tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10487243685111709122024-02-19T20:53:53.184+05:30Kerala LetterBHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.comBlogger384125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-25350882404810775772018-03-11T10:10:00.001+05:302018-03-11T10:20:52.696+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt;">Ensure Life, Land and Self-Rule for Kerala’s Tribal communities</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 24.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Do not provoke them to another Muthanga; Do not
commit them as cannon fodder to the Maoists.</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn415h1HyxdFJzpEnfbgk4W1H5BdcA0x4nYHYuiMFbbb-bEFWlMcy6Dfv4XhqQvC5q-pp3IvHPEMTtX7Oo7nI3qqT4NUwRI-Ab3nW-p-jHp_pX9nHv9FbDTv02pus0PlO8uTkKd35KjKQu/s1600/Mashu+Attapadi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="740" data-original-width="370" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn415h1HyxdFJzpEnfbgk4W1H5BdcA0x4nYHYuiMFbbb-bEFWlMcy6Dfv4XhqQvC5q-pp3IvHPEMTtX7Oo7nI3qqT4NUwRI-Ab3nW-p-jHp_pX9nHv9FbDTv02pus0PlO8uTkKd35KjKQu/s320/Mashu+Attapadi.jpg" width="160" /></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the light of the cries of agony from the tribal
hamlets of Kerala, the last instance of which is the brutal murder of Madhu,
the hungry forest dweller of Attappadi in the Palakkad district of Kerala, that
has shocked mainstream sensibilities, civil society intervenes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The following is a joint statement issued by over
50 activists and writers: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA)
Act that provides for Tribal Self Rule is in force in nearly 1,500 locales in
India. Even with substantial erosion of its emancipatory potential, in the last
22 years assertion of the community will of the tribal populations, as for
instance in the Niyamgiri hills of Orissa, has still been possible through the
Act. Even now it is the PESA Act and the Forest Rights Act that serve as
starting blocks for the protection of Tribal identity and rights in the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The agreements reached between the Kerala Governments
lead by Mr. A.K Antony and Mr. Oommen Chandy, concluding two historic
agitations by the tribal communities of Kerala, have, in principle concurred
with the Kerala tribal communities' right to self-rule. The recommendation to
this effect from the last Kerala ruling dispensation is lying for approval
before the President of India. Giving due credence to the habitat realities of
the tribal populations of Kerala, granting of autonomy and self-rule to tribal
hamlets of Kerala is a matter of due diligence and political discretion of the
powers that be. It is nothing but the inertia and apathy of the ruling
dispensations at the Centre and the State that stand in the way. This is
similar to the fate of the Plachimada compensation bill passed by the State
legislature which has been languishing for years for want of Central approval.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The case for restoration of alienated tribal land
is lying buried among the heaps of cases before the Supreme Court of India.
Political will alone stands in the way of its 'anthyodaya' immediacy. The land
rights and livelihood rights of the tribal communities too have met a fate
similar to their right of self-rule. Maintaining the status quo and continuing
the apathy involve the risk of a repeat of Muthanga, or even more ominously,
the tribal people turning cannon fodder to Maoist adventurism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It is against the above backdrop that we urge a
vigorous and unrelenting campaign by civil society to restore land and
livelihood rights to the tribal communities of Kerala under the overarching
umbrella of Tribal Self-Rule. We demand that the State and Central Governments act
urgently on the matter and ensure that Land and Self-Rule are institutionalised
as inalienable rights of the tribal communities of Kerala.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The signatories include
Medha Patkar, Sugathakumari, M.G.S. Narayanan, B.R.P. Bhaskar, Satchidanandan,
Sara Joseph, K. Venu, Kaleeswaram Raj, K.G. Sankara Pillai, B. Rajeevan, P.
Surendran, T.T. Sreekumar, C.R. Parameswaran, J. Devika, P.K. Parakadav, Neelan
and Khadeeja Mumtaz. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-82745092918890224982018-01-31T10:07:00.001+05:302018-01-31T10:07:27.620+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 20.0pt; mso-bidi-language: ML;">Gandhi
is dead, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Kartika; mso-bidi-language: ML;">Who’s now Mahatmaji?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Kartika; mso-bidi-language: ML;">On the morning of January 31, 1948, a silent
procession was planned in Thiruvananthapuram to mourn Mahatma Gandhi’s
assassination the previous evening. It was to start from the Travancore State
Congress office and wind up on the Shankummukham beach by evening. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Kartika; mso-bidi-language: ML;">As we were preparing to leave the hostel to join
the procession, a friend suggested that we must go wearing black badges.
Everybody agreed with the suggestion, but where do we get black badges? Let us try
a tailor’s shop, said one. Since shops were unlikely to open we decided to go
to the house of a tailor known to us. He came with us to his shop near Bakery
Junction and gave us some black cut-pieces. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Kartika; mso-bidi-language: ML;">We assumed the procession might have started
already and were virtually running towards Palayam when we saw a boy on the road,
hawking a publication, shouting “Mahatma Gandhi Murder Song Book”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Kartika; mso-bidi-language: ML;">We stopped him and took a look at the
publication. It was a booklet. A poet had sat , after learning about the
assassination, and written an elegy, got it printed as a booklet during the
night and engaged the boy to sell it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
long poem began with these banal lines: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Kartika; mso-bidi-language: ML;">Gandhi is </span></i><i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">dead</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Kartika; mso-bidi-language: ML;">Who’s now Mahatmaji?</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Kartika; mso-bidi-language: ML;">The boy had been instructed to join the procession and
sell the song book among the mourners. We did not want the solemnity of the
occasion to be marred by its sale. We drove him away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-67889320553444593912017-11-11T23:06:00.002+05:302017-11-11T23:06:29.480+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Kerala: Solar Scam Reveals Decadent Polity And Society</h1>
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Saritha’s life illustrates the perils to which a woman is exposed in Kerala's public space.</div>
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<a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/people/BRP-Bhaskar/17268" style="border: 0px; color: #014b68; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">B.R.P. BHASKAR</a></div>
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<img alt="Kerala: Solar Scam Reveals Decadent Polity And Society" src="https://www.outlookindia.com/public/uploads/articles/2017/11/11/collage_(8)_630_630.jpg" /></div>
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Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan appears to be on a record-setting spree. Last Thursday he got the State Assembly to hold the shortest session in its history, lasting barely 40 minutes. It was called so he could place before the house the report of the Justice G. Sivarajan Commission which went into the solar scam that had rocked the previous United Democratic Front government. He placed the report before the house in a record six weeks’ time although the law allows full six months to do so.</div>
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Accepting the Commission’s recommendations, his government referred to the Vigilance and Police departments allegations of corruption and sexual exploitation against former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, three members of his Cabinet, two former Union Ministers of State, one MP, two MLAs and two IPS officers, which, too, is a record.</div>
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The solar scandal broke in 2013 when a young woman, Saritha S. Nair, director of a company called Team Solar Renewal Energy Solutions Private Limited, was arrested on a charge of cheating several persons by promising to make them business partners or install solar plants in their premises. Her husband and the company’s managing director, Biju Radhakrishnan, was also arrested. He is now serving a jail term on a charge of murdering his first wife to marry Saritha. </div>
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The scandal assumed a political dimension when three members of Oommen Chandy’s personal staff were arrested for aiding Saritha and Biju in their activities. The Chief Minister himself came under a cloud as he shared the mobile phones on which they and Saritha had stayed in touch. This led to demands that he should resign, assuming moral responsibility for the conduct of his personal staff. But he disowned them and denied he knew Saritha.</div>
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As evidence of the association of Oommen Chandy and other Congress leaders with Team Solar surfaced the Left Democratic Front organized a massive rally to demand the Chief Minister’s resignation. Pinarayi Vijayan, who was then Secretary of the State CPI(M), summoned 100,000 party workers to the capital to surround and paralyze the Secretariat. “Not a fly will enter the Secretariat,” LDF Convener Vaikom Viswam declared.</div>
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The police ensured that one road was open for Ministers and officials to reach the Secretariat. However, aware of the risk involved in letting a large crowd remain in the streets indefinitely, Oommen Chandy offered a judicial inquiry into the scam and Pinarayi Vijayan called back the protesters. </div>
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Thus was the Sivarajan Commission appointed on October 29, 2013. It was asked to report within six months but sought and obtained several extensions and finally submitted a four volume report, running into about 1,000 pages, last September more than a year after the LDF came to power.</div>
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In the first volume, the Commission gave its finding on the first of six items of the terms of reference in these words: “The Chief Minister, his office, his personal assistants, his personal security officer, close party workers and his aide at Delhi are all partisans to the solar scam deals of the prime accused Saritha S. Nair and Biju Radhakrishnan in one way or the other.”</div>
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In the second and third volumes, it gave its findings on the other terms of reference. In the final volume, going out of the terms of reference, it dealt with the affairs of the Kerala Police Association, whose Secretary’s name had come up in the scam.</div>
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For long, media interest on the scam was focussed on a letter Saritha wrote while in police custody giving an account of how politicians and police officials sexually exploited her. She had passed it on to an aide of K.B.Ganesh Kumar, a former Minister belonging to the Kerala Congress (B), which had some issues with the Congress in the UDF. Justice Sivarajan included a version of the letter which was produced before him in the report as an Appendix and recommended that the allegations in it be investigated.</div>
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Pinarayi Vijayan placed the report before the Cabinet which decided to refer the corruption charges to the Vigilance department and the sexual exploitation charges to the Police. Overlooking his own earlier decision not to brief the media after Cabinet meetings, he called media persons and announced the Cabinet decisions immediately. However, he refused to release the report, saying it had to be placed before the Assembly and the government had six months to do so.</div>
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Oommen Chandy wrote to the government for a copy of the Commission report on the basis of which action was being taken against him and his colleagues. He also filed an application under the Right to Information Act. The possibility of his getting a favourable order from the Information Commission or the courts prompted the government to call a special session of the Assembly to make the report public.</div>
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Soon doubts arose about the propriety of investigating sexual exploitation charges without a complaint from the victim. The problem was solved when Saritha came forward with written complaints. However, on legal advice, the government asked the police to register cases against the leaders only after investigations as the accused might raise pleas of mutual consent.</div>
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While placing the Commission’s report before the Assembly, Pinarayi Vijayan, with good sense, avoided naming the persons mentioned in Saritha’s letter and the nature of the alleged sexual offences. Most newspapers, too, showed restraint. However, the entire report was on some websites, including that of the CPI(M) daily, Deshabhimani. </div>
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Saritha’s letter, in broken language, begins in the first person: “Me, Saritha S. Nair. Today arrested on ground of solar scam.” Then there is an abrupt switch to the third person: “Now she hears some problems and allegations. Reports came in news papers. She does not see news papers. But from the talk of the persons with her, attempts are being made to make her alone scapegoat. She understands. Really, who are guilty? She alone? Those who have done wrong can escape? She alone will suffer at last she believes. Really when the wrong-doers are living happily, false stories about her alone out. Who remembers that she has also mother, children and grandma. Instead of killing her inch by inch why not she be killed at a stretch.”</div>
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The letter closes with the names of 17 persons and lists separately her complaints against each of them. All except a few are accused of some form of sexual exploitation.</div>
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The letter seethes with the fury of a woman scorned. Oommen Chandy’s statement that he did not know Saritha appears to have incensed her. If the account is truthful, it follows that she bribed several leaders in cash and in kind.</div>
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Saritha has made so many contradictory statements before television cameras in the last four years that the extent of truth in them remains a matter of speculation. She once claimed the CPI(M) had offered her Rs 10 crore for spilling the beans on the Congress leaders.</div>
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At one stage Saritha’s name figured in more than 40 cheating cases and the total amount involved was said to be more than Rs 6 crore. After coming out of prison she bought peace for herself by settling several cases fully or partly in circumstances that are shrouded in mystery.</div>
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When a Malayalam channel reported last year that Saritha’s letter mentions sexual exploitation by Oommen Chandy, writing in Outlook, Shajaham Madampat said, “In this writer’s opinion, this is an implausible charge....Oommen Chandy is surrounded by scores of men all the time, even in the privacy of his bedroom!” Disbelief was expressed also by N.S. Madhavan, a former IAS officer and noted Malayalam writer, this week in a tweet: “Corruption, possibly, yes. But sexual misconduct?” He described the retired judge’s tabulation of oral and phone sex in the inquiry report as a voyeuristic pursuit.</div>
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The reactions of Madampat and Madhavan show that Oommen Chandy commands greater credibility than Saritha. Her bold declamations have earned her many admirers, male and female, but she remains an enigmatic figure. Is she an ambitious woman who came to grief as she attempted to bed-hop to success? Or is she a hapless victim of predatory male chauvinism? Whatever the answer to these questions, Saritha’s life illustrates the perils to which a woman is exposed in Kerala's public space. </div>
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The solar scam has briefly illuminated Kerala's expanding sphere of political corruption and social decay. While there is evidence of wrongdoing, given the ways of our justice system, the chances of successful prosecution of those named in Saritha's letter appear to be slim. Nevertheless the Commission’s report and the LDF government’s action on it may serve an immediate political purpose. It will keep UDF leaders tied down in legal battles and ease the pressure on the LDF which is coping with allegations of illegalities committed by Thomas Chandy, Minister belonging to the Nationalist Congress Party and owner of a lakeside resort, and P V Anvar, an LDF-Ind MLA and promoter of a water theme park. (outlookindia <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/kerala-solar-scam-reveals-decadent-polity-and-society/304193">https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/kerala-solar-scam-reveals-decadent-polity-and-society/304193</a>)</div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-73047624720812500402017-04-16T10:25:00.001+05:302017-04-16T15:56:19.504+05:30A Dalit poet writing in English, based in Kerala<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUlXnorDpYtwVrj3J_HevQMWTwdIC-ghqDxGxh9W95cY9ee53wvHmG8p9BDLMHoEJDGSe6oDDv9Xv3Z7TmHcOydplJvIZkyiSvwtIKjdeRUtl6MkS55sW11wEP80Q2cgAYNMMSELW7ZCHF/s1600/IMG_20170416_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUlXnorDpYtwVrj3J_HevQMWTwdIC-ghqDxGxh9W95cY9ee53wvHmG8p9BDLMHoEJDGSe6oDDv9Xv3Z7TmHcOydplJvIZkyiSvwtIKjdeRUtl6MkS55sW11wEP80Q2cgAYNMMSELW7ZCHF/s320/IMG_20170416_0001.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Until I saw Letters to Namdeo Dhasal, poems by
Chandramohan S, recently I did not know we had amidst us in Kerala a Dalit poet
writing in English. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There are several novelists of Kerala origin, all of them living
outside the state, who have made a mark as writers in English. There are also a
few poets writing in English, like Jeet Thayyil and C.P. Surendran, who too
live outside the state. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Chandramohan, who appears to be a worthy successor to Kamala
Das, the first Keralite to win recognition as a poet in English, lives in
Thruvananthapuram.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Letters to Namdeo Dhasal is Chandramohan’s second
book of poems. The first, Warscape Verses, was published in 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Chandramohan’s world view is breath-taking.
