Sri Lanka- Last Phase of Civil War- What happened really?

Sri Lanka- Last Phase of Civil War- What happened really?

Paper no. 4456



28-April-2011

Sri Lanka: Last Phase of Civil War at Mullivaikal: What happened really?

Guest Column- By Sivanendran

(There have been enquiries from friends as to why South Asia Analysis Group is focussing on the Sri Lankan War and the UN Report. The answer is simple. We need to know the truth and why the massacre of civilians in the last days of the war was allowed to happen. This is not to absolve the LTTE who were equally ruthless and unmindful of civilian casualties. But we want to know why the world was a mute witness to this event? What was the role of UN-the Security Council and -above all India? These are legitimate questions.) Director

The events at Mullivaikal mark the climax of the civil war in Sri Lanka, the most vicious of the battles where the lives of poor civilians were totally ignored.

That the innocent civilians got massacred in large numbers is not in doubt, but the orthodox story omits entirely the context in which this occurred.

What is most important to keep in mind is that Mullivaikal today has sadly become largely a political tool, an excuse for ethno-nationalists on all sides to let loose their most radical sentiments and score points with their supporters. In the 2009 massacre in reports, the background and responsibilities for the disaster in Mullivaikal were absent. Preferred was the simple explanation: a black and white event in which the Tamils the terrorists were solely to blame.

"Truth and reason are eternal," Thomas Jefferson wrote to Rev. Samuel Knox in 1810. "They have prevailed. And they will eternally prevail . . ."

Mullivaikal was a village in Vanni besieged by the government forces. This massacre occurred because the Sri Lankan Army savagely lashed out s against the LTTE ignoring the civilian population of the area.. After promising safety and protection to the innocent inhabitants of Mullivaikal the governmental forces are said to have used disproportionate force indiscriminately attacking even assigned "no fire zones".

Throughout this period the U.N. adopted a position of "neutrality" that in practice meant inaction, even when large number of men, women and children were killed in these attacks. Sri Lankan forces attacked "no fire zones" or the warring parties otherwise violated ceasefire agreements.

It's a distasteful point, but it has to be said that, if you're committing whole scale slaughter, you don't let the women go since they are key to perpetuating the very group you are trying to eliminate. Many of the boys and girls were executed and buried in mass graves. Every day of this war has seen the most unspeakable atrocities committed against ordinary civilians. Trapped in this small land area, under constant Sri Lankan bombardment, sleepless and thirst-maddened, unarmed men, women and children succumbed to hallucinations, paranoia, and despair. The psyches of the people ruptured.

Mullivaikal is not simply a case of the international community standing by as a far-off atrocity was committed. The actions of the international community encouraged, aided, and emboldened the attackers. The fall of Mullivaikal did not have to happen. There was no need for thousands of skeletons to be strewn across that north eastern coast. There is no need for thousands of Tamil children to be raised on stories of their fathers, mothers, uncles and brothers slaughtered by Sri Lankan army.

How many died?

There are various estimates of the maimed and the dead. Some estimate the dead as about 10,000 whilst some others have even suggested as much as 100,000. The massacre accounts for an astonishing number of missing from the brutal conflict as a whole. By any standard, it was one of the worst and most concentrated acts of killing in the post-World War II era.

The fact beyond dispute is that during the siege of Mullivaikal thousands of Tamil men, women and children were killed. Most of them died when the enclave was completely encircled by the Sri Lankan Army and fell almost without a fight. A significant number reached safety only after the 18th May 2009.

It is now two years since the fall of Mullivaikal . Much has been written about the matter. Nonetheless the majority of reports have been limited to a broad media exposure of the event, with very little analytical rigor. Discussion of Mullivaikal cannot be limited to genocide and mass graves. A rigorous analysis of the events must take into consideration the background circumstances, in order to understand the real motives which led to the massacre.

Does Mullivaikal exemplify state brutality over the twenty five years of war? Let the truth be told. This is the question that needs to be answered by all including the international community.

Who is responsible?

The zone of Mullivaikal, like almost that entire coastline, is characterized by its flat terrain offering clear advantage to offensive forces. Sri Lankan army waited for months without attacking this enclave until the Indian elections were over. Given the resources available to both parties, and the characteristics of the terrain, it would seem that the Sri Lankan army had the necessary force to defend itself and be ever so mindful of the innocent people trapped in the war zone. This, however, did not occur.

Given the military advantage of the Sri Lankan forces it is very difficult to explain the amount of disregard that they showed to the innocent men, women and children in a siege situation, recklessly prosecuting a war in the absence of effective military resistance. The heavy casualties amongst the civilian population could have been avoided. The victims have many stories to tell. There are about 300,000 who survived these onslaughts waiting to tell their stories. There is no one asking for their stories much less to listen to them. There are many harrowing tales from these victims of Mullivaikal yet to be told.

The international community also bears responsibility for this massacre. Had the UN asserted its authority perhaps the world would have been spared of these mass killings.

The aftermath

Extensive forensic investigations of the Mullivaikal massacre sites have not been carried out systematically to identify the bodies and bury them appropriately. That area has been out of bounds to its inhabitants except the Sri Lankan military to enable them to clean up the land. We still do not know what the Sri Lankan army has done to the bodies. Is there a combined memorial or a mortuary in Mullivaikal for the dead?

The memory of Mullivaikal�s dead men women and children was kept alive by the surviving victims. They will continue to raise the memory at all international forums and will not rest until the truth is revealed.

Since the ending of the war in May 2009, the Tamil Diaspora has continued with their protest at the stalled investigations into the fate of their missing men, women and children and will do so again on the second anniversary of the massacre in May 2011. Their list of primary demands would include:

1.The full facts of massacre should be revealed and publicised.

2. A list of all dead and executed to be identified without delay.

3. A list of all survivors of Mullivaikal held prisoner in Sri Lanka should be released immediately.

So, here we are, two years later, going over the same old lines, while the families of the victims of Mullivaikal win nothing more than the moral high ground, which provides little in the way of closure. But, then, even closure is a tricky business. Even if the perpetrators themselves were to admit to the genocide and pay for their crimes, justice would not be served and the dead will not be brought back to life:

After all these years, there is still not a single high-profile political figure in Sri Lanka�who is capable of thinking of humanity over politics, of country over career. How can the people of Sri Lanka shrug it off not as the massacre of thousands of human beings, but as a tool to be used in political games?

