Capitalism Vs Caste? Are you frigging kidding me?

Capitalism vs. caste. Something is amiss. Since when did capitalism start caring about abolition of caste? Why is it that we find communal disharmony and casteism flourishing in the so called financial capital of our country, Mumbai, where the hardcore right wing Shiv Sena had rallied against the “outsiders” from Bihar and Jharkhand? The same is the case with the “Shining Gujarat”, which is touted by capitalists far and wide as the model of development.

India is a de facto capitalist country, with its headquarters in Delhi, no matter what color of jersey those in positions of power are wearing – they have been following neo liberal policies since the early 90′s. From giving outrageous tax cuts to handing over natural resources almost free of cost [unless you count the enormous social cost of environmental degradation and unfair distribution, causing harm to habitats and communities etc] to amending labor and environmental laws so as to benefit the capitalists, almost everything in India is the “baap ka sampatti” of the capitalists. And yet, has casteism truly worn away? And is capitalism as a system trying to fight it? A little investigation will reveal the truth.

Let’s take the case of the educational institutes like AIIMS and IITs which produce the most promising servants of capitalism. One of the country’s biggest anti reservation movements often originate with great vigor and passion from these “centers of excellence”. There is even a group named “Youth for Equality” emanating from these centers, which are anything but egalitarian, as those who ask for the same rules for people standing at different lengths from the starting line are not asking for a level platform.

Before you start feeling sorry, these aren’t activists fighting for a just cause: these are medical students of “Youth for Equality” movement.

The following picture actually explains it quite well. The so called lower castes have been exploited for many years, and though reservation or quotas may not be a solution, to be opposed to the same will be even more detrimental and cause hindrance to them getting mainstream induction.

Farcical Equality

We see Gurukuls or highly patriarchal schools which promote Brahminism and hence casteism getting more and more popular. As an example, ITC [the major corporate house] has one, what capitalists call “Corporate Social Responsibility” project, Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata. There, the guru-shishya parampara, or the highly feudal, brahmanist culture of education is promoted. So where the heck is capitalism fighting casteism exactly? Sanskritization and Hinduization is being attempted in more ways than one. They call India Bharat Mata but the underlying concept is that the woman of the house should be eternally condemned to domestic slavery.

Crappy Guru Shishya Parampara tradition – brahmanist, casteist, patriarchal, hierarchical, repressive, feudal

Take the case of any firm. Who does all the menial work? Take the municipality or other casual laborers in general in the society, which runs under a capitalist economy. Still today, untouchability has not been abolished. Manual scavenging is still rampant. It only helps capitalists that casteism and patriarchy flourishes in India. This is because they get to exploit differentially [read more] using this age old tradition or rather monstrosity.

In Bihar, UP, Jharkhand or Chattisgarh, how are the so called lower castes and adivasis treated? How much value are their lives given? Don’t the authorities know that the Ranvir Senas and Bajrang Dals are raping the women and burning the houses of the “underprivileged” castes? Where is the justice to all these victims of casteism?

Following the death of Ranvir Sena Leader Brahmeshwar Singh Mukhia, the group behind massacres of Dalits like Bathani Tola carnage, riots were instigated by the right wing extremists

And as for the dalits who serve capitalism, the likes of A. Raja. Since when did he help fight casteism? What capitalist trashy mainstream media deliberately convolutes is they will present some “charity” as fighting social evils. Just like CSR can’t remove poverty, charity can’t help remove casteism.

Jaipur: When Humanity Hits a New Low

How would you feel if this was your family? Your son, your daughter, your mother or sister? In yet another incident of inhuman behaviour, this time in Jaipur, several vehicles passed by a severely injured man and his daughter, with his wife and daughter (a toddler) lying in a pool of blood, following a ghastly accident of their bike with a truck.

It reminds one of the many instances in the past where people have been left bleeding on the road after accidents. Who do we blame? Do we blame the system, or ourselves? Do we have any ounce of basic humanity left?

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/385752/peoples-reaction-to-jaipur-accident-captured-on-cctv.html

One recent incident that sent shockwaves was a small child in China being run over several times, but no one coming to help.

A Film That Will be Lost in ‘Oblivion’

Futuristic movies, films on utopias or dystopias have always been one of my favorite genres. Perhaps it is one of the few ways I can let myself drift into a different world of thought altogether. Having liked Tom Cruise’s performance in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, I had reasonably high hopes for Oblivion, especially after checking out its trailer on IMDB. I liked the concept behind it, though it is hardly unique – earth, now in ruins, has only a few survivors left, and there is a mystery as to how the dear planet of all faced this destruction.

