Gobind Thukral

NO political commentator recalls the kind of spat being witnessed in Chandigarh. It is for the first time that a governor who is also the administrator of the union territory of Chandigarh has levelled serious charges of wrong doing against two union ministers. It is also for the first time that a union minister who represents Chandigarh in the Lok Sabha has alleged that the governor is suffering from megalomania and that he has treated the union territory as his personal fiefdom causing huge loss of Rs 2,000 crores and untold suffering to the people of Chandigarh.

The Punjab governor and Administrator of Chandigarh General (Retd) S.F. Rodrigues did not sit silent. Rodrigues in an interview to a national daily levelled serious allegation against union ministers, Pawan Kumar Bansal and Mrs. Abmika Soni. His argued that “Bansal was offended when I pointed out serious irregularities in the land allotment to the DPS society which is headed by Ambika Soni's husband. It has Soni and Bansal as vice-chairpersons and their family members as directors. This automatically put me in collision course with both Bansal and Soni. From then onwards, I was seen as a potential threat to their business interests." This means that this criticism is born of personal vendetta and the Administrator was helping the union territory develop fast.

Refuting Rodrigues' allegations, Bansal asserted that the Administrator was resorting to falsehoods to “salvage” his image after irregularities were disclosed by the MHA audit report and the CVC ordered a CBI probe into two of Chandigarh mega projects — the Film City and the Amusement Park. Alleging that the Administrator's “questionable actions” to dispose of prime land to big corporate at abysmally low rates put the state exchequer to a loss of Rs 2,000 crore, Bansal claimed that he had written letters to the Governor on the acquisition of land at “abysmally low rates" and their sale to big corporate houses “for a song".

Bansal pointedly asked “People of Chandigarh deserved to know why the Administrator reduced rates of land for allotting it to private land developers. The entire country was witnessing a hike in real estate prices but the Administrator was applying some inverse mathematical formula." A usually composed Bansal was all fire and went on to allege that Rodrigues was treating the city as a “personal fiefdom” and appeared to be “suffering from megalomania”. “I found him, very early into the Administrator's term, wholly intolerant and contemptuous of any suggestion given to him." To a pointed query whether Rodrigues was UPA's wrong choice for governorship, Bansal admitted seeing his five-years of “disastrous performance”, it now appeared that the Congress had erred in offering him the gubernatorial assignment.

The other central minister and senior Congress leader Mrs Soni has denied any wrong doing and said that the case concerning land for the school was pending in the high court and she would not enter into any argument.

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) after months of probing has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the two controversial mega projects — Amusement-cum-Theme Park and Filmcity.

The CBI has been given the choice to first register a case against prima facie culprits (officials of the UT Administration) and then proceed with investigation or first conduct a preliminary investigation and then register a case against the erring officials, followed by their arrests. The Administration’s top brass including the administrator are in dock for allegedly favouring private companies by allotting land at cheap rates. The MHA special audit has also highlighted many obvious discrepancies.

The UT Administration had allotted a huge chunk of land on revenue-sharing basis to Unitech by ignoring another real-estate giant DLF, while the latter had offered 13 times more revenue to the Administration. The DLF had offered a share of 13.5 per cent of its revenue to the Administration, yet it chose Unitech, which offered a paltry sum of 1.1 per cent revenue. RTI activist Vivek Aditya had alleged favouritism in his complaint to the CVC saying that this questionable allotment of 73 acres of land in Sarangpur village is actually worth about Rs 3,000 crore.

In the case of Filmcity, in January 2007, the Administration found Parsvnath as the highest bidder and gave away 30 acres of land for Rs 191 crore on a lease of 99 years. However, last-minute changes in the conditions for the project became a ‘bone of contention’ between UT Advisor Pradip Mehra and Administrator Rodrigues (Retd) which brought the issue in the public domain. Complaints were also marked to the CVC. Mehra wanted Rodrigues to give a nod for a CBI probe into the entire project.

Rodrigues did not approve. The Union home ministry has already barred Chandigarh administration from acquiring land for any further project without approval.

Two important members of the union cabinet that approves appointment of the governor have made serious allegations. Some of these are supported by the audit reports of the Home Ministry and the Central Vigilance Commission. How does it all look? The Governor will end his tenure by middle of November. But the matters would not rest here. Rodrigues has publicly accused two union ministers. Why has he taken so long to reveal such ‘misdeeds’?