Shambuka, Nangeli, Marie Magdalena, Jim Crow, Dow Jones and Fredreich Engels are
all in it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Keki N. Daruwala, the renowned poet, writes in The
Hindu:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<h4 style="background: whitesmoke; line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 5.55pt; margin-left: 16.6pt; margin-right: 16.6pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Dalit poetry, based on 2,000 years of experiencing atrocities from caste
Hindus, needs to be handled respectfully.</span><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> <i>Letters to Namdeo Dhasal</i> </span><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">by Chandramohan
S. has just landed on my table.<o:p></o:p></span></span><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 100%px;">
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</tbody></table>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">An easy way out with critiquing Dalit poetry is to say it is political,
quote some lines, and pass on. There is more to Chandramohan. For a Dalit poet
to write in English is itself a political act. But he keeps referring to
‘vernacular rivers’. He is fighting (and deriding) caste and elitism at the
same time. Not only that, he stands up for the immigrant and the third world.
At our malls, ‘A green eyed petrodollar/ Engulfs the third world like a
tsunami.’</span><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></h4>
<h4 style="background: whitesmoke; line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 5.55pt; margin-left: 16.6pt; margin-right: 16.6pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">In a poem ‘Occupied Language’, after talking of abandoned adjectives and
‘vowels lynched and hung upside down’ (like tortured prisoners?) he talks of
colonial symbols on a map and ‘refugees fleeing through edited check points/ to
seek asylum in an alien tongue.’ The poem ends with the immigrant into the elite
language (English, let’s face it) ‘abbreviating his surname’ and then
‘stripping bare the sterile meat of/ An evacuated language.’ I have chosen not
to quote the more telling attacks on caste.</span><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></h4>
<h4 style="background: whitesmoke; line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 5.55pt; margin-left: 16.6pt; margin-right: 16.6pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">A poem on Murugan who hanged himself in Hyderabad (and how the BJP cried
itself hoarse , saying he was not a Dalit) ends with the lines, ‘We become him/
Conform or perish.’ We get defiance: ‘This poem refuses to undergo painful
procedures/ Like the long intrusive questionnaire … before it is granted a
visa.’ (‘The Muse in the Market Place’.)</span><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></h4>
<h4 style="background: whitesmoke; line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 5.55pt; margin-left: 16.6pt; margin-right: 16.6pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">He will not be regimented by those who wear nationalism on their sleeves.
He has a strong ‘Beef Poem’. In ‘Love in the Time of CCTV’, he says, ‘You are
under surveillance when chalk scrapes/ On the blackboard,/ when you walk in straight
lines, march in tune/ To the drumbeats of uniformed discipline/ While lip
synching to the national anthem.’</span><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /> </span></span></h4>
<h4 style="background: whitesmoke; line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 5.55pt; margin-left: 16.6pt; margin-right: 16.6pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I have been unable to mention some beautiful poems like ‘Portrait of the
Woman as Young Woman’. Meena Kandasamy is mentioned in the Introduction. I, for
one, have been following her prose and poetry closely with respect.</span></span></h4>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">LETTERS TO NADEO DHASAL: Poems by Chandramohan S, Published by Desirepaths Publishers, 401 Shree Prutha Residency-2, Shubham Park, Gotri Road, Vadodra 390 021</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Price Rs 150 US$6</span></span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-34787659617218520692017-02-08T08:17:00.001+05:302017-02-08T08:17:50.452+05:30A Cultural Feast at Kozhikode<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFYlu-ycFggkUdwDq4Lx8iQRZmYTfutHx6h5nY61x7drSlf5HUywR0NexqWCEh6aWayX-PgbsQG0Y74nBuIC5BUGDFriFs-tDI3h6S_QeuzEA2AcTuVXQxfn5b11MGa401PGw-SuGKs7ZY/s1600/KLF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFYlu-ycFggkUdwDq4Lx8iQRZmYTfutHx6h5nY61x7drSlf5HUywR0NexqWCEh6aWayX-PgbsQG0Y74nBuIC5BUGDFriFs-tDI3h6S_QeuzEA2AcTuVXQxfn5b11MGa401PGw-SuGKs7ZY/s640/KLF.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<i>With Anand, Zacharia and Sashi Kumar at a panel discussion</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">T</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">here was much
more than book talk at the Kerala Literature Festival held at Kozhikode from
February 2 to 5. It was a cultural feast. Its sweep was breathtaking. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">From
morning till late evening, all the four KLF venues on the beach were agog with
activity. Three forums, named Ezhuthola (Scroll), Aksharam (Letter) and
Thoolika (Pen), witnessed kaleidoscopic changes as one set of writers and
activists stepped aside after discussing a subject for 90 minutes and another set
stepped in to discuss another subject, possibly before another audience as there was constant shuffling of listeners. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There were panel discussions, face-to-face encounters and intimate chats. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Apart
from the leading lights of Malayalam literature, new-generation writers who are
currently making waves by exploring new areas employing new techniques also participated
in the discussions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">KLF was not about Malayalam writing alone. The presence of Indian writers in
English and writers in other Indian and European languages presented interested
persons with a rare opportunity to acquaint themselves with literary
developments elsewhere too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">One
venue, named Vellithira (Silver Screen), was devoted exclusively to films. It
witnessed continuous screening of films, long and short, curated by C. S.
Venkiteshwaran. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
rich fare included tribal dances and a shehnai recital by the legendary Ustad
Bismillah Khan’s grandson, Nasir Abbas Khan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">KLF ventured beyond the worlds of literature, arts and culture and covered several issues of contemporary relevance such as Gender, Caste, Religion and Democracy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">According
to Ravi Deecee, Chief Facilitator of KLF and Secretary of the DC Kizhakemuri
Foundation, organizers of KLF, more than 300 writers from India and abroad
participated in the discussions on about 120 topics. He avers that wide
participation by writers and diversity of topics of discussion make KLF India’s
largest literary festival.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX9-Ar2hHv-9KZnsKF1nbDtNu7cW2Q_Z52nO-eq4FUkN4wAlyBR7-QR2SqugZlv7OwxfKqSj57_Jk_xEK7BVg6Rw1M4RMiJjAKQHA69xMqQlnQ_NNUmgDFOWBUACM-Fm7DBoNdLj6QOOjP/s1600/KLF+Norwegian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX9-Ar2hHv-9KZnsKF1nbDtNu7cW2Q_Z52nO-eq4FUkN4wAlyBR7-QR2SqugZlv7OwxfKqSj57_Jk_xEK7BVg6Rw1M4RMiJjAKQHA69xMqQlnQ_NNUmgDFOWBUACM-Fm7DBoNdLj6QOOjP/s1600/KLF+Norwegian.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <i> Bindu Amat in conversation with Norwegian writer Runo Isaksen</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
year’s was KLF’s second edition. K. Satchidanandan, Director of KLF, said it was
organized drawing inspiration from the success of KLF1 and learning lessons
from its weaknesses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">No body in Kerala perhaps has better credentials than the DC
establishment to organize an event of this magnitude. And no person
perhaps has better credentials than Satchidanandan to head the effort. And certainly no place has better credentials than Kozhikode to host
such an event. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
ultimate credit for the success of KLF belongs to the people of Kozhikode who made
the festival their own. Its leading citizens were part of the organizing
committee, and a large number of students volunteered their services to make it
a grand success. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAIIH-NjhZcuBofILXXOtnHDHVXhavO5wvE-f-PHwGA2txc6MzihYt8ndM8faI_X5PDhYncldjj2VNahk74OgS1CjFrT3SfnkWnX68AntVy-vY8y612ai40WWH_Cae463Kp61S3j01lZf0/s1600/KLF+audience.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAIIH-NjhZcuBofILXXOtnHDHVXhavO5wvE-f-PHwGA2txc6MzihYt8ndM8faI_X5PDhYncldjj2VNahk74OgS1CjFrT3SfnkWnX68AntVy-vY8y612ai40WWH_Cae463Kp61S3j01lZf0/s1600/KLF+audience.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><i> A view of the audience at one of the four venues</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Enthusiastic people moved from one venue to another to become part of the events that
interested them most. There was so much on offer that I doubt if anyone went
away without the feeling that they could not attend every event that interested
them because of time constraints and overlap of events. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
are unmistakable signs of rot spreading in Kerala society. KLF will do well to
explore the social scene more deeply in the coming editions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-48825844455965297382015-12-24T17:15:00.001+05:302015-12-24T17:15:12.208+05:30Foreword to Media Tides on Kerala Coast<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>Media Tides on Kerala Coast by Dr Iris, published by Media House, Delhi, is based on a Univrsity Grants Commission funded research project on the impact of the media on a coastal community near Thiruvananthapuram. Reproduced below is the Foreword of the book.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Kerala is a State with a high degree
of media penetration. High levels of literacy, reading habit and purchasing
capacity enabled newspapers in Malayalam to forge ahead of those in other
Indian languages in the last century and achieve much higher circulations than
them. The radio and the television which made their appearance later also
registered remarkable growth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Media institutions have championed
many causes from time to time and they routinely make claims about the impact
they are making. Often these claims are based on some action initiated by the
authorities in response to their reports. Neither the print media nor the
electronic media has any reliable mechanism for properly assessing their impact
on the society. There are also no organizations to monitor the performance of
the media as a whole or of individual media institutions from the standpoint of
the communities they are seeking to serve. Against this background, Dr. Iris
Koileo’s study of the representation and impact of the media in the coastal
area of Thiruvananathapuram under a minor research project funded by the
University Grants Commission is a path-breaking one. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Kerala’s social indices compare
favourably with those of the advanced countries of the world. It is now a
comparatively affluent State, accounting for the highest per capita income as
well as expenditure in the country. However, there is wide social and economic
disparity within the State. The traditional fishing communities living on the
western coast, along with the Adivasis inhabiting the hills in the east and the
Dalits scattered all across the plains constitute a highly disadvantaged group.
