Are Bangladeshi Muslims in particular and Islam in general, significant problems in Assam?

Assam is being gripped by a fear of existentialism.

It is being widely perceived and discussed that the Assamese identity is in question, and in a few decades Assam will not belong to the Assamese. The biggest perceived threat being the immigration of Bangladeshi Muslims and their reproduction rates. One learned Assamese gentleman told me yesterday that "he knows a Muslim family with 22 children". He further adds that "'their' grandfathers and grandchildren become fathers at the same time, in the same hospital. We are getting outnumbered and at this rate, we won't survive another 15 years".

This is becoming a significant public belief and explains why the BJP is gaining traction in the traditional Assamese bastion. With a record 7 out of 14 MP seats in the states, BJP is busy making it the most significant political problem. Leaders from the largest and the most respected student organisation, AASU - that had given birth to the regional political party AGP, are now joining the BJP. RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad are gaining popularity in the grassroots creating Hindu awareness along with fundamentalism and 'Muslim hysteria'.

The fear of existentialism and of the diminishing Assamese identity is leading our societies into a socio-political paranoia, where societies are getting polarised and religion is playing the role of a colonial power dividing the mostly ignorant masses; where propaganda rules the minds and rationalism is booted out of the door. It goes without saying that it benefits the power centres and the 'rich' that powers the power centres.

The tragedy is that religion is so intrinsic to us that it overwhelms reason and analytical thinking.

• It does not matter that it will take 200 years for Muslims to catch up with Hindu population with the current Hindu - Muslim growth rate in India, by when India's population will be 5 times the current global population!
• It is not discussed that the Muslim growth rate has declined in the last decade and that the total fertility rate (no. of births per woman) of Muslims is lower than the illiterate and the poorest fifth of the Indian population (National Family Health Survey). Or that the annual growth rate of Muslim population is slower than the growth rate of Bihar as a state.
• We do not get to read that Bangladesh with more than 90% Muslim population has a total fertility rate (TFR), which is not only lower than India, but also lower than India's Hindu population.
• The year on year growth rate of Muslims in Assam is similar to India, and shows no sign of the supposedly humongous Bangladeshi infiltration that is becoming the most significant issue in Assam overwhelming all other concerns that the state is crippled with.

The tragedy is that Assam is becoming blind to its real problems. Assam today represents a unique juxtaposition of backwardness amidst plenty. The per capita income in Assam in 1950 was higher than that in India. It became 40% lower than that in India by the year 2000-2001. We the Assamese people are not bothered that the growth rate of the economy of Assam has always been lower than the national average. During the 6th Plan period, Assam experienced a negative growth rate of -3.78% against a national growth rate of 6%.

There is a complete lack of a manufacturing sector. There is no private sector, or an environment that promotes the private sector creating jobs for the youth. There is severe power shortage in the state and that puts businesses at a disadvantage. Out of the requirement of around 1400 MW, Assam produces around 260 MW only.

Youths are dropping out from their studies after completing class XII to either join ITIs or to just despair over uselessness of a graduation degree. Almost every other family has lost money giving bribe to secure jobs for their wards. There is a large scale urban migration where Assamese graduates are taking up unskilled jobs like security guards, waiters and factory labour outside of Assam. Needless to say that the best and the brightest minds are also moving out in search of suitable jobs, probably faster than the others. Parents are encouraging this mass exodus with a belief that their children will have a better life outside Assam.

This is creating a knowledge vacuum in the state, which is therefore unable to leverage economic opportunities presented by the globalised world economy in terms of easier trade and information exchanges. None of the new business booms - outsourcing, IT, pharma, FMCG, could even start in Assam. All this is leading to a complete collapse of work culture and a lack of faith that it is possible to achieve a good life in Assam among the Assamese.

Unfortunately, Assam is primarily worried about Bangladeshis, Muslims and their apparent threat to Assamese identity. For argument sake, let us assume that Lord Mountbatten had not agreed to Mohd. Ali Jinnah's two nation theory, and Bangladesh stayed as East Bengal and an integral part of India. Then the Bengali Muslim of East Bengal could have freely come to Assam for better livelihood, or for whatever other reasons. What would have happened to Assamese identity then? Going by the present day Hindu logic, Assam would have become a Muslim majority state by now. It seems that Assamese culture and identity is so fragile that we are surviving only because of what Lord Mountbatten, PM Clement Attlee and the then British Government did 68 years back in 1947! The reality is that Assamese culture and identity has developed and survived over centuries and would have survived the last 68 years as well, if Bangladesh remained as East Bengal. The creation of Bangladesh is largely immaterial to the fate of Assamese identity. In fact, it may only prove to be beneficial.

Bangladesh as a country is doing phenomenally well in terms of economic growth and human development. The real growth rate adjusted for inflation of Bangladesh is 6.1% against 3.2% of India. It is now known as a textile capital of the world. In terms of purchasing power parity as a % of GDP, Bangladesh (9th) ranks higher than India (16%). (A nation's GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates is the sum value of all goods and services produced in the country valued at prices prevailing in the United States. This is the measure most economists prefer when looking at per-capita welfare and when comparing living conditions or use of resources across countries.)

If we look at measures of human development such as life expectancy, child survival, proportion of girls to boys in secondary education, Bangladesh comes out ahead of India. As Christine Hunter, UN representative says, “Gender equality is good for economic growth and good for human development. That is really part of what explains the quite remarkable achievements in Bangladesh”. 88% of women are literate in Bangladesh, compared to 68% of women in India, even though the overall adult literacy is lower in Bangladesh (59%) as compared to India (63%). Around 36% of women were in paid jobs in Bangladesh in 2010, up from just 14% in 1990. By comparison, female employment in India has gone backwards from 37% in 2004-5 to 29% in 2009. (ILO data)

I wonder what the Hindu juggernaut in India has to say about such improvement in women development and gender equality in a Muslim country!

If VISA rules are relaxed in Bangladesh for Indians (VISA on arrival for instance), I won't be surprised if Assamese flock to the textile factories in Bangladesh for daily wages. Going by the current statistics of development, it may not be so unrealistic to assume that there will be reverse migration to Bangladesh from Assam.

Even if we assume that the Muslim population is a threat to the majority mainstream Assamese population, however absurd it sounds; then we have to discuss the solution to the threat by understanding the cause of the shift in population trends. We will find that the root cause is again a lack of a work culture (problem of plenty), Assamese leadership (brain drain) and the empty paddy fields lying un-used by the mainstream Assamese population. What we need is socio - economic leadership along with political leadership mandated by the election process. Socio-economic leadership in the field of economics, trade, manufacturing, culture, language et al will keep alive the mainstream Assamese identity and bring in automatic conversions among the masses from the other identities.

In my world view, therefore, Bangladeshi Muslims in particular and Islam in general are not the most significant problems facing the state of Assam. The most significant problem in Assam is the complete and continuing lack of economic progress. A stronger economy increases disposable income, and which in turn patronises culture, language and religion. Unless we create a agricultural cum manufacturing revolution in Assam creating jobs for the youth, improving per capita income and bringing in a positive outlook towards life, Assam will surely face tough times ahead.

A poor economy always faces increasing pressure in terms of supply and demand of essential products and services. Religion, caste and tribal differences brew in such a poorer economy. Fragmentation and feudal behaviour are imminent dangers in a poor economy. Businesses and trade gets controlled by richer societies from across the borders.

Unity is the casualty. Peace becomes the martyr. Culture is long dead by then.

All of us residing in Assam should immediately pledge to have a single focus - to revive the economy. Even a small retail shop contributes to the economy. We have to become entrepreneurs, leverage Assam's advantages and natural resources to start businesses and kickstart the private sector. We must forget the Bangladeshi problem for a while to take Assam into the xonali (golden) path of development, progress and peace.

Like mother, like son - Varun Gandhi's arguments against Capital Punishment.

I had to copy this brilliant article arguing against capital punishment from Outlook. It is written by Former BJP General Secretary Feroze Varun Gandhi, MP from Sultanpur, UP.

