Will Constitution Day become something to celebrate or to rue?

Today is Constitution Day, so I post here the article which will be published in my Guptara Garmagaram column in the next issue of The International Indian magazine (Dubai):

The Government of India has recently announced that November 26 would from now on be marked as “Constitution Day”. The question is of course: how come this government, which has done less than any other government in our history to uphold the Constitution, has seen fit to make this move?

Is the move entirely cynical – to provide opportunities to raise questions about the Constitution, and thus subvert it?

Or does it show Modiji, perhaps as a result of the defeat in Bihar, finally moving in the direction of the Constitution?

Time will tell.

Meanwhile, it is worth considering that the Indian Constitution is a counter-cultural document – it was created by our Western-educated elites who were seeking to meld together into one nation what had been diverse and even opposed groups of people.

Not only were there hundreds of independent kingdoms to persuade, bribe, cajole and even blundgeon into joining the new nation of India, there was the enormous challenge of reforming our culture.

Throughout history, Indians had owed primary loyalty to their own family, kinship-group, or caste. How to move them into identifying primarily with the alien notion of a nation?

In our third generation of being an independent nation, it is clear that the project of creating a nation has made huge progress.

Bollywood has played its role, and educational and administrative institutions have played their role. More important, ordinary citizens have played their role, in treating fairly (e.g. in relation to jobs and even marriages) those belonging to other people groups.

But, as all of us know, not all Bollywood films have supported Constitutional norms. Not all educational and administrative institutions have been scrupulous about maintaining fairness and equality. Not everyone has upheld liberty, equality and fraternity.

Some individuals and groups have surreptitiously or openly subverted our Constitutional values. Indeed, some have fought with violence and openly false propaganda against the consequences of the Constitution’s drive to weaken and abolish the prevalence of caste and gender disadvantage, and the restriction of behaviour, thought and other liberties which were so firmly established in our traditions.

In view of all that, it is also worth remembering that the Indian elite which was most involved in the debates in our Constitutional Assembly had considerable differences of opinion. That is clearly evidenced by the records of these debates from December 1946 to January 1950 – fortunately the records can all be easily consulted at http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/debates.htm.

But, if you don’t want to wrestle with all those debates, just consider that the “father of the Constituion”, Dr B. R. Ambedkar resigned from the cabinet in 1951, when parliament stalled his draft of the Hindu Code Bill, which sought to enshrine gender equality in our laws of inheritance and marriage.

He was merely taking forward the principles and values of the Constitution, but was opposed by the same sorts of conservative forces as had violently opposed, a century earlier, the introduction of English as a language of instruction.

No wonder the Constitution has been described as 'first and foremost a social document. ... The majority of India's constitutional provisions either directly … further the aim of social revolution or attempt to foster this revolution by establishing conditions necessary for its achievement” (Granville Austin, historian and authority on the Indian Constitution).

How was this so? Because Ambedkar’s text provided, in the Constitution, guarantees and protections for citizens’ liberties, including the abolition of untouchability, freedom of religion, and the outlawing of all forms of discrimination. The system of reservations for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and Other Backward Classes was directly embedded in the Constitution by Ambedkar as a way of eradicating or at lessening the socio-economic inequalities and lack of opportunities for India's oppressed peoples.

The strife, tension and chaos we see in Indian politics today is the result of a clash between three things: first, the civilising momentum of the Constitution; second, the reaction of traditionally privileged groups upset at losing their privileges, and so fighting with tooth and claw to try to maintain their privileges for as long as possible; and, third, the assertiveness of those who had been conquered, subdued and suppressed, and who find in the Constitution a promise that is rarely fully delivered but which they now have the liberty and the means to try to insist is in fact delivered.

The government’s move to create a Constitution Day will play a momentous part in either ensuring that the Constitution does deliver liberty, equality, fraternity and well being to all Indians, or in finally killing off our historically unprecedented experiment of creating a nation.

So far, our Constitution has served us well.

Even though there have no doubt been abuses here and there, we would do well to support it, not merely somehow marginally acknowledging it’s existence, but also supporting it fully by our words and our deeds.

Impementation: work versus magic

An article in a particular publication says that our Prime Minister is talking a lot all over the world but not doing enough about implementation at home.

Here is my response:

Arre Bhai, why are you talking about unimportant things like implementation?

Don’t you realize the power of sound?

We only had to change the name of Bombay to Mumbai, and it instantly became a world-class city.

Didn’t you notice the huge improvement in quality of life when we changed Madras to Chennai? Bangalore to Bengaluru? Calcutta to Kolkata?

No? You did not?

Then it is hardly surprising that you lack belief in Modimagic.

Stand in the dunce’s corner and repeat to yourself 5000 times “I will believe in Magic-ji, I will believe in Mantras-ji, I will believe in Modi-ji.”

On Prime Minister Modi's embarrassment in Bihar and the future of tolerance in India

Here is the latest of my Dadu columns, which is to be published in the next issue of FORWARD Press Magazine (New Delhi):

Dear Dadu

After the rising tide of intolerance following the election of Modiji, does the triumph of the Grand Alliance in Bihar represent a victory for tolerance?

Is our tradition in fact tolerant or intolerant?

Love

Shanti

Dear Shanti

We have indeed seen an incredible rise in intolerance in India following Modiji’s elevation to the Prime Ministership. However, why it was that he and the BJP lost so spectacularly in Bihar is not entirely clear. It may have been partly a vote for tolerance, but it was also certainly at least to a certain extent the lack of a credible local Bihari leader of the BJP, and it was no doubt also partly coalition arithmetic.

The upshot is that the BJP needs reject its dependence on RSS, so that it has some hope of becoming a mature party which represents the entire nation rather than a party focused only on the interests of a particular set of people. Though the RSS and BJP claim to be “majoritarian”, in fact they do not represent the interests even of all Hindus. RSS/BJP represent the interests only of those upper castes who think that India should become Hindutvan.

Hindutva is merely the latest (from the early 20th century AD) expression of an intolerant strand of Indian tradition which goes back at least to the 6th century BC – you may recollect that Mahavira and the Buddha were both anti-casteist, and were both violently opposed for that reason. The Buddha’s death may have been due to poisoning, and certainly the way his cremation site was treated showed extreme intolerance of his views for centuries. In India, intolerance has historically had little to do with religion. It has mostly been about caste. But of course caste and religion are inextricably connected. Over the last century, we have tried to disentangle the two – with only very little success.

By contrast to our intolerant side, we have also had an extremely tolerant side to our traditions, not only because of the continuing influence of Mahavira, the Buddha, and other thinkers and leaders within India but, since the sixteenth century because of the influence of the colonial powers. In the case of most of the colonialists, the tolerance was for the same reason as most Indian tolerance today: we are prepared to tolerate anything, provided we can retain our privileges, and continue to make money!

