Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time

दोबारा संसाधन जुटाने के लिए मुनाफा बनाना स्टील कंपनियों के लिए एक कड़ी चुनौती बनने जा रहा है।

2012-01-28T06:43:00.001-08:00

दोबारा संसाधन जुटाने के लिए मुनाफा बनाना स्टील कंपनियों के लिए एक कड़ी चुनौती बनने जा रहा है।

सेल या दूसरी भारतीय कंपनियों के पास अपनी कंपनियों को इस्पात की गिरती कीमतों से बचाने का कोई दूसरा रास्ता नहीं है।

मुंबई से एक्सकैलिबर स्टीवेंस विश्वास
Published in CHAMAKTA AAINA

लौह अयस्क कीसमस्या के कारण इस्पात उद्योग को आने वाले दिनों में बड़ी मुश्किलों का सामना करना पड़ सकता है।पिछले कई दशकों के दरम्यान सरकारी नीतियों की वजह से चीन और कोरिया ने इस्पात उत्पादन में भारत को पीछे छोड़ दिया है।कच्चे माल की बढ़ती कीमत, सरकारी नीतियों और मुद्रास्फीति की वजह से इस्पात उद्योग भारी संकट में है। मसलन टाटा स्टील का ग्लोबल कारोबार में भारी वृद्धि हुई है, पर घरेलू कारोबार ढीला है।

अब से कोई 6 साल पहले इस्पात की मांग तेजी से बढ़नी शुरू हुई थी, पर जुलाई 2008 के खत्म होते-होते इसके बाजार में जबरदस्त गिरावट हुई। उल्लेखनीय है कि उत्पादन मात्रा के लिहाज से इस्पात दुनिया की सबसे बड़ी कमोडिटी (जिंस) है। मूडी से जुड़े एक विशेषज्ञ ने बताया कि मंदी के असर को दूर करने के लिए हमें कम से कम 2013 तक इंतजार करना होगा। लंदन स्थित आयरन एंड स्टील स्टैस्टिक्स ब्यूरो के आंकड़ों का हवाला देते हुए फाइनैंशियल टाइम्स के पीटर मार्श ने बताया कि युद्धकालीन समय को छोड़ दें तो 1991 के बाद केवल 4 ऐसे मौके आए जब दुनिया के इस्पात उद्योग को गिरावट से उबरने में 4 साल या उससे ज्यादा समय लगे।

लौह और इस्पात उद्योग को 'बेहद गंभीर' आंतरिक और बाहरी समस्याओं का सामना करना पड़ा।झारखंड में इस्पात उद्योग में निवेश की रफ्तार काफी धीमी है। अलग राज्य बनने के बाद इस्पात उद्योग में निवेश की आशा जगी थी परन्तु जमीन अधिग्रहण की समस्या के कारण कई कंपनियों ने निवेश करने से हाथ खिंच लिए। टाटा एवं आर्सेलर मित्तल के बारह-बारह मिलियन टन के इस्पात संयंत्र लगाने का प्रस्ताव अधर में ही लटका हुआ है। टाटा स्टील का पुराना संयंत्र आधुनिकीकरण एवं विस्तारीकरण की प्रक्रिया से गुजर रहा है। 2012 तक इसकी क्षमता 10 मिलियन टन की हो जाएगी। लेकिन कंपनी के सरायकेला में प्रस्तावित बारह मिलियन टन की परियोजना जमीन अधिग्रहण के साथ-साथ अन्य कई समस्याओं को लेकर अधर में लटकी हुई है। आर्सेलर मित्तल समूह अब तक बारह मिलियन टन क्षमता के संयंत्र की स्थापना के लिए पूरी जमीन का अधिग्रहण करने में विफल रहा है। इस परियोजना पर 40 हजार करोड़ रुपए खर्च होने थे। इसी तरह टाटा की 12 मिलियन टन क्षमता के स्टील प्लांट पर भी 40 हजार करोड़ रुपए खर्च होने थे। इस तरह इन दोनों कंपनियों की ओर से 80 हजार करोड़ रुपए के निवेश से राज्य वंचित हो गया।

जेएसडब्ल्यू एवं जेएसपीएल ने भी इस्पात संयंत्र लगाने का प्रस्ताव किया था परन्तु जमीन अधिग्रहण एवं अन्य समस्याएं अड़चन पैदा कर रही है।

नये इस्पात सचिव प्रदीप कुमार मिश्रा ने गुरूवार को कहा कि सरकार इस उद्योग के समक्ष आने वाली समस्याओं को सुलझाने की हरसंभव कोशिश करेगी।मिश्रा का यह बयान ऐसे समय में आया है जबकि भूमि अधिग्रहण तथा अन्य समस्याओं के चलते इस्पात क्षेत्र में अरबों रुपए का निवेश अटका पड़ा है। मिश्रा ने कहा कि विदेशी निवेशकों का स्वागत है। हम विदेशी निवेशकों की समस्याओं के समाधान के लिए काम करेंगे। समाधान पाने के लिए आदिवासियों सहित सभी सम्बद्ध पक्षों को शामिल किया जाएगा।

टाटा स्टील (Tata Steel): भारतीय कारोबार में टाटा स्टील की घरेलू बिक्री 2011-12 की तीसरी तिमाही में 1.1% घट कर 16 लाख टन रह गयी है।कंपनी के कुल वैश्विक उत्पादन में भारतीय कारोबार की हिस्सेदारी लगभग एक चौथाई है।फिरभी एंजेल ब्रोकिंग के डेरिवेटीव एनालिस्ट सिद्धार्थ भामरे के मुताबिक निवेशक मेटल शेयरों में टाटा स्टील, सेल में निवेश कर सकते हैं। टाटा स्टील में 395 रुपये का अच्छा रेसिस्टेंस है। अगर शेयर रेसिस्टेंस लेवल पार करता है तो टाटा स्टील में अच्छी बढ़त आ सकती है। वहीं सेल में 7-8 फीसदी तक की बढ़त देखी जा सकती है। हिंडाल्को में काफी बढ़त आ चुकी है, अब शेयर में ज्यादा बढ़त आने की उम्मीद नहीं है। शेयर 140 रुपये के स्तर से ज्यादा ऊपर जाने की संभावना नहीं है।

छत्तीसगढ़ के मुख्यमंत्री डॉ. रमन सिंह ने पिछले दिनों केन्द्रीय इस्पात मंत्री बेनी प्रसाद वर्मा से राज्य के स्पंज आयरन उद्योग के लिए कम पड़ रहे कुल 2.5 मिलियन टन लौह अयस्क की आपूर्ति तत्काल राज्य को किये जाने का आग्रह किया है।

मुख्यमंत्री ने नई दिल्ली के उद्योग भवन में राज्य के लौह उद्योगों की समस्याओं को लेकर केन्द्रीय इस्पात मंत्री श्री वर्मा से मुलाकात के दौरान कल यह आग्रह किया।मुख्यमंत्री डॉ0 सिंह ने केन्द्रीय इस्पात मंत्री को बताया कि, राज्य में स्थित निजी स्पंज आयरन प्लान्ट को वर्तमान में कुल 5 मिलियन टन लौह अयस्क की आवश्यकता है।परन्तु इन उद्योगों को वर्तमान में 2.5 मिलियन टन ही लौह अयस्क प्राप्त हो पा रहा है।लौह अयस्क की आवश्यक आपूर्ति न हो पाने से राज्य में लौह अयस्क उद्योगों के बन्द होने का खतरा उत्पन्न हो गया है।इससे लाखों लोगो के रोजगार पर विपरीत असर पड़ रहा है।

इस्पात मंत्री ने मुख्यमंत्री की बातों को गभीरता से सुनते हुए छत्तीसगढ़ के स्पंज आयरन प्लान्ट को कम पड़ रहे अतिरिक्त 2.5 मिलियन लौह अयस्क की आपूर्ति किये जाने के सम्बंध में भरोसा दिलाया।मुलाकात के दौरान मुख्यमंत्री ने केन्द्रीय मंत्री को बताया कि, छत्तीसगढ़ के स्पंज आयरन उद्योगों को पूर्व में लौह अयस्क की आपूर्ति उड़ीसा से होती थी,परन्तु उड़ीसा से लौह अयस्क की आपूर्ति बन्द हो जाने के कारण राज्य के लौह अयस्क उद्योगों को पर्यात लौह अयस्क नहीं मिल पा रहा है।अब ये उद्योग एनएमडीसी (राष्ट्रीय खनिज विकास निगम) द्वारा लौह अयस्क की आपूर्ति पर ही निर्भर है। एनएमडीसी राज्य के लौह अयस्क उद्योगों को 2.5 मिलियन टन ही लौह अयस्क की आपूर्ति ही कर रहा है।

बैठक में इस्पात सचिव पी.के.मिश्रा, सेल के अध्यक्ष सी.एस.वर्मा,मुख्यमंत्री के सचिव अमन कुमार सिंह और विशेष कर्त्तव्यस्थ अधिकारी विक्रम सिसोदिया भी उपस्थित थे।

भारत के समान अफगानिस्तान में भी प्रचुर मात्रा में खनिज पदार्थ (रॉ मेटेरियल्स) उपलब्ध हैं लेकिन इसका दोहन नहीं हुआ है। अब स्टील आथरिटी आफ इंडिया व टाटा स्टील अफगनिस्तान से लौह-इस्पात निर्माण के लिए आवश्यक खनिज पदार्थ लाने की पहल कर रही हैं। ये बातें इंटरनेशनल मेटल वर्कर्स फेडरेशन के निदेशक (दक्षिण एशिया क्षेत्र) सुदर्शन राव शारडे ने कहीं। टाटा स्टील के निमंत्रण पर शहर पहुंचे राव ने गुरुवार को दैनिक जागरण से बातचीत में कहा कि अफगानिस्तान में लोकतंत्र बहाल होने के बाद इसकी पहल शुरू हो गई है। हाल ही में अरब देशों के व्यवसायियों की इस संबंध में अफगनिस्तान में बैठक भी हुई जिसमें रॉ मैटेरियल और पेट्रोलियम पदार्थो के लिए भारत की कंपनियों को आमंत्रित किया गया है। यूरोप-अमेरिका की आर्थिक मंदी को देखते हुए सऊदी अरब-दुबई के व्यापारी भारत में निवेश करने को ज्यादा इच्छुक हैं। टाटा स्टील ने अफगनिस्तान से लौह अयस्क लाने का प्रस्ताव दिया था। राव ने कहा कि योजना के मुताबिक, कराची के रास्ते मुंबई तक माल आएगा।

इस्पात उद्योग को हर देश के आर्थिक विकास के मूल स्तंभों में से एक समझा जाता है और उद्योग की श्रेणी में किसी देश के स्थान को उस देश में इस्पात के प्रयोग के स्तर को देखकर निर्धारित किया जाता है क्योंकि उद्योग में इस्पात के प्रयोग का मापदंड दर्शाता है कि अमुक देश के उत्पादन और उद्योग किस सीमा तक सक्रिय हैं। इस प्रकार बहुत से बड़े औद्योगिक देशों ने औद्योगिकीकरण के प्रथम चरण में इस्पात उद्योग में पूंजी निवेश को अपने उद्योग विकास कार्यक्रम में मुख्य स्थान दिया है और इस माध्यम से उन्होंने अन्य सभी उद्योगों के विकास की ओर क़दम बढ़ाया है।

विशेषज्ञों के अनुसार इस्पात उद्योग की उत्पादन श्रंखला में विस्तार, देश की अर्थव्यवस्था में आर्थिक मूल्य संवर्धन और प्रतिस्पर्धा का कारण बना है।

इस्‍पात राष्‍ट्र की वृद्धि और विकास त्‍वरित करने में महत्‍वपूर्ण भूमिका निभाता है। इसका उपयोग धातु उत्‍पाद, वैद्युत मशीनरी, परिवहन उपकरण, कपड़ा आदि के विनिर्माण में मूल सामग्री के रूप में किया जाता है और इस प्रकार से यह मानव सभ्‍यता का आधार माना जाता है। यह बड़े और प्रौद्योगिकीय रूप से विकसित उद्योग का उत्‍पाद है, जिसका सामग्री प्रवाह और आय सृजन की दृष्टि से प्रत्‍यक्ष और अप्रत्‍यक्ष संबंध मजबूत है। दूसरे शब्‍दों में इस्‍पात का उत्‍पादन और प्रति व्‍यक्ति खपत देश के सकल घरेलू उत्‍पादन में मुख्‍य योगदानकर्ता है और इसके आर्थिक और औद्योगिक विकास का संकेतक है। लौह अयस्‍क, मैंग्‍नीज अयस्‍क और क्रोम अयस्‍क इस्‍पात उद्योग के लिए महत्‍वपूर्ण कच्‍ची सामग्री हैं। उनकी पर्याप्‍त मात्रा और गुणवत्ता में समय पर उपलब्‍धता, दीर्घावधिक आधार पर क्षेत्रक के त्‍वरित और सुव्‍यवस्थित विकास के लिए पूर्वापेक्षित है।

भारत तीन वर्ष पहले आठवें स्‍थान से उठ कर वर्ष 2006 में विश्‍व के पांचवें सबसे बड़े कच्‍चे इस्‍पात के उत्‍पादक देश के रूप में उभरा है। यहां प्रचुर मात्रा में लौह और कोयले के अयस्‍क की खानें हैं। इस्‍पात उत्‍पादन की लागत अन्‍य देशों की तुलना में अपेक्षाकृत कम है। इसने प्रत्‍यक्ष अपचयित लौह या स्‍पंज लौह के विश्‍व भर में सबसे बड़े उत्‍पादक का स्‍थान बनाए रखा है। स्‍पंज लौह का उत्‍पादन वर्ष 2002-03 में 7.86 मिलियन टन की तुलना में वर्ष 2006-07 में 18.35 मिलियन टन के स्‍तर तक पहुंचने के लिए 22 प्रतिशत के सीएजीआर पर बढ़ा है। जबकि, भारत के विषय में अनुमान है कि यह वर्ष 2015 तक विश्‍व में इस्‍पात का सबसे बड़ा उत्‍पादक बन जाएगा। यह भी संभावना है कि वर्ष 2011-12 तक इस्‍पात उत्‍पदन क्षमता 124 मिलियन पहुंच जाए।

इंटरनैशनल आयरन एंड स्टील इंस्टीट्च्यूट के नए अवतार 'वर्ल्ड स्टील' की पहली बैठक में दुनिया के दिग्गज इस्पात निर्माता और आर्सेलरमित्तल प्रमुख लक्ष्मी निवास मित्तल ने भाग लिया। उन्होंने इस बैठक में उत्पादकों से भरोसा रखने को कहा और बताया कि लुढ़कती कीमतों के बीच इस्पात की मांग बढ़ेगी। वैसे इस क्षेत्र में चल रहा मंदी का दौर कोई सामान्य और चक्रीय मंदी नहीं है।

बहरहाल दुनिया भर में पसरी आर्थिक मंदी और तरलता संकट ने सभी आधारभूत धातुओं और खनिजों के बाजार को अपनी चपेट में ले लिया। इससे संकेत मिलता है कि इस्पात निर्माताओं के लिए अगले कुछ महीने बुरे रहने वाले हैं। हालांकि, विचारणीय तथ्य यह कि आर्थिक मंदी का असर कब तक रहेगा और इस साल इस्पात उत्पादन में कितनी कमी होगी। वैसे 2008 में इस्पात उत्पादन के वैश्विक आंकड़े अभी एकत्रित किए जा रहे हैं।

महत्वपूर्ण बात यह कि 2008 में इस्पात का उत्पादन 2007 की तुलना में थोड़ा घटने की उम्मीद है।बता दें कि 2007 में इस्पात का वैश्विक उत्पादन 1.324 अरब टन रहा था। पिछले साल तो मंदी के चलते आर्सेलरमित्तल, कोरस और सेवरस्टाल जैसी कंपनियो को अपने उत्पादन में कटौती करनी पड़ी।

दुनिया में इस्पात के सबसे बड़े उत्पादक और उपभोक्ता चीन में पहली बार उत्पादन को नियंत्रित रखने के प्रयास किए जा रहे हैं।

दूसरे विश्वयुद्ध के बाद की बात करें तो इस्पात के वैश्विक सालाना उत्पादन में सबसे अधिक 8.7 फीसदी की कमी 1982 में हुई थी।

शुक्र है कि भारत के सकल घरेलू उत्पाद की सालाना विकास दर अभी भी 6 फीसदी है। सेल उन इस्पात उत्पादों के उत्पादन पर जोर दे रही है, जिनकी अभी भी खूब मांग है। लेकिन सेल या दूसरी भारतीय कंपनियों के पास अपनी कंपनियों को इस्पात की गिरती कीमतों से बचाने का कोई दूसरा रास्ता नहीं है।

इस्पात निर्माता मांग में लंबे समय तक कमी रहने से आशंकित हैं। उन्हें लगता है कि इस्पात का वैश्विक उत्पादन वहां तक जाएगा, जहां पर 2007 में था। यही नहीं, विशेषज्ञ इस मुद्दे पर बंटे हुए कि कब इस्पात उत्पादन फिर से 1.324 अरब टन (2007 का उत्पादन) तक पहुंच जाएगा।

मालूम हो कि मौजूदा आर्थिक मंदी के चलते इस्पात की मांग और कीमत में हुई कमी 1930 की आर्थिक मंदी के बाद सबसे ज्यादा है।

--
Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/

Gujarat dalits refuse to shift youth’s body from police station

2012-01-28T06:37:00.000-08:00

Dalits Media Watch

NewsUpdates 27.01.12

Gujarat dalits refuse to shift youth's body from police station- DNA

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_gujarat-dalits-refuse-to-shift-youths-body-from-police-station_1642393

Her legacy set in stone, 'Dalit queen' Mayawati faces polls- The Ecinomic Times

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/her-legacy-set-in-stone-dalit-queen-mayawati-faces-polls/articleshow/11637747.cms

Ambedkar's statue again desecrated in Andhra- The Times Of India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Ambedkars-statue-again-desecrated-in-Andhra/articleshow/11645736.cms

Assembly elections: Dalit assertion in Punjab's Doaba does not mean votes for Mayawati-The Economic Times

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/assembly-elections-dalit-assertion-in-punjabs-doaba-does-not-mean-votes-for-mayawati/articleshow/11639509.cms

DNA

Gujarat dalits refuse to shift youth's body from police station

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_gujarat-dalits-refuse-to-shift-youths-body-from-police-station_1642393

A white Maruti Van entered Sanand police station on Wednesday morning and two youths got out of the vehicle. They brought out the body of Atul Rathod, the 25-year-old dalit youth who was killed on Tuesday in Rethal village of Sanand taluka, allegedly in a fight with a group of darbar youths.

A large number of women, weeping and wailing, entered the police station premises soon after and they were followed by a large number of dalits, all angry with the functioning of the Sanand police.

They placed Atul's body outside the officers' room at the police station which was now thronged by more than 200 dalits, shouting slogans against the police department and demanding the arrest of the culprits.

The angry people started shouting slogans against the police, which forced the officers to seek shelter in their rooms for some time. Nothing could be more illustrative of the Sanand police's failure to act against the criminals in the area than the officers' attempt to hide in their rooms.

When some dalit youths wanted to ransack the police station, some elderly people of the community tried to keep them calm and non-violent in their agitation against police inaction.
A flurry of meetings followed at the police station. Dalit leaders of Rethal village had a meeting with DySP, RK Patel. This was followed by a meeting between the leaders and the superintendent of police, Ahmedabad rural, RR Bhagat.

