Back from the brink

From the populist point of view, Indian cricket is either in robust good health or in its death throes. There is seldom anything in between. This is precisely why the historic sweep over Australia on familiar terrain while being a significant achievement is not something that should give rise to triumphalism. Stiffer challenges await Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men on foreign soil when they journey to South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia over the next two years. But a 4-0 score-line this is the first time India has won all four matches of a four-Test series was crucial for a team that was gasping for breath after the 2-1 defeat at the hands of England at home earlier this season. The series also provided a lifeline to skipper Dhoni, who is now Indias most successful Test captain with 24 victories. The skippers destructive 224 when the first Test was in the balance at Chepauk was a huge turning point in the series; psychologically, the aggressive innings adversely impacted the Australian team. Gradually the Indian team gained in confidence and won the key moments of the duel by finding the right men for different situations. The selectors were rewarded for their boldness in dropping Gautam Gambhir ahead of the series and then axing Virender Sehwag after the first two Tests. Opener Murali Vijay was a gain with 430 runs at 61.42 including two hundreds; he displayed composure and the right technique. And the left-handed Shikhar Dhawans explosive 187 at Mohali the quickest century by a debutant saw Indian fans applauding the arrival of a new top-order batsman. The consistent Cheteshwar Pujaras 419 runs at 83.80 were just rewards for his equanimity and solid strokes. But then, these batsmen will face bigger tests away from the subcontinent on bouncy tracks as, of course, will the spinners. The last few weeks, they called the shots on surfaces that assisted them. And the one in New Delhi was certainly not fit for Test cricket. However, credit must go to Ravichandran Ashwin for rightly depending on his off-spinner. His 29 wickets in four Tests at 20.10 confirmed his position as spin spearhead. Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadejas accuracy and subtle variations in trajectory he prised out 24 batsmen in four Tests at 17.45 combined splendidly with Ashwins methods. If Jadeja can turn himself into a genuine

Test class all-rounder in all conditions, it will be a big gain for Indian cricket. In the event, even as they celebrate, the Indian players would do well to remember that they will land in South Africa in November without having played any Test cricket for seven full months hardly a tribute to the foresight of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Mixed message
It was an open secret that Narendra Modi would leapfrog into the big league if and when the Bharatiya Janata Party revamped its decisionmaking structures. In the event, it was a double whammy for the Gujarat Chief Minister who found himself admitted to two of the BJPs apex bodies the parliamentary board and the central election committee. Mr. Modi had as good as walked into his new role with his third straight Assembly election victory in Gujarat. But clearly what lubricated the process was the growing clamour from the rank and file. Ironically, it fell to helmsman Rajnath Singh, who had evicted Mr. Modi from the parliamentary board six years earlier, to invite him to rejoin the club. Mr. Singh had swallowed his pride and accorded Mr. Modi a heros welcome at the partys recent national council meeting. So is Mr. Modi the BJPs Prime Ministerial nominee? There is no word on this yet and for obvious reasons. To start with there is internal discomfiture over allotting this coveted position to a person who by instinct and action has proved to be authoritarian and demanding. Mr. Modi runs Gujarat as a one-man show and the fear is that he would replicate the model in Delhi. But more critically, any formal announcement with regard to Mr. Modi would mean closing the leadership issue to the disadvantage of the prime ministerial hopefuls within the BJP and by implication within the larger National Democratic Alliance. Lal Krishna Advani, who was the BJPs prime ministerial candidate in 2009, harbours dreams of an encore. As leaders of the two Houses of Parliament, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley have shown immense potential, not to speak of the many punishing years they have put in to reach where they have. State leaders such as Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Raman Singh are equally ambitious and each has

performance to back his claim that he is second to none. With Mr. Modi in the lead, the BJP would also have to reckon with the possibility of desertions by valued NDA partners. Nitish Kumar has minced no words on the unacceptability of Mr. Modi. For the BJP the confusion evidently does not end here. If the party rejig was meant to send out the signal that the BJP is a better and cleaner alternative to the Congress, it has done the opposite. In particular, the induction of Amit Shah and Varun Gandhi as general secretaries is surprising. Mr. Shah faces charges of criminal conspiracy in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case while Mr. Gandhi, though acquitted for spewing anti-Muslim vitriol on the election trail in 2009, will find it hard to live down the rabble-rousing image he has created for himself. By promoting leaders like these, the BJP has scored a self-goal.

First name, middle name, surname... real name?

S. A. HARIHARAN April 4, 2010
What's in a name written by Kalpana Sharma (The Hindu, March 7, 2010) highlights the problems faced by women when their names change after marriage. Men too experience difficulties when they go abroad. She says in south India the issue of surnames does not arise as people use initials. The expansion of initials given in the passport in place of surnames poses problems outside India. In the passport, there are only two parts to furnish the name of the passport holder. The surname appears first. The actual name comes next under Given name. Different systems are followed in India in giving a name to a person. Confusions and complications arise when we are asked to fill in various official forms in our country first name, middle name, last name, surname, given name are some examples. I was asked to furnish my pet name in one of our private banks.