However, in the case of some of the colonialists (and some of us Indians today), we are committed to tolerance for its own sake. Modern Indians may not know that the tradition of tolerance among the colonialists arose from the Bible, where God reveals Himself as tolerating our rebellion and even sin – but He tolerates these for the purpose of our realising our stupidity and returning to a relationship with Him. That is what gave rise to the tradition of tolerance in the West – though that is now being infected by “tolerance for the sake of keeping my privileges and making as much money as I can”. In the Bible, too, God asks us to be tolerant of many things as well as intolerant of many things.

So there are further questions raised by your question: Why should we be tolerant? Tolerant of what? Are there things of which we should be intolerant? When should we be tolerant and when intolerant?

In this letter, I will take only the first of these questions: Why should we be tolerant?

There are of course many reasons, but here are some key ones.

First, because we do not know everything. Indeed, we know so little that even our wisdom might prove to be mere foolishness or even darkness (as Jesus the Lord pointed out in the biography written by Luke, chapter 11, verse 35).

Second, because others may know more than us, or at least they may know some key things that we don’t know. It takes only a little bit of ignorance about the facts to reach completely the wrong conclusions.

Third, because intolerance shuts people down – they don’t start thinking like you do, they simply continue thinking the way they were thinking, but now they don’t speak up. Resentment and demotivation don’t make for outstanding performance. So intolerance leads directly to an underperforming society and economy.

Let me put my answer to that question in the following way: intolerance is the use of power to impose my own view on someone else. It arises therefore from stupidity as well as from the misuse of power.

The right use of power is to encourage people to flourish. No two flowers are alike. No two humans are alike. Diversity is a divine gift.

Finally, let me conclude this letter with the following questions to you: How much intolerance do you see in our society around you? In our families? In our educational institutions? In fact, how much intolerance do you see in yourself?

In myself, I see a perennial temptation to misusing power and to imposing my own views. God wants me, rather, to be humble, to be a learner, to offer whatever wisdom I might have in the spirit of sharing food, as one beggar might share it with another.

Love

Dadu

The Death of Modinomics

N.B.: This is my latest "Guptara Garmagaram" column, which is due to be published in next issue of THE INTERNATIONAL INDIAN magazine (Dubai).

With the election of Prime Minister Modi, it was clear that most Indians thought that his “Modinomics” would transform India.

But what is (or was) Modinomics? Basically, having an apparently incorrupt political leader who could make the bureaucracy efficient, encourage development of infrastructure to support industry, and work successfully with investors (foreign and domestic) to implement business projects within deadlines.

So is Modinomics in fact dead? If you look at this government’s achievements, you might be tempted to think that it is alive. Consider that ordinary Indians’ welfare payments are now going to be paid directly into their own bank accounts in order to reduce corruption, Foreign Direct Investment is currently running at Rs 1000 crores a day (inflows have crossed $11 billion), the Spectrum auctions have bids worth Rs 86,000 crores (around $13 billion), there has been 10% greater devolution of financial resources to India’s States, and so on. On the other hand, the government’s main economic roadmap for the next year, the 2015 Budget, is best described as “half-hearted”: the promised “big bang” has failed to materialise.

This simply continues what has now become the hallmark of this government: its promises continue to be broken, just as its lies continue to be exposed. The government has now confessed it cannot fulfil its promise to cut the nation’s fiscal deficit to 3% of GDP by 2016-17, just as it has admitted as a deliberate lie its promise to bring back all black money it claimed was deposited abroad and so to pay Rs 15 lakhs into the bank account of every single Indian within 100 days of election.

The new way of calculating economic growth which has been inaugurated has left even the nation’s chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian "puzzled ", while RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan did not "want to say anything about the numbers until we understand them better". That was over a month ago and, as the Governor has not said anything till now, it can only be surmised that he does not understand them any better after a whole month of study.

Now, even Modiji’s corporate sponsors have begun to doubt him: on the day I write this, a survey published by ASSOCHAM, the Associated Chambers of Commerce of India, which claims to be India’s oldest, leading, and largest Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said a large majority of CEOs and CFOs find the revised GDP data of over 7 per cent growth "too good to be realistic".

What killed Modinomics?

Was it the Kejriwal backlash? No Modinomics had already become merely empty noise by then – and that was at least one important reason for the backlash. Moreover, Modi’s own personal commitment, as well as his involving all the big BJP guns in the election campaign in Delhi, backfired because people got the impression that BJP was more interesting in gaining power at any price than in delivering actual performance – the big guns should have been blazing away at real national problems, not attacking Kejriwal. By contrast, people remembered that AAP had actually delivered on its promises during the almost unbelievably short 49 days that it was allowed to have power in Delhi.

Was Modinomics killed by the RSS’s idiotic campaigns such as Ghar Wapsi, and attacks on mosques and churches? Did that reveal the hard face of the RSS after hopes that the national mandate would cause them to become more responsible? Were Hindus finally coming out with our vaunted religious neutrality? All these may well have played their part.

Or was the reality that Modinomics is a mere mirage in which people were foolish to have put their trust in the first place?

Under Modi, consider Gujarat’s actual record :

- in the 1990s, its economy grew 4.8%, compared to the national average of 3.7%; in the 2000s it grew 6.9% compared to the national average of 5.6%. That meant that the “Modi effect” increased the difference between Gujarat's growth rate and the national average increased by only 0.2 percentage points (from 1.1 percentage points to 1.3 percentage points). Sure, good, but hardly worth a song and dance. Especially when one compares Gujarat to Maharashtra, which improved its growth rate from 4.5% in the 1990s to 6.7% in the 2000s, so the difference between its growth rate and the national average increased by 0.3 percentage points (from 0.8 percentage points to 1.1 percentage points). Or compare Gujarat with Bihar: the difference between the latter's growth rate and the national average increased by a whopping FOUR complete percentage points (from 2.7 percentage points BELOW the national average in the 1990s, to 1.3 percentage points ABOVE the national average in the 2000s).

- Meanwhile, Gujarat's performance on the Human Development Index actually declined: it had been above the national average in the 1980s & 90s, but decelerated in the 2000s and came down to the national average.

- The level of inequality in Gujarat was less than the national average in the 1980s and 90s, but actually rose above the national average in the 2000s

- The largest poverty reduction of the past decade was achieved by Tamilnadu, not Gujarat.

So, if the last national election had been based on facts rather than hype, the winner should have been the Chief Minister of Bihar or the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu.

I conclude that the sad fact is that our people believe what they want to believe.

As sentiment moves against the Modi government, the danger is that its real contributions to India’s development will be ignored, just as the real contributions of the last government were ignored. That is the problem with our being a nation committed to myth and sentiment rather than truth and facts.