Eventually, Ahmedabad collector Vijay Nehra arrived and held a meeting with the Dalit leaders at the police station. His meeting was followed by a meeting between the leaders and the IGP, Ahmedabad range, GS Malik.

There was just one thing common to all these meetings. Every officer tried to persuade the leaders to remove the dead body from the police station.

But the Dalit leaders demanded two things. First, arrest the people who had killed Atul and, secondly, suspend the police officers who had failed to act responsibly during the incident.
The dalits allege that the police had done absolutely nothing to arrest the culprits. "They did not even bother to raid their houses or ask their relatives about their whereabouts. They want us to remove Atul's body but don't want to arrest the people who killed him," alleged Vashram Rathod, the paternal uncle of the deceased. Meanwhile, dalit youths brought two slabs of ice and put the body on it. Family members, relatives, friends and well-wishers stood around weeping and mourning the whole day. The family members also attended the meetings with different officers in the police inspector's office.

The dalits also demanded the suspension of police officers who had failed to respond following the clash between dalits and darbars on Tuesday in which Atul Rathod was killed. The three people named accused in the case are Yuvrajsinh Rajput, Bharatsinh Rajput and Jabbarsinh Rajput.

The people injured in the incident are Valji Rathod, Manu Rathod, Ramesh Cheu, Khodabhai and Ishwar Khoda. Talking to DNA, a Dalit and victim of the caste system, Shankar Shenva, said Dalits from several villages had now united against the atrocities of the upper caste people in the taluka. They had demanded prompt police action against those responsible for atrocities on dalits.

The Ecinomic Times

Her legacy set in stone, 'Dalit queen' Mayawati faces polls

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/her-legacy-set-in-stone-dalit-queen-mayawati-faces-polls/articleshow/11637747.cms

LUCKNOW: By her own standards, Kumari Mayawati's birthday celebrations were low-key this year.

After driving through a red-carpeted tunnel of plaster elephant tusks in an Ambassador, India's retro-looking national car, the chief minister of India's largest state swept past a coterie of her party's workers, who bowed and touched her feet.

Diamonds adorned the diminutive figure of "the Dalit Queen", encrusting her necklace, a bracelet, her earrings, a nose-ring and her watch, as she accepted a few bouquets of flowers and marched about briskly in the marigold-draped party headquarters.

But the huge crowds of gaping admirers were missing this year; there was no garland of banknotes, no upper-caste Brahmin on hand to symbolically pop a morsel of birthday cake into the mouth of an "untouchable" who has risen from the bottom of India's social pile to become one of the most powerful women in the world.

That's because election campaign rules are now in effect for staggered polls to be held in February and March in Uttar Pradesh.

Mayawati is far from a sure bet to win another term as chief minister of the northern state whose population of 200 million would rank as the fifth-most populous in the world if it were a country.

If she doesn't, it would be a blow to her undisguised ambition to one day become prime minister of India, a goal that looked reasonable back in 2007 when she won a huge mandate from the state's voters by appealing to a rainbow of castes, which still define the socio-economic status for many of India's 1.2 billion people.

Launching the seventh, gilt-edged volume of an autobiography that runs to thousands of pages and is printed in Hindi and English, Mayawati bemoaned Election Commission rules that obliged her to row back on her usual birthday beneficence.

"Normally, my birthday is an occasion to give away thousands of crores in welfare schemes for Dalits and other backward castes, but because of the election code of conduct we could not do that this year," she said. A crore is 10 million rupees, or $188,000.

Mayawati's nemesis in the election is Rahul Gandhi, scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has ruled the country for most of its six decades of independence. A relative greenhorn in the hurly-burly of Indian politics, Gandhi has staked his future on the performance of the venerable but troubled Congress party in Uttar Pradesh.

A TRADITION OF EXTRAVAGANCE

Although she presides over one of the most poverty-plagued states of India -- its per-capita income is just above 50 percent of the national average -- Mayawati's extraordinary personal extravagance preserves a tradition set over the centuries by a succession of rulers in the plains of the river Ganges.

In the five years since she took office, she has blanketed hundreds of acres of prime real estate in the state capital Lucknow and elsewhere in pink marble and sandstone monuments.

The Times Of India

Ambedkar's statue again desecrated in Andhra

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Ambedkars-statue-again-desecrated-in-Andhra/articleshow/11645736.cms

HYDERABAD: In the second such incident in less than a week, unidentified people desecrated a statue of BR Ambedkar in Andhra Pradesh's East Godavari district on Thursday, triggering protests from Dalit groups.

A statue of the architect of the Indian constitution, who is a Dalit icon, was found desecrated on the Republic Day in Dowleswaram, a suburb of Rajahmundry town, sparking tension in the region.

The incident occurred even before the situation could return to complete normalcy in Amlapuram town in the same district, where three statues of the national leader were desecrated on Monday.

Following the latest incident, Dalit groups began road blockade on the Chennai-Bhubhaneswar national highway, leading to huge traffic jams. They also staged a protest near the Republic Day function venue and observed it as the black day.

Leaders of Dalit groups have demanded stern action against those involved in the incident. The protests were also organised in Rajahmundry town.

Additional police forces were rushed to the town to prevent any untoward incident.

Meanwhile, prohibitory orders banning any gathering of more than four people were continuing in Amlapuram town, where two groups clashed Monday after desecration of the statues.

The state government Thursday decided to send a delegation of ministers to Amlapuram. The four-member ministerial team will try to find the facts about the desecration of statues.

The Economic Times

Assembly elections: Dalit assertion in Punjab's Doaba does not mean votes for Mayawati

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/assembly-elections-dalit-assertion-in-punjabs-doaba-does-not-mean-votes-for-mayawati/articleshow/11639509.cms

BALLAN (Jalandhar): A speech by BSP leader Mayawati interspersed with music, especially a Ravidasa song, blares from a loudspeaker fitted on an auto bouncing down NH1 between Phagwara and Jalandhar. India's most powerful dalit leader must win over Doaba, Punjab's dalit heartland if she wants any real presence in the state.

Will the UP CM succeed? The answer perhaps lies 20km down the road that leads to Pathankot from Jalandhar. Dera Sachkhand at Ballan village is the most sacred place for the region's dalits, mainly Ravidasis. Its growing clout ensured that Congress's Amarinder Singh visited their chief guru Sant Niranjan Dass for a 'darshan' , and CM Parkash Singh Badal is also expected. But while the sant blesses all, he refuses to talk politics.

Dass, who escaped a bid on his life in Vienna in 2009, has manager Amrik Birdi speak on his behalf. "BSP has sought our support but the sant believes only people who behave as mahapurush should be voted,'' says Birdi. The Dera has led dalits in strengthening their identity.

Another follower is more forthright. "Punjab's dalits are not Jatav like Mayawati and will not like to waste their vote on BSP; they will choose between Congress and Akalis," he says, pointing out that the 'valmikis' have decided to vote for Akalis on the Khanna seat. The Sehajdhari Sikhs, many of who are dalit, have decided to back Congress.

Despite their 'dalit' assertion, the community will as always choose between the two main parties. Importantly , both Congress and SAD (Badal) have given sufficient representation to dalits.

Mayawati drew a blank in 2007 with BSP getting 4% vote share. BSP's best performance was in 1996 when Maya entered into an alliance with Akalis and won three out of four seats. Mayawati apparently has so far failed as Punjab dalits comprise Ravidasis, Valmikis and Majhabi Sikhs who do not relate with the UP CM's Jatav identity.

"Punjab has been more liberal in religious practices which has made it difficult for Mayawati to create a vote-bank solely on her Manuwadi plank,'' says Pramod Kumar of the Institute for Development and Communication.

--
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
...................................................................
Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.

TAX LAWS: VODAFONE CASE Zoozoo’s Got The Number Vodafone verdict opens up the tax havens debate ARINDAM MUKHERJEE

2012-01-28T06:30:00.000-08:00

REUTERS (FROM OUTLOOK, FEBRUARY 06, 2012)

Mauritius central bank in Port Louis. DTAA with the country is being renegotiated.

TAX LAWS: VODAFONE CASE

Zoozoo's Got The Number

Vodafone verdict opens up the tax havens debate

ARINDAM MUKHERJEE

http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?279707

Caller Calls Tune

Government unlikely to ask for review of SC judgement as it would be seen as anti-FDI
New Direct Tax Code expected to fix tax liability on capital gains in India
Treaties with tax havens like Mauritius being reworked to stop misuse by shell firms
Stricter scrutiny of similar M&A cases expected; no more blanket exemptions

***

It hasn't escaped anyone's attention that the Vodafone tax case verdict was quite exquisitely timed. Come to think of it, the value the Indian government derived from it was worth more, much more than the $2.5 billion immediately at stake. Faced with a sagging economy and faltering global image as an investment destination—and fresh from a reversal on opening up investments into multi-brand retail—upa-ii needed to send out a strong signal that India (genuinely) welcomed foreign direct investment (FDI).

The SC verdict on January 20—which cleared Vodafone of its $2.5-billion tax liability in the 2007 Hutch acquisition deal—didn't disappoint. In sum, the SC says the transfer of shares in an offshore entity between two non-residents cannot be taxed in India, and that the Indian tax authorities have no jurisdiction here. This has thus been touted by the world as a victory for India's independent judiciary. It has also got the government working on a counter-strategy, which will play out in the months to come.

For now, though, as expected, many corporate law firms salute the verdict as a confidence-boosting development. Says Dinesh Kanabar, tax head at KPMG, "You need certainty in tax laws. Now the SC has said that the government should frame policies that make tax implications clear." Clearly, the apex court has based its judgement on existing laws, cutting out interpretations used by the income-tax department to put forth its views. Adds Druv Sanghavi of Nishith Desai Associates, "A negative judgement might have been viewed as judicial approval to uncertainty."

Immediately, there are indications that several other similar cases will benefit from this judgement and may escape any tax payout in India. This includes Cadbury's-Kraft, Sanofi-Aventis, SAB Miller-Foster and Essar-Vodafone. Pranay Bhatia, associate partner with law firm Economic Laws Practice, says, "The SC has interpreted the current law such that all similar deals will find shelter under this interpretation." The revenue implications from these company deals put together could be significant.

The Indian corporate sector, however, sees all of this as the calm before the storm. The Direct Taxes Code (DTC)—which will most likely be implemented from April this year—may reverse the situation. "It will force the government to come up with clear legislation on M&As that happens overseas," warns FICCI secretary-general Rajiv Kumar. The industry body feels something might come up as early as the Union budget in March.


	"The tax dept is to blame...they were aware of such transactions, that the law was such and didn't move an amendment ."H.P. Ranina, Tax Expert

Even if the DTC doesn't come into effect this year, the government is going to work on changing the tax laws. An anti-avoidance limitation clause will be introduced for Mauritius, Cayman Islands and Cyprus—this will prevent shell companies from taking advantage of India's double tax avoidance agreement (DTAA) with these countries. The Mauritius DTAA is being renegotiated currently, and the changes will be visible very soon, possibly when their PM visits India next month. "The current laws are not adequate to tackle cases like this. Irrespective of the Vodafone judgement, we will see some changes in rules on General Anti- Avoidance Rules," says Mukesh Butani, managing partner, BMR Legal.

Indeed, far from the mandatory champagne popping, the legal and tax fraternity is (rather seriously) debating the state's next moves. It has been a contentious debate because the I-T department's view challenges the existing taxation system. "Under the present legal framework, the SC judgement is appropriate... but morally, there's need for a rethink," says tax expert ICRIER director Parthasarathi Shome (see interview).

Others are now taking softer positions. "Both views are possible. Another judge could have taken a different view. The income-tax department's view also has some validity and the Bombay HC had upheld it," says tax expert H.P. Ranina. Some are also voicing doubts about the way the apex court looked at the issue. Says Hemant Batra, managing partner at corporate law firm Kaden Boriss, "It (the verdict) will set a wrong precedent and create a superior class of companies who will never pay capital gains in India. While the judgement says the capital assets were not based in India, it cannot be ignored that the capital assets derived liquidity from a business in India."

What helped the verdict was the routing of investments or acquisitions through the Mauritius or Cayman Islands-based companies—the latter featuring in the Vodafone case. Because of India's DTAAs with these countries, many firms use this route to avoid any tax liability in India. In the last decade, 40 per cent of FDI into India has come via the Mauritius route. Ranina feels the government should have checked this route in time to avoid such cases. "The tax department is to blame as they were aware of such transactions and that the law was such and didn't move for an amendment. They should have done it much earlier."

Clearly, more stringent tax rules are being crafted by the government. Will that affect India's standing as an investment decision? Unlikely, as FDI into China continues to flow in despite similar tax measures. India's taxman knows that only too well.

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INTERVIEW

'Morally, We Need A Rethink'

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UTTAR PRADESH: ELECTIONS Mutiny Of Pawns Of the many local outfits, some like Peace Party may make a dent SABA NAQVI

2012-01-28T06:29:00.001-08:00

NIRALA TRIPATHI

Dr Ayub, fourth from left, with Udit Raj and Apna Dal's Anupriya Patel announces the formation of the Ettehad Front

UTTAR PRADESH: ELECTIONS

Mutiny Of Pawns

Of the many local outfits, some like Peace Party may make a dent

SABA NAQVI

http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?279693

The Small And Big Of It

There are over 190 small parties in Uttar Pradesh registered with the Election Commission. Here are some of them who pose a challenge, even if minor, to the bigger ones:

The Peace Party: Muslim-led formation seeking support of other communities. May cut into Congress, SP votebanks.
All India Minorities Front: Claims to represent Muslim interests nationally, advocates negotiated solution to the Ayodhya issue
Shoshit Samaj Dal: Represents Dalit and backward Muslims, also known as Pasmandas
Apna Dal: The Kurmi interests. Has tied up with Peace Party.
Rashtriya Lok Manch: Amar Singh's party is furthering the cause of statehood for Poorvanchal and is bent on playing SP spoiler. Supported by actress Jaya Prada.

***

Too many cooks do spoil the political broth. As it is, in the elections to the Uttar Pradesh assembly, there will be many four-cornered contests between the main political forces; in descending order—the BSP, the SP, the BJP and the Congress. Besides, as many as 150 local parties have registered, up from 112 in the 2007 polls. (There are approximately 1,178 registered parties in the country, according to the EC).

Most of the small parties in UP failed to get even one per cent of the vote in the last assembly polls. These include formations like the Ambedkar Kranti Dal, All India Minorities Front, Moderate Party, Adarsh Lok Dal etc. Many of them push a particular caste or community card. For instance, the Shoshit Samaj Dal talks of a campaign for a Pasmanda revolution—that Muslims are divided into the Ashrafs (upper castes) and the Pasmandas (Dalits and backwards). Their basic contention is that the Ashrafs have long cornered all the benefits and pushed out and humiliated Muslims who belong to communities such as Julaha (weavers), Kunjra (vegetable sellers), Kalal (alcohol distillers) and Dhunia. Their slogan is, "Dalit-pichhda ek samaan/Hindu ho ya Mussalman (Dalit and Backward are one/ Hindu or Muslim)." They intend to field only OBC or Dalit Muslim candidates across the state. It's an interesting platform but they are not considered serious players.

The new party on the block creating a ripple in political circles is the Peace Party. It actually represents a Muslim-led formation seeking the additional support of other communities on the lines that the BSP does. Muslims, after all, are the biggest group after the Dalits in Uttar Pradesh, close to 19 per cent. The Peace Party is only giving 22 per cent of the 230 seats it is contesting to Muslim candidates. Even among the Muslims, it seems to particularly attract the mbcs. Another significant fact about the Peace Party is that it is not a clerical outfit, like the Ulema Council from pockets like Azamgarh.

What makes the idea behind the Peace Party quite compelling is the personality of its leader, Dr Mohammad Ayub. He is a deeply religious man but not a maulana nor backed by any Jamaat or Jamiat-type quasi-religious group. Dr Ayub is someone who gave up the civil services to practise medicine and has built a 100-bed hospital that treats the poor free in his village Barhalganj on the Gorakhpur/Azamgarh border. His reputation as a surgeon who treats the poor for free has spread across the belt. Apparently, the man has performed an astonishing two lakh operations.

He is clearly a self-made man who now has other points to make. "Good people who want to fight the right battles should enter politics. I can be accused of anything but I have never been corrupted because I believe in my religion. That is why I gave up a posting in the customs service in Bombay. I could not live with the corruption around me. So I started to serve with my skills as a doctor," he says.


	Dr Ayub personally sees the Congress as the big enemies of the Muslims as they have "fooled the community".

The fundamental appeal of the Peace Party for a section of the minority community lies in the argument that, instead of being included, they are being systematically excluded. Dr Ayub says the "first fraud" took place in 1950 when only Hindus were given reservation as Dalits. "A one-fourth opportunity was excluded for minorities," he says adding that till now the backward Muslim was struggling to get a slice of the OBC quota. Now they have limited minorities to 4.5 per cent and asked Muslims to compete with far more educated communities like the Sikhs and Christians. "How can they compete? In reality, they are systematically eliminating Muslims from all opportunities and at the same time giving the BJP an issue," he says.

In the Lucknow flat from where they function, there is a rush of hopefuls for Peace Party tickets. The fan is their symbol. The party is expected to get a section of the votes and in some seats it may not just be the Muslim ones; since a number of candidates are from other communities, they could break some upper-caste and OBC votes too. The Peace Party is primarily expected to be a spoiler for the Congress and the SP. They may win only a few seats but will be in the game and will capture some voteshare.

Dr Ayub personally sees the Congress as the biggest enemy of the Muslims as they have "fooled the community". "They are more dangerous than the BJP," he says. So what can the Peace Party achieve? Well, what isn't helping the Congress is the fact that there is a coherent anti-Congress opinion being put forward by a section of articulate Muslims in the midst of an election when the grand old party is desperately trying to win back the minorities.


	The Peace Party has given 40 seats to Raja Bundela's Bundelkhand Party which can cause upsets.

The Peace Party has struck an alliance with Apna Dal, now led by Anupriya Patel. The party, founded by her father and late Kurmi leader Sone Lal Patel in 1995, had bagged four seats in the 2002 state polls. In 2007, however, the Apna Dal failed to win even a single seat, despite polling some 10 per cent of total votes wherever it contested. But it is seen as having indirectly defeated a few candidates as it did mop up some Kurmi votes. The question is particularly significant for the Congress, which is promoting Beni Prasad Verma as its Kurmi face. Beni is believed to be currently the leader with the easiest access to Rahul Gandhi, who is working hard at campaigning in UP. Now Union steel minister, Beni was once close to Mulayam Singh Yadav and is a veteran from the SP.

The Peace Party-Apna Dal front is certain to irritate the Congress and SP. The Apna Dal has also fielded mafia don and ex-MP Atiq Ahmed from Allahabad-West. The Peace Party-led front has also given 40 seats to the Bundelkhand Party led by TV star-turned-activist Raja Bundela and this could upset some calculations in that belt. In the Bareilly belt, they have an understanding with the Itihad Millat in eight seats.

There are also some old players of UP in the fray who refuse to go gently into the night. Remember Amar Singh, Mulayam's best-friend-turned-foe? He has floated the Rashtriya Lok Manch party and along with Bollywood star and MP Jaya Prada is touring the state, particularly eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Don Mukhtar Ansari is in jail but is the MLA from Mau who's formed the Quami Ekta Front. He will be the party's candidate from Mau while his brother contests from Mohammadabad in Gazipur. In the nation's largest state, a republic unto itself, it seems dons, doctors, filmstars, mullahs and social activists have all turned politicians.

