Is there a caste or communal link to corruption and crime? Or, are your chances of being involved (and getting caught) in corruption cases higher as you go down the caste ladder? Nobody in his right mind would say yes to either of these. But let’s examine some facts.

Why is there a preponderance of this underclass among those charged with corruption, or even targeted in media sting operations? Here is a roll call: A. Raja and Mayawati (Dalit), Madhu Koda and Shibu Soren (tribal), Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav (OBC), are all caught in corruption or disproportionate assets cases. Faggan Singh Kulaste, Ashok Argal and Mahavir Singh Bhagora, caught in the cash-for-votes sting, are all SC/ST; among the BSP MPs in the cash-for-queries sting, Narendra Kushwaha and Raja Ram Pal (who is now in the Congress) are OBC, and Lalchandra Kol a Dalit. Of course, there are also some illustrious upper-caste representatives in the net: Sukh Ram, Jayalalithaa, Suresh Kalmadi. But there are far fewer of them. Could it be that the upper crust tends to be “cleaner” as a rule, or could it be that the system is loaded against those in the lower half of the social pyramid? The Sachar Committee report on the condition of Muslims also tells us that the only place where our Muslims have numbers disproportionately high in comparison to their population is jails. So, face the question once again: do Muslims tend to be more criminal than Hindus, or is the system loaded against them?

For another example, look at the BJP. Two of its senior leaders were caught on camera accepting cash. One, Dilip Singh Judeo, caught taking Rs 9 lakh, was a mere MP, but of a high caste, and was happily rehabilitated in the party, fielded in the election, and is now back in Parliament. The other, Bangaru Laxman, caught taking just Rs 1 lakh, was ranked much higher in the party; he was, in fact, the president, but much lower on the caste pyramid, a Dalit. He has been banished and isolated and is fighting the charges in that Tehelka sting case by himself. I am sorry to use this expression, but the party treated him as an utter outcast even as it continued to defend Judeo. What is the difference between the two except caste? You want to take this argument to the judiciary? It has been loosely insinuated by many prominent people, including by some notable members of Team Anna, that a large number of our former chief justices have been corrupt. But who is the only one targeted by name (however unsubstantiated the charges)? It is Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, currently chairman of the National Human Rights Commission and, more importantly, India’s first Dalit chief justice.

These questions are inconvenient, but can never be brushed aside in a diverse democracy. These have become even more important now as the political class has responded to Team Anna’s Lokpal campaign by bringing in 50 per cent reservation for lower castes and minorities. You can say this is a cynical political ploy to counter what is, after all, an upper-class, upper-caste, urban movement so far. But facts are facts and there is no hiding from them. The system is much too prejudiced, much too loaded against the underclass. Reservations may not be the perfect solution. But how else do you ensure equity? How do you convince this vast majority of Indians below the very top of the social pyramid that this new all-powerful institution will be fair to them? Or, you can flip this very same question in the context of Team Anna. Why has this vast majority of socially and economically vulnerable Indians been so distant from their movement? Why are the leaders who represent them, from Lalu to Mulayam to Mayawati, so strongly critical of the institution of Lokpal? Because the minorities, the weaker sections, are always afraid of mass movements, particularly when these are led by the dominant upper classes. In these movements they see the threat of majoritarian excesses. And that is exactly the apprehension that the political class, particularly the UPA, has now gotten hold of.

The upper caste, creamy layer of our society is the most prejudiced, and yet the most dominant minority in any democracy in the world. That is why even the person representing Mayawati on otherwise brilliant funny-man Cyrus Broacha’s show on CNN-IBN always has a blackened face (Dalits are supposed to be dark-skinned, no?).

An interesting new turn has meanwhile taken place in the discourse over the Lokpal bill. Whenever asked to comment on the UPA’s ploy of reservations, members of Team Anna simply say they are happy to leave that entirely to the government. Leave something entirely to the government? When was the last time you heard Team Anna say that?

They are doing so because the caste card, howsoever cynical, has thrown them entirely off-balance. They are now paying for having built such an unrepresentative upper-crust leadership, deluded perhaps by the belief that this battle was theirs to win on Twitter, Facebook and television channels where their interlocutors were trumpeters or fellow travellers. They forgot that the battle for power and ideas is fought in a democracy’s parliament and within its institutions. They started to believe their own mythology of being apolitical. They did not realise that politics, in a democracy as diverse as ours, needs two essential pre-requisites: ideology and inclusiveness. Abhorrence of corruption is a universal virtue but not an ideology.

If there was an underlying ideological impulse to this movement, it was anti-politicianism, underlined by that slogan from the early, heady days — Mera Neta Chor Hai.

It was probably because of that philosophical abhorrence of politics, and the give-and-take, the unending deal-making it involves, that Anna did not set up a truly diverse and representative “Team” to begin with. They had the wisdom and the sincerity, they thought, and Indians, cutting across barriers of caste and religion, would be smart enough to see it. Representative inclusiveness, they probably believed, was part of our cynical electoral politics though that did not stop them from having a Dalit and a Muslim girl help Anna break his fast, making it the first time that a child was described as “Dalit” on a public stage in a mass rally.

Leaders of Team Anna now rightly say that theirs indeed is a political movement. But even if they assert that it is above electoral politics, they have erred gravely in not learning from the political class and building a representative leadership. It could have come from both their abhorrence and ignorance of politics, from a lack of respect for the political class, and an inability to appreciate that you need politics to create a sense of fairness, balance and empowerment in such a diverse society. That is the difference between Anna on the one hand, and Gandhi and JP on the other. Both of the latter made inclusive politics the vehicle of their revolutions. Team Anna, instead, tried to circumvent politics, and now finds itself right in the thick of it.

sg@expressindia.com

source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/national-interest-the-caste-of-corruption/891508/0

కథ అక్కడ ఆగలేదు. కనుకనే చర్చ. విమర్శ. ఖండనలు. పోలవరం వివాదంలో ఎన్నెన్ని రాజకీయాలో. ప్రస్థుతానికి కొన్నింటిని తప్పనిసరిగా ఆలోచించాలి.

