Kashmir is burning.

Zaffar was sad yesterday. He is my classmate and he is from Kashmir. The events that are happening in his home town are not pleasant. The town is under a curfew. Atleast 5 people have lost their lives in the police firing at the protest march to Lal Chowk, the centre of the town. Zaffar is not very political. He is a sort of happy go lucky guy. When people asks him whether he want independence or want to secede from India or join Pakistan, he used to answer that if people wanted freedom, he'd also support it. He was not much agog about the opression and occupation.
We were both reading from the library when he suggested we have a cup of tea from the canteen. we sat with our cuppas on the verandah. he said that he had got a call from home. and then he started talking and me listening. his brother had called to inform him that a deaf and dumb person in his neighborhood got brutally beaten up by the force since he didn move out of the street at the announcement of curfew.
Then he started talking about the history of the Kashmir problem. He blamed Sheikh Abdulla and his family for all the ruins that had come upon the Kashmimris. Sheikh was never a champion of democracy and had again and again rigged election results to clinch on to the power.

Then he started talking about the amarnath land issue, which is now the burning issue in the valleys.
The Gulam Nabi Azad Govt decided to transfer 100acres of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board. Amarnath is a famous hindu pilgrimage centre. The cave was discovered by a Kashmiri muslim nomad and since then thousands of hindu pilgrims have been visiting the place. one third of the annual profit was given to the family of the muslim nomad who found the cave. The Govt. decided to stop that also.

Initially the govt. claim was that the land id being transfered on a temperory basis, but the document said otherwise. The samiti was free to construct and lay tunnels and drainages if need arises. One asks whether the samiti will construct anything for just the pilgrimage period of 2 months? The Kashmiris were being hosts to thousands of pilgrims every year and not a single case of communal tension had registered during these years. Now the politics behind the sudden decision of the Govt. to transfer the land to the board is dubious. Kashmiri land was always occupied since independence. Nehru had promised a referendum regarding the independence long back and it is still to happen. 671 batallions of army and reserved police are stationed in the valley. There is, on an average, one Indian 'security' person per 10 Kashmiris.(Imagine how terrifying it would be for the people) Each battalion require some 150acres of land for themselves. So that much of land was forcefully grabbed them already. The military acquired orchards, fields, schools et al for their operations. The ethics record of the army in Kashmir was never good. The atrocities and brutalities that they have unleashed are uncountable. Kashmiris were always living under the guns of occupation forces. The latest issue of land transfer was bound to invite resistance from the already occupied people. Morover they have never cried for the blocking down of Amarnath yathra

Once the protest started, the army stepped in and started firing against virtually unarmed-except for the stones- masses. That is when NN Vohra took charge as the governor of the state. He decided to make the land transfer null and void. This sparked off furious protests from the Hindu dominated areas of Jammu. Hindu Fundamentalist forces took the issue into their hand and gave it a dangerous religious overtone. People took to the streets and destroyed schools, ransacked government offices and et al. The softer attitude from the army was appalling.

Meanwhile an economic blockade on the Kashmiris were already in place. The Jammu-Srinagar Highway, the only road which connects Kashmir to India, was blocked by the samiti protesters. Being the harvest season, tonnes of fruits were packed and ready to be transprted. But the blockade meant that any truck going through that road will have to face attacks from the protesteers in Jammu. Till today worth fruits crores of rupees are getting rotten due to the blockade.

The mainstream media portrayal of Kashmir as pro-pakistan was scoffed at by Mirwais Latif, a leader from Kashmir. He said the use of pro-pak and pro lashkar slogans are just means of their protest against the indian state and its army. They are aware of the political developments in Pakistan and they dont want to give themselves away to a highly unstable and corrupted state apparatus of Pakistan. Even pakistan seemed to have lost its interest in Kashmir and its problems. Even pro-pakistan people blame the pakistan media for the lack of interest in covering the current issue

The cry for azadi(freedom) is growing day by day, that too in a never before way. Thousands of people are joining the protest marches. They are unarmed, which makes it difficult for the army to "manage" the situation as they had done before. The people now thinks even if India is prospering, even if the independence means going backward in time, even if they couldn manage to support infrastructure, even if they are heading to darkness, they would still prefer independence rather than the integration with India. Why are still clinging on to Kashmir. All independent referundums strongly declares their will to be free. We all thought we're living in a democracy. How foolish we were.

