Tuesday, April 15, 2008

[mukto-mona] In khaki terror - Harsh Mander

"Ibrahim, like all the young men who were abducted and tortured by the Hyderabad police, faces a terrible dilemma. If they speak out publicly against the atrocities they have suffered, they fear retribution from the police. They can be framed further for crimes of sedition and terror, tortured or even killed (or "encountered", as extra judicial killings are popularly called)."

HUMAN RIGHTS

In khaki terror

HARSH MANDER

http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/2008/04/06/stories/2008040650090400.htm

Ibrahim Junaid kept a beard and was very religious. In the wake of the Mecca Masjid explosions in Hyderabad, these were reasons enough for the police to dub him a terrorist, abduct him, torture him and put him in jail on framed charges. Now on bail, will his life get back on track?

Photo: AFP

No place for torture in a democracy: Protesting extra-judicial methods of the police.

Stigmatised as a terrorist, after five harrowing months in prison in Hyderabad, Ibrahim Junaid, a young man of 25 years, is now out on bail, trying desperately to prove his innocence, and to complete his medical studies. He was illegally abducted by policemen in civilian clothes, tortured and jailed. This is his testimony.

As was his practice every Friday, Ibrahim walked on a hot summer afternoon on May 18, 2007 with his friends from the Unani medical college to the historic Mecca Masjid nearby. The prayers and the weekly sermon were over, and the crowds of worshippers were drifting to the exit of the mosque. Suddenly Ibrahim heard a terrifying explosion behind him, and turned to find the mosque choked with dense smoke and the screams of men running in every direction, bloodied bodies strewn around the floor. Ibrahim saw a man with his skull half open, and many scattered, severed limbs. People panicked further with rumours that more bombs would explode. As he was running out, he found one of his college professors lying unconscious, his limbs fractured. He called out to his friends in the mayhem, and they lifted him out on their shoulders, and rushed him to the hospital in their principal's car. Ibrahim heard later that the city police announced within hours that the attack had been planned by an obscure Islamic terrorist group based in Bangladesh, and it fired on a crowd of Muslim protesters enraged at what they perceived to be police failures to prevent the terror attack on the mosque. Gloom fell like a dark shadow across the old city.

Haunted life

For days after the bomb attack, Ibrahim just slept at his home, haunted by images of the dead and twisted bodies in the mosque. On the eighth day after the explosion, he received summons from the Special Investigation Cell of the Hyderabad Police. The officer questioned him about who was responsible for the attack. Ibrahim said he did not know, but countered him hotly, asking how the police were so convinced that the terrorists might not have been of another community. He was grilled the whole day, and for the next three consecutive days, and then again from time to time. They then began to ask him whether he himself had not planted the bomb.

May be it was because of an early skirmish with the law when he was jailed after protesting the installation of a deity of Ganesh in a Muslim graveyard that the police chose to pick him up. May be it was because he kept a beard and was deeply religious. May be it was because his parents decided, when he was 12, to interrupt his studies in a Christian missionary school, and send him instead (as a day scholar) to study at a local madrassa. They wanted at least one son to be a Hafiz, or one who memorises the entire Quran. They were not disappointed, because Ibrahim successfully graduated in four years from the madrassa. He does not regret the decision his parents made for him. He still wanted to be a doctor, and struggled to join another private school, and pass his high school examination. But Ibrahim is convinced that the police specially targeted him most of all because he joined a human rights group six months after his first release from jail. He was attracted to the Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee, because of its brave and outspoken stand against police excesses.

In September 2007, Ibrahim had barely alighted from the train after returning from a study tour with his teacher and colleagues, when three men grabbed him by the waist and dragged him to a waiting vehicle. They threatened him to remain silent, or else he would be killed. They drove to Purana Pul, then blindfolded him, and tied his hands behind him. The vehicle drove for around two hours, before they finally alighted at a building. It was a location far from the noise of city traffic.

Inside the building, they took away his mobile phone and money. Near midnight, they stripped him down to his underwear. Two men pulled his legs wide apart, another climbed his shoulder and pounded him. They administered electric shocks by turn on his genitals, ears, lips, nipples, temple and joints until he passed out. They would revive him and start again, beating him on his soles with a rubber belt. Between communal taunts, they asked him again and again who was responsible for the blasts. He pleaded that he did not know, and had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks on the city. Early morning, when he fell unconscious one more time, a man walked all over him with his boots, then dragged him still naked into an air-conditioned room where, shivering and in unbearable pain, he tried fitfully to sleep.

The same routine continued as day passed to night and then day again, until he lost count of time in a haze of torment and dread. He began to pass blood in his urine. Outside, unknown to him, the human rights organisation of which he was a member convened other rights groups and members of his family, as well of those of more than 20 other young people who had been similarly abducted and detained. They filed habeas corpus petitions in the High Court, petitioned national and State human rights and minorities commissions, and convened high profile protest meets and press conferences. Ibrahim's parents were prominent in all these protests and appeals. In an anguished petition to the State Human Rights Commission, his mother Arifunisa wrote, "How can he conspiracy against his motherland? He is a true patriotic citizen as the complainant inspector is (sic.)."

The police finally succumbed to pressure and produced the illegally detained young men before the Secunderabad metropolitan magistrate at his official home, claiming that they had just been arrested a few hours earlier, because of their subversive attempts to incite Muslim youth against the State. The magistrate emerged briefly from his house, just counted the men and directed, "Send them to jail." He did not question or give the interned men a chance to speak.

In jail, Ibrahim spent much of the day reading the Quran. They were released into the jail courtyard at six every morning, and had three simple meals at seven and 11 in the morning, and four in the evening. At sundown around six, they were returned to their barracks. Ibrahim looked forward to the meetings with his parents twice a week, even though his mother wept a lot. They assured him that he was being defended by an excellent human rights lawyer, and were raising money for his bail. The prison officials, and even some of the jail inmates taunted them as "traitors", "terrorists" and "ISI agents". The human rights organisations collaborated with the State minorities' commission to investigate the allegations against the police made by Ibrahim and others, and encountered sufficient collaborative evidence to find them credible. The jail officials also recorded the many bodily injuries suggestive of torture.