ENDS

Can the Tiger Ride the Elephant? (or, The Future of India under Modi)

It can only be good for our country that there is someone with a clear mandate - rather than a hung Parliament, as was widely feared. Modi is a seasoned administrator and a wily politician, with a clear vision of what he wants to do. Even if he hasn't spelt his policies out, his inclinations are fairly clear from his actions in Gujarat and, though his hands will be tied due to the terrible state of India's national finances, his credit is huge at the moment, and he will no doubt make full use of that.

However, an overwhelming mandate, such as Modi has, brings with it not only striking advantages but also rather strong disadvantages.

The advantage is that he can do basically whatever he wants. Of the 245 seats in the Rajya Sabha (upper house of parliament), the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance has only 62 seats. However, of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament), as a result of the recent elections, BJP alone has a staggering 336 seats. That gives BJP a total strength of 398 out of 788 – giving it a clear majority in any joint session of the LS and RS. Such a joint session can override states’ rights, so it will be interesting to see in what areas and to what purposes Modi uses this power.

The disadvantage is that, if he does not succeed in any objective that is set for him or that he sets for himself, he will find it difficult to point to a scapegoat and will have to shoulder the entire blame himself.

My guess is that after the honeymoon period is over (six weeks after he is sworn in or earlier, because that is the deadline for him to present his first budget), India will clearly make some or considerable progress economically and militarily. By “some” I mean that we can hardly do worse under BJP than under the UPA in the last phase of its rule, and people won’t remember the earlier good that UPA did. By “considerable”, I mean something matching the massive expectations that our people now have. I hear giddy forecasts of 12% and even 15% growth. The reality is that Modi inherits responsibility for an economy that is facing stagflation, a rather poor fiscal situation with a massive deficit, and a current account deficit that has been artificially subdued but will promptly raise its head at the least provocation – so the most realistic expectation could be something around 7% instead of the current 4% (which would be a huge improvement, of course).

The sort of numerical strength in Parliament, to which I drew attention above, also brings Constitutional changes much more easily within Modi’s reach.

So, with all this power at his disposal, what will Modi actually do?

1. Will he continue the regime of subsidies, quotas and guarantees or will he move to radical economic reform? Attracting the kind of foreign money he has drawn to Gujarat may not be particularly difficult, as he should be able to reduce or eliminate policy uncertainty, streamline administration, tackle our infrastructure challenges, boost power supply, rationalise power tariffs, and encourage and create a flexible single market throughout the country. But how will he deal with rising inflation, shrinking manufacturing and India's banking sector stress? Given that we have created less than 8 million jobs per year over the last seven years, what programs will he initiate to generate the 15 million new jobs every year that we need in order for our demographics to become a blessing rather than a curse?

2. How will he address India’s glaring income inequality, and ensure progress specifically for dalits/ OBCs/ poor people?

3. Will he attack corruption in order to systematically eliminate it - or will he merely centralise it as he did in Gujarat?

4. Will he now encourage, or will he strangle as he has done in Gujarat, genuine freedom and debate in the Indian press, and among Indians as a whole?

5. Will he actually set to work on the RSS agenda of integrating Kashmir, eliminating personal rights of Muslims, promoting Hindutvisation and attacking dissenting Hindus – and, if so, what will be the reaction, and how will that be handled by him? Or will he abandon the divisive agenda on which he has ridden to power for an inclusive model as the Constitution requires?

6. What will be the international response to a much more assertive India? Our historic challenges and interests relate to China, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Will these countries now draw even closer to China, or will a strong India encourage them to reach for some equidistance between China and India? What about South East Asian nations who do want a counter to China? What about Middle Eastern and African nations? Europe and the USA?

Lots of questions. And it is not just India that watches with bated breath for answers, but the whole world.

So who will run India after the National Election results are announced next month?

People keep asking me ...!

As if I know...!

The fact is that, at present, it is impossible to anticipate the upshot: all the prognostications in Indian and foreign media are either wishes or imaginations – we must remember that Indian elections have usually upset all commentators, observers, forecasters, and psephologists.

However, as I am as foolish as any other person, I will venture my opinion too!

Here are the 5 possible outcomes, with my probabilities quantified:

(a) Modi becomes PM with an outright majority: 1%

(b) Modi becomes PM though as a result of an alliance with other parties: 5%

(c) A BJP-led alliance with someone other than Modi as PM 45%

(d) A non-BJP coalition comes to power 48%

(e) A party other than BJP wins an outright majority 1%

Any assignment of probabilities is completely artificial of course.

But this gives you a feeling for my reading of the national mood.

And you see that the biggest probability is that India will be run by a non-BJP coalition of parties.

Indian National Elections and the Lens of Relationships

Our world has too much of damaged trust, and broken relationships.

What has that to do with elections, such as those starting on Monday, 7 April, in India as a whole?

Well, let's work that out, starting with a consideration of relationships and how broken they are in our world.

I am thinking not only of divorces, and children’s suicides because of lack of understanding with parents, but also of recent Indian newspaper headlines such as:

- "Coal India Limited executives go on a 3-day strike" (http://www.thestatesman.net/news/44345-cil-executives-go-on-3-day-strike.html)

That, surely, is about damaged relationships between a company and its executives.

Or consider this story:

- "Indian businessman in jail (http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/show-us-the-money-says-supreme-court-refuses-bail-to-subrata-roy

Does that not reflect broken trust between the businessman and India’s Supreme Court, as well as the businessman and society at large?

Further, I am thinking, within our country, of damaged trust between our politicians and our people.

The current elections are like a beauty parade in which there is no one who is actually beautiful, so you are forced to look for who you consider the least ugly.

What has caused me to have such mournful meditations? Well, I have recently been asked to chair the Relational Thinking Network or RTN (https://www.facebook.com/RelationalThinking).

Relational Thinking is a lens for analysis, a framework for understanding, and an agenda for action (http://www.relationshipsglobal.net/Web/Content/Default.aspx?Content=32).

As a lens, Relational Thinking (RT) enables us to bypass materialism and individualism. Instead of prioritising income or profit as the goal for personal, corporate or government decisions, RT prioritises relational wellbeing– since ultimately it is our relationships that matter most in life.

Learning to think relationally calls for a Copernican revolution: instead of placing material wealth, or individual rights and freedom, at the centre of our values, with all other things including relationships revolving around them, we place relationships at the centre, to reflect better what we ultimately value.

Consider a simple decision such as buying a microwave oven: you can look at the decision financially (can I afford it?), or spatially (is there room in the kitchen?), or environmentally (how does this affect my carbon footprint?).

Instead, we should look at the decision relationally: would having a microwave enhance or lower relational well-being in our household? What is it that we need to do in order to ensure that the reduced time spent on preparing food permits more time for talking together over the meal, rather than leading to family members eating at different times and not talking together at all?