The study looks at the extent to which the media has been able to do justice to
this highly vulnerable section of the population. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">While all forms of media – print,
radio, television –have penetrated the coastal belt, the problems of the people
of the region do not receive adequate attention. On the basis of her findings,
Dr. Koileo has recommended some measures to remedy the situation. They include
creation of awareness in the marginalized community on the ways of the media
and bringing about changes in the media’s policy towards representation of the
community. This pioneering effort clearly points to the need for more academic
studies of wider scope which will help both the media and the society. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">May 9, 2015<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>B.R.P. Bhaskar</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Publishers:</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Media House,</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">375-A, Pocket 2,</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mayur Vihar Phase I,</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Delhi 110 091 </span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><b> www.mediahouseonline.in</b></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><i>Price: Rs 150. US $10. </i></b></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com74tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-34312820569408710482014-11-11T09:22:00.002+05:302014-11-11T09:26:06.239+05:30Teacher seeks V.S. Achuthanandan's intervention to end harassment by partymen<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">M.Sulfath, social activist and teacher
of Government Higher Secondary School, Cheruthazham, </span>Kunnumbram, Kannur District, has
written to Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan drawing attention to the
campaign against her by some persons belonging to the CPI-M and seeking an end to harassment.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTK5y3de2cd-_Gh4W8DgCiKG6dAwcYTCuNA2QGLvQOX0Dnc4Ta0nQtsoxzmCGuoyCIo6bRDDr9CxKecybodti8FKJS14bIjvBRTOjbd9tV_t5aST9EwUeIIBuDFQWYxCibPUUUS_qzW3ra/s1600/Sulfath.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTK5y3de2cd-_Gh4W8DgCiKG6dAwcYTCuNA2QGLvQOX0Dnc4Ta0nQtsoxzmCGuoyCIo6bRDDr9CxKecybodti8FKJS14bIjvBRTOjbd9tV_t5aST9EwUeIIBuDFQWYxCibPUUUS_qzW3ra/s320/Sulfath.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Although
party men are using her support to the Kiss of Love campaign as the
pretext for the campaign against her, the real reason is the support she
gave to the family of a Dalit student who was allegedly the victim of
sexual harassment by a teacher. </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The following is the text of her
letter:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dear Comrade,</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I have been a teacher for the past
27 years. Presently I am working in the GHSS, Cheruthazham,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Kannur. l have been involved in
struggles for women's rights and against sexual assaults on women for the past three
decades. I work in association with Anweshi,, Kozhikode, and the</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">women's magazine 'Sanghatitha’, edited
by the famous Malayalam writer Sara Joseph.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I am writlng this letter to bring
to your notice, the organised attempts by some people including local CPM leaders
to malign me and spread scandals against me in the school and outside, in connection
with a sexual assault case that occurred in the school recently. A dalit girl studying
in 9th standard was asked into the staff room under the pretext of giving a notebook
after the school hours and was sexually abused by Mr. A.Anilkumar, a teacher according
to a written complaint submitted to the school on 17 09.2014 by the girl's guardians;
but what followed from the part of</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">the School authorities was an attempt
to slight the complaint and to save the offending teacher somehow. After the girl's
relatives came to the school with their complaint, the president of the school's
Parent-Teacher Association, who is also the secretary of CPI-M Cheruthazham East
local committee, came to the school. The school authorities took the decision that
it was enough to transfer the concerned teacher from that school and that no other
action was necessary against him. I had requested the Headmaster to view the sexual
abuse by Mr. A <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anilkumar, the teacher seriously,
especially as there had been a precedent of the very same person having shown sexual
misconduct against a female colleague in the same school earlier, as was reported
in a staff council meeting. I also requested him to contact and seek advice from
Child Welfare Committee or Childline, and to initiate legal proceedings against
the offender.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Instead of following the required
legal procedure, what the Headmaster and a few of the staff members did was to convene
a staff meeting on the afternoon of 17.09.2014, allowing even the alleged
offender to participate in that meeting. When I expressed my dissent and
emphasised the need to support the victim, the meeting chose to accuse me of trying
to break the unity among the staff and to disrupt the collective decision taken
by the teachers. As it was clear that the school authorities did not inform the
police of the complaint submitted by the girl's relatives, I had helped the guardians
of the girl to contact Child Welfare Committee. The Childline enquiry team came
to the girl's house and then to the school on 18.9.2O14. They reported the
matter to the police by noon .The police registered a case on the same day.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">However, the accused teacher
influenced the DDE (District Director of Education), Kannur, and managed to get
a transfer on the same day, that is 18.9.2014. The DDE allowed his request for transfer
before taking up any enquiry into the issue. He came to the GHSS, Cheruthazham,
obtained his relieving order, and joined in GHSS Vayakkara on the same day, and
immediately proceeded on leave and absconded.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I had informed Smt. P K Sreemathy
teacher, honourable MP, of the incidents at the school on the night of 17 9 2014
itself. However, neither the party nor its mass organisations took any initiative
for a proper response or protest. The Cheruthazham panchayat president Com. C M
Venugopal visited the girl's house and promised support. There was no other move
by the party against the culprits.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the PTA executive committee and
general body meetings, instead of pursuing the course of justice for the girl victim,
the headmaster and a section of the teachers tried to raise allegations against
me that I was spoiling the reputation of the school and spreading disgraceful news
in the media. In the PTA executive committee meeting, consisting of many local
leaders of the CPI-M also, one of the leaders even threw up a challenge against
me: Do you dare to get the teacher arrested? 1n the PTA general body meeting convened
later, the HM, senior Assistant and other leading members made the evil move to
pass a resolution authorising action against me. It was defeated only because
of the support of a section of mothers who knew the truth of the matter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The HM was so revengeful that I was
denied casual leave, when I applied for it as my stomach was upset.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Mentally oppressed and ostracised
by many of my colleagues there, I have entered on leave.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Another teacher has been appointed
in my place to avoid hardship to students. The school staff, consisting of a majority
of members belonging to KSTA, an organisation affiliated to the left, and a section
of the parent community are spreading wild rumours against me now. As the move
against me was defeated in the PTA meeting the Development Council has convened
another meeting of so-called "local people” and taken a decision that I would
not be allowed even to enter the school. Though I am on leave, when I reached the
school on 6.11.2014 to receive my salary, they used a section of the students to
conduct a demonstration against me, to shower abuses against me and to detain me
at the school gate. I was told that a few teachers including leaders of KSTA also
held a similar demonstration earlier. One of the allegations was that I was responsible
for dragging the HM also into the legal proceedings The Protection of Children
from Sexual Offences Act 2012 says the HM is responsible for communicating the offence
to the police. It is actually as per this provision that the HM was implicated for
his failure to do his duty. I am absolutely innocent about the matter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is quite surprising is the
fact that in this case at Cheruthazham, the CPI-M and its mass</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">organisations which used to
support the victims of sexual abuse are spreading rumours against the offended child
and her mother just because I happened to help this unfortunate victim of sexual
assault in getting legal assistance, I am now being singled out and persecuted through
rumours and obscene posters in the school and its premises by anonymous entities
and so I humbly request you to help the girl who is the victim of sexual assault
and to support me for having assisted her in seeking remedy. I would also request
you to take severe action against those who are spreading malicious propaganda
against me and trying to prevent my access to my school. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Once again I request you to intervene
in order to create an atmosphere that will enable me to continue in the same school
without further harassment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yours truly,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">M.Sulfath</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Cheruthazham</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">9.11.2014</span></div>
</div>
BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-33751000190338908752014-08-21T23:16:00.000+05:302014-08-21T23:16:25.672+05:30Change of heart? Or stooping to conquer?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On the face of it, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s
decision to push for prohibition, beginning April 1, 2015, appears to be a case
of surrender before PCC President V.M. Sudheeran who vigorously resisted the
government’s attempt to permit reopening of 418 bars which were closed as they were working in unhygienic
conditions. However, the circumstances in which the government revised its position
suggest that the Chief Minister may have stooped to conquer. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sudheeran’s resolute stand on the
issue of the closed bars generated considerable popular support in the state.
For long the Congress party has been claiming its policy is one of
stage-by-stage introduction of prohibition but while in power it has been
reluctant to take any meaningful step towards its implementation. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Congress
party was deeply divided on the issue of reopening of closed bars. When its main allies in the ruling United Democratic Front, the Muslim
League and the Kerala Congress (M), rallied behind Sudheeran, Oommen Chandy’s
options were closed. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By going beyond the issue of reopening of closed
bars, and announcing a slew of measures to carry forward the long-neglected liquor policy, the Chief Minister may be hoping to take the
wind out of the sails of Sudheeran, whom the Congress high command installed as
PCC chief before the Lok Sabha elections dismissing his objections. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Kerala, which has a population of 33.4 million and boasts
of the highest per capita income and expenditure in the country, also tops in
liquor consumption. Per capita consumption of alcoholic beverages in the state
is above eight litres a year. In the last financial year for which figures are
available, the state-owned Kerala State Beverages Corporation, which has a
monopoly over sale of Indian-made foreign liquor, registered a turnover of
Rs88.41 billion. It contributes nearly a quarter of the state’s tax revenue. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The steps announced by the Chief Minister today
include limiting grant of licenses to five-star hotels only. It will not only desist from opening the closed
bars in hotels with lower star rating but also not renew the bar licenses of
312 such hotels which will expire on March 31, 2015. The Beverages Corporation
will reduce its outlets by 10 per cent each year.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Partial prohibition was in force in the state since the early days of Independence. It was rolled back by the seven-party coalition government led by CPI(M) leader E.M.S. Namboodiripad which came to power in 1967. Arrack sale was banned by UDF government headed by A.K. Antony in 1996.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Until a few days ago Oommen Chandy had publicly stated that on liquor the government has to take practical decisions and cannot go by ideals. Has there been a sudden change of heart? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There are cynics who
believe that the new policy has been formulated with the fond hope that the high
court will strike it down and pave the way for going back to the previous
position.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">The high court, which
is considering petitions by owners of several closed bars, asked the state government
several times to outline its liquor policy. The government could not do so because
of the sharp differences within the Congress party. The court’s own position on prohibition
has not always been consistent.</span></div>
</div>
BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-33414693644941486712014-07-30T13:04:00.001+05:302014-07-30T13:04:29.895+05:30Some thoughts on the historic Battle of Colachel<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAw2_O8V4AFziuZfeBajGRkDjiLAc619MlFZCvBDtXICpoYLHfeAu8nOMu9FhJX8s_Z6ID-JvLX8JnNQi-WS9z-15cu-O9iA3axa6YuHcg8xwiXgl2Xg93ly8cNbuLqFG2GB7tHnxzLk3I/s1600/Colachel+Pillar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAw2_O8V4AFziuZfeBajGRkDjiLAc619MlFZCvBDtXICpoYLHfeAu8nOMu9FhJX8s_Z6ID-JvLX8JnNQi-WS9z-15cu-O9iA3axa6YuHcg8xwiXgl2Xg93ly8cNbuLqFG2GB7tHnxzLk3I/s1600/Colachel+Pillar.jpg" height="236" width="320" /></a><i> </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i> The Victory Pillar at Colachel in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu which commemorates the victory of the Travancore forces over the Dutch in 1741, said to be the only Asian victory over Europeans in a naval encounter </i></div>
<br />
Was the Battle of Colachel, in which forces of the Maharaja of Travancore
defeated the Dutch in 1741, a naval engagement, as is claimed? If so, the
question arises how the Maharaja, who did not have a navy, take on the Dutch at sea?<br />
The Indian Army's Madras Regiment is due to celebrate the 273<sup>rd</sup> anniversary of
the battle, said to be the only naval encounter in which an Asian force defeated a
European force, with a function at Colachel tomorrow..<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsqaqmhy7SiwzMO8EBsU9muesBDIX-sBSUQckpGtKsAdvwG3qh_HJC6CKdN-NE-vvJPNSlNB2svGBKWasLjR4BBFf_zXdIfJkHPLMhvPNM1A-oZi45_Z48XuAnTMbJlD1A75odIAJE3a5d/s1600/Colachel+Shankh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsqaqmhy7SiwzMO8EBsU9muesBDIX-sBSUQckpGtKsAdvwG3qh_HJC6CKdN-NE-vvJPNSlNB2svGBKWasLjR4BBFf_zXdIfJkHPLMhvPNM1A-oZi45_Z48XuAnTMbJlD1A75odIAJE3a5d/s1600/Colachel+Shankh.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<i> </i>The Travancore state had erected a Victory Column at Colachel to
mark its historic triumph. Engraved on it are these words: “In remembrance of
all the brave men of Travancore Army who laid down their lives in defeating the
superior Dutch forces during the Battle of Colachel in July 1741”.<br />
<br />
In the History of Travancore, which was taught in schools in that princely
state, the Battle of Colachel figured prominently. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It said the Dutch captain, Eustachius De
Lannoy, who was taken prisoner, later served the Maharaja loyally and helped modernize the state forces. He, his
wife and son died in Travancore and were buried in the Udayagiri Fort at
Thackala.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i> The Conch, emblem of the </i><i><i>Travancore</i> State, atop the Victory Pillar</i></div>
<br />
Maharaja Marthanda Varma (1706-1758) was fighting his northern neighbours to
expand his kingdom when the Dutch forces under De Lannoy, after landing at
Colachel, marched to Padmanabhapuram, then capital of the state. He came back to
take them on, and they retreated to Colachel, where the decisive battle took
place. <br />
<br />
Colachel, Thuckala and Padmanabhapuram became part of Tamil Nadu when States
were reorganized on linguistic basis in 1956.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh6e9mzXJiHyDs8cI1w_bqJi0eGWTdh0hqQ2iWLhTjCRSKPQwI3H7uhGNR_O8S1uJ6Ac4-6oScJorsH3NUWF8jP8E3CmHZz2aD6bVgI8MoefOBut73CqtjZcwyu4znI10wTxxlDSyDf1_u/s1600/Colachel-Tomb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh6e9mzXJiHyDs8cI1w_bqJi0eGWTdh0hqQ2iWLhTjCRSKPQwI3H7uhGNR_O8S1uJ6Ac4-6oScJorsH3NUWF8jP8E3CmHZz2aD6bVgI8MoefOBut73CqtjZcwyu4znI10wTxxlDSyDf1_u/s1600/Colachel-Tomb.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<i>The cemetery in the Udayagiri Fort at Thackala on</i><br />
<i>the Thiruvananthapuram-Kanyakumari road where</i><br />
<i>DeLannoy, his wife and son were buried </i><br />
<br />
Colachel was then, and still is, a fishing village. Unrecorded in the
history textbooks and the Victory Column is the part played by the local
fishing community who responded to the King’s call and joined the fight against the
foreigners. However, it is on record that when the Dutch threatened to attack
his state, Marthanda Varma retorted that he and his people could seek the
safety of forests (which he had done earlier when he was engaged in a succession
battle with his cousins who had the backing of some feudal chieftains) and that
he would plan an invasion of Europe with the help of fishermen. <br />
<br />
One lesson the Maharaja could have learnt from the Colachel battle was that
the best way to ensure the safety of the land was to involve the ordinary
people in its defence. He could not do so because the Dharma he was committed
to uphold was based on division of the people and their subjugation. <br />
<br />
The New Indian Express report says tomorrow’s ceremony at Colachel will be attended by Brigadier Samir
Salunke, Station Commander, Pangode Military Station, civil authorities, police
officials, retired officers and local officials. Evidently, there will be none to represent the fishing
community, who made the Travancore victory possible.<br />
<br />
The Madras Regiment’s role as organizers of the function stems from the fact
that after Travancore acceded to India in 1947 the state forces
were merged in it. <br />
<br />
The Madras Regiment, incidentally, has a history of at least 310 years. In 2004, its
9<sup>th</sup> Battalion had celebrated the tercentenary (300<sup>th</sup>
anniversary) of its raising. That makes it a successor of the mercenary army put
together by the English East India Company. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-45995609481863299672014-06-09T15:03:00.000+05:302014-06-09T15:03:28.628+05:30Supreme Court accepts idea of new Mullaperiyar tunnel <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In 2012, C.P. Roy, who was ousted from the
chairmanship of Mullaperiyar Samara Samithi, because he did not favour the idea
of a new dam, met Justice K. T. Thomas, Kerala’s representative on the
Empowered Committee appointed by the Supreme Court, and submitted a <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/c-p-roy-submits-proposals-on-mullaperiyar-to-justice-k-t-thomas/article2825641.ece">memorandum</a>
outlining his proposal for a new tunnel at 50 feet as a solution to the dispute
with Tamil Nadu. </span>
<br />
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Today, when the Kerala Assembly took up the Mullaperiyar
issue for discussion in the light of the Supreme Court’s rejection of the State
government’s plea, Roy staged a demonstration outside the Legislature Complex with a few friends to
draw attention to the Supreme Court’s endorsement of his proposal, which meets Kerala’s
twin slogan “Water for Tamil Nadu, Safety for Kerala”.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Roy distributed an extract from Page 151 of the
Supreme Court judgment, which reads as follows:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">3.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the existing MPD (Mullaperiyar Dam)
project, as noted in Chapter II(b) (supra), a tunnel had been designed with a
D-Section 12 feet wide and 7.5 feet high with provision of the sluice head gate
having sill at El 106.5 ft for diversion of water from Periyar reservoir to
Vaigai basin in the SoTN (State of Tamil Nadu). This tunnel was modernized by
widening and lining in the year in the year 1958. The tunnel can allow
reservoir draw-down to 106.5 ft as per criteria laid down in (i). Storage lower
than El 106.5 ft to an identified elevation based on assessment of likely
distress cannot be drawn-down through the present arrangement of drawal of
water for the SoTN through the existing tunnel.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">4.
