Trump & Modi hover over Jaipur Literature Festival

January 31, 2017

Since both Trump and Modi excite hearts rather than minds, they ought to be invited to the next Jaipur Literature Festival

A Jaipur Literary Festival audience

It was yet another victory for Trump. The reports of America’s decline are exaggerated. The Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) proved it. POTUS – President of the United States – matters. Donald Trump got mentioned in several sessions. Hovering as a spectre over a literary festival in a distant land is a great achievement, beyond the President of Mongolia and the Supreme Leader of North Korea.If Donald Trump did not tweet about the Jaipur Literature Festival, it was because he was too busy with his inauguration. India got ignored because the good women of this civilisation did not join the international march against the new POTUS.

At JLF, all references to Trump were critical and every scathing remark about him was greeted with derisive laughter by the audience. But Trump derives oxygen of publicity from critical comments. These energise his cultish constituency. His fans, like the devotees of all cult heads, are ever ready with an abusive and intimidating response to the leader’s critics. A quick response team goes into battle on the social media.

Soon after moving into the White House, Trump phoned the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a fellow populist leader, and invited him to visit the White House. Trump could hardly complain to Modi against those in Jaipur who misjudged him. They were mainly Americans, Britons and Non Resident Indians.

A big nuisance

Political leaders get implicated in literary conversations because the ills of the world are felt most acutely by the sensitive souls. Poets and playwrights spot the emerging dystopia even while politicians falsify a given situation as per their set partisan agenda. That is why the politicians in power consider the writers and poets to be a big nuisance.

A democratic leader lets the writers speak even if she is unable to build a nation of their dreams. Another kind of leader, whether elected or unelected, unleashes on writers and other dissenters either the oppressive state machinery or his party’s storm-troopers. The use of the non-state actors is a preferred option because it protects his own “democratic” credentials and no questions are asked by some US-based Freedom Forum established during the cold war.

The prominent Indian writers who had retuned their awards protesting against rising intolerance and intimidation of writers and rationalists were not invited to the Jaipur Literature Festival this time but some of those who came pointed a finger at the ills afflicting the contemporary India. A famous poet from the Hindi film world “barked” and celebrated his “freedom to bark”. So what if he cannot bite he said, acknowledging the failure of poetry to influence politics! He knows we are not in the romantic age and poets are no longer unacknowledged legislators of the world. Hovering as a spectre over a literary festival in a distant land is a great achievement, beyond the President of Mongolia and the Supreme Leader of North Korea.

“Terrible inauguration”

The attack on Trump began at the opening session of the festival. American poet-performer Anne Waldman, in her keynote address, referred to the “terrible inauguration” in Washington DC. She went further than Meryl Streep, shouting in solidarity with her sisters, daughters, children and all women marching towards Washington to protest against the impending inauguration of Trump as President.

Anne Waldman reading, 2015. Flickr/kellywritershouse

That was just the beginning. Trump kept coming in for dishonourable mention and those making snide remarks included eminent speakers and moderators. A British writer said he would not even utter the name of the new American President. He didn’t have to. American writer Paul Beatty went further in an interview saying there is a reason that people picked this guy (Trump). “He is an apparition, but he is both real and unreal, and people see something in him.”

A Jaipur newspaper quoted a state minister belonging to Modi’s party. The eight-column headline said “PM Modi has some divine power: Kataria”. No devotee of Trump has gone that far.

Another English daily carried a long opinion piece arguing that both Modi and Trump are textbook populists. The writer said that Modi matched all the characteristics of a populist leader as defined by Princeton Professor Jan-Werner Muller in his book “What is Populism?”

Both leaders are polarising figures and both do not sit idle for a moment. They tweet and they tweet. They are not afraid of making politically incorrect remarks and very simple statements. They take on the elites fond of articulating complex thoughts. Modi and Trump know what an American columnist said: In tough times, people want someone who can make a compelling pitch and inspire a sense of urgency. Integrity and intelligence are not what the voters are after.

Apart from the stray comments by individual speakers, the entire final session of the festival referred to Trump as it was titled: “Debate: We are living in a Post-Truth World”. It was a topical subject but the debate only proved what some writers have been saying: “There is no space left for a real public discourse.”

The organisers had framed the issue mainly in the context of Trump and Brexit since lies were used in the two campaigns. As the debate progressed, the spectre of Narendra Modi came to haunt it. Since Prime Minister Modi has been blamed for not being truthful while electioneering and while selling his demonetisation decision, his supporters suspect words such as “Post-Truth World”.