 Such a plot, as was the case with Terminator Salvation, often has a revolutionary theme, even anarchist or anti statist overtones. The cult movies of the 80’s from Hollywood, like Robocop, often were critical of authority and those in positions of power. I was hoping to see elements of anti war sentiments or anarchist ideals, as a form of respite from the mainstream garbage of day to day drudgery.

 But alas, it was quite a let down in that sense. Despite having some nice action packed sequences, the movie, if anything, turned out to be more like those silly propagandist movies that celebrate the “American way of life”, which is a cute way of saying bourgeoisie democracy. Or else why would the protagonist(s) Jack Harper dream of only his wife and the American flag flying high atop the embassy from the earth he knew and whose memory has been wiped from his head.

Spoiler alert: 

 The film starts with Jack Harper, the drone technician and Victoria being an “effective team”, alone, on Earth, with the knowledge that humans have won the battle against aliens but have lost the planet, due to the use of nuclear weapons. Jack knows that they are only a couple of weeks on Earth before they will head to Tet (?), the space station cum command center, from which their activities are coordinated, and then head off to Titan, Saturn’s moon, where all the human survivors are living.

 Everyday Jack has to set off in his highly sophisticated plane and scout for ‘aliens’ or ‘scabs’ who he has been told try to destroy the killing machines, drones. But he discovers that he has been duped, as the drones have only one objective- not to execute any aliens, rather carry out search and destroy humans still alive on the planet. Predictably, he comes across a resistance group, led by Morgan Freeman (I don’t know what he was doing in a film and that too in such an insignificant role like this).

What was most disappointing was the way the relationships were shown. The chemistry between Jack and his wife was melodramatic to say the least, and so was the heroic ending to save the earth.

The verdict is in: the film made a mess of what was an interesting concept. Poor acting by Olga Kurylenko did not help either.

Farmers Dump 40 Snakes in Tax Office Protesting Bribes… and some other unique protests

Not what you’d expect the farmers would bring when you ask for a bribe. About forty slithering snakes of various sizes and species on the floor, among which about 4 are cobras, sent the officials of an Uttar Pradesh tax office scurrying around and onto the tables. Some of the more persuasive ones among the snakes climbed up the chairs and tables, inducing more activity in the office, a rarity these days. The two farmers had been asking for tax records on their land, but the officials had been withholding those for weeks and demanding bribes. Nobody died or got injured, the snakes have been captured and the hunt is on for the farmer duo. No reports on whether there would be a hunt for the officials asking for bribes.

Granted, it could’ve been serious. Could’ve involved injury, or even death.

But that’s what you get when there’s just no risk-free way of getting justice. Fast? There have been plenty of fasts this year, some got noticed, some didn’t, and almost all ended without any significant results. There has been a lot of placard waving and sit-ins. Plenty of cases are pending in the courts of different states. The powerless has to pull some tricks to get the attention of more people, to get some more to rally for their cause. And in some cases they would want to get back at those who make them suffer. The people at the bottom of the power hierarchy will use whatever they’ve got. And in this case, one of the farmers being a snake-charmer, it’s 3 bags full of snakes.

The hypocritical standards that the mainstream media set will astonish you at times. The drone attack victims are written off as collateral damage. The villagers killed in the Green Hunt hardly motivates anyone in the mainstream to call for scrapping the GH altogether. But one risky move of the oppressed and the whole vast talking machine called the media jumps on them, never mind how they are pushed at the end of their tether by hunger, physical exhaustion, lack of dignity and what not. The bulk of the mainstream discussion then focuses on how irresponsible they have been. This one-sided criticism helps portray those people as irrational brutes, which in turn helps those who oppress them.

Does this mean we are not allowed to criticize the protest methods and demands? Of course not. But if we wish to look at the whole picture, the factors that played a crucially determining role in causing the event of the protest, the mainstream opinion discourse will not be of great assistance.

Time to check out some more unique protest styles. Yep, they grab attention and get the media talking about them and yep, that spreads the word.

Kiss-in of Chile: hundreds of students in Chile protesting huge education costs brought about by the privatized education system and demanding free and quality education for all gathered up in the dusk and kissed full on the lips.

Zombie walk of Chile: students part of the above-mentioned protests danced to the tune of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ taking over the Central Square dressed up as zombies.

Milk hose protest of Europe: farmers of Europe shot milk through high-powered hoses at the European Parliament in Brussels, protesting against the low price of milk that the farmers were getting. This protest was termed ’1000 tractors to Brussels. Some sprayed milk onto the policemen there in riot gear direct from cow udders, and one cow reportedly got scared in the mayhem and chased an office worker down the street.