Further, digging of a New Tunnel at say at El 50 ft, of course, after
conducting surveys, designs, and techno-economic feasibility studies, with
requisite sluice gates for evacuation of reservoir water from El 106.5 ft to
say 50 ft. These studies will have to be undertaken within a specified time frame.
It goes without saying that the water flow from the New Tunnel can be used for
power generation or for any other purpose by making changes in its existing
infrastructure. Depending upon a decision about the elevation of the New Tunnel
outlet, evacuation of the MPD reservoir will be possible in corresponding time
period.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">a)
The new tunnel will need to be constructed by the SoTN since the ownership of
the existing dam vests in it. The total expenditure for construction of the new
tunnel should be borne by the SiTN. The costs may be small as compared to the
cost of the replacement of the new dam. The SoTN should accomplish surveys and
feasibility studies for the proposal of having a new tunnel within a year.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">b)
The New Runnel say at El 50 ft will enable the SoTN to use additional water
available in storage between El 106.5 ft to 50 ft. At present these waters are
remaining unused.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">c)
More importantly, if this alternative is implemented in an agreed period of
time, the fear perception in the minds of people of the SoK (State of Kerala) will
be set at rest. They can then appreciate that the New Tunnel is going to help
evacuation of storage faster and better, in case the dam develops any distress.
As a gravity dam seldom gives in suddenly, such evacuation will reduce Dam Break
flood (DBF) magnitude significantly. </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">d)
Though the demand of the SoK for 1.1 TMC of water for Environmental Flow is not
substantiated, yet a legitimate need which is yet to be assessed can be met
with after the FRL is raised to 142 ft. A small pipe outlet of a suitable diameter
through right bank hillock can be dug to release…. </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The government and the opposition, who are being led
by some vested interests, have paid no attention to the Roy proposal which
offers a cheaper alternative to the Kerala proposal for a new dam. Instead of
wasting more time on litigation, the government should seek talks with Tamil
Nadu to give effect to the idea of new tunnel, which has already met with the
court’s approval.</span></div>
</div>
BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-25710926811576099772014-06-04T19:45:00.000+05:302014-06-04T19:45:26.536+05:30Campaign to save a 125-year-old school and its tree wealth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <i> A view of Attakulangara Central School, Thiruvananthapuram</i> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Here’s the recent history of a 125-year-old government
school in Kerala. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">1,700 students in 1988</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>1,200
students in 1998</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>200 students
in 2008</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>48 students in
2014</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The school: Attakulangara Central School,
Thiruvananthapuram. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It is located close to the Sree Padmanabhaswami temple in the
East Fort area which has been declared as heritage site. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The school’s list of former teachers includes celebrated
Malayalam poet Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer (1877-1947), former Chief Minister
Pattom A. Thanu Pillai (1885-1970) and well-known social reformer K. Ayyappan (1889-1968).
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The school compound is known for its rich flora. <a href="http://news.entecity.com/tree-walk-in-trivandrum-take-a-walk-to-save-trees/">Tree Walk, Thiruvananthapuram</a>, which made a survey last March found about 60 varieties of
plants there. A study by <a href="http://www.oocities.org/warblersandwaders/">Warblers and Waders, Thiruvananthapuram</a>, in April
revealed the presence of 31 kinds of birds, including migratory ones, there.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I have drawn the above information from an article
by S. Anitha in the latest issue of the Malayalam weekly <i>Mathrubhumi</i> (dated
June 8, 2014). She is an active member of Tree Walk, which is spearheading a campaign to save the school and the trees around it which serve as a lung of
the city. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The school’s experience is symptomatic of that of
many government institutions which have declined continuously over the last
quarter century under successive governments. Now the authorities are looking
upon the property of dying schools as real estate to be used for urban development projects.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Last year the Kerala government’s Revenue department
issued an order directing the Education department, which is in possession of
the school land, to hand it over to the Thiruvananthapuram Development
Authority (TRIDA) to build a bus bay and shopping complex for the Transport
department.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Tree Walk submitted to the government a document
titled Green is Gold stressing the need to preserve the rich natural wealth of
the school compound. It also suggested an alternative site for the bus bay and
shopping complex. However, the government insists on appropriating the two-acre
school compound.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Tree Walk campaign is focused on
the following points: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1. Maintain the historical, cultural
and ecological space that the school is.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2. Find alternative spaces for development
projects.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">3. Evolve a holistic approach to development
of the East Fort area which is a heritage zone and a public hub.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">4. Factor in green lungs, open
spaces, safe walkways, children's parks and de-stress zones into City
development </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">5. Form a panel to analyze the
reasons for government schools becoming uneconomical and to improve the quality
of education and increase enrolment, instead of closing them down and handing
over the land for commercial purposes. </span></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-47139074749307876292014-02-26T20:55:00.000+05:302014-02-26T20:55:39.303+05:30Meet Aam Admi Party's prospective candidate for Thiruvananthapuram<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.oxygenamovement.org/images/responcibalevoice/ResponsibleVoicePhoto/Ajit%20Joy,Supdt.%20Of%20Police,Vigilance,%20Patna.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.oxygenamovement.org/images/responcibalevoice/ResponsibleVoicePhoto/Ajit%20Joy,Supdt.%20Of%20Police,Vigilance,%20Patna.JPG" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>Ajit Joy</b>, a former IPS officer, seeking Aam Admi
Party ticket to contest for the Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram, was among
the prospective candidates who appeared before a screening committee set up by
the party, according to a local <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/Sarah-Joseph-endosulfan-activist-former-IPS-officer-among-AAP-Kerala-list/articleshow/31017210.cms">newspaper
report</a>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Thiruvananthapuram is now represented by Union
Minister of State Shashi Tharoor (Congress). Under the LDF seat sharing
formula, this is a CPI constituency and former General Secretary A B Bardhan
has said the party is considering fielding a non-party man. The BJP is said to
be planning to renominate former Union Minister of State O Rajagopal, who was
among the unsuccessful candidates in the 2009 election.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">After graduating in Law from Kerala University, Ajit
Joy took the civil service examination and joined the Indian Police service in
1992. He was in the Bihar cadre. While serving as Superintendent of Police, he
took leave and studied for LLM at the Harvard Law School in the US. Overruling
the Bihar government’s objections, the Election Commission had ordered him to
be posted as SP at Chapra when Lalu Prasad Yadav sought election from
there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2004, he took leave to set up
practice as Supreme Court lawyer. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Later, he </span><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/IPS-officer-quits-job-to-become-lawyer/articleshow/970100.cms"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">resigned</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
from the service without waiting to complete 20 years of service and qualify
for retirement benefits. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In 2005 Ajit Joy joined the UN Office on Drugs and
Crime Regional Office for South Asia (UNODC ROSA) as <a href="http://www.unodc.org/pdf/india/what_we_do/staff.pdf">Project Coordinator</a>,
Human Trafficking.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When Mahendra Singh, a three-time CPI (ML) MLA from
Bagodar, was killed by hired assassins, Ajit Joy wrote an <a href="http://www.bihartimes.in/articles/general/mahendrasingh.html">article</a>
paying a personal tribute to him, describing him in these words: “For the
police, a nightmare; for the establishment, a terror; but for the people, a
messiah”. He said, as SP of Giridih, he had shared a love-hate relation with
him. He added, “In a land where most MLAs were corrupt, he was known to be a
man of integrity. I respected him for that. However, for revolutionaries like
him, opposing the entrenched interests and arrogance of the state was a
mission. The police, the most visible agency of government, often became the
target of his struggles. He was certainly a pain in the side for us. Which SP
would like to see a national highway that connects Delhi and Kolkata blocked or
his police station picketed? Singh was sure to do all this, to correct some
wrong, highlight some injustice. No assembly session passed by without some
uncomfortable questions from him on the police.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On his return to Kerala, after eight years with the
UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Ajit Joy, 45, began quietly involving himself in
activities dear to him. With a friend, Riju Stephen, a US-returned geologist,
he undertook a ten-day 130-kilometre trek along the Pampa, to study the condition
of the polluted river and assess the progress of the efforts to save it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A newspaper <a href="http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/thiruvananthapuram/Walking-the-talk-for-the-cause-of-Keralas-most-sacred-river/2013/10/30/article1863855.ece#.Uw3tzM7TMy4">report</a>
quoted him as saying later, “A good sewage treatment plant has still not been
commissioned at Sabarimala, which sees an inflow of pilgrims equivalent to the
entire population of Kerala.” His copiously illustrated account of the Pampa
walk can be seen at <a href="http://walkforpamba.wordpress.com/">WalkforPampa</a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On return from the Pampa walk, Joy writes, “Riju
Stephen and I joined a new kind of revolution sweeping the country today. The
revolution of the Aam Admi Party. This is the revolution that guarantees
respect for humans, for environment, for justice, for dignity of the common man
and a clean and decent society.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Be original” was the advice he gave students while
an IPS officer. After Lalu Prasad was convicted and hailed in a fodder scam
case, he <a href="http://www.firstpost.com/india/delayed-justice-and-its-cost-lessons-from-lalus-fodder-scam-1150955.html">wrote</a>,
“The real icing will only come when the loss to the state, that is the Rs 37.7
crores in question, is realized from the convicted….The corrupt should not
under any cost enjoy the fruits of their corruption.”</span></div>
</div>
BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-34696880640925930602014-02-25T19:18:00.001+05:302014-02-25T19:18:10.342+05:30Police attack on woman lawyer: AHRC's urgent appeal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong, has circulated an urgent appeal for intervention in the case of the torture of a woman lawyer by the police at Thrissur, Kerala
state.<br />
<br />
The following is the text of the statement: <br />
<br />
ISSUES: Custodial torture; impunity; police reforms;
professional freedom of judges and lawyers<br />
------------------------------<wbr></wbr>------------------------------<wbr></wbr>---------<br />
Dear friends,<br />
<br />
<strong>The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has
received information regarding the case of brutal attack by the local
police of a lawyer, practising at Thrissur courts. It is
reported that the incident happened when the victim in the
case, Ms. R. K. Asha, went to help her client and friend Ms.
Neethu. The Sub-Inspector of Police, Mr. Lalkumar, stationed
at Thrissur East Police Station not only assaulted the
lawyer, but detained in custody her son, on fabricated
charges and assaulted the lawyer's minor daughter at the
police station. The children had accompanied their mother
since the lawyer was travelling at night. The Thrissur Bar
protested against the incident and has organised a public
rally demanding immediate action against the police
officer.</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>CASE NARRATAIVES:</strong><br />
<br />
According to the information received, Ms. Neethu, a
client as well as friend of the lawyer Ms. Asha, contacted
Asha at about 10:00 at night on 22 February. Asha was home
having dinner with her children. Neethu informed Asha that
she requires immediate legal assistance, since the local
police was trying to arrest and detain Neethu and her
friends.<br />
<br />
Being already late into the night, but willing to help,
Asha went to meet her friend Neethu. Neethu had informed
Asha that the police is trying to take them into custody
from a restaurant in town. Asha took along with her, her son
as well as minor daughter for company. At the restaurant,
while Asha was trying to gather information from
Sub-Inspector of Police, Mr. Suraj, stationed at the
Thrissur West Police Station.<br />
<br />
At this moment, the Sub-Inspector of Police from Thrissur
East Police Station, Mr. Lalkumar came to the scene
accompanied with other police constables. Without
provocation, Lalkumar started assaulting Asha's son and
daughter. The officers also in the meanwhile assaulted
Neethu and her friends and dragged them into a police
vehicle. Before Asha could do anything, the police also took
along with them, Asha's son.<br />
Asha followed the police vehicle to the Thrissur East
Police Station. At the police station Asha tried explaining
to the police officer that her son had come along with her
since it was late and has nothing to do with Neethu and her
friends and for whatever purpose the police have arrested
Neethu. Hearing this, the Sub-Inspector of Police, Lalkumar
pushed Asha out of the police station room upon which Asha
fell down on the ground. Then Lalkumar started kicking on
Asha's leg, wherein Asha suffered serious injuries on her
both legs. Then the police dragged Asha out of the police
station building. Not satisfied, the officer then slapped
Asha's minor daughter. After this the officer asked Neethu
was ordered to sign a release letter and was allowed to
leave. They took Asha to Aswini Hospital where Asha is
receiving treatment. While the police officer was assaulting
Asha and her daughter, they were also using filthy language
against the lawyer, the other women as well as Asha's
daughter.<br />
<br />
There is a background to this incident. About two weeks
before Asha had been to Thrissur East Police Station
concerning another case. At that moment, despite knowing
that Asha was representing her client, the police officer
Lalkumar had misbehaved with Asha, against which Asha had
filed a complaint against the officer at the office of the
City Police Commissioner. Asha claims that the reason why
the officer assaulted Asha on this occasion was to wreck
vengeance against Asha filing complaint against the
officer.<br />
<br />
Asha is a lawyer practicing at the Thrissur Bar for the
past 14 years. Asha is a civil rights activist, has
regularly lectured at the Police Training College, and was a
member of the Thrissur Police Advisory Board. Despite all
this that this officer has dared to brutally assault a
lawyer shows the vested and adverse interest that the
officer entertains against Asha.<br />
<br />
No one should be assaulted at a police station. A lawyer
is the officer of the court, while a lawyer is engaged in
legitimate acts that are covered under the professional
engagement of a lawyer with his or her client. Assaulting
and torturing a lawyer, while the lawyer is discharging his
or her official duties, is equal to attacking the court.