In India, the list of “provocative” words keeps expanding. Politicians hijack words and phrases to make them seductive or repellent. The frame of reference matters. In contemporary India, anyone uttering the words “intolerant” or “inclusive” or “secular” is branded as a critic of Modi.

Slippery slope

Trump is cited most by those commenting on the post-truth world. Of course, the argument about the rise of passion as the prime instrument of winning power has been validated in the recent years in India, America and Europe.

Thus the debate in the JLF reflected the polarisation between the supporters of Modi who saw the slippery slope. If you light a verbal fire around Trump, it will soon reach Modi, they feared. And it did. One speaker devalued the very term “post-truth”. He detected in it a conspiracy by the liberal media. He told the British critics that what Trump does is not their business. He wanted the audience to pay respect to the wise voters of America. He pointed out with satisfaction that women of India did not join the global protest against Trump! He was not upset by the attack on a fellow journalist launched by Trump at his press conference.

Since the expression “post-truth” is not as simple as “lies”, there was considerable scope for philosophical musings. What is truth, it was asked and no one was prepared to wait for an answer. The meditation on the nature of the truth involved words such as “my truth”, “your truth”. A writer found it necessary to quote Yeats: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

In a literary festival, Trump could have even been lauded for his power of imagination and for creating fiction to fight a political battle! Emotion-based politics is closer to literature than fact-based rhetoric. A professor of literature would say that literature is important precisely because it is not bound by facts. “It is important because it is not bound up in issues of law, science, medicine or business.”

Entering the Jaipur Literary Festival.Manish Swarup/Press Association.

It is said that one can gain more understanding about the human heart from Shakespeare than from Freud. Myron Magnet asks in an essay: "Can anyone think that the studies of Margaret Mead or Alfred Kinsey tell us anything nearly as true as Ovid or Turgenev?"

Conclusion

Since both Trump and Modi excite hearts rather than minds, they ought to be invited to the next Jaipur Literature Festival. Modi’s book of poems could be among the scores of books that are released at JLF.

It will fit into JLF’s intellectual agenda since the organisers say that the festival should not just be a bubble in which the liberals talk to liberals. Going by this policy, this time they invited two leaders of the RSS, a right-wing cultural organisation that mentors the ruling party. Modi was groomed by the RSS from a young age.

Participation by Trump and Modi will fit into JLF’s commercial agenda also. It will gain significant sponsors as the American Embassy and the Indian Ministry of Finance.

If the Modi Government accepts the suggestion made at JLF by a noted TV journalist, it would set up a Ministry for History. That ministry could sponsor presentations by two non-Marxist historians. Like the truth, there is also “My History vs. Your History.” That may be a topic for the next JLF. Rival historians can then come and fight outside the Groves of Academe!

(L K Sharma has followed no profession other than journalism for more than four decades, covering criminals and prime ministers. Was the European Correspondent of The Times of India based in London for a decade. Reported for five years from Washington as the Foreign Editor of the Deccan Herald. Edited three volumes on innovations in India. He has completed a work of creative nonfiction on V. S. Naipaul).

This article was first published on openDemocracy.

Sovereign and Super Sovereign of Indian Republic

January 31, 2017

Given the republican thrust of the Indian Constitution, the above title might look quite anachronistic to some.

Given the republican thrust of the Indian constitution, the above title might look quite anachronistic to some. This is because Indian constitution does not allow for such a reading as its republican character eliminates the need for hierarchical or parallel conception of sovereignty. The republican character of the Indian constitution makes people uniformly sovereign thus ruling out any competing conception of sovereignty. To put differently, the republican conception of sovereignty seeks to dissolve all the particular caste and gender based identities into more universal category of citizens. In constitutional terms people’s sovereignty then becomes a singular conception. If this is the constitutional status of the conception of sovereignty then the question that requires to be answered is: is it possible for anyone to adopt a title that suggests not only hierarchical but parallel conception of sovereignty? The assumption behind the proposed title suggests that a uniformed conception of sovereign citizens has only a formal /constitutional status and that in actual practice, in fact, there are competing and even intersecting conceptions of sovereignty. These mutually exclusory forms have evolved in the course of the last seventy years’ long life of the Indian republic as visualised in our constitution. Thus, the main focus of this essay is to highlight these different forms of sovereignty that seems to be having existed side by side but with conflicting relationship with each other. We will take on board the critique of the liberal conception of republic that houses not one but several intersection conceptions of sovereignty. Sovereign citizen is a neat and coherent category. As a part of this claim let me try and divide sovereign citizens into two basic sets: Law abiding and lawless sovereign citizens. In addition to these two, we shall also discuss the emergence of third category of citizens who have acquired the status of super-sovereign. We would like to argue that these are not ordinarily sovereign citizens but they seem to be enjoying extraordinary sovereign status. These are certain corporate houses as well as corporate NGOs. We will further argue that these corporates, along with the states in India do share the same ethical space of parental ‘benevolence’. We shall discuss this kind of super sovereign afterwards; let us discuss those who exercise their sovereignty within the constitutional framework and those who exercise their sovereignty outside the constitutional framework.