As a framework for understanding, Relational Thinking challenges the ruling consensus which pursues economic growth whatever the social cost, and leaves the resulting poverty and broken families for ineffective tax and redistribution policies. Instead, putting relationships first asks for the protection of families and communities while pursuing growth, and thus avoiding the need for subsequent redistribution and social intervention.

For example, a relational system of criminal justice would replace the current emphasis on retribution or mere rehabilitation of offenders with the primacy of reconciling relationships between offenders and the victims of their crimes, because that is what will permit offenders to be restored as responsible members of their community.

And Relational Schools would not focus on enhancing the ability of each child to maximize individual achievement. Rather, relational schools would focus on nurturing the ability to relate well to others, to take responsibility, to contribute to the well-being of family and community (both local and global), and to what it takes to build a lifelong relationship as the foundation for a new family.

Relational Businesses would reject the idea of maximizing “shareholder value” whatever the cost to the other stakeholders. Rather, a relational company would seek to maximize relational well-being among all stakeholders. Short-term profits often come at the cost of long-term sustainability.

Relational Thinking also provides a framework for analysis of personal as well as organisational relationships. The principles for analyzing relationships were originally outlined in Michael Schluter And David Lee’s book, The R Factor and subsequently developed into the Relational Proximity Model™ by the Relationships Foundation:

• DIRECTNESS considers whether and how the degree of presence in a relationship is mediated by technology (email, phone, texting etc.), time, and other people.

• CONTINUITY: the currency of relationships is time! What matters is how much time is spent on a relationship, as well as its overall length and stability.

• MULTIPLEXITY examines the breadth of knowledge in relationships: work, family, hobbies, community involvement, past experiences.

• PARITY deals with power in relationships; is the relationship is not that of equals, does the use of power foster participation and respect?

• COMMONALITY considers the extent to which goals and/or identity are shared; where they diverge, especially through hidden agendas, tension is created in relationships.

This is all very good. But, in most of the developing world, including India, do we not usually have excellent relationships with our family and friends?

Our challenge in India is rather that we have damaged or broken relationships with society as a whole (e.g. people of other castes, religions, languages....). We also have broken relationships with the natural environment. It could be argued that these are a direct consequence of our broken relationship with God (or Truth or our conscience – call this what you will)... but that takes us into a very wide field.

So let us restrict ourselves to this: at a time when our national elections loom, do we also have a broken relationship with our country?

Most of us seem to be obsessed with: “How can I do well?".

Some of us evidently even think: "How can I exploit my country for my own benefit?"

How many of us really care if such attitudes lead to the weakening and perhaps even the destruction of our country?

By contrast, Relational Thinking encourages us to ask “What can I do for my country?”

That is because, at the heart of Relational Thinking is the feeling of generosity, the knowledge that there is enough for everyone’s need but not enough for even one person’s greed.

Elections are merely a mechanism for choosing some individuals as our representatives. But these representatives cannot serve the people if they have no sympathy or generosity.

So, in the elections, should we really vote on the basis of ideology or caste or family or muscle power or wealth or intelligence or corporate experience or so-called "track record"?

Should we not vote rather on the basis of heart qualities?

Alleged foreign funding of Aam Aadmi Party

A friend sends me a long mail which allegedly "proves" foreign funding of AAP.

Here is my response to my friend.

Dear XXX

Thank you for sending this to me.

Regarding it, there are three things to consider:

1. Are ANY of our parties free of foreign funding? How much foreign funding comes in to BJP and Congress?

2. Which is a greater curse, foreign funding or looting by our own people (that is, by BJP and Congress)...

3. The material you have sent me may have some merit (I will go through it with a fine tooth-comb) but on first reading, it seems to be riddled with suppositions, allegations without proof, and allegations with "proof" (that should be checked) - further, it mixes up money given to individuals with money given to organisations.

And, just for the record, I don't support AAP because it is "perfect"; I support it because I don't want our country run by a criminal (that is, Narendra Modi - the case against him is set out, for example, in http://sabhlokcity.com/2014/02/modi-lied-through-his-teeth-to-sit-heres-irrefutable-proof). Nor do I wish to have other corrupt individuals in BJP and Congress running our country. I support AAP because it is the only party which is somehow in the tradition of Gandhiji, and supports a relatively simple lifestyle for political leaders, consults and respects the opinions of the people, and is willing to upset the established and corrupt ways of our political system. Also, just for the record, I think that its economic policies are quite wrong - but then I also think (for different reasons) that the economic policies of BJP and Congress are hopelessly wrong.

Politics is about the art of the possible; and AAP is the "least worst" alternative as far as I can see - for THIS National Election. The next time around, I hope there might be a better alternative.

In any case, I always support the underdog, the others have had their chances; AAP should now be given a chance.

warm regards

Prabhu

Which was India's very FIRST "Ram Rajya Party"?

I don't know for sure, but the following might provide a clue (it is in FROM PURDAH TO THE PEOPLE (Editor: Frances Taft), by Padma Shri Laxmi Kumari Chudawat, Rawat Publications, Jaipur and New Delhi, 2000, page 128 - though, except for the translation of the name of the Party, all the material in brackets in the quote is mine):

"The first election to the (newly-constituted) Rajasthan Assembly was to be held in 1952, and the Rajputs organised (themselves in order) to prevent the Congress, which was committed to jagirdari abolition, from controlling the Assembly. So with great fanfare the Rajputs inaugurated a political party, called Ram Rajya Parishad (Ram's Rule Party) which co-operated with several other parties as well as independents to oppose the Congress. They were led by the Maharaja of Jodhpur Hunuwant Singhji"

That party did not get anywhere...

Laxmi Kumari Chundawat, famous Rajasthani writer and former Member of Parliament, but already forgotten in the English-speaking world

Sheer good luck that, in a 2nd hand bookshop in Portland, Oregon, I came across a copy of Laxmi Kumari Chundawat's autobiography FROM PURDAH TO THE PEOPLE (Edited by Frances Taft), and promptly bought it because it looked so interesting as the memoirs of a Rajasthani writer from the last century (the book was published in 2000 - so not that long ago, but the Kumari was born in 1916, and was still living last year, as far as I can work out).

The curious thing is that a Google search reveals not only NO review of the book, but not even any other reference to the book - and only a couple of stray references to her as a famous Rajasthani writer (which, by the way, give the date of her birth as 1911 - apparently wrongly!).

Apart from being a famous writer, she was for three terms a Member of the Rajasthan State Legislative Assembly, and a Member of India's national Parliament from 1972 to 1978.

In any case, as a member of an Indian royal family, one would have thought that there might be some basic information on her: at least parentage and family, perhaps a list of her books and other achievements - but no such luck.

By the way, that Google search also led me to the Rajasthan Studies Group (now, apparently, defunct)....

I am unpopular for holding the view that the Internet is only a very partial source of information, specially on anything to do with the entire period before the rise of the Internet (say about 1995).