Therefore, the officer has not only committed an act of
torture against a citizen, but has also attacked an
important institution. It is also important at this juncture
to be aware that torture is not limited to acts of physical
attack upon suspects, but also involves acts of violence
that could be treated as punishment.<br />
<br />
<strong>SUGGESTED ACTION:</strong><br /><br />
Please write letters to the concerned authorities listed
below expressing your concern about this case.<br />
The AHRC is also writing a separate letter to the Special
Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers calling
for an intervention in this case.<br />
To support this appeal, please click here: <a href="http://www.urgentappeals.net/support.php?ua=AHRC-UAC-023-2014" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiY21J-j02IBbBmP5AR5Q5jk-EkvE46sCMIYtlVltPMiQ7GvTA1x2qHiO7xoe7lwF85dLcsJamdRm4Aser4dym1zsjFptbdcYrd_j3GUyVbcvuJZ8db18CLp0ens3jFxbU2F2UK-nC9UXoMbhvSV7yhGko=s0-d-e1-ft" /></a><br />
<br />
<strong>SAMPLE LETTER</strong><br />
Dear ................,<br />
<u><strong>INDIA: Torture of a lawyer in Thrissur must be
investigated</strong></u><br />
<strong>Name of the victim:</strong> Ms. Asha R. K.,
Advocate, Thrissur Bar Association, Ayyanthole Post,
Thrissur, Kerala state, India<br />
<strong> </strong><br />
<strong>Alleged Perpetrators:</strong> Mr. Lalkumar,
Sub-Inspector of Police, Thrissur East Police Station,
Thrissur, Kerala state, India<br />
<strong> </strong><br />
<strong>Date of incident:</strong> 22 February 2014 <br />
<strong> </strong><br />
<strong>Place of incident:</strong> Thrissur East Police
Station, Thrissur District, Kerala State, India<br />
<br />
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to
you to express concern about the assault and injuring of a
lawyer by the Sub-Inspector of Police at the Thrissur East
Police Station. The incident reported to the AHRC is as
follows:<br />
<br />
The victim in this case is a lawyer with 14 years of
standing at the Thrissur Bar. Ms. Neethu, a client as well
as friend of the lawyer Ms. Asha, contacted Asha at about
10:00 at night on 22 February. Asha was home having dinner
with her children. Neethu informed Asha that she requires
immediate legal assistance, since the local police was
trying to arrest and detain Neethu and her friends.<br />
<br />
Being already late into the night, but willing to help,
Asha went to meet her friend Neethu. Neethu had informed
Asha that the police is trying to take them into custody
from a restaurant in town. Asha took along with her, her son
as well as minor daughter for company. At the restaurant,
while Asha was trying to gather information from
Sub-Inspector of Police, Mr. Suraj, stationed at the
Thrissur West Police Station.<br />
At this moment, the Sub-Inspector of Police from Thrissur
East Police Station, Mr. Lalkumar came to the scene
accompanied with other police constables. Without
provocation, Lalkumar started assaulting Asha's son and
daughter. The officers also in the meanwhile assaulted
Neethu and her friends and dragged them into a police
vehicle. Before Asha could do anything, the police also took
along with them, Asha's son.<br />
<br />
Asha followed the police vehicle to the Thrissur East
Police Station. At the police station Asha tried explaining
to the police officer that her son had come along with her
since it was late and has nothing to do with Neethu and her
friends and for whatever purpose the police have arrested
Neethu. Hearing this, the Sub-Inspector of Police, Lalkumar
pushed Asha out of the police station room upon which Asha
fell down on the ground. Then Lalkumar started kicking on
Asha's leg, wherein Asha suffered serious injuries on her
both legs. Then the police dragged Asha out of the police
station building. Not satisfied, the officer then slapped
Asha's minor daughter. After this the officer asked Neethu
was ordered to sign a release letter and was allowed to
leave. They took Asha to Aswini Hospital where Asha is
receiving treatment. While the police officer was assaulting
Asha and her daughter, they were also using filthy language
against the lawyer, the other women as well as Asha's
daughter.<br />
<br />
There is a background to this incident. About two weeks
before Asha had been to Thrissur East Police Station
concerning another case. At that moment, despite knowing
that Asha was representing her client, the police officer
Lalkumar had misbehaved with Asha, against which Asha had
filed a complaint against the officer at the office of the
City Police Commissioner. Asha claims that the reason why
the officer assaulted Asha on this occasion was to wreck
vengeance against Asha filing complaint against the
officer.<br />
Asha is a lawyer practicing at the Thrissur Bar for the
past 14 years. Asha is a civil rights activist, has
regularly lectured at the Police Training College, and was a
member of the Thrissur Police Advisory Board. Despite all
this that this officer has dared to brutally assault a
lawyer shows the vested and adverse interest that the
officer entertains against Asha.<br />
<br />
No one should be assaulted at a police station. A lawyer
is the officer of the court, while a lawyer is engaged in
legitimate acts that are covered under the professional
engagement of a lawyer with his or her client. Assaulting
and torturing a lawyer, while the lawyer is discharging his
or her official duties, is equal to attacking the court.
Therefore, the officer has not only committed an act of
torture against a citizen, but has also attacked an
important institution. It is also important at this juncture
to be aware that torture is not limited to acts of physical
attack upon suspects, but also involves acts of violence
that could be treated as punishment.<br />
<br />
I therefore request you to:<br />
1. Undertake an independent investigation in the case;<br />
2. That a judicial magistrate records the statement of the
victim and witnesses;<br />
3. That the officer accused in the case is placed on
immediate suspension from active service;<br />
4. That the officer should be prosecuted.<br />
<br />
Yours sincerely,<br />
------------------------------<wbr></wbr>-----------------<br />
<strong>PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:</strong><br />
1. Mr. Ramesh Chennithala<br />
Minister for Home and Vigilance<br />
Ground Floor, Main Block<br />
Secretariat, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala<br />
INDIA<br />
Fax + 91 471 2327451<br />
<br />
2. Mr. Balasubramanian (IPS)<br />
Director General of Police, Kerala<br />
Police Headquarters, Trivandrum – 695010, Kerala<br />
INDIA<br />
Fax + 91 471 2726560<br />
E-mail: <a href="mailto:dgp@keralapolice.gov.in" target="_blank">dgp@keralapolice.gov.in</a><br />
<br />
3. Chairperson<br />
Kerala Women's Commission<br />
Near Lourdes Church, P.M.G<br />
Pattom, Thiruvananthapuram - 4, Kerala<br />
INDIA<br />
E-mail: <a href="mailto:keralawomenscommission@yahoo.co.in" target="_blank">keralawomenscommission@yahoo.<wbr></wbr>co.in</a><br />
<br />
4. Honourable District & Sessions Judge<br />
Civil Lanes, Thrissur<br />
Ayyanthole Post, Thrissur, Kerala<br />
INDIA<br />
<br />
5. District Police Chief<br />
Civil Lanes, Thrissur<br />
Ayyanthole Post, Kerala<br />
INDIA<br />
<br />
Thank you.<br />
Urgent Appeals Programme <br />
Asian Human Rights Commission (<a href="mailto:ua@ahrc.asia" target="_blank">ua@ahrc.asia</a>) <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.urgentappeals.net/support.php?ua=AHRC-UAC-023-2014" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhz14BMZ6XYutWHM2JrIVVtN3wzHbdbu5LGUq8-_lPmz0n_95DZcQ5w_fOoAZZMLz0m0pa5MWUtk_U_68xi_W6S2vYMz2O2kA6xc55PI8RrakYRfuyTMmJnpgfiTHVFv46zHHZD78jVATr3WsJzTse4XFLP=s0-d-e1-ft" /></a><br />
<br />
<img border="0" height="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhZ3xVZS9lMuf_sfDv2jBvaQQNcMzqqmfmV-Ex13bai-5f0dmBbyKXx4UVQt6nANf0dFlMVV8iBC2H6xM2LhCIBxsqK0G06oiK1HLo_VU8U3clEDizF_slP6xy2GeydtPXTMAaL9QefTR5JXUA0Au_A83Xf9EYhT8nMEb2no1iPpOj6DpLne0A84A1Wn7ovCkLN_oQ=s0-d-e1-ft&m=9953" width="1" /><br /></div>
BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-22064104629114111032013-05-29T11:52:00.000+05:302013-05-29T11:52:20.384+05:30Between sensationalism and suppression<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">The Kerala media which
diligently report developments relating to Malayalees as also others with roots
in Kerala have maintained discreet silence over a story which has been making
headlines in Chennai for a week and has been picked up by newspapers elsewhere
too. </span>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">The story is about a
Mercedes Benz running over three children at the dead of night, resulting in
the death of one of them in hospital. The incident occurred on May 23. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Police allege the driver and other occupants
were drunk.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">It is not clear who was at
the wheel at the time of the accident: the owner, who slipped away from the scene of the accident and is
said to be still at large or his driver. According to newspaper reports, both
of them have alleged that the police is framing them. </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">What has earned the
hit-and-run story big headlines is the VIP angle. The car belongs to Shaji Purushothaman,
son of M.P. Purushothaman, Chairman of the Empee’s group which owns distilleries
and hotels. M.P.Purushothaman’s daughter is married to Vayalar Ravi’s son but
he has connections across the political spectrum. When CPI-M leader Pinarayi
Vijayan was forced to break journey in Chennai while flying to New Delhi for a
Politburo meeting following the discovery of bullets in his laptop case at the airport,
it was to Purushothaman’s house that he drove to spend the night.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">The Hindu is taking in this story
an interest which is uncharacteristic, presumably driven by the compulsions of
competition – this is the kind of thing the Times of India revels in – as also
the current editor’s desire to reshape the paper according to his own light. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">M.P. Purushothaman, apart
from being a prominent businessman, has been associated since long with Malayalee
and Sree Narayana organizations in Chennai. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">The failure of the two large
Malayalam newspapers which have bureaus in Chennai to report developments
relating to this case in their Kerala editions must be deliberate.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Between sensationalism and
suppression, there is an acceptable, professional way of handling events of
this kind.</span><b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">For the benefit of those who
wish to know more, I am giving below links to stories which have appeared in
the national newspapers:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">The Hindu:</span></div>
<h3>
<a href="http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=1&ved=0CCsQqQIoADAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehindu.com%2Fnews%2Fcities%2Fchennai%2Fwho-are-the-purushothamans%2Farticle4760393.ece&ei=4ZqlUePGH4qCrAfqk4DwDA&usg=AFQjCNHnSjtNSZCWYYwGamWT0rqdPn2-jg&sig2=7nq_PYVYxYRR638L2OvJvA&bvm=bv.47008514,d.bmk">Who
are the Purushothamans?</a></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/merc-driver-wore-orange-tshirt-earring/article4760397.ece">‘Merc
driver wore orange T-shirt, earring’</a></span></b></div>
<h3>
<a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/both-shaji-driver-claim-they-have-been-framed-in-accident-case/article4760257.ece" title="Updated: May 29, 2013 at 10:23 IST
Published: May 29, 2013 at 01:45 IST
in CHENNAI">Both
Shaji, driver claim they have been framed in accident case </a></h3>
<h3>
<a alt="Updated: May 28, 2013 at 15:38 IST
Published: May 27, 2013 at 01:31 IST
in CHENNAI" href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/rti-activists-up-in-arms-over-speeding-merc-case/article4753812.ece" title="Updated: May 28, 2013 at 15:38 IST
Published: May 27, 2013 at 01:31 IST
in CHENNAI">RTI
activists up in arms over speeding Merc case</a> </h3>
<h3>
<a alt="Updated: May 28, 2013 at 15:37 IST
Published: May 28, 2013 at 01:37 IST
in CHENNAI" href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/mystery-deepens-over-egmore-car-accident-case/article4757178.ece" title="Updated: May 28, 2013 at 15:37 IST
Published: May 28, 2013 at 01:37 IST
in CHENNAI">Mystery
deepens over Egmore car accident case </a></h3>
<h3>
<a alt="Updated: May 25, 2013 at 08:53 IST
Published: May 25, 2013 at 08:53 IST
in CHENNAI" href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/a-day-later-boy-hit-by-drunk-car-driver-dies/article4747221.ece" title="Updated: May 25, 2013 at 08:53 IST
Published: May 25, 2013 at 08:53 IST
in CHENNAI">A
day later, boy hit by drunk car driver dies</a> </h3>
<h3>
<a alt="Updated: May 29, 2013 at 10:19 IST
Published: May 24, 2013 at 02:13 IST
in CHENNAI" href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/speeding-car-hits-5-at-bus-shelter-in-egmore/article4743754.ece" title="Updated: May 29, 2013 at 10:19 IST
Published: May 24, 2013 at 02:13 IST
in CHENNAI">Speeding
car hits 5 at bus shelter in Egmore</a> </h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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Other newspapers:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=1&ved=0CCwQ-AsoATAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mumbaimirror.com%2Fnews%2Findia%2FVayalar-Ravis-kin-booked-for-accident-that-killed-kid%2Farticleshow%2F20321981.cms&ei=F5GlUdfPCY3NrQeVg4DACg&usg=AFQjCNG3hEDj7dFGn1Bx16ISTPZtOB8wcw&sig2=dC8qNKlko06slT4BKVZQxw&bvm=bv.47008514,d.bmk">Vayalar
Ravi's kin booked for accident that killed kid</a></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Businessmans-son-blames-police-for-accident/articleshow/20319372.cms">Businessman's
son blames police for accident</a></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Businessmans-son-blames-police-for-accident/articleshow/20319372.cms">Businessman's
son blames police for accident</a></b></div>
<h3>
<a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Shaji-had-own-hard-partying-set-of-friends/articleshow/20284584.cms"><em><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Shaji</span></em> had own hard-partying set of friends</a></h3>
<h3>
<a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Tamil-Nadu-business-scion-who-drove-over-kids-on-the-run/articleshow/20284532.cms">Tamil
Nadu business family scion who drove over kids is on the run</a></h3>
</div>
BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-74846830439697008062013-01-21T17:40:00.000+05:302013-01-21T17:41:59.053+05:30Muslim girls break conservative barriers at youth festival<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div>
<b>KA Antony</b><br />
<a href="http://www.omantribune.com/index.php?page=news&id=136131&heading=India">Oman Tribune</a><br />
MALAPPURAM Conservative barriers appear to be fading to a certain extend
even as fundamentalism is gaining strength in a section of the Muslim
community all over the country. <br />
<br />
Sultana Najeeb from Thiruvananthapuram was the star of the day as she
stood beaming like a princess while posing for a photo session after
winning an ‘A’ grade in Bharatanatyam on Day Two of the Kerala State
School Youth Festival now underway at Malappuram.<br />
<br />
Bharatanatyam is a classical Indian dance form from the South Indian
state of Tamil Nadu, which takes inspirations from the sculptures of the
ancient temple of Chidambaram. <br />
<br />
Sitting on a chair opposite to her was none other than Kalamandalam
Khadeeja, the first Muslim girl to defy the diktats of the clerics and
the community 54 years ago to fulfil her passion to learn dance from
Kalamandalam. <br />
<br />
Kalamandalam is a major centre for learning Indian performing arts,
especially those that developed in the southern states of India, with
the special emphasis on Kerala.<br />
<br />
Call it an unexpected meeting between Kalamandalam Khadeeja and young
Sultana, but it meant a lot as to how time is running fast and changes
are taking place.<br />
<br />
It is not only in music, drama and instrumental music and dance closely
linked with Hindu temples that the Muslim girls are seeking new avenues.
