July 2009 rh

Vol. 73 No 4

Rs. 15 / month

THERADICALHUMANIST (Since April 1949)

JULY 2009 Formerly : Independent India (April 1937- March 1949)

Founder Editor: M.N. Roy

472 Prospects of Peace in South Asia -A.F. Salahuddin Ahmed Notes on Italian Elections -Ermes Bertani Elections to the European Parliament -Gerd Callesen Letter from London on European Elections -John Drew Freedom of the Press -R.A. Jahagirdar Towards a better understanding of Mankind -Mandakini B. Talpallikar Women Reservation: A Gender Justice Compulsion -Rajindar Sachar

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

JULY 2009

From the Editor’s Desk:

Rekha Saraswat

Violence: An All Time Reality are so many issues, this month which There come to mind, while beginning to write this editorial.

Curry-bashing in Australia, Canada and other parts of Europe; Prabhakaran facing the ultimate in Sri-Lanka; remembering the martyred youth in Tiananmen Square twenty years ago and of course, India making a symbolic history in its first Dalit woman Speaker, in the House of Parliament.

How to begin with them; according to the order of occurrence or priority-wise! Well, priority may differ with each reader! But I think we can discuss them, all together, under a common denominator, and that is—violence.

The martyrdom at Tiananmen Square due to the gory suppression of a democratic utopia which is still awaiting its atonement was the ugliest form of violent expression against the armless, defenceless youngsters by any communist government in the name of protecting people’s interests. Deng believed, like all his predecessors that any obstacle in the process of gaining economic rights needs to be confronted with a bloody control upon people’s political rights even at the cost of their human rights. And, see the irony, that while the whole world remembers those poor victims of this ideology, many youngsters inside China either are indifferent to this sacrifice of their ancestors or are trying to indirectly justify the gruesome act in the name of China’s economic progress and prosperity!

What is happening in Australia and other European nations is the ultimate culmination of a democratic way

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of life; the teens are left totally free to define their lives according to their own immature mental make-up.

It is not a unique feature of the West; we are seeing it here too, wherever the poor child is made responsible to take his decisions too early in the course of his chronological and emotional development, he mixes his fun and frolic with his peer-group-ego and begins bullying the weaker around him. (He has grown up seeing this kind of subtle violence at home while he is being trained, groomed and disciplined by his parents and elders and thus he is trying and practising to become an adult outside his home!)

Earlier such acts were of a lesser intensity usually expressed through jeering, abusing, and some fisticuffs which were generally neglected by the elders as a passing phase in the child’s maturing up process. But now in this world of violence these activities have become more dangerous because on the one hand, the youth have got an easy access to all kinds of weapons and on the other, they make use of these weapons without any inhibition after indulging in drinks and drugs (which is so fashionable in all strata of society in the modern world). Giving one example, ANI has reported that ‘in the UK 360,000 of the 11 to 15 year-olds get drunk every week.’ (It also says that ‘one in four adults risk their health by excessive drinking thus laying precedence for the youngsters.)’

This does not mean societies in other Western and Asian nations are teetotallers. The point in reference is not of using alcohol as a beverage but of becoming alcoholic and losing all senses in the name of having a good time.

One can’t expect a normal behaviour in an inebriated abnormal state of mind. The animal in man pops out on the pretext of being intoxicated.

When we label such acts as violence due to racial discrimination we fail to remember that recourse to such acts has been a common feature within and without every race, clan, community, caste and section of the world-society since man began his journey on this Earth.

We have most of the times not been patient enough to sort out our differences through ways of debates and discussions. It has always been considered to be a symbol of weakness. The entire history of kings and emperors, their Ashwamegha Yagnas, of invaders and aggressors corroborates this fact.

THE RADICAL HUMANIST And, now in a democracy, all are kings and emperors!

No one is less than the other. Earlier we fought and killed for our mentors, now we kill for our religion and faith, for our pride and honour, for our caste and community, for our clan and race, for our friends and family, and for our drugs and alcohol. And on the slightest instigation, the reason may be any, we do not only use our hands and feet, we use knives, hockey-sticks, bats, guns and finally AK 47s to prove our points.

Every person who is in a position to use his power, in whatever capacity he can, does not hesitate to do so, even for a moment, in the name of decency, culture, sophistication or values. We have taken a full circle and gone back to our nomadic culture of survival of the fittest through the physical might!

Does not each nation pine (if it does not already have) for the Atom Bomb, the Hydrogen Bomb, the most modern missiles and fighter jets? Every other human being living across a nation’s border line is worthy of being killed if prompted or simply to show our superiority!

Then why blame our offspring?

The history of violence has been perpetual. The rich has been exploiting the poor; the man has been using the woman; the native has been bullying the alien, the senior in school and college has been ragging the junior; the German (so called Aryan) has been killing the Jew, the imperialist (British, French, Portuguese, North American or Australian) has been enslaving the Asian, African, South American and the aboriginal.

The mightier has been ruling the weaker (to become the Vijigishu of Kautilya), the majority has been neglecting the minority; the Hindu, the Muslim, the Christian, the Jew, each has been taking advantage of the other, given

JULY 2009 the opportunity; the White has been scoffing the Black and Brown.

And, therefore, finally, as a logical sequence, the ‘globalised’ climax of this whole overt and covert violence in human history is—the making of a ‘terrorist’—which has crossed all barriers of colour, clan, class, race, nation and continent.

The genie has now come out of the bottle and it wants to conquer the world only through violence! Whatever shams of decency, culture and civility the modern democratic societies may project but from beneath the cover many Prabhakarans, Dauds and Ladens (with causes fair or foul) are peeping out, to our utter dismay, showing the dirty backyard of a posh villa!

You may finally ask me how I am going to relate the selection of a female Speaker for the Lower House of our Parliament with the common denominator—violence.

Well she has been placed there with a faint hope that she will be able to keep a check over the violent overtones of the desperate MPs who have to pretend to behave themselves as long as they are inside the well of the House! Her sweet lullaby voice may prompt them to calm down and relax or even sometimes, take a nap rather than bang the tables and smash the chairs in their anger and dismay! It appears to be an effort to usher in temporary intervals of relief from violence and temper, howsoever brief they may be!

O’ woman thou art so soft, so pure, so motherly! It’s only through your patience and dignity that this humanity survives and proceeds!!

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THE RADICAL HUMANIST

JULY 2009

Contributory Editors’ Section:

A.F.Salahuddin Ahmed

[Dr. A.F. Salahuddin Ahmed, the former Professor of History, Dhaka University, Bangladesh, has been associated with the Radical Humanist Movement since the late forties. He is one of the Contributory Editors of this journal. We have been missing many of his expert analyses in the recent past because he has been keeping very unwell. It is purely due to his strong will power that he sat down to type this article on his computer on my request to write a piece on the current situation in South Asia. I am sure it will make a very informative and interesting reading for all of you. He can be contacted at unab@citechco.net]

Prospects of Peace in South Asia: A Historical Overview are today passing through very critical Wetimes.

Mankind is confronted with a kind of threat it has never faced before. Tension and conflict prevail in many parts of the world particularly in the Middle East and South Asia. The rise of terrorism and violence perpetrated by militant religious fanatics as well as extremist political elements threaten peace and stability in these regions and in fact, pose a serious threat to our civilized existence. This is indeed a crisis of global magnitude and dimension. The future of mankind whether it will flourish or perish depends on how it is able to overcome this crisis.

Let us now look at our, the South Asian scenario. It is a matter of common knowledge that despite the political division of South Asian subcontinent into several independent states—India, Pakistan, Bangladesh,

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Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka—the people of the whole region share a common and indivisible cultural heritage.

To reinforce our faith in this great cultural heritage let us take a fresh look at history.

I Before the coming of the Aryans around 1200 B.C.: A highly developed urban civilization flourished in the North-Western region of this subcontinent the ruins of which are found in Mohenjodaro and Harappa in Pakistan. The Aryans probably destroyed much of the exterior symbols of that civilization, but then they themselves had assimilated many elements of the indigenous Dravidian culture and thus laid the foundation of the great Hindu-Buddhist civilization.

At the beginning of the middle ages a new and dynamic civilization had developed under the banner of Islam.

India came in contact with this civilization through the Arab conquest of Sindh in 711 A.D. and the subsequent invasions of the Turks, Afghans and the Mughals. The Islamic civilization in India, however, had a distinct character of its own. It was developed as a result of intermixing of indigenous (Hindu-Buddhist) elements with those which came with Islam. Similarly, Indian civilization was also enriched in many ways by absorbing many Islamic elements. This process of cultural transformation was, however, not an easy one.

Long periods of clash and conflict eventually gave way to compromise and understanding. Subsequently, with the coming of Europeans—the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French and the English—this subcontinent came in contact with modern Western civilization which profoundly influenced society and culture of this region.

History tells us that until the advent of British colonial rule in the late 18th Century, Hindu-Muslim communal antagonism and violence as we have known in our time virtually did not exist. Relations between the two religious communities were largely based on mutual understanding and harmony. After the initial phase of confrontation and conflict was over, the Hindus and Muslims in general had learned to live in peace. Political antagonism or war among the ruling circles did not affect the lives of the common people. In fact, South Asian society until the end of the 18th Century was remarkably free from any kind of communal bitterness.

There existed a tradition of peaceful co-existence and harmony among the common people adhering to

THE RADICAL HUMANIST different religious faiths. This was reflected in the society, literature music and arts of the whole region.

There had been occasional conflicts over sectarian issues, but these were somewhat minor bickering and were settled amicably. Generally speaking, tolerance towards other faiths was the characteristic feature of Indian and South Asian society.

II Rise and Growth of Communalism and communal politics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Various causes may be ascribed to the rise of Hindu-Muslim discord in the nineteenth century.

Muslim ascendency in India during the long Muslim rule was based on Muslim political power. After the breakdown of that power in the later part of the eighteenth century the economic and social structure which rested on that power began to disintegrate. The establishment of British rule brought India in contact with modern Western civilization. The different responses of the Hindus and Muslims to the Western impact led to uneven development of the two communities in the nineteenth century. The Hindu attitude was practical and pragmatic. During the long period of Muslim rule the Hindus had not hesitated to learn Persian which was the court language of the Muslim rulers and had secured many advantages. The Muslim attitude, on the other hand, was negative and impractical. They were reluctant to learn English and acquire Western education fearing that it would destroy their distinct religious and cultural identity.

In fact, the different reactions of Hindus and Muslims to English rule and Western education profoundly affected the subsequent development of the two communities.

While the Hindus, in general, welcomed the English rule with enthusiasm, the Muslims regarded it as a calamity.

The failure of the Muslims to adjust themselves to the new situation not only brought about a sharp deterioration in their position from which they took a long time to recover; it also widened the gulf between the two communities. Muslim separatist feeling which led to the rise of a powerful Muslim nationalist movement in the twentieth century and eventually created Pakistan may be traced to this period.

By the close of the nineteenth century communal discord between Hindu and Muslim communities had manifested itself in a bitter form. This discord had arisen

JULY 2009 chiefly out of political rivalry and economic competition. Another possible reason for the growth of Hindu-Muslim antagonism was that due to the impact of the Hindu revivalist movement in the later part of the nineteenth century, a section of educated Hindu elite, the so-called Bhadralok viewed the Muslims with suspicion and hatred. They feared that with the emergence of a new Muslim middle class in the later part of the nineteenth century the monopoly which the Hindus had been enjoying with regard to appointments in government service and other matters would come to an end. It was this feeling which was largely responsible for the growth of communalism which embittered the relations between the two communities.

This communal discord which for a variety of reasons had manifested itself in the nineteenth century India, clearly served British imperial interests. This conflict spread in a bitter and wider scale in the twentieth century. It is true that a number of Hindu and Muslim political had taken some positive steps to resolve this conflict on the basis of mutual understanding. But all these moves proved abortive. The utter lack of foresight displayed by most of the political leaders, both Hindu and Muslim, and the insensible, intolerant and illiberal attitude of the general body of population had closed all avenues towards a peaceful and lasting settlement of the communal problem and pushed the sub-continent to the ‘great divide’ of 1947.

The basis on which Pakistan was created has now proved to be a myth. The demand for Pakistan was based on an unhistorical assumption that Muslims of India constituted one indivisible ‘nation’, and therefore, their hopes and aspirations could be fulfilled if they could establish a separate ‘homeland’ of their own. But history tells us that the Muslims inhabiting the different and far-flung areas of the vast territorial region of the Indian sub-continent did not belong to one single homogenous community. This was particularly true of the Bengali Muslims who constituted more than half of the total Muslim population of India. Nevertheless, the great majority of the Indian Muslims led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948) the fierce propounder of the ‘two nation theory’, had most vociferously demanded the establishment of Pakistan which they believed would be the ‘homeland’ for the Indian Muslims. But what was the reality? Did the Muslims of India benefit from the creation of Pakistan? Could this new state become the 4

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‘homeland’ of all Muslim population of India? An overwhelming number of Indian Muslims, especially those of upper India such as U.P. and Bihar, were staunch supporters of the Pakistan movement. After the partition of 1947 a considerable number of them went to Pakistan. But those, many millions of them who did not or could not migrate and remained in India faced a very unenviable situation. Many of them were treated as suspects and Pakistan agents by Hindus, especially by those who were forced to leave their homes in the region which constituted Pakistan and had taken refuge in India? A great number of Muslims of U.P. and other places of northern India migrated to West Pakistan where they came to be known as Mohajirs, while Muslims from Bihar and neighbouring regions generally moved to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) where they were called ‘Biharis’. But the Muslim refugees both in West and East Pakistan were not integrated with the local Muslim population and tension continued to exist between them. Eventually, the Muslims of East Pakistan became conscious of their distinct Bengali identity and rich cultural heritage which they shared with the Bengali Hindus. The former Muslim League leader of Bengal, A.K. Fazlul Haq and H.S. Suhrawardy, without whose support Pakistan might not have been created, were thoroughly disillusioned with the communal politics of the Muslim League government. They now began to work for a secular democratic order in Pakistan.

Consequently, they incurred the displeasure of the Pakistan government. Eventually, under the leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman the Bengalis of East Pakistan revolted against the Pakistani military regime and were able to win their independence. The situation in what now remains of Pakistan is far from stable. In fact, this moment it appears that Islamic religious fanatical elements such as the Talibans and their allies who have proclaimed holy war (jihad) against the non-Muslims threaten to destroy the very edifice of Pakistan’s democratically elected government and establish a medieval theocratic order. There is a growing fear in the Western world that Pakistan is going to be a failed state.

And what about the position of the Muslims who did not or could not migrate to Pakistan? Jinnah and the top-ranking Muslim League leaders who were in the forefront of the Pakistan movement, such Nawabzada Liyaqat Ali Khan and Chowdhury Khaliquzzaman, had 5

all left for Pakistan. The leadership of the Indian Muslim community fell mostly on ill-educated fanatical mullahs and reactionary and opportunist politicians. If the Indian Muslims had eschewed politics of communalism and exclusiveness as Fazlul Haq, Suhrawardy and many other Bengali Muslim leaders had done in erstwhile East Pakistan, and had joined the mainstream of secular politics, perhaps their plight would have been much better than what it is now. In fact, the Indian Muslims had no reason to remain isolated and suffer from any kind of inferiority complex. Many of them like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan had made notable contribution to India’s freedom movement.

Indian Muslims had also made notable contribution to the enrichment of Indian civilization and culture, particularly in the field of art, architecture, music and literature.