Three points that clearly came out of arguments that support banning of capital punishment are as follows:

1. Capital punishment is not a deterrent. It is rare, takes a long time to implement and has no statistical relation to crime rates relating to terrorism, murder etc.
2. Judges are not super computers programmed to deliver justice following a fool-proof algorithm. They are normal human beings with socio cultural baggages and orientation. They can never be objective and consistent in choosing a particular punishment for a particular degree of crime. 
3. So there are potent opportunities that capital punishment can be used to take revenge, or kill enemies. Like the Romans killed Jesus Christ. Like Sepoy Mutiny prisoners were bombed in 1857.

I support banning of capital punishment in favour of alternative punishments that the criminals need to experience and therefore abhor.

The Article:

The Noose Casts A Shameful Shadow.
Do away with the death sentence. It’s vengeance legalised.

The death penalty has historically enabled tyranny. King Hammurabi of Babylon (1800 BC) codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes, omitting murder. By the 7th century BC, the Draconian code of Athens offered death for every crime committed, while the Roman Law of the Twelve Tablets codified it, crucifying Jesus Christ by 29 AD. Britain, influencing its colonies, encouraged hanging from the gallows, while beheading was acceptable for the upper classes. Under Henry VIII’s reign, 72,000 people were put to death—either boiled, or burnt on a stake. By the 18th century, 222 crimes—felling a tree included—were punishable by death. In 1857, when the British retook Kanpur, the soldiers took their sepoy prisoners to the Bibighar and “blew them from the cannon”. The ina trials of Shahnawaz Khan, Gur­baksh Singh Dhillon and Prem Sahgal (1945), held at the Red Fort, sought death for waging war against the king. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were sentenced to death in the Lahore conspiracy case on March 24, 1931. All through history, there have always been tyrants, murderers and regents, and they have sought invincibility through death.

Indian courts sentenced 64 people to death in 2014, ranking it in the top 10 of 55 countries where such sentences were handed out last year. Ever since the Supreme Court ordered in 1983 that the death penalty be used only in the “rarest of rare” cases, India has imposed a near-moratorium on capital punishment. In India, a man can come undone  waiting for capital punishment. Our institutional machinery for death is plagued with delays and arbitrariness. Of India’s 300 people on death row, many have ‘waited’ for years. The utility of the death penalty is proving quite anachronistic.

How rare is rarest?

The hangman is a disgrace to any civilised country. Beyond its ethics, a basic unpredictability makes capital punishment a social evil. Take the “rarest of the rare” principle. India’s criminal justice system lacks a critical definition of what constitutes the rarest of rare cases, leaving it to the discretion of the judge’s conscience and socio-political beliefs. The endgame is a lethal lottery. Consider the Harbans Singh versus State of UP  case (1982), in which three persons were awarded the death penalty, with appeals going before three different benches of the Supreme Court and each bench pronouncing a dramatically different sentence. This rationale of rating the proportionality of the crime and its aggravating circumstances cannot be objectively decided. A state of contradiction and confusion surrounds the jurisprudence of the death penalty in India.

We cannot guarantee accuracy in judgements. A study by Columbia University of 5,760 cases (between 1973-1995) reveals an error rate of 70 per cent in capital punishment verdicts. In India, an erroneous “condition precedent” has been established (Ravji alias Ram Chandra versus State of Rajasthan) leading to further sentences being capital punishments that, in spirit, ran contrary to the dictum of ‘rarest of rare’, which is the cornerstone of capital punishment in India (as established under the Bachan Singh versus State of Punjab case). This humongous mistake was acknowledged when former judges of the SC and HCs wrote to the president to commute the death sentence of 13 convicts, as the punishment was accorded on a flawed application of the law. With the ethical principle of in dubio pro reo (when in doubt, favour the accused) compromised, mistakes could become the norm rather than the unacceptable exception. In India, custodial abuse is widespread, and wrongful convictions are not impossible. The irrevocability of the capital punishment allows for no correction of wrongful convictions. Human error will not be undone.

The tilt in the scales

Capital punishment can have a socio-economic bias too. In the US, 56 per cent of death row inmates are black or Hispanic. Although racial minorities comprise half of all murder victims nationwide, 77 per cent of the victims in capital convictions were white (Death Penalty Information Center). In India, 75 per cent of the convicts on death row belong to the socially and economically marginalised classes; 94 per cent of death row convicts are Dalits or from the minorities. The poor consistently get the short end of the legal stick. The death penalty is a consequence of poor legal representation and institutional bias. The gallows remain a poor man’s trap.

Achieving Deterrence

With so few actually hanged, the death penalty’s rarity has essentially failed to achieve deterrence. Research has consistently failed to establish direct correlation between the death penalty and deterrence. A National Research Council study (2012) finds that 88 per cent of criminologists believe that the death penalty is not a deterrent. The conviction rate for rape in India is 27 per cent, assuming the case makes it to trial. When the certainty of punishment is so low, a death penalty at the end of a long and tedious process is no deterrent. In a landmark judgement in January 2014, the Supreme Court noted that an “undue, inordinate and unreasonable delay in execution of the death sentence amounted to torture’.

Albert Camus put it this way: “For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check; yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium.” Historically, the threat of punishment by death (during Roman and British colonial times, for example) has not prevented determined men from committing violence. For such men, death is only “a momentary spectacle, and therefore a less efficacious method of deterring others, than the continued example of a man deprived of his liberty.”

On Social Morality

The Dhamma leaves no grey areas around capital punishment. Buddhism's first precept advocates that individuals should abstain from killing or injuring all living creatures. Hinduism and Jainism, with belief in karma, encourage non-violence towards human beings, animals and even insects. The Italian jurist Cesare Beccaria (On Crimes and Punishment, 1767) theorised that there was no justification for the taking of life by the state, with the death penalty “a war of a whole nation against a citizen, whose destruction they consider as necessary, or useful to the general good.”

George Bernard Shaw said the idea that society must punish and exact vengeance is incorrect. This primitive idea of justice is essentially legalised revenge, and expiation through sacrifice. To compensate for injustice, provide closure to the victims’ kin, suffering should ideally be inflicted on the wrongdoer for the sake of its deterrent value, so goes the argument. But this utilitarian approach corrupts the whole justice system. The shedding of blood cannot be balanced by an equivalent of guilty blood. In the US, the death penalty is sought in two per cent of intentional homicide cases, with actual award occurring in just one per cent. Out of that, in nearly two-thirds of the cases, the penalty is reversed on appeal. Thus, just 0.33 per cent of total intentional homicide cases lead to execution after an average gestation period of 12 years. Even for those victims’ kin who support the death penalty, the small proportion of conviction associated with long gestation periods postpone closure and only add to frustration (Gerber & Johnson).

In any case, frequent punishments are a sign of weakness or slackness, in our social fabric and our government. There is no man so bad that he cannot be made good for something. No man should be put to death, even as an example, if he can be left to live without danger to society. Condemning a terrorist to death is an easy path to take; but it creates martyrs. Keeping them in life imprisonment makes the cause less attractive and increases attrition. Their fame is diminished. Propaganda for jailed heroes is less potent.

Abolish it!

The monopoly on violence in India ought to be held by the State. However, society can be protected from miscreants, criminals and terrorists through less disproportionate means that preserve our dignity, values and institutions.

The worldwide trend towards abolishing capital punishment continues. Globally, 140 countries have abolished the death penalty in law and practice, while the European Union (EU) has made “abolishing the death penalty” a prerequisite for membership. In December 2014, 117 countries voted for a moratorium at the UN General Assembly; 37 voted against and 34 abstained. Even the US is staying its hands—Nebraska recently became the 19th state repealing the death penalty. China’s executions have declined from 24,000 in 1983 to 12,000 recently, resulting in a shortage of organs for transplanting. Our neighbours too are on the downward trend: 357 await execution in Sri Lanka, 400 in Bangladesh and some 8,000 in Pakistan. Abolition is an inevitable international trend, signalling the broad-mindedness of civilised countries. It’s also an international obligation.

