Monday, March 05, 2007

Nation under attack - III

This is another perspective on things: a guest post from the Naxalite perspective. DO NOTE THAT THESE VIEWS ARE NOT MINE. I AM TRYING TO PRESENT ALL THE PERSPECTIVES AND POINTS OF VIEW OF A VERY COMPLEX PROBLEM.

Telangana: Naxal Conflict And Press : A Left Perspective

K.Stevenson

Background:

Telangana with a militant history dating back to the Telangana Armed Struggle, with all its failures and successes continues to be a source of inspiration for the Marxist-Leninist parties. Opinions vary on the phenomenon of Naxalism, the generic term used to connote Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar. The Naxalite movement owes its origins to the revolt of Santhal tribals at Naxalbari, West Bengal led by armed Communists who parted ways with the CPI (M).The uprising was crushed by the police in a few months by the United Front Government in West Bengal. The revolt against poverty and alienation acquired the label of 'Naxalism' and paved the way for waging struggles against the established feudal order by the oppressed masses in different parts of India. There are close to 40 groups in the country proffessing adherence to the philosophy of Marxism, Leninism and Maoism. About 11 of them occupy a predominant position. It is believed that 13 groups operate in Andhra Pradesh, 10 of which are splinter groups of CPI-ML. In Andhra Pradesh, Left Wing Extremism tends to be equated with the activities of the CPI-ML People's War Group (PWG) and the CPI-ML Janashakti.

Academic debate projects Naxalism as a social movement and social workers view it as a problem of back wardness and poverty. In this context, Gunnar Myrdal calls India a 'soft state' owing to the failure of theIndian State to vigorously carry out effective land reforms and other pressing socio-economic changes in the society with a view to establishing an egalitarian and less repressive society. This has led to agrarian movements like the Naxalite movement turning violent. Competition for land and jobs available with the increased allocation of resources under the State / Central plans has only sharpened this sense of deprivation. To counter this, Naxalites have adopted the avowed strategy of political activity (with the ultimate goal of seizure of power) supported by armed squads who are trained to create terror among counter revolutionaries.

Be that as it may. The State Government has been following an inconsistent and incoherent policy to tackle this problem by declaring a ban on the militant outfit and its front organisations. Despite employing coercive methods like declaring Naxal infested areas as 'disturbed', invoking the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA), creating a separate police force in the State and coordinating with the Joint Command by the State Government has not achieved the desired effect in the northern Telangana districts where the problem is more acute.

What holds our attention in the context of Naxalism is the increasing reliance of the State on the police and other such organisations for effective governance. The role of the press in such conflict situations assumes significance also when viewsd against Gramsci's formulations that the media and press comprise one of the hegemonic apparatuses in the definition of the State.

Also, as Mcquail points out,'content (in the mass media) is a function of ideological positions and maintains the status quo (the hegemonic approach) The concept of 'hegemony' borrowed by critical theorists from Gramsci's term for ruling ideology, helps to maintain the class divided and class dominated society. A ruling ideology is not imposed but appears to exist by virtue of unquestioned consensus. Hegemony tends to define unacceptable opposition to the status quo as dissident and deviant. The mass media do not define reality on their own but give preferential access to the definitions of those in authority. In the context of Naxalism. A discussion on how the Press is responding to the Naxal conflict becomes imperative because of the rapid expansion witnessed in the regional press which in the hands of business class with other business establishments. A couple of them (Vaartha and Eenadu) have publication centres in the Naxal infested districts. The strong rural news network, growing awareness of their rights among the masses; rise in literacy levels etc. are other reasons.

All this makes defining news much more elusive. Communication scholars, newspaper editors, media professionals and the common public tend to define and interpret news in different ways. Likewise, individuals indoctrinated in a particular ideology also look at news differently. This paper summarises the views of Left ideologues on the press coverage given to the Naxalite conflict.

Broadly speaking, the views expressed by respondents reads like a charge sheet against the existing newspapers in the State; their ownership, their lack of objectivity etc.,

Failure to understand the essence of the movement

By and large, the Press, both the English and the Telugu newspapers have failed to understand and highlight the social transformation that has taken place in the northern Telangana districts during the past two decades. It has failed to present the positive achievements of the Naxalite movement.

The movement was instrumental in bringing about a sea change in the rural economy. This is borne by the fact that the movement could demolish the feudal oppression which impeded rising of capital by the landless labour. Also because the Naxalites were able to curb the practice of Vetti-forced labour, indiscriminate levying of taxes and collection of 'Dhandaga'- surplus yield from the landless.

Significantly, the feudal landlord was transformed into a feudal capitalist. In other words, the economy changed from feudalism to feudal capitalism as the rich landlords fled the villages and made forays into capital ventures by setting up shops, real estate business etc in towns and cities. This paradoxical development, the transformation of the economy from feudalism to feudal capitalism has not been noticed by the Press though the movement aimed at radical transformation/ revolution.

In the process of transforming the society from feudalism to feudal capitalism, a section of the Naxalites who reneged from the party or were suspended rejoined the movement and turned into capitalists with the help of the money 'received' through voluntary contributions and 'extortions.'

In its efforts to move from New Democratic Revolution to Socialism, the movement, in the process, as the Ford Commission Report said on Indian Agriculture, helped "change traditional rural country into a modern society that suits the purpose of the exploiters" but the Government failed to impress upon landlords. Naxalites helped this transformation which had nothing to do with the Communist or Marxist ideology.

On the social plane, people belonging to the Scheduled Castes / Scheduled Tribes and the backward classes unfurled the flag of self respect - a Paleru - servant who was dependent on the landlord had become independent. The social and political consciousness of the landlord's and those belonging to the lower classes changed owing to the Naxalite movement. The changed mindset of the villagers manifest in simple statements like 'we are raising our voices, we are not like before' has been facilitated through the Naxalite movement. But this does not find a place in the press.

In a curious development, some squads developed contacts with the landlords in their struggle against them land which has hindered the development of the society. In the absence of their main targets-wicked landlords who had either fled after selling their property or hoodwinking the Government through benami transactions or giving it for lease, the Naxalite squads now fight only the police. Also, as there is no strong organisation, the movement depends on 'militants'-which has led to lumpen elements gaining a strong hold over the movement. The Press has failed to turn its focus on the lumpenisation of the movement; it can never understand this basic phenomenon.

The newspapers have been and are missing the leadership class struggle in the Naxalite movement between members of the lower caste and the upper caste. The Dalit Bahujans want to lead the present history not only in the outside world but also in the underground. The Ambedkar movement in Andhra Pradesh led by those who were discontented with the Naxalite leadership, has impacted and rattled the underground movement. Based on the Marx-Ambedkar thought, which a section of revolutionary forces recognise, there is a raging debate on how to carry on the struggle both against caste and class as there was no deliberation on the strategic significance or tactical necessity of caste in a revolution.

The Press has failed to understand the 'soul', the inner meaning, economic and social significance, the scope and limitations of the Naxalite movement. Newspapers and economists failed to take cognisance of neither the positive aspects nor the negative trends.

Censoring or blacking out of Left Wing News

The capitalist press adopts a method to black out or censor news and views favourable to the Left Wing parties. For example, if there is a price rise or other issues like retrenchment closures, lock outs etc., or any other political development which affects people, the reactions of various shades of political development which affects people, the reactions of various shades of political opinion is available in the press prominently while the views of the Left wing leaders are not covered prominently. Even if they are given by force of circumstances, their views are mostly projected in a manipulated manner by not giving prominence in terms of content, space and place in the newspaper. This suppression or manipulation by the capitalist press gives an impression that the Left wing groups and their leaders are apathetic to the problems of the people. Instance where news of massive protests by people organised by the extremist groups against the anti-people, pro-capitalist and pro-monopolist polices of the successive governments are totally blacked out by the Press. A recent example, When Nalla Adi Reddy, a top PWG leader addressed a press conference to announce the party's stand on the issue of Telangana four journalists attended the same. While The Hindu, Deccan Chronicle and Andhra Pradesh Times covered it prominently, Indian Express pushed the story into one of its inside pages. Subsequently, the staff reporter of Andhra Pradesh Times from Warangal, based on the PWG document in his possession, filed a series of reports. The same was not reflected in other newspapers.

Legitimising Government Actions

Over the years, the press has been successful in moulding public opinion to make people believe that violence has no place in a democracy. But in reality, under capitalist economic, social and political conditions, the rich are given full freedom to injure any section of the society while the poor is asked to follow the path of non-violence. The umpteen murders which take place every day, communal politics leading to riots, group clashes, personal hatred, and faction feuds are adequate testimony that violence is a part of our society which is highly stratified.

For instance, the Telangana Armed Struggle involving peasants was a movement against exploitation by the landlords and demand for land to the tiller. The uprising was crushed with the might of the Indian army and over6, 000 peasants were killed for demanding a decent livelihood. The Press, in the first instance failed to identify and set an agenda for the government and the politicians.

Later, when the aggrieved organised themselves and resorted to violence and agitations for their economic demands, the violence was crushed. The press nods in appreciation and supports the State, through its law enforcement machinery ruthlessly suppresses the struggles of people who seek social justice, then such State sponsored violence gets the sanction of the press. The press is being engineered in this subtle manner.

