Palash Speaks

What Next
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com

Full coverage: Indo-US nuclear deal
http://sify.com/news/fullcover.php?event_id=14461920
Voices of the nations
Sixty years ago this week, India and Pakistan celebrated their independence from Britain. In the first of our week-long series of features on the two countries, Siddhartha Deb considers the legacy of empire in Indian literature
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,,2147824,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=10
But what next? Are the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India, along with their smaller partners, in a position to topple the government? While the leftist leaders are huddled together in a meeting to hammer out future strategy, the CPM patriarch and former West Bengal chief minister, Jyoti Basu, has ruled out withdrawal of support to the government. BBC reports.The United States-India nuclear cooperation agreement, tabled in India’s Parliament on Monday, has precipitated the worst-ever political crisis for the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s United Progressive Alliance (UPS) government since it was formed a little over three years ago.
On the other hand, US central bank shocked global markets last night, saying the credit crunch that had sent stock markets reeling around the world was now threatening US economic growth.
TENSION prevailed in Nandigram following the lobbing of bombs in the area bordering Khejuri today. Police confirmed that no one was injured in the incident. A large contingent of police was deployed in the area on Thursday. On Wednesday, CPI(M) activists, coming from Khejuri, had beaten up four Trinamool Congress supporters at Bhimkata village in Nandigram. The TMC organised a rally to protest.
Street drama ~ mocking the police action on farmers at Nandigram, Singur and Khammam ~ staged in Bankura on the Independence Day caused sensation and the performers were charged with insulting the national flag. Eleven office-bearers and performers of the play were arrested by the police and were produced in the district court today. The artistes, poets and composers criticised the police action and termed it as interference with creative works.
The ‘Silpi Sanskritik Karmi, Buddhijibi Mancha’ was performing a play titled Swadhinata Divas Anandadayak Na Lajjajanak during the Independence Day celebrations yesterday. The group staged street shows at 19 locations in the town. They staged the play in front of the offices of the DM and SP and near the district office of the CPI-M at Schooldanga. The police and the the Intelligence bureau personnel were keeping an eye on the each show. The attack on Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin was also featured in the plays.
At Machantala, the police finally stopped the show and arrested the performers and the organisers when the drama was at peak and a nude boy was seen carrying the Tricolour. The SP, Mr Rajesh Singh, said the national flag code prevented carrying the flag in nude. They were booked under sections 2 of the IPC.
Government on Wednesday said it has extended by one year the in-principle approval to Reliance Industries' Maha Mumbai SEZ but asked the promoters to cut the size of the zone to 5,000 hectares in line with the new rules.
Besides, the Commerce Ministry has also asked Mukesh Ambani-owned RIL to ensure that the land acquisition for the project must be done with the consent of the owners and no compulsory acquisition is done by the state government.
"The issue was not required to be brought to the Board of Approval and was processed by the Commerce Ministry," Commerce Secretary GK Pillai told reporters in New Delhi.
He made it clear that RIL has to bring down the size of the project to 5,000 hectares. As per the earlier in-principle clearance which expired this week, the SEZ was proposed to be set up on 10,000 hectares.
But the government has since amended the SEZ rules as decided by a Group of Ministers in April this year to reduce the size of zones after widespread protests in the country.

Meanwhile,Heavy rains shut down schools and disrupted transport in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata on Friday, as bad weather hit relief supplies to victims of one of the worst floods in the region in years.Hundreds of thousands of people have been left homeless or marooned across densely populated eastern India and Bangladesh due to flooding since mid-July. More than 870 people have died.The misery of flood victims in some areas has been made worse by a poor relief effort, with people rioting over lack of aid in the Indian states of West Bengal and Bihar.Shops in Kolkata, capital of West Bengal, did not open on Friday as torrential rains pounded the city for a third day, and waterlogged streets kept most people at home. Many trains were also delayed.
Flood victims fought off hungry animals and battled waterborne diseases in South Asia on Thursday as unrelenting monsoon rains caused fresh flooding in the region, already battered by weeks of bad weather.Authorities across South Asia -- where around 850 people have drowned, been crushed by landslides or died from snakebite and waterborne infections since mid-July -- said they were struggling to help millions of victims.
Veteran communist Jyoti Basu played down the government spat
"We have said that we are not satisfied. But we do not want to topple the government as it would pave the way for the communal BJP to come to power," Mr Basu told reporters in Calcutta.
The leftists seem to be faced by two arch enemies - the US and the arch rival Bharatiya Janata Party. The leftists cannot afford to appear in league with either of them.
Keeping this predicament in mind, Mr Singh took a calculated risk and delivered his master stroke last week, daring the leftists to withdraw support from the government.
He knows that however aggressive their stance, they cannot afford to bring down the government.
The leftist leaders kept quiet about their meeting with Mr Singh but the PM decided to make his views public.
In the Calcutta-based Telegraph, Mr Singh said: "I told them that it is not possible to renegotiate the deal. It is an honourable deal, the cabinet has approved it; we cannot go back on it. I told them to do what they want to do, if they want to withdraw support, so be it."

This appears a well thought-out demonstration by the otherwise amiable and soft-spoken prime minister of his assertiveness and ability to deal with his allies.
Thailand and India are engaged in negotiations to conclude a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) covering trade in goods by 2010. The FTA covering trade in goods would lead to long term mutual benefits in trade and investment and the partnership would be expanded further to cover technology know-how and expertise. However, the FTA seems to have reached difficult juncture, as India is not keen on eliminating import tariffs as sought by Thailand on several chemical and petrochemical items under the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.
Thailand has sought complete tariff elimination on as many as 28 items after the FTA comes into forces. Only silicon dioxide, among these 28 items is not being produced in India. All the other items including organic chemicals, inorganic chemicals and dyestuffs are being produced in substantial quantities and totally catered to domestic markets. In addition, Thailand has also asked for tariff reduction to 5% by 2010 on phenol and dextrin.
The chemicals and petrochemicals ministry is of the opinion that these items are being manufactured in India in large quantities. The ministry also feels that negotiations of the FTA should be carried out in the context of the recently notified policy on petroleum and petrochemical investment regions (PCPIR). Any duty reduction from the current level of 5% on major polymers and plastic processed articles, as sought by Thailand.
As the Government scrambled to allay Left concerns on the Indo-US nuclear deal — Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Dasmunsi said the concerns were “serious and genuine” and the “government was committed to address all grey areas” — two key members of the CPM politburo, which is meeting tomorrow, said that their party would not bring down the government over the issue.