In our time Islamic orthodox religious fundamentalism has emerged as a powerful threat to modern political and social order. The exponents of fundamentalist Islam firmly believe that the dictates of Qur’an and Sunnah have to be blindly accepted and strictly followed. They do not believe in the unity of mankind. In fact, these exponents of orthodox Islam make two distinct division of mankind, namely, (1) the Muslim ummah, that is, the believer in Islam, and (2) the unbelievers (kafirs), that is, the rest of mankind. These orthodox Muslims are so fanatically attached to their faith that they consider their religious duty to go to war (jihad) against the non-Muslim infidels in order to establish or protect what they consider truly Islamic order. History tells us that Islamic fundamentalism has gained force whenever Muslim political power has declined or Muslim society has been confronted with some kind of internal or external challenge.

In South Asia the Jamat-i-Islami has emerged as the most well-organised exponent of Islamic fundamentalism. It has built up strong bases in Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is also quite active in India. The Jamat’s influence is clearly noticeable in the Taliban movement in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Islamic fundamentalist militants operate under different names. In Bangladesh during the liberation war of 1971 they were known as Razakars, Al-Badr and Al-Shams. They had actively collaborated with the Pakistan army in carrying out genocide and other crimes

THE RADICAL HUMANIST against the Bengali civil population. After the liberation of Bangladesh they have regrouped themselves and are operating under different names such as Harkat-ul-Jihad, Jama’tul Mujahhiddin Bangladesh (JMB) and Hijb-ul Towhid. These elements have been operating under the protective umbrella of some rightist political parties such as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) founded by the late General Ziaur Rahman and its close allies, as well as certain sections within the civil administration and the armed forces who nurture an almost pathological anti-Indian feeling. In recent years quite a number of noted intellectuals and liberal-minded politicians have been killed by these fanatic militants.

The victims include Rajshahi University Professor of Economics Dr. Yunus and Dhaka University Professor of Bengali Dr. Humayun Azad, and the Awami League leader Shah A.M.S. Kibria. A number of cinema halls and two most popular cultural organizations, Udichi and Chayanot, which are specialized institutions for the cultivation of Bengali music and dance particularly songs of Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam were subjected to bomb blasts. Bombs and grenades were also thrown at the Communist Party office. As a result of these attacks quite a large number of persons were killed and injured. The chief target of the Islamic militants, however, now appears to be Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh.

There have been several attempts to assassinate her. In one such attacks one of her close associates and a top Awami League leader Mrs. Ivy Rahman along with many Awami League workers were killed and many more were seriously injured. In fact, such perverted and gruesome acts of terrorism and violence perpetrated in the name of Islamic religion are crimes against humanity and can not be regarded as domestic or internal concerns of individual states. They threaten to destroy our civilized existence, and therefore, constitute serious threat to world peace.

III The India Pakistan Dispute: Stalemate over Kashmir The prospect of peace in the South Asian region has been seriously impaired because of continuing tension between India and Pakistan. The bone of contention between the two states is Kashmir. Since British

JULY 2009 withdrawal from the Indian subcontinent in August, 1947, the two successor states, namely, India and Pakistan had fought three major wars. Of these two were over the possession of Kashmir and the third resulted from India’s support to Bangladesh liberation war.

Pakistan claimed Kashmir on the ground that the majority of the inhabitants of this region were Muslims and also because the territory was contiguous to Pakistan, a Muslim state. On the other hand India’s claim over Kashmir was based on the fact that its ruler the Maharaja of Kashmir (who happened to be Hindu) had soon after the British withdrawal acceded to India consequent upon armed invasion by Muslim tribesmen supported by Pakistan army. Pakistan’s plea was that the Hindu Maharaja of Kashmir without taking into consideration the wishes of his predominantly Muslim subjects had proclaimed accession to India, a predominantly Hindu state. India, however, maintained that being a secular state it did not consider religion as the basis of modern statehood. In fact, even after the creation of Pakistan, millions of Muslims continued to be citizens of India and shared the same rights and privileges enjoyed by other non-Muslim Indian citizens.

It is worth mentioning that since independence two prominent Indian Muslims were elected President of the Indian republic. On the other hand, Pakistan being an Islamic state, no non-Muslim could become the head of the state.

Pakistan’s military intervention in Kashmir led to its occupation of the North-Western part of the territory.

Efforts made by the United Nations to solve the dispute peacefully through dialogue and negotiations had failed.

Neither side was willing to budge an inch from its position with the result that a cold war exists between the two countries. The establishment of SAARC no doubt created some favourable conditions for regional cooperation and understanding, but without amicable settlement of the Kashmir dispute Indo-Pakistan relations continue o be tense. The possession of nuclear weapons in the hands of both the countries has greatly worsened the situation. It is clear that unless the Kashmir problem is solved amicably there is no hope of lasting peace in the sub-continent. Mutual suspicion, hatred and fear have driven the two countries to join the mad race of armaments. They are spending the major portion of their national resources on the military sector while millions of their citizens continue to live in abject poverty. If the 6

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huge and unaccountable resources which the two countries are now spending on such unproductive undertakings such as procurement and manufacture of armaments and maintenance of disproportionately large armed forces and military establishments are diverted towards such endeavours such as eradication of poverty and unemployment, promotion of education and improvement in the quality of life of all their citizens, then there will be no limit to progress and development.

Freed from constant tension and fear the people of both the countries could look forward to a new era of peace and prosperity. This would also benefit other countries of the region particularly Bangladesh.

Under the circumstances, many people in South Asia who are not directly connected with politics and government-representing the common people from different walks of life-they are thinking of a commonsense solution of the Kashmir dispute. This is to accept the existing line of control (LOC) as a permanent

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international boundary between India and Pakistan. In other words, India should agree to regard the so called Azad Kashmir as part of Pakistan, while Pakistan should recognize Indian hold over the rest of Kashmir. I know this would hurt many Kashmiris who aspire for independence, but they can draw solace from the fate of the Bengalis and the Punjabis. History has divided them politically, but they continue to retain their linguistic and cultural unity and take pride in their rich common cultural heritage.

There is growing realization among all sections of people that no major problem or dispute can be solved by violence or dispute; that only through peaceful means, through mutual understanding and goodwill, all sources of discord can be removed. The common people of South Asia are tired of prolonged tension and conflict that has been raging in some parts of the region. They now want to live in peace which is essential for their development and progress.

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

R.A. Jahagirdar [Justice R.A. Jahagirdar (Retd.), former President of Indian Radical Humanist Association and former Editor of ‘The Radical Humanist’ is now one of the members of the Contributing Editorial Board of The Radical Humanist.]

Freedom Of The Press 3, 2008, the United Nations observed OntheMayFreedom of the Press day. Every year in May that day is observed. The UN recognizes the dangers faced by the press all over the world and the observance of the day is reminder to the world that freedom of the press must be preserved. In every democratic country, freedom of the press is indispensible.

Freedom of speech and expression is guaranteed by the Constitution and press freedom is an aspect of that freedom. It is now well recognized that freedom of the press is freedom of speech and expression. If the freedom of the press is limited or restricted, it amounts to curtailment of the freedom of speech and expression. What a person wants to say, he may say it orally or he may say it through the press. That is how one cannot separate freedom of expression from the freedom of the press. It means that in India at least a law cannot be made infringing Article 19(2) of the Constitution. The said Article protects the freedom of the speech and expression. Under this Article, freedom of the press is also protected. It is now well settled that freedom of speech and expression includes the freedom of the press. Press is owned by individuals and the freedom of individuals is guaranteed by Article 19. That is so held by the Supreme Court in Sakal Newspapers Ltd. v.

Union of India, (AIR 1962 SC 305). This case also held,

JULY 2009 in effect, that what cannot be done directly cannot be done indirectly. An order prescribing the price of a newspaper, on the basis of advertisements in that newspaper, was not a reasonable restriction and hence void. India is having a written Constitution and a Supreme Court which can invalidate a law ensures the freedom of the press.

Freedom of press is beneficial not only to the citizens but also to the Government. During the period of internal emergency from 1975 to 1977, a very strict censorship was imposed on the press which was unfortunately upheld by the Supreme Court of India. During that, the powers that be, especially the Prime Minister, never came to know the wrongs committed by the Government. It was partly because of this that the Government was defeated in 1977.

East European countries, which were under the tutelage of USSR for more than 50 years, ought to have known the value of press freedom. No paper was allowed to air the grievances of the people then. Probably after spending more than 50 years, those countries and the people in those countries had developed “fear of freedom”. That is what is seen even after 1989 when those countries became free. The history of these countries does not show that they have realized the freedom of the press. In recent years the regimes in some of these countries have almost become dictatorial. Or at least they have developed a dislike for press freedom.

In Slovakia, which has become a separate, free country after the Bosnian war, the loss of press freedom is conspicuous. Some papers have been appearing, in recent years, with blank pages, showing that they have been the subject of censorship. A new law relating to the media has been passed which requires the publication of rebuttal of a story about an individual in as prominent a manner as the original story. The excuse for this law is that it will make the media responsible. On a refusal to print the media entails a–a punishment. The Culture Minister, however, says, “It does not jeopardize freedom of the press. It merely upgrades the interest of the public above the interests of the publishers”. The press has in recent years harried the Government for its inertia.

In Bulgaria, defamation of public figures is a crime punishable with a fine. Public figures include prominent businessmen. Journalists can be sued for infringing “honour and dignity” of individuals. In the year 2007, as

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many as 100 cases had been filed. Rumania was probably the worst affected under the erstwhile Soviet rule. It had great opportunity to be free and to have press freedom. But, alas, it has enacted draconian laws. Most of the mainstream media are owned by three political active tycoons. The defamation law in existence criminalizes ordinary insult. “The legislators should strengthen their own accountability rather than hamper the efforts of free media”. This was the comment of American Ambassador.

Freedom House, a New York based N.G.O., has opined that ex-Communist countries have the biggest relative decline in media freedom in the world. Latvia and Poland have also shown deep aversion to political freedom as propounded by the press. It has been said that politicians think that the public broadcasters should toe their tune. Readers will remember the case of a Russian newspaper which published widespread rumours about the supposed relationship of erstwhile President Putin with a comely gymnast. Remember Putin himself was a gymnast. Putin lambasted the paper which closed down.

In 1993, the United Nations created World Press Freedom Day. It was intended to create awareness of press freedom all over the world. The day is also intended to remind the Governments to respect freedom of the press. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers” (emphasis supplied) The United Nations Economic and Social Council (UNESCO) gives a World Press Freedom Prize to an individual, organization or institution which has upheld and defended the right of free journalism throughout the world. This prize is named after Guillermo Cano, a journalist of Colombia who was assassinated in 1986. A Committee of 16 journalists chooses the winner of the prize. In 2007, the prize was posthumously given to Anna Politikovakiya, a Russian reporter, who reported on the conflict in Chechnya. She was shot dead in October, 2006. Thus the press freedom has a sad story.

Despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all the countries in the world respect press freedom. Governments are the primary means through which a journalist’s freedom is quelled. The extent of censorship varies from country to country. Many countries prevent criticism of the Governments, or the countries’ religious or political tenets. In theory, journals are allowed to exist; but in practice they exist precariously. Detention and imprisonment are not unknown in many countries. The Committee to Protect Journalists, an NGO of New York, has estimated that 127 journalists were detained in 2007 and of them 17% were not even officially charged, worse still in 2007, 95 journalists and media staff were killed around the world. Majority of the journalists killed belonged to their own countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the days of French Kingdom, there were three estates viz. the nobility, the commons and the King. In democracy, the press is called the fourth estate. It is as important as the other three estates in a democracy. Indeed, in India, the free press is regarded as a basic feature of the Constitution. In a country like India, the three estates are the Parliament, the Executive and the Judiciary. The free press can be and is regarded as the fourth estate. A free press maintains checks and balances and keeps the Government on its toes. Of course, the freedom of the press is subject to law of crimes, libel, etc.

Reference to the history of freedom of the press is in order and freedom of the press is a necessary corollary of freedom of speech and expression. Examples of suppression of free speech can be found even in ancient times. Socrates provides a good example. Even a champion of the liberties of the people such as Cromwell placed restrictions on the press. Erasmus argued that in a Free State the tongues should be free. John Milton pointed out that freedom of the press is essential not merely to citizens but also to society. Unfortunately, both Milton and John Locke did not support freedom to the atheists. Milton fought against the system of licensing what should be printed. The Great Revolution of 1688 recognized the press freedom. By and large, the press in U.K., U.S.A. and India enjoys freedom. However, during certain periods such as wars, or emergencies, freedom is curtailed.

In June 09 RH pl. read Salman Rushdie in place of Salman Khursheed on Page 8, 4th para,2nd line in Jus. Jahagirdar’s article. Error regretted.Ed.

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Guests’ Section: Post Card from Italy

Ermes Bertani [Lest the readers have forgotten, Signor Ermes Bertani, was in December 2007 introduced to them by Ms. Rani Drew, our regular contributor of the “Letter from London” in a “Letter from London via Italy”. She had paralleled him to Roy and had tried to find similarities in their passionate struggle for a just society in their own places of work. Mr. Bertani worked as a secret agent since the age of 18 in the Fronte della Gioventù, the Youth Front of the Italian Resistance, the left united front opposing the Fascist state of Mussolini, and has since then remained a leftist. He, even at his age of 82, was willing to ‘take another round of his glorious radical resistance’, if need be, to somehow check the growth of ‘the likes of Berlusconi’, wrote Rani. He along with her lamented over the passing away of an age of idealism.

Elsabertani@tiscali.it]

A few notes on the Italian elections Italy Berlusconi’s power, that is to say his Incontrol of most of the Press, of television and his huge wealth, has allowed him to win the elections again. His success has just been a bit less than expected (35. 4% for his party-PDL-) probably (and hopefully) also due to the great scandal that emerged a few weeks before the elections: “the Naomigate”. Naomi is a beautiful 18-year-old girl who is said to have had an affair with Berlusconi while she was still 17 years old.

As for the economic crisis that is striking our country

hard, the government doesn’t seem to have any clear idea of what to do. They are just trying to cover up the real data and blame it all on the “pessimistic propaganda” of the left wing parties. Mr Berlusconi wants to be the “owner” of our country, the Parliament and the judiciary; and the Opposition is just a useless obstacle to his idea of power and democracy.

But the big question is: do the 35. 4% of the Italians really share the same ideas and (lack of) “values” that Berlusconi believes in? If it is so, there is no future left for our country.

The other party which won 10% seats in the elections was the “Lega”, a xenophobic party. In Venice it had 20% seats! Even in my town, which has been governed by the left wing party for about 60 years now, the Lega got 13%. “Social grudge”, the importance given to the “here and now”, to money and personal property together with the fear of any change and hate for the immigrants are at the basis of this victory among the working class. In contrast with other European countries the Lega is not a small extremist party; it is an important and influential member of the Government and its Ministers play a key role in the Cabinet.

Clearly, for those like me who fought in the Italian Resistance against Fascism and Nazism this is a very sad reality.

As regards the left, the PD (Partito Democratico) got 26.7% and the other communist parties, “Sinistra e Libertà” and “Rifondazione Comunista”, got 3.3%+3.2%. It was certainly a defeat also because the PD had got 31% in 2004. This was partly due also to the fights and divisions inside the party and among the leaders. I think that the only way out will be to go back to the factories and the squares and to talk directly to the people again, listening to their ideas and supporting our strong opposition to this government and its idea of society. Finally, we should have the courage to find new and young leaders who can renovate the party. Alas, this is my hope and my wish!

Mr. Ermes Bertani’s contact address is: Signor Ermes Bertani, via Grillenzoni 5, 42100, Reggio Emilia, Italy.