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E-Books Are Easier To Ban Than Books Indian law promotes arbitrary removal and blocking of websites, website content, and online services —making it much easier than getting offline printed speech removed PRANESH PRAKASH

2012-01-28T06:27:00.001-08:00

OPINION

E-Books Are Easier To Ban Than Books

Indian law promotes arbitrary removal and blocking of websites, website content, and online services —making it much easier than getting offline printed speech removed

PRANESH PRAKASH

http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?279712

Without getting into questions of what should and should not be unlawful speech, let's take a look at how Indian law promotes arbitrary removal and blocking of websites, website content, and online services, and how it makes it much easier than getting offline printed speech removed.

Pranesh Prakash works with the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, which first published this article.

Contrary to what Mr. Sibal's recent hand-wringing at objectionable online material might suggest, under Indian laws currently in force it is far easier to remove material from the Web, by many degrees of magnitude, than it is to ever get them removed from a bookstore or an art gallery. To get something from a bookstore or an art gallery one needs to collect a mob, organize collective outrage and threats of violence, and finally convince either the government or a magistrate that the material is illegal, thereby allowing the police to seize the books or stop the painting from being displayed. The fact of removal of the material will be noted in various records, whether in government records, court records, police records or in newspapers of record.

By contrast, to remove something from the Web, one needs to send an e-mail complaining about it to any of the string of 'intermediaries' that handle the content: the site itself, the web host for the site, the telecom companies that deliver the site to your computer/mobile, the web address (domain name) provider, the service used to share the link, etc. Under the 'Intermediary Guidelines Rules' that have been in operation since 11th April 2011, all such companies are required to 'disable access' to the complained-about content within thirty-six hours of the complaint. It is really that simple.

"That's ridiculous," you think, "surely he must be exaggerating." Think again. A researcher working with us at the Centre for Internet and Society tried it out, several times, with many different intermediaries and always with frivolous and flawed complaints, and was successfulsix out of seven times. Thus it is easier to prevent Flipkart or Amazon from selling Rushdie'sMidnight's Children than it is to prevent a physical bookstore from doing so: today Indira Gandhi wouldn't need to win a lawsuit in London against the publishers to remove a single line as she did then; she would merely have to send a complaint to online booksellers and get the book removed. It is easier to block Vinay Rai's Akbari.in (just asCartoonsAgainstCorruption.com was recently blocked) than it is to prevent its print publication. Best of all for complainants: there is no penalty for frivolous complaints such as those sent by us, nor are any records kept of who's removed what. Such great powers of censorship without any penalties for their abuse are a sure-fire way of ensuring a race towards greater intolerance, with the Internet — that republic of opinions and expressions — being a casualty.

E-Book Bans Cannot Be Challenged

In response to some of the objections raised, the Cyberlaw Division of the Department of Information Technology, ever the dutiful guardian of free speech, noted that if you have a problem with access to your content being 'disabled', you could always approach a court and get that ban reversed. Unfortunately, the Cyberlaw Division of the Department of Information Technology forgot to take into account that you can't contest a ban/block/removal if you don't know about it. While they require all intermediaries to disable access to the content within thirty-six hours, they forgot to mandate the intermediary to tell you that the content is being removed. Whoops. They forgot to require the intermediary to give public notice that content has been removed following a complaint from person ABC or corporation XYZ on such-and-such grounds. Whoops, again.

So while records are kept, along with reasons, of book bans, there are no such records required to be kept of e-book bans.

E-Book Censors Are Faceless

Vinay Rai is a brave man. He is being attacked by fellow journalists who believe he's disgracing the professional upholders of free-speech, and being courted by television channels who believe that he should be encouraged to discuss matters that are sub judice. He is viewed by some as a man who's playing politics in courts on behalf of unnamed politicians and bureaucrats, while others view him as being bereft of common-sense for believing that companies should be legally liable for not having been clairvoyant and removing material he found objectionable, though he has never complained to them about it, and has only provided that material to the court in a sealed envelope.

I choose, instead, to view him as a scrupulous and brave man. He has a face, and a name, and is willing to openly fight for what he believes in. However, there are possibly thousands of unscrupulous Vinay Rais out there, who know the law better than he does, and who make use not of the court system but of the Intermediary Guidelines Rules, firmly assured by those Rules that their censorship activities will never be known, will never be challenged by Facebook and Google lawyers, and will never be traced back to them.

Challenging Invisible Censorship

Dear reader, you may have noticed that this is a bit like a trial involving Free Speech in which Free Speech is presumed guilty upon complaint, is not even told what the charges against it are, has not been given a chance to prove its innocence, and has no right to meet its accusers nor to question them. Yet, the Cyberlaw Division of the Department of Information Technology continues to issue press releases defending these Rules as fair and just, instead of being simultaneously Orwellian and Kafkaesque.

These Rules are delegated legislation passed by the Department of Information Technology under s.79 of the Information Technology Act. The Rules were laid before Parliament during the 2011 Monsoon session. We at CIS believe that these Rules are ultra vires the IT Act as well as the Constitution of India, not only with respect to what is now (newly) proscribed online (which in itself is enough to make it unconstitutional), but how that which is purportedly unlawful is to be removed. We have prepared an alternative that we believe is far more just and in accordance with our constitutional principles, taking on best practices from Canada, the EU, Chile, and Brazil, while still allowing for expeditious removal of unlawful material. We hope that the DIT will consider adopting some of the ideas embodied in our draft proposal.

As Parliament passed the IT Act in the midst of din, without any debate, it is easy to be sceptical and wonder whether Rules made under the IT Act will be debated. However, I remain hopeful that Parliament will not only exercise its power wisely, but will perform its solemn duty — borne out of each MP's oath to uphold our Constitution — by rejecting these Rules.

Article reproduced under CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0 licence

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THE IDEA OF INDIA REDUX Programmed To Survive That the nation persists is what has lent the India story such gravitas: an idea that’s taken strong root. But will the march of history leave us behind? SUNIL KHILNANI

2012-01-28T06:25:00.001-08:00

The fleeting age A couple ride against a commercial centre backdrop in Gurgaon

THE IDEA OF INDIA REDUX

Programmed To Survive

That the nation persists is what has lent the India story such gravitas: an idea that's taken strong root. But will the march of history leave us behind?

SUNIL KHILNANI

http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?279695

Why India? Why, of all post-colonial nations, is India the country that gets taken most seriously by the very powers it once struggled against? Whether it is corporate Britain wooing Indian money by throwing Bollywood bling parties at London's Claridge's Hotel or European luxury houses like Hermes launching special sari lines for India's glamorati or US President Obama choosing the Indian prime minister as the guest of honour for his first state banquet—the world wants a piece of India. Not since nineteenth-century America has an ex-colony moved so fast into prominence on the world stage.

Plenty of people have answers that purport to explain this phenomenon—India's scale, its software and smartness, its strategic location. But I think the real answer is at once more subtle and more obvious. It has to do with the fact that India is still here—that, unlike many new states created after the end of the age of European empire, it has not self-destructed. What if India's current prominence has more to do with what it has avoided, steered around, than with what it has done?

When I wrote The Idea of India in '97, I wanted to show that the founding idea of India is anchored as much in resisting certain powerful seductions—the temptations of a clear, singular definition of nationhood, of the apparent neatness of authoritarian politics, of the clarities of a statist or pure market economy, of unambiguous alliances with other states—as it was in realising declaratory visions.

***

History moves fast these days—faster that it did when nineteenth-century America began its climb to world power, faster than when Gandhi and Nehru brought India to independence in the mid-twentieth century, and faster still than in the years since I wrote The Idea of India. In India, what were once gradual changes—the upswing of economic growth, the movement of Indians from the countryside to the city, the sabotage of the old hierarchies of the social order, the renegotiation of India's place and status in the world—now turn at dizzying pace.

Such historical fast-tracking has taken India to a point where it is now possible to envisage a real change in the chronic conditions of deprivation and injustice that have so long entrapped most Indians. Actually altering those conditions for the better will, however, require a run of political judgement and action as momentous as that accomplished by India's founders in the mid-twentieth century, when that remarkable generation broke India free from an authoritarian, oppressive past and set it forth in pursuit of liberty and democracy.

The grand tasks of the years ahead are daunting: managing the largest-ever rural-to-urban transition under democratic conditions; developing the human capital and sustaining the ecological and energy resources needed for participatory economic growth; contending with powerful competitor states and containing a volatile neighbourhood; defining what sort of power we wish to be in the world. It is an agenda that would test any society at the best of times. But in India's case, these tasks will have to be achieved under severe constraints of time and choice.

Ours is a society of swiftly inflating expectations, where old deference crumbles before youthful impatience. And internationally, India must navigate a fluid arena: one where global power is rearranging itself in as yet undefined ways, where capital is restless, and where new, unforeseen threats and risks are facts of life. India will have only a sliver of time, a matter of years, in which to seize its chances. After all, the faster history moves, the more likely one is to get left behind.


	Political imagination, judgement, action—the capacities that birthed India—seem to have deserted us when we need them.

The policy choices we make over the coming decade—about education, about environmental resources, about social and fiscal responsibility, about foreign affairs—will propel us down tracks that will be difficult to renounce or even revise in years to come. The aptness of those choices will depend not on India's entrepreneurial brilliance or technological prowess, or the cheapness of its labour, but on politics. Yet, at this historical moment when emergent possibilities and new problems are crowding in, the transformative momentum of India's politics seems to have dissipated.

Although the nation's founders saw political freedom as their great goal, decades on, what that freedom has delivered measures up poorly for many. For India's business leaders eager to compete with China, for the middle classes fed up by corruption, for radicalisant intellectuals, for desperate citizens who've taken up arms against the state, democracy in India is a story of deflating illusions, of obstacles and oppression. Democratic politics itself is seen as impeding the decisive action needed to expand economic possibilities.

It is a troubling irony: political imagination, judgement and action—the capacities that brought India into being—seem to have deserted both the air-conditioned hallways of power as well as the dusty streets of protest, just when it needs them. The distinctive source of modern India's legitimacy has, to many, become an agent of the country's ills.

India's democratic discontent echoes a wider disaffection. Across the globe, democratic politics is in distress and disrepair. It is being challenged in its homelands, from the US to Europe to Japan, while in Russia and China, it stands summarily dismissed. As citizens grow ever more contemptuous of their leaders, leaders readily return the compliment—complaining that they are hamstrung by the short-sighted, unrealistic demands of their citizenry. Just a couple of decades after democracy was proclaimed as the universal future—the riddle of human history solved—it seems fragile, ineffectual, contingent.

In India, the impatience with democracy is perhaps not unreasonable, given how quickly we have moved in such a short time, and how much further we wish to get. But one way to understand the possibilities that democracy alone can underwrite is to remember the context that existed in India at the time that I wrote The Idea of India.

Where progress is metronomic Construction work in progess for the Bangalore Metro. (Photograph by Nilotpal Baruah)

***

I was motivated, then, by a different kind of concern about India's democracy: a kind of majoritarianism, it seemed, might threaten our foundational commitment to diversity and pluralism.

In the mid-'90s, India had emerged from a deep economic crisis, only to be ensnared in battles over identity. What sort of a nation were we? Which groups or cultures had the right to claim special privileges? Religion, caste, region: all were vigorously advanced as answers.

These answers seemed bent on blurring, even dissolving, the idea of India—the constitutive idea of this "unnatural nation". It was that idea that I sought to recover, in hopes of showing how it had made India and kept it going. Part of the burden of my argument was that India's politics was proliferating a variety of ideas about India, some in contradiction and collision with one another. The Indian idea had itself become a proudly plural one—a measure as good as any of the original idea's success. And amidst that plurality were, perhaps inevitably, some conceptions that sought to singularise India's many religious and cultural identities and make it a narrower place.

Today, in many parts of the country, those battles seem to have played themselves out—so much blood under the bridge, or down the Sabarmati, as it were. The conventional view is that India's economic surge has stilled those fights over identity. And although there is some truth in that explanation, it is too partial a perception. It does not address, for instance, why one of India's most developed and fast-growing states, the calendar girl of big business—Gujarat—is also the purveyor of India's most chauvinistic and poisonous politics.


	It is the capacity of India's democracy to articulate and incite its diversity that has saved it from civil conflict.

In fact, what has at least for an interval calmed such politics has been the workings, however rickety, of democratic politics. It is the capacity of India's representative democracy to articulate, and even to incite, India's diversity, to give voice to differing interests and ideas of self, rather than merely to aggregate supposed common identities, that has saved India from the civil conflict and auto-destruction typical of so many states. Many of those states have been in fact smaller and less diverse than India. Consider for a start, the ragged history of India's regional neighbours. The desire to impose a common identity has broken them down.

What has protected India from such outcomes is not any innate Indian virtue or cultural uniqueness. Rather, it is the outcome of a political invention, the intricate architecture of constitutional democracy established by its founders. That constitutional democracy has prevented monolithic outcomes in India. It has stalled zealots in their tracks, penned demagogues to their corrals and taken the wind out of populist sails—just as it has also frustrated and slowed more positive or desirable outcomes. But that is the crucial, under-recognised value of such a system: its capacity not to achieve the good, but to prevent the worse.

***

Democracy's singular, rather astonishing achievement has been to keep India united as a political space. And now that space has become a vast market whose strength lies in its internal diversity and dynamism. It is that vast market, of considerable attraction to international capital, that is today one of India's greatest comparative advantages—and one that makes India a potential engine of the global economy.

In the years ahead, whether the old battles over identity stay becalmed will to a large extent depend on the capacity of India's political system to sustain and spread the country's new growth. Rising disparities in income, wealth and opportunity are a global fact, but they can be particularly acute in growing economies. For twenty-first century India, as economic growth spreads unevenly over the productive landscape, the big questions will turn onto the disequalising effects of economic transformation. This isn't a question that any society, democratic or despotic, has been able to solve, let alone any rapidly growing society—and certainly not China.

The project of devising workable alternatives to market capitalism has animated much of the politics and history of the past two centuries. But that project did not on the whole fare impressively. The collapse of revolutionary dreams symbolised by the events of 1989 and immediately after has been followed by slow punctures in the wheels of Western social democracy. And yet, the lived conditions that gave rise to such political hopes—revolutionary or reformist—remain as intense and painful as ever, not least in the world's two major growth economies, China and India. Part of what it must mean, therefore, for states like India and China to take their place as major world powers must rest on their ability to invent better alternative models of market capitalism.

For India, developing such alternatives must be a priority in coming years. It is imperative for India's economic future that the global disaffection with market capitalism does not take wider hold in the country. We shall need, somehow, to strike a balance between, on the one hand, redistributive social policies and regulation and, on the other hand, the need to keep the economy open, markets functioning, and incentives alive.

Trained goods A new autorickshaw gets rolled out at a storage facility in Gujarat. (Photograph by Reuters, From Outlook, February 06, 2012)

Most people in India remain hopeful that their turn will come. Yet as I write this, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets and squares of the world's financial centres, from NY and London to Frankfurt and Hong Kong, hoping to change the skewed order of global capitalism. Such dissidence is a reminder that the tolerance for disparities, for inequality, can shift sharp and sudden.

In India's case, just as six decades and more of democracy have broken down age-old structures of deference and released a new defiant energy, so too years of rapid but uneven growth may, before we are quite ready to acknowledge it, dismantle the intricate self-deceptions that have so far kept India's grotesque disparities protected from mass protest. As the Indian political classes exercise their populist instincts, corporate India, heady with new opulence, lately comports itself like a well-plumed sitting duck. Without renewed political imagination and judgement, the disaffection and alienation of those who are being left out or actively dispossessed by rapid growth could change the course of our history.

Can India's democracy rise up to the task of rectifying this sorry state of affairs—accommodate the dispossessed and channel discontent into political forms? Most importantly, can India's democracy be rescued from its current function as an acclamatory mechanism to instal new leaders? Is it possible to turn that democracy into something that makes political responsibility more legible, and also enables those who hold power to invest in the country's long future?

In the twentieth century, India was a striking example of post-colonial reinvention. We might now, in the new century, turn our thoughts to practising a more effective democracy and a more inclusive market capitalism—in contrast to China, where wealth amasses and democracy remains a bad coin.

The transformational opportunities that India confronts today have their origins in the life and story that unfolds in my book, The Idea of India. As India moves forward in coming years, ever more forgetful of its history, those origins and that story will matter more than ever. For, even when nations pride themselves on their freedom from the past, it is often in fact their beginnings—their founding spirit and imagination—that remain, in very altered worlds, their greatest resource.

(This essay is the new Introduction to the fifth edition of The Idea of India, published as a Popular Penguin on January 20. Professor Sunil Khilnani is Avantha Chair and Director, King's India Institute, London)

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A walk in Sikkim TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHS: A.J.T. JOHNSINGH Conservation of the geographically diverse and bilogically rich state has become an ecological imperative.

2012-01-28T06:18:00.001-08:00

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20120210290206400.htm

NATURE

A walk in Sikkim

TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHS: A.J.T. JOHNSINGH

Conservation of the geographically diverse and bilogically rich state has become an ecological imperative.

RHODODENDRON ARBOREUM IS the first of the rhododendron species to flower in the Sikkim Himalaya. In the background is the plateau Tso Lhamo, at 5,490 metres.

IN the summer of 2007, I was helping the Sikkim Programme Office of WWF-India conduct a three-day training programme for officers and other staff of the Sikkim Forest Department on field methods to assess the status of the red panda ( Ailurus fulgens). The red panda is a cute-looking carnivore of the eastern Himalaya and south-western China. It is also the State animal of Sikkim.

On June 1, 2007, as part of the training programme, a young forest officer by the name of Karma Legshey led us on a visit to the rugged and beautiful Kyongnosla Alpine Sanctuary (KAS, 30 square kilometres). Kyongnosla is about 30 km from Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim. We started our walk at an altitude of 3,300 metres from the bridge across the Rongchu (chu means stream) on the Gangtok-Nathula road. The Rongchu gushed merrily down a shallow valley, its water snow-white in the rapids and emerald-green in the pools. The far-off mountains stood shrouded in mist and the sky was laden with patches of dark rain clouds indicating that the south-west monsoon was imminent. We walked along the right bank of the river for about half a kilometre, went up the mountain slope along a stream and, after attaining an altitude of nearly 3,500 m, turned back to the road along the steep, rhododendron-draped slope. That was the second of my three visits to Sikkim (in April 2006, May-June 2007 and March 2011) which have together helped me understand the conservation situation in the State.

Sikkim is a landlocked Indian State nestled in the eastern Himalayas. Spread below Mount Khangchendzonga (about 8,585 m), the third highest mountain peak in the world, this thumb-shaped State has borders with Nepal in the west, the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and east, Bhutan to its south-east and West Bengal to its south. It is the second smallest State (7,096 sq km) after Goa (3,702 sq km) and one of the least populous States in the country. Despite its tiny size, Sikkim is geographically diverse because of its location in the Himalaya. The climate ranges from the subtropical (300 m) to that of the snowbound peaks of the Khangchendzonga range.

RHODODENDRON GRIFFITHIANUM, WHICH flowers in May-June.

Sikkim has become one of India's most visited States owing to its reputation for cleanliness, scenic beauty and political stability. The Teesta and its tributary, the Rangeet, are the major rivers and they join at Teesta Bazaar on the border with West Bengal.