Promoting the 'dominant' ideology or the ideology of the State

The Press supports and promotes the ideology of the State. As long as there is no ban on the PWG and its front organisations, the press gives coverage to its activities. But once, the ban is imposed, there is an unwritten ban on a section of journalists in some newspapers to write about Naxal related news. Ironically, even during such periods of undeclared ban on news on Naxals, some newspapers encourage news only on Naxals which becomes a saleable point for the newspaper. But the moment something is written against the State, the journalist earns the wrath of the management. This is best illustrated through the coverage on the recent bed on the balladeer Gaddar's life. It is learnt that a leading Telugu newspaper management instructed its editorial and reporting staff that the paper would like to have stories on Gaddar's health after the attack, stories on the attackers and Gaddar's future plans after his recovery. A journalist filed a story on the formation of a Struggle committee on the attack of Gaddar was immediately shifted to the editorial department. This incident amply testifies that as long as the journalist filed news stories as dictated by the management, it was fine but the news on the formation of a committee which is spearheading the movement against the State denouncing the attack on Gaddar, it goes against the journalist. The Press is not independent but is enslaved to the interests of the State while the State is interested in the capitalist and the consumer class not the commoner's cause. It serves the interests of only certain sections of the society. It is for maintaining the status quo of the establishment, to strengthen and consolidate it. There is no place for tribals, women, oppressed, the underprivileged.

Whither Press?

Casteism has crept into the press which is evident in the coverage when names of activists / victims of extremist violence are clearly mentioned. Also, in case of surrender, there has been no news about harassment of those from underprivileged sections who are harassed and killed while those from the upper castes are given good treatment. During the 1980s, till 1988 the mainstream Telugu Press, especially Udayam owned by a Congress Member of Parliament, absorbed people with Left leaning for their is a deliberate attempt by the newspaper managements to avoid recruiting people with a Left background. The job seekers are grilled about their antecedents. Any news clipping opposing the entry of multinationals, expansion of the activities of the monopoly business houses would go against him.

Misleading headlines

The capitalist press in pursuance of its anti-Left policy, takes full advantage of the habit of the reader to go through the headlines owing to time constraints, and twists headlines or inserts misleading headlines. The readers are deceived in the process. Interestingly the contents of the report and the headline do not corroborate with each other. There is deliberate distortion by the Press as it sometimes says that the 'Naxalite movement is finished'. In case of a major offensive by the Naxalites, the Press reacts stating 'Naxalites are regrouping' followed by another news story that 'Naxalites are building a Red Army' or 'running parallel governments' in rural areas.

Propagating Lies/ Distortion/ Misinformation

'The Press spreads lies. The biggest lie is the Press never speaks of the social and political significance of the movement.' Also there are several instances when the Press published reports without checking facts. When Gaddar, the ballad singer, heading the cultural troupe of the PWG, Jana Natya Mandali was issued a show cause why he should not be expelled for collecting donations for his school, Andhra Jyothi published that he was suspended. When Gaddar, staged a demonstration before the newspaper office that it was a lies and a clear case of misleading people, the paper issued an errata the following day.

Another instance Balraju, legislator from koyyuru in Visakhapatnam was kidnapped by Naxalites who demanded the State Government to release one of their comrades, Kranti Ranadev, from the Warangal jail. When there was a stalemate, the State Government through its representative, Arjun Rao and Dayachary, both senior IAS officers sought the help of the leaders of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC) to facilitate the exchange of the kidnapped MLA. Insiders confided that nearly 30 journalists who had converged on Koyyur were only interested in the sensational part of the event and were insensitive to the social role they could play in the release of the legislator.

For instance, a leading national newspaper reported that the police forces had moved very close to the hillock (the Naxal hideout) and the latter may be attacked at any moment. It was also reported that the commandos were on their way. A Telugu newspaper reported on its front page, in bold letters, that the police had fixed a 24-hour deadline. This was done when the police, under tremendous political pressure, was in a restrained mood. Such terroristic-journalism does not serve any purpose; it only frightens the readers who have concern for human life and human rights. Certain weekies, fortnightly and monthlies had their own stories to write. Quite a few of these reports were distorted, loaded and prejudiced. They hardly made any effort to interview the persons concerned or make a fair assessment of the situation. Such reportage of events poses a threat to human rights and violates the right to reliable information and fails in creating a healthy public opinion.

No proper debate

The first and foremost objective of the capitalist press is the protection of capitalism and projection of its leadership. In the process of defending capitalism, the press does not evoke a general debate on the social and political happenings in the state. Instead it suppresses the evils of capitalism, pushes the corrupt practices of the capitalists under the cover and gives misleading interpretations to various issues to suit the capitalist politics.

The capitalist press has failed to expose that the pro-rich policies of the Congress Government which has been in power for most of time in the post independence era has widened the gap between the rich and the poor. The so-called incremental developmental policy of growth based on private enterprise has not solved the needs and expectations of the poor people in providing food clothing and shelter even after five decades. In fact, capitalism has accentuated corruption, violence, poverty, deprivation, unemployment and disease because of the inherent defects of selfishness, profit motive, opportunism, unequal opportunities and corruption which are bred by capitalism.

The needs of the people-health, drinking water, education, shelter and food and nutrition, and the claims of the Government of their achievement are never debated; instead stories are invented on violation of human rights etc. The press continues to remain silent on the Government's policies to raise additional resources.

They import high-tech goods when there is a need for austerity and self reliance. How can the luxury imports generate employment for the millions of jobless youth and how can the country's resources be put to proper use to ensure higher productivity? Why is it that the Government does not tax the rich landlords or rehabilitate those displaced by Government sponsored projects? No questions are asked on the closure of small scale units and laying off manpower after the Government embarked on the economic reforms.

The Press has failed to interpret the problems attributable to capitalist economic crises or violations of human values and rights. Instead, it projects that such values are better protected in capitalist societies where in reality millions of workers and farmers are crushed under the yoke of the feudal capitalists with meager wages, under employment, unemployment, unhealthy working conditions and perpetual poverty. Fierce competition resulting in deterioration of human values is manifest in the level of violence in the society. Indignity to women, prostitution, suicides, corruption and adulteration of food items have not been analysed from the viewpoint of a crisis in the capitalist economy.

The Press has suppressed and does not factually analyse the evils of capitalism. The capitalist media experts and intelligentsia have ensured that the evils of the capitalist system are not told to the people truthfully. Even if some facts are published, they should not be attributed to evils of capital system. On the other hand, news from socialist countries is distorted or suppressed lest it catch the imagination of the oppressed masses. This would place constraints on the thinking processes of the people in arriving at certain facts and conclusions as the media becomes an impediment to know realities. The people are incapacitated to analyse the exact nature of capitalist system correctly.

From this point of view, the press has been containing the Naxalite movement as persistent negative coverage about kidnaps, landmine blasts; killings build a negative opinion on the ideology and the tactics among the masses.

Sivaramakrishna P (1991), reacting to the draft report of the Cabinet sub Committee on Left Wing Extremists, states that the only information the government or media always compile carefully is on Naxalite encounters and never the violations the instruments of rule of law such as minimum wages, fifth schedule, management of forests, equity in the distribution of welfare benefits, displacement, fragmentation of socio-economic entities etc.

He adds that various groups of individuals study the Naxal issue from different stands; news value, ideological, political and welfare implications, civil liberties, bureaucratic action etc. without any grassroots level knowledge of the issues involved the bottlenecks and the self-interest of local leaders as well as their parties in the extra- constitutional arbitration.

Causes unreported

Seldom do newspapers provide more than cursory attention to the reasons for the actions / events. Instead the coverage focuses on facts and events and presented the LWE as an unfolding drama to be chronicled, rather than as a manifestation of a severe societal maladjustment that requires explanation. The result of this kind of coverage is two-fold. As various critics have noted, by covering 'protests' simply as events, without explaining the underlying causes, reporters fail to provide readers with the information they need to understand the dissidents' grievances. The various segments of society remain sealed off from each other, and opportunities for increased understanding and remedial action are lost.

Also the papers' focus on violence combined with their inattention to the activists' motives, helps create a picture the LWE as unreasonably demanding and militant. This type of coverage, Eric D.Blanchard has observed, frightens and alienates the readers, reinforcing the beliefs of those who believe the protesters are criminals.

The contention of the ideologues on media inattention to causes lends support to the theory that the media tend to act as preservers of status quo by providing unsympathetic coverage to those whose behaviour threatens it.

It is indeed possible for the journalists to dig below the surface to uncover the causes of LWF or even simply to seek out dissidents' and allow them to explain their grievances in their own words. Such coverage could make a significant contribution to the health of the society by clarifying the issues involved in social upheaval and possibly outlining possible solution. Violence, defined as the exertion of physical force to injure, damage or destroy is the primary subject of news stories covered in newspapers. This is not surprising as the Naxalite groups engage in violence which is reported in the headlines. Thus news stories with violence and headlines indicating violence appears to be an eye catching means to capture the market besides performing the function of informing the reader.

The data appear to support Podohertz's claim that the actions of violent organisations receive undue attention. Podohertz, however, also asserts that the 'social causes' of the groups are given equally undue attention.

For news stories about violent incidents, there are three major types of sources;

a) Perpetrators-either a member of the group, a prepared group statement, or a lawyer representing a member of the group and
b) Authority sources-police, the government officials, and
c) Eye witnesses.

Authorities routinely hold news conferences to provide the media with prepared statements on anything considered potentially newsworthy. For the stringers working in the rural areas, it is convenient to include only the authority sources and ignore the challengers.

Heavy utilisation of the authority sources leads to labeling the groups. As mentioned earlier, one person's 'freedom fighter' can be another man's 'terrorist.' Invariably, the police tend to look at the groups, irrespective of the social moorings of their movement as extremists or terrorists. The activists, however, however, prefer to be labeled as independent groups, people's armies or liberation forces. In the context of Naxalism, an anti-Naxal feeling has been built among some sections of the people that they are 'anti-socials' and 'criminals' indulging in indiscriminate killings and ones without any ideology.