Better Alternative

There are multiple alternatives to the death penalty. Longer prison sentences, with a lengthy guaranteed minimum sentence before parole can be considered, and have been utilised in the US for decades. Commutation is another. In India, after the award of the death sentence by a sessions (trial) court, the sentence must be confirmed by a high court to make it final. Once confirmed, the condemned convict has the option of appealing to the Supreme Court. If rejected, he can submit a mercy petition to the President and the governor. Over the last decade, while 1,367 death sentences have been handed out, 3,751 sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. Certainty, and not severity, remains a bigger deterrent to crime. Lifelong imprisonment with no chance of bail or parole remain a better socio-political alternative. It may be achieved either by constitutional amendments (as in case of Mexico, South Africa and other abolitionist countries) or through use of the concurrent list (Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India).

As a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights (ICCPR) (1966), India is committed to phasing out the death penalty. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) recommended in 2000 that India abolish death penalty to juveniles. In 2012, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) recommended that we establish an official moratorium on executions and move towards abolishing the death penalty, besides commuting all death sentences to life imprisonment and ratifying the second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR.

The Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab case in 1980 was successful in limiting the scope of capital punishment, but yet again, the constitutional validity of the punishment was upheld. The case established the provision of the “rarest of rare” dictum, which even after 35 years, still remains India’s unchanged judicial position. The arbitrariness of the “rarest of the rare” doctrine, laid bare by an Amnesty International and PUCL study called ‘Lethal Lottery: The death penalty in India’ (2008), should force us to rethink if the death penalty makes sense in the absence of uniform criteria and an objective evaluation of legislative thresholds.

India, as one of the 58-odd countries where death penalty is retained, needs to recognise the changing global scenario. The death penalty is not just a remedy available at the disposal of the law, but a human rights issue, beyond the pale of law. For the largest democracy, the death penalty is an anomaly. It needs correction. Many that live do deserve death. And some that die deserve life. One must not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.

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Hope you enjoyed the article. Visit the original link and please share your thoughts. 

http://www.outlookindia.com/article/the-noose-casts-a-shameful-shadow/294979

Hopeful Thinking..

After independence, India has being shaped by politics and the power it yields.. yet, the most popular sentence about politics is 'Politics is the last resort of scoundrels'. This paradox, or irony is the reason why our standard of living in India is so pathetic, discriminatory, corrupt and hopeless.

AAP is a flicker of hope that might finally make the latter meaningless to an extent. Finally perhaps, good educated efficient simple people would join politics to serve the nation without the perks and addiction of power. It will be surely be very tough.

But there is a hope. With the kind of human resource that makes India, natural resources that builds India, and intellectual resource that ornates India, I can say with certainty that if politics become selfless, educated, benevolent and rewarding for goodness, India will be the best place to live our lives in this entire universe.

Vivekananda, Islam and Hinduism

This blog post is inspired from an article written by the Mr. Padmalochan Nath, which originally appeared on Asomiya Pratidin on 12th of January 2015. I am putting his thoughts to the best of my abilities, for the benefits of all who can't read Assamese.

Fundametalism is an enemy of the Hindus as well as the Muslims.

After British imperialism had successfully established its stronghold and they had started giving stress on modern education in India, which was then available to the upper class influential Indians, a new historically significant phenomena had got created. With modern education, these newly educated youths had developed a certain sense of inferiority on the matter of Hindu religion. They were growing up to a belief that Hindu religion was all about superstitions and archaic socially destructive traditions. A majority of these young Indians who had the fortune of British education were from Bengal, as Calcutta was the Capital of the British empire. The first institute of higher eduction, Hindu College (later renamed Presidency College) was established in the year 1817 at Calcutta. It was during this period of time Raja Ram Mohan Rai had started creating a  strong public opinion against 'Sati-dah pratha' to abolish and ban the inhuman tradition of a wife being compelled to jump in the funeral pyre of her husband, in the name of Hindu religious customs. It was around the same time when the Principal of Sanskrit College, Calcutta, Mr. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar had started the social revolution against child marriage and for remarriage of the widows who had lost their husbands at a young age.

There were two significant waves of social reforms in Bengal then. One was led by Raja Rammohan Rai, Keshub Chandra Sen and Debendranath Tagore with their monotheistic reformist and renaissance movement called Bhakti Movement, and the other was led primarily by the students/alumni of Hindu College with their radical free thinking Young Bengal movement, started by a young teacher of Hindu College, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio.

Raja Rammohan Rai was fluent in Arabic, Parsi and English. He had studied and researched Islam and Christianity, and had formed an opinion that the strength and positivity of Persia's Islam and Christianity of the West came from their institutionalized one Supreme God theology. As a result, Rammohan Rai stopped the idol worship of numerous Hindu Gods and Goddesses and started worshipping the form-less Brahma as the whole and sole, reforming the ancient Hindu religion to create the 'one-formless-supreme God' dharma called the 'Brahmo Dharma'. On the other hand, Head Master of Hindu College Henry Louis Vivian Derozio - a great scholar and a thinker, started influencing a group of intelligent boys in the college to think freely, to question existing religious beliefs and not to accept anything blindly. It started a new wisdom based on hardcore logic and atheist ideology. It was in the same period, when a Hindu College student and a son of an influential rich family of lawyers, Madhusudan Dutta stood against the illogical caste led atrocities, blind beliefs and customs prevalent in the Hindu society of the 19th century Bengal, denounced Hinduism and got converted to Christianity. He was expelled from Hindu College. This expelled student of Hindu College later became one of the greatest poets of Bengal literature and the father of the Bengali sonnet, Michael Madhusudan Dutt.

It was in such a juncture of ancient and modern times in the 19th century of Bengal, Narendra Nath Dutta was growing up in a affluent Kayastha Bengali family to be known as Swami Vivekananda later. He was sensible and an extremely intelligent student. Initially, he was influenced by the Brahma movement started by Raja Rammohan Roy and Devendranath Tagore. However, very soon the short-comings of the Brahma Samaj became evident to him. Brahma Samaj was essentially a fraternity of the rich and educated, and did not have any effect on, or relation with the greater general public of Bengal. In his search for answers, Narendra Nath finally met the renowned priest of the Dakshineswar Kali Temple, dedicated to the Goddess Kali - Ramkrishna Paramahamsa. Being a Brahma Samaj follower, Narendra Nath initially opposed idol worship, polytheism and Ramakrishna's worship of Kali. As he grew ready to renounce everything for the sake of realizing God,he finally accepted Ramakrishna as his Guru. Ramakrishna taught him the ideals of 'Jata Mat, Tata path' through the teachings of the Vedanta. He showed him the path of unity in diversity and confluence of differing thoughts. Narendra Nath later took monastic vows and ascended to Swami Vivekananda. Irrespective of that, he was not too convinced and happy about the ideologies of the Vedas. He could not find social solutions to the existing problems of the present material realistic world. Vedantic teachings were all about Gods, spiritualism, renunciation, sacrifice and death. Therefore, Swami Vivekananda started to define and describe the glory of ancient Indian philosophy, keeping the 'present' of that period of Bengal. He devoted himself to express 'Advaita Vedanta' as a religion of the general public. He brought out neo-vedantic teachings to preach Hinduism in a new light which was above all the narrow-mindedness and doggedness of Hinduism. He presented Hinduism with the ideals of the upanishads, without the social evils based on superstitions to the whole world, and gave Hinduism a new meaning and stature. In the 'The Parliament of the World's Religions' opened on 11 September 1893 at the Art Institute of Chicago, Swami Vivekananda, in reference to the perceived inferiority complex of the Hindus said, "Say it with pride: We are Hindus". Having said that it should be noted that 'that pride of being Hindus' did not have even an iota of ill-feeling or dis-respect to other religions. According to Swami Vivekananda, if one religion is true, then the other religions are true as well.