ప్రశ్న ఏంది? జలయగ్నం పేరుతో సాగిన బలియగ్నంలో వాటదారులైన కాంట్రాక్టరు (ఎస్ ఈ డబ్ల్యు) టీ ఆర్ ఎస్ కు బంధువెట్లాయె? నాలుగు పైసలకోసం ఓ క్రిమినల్ ప్రాజెక్టును కట్టి తూర్పు కనుమలను, కోయ జాతిని ఖూని చేసేందుకు ఉవ్వీల్లూరే కాంట్రక్టర్లు పోలవరం మీద యుద్దమే చేసే వాళ్ళకు మిత్రులెట్లాయె. నమస్కారం చేయడానికి ముఖ్యుడెట్లాయే

ఇపుడొస్తున్న ఆరోపణలకు జవాబు చెప్పకుండ వేరేవాళ్ళమీద అరిస్తే లాభం లేదు.
పోలవరం ప్రాజెకుపైన తెలుగు దేశం పార్టి వైఖరేంది అని అడిగితే ఏముంటది ఆన్సరు. ఆ విషయం 2009 ఎన్నికల్లొ టీ డీ పీ తోని పొత్తుకూడినప్పుడు అడిగిండ్ల? టీ డీపీ అప్పుడున్న వైకరినుంచి ఈ మధ్య ఏమైన మార్చుకొందా?

పార్టీ, ఉద్యమం, ఉద్యమ దిన పత్రికలకు వాటిని నడిపే వ్యక్తుల వ్యాపారాలతో సంబంధం లేదు అనే ప్రయత్నం కూడా పనికి రాదు. రాజకీయాలు వేరు బిజినెస్సు వేరు అనుకొంటే ఎవరితోనైనా సహజీవనమో భాగస్వామ్యమో చెయ్యొచ్చా? అట్లనే నమస్తే తెలంగాణ పార్టునరైన సీ ఎల్ రాజం కు పోలవరం కాంట్రాక్టు తెచ్చుకొన్న కంపెనీలో 3 శాతం వాటానేనటకదా అని, రాష్ట్రాన్ని దోచుకొన్న జలయగ్నం విషం లో ఆ కంపెనీకి కొంతవాటానేనట అంటే ఏమన్నట్లు? అన్యాయం లో ఎంత వాట ఉంటే అక్రమము అవుతుదంట? అన్యాయంలో ఎంత మోతాదు మించకపోతే అభిలషనీయము సమర్థనీయము అవుతుంది.

మాటలకు మాటలు పక్కకు బెట్టి ఆచరణలో కావాల్సినవి:

–ఏ అనుమతుల్లేని పోలవరం ప్రాజెక్టును అక్రమ పద్దతిలో కదిలించడానికి చూస్తున్న కుట్రలను ఆపేందుకు ఈ టెండర్లను రద్దు చేసేందుకు ఉద్యమించడం;
– పోలవరం ప్రాజెక్టుతో పడ్డ మచ్చను తుడిచేయడానికి ఆ ప్రాజెక్తును రద్దుచేసేంతవరకు నేలపైన ఉద్యమం చేపట్టడం.
– రాజంకు నమస్తే తెలంగాణ కావాలో ఎస్ ఈ డబ్ల్యూ కావాలో తేల్చుకోడం;
– నమస్తే తెలంగాణకు జలయగ్నం కాంట్రాక్టరు రాజం కావాలో పోలవరం మీద పోరు కావాలో తేల్చుకోడం

సూటి ప్రశ్నలకు సూటి జవాబులు కావాలే? అపుడే ప్రజల్లో ఉన్న అనుమానాలు తగ్గుతయి, కొత్తగా మల్ల నమ్మకం ఏర్పడుతుంది. డొంకతిరుగుడో, గారడో చేస్తే లాభం లేదు. దాని వల్ల దెబ్బతిన్న నమ్మకం తిరిగి రాదు. మేము ఏదో వ్యక్తుల్లాగానో, ఒక స్వచ్చంధ సంస్థ లాగనో పోరాడినమని చెప్పుకుంటే దానికి గుర్తుగా నాలుగు పత్రికా ప్రకటనలు చూపిస్తే ప్రయోజనం ఏమి? ఆదివాసుల కోసం, పేద ప్రజల కోసం, తెలంగాణ కోసం ఖచ్చితమైన ఆలోచనను ఖచ్చితంగా ఆచరణలో పెట్టాలే. అపుడే ఆంధ్ర వలవాదులు కుట్రపూరితంగా గోదారిని దారిమల్లిస్తుంటే ఆపినట్టు, నీరులేక కన్నీరుపెట్టే ఇక్కడి రైతు ఆకాకంక్షను గౌరవించినట్టు. అపుడే కోయజాతి మెడపైన వేలాడుతున్న బంగారు కత్తినుంచి నిజమైన విముక్తి. ఇపుడు నీళ్ళు నిజాలు తేలితేనే తెలంగాణకు మేలు.

భరత్ భూషణ్

For a city that came up as an alternative to Golconda, Hyderabad has done quite well for itself in the past 430 years. While Golconda lies as a magnificent ruin, Andhra Pradesh’s capital towers over the Deccan , proclaiming its vitality and zest for life. Hyderabad has overcome wars, invasions and disease, emerging stronger from each trial. Today, as it faces another test, it seems to be charming its hot-blooded claimants into submission. As the Telangana agitation reaches a crucial phase, Hyderabad is back in the spotlight. The proponents of Telangana, where Hyderabad is located, say the city should be the capital of a new state that they hope will be carved out of Andhra Pradesh. For the people of the rest of Andhra Pradesh , there is deep unease. They have huge stakes in the form of emotional, cultural and financial investments in the city.

