of an anti-Hindu outfit. This came the minorities, such as that they public display of religion, today is in the background of the tireless were permitted to have their own making a clear public display of his propaganda from the RSS–BJP educational institutions. This along religiosity. Apart from stating that stable that the Congress has been with Haj subsidy, which as such was a he is a janeudhari (wearing sacred appeasing Muslims, Congress is subsidy to Air India, acted as a potent thread), Shiv Bhakt to visiting pro-Muslim, etc. This propaganda weapon in the hands of the RSS temples by the dozen, he also took has been mixed up with the lie parivar to propagate the falsehood the pilgrimage to Mansarovar. The that Jawaharlal Nehru was the of appeasement of minorities. This Congress’ Madhya Pradesh unit descendant of a Muslim and that the malicious propaganda got a further took out a “Ram Van Gaman Pad Congress is not interested in taking boost when the Congress, in a grave yatra” and is promising a gaushala care of interests of Hindus, and so on mistake, overturned the verdict of (cow shed) in each panchayat. BJP and so forth. The argument was also Supreme Court in the matter of Shah spokespersons are questioning all put forward that the Hindu BJP is on Bano and got the Parliament to pass these moves as if their monopoly in one side and godless secularists are the Muslim Women (Protection such matters is under threat. on the other side. of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986. The result is that there are If we want to go to the roots of This opened the flood gates for the critics labeling Congress politics this false propaganda, we will have propaganda that ‘appeasement of as being soft Hindutva. These signs to go back to many decades ago. Muslims’ was being done by the of the party of Gandhi and Nehru When the Indian National Congress Congress. This was a grave error are disturbing at one level. Still, was formed, it represented rising of judgment, mostly forced by does it mean that the Congress is India; this umbrella organisation protests by the conservative Muslim abandoning the path of secularism, of all Indians had members from elements against the Shah Bano the path outlined in our Constitution, all the communities of India. This judgment. of religion being a matter of people’s got manifested in people like This has not been the only flaw personal choices to be dealt with by Pherozhshah Mehta, Badruddin in the Congress stand on secularism. individuals–communities on their Tyabaji becoming its initial It failed to take decisive and firm own? Is Congress trying to walk the presidents. Right from that time, action in controlling riots and the path which RSS–BJP have pursued communal elements, who were accusations made by secular activists to gain power, the path of political the progenitors of future Hindu that the Congress has often acted in a JANATA, December 16, 2018 5 biased manner against Muslims and of debate, confining it to ‘Hindu whom are Hindus, like the farmers, Sikhs are correct. The Congress role RSS–BJP’ versus ‘pro Muslim, the oppressed castes and the victims in opening the gates of Babri mosque godless secularists’. The display of patriarchy, the women. The was another important political of religiosity by the Congress is a Congress took up the role of leading blunder, and it eventually led to reaction to this debate, but it actually the freedom movement against the demolition of Babri Mosque, means succumbing to the frame of British rule in yesteryears. It needs to which the Congress leadership debate set by the RSS–BJP. The real to assume a similar role in freeing remained a mute spectator. Clearly, way it can be countered is by taking the nation from the caste hierarchy, its secularism had holes which could up the issues of the marginalised communalism and patriarchy now. not halt the march of Hindutva and sections of the people, the majority of Email: [email protected] Hindu nationalism. It created the grounds for the rise of the RSS. Today, the Hindutva forces have Central Government Ensnares Itself in become strong enough for the political discourse to be dictated Northeast and Kashmir by their politics, the politics of the RSS–BJP. Not only Congress, even Sandeep Pandey Mamata Bannerjee has lately shown the tilt towards displaying such First the Bhartiya Janata the BJP central leadership doesn't religiosity by sanctioning subsidised Party led government in Delhi realise is that Assamese society is electricity for Durga Puja pandals was very enthusiastic about not divided on communal lines like and participating in the Ram Navami conducting the National Register in Gujarat, Maharashtra or parts of festival. of Citizens exercise in Assam on the Hindi speaking heartland. For the So, the question arises, can the premise that this process will Assamese people, the bigger fear is the policies being pursued by identify all the illegal migrants from linguistic and cultural domination Rahul Gandhi led Congress be Bangladesh who entered Assam by Bengalis. Assamese society termed as soft Hindutva? I would after 24 March, 1971, the date of itself is a product of assimilation of like to answer, definitely no. The creation of Bangladesh, who could locals with outsiders from diverse unwanted tilt in display of religiosity then be sent back to Bangladesh. backgrounds. The Assamese are not is basically an attempt to undo the The assumption was that most of a homogenous community. But they perception that has been created by these illegal immigrants would be clearly make a distinction between the RSS–BJP of the Congress being Muslims. However, the government people who came before 1971 pro-Muslim and undo the image of developed cold feet after it realised and those who came afterwards. being godless secularists. Hindutva that among the 40.07 lakh people Assamese nationality is as assertive politics is based on Brahmanical who have been left out of NRC, as Tamil or Bengali nationality, and hierarchy of caste and gender; it the majority are not Muslims but has a distinct identity. aims to gradually do away with Hindus. Now it is trying to push the Meanwhile, in Assam itself, secular democracy and bring in Citizenship (Amendment) Bill which the All Bodo Students' Association Hindu Rashtra. To combat this, what will allow non-Muslim citizens under the leadership of Pramod Boro is needed is adoption of inclusive from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and is demanding a separate statehood concept of Gandhi’s Hinduism, Pakistan who arrived in India on for Bodoland. After a long struggle, where values of pluralism and or before December 31, 2014 to the Bodoland Territorial Council diversity have bigger importance. It acquire Indian citizenship easily. was created in 2003 comprising four is surely a sign of regressive times This Bill is facing stiff opposition districts of Chirang, Buxa, Kokrajhar where Hindu nationalist discourse from the Assamese society. Akhil and Udlagiri. Out of 40 government is overtaking the better of Indian Gogoi, leader of Krishak Mukti departments, all except Home and nationalist ethos. Sangram Samiti, along with 70 other Finance were transferred to BTC by The RSS Parivar has been organisations, has launched a frontal the Assam government. However, successful in setting the terms attack on the government. What the Assam government continues 6 JANATA, December 16, 2018 to maintain its stranglehold on Manipur, Assam and Mizoram. is the basis on which Pakistan has BTC as all resolutions passed by They aspire for a separate sovereign been able to steer people towards its BTC are subject to final approval identity. side, why isn't India able to convince of the Assam assembly, which is However, the experience people of Nepal of its point of view. against the spirit of Schedule VI of of Kashmiris with a separate It is an open fact that Nepalese Constitution as a part of which the Constitution has not been very people harbour an anti-India feeling, BTC was created. So far, except for good. All the promises made by the especially after India blockaded one out of 28, all Bills passed by Government of India at the time supplies to Nepal when Nepal BTC have been stuck at the Assam of signing of the Instrument of refused to bow to the Indian wish assembly level. Even though the Accession by Maharaja Hari Singh of making amendments in their new population living in the above have been violated. The separate Constitution to favour the pro-India mentioned four districts is 12% of flag is still there but it doesn't have Madhesi people. During the Modi the population of Assam, only 2% the sanctity the flag of a sovereign regime, the situation has worsened in of the state budget is allocated to state should have. It is difficult to J&K. Even people who had moved BTC. Schools are being starved even obtain a copy of the Jammu closer to accepting integration with of teachers and textbooks in Bodo and Kashmir Constitution now. India from a previous position of language. Same is the situation Articles 370 and 35A of Indian autonomy are now finding it difficult with other departments. Rampant Constitution which grant a special to accept Indian hegemony. The GoI corruption prevents whatever little status to J&K are there only for has hurt the sentiments of people of benefits can reach people. Hence namesake. Famous Kashmiri poet Kashmir beyond repair. Bodo people are now disillusioned and writer Zareef Ahmad Zareef Email: [email protected] and feel that only as a separate state described it as a lock on a door to a can they prosper. In recent talks with room which doesn't have anything the Home minister, it is believed inside. People of Kashmir feel Janata that Indian government has offered cheated by the the Government a Union Territory status to Bodoland of India (GoI). According to is available at but that is not acceptable to the the initial agreement, except for Bodos. Defence, Communications and www.lohiatoday.com In neighbouring Nagaland, the Foreign Affairs, in all other matters Janata Subscription popular demand is for autonomy. sovereignty was supposed to rest Peace talks have been going on with the state government. The use between the Government of India of pellet guns on people of Kashmir Annual Rs. : 260/- and various Naga groups for the last was the ultimate inhuman treatment Three Years : 750/- 21 years without any resolution. The meted out to them. It is unthinkable latest rounds of talks with the Modi that GoI could have used these pellet Demand Draft / government seem to have reached guns on an unruly crowd anywhere Cheque some conclusion. But Naga people else in the country. It is an example are very clear that they want a of the step-motherly treatment on separate Constitution and a separate meted out to people of J&K. People Mumbai Bank flag. They see themselves living not pelting stones at security forces were under the Indian Constitution but accused by GoI of having accepted in favour of in peaceful coexistence with India. money from Pakistan. There can The Nagas have never considered be nothing more ridiculous than Janata Trust themselves to be part of India. this. This is admitting the fact that They feel they were first divided Pakistan is able to control each and D-15, Ganesh Prasad, among two countries—India and every individual in Kashmir. If that Naushir Bharucha Marg, Myanmar—by the British, and is so, the question arises, what are Grant Road (W), then by India into different states the security forces and intelligence Mumbai 400 007. like Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, agencies then doing? And if religion JANATA, December 16, 2018 7 GMO Potato Creator Now Fears its Impact on Human Health

Ken Roseboro

Of all the genetic engineers who believed was resistant to bruise and aminoadipate, and an application have renounced the technology— late blight, and that could be used to for its approval in Europe in 2009 Arpad Pusztai, Belinda Martineau, produce French fries that were less was withdrawn after regulators Thierry Vrain and John Fagan, coloured and less carcinogenic than raised safety questions.) among others—because of its normal fries. There is no data on the actual shortsighted approach and ability to levels of alpha-aminoadipate in GM produce unintended and potentially The main genetic engineering of potatoes, but I believe that Simplot toxic consequences, Caius Rommens’ the Simplot GMO potatoes was should carefully determine these story may be the most compelling. silencing genes called RNAi. What levels. Rommens was director of are some of the possible negative Similarly, ex-colleagues had research at Simplot Plant Sciences consequences of silencing genes? shown that the damaged and bruised from 2000 to 2013 where he led CR: Silencing is not gene- tissues of potatoes may accumulate development of the company’s specific. Any gene with a similar high levels of tyramine, another genetically engineered Innate structure to the silencing construct toxin. Such damaged tissues are potato. But over time, Rommens may be silenced as well. It is even normally identified and trimmed, started to have serious doubts about possible that the silencing that but they are concealed, or partially his work and worried about potential takes place inside the GM potatoes concealed, and much of it is not health risks from eating the GMO affects the genes of animals eating trimmed in GM potatoes. Therefore, potatoes, which are now sold in these GM potatoes. I am most it seems important that Simplot 4,000 supermarkets in the US. concerned about bees that don’t eat should determine the full spectrum Rommens’ concerns about GMO GM potatoes but may use GM potato of possible tyramine levels in their potato led him to write a book, pollen to feed their larvae. Based on GM potatoes. Pandora’s Potatoes, which was my assessment of the literature, it Another potential toxin is recently published. The book is appears that the silencing constructs chaconine-malonyl. There is little a case study on how a scientist’s are active in pollen. known about this compound, but initial enthusiasm about genetic You say that silencing the ex-colleagues had shown that it is engineering turns to doubt and PPO (polyphenol oxidase, a increased by almost 200 percent fear as he realises the hazards the gene responsible for browning in upon PPO-silencing. This should be technology can create. potatoes) gene increases toxins that investigated. I recently interviewed Caius accumulate in the GMO potatoes. Rommens about his work on Why are these toxins produced In your book you write that the developing the GMO potato and and what effects could these toxins GMO potatoes don’t eliminate the misgivings he now has about it. produce on human health? bruising but just conceal it. Please CR: Ex-colleagues of mine had explain. Please describe your work shown that PPO-silencing increases CR: PPO-silencing prevents developing GMO potatoes and the levels of alpha-aminoadipate by the darkening of bruises. The your position at Simplot. about six-fold. Alpha-aminoadipate suppression of symptoms is so is a neurotoxin, and it can also react effective that we believed we had Caius Rommens: I left my with sugars to produce advanced overcome the bruise issue. It took position as team leader at Monsanto glycoxidation products implicated me a lot of time to understand that to start an independent biotech in a variety of diseases. GM potatoes still have bruises— effort at Simplot. During the 12 (A Monsanto GM corn invisible bruises—that are just as years I worked there, I designed a variety, LY038, was found to have damaged as the darkening bruises genetically modified potato that I high concentrations of alpha- of normal potatoes. In other words, 8 JANATA, December 16, 2018 the invisible bruises still are entry that I had not been rigorous enough because gene changes are mostly points for pathogens and exit points in considering the possibility that “useful” only if implemented in a for water, which are two important my modifications might have caused single tissue. issues during storage. unintended effects. I then studied CRISPR has the same problems the publicly available literature that as genetic engineering. In my In addition to the claim of was relevant to my past work, and book, I explain that it requires eliminating bruises, Simplot identified a number of issues that had manipulations in tissue culture that says the Innate potato provides been hidden from my view. My GM cause mutations. These mutations “protection against late blight potatoes had “hidden” issues—like have a negative effect on crop pathogen,” and “reduced Pandora’s Box. performance and cannot be removed asparagine, which contributes to from certain crops including apple reduced acrylamide in cooked What do you think should be done and potato. potatoes.” What are your reactions with these GMO potatoes? to these claims? CR: I believe that, for the What do you see as the best CR: The GM potato does contain short term, GM potatoes entering alternatives to GMO or a resistance gene that provides the consumer market should be conventional mono-cropped protection against late blight. The evaluated for the incidence of hidden potatoes? problem is that nobody knows how bruise and infections and the range CR: Genetic engineering is long the protection will last. Plant in levels of toxins such as alpha- meant to increase crop uniformity. breeders have tested many different aminoadipate and tyramine. I believe the opposite approach—to resistance genes in the past, and these increase crop diversity—will be genes are almost always overcome Do you think the problems you more effective in increasing the by quickly evolving pathogens. experienced in GMO potatoes will sustainability of farming. Another issue is that late blight be similar in other GMO plants? I am most hopeful in the is usually accompanied by other CR: It is my experience that efforts of small companies such as pathogens. In humid regions of genetic engineers are biased and Solynta (a Dutch company that has the world where late blight is most narrow-minded. They may not be developed an innovative non-GMO active, there are dozens of other able to critically assess their own technology for targeted breeding pathogens. So, growing GM potatoes creations. of potatoes). The main benefit of with a single resistance gene in, for Soylnta’s approach is that it breeds example, Bangladesh is like getting What is your perspective on potatoes that have a simpler genetic vaccinated for one tropical disease genetic engineering now after structure than cultivated potatoes— and then moving to the tropics where your work with the GMO potato more like that of wild potatoes—so there are many other diseases. and misgivings about it? that genetic traits can be combined Next, the reduced asparagine CR: My concern about genetic much more effectively. levels do lower the amount of engineering is that the absence of acrylamide in French fries, but unintentional effects can never be these levels are already very low in guaranteed. It may take dozens of Spectre of normal fries. Simplot argues that the years before these effects reveal reduced acrylamide levels reduce themselves, and we should be Fascism carcinogenicity, but I could not find extremely cautious applying the Contribution Rs. 20/- any reliable studies demonstrating technology. that normal fries are carcinogenic. Published by What is your perspective on Janata Trust & Lokayat The title of your book is Pandora’s CRISPR/gene editing? CR: The problem with CRISPR D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Potatoes. What led you to choose Naushir Bharucha Marg, this title? is that it changes the function of a CR: During the five years after gene in all tissues of an organism. Grant Road (W), my departure from Simplot, I realised This is a very important limitation, Mumbai 400 007 JANATA, December 16, 2018 9 Vilifying the Intelligentsia

Prabhat Patnaik

Narendra Modi said the penury; indeed they live in greater why such right-wing groups do not other day, rather disparagingly, air-conditioned comfort than have any intellectuals worth the that the “Urban Naxals” live in anyone else in the country. (One name. Intellection requires asking air-conditioned comfort. Since of them even has a notorious high- questions, and a hallmark of all such all who speak or write in public rise residence in Mumbai entirely groups committed to bigotry in one upholding the right to dissent from for himself). Thirdly and most form or another is that the members the Hindutva positions, including pertinently, the validity or otherwise of the group are expected to swallow even known critics of the Left, of an intellectual position has to be unquestioningly what is given to which means virtually all members established intellectually, and not them from the top by the “leader”. of the intelligentsia who display any just by looking at the life-style of This does not necessarily mean that integrity, have been dubbed “Urban the person holding such a position. they actually do not ask questions. Naxals” by his government, his Indeed when the life-style of the Many of them of course do not, but remark in effect amounts to targeting person holding a particular position others, one presumes, do; but those the entire intelligentsia. is invoked to negate that position, who do keep that fact carefully His remark constitutes an then we can be sure that underlying camouflaged, whether out of fear or utterly crude attempt to delegitimise such invoking is an inability to out of mere opportunism or out of any intellectual position that is confront it intellectually. careerist considerations. unpalatable for the government, by But this habit of trying to The upshot however is that suggesting that those who hold such negate intellectual positions by intellectual activity within such positions live in comfort and hence simply running down in the eyes groups takes the form of simply should not be taken seriously by the of the people the persons holding propagating a set of thoughts handed people, i.e., the very fact of their these positions, characterises all down, thoughts which are then living in comfort itself makes their the right-wing movements (which commonly articulated by everyone arguments false as far as the people are sometimes misleadingly called in the group. It does not take the form are concerned. “populist”) that are coming up all of any independent engagement by His statement is absurd for over the world. All of them negate its members with ideas or issues. at least three reasons. First, most intellectual positions unpalatable to In situations where a right-wing of the people arrested in the last them, not through arguments, but by movement comes up all of a sudden few months as “Urban Naxals” debunking in various ways the set and rapidly springs to prominence, have been civil rights activists of intellectuals who advance such it may succeed in enlisting the working among tribal and other positions. But since they themselves support of some already established marginalised people and living with do not have many intellectuals worth prominent intellectual, and thereby them under considerable hardship, as the name, for if they did, then they claim some intellectual pedigree; but authentic activists of all descriptions would confront criticism through even in such a case it is a question including Left political activists arguments rather than through mere of the movement’s co-existence for generally do; their actual living debunking, their debunking of convenience with some intellectuals conditions are thus far removed from intellectuals who are not with them and not of any intellectual activity Modi’s picture of air-conditioned amounts in effect to running down within the movement itself. On comfort. Secondly, Modi himself all intellectuals: all intellectuals are the other hand, in old and well- and his friends in big business and perceived by them to be actual or established movements, like the media, whose pronouncements potential threats in varying degrees. Hindutva movement, the scope he would no doubt want people In short they oppose the very activity for even such arrangements of to take seriously as constituting of intellection. convenience scarcely exists. Since the “truth”, do not exactly live in There is nothing surprising about the ideas are handed down from 10 JANATA, December 16, 2018 the founder through the leaders is manifested in the fact that one of “Urban Naxals”, “anti-national” who have followed, even claiming the most enduring legacies of the elements, an immoral “English- borrowed intellectual pedigree present BJP government, for which speaking crowd”, a group wallowing becomes too risky, lest it create it will be long remembered, is the in “air-conditioned luxury”, become confusion among the ranks owing to havoc it has wrought on the system essential for this purpose. Along some lack of synchrony between the of education, especially the system with the Muslims, the Dalits, the ideas of the intellectual “owned” for of higher education, in the country. marginalised groups, the intellectuals convenience and the handed-down This has not been a matter of ham- too must be made aliens as far as the ideas of the leaders. handedness of a particular minister; people are concerned. Such movements therefore are or of shoddy treatment meted out to This becomes particularly intrinsically and essentially anti- a particular institution; or of simply important in a society where intellectual, not just anti-Left but one group of persons, associated intellectuals traditionally have opposed to any form of independent with running educational institutions been held in high esteem among intellection; and hence they are earlier in the pre-BJP period, being the people, a legacy of our caste- opposed to education per se, which replaced by another group of persons based feudal past (even though the by its very nature constitutes an acceptable to the BJP,who happen intellectuals of yore would have activity that demands intellection in to be less able or less experienced been a very different lot from the the quest for knowledge. or less academically-minded. intellectuals of a post-colonial There is a fundamental difference The damage has been systematic, society who still bear the marks of here between the Left and the Right. pervasive, and caused not by some being the product of an anti-colonial The Left traditionally has been sociological difference between one struggle). It is ironical that a Party supportive of ideas in general, of the set of administrators and another, but like the BJP that upholds essential quest for knowledge in general. It by the structural fact that Hindutva aspects of our feudal past like the has no doubt been supportive in this bigotry cannot afford to stand any caste system (which is central to all sense in the belief that within such scrutiny of itself, and hence cannot orthodox Hinduism and therefore an ambience Left-wing ideas will stand any vibrant institution of permeates the Hindutva project) flourish because of their intellectual higher education, since the very should be striving so vigorously worth, but that is irrelevant. The raison d etre of such an institution to destroy an important legacy of point is that it has been supportive. is to scrutinise everything. that past, namely the esteem for Many Left activists in India for Hindutva can acquire hegemony intellectuals or persons engaged in example have helped to build only by killing thought per se. Its mental labour. schools and colleges, not with the opposition to intellectual activity that It is also not surprising that narrow objective of propagating Left is critical of itself must necessarily it is doing so by attributing to ideas (in the way that the RSS uses get transformed into an opposition to them “capitalist vices” like living schools to propagate RSS ideas), but intellectual activity as such. in air-conditioned comfort. The for simply promoting thinking, for But it is not enough that the irony again, however, consists promoting a quest for knowledge tribe of intellectuals be victimised in the fact that this is being done in society. These institutions have officially. If they command respect by a government that claims as not been Party institutions in any in society, then such victimisation its most important plus-point its sense, or institutions controlled by can boomerang on the ruling Party ability to usher in rapid capitalist the particular Party activists who by creating sympathy for them development, even to the extent founded them; on the contrary, among the people. The victimisation of opening the economy to the those who founded them have of intellectuals must be accompanied unfettered operation of international tended to move on with their work, therefore by a vilification of capital. But this irony is inherent in having planted this tiny seed for the intellectuals, so that they lose their the logic of contemporary neoliberal society’s future. moral standing among the people. capitalism. The Right on the other hand has The people must be made to see a totally different perspective, which them as “the other”. Epithets like Email: [email protected] JANATA, December 16, 2018 11 Anniversaries That Never Will Be