Protected areas

A major problem for this small State is the small sizes of its protected areas. The total area covered by the eight protected areas is about 2,183 sq km (31 per cent of the total geographic area, and the highest of any State in India). Among them the largest is the Khangchendzonga National Park (1,784 sq km). The area coming under the Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve is 836 sq km and the total area coming under conservation is 2,620 sq km. In India, biosphere reserves do not have legal status.

PRIMULA SPECIES OF herbs that grow in areas that are snowbound in winter.

The average size of the other protected areas is about 57 sq km, which is too small for the conservation of large mammals, which are already decimated by heavy hunting in the past. In fact, the sambar deer is extinct in Sikkim, in contrast to adjacent Bhutan where it is found in broad-leaved forests even at 3,500-4,000 m, thus enabling the tiger to occur at these high altitudes. For that matter, even other mammals such as the barking deer, the goral and the serow seem to be extremely rare in spite of the availability of splendid habitats. The tiger no longer occurs within the geographical limit of Sikkim, and conflict reports indicate that the clouded leopard may be much more common than the common leopard. Problem species such as the black bear and the wild pig seem to be common if data on conflict are any indication.

FLOWERS OF MAGNOLIA campbellii.

The KAS, one of the eight protected areas in Sikkim, was established in 1984. It is on the right, or western, bank of the Kyongnosla river valley, which was ravaged by massive timber extraction for defence needs during India's border conflict with China in 1962. The credit for restoring the KAS to its present glory goes to the late Chezung Lachungpa, an officer of the Indian Forest Service. He had several decades of experience across Sikkim, and in the 1980s he undertook intensive plantation of various tree species, with a special focus on the rhododendron species.

TIGER PAINTING BELOW Kupub on the Sherathang-Rhenock road. In the past, possibly tigers were common at the tri-junction of Sikkim-Bhutan-north Bengal.

The altitude of the KAS ranges from 3,300 m to 4,100 m, and it is part of a much larger mountainous landscape that extends to the Shingba Rhododendron Sanctuary in the north to the Gangtok Zoological Gardens in the south-west and to the Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary in the south. Interestingly, this stretch of mountains was used by tigers in the past as there was report between 1978 and 1981 of a tiger killing cattle near Lacheng village, not far from the Shingba Rhododendron Sanctuary. The tiger disappeared thereafter.

SAVITA RAO

THE RED PANDA, the State animal of Sikkim, is arboreal. When it descends to the ground it is extremely vulnerable to predation.

The KAS is small, but it harbours 14 species of the rhododendron, including Rhododendron niveum, the State tree of Sikkim. It is home to birds such as the monal pheasant, the blood pheasant (State bird of Sikkim), the satyr tragopan and the Tibetan snowcock and mammals such as the pika, the marmot, the goral, the serow, the musk deer, the barking deer, the Tibetan fox, the red panda, the black bear, and possibly the snow leopard in winter. During our short walk in June 2007, I saw signs of the goral and the musk deer, and one of the Forest Department staff saw a pair of blood pheasants with four chicks.

During the three visits I made to Sikkim, I also visited the Fambong Lho Wildlife Sanctuary (52 sq km), closer to Gangtok, the Maenam Wildlife Sanctuary (35 sq km) in south Sikkim, the Barsey Rhododendron Sanctuary (104 sq km), which is contiguous with the Singalila National Park in West Bengal, the Shingba Rhododendron Sanctuary in the north and the Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary (124 sq km) in the east. Twice I drove down from Sherathang, near Nathula, to Rhenock, and somewhere below Kupub village I saw a golden yellow tiger painting on a rock. I thought it might have been commissioned by the Army. Walking in these protected areas gave me the opportunity to understand the problems and potential of Sikkim, particularly for the conservation of large Himalayan mammals that occur here.

THE HIMALAYAN TAHR. Ernest Schaffer, a German biologist, made an expedition to north Sikkim in 1930 and discovered this distinct variety in Sikkim.

It is unfortunate that in spite of the efforts by the State government, garbage is still a problem here. It is more so in the countryside. The only large mammal I saw during my visits was a group of Himalayan langur, looking beautiful in their winter coats, near the Shingba Rhododendron Sanctuary. As a result of extensive road construction, even in areas where it should never have been considered in the first place, landslides are a major problem. During my last trip in March 2011, Forest Officer Monee Ram Rai showed me several places where the problem of landslides had been addressed effectively with suitable eco-restoration measures.

RHODODENDRON HODGSONII IS one of the beautiful rhododendron species in the Himalaya.

The magnificent Teesta river is being tamed for the construction of six power plants. In addition, there are proposals for several micro-hydel projects. Pawan Kumar Chamling, the Chief Minister of the State, who was presented the Down To Earth Greenest Chief Minister award in 1998 and has been reigning for the past two decades, believes that when the hydel projects are completed, Sikkim, with excess power to sell, will be economically prosperous.

Hooker's journals

The Sikkim Himalaya, comprising the present State of Sikkim and the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council of West Bengal, covers 12,700 sq km of extremely mountainous terrain. Much of the credit for drawing the attention of the scientific community to the biological richness of this region goes to Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, an eminent Victorian botanist (1817-1911) and a friend of Charles Darwin. Darwin writes of Hooker as the one soul from whom he unfailingly received support when he expostulated his ideas on natural selection.

RHODODENDRON THOMSONII FLOWERS start wilting in early May.

In 1848-49, Hooker braved ticks, mosquitoes, fleas, leeches, inclement weather, high-altitude sickness, irregular supplies of basic provisions and the hostility of the powerful Diwan (Prime Minister) of Sikkim (the aging King was an ineffective ruler) to survey up to about 6,000 m, venturing well into Tibet.

RHODODENDRON FALCONERI. THE large leaves that are rufous on the ventral side help in its identification.

On a subsequent longer expedition in Sikkim, he and his friend, Archibald Campbell, representative of the British East India Company at Darjeeling, were both arrested as they travelled towards Chola Pass in Tibet. Even so, he managed to collect 6,000-7,000 plant specimens which he then deposited at the Kew Botanical Gardens, of which his father was then director. Hooker too eventually became the director of the Kew Botanical Gardens. His monograph Rhododendrons of Sikkim Himalaya describes all the 36 species of Sikkim. His report brought this genus of trees with its showy flowers importance as a horticulture species.

TREVESIA PALMATA, ONE of the most attractive plants seen in the Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary.

S.T. Lachungpa, a fourth-generation forester in Sikkim, believes that there could be more than 40 species of the rhododendron in Sikkim. He also makes keen observations on the visible impact of climate change in Sikkim. For instance, mosquitoes, previously unknown here, are now invading north Sikkim because of the warming weather. Similarly, a very valuable tree species, Alnus nepalensis (Nepalese Alder), originally confined to the 1,500-2,000-m belt, is now found at higher altitudes. Local people find that preserving yak meat is a challenge now because temperatures do not stay low enough in winter for the meat to be properly frozen.

CHAMPAK, OR MICHELIA excelsa. It requires greater protection and propagation.

Interesting information on large mammals emerges from Hooker's two-volume book Himalayan Journals, which is dedicated to Charles Darwin, whom he describes as an affectionate friend. Hunting was a way of life in those days, and Hooker frequently obtained meat from the mountains. He writes that the flesh of musk deer females and young males is delicious, but the flesh of adult males is unpalatable because of the odour of the strong musk that they produce. In his writings he mentions the Tibetan woolly hare, the Tibetan antelope, the Tibetan gazelle, the bharal (the blue sheep), and the argali ( Ovis ammon), a wild species of sheep that sports magnificent horns and is a relative of the big-horn sheep ( Ovis canadensis) of North America. Interestingly, nowhere does he mention the goral, the Himalayan tahr, the serow, the leopard, the snow leopard, the black bear or the dhole (wild dog). The credit for discovering the Himalayan tahr in the Sikkim Himalaya goes to Dr Ernest Schaffer, who did this during his expedition to Tibet from Sikkim in 1930. He and his small team were turned back by the Tibetans because he was a Nazi German.

FALLEN BLOOD-RED FRUITS of Sterculia villosa, which are common in early May in lower Sikkim.

In the Himalayan Journals, Volume II, Hooker provides a drawing of an antler of the Sikkim stag ( Cervus elaphus wallichii, now reported to be extinct in Sikkim), which measured 54 inches in length. Hooker reported the deer to be a native of the Choombi (Chumbi) valley in Tibet, where the sub-species of this deer is still in existence. During that time, Choombi valley was part of Sikkim. Once, Hooker's dogs caught an ungulate at an altitude of 2,760 m. He called it the "Regean" and describes it as half goat, half deer, dark and lean, its flesh as rather good and tender. My surmise is that it may have been a young serow.

In the past, both the Teesta and the Rangeet were famous for the golden mahseer, but now the status of this extremely beautiful and immensely valuable fish remains bleak as a result of overfishing, construction of dams and siltation in the rivers. The decline of snowfall over the decades in Sikkim Himalaya has affected the glacial lakes in the north-eastern part of Sikkim, which also suffer as a result of siltation, and could be a threat to the introduced population of rainbow trout and brown trout which can be a great asset for promoting ecotourism.

YOUNG LEAVES OF Rhododendron arboreum in the Barsey Rhododendron Sanctuary in early May.

Several ideas for the conservation of large mammals in Sikkim come to my mind. The high Himalayas still have populations of the Himalayan tahr, the wild ass, the bharal, the argali and the snow leopard which are possibly connected to the other populations in the Himalayas. Recently, Pranay Chanchani, a young student from Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, spent nearly six months in the Tso Lhamo plateau (over 4,300 m) studying the conflict between livestock and wild ungulates (the Tibetan argali, the Tibetan gazelle and the Tibetan wild ass) and concluded that wild ungulates survive here only because of the non-hunting tradition of the local people and the seasonal absence of grazing by yak and sheep. There is a lesson in this for large mammal conservation in other parts of Sikkim too: no hunting (which also includes snaring), no grazing in the wildlife habitats and no free-ranging dogs. Dogs can be a great threat to all forms of wildlife, particularly to the less-agile red panda.

The Gangtok Zoological Garden can be used for breeding the sambar for reintroduction. Efforts should be made to protect the golden mahseer, wherever possible, in the Teesta and the Rangeet. There is an urgent need to create the tri-junction peace park encompassing the Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary (Sikkim), the Neora Valley National Park (West Bengal) and the Torsa Strict Nature Reserve (Bhutan), as a collaborative project with West Bengal and Bhutan, to bring the tiger back to Sikkim.

COLOURFUL FLAGS WELCOMING visitors to north Sikkim. Sikkim has become one of India's most visited States owing to its reputation for cleanliness, scenic beauty and political stability.

The gaur will then eventually find a permanent home here. Much greater importance should be given to the propagation and protection of various species of oaks, Campbell's magnolia ( Magnolia campbellii) and Champak ( Michelia excelsa).

It should be ensured that the pharmaceutical factories on the banks of the Teesta do not release untreated effluents into the river. All road and dam construction works should be concluded as early as possible and the ugly scars on the landscapes caused by these constructions covered by adequate eco-restoration programmes, enabling Sikkim to rediscover its unmatched scenic beauty.

A.J.T. Johnsingh is with WWF-India and Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore.

BANKING Negative signal G. SRINIVASAN Moody's issues a raft of revisions on ratings of Indian banks, first downgrading the SBI's financial strength and now that of Syndicate Bank.

2012-01-28T06:15:00.000-08:00

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20120210290204100.htm

BANKING

Negative signal

G. SRINIVASAN

Moody's issues a raft of revisions on ratings of Indian banks, first downgrading the SBI's financial strength and now that of Syndicate Bank.

AP

The signage of Moody's Corporation in New York. Critics see very little substance in ratings by global agencies.

THE United States-based ratings agency Moody's recently revised Syndicate Bank's local currency deposit ratings and all its debt ratings to negative from stable. In justification, the Moody's Investors Service cryptically noted that "the revision in the rating outlook factors in the increasingly challenging operating environment for Indian banks. As Syndicate Bank has a weaker franchise than other Indian banks, its rating is more vulnerable to potential deterioration in financial strength in the current environment."

That the country's macroeconomic milieu, amid the slowdown of the economy, is none too encouraging is evident from the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) half-yearly Financial Stability Report (FSR) released in the last week of 2011. The RBI noted tersely that all components of domestic demand (private and government, consumption and investment) had decelerated and cautioned that if gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed down, there could be some "downstream impact on asset quality". This could be construed rather elliptically to mean that borrowers may balk at repayment citing general infirmities attendant upon a slowing economy. The year-on-year growth rate of non-performing assets (NPAs) at 30.5 per cent as at end-September 2011 has outrun the credit growth of 19.2 per cent. In fact, the latest update showing a credit offtake of 17 per cent for the period ending January 6, 2012, against the corresponding period in 2011, means that 13 policy rate hikes have wrought a deleterious impact on growth and investment.

The apex bank also did not desist from stating that additional capital would need to be raised owing to the compulsions of implementation of Basel III, even as higher provisioning requirements (due to higher slippages) and increased interest expenses already impacted on the profitability of the banking sector. Key sectors that led the trend of rising NPAs include the priority sector, retail, real estate and infrastructure. The gross NPA ratio rose from 2.3 per cent to 2.8 per cent between March and September 2011. This includes lump of loans extended to a spate of troubled sectors ranging from telecom and airlines to power, which have remained caught in either scams or policy inertia for far too long.

The bugle of caution was sounded out a couple of months ago when Moody's revised its outlook for India's banking industry from stable to negative, citing concerns of rampant inflation, monetary tightening and rapidly escalating interest rates. This downward revision arose out of an increasingly challenging operating environment for the banking system that is bound to exert adverse pressures on the system in terms of asset quality, capitalisation and profitability. With the country's money market remaining stringent on the back of rising interest costs, Moody's foresaw that Indian banks' asset quality might get worse over the next 12-18 months even as it reckoned that bank loan growth would plunge from 21 per cent in 2011 to a range of 16-18 per cent in 2012 and 2013. Moody's expected the profitability plank of the banks to weaken owing to lower interest margins as deposit rates are repriced, thanks to the liberalisation on savings deposit rates by the central bank in October last.

It is not that Moody's has suddenly woken up to the worsening operating milieu of Indian banks to issue a raft of revisions on the ratings. It began the downgrade with the rating on the State Bank of India's (SBI) financial strength on October 4, 2011. This was assailed by critics as they saw little substance in such ratings by global agencies that had not clothed themselves with any glory, having miserably failed to detect the global financial meltdown of 2008 when so many fancy financial instruments played havoc with the financial institutions in major economies of the West.

Despite such criticism of patent lapses in their own backyard, Moody's revision on the SBI, in retrospect, did not appear to be an unduly false alarm. The subsequent publication of the SBI results showed that the bank's gross NPA grew by 2 per cent between June and September 2011, against 19 per cent in the case of other public sector banks. There was also a spurt in non-performing loans aggregating to 4.19 per cent of the total advances, with loans amounting to Rs.8,000 crore slipping from the standard category (asset on which there is no default) to the substandard category (marked by defaults). What is causing flutters is that the SBI's core capital, or Tier-I capital (in terms of capital adequacy norms as set by the central bankers' central bank, the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements), had slipped to 7.4 per cent in the quarter ending September 2011 against the mandated 8 per cent.

PAUL NORONHA

THE STATE BANK of India's headquarters in Mumbai

However, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena, while responding to a query in the Rajya Sabha on November 29, maintained that the "Indian banking sector is in sound financial health and Moody's ratings would not have a long-lasting effect on the banking sector in India". Though the domestic banking industry has not been jolted because of the constant revisions by overseas ratings agencies on Indian banking, the fact remains that the economic slowdown and the lack of appetite for investment either to start a new one or expand the existing ones mainly due to the prohibitively high cost of credit by financial institutions might pose problems in terms of asset quality and risk-taking spurs by the banks in particular. Industry analysts too contend that given the sort of stickiness of the system as a whole due to assets and liabilities mismatch, concerns over the quality of loans and the general economic slowdown, the banking industry will be on a sliding board if it does not get its act together.

The year 2011 proved to be a year of hardships in terms of persistent inflation and a year when the Sensex fell by 25 per cent. The rupee declined by a staggering 16 per cent, rendering it the worst performing major Asian currency, besides making import-dependent energy cost expensive and pushing the price of other imported essential inputs. It is small wonder then that the investors, particularly institutional investors from abroad, were actively pulling their funds from India. Net outflows were $380 million in 2011, after rising to a hefty $29 billion in 2010.

Given the reality that the economy's return to a consistently high growth path would take a couple of years, the banking industry has a greater responsibility in the recovery process of the real sectors of the economy in keeping the credit spigot ajar. But it is precisely when the need for greater capital infusion is imperative that the banks have been directed by the authorities to go for financial inclusion for lending to many welfare programmes.

Against this development, the RBI has released draft guidelines on the proposed implementation of global norms of capital adequacy (Basel-III), requiring banks to go in for capital infusion during the next five years. How far the domestic banking industry will be able to meet the challenges of taking a proactive part in the recovery to high growth while simultaneously beefing up its capital base to meet the international norms of capital adequacy ratio will determine not only its fortunes but also its ability to survive and thrive.

The moot issue is whether the government should allow public sector banks the requisite operational autonomy to meet both ends. Will the banks be able to face price risks in a prudent fashion given their reluctance to lend in the light of the stickiness of the existing loans to various sectors is a difficult issue but one that must be addressed squarely for the long-term viability of the banks and to underpin growth impulses of the real sectors of the economy.

Rebellion and reaction AIJAZ AHMAD The mass uprisings of 2011 in the Arab world and in the Euro-American zone may have entirely different outcomes as the neoliberal framework crumbles.

2012-01-28T06:14:00.001-08:00

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20120210290200400.htm

COVER STORY

Rebellion and reaction

AIJAZ AHMAD

The mass uprisings of 2011 in the Arab world and in the Euro-American zone may have entirely different outcomes as the neoliberal framework crumbles.

DYLAN MARTINEZ

Tahrir Square, Cairo, February 11: Egyptians celebrate Hosni Mubarak's resignation and the end of his 30-year rule. Trade unions played a big role in the 2011 protests through strikes and organised participation in demonstrations. In fact, getting workers back to work in an economy that had stalled badly was a major impetus for the military to let go of Mubarak and then to outlaw strikes.

ON a global scale, the year 2011 was notable for two contrasting but interrelated features: a deepening economic crisis, especially in the core capitalist countries, and, on the political plain, a vast pattern of protests, strikes and mass uprisings in the Arab world as much as in the Euro-American zones but also enveloping countries as far-flung as China and Chile.

The centre of the economic crisis has now shifted from the United States to Europe, the much brandished U.S. recovery is grinding to a halt, the currency war between the dollar and the euro is in full bloom and an eventual collapse of the euro cannot be ruled out. As has been the case since the onset of the crisis in 2007/8, Asian economies have remained robust on the whole even though the rates of growth are slowing down. However, if the growing economic distress in Brazil is any indicator, China, India and the countries that comprise the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are also likely to experience considerable contraction if the European Union crisis deteriorates very much further, which it most probably will. Prognosis for 2012 is dire.

This essay is not about the economic crisis but about some of its fallout. This writer has written on the political coordinates of the economic crisis previously ("The Political War", Frontline, September 9, 2011) and may return to it in the future. Here, the focus is on the strikes and the uprisings – the intertwining of revolutionary desire and counterrevolutionary strategies – but this too with a focus on the principal nodes, primarily in the Arab world and Europe.

The Arab revolt: Beginnings

When does a year begin, politically speaking?