My son who is abroad went to the department concerned to collect his driving licence. The traffic police officer was issuing the licence one by one. Then he started calling Sekhaari, Sekhaari and Sekhaari and gave up. As no one turned up, my son surmised that the name called might be the shortened version of Sekharipuram, our native village. He was right and got his driving licence! He says he is unable to get anything done in the first attempt due to the misspelling of his expanded initials by the officials concerned and he has to go to the same department two or three times to get it rectified. I can understand his predicament but I am helpless. My brother's son who is staying in U.K. is Ramesh Subramanian as given in the passport. I asked him how the natives call him. He simply said with a smile they just call him Ramesh Submarine man. My cousin in Germany was called Mr. Kalpathy. Kalpathy is a name of a town! In south India, normally the first letter of the initials indicates the native place of the person and the second letter the name of the person's father and the person's real name is pushed to the end. The culprit behind this system is the person's school leaving certificate. In some other forms, for want of space the name of the person or a part of it is mercilessly cut. The expansion of the initials of a person leads to hilarious situations on some occasions. When I was in the U.S., a friend of mine was booked for some small violation of traffic rules and was asked to report to the traffic offence court to pay the required fine. As per the passport, his name was too long and it was Thirunindravur Srinivasachari Thothadhri. When the judge fumbled to pronounce his name, the entire court started laughing. His name was a blessing in disguise. The judge pronounced his verdict saying that he need not pay the fine as he could not read his name properly. However, he asked him to see a short documentary film on traffic rules and then go home! I would request the passport authorities to slightly alter the all-important first page of the passport. The name of the passport holder should appear first and the surname should appear next. This is the minimum change required. As written by Ms Sharma, I also ask why so much importance is given to the surname? I know it will be difficult even to make a small

change in the passport which is an international document and we have to inform all the countries in the world about the change. The given name first and the surname next will also help people living in other parts of India. Maiden name for women and the given name for men would be simpler in the long run. However at the age of 76, I feel I have to join the LKG class again to answer the question What is your name? Keywords: S.A.Hariharan, first name, middle name, surname, Thirunindravur Srinivasachari Thothadhri May 19, 2012

Old is gold yesterday, today & tomorrow

SIVAMANI VASUDEVAN Old is gold, it is always said. When I was
a five-year old, some 55 years ago, my elders said their olden days were gold. Today, my son, who is around 30, says, old is gold. I always wonder why everyone's olden days are better than their present. Old music and songs were good. Old films were outstanding. Old clothings were of better quality. Old craftsmanship was worthier. Old silk sarees were good. In the olden days, food was of high standards. Old vessels and wares were of high quality. Old teachers were excellent. Old schools were better centres of learning. Old furniture pieces were more appealing. Old houses were user-friendly, airy and well ventilated. Old games with minimum but crude gadgets were more enchanting. The old All India Radio entertained us all with high quality programmes. Old friendships were more reliable. Old wine was tasty. Why this old kolaveri di and da? Is it something to do with one's psyche? No. It cannot be brushed off or wished away simply like that. Old is, and was, really gold. But why?

Times are changing fast. Values are eroding. Goodness is replaced and it is now measured by smartness to get on with life. We have become excessively vigilant, touchy and more suspicious for no real reason. Today, we frisk everyone, inwardly at least. We take things with a pinch of salt. Though today's material comforts that could not even be dreamt of a decade ago are aplenty, still something is amiss about life. What is it? Peace? Happiness? Peace prevailed earlier, despite wars. There was trust. There was hope. People relaxed better. There was no clamour for things that one did not possess. The absence of those, that were not deemed essential to own, never made any difference to a happy life. There was contentment. Competition was less cut-throat. There was concern, affection and true bonding. There was togetherness. More important, people were patient. No doubt, there were poverty and scarcity, paucity and difficulty. But there was beauty in life and comity among all. Disputes were quickly and amicably sorted out. Courts had fairly less business. When China invaded us in the early 1960s, there was acute rationing of essentials. Sugar disappeared. But people were happy with jaggery. Wheat replaced rice in many south Indian families as a one-time staple food. Fasting and starving were daily affairs. People helped each other. There was a total blackout and people went without power for days on end. There was camaraderie. Places of worship were serene and tranquil. There was no terror harboured, either in the mind or for real. All communities co-existed amicably and people waited for better times. They tolerated deficiencies in others and accommodated idiocies, shortcomings and pitfalls of others. They took oddities in their stride without murmur. Rank consumerism was nonexistent.

Families were big and joint family was the norm. There were guests to partake of food and there was readiness to share whatever one had. Rains were original and smiles were natural. Air was fresh. There were few privileges to enjoy. Yet life was complete, meaningful and wholesome. People lent money to the needy without documents and paper. Debts were written off without protests and contests. Times were timeless. Values were invaluable and principles were priceless. The main door of our house, located at the fag end of our small town in Andhra Pradesh, was never locked except during night. Windows were open 24 hours of the day. There were no double grills for the main door. We knew everyone in the town, though by nicknames (only the postman knew the real names). Today, not knowing the neighbour is an etiquette and norm. Privacy is mistaken for liberty and freedom. One is compelled to look at the tenants' chart in the apartment complex to know about the neighbours caged in the matchbox apartments. If it was lunch time, the guest would join us. Strangely, there was always enough food at home at least for one guest. Guests never brought their soaps, towels, hair oil or shaving sets. Visitors came with the minimum and left with the maximum that we could afford and spare for them. Today, it is me and mine culture. A guest is the most unwelcome soul, more so when the favourite TV serial is on. We all walked to the school, miles away, barefoot in the scorching sun. We never felt the pain. There were tragedies in families. People took them in their stride. No one rushed to the media. The media were more responsible and mature. Silly stories were never entertained. There was no sensationalism. Natural calamities did occur and sufferings were more severe. Yet people breathed easy. Even one-plus-one families are suffocating today. There were not many telephones. Mobiles were nonexistent. Yet, people conversed joyously. There were no high-cc two-wheelers. Yet friends met each other every day. There were no superfast buses or trains. (Forget the planes). A 40-km travel took three hours. Yet none complained. Doctors were few and far between.

