Socialism must precede Security!!

Socialism must precede Security!!

The same old Nehruvian logic at work. Socialism must precede before Security!!

It costed us 2 decades of Food Import, humiliation at the hand of China, a spectacular insult of Defence personnel....

And now the same Socialism Czars are back to haunt us. When all figures are in red, these Czars are riding on this failed Nehruvian logic and seriously jeopardizing our Strategic Economic Security...

Food For All is excellent idea, a desirable end to which every democracy should strive for. But Democracy isn't about Ends, it is about Means!! Food Security Bill is very dangerous mean to strive towards the idea of Food For All or Hunger free India!

'If we have no resources, we have to get them' says the Sonia... This can be good politics, but how to get them its Economy, madam Sonia??

FD is about 5%, CAD is above 5%, Inflation is 10%, Growth struggling to at 5%, Rupee is sliding like anything, Exchange reserve can pay only for 6-7 months, Saving rate declined to 30%.... 

Madam Sonia, you damaged fiscal numbers ! you damaged monitory numbers ! you damaged external numbers ! you damaged manufacturing numbers ! you damaged growth numbers ! you damaged rupee ! you damaged Indian Household numbers ! 

YOU DAMAGED INDIA STORY!! The Nehruvian ghost of Socialism is back in the form of Sonianomics... Socialism ghost is having good days...

But Security?? lost the Economic edge, we are out of Economic power race... So Pakistan is showing its barbarism daily at LoC.. China 'intruding' here and there... we keep mum... bad days ahead for India's Security and Sovereignty...

India has History of repetition and we are repeating our 'grand old History'   

Yayati Complex

The Hindu narratives glorified one who submits to the will of father, society and tradition. The obedience is the highest virtue. The good son is who obeys. Father knows best, Father is wise, Father is tradition and he must succeed. The Father must win to keep the cultural values intact. We hear this sound right in our home. The Father generation always reminds us how they were obeying their father and how we should obey them, surrender to them, and submit to them. The mindset is called as Yayati Complex! Why?

The two stories from Mahabharata are illustrative: 

Yayati, Chandra-vamsi king, was married to Devyani, daughter of Sage Shukra. Devyani has a maid Sharmishtha, who travelled with Devyani to the palace of Yayati. Soon, Sharmishtha caught the eye of Yayati. The two got married secretly and even had children.

Found about this, sage Shukra cursed (Shap) his son-in-law Yayati, ‘You will become old and impotent’. But it was soon clear that the curse had its worst impact on his daughter Devayani only. He couldn’t reverse his curse. So he modified (U-shap). He told Yayati, “If one of your sons accepts the curse on your behalf, you will regain your youth and potency’.”

Yayati immediately sent for his sons. His elder son, Yadu, refused to accept curse on his father’s behalf. But younger son Puru, born of Sharmishtha, agreed to suffer for his father. So Puru suffered old age while his father enjoyed his youth.

Devavrata was 8^th son of Puru King Shantanu by Ganga. He grew up to be a handsome prince and a skilled warrior. The people of Hastina-puri loved him and hoped for a day when he would be king. But this wasn’t the wish of destiny.

His father Shantanu had fallen in love again, this time with Satyavati, a fisherwoman. But Satyavati put a condition: she wanted to be sure that only her children would be his heirs. This put Shantanu in awkward position as Devavrata was already declared as crown prince and he couldn’t possibly satisfy Satyavati’s condition.

Learning about the cause of his father’s misery, Devavrata went to Satyavati and said, “I renounce my claim to the throne. I shall never marry. I shall never father children”. This terrible vow brought him the title of ‘Bhisma’!!

Artist Ravi Varma's depiction of Bhishma abdicating the right of his throne to secure the hands of Matsyagandhi, a fishergirl, in marriage to his father Shantanu. Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery, Mysore from http://www.kamat.com

Devedutt Patnaik in his book ‘Jaya’ written that:

“In Greek worldview, dominated by the Oedipus complex, it is the next generation which inherits society, while in Indian worldview, dominated by the Yayati complex, it is the older generation which always dominates society..”