But as the agitation has ebbed and flowed, the debate about the fate of Hyderabad has transformed too. Where once there was passionate rage and possessiveness there is now a more sanguine, inclusive mood. “Hyderabad has accepted different cultures. People from the coastal region have migrated here and contributed to the development of the city just as people from other parts of the country (have),” says K T Rama Rao of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), the party that has been at the vanguard of the fight for a separate state.

The TRS will not settle for a Telangana that does not have Hyderabad as its capital, but Rao is mindful of the fact that Hyderabad’s continuing prosperity cannot be ensured by the residents of Telangana alone. “We are not asking anybody to leave the city. We want the city to develop and would encourage investment from all sections.”

After all, Hyderabad is the state’s golden egg laying goose. Of the state’s sales-tax collections of around Rs 30,000 crore in the last fiscal, nearly three-fourths came from Hyderabad alone. The city is also one of India’s prominent information technology hubs, contributing most of Andhra Pradesh’s Rs 36,000-crore revenue from software exports. Hyderabad is also home to 1,300 IT firms, including the likes of Facebook and Microsoft.

Migration & Mulkis

Hyderabad’s history makes it a city unlike other metropolitan centres such as Chennai, Kolkata or Mumbai. “These cities started as trade centres whereas Hyderabad emerged more as a cultural and romantic capital symbolising communal harmony,” says G Haragopal, a civil liberties activist and former professor at Hyderabad Central University. Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah of the Qutb Shahi dynasty promoted Telugu literature and trade links by sea through the Machilipatnam port over four centuries ago. Later, when the Mughals took over in 1687, Hyderabad was just another city of the Mughal empire, administered from Aurangabad. After the death of Aurangzeb, the Asaf Jahis declared themselves as independent rulers of Hyderabad state.

But internal strife among the Asaf Jahis made them form alliances with the British and the French. The British, who took over coastal districts, developed these areas with huge investments in irrigation around the Krishna-Godavari river basin. The Telangana districts, ruled by Asaf Jahi Nizams, missed out on this advantage. Farmers were then invited from coastal Andhra to settle and cultivate lands downstream of the Nizam Sagar dam. That was the first phase of migration to the Telengana region. It was in sync with the expansion of the capitalist farming class in central coastal Andhra districts. The Andhras (folks from the coastal districts) and the Mulkis, as the locals of Telangana were called, are said to have got along well at that time. “Almost everybody spoke our dialect of Urdu, wore sherwanis and enjoyed ghazals. We learnt to relish the sea food of the Andhra region,” says Basheeruddin Babu Khan.

Our farmers are dying, to hell with the World Cup
Narendra Shekhawat

Yes, you read it right; to hell with the World Cup; to hell with the celebrations; to hell with all the free land and money being showered by different governments on the players. How can I jump, scream, have gallons of beer and cheer for the nation when a few kilometres away the farmers and feeders of my country are taking their own lives in hordes?

Do you know that, on average, 47 farmers have been committing suicide every single day in the past 16 years in our shining India — the next economic power, progressive with nine per cent growth?

Last month, on March 5, Friday evening, when Bangalore’s watering holes were getting filled up, when all the DJs were blaring out deafening music, when we were busy discussing India’s chances at the World Cup, sitting in CCDs and Baristas — just 100 km away from Bangalore, Swamy Gowda and Vasanthamma, a young farmer couple, hanged themselves, leaving their three very young children to fend for themselves or, most likely, die of malnutrition.

Why did they do it? Were they fighting? No. Were they drunkards? No. Did they have incurable diseases? No! Then WHY? Because they were unable to repay a loan of Rs 80,000 (a working IT couple’s one month salary? 2-3 months EMI?) for years, which had gradually increased to Rs. 1.2 lakh. Because they knew that now they would never be able to pay it back. Because they were hurt. Hurt by our government which announced a huge reduction in import duty for silk in this year’s budget (from 30 per cent to 5 per cent).They were struggling silk farmers and instead of help from the government, they get this! Decrease in import duty means the markets will now be flooded with cheap Chinese silk (as everything else!) and our own farmers will be left in the lurch.

On average, 17,000 farmers have been committing suicide every year, for the past 15 years on the trot. Can you believe it? Most of us wouldn’t know this fact. Why? Because, our great Indian media, the world’s biggest media, are not interested in reporting this! Why? Because they are more interested in covering fashion week extravaganzas. They are more interested in ‘why team India was not practising when Pakistanis were sweating it out in stadium on the eve of the match?’ They are more interested in Poonam Pandey.

The media are supposed to be the third eye of democracy and also called the fourth estate, but now they have become real estate. Pure business.

So any attention from the media is out of the question. Who is left then? The government? But we all know how it works. The other day, I was passing by Vidhan Soudha in Bangalore and happened to read the slogan written at the entrance, “Government work is god’s work”. Now I know why our government has left all its work to god!

Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa announced plots for all the players. But land? In Bangalore? You must be kidding, Mr. C.M.. So he retracts and now wants to give money. But where will it come from? Taxes, yours and mine. Don’t the poor farmers need the land or money more than those players who are already earning in crores?

A government-owned bank will give you loan at six per cent interest rate if you are buying a Mercedes but if a poor farmer wants to buy a tractor, do you know how much it is charging him? Fifteen per cent! Look at the depths of inequality. Water is Rs. 15 a litre and a SIM card is for free! For how long can we bite the hand that is feeding us? The recent onion price fiasco was just a trailer. Picture abhi baaki hai doston!

