నీకు తగిన చెప్పులు వేసుకో, నీ చెప్పులు వేసుకోమని నన్ను వత్తిడి చేయకు !

01 Tuesday Dec 2015

Posted by raomk in Current Affairs, NATIONAL NEWS, Opinion, Religious Intolarence

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ఎం కోటేశ్వరరావు

అసహన వివాదం సద్దుమణిగింది. కొత్తగా ఎక్కడా దాడులు జరగలేదు. జనం పిఆర్‌సి గురించి చర్చించుకుంటున్నారు. ఈ సమయంలో సినీ హీరో అమీర్‌ఖాన్‌ అసహనం గురించి లేవనెత్తటం ఏమిటంటూ కొందరు ‘పెద్దలు’ తమ అసహనాన్ని వ్యక్త పరిచారు. ఇప్పుడు బెంగలూరు సాహిత్య పండగ సారధి విక్రమ్‌ సంపత్‌ తన అభిప్రాయాలను తాను చెప్పుకుంటే మతవాది, మరొకటి అంటూ ముద్రలు వేస్తూ తనపై అసహనం వ ్యక్తం చేస్తున్నారంటూ ఎదురు దాడికి దిగారు. విమర్శలను సహించాలంటూనే , వ్యక్తిగతంగా తనను లక్ష్యంగా చేసుకున్నారంటూ తనను విమర్శించిన వారిపై అసహనం వ్యక్తం చేస్తూ డిసెంబరు 5,6 తేదీలలో జరిగే సాహిత్య పండగ బాధ్యతల నుంచి వైదొలగి మరోసారి అసహనంపై చర్చకు తెరతీశాడు. అమీర్‌ఖాన్‌కు ఎందరో ప్రముఖులు బాసటగా నిలిచినట్లే సంపత్‌కు సైతం కొందరు మద్దతుగా ఆయన వెనుక నిలిచారు. అమీర్‌ఖాన్‌కు మద్దతుగా నిలిచిన వారిని కూడా విమర్శించిన వారు మరి ఇప్పుడేమంటారో ?

కొందరి దృష్టిలో వేలాది మందితో రాసక్రీడలు విశృంఖలత్వం, అదే మరికొందరి దృష్టిలో లొట్టలు వేసుకుంటూ ఆస్వాదించే భగవంతుడి లీల. ఒక నాడు ఒక భార్య, ఒక మాట, ఒక బాట నీతి, మరొక నాడు అష్టభార్యలు, వేలాది మందితో సరసాలు, ఎప్పటికెయ్యది అప్పటికామాటలాడి తన మద్దతుదార్లను రక్షించుకోవటమే నీతి, రీతి. అసహనం లేదా సహనం అనేది కూడా అలాంటిదే. తాను మాత్రమే చెప్పేది వింటే ఎదుటి వాడికి సహనం వున్నట్లు, దానిలోని హేతువు, ఇతర అంశాలను ప్రశ్నిస్తే అసహన పరుడు. తన మనో భావాలను గాయపరిచాడంటూ దెబ్బలాటలకు దిగుతున్నారు. ఏకంగా చంపేస్తున్నారు. గతంలో వాద ప్రతివాదనలు,ఖండనలకు పరిమితమయ్యేవారు. వాటిలో విఫలమై ఇప్పుడు ఏకంగా హతమార్చేందుకు సంచార ముఠాలు తిరుగుతున్నాయి. వాటికి అధికారంలో వున్న వారు ప్రత్యక్షంగానో పరోక్షంగానో మద్దతు ఇవ్వటమే కొత్త పరిణామం. నియంతల పాలనా కాలంలో లాటిన్‌ అమెరికాలోని దేశాలలో తమను వ్యతిరేకించిన వారిని, విమర్శించిన వారిని రహస్య హంతక దళాలు వేలాది మందిని మాయం చేశాయి. దశాబ్దాల తరబడి వారంతా అదృశ్యమైన వారి జాబితాలోనే వున్నారు తప్ప నిజానికి హత్యలకు గురయ్యారు. ఈ విషయాలను కమ్యూనిస్టులు చెప్పినపుడు అ వారలాగే చెబుతారులే అంటూ అనేక మంది పెద్దలు పెదవి విరిచారు. కనీసం విచారణకు డిమాండ్‌కూడా చేయలేదు. చిలీ నియంతలను వ్యతిరేకించిన కవి పాబ్లో నెరూడాను సైతం హత్య చేసినట్లు నాలుగు దశాబ్దాల తరువాత జరుగుతున్న విచారణలో వెల్లడవుతోంది. నరేంద్ర దబోల్కర్‌ను హత్య చేసినపుడు పెద్దగా అనుమానాలు రాలేదు, గోవింద పన్సారేను చంపినపుడు సందేహం వచ్చింది. కలుబర్గి హత్యతో నిర్ధారణ అయింది. అందుకే అంతటి ప్రతి స్పందన వచ్చింది. హత్యలతో బెదిరించి నోరు మూయించవచ్చని భావించిన వారు అది సాధ్యం కాదని తేలటంతో రెండవ రంగాన్నికూడా తెరిచారు. ఈ దాడి కత్తులతో కాదు కలాలతో జరుగుతోంది.ఇదింకా ప్రమాదకరం.

అనేక మంది రచయితలు, కళాకారులు, ఇతర మేధావుల తీవ్ర నిరసనల తరువాత అక్టోబరు 23న కేంద్ర సాహిత్య అకాడమీ కార్యవర్గ సమావేశం జరిగింది. కలుబర్గి హత్యను ఖండించాలని, అసహన పరులను నిరసించాలని కోరుతున్న సభ్యులు నల్ల రిబ్బన్లు ధరించి తమ వాదనలను వినిపించారు. సాహిత్య అకాడమీ హత్యపై తన మౌనాన్ని కొనసాగించాలని, రాజకీయాలకు దూరంగా వుండాలని వాదించిన వారు భారతమాతాకీ జై అంటూ నినాదాలు చేస్తూ అసహనంతో తీర్మానాన్ని అడ్డుకొనే రాజకీయం చేశారు, వారూ సాహితీవేత్తలే, వీరూ సాహితీవేత్తలే అయినా ఎంత తేడా !

చరిత్రలో ఎందరో లబ్ద ప్రతిష్టులైన కవులు,కళాకారులు కాలం ధర్మం చేశారు. అంతటితో వారి అధ్యాయాలు ముగిశాయి. కాపీ రైట్‌ వున్న వారి వారసులు లాభసాటిగా వుంటే వారి పుస్తకాలను తిరిగి అచ్చేయిస్తారు, లేకపోతే లేదు. కానీ కన్నడ రచయిత కలుబుర్గి హత్య దేశంలో కొత్త అధ్యాయానికి నాంది పలికింది. ఆయన భావాలకు కాపీ లెఫ్ట్‌ తప్ప ఎవరికీ రైట్‌ లేదు. ప్రతి తరంలోనూ భావప్రకటనా స్వేచ్ఛ కావాలని కోరుకొనే ప్రతివారూ ఆయనకు వారసులుగా మారిపోతారు. అలాంటి వారికి ఒక కలుబుర్గి, ఒక గోవింద పన్సారే,ఒక నరేంద్ర దబోల్కర్‌ ధృవతారలుగా వెలుగునిస్తూనే వుంటారు.

ఒక విక్రమ సంపత్‌ , ఒక చేతన భగత్‌, ఒక కమల హసన్‌, ఒక విద్యాబాలన్‌ ఎవరైనా కానివ్వండి వారి దృష్టిలో సహనానికి, అసహనానికి అర్ధాలు వేరుగా వుండవచ్చు, ‘వేదాల్లోనే అన్నీ వున్నాయి’ కనుక అసలైన అర్ధాన్ని వెలికి తీయించుకొని చదువుకొంటారు అది వేరే విషయం. కలుబర్గి హత్యను ఖండించాలా లేదా అవార్డులను వాపసు ఇవ్వాలా లేదా అన్నది వారి చైతన్యానికి సంబంధించిన అంశం.అవార్డులు వెనక్కు ఇవ్వాలని పనిగట్టుకొని ఒక బృందంగా ఎవరైనా పిలుపు ఇచ్చారా ? లేదా పైన పేర్కొన్నవారు లేదా వారిమాదిరి ఆలోచిస్తున్న వారి ఇళ్లకు గానీ వెళ్లి బొట్టుపెట్టి అవార్డు వాపసు ఇమ్మని అడిగిన వారెవరు? సభ్య సమాజంలో వున్నారు గనుక సంచలనం కలిగించిన అంశాలపై ప్రముఖులను విలేకర్లు అడుగుతారు, లేదా ప్రత్యేకంగా వాకబు చేసి అభిప్రాయాలు తీసుకొని వెల్లడిస్తారు. కారణాలు ఏమైనా అనేక మంది పెద్దలు నోరు విప్పలేదు. అది వారి హక్కు. అవార్డులు వెనక్కు ఇచ్చిన వారిపై అసహనం వ్యక్తం చేయటం లేదా వారి చర్యను తప్పు పట్టే హక్కు కొందరికి ఎవరిచ్చారు.అయితే వారికి తమ అభిప్రాయాలు చెప్పే హక్కులేదా అంటే అది నైతిక పరమైంది తప్ప మరొకటి కాదు. కలుబుర్గిని హత్య చేసింది, అలాగే మరికొందరిని మట్టుబెడతామని ప్రకటించిన వారు ఎవరు? ఆ రచయితల భావాలు, వాటి వ్యాప్తిని సహించలేని వారు తప్ప మరొకరు కాదు. అలాంటి వారి దుశ్చర్యలను ముందు ఖండించి లేదా తాము సరైనదని అనుకొనే పద్దతులలో నిరసించి ఇతరులు అనుసరించిన అవాంఛనీయ పద్దతులపై తమ అభిప్రాయాలు చెప్పి వుంటే ఎవరికీ అభ్యంతరం లేదు. వారావిధంగా చెయ్యలేదు. అందువలన అలాంటివారికి ఇతరులను నిందించే లేదా విమర్శించే నైతిక హక్కు ఎక్కడుంది? జార్జి కార్లిన్‌ అనే పెద్ద మనిషి సహసం గురించి ఇలా చెప్పాడు.’ మతం చెప్పుల జతవంటిది, నీకు తగిన వాటిని ఎంచుకో అంతేకాని నన్ను నీ చెప్పులు వేసుకోమనవద్దు’ అన్నాడు.

నిరసన ఫలానా పద్దతులలోనే వ్యక్తం చేయాలని ఏ వేదాలలో వుంది? ఎందరో పెద్దలు నాయనా ఇది తగదు అని నయానా భయానా చెప్పారు. కవి చౌడప్ప తనదైన పద్దతులలో బూతులతో నిరసించాడు, వేమన హేతువుతో ఎండగట్టాడు, ఎవరి పద్దతి వారిది. తమలపాకుతో నువ్వు ఒకటేస్తే తలుపు చెక్కతో నే రెండంటా. అసలు వెయ్యటం సరైనదా కాదా అన్నది సమస్య. సరైనదే అయితే నువ్వు కోరుకున్నట్లే నేనెందుకు వెయ్యాలి?

తాజాగా విక్రమ సంపత్‌ విషయాన్నే చూద్దాం. సాహిత్య అకాడమే ప్రభుత్వానికి ప్రాతినిధ్యం వహించదు, పద్మ అవార్డులను తిరిగి ఇవ్వటం మంచిది అంటాడా పెద్ద మనిషి. ఎందుకంటే ఆయనకా అవార్డు లేదు. మరి పద్ద అవార్డు వున్న కమల్‌ హసన్‌ ఏమన్నాడు. అవార్డులు తిరిగి ఇవ్వటం కాదు, ఇతర పద్దతుల్లో నిరసన తెలపాలి అన్నాడు. ప్రఖ్యాత శాస్త్రవేత్త పిఎం భార్గవ తన పద్మ అవార్డును వెనక్కి ఇస్తున్నట్లు ప్రకటించగానే కాషాయ దళాలు అత్యవసర పరిస్ధితి కాలంలో మీరు ఎందుకు నిరసన తెలపలేదు అని దాడి చేశారు. అంటే ఎప్పటికెయ్యది అప్పటికా మాటలాడి అన్నట్లు పైన చెప్పిన బాపతు తమ అసహనాన్ని వ్యక్తం చేస్తున్నారు.

