Things have come to a grinding halt on this tiny space in the blog-world ever since me returned willy-nilly to student life and shifted base to Chennai. I am beset, these days, with small, lame, insubstantial assignments that should be a walk in the park but take hours and hours. The victims of this atrocity are reading, blogging and other enjoyable pursuits that characterized those tough days as a dedicated corporate employee in Hyderabad.
Now that it's clear that I actually like this place, let me post a forward I recently received(I know-posting a forward is cheap blogging but still..). It's not unique but it seemed a very holistic take on the innumerable 'villains' that plague India.
"
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
NDTV, AAJTAK, BBC show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food..........
The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter Mayawati states this as `injustice' done on Minorities........
Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper..........
The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance)........
Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bengal Bandh' in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry..........CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers..........
Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'............
Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter............. ***
Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation ' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services.The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes,it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV**.
Arundhati Roy calls it ' A Triumph of Justice'.Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice '.CPM calls it the ' Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden '.Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly. Many years later.... *
The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley.100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India.
......AND
As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the grasshoppers, .
.
.
.
India is still a developing country…!!!
"
I know this is a forward and deserves only so much respect, but the ingenuity here is amazing. NDTV celebrates reservation? I thought this was reality in their studios. And how brilliant is the move which brings Medha Patkar, Arundhati Roy, Mayawati, the CPI(M), Amnesty International, The Indian Government and POTA to support the same cause!!!
Enough said. Stop going over it again and again!
"As a result of losing a lot of hard working Ants...."
No..!!!
Showing posts with label POTA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label POTA. Show all posts
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Thursday, May 15, 2008
POTA and Sons Inc.
It's one year since Dr.Binayak Sen was arrested, a full year during the course of which almost every wing of the Indian state combined to put a committed social worker behind bars on the basis of flawed evidence and coerced testimonials. Dr. Sen, who campaigned relentlessly against the extra-constitutional "Salwa Judm" in Chattisgarh, was/is accused of colluding with terror-the one charge that will ensure that institutions/individuals normally accustomed to voicing their opinion keep silent and entrust everything to the Government.
The strange case of Dr.Sen slithered to the underside of public(you know what I mean) memory, kept alive by a few voices which were generally ignored. In April, The Supreme Court expressed its disapproval of the basic idea behind the
creation of an organization like the Salwa Judm, thus vindicating the stand of Dr. Sen and his comrades.
The state government however, not only refused to relent on Dr.Sen's case, but carried out another arrest in almost similarly shocking circumstances. The arrest of T.G Ajay under the CPSA (Chattisgarh Public Security Act) on the 5th of May and the conferral of The Jonathan Mann award for Global Health and Human Rights on Dr.Sen have seemingly awakened erstwhile silent sections of civil society to this issue. The demonstrations, petitions and marches have begun and will hopefully intensify. However there is one broader trend that must be isolated and resisted, since it goes beyond these particular cases and contexts.
I am referring of course, to the CPSA and its brother laws.
The blog for the "Campaign for Peace and Justice in Chattisgarh" has a link to the copy of the Act as well as a review of the Act by the People's Union for Democratic Rights.
A very cursory reading of the Act itself indicates the immense potential for the misuse of this act and the severe restrictions on review of decisions made under this Act(The Government is the only agent empowered to call for an Advisory Board). The CPSA is yet another bastard offspring of the "War on Terror" and its true significance can only been understood when studied in the global context. Of course oppressive laws abounded even before, but 9-11 and the incidents that followed proved to be a boon for those believed that tough measures like POTA or CPSA are the solutions to issues of public security. The recent bomb blasts in Jaipur saw a great deal of noise about the need to act tough on terror. There were even calls for POTA to be brought back from the place it was rightly consigned to after the NDA was thrown out in 2004.
The most important temptation to be resisted is this-the belief that a hastily-crafted law without any of the proper safeguards necessary can, on its own, solve all those issues that give rise to terrorism. Statistical evidence aside, common sense alone is enough to tell one that centralization in law-making is not the strategy to combat terror structures that are getting increasing de-centralized. Centralized(those that effectively end up concentrating power in fewer hands), coercive laws invariably end up affecting those at the margins, alienating them further and stretching the fabric of the state to its breaking point. However this is something that happens over a longer period of time and the myopic comfort provided by harsh and effective sounding laws often trumps considerations about the society of the future.
A cautionary note must be sounded here in the context of liberal voices associating a preference for these kinds of laws with "communal forces". While it's true that the Sangh Parivar has been in the forefront of advocating such laws, it is also to be remembered that there is as great a mass of the populace, which while distancing itself from the Parivar's agenda, firmly believes that the nation must take a "strong" stand against terror. This group is the "swing group", the one which must be engaged if we are ever to be saved from the indignity of our Democratic state transforming into a complete Police State.
The strange case of Dr.Sen slithered to the underside of public(you know what I mean) memory, kept alive by a few voices which were generally ignored. In April, The Supreme Court expressed its disapproval of the basic idea behind the
creation of an organization like the Salwa Judm, thus vindicating the stand of Dr. Sen and his comrades.
The state government however, not only refused to relent on Dr.Sen's case, but carried out another arrest in almost similarly shocking circumstances. The arrest of T.G Ajay under the CPSA (Chattisgarh Public Security Act) on the 5th of May and the conferral of The Jonathan Mann award for Global Health and Human Rights on Dr.Sen have seemingly awakened erstwhile silent sections of civil society to this issue. The demonstrations, petitions and marches have begun and will hopefully intensify. However there is one broader trend that must be isolated and resisted, since it goes beyond these particular cases and contexts.
I am referring of course, to the CPSA and its brother laws.
The blog for the "Campaign for Peace and Justice in Chattisgarh" has a link to the copy of the Act as well as a review of the Act by the People's Union for Democratic Rights.
A very cursory reading of the Act itself indicates the immense potential for the misuse of this act and the severe restrictions on review of decisions made under this Act(The Government is the only agent empowered to call for an Advisory Board). The CPSA is yet another bastard offspring of the "War on Terror" and its true significance can only been understood when studied in the global context. Of course oppressive laws abounded even before, but 9-11 and the incidents that followed proved to be a boon for those believed that tough measures like POTA or CPSA are the solutions to issues of public security. The recent bomb blasts in Jaipur saw a great deal of noise about the need to act tough on terror. There were even calls for POTA to be brought back from the place it was rightly consigned to after the NDA was thrown out in 2004.
The most important temptation to be resisted is this-the belief that a hastily-crafted law without any of the proper safeguards necessary can, on its own, solve all those issues that give rise to terrorism. Statistical evidence aside, common sense alone is enough to tell one that centralization in law-making is not the strategy to combat terror structures that are getting increasing de-centralized. Centralized(those that effectively end up concentrating power in fewer hands), coercive laws invariably end up affecting those at the margins, alienating them further and stretching the fabric of the state to its breaking point. However this is something that happens over a longer period of time and the myopic comfort provided by harsh and effective sounding laws often trumps considerations about the society of the future.
A cautionary note must be sounded here in the context of liberal voices associating a preference for these kinds of laws with "communal forces". While it's true that the Sangh Parivar has been in the forefront of advocating such laws, it is also to be remembered that there is as great a mass of the populace, which while distancing itself from the Parivar's agenda, firmly believes that the nation must take a "strong" stand against terror. This group is the "swing group", the one which must be engaged if we are ever to be saved from the indignity of our Democratic state transforming into a complete Police State.
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