A rendezvous with another food security expert

Ironies never seem to cease!Last day I met this guy from one of the country's best universities. He has just completed his Mphil in development economics. And yeah, he did his bit of research in food security along with a well known "intellectual" from the same university. I met him from a restaurant in the campus. We both were waiting to get a seat in the busy place. So we had a small chat before getting seats at the same table. I asked him what he was doing, and he said: “food security”. By the time his order was served. It was a plate of noodles and a chicken hot garlic sauce; a bit too much for a guy of that size- he had this lean and hungry look!- I was hoping for an offer from him. I had some logical reason for my hopes. He had six pieces of spicy chicken and we were already on a talking terms. But I had to be satisfied with my fried rice! And that was not all. Once he was half way through the noodles, he took the menu card again and ordered chicken fried rice!! First I thought he might be taking food to one of his friends. But his plan was to have it for himself once he’s done with the noodles! And the guy was being quite articulate and authentic about the falling consumption rates. As someone pointed out, the word ‘irony’ has lost its power and appeal already.

The Irony of food security

How more ironic can it get? The G8 summit happening in Japan was touted as the global leaders meet to analyze and find solutions for the declining food security, especially in third world country. And what happens after the day long meetings, seminars and blah blahs.. naturally the who's who of the world were famished.. and then.. an exuberant 8 course dinner with 19 dishes, cooked by 25 chefs..!! Now that is some big time contribution to the food security issue.

Malayalam Font

If anyone is having a problem in reading the posts written in malayalam, a link to download the unicode font is provided on the left pane of the blog window. Save it in ur windows/fonts folder and restart the browser.
Peace

പുക

ശ്വാസകോശം പുകയാല്‍ നിറഞ്ഞു
ഒരു റീകൊയില്‍ നടന്നപ്പോള്‍ എഴുപത് ശതമാനം
പുക ഒരു സ്ട്രീമായി പുറത്തേക്ക് വന്നു
കാറ്റിന്റെ ഗതിക്കൊപ്പം അത് വളഞ്ഞു
ഇടത്തേക്ക് നീങ്ങി, അന്തരീക്ഷത്തില്‍ ലയിച്ചു
മുപ്പത് ശതമാനം പുക ധമനികള്‍ വഴി ശരീരമാകെ
ഓടി നടക്കുന്നു- ഇന്നും

Manufacturing Consent

राजा बोला रात हैं
मंत्री बोला रात हैं
सब बोला रात हैं
ये सुबह सुबह की बात हैं।


free translation
the king said it's night and dark
the minister said it's night and dark
everyone said it's night and dark
when the sun was high and bright

source: indian people's theatre association(ipta) graffitti board

http://iptamumbai.org/

കുഞ്ഞുണ്ണിക്കവിത

ഒരു തീപ്പെട്ടിക്കൊള്ളിതരൂ
ഒരു കൂടു തരൂ
ഒരു ബീഡി തരൂ
വിരലു തരൂ
ചുണ്ടു തരൂ
ഞാനൊരു ബീഡി വലിച്ചു രസിക്കട്ടെ

Farmers' debt waiver package: an analysis

On February 29, P Chidambaram, the oh-so-long finance minister of India, presented his fifth consecutive budget. He was second only to Dr. Manmohan Singh, the current prime minister, to present all five budgets of a single government. The media went agog with analyses, discussions, public opinion et al. One interesting headline was "Politically Correct", alluding to the minister's initials! The budget was politically correct.