Poll Process and the Press

Another weakness of the press, according to ideologues, is that it does an excellent job of events but fails to evince interest in the processes that led to the events. For instance, the press has failed to focus on the unresolved and question and the continued tribal exploitation that provided a breeding ground for Naxalites. Nor has it adequately dealt with the inconsistency of political parties in dealing with the poll boycott call of Naxalites. For example, the founder of the Telugu Desam Party N.T.Rama Rao described the Naxalites as patriots. Later, in 1991 he said that he would neither seek Naxalite help nor would he reject it. The Congress claimed that it was implementing land reforms and tribal welfare programmes while Ramvilas Paswan, one of the top leaders of the Janata Dal, who left the party during the height of the mandal agitation shared public platform with PWG's singer-poet Gaddar. Laxmi Parvati during her campaign tour of the Naxal infested areas in her speeches in favour the Naxalites.

The press chooses to be a key player in the political process but it failed to document the disinterest and disregard in the democratic process by the voters who turned out in poor numbers on the day of the election. In the last parliamentary elections, 480 people filed their nominations for the Nalgonda constituency. Elections were held much later. The long standing grievances for water needs were not highlighted by the press but the travails of the election officials were duly mentioned. There were no follow up stories, not to mention the newspapers' silence over the propriety of the Election Commission's decision to postpone the election. Another glaring lacuna pointed out was the absence of people and issues in the electoral coverage which centered round petty political squabbles, feuding in parties and switching of loyalties of local politicians.

Trial by the Press

Ideologues questioned the propriety of the police taking the initiative in publicising every arrest and surrender and commenting on it in the press. This, they said, takes place much before the person is charged as an accused or produced before a magistrate. Elaborating on the issue further, they said this raises questions concerning the freedom of the press, its rights to access to the news and the accountability of the police to the public and not the least, the people's right to know. Also another significant aspect attached to it, they said is the fairness of a criminal trial. This interest is endangered every time a police officer holds a press conference or meets pressmen and brags about the arrest or surrender of a 'leading Naxalite.' The people undoubtedly have a right to know whom the police has arrested/ or taken them in as surrendered members, lest such things happen in secrecy and be denied. The press, on its part, is not only entitled but is bound as a surrogate of the public to ferret out the facts of the arrests/ surrenders. Noted Civil Liberties leader, A.G.Noorani (1981), opposes such moves of the police to divulge details to the press about the arrests of Naxalites and subsequent comments on the accused.

Glorifying Surrender of Naxals

Ideologues remarked that certain noted Telugu newspapers glorify surrenders and publish them on their front pages. The State apparatus and its representatives generally, specifically senior police officials manage the press during such surrenders by calling for press conferences and put out elaborate details of the various offences and ammunition seized by them. They pointed out that no reporter probes into the drama preceding the surrender. However, according to a published document of the People's War Group, people in the villages are gathered by the police and issued stern warnings that all the militants and leaders of sanghams should surrender to police or the consequences will be very severe. Police officers fix time limit and dates for surrenders. In the villages people are beaten enmasses, humiliated and harassed in various ways and an atmosphere of terror is created in rural areas. The police release press statements that Naxals are surrendering. In the due course of increasing repression some sympathisers have begun to surrender. Due to serious repressive conditions, the number of surrenders in certain areas is in hundreds. That the capitalist press distorts deliberately to erode the credibility and the ideology of the movement is exemplified by the following.

The daughter of a leading member of a front organisation of the PWG wrote a letter to her father complaining of harassment and desire to get divorced. The police got wind of this information and leaked it to the press which flashed stories on the front page exaggerating and distorting the information stating that even ideologically indoctrinated people do not have scruples. However, the same press remains silent on the sex escapades of the Ministers, legislators including the Chief Minister. Another instance When a distant relative of the same leader was engaged in a real estate business in partnership with a person belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party, newspapers screamed ' Kashaywar"- hinting at the 'unholy nexus between the saffron party and the Peoples's War in real estate business.

Pressmen do not have the basic understanding of the inner party functioning and the ideology of the movement. So much so, every secret conclave becomes a plenary meeting. Also, every performance of Gaddar, is reported as a cultural event or dealt in the same way as the modern day rain dances organised by the five star hotels attended by the elite and the monied class to relieve themselves from ennui. The ideology propagated by the songs and the issues taken up are never properly highlighted or debated in the press so as to sensitise people on the issues and concerns of the masses.

These journalists have become so insensitive to the killings of Naxalites and the police repression is also exemplified by the fact that the headlines both in the English and the Telugu dailies on encounters just give figures. In all such instances and regarding underground activity, the press carries only the police version in a manner justifying the police action. For encounter reports have become stereotyped; "Three Naxalites belonging to the People's War Group were killed in an encounter here today. Police said, the Naxalites on seeing the police party opened fire and the police returned the fire. The firing continued for two hours and, at the end, the police reovered the dead bodies of Naxals". Ethics have been given a go by as journalists; in their haste to meet the deadline; they have stopped verifying facts thus violating one of the basic tenets of journalism-verification or checking facts with the various sources or taking the version of the party/ institution or individual named in the news story.

Market-driven Newspapers

The newspapers in the state, both English and the Telugu are market-driven. Profit motive is their primary concern. Any news story which has the potential of raking in revenue is worthy enough to be published in their columns.

Right from the day of the Srikakulam struggle, when Vempatapati Satyam was killed, newspapers screamed'Narakasuruni Vadha'. Perhaps it is understandable because a new ideology was ranged against the State. But in the subsequent years, especially during the 70s, Eenadu run by a chitfund and pickle baron was just an information source. The emergence of Udayam on the newspaper scene in the State introduced the element of competition. Udayam donned the activist role and anti-state role by publishing gory details of encounter deaths. Eenadu, not to be left behind, and to boost its circulation changed its strategy and the day Gaddar surfaced from the underground and performed at Nizam College during Channa Reddy's liberal policy regime, Eenadu covered it on the front page with a banner headline along with his photograph. Later, when some miscreants attacked him, the same news was pushed into the inside pages. Again in 1997, when he survived an assassination bid newspapers gave wide coverage not because they were interested in him but because Gaddar sells.

Such instances abound which only reflects the passive role of the press while reporting the Naxal conflict.

Nation under attack - II

I am attaching here, a link to a Blog Page which is described as a Naxal terror watch

Nation under attack - I

India is under attack. Let us not beat about the bush. We are fighting a continual war in the most brutal battlefield in the world in Kashmir. At the same time, we are involved in a decades old territorial dispute with China, which claims our north eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. Then there is the matter of Aksai Chin, which is some 20% of the land mass of Kashmir, which has been under Chinese control since the 1962 war.

Meanwhile, the influx of refugees, migrant workers, and inevitably, drugs and weapons from our eastern and northeastern sector seems to follow multiple tracks, but lead to the same objective: the destabilization of India. Is there a controlling head? Is this head the ISI? Or is it the PLA?

KPS Gill, the man behind Operation Night Dominance which won the counter insurgency war in Punjab has described Bangladesh as a 'ticking demographic time bomb'. Whatever diplomatic and military goodwill had been gained by the war of 1971 and the liberation of Bangladesh has been squandered away. The fact that India could have used 96,000 Pakistani POWs as a bargaining chip to get back Kashmir seems to have been forgotten. As always, Indian leaders are magnanimous in the extreme, except when it comes to dealing with their own subjects.

The demographic composition of the border districts on West Bengal has changed. Huge influxes of refugees, or simply workers across this most porous of borders has been ignored by the State government in Calcutta. The CPI(M) led government has always exercised 'minority vote bank politics', and finds it expedient to tolerate this gigantic migration of people. Resources, both of land and of infrastructure in the State have been strained to the utmost. Yet, the politicians play off one union against another. The rank and file of, say, a bus driver union have precious little avenues of income if they decide to go against the union. And so everything remains at a status quo, and a miserable status quo at that. But what do our leaders care? If they fall ill, they can seek treatment at some posh hospital established by their NRI businessmen friends. And India is a land where a white Ambassador car with a red light and siren will always make it through the worst traffic jam.

Godhra has brought the spectre of communal violence back. The worst memories of the Partition are the new reality of today. In response, the Central Government deems it advisable to allocate separate development funds for 'minority communities'. May I remind the Honourable Prime Minister of India, that the last time something like this was done was when the British implemented separate electorates for Hindus and Muslims? Poverty and misery do not know religion or caste. Let us put money where it is needed, not use it to line the pockets of 'leaders of the minority community' who are long on rhetoric, but notoriously short on actual results.

The other perpetual nightmare is that of Naxalite insurrection. Naxalbari and Charu Majumdar happened 40 years ago. West Bengal limped back to 'normalcy', but the insurrection has only spread to other states. There is a simple lesson in this: when people are oppressed beyond all endurance, then something will give,.. must give, and blood flows. The Government hasn't yet woken up to the fact that this is the third front on which we are fighting a war. And remember, this is a war which can be won with food, medicines and schools.

.. to be continued.

Impending Hyperinflation?

This is another guest post from the Calcutta Statesman Internet Edition, 5th March 2007. The Post talks about the fallacy of the Indian economy being in an expansionist 'feel good' mode.