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CPI’s A B Bardhan, however, kept the pressure on the government, saying withdrawal of support to the ruling coalition appeared “inevitable”, that the “honeymoon (with UPA) is over” and the Left will not hesitate to “file divorce papers if it comes to that”.
But Biman Bose, chairman of West Bengal’s ruling Left Front and state CPM secretary, told reporters in Kolkata: “Our policy is not to pull down the government but work for change in the policies of the government which are not in national interest.”
“It is gossip and seems to have no real basis,” he said in response to a query whether there was possibility of withdrawal of support by the CPM.
Bose even said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should learn from the Left Front in West Bengal how a coalition government is run. “We are running a coalition government here for seven consecutive terms. The Prime Minister is yet to complete one term of heading a coalition government.”
Speaking on CNN-IBN, CPM’s Sitaram Yechury said withdrawal of support was not the party’s focus. “The question is not that we are withdrawing support or not. The issue is of not operationalising the deal.”
According to Yechury, withdrawal of support was not a guarantee that the deal with the US would not be operationalised. Any future government, he said, may be tied by the agreement. “The point is our interest lies in the interest of India which the present deal does not have,” he said.
The statements by the two leaders assume significance in the context of the meetings of the politburo and the central secretariat of the CPI.
Bardhan, meanwhile, told Times Now TV that the points of view of the government and the Left on the nuclear deal were “irreconcilable”. He said the Prime Minister has to “stop operationalising” the deal to save his government.
Asked what if the PM refused to do so, Bardhan said “then I don’t see how it (withdrawal of support) can be stopped.”
He said the Left had the right to pull down the government any time if it felt the coalition was not serving its purpose.
India - the great democracy gap

Poor children eke a living in the streets of Mumbai (Pic: Jess Hurd/ » reportdigital.co.uk)
Making money in the Mumbai stock exchange (Pic: Jess Hurd/ » reportdigital.co.uk)
Sixty years after independence India is being ravaged by neoliberalism and increasingly divided between rich and poor, writes activist Meena Menon
Sixty years ago on 15 August 1947, India was handed over by its British rulers to be governed by the political medley called the Congress Party – ending over 170 years of colonial rule.
Since then, a fledgling nation with hardly any claim to the conventional concept of nationhood has belied the scepticism of many schools of political thought and emerged as a distinct entity with political and economic ambitions of its own.
India is seeing rapid changes in terms of its priorities and economic policy. It is becoming more ambitious and aggressive – regionally and globally. Indian democracy has its own distinctive political flavour – bewilderingly diverse, chaotic, often anarchic.
The country also has abject poverty living cheek by jowl with immense wealth. Three quarters of the population at the bottom have been hidden under an enormous invisibility cloak in the “great Indian success story”.
At the same time, the “great Indian middle class” – which once played a progressive role during the independence movement – has settled down to enjoy the fruits of an economic boom, with more money to spend and buy.
A strange mix of Jawaharlal Nehru inspired socialism and Mahatma Gandhi style morality guided Indian policy priorities during the first few years after independence.
People were at the centre of policy, at least in theory – even if this was not always evident in practice.
These policies resulted in a strong public sector, an attempt to provide government-run social services, and regulation of the private sector and investment. But all this changed in 1991 when a new phase began – one of liberalisation and “opening up” the economy.
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=12784
Amnesty International to support Tribal Rights Act
Amnesty International is observing International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples : 9 August 2007 to support the urgent demands for adivasi/indigenous peoples right to full implementation of The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights)Act, 2006, to a life free of the threat of evictions and displacement, and the release of humanrights defenders.
These demands have come to a head due to the case of Narmada, Kashipur, Singur, Kalinganangar,Nandigram, Chhatisgarh, Rewa and many more, where state repression of movements and their leaders; culture of torture, unlawful killings and impunity have been continuously carried on in the name of development and ‘national’ interest.
On this day, in the cities of Delhi (New Delhi), Kolkata, Durgapur, Jalpaiguri and Purulia (West Bengal), Jalna, and Aurangabad (Maharashtra), Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu), Palakkad and Cochin (Kerela), Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), Poonch (J&K), Mohali and Nawashar (Punjab), Banda, Amroha, Moradabad, Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), Jamshedpur, Madhupur and Dhanbad (Jharkhand), Raipur and Durg (Chhatisgarh), Rourkela, Berhampur (Orissa), Lanka (Manipur), Pauri Garhwal (Uttaranchal) and in other places there will be seminars, round table meetings and press conferences, signature campaigns, silent marches and candle light protests.
In India, we are at a juncture where after a long struggle by adivasi groups and movements, The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, has been passed. The GOI while framing the Forest Rights Act has for the first time admitted the historic injustice done to adivasis. This Act is a result of collective struggles of Peoples’ and mass tribal organizations and movements. It draws out the individual and community rights of tenure, rights ofaccess, rights of ownership over forest, right to in situ rehabilitation including alternative land in the case of illegal eviction or displacement.
Firstly, the Act should be implemented fully and immediately. Secondly, the Draft Rule circulated by the Govt. should end its discrimination towards non-S.T populations who are mainly Adivasis (non scheduled in many states), Pastoral communities (O.B.Cs and Muslims) living in forest areas and are being demanded 75 years of proof of residence.
Thirdly, the powers of Gram Sabhas should not be diluted in the Rules while Forest Department is privileged. There are no mechanisms to protect adivasis/indigenous people from the Forest Department utilizing the situation to create divisions among the communities and perpetuating the process of ‘Historical Injustice’.
Fourthly, the concern is that the government’s ceaseless sanction of SEZs and other industrial projects in the adivasi heartland are bound to conflict with the bundle of rights conferred by the Act. This will force adivasis into confrontation with state, corporates, or any force that government may deem to use. Additionally, in most of the adivasi areas, the free and prior consent of people have not been sought for projects, compensations have not been fair, nor has rehabilitation by the state been legally assured in comprehensive and substantive manner.
In the light of this, we demand an end to further displacement in adivasi areas. Fifthly, adivasi leaders have been beaten, detained, rearrested when released by the court, rallies have been disrupted by corporate sector goondas, adivasi/indigenous women have been sexually assaulted with little action taken against this by the government against perpetrators. These extra-legal activities are having a toll on the right to life, freedom of expression and freedom of association, in adivasi/indigenous areas.
To ensure that adivasi/indigenous people’s rights to life, forest, land and rehabilitation, life with dignity and human rights safeguards are assured in practice, SUPPORT the demands for implementing The Scheduled Tribes and OtherTraditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights)Act, 2006; demand to stop evictions and to release human rights defenders.
For more information
Amnesty International India
C-1/22, 1st floor, Safdarjung Development Area,
Hauz Khas, New Delhi—110016
Phones: 011-41642501, 268854763. E-mail:membership@amnesty.org.in, admin-in@amnesty.org
The Shape of a Slaughter
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main33.asp?filename=Cr250807The_shape.asp
In the last week of May, a group of concerned citizens called the All-India Citizens’ Initiative organised a Peoples’ Tribunal on Nandigram, whose report was recently submitted to the West Bengal Governor. The report sought to piece together an impartial account of events around the violence of March 14, in which 14 people were killed and hundreds injured. An extract
People in Nandigram knew the police would enter their area on March 14. According to several depositions before the Tribunal, the Bhumi Uched Pratirodh Committee (bupc) met on the night of March 13 and decided:
» To mobilise people to come for a Puja and Koran reading session at the two sites where the police would have to cross the cut in the roads, or ‘bund’, made by protesting villagers;
» To use women and children as a shield, on the assumption that the police would not open fire on women and children.
Puja and Namaz Ceremonies on the 14th Morning
From the depositions, two kinds of narratives emerge about how people were mobilised. In one group, people say:
a. “No one forced us, no one brought us. The leaders called us, so we came.”
b. “It is our land which we don’t want to give up, naturally we came.”
The implication of these statements is that they knew the dangers of participating in the mobilisation.
In another group, people say:
a. “The leaders called us, so we came; they told us to bring water and extra cloth with us to soothe our eyes as gas might be used.”
b. “We assumed the police wouldn’t fire on women.”
c. “We were taken aback when the firing started.”
In a few depositions of this group, there is a complaint that the bupc leaders assured them that nothing harmful would happen, and did not take responsibility after the carnage.
In all depositions, even in the critical ones, there is the general feeling: “It is our land, and we had to save it.” But, many people were not taken into confidence regarding the full danger, and the bupc leaders also could not gauge the extent to which the administration would go. There is no evidence of coercion but there was a definite tendency to bring people to the appointed place by playing down the dangers. The massing of women was a part of the plan to stop the police from firing.
How the Police Firing Started
On March 14, 2007, at around 9.30am, hundreds of policemen gathered at two entry points into Nandigram — one from the Tekhali Bridge, Gokulnagar, Adhikaripara, and the other from the side of Bhangabera Bridge, near Sonachura. Apart from the policemen, local leaders and cadres of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) were also present.
The deponents claim that the people were peaceful. Only one deponent says there was stone throwing by boys and girls. There is no evidence of the carriage of any arms by the villagers.
There was an announcement by the police party asking the villagers to allow them to repair the ‘bund’. The people replied that they would undertake this work themselves. There was very little dialogue over this issue and very soon the police went on the offensive. One deposition refers to stone throwing by boys and girls.
groundview