It is for the first time a governor has levelled serious allegations against two members of the union cabinet and it is also for the first time that a union minister has used such expletives against a governor. The question remains why was a ‘megalomaniac’ governor allowed to stay and let this alleged loot go on for five long years. Mr. Bansal who had been sending missive after missive to the governor, prime minister and had even met Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, the all powerful chairperson of the UPA could do little to set the course right. Even the media reports did not force the prime minister to act. The public would like to know as what happened to the complaints to Mrs. Gandhi and the prime minister. Why was this governor allowed to let this loot go on. How can Bansal and the Congress shy away from the responsibility? Can the public expect anything from the CBI or the audit reports? Is there a way to help the farmers to get proper payment for the land acquired at dirt cheap rates

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Pakistan: For a bag of flour, they risk life and limb

Zofeen Ebrahim

SCORES of women, many of them married and with children, gathered outside the office of Chaudhry Iftikhar, a local trader, in the old quarters of the port city’s Khori Garden to get free rations of flour. Then a stampede broke out as the people scampered to get their hands on the rations, killing 18 women and leaving more than 30 others injured, most of them between ages 30 and 50.

The Sep. 14 unfortunate incident took place while the Ramadan – an Islamic holy month during which people fast from dawn to dusk — was being observed.

During this monthlong religious observance, many philanthropists dole out charity, believing it helps them win favour from God. Pakistan is known to be one of the top ten countries with the highest level of individual charity. Iftikhar had been distributing free rations of flour for over a decade at the site of the stampede.

Facing a judicial inquiry into the incident, Iftikhar blamed the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, including flour, which he said exacerbated poverty and spawned the Monday mayhem.

Baspareen was among those who perished in the stampede. Her family’s sole breadwinner, her husband being ill, she left behind seven preschool-age children. Safia, the eldest of the brood, will now have to assume her mother’s role of looking after her family.

"Hunger and poverty has a female face, definitely," said parliamentarian Nafisa Shah from Sindh province.

"Women bear the burnt (of hunger)… due to our defined gender roles. Women are responsible for cooking and feeding the children," explained Mustafa Talpur, regional advocacy and policy advisor in Asia for WaterAid, an international non-governmental organisation which provides water, sanitation and hygiene education to some of the world's poor.

Citing food security studies, Talpur said women "are responsible for food grains, cooking. . . and are the last to get food when everybody in the family has had their meal".

"The recent tragic death of women has only made the issue more visible. In rural areas there are many manifestations of hunger — like low birth-weight babies, under-five malnourishment," to name a few. Incidents similar to the Khori Garden stampede — albeit sporadic and on a smaller scale — had taken place in the past, where some people lost lives trying to get food.

In one of these horrific episodes, 12-year-old Ejaz Solangi died in a baton charge by police who were trying to pacify a frenzied mob scrambling for wheat in Thatta, Sindh province. Fifty-five-year-old Mohammad Rafaqat died in Gujranwala in Punjab province while waiting in queue to buy 10 kilograms of flour.

I.A. Rehman, director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), warned of more of these incidents "if centres for free distribution of food or for sale at subsidized rates are opened."

On the other hand, he said, if such centres are not opened, "we should be prepared for food riots, the first common stage for anarchy," he told IPS.

"There is a revolution brewing, for nothing is worse than an empty stomach," declared social worker Perween Saeed. Ten years ago, she opened a ‘tandoor’ restaurant (where one can buy two pieces of subsidised ‘roti’ – unleavened bread – and get a plate of curry or vegetables for free) for the daily wage earners in a poor locality of Karachi, which she has since expanded to three.

"There will be an increase in criminal activity, and if the state doesn’t pay attention now, the results will be horrific," she warned.

Abdul Sattar Edhi, founder of Pakistan’s best-known charity, Edhi Foundation, said "a bloody revolution is simmering." He added, "people will resort to killing to feed their children."

There have been reports of parents either selling or poisoning their due to poverty. Just recently, a man had gone to the press club in Quetta in the north-west of Balochistan province, announcing that he was selling off his daughter so he could a bag of flour for his family.

Edhi, who runs a ‘langar’(soup kitchen) across Pakistan to feed approximately 250,000 people, has urged people not to sell or kill their children. "Send me your children. I will feed all of them," he said.

"The state needs to take cognizance of these facts. We have serious issues of poverty and hunger in a country which has long been a net grain exporter," said Ali Dayan Hasan, South Asia senior researcher of the Human Rights Watch, during a telephone interview from Lahore, capital of Punjab province.

"We always had poverty and hunger, but never starvation. In large parts of the country, most people got a meal," Hasan said, adding that what was changing now was that the "poor are getting poorer" and that the gap between rich and poor has widened.

Based on 2008 data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation, a specialised agency of the United Nations, undernourishment in Pakistan increased from 24 to 28 percent of the population, and the number of people deemed to be "food insecure" increased from 60 million to 77 million during the same period.