The Yayati complex can be seen everywhere in Indian society. From politics to sports, from cinema to family. I remember the Indian cricket team on 1990s. Despite some splendid performance by young players in Ranji, we always relied on some great ‘experienced’ players for long. Experience has divine sanctity in our selection. When it came to selection for Australia or England tour, older players came back. We lauded their ‘experienced’ performance. Even now, in the great debate about Sachin’s retirement, a large chunk is batting for his ‘experience’ rather than his talent, his utility in current team.

In politics, it is older generation that is dominating the scene. The politics of India still imprisoned in the old Nehruvian logics. We refuse to see the 21^st century through new vision, new vigor, through the eyes of youths. The Congress is trapped in its old Nehru-Gandhian thinking. The BJP is struggling to come out from Atal-Advani leadership. The Shivsena refused to shed Bal Thackeray’s shadow. Karunanidhi is pulling the string from wheel-chair. The so called ‘Young Turks’ are from the families dominated by the older generation.

Bollywood movies are best example of this Yayati complex. The angry-young man theme is popularized in Indian cinema is nothing but the son fighting for his father’s cause and taking revenge of his father’s killing. The son is devoting his complete life for the happiness of his father’s soul. There is another theme popular in Indian cinema. The Govinda-Kadarkhan duo was chief anchor of this theme. Bad father, so good son fought, struggled to have a good life for his father. There were departures from these themes with the dawn of love stories (QSQT). It ran like - girl and boy falling in love with each other, then defying their parents, defying whole universe for the love.

Is it good or bad, difficult to answer. There is no answer. There cannot be any answer. The tradition of respect and glorification of old generation has its Demographic dividend. The demographic divided of this Yayati Complex has yielded a mixed result. We kept our family system, our age old cultural values and our ‘Indian-ness’ intact, but lost the dynamism of culture to rigid customs and traditions.

Let us see how this 21^st century ‘demographic divided’ find a way through this ‘Yayati Complex’!      

Timeline: Sarabjit Singh

Sarabjit Singh, an Indian Citizen, was convicted by a Pakistani court of espionage and for involvement with 1990 bomb blasts in Lahore. His family maintain he was innocent and a victim of misidentification.  Mr. Singh died Wednesday evening in hospital in Pakistan.

Timeline of the Case

Sarabjit Singh (Image from NDTV)

• Aug 1990: Sarabjit Singh, a resident of Amritsar in north India, was arrested near the Kasur border on charges of illegally crossing into Pakistan from India. Pakistan’s Police later charged him for being involved in a series of bombings in Lahore and Faisalabad that killed 14 people.
• Oct 1991: Sarabjit Singh was convicted of spying and carrying out the bombings and was sentenced to death under Pakistan’s Army Act. The sentence was upheld by a higher court.
• Aug 23, 2005: The Sarabjit's case was taken up in both the houses of the Indian Parliament, where the government was asked to take necessary action for his release
• Oct 2005: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh raised the issue with President Musharraf during their meeting in New York in 2005, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. President Musharraf assured that he would look at the question of clemency to Sarabjit Singh in a humanitarian way.
• Mar 2006: Pakistan’s Supreme Court rejected Sarabjit Singh’s appeal for mercy and upheld his death sentence.
• Mar 17, 2006: MEA had formally requested the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi to treat the matter sympathetically and to examine his mercy petition with compassion
• Mar 2008: Sarabjit Singh’s then applied for mercy plea to the then President of Pakistan Parvez Musharraf.  The renewed mercy plea was turned down by Pervez Musharraf.
• However, his execution was later delayed by the Pakistani government following the appeal from the family of Sarabjit Singh’s family and the Indian government.
• Mar 18, 2008: The then External Affairs Minister in a Suo Motu Statement in the Lok Sabha on March 18, 2008 appealed to the Government of Pakistan to treat Sarabjit Singh’s case with clemency on humanitarian grounds.
• Dec 2009: A British lawyer, Jas Uppal, launched an international campaign for Mr. Singh’s release.
• May 2012: Mr. Singh filed his fifth appeal for clemency before Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
• June 2012: President Zardari commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment following which Pakistan authorities said they would release Mr. Singh as part of a prisoner swap with New Delhi. Later, Pakistani officials said they were releasing a different Indian man convicted in the 1980s of being an Indian spy.  The flip-flop angered India and human rights groups.
• Aug 2012: Sarabjit Singh filed a fresh appeal for mercy before Mr. Zardari.
• Apr 26, 2013: Sarabjit Singh was severely injured after allegedly being attacked with bricks by jail inmates in Pakistan. He was admitted to intensive care. His family called for his transfer to India for treatment but the Pakistan authorities refused to move him.
• May 1, 2013: Sarabjit Singh died from his injuries in a hospital in Lahore.