Diseases were many. No big hospitals, leave alone super-speciality facilities, for miles and miles. No one grumbled. There was give and take, and there were real tears during hard times. Roads were free of flashy four-wheelers. Dresses were tailor-made and not readymade. Hoteliers served fresh food. Food was never refrigerated. Fruit juices were fresh, never tinned. Home food was oven-hot, never re-heated. Today, it is use and throw, be it a battery, a gadget, a gear, father or mother. Those days, it was use, remember and respect. Old homes of the past are old-age homes now. Donations to charities and orphanages are bountiful now. Temples are mushrooming in every colony. Yet, humanity is drying up, and about divinity, the less said the better. Charity began at home then. Even beggars were dignified. They were humble and never greedy. People were self-made. They are self-centred now. Family elders were philosophers, guides and counsellors. Today, there are counsellors for every non-issue, at a price. Psychiatrists were unheard of then. Today, they proliferate, one for every two disturbed persons. Health was not a worrisome issue. It is a psychic issue now. We market illhealth in so many names today. Medicines are a buy-one take-two (diseases?) formula now. Divorces were few and far between. Every wedding anniversary is a milestone now. There was commitment in what one did those days. There is commerce in every thing we do today. There are Valentine's Day, sisters day, fathers day, mothers day, friends day, doctors day, nurses day, husbands day, wives day, water day, sparrows day, diabetes day, AIDS day, TB day and every other day. There were only Mondays, Tuesdays and so on earlier. Forget the past, someone said. Why should one? Is it because the present is unbearable that the mind should not be tortured with the glory of the past? It is said not for nothing that old is gold.

(pushpasaran@yahoo.co.in) Keywords: nostalgia, lifestyle March 30, 2013

Starving to live, not die

GOUTHAM SHIVSHANKAR SUHRITH PARTHASARATHY
When the Supreme Court has recognised the right to go on hunger strike, why is Irom Sharmilas protest against impunity of the armed forces a criminal act?
Over the past 12 years, Irom Sharmila Chanu has carried on an inconceivable hunger strike, which has seen her body wither and her skin turn pale. During this period, she has emerged as the face of the civilian resistance to the immunity, and impunity, granted by the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act to the army in Manipur. The Indian state has done its part to disfigure that face, by exhibiting either an inability or unwillingness to meet Sharmilas demands. Today, it is impossible to think of Sharmila without recalling images of the feeding tube that has been forcibly thrust down her nose to keep her alive. However, the repeal of AFSPA and justice for the 10 civilians who were shot dead in November 2002 by the Assam Rifles in supposed retaliation to an attack by insurgents in Malom, Manipur which triggered Sharmilas protest still remain elusive. Instead, Sharmilas dissent expressed via her fast unto death has repeatedly been viewed as criminal. Sharmila has put the Indian state in a peculiar position, by reconfiguring the dynamics of power through a public sacrifice of her body. Should the state, as it has done so far, view her indefinite fast through the lens of criminality and consider it an attempt to commit suicide, when Sharmila has unequivocally asserted her love of living? Or is it incongruous to do so, especially when the Supreme Court, in its recent and much-hailed intervention in the Ram Lila Maidan protests against corruption, has recognised that hunger strike is a form of protest which has been accepted,

both historically and legally in our constitutional jurisprudence? In fact, Sharmilas hunger strike is an area of stark legal vacuum. When there is a conflict between her freedom of expression and the Indian states interest, and perhaps duty, in keeping her alive, can a balance between these conflicting ends be struck without criminalising Sharmilas actions? The history Examples of hunger strikes used as an expression of dissent are copious; the suffragettes used them in their campaign seeking the vote for women in England during the early 20th century. Hunger strikes around the world have typically, though not exclusively, been waged by prisoners. Such was the case when some imprisoned Irish Republicans famously went on a hunger strike in 1981 to protest British rule of Ireland, leading to the death of Bobby Sands and nine others. Prisoners tend to use hunger strikes as a mode of protest, either to advocate a cause disagreeable to the state or to express their dissent against what they believe to be a wrongful conviction. In the former category fall cases like that of Marion Wallace Dunlop, a pioneering suffragette who was sent to prison for printing an extract from the Bill of Rights on the wall of St. Stephens Hall in the House of Commons. In prison, Dunlop commenced a hunger strike to continue her protest seeking the right of women to vote. In the latter category fall prisoners like William Coleman, who has been on a hunger strike lasting almost five years in a jail in Connecticut, U.S., to protest what he believes to be his wrongful conviction. Since the global trend has been for persons already imprisoned to resort to a hunger strike, this mode of protest has usually been viewed abroad as a prisoners rights issue. The states response of force-feeding prisoners has been considered by some as being tantamount to torture and an unacceptable intrusion in the autonomy of the prisoner, akin to rape. However, Indias own experience with hunger strikes, which has been very well documented, has shown that viewing the issue through a prisoners rights framework is ill-advised. Our freedom fighters, Mahatma Gandhi in particular, developed and perfected this non-violent form of protest as a facet of satyagraha, and although several hunger strikes were carried out by freedom fighters during periods of incarceration, the resort to this mode of

protest has never been an exclusive domain of the imprisoned. For instance, Potti Sreeramulu, a freedom fighter and Gandhian, fasted to his death, in seeking the creation of a separate State of Andhra Pradesh in independent India. The Narmada Bachao Andolan movement witnessed hunger strikes in 2002 to protest the construction of dams over the Maan River in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh. More recently, Anna Hazare and his associates carried on hunger strikes against corruption. All of these protests were, and continue to be, carried on for the large part, outside the walls of prison. For this reason, a prisoners rights framework may, by itself, be insufficient to view the legality of hunger strikes in India. Attempted suicide? An alternative way to analyse hunger strikes, especially fasts unto death, is through the framework of a constitutional right to die. In India, not a little morbidly, this argument seems to have reached a dead end. Although the Supreme Court in P. Rathinam v. Union of India (1994) initially asserted that the Indian constitutional guarantee of a fundamental right to life carries with it a fundamental right to die, subsequent decisions in Gian Kaur v. State of Punjab (1996) and Aruna Shanbaug v. Union of India(2011) overruled that view, and it is now conclusively established that Indian citizens do not have a fundamental right to die. In Gian Kaur, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises the attempt to commit suicide (i.e. the provision under which Sharmila has been charged, and previously convicted). In Shanbaug, the Supreme Court allowed only for a highly circumscribed right to approach courts to seek withdrawal of life support systems for patients in a permanent vegetative state. Thus, it appears futile to argue that Indian citizens have a right to fast unto death when, according to the apex court, they have no right to die. However, this does not automatically mean that the undertaking of fasts unto death is criminal or that one does not have a fundamental right to hunger strike of a definite period where there is no danger of death being caused. One may not have the right to do something, but to do it nonetheless neednt be criminal.