SlutWalk: In protest against a Canadian cop’s comment that if women wished to avoid rape, they should not dress like ‘whores’, women from various parts of the world poured onto the street with little or no clothes on, challenging the stifling control of the patriarchal society over women’s bodies. The protest was called ‘SlutWalk’ by the protesters in retaliation to the patriarchal perception of ‘bad’ women.

Naked protest of Manipur, India: protesting against the routine rape and murder by the Indian army in Manipur, hundreds of women of Manipur shed their clothes and marched with the banner ‘Indian Army, Rape Us’. The protests were triggered by the rape and murder of Manorama, a woman of Manipur.

Flamenco Dance of Spain: this began with 20 people of Flo6x8, an activist group, playing and dancing to Flamenco music in the lobby of Santander Bank in protest against crony capitalist policies of banks. Flamenco performing groups turned up after that in various banks protesting against heavy loan interests that Spaniards find deathly hard to bear.

And there are many, many more, such as animal rights campaigners pouring donated blood on fur coats, activists painting themselves red and lying on the streets with placards ‘Banks bled me to death’, protester dumping buckets of human poo in a bank and so on. In Russia when people were not allowed to gather in protest against elections, protesters put dolls with little placards that had slogans.

Caught in the CrossFire

‘We die when we take sides and we die even when we decide to stay neutral’.

These are the exact words of a villager of Sindhesur village in Gadchiroli.

A massive police encounter followed by a Maoist counter attack had claimed the lives of two villagers apart from 4 Maoists and 1 cop. Not too long ago, a Maoist ambush had left several cops dead when a hidden IED or improvised explosive device had gone off. In that case, several villagers had complained that the cops were using them as shields. These aren’t isolated cases at all, as such allegations have been made about both Maoists and cops earlier as well, whether by villagers, cops or by’ neutral observers’. The security forces as well as Maoists exchange blames and the ordinary villagers, often from the lowest rungs of the social order, find themselves getting caught in the cross fire, quite literally.

So what is the solution? Who is really to blame?

 The answer to this question is not to be found in some superficial who did what sort of fact finding. Of course it is possible that in some cases the Maoists used some villagers as shields, although they have denied this allegation. It is quite possible that the rebels execute villagers too often merely on suspicion of being police informers. On the other hand, living in constant fear, not to mention abject poverty can really drive the poor villagers to sometimes take the sides of the cops. But none of this leads us to a satisfactory explanation of the situation.

 The reason is pretty straight forward , so far the analysis has only been skin deep. We haven’t yet brought into consideration socio economic and political reasons that led to the growth of the so called left wing extrimism in the first place. Take the case of what Neutral observations like Samarendra Das’sarticle and this blog, Moonchasing or even Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country: Sudeep Chakravarti. They are not overtly Maoist sympathizers, but they also acknowledge how the state machinery exploits using the police and paramilitary. If you look at the geographic distribution of naxalite infestation (that’s the way mainstream media puts it anyway) you will find they are in the poorest of eastern states in the country. Not only that, the rulers are more than willing to hand over the natural resources to big corporate houses even if it is at the cost of environmental damage and loss of natural habitat for the thousands of villagers, most of them adivasis.

 The adivasi and dalit struggle has been a long one, in the states of bihar, orissa, chattisgarh. If the state wouldn’t have pushed the inhabitants of the land to big companies like Vedanta and Tata, much to the detriment of the adivasis, with their sub machine gun armed goons terrorizing the villagers, then perhaps such “Extremism” would not have thrived!

 What happened in Chattisgarh in the name of countering the Maoist violence is well known. The SPOs or Special Police officers formed what is (in)famously known as Salwa Judum, which went so out of hand that human rights organizations like PUCL started to raise a hue and cry over it, and quite legitimately so. Women found themselves caught between the SPOs and Maoists in the worst ways possible, since rape was used as a tool of intimidation often.

Nandigram, Singur, Kudankulam, Jangalmahal, Kalinganagar, Niyamgiri Hills, Dantewada, Posco site all stand testimony among others to the monstrosity that the state machinery can unleash in the face of slightest opposition to their regressive decisions of forceful land acquisitions and harmful projects.

What we as citizens must realize is that for a genuine solution, the answer lies in not just finding faults with the rebels but actually understanding their predicament and working towards establishing a more just state of affairs.