Dear friends, Please send your articles with passport size photographs at my following address: C-8, DEFENCE COLONY, MEERUT, 250001, U.P., INDIA, (Mob.) 09719333011. Or e-mail them along with your scanned photographs to rheditor@gmail.com —Rekha Saraswat

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Letter from Vienna

Gerd Callesen [Dr. Gerd Callesen is a renowned historian of the Labour Movement and is now editing a volume (114 volumes planned) of the collected works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels—‘Marx Engels Gesamtausgabe’. He contributes his ‘Letter from Vienna’ to ‘The Radical Humanist’ every third or fourth month on a regular basis. gerd.callesen@chello.at]

Elections to the European Parliament to the European Parliament (EP) Thewereelections held in the 27 member states in the days between 4 and 7 June 2009. Every five years the European citizens may participate in elections to the European parliament. Since 1979 MEPs have been elected directly by the people. Every citizen of a Member Country has the right to vote irrespective of where they live. Even though the EP does not have the same powers as national parliaments, its influence has been growing over the years.

Until 2009 the EP had 785 members from 27 countries.

They sit together according to their political affiliation, not according to their national affiliation. In this year’s election the number of MEPs has been reduced to 736 although the number of citizens has increased to about 500 millions due to the fact that new member states have joined the EU during the last five years. The two biggest groups are the Christian Democrats (centre-right party), with 278 seats and the Social Democrats with 216 seats.

Other groups are the Liberals, Nationalists, the Greens, the Socialist/Communist group and other smaller parties.

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Each country elects a certain number of MEPs, partly depending on the size of their population. Germany, for example has 99 MEPs, whereas small countries, like Malta only have 5 MEPs. The smaller countries have an over proportional number of MEPs. The EP convenes in Strasbourg but most of the MEPs do their work in Brussels.

The EP has three main tasks: 1. Together with the Council it passes laws. Even though it does not have much power there are some areas in which the Council must ask the Parliament for its approval. A new country, for example, cannot become a member of the European Union without Parliament’s approval.

2. It oversees the work of the other EU organs, especially the Commission. Before a new commissioner can begin his/her job parliament has to approve. MEPs can ask questions, and there are regular meetings between parliament members and the Commission.

3. It decides and monitors how the EU spends money.

Once the new Treaty of Lisbon is passed by all Member States, the European Parliament will obtain more powers and become more of a real parliament than now. If the Treaty is passed, the number of MEPs will be increased again.

Results of the elections 2009: The general trend confirmed what had become obvious in several national elections over the last two years. The Conservative parties, although split in at least two major groups – pro-European Christian Democrats (EPP) and anti-European Euro-sceptics (MER) – were victorious in this election, the right wing Social Democrats (PES, now ASDE) were the big losers, the Liberal Alliance (ALDE) also gained some additional support as did the Greens (Greens-EFA). The group of left wing Socialists and Communists (EUL-NGL) almost held their position; unfortunately the ‘lunatic fringe’ on the extreme right had a comeback after many years in the wilderness, whereas the other anti-EU parties are in trouble in several countries. The anti-unionists are still a considerable force because they have the possibility of entering into alliances both with the extreme right and the MER (the British Tories, a Czech party (ODS), and a Polish party (PiS)). The former five groups/parties are the most stable ones, as they have existed over 10 years.

Occasionally various other groups have existed for a few

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years and after this most recent election new alliances will be formed: the MER for the time being only exists in three countries, for example, but to be recognized as a parliamentary group (and be eligible for some of the money accorded to groups) it has to have members in at least seven of the member states. Probably the extreme right wing will attempt once again to form a new group of more or less nationalistic, racist and neo-fascist origins. Such parties exist in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and the United Kingdom and maybe some other countries. Not all of the parties would be interested in joining a European party but the funding accorded to the parliamentary groups is, of course, an incentive.

Although the overall picture is clear, the various national elections point in diverse directions. Very often the issues in the national elections were not really issues facing the EU but rather issues at national level. In several countries topical local issues led many voters to stay at home and not vote in the elections: the turnout in the different countries varied from under 20% to over 90%, the overall turnout falling to 43%. Since 1979 it has dwindled from 62% and diminishing in each subsequent election.

This tendency was reversed in some countries, among others in Poland (up from 20 to 25 percentage points, and in Denmark, where the turnout was about 60%, up 12 percentage points since 2004 – probably this was the result of a referendum on female succession to the Danish throne. In the UK it was 35% which was detrimental for the Labour Party – hardly surprising in the light of the scandalous corrupt practices of the party’s government ministers and parliamentarians. The Conservative Party did not gain much (up 1 percentage point) nor did the Liberals. The UK Independence Party came second and got 13 MEP’s (17%); this party has as its most important issue to reverse the integration of the UK in the EU. It has no other political programme but that will suffice at least for some years – a similar party in Denmark has existed since 1979 and only dropped out in this year’s election.

The downfall of the right-wing Social Democrats: But the corruption of New Labour, Tony Blair’s Party, was only a partial reason for the overall trend suffered by right-wing Social Democrats. Blair’s neo-liberal policy

was more or less copied by Social Democrats in almost all other European countries and they almost all suffered heavy losses. They are reduced to being parties with about 15 to 25 % of the popular vote, while they often used to get between 30 and 50 % in the 1970ies and were the strongest single political party in most European countries. In some countries it seems that left-wing Social Democratic or Socialist parties have had some success in attracting at least some of the former Social Democratic voters (The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden). In other countries the former Social Democrats are either not participating in elections or try out a variety of other political parties or groupings.

In Austria, a former Social Democratic MEP, Hans Peter Martin, who broke with the party, attracted about 17% of the Austrian vote – probably many former Social Democrats. Some of the former Social Democrats also vote for populist parties on the right wing - in Denmark for The Danish People’s Party, in Austria for the Freedom Party as these parties have – in addition to their xenophobic attitudes – a social programme that may appeal to these voters or pretend that they have. The disillusionment felt by former voters of the Social Democratic parties leads them in many directions, resulting in new more or less political groupings of the type represented by Martin, but also to extreme right wing organisations as the British National Party.

The rise of the extreme right: The BNP will not feel alone in the EP. Similar parties with a strong hostility to immigration have been elected in several countries, also in countries which for many years prided themselves in being immune to racist and nationalist attitudes like The Netherlands. The leader of the Dutch party, the filmmaker Geert Wilders, denies being a racist, claiming that his problem is with Islam as an ideology, not the colour of people’s skin. His followers, who some years ago were organized by Pim Fortuyn, who was murdered during the Dutch election campaign of 2002, may have the same problem with Islam, but they also appear to protest against immigration as such and against the general development of The Netherlands and the EU. This mixture of varied interests, disaffection, unemployment, anti-modernity (we are living in an era of great technological changes) is tendentiously very dangerous.

The Hungarian Jobbik party which is organizing a Hungarian Guard, a sort of ‘storm-troopers’, and

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physically attacks especially the gipsy population of Hungary – several unexplained killings have taken place – says the real racists are the liberal establishments who do not put Hungarians first. The anti-gypsy sentiments are strong also in Italy, Slovakia, Spain, and Rumania and are exploited by local racist parties. Nick Griffin, the leader of the BNP, denies that his party is more racist than the National Black Police Association. The rise of the extreme right is patchy: in some countries like France its influence in the electorate has been reduced; in Germany the extreme right wing did not participate as it had no chance of achieving enough votes to clear the 5 % hurdle – the strongest of the parties, the National Democratic Party, also being in disarray and having lost its money reserves due to embezzlement by its treasurer.

In Italy the picture is more diffuse. The former neo-fascists are now part of the new united centre-right party and will join the EPP. The northern Italian Lega Nord has its own form of racism: it wants to expel the South Italians from the North, and also applauds the attacks by the police on the gypsies.

One of the divides in European policy is the question of whether the EU is to become an economic and political federation or is to maintain the 27 nation states with only limited co-operation. The election results are again ambiguous: the Irish Libertas party which succeeded in convincing the majority of the Irish electorate to reject the Lisbon treaty in a referendum held in 2008 tried to organize an EU-wide party to further the reconsideration of the process towards an European Federation, failed miserably – the founder, an Irish millionaire – thought he could buy his way into European politics with only money to support him. In Denmark one of the old Euro-sceptic parties failed to be re-elected; over the years the left-wing Socialist People’s Party has re-considered its policies and is now mostly a pro-European party. However, the UK Conservative party still hopes that Great Britain can maintain an independent position and adheres to the fiction that an economic co-operation is possible without any political superstructure. The Czech Conservative party and the Polish right-wing party support this position and will probably join in the founding of the new group of Conservative parties MER (they might choose a different name), withdrawing their support of the EPP. There are some difficulties to overcome, but probably

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some of the about 70 MEPs from the smaller countries can be persuaded to join.

Although the centre, right and extreme right parties almost have a majority – as far as can be ascertained now a few days after the election – in the new Parliament, they are divided and subdivided in their political positions. The various centre parties – EPP, ASDE, ALDE, and Greens agree more or less on most political and economic issues. There are differences and some of the spokespersons especially from the Greens and ALDE have been trying to form a new majority in the election of the Commission President. The Portuguese Conservative Barroso is not considered suitable by the more liberal centre parties. They are unlikely to succeed; it is only on paper that they can agree on an alternative candidate. Barroso is supported by the EPP and has for the last two periods had an understanding with the Social Democrats. Rumour has it that at least the French and the German governments will support Barroso’s candidacy.

That will be seen as soon as the new Parliament assembles within the next few weeks. The Parliament can, of course, only approve or reject a proposal for a Commission, but as has been shown on an earlier occasion this is a possibility which the Parliament takes advantage of. The power of the Parliament is increasing.

This has been agreed under the Lisbon treaty which must be adopted by all 27 Member States if it is to enter into force.

It must not be forgotten that the neo-liberal policies have brought about the conditions for the global financial and industrial crisis; it is a fact that the ideology behind the implosion of the economy – the worst crisis in capitalist economic system since 1929, as it has been called – has been advocated not only by the bourgeois parties but also by the right-wing Social Democrats. However, what was to be expected of bourgeois parties was not expected of Social Democrats. Voters, therefore, seem to have been acting rationally when they abandoned the Social Democrats and stayed at home. The left wing Social Democrats existing in various European countries (the EUL-NGL) did not gain much by the wrong decisions made by the right-wing Social Democrats.

As the European industry is very much export-orientated, it suffers heavily under a world-wide recession. The automobile industry is under pressure to develop new more environmentally friendly engines but

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also to re-structure as over-capacity seems to constitute the most serious threat. Tens of thousands of jobs are disappearing and nobody knows when the recession will be over. We hear a lot of prophecies, many of them contradictory, and often influenced by wishful thinking – a thinking which moves in opposite directions. We can only surmise what the impact of the recession will be for the EU. We cannot predict if and when forces capable of

resisting neo-Liberalism will rally among Europe’s populations. It may happen quite fast once it gets rolling and will take place across existing national, linguistic and cultural borders within the European Union; but it may also grind to a sudden halt. There are, however no clear indications of such a development even getting started.

The Radical Humanist Journal Goes Online There is good news for The Radical Humanist readers.

By the time we meet in Delhi for our Bi-annual General Body Meeting on 26th July 2009, hopefully, The Radical Humanist journal will be online.

Not only that, the Indian Renaissance Institute is in the process of developing an interactive humanist web-site for the Radical Humanist Movement.

The new web-site will also be an online platform for Humanists globally. It will give us an opportunity to develop a large network of humanist friends from different parts of the world while spreading our Radical Humanist ideology.

We will be able to share our views and opinions by participating in debates, uploading and downloading latest news feeds and keeping an active track of humanist events and movements in different parts of the world.

It will also give you, our readers, an online access to all the previous RH monthly journals.

You will also be able to leave your comments on articles uploaded and will be able to upload your own articles for either the forthcoming print issues of the magazine or for the online article section.

We will try to evolve it into a humanist social-networking magazine portal online.

Rekha Saraswat M.N. Roy Memorial Annual Essay Writing Competition—2009-10 on “Innumerate and explain the obstacles in the International Peace Process” in 2500 words in either Hindi or English. Name and address of the participant to be written on a separate paper.

Submit by 31st October 2009 to Mr. Ugamraj Mohnot at D-98 A, Krishna Marg, Bapu Nagar, Jaipur-15, Rajastha, India. Ph. 91-141-2621275 or to Dr. Rekha Saraswat, C-8, Defence Colony, Meerut, 250001, U.P., India or on rheditor@gmail.com —Notice by IRHA, Rajasthan unit

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Letter from England:

John Drew [Mr. John Drew is a poet and the author of India and the Romantic Imagination (Oxford India). The present article, like that book, is concerned to discover neglected Indian dimensions to English literature. Mr. John was recently in India to do poetry-workshops for the IIT-sponsored Asia-Pacific Writing the Future conference. Cambridgepoetry@hotmail.com]

European Elections 1 didn’t vote in this month’s European elections.

I never have voted in them. Why not? You tell me why I should. Can you name a single M.E.P. (Member of the European Parliament)? I can’t – and I’ve never met anyone, anyone at all, who can.

What was the European election in England all about?

The European Parliament and its relationship to the Council of Europe? Or the Euro? Oh no, not the Euro again. The Government chants its mantra: Britain will join the Euro zone when the time is ripe – but it never is and never will be. Europe? We got invaded by the Romans in 55 B.C. and by the Normans in 1066. Since then we’ve made a habit of telling them we don’t want any more of them here, Napoleon, Hitler or whoever.

So why didn’t I vote for the BNP (the British National Party)? The bully boys sound much more plausible these days but they are still bully boys, they’re still Whites only - and that’s quite daft when most people have mates who aren’t. The BNP (formerly National Front) used to go out Paki-bashing and, thanks to that, the children of the people they used to beat up, are hitting back. A number of young Muslim men have trained to fight the British Army fighting in Muslim countries and a few have even opted to blow up fellow Brits at home. There’s been nothing like it since Guy Fawkes (fast backward 400 years). In those days the focus of an extra-territorial loyalty was the Pope in Rome (a dispute that still lives on

I

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in Northern Ireland). We don’t want it in England, thank you. Mind you, to stop it, the fanatics at both extremes will have to be openly confronted and faced down.

Some people I know voted for UKIP (the United Kingdom Independence Party). The UK – what’s that?

Whatever it is (and some reckon that, like the Commonwealth, it’s a not-so-bad post-Imperial multicultural cobble-up), the kingdom isn’t united – the Irish almost all out, the Scots half out and the Welsh, well, edging away. That leaves England. As my name suggests, I live in England, not the UK, OK? If the BNP wants to kick out the Pakis, UKIP wants to see off the Poles. Usually we can’t decide whether to hate immigrants because they do no work and live off the Welfare or because they take all the jobs. With the Poles, it’s that they are doing twice the work for half the pay.

Those employing them rather like this arrangement but local workers being undercut are naturally going to be less happy about the European jobs for European workers agenda we are signed up to. They were recently infuriated by one widely-reported case where a sub-contracted company shipped in Italians to work in England and housed them in ships off-shore.

People who didn’t want to be seen voting for the BNP or UKIP in the European elections voted for the Conservatives. The Tories have been out of power in Westminster for so long nobody remembers why they shouldn’t vote for them. They have got a new young leader who’s an ad man and it’s enough that he looks young. The Liberal Democrats also have a new young leader but he looks so like the leader of the Conservatives no-one can tell the difference. Trouble for the Liberal Democrats is that people have heard of the Conservatives but haven’t always heard of the Liberal Democrats.

II That the Liberal Democrats are in favour of Europe wouldn’t have helped them win any votes. Not that it mattered. Most people in England refused to vote for any of the three main national parties in the European elections and those who did simply voted against the party in government, Labour. This was not on account of any European issue but because of the recent scandal over expenses charged by M.P.s in Westminster (note: nothing at all to do with M.E.P.s).