Tom Engelhardt

We’re already two years past the invasion passed in the heated acknowledgement from the White crystal anniversary and eight years aftermath of the Kavanaugh hearings, House. short of the silver one, or at least we as the president was rallying his base Yes, 3,546 American and NATO would be, had it been a wedding— by endlessly bashing the Democrats troops had died in those long years and, after a fashion, perhaps it was. as an “angry mob” promoting (including seven Americans so far On October 7, 2001, George W. Bush “mob rule.” So if you weren’t then in 2018). There have also been launched the invasion—“liberation” thinking about Afghanistan, don’t Afghan deaths aplenty, certainly tens was the word often used then—of blame yourself. You were in good of thousands of them in a country Afghanistan. It was the start of the company. where significant numbers of people second Afghan War of the era, one On October 8th, for instance, are regularly uprooted and displaced that, all these years later, still shows the front page of my hometown from their homes and lives. And 17 no signs of ending. Though few newspaper had headlines like “Court years later, the Taliban controls more realised it at the time, the American Showdown Invigorates G.O.P. of the country than at any moment people married war. Permanent, in Crucial Races” and “20 Dead since 2002; the US-backed Afghan generational, infinite war is now Upstate as Limo Crashes on Way to security forces are reportedly taking embedded in the American way of Party.” If you were old like me and casualties that may, over the long life, while just about the only part still reading the paper version of the run, prove unsustainable; provincial of the government guaranteed ever New York Times, you would have capitals have been briefly seized by more soaring dollars, no matter what had to make your way to page seven insurgent forces; civilian deaths, it does with them, is the US military. to find out that such an anniversary especially of women and children, This October 7th marked the 17th had even occurred. There, a modest- are at their highest levels in years (as anniversary of that first of so many sized article, headlined “On 17th are US and Afghan air strikes); al- still-spreading conflicts. In league Anniversary of US Invasion, 54 Are Qaeda has grown and spread across with various Afghan warlords, the Killed Across Afghanistan,” began significant parts of the Middle East US military began moving into that this way: and Africa; a bunch of other terror country, while its Air Force launched “Kabul, Afghanistan—At outfits, including ISIS, are now a fierce campaign, dropping large least 54 people have been killed in Afghanistan; and ISIS, like al- numbers of precision munitions across Afghanistan in the past 24 Qaeda (of which it was originally an and hundreds of cluster bombs. hours, according to a tally based offshoot), has also franchised itself Those were meant not just for al- on interviews with officials on globally. Qaeda, the terror outfit that, the Sunday—17 years to the day [after] In other words, 17 years later, previous month, had dispatched its American forces invaded the country what was once known as the Global own precision air force—hijacked to topple the Taliban regime. The War on Terror and is now a set American commercial jets—to take violence was a reminder that the war of conflicts that no one here even out iconic buildings in New York has only raged deadlier with time, bothers to name has only grown and Washington, but the Taliban, taking a toll on both the Afghan worse. Meanwhile, the military that a fundamentalist sect that then security forces and the civilians American presidents repeatedly controlled most of the country. By caught in the crossfire.” hailed as the greatest fighting force in early 2002, that movement had And that, really, was that. history continues to battle fruitlessly been ejected from its last provincial Little other mention anywhere across a vast swath of the planet. capital, while Osama bin Laden had and no follow-up. No significant Afghanistan, of course, remains fled into hiding in Pakistan. And so commentary or major op-eds. America’s “longest war,” as articles it began. No memorials or ceremonies. regularly acknowledged some The 17th anniversary of that No thoughts from Congress. No years ago. These days, however, 12 JANATA, December 16, 2018 it has become so eternal that it ever know is that, in the melee that were wounded. The third occurred has evidently outgrown the label is still Afghanistan, the obliteration that July in Oruzgan Province “longest.” of that wedding procession was just when the US Air Force dropped (Un)Happy Anniversary indeed! one more scarcely noted, remarkably seven 2,000-pound bombs on a repetitive little nightmare to which wedding party, again evidently after Wedded to War Americans will pay no attention celebratory firing had taken place, If you consider this the whatsoever. Admittedly, when wiping out unknown numbers of anniversary of a marriage made in directly asked by pollsters 17 years villagers including, reportedly, a hell, then you would also have to later, a near majority of them (49%) family of 25 people. In July 2008, a think of the war on terror that started do think that US goals still remain missile from a US plane took out a in Afghanistan as having had a brood unmet in that country and, according party escorting a bride to the groom’s of demon children—the invasion of to other recent polls, somewhere house in Nuristan Province, killing Iraq being the first of them—and by between 61% and 69% of Americans at least 47 civilians, 39 of them now possibly even grandchildren. would support the withdrawal of women and children, including the Meanwhile, the first actual American all US forces there. That, however, bride. The next month in Laghman children born after the 9/11 attacks is anything but a stunning figure Province, American bombers killed can now join the US military and given that, in 2011, a Washington 16 Afghans in a house, including go fight in . . . well, Afghanistan, Post–ABC News poll indicated that 12 members of a family hosting a where about 14,000 American two-thirds of Americans believed wedding. In June 2012, in Logar military personnel, possibly tens the Afghan war “no longer worth Province, another wedding party was of thousands of private contractors, fighting.” Evidently it’s now simply obliterated, 18 people dying (half of and air power galore (as well as the no longer worth giving a moment’s them children). This was the only CIA’s drones) remain active indeed. thought to. one of these slaughters for which And keep in mind that Americans Essentially unnoticed here, the the US military offered an apology. aren’t the only people wedded to destruction of wedding parties by And that’s just what I happen war in the twenty-first century. US air power has, in fact, been a to know about wedding parties in However, when it comes to the relative commonplace in these years Afghanistan in these years. Don’t others I have in mind, it’s not a of endless war across the Greater forget Iraq either, where in May matter of anniversaries ignored, Middle East. The first time American 2004 US jets attacked a village near but anniversaries that will never air power obliterated a wedding in the Syrian border filled with people be. Let’s start with a recent barely Afghanistan was in late December sleeping after a wedding ceremony, reported incident in Afghanistan. 2001. US B-52 and B-1B bombers killing at least 42 of them, including On October 5th, either the US Air mistakenly took out much of a village “27 members of the [family hosting Force or the Afghan one that has in Paktia Province killing more the wedding ceremony], their been armed, trained, and supported than 100 civilians while wedding wedding guests, and even the band by the US military destroyed part of festivities were underway, an event of musicians hired to play at the a “wedding procession” in Kandahar barely noted in the American media. ceremony.” Of that attack, the man Province, reportedly killing four and We do not know if the bride and who was then commander of the wounding eight, including women groom survived. (Imagine, however, US 1st Marine Division and is now and children. (By the way, on the day the non-stop media attention if a secretary of defense, James “Mad of the 17th anniversary of the war, terrorist had attacked a wedding in Dog” Mattis, said dismissively, an Afghan air strike reportedly killed this country and killed anyone, no “How many people go to the middle 10 children.) We don’t know—and less the bride or groom!) of the desert . . . to hold a wedding 80 probably never will—which air The second incident we know miles from the nearest civilisation?” force was responsible, nor do we of took place in Khost Province in And don’t forget the 15 or so know if the bride or groom survived, Eastern Afghanistan in May 2002 Yemenis on the way to a wedding in no less whether they will marry while a wedding was underway and December 2013 who were “mistaken and someday celebrate their 17th villagers were firing in the air, a for an al-Qaeda convoy” and taken anniversary. form of celebration there. At least out by a US drone. As I’ve written All we know and probably will 10 people died and many more elsewhere, since September 11, JANATA, December 16, 2018 13

2001, we’ve been number one . . . military counterattacks runs too military forces of the other Cold in obliterating wedding parties. Still, great a risk that more innocent men, War superpower, the Soviet Union, we’ve had some genuine competition women, children will be killed.” finally limped out of that “bleeding in recent years—above all, the Saudis How right she proved to be. wound”—as Soviet leader Mikhail in their brutal American-backed and By now, there is the equivalent of Gorbachev called Afghanistan. -supplied air war in Yemen. From unending “towers” of dead women They would return to a sapped, an incident in September 2015 in and children in the Greater Middle fragmenting empire and a country which their missiles killed more than East, while millions of Afghans and that would implode less than two 130 Yemenis at a wedding reception others have been displaced from years later. (including the usual women and their homes and record millions In that post-Afghan moment of children) to a strike on a wedding in more sent fleeing across national victory—the end of the Cold War— April of this year that took out the boundaries as refugees. That, in turn, nothing of the Russian experience groom, they’ve run a close second has helped fuel the “populist” right was recognised as instructive for to the US. And then there’s ISIS, in both Europe and the US, so in a the last superpower on planet Earth. which, from Afghanistan to Turkey, sense, Donald Trump might be said Here’s my question, then: What seems to have a knack of its own for to be one result of the invasion of if that first Afghan War was the sending its version of a precision air Afghanistan—of, that is, a twenty- real-world equivalent of a movie force (suicide bombers) to take out first-century American push to preview? Someday, when the second weddings. unsettle the world. Who knows what Afghan War finally ends and the US All of these, of course, represent else (and who else) America’s wars military limps home from its many anniversaries that will never be, may produce before they end, as they imperial adventures abroad as the which couldn’t be sadder. In truth, if will someday? Red Army once did, will it, too, find you live in any of the battle zones of Here, however, is one possibility an empire on the verge of imploding the still-expanding war on terror, you that, at this point, isn’t part of and a country in deep trouble? should probably think twice about any thinking in this country but Is that really beyond imagining getting married or at least having a perhaps should be. In the wake of anymore? And if it were so, wouldn’t wedding ceremony. Since Americans America’s first Afghan War (1979- that be an anniversary to remember? don’t focus on such moments in our 1989), the Red Army, the stymied never-ending conflicts, they have no way of seeing them as the heart and soul of the twenty-first-century Venezuela’s Constituent Assembly and American way of war. And of course the Rise of Fascism there’s always the question that General Mattis raised to take into account: What are you going to do Cira Pascual Marquina with people who insist on getting married in the desert—other than A conversation with Julio pauperisation of Venezuela’s slaughter them? Escalona, a socialist activist in masses goes forward, a fascist Venezuela since his youth days, option could emerge in here. Can Afghan Previews? presently professor of economy in you tell us about this? Only days after the 9/11 attacks, Venezuela’s Central University, and As long as the welfare state every member of Congress but member of Venezuela’s Constituent existed and relations of power one voted in favor of the Bush Assembly. evolved under it, fascist projects administration’s authorisation of Recently you wrote an article were impeded. There have always military force that opened the way about the resurgence of fascism been fascist practices, that is to not just for the Afghan invasion, but in our continent, as embodied in say violence, torture, violations of Brazilian presidential candidate human rights, attacks on democracy, so much else that followed. The sole Jair Bolsonaro. You hypothesise which generally are fascist practices. no vote came from Representative that, if the economy continues They’ve always been present in Barbara Lee (D-CA), who warned its chaotic course and the Venezuela but without being the usual that “a rush to launch precipitous 14 JANATA, December 16, 2018 political method. What’s been usual individual solution. Individual repress. This would go hand-in-hand in Venezuela has been a combination solutions of that kind are only with a fascist demagogic discourse, of forms of struggle: there was an possible by damaging the collective, showing how you can enrich authoritarian government, which was which is precisely what capital tries yourself, you can live better. That maintained by concessions to people to do. discourse tells you: you shouldn’t and workers and also buttressed by So we have entered into a process be so stupid as to think about other repression, in what was called “the in which individual solutions have people! war against insurgents.” not exactly won out, but they have Today in global capitalism, been strengthened and the fabric of Faced with this, what is the finance capital has become solidarity has begun to weaken. One government doing? hegemonic. Financial capital cannot thing goes hand-in-hand with the The government should coexist easily with democracy, other: you weaken the social fabric confront this situation. It has the because it liquidates the spaces and relations of solidarity, at the same political and legal tools—all the of interclass negotiation, which time as you strengthen individualism. necessary instruments to confront was the social and political basis That’s what’s underway right now in the Right’s main tactic today, which for representative democracy. Venezuela. is permanently raising prices. The Liquidating those spaces of Fascist experiences tend to result Right does this because it’s what negotiation means that there are two from a frustration of the popular most hurts the people. As a result options: either a move toward fascism movement. The popular movement you cannot buy a kilo of meat. or a growing popular movement, had begun to emerge in Germany. Nobody can buy it! That’s the truth! which is what the Chavista period The communist party got to be very Nor can you buy a kilo of chicken. represented in Venezuela. The strong there. However, defeating That’s to say the basic goods option that in fact emerged here the communists and the socialists that people use can’t be bought, but was that of the popular movement in Germany led to fascism, because neither can you get anything else. and the practice of participative and the liberal position and especially When they became aware that the protagonic democracy. the neoliberal position is based people were eating vegetables, then Moreover, our popular struggle on weakening the state, but above they raised their prices. Salaries relied on something Chavez all in weakening the state as a were raised significantly as a result developed, which was both the representative of the population’s of the measures taken by President worldview and the practice of interests. At the same time, the Maduro, and when they became solidarity. Practicing solidarity state is strengthened as a vehicle of aware of this, what did they do? developed because people could see repression and persecution. They raised prices to such a degree the advantages of solidarity, but it led That’s how we get to a situation that salaries now don’t allow you to the Empire to realise that the way to of a fascist kind, since it amounts to buy anything! defeat Chavismo would be to defeat strengthened power that is located The government has to confront the concrete practice of solidarity above society, which decides inflation, and it possesses the here: stimulating individualism and people’s rights and determining means to do so. It can establish a promoting egoist solutions. what is done and not done, while new relation between the Bolivar To do that, imperialism worked forcefully encouraging one to think and the Petro and raise the real to make Venezuelan society chaotic, about oneself. It tells you: it doesn’t salary. Those are steps that can be destroying forms of organisation and matter if you kill, it doesn’t matter if taken. They are not easy of course, relations of solidarity. That is what you torture, it doesn’t matter if it’s a because businessmen will begin to has been happening in Venezuela: dictatorship. But you can work things hoard basic goods. However, the a process of destroying relations of out for yourself. government also has the instruments solidarity along with a reawakening In Venezuela, the Right is trying to solve these problems. of individualism through what is here to frustrate the Chavist process, On the subject of fascism, in called bachaqueo [the widespread because they know that frustrating 2017 we saw a fascist uprising. practice of acquiring subsidised it will lead to a reaction in the It was in the face of this fascist products (i.e. cornmeal, toilet paper, opposite direction. State power, outbreak that President Maduro etc.) and reselling them at higher which Chavismo used to respond to called for a National Constituent prices], which is in essence the popular demands, could be used to Assembly (ANC), which had two JANATA, December 16, 2018 15 tasks. The first was to change the mobilising people to confront the That danger exists in Venezuela, correlation of forces to end the economic war. and I think it is our most serious fascist insurrection. That was Additionally, the government problem now. successful. However, the ANC has not taken the steps to limit also was charged with writing prices and keep basic goods from What is happening with the a new constitution. Can you disappearing—in effect, all the National Constituent Assembly? tell us how the ANC is working things that make up the economic Are the commissions meeting? Is internally? Has there been a war. If it’s a war, that means it cannot there debate? debate in commissions and is the be resolved only through dialogue. The National Constituent new constitution being developed? In a war, of course, there are spaces Assembly has been working and The idea that the government for dialogue, but only if you have there is ample evidence of that. The had in convoking the ANC was, as both sides wanting to negotiate. But commissions (workgroups by area, you said, to defeat street violence. what in fact happened is one side such as economy, gender, etc) are The Venezuelan people understood wanted to dialogue and the other the ones that have most of the work this clearly and massively went out side pretended to want to do it, went for now, but those are closed-door to vote for it. to the table, approved things that spaces. But the question of violence was they immediately broke, making The problem, from my point not properly understood. People the government appear ridiculous in of view, is that even though the have said: “peace triumphed.” front of the population. ANC has approved open debates However, what was defeated was The government says, “We in the street, in the barrios, in rural street violence, so the opposition agreed on such and such prices.” areas, etc., that hasn’t happened. A changed their form of struggle and What’s more, the businessmen void exists, and it has to be filled began a battle on the economic front, sign it and it comes out in the soon! The debate internally within which is where we have not been official bulletin, but they break the the ANC cannot remain inside able to defeat them. agreement immediately. Breaking the four walls of the Assembly So, we defeated the street the agreement has to be punished by chambers. The leadership, the heads violence but not the economic war. the state! It hasn’t done so! For me, of commissions, the delegates— One form of violence was ended, that is the most serious problem that everybody must go out to debate in but other forms became stronger. It’s we have now because it could cause public squares, in the barrios. there that they have hit most hard. the population to lose confidence in I myself have been to open That’s the case because while the the government. meetings, but initiatives like that street violence jammed up the city Up until now, the government have occurred as a personal project. and created chaos, it never had the has been strong because it has They are not enough. According to people’s support. maintained people’s confidence. Hermann Escarra, who heads up the For that reason, defeating street That is what was proven in recent Constitutional Commission, eighty violence was easy. Maduro did what elections. If that confidence is percent of the constitution’s text one does in that sort of situation: broken, then we might have a critical is ready, but, where is the debate? appeal to the people. Convoking situation. The open debate? I assume that the ANC was a way of mobilising Fascist spaces now exist in this problem will be solved. The people, and that was correct. Venezuela without having had either truth is that nobody has to ask for Nevertheless, where we have not the opportunity nor the leadership permission to debate. been able to mobilise people is in the to go forward. The internal Right Now, what you should struggle against the economic war. [within the government] is working understand is that class struggle Winning that struggle would to open opportunities for fascism, expresses itself in all societies and require making people conscious while, from the outside, imperialism in all spaces of society. Thus, class of the nature of the problem. It’s a is working to find the leaders who struggle is also found within the question of awareness because the can direct the movement. So I think government. I’m not making an Chavista movement, the Bolivarian the political struggle in Venezuela accusation; it’s simply a fact. There movement, has enough people to has to face the possibility that a is a very active class struggle in deal with the economic emergency. fascist movement could emerge that Venezuela, and it expresses itself Yet it’s there that we have failed, in would have a base in the country… within the government, within labor 16 JANATA, December 16, 2018 unions, and within all communities. This is a very serious problem. this situation, as it has the police, It’s necessary to overcome the But despite the large amount of the apparatus of repression (a part closed-door tendencies in this class contraband, the fruits and vegetables of which, by the way, is actually struggle. that we eat daily are still produced participating in the smuggling In recent months, popular by campesinos. business and is connected to non- Chavista movements have begun The government must sit campesino interests). to question the government. They and dialogue, as equals, with the insist on being heard, and they country’s campesino organisations. Can you tell us more about the want the government to rectify The Admirable Campesino March, importance of class struggle in the its errors. The best-known case as important as it is, is not the countryside today? is the Admirable Campesino only expression of campesino There are two very important March. Can you tell us about organisation today. There are many, factors to consider today in analysing this new phenomenon—these many campesino organisations in the class struggle in Venezuela. The rebellious movements that are country that must be heard. first is a campesino bloc, which is emerging within Chavismo— There will be a Campesino growing in organisational terms and particularly about how Congress to address these issues. It and also making demands that are Venezuela’s peasant movement probably won’t happen this year due just ones. This is not a problem, we might help to revitalise and rebuild to the elections. Most likely it will be should see this as a blessing! the Bolivarian Process. next year, probably in January. The The second factor is the struggle The emergence of the campesinos Campesino Congress must directly between the campesinos versus in the public arena is very important. address class struggle in the rural the large and middle landowning Indeed, it is the most important areas and attempt to resolve this class. Finally, there is a third factor: political event in recent times. struggle in favor of the Venezuelan mercenary forces (as well as, in Campesinos are a key social nation, in favor of the people, and, some cases, state forces), that are element in Venezuela. After all, they by the same token, in favor of the participating directly, and they are form part of a long struggle and they campesinos who produce what we not siding with the campesinos. produce our food. In Venezuela, eat. These mercenary forces are already much of what we consume daily To go forward, it’s important that in action: they steal and even burn is campesino production. The old campesino organisations develop farmers’ crops. landowning class, the agribusiness as spaces of unity and political All this is not being talked about, sector, produces to export. The consciousness. They must unite the but it needs to be known. The violence emerging agrarian Chavista capitalist campesinos in the struggle against created by non-campesino groups is class, which is for now midsize, does large landowners, pushing for an leading, once again, to displacement the same. Actually, even some of the alliance with the state, making the of campesinos towards urban areas. campesinos’ production ends up in state come to their side. If that These displaced campesinos are Colombia as a result of paramilitary doesn’t happen, the problem of the entering urban pockets of poverty. networks. Campesinos have been rural areas will not be solved, and We should understand that big denouncing this. we will not be able to solve our capital and especially finance capital We have three very active problems related to food supply aims to take control of all spaces. borders in Venezuela. The one with and prices. The solution lies in There is a very real process of Colombia is the most active, but the campesino bloc, which the privatising war, and that is why it we also have important borders Venezuelan state must listen to, is important to point to the growth with Brazil and with the Caribbean offering real solutions. of mercenary forces. We must islands. In a small boat, you can Today, there is an open struggle understand that finance capital—a reach many Caribbean islands. between the large and medium supranational power with local It’s very hard to control the ocean, agrarian bourgeoisie versus the relations—is operating here. and there is a lot of open-ocean campesinos. The only actor that When mercenaries come to the smuggling of agricultural products. can solve this very serious crisis in scene and displace campesinos, they Of course, the contraband is sold in favor of the campesino bloc is the are acting on behalf of supranational exchange for hard currency, for US state. So the state, the government, interests. The mercenary forces in dollars, which are a draw. must act! Only the state can solve Venezuela aren’t a bunch of petty JANATA, December 16, 2018 17 criminals. They form part of an the fate of the Bolivarian Process . . defeat all imperialist offensives, and strategically organised project, and It is a well-known fact that that represents a challenge for them. their mission is to take over the Venezuela is a region of particular Imperialism is intent on defeating the Venezuelan countryside. The class geopolitical interest for imperialism. Bolivarian Process. That is why this war in Venezuela has an important This is not only because of our natural process is of great importance for the mercenary component. resources, which are important peoples of the world, and if it was So again, in this open and intense enough, but also because there has defeated, it would begin to close off struggle, the government must side been a revolution here. The example revolutionary paths. That is why I with the campesinos. set by a profound process of change believe that international solidarity is a serious problem for them. with Venezuela is a revolutionary We know of your deep concern for Venezuela has been able to duty for internationalists.