One by one, the jailed youth got bail. For Ibrahim, it took five months, because the police strenuously opposed his bail. He was taken while in custody to the FSL Laboratory in Bangalore for a "narco-test", in which he recalls being injected with a drug popularly known as truth serum, after which he was questioned. He has no memory of what transpired. In the end, a bail of Rs. 50,000 was granted. His mother sold her jewellery to be able to deposit so much money.

It is remarkable that the charge-sheet that was finally crafted by the Hyderabad police could make no allegation linking Ibrahim or any other young men abducted at that time to the terrorist attacks on the city. Instead, the charges were far more general, claiming his sympathy to Jihadi ideology, which resorts to terror "so that they can rule India as they are ruling Pakistan (sic.)". He was said to have been arrested from a meeting at the railway station, and found to be in possession of seditious literature and VCDs "showing the clippings of Gujarat communal riots and beheading of western forces by the Jihadi elements", thereby "provoking Muslim youth to take revenge against non Muslim communities…"

No answers

After his release, he has tried hard to re-enter his medical college, and give his final professional examination. But although his classmates, both Hindu and Muslim welcomed him back, the cloud of charges of treason and support to terrorism make his college authorities wary. They cannot afford trouble with the law. He wonders now, when, if ever, he will be able to complete his medical education.

Ibrahim, like all the young men who were abducted and tortured by the Hyderabad police, faces a terrible dilemma. If they speak out publicly against the atrocities they have suffered, they fear retribution from the police. They can be framed further for crimes of sedition and terror, tortured or even killed (or "encountered", as extra judicial killings are popularly called). But if they persist with their silence, in dread of ramifications, they still remain in real and imminent danger of suffering the same outcomes that they fear from a force that has become accustomed to impunity in its battles against alleged Maoists and terrorists.

Ibrahim is clear about his personal choice: that he will fight against injustice from the front, and face whatever are the consequences. Only time will reveal what these repercussions are, for him as much as for his country.

With Regards

Abi

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[mukto-mona] "A formidable intellectual challenge to Islamism" :: Huffington Post reviews "Chasing a Mirage"

April 15, 2008

Illusions of an Islamic State

Ali Eteraz

The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ali-eteraz/illusions-of-an-islamic-s_b_96698.html

Tarek Fatah, a pacifist, a controversial leftist activist and founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, recently published a book challenging Islamism, which he refers to as Islam's right-wing. The book is called Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State.

Fatah argues that since Islam's advent, there have been two parallel strains of the religion that are in clash.

The first, "state of Islam" is a person's moral compass; the way Islam governs an individual's personal life. Fatah has no issues with this Islam. In fact, he says that whether one is ultra-conservative or a secular Muslim should be no one else's concern.

In contrast, the second -- "Islamic State" -- occurs when a political entity uses Islam to govern and control society. Fatah has a great problem with this phenomenon, as he believes it connected to terrorism, fundamentalism and subjugation of women. His book is a sustained critique of the historical, political and theological bases upon which the idea of an Islamic state is premised.

As case studies, Fatah looks at Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Palestine, and reveals how in each place Islamist ideas found their genesis, how they were promoted, how they were actualized and how they have fared. He shows how leaders of dubious character have used the utopia of an Islamic state to acquire illegitimate dominance and demand cult-like obedience. The sections on Pakistan -- where Fatah was once a prominent student leader -- and Palestine -- a cause which he has supported since the 60's -- most ably demonstrate Fatah's thesis: the Islamist impulse leads to a retardation of civil society, leads to the subjugation of women, minorities and expression, and foments unnecessary crisis with external groups.

In order to diagnose the Islamist malaise, Fatah engages the intellectual argument upon which the Islamist narrative is built: the assertion that the Islamic state represents the most authentic vision of Islam. Fatah questions this vehemently. He points out that neither Muhammad nor the Quran provide for a political model, an assertion he shares with numerous other Muslim thinkers, including the current Mufti of Egypt (who takes this silence to mean that personal Islam is compatible with liberal democracy).

However Fatah goes further and shows that it was not Muhammad's intent to establish an Islamic state. Fatah's argument is novel. He says that if Muhammad had wanted to establish an Islamic state, then when he took over Mecca he would have provided for an Islamic constitution; after all, for ten years Muhammad was the de facto ruler of the city-state of Medina and there he had sought a constitution. Fatah argues that the lack of a political document in Mecca, taken in conjunction with one of Muhammad's assertions in his last sermon -- "I have completed the religion for you" -- means that Mecca was not an Islamic state, just a state ruled by a man named Muhammad where Muslims were free to establish a personal relationship with God based on their individual judgment on what constituted piety.

Fatah then delves into the lives of the Four Caliphs that followed Muhammad, painstakingly detailing how the idea of an Islamic state slowly came to prominence - not as a result of the Prophet's Companions fulfilling some religious obligation, but as a way to dominate their political opponents. Here again Fatah demonstrates ingenuity. He reveals that the title that Abu Bakr, the first caliph, took for himself, was not "Caliph of God" as later day caliphs, sultans and kings took on, but something akin to "Representative of Muhammad." Fatah believes that this fact undermines the Islamist idea of linking political power with God; after all, Abu Bakr, the first Caliph, Muhammad's closest friend, a figure that Islamists purportedly follow, didn't even take such a dramatic step. Fatah also notes that the second caliph, Umar, also celebrated among Islamists, also didn't take the mantle "Caliph of God." It wasn't until the third caliph, Usman, that the term became acceptable.