In 2008, Lakme India fashion show venue was in a Mumbai five-star hotel and was covered by 500 journalists and the theme was ‘Cotton’. A few hours drive from there, cotton farmers were committing suicide, 4 or 5, everyday! How many TV journalists covered this? Zero!

Sixty-seventy per cent of India’s population is living on less than Rs. 20 a day. A bottle of Diet coke for us? The electricity used in a day-night match could help a farmer irrigate his fields for more than a few weeks! Do you know that loadshedding is also class dependent? Two hours in metros, 4 in towns and 8 in villages. Now, who needs electricity more? A farmer to look after his crop day and night, irrigate, pump water and use machines or a few bored, young professionals with disposable incomes, to log on to Facebook and watch IPL?

How can we splurge thousands on our birthday parties and zoom past in our AC vehicles and sit in cushy chairs in our AC offices and plan a weekend trip to Coorg when on the way, in those small villages, just a few minutes’ walk from the roads, someone might be consuming pesticide or hanging himself from a tree for just Rs.10, 000? How can we?

There was much panic when there was swine flu. Every single death in the country was reported second by second, minute by minute. Why? Because it directly affected our salaried, ambitious, tech-savvy, middle-class. So there were masks, special relief centres, enquiry centres set up by government to please this section. On the other hand, 47 people are dying, every single day for the past 15 years. Anybody cared to do anything?

It has been observed that within months of a farmer taking his life, his wife follows, either by poisoning the kids first or leaving them on their own. In Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, a distressed woman farmer went to the government seed shop, bought a bottle of pesticide, on credit, went home and drank it. She was under debt for most of her life and now — even her death was on credit!

Centuries ago, there was a Roman emperor, called Nero. He was a strong ruler and also very fond of parties, art, poetry, drinking and a life full of pleasures. Once he decided to organise a grand party and invited all poets, writers, dancers, painters, artists, intellectuals and thinkers of society. Everybody was having a great time eating, drinking, laughing, and socialising. The party was at its peak when it started getting dark. Nero wanted the party to go on. So he ordered and got all the arrested criminals, who were in his jails, around the garden and put them on fire! Burnt them alive, so that there was enough light for the guests to keep on enjoying! The guests had a gala time though they knew the cost of their enjoyment. Now, what kind of conscience those guests had?

Nero’s guests

What is happening in our country is not different from Nero’s party. We, the middle-class-young-well-earning-mall-hopping-IPL-watching and celebrating-junta are Nero’s guests enjoying at the cost of our farmers. Every budget favours the already rich. More exemptions are being given to them at the cost of grabbing the land of our farmers in the name of SEZs, decrease in import duties in the name of neo-liberal policies, increase in the loan interest rates if the product is not worth lakhs and crores. Yes, that’s what we are, Nero’s guests!

I’m not against celebrations. I’m not against cricket. I’m not against World Cup. I would be the first person to scream, celebrate and feel proud of any of India’s achievements but, only if all fellow countrymen, farmers, villagers also stand with me and cheer; only if they do not take their own lives ruthlessly, only if there is no difference between interest rates for a Mercedes and a tractor. That would be the day I also zoom past on a bike, post-Indian win, with an Indian Flag in hand and screaming Bharat Mata Ki Jai. But no, not today. Not at the cost of my feeders. Until then, this is what I say. To hell with your malls. To hell with your IPL. To hell with your World Cup. And to hell with your celebrations.

The writer’s email is: naren.singh.shekhawat@gmail.com

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/article1761700.ece?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4db44891f0bb2c49%2C0

Regal grandeur: A richly embellished archway at the Falaknuma Palace. High ceilings, use of lime and mortar in construction, plenty of cross ventilation and courtyard spaces, which typified the city’s architecture for centuries, are now almost extinct due to lack of adaptation.-Photo: Nagara Gopal

source: The Hindu April 23, 2011 http://www.hindu.com/pp/2011/04/23/stories/2011042350740600.htm

Despite what the title of his latest exhibition claims, Thota Vaikuntam’s subject of choice remains images from Telangana.

In the increasingly city-centric world of Indian art, Thota Vaikuntam is one of the few painters who continues to be preoccupied with rural India. Though he has been living in the city of Hyderabad for many years now, the men and women Vaikuntam saw as a little boy growing up in his native Boorugupally village in rural Karimnagar continue to people his canvases.

He has painted them again and again over the past three decades, capturing them in all their vivid splendour — bright printed saris and colourful jewellery, their foreheads, palms and feet anointed with large tikas in red and yellow. These are not realistic portraits, but flat, caricatures that are delightful nonetheless. They have become Vaikuntam’s signature that assures him both loyal collectors and a healthy premium in the art market. And over the past few years, his stock has been rising with a large, untitled canvas from 2007 topping Rs 30 lakh at Saffronart’s winter auction in December 2010.

The buxom Telangana women remain Vaikuntam’s muse even today, whatever the title of his just-concluded show in Delhi, “Metamorphosis: The Changing World of Thota Vaikuntam”, may claim. There have, of course, been some changes over time. His colours have become far more nuanced, the jewel tones more measured; his earthly corpulent figures, which had plainly erotic overtones earlier, are thickening beyond human dimensions and veering towards the grotesque.

Music is the leitmotif of this show — again a theme that Vaikuntam has touched off and on — with a number of figures in the canvases seen playing the flute, their eyes closed in ecstasy. It also ties in with the religious, Radha-Krishna themes that is another favourite of the 69-year-old artist. The one discernible development is that for once men, who had hitherto been minor players, take centre stage in many of Vaikuntam’s canvases.