In independent India, the resort to hunger strikes has usually, though with some exceptions (such as the hunger strike by prisoners within a jail), not been viewed through the lens of criminality. For instance, Potti Sreeramulu was never considered criminal or suicidal by the Indian state for his fatal hunger strike. Anna Hazare likewise has undertaken several indefinite hunger strikes for various causes, but has never been perceived as a criminal on this account. The most prominent example of the Indian state criminalising a fast unto death per se is that of Sharmilas. If we really believe rape is as vile as we have recently claimed it to be, then would it be just to treat Sharmilas strike against AFSPA, a law that shields rapists from prosecution, differently from Hazares strike against corruption? More importantly, would it be just for a societys laws to selectively criminalise hunger strikes depending upon the objectives such strikes seek to achieve? This brings us to the question of whether Sharmilas case, and more generally fasts unto death, are appropriately viewed as attempts to commit suicide under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code. Any criminal offence, barring certain exceptions, requires the proof of a mens rea, or the existence of a guilty mind. Sharmila has been fasting not with an intention to die, but with an intention to achieve a desired result from the state. Her refusal to consume food or water can be criminalised only if she has acted in furtherance of a conscious endeavour to commit suicide. In the absence of such conscious endeavour, to accuse and prosecute her for an offence under Section 309 is misconceived. Freedom to express The questions of whether to treat Sharmila as criminal and whether the state should be allowed to force-feed her are distinct. As misguided as Sharmilas prosecution may be, the question regarding the legality of nasally force-feeding her to keep her alive still remains open. The Supreme Court has, on the one hand, held that the threat of going on a hunger strike extended by Baba Ramdev at Ram Lila Maidan, cannot be termed illegal. Presumably, this right that the court spoke of flows from a citizens right to freedom of expression. That right is subject to reasonable restrictions in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, public order, decency, morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to

an offence. If Sharmilas fast unto death is essentially an exercise of her fundamental right to freedom of expression, the state, in force-feeding her, may presumably be acting in furtherance of its right to impose reasonable restrictions as permitted by our Constitution. However, force-feeding, even if conducted in a humane and largely non-intrusive manner, has been widely considered to be tantamount to torture. Even though the state might merely be imposing restrictions that are reasonable within the meaning of Article 19 of the Constitution, the measure might nonetheless be a violation of Sharmilas right to life and personal liberty under Article 21. In our opinion, fasts unto death occupy an area of legal vacuum that offer no easy solutions. Should the state allow Sharmila to die and, in the process, abdicate its duty to protect life? Or must it resort to force-feeding her, even though such actions hit at the core of her bodily integrity? While neither offers a perfectly tailored legal solution, what is certain is that a balance ought to be struck between these starkly conflicting ends without criminalising Sharmilas actions. For, to do so would be tantamount to stigmatising an exercise by a citizen of her right to freedom of expression in advocating a particular cause when other citizens have used the freedom in exactly the same manner without suffering prosecution, simply because they advocated causes of a different, and less complex, nature. (The authors are advocates practising in the Madras High Court) Keywords: Supreme Court, Irom Sharmila, Article 21, AFSPA
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Irom Sharmila: Im against a government that uses violence to govern I love life... if AFSPA is repealed Ill take food again: Irom Sharmila
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it is a very difficult situation for a democratic state like ours to not to give any kind of importance to a person who fights for basic rights secured by the constitution of india. the hindu deserve a praise for this column.
from:

BRAJENDRA KUMAR

Posted on: Mar 31, 2013 at 20:50 IST The article is literally an expression of feelings continously emerged in the heart of thousands of people those who have been believing in democracy, especially in the Indian cotext. Indefinite fast and Satyagraha are two universally accepted models of protest against any dracoinian rule of law imposed by the state. Gandhi used Satygraha and fast as a successful non violent means of protest during the freedom movement of our country. Indian state is well aware of it that is why they used to celeberate fasting and satyagraha when Babba Ramdev and his followers organise in Ramlila ground and at the same time crucifies Irom Sharmila by registering criminal case against her. It is ironical to view in India, we project ourselves as models for other countries the believers of nonviliont means of protest to achieve human emancipation from viilent act. In cotrary to this belief, a women from north east started her historic protest through nonviolent means is becoming target of violence.
from:

Appde Rajeevan

Posted on: Mar 31, 2013 at 16:51 IST

India is a sham democracy. Be it rape and human right abuses by our armed forces, extra judicial killings, "encounters", disappearances all of these are a blot on how we view the value of life. Without question,our armed forces, have no absolutely no problem, killing or maiming people. Here comes the hypocrisy and double standards. We opposed apartheid, and the war of liberation in then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), but at home we have our army commit excesses, with protection under the law - be it in Kashmir or in the north eastern states. The rest of India doesn't care because we are a nation of selfish people. Irom Sharmila has been fighting the APSFA through non violence. The government is stifling her fight, and won't withdraw the draconian law. Not all princely states joined the state of India voluntarily. Palestinians must have the right of self determination, but how about Kashmir and the North Eastern states? A case of shameless, naked, hypocrisy indeed!
from:

Mallika Sharma

Posted on: Mar 31, 2013 at 13:44 IST Very rightly said. Sharmila Chanu's case should not be considered as an "attempt to commit suicide". There should also be a proper debate to ascertain the legality of the state force-feeding her. But, the moot point is repeal of AFSPA. Sadly, even though i consider her to be extraordinarily strong-willed and determined, i feel her fast is now being debated more than repeal of AFSPA. I think it is better for her to give up her fast and instead try to build up a civil society movement demanding repeal or at least dilution of this law. There is none more inspiring than her to lead this movement.Anna Hazare's movement gained prominence because of the concerted pressure exerted by people. Sharmila cant win this battle alone. She has to build an effective all-India people's movement(possible if she is the leader)which will be ready to discuss the issue even with the armed forces. A consensus has to be reached between the people and defence forces. Only then the real issue will be solved.

from:

Mukut Ray

Posted on: Mar 30, 2013 at 20:57 IST I believe, like Sharmila that starving / fasting is a means to let it be known that you feel very strongly about a subject or that you are affected deeply by a certain event. I know of a housewife who has taken just such a stance within the four walls of the house, when she felt that an in-law used some very harsh language, rather unjustly. But she seems to be facing the same kind of utter lack of sensitivity as displayed by the Indian Government in Sharmila's case. Can't the Army relent and show a human enough face for a change, in the case of Sharmila?
from:

swarna

Posted on: Mar 30, 2013 at 20:39 IST March 28, 2013

With fair-weather friends like these

SANKARAN KRISHNA
It would be nave on the part of Sri Lankan Tamils to repose faith in parties like the DMK and the AIADMK which are competing to out-Thamizh each other
A photograph often cuts through tonnes of verbiage and exposes the truth. One such photograph was published on March 19 soon after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M. Karunanidhi announced his partys withdrawal from the United Progressive Alliance government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. It showed a handful of smiling DMK cadres outside party headquarters distributing bright yellow laddus as fireworks were set off celebrating the partys decision. Why would withdrawal from the ruling coalition, based on principled differences with the Congress over the Sri Lankan issue, specifically on the milquetoast Resolution supported by India at the recent Geneva meeting of

the United Nations Human Rights Commission, be worthy of celebration? Should it not be marked by solemnity and a commitment to pressure the Centre to do the right thing by the Sri Lankan Tamils? Isnt there something crass about distributing laddus when issues such as the wanton killing of civilians, denial of rights to a minority, and other weighty matters are at stake? Opportunism Yet, its precisely such opportunism that has marked the actions of the DMK (as well as the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Congress and other parties) when it comes to Sri Lanka. Having decided that allying with the Congress in the next election would prove a liability, the DMK used the putative shortcomings of the Geneva resolution that India supported against Sri Lanka as its alibi to exit the UPA. If there is one lesson for the Sri Lankan Tamils in such a photograph, it is this: to repose any faith in the sincerity and goodwill of parties like the DMK would be nothing but navet. At least since the beginning of Indira Gandhis second stint in power starting in 1980, one unexamined and self-serving fiction has underlain much of our foreign policy towards Sri Lanka the allegedly secessionist proclivities of Tamil Nadu. This simmering sub-nationalism, it was argued by many in New Delhi, meant India had more than just an idle interest in Sri Lankas domestic affairs as the fate of the Tamil minority there could have grave implications for Indias security and integrity given kin-ethnics in Tamil Nadu. Indeed, such a logic was used to justify our policy of covertly aiding Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups or, at a minimum, allowed Delhi a degree of plausible deniability suggesting that if Sri Lankan Tamil militants found a safe haven in Tamil Nadu, it was not policy but something beyond Delhis control. An academically thorough and rigorous examination of the history of the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu would seriously question such assumptions about Tamil sub-nationalism. One could argue that the very breaking away of the DMK from the parent social movement-based Dravida Kazhagam (DK) in 1949 indexed a desire to engage in electoral politics and

work Indias emerging federal order in favour of the State. This tendency gained a powerful fillip after three significant events: the creation of language-based States in the mid-1950s; the explicit proscription of secessionist parties in the aftermath of the Sino-Indian conflict of 1962; and most importantly the Central government indefinitely postponing the anointment of Hindi as the national language into the indefinite future after the tumult over the issue in the mid-1960s. Once the DMK emerged as the ruling party in the State elections of 1967, the die was cast: thereafter, any secessionist embers the Dravidian movement may have had were confined to its fringes. After the breakaway of the All-India Anna DMK from the DMK under the charismatic leadership of MGR in 1972, Tamil Nadu politics has been a triangle involving the two Dravidian parties and the Congress. Electoral understandings with the Congress often paved the way for power in the State Assembly and increased clout in the coalition governments that predominated at the Centre. Performative staple Other integrative processes have powerfully buttressed the conformist or moderating compulsions of electoral politics in recent years, ranging from economic liberalisation and mass media to cricket and consumer culture. What this has meant for the two main Dravidian parties in a crowded electoral marketplace is fairly simple: they are locked in a competition to out-Thamizh each other to gain distinction and retain a brand identity, but mainly in a symbolic or rhetorical sense. Expressing solidarity and support for Tamil people and the Tamil language everywhere becomes a performative staple of Dravidian politics. Yet they dare not take up a cause in any substantive sense as that might run afoul of the Centres wellestablished sovereignty in foreign affairs or strain relations with the Central government. The Congress has hardly been immune to the seductions of appearing as the defender of Tamil interests elsewhere in its quest to re-establish itself in the State. In the Assembly elections of 1989, it chose to run alone on the platform of being the champion of Tamils both here and there as proven by the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement of 1987 signed by Rajiv Gandhi and J.R. Jayewardene. The ISLA required that Sri Lanka recognise itself as