Fatah ends up taking his analysis of Muslim states all the way to the end of the Abbasid Empire in the 13th century. Along the way his basic assertion is corroborated repeatedly. The states that Muslims were running were just political entities, and weren't focused on their Islamic flavor. Had that been the case, then these formative states wouldn't have made a distinction between Muslims as they did. Fatah wonders, for example, how Islamists can assert that the early Muslims lived in an Islamic state when there were classes of Muslims who had to pay the jizya (minority tax), or classes of Muslims that couldn't legally marry Arab women, or classes of Muslims based on when they had converted to Islam? If these previous states were truly Islamic states, then they wouldn't have made distinctions between Muslims -- which they readily did.

There is, Fatah believes, only one conclusion to be drawn from this: the historical Islamic states were not organized around Islam, but ethnicity (Arab over non-Arab), power (vis a vis Persians and Byzantines), and expansion (both through conflict and conversion).

In other words, Fatah concludes, the Islamist idea of an Islamic state is just a mirage. It is neither corroborated in the original sources of Islam -- the Quran and the Prophet's practice -- nor in the actual practice of the first generations of Islam.

Fatah's ideas represent a formidable intellectual challenge to Islamism.

I did, however, find some shortcomings in this book. While the first half of the book -- focusing on the case studies -- reads easily, the discussion about Muhammad and his companions becomes incredibly dense. The conclusions aren't always fleshed out and have to be inferred.

In addition, throughout the book, the sourcing is shoddy and inconsistent. On reading many assertions, I found myself wishing there were better footnotes. This is especially important when the discussion shifts to the contentious historical narrative.

Also, the book attempts an interesting synthesis -- by bringing together Sunni and Shia sources, using both to illuminate the discussion. This approach can be successful, such as when Ayatollah Modarresi used both the Sunni and Shia account to look at the history of Quranic compilation. However, the two pronged critique also has its down-side because of the historical enmity between Sunni and Shia, and the vast amount of polemics that infect this area of Islamic scholarship.

Further, throughout the book, one issue I kept wondering about was whether Fatah advocated opposing Islamists to such an extent that he would accept a secular dictator over democratically elected Islamists. There is no conclusive answer to this, but at one point in his life Fatah did consider General Nasser of Egypt his hero, which is troubling. He also seems to suggest that in Palestine, Abbas' Fatah Organization is presumptively better than Hamas because the former is secular and the latter is Islamist -- whereas experience suggests that Abbas' secularism hasn't made him any less violent.

In addition, the book contains a passing reference to the idea that anyone who calls himself a Muslim is a Muslim. Secular Muslims often like to stress this point but I have never understood why. If religion doesn't matter to you in the public sphere, then you aren't all that likely to be publicly affirming your Muslim identity anyway; so why bother with this point?

Finally, there is the figure of Fatah himself. Formerly a Marxist leader and activist for Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in Pakistan, ever since his arrival in Canada he has had a love-hate relationship with the Muslim communities. He has accused CAIR, ISNA, MSA and ICNA of being shadow-Islamists, which has earned him little love. His own efforts to create a North-America-wide Muslim group called Progressive Muslim Union of North America, were a failure largely because many progressive Muslims, like Muqtedar Khan and Omid Safi, were put off by Fatah's confrontational style and left the group. Further, even as he fought against Sharia in the Canadian legal system, he had a public falling out with Irshad Manji (though he thanks her in the acknowledgments). In other words, there are few Muslim figures who generate negative vibes from both the conservative and liberal side of Islam and Fatah is one of them.

I, personally, don't agree with many of Fatah's positions -- having criticized him in the past.

I, personally, come from the contingent of activists who thought that Fatah did create some of the tension that led to the downfall of the Progressive Muslim Union of North America (I say that as an observer as I was not a member). Unlike him, I don't think Islamic finance as practiced by Western banks strengthens Islamists, rather it forces the entire scheme to be more beholden to international regulation. Unlike him, I don't find any thing particularly threatening about the free and consensual wearing of the hijab. Unlike him, I believe that the theologian Ghazali and segments of Islamic traditionalism are not natural allies of Islamism (of clericalism, certainly).

Having said that, I think this book is a positive contribution to the discussion about contemporary Islam and certainly a valuable addition to the voices that are critically looking at Islam's right-wing. Fatah speaks about Islamic leaders with familiarity and respect, while engaging their ideas critically. He comes from the left so has vehemently opposed American interventionism for decades -- he says he writes to wake up his Muslim brethren, not attack them. He deconstructs Islamic history to separate it from the political reading that dictators, tyrants and fundamentalists have given it. Fatah writes well, has novel ideas, participates in the Islamic tradition, and he is clearly passionate about his private practice of Islam (he has made the hajj twice). Agree with him or not, I don't think there is any other public intellectual in the North American arena -- Muslim or other -- who could have written this book.

Get your copy of:
Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State

Hardcover: 432 pages

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

ISBN-10: 0470841168

ISBN-13: 978-0470841167

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***************************************** Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm ***************************************** Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf ***************************************** MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona. ***************************************** Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm ***************************************** Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day: http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm ***************************************** Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/ ***************************************** MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm ***************************************** German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members: http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/ Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day: http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm ***************************************** Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona: http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm **************************************************** VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/ **************************************************** "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it". -Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190

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[mukto-mona] Army Chief’s Potato Theory

Dear Editor,

Shuvo Naba Barsha

Hope you are doing well and thanks for publishing my previous write-ups

This is an article about "Army Chief's Potato Theory". I will be highly honoured if you publish this article. I apprecite your time to read this article.

Thanks

Have a nice time

With Best Regards

Ripan Kumar Biswas
New York, U.S.A
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Army Chief's Potato Theory

Ripan Kumar Biswas

Ripan.Biswas@yahoo.com

Altogether thirteen courses were served at the lunch following the army chief's meeting with the national editors at the army headquarters on April 8, 2008. The menu included potato soup, french fries, potato corn curry, potato kopta curry, potato roller gravy, potato with spinach, potato malai curry, potato navaratna, potato pudina, and potato pulse.