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For some years now, M.P.s, like the journalists of the newspapers who exposed them, have been told: Look, you’re not being paid properly but you can make up for that by fiddling your expenses. A few M.P.s have done this in an outrageous way – feathering their own and others’ (and even ducks’) nests, dredging moats, charging for non-existent mortgages. Though much of Britain has also been on the fiddle for years, those of their constituents who can’t claim expenses or who don’t claim or who have to do a mountain of paper-work to reclaim a few pennies are incandescent with rage.

Furious with all M.P.s – the good (and they are many) along with the bad.

The excessive fury being directed at M.P.s is because; back out in their constituencies in the provinces, they are the visible face of London – Babylon. The M.P.s are in fact small fry compared with the bankers whose gigantic swindles should have brought down the whole capitalist system as surely as socialism was brought down in Europe in 1989. It was this Labour Government that abandoned its egalitarian traditions to fawn on financiers from across the world, a sign not of international camaraderie but of global greed.

Gordon Brown, a son of the Manse and once a genuinely committed socialist, was not only a member of the Blair Government that courted the rich and famous but as, Chancellor of the Exchequer, spent ten years wining and dining in the City of London, asking no questions of his new friends so long as the Monopoly money kept flooding in. It was not the faceless bureaucrats in Brussels but these bonus-bloated bankers in London who were the reason behind the collapse of the Labour vote in the European elections.

If I had voted in the European elections, who would I have voted for? Perhaps the Liberal Democrats. They are the one pro-Europe party. Being pro-Europe doesn’t just mean we can all eat Italian food and drink French wine these days (worth having in a land infamous for its cold pies and warm beer). It means we recognize that my generation is the first in remembered history not to have had a war going on between (what are now) the member

states of the European Union. The secret of this peace is the Franco-German alliance – partly fostered by the Cold War but really cemented by the limited size of the original EU. Who knows whether this peace will survive the old –time machinations of nation-states in an enlarged EU – but in a world of continental blocs, little England has either to be a positive player in Europe or become as economically fragile as that other off-shore island, Iceland (and without its hot springs and funky life-style).

III I should have voted Green, of course. The Greens first came to notice in Europe with the German Greens – they even shared power, throwing up a Foreign Minister spunky enough to confront Rumsfield with his lies about Iraq. Thanks to the Proportional Representation system of voting, a vote for the Greens is not a wasted vote in European elections as it is in national (first-past-the-post) elections. The Greens didn’t fight a high profile campaign but most people I know are Green at heart and their vote is building up (if all too slowly).

The fall-out from the multi-million dollar black hole of bad debt the bankers have left us will really be felt when it hits us (and we have to go shopping with wheelbarrows of devalued currency notes). But that will be nothing compared with the way the whole Planet will melt down unless we address our genuinely international responsibilities – something it takes real imagination to do in England since global warming here initially means a colder Gulf Stream, heavier rains, flashier floods.

It may be a sign of the times that ever since the Credit Crunch hit us there have been more people in England applying to grow their own vegetables in the communal allotments that dot the land than at any time since World War II – the last time we were encouraged to save, scrimp, mend and make-do. By the time the next European election comes round, it could be that Europe’s Greens will be offering subsidies to those of us locals who cultivate our own (vegetable) gardens. If so, they will be able to count not just on my vote – but on millions of others between here and Bulgaria.

“Being human signifies, for each one of us, belonging to a class, a society, a country, a continent and a civilization; and for us European earth dwellers, the adventure played out in the heart of the New World signifies in the first place that it was not our world and that we bear responsibility for the crime of its destruction.”

Claude Levi-Strauss (French Philosopher born in 1908)

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Current Affairs’ Section: [Mr. Mahi Pal Singh is the President of Indian Radical Humanist Association (IRHA) of the Delhi Unit and Gen. Secy. of Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Delhi-unit. C-105, D.D.A. Flats, Sindhora kalan, Mahi Pal Singh Delhi-110 052.

Mahi_pal_singh@yahoo.co. uk]

Challenges before the New Government a sigh of relief when, after a Theweeknationof theheaved initial swearing in of Dr. Man Mohan Singh as the Prime Minister and his 19 cabinet colleagues, at last the complete Council of Ministers took oath of office on 28th May, 2009. When the pre-poll alliance partners of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) got 262 seats in the newly elected Lok Sabha in the May 2009 elections it became clear that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led alliance, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), had been rejected by the voters and the Congress led alliance would form the new government at the center. It was clear that mustering the support of ten more MPs, to reach the simple majority mark of 272 in a house of 543 members, would not be difficult. But, given the history of our politicians to become ministers by whatever means they can, what must not have surprised everybody was that there was a scramble for getting ministerial births not only from within the ruling alliance partners but also from amongst those who had parted ways with the UPA during the elections in the hope of getting more seats to be able to bargain for more and plum ministries, meaning thereby ministries where the chances of making more money through corrupt means are the maximum, at the time of the formation of the new government whichever group (the Congress or the Third grouping led by the Leftists) got the chance of forming the government.

This time the inclusion of Ram Vilas Paswan was ruled out because he himself was defeated in the election and his party, the Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP), was also wiped out. The inclusion of Lalu Prasad Yadav of Rashtriya

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Janata Dal (RJD) and Mulayam Singh Yadav of Samajvadi Party (SP) also seemed doubtful because both of them, along with Paswan, had formed a separate front before the elections and deserted the UPA, and the Congress seemed in no mood to burden itself with them in spite of the fact that both of them declared their support to the UPA immediately after the election results pointed out that the UPA was going to form the ministry.

After the drubbing that Lalu Prasad got in the elections at the hands of Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, whose party the Janata Dal United (JDU) and alliance got an overwhelming support of the voters in Bihar and almost wiped out the RJD led by Lalu Prasad, the latter also became irrelevant in the national politics. Mulayam Singh’s SP also was reduced from 35 seats to 22 and his bargaining power was reduced considerably, particularly because his support was not needed by the Congress. Being marginalized in the national politics, after losing power in their respective states earlier, must have come as a great shock to them because both of them have become accustomed to being in power, except of course during the six years’ rule of the NDA. Therefore, one could understand their unilateral and overenthusiastic support to the UPA, which was nothing more than a desperate attempt to get into the Council of Ministers and continue to enjoy the fruits of power.

However, the Congress leadership was in no mood to oblige them, particularly given the facts that it had been able to attain the simple majority mark with the support of some independent and single/double member parties in parliament and did not need the support of these two leaders for attaining power, and secondly because it was already being pestered for ministerial births of their choice by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Sharad Pawar and M. Karunanidhi of Dravid Munnetra Kazhgham (DMK) who wanted more seats to adjust all his family members/relatives in the ministry. The frustration of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Yadav was also evident when the Congress did not invite them to join the Cabinet, so much so that the former adopted an adversarial attitude while speaking on the motion of thanks to the President after her address to both the Houses of Parliament, and seemed on the side of the opposition and not on the side of the government even though he had submitted the letter of his party’s support for the government to the President earlier.

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In a party based Parliamentary democracy, all parties try to win elections and to come to power but, at least theoretically, to implement their party programmes based on some ideology, which are reflected in their election manifestoes, for the welfare of the people of the country who elect them. But not so in India as the experience of the parliamentary rule during the last sixty odd years shows. Here elections are fought for gaining power and to make huge unaccounted money by indulging in unchecked corruption and stacking the black money thus made, ‘earned’ cannot be the correct term to describe such money, at the cost of the suffering and starving, hapless and houseless billions, in the Swiss banks or investing in business and immovable property.

Otherwise how does one explain the fact that all politicians who have been in the ruling circles own crores and crores of Rupees and huge properties, though all of them begin their political careers from very humble positions? (Based on the affidavits filed at the time of nominations for the elections, two thirds of those who were included in the Council of Ministers this time are multi-millionaires or billionaires). If the amounts talked of during the elections, belonging to these politicians which are said to be stacked in the Swiss banks are anywhere near the actual figures, one can easily understand why the hard-toiling masses of the country are still forced to live below the poverty line in the state of hunger, poverty, illness and illiteracy. If such is the quantum of corruption at the highest level of power echelons in the country, there should be no surprise that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raids on the houses of high government officials on 11th and 12th June, 2009, as reported in the media, unearthed huge amounts of cash and properties. At the same time the allegations of a Sub-Inspector of Delhi Police, made against the Station House Officer of the Police Station where he is posted, in a communication to the Commissioner of Delhi Police on 12.6.2009, that Rs. Fifteen lakhs are charged for the posting of a beat officer, seems to be quite in line with what happens at the top.

And, as he has alleged, this is not what happens in one Police Station only. It is true of all police officers in Delhi, as per his statement. There is no accountability so far as Ministers and politicians are concerned, and even the CBI, as the past experience shows, and as many Directors of the CBI have admitted the fact openly on the television, cannot be expected to investigate and unearth

the unaccounted wealth of the Ministers and politicians because it functions merely as a government department following the diktats of the political bosses, opening and closing cases against the political opponents and supporters respectively, as per their desire.

Corruption has eaten into the very vitals of this country and is certainly the biggest hindrance in the socio-economic development of the country. The money that should be spent on facilities like hospitals, schools, electricity, roads etc. for the people of the country goes into the pockets of politicians and bureaucrats and then into foreign bank accounts. That is the reason why and how politicians are able to use money and muscle power to gain political power. Politics has become the most lucrative business in this country, the second best being babudum, where you make huge tax-free money. That is also the reason why every politician wants to promote every member of his family in this business of politics.

As a result, the present parliament is full of mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, wives and relatives of present and past politicians. And that forces senior journalists like Ms. Neeraja Chaudhary to observe publicly that, the way things are developing, a time will come when this country will become the family property of and be ruled by 543 political families in the same manner as it was ruled by 500 odd princes not long ago, or the power will be shared by hardcore criminals who are increasingly taking to politics as their profession because it does not involve any risks which are involved in criminal activities like abduction, extortion, dacoity and murder.

Nothing else can explain the presence of 150 criminals in the Lok Sabha after the 2009 elections whereas their number was 128 in the 14th Lok Sabha.

The new government has to realize that corruption in this country, and that too corruption at the top level, is the single biggest factor which leads to abrogation of the human rights of the people as it results in the denial of the minimum conditions necessary for living a dignified life as a human being to millions and millions of people in this country. Hence, that is the biggest challenge before the new government. Dr. Man Mohan Singh, who, fortunately, has a clean image, has to live up to the expectations and hopes the people have reposed in him while electing the new rulers. It is also a challenge because L.K. Advani, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, had raised the issue of money deposited in foreign banks during the election campaign. Corruption

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has never been an agenda before the governments in the past, which is why the menace has acquired gigantic proportions. If the new government can do something to control it, it will be the single largest service to the people of the country. Every single person living in this country wishes Dr. Man Mohan Singh success on this front. Whether he will do anything, and whether he will succeed or fail, or whether it will remain a mere rhetoric to be adopted at the time of elections only as has been done by various parties in the past, only time will tell.

Another matter that has long been pending before the Parliament is the passage of women’s reservation bill.

The policy statement of the new government as reflected in the President’s address to the Parliament showed that the government is going to give top priority to the bill.

That is a positive sign. But again some leaders have started talking of reservation for minorities, Other Backward Communities (OBC) etc. within the reservation for women; it seems that a consensus will not be possible on the bill this time also. Our parliamentarians should understand that the country looks forward to the passage of the bill at the earliest. If the country has to move forward in the direction of inclusive politics and empowerment of women, the passage of the bill at the earliest is a must. Women have proved their abilities in all spheres of life and denial of political power to them is a discrimination, which cannot be tolerated for long now. In fact, that is one way of ensuring that politics becomes clean and corruption free, though nobody can deny the presence of some corrupt elements even amongst them. But these are exceptional cases. On the basis of that argument the ‘better half’, as women are called in all civilized societies, of the population cannot be kept out of the governance of the country. What seems surprising to me is that even the exponents of women’s reservation, including the most vocal of women politicians like Brinda Karat and Sushma Swaraj, to name only a few of them, have never demanded 50% reservation for women who constitute a little less than 50% of the total population, thanks to the practice of feticide of the girl child even among the educated and affluent sections of our society. The principle of equality of sexes should be applied honestly and provision should be made for 50%, (or a little less on the basis of their percentage in the total population of the country) and not a discriminatory 33%, reservation of seats for women in the legislatures all over the country.

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All political parties are guilty of not giving them their due at the time of distribution of tickets for elections and organizational posts in the parties. The best thing will be that all political parties sit and reach a consensus on such an important issue, and if that is not possible, then to pass the bill first, and consider amending it later for better provisions.

The concept of a welfare state seems to have been forgotten, particularly after the Congress government led by P.V. Narsimha Rao started moving towards the policy of globalisation, privatization and liberalization in 1991. As a result the focus shifted from the welfare of the people to the welfare of the industrialists and businessmen. The government started shedding its responsibilities towards the people and handing over the fate of the people into private hands, for whom profit, and not welfare, is the main driving force. In the wake of these policies even government owned hospitals started charging money for tests and operations. The position today is that for a heart, kidney and cancer related disease the cost of treatment even in a government hospital comes to lakhs of Rupees, which is beyond the reach of even middle class people, not to say of the poor people of this country. With the entry of private players in the supply of water, electricity etc. the cost to a poor man has gone well beyond his means. Living conditions in the villages have not registered a significant improvement even after sixty years of independence.

Even in the cities vast sections of our people are obliged to live in inhuman conditions. In fact, Part IV of our Constitution dealing with the Directive Principles of State Policy, which forms the major portion of the Economic, Social and Cultural rights of the people and requires affirmative action by the government, has become redundant. This results into denial of these human rights, which are indivisible and inseparable from the political and civil rights contained in Part III of the Constitution under the heading of Fundamental Rights, to the people who most need them because they are essential for living a life of dignity free from exploitation, hunger and poverty. The government needs to focus on these issues if its claims for the concerns of aam adami, the common person, have any reality in them. Unless and until medical services, water and education up to the age of 14 become absolutely free and food and housing come within the reach of everybody, these claims will remain mere claims, an election time

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slogan only. This can only be achieved by empowering the institutions of local governance, like the Panchayati Raj institutions, and providing them funds directly because the people manning them know better than anybody else what they need and how to meet those needs.

Another important challenge before the new government, in fact, before the whole world, is the fight against terrorism, and communalism. They have to be fought with a determination. The fight against terrorism is the concern of every individual living in the country, whatever religion, region or language he or she belongs to. But our experience shows that whether it is fight against terrorism exported from across the border, or fight against the Naxalites or Maoists within the country, it is used as an argument for enacting draconian laws in the form of Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), Control of Organised Crimes Act, Special Security Act etc., which are almost always used for suppressing the voice of dissent by political parties in power, or against poor and helpless people even for petty crimes. They are also used by the police for preventing human rights activists from defending the rights of detainees before the filing of the charge sheets in the court of law because it is at this stage that most human rights violations take place in the police stations. Bad economic, social and political conditions lead to marginalization of some sections of society and they become a breeding ground for the sympathizers of terrorist activities. Without improving those conditions terrorism cannot be fought against effectively. It is also important for the government to understand that human rights activists believe in the rule of law and do the work, which, in fact, should be done by the government itself – making sure that the human rights of the people are not trodden under feet. Therefore they should not be viewed as adversaries of the law of the land. The government should ensure their safety and protection, for which it should initiate steps to develop a full-fledged jurisprudence as has also been demanded from the government and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) in a petition pending before it.

Unity and integrity of the country cannot be ensured without controlling the menace of communalism. In fact, the perpetrators of communal hatred, which results into communal violence, are the people who should be

booked under the strictest laws, tried on day-to-day basis and brought to justice. They are the real enemies of the country, the people and the society, and pose a real danger to the unity and integrity of our society and country. The government should set up special task force, special courts and enact necessary laws to deal with them.