» The People’s Tribunal on Nandigram was set up by a group of concerned citizens from around the country and headed by Justice SN Bhargava

» Hearings were held over May 26 and 27 at Nandigram and on May 28 in Kolkata
» The Tribunal received 39 oral and 135 written depositions in Nandigram and 20 in Kolkata from the victims of the March 14 violence

» The Tribunal noted, among its other findings, a pervasive sense of fear, insecurity and mistrust of the State machinery at Nandigram. At the same time, however, there was also a fierce resolve not to part with land

The police fired tear gas and immediately followed with bullets and rubber bullets, chased the people, mostly women and children, hitting out with lathis and iron rods, and firing. They were chased, and many were caught and mercilessly beaten, with sexual assault, including rape.
The lack of parleying seems to suggest that the carnage caused by police firing on the retreating masses, mainly of women and children, was pre-planned.
The depositions also clearly bring out that police went on firing after the people started to flee and that they were not firing towards the legs.
The police behaviour was brutal. According to one deposition, Uttam Pal, after being shot down, was asking for water. Policemen spat on his face and beat up those trying to give him water.
Several depositions before the Tribunal accused policemen of rape.
There are other such depositions and there is the obvious possibility that shame has kept some more from making open accusations. Apart from rape, many women have deposed about being stripped, and about molestation (the breasts being frequent targets), indecent exposure, and filthy language.
One deponent accuses policemen of having slashed her breasts. Several accuse policemen of forcing rods/lathis/gun barrels into the sex organ and turning the insert in some cases.
The evidence definitely points towards serious sexual assault, including rape, by policemen.

People’s Tribunal on Nandigram
26-28 May 2007
Report
Presented to
Sri Gopal Krishna Gandhi
The Governor of West Bengal
An All India Citizens Initiative
45 Beniatola Lane, 3rd Floor,
Office of Janaswasthya Swaadhikar Mancha
Kolkata-700009
August 8 2007
2
A Note about this Report
All attempts have been made by the All India Citizen’s Initiative, within the constraints of
resources available and prevailing circumstances, to collect factual information
regarding the situation in Nandigram and its consequences. Despite this if there are
biases and discrepancies in the conduct of the Tribunal, the responsibility is solely ours
i.e. that of the organizers. We see our efforts as an attempt at impartial inquiry into the
violent incidents in Nandigram and establishing the truth about what really happened in
Nandigram in the interests of ensuring justice to all victims of severe human rights
violations there.
All India Citizens Initiative,
45 Beniatola Lane, 3nd Floor,
Office of Jana Swasthya Swaadhikar Mancha
Kolkata-700009
3
Justice S.N.Bhargava 20/46 , Ambedkar Marg, Renu Path
Former Judge Rajasthan High Court Mansarovar, Jaipur - 302020
Former Chief Justice Sikkim High Court Phone: 0141-2390304
Former Chairperson Assam Human Rights Commission Mob: 9414044461
Former Chairperson Manipur Human Rights Commission
Past District Governor Rotary International Dist. 3050
H.E. Gopal Krishna Gandhi
Governor of West Bengal
Raj Bhavan
Kolkata 8 August 2007
Dear Mr Gandhi
I am writing to you as Chairperson of the People’s Tribunal on Nandigram
organised by the All India Citizens’ Initiative from 26-28 May 2007.
The Tribunal received 39 oral and 135 written depositions from the victims of the
violent events of 14 March 2007 at public hearings held at Gokulnagar and
Sonachura in Nandigram and 20 depositions in Kolkata.
Based on these depositions and our own investigations the jury members of the
Tribunal have prepared a detailed report on the background, causes and
consequences of such violence in Nandigram and surrounding areas.
On behalf of all jury members of the People’s Tribunal I am pleased to submit
this report to you for your kind perusal and any action, as you see appropriate.
Apart from analysis of evidence presented before the Tribunal the report also
contains findings and recommendations of the jury. The recommendations are
aimed at relevant state authorities to be taken up for immediate action,
particularly in the context of the worsening humanitarian situation on the relief
and medical front among ordinary people in Nandigram.
I sincerely hope this report, through its contents, documentation of evidence and
suggestions for action will contribute to improving the current situation in
Nandigram and help bring about both peace and justice to the people of the area.
Thanking you
With best wishes,
S.N.Bhargava
4
Dedicated To
The Victims of Human Rights Violation Everywhere
5
CONTENTS:
Foreword
Introduction
Executive Summary
Chapter One: Background
- West Bengal
- Special Economic Zones
- Nandigram
- History of Nandigram
Chapter Two: Chronology of Events
Chapter Three: Incidents of 14-16 March 2007
Chapter Four: Medical Response
Chapter Five: Response of Administration
Chapter Six: Some Typical Cases for Legal Action
Chapter Seven: Findings and Recommendations
End Notes
Annexures in CD-RoM
Annexure–A-1-Depositions in People’s Tribunal on Nandigram
Annexure-A-2: Copy of the Affidavits submitted to Balbir Ram’s Enquiry Commission
Annexure-A-3: Copies of the depositions at Balbir Ram’s Enquiry Commission
Annexure-A-4: Copies of Medical Documents
Annexure-A-5: Statements of eminent persons & organizations
Annexure-A-6: Interim Report of the Tribunal dated 28.5.07
Annexure-B: Copies of the documents for Endnotes
Annexure-C: Calcutta High Court’s Own Petition
Annexure-D: Petition of Bar Association of Calcutta High Court
Annexure-E: Affidavit submitted by Govt. of West Bengal
Annexure-F: Shramajibi Swasthya Udyog Report
Annexure-G: Nandigram Swasthya Udyog Report
Annexure-H: APDR Report
Annexure-I: APDR Report Part-II
Annexure-J: MASUM report
Annexure-K: Copy of the names from Nandigram Hospital Register (14-16 March 2007)
Annexure-L: Youth Volunteers of Child Rights & You Report
Annexure-M: Forum of Artistes, Cultural Activists & Intellectuals
Annexure-N: Submission of Citizens’ Solidarity report
Annexure-O: Submission of Little Magazine Samanyay (Prosthuti) Committee
Annexure-P: Report of Amra Iekti Sachetan Prayaash)
Annexure-Q: Kunal Chattopadhyay & others’ submission
Annexure-R: Education Network report
Annexure-S: Copies of Ahalya publications
Annexure-T: Dibakar Bhattacharya’s statement
Annexure-U: Abhijit Guha’s submission
Annexure-V: Background on Singur
Annexure-W: Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya’s speech in the Assembly on 15.3.07
Annexure-X: Documentary Film on Nandigram submitted by Pramod Gupta
6
FOREWORD
It was the developments around the Tata Group’s acquisitions at Singur that first began to
draw national attention to the issue of land acquisition for industrial purposes in West
Bengal. And it should have alerted us that this marked a drastic departure from earlier
CPI (M) positions on acquisition of land for corporate interests. There were mixed
messages though emanating from the CPI (M) itself outside the state of Bengal – where
they were joining hands and raising voices against SEZ in many areas.
It was therefore with a sense of total disbelief and shock that we watched and listened and
read reports of the unfolding tragedy of Nandigram – especially after 14 March 2007. We
were flooded with emails, often with conflicting accounts of the death toll, of missing and
wounded, of sexual harassment – and the media’s hyper intensive reportage did nothing
to help or clarify our concerns and confusion.
Several groups, at different times, have actually visited the area, reconstructed the
sequence and chronology of events, and spoken to the affected people. Their reports have
been painstakingly compiled by the Secretariat of the All India Citizens’ Initiative.
However, given the complex nature of local politics – and the high profile stand off
between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the CPI (M) – which subsumed many
urgent issues affecting people and the violence, which was visited upon them, it was felt
that it might be useful to put together an independent Peoples Tribunal on Nandigram.
And it is as part of this group that I had the opportunity to spend three days in Kolkota
and Gokul Nagar and Sonachura of Nandigram Block.
THE DEPOSITIONS
Although the hearings were initially programmed to take place in Gokul Nagar Primary
School – given the large number of witnesses who came forward to depose and the
limitations of time – it was decided to divide the Jury into two sections on the second day
– with one group continuing at Gokul Nagar and the other at Sonachura – near the now
infamous Bhangabhera bridge leading to Khejuri.
During the course of the two days the members of the Jury had occasion to listen to
depositions by a large number of men and women from the area. Due to shortage of time,
a large number of depositions were also provided by the victims in writing.
Here is a brief summary of the main issues that surfaced from the verbal and written
depositions, which were presented:
1. Continuing feelings of fear and insecurity – and total mistrust of police,
government officials, and above all, of the party cadres – many of whom –
according to almost each eye witness had worn police uniform and
participated in the violence of the 14 March.
7
2. We were struck by the closeness between the two major communities from
this region – namely Hindu and Muslim. This was exemplified in the
numerous accounts that described how both communities had jointly planned
to hold the peace puja/namaaz upon hearing of the projected visit and ‘cleanup’
action by the police to their area on the 14 March.
3. While the actual number of deaths might have been limited to 14 – there were
a very large number of wounded and injured – primarily bullet wounds, iron
rods and lathi charge injuries. Witness after witness spoke of merciless
brutality of the police – and especially of people who were apparently party
cadre dressed in police uniform whom they identified because `they were in
chappals as opposed to the boots worn by the regulars’.
4. A significant number of the bullet wounds seemed to have been caused by
firing from the back – while the crowd was running away.
5. We examined several medical/discharge slips from the local hospitals at
Nandigram, Tamluk and Kolkota – there is not a single mention of injuries
being caused by bullets, except in two cases. It was difficult not to draw
conclusions as to the obvious linkages between the police, and the district
medical and other authorities – all of whom apparently were covering up the
true nature, cause and the extent of the violence.
6. Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the attacks on the villagers were the
repeated allegations and accounts of the deliberate acts of sexual assault,
including rape and other forms of unspeakable brutality. That women were
prepared to speak in public about what they had been through – as in the
case of forty year old Chhabi Rani Mondal of Adhikaripara in Gokul Nagar
who had an iron rod pushed into her vagina after severe lathi beatings – is
testimony to their anger and despair.
7. Missing Children – this seems to be a grey area. Individual testimonies
spoke of attacks on children – and many children who had disappeared. But
it was difficult to find hard evidence – and it would be useful if a group
could follow up on this more systematically.
8. In response to questions regarding whether they had filed FIRs or other form
of complaint – for the most part there was a clear evidence of total lack of any
faith or trust in the police, or indeed in the system – since it would be
tantamount to seeking help from the perpetrators. Many women referred to the
police as `man-eaters’ and challenged us on the tribunal to answer the
question how could they ever be expected to go to register complaints against
those who had tortured and abused them.
9. To date, from all accounts, there has been no government compensation – and
whatever little they have received has been from a fe