What’s Keeping the World from Ending AIDS

Vijay Prashad

If you cure illnesses, said causes AIDS. pharmaceutical industry has come Goldman Sachs vice-president World AIDS Day and activist up with successful drugs to contain Salveen Richter, it will disrupt groups fought to ensure that the virus. “sustained cash flow.” Far better AIDS was not seen as a curse on This is, of course, not the case for to find medical treatments that homosexual men and that it was seen the affluent world’s working poor, provide some solace but that prolong as both preventable and curable. This who are sapped by the evisceration illnesses. Even better if these was an enormous burden, given the of health care. treatments are both necessary and homophobia in many societies and In other parts of the world—in expensive. the cuts to public health that states Africa and Asia, for instance—HIV If you find a cure for an illness, around the world were being forced continues to be very dangerous. In then you will find—as Richter into by the policy framework of the large parts of the African continent, wrote in her analysis for Goldman International Monetary Fund (IMF). 1 in 25 adults has the virus, just Sachs—“a gradual exhaustion of By 2018, 30 years after the origin above 4% of adults. These men and the prevalent pool of patients.” of World AIDS Day, it is assumed women make up two-thirds of all That’s the worst thing imaginable for that such concern is anachronistic. those people who carry HIV. pharmaceutical companies and their There is a sense that homophobia is What is important to focus investors. Keep the goose alive as less virulent and that the health-care on is that they live in countries long as it keeps laying golden eggs. industries—both the pharmaceutical where the IMF has systematically December 1, is World AIDS and medical sides—have taken hold undermined state-provided health Day. In 1987, two public information of this epidemic. care—particularly primary health officers at the United Nations’ World By last count of the WHO, more care—and where the cost of the Health Organization (WHO) came than 70 million people have been drugs to contain HIV remains up with the idea of such a day, which afflicted with HIV, and by the end prohibitive. was then promoted by the UN from of 2017, 36.9 million people were It might well be that in the 1988 onwards. living with the virus (less than 1% affluent parts of the world one can For a decade, World AIDS Day of the world’s population). It is true be sanguine about the HIV/AIDS helped shape public consciousness that in many parts of the world, epidemic. But it is certainly not about the ferocity of the disease. By HIV has been brought under control something to dismiss in large parts 1990, almost 300,000 people had by technologies of prevention and of the world where states remain died of acquired immune deficiency of care. Part of this is because the under pressure to cut costs and syndrome per year, while about 10 health-care infrastructure in the where pharmaceutical companies million people carried the human affluent world has not been totally find human bodies upon whom to do immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that devastated and partly because the test trials rather than to cure. 18 JANATA, December 16, 2018

Right to health those in the health delivery sector. declined since 2010 by a third, It has long been the hope of Stunningly, the WHO found that the there has been a recent uptick in human beings that preventable number of Sierra Leone’s community the number of deaths. This is of diseases should be eradicated by way health-care workers fell from 0.11 concern. Serious-minded public of changes in behavior and the use of per 1,000 of the population in 2004 health specialists worry that this rise medicines. Every Indian child in the to 0.02 per 1,000 in 2008. This was in AIDS deaths has come as health 1970s remembers the government the absolute antithesis of the Alma infrastructure has been weakened posters that urged people to boil their Ata Declaration. and as pharmaceutical companies water and to get vaccinated. It was Last week, in Savar, Bangladesh, continue to charge absurdly high thought that primary health care and delegates assembled for the fourth prices for HIV/AIDS drugs. education about health would pave People’s Health Assembly. They The same month, ACT UP the way toward a healthier world. came from far and wide, arguing for (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), At the 1978 WHO conference a return to the dynamic of which the which was founded in 1987, held a at the then-Soviet city of Alma Alma Ata Declaration was a part. protest in New York City against Ata (now Almaty, Kazakhstan), The situation is now at an Gilead Sciences, a monopoly governments of most countries emergency footing, with public pharmaceutical company. The drug said that by the year 2000 the level health institutions virtually destroyed in question for ACT UP is Truvada, of health would permit people “to and with plunder by pharmaceutical which reduces the chances of HIV lead a socially and economically companies a normal situation. The infection. ACT UP says that a course productive life.” It was underlined WHO and World Bank have found of Truvada costs Gilead about that “primary health care is the key that by 2010, nearly 808 million US$6 a month to manufacture, but to attaining this target as part of people had incurred “catastrophic it charges patients an astronomical development in the spirit of social spending on health” because of the $1,500 a month. What is scandalous justice.” costs of drugs and because of the is that the research for this drug was Since 1978, the UN General privatisation of health care. funded not by Gilead but by public Assembly has regularly argued, There is virtually no outrage at the funds and by philanthropists. as it did in 2012, for “universal IMF policy framework that destroys When a Goldman Sachs analyst access to affordable and quality the health-care infrastructure in says that the point is to make money health-care services.” But the policy the Global South. Saccharine pop- from illness, she is merely mirroring framework pushed on the majority star humanism that began with the reality of the brutishness of of the countries of the world went Bob Geldof’s “Do They Know It’s capitalism. Serious conversations in the other direction. Christmas (1984) merges with the need to take place about the way The focus on the bad policy equally syrupy tech-philanthropy in which monopoly pharmaceutical choices pushed on these countries of the Bill and Melinda Gates firms draw public funds to protect should have been laser-sharp after Foundation (2000) to throw a shroud themselves from risk and then charge the Ebola outbreak of 2013–2016 over the African continent. high prices to make astronomical in West Africa. An important study Nothing that Bono and Bill can profits. in The Lancet in 2015 found that do undermines the sharp edge of Questions also need to be asked in the three countries hit hardest IMF policy and the theft of Africa’s about the IMF policy space that by the outbreak—Guinea, Liberia riches by monopoly firms (including makes it impossible to detect the and Sierra Leone—IMF policies those mining companies that provide virus ahead of time and even harder had forced the governments to the raw materials for the computers to care for its victims. undermine their health-care delivery that made Bill Gates his wealth). It’s not enough to wear a ribbon services. on World AIDS Day. Go out on to The study found that in Sierra Return of AIDS the streets with a group of friends. Leone, IMF policies had severely Last April, the UN General Carry a sign. Let it say: “More Public reduced the number public sector Assembly heard the summary of Health and Cheaper Drugs.” If you employees. Between 1995 and a report on the need for urgency want to end HIV/AIDS by 2030, the 1996, the IMF required the state to regarding the return of AIDS. prescription is as simple as that. cut 28% of its employees, including Even though AIDS deaths have JANATA, December 16, 2018 19 R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, December 16, 2018 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2018 Published on Sunday, December 16, 2018 & Posted on Wedenesday, December 19, 2018 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

GANNON DUNKERLEY & CO., LTD. An infrastructure company established since 1924

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Printed and Published by G.G. Parikh on behalf of Janata Trust. Printed at Parijat Printer, Gaiwadi, Girgaum, Mumbai - 400 004 and published at D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Naushir Bharucha Marg (Sleater Road), Mumbai - 400 007. Established 1946 1 Pages 24 Price : Rupees Five

Press note on the Rafale judgment, 14 December 2018 Vol. 73 No. 48 December 23, 2018 A Shocking And Disappointing Judgement Understanding Interfaith Dialogue: A Few Critical Questions Neha Dabhade Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan Why Gandhi and Marx Are More The judgement of the Supreme completed with Dassault. The CEO Relevant Now Than Ever Before Ashish Kothari Court dismissing our petition seeking of Dassault in the presence of top The Poetics Of Statues an independent court monitored officials of IAF and HAL had said Dr. A. Raghu Kumar investigation into the Rafale deal is that the contract negotiations were Mexico: President AMLO's Inaugural as shocking as it is disappointing. 95% complete and that the deal Speech Offers 'New Hope' We had gone to court after making would be inked soon. There was Martin Varese a detailed complaint to the CBI nothing to suggest that the deal had On International Human Rights Day Vijay Prashad pointing out the following: run into rough weather. However Why Extinction Rebellion Protesters The Prime Minister signed an on 10th April the Prime Minister Are Breaking the Law agreement for 36 Rafale jets on unilaterally signed a 36 aircraft Claire Wordley 10th April 2015 without any such deal with the French President, all The Yellow Vest Movement requirement of 36 jets given by to be purchased in a ready-to-fly Strengthens in France John Mullen the Air Force headquarters and condition. Thus 126 was reduced Hind Mazdoor Sabha without the approval of the Defence to 36, transfer of technology and Qurban Ali Acquisition Council (DAC), which ‘Make in India’ was knocked out Turned Out You Were Just Like Us are the mandated first steps for any and a clause for offset partners was Fahmida Riaz defence procurement. brought in. Exactly at this time Anil Editor : G. G. Parikh The Air Force had in fact been Ambani registered a new company asking for at least 126 fighter jets Reliance Defence, and Dassault Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain which had been approved by the entered into a partnership with this Managing Editor : Guddi DAC, tenders had been issued, 6 company which was to get the bulk companies had applied, two were of the offset contract from this deal. Editorial Board : short-listed and finally Dassault The then French President Hollande B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali was selected as the lowest tender. also confirmed later in an interview Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah The tender was on the basis that that the choice of Reliance Defence, Amarendra Dhaneshwar, 126 fighters would be procured out a brand new company with no Sandeep Pandey of which only 18 would be bought credibility or experience in defence in a ready-to-fly condition and the manufacturing, was made by the D-15, Ganesh Prasad, remaining would be manufactured Indian government and the French Naushir Bharucha Marg, in India by HAL with transfer of had nothing to do with it. Mumbai - 400 007. technology by Dassault. It thereafter transpired that Email : [email protected] By 25th March, the tender the benchmark price of 36 Rafale Website:www.janataweekly.org negotiations had been virtually aircrafts was fixed by three senior 2 JANATA, December 23, 2018 officials in the price negotiating Committee (hereafter referred to acquisition process or on pricing. committee, at 5.2 billion euros. as PAC). Only a redacted portion At least this did not happen during However this price was unilaterally of the report was placed before the court proceedings. increased by the cabinet committee Parliament, and is in public domain.” On the acquisition process, on security headed by the Prime All the facts mentioned above the court obligingly accepts Minister to 8.2 billion euros and are neither on record nor factually the government claim that the the contract was finally awarded for correct. The CAG judgment has acquisition process in the earlier 7.2 billion euros. The per aircraft not been submitted to the Public 126 aircraft deal got stuck and was cost for the 36 aircraft deal comes Accounts Committee and no portion not going ahead, which is why to around Rs 1,650 crore. This of the CAG report has been placed the new deal of 36 aircrafts had can be contrasted with the price before Parliament or placed in the to be made. The court does not mentioned by the then Defence public domain. Obviously this even deal with the facts mentioned Minister Parrikar himself in an factually incorrect statement must by us completely shredding this interview immediately after 10th be based on some communication claim of the government, where we April 2015, where he said that the (not on record and unknown to us) had annexed a video of the CEO 126 aircrafts in the earlier deal made by the government to the court. of Dassault of 25th march 2015 would have cost around Rs 90,000 That the court has relied on such saying that the negotiations was crore, which is about Rs 715 crore communication which is factually 95% complete and the deal would per aircraft. incorrect on 3 counts shows how be inked soon. He had also said that It was on these facts which were dangerous it is for the court to rely Dassault would remain complaint to all documented in the complaint on statements made in a sealed the RFP and that they were happy to the CBI, that we sought a court cover (not subject to scrutiny or and satisfied with HAL. The Court monitored investigation (when the verification) and give its judgement also does not deal with the specific CBI did not register an FIR on our on that basis. issue of violation of the procurement complaint which is mandatory as It is astounding that the court procedure raised by us, that the PM per law). has stated such a patently incorrect signed the 36 aircraft deal with the The Court’s judgement fact in its short judgement. The French government on 10th April, today does not even address the court has also mentioned in the same before any requirement given by documented facts stated in our para that the Chief of the Indian the Air Force for 36 aircrafts and petition or deal with our main prayer Air Force had communicated his before DAC okaying the need to buy seeking an investigation. On the reservation regarding the disclosure 36 aircrafts without any transfer of contrary, it proceeds on the basis that of the pricing details which would technology or ‘Make in India’. we were challenging the contract adversely affect national security. The fact as we showed is, that no itself and uses the facts stated by This alleged fact was also not on procedure was followed. The Prime the government either in the short record and it is not understood as to Minister unilaterally announced open affidavit filed or perhaps facts where and how the court got this. a new deal and the CCS rubber claimed in the sealed cover handed The court has also mentioned that stamped these with retrospective only to the court which was never Air Force officials were examined by effect. The Court takes a dangerous shared with us. In fact some of the court on the acquisition process step: in condoning the total disregard the facts mentioned in the court and pricing. This is also factually of procedures, the court cites clause judgement are not only not on record incorrect as the only question asked 75 which says, “any deviation but are patently incorrect. of the Air Force officials by the from the prescribed procedure The Court mentions in para court and the only questions they will be put up to DAC through 25 that “The pricing details have, answered was about whether the DPP for approval”. Were this to however, been shared with the Rafale aircraft belonged to the 3rd, become the norm for subsequent Comptroller and Auditor General 4th and 5th generation and when judicial examination, wrong doers (hereinafter referred to as CAG), did the last acquisition take place. in control of governments would and the report of the CAG has been They were neither questioned, have a carte blanche. They could examined by the Public Accounts nor did they say anything, on the do what they want—as the PM did JANATA, December 23, 2018 3 in this instance—and then have it to do with the new company of Anil plundered our public exchequer and retrospectively rubber stamped by Ambani incorporated at the time will bleed our public sector defence DAC etc. of the 2015 deal. The court also company HAL. This contrived deal On the issue of price the court overlooks the specific provisions of has been struck only for the purpose says that, “We have examined the DPP and the offset guidelines of giving large commissions to Anil closely the price details and pointed out by us which requires Ambani’s company in the guise comparison of the prices of every offset contract to be approved of offset contracts. The Supreme the basic aircraft along with by the Raksha Mantri himself. Court’s judgment is thus by no escalation costs as under the On this basis the court concludes means a clean chit to the government original RFP as well as under that there is no reason for any on this deal. The Courts judgment is the IGA. We have also gone intervention by the Court on the in line with earlier judgments of the through the explanatory note on sensitive issue of purchase of 36 courts in the Bofors case and in the the costing, item wise. Suffice it to aircrafts by the Indian government. It Birla Sahara case where we have say that as per the price details, says that “perception of individuals seen that courts have stopped short of the official respondents claim cannot be the basis of a fishing and ordering independent investigations there is a commercial advantage roving enquiry by the Court.” in matters involving corruption in in the purchase of 36 Rafale The Court overlooks the fact that high places or even given judgments aircrafts. The official respondents we were not seeking any enquiry by seeking to put a lid on those cases. have claimed that there are certain the court but only an independent The issue will continue to agitate better terms in IGA qua the investigation by the CBI or SIT. The the public mind until there is full maintenance and weapon package. law on this has been laid down in a public disclosure of all the facts and It is certainly not the job of this Constitution bench of the Supreme a comprehensive and independent Court to carry out a comparison Court in Lalita Kumari’s case which investigation into the deal. of the pricing details in matters says that if allegations made in a like the present. We say no more complaint are of a criminal offence, as the material has to be kept in an FIR must be registered and a confidential domain.” investigation must be made. The The Court does not even refer allegations in the complaint by us Janata Subscription to or deal with the facts disclosed were of huge commissions being by us about the sudden increase of given to Ambani’s company through Annual Rs. : 260/- the benchmark price from 5.2 billion the guise of offset contracts in a deal to 8.2 billion euros, despite the which was contrived to ensure that Three Years : 750/- objections of three relevant official such commissions would be paid. Demand Draft / experts in the price negotiating It is in these circumstances committee who were subsequently that we say that we are shocked Cheque transferred out. It however curiously and disappointed by the court’s on mentions a CAG report on this issue judgment. However, since the court which fact was never stated and is has not examined nor said that it Mumbai Bank nonexistent. was examining the facts in detail, in favour of On the issue of offset contracts and has dismissed the petition only to Ambani’s Company the court on the basis of its perception of its Janata Trust says that this was to be decided own jurisdiction under article 32 of by Dassault which was already in the Constitution, this judgment can D-15, Ganesh Prasad, negotiation with Reliance since by no means be considered to be the Naushir Bharucha Marg, 2012. This despite the fact that Supreme Court’s clean chit to this Grant Road (W), the Reliance Company with which deal. As mentioned in our complaint, Dassault was once discussing, was all the facts and circumstances show Mumbai 400 007. a completely different company of that this was an unholy deal which Mukesh Ambani and had nothing has compromised national security, 4 JANATA, December 23, 2018 Understanding Interfaith Dialogue: A Few Critical Questions

Neha Dabhade

The issue of constructing a temple value system in the light of other Making a case for Dalit women in of Lord Ram on the disputed site religions. A critical understanding of the Church, it was argued that Dalit where the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya other religions enables us to reflect women are “Dalit within the Dalit” once stood and was demolished internally within our own religions. thus pointing out how the axis of in 1992 is once again hitting the Thus, my participation in an gender and caste lead to double headlines. The construction of interfaith consultation recently was discrimination of Dalit women in the temple is being touted as an a very enriching experience for me the Church. While support is sought article of faith and the litmus test since it opened avenues of learning from a patriarchal understanding or to prove respect for sentiments of and assiduous critical reflection into interpretation of biblical scriptures ‘Hindus’. This demand becomes all our own faiths. The Consultation to entrench the lower status of the more threatening when there is called Seeking Life Together: women within the family and society aggressive mobilisation to intimidate Interfaith Resistance to Religious at large, the plight of Dalit women the democratic institutions like the Bigotry and Discrimination based becomes all the more aggravated judiciary and also the communities on Caste and Gender was organised due to caste identity. What perhaps perceived as ‘others’. This is but by Collective of Dalit Ecumenical was most moving and inspiring just one of the many examples of Christian Scholars (CODECS) in was the narrative of a Dalit woman manipulations and contestations collaboration with the Mennonite reverend herself, who explained that are being played out in the Brethren Centenary Bible College this oppression citing her personal name of religion in India which is (MBCBC) and the World Council journey. She explained that women proving to be a strain on the peaceful of Churches (WCC). face strong resistance when they try to and harmonious inter-community Some of the important penetrate the Church administrative relations in India. reflections and challenges that the structures which largely till date In this context, one of the solutions meet deliberated upon were crucial. remain male dominated. Women’s being promoted is to establish For a nuanced understanding of emancipation is viewed as a threat inter-faith dialogue and through interfaith dialogue and relations, it to the social order understood to this dialogue build understanding becomes imperative to peel layers of be formed by God. This resistance between the different religions. discrimination that institutionalised becomes stronger if the woman However, it would be misplaced religions perpetrate with the help of is a Dalit. There was a demand to optimism and perhaps even a folly scriptures and normative narratives. deconstruct the understanding of to believe that by speaking about I have listed a few down below. biblical scriptures which legitimises the positives of our own religions hierarchy and subordination of in a closed conference room, one The Question of Gender women. can establish any meaningful The question of gender equality The status of Muslim women dialogue or even understand the is central to all religions and has evinced intense debates and interest. essence of the different religions. unfortunately been a grim one. Two perspectives emerged. One, Any sincere attempt at interfaith Women have been discriminated that the scriptures are a source dialogue will require an earnest in the socio-cultural realm by of liberation and provide space reflection about our own religion, citing justifications from religious for negotiating rights of Muslim the power structures it nurtures, the narratives. In the seminar too, the women; and the other more critical inequalities it institutionalises and question of subordination of women one, which questioned the scriptures also the injustices it may perpetuate. was raised very strongly. Different which are used to subordinate Such a dialogue will help speakers tried to deconstruct women. These perspectives came each community understand their patriarchy and patriarchal structures from the lived experiences of own traditions, faith, beliefs and / understanding of scriptures. women who have been working with JANATA, December 23, 2018 5

Muslim communities in South Asia. common enemy, and are misled And so, caste system came to haunt Women’s organisations working into believing that they are working the Dalits in Islam and Christianity on issues of Muslim women are to “save” their religion by indulging too. For instance, there are separate grappling with the discrimination in propaganda of hatred. But this churches for Dalit Christians faced by Muslim women in the areas political agenda, despite being or separate mosques for Dalit of marriage, property, education based on hatred, gives women the Muslims. and their overall socio-economic bargaining power to participate in Though there is no notion status in society. The orthodoxy the public sphere. For example, of purity and pollution in Islam often cites from the Quran to justify they are out on the streets to stop and Christianity, the condition this discrimination. However it is other women who wish to enter of Pasmanda Muslims and equally true that there are also liberal the Sabarimala temple, or to shield Dalit Christians is appalling. interpretations of the Quran which their male relatives when they The philosophy of caste is quite have provided spaces to women to participate in communal violence contradictory to the basic beliefs of negotiate for their rights in day to against the “others”. Their concerns Islam which explicitly emphasise day lives. But more often than not, of equality within families, equal equality and universal brotherhood. the vested clergy and elite in the opportunity in terms of education Islam may be normatively egalitarian, community interpret the scriptures and livelihoods and their agency in but actually existing Islam in Indian in a way to subjugate the women. terms of marriages and relationships conditions is deeply hierarchical. There was a strong argument are sidelined or even opposed. There is a need to democratise Islam about how the discrimination faced Therefore reforms and a critical in India. The resistance of Muslim by Muslim women is manipulated reflection on the orthodoxy within Dalits and Christian Dalits leads to by communal forces to stigmatise communities are absolutely essential a larger question of democratisation and demonise Islam as a religion and if there has to be interfaith dialogue. and forging a counter-hegemonic also the Muslim community as being solidarity that has the potentiality ‘backward’ and ‘fundamentalist’. The Question of Caste and can prove to be a powerful This adds to the pressure on Muslim Caste system in India has seeped resource for more humane interfaith women to sweep their questions into other religions though it’s dialogue. and demands for reforms under the not integral to their theology. The carpet and in effect does more harm caste system which is a system of The question of inclusion to their cause of justice and equality. graded hierarchy or inequality has This brings us to the question The struggles of Muslim women shaped the Hindu communities. about what is the nature of religion. are at the crossroads of communal The Dalits who were at the Religion was made for human politics and patriarchy faced within receiving end of the practice of beings and not vice-versa. Thus, the community. untouchability, discrimination one has to raise the question, is the It will be misleading to think and dehumanisation for centuries imagery of God congruent to that of that identity politics is affecting tried to find alternatives to Hindu a poor man? A black man? A Dalit? the lives of Muslim women alone religion, which had been critiqued A woman? Does God in the present and pushing them deeper into the by Ambedkar in no uncertain terms. understanding and form really folds of patriarchy. Women in Some of the Dalits turned to Islam dialogue with a poor or unprivileged Hindu communities are also used and Christianity in their quest for person not conforming to the normal as pawns to play out communal equality and acceptance. However, in society? Is institutionalised politics by firmly placing them in the the persons who converted couldn’t religion really inclusive? Does it realm of their homes to strengthen escape their caste identity. There emphasise humility, simplicity, the discourses of women being were conversions into Islam and concern for the poor? There are reproducers of children. Hindu Christianity from upper caste Hindu examples like Basavanna and other women are mobilised by communal religions too. This privileged group bhakti traditions along with Sufi forces to construct exclusionist drew caste boundaries within the saints who through their living narratives of nationalism where other religions too and reproduced exemplified poverty and labour. Muslims are portrayed as the brahminical culture and discourses. Basavanna exalted physical labour 6 JANATA, December 23, 2018 into a religious ideology and weaved order. The critical gaze instead of (I started searching for the devil a counter narrative to caste driven being on other religions should be but could not find anyone. When I brahminical society and morality. projected within. As Kabir very searched inside me, I realised there In one of famous vachanas, he says: rightly pointed out: is no one more devilish than me.) This may lead to different The rich will make temples for Shiva. Bura jo dekhan main chala, bura na sections of the society having a What shall I, a poor man, do? milaya koi meaningful dialogue with each other, My legs are pillars, and will include the marginalised, in the body the shrine, the head a Jo man khoja apna, toh mujhsa bura turn making such interactions more cupola of gold. na koi. humane. These thinkers and philosophers envisaged a different social order— Why Gandhi and Marx Are More Relevant one which was based on rationality, equality and justice. This was a Now Than Ever Before sincere attempt at democratisation of religion. Such values are most Ashish Kothari needed today where institutionalised religion is manipulated to privilege The 150th birth anniversary year now. On the contrary, they are even certain sections. of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi more so than before. Their legacy What should interfaith actually and the 200th birth anniversary of is crucial for the majority of the mean? Karl Marx went by this year. Such world’s population, marginalised Interfaith dialogue is largely anniversaries can become occasions by capitalism, statism, patriarchy understood to be a process to of tokenism—for instance, the Indian and other structures of oppression. promote tolerance of other religions. government has set up a committee As it is for the rest of nature, so It is understood to grapple with the with more than 100 members to badly abused by humanity. And question as to how one is to instruct coordinate celebrations of Gandhi’s it is a legacy that is still alive and youth in the religious beliefs and anniversary, crammed with political thriving, not so much in the orthodox values of their community, while bigwigs from various parties, a few Gandhian and Marxist organisations encouraging them to be tolerant academics and Gandhian workers. I and in academic circles where the of beliefs and values deemed to be am sceptical whether it has achieved tussle between the two ‘ideologies’ incompatible with their own. In this anything more than a significantly is more dominant than the urge to process, it is already presupposed heightened scale of the hypocritical make them relevant to the struggles that one’s own religion is liberal, display that October 2 brings around of the marginalised, as in these inclusive and perfect. Interfaith every year. Hopefully I’m mistaken, struggles themselves. dialogues eulogise institutional but since any meaningful homage religions and focus on so called to Gandhi would call into question Resistance and construction progressive discourses within each the very fundamentals of today’s And so we must turn for religion. But no attempt is made to political and economic power, hope to the many movements of look at within our own religion in a and point a sharply critical gaze sangharsh (resistance) and nirman rational and critical manner. at the rampant abuse of religion (construction) throughout the world. One has to acknowledge that and nationalism, I think I’m pretty These movements realise that the there exists fundamentalism in safe in being sceptical. And so too injustices they are facing, and the every religion. Therefore, there is perhaps for Marx, at least where choices they must make, are not scope for reform in every religion. the celebrations are being led by so- bound by the divides that ideologues If one acknowledges this and called revolutionary governments in play games with. critically reflects on one’s own those parts of the world where Leftist Let’s take sangharsh. At any religion and values it promotes, this parties still hold power. given time in India, there are dozens understanding perhaps will manifest This does not mean that these of sites where Adivasis, farmers, in everyday conduct and social two figures are of no relevance fisherpersons, pastoralists and others JANATA, December 23, 2018 7 are refusing to part with their land thousand Dalit women farmers who in orthodox Leftist state regimes. or forest or water to make way for have achieved anna swaraj (food so-called development projects. sovereignty) in Telangana while Bridging gaps One thousand farmers have filed also transforming their gender and And while Gandhi was weak on objections to their lands being caste status; the several dozen Gond challenging capital, and Marx on taken up by the Prime Minister’s Adivasi villages in Gadchiroli that stressing the fundamental spiritual pet project, the bullet train. News have formed a Maha Gram Sabha or ethical connections amongst that is both inspiring and depressing to stop mining, and work on their humans, these movements often keeps coming from Latin America, own vision of governance and tend to bridge these gaps. Insofar of indigenous people standing up livelihood security; a Dalit sarpanch as many of them integrate the need for their territorial rights against near Chennai who combines both to re-establish ecological resilience mining and oil extraction, and all Marxist and Gandhian principles in and wisdom, some even arguing too frequently paying the price when his attempt to transform the village for extending equal respect to state or corporate forces kill their he lives in. Similarly, there are others other species, they also encompass leaders. Nationwide rallies were across the world: a thousand people Marx’s vision of a society that organised by the National Alliance have experimented with anarchic bridges humanity’s ‘metabolic rift’ of People’s Movements and the community life in the ‘freetown’ of with nature, and Gandhi’s repeated Ekta Parishad in October. They Christiania in Copenhagen for four emphasis on living lightly on earth. involved movements for land and decades; indigenous peoples in Peru, With this they also challenge the forest rights, communal harmony, Canada and Australia have gained very fundamentals of ‘development’, workers’ security and other causes territorial autonomy; small peasants especially its mad fixation on that are not so easy to place in any in Africa and Latin America have economic growth, reliance on ideological camp. sustained or gone back to organic ever-increasing production and The same goes for nirman, or farming; fisherpersons in the South consumption, and its utter disregard the construction of alternatives. Pacific have their own network of for inequality. Across the world there are incredible sustainably managed marine sites. This is not to suggest that examples of sustainable and holistic What I find of significance in Gandhi and Marx can be happily agriculture, community-led water/ many resistance and alternative married; there are points of tension energy/ food sovereignty, worker movements is the exploration (for instance, on the issue of non- takeover of production facilities, of autonomy, self-reliance, violence as a principle). There are resource/ knowledge commons, people’s governance of politics points of ambiguity in recognising local governance, community and the economy, freedom with that indigenous peoples have already health and alternative learning, responsibility for the freedom of lived many elements of their dreams. inter-community peace-building, others, and respect for the rest of But I have found enough in grassroots reassertion of cultural diversity, nature. While these movements do movements to be convinced that gender and sexual pluralism, and often call for policy interventions there is critical common ground much else. from a more accountable state, amongst them, if our ultimate goals It is in many of these alternative there is also an underlying antipathy are well-being, justice and equity, movements that I find inspiration to the centralised state, as there based on ecological wisdom. We for building on the legacies of is in both Gandhian swaraj and would do well to honour their legacy Gandhi and Marx (and Ambedkar, in Marxist communism and in by identifying such common ground Rabindranath Tagore, Rosa many versions of anarchy. Private and building on the struggles and Luxemburg and various other property is also challenged. In 2013, creativity of ‘ordinary’ people in luminaries) and, equally important, the Gond village Mendha-Lekha communities across the world. on the many indigenous and Adivasi, in Maharashtra converted all its Dalit, peasant and other ‘folk’ agricultural land into the commons. Janata revolutionaries through history. Note that commons here does not is available at There are many examples that mean state-owned, a distorted form dot the Indian landscape: the few of ‘communism’ that has prevailed www.lohiatoday.com 8 JANATA, December 23, 2018 The Poetics Of Statues