The winning of 262 seats in the Lok Sabha by the UPA as a whole was described by the media as ‘majority’ and ‘simple majority’ to ‘overwhelming majority’ and ‘clear mandate’, whereas we all know that in an election in which barely 50% of the electorate voted (we are not taking into account crores of those voters whose names did not figure in the voters’ lists), the total percentage of votes polled by the Congress and the BJP was nearly 50%, out of which the share of the Congress party was about 7 % more than that of the BJP. Thus, those who gave the Congress this so-called ‘clear mandate’ to rule does not work out to more than 13 or 14% of the total electorate of the country, and not a majority of the electorate. Out of those 50% who did not come out to vote, there are many who are fed up with the promises made by politicians of all hues at the time of elections, which remain unfulfilled thereafter. This apathy of the people towards elections, and their antipathy and hatred for politicians can only be removed by a government that works and not by a government that only talks, a government that works for the welfare of the people and under whose rule even the poorest of the poor can hope to live a life of dignity. It may be a difficult goal but it cannot be put off for long now. The patience of the people has exhausted. They cannot wait for long now.

The country has the resources to achieve these goals – natural resources, human power and the technical know-how. What lacks is the political will to do so, by rising above the narrow personal, family, regional, linguistic, religious, caste and political considerations.

Without being pessimistic at the very beginning of the term of the new government, let us see whether our new government, the politicians and the various political parties rise to the occasion and redeem the pledge taken at the time of the adoption of our Constitution “to secure to all its citizens: Justice, social, economic and political; Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; Equality of status and of opportunity to promote among them all Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation,” or not.

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Rajindar Sachar [Justice Rajindar Sachar is Retd.Chief Justice of High Court of Delhi, New Delhi. He is UN Special Rappoetuer on Housing, Ex.Member, U.N. Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and Ex-President, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) India.]

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What people expect in next hundred days parliamentary election result of 2009 has Thehopefully given a permanent burial to the politics of divisiveness, and religious bigotry. It is a warning to all-that in India acceptance of politics of social inclusion and total equality of all religious groups especially the minorities are a pre-requisite to obtaining political power.

The new government will naturally frame its policies in the light of these and equally important considerations for people of India that is Bharat. In that context the sudden shooting up of Sensex is inconsequential–it only results in reducing the book accounting loss of Mittals, Ambani, Tatas etc., but does not add a trickle of water to 1/3rd of populations who do not get safe drinking water, nor add a yard of space to 25% of population of this country who have no homes and 77% of our population (i.e. more than 2.1/2 times the total population of pre 1947 India who are forced to carve out a living on Rs. 20 a day. I hope the immediate concern would be to prevent pilferage of 90% of funds allocated under NREG reaching the needy persons instead of being pocketed by dishonest officials and their political associates. All these important aspect will certainly take time. But there are some fundamental legislations and programmes which need to be put into effect within the first 100 days.

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The first priority should be to pass Woman Reservation Bill, which both NDA Govt. and previous UPA Government have been promising for over a decade, but it has remained an empty gesture. The Parliamentary Standing Committee under Dr. Nalchinpan had almost finalized its recommendation for double member constituencies which would ensure 1/3 members of legislatures to be woman ‘reserved quota’ and even more if a woman gets the highest vote. It is well established that woman representation in Parliament has never exceeded 7 or 8% - this time too it is just 10% At present parliamentary constituency average between 1.5 million to 2.5 million populations, and state assemblies constituency average 2 to 3 lakhs in most of the states. If there is a fifty percent increase in membership of parliament and legislature seats and provision made for double member seats in the top half of constituencies, election for electing one woman in each of these extra seats can take place immediately (the other seat being already full) so that woman representation is found in all the legislatures including 15th Lok Sabha. The law of double member constituencies prevailed up to 1957 for general and reserved constituencies. Similar provision for double member constituencies for women is only following a precedent. We know that this attempt failed because the constituents of some parties insisted upon sub quota for backward in the women quota, even though this is not permissible under the constitution. The argument of sub-quota amongst the women is a red herring projected by male members who are in fact against women occupying positions of power. Fortunately, this anti-woman block of legislators has been rejected by electorate.

Both the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi have been in favour of the Bill so there can be no reason for delaying this legislation.

There is another old promise to redeem. The Prime Minister had in Sept 2004 candidly and in all sincerity stated that “UPA Government would lose no time to enact the Lok Pal Bill and that the need for it is more urgent than ever”. That it could not be passed was because of concerted opposition by a small clique within UPA and also helped by quite a few in the opposition by the not so clear move to start a controversy by seeking to

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include judges in the Lok Pal Bill (which constitutionally was impermissible.

Then another futile debate was started about the expediency of whether to include Prime Minister under Lok Pal Bill, notwithstanding the publicly stated commendable statement by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh that in his view the office of Prime Minister should be included within the Bill.

But many legislators pursuing their own self interest succeeded in postponing the bill notwithstanding the vast public demand led by Gandhian Satyagraha Brigade and other groups that the bill should be passed even excluding Prime Minister, so that electorate will have confidence that the legislators will be under scrutiny by a high powered body. That promise needs to be redeemed in the interest of purity of administration.

As far back as 2006 UPA govt. had proposed to legislate a National Judicial Council Bill to enable it to make inquiries into reports against the higher judiciary and to take action short of removal by it. There was also to be a provision for declaration of assets to be made by persons when being appointed judges and also subsequently during their tenure. This was the right direction because it had been felt in legal and political circles that in disciplinary matters concerning the higher judiciary, the present position of the Supreme Court alone being the exclusive mechanism, is no longer satisfactory and that there was a need for a judicial commission to deal with matters in a more transparent manner.

As a matter of fact the Law Commission, in its 121st report, had suggested that the present closed system of appointing judges can be replaced with a National Judicial Commission (NIC). I am of the view that the public at large has a legitimate stake in the judiciary and has a strong justification to insist that such an important function concerning the whole society cannot be the preserve of the small free-masonry of the judiciary.

There is also a wide spread view that this council should have at least one lay person, to be selected by the PM in concurrence with leaders of the opposition in both Houses of Parliament. A retired judge of the Supreme Court could be a full-time member because sitting judges may not have sufficient time.

It is necessary to breach the seal of exclusivity of the robed brethren and provide a whiff of fresh air. Indeed, information about prospective appointees may more

easily be gathered by lay members of the NJC, because they are in closer touch with wider society than sitting judges who need to maintain judicial aloofness.

In Canada, the Judicial Council was established in 1971.

In Australia, such a commission was set up in 1987.

False fears have been expressed that accusation of misconduct–before they have been established as credible–would affect the independence of the judiciary.

Rather, in my view, it will help in making the judiciary stronger and more credible. The bar in India as a whole has supported such a move.

People would be awaiting anxiously the report card to be presented by the government after 100 days.

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Women Reservation Bill - A Gender Justice Compulsion is ironic that Sharad Yadav (M.P.) who Itconstantly reminds us of his Lohia legacy should be opposing Women Reservation Bill on the ground that sub-quota should be provided within OBC quota. He has probably forgotten that Dr. Lohia believed that in order to usher equality and dignity in the society Dalits, and Women (emphasis supplied) should be placed in higher positions even if they were not most capable to compensate for past injustices. Dr. Lohia did not bifurcate the quota for women – for him the suffering women must not be split by sub-castes which will only weaken their capacity to demand equal gender justice.

Though women constitute about 50 per cent of the population, their strength in the Lok Sabha has been almost negligible right from 1952 when they numbered 45, to about 50 at present.

An International Labour Organization study shows that “while women represent 50 per cent of the world adult population and a third of the official labour force, they perform nearly two-thirds of all working hours, receive a tenth of world income and own less than one per cent of world property.” Therefore, reservation for women is not a bounty but only an honest recognition of their contribution to social development.

Women activists must appreciate that the opposition to the Bill arises not so much from any ideological stand as the real apprehension of the existing male members when they are asked to commit political harakiri by being asked to vacate their seats for women members.

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To expect this is totally unrealistic; the legislators are not Karan, the warrior of Mahabharata epic who was even willing to surrender his life-saving belt or Jesus of Nazareth who willingly embraced the cross to redeem his fellow beings.

I have always maintained that all this can be avoided by increasing the membership of legislatures so that 1/3rd representation can be given to women without disturbing the existing male members. Even Lalu in his recent Parliament speech referred to the increase of seats – I have no doubt that if this increase is done Lalu, Sharad and other can be persuaded to give up their insistence on sub-quota. It is an old adage that both women activists and sub quota protagonist should remember - “that a little bending is necessary to shoot the arrow straight.”

At present there is a comfortable government majority.

If it is to surrender its 1/3rd of membership along with others, what is the guarantee of returning its majority. Is it wise or politically sensible or in the interest of country to play with the stability of the government in these delicate times.

At present parliamentary constituency average between 1.5.million to 2.5 million populations, and state assemblies constituency average 2 to 3 Lakhs in most of the states. If there is a fifty percent increase in membership of parliament and legislatures seats and provision made for double member seats in the top half of constituencies, election for electing one woman in each of these extra seats can take place immediately (the other seat being already full) so that woman representation can be provided in all the legislatures including 15th Lok Sabha. The law of double member constituencies prevailed up to 1957 for general and reserved constituencies. Similar provision for double member constituencies for women is only following a precedent. We know that this attempt failed because the constituents of some parties insisted upon sub-quota for backward in the women quota, even though this is not permissible under the constitution. The argument of sub-quota amongst the women is a red herring projected by male members who are in fact against women occupying positions of power. Fortunately, this anti-woman block of legislators has been rejected by electorate.

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The Parliamentary Standing Committee under Dr. Nalchinpan had almost finalized its recommendation for double member constituencies which would ensure 1/3 members of legislatures to the woman ‘reserved quota’ and even more if a woman gets the highest vote.

Another unfounded fear expressed is that woman reservation would mean change of reserved constituencies every election cycle. There is misapprehension in this. Realist supporters of women reservation do not envisage any such thing happening without correspondence increase of parliament strength to 750 (proportionately in the legislatures). This shifting of seats is not uncommon – it is done frequently in the case of Scheduled Caste seats. And it can be, provided that change of double constituencies will only be after two general elections.

There is more urgent and strong reason for double member constituency. We have just had Parliamentary elections and also some time back State Assembly elections. If insistence is not to increase the seats by double member constituencies is it seriously suggested that the 1/3rd of present male members Parliament and State Assemblies will be so considerate as to resign their seats to accommodate fresh election for women legislators? If this course to me is impossible then opposition to double member seats will mean that women will have to wait for at least 5 years to get reservation till that next general elections take place – that even would be doubtful. A wait for such a long period will pulverize the whole struggle which women activists have been fighting for all these years.

If there is agreement on double member seat formula the identification of seats can be done immediately. All that needs be done is to identify 1/3rd most populated constituencies being declared as such (this will also mean no haggling and a rule of thumb quick measure) one woman could be elected from that constituency (the other being already filled up). I feel the women activists should seriously opt for double member constituencies if they want representation or face another decade of useless bravado, false promises, and mutual mad slinging. Frankly I see no logic in why the women organizations should object to such a course – the more they delay there is a danger of Sharad Yadavism kind of perverse logic spreading.

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IRI / IRHA Members’ Column:

Towards a better understanding of Mankind —Mandakini B. Talpallikar [Ms. Mandakini B. Talpallikar did her Masters from University of Chicago and Mph from the University of California during 1953-55. She was the first Indian Instructor in Social Work and had formed its curriculum for the Medical and Social Workers and Health Visitors Teams for the Family Planning Clinics in India. She has worked in different fields like delinquency, hospital set-ups and family planning. She was also a Behavioural Scientist at the Gandhian Institute of Family Welfare Planning in Tamil Nadu as well as a Community Development Officer of the Indian Council of Social Work. She also went as a trainer in the International Workshops on Training Methods and Strategies in the U.S. She was introduced to the Royist way of thinking when she was in school.

She later participated in the historic 4th Conference of the Radical Democratic Party, held in Bombay in December 1946, where the Twenty Two Theses of Radical Humanism were adopted and also in the Dehradun Study Camp in May 1948 where the tenets of Radical Humanism were further explored as well as the idea of the redundancy of a political party took specific shape in the minds of the party-men who dissolved the Party, six months later, in December 1948 at the 5th Conference of RDP at Calcutta. Her social work engagements took her to distant parts of the country and abroad and kept her away from regular contact with the movement activities but she continued to keep a track of the movement through her life-membership of ‘The Radical Humanist’ journal.

She continues to follow the ideals set by M.N. Roy and has remained a Radical Humanist ever since.] people think that the study of social Many science does not serve any useful purpose beyond that of providing credits for a university degree.

Some others observe that the subject matter of social sciences is such that it does not permit application of

scientific methods of physical sciences and hence they even deny the status of ‘science’ to the social sciences.

And yet, in the scientific world, the social implications of the discoveries and achievements of the natural and technological sciences have created great concern over the fate of mankind. Consequently, the socialization of natural sciences has become a very strong contemporary preoccupation with many of the scientists.

However, in their quest to find solutions for social problems, some of the social scientists belonging to different disciplines have joined hands and are engaged in collecting data, formulating generalizations and developing clinical skills that would help advance the study of mankind in the direction of a unified science. To my mind, the development of a unified science of human species, the most complex phenomenon in the universe is the need of the present day world. In other words, the major goal of the student of ‘man’ today should be to so advance our knowledge of ‘man’ that it has sufficient predictive value and it may be systematically applied to the social problems of human society.

This paper attempts to describe the ‘social reality’ studied by the different social scientists by the use of the scientific method and indicates its inoperability for an exhaustive study of man with his social interactions. It also indicated the need to develop a macro approach to the study of man as a social being, which will help understand the development of human societies.

Science and Scientific Approach: What do we mean by science? In order that a discipline be called a science is it necessary that its basic units be quantified and its generalizations be amenable to precise mathematical verifications? Or does the term science refer to an approach to solving problems?

Among the world of scientists also there are two broad views of science: the static and the dynamic view.

According to the static view, the scientist’s job is to discover facts and add them to the already existing body of knowledge or analyze and explain observed phenomena; and the emphasis is on the present state of knowledge and adding to it.

The dynamic view regards science more as an activity, i.e. what scientists do. The present state of knowledge is important as it forms the base for further inquiry or research. This is also known as heuristic view. This view emphasizes the formulation of theories and

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interrelationships between related concepts which tend for further research. In this view the emphasis is on discovery. This heuristic approach is also called problem solving in that it applies scientific approach to the solution of problems encountered in the process of creative thinking.

These two views about science are not really contrary views but they denote the developmental phases of a discipline maturing to become a science. The static view refers to the first natural history phase wherein the investigator attempts (1) to observe immediately apprehended phenomena, (2) to describe them in a general manner, (3) to compare them with similar phenomena found elsewhere and (4) to classify them according to an appropriate taxonomic scheme.

In this natural history phase the investigator examines the immediately apprehended phenomena and seeks to formulate generalisations on the basis of observed data.

These generalisations are descriptive rather than explanatory about the phenomena under consideration.

They can not be used as findings for scientific predictions.

They are simple “inductive generalisations”.

The dynamic or heuristic view denotes the second or mature phase of development in science that is known as the phase of deductively formulated theory. In this phase a researcher attempts to develop a design to test the validity of a deductive working hypothesis. Working concepts in this stage of scientific endeavour are developed by postulation and their meaning is designated with the reference to a theory. When the researcher is attempting to develop a mature science he does not formulate reasonably adequate working hypothesis the verification of which leads to discovery.