Three Brahmins From Bengal fielded to Save Anti National Indo US Deal
The honeymoon may be over but the marriage can go on,says Karat
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
Bengali brahmins are now most active to save the Indo Us Nuke Deal as world bank Slave Dr Manmohan singh`s prolonged stay in the Prime Minister`s Office suits best to the Capitalist Development of Brahminical Marxist Hegemony in West Bengal very well. it is no secret that Manmohan is the best supporter of Buddha brand, the most valueable USP and capital investment of the Ruling Gestapo in West Bengal. SEZ, PCPIR, Nuclear Plan and a host of other projects have to continue with central assistance and the Bengali comrades don`t want to spoil the game at this juncture while they face the fiercemost Dalit Muslim Insurrection with Nandigram epicentre. Pranab Mukherjee happens to be a better Marxist in sense of the CPIM brand of Marxism who annihilated the political opposition with master mind surgical precision. It is no wonder that three Bengali kulin Brahmins Somanath Chatterjee in the lead, Pranb Mukherjee the key player and Buddha , the most creditable Brahmin defender play the key role to blow the crisis involving the antinational anti people Indo Us deal. It is reminiscent of those days while the Bengali Brahminical leadership first ousted Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose out of Indian geopolitics aligning with Gandhi Nehru Lobby and then, partitioned India in accordance with Nehru Jinnah Mountbatten Grand Plan. Redcliff ensure the final kill for the pre Independence National dalit Movement and making all dalits residing in East Bengal refugees all over sacttered in this subcontinent deprived of human civil rights, citizenship and livelihood. Post Modern Galaxy Manusmriti Order enacted by US Imperilsm has the last say with strategic regrouping and intensified Islamophobia in Indian Ocean region! We , the Indian People areincluded in the War aginst terrorism and the war zone is shifted right in the heart of India.
Manmohan talkded to Buddhadeb and the entire West Bengal Unit goes against the rehtorics of opposition and the nonagenerian patriarch of Indian brahminical communist movement Comrade jyoti Basu has finalised a perfect gameplan to save the day for the Brahminical Comradors ruling at the Centre. On the same time, parliamentary activism of the hypocrite communists intensified to dupe the Vote Bank, specially covering the SC, ST and Muslims!
Tempers appeared to have further cooled down in the UPA-Left stand-off on the Indo-US nuclear deal with the CPI(M) making it clear that it was not not in favour of rocking the Manmohan Singh government.
"The honeymoon may be over but the marriage can go on," CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat remarked ahead of of an important two-day session of his party's politburo, the highest policy-making body, to decide its strategy on the stalemate with the government it supports from outside.
In a relief to the government and the Left allies, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee rejected a BJP-sponsored censure motion for a discussion on the deal, a decision that will obviate the need for the Communist parties to vote against the ruling coalition.
Karat's remarks came in sharp contrast to the strident statement of his CPI counterpart A B Bardhan, who last night had said that that the honeymoon with the government was over and that withdrawal of support "seems inevitable".
He had, however, qualified his statement saying that it was his personal view but there were other Left parties who had to take a collective decision.
A session of the CPI's extended central secretariat was also in progress today to discuss the fall out of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's challenge to the Left parties to withdraw their support on the deal.
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee meanwhile made it clear that Parliament has "no competence" to decide on operationalisation of Indo-US nuclear agreement and rejected opposition demand for re-negotiation of the deal and a vote on it in the House.
The House will, however, discuss the nuclear deal on Monday under a rule that does not entail voting, he said.
"There has been no occasion where any treaty or agreement was ever discussed under Rule 184," Chatterjee observed, while rejecting the motions moved by Leader of Opposition L K Advani, BJP member Santosh Gangwar and Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Yadav for a debate under the rule which entails voting.
Chatterjee said the government has the "sovereign" power and "unrestricted" right to enter into any treaty or agreement like the Indo-US nuclear deal with other countries and it is well-established that "there is no requirement to obtain ratification from Parliament".
The motions "require the government to re-negotiate" the 123 nuclear agreement, he pointed out.
By asking the government to re-negotiate the pact, the motions "in effect seek to disapprove (of) the agreement entered into and require the government not to give effect to the agreement in its present form and contents, which the House has no competence to do," the Speaker said.
"It will clearly amount to the House rejecting the agreement in its present form," he added.
Under the Constitution and in the absence of appropriate laws made by Parliament, "the right of the Central government to enter into treaties and agreements with foreign countries in its sovereign power, is unrestricted and any such treaty or agreement becomes effective without any intervention by Parliament," Chatterjee said.