Lawless and law abiding sovereign citizens
Arguably, there are citizens who seek to exercise their sovereignty within the legal/ law framework. For example, dalits like general citizens are constitutionally entitled to enjoy political sovereignty in regard to participation in decision making processes of the country. However, dalits are sovereign in one more additional sense of being socially sovereign. The need to establish organic connection between dalits and social sovereignty becomes important in the context of the 19th century social history of Western India, particularly Peshwa rule in Pune. The Peshwa rule which functioned on the basis of Brahaminical ideology, officially denied dalits physical access to public spaces. Today, in the 21st century, dalits through capacity for defiance and resistance have been struggling to access public spaces and hold on to them by paying heavy social cost. For example, dalit protests organised through the upper caste lane in the urban-semi urban centres and even through some of the villages or celebrations of Ambedkar’s birth anniversaries are some of the cases that point at the exercise of social sovereignty. But this lawful exercise of sovereignty is trumped by the lawless forms of sovereignty that finds its expression in the dalit atrocities perpetrated by the dominant castes.

These citizens tend to operate in the zone of lawlessness to the extent that they use their own caste based law which operates parallel to the existing rule of law. The dominant castes demonstrate their sovereign power by imposing social boycott on dalits, or by parading dalit women naked and flogging them publically, like at Una in Gujarat. They are not governed by the modern law but by their own laws that are based on regressive principle of caste. Those who were involved in dalit humiliation at Una carry this dubious distinction of being in the zone of outlaw. This was evident from their being openly aggressive, contemptuous, violent and barbaric towards dalits at Una. This, in effect, invalidates the upper castes’ claim to exist under any plausible form of justice. Those who exist in the zone of outlaw, however, do not have a harder time in the republic. On the contrary, In fact, such ‘sovereign citizens’ seek to brandish their crime on social media projecting such acts as a heroic venture. In the context of upper caste atrocities against dalits , it would not be sufficient to say that the dominant castes take law in their hand and punish dalits, it would be adequate to say that these dominant castes are above the constitutional law with their own caste laws firmly held in their hand. Continuous spree of fresh rounds of atrocities against dalits, have made them to feel as victims of the republic rather than its citizens. In the Indian republic, their sense of self worth is on probation far from being completely realised.

Republic of self-respecting citizens or servile subjects?
Republican thrust of Indian constitution provided new ways of organising Indian society on egalitarian lines. The language of rights and social justice that have been provided with in Indian constitution not only made dalits the legitimate recipient of such rights, but more importantly such rights offered them an opportunity to reject what could be termed as negative rights such as right to jhootan (left over food), right to cast off clothes of the feudal lord and right to carcass and to the flesh of the dead animal. Within the framework of the republic, dalits were able to replace servility with more positive sense of self respect and self worth. In essence, for dalits, Indian republic has been the ideology of enlightenment. The republican promise to create a new society empowered dalits to give up or get rid of negative rights as mentioned above. Regrettably, these negative rights are back in different forms with a modern feudal lord such as states in India and even the corporates.

During the 1970s, Indian government was referred to as maa-baap sarkar (government as benevolent parental authority). It adopted some subsides for the poor who could barely survive. The states in India had acquired the role of “anna data” (food donor). Various chief ministers of different states have been competing to become ‘anna data’ by adopting even drastic forms of subsidies, for example, in rice and other grains, or one rupee idli and mid day meal scheme.