This kind of hypothesis formulation is a creative process which demands on the part of the scientist real concern about the problem, mastery of the relevant data and determination of success. In other words, science may be described as a method of approach to problem-solving which involves raising relevant questions in appropriate context and finding answers to them. This creative process can not be forced.

The seeker after truth must simply fulfil the necessary conditions of scientific approach viz. sustained preoccupation with the area of problem, mastery of the

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relevant data and determination to succeed. In short, he must woo it.

Such scientific endeavour does not aim at discovering absolutes but attempts to test the validity of the working hypothesis on the basis of the available relevant facts. It may lead to confirmation of the initial hypothesis and suggest formation of new heuristic hypothesis; or it may reject the initial hypothesis and indicate new direction of reformulation of a hypothesis and which will be closer to verification form.

Scientific Enquiry and Social Sciences: Application of this scientific enquiry to study social reality has taken the social sciences as far as the predictive stage. Most of the findings of social sciences are of the type- “If this occurs then that will follow”. The understanding stage, finding the “why” is far advanced in Physics; it is just beginning in social sciences. Just as a physical scientist can find a pattern in behaviour of electrons, social scientists can also find patterns in the behaviour of people. On this level social sciences make use of the scientific method to answer questions about human behaviour. If the attempts to answer the “whys” are carried far enough, they take the social scientist into the realm of values where scientific method becomes inoperable.

In other words, social reality that will answer the “whys” cannot be studied by the scientific method. In that case, what is the social reality that the different social scientists are attempting to study? Is it not the same for different social scientists? Is the man studied by the economist the same being studied in psychology or sociology? If it is the same, are the different scientists studying the same object from different points of view?

Should not the subject-matter of different sciences differ from one another on more solid and substantive grounds rather than on the basis of different “points of view” which sounds rather subjective?

Social Reality as studied by different Social Scientists: Social Psychology: Most important contributions of the social psychologists are mainly in three areas: (1) they have provided us with the principles of laboratory psychology with some suggestions regarding their application to practical problems; (2) they have also developed some concepts regarding man’s behaviour by conducting some group

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experiments; and (3) lastly, they have explained how child-rearing practices mould an individual’s personality and transfer the culture-bound traits and syndrome from one generation to another. Social scientists of this school do not tell us anything about the facts of social life or the psychological aspects of social structure which influence man’s activities.

Behavioural Sciences: Behavioural scientists like Allport experimented with groups and developed some concepts of human behaviour. But the whole ideology of the behaviouristic school was based on Newtonian mechanics and hence could not be of much help in understanding the “social reality”.

The Social Reality theorists of learning assumed a static situation and dealt with single “individual” divested from the influence of social forces. Consequently, the responses elicited by the different types of stimuli were more often inadequate rather than accurate.

Field Theory: Lewin and his followers who developed the field theory did attempt to correct some of the assumptions of behaviourism but only at the individual level. This field in explaining the human behaviour does attempt to consider the dynamics of social relationships but it again explains the nature of the individual behaviour patterns and not of a group as collective organisation. However, the field theory approach, utilising the concepts of perception and cognition, did advance the understanding of human behaviour, which was not possible for any of the learning theories. But again the social reality studied by this group of psychologists was “individual” and not “society” or “social structure”.

Freudian Theory: Social scientists belonging to the Freudian school of thought have stressed the irrational dimension of man’s nature and his actions. Freud and his followers believe that man has created a society which represses his biological urges to his own detriment. The picture of social reality provided by Freudians depicts man as fundamentally irrational though Freudians believed in a rational order and attempted to correct the irrational behaviour of man. The unit with which, these psychologists deal is an individual and not a collective entity.

Cultural Anthropology:

Social Scientists who specialise in the study of culture, study the different material and non-material manifestations such as art and crafts, norms, taboos, folkways and linguistic forms etc. without an recourse to man who acquires, develops and transmits the culture from one generation to another. This type of treatment posits that the social order is stable and that man simply responds to it and acquires the cultural traits. This approach does not say anything about social interaction which is very important in understanding social reality.

Economic Theory of Marx: Perhaps the most systematic and challenging attempt to study social relationships, rather than individual characteristics, was by Karl Marx who propounded his theory of class-struggle. He tried to explain the class conflict in terms of economic determinism but the essence of his theory was the role of an individual in production of wealth and the group interest of people who played similar roles. This theory describes the social organisation engaged in the activity of production, identifies its institutions and explains its functioning with reference to the human beings and their interactions. But the weakness of this theory was, instead of making generalisations on the basis of the significance of the role settings Marx made generalisations about “class-conflicts” which he considered to be universal phenomenon in all societies and that they would be responsible for effective changes in society. This generalisation did not hold true in many societies.

The different approaches to understand social reality do not take into consideration the totality of a social organisation. They only deal with single individual or groups as a collection of individuals and not as an interconnected total unit. Hence, they fall short of explaining the total social reality.

The most challenging problem faced by the social scientists is development of a macro-approach that will help understand man and his social environment as a total unit.

Development of Modern Scientific Knowledge: Perhaps no simple science can adequately offer an approach that will help understand social reality and develop a unified science of mankind. But the development of contemporary scientific knowledge is marked with two different mutually exclusive but

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interpenetrating tendencies, “differentiation and integration”. In less than a quarter century new branches of scientific knowledge such as cybernetics, sociometrics, econometrics, information theory, etc. have emerged while such narrow disciplines as bio-physics, bio-chemistry, geophysics and others have already been classified as “traditional”. The same trend is discerned in single disciplines both in social as well as in life-sciences such as sociology branching out into narrow fields in family planning, urbanisation or mural development, the sociology of medicine and others; and biology branching out into micro-biology, molecular biology, molecular genetics and population and so on.

These new branches, while differentiating and delimiting their subject matter of research, have merged by integrating discoveries and achievements of the neighbouring sciences and at times even transforming them to suit the newer scientific needs. However, in both cases integration appears as a synthesis of knowledge enriching the scientific knowledge, by formulating generalisations of various modes of conceptualisation.

This demonstrates that the attempts to determine vigorously the limits of any discipline are not conducive to the further growth of scientific knowledge. This may lead to further differentiation of knowledge by narrower specialisation. But this extraordinary specialisation has reached such a level that further development of scientific knowledge has come to depend upon cooperative, interdisciplinary research.

The interdisciplinary research is not the type of research wherein only a superficial juxtaposition of fields and findings has been achieved. It should involve a genuine cross-fertilisation of several disciplines at the conceptual level as well as in the field and laboratory. This means raising new relevant questions in appropriate context and developing new scientific concepts and innovations in technical terminology to further develop scientific knowledge. This seems to be the need of present times. It appears to be a very difficult accomplishment and yet it is a necessary forerunner to the development of a mature and unified science of mankind.

Systems Approach: A new approach called systems approach which emphasizes the study of empirical phenomenon as a whole system-the units combined in action-instead of analysis of complex structures into component parts,

27

seems to grow into a new scientific movement. The credit of developing this concept of system goes to the famous biologist Bertalanffy who developed an organismic view in biology. While studying the organisms, he proved that the structure and behaviour of an organisation are not separate and distinct but are two aspects of the same organisation of organisms with their built-in goal-seeking proclivities. Stated simply, a system is that portion of phenomenal reality consisting of a set of units and entities actively interrelated operating as a cohering unit. The principles of an organismic conception stated by Bertalanffy (and quoted

by Thomson) may be summarised as under: “The conception of the system as a whole as opposed to the analytical and summative points of view; the dynamic conception as opposed to the static and machine-theoretical conceptions; the consideration of the organism as primary activity as opposed to the conception of its primary reactivity”. Implications of these systems’ principles for research purposes are: Firstly, life-action is a basic process of organisms, and life-action events or systems are viewed as its basic research units or fields of study.

Secondly, for analytical purposes when separate entities are singled out, it is essential to remember that we are cutting off essential properties of the object and examining it separately from its functions because the latter manifest themselves precisely in interrelations.

This step may be unavoidable for the purposes of analysis. But later all singled out parts should be integrated and their interconnections with each other should be studied. This process of synthesis helps to obtain comprehensive and real knowledge of the totality in all its real complexity.

Thirdly, any system or element under study should be considered in its specific connection with other objects.

It means even the researcher should consciously be aware of his own functions if he takes into full consideration connections with other objects and also in the context of the objective results of his own activities.

In other words, the researcher should regard himself as an object so that he could explain any subjective elements that he may have ‘projected’ on to the subject of his study.

Lastly, there is a need to develop a new vocabulary.

Different social sciences studying man use different

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linguistic forms to explain their concepts. This may lead to confusion and prevent understanding of reality. It is essential, therefore, that every new discovery in science or every new point of view should be followed by new technology. That will develop a more unified science of mankind.

This theoretical approach is not yet fully developed but some of the social scientists F.H. Allport, J.G. Miller and Talcott Parsons have made some contributions in this line of thinking.Allport’s event-structure which emphasizes a continuing series of events to complete a cycle before we could denote structure is a contribution in this direction. Miller and his colleagues have applied this systems theory to all levels of science from the study of a single cell to the study of a society. Talcott Parsons more than any other scientist has utilised this systems theory approach to study social structures. He has provided conceptual tools by delineating the various systems in a society and their functions.

To sum up, these various contributions by social-scientists make the beginning of attempts to develop a macro-approach to man which would not only help understand man in his totality but it would also indicate directions for development of human societies.

References: 1. Baker, Frank-General Systems Theory, Research Medical Care-(Ed) Alan Sheldon-Pub. MIT

Press-Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England-1970 2. Black, Max (Ed)-The Social Theories of Talcott Parsons-Prentice-Hall Inc.-1961 3. Chase, Stuart-The Proper Study of Mankind-An Inquiry into the Science of Human Relations-Pub. Harper & Row N.Y. Evanston & London -1956 4. Churchuman, C. West-The Systems Approach Pub. Dell Publishing Co. Inc. N.Y. - 1968 5. Katz, Daniel-The Social Psychology of Organisations- Pub. Kah, Robert L., John Wiley & Sons, Inc. N.Y.-1967 6. Kerlinger, Fred N. – Foundations of Behavioural Research Pub. Holt, Rinchart & Winston Inc. N.Y. -1967 7. Northrop, F.S.C. - The Logic of the Sciences & Humanities – Meridian Books – The World Publishing Co. Cleveland & N.Y. 1963 8. Mshrenieradze, Vladimor V. – Epistemological Aspects of the Social & Biological Sciences –In International Social Sciences Journal –Vol. XXVI, No. 4, 1974, Published Quarterly by UNESCO. 9. Mukherjee, Radhakamal- Philosophy of Social Science Macmillan & Co. Ltd. -1960 10. Thompson, Laura – Towards a Science of Mankind – Mc Gram Hill Co., Inc. N.Y. - 1961

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Iqbal A. Ansari

[Professor Iqbal A. Ansari, Professor English, (retired), Aligarh Muslim University, Visiting Professor, Academy of Third World Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, Centre for Advanced Socio-Legal Studies, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi and Centre for Federal Studies, Jamia Hamdard, has written extensively on issues relating to human rights, minorities, communal violence and conflict resolution including Kashmir. iqbalansari2001@hotmail.com]

Punishing Hate Speech the recent Lok Sabha electoral During campaign Varun Gandhi’s hate speech against Muslims aroused interest in the existing applicable law and law-enforcement system in the country. It needs to be noted that obligation of the State to enact effective laws to prevent and punish hate speech flows from country’s commitment to implement article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which requires prohibition by law of “any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence”.

For obvious reasons the present discussion was focused on the powers and functions of the Election Commission (EC) and the relevant provisions under the Representation of People’s Act (RPA). It has been pointed out that even without any express provision to injunct a person from making inflammatory speeches, article 324 of the Constitution, which vests the entire authority of “superintendence”, “direction” and “control” of the conduct of elections in the E.C., already equips it with a reservoir of power “to ensure that the country shall be governed in its true secular, socialist, 29

democratic perspective.” However the E.C. will be on a firmer ground for such action, if express provisions are made for prevention and punishment of hate speech, during the conduct of elections as suggested by Soli J. Sorabjee (I. E, March 27, 2009) Given the history of communal discord and exploitation of ethno-religious issues for political mobilization, giving rise to enormous hate speech and writing during all seasons irrespective of elections, the issue needs to be discussed in the wider context of community relations in the country in the human rights perspective, of which democratic electoral process is just one aspect, though a very crucial one. No less worthy of attention are hate writings and speech during religio-cultural campaigns, rallies, processions and public meetings over contentious issues It needs to be recalled that when the first National Integration Committee met in 1961 in the wake of communal riots in Jabalpur and linguistic disturbances in Assam, it recommended that “Section 153 (A) of the Indian Penal Code should be suitably amended and effectively enforced”. It has not been done till date.

During the entire period of the 1960s and 70s and again more ferociously during Ramjanm Bhoomi Movement since 1984 its leaders indulged in hate speech and hate writings without any fear of law.

Varun Gandhi’s hate speech against Muslims and projection of Modi as the future Prime Minister of India provided clear vindication of the apprehension and warning expressed by Asma Jahangir, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief’s recently released Report on India that “there is at present a real risk that similar communal violence (like Delhi 1984, Ayodhya 1992 & Gujarat 2002) might happen again unless …. advocacy of religious hatred is adequately addressed.”

The following observation in the Report regarding institutionalized impunity deserves careful attention.

She says that “Organized groups claiming roots in religious ideologies have unleashed an all-pervasive fear of mob violence in many parts of the country. Law enforcement machinery is often reluctant to take any action against individuals or groups that perpetrate violence in the name of religion or belief. This institutionalized impunity for those who exploit religion and impose their religious intolerance on others has

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made peaceful citizens, particularly the minorities, vulnerable and fearful”. At least for once the government of Uttar Pradesh did try to instill fear of law in Varun Gandhi, but under a law on administrative detention, not taking recourse to normal law on prevention and punishment of religious hatred. The situation calls for an effective law and independent institutional mechanism like Community Relations Commission (CRC) equipped with independent prosecutor to enforce it.

Apart from putting in place this independent mechanism for punishment of hate speech what needs to be done is the enactment of a law regulating the activities of political parties, recommendation for which was made in our NCM Report (1999) at the instance of Justice V.M. Tarkunde. The law should bind all parties – even those which, though while keeping away from electoral politics, play public political role, to strictly abide by the human rights norms of equality, non-discrimination, non-exclusion, non-assimilation, non-dominance, non-hatred and non-intolerance. While making political parties pledge allegiance to secularism has proved futile, as defining secularism, especially Indian secularism,

proved so problematic that the exercise of enactment on it was abandoned, there is no such un-definability in human rights norms. Moreover it can take care of the principles of secularism which was originally conceived of to ensure equality of status and rights to all persons, irrespective of origin or affiliation.

It follows from this that we need to adopt the following measures to effectively deal with hate speech: Enactment of an effective law in pursuance of obligation under article 20 of the ICPPR against religious hatred.

Establishment of a statutory independent empowered CRC entrusted with the responsibility of peace-keeping.

Enactment of a Political Parties’ (Regulation) Act to bind them to observe human rights norms.

Express provision of the EC’s powers to regulate, restrict, and prohibit hate speech during any electoral process by any one.

No less significant is the requirement of expeditious trial of hate speech cases by specially designated courts for the purposes of determining disqualification of candidates.

Similarly trial of cases related to hate speech filed by the CRC during non-electoral process should be given highest priority.

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Teacher’s & Research Scholar’s Section:

Rajeesh Kumar P.P.

