New middle-class political activism

Check out the NDTV video below of the 27 March 09 episode of We The People on NDTV

Link at: NDTV.com Video: New middle-class political activism

The video needs a fast net speed. If you have trouble watching on this page, see it on NDTV website at: http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/new/NDTV-Show-Special.aspx?ID=44

Tough times

The Gujjars are at it again.

The Jantar Mantar seems to be having a particularly tough time of late. The inanimate anyway suffer the most. We can at least have pseudo-intellectual conversations in air conditioned lounges and in front of plasma televisions. The architecture, the open spaces, the history, the brick, the mortar, the greens - stay witness to centuries, and do just that - stay witness.

This week was a particularly hard one. And it is just day 4.

Wednesday, the farmers from Punjab protested.

Thursday, the Gujjars.

By late tonight, the Jantar Mantar was a mess. But only till the sweepers descend early morning and clean the grounds for the next protest in line.

Freedom

One cannot even begin to imagine the will power needed to survive almost solitary confinement for thirty five years. "..has not seen the sky or received a single visitor.." Survival is amazing, powerful, and yet swamped with sadness at all the time lost. What a grief, for both sides of the border. And what a waste.
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Indian freed after 35 years' jail

The Pakistani government has released from jail an Indian man who had spent 35 years on death row.
Kashmir Singh was sentenced to death for spying in 1973 and is set to be reunited with his family.

Mr Singh was discovered by Ansar Burney, a social worker who tracks people lost in Pakistan's jail system.

Hundreds of servicemen and civilians were imprisoned by India and Pakistan during hostilities between the two sides in 1965 and 1971.

Spies

Mr Burney discovered Kashmir Singh on a recent trip to a jail in Lahore and persuaded President Musharraf to revoke his death sentence and order his release.

The elderly Indian was a former policeman who had become a trader in electronic goods.

"I feel better. I am happy," Mr Singh told reporters.

He was arrested in the city of Rawalpindi in 1973 and convicted of spying.

Pakistan and India frequently arrest each other's citizens, often accusing them of straying across the border - some are treated as spies.

Mr Burney is currently the government's caretaker minister for human rights.

He first heard of Mr Singh during a radio call-in show some years ago. He recently won a presidential pardon for the prisoner.

The BBC's Barbara Plett says that Mr Singh is expected to be reunited with his wife and three children on Tuesday morning.

Mr Singh told Mr Burney that he had a love marriage rather than an arranged marriage.

His wife confirmed this to the minister when he called her.

"Why else would I have waited 35 years for him?" she asked.

Local media reports say that she has been waiting at the border since she first heard news that her husband would be pardoned.

Mr Burney said last week that Mr Singh was held in a condemned prisoners cell for most of the time since his conviction and had become mentally ill.

He said that he was first informed about Kashmir Singh several years ago by members of the Indian community in London.

But he was unable to locate Mr Singh, despite visiting over 20 prisons across the country in relation to his campaign for prison reforms and prisoners' rights.

The minister said that Mr Singh had not received a single visitor or seen the open sky and like other condemned prisoners, was locked in an overcrowded death cell for more than 23 hours a day in conditions which the minister described as "hell on earth."

Mr Burney said he will travel to India on Tuesday to see Mr Singh re-unite with his wife as well as their two sons and a daughter.

"My real purpose in going with him to India is that when this pair of swans meet after 35 years, I want to capture it with my own eyes," he said.

See the original BBC story of 3 March at this link

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Kudos to those not giving up for long lost family. And to humanitarian organisations helping the cause. See: Ansar Burney Welfare Trust

Corruption of the mind. ..and why not?

Here is a post which I had originally written for the One At All Project blog, on June 4, 2007. One At All was a unique initiative of D.J., - a blog where one person from each country of the globe, shared thoughts on common threads/ topics. The nature of the initiative was such that the the blog was only as successful (or not) as most members wanted to make it. Sadly the level of involvement of most members did not sustain. D.J. has kindly agreed to me recreating this post here on my blog.
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Since we are trying out the free for all (I mean, the post-on-anything concept), let me kick it off with a big vent, on an issue not totally unrelated to corruption and gun control and suchlike. Its about the what we call in India 'bandh'-mentality. 'Bandh' in Hindi means closure. So, the concept is really quite simple. Let me illustrate with a few examples:

We are a group of traders, and we are against the law enforcement machinery carrying out the demolition of illegal construction in the markets in the city. So, we call for a 'bandh'. That is, we go out in the streets, forcing even those establishments which want to stay open, to close. Otherwise, we break and loot public (and private) properties, we beat up those who do not agree with us. Legality be damned. Why? - hey guess what. We are a mob. We are right. We have corrupt politicians on our side. And hey, everyone declares illegal bandhs, so why not us?

Or lets take another example. We are the moral force of the country. We are the guardians of the Indian culture. We are unemployed, uneducated hoodlums, (with neverthelss political ambitions), and we will force a bandh to protect our country. And what exactly is this protection against. Its against universty arts students. Its against the enemies of India who dare to disrupt our ancient culture, by having art exhibitions, which we might not even have seen. But, which we are convinced are immoral and degrading. So we will storm into a private university, force the art department to close down, beat up the student who dare make such paintings. We will burn effigies, we will break windows, we will close down the education institution. And what the heck, while we are at it, we will also declare a 'bandh' for all educational institutions in the city. Why? - hey guess what. We are a mob. We are right. We have corrupt politicians on our side, so why not. After all elections are not too far off.

And here is the latest one. We are a community which haven't been given our due. So we will demonstrate on the streets. Oh and Gandhi be damned. Peaceful protests don't get us anywhere, so we will gather in thousands with sticks, arms, weapons and massive stones, we will block national highways, we will burn tyres, shoot in the air and go around forcing the closure of the towns, schools, markets and railways. And while we are at it, we will burn transport buses and declare a 'bandh' unless the government (corrupt or not) is arm-twisted into giving-in to our issue. Obviously going around as armed mobs is the correct way forward. Otherwise who would care about us. We don't care about the crucial basic issues of long-term structural changes regarding access to resources. No. Do you know what we are fighting for. We are fighting to be declared 'backward'!! Yes siree, so we get our hands on the tempting honey-pot of 'reservation' that every other community seems to be getting a benefit of.


So dear readers, you are perhaps witnessing the first illegal community revolt, not for equality - but for preferential treatment: to be officially declared backward. Amazing but true. Illogical but true. Short-sighted but true.

Meanwhile, we plunder, we loot and we happily declare more bandhs.
And why? You guessed it....We are a mob. We are right. We have corrupt politicians on our side. So why not. Period.