a union of provinces; the north and east as the areas of traditional Tamil habitation; and that it cede a far greater degree of autonomy to all provinces. These and other aspects of that agreement were given extensive publicity by the Congress during the campaign, and it featured prominently in its party platform in Tamil Nadu. Rajiv Gandhis multiple trips to the State in the run-up to those elections hammered away at the idea that the Congress, rather than the Dravidian parties, would be better at serving Tamil interests. That the ISLA also occasioned the entry of the Indian Peace Keeping Forces which were at that very moment engaged in a disastrous campaign against the Lankan Tamil militant groups destroyed any Congress efforts to present itself as the saviour of Tamils. The Congress was duly routed in the elections. The DMKs expediency over the Geneva resolution comes at a particularly poignant moment in the history of the Sri Lankan Tamils. President Mahinda Rajapaksa seems bent on proving the dictum that victory is often more catastrophic for a society than defeat or a standoff. Far from capitalising on the Ashokan moment that prevailed in the immediate aftermath of May 2009, when he could have inaugurated a new era of national reconciliation and integration based on ethnic equality, he has chosen to further consolidate Sinhala majoritarianism and personal power. The resettlement of Tamils has been slow and humiliating; there has been no movement on provincial autonomy; and there are genuine fears that, as has already happened with the Eastern province, the demographic balance of the North will slowly and irrevocably be changed. War tourism brings southern Sinhalese visitors to various battlegrounds to commemorate victory in the North even as the graves of Tamil militants and others are being paved over. The military continues to be an overbearing force in the North and even relations between Buddhists and Muslims hitherto a relative non-issue in Sri Lanka are worsening. If anything, far from being magnanimous in victory, the Rajapaksa regime is further distancing Sri Lanka from a narrative of pluralism and ethnic cohabitation. Heartening The protests of students and other sections of civil society in parts of southern India and especially Tamil Nadu are heartening. Some of these

are clearly independent of the rent-a-crowd antics of political parties and tap into genuine outrage at the impunity of the Rajapaksa regime. The widely publicised photographs of 12-year-old Balachandran taken just before and after his brutal killing whilst in custody seem to have galvanised a number of people into action. There remain serious questions about the sustainability of such protests and of any impact on government policy. Certainly, the Indian government will not want to set any precedents in this matter of an international inquiry, and any overt pressure on the Rajapaksa regime would only further inflame Sinhalese intransigence. The incentives for strong and quiet advocacy of the Tamil cause by Delhi are hard to discern at the moment. Yet sustained pressure from civil society groups on normative grounds may be the best one can do for now. In the meanwhile, for Sri Lankan Tamils, ignoring the theatrics of fair-weather friends like the DMK may be the sensible thing to do. (Sankaran Krishna is a professor of political science at the University of Hawaii in the U.S. Krishna@hawaii.edu) Keywords: Tamil Nadu politics, Sri Lankan Tamils, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Congress, DMK, AIADMK, UNHRC It is appropriate to state that it depends on the leader of the parties whether they capitalize these sensitive issues for their politics.If we observe closely the ideologies of dravidian parties had seen great changes(almost disappeared now) since its inception by EVR periyar.It is to be noted that MGR during his regime did a lot to help srilankan tamils through the LTTE chief prabakaran. There were instances when MGR gave crores of rupees from his personal funds and it helped LTTE to such an extent that they could form a separate Government(National Liberation Army and other basic structures of a Govt such as administration,revenue,law and order etc)in Srilanka. At times MGR supported LTTE even overruling the central Govt ,for example when the LTTE bought ammunition from abroad MGR helped them to clear the customs at the chennai port. Knowingly or unknowingly MGR did an exceptional help to his brothers at his birth place. Had he not died ,Srilankan Tamil would have got Freedom by now

from: Jayaraj Perumal

Posted on: Mar 29, 2013 at 18:45 IST While analysing the stand of the political parties in T&N, the writer has rightly seen the futility of the parts they are playing. Who are these "students" protesting in Tamil Nadu for the Tamils settled in Sri Lanka for generations? Other than a connection based on ethnicity, there is no further love between them. The Sri Lanka Tamils who have come as refugees have firmly settled in India (ie T&N) and have no intention of going back to Sri Lanka. The motive of this group of young "students" must be determined. It reminds us when not long ago when Jayalalithaa for populist reasons supported the agitators at Kudankulam and found later that the agitators had their own agenda and had to face reality. BY showing such narrow chauvinistic policies, the two major parties in T&n may find it difficult to work as part of any future Centarl Govt.
from: S.N.Iyer

Posted on: Mar 29, 2013 at 10:10 IST What extra rights are denied to sri lankan tamils that other sri lankans have? Sri Lanka has sinhala buddhists, sinhala catholics, indian tamils, muslims, malays, burgers and indigenouse peoples besides sri lankan tamils. If we are to create separate states for each of these groups (to be fair since why a separate state for sri lankan tamils and why not for others?!) there will not be a sri lanka left to speak of. Please India leave sri lanka alone and mind your own business.
from: sam

Posted on: Mar 29, 2013 at 00:07 IST Thought provoking article, although, for all those with a bit of knowledge, the political triangle and its performance since 1960's,of Tamil Nadu, is well known. If only we can add the family squabbles for power and money, it is apparent that the motives of DMK are more sinister than sincere. It is a strange world that a genocide of this proportion, is swept under the carpet and that no one has been brought to justice. This is not a matter for India alone, let alone Tamil Nadu, but for the entire humanity. While most of the world emulate British standards in many

respects (we have to find out the pioneers and champions of justice system, human rights and equality- that is where Britain scores over the rest of the world), referendum with the rights for the people who are distraught is a medium of justice. Ideally, this is what should have happened in Sri Lanka, a country whose language is spoken by a tiny minority of human race, but a country that is hell bent on destroying others.
from: Ram A