But ask Vaikumtam whether he hasn’t become slightly impatient with his Telangana figures, and whether he doesn’t want to sometimes paint other times, and he is quick to deny it. “I have always wanted to present my culture, my people through my art. Anyway, there is so much more to do in the area,” he says, dressed unassumingly in jeans and a fleece jacket with a jhola on his shoulder and floaters on his feet. For instance, he says, he is now working on a series on the festivals of his community. The first few canvases in this series, depicting women celebrating the bathukamma festival with elaborate arrangements of flowers in different colours, were at the Metamorphosis show.

But it’s the Telangana of his memory, rather than the region as it is today that Vaikuntam harks back to. In fact, Vaikuntam says he left the village quite early in life, first to attend high school in the nearby town of Vemuluwada and later, Hyderabad and Baroda for art school. He came back to the city in the Deccan later, and even worked for a while as an art director. The house in Boorugupally village remains with the family, but no one lives there because his brother shifted to Karimnagar recently for health reasons. “I go and stay for a few weeks and it has changed. There is even a government-sponsored liquor shop now,” says Vaikuntam.

For all his commercial success, however, Vaikuntam is hardly prolific. While he’s part of many group shows, it’s taken him four years to mount this solo. “We’ve had to postpone it twice because he just wasn’t ready,” says Sunaina Anand, the owner of Gallery Art Alive, which hosted the exhibition.

“It takes at least three weeks to paint these,” says the artist, pointing to the smaller paper works. Vaikuntam paints the old-fashioned way, first making elaborate pencil drawings on canvas before filling it with paint and then painstakingly adding the embellishments.

Age seems also to have caught up somewhat with him. “I have stopped travelling out much. Food is also a problem and it is better to be surrounded by the familiar.” You can see that in his paintings.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/familiar-figures/430634/

Business Line, 19 March 2011

“The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) in the current form is a bit of a joke as it is self-assessment by the company. Instead, we will have a third party EIA,” Mr Jairam Ramesh, Minister for Environment and Forests, said.

Speaking to reporters at the CII-Green Business Centre, Mr Ramesh said, “I have been concerned about this. Supreme Court also expressed its concerns. We want a cumulative EIA.”

“We have blacklisted three consultants for their wrong reports. Therefore, we would prefer a third party EIA for power, coal and multi-sector projects. The MoEF will seek third party assessment. The present system is deeply flawed,” he said.

Mentioning the clearance accorded to the Posco project in Orissa and the proposed nuclear plant at Jaitapur in Maharashtra, the Minister said both the clearances are conditional. In the case of nuclear power plant, third party assessment was done by NEERI and they have been directed to conform to at least 35 conditions.

IMAGERY
The satellite imagery assessment of costal areas of four States where a large number of projects are coming up, including ports and power, will be concluded within two months, he said.

The Ministry had initiated a project to assess the impact of projects coming up along the coast in Gujarat, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

“We have completed work on three States and Andhra Pradesh is expected to be covered within two months. This impact assessment study will enable us to estimate the degradation and sensitivity along some of the coastal areas of these States,” Mr. Ramesh said.

Mr Ramesh said this imagery will facilitate a comprehensive environment analysis and ensure the preservation of precious natural resources in coastal areas. “We now have a new Costal Regulation Zone (CRZ) 2011 notified on June 6. This has to be complied with,” he explained.

Referring to the two AP power projects at Sompeta of (NCC Ltd) and Kakrapalli (East Coast Energy), he said they have been served notice. “I must admit the recent firing incident did move me. I have begun to grapple with the next moves,” he said.

The Supreme Court decision on the Ministry stand on Nirma’s cement plant in Gujarat has been vindicated.

POLAVARAM
Andhra Pradesh is yet to conduct public hearing for Polavaram wherein villages in Chhattisgarh and Orissa will get submerged. The State has, however, agreed to construct a 30-km long wall along Sabari and Sileru rivers.

The clearance for Polavaram was conditional. The State Government was told to handle relief and rehabilitation simultaneously. Unless they take up public hearing it would be difficult to take this forward, he said.

source:http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/government-and-policy/article1553560.ece?homepage=true

K Naresh Kumar, Power Politics, March 2011

Telugu megastar Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party with the Congress in Andhra Pradesh has raised questions about the shifting political patterns and trends in southern India. From Hyderabad to Chennai, the two cities where film stars could get into a political career whenever they wanted, at least till two decades ago, the doors are slowly being shut on the overarching political ambitions of superannuated superstars, argues K Naresh Kumar from Hyderabad.

In many ways, the rude reality check was just waiting to happen. Only that it was sooner than expected.

The early February 2011 merger of megastar Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party with the Congress in Andhra Pradesh, unconditionally at that, has once again raised important questions about the shifting political patterns and trends in southern India.

From Hyderabad to Chennai, the two cities where film stars could get into a political career whenever they wanted, at least till two decades ago, the doors are slowly being shut on the overarching political ambitions of superannuated superstars.

Earlier, in at least as far as a host of illustrious stars like M G Ramachandran, N T Rama Rao and the temperamental Jayalalitha were concerned, it only looked’ natural’ for them to move on to the political stage and keep serving the fans who had kept them at the numero uno slot for a long, long time. Not anymore.

It does mean, at least for the present, that a successful hero is not an automatic choice for the chief minister’s post. Chiranjeevi’s example is a stark reminder of this fact. In a region where reel merged seamlessly with the real, it no more seems to be an open and shut case.

The summer of 2011 will decide the fate of retired actors like Vijayakanth in neighbouring Tamil Nadu who are now sidekicks to the Dravidian party politicians and who will probably contest the forthcoming Assembly elections in alliance with either of the two parties, ruling the state for close to 45 years now.

