Violence in the name of religion  can have  no place in this country. India cannot and should not turn into a Nazi Germany, Pakistan or Arabistan.

    Religious riots must be controlled with utmost severity. Reasons for the riots must be enquired into impartially. It is understood that the root cause was the demand of converted Christians to be declared as SCs/STs.

    Demand for Relegation to backward castes has been the bane of our populist democracy. Politicians have been dividing the people into castes and more castes for votes. This must stop immediately.      

      I N ORISSA, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has ordered a judicial inquiry into the violence against Christian institutions. At the same time State Minister of Steel and Mines, Padmanabha Behera, has resigned owning “moral responsibility” for the Christmas carnage.      These actions were taken after a curfew and after the presence of paramilitary forces proved to be no deterrents to the criminal elements who continued on their hate campaign. The minister’s resignation was one of the demands of the tribals in the district, who were opposing a proposal to grant Dalits the status of a Scheduled Caste. This hadn’t much to do with the attacks directly. So, the issuance of caveats by all parties to not “make this a political issue” rings hollow.

     If this is not politics, nothing is. The state response leaves much to be desired.

    The matter-of-fact acceptance that the attacks were likely in response to an assault on a VHP leader is shameful and tiring. As there had already been an attack on an ‘anti-conversion’ activist, which in turn had inspired the VHP to call a bandh, surely the state machinery should have been alerted to the possibility of such a ‘response’? C

     ommunal vandalism and violence have been played out with almost meticulous precision. It is incomprehensible how 15 churches and in stitutes were targeted while there was no intelligence on the ground about any such activity Or did the state machinery . simply not bother?

     Communal tension has festered in Orissa for years. One of its worst manifestations was the 1999 Graham Staines case, where the Australian missionary was burnt to death along with his two young sons.

     While the murders shocked the nation, the case ended finally with a judgment that exposed the wide chasm between a deterring penalty and the ground realities. While the lower court sentenced the main perpetrator, Dara Singh, to death and 12 others to life imprisonment in September 2003, the Orissa High Court ended up commuting Singh’s death to life sentence and acquitted 11 of the others. The gap in the severity of the penalty , slashed to mere tokenism, cannot have sent the right signals to those inciting such hate crimes.

     And clearly little has , been done to address the basic welfare issues involved in such communal divides. This is a politically-motivated crime and the upkeep of law and order is an issue that the state machinery alone can address.

     Yet, the moves have been tactical and little is yet being done to grapple with the ground reality that Orissa may be becoming a cesspit of intolerance.

     The rot must be stemmed now, Mr Patnaik’s reassurances notwithstanding.

Bengal, Maharashtra tops suicide tally: NCRB

West Bengal: West Bengal and Maharashtra have retained the dubious distinction of having the highest number of suicides in the country, according to statistics available with National Crime Records Bureau.

The provisional data for the year 2006 revealed that the total number of suicides in the country have increased by 4,198 to touch 1,18,112 last year but there was a decline in the cases of farmers taking their lives last year.

The statistics revealed that the number of suicides by farmers were 17,060 last year as against 17,131 in 2005.

Bengal topped the list of suicides with 15,725 suicides, including 6,605 women, compared to 15,015 in 2005 and 13,424 the previous year.

Maharashtra, which topped the list of farmers’ suicide with 4,453 compared to 3,926 in 2005, recorded 15,494 suicides as against 14,426 in 2005.

These two states were followed by Andhra Pradesh (13,276) which registered a decline of 166 in the suicides, Tamil Nadu (12,381), Karnataka (12,212).
The national capital registered 1,492 suicide cases last year, which is an increase of 247 from 2005 figures. There were three cases of farmers committing suicide in the capital, down from seven in 2005.

The main reasons for people taking the extreme step were family problems, failure in love affairs, illness, examination blues and dowry harassment, an official said adding majority of them took to consuming poison or hanging.

It was in Bengal where a maximum number of 6,605 women committed suicide last year followed by Maharashtra (4,984) and Tamil Nadu (4,872). The total number of women who committed suicide was 42,410.