IPL 2013: The Drama That’s Got It All

IPL 2013 is on, and like a classic fart, its smell is everywhere. More ads are featuring the teams, the players and the celebrity owners. Shah Rukh Khan, Kolkata Knight Rider, Dhoni, Delhi Daredevils, Chennai Super Kings, SRK again, Mumbai Indians, Kings XI Punjab, Pune Warriors and so on. Live updates of IPL, match details and schedules are on a bunch of websites hoping to draw people to them. Media is never tired of showing IPL folks. Raging debates between KKR lovers and Delhi Daredevils fans, Shah Rukh fans and Sourav Ganguly fans, Kohli and Gambhir, T-20 lovers and cricket puritans, I-T officials and franchise stakeholders are taking place. So we here can’t just ignore the drama.

Who has the IPL roped in? Cricketers, of course, but also celebrities, politicians, corporates and finally the public, the last category being the only one that isn’t getting any money out of it. We haven’t forgotten the involvement of law enforcement agencies, and the stakeholders surely haven’t as so many of them are getting constantly raided by I-T officials. Allegations of proxy stakes of politicians and offshore money in the franchises have got a lot of hot people bothered. And tax benefits are cute but not to all, and some are making quite a fuss over it.

And the cricket part? Yep, there’s that, amid the money, glamour, corruption, quarrels, racism and sexism over cheerleaders and cries of the water-electricity-crisis-facing states. This one thing of the IPL is that post-IPL, there have been more opportunities to local cricketers. New cricketers are getting recognition through the IPL. Money and stardom are becoming accessible to a few more. The number of foreign players has been raised from 8 to 10 per team, and the foreign players that are roped in are usually off their launchpads, so we’ll see how the IPL goes for non-celebrity players in the coming seasons.

So for now, be entertained, because that seems to be about all we’ll get out of it.

Presidency College Attack – A War on Centers of Excellence?

What is a center of excellence? What makes an institution excellent? What does a good student in an exploitative system mean? Does it mean that he/she is radical and wishes to use the education to bring about positive change? Even if the wish is there, does this system allow the student to explore such a desire? The answer is obvious. Only as long as a student complies with the rules, written or implied, and plays along with all the inherent injustices of the system, will they be rewarded. Otherwise, they have to face the wrath of the ruling classes.

The fact that a student is not exactly in any particular class, or rather in the transitional phase before either making it to the capitalist or working class is what makes their case very important. They are young, enthusiastic and have loads of potential. Quite understandably, political parties of all colors try to take advantage of this face. From far left to the far right, young people have been and are still exploited through brainwashing.

But does it mean that politics itself is bad, as this Times of India article tries to establish? Or that educational institutes should be made “apolitical”? Hardly so. It is the faulty definition of politics that leads to such absurd and ridiculous claims. Politics is something that encompasses everything of our lives, from micro to macro, from big to small. When a student is exposed to the item songs of Hindi cinema, or that the boy of the family should do the earning while the women should do household chores, or that Pakistan is our enemy nation, or that it is “cool” to buy luxury goods and indulge consumerism, are these not part of “politics”? Of course they are.

It is the nature of whatever goes by the name of politics in the state of West Bengal and indeed perhaps the entire nation, that has contributed to the widespread hatred of politics itself. And yet the only answer to the politics of violence, the politics of muscle power and dada giri is another kind of politics – that of harmony and understanding, while having a no compromise attitude towards anything hostile to fundamental democratic rights.

This is particularly true in case of educational institutions in West Bengal. Since the new party Trinamool Congress has come to power, it has hardly shown any change to bring an end to the era of political intimidation that its predecessor, namely the Left Front, used as a tool to serve political ends. During the Left Front regime, union elections went unchallenged, as students feared going against the hooligans of SFI and the party they were affiliated to.

The same tactics, albeit more crudely, is being employed by the new rulers. The attacks on Presidency college and its famous Baker lab are not isolated – they form part of the terror that got a new lease of life after the public humiliation of senior members of the party in Delhi by CPM and SFI cadres.

So it would be a mistake to assume that the attack on Presidency and its lab had anything to do with it being a so called center of excellency. If anything, it had a lot to do with the fame of the college, which would have given the attackers their publicity. It was nothing but the supremacist, elitism of the author of this article that led her to give such differential privilege to Presidency for this incident. She indeed stresses that it is because the college is getting so much attention, that this has happened. Let us not forget that since the transition in power took place, the college has got unprecedented and arguably unwarranted attention, with goodies being showered on it, while the rest of the colleges have got peanuts.

For an education system to be truly one that harbors excellence, it should not be hierarchical and selective or prejudiced. It should try to bring out the best in everyone, and not find the best among everyone. The aggregate effect is only detrimental in the latter case, as such competition only makes things uneven and unfair and discourages rather than motivates most.