Back in Hyderabad, Chiranjeevi’s political identity as a leader of a party is now well and truly over. But it is worthwhile to look into the genesis of his outfit which this 55-year old hero of Telugu cinema had launched over two-and-a-half years ago, in August 2008, which coincided with his birth month with a glittering opening ceremony in the famous temple town of Tirupati.

The pundits, then, could not help observing the similarities between his silver screen senior- N T Rama Rao – who after being at the top of the heap in Telugu cinema for over three decades, had floated the Telugu Desam party in 1982. NTR had positioned its USP to be Telugu pride and Telugu self-respect in the backdrop of the brazenly dictatorial ways of the Congress party who had made the Chief Minister’s kursi, some sort of a revolving chair, by changing the candidates at will, remote controlling it from New Delhi. It is now part of political folklore that he managed to bag the coveted CM’s chair barely nine months after he launched his political party.

Praja Rajyam too had started off with the planks of ‘social justice’ and ‘inclusive development’ as its main campaign thrust, largely owing to the leftist leanings of the advisors whom the mercurial matinée idol had at that time. The launch was frenzied, as expected in cine-crazy Andhra Pradesh where fans travelled in special trains, buses and even undertaking padyatra in a bid to wish the newborn all the best. Battling legal issues and environmental clearances, the inaugural function of Praja Rajyam launch promptly raised the hopes of a whole lot of people in the state- who thought naively- the messiah had arrived. Cut to 2009 elections and there were enough theory-floaters who have been alleging that Chiranjeevi was the chosen one by the then Congress chief minister – YSR- to checkmate his rivals in two important regions of the state – Telangana, where K Chandrasekhara Rao with his TRS party was threatening to severely dent the latter’s chances and Seemandhra where the Telugu Desam Party and Chandrababu Naidu were waging a tough battle to return to power in Hyderabad.

The massive crowds which greeted the film hero wherever he went with his entourage of family members and trusted advisors gave the Congress enough reason to estimate that he could definitely impede the chances of its rivals by cutting into their vote shares. PRP did get around 18 assembly seats, a disappointing result, given the high hopes that the star had raised amongst his impressionable fans and supporters.

A cocktail of caste, cine popularity and the beginner’s advantage could not work beyond a point for Chiranjeevi, who was cautious and not harsh on the Congress party as expected. Thereby lending credence to the barbs which his opponents hurled at him- he was allegedly the cat’s paw for the master plan that the Congress had in the state.

With the results of the 2009 elections clearly highlighting the need for Chiranjeevi to keep working harder, which he was not able to, the only option left for him was to keep floating in and out of issues which were rapidly reaching a crescendo – the Telangana issue for one. After a cautious beginning on the subject when he strangely talked about supporting a ‘social Telangana’ the shift in his politics veered towards retaining a united state later, earning him and his family, the permanent wrath of the Telangana supporters who made life difficult for him whenever he wanted to visit the region.

In many ways, beginning over two years ago, the approach towards maintaining a soft stand on Congress policies paid well for the megastar, who was always relied upon to come to the former’s rescue, especially when the Jaganmohan Reddy factor disturbed the political base of the party.

Battling against a fuzzy approach to his political ideologies, constantly yearning to don the greasepaint and romance with nubile 20-somethings, Chiranjeevi had openly confessed that he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his cine field senior, Rajinikanth, who almost made it into politics a full decade and more ago in Chennai but stayed away in the end to keep in tact his solidly successful celluloid career. Having got in into the murky world of regional politics, Chiru (as he is popularly called in the state) now wanted to get out; his rapidly depleting control on his flock of MLAs too being a moot point to his change of heart.

Andhra Pradesh politics thus seems to have no use for heroes who want to begin a second innings in the state affairs. This was actually a trend which Chandrababu Naidu firmly established in 1995, when he successfully usurped political power from his ailing father-in-law, N T Rama Rao, who by then had become an aging politician and lost much of his cine popularity which propelled him to the CM’s chair three times in his 13-year role as a politician.

Naidu had clearly demonstrated that he had no time or role for cine heroes and heroines in the newly created version of Telugu Desam party, which he successfully steered to two successive election victories in the ‘90s. The exit of Jayaprada, the ethereally beautiful heroine who was the heroine of N T Rama Rao in the’70s, to Uttar Pradesh is an effective example. The cine industry of Hyderabad had all its heroes and heroines in attendance and Naidu only exploited their vulnerability by giving them a few tax sops but never used them to further his electoral chances openly.

YSR, Naidu’s successor too made these cine stars align themselves in his favour and only kept them under his check without succumbing to their allurements and requests to tweak the rules in their favour. In fact, YSR used the violations indulged by the cine fraternity in allotments and illegal use of subsidized land to successfully make them stay away from open political support to his rivals.

The political reincarnation of Chiranjeevi is to be seen in this backdrop. Already, many in the Congress party have only grudgingly made their acceptance clear while the star still hopes to be ‘useful’ to his new, century old party and newer identity as a mainstream politician who also can act!

Source: http://www.powerpolitics.in/Issues/march2011/march11-14.php

Asking Maoists to extend their two-day deadline, Orissa government on Friday said it has established contact with two mediators handpicked by the Naxals to negotiate the release of abducted Malkangiri District Collector R V Krishna and a junior engineer.

“They (Maoists) had given three names for negotiation.

We have established contact with Prof Someswar Rao and Prof Hargopal (both from Andhra Pradesh). They are willing to mediate in the matter,” Chief Secretary B K Patnaik told reporters in Bhubaneswar after a marathon meeting at the Chief Minister’s office here.

The two mediators have accepted the State government’s request to issue an appeal for extension of two-day deadline given by Naxals who kidnapped Mr. Krishna, a 30-year-old IAS officer, and the junior engineer Mr. Pabitra Majhi on Wednesday, the Chief Secretary said.