One might plausibly say that 2011 began on December 17, 2010, when police confiscated the vending cart of Mohammad Bouazizi, an unemployed college graduate in the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid. Forced to vend fruits and vegetable, the young man registered his rage by immolating himself. Three issues were condensed in that one death: police brutality that was the hallmark of a ferocious dictatorship; widespread unemployment among Tunisian – and, more generally, Arab – youth; and the hideous contrast between fabulous wealth of the ruling class and rampant poverty among masses of people in every country that has been a victim of the Washington Consensus, neoliberalism, globalisation and so forth.

Parenthetically, it might be noted that in Tunisia itself there have been 107 documented attempts at self-immolation during the first six months after the overthrow of the Zine El Abidine Ben Ali dictatorship (first six months of "the Revolution") but those have gone largely unreported because such reports impinge upon the myth that there has been a "revolution" and, above all, the myth that "democracy" will somehow exorcise the ghosts of popular suffering. In other words: Bouazizi became a symbol, the dictatorship fell, but issues of neoliberal devastation and rampant unemployment remain.

SALAH HABIBI/AP

TUNIS, JANUARY 28, 2011: Demonstrators hold up a poster of Mohammad Bouazizi, an unemployed graduate in the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid who had been forced to sell fruits and vegetables. When the police confiscated his vending cart on December 17, 2010, Bouazizi registered his rage by immolating himself. His death became the rallying point for what went on to be called the Arab Spring.

And when does a year end, politically speaking?

No one could have foreseen that the local demonstrations that erupted in a remote Tunisian town in December 2010 would help ignite the biggest mass uprising in the modern history of the Arab world, from the south-western corner of the Mediterranean to the eastern provinces of Saudi Arabia. Nor could one have foreseen, even in the middle of 2011, well after two dictatorships had fallen in Tunisia and Egypt, that what had begun as wholly secular uprisings of techno-savvy youth and impoverished masses, with impressive mobilisations of trade unions and the working classes, would lead to a chain of Islamist electoral triumphs in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. Other fallouts have been worse. We have witnessed North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's (NATO) "humanitarian intervention" in Libya that killed and rendered homeless scores of thousands of people, only to bring to the centres of power an odd assortment of marauding militias, some former members of the Muammar Qaddafi regime, as well as Salafis and Muslim Brotherhood groups. In response to the "Arab Spring, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and more generally the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), have now emerged as arbiters of the Arab state system. And, a full-scale internationalised civil war over the fate of Syria is picking up steam, as genuinely popular protests against the brutal Bashar al-Assad regime have been taken over by the Muslim Brotherhood and its patrons in the Gulf kingdoms and Turkey, not to speak of a Syrian National Council composed of well-heeled Syrian expatriates promoted by the various chanceries in Ankara, Paris and Washington.

As one calendar year ends and a new one begins, the two key processes – the Islamist takeovers and the war over Syria – are still unfolding. The dynamics of 2011 are still with us. In sum, one finds hardly any correlation between the original causes and aspirations underlying these mass insurrections on the one hand, and, on the other, the deeply reactionary outcomes in country after country across the region. The one hopeful sign is that much of the paraphernalia of the entrenched dictatorships is gone and a new order can now at least begin its struggle to be born, albeit in highly inauspicious circumstances.

Protest goes global

There is a strong tendency to view these Arab uprisings in isolation from developments elsewhere in the world, notably Europe and the U.S., not to speak of earlier demise of dictatorships in countries as diverse as the Philippines and Chile, or the revolutionary upsurge in Venezuela and Bolivia. Just as the European strikes and protests of the previous year can be seen as a prelude to the Arab uprisings of 2011, the historic Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement that arose later in the year was inspired partially by the Tahrir Square uprisings in Egypt; the massive Spanish movement of the indignados (the angry ones) that erupted on May 15 was also an equal inspiration for many in the U.S. movement. The Chilean student uprising that also began in May was then followed, on August 24-25, by a general strike and the largest mass protest since the fall of the Pinochet dictatorship. A later student demonstration witnessed the astonishing sight of 2,500 professors arriving from all over the country in a 55-bus caravan. The Chilean strikes were followed by sizeable student protests in a number of Latin American countries and are themselves analogous to the Greek student movement which held a hugely popular commemoration, on November 17, 2011, in memory of the famous Polytechnic Uprising on November 17, 1973, that paved the way for the fall of the military dictatorship the next year.

If the Chilean students were demanding an end to the neoliberal structures of education put in place by the Pinochet dictatorship, so as to get free, high quality education for all sections of society, the Greek students were protesting against what they called the rise of "an economic and political junta".

These sentiments were well summed up in a slogan coined by Occupied London: "Then with tanks, now with banks." November was a particularly high point as OWS celebrated two months of its existence across dozens of cities in the U.S. and Canada; students started a week-long strike in all the major cities of Spain; while, in Italy, there were marches and even violent clashes with the police in Rome, Milan, Turin and Palermo. Even in Germany, the great heart of Bankers' Europe, students struck in over a dozen cities.

One of the striking features of these rebellions is the curious interplay between the broader rebellions on the one hand and the workers movements and trade unions on the other. In Tunisia, something like 75 per cent of the population is estimated to have participated in protests at one time or another, but it was the demonstration of 150,000 on January 12, in response to the call given by the UGTT, the Trade Union Confederation, which convinced the U.S. embassy and the Tunisian Armed Forces to let go of Ben Ali, the dictator. (According to information leaked by the French government, General Rachid Ammar, the chief of the Tunisian Army, was acting on the advice given to him by General William Ward, the then acting head of the U.S. Africom.) In Egypt, some 15 million people, about a sixth of the population, are said to have participated in the rebellions, and the role of the trade unions was by no means quite as central. However, for a great many who played leading roles in the rebellion of 2011, the militant strike wave of 2008 was a reference point. Egypt had, in fact, remained turbulent since those strikes, and unions and syndicates played a substantial role in 2011 too, through strikes and organised participation in the demonstrations, going on then to form dozens of new independent unions. These workers' strikes were particularly intense during the last two weeks of Hosni Mubarak's rule and getting workers back to work, in an economy that had stalled badly during the rebellion, was a major impetus for the military first to let go of Mubarak, then to outlaw strikes and unleash brute force against the striking workers after it captured power.

In other words, the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings began as protests against the extreme forms of poverty, unemployment and acute price rise; they witnessed substantial working class and trade union participation; but they eventually got focussed on issues of dictatorship and civilian rule, so that the creation of the institutional framework of liberal democracy itself came to be seen as the absolute good. The militants' almost exclusive focus on obtaining liberal democratic freedoms and their relative lack of engagement with substantive issues of economic freedoms and redistribution of wealth made it easier for the much better organised Islamists to walk into corridors of power precisely through those electoral processes, while numerically very weak socialist groups were in no way prepared for electoral contests and the rest of the secular forces were largely trapped in the democracy promotion rhetoric that they had learned from Freedom House, etc.

The Euro-American zone

The dynamic of working class resistance to the neoliberal offensive feeding into mass rebellions has been clearer in the Europe of stable liberal democracies than in the anti-dictatorship uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, though with equally unforeseeable consequences.

SEBASTIAN SILVA/AP

SANTIAGO, CHILE, AUGUST 9, 2011: During a students' protest demanding an end to the neoliberal structures of education put in place by the Pinochet dictatorship and free, high-quality education for all sections. The Chilean uprising was followed by sizeable student protests in a number of Latin American countries.

Spain, for instance, had its first general strike of this century in 2002, and a year before the eruption of the indignados in 2011 there had been another general strike so massive that half of Spain's labour force is said to have participated in it; as these movements erupted in the form that they did, one recalled that Spain was the country that had Europe's strongest anarchist movement in the 20th century. Within this century, Austria, France and Italy experienced mass strikes in 2003, and various such strikes have occurred in one country or another since then. Greece has lived in a virtually permanent state of strikes, uprisings and state repression since 2008, and while French strikes have been comparatively far more amiable they too have been persistent over the past three years. Even in London, the huge student demonstrations of November 2010 were followed by a march of 400,000 in March 2011, in the largest union-organised event in 20 years. The larger movements in Europe are youth driven, though, much as in northern Africa or in Chile. Which should cause no surprise. Unemployment of the educated in parts of even western Europe is beginning to remind one of the same phenomenon in Latin America and the Arab world. At the beginning of 2011, unemployment for youth below the age of 25 was over 20 per cent across the European Union (E.U.), but 26 per cent in Italy, 30 per cent in Greece, and 43 per cent in Spain, while the common European idea of education as a public good that was to be paid for collectively, not through individual "user fees", is being given up in a wave of privatisations and so-called "austerity measures".

Europe has been in the grip of creeping neoliberalism and an increasingly powerful financial oligarchy since the very inception of the E.U., and there has been a veritable financial coup d'etat over the last three years, whose poisonous grip keeps moving from country to country, from Latvia to Ireland, Greece to Spain, Portugal to Italy. Britain and France keep implementing more and more "austerity"– cuts in wages, employment, pensions, social services, and so on – pleading to their populations that without such "austerity" they too might face the fate of Ireland and Greece. Tiny little Iceland has so far been the only country that has refused this oligarchic diktat and saved its future on its own terms. The financial oligarchy seems to have decided that a neoliberal Europe can arise only if social Europe is consigned to the graveyard, and it has therefore launched the most sweeping attack on the European working class that this class has faced since the 1930s. What is being administered to parts of south-western Europe now is in fact a variant of the "shock therapy" that was administered to eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Younger members of the working and middling classes bear the full brunt of this attack and they are the ones most in rebellion.

Something structurally similar lies behind the OWS movement. There has been very little upward movement in the real wages of the American working population since the onset of neoliberalism in the late 1970s. The vast majority of the U.S. population has been able to keep up its standard of living over the past 30 years or so only by incurring more and more debt, mainly of three kinds: mortgage debt for purchase of new housing or against housing already owned; credit card debt; and student debt. It is estimated that $7 trillion in home equity – more than half of the aggregate home equity that existed in early 2006 – has now been lost and about 30 per cent of all homes with mortgages are still facing possible foreclosures.

Between 2007 and end of 2012, as many as 12 million homes – representing one in every four mortgages – will have been foreclosed. With such massive losses of property and savings, other kinds of debt still remain. Student debt now stands at roughly $1 trillion, more or less equal to credit card debt, and is set to rise sharply with escalating educational costs. For instance, students at Berkeley may pay a proposed $23,000 in tuition by the 2015-2016 academic year, up from $11,160 at present, which is itself four times more than the $2,716 in tuition fee 10 years ago. As a large number of families lose their homes, a substantial proportion of the U.S.' young population puts itself through college by incurring huge debts but without secure prospects of a job good enough to repay that debt and also live a decent life. The great slogan of the OWS – "We are the 99 per cent" – may sound rhetorical to the wealthiest stratum but it speaks directly to those who are swamped by these debts: housing mortgage, credit card, and student loans.

THE HINDU ARCHIVES

AT A DEMONSTRATION against the Vietnam War outside the Pentagon in 1967. The mid-1960s saw many protests; 1968 in particular was a year of rebellions worldwide. But the idea of socialism was very much alive and well then unlike in the uprisings of 2011 where it had a microscopic presence.

This is a generation that has had to mortgage its own future for the sake, indirectly, of imperialist wars and Wall Street wealth, while the universities become mere corporate entities and the overall education system erodes, like much of the U.S. infrastructure. They want to defend their own future against corporate greed, and in doing so they speak to the fears and aspirations of countless other people. That is why thousands of occupations have mushroomed all across North America. They are hibernating for the winter, but they will have their spring, hopefully a better spring than the Arab Spring that is sought to be contained by Islamism, sectarianism, neoliberalism, militarism and NATO aggressions – a matter to which we shall return.

Revolution in search of a form

Cumulatively, all these movements of 2011, from Tunis to Santiago to Wall Street, bring two facts into sharp relief. First, and regardless of how other forces intervene to give the movements a different orientation, what is common among these transcontinental developments is a protest against neoliberalism and against the failures, on part of dictatorships and liberal democracies alike, to protect the people from the ensuing miseries; this is combined, then, in a loss of faith in the whole spectrum of actually existing political parties as such.

Second, even though every uprising tends to have unique characteristics and is usually unpredictable before it actually occurs, none can be treated in isolation, and the events of 2011 cannot be seen as unique eruptions, coming out of nowhere.

What, then, of the very form that most of these protests have taken, aside from the familiar form of the workers' strike? A couple of general points can be made to frame this question. First, the accelerated rate of the globalisation of capital has itself given an impetus to the widespread sense among the oppositional forces that protest too has to have an international dimension; hence the well-known slogan "Think globally, act locally" and variations thereof. Second, the very technologies that were invented to facilitate global movement of capital and the creation of a globally integrated battlefield (such as the empire of drones) also have had the spin-off effect of facilitating contacts of various kinds among far-flung protest movements, from building alternative media to information-sharing among individuals and groups in diverse countries, from fast upload of video and cellular phone images to the making of Facebook communities, and so on. Third, as I have been writing for some time, the collapse of the Soviet system on the one hand and the assimilation of social democracy into the neoliberal project on the other have meant that new generations, arising especially since the 1990s, have had to experiment with a variety of novel and not-so-novel forms until a revolutionary form can be found for an emancipatory project – let us still call it socialism – that is adequate to the conditions of the 21st century.

In these uncertain times, vast numbers of people feel more comfortable working in movements, networks, mobilisations on particular issues, etc., than with the historic forms of the political party, the trade union, etc. Not the least consequence of this situation is that with the decline of both communism and social democracy, the third great current descended from the 19th century forms of political radicalism – namely Anarchism – is now ascendant in many of the new movements, even in places where actual individuals may or may not be fully cognisant of the theoretical roots of their own thinking. This is particularly true of the Euro-American zones where many more are consciously anarchist by conviction. In Arab and Asian zones, these kinds of thinking or organising are imbibed more indirectly.

1968 & 2011 – the difference

If we start tracing the real genealogies of 2011 we might have to go all the way back to worldwide rebellions of some 40 years ago that have come to be associated with another year, '1968': wars of national liberation in a dozen Asian and African countries; the Cultural Revolution against "the headquarters" in China; Euro-American movements in opposition to imperialist wars (against the Vietnam War in the U.S.; against the Labour government's support for that war in Britain); growing scepticism and even opposition to the Soviet Union (against intervention in Czechoslovakia; sympathy for the Prague Spring); opposition to dictatorship (Pakistan; overthrow of the Ayub dictatorship); opposition to racism (American civil rights movement; race riots in Britain); opposition to right-wing educational authorities (campus rebellions in many parts of the world); opposition to assigned familial and sexual roles (still an ongoing process across the world); and, in many quarters across Asia and Europe, a certain affiliation with Maoism and the Latin American guerilla. Many of these aspects of '1968' came to be condensed in the French uprising, including the notable discordance between the militants and the French Communist Party (PCF), and '1968' is therefore associated in popular memory specifically with Paris. The uprisings of 2011 are very much in the 'spirit of 1968' but with two historic differences.

First, the movements of '1968' arose within what has come to be known as "the Golden Age of Capitalism", an unprecedented quarter century of increasing prosperity in countries of advanced capitalism, and in the heyday of national liberation and non-alignment in the Tricontinent; the political orientations of those movements were conditioned by those contexts of their emergence. By contrast, the movements of 2011 have arisen in a time of near-total defeat and disorientation of the socialist Left (except in Latin America), the worst economic downturn in the capitalist core in some 80 years, the most brutal offensive of finance capital in its neoliberal guise, and, specifically in much of the Arab world, long-standing and utterly corrupt dictatorships and monarchies at the state level, and – at the demotic level that often gets mistaken for 'civil society' – a cultural crisis that often manifests itself in identitarian fantasies of deliverance through a combination of Islamism, free enterprise and Democracy Promotion. Hence the odd contrast between the Euro-American movements that have remained focussed on livelihood issues raised for the people by neoliberal triumph, and in the Arab world, a peculiar intersection between demands for institutions of liberal democracy on the one hand and the sweeping march of Islamism precisely through those institutions on the other hand. If anything, the issue of imperialism is even weaker in the Arab protests than in the American ones.

JAVIER SORIANO/AFP

PUERTA DEL SOL SQUARE, Madrid, May 21, 2011: Spanish youth, furious over soaring unemployment, unleashed a massive movement of the 'indignados' (the angry ones). A year earlier, more than half the labour force participated in a general strike in the country, which had Europe's strongest anarchist movement in the 20th century.

Second, the idea of socialism – even the idea of a "better socialism" than what the Soviet model had offered – was very much alive and well in the movements of '1968', in both the Marxist and the libertarian forms. That idea has a rather microscopic presence in the movements of 2011 (though, again, not so in Latin America). What these new movements aspire for is a less savage, reformed capitalism, with more jobs, more secure and somewhat higher wages, and improved and cheaper education systems. In Arab movements, rising from under ferocious dictatorships, much libido is invested in 'democracy' as an absolute horizon; in the West, there is nostalgia mostly for Keynes and, in a more diffuse form, for some pale shadow of Proudhon.

Even so, the uprisings of 2011 do stand, at least in their origins, in a substantive relation to the movements of the preceding decades, notably in Latin America. The most aggressive forms of neoliberalism came to Latin America before they came to many other parts of the world, and it was therefore logical that the first great protests against it would also materialise there. This is how Eric Toussant, eminent member of a number of European anti-globalisation movements, summarises some of the salient Latin American developments of the past decade:

After 20 years of neoliberal domination in South America, massive uprisings in several countries proved to be successful: the water war in Bolivia in 2000; the Indian uprising in Ecuador that overturned the neoliberal president (2000); the rebellion that overruled Argentine's neoliberal president (end of 2001) and opened onto a prerevolutionary crisis in December 2001 and on into 2002; the popular uprising in Venezuela in April 2002 to bring Hugo Chavez back to the presidency after a coup (April 11-13, 2002); the gas war in Bolivia in 2003 with the pro-Washington neoliberal president being overruled, and similarly the overruling of the pro-U.S. neoliberal president in Ecuador in 2005…. In the wake of such mobilisations, governments that at least partly broke off with neoliberalism and opposed the U.S. domination, launched political reforms and partly restored public control over natural resources (Venezuela from 1999, Bolivia in 2006, Ecuador in 2007). Yielding to popular pressure, the Argentine government, which was not particularly left-wing, implemented heterodox measures that contrasted with those taken by the PT (Workers Party) government in Brazil and by the Uruguayan Broad Front.

The creation of the World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in January 2001 should also be seen as part of that Latin American process, even though many from the rest of the world played important roles in the materialisation of the process. Within the Euro-American zones, this new kind of radicalism can be dated back to the very impressive mobilisation against the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Seattle (1999) and against the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the G-8 (in Washington in April 2000, Prague in September 2000, in Genoa in July 2001). In a sense, that wave of protests climaxed in the historic worldwide protest against the impending Iraq War in February 2003, which mobilised 12 to 15 million people from one end of the earth to another. That kind of mobilisation declined in the U.S. after the onset of the Iraq War in early 2003 even though several countries in western Europe, notably France, witnessed waves upon waves of strikes and protests. Latin America, of course, remained the home of radical movements throughout the decade. The Occupy movement thus announces the return of oppositional politics in the U.S., in the hands of a new generation, in an altered context and altered form of protest, but very much in the spirit of 1968, the Seattle mobilisation, and the concurrent Egyptian uprising.