Water, water nowhere

Striking? Well, it ought to be. There is a huge scarcity of water everywhere, and yet there is no judicious use of it. Instead, the powers that be are only making a mess of it. Not only is water being diverted for different purposes without any prioritization, there is clearly a huge conspiracy to hand over the extremely important natural resource to corporates at negligible cost. Not just in villages, even in cities there is a clear discrimination in favour of the rich as opposed to the poor. In areas that receive water from the municipality, the water first reaches the flats, thanks to an illegitimate way of putting the pipes in an inclined way. The not so well to do residents in ordinary dwellings suffer from lack of water, even as the rich have water for luxurious purposes like gardening (which is only for show off and not proper kitchen gardening either).

This article from The Hindu only reinstates the extent of mismanagement of water :

The HPC in its 21 meetings which were analysed gave speedy approval without following any norms, the report said. The bulk of the allocations, 46 per cent were reserved for industries and 54 per cent for drinking water and domestic use, belying the popular notion that industries got very little water from dams. The largest chunk of water for domestic use —16.94 per cent went for drinking water to big and small cities and gram panchayats. Mumbai, Pune, Navi Mumbai, Nashik and Nagpur were the beneficiaries while only 1.75 per cent went to gram panchyats. Of the industrial allocations, thermal power plants received the largest amount of water — a whopping 64 per cent, MIDC 19 per cent and SEZ 14 per cent.

Forty-seven companies benefited from water allocations and of this 12 companies or one-fourth of them got 90 per cent. Of the 15 thermal power plants which benefitted, 13 were private power companies including Sofia Power Company (India Bulls) Amravati, India Bulls Mega Power plant, Adani, Lanco, apart from two National Thermal Power Company plants in Nagpur and Solapur. Of the industries, three private companies– Reliance got eight per cent, India Bulls -17 per cent and Adani 7. 7 per cent of the water allocations. Prayas notes that HPC gave the highest benefits to private companies and clearly the dam waters instead of going to farmers went to industries or cities.

Conspiracy to Tag Soni Suri as Mentally Unstable

Soni Suri, the adivasi cultural activist and teacher from Chattisgarh, who was arrested under suspicious grounds [by slapping the easiest charge to detain someone and keep them incommunicado at their own free will - that of being a "Naxalite"
or "Maoist" - the same thing they did to Binayak Sen) and then brutally raped and tortured by police officers while in custody, the same officer Ankit Garg going on to receive a presidential award for his "exemplary performance" [of using rape as a tool to intimidate and repress the powerless!] – is once again in the news. This time, there is an attempt to paint her as mentally unstable, which would reduce the importance of her serious allegations of the inhuman torture that she had to endure, which included forceful insertion of stones and other alien objects into her vagina.

But women’s groups, activists and other progressives can clearly see through this mischievous attempt to dilute the value of Soni Suri’s complaint against the pawns of the repressive state machinery. It has been learnt attempts were made to molest once more in recent times, while in custody. So naturally her life is constantly threatened and despite there being no proof of her involvement with any “anti people” activity, she has been declared terrorist – which is always how things work for the ordinary people of the country – guilty till proven innocent!

Following is an excerpt from the following article:

Women’s rights groups condemn ‘move’ to declare Soni Sori mentally unsound

In the conversation with the psychiatrist in the presence of the Superintendent, Ms. Soni was asked questions related to “anger” and advised not to complain all the time. Otherwise there was a good chance that she would be sent to Agra, according to a women’s rights activist.

“This is a devious attempt to declare her mentally unsound and create doubts about the veracity of her complaints of sexual torture in police custody and subsequent harassment in jail,” said the rights groups. Strongly condemning this act of the government, which comes on the back of a stray comment by Shamina Shafiq, member of the National Commission for Women (NCW), made to the press right after meeting Ms. Sori at the Raipur Central Jail on December 4 last year, the rights groups are demanding that the NCW make its report public.

Caste discrimination – a thing of the past? Reality says otherwise.

To those who say that caste no longer matters and that casteism is a thing of the past, the following news scoops should really be of particular significance:

The study team, which had taken up 370 cases registered under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act of 1989, last year alone, 106 figured on physical assaults and clash against the Dalits in different parts of Tamil Nadu. This apart, crimes grievous in nature and heinous ones accounted for 28 cases. Torching of dwellings stood at 36, executive director A. Kathir said.

Of course it is not just Tamil Nadu but other states also where caste is still very much an important part of everyday life. From making small school children of so called lower castes to not only sit away from the rest of the class (as shown in this documentary called India Untouched) but also clean toilets, to repressing and humiliating the dalits and OBCs in every way possible is part of the means of exploitation by the upper castes.