He said the State government has also contacted social activist Swami Agnivesh, who indicated that the Naxals were considering extending the time-frame of two days to meet their seven-point demands including halt to anti-Naxal joint operations, which has already been conceded, withdrawal of BSF, release of 700 tribal Naxals and scrapping of Polavaram water-sharing project with Andhra Pradesh.

Swami Agnivesh said in New Delhi that he was willing to act as a negotiator if Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik himself talks to him and the State government is willing to release the jailed tribals.

The Chief Secretary said the government would consider the demands made by the Maoists. “Many demands may come up during discussions. We are open to discussions,” he said.

Asked whether the State government would agree to the Maoist demand for release of seven persons, the Chief Secretary said, “Those will come up during the discussions with mediators.”

The Chief Minister also appealed to the abductors to extend the deadline. “We have also appealed to them (Naxals) not to harm the collector and the junior engineer in their captivity,” Mr. Patnaik said.

Meanwhile, social scientist Hargopal told a TV channel that the deadline set by the Maoists should be extended which is the first requirement for negotiations.

Similarly, the State government should adopt a positive approach and look into the demands of the Maoists, he said, adding it should not be difficult to release on bail some persons, including women, and it is in the government’s purview.

The State government should also appoint a committee to look into the problem of tribals who have allegedly lost their land, Mr. Rao said and wanted the issue to be settled in accordance with the Tribal Land Act.

However, with the deadline nearing, anxiety mounted about the fate of the two officials.

“As the State government had stopped combing operation and did not make any attempt to locate the abducted persons as a matter of policy, the police have no information on their possible whereabouts,” a senior police officer engaged in anti-Maoist operation said.

Soon after Mr. Patnaik’s appeal, Naxal ideologue Varavara Rao said the release of seven persons who have been jailed in “unreasonable and stray” cases would facilitate the safe return of the hostages.

The rebels have cut off Malkangiri from the rest of Orissa by felling trees on vast stretches and digging up the main road connecting the district this morning.

Besides obstructing the road in mountainous and forested Gobindpalli Ghati, the ultras put up a large number of posters with their demands.

The State Assembly was this morning plunged into turmoil over the issue with opposition Congress and ruling BJD MLAs virtually coming to blows near the Speaker’s podium. The Congress accused the government of failing to take the House into confidence as it announced a halt to the combing operations.

Mr. Krishna, a 2005 batch IAS officer, and Mr. Majhi were abducted by some 50 Maoists during a visit to remote Chitrakonda area for a camp for local development.

A four-page letter purportedly written by Naxals was sent to some local media offices which suggested the names of the interlocutors.

The abduction drew widespread condemnation as thousands of people took out processions in several parts of Orissa and appealed for the release of the two captives yesterday.

source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article1468574.ece

POLICYMAKING: NGOS
Navigators Of Change

As government, corporates seek to engage with NGOs, they gain new significance
Lola Nayar

Brave NGO World?

• The Planning Commission is courting NGOs for policy inputs, views on how to make plans work
• NGOs and local activism forced govt to stall Vedanta, Posco plans
• NGO opposition to snacks being served in schools changed plans to scrap hot meals
• NGO have made the government rethink the Polavaram dam project
• Their criticism of the leakage of NREGA funds led to the creation of monitoring mechanisms
• NGOs have worked to enshrine education as a fundamental right
• Matters related to environment clearance—like GM foods, mining —now go through public debate, thanks to NGOs.
• NGOs played a crucial role in strengthening the nuclear liability bill, securing rights for gays

The jholawala is the latest lobbyist in town. He or she has top policymakers on speed-dial, is now feted by the media and sought out by companies eager to promote ‘India Inclusive’. It’s a remarkable, even heady, transformation. For long derided as irrelevant trouble-making activists largely focused on rural India, NGOs (registered arms of what is loosely called civil society) are basking in the warm embrace of recognition and relevance.

As recent events have shown, NGOs have played important roles in the big debates of the day. With a little help from fellow travellers—and occasionally backed by political support—they have been able to swing policy decisions in the citizen’s interest, be it stalling plans for Bt brinjal cultivation, or questioning the Polavaram dam project or bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hills. The outcome has often hit the grand plans of corporate giants like Posco, Vedanta and Tatas. More lasting perhaps will be the civil society’s contribution in ushering in a range of rights regimes—information, education or livelihood, and soon, the right to food.

Given the apparently in-built adversarial relationship between NGOs, governments and companies, it’s a controversial thesis to put out. For every voice that celebrates the new power behind NGOs, an equal number urges caution and stresses that the ground realities haven’t changed. Is it right then to see NGOs as a necessary, important power centre? Are they really becoming indispensable in matters of governance, delivery of services or voicing the needs of the marginalised? Or is it just a politically correct trend that covers a few, high-profile outfits, leaving the vast majority just where it always was?

Experts differ in their assessment of the role and relevance of ngos. “Over the last decade things have changed. We are being sought for policy inputs. The demand is also coming from below—the community, the beneficiaries, the vulnerable sections—who know their needs,” says Farida Lambay of Pratham, an important NGO in the education space. With a growing grip on best practices, Lambay feels civil society is filling the space a pole that can represent the people’s concerns and aspirations.

Policy wonk N.C. Saxena, a member of the National Advisory Council, paints a different picture. While giving credit to community health workers for making a big difference to health services without high-cost intervention, the development expert feels not all NGOs have a good knowledge of the grassroots. “In fact, a large number of them may have good intentions, but they look upon development as a zero-sum game (if the rich are losing out, the poor will gain),” he says.