విక్రమ సంపత్‌ తన గోడు లేదా గోస చెప్పుకుంటే అభ్యంతరం ఏముంటుంది? ఎవరికేమీ పోదు. నిరసన తెలపటం సరైనదా కాదా అన్నది తేల్చుకోవాల్సి వచ్చినపుడు ముందు అటో ఇటో ఎటుండాలో తేల్చుకోవాలి. తరువాత ఎలా తెలపాలన్నది నిర్ణయించుకోవాలి. విక్రమ సంపత్‌ అలా తేల్చుకోలేదు. రెండవదాని గురించి మాట్లాడుతూ పద్మ అవార్డులు తిరిగి ఇచ్చి నిరసన తెలపవచ్చు అని ఒక వుచిత సలహా ఇచ్చాడు. అంతవరకు పరిమితమైనా ఇబ్బంది లేదు. అంతకు మించి నిరసన తెలిపిన వారిపై వ్యంగ్య బాణాలు వేసి తానెటు వున్నాడో తానేమిటో స్వయంగా బహిర్గతపరచుకున్నాడు. అవార్డులు పుచ్చుకున్నప్పటి కంటే తిరిగి ఇచ్చివేసినపుడు మీడియా వారికి పెద్ద ఎత్తున ప్రచారం ఇచ్చిందట. నిజమే గాంధీ మహాత్ముడిని చంపక ముందు గాడ్సే ఎవడు, వాడు పనిచేసిన ఆర్‌ఎస్‌ఎస్‌ గురించి ఎవరికి తెలుసు. మీడియాకు వారి నిజస్వరూపాన్ని బయట పెట్టాల్సిన అవసరం ఏముంటుంది ? జనం గాంధీని గుర్తుంచుకున్నంత కాలం గాడ్సేను, వాడిని ప్రేరేపించిన వారినీ కూడా గుర్తుంచుకోక తప్పదు. ఎందుకంటే గాడ్సేకు గుడి కట్టిస్తామని, ఏటేటా స్మారక దినాలు జరుపుతామని చెబుతున్నవారి గురించి కూడా అదే మీడియా రోజూ చెబుతున్నదా లేదా ? అవార్డు వాపసు తరహా నిరసనలతో అంగీకరించని, సామాజిక మీడియాలో అదే విషయాన్ని వ్యక్తం చేసిన తమ వంటి వారిని మతవాదులని, ఫాసిస్టులని, అసహనపరులని ఎన్నో విధాలుగా తమపై దాడి చేశారని వాపోయాడు. నిజమే ముందే చెప్పుకున్నట్లు మీ వంటి వారు నిరసన తెలిపి వుంటే ప్రజలు రాళ్లకు బదులు పూలు చల్లి వుండేవారు. ముందుకు తీసుకుపోవాల్సిస సమాజాన్ని వెనక్కు నడిపించాలని ఎవరైనా మూర్ఖులు ప్రయత్నిస్తే జనం ఏమైనా చేస్తారు. ఒక గుంపులో భయం తలెత్తితే ఎవడైనా ఒకడు తమ గుంపు వాడు కాదనుకుంటే వాడిని తిరునాళ్లలో కొట్టే జనం మాదిరి జంతు ప్రవత్తి తమపై విమర్శకులలో తనకు కనిపించిందని విక్రమ సంపత్‌ నోరు పారవేసుకున్నాడు. మరొక చోట గొర్రెల మందలా ఆలోచించకుండా ఒకదాని వెనుక ఒకటి పోయినట్లుగా అవార్డుల వాపసు ఇచ్చిన వారు ప్రవర్తించారని తూలనాడాడు. ఇలాంటి అసహనపరుడు, తోటి సాహితీవేత్తలను నిందించే వారితో ఆత్మగౌరవం కలవారు ఎవరైనా ఎలా కలసి పని చేస్తారు? తనలోని అసలు ‘సాహితీవేత్తను’ స్వయంగా బయట పెట్టక ముందు సంపత్‌ వైఖరి గురించి తెలిసినప్పటికీ సహించి అనేక మంది బెంగలూరు సాహిత్య పండగలో పాల్గొనేందుకు అంగీకరించారు. ఆ తరువాత ఒక ఆంగ్ల పత్రికలో సంపత్‌ అవార్డులు తిరిగి ఇచ్చినవారిని కించపరుస్తూ రాశాడు. ఆ తరువాత సాహిత్య అకాడమీ అంతర్గత కారణాలు ఏమైనప్పటికీ కలుబర్గి హత్యను ఖండించింది. విక్రమ సంపత్‌ వంటి వారు ఆ తరువాత కూడా తమ వైఖరిని మార్చుకోలేదు. ఇంత జరిగాక అలాంటి వారితో వేదిక పంచుకోవటంలో అర్ధం వుండదు. అది విక్రమ సంపత్‌ ఇంట్లో పెళ్లి కాదు. ఒక భావజాలానికి సంబంధించింది, ఎవరెటు వుండాలో తేల్చుకోమని నిరసన తెలిపిన వారి ముందు సవాళ్లు విసురుతున్నారు.

సాహిత్య అకాడమీ రాజకీయ సంస్ధ కాదు కనుక దాని సాహిత్య పరిధి దాటి రాకూడదని అన్నాడు.దేశంలో ప్రతిరోజూ ఎందరో రాజకీయ వేత్తల హత్యలు జరుగుతున్నాయి. ఎవరైనా ఎప్పుడైనా సాహిత్య అకాడమీ ఖండించలేదని అన్నారా, ఖండించమని అడిగారా? లేదే ! ఎందుకీ అర్ధం పర్ధం లేని అడ్డుసవాళ్లు ? తన అవార్డు పొందిన, రాజకీయాలతో సంబంధం లేని కలుబర్గి హత్యను కదా ఖండించమని అడిగింది ! సాహిత్య అకాడమీ రాజకీయ సంస్ధ కాదు, కలుబర్గి హత్యను ఖండించాల్సిన అవసరం లేదు, రాజకీయాలకు దూరంగా వుండాలంటూ ఇలాంటి పరివార్‌ ప్లీడర్లు చెట్ల కింద ఎంత వాదించినా అది తప్పుడు వాదన అని జనం అనుకోవటం ప్రారంభించిన తరువాతే సాహిత్య అకాడమే ఎట్టకేలకు హత్య జరిగిన 53 రోజుల తరువాత ఖండించింది. మరి ఈ ప్లీడర్లు ఇప్పుడు ఏం వాదిస్తారు. అందుకే ఇలాంటి వారి ఆధ్వర్యంలో జరిగే సాహిత్య వుత్సవానికి తాము హాజరు కావటం లేదని నలుగురు రచయితలు ప్రకటించిన తరువాత వుత్సవ డైరెక్టర్‌గా తాను రాజీనామా చేస్తున్నట్లు ప్రకటించాడు. ఆ రచయితలు అసహన పరులని ఆరోపించాడు.తాను రాజీనామా చేసిన తరువాత తనకు ఎందరో మద్దతు తెలిపారని చెప్పుకున్నాడు. గాంధీని జాతిపితగా అంగీకరించని, గాడ్సేకు మద్దతు తెలుపుతున్నవారే సిగ్గుపడటం లేదు, ఆ పరంపరకు చెందిన వారు విక్రమ సంపత్‌ను సమర్దించటంలో ఆశ్చర్యం ఏముంది. హిట్లర్‌ పోయినా ఫాసిజం పోలేదు. వారసులు పుట్టుకువస్తూనే వున్నారు.

‘ కొన్ని సందర్బాలలో మీ ప్రభ కళ్లు జిగేల్‌ మనేట్లు వెలుగుతుంది. అది జనం నీ నిజ స్వరూపాన్ని చూడకుండా గుడ్డివారిని చేస్తుంది’ అని షానన్‌ ఎల్‌ ఆల్డర్‌ చెప్పారు. అసహనాన్ని సహించటం పిరికి తనం అన్న పెద్దల సూక్తిని సదా గుర్తుంచుకోవాలి.

LOK SABHA ADJOURNED REPEATEDLY OVER CPI-M MEMBER’S REMARKS

30 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by raomk in BJP, CPI(M), Current Affairs, Left politics, NATIONAL NEWS

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CPI(M), Intolerance, LOK SABHA

Parliament House of India

New Delhi, 30 Nov 2015: The Lok Sabha witnessed repeated adjournments on Monday as differences between some members of opposition and the treasury benches erupted when a CPI-M member attributed some remarks to Home Minister Rajnath Singh.Mohammad Salim of the Communist Party of India-Marxist(CPI-M), who initiated a discussion in the Lok Sabha on the issue of intolerance, cited the home minister as having made the remarks to a magazine. Ruling National Democratic Alliance members contested this strongly.While denying having ever made such remarks, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said he was deeply hurt by the claim.

“I am (have) never been so much hurt in my parliamentary life. If a home minister makes such comments, he has no right to be on his post,” Rajnath Singh said, adding that members of the house and people from the minority community know that he cannot make such remarks.Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said Salim’s remarks pertaining to the magazine report on the minister would not go on record and she would examine the issue.”I will give my ruling,” she said.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy said the member should withdraw the comments till their authenticity was ascertained.Rudy said it would be difficult for members on the treasury benches to sit in the house after allegations “which are dangerous for the country”.Biju Janata Dal member Bhartruhari Mahtab said a member has to give prior notice before levelling allegations against another member.

Saugata Roy of the Trinamool Congress, however, said there was no denial from the minister after the publication of the report in the magazine.Salim later said his intention was not to hurt the minister and he had done the job of intelligence agencies by telling the minister about the publication of comments attributed to him.

Rudy, however, insisted that Salim should withdraw his words.As the standoff continued, the speaker adjourned the house for an hour.After the house reassembled, Rudy again insisted on the CPI-M member withdrawing his remarks till the authenticity was proven.

Salim, however, said he would not withdraw his remarks. “This is also intolerance. This is ridiculous,” he said.Salim said he cited the magazine after questions were put to him about his remarks.As the standoff persisted, Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai briefly adjourned the house.When the house reassembled after its second adjournment of the day, Congress member M. Veerapa Moily said that since both Salim and Rajnath Singh had spoken, the matter should be put to rest.But the stalemate persisted and the house was adjourned till 3.15 p.m. and then again till 4 p.m..

When the house met at 3.15 pm, Salim said he was going by the rules and remarked he would have been happy if Rajnath Singh had become prime minister instead of Narendra Modi.Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu objected to his remarks and said such comments can also be made about CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury.(IANS)

Sitaram Yechury’s Speech in Parliament on November 27, 2015

30 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by raomk in CPI(M), Current Affairs, Left politics, NATIONAL NEWS

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Ambedkar, Constitution, Parliament, SITARAM YECHURY

DISCUSSION ON COMMITMENT TO INDIA’S CONSTITUTION AS PART OF 125TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF DR. B.R. AMBEDKAR Contd..

SHRI ARUN JAITLEY (CONTD.): So, if Dr. Ambedkar had today stood up and proposed this provision, how would this House have reacted? ..[In Hindi]

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: These are Directive Principles. You know as much as I know. These are Directive Principles. Do not stretch that argument to such a level.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Let the hon. Speaker continue.

SHRI ARUN JAITLEY: We will go beyond Directive Principles now…[In Hindi] “The State shall endeavour to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines and shall, in particular, take steps for preserving and improving the breeds, and prohibiting the slaughter, of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle.” So if Dr. Ambedkar had proposed Article 44 and Article 48 today, how many of you would have accepted it, as Shri Sitaram Yechury says, even as a Directive Principle? …[In Hindi]

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: .[In Hindi] Dr. Ambedkar gave primacy to equality, life, liberty and dignity, the Fundamental Rights.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Mr. Jaitley, if you don’t mind, I wish to make a point. You see, you have quoted article 44. You just go to article 43A. It says, ‘…by suitable legislation…to secure the participation of workers in the management of undertakings,…’ Has that been done? Look at article 45. It says, ‘The State shall endeavour to provide early childhood care and education…’ Has that been done? Then, go to article 46. It talks about promotion of educational and economic interests of SCs, STs and other weaker sections…(Interruptions)…But, you choose one article 44 and another article 48…(Interruptions)…What about providing special care? What about providing all these?

MR. CHAIRMAN: Sitaramji, please, do it when your turn comes. …(Interruptions)…

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: So, don’t pick and choose. That is what I am saying…(Interruptions)…

SHRI ARUN JAITLEY: I think, I am glad that my friend Sitaram’s best argument is that we must have equality in the matter of not following the law, because one provision has not been followed the other should not be followed.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Sir, I am saying you should follow the entire law…(Interruptions)…No, you are not following the entire law. …(Interruptions)…

MR. CHAIRMAN: I would request all the concerned to allow the discussion…(Interruptions)…

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Why are you picking and choosing, Sir? That is my point…(Interruptions)…

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY (WEST BENGAL): Sir, thank you for giving me this opportunity. ..[In Hindi] So, what we wanted was enactments of all the legislations on the basis of which we can carry forward the vision of social justice that Dr. Ambedkar stood for. Now, instead, we have a situation where the Government has come forward saying that we reaffirm our faith in the Constitution. Where is the question of reaffirming? You are here, I am here, and all of us are here on an oath on this Constitution. What is this drama of reaffirming? If the Constitution is not there, then, you won’t be here. The Government of the day must know, the Leader of the House — he is not here now — should know that they are there only because we affirm this Constitution. What is this question of now saying, “We will reaffirm”? And what is this Constitution Day, Sir?….

