Editorial 'BOOK BURNING & GURU BASHING' in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 31 August 2010 issue

BOOK BURNING & GURU BASHING

are considered two awful crimes – in the language of believers, abominable sins – which no civilized society can or would tolerate. The first of these, usually carried out in public, is generally motivated by irrational moral, religious or political objections and leads to the danger of loss of cultural heritage and is symbolic of a fascist regime. This editor vividly remembers the incident of burning down, a decade or two ago, precious volumes of ‘Encyclopaedia of Marxism, Socialism and Western Society” of the Osmania University Library by some anti-communist goons on the mistaken notion that they were Marxist propaganda material; on the contrary, they contained some of the most enlightening intellectual critiques of Marxism and their loss is still irreplaceable for the library. This editor had then presented a protest petition to the authorities signed by about a hundred intellectuals, considerable number of whom happen to be the leaders or espousers of the current separatist movement in this State in which such detestable acts have now begun to be taken up with impunity and go without any sort of indignant protest. Are we being rushed into an Orwellian horror society with its ‘memory holes’ and ‘thought-crimes’? Better heed Henrich Heine’s warning: “When they burn books, so too will they in the end burn human beings.” The second of these is at once revolting to human conscience anywhere in the world, especially in our country which venerates teachers as gods, on par with parents. Again these tormentors of the mentors, once again on detestable pleas that they belonged to other regions though some of them got settled and naturalized in the same region, have gone without protest in a movement led by eminent professors. A university is meant to be a sanctified sanctuary for intellectual preoccupations and should never be converted into a centre of storm-troopers. The recent incident of teacher-bashing, marring the image of the same University, also reveals the intransigent infringement of fundamental rights to equality and points to the practice of discrimination by birth so caustically castigated by our Constitution. All this may even be an indication of degeneration that set in such movements, which generally leads to their decline and fall, or in the sad case of their success, to the ushering in of a much-dreaded totalitarian regime §§§

Editorial 'SIXTY THREE YEARS' in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 August 2010 issue

SIXTY THREE YEARS

of transfer of power, we enjoyed or suffered, need profound introspection. Whether we are truly independent is the real question – if independence means mere political identity, may be we are largely independent. But as it encompasses socio-economic justice too, we need to be alarmed. Kudos to independent India, it is said: “India is one of the ten fastest growing economies in the world. India has emerged as one of the front-ranking nations in the world in information technology, missile technology, and in many other areas. Despite all the hardships, and braving all the challenges in these sixty-three years, India is standing in the world with her head held high. India’s stature in the world has gone up… The world is now recognizing India: 1) as the world’s largest democracy; 2) as an emerging global economic power; 3) As the confluence of a modern nation and an ancient civilization; 4) As a powerful country, dedicated to the ideal of peace.” But listen to Soutik Biswas, of BBC: “Impressive growth figures are unlikely to stun the poor into mindless optimism about their future. India has long been used to illustrate how extensive poverty coexists with growth. It has a shabby record in pulling people out of poverty - in the last two decades the number of absolutely poor in India has declined by 17 percentage points compared to China [decline by some 45%]. The number of Indian billionaires rose from 9 in 2004 to 40 in 2007, … higher than Japan [24] and France and Italy [14 each]. When one of the world's highest number of billionaires coexist with … the world's "largest number of homeless, ill-fed illiterates", something is gravely wrong.” Also, “India-wide, more than 43% of Indian children under five are malnourished, a third of the world’s total. Over 35% of Indians are illiterate and over 20m children out of school. For all its successes, including six decades of elections and a constitution that introduced the notion of equal rights to an inequitable society, India’s abiding failure is its inability to provide aid and economic opportunity to millions of its impoverished citizens” [Economist]. And that is what causes so much strife and violence in the society though Manmohan’s exhortation that ‘Violence does not benefit anyone’ may sound true and pious. And, unless we address and resolve the root cause, eliminate poverty, ill-health, illiteracy, inequality, and above all corruption, the violence will never even lessen, let alone abate, nor will we be in a position to walk the world with our heads high as free, prosperous and just citizens of the global community §§§

Editorial 'INTIFADA IN KASHMIR?' in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 31INTIFADA IN KASHMIR? July 2010 issue

INTIFADA IN KASHMIR?