BANGLADESH: WAR TRIALS, SHAHBAG PROTEST AND VIOLENCE

March 14, 2013

Violent birth

·         Bangladesh is yet to come to terms with its violent birth in 1971, after the Pakistani government sent in its army to stop then East Pakistan from becoming independent.

·         It is not exactly clear how many people died, but official figures estimate that more than three million people were killed and hundreds of thousands of women raped during the nine-month bloody battle.

·         The minority Hindu community was particularly targeted. Many Hindus were even forcibly converted to Islam.

·         India was forced to intervene after millions of refugees flooded to her eastern states especially West Bengal & Assam. The war broke out and ended with the surrender of Pakistani forces to India in Dec 1971.

·         Soon after the war, there were demands from the victims and human rights groups to bring those responsible to justice.

·         However, Delhi, Dhaka and Islamabad agreed not to pursue war-crimes charges against the Pakistani soldiers, who were allowed to go back to their country.

War Trials

·         The war trials did not materialize despite various attempts, efforts to bring those Bangladeshis who allegedly collaborated with the Pakistani forces to justice until 2012.

·         In 2010, for the first time, the Awami League-led government set up the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) to try those Bangladeshis accused of collaborating with Pakistani forces and committing atrocities.

·         So far seven people, including two from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and five from the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami Party, have been arrested and are facing trial in Dhaka. All of them deny the charges.

·         The Jamaat-e-Islami is the country's largest Islamist party and it opposed Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan at that time. Some of its members allegedly fought alongside the Pakistani army.

·         However, the two opposition parties accuse the government of carrying out a vendetta and trying to use the trial to curb their political activities.

·         Despite the overwhelming public opinion in support of the trial, there are some bottlenecks.

  

Political Parties

·         Awami League – The party was founded in 1949 by Bengali Nationalists. The party gained momentum under leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during 1970-71. It successfully spearheaded the campaign for separate nationhood. It is centre-left party and supports Democratic Socialism, Bengali Nationalism and Secularism. Presently, Awami League is in power under the leadership if Sheikh Hasina. The party supports War Trials.

·         Bangladesh Nationalist Party - The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is a mainstream center right political party, founded in 1978 by Ziaur Rahman, the Seventh President of Bangladesh. The BNP is opposing the war trials and called them as ‘genocide’. A former minister from the BNP is charged in war trials. Its highly possible that if comes to power, the BNP would scrap the trials    

·         Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami - This is the largest Islamist political party in Bangladesh. The Jamaat stood against the independence of Bangladesh and opposed the break-up of the Muslim homeland in South Asia. Three Jamaat leaders had been convicted of war crimes till date. In response, the Jamaat has held major strikes and violent protests across the country, which have led to more than 60 deaths

·         The Jatiya Party (Ershad) – The political party was established by former dictator President Hussain Mohammad Ershad on 1st January 1986.

Doubts about Fairness of Trails

·         The tribunal is almost a domestic set-up and the three judges sitting on the tribunal are from Bangladesh. The United Nations and other international agencies have very limited role to play.

·         Human rights groups like Human Right Watch said some of the rules were not consistent with international standards, as followed by war crimes tribunals in Rwanda or Cambodia.

Trial’s major moments

·         2012 May-June - Key figures from the main Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, including leader Motiur Rahman Nizami, are charged with war crimes by the government tribunal investigating alleged collaboration with Pakistan during the 1971 independence struggle. Jaamat-e Islami supporters clash with police repeatedly in following months in protest of the trial.