Go through the history. On 26th of November this Constitution was signed by the President of the Constituent Assembly. It was voted upon and the draft was adopted and in the draft you have said explicitly ‘that on the26th of January India shall be a Republic in 1950 when this draft will turn into a Constitution and we shall enact.’ Can this Government answer? I want our esteemed lawyer, the Leader of the House, to tell us what law governed India from 26th of November, 1949 to 26th of January, 1950? Was it this Constitution? Is it known, Sir? The law that governed India during those two months after you adopted this Constitution was India Independence Act, 1947 moved by the British Prime Minister Attlee in the House of Commons in London. What is this Constitution then? You were under the British law for these two months. You adopted and enacted this Constitution on the 26th of January. Now, what is this new thing that you are finding now 65 years later on the Constitution Foundation Day? You please explain to me, Sir. You are sitting on the Chair. Maybe, you have greater knowledge, but you please explain to me that when Dr. Ambedkar himself says that on 26th of January we are enacting this Constitution and we shall be a Republic, what is this 26th November? Yes, that day the Constituent Assembly adopted this draft, but that was not the Indian Constitution yet. That was not the law of our land yet. It became the law of the land on the 26th of January, 1950. Lawyers are talking like this, Sir, on the Constitution Foundation day! You want some day or the other to find yourself so that you can celebrate one more event. The Constituent Assembly met again on the 24th and 25th of January, 1950. The Jana Gana Mana as the National Anthem was adopted on the 24th of January and on the 24th and 25th all Members of the Constituent Assembly signed this Constitution and on the 26th of November only 15 out of the 395 clauses in our Constitution came into operation. Sir, 26th of January, 1950 was when the entire Constitution came into operation. So, what is this new item that we have, Sir? …(Interruptions)… You may call it item song or whatever. It is a new item now in the Indian Constitution. A senior leader of the ruling party has described our Prime Minister, charitable or uncharitable, I don’t know, it is up to their party to decide, he called him an excellent event manager. One event after another, London and after that Malaysia, after that Asia and after that Constitution Day and from tomorrow it will be Paris. They showed us an old film in my youth, “Paris ke range shyam”. That will be the event from tomorrow.

SHRI ANAND SHARMA: It cannot be in the name of a film.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: I don’t know. So, what is this event to event to event? What are we observing, Sir? I am sorry, but I think the entire, what in Hindi we call, garima of this House, of the Parliament is being undermined by these sorts of flippant events that are coming in. Yes, for 26th of November we have the highest respect for Dr. Ambedkar and for everybody else. Does this Government today know that Constituent Assembly began its work on a Resolution moved by Shri Jawaharlal Nehru called the ‘Objectives Resolution’? Does this Government know that out of the eleven sittings of the Constituent Assembly six of the sittings were devoted to the ‘Objectives Resolution’ and not to this draft? A majority of the discussions in the Constituent Assembly was on the objectives put forward by Shri Jawaharlal Nehru. Sir, that is our history. Yes, the victor always scripts the history.

SITARAM YECHURY (CONTD.): But, here, the victor is also trying to change the past history! Now, this is the history we have inherited. Like the hon. Leader of the House, I was also born after Independence. I think, many of us are born after Independence. And, for all of us, this is inherited history; this is our legacy. You cannot now tamper with that history and tell us a new history! Now, why this Constitution Day? I can only come to the conclusion that this is an attempt to try and worm their way into the national movement when they had no role to play at all. This is the way they want to worm themselves into the national movement and how they want to worm themselves I want to know.

How this order is given? Sir, it is a Gazette Notification saying that ‘it has been decided to celebrate 26th day of November every year as the Constitution Day.’ It is a Gazette Notification. If you want I will place it on the Table of the House. It is a notification in the Indian Gazette, dated 19th November. It is issued by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Does the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment decide a national day to be observed every year?

AN HON. MEMBER: The hon. Minister is here.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Yes, I have noticed that hon. Minister is coming in here. Hon. HRD Minister was a good fried of mine before she became a Minister. After that she does not have time and she has got very onerous responsibilities. But, I just want to know how the Gazette Notification comes on 19th and the HRD Ministry issues a circular to schools on 10th of November saying ‘observe 26th November as the Constitution Day.’ This is a Gazette issued on 19th. What is happening, Sir. Items in Indian politics. That is the only thing I can say — events. You have event management. You want to worm into the national movement when you had no role. Here, I wish to put it on record the fact that often we have heard and we will hear also, I am sure, in the course of this discussion, the role of Communists, etc., in the Freedom Struggle. That is an old charge…
(Interruptions)…

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Sir, please don’t deduct the time of these interruptions from my time and start pressing the bell. Please don’t do that. The British Bombay Home Department, in 1942, during the Quit India Movement observed, “The Sangh has scrupulously kept itself within the law and in particular has refrained from taking part in the disturbances that broke out in August, 1942.” ..(Interruptions).. This is the record of the British Government. Now, Tarunji made a charge against the Communists. .[In Hindi].

“After large scale strikes in mills in Kanpur, Jamshedpur and Ahmedabad, a despatch from Delhi dated September 5, 1942, to the Secretary of State, in London, reported about the Communist Party of India: ‘the behaviour of many of CPI members proves what has always been clear, namely, that it is composed of anti-British revolutionaries.'”

This is the President of India telling this in the Central Hall of Indian Parliament.
(Interruptions)
…[In Hindi]. He read out Article 44 of the Constitution, Sir, which deals with it. I have the copy of the Constitution and this is the copy that belongs to the Chamber. So you cannot accuse me of any personal or fudged copy.
MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: Do you think there are different copies of Constitution?

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: No, no. Sir. They may accuse me. They may accuse me, so I am reading out only from the Chamber’s copy. Even that is challenged. So you don’t argue for authentication; it is marked as Chamber’s Copy. It says, ‘the State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code.’ It was quoted. It was also quoted on the question of organisation of agricultural and animal husbandry. I pointed out then that these are Directive Principles of State Policy, which are not justifiable and enforceable, and these Directive Principles also have other things, Sir, which are not quoted. What do they say? They say, ‘the State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people.’ What did Babasaheb Ambedkar say? The same thing; that is Article 46. Article 47 says, ‘the State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living.’ Isn’t it a shame that today, the largest number of children malnutritioned are in India? Isn’t it a shame that majority of the stunted children in the world are from India, today? This is the Constitutional Directive, Article 47. What has been done? You only pick and choose what you want to do and that is where the suspicion comes as to what is your actual motive. Here in the section on Fundamental Duties that are supposed to be enforceable — you please look at your copy in your hand, Sir — Article 51A says, ‘it shall be the duty of every citizen of India.’ If you read Article 51A (f), it says, ‘to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture.’ Is it the composite culture that we are preserving, Sir? I will come to that again. What does 51A(h) say? It says, ‘to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform.’ Sir, if we hear that Lord Ganesha was the creation of plastic surgery or Karna in the Mahabharata was the creation of stent technology and test tube babies, is that scientific temper? And it comes from no less than hon. Prime Minister. What is happening? What are you implementing? What are you wanting to implement and what not? You are only reviving the hardcore Hindutva agenda. Cow protection, you are wanting to revive. Then the entire question of equality of all citizens to liberty in life. He has quoted Article 30. He is not here, unfortunately, so I cannot request him also. He has quoted this Article 30 — you can also help me, Sir, in finding that Clause — and said that these are contradicted by Articles 29 and 30. Article 15 says, ‘the State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.’ This is Article 15, Fundamental Rights.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY (CONTD.): He says, “Articles 29 and 30 are in contradiction”. Sir, any lawyer would know, any right always comes with what is called reasonable restrictions. I hope, Mr. Parasaran is here; there is no right which does not come without reasonable restrictions. The reasonable restrictions through Article 15 have been detailed in Articles of the Constitution, 29 and 20, where the rights of the minorities to their religion are given. Minorities here meaning not only religious but also linguistic minorities. So, it is said, “This is a contradiction. Don’t we want to remove it?” What would Dr. Ambedkar say today if you were talking about this contradiction, about this Constitution? He would say precisely the same thing that the duties of a citizen would be the spread of tolerance, and not the spread of any one particular intolerant point of view. And that is the bone of contention today, Sir. I read in the media that hon. Home Minister saying that secularism is the word that was injected into the Constitution, and, therefore, that is the cause of all problems. He has also referred to, I believe, poor old Aamir Khan; our actor is getting lampooned. He said, “Ambedkar did not leave the country. But he stayed here and struggled”. And that is what Aamir Khan also said, Sir. He did not say that he is leaving. I am glad he is staying and struggling, and then you accuse them saying that Left is sponsoring all that. Thank you for putting all those people with us. Our tribe is increasing. That is what you are doing. …(Interruptions)… But remember, Ambedkar did not leave the country. He was a patriot. But, Ambedkar renounced Hinduism and embraced Buddhism. You remember that. You remember that, and why was that? That is where the intolerance issue comes in. Sir, these are matters again of history. You cannot erase it, and if you want the question of intolerance, take the same speech of Dr. Ambedkar of 25th November, which the hon. Leader of the House was quoting. This is the same speech, and what does Dr. Ambekar say? He was talking about ‘history will repeat itself’. “Will we lose our Independence again…”, hon. Leader of the House quoted that. After that, he did not quote the rest of it. What does it say? I am quoting from that Speech of Dr. Ambedkar. “Will history repeat itself”? That is, will we lose our Independence once again? “Will Indians place the country above their creed or will they place creed above the country, I did not know”. As the Leader of the House said, if Dr. Ambedkar was here today, what would he say? He would not pose this question. He will say, “Indians are being forced to place their creed above the country”. And that is the intolerance that is happening in the country today. Then, what did Dr. Ambedkar say? “But this much is certain — this is the speech, Sir, which was quoted in the morning — if the parties place creed above country, our Independence will be put in jeopardy a second time — after all the instances he gave, which were quoted by the leader — will be put in a jeopardy a second time and probably be lost forever. This eventuality we must all resolutely guard against. We must be determined to defend our Independence with the last drop of our blood”.

Today, when I stand up against this intolerance, I am doing exactly what Dr. Ambedkar asked us to do. Anybody who wants to say what Dr. Ambedkar said must be done, we will do exactly what Dr. Ambedkar asked us to do, i.e., raise ourselves against this sort of intolerance. This is the same Ambedkar in the same speech.

Then, we heard the question of social justice. The essential point of Dr. Ambedkar is missed out. I have quoted this a number of times in this august House, but I can’t stop myself from quoting this again.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY (CONTD.): Now, I quote it in the full. It says, “On 26th of January, 1950” – please note once again, it is the Constitution Day, the Republic Day – “we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics, we will give equality and in social and economic life, we will have inequality. In politics, we will be recognizing the principle of ‘one man one vote’, ‘one vote one value’. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structures, continue to deny the principle of ‘one man one value’.” That is the contradiction. Then, he continues to say, “If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest. Or else, those who suffer from this inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy that this Assembly has so labouriously built”. This is Dr. Ambedkar in the same speech. What is the situation today? A hundred multi-billionaires in our country, whose asset value is close to one-half of my country’s GDP. And, according to the latest census, ninety per cent of the households in my country, today, have an income of less than Rs. 10,000, a month. Is this contradiction being resolved or are you only accentuating it further? Are we discussing issues of how we should reduce the gap in this contradiction? Instead, every foreign trip, we find a new concession to foreign capital. Fifteen new areas have been opened up to the FDI. Free Trade Agreements are ruining our domestic cultivation of commercial crops! The agrarian distress is growing. Farmers are committing suicides. Your industrial production index, as per this Government’s own statistics, this month has shown a drop from about six per cent plus to about three per cent. Manufacturing has dropped to 2.4 per cent from over 6 per cent. Industrial production is declining. Agrarian distress is deepening. …[In Hindi]

Where are we on the social justice vision of Dr. Ambedkar? I have mentioned about the atrocities on SCs and STS and about reservation. On the question of growing inequalities, the condition of our people is deteriorating. What is this contradiction? You see the reality. Are we paying homage to Dr. Ambedkar? Is this the way Modern India is actually fulfilling the vision of social justice. Forget about the political parties. Forget to which party belong, to which party you belong. As an Indian, when you are talking about these things, are we being honest to ourselves? Are we doing justice to Dr. Ambedkar and all of that generation – Nehru, Gandhi, Abul Kalam Azad, Sardar Patel – that gave us Independence and this Constitution? What had they exhorted all of us to do? Are we doing it? And, you say, “I reaffirm my faith in the Constitution.” Without reaffirming that faith, you won’t be here. What is this reaffirming of faith? Come to the federalism. What did Dr. Ambedkar say on federalism?

MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: Please try to conclude.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Yes, Sir. But how can I conclude federalism and intolerance and all that? …(Interruptions)… You are asking to conclude what the Government is doing.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY (CONTD.): In a federal structure, on CentreState relations, what did Dr. Ambedkar say? He said that the Centre and the States are coequal in this matter. Sir, I am reading from the same speech. “It is difficult to see how such a Constitution can be called centralism. That is, the basic principle of fedearlism is that the legislative and executive authority is partitioned between the Centre and the States, not by any law to be made by the Centre but by the Constitution itself.” That is the essence of this Constitution. Is the principle of federalism followed, Sir? You are talking about the misuse of Article 356. That is only one part of it. We, the Kerala Government, were the first victim of Article 356, way back in the 1950s. I don’t know how many of you were there. Second time, we were victim in 1960s; twice, we were victim in Bengal, in 1967 and 1969. …(Interruptions)..

SHRI T.K. RANGARAJAN: Mr. Antony is here. He was the hero.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Hon. Antony is here. He was a hero of one of the… (Interruptions).. But, Sir, all that apart, what is fedearalism? Not merely equality, that independent respect of the States, are we granting it today? Then, you talked of judiciary. Let me tell you, what Dr. Ambedkar said about judiciary is very, very interesting. I am quoting from the same speech, ” Courts may modify, they cannot replace”, please note, “Courts may modify, they cannot replace, they can revise earlier interpretations as new arguments, new points of view are presented. They can shift the dividing line in marginal cases, but there are barriers they cannot pass, definite assignments of power they cannot reallocate. They can give a broadening construction of existing powers, but they cannot assign to one authority powers explicitly granted to another.” The separation and the complementarity of the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislature are hallmarks of our Constitution. Now, this is as far as your Judiciary is concerned. But what worries me about is you are paying homage to Dr. Ambedkar. Remember, Sir, from 1946 to 1950, what was the condition of the world? Millions of people were under colonial subjugation. When these countries became independent, what we did in India was, actually, a revolutionary step then. We granted universal adult suffrage, which nobody else of these countries granted. …(Interruptions).. Europe did not grant and not even the United States of America. President Obama came here. All of us were very excited in the Central Hall, both sides. Everybody was saying, wah wah, President Obama came here, and, then, he wrote in the Golden Book — there is no gold in that book — of our Parliament, “Greetings from the world’s oldest democracy to the world’s largest.” This was his message. Yes, this was the message he gave. I had to point it out later that evening at the President’s banquet. I said, “Sir, I think, this is a wrong definition that you are the world’s oldest democracy.” He said, “Why’? I said, “Sir, you got the right to vote, that is, American-Africans, universally in the United States of America in 1962, one year after you were born. The universality of adult franchise in the United States of America came only in 1962; in India, we gave it in 1950.” Whether you are a dalit, you are a landlord, whether you are a Muslim, whether you are a Hindu, we gave it in 1950. And, today, Sir, what is happening? In Haryana, 86 per cent of the people will be kept out of their right to vote and right to contest elections because of various conditions. The State Government has said that unless you fulfil these conditions, you cannot contest or you cannot vote.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY (CONTD.): In Rajasthan, you put conditions whereby more than half the people are excluded from the universal suffrage. In Gujarat, you have said, ‘unless you have a toilet, a pucca toilet, in your house, you cannot vote or contest in local elections’. All these three States have got a BJP State Government. You come here to pay homage to Dr. Ambedkar and the one important thing that has been done by the Indian Constitution on universal adult suffrage, you deny it to people in the States which have a State Government that is led by the BJP. …(Time-bell)…

Sir, I know you will press the bell. But the point is that you please consider all these things. The Ruling Benches are empty. I don’t know who will convey, what and to whom when the reply comes on Monday.

MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: The Ministers are there. …(Interruptions)… They will do it. …(Interruptions)…

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Sir, I sympathize with my friend, Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. How much burden can he carry, Sir? How much can he go and report upstairs saying that this is all that has been said and you please answer that? And, even the officers have deserted the officials’ block. So, I don’t know if anybody is taking note of all this. We understand many of these things. They ignore us normally. …(Interruptions)…

AN HON. MEMBER: This shows their commitment.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: But, Sir, since you are pressing the bell, let me come down to my final points. The Leader of the House made an interesting and a very interesting reference to the Third Reich and Germany. Wonderful, Sir. We are happy, and I must pay my gratitude to the Leader of the House for having reminded me of the Third Reich and Germany and the dangers of authoritarianism. Sir, in 1939, when the debate in the country was going on as to what should be the character of Independent India, there was a book, which was not thought that it would be very important but a book which had a very, very important implication for Indian politics and India’s future, and that was a book called ‘We, or our Nationhood Defined’ by Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar. He is called the RSS Guru. And, since the Leader of the House mentioned the Third Reich, I only want to quote from that book about the Third Reich. That book is, ‘We, or Our Nationhood Defined’. Who is ‘we’? In Hindi ‘Swaraj.’ ..[In Hindi] That is the entire import of that book..he talked saying that ‘only Hindus and Hindus alone are inhabitants of this country’. And, then, what does he say about the Third Reich? I am quoting, “To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by purging the country of the semitic Races, the Jews”. I will take a break here, Sir, for a moment. You please draw the parallels in India — who is that instead of the Jews and who is that for the Race and the culture and its purity. I continue with the quote. “Race pride at its highest has been …” …(Interruptions)…

SHRI V.P. SINGH BADNORE: Sir, which book is he referring to? …(Interruptions)…

MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: From which book are you quoting? …(Interruptions)…

SHRI ANAND SHARMA: He is quoting from scriptures of your party. …(Interruptions)…

MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: You say from which book you are quoting. …(Interruptions)…
SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Sir, my good friend, Mr. V.P. Singh Badnore, may not be so much in tune with the RSS as he is a BJP M.P. But let me tell him that the name of the book is: ‘We, or Our Nationhood Defined’. I am quoting from page no. 35. This book was published in 1939 by Bharat Prakashan, republished by Bharat Prakashan, Second Edition, again in 1944. That is the authenticity. That book must be available in library if it is not already removed. I mean, they have this habit also of removing all these books. But otherwise, this book should be in the Parliament library. Otherwise, I will help you. I will give you a copy.
SHRI SITARAM YECHURY (contd.): Now, it is in this book, on page 35. I repeat that quote; it says, “To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by purging the country of the semetic races, the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well nigh impossible it is for races and cultures having differences going to the root to be assimilated into one united whole. A good lesson for us..” Please understand this.

SHRI V. P. SINGH BADNORE: We cannot do that. That is why! What is that commentary?…(Interruptions)… We cannot do it. What is wrong in it? …(Interruptions)…
SHRI TAPAN KUMAR SEN: He is not saying anything wrong. Why are you getting agitated? …(Interruptions)…

SHRI V. P. SINGH BADNORE: We cannot do that. That is why he has said so. What is wrong in that?…(Interruptions)…

SHRI TAPAN KUMAR SEN: He is not saying anything wrong, Mr. V.P. Singh. …(Interruptions)…

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Sir, let me complete. …(Interruptions)… Sir, let me complete. ..(Interruptions)…

SHRI V. P. SINGH BADNORE: We cannot do that. That is why he has said…(Interruptions)… What is wrong with that? …(Interruptions)… What is he trying to do? …(Interruptions)….

MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: Please, you would get a chance. You may reply to that; you would get your chance….(Interruptions)…. You can reply to that. You would get your chance. You say that he is misinterpreting. When you get your chance, you may correct it. …(interruptions)…

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: I am quoting verbatim. And if you want, shall I re-quote the whole thing?
MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: No, no; there is no need for that. It is all on record. …(Interruptions)….
SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Have you followed so far?

MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: Yes, yes. Now, you need to conclude also. There is no time. …(Interruptions)…

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Sir, let me conclude with just one sentence – “A good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.” This is about the Third Reich that the hon. Leader of the House was reminding us about.

SHRI V. P. SINGH BADNORE: We thought this is wrong. That is why we…(Interruptions)

MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: Now, please conclude. …(Interruptions)…
SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: This is exactly what this Hindu Rashtra is all about, Sir. That is why, if you want to pay homage and our shraddhanjali to Dr. Ambedkar, please remember what he said in the speech finally. I would like to quote to you what he said about creed: “Without equality, you cannot have liberty. Without fraternity, you cannot have equality and liberty. Without equality and fraternity – fraternity means sadbhavna – …you cannot have liberty.” If you are celebrating India’s freedom and its liberty, equality and fraternity are the two things on which there can be no compromise. And that is precisely what is being compromised in this furtherance of the atmosphere of intolerance.
Sir, finally, let me end by quoting Dr. Rajendra Prasad. When he was about to put his signatures on this draft, the future President of India, quoted these lines. He was not yet the President of India; he became the President of India only on the 26th of January and, then, it was said that the Governor General, Dr. Rajagopalachari, cannot administer an oath to our President because the Governor General is an appointee of the British. So, the Chief Justice was called, in this Central Hall, and he administered the oath. After that Dr. Rajendra Prasad administers the oath for an interim Government, adopts this Constitution, administers the oath and directs that under this new Constitution, fresh elections be held after delimitation is completed. That election was held in 1952. And today, we hear, Sir, that Sardar Patel was being denied from being India’s first Prime Minister. Unfortunately, poor Sardar died in 1950; the first election was in 1952. .(Interruptions). Is that understood, Sir? Now, if there is some magic and some tantra through which like Lord Ganesha somebody who is dead and gone can be brought back alive, unfortunately, to be the Prime Minister, I can understand! That apart, what did Dr. Rajendra Prasad say? I am quoting this and ending, Sir. Dr. Rajendra Prasad, in his address, hailing that we adopted this Constitution, says, “After all, a Constitution, like a machine, is a lifeless thing.”

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY (CONTD.): “…It acquires life because of the men who control it and operate it. India needs today nothing more than a set of honest men who will have the interest of the country before them.” I am sure when Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Dr. Ambedkar talked about ‘men’, they included the ‘women’ also. So, please don’t take offence; I am sure, at that time, women were also part of it. “There is a fissiparous tendency arising out of various elements in our life”, said Dr. Rajendra Prasad on November 26, 1949. He said, “We have communal differences, caste differences, language differences, provincial differences and so forth. It requires men of strong character, men of vision, men who will not sacrifice the interests of the country at large for the sake of smaller groups and areas and who will rise over the prejudices which are born out of these differences. We can only hope that the country will throw up such men in abundance.” Is that the case? I rest my case by asking you the question. What are we seeing today? Have we produced such men in abundance? If not, I think it is time to correct the notion. If you want to do actual reaffirmation to our Constitution and pay our homage to Dr. Ambedkar, …(Interruptions)…

MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: Okay.
SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Please don’t okay me here, Sir, you will also be a part of it. All of us will have to sincerely pay homage to this, and that is what we need to do. Thank you, very much for giving me time. (Ends)

How climate change has sparked political and social unrest in Punjab this year

30 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by raomk in Current Affairs, Farmers, NATIONAL NEWS

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climate, Farmers, Punjab, white fly

And what that tells us about how agriculture is faring in Punjab.

M Rajshekhar

How climate change has sparked political and social unrest in Punjab this year

Photo Credit: Munish Sharma/Reuters

The professor will not forget 2015 easily.

A scientist at Ludhiana’s Punjab Agriculture University, he has been studying cotton for 15 years. But what he saw this year was entirely unfamiliar.

It started with the rains. Punjab saw downpours during the normally dry months of March and April. It rained in June as well – a month when temperatures should have touched 47 degrees, with hot summer winds (the famous loo) gusting across the state.

Instead, the temperature stayed below 40 degrees on most days that month. On the days it did rise, said the scientist, who spoke to Scroll on the condition of anonymity, it did not cross 43 degrees.

More climatic strangeness followed. It barely rained in the traditional monsoon months of July and August. The first three weeks of September stayed dry as well, followed by heavy rains towards the end of the month.

The aberrant weather patterns catalysed a boom in whitefly – an insect that sucks sap from plants during its nymphal stage. And this triggered, among other things, a political crisis in Punjab.

Typically, whiteflies emerge around March and are active till winter sets in. Most years, they are a minor pest preying on most crops, their numbers kept in check by the loo and then the rains. This year, however, the skies stayed overcast but the earth saw little rain; temperatures stayed relatively low and humidity relatively high, creating conditions where whitefly numbers began rising earlier than usual – in June.

Crawling out of their eggs, the nymphs encountered a cotton crop that was more vulnerable than usual. The rains in March and April had delayed the winter harvest – the wheat crop took longer to ripen. This in turn delayed the sowing of cotton. “Due to the late sowing, the crop was just 1.5 months old when the Whiteflies came,” says the scientist. “Normally, it is about 3 months old, and therefore more robust.”