<br />
<br />
The surge of Muslim girls into the world of Information Technology and medical science in Kearla is also amazing.<br />
<br />
It wasn’t Sultana alone who made it great in the 53rd edition school youth festival. <br />
<br />
Fatima Shehnaz hogged the limelight through her sterling performance of
‘Nangyarkoothu’ and Manzia from Valluvampuram, Malappuram, who got three
‘A’ grades in Bharatanatyam, Kuchupudi and Kerala Natanam, all Indian
dance forms, were proof enough for the way the Muslim girls are
changing.<br />
<br />
Looking back to the old days, Khadeeja told Oman Tribune that she felt
honoured when a girl from her community came to meet her at the venue of
the youth festival. “I don’t know if she would be aware of the
hardships faced by girls from our community yearning for knowledge and
fresh air. It was forbidden in those days and only a few like Nilambur
Aiysha and me broke the barriers,” she said adding that she is happy
that she could witness a huge presence of Muslim women who had thronged
the venues of the festival.<br />
<br />
“The psyche of the Muslim women is changing and that too fast. But male chauvinism is not on the wane,” she said.<br />
<br />
Khadeeja’s mission is to open a dance school close to her house at Venniyoor near Tirur in Malappuram. <br />
<br />
Tears rolled down her cheeks while narrating the hardships she and her
family had to suffer after she decided to join the Kalamandalam. <br />
<br />
“At that time, my family was in Cheruthuruthy and I was the lone Muslim
girl to get an admission. Those were the formative periods of
Kalamandalam and poet the late Vallathol Narayana Menon was at its helm.
I was one among the seven students selected by him to learn dance. But
my family had to face the wrath. Even my sister’s marriage had to be
conducted without the knowledge of the community,” she said.<br />
<br />
Nilambur Ayisha, who too had bitter experiences said that she should
always welcome a positive trend from Muslim girls in entering the world
of art, literature and theater. <br />
<br />
She was one of the first women from the community to appear on stage. <br />
<br />
“When I decided to act in Ijj Nalla Manushanakan Nokku, written by EK
Ayamu, my mother was horrified and cried. It was inconceivable for any
one in community that a Muslim girl from a conservative family in
Malappuram could become an actress.<br />
<br />
She said the late communist leader EMS Namboodiripad had played a key role in her becoming an actress. <br />
<br />
“Those were the time of social reformation and it was he who had
suggested that it would be great if a girl from Muslim community acted
in plays. I made my debut before a huge crowd at Feroke in 1953. My
family was promptly ostracised, but I continued to act,” she said.<br />
<br />
Rubiya, who had learnt Kathakali, a dance form, had to face the same hardships. <br />
<br />
“God is one and when I pay ritualistic obeisance through ‘mudras’ (dance
gestures) I am imploring not just the Hindu deities but the supreme
creator which we call by different names,” said.<br />
<br />
The hope in their eyes still glittered and as Salim Ideed Thangal, a
senior journalist pointed out, more changes could be expected in the
future.<b> </b>(Oman Tribune, January 21, 2013)<br />
<br /></div>
<img height="4" src="http://www.omantribune.com/images/spacer.gif" /></div>
BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-87723153761989802662012-12-31T10:51:00.000+05:302013-01-21T17:41:04.920+05:30PUCL demands probe into Mavelikkara arrests<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The People’s Union for Civil Liberties have asked Home
Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan to order an inquiry into the illegal
arrest of seven persons at Mavelikkara.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The following is the text of the letter:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
30-12-2012</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My Dear Home Minister,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sub: Request to order an enquiry into the illegal arrest of
seven individuals by the Mavelikkara police: regarding</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An element of compulsion and dire necessity directs me write
you the following. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
We are very much disturbed and perturbed to hear the news that seven
individuals including two minor girls were illegally taken into custody by the
Mavelikkara police on 29-12-2012 from Cherumadom Lodge where they had assembled
to discuss some political issues. They include Mr Gopal, a Scientist from Tamil
Nadu.<br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Immediately on receipt of the information that these seven
individuals were detained at the police station, as a human right activist, I
had made three frantic calls to Ph no 0479-2344342 (Mavelikkara police station).
Curiously, on all the three occasions, the personnel at the other end attended
the phone but deliberately refused to supply any information in a matter where
the human rights of seven individuals were involved. The unwarranted act on the
part of the Mavelikkara police is not at all conducive to a police system in a
democratic country like ours. I was constrained to take up the matter with the
police headquarters and also with Sri V.S. Achuthanandan, the opposition
leader.<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, it is reliably learnt that the five individuals are in judicial custody
while the two minor girls are confined at the nearby Balabhavan. They have been
booked under different sections of ULPA and Section 120-A of IPC, which is very
easy for the police to clamp on them. It is reported in today’s Hindu: ‘Apart
from seizing six mobile phones and a laptop from the detained persons, the
police could not come across any documents or other incriminating evidence that
could establish any Maoist connection’.<br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is quite evident that the Kerala police want to create a
bogey that some extremist groups are operating here and under its shade the
police can wield more powers, put down all the democratic forms of protest
against the anti-people policies of both the Central government and that of the
State government. I am reminded of the statement made by former Central Home
Secretary Sri Padmanabhaya, that the police force in India which is not
professionally equipped is demanding more and more powers under the garb of
maintaining law and order.<br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If individuals who assemble to discuss political issues
affecting them and their dear country in a democratic way are taken into
custody and harassed, the political leaders who are also the powerful
executives of the state discuss and decide to sell out the country to the
American Imperialism and the corporate bodies, are also to be booked under the
ULPA and Section 120-A of IPC <br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is requested that you personally look into the matter,
direct a police officer of proven character and integrity to inquire into all
that is transacted at the Mavelikkara police station on 29-12-2012, restore democratic
way of administration in the state, release all the seven individuals forthwith,
book the police officials for their high handedness, show them their ways.<br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With regards and thanking you,<br />
Sincerely yours,<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
P.A. POURAN <br />
ADVOCATE</div>
</div>
BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-61518894520572786452012-07-19T20:51:00.000+05:302012-07-19T20:51:06.704+05:30കേരള സമരഭൂപടം<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ggddz64p27ayQu24NhuG0jDKfnbEN8Q9d9n7EOLIBX5VVmwl-5V8s00o5kYnzSP1E5Z6SxTHws5V5dDOiFIqL1uWWe-0i258tQh8uoY62gcXneK0oIUuvgBs8OSHPri-M3xnqW2LExV3/s1600/Samarapadam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ggddz64p27ayQu24NhuG0jDKfnbEN8Q9d9n7EOLIBX5VVmwl-5V8s00o5kYnzSP1E5Z6SxTHws5V5dDOiFIqL1uWWe-0i258tQh8uoY62gcXneK0oIUuvgBs8OSHPri-M3xnqW2LExV3/s320/Samarapadam.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
കേരള സമരഭൂപടത്തിൽ ഒപ്പിട്ടുകൊണ്ടാണ് മേധാ പട്കർ കഴിഞ്ഞ ഞായറാഴ്ച തിരുവനന്തപുരം വി.ജെ.ടി. ഹാളിൽ ചേർന്ന ജനകീയ അസംബ്ലി ഉദ്ഘാടനം ചെയ്തത്. തുടർന്ന് സുഗതകുമാരി, കെ. അജിത, സി.ആർ. നീലകണ്ഠൻ തുടങ്ങിയവരോടൊപ്പം ഞാനും അതിൽ ഒപ്പു വെച്ചു.<br />
<br />
സമരഭൂപടത്തിൽ ജനകീയ സമരങ്ങൾ നടക്കുന്ന എഴുപതിൽ പരം സ്ഥലങ്ങൾ അടയാളപ്പെടുത്തിയിട്ടുണ്ട്.<br />
<br />
സമരങ്ങൾ നടക്കുന്ന എല്ലാ പ്രദേശങ്ങളും അടയാളപ്പെടുത്താൻ കഴിഞ്ഞിട്ടില്ലെന്നും അവ കൂടി പിന്നീട് ചേർക്കുമെന്നും ജനകീയ അസംബ്ലി സംഘടിപ്പിച്ച നാഷനൽ അലയൻസ് ഓഫ് പീപ്പിൾസ് മൂവ്മെന്റ് വക്താവ് പറഞ്ഞു. <br />
<br />
(Photo: courtesy Anas Basheer Kaniyapuram<br />
<br /></div>BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-59965665745627197612012-05-31T19:55:00.001+05:302012-05-31T19:55:51.052+05:30T.P.Chandrasekharan murder case: AHRC review of developments<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibJXBft2AHCEdjGuuYshbWREEogp03_pSN6NGHNVqHKsd736ejIu0W-WrokDbF3tmS7kWgglr923n8xDTmod5PcOnvc5GUWauuwUIQdp0xPo__9kHjPnan4r6_l6_4S890Wq8gpROqidK9/s1600/Kerala+Police.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibJXBft2AHCEdjGuuYshbWREEogp03_pSN6NGHNVqHKsd736ejIu0W-WrokDbF3tmS7kWgglr923n8xDTmod5PcOnvc5GUWauuwUIQdp0xPo__9kHjPnan4r6_l6_4S890Wq8gpROqidK9/s1600/Kerala+Police.png" /></a></div>
The political debate that followed the murder of Mr. T. P.
Chandrashekharan in Kerala provided a unique opportunity for
reformation of the policing system in the state. However,
none in the state, not even the police, is willing to take
up the chance and garner the support needed to end the
despicable misuse of the police institution to political
appetites and ambitions. It is both appalling and
disheartening to witness the loss of honour and morale in
such an important state institution, loss which smothers the
institution's capacity to respond to everyday crime and
demand change.<br />
<br />
What made this particular murder so important? T. P.
Chandrashekharan was a politician who had left the Communist
Party of India (Marxist) because of intra-party divisions.
He did however continued his political work with the
Revolutionary Marxist Party, a decision which apparently
irked the CPI(M). It was reported that the CPI(M) reacted to
this perceived betrayal by hiring assassins to murder
Chandrashekharan. On 4 May 2012, a gang of criminals, most
of them arrested since, waylaid the victim and slashed him
in the face 51 times using machetes, leaving him for dead.
Chandrashekharan died later that same day on his way to the
hospital.<br />
<br />
The ruling coalition in the state responded immediately by
issuing statements accusing the CPI(M) as the organisation
responsible for ordering the murder. The CPI(M) countered
those allegations with claims that the ruling party is
engaged in a witch-hunt to corner the CPI(M), the leading
opposition party. The allegations, denials and ripostes
between the two parties continue today, the furore throwing
new light onto the state of affairs of policing in Kerala.
<br />
<br />
None other than the Inspector General of Police in Kerala
issued the first statement that seemed to suggest the
partiality of the police. Within 72 hours of the murder, the
IGP had stated that the murder had been carried out for
private gains; this statement naturally implied that the CPI
(M) had nothing to do with the murder. It is suspicious that
the IGP could have issued such a statement before the formal
investigation had even been concluded. A Special
Investigation Team constituted by the state government then
pieced together statements from suspects in custody that
revealed the assassins had been in constant communication
with CPI(M) leaders immediately before and after the murder.
A local party leader who had been arrested confessed to
arranging a safe house for the assassins and to paying them
a "fee" before and after the murder. The
overwhelming volume of evidence that surfaced within five
days of the murder collectively pointed to the complicity of
CPI(M) in the murder. This soon forced the IGP to correct
his earlier position. The IGP subsequently denied having
made such a statement at all.<br />
<br />
Leaders from the upper echelons of the CPI(M) began issuing
statements for which they would have been charged with
organised crime – in any other context. Statements
include, "…if the CPI(M) wanted, it could
undertake the murder beyond detection… had we been
behind the murder we would also have the honesty to own up
to it as we have in the past…" That a political
party is responsible at all for murder and proudly proclaims
it demonstrates callousness, impunity and disregard for the
law. This is a moral affront to the people of Kerala and for
India. But there is a further truth to be told from such
observations.<br />
<br />
The police in Kerala and throughout India are first and
foremost servants of the people of India, and instruments of
greater goods – justice and peace. The reality is,
however, that the police are not the impartial and
independent body they should be. Neither do the police seem
to desire that independence. A leader of the CPI (M), Mr.