Dr. A. Raghu Kumar

Men construct huge structures, the endeavours of men or their ideas praised?” When the golden doors make endowments, inscribe their of permanency! of the land that was one of the first names on monuments, create But my Statue of Liberty, says to be colonised are shut to millions memorials, demonstrate their Lazarus: of immigrants and asylum seekers, authority with seals imprinted with exiles and destitute in the name of Not like the brazen giant of Greek their images, consecrate statues “America first”, and when walls Fame, and there by long for permanence. are erected on the borders of the With conquering limbs astride from One such urge of the erstwhile neighbouring States, is she the land to land; kings, conquerors and military same Lady of Liberty who cried Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates generals is reflected in the statues “Keep ancient lands, your storied shall stand they themselves got erected or their pomp!” and invited those tired, A mighty woman with a torch, whose disciples got made to prove their poor and huddled masses yearning flame allegiance to the authority. There to breathe free? Has Time erased Is the imprisoned lightning, and her are statues installed by democratic the lustre of the claims of Lazarus? name governments too, to celebrate an Or is it as history has demonstrated occasion or remember a person. The Mother of Exiles. time and again—today’s heroes are Statue of Liberty standing as guard Thus, Lazarus describes the tomorrow’s tyrants? at the entrance of New York Harbour Statue of Liberty as the mother of There are plenty of statues, and on Liberty Island is a gift from exiles, and as distinguishable from they stand higher and higher. The France to commemorate the 100th the Colossus of Rhodes. While Sphinx and the Great Pyramid stand year of signing of the Declaration Colossus of Rhodes stood for ancient far taller than the Statue of Liberty. of Independence of USA. A symbol Greek and Roman civilizations and Competitive devotees clamour of democracy, it’s also a colossal for exhibition of power, authority for taller, stronger, higher idols to neoclassical structure. and victory in war, the Statue of consecrate their Gods, Kings and This well known statue has Liberty, says Lazarus, stands for Gurus, owned or appropriated. Now an inscription on its citadel, a compassion, an inviting Mother of the moderns are also in the race to sonnet written by Emma Lazarus Exiles! surpass all that is tall in the world. (1849–1887), The New Colossus. The Sardar, one of the triumvirate Considered to be one of the finest “Keep, ancient lands, your storied of the freedom struggle with Gandhi pieces of sonnets in English literature, Pomp!” cries she, and Nehru, now stands as the Statue it compares the Statue of Liberty With silent lips. “Give me your tired, of Unity, a new colossal, bigger than with the Colossus of Rhodes, one your poor, his mentor in the very land of the of the seven wonders of the Ancient Your huddled masses yearning to mentor, 182 meters high, on the river World. The Colossus of Rhodes breathe free, island constructed by a Multinational no longer stands. Constructed to The wretched refuse of your teeming Company, with money coming from celebrate the Rhode’s victory over shore the much tainted public sectors, Cyprus, it was said to be around Send these, the homeless, tempest- consuming about Rs 3,000 crore of 33 meters (108 feet) high, almost tossed to me, a poor and developing India, looking the height of the present day Statue I lift my lamp beside the golden down condescendingly or with of Liberty. Erected by Charles of door!” consternation at his mentor and all Lindos in 280 BC, it collapsed The question that lingers in the his comrades-in-arms? Challenging during an earthquake in 226 BC. mind of any liberal today is: “Is she many for the title of the tallest statue Though it was never rebuilt, parts now the same personification of in the world, including the Spring of it are preserved, as if questioning liberty that Lazarus so passionately Temple Buddha and the Father of the JANATA, December 23, 2018 9

Nation, he occupies now more than the ephemeral nature of human the nation, and as a man with great two hectares of land, which probably pursuits, with even civilisations humility who spoke less and did he might not have ever ventured to themselves disappearing into a more. He is one of the tallest occupy while alive! whisper. John Keats (1795–1821), figures of modern Indian history. There is another statue, which a contemporary of Shelley, wrote His greatness is within and not also stood for power and authority, a beautiful ode, Ode on a Grecian without. Hugeness of his statue may the statue of the Egyptian king Urn, where he describes Time’s not further the ideals of this great Ozymandias. He was a villainous irrelevance to the physical and soul, instead it distances us from pharaoh who enslaved the ancient material, with a suggestion that him. We want to remember Patel as Hebrews who Moses led to the it is art that is an anti-dote to this one who, along with our Father of Exodus. P. B. Shelley (1792–1822), impermanence. The art on the the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, and in his sonnet Ozymandias reveals the Grecian Urn, a decorative pot Nehru constituted the triumvirate nature and state of statue. from ancient Greece, survives the who led our freedom struggle to test of time. Empires, emperors, victory. The Indian freedom struggle I met a traveler from an antique land civilizations and cultures appear, and is, probably, one of the best human Who said: Two vast and trunkless then disappear traceless into history, struggles for freedom and liberation legs of stone but the piece of art remains. in the world history! We hope that Stand in the desert . . . Near them, the madness to ‘dislocate’ Patel on the sand, Thou still unravish’d bride of within huge fortified structures Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, quietness, does not disturb the serious student whose frown, Thou foster-child of silence and of India’s freedom struggle from And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold slow time, appreciating and re-appreciating his command, . . . contribution to the nation. Tell that its sculptor well those What men or gods are these? What passions read maidens loth? What mad pursuit? What struggle Which yet survive, stamped on these to escape? lifeless things, What pipes and timbrels! What wild ecstasy? The hand that mocked them and the . . . heart that fed; When old age shall this generation And on the pedestal these words waste, appear: Thou shalt remain, in midst of other ‘My name is Ozymandias, King of woe Kings; Than ours, a friend to man, to whom Look on my works, ye Mighty, and thou say’st, despair!’ “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, —that Nothing beside remains. Round the is all decay Ye know on earth, and all ye need Of that colossal wreck, boundless to know.” and bare We remember Sardar as one The lone and level sands stretch far of the greatest of India’s freedom away. fighters, as a man with absolute Ozymandias, the ancient integrity, honesty and sincerity, as Egyptian King, now known as the greatest follower of Gandhi, Ramesses II, regarded as the greatest as the comrade-in-arms of Nehru and the most powerful Egyptian and many other freedom fighters, pharaoh, now stands as “two vast and as a satyagrahi of the highest order, trunkless legs of stone”, conveying as a man with an iron grit to unify 10 JANATA, December 23, 2018 Mexico: President AMLO's Inaugural Speech Offers 'New Hope'

Martin Varese

After receiving the presidential the fourth transformation of Mexico, said would come to save us has only sash in the Mexican National in which he aims to change the caused the lesser production of oil Congress on December 1, political regime. Saturday, he said, and the excessive price increase of President Lopez Obrador gave a started a "peaceful and orderly energy." speech outlining an ambitious and transformation, but at the same time The energy reform, approved encouraging government plan, based deep and radical because it will end in 2013 by his predecessor Peña on bids to slash corruption, overturn corruption and impunity that prevent Nieto's government, translated into neoliberalism and make important the rebirth of Mexico." the gradual privatisation of oil in public investments. AMLO's narrative, from before Mexico, the only country in Latin AMLO started his speech by being elected president, has had the America that previously had full thanking outgoing President Enrique fight against corruption as one of its control of this natural resource, Peña Nieto: "Mainly I recognise the central pillars. "The crisis in Mexico expropriated in 1938 by Lazaro fact of him not having intervened, was originated not only by the Cardenas. as did other presidents, in the last failures of the neoliberal economic "Before neoliberalism, we presidential elections." model applied during the last 36 produced and were self-sufficient AMLO had previously claimed years, but also by the predominance, in gas, diesel, energy. Now we buy that the last two presidential elections during this period, of the most filthy more than half of what we use. In were stolen from him. It is a good corruption, both public and private." this period the purchasing power thing that the Mexican authorities, Nothing has damaged Mexico more of salaries has been slashed by 60 especially "the acting president, than the corruption of the people percent," AMLO said, arguing that respect the will of the people," he governing the country, and that tiny Mexico's minimum wage is among said. minority that profits from influences the lowest in the world. "By mandate of the people, we and "lobby." Mexico, he continued, "is in begin today the fourth transformation "Neoliberalism is corruption,"he 135th place for corruption out of 172 of Mexico." AMLO wants to trigger a continued. "It sounds strong, but countries evaluated (by Transparency turning point in Mexican history that privatisation in Mexico has meant International), emphasising that would be comparable to three other corruption." Economic management corruption and neoliberalism have historic moments: Independence, during the neoliberal period, from been interlaced in the country. a movement mainly led by Miguel 1983–2018, "has been the most During the neoliberal period, the Hidalgo, which liberated Mexico inefficient of Mexico's modern whole system has operated for from around 300 years of Spanish history." Adding to this, due to the corruption. The political power and domination; the Reform, a struggle concentration of wealth in a "few the economic power have nourished between liberals and conservatives, hands, the majority of the population themselves mutually. The stealing of which gave the "laws of the Reform" has been impoverished." the goods of the people has been the (one of the most important was President Lopez Obrador modus operandi." the separation of the Church from emphatically distanced himself from The solution? "If you ask me the State, mainly protagonised by the 40 years of neoliberal politics that to express in one sentence the new Benito Juarez); and the Mexican have led Mexico into unprecedented government's plan: to end corruption Revolution, a war to end the 30-year economic crisis. "I say it without and impunity," AMLO told the regime of Porfirio Diaz, after which ideology: neoliberal politics has cheering audience. Highlighting the current Mexican Constitution been a disaster, a calamity for the importance of achieving the was established. the public life of the country. For separation of political and economic AMLO has long talked about example, the energy reform they power, he said: "The state will stop JANATA, December 23, 2018 11 facilitating the pillage. It will stop and the recovery of six others will AMLO concluded by saying being a committee for a rapacious reduce energy prices, he said. that the national problems are big, minority. There cannot be a rich For "the wellbeing of our people, but with the cultures and strength government with a poor people." the plan is to combat poverty and of the country's people Mexico can The new government won't marginalisation as has never been continue advancing. focus on revenge or trying to capture done in history. Today, I formally "I'm optimistic. We are beginning everyone who's corrupt because present constitutional reforms to and are on the road to the rebirth of "there wouldn't be enough courts and establish the welfare state and Mexico. We will become a model prisons," AMLO said, stressing that guarantee the right of the people country, by ending corruption. We he will focus on preventing future to health, to education and social will build a society that is more just, crimes instead of prosecuting former security." He promised to work for democratic, brotherly and always state officials. social justice and to reduce inequality happy." Speaking about "putting a full based on public investment and The only thing Mexico needs stop on this horrible page of history," providing help from the government now is a good government, AMLO AMLO was interrupted by the to surpass "neoliberal hypocrisy. said, vowing that his administration audience counting to 43 in reference Those who are born poor will not will work to change the country to the 43 forcedly disappeared be condemned to die poor." in such a way that it becomes Ayotzinapa students. AMLO said "We won't give our backs almost impossible to roll back any abuses of power will be prosecuted to young people, and we won't advances. and promised that he would never insult them by not giving them order the repression of the people, opportunities to work and study," nor "will we cover up violations of he said. Retirees and people with human rights." disabilities will also be afforded "The government will represent better opportunities and government all Mexicans, there will be assistance. authentic rule of law . . . but we "We want migration to be will give priority to those who are optional, not compulsory. We are the most vulnerable," he said. He going to make Mexicans happy also stressed the importance of where they were born, where their popular consultations during his families and roots are," AMLO said. government, in order to restore the Subsidies will be given to power of the people and resurrect a farmers and to the people who "real democracy." produce well-being in Mexico, "Republican austerity and the and also announced that “a basket fight against and corruption will free containing basic foodstuffs to fight enough resources for development. malnutrition and hunger will be sold We will not need to increase taxes, at a fair price." and that is a commitment. The AMLO also announced the price of gasoline will not increase banning of "fracking and transgenic beyond inflation." Austerity is based (foods)," in Mexico. on the elimination of "unnecessary And he called for cooperation expenses" of the state: "The salaries and collaboration with all the for those on top will be reduced peoples of the world, based on self- because the salaries of those in the determination. "Mexico will not stop bottom will increase." thinking of Simon Bolivar and Jose AMLO also proposed an Marti," and will start looking more increase in public investments to and more towards Latin America, he overturn neoliberal policies. The said, stressing the importance of the construction of at least two refineries region's integration. 12 JANATA, December 23, 2018 On International Human Rights Day

Vijay Prashad

Not often does good news come Migration its initiatives. It is not likely that on International Human Rights In Marrakesh, Morocco, the countries such as the United Day—December 10. It is mostly a UN Secretary-General António States will honour the Compact. somber occasion, a day to reflect Guterres hosted an important Nonetheless, here is another piece on the values of the Universal meeting on migration. The upshot of paper with multilateral agreement Declaration of Human Rights of this meeting was a non-binding that one can wave under the nose of (1948) and a day to bemoan the gap Global Compact for Migration that Trump and the other xenophobes. It between those values and our provides the basis for international is a red rag to the bull. reality. cooperation on migration and makes Little of the high-minded dreams the case for migrants to be treated Sexual Violence in War have come to life. Hunger and war, with dignity. The horror of war is unimaginable. desolation and alienation define our The United Nations’ Special Those who have been to a battlefield times as sharply as they did for those Representative for International know its terrors: the sounds, the pioneers who wrote that text in the Migration—Louise Arbour— smells, the casualness of the killing, years after World War II. They had greeted the Compact’s passage as the hunger, the uncertainty, the peril. the Holocaust and the atomic bomb a “wonderful occasion, really a In the shadows lurk terrors even as their context. historic moment.” Discussion over graver, the “invisible war crime”— It is worthwhile to point out that the Compact had been ongoing for Binaifer Nowrojee said at Sierra it was the Indian delegate—Hansa the past 18 months, placed on the Leone’s Truth and Reconciliation Mehta—who objected to the phrase table by the deaths of thousands Commission. This is the crime of “all men are born free and equal.” of migrants in the Mediterranean wartime sexual violence. She insisted that it be changed to Sea and by the terrible reaction by No doubt that this violence is “all human beings are born free and Europe and the United States to the old. But it is shocking nonetheless. equal.” Hansa Mehta was thinking migrants. Professor Claudia Card, in an article of women when she made that There has been so little from 1996 on “Rape as a Weapon alteration. She knew that the costs recognition that most migrants flee of War,” suggests that mass murder of war and hunger are borne so from war and economic collapse— has many methods. One way is to sharply by women. So did Minerva conditions created by policies made kill people—by gunshot or by gas Bernardino (Dominican Republic) by the governments of Europe or by atomic bomb. Another, she and Begum Shaista Ikramullah and North America. The people says, “is to destroy a group’s identity (Pakistan), both of whom made key who make the long journey across by decimating cultural and social interventions in that declaration. the Sahara Desert or along the bonds.” Martial rape, she says, does This year, two important events length of Central America are both. It kills people and it kills the took place on December 10. First, survivors of trade policies and bonds of a community. the nations of the world signed on extractive industries that destroy It was shocking to hear what a Global Compact for Migration. their livelihoods and lives. A true ISIS did to the Yazidi community— Second, the Nobel Peace Prize global compact would abandon the capture of women who were then went to Nadia Murad and Denis those policies. But we are far from forced to be sex slaves, the rape Mukwege, both campaigners against that. of thousands. It is what catapulted sexual violence as a weapon of war. Louise Arbour noted that nothing Nadia Murad to the headlines, her These are two events that drive really would come of this Compact bravery moving her from being a forward the good side of history. unless the countries implemented survivor of horrific violence to being JANATA, December 23, 2018 13 a brave spokesperson for justice and afield. It is worth pointing out that 14-year-old Abeer Qassim Hamza against war. She accepted her Nobel the worker who mines for coltan or al-Janabi and her family by US Prize on Monday and said, “thank tantalum makes less than $1 per day, soldiers in Yusufiyah, Iraq. There you very much for this honor, but while a kilo of tantalum is likely are loud echoes, loud screams for the fact remains that the only prize to fetch somewhere around $200. justice. in the world that can restore dignity Violence to control these mines is There is the echo from the Indian is justice and the prosecution of the author of rape. state of Manipur, where the soldiers criminals.” of Assam Rifles raped and killed What the Yazidis experienced is Safety Thangjam Manorama—one more not uncommon elsewhere. Reading The Global Compact for victim in a line of victims. She was the Truth and Reconciliation Migration is not so far from the raped multiple times, the autopsy documents from Sierra Leone or the question of sexual violence in war. showed, and was shot 16 times in reports from the Democratic Republic I remember the attacks on Somali her vagina. One day, fed up with of the Congo and Afghanistan is refugees in the camps in Kenya in the violence, 12 Manipuri women chilling. It is difficult to forget men 1993. The logic of the rapists was went out on the street, removed like Mosquito, who raped a 19-year- appalling—to punish the Somalis, their clothes in front of Imphal’s old woman in Telu Bongor, Sierra to enjoy the spoils of war. What Kangla Fort, where the army was Leone and then—according to the was there for the Somali women headquartered, and shouted, “Indian young woman—“ordered his men to in the isolated camps in Kenya is Army, rape us, kill us.” One of the continue the act.” “Even now,” she now there for the Rohingya women women—Soibom Momon Leima— says, “the pain is with me.” as they flee rape by Myanmar’s later said, “They had their weapons. Denis Mukwege is from east military and as they struggle with We only had our body.” Congo. He is a gynecologist who the stigma of birthing children from The 12 women of Manipur has watched his society be torn the sexual violence. The echoes are said that they had let out their “war apart. War has been its condition loud and horrifying, reminders of the cry.” Denis Mukwege said from the for decades, war premised on the Pakistani soldiers raping women in Nobel pulpit, “If there is a war to theft of raw materials that feed a East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) as be waged, it is the war against the world hungry for its digital goods a weapon to break the confidence indifference which is eating away (the mineral coltan is essential to of the liberation struggle. There is at our societies.” There is terrible capacitors). Mukwege’s Nobel Prize an echo of the rape and murder of indifference, silence. speech rattles. “Turning a blind eye to tragedy is being complicit,” he said. “It’s not just perpetrators of violence who are responsible for their crimes. It is also those who choose to look the other way.” It is easy to be fascinated by the brutality of Mosquito, but what about the brutality of the system that produces Mosquito and the women he devastated? It is the victim, Mukwege said, who is valued less than the commercial goods that slip out of the Congo and are shipped from the ports of Mombasa, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to factories far 14 JANATA, December 23, 2018 Why Extinction Rebellion Protesters Are Breaking the Law