It was a perfect storm. Whiteflies live for about 24-30 days – a quicksilver lifespan in course of which eggs hatch into nymphs, nymphs change into pupas, and pupas become adult whiteflies which mate, lay eggs on crop leaves and die. This year, with favourable conditions lasting longer during the cotton crop, Punjab saw an explosion in their numbers.

The plants were swamped. As the nymphs sucked out the sap, the plants sickened.

What happened next was inevitable. Anywhere between two-fifths to two-thirds of Punjab’s cotton crop was damaged. By mid-October, about 15 farmers had killed themselves. A farmers’ agitation, demanding compensation from the state, began.

Pesticides failed to control the plague, giving rise to speculation that they were fake. The director of Punjab’s agriculture department and several pesticide dealers were duly arrested.

The unrest was building when reports began to proliferate about copies of the Guru Granth Sahib being desecrated in several parts of the Punjab. Public attention swung away from the failed cotton crop – and in the process, the state squandered a chance to understand why whitefly erupted this year.

Make no mistake – fake pesticides are not the primary reason the crop failed.

Start with the rains.

Why were the rains abnormal?

From his office in the Indian Meteorological Department’s red-brick building in Chandigarh’s Sector 39, Surender Paul, a director, has been witnessing large changes in the weather patterns over Punjab.

Punjab gets almost all its rainfall during the monsoon months. Over the last 15 years, said Paul, the state has “seen a decline in mean precipitation between June and September”. In the last ten years, it has seen six “meteorological droughts”, the term for when rainfall is at least 25% below normal.

Paul sees other changes. Historically, rains used to reach the state around June 30. They now arrive five days earlier. Their departure has been delayed as well. “The norm is September 30. But now, winds start blowing towards the south seven-eight days later than before.”

Rainfall is also getting concentrated across time and space. This year, most of the rainfall over Punjab occurred in just 10 days. “This is one of the patterns we are seeing – a few days of concentrated rainfall,” said Paul. At the same time, the state is seeing greater local variations in rain. This year, for instance, only six out of the 20 districts in the state got normal rainfall.

Paul’s work suggests these changes are manifestations of a new interaction between mid-latitude westerlies and India’s monsoons.

It’s like this: The monsoon originates to the south-west of India, over the Arabian Sea, and then moves north till the Himalayas, curving along India’s eastern coast before moving towards the low pressure area that develops over central India due to the summer heat.

As for the westerlies, these blow at a greater distance from the equator, starting from about 32 N (Latitude) – say, the northern tip of Punjab.

However, over the last ten years, the westerlies have been swinging farther south. This trend, said Paul, is seen mostly in the monsoon and winter months. In the last four or five years, they have reached as far south as 25 North – that is, the northern reaches of Madhya Pradesh. In the process, India is seeing greater interaction between the westerlies and the monsoon. “In the last ten years, the influence of extra-tropical weather has increased,” he said. “We have seen as many as 40 instances of western disturbances affecting the monsoons this year.”

It’s not yet clear why the westerlies are swinging south in recent years. What is incontrovertible, however, is that the monsoonal trough – the low pressure area which attracts monsoon clouds – is coming to depend on the interplay between the westerlies and the monsoon winds. The collision of the two, says Paul, results in the formation of a large cloud mass and an abrupt, short-lived but intense cloudburst. That is what India has seen this year in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan.

Elsewhere, rainfall tends to be low. With the monsoon clouds weakened, more rain falls on places that are more conducive for rainfall – like lakes and forests. The moisture they release into the air, says Paul, encourages precipitation.

All of this bodes ill for Punjab. The state’s industrial belt releases emissions that reduce the quantum of moisture in the air. Further, the state has no dense forest cover – less than 4% of the state is forested. States to its north and east have far higher forest cover.

The collapse of extension work

The change in rainfall patterns combined with another factor to create the crisis in Punjab’s cotton fields this year.

During the heyday of the green revolution in the 1970s and ’80s, Punjab had a large bureaucracy that transmitted agricultural knowhow to farmers – chief agricultural officers and gram sewaks in each district, doing what was called agricultural extension. There were also kisan melas at the block and district levels that disseminated knowhow about agriculture and technology – information on new crops, seeds, fertilisers, implements and pesticides – to farmers through camps and lectures.

The system does not work any more. There has been a 50%-60% reduction in the number of extension workers, scientists say. The remaining staff is often deputed for other work – like conducting local elections.

One fallout of the collapse of extension work? It hamstrung attempts to fight off whitefly.

Take Balwana village, about 12 kilometres from the agricultural town of Abohar. Here Jagdish Kumar, a young man in his thirties who runs a shop near the village gurudwara that sells agricultural inputs (fertilisers and pesticides), had a window seat to what happened once the whiteflies arrived.

First, the crisis was spotted late. “Farmers responded only when the whiteflies started flying over their field,” he said. “That is when they asked for medicine, saying, ‘Mujhe spray de do ki kal ko mujhe whitefly dikhai nahin de.’” Give me a medicine which will make sure there is not a single whitefly over my field tomorrow.

There are several problems with such a process, Kumar said. First, whitefly is at its most dangerous as a nymph, which is when it sucks away at the sap and enfeebles the plant. “The whitefly stage is not so harmful,” he said. “All that will happen is the insect will lay the next generation of eggs.”

Second, spraying the flies will not help if it is not coordinated. “All the flies have to do is move to an adjoining field where spraying is not yet underway,” he noted.

Third, the lack of information about the emergent weather patterns meant that the farmers did not spray their fields for a long time. As the Met department noticed, the weather stayed overcast with minor drizzles. This made farmers reluctant to spray “Companies tell farmers that fields should stay dry for four-six hours after spraying,” Jagdish said. “And the spray is costly – Rs 1,800/litre. Since farmers were never sure when it would rain, they deferred spraying.”

So the eggs grew undisturbed into mites, with concentrations per leaf much higher than before; the plants weakened and their leaves turned black. Which is when, Kumar said, desperate farmers began looking for medicines – “sprays, synthetics, anything”.

Take Hazara Ram of Balwana. The farmer, now in his sixties, sprayed four different pesticides in a bid to control his whitefly outbreak. None of them worked. His harvest was just 80 kilos from two acres, which netted him no more than Rs 4,000 – against which, he spent Rs 5,000 on pesticides alone.

Sukhdev Singhji. Credit: M Rajshekhar
In this part of India, it is the kharif crop – usually a cash crop like basmati or cotton – that introduces variability into farmers’ annual income. The winter crop, usually sold to the government at fixed rates, is more of a safety net. Like Hazara Ram, Sukhdev Singhji, a resident of Balwana village near Abohar, will not make any money on his cotton crop this year. He will make money only if wheat (kanak, in Punjabi) does well: “Kanak bachave to bachave.”

There is another issue here: Given that whitefly go through four stages – egg, nymph, pupa and adult – how did farmers like Ram know the stage of infection and therefore the appropriate medicines to spray?

They went by what agricultural traders or company agents – whose job is to sell pesticides – told them.

The rise of new ‘knowhow’

As Punjab’s extension machinery weakened, other actors stepped into the void – such as companies that sell fertiliser and pesticides. Said the Punjab Agriculture University scientist, “Their agents usually visit villages 15 days before the time of application. If the pesticide doesn’t work, they start working in another village. As it is, they are not even agri-graduates.”

Most of them are very young, said Sukhdev Singhji – “Navey munde. Unhey khud hi nahin pata honda.”

Another entrant into this informational vacuum is the adatiya, the agricultural trader. As an article in the November 7, 2015, issue of the Economic & Political Weekly, titled “Commission Agent System: Significance in Contemporary Agricultural Economy of Punjab”, notes: “They [adatiyas] have become the exploitative alternative for supply of credit, farm and domestic inputs as well as sale of produce. Not only do they provide credit for purchasing essential articles, but also push the farmers to purchase the same from the shops they, or their friends, own.”

One reason for their rise is the worsening economics of agriculture in Punjab.

Take cotton: It is mainly grown in the southern reaches of Punjab, in the Malwa region. On the whole, this is the poorest of the three regions of the state, and the one that sees the most farmer suicides.

Villages in south-western Punjab’s Malwa region are far poorer than villages elsewhere in Punjab.
Credit: M Rajshekhar
Bt Cotton came here in 2004, in response to the American bollworm attacks that started in 1997. Sukhpal Singh, head of Punjab Agricultural University’s Department of Economics and Sociology, points out that since then, though farmer incomes have risen, their debt has not come down.

There are several reasons for this, Singh said. While Bt Cotton was resistant to bollworm, after about seven or eight years of normalcy, attacks from secondary pests started. At the same time, input costs began rising faster than output prices. “It was partly globalisation. Subsidy on input prices was reduced. Diesel and machinery and seeds got costlier. At the same time, international cotton prices fell.”

This is a story that is playing out all across Punjab. As the cost of agriculture rises and its profitability falls, Punjab’s farmers are being pushed into debt – 89% of all farming households are in debt, according to this EPW paper. They borrow from the adatiyas. When the harvest comes in, they give the crop to the adatiyas who sell it, recover the loan, and give the balance to the farmers.

And so, when whiteflys came, most farmers turned to the traders seeking pesticides. The EPWpaper estimates that 15.01% of pesticides in Punjab (across all crops) are now supplied from the shops of commission agents, and another 80% are procured from the shops owned by people connected to these agents. They, says the paper, issue “a “slip” to farmers for obtaining items from their “owned or connected shops”.

The fungicide that Singhji applied to his cotton fields. Credit: M Rajshekhar
This further compromised farmers’ efforts against whiteflies. There was now the added risk that the traders (who are not farmers) might recommend the wrong pesticide, or one with a greater margin, or that farmers might buy cheaper pesticides to keep their debt low.

Agreed the scientist, “Extension work has collapsed. Paisa nahin hain. Udhaar lena hain. Sasti kaun si hain?”

Singhji, for instance, sprayed a fungicide while trying to take on whitefly.

That won’t work, said Jagdish, the young shop-owner of Balwana, pointing out that farmers sprayed unthinkingly. “Decide kuch nahin kiya, jo mila woh daal diya,” he said. They sprayed whatever they could get.

Other farmers underestimated the whitefly crisis and either sprayed the right medicine too late, or used a milder pesticide than they should have. Matters were further complicated by perennial factors like fake pesticides and batch variations. “I see a farmer’s plot after spraying and if there is no change a day later, I send that batch of spray back,” said Jagdish.

That is the arithmetic of this moment. It’s telling that farmers held off spraying as long as the skies stayed overcast – it shows that farmers’ knowhow is static in a world that is changing fast. The state needs to work on mitigation and adaptation. And for that, it needs to prepare its farmers better.

“Our outreach has to be strengthened,” said Surinder Paul of the Met department. “The information is there. But not all farmers are getting it.”

Failing that, the state will only see the turmoil in its farmlands increase.

This article appeared in scroll.in

COUNTERVIEW: “Worrying” signs: Private sector capex plans decline 11%, corporate profits down 0.05%: Reliance think-tank expert

29 Sunday Nov 2015

Posted by raomk in Current Affairs, Economics, NATIONAL NEWS

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Key sectors such as infrastructure, energy, metals, cement, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, and textiles, showed 4 per cent decline in capital expenditure for 2015-16

Source: COUNTERVIEW: “Worrying” signs: Private sector capex plans decline 11%, corporate profits down 0.05%: Reliance think-tank expert

వాట్సప్‌, ఫేస్‌బుక్‌ల తప్పుడు ప్రచారం-వాస్తవాలు

29 Sunday Nov 2015

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ఎం కోటేశ్వరరావు

కొంత మంది కుర్రవాళ్లు పేర్లకీ, పుకార్లకీ నిబద్ధులు,

తాతగారి నాన్నగారి భావాలకు దాసులు అన్నాడు ఒక కవి

ప్రస్తుతం వాట్సప్‌, పేస్‌బుక్‌లో వున్న కొంత మంది యువతీ, యువకులు దున్న ఈనిందంటే గాటన కట్టేయమన్నట్లుగా వున్నారు. గ్రామాల్లో ఒక పిట్ట కధ వుంది. అదేమంటే పూర్వం మోతుబరులు ఎడ్ల బండ్లలో ప్రయాణిస్తున్నపుడు వాటి వెనుకా ముందూ సేవకులు నడుస్తూ లేదా పరిగెత్తుతూ రావాలి. ప్రయాణ సమయంలో ఏవైనా బండి నుంచి పడినపుడు వాటిని తీసి బండిలో వేయమని యజమాని ఆదేశాలు ఇచ్చేవారు. సేవకులు విచక్షణా జ్ఞానాన్ని ప్రదర్శించటం యజమానులకు ముఖ్యంగా గ్రామీణ పెత్తందార్లకు ఇష్టం వుండదు. అందువలన సేవకులు కూడా యధా యజమాని తధా సేవక అన్నట్లు వుండేవారు. ఒకసారి ఒక యజమాని భార్యా, బిడ్డలతో కలసి ప్రయాణిస్తుండగా బండిని లాగే ఎద్దులు పేడ వేశాయి. బండికి సంబంధించి ఏదిపడినా తీసి బండిలో వేయమన్న ఆదేశం మాత్రమే గుర్తు పెట్టుకున్న సేవకుడు యజమాని చెప్పిన విధంగా పేడను కూడా తీసి బండిలోకి విసిరాడు.దాంతో ఏమి జరిగి వుంటుందో చెప్పనవసరం లేదు. అలాగే వాట్సప్‌, ఫేస్‌బుక్‌లో వచ్చిన ప్రతి సమాచారాన్ని అదేమిటి అనేదానితో నిమిత్తం లేకుండా ఇతరులకు పంచే (షేర్‌) వారు ఇటీవలి కాలంలో పెరిగి పోతున్నారు. కాళిదాసు కవిత్వానికి తమ పైత్యాన్ని జోడించుతున్నారు, గుడ్డిగా నమ్ముతున్నారు, తమకు తెలియకుండానే అసహనానికిలోనవుతున్నారు, వితండవాదనలు చేస్తున్నారు.