Often we hear the notorious and much dreaded upper castes gangs or militia like Ranvir Sena making brutal attacks on Dalits and their villages – hacking them, raping the women and setting their houses on fire. It is a sure shot way of propagating the intimidation. As without fear, there is no subordination, and without that, there will be protest against exploitation.

The police and other wings of the state machinery are, not surprisingly, in cahoots with these unscrupulous elements. Not only that, they actually play an active role in exploiting the lower castes.

And yet, we see such massive protests against reservations and quotas, by those who claim that “merit” will not be given priority. Perhaps they should think that for this “merit” they required certain material conditions which most of the dalits and OBCs have never had the privilege of enjoying.

Here are some recent incidents of violence and fear mongering tactics employed by the upper caste hooligans:

From Dalit woman’s family alleges foul play

Discontent is rife in Mandai village in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district, where a dalit woman activist from the Mushahar caste, the most impoverished among dalits, was found ‘murdered.’ She was a member of the Janwadi Mahila Samiti. The victim’s family and village women, who bathed her body, claim that she was gang-raped, going by the injuries on her body.

And another:

After attack, Dalits here still get threats

“The group was led by Mulayam Yadav and Satyendra Singh. They came with rifles and started abusing us, saying ‘How dare you do the Holika dahan before us?’ A few youngsters had done it what could we do. We tried to flee and they started attacking the women. Some of them caught hold of Ramni Devi and threw her to the ground. They set fire to Lalo Devi’s hair,” said Chitranjan Ram, who runs a Public Distribution System.

“The next day, we went to the police station but they sent us back saying this was the village’s internal matter and refused to register an FIR. The next day we met the Assistant Superintendent of Police in Chatarpur, 20 km away. He said he would ask the station officer to take action but nothing happened. The men in Barbaag still come and threaten us,” Chitranjan Ram said.

“Facebook users could swing the results in 160 Lok Sabha constituencies”

The latent potential that is social networking, Facebook being one of the most major tools of the same.

One of the main advantages of social networking sites is that they allow people who would otherwise have never met or known each other, actually get acquainted. It helps to organize the powerless, it fosters solidarity, it favors unity. It also dispels misconceptions and myths, while only bolstering others.

But if used properly and democratically, social networking has enormous prospects to yield useful dividends.

Some excerpts from The Hindu article:

A study, a copy of which is with The Hindu, has, for the first time, shown how social media can affect the results of the next Lok Sabha elections. Conducted by the IRIS Knowledge Foundation and the Internet and Mobile Association of India, the research claims that results in over 150 constituencies could be decided by ‘Facebook users, making them the newest vote-bank with the power to shape Indian politics.’

Regarding the limitations, those conducting the study informed:

Admitting that the ‘approach may seem simple to the point of being simplistic,’ it lists out the caveats. It does not factor in whether the social media users in each constituency are active. It does not examine other factors like ‘anti-incumbency or political realignments.’ And while Facebook may be a common medium, those using it are a heterogeneous lot.

However, researchers say their limited objective is to assess the ‘clout of the social media … and if Facebook users will have an impact, if they so choose.’

Ajit Pawar’s “urinate in dam” comment shows insensitivity of the powers that be

Referring to the hunger strike by a drought-affected farmer at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan, Pawar had said “He has been on fast for the last 55 days. (But)If there is no water in the dam, how can we release it? Should we urinate into it? If there is no water to drink, even urinating is not possible.”

This is what Mr. Ajit Pawar said in relation to something as tragic and yet as common and equally dismal a state of affairs of Indian farmers. Crores of rupees in the form of revenue foregone are lost because of no taxation on corporates.

And yet, there is no money for improvement of infrastructure, inputs and irrigation for more sustainable and profitable farming – a sector which accounts for an overwhelming chunk of this agro based economy.

It is a well known fact that in India a farmer commits suicide every half an hour. And the kind of insensitivity manifested by Mr. Ajit Pawar here is hardly anything new. Earlier also, similar hurtful and shameless remarks have been made by our “esteemed” leaders [question is: where do they lead us to?!]. Farmers who took their lives were said to have had “family feuds” and other such blatant attempts were made to shift the blame and evade responsibility by those in power. 

P. Sainath’s articles on farmer suicides in India will be a good place to start digging up the mountains of information on the deplorable state of agriculture and the people associated with it.