Talking about India conducting nuclear test External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, "India has the sovereign right to test and would do so if it is necessary in national interest."Pranab Mukherjee roped in to douse the nuclear blaze clarifying that India maintains the sovereign right to test if the national interest so warranted and that the bilateral agreement with the US will not end immediately if India tests a weapon.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made it clear to President George W Bush during negotiations on the Indo-US nuclear deal that India could not agree to a "bilateral" NPT or Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty(CTBT).
The Rajya Sabha was, on Friday, adjourned after Congress members vehemently protested against certain ‘insulting’ remarks against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by NDA Convener and former Union Minister George Fernandes.

Under strong attack from the ruling Congress over his statement against Prime Minister, George Fernandes on Friday refused to apologise for it.

Fernandes' statement on Thursday that Singh had ‘betrayed’ the nation by ‘continuous bluffing’ on the Indo-US nuclear deal and if it were in China they would have settled it with one bullet in his head.

After the issue rocked Parliament, reporters asked the former Defence Minister whether he would apologise for his statement.

"What should I apologise for," he said.

"What I have said in the statement is that the way our Prime Minister had spoken lies, had an American President done that he would have been removed. And had someone done that in China, he would have been shot dead by a bullet," he said.

Asked whether he implied that the Prime Minister was corrupt, he said "I have not called the Prime Minister corrupt. You have my statement. These are not my words - you only spread lies. Now you will run these words as mine."

Fernandes also released copies of a letter he had written to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee in which he had referred to members of the ruling benches saying that his remarks were an "inciting statement" against the Prime Minister.

"No one reading my statement in its entirety including the Prime Minister himself will come to such a conclusion," he claimed.

About the treasury benches demand that he should seek pardon becuse it has hurt the prime minister's honour, Fernandes said as defence minister for almost six years in the NDA government the Congress party had carried on a campaign against him with lies at the insistence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
The Forward Block, a constituent of Left Front, today said withdrawal of support by Left parties to the UPA government on the Indo-US nuclear deal was no solution to the problem.
Asking Congress Party to exert pressure on the government against operationalisation of the pact, Forward Block General Secretary G Devarajan told a meet-the-press here that the Left block would register its "severe protest" within and outside Parliament if the government insisted on implementation of the pact.
Asked if he thought that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was planning to go for a snap poll blaming it on the Left, he said it would not work out even if the Prime Minister had such a design in his mind.
He said the nuclear deal would become a tool for the USA to restrain India from exercising its free foreign policy.
Its implementation would not help India's energy security as was argued by its supporters as the country would be adding only 10,000mw of power out of the pact against eight lakh mw it required by 2025. On the contrary, the US would win USD 80 billion worth of business.
Dismissing a link between supporting the UPA Government and its opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal, CPI(M) has said it had a problem with the 123 agreement which established the primacy of the US law on operationalising the nuclear deal.
"The question is not that we are withdrawing support or not. The issue is of not operationalising the deal," Yechury told Karan Thapar's Devil's Advocate programme on CNN-IBN.
"There is no link-up between the Government falling and the issue of the operationalisation of the deal," he said.
He said the point was withdrawal of support was not a guarantee that the deal with the US will not be operationalised. Any government that comes in future may be tied by the agreement.
"The point is our interest lies in the interest of India which the present deal does not have," he said, adding "...the agenda is the deal, which Government signs it is not on my agenda".
Yechury pointed out that if the deal was not operationalised, then it would be re-negotiated.
India's interest lies in certain things which the deal does not contain and should have. Asked if the CPI(M) was opposed to the deal as it was with the US, he said, "It is not a question of any deal with America".

Indo-US nuclear deal
http://sify.com/news/fullcover.php?event_id=14461920
No terror outfits operating in Indian stock, realty markets: FM

Government on Friday said there was no indication of "surreptitious" entry of terrorist outfits in the stock or real estate markets to meet their financial needs. His statement assumes significance in view of national security advisor M K Narayanan`s revelation in February this year that manipulation of stock exchanges is the new modus operandi used by terrorist groups to raise funds.

Sensex tanks by another 217 pts amid high volatility
http://www.zeenews.com/index.asp
DADDY KNOWS BEST
- SEZs and other iffy situations
Cutting Corners - Ashok Mitra

It is an ill wind that blows nobody any good. Viewed from that angle, the current controversy over so-called Special Economic Zones has at least brought to the fore a number of issues with respect to citizens’ rights and the rights of the State.
We are supposed to be guided by the rule of law. The law, as it exists in the country at this moment, allows the State to acquire land belonging to private citizens for a public purpose. The act of acquisition is not supposed to be justiciable. However, the State has to offer adequate compensation for acquiring the property concerned; the amount of compensation is justiciable, and subject to the verdict of courts.
A grey area nonetheless exists. Can the government step in and acquire anyone’s land and hand it over to any other person or entity and claim the act to be in consonance with public purpose? An extreme, but not altogether far-fetched, example will illustrate the kind of problems that may arise. Suppose there is a lovely bungalow with sprawling lawns on all its sides in a posh neighbourhood which belongs to X. His sworn enemy, Y, casts a covetous eye on this property. He has friends in influential positions in government and inveigles them to acquire the property by invoking the provision of the public acquisition legislation, eject X, and hand it over to Y. Can the entire process be described as reflecting a public purpose?
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070817/asp/opinion/story_8200801.asp
Cops find Siachen gear for sale, Army refuses to cooperate
A pilferage scam running into crores of rupees has come to light in the army`s strategic Leh Corps in Jammu and Kashmir with police detecting clothing and rations meant for troops deployed on the Saichen glacier being sold in local markets.
http://www.zeenews.com/sections.asp?sid=NAT&sname=INDIA-NATIONAL-NEWS

Government has ruled out immediate withdrawal of army from counter-terrorism duties even as it noted that a large number of battalions of para military forces were being raised and specially trained to take over the task.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has claimed that the BJP leaders had wished death for him because of his resolve to sign the nuclear deal. Stating that he was disappointed with BJP's attitude, the PM said: "They (BJP) didn’t even believe I would last as the PM and some leaders even did havans that I should die on a certain day." Singh says that the nuclear deal was a 'logical fallout' of the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership that the NDA Government had begun with the US.
Two days after he was reported as saying the 123 Agreement includes clauses that a nuclear test by India would effectively end nuclear deal, White House Spokesman McCormack said he had been misquoted by the media. McCormack's remarks were not part of the State departments official transcript, but had been quoted by Indian wire agencies reports from Washington.