Claire Wordley

“A 4°C future is incompatible I explore some of the reasons why own international obligations. It is with an organised global commu- this group has taken the approach it still unclear whether the case will nity,” climate and energy professor has, and assess some of the criticism be heard. Kevin Anderson once told Grist. it has faced. And finally, there’s the moral Even if we cut emissions by 3.5 Criticism: They’ve picked the argument. The UK has been percent a year after 2020, we’ll hit wrong target! The UK government is pumping greehouse gases into the 4 degrees Celsius warming by the doing excellent work to stop climate air for a very, very long time—the end of this century. Just let that sink change. accumulated impacts of which in for a minute. When babies born First, while this protest is are huge (remember the industrial now are in their 80s, there could be starting in the UK—home of the revolution was born here). Nations no human civilisation left to speak Industrial Revolution, for those that industrialising today need help to of. The Amazon rainforest is likely like symbolism—this movement is decarbonise, but as a rich, developed to die at 3–4°C of warming. And the growing worldwide. So far chapters nation, the UK has a “carbon debt” corals? They’ll be long gone, dying have been set up in Germany, to repay to the world for its past out at 2°C. Currently, perversely, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, emissions. Taken together, it seems terrifyingly, global emissions are Belgium, Sweden, Spain, Colombia, to me that my government is a very still rising. Tasmania, France, and the USA, and fair target to protest against. If that is what we are facing, more are sprouting up every day. Criticism: Extinction why are we all carrying on as Second, the body advising the UK Rebellion’s 2025 target is an normal? Well, some people aren’t. government on climate breakdown is unrealistic timeframe for the UK to Extinction Rebellion is a UK-born clear that unless huge changes are aim for carbon neutrality. group committing civil disobedience made, the government will miss Firstly, it’s hard to tell what is to protest catastrophic climate its own legally binding targets. Yet realistic or not; a lot of that depends breakdown and species extinctions. the government is approving new on political will. But while 2025 Springing apparently from nowhere, runways, encouraging domestic is very close, Extinction Rebellion in November 2018 the group flights (in a small country well activists are not the only ones with mobilised thousands of people to served by rail), and allowing big ambitions. Norway is aiming block bridges, roads, and government hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for for carbon neutrality by 2030, departments in London—trying to gas despite public protests; while Costa Rica by 2021. Even Ethiopia cause enough disruption to make the simultaneously scrapping subsidies has ambitions to be carbon neutral British government act on climate. for renewables, cancelling funding by 2025. These countries may or Extinction Rebellion demands to develop carbon capture schemes, may not make it, and these targets that the UK government declare a and rejecting plans for a tidal lagoon don’t appear to include imports— climate emergency, that the UK go generator as “too expensive.” but if they try hard enough, these carbon neutral by 2025, and that Third, the UK government’s nations are likely to make significant the decisions on how to go carbon own legally binding targets on advances in cutting emissions. neutral are taken by a citizen’s emissions won’t keep it in line with The UK and other countries assembly. the Paris Agreement, where nations made huge changes during World With their use of stark hourglass agreed to keep “well below” 2°C of War Two, when everyone was and human skull imagery, their warming, and ideally under 1.5°C. asked to “do their bit” to save the emotive wording, strong demands, This led to a legal challenge against country. Think of the “Dig for and tactics of civil disobedience, the UK government by Plan B and Victory” campaign that got people Extinction Rebellion activists have eleven British citizens, who argued digging up their gardens to grow raised hackles in many quarters. Here that the UK was in breach of its vegetables, the rationing, the push JANATA, December 23, 2018 15 for factories to start building planes Climate Change whether it needs disrupt economic activity, drawing and tanks, the farmers who became tougher targets—sufficient public the media and the governments’ fighter pilots, and the housewives pressure could make zero carbon by attention, and to disrupt normality, who became farmers and factory 2025 the option everyone is talking to try and show other citizens that workers. Imagine if we had a push about. things are not OK. Humans are now showing people that to keep Criticism: Why do you need herd animals; if we see people their kids safe they should start to commit civil disobedience? Just rushing for the exit, we’ll follow. growing more of their own food have a march! We can’t rush for the exit to planet and eating less meat; imagine if Since the declaration of scientific Earth, but we can try to create a World War Two-levels of effort consensus that humans were causing crisis atmosphere that may engage were invested in renewable energy, global warming in 1988, there others to act. Civil disobedience in making public transport better, in has been a huge array of tactics requires remarkably few people to be swapping petrol pumps for electric used to try and get emissions cut. effective; even just 3.5 percent of the car charging stations, in covering Scientists have produced report population engaged in sustained non- rooftops with solar panels. Huge after report and citizens have signed violent resistance can topple brutal changes are needed, but people have petitions, held marches, and even dictators. made huge changes before, and what taken legal action against their Civil disobedience for the we face now is much scarier than governments. Yet emissions have climate is taking off across the World War Two. continued to rise. While people world, especially among the very The will of the people to tackle working to limit climate breakdown young, who cannot vote yet but who climate breakdown is also greater have gone through the “proper” will be worst affected by the climate than politicians might think. A channels, lobbyists for fossil fuel crisis. The Sunrise Movement and 2017 survey of over 8,000 people companies are less principled. They the Youth Rising movements are in eight countries found that 84 have directly lobbied governments “sitting in” and refusing to leave percent agree to at least some extent (the UK department responsible seats of power in the USA and that climate change is a “global for energy and climate change met Canada. In the USA, they seem to be catastrophic risk,” and almost with fracking companies 30 times having some influence in pressuring 90 percent agree that we should in 3 years; it never met any anti- Democrats to draw up a “Green probably or definitely take climate fracking campaigners who tried to New Deal.” Inspired by 15-year-old action “even if it requires making talk). They have funded think-tanks activist Greta Thunberg, thousands considerable changes that impact that spread misinformation on the of brave and switched-on children on our current living standards.” climate emergency, they have muted are committing civil disobedience But people are unlikely and often concerns about the emerging crisis by going on strike from school in unable to do it alone—they need a through media outlets, they have sat Sweden and Australia, and clearly solid green infrastructure that makes hand-in-glove with governments and scaring their politicians. Imagine if behavior-change possible. refused to change their ways even as more of us walked out from school, Bristol City Council in the UK the biosphere crumbles. They have from university, from work, from recently voted to declare a climate even been complicit in the execution whatever we are expected to do, emergency and to make the city of their critics. And so, along with demanding climate action. carbon neutral by 2030—and used complicit governments, they have Imagine cities brought to a the rise of Extinction Rebellion as convinced people to carry on as standstill. This is part of what a sign that people were ready. The normal. Extinction Rebellion hopes to district of Stroud quickly followed Those protesting against fossil achieve in its International Day suit. While the UK target is 80 fuels do not have the same money of Rebellion in April 2019. If the percent domestic emissions cuts by and lobbying power, so rely on prospect of a 4-degree world won’t 2050, in these cities the framing is grassroots organising. Marches make you take action, what will? getting closer to that of Extinction agreed to in advance by governments Criticism: The Extinction Rebellion. The UK government is have not had sufficient impact. Civil Rebellion messaging is not very currently asking the Committee on disobedience aims to disrupt: to optimistic. 16 JANATA, December 23, 2018

Extinction Rebellion’s NOW. Research from a range of mass civil protest. So far, Extinction messaging and imagery has been behavioral campaigns shows that Rebellion has managed to motivate stark, even brutal. Hourglass we need to evoke fear, anger, hope, thousands of people in the UK in a symbols remind us that time is and courage to motivate mass short amount of time, and inspired running out, human skulls tell movements for a safer global future. the set-up of other chapters across the us that people will suffer with Ultimately, the success or world. This suggests that its message climate breakdown, and the black otherwise of Extinction Rebellion’s has resonated with many people. But capital letters on their banners spell messaging will lie in the amount this is only the beginning—it’s over out bleak messages. CLIMATE of people it can mobilise, and to you now. CHANGE = MASS MURDER. the actions that governments take In 30 years time, what will you SAVE OUR CHILDREN. ACT directly or indirectly as a result of say you did for the climate?

The Yellow Vest Movement Strengthens in France

John Mullen

It is hard to count demonstrators rising or it will quickly decline. euros a year tuition fees (as against spread out across thousands of People make sacrifices to go out around 300 at the moment). mobilisations, but it seems that and occupy the roundabouts and In several universities—Rennes over half a million people were motorway toll booths, they find Toulouse and Paris Nanterre involved in “Act Four” of the Yellow the time and money to go to Paris among others—mass meetings of Vest mobilisation in France on or to the regional capital for the thousands have voted to blockade Saturday 8 December. In Bordeaux, Saturday demonstration, and they their universities and join the a huge joint demonstration between live the stressful life of activism. Yellow Vest movement. Dozens university students and Yellow Vests But they want results. Although of motorway toll booths are still chanted: “Students and Yellow the togetherness and the dignity of occupied by Yellow Vests letting Vests, same Macron, same struggle!” resistance are important to people, cars through free, and road blocks In Toulouse, Lyon, Saint Etienne, unless some progress is seen each are functioning at hypermarkets Marseilles, Dieppe and dozens week, the temptation to go home, and roundabouts: serious effects on of other towns many thousands watch TV and repaint your bathroom weekend commerce are visible. At marched. Even in smaller places like instead will tend to win out. least one hypermarket has closed Albi or Auch there was a fine Yellow due to lack of supplies. Vests demonstration. A Rising Movement Now, energy strikes have been A lively picket was organised in This last week, there was none announced for this week, some front of the factory in Sarthe which of that—there has been tremendous teaching unions are calling for makes tear gas grenades. At Saint- progress. First, hundreds of high strikes, and an influential small Avold in the East of France a replica schools have been blockaded by farmers movement has called on of a guillotine was placed at a major the students, and demonstrations people to join the revolt. On 8 roundabout. A few days earlier in organised in Paris, Lille, Marseilles December, climate marches in the port of Saint Nazaire in Brittany, and elsewhere. This new mobilisation many cities (Paris, Amiens, Nantes) demonstrators repainted the banks of is inspired by the Yellow Vests, were joined by Yellow Vest people, the town in bright yellow, while a but based on specific demands of helping to put to rest the lie that cake shop owner in the South started the young people—against recent Macron’s fuel taxes were somehow selling special lemon eclairs in the reforms making it harder to get green, when in fact he is closing form of a Yellow Vest protester! into university, and against the down thousands of kilometres of A people’s movement like this government decision to make railway and refuses to make the big can never stand still: it has to keep foreign students pay around 3,000 oil companies pay their taxes. JANATA, December 23, 2018 17

In Paris, hospital workers The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, all the across France on 8 December. fighting for jobs also joined the high schools in Paris and a number And then there was that video, Yellow Vests, while ongoing strikes of other institutions were closed for which has gone viral, of the dozens in steel and in oil depots add to the the day. of schoolchildren in Mantes-la-Jolie atmosphere of generalised revolt. The huge department stores forced to kneel with their hands There are many other developments, stopped work too, costing them on their heads, like in a police but suffice it to say this is still a tens of millions of euros in pre- state. The general reaction among rising movement. Christmas sales. Twelve shiny the population was deep shock. Macron and his government have armoured vehicles were trundled Colleagues who never talk politics responded in three ways: repression, out along with fanfares and serious- brought up the subject spontaneously propaganda and concessions. None faced TV commentators reflected at work. Parents’ organisations are have been successful: the movement all day long on “how the worst can making official complaints and is still on the up and public opinion be avoided” (although sending in Communist regional councillors remains solidly with the Yellow the army was ruled out at the last and trade unions offered to organise Vests. On 5 December, polls gave moment). protection for high school student 66 percent “support or sympathise” The reason for Project Fear was demonstrations. with the movement, against 24 partly so that the more vicious of Over the last 30 years, police percent “opposed or hostile”. the police chiefs and police sections violence against demonstrators in A month ago, these figures understood that, whatever happened, France has been getting worse (as were 71 percent and 11 percent they would be covered by the state previous generations of high school respectively. In smaller towns, power. activists can witness). The present support is stronger; age makes little This has had its effect already. clear intensification is meant to difference to levels of support, and Countless videos of teenage warn us that the state power is among manual workers rates of demonstrators being thumped, ready to go much further in future approval are extremely high (78 kicked and beaten with batons are as its desperate fight to prop up the percent support or sympathise). circulating on social media. Several dictatorship of profit goes on. And this was one of the polls high school students have been Along with Project Fear, the least favourable to our side. Other seriously injured, some permanently state’s public relations experts, polls show that 50 percent of the disfigured by flashballs or teargas who have been working overtime, population want Macron to resign. canisters. Young people were kept in have come up with some other You can feel something in the air. the cells for 36 hours because they wizard wheezes. A small right wing The lady who cleans the stairwell in had scrawled graffiti on walls. breakaway from the Yellow Vests, our block of flats proudly displayed One anonymous riot policeman which has practically no influence yellow vests on the two seat backs told a journalist that for the first (called the “free Yellow Vests”) is of her car. time in his career he had received interviewed day and night on the the (illegal) order to aim tear gas TV news bulletins. Riot police are Repression, Propaganda and grenades directly at demonstrators interviewed anonymously, speaking Minor Concessions rather than above their heads. An of how they are terrified to go to After a couple of dozen bank 80-year-old Arab lady in Marseilles the demonstrations and fear for branches and a few shops were died on the operating table after their lives. And some of the media smashed up in Paris on 1 December, she was hit by a tear gas grenade continue to claim that the movement the government decided to put into while closing her shutters: it is in the hands of the far right and action a Project Fear at a level seems the police had aimed at the Macron is the only defence against not seen in France these last 35 woman deliberately. Two clearly fascism. years. The presidential spokesperson identified photographers from the In fact, as Yellow Vests claimed (without any evidence) that Le Parisien newspaper were hit joined the climate marches on 8 a “hard core of several thousand with flashballs, and in several big December (notably in Toulouse people” were heading for Paris at towns, demonstrators were seriously and Paris) and the demand for a the weekend “to smash and to kill”. injured. 1,700 people were arrested rise in the minimum wage became 18 JANATA, December 23, 2018 more prominent, Marine Le Pen’s could not be found for many months for alternative leadership within the influence is slowly waning, since she was suddenly discovered by Agnès working class. is radically opposed to progressive Buzyn, the minister of health. Left trade union confederations action on either of these issues. In like the powerful CGT, however, the Paris area, calls by Black activist Union Leaders have contradictory positions. As organisations to join the Yellow Though local and regional well as signing the joint statement, Vest demos (with their own slogans trade union organisations often the national CGT leadership brought against racist police violence) have support the Yellow Vest movement, out another press release two hours also helped clarify the fundamental national leaderships are worse later denouncing police violence political nature of the movement. than contradictory. I am no fan of and calling for a large rise in the excessive rhetoric, but it is hard minimum wage, and their leader Macron Trying Not to Back Down to avoid the word “treacherous” Philippe Martinez recently declared Macron really did not want to when you speak of last Thursday’s that the CGT’s job was to get cancel the fuel tax rise planned for press release, co-signed by all the everyone out on strike. Locally, January, because his reputation of national trade union confederations trade unions have offered to organise never backing down is at the centre except one. protection for yellow vest demos of his strategy. Nevertheless, his It denounced the violence of against the police, and regional prime minister, Edouard Philippe demonstrators, but did not mention federations of the CGT have often announced on 4 December that police violence. It declared that taken a very radical line. The CGT the rise had been suspended. The the unions were keen to negotiate has called for strike action nationally decision was universally condemned at any time with the government, for 14 December. as far too little far too late, and and it neither called on people to the very next day, Macron himself join the Yellow Vest protests nor The Radical Left decided to announce the rise was expressed wishes for their success. Radical and anti-capitalist scrapped not suspended. The episode Since this movement does not have socialist and left organisations have was seen as a sign of tension between an established leadership, it is hard become more fully involved this Macron and Edouard Philippe, and for professional negotiators to try week. In parliament, Mélenchon, rumours that Macron will fire his to close the movement down with president of the France Insoumise prime minister are being heard. The complex but minor concessions (as group of MPs (a group that believes episode of the wealth tax similarly often happens with strike waves), in Democratic Socialism), made showed confusion. One of Macron’s but the trade union bureaucracy an impressive speech praising ministers suggested on Wednesday seems desperate for a chance to do the Yellow Vest movement that a recently abolished wealth tax so. and predicting that the present might be brought back in. Macron In Thursday’s statement, the government is on its way out. He is corrected her publicly within hours. dreadful role of the trade union worth quoting: Macron is fishing around for bureaucracy is laid out in all its “These are happy days we are other concessions which they horror. National trade union leaders living through, because at last can make which will divide the in France earn only a fraction of France is in general rebellion against movement without costing too the bloated salaries of British trade an unjust order which has survived much. A suggestion that employers union leaders, but their position as for far too long. We have millions in the private sector will be professional negotiators still leads of people whom life had made encouraged by tax breaks to give a them to aim at calming any revolt. invisible, in metropolitan France cash bonus of up to 1,000 euros to The seriousness of the crisis and and in the overseas territories, and their workers this year is one idea we the mass support for the movement now these millions, the people, are are hearing. In officially unrelated would have justified a call for moving onto the stage of the History areas, concessions are occasionally a one-day general strike—there of France. As an irony of history, this being found to head off the spread would have been nothing utopian yellow vest has become in a way the of the movement. Four hundred about such a call—and the union new Phrygian bonnet of the French, million euros for hospitals which leaders’ action shows the dire need who are abandoning resignation JANATA, December 23, 2018 19 and isolation, who are abandoning Letters to Editor the idea of continuing with harsh suffering in dignified silence.” Improve Wages and Working Conditions

Act Five of Mid-Day Meal Cooks It is already a fine victory for our side that a mass of previously Bharat Dogra unpoliticised people have moved into action, and that a new generation Several hundred thousand women are employed in cooking mid-day of high school students have become meals in our schools. At present the wage of a mid-day meal cook is a low Rs involved in a struggle to change their 1,250 per month or about Rs 41 per day. There should be a campaign to raise lives. These are experiences which this wage. The mid-day meal worker cleans the kitchen, sometimes he/she will help form the political and is also asked to sweep other rooms as well, then an average MDM worker psychological forces which will be cooks for 50 to 100 children, cleans utensils and again cleans the kitchen needed in future battles. before leaving. It is more or less a full-time job of great responsibility, and Understandably, some a wage of Rs 41 per day is just too inadequate. commentators have got a little Keeping in view the fact that mid-day meal cooks have an almost full carried away. France is not on the working day job which requires continuous work of great responsibility, they edge of a revolutionary situation or should get the legal minimum wage. There should be adequate provisions in of a civil war. But the movement is the budget for this. As an immediate step, the existing wage should at least on the rise, and very determined. be doubled. One Parisian riot policeman who Improving the mid-day-meal kitchen should be included in the wider was interviewed complained “people sanitation programme as, if meal is not cooked in conditions of good used to be afraid of us, but they sanitation, health of children will be adversely affected. A few model kitchens aren’t any more. They’re aiming at can be prepared, with many improvements from hygiene point of view, and us, because we’re symbols of the authorities should be motivated to introduce these improvements in other state”. areas. Cooks who adopt hygiene practices should be honoured to encourage It is crucial that we make the them. state’s leaders regret what was done to the schoolkids at Mantes-la-Jolie, and if we do, there is plenty of hope Obituary: K. P. Srivastva (1926 – 6 Nov. 2018) for radical social change. Qurban Ali

Veteran journalist and freedom fighter K.P. Srivastva passed away on 6 November 2018 after a long illness, at his home in New Delhi. He was 93. During his student days in Lucknow University, he came in contact with leaders of the Congress Socialist Party, especially its tallest leaders, Acharya Narendra Deva, Jayaprakash Narayan and Rammanohar Lohia, and became a socialist ideologically. As a student, he was imprisoned during the Quit India Movement of 1942. He started journalism in 1942, the year of the Quit India Movement at a very tender age, and joined API, the Indian subsidiary of Reuters, which became the PTI in 1949. He rose to become an editor and retired in the late eighties. K.P. Srivastva was President of the Press Association, Member of Parliament's Press Gallery Committee and the Press Accreditation Committee of the Government of India. He is survived by his only daughter Indu Srivastava. 20 JANATA, December 23, 2018 Hind Mazdoor Sabha

Qurban Ali

In December 2018, HMS as well as our misjudgments that or sub-servience to the government completes seventy years since its prevented us from growing as (as reflected by INTUC) was not foundation in Calcutta in the newly much as we should have. Most meeting the needs of the workers. independent India in 1948. Of importantly, to assess how far the The socialists felt that the trade course for the labour movement, organisation has been able to follow union movement could not be tied seven decades are not too long a up on its goals and the ideals for down to the needs of the political way and in that sense HMS has which it was established. parties but must follow policies only miles to go still. However, it is a in the interests of the Indian workers. matter of accomplishment for a The birth of HMS: This necessitated both cooperation national trade union center to have It may be remembered that with the development efforts of survived and grown without being in 1947-48, apart from M. N. the country as also constructive a part of the political parties in a Roy inspired independent Indian opposition to the anti-labour, country like India where virtually Federation of Labour (IFL), there anti-employment policies of the every other central trade union were two main central trade unions government and the employers. This organization is part of some political - the All India Trade Union Congress thinking led to the formation of Hind party or the other. From about 6 (AITUC) which was under the MazdoorSabha (HMS). lakhs membership in 1948 to over control of the Communist Party HMS was founded in Calcutta 92 lakhs now and still growing, is of India and the newly formed during the trade union conference no mean achievement. But the times Indian National Trade Union from 24th to 26th December 1948. ahead are tough. As it is, nearly 90% Congress (INTUC) which was The conference was attended by the of the workforce in the country is set up at the behest of Congress representatives of Indian Federation unorganized, working in low paid, nationalists and the Gandhians of of Labour (IFL, founded in 1941), over worked jobs in dismal working Hindustan MazdoorSewakSangh Hind MazdoorPanchayat (HMP, conditions. As we move ahead, we in the Indian National Congress, founded in mid 1948), unions from need to stop and think - how do we the ruling Party. The Socialists in the Forward Block (Party set up by build upon what we have? How do the Congress who broke away from Sh. Subhash Chandra Bose) and we face the challenges of the 21st Congress party in 1948, formed leading independent trade unions century? Hind MazdoorPanchayat (HMP). at that time. Over 600 trade union India, as we know, is This was a period of much turmoil leaders participated, representing undergoing significant politico- as well as many hopes for the future 427 unions and a membership of over economic changes, led by the forces of free India. This post 2nd World 600000 workers. There were leaders of economic liberalisation and War period in India was marked by like Jay Prakash Narayan, Sibnath globalisation. These changes are acute shortages, rising prices and Banerjee, R.A. Khedgikar and Ms. posing serious challenges to the spiraling unemployment. There was Maniben Kara who represented trade union movement. At stake are much turbulence in the industrial the railway unions; Shri Dalvi and hard won trade union rights of the relations scene as workers were ShRamanujam attended on behalf of workers. The role of State in India facing many hardships. As many as Post & Telegraph employees; Miners is undergoing major changes. What 16 million mandays were lost due to were represented by Basawan Singh then should be the role of trade strikes in 1947 as discontent among and P.B. Sinha while Textile workers unions in this changing scenario? the workers grew. The response of were represented by R.S. Ruikar, The time has come to sift from the two major central trade unions Anthony Pillai and P.S. Chinnadurai. experience and draw from it the -AITUC and INTUC- was not There were also representatives of lessons for the future. This process acceptable to the socialists at that Government employees, Teachers, needs to begin from looking back at time. Mere militancy dictated by Commercial employees, Port & the history of our own organisation, the needs of the communist party Docks, Printing & Paper, Tobacco, factors responsible for its growth (as reflected by AITUC at that time) Plantations and Sugar. Although JANATA, December 23, 2018 21