UN Secretary General

A UN Secretary-General is not responsible for all UN actions - or lack of such, or for decisions made by the Security Council. Mr Bank ki Moon is however responsible for his own actions. During those fateful days in 2009, he had a choice: standing up against the Security Council in an attempt to shame politicians into intervening or keeping his head down and pretend he didn't know what was going on. Mr Moon chose silence, which satisfied the governments bent on �business as usual�: seeing nothing and hearing nothing..

It has been argued that the Security Council was not really 'interested' or 'willing' to intervene and that this exempts him from blame. It is agreed that many politicians were extremely reluctant to intervene with force in Sri Lanka. But is it not exactly during such times when we most need a Secretary-General of the United Nations to speak up? Or, put differently, if politicians were head over heels to intervene to prevent crimes against humanity, why would we need a Secretary-General of the United Nations? Besides, the (unfortunately very belated) intervention of Britain and France almost at the end of the massacre showed that it was indeed possible to create enough public awareness for the international community to react.

If Mr Ban ki Moon had vigorously demanded a UN intervention and thereby confronted those governments in the Security Council that left civilians to their killers, he could rightly have washed his hands as he has since tried to do. However, for reasons of political and bureaucratic expediency he chose not to do so.

The United Nations must shoulder a large share of responsibility for allowing the massacre to take place under their noses however odious the LTTE tactics were. Through error, misjudgement and the inability to recognize the scope of evil confronting them, they failed to do their part to save the people of Mullivaikal from the mass murder.

The blame surely extends to the member states of the United Nations.

In the final days and hours of the advance on Mullivaikal, which American and Indian intelligence could monitor closely, the international community fell strangely silent. Mullivaikal duly fell, with consequences which were unspeakable in human terms, but not inconvenient diplomatically.

Mullivaikal� A call for justice

The Sri Lankan government deny that that there is anything to be explained or debated on this matter. This was only a problem of terrorism and its elimination. So many thousands people were killed and unknown number of prisoners were executed is not a matter that needs investigation. Even if a distinguished international judicial forum of unquestioned authority has found it to constitute unacceptable does not appear to persuade the Sri Lankan government that there is a need for an appropriate investigation of the matter. According to them there is nothing to debate because everything is settled and clear.

However, for the Tamils, it is noteworthy that "Mullivaikal" is used not as a geographic location but as a stand-alone term that denotes horror, "Mullivaikal" used in this sense has established itself as a horrible massacre of the innocent Tamils. Is Mullivaikal a hoax? Is it a myth based on a lie?

A distinguished panel of reasonable people with no ethno-religious axe to grind in the Sri Lankan quagmire have called for an investigation. If Sri Lanka has no blood on its hands why not agree for such an international investigation to bring a closure to this tragedy. We repeat- Let the truth be told.

The World Atlas of Language Structures Online

The World Atlas of Language Structures Online

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http://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_tsp

Phonemic Diversity Supports a Serial Founder Effect Model of Language Expansion from Africa

Science 15 April 2011:
Vol. 332 no. 6027 pp. 346-349
DOI: 10.1126/science.1199295

Phonemic Diversity Supports a Serial Founder Effect Model of Language Expansion from Africa

1. Quentin D. Atkinson¹,²,*

+ Author Affiliations

1. ¹Department of Psychology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand.
2. ²Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, 64 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6PN, UK.

1. *↵E-mail: q.atkinson@auckland.ac.nz

Abstract

Human genetic and phenotypic diversity declines with distance from Africa, as predicted by a serial founder effect in which successive population bottlenecks during range expansion progressively reduce diversity, underpinning support for an African origin of modern humans. Recent work suggests that a similar founder effect may operate on human culture and language. Here I show that the number of phonemes used in a global sample of 504 languages is also clinal and fits a serial founder–effect model of expansion from an inferred origin in Africa. This result, which is not explained by more recent demographic history, local language diversity, or statistical non-independence within language families, points to parallel mechanisms shaping genetic and linguistic diversity and supports an African origin of modern human languages.

http://thamirlan.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/the-hindu-arts-history-culture-a-slice-of-history/

http://thamirlan.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/the-hindu-arts-history-culture-a-slice-of-history/

South India's cultural past not confined to one religion: Prof. Champakalakshmi

South India's cultural past not confined to one religion: Prof. Champakalakshmi

The empirical pre-eminence in the study of history in inscription-rich Tamil Nadu and a modern outlook on historiography combine to provide a fresh understanding of the past in a book launched here on Tuesday.

“Religion, Tradition and Ideology: Pre-colonial South India” (Oxford University Press) is a collection of essays by historian R. Champakalakshmi, discussing the origins and development of multiple religious traditions and their role in the evolution of a rich and complex socio-religious matrix in pre-colonial south India.

Champakalakshmi, who retired as professor of the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), has debunked the usual simplistic continuities between Vedic times and the present day that is the staple of the conventional historian's approach, and attempted to show how conflicting, even irreconcilable beliefs and practices, were incorporated into the Sanskritic tradition.

The work, which is the consummation of almost five decades of research during which the author “transformed from an Indologist to historian and social scientist,” sketches the emergence of Brahminism as a dominant tradition and the marginalisation of the “sramanic” religions — Jainism and Buddhism — in the socio-economic and political context.

N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, launched the book by handing over the first copy to Iravatham Mahadevan, an expert on Indus and Tamil-Brahmi scripts.

Describing the publication as “rich in its material and many-sided in its historical offerings,” Mr. Ram said one of the notable aspects was the nuanced treatment of the interaction between the Brahminical and “sramanic” religions.

The author's approach to caste and community was a breakthrough contribution in understanding caste and its changing dynamics with the community as was her bold treatment of the hegemony of one religion in an otherwise pluralistic tradition, Mr. Ram said.

Mr. Mahadevan said the author in her role of historian was “a bridge between tradition and modernity,” a product of the University of Madras who held on to conservative values and yet blossomed to expand her perspective in the JNU milieu.

Professor Champakalakshmi was someone who, while being rooted in tradition, brought to historiography the searchlight of modernity, he said.