Posted on: Mar 28, 2013 at 23:59 IST I think it is unfair to equare AIADMK and DMK in this issue. AIADMK (especially Jayalalitha) has always been consistently against LTTE's path but did not find any issue on the cause. If LTTE had bent a bit there were a number of peace makers (like Norway, IPKF) who would have brokered a deal and they could have saved many lives. Instead they wanted to carve out a country which was their aim. DMK has always been palying SL tamils issue for politics so if people still have not realised then god save TN.
from: Ragav

Posted on: Mar 28, 2013 at 21:03 IST March 30, 2013

Old or young, its all in the mind

T. A. VENKATESWARAN The river is always old. The water is
always new. Satguru Sivananda Murty Is there a river that was born after we were born? Is there anything new on earth, other than what has already been created? Has there been any change in the pattern of movement of the aspects of our earthly life? Have we conquered death? The strange thing though about life on this planet is that nothing stays and everything is moving; towards where and for what, we are yet to know.

Without elaborating, we can conclude, Life is nothing but a series of circumstances, ever changing, non-stop. From birth to death, all of us go through a series of circumstances, predictably similar, with the differences just superfluous. Life is full of little troubles, agreed. If we rise and treat life itself as nothing more than a little trouble, then, it would become obvious that even birth and death are nothing more than changing circumstances. This is what we, who are growing old, should realise and retain. Tell me, who is not growing old? Do not fear impermanence. As soon as life enters the womb, death starts stalking us. Night and day follow each other. Here, death follows life. Death is an event whose proximity is unlimited and distance very limited, my Master would say. Death has no great respect for excellent health et al. One can die in the pink of health. When it chooses to knock us down, nothing can save us, no deals can be struck and no bargains made. Thus, our life, whether we are just born or a century-old, is nothing more than a drop of dew, tantalisingly poised at the edge of a blade of grass. Our illustrious ancestors point to that very same tiny droplet to illustrate a great point. Granted, this drop of dew would disappear immediately after dawn but, not before swallowing the magnificent Sun and reflecting it gloriously. So, while life is nothing but proximity to death, living lies in putting it in its place and expressing the glory of creation. Therefore, whatever the span that destiny chooses to offer us, let us lead a lively existence. Understand the impermanence of everything, radiate inner cheer and keep walking. What is new? Who is old? How old is the Sun! How new are its rays! It is ever old and absolutely new every day. Like the caress of a loved one, a lilting tune or an enlivening smile of a child. That which remains fresh despite the ravage of time and freshens our spirit is new. In that sense, worry is old because it makes you older. Hope is new because it makes us

younger. As long as we are alive and conscious, there is hope for improvement. There is a duty to be cheerful! And, that is the most natural thing to be. One who laments about what is gone is old even if he is twenty. One who is optimistic and looks forward is young even if he is eighty. Are you old or young? Withering shell. Waxing spirit. The strange thing about the human body is that as soon as it starts growing from the stage of the tiny dot, the process of decay also sets in. Like life is always followed by death, growth is accompanied by decay. The prospect of disease smiles slyly in between. It is also said the body and the mind are inseparable. No doubt, one impacts the other. However, on closer scrutiny, the mind has such a sway over the body that one tends to believe that the physical structure is but a projection of the mind stuff. Have we not seen sad souls in young and healthy bodies? Have we not come across those frail old people who laugh heartily, jolting their withering frames? Dissatisfaction makes us old and jaded. Contentment and cheer keep us incurably young. As you grow older, let the mind grow younger! Achieve peace. Arrest ageing. My master whose quotes adorn this little write-up used to say: Peace is happiness. Happiness is not peace. Often, we chase happiness and in that unwise pursuit embrace unhappiness. Happiness will have no meaning if it is fleeting, leading to misery. That is why he said, How does it matter whether it is a white stone or a sparkling blue one, if you break your teeth with it? How true! Contentment is the threshold of peace. We should be content with what we have and also what we do not have! We must be content with our troubles too! This is cheer, pure, simple and natural. This is attitude, lofty and dignified that schools of philosophy cannot offer. In life, contentment is wealth. In creativity, satisfaction is death. Spirituality governs both! Like the body that is growing and decaying at the same time, like life and death walking alongside, let the calmness of contentment and the spirit of positive restlessness co-exist, under the unblinking eye of the Spirit. This is the recipe that keeps one young forever. Are you old or young?

Every river has already reached its sea and is going towards it every day. The story was over in the first scene and the narration keeps going! One who knows this is young. I am young enough to tell you this! (The writers email: tavenkateswaran@gmail.com) Keywords: oldage, ageing, staying young, self-improvement April 2, 2013

The silent war over education reforms

KRISHNA KUMAR Two major reports with overlapping concerns
were submitted to the central government during the last decade. They were drafted by committees appointed by two different offices of the same government. One was chaired by Yash Pal, and the other by Sam Pitroda. The titles of the two committees indicated both the contours of their deliberation as well as areas of potential overlap. The first committee, chaired by Yash Pal, was appointed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in 2008, and was called the committee to advise on rejuvenation and renovation of higher education. The second, chaired by Sam Pitroda, was appointed by the Prime Ministers Office in 2005 and carried the more compact title, the National Knowledge Commission (NKC). Both reports talk about expanding the provision of higher education without sacrificing quality, and as such, a cursory reading would suggest that there is not much difference between the views articulated by the two groups. In the specific sphere of knowledge, both panels favour imaginative interface between areas and disciplines as a means of promoting creativity. They evince equal amounts of anxiety over the problems of accreditation and licensing faced by institutions that impart professional education. And, on the matter of institutional fragmentation at the apex level, both recommend establishment of an umbrella body capable of subsuming the overlapping functions of existing structures. With so many apparent similarities, it is not surprising that the Yash Pal report and Sam Pitrodas