Indian subcontinent is an union of innumerable religious, linguistic, ethnic, historical and regional diversities. That is why, Swami Vivekananda did not present India as a country of one religion. When he said, '.. we are Hindus', he didn't mean it as a religion. He meant it as a civilization. He presented it as the land of the wisdom of the Advaita Vedanta - the blessed land of virtue where humanity has attained its highest towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness, and above all, as the land of introspection and of spirituality. He had immense respect for Islam. On his speeches about the prospect of Advaita Vedanta becoming the future religion of humanity, he maintained that although India was fortunate to be ahead in knowing about the theories of advaita, yet it was the Arabs who were first in propagating its practice through their religion of Islam. He very clearly said, "if ever any religion approached to this equality in an appreciable manner, it is Islam, and Islam alone". He was upfront in appreciating the equality that Islam had in both theory and practice. As for India, he stressed that the religion of renunciation to attain ultimate salvation is not as good as the real religion of being in this real world and working towards removing poverty, illiteracy, social evils like untouchability, caste differences and diseases. It is not advisable to run away from the material world, but to bravely face the problems and challenges of the material world. Swami Vivekananda had always stressed that the British imperialism always feared the unity in the diversity of India. They feared the power that emanated from the peaceful co-habitation of the Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and other religions of India. That is why, British imperialism always tried to use the existing fallacies in the Indian societies to divide us and continue their rule.

With western education, when a section of upper caste philosophers and writers started feeling inferior about being superstitious and started demeaning the viability of the concept of Hindu Rashtra, a new political concept of Hindutva nationalism started gaining foothold. It influenced a significant number of freedom fighters of that era as well, who were biased toward one religious way of life, i.e., Hinduism. In the midst of all that, there were Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das and Bal Gangadhar Tilak who believed in religious unity and found ways and strategies to promote the strength of Hindu-Muslim unity in India's freedom struggle. Mahatma Gandhi was very fond of both these leaders. He had said, "His (Chittaranjan Das) heart knew no difference between Hindus and Mussalmans.." Bal Gangadhar Tilak once said, "Religion and practical life are not different. To take sanyasa (renunciation) is not to abandon life. The real spirit is to make the country your family work together instead of working only for your won. The step beyond is to serve humanity and the next step is to serve God". However with the untimely death of both these leaders, their philosophy of Hindus and Muslims fighting for India's independence together could not be sustained. In the subsequent times, India saw the steep rise of zingoist Hindutva led political efforts to label Indian Muslims as non-Indians in the fight for independence. In reaction to that, the concept of 'Pakistan' for Muslim self-rule started to get public acceptance, and it marked the arrival of the divisive communal politics during India's freedom struggle. The freedom movement led by the Congress was not that significant and strong then that it could have curbed the advances of these two divisive political ideologies. The leadership of the freedom movement had fallen into the divisive trap of the imperialist British raj. Mahatma Gandhi became helpless. As a result, India was divided into two countries in the name of Independence. Lakhs of Indians died in the ensuing riots and migration to and from Pakistan. What's worse, even the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi had to lay his life to the same jingoist Hindutva brigade.

Swami Vivekananda's idea of independent progressive India that was blessed by the wisdom of the Vedanta was not this. He wished for brotherhood, mutual respect and fondness between the followers of Hinduism and Islam. For a developed India in the future, he wanted a progressive unity between these two great religious ideologies. He had said, "For our own motherland, a junction of the two great systems - Hinduism and Islam: Vedanta brain and Islam body is the only hope". Swami Vivekananda wanted to nourish and nurture 'Indianhood' by conjoining the Vedanta brain and the Islam body. However, it is quite the opposite picture that the present Hindutva politics is painting in the name of development, in the name of Swami Vivekananda. They are even trying to negate and erase the contributions of Islam to the history and heritage of making of India. The term 'Hindu' of Hinduism was coined by the Muslims from Persia, when they couldn't pronounce 'Indus'. The word 'Hindu' neither has its origin in Sanskrit, nor is it found in any of the vedic / ancient literature. Hindu was not even a name given to a religion. First Greek and then Muslim invaders referred to the region of civilization by the banks of the Indus river as 'Indus' and 'Hindus'. So, the name on which the political concept of Hinduism rest, had come from the followers of Islam. Isn't that a contribution?

It was during the times of Buddha and Ashoka, the influence of the culture and traditions prevalent in the region of the present day India had spread all across Asia. That is the reason Gautama Buddha is also called the 'Light of Asia'. When the word Hindu had started getting acceptance as a religious identity, history does not have any mention of any Indian crossing either the Himalayas, or the Indian Ocean for culture and traditions to travel outside. Megesthenes from Greece and Hsuan-Tsang from China had come to India. There is no historical evidence of any Indian going to either Greece or Germany. The Indian religions of today, starting then, have lost their dynamism and somehow are busy preserving their status quo through, at best, reactionary strategies. If effect, religions are nurturing a fundamentalist extremism, rather than doing the opposite. As a result, the ordinary common man of each of the religions are facing various hardships, atrocities and deaths. The worldly Hazrat Muhammad's teachings had unified the whole of Arabia and civilized the various barbaric tribes and sects. Before his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam, and he had united Arabia into a single Muslim religious polity. Islam slowly became one of the major religions of the world, giving rise to wealthy powerful civilizations across the world. However, the present day Taliban, ISIS, Boko Haram and other such terrorist organizations are bringing these progressive Islamic civilizations back to the barbaric period. The wordly Saint Hazrat Muhammad had advised one to even travel to China for education and knowledge. However, Taliban is shooting innocent girls in their heads for they had wanted to get educated. In India as well, a certain set of religiously blind fundamentalist Hindu leaders are trying to portray the killer of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi as a patriot, and want to building a temple in his name. They are trying to eulogize and give public respect to the first fundamentalist Hindu terrorist of Independent India, by building a memoribilia in his name.

According to Swami Vivekananda, the primary objective of religion is to inspire or awaken the positive energies within an individual. He meant to use this positive energy to kill or weaken all the negative energies. The key notion of a civilized world is good-will for each other and spirit of tolerance for well-being of all. According to Swami Vivekananda, the religion (or religions) which cannot impart tolerance and peaceful co-existence of all is not a religion in reality. Like Islamic fundamentalism is an enemy to the common Muslim, Hindu fundamentalism is also an enemy to the common Hindu. It is the time when we - the Hindus and Muslims of India, have to come out of the blinds of our religious fundamentalism to realize the dream of Swami Vivekananda of a progressive united India where all of us unitedly struggle to remove poverty, to provide education and health facilities to the teeming poor of our country.

Falling Crude Oil Prices - A Puzzle or A Design!

This blog post is a translation of an article published in the highest circulated Assamese Daily - Asomiya Pratidin, authored by the highly revered Mr. Ananta Kalita, Former Director at Central Board, SBI. Please click on the link to read the Assamese version. http://bit.ly/1Bgu0cS

The prices of Petrol and Diesel have come down by over Rs. 10/- per litre. A lot of us give its credit to the Modi Government. It is obvious because we do not get the time to go deeper into the economics and politics of crude oil prices.

India imports over 80% of its crude oil requirement. By the end of 2008, the price of crude oil had increased to $147 per barrel. However, the price of crude oil in the international market has started falling continually from the month of November, 2013. By october last year, the price of crude oil in the international market had fallen to $100 per barrel, and by 31st December 2014, the price of crude oil dropped drastically by almost half, to a mere $55 per barrel. Today (7th January 2015), the price stands at $47 per barrel. In relation to the international prices of crude oil, the retail price of petrol and diesel should have dropped by 60% and should have been retailing at Rs. 30 and Rs. 25 respectively. But the oil distribution companies have dropped the retail prices of Petrol and Diesel by around Rs. 10 only, keeping huge profit potential alive for themselves. In the meanwhile, the central government has increased the excise duties in three phases - 12th November 2014, 2nd December 2014 and 1st January 2015, by Rs. 6.95 and Rs. 5.96 per litre of Petrol and Diesel respectively.