వాటికి సంబంధించి కొన్ని విషయాల గురించి ప్రస్తావించటం అవసరం. ‘భారత్‌లో అధికారికంగా 3లక్షల మసీదులు వున్నాయి. అనధికారికమైనవి లెక్కలేదు. ఇంత సంఖ్యలో ఏ ముస్లిం దేశంలోనూ లేవు. అయినా కూడా నువ్వు హిందువ్వి , కాబట్టి మత పిచ్చగాడివి, నీకు సహనం లేదు.’ ప్రతి అంశానికి చివరి లో విశ ్వధాభిరామ వినుర వేమ అన్నట్లు సంచారం చేస్తున్న ‘సుభాషితాలలో ఇదొకటి’.

ఇది అవ్వమోచేతికి, తాత బోడిగుండుకు ముడిపెట్టే యత్నం తప్ప వివిధ మతాల ప్రార్ధనా స్ధలాల సంఖ్యకు – సహనానికి సంబంధం ఏమిటి ? పశ్చిమాసియాలో క్రైస్తవంపై తిరుగుబాటులో భాగంగానే ఇస్లాం మతం ఆరవ శ తాబ్దిలో వునికిలోకి వచ్చింది. వచ్చిన తొలి సంవత్సరాలలోనే (క్రీేస్తుశకం 629లో భారత్‌లో తొలి మసీదు నిర్మాణం కేరళ త్రిచూర్‌ జిల్లాలోని చెరమాన్‌లో జరిగింది. ) అది విస్తరించిన దేశాలలో భారత్‌ ఒకటి. ప్రపంచంలో ప్రస్తుతం 25 కోట్ల జనాభాతో అతి పెద్ద ఇస్లామిక్‌ దేశంగా వున్న ఇండోనేషియాకు ఆ తరువాత ఆరు వందల సంవత్సరాల తరువాత అంటే 1292లో ఇస్లాం మతం ప్రవేశించింది. అప్పటివరకు అక్కడ పరిపాలించింది హిందూ, బౌద్ద మతాలను అవలంభించిన రాజులే. ఇండోనేషియాలో ఇప్పటికీ ముస్లింలు సుకర్నో(సుకర్ణుడు) మేఘావతి సుకర్నో పుత్రి వంటి పేర్లను పెట్టుకుంటున్న విషయం దాస్తే దాగని విషయం. అందువలన భారత్‌లో మసీదుల నిర్మాణం, సంఖ్య గురించి చెప్పి రెచ్చగొట్టనవసరం లేదు.

వాషింగ్టన్‌లో 24 చర్చ్‌లు, లండన్‌లో 71, మిలన్‌లో 68, ఢిల్లీలో అధికారికంగా 271 వున్నాయి. వీటికి ఆధారాలేమిటి అన్నది ఒక అంశం. ఈ ప్రచారం చేసే వారు ఒకదానికి సమాధానం చెప్పాలి. క్రైస్తవానికి క్రీస్తు ఒక్కడే, ఇస్లాముకు దైవదూత ఒక్కడే, బౌద్దానికి బుద్దుడు ఒక్కడే, సిక్కులకు గురుగ్రంధం ఒక్కటే మరి హిందువులకు ముక్కోటి దేవతలు ఎక్కడి నుంచి వచ్చారు, ఇన్ని పురాణాలు, శాస్త్రాలు ఎందుకు ? రాళ్లు, పుట్టలూ, గుట్టలూ పాముల మొదలు దైవత్వం లేని అంశమేది? వాటన్నింటికీ ఎందుకు మొక్కాలి, అలాంటివి అధికారికంగా ఎన్ని వున్నాయి, అనధికారికంగా ఎన్ని వున్నాయి. ఇప్పటికే వీధి వీధిలో ఒకరికి మించి దేవుళ్లు, దేవతలు ఎందరో వుండగా ఏ దేవుడు ఏ రోడ్డు మధ్యలో, ఏ వివాదాస్పద స్ధలంలో ఎప్పుడు వెలుస్తాడో, ఏ దేవతకు ఎప్పుడు పూనకం వస్తుందో తెలియని స్ధితి ఎందుకు ? వీరిని పూజించే వారికి మనోభావాలు వున్నట్లే ఎవరి మనోభావాలు వారికి వుండవా ?

ఐఎస్‌ఐఎస్‌ తీవ్రవాద మూను వ్యతిరేకించిన ముస్లింను చూడలేదని చెప్పటం మరొక వక్రీకరణ. మన దేశంలో తీవ్రవాద చర్యలను ఖండించిన ముస్లింలు, ముస్లిం సంస్ధలు ఎన్నో వున్నాయి. ఐఎస్‌ తీవ్రవాదులు మన దేశంలో వున్నట్లు మన కేంద్ర ప్రభుత్వమే ప్రకటించలేదు. లేని దానిని ఖండించలేదనటంలో అర్ధం లేదు. ఇతర దేశాలలో వున్న ఐఎస్‌ తీవ్రవాదులపై పోరాడుతున్నదీ ప్రాణాలు అర్పిస్తున్నదీ ఆ దేశాలలో వున్న ముస్లింలు తప్ప మరొకరు కాదని గుర్తించరెందుకు ? వుగ్రవాదానికి మతంతో సంబంధంలేదు, దానిని వుపయోగ పెట్టుకుంటుంది. ముస్లిం తీవ్రవాదాన్ని ఖండించే ముస్లింలు వున్నారు, అలాగే దాని ముప్పు గురించి తెలియక అమాయకంగా లేదా తప్పుదారి పట్టి సమర్ధించే ముస్లింలు కూడా వుండవచ్చు. ఆర్‌ఎస్‌ఎస్‌ సిద్ధాంతాలను వ్యతిరేకించే హిందువులను లక్షల మందిని చూస్తాము అని ఒక పాయింటు.దానిని సమర్ధించే వారు కూడా అంతకంటే ఎక్కువగా వున్నారు కదా . ఈ ప్రచార సమాచారాన్ని రూపొందించిన వారు ఆర్‌ఎస్‌ఎస్‌ను ఐఎస్‌ఐఎస్‌తో పోల్చటం అభినందనీయం. విచారకరము, గర్హనీయమైన అంశం ఏమంటే అలాంటి ఆర్‌ఎస్‌ఎస్‌ నేతల ముందు దేశ చరిత్రలో తొలిసారిగా కేంద్ర ప్రభుత్వ నేతలు చేతులు కట్టుకొని తమ పనితీరును సమీక్షించమని నిక్కర్లు వేసుకొని మోకరిల్లారు. మతతత్వం నిలువెల్లా వుందని విమర్శలకు గురైన మజ్లిస్‌ నేతలు కూడా బహిరంగంగా ఐఎస్‌ఎస్‌ను సమర్ధించలేదు. కానీ కేంద్రమంత్రులు, బిజెపి ముఖ్యమంత్రులు, జాతీయ నేతలు సాక్షాత్తూ ప్రధాని నరేంద్రమోడీ తాను ఆర్‌ఎస్‌ఎస్‌కు చెందిన వాడినని చెప్పుకోవటమే గాక దానిని ప్రశంసించిన విషయం తెలిసిందే. ఆర్‌ఎస్‌ఎస్‌ గత చరిత్ర, ముస్లిం వ్యతిరేకత, దానిని బహిరంగంగా సమర్ధిస్తున్న ప్రభుత్వ నేతల వైఖరిని చూసి మైనారిటీ మతాలకు చెందిన వారే కాదు, హిందువులు కూడా భయపడుతున్నారు. పేరుకు సాంస్కృతిక సంస్ధ ముసుగు, రిజర్వేషన్లకు వ్యతిరేకత మొదలు ప్రతి సామాజిక, రాజకీయ రంగాలలో దాని జోక్యం రోజురోజుకూ పెరిగి పోతుండటంతో యావత్‌ సభ్య సమాజమే భయపడిపోతున్నది.

ప్రతి రంజాన్‌కూ ఇప్తార్‌ పార్టీని ఇచ్చే హిందువులను చూస్తాము, దీపావళికి, హోళీకి విందు ఇచ్చే ఏ ముస్లిం నాయకుడినీ చూడలేము అని మరొక అడ్డు సవాలు. గుంటూరులోని హజరత్‌ కాలే షా మస్తాన్‌వలీ దర్గా ట్రస్టీగా హిందువు అయిన రావి రామ్మోహనరావు వున్నారు. మరి ఎక్కడైనా ఒక హిందూ దేవాలయానికి లేదా చర్చికి మరొక ఇతర మత సంస్ధ ట్రస్టీగా ఇలా పరమతానికి చెందిన వారు వుండటాన్ని చూడలేము ఎందుకని? తప్పు పట్టాటానికో మరొకదానికో కాదు గానీ అయ్యప్ప భక్తులు తాము వుపవాసం వున్న వున్న సమయంలో కొన్ని ప్రత్యేక టిఫిన్‌ సెంటర్లలో మాత్రమే తింటారు, హిందువులు నడిపేవే అయినా అన్ని చోట్లా ఎందుకు తినరు? ఇప్తార్‌ విందులకు హాజరయ్యే ముస్లింలు ఏ కులం లేదా ఏ మతం వారు ఇస్తున్నారనే దానితో నిమిత్తం లేకుండా హాజరు అవుతారు. సిక్కులు గురుద్వారాలకు వచ్చిన వారు ఏమతం అయినా అందరికీ ఒకే వరుసలో వడ్డించి గౌరవిస్తారు? అదే హిందూ దేవాలయాలలో అలా చేస్తున్నారా? దీపావళి, దసరా వంటి హిందూ పండుగల సందర్భంగా హిందుమతంలోని అగ్రకులాల వారమనుకొనే కొన్ని కులాల వారు తోటి హిందువులలోని ఇతర కులాలవారు ఇచ్చే విందులకు ఎందుకు రారు, ఇతరులను వారు ఎందుకు పిలవరు? అదే హిందువులలో కొన్ని కులాల వారు తమకంటే తక్కువ కులాలు అనబడే వారిని తమతో సమానంగా విందులకు పండుగల సందర్భంగా అయినా ఎందుకు పిలిచి మర్యాదలు చేయరు? అందువలన ఇతరులను వేలెత్తి చూపే ముందు ఇలాంటి ప్రశ్నలన్నింటికీ సమాధానాలు ఎవరికి వారు చెప్పుకోవాలా వద్దా ?

నెత్తిన టోపీలు పెట్టుకొని మసీదులలోకి వెళ్లి ప్రార్ధనలు జరిపే హిందువులను చూస్తాము, కానీ తిలకం పెట్టుకొని గుళ్లోకి వచ్చే ఒక్క ముస్లిం నాయకుడిని మనం చూడలేదు. అని ఒక ముక్తాయింపు. ఎవరి ఇష్టా ఇష్టాలను బట్టి వారు వ్యహరిస్తారు. ఫలానా విధంగా ఎందుకు చేయవు అని నిలదీయాల్సిస అవసరం ఏముంది? రాని వారు ఎందుకు రావటం లేదు అని నిష్టూరాలాడే ముందు హిందూ మతంలోని దళితులు తాము తిలకంతో సహా అన్ని మర్యాదలు పాటించి వస్తామని ప్రాధేయపడుతున్నా ఎందుకు రానివ్వటం లేదో ఈ ప్రశ్నలు వేసేవారు చెబుతారా? అలా వచ్చిన వారిని కొట్టి చంపుతున్నారు, అధికార యంత్రాంగం దగ్గరుండి దేవాలయ ప్రవేశం చెయించిన తరువాత మైలపడిందనే పేరుతో శుద్ధి చేయిస్తున్నారా లేదా ?