Today, the corporate class has chosen to share this parental benevolence with the State. This parental benevolence has been couched in moral vocabulary such as corporate social responsibility. As a part of the CSR, various philanthropic organisations are cooking food while some others are said to be collecting the ‘surplus’ food by going from restaurant to restaurant. The language of rights gets replaced by the language of seva, daan (charity) and dharma. However, food collected from the restaurant or cooked food does not seem to carry the sacred meaning of prasadam. It is claimed that several lakhs of hungry kids are fed from the inexhaustible plate. Whether one agrees or not these philanthropic efforts are the manifestation of what Utsa Patnaik calls a ‘republic of hunger’. What implication does this philanthropic have for the cognitive power of the recipients of this parental benevolence of the State and the corporates? Dalits have a definite understanding of the ethics (in fact ideology) of care. Such ethics tend to hide the fact that the philanthropists ‘sell’ the sacrifice and do not tell the truth. The truth has been expressed by the dalit parents of the children who are the recipients of mid day meals which does not come to them without paying the social cost of humiliation. The parents of the dalit children ask not just for the mid day meal, but ask the State to appoint adequate number of quality teachers in the government schools. The dalits have expressed intellectual need to get enough competent teachers in government schools besides material good like mid day meal. Their hunger for living worthily is far more morally superior to merely living. It is a different kind of hunger. The State needs to provide decent livelihood resource for the parents of the kids. Hence the dignity of kids to depend on some body’s patronage in moral sense gets violated. India has failed to create hunger for ideas as it has collaterally failed to remove the hunger as basic human existence problem that has a bearing on their existence with dignity.

Let me in conclusion make a point: at this point in time, where the poor privilege hunger for ideas over the hunger for food or hunger for quality education than the desire for food quantity that is made available through mid-day meals. Neither is it the matter of subsidised satisfaction that these sections can draw from the symbolic showcasing of the republic on a certain spectacular event. The dalits and adivasis would be equally happy to appreciate the 26th of January not simply as a one day spectacle, but can sustain their happiness only in the conditions where they would have enough resources to protect their dignity and self-worth. They cannot have a romantic attitude towards the Indian republic.

Courtesy: Peoples Democracy

BJP MLA Suresh Rana booked for hate speech

January 30, 2017

Controversial BJP MLA Suresh Rana was today booked by Uttar Pradesh Police on charges of inciting hatred after he said that curfew will be imposed in Kairana, Deoband and Moradabad if he is elected again in assembly polls next month.

Rana, an accused in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots and the party candidate from Thana Bhawan seat in neighbouring Shamli district, had made the remarks at a gathering in his constituency on Saturday, evoking criticism from opposition.

“If I emerge as the winner (in UP polls), curfew will be imposed in Kairana, Deoband and Moradabad,” he said.

A case was registered against Rana under IPC Section 505 (Making a statement with intent to incite) and Section 125 (Promoting enmity between classes in connection with election) of The Representation of the People Act for his controversial remarks, Thana Bhawan circle officer Sunil Kumar Tyagi said.

The officer said that it was found that the MLA’s statement violated the model code of conduct for elections.

Rana today tried to do some damage control claiming that his remarks were meant for goons who have spread terror in the state.

“What I meant was many people have planned to leave western UP fearing the terror spread by goons and robbers.

There is no city in that region where people have not planned to move out due to the fear of these goons,” Rana said.

“…when BJP forms government in UP, these goons who are part of the mafia, whose actions are feared and who forced residents to flee will have to leave the state. The residents of UP won’t leave due to fear. The goons will have to leave the state,” he added.

Kairana made headlines last year after BJP MP Hukum Singh alleged that there was exodus of Hindus and released a list of more than 300 Hindu families who had reportedly fled the town following repeated extortion threats and violent attacks.

Singh had alleged that the ruling Samajwadi Party was preventing action against anti-social elements responsible for the exodus since they happened to be its supporters.

Hitting out at Rana, SP leader Juhi Singh said, “What does he want to do by imposing a curfew, he does not seem educated even to know when a curfew is imposed”.

“One list was brought out by Hukum Singh, which was wrong. They are just telling wrong things to people so that they don’t ask them the important questions like what schemes have you brought for Kairana, for UP,” she said.
BJP leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi sought to distance from the MLA’s remarks saying “the party is not responsible if a candidate says something”.

“Modi ji and Amit Shah are saying that such statements should not be made. I don’t know in what context he (Rana) has said it but I understand that our party is contesting the UP elections on the development plank,” Joshi said.