Terrorism and its Dual Impact on State Sovereignty: Towards a Permanent ‘State of Exception’ Foreign Ministers’ Conference last SAARC month, held at Colombo, reiterated the need for strong surveillance and counter-terrorism measures in South Asia. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said, “Our societies bear the brunt of the evil force of terrorism. But, we cannot and should not allow even a single citizen of South Asia to suffer as a result of the brutal violence unleashed by terrorist”. Of course, no leaders would ever like the suffering of their people.

However, we should also keep in mind that we should not allow the citizens to suffer in the name of counter-terrorism and national security. The leaders and politicians mostly probe one side of the story, and give a singular view of terrorism and its consequence. While the other side is more vulnerable. The grievance of the people as a result of counter terrorism measures of state should also be taken into account for an unbiased understanding, as also for eliminating the evil forces of violence from our society.

With its wide range of ramifications terrorism has two levels of impact on state sovereignty. On the one hand, it weakens the state capacity to protect and preserve the citizens and on the other, it allows the state to incarcerate (many times) innocent people, encroaching upon the civil-liberty laws through counter-terrorism measures.

Political leaders, policy makers and most of the media have taken for granted the notion that terrorism dilutes state sovereignty. However, the increasing evidences of 31

human rights violation through state mechanisms points towards a very different version. Terrorism is not a one-way process of abating the state. It also works as a catalyst that increases the process of excess state control over its citizens through draconian anti-terrorism laws.

The state can easily justify its acts in the name of national security. It is timely and noteworthy, in the context of increasing terror attacks to look at the twin but opposite aftermath of terrorism on Indian state during the last three decades. The effect of terrorism over the post-colonial Indian state is a significant case that implicitly and explicitly shows the dual impact of terrorism on state sovereignty.

How does terrorism weaken the state?

India as a distinct national sovereign entity has been haunted by terrorist attacks and threats since its independence. The asymmetrical partition of British India was the foetus of terrorist movements in India. The military operations for integrating the provinces to the Union of India were the cradle, as were the unrealistic, untimely decisions of the then leading politicians. In the first two decades of independence, the terrorist movements were in their nascent stage and did not have the capability to render a great blow to the State. In the eighties and nineties, they got a greater velocity and even dared to attack the symbols of our democracy and to assassinate some of our iconic leaders. A study of the major terrorist attacks, and their mother outfits, portray a definite picture of the intensity and shock they have generated in Indian minds. It also unravels the hidden angle of how the state has increasingly become powerful in the name of terrorism.

There are several militant groups operating in every nook and corner of our country; from Kashmir to Kerala, with influences varying in degree. In Kashmir, Indian government spends a lion’s share of its defense budget to fight against terrorist groups. Lashkar-e-Toiba and its two factions: Al Mansurin and Al Nasirin, Save Kashmir Movement, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (formerly known as Harkat-ul-Ansar), Azad Kashmir and Muridke are the prominent groups operating in Kashmir. It could almost be said that the Kashmiri people are now in between devil and deep blue sea. Both the military and the terrorists have become a threat to their life and honor.

The situation in Jammu and Kashmir can be expressed well by the line of a poem “Vo Mera Gulistan Ban Gaya

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Shamshan”(that which was my garden has become a grave-yard). The value of life in the valley seems to be getting devalued at a faster pace than ever before.

In Northeast, where the states have constantly accused New Delhi of ignoring the issues concerning them, terror outfits have become as strong as the state governments.

They even have established a parallel administrative system in some of their strongholds. The rise of insurgent activities and separatist movements in the northeast, especially in the states of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram and Tripura are posing as threats to the integrity and sovereignty of our country. Most of these organizations demand independent state status or increased regional autonomy and, sometimes, even rally for full sovereignty.

Currently there are more than twenty separate rebel groups operating in Manipur alone. Left wing extremist groups are the other threat to India’s national integrity and sovereignty. Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), People’s War Group, Maoist Communist Centre, Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) are the major groups. Accounting for 27 per cent of the total fatalities in India during 2006, Left Wing extremism constitutes what Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh rightly described as the “single biggest internal security challenge” confronting the country.

Apart from Kashmir and North East, development in the last two three decades shows that south India has also not been spared the horrors of terrorism. LTTE and PWG were the problematic groups in south India for a long time. But the Coimbatore bombing in 1998, and the recent Bangalore blasts and the connection of Kerala youths with different terror outfits in various parts of the country point to an urgent necessity of rethinking over terror groups in south India over and above the People’s War Group (PWG in Andhra Pradesh and LTTE operating in Tamil Nadu.

The first major terrorist attack in India during the last two decade was the bombings at Bombay on 12 March 1993, where hundreds lost their life and thousands were brutally injured. The city witnessed more than eight major terror attacks from 1993 to 2008. These include the 2003 attack, a series of train bombings in 2006, Gateway of India attack and coordinated attack in 2008.

Delhi, the national capital has become the next city that is continuously targeted by the terrorist groups. 2001

Parliament attack, the serial blasts in 2005 and 2008 in famous markets pitted against the high security zones in the capital city. Bombing at the Mecca Masjid in 2007, Bangalore, Jaipur and Malegon mosque in 2008 trampled upon the feeling of security in Indian minds.

These attacks obviously show that there can never be a solitary reason nor can there be any single group that is fully responsible for terrorism.

The fatalities of terrorist violence in our country are horrible. In Jammu and Kashmir, from 1988 to 2009 there are 47234 terrorist incident reported and 14511 civilians, 5847 security personnel and 21957 terrorist lost their lives. In Assam, from 1992 to 2009, 7022 lives were sacrificed (source: South Asia Terrorism Portal).

According to Ministry of Home Affairs, during the last five years there are about 8170 terrorist incidents reported and roughly 4300 people including civilians and security personal killed by left wing extremism (source: Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India).

The impact of these terrorist attacks are not only in political and economic realms but can also be seen in the socio-psychological spheres. The continuing terror attacks unreservedly illustrate the state’s inability to do its primary duty to protect and preserve the lives and properties of its citizens. It affects the economic condition of the state. Moreover, it ruins the psychological security and confidence of society that should have felt safe and secure within the national territorial boundaries. Briefly, terrorism can be seen as a slap on a confident, and sometimes aloof, sovereign state and propels its citizens to wear a perpetual jacket of fear.

The above-stated things are oft-quoted but very meaningful notions about the impact of terrorism on state and society. On the other side, terrorism provides a great opportunity and space to the sovereign state to redefine its relationship with the society in an unprecedented manner. States forsake civil liberties in the name of national security and counter-terrorism. A close look into the counter terrorism measures taken by the Indian government will help us to corroborate the facts to bring about a coherent picture of the same.

Anti-terrorism laws and State of exception: Anti terrorism laws in India are always a subject of controversy and a cause of disagreement. One of the arguments is that these stand in the way of the

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fundamental rights of citizens guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution. Even then, India has had tough draconian anti-terror laws like Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), 1987 and Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), 2002. The first law made in independent India to tackle the evil of terrorist activities was the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in 1967. The second major act came into force in the form of TADA in 1987. It had the provision to change the given criminal procedures and could extend the periods of police custody from thirty days to 90 days. These black laws end up in the legalization of detention without charges and they can even deny bail to foreigners.

The Acts contain an infinite number of draconian clauses. Punishments like life sentence or death and redefinition of terrorism have been designed, which make the country a virtual police state. Under these provision, the police can arrest anyone in the country without disclosing the reason. Any information by any person works as evidence to the police. Even baseless suspicion and rumors fit this description. POTA and TADA were widely abused. They embattled the religious minorities and the deprived. Some 70,000 people were arrested under TADA, but only 8,000 were put on trial and just 725 convicted. This socio-political climate seems conducive to the definition of ‘state terrorism’.

A look at the recent reports published by the government of India proves that the Indian approaches to counter terrorism are anti-people. The Report on Terrorism published in Sept. 2008 by the Administrative Reform Commission entitled “Combating Terrorism: Protecting through Righteousness” made an inquiry on Indian government’s responses to terrorism. The Report pointed out the need for stronger and comprehensive counter-terror legislation, effective measures against the financing of terrorism and the role of civil-society, media and citizens in the battle against terrorism. The recommendations are in favor of the state and police.

The commission is painfully aware of the increasing gaps in the state and society relationship, unfortunately few measures are directed to bridge this cleavage.

Another report was published in June 2007, entitled “Public Order: Justice for Each and Peace for All” which defined the nature of police-centric measures.

There is little hope in these documents as there is nothing 33

in them that can make the Indian public anything other than a community terrified of its own police force.

Human rights agencies have accused the Indian government of being involved in severe cases of human rights abuses in different parts of the country.

Disappearances, torture, rape and molestation are common in terrorism affected areas. According to Amnesty International, “the [Indian] government’s disregard for human rights in Jammu and Kashmir means in practice that some 200 people reportedly died in custody in Jammu and Kashmir last year and that the whereabouts of some 500 to 600 “disappeared ” persons continue to be unknown” (From an Amnesty International press release, August 14, 1998). Under the Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act, and the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, both passed in July 1990, military have extraordinary powers, including authority to shoot suspected lawbreakers and those disturbing the peace” (U.S. Department of State’s, India Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1998).

Media has widely reported that the extra-judicial executions that are often portrayed as encounters with terrorists, have become the norm in India. Torture and arbitrary detention are common in most police stations in our country. The security forces and the official are more or less enjoying an effective immunity from prosecution and other measures. In effect the military and other forces, remain almost completely above the law. Sections such as 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code and The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act were repeatedly criticized by the Human Rights Watch and Human Rights Commission which provide an immune space and power for the human rights violations by security forces.

India has repeatedly refused to substantively engage with the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on torture, the Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial and Working Group on arbitrary detention to conduct in-country missions. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) itself has complained about restrictions that prevent the commission from performing a meaningful role in addressing impunity. The conceptual narrowness of territorial sovereignty and national security brought an end to the positive aspects of social contract theory and drove the modern nation state beyond ‘Leviathan’.

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In a nutshell, the tug of war between the state and terrorist groups shuffled the socio-political, economic and psychological status-quo of state and society relations. The augmentation of terror outfits and the attacks lead to loss of people’s confidence in the state security system. The counter-insurgency doctrines add more grievances to the citizens’ life. Carl Schimtt and Girgio Agamben are right when they say that Sovereign is who creates State of Exception and bare life. Hence, we can conclude that our sovereign state is in a process

of transformation towards a permanent “State of Exception”. Simultaneously the citizens are going to have a “Bare Life”.

[Mr. Rajeesh Kumar P.P. was a Lecturer at Calicut University. Now he is a Research Scholar at Centre for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. rajeeshjnu@gmail.com]

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Rajini V. Aithal

Racism in Australia recent assault on Sravan Kumar TheTheerthala, 25, in Melbourne along with three other students has created a wide-spread protest all over the world. The attackers allegedly hurled racist abuses at the Indian students and hit Theerthala with a screwdriver. This action makes us to question the racist attitude in Australia. It has also been seen that during cricket matches between Australia and India most often racial abuses have been hurled at Indian cricketers when matches are being played. Let us go into detail why this is so.

What is racism?

It is defined as the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others. It can also be defined as discrimination or prejudice based on race. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, racism is a belief or ideology that all members of each racial group possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially to distinguish it as being either superior or inferior to another racial group or racial groups. The Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines racism as a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial difference produce an inherent superiority of a particular racial group, and that it is also the prejudice based on such a belief. The Macquarie Dictionary defines racism as: “the belief that human races have distinctive characteristics which determine their respective cultures, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule or dominate others.”

Legally the term racial has no definition. But the U.N. convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial

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Discrimination has defined the term “racial discrimination”. It would imply - any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on , colour, , or national or origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life. (U.N. International Convention on the Elimination of All Racial Discrimination, NEW YORK 7 March 1966).

According to British law, racial group means “any group of people who are defined by reference to their race, colour, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origin” (The CPS: Racist and Religious Crime – CPS Prosecution Policy).

The term racism has also been defined by various sociologists. Some have defined it as a system of group privilege. In Portraits of White Racism, David Wellman has defined it as “culturally sanctioned beliefs, which, regardless of intentions involved, defend the advantages whites have because of the subordinated position of racial minorities”. (Wellma Racism is also seen to be reinforced by the education system, David T. (1993).

Portraits of White Racism. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. pp. x) Sociologists Noël A. Cazenave and Darlene Alvarez Maddern define it as “…a highly organized system of ‘race’-based group privilege that operates at every level of society and is held together by a sophisticated ideology of color/’race’ supremacy.

Racist systems include, but cannot be reduced to, racial bigotry. (Cazenave, Noël A.; Darlene Alvarez (1999).

“Defending the White Race:White Male Faculty Opposition to a White Racism Course” Race and Society 2. pp. 25–50.)

Racism in Australia Today the practice of racism is followed in most parts of the world. The recent racial outbursts in Australia against the Indians has created furore all over the world.

Kevin Dunn who is the Senior Lecturer in Geography Faculty of the Built Environment, The University of New South Wales, in his paper presented on The Challenges of Immigration and Integration in the European Union and Australia, 18-20 February 2003, University of Sydney, has suggested that there is a substantive degree of racism in Australia. Anti-Muslim sentiment is very strong. There is a persistence of

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intolerance against Asian, Indigenous and Jewish Australians. Most Australians recognize the problem of racism, yet less than half recognize the cultural privileges that racism accords. Racist attitudes are positively associated with age, non-tertiary education, and to a slightly lesser extent with those who do not speak a language other than English, the Australia-born, and with males. About 15 percent of Australians have experienced racism within institutional settings like the workplace and in education. About one-quarter of Australians report the experience of ‘everyday racisms’.

Reporting experiences of racism was higher among Indigenous Australians, those speaking a language other than English, those born overseas (excluding UK and NZ), and males. While racism is quite prevalent in Australian society its manifestation is everywhere different. Locally sensitive anti-racism initiatives are required to check the racist tendencies within the Australian society. According to another report Newcastle Community Consultation Report Racism and civil society: A community consultation held at the Newcastle City Hall, Newcastle NSW, on 27 July 2001 the speakers Dr William Jonas, Race Discrimination Commissioner and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, HREOC has said that racism in Australia has been endemic particularly racism against Aboriginal people. The victims of racism experience it every day, ranging from vilification and discrimination in services to the more subtle forms of institutional racism. Some participants believed that racist violence is in fact worsening in Australia. It was agreed that racism in Australia began with the values and processes of colonialism. From its origins in colonialism, racism has been handed down and has evolved over generations, producing, for example, the exclusionist policies of the official White Australia Policy. At the personal level according to the commission it was agreed that fear is the basis of much racism. People can develop fear and even hatred of certain groups as a displacement of their own sense of guilt and responsibility concerning injuries done to those groups. Racism can also be caused by an individual’s insecurity, when they feel personally threatened by another’s culture or the perceived loss they may suffer as a result of recognizing the other, for example, suffering economic losses as a result of native title. The denial of racism in fact perpetuates it. Racism is also seen to be

reinforced by the education system in Australia.

Peace Marches The recent outbursts of killing of Indians in Australia have resulted in peace rallies taken both in India and in Australia. The rallies were held in protest against the assaults on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney that has left one battling for life and another recuperating from a stab injury and also to immediately implement a policy aimed at curbing the “growing culture of racial intolerance”. “The purpose is to create awareness about an increasing number of hate crimes within the state and to promote racial harmony and peace.

The Indian High Commissioner to Australia Sujata Singh asserted that racism was a factor in these incidents. But the Australian police claimed that the Indian students were at wrong places and at wrong hours carrying expensive items along with them. The Indian ministry of external affairs has expressed its protest to Australian government and has stated that this inhospitality will surely affect the Indian education market in Australia if the culprits of these attacks are not put behind the bars soon.