Pakistan’s economic growth slowed to two percent during the fiscal year 2008-2009, down from an average annual 6.8 percent over the previous five years.

Consumer prices in this South Asia’s second largest economy rose 10.7 percent from a year earlier after gaining 11.2 percent in July, according to the Federal Bureau of Statistics.

"It’s a huge failing of successive governments, as we see the gaps widening," said Zohra Yusuf of HRCP.

"That this should happen in a country proud of its nuclear capability and one of the largest standing armies in the world is very instructive," said senior journalist and political analyst Ghazi Salahuddin.

He said those in the government needed to improve their image. "Pakistan must have created a record of (the number of) days its president has been abroad in a year — perhaps more than one hundred days!"

Shah cited "economic meltdown, inflation, the war against militancy" as reasons for the worsening poverty in her country. She was quick to point out, however, that "underspending on social sectors, historically, has made our people vulnerable. Hence (the incidence of) ill health, hunger, illiteracy."

"Non-developmental expenditure remains unchecked while no attempt is made at economic reforms – land or industrial or labour," said Yusuf.

Edhi refused to pin the blame squarely on the government for the extent of poverty now gripping the nation. Tax evaders are responsible for the empty national coffers, he said.

"I also blame all of us who have plenty of money to drink endless cups of tea, smoke cigarettes, chew ‘paan’ (betel leaf) and using cell phones. We are a nation of spendthrifts. No wonder our leaders are begging all the time."

"I don’t think there is a dearth of wheat or rice. Even Pakistan is exporting rice," said Mustafa Talpur, regional advocacy and policy advisor in Asia for WaterAid. The actual issues are "distribution and affordability" of basic commodities for the poor, especially those in urban areas.

Noted economist Haris Gazdar said the "dignified way is to have a proper social protection system in place, which is what some people in governments are trying to do."

He explained: "There is a tradeoff between queues and markets. You ration through queues or through prices, your choice." He said the present scenario was a "media-generated hype," adding that the opposition party, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz Group), "generated populism around giving free/cheap food to people without having any proper mechanisms in place."

He said the real culprits of the Khori Garden incident "are foolish and self-promoting private charities, media, and public figures who are generating populism around need."

On Sep. 16, the government launched an income generation programme, Waseela-e-Haq, under which interest-free loans of 3,000 Pakistan rupees (36 U.S. dollars) would be given every month to 731 families, to be paid over a period of 12 to 15 years.

This programme is under the 34 billion-Pakistan rupee (412 million U.S. dollars) Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) launched in October 2008.

"BISP is a very good poverty alleviation programme," conceded Shah, but it needs to be "supplemented with good and sensible spending on the social sectors."

"Priorities have to change if the state considers that people are important," said Hasan.

"As they say, poverty is not about loss of income, it is about loss of capability. We must strengthen our people, men women and children by national literacy schemes, good basic health coverage, skill development and livelihood schemes," said Shah.

Jobs would give people the "capability to confront and overcome poverty." [Courtesy IPS]

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Casting caste on the world stage

Bal Anand

IF the "shoonya" of "Ganit Shashtra" , the concept of "Zero" in the "science of Numbers/Mathematics" has been often hailed as most revolutionary contribution of 'ancient' India to the world civilization, the code of "Varna Ashram Dharma", popularly called "Jaati Pratha", ordained with scriptural Divine origins, has been castigated as the single social catastrophe that has indeed 'zeroed' and bedeviled the Destiny of India. This graded four fold division of Hindu social polity with the entire paraphernalia of pugnaciously dehumanising 'Untouchablity' towards a vast majority of those at the bottom of social order was translated in the 16th century as the 'Caste' System by the Portuguese missionaries. Instead of seeking some remedies to cure itself of the cancerous wounds of division in society against resurgent Islam and determined Christian colonists, the caste ridden Hinduism has been remarkably successful in 'polluting' the 'Foreign' Faiths too with notions of 'Purity' and 'Divine' discriminations!

The modern era of Independence in 1947 A.D. for this ancient land was heralded, most intriguingly, with the two "Untouchables" - the so called Hindu Shudras and the finest products of 'Firanghi' education ie Dr B.R. Ambedkar & Mr Joginder Nath Mandal, as the Law and Justice Ministers of India and Pakistan respectively. Ambedkar was instrumental in crafting the noblest document of governance of free India incorporating comprehensive legal provision to to root out the abominable caste based injustice to millions of Indians. Pakistan and later Bangladesh have followed different paths of their own in their governance and socio-economic development. The deeper civilizational wounds of Caste based discrimination have, however, continued to bleed across Indus, Ganges, Padma, Kaveri, Godavari and at the lofty heights of Himalayas. So when on September 16, during the session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Nepalese Foreign Minister Jeet Bahadur Gautam chose to break ranks with 'Hindu Consensus', saying that his country welcomed the idea mooted by the UNHRC document to involve, "regional and international mechanism, the UN and its organs" to complement national efforts to combat caste discrimination, the move by the UNHRC was denounced by the Hinduttva elements as, 'an irresponsible act of subverting Indian democratic and cultural institutions...smacks of Church influence to undermine India's Hindu heritage'! It was also interpreted as a blow to the official stand of India to block mention of caste in the category of, 'discrimination based on work and descent.'