There was huge waivers for farmers to the tune of 60,000 crore INR. Women and children's development was given high priority.
Health and education was provided with generous funds.

Income tax exemption was raised to 1.5L from the existing 1.10.

cenvat was brought down to 14% from 16%.

From farmer suicides to the waiver

Of course, the debt waiver to the farmers was the center-point of the discussions and debate. The farming sector was going through grave crises. The rate of suicide rates among the farmers was alarmingly high. Debt related problems lead may small scale farmers to suicide usually leaving a helpless family behind them. according to official records, there were 1.5lakh farmer suicides in the nine years from 1997 to 2005. Intensity of suicides were the highest in five states: Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra. In these five states, Maharashtra was the worst hit with it's Vidharba region's cotton farmers took it to killing themselves out of helplessness and frustration. The scene was equally bad in other four states where cash crops were farmed in large scale. Credits taken from higher interested money lenders coupled with a fall in prices and failed crops made the life of the farmers a hell.

Main stream media were by and large oblivious to the plights of farmers. You can't be when you've got more important and newsworthy events like the Lakme Fashion week and of course the bollywood and it's colours. The only probable exception was The Hindu. With it's compassionate and good humoured Rural Affairs Editor, P Sainath, they covered the issue with all due respect and truth. Sainath- a Ramon Magsasay awardee- was passionate, logical in his arguments, lethal in his criticism. Each articles pricked the conscious, attracted passion filled responses from the readers and died off giving space to other issues at hand.

The political aspect was equally iniquitous. Opposition criticised the government incessantly, even the Left parties who are supporting the UPA government criticised the government for not taking any action. But no one did a contionous political campaign by looking at the issue from the right perspective. They couldn't, because each of the criticising parities were having the same negligent attitude in the states being ruled by them! They all tried to cash in on the vast farmer vote banks. The government kept on announcing piece meal packages to contain the crisis, but they all tumbled upon each other. Either because the packages were short sighted or because of the inefficiency in distributing the benefits. Anyways none of the packages convinced the farmers of a better future, and so the rate of suicides went up unabated.

The Budget Game and the Trump card Named Debt Waiver

The last full budget of the UPA government was, for sure, the most awaited event in the country. The pressure to get it right was palpable. More so when verdicts of the recently held state assembly elections in Himachal, Gujarat, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh had given a NO to the UPA lead coalition. Scenario was not differnt in the States were Congress ruled, especially with Maharashtra with it's crises in agriculture and the anti North Indian sentiment that took root in the recent days. The state government was and still is almost proving to be helpless.

And thus came the Budget 2008-2009. The FM stated that this year was to be a year of consolidation. With this statement, which augured a lot of populism in the offing, started the generosity. The trump card was yet to be thrown in. After announcing big packages for health, education, infrastructure development, came the magnanimous waiver package. 60,000 crores was set aside for the waiver package. 40 million farmers were expected to benefit from the package. 50,000 crore was to be used for complete waiver of debts for farmers holding less than 2hectares of land, and the remaining 10,000 crore for a OneTimeSettlement(OTS) for farmers having more than 2hectares but less than 4 hectares of land. The news came through amidst much fan and fare.

The response was mixed. UPA coalition celebrated the move. Left was skeptical of the cause, Opposition, of course with a losing feel that they couldn't claim such a move which will ensure an avalanche of votes, started criticising about the waiver being "too little, too late". Genuine analysts from acroos the spectrum also had a mixes responses too. MS Swaminathan, eminent agriculturist who made the Green Revolution into such a mayhem, said the measure was a "major step in recognising the indebtedness of the country to farm families who are safeguarding national food security and sovereignity". He had also suggested that the criteria to demarcate small farmers from big shoould depend upon whether the area is irrigated or dry.