త్రివర్ణ పతాకను తగుల పెట్టేవారు కాశ్మీర్లోనే కాదు, ఇక్కడ హైదరాబాదులో కూడా చూస్తాము అని ఒక ఆరోపణ. అలాంటి వుదంతాలు ఎన్ని జరిగాయి? ప్రభుత్వం ఎందుకు చర్యలు తీసుకోలేదో ఈ ఆరోపణ చేసేవారు రుజువులు చూపాలి. కాశ్మీరులో తప్పుదారిపట్టిన వారు కొందరు తాము భారతీయులం కాదనుకుంటున్నారు కనుక ఆలా చేసి వుండవచ్చు.అలాంటివారిపై చర్యలు తీసుకుంటున్నారు. ఈశాన్య రాష్ట్రాలలో వేర్పాటు వాద ఆందోళనలు తీవ్రంగా జరిగినపుడు మీకు ఒక పాము, ఒక భారతీయుడు కనిపిస్తే ఏం చేస్తారు అని అడిగితే ముందు భారతీయుడిని చంపివేస్తామని తప్పుదారి పట్టిన వారు చెప్పినట్లు మీడియాలో వార్తలు వచ్చాయా లేదా ? ఒక ముస్లిం లేదా హిందువు తన దేశభక్తిని నిరూపించుకోవాలంటే పాకిస్తాన్‌ జాతీయ జండాను తగుల పెట్టి చూపాలని ఎక్కడైనా నిర్ణయిస్తే చెప్పమనండి ? ఎందుకీ మత ద్వేషం. ఓటు రాజకీయాల కోసం పాకిస్దాన్‌ను ఒక బూచిగా, దాన్ని వ్యతిరేకించటమే దేశ భక్తిగా ప్రచారం చేసిన పెద్దలే గతంలో ఒకసారి, నేడు కేంద్రంలో అధికారంలో వున్నారు. వారు ఎప్పుడైనా బహిరంగంగా తమ దేశ భక్తిని నిరూపించుకొనేందుకు పాక్‌ జెండాను తగుల పెట్టారా ?

ప్రస్తుతం దేశంలో సహనం గురించి బోధలు చేస్తున్నది హిందువులకు కాదు, ఆందోళన పడుతున్నది హిందువుల గురించి కాదు, ఆ మతం పేరుతో తాలిబాన్లుగా మారి వున్మాదులై దాడులు, హత్యాకాండలకు పాల్పడుతున్నవారికి, అలాంటి వారిని నిస్సిగ్గుగా సమర్ధిస్తున్న పార్టీలు, సంస్ధల పెద్దలు, గద్దలకు మాత్రమే. సహనం, సహజీవనం అన్నది భారతీయ సమాజంలోనే వుంది. దాన్ని దెబ్బతీసేందుకు కొద్ది మందిగా వున్న తమ సంకుచిత భావాలు, నేరాలను మొత్తం జాతికి ఆపాదించి ఆ మాటున లబ్దిపొందాలని చూస్తున్న జాతి వ్యతిరేకులకు బోధనలు కాదు, హెచ్చరికలు చేయాల్సిన రోజులు రాబోతున్నాయి. ఒక నాడు హిట్లర్‌ను ఆరాధించిన జర్మన్లు నేడు ఆ దుర్మార్గుడి పేరును కూడా పలకటానికి ఇచ్చగించరని తెలుసుకోవాలి. ఒక వేళ హిట్లర్‌ ప్రస్తావన చేయాల్సి వస్తే వాడిని ఆ కుక్క అని వర్ణిస్తారు తప్ప పేరు చెప్పరు. అలాంటి రోజులు వస్తాయని హిట్లర్‌ కనీసం వూహించి కూడా వుండి వుండడు. నిజంగా అలాంటి ఊహే వస్తే కమ్యూనిస్టు స్టాలిన్‌ నాయకత్వంలో సోవియట్‌ ఎర్ర సేనల చుట్టిముట్టినపుడు కాకుండా అంతకు ముందే హిట్లర్‌ను ఆత్మహత్య చేసుకొని చచ్చి వుండేవాడు. అలాంటి వాడిని ఆరాధించే శక్తులకు మన దేశంలో కూడా అలాంటి రోజు రాకతప్పదు, పెరుగుట విరుగుట కొరకే. ప్రపంచంలో ఫాసిస్టు శక్తులకు పట్టిన గతే మన దేశంలో మోరలెత్తుతున్న భారతీయ ఫాసిస్టు శక్తులకు ఒక రోజు రావటం అనివార్యం. ఇది చరిత్ర చెప్పిన సత్యం.

World Farmers News Round Up

28 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by raomk in Farmers, NATIONAL NEWS

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Farmers, Farmers agitations

Farmers raise slogans against PM Modi and Badal in Punjab

Farmers in Punjab raise slogans against PM Modi and Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal while airing their grievances.

India Today Manjeet Sehgal | Chandigarh, November 27,

In a major embarrassment to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, hundreds of agitating farmers on Thursday showed black flags to him and interrupted his Janta Darbar at Bharowal village.

Badal was left red faced when more than 100 farmers under the banner of Kissan Sangharsh Committee entered the venue and shouted slogans against him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Senior Congress leaders today asked the Akalis to seek Chief Minister Badal’s resignation before raising a finger against Capt Amarinder, suggesting a poll to check how people of Punjab felt.Agitating farmers criticised Badal for not addressing their issues and having failed to check instances of sacrilege. The police whisked the farmers away after the chief minister left the venue.

“Let us go for a public referendum and see who do people of Punjab consider to be the most corrupt, Capt Amarinder or the Badals,” they challenged the Akali leaders, while pointing out how Badal from being an ordinary farmer had accumulated wealth worth billions of rupees which was totally unaccounted and disproportionate to his income.

In a joint statement senior party leaders and legislators Sukhjinder Randhawa, Rana Gurjeet Singh, Kewal Singh Dhillon, Rana KP Singh and Sukh Sarkaria while reacting to the Akali statement said that it had already been disposed off by the Punjab and Haryana High Court long before and the Akali government had not the guts to challenge it in the Supreme Court.

“If your government was so confident about the case why it did not challenge the HC verdict in the Supreme Court,” they asked.

The Congress leaders said, “Akalis were feeling frustrated over their declining popularity graph against the rising mass support for Congress and Capt Amarinder. Instead of asking Capt Amarinder to quit, they should better advise their leader Parkash Singh Badal to retire, as that would be in the interest of Punjab.”

Farmers express ire over government’s attitude

M. DAYASHANKAR, The Hindu

They were told to sell their produce to the sugar factory in Kamareddy for low minimum support price

The sugarcane farmers in Karimnagar district are upset with the State government’s decision to divert the sugarcane which was produced under the Nizam Deccan Sugars Limited at Muthyampet in Mallapur mandal to Gayathri Sugar factory in Kamareddy with the MSP of only Rs. 2,600 per tonne, including transportation charges.

Sugarcane farmers here were already worried due to less cultivation of the cane and no subsidy on seed.

They had demanded that the government to provide MSP of Rs. 3,500 per tonne and transportation for shifting the produce to sugar factories in other districts.

Alluru Mahender Reddy, a farmer from Muthyampet village, said that the sugarcane cultivation was had come down from over 10,000 acres to only 1,500 acres in the district due to non-availability of irrigation sources and support from the government to encourage the crop by providing seed on subsidy. Now, the low MSP to sugarcane also become a burden for the farmers to go for cultivation of sugarcane and opting for other crops, he added.

No crushing process

At NDSL-Muthyampet, the sugarcane was crushed for four months period at the rate of 2,500 tonnes per day. However, there has been no crushing process at the plant due to unavailability of stocks. If the plant was readied for operation, it would take another 20 days for functioning. During this period, the crop would be dried.

Hence, the farmers were asked to take their crop to other sugar factory.

Meanwhile, the local farmers have to yet take a decision on the shifting of their produce to Kamareddy for crushing as the government decision was announced only on Thursday.

Majority of the farmers feel that there was no other go and they have to dispose off their produce at Kamareddy with less MSP.
Japan’s farmers dropping sharply in numbers

The number of Japanese people working in the farming industry dropped 19.8 per cent over five years to 2.09 million in 2015, the government said Friday according to dpa.
The fall was due to people quitting farming as they grow older, the Agriculture Ministry said. The average age of those in the sector was 66.3 in 2015, compared with 65.8 in 2010, it said.
In the prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, the region hit hardest by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, the number of active farmers went down 25.4 per cent over five years to 201,382 in 2015.
In Fukushima prefecture alone, the farming population dropped 29 per cent to 77,435 this year from 109,048 in 2010.
About 100,000 residents in the prefecture have been unable to return home in the areas near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station due to radiation contamination. The plant suffered a triple meltdown after it was hit by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

Swiss farmers march against austerity

More than 10,000 farmers marched through the streets of Bern on Friday to protest against government austerity measures.

They came from all over Switzerland and, while the atmosphere was good, their anger was real with calls for fairer prices for their produce and the scrapping of proposals for a major reduction in the agricultural budget.

According to the Swiss Farmers Union, the incomes of farming families are far lower than in comparable industries with this year accounting for a decrease of 11 percent on average. In some cases, prices are at an all time low and no longer cover costs.

Farmers, ranchers protest new farm safety rules at Alberta legislature

About 150 farmers and ranchers rallied at the Alberta Legislature against Bill 6, which would introduce Health and Safety measures on farms.

Dozens of Alberta farmers, their families and even a few animals showed up at the steps of the provincial legislature Friday to rally against the NDP government’s proposed farm safety legislation.

Chanting “Stop Bill 6,” and holding signs, up to 200 protesters — with two miniature horses and a turkey along for the ride — demanded the government halt legislation that would bring the province’s 43,000 farms and ranches under occupational health and safety standards.

Rally organizer Sara Wheale, 20, grew up on a farm near Breton, southwest of Edmonton, and is now raising her own purebred Hereford cattle. The government is trying to “pull the wool over our eyes and not paint us a clear picture as to what they’re doing with this bill,” she said.

She noted that she and many other farmers at the rally weren’t able to attend the nine limited-capacity consultation meetings the government organized.

Labour Minister Lori Sigurdson and Municipal Affairs Minister Danielle Larivee ventured into the crowd, and received an earful from protesters, who said the government didn’t do enough to solicit feedback before introducing the bill.

Sigurdson said later in a written statement the bill achieves “two simple things”: It would allow farm employees to refuse dangerous work and would provide compensation for workplace injuries or deaths.

Other regulations will only be drafted after consultations are completed, she said.

“Statutory protection of farm and ranch employees and the preservation of family farm traditions are complementary goals of Bill 6,” she said.

Many who attended Friday’s rally said the impending legislation could fundamentally change how small-scale family farms operate because they’re lumped in with corporate producers under the bill.

Alberta is the only province without employment standards coverage for farm and ranch workers, but protesters noted other provinces have made exemptions for family farms.

The government is proposing to add occupational health and safety regulations to the province’s farms and ranches, which would give officials the authority to investigate farm deaths and accidents.

The bill would also make Alberta Workers’ Compensation Board coverage mandatory for farm workers as of Jan. 1 and would subject the agricultural sector to labour standards, such as vacation pay and minimum wage.

Naomi McKinney, who has a fifth-generation family farm near Ponoka, said she is concerned the bill takes away choice.

“We would like to be able to choose what kind of insurance we want, rather than being forced to go with WCB,” she said.

Provisions around the kind of work children can do would infringe on her ability to teach her son, Quaid, the skills needed to become a successful farmer, she added.

Quaid, 10, said he enjoys earning a paycheque by raising his own calf.

“I like being able to contribute and help and being able to know that I did something,” he said.

He is learning about feeding, branding and vaccinations and his father and grandfather are teaching him to drive a tractor, he added.

Athena Dyck, who brought her pet turkey Buddy to the rally, said she wants to ensure the bill won’t prevent her from teaching her four children skills on the farm.

“I’m worried about the future of our farm kids,” she said.

Pensioners Samaj appeals Finance Minister to redress the Pensioners issues which 7th CPC failed to address

28 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by raomk in Current Affairs, employees, NATIONAL NEWS

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7th pay commission, pensioners, resentment

BHARAT PENSIONERS’ SAMAJ
(All India Federation of Pensioner’s Associations)
New Delhi -110014

SG/BPS/ 10/2015
New Delhi-Dt. 25.11.15

To
Dear Shri Arun Jaitleyji.
Honourable Minister of Finance
Government of India

Subject : 7th Central Pay Commission report released on 19.11.2015

Sir.