This book is evidence that the Internet is only a very partial source of knowledge even on the period up to the year 2000.

Anyway, I've just finished reading FROM PURDAH TO THE PEOPLE, and I find it very well told. Moreover, it reveals a wise and admirable woman.

FROM PURDAH TO THE PEOPLE should be compulsory reading for all Rajasthanis and for all Indian women - though it is of course far more widely instructive on a vast array of subjects from purdah itself, to Hindu-Muslim relations, sati, the contemporary influence of Jainism and Arya Samaj, and indeed almost all subjects impacted by the transition from pre-Independence to post-Independence Indian life, cultures, society and history.

An enormous pity that the book was published by a small outfit from Jaipur.

If any member of her family comes across this post, may I urge them to scan the whole book and put on the Internet.

If no other site is available, I will happily arrange for my own site to host it.

Kejriwals response to Mukesh Ambani's issuance of defamation notices to TV channels for broadcasting Kejriwal's statements

I have just received the following by email as the text of Kejriwal's response to Mukesh Ambani, who has issued notices of defamation to many TV Channels for broadcasting Kejriwal's statements regarding Ambani at a Press Conference; I have no idea whether any of the following text is valid or accurate; however, I provide it below in the public interest - please check the text against other sources (or of course with the principals, if you have access to Kejriwal and AAP); if the text is wrong in any part, I will happily amend or retract it:

"Dear Mr Mukesh Ambani,

"You have recently sent a defamation notice to a number of TV channels. Their “crime” is that they aired the press conference held on the 31st October 2012 and 9th November 2012, by Prashant Bhushan and me, live.

"In our press conference, we presented before the country how you had illegally pressurized the government into increasing gas prices. We also told the country that your associates and your companies have accounts in Swiss banks where black moneyhad been stashed away. Many TV channels aired our expose live. All these TV channels have now received defamation notices from you.

"I find it quite perplexing. If you felt that you have been defamed by what Prashant Bhushan and I said, then we are the real culprits and, if you had to send a defamation notice, it should have been to us.The TV channels merely broadcastwhat we said. Despite this, instead of sending us the defamation notice, you have sent it to the TV channels.It is evident that your sole purpose of sending this notice was to steamroll the TV channels into subservience.

"The people of India want to ask you some straight questions: Is it not true that the list of those who have accounts in Swiss Banks, as received by the Government of India, includes your name and the names of your relatives, your friends and your companies? Is it not true that a balance of Rs.100 crores is shown against your name in this list? Is it not true that you have paid the tax on this amount after this list was received by the Government?

"If the above is true, as we suspect it is, it proves that you have admitted your guilt. As per the law of the land, you should be tried and if the charge of tax evasion is proved, you should be sent to jail.

"However, this would never happen.Why? Because the Government of India is intimidated by you. You have been reported as saying that the Congress Party has been bought by you – it is your dukaan, to be precise.

"You are right. according to some media reports, Mrs. # Sonia_Gandhi sometimes travels by your personal aircraft. People believe that Mr. Jaipal Reddy’s ministry was also changed because of your influence.

"Why only the Congress? Even BJP and many other parties are in your pocket. Earlier, Mr. Advani used to make a lot of noise about Swiss Bank accounts, but since your accounts have been exposed, BJP has suddenly gone quiet. BJP has not mentioned a single word in the Parliament about your accounts.

"It appears that almost all parties are afraid of you. Most leaders are scared of you, too. However, the citizens of this country are not scared of you. All parties could be your dukaan but India is not up for sale. India is ours, it belongs to the people of this country. You can purchase political parties and political leaders with your money but we will not let India be sold.

"You say that the TV channels have tainted your reputation by airing our press conference live. That’s wrong. I would urge you to answer this question honestly – Did # Prashant_Bhushan , myself and the TV Channels defame you or did you defame yourself through your own misdeeds?

"1. In 2002, you gave 1 Crore shares with a market price of Rs. 55 per share to Mr. #Pramod_Mahajan at just Rs. 1 per share. This was a straight bribe to get “Full Mobility”. When you were caught, you took back the shares. Presently, the matter is In court. Didn’t you defame yourself by doing this?

"2. You have made your multistoreyed residence on # Wakf_land. This land had been set aside for an orphanage. You have stolen the right of poor and orphaned Muslim children. Didn’t you defame yourself by doing this?

"3. A few gas wells belonging to the Country were allotted to you in 2000. You were supposed to extract gas and give it to the government. The gas belongs to us, the people of India. We are the owners of this gas.

"You were only a contractor appointed to extract the gas. However, cleverly you became the owner of the gas. You started “selling” the gas to the government. Because the Congress is in your pocket, it always bowed before your bullying.

"The Congress kept increasing the price of gas under your pressure and the nation kept wailing. Because of you, the prices of electricity, fertilizer and cooking gas kept rising. When it crossed all limits, Mr. # JaipalReddy opposed you. He was the Minister for Oil and Gas at that time. You got Mr. Jaipal Reddy transferred. Because of you many things have become increasingly expensive in India and the people are groaning under the load of these high prices. Do these shenanigans suit you? Do such acts not defame you?

"The list of such illegal acts done by you is quite long. The majority of the traders, businessmen and industrialists want to do their work honestly. But the system forces them into wrongdoings. But when a businessman like you brazenly subverts the system for his personal benefit, the entire industry and business world gets a bad name.

"You are on one side with immense wealth. On the other side are the people of this country. The people have now awakened. Fire is raging in their heart. History is witness that whenever there has been a clash between money and such rage, the rage has won.

"Kindly do not try to intimidate the media of this country. There may be some mediamen who may have done wrong things themselves. Such media-persons may succumb to your pressure. However, the majority of media persons keep the interest of the Country at heart even today. They are not going to capitulate so easily. History witnessed that whenever the judiciary, bureaucracy and legislature crumbled, it is the honest fourth pillar, comprising such media-persons that kept democracy alive.

"You have invested in some media houses directly or indirectly. It is possible that these media houses do your bidding. However, the journalists working for such media houses will not barter their integrity so easily.

"What is your dream? Do you want to become the world’s richest person through dishonesty? Suppose you became the owner of all the wealth in this country. Would that make you happy?

"Happiness does not increase by accumulating more and more wealth. Happiness comes with sacrifice. If you stopped doing business dishonestly and contributed your wealth for the development of the nation, this country will remember you with pride forever.

"With regards, "Arvind Kejriwal".

Upsetting India: Aam Aadmi Party (article published in the current issue of THE INTERNATIONAL INDIAN MAGAZINE, Dubai)

Everyone was shocked by the results of the Delhi elections: Aam Aadmi is a political party which did not even exist a few months ago.