HMS as an organisation was new, of the different union leaders represented in the Textile Working the men and women who founded and constituent unions to these party and the Coal Working party it were veterans of the Indian trade developments. Although HMS is in 1951, which were set up by Sh. union movement, most of who had philosophically and organizationally GulzariLalNanda, the Minister for been instrumental in the formation independent of the political parties, Labour and Rehabilitation - a very and growth of AITUC earlier. The the diversity of political opinion sincere man who genuinely wanted Founding Conference elected Com. often caused conflicts and pulls the well being of the workers and R.S. Ruikar as the first President, and pressures from different sides commanded much respect of the Com. Ashok Mehta as the General (especially from the Socialist and union leaders. Secretary and Com. G.G. Mehta the Congress party), shaping in the and V.S. Mathur as Secretaries. process the history of HMS. In the Major Struggles and Strikes: Ms. Maniben Kara and Com. T.S. 1950s, it was the developments During the 1950s, HMS faced Ramanujam were elected as Vice- (splits) in the Socialist Party that a number of struggles and carried Presidents of HMS and Com. R.A. always had repercussions on HMS. out many nationwide campaigns. Khedgikar as the Treasurer. The decision of the Socialist Important among these are - The members of the Working Party in 1949 at the Patna Conference * 1950 Textile Strike in Bombay, Committee included veteran leaders to widen its base and open its headed by Mill MazdoorSabha like - Jayaprakash Narayan, V.G. membership to different people and (MMS), over the issue of Dalvi, Ms. ArunaAsaf Ali, V.B. organizations which had faith in Bonus and collective bargaining Karnik, Dinkar Desai, N.V. Phadke, socialist principles and peaceful and rights of MMS and recognition M.V. Donde, Rajani Mukherjee, democratic means for achieving the through secret ballot. The strike Haren Ghosh, Anthoni Pillai, P.S. goals (democratic socialism) was involved over 200000 workers Chinnadurai, Peter Alwares, A.M. not acceptable to a group led by and lasted for 63 days leading Williams, Munshi Ahmed Din, Mrs. ArunaAsaf Ali, who left the to the acceptance of payment of Vinayak Kulkarni, Nibran Ch. Bora party in 1951 and later joined the bonus as deferred wage. and Basawan Singh. Communist Party. * In 1952, HMS carried out a The formation of HMS The membership fell in 1952 country wide campaign against represented the emergence of a not only because some leaders like the Labour Relations Bill and new force in Indian trade union Mrs. ArunaAsaf Ali and Com. B.D. the Trade Unions Bill, both movement - that of unionists who Joshi left HMS to join Communist of which sought to impose believed in free, independent Party, taking away some of their unjustified curbs on trade unions and democratic trade unionism. unions to AITUC but also due to and its activities. The whole of It represented independence of organizational overhaul. In 1952, the trade union movement was trade unions from the control HMS decided for organizational against these black labour laws, of Government, Employers and reasons to do away with those which were finally dropped by Political Parties. It also represented unions which were not functional the government. a new thinking that role of trade in active sense and were not paying * 1954 Strike of Lodna Colliery unions is not only to oppose anti- their membership dues to HMS. workers in Jharia Coal fields labour policies of the government The unity of Socialists under Praja in Bihar, over the issue of and employers but also to play a Socialist Party (PSP) in September reinstatement of 250 workers positive role in the development of 1952 however boosted HMS which as per the terms of agreement industry to share gains from growth improved its effectiveness in the reached earlier and of and of preparing & training workers trade union field. Within HMS, recognition of HMS union. to discharge their responsibilities five unions of transport and dock Over 7000 workers participated as citizens (see HMS Manifesto for workers in Bombay came together in the strike led by Com. Mahesh details). in January 1954, to form Transport Desai, General Secretary of and Dock Workers Union, Bombay, KoylaMazdoorPanchayat. The Early Years (1948 - 1956) under the leadership of Com. P.D’ Com. Mahesh Desai had to face The history of HMS reflects the Mello, which greatly expanded murder trial concocted by the politico-socio-economic currents HMS organization and influence authorities in collusion with in the country and the reactions in the Port industry. HMS was also the Employers but the charges 22 JANATA, December 23, 2018

were dropped after about 3 Committee Report. employees should also be entitled years under sustained campaign Other major strikes during this to bonus. The strike was led by All of HMS and its unions in a period led by HMS were the strike India Railwaymens Federation, campaign led by Jayaprakash of Buckingham & Carnatic Mills along with other railway unions all Narayan. at Madras and Municipal workers of which had been united for this * 116 days strike of 4000 sugar strike led by Municipal Mazdoor struggle. workers of Tilaknagar in Union in Bombay. On 2nd May 1974, the day Maharashtra led by Com. G.G. All of these strikes were the negotiations were to start Mehta, the General Secretary conducted in disciplined and peaceful between AIRF leadership and the of HMS at that time. HMS won manner. In many other industries too Railway Minister Mr. L.N. Misra, four & half months Bonus and strikes and protests were launched the authorities arrested AIRF reinstatement in jobs of 600 over the issue of non-recognition President Mr. George Fernandes workers. of and non bargaining with the and his colleagues in Lucknow HMS unions by the government or in the early dawn operations. The Some of the other major strikes/ the employers who often favoured labour Minister appeared to be very struggles during this period were: INTUC unions (such as in Premier ineffective during this period. This - December 1957 strike of 4000 Automobiles, Bikaner Gypsum gave very clear indications that the workers of India Security Co., Orient Paper Mills in Orissa, Government was not interested in Press, Nasik in Maharashtra, Kirloskar Oil Engines Pune, Indian any negotiations, even when the all led by Com. R.A. Khedgikar General Navigation & Railway Co. India Railway strike began on 8th for improvements in service and Calcutta, Bharat Sugar Mill, Bihar, May. HMS also took up the matter in working conditions; etc).This was in breach of the Code the Asian Regional Organisation of - 110 day strike from 11th April of Discipline agreed to in the 16th ICFTU which extended support and to 29th July 1958 of the workers ILC session. sent a message to the Government of of Premier Automobiles Ltd. in In 1963, HMS Union in the Port India requesting it to release the trade Bombay involving about 5000 & Dock of Goa succeeded after union leaders, start negotiations and workers, led by HMS affiliate a bitter struggle and many arrests stop victimisation of workers. Engineering MazdoorSabha to end the Mukadam system of Victimisation of railway workers over the issue of collective recruitment in Goa Docks. during the 1974 strike was quite bargaining rights of the union. At the same time Dock Workers ruthless- 46000 were dismissed, Management did not respect Regulation of Employment Scheme 9000 were suspended, 19000 were the code of discipline agreed came into effect due to the efforts arrested and out of over 12 lakhs to in the tripartite committee. of Transport & Dock Workers who participated in strike, 863000 Strike was withdrawn only after Union, Bombay. As a result workers employees suffered from break in Sh. GulzariLal Nanda, Union were regularised and the Mukadam service. Earlier on the eve of the Labour Minister intervened. system was abolished. strike, AITUC had also floated a - Strike of about 2000 workers of new Railway Federation which later the Coastal Shipping Companies 1974 Railway Strike: on at the instance of AITUC merged in January, 1959 over dismissals The Indian Railwaymen went on with AIRF. INTUC as usual played and recruitment practices of the strike from 8th to 28th May 1974. the role of opposing the strike.The companies; HMS had heavy stakes in this strike growing economic crisis fuelled - Strike of Port & Dock workers since the zonal unions of western, much discontent in the working on 16th June, 1958 in Bombay, northern and central railways were class and students which led to Calcutta, Madras and Cochin, HMS affiliates. The main demands Government imposing the infamous led by All India Port & Dock of the railway employees were Emergency on 26th June 1975. Workers Federation. Six workers that they should be considered as While the trade unions have died in Madras due to police industrial workers, that their wages played an important role in India's firing. Strike called off after should be fixed in the same way as economic, social and political the Transport Minister assured those of other industrial workers development over the last 50 years, to implement the Chaudhari and as industrial workers, railway the economic liberalisation and JANATA, December 23, 2018 23 globalisation policies at the turn of Turned Out You Were Just Like Us century have posed a number of new challenges before the Indian trade union movement. Mere opposition Fahmida Riaz to change will not help; Trade Union movement in India needs to (Pakistani poet, human-rights the skill of always walking strengthen and expand its coverage activist and feminist, Fahmida backwards. in times ahead. It is of paramount Riaz, passed away at the age of Let not a single thought of the importance to strengthen the Indian present trade union movement through - 72 on November 22, 2018. We * forging Trade Union Unity, are publishing below the English break your focus upon the past! * expanding into unorganised translation of one of her oft-quoted Repeat the same thing over and over sectors, nazms, “Tum bilkul hum jaise over and over, * improving trade union nikle”.) Say only this: communications, How glorious was India in the past! * increasing the information So it turned out you were just like us! How sublime was India in days collection activities, and Where were you hiding all this time, gone by! * expansion of Education and buddy? Then, dear friends, you will arrive Training activities, That stupidity, that ignorance in heaven after all. * extending into new services we wallowed in for a century Yep. We’ve been there for a while for the membership such as Look, it arrived at your shores too! now. social insurance, which the Many congratulations to you! Once you are there, unions are well placed to offer, Raising the flag of religion, Once you’re in the same hell-hole, if only they could become more I guess now you’ll be setting up Keep in touch and tell us how it professional; Hindu Raj? goes! It is time to reflect and take You too will commence to muddle stock. Trade union movement needs everything up to realise that workers interests You, too, will ravage your beautiful cannot be safeguarded by being garden. divided along political party lines. At You, too, will sit and ponder, present in India, there is no political I can tell preparations are afoot, party that stands for the policies that Who is truly Hindu, who is not. will protect workers employment I guess you’ll be passing fatwas and income rights, despite promises soon! to do so. In recent years we have There, too, it will become hard to had the experience of governments survive. of all hues from left to right, all of There, too, you will sweat and bleed. which have treaded the same path on You’ll barely make do joylessly. the economic policies front, while You will gasp for air like us. doing nothing much to address the I used to wonder with such deep workers genuine needs. It is our sorrow, house divided state of affairs in the And now, I laugh at the idea, trade union movement that permits this liberty to the political parties, It turned out you were just like us! even the so called socialist parties. We weren’t two nations after all! To hell with education and learning In the 21st century India, if trade Let’s sing the praises of ignorance Unions have to remain relevant Don’t look at the potholes in your and strong enough to influence the path country s destiny, then there is no Bring back instead the times of yore! alternative but to unite. Practice harder till you master R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 24 JANATA, December 23, 2018 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2018 Published on Sunday, December 23, 2018 & Posted on Wedenesday, December 26, 2018 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 73 No. 49 New GDP Series and Its Assumptions December 30, 2018 Arun Kumar Survey: 35 Lakh Jobs Lost in 4.5 Years Young Women in Chile Spur Widespread Revolt Muffy Sunde, Freedom Socialist Party, Controversy over the growth First, based on the earlier base USA / Europe performance of the Indian economy year, 2004–05. Second, the series #MeToo took another turn with The Indian produced by the sub-group of the Wilderness Sarchild Express breaking the story about Statistical Commission in July 2018. The Yellow Vest Movement Prabhat Patnaik Niti Aayog not allowing the back And, now the third series produced Naseeruddin Shah ko Gussa Kyon series to be announced three years by the CSO and jointly released by Aata hai? back because it showed a higher CSO and Niti Aayog. Ram Puniyani growth rate during the UPA regime. The second series, which came Assembly Verdict: BJP is Biggest Loser Subodh Varma The suspicion that the new official to light in August, showed that Building Productive Workers’ series announced recently was growth during the UPA’s 10 years Army in Venezuela politically manipulated to show was better than that during the Cira Pascual Marquina better performance for the NDA present government. This raised MLK Day Today: The Legacy of the compared to the UPA is strengthened. a political storm with the finance Man and the Myth Jonah Raskin The Niti Aayog vice chairman has minister criticising the UPA for British Raj siphoned out $45 trillion defended the official new series profligacy to achieve higher growth from India: Utsa Patnaik on the ground that it follows the and leaving a mess for the NDA. Ajai Sreevatsan System of National Accounts (SNA) The NDA government got a lifeline Editor : G. G. Parikh 2008, recommended by the United because the Committee on Real Nations. Sector, which released the series, Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain However, his argument that stated that its series ought not to be Managing Editor : Guddi the sub-group of the Statistical taken as final. It stated that it had Commission which released the submitted its report to the Statistical Editorial Board : earlier back series in July 2018 was Commission which would take a B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali not authorised to prepare a back final view of what the revised series Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah series and, therefore, “there was no ought to be. So, the government Amarendra Dhaneshwar, question of the government accepting legitimately argued that the final Sandeep Pandey it” is odd. The vice-chairperson series would be released soon. What undermines the credibility of a is now released is that final series. D-15, Ganesh Prasad, government committee and, in the From the political reaction of Naushir Bharucha Marg, process, his own. What should the the government, it was expected, Mumbai - 400 007. public believe? We have three series that the new final series would be Email : [email protected] of growth rates for the economy for different from the series released by Website:www.janataweekly.org the period 2004–05 to 2011–12. the Statistical Commission. The new 2 JANATA, December 30, 2018 back series is what the government series prior to 2011–12 could not data instead of Gross Trading Index needed—it shows that growth during be generated. The sub-group of the (GTI) has been used. But that is its term has been higher than during Statistical Commission bridged this problematic as the issue arises, what the UPA regime. gap by using a “production shifting about the part of the unorganised All estimates of GDP are based approach”. sector that was not in the sales tax on assumptions. Unlike the Census, The method used in the now (VAT) net? where enumerators go house to house official back series should be There are other big holes in to count everyone, there is no agency compatible with the MCA21 series data too. One, has the decline in the that goes around asking everyone in but such data are not available. So unorganised sector since 2016 due the country what work they do and what can be done? Revert to the to the twin impact of demonetisation how much they earn. Only sample earlier method? But why not the and GST been taken into account? If surveys are carried out and that production shifting approach? UN this is accounted for, the actual rate too not of income. Some private SNA 2008 does not disallow the use of growth of the economy since 2016 agencies carry out income surveys of such a method if comparable past would be less than 1 per cent (as I but they are not so reliable. One of data are not available. have argued in my earlier articles the key problems faced by income The biggest shift in the data is printed in Janata) and the whole surveys is that people under-report in the tertiary sector. It has been debate on whether the growth rate their incomes to officials. Those the fastest growing sector of the was marginally higher during the with high incomes do not want to economy since the 1980s. Its share UPA or NDA regime would become report correctly to evade taxes while in the GDP and its growth rate are irrelevant. And, second, what about those with low incomes hope to get both reduced in the new back series the impact of the missing black some government assistance. So, compared to the earlier series. This economy, which lowers the rate of mostly indirect methods are used to pulls down the growth rate of the growth. The new back series does estimate GDP. The economy consists economy. The big reduction is not address these challenges. of many sectors, each divided into apparently due to the unorganised In brief, many new assumptions public and private sectors and sector’s contribution to this sector. have been used to create the new organised and unorganised sectors. How valid is this? For instance, the back series to show lower growth Estimation of the GDP for each of price index used has been changed rates between 2004–05 and 2011– these can be based on many methods and this can make a big difference. 12, while the big problems with the and databases. Each method has its Further, for the trade sector, sales tax method used remain unresolved. own assumptions for estimating the contribution to GDP. Depending on the method, a particular set of Survey: 35 Lakh Jobs Lost in 4.5 Years databases are used. To estimate the contribution of In the four-and-a-half years throughout the country between the secondary sector, the Annual since the BJP-led NDA government October 1, 2018 and October 30, Survey of Industry (ASI) and Index took over, at least 35 lakh jobs have 2018. of Industrial Production were used been lost among traders and in the The survey said that traders saw prior to 2011–12. These were found MSME (micro, small and medium the maximum job losses at 43 per to be inadequate. So, from 2011–12 enterprises) sector, says a survey cent over this time period, followed the Ministry of Corporate Affairs by the All India Manufacturers’ by 35 per cent in the small industry data in the MCA21 series was used. Organisation (AIMO). segment, 32 per cent in the micro The series was first made available Released on December 15, 2018, enterprises segment, and 24 per cent in 2007 but its base kept changing the AIMO survey talks about the job losses in the medium enterprise every year after that, so it was not TMSME segment (Traders, Micro, segment. comparable and could not be used. Small and Medium Enterprises), “The worst hit sectors where When it stabilised in 2011–12, it clubbing traders along with the unorganised employment prevails could then be used from that year MSME sector, and surveyed are: Plastic/ Matches/ Crackers/ onwards. But a comparable back more than 34,000 representatives Dyeing units/ Stitching units/ Stone JANATA, December 30, 2018 3 units/ Tanneries/ Job working units/ are Housing, Textiles, Automobiles, “is a clear indicator that the TMSME Printing sectors,” said the AIMO Power, Match industries, Stone sector is in a critical condition at release. Industry, Plastic, Tannery and this moment of time and we feel However, the most adversely Consumer products. the Government of India needs to affected is the self-employed “Their immediate requirement address the issue with a lot more category, which includes tailors, would be that dues from government seriousness and urgency.” cobblers, barbers, plumbers, masons, should be cleared within 15 days— The AIMO represents electricians, and the like, who are all whether it is GST Refunds or TDS manufacturing industries from over being eliminated, said the AIMO. Refunds or due in payments for 3 lakh micro, small, medium and The job losses among traders supply,” said the AIMO release. large scale enterprises. are partly due to competition from As Raghunathan said, the survey Courtesy: Newsclick e-commerce retail. “Traders are closing down due to stiff competition from E-commerce Young Women in Chile Spur sales and this will also result in loss of revenue in rental income by Widespread Revolt Middle Income families,” said the AIMO. Muffy Sunde, Freedom Socialist Party, USA / Europe The year 2015–16 “saw a growth in all areas of business due to high In January 2018, the hemispheric there was uproar over Pope Francis’ sentiments and expectations from #MeToo revolt blew up in Chile. visit. the new leadership,” says the AIMO, Outrage over sexual abuse by US coups in Latin America: but it “went down next year due Catholic priests and university Chile’s current problems stem from to demonetisation and then again professors catalysed mass 1973 when the Chilean military and due to GST implementation and demonstrations against Pope Francis, right-wing businessmen collaborated then due to finance availability and corrupt college administrations and with the US government to overthrow higher outstanding with Government the government’s wholesale neo- duly-elected President Salvador payments and compliance matters.” liberal privatisation of education. Allende. Allende had nationalised The survey said the number Primarily initiated by women the country’s lucrative copper mines, of companies making profits had students, young, feminist men threatening multinational corporate dropped drastically. jumped in and joined their crusade profits. So, the CIA organised a so- K.E. Raghunathan, the national to stop relentless violence against called “anti-communist” coup and president of AIMO, said in the women. Latin America has the after the dust settled, the murderous release, “According to our survey, dubious distinction of having the General Augusto Pinochet was in the number of companies which world’s highest rates of misogynist power. were making profit during 2014–15 violence. Restricted access to Chile experienced one of have come down significantly. If abortion is a cause of poverty and several reactionary US-engineered 100 companies in Trader segment domestic abuse. In Chile, femicide coups in the region. Overthrows in were making profit in 2014–15, increased 30 percent between 2016 Argentina and Brazil also installed now only 30 are making profits for and 2017. Too often, the Catholic brutal pro-Wall Street dictators to the current year. In the Micro Scale Church and its anti-female stances protect big business by stopping land Industries, the drop was to 47; in dictate public policy. redistributions and nationalisations. the Small Scale Industries, it has The Chilean students are part Pinochet destroyed Chile’s dropped to 65; and in the Medium of a tidal wave of female-led publicly-owned education system. Scale Industries segment, it has protest sweeping Latin America. Schools were made into private dropped to 76.” In Argentina demonstrations for entities, traded on the stock market According to the survey, sectors abortion rights brought out millions. like cars and oil. A free college which require “immediate revival In Brazil tens of thousands marched education became a thing of the past. and need a great degree of assistance” against a ban on abortion. In Chile In 2011, one year of college 4 JANATA, December 30, 2018 tuition was three times the annual against a prominent law professor at The rebellion spreads. In wage for most workers. That same the University of Santiago were October, 100,000 students marched year a group of 14-year-old teens, dropped, the students occupied the against new right-wing President all of them young women, took law faculty offices. They hung bras Piñera to protest his role in getting over their high school to demand across gateways and painted slogans a law tossed that banned for-profit affordable education. The revolt on the walls. schools. spread to 200 elementary and high Student demands included: Workers went out after the schools and a dozen universities. addressing sexual harassment students, to protest a pension system They included a 3,000-person and abuse; hiring more female that was privatised under Pinochet. choreographed performance of professors; and putting women Currently, retirees get starvation- Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” to authors on reading lists. level benefits while banks rake in imply that Chile’s education system Protesters also called for firing a the profits. is dead. cabinet minister who helped restrict Only time will tell what happens A galvanising trip. Students abortion even further. next, but the students have pledged erupted again in 2018 when Pope to expand the movement’s reach to Francis visited Peru and Chile. His other sectors! trip provoked protests denouncing his protection of paedophile priests, strong stance against abortion, #MeToo and collusion with the dictatorship during Argentina’s dirty war. As Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Wilderness Sarchild pope fingered progressive priests and lay Catholics to the military I know a woman her sister in the next bed Junta in power. Most of those he who knows what it means wouldn’t wake up named were tortured and executed. to be held down and become his next victim, Before the January visit, Pope by ten boys and raped who didn’t tell anyone Francis accused vocal victims of repeatedly, for 35 years, slandering Chile’s most notorious who didn’t tell anyone still believing paedophile priest. The pontiff was for twenty years. he would kill her. forced to backpedal. He apologised I know a woman When he died last year, for the Church’s handling of the who knows what it means she finally confided paedophilia scandal and condemned to have her girlfriend’s father in her sister, femicide. slide his finger up her thigh who knew exactly His words did nothing to quell at the kitchen table, what she meant. the anger. At least a dozen churches who didn’t tell anyone were burned during his visit. for thirty years I know a woman Pope Francis went home. But and then it just felt like who knows what it means the young women and men did not. too much time had passed to be groped by a boss, Protests broke out again in April and he really didn’t do anything, patted on the ass and continued for months. These anyway, by a customer, current actions denounce violence not like the man in the woods fired for not acquiescing against women and demand the end where she was walking to him, or him or him. to draconian laws against abortion. five years later. After 10, 20, 30 years The specific feminist nature of the I know a woman she is speaking up demands is a different and welcome who knows what it means and he and he and he change for organising in Chile. to be visited at night are finally getting Women are outraged and mobilising. by her father, their balls busted. When sexual harassment charges how she stayed quiet, hoping JANATA, December 30, 2018 5 The Yellow Vest Movement