“The proposed 123 agreement has provisions in it that in an event of a nuclear test by India, then all nuclear cooperation is terminated," wire agencies had quoted him as saying on Tuesday.

India insists that the 123 Agreement, the operative part of the nuclear deal, is silent on nuclear tests. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Parliament on Monday that the agreement does not forbid India from conducting nuclear tests.The White House also said the Indo-US nuclear deal has many "wonderful aspects", one of which is that it brings New Delhi into the system of monitoring and compliance.Allaying fears over the Indo-US nuclear deal, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar today said the agreement does not prohibit nuclear tests.
"India has own sovereign right to carry out nuke test," Kakodkar, who is also the Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, told reporters on the sidelines of a function in Banglore. He said there is no specific mention of test in the draft part and asserted there is a provision for cessation and termination of the agreement.
"In the text there is no hindrance clause. There is no hindrance to activities outside the cooperation," he said. Kakodkar further said there are series of steps that have been spelt out in the agreement which also contain "the right to return".

Trinamool Congress on Friday charged the CPI(M) with adopting a ''double standard'' and enacting ''a new drama'' by opposing the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.Trinamool Chief Mamata Banerjee said that her party was against the nuclear deal with the US if it was against national interest, but CPI(M)'s opposition to the agreement was an 'election strategy' with its base in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura becoming 'unstable'.In addition, Banerjee said that Trinamool Congress would resist any move by CPI(M) to pressurize the Centre for seeking permission for more SEZs in West Bengal.
''Globalisation and SEZs are part of the reforms at the instance of the US which CPI(M) has been welcoming in West Bengal. But at the same time, it is opposing the nuclear deal, which speaks of the party's double-standards,'' she said.
The Trinamool supreme also criticised the Left Front government for not disclosing its 'secret deal' with the Tatas in setting up the small car plant at Singur.
There could be some relief for the Manmohan Singh government following the war of words with the Left parties over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

"Whether it is continuance, whether it is issue based, or let the government as a minority government or withdraw support and pull it down - we must redefine our relationship with the UPA," Bardhan had said during CPI's Central Secretariat meeting in New Delhi on Friday.

"The time has come to review the entire performance of this UPA government and for us the Left to redefine our relationship with the government," Bardhan added.

But there will be no a simple solution. The Left has already insisted that the nuclear deal with the US shouldn't be operationalised.But that is not enough and the Politburo wants to understand how much ground the UPA government is willing to concede.And for the government these negotiations could prove tougher than those for the 123 agreement.
In a special message to Sify.com on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of India?s independence, Union Defence Minister A K Antony shares his vision for our Armed Forces as a lean, yet fighting-fit unit.
It is gratifying to learn that you are coming up with a special project to commemorate 60 years of India?s independence.
The Indian Armed Forces have been rendering invaluable service over the years ? both in times of war and peace. Peace, security, economic growth and development are in fact, two sides of the same coin. Our Armed Forces have also done exemplary work in helping their brethren during natural calamities.
Living away from their families, our Jawans perform their duties in inhospitable terrain and in extreme weather conditions. Our Armed Forces not only have to secure our border from external forces, but are often also called upon to deal with the internal threats from time to time. As a result, our Armed Forces are under constant duress.
Our vision is to provide our Armed Forces state-of?the-art equipment and to make it one of the most efficient forces in the world. However, till now, we have had to rely largely on foreign countries for meeting our equipment needs. We must now endeavour to meet, as far as possible, all our need indigenously. For this, though, both our public and private sector need to invest heavily in Research & Development (R&D) activities. Till we invest heavily in R&D, we cannot hope to take our technological capabilities to a higher level.
We are also committed to enhance transparency and fairness in all our dealings.
In the ultimate analysis, the quality of human resources is of crucial importance. It is our endeavour to reduce the levels of stress ? to the extent possible ? on our Armed Forces personnel.
In the years to come, our effort would be to make our Armed Forces a lean, yet fighting-fit unit and ensure that our Armed Forces are respected and admired the world over.
Speaking on the attitude of Opposition party, the Prime Minister said: "It requires a big leap in approach and the attitude of the BJP is disappointing. They didn’t even believe I would last as the Prime Minister and some leaders even did havans that I should die on a certain day."

"But I have faith on higher force. I believe it was my destiny to be PM. I have the courage of conviction," he said.

The revelation came in the context of remarks made by NDA convenor George Fernandes against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in which he reportedly said if it was China, they would have shot him in the head by a bullet.

The UPA has demanded an apology or withdrawal of the remark by the former defence minister but Fernandes says he won't apologise.

Singh, who has been under attack from the BJP-led Opposition and the Left allies over the nuclear cooperation agreement, also claimed that the nuclear deal was a 'logical fallout' of the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership that the NDA Government headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee had begun with the US.

"It was an outcome of that process... while we had successfully made nuclear weapons, on the power front, there were too many shifting targets. We had set a target of 10,000 MW of nuclear power almost 35 years ago and now we have only around 3,700 MW. The deal would help us meet our targets for nuclear power," he said.

In the same interview, the PM also made his stand clear on India's stand on nuclear test vis-à-vis the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.

The PM told India Today that he had made it clear to US President George W Bush during negotiations on the Indo-US nuclear deal that India could not agree to a 'bilateral' NPT or the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

He said it was not in India's interest for Iran to become a nuclear weapons power, although it had the right to have nuclear energy as an NPT member.

"I told President Bush, I can't be a cheerleader or be part of a war-mongering group. The nuclear dispute with Iran should be resolved through peaceful processes," he told the India Today magazine.

The Prime Minister's comments came in an interview conducted over two months back while he was returning from the G-8 Summit of Industrialsied countries in Germany. Singh had met Bush and other world leaders during his trip in June.

The magazine said its understanding was that excerpts of the interview could be published once the 123 Agreement was reached.

Singh recalled that the US President had told him in July, 2005, "Don't expect me to help you to build bombs. I told him I didn't expect the US to do that because with our previous achievements, we didn't need anyone's help."

The Prime Minister said: "I made it clear during the negotiations that we can't agree to a bilateral NPT or CTBT. We have a unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing and we will exercise restraint."

Describing President Bush as a 'very easy person' to deal with, Singh said: "He is very nice to me and of all the US Presidents, he is the friendliest towards India."

Noting that the US had become the 'sole superpower' almost 15 years back, he said: "But all these years, no Indian government had the courage to change our policy towards the US." It was felt during foreign policy review that Indo-US relations were the key in a globalised world and "we needed to give them the highest importance. We have stayed the course."