The analysis

The move, even after being a poll oriented measure, is a positive step towards resolving the crippling crises that has made the agricultural sector's performance abysmal. But there is more to it under the celebrated upper crest. The case of Vidharba for example. Being country's worst hit area in terms of suicides, Vidharba has not got many things to cheer about. The reason being the way "small farmer" is defined. Majority of the farmers there hold more than 2 hectares of land since the crop is largely dependent on monsoon, the relative income these farmers get out of there is smaller than the amount a farmer with 2 hectares in any other part of the country where he/she is provided with irrigation. So even when a Vidharba farmer is hit harder, he/she will not be benefitiing from the waiver package since he falls out of the criteria to be eligible.

The Problem with Money Lenders

Another overlooking aspect is the presence of private money lenders. The waiver is only for the people who have taken loans from Commercial Banks and RRBs. Again a majority of the grief stricken farming families had not borrowed from a bank, they did it from the local money lender who usually charge exorbitant interest rates. Again a large number of farmers will fall out of the waiver criteria. When asked about this, the FM was furious. All he would say was "Which private moneylender do I identify and compensate?” The politics of this response was understandable. The "poll"itics of the budget was clear. The government wanted a feel good budget which fits into everybody's needs. and if you question the prospects and failures about the waiver, you were against the farmer. as the FM himself puts it.."If you’re against the farmer, have the courage to stand up and be counted; don’t duck the issue.” Now that is a real Trump card.

Some Interesting Views

Mr Yoginder K Alagh, economist and former union minister offers an interesting perspective. According to him, there are some other points mentioned in the health and education proposals that will prove to be a greater boon to the agricultural sector.“The Rs 30,000 insurance scheme for unorganised workers, many in the agricultural sector, the 24x7 primary health centres, the schools and colleges in rural areas, particularly for poor children and girls, have great possibilities. Also, the knowledge networks, if scaled to village needs and implemented in a manner that the villages can maintain them, with models already available.” Now that seems to be some kind of a relief and a more pragmatic step towards rescuing the agricultural sector.

We'll have to wait and see how the ambitious project is going to realise and how good it will be in containing the agrarian crisis.

care, convention

Care. convention.
this is not an advertorial for the upocoming "customer care" or "health care" convention.
this is about care and this is also about convention. taking the two phenomenons separately and then clubbing them together.
who cares? conventional care takers seldom care.

Notions

About Life, Universe and Everything

It’s quite a difficult task to reach the conclusion of this stupendously important question. The computers that the organic creatures-the humans- used for almost 5000 years reached, after going through impossible and at the same time incredibly complicated algorithms, an answer, and that was 42!! Imagine, that is the way things work. After reaching that milestone of an answer, the ones sitting in front of the computers were so baffled that they forgot what the question actually was. Generations of patient research- bhum-just like that!

Now some thoughts:

These are so very random that you’ll be in utter peace reading them

I was walking through the by lanes in the middle of the night, with a cigarette in my hand. There was this guy who was coming against my direction on a bicycle. He was humming a song. I stood there for 20 minutes, trying to remember which song it was.. and after 20 minutes I, once again restarted my journey home.

I could hear the sound of the heaves from the next bed. He is my room mate and he’s sleeping oblivious to my wakefulness. He might be in a different time frame. People say that they have seen a big(time wise) dream and science say that a typical dream session lasts only for some seconds. What does that mean. That we are living in a different time frame altogether. Some seconds in this mundane world is equivalent to hours, days or even years of that world. He is still heaving

I walked and walked. I was tired and I sat, again I was tired, I walked again and collapsed

a tree. A shot gun. A cup of water

I kept my words on the riverbed. It kept flowing slowly gathering all the silt that it could and at last got dumped on to the bank. some part of it was lucky enough to escape to the ocean crossing the estuary. Imagine, words getting stuck in the estuaries. Prolific.
sound of silence, I have heard that often. It’s the echo of silence.

I am typing I, and all the time the I becomes capitalized

let peace be upon you