Even though the Australian government maintains that the attacks were random and isolated incidents, the Victorian police statistics clearly indicated that 30 per cent of robbery victims in the Melborne’s western suburb were Indians. Therefore, setting up an additional cell in the External Affairs Ministry, exclusively to handle these issues would help resolve these incidents. A pro-active dialogue with the authorities concerned in Australia may provide safety and security for all the Indians living in Australia.

Dismay will continue among the students until they are assured that appropriate security is given to them and the attackers are seriously dealt with by the Australian authorities. Sensitiveness of the issue has a potential to shake the $15.5 billion education business market of Australia to the roots if the required steps are not taken in favor of righteousness. Thus, it is high time that the Australian authorities take serious and concrete measures to control this heinous trend of racial victimization.

Ms. Rajani.V.Aithal is a freelance journalist and an independent Researcher who mainly conducts researches on communalism and its various aspects.

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Book Review Section:

Dipavali Sen [Ms. Dipavali Sen has been a student of Delhi School of Economics and Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (Pune). She has taught at Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, and various colleges of Delhi University. She is, at present, teaching at Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, Delhi University. She is a prolific writer and has written creative pieces and articles for children as well as adults, both in English and Bengali.

Dipavali@gmail.com]

A Countless Nugget Of Information On Cricket [BOOK—A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport, Ramachandra Guha, Picador (an imprint of Pan Macmillan Ltd, 2002(hardcover), 2003(paperback), black & white photographic illustrations, pp 496, price Rs 325] mention of cricket in India dates to The1721,firstwhen British sailors played a match among themselves in the port of Cambay (p 3). This is one of the countless nuggets of information that this book provides. In spite of its 496 pages of small print, this is a must-read for–no, not cricket-lovers alone but for students of the history of Imperialism. It is not just history either. It connects the past with the present, and through the days of Nayudu and Pataudi takes us right up to those of Ganguli and Tendulkar. To know contemporary India better, do read this book!

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Its author Ramachandra Guha has held academic positions in India and abroad but, since 1995, been a full-time writer. His first book The Unquiet Woods is a study of the Chipko movement. Among several other books that he has been writing, a most remarkable one is Savaging the Civilized, on the tribal rights activist Verrier Elwin. Writing on cricket is with him a passion as well a profession.

In the Preface, Guha says that England has given the world the railroad, electricity, the theory of evolution and team sports. Of all the sports they invented and disseminated, cricket is the one which is they themselves regard as most ‘national’ (i.e., English) in character. In 1851, it had been commented, “The game of cricket, philosophically considered, is a standing panegyric on the English character: none but an orderly and sensible race of people would so amuse themselves.” (p3) Curiously, in course of imperialistic expansion, this is the game that gained the greatest spread all over the British colonies. In India, even after 62 years of Independence, games of Indian origin (kabbadi or kho-kho) are nowhere near cricket in popularity.

Football and hockey–also brought by the British-are poor seconds. (The World Cup fervour testifies to the tremendous appeal cricket has in all the former British colonies.)- not just India.

As Ramchandra Guha puts it, “How did this most British of games become so thoroughly domesticated in the sub-continent? This book provides the answer. It is not so much a history of Indian cricket as a history of India told through cricket and cricketers,” (Preface).

It has four parts: Race, Caste, Religion, and Nation.

Race recounts how the Parsis had taken to cricket, and set up the oriental Cricket Club in 1848, the Young Zoroastrian Club (1850, funded by growing business houses of the Tatas and the Wadias), and so on. But certainly there was a persistent racial attitude. Many prominent Parsis of that era have recorded their dissatisfaction with the discrimination they faced and denied that cricket leveled down differences between various ‘grades’ of humanity (p 76).

Caste is woven round the life of Palwankar Baloo, a leather-worker, a caste at the bottom of the Hindu hierarchy. He was so good at bowling that he was invited to play for the club Poona Hindus against the Europeans.

But he was served tea outside the pavilion and in an

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earthen matka, and had his lunch on a separate table. In spite of their achievements, he, and others of his family to join cricket, were discriminated against–not just by the Europeans but by the Hindus-their own countrymen.

Religion depicts how cricket became inter-twined with the Hindu-Muslim divide yawning wide with the progress of the freedom movement. It opens with a brilliant and sympathetic account of Douglas Jardine–the MCC captain notorious for the Bodyline cricket he made his team play in order to win the Ashes from Australia ( more personally , from Bradman). It reveals that India ‘touched’ the India-born Jardine (p 220), and upon his death (in 1958) cricket stalwart C.K. Nayudu wrote him an appreciative obituary. This part of the book also shows how cricket spread from Parsis and Hindus to Muslims. By the mid-1930s, Muslims had begun to win cricket tournaments in Bombay. In 1941, Jinnah spoke of harnessing the discipline of sports (Of course, he did not mention not of cricket specifically) for the benefit of the Muslim community. Followers of ‘Hindu cricket’ became provoked. Seeds of communal conflict took root in communal cricket. It is regrettably a fact that India-Pakistan matches are regarded almost as India-Pakistan wars–and by both the countries.

Nation describes the development of cricket in Independent India. Right after Independence, there had been predictions that with the departure of he British, the game of cricket would lose its hold on India (pp 321-22).

But, between 1947 and 1956, India made several cricket tours to England, Australia, Pakistan and West Indies and received those countries in turn. The playing of ‘Test matches’ among the Commonwealth countries promoted both international contact and the popularity of the game. It was even commented that cricket was “the invisible cord which binds together the Commonwealth countries” (p 323). Radio broadcasting

or ‘relay’ of the matches and later the telecasts, that is, technological progress, aided this popularity. However as Indo-Pak hostilities grew, what Guha calls “sibling rivalry” (p 369) took on political dimensions. With the emergence of Bangladesh, the religious-cum-political aspect got even more complex. But the Muslims of India were part and parcel of the Indian game. As Guha points out, “—the history of cricket in independent India is studded with the deeds of Muslims –” (p 428). And till the 1990s, their patriotism was never questioned, either (p 429). But politics had indeed ‘contaminated’ cricket in India from old times and it had got deeper and deeper with the passage of time (p 432).

The Epilogue mentions how criticism against cricket has never ceased absolutely. Cricket still gets branded too costly and too foreign but there is no denying “cricket’s extraordinary hold over India and Indians” (p 439). The making of the film Lagaan, and its almost –but almost–getting the Oscar epitomizes the strange and continuing relationship between India and cricket.

In the Acknowledgment, there is a curious statement.

While libraries and archives, book-shops and even pavement-stalls all over India had co-operated with the author in providing access to their stores of information, the Curator of the MCC had not even answered the letters from Guha seeking an appointment with him to examine the letters under his keeping (p 444). This is perfectly in keeping with the character and history of this game that the English brought to India and its other colonies.

The Notes and the Index have an academic excellence.

But they do not impinge upon the readability of the book.

Like cricket itself, this book appeals to all. An abridged version is likely to be welcomed by kids as well.

Important Announcement:

3rd. V.M. Tarkunde Memorial Lecture, on “Constitution and the Challenge of Social and Economic Change: The Quest for Freedom and Justice”

By Dr. Kamal Hossain, eminent jurist from Bangla Desh, at India International Centre Auditorium, New Delhi, on 12th July ‘09 at 6.30 p.m.

Mr. Soli J. Sorabjee, Senior Advocate and former Attorney General of India will preside.

—Organized by Tarkunde Memorial Foundation—

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Children should be free from religion —Floris van den Berg [BOOK: Forced into Faith. How Religion Abuses Children’s Rights, by Innaiah Narisetti Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, 2009, 126 pgs.]

“Children allowing

should be brought up without religion to influence them.”

“Children should not inherit religion.” “Superstitions should not be taught under any circumstances.” These quotes summarize the essence of Innaiah Narisetti’s appeal to free children from the bondage of religion imposed upon them by parents and the social community. Imposing religion upon children is child abuse. In his succinct book Narisetti cuts to the heart of a much-neglected problem—the education and upbringing of children. For liberals this is considered mostly to be a private matter and therefore not a topic for moral concern. But this is a grave mistake. Liberalism (and humanism) should take the individual as its core value. No individual has the right to limit the freedom of other individuals. Children are not the property of their parents. Parents have no right to force their children into their faith. Education, and upbringing, should be free from religion. Education can be secular by facilitating compulsory public education (political secularism); upbringing should be secular as well, but the state is limited to enforce this (moral secularism). There should be a widespread consensus that it is immoral to speak of religious children, just as it is immoral to speak of a child as belonging to a political party of ideology. Narisetti highlights evils done in the name of religion by examples taken from Christianity, Islam, Judaism,

Hinduism and Buddhism. The documentary Jesus Camp also comes to my mind. This documentary is about a summer camp in the US that brainwashes children by instilling a frightful fear of God and Satan using obnoxious propaganda methods. Narisetti’s moral beacon is the Charter of Rights of Children (1989), which is added in total to the text. On paper the rights of children seem to be well protected, but alas, as with so many things, there is a seemingly unbridgeable gap between promises and reality. What is needed is a cultural gestalt switch about children; children are not property, but individuals who have rights, like the right to good (science based) education that includes education about human rights and the equality of women and men, heterosexuals and homosexuals. Religion is a big obstacle for securing the rights of children worldwide. Laws that protect religion, like the First Amendment in the US (especially the Free Exercise Clause: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof’), are used as an escape for those who violate human and children’s rights claiming that it is their religion. Religion should not be a hide out for injustices and evil. Narisetti doesn’t say it out loud, but it seems that religion should have the status of a personal opinion and a hobby, and not a privileged status that can be used to subject women and children. We all should be much more careful to protect the rights of children and not be put off by the smokescreen of religion. Narisetti remarks drily, “We cannot expect religions to condemn themselves. It is like handing over our house keys to a thief with a request to stand guard.” To remain silent about the injustices done to children in the name of religion is immoral.

Mr. Floris van den Berg is a philosopher and Co-Executive Director of Center for Inquiry Low Countries. florisvandenberg@dds.nl.

Dear Rékhâ, The June issue of RH (471) with the photo of Roy’s statue has reached me. I wonder why our artists do not respect the resemblance of the model. I feel relieved to know that mine was not an isolated reaction. You may quote my position concerning such negligence.

Thanks for the “Eulogized Culprit”, your editorial.

Best wishes.

Prithwindra-dâ

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Humanist News Section: I Friends, Congratulations. After more than two years of arrest on 14th May, 2007 Dr. Binayak Sen, Vice President, PUCL has been released on bail. Hearing the bail plea a division bench of the Supreme Court of India consisting of Justice Katju and Justice Verma gave orders for the release of Dr. Sen on bail on furnishing personal bond.

The judges did not hear any pleas opposing the bail by the advocate appearing on behalf of the Chhatisgarh government. After being deferred twice, the case had come for hearing on 25th May, 2009.

Yours sincerely, Mahi Pal Singh (For General Secretary, PUCL) II 15th Lok Sabha Score card - an increase of about 17.2% in MPs with criminal records and 30.9% increase in the number of MPs with serious criminal records.

Dear All, Please find attached the detailed analysis of new Lok Sabha MPs. There are two files: one is the press release and another one is the details of criminal cases, assets and the list of all candidates with criminal records who lost. A few highlights: 1.There are 150 newly elected MPs with criminal cases pending against them. Out of these, there are 73 MPs having serious charges against them.

2.As compared to 2004, the no of MPs with criminal records has gone up. There were 128 MPs with criminal cases in 2004 Lok Sabha out of which 55 had serious criminal records. There is an increase of about 17.2% in MPs with criminal records and 30.9% increase in the number of MPs with serious criminal records.

3.BJP has maximum MPs having criminal cases – 42 MPs have criminal cases against them, out of which 17 MPs have serious criminal cases against them. It has followed by congress – 41 MPs with criminal cases out of which 12 MPs have serious charges against them.

4.Amongst the states, UP has maximum MPs with criminal cases (total of 31 out of which 22 have serious

charges against them). Maharashtra is second with 23 MPs having criminal cases out of which 9 have serious cases against them.

5.There are 300 crorepati MPs in the new Lok Sabha.

This is a huge increase from what the number was in 2004 Thanks and Regards, Anil Bairwal 011 6590 1524 +91-99993-10100 National Coordinator, Association for Democratic Reforms http://www.adrindia.org/home/index.asp Get contesting candidates’ information: http://myneta.info Say what you like, above figures show that we are in for tougher times ahead. This is what Media should be reflecting, all of us addressing. Forget the ongoing hype on new Young MP’s who can do very little in the polluted Lower House of Parliament. for & on behalf of team NNFI - links like minded, facilitating good Governance Subodh Bhargava, Promod Chawla, Jai Kumar, Samuel Paul, Gen.Vinod Saighal, Roshan Seth, Tara Sinha, R K Somany are NNFI Trustees. Strategist: Anant Trivedi & Parmjit Jutla (based in EU) Economist: Prof Arun Kumar Youth, Women, People, today Demand, due Job losses & slowdown NO Tainted MP’s, Law breakers as Ministers. For knowing MP disclosures log www.nationalelectionwatch.org / www.myneta.info / www.adrindia.org Readers of NNFI emails are encouraged to forward info to proactive Groups & people in their outreach.

NNFI uses eGov, ICT + now SMS also Radio & TV. ‘Diwar Patrika’ for outreaching in hinterland also National Network For India Trust, New Delhi - NNFI Tel: 91 11 65684505 / 26563394 / 26161246 / 9811170706, Fax: 91 11 26182867 E-Mail: electoralreforms@nnfi.org.in Visit & value add to:www.votereport.in www.fixmycity.com Website www.nnfi.org.in assisted by Sahir Jaggi,Albany,NY

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Important Announcement

Holding of the Biennial General Body Meeting of the Indian Radical Humanist Association (IRHA) and the Indian Renaissance Institute (IRI) on 25th & 26th July 2009 (between 10 a.m. -5 p.m. both days) at Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi The program details are as follows: The biennial meeting of the Indian Renaissance Institute (IRI) will be held on 25th July,2009 at New Delhi.

The tentative agenda of the meeting is: 1. Remembering the departed comrades.

2. Confirmation of the minutes of the last General Body meeting held on 22nd April,2007 at Santi Niketan, West Bengal.

3. Secretary’s Report 4. To receive and adopt the accounts for the IRI for the years ending 31.3.2008 and 31.3.2009.

5. Status of the Court case regarding 13 Mohini Road, Dehradun pending at Nainital High Court.

6. Future management of 13 Mohini Road, Dehradun.

7. Publication and circulation of The Radical Humanist and building up its Web-site.

8. Publication of the Humanist Literature & M.N. Roy’s Selected Works.

9. Activities during Tarkunde Centenary year.

10. Present political and social scenario in the country.

11. Future of the Radical Humanist Movement.

12. Election of the Trustees 13. Other programmes and activities 14. Any other subject with permission of the chair.

15. Meeting of the Board of Trustees The Biennial General Body meeting of the Indian Radical Humanist Association (IRHA) will be held on 26th July,09 in the afternoon.

The tentative agenda of the meeting is as follows: 1. Report of the Secretary 2. Future activities of the IRHA. 3. Present situation of the State units.

4. Future activities 5.Election of the office bearers and executive committee.

The venue for the both the above meetings will be—Gandhi Peace Foundation, 223, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi-110002 (Phones: 011-23237491, 011-23237493) Those who require accommodation may inform Mr. N.D. Pancholi at B-58, Flat No.S-3, Shalimar Garden Extension II, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad-U.P. (M) 9811099532, as early as possible.

Members are requested to attend the meetings in large numbers.

N.D. Pancholi, Secretary, Indian Renaissance Institute, New Delhi, azadpancholi@yahoo.com

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