The international prices of crude oil do not rise or fall by the normal standards of economics. The production, marketing and distribution of crude oil is controlled by the Capitalist countries and the big multinational companies. It depends on the neo-liberal economic benefits of the stock markets and the political interests of the capitalist economies. The current crude oil crisis seems like the combined handiwork of higher oil production, better production technology and a relative fall in demand. It is true that the production of oil by non-OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) countries have increased significantly, especially from the unconventional petroleum deposit such as light sand, shallow oil sand and tar sand by the use of advanced oil extraction and refining technologies. Production by OPEC countries have also increased in the present times. After 1991, the present day Russia produces 10.58 million barrels daily. From the demand side, advances in science and technology have increased the fuel consumption efficiency of automobile and other engines, thereby creating a negative demand momentum. Other non-oil based energy options like solar energy, wind energy, Sea wave energy, ethanol, methanol etc are also being harnessed effectively. In such a scenario, even if the international prices of crude oil is going down, the oil producing countries and companies are scared to reduce their production and instead compete heavily in the international markets in the fear of losing market share.

Having said that, there is a critical need to analyze whether the current fall in the international prices of crude oil is due to the rise in production, advances in technologies, fall in demand, or is a conspiracy by American capitalism to achieve something by drastically and unnaturally reducing the international price of crude oil. One of the key American strategies responsible for the fall and breakdown of USSR in 1991 was to drastically reduce the price of crude oil. One of the key contributors to the national revenue of USSR was the revenue earned by exporting crude oil. In order to reduce the international prices, US controlled Saudi Arabia had increased the daily production of crude from 20 lakh barrels to 1 crore barrels, thereby flooding the international market with excess supply of crude oil. The price of crude oil had fallen from $32 per barrel to $10 per barrel! The storage of crude oil is an expensive proposition, and therefore USSR was compelled to reduce the price of crude oil to $6 per barrel to remain competitive in the international market. As a result, the national revenue of USSR was severely strained and there was no option but to cut a lot of budgeted expenditures allocated to various socio-economic security related public initiatives. This created an angst among the general public against the government and the administration, which laid the foundation of the break up of the Soviet Union.

In the eighties, USSR was the target of the USA. Today, the targeted countries are Russia, Iran and Venezuala. Russia is a primary adversary of the US and the NATO countries. Iran is continuing with its nuclear research and development of nuclear capabilities. Moreover, Russia and Iran is coming in the way of controlling and de-militarizing Syria. Venezuala is one of the remaining Latin American countries governed by leftist ideologies. The economies of all these three countries are dependent on the export of crude oil. This kind of continual drastic fall in the price of crude oil will severely affect the national earning potential of these three countries, and their economies will weaken for American to exercise greater power and control.

On the other side, the fall in crude oil prices is also affecting the economy of India. On 6th of January 2015, the Indian stock market - Sensex fell by 855 points in a single day. It was the biggest fall in the last 65 months. On 7th January, the fall continued by 78 points. Practically the world economy is in doldrums. The European economy including Germany is going through a bad worry-some phase. The spending potential of the general population is on a decline. In the name of controlling fiscal deficit, the governments are rolling down public expenditures towards social security related schemes. Public angst is rising at an alarming level. The value of their currency - Euro is declining. Greece is at its worst economic crisis and is expressing desire to get out of the European Union. The current progressive government may lose the coming general elections. The effect of the present unstable world economy with the falling crude oil prices, devaluation of the Euro, worsening Greece economy and the overall negative economic environment in Europe is being felt by the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) with large exposure in the Indian stock markets. As a result, they are taking away millions of dollars out of the Indian stock markets. Indian companies listed in the stock markets have lost over 3 trillion Indian rupees. At the same time, the value of Indian rupee has fallen to Rs. 63.17 per US Dollar.

The fall in the Indian share markets is nothing extra-ordinary. It is controlled by speculative instincts and intent of the profit seeking FIIs. The fall in the Indian share markets won't affect the Indian economy or the lives of the common people. The rise and fall of the stock markets are expected. However, the fall in the value of the Indian rupee will have a negative impact on the Indian economy.

An open letter to the Prime Minister of India #NITIAayog

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

Wish you a very Happy New Year!

At the outset I want to thank you for your team's foresight to include the 15th century social reformer and renaissance saint of Assam Srimanta Sankaradeva and his writing - "To see every being as equivalent to one’s own soul is the supreme means of attaining deliverance" from 'Kirtana Ghosa' in one of the paragraphs of the press note launching NITI Aayog.

I just wished if spellings were correctly written...

I also want to congratulate the team for writing a good piece, smartly comprehensive, modern in its tone and savvy in its formatting. The acronym NITI - National Institution for Transforming India is quite creative as well. It is a document that can have a bright future if understood, implemented and executed well.

• It stressed on transparency and the use of technology in a parliamentary democracy. It added that transparency about governance will only increase with time.
• The note clearly indicates the intent that states will be given due importance and representation, by being more consensual and cooperative. It talks about being inclusive of all regions, castes, and tribes.
• It talks about removing social and economic inequality which I believe is the bane of every evil that we are facing today. It talks about giving opportunities to the weaker sections to influence the choices, the country and the government will make in setting the national agenda. The intent definitely looks pro-people and pro-citizen.
• It brings out the importance and contribution of the small businesses and how the government should help them at a policy level.
• It has a mention about environment, climate and resources like water, land and forests and the need to respect them for sustainable progress and their inter-linkages with mankind.

Having said that, I would like to say, and you would surely agree that the press note currently resembles a document written by a smart, aware, blue-eyed MBA graduate who does not have practical experience working in the Government as part of the inter-ministerial, intra-ministerial, judicio-politico-executive machinery. The use of words and phrases like 'think tank', 'directional and policy dynamo', 'one size fits all', 'enabler' and many such words were, at best quite potent in terms of creating a favourable perception and mass acceptance of the press note and of NITI Aayog.

Sir, I understand it is just a press note and so we would wait for NITI Aayog to bloom before really trying to criticize it. All I want to tell you are a few points of caution that you may like to keep in mind. Firstly, you would agree that it assumes public acceptance of a few debatable hypotheses.

• It eulogizes the private sector as if it is proven that it is the better alternative than the public sector in terms of general welfare and happiness index. It has a statement - "Global economics and geo-politics are getting increasingly integrated, and the private sector is growing in importance as a constituent within that". This practically is a meaningless point successfully praising the private sector. Why can't the public sector go up in importance as a constituent to increasing globalization?
• It also blatantly assumes that it is a better option that public services be increasingly delivered by private entities, as if it is acceptable to the democracy and as if it is good in the long term to privatize every public service. Your team makes it look as if employees of private companies are from a better planet and the public entities are doomed with inefficient earthlings.
• It makes a statement that urbanization is irreversible and therefore should be accepted. It indirectly refutes the concept of Swaraj, of small self sufficient villages envisioned by the father of the nation, Mr. Gandhi. It is overlooking the social evils of urbanization across the globe, especially in the capitalist economies of the world. Like me, there are many who are quitting their plum jobs in the metros to come back to their roots, their villages hoping to create a rural sustainable economy. Living in an illuminated concrete match box may be your idea of a good life. Lot of us prefer to stay in real homes in the rural India.
• Lastly, you seem to be deciding everything in this new institution. You would be the Chair person. You would appoint the Vice-Chairperson, the 4 ex-officio members who would be from the Union Council of Ministers and the Chief Executive Officer. You may be efficient, a hard task master with the population behind you, but a good institution should be process / protocol centric, and definitely not person centric. God forbid, but what would happen if something happens to your health and you can't fulfill your duties. Sorry for saying that, but I am just being practical. I may try to have a little faith on you, but no one else in this country today.

Sir, as Aamir Khan had said in Satyamev Jayate and I too believe that the problem in our country is not about funds. It is about allocation and utilization. I heard a few weeks back that in the DONOR ministry alone, there are over 1500 sanctioned projects where the 'advance money' has been given for good. The North East gets a significant allocation of funds which are returned un-utilized, with the 'utilized' being the amount successfully embezzled into deep pockets. Secondly, it is about inter ministerial and other bureaucratic and diplomatic delays that people lose their motivation in between to keep following up on projects.