Most Indians have still to recognise the significance of the results: the notable thing is that even though BJP won a plurality of seats, it actually lost votes - in spite of Narendra Modi’s supposedly charismatic and magnetic drawing power, the BJP’s vote share actually declined.

The results were not only a slap on the wrist for Congress, they were also a shock for BJP – after the announcement of the election results, the BJP leadership initially boasted that they would still provide the government for Delhi, but when it actually came to the decision, they did not dare to come up to the platform.

AAP had already announced that it would not work with anyone’s support, and wisely made clear the minimum agreement necessary before it would work with any party. Its 18 point minimum demand is too extensive to list here, but included items which were bound to be totally unacceptable to both Congress as well as to BJP, such as: The VIP culture to be stopped in Delhi: no MLA, minister or Delhi official to use a red beacon on their cars, nor live in big bungalows or be provided any security greater than is available to the ordinary citizen; locally-relevant decisions to be taken directly by the local citizens in ‘mohalla sabhas’ in every locality and colony; complete statehood status for Delhi: the Central Government’s hold on organisations like the Police and the Delhi Development Authority to be ended; an audit of all electricity companies in the national capital from the time these were privatised: licences to be cancelled for any companies that refuse to participate; all unauthorised colonies to be regularised (thirty percent of Delhi’s population lives in such colonies); clean and affordable ‘pakka houses’ (properly built houses) for those living in slums; regular jobs for all those working on contract; roads, electricity, water and other basic facilities to all street traders; setting up enough courts and appointment of a sufficient number of judges so that all uncleared cases are dealt with within six months; and, all sexual harassment cases to be investigated, prosecuted and judgments delivered within three months.

As one person put it on an internet chat group: “AAP had guts to put conditions and its conditions are exactly the demand of people”.

Another put it this way: “I am a supporter of Congress and if they do not agree on most of the AAP’s points, I think I will have to think about realigning my support”.

I am sure the refusal of BJP to support the AAP agenda will also have led to most BJP supporters to reconsider whether their support for BJP should be discontinued.

In any case, it was clear to me and to any other clear-eyed observer that no such minimum agreement would be forthcoming (it is entirely contrary to the spirit and modus operandi of both Congress and BJP).

So it is also clear that we will have a re-vote for Delhi around the time of the National Elections – and that, unless AAP does something extremely stupid before then, or BJP or Congress do something extraordinarily smart, AAP should then win the Delhi re-vote by a clear if not outright margin.

What AAP’s triumph signifies is a shock to the entire political culture in India which has slowly declined since Independence, and became totally reliant on money- power, muscle-power and caste-based calculations.

While caste-based calculations still have some hold in the less-developed parts of the country (that is, of course, the actual reason those areas are less-developed), it is clear that their hold is declining and will soon be a thing of the past. At least if ethics- and law-based parties such as AAP deliver administrative performance that matches their promise.

Given the economic and political structure of our country, that cannot be delivered if any such party forms the government only in a few states. As the entire structure of the country is steeply pyramidal, with economic as well as political power concentrated at the top levels of the Central Government, it is necessary for such ethically- based parties also to have power at the national level.

The challenge before AAP and similar parties elsewhere in the country is that of scaling up their effort - and there are indeed efforts for such parties to come together on the basis of a minimum common agenda in order to form a united national Rule-of-Law Front.

It is already evident that many if not most eminent thought leaders from the country will be with such a front, once it is formed.

Can India move beyond the upset of the Delhi elections to upsetting the entire direction of corruption and incompetence in which it has gone increasingly in the decades since Independence? If so, it will upset many who are currently benefiting from the incompetence and corruption.

But some upsets are good ones.

___

For the full text of the current issue of THE INTERNATIONAL INDIAN MAGAZINE, please see http://theinternationalindian.com/index.php

What economic policies does India need to provide progress for the enormous mass of its poorest people?

A friend writes:

"What would you like to see in the manifesto of political parties on economic development in India?

"Can you lead a small team to help us articulate that, with a focus on the 75% of Dalits, Tribals, Minorities and BCs who are left out of the development processess and gains?

"On XXX (date) a group of about 100 dalit and tribal leaders are meeting at YYY (place) to discuss the way forward to the elections of 2014. Please support this initiative.

"If you are willing I'll set up the groupon Economis policy to work with you on this".

My response:

Dear ZZZ

The policies needed are simple:

1. Clean, efficient and just administration committed to encouraging development, not control (i.e. administration should stop interference in self-development efforts of the people, e.g. all impediments, such as the Foreign Contributions Registration Act, need to be revoked)

2. Good roads, drinkable water, basic health facilities, provision of an educational system that makes sense

3. A legal system that works (appointment of a sufficient number of *suitable* judges, committed to the values of the Indian Constitution - not people like the High Court judge of a Rajput caste who had to be ordered by a Court to release his 30-year old daughter from captivity because she wants to marry a Brahmin)

4. Liberalisation of economic activity (most of the licences, permits and registrations in our country are not only useless, they are counter-productive). A *very* few essential things need to be retained and those can easily be identified and agreed on.

The problem in our country is not "avidya" or lack of knowledge about what needs to be done.

The problem in our country is "paap" or sin (we knowingly do wrong things in order to benefit ourselves even if it results in great hardship for many other people).

We do not need more manifestos, we need clear commitment to undertaking actions. AAP and other such rule-of-law parties are coming together to create a national front. Let us support this new movement.

Congress and BJP are on their way out.

On that topic, I will send you an article, which is due to be published in the next edition of The International Indian magazine (Dubai).

Warmly

Prabhu

Interesting analysis of the configuration of India's political parties

Interesting point of view, that I haven't come across earlier:

1) The BJP, as is well known, is a front for the RSS, but it is now dominated by the Other Backward Castes, so the RSS wants the BJP to die as early as possible.

2) AAP is the other front organisation of the RSS. Kejriwal is a strong opponent of reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes & Other Backward Castes.

3) From the RSS point of view, Modi's candidature for the post of Prime Minister is not for the purpose of defeating the Congress-led UPA, but for the purpose of defeating the (possible) Third Front, and that is because the third front is also dominated by the Other Backward Castes.

That is an interesting caste-oriented analysis. I'm afraid I myself don't think much in terms of caste-conglomerations. As one of my friends said in a post today, democracy has gone from being "a government of the people, for the people, by the people" to being "a government of the winning cluster of voting people, for the winning cluster of voting people, by the guys who got their maths right about which was the winning cluster of voting people."

My own view is that, when everything is up for grabs, it is better, naively, to support anyone who is willing and seems remotely capable of delivering an honest government devoted to the welfare of India's citizens.

In Delhi, at present, that's Aam Aadmi Party for me.

I'm sorry, but all the "science" of the psephologists doesn't impress me too much about India's future right now.