Despite such concerns, the Planning Commission, backed by the prime minister, is envisaging a bigger role for NGOs in chalking out its strategy for inclusive development. For the first time, the panel is seeking inputs from leading civil society groups ahead of drafting the Twelfth Plan (2012-17) approach paper. In meetings with 15 groups, including women, the disabled, the urban poor, Dalits, tribals etc, panel members got each to arrive at a consensus on their specific requirements and innovative solutions for better utilisation of funds.

“There is a procedural change: take inputs before drawing the roadmap, instead of making the building and then asking whether you like it or not,” states Amitabh Behar of Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, a coalition of scores of NGOs. Having been part of expert panels in the past, Behar has raised the bar of hope this time. “If we are able to influence the core philosophy of the approach paper, which is the guiding document for the Plan, it would be a step forward.”

Explaining the philosophy behind creating the new platform for NGOs, Planning Commission member Arun Maira stresses that many of them are implementing good innovative solutions in areas like water harvesting, literacy, skill development and panchayat-level governance without much money. The new approach is to help planners draw upon their views and “represent concerns of the citizens in a way that would be better understood by the policymakers.”

Of course, this isn’t the first time government has reached out to civil society. During the Janata Party rule in 1977, a group was set up in the Planning Commission to explore how best to use NGOs’ services. Since 1986, government funding has been provided to 12,000-plus voluntary organisations out of about 4 million registered bodies to help implement various development work, including training and advocacy programmes. Not everybody is in tune with this “privatisation” of social development work, as CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat puts it (see interview).

Economist Jean Dreze, for one, remains sceptical, given that NGOs are generally accountable to funders, particularly overseas ones, and not the people for whom they are working. Given their reliance on foreign, government and corporate funding, it is not unusual to see NGOs often display political, and in some cases, corporate leanings. The corporate influence seems to be growing, with many companies using NGOs to implement their corporate social responsibility activities, often a tool to win over local resistance to any industrial activity or land acquisition.
Though NGOs have the potential to be change agents, “it is rarely their strong point”, states Dreze, a strong believer in the power of collective action and “free” association. Dreze, who is linked to development issues like the Right to Food campaign, says that characterising civil society groupings as “the new power centres” is to give them far too much weight. Prof Neema Kudva of Cornell University, who has researched the “uneasy relationship” between NGOs and the state since independence, agrees: “If we are to change development strategy, it can’t happen through NGOs. They can’t be the primary change agents. The change has to come from the ground, from strong social movements and transforming politics.”

On the issue of relevance, however, many experts feel that despite the system exposing various rogue elements, by and large, they are able to voice the concerns of the marginalised—or else they would have no takers. But as Mohammed Haleem Khan, director general of CAPART (set up primarily to develop alternative models of development), states, “The government is yet to develop a good toolkit to assess the effectiveness and the role of NGOs.” A task force headed by Khan has recommended accreditation of NGOs to help weed out the rogue players.

As governments seeks to engage more closely with NGOs—beyond empowering panchayat bodies, monitoring NREGA or designing water harvesting schemes and sanitation models—more complexities can be expected. Take Delhi’s Mission Convergence. Akhila Sivadas of CFAR, which works with the Delhi government to maintain a Vulnerability Index through a live census of the poor and vulnerable, admits, “NGOs can no longer play an adversarial role as they are part of governance. We have to ensure a proper percentage of funds reach target groups.”

In a model copied from Brazil, NGOs are envisaged as pressure groups meant to ensure greater transparency and improved service delivery while maintaining control on the delivery cost, which together with corruption eats up over 80 per cent of development funds. Likening their role to “canaries in the coal mine”, which alert miners of approaching danger, Maira emphasises that in the last few years, some prominent NGOs, with their global exposure, have emerged as communicators, with their ability to represent issues in the language understood by policymakers.

Leading NGOs concede they can’t work alone if they want to scale up operations. The option then is to plan the government way, work the NGO way. Alternatively, many NGOs are opting for stakeholders outside government in health, education and such areas. Pratham, for instance, does not take government funding but works with states like Bihar, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Himachal, Maharashtra and Punjab in policymaking and implementation of primary education programmes. It is the critical appraisal of government policies and programmes by the likes of Pratham and Wada Na Todo that has made the government take notice and strive to rope in their services.

Despite the pressure brought to bear on the government by civil society, Ramesh Ramanathan of Bangalore-based Janagraha admits, “Not even 10 per cent of our suggestions get accepted. But there is a direction of change as the government willingness is increasing.” This in part is due to success stories like Kerala’s literacy campaign or Karnataka’s outreach programmes in 22,000 schools with civil society help. As Anurag Behar, CEO of Azim Premji Foundation, puts it, “The government is an eager partner in improving the quality of education.” Reports from many states like Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab reveal a willingness of the government to engage with NGOs more effectively.

For instance, Bangalore-based ESG’s initiatives around displacement and town planning have led to a rethink on many city development projects. Similarly, Akshaya Patra Foundation in Bangalore has won over policymakers with its model for cost-effective and hygienic mid-day meals. West Bengal’s Masum is just seeing its efforts to get specialists to conduct autopsies on police torture victims yield results. Madhya Pradesh’s success in adult literacy, better rehab packages for Narmada dam oustees and improved IT infrastructure in villages are but few examples of NGO persistence.

It’s clear that many NGOs are helping government design schemes better. That by itself is a significant step. “NGOs have a responsibility to ensure that both government and corporates act with fairness, accountability, transparency,” says N.R. Narayana Murthy, chief mentor at Infosys. That smooth statement notwithstanding, NGOs remain wary—not necessarily of top political and bureaucratic pressures, but the last-mile link at delivery point. That is where all good intentions and partnerships perish.

By Lola Nayar with Sugata Srinivasaraju, Arindam Mukherjee, Dola Mitra, K.S. Shaini

Source: http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?270227