MAYA ALLERUZZO/AP

FOR OVER 30 years now, Egyptian armed forces have received over a billion dollars annually from the U.S. A part of the function of this largesse is to incorporate the upper layers of the military establishment into the neoliberalising big bourgeoisie of Egypt. Here, Chief of Staff Sami Anan (second from left) and other military officials at a Christmas-eve mass in Cairo.

Reaction, restoration and the global right

How have the insurrectionary movements fared in the outcomes until now?

History is Necessity, Hegel has taught us. In other words, historical outcomes do not coincide with revolutionary desire or insurrectionary will but are determined by possibilities inherent in – and limited by – the larger prevailing structures. In short, only the possible happens. The impossible does not. The great slogan of 1968, "Be Realistic; Imagine the Impossible", captures the noblest of revolutionary desires but is also profoundly anti-Hegelian. The Leninist formula, reformulated in my own words, is more viable: imagine the impossible, remain true to your dream, act on that portion of the impossible that is possible.

At the most general level, the Arab movements of 2011 can be seen as the third wave of anti-dictatorship movements in the Tricontinent, following upon the earlier Latin American ones and then the Asian ones (the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan). In another dimension, and at least in their initial manifestations in Tunisia and Egypt, they were also uprisings against the intensification of neoliberal policies under Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak whose own families and close associates were seen to have accumulated enormous wealth through corruption and privatisation of public assets. This aspect was further accentuated by the spiralling food prices which rose even more sharply in 2010/11 than in 2008, when food riots had broken out in a host of Asian and African countries. However, in the actual unfolding of those rebellions, as they took the colouration mainly of urban middle class protest, the focus shifted away from neoliberal devastation to dictatorial forms of rule and the personal corruption of those dictators.

The secular character of the initial youth rebellions of Egypt and Tunisia also indicated revulsion against the depredations of Jehadi Islam that had caught many a youthful imagination in the recent past. However, that revulsion against extremist Islam in an age of identitarian politics itself led to a certain softening of attitudes towards the new 'moderate' image that the Egyptian Brotherhood and the Tunisian Ennahda had cultivated for themselves, even as the Salafis decided to play by the liberal-democratic rules of parliamentary elections. In some other countries, notably Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and Syria, the issue of extreme authoritarianism of the regimes was further complicated by the fact that their power base was rooted in sectarian (Bahrain, Syria, Yemen) or tribal minorities (Libya after Qaddafi's initial 'nationalist' phase was over, but also Yemen). This minoritarian character was sometimes intermeshed with regional divides (in Libya most notably but also Yemen). The pressing issue of a radical redistribution of wealth was thus submerged everywhere under the weight of electoralism, Islamism, sectarianism, regionalism and a generalised hope that the U.S.-led ' international community' will bring them the gift of democracy and human rights.

REUTERS/HANDOUT

THE SAUDI MONARCHY - and by extension all the monarchies banded together in the Gulf Cooperation Council, which now serves as a network of U.S. dependencies and military basing facilities - acts as the financial powerhouse in the Arab world, increasingly dictating economic policies elsewhere, and now as an outright interventionist force. Here, King Abdullah (left) of Saudi Arabia with the heads of other countries comprising the GCC before their meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on December 19, 2011.

Levels of state formation are also highly uneven across the region. Throughout most of its known history, Egypt has had a powerful central state, and this centralisation of power was only enhanced with the Free Officers' coup of 1952. The first Arab constitution was drafted in Tunisia, in 1861, under French tutelage, and after independence Habib Bourguiba took care to nurse the institutions of a modern state and civil society as well as a highly educated middle class. By contrast, countries such as Qatar and Bahrain are small, autocratic sheikhdoms, while Libya is so internally divided among its myriad tribes and regions that it gives the impression of being more of a tribal confederation than a modern state; in the latter decades of his rule, Qaddafi himself often appeared to be as much a buffoon as the very caricature of a wealthy Bedouin monarch. To a great degree, all the authoritarian rulers, including the Nasserist and Baathist ones, suppressed political institutions they could not control directly and prevented the emergence of a modern and civil public sphere, to the extent that the mosque was often the only widespread public institution where issues of social concern could be discussed and concomitant local organisations could be devised, often in the outward form of public charities. With the relative exception of Tunisia, virtually all these regimes adopted some variety of Islamism, to one extent or another.

In Egypt, Anwar Sadat used the Muslim Brotherhood methodically in his fight against the Nasserists and the leftists; Mubarak established a relationship of competitive collaboration with them, opening up great spaces for them in the educational and judicial structures, sometimes permitting them into Parliament and at other times denying them such rights in order to furbish his credentials as a defender of secular modernity against political Islam. With the relative exception of Tunisia and Syria, all regimes allowed tens of billions of dollars to be poured into the coffers of the Muslim Brotherhood from the Gulf countries, notably Saudi Arabia, which has been the patron saint of the Brotherhood ever since Nasser evicted them from Egypt in the 1950s; Sadat brought them back in the 1970s with much fanfare, in collaboration with Saudi Arabia and full U.S. backing. Every European country where the Brotherhood sought to establish its offices, from Switzerland to Britain, allowed such monies to come to them unchecked; this was also true of the Tunisian Ennahda after its leaders took up plush residence in European exile. Today, millionaires and even billionaires can be found among the core leadership of the Egyptian Brotherhood, and, in the new democratic dispensations that arose as a consequence of the 'Arab Spring' all variety of Islamists have put these virtually unlimited funds to good use.

The Arab world has had an intense and uniquely different experience of colonialism and imperialism. The Maghreb, or western North Africa – Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia – was colonised earlier by the French who devised different methods of ruling in the three countries. European pressure and then outright British colonisation of Egypt came very much as a Western project to thwart (successfully) Egypt's attempt, first undertaken under Muhammad Ali, to devise its own independent path into modernity. Much of the Arab East, the Mashreq, fell to the colonial powers only after the defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman empire; the creation of Israel is also a specific result of that history. With the exception of Egypt and Morocco, all other Arab states are confections of colonial division and artefact. And, oil (later gas) has been the main solvent in all colonial, imperial designs since at least the 1940s (British obsession with oil is older). President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first to commit the U.S. to eternal alliance with the Saudi monarchy – and by extension all the monarchies now banded together in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which now serves, all at once, as a network of U.S. dependencies and military basing facilities – as the financial powerhouse in the Arab world increasingly dictating economic policies elsewhere, and, most recently, as an outright interventionist force. It was the brutal action of the Saudi armed forces that suppressed the rebellions not only in Saudi Arabia's own eastern provinces but also in Bahrain. Troops from Qatar and the Arab Emirates worked in unison with NATO in Libya. Saudi and Qatari funding is now going to the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, not to speak of the hundreds of fighters imported from Libya for infiltration into Syria, with the mediation of the GCC and the Turkish government, NATO's own Islamists.

Destruction of anti-imperialist Arab nationalism

The promotion of Saudi influence, the destruction of secular and inevitably anti-imperialist Arab nationalism, and the destruction of every Arab (or Irani, for that matter) armed force that may potentially pose a threat to Israel have been the primary objectives of the U.S. in West Asia. The Israeli victory over Nasserist Egypt was the first great turning point in these endeavours, and the subsequent regimes of Anwar Sadat and Mubarak cemented that equation. For over 30 years now, Egyptian armed forces have received well over a billion dollars annually from the U.S. so that the entire officers' corps is beholden to U.S. interests. A part of the function of this largesse is to incorporate the upper layers of the military establishment into the neoliberalising big bourgeoisie of Egypt. Virtually the whole of the Arab world has been secured in this fashion. Syrian and (non-Arab) Irani regimes have their own accommodative relationships with Israel, and yet, because of their own divergent national interests, they are still regarded as potential threats to Israel, and must therefore be harnessed. The ongoing Shia-Sunni sectarian divides in the Islamic and Islamising world fits neatly into these designs, so that regimes as different as those of Turkey and Saudi Arabia and Israel can now cooperate, under U.S. aegis, in utilising the genuine democracy protests against the Assad dictatorship for their own purposes, in unleashing the Muslim Brotherhood, and more generally preparing overt and covert armed intervention there.

LUCA BRUNO/AP

MILAN, ITALY, DECEMBER 13, 2011: An elderly woman begs in a downtown area. The movements of 2011 arose in a time of near-total defeat of the socialist Left (except in Latin America) and the worst economic downturn in the capitalist core in some 80 years, among other factors.

The U.S. has had a very old relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, dating back to the days of the Truman Doctrine, the Eisenhower presidency, and the relocation to Switzerland of Said Ramadan, the Brotherhood's international organiser and conduit to various governments, intelligence services and Islamist organisations. We need not dwell on that past. As the 'war on terrorism' (and on 'Islamo-fascism' as Americans call it), progressed, with ambiguous results, there was a renewed policy distinction between Bad Muslim and Good Muslim, and a view now gained strength that the only way to really contain 'Islamo-fascism' was to hand over the region to Good Muslims. Gulf monarchies were already among the Good Muslims, and the Brotherhood too had been in that category from time to time. Through the aegis of Saudi Arabia, the U.S. now began exploring the possibility of bringing together these two categories – Gulf monarchies for their kingdoms; the Brotherhood and its variants for the rest of the Arab world – into something of a hegemonic force for the region. This view was further strengthened with the emergence of an Islamist ruling bloc in Turkey, the historic home of secularism in the Muslim world, that was overturning the Kemalist legacy but with enthusiastic allegiance to NATO and neoliberalism.

This 'Turkish model' was now ready to be implemented elsewhere. Could Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of the Tunisian variant of the Brotherhood that goes under the name of Ennahda, be made into another Recep Tayyip Erdogan? In the event, the Brotherhood was favourably disposed to the idea, having witnessed the brutal but successful suppression of Jehadi Islam in Algeria, the worldwide defeat of Al Qaeda and its affiliates (except, thus far, in Pakistan), and, by contrast, the peaceful Islamist takeover in Turkey through what Gramsci might have called a passive revolution. Could this not be done in countries like Tunisia and Egypt, too, the Brotherhood was to ask itself? That was the position also of those intellectuals of the Brotherhood, such as Tariq Ramadan, who are strategically located in the West. Once the insurrectionary storm erupted, Islamists in both countries devoted themselves to the task of winning the elections, with Saudi, Qatari, American and Turkish support, and in dialogue with elements of old regimes that were now crumbling.

On their part, the Egyptian Brotherhood issued public assurances that, once in power, it would abide by the treaty with Israel, the very lynchpin of U.S.-Israeli policies in the region, and it never raised a voice against the neoliberal economic model; indeed, the Brotherhood has always opposed workers' strikes and trade union militancy in the name of the 'national economy'. Even the Egyptian Salafists have by and large fallen in line; in the Egyptian election results announced so far, the Brotherhood and the Salafists seem to have together made a clean sweep, winning 70 per cent or more of the seats. As for Ghannouchi, the U.S. was the first country he visited after winning a plurality in the Tunisian elections, and submitted due assurances.

Arab countries are tied together by older histories, language and, for the majority of the population, some variant of the Islamic belief. For the rest, there are vast differences among countries and, in some cases, between regions inside individual countries. Each country that came in the eye of the storm experienced a different outcome. Protests in countries like Algeria and Jordan fizzled out without much effect, though they too have very sizeable Islamic movements that live a semi-clandestine existence. Morocco experienced only minor protests, the king shrewdly introduced some constitutional amendments, and the Islamists won the elections anyway.

KOSTAS TSIRONIS/AP

ATHENS, JUNE 10, 2011: Government employees protest against the spending cuts and tax hikes proposed by the Greek government. The financial oligarchy seems to have decided that a neoliberal Europe can arise only if social Europe is consigned to the graveyard, and it has therefore launched the most sweeping attack on the European working class that it has faced since the 1930s.

Tunisia had a genuinely peaceful liberal democratic transition with the emergence of a newly elected coalition government led by the Islamists but with a substantial presence of the centre-left that seems to have no distinct programme of its own for any Tunisian break with the neoliberal order. A milder, characteristically Tunisian version of Islamism is assured while Ghannouchi and his group are in the lead, but the party is full of much more conservative, Salafist-style elements, and it is far from clear what a leadership transition will bring; as late as the 1980s, Ennahda used to be a party of jehadi violence.

Pre-emptive counterrevolution

In Libya, there was rather little of the modern, democratic insurrection of the type we witnessed in Tunisia and Egypt; the rebellion was soon armed and infiltrated by the Western special forces; it had a far great regionalist element, accentuated further by tribal rivalries; and the emerging dispensation is even more Islamist than Qaddafi's own Islamic pretensions. The outcome was determined not so much by internal factors as by NATO intervention, and while Qaddafi had himself made a neoliberal about-turn some years ago, the new rulers are likely to pursue neoliberalism and pro-NATO policies with far greater devotion, if and when their rule gets stabilised (Aijaz Ahmad, "Libya Recolonised", Frontline, November 18, 2011).

Unlike Libya, Syria is only partially a personal dictatorship, rests much more on a powerful party structure, a modern army largely loyal to the regime, a brutal but efficient intelligence network, and even a bourgeoisie whose fortunes have been largely tied to the regime, even though many business interests are also aligned with the opposition. Syria is also comparatively more modern and secular, and, demographically, a mosaic of religious and ethnic minorities, alongside an Arab Sunni majority. Muslim Brotherhood has a substantial presence, especially in cities like Homs and Homa, but nothing comparable to Egypt, and the prospect of a devout Sunni regime emerging in Damascus presses the various minorities to seek protection from the regime. Mass disaffection with the brutality and corruption of the regime is enormous, and Syria has a genuine, modern, secular, homegrown opposition inside the country, some of which may have ties with the expatriates who have made common cause with the French and the Americans, and are now asking for no-fly zones, "humanitarian corridors", covert interventions, etc. Burhan Ghallioun, who has emerged as the titular head of this expatriate opposition, has publicly offered assurances that if the West brings his Syrian National Council (SNC) to power, Syria would break its alliance with Iran, revoke its assistance to Hamas and Hizbullah, and seek only a negotiated settlement with Israel over the Syrian territory of the Golan Heights which Israel has occupied and annexed. The Arab League, dominated by Saudi Arabia and other GCC cohorts, provides legitimacy to this expatriate opposition and to the Euro-American designs in Syria, as it did in Libya. What we are witnessing today is something of a social decomposition in what was once Arab world's most urbane corner.

In Egypt, the U.S. had three layers working for an outcome favourable to its interests. First, and over many years, a large number of Egyptian activists had been trained and co-opted into the democracy promotion project by such entities as Freedom House, Republican Democracy Institute, etc.; those who were thus trained included several of the individuals who emerged as highly influential figures in the youth rebellion, including some leaders of the April 6th Youth Movement and Wael Ghonim of Google. It would be foolish to infer that a rebellion of such proportions was simply the handiwork of these few dozen individuals. The training and financial sponsorship should be viewed more in the nature of contingency planning, that is, just in case an unstoppable anti-Mubarak movement materialises, a cohesive group of individuals, commanding the requisite material and technological resources, must be in place so as to guide the spontaneous outbreak in the desired directions as much as possible. This is not dissimilar to what was done earlier in several East European countries, and some of these Egyptian democracy activists were, in fact, trained in not only the U.S. but also countries like Slovenia. For a country so much under U.S. and Israeli pressure for generations, it was quite remarkable how little anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist agitation there was in the Tahrir Square uprising that brought down the U.S.-supported dictatorship.

EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP

NEW YORK, OCTOBER 5: A march by "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrators. There has been very little upward movement of real wages of the American working population since the onset of neoliberalism in the late 1970s. The vast majority of the population has kept up its standard of living over the past 30 years only by incurring more debt, mainly from mortgages, credit cards and student loans.

The other two props of U.S. power in Egypt, namely, the Army and the Brotherhood, were of course more substantial. So, the issue of Mubarak's dictatorship was resolved mainly by a military coup d'etat, and the issue of democracy is being resolved currently through the formation of an elected government dominated entirely by the Brotherhood and other Islamists. In public, elements of the governing military junta sometimes express concern about the future role of the Brotherhood, but this can be safely viewed as pressure tactics to get the Brotherhood to give public guarantees over the issues of Israel, neoliberal economy, and the sanctity of military ties with the U.S.

All in all, one can say that, with the partial exception of Tunisia where some gains have been made by way of making a liberal democratic order, what we have experienced across the region is something of a pre-emptive counterrevolution which has been, in most places – Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Syria – violent. This outcome reflects the existing balance of force, both in the military domain and in terms of the organisational capacities of the respective Islamist forces, not to speak of the vastly superior financial resources of the Right in general. This Right includes the emerging dispensation in Egypt as much as the dying one in Syria.

What, then, of Europe?

The European impasse

The E.U. as a whole, and the eurozone, which comprises of the majority of the countries in the Union, has always been a bundle of contradictions. The original idea of a common home for all of Europe was based on the vision of a social Europe in which the social safety nets of the type prevailing at the time in Scandinavian countries and the Franco-German zone would be extended to the whole of Europe, policies and common funds would be created for bridging the gaps between the richer and poorer zones of Europe, and the Union would march from being a mere union of sovereign nation-states to something of a federation with central institutions that would be increasingly answerable to a trans-European electorate.

DANNY MOLOSHOK/REUTERS

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Los Angeles, November 28, 2011: A protest by students against rising tuition fees. Student debt in the U.S. now stands at roughly $1 trillion, more or less equal to credit card debt, and is set to rise sharply with escalating educational costs.

In reality, what has emerged is a travesty of that vision. By the time the Union really developed its main institutions, neoliberalism had become the entrenched ideology of the European ruling classes, shared equally by the social democrats and the historic parties of the Right. What emerged, first of all, was a Bankers' Europe in which the central financial institutions were answerable neither to electorates nor to the constituent national parliaments; the European Bank, for instance, is answerable only to its own members who are all representatives of Europe's major banks. Second, it became a highly lopsided union of wealthier and poorer – even far poorer – countries. Germany was the major financial and industrial powerhouse whose banks set the terms for the financial architecture of the union; which exported advanced industrial goods to the poorer countries of the E.U.; and which acquired vast and cheap labour reserves in the eastern zones after the collapse of communism. It is mainly the German, Scandinavian and French banks that came to dominate the weaker economies through debt. Meanwhile, the creation of a single currency deprived the weaker economies of the European periphery – the ones that import goods and bank finance from the more advanced core – the opportunity to create their own monies to cope with deficits and balance of payment problems.

The incorporation of social democracy into this neoliberal project of Bankers' Europe meant also that the European working classes who had looked to socialist parties for protection of their quite advanced social rights no longer possessed a political instrument to wage a winnable struggle against the bankers and their neoliberal political cohorts. The strike was now their only weapon, in countries where industrial economies were shrinking and their own unions stood midway between labour and capital. The fact that neoliberalism came to the European continent much later than it did to the U.S., Britain and elsewhere, meant also that it had far greater experience in dismantling the social state. That dismantling has been going on for some time, but the onset of the current crisis has been used to unleash processes that would destroy the social compacts thoroughly. That process is already far advanced in countries like Latvia, Ireland and Greece but is also getting extended to Spain, Portugal and even major European economies like Italy and France. Eventually, it will catch up with Scandinavia and Germany as well.

The defection of social democracy to neoliberalism is one aspect. Meanwhile, governments may now be appointed, in one country after another, not by reference to parliaments and electorates but at the behest of bankers, as has happened already in Greece and Italy where elected leaders were expected to resist the more extreme pressures from banks and the E.U.'s financial institutions. Not the least danger is the growing strength of parties of the Far Right across Europe, from Austria to Denmark, and from France to Hungary. Islamophobia and more generally campaigns against non-European immigrants feed into such mobilisations of the Far Right, which then presents itself as protecting the rights of "real" Europeans. Sections of the working class and the unemployed youth, having lost moorings in parties of the Left, are particularly prone to this radicalism of the Right. If Islam is an identity in the Arab world, anti-Islam is also an expanding identity in Europe.