Prabhat Patnaik

Nothing shows the crisis of to which neoliberalism has pushed If we compare the two situations, neoliberal capitalism more clearly the working masses. one where the government has stuck than the popular uprising in France The roots of this distress have to rigidly to the 3% fiscal deficit target that is occurring under the banner be clearly understood. In a period of and one where it has exceeded of the “Yellow Vest” movement. crisis, since output and employment that limit because of refusing to Thousands are congregating in growth slows down, so does the cut government expenditure by as Paris over week-ends to protest growth of government revenue. If much as the fall in revenue, then against the intolerable burdens being the fiscal deficit is to be controlled, the current account deficit on the imposed upon them in the name and European Union rules stipulate balance of payments in the latter of “austerity” and to demand that that it must not exceed 3% of situation will be higher than in the resources be raised instead through the gross domestic product, then former. This is because a part of the taxing the rich. This movement had government expenditure must also higher aggregate demand in the latter begun initially as a protest against be curtailed. This has two effects: situation would have “leaked out” the diesel price-hikes, but has now first, it aggravates the crisis through abroad in the form of a higher current taken on a more general character further curtailment of aggregate deficit. The need, therefore, would and is drawing huge support from demand; and second, since such an be for larger external borrowing to the people. expenditure-cut typically affects cover the higher current deficit; but, There is an effort in liberal circles welfare expenditure the most, it precisely because the fiscal deficit is to portray the movement as being causes a further squeeze on the larger, international finance capital sponsored by a combination of the working poor. will be unwilling to give larger loans extreme Left and the extreme Right, The working poor, therefore, to sustain the larger current deficit. and as one that would ultimately are hit in three distinct ways: first, In other words, running a larger serve to strengthen the fascist by the original crisis itself; second, fiscal deficit may be manageable if forces. But this is the typical tactics by the aggravation of the crisis via it causes no expansion in the current employed by these liberal circles to the response of the government account deficit; but if it does, then deny people’s grievances that find through expenditure cuts; and third, the country in question will face expression in such movements, and by the direct loss in living standard a problem. The constraint upon to garner support for themselves by that is caused by the fact that the enlarging the fiscal deficit, therefore, invoking the bogey of fascism. cut is usually in welfare spending. is not just something which arises True, France has a strong Widespread people’s protests under because of false perceptions; it is fascist movement, but there is no these circumstances, as is happening actually a structural constraint. link between that movement and in Paris, are hardly surprising. To see the nature of this the Yellow Vest agitation. And What, it may be asked, would structural constraint, let us imagine who benefits politically from this happen if the government did not an alternative scenario where France agitation will depend upon the curtail its expenditure? There would imposes import controls to ensure actions of the various political obviously be an increase in the size that the larger fiscal deficit does not formations; it cannot be glibly of the fiscal deficit, which would create a larger current deficit, i.e, forecast. In fact, the movement be frowned upon by finance capital that the larger aggregate demand itself has no political backers and and would also violate the EU rules. that gets generated compared with its demands, like relief for the But even assuming that the French a situation where the fiscal deficit is people and taxes on the rich, have government could ignore these kept controlled to within 3% of the nothing to do with the Right. On factors, it would nonetheless face GDP, causes an increase entirely in the contrary, these are progressive a more serious fall-out from the domestic output and employment, demands arising from the dire straits increase in the fiscal deficit. and does not spill over into larger 6 JANATA, December 30, 2018 imports. In such a case, there will be been met through larger domestic of this relief expenditure, some no need for any additional external output and employment and not external borrowing will also have borrowing on account of the fiscal caused a larger current account to be incurred, which means that a deficit target being exceeded. deficit; but that is not possible combination of the second and the The structural constraint upon under EU rules, and would again third options will be used to pay for enlarging the fiscal deficit, therefore, be unacceptable to finance capital. the relief. arises from the fact that the aggregate Hence his measures would cause But any external borrowing demand generated by a larger fiscal a larger fiscal and current account would bring in its wake “austerity”, deficit “leaks out” abroad, at least deficit, and if capital inflows are to so that ultimately the burden of the partially, i.e., from the fact that finance it then the financiers would relief will have to be borne by other countries are not allowed to put up demand their pound of flesh in the sections of the working people import controls under neoliberalism. form of “austerity”, either now or, at themselves. The US alone has done so till now. the most, after some time. Macron’s relief measures, in No European country has done so; Macron’s announced measures, short, are a stalling, hoodwinking indeed no European country can do therefore, while they may succeed tactic, whereby some segments of the so without getting out of the EU in preventing any further protests working people will receive relief at itself, which denies such freedom to for the time being, really amount to the expense of other segments of the member countries. deceiving the people. They amount working people. But the fact that This is the dilemma of France to buying peace now for a greater Macron was forced to announce today. Emmanuel Macron, the onslaught on the people later. these measures testifies to the depth French President, went on television In real terms, if the working of the people’s anger which even the to address the nation and announced people are to be provided with custodians of neoliberal capitalism a series of concessions to the Yellow some relief, then this relief can cannot afford to ignore. From the Vest demands. These included come either at the expense of the peasants’ march in Delhi to the increasing the minimum wage and domestic surplus earners; or from Yellow Vests’ demonstrations in postponing a diesel price-hike. larger production at home through Paris, we are witnessing a world- Macron, however, categorically aggregate larger demand; or from wide bursting forth of the people’s ruled out any increased taxation of resources borrowed from abroad. anger; but that only underscores the the rich. His announced measures, Since the rich are being spared, fact that neoliberal capitalism has therefore, would raise the fiscal the first of these options is ruled reached a complete dead-end. deficit beyond what the EU permits. out; and even if some increase in But even assuming that the EU domestic output occurs because takes a lenient view of France’s transgressing the fiscal deficit target, the fact that France will have to Naseeruddin Shah ko Gussa Kyon Aata hai? borrow more from abroad would imply that it would have to please Ram Puniyani finance capital. And that will require squeezing the people in some other The index of health of democratic being relegated to second class way. society is gauzed by the feeling citizenship. In particular, Muslims Put differently, Macron could of security experienced by the and Christians have been feeling have taxed the rich and thereby kept minorities. Similarly one can say that more and more insecure during the to the fiscal deficit target; but he has the degree of democracy in a society last few years. Even earlier, it’s not ruled that out because it would be is reflected by the degree of ‘freedom that things were very good for them. unacceptable to finance capital. He of expression’ in the society. In ‘Security of religious minorities’ and could have, even while increasing India we see that both these indices ‘freedom of expression’ have been the fiscal deficit, imposed import have been slipping down during last constantly undermined for decades controls in which case the increased few years. There are observations in the country. But it has reached its aggregate demand would have that the religious minorities are acme ever since the BJP led NDA JANATA, December 30, 2018 7 has come to power at the center. have come forward and released a making them more insecure than This fact came to the surface statement in solidarity with him. before. The issue of cow related yet again when Naseeruddin Shah, Some others like Ashutosh Rana violence, starting from Mohammad one of the legends of Indian cinema, have also stood by him in this Akhlaq to Junaid and Rakbar Khan, poured his heart out in the backdrop anguish of his. But a bigger section has given the signal that food habits of the murder of police inspector came down pouncing on him. His will be dictated by the foot soldiers Subodh Kumar Singh in the co-star of many films, Anupam Kher, of communal politics. To cap it all, violence related to cow slaughter in ridiculed him, saying that there has the accused in these lynchings have Bulandshahr, UP. Shah was talking been freedom to throw stones on the been honoured by those in power, to Karvan-E-Mohabbat. This group, army and freedom to bad mouth the like Union Culture Minister Mahesh led by the indefatigable activist top military officers, so how much Sharma draping the body of one of Harsh Mander, has been a humane freedom does Shah want? Uma the accused in the Akhlaq lynching response to the rising Hate crimes. Bharati, a Cabinet Minister in the case with the national flag and Union The group has taken upon itself Modi Government, said that people Minister of State for Civil Aviation to visit and show solidarity with like Shah are part of the conspiracy Jayant Sinha honouring the accused the families of the victims of Hate of divisive politics. Baba Ramdev, in the Alimuddin Ansari lynching crimes, to try to put soothing balm the Baba-cum-business tycoon, case after they were released on bail on their wounds of having lost their called him anti-national, while the by the High Court. dear ones. This remarkable gesture is UP state BJP chief called Shah a The Love Jehad related murder of steeped in compassion and love for Pakistani agent. To cap it all, Shah Afrazul in Rajasthan by Shambhulal the members of our diverse society. was booed in the Ajmer Literary Regar showed the extremes to which Shah told them, “In many areas Festival and was prevented from the humanity can degenerate. Regar we are witnessing that the death of speaking. not only killed Afrazul in horrific a cow has more significance than It is not the first time a Muslim manner but even got the video of the that of a police officer. I feel anxious actor has been treated so shabbily. ghastly crime made by his nephew. thinking about my children. Because We recall that when Shah Rukh Worse, a tableau of Shambhulal they don’t have a religion, tomorrow Khan in 2015 commented on the Regar was taken out by Hindu outfits if a mob surrounds them and asks growing intolerance in society, he during a Ram Navami procession in ‘are you a Hindu or a Muslim?’ was compared to Hafiz Saeed of Jodhpur. What is the divisive politics they will have no answer. It worries Pakistan. The next year, in the face of which Shah is being accused by me because I don’t see the situation of growing intolerance due to which worthies like Uma Bharati? What is improving anytime soon. These large number of prominent people divisive: raising communal issues matters don’t scare me, they make were returning their national awards, like Ram Temple and Holy Cow, me angry.” He also said that the Aamir Khan shared his wife Kiran or stating one’s fears in the light of hate prevalent in the society is like a Rao’s fears about their child. He was these massive violations of human genie which has been released from also denounced in a similar vein. rights? What must have irked Shah the bottle and now it may be difficult What has been happening the most was that in the wake of to put it back. He observed that during last few years? It’s true that the murder of a police officer, people have become emboldened to there has not been any violence primacy was given to the killing take arms and indulge in violence on the scale of post-Godhra of the cow. The mobs which have as they know that they can get away Gujarat or Kandhamal of 2008 or got emboldened over a period of with it. Muzzafarnagar of 2013. What has time are imbued with Hate ideology In any society where love and been happening is that chronic and hatred for religious minorities. amity are the norm, this statement violence is becoming endemic and Shah’s anger should be a wakeup from an eminent citizen like some ghastly individual incidents call for the democratic spirit of our Naseeruddin Shah would have of horrific nature are coming to the society to try put back the genie of made the society introspect. Some fore. These frighten the Muslim hatred back in the bottle and discard of our progressive organisations like community. Attacks and disruptions the bottle for good. the Progressive Writers Association of prayer meetings of Christians are Email: [email protected] 8 JANATA, December 30, 2018 Assembly Verdict: BJP is Biggest Loser

Subodh Varma

The final results have not yet independent/small party MLAs is market. This was on top of the fact been declared but counting is fairly anybody’s guess. that the farmers had pinned their advanced and one thing is clear: In Rajasthan, Congress with 103 hopes on Narendra Modi’s promise BJP has suffered a major setback leads, appears to have crossed the to fix MSP at 50% more than the in all the three states it was ruling halfway mark of 99 (elections were total cost of production, which he – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and held for 199 of the 200 seats). The never fulfilled. As a result of this Chhattisgarh. In Telangana, its vote state has seen at least 18 independent betrayal, indebtedness grew, as did has declined and its seats have gone or small party candidates winning distress, and an increasing number down from five to three. In Mizoram, of which at least six are BJP rebels of suicides was one of the direct it was a marginal force with no seat and seven are Congress rebels. results. In Rajasthan, too, a similar in the outgoing Assembly. This time In Chhattisgarh, Congress has situation was faced by farmers which it has scraped through with a single comfortably romped home with 63 led to massive protests for many seat. leads in the 90-member House with months. In MP, police opened fire In Rajasthan, the Bharatiya 46 as the halfway mark. on protesting farmers in Mandsaur Janata Party (BJP) has suffered a So, both in terms of vote share in June 2017. loss of nearly 7% in its vote share and seats, BJP emerges as the Joblessness has been a notable compared with the last Assembly uniform loser in these three states. and persistent feature of the Modi elections in 2013. In MP, the loss is The reasons for this stunning defeat regime, and in these three states about 3.5%, in Chhattisgarh the loss are not too difficult to find. the ruling BJP faced people’s ire is a whopping 8.5%. over another betrayal of Modi—the Compared with the 2014 Lok Reaction Against Disastrous promise of one crore jobs. The Sabha elections when it swept these Economic Policies state government tried to put forth three states on the back of the so- In the past months, there was their own employment targets but called Modi wave, BJP has suffered a groundswell of discontentment miserably failed to meet them. an even more ignominious loss. building in these three big states Young people, who had supported In Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, its primarily because of farmers’ Modi in earlier elections, turned vote share has gone down by about destitution, raging joblessness against the BJP because of this 17% while in MP it has declined by (especially among youth), stagnant betrayal. about 13%. wages even as prices were rising, and Both MP and Rajasthan also In terms of seats—and the twin disasters of demonetisation saw implementation of policies government formation—the waters and Goods and Services Tax. In that squeezed industrial labour by are muddied up in MP because of other words, there was a rejection diluting labour laws, allowing freer the close race with the Congress of the economic hardship imposed hire and fire policies, and difficulty leading in 115 seats and BJP in by the unabashed neo-liberal model in forming their trade unions. 104 at the time of writing. Since imposed under the BJP leadership. But the industrial workers were the halfway mark is 115 in the In both MP and Chhattisgarh, hardest hit by some of the lowest 230-member House, it looks like the where foodgrain production had wages paid in the whole of the MP Assembly is going to be hung— zoomed up in the past decade, the country in these BJP-ruled states. at least 116 would be required for announced MSP was becoming more Minimum wages are just Rs 5,749 majority. Four Bahujan Samaj Party and more irrelevant as government per month in Rajasthan and Rs (BSP) MLAs and six independent or procurement declined because of 7,125 in MP, compared with the small party winners will come into cuts in government allocations. This minimum calculated by the Indian play and become crucial. BSP, which left a large number of farmers facing Labour Conference formula of Rs has been consistently opposing ruin because of non-remunerative 18,000 currently. These low wage BJP in recent years, should support prices, much below Minimum rates combined with ever increasing the Congress but the allegiance of Support Price (MSP), in the open prices of food items and fuel costs JANATA, December 30, 2018 9 led to the immiseration of workers. people have rejected this strategy, Adivasis, the connivance in dilution This, too, was a big factor in the reminding one of the way BJP was of the Prevention of Atrocities Act anger against the government—both shown the door in these very states (POA), the non-implementation Modi at the Centre and the respective in 1993, a year after the Babri Masjid of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), BJP-led state government. demolition in 1992 and the ensuing the slashing of fund allocation for Wages of agricultural labourers tide of violence. Dalits and Adivasis under the special also have suffered a decline in the component plans and the refusal past few years in inflation adjusted Dalit and Adivasi Anger at BJP to either protect job reservation or terms. In all these states, agricultural During Modi’s nearly five years extend it to the private sector. labourers form a very large part of the at the helm, the continued neglect In the elections to Lok Sabha, to electorate and their disenchantment and, indeed, humiliation of Dalit be held in a few months’ time, what with BJP was expressed in these and Adivasi communities too has has happened in MP, Chhattisgarh elections. played a role in the defeat of BJP. It and Rajasthan will happen elsewhere The funding cuts imposed by has drastically reduced the number too because there too, the people’s these governments on welfare of seats reserved for SC and ST reaction will be the same to the same schemes like the rural jobs in all three states and vote shares policies. In sum, it may be said that guarantee programme, Integrated too have gone down in these seats. these elections are the beginning of Child Development Scheme, SC/ This is because of the relentless the end of the Modi rule. ST scholarships, healthcare delivery rise in atrocities on Dalits and system, schools and even foodgrain procurement increased the distress Building Productive Workers’ Army of people, thus turning them away from the saffron party. in Venezuela

It’s Also A Defeat of Communal Propaganda and Violence Cira Pascual Marquina The defeat of BJP comes after an election campaign in which A conversation with Sergio volunteer brigade, eight happened Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Requena of the Productive Workers’ while Requena headed Corpivensa Adityanath was the BJP’s main Army . Born in 1974 in Puerto (a state institution whose mission is campaigner, holding more than Ordaz, in the industrial heartland to encourage industrial sovereignty double the number of rallies than of Venezuela, Sergio Requena is and productivity) and was able to Modi himself. The floundering a worker at CVG Carbonorca channel some state resources to the BJP leadership in these states and (state-owned plant producing initiative. Today that support has the national strategists like Amit anodes, a component needed to dried up, but the struggle continues. Shah perhaps thought that they can process aluminum). He is a key retrieve the lost ground by turning up player in the formation of the I would like to begin by asking the hate filled campaign that the Yogi “Productive Workers’ Army”, a you to give us a brief overview of carries out so well. They wanted to voluntary initiative that takes on the the situation of Venezuela’s state- consolidate the Hindutva ‘advantage’ challenge of jumpstarting industrial owned factories today. arrived at by encouraging dozens of plants (both state‐owned and As is the case with most of incidents of mob lynchings in the worker‐controlled). Since 2016, Venezuela’s productive apparatus, name of cow protection and the the organisation’s “Productive the state enterprises are in crisis. repeated incidents of communal Workers’ Battles” have become a Furthermore, those enterprises are violence. The Ram Temple issue was reference amongst those committed fragmented and disjointed: each also raked up during the campaign to rebuilding the industrial muscle of plant, each factory has its own with saints and seers mobilised to the nation. The project has brought specific objective, its own logic, give a call for building the Temple hundreds of workers together and meaning that there is a large number in Ayodhya. However, the results put some twelve industrial plants of isolated initiatives. Each is on its have delivered a slap in the face of back on their feet. Of the twelve own, with nothing bringing them such an incendiary campaign. The Workers’ Battles carried out by this together in a network, because there 10 JANATA, December 30, 2018 isn’t a national production plan, nor machines and machine parts came creativity (and sacrifice) allowed is there a plan that would organise from abroad and were purchased in us to jumpstart production. We did even the whole state-owned sector. dollars. All this happened without this with no resources beyond our To make matters worse, there finding out if within the country, and knowledge and our tools. Really, are some deliberate obstacles put particularly within state enterprises, in five days we were able to raise up to production from within, from partnerships could be found leading production from zero to 100 percent! the enterprises’ leadership. So the to joint solutions. Today, the bosses During those five days, we main problem is that there isn’t a continue to request dollars (which worked long hours and slept in centralised production plan, but are not available) and they justify the plant. The work was voluntary add to that the fact that within the the stalled production by pointing and the whole process of recovery crisis (and the disorder that comes to funding limitations instead of became a crash course—we all with it), some particular economic looking for solutions that can be learned a lot, and all the workers interests have surfaced, and you get found within the country. who participated were remoralised. the bigger picture. The fact is that each “Productive State firms form an archipelago You are part of a collective Workers’ Battle” is a school in of islands, each with its own little volunteer project for the recovery which we teach each other, we ruler, who single-handedly decides of the country’s productive share knowledge, and we look for if the enterprise will produce, under apparatus, both state-owned and solutions collectively. what conditions, what happens worker-controlled enterprises, And this brings us back to what with the product, etc. Additionally, which has come to be known as the I was saying earlier: by now there he decides who they will contract “Productive Workers’ Army”. In is plenty of evidence that workers to acquire raw materials and 2016, a group of workers from the are capable of recovering stalled services. In general, a director will industrial heartland of Venezuela factories and that large investments contract outside of the state-owned in Bolívar State began to recover a are not necessarily needed, even enterprises, and will do so with the state enterprise called La Gaviota, when production has dropped to aim of seeking personal economic a fish processing plant. Can you zero. benefits. tell us about this initiative? When President Maduro I would like to begin by going La Gaviota was the first in a launched the Economic Recovery back to 2013. It was the beginning long and ongoing campaign to Plan, he referred to the fact that of the crisis, and the workers of three recover state‐owned factories and there are many companies producing privately-owned factories occupied factories under worker control. very little or nothing at all. Our the plants after the owners infringed Yes, after La Gaviota we went view is that there are two roots to workers’ rights and sabotaged to Maquinarias Barinas in Barinas the problem: there is no productive production. The companies were State, and there we waged the plan for state enterprises, and private Indorca, Calderys and Equipetrol second battle. In the factory, an objectives and interests organise in Guyana’s industrial ring. The important part of the machinery production (or lack thereof) in state- process of recovering the plants was was non‐operative. Actually, there owned plants. collective and very efficient. Soon was a machine room with all new There is another bottleneck: in after their occupation, the plants equipment that had never been made many of these plants, the bosses were back on a regular production operative. It was never put to use argue that production has come to a schedule. These three plants continue and repairs were needed. We left it halt because the enterprise doesn’t to operate under worker control. at about 80 percent of its productive have funds to purchase the machine Three years later, in February capacity. parts that need to be acquired so that 2016, folks from La Gaviota in Again, the collective process the operations can get back on track. Cumana (Sucre State), a state‐ of getting the plant back on its feet But it turns out that the machine owned plant, invited workers from (well, on its feet for the first time!) parts that have to be replaced come Indocra, Calderys and Equipetrol remoralised the factory’s staff. from abroad and must be purchased plus others to jumpstart the fish flour In this battle, we also in US dollars. plant’s industrial oven. It was a five- implemented a parallel learning Historically in Venezuela, and day journey where the knowledge of space, an initiative that is now key especially in state enterprises, each worker plus a lot of collective to every battle and that we call JANATA, December 30, 2018 11

“Collective, Integral and Permanent production, but the educational continue the work, and that is why Self-Formation.” We organised a process is also very important. we emphasise organisation. workshop on freehand drawing of Can you tell us more about this? mechanical parts. First, I should clarify something. The “Chinese Model” (this term Then, in March of 2017, we We don’t only repair machinery, we is used in Venezuela to refer to the carried out a battle in Planta Madre also repair consciousness. There is growing participation of Chinese Wuanaguanare, a factory that a ideological understanding to the capital in the reorganisation of produces food-processing machinery whole process. When the Productive the economy) has discursively in Portuguesa State. Army goes into a factory, a process entered the public sphere. On Little by little the Productive of remoralisation begins. The plants’ the other hand, your model is Workers’ Battles began to draw workers participate in the recovery a socialist model that points to attention. They began to be known, of their factory and transform their workers’ control and seeks to and we got an invitation to head own reality. This practice of doing bring solutions to our problems up Corpivensa, a state initiative to (this praxis, if you will) opens the from below and from within. It promote industrial and productive way to what Che called creating could even be called a Guevarist sovereignty in the country. During the new man and the new woman. and patriotic model, couldn’t it? the seven-month period that we were Jumpstarting production with our We refer to our effort, our in Corpivensa, we were able to carry own hands, with limited resources, collective epic struggle, as an out eight “productive battles”. Since getting the factory back on its feet, “Admirable Campaign”, a term that we had institutional support, we yes, all that is important. But if we recalls Bolivar’s campaign for the had that extra muscle. Of the eight do that and we fail to remoralise liberation of Venezuela’s western productive battles that we carried workers, then the plant will fall back regions. We understand that there is a out during that period, four were in into its earlier slumber. crisis situation, with some elements gas cylinder plants, and one was in Raising morale is through of conspiracy and economic war. a Nutrichicha plant that produces praxis, that is the key for us, but Yet on top of that, there are serious rice-based drinks for the School we also foster parallel collective management problems in public Alimentation Plan. We also waged educational activities, as I said enterprises, corruption and other another battle in La Gaviota, and before when I talked about the interests that don’t contribute to a finally a battle at the Amuay Oil ongoing “Collective, Integral and solution. Faced with this complex Refinery in Falcon State. Permanent Self-Formation” that we situation, many are looking for We have had 12 productive undertake. During the Productive solutions elsewhere. battles in total, and we have begun Battles, we share experiences— For our part, we cast our lot with to call ourselves a “Productive skills acquired through work—and the people of Venezuela. The gaze Workers’ Army”. Some 2,200 people we also address organisational of Venezuela has historically been have participated in these battles, so problems. directed to the exterior: we felt that we feel that we are an army that can As a result of this, the plant’s we couldn’t solve our own problems. be deployed to any plant in any state workers get organised in workers’ Chavez offered a brief respite from to raise productivity. councils, in feminist brigades, that logic; with him, we were able Our army is very varied. Our and in Productive Workers’ to see what we had, we recognised army is made up of both active Councils. Ensuring that some ourselves. I think it is time that we workers and retired workers, both form of organisation grows out begin to acknowledge again that workers from the public and the of the experience is fundamental, we can do things, that we do have private sector—in short, people as workers’ organisation is the skills. Our productive apparatus with very diverse experiences. But only thing that will guarantee the has practically come to a complete the most important thing about continued production in a plant. halt, but there are thousands of men our army is that it is made up Basically, our main goal is to and women who are committed to of revolutionaries who want to break the inertia that installs itself coming out of this crisis, and they overcome the current crisis. due to bureaucracy: inertia that ends have incorporated themselves into up killing production. After we leave, the Productive Workers’ Army. When you go to a factory, there must be internal conditions These workers do not want to be your main goal is to jumpstart (not only material conditions) to spectators. They want to be subjects 12 JANATA, December 30, 2018 again, reactivating our participatory the productive apparatus of the kilometers to get to a factory; we and protagonistic democracy. nation. For this to happen, as I said leave our family behind; we sleep So indeed our proposal is before, there must be a process of very little and when we do, we patriotic. We believe that we can remoralisation and organisation, sleep in the plant. All this tends to do and make things, that we aren’t which is the key to the success of change the plant’s dynamics. We can doomed. We have a strong conviction our initiatives. actually say that we—the hundreds that the people, the workers, the In the Productive Workers’ of men and women of the Army— working class, together we can Army we teach by example, with a teach by example. The sacrifice bring ourselves out of the crisis that praxis that brings together political that a Battle entails is key to a shift we face in the industrial sector and and social commitment with work. towards a revolutionary ethos. elsewhere. We are the ones who will So we hope that we will carry with All this, of course, happens with build the sovereign and emancipated us a school for the workers with President Chavez as a guiding light. Patria [homeland] that Chavez whom we work, arm in arm, during His example fills us with strength aspired to create with the protagonic the Productive Battles. day in and day out. He taught by participation of the people. We are Sacrifice is, like it or not, an example and he sacrificed himself convinced that we can do this, that essential part of our epic struggle. for us. In return, we commit our lives patriotic Venezuelans can do this, We often travel for thousands of to our country. although we will always welcome with wide open arms comrades MLK Day Today: The Legacy of from other countries, people who are committed to socialism. But the Man and the Myth this is a war that we have to wage and that we must win. Only the Jonah Raskin people of Venezuela can solve the problems of Venezuela, and from our point of view, this must be done Long gone are the days when American economy.” with Chavez and with commitment white American radicals turned This January, when we celebrate to participatory and protagonistic their collective backs on Dr. Martin Martin Luther King, Jr. Day—which democracy. Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968), and was first observed in 1986—we embraced Malcolm X and the Black might look back at the man who One of the most intense debates Panthers. In those heady days during worried about language and about within Chavismo right now is the the late 1960s, King sounded, at figures of speech as much as he debate about the “ethical referent” least to young protesters against worried about moral issues, and and the need (since Chavez’s the War in Vietnam, like a reformer who insisted “a leader has to be death) to point to exemplary who belonged to the church, not concerned with the problems of experiences that might bring a revolutionary from “the hood.” semantics.” the project out of the stagnation Indeed, King was a Baptist preacher In the preface to a recent book that we are facing now. There and a civil rights activist who titled To Shape a New World, that is a mystique around El Maizal insisted on the power of love— he offers fifteen essays about King, the Commune and the Admirable meant agape not eros—and who editors, Tommie Shelby and Brandon Campesino March, but in the was not a spokesman for Black Terry, write that MLK has been both working class, in the industrial Power, guerrilla warfare or violent ritually celebrated and intellectually sector, the Productive Workers’ revolution, though he wanted total marginalised and that his “legacy has Army has become a referent as “war” through non-violent means suffered collateral damage.” They well. Can you talk about this? to achieve social and economic call, not for “hagiography,” but for When we talk about ethical equality. critical thinking and they remind us referents, we must talk about “The American racial that “patriarchy and sexism” didn’t revolutionary coherence, and revolution,” he wrote in 1967—a make his list of “evils.” It’s also revolutionary coherence is a kind year before he died—“has been a worth saying that King’s “legacy” of North Star that guides our praxis. revolution to ‘get in’ rather than to will be decided not only in the halls Our objective is to help to recuperate overthrow. We want a share in the of academia but in the streets and JANATA, December 30, 2018 13 wherever humans the world over movement and to the Black Panthers. South.” Richard Nixon would bring confront plutocrats and the profit After all, he was deeply moved by that coalition back in his so-called motive and aim to escape from the the generation of young black men “Southern strategy” and so would spiritual wasteland of the twenty- who didn’t want to fight and die in successive Republican candidates first century. Vietnam and who often refused to for the presidency, from Reagan to King’s idea about leadership join the US military. In his April 4, Bush to Trump. The system King and problems of semantics came to 1967 speech in which he denounced claimed to have broken seems to him soon after he met with Stokely his own government “as the greatest be alive in Jeff Sessions’ Alabama Carmichael and his comrades in the purveyor of violence in the world today, though it might not be well. Student Nonviolent Coordinating today,” he explained that he had At the end of his life, King Committee (SNCC). They rubbed walked and talked with “angry recognised that much remained to him the wrong way, but they also young men” who asked him, “What be done. “What does it profit a man prompted him to revaluate his ideas about Vietnam?” to be able to eat at an integrated and his values and to shift his beliefs. He went on to say, “I knew that lunch counter if he doesn’t earn Indeed, while he rejected “Black I could never again raise my voice enough money to buy a hamburger Power” as a slogan and as a strategy, against the violence of the oppressed and a cup of coffee?” he asked. he recognised that “Negroes”—as he in the ghettoes,” without first raising “What does it profit one to be able called them—would have to have a voice against the war in Vietnam to attend an integrated school when political clout or they would remain which he saw as a war that was “the he doesn’t earn enough money to disenfranchised, trapped in poverty enemy of the poor.” King might buy his children school clothes?” and excluded from the American have become even more critical But he seemed to be unsure how to Dream. of the War in Vietnam—it lasted advance the cause and what role if In 1967, in an essay titled “Black seven years after his death—and any he had to play. Power” which is included in his more boisterous in his denunciations “I don’t know what will happen book Where Do We Go From Here: of “the giant triplets of racism, now,” he said in a speech he delivered Chaos or Community? King wrote materialism and militarism.” But on April 3, 1968. “We’ve got some that “one of the great problems that he was also a kind of prisoner of difficult days ahead.” He sounded the Negro confronts is his lack of the civil rights movement, which like a man who was bowing out power.” A year later in a speech he had led so well and for so long, of the struggle. “It doesn’t matter entitled “All Labor Has Dignity,” from Montgomery to Birmingham to with me now,” he said in that same which he delivered to union workers Selma. He had helped to orchestrate speech. “I’ve seen the Promised in Memphis, Tennessee, he said, the passage of the Civil Rights Act Land. I may not get there with you.” unequivocally, “We need power.” He of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act Two months earlier in a sermon at meant power in all its manifestations: of 1965 and to bring about the end Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, economic, political, social and of legal segregation in the South. he told the congregation, “I don’t cultural. He was rightfully proud of the want a long funeral . . . tell them Also, while he made fun of Franz achievements of the movement for not to mention I have a Nobel Peace Fanon as “a black psychiatrist from integration, but he also exaggerated Prize . . . I’d like somebody to say Martinique” who had screwy ideas victories and underestimated the that . . . Martin Luther King, Jr., about violence and liberation, he power of racists who wanted to tried to love somebody.” How sad understood that Negroes would have disenfranchise blacks by any means he sounds! to liberate themselves by reaching necessary, including redistricting, Before he was assassinated in down into the “inner depths” of intimidation and outright theft of the Memphis in April 1968, he was their being and sign “with the pen right to vote. caught up as much as ever before and ink of assertive selfhood his In The Trumpet of Conscience in the language of love. He held own emancipation proclamation.” (1968), King noted that we “we on to many of the concepts that no King called violence “the twin of totally disrupted the system, the longer captured the imaginations materialism” and wanted no part of lifestyle of Birmingham, and then of young blacks and young whites, either one. of Selma,” and broke the “coalition” who accepted the invitation that the Had he lived he might have of “unprogressive Northerners” Panthers offered to join them in the moved closer to the Black Power and “representatives of the rural revolution. 14 JANATA, December 30, 2018