Professor. Champakalakshmi said her over 55 years of research and teaching had been “an eventful and fascinating journey” that took her through many untrodden avenues of India's historical past.

Noting that south India's cultural past was not confined to one religion — in fact, there existed no Vedic linkage to the term Hindu which first originated during the Vijayanagara period of the 14{+t}{+h} century — Professor Champakalakshmi said she had studied counter-traditions (such as Jainism) to understand the historical processes that led to the dominance of Brahminism.

Shashank Sinha, OUP senior commissioning manager, said the book was another illustration of south India's emergence as an important component of the publishing programme that ranges across performing arts, music and literature.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/nationa...cle1603046.ece

Just like our Srilankan displaced Tamils

Cash-for-Votes Scandal: At A Glance

Cash-for-Votes Scandal: At A Glance

BY ASHISH KHETAN

Click here to read the full report Photo: Reuters

For two years, the nation has believed that the Congress and its ally, the Samajwadi Party drove the nuclear vote through successfully, based on sordid horse-trading and the buying of votes.

While this may still be true, the only empirical evidence of this horse-trading was the 2008 CNN-IBN cash-for-vote sting.

In a shocking discovery, Tehelka has now found that as far as the cash-for-votes sting operation is concerned, it was not the Congress, or indeed even the Samajwadi Party, that was actively looking for MPs to buy in this particular scandal. In fact, the shoe was on the other foot. It was the BJP that had willfully set out to entrap either the Congress or the SP into buying three BJP MPs so it could pull off a successful sting operation and discredit the government. Disturbingly, this sting operation appears to have had the sanction and collusion of respected BJP leaders like Sudheendra Kulkarni, Arun Jaitley and even LK Advani.

Tehelka’s story is based on three crucial pieces of evidence: the first hand-account of the CNN-IBN reporter Siddharth Gautam, who actually did the sting on the ground. His account of the truth has been revealed for the first time.

The story also rests on 10 crucial phone recordings that have never been shared in the public domain and were not even made available to the parliamentary panel set up to probe the scandal. These phone recordings, now in Tehelka’s possession, display BJP MP Argal frantically calling people and shopping for someone to buy him and the other two BJP MPs on the night of 21 July 2008, the eve of the nuclear vote. The intention was to somehow pull off a sting operation that could discredit the UPA government.

Tehelka’s story also rests on the parliamentary panel report, now accessed by Tehelka. This report is full of contradictory accounts which prove that every player in the scandal resorted either to blatant lies or at least half-truths.

The story does not exonerate the Samajwadi Party, which did fall for the BJP’s entrapment and agree to buy its three BJP MPs.

For two years there has been a rumour that powerful Congress leader Ahmad Patel was somehow involved in the horse-trading. While the story shows that there is absolutely no credible evidence to support this, or even that anyone from the Congress per se was shopping for MPs to cross-over—at least in this particular case—the story still does not exonerate the Congress. It demonstrates that the parliamentary panel headed by Congress MP KC Deo and the Delhi Police did little to collate the evidence and nail the accused.

Finally, the story also looks at the ambiguous role played by the television channel, which according to CNN-IBN reporter Gautam, held back some crucial pieces of footage and skewed its own story and the version the reporter was allowed to put out in the public domain.

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Batcha's suicide note found, says he felt sorry for Raja - Video | The Times of India

Batcha's suicide note found, says he felt sorry for Raja - Video | The Times of India

YouTube - akaran-vck thol.thirumavalavan speech in diksha boomi frm nagpur 2010

YouTube - akaran-vck thol.thirumavalavan speech in diksha boomi frm nagpur 2010

YouTube - AKARAN VCK- MULLAI PERIYAR OORTHI PAYANAM THOL.THIRUMA PART-1 www.thiruma.net

YouTube - AKARAN VCK- MULLAI PERIYAR OORTHI PAYANAM THOL.THIRUMA PART-1 www.thiruma.net

Female Tamil migrant to remain in custody over tiger-themed necklace

Female Tamil migrant to remain in custody over tiger-themed necklace

How much of Japan's suffering can people comprehend? | Aditya Chakrabortty | Comment is free | The Guardian

How much of Japan's suffering can people comprehend? | Aditya Chakrabortty | Comment is free | The Guardian

How much of Japan's suffering can people comprehend?

The uncomfortable truth is that the limit is extremely low

• 

The American author Annie Dillard summed up well the difficulty of empathising with hordes of other people. "There are 1,198,500,000 people alive now in China," she wrote. "To get a feel for what this means, simply take yourself – in all your singularity, importance, complexity, and love – and multiply by 1,198,500,000. See? Nothing to it."

I came across that honest, wise remark this weekend, while watching the footage from Japan. The two did not sit well with each other. When a big disaster strikes, either here or abroad, politicians and journalists alike work on the basis that the greater the misery, the more they, and we, should care. David Cameron was working to that logic when he said yesterday that "our thoughts are with the Japanese people". And after reading the reports of 10,000-plus deaths and nuclear warnings, or seeing the photos of submerged towns and stranded survivors, who could disagree?

Yet the uncomfortable truth is that the academic research suggests Dillard is right. However horrifying the pictures, however moving the reports, there's a limit to how much suffering people can take on board – and it's extremely low.

The bigger the numbers of fatalities and injuries, the harder it is for audiences to comprehend them. This law of diminishing returns doesn't just apply to natural disasters, but to other varieties of misery – from oil spills to famines and genocides.

"Psychic numbing" is how the University of Oregon psychologist Paul Slovic refers to this. To illustrate what he means, he sometimes sketches two graphs. The first shows how we might believe we value human lives, with the line going straight up along a diagonal: the more lives at stake, the more attention we pay. The second shows the reality, as Slovic sees it. Here the line starts off very high, but then drops all the way down: we get very worked up when one or two lives are at stake, but then the numbers begin to blur and we tune out.

The result is that humans will often throw money at one sad story – even when it doesn't involve a human. Researchers sometimes quote the story of how more than $48,000 was raised in 2002 to save a dog stranded on a ship adrift near Hawaii. Charities know this impulse too, which is why they often put a single child on their envelopes and posters.

"Perhaps the "blurring" of individuals begins at two," Slovic writes in one of his papers. "It leads to apathy and inaction, consistent with what is seen repeatedly in response to mass murder and genocide."