Rana has also been booked for allegedly violating the model code of conduct after he held a public gathering and took out a road show at Hathi Karonda village in his constituency in Shamli district yesterday without the permission of the authorities, police said.

How do the new UGC regulations affect prospective students applying to JNU? Ayesha Kidwai

January 30, 2017

This is the first of a five part series in which AYESHA KIDWAI will explain how the UGC Gazette Notification of 2016, especially as interpreted by the VC of JNU, will affect different categories of students, faculty, and the general public.

Ayesha Kidwai is Professor, Centre for Lingustics, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, JNU.

Courtesy: Kafila.online

Now Rajput groups want Bhansali to change ‘Padmavati’ title

January 30, 2017

Protests over “Padmavati” took a new turn today with Rajput groups coming up with fresh demands of title change and a review before the release even as Bhansali productions made it clear that there is no romantic dream sequence between Rani Padmavati and Alaudin Khilji.

The demand was raised at a joint press conference which was convened by Rajput Sabha to announce that they and Karni Sena agree over the demand that there will no distortion of historic facts in the movie.

However, the president of the Rajput Sabha said that they have also demanded that a screening committee be formed by the group to screen the movie before its release but Bhansali productions are yet to act on the request.

During the press conference, some of the members of the Karni Sena raised another demand that the film’s title should be changed and there should be no film in the name of “Padmavati” at all which was supported by the state President of Karni Sena Mahipal Singh.

“There is no romantic dream sequence or any objectionable/ romantic scene between Rani Padmavati and Allauddin Khijli. It was not a part of the script. It was misconception and considering the sentiments of the community, we have clarified to them,” Shobha Sant, CEO of the Bhansali Productions said.

“We are trying to present Rani Padmavati’s courageous nature. We will make the film which will make the country proud on Rani Padmavati,” she said.

Mahipal said he put forward the sentiments of the youths of the Rajput community by demanding the title change.

“We are thankful to the Bhansali productions that they have agreed to our demand that there will be no distortion of the historic facts in the movie,” he said.

Sant, however, said the demand to change the title did not come up in their previous discussions with the group.

“They have made this fresh demand for which I have nothing to say anything. This is not in my jurisdiction. They also did not raise this point in our discussion held before,” Sant said.

Karni Sena members created a ruckus and manhandled Bhansali while the director was shooting the movie at Jaigarh Fort in Jaipur on Friday.

The incident drew sharp reactions from the film industry with members demanding action against the miscreants.

Bhansali’s production house released a statement clarifying the “misconception” about the story but the team also cancelled its shooting in the city.

गांधी, तुम भाड़ में जाओ!

January 30, 2017

तुम्हें ने हमें लंबे समय तक परेशान किया है। हमें तुम्हारी जरूरत नहीं। तुम भाड़ में जाओ।

महात्मा गांधी की हत्या की 68वीं बरसी पर उनके प्रपौत्र तुषार गांधी ने अब भी इस उथलपुथल भरे देश के राष्ट्रपिता के तौर पर बरकरार बापू के प्रति मौजूदा सरकार और संघ परिवार के व्यवहार का एक जायजा लिया है।

तुमने हमें 1947 में फाइनल सॉल्यूशन की इजाजत नहीं दी। तुम हिंदू राष्ट्र और हमारे बीच आ गए। हमने तुमसे छुटकारा पाने के लिए अपने आदमी भेजे। लेकिन अड़ियल बुड्ढे, सीने में गोलियां दागने के बावजूद तुम मरने से इनकार करते रहे। लेकिन अब हमें तुम्हें बिल्कुल नहीं चाहते। हम तुम्हारे हत्यारों की पूजा करते हैं। हमने उन्हें सत्ता भी दे दी है। तुमने अपनी गरीबी, सादे जीवन से हमें शर्मसार किया है। हम आडंबर, दिखावा और धूम-धड़ाके में विश्वास करते हैं। सच, ईमानदारी और नैतिकता आउटडेटेड हो चुकी हैं। अब हमें इन चीजों की बिल्कुल जरूरत नहीं है। गांधी, तुम भाड़ में जाओ।

हमने तुम्हारा चश्मा भी रख लिया है। ताकि तुम हमारी कलुषित आत्मा और हमारे खून से सने हाथ नहीं देख सको।