In Soul on Ice (1968), Eldridge “These are revolutionary Professor West admires King Cleaver wrote that “There is in times,” King observed in 1967, as deeply as he abhors Obama, America today a generation of young though he himself wasn’t exactly a whom he accuses of a “betrayal” white youth that is truly worthy of revolutionary. After all, he argued of “everything” that King stood a black man’s respect, and this is that same year, that “The Negro for. What he doesn’t say and that a rare event in the foul annals of must show that the white man has he might have said is that if it were American history.” I was part of that nothing to fear for the Negro is not for Martin Luther King and generation. Like many others my willing to forgive.” H. Rap Brown his wife Coretta, there would have age, I turned away from King and and Stokely Carmichael wanted been no Obama in the White House. his dream and toward the Panthers, what they called the “white power King paved the way for Barack. He many of whom were assassinated. structure” to fear Black Power. As might have seen Obama as a kind In December 1969, I protested the far back as 1848, revolutionaries of turncoat, but he was too kind and murder of Fred Hampton and Mark wanted the capitalists to fear the too loving to have denounced him. Clark of the Chicago Panthers and “spectre of revolution.” In January 2019, on Martin Luther was arrested and beaten in jail. It was In his 2015 anthology of King’s King, Jr. Day, I will remember King hard to rally behind King’s banner of writings and speeches, entitled The as a kind of utopian who wanted to “love” when police murdered young Radical King, Professor Cornel create “the beloved community” and black men and when corporations West makes a case for King as a who realised the dangers that await urged consumers to love cars, “revolutionary,” though he adds movements for social change. “The burgers, sneakers and more. that he was also a “Christian.” West post-colonial period is more difficult In the late 1960s, while Eldridge goes on to say that King was “a and precarious than the colonial Cleaver, Huey Newton and Bobby warrior for peace”, a “democratic struggle itself,” he wrote. Fifty years Seale wanted black youth and white socialist” and a “spiritual warrior.” after his death, that observation is as youth to band together, King argued, King resists easy labeling. Cleaver insightful and as relevant as ever. In as late as 1967, that, “What is most misjudged him when he wrote 1967, he noted that, “this may well needed is a coalition of Negroes and that he “turned tail” at Selma. For be mankind’s last chance to choose liberal whites that will work to make Cleaver, King was merely one of between chaos and community.” both parties truly responsive to the many heroes on a list that included Now, we are offered mankind’s last needs of the poor.” Nkrumah, Robert Moses, Ho Chi chance to choose between surviving By 1968, he seemed to have Minh, W. E. B. Dubois and James on a planet that’s burning up or going given up on white liberals, but rather Foreman. down to destruction. looked toward the black masses he called upon to boycott white-owned Press Release corporations. “We are asking you tonight not to buy Coca-Cola . . . not Stop The Criminalisation of Triple Talaq to buy Sealtest milk . . . not to buy . . . Wonder Bread,” he told workers We, the undersigned individuals, not referred to a Select Committee in Memphis in April. He added, women’s rights activists and allies of as urged by the members of Rajya “Take your money out of the banks the women’s movement, are opposed Sabha, but the Union Cabinet downtown.” to the Muslim Women (Protection incorporated three amendments That notion of withdrawing of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018 based on the issues raised by the funds from banks—(which he calls in its present form. We appeal to Opposition. It included the provision “downtown” and not “white”)—and the Members of Rajya Sabha to of bail when the wife appears before boycotting big corporations, derived completely withdraw the Bill and the Magistrate, allowing only the from Gandhi’s ideas about how to significantly re-draft it in the interest aggrieved woman and her relatives best win Indian independence from of Muslim women. (by blood or marriage) to file a the British. In 1968, it wasn’t Gandhi The Muslim Women (Protection complaint, and making the offence who appealed to young African of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017, compoundable. Owing to severe Americans and young whites, but was passed by the Lok Sabha on opposition to this Bill in the Rajya rather Fanon, Che, Malcolm X and December 28, 2017 and is pending Sabha, the Union Cabinet issued Mao. before the Rajya Sabha. This Bill was the Muslim Women (Protection JANATA, December 30, 2018 15 of Rights on Marriage) Ordinance criminalise the practice of make Muslim women more on September 19, 2018, which talaq-e-biddat and imprison vulnerable to violence from criminalised the pronouncement of the Muslim man. The effect of their matrimonial household, triple talaq (or talaq-e-bidat) with Supreme Court’s judgment is as the marital family members punishment of up to 3 years of that the marriage is legally valid would be hostile and blame imprisonment and with fine. and the persons continue to be the woman for the husband We are writing on behalf of lawfully wedded. Now, if this law being in jail. It would hinder Muslim women from across the is passed, the Muslim men will her household security, and country and women’s groups to be incarcerated, thus violating she might be thrown out of her oppose this Bill, which is arbitrary, the rights of conjugality of these matrimonial household. excessive, and violative of two persons. Criminalising the 7. The pronouncement of fundamental rights enshrined in the husband would also lead to triple talaq having no legal Indian Constitution. Overall, if this unwanted separation between consequences on the marriage Bill is passed, it would make Muslim the couple, against the wishes means that such a proclamation women more vulnerable to violence, of the wife. by a Muslim man is essentially as well as harm their economic, 4. Since Muslim marriage is a a desertion of the wife. In any household and social security. civil contract between two adult of Personal Laws, the desertion persons, the procedures to be of a wife by a man is not a Below are our points of objection followed on its breakdown criminal offence. Therefore, to the Bill: should also be of civil nature. while the Bill aims to criminalise 1. This Bill is purportedly brought Penal action to discourage the the pronouncement of talaq, in in accordance with the Supreme practice of instant triple talaq effect it is only criminalising the Court judgement in the matter of is a myopic view as it leaves act of desertion of a Muslim wife Shayara Bano Vs. Union of India many other issues of economic by her husband. Criminalising and others on August 22, 2017. and social security of women desertion by Muslim men, which But it disregards the very fact unaddressed. constitutes only a civil offence that the object of this Bill—to 5. Using penal actions leading to for men of all other religions, protect the rights of married imprisonment to discourage is discriminatory under the Muslim women and to prohibit the practice of triple talaq will Constitution. divorce by pronouncing talaq by not help in getting justice for 8. If there is violence within their husband—has already been women. When a woman reports the marriage in addition to achieved by the judgement of the a complaint about triple talaq, the pronouncement of triple Supreme Court. she wants to continue staying talaq, then the woman could 2. The Hon’ble Supreme Court in in her matrimonial home and use the existing provisions Shayara Bano’s case held that draw financial support from of the Protection of Women the practice of talaq-e-bidat her marital home. When the from Domestic Violence Act, is manifestly arbitrary, and husband is put behind bars, 2005 and Section 498A of the therefore unconstitutional. A he will be unable to pay the Indian Penal Code. These two reading of the judgment clearly maintenance and contribute laws, taken together, represent indicates that mere pronouncing to raising their children for 3 a wide spectrum of legal of triple talaq does not dissolve years, thus depriving Muslim options available for women the marriage and there is no legal women and children of financial survivors of domestic violence, implication on pronouncing security. The Government ought encompassing both criminal and talaq. Following the same, an act to strengthen the negotiating civil provisions. The Domestic that has no legal consequences capacities of women by providing Violence Act presents women being made a criminal offence, them economic and socio-legal with civil redressal with its cognizable and non-bailable support rather than criminalising focus on availing monetary is manifestly arbitrary and the pronouncement of triple relief, custody, residence and therefore violative of Article 14. talaq. protection orders, whereas 3. There is no rationale to 6. Penal provisions in the Bill will Section 498A presents women 16 JANATA, December 30, 2018

with the option of prosecution his imprisonment and separation talaq to be 400 in 13 months. and imprisonment. from her. Further, it becomes This data, for a country as 9. No economic and socio-legal an easy avenue for relatives of large as India, is not enough to support is provided by the women who have entered into draw conclusions and create a government to women, children marriages against their wishes criminalising bill. Moreover, and other dependents, when the to separate the couple and exact the statement seems to be based erring men are put behind bars. revenge. The problem becomes on popular beliefs or perception The Domestic Violence Act, particularly acute in the case rather than corroborated by any 2005 under Section 21 already of inter-religious marriages of material evidence. provides for the aggrieved Muslim men with a woman of 14. The Law Minister has also woman to be provided custody another religion. said that there is an urgent of the child and Section 20 12. The punishment prescribed in need to criminalise triple talaq, provides for maintenance to be the Bill is up to three years, and hence the Ordinance was paid to her. Section 125 of the and makes the offence a passed. However, the practice Code of Criminal Procedure, cognizable and non-bailable of unilateral triple talaq has 1973 also provides for one. The same is draconian and been going on for hundreds maintenance for the aggrieved disproportionate. A punishment, of years, and no government woman. The Bill therefore, does to be just, should have only had banned the practice until not provide anything by way of that degree of severity which is the Supreme Court declared it additional rights to the existing sufficient to deter others. The unconstitutional. If it was as laws already in place. In fact, terms of imprisonment up to 3 urgent, why was no legislation the Bill takes a step back in years is arbitrary and excessive. passed against it until after the only providing for subsistence Serious crimes like Causing SC judgement? This is a move allowance for the woman. death by rash or negligent act to serve political ends than truly 10. The Bill talks about providing (IPC Sec 304A), Rioting (IPC meeting the needs of Muslim “subsistence allowance” for Sec 147), Injuring or defiling women. the aggrieved Muslim woman. place of worship with intent 15. The move to imprison Muslim Subsistence allowance is to insult the religion of any men will add to the prevailing not defined and is open to class (IPC Sec 295)—are all insecurity and alienation of the interpretation. The law on punishable by 2 years in jail or Muslim community. Family maintenance has gone much fine or both; Bribery (IPC Sec and community members might further in providing much 171E) is punishable by 1 year; create undue pressures on the more than just subsistence Negligent act likely to spread woman not to report against allowance for the complainants. infection of disease dangerous her husband. Criminalisation of By providing only subsistence to life (IPC Sec 269), Causing instant triple talaq will further allowance, this Bill provides an hurt by act endangering life or stifle the voices of Muslim aggrieved Muslim less than what personal safety of others (IPC women instead of offering them she is legally due. Sec 337)—are punishable by avenues for justice. 11. The Bill allows for the aggrieved 6 months in jail or fine. All The Muslim Women (Protection woman as well as anyone related these criminal acts have lesser of Rights) Bill instead of protecting to her by blood or marriage punishment than pronouncing the rights of Muslim women to be the complainant. There triple talaq, which is arbitrary makes them vulnerable to violence is no provision for a relative and excessive, and violative of and insecurity. We wish for the to seek the consent of an Article 14 of the Constitution. Government of India to withdraw aggrieved woman before filing a 13. The Law Minister Mr. Ravi this Bill from consideration in complaint. It becomes therefore Shankar Prasad has said that the Rajya Sabha, and review the easy for a family member of a the practice is still “continuing fundamental flaws pending broad woman to file a complaint of unabated”. He has pegged based community consultations. triple talaq against her husband the number of divorce cases Endorsed by: several without her consent leading to pronounced by way of triple organisations, intellectuals, academicians and activists. JANATA, December 30, 2018 17 British Raj siphoned out $45 trillion from India: Utsa Patnaik

Ajai Sreevatsan

When renowned economist Utsa in an India where historical slights surprising. Ordinary people died Patnaik began to sift through old are endlessly litigated and towns are like flies owing to under-nutrition tracts of British economic history arbitrarily renamed, an adequate and disease. It is shocking that in order to understand the nature accounting of the enduring burden Indian expectation of life at birth of fiscal relations between London of colonialism is perhaps yet to was just 22 years in 1911. The most and colonial India, the fate of the be undertaken. Excerpts from an telling index, however, is foodgrain Kohinoor wasn’t much in the news; interview: availability. Because the purchasing Shashi Tharoor hadn’t yet spoken power of ordinary Indians was in favour of reparations at Oxford In a recent paper, you suggest being squeezed by high taxes, the University—a speech which went Britain drained out nearly $45 per capita annual consumption of viral; and not many books had trillion of wealth from India. foodgrains went down from 200 been written about the thousands Could you put that quantum of kg in 1900 to 157 kg on the eve of of Indian soldiers who fought under money in perspective and what World War II, and further plummeted the British flag in the empire’s many difference it would have made to to 137 kg by 1946. No country in wars overseas. the Indian economy? the world today, not even the least While the past few years have Between 1765 and 1938, the developed, is anywhere near the shed additional light on the colonial drain amounted to £9.2 trillion position India was in 1946. experience, there is much that we (equal to $45 trillion), taking still do not know. For example, how India’s export surplus earnings as What was the system in place to much money was really taken out the measure, and compounding it at orchestrate this drain of wealth? of India? In a collection of essays a 5% rate of interest. Indians were Why wasn’t there any large-scale published recently by Columbia never credited with their own gold local opposition to it? University Press, Patnaik attempts and forex earnings. Instead, the All the colonising powers put to make a comprehensive estimate. local producers here were ‘paid’ in place tax collection systems. Over roughly 200 years, the East the rupee equivalent out of the The very name for the district India Company and the British Raj budget—something you’d never administrator was ‘Collector’. When siphoned out at least £9.2 trillion (or find in any independent country. the Company first got revenue $44.6 trillion; since the exchange The ‘drain’ varied between 26–36% collecting rights in Bengal in 1765, rate was $4.8 per pound sterling of the central government budget. its employees went completely during much of the colonial period). It would obviously have made mad with avarice. R.C. Dutt, a civil To put that sum in context, an enormous difference if India’s service officer in the British Raj, Britain’s 2018 GDP estimate—a huge international earnings had documented that between 1765 and measure of annual economic been retained within the country. 1770, the Company trebled the tax output—is about $3 trillion. In India would have been far more revenue in Bengal, compared to the colonial era, most of India’s developed, with much better health the erstwhile Nawab’s regime. You sizeable foreign exchange earnings and social welfare indicators. There know what that means for a peasant went straight to London—severely was virtually no increase in per who is already quite poor? The hampering the country’s ability to capita income between 1900 and Nawab was collecting sufficiently import machinery and technology in 1946, even though India registered high taxes, so when the Company order to embark on a modernisation the second largest export surplus took over and forcibly trebled path similar to what Japan did in earnings in the world for three collections over five years, people the 1870s. The scars of colonialism decades before 1929. were driven into starvation. There still remain, Patnaik says. And yet, Since all the earnings were taken was a massive famine in Bengal by Britain, such stagnation is not in 1770. Out of a population of 18 JANATA, December 30, 2018

30 million, the British themselves Indies combined was about 6 percent credited to India, we could have estimated that 10 million died. of Britain’s GDP, nearly the same imported modern technology and From 1765 up to the takeover as its own savings rate. After the started industrialising long before by the Crown, the Company was mid-19th century, Britain was Japan did under the Meiji restoration using a quarter to a third of net running current account deficits in the 1870s. revenue collections to purchase with Continental Europe and North export goods from the peasants. America, and at the same time, it The world has changed This was an abnormal use of taxes was investing massively in these considerably since the 19th and the peasants themselves did not regions, which meant running capital century and China’s recent foray know they were getting diddled. account deficits too. The two deficits into Africa is sometimes referred If the same Company agent who summed to large and rising balance to as new age imperialism . . . collected the producer’s tax had at of payments (BoP) deficits with It would be quite incorrect to the same time bought his goods out these regions. call either Chinese or for that matter of that tax, then the producer himself How was it possible for Britain Indian entrepreneurs in Africa as would have said: dal mein kuch to to export so much capital—which modern imperialists. This is a ploy kala hai (something fishy is going on went into building railways, that the North uses to deflect attention here). But the Company agent who roads and factories in the US and from the crimes that they committed bought produce out of the tax money continental Europe? Its BoP deficits against our people, after getting was a different person and did so at with these regions were being settled forcible political control. Britain and a different time from the Company by appropriating the financial gold other countries taxed the colonised, agent who collected the tax. So, the and forex earned by the colonies, took their foreign earnings, and producers did not connect the two. especially India. Every unusual drove them into hunger. The market is an amazing thing: expense like war was also put on Chinese and Indian it obscures real relationships. A the Indian budget, and whatever entrepreneurs in Africa are merely large part of the producer’s own tax India was not able to meet through trying to do business in agreement payment simply got converted into its annual exchange earnings was with independent governments. export goods, so the Company got shown as its indebtedness, on which We can never hope to replicate the these goods completely free. The interest accumulated. development path that Northern later mechanism after the Crown As under the Company, under countries followed. They dealt took over was a further development the Crown too, a third of India’s with rural displacement and rising using bills of exchange. The only budgetary revenues was not spent unemployment through massive, Indian beneficiaries of this clever, domestically but was set aside as permanent out-migration, mainly to unfair system of linking trade with ‘expenditure abroad’. The secretary the Americas. That option is not open taxes were the intermediaries or of state (SoS) for India, based in to labour-surplus India or China. We dalals. Some of modern India’s London, invited foreign importers need to develop an industrialisation well-known business houses made to deposit with him the payment strategy that preserves employment their early profits doing dalali for (in gold and sterling) for their and livelihoods. the British. Income tax on businesses net imports from India, which and professionals was virtually non- disappeared into the SoS’s account As trade barriers are once again existent until WWII. in the Bank of England. Against going up, which is reminiscent these Indian earnings he issued of the British empire’s policy What happened to the money that bills, termed Council Bills (CBs), to on Indian cloth imports, are was drained out of India? What an equivalent rupee value—which there any lessons India can learn on this front from the colonial was it used for? was paid out of the budget, from experience? The modern capitalist world the part called ‘expenditure abroad’. The lesson we have to learn would not exist without colonialism So, Britain had complete command is to disengage. I am not unhappy and the drain. During Britain’s over all the international purchasing at the idea of protectionism in the industrial transition, 1780 to 1820, power that Indian producers had West. Because, frankly, we have the drain from Asia and the West earned. Even if a part of it had been JANATA, December 30, 2018 19 to turn our eyes inward. We have against Asian textiles that Britain possible otherwise. an enormous domestic market and maintained from 1700 to 1846. Nor Colonial drain helped to create its purchasing capacity needs to is there a single word on Britain’s the modern capitalist world, from be raised. We must trade more appropriation of India’s entire export North America to Australia—all with other developing countries. surplus earnings for 180 long years regions where European populations And trade on terms which are not from 1765 to 1945. had settled. The advanced capitalist exploitative—essentially what is world should set aside a portion called fair trade. The developing While independent India of its GDP for unqualified annual world must start thinking in terms of maintains cordial relations with transfers to developing countries, cooperative solutions. Some barriers Britain, there has been much especially to the poorest amongst to trade with the Northern countries political tumult of late with regard them. Britain, in particular, morally is also essential, because the dogma to Mughal history. Both the Raj owes reparations for the 3 million of ‘free trade’ was promoted by them and the Mughals are regarded as civilians who died in the Bengal to serve their own interests at our outsiders. How do they compare? famine because it was an engineered expense. The Mughals did come from famine. Transnational companies are outside, but then, waves of migration trying to change our cropping have always come from outside. patterns towards export crops, What the Mughals did was exactly as they did during the colonial what the Rajasthan princes also Janata period. They want free access to did. They taxed the people, but in our agriculture, because they cannot moderation, and spent all taxes is available at ever produce the crops we can, within the country. They settled here particularly in winter. The new and did not retain any permanent www.lohiatoday.com globalisation is all about the North ties with their places of origin. accessing fresh fruits and flowers Clearly, the Mughals can in no from the South in the middle of way be equated with the British because there was no export drive, winter. Tropical countries should be banding together in order to no cheating of local producers, and Janata Subscription use the year-round productivity of no tax-financed annual drain out of their lands as a bargaining chip to the sub-continent. Annual Rs. : 260/- obtain better terms of trade for their farmers. Today’s advanced world As an economist interested in Three Years : 750/- population, to this day, is highly history, what is your view on Demand Draft / dependent on the ex-colonial world the idea of reparations? Should Britain return the large sums of for its standard of living. Nearly Cheque money that you suggest it drained 70% of the 12,000 items sold in a out of India? on modern supermarket in the West has Not only Britain, but the whole a tropical import content. Mumbai Bank of today’s advanced capitalist The terms of trade are still world flourished on the drain from in favour of not fair. Yet, many still adhere India and other colonies. Britain to the belief that the advanced was too small to absorb the entire Janata Trust countries became advanced because drain from colonial India. So it they are terribly innovative and became the world’s largest capital D-15, Ganesh Prasad, entrepreneurial. Very little of real exporter, which aided the industrial Naushir Bharucha Marg, history is taught to either Indian or development of Continental Grant Road (W), British students. In the Cambridge Europe, the US, and even Russia. Economic History of India, for Mumbai 400 007. The infrastructure boom in these example, there is not a single word countries would not have been on the stringent protectionist policy R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, December 30, 2018 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2018 Published on Sunday, December 30, 2018 & Posted on Wedenesday, January 2, 2019 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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