I understand that your document stresses on transparency using technology to monitor and evaluate the implementation of programmes and initiatives, but so does all documents of this stature prepared by all Governments, all ministries and all MBA schools in their group projects.

It is pertinent to define universal SLAs, standards and protocols that every public servant will be accountable and bound into. This is where the document lacks primarily perhaps because it is just the first document and a press note. Now that the name is finalized and the press note released, I would request you to finalize the road map strategy as soon as possible. For the road map, we need to execute three things: 1. Organise debates and publish them in media. 2) Organize ministerial meetings and publish the meeting minutes. 3. Initiate online research to get feedback from a wide ranging intelligentsia. All these three things should concentrate on defining the road map for NITI Aayog in the next 3 months. The road map should comprise the following:

1. Defining the degree of executionary power of NITI Aayog in relation to other ministries and state governments. In China, the new planning commission was much more powerful than the earlier version and it has yielded them results.
2. Define its reach till the 'gram' level. The document stresses on inclusivity in terms of diversity and geography. So would it have offices till the gram level? Or would it be just an office in New Delhi?
3. What would be the selection process for independent panels that would be formed for various sectors, regions and domains?
4. Decisions happen in meetings and so the importance of meeting protocols and expectations is critical. For instance, how many meetings do we need to arrive at one decision and what is the maximum time period to arrive at any decision. How do we arrive at a consensus in a meeting? Three member committees (odd) may become four member committees (even) with 3 hands being counted as a decision. For a six member committee, it would be four hands.
5. How do we minimize the effect of lobbying by powerful business houses so that decisions can be inclusive to equitable growth. Capitalism is known to increase and rich-poor divide and what India needs is a mixed economy for a sustainable and equitable future. The road map should be clear about this intent of not making 'profiteering' a driving force in decisions regarding the country's welfare. I am sure, Sir that you understand the difference between 'being profitable' and 'profiteering'.
6. The press note does not have a clear view on the ownership of our natural resources. For instance, I am given to understand that all natural resources under the ground belong to the centre. However, most of the coal mines today are open cast mines controlled by Coal India - a Central Government enterprise. NITI Aayog should have a roadmap regarding the utilization, control and revenue from natural resources and its bi-products. This is a cornerstone argument to bring down inequality and give equal opportunities. Assam had the first petro-chemical refinery in Digboi, but it does not have a petro-chemical economy till date. Gujarat has. Being a PM of the country, Sir I am sure you would empathize with the people of Assam and their lost opportunities, and the fact that they therefore feel exploited (and take guns).
7. Lastly, the roadmap should define the punitive powers of NITI Aayog to maintain the standard, timelines and quality of execution.

Sir, I would say with humility and respect that if you can put the roadmap in place, including the above points in the next three months, all that your critics could do is to have sleepless nights.

Till then, I would just maintain that NITI Aayog is a well written comprehensive, yet a bit presumptive, written-in-a-haste document. It is yet to justify its change of name.

Joi Ai Axom.
Jai Hind.

Yours Sincerely,

Durlov Baruah
Duliajan, Assam, India

Politics of development is as narrow as the politics of secularism and communalism.

Modi is riding the development wave. He and BJP has successfully created this common perception over the past decade that politics now should be played on development and that BJP has the lone copyright on 'development'. The most common instance given are the roads of Gujarat to prove development, then the Tata Nano plant and then the opinion that most Gujarati (s) are rich.

I was convinced about the need for development, and the need for politics to be based on development and progress. I liked BJP for taking that plank. (However, I never liked Modi read this blog). In offices and in various dinner parties, development was the most discussed topic.

Over a lot of dinner table discussions, media reports and my own research, I realized that nobody has defined the measurement of development. For a Capitalist, development means something completely opposite to what it means to a Socialist, or a Leftist. Development means a certain thing for a salaried employee, and it means something else for a self-employed. Development carries a certain perception for urban population, and means something completely different for the rural population.

Today, Congress in Assam has released a full page advertisement on the most widely circulated Assamese daily - Pratidin. It says, "Reality of Gujarat in comparison to Assam". The ad signs off saying, "Action speaks louder than words". It gives various statistics to prove that indeed Gujarat is much lesser developed than Assam. One of the point says, "For every 100 sq. kms, Assam has 308.26 kms of road whereas Gujarat has 79.68 kms of road only".

This advertisement may fool the people of rest of India, but not the people living and suffering in Assam. This ad has clarified in my mind that 'development' politics is no different from 'secularism' politics. Both are shallow, mis-leading, corrupt in their meanings and mere vote led politics.

Some Statistics shown in the Ad

1. For every 100 sq. kms, Assam has 308.26 kms of road whereas Gujarat has 79.68 kms of roads only.
2. Women in reserved seats: Assam (33.3%) Vs Gujarat (14.7%)
3. Per 100 boys going to school: Assam (100 girls) Vs Gujarat (85 girls)
4. Farmers with loan debt: Assam (18.01%) Vs Gujarat (51.09%)
5. Hunger Index: Assam (4th) Vs Gujarat (13th)
6. Allotment for Rural development: Assam 3.13% vs Gujarat 2.80%
7. Allotment for Health and Medicine: Assam (4.8%) Vs Gujarat (4.6%)
8. Health Development Index: Assam (3rd) Vs Gujarat (13th)
9. Education Development Index: Assam (23.25%) Vs Gujarat (12.7%)
10. Loan NPA: Assam (29200 crs) Vs Gujarat (176500 crs)

Please note that this blog is NOT IN SUPPORT of CONGRESS. This is only to prove that we all can bluff on development. Even the most corrupt Congress Govt. in Assam can. It is primarily because development has no standard definition.

Corruption on the other hand has been given a definition by AAP. It is primarily segmented into two categories: Exploitative corruption and Mutual corruption. Exploitative corruption is the kind where the common public feels exploited, but is helpless to just accept it. So only one of the party benefits. Mutual corruption is the kind where both or all the parties involved are benefitting from the transaction. There is a third party or the country which is getting the hit.

Corruption not only takes away tax money meant for welfare, but also creates inefficiencies all across the economic and social value system. The most critical negative side effect of corruption is the effect it has on the character and morality of a society. It has a lot of indirect effects as well. For instance, the standard of driving and traffic skills is the poorest in the district where the department issuing licenses is most corrupt.

If we can reduce corruption either through fear or through awareness by 50%, Govt. expenditures will become 50% more effective and development will increase by over 50% automatically.

It is time that we understand what each of the political parties are saying in the real sense of the term. We should discuss, read and spread awareness. We have seen enough political promises and we have got cheated enough number of times by the ruling class.

It is time we vote for a party which is created by the Aam Aadmi with a clear focus on the common man. With Swaraj Bill and the Jan Lokpal Bill, it will bring power to the grassroots and thereby reduce mutual corruption in the ruling class. Jan Lokpal Bill will create necessary fear in the bureaucracy and the Govt offices and thereby reduce exploitative corruption.

Support AAP. Join AAP. Donate for a corruption free Assam, and India.

Confession of an AAPtard.

I was sort of a BJP supporter. They seemed like the better option as compared to the corrupt clue-less Congress. I loved Vajpayee Ji. I liked a lot of the BJP spokespersons on TV as well. They seemed smarter than the rest, and were more direct and clear in their interaction.

I was a salaried employee working in an MNC company then.

Yet, I was not very comfortable about my choice. The primary discomfort was because of the fact that I am more of an Assamese, than an Indian. To me, BJP is a very non-Assamese party and it does not understand the sentiments of the Assamese people. It may sound stupid, but that was how I felt. (Later I found out that lot of Assamese in Assam felt that way.)

Secondly, I could not get completely comfortable about Modi. I indeed tried to get comfortable by reading about him and his works, but he was just too much of an enigma. He seemed un-approachable, and far away for my conscience to get comfortable with him. He is an one-man army and his council of ministers in the Gujarat Government were too conspicuous by their absence and silence. This defeated the ethos of democracy.