Not all parts of Europe are hurting equally. German prosperity by and large continues. At the other end of the spectrum, collapse of basic incomes is so extreme for large sections of the population in a country like Greece that many families there are now compelled to give up their children to the care of public shelters because parents can no longer take care of them.

SIMON DAWSON/BLOOMBERG

THE VISION OF a social Europe has given way to a Bankers' Europe in which the central financial institutions are answerable neither to electorates nor to the constituent national parliaments; the European Central Bank, for instance, is answerable only to its own members who are all representatives of Europe's major banks. Here, an Occupy movement's protest board outside the headquarters of the ECB in Frankfurt, Germany.

It is in the midst of all this that strikes and protests occurred all across Europe throughout 2011, at times on a massive scale. Manifestations of the public outrage have been various: strikes by workers, notably public sector workers; student strikes; mass rallies combining strikes and popular protests; and, as in the case of the Spanish indignados, just a mass outrage of gigantic proportions, led by the youth but inclusive of all sections of society. Political parties have either been the target of these mobilisations or have, at best, trailed far behind the masses.

In Europe, as in the Arab world, vast numbers of people are on the move but counterrevolution has the initiative. These are politics of the interim, when people have lost faith in their rulers but have found nothing to put in their place. One only hopes that such are the processes through which an iron of the future is forged. The articulation of an anti-capitalist alternative that is appropriate for our times is still far from visible.

Conclusion

And what have been the great gains of 2011?

In all the countries where these strikes, mass protests and insurrections have occurred, there is now a great global conversation, among the populace at large, on issues of human dignity and transitions from political to economic democracy. Latin America still remains the primary home of an insurgent Left for which issues of the nature and constitution of state power is itself the primary issue for transformative politics. In at least some corners of Europe, there is now a renewed debate over the very legitimacy of the fundamental structures of liberal democracy, the lamentable tie between domesticated workers' organisations and the corrupt political parties of the bourgeoisies, and the inability of all these to render any substantial degree of social and economic justice. Arab youth is in the process of learning, in a trial through fire, that liberal democracy is a mere premise, and a very precarious one at that, where the very procedures of its institutions, in a class-divided society, favour the rich, the powerful, the demagogic, the corrupt. And, if the Arab insurrections teach us yet again the central significance of the great narratives of national uprisings, the very mode of organising in the Occupy movements reminds us of the little narratives of politics in its immediate moorings: the public space of a park, this house confiscated by the banks, that dilapidated school deprived of the material means to educate its children; the vision of organising a million mutinies to light a single prairie fire. Attending to the whole, one has the feeling that one is hearing fragments of every language that the Left has spoken over the last 150 years.

This is how the grand, faltering experiment in changing the post-Soviet world goes on.

अमेरिका नजर रखेंगा कि ट्विटर अपनी नीतियां कैसे लागू करता है

2012-01-28T06:11:00.001-08:00

अमेरिका नजर रखेंगा कि ट्विटर अपनी नीतियां कैसे लागू करता है

Saturday, 28 January 2012 17:16

वाशिंगटन, 28 जनवरी (एजेंसी) अमेरिका ने ट्विटर पर की गई टिप्पणियों को चुनिंदा रूप से सेंसर करने की ट्विटर वेबसाइट की ओर से की गई घोषणा पर कहा है कि वह इंतजार करेगा और यह देखेगा कि माइक्रो ब्लागिंग साइट अपनी नयी नीति को कैसे लागू करती है।
विदेश मंत्रालय की प्रवक्ता विक्टोरिया नूलैंड ने कहा, ''हम अभिव्यक्ति, सभा और आनलाइन संपर्क करने की मौलिक स्वतंत्रताओं की रक्षा करने को प्रतिबद्ध हैं।''
उन्होंने कहा, ''विदेश मंत्री ने अपनी इंटरनेट स्वतंत्रता को लेकर दिये गए अभिभाषण में कहा था कि निजी कंपनियों की ओर से किये गए निर्णय का इस बात पर प्रभाव पड़ेगा कि सूचना का प्रवाह किस तरह से होता है या इसका प्रवाह इंटरनेट या मोबाइट नेटवर्कों पर नहीं होता है। इसका प्रभाव लोगों पर पड़ेगा। इसके साथ ही इसका प्रभाव सरकार पर भी होगा कि वह क्या कर सकती है और क्या नहीं कर सकती है।''

नूलैंड ने कहा कि चतुर कंपनियों को ऐसे वृहद नीतियां बनानी की आवश्यकता है जो उनकी कार्रवाइयों को निर्देशित करेंगी।

शर्तें मानो या सेवा छोड़ो: 35 करोड़ यूजर्स को गूगल की धमकी

2012-01-28T06:06:00.001-08:00

नई दिल्‍ली. दुनिया के सबसे बड़े सर्च इंजन गूगल ने अपने उपभोक्‍ताओं को मेल भेजकर अपने सभी उत्पादों की प्राइवेसी सेटिंग में बड़े बदलाव करने की घोषणा कर दी है। इनमें जीमेल, यू-ट्यूब और गूगल सर्च भी शामिल हैं। नई प्राइवेसी सेटिंग 1 मार्च से लागू हो जाएंगी।
गूगल ने संदेश में कहा है, '1 मार्च, 2012 से नई गोपनीयता नीति और गूगल सेवा की शर्तें प्रभावी होंगी। ऐसा होने के बाद भी यदि आप गूगल का उपयोग जारी रखना चुनते हैं, तो ऐसा आप नई गोपनीयता नीति और सेवा की शर्तों के अधीन करेंगे।' गूगल के दुनियाभर में 35 करोड़ एक्टिव यूजर्स हैं।

गूगल ने अपने सभी जीमेल उपभोक्‍ताओं को भेजे मेल में कहा है, 'हम गूगल की 60 विभिन्‍न गोपनीयता नीतियों को छोड़ने वाले हैं और उन्‍हें एक ऐसी नीति से बदलने जा रहे हैं जो बहुत छोटी और पढ़ने में आसान है। हमारी नई नीति एकाधिक उत्‍पादों और फ़ीचर को कवर करती है, जो संपूर्ण गूगल में एक बहुत सरल और सहज अनुभव बनाने की हमारी इच्‍छा को दर्शाती है। यह सामग्री महत्‍वपूर्ण है इसलिए हमारी अपडेट की गई गूगल गोपनीयता नीति और सेवा की शर्तें अभी पढ़ने के लिए कुछ समय दें।'

कंपनी का कहना है कि इससे हमें उपयोगकर्ताओं की रुचि समझने में मदद मिलेगी। साथ ही उपयोगकर्ताओं को भी उनकी पसंद के विज्ञापन ही देखने को मिलेंगे। यदि कोई व्यक्ति जगुआर शब्द गूगल पर सर्च करता है तो कंपनी समझ सकेगी कि उसे कार देखनी है या जानवर। हालांकि उपभोक्ताओं के वकीलों ने नई प्राइवेसी सेटिंग पर विरोध जताया है।

उनका कहना है कि कोई भी उपभोक्ता कभी नहीं चाहता कि उससे संबंधित जानकारियां विभिन्न वेबसाइटों को दी जाएं। हर उपयोगकर्ता चाहता है कि वह इंटरनेट पर जो खोजे उसे वही मिले और उसकी निजता सुरक्षित रखी जाए। साइबर विशेषज्ञ जेम्स स्टेयर ने कहा कि गूगल को भले ही लगता है कि वह इस प्रयास के जरिए उपभोक्ताओं को बेहतर सुविधा दे पाएगी लेकिन यह नई प्राइवेसी सेंटिंग डराने और खीझ पैदा करने वाली है।

अमेरिका ने कहा- चीन दुनिया के लिए खतरा

2012-01-28T06:04:00.001-08:00

दावोस. अमेरिका को चीन की रणनीतियों से अंतरराष्ट्रीय कारोबार में खतरा है। चीन अपनी मुद्रा की कीमत को वास्तविक कीमत से नीचे रख रहा है। अमेरिका की चिंता की सबसे बड़ी वजह यही है। दावोस में वर्ल्ड इकॉनमिक फोरम में हिस्सा ले रहे अमेरिका के वित्त मंत्री टिमोथी गीथनर ने बात मानी है। गीथनर ने साम्यावादी देश चीन की आर्थिक नीतियों की आलोचना करते हुए कहा, 'अपने आर्थिक ढांचे की वजह से चीन विश्व व्पापार के लिए मजबूत और अलग किस्म की चुनौती पेश कर रहा है।'

फोरम में गीथनर ने कहा, 'चीन के आर्थिक तौर तरीके उसके कारोबारी साझेदारों के लिए बेहद नुकसानदेह रहे हैं। इसमें सरकारी उद्योगों के लिए सब्सिडी, ऊर्जा की अजीब-ओ-गरीब कीमत, पूंजी और जमीन से जुड़ी नीतियां शामिल हैं।' चीन ने कारोबारी साझेदारों की कीमत पर अपने उत्पादन क्षेत्र को विकसित किया है। इसके लिए चीन ने अहम सामानों के आयात पर सब्सिडी देने और एक्सचेंज दरों को सामान्य से नीचे रखने जैसी नीति पर अमल किया है। ऐसी नीतियां न सिर्फ कारोबारी साझेदारों के लिए नुकसानदेह है बल्कि दुनिया में व्यापार के वजूद के लिए खतरा है।

चीन अमेरिका को हराता जा रहा है
चार चुनौतियों से चौकन्ना रहे चीन
अनिल अंबानी को कर्ज से उबारेंगे चीन के बैंक
अब चीन को टक्‍कर देगा भारत!

ईरान के लिए 13 हजार किलो का बम बना रहा अमेरिका!

2012-01-28T06:02:00.001-08:00

ईरान के लिए 13 हजार किलो का बम बना रहा अमेरिका!

वॉशिंगटन. अमेरिका समेत पश्चिमी देशों के सख्त ऐतराज के बावजूद ईरान अपने परमाणु कार्यक्रम को आगे बढ़ाने की जिद पर अड़ा है। इसे देखते हुए अमेरिका ने ईरान पर आर्थिक प्रतिबंध वगैरह लगाने के बाद अब सीधी लड़ाई की तैयारी शुरू कर दी है। इसके तहत अमेरिकी सेना ने 'बंकर-बस्टर' नाम का 13600 किलो वजन का अब तक का सबसे बड़ा पारंपरिक बम बनाने की कवायद तेज कर दी है।

अमेरिका एक जंगी जहाज को हमले के बेस के तौर पर तैयार कर मध्य पूर्व के नजदीक समंदर में भी भेजने वाला है। अमेरिकी सेंट्रल कमांड की मांग के बाद अमेरिकी नौसेना ने अपने पुराने जंगी जहाज को 'मदरशिप' के तौर पर तैयार कर रहा है। इसका इस्तेमाल नेवी सील का कमांडो दस्ता अपने लिए 'तैरते बेस' के तौर पर कर सकता है।

अमेरिका ने बंकर-बस्टर बमों से ईरान पर हमला कर जमीन के नीचे चल रहे परमाणु हथियारों को तैयार करने के कारखानों को तबाह करने की ओर तेजी से कदम बढ़ा दिए हैं। अमेरिकी अख़बार 'वॉल स्ट्रीट जर्नल' ने अमेरिकी अफसरों के हवाले से अपनी रिपोर्ट में कहा है कि ईरानी परमाणु ठिकानों पर हमले के समय वैकल्पिक योजनाओं को अंतिम रूप दिया जा रहा है।

अमेरिका ने यह कदम तब उठाया है जब अमेरिकी रक्षा मुख्यालय पेंटागन के युद्ध विशेषज्ञ और नियोजक इस नतीजे पर पहुंचे कि उनका सबसे बड़ा पारंपरिक बम ईरान में जमीन के नीचे बहुत ज़्यादा गहराई में बने परमाणु कारखानों को तबाह नहीं कर सकता है। 'वॉल स्ट्रीट जर्नल' ने अमेरिकी अधिकारियों के हवाले से लिखा है कि अमेरिकी रक्षा मंत्रालय ऐसे 20 बम तैयार करने में 16 अरब रुपये खर्च कर चुका है। वहीं, पेंटागन को अभी इन बमों को ज़्यादा घातक बनाने के लिए करीब 4 अरब रुपये और चाहिए। पेंटागन संबंधित अधिकारियों को इस बारे में जानकारी दे दी है।

विषमता का विकास

2012-01-28T05:57:00.001-08:00

विषमता का विकास

http://www.jansatta.com/index.php/component/content/article/20-2009-09-11-07-46-16/9961-2012-01-28-05-10-49

Saturday, 28 January 2012 10:39

निरंकार सिंह
जनसत्ता 28 जनवरी, 2012: एक राष्ट्र के रूप में हमने 'संपूर्ण प्रभुत्व-संपन्न, समाजवादी, पंथनिरपेक्ष लोकतंत्रात्मक गणराज्य' की स्थापना का संकल्प लिया था। लेकिन हालत क्या है? मनमोहन सिंह के नेतृत्व में जब यूपीए की सरकार बनी थी तो देश में नौ खरबपति थे। चार साल बाद अब इनकी संख्या छप्पन हो गई है। बारह साल पहले भारत के सकल घरेलू उत्पाद में खरबपतियों का हिस्सा दो फीसद था। अब बढ़ कर बाईस फीसद हो गया है। लेकिन जिस खेती से देश की पैंसठ फीसद से ज्यादा आबादी जुड़ी हुई है, उसका सकल घरेलू उत्पाद में कुल हिस्सा घट कर साढ़े सत्रह फीसद रह गया है।
इसका मतलब है कि देश के चंद खरबपतियों की आमदनी खेती से जुड़ी देश की पैंसठ फीसद आबादी की आमदनी से साढेÞ चार फीसद ज्यादा है। देश के सबसे अमीर और गरीब के बीच नब्बे लाख गुना का फर्क हो गया है। एशियाई विकास बैंक के नए पैमाने पर देश की लगभग दो तिहाई आबादी यानी बहत्तर करोड़ लोग गरीबी रेखा के नीचे गुजर-बसर कर रहे हैं। नए पैमाने के तहत 1.35 डॉलर रोजाना कमाई करने वालों को गरीबी रेखा के नीचे रखने की बात कही गई है। सरकार द्वारा नियुक्त अर्जुन सेनगुप्त आयोग ने भी अपनी रिपोर्ट में कहा है कि देश में चौरासी करोड़ लोग रोजाना बीस रुपए से भी कम पर गुजारा करते हैं।
देश में जब इतनी भारी विषमता हो तो फिर इसे लोकतांत्रिक समाजवादी देश कैसे कहा जा सकता है? यह उम्मीद की गई थी कि विकास का लाभ समान रूप से समाज के सभी वर्गों तक पहुंचेगा। लेकिन आर्थिक सुधार की नीतियां लागू होने के बाद देश में विभाजन की खाई और गहरी हो गई। अमीर-गरीब की खाई। शहरी और ग्रामीण भारत की खाई। पुरानी और नई तकनीक की खाई। कृषि के विकास में ठहराव और रोजगार की रफ्तार नहीं बढ़ने से पूरी ग्रामीण आबादी और शहरी आबादी का एक बड़ा हिस्सा विकास की मुख्यधारा से बाहर हो गया है।
कृषि पैदावार में बढ़ोतरी नहीं होने और कृषि उपज का पुसाने लायक दाम नहीं मिलने का नतीजा यह हुआ कि किसानों में आत्महत्या की प्रवृत्ति बढ़ी। वर्गों और क्षेत्रों के बीच विकास की जब इतनी गहरी खाई हो तो सामाजिक असंतोष क्यों नहीं होगा। यह असंतोष बढ़ते हुए विवादों और नक्सली हिंसा के रूप में भी देखा जा सकता है।
मौजूदा राजनीतिक हालात में लगभग सभी राजनीतिक दलों का नेतृत्व दिशाहीनता का शिकार है। इसलिए वह अपने कार्यकर्ताओं को भी कैसे दिशा दे सकता है और कैसे उन्हें विचारधारा से लैस कर सकता है? इस स्थिति के चलते लोकतंत्र की सेहत भी कैसे दुरुस्त रह सकती है? यह हमारे लोकप्रतिनिधि सदनों के पतन की पराकाष्ठा ही है कि सांसद पैसा लेकर संसद में प्रश्न पूछते हैं और उन्हें पैसे लेते हुए सारा देश टीवी पर देखता है। आज एक भी दल ऐसा नहीं है जिसका कोई ठोस नीति-वक्तव्य और कार्यक्रम हो।
सभी दल उम्मीदवारों के चयन में अपने कार्यकर्ताओं की दलीय निष्ठा या वैचारिक प्रतिबद्धता को प्राथमिकता नहीं देते, बल्कि यह देखते हैं कि जिसे उम्मीदवार बना रहे हैं उसका जातीय आधार कितना मजबूत है, उसके पास बाहुबलियों की संख्या कितनी है और वह कितना पैसा चुनाव में खर्च कर सकता है?
जब इन्हीं सब आधारों पर उम्मीदवारों का चयन होगा और ऐसे ही लोग चुन कर संसद और विधानसभाओं में आएंगे तो लोकतंत्र के इन पवित्र मंदिरों में हंगामा, उठापटक, गाली-गलौज, मारपीट ही होगी। इसी तरह के नुमाइंदे अपने-अपने नेतृत्व के इशारे पर जानबूझ कर सदन की कार्यवाही बाधित करते हैं। जनता की आशा-आकांक्षाओं को पूरा करने के बजाय उसे आरक्षण की राजनीति में उलझा रहे हैं।
दुर्भाग्य से भ्रष्टाचार, भाई-भतीजावाद और पक्षपात के इस माहौल में कई राजनीतिक कानून, परंपरा, मर्यादा की थोड़ी भी चिंता किए बिना सरकारी धन की हेराफेरी में लगे है। पिछले दिनों भारतीय प्रशासनिक और पुलिस सेवा के अधिकारियों के काले कारनामे राजनीतिकों के ऐसे ही कारनामों के साथ उजागर हुए थे। विधायक और सांसद बनते ही हमारे राजनीतिकों पर दौलत कहां से बरसने लगती है यह समझ पाना कोई मुश्किल काम नहीं है।
यह अपने देश में ही संभव है कि भ्रष्टाचार के आरोप लगने के बावजूद हमारे राजनेता शान से घूमते हैं। भ्रष्टाचार के मामले में हो रही जांचों को राजनीति प्रेरित बता कर अपने को पाक-साफ बताते हैं। लेकिन महानगरों में राजनीतिकों और नौकरशाहों की बड़ी-बड़ी कोठियां, शॉपिंग कांप्लेक्स, कृषि फार्म, महंगी कारें और तमाम नामी-बेनामी संपत्तियां किस बात का प्रमाण हैं? लगता है कि जैसे कानून इनके लिए बनाए ही नहीं गए हैं।
किसी भी योजना, कार्यक्रम या जनता से ताल्लुक रखने वाले सरकारी विभाग पर नजर डालिए तो वह दलालों, भ्रष्टाचारियों से घिरा हुआ मिलता है। पासपोर्ट, आरटीओ, नगर निगम, विकास प्राधिकरण, उत्पाद कर, आय कर, व्यापार कर और रजिस्ट्री कार्यालय, तहसील, अस्पताल, प्रखंड कार्यालय खुले भ्रष्टाचार के अड््डे बन चुके हैं। अगर सब कुछ इसी तरह चलता रहा तो सहज ही अंदाजा लगाया जा सकता है कि हम किस गर्त में गिरने वाले हैं। वैश्वीकरण के द्वारा भारतीय अर्थव्यवस्था को बदल कर रख देने की बात खोखली और संवेदनहीन नजर आती है। खेती खतरे में है।
पिछले दो-तीन वर्षों में हजारों किसान आत्महत्या कर चुके