Sitaram Yechury, issued another noticeably more conciliatory
statement that the party would "cooperate" with
the investigation. Such an attitude betrays the corollary of
deciding to cooperate – that an option to not
cooperate with the police is also available to the party.
Can the police even discharge their duties and properly
investigate a crime when a dismissive and criminal political
party is perpetually challenging their authority? Does
justice itself not deserve to be prioritised over the
inter-party mud-slinging and political intrigue? What about
the duty the police owe to justice and to the Indian
people?<br />
<br />
The CPI(M) pre-emptively pointed fingers at the ruling
coalition, slamming it for abusing its authority and
misappropriating police apparatus to wreak vengeance against
a powerful opposition. What is easily overlooked in such
political manoeuvring is the fact that the CPI(M) has only
recently become part of the opposition. Until 2011, the
CPI(M) had been the ruling party and was itself in a
position to exploit state machinery. Contributing greatly to
the building thesis that the police is critically influenced
by political actors is the observation that during the five
years of CPI(M) led state government, the police institution
had drafted the Kerala Police Act 2010. This Act was drafted
by the police, not the legislative assembly which has actual
legal mandate to do so. The lack of clarity, loose and
incoherent use of legal language and successful attempts to
replace the 1861 Indian Police Act with the Kerala Police
Act awarded much unprecedented powers to the police. This
circumvention of institutional safeguards and constitutional
guarantees provided otherwise in the 1974 Criminal Procedure
Code bodes ill for the protection of any individual's
constitutional, legal and human rights.<br />
<br />
While undertaking such an important task (of drafting an
operational framework for the state police), the government
not only did not actively encourage input by impartial
experts but even ignored a draft prepared by a committee led
by world-renowned jurist, Justice V. R. Krishna Iyyer. The
submissions and suggestions by other organisations such as
the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) obviously held even
less weight in the eyes of the government and state police.
The product of such undirected and little informed work was
a particularly good example of how legislations should not
be. The CPI(M) that led the process had no moral or legal
right to subjugate the police. For the police to gain true
independence, the Kerala Police Act of 2010 will have to be
rewritten.<br />
<br />
In another unabashed demonstration of the criminality the
CPI(M) was capable of, another senior member of the party,
Mr Mani, made a public speech extolling the many atrocities
his parties committed. Mr Mani even listed the names of
persons his party had ordered to be murdered over a period
of time. Such horrific acts and shameless confessions
instigate fear among the people, not love and respect. Mr
Mani also publicly abused widely acclaimed social activist
and writer, Ms Mahasweta Devi, for visiting
Chandrashekharan's family following his murder. The words
Mani used against Devi, a writer so honoured by the Indian
nation for bringing it glory and honour, proved rather
ironically to be of a nature too base for even tabloids to
reproduce in their magazines.<br />
<br />
Yet apart from Mani's glaring moral illiteracy, Mani did
also divulge telling information about how the CPI(M) were
able to manipulate police investigations in each of the
murders Mani claimed to possess personal knowledge of. Upon
such scornful exposure of their lack of integrity and
ability to investigate crime, the police were forced to
respond by registering a criminal case against Mani. Yet
they could do little more than that as many 'suspects' had
already been convicted in court trials and the IGP had also
already ordered the reopening of the murder cases.
Furthermore, the police discovered many case diaries that
had contained vital information concerning the corruption of
the investigative process had been destroyed. The reason
provided, and proven true, was that there had been a simple
lack of space for the archival of all the records. This
necessarily implies also that the police officers who had
"tailored" the investigation to fit the purposes
of their political masters could never be identified and
punished.<br />
<br />
Another incident that reflects this noose-tight and highly
unequal nexus between police and politician was when a
former state cabinet minister met a CPI(M) comrade in jail.
After the meeting, the minister allegedly telephoned one of
the investigating officers in the Chandrashekharan murder
and demanded to know why his comrade had been tortured
during questioning. The former minister expressed anger
because he had been expressly assured by the IGP himself
that his comrade would not be tortured since the "case
is politically sensitive". The former minister
threatened that once he regained his office as cabinet
minister he would see to it that the officer is "dealt
with". The officer, fearing for his life, reported the
matter to his superior and police headquarters, who
responded by providing additional security to the
investigating team. Yet no arrest was made, obviously
because the former minister's threat did indeed carry every
possibility of being realised. <br />
<br />
Another troubling revelation was the need for the IGP to
reassure the former minister in the first place that torture
will not be conducted against his CPI(M) comrade. This
clearly means that torture is otherwise "routine
procedure" – a clear violation of human and
constitutional rights. The "favour" and special
treatment given to the former minister and his comrade now
in remand cannot be justified. Individuals stand equally
before the law and should be treated and punished equally
according to their crime. In this aspect, the police should
demonstrate their honour and impartiality as well as a
conviction that they owe allegiance to justice above all
else. This bullying behaviour by politicians against state
police who are legally and morally outside their ambit is
contemptible, yet the police feel unable to free themselves
from this unhealthy relationship.<br />
<br />
None of these concerns haunt the state administration, the
state or the informed people of Kerala. The political
verbosity concerning Chandrashekharan's murder is perceived
to be 'business as usual'. It is only some selected actors
in the state's media industry who have courageously taken up
the task of exposing the moral, intellectual and
administrative wilting of the state police. The police
themselves have not expressed concern about the painfully
demoralized police constrained by the machinations of
perpetually slimy politicians and their "politically
sensitive", politically motivated crimes. <br />
<br />
The police institution lacks an operational infrastructure
congenial to the discharge of the most basic duties. It
lacks moral and legal integrity, a culture of transparency
and accountability, consistency, training and skills needed
for upholding rule of law in a democratic state. And such
disempowerment goes far beyond the physical manoeuvring;
politicians have also mentally disarmed and co-opted the
populace and the police. No one has come forward to
criticise a police leadership that has grovelled, sluggish
and servile, before politicians, helping obscure their
criminal deeds and moral bankruptcy. After years of such
servitude, perhaps it is little wonder an enslaved system
does not and cannot dream of its freedom.<br />
<br />
Kerala's police institution's powerlessness, frustration and
corruption are an embarrassment and a tragedy. This lack of
courage, honour and conviction has pushed the police
institution into a moral and intellectual abyss, where it
lies reeking of corruption and ineptitude not entirely its
own. Its Machiavellian masters manipulate marionette
officers to jail, not jail, torture, not torture, destroy or
create evidence, smile, wave and bow as they see fit. Until
these cords from which the police dangle are severed, first
and foremost through the review of the Kerala Police Act of
2010, there remains little hope in Kerala for reform and
true justice.<br />
<br />
<i>The Asian Human Rights Commission is a Hong Kong-based human rights organization. </i><br />
<i><b>For information and comments contact: </b><br />
In Hong Kong: Bijo Francis, Telephone: +852 - 26986339,
Email: <a href="mailto:india@ahrc.asia" target="_blank">india@ahrc.asia</a></i><br />
</div>BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-21758618457979412122012-05-31T14:24:00.001+05:302012-05-31T14:24:36.240+05:30Opposition to move to erect statue of Prem Nazir<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTaX1nou7kI2Tml3lVcY-D_-keAjiAPTCkhOvJZiYw2jTk-L4mcW3akDoCpg9TGc3HjdTXujAqH7ea79qC76GM68rDnUGL9tsyIC_EvcDUJGPIPc0xXhDmF33rdmMPfJJUtt6G_dQW2Pox/s1600/Prem+Nazir.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTaX1nou7kI2Tml3lVcY-D_-keAjiAPTCkhOvJZiYw2jTk-L4mcW3akDoCpg9TGc3HjdTXujAqH7ea79qC76GM68rDnUGL9tsyIC_EvcDUJGPIPc0xXhDmF33rdmMPfJJUtt6G_dQW2Pox/s320/Prem+Nazir.jpg" width="320" /></a><br /><b>PREM NAZIR</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Kerala Muslim Jamaat Council President P.M.S. Attakoya
Thangal and Secretary A. Pookunju have called upon the community to come
together and oppose the move to erect a statue of Prem Nazir, the Evergreen
Hero of Malayalam cinema.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">According to them, Islam does not permit the
erection of statues.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The Kerala government had recently sanctioned Rs 1
million each for erection of statues of Sathyan and Prem Nazir, stars of early Malayalam
cinema.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The view that Islam does not permit erection of
statues does not appear to have universal approval. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The picture above shows bronze statues of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's Father of the Nation, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, founder of the Aligarh Movement, and Mohammed Iqbal, Urdu poet who wrote the lines <i>Sare jehan se acchha Hindostan Hamara</i>, which were on display at a science and technology exhibition held in Islamabad in 2007.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Two years ago the Pakistan government announced plans to erect a statue of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto at a cost of $11 million.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span>The picture below is that of a statue of Bangabandhu Shekh Mujibur Rahman, Bangaldesh's Father of the Nation, which stands outside a government college in that country which bears his name.</div>
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Visitors flying into Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, are greeted by a sculpture (see picture below) with statues of Ahmed Sukarno and Mohammed Hatta, who were the country's first President and Vice-president respectively. The Jakarta airport is named after them.<br />
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The Turkish city of Istanbul boasts of a statue of Mustafa Kamal Pasha, who led the reform movement in the country after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. (Picture below)<br />
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Until recently a statue of former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel
Nasser, who, along with Jawaharlal Nehru and Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia,
had founded the Non-Alignment Movement, stood in the Libyan town of Benghazi. It
was erected by the Libyan regime to commemorate Nasser's visit to the
city. For reasons which are not clear, after the fall of the Gaddafi
regime, the statue was pulled down. The picture below shows the demolition
operation in progress.<br />
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In India, one of the many statues adorning the precincts of Parliament is that of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, a great scholar who had served as Congress President before Independence and as Free India's first Education Minister. (Picture below)<br />
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I do not think all this will persuade the Jamaat Council leadership to reconsider its stand on the planned Prem Nazir statue. And I do not expect the Kerala government, which shied away from presenting the Raja Ravi Varma Award to the late M.F.Hussain because of the opposition from Hindu fringe elements, will go against the wishes of a body like the Jamaat Council. <br />
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</div>BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-8780931981237826062012-04-12T22:54:00.003+05:302012-04-12T22:54:50.590+05:30Communal politics goes viral in Kerala<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>B.R.P.Bhaskar</b></span><span> </span>
</h1>
<b>Indo Asian News Service</b><br />
<br />
The communal genii whose support the Congress invoked to oust Kerala's
first Communist government more than 50 years ago are still around and
turning the state's politics viral.<br /><br />Across the fractured polity
there is animated discussion on how the decision of the Indian Union
Muslim League, the second largest constituent of the Congress-led United
Democratic Front, to press its year-old demand for an additional
ministerial berth will affect the communal balance.<br /><br />The third
largest UDF constituent, the Kerala Congress (Mani), a camouflaged
Christian formation with a Nair sprinkle, supports the League demand.
However, several prominent Congressmen as well as leaders of the
Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Nair
Service Society of the forward Nair community and Sree Narayana Dharma
Paripalana Yogam of the backward Ezhava community have said raising
League representation in the government will upset the communal balance.<br /><br />While
forming the government after the UDF scraped through with a 72-68
majority in the 140-member assembly in last year's elections, Chief
Minister Oommen Chandy offered the League four ministerial berths, as in
his previous government. However, League president Hyderali Shihab
Thangal named Manjalamkuzhi Ali as the party's fifth minister. Last week
he demanded that Ali must be sworn in along with Anoop Jacob of the
Kerala Congress (Jacob), who won the Piravam by-election and is waiting
to take his late father's place in the council of ministers.<br /><br />Unable
to resist the League's pressure, the chief minister has tossed the
problem into the high command's lap. He has also reportedly proposed
that the League be offered assembly speakership, now held by a
Congressman, in lieu of fifth ministership.<br /><br />The League's
stubbornness and the Kerala Congress's support to it are manifestations
of growing communal assertiveness, origins of which can be traced to the
'liberation struggle' of 1959 which gave the Centre the pretext to
dismiss the Communist ministry.<br /><br />The prime movers behind the
agitation were the Church, which was infuriated by the government's
attempt to curb exploitation of teachers by private managements, a
majority of which are under different Christian denominations, and the
NSS, which resented dismantling of the feudal system of land ownership
dominated by Hindu forward castes. <br /><br />The Praja Socialist Party
and the Indian Union Muslim League, which had influence among Muslims of
the Malabar region, made common cause with the Congress. In the
elections that followed the government's ouster the three parties
together worsted the Communists. Averse to accommodating the successor
of the pre-Partition Muslim League in the Cabinet, the Congress placated
it with the Speakership.<br /><br />After the Congress ended its ties with
the League, the CPI-M stepped in. As its ally, the League got two
Cabinet berths. That helped it earn political respectability. Playing
his cards well in the days of political uncertainty, C.H. Mohammed Koya,
leader of the 13-member League legislature party, became chief
minister in 1979. However, the government lasted only 50 days.<br /><br />The
Kerala Congress was formed by a group of Christian and Nair legislators
who revolted against backward class chief minister R. Sankar and walked
out of the Congress in 1964. It has undergone many splits and mergers,
but its caste/religious composition remains unchanged.<br /><br />The League
is now a part of the state's political establishment. For the past
several decades it has been with the Congress. Since 2009 it is also
represented in the Congress-led government at the Centre.<br /><br />The cry
of communal imbalance is a response to the perceived
over-representation of the minority communities in the present
government. Of the 21 ministers sworn in last year, six, including the
chief minister, were Christians and five Muslims. That made the
minorities, which together account for 44 per cent of the population, a
majority in the government. A fifth League minister will distort the
picture further.<br /><br />However, this is not the first skewed government
in the state's history. In the last Left Democratic Front government
the minorities were heavily under-represented. Of the 21 ministers, only
two were Muslims, although the community accounts for nearly a quarter
of the population. Christians who constitute 19 per cent were better off
with four ministers.<br /><br />Gross imbalance between the forward and
backward castes has also been a feature of successive governments. In
the present Cabinet there are only two ministers from the backward
Ezhava community, which is said to account for 22 per cent of the
population. In the last LDF government, it had six members, including
the chief minister. All four ministers of the CPI were from that
community.<br /><br />The cause of the persistent communal imbalance is the
narrow social base of the political parties. While Hindus constitute
only 56 percent of the population they form 80 percent of the CPI-M
membership. The caste/religious breakup of Congress membership is not
known, but its leadership is widely perceived as a combine of Savarna
elements of the Christian and Hindu religions. The formula the state
leadership has placed before the Congress high command reinforces this
perception. It envisages increased Cabinet representation to the Hindu
forward caste to contain fallout resulting from gift of Speakership to
the Muslim League.<br /><br />The narrow religious base of the League and
the Kerala Congress is just one of the problems. Their geographical base
and gender base too are narrow. More representation for them in the
Cabinet means more men from the same religions and same regions.<br />
<br />
<i>This commerntary was distributed by IANS on April 11, 2012</i><br /></div>BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-73789273016720273562012-04-08T16:58:00.001+05:302012-04-08T16:58:09.161+05:30Plea for professionalism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhopSkvts5JZfGk9WwwlaiIRZt9B_WpfbnN4ZHQPFztucpXkeI_sn6CYUJqURjAVjHsE8YzpE5_u4KJ9pU5cVHLkvvCNxKo2hZi4nONZ_ucKcToPywOMPCTEoOWpL4dtoy94Fd2BJ8JdPK5/s1600/Venkiteswaran+book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhopSkvts5JZfGk9WwwlaiIRZt9B_WpfbnN4ZHQPFztucpXkeI_sn6CYUJqURjAVjHsE8YzpE5_u4KJ9pU5cVHLkvvCNxKo2hZi4nONZ_ucKcToPywOMPCTEoOWpL4dtoy94Fd2BJ8JdPK5/s320/Venkiteswaran+book.jpg" width="203" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span class="author">B. R. P. BHASKAR</span> </b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Malayalam cinema, which scaled heights of glory ahead of
its South Indian cousins, has been down in the dumps for some time,
leading to animated discussions on ways to overcome the crisis that has
gripped it. Against this background, the appearance of C.S.