Fallacious finance

The Congress, BJP, CPI-M et al May Be Leading India To Hyperinflation
It seems the Dream Team of the PM, Finance Minister, Mr Montek Ahluwalia and their acolytes may take India on a magical mystery tour of economic hallucinations, fantasies and perhaps nightmares. I hasten to add the BJP and CPI-M have nothing better to say, and criticism of the Government or of Mr Chidambaram's Budget does not at all imply any sympathy for their political adversaries. It may be best to outline a few of the main fallacies permeating the entire Governing Class in Delhi, and their media and businessman friends:
1. "India's Savings Rate is near 32%". This is factual nonsense. Savings is indeed normally measured by adding financial and non-financial savings. Financial savings include bank-deposits. But India is not a normal country in this. Nor is China. Both have seen massive exponential growth of bank-deposits in the last few decades. Does this mean Indians and Chinese are saving phenomenally high fractions of their incomes by assiduously putting money away into their shaky nationalized banks? Sadly, it does not. What has happened is government deficit-financing has grown explosively in both countries over decades. In a fractional reserve" banking system (i.e. a system where your bank does not keep the money you deposited there but lends out almost all of it immediately), government expenditure causes bank-lending, and bank-lending causes bank-deposits to expand. Yes there has been massive expansion of bank-deposits in India but it is a nominal paper phenomenon and does not signify superhuman savings behaviour. Indians keep their assets mostly in metals, land, property, cattle, etc., and as cash, not as bank deposits.
2. "High economic growth in India is being caused by high savings and intelligently planned government investment". This too is nonsense. Economic growth in India as elsewhere arises not because of what politicians and bureaucrats do in capital cities, but because of spontaneous technological progress, improved productivity and learning-by-doing on part of the general population. Technological progress is a very general notion, and applies to any and every production activity or commercial transaction that now can be accomplished more easily or using fewer inputs than before. New Delhi still believes in antiquated Soviet-era savings-investment models without technological progress, and some non-sycophant must tell our top Soviet-era bureaucrat that such growth models have been long superceded and need to be scrapped from India's policy-making too. Can politicians and bureaucrats assist India's progress? Indeed they can: the telecom revolution in recent years was something in which they participated. But the general presumption is against them. Progress, productivity gains and hence economic growth arise from enterprise and effort of ordinary people ~ mostly despite not because of an exploitative, parasitic State.
3. "Agriculture is a backward sector that has been retarding India's recent economic growth". This is not merely nonsense it is dangerous nonsense, because it has led to land-grabbing by India's rulers at behest of their businessman friends in so-called "SEZ" schemes. The great farm economist T. W. Schultz once quoted Andrè and Jean Mayer: "Few scientists think of agriculture as the chief, or the model science. Many, indeed, do not consider it a science at all. Yet it was the first science ~ Mother of all science; it remains the science which makes human life possible". Centuries before Europe's Industrial Revolution, there was an Agricultural Revolution led by monks and abbots who were the scientists of the day. Thanks partly to American help, India has witnessed a Green Revolution since the 1960s, and our agriculture has been generally a calm, mature, stable and productive industry. Our farmers are peaceful hardworking people who should be paying taxes and user-fees normally but should not be otherwise disturbed or needlessly provoked by outsiders. It is the businessmen wishing to attack our farm populations who need to look hard in the mirror ~ to improve their accounting, audit, corporate governance, to enforce anti-embezzlement and shareholder protection laws etc.
4. "India's foreign exchange reserves may be used for 'infrastructure' financing". Mr Ahluwalia promoted this idea and now the Budget Speech mentioned how Mr Deepak Parekh and American banks may be planning to get Indian businesses to "borrow" India's forex reserves from the RBI so they can purchase foreign assets. It is a fallacy arising among those either innocent of all economics or who have quite forgotten the little they might have been mistaught in their youth. Forex reserves are a residual in a country's balance of payments and are not akin to tax revenues, and thus are not available to be borrowed or spent by politicians, bureaucrats or their businessman friends ~ no matter how tricky and shady a way comes to be devised for doing so. If anything, the Government and RBI's priority should have been to free the Rupee so any Indian could hold gold or forex at his/her local bank. India's vast sterling balances after the Second World War vanished within a few years, and the country plunged into decades of balance of payments crisis ~ that may now get repeated. The idea of "infrastructure" is in any case vague and inferior to the "public goods" Adam Smith knew to be vital. Serious economists recommend transparent cost-benefit analyses before spending any public resources on any project. E.g., analysis of airport/airline industry expansion would have found the vast bulk of domestic airline costs to be forex-denominated but revenues rupee-denominated ~ implying an obvious massive currency-risk to the industry and all its "infrastructure". All the PM's men tell us nothing of any of this.
5. "HIV-AIDS is a major Indian health problem". Government doctors privately know the scare of an AIDS epidemic is based on false assumptions and analysis. Few if any of us have met, seen or heard of an actual incontrovertible AIDS victim in India (as opposed to someone infected by hepatitis-contaminated blood supplies). Syringe-exchange by intravenous drug users is not something widely prevalent in Indian society, while the practise that caused HIV to spread in California's Bay Area in the 1980s is not something depicted even at Khajuraho. Numerous real diseases do afflict Indians ~ e.g. 11 children died from encephalitis in one UP hospital on a single day in July 2006, while thousands of children suffer from "cleft lip" deformity that can be solved surgically for 20,000 rupees, allowing the child a normal life. Without any objective survey being done of India's real health needs, Mr Chidamabaram has promised more than Rs 9.6 Billion (Rs 960 crore) to the AIDS cottage industry.
6. "Fiscal consolidation & stabilization has been underway since 1991". There is extremely little reason to believe this. If you or I borrow Rs. 100,000 for a year, and one year later repay the sum only to borrow the same again along with another Rs 40,000, we would be said to have today a debt of Rs. 140,000 at least. Our Government has been routinely "rolling over" its domestic debt in this manner (in the asset-portfolios of the nationalised banking system) but displaying and highlighting only its new additional borrowing in a year as the " Fiscal Deficit" (see graph, also "Fiscal Instability", The Sunday Statesman, 4 February 2007). More than two dozen State Governments have been doing the same, though unlike the Government of India, they have no money-creating powers and their liabilities ultimately accrue to the Union as well. The stock of public debt in India may be Rs 30 trillion (Rs 30 lakh crore) at least, and portends a hyperinflation in the future. Mr Chidambaram's announcement of a "Debt Management Office" yet to be created is hardly going to suffice to avert macroeconomic turmoil and a possible monetary collapse. The Congress, BJP, CPI-M and all their friends shall be responsible.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Who created UNIX?

I came across this email archived somewhere on the net. For those of you interested, the source is HERE.
For the rest you lazy bas*****, the text of the email is copied below:

From: dmr@alice.att.com (Dennis Ritchie)
Subject: re: UNIX
Message-ID: <11613@alice.att.com>
Date: 14 Nov 90 05:53:03 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ

I read,

> Looks like folks are now beginning to credit the
> development of UNIX to Kernighan and Ritchie, but
> I thought the principal investigators were
> *Thompson* and Ritchie. Did something change?

The differences between Kernighan Ritchie Thompson
are real but very subtle. We all look alike (middle
aged with scruffy graying beards). Note these
distinctions:

-- Kernighan is slimmest, Ritchie middlest, Thompson
heaviest in body build
-- Ritchie got contacts a couple of years ago and so
is the only current non-glasses wearer
-- Thompson wouldn't touch netnews with a pole,
Kernighan secretly gets misc.invest and misc.taxes
mailed to him, Ritchie reads it more than is good
for him and occasionally contributes
-- Ritchie is the only one who has met five people
who have appeared on David Letterman (Penn,
Teller, Rob Pike, Mayor Koch, and the guy who
raised the biggest hog in Ohio)
-- Kernighan has written ten times as much readable
prose as has Ritchie, Ritchie ten times as much as
Thompson. It's tempting to say that the reverse
proportions hold for code, but in fact Kernighan
and Ritchie are more nearly tied and Thompson
wipes us both out.

Dennis

Frederik

Pohl is a singularly intelligent author, and I really like his style of tailoring multiple events together in such a nimble fashion. It is my opinion (feel free to disagree) that a linear narrative is the option to follow, atleast until one has written enough to gain experience enough to venture into the regions inhabited by the likes of Chuck Palahniuk. One book written in the form of letters, official documents and some conversations is 'Riot', by Shashi Tharoor. Tharoor, you might remember, is an Indian diplomat who very nearly became the Secretary General of the UN recently. The only real complaint I have against him is that his principal character in Riot makes the statement that St. Stephen's is the best undergraduate college in India. Now this is ridiculous, because it has always, and will always be second best. I don't really need to mention the best college here. Anyway, Riot is quite well written and is highly recommended to anyone.

Frederik

Pohl is a singularly intelligent author, and I really like his style of tailoring multiple events together in such a nimble fashion. It is my opinion (feel free to disagree) that a linear narrative is the option to follow, atleast until one has written enough to gain experience enough to venture into the regions inhabited by the likes of Chuck Palahniuk. One book written in the form of letters, official documents and some conversations is 'Riot', by Shashi Tharoor. Tharoor, you migh remember, is an Indian diplomat who very nearly became the Secretary General of the UN recently. The only real complaint I have against him is that his principal character in Riot makes the statement that St. Stephen's is the best undergraduate college in India. Now this is ridiculous, because it has always, and will always been second best. I don't really need to mention the best college here. Anyway, Riot is quite well written and is highly recommended to anyone.

Ever had the feeling that.. part 2

there is a better way to edit this file... yes, there usually is.. and it usually involves vi. vi is the Grandmaster of all text editors, it has been around forever and is the most powerful, and takes no time to initialize because it runs off your terminal in text mode directly and for people who know some 30 or so commands, it is the smartest and most intuitive thing in the world. Go vi!