The key to a successful lunch meeting is making people feel comfortable. During the lunch, the army chief made a 5-point appeal to the press to help bring down prices of essentials, hold credible elections, encourage people to diversify their food habit, improve the rule of law and security and highlight rural news. Behaving graciously throughout the meal, he stressed the need for the nation to consume potatoes alongside rice to alleviate the food crisis and requested the press to spread the slogan "potatoes alongside rice every day (Bhater pashe aloo protidin)" throughout the country, which is according to him, already a common slogan in the army itself.

According to a new WB-IMF report from Washington through a video conference connecting Dhaka, New Delhi, and Islamabad on Tuesday, April 8, 2008, sharp rise in food grain prices in recent times will worsen poverty situation in most of the South Asian countries including Bangladesh, leaving UN development goals (fixed in the UN Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight globally agreed development goals, by the given timeframe) by 2015 in the developing countries uncertain. As there's a lot of fear and greed out there, the Philippines, the largest rice importer, recently urged China, Japan, and other Asian nations to attend an emergency meeting on the region's food crisis to try to reverse export curbs that have driven prices to a record. Governments of those countries are getting afraid of unrest.

Shortage of supply, international price-hike, extreme weather events, and government incompetence are responsible for the present food price hikes. According to the economists' suggestion, country should try hard to increase the supply of the most demanded commodity and in the mean time divert the food habit to an unmet demanded commodity for the time being.

Potatoes are best known for their carbohydrate (approximately 26 grams in a medium potato). Starch is the predominant form of carbohydrate found in potatoes. A small but significant portion of the starch in potatoes is resistant to enzymatic digestion in the stomach and small intestine and, thus, reaches the large intestine essentially intact.

Many critics felt sad as one of the General from the independent Bangladesh now recommended eating potato. They might recall the history while the then late General Ayub Khan once advised the East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) people to eat bread instead of rice. But everybody should have to keep in mind that the time is totally different as the then East Pakistani people had been advised or forced to change their mother language, their heritage, their culture, and their nationalism.

Potatoes contain a number of important vitamins and minerals. A medium potato (150g/5.3 oz) with the skin provides 27 mg vitamin C (45% of the Daily Value (DV)), 620 mg of potassium (18% of DV), 0.2 mg vitamin B6 (10% of DV) and trace amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, folate, niacin, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, and zinc. Moreover, the fiber content of a potato with skin (2 grams) equals that of many whole grain breads, pastas, and cereals. In addition to vitamins, minerals and fiber, potatoes also contain an assortment of phytochemicals, such as carotenoids, and ployphenols.

A single serving of a potato can provide a person with 40% of the daily value needed of vitamin C; this will help keep the body from bruising easily. Also, the potato can give 20% of the potassium needed for the body each day; it is a needed element for everyone. It helps stabilize the body when it is being over worked. Though not likely to cause serious harm, green skinned potatoes can taste bitter and may result in temporary digestive discomfort.

The potato, a name derived from the Native American Indian word "Batata," was first cultivated by the Inca Indians in Peru over 7,000 years ago. It was introduced to Europe around 1700 and subsequently by European mariners to territories and ports throughout the world. Historical and genetic evidence suggests that the potato reached India not very much later than Europe, taken there by either the British or the Portuguese. Genetic studies show that all 32 varieties of potato grown in India derive from the Chilean subspecies. The earliest unequivocal reference to the potato in

India

is in an 1847 British journal.

In recent decades, the greatest expansion of potato has been in Asia, where as of 2007 approximately eighty percent of the world potato crop is grown. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, China has become the world's largest potato producer, followed by India. Potato is the world's most widely grown tuber crop, and the fourth largest food crop in terms of fresh produce — after rice, wheat, and maize (corn).

Last year, eight million tons of potatoes were produced in Bangladesh but there is capacity of preservation of only two million tons. According to the army chief, eating potato will not only help to reduce sharp rise of food grains but also potato growers will get fair price and will be encouraged to cultivate potato next year.

The United Nations have officially declared the year 2008 the International Year of the Potato in order to "increase awareness of the importance of the potato as a food in developing countries."

Of course, there is nothing tasty, traditional, or important in compare to rice and people of

Bangladesh

cannot take anything instead of rice. But potatoes are one of the most nutritious staple crops discovered by man and can be habituated along with rice.

April 16, 2008, New York

Ripan Kumar Biswas is a freelance writer based in New York

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[mukto-mona] Nandigram-reviews

Book Review:Documenting Nandigram by D Bandyopadhyay 14 Apr 08 (http://mainstreamweekly.net/article638.html)
1. Nandigram and Beyond by Gautam Ray (ed.); Sangehil, Kolkata; January 2008; pages 223; price: Rs 395.
2. Nandigram: What Really Happened: Report of the People's Tribunal on Nandigram; Daanish Books, Delhi; December 2007; pages 102; price: with CD–Rs 225 and without CD–Rs 175.
Persons of my generation vividly remember even after the lapse of four decades that shocking black- and-white photograph of a small girl child, totally naked, running away from her blazing village My Lai in Vietnam. Her confused and distorted little face showed all the facets of horror, fright and hatred that a child's mind could feel and comprehend. She was running away from her abode of safety in her village among her own near and dear ones who were all slaughtered by the US Marines who descended from the sky and started killing old men, women and children because their enemy, the Viet Cong, had disappeared from the village before they landed. It shocked and numbed the world as people saw through this photograph the collapse of the Christian civilisation of the West. Even the warmongers among the US establishment were rattled. The Platoon Commander was subsequently cashiered and served a short penal servitude. But that was war. Even in war an officer suffered punishment, however light it might be, for transgressing the Rules of War for killing unarmed non-combatant civilians.
In Nandigram there was no war. It was not even a civil strife in the strict sense of the term. It was a popular upsurge of emotion by the party (CPI-M) loyalists when they found that their trust in the party was flagrantly betrayed. There was no suspension of civil laws. There was no collapse of the civil administration. Gram Panchayat Offices functioned normally. The Block Development Officer and the Police Stations were neither mobbed nor besieged. A normal situation prevailed there. Schools and colleges in Nandigram operated as usual. There was no increase in the rate of crimes. In fact, during the "disturbed" period normal crimes got reduced. Of course, this was offset by the political crimes committed by the CPI-M goons whom the police refused to recognise and record. Admission and discharge of inpatients in the local government hospital went on as usual. There was business as usual in Nandigram between January 7 and March 14, 2007, and between end of March and November 12, 2007, when the process of "reconquest" of Nandigram by the CPI-M goons was completed excepting continuous firing and bombing from across the Talpati canal from Khejuri by the CPI-M cadres.
Heinous crimes of all types mentioned in the Indian Penal Code were committed by the party cadres and the uniformed police; these constituted the darkest chapter so far in the history of the civil administration of West Bengal under the 30-year-old CPI-M rule. Though far too near to the events in the sequence of time, they deserve recording objectively and analysed theoretically as raw materials for future historians. Both these volumes Nandigram and Beyond and Nandigram: What Really Happened fulfil that objective superbly.