Venkiteswaran's writings, which appeared in various periodicals in the
recent past, in book form, is timely. </div>
<div class="body">
<br /></div>
<div class="body">
Malayalam
films made an early impact with realistic handling of social issues and
popular resistance. Venkiteswaran, a perspective observer and critic,
attributes the change in the character of cinema, which began in the
1970s, to factors such as breakup of the joint family and introduction
of land reforms. The problems of the individual, especially conflicts
within, now came to the fore. Commercial aspects of the cinema also
gained prominence at this stage. </div>
<div class="body">
<br /></div>
<div class="body">
Later television
arrived and cinema retreated to sex and comedy. Now, he says, instead of
facing the challenge squarely and moving to a new phase, it is seeking
shelter behind fading stars and trotting out excuses like lack of good
scripts. </div>
<div class="body">
He warns the industry that if it does not
address the problem of lack of professionalism, it will be relegated to a
ghetto in this age of globalisation. </div>
<div class="body">
<br /></div>
<div class="body">
Besides
informative articles on subjects like parallel cinema, Third World
cinema, the film society movement and the state of film criticism, the
volume includes assessments of noted film makers John Abraham and P. N.
Menon and landmark films ‘Neelakkuyil' and ‘Nirmalyam.' </div>
<div class="body">
<br /></div>
<div class="body">
The book is profusely illustrated but the pictures are poorly reproduced. </div>
<div class="body">
<br /></div>
<div class="body">
<b><b>MALAYALA CINEMA PADANANGAL: By C. S. Venkiteswaran, DC Books, Kottayam 686001, Rs. 125.</b></b></div>
</div>BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-32938916289333395742012-04-06T16:43:00.000+05:302012-04-06T16:43:03.240+05:30A centenary passing unnoticed<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Year
2012 marks the centenary of the abolition of Marumakkathayam (matrilinear
system) which prevailed in Kerala for centuries. </div>
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The
event appears to have escaped the attention of the media and other institutions
which celebrate with gusto the 90<sup>th</sup> and 100<sup>th</sup> birthdays
of the successors of feudal rulers and take solemn note of the anniversaries of
boat tragedies and tsunamis. </div>
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It
was in 1912 that the Travancore Marumakkathayam Act was passed by which half of
the intestate male’s self acquired property could be gifted to wife and
children. This, in conjunction with the Travancore Will Act of 1899, tolled
the death knell of Marumakkathayam. </div>
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The
Travancore Nair Regulation of 1912, passed by the Maharajah of Travancore,
legalized Sambhandham (conjugal union). It <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>set the context for the 1925 Nair Act, the
1925 Ezhava Act, the 1926 Nanjanad Vellala Act and the 1932 Kshatriya Act – all
of Travancore. It inspired the 1920 Nair Regulation of Cochin and the 1933
Marumakkathayam Act of Madras including Malabar.</div>
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<b>Source:
Directorate of State Archives, Government of Kerala</b> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
http://www.samyukta.info/archives/vol_2_2/features/from%20the%20pages%20of%20history-editor/from%20the%20pages%20of%20history.htm</div>
</div>BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-65622269900735869962012-03-23T10:34:00.000+05:302012-03-23T10:34:25.055+05:30Kerala activists plan march from Nagercoil to Kudankulam<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<![endi--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Anti-nuclear groups in Kerala have
planned a march from Nagercoil to Kudankulam, beginning on Monday, March 26, to
express solidarity with the people protesting against the nuclear power plant
there.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The following is a statement issued
by them in this connection:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The situation in Kudankulam has precipitated to
an unthinkable repression. More than 6,000 police personnel and
paramilitary forces have been deployed around Idinthakarai village, where about
20,000 people from surrounding villages have gathered to protest. While 16
people have started a fast unto death at Idinthakarai, the police have cut down
all essential supplies including food, water and electricity. They are
demanding surrender of leading activists like S P Udayakumar, Pushparayan and
others. Section 144 CrPC has been imposed on the majority of coastal villages
in Radhapuram block. Media entry has also been denied in Idinthakarai.<br />
<br />
A major intervention from the democratic sections of Indian society is required
at this juncture. We have planned <b>a joint march from Nagercoil to Kudankulam
on March 26th (Monday). </b>Different activists groups and organizations
in Kerala are supporting this initiative and we hope to ensure participation of
around 500 people. </span></div>BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-53987568830722087642011-12-10T14:18:00.003+05:302011-12-10T14:34:17.518+05:30People’s tribunal must go into Jayalalithaa’s allegation of land grabThe full-page advertisement under Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa’s signature, appearing in the national dailies today, makes a reference to the interests of land grabbers in Kerala in the Mullaperiyar dam controversy. <br /><br />Following the concerns voiced by Kerala over the safety of the dam, the reservoir level has been kept at 136 feet for the last few years although the optimum level envisaged was 156 feet. After the Tamil Nadu government carried out certain repairs, which were recommended by the Central Water Commission, the Supreme Court had allowed it in 2006 to raise the level to 142 feet. The court said the level could be raised further after further works were carried out.<br /><br />The Kerala government immediately got the Assembly to amend the Irrigation and Water Conservation Act to fix the maximum water level at 136 feet. The Tamil Nadu government questioned the validity of the law before the Supreme Court. Its petition is still pending before the court. <br /><br />In the advertisement, Jayalalithaa states, “It is …reported that when the water level at Mullaperiyar Dam is 136 feet, the water spread area is 4678 acres and that if the water is stored to 155 feet, the water spread area will be 8591 acres. Since water has not been stored above 136 feet for a long time, the water spread area has been encroached upon by land grabbers in Kerala who have built resorts and other buildings on the lands leased to Tamil Nadu. If the water level is increased from 136 feet, these resorts will get submerged in water. This is also cited by some as the possible reason for the plea to decommission the Mullaperiyar Dam.”<br /><br />We who know well about the activities of land grabbers and their political links cannot dismiss her statement as mere grist to Tamil Nadu’s propaganda mill. <br /><br />Revenue Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan told the Kerala Assembly on Friday that rough estimates of the likely damage in the event of a dam break showed that 21,540 people would be directly in the danger zone where the time would be too short for rescue operations and 1,28,460 people more would be affected in the evacuation zone.<br /><br />Quite obviously the figure of loss of three million to four million lives bandied about by he and his colleagues during the past few days was a gross exaggeration. Those who made such irresponsible statements must not only be kicked out of the government but also prosecuted for spreading rumours.<br /><br />The ministers who have been most actively building up a scare by painting a doomsday scenario belong to a party which has always vehemently championed the cause of forest encroachers. As the aborted Munnar eviction campaign of the last few years has shown, land grabbers and their patrons are there in all the major parties.<br /><br />In these circumstances, Jayalalithaa’s allegation needs to be examined. Considering the influence of land grabbers across the political spectrum there is no point in asking the government of Kerala to conduct an investigation and place the facts before the public. Civil society must set up an independent people’s tribunal to ascertain the facts. <br /><br />One question that legitimately arises is why did Tamil Nadu allow the leased land in its possession to be grabbed by resort builders. The short answers is that those who bribe politicians and officials of Kerala can bribe those of Tamil Nadu as well.BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1048724368511170912.post-54379981669891480072011-12-09T16:12:00.004+05:302011-12-09T16:42:06.955+05:30Mullaperiyar: wasted opportunities<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwudtbA3xlZUv3uo255v6ZsVFGYqZjzM14hl3UEtCw52zsQ6hdKTzJUFm46u1MhmOUJiuS-exh1KC6wA8DTuPV11kIvPrdAdQDG-kdOKA2ASBeV2mxywwnfy0JpAXaBX6rUJyQlMEH1yxX/s1600/Mullaperiyar.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 350px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwudtbA3xlZUv3uo255v6ZsVFGYqZjzM14hl3UEtCw52zsQ6hdKTzJUFm46u1MhmOUJiuS-exh1KC6wA8DTuPV11kIvPrdAdQDG-kdOKA2ASBeV2mxywwnfy0JpAXaBX6rUJyQlMEH1yxX/s400/Mullaperiyar.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5684082487276979554" /></a>Kerala’s current agony stems from the fact that there is on its territory a dam which is under the control of the government of another state. <br /><br />In 40 years the government of Kerala has not been able to convince the government of Tamil Nadu that the 116-year-old Mullaperiyar dam has outlived its life and that if it collapses the lives and livelihood of millions of people will be in jeopardy.<br /><br />The Indian government has been in the picture all through. Tamil Nadu’s intransigence has frustrated its efforts to help resolve the issue through talks so far. Maybe it has also found Tamil Nadu’s argument that there is no threat to the dam more convincing than Kerala’s stand that it poses a threat. <br /><br />For several years now, the Supreme Court too has been in the picture. Tamil Nadu has met with a measure of success in that forum. The apex court allowed TN to raise the water level of the reservoir, which had been lowered to 136 feet at Kerala’s request to reduce the risk of dam burst, after it had carried out some maintenance works proposed by the Central Water Commission. It also said TN could raise it further to the optimum level of 156 feet after taking further steps to strengthen the structure. <br /><br />A series of earth tremors which rocked the Idukki district, where the dam is located, in the past few months has aggravated Kerala’s concerns about the safety of the dam. Responsible leaders and the media have played up the issue and spread fear. This has resulted in an emotional upsurge, which is very uncharacteristic of Kerala.<br /><br />Whether the fear of dam burst is real, as the Kerala government insists, or it is artificially created, as the Tamil Nadu government maintains, there are some questions that need to be addressed squarely. Must the people of Kerala remain perpetually at the mercy of the government of another state? Must the government of Kerala, which has a constitutional obligation to protect the lives of its people, wait upon the goodwill of another state government to discharge its duty?<br /><br />The Mullaperiyar dam stands on land leased by the Maharaja of the erstwhile Travancore state to the British government under an agreement signed in 1886. The Dewan of Travancore signed the agreement for the Maharaja and an official of the Madras Presidency for the Secretary of State for India, who was the British minister in charge of Indian affairs. <br /><br />The agreement uses the term ‘lease indenture’. That term conclusively establishes its colonial character. Indenture makes it clear that the agreement was not between equals. The Maharaja of Travancore was a vassal of Britain, which had taken over the administration of India from the English East India Company in 1858. <br /><br />The agreement set the period of the lease indenture at 999 years. The British presumably imagined India would be at their heels for all time. The Maharaja of Travancore certainly was reconciled to remaining a vassal for 1,000 years. <br /><br />Under the lease agreement, Travancore made available 100 acres of land for the dam and 8,000 acres for the reservoir. The dam was built by British military engineers and it remained under the control of the Madras government.<br /><br />The legal position is that the indenture ended when India became independent in 1947. Thereafter the government of Travancore and those of Travancore-Cochin and Kerala, made several unsuccessful attempts to sign a new agreement. The government of Madras and that of Tamil Nadu were determined to keep the advantage the colonial-era agreement gave them. Since the Travancore government and its successors scrupulously adhered to all terms of the lapsed agreement the authorities in Madras were in no hurry to go in for a new one. <br /><br />The situation changed somewhat in 1970. Tamil Nadu wanted a new agreement as it wanted to use the waters of the Periyar for power generation also. The original agreement only provided for their use for irrigation. <br /><br />The government of Kerala failed to use the opportunity to end the anomalous situation of another government controlling the dam located in its territory. The responsibility for the lapse lies at the door of the political parties which wielded power in the state at the relevant time. They fell in line with the wishes of their national leadership, which backed Tamil Nadu's demand. Ironically, the leaders of these very parties are now vying with one another to be recognized as the most vocal champions of the state’s interests.BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com2