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

And some crazy Calcuttan

Came up with this really interesting alphabet for 'bheto-Bangalis'.. read and laugh:

A is for Awpheesh (as in Office). This is where the
> average Kolkakatan goes and spends a day hard at work.
> And if he works for the 'Vest Bengal Gawrment' he will
> arrive at 10, wipe his forehead till 11, have a tea
> break at 12, throw around a few files at 12.30, break
> for lunch at 1, smoke an unfiltered cigarette at 2,
> break for tea at 3, sleep sitting down at 4 and go
> home at 4:30. It's a hard life!
>
> B is for Bhision. For some reason many Bengalis don't
> have good bhision. In fact in Kolkata most people are
> wearing spectacles all the time.
>
> C is for Chappell. Currently, this is the Bengali word
> for the Devil, for the worst form of evil. In the
> night mothers put their kids to sleep saying, 'Na
> ghumaley Chappell eshey dhorey niye jabe.'
>
> D is for Debashish or any other name starting with
> Deb. By an ancient law every fourth Bengali Child has
> to be named Debashish. So you have a Debashish
> everywhere and trying to get creative they are also
> called Deb, Debu, Deba with variations like Debopriyo,
> Deboprotim, Debojyoti, etc. thrown in at times.

E is for Eeesh. This is a very common Bengali
> exclamation made famous by Aishwarya Rai in the movie
> Devdas. It is estimated that on an average a Bengali,
> especially Bengali women, use eeesh 10,089 times every
> year. 'Ei Morechhey' is a close second to Eeesh.
>
> F is for Feeesh. These are creatures that swim in
> rivers and seas and are a favourite food of the
> Bengalis. Despite the fact that a fish market has such
> strong smells, with one sniff a Bengali knows if a
> fish is all right. If not, he will say 'eeesh what
> feeesh is theesh!'
>
> G is for Good name. Every Bengali boy will have a good
> name like Debashish or Deboprotim and a pet name like
> Motka, Bhombol, Thobla, etc. While every Bengali girls
> will have pet names like Tia, Tuktuki, Mishti, Khuku,
> et cetera.
>
> H is for Harmonium. This the Bengali equivalent of a
> rock guitar. Take four Bengalis and a Harmonium and
> you have the successors to The Bheatles!
>
> I is for lleesh. This is a feeesh with 10,000 bones
> which would kill any ordinary person, but which the
> Bengalis eat with releeesh!

J is for Jhola. No self-respecting Bengali is complete
> without his Jhola. It is a shapeless cloth bag where
> he keeps all his belongings and he fits an amazing
> number of things in. Even as you read this there are
> two million jholas bobbling around Kolkata, and they
> all look exactly the same! Note that 'Jhol' as in Maachher
> Jhol is a close second.
>
> K is for Kee Kaando !. It used to be the favourite
> Bengali exclamation till eeesh took over because of
> Aishwarya Rai (now Kee Kando's agent is trying to hire
> Bipasha Basu).
>
> L is for Lungi, the dress for all occasions. People
> in Kolkata manage to play football and cricket wearing
> it not to mention the daily trip in the morning to the
> local bajaar. Now there is talk of a lungi expedition
> to Mt Everest.
>
> M is for Minibus. These are dangerous half buses whose
> antics would effortlessly frighten the living
> daylights out of all James Bond stuntmen as well as
> Formula 1 race car drivers.

N is for Nangto. This is the Bengali word for Naked.
> It is the most interesting naked word in any language!
>
> O is for Oil. The Bengalis believe that a touch of
> mustard oil will cure anything from cold (oil in the
> nose), to earache (oil in the ear), to cough (oil on
> the throat) to piles (oil you know where!).
>
> P is for Phootball. This is always a phavourite
> phassion of the Kolkattan. Every Bengali is born an
> expert in this game. The two biggest clubs there are
> Mohunbagan and East Bengal and when they play the city
> comes to a stop.
>
> Q is for Queen. This really has nothing to do with the
> Bengalis or Kolkata, but it's the only Q word I could
> think of at this moment. There's also Quilt but they
> never use them in Kolkata.

R is for Robi Thakur. Many many years ago Rabindranath
> got the Nobel Prize. This has given the right to all
> Bengalis no matter where they are to frame their
> acceptance speeches as if they were directly related
> to the great poet and walk with their head held high.
> This also gives Bengalis the birthright to look down
> at Delhi and Mumbai and of course 'all
> non-Bengawlees' ! Note that 'Rawshogolla' comes a close
> second !
>
> S is for Shourav. Now that they finally produced a
> genuine cricketer and a captain, Bengalis think that
> he should be allowed to play until he is 70 years old.
> Of course they will see to it that he stays in good
> form by doing a little bit of 'jawggo' and 'maanot'.
>
> T is for Trams. Hundred years later there are still
> trams in Kolkata. Of course if you are in a hurry it's
> faster to walk.
>
> U is for Aambrela. When a Bengali baby is born he is
> handed one.

V is for Bhaayolence. Bengalis are the most
> non-violent violent people around. When an accident
> happens they will fold up their sleeves, shout and
> scream and curse and abuse, "Chherey De Bolchhi" but
> the last time someone actually hit someone was in
> 1979.
>
> W is for Water. For three months of the year the city
> is underwater and every year for the last 200 years
> the authorities are taken by surprise by this!
>
> X is for X'mas. It's very big in Kolkata, with Park
> Street fully lit up and all Bengalis agreeing that
> they must eat cake that day.
>
> Y is for Yesshtaarday. Which is always better than
> today for a Bengali (see R for Robi Thakur).
>
> Z is for Jebra, Joo, Jipper and Jylophone.

Some crazy Bangladeshis

came up with this dubbed version of the Matrix in short.. its quite hilarious.. do see:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7116422276487170544&q=bengali+matrix&hl=en

Monday, February 26, 2007

Culpable Genocide: The artificial famine, Bengal 1942-1943.

Culpable Genocide: The artificial famine, Bengal 1942-1943.

Background:
1941 was a trying time for the British everywhere. General (later Field Marschall) Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox was pounding the merry hell out of the Brits in the desert, El Alamein and Stalingrad were many months and many lives ahead, Barbarossa had not yet begun and things were bleak. India, or British India was also part of the war effort, not by choice, but by coercion (the Defence of India Act). The Indian freedom movement was divided between the choice of doing what seemed like the honourable thing and working to help the Allies during the war and taking full advantage of England’s preoccupation in Europe to push the cause for total independence further. Sentiments in the mainstream freedom movement, as exemplified by members of the Indian National Congress (INC) were leaning towards supporting the British, perhaps in an effort to gain goodwill and accelerate the process to a peaceful transition to Home Rule after the war.

Netaji and the INA:
A small faction, principally lead by the Bengali nationalist Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose leaned towards armed insurrection. On the 19th of January, 1941, Netaji escaped from house arrest in Calcutta and made a very circuitous journey to Berlin where he was received by von Rippentrop and the Wilhelmstrasse. Meanwhile the British Special Operations Executive, apart from its usual duties of helping the French Resistance put a dent in the Waffen SS’s shining armour, was also asked to assassinate this pesky Indian. They didn’t, or couldn’t, but this is only to indicate the seriousness with which the British regarded Netaji, even if he was ‘discredited’ within the Indian National Congress for holding ideas which ran counter to the non violent ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. (This led Netaji to raise the Forward Bloc, which is, till today, regarded as the most respected and idealistic of the Indian Left parties.) Eventually Netaji made his way to Japan where with the blessing of the Imperial Government, he was able to raise the Indian National Army. This army was composed mainly of Indian POWs from the British Indian Army. The story of the INA, with Netaji’s call of ‘tum mujhe khoon do, main tumhe azadi doonga’ (give me blood, and I will give you freedom) is something, which deserves to be better told elsewhere and separately. I have been talking about Netaji merely to drive home the point that the 1941-43 was a trying time for the Allies when Normandy and victory seemed impossibly far away.

Japanese action:
Japan had ‘awakened a vengeful sleeping giant’ on the 7th of December, 1941. But for the moment, the giant’s hammerstroke was stayed, and for the moment, fast carrier groups ruled the Eastern Pacific. On the 15th of February, 1942, Lt. General Arthur Percival surrendered the Allied garrison at Singapore to General Tomoyuki Yamashita. The Japanese had fielded a mere 30 000 troops, compared to almost 110 000 Allies. Their victory was in part due to far superior coordination and logistics and the Allies lack of armored regiments. The air battle was won on the wings of the superlative Mitsubishi Zero (which ruled the Pacific skies until much later in the war, when it was swept from the skies by vastly superior numbers of P38 Lightning’s and P51 Mustang’s).

Defence of India (DI) Act and stockpiling of rations:
Early in 1941, the British Indian Government started stockpiling rations for the armed forces. Midnapore had traditionally been a surplus district. It had also, traditionally been a hotbed of nationalist insurrection, giving the nation martyrs like Khudiram Bose and Satyendranath Basu. Thus, by procuring rice from Mednipore, the British could serve their (“legitimate”) wartime interest while starving this rebellious district to its knees. In the meantime, the autumn 1941 harvest had failed in eastern Mednipore (now Indian Mednipore). This did not dissuade the zealous British administration in carrying out its task, however. Procurement went on. On the 6th of April, 1942, buoyed by their successes in Singapore, the Malay peninsula and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Japanese launched raids against the Bay of Bengal ports of Kakinada and Vishakapatnam (present day Vizag). Fearful of a seaborne invasion from the Bay of Bengal, the British instituted a policy of denial of resources to the enemy along the delta. This quickly changed to a “scorched earth” policy, not much different from what Hitler did in the closing days of WW2 in Europe. In this riverine district, boats were frequently the only reliable mode of transportation. Those boats, which could not be moved deep inland (as far as 90 miles) as per British orders were sunk. Buses, trucks and other modes of land transport were withdrawn. Mednipore was cut off from the rest of the country with no way to move food, oil and any essential apart from British army resources. Needless to say, these resources were not available to the populace. Allied troops began massing in the district, anticipating a Japanese invasion. The Japanese had just taken Burma, cutting off cheap rice exports to Bengal. What they had provided, and provided in droves, instead of rice was an unending stream of refugees who would strain already scarce food supplies.