You might think that the way around this would be for campaigners or charity workers to highlight one story of distress and then use statistics to show how widespread that particular famine or drought is. But the evidence suggests not.

A few years ago, Deborah Small led a team of academics in a study of how people made donations. In one trial they showed subjects a battery of horrifying statistics about food shortages in Africa; in another they focused on Rokia, a seven-year old girl from Mali at risk of starvation; finally, they combined the two. People were most willing to give money to Rokia, but when confronted with statistics in any form their interest tailed off.

Our ability to turn huge instances of human suffering into abstractions becomes even more pronounced when the disaster in question – whether a tsunami or a drought – is one we have never encountered. I have written here before about research done by Namika Sagara and Christopher Olivola where respondents from Indonesia and India (countries where gigantic losses of human life are comparatively more frequent) were less sensitive to modest fatalities than counterparts from America and Japan – but were far better able to comprehend really big losses of life.

These studies might strike you as rather dispiriting, and I wouldn't disagree. But there is a lesson that can be drawn from them.

The height of a crisis of any kind is when prime ministers and presidents are most willing to vow that this disaster must never happen again. Think of Gordon Brown swearing after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008 that he and his fellow leaders would "prevent a crisis such as this ever happening again". In the wake of Deepwater Horizon, Barack Obama made an almost identical promise – that he would "prevent a similar disaster from happening again".

One implication of Slovic's work is that these vows should be made reality as soon as possible, and turned into law or embodied in an institution. It is no good relying on the salutary example – because that way memories fade and mistakes get repeated.

In his classic on the Wall Street crash of 1929, John Kenneth Galbraith describes how shares crashed, investors were wiped out and banks collapsed in their thousands. This was one financial disaster that led to lots of vows of never again. Yet his passage on the lessons from that cataclysm is curiously ambivalent: "With time and the dimming of memory, the immunity wears off. A recurrence becomes possible. Nothing would have induced Americans to launch a speculative adventure in the stock market in 1935. By 1955 [the time of publication] the chances are very much better."

He concludes: "When people are cautious, questioning, misanthropic, suspicious or mean, they are immune to speculative enthusiasms."

• guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2011

The Hindu : States / Tamil Nadu : Discrimination against Dalits prevalent: study

Caste discrimination practised against Dalits does not spare even panchayat presidents, reveals a study conducted in select districts of Tamil Nadu.

The study conducted by Evidence, a Madurai-based organisation, in 213 panchayats across 12 districts in the State has come up with its findings on myriad forms of discrimination experienced by Dalits under various categories.

The survey was held in Madurai, Dindigul, Virudhunagar, Sivagangai, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Salem, Namakkal, Cuddalore, Villupuram, Coimbatore and Tirupur.

Forty-five panchayat presidents from nine districts have given testimonies of discrimination, the survey reports. The discrimination takes the form of demand for appointment of Caste Hindu writer, refusal to cooperate with the panchayat president, obstructionist tactics by the Caste Hindu Ward members and panchayat vice-president to stall conduct of affairs and harassment of women panchayat presidents.

The 198-page report reveals an exhaustive account of various forms of discrimination and how they assume universality under certain categories. These include discrimination in temples, atrocities against Dalit women and discrimination in processions, burial of the dead and in offering services such as hair dressing and laundry to the Dalits.

With a few exceptions, almost all villages witness such discrimination.

Restrictions

Discrimination in temples varies from restrictions on entry to bar on touching the temple car rope and participation in festivities or allowing processions to go through Dalit colonies.

According to the report, 104 villages out of the total villages surveyed recorded the practice of two-tumbler system, revealing 49 per cent prevalence. Among them, 14 out of 22 villages in Coimbatore, 14 out of 24 villages in Dindigul, 13 out of 21 in Salem, 13 out of 17 villages in Virudhunagar, 11 out of 17 villages in Thanjavur and seven out of 13 villages in Madurai, recorded the practice.

In Nagapattinam, the study carried out in 16 villages in Vedaranyam reveals the prevalence of two tumbler system in Kodiakkarai, Vedananagar, Ayyakaranpulamirandamsethi, and Siriyankadu.

Of the categories, discrimination was negligible only in Government Hospitals and PHCs.

Do not fear an election, Mr Prime Minister - Opinion - DNA

Do not fear an election, Mr Prime Minister Neerja Chowdhury | Sunday, March 6, 2011