NANDIGRAM AND BEYOND is a collection of articles by different perceptive writers drawn mainly from the fields of academia, journalism and social activism with an excellent foreword by the editor, Gautam Ray, a journalist of high repute. While discussing the role of the only recognised Opposition party, the Trinamul Congress (TMC), the editor comments:
…they were also trying to appropriate this movement, or failing which, to sabotage it. The peasant organisers, mostly apolitical elements, were unable to withstand the tricks, machinations and intrigues of seasoned politicians.
He goes on to say:
the November onslaught of the CPI-M's armed marauders and the abject surrender of the TMC-led leadership of the anti-eviction movement proved this.
One begs to differ from this harsh judgement of the events at Nandigram on November 10-12, 2007. On November 10, 2007 the CPI-M cadres fired indiscriminately on two totally unarmed processions of protestors killing a number of them and more cruelly and savagely taking about a thousand men, women and children as hostages. On November 11, 2007, the two-pronged marches for the reconquest of Nandigram started with these "captured" unarmed men, women and children put in the vanguard as human shields behind whom the CPI-M armed marauders moved in followed distantly by the police. Armed resistance by the BUPC would have resulted in killing their own relations and friends. They gave up. This was certainly not an "abject surrender" on the ground of cowardice or money. In another place the editor wrote:
Singur and Nandigram in spite of their defeats have, however, become symbols of and inspiration for resistance.
While agreeing with the second half of the sentence, one would differ with editor's description of the outcome of the resistance both in Singur and Nandigram as "defeat". With the term "defeat" comes the term "surrender". Did the resisters and dissenters of these two places "surrender" accepting the unconditional hegemony of the party? They did not. They were defiant then. And remain audaciously rebellious even now. And that's what distinguishes these two struggles from various other earlier ones. Technically, the CPI-M and its government suffered a serious defeat in Nandigram as they had to abandon the SEZ and chemical hub projects there. In Singur nearly 34 per cent of the landowners have so far refused to accept compensation. They are starving, yet they are audaciously challenging the state power setting up a rare example of daring challenge. They may die. That would be a tremendous moral victory over the brute state power. To be fair, the editor does mention: "… (they) have … become symbols of and inspirations for resistance". Incidentally, only 28.1 per cent of landowners gave up land willingly as stated in an affidavit before the High Court in response to the present reviewer's PIL there.
There are 11 other articles written by authors among whom are Sumit and Tanika Sarkar, Bolan Gangopadhyay, Ratan Khasnobis, Praful Bidwai, Abhee Datta-Mazumdar. Other contributors are also equally notable in their respective areas of activity.
The first sentence of "A Place called Nandigram" by Sumit and Tanika Sarkar pithily sums up the CPI-M led development process in West Bengal. They observe:
Nandigram tells us a story about how neo-liberalism gets to be installed; that is, only and always through acts of extreme coercion and naked suspension of democratic rights and norms. (p. 21)
They, however, observe: "It is also the story about how to resist it." (p. 21) This is an excellent piece of theoretical analysis buttressed by the ugly ground realities of Nandigram. It is a superb blend of theory and fact.
Bolan Gangopadhyay's "A Tradition of Resistance" made me nostalgic. Her portrayal of Bhupal Panda, a forgotten hero of the Tebhaga movement in Medinipur, whom I used to know quite well as a young SDO of Tamluk in the late fifties of the last century, is vivid and lifelike. He was then an MLA. He used to travel by bicycle and public bus. It was an episode in the interior area of Nandigram, when there was hardly any communication facility, that brought a furious outburst of anger of the Congress bosses against me. I felt forlorn. From nowhere came Bhupal Panda and stridently supported my stand against the orchestrated cacophony of the ruling Congress bosses. As a Communist he had no compunction to defend a civil servant publicly. Events of Nandigram 2007-08 only indicate that it is reliving its own history of resistance to an immoral autocratic rule. It resisted before. It is resisting now. It will resist in future.
In "Nandigram: Victory for Sabalterns" Dayabati Roy contrasted the character of the movements in Singur and Nandigram. Dayabati Ray produced a CD (documentary) at the early stages of the movement at Singur. Regarding Singur she observes:
Being agriculturally prosperous, even small farmers in Singur were quite solvent and a section of them could not keep their faith in the victory of the movement in the face of State repression. … CPI-M party had been able to maintain links with such vacillating elements within the movement, pursued them and coaxed and sometimes compelled them to part with their land. … In Nandigram, on the contrary, the peasants were able to effectively demobilise the CPI-M marching in the whole area from day one of the movement… Thus the consent manufacturing process could not at all take off in the Nandigram area.
Here the subaltern people could disarm their enemy in the beginning itself and could maintain the solidarity of the village community throughout the movement. (p. 83)
If the moral of this statement is that since subalterns have nothing much to lose, hence they could be more fierce fighters, there could be an alternative opinion also that those who have a lot to lose, might organise equally ferocious resistance. What is really heartening is that it opens up a highly stimulating intellectual debate.
For a pedantic and scholastic representation of the issues involved in Nandigram one has to turn to Ratan Khasnobis' "Land Acquisition, Corporate Capital and Social Justices". It is a bit difficult to assess where the author stands in this debate on the development paradigm. If the compensation issue could be resolved to the satisfaction of all the losers of land and livelihood, would the discourse be over? One doubts. Anyway the author has made a perceptive observation:
Merrill Lynch forecasts that the Indian reality sector will grow from (US) $ 12 billion in 2005 to (US) $ 90 billion by 2015. India is the most exciting real estate market in Asia. … It is one of the last major countries in Asia with an improving market. (p. 99)
Here lies the meat. Grab land now when the going is good. Hence this craze for SEZ and corporate decisions to control land through the expropriatory compensation rates of LA Act 1894 through the doormat governments like that of the CPI-M in West Bengal. One doubts whether the author would agree with this stand.
Praful Bidwai and Pradip Datta's two articles on the nuclear energy provide a store house of information and point to the dangers of nuclear energy production. Lay readers can get informed about the flip side of the nuclear energy which the governments in India deliberately hide. That the Haripur nuclear energy plant is basically anti-people has been forcefully argued by Praful Bidwai.
Dirty chemical industries have to be shifted from the environmentally clean North. So where would they go? Naturally the poor South provides the ready alternative sites. Giving the example of human disaster of the chemical capital of Brazil, Cubato, Abhee Datta-Mazumdar strongly argues against setting up of chemical hubs in the State. The chemical industry in the world is controlled by half-a- dozen or so giant corporate bodies like Du Point, Dow, Monsanto, Shell Mitsubishi and the like.
These corporations are least concerned about the protection of environment or public health. They exert tremendous pressure on the government and policy, makers to avoid all responsibilities and cut heavily on the safety and security budget. (p. 179)
With the Bhopal gas tragedy, where the mighty Indian state including its "independent" judiciary buckled in so easily, fresh in our mind, one should be wary about these toxic and hazardous industries which may cause far-reaching and inter-generational genetic problems.
In all, this book provides a formidable and delectable fare of intellectual discourse arguing strongly against neo-liberal economic paradigm of development so fondly and eagerly advocated by a group of imposters and tavern-knifers who masquerade as the Communist Party of India-Marxist. It is an eye- opener. For any socially conscious individual or group it should be compulsory reading. Whether one agrees or disagrees, one has to read it to widen one's horizon of knowledge and understanding of the contemporary events in West Bengal and the grotesque ideology of the ruling establishment.