Aam Aadmi Party in the meanwhile was being formed, and something or the other was happening in New Delhi. I didn't take much notice, perhaps because it was primarily a 'Delhi' thing, and I couldn't gauge the power behind the idea. It was only when AAP won 28 seats in the Delhi Assembly that I took notice and thought of reading about AAP and their anti-corruption drive.

One of the first videos that took my breath away - http://youtu.be/CvQ3_eOLdEA

I started following Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP website for a clearer understanding of the party. I found a strong anti-establishment sentiment primarily based on honesty and anti-corruption. I found a clear shift of focus from 'the ruling class sentiment' of a politician to the 'common man sentiment'. I found a lot of intelligence and ingenuity in the quickly evolving institution called AAP. The website and the various online services it offered were very innovative and user-friendly towards the single goal of forming a powerful institution. I loved the concept of 'Swaraj' where AAP is directing all its efforts and energies. I related to the concept of decentralization of power in terms of political, social and cultural administration of the country and the various varied states.

Two more videos to understand Arvind Kejriwal...

1. Facebook Talks Live Candidates 2014

2. India Today Conclave - Full Session

It was December 2013, when I had packed my bags and left Mumbai for good. Being in Assam for just a few days gave me a clear indication that corruption has entered even deeper in Assam, fueled by un-employment and lack of knowledge and awareness. I was surprised at the happy state of being corrupt, right from the top to the man on the streets. It was anarchy. To me, the wave of honesty and power to honest people seemed more critical for Assam than the rest of India.

BJP in the meantime had played its cards well and had become a formidable anti-incumbency option to the Indian citizens. From the last few elections, Indians were anyway fed up of coalition Governments and the 'concept per compromise' of NDA and UPA. It was not the party or its philosophy that had been creating a polarization of affection towards BJP. It was the univocal public sentiment of the well meaning citizens of the country towards a majority one-party Government, which was acting for the BJP. The in-efficient Congress, Modi effect with his team of spin doctors and the perception of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh being two of the most well-governed states of the country was adding fuel to the BJP fire.

At the same time, AAP, its leaders, its supporters including me were getting more and more confident of the alternative of honest politics, Swaraj and Jan Lok Pal bill. We were in a hurry. With the Delhi victory, we became doubly in hurry. Our objective of a corruption free country, where the power resides with the common people seemed possible. Quite obviously, BJP became our primary obstacle, as Congress ship was sinking on its own. We started attacking BJP and its policies more than those of the Congress. This created a huge confusion, debate and disillusionment among the well meaning citizens of India, who had already selected BJP as their saviour. BJP supporters, in no time labelled AAP as the agent of Congress to divide BJP vote bank for the Congress to win the elections.

We, the volunteers and supporters of AAP had got very upset about this new preposterous development. Labeling us with the Congress was an insult, hard to take. No amount of explanation and logic by the AAP supporters could convince the AAP haters to stop the tirade. The voice of the AAP critics and haters are so fierce that some time you get almost un-certain about the intentions of Arvind Kejriwal. I am confident about the constituency where I work, and the people that I work with. But sometimes I think 'who knows what is in the mind of the central think tank'. Politics is dirty.

Politics is dirty. This perception is the key reason why AAP is not believable for the un-initiated. 'Honesty is the best policy' has long lost its meaning and practicality. Honesty in politics is like a paradox. Honest politician is like a misnomer. AAP may have taken unconditional Congress support with honest intentions to form the Delhi Government, yet it is just not believable in the current context of politics in India. AAP and Congress just became allies for the common man of India. All the reasons and facts that had made people believe that AAP is an alternative to Congress in Delhi before the assembly elections, somehow faded into oblivion. After the elections when AAP took Congress support, all of those reasons and facts were all categorized as gimmicks with double meaning.

It is just unbelievable that AAP is an platform and a collection of honest people with the common intention of removing corruption from the political and administration system of our country. In Assam, there were a lot of people who joined AAP because it was easier to join, thinking that it will be just like any other political party - acceptably corrupt. It becomes very embarrassing for the party, as these people spoil the brand AAP. Although, they will get filtered out sooner than later, yet it is a problem that perhaps every state in the country has faced or is facing as I write.

Politics is also about power. There is a certain power addiction in becoming the ruling class, and remaining as one. AAP refutes that equation. AAP genuinely wants power to come to the masses. AAP genuinely wants the lowest unit of democracy to be the most powerful unit of democracy. This is again unbelievable, for it is a paradigm shift in terms of political thinking. It is about acting local facilitated by thinking global.

I have experienced this philosophy within the party. I was the campaign manager of the Jorhat Lok Sabha candidate - Mr. Manorom Gogoi. During the whole campaign process, there was no high command. Even the manifesto was made by us without any interference from the state committee and the central committee. It was all about the local needs best understood by the local people and by the people directly involved in the campaign process. The basis idea of honesty was omni-present but it got manifested in the most local way possible in our actions and speeches.

I have realized one thing for certain. AAP is not merely a political party. It is a revolution that have touched the length and breath of the country. It has polarized the country against corruption. Good intentions and actions will keep converting people in the fringe into hardcore supporters.  Arvind Kejriwal has started the revolution, and now it is all about what we do that will define this great phenomenon.

Till now, we have shown extreme intelligence, dedication, comradeship and perseverance. Just look at the huge IT infrastructure that the party is able to create in just over a year. It is no mean feat that AAP is fielding the highest number of candidates in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, among all parties. Arvind Kejriwal and Kumar Vishwas have shown extreme courage and commitment by deciding to stand against Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi. It is quite likely that both Arvind Kejriwal and Kumar Vishwas will win their respective elections.

If that happens, we will not be very far from the miracle of really being able to restore honesty in the electoral politics of India.

Male Bashing & Delhi Rape.

This is an old write-up that was left un-published.

29th December 2012: The young paramedic student, raped and beaten up by six men in a moving private bus and thrown out of it after 30 minutes of torture along with her male friend, succumbed to massive internal injuries after battling with them for over 12 days.

This is one of the most shocking news of a young student dying at such a tender age, because of brutality of a fellow human being, sexually.
 

My sincere condolences to the girl and sympathy for the family. I would be first to publicly hang the culprit if given a chance.

Having said that I wonder why we are ignoring that the boy could have been dead too. Few weeks back a boy was stabbed to death by the eve-teasers near Kalyan, Mumbai when he tried to intervene physically. Fistfight led to stabbing and death. The girl is safe.

So is it any safe for men? It is unfortunate that feminists and social media is taking this to gender in-equality. Gender inequality exists but is irrelevant to both these killings.

These killings are act of crime by anti-social elements. And we should condemn from that perspective of it being a crime, rather than politicizing the matter relating it to gender disputes and a male chauvinist mindset.

Secularism, Socialism and Democracy are cool concepts, till we question them !

Those were the proud moments in school, when we were taught about how India achieved independence through non-violence, and how we have done a great job writing our preamble and the constitution, which were ideal from all angles. 

It was secular. It was socialist. It was democratic.

We were told about our Government, and that, it is a democratic republic of the people, for the people and by the people. It gave us a feeling that we are all together to take India towards fame.

As I grew up, studied, read news, books, listened to elders, and as I began to understand more about politics, governance, human rights, I found that secularism, socialism and democracy are good sounding theories, and perhaps not practical, given human instincts of love, hatred and fear.

Secularism, if we go by the dictionary, is a philosophy that rejects all forms of religious faith and worship. In India, however, it implies equality of all religions, and it prohibits discrimination against members of a particular religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. 

Isn't it a wrong literal definition to start with? I have a problem with an 'end' that sounds too good to be true. It only means that we have not studied the 'means' to achieve that 'end'. Or it is only rhetorical. So the more important question is 'how to achieve secularism' and that somehow is not well researched, tested and formulated. For instance, even after 60 years of independence, we are not clear about whether school uniforms be uniform for all students.