With deep resentment and pain BHARAT PENSIONERS SAMAJ( BPS) the oldest & the largest Federation of Indian pensioners which is a conglomerate of over 650 Pensioners Associations appeal to you to redress the following issues which 7th CPC failed address:

I. Ratio between minimum and maximum: Instead of reducing it is raised which is against the preamble of the Constitution of Indian Republic.

2. Minimum salary has been intentionally calculated to be lower to keep common fitment factor low.Counting employees’ wife as 0.80 unit is gender biase and is totally unjustified. Quantities & rates taken for the items in basket are unrealistic for example Rs 524.07 per month is provided Even the lowest category of Govt. accommodation is not available at this rate. Similarly rate of ‘Dal’ is taken to be 97.84 per Kg. No ‘ Dal‘ is or was available in the market at this rate. Quantity of Milk is taken to be 200 ml per unit per day which is too little for a vegetarian rate of Milk is taken to be Rs 37.40 per Kg which is lower than market rate.

3. According to 7th CPC 2.57 fitment factor is for all employees. But, in fact. 2.81 fitment has been given at Secy level. This is robbing Peter to pay Paul, violative of CPC own recommendation and that of Article l4 of the constitution of India. 2.81 fitment benefit should be provided to all employee without any discrimination.

4. Raising percentage of pension based on sustenance: Analysis given by CPC is silent on sustenance this is unjustified rejection.

5.OROP recommended by 7th CPC for all. But through the jugglery of pay matrix, for promotee officers and group‘C.‘ it will end up only in modified parity. This needs rectification to ensure absolute parity for all.

6. Additional pension at 75yrs of age is denied only because Defence Ministry did not agree this is rather absurd. If Defence Ministry does not want to have it. let them not have it. Why make others suffer on this account?

7. Medical facilities : While the Commission’s recommendations regarding merging of all postal dispensaries with CGHS dispensaries and inclusion of non CGHS covered postal Pensioners are
welcome.

However, its recommendations regarding Health insurance for pensioners do not suit existing pensioners on account of no coverage of existing disease without lock-in period, no provision of OPD facility , payment of premium and less amount of coverage.

Under signed, wish to draw your kind attention to para 9.5.18 (iii) of the 7th CPC and request you to create without delay a combined entity of CGHS, ECHS-RELHS which in terms of 7th CPC would result in a very strong network of health facilities for the Central Government employees/pensioners across the length and breadth of the country.

8.Scraping of New Pension scheme(NPS) :It has come out through 7th CPC report that though NPS was introduced more than a decade back Govt; to date could not firm up rules in this regard. With the result over 300000 employee recruited after 2004 may not have enough funds in their accounts at retirement to ensure financial security. Center and state Govt’s share of contribution is insufficient and these governments are not depositing their contribution in time, investments are subjected to service tax & withdrawals are taxable under Income Tax with the result there would not be enough money for reasonable post retirement financial security. Due to ever rising inflation, this situation will go on worsening year by year and will go out of hand by the time of retirement of the beneficiary. This is more than sufficient reason to scrap NPS & to revert to pre 2004 defined benefit Pension Scheme.

Thanking you in anticipation.

sd/-
-S.C.Maheshwari
Secy. General Bharat Pensioners Samaj

Serious resentment among employees against 7th Pay Commission’s retrograde recommendations : NFIR

28 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by raomk in Current Affairs, employees, NATIONAL NEWS

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7th pay commission, Central Government Employees

National Federation of Indian Railwaymen
3, CHELMSFORD ROAD, NEW DELHI – 110 055

Affiliated to :Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC)
International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF)

No.IV/NFIR/7th CPC/CORRES (MoF)

Dated: 23/11/2015

Shri Arun Jaitley,
Hon’ble Finance Minister,
134/North Block,
New Delhi

Respected Sir,

Sub: Seventh Central Pay Commission’s Report — serious resentment among employees against retrograde recommendations — reg.

There is widespread disappointment and resentment among all sections of Central Government employees against the retrograde recommendations of 7th Central Pay Commission.

In this connection, the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR) places below core recommendations briefly which have generated unhappiness and anger among the employees in Railways as well as those in other departments of the Central Government:-

I. Minimum salary:

The Pay Commission has illogically recommended the minimum salary Rs.18,000/- p.m. We have explained our case through JCM Staff Side memorandum and also during the meetings with the Pay Commission that the minimum wage of the employees needs to be fixed at Rs. 26,000/- p.m. While the Pay Commission has briefly discussed our proposal in Chapter 4.2 of its report, ‘Determination of Minimum Pay’ in para 4.2.5 & 4.2.6 (at Page 61), it is sad to state that the 7th CPC has not only mutilated Dr.Aykroyd formula for determination of minimum wages but also changed Hon’ble Supreme Court’s decision wherein 25% to be added to the salary computed towards meeting the expenses on marriage, recreation, festivals, health, education etc. The housing component has also been reduced to 3%, with the aim to peg the minimum salary at Rs.18,000/- p.m.

II.Fitment formula:

(a) The multiplying factor 2.57 recommended by the 7th Central Pay Commission, vide para 5.1.27 (Page 77) of the Report, is totally illogical. Kind attention is invited to the pay increase granted pursuant to implementation of 5th & 6th Central Pay Commissions in the years 1996 & 2006 as placed below:-

Vth CPC – 40% hike with effect from 01/01/1996.
VIth CPC – over 32% hike (1.86 multiplying factor) w.e.f.01/01/2006

(b) The VIIth CPC has also admitted in its report vide Chapter 4.2, para 4.2.9 (Page 63) the percentage increase of pay in the past as below:-

Vth CPC 31% w.e.f. 01/01/1996
VIth CPC 54% w.e.f. 01/01/2006
VIIth CPC 14.3% (since recommended)

The above facts, reveal that the VIIth Pay Commission has given perverse recommendation on “Minimum Wage” and “fitment formula”, which has led to all – round dissatisfaction among employees.

III. Abolition of Allowances:

The pay Commission has recommended for abolition of various allowances without looking into the background and justification on which those allowances were granted initially.

IV. House Rent Allowance:

Reduction of House Rent Allowance from the present ceiling of 30,20 & 10 to 24, 16 & 8 percent for Classes X,Y & Z cities is not proper. The house rents are very exorbitant in cities and small towns.

The Railway employees are extremely unhappy over non-grant of improved pay scales inspite of the fact that their duties are unique, complex and hazardous.

NFIR, therefore, requests the Government to take steps to modify the recommendations suitably for enhancing the minimum wage and fitment formula through discussions with staff side Federations and see that the atmosphere of confrontation is avoided. There are also many anomalies and aberrations in the report which are required to be dealt through discussions for rectification.

Yours Sincerely,
(Dr.M.Raghavaiah)
General Secretary

Davids Versus Goliath – How Yogi Adityanath had to ‘Go Back’ to …..(err not Pakistan but) Gorakhpur

23 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by raomk in BJP, Current Affairs, Education, NATIONAL NEWS

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Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Allahabad University, BJP, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Purvanchal, Richa Singh, Yogi Adityanath

by subhash gatade

The Pandal was ready.

The Sainiks with their saffron bandanas – who were scattered here and there – were eagerly waiting to listen to another fiery call from their Senapati.

Time was already running out but the ‘Star Speaker’ was nowhere to be seen.

Little did they knew that their Senapati had already made an about turn and was headed back home as the district administration had ‘advised’ him against entering the district and was told that he would face ‘legal action if he dares to do so.’

For Yogi Adityanath, the firebrand MP of BJP, who is widely known for his controversial statements as well as acts and who every other day asks dissenters to ‘go to Pakistan’ , it was his comeuppance moment when he was rather forced to ‘go back’ to Gorakhpur. And all his plans to be the star speaker at the inaugural function of Students Union of Allahabad University – once called ‘Oxford of the East’ – lay shattered.

The Saffron Parivar had made elaborate preparations for Yogi’s welcome to the city taking advantage of the fact that its student wing – namely Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad – had bagged four seats in the elections held for the Student Union. Excepting the President, rest of the posts had gone to their candidates and they felt that for them it was a golden opportunity to generate conversation around their politics which would further polarise the people in this part of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Perhaps then they could raise their off repeated slogan at a higher pitch ‘Purvanchal Me Rehna Hoga, To Yogi-Yogi Kehna Hoga’ ( If you want to live in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, You will have to say Yogi-Yogi)

The only ‘hindrance’ to their well thought out plan was the President of the Union – a student leader named Richa Singh, the first female President in the 128 year old history of the University – who had won on an independent platform duly supported by various left and democratic forces. The university rules mandated that without the consent of the President no such inauguration of the students union can take place and she resisted their proposal to invite Yogi.

In an interview to Indian Express (http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/ausu-president-says-wont-let-adityanath-enter-allahabad-university-campus/) she made her stand clear :

“Yogi Adiyanath is a controversial leader who speaks on communal lines against Muslims. Here we have Muslim students too in the university. If any riot-like situation occurred after his speech on the campus, who will be responsible? ABVP members invited Adityanath without consulting me and that is against the AUSU (Allahabad University Students Union) constitution,” She said any educationist or Union minister was supposed to be invited to the event as “Adityanath has no contribution in the field of education”.

Her simple proposal – ‘An Appeal to Students’ – which received wide publicity made a point that instead of inviting a ‘controversial’ person like Yogi which would vitiate the atmosphere further and would impact the composite heitage of the region in negative ways and would further push back struggles for student rights it is better to invite someone – like President of India, Chief Justice, renowned educationist, scientist or literary figure – who would inspire the whole student community.

As expected the rest of the office bearers of the Union did not agree to it and with due help from a compliant University administration (see the postscript for further details)- which is running without a proper vice chancellor for some time – managed to get an official declaration that Yogi Adityanath would come to inaugurate the Students Union on 20 th November. Infuriated by this unilateral decision of the University administration – which clearly violated the Constitution of the Institution – a campaign was launched in the university and the city to stop Yogi from reaching Allahabad and inaugurate the Union. It was interesting that it received support from different sections of society, not only rest of the political parties – except offcourse BJP – issued statements and came out in support but lawyers, teachers, trade unions and other sections of the civil society also came forward to oppose this invite.

Looking at the fact that the university administration was adamant about its unilateral decision, Richa alongwith her other comrades launched an indefinite hunger strike in University campus. Hundreds of students and like minded teachers joined the Dharna (sit in) and raised voice of solidarity. In a preplanned move the sit-in came under attack in the night of 18 th November where saffron goons allegedly led by one of the office bearers attacked them, Richa and other comrades were badly thrashed, vulgar slogans were raised against the girl students and the attackers even did not spare some senior teachers and civil society activists like Padma Singh who had joined the sit-in. The most disturbing part of the whole episode was that the police remained a mute spectator of this attack.

This attack raised such a furore that the district administration decided to bar Yogi from entering the city and sent him the order ‘requesting’ him to comply with the decision. As expected the members of the Saffron Parivar tried to raise lot of hue and cry over this decision but they could not do anything about it.

Yogi Adityanath, the ‘Lion of Purvanchal’ – in the eyes of the Saffron Parivar – stood tamed, at least for the moment.

The Programme stood cancelled.

The Pandal was removed.

Spirited resistance by students once again demonstrated the oft repeated slogan ‘ Students United Shall Always Be Victorious’.

Post Script :

As we write these lines news has come in that the district administration has written a strong letter to Ms Smriti Irani, Minister for Human Resources Development protesting the ‘callous attitude of the University administration which had created a law and order situation in the city.’ In his strongly worded letter the District Majistrate said that ‘despite strong voices of opposition raised by students, teachers and other members of the civil society the Univesity administration gave permission for the said programme and did not even bother to contact the district administration when situation seemed to be going out of control’ He has asked for ‘exemplary action against the University officials’ ( Ref : ‘Hindustan’ 21 st November 2015, Allahabad Edition)

	SIVARAMAKRISHNA Gunt… on రాముడి సొమ్ము స్వాహా దర్యాప్తు…
	Venugopalrao Nagumot… on అసంబద్ద వాదనలు, అడ్డగోలు మాటలు…
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	pscknr on చైనాతో వాణిజ్యంపై ఆందోళన…

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Farmers raise slogans against PM Modi and Badal in Punjab

Farmers in Punjab raise slogans against PM Modi and Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal while airing their grievances.

Farmers express ire over government’s attitude

Pensioners Samaj appeals Finance Minister to redress the Pensioners issues which 7th CPC failed to address

Serious resentment among employees against 7th Pay Commission’s retrograde recommendations : NFIR

II.Fitment formula:

IV. House Rent Allowance:

Davids Versus Goliath – How Yogi Adityanath had to ‘Go Back’ to …..(err not Pakistan but) Gorakhpur

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Farmers raise slogans against PM Modi and Badal in Punjab

Farmers in Punjab raise slogans against PM Modi and Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal while airing their grievances.

Farmers express ire over government’s attitude

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II.Fitment formula:

IV. House Rent Allowance:

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