NKC are routinely invoked in the same breath whenever a new policy or decision comes up for discussion. A careful decoding, however, reveals that the two reports are based on contrasting perspectives on the relationship between knowledge and education, and between these and social needs. From the point of view of the political economy embedded in the two reports, the visions of reform they endorse are incompatible. Skill deficit Both reports recognise a crisis in higher education, but their diagnosis of the nature of that crisis is quite different. While NKC views the narrow growth of higher education in the context of skills, it is not quite clear how it relates the current parlance of skill deficit to higher education. The idea comes across as an obvious issue or as an assumption: While higher education enrolment has to increase markedly, the skill requirement of the growing economy means that a large proportion of our labour force needs to be provided vocational education and be trained in skills. This skill element has to be integrated with the higher education system to ensure maximum mobility. Confusing as these words are, they convey the shape of things to come if NKCs vision becomes reality. The report discusses the paucity of skills in the vast unorganised sector, but shows little interest in the context in which this paucity has grown. After all, the economy must be in a position or evolve towards one which provides employment prospects attractive to skilled personnel. Knowledge and skills The fact that Indian manufacturing has provided slow employment growth called jobless growth during the 1990s or that the IT-enabled sector provides less than 0.5 per cent of total employment, indicates that at least two sectors commonly linked with skills and the so-called knowledge economy, respectively, are not in a position to provide massive additional employment, or at least not immediately. No doubt the economy might evolve, and these or other sectors change in ways that provide additional employment, but the push for vocational skills, whether or not at the cost of higher education, cannot ignore a detailed plan of how industry-training linkages will also be simultaneously developed. This is precisely what NKC

ignores, harnessing the rhetoric of knowledge with a variety of suffixes while refraining from relating it to the actual needs of the economy or higher education. A relevant analysis of this kind, i.e. focusing on working conditions, livelihoods, and economic opportunities, was presented by a commission chaired by the late Dr. Arjun Sengupta, which dealt with the crisis of skill deficit in the larger context of poverty and working conditions. Ignoring Senguptas recommendations for comprehensive measures, the NKC opts for merely rebranding vocational education and training to increase its value and ability to command higher incomes. This unusual phraseology denotes rather transparently what must happen to the higher education system. NKC is worried about its size and enrolment capacity because it wants to use it for skilling. Vocational education will get rebranded by the transformation of the bulk of higher education into a skill-imparting apparatus, all unfortunately in the name of the knowledge economy. In fact, the dichotomisation of knowledge and skills is perhaps one of the most problematic aspects in the current parlance of education. The focus on skill development has emerged concomitantly with the discourse of a knowledge society and knowledge economy. The relationship between the two is not difficult to draw. Both are responding to the large-scale deskilling that has taken place in the wake of technological changes geared towards automation and efficiency. A new class of corporate interests has emerged with the advent of new information technology and footloose financial capital. New kinds of alliances have emerged between the state and industry, even as education itself has emerged as a key market. These alliances enable the state to freeze or greatly reduce the employment it provides while allowing the so-called knowledge industries to transform the nature and quality of employment in the wider economy. Many different kinds of work have vanished from the market, while others have got downgraded, reducing employment and perpetuating deskilling, a scenario where educational planning is doubtless deeply implicated. Governing the youth and managing their prospects has always been important for the state, and now the latter consists of transient opportunities for work, interspersed by modular opportunities to learn new skills. This is where

education is positioned in the knowledge economy: it is supposed to control the social damage caused by underemployment, casual work, deskilling and the associated loss of self-identity. The Yash Pal committee had a difficult task of suggesting ways to rejuvenate an old, jaded higher education system in the middle of a crisis of academic governance. The committee faced the challenge by reiterating why the classical idea of a university is important a place where people think freely, and create new knowledge by engaging with their milieu, thereby inducting the young into a culture of thinking. Undergraduate education The largest such space available in the Indian system are the undergraduate colleges affiliated to universities. Given Indias demographic geography, these institutions served historically to harness talent in dispersed locations under conditions of colonial underdevelopment of the school system. The Yash Pal committee took a bold stance in appreciating this role, examining the factors that have undermined undergraduate education including the gross inequality between Central and State universities and reaffirming its faith in their academic potential while suggesting how to improve them. Instead, NKC follows the popular trend of bemoaning these colleges for their ills that actually stem from long-term, systemic neglect. Perceiving them as a burden, NKC recommends the creation of an affiliating board and converting undergraduate colleges into community colleges. The meaning of this term derives from its history in the American system. Without bothering to examine this history, NKC simply hijacks the word community as part of the effort to rebrand vocational education, as it then infiltrates undergraduate colleges. If this move becomes widely implemented a process that has indeed already begun the sons and daughters of Indias masses may anticipate a wilful snatching away of their hard-won opportunity to access actual higher education. In marked contrast, the Yash Pal committee differentiates between, and explains how institutions providing vocational education can be linked with universities. Similarly, for the training of school teachers at all levels, the Yash Pal report suggests deeper academic engagement, not the magical

touch of information technology. In other areas of professional training too, the Yash Pal perspective was to loosen the grip of regulatory institutions whose monopolistic functioning is widely acknowledged to have resulted in corruption. The silent polemic underlying the two reports is thus sharp and suggestive. If NKC guides the future course of higher education, its crisis will deepen and what good is left in it will rapidly erode, with painful consequences. That process has, in fact, begun. In the meanwhile, Yash Pal has been chosen for the award of Padma Vibhushan, apparently for his services to science and the cause of humanist learning at school. (Krishna Kumar is a former director of NCERT. He has been awarded an honorary DLitt by the Institute of Education, University of London.) Despite apparent similarities, the reports of two centrally appointed committees are split on the relationship between knowledge, skills and social needs