ARVP reports from other parts of the country

Based on the vision of uniting India's backward and oppressed groups (who form 60% of the population), work is now underway in the following states:

1) Andhra Pradesh

2) Odisha

3) Chattisgarh

4) Jharkand

5) U.P

In U.P this month, there is going to be a padyatra in at least one constituency where 1000 to 2000 people will be walking from their village to endorse this vision.

We hope that we will be able to follow this up in the other constituencies in the month of December.

It has been a hard grind and continues to be a challenge, nevertheless we press on.

We solicit your support in this endeavour.

Meeting in Mumbai of Representatives of 60% of India's population, organized by Adarsh Rashtriya Vikas Party

The meeting in Mumbai was a continuation of the meeting that took place in Delhi on the 4th and 5th of September .

Based on the brainstorming that has taken place over several months, came the idea to focus on the core constituency most affected by bad leadership.

Though on a general level, bad leadership affects the most poor and marginalised: Dalits comprising Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and what is termed as the pasmanda or Dalit Muslims. The second group identified was the scheduled tribes excluding for the moment tribes located in the north east. The third category were the backwards.

The realization came that these 3 groups form close to 60% of the population and in-spite of these large numbers find themselves the most underdeveloped, discriminated against, and persecuted.

The vision of ARVP is to envision these groups to come together on a single platform unifying these groups based on their common victimhood. However, this platform needs to be led by people who embody servant leadership and integrity.

The meeting in Mumbai, had two groups represented the Dalits and the Pasmanda Muslims, and was chaired by Shri Mahesh Bhatt, Maulana Mustakeen Azmi, and Anand Raj Ambedkar. The meeting was called for and organized by ARVP. About 250 people were present. The presentation by ARVP had a huge impact on the people who came and speaker after speaker endorsed the need and the vision of ARVP. Mahesh Bhatt and Mustakeen Azmi were the most vocal on the issue and kept referring to the need for unity of these groups.

After the meeting, many leaders came forward to express their desire for another meeting between key leaders representing the two groups.

The meeting also had representatives from the Aam Admi Party who came as a group and requested that Aam Admi Party and ARVP should join hands. This was followed up by a telephone call by Mr. Mayank Gandhi head of the Maharastra Unit of AAP wanting to have a meeting on the 21st November in Delhi.

Many thanks to the efforts and hard work of Navin Tauro and Abraham Mathai, without whom the meeting in Mumbai could not have taken place.

Why neither Narendra Modi nor Rahul Gandhi will be India’s next Prime Minister

As some of my readers will know, I write a regular column in THE INTERNATIONAL INDIAN magazine (published from Dubai). This is titled "Guptara Garmagaram" and has been willing to publish views that none of the major Indian publications has been prepared to countenance.

Here is the latest of my columns, which will appear in the next issue of THE INTERNATIONAL INDIAN:

Supporters of both Narendra Modi (NaMo) and Rahul Gandhi (RaGa) have started campaigning intensely with a view to seeing their favourite made India’s next Prime Minister (PM). Actress Mallika Sherawat produced a birthday video for NaMo, and my cousin has just sent me singer Krishnan Sugavanam's “youth anthem” which praises NaMo - the lyrics describe his humble beginning as a tea vendor and go on hypnotically to project NaMo’s candidacy.

As for RaGa, many people have predicted that Congress will win inspite of the NaMo factor – whether RaGa then gets a shot at being PM remains to be seen.

The facts are that while BJP will certainly win around 130 seats (it holds 117 seats at present), there is no way that BJP can win more than 200 seats of the 552 in the Lower House of Parliament (Lok Sabha).

The Upper House is also important in terms of legislation, it has 238 representatives of the Indian States and 12 members nominated by India’s President for their contributions to art, literature, science, and social service – though the Upper House is not significant in terms of political control and rather balances the interests of India’s people as a whole by the interests of India’s States.

Congress supporters think that they will definitely win 140 seats and may win many more (they hold 206 seats at present) – and some seem to think that, given developments in the last few weeks and those that can be foreseen before the elections, Congress may even win enough seats to form a government on its own (and certainly with the support of other parties). No wonder a Congress victory has been asserted as certain by Congress functionaries, ranging from RaGa himself to various minions.

On the strength of present surveys what we can definitely say is that neither BJP nor Congress seems at all likely to have an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha. After the elections, therefore, it will be a matter of which party can gather enough other parties around it to form a majority in Parliament. That party seems extremely unlikely to be BJP, since everyone knows that Modi’s strength as well as his weakness is his dictatorial tendency; with him it is “My way or the highway”.

As a result of that, the most likely result is that Modi may end up in Parliament at best as Leader of the Opposition.

RaGa too has many weaknesses so, in my view, a Congress-led alliance willl only be possible at the cost of a compromise candidate – someone other than RaGa.

However, there is a wild card in these elections: entirely new political parties have begun to make their presence felt.

Morever, this is the first election where voters will have the option of voting for “None of the above options” in order to reject all the candidates contesting the election in a constituency.

What good that does in terms of having a result in an election is not clear: what happens if the majority in a constituency votes “None of the above”? Do all the parties then put up fresh candidates for a fresh round of voting? No doubt, we will come to that pass sooner or later – when it will be interesting to watch what happens.

The dates of the elections for seats in the State Parliaments have now been announced for Delhi, Rajasthan, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh – and these will be between mid-November and early December, though the votes in all these will be counted on a single day: December 8. That will provide an early indication of which way the wind is blowing for the national elections, though the Indian voter has been consistently canny in sending candidates from different parties to the State Parliaments as against the National Parliament.

Don’t be surprised if the new Parties sweep the board. For example, in the elections for the Delhi Legislative Assembly, a Party that did not exist only a few months ago, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is expected to take 18 out of the 70 seats, according to a poll by ABP News and Nielsen a few days ago (the last poll, a few weeks ago, gave AAP only 8 seats!).

My view is that, as we get closer to the elections, AAP will actually overtake both BJP and Congress to become the single largest party in Delhi - and may even win outright, specially given that its leader, Arvind Kejriwal, is already the most popular candidate for Chief Minister of Delhi. Thirty two per cent of the respondents preferred Kejriwal as the Chief Minister, while 27 per cent preferred the Congress incumbent Sheila Dikshit, and only 27 per cent were for the BJP’s Vijay Goel. Merely in the few weeks between August and the beginning of October, Kejriwal gained a whopping eight per cent over the BJP and Congress candidates.

AAP is, at present, contesting seats only for the Delhi Assembly. However, if it does well here, I have no doubt that it will rapidly spread its wings nationwide. A large number of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) who were totally disinterested in politics in view of the widespread corruption in both BJP and Congress, have become active supporters of AAP, many of them actually moving physically to Delhi to support the AAP campaign.

This is in addition to the increasing number of NRIs who, as can be seen on the AAP website, are supporting it financially – not to mention first-time Indian supporters of any party.