Muslims, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Our Duties as Indians

Watch the trailer of the movie The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mira Nair. The film is expected to be a different take on the issue of “terrorism”, the 9/11 attacks and the post 9/11 so-called “war on terror” by America. Will this Mira Nair movie only make the stereotypes against Muslims stronger, or will it help dispel the wrong notions? Only time will tell.

Here is what is the official description under the trailer:

A young Pakistani man is chasing corporate success on Wall Street. He finds himself embroiled in a conflict between his American Dream, a hostage crisis, and the enduring call of his family’s homeland.

In this context, it is worthwhile giving the link of this particular post in Tehelka by Shoma Chaudhury on how important it is to safeguard the rights of Muslims in India for upholding true democracy.

Innocent Muslims have been jailed with impunity in India over the past decade because it was easy to jail them. Within hours of any terror attack, a bunch of Muslim boys would be arrested and their names aired in the media as “masterminds”. Then they would disappear from mainstream consciousness. Their guilt was assumed: it did not need to be proved.

Google Map Controversy

As a continuation of the previous article on Google Glasses, here is an excerpt from an Open Magazine article on how absurd the Indian government and police’s claim of violation of national security is, in connection with Google’s Map Contest, Mapathon:

The police complaint against Google is all the more pointless because even when there is no contest, users can and do update Google Mapssimply because there is a utility to it. If your office or home is put up onGoogle Maps, then it makes it easy to direct anyone with a smartphone towards it. Technology doesn’t go backwards and Google is not the only one with satellites. More and more people will continue to use such services and add to it.

At the heart of this issue is also India’s fixation with labels like ‘security’ and ‘sensitive’ that let governments get away with anything.

Language Controversy in Civil Services Exam

Have they totally lost it?

Or at least that’s what it would seem from their inexplicably ridiculous actions. Why on earth would they take a decision like this in the first place – to actually make the marks of English part of the competitive agenda in civil services exams, and on top of that, actually make it harder for those who speak and write in their regional languages?

But however weird and absurd that may seem, that is exactly what our extraordinarily intelligent political leaders did. And now they have been pushed on the backfoot once again, because of the protests by different groups.

Though it is a very legitimate demand that such imposition of linguistic barriers is unfair and unjust, it is also true that there is no point depriving the students of all the means necessary for making themselves ready for employment. So if English is necessary to sell labor in the labor market (because that is what employment basically means!), then it is the duty of the educationists and those in charge of the education of the nation’s next generation of citizens to make sure that the needful is done.

Also, there are many kinds of groups with diverse interests and political ideologies behind the protests. While there are the left and progressives who oppose this move because of its inherently unethical discrimination and favoritism toward the lucky and privileged elite, there are also those on the right, who are conservatives and stress on “cultural heritage” and “tradition” with a truckload of provincialism and communalism. Then there are many who just oppose without getting the hang of it in proper terms.

Care must be taken to distinguish among these groups. Failing to do so, will inevitably lead to a total misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the political mess that has been created.

The above is a pic of ABVP students holding a poster that says the UPSC language diktat will only favor urban students as opposed to those from village. While there is certainly legitimacy to this claim, the way they make it solely a rural vs urban issue is what is indicative of their vote political tactics, which should be easily identifiable to any serious observer of Indian politics.

Google glass – The next generation social networking technology?

Does it mean we will interact lesser physically from now on?

Much has been said about social networking being the liberating force of the internet. It has brought people closer and helped bridge the gap between the message sender and receiver. Google, a name which is almost a monopoly in the Internet search engine category, has often been in news, not just for its path breaking technologies but also for flouting several norms or getting into loggerheads with governments who want the company to take down sites or certain information. Indian government has been one of the top countries that has asked Google to take down third party data for vague and incongruous reasons as “violation of laws of the land” or much worse, threatening national security, an excuse which is used to justify a myriad of unfair and unethical practices on part of every single government on this earth.

Google famously got into trouble with the way it fetches information for its Google maps, taking snaps in ways that intrude privacy of individuals. It uses drones and even car cameras to get stills of localities and key locations. This was naturally construed as intrusion of private space by many.

Now, Google has come up with something that will give new meaning to the words ” hands off “. It can’t be denied the Google glass is an awesome piece of technology, but for now, it is only accessible and affordable for the rich and lucky few, costing at 1500$ a piece.

So what is it really? It is basically a mini computer, that can do all the important searches of information, pictures and videos for you, just through voice or oral commands, without any use of hands whatsoever. Not only that, one can actually livestream the exact stuff that is being seen by the user. You just have to utter “Okay glass record a video” and you all good to go!

Here is the example video from Google:

Here is what Google had to say about this glass:

Want to see how Glass actually feels? It’s surprisingly simple. Say “take a picture” to take a picture. Record what you see, hands free. Even share what you see, live.