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The prime minister’s admission that compromises were inevitable in coalitions has drawn flak. It did not go down well even with his own partymen. The philosophical homilies by Janardan Dwivedi, who heads the Congress’ media department, at the start of the Budget session of Parliament, were seen to be directed at the PM and BJP leader Arun Jaitley pointing this out – that it was a “blunt” and not just a “subtle”message for Dr Manmohan Singh. Dwivedi had quoted Mahatma Gandhi’s words in 1920 that while in politics, he had fought its “vice-like grip” and not allowed political considerations to shape any of his major decisions. Politicians are adept at conveying what they want to by innuendo and the “politicalese” – the language that only politicians can interpret – that Dwivedi resorted to was lost on few. The prime minister was explaining why he had chosen to re-induct A Raja as telecom minister in 2009, despite enough information having surfaced about the DMK leader’s alleged involvement in what was by then being billed as the 2G spectrum mega scam. The reason the PM gave for his decision to take back A Raja was that “elections cannot be held every six months”. Article continues below the advertisement... Had the PM held firm on keeping him out in mid 2009, would it really have brought on an election? Would the DMK have quit the central government and brought down its own ministry in Chennai, which is supported by the Congress? Let us go back to 2004, when “tainted” ministers were inhducted into the UPA-I ministry in the face of opposition. The BJP had failed to make it an issue because it was a bad loser, opposing the Congress from day one, even disrupting the swearing-in ceremony of the ministers in 2004. Had the PM refused to take Taslimuddin or MAA Fatmi, allegedly involved in serious offences, and insisted that the RJD suggest alternative names for the ministry, would Laloo Yadav have rocked the boat and brought on another poll, after he had won so handsomely? At that time also, the PM, if the Congress grapevine was to be believed, had told colleagues that he would find it difficult to continue if he had to make these compromises. But he did continue. Admittedly, the PM is not just an individual and what is applicable to him also goes for his party. Yet, if there was one PM who could have taken a tough stand, it was Manmohan Singh. No one doubted his financial integrity. Though Sonia Gandhi nominated him, she does not have anyone better from her point of view, given Rahul Gandhi’s reluctance to take over. Singh does not have an individual political agenda and appealed to the urban middle class, though this is now dented. Sonia Gandhi is reportedly wary of other senior leaders and those who have her confidence, like AK Antony, might run into problems. Were Antony to be elevated, the Sangh Parivar can be expected to go to town that she is promoting him because he is a Christian. Coalitions – or for that matter democratic governments – do entail a give-and-take. Yet, it is one thing to be flexible on, say, seat-sharing. For instance, the Congress is currently playing hardball with the DMK on sharing of seats in Tamil Nadu for the forthcoming state elections, knowing that the Dravidian party cannot do without its support. The Congress is demanding 90 seats but may finally settle for 60. But to be forced to compromise on a matter like 2G – which has led to a presumptive loss of Rs1.76 lakh crore, according to the CAG estimate, or of Rs22,000 to Rs50,000 crore as per the figures indicated by the CBI to the Supreme Court – is quite another matter. The question then is: should a government continue at any cost? Where does the PM draw the ‘Lakshman rekha’ in a coalition? After all, the PM did take a firm stand on the Indo-US nuclear deal, putting his government in jeopardy, as the Left leaders have been quick to point out. Agreed that elections cannot be held every six months. But if the compromise required is of a kind that leads to a 2G scam, let an election take place. It might help establish new norms for governance in coalitions and show the regional parties that they cannot push beyond a point. A general election costs the country around R 17,000 crore, with around Rs 2,000 crore spent by the Election Commission and another Rs15,000 crore spent by individual candidates and parties, if you take a rough estimate of Rs30 crore per constituency. This is incidentally only 0.3% of the GDP, and the amount spent is less than even the conservative estimate of what was lost to the exchequer through 2G. This is not to make a case for frequent elections, which can lead to a paralysis in policymaking. But if an election or two, brought on by a principled stand, leads to political reform, there is no need to fear them. A cleaner government is more likely to function better, generate greater development and result in a rise in the GDP. The cost of that election will be paid a thousand times over. At the end of the day, the choice is between a dispensation that totters under pressure and a government that is effective. Neerja Chowdhury is a commentator on political and social issues

Secret Plan To Arm Libya's Rebels By Robert Fisk

America's Secret Plan To Arm Libya's Rebels

By Robert Fisk

07 March, 2011
The Independent

Obama asks Saudis to airlift weapons into Benghazi

Desperate to avoid US military involvement in Libya in the event of a prolonged struggle between the Gaddafi regime and its opponents, the Americans have asked Saudi Arabia if it can supply weapons to the rebels in Benghazi. The Saudi Kingdom, already facing a "day of rage" from its 10 per cent Shia Muslim community on Friday, with a ban on all demonstrations, has so far failed to respond to Washington's highly classified request, although King Abdullah personally loathes the Libyan leader, who tried to assassinate him just over a year ago.

Washington's request is in line with other US military co-operation with the Saudis. The royal family in Jeddah, which was deeply involved in the Contra scandal during the Reagan administration, gave immediate support to American efforts to arm guerrillas fighting the Soviet army in Afghanistan in 1980 and later – to America's chagrin – also funded and armed the Taliban.

But the Saudis remain the only US Arab ally strategically placed and capable of furnishing weapons to the guerrillas of Libya. Their assistance would allow Washington to disclaim any military involvement in the supply chain – even though the arms would be American and paid for by the Saudis.

The Saudis have been told that opponents of Gaddafi need anti-tank rockets and mortars as a first priority to hold off attacks by Gaddafi's armor, and ground-to-air missiles to shoot down his fighter-bombers.

Supplies could reach Benghazi within 48 hours but they would need to be delivered to air bases in Libya or to Benghazi airport. If the guerrillas can then go on to the offensive and assault Gaddafi's strongholds in western Libya, the political pressure on America and NATO – not least from Republican members of Congress – to establish a no-fly zone would be reduced.

US military planners have already made it clear that a zone of this kind would necessitate US air attacks on Libya's functioning, if seriously depleted, anti-aircraft missile bases, thus bringing Washington directly into the war on the side of Gaddafi's opponents.

For several days now, US AWACS surveillance aircraft have been flying around Libya, making constant contact with Malta air traffic control and requesting details of Libyan flight patterns, including journeys made in the past 48 hours by Gaddafi's private jet which flew to Jordan and back to Libya just before the weekend.

Officially, NATO will only describe the presence of American AWACS planes as part of its post-9/11 Operation Active Endeavor, which has broad reach to undertake aerial counter-terrorism measures in the Middle East region.

The data from the AWACS is streamed to all NATO countries under the mission's existing mandate. Now that Gaddafi has been reinstated as a super-terrorist in the West's lexicon, however, the NATO mission can easily be used to search for targets of opportunity in Libya if active military operations are undertaken.

Al Jazeera English television channel last night broadcast recordings made by American aircraft to Maltese air traffic control, requesting information about Libyan flights, especially that of Gaddafi's jet.

An American AWACS aircraft, tail number LX-N90442 could be heard contacting the Malta control tower on Saturday for information about a Libyan Dassault-Falcon 900 jet 5A-DCN on its way from Amman to Mitiga, Gaddafi's own VIP airport.

NATO AWACS 07 is heard to say: "Do you have information on an aircraft with the Squawk 2017 position about 85 miles east of our [sic]?"

Malta air traffic control replies: "Seven, that sounds to be Falcon 900- at flight level 340, with a destination Mitiga, according to flight plan."

But Saudi Arabia is already facing dangers from a co-ordinated day of protest by its own Shia Muslim citizens who, emboldened by the Shia uprising in the neighboring island of Bahrain, have called for street protests against the ruling family of al-Saud on Friday.

After pouring troops and security police into the province of Qatif last week, the Saudis announced a nationwide ban on all public demonstrations.

Shia organizers claim that up to 20,000 protesters plan to demonstrate with women in the front rows to prevent the Saudi army from opening fire.