ONE of the enduring and endearing beneficial side effects of the Singur-Nandigram struggle has been the burgeoning civil society activities. All of a sudden from a state of almost utter hibernation, it has become animated, alive and vibrant. Apart from protest marches, meetings, street dramas, "dharnas" and the like it revived the concept of People's Tribunals where former Justices of the High Courts and/or Supreme Court and eminent women and men of public life, known for their independence and probity, heard the victims, visited scenes of occurrence and came to conclusions strictly following the laws of natural justice and settled judicial procedure. One such People's Tribunal consisting of:
1. Justice S.N. Bhargava, Retired Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court,
2. Prabhash Joshi, Founder Editor, Jan Satta,
3. Lalita Ramdas, Social Activist,
4. John Dayal, Journalist and Human Right Activist, and
5. Dr J. Jyotirmay Samajdar, Psychiatrist
held public hearings at Gokulnagar and Sonachura in Nandigram, East Medinipur on May 26 and 27, 2007 and at the University Institute Library Hall on May 20, 2007. Their findings have come out in a book form entitled Nandigram, What Really Happened—Report of the People's Tribunal on Nandigram.
Of the many publications on the massacre at Nandigram, this Report is the most comprehensive and absolutely factual giving chronology of events right up to the "reconquest" of Nandigram by the CPI-M cadres in November, 2007.
In prosaic and judicial language it portrays the chilling horror that the victims of murder and mayhem suffered day after day, night after night, month after month for the whole year of 2007 from January 3 to November 12-14 (2007). The Report is an example of strict professionalism blended with vividness of account. It is a splendid piece of report- writing. According to this Report, on March 14, 2007, when the police operations took place, the following senior police officers were present on the spot:
1. Inspector General of Police Western Range—Arun Gupta,
2. Deputy Inspector General of Police—N. Ramesh Babu,
3. Superintendent of Police East Medinipore—Anil Srinivasan,
4. Officer-in-Charge Khejuri Police Station—Amit Hati,
5. Subdivisional Police Officer Haldia—Swapan Sinha.
In its judgement, dated November 16, 2007 the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court (S.S. Nijjar CJ and Pinaki Chandra Bose, J) held, inter alia, that
1. The action of the police department to open fire at Nandigram on 14-03-2007 was wholly unconstitutional and cannot be justified under any provision of law. …. ….
5. The action of the police cannot be protested or justified on the ground of sovereign immunity.
6. The action of the police cannot be justified even under the provisions of Criminal Procedure Code, the Police Act, 1861 or The Police Regulations, 1943.
According to this judgement of the Hon'ble Calcutta High Court all the five aforementioned police officers stand indicted for illegal action for which they are liable for both departmental disciplinary procedures and criminal legal actions which if done seriously might result in their dismissal from service and penal servitude.
In the My Lie incident in Vietnam, the young Platoon Commander, equivalent to the rank of a Subdivisional Police Officer in our set-up, lost his job and served a jail term for violating the Rules of the War of not to kill unarmed non-combatant civilians. It happened during a war.
In Buddha's My Lie, the diktats of the local CPI-M party bosses supersede the Constitution and the law. Hence, having obeyed illegal orders of the party bosses these guilty police officers could care a tuppence for the law and the Constitution of India to which they had sworn allegiance once upon a time. Nothing happened to them and to many more other criminals. In Buddha's State of My Lie the citizenry is divided into two groups—"We" and "They". Those who belong to "We" are above the Constitution and the law. Hence notwithstanding the collapse of the Constitution and the law, life goes on merrily for those who are "We". And "They" do not matter. The Report clearly brings out the fact that the current Government in West Bengal is a government of the rogues, by the rogues and for the rogues. If the law really had long arms, as is often said, it could only be hoped that these criminals would be brought to justice in future.
The Nandigram Report is written in prose which is lean and robust. Its pace would do credit to any Formula One Ferari or Porsche. It is an invaluable source material of history. All future historians studying the thirty-year malgovernance of the CPI-M in West Bengal would have to depend on it for facts and contemporary documents. All kudos to the organisers and the members of this People's Tribunal on Nandigram.
The reviewer was the Secretary to the Government of India, Ministries of Finance (Revenue) and Rural Development, and the Executive Director, Asian Development Bank, Manila. He also served in the West Bengal administration for many years and was the architect of 'Operation Barga' of the LF Government in its early stages.