हम अब स्वच्छ भारत की बात करते हैं, इसलिए अब हमें स्वच्छ आत्मा, स्वच्छ आचरण, स्वच्छ जीवन पर तुम्हारे उपदेश की कोई जरूरत नहीं है। हमें अब तुम्हारे शब्दों की जरूरत नहीं है। हम तो अब जुमलों के आदी हो चुके हैं। तुम भाड़ में जाओ गांधी।

तुम्हारा सादा जीवन और गरीबी अपनाना अब हमें प्रभावित नहीं करता। हमें तो अब लाखों का सूट पसंद आता है। तुम्हारी खद्दर की धोती पहनने से अब हमें शर्म आती है। अब हम अतुल्य भारतीय हैं। गांधी, तुम तो भाड़ में जाओ।

हमने तुम्हारा चश्मा ले लिया था। अब हमें खादी के लिए भी एक नया पोस्टर ब्वॉय मिल गया है। वह चरखे के साथ काफी अच्छा पोज देता है और बड़ा कूल लगता है। तुमने तो चरखा कात कर सिर्फ अपना वक्त गंवाया है। तुम्हारे नाम पर तो अब खद्दर भी नहीं बिकती। पॉली वस्त्रों को बेचने वाला अब हमें एक नया सेल्समैन मिल गया है। इसलिए तुम भाड़ में जाओ।

गांधी तुम खद्दर की धोती पहन कर बंकिघम पैलेस चले गए गए थे। इसलिए ब्रिटिश पीएम ने खीज में तुम्हें अधनंगा फकीर कह दिया था। तुम अपनी सिकुड़ी छाती लेकर बेशर्मी से वहां पहुंच गए। तुमने हमें शर्मसार किया। हमारे नए सुप्रीम नेता को तो अपनी 56 इंच की छाती पर गर्व है। और वह डिजाइनर जैकेट पहनना पसंद करता है। लिहाजा गांधी अब हमें तुम्हारी जरूरत नहीं है। तुम भाड़ में जाओ।

करेंसी पर तुम्हारी तस्वीर ने हमारा मान घटाया है। हमारे नेता बेहद साफगोई के साथ इस तथ्य को स्वीकार करते हैं। हम वहां से भी तुम्हें धीरे-धीरे हटा देंगे क्योंकि हमारे सुप्रीम नेता कैशलेस इंडिया और पेटीएम को प्रमोट कर रहे हैं और जिसमें तुम्हारी तस्वीर नहीं होती। गांधी अब तुम भाड़ में जाओ।

तुम्हारा ‘सिक’ यूलिरिज्म ने हमें बहुत परेशान किया है और ‘मियाओं’ को बेधड़क बना दिया है। अब तो हमारे नेता ने दिखा दिया है कि मुस्लिमों को मारना ठीक है। वह कहते हैं कि मुसलमानों के साथ ऐसा ही होना चाहिए। 2002 ने इसे साबित कर दिया है। हमने ऐसे नेताओं को सत्ता की चाबी देकर पुरस्कृत भी किया है। हमारे पास ऐसी अदालतें भी हैं जो कहती हैं कि किसी दूसरे धर्म के लोगों की हत्या करना स्वीकार्य है। यह कोई जघन्य अपराध नहीं है। अब कोई भी शख्स खून सने हाथ से सर्वोच्च पद की शपथ ले सकता है। गांधी अगर आज तुम आने की कोशिश करो और आमरण अनशन करो तो हम तुम्हें मरने से नहीं रोकेंगे। हमें तुम्हारा कोई परवाह नहीं है। तुम भाड़ में जाओ।

नैतिकता एक बुरा शब्द है। हम किचन से बाहर निकल कर जिंस और टी-शर्ट पहन कर बाहर आने वाली महिलाओं को पाठ पढ़ाने में इसका इस्तेमाल करते हैं। हम उनका रेप करते हैं और उन्हें याद दिलाते हैं कि वे सिर्फ बच्चा पैदा करने की मशीन हैं। हमारे यहां महिलाओं को अग्निपरीक्षा से गुजारने की परंपरा है। हम बड़े गर्व के साथ अपनी पुरानी परंपरा को दोबारा लाना चाहते हैं। तुम्हारा महिला सशक्तिकरण की बात भाड़ में जाए। हम चुनावों में दलितों का इस्तेमाल करते हैं लेकिन अपनी भूख मिटाने के लिए अगर वे फल खा लें या हमारे नल से प्यास बुझाने के लिए पानी पी लें तो उनका हाथ काट लेते हैं। इसलिए भाड़ में जाओ गांधी।