Why has India been evasive and in a mode of denial on the issues of caste based discrimination being raised in the fora of the UN? The statement made by the Indian Delegate on August 8, 2002 in the "Informal Discussion on 'Descent' in the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination" is indeed perceptively revealing of a mind set. Referring to 'the situation faced by a particularly vulnerable section of our society', the Delegate hectors, "Our Constitution recognises both the fact of this discrimination and of the imperative of redressing the situation ... one of the first acts of the Government when India became independent was to outlaw this abhorrent practice (Untouchablity) ... ' The disappointment of those who wish that 'our laws are better implemented' is shared adding, 'Transforming a society that has evolved its customs and practices over millennia, and has been shaped in turn by those practices, takes time.' It is emphatically added that term 'descent' in Convention refers to 'racial descent' and that the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are unique to Indian Society and its historical process - and do not fall under the purview of Article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).

The eminent Indian and Western Sociologists and the increasing tribe of scholar-activists of "Dalitology" have seriously engaged themselves in 'unraveling' the roots and branches of this most puzzlingly unjust practice of condemning such a large number of people to 'an enslavement of soul, mind and body' attributed to birth in certain social groups. The systematic effort by the British colonial administration at categorisation and ranking of the entire Hindu population within the theoretical Varna Scheme for the purpose of decennial census since 1901 spurred a scramble for the reclaiming of the Untouchable Castes through reform movements by Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam and conversions by resourceful Christian missionaries. The emergence of leaders of the caliber and vision of E.V.R. Naicker, Dr B.R. Ambedkar, J.N. Mandal, etc. from within the ranks of so called Lower Castes, not to speak of the far reaching Harijan agenda adopted by Gandhi Ji altered the entire spectrum of the 'Jaati Pratha' of Hinduism sustained since ages. Dr Ambedkar had to wage single handedly the grimmest struggle to be the greatest emancipator in human history, whatever the motivated Brahaman-scholars of the ilk of Arun Shourie might write masquerading as historians. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has indeed been a man of honour and integrity to compare caste system to 'religiously' applied Apartheid.

Indians, beginning with Jawaharlal Nehru,have always had a fascination and magnetic attraction towards the UNO and other multilateral forums -the list of UN Pensioners bafflingly includes so many among the top who's who of the government of India. India's experience of J&K in the UN would, however, seem to have caused a deeper suspicion and a pathological allergy for any matter concerning itself to be raised in the UNO. Udit Raj of the Dalit based Justice Party has welcomed the UNHRC move stating that Indian Government should have courage to accept the reality of the problem and that global attention should lead to an increase in aid and government spending to improve opportunities for Dalits in India. The segregation of places of worship on the caste lines by the Indians settled abroad and the recent brutal murder of an 'Untouchable' 'Guru' Ramanand Dass in Vienna, the city of harmony in the heart of Europe, sadly reflect 'globalisation' of caste, calling for international efforts too to stem the tide of evil.

During the last two decades, the political fallout of the caste conundrum on the character of the much touted 'largest democracy' of the world, has been of nuclear proportions. The management of caste-divides with a just & fair deal for those who have been civilizationally demeaned and still remain woefully on the margins of 'shining India' has become the single greatest challenge for all those engaged in the realisation dream of an egalitarian and caste 'castrated' India. Ravi Dass, the celebrated medieval cobbler saint poet, has proclaimed:

Jaat paat ke pher Manh, urjh rahai sab log.
Manushta kun khaat huee, Ravi Dass jaat kar rog.
Jaat, jaat mein jaat hai, jiyon kelan ke paat.
Ravi Dass na manush jurh saken, jau tau jaat, naa jaat.
All are caught in the vice grip of castes.
Ravi Das, humanity has been finished, by the cancer of caste.
Caste, and caste within caste, like the barks of banana tree;
O Ravi Das,never would humanity be united, until the caste is cast out.

All those who love India to be united and strong would listen to what the saint poet proclaimed centuries ago!

[The writer is former diplomat]

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