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Re: [mukto-mona] Sonatoni mulyobodh paltate hobe {Bangla}

Very well written article. In the so called divine rule of inheritance, the fractions don't add up to unity(vide, e.g., Prophet and the Holy Quran - Rafiq Zakaria).

On Sun, Apr 13, 2008 at 4:34 PM, <FahmidaMahbub> wrote:

http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/fahmida/sonatoni_mulyobodh.pdf

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[mukto-mona] Intermediaries &agrarian society

The political resolution, adopted after minor amendments,at the 19th Congress,states, the party " has set out a policy document for licensing and regulating the entry of corporates in retail trade", clearly paving the way for the Ambanis in states like West Bengal. It is not opposed to SEZ which is a 'foreign territory' within India (according to the SEZ Bill, the LF government tabled in 2003 and got it through). It talks about agrarian crisis and food security but carefully shunned the vital question of slashing the intermediaries network that is perhaps the most fundamental reason for price rise abd inflation. In fact, no Left party is concerned about this issue seroously.

Here goes a timely piece on this issue in the Hindu Business Line today.
Freeing farmers from intermediaries by Pradeep S. Mehta & V. V. Singh (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/04/16/stories/2008041650430800.htm)
One way of reducing the intermediary chain and generating competition among intermediaries is through better road and rail connectivity and improved storage infrastructure such as well-maintained warehouses and modern cold storages.

The Indian farmer is trapped in poverty for various reasons, and an important one is that he gets only a fraction of what the consumer spends on the farm product as he is not linked to the consumer directly.
Perpetuation of poverty
Given the large number of farmers and the even larger number of final consumers, there is no dearth of competition among sellers at the farm gate and buyers at the retail outlets. Alas, between the farm gate and the final buyer there are intermediaries at different stages.
By virtue of their monopsonistic/monopolistic position in the intermediary chain, they are able to earn more than what they would in a competitive market. Retail prices are often significantly higher than the farm gate prices. Thus, the farmers earn low incomes and, therefore, have insufficient resources for investment. This leads to perpetuation of poverty.
Mechanics of exploitation
Why is there a lack of competition at the farm gate and at the other intermediary stages before the purchase by the final consumer?
The large size of the market and poor transport, infrastructural and marketing facilities ensure that many isolated regional markets exist for farm produce. The wholesalers and processors in these markets enjoy significant clout and are therefore able to buy farm produce at a low price.
Such wholesalers/processors then converge on to the next level where the markets are again isolated because of poor infrastructure and are characterised by fewer sellers relative to buyers. This enables the intermediary at each stage to earn a sizeable margin over his buying price.
Effect of globalisation
With globalisation the problem of lower earnings over subsistence might worsen if the current situation of a long chain of intermediaries characterised by absence of competition persists.
This is not a drawback of globalisation per se. In fact, when import tariffs for products are reduced, prices in the domestic wholesale markets become closely tied to the corresponding global prices which are lower than the domestic prices under autarky (closed economy case).
As prices dip in the domestic consumer markets there will also be a downward impact on the prices that farmers obtain. This is precisely the case of cotton in the country.
Preventing the slump
How do we prevent the downward slump in the revenues of certain farmers following globalisation? Globalisation will have some beneficial effects as the lower prices will benefit consumers, including large segments of the farmer population who are net buyers of farm produce.
However, farmers who are net sellers might see their incomes shrink in certain cases. This would imply lower surpluses, lesser reinvestment and stagnation in yields. As other countries improve their yields, global prices (in constant rupees) might fall further and lead to a tightening of the noose around the Indian farmer's neck.
This can be prevented by diluting the market power of buyers at the farm gate and by introducing competition. This would imply that a large portion of the current mark-up of the retail price over the wholesale price could be recovered by farmers. Thus, even during falling global prices, generation of competitive forces in domestic markets for farm produce can bring about an increase in the income that farmers receive. Thus, it might be possible for both consumers and producers to benefit.
The intermediary chain
One way of reducing the length of intermediary chain and generating competition among intermediaries is through better physical connectivity (roads, railway connections, lorry facilities, etc), which removes geographical isolation of markets and brings the farmer closer to the consumer, and infrastructure for storage (warehouses, cold storages, etc). Second, easy and swift credit (microfinance facilities, traditional banking, etc) will help improve the bargaining power of the farmer and invite competition for his produce.
In the Indian context, this is largely the responsibility of the Government. However, there are other measures too.
Currently, three measures are being undertaken, though not on a very large scale, to shorten the intermediary chain and promote competition:
E-commerce initiatives that ease the information constraint of the farmers relating to prevailing prices and other variables;
Contract farming which entitles the farmer to sell a fixed quantity of a product at a stipulated time and price to a buyer; and
Direct farming or the direct interaction between farmers and final buyers at the retail or wholesale level.
The first method enables the farmer to have information about several markets, thus giving him the freedom to make a choice from various sales alternatives.
The second method not only alleviates price risk for the farmer but also brings the urban wholesaler or large retail chain into direct contact with the farmer, thereby removing a large section of the traditional chain of intermediaries.
If there is more than one contract buyer vying for the farmer's produce then contract farming can be a means of enhancement of competition in agricultural markets.
Direct farming by definition involves the almost complete elimination of intermediary chains. When direct farming is undertaken on the basis of choice facilitated by the provision of information to the farmer on prices in different markets, then it also results in a greater competition for the farmer's produce.
Regulated markets
The Agricultural Produce Market Regulation Act (APMRA) has introduced regulated agricultural markets in the country so that producers get higher prices for their product.
But due to inadequate infrastructure such markets have not been successful in ensuring effective competition and guarding the producer's interest. These markets succeeded partially in regulating the conduct of intermediaries but have not paid any attention to breaking the long chain of intermediaries stretching from the farmer to the consumer at the retail level.
The farmer still cannot reach out to large wholesalers from urban areas directly. By introducing requirements of licensing for traders, regulated markets restrict the entry for many traders. Such entry restrictions could have increased competition for farm produce and resulted in farmers getting a better price.
(The authors are with CUTS International, Jaipur.)