U.S. military deaths in Iraq at 3,703
AP - Thu Aug 16, 7:54 PM ET

As of Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007, at least 3,703 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 3,036 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
Speaker rejects demand for voting on N-deal
Nuclear deal continues to rock parliament, debate on Monday

Making it clear that Parliament has "no competence" to decide on operationalisation of Indo-US nuclear agreement, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Friday rejected opposition demand for re-negotiation of the deal and voting on it in the House. The House will, however, discuss the nuclear deal on Monday under a rule that does not entail voting, he said.

"There has been no occasion where any treaty or agreement was ever discussed under Rule 184," Chatterjee observed, while rejecting the motions moved by Leader of Opposition L K Advani, BJP member Santosh Gangwar and Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Yadav for debate under the rule which entails voting. He said the government has the "sovereign" power and "unrestricted" right to enter into any treaty or agreement like the Indo-US nuclear deal with other countries and it is well-established that "there is no requirement to obtain ratification from Parliament".
The motions "require the government to re-negotiate" the 123 nuclear agreement, he pointed out.
By asking the government to re-negotiate the pact, the motions "in effect seek to disapprove (of) the agreement entered into and require the government not to give effect to the agreement in its present form and contents, which the House has no competence to do," the Speaker said.
"It will clearly amount to the House rejecting the agreement in its present form," he added.
Under the Constitution and in the absence of appropriate laws made by Parliament, "the right of the Central government to enter into treaties and agreements with foreign countries in its sovereign power, is unrestricted and any such treaty or agreement becomes effective without any intervention by Parliament," Chatterjee said.
Political differences over the Indo-US civil nuclear deal continued to rock parliamentary proceedings Friday with ruling alliance MPs staging voluble protests leading to adjournments of proceedings over a senior opposition leader's virulent attack against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
In the din, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee rejected the opposition's demand for a debate on the nuclear deal under a rule that entails voting, suggesting that parliament had 'no competence' to decide on operationalisation of an agreement with a foreign country.

Chatterjee allowed a discussion on the deal Monday under rule 193 of the parliamentary proceedings, which will not entail any voting, contrary to the demand made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

This is subject to the availability of Manmohan Singh in the house.

The ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) as well as

Left MPs, who have denounced the nuclear deal, were united Friday with the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) when Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi demanded an apology from National Democratic Alliance (NDA) convenor George Fernandes for his remarks against the prime minister.

Fernandes was quoted saying in a newspaper that if Manmohan Singh was China's head of government, he would have been shot for 'bluffing' to the nation about the nuclear deal with the US.

'He should apologise or the House should condemn (his remarks),' Dasmunsi said amid shouting from Congress MPs.

Although Chatterjee said he could not force Fernandes to apologise for a statement he had made outside the Lok Sabha, the MPs continued to protest leading to an abrupt adjournment of the proceedings just before lunch.

When the house reconvened, Congress MPs continued to insist on an apology and the house was again adjourned till 3.30 p.m., but only to take up the private members bills.

The Rajya Sabha also witnessed repeated adjournments over the 'insulting' remarks against Manmohan Singh.
However, speaking in the Lok Sabha later, Advani, Leader of the Opposition, sought enactment of a law to make it obligatory that treaties and agreements should be ratified by parliament. The Left parties, which support Manmohan Singh's government from outside, also have made this demand earlier.

Although Advani claimed that External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's remarks that Hyde Act would not binding on India was wrong, the latter reiterated that New Delhi was not bound by the act passed by the US Congress.

Mukherjee said while Advani was quoting Nicholas Burns, US Under Secretary of State, he was talking on the basis of what US president George W. Bush said that India was not bound by Hyde Act.

'Let us have a debate and let the country know what is right and what is wrong,' he said.

60 years of foreign policy fractured

At Random | K Natwar Singh | Friday, 17 August , 2007, 18:22

What is right with India is more than what is wrong with India. So, let?s count our blessings. But let us also not forget that the difference between what is right and what is wrong is not considerable.
The pluses are: We have survived as a democratic, pluralistic, secular nation State. The foundations for such a India were laid by Jawaharlal Nehru. With all its flaws, India has worked. Elections are held on time. The results are accepted. One government is replaced by another without resort to violence. We are both a nation and a civilisation. Change and continuity is our unique asset. Crisis management is our forte. Linguistic turmoil is pass?ut not caste. Life expectancy has gone up from 27 to 67. We are self sufficient in food grains. In the arena of science and information we are doing spectacularly well. The Indian brain is now looked at with respect. Anglo-Saxons are extremely careful now, about being condescending or patronising. The non-resident Indians have made their mark wherever they have settled. There is growing interest in our culture and civilisation. Indian authors writing in English are in great demand. Publishers are chasing them, not the other way round. Their books are bestsellers.
Even though the IT industry employs 1.5 million out of a workforce of over four hundred million, names like Ambani, Tata, Premji, Narayana Murthy, Mahendra, Mittal, Birla are becoming global heavyweights. Our club of billionaires is so exclusive that it is out of bound for 99.9 per cent Indians.
Over the past 60 years there has been a broad consensus on foreign policy. Our anti-apartheid and anti-colonial policies have not been forgotten. Non-alignment owes much to India. Indira Gandhi?s superb diplomacy in 1971 has not been forgotten. She made history. She changed geography. The consensus for the first time in 60 years has broken down on serious differences on the nuclear deal, between the government and the major opposition parties.
Our political system is under constant pressure. But there has been no breakdown on the national level. On some areas in several states with Maoists and Naxalites there is a breakdown and the wreckage is spilling onto the streets.
The central switchboard of governance does appear rusted. It has not busted. It needs regular administrative oxygen and conceptual blood transfusion. We do need new concepts, a fresher vision.
Our intelligentsia is hypercritical about politicians and their sins. Perhaps rightly so. Nevertheless, it is legitimate to ask, "Why don?t you take the plunge and stem the rot you find so unacceptable?" Armchair criticism has its limitations. As long ago as the 4th century BC Plato had warned Athenians: "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."
Now, to what is wrong: Family planning is not an unqualified success. It is still a serious burden. The poor suffer the most. 836 million Indians earn less than Rs 20 per day (Arjun Sengupta).
On the human development index we have climbed up from position 127 to 126.
Education. Major failure. After 60 years of Independence, 35 per cent Indians still cannot read or write. Look around ? China 96 per cent, Indonesia 93 per cent, Vietnam 95 per cent, Sri Lanka 90 per cent. The quality of education in rural India produces instant gloom. Where there are schools there are no teachers. Where there are teachers there are no schools.
Health. Not enough doctors. Not enough nurses. Not enough beds for the sick. Not enough funds for our research and development.
Electric supply. Large parts of North India have power cuts for several hours throughout the year, including Gurgaon which is next to affluent New Delhi.
Megacities. If some drastic action is not taken, then movement in the larger cities will come to a standstill. On our roads we witness the 15th and 21st centuries living in not so peaceful coexistence.
Judiciary. It is justice delayed. The number of cases pending in our courts goes on mounting each month. Some cases go on for decades. Here again the poor are hit the most.
Phrases like "India Shining," "India Rising," India becoming a global giant not only irritate, they appear obscene. Look at our infrastructure. Shining! Rising!
Finally the unending harassment of the common man continues unabated. One must not give into despair. I must not end this piece on a negative note. While excessive rejoicing on August 15, 2007 would be unseemly, but I do agree with Octavio Paz who wrote: "I have seen the Indian multitude, poor illiterate, go to the polls; it is a spectacle that renews man?s hope... Of course, the political democracy of India stands in sharp contrast to the poverty of its people and the country?s social inequalities ... the people who gave us the Buddha and Gandhi