The Government of India has been making a lot of Hoop La and celebrating the success of NRIs.  Amartya Sen is celebrated since he has a Nobel, Chawla for being an astronaut, Swaraj Paul for being super rich. And the list is getting longer by the day. How then can the Government forget those in the middle east, in Fiji, Srilanka or Malaysia? Because they have problems? Because they do not have dollars to throw?

Govt shuns Malaysia Hindu rights leader

New Delhi: Having expressed its concern about the alleged discrimination of ethnic Indians in Malaysia officially, the government on Thursday chose not to meet P. Waytha Moorthy, head of the Hindu Rapid Action Force, even as senior BJP leaders met him.

Waytha Moorthy, in Delhi to garner support from the government, failed to meet the Prime Minister, external affairs minister and senior foreign ministry officials but did get an audience with the BJP’s LK Advani and Jaswant Singh.

He told them that around 10,000 Hindu temples have been demolished in Malaysia in the last 50 years, adding: “Hindus are being stripped of their dignity and self-respect” by this vindictive action. He also said there is a steady attempt to “Islamise” Malaysia’s multi-religious population and Shariat rulings are being made binding on non-Muslims”.

The BJP parliamentary party later issued a statement condemning the Malaysian government’s policy on ethnic Indians.

      India shares thousands of miles of unsettled  borders with its neighbours. It also has belligerent neighbours who who love to needle India continuously. They are aware of the absence of a National Security Policy in this country, and the weakness of the political class in statesmanship. Incursions have been taking place regularly and the government is unwilling to face the problem squarely.

Extracts from a news report:

     WHEN HE smiled and shook hands with Chinese Army officers across the barbed wire that marks the line of actual control between the two nations on Sunday, Defence Minister A.K. Antony couldn’t have missed the black tar road on the other side.

     He chose to call his visit “an eyeopener”, referring to the roads and facilities the Chinses have built on their side of the border. India needs to dramatically improve its road networks in border areas if it is to keep up with developments on the Chinese side, Antony – the first Defence Minister to visit the LAC here since trade through the pass resumed in July last year, after 44 years – said.

     “Infrastructure on the other side is far, far superior,” he added. Posing for photographers from the media on the Indian side and officers and soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army on the Chinese side, Antony said:

     “I am happy now that I have got to know the situation. I will vigorously champion the cause of developing infrastructure. We need to develop infrastructure not only for the army but also for the civilian population. We have to take it up seriously” On resumption of trade through Nathu La, he said: “The idea is to increase this gradually I hope in the years to come, more and more items will be included for trade. People of both sides will benefit from it.

     But before that, we have to develop our infrastructure.” Border trade closed for the winter last Thursday During Antony’s visit, Brigadier S.L. Narasimhan, commander of the 63 Brigade that is tasked with guarding Nathu La, briefed him on the ground situation on the border .

     The minister also met Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor

 jatin.gandhi@hindustantimes.com

I’ve been having this interesting dialogue on a blog of someone I came across during an Open Source Software conference in Delhi. This person is from Kashmir, a good technologist I believe, a Muslim – although in my opinion he has rather orthodox views – and this is what the dialogue is about. It may be interesting to read this.

Look at the last few posts at the bottom of the page.

http://mirnazim.wordpress.com/2006/10/27/uncovered-women-are-same-as-uncovered-meat/

I was quite inspired after watching the movie ‘Chak De India‘. A lot of us believed that the movie would inspire a sea-change in how Indian sports audience and the government, related to hockey, our (official) national sport; a lot us believed it would change the recent losing spree of the Indian hockey team; we believed that the movie would inspire relief, from the cricket-frenzy that has always had a strangle-hold on the average Indian mind, and allow some breathing space for other sports, and hopefully some advertisers and some decent prize money for these other ignored sports, specifically hockey.

I was truly inspired by Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘meaningful’ performance, after years (other than, an out-of-the-blue Swades!).

This was followed-up by an unexpected victory of the Indian hockey team at the Asia Cup event in India. Chak De India was making its impact on the Indian psyche and sport – this was the popular sentiment in the media and among the general public.

And then…

Then this happened!

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/pintuv/7CDDC78DA6CA82864C32D9405D6F.jpg

Shah Rukh Khan was all over the Indian cricket players, hugging, and shaking hands, and almost taking centre-stage, with the players, during their post-victory celebrations.

