Anna Hazare's fast: a political alternative is a must

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It would be wrong to presume that all those who participated, in whatever manner, in Anna Hazare's first and second fast for enactment of the Jan Lokpal Bill, have lost faith in him or his ways. The ways are important because the entire process of fighting for the Jan Lokpal Bill started with the Jasmine Revolution running in the background for inspiration and immediate reference. The Jasmine Revolution of course was successful because almost entire nations communed with the soul of what we can call Gandhian Philosophy or the soul of Gandhi itself. Why did people actually come out in support of Anna Hazare? Who were these people who took to the streets on Anna's call? And how many of those who came out have actually pulled themselves back and why? Anna drew support from people from all walks of life. There were students including those....

Killed for nothing: CBI chargesheet in Shehla Masood murder case

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will file its chargesheet in the sensational Shehla Masood murder case in the special CBI court in Indore on Friday. Shehla an upwardly mobile educated Muslim girl who graduated from an event manger to a RTI activist/animal rights activist/anti corruption crusader, was gunned down outside her house in the Kohefiza area of Bhopal on August 16, 2011 seconds after she boarded her car to leave for Anna Hazare's India Against Corruption campaign. It took a little more than six months for the CBI to finally crack the case on February 28 this year. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan referred the case to CBI on the third day of murder itself. The CBI took 18 days to take over the investigations and it was only after three months that things got moving after CBI's Special Crime Unit Delhi took over the case....

Naxal diary

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Sukma district collector Alex Paul Memon was released by Naxal Guerrillas after 13 days of captivity near Tarmetla on May 3. Tarmetla is a small village deep inside the jungle. It can be accessed by a bullock cart road that cuts from the kachha road connecting Chintal Gufa and Chintal Nar, where the two Central Reserve Police Force camps - the only presence of the Indian state - are based. The access to Tarmetla, however, is conditional; the Naxals control the region and it is not possible for anyone to enter or leave this place without their permission. The world outside Bastar first heard of Tarmetla in April 2010 when 76 CRPF personnel were massacred by the Maoists at a little distance from this tribal village. The Maoist had chosen Tarmetla for the negotiations. The two negotiators named by the Naxals, BD Sharma and professor G Hargopal, first....

Naxal Diary

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April 24 We are outside the bungalow of Sukhma district collector Alex Paul Menon. This bungalow was previously a forest guest house and has been recently renovated. Construction work is still not complete on the rear side. The around eight feet tall boundary wall with rolls of barbed wire at the top is, however, fully complete. Two guards armed with sophisticated weapons stroll behind this wall, taking turns to peep at outsiders from in between the grills of an iron gate of almost similar height. Inside the house the collectors three month pregnant wife Asha Menon and her relatives who have come from Chennai wait for Alex Paul Menon who was abducted by the Naxal guerrillas on April 21. Sukhma is a four month old baby district; carved out of Dantewara, the heart of Naxal activity in India. For those, who view the Maoist struggle from behind....

Anna, Baba Ramdev… who next?

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The Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh duo can not escape the consequences of lathi charging over one lakh peaceful protesters in the dead of the night. The strategy to question the integrity of Baba Ramdev at this stage has been cooked in cunning heads that can not think beyond power. The men, the women and the children who had gathered at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi were not thugs. Why were they lathi charged? Whatever might be the duration of the Indian public memory, this question will haunt the Congress for a long-long time. The BJP heads are no less cunning. The party wants to ride to power on the shoulders of Baba Ram Dev and Anna Hazare. LK Advani had promised to bring back black money during the run up to the last general elections. There were no takers. No one trusts the BJP on corruption. The RSS and....

Will Baba Ramdev revive Tahrir aspirations?

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Anna Hazare's India against Corruption campaign was mobilized on the internet. Not many gave it a chance. The pundits were skeptical about the reach of the internet. The basic flaw in the argument was the comparison of numbers. Those who pressed the like button on the IAC page on facebook were too small in number to be calculated as a percentage of those who did not have any access to the internet. The campaign went on to become a huge success, middle class India responded, Jantar Mantar was briefly talked as the Tahrir Square of India. The media played a huge role in keeping up the pressure. The Jan Lokpal Bill, the focal point of entire campaign, is still a distant dream. Government representatives and civil society members on the joint draft committee are still haggling. A definite course should emerge only after June 4, the day Baba Ramdev....

Moral science mafia on the rampage in MP

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A classic story of how the ruling mafia (read government) creates propaganda tools in the form of media houses that run news papers and cable networks is unfolding in Bhopal these days. The idea behind creating such propaganda tools is to safeguard the interests of the secret society that oils the 'mafia machinery' with its unaccounted ill gotten wealth. Occasional corruption exposing stories that emanate from these newspapers and cable networks are aimed at enhancing their blackmail potential. Once the deal is done the stories vanish only to be replaced by fresh agendas that can further enhance the blackmail potential. There is no end to this cycle. Higher the blackmail potential, bigger the net worth. Successive rulers in Madhya Pradesh have created several such blackmailers over the years. There are so many of them lurking around as conscience keepers giving moral science lessons everyday but there are some....

Who provides justice to the wronged in India?

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There is still a lot of dispute over how many people were killed and left with life long disabilities by the deadly Methyl Iso Cyanide leak from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal in December 1984. The CBI says over 5000 died and over 5,68,000, were left suffering from various kinds of injuries. The Madhya Pradesh government says over 15000 have died while NGOs working amongst the victims claim the number is much bigger. Whatever the number of dead and injured may be, the victims of Bhopal by the end of May 2011 have a Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) to answer as in who will provide justice? The question as to when justice will be done is irrelevant even after 26 years . The Question is: who provides justice to the wronged in India? The four choices are: A) The Judicial System in India with the....

People of Pakistan have done no wrong

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The American discovery of the Abbottabad mansion from which Osama bin laden was directing his al-Qaeda operations for the past five-six years has brought Pakistan under the scanner in America's war against terror like never before. President Obama has assured an investigation to look into who was harboring Osama. The ruling politicians in Pakistan have taken it upon themselves to defend their country's role with an innocence that speaks of their total lack of knowledge about the inhabitants of the Abbottabad mansion. The idea is to reflect that they are in control but the fact is they have yet not been empowered to control the Pakistani Army and the ISI. The Pakistani rulers are yet again looking towards America to provide them with the leash with which the Army and the ISI can be reigned in. Both these Pakistani institutions have worked in very close coordination with the....

Osama, US humanitarian aid and a helpless world

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"The people of Afghanistan, with their blood, courage and faith, are an inspiration to the cause of freedom everywhere" This was President Reagan in February 1985 to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia after he had been briefed about the humanitarian work undertaken by the Saudis on the Pakistani frontier where refugees were poring from Afghanistan. The quote has been pulled out from Steve Colls wonderfully written book: The bin Ladens. Behind the humanitarian work that President Regan was referring to was Osama bin Laden and the evidence on the basis of which this statement was made was filmed in Pakistan by Osama's half brother Salem bin Laden. Osama was then working for the Saudi Secret Service that had assigned him the task of recruiting mujahideens for taking on the Soviets. Saudi and American money was available in plenty. The Soviets left Afghanistan in 1989 but Osama stayed back crisscrossing....