If the Saudi government accedes to America's request to send guns and missiles to Libyan rebels, however, it would be almost impossible for President Barack Obama to condemn the kingdom for any violence against the Shias of the north-east provinces.

Thus has the Arab awakening, the demand for democracy in North Africa, the Shia revolt and the rising against Gaddafi become entangled in the space of just a few hours with US military priorities in the region.

©independent.co.uk

Advani And Modi - The Real Culprits Escaping The Law By Asghar Ali Engineer

Advani And Modi - The Real Culprits Escaping The Law

By Asghar Ali Engineer

05 March, 2011

More than 100 innocent persons were arrested after burning of S-6 in Godhra on 27th February 2002 which in turn followed demolition of Babri Masjid on 6th December 1992. The man mainly responsible for the former was Mr. L.K.Advani who, to fulfill his ambition for power raised the slogan ‘mandir wahin banayenge’ and played with the religious sentiments of common Hindus and our secular state looked the other way. The man responsible for the later was Narendra Modi, who exploited burning of S-6 in Godhra to retain his power which otherwise he was sure to loose. And both these worthies of BJP brought utter shame to our secular tradition and secular philosophy.

As a result of this conspiracy by these two men thousands died, lakhs uprooted from their hearths and homes and many more lost everything they had and yet both are not only unpunished but are enjoying power (Advani, though could not become Prime Minister which was his ambition but became Home Minister and deputy Prime Minister under Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji and is now a prominent opposition leader which also is a sort of power).

Narender Modi and L K Advani

Mr. Advani very promptly issues a statement that he has been vindicated the moment lower court pronounces some people guilty arrested by his or his Party’s Government even before higher court’s judgments often release them or declare them not guilty. The moment Mr. Jeelani was held guilty by the lower court in Parliament attack case, he did not hesitate to issue this statement even though he was Home Minister at the Centre. No one holding such responsible position should rush to issue such statement when the lower court has pronounced the judgment. The highest court i.e. the Supreme Court found Prof. Jeelani ‘not guilty’ and released him.

Again after the ‘Godhra Conspiracy Case’ judgment the Advani-speak was the same. He was delighted that 31 people were pronounced ‘guilty’ by the lower court although 63 were released and especially Husain Umerjee who was arrested as the ‘main conspirator’ was found not guilty by the Court. The whole conspiracy theory falls to the ground if the chief conspirator himself is found innocent. Who then plotted the conspiracy? But that was none of Advani’s concern. At least 31 have been found guilty. And it is out of question that he (Advaniji) will wait for higher courts to critically examine the judgment of the lower court.

Mr.Advani does this not because he is hasty by nature. He does it on purpose. He knows his guilt in raising emotionally surcharged issue of Ramjanambhoomi temple and getting it demolished in his august presence on 6th December, 1992 and wants to hide his guilt by pronouncing the victims themselves as guilty. Unfortunately this is the whole tragedy. Besides thousands who died due to the controversy Mr. Advani raised and lakhs who were uprooted and became refugees in their own country, hundreds suffered due to imprisonment for years.

In the Godhra case alone more than 100 persons were arrested under the charge of conspiracy some of whom died and 63, who spent 9 years in jail, were released by the court. Who will compensate them for precious loss of these years in prison? The Police in Modi Government arbitrarily picked up people and put them under POTA. I cannot forget the cries of a woman in public hearing in Hyderabad whose three sons were arrested in the so called Godhra conspiracy case and who has been released by the court. She was crying why POTA has taken away my sons, please tell POTA my sons are innocent. She swooned while crying. Obviously she did not know what the POTA was and thought it is name of some person. Her husband could not bear the tragedy and passed away after 4 years of his sons’ arrest. Every body in the audience was crying and I too could not hold up my tears when the woman was crying. Who can compensate her and her three sons for this loss?

What is more matter of concern is that while innocent people who have suffered so much already including those whose near and dear ones were burnt alive in Sabarmati Express those who are really guilty are enjoying power. Is this our secular democracy that those who incite religious sentiments enjoy power and those who sweat and toil for their daily existence loose their lives or suffer imprisonment for years? Can it fit into any human rights norms, let alone our secular political philosophy?

And what is worse Mr. L.K.Advani is not even being tried for demolition of Babri Masjid but for making provocative speech near Babri Masjid. That case was also withdrawn and now CBI has again applied for reviving the case. The CBI was as much pliant to the NDA Government as the BJP never tires of accusing the Congress of. It was under Home Ministership of Mr. Advani that such cases against him were withdrawn by the CBI.

In the first place Mr. Advani should not have been made Home Minister, much less becoming Deputy Prime Minister when he was being tried in the court of law by CBI which works under the home ministry. But anything can happen in democratic India. And still BJP has temerity of accusing the Congress of misusing CBI. This writer has nothing to do with the Congress and the Congress cannot be said to be above board at all. I am only pointing out double standards of the BJP.

Mr. Narendra Modi, less said the better. It is important to ask in his case what is good governance? To kill 2000 innocent people and rape scores of women, including pregnant women and to win power by inciting religious sentiment and to polarize people on religious grounds? For TATAs and Ambanis and other big industrialists it may amount to good governance but for common people it amounts to hell.

The Gujarat carnage, whatever Mr. Modi now does, cannot be forgotten and will go down in history as occurrence of greatest shame for secular India. Mr. Advani, who fights election from Gujarat, keeps on praising Modi on every possible occasion but it only adds to the gravity and criminality of the matter.

Even SIT (Special Investigation Team) appointed by the Supreme Court, though could not give clean chit to Mr. Modi but wriggled out by saying there is not enough evidence to try him. The SIT report published in Tehelka is damaging enough. If the SIT had proceeded further on that basis it could have surely found evidence to try Mr.Modi. Without Modi’s complicity riots could not have lasted even for 24 hours, let alone three months.

The cases of Bihar under Lalu Prasad and West Bengal under the Left Government clearly show, if any proof is needed, that no communal riot can last more than 24 hours without the state complicity. Can then Narendra Modi be exonerated of his complicity in riots? In no way. And SIT report and other investigative reports clearly indict him beyond any doubt. If his dark spot on the fair name of secularism is to be washed away the really guilty must be held accountable in any case.