This after dialogues like ‘hamari hockey mein chhake nahin hote‘ (he was taking a jibe at cricketers). To my mind , the message of the movie Chak De India, was lost, this very moment; dissolved once again in the (rare big-event) cricket victories of a hero-hungry people.

Over the next few days, we saw the players of the winning hockey team go on a hunger strike, irked by the step-motherly treatment meted out to them compared to the bonanza of million dollar surprise post-match surprise prize, land-allocation by government, job offers by nationalised corporations, to the winning cricket team.

Shahrukh Khan once again, in my opinion, proved his shallowness.

Why do I say so? I must be biased!

Yes, I must admit that I have a bias against Sharukh Khan (and for Aamir; the brand of Aamir Khan’s cinema is truly inspiring and meaningful to me). Allow me to explain why.

The kind of impact actors like Shahrukh Khan and his counterparts in Bollywood, can make on the psyche of people of this country through cinema is immense. Add to that the huge fan-following of Hindi movies from Indonesia to Algeria, and you have a perfect opportunity to play the role of some sort of a mentor, a coach, a guide, and a messenger, if you like.

The purpose of cinema, once again in my opinion, must be larger than simply the ‘entertainment factor’. It must be a larger purpose, to communicate a message, some meaning, some inspiration; or maybe simply entertain, relax and humour the audience. Unfortunately, Shahrukh Khan’s movies in the recent years have been nothing more than shallow and hollow romanticism (such romanticism – myth of romantic love – according to a leading psychiatrist, Scott M. Peck, is one of the leading causes of mental-ill health for people around the world, as he argues in his book – ‘The Road Less Travelled‘).

Also, movie stars, tend to be related to like their characters they depict. This is true, not only for India, but around the world. We all know the deep impression Amitabh Bachhan’s extremely down-to-earth, very human and emotional, sacrificing, role in the movie Sholay, has left on the minds of people from Afganistan to Middle East, apart from India. While travelling abroad, it is common to come across people from Iran or Algeria, who start singing ‘Yeh Dosti‘ when you tell them you are from India.

This to my mind is the purpose of cinema.

Shahrukh Khan running out to hug the Indian players immediately after their victory, and these images being flashed all over the television media endlessly, especially after a movie like Chak De India (where more than once he jibes at cricketers) is to my mind, once again reminiscent of a leadership and moral crisis our country faces, a certain loss of message of the movie Chak De India, and overall, a step-backward in the efforts towards revival of Indian hockey.

She fought with her younger brother over a small bowl of rice. The brother managed to snatch away the rice and the distraught sister – unable to bear the pangs of hunger committed suicide.

When the family returned from work on Friday night, they found the 18-year-old Gyanwati’s body hanging from the roof.

An empty bowl of rice lay nearby and the son, Chhatrapal, 12, sat close by, filled with remorse and guilt. “I killed her.

If I had given her the rice, she would not have died,” he muttered as the neighbours gathered around the house. This tragic incident took place on Friday night in Detikar village in Gosainganj area on the outskirts of Lucknow.

“I had sold all my land to marry off my two elder daughters and I worked in the fields along with my wife Bhagwandei to earn a living but we could never manage a square meal for ourselves and my daughter and son. My daughter Gyanwati used to help me in my work sometimes. On Friday, we had no food in the house except a small bowl of rice. My wife and I left for work without eating and it seems that my daughter and son fought over the bowl of rice. My son ate the rice and left to play with his friends while Gyanwati committed suicide,” Ram Bharose, the head of the family told this correspondent on Saturday.

According to sources, the local shopkeepers had stopped giving food and other provisions to the family on credit since they had been unable to repay the earlier debt. “But had I known that things would go this way, I would have definitely given some food to the children,” said Prem Tiwari, who runs a tea stall nearby.

His wife Bhagwandei is still too shocked to react while the youngest son Chhatrapal is overcome with guilt.

The father looked sombre as he said, “Accha hua chali gayi.

Ek moonh to kam hua (It is good she died. There is one mouth less to feed).” It is then that the reality of this household hits you in the face.

Excerpt fro Asian Age 30 Sept 07