But the AAP is only one of the new parties. For example, there is the ARVP (Adarsh Rashtriya Vikas Party) which claims to bring together India’s OBCs, Dalits, Tribals, Muslims and other religious minorities. There is the Professionals’ Party of India (PPI) whose aim is to “improve the quality of life of every Indian”. In anticipation of the national elections, PPI has announced that it “has joined hands with like-minded eminent people, whose primary aim is Nation Building”. Its earlier “Core Group has been reconstituted to provide the party a nationwide support base and a National presence”. However, this is supposed to be “just phase 1” of its plan for more exciting development in the months ahead, during which it is “resolved to provide … the best possible list of candidates who, with your support, will make this nation proud”.

Though, for my taste, we have in our country far more talk of “pride” than is justified by our “work” and by our “achievement”, it is possible that such new, ethically- and nationally-oriented parties will come together to form a New Front in the months ahead, which would be a genuine national alternative to the two old and tired parties.

AAP has already said that it will support neither BJP nor Congress.

If this New Front persists in ethically-based behaviour, it has the best chance of taking the country forward – provided it is not merely ethically-based but also capable of actually delivering better infrastructure, better education, and a better quality of life.

One final fact: we have a new generation of voters that have become eligible to vote – 75 million of them. These young people have no necessary ties with either of the two old parties, and are unlikely to be influenced by their parents.

That is why I, who don’t usually bet, am prepared to bet that neither NaMo nor RaGa who will be the next Prime Minister of India, but an entirely fresh face.

When a Dalit woman is dishonoured and her family's life threatened

A report in question is at http://newindianexpress.com/nation/NHRC-push-for-relief-to-disrobed-dalit/2013/09/15/article1785270.ece

Basically, the report says that the The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked the Sambalpur District Magistrate in Odisha to see whether any temporary relief can be provided under any welfare scheme to Subidha Buda, a BPL Dalit, who was disrobed and forced to stand naked in front of the public in Jayaghanta village on September 6 last year.

In fact, the woman was not only forced to stand naked, her hair was cut, she was insulted and beaten black and blue. Shrimati Buda, along with her son, a class V student and her daughter, both minors, left the village and took shelter at her elder daughter’s house. In the meantime, the house of the victim has been demolished.

My response:

"This is ridiculous!

"Does a District Magistrate or indeed any human being really need a request or order from any Commission to provide "temporary relief" to a woman forced to stand naked and beaten?

"If a District Magistrate lacks even such elementary human sympathy or sense of duty, should this kind of person be allowed to become or continue as a District Magistrate?

"It is worth asking whether such an event could ever happen in a District without the complicity of the local Magistrate? If not, how come he or she did not immediately swing into action against the culprits?

"Indeed, how come the Magistrate has not been disciplined by her or his superiors? Does this not indicate the complicity of the superiors in such matters?

"Of what use is a Commission if it cannot pose such basic questions?

"What is wrong with us Indians that we react only when middle-class women get raped in Delhi, but do not react when a Dalit's honour and even a whole family's life is compromised in our Districts?"

Please consider signing Letter of Protest to India's Ministry of Human Resource Development, regarding their Notice to Professor Yogendra Yadav of the University Grants Council

I have received the following plea from a trustworthy fellow-academic. I am not aware of all the details of the case, but the details given below have satisfied me sufficiently to prompt me to sign the letter. I would request you to consider doing the same - if you wish to do so, please send an email to Shri Prashant Bhushan on prashantbhush@gmail.com OR to Prof. Anand Kumar at anandkumar1@hotmail.com

Here is the text of the letter of protest:

To

Dr. M. Mangapati Pallam Raju,

Minister of Human Resource Development,

Government of India.

Dear Dr. Raju,

The news of the Ministry of Human Resource Development serving a show-cause notice to Prof. Yogendra Yadav, Member, UGC, to explain why he should not be removed from the UGC has shocked and dismayed the academic community. The notice mentions a conflict of interest, Prof. Yogendra Yadav being an active member of a newly registered political party, as the reason for such removal.

The UGC has a formal policy on Conflict of Interest and Code of Conduct for Members of the Commission which does not mention political activity as a potential conflict of interest. The University Grants Commission (Disqualification, Retirement and Conditions of Service) Rule, 1992 provides for specific grounds of disqualification which, again, does not include membership of a political party as a valid ground. It is evident that the decision of serving the show-cause notice stems from the fact that Prof. Yogendra Yadav chose to be an active member of the Commission who raised questions and recorded his objections in regard to several matters of national importance such as the introduction of the four year undergraduate programme in Delhi University, bypassing of the recommendations of the UGC committee in the notification of the API scheme, closing down of Centres for Social Inclusion and Exclusion, and the decision to set up a Centre on Teacher Education in a Technical University that does not even have a department of education. Prof. Yogendra Yadav’s persistent efforts to point out irregularities in the conduct of Commission meetings and recording of minutes also seems to have put some officials in an uncomfortable situation.

We believe that such active concern is precisely what should be expected from a member of a body of national importance like the UGC as this is what strengthens the working of such bodies. We are shocked that the Ministry, which, in a healthy democracy, should have given due importance to the matters raised, and should have encouraged such vigilant participation, has instead initiated the process of removing the member. Such a measure sends a strong message of intolerance towards all members who consider it their duty to express their opinions and threatens to severely erode the ethos of informed debate and fearless participation. It demonstrates an utter disregard for the autonomy vested in the institution of the UGC without which it cannot be expected to play its role as a regulatory body effectively.

We, the undersigned, therefore urge you to take immediate steps to withdraw the show-cause notice issued to Prof. Yogendra Yadav.

The History of Lord Ganesh

Following other interaction with Sharmaji, one of our scholars, I asked: "Ganesh is worshipped as the first god in all yagyas. I have been trying to find out: Since when this is the case? And why? He is not mentioned in the Rg Veda."

Sharmaji responded:

"Lord Ganesh is mentioned in Ramayan and Mahabharat. Rg Ved mantras are in praise of nature and deities that personify its different aspects. Later, priests used these deities for sacerdotal puposes and[i] devotees to begin their puja etc. Ganesh is Ganpati, the people's god for beginnings and ceremonies. [ii] My conjecture is that he became popular in epical eras. Ganesh is more for the denizens of Sansar; Indra and definitely Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh, Mata Durga and other goddesses belong to the higher or other Loks, ethereal regions of devatas and rakshasa like bhasmasurs etc. Parvati is often shown to intervene on behalf of ordinary people in folklore and Ganesh is beloved son of Parvati. For him, going round his parents, Parvati-Shiva as the legend says,is the whole universe."

This response is fine as far as it goes, but I think you will agree that it does not really answer my question.

So I now open the question to all my readers, and will be grateful for any light that anyone can throw on it.