Elsewhere in the Nation; the Quit India Movement:
Talks between England’s delegate extraordinary, Stanford Cripps and leaders of the Indian freedom movement to obtain Indian cooperation during the war had failed. On the 14th of July, 1942, the Indian National Congress passed its resolution demanding “Poorna Swarajya”, or Total Freedom. This was not something that garnered unqualified support from all of India. The Communist Party of India, the Hindu Mahasabha did not fully support the Congress. The Muslim League, under the leadership of Muhammad Al Jinnah (who would become famous as the Quaid-e-Azam of Pakistan) found this an excellent opportunity to widen the wedge between Indians and Indians wider.. the wedge that would eventually culminate in the bloodshed of the Partition. On the 8th of August, 1942, Mahatma Gandhi started the Quit India Movement at the Bombay session of the INC. His call was for peaceful non-cooperation. The British responded quickly and savagely. The very next day, Gandhiji was imprisoned and senior members of the Congress Party Working Committee were arrested. Along with them, about 100, 000 common, or garden-variety freedom fighters were arrested nationwide. The Congress Party was banned, freedom fighters were publicly whipped, and every form of punitive action that a vengeful and fearful administration could bring to bear was used.

Insurrection in Mednipore:
Near the end of September, the people of Kanthi and Tamluk regions in Mednipore rose in revolt. Telegraph poles were cut down, roads were dug up, and culverts were blown up, in fact all of those things that the French Resistance was busy doing in Occupied France was being done here. The British could scarcely tolerate a revolt on this scale in a region that would be the beachhead for Japanese forces, if their attention turned to the Bay of Bengal. The administration struck back with a vengeance. Hundreds were rounded up and summarily executed. The Royal Air Force was called in to bomb the centres of rebellion to submission.

Cyclone:
The Bay of Bengal has long been, quite literally a stormy region. The coastline is periodically battered by severe tropical storms and cyclones. Take for example, the Supercyclone 05B in 1999 which hit ravaged coastal state of Orissa. The damage inflicted rises in proportion to population density, and the coast of West Bengal is one of the most densely populated regions in the world.

On the 16th of October, 1942, a tropical cyclone made landfall near Kanthi. Gales reaching up to 255 km/hr were reported. The Cyclone Warning Centre of the Indian Meteorological Department at Calcutta issued warnings: warnings which should have been passed along by the District Collectorate to the population; and were not. How many lives an early warning could have saved is not known. What is known is the damage that was wreaked. About 7400 villages in an area of 3300 sq.miles were affected. 786 villages in Kanthi and Tamluk were wiped off the map, leaving no trace. Some 2.5 million were affected. The word “affected” is a nice one. It can be used to signify a lot of things with little, or no emotional association. Just what does “affected” mean anyway? In this case it means that an affected person has probably lost part or all of his family to flood waters, that the affected person has probably been starving until rescue people reach him. In case there are no rescue people, the affected person will starve to death. In case he doesn’t actually starve to death, he will probably die of cholera, because when there is no drinking water, people drink the same water they defecate into, and cholera happens to be a waterborne disease. This, and other diseases are unfortunate by products of floods and cyclones. However, back to the topic at hand. About 1.9 million cattle heads were drowned. Saline flood waters had rendered all drinking water unfit. There was no food. There was no water for Mednipore.

Communications Blackout:
Wartime censorship, coupled with the fact that Mednipore was actually under attack by the British for daring to hoist the flag meant that the rest of India did not know what was happening. The British administration ‘helped’ things along by confiscating what pitiful remnants of food supplies there were for feeding their troops. For some fifteen days after the cyclone, news of the tragedy did not reach the outside world. Again, ‘outside world’ has to be understood as Calcutta and the rest of India. The ‘world’ was busy containing one Adolf and didn’t have time for such petty things as a few million Bengalis starving. Legitimate relief workers from Calcutta were jailed. Observers who reached Mednipore in early December villagers subsisting on decaying, rotten black rice, which smelled of decaying flesh. Thus began the great Bengal Famine of 1942 and 1943.

The Famine:
What relief was available from the rest of the beleaguered nation was denied to Mednipore. This might at first be attributed to an apathetic administration, or an administration preoccupied with war at its doorstep. But circumspect reasoning cannot, but come to the inevitable conclusion that this carnage, and indeed it was carnage was well orchestrated and pre meditated. The District Collectorate COULD have issued storm warnings. It did not not. The administration COULD have rushed food and medical supplies immediately in the aftermath of the cyclone. It did not. The work of Nobel Laurate Amartya Sen has proved that overall shortages of rice production were not enough to cause such widespread famine.

Year Rice production for Mednipore
(in million of tons)
1938 8.474
1939 7.922
1940 8.223
1941 6.768
1942 9.296
1943 7.628

Prof. Sen argues that hoarding of food, caused in part by actual shortages, and in part by the very real shortage (which was, however, localized, and could have been easily reversed by imports from other states) and a rising black market lead to rice simply being priced out of the reach of the common man.

The British Raj created this artificial famine. The British presided over the slow death by starvation and disease of approximately five million Bengalis. They were responsible for the murder of these people. This was genocide. It cannot be termed anything else by apologists or others. Hitler’s score in six years was some six million Jews. Churchill’s score was only marginally less: five million Bengalis.

Note: I started writing this article after a conversation with my father regarding the way things worked out during the war. This essay follows very closely an earlier article written by Padmabhushan Prof. Tapan Roy Choudhury (Professor Emeritus of Indian History and Civilization in the University of Oxford) which appeared in the Calcutta Statesman in late 2005.

Online Readings:
1.http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a1138673.shtml?sectionId=4&articleId=1138673
2.http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a1138673.shtml?sectionId=4&articleId=1138673
3.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943
4.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_05B_(1999)#Impact
5.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_of_India_Act




Friday, February 23, 2007

No, I do not code.

I have somehow managed to survive some eight years shuttling from one Physics department to another without gaining the slightest amount of coding experience. In fact, if you ask me what career skills I have actually developed, then I would have to think for a while, because for sure, I am not the problem solving Irodov crunching maniac that people who make it to the top 100 in the IIT-JEE turn into approximately 30 days from the date of the IIT-JEE. Neither did I turn into the superhumanlike creature which usually graduates from Presidency and heads straight into the world of high energy physics (via the usual route of IITK+[insert appropriate US university]/MatScience/CU+TIFR or HRI or SINP). No, somewhat to the shock and horror of my friends (and the delight/frustration of my lab partner) I displayed a disconcerting liking for experiments. This is enough to render one persona non grata in a crowd of people who only need a Casio FX-100 to finish a really complicated experiment involving, say ballistic galvanometers and/or two slit diffraction spectrometry setups. (To this day, I have very little patience for people who cannot focus a spectrometer and level a diffraction setup.)Yes, sad, but true. Shunned by most of my classmates who either chose to ignore me or turned away and muttered/giggled (depending on gender) when I walked by, I chose to invest my time and energy to things that would not despise me.. like two channel oscilloscopes. And I became that most downtrodden of people: an experimentalist. I would sneak away from erudite discussions on beta decay and what not to spend some quality time with LM741 OPAMPs.

Eventually I found myself in a place where other unhappy experimentalists turned up and ran a reverse snobbery club which looked down upon people who did things with Hamiltonians instead of notch filters. True to form, I decided to scoot halfway between the two competing camps and ended up in NMR.. which is this strange transition land between experiments and theory... the nearest parallel I can think of is the Nazgul in Lord of the Rings.. those blokes who walk around in the shadow land between life and death.. neither here nor there. Now this is not a good analogy... I mean we spectroscopists, unlike the Nazgul can actually cross streams.. and we do not ride monstrous birds which have been fed on fell meats in the dark to become .. well.. monstrous birds. But well, you get the point. However, spectroscopists have this amazing ability to switch sides at will and pretend to be either theorists or experimentalists. This has some benefits.. and it is convenient.

Except when I find myself with a dataset which has to be filtered in somewhat convoluted ways.. and I realise that I can neither code to do it in 30 seconds... nor do I have the patience to do it by hand.. like an old fashioned experimentalist. So.... I will have to teach myself to code ... or start dating someone who can. As the latter is not about to happen.... here goes... nose firmly clamped shut by thumb and forefinger.. here I go.. about to take a dive into the uncharted waters of programming..

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Rajinder Puri's Homepage.