·         2012 October - Muslim rioters attack Buddhist villages and shrines in south-east Bangladesh after an image said to show a burnt Koran was posted on Facebook. The government denounces the attacks as "premeditated and deliberate acts of communal violence against a minority".

·         Tribunal Verdicts

• On January 21 2013, the tribunal sentenced Abul Kalam Azad, a cleric, to death in absentia, finding him guilty of torture, rape and genocide. He was a junior leader in the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami party in 1971 and a member of the Razakar Bahini, an auxiliary force set up to help the Pakistani army by rooting out local resistance.
• On 5 February 2013, the tribunal found Abdul Quader Mollah, assistant secretary-general of the Jamaat-e-Islami, guilty of crimes against humanity during the war for independence and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
• On 27 February 2013, the tribunal found another accused Delwar Hossain Sayeedi of war crimes and sentenced him to death. Sayedee, Jamaat-e-Islami Vice President is for setting afire 25 houses in a Hindu village, and abetting the killing of two persons, including a Hindu.

Shahbag Protest

·         Many citizens were dissatisfied with the February 5, 2013 verdict of life sentence for Abdul Quader Mollah, considering it to be too lenient. Following the verdict, people used social media to criticize the verdict and express outrage over Mollah flashing a victory sign after the verdict. 

·         This led to a small protest in Shahbag Square of Dhaka demanding death penalty for Abdul Mollah and all other accused of war crimes.

·         Within days, the protests received unprecedented support from the local and expatriate Bangladeshis, especially the young, who actively participated and expressed solidarity with the protesters at Shahbag.

·         The demands of these protests include:

Ø  Capital punishment for Abdul Quader Mollah.

Ø  Capital punishment for all those convicted of war crimes by the International War Crimes Tribunal.

Ø  Ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami and like-minded religion-based political parties, anti-liberation forces and collaborators of Pakistani occupation forces

Counter Protests: Timeline

·         On February 4, 2013, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, announced a countrywide dawn-to-dusk general strike for 5 February, in protest of their leader's trial and impending verdict. The strike of February 5 was mostly peaceful.

·         However the situation changed with the announcement of death sentence for Delwar Hossain Sayeedi on February 27. Jamaat quickly called for a nationwide two-day strike to start 3 March.

·         On next day, Thursday 28 Feb, at least 40 people were killed as deadly clashes swept the country after the verdict was announced.

·         Clashes between police and Jamaat-e-Islami party workers continued on 1 March spreading to the northern districts of Gaibandha and Chapai Nawabganj. The death toll rose to 44, including six policemen.

·         Former Prime Minister and BNP member Khaleda Zia declared a nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal for 5 March and called for countrywide rallies on 2 March to protest what she called government corruption, misrule, oppression, and "mass killings".

·         Violent conflict continued on 2 March, with another four deaths and hundreds of injures occurring. In Chittangong district, police opened fire on Jamaat-e-Islami protesters, leading to three deaths. In Nilphamari, a young person died when protestors and police clashed.

·         On 3 March, violence continued as the Jamaat organized strike began. The violence spread across Bangladesh.

·         On 4 March, the second day of the 48-hour strike called by Jamaat-e-Islami, a homemade crude bomb of low intensity was hurled outside a hotel in Dhaka where Pranab Mukherjee, President of India, was staying during his tour.

·         At least 98 people have been killed and more than 200 have been injured since February 5, 2013. 19 people alone were killed by Jamaat-Shibir activists on the day when war criminal Delawar Hossain Sayedee was convicted.

·         There have been 15 shutdowns in Bangladesh since the crisis began and the nation suffered losses worth $3 billion due to the frequent shutdowns.

·         Attacks on Hindus: Activists of Bangladesh’s largest Islamic party the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, the Islami Chhatra Shibir have unleashed a streak of terror since Feb 28, 2013, targeting the Hindu community in the country. Jamaat-Shibir men attacked and destroyed at least 50 temples and set fire to several Hindu houses and business