Read this news article where a mother of a four-year-old Muslim girl has moved the Guwahati High Court after her school refused to allow her daughter to wear a ‘hijab’ (headscarf) along with the school uniform.

Socialism, if we go by the definition, refers to any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods and services. It refers to a system where there is no private property.

In India, socialism, instead of spreading wealth equally and without vested motives, has bred in-efficiency, politicking, lack of respect for Government properties, and a false hatred for trade and profits (and many more such malices!). We kept profiting and profiteering in the same bracket of common understanding. (Fools, we became!). It created a generation of Indians who were lazy, comfortable with mediocrity, and afraid of the big owners of all the production and distribution of goods and services.

This was Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru pet vision, (and to me the most significant reason why India is yet to be a developed country). Later Indira Gandhi trumpeted it to absurd levels by nationalizing the banks among all institutions. (And then, ironically, she became a dictator unleashing the state of Emergency bestowing on her the power to rule by decree, suspending elections and civil liberties.) Socialism ki maa ki aankh.

Democracy, similarly has (can I say) failed in India. The quote 'of the people, for the people, by the people' is at best euphoric, rhetoric and poetic. In India, democracy is getting titular day by day with decreasing electorate, and increasing discontent with Indian politics, power games and corruption.

In a daring attack on Saturday in Darbha Ghati, Chattisgarh, naxalists killed almost the entire Congress leadership of Chattisgarh. The Congress Chief Mr. Nand Kumar was abducted and killed later. The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh has called the rebels India's biggest internal security threat. Mr. Narendra Modi - the PM aspirant from BJP has termed the attack in Darbha Ghati as gruesome, and said that the government needs to adopt a zero tolerance policy towards Terrorism and Naxalism.

Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi called it a 'dastardly attack' on the country's democratic values. To me, it sounded funny and serious at the same time!

According to the Home Ministry, Naxalism and its ideals are present in 20 of India's 28 states, and have thousands of fighters. It is a confirmed data that all these fighters are Indians. It is also evident that they are risking their lives for some common cause. Democracy gives them the right to live and choose. This is the reason why I find Sonia Gandhi's statement funny. It sounds as if Congress has the autocratic right to India's democratic values. Would she say that if 26 rebels, who are Indians, were killed instead.

The problem is killing, and the reasons why these killings are taking place. It is just a matter of fact that Congress workers got killed this time. Some other group will get killed the next time. It is common knowledge how the innocents of the neighboring villages around Darbha Ghati will suffer rape, molestation and death in the name of investigation now.

How should a democratic country (of the people, for the people, by the people) react to such a scenario? If such a significant population is against the establishment and its power centers, how should the constitution deal with such a situation? How should International Bodies deal with this scenario of basic human rights and choice to take sides and fight for sovereignty or for any cause?

It is with contempt I realize that we are yet to understand the basics of governance, of free will, of human nature. Democracy, Secularism and Socialism as we understand has to undergo a huge transformation through research.

Perhaps India is too big and diverse for the right practice of democracy, secularism and socialism.

Delhi Rape Incident - Danger Sign of a Dual Society

My time with Twitter severely increased, for the hashtag #delhirape kept me angry, frustrated, curious and sarcastic; all at the same time.

Most of the tweets said what Napoleon Bonaparte had said over 200 years ago, "The act of policing is, in order to punish less often, to punish more severely."

Indeed the rapist should be publicly punished severely.

The other majority of tweets were a bit of a concern. They were of women shouting their words of anger and wisdom about how females are being taken for granted, coerced and exploited. Any tweet condescending to femininity were thrashed and castrated. 

There were tweets by a few men of reckoning, expressing that girls should be accompanied by elders at night for safety. They didn't know what hit them before they could even read their own tweet.

Although, it is sad that it took a heinous crime like rape for the citizens to come out in protest, yet it is a delight because Democracy works best when people claim it as their own, and participate. We should hope that this protest ultimately concludes into the reasons behind such a heinous social phenomenon of raping a women.

This is not the first rape and we have seen that rapes were rampant even during the protests across the country. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, the incidents of rape went up by 873 percent between 1953 and 2011. This is three times faster than all cognizable crimes put together and three-and-a-half times faster than murder. Between 2007 and 2011 alone, rape incidents have increased by 9.7 percent. This is reported figure and we can fairly add a multiplier to these statistics.

I am not a social scientist, but I am a keen observer who have spent 37 years in this country. I have experienced this country before social media, before economic liberalization, and during Doordarshan. I have seen the times when two flowers connoted kissing in movies. I have been in the cusp of time when joint families were dis-integrating into nuclear families.  I have seen tennis transform from knee length skirts to bum-length skirts, while the shorts of the men tennis players perhaps increased in length.

The most critical change that I have seen is what media, satellite television and Internet  have brought in. The information about the glamour and lifestyles of people living in Mumbai (or any metro) became known to people living in villages. Sadly, it was the content that got broadcasted across the country without the accompanying context. 

India was always disparate in terms of income, culture and lifestyle, but it was not known and seen. Now, with technology, the perceived disparity is much more than actual disparity... and it is growing between the have's and have-not's. It is not about the economic disparity alone. It is not  about the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer. Socio-cultural disparity in terms of identity is the concern that I would like to bring forth here. This is an alarmingly increasing disparity and a dichotomy is being created in terms of social attitude, expectations and perceptions about life. It is this polarization in terms of thoughts and world-view of things that concerns me.

With the Internet revolution and media, the world is changing too drastically. More drastically for a country like India, where education and economy could not and is unable to keep pace because of the sheer population, diversity and vastness of the country. And of course, lack of a visionary governance.

If I compare how I used to perceive a short skirt when I was 15 years old, with a 15 year old of today, I feel like I was a pervert. Fortunately, I was part of the drastic change. I was not a mere spectator to the change. I am afraid that the majority of the Indian population are mere spectators. There are a whole lot of 15 year olds who are stuck in time and have not graduated to this new age.

We have created an atmosphere of dual societies. A dual society contains two worlds in one: the Third World and the First World coexist within the same nation, under the same authorities and the same flag. Both are disparate in terms of access to benefits of education, of employment, standard of living, media and proximity to globalization of thought processes. These societies don't understand or relate to each other.

A simple case of dual society creation is the housing development that is happening in Mumbai through the 'Slum Rehabilitation Schemes'. The builder clears the slum, makes a sub-standard multi-storeyed building with tiny rooms to accommodate the slum population, and then makes a plush building with all club amenities for selling to the rich. The plush building brings in people with no history and similarity to the local population, people whose attitudes and lifestyle is different, and mostly un-acceptable to the local population.

The above example, although dangerous, is very mild. The disparity that non-egalitarian policies regarding education, employment and media can bring, is much more swift and over-powering.

Dual societies are ticking bombs waiting for explosion. Today it is an increasing trend on rape incidents, tomorrow it would be incidents of robbery and terrorism. This is where the policy makers of India has to act. Duality in society acts as a break for change and progress. It often leads to dangerous social phenomena like we have seen in the hashtag #delhirape.

The other conclusion to draw here is that lets not make this an episode of fight between genders. In a dual society, women are not safe. Period. Even man are not safe. I have heard of a female housemaid boiling a baby in a pressure cooker. I have heard of a housemaid poisoning the entire family during dinner. I have heard of a college kid stabbed and murdered by slum neighbours when he was trying to save one girl from eve-teasing.

So believe me that it is not about gender. It is about the unequal society and wider generation gaps. Let us all be responsible citizens and do whatever we can to have an equal society in terms of thinking, attitudes, and lifestyle. The haves should control their urges and be more sensitive towards the have-nots. Similarly, have-nots need to be given opportunities to cross the barrier.

It is quite a difficult task considering that we, as a nation, are a selfish lot. We consider the Ganga as a sacred river for a holy dip, but hardly bother for the next person who is coming to take a dip. We have to start thinking as a nation, as a team.

Till then, there would be only arguments, protests and tweets.