This is part of my ongoing effort to assuage the pangs of my social/economic/political conscience. I am including HERE a link to Rajinder Puri's Homepage. Mr. Puri is a very respected Indian cartoonist and journalist, and his articles regularly appear in newspapers such as the Statesman. He has a knack for looking beyond the usual rhetoric. Link

Guest Post

This time, from my father.. for the record, Buro refers to me. The signature file alluded to is:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men
believe and adore and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the
city of God!
- Emerson
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------



The signature in Buro's mail on the "City of God" suddenly conjured up an image.. the milky way seen from a close distance , nothing less! And I remembered having seen that! It happened when I was taking a night flight.. perhaps to Hyderabad via Bhuvaneswar. As the plane approached BBSR and was banking to align itself with the runway, the city gradually slid under the wing. Even before that point, the city looked like an extended glow of coloured lights .. an almost linear glow. Fat in the middle. Almost suddenly it widened, and tilted; the far side rising to the sky .. a wide table of light, with a dark sinuous band of darkness in the middle. The table of light showed like a wide expanse of glittering jewels white, yellowish and red. But the most beautiful ones were green .. yes greenish blue. On the ground I have never noticed that some lights can look greenish blue; but from the window-seat in a plane some lights did appear greenish blue and most alluring.

It took me a few seconds to realize that the dark band was a river. The plane has come lower, and the table was tilting and becoming horizontal. As we passed over the river, the banks were marked by a few scattered lights, mostly yellowish white. In the isolated huts the dim glow of (Kerosene) lamps . The plane was coming lower still.and suddenly we pass over a part of the city. It was between 9 and 10PM. Some roads , I could see with isolated street lights; a poor affair of naked electric bulbs dripping a small pool of yellowish light on the solitary road. A few houses with compound wall- a lamp "diya" burning, and in the centre of the court yard perhaps a "tulsi"? The verandah lit by a frugal bulb. Earthern courtyard. Nobody, absolutely nobody can be seen anywhere. All the roads are deserted, all houses seem deserted, except that some ray of dim light comes out of some windows or doors. The scene too quickly pass below the wings allowing only a fleeting impression. You feel like a nocturnal bird flying over a sleeping town and looking for people, and they do not bother about you.

The roads quickly pass at an angle below and out of attention. The wing, now dimly seen against the brighter lights of a more crowded part of the city. The flashing red lights at the edge of the wing appear harsh. A broad avenue with more street lights? Perhaps halogen lights brighter with wider pools on the road. Cars with white beams in front and red glow at the back, slowly moving up. Look like ants, no not ants , rather small boxes with headlights. A crowded crossing looms up, and quickly passes down and on the other side. The most interesting aspect is that the city is so silent. We perhaps come lower, and now the roads pass very quickly, and at an angle . I see some people walking , nobody looks up at me. Am I a ghost? Noticed by none? Is it how it will feel AFTERWARDS ? Is it how the magic seen from a distance vanishes and becomes earthy grimy reality.? But for the first one minute or so, that broad tilting sheet of necklace - like jewel-studded tapestry the city of man that looks like the city of God up in the sky.


This was irresistible.

But I found a video of Scar Tissue by RHCP here, and then a hilarious spoof with 'misheard lyrics' here. Check out.

A nation on the roll, by Saumitra Mohan

Yes, another guest article.. this time by a member of the Indian Administrative Service..

A nation on the roll
Coping With Systemic Maladies

By Saumitra Mohan

These are testing times for the country. Although the economy is booming and the stock markets are
zooming, we are actually at the crossroads. Where do we go from here? We never tire of boasting that
we are the world?s largest democracy with the second largest population, the third largest army, the
fourth largest economy (in purchasing power parity terms), the fourth largest air force, the fifth
largest navy, the sixth nuclear country and the seventh largest industrialised country. For all that,
we are faced with many systemic maladies that are expressing themselves in various ways. These include
terrorists, secessionists, the Maoist violence, systemic corruption and institutional degeneration.
We are, today, one of world?s most corrupt countries going by the projections of such organisations as
Transparency International. Even though vigilance of an overactive civil society and judiciary led by
citizens supposedly with conscience, non-governmental organisations and media does give us some hope,
the fact remains that we actually don?t know as to what might happen the next moment, whose bomb
attack or violence some or many of us may fall prey to.

Misguided men

Surprisingly enough, today we have guided missiles but misguided men out there to scupper their own
boat for a few pieces of silver.
We all aspire to be a great power and as such hanker for such symbolisms as permanent membership of an
almost defunct and toothless United Nations Security Council and the recognition of an alien United
States for legitimising our national nuclear programme. But we shall do almost nothing by way of our
own character and behaviour that are becoming of citizens of a great country. We have all seen and
heard as to how a Hansie Cronje, a Shane Warne or a Gunter Grass, pricked by a guilt consciousness,
have come forward to confess their mistake or folly, but how many times have we heard of an Indian
coming forward to do so even though inquiries have proved them to be on the wrong side of the law. Our
values and ethics are at an all-time low despite those stupendous growth figures.
Infused with a chalta hai attitude, we do anything and everything that suits us and our interests but
shall shy away to do things that actually evince a strong character behoving citizens of a great
country. We resent a bandh or a strike, but shall not flinch from calling and participating in one
such bandh, strike or procession when it suits us without any concern for others and, howsoever,
detrimental the same may be to the interests of the system.
When it comes to critical social issues such as women, dowry, girl child and others, we make loud
protestations but continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse is that, ?it is the whole system that
has to change. How will it matter if I alone forego my son?s right to a dowry?? We run to America to
bask in their glory and praise their system but again when New York becomes insecure (as in the
aftermath of twin tower bombings), we run to England. Again, when England experiences unemployment, we
take the next flight to the Gulf. When the Gulf war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home
by the Indian government.
Everybody is out to abuse and prostitute the country. Nobody thinks of feeding or nurturing the
system. Our conscience is mortgaged to our selfish interests and we don?t wish to look beyond them. At
times, we talk of the rich demographic dividend of having more than half of our population in the
productive age group of 25-50 by 2040 AD, but we are hardly bothered as to how to reap this dividend
successfully. John Stuart Mill was right when he said that ?you cannot think of becoming a great
country with small men?? with small capacities, small thinking and dubious character.
While almost all of us keep whining about our government being inefficient, about our laws being too
old or too bad, about our municipalities not cleaning the streets, about our transport system being the worst in the world, about our mails never reaching their destination in time, and about our
country having been gone to the dogs. But have we ever paused and thought as to what to do. John F
Kennedy rightly said, ?Ask not what the country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.?
Notice the behavioural change of an Indian while in India and while abroad. When out of the country,
we are at our best. When at Singapore, we don?t throw cigarette butts on the roads and we dutifully
come to the parking lot to punch our parking ticket if we have over-stayed there rather than sulking
and trying to sneak away without payment as we often do in our own country.
Similarly, we don?t dare to eat in public during Ramadan while in Dubai or we don?t dare to go out
without our head covered in Jeddah because the local laws demand that. We don?t chuck an empty coconut
shell anywhere other than the garbage vat on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand nor do we spit
paan on the streets of Tokyo. We also don?t dare to speed beyond the stipulated limit in Washington DC
and then try to get away with it by throwing our weight with the traffic cop.

Zero contribution

In America every dog-owner has to clean up after his or her pet has done the job. But we never do the
same when in our own country. We expect the government to clean up. We expect the railways to provide
clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms. We want our airlines to
provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the first available
opportunity.
We go to the polls to choose a government and after that we forsake everything, forgetting all our
responsibilities and duties. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do
anything and everything whilst our own contribution is totally nil or, at least even negative. We
destroy our own national property during a bandh or a strike and then complain about government not
doing enough.
We should realise that a country is made of people and unless its people value themselves, their
country, their rights and, more importantly, their duties, we shall continue to grovel in the dust. If our system is bad it is because we are bad. We get the government we deserve. So we should first
deserve and only then desire.

(The author is an IAS officer presently posted as Addiional District Magistrate, Hooghly, West Bengal)


Again, while pretending

to find educational stuff about Neural conduction, Neural networks and membrane potentials.. what I was actually up to was goofing all over looking at random youtube videos, and for some random reason... searching X-Files videos. And what I found is that there is a gigantic crowd of people called SHIPPERS who spend their time making Mulder/Scully videos. Here, look at one. And then, I see them. I also got to this quotes page... if you are an X-Phile, this is for you, else stay away.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Yeah, Maddox!

What better way to spend a Sunday evening than to pretend to study for a Dynamics exam? Seriously, I can't think of any. While looking for serious academic references, I found this Wikipedia page on Maddox, who is probably the rudest person in the known Universe. Check out.

Do tell me what is an interoperatibility partner?

Seeing that I have no clue.. so it was at the 2007 Linux Asia conference at New Delhi between Jan 31st and Feb 2nd that a bunch of techies and a larger bunch of businessmen got together. With Microsoft!!!!!!!!!!!
Murder! Fire! Rape! Insurrection! Riot! AAAARrrrrrrgjfjkjhjhghdgf#$^!#^%%&^@$%&@$&%

Microsoft in bed with Open Source? And people are happy about it? Why? What is wrong with this sick world? The last time something like this happened was in Tolkien's literature when Sauron is imprisoned by the King of Numenor... and he uses his close proximity to corrupt the hearts and minds of the Numenoreans. So take a lesson from what happened to them.. (they all died ina gigantic flood that sank their island)... know thy enemy. And do not let him sponsor thine conference....

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Mediocrity and thinking.