हैं और यह सिलसिला बंद नहीं हो रहा है। संयुक्त राष्ट्र की मानव विकास रिपोर्ट के अनुसार एक सौ सतहत्तर देशों में भारत का दर्जा एक सौ छब्बीसवां है। गरीबी सूचकांक में एक सौ दो विकासशील देशों में भारत का नंबर पचपनवां है। वयस्क साक्षरता दर के संदर्भ में भारत अट््ठानवें स्थान पर है।
दुनिया में भारत की उभरती हुई स्थिति का दावा किया जाता है। लेकिन हमारा स्थान सहारा मरुस्थल से सटे अफ्रीका के गरीब देशों से बहुत आगे नहीं है। जब विकास में इतनी भारी असमानता होगी तो सामाजिक असंतोष, गरीबी और बेरोजगारी को कैसे कम किया जा सकता है? गौरतलब है कि जीडीपी का ग्राफ ऊंचा रहने के दौरान ही देश में एक लाख से ज्यादा किसान खुदकुशी करने को विवश हुए। कुल मिला कर देखा जाए तो आज भी हमारी सबसे बड़ी समस्या गरीबी, बेरोजगारी, बाढ़ और सूखा ही हैं जिनसे देश की बहुत बड़ी आबादी प्रभावित है। अर्थशास्त्री और योजना आयोग के सलाहकार संतोष मेहरोत्रा ने अपनी पुस्तक 'एलिमिनेटिंग हृयूमन पॉवर्टी' में कहा है कि अगर गरीबी से पूरी तरह निपटना है तो बुनियादी सामाजिक सेवाओं को बेहतर बनाना होगा। यह सिर्फ माइक्रो इकोनॉमी या वृहत अर्थव्यवस्था के विकास से नहीं हो सकता। इससे छुटकारा तभी मिल सकता है जब बुनियादी शिक्षा, स्वास्थ्य, जल, पोषण की हालत भी अर्थव्यवस्था के साथ-साथ सुधरेगी।
इस पुस्तक में उन दक्षिण पूर्वी एशियाई देशों का उदाहरण दिया गया है जहां छोटे-छोटे उद्योगों को बढ़ावा देने के लिए विशेष योजनाएं बनाई जाती हैं। विकासशील देशों में बड़ी संख्या में लोगों को छोटे उद्योगों (जिनमें पंद्रह से कम लोग काम करते हैं) में रोजगार प्राप्त होता है। लेकिन संतोष मेहरोत्रा जो कह रहे हैं वह गांधीजी पहले ही कह चुके हैं। अब बहुत-से लोग अनुभव करने लगे हैं कि गांधीजी के बताए रास्ते पर नहीं चल कर हमने भारी गलती की है।
राष्ट्रीय ग्रामीण रोजगार योजना अच्छी है। लेकिन सवाल यह है कि सरकारी योजनाओं में उस तबके के लिए क्या किया जा रहा है, जो शहरों और महानगरों में बेरोजगारी की मार झेल रहा है। वह शिक्षित, अशिक्षित, दसवीं पास, ग्रेजुएट, प्रशिक्षित और पेशेवर जैसी अनेक श्रेणियों में बंटा हुआ है और संगठित-असंगठित किसी भी तरफ पांव जमाने के लिए जद्दोजहद कर रहा है। इस समय लगभग चार करोड़ युवक-युवतियां नौकरियों के लिए भटक रहे हैं और दो करोड़ रोजगार के बाजार में आने के लिए तैयार हैं।
उधर अगर हम सामाजिक और आर्थिक विकास को देखें तो बड़ी भयानक तस्वीर सामने आएगी। आबादी में तेजी से वृद्धि हो रही है। गरीबी भी बढ़ रही है। भोजन, वस्त्र के अलावा पेयजल, मनुष्य के रहने लायक आवास, चिकित्सा जैसी न्यूनतम सुविधाएं भी तमाम लोगों को उपलब्ध नहीं हैं। ऐसी दशा में भी कुछ थोडेÞ-से व्यक्तियों को छोड़ कर भारत का विशिष्ट वर्ग चाहता है कि तकनीक और भी आधुनिक हो, औद्योगीकरण बढेÞ और कृषि का अधिकाधिक यंत्रीकरण और रसायनीकरण हो। आज भारत में आर्थिक सुधार का दर्शन यही है। इसका नतीजा हमारे सामने है, बढ़ती हुई बेरोजगारी।
हम नहीं जानते कि अपनी आवश्यकताएं स्वयं कैसे पूरी करें। विदेशी पूंजी, विदेशी तकनीक और विदेशी साजो-सामान पर हम निर्भर हैं। हमारे देश में उपभोक्ता वस्तुओं से लेकर पेय और खाद्य पदार्थों का निर्माण भी विदेशी कंपनियां करने लगी हैं। यहां तक कि हम रोजमर्रा की घरेलू वस्तुओं के लिए बहुराष्ट्रीय कंपनियों पर निर्भर हैं। हमारे हुनर और उद्योग मानो किसी खड़ी चट्टान पर खड़े हैं और उन पर मौत का खतरा मंडरा रहा है। लेकिन देश को इस भयावह संकट से बचाने का खयाल अभी तक हमारे राजनेताओं को नहीं आ रहा है। देश के उद्योग राज्यमंत्री द्वारा लोकसभा में दिए गए एक उत्तर के अनुसार आर्थिक मंदी और अन्य कारणों से अब तक 8,82,427 लघु उद्योग बंद हो गए हैं। अगर एक उद्योग में औसतन दस कर्मचारी भी कार्यरत हों तो लगभग एक करोड़ कर्मचारियों और उनके परिवारों के पांच करोड़ लोगों के समक्ष रोजी-रोटी का संकट पैदा हो गया है।
भारत एक अरब बीस करोड़ से अधिक आबादी वाला देश है और योजना आयोग की ही मानें तो इस समय लगभग चालीस करोड़ लोग रोजगार पाने के हकदार हैं। ऐसे में हमारी योजनाओं का लक्ष्य क्या होना चाहिए? हमारा लक्ष्य तो यही हो सकता है कि अधिक से अधिक लोगों को काम-धंधा मिले। अब कई लोग गांधीजी के कार्यक्रमों और योजनाओं का समर्थन करने लगे हैं। जैसे कि कृषि हमारी विकास योजनाओं का मुख्य आधार बनना चाहिए।इसकी बुनियाद पर ही गृह उद्योगों और ग्रामोद्योग की एक रूपरेखा गांवों के विकास के लिए बनानी चाहिए। उसमें बिजली, परिवहन और बाजार आदि की सुविधाएं भी उपलब्ध कराई जाएं।
यह बडेÞ उद्योगों की उपेक्षा की बात नहीं है। पर अपने देश में जहां पूंजी की बहुत कमी हो और श्रम-शक्ति बडेÞ पैमाने पर बेकार पड़ी हो और देश की अधिसंख्य आबादी गांवों में बसती हो तो वहां योजना की बुनियाद बदलनी चाहिए। बडेÞ-बडेÞ विशेष आर्थिक क्षेत्र (सेज) और मॉल बनाने के लिए किसानों की भूमि जबरन अधिग्रहीत की गई। इससे लोग बेरोजगार हुए हैं। बेरोजगार बना कर रोजगार देने की नीति बुनियादी रूप से गलत है। हमारी सरकार को उन छोटी-छोटी कंपनियों की ओर ध्यान देना चाहिए जो देश को गरीबी की गिरफ्त से बाहर निकालने की क्षमता रखती हैं।

मणिपुर विस चुनाव: हिंसा में पांच मरे, 82 प्रतिशत मतदान

2012-01-28T05:55:00.001-08:00

Saturday, 28 January 2012 16:30

इंफाल, 28 जनवरी (एजेंसी) मतदान के दौरान हिंसा में यहां 5 लोगों की मृत्यु हो गई। उधर, अपराह्न एक बजे तक 82 फीसदी मतदाताओं ने अपने मताधिकार का प्रयोग किया। विस चुनाव के लिए मतदान के दौरान हिंसा में एक सुरक्षाकर्मी समेत पांच लोगों की जबकि दो अन्य घायल हुए हैं।
आधिकारिक सूत्रों ने बताया कि चंदेल जिले के सुगनू विधानसभा क्षेत्र में एक मतदान केंद्र पर उग्रवादियों ने हमला किया जिसमें एक सीआरपीएफ के जवान, ग्राम स्वयंसेवक बल के तीन कर्मियों और एक आम नागरिक की मृत्यु हो गई और दो अन्य जख्मी हो गए।
मुख्य निर्वाचन अधिकारी पी सी लॉमकुंगा ने हालांकि कहा कि जिले में डंपी थाना में गोलीबारी में तीन लोग मारे गए। उन्होंने कहा कि मुठभेड़ में एक मतदाता, उसके समर्थक और एक सुरक्षाकर्मी की मृत्यु हो गई।
उन्होंने कहा कि नौ जिलों- घाटी के इंफाल पूर्व, इंफाल पश्चिम, विष्णुपुर और थोउबल और पहाड़ियों में चूड़ाचांदपुर, उखरूल, सेनापति, तामेंगलांग और चंदेल में अपराह्न एक बजे तक 17.40 लाख मतदाताओं में से 48 फीसदी ने अपने मताधिकार का प्रयोग किया।

मुख्यमंत्री ओ इबोबी सिंह ने थोउबल जिले में खांगाबोक में मतदान केंद्र पर अपना मत डाला। चुनाव के लिए 2357 मतदान केंद्रों पर कुल 12 हजार 967 मतदानकर्मियों को तैनात किया गया है। चुनाव शांतिपूर्ण तरीके से संपन्न कराने के लिए करीब 35 हजार सुरक्षाकर्मियों को तैनात किया गया है जिसमें राज्य सशस्त्र पुलिस के अतिरिक्त 27 हजार केंद्रीय अर्द्धसैनिक बल के जवान शामिल हैं।
सूत्रों ने बताया कि खुराई चिंगंगबम इलाके, सावमबंग उच्च विद्यालय, इंफाल पूर्व जिले में खोमिडोक और इंफाल पश्चिम जिले में नौरेमथांग उच्च विद्यालय क्षेत्र में मतदान शुरू होने से पहले उग्रवादियों द्वारा लगाए गए बम को जब्त कर लिया गया और उसे निष्क्रिय कर दिया गया।
आधिकारिक सूत्रों ने बताया कि उखरूल जिले में कल उग्रवादियों द्वारा घात लगाकर किए गए हमले में चुनाव ड्यूटी पर तैनात दो सीआरपीएफ जवानों की मृत्यु हो गई थी।

दलित लड़की से बलात्कार मामले में मदद के लिए पहुंचे एम्स के विशेषज्ञ

2012-01-28T05:53:00.001-08:00

Saturday, 28 January 2012 17:36

भुवनेश्वर 28 जनवरी (एजेंसी) दलित लड़की से बलात्कार और हत्या के प्रयास मामले में मदद के लिए राज्य पुलिस की अपराध शाखा के बुलावे पर अखिल भारतीय आयुर्विज्ञान संस्थान :एम्स: के विशेषज्ञ ओड़िशा पहुंच गए हैं ।
अपराध शाखा के एक वरिष्ठ अधिकारी ने बताया कि प्रोफेसर एवं फॉरेंसिक मेडिसिन विभाग प्रमुख के नेतृत्व में चार सदस्यीय टीम में स्त्री रोग विज्ञान ्र डीएनए और एफएमटी क्षेत्रों के विशेषज्ञ शामिल हैं ।
अधिकारी ने कहा ्र ''टीम के सदस्यों ने पुरी जिले के पीपली की 19 वर्षीय कथित बलात्कार पीड़ित का परीक्षण किया जो कटक में एससीबी मेडिकल कालेज के गहन चिकित्सा कक्ष में भर्ती है ।''

अपराध शाखा के सूत्रों ने कहा कि परीक्षण चिकित्सा कानूनी उद्देश्य से किया गया जो जांच में उपयोगी होगा ।
अपनी जांच के तहत अपराध शाखा पहले ही सभी चार आरोपियों का पॉलीग्राफ परीक्षण करा चुकी है । इस सनसनीखेज मामले के चलते पीपली से विधायक प्रदीप महारथी को राज्य के कृषि मंत्री पद से इस्तीफा देना पड़ा था ।
जिन चार आरोपियों का दो चरणों में पॉलीग्राफ परीक्षण किया गया ्र उनमें प्रशांत प्रधान उर्फ पासेई ्र सुकांत प्रधान उर्फ आबुआ प्रेमानंद नायक और बुना स्वाइन शामिल हैं ।

मुखपृष्ठ सपा को उल्टा न पड़ जाए मौलाना बुखारी का साथ

2012-01-28T05:51:00.001-08:00

Saturday, 28 January 2012 16:50

लखनऊ, 28 जनवरी (एजेंसी) चुनाव के सियासी समर में मुसलमानों को अपने पाले में लाने की जंग तेज हो गयी है। और समाजवादी पार्टी :सपा: ने दिल्ली के शाही इमाम मौलाना अहमद बुखारी को मुसलमानों का सरपरस्त मानकर उनका साथ हासिल कर लिया है लेकिन कुछ विश्लेषकों का यह भी मानना है कि विवादास्पद छवि वाले बुखारी से मिली हिमायत सपा के लिये 'चले थे हरिभजन को, ओटन लगे कपास' जैसे हालात न पैदा कर दे।
राजनीतिक विश्लेषकों की नजर में यह मुसलमानों की सरबराही के दावेदारों के सियासी रुख अपनाने के अर्से पुराने सिलसिले की एक कड़ी मात्र है और इससे उत्तर प्रदेश विधानसभा चुनाव में सपा को फायदा कम, नुकसान ज्यादा उठाना पड़ सकता है।
राजनीतिक विश्लेषकों का मानना है कि मौलाना बुखारी का उत्तर प्रदेश की मुस्लिम सियासत में न तो कोई खास दखल है और न ही प्रभाव। ऐसे में सपा ने उन्हें क्यों तरजीह दी, यह तो वह ही जाने।
दूसरी ओर, बाबरी विध्वंस के जिम्मेदार कहे जा रहे कल्याण सिंह को साथ लेने की गलती करने के बाद मुसलमानों के करीब आने का हर जतन कर रही सपा को बुखारी का समर्थन पाने में बड़ा सियासी फायदा दिखाई दे रहा है।
सपा अध्यक्ष मुलायम सिंह यादव इसी 'फायदे' को हासिल करने के लिये मौलाना बुखारी को अपने पाले में लाने के लिये कई बार दिल्ली गये और बुखारी ने उन्हें समर्थन भी दे दिया लेकिन सवाल यह है कि क्या शाही इमाम वाकई सपा मुखिया की मुराद पूरी कर पाएंगे या फिर बुखारी की विवादास्पद छवि और मुसलमानों के एक वर्ग में उनके प्रति नाराजगी उसे उलटा नुकसान ही पहुंचा देगी।

मुसलमानों की कयादत :नेतृत्व: का दावा करने वाले मौलाना बुखारी वर्ष 2004 के लोकसभा चुनाव में व्यापक मुस्लिम जनभावनाओं के खिलाफ जाकर भारतीय जनता पार्टी :भाजपा: के साथ हो लिये थे और उस चुनाव में भाजपा को मुसलमानों के वोटों का फायदा मिलना तो दूर, उल्टे नुकसान सहना पड़ा था।
सपा प्रवक्ता राजेन््रद चौधरी दावा करते हैं कि बुखारी के समर्थन से उनकी पार्टी को विधानसभा चुनाव में मुस्लिम वोटों का फायदा होगा।
उन्होंने दावा किया कि प्रदेश का मुसलमान सपा के साथ है तथा बुखारी के आह्वान से वह और शिद्दत से पार्टी के साथ जुड़ेगा।
अब सपा की राय चाहे जो हो लेकिन प्रेक्षकों के अनुसार उत्तर प्रदेश के मुसलमानों में सपा की स्थिति अभी तक मजबूत दिखाई देती है मगर बुखारी का साथ लेने से उसे मुस्लिमों की आबादी के एक बड़े हिस्से की नाराजगी से दो-चार होना पड़ सकता है।
मुल्क में राजनीतिक दलों द्वारा चुनाव के दौरान मुसलमानों में प्रभाव रखने वाले धर्मगुरुओं और मौलानाओं का समर्थन लेने का सिलसिला अर्से पुराना है लेकिन अब बदले हालात और कौम के बदले मिजाज में इसका क्या नतीजा निकलता है यह देखना दिलचस्प होगा।

Fwd: हस्तक्षेप.कॉम सरकार बनेगी थैलीशाहों की

2012-01-28T05:48:00.001-08:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Amalendu Upadhyaya <amalendu.upadhyay@gmail.com>
Date: 2012/1/26
Subject: हस्तक्षेप.कॉम सरकार बनेगी थैलीशाहों की
To: hastakshep@googlegroups.com

Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time

दोबारा संसाधन जुटाने के लिए मुनाफा बनाना स्टील कंपनियों के लिए एक कड़ी चुनौती बनने जा रहा है।

Gujarat dalits refuse to shift youth’s body from police station

TAX LAWS: VODAFONE CASE Zoozoo’s Got The Number Vodafone verdict opens up the tax havens debate ARINDAM MUKHERJEE

UTTAR PRADESH: ELECTIONS Mutiny Of Pawns Of the many local outfits, some like Peace Party may make a dent SABA NAQVI

E-Books Are Easier To Ban Than Books Indian law promotes arbitrary removal and blocking of websites, website content, and online services —making it much easier than getting offline printed speech removed PRANESH PRAKASH

THE IDEA OF INDIA REDUX Programmed To Survive That the nation persists is what has lent the India story such gravitas: an idea that’s taken strong root. But will the march of history leave us behind? SUNIL KHILNANI

A walk in Sikkim TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHS: A.J.T. JOHNSINGH Conservation of the geographically diverse and bilogically rich state has become an ecological imperative.

BANKING Negative signal G. SRINIVASAN Moody's issues a raft of revisions on ratings of Indian banks, first downgrading the SBI's financial strength and now that of Syndicate Bank.

Rebellion and reaction AIJAZ AHMAD The mass uprisings of 2011 in the Arab world and in the Euro-American zone may have entirely different outcomes as the neoliberal framework crumbles.

अमेरिका नजर रखेंगा कि ट्विटर अपनी नीतियां कैसे लागू करता है

शर्तें मानो या सेवा छोड़ो: 35 करोड़ यूजर्स को गूगल की धमकी

अमेरिका ने कहा- चीन दुनिया के लिए खतरा

ईरान के लिए 13 हजार किलो का बम बना रहा अमेरिका!

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दलित लड़की से बलात्कार मामले में मदद के लिए पहुंचे एम्स के विशेषज्ञ

मुखपृष्ठ सपा को उल्टा न पड़ जाए मौलाना बुखारी का साथ

Fwd: हस्तक्षेप.कॉम सरकार बनेगी थैलीशाहों की

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