Technicalities should not become an excuse to exonerate these people who have ruined the lives of thousands of people for ever. If these people can enjoy power by accusing innocent people of ‘conspiracy without any solid ground, can really guilty be not tried on very sound ground. Let us hope the Supreme Court will issue further directives to SIT or any other agencies to collect proper evidence against the guilty men of Gujarat. Most of the police high officers who did what the Government of Gujarat wanted them to do should also not be allowed to escape and must be held responsible.

These high officials cannot get away by saying they carried out orders of the Government. Their first duty is towards the Constitution of India and no unconstitutional orders can be followed. My experience in last forty five years of my work for communal harmony shows that communal violence cannot stop in this country unless the guilty people are given exemplary punishment. It is no use small fish being shown the stick and big fish enjoys all the benefits of inciting communal violence.

Let us all hope that one day it will happen and certainly so if the civil society shows proper awareness. It is fragmented civil society which allows such benefits of provoking communal sentiments by few politicians. Gujarat then certainly cannot repeat.
____________________________________________

RTC faces the brunt as bandh hits T areas | Deccan Chronicle | 2011-02-23

RTC faces the brunt as bandh hits T areas | Deccan Chronicle | 2011-02-23

Feb. 22: The entire Telangana region, including Hyderabad, came to a grinding halt on Tuesday; normal life was disrupted and transport paralysed on the first day of the 48-hour bandh call given by the Telangana Joint Action Committee that is demanding that the Telangana Bill be introduced in the ongoing session of Parliament.

The APSRTC was badly hit as it incurred a loss of Rs 6 crore in a single day. “About 6,500 buses have cancelled their services in the Telangana region,” said an RTC official.

Except for hospitals, pharmacies and other emergency services, most commercial and educational institutions closed down voluntarily. Schools had declared a two-day holiday on the eve of the bandh.

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti, BJP and several pro-Telangana organisations took part and enforced the bandh. Rallies were taken out and rasta rokos staged in almost every town and in rural areas of all Telangana districts.

Some women students stopped a passenger train at the Jamai Osmania railway station in Hyderabad for one-and-a half hours until they were arrested.

All MMTS services in Secunderabad-Falaknuma will remain closed till Wednesday afternoon, according to a statement issued on Tuesday. Pro-Telangana activists led by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti Vidyarthi leader from Warangal, Mr E. Nageshwar Rao, stopped the Delhi-bound AP Express at Kazipet station for 15 minutes on Tuesday.

Judiciary And Its Brahmanical Prejudices In India

Judiciary And Its Brahmanical Prejudices In India

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

10 February, 2011
Manukhsi.blogspot.com

Two Judges of Supreme court recently, for the first time in our judicial history, had the courage to challenge the religious text of the Brahmanical order. In an order favoring tribal women’s land right violating which the powerful in the village termed her as witch and paraded her in the village. The Judges were very forthright in their statement saying that violation of the tribal right start from ancient period when Guru Dronacharya asked from his tribal disciple Eklavya to donate his thumb to him, in order to protect the interest of Arjuna, the kshatriya warrior to be the best archer of the world.

Not long back the same Supreme Court gave a judgment saying Hindutva is a way of life. It has been criticized. The highest court today is more sensitive than ever. Just a few days back the court amended their old order in which they upheld the life sentence to Dara Singh, the mastermind of burning Grahm Stains with his two sons in Orissa. While court upheld the high court’s judgment, it unnecessary stretched its brief to conversion and then said that Dara Singh was protecting people from converting to Christianity. The court later realize their mistake and amended the order.

The brahmanical prejudices in our system are well known and judiciary is no exception to it. There are number of judgments against dalits on the issues of reservations are well known and can be elaborated here. Even after the Mandal judgment the issues related to OBC reservation has been diluted in many ways and the issue of merit always cropped up as if there is no merit in those who come through reservation. This stand is quite dangerous. In fact, Indian courts have continuously opposed reservation in judicial services terming that it will affect merit in the courts as if all the other sectors where reservation is effective are non meritorious. The fact is judicial appointments are political nature and there is control of several families in top echelon of Indian judiciary. Like every other sector, here also we have judges who have history of their parents in the judiciary. Earlier, the people retiring from the Supreme Courts used to keep themselves off from the politics but today they are openly part of political parties and ideologies. Many of them like Justice V.M.Tarkunde, Justice Krishna Iyer, Justice Rajender Sachar gave monumental contribution in the field of human rights and promoting rule of law in the country and never ever took any official position. Some of them actually gave dangerous judgment and reports. Justice Rangnath Mishra was appointed by Rajiv Gandhi to look into the anti Sikh riots in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s death in 1984 and not a single political leader from the ruling party was charged. Justice Mishra got his reward to Rajya Sabha from the Congress Party.

The lower judiciary is more prone to brahmanical biases. In Allahabad, a district judge washed his court room with Ganga Jal when he assumed charge as his predecessor was a Dalit. Just a few days back we heard that a judge in Madhya Pradesh asked the government to get each children’s horoscope checked by the Brahmins and then admit them to school so that they can understand whether the boy or girl is going to be healthy child or not. This story has appeared in the Times of India yesterday though it was abuzz in the internet for long. The Child Rights commission in India has asked for a report on it.

Indian judiciary is like any other sector in India suffers from the inadequacy of understanding the issues and problems of the marginalized. If there are some judgments favoring them they are purely on charitable and good will basis. When ever the issue of the rights of the Dalits and marginalized have come judiciary by and large was seen with powerful. Several years back, the a retired Supreme Court judge was asked by the Supreme Court to report on the inadequacies Public Distribution System in several states. He called up meeting of many people working on the same. I was one of them. In the meeting the former Judge was asking people what would be good for them and then came out with an idea that to improve the efficiency of the PDS they must have computers at their shop. Every body was happy but when they realize that this was nothing but another sale ploy people opposed it. Suddenly, some of the people suggested the issue of quota for the Dalits, Muslims and others in the distribution of these shops. The judge became furious and he asked the others as why don’t they openly oppose it. How one any one who is not known marketing be given charge of shops. And he just stuck down the entire formulations that we can not talk of quota here.