Usman Bhai says the following on his Orkut profile: "I hate mediocrity. Hence, I hate myself." Now Usman, an old friend is one the world's few original thinkers after Descartes (note that I limit myself to criticising other's views.).. and it must be said that he is not, in fact, mediocre. So why does he think that he is? Is it that he has standards that cannot ever be met, no matter what the effort put it? If that is the case, then this is something that we should all aspire to. Or if we wanted to be really obtuse here.. we could say that we need the world to put things into perspective. That is a thought indeed.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Cruise should take one of those fake guns from

His Mission Impossible, Still Mission Impossible and Yoo, Still Awake? Yeah, the Mission is Still Impossible series and shoot himself in the foot. Or somewhere more anatomically apt, I don't care. Why..? Because apparently He has teamed up with Ben Stiller (the guy who invented Active Stupidity) in a movie of the 'Hardy Men'.. yeah.. that is what happens to the Hardy Boys of Franklin W. Dixon fame when they grow up. Not good, not good at all. I mean, Ben Stiller is halfway decent when he is paired up with Owen Wilson... Tom Cruise is a half baked arse. Anyways, I have done my bit by alerting the thinking world to this piece of avoidable trash and I have been warned, in turn by Cecilia.

Love affairs.

There has always been some kind of bizarre love affair between Presidencians, grass and Floyd. Well, to be sure, not all Presidencians.. just the self destructive ones.. and in some cases, the wannabe self destructive wimpy ones. There is something about the self congratulatory feeling that sends you into a three year 'Canteen Honours' programme with a more than necessary introduction into the art of Indian politics. Ok, having bitched enough for one day, let me get to the point and talk about some of my very favourite music videos. Note that I am talking about favourite music video and not favourite music. There is a small overlap region... in fact, let me get started on that.. as this is likely to be a continual ongoing thingummy.. so here goes.. the first one that I am going to talk about is High Hopes by Pink Floyd, in their album Division Bell. The video is here, and the lyrics are here. A Wiki entry is here.

A lot of people have spent a lot of time interpreting different themes in the song and in the video.. this is always something that is great about Floyd.. as a band they always managed to skate on the edge of comprehension... never degenerating into the nonsense of so many other groups.. and never letting their lyrics turn into banalities like.. say Scorpions. Again, Scorpions made great music.. but their songs were somewhat brain dead. Yes, so as Anirban used to make fun of Suman and me, 'so, what do the guitars floating down the river mean?' and so on.. it is to everyone to individually enjoy.. and perhaps analyse. But do listen.

Jishnu and James.

Jishnu is a friend of mine from the happy days of Presidency. James is a Bangladeshi popular singer. After one year of IITK (MSc-Physics) Jishnu came to Calcutta on vacation singing Mirabai by James. Aparently, this song was all the rage amongst the IITK Bongs (a rather big population).. I recently found a video of Mirabai by James on youtube and it is here. Do check out. It would appear that the Bangladeshi entertainment industry has the right musicians .. but not people who can direct halfway decent music videos.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Photographs.

Recently had this chat with a friend who has been the extremely unwilling subject of my camera. So, I had sent her some of the pictures of her, and she said that they were not as awful as she thought they would be. A few points here: sure, I might be a total buffoon, but this is something that I think(well, hope) that I am learning, and hopefully am not a terribly lousy hand it. In fact, here a link to my flickr album You decide: http://www.flickr.com/photos/feelingdisconnected/

Right.. so why this terribly lack of confidence in me...? I am most distressed!

The day came and went....

with nary a whisper.. a whole day of work, and then some... there are things outside which are worth a lot.. at this moment, i don't know and i mostly don't care either ...

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Rajinder Puri does it again: Iran, Pakistan and India: possible allies?

This is another guest post written by Rajinder Puri which appeared in today's Statesman, Calcutta edition. The article makes some interesting points in which things might flow, conceivably, if people in power make the right decisions.

A pipeline pipe dream?
The Domino Effect Theory In Peace

By Rajinder Puri

There is a domino effect theory in war. The collapse of one bastion can lead to the fall of others one by one. Can that theory work for peace? The developments related to South Asia and Iran could demonstrate this. In the pursuit of singular interest each nation might interact with others to help defuse fire after fire leading ultimately to world peace. To consider this mind-boggling imaginary scenario let’s begin at the beginning.
The press quoted Pakistan Foreign Minister Kasuri revealing that there existed a secret ‘K Plan’ regarding Kashmir which was known only to five individuals in Pakistan. Some observers zeroed in on President Musharraf’s proposal of joint control of Kashmir by India and Pakistan. But that was widely publicised and not secret. That proposal has not been shot down. It remains alive. This column has argued previously that the proposal can succeed only if preceded by agreement on a larger framework ~ of joint South Asian arrangement, including defence. Could Mr Kasuri’s ‘K Plan’ relate to some such idea?

Lack of coordination

If this guess has substance, the proposed plan differs widely on one detail from what was envisioned in this column: the framework would at the outset include not members of the Saarc organisation, but only India, Pakistan and Iran. And the impulse to create this framework emanates not from wise and visionary statesmanship, but from pure self-interest of each of these three nations as they pursue profit. The catalyst of course is the Indo-Pakistan-Iranian gas pipeline deal.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora jubilantly told the press that pricing details had been sorted out with Iran and the pipeline agreement would be signed by June. Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Tehran quickly scotched this statement and snubbed Deora by saying that nothing yet had been finalised. However the lack of coordination and the characteristic confusion within the Indian government is unlikely to imperil the deal. The stakes are simply too high.
India’s urgent need for energy needs no reiteration. But for Pakistan’s growing economy the need for natural gas is equally urgent. It is estimated that Pakistan with one of the world’s fastest growing populations will need to increase its use of gas dramatically within the next two decades. By next decade not only will India’s gas demand almost double but its declining reserves will compel heavy import of gas. Iran has the world’s second largest gas reserve. It neighbours both nations. A prime bargain seems tailor-made.
India has three options for importing gas from Iran: shipping it as Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) by tankers over sea; getting it through a deep sea pipeline; or transporting it over land. A land-based pipeline would be four times cheaper than any other option, even after including transit fee payments to Pakistan. It is an unbelievably sweet deal for all three ~ India, Pakistan and Iran. The project is estimated to cost around $4 billion. A third of the gas would be for Pakistan, the rest for India. But here is the complication which could bring into play the domino theory for peace: the pipeline will have to pass through 475 miles of Balochistan.
Indo-Pakistan tension over Kashmir and terrorism had prevented India from accepting the deal earlier because of dependence on Pakistan. Now, either because of economic compulsions or international pressure, India seems to have overcome its reluctance. But what about the Balochistan problem inside Pakistan? Balochistan is home for Al Qaeda leaders as well as for indigenous Baloch insurgents seeking some measure of self-rule. The two groups have conflicting interests. Before the pipeline can become viable Pakistan will have to expel Al Qaeda and redress Baloch grievances. President Musharraf has the power to grant Balochistan requisite autonomy. How will he deal with Al Qaeda? Is that why he is reported considering imposition of Emergency?
For Iran the pipeline is its lifeline. Not only does it need the broad South Asian market for its gas. Iran has already passed signals that it hopes India will play a mediatory role in defusing its nuclear dispute with the West. Equally, Iran’s relationship with Pakistan is strategically crucial. With American troops stationed in neighbouring Afghanistan and Iraq, Iran would like to defuse all tension with Pakistan, with which its past ties have been uneven. That is why Iran Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki repeatedly described the gas project as the “peace pipeline”. That is why the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei met the Indian ambassador urging India to intervene on Iran’s behalf in its nuclear dispute with America. That is why Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz described the gas pipeline as “a win-win proposition for Iran, India, and Pakistan”.
But for this euphoria to translate to reality, the ‘domino effect theory for peace’ would have to bring peace to Balochistan and defeat to Al Qaeda. This is a tall order. And that is not all. For normalisation to endure, Iran’s nuclear crisis will have to be solved. For that, India could conceivably be a conduit for uranium, and guarantor of Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme. But Iran’s security concerns would also have to be met. A few months ago Iran specified that it would renounce nuclear weapons if India and Pakistan renounced them too. Does that not indicate the necessity of India, Pakistan and Iran arriving at some agreement involving mutual guarantees for nuclear security? Can India and Pakistan ever normalise between themselves without some such tangible agreement? The domino effect theory therefore must of necessity ensure solution of Iran’s nuclear dispute.

Iraq crisis

If Iran’s nuclear dispute with the west is resolved the decks would have been cleared for ending the Iraq crisis. Already the leaders of Iran and Saudi Arabia, the two most powerful influences respectively of Shias and Sunnis, are in touch at the highest level. Iraq’s Sunni insurgents have made overtures for talks. They seek a new constitution and a share of oil revenue. A federal Iraq seems feasible. That would allow America to withdraw troops which ought never to have invaded Iraq. This would be the last but one domino of discord. If it falls a final settlement of the Palestinian problem would become a distinct possibility. That would be the last domino on the way to achieving overall Middle East peace.
Does all this sound wildly fanciful? Probably it is. To imagine that a gas pipeline from Iran to India through Pakistan could have such far-reaching implications does sound crazy. But consider the potential, not the prospect. And if the potential for South Asian nations to exert such global influence while pursuing their own interests exists, surely our national leaders should close ranks?

(The author is a veteran journalist and cartoonist )

Linux

Just to make things even.. here is an IBM Linux ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOlrKH3SmtI
.. the kid is creepy!

and these Red hat ads are bloody cool! Also a wicked soundtrack...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwYt7hobYZg&NR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_VFKqw1q2Q&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rSLQAqV2Lw&mode=related&search=
and one of them features a quote from Gandhi which I have not heard before.. hmmmm..

Some ridiculous Mac commercial spoofs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MG_O3Y8JD4&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZh_rwrYgAY&NR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc4oP_ITqMc&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-L-0s-7-Z0&NR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFAJDbV9Vfs&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjpn3L3bSJQ&mode=related&search=

Snatch...

This week is going to be a lot of work and all that... something to ease the pain.... part of the soundtrack from Snatch at this link.