हमने तुम्हारा चश्मा और चरखा चुरा लिया है। हम तुम्हारी लाठी का इस्तेमाल उन लोगों को पीटने या झुकाने में करेंगे जो हमारे खिलाफ खड़े हैं। हम उनके खिलाफ मुकदमा करेंगे। उन्हें बदनाम करें और उन्हें पीटेंगे। गांधी हमें तुम्हारी अहिंसा की जरूरत नहीं है। हम तुम्हारे हत्यारे गोडसे की पूजा करते हैं। तुम भाड़ में जाओ।

तुम्हारा वक्त बीत चुका है भले ही तुम्हारी घड़ी 30 जनवरी, 1948 से सुबह के 5.17 का वक्त बता रही है। यह वह वक्त है, जब हमने तुम्हारे सीने में गोलियां दागने के लिए आदमी भेजा था। अब गोडसे का वक्त है। तुम्हारा वक्त बीत चुका है। हमने नौ मिमी की तीन गोलियां का जो उपहार तुम्हें दिया था, उसी से खुश रहो। हमें अब तुम्हारी जरूरत नहीं हो। भाड़ में जाओ।

अब एक ही जगह तुम्हारा स्वागत होगा और वह यह जगह है एयर इंडिया का वीआईपी प्लेन। हमारे सुप्रीम लीडर अक्सर अपने विदेश दौरे में इसका इस्तेमाल करते हैं। और दुर्भाग्य से उनका काम बापू के बगैर नहीं चलता।

इसलिए अतुल्य भारत से गांधी तुम तो दफा हो जाओ।

सुन ले बापू ये पैगाम, मेरी चिट्ठी तेरे नाम, चिट्ठी में सबसे पहले करता तुझको राम-राम……

Child malnutrition is soaring but funding for India’s child development scheme remains anaemic

January 30, 2017

Instead of increasing outlays, the budget allocation for the ICDS has declined by 9.6% since 2015.

India is home to 472 million children. Forty percent of India’s population consists of minors. The country is home to one-third of the world’s population of women who become mothers even before they have reached adulthood. Yet the budget allocated for their health is only 4% of India’s already meagre health spending.

In the remote hamlet of Mai in Bihar’s Munger district the tragic consequences of this low spending is immediately apparent. Situated on the banks of the Ganga, Mai is home to around 100 families. Most of them do not have ration cards or any other official documents.

For the past 11 years, the village has played host to a facility of the Integrated Child Development Scheme, which aims to provide provide food, preschool education, and basic healthcare to children under six years of age and their mothers. In fact, the facility in Mai has been named a “model ICDS centre”. But the condition of the building appearance belies this accolade. The area surrounding the centre is occupied by children, buffaloes and other domestic animals.

The building also serves as the village community centre, which means that ICDS services are not available any time there is a community programme or meeting. The roof of the centre is rickety and the floor is blistered. A solitary weighing machine that arrived after two years of asking for it stands in a corner and there is no other equipment to monitor children’s growth.

Whether the ICDS centre is a model one or nor, it is unlikely that children of this village, with little access to enough nutritious food, will grow up healthy. Mai is evidence of the conclusions drawn from the fourth round of the National Family Health Survey – that nine out of 11 states surveyed have not been able to reduce the rate of infant mortality by even two points annually. In India, 40 out of 1,000 infants do not reach their first birthdays.

In Damodarpur Mohuli, a small village on the outskirts of Samastipur district also in Bihar, the ICDS centre has not been functioning for the past six months due to a lack of funds. “If I cannot give the children proper medicines or nutritious food, what is the point of keeping the ICDS centre open?” asked Savita Devi, the government-appointed helper or sevika at the centre who has not got her salary for half a year.

Intent versus investment

The ICDS has the right intent – to provide a sound foundation for children given that 90% of human brain development occurs within 5-6 years of age. Implemented from 1974, this scheme is implemented through the wide network of anganwadi centres, giving it the potential to provide comprehensive coverage. Over the years, the coverage and services of this scheme have increased multi-fold. The latest policy speaks of restructuring the ICDS to enhance anganwadis with crèches that will provide universal healthcare and also preschool education.

Such a transition will require special training of ICDS staff. The plan can only be realised with adequate investment – but funding for the scheme has only been falling.

The budget allocation for the ICDS in 2016-’17 has declined 9.6% from 2015-’16. Some states have seen deeper cuts than others. Maharshtra’s ICDS spending fell from Rs 3,463 crores in 2015-’16 to Rs 1,307 crores in 2016-’17.