In the past twenty years judiciary paved way for land acquisition process which was responsible for displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. Political craftiness and crookedness forced political leaders to take shelter in the judicial activism which was nothing but turning the issue of executive which is more accountable to the people, in their hands. Land has always been acquired in the name of ‘public interest’ but none could find what the public interest if lakhs of people have been uprooted from their land. There are definitely very good judgments and we always are grateful to them. We still look for some good judgments as people are quite fed up with political maneuvering.

Hence, land acquisition never ever got discussed in Parliament but it has been justified by the judiciary on many occasions.

Thousands of cases related to land ceiling act are lying with courts. Powerful people have time and money to delay judicial process. It’s the poor who bear the brunt of it. It’s difficult to bring all the cases to the court. Justice Y.B.Sabbarwal’s over enthusiasm on implementing Sealing process in Delhi and making our cities ‘world class’ is well known. It uprooted lakhs of people. DDA and other authorities got right to demolish any location and slums without rehabilitating them. It was painful to see how the doors of court remain close for the poor as they feel helpless.

Three years back a 4 year old Dalit girl was thrown into burning fire allegedly by an upper caste boy in district Mathura. The UP government appointed a fast track court to implicate him. The boy was booked under SC-ST prevention of Atrocities Act. The judge after hearing every one exonerated the boy that there is no witness. He rejected the contention that girls mother is a witness saying that she was in veil when the girl ‘fell; into the fire. There was no other witness and hence the judge came to the conclusion that the girl fell the fire out of her own even when it was clear that she was going to defecate with her mother and was pushed to fire by the local landlord who was unhappy with their using his fields to defecate.

It is important that India reform its judicial system and form an all Indian Judicial commission which be made responsible for recruitment of the judges and they be monitored and seen. Let a committee of retired judges observe and read the judgments of these judges and then promote them. Right now most of them are picked up from the practicing lawyers of High Courts, so political favor, relationships and other things matter and unfortunately that reflect in judgments on many occasions. Binayak Sen’s conviction is one such incident of how judges in the lower courts have already made up their mind and do not normally question the government version. The situation is grim as people do not have money and patience to fight for their cases in the High Court and Supreme Court.

I have been fighting for the case of 150 Dalit families in Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar for the past 15 years. The were fighting for implementation of land ceiling act and be given land declared surplus under Ceiling Act. This case went to Allahabad High Court where the judge upheld ceiling. Then the powerful people of a company challenged in the Supreme Court and lost there also. The judgment came in 2004 and we waited with breathe that now the people would get their land. When nothing happened and the judgment was dubiously used to defeat the purpose of it, we went to the Lokayukta of the Uttarakhand state who took about 2 years to come to a conclusion that the violation of Supreme Court Judgment has happened that official need to be punished. Nothing happened. We went to the Supreme Court again. Justice K.G.Balakrishanan accepted the petition but for next three years, he did not give us time to hear it. As soon as it he retired, the petition came to current Chief justice who directed us to go the Uttarakhand High Court, Nainital. Now, it is painful for people to wait for three year and then be asked to go back to High Court. We went to Nainital High Court where the chief justice was not willing to listen to us even when we mentioned that it is under the direction of the Supreme Court. Finally, he fixed up a date to clear the case. We brought to his notice violation of Supreme Court judgment and Lokayukta report but that was clearly rejected. Lokayukta can not be bigger than this court said Chief Justice. Now the question was no body was questioning the powers of judiciary, we just used his report because it took two years for him to come to some conclusion and he himself was a judge in Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court.

The Ayodhya verdict has been shocking. How are the judges going to decide where Lord Rama Was born. Is it the job of the judiciary to decide about it. The matter before them was whether some body installed the statues of Ram in the Babari mosque or not and secondly about the ownership of the land which could have been judged on the basis of their papers yet the judges went on and on to declared it. If such cases become a legality than it would be difficult to find any land in India for human being as under each building the religious thugs are ready to say there resided a ‘god’ and we have over 33 crore of them.

The latest judgment in this series is of Bombay High Court which declared that Astrology is science. Should the judiciary accept such cases? How can they come to such a conclusion? If they want a meaningful judgment why can’t they seek opinion from medical and other department like that of Science and Technology? Isn’t it a fact that our judiciary is taking their role much beyond their defined role and is opening a Pandora’s Box. Such judgment helps the religious manipulators to spread their false massage in the name of judicial approval. It does not bode well to the health of the country. There is a need to control astrologers as there is no mechanism where they be held accountable. There is no mechanism where an Ayurvedik doctor and his activities be monitored under MRTPC act. If they are being declared as science and modern then all the modern day rules and regulation should also be implemented on them. Like any medicine they should also put expiry dates and other things on their products and all their activities should be scrutinized.

It is really needed that judicial system be reformed so that people get justice. This is a great season at the Supreme Court when some of the judges have delivered great judgment favoring tribal and Dalits, on human rights and against corruption. One sincerely hopes that this tribe of honest judges will increase whose judgment will help the marginalized gain their rights and confidence. It is time for reservation in judiciary for the Dalits, Muslims, Adivasis and women so that their confidence level also grows and people feel safe that the judges will understand their feeling and issues. Some of my friends suggest that this is the best moment in the Supreme Court in recent history when we are witnessing some fairly balanced judgment. People are still looking to higher courts for resolution of their problems. On Gujarat they have consistently taken a stand against the communal politics of Narendra Modi. Similarly, on many other things including the tribal rights, common land of the village, on women’s right, the judges have taken bold stand in the Supreme Court. One sincerely hopes that the highest court of the land will do its best to change the set up of judicial appointments as well as speedy process of law so that they are delivered on time. It is also important that Supreme Court take not of what the High courts are delivering and wheverever the judges have gone or commented beyond their jurisdiction should not only be scrutinized but those portion should be withdrawn. In the Graham Stains case the Supreme Court has withdrawn controversial portion of its order which is a welcome sign. One hope that the Supreme Court will support initiative in the direction so that in our judicial officers are more sensitized on the issue of caste, gender and communalism and it is not possible without fair representation of people from affected communities in the services.

YouTube - akaran(vck) muthukumar 2 aam aandu veeravanakka pothukuttam thiruma speech part1

YouTube - akaran(vck) muthukumar 2 aam aandu veeravanakka pothukuttam thiruma speech part1