Sankar Ray

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[mukto-mona] Poor Arjun Singh

Septuagenarian Congress leader Arjun Singh was unexpectedly cautioned, maybe reflecting a divide between the old and young guard.But his father was the first minister (of Rajputana government) to have been caught redhanded for taking bribes and was jailed. That was due to Jawaharlal Nehru who was worried of corruption, In 1954, at an international meeting in Peking he told the noted physicist and a communist, J D Bernal: "" Most of my ministers are reactionary and scoundrels but as long as they are my ministers I can keep some check on them. If I were to resign they would be the Government and they would unloose forces that I have tried since I came power to hold in cheek"

Here goes a comment on Congress High Command's rebuke of Arjun Singh

Chief of sycophants is caught out news analysis By Harish Khare (http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/16/stories/2008041660801200.htm)
New Delhi: For once the Congress party has erred on the side of correctness. It has disassociated itself post-haste from Union Minister Arjun Singh's 'make Rahul Gandhi Prime Minister' campaign. Given Mr. Singh's past record of over-protestation of loyalty to the Nehru-Gandhi family, many in and outside the party perceived his pitch as a Sonia Gandhi-inspired move.
On Tuesday evening, the Congress spokesperson distanced the party from the Arjun Singh line and, for the first time, disapprovingly used the word "sycophancy," which is common political currency among virtually all opponents of the Congress. Ms. Jayanthi Natrajan's formulation was public confirmation of the most open secret within the Congress: Mr. Singh neither speaks for the Congress president nor enjoys her confidence.
But so enduring is his posture as family loyalist that even seasoned political leaders outside the Congress fold have been misled into echoing the 'Rahul-for-Prime Minister' line. Within the party, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, a seasoned war-horse, found himself half-heartedly following Mr. Singh, with embarrassing consequences.
The Natarajan formulation became necessary because what Mr. Singh did amounted to undermining the image Ms. Gandhi has assiduously built as party chief: that she does not crowd the Prime Minister out of his constitutional domain. Cabinet ministers who tried to talk down to Dr. Manmohan Singh on the strength of their presumed proximity to 10 Janpath were made to eat crow, although in private.
But Mr. Singh, who is not one to take hints, becomes the first political heavyweight to be administered a public rebuke. It was absolutely necessary. Had the Congress leadership allowed his sycophantic line to go uncontested, it would have rendered the Prime Minister's position untenable. As long as Mr. Singh chooses to remain a member of the Union Cabinet headed by Dr. Singh, he cannot possibly be seen as lacking in respect towards the head of government. Had the Congress spokesperson not clarified the matter, Mr. Singh might have had to resign from the Cabinet or be relieved of his charge. Neither the country nor the Congress can afford to create doubts about the durability of the Prime Minister.
The public rebuke by the party spokesperson also suggests that perhaps Ms. Sonia Gandhi has at last become wise to Mr. Singh's gift for political mischief. The Tuesday message was clear : he will not be allowed to repeat his 1993-1994 game plan. As a senior Minister in the P.V. Narasimha Rao dispensation, Mr. Singh waged an internal war of subversion, all in the name of "the family." The Congress lost the 1996 general election and Gandhi family loyalists made out that it was just as well that 'PV' had been made to bite the dust.
Then, in 1997, Mr. Singh orchestrated a move to topple the Gujral government on the plea that the Congress party could not support a regime that was seen to be "protecting" Rajiv Gandhi's assassins. It was again Mr. Arjun Singh who unilaterally declared in 1999 (after the fall of the first Vajpayee government) that "Sonia Gandhi will be the next Prime Minister." No one had authorised him to make the statement. In practical terms, it doomed whatever chances Ms. Gandhi had of becoming Prime Minister.
Although the first family may have finally seen through Mr. Singh's ways, there has been an inexplicable reluctance to ask him to leave the Union Cabinet despite his deteriorating health. But that was not all. Within the party, Mr. Singh has been seen as pursuing an unhelpful unilateral line on the OBC quota, and especially creamy layer, controversy. He was seen as exploiting the precarious equations within the United Progressive Alliance.
Yet Ms. Gandhi resisted numerous suggestions from friends and well-wishers alike that Mr. Singh had become an embarrassment for the Manmohan Singh government. Around the time of the last minor ministerial reshuffle, some thought was given to asking him to take up a gubernatorial assignment but the idea was not pursued to its logical conclusion.
As long as the Congress 'high command' remains in awe of someone's capacity to create trouble, it can only act defensively. The public rebuke to unalloyed sycophancy seems to send out a new kind of political message.

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Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh

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Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary

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MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari

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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

[mukto-mona] In khaki terror - Harsh Mander

[mukto-mona] "A formidable intellectual challenge to Islamism" :: Huffington Post reviews "Chasing a Mirage"

Illusions of an Islamic State

[mukto-mona] Army Chief’s Potato Theory

[mukto-mona] Nandigram-reviews

Re: [mukto-mona] Sonatoni mulyobodh paltate hobe {Bangla}

[mukto-mona] Intermediaries &agrarian society

[mukto-mona] Poor Arjun Singh

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