Directions are right in front of you. Speak to send a message, or translate your voice. Get the notifications that matter most. Ask whatever’s on your mind and get answers without having to ask.

All video footage captured through Glass.

What this means is that one can virtually (and literally!) see through the eyesof the other guy! That truly is awesome and mind boggling.

Does it mean we will truly become slaves of technology rather than the other way round?

Now let’s see, what are the potential implications of such a technology.

If it truly does become affordable, as Google is claiming, it would mean that people’s dependency on even mobile devices, like smartphones, iphones or ipads will reduce. The next level of evolution could mean the entire computer being reduced to an element like the Google Glass.

It could radically change the way we communicate, and not necessarily for the good. But one thing’s for sure – it would surely save a helluva lot of time. And paper!

Imagine sharing that wonderful feeling of playing merry go round with your little daughter with your spouse who is not there and misses her. Or imagine almost getting the same goosebumps that your friend had while on her first scary amusement park ride. I think that’s enough imagination for the moment!

Sanjay Dutt vs Afzal Guru

Everybody is talking about Sanjay Dutt being jailed with so much pain and sadness. People, especially celebs, journalists and other famous faces just can’t seem to be able to control their tears for their dear Sanju baba, because he faces jail. His crime, in the eyes of law: he had been an accomplice in the horrific Mumbai blasts of 1993.

That is very sweet of them. They understand with compassion and sensitivity that Sanjay may not have done such a thing deliberately. Perhaps he had no other option. After all, he is their very own “Munna bhai”. He is so good at heart. How could he be so callous, so as to cause the deaths or at least be part of such a heinous conspiracy to take the lives of so many innocents? He wouldn’t hurt a fly.

It is really heat warming to see people feeling for a fellow citizen. But wait. Don’t get your hopes up yet, that we are seeing better times, of having the privilege to share space on an earth where people truly care for each other or understand one another’s problems.

Where were these people, with their crocodile tears when it was Afzal Guru? In his case, it was an attack on the parliament. Why didn’t the people listen to his version? Why didn’t the people ask for pardoning his life? Why were they instead thirsty for his blood?

Oh wait! Afzal wasn’t some Bollywood big shot like Sanjay Dutt. And of course, he was not an ordinary man, he was a MUSLIM! Uhh, surely then he MUST have been a terrorist, a very, very mean and bad guy who only wants to kill innocent people.

Right?

Just so that there is no confusion, neither is it being claimed that Afzal was innocent, nor that the plea for pardoning Sanjay should be opposed vigorously. But as aware and intelligent citizens, we must acknowledge the obvious double standards.

Anand Patwardhan – Latest Documentary, Jai Bhim, Comrade

Several cultural activists are arrested with impunity in India, never to see the light of day again. Jiten Maranda, one such cultural activist dedicated to the welfare of his own people through cultural awakening, had suffered the same fate for many days before he was finally released, being acquitted of charges which were never proven with due process.

Here is Anand Patwardhan’s latest documentary which features the lives of the marginalized and those struggling for their rights from among and outside their communities. Also how the inhuman and repressive state machinery bears down upon them. This documentary was screened at Jadavpur University, Kolkata  on 8th of April.

Here, a woman activist of the forum for cultural activists, Kabir Kala Manch.

Himmatwala

Ajay Devgan’s Himmatwala has gained quite a reputation for itself, both in a positive as well as negative way. His comment that only a few Bollywood actors can make a movie named Himmatwala and for the rest it will be Himmatwaali, was clearly very patriarchal in nature. Calcutta Times (the supplementary of Times of India) had even asked him in their exclusive interview regarding the obsession with ultra macho film names. He had just given a cold shoulder to that question. But can it really be ignored? Isn’t there some basis in the criticism that the way Bollywood portray women and sexuality in general, it actually helps promote patriarchy? Does it not strike you that through all these, the stereotyping and male domination in society is only getting deeper and stronger?

Many have raised a hue and cry over item songs. Those in defense of the latter, have actually pointed out to the hypocrisy of those crying foul, as the same people don’t consider the saas-bahu kind of serials as patriarchal. Don’t they propagate the fact that women are only meant to be condemned to eternal domestic slavery? And yet, the ones actually pointing out this quite legitimate element of hypocrisy are themselves exhibiting double standards.

If 30 second advertisements can coax a person to try out new products, how come the same kind of stereotyping is not going to have a certain impact on the minds of the people? How can these people deny that mainstream Bollywood or media portrayal of sex, gender and women is terribly patriarchal in nature?