2015-16 allocation: Revised estimate (RE); 2016-17 allocation: Budget estimate (BE).

Moreover, the scheme is presently able to cover only about 50% of the population of children under the age of six. Large number of children still only have access to anganwadis that are devoid of education services.

The ICDS also lags in terms of reach, leaving more than 18 lakh of the 35 children who should be covered by the scheme without ICDS services – a poor strike rate of just 50%.

It also suffers from many vacant positions in anganwadis.

The case of Meera, a child in Pokhadia village near the Jharkhand-Bihar border, illustrates what might be happening in places with no anganwadis. Meera was born prematurely three years ago to a malnourished mother and was so fragile that her family thought she was dead and was ready to bury her. However, anganwadi worker Lila Bai rushed to the house and saved the baby. She taught Meera’s mother how to look after the premature child and encouraged her to make sure she was vaccinated. It may like likely that other children have not been saved because there was no anganwadi worker at hand.

Getting priorities straight

Investing in children has a cascading effect on individual growth and development and on economic growth. It also reduces social inequity and breaks cycles of poverty.

Over the past few years, the Indian government has initiated policy recommendations to provision early childhood care under the Right to Free and Compulsory Education, 2009, and has introduced the National Early Childhood Care and Education Policy. The government also acknowledges the critical links between early learning and improvement in learning outcomes in formal primary schooling.

The need of the hour is to translate this intent to action. While policies can be created and legal frameworks can be built, as long as there is minuscule investment, these grand visions will come to naught.

Komal Ganotra is the director of policy, research and advocacy at CRY – Child Rights and You.

Courtesy: Scroll.in

Watch video: Kairana will be under curfew if I win: BJP MLA Suresh Rana

January 30, 2017

Kicking up a controversy, BJP MLA Suresh Rana said that curfew will be imposed in Kairana, Deoband and Moradabad if he is elected again in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls next month.

Rana, an accused in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots and the party candidate from Thana Bhawan constituency in Shamli district, had made the remarks at a gathering in his constituency on Saturday, evoking criticism from opposition.
“If I emerge as the winner (in UP polls), curfew will be imposed in Kairana, Deoband and Moradabad,” he said.

With his remarks triggering a controversy, Rana today clarified that the comments were meant for goons who have spread terror in the state.

“What I meant was many people have planned to leave Western UP fearing the terror spread by goons and robbers.

There is no city in that region where people have not planned to move out due to the fear of these goons,” Rana said.

“…when BJP forms government in UP, these goons who are part of the mafia, whose actions are feared and who forced residents to flee will have to leave the state. The residents of UP won’t fear to leave. The goons will have to leave the state,” he added.

Kairana made headlines last year after BJP MP Hukum Singh alleged exodus of Hindus by releasing a list of more than 300 Hindu families who had reportedly fled the town following repeated extortion threats and violent attacks.

Singh had alleged that the ruling Samajwadi Party was preventing action against anti-social elements responsible for the exodus since they happened to be its supporters.

Hitting out at Rana, SP leader Juhi Singh said, “What does he want to do by imposing a curfew, he does not seem educated even to know when a curfew is imposed”.

“One list was brought out by Hukum Singh, which was wrong.

They are just telling wrong things to people so that they don’t ask them the important questions like what schemes have you brought for Kairana, for UP,” she said.

BJP leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi sought to distance from the MLA’s remarks saying “the party is not responsible if a candidate says something”.

Thana Bhawan circle officer Sunil Kumar Tyagi said that police has started a investigation in this connection and have sought the video footage of the gathering where Rana made the remarks on Saturday.

Rana has also been booked for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct after he held a public gathering and took out a road show at Hathi Karonda village in his constituency of Shamli district yesterday without the permission of the authorities, police said.

Courtesy: Janta Ka Reporter

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गांधी, तुम भाड़ में जाओ!

तुम्हें ने हमें लंबे समय तक परेशान किया है। हमें तुम्हारी जरूरत नहीं। तुम भाड़ में जाओ।

Child malnutrition is soaring but funding for India’s child development scheme remains anaemic

Instead of increasing outlays, the budget allocation for the ICDS has declined by 9.6% since 2015.

Intent versus investment

Getting priorities straight

Watch video: Kairana will be under curfew if I win: BJP MLA Suresh Rana

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