The trite wisdom that a knife can be used for life-saving surgical exercise as well as for murderous assault applies equally to stones too. That is what one witnessed during the Palestinian intifada (‘shaking off’) against the Zionist State, which is being copied by our Kashmiri protesters now. And the lithic missiles anywhere are no less harmful than knives and sometimes as fatal as bullets too. Since the last one month or more Kashmir valley is again agog with agitations, this time in the ‘stony phase’. The unfortunate death of a nine year old boy, due to a tear-gas shell, served as further incitement to more incidents of stone-throwing in which mainly young persons, with no gender discrimination, participated and scores of police officers were also injured. The rubber and lead fired by the police, and possibly in some cases their own stones misdirected, have already taken more than a dozen lives of protesters or curious watchers and the valley is virtually in flames. Clearly a method is there behind this madness and it is reliably learnt that making martyrs has also become a lucrative business. The domestic power struggle between Abdullahs and Muftis is also said to be an important cause. However, one should not forget the root cause – the international India-Pakistan Dispute on the status and fate of Kashmir. Fundamentalist Muslims in Kashmir are as stubborn and crazy as those in other countries and had, in the name of their liberation struggle, the guts, and also no compunction, to cruelly and successfully carry out an ethnic cleansing in the valley, right under the nose of the mighty Indian Army, by expelling lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits, the original Hindu inhabitants there, and are now itching to do the same even to the armed might of the state. No doubt they are assisted to the hilt by the neighboring Pakistan but the question is how long we Indians are going to pamper these ‘spoilt children’ – by pumping lakhs of crores of taxpayers’ moneys to ‘develop’, ‘educate’, ‘suppress’ and ‘integrate’ them and also sacrificing thousands of lives – who anyway seem to be beyond any reform on the last count. We feel it is high time that India and Pakistan bilaterally, or better under international mediation, sit together, seriously negotiate and settle the dispute – if inevitable, even by some sort of partition of the accursed State §§§

Editorial 'COSTS OF DEVELOPMENT' in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15July 2010 issue

COSTS OF DEVELOPMENT

are being paid, nay extracted, in human blood – of innocent/ignorant poor folk of rural areas all over the third world and such development to benefit mainly the elite sections of the society and even causing extinction of marginal sections of the people. Sompeta Beela is no exception to this general rule of nauseating development in a globalization spree based mainly on privatization syndrome. Vast eco-rich wetlands, providing water for irrigating thousands of acres of paddy fields and coconut groves, source for various varieties of fish and abode for several kinds of birds from far and wide and sustenance for thousands of fishermen in the region, fit to be classified as a Ramsar Convention wetland area to be accorded international recognition, protection and upkeep, are sure to be destroyed by a potentially polluting Thermal Power Plant to be set up by Nagarjuna Construction Company. Well, could they not find barren lands in remote hinterlands for any such ‘development’ if warranted under the circumstances for benefiting the people? And how come eight institutes of repute have given a certificate of barren lands to these precious wetlands which are a source of livelihood to thousands of people? And when the matter of environmental clearance was still under consideration by the National Environment Appellate Tribunal why was the haste in conducting a foundation ceremony amidst anticipated popular indignation? Lo, after all this mayhem, with at least two precious lives sacrificed at the altar, now comes the Appellate Tribunal’s verdict quashing the said clearance; could it not have come a day earlier? Or was all this but the consequence of a preemptive move by the corporate cannibals to present a fait accompli before the forums of law? And why justice, even if and when it comes, is so delayed that it is often futile? It is very tragic and gruesome – this mode of development at the cost of innocent human blood and exploitation of marginal sections needs to be condemned by one and all and avoided with all scrupulous care. What we need is sustainable development, taking into confidence the people of the regions and avoiding even potential dangers to the environment as far as possible and not such bludgeoning inhuman course to fatten the purse of the capitalist rich §§§

Yamuna the hidden treasure | SAVE RIVER YAMUNA | Causes

Yamuna the hidden treasure | SAVE RIVER YAMUNA | Causes

Forbidden Sun Dance Iran by Lila Ghobady Part 1

Follow this link please.

Forbidden Sun Dance Iran by Lila Ghobady

Follow the link to see an exquisite and excellent documentary film exposing the horrible theocracy in Iran. http://asisasisa.zapto.org/media/total.avi