They are out to Kill the constitution Once again with Dalit Cream Subordination!
Anti Resrvation movement gets momentum with unprecedented judicial activism and Dalit Leaders bowing to the Brahminical Power Equation Game

Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com

Anti Resrvation movement gets momentum with unprecedented judicial activism and Dalit Leaders bowing to the Brahminical Power Equation Game.They had been always unsuccessful to kill the constitution of India which ensures reservation for SC and ST. Right from Pdt. jawahar Lal nehru to Sangh Super Icon atal Bihari vajpayee, every Indian Prime minister tried to revise and reset the constitution. The society and its basic castebased infrastructure always remained the same. The three hundred million people living under poverty line also consists of mainly SC, ST and minority people with refugee influx from within as well as outside. Rural India Eviction Drive under Post Modern Galaxy Manusmririti Order has stimulated further displacement. Eighty percent Enslaved and underprevileged people are deprived of human and civil rights. Now the lives and livehood are also endangered. The Brahminical system is up against any space to dalits, tribals, refugees and minorities in any sphere of life. Zionist Left alligns with Hindutva forces of Congress and sangh Parivar. The Zionist Left has transformed its ideology inaccordance with the new galaxy order and it happens to be the best defence of the Ruling Brahminical comradors in Asia.
Despite all this passimism, at least in the field of Govt. jobs , the reservation and quota played a vital role. Although it created a creamy In Law class which has nothing to do with their respective communities. This creamy layer consists of the most incompetent people who survive as serfs of the system. Best examples are the elected MPs and Mlas from SC ST. The quota and reservation selected bureacrates netray their communities most. Wealth and power have been the top priorities of the SC ST cream which is far from awakened to the duty to the communities in which they are born.
Thus, sharing power has become the most opportune case with which the Dalit leaders, icons and intellectuals fail to resist to kill the constitution this time.
The Supreme Court has asked whether the reservation policy will go on without any time frame. The observation was made by a five-judge Bench while hearing the ongoing OBC quota case.There is no proposal to bring in legislation for reservation in the private sector, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan told the Lok Sabha on Thursday. In a written reply, she said demands had been made in the media and by people’s representatives for legislation but there was no such proposal.
Affirmative action
Replying to a separate question, she said industry associations were in favour of affirmative action and willing to intensify their efforts in developing skill and entrepreneurial abilities among those belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.
“In the discussions with industry associations, there was a general agreement on positive discrimination in employment in favour of SC/ST persons. The chambers are agreeable to reporting of data on SC/ST employment,” she said.
''After 10 years or after a century, one day reservation must come to an end,'' the Bench said.
The SC made the observation when petitioner's counsel Harish Salve argued that quota issue can go on without any time frame.
Earlier, the apex court stayed the 27 per cent OBC quota for the current academic year in the central higher educational institutions like the IIT and IIM and the Centre's plea to vacate the plea has come to a cropper thrice.
In the current OBC reservation case, the Supreme Court will hear an association of SCs, STs, and OBCs defying the claim of the petitioners who have opposed the 27 percent quota for the OBCs without setting the data on their population.
The apex court allowed the All India Backward Class, SC and ST Action Committee to appeal as a party in the ongoing reservation case which will be heard by a five-judge constitution bench.
In its PIL, the committee said that the political class, the upper castes of the rich sections who dominated bureaucracy and media represented an improper image about the OBCs' status. But the real picture is not favorable and encouraging.
In favor of 27 percent quota for OBCs, the body urged bench to consider the five important factors revealing the predominance of rich and higher class in every walk of life. These factors clearly showed the disparity due to the predominance of rich class on political sphere, influence of higher castes in bureaucracy, holding of high posts in law enforcing agencies by higher class people, and lawyers taking up reservation cases from the rich sections and higher castes only.
The committee said in its PIL that inequality on the basis of caste is not only confining to the Hindu community alone but it is manifested among the Muslims who are differentiated as Sheikhs and Syeds.
PIL also incorporated complaint against the media for not giving the accurate picture of reservation issue in the context of total percentage of backward caste people in government as well as private jobs. It flayed the media for starting an unfair campaign against the government's move to execute quota facility for the upliftment of OBCs.
The hearing on this issue was adjourned by the bench for August 21.
Meanwhile,The Bihar government has decided to constitute a Maha Dalit Commission for the welfare of certain Dalit castes who are socially and educationally backward and treated as untouchables even by Dalits.
CM Nitish Kumar announced the constitution of the commission during his Independence Day speech at Gandhi Maidan here on Wednesday. The suggestion for such a commission had been made by the Akhil Bhartiya Musahar-Bhuiyan Sangh at a conference here a few months back. Nitish had agreed, in principle, to constitute such a commission. He said, still there were many sub-castes among Dalits like Musahar, Mehtar, Dom, Rajwar and others who do not benefit from the reservation system and other schemes.
He said among Dalits, there was no such classification as a backward class, adding that the commission will study the status of the neglected castes and suggest ways for their uplift.
It has been noticed that some of Dalit castes could not get any benefit from reservation due to lack of education. In educational institutions, too, the children of these castes are discriminated against and majority of them drop out. As a result, the literacy level among those castes is abysmally low. In the bonded labour system, the men and women mostly belonging to these castes are found to be trapped.
The CM said the government would implement the recommendations of the panel for a better social order which would also arouse social and educational consciousness among them.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati today called for establishing an egalitarian society where people of all castes and sections are able to reap the benefits of freedom.
In her Independence Day speech after unfurling the triclour at Vidhan Bhavan here, Mayawati said that democracy was meaningless if people suffer from hunger and poverty.
"We will have to ponder whether we have been able to achieve the goals of creating an equalitarian society," she said.
Freedom will have no meaning unless the deprived and downtrodden feel that justice has been meted out to them as well, she said.
Listing the achievements of her government during its three months stint in power, Mayawati said that her top priority was all-round development of the state.
She said her government has made sincere and honest efforts to restore the rule of law in the state.
She also referred to the various schemes launched by the state governemnt for the benefit of poor and said that reservation should also be given to the economically weaker sections of the upper castes.
Mayawati referred to the drive for registration of special FIRs of those whose complaints were not registered during the previous regime owing to political pressure.
Supreme court has to do more than it. Only in India, you are born as Indian citizen, but you are treated as second class foreigner, just because so called minority take your education, job, previliges despite you were found superior in merit. No other free country labels you in this way. What a shame!
Posted by sunny at 1:46 on Aug 15, 2007

The Decesion of the SC Bench is very vital and excellent .It should be an eye opener for the so called Political Parties of Vote -Bank politics at the time of celebating the 60th Independance Day.There should be Final Day and Time frame for all relaxations and reservations in a Democratic Nation for giving equal opportunities to all.
Posted by C K Haridas at 0:51 on Aug 15, 2007

Quota must end. If quota policy has not uplifted the status of SC and ST in 60 years, it must be stupid policy. SO there is no sense in continuing it and better option should be looked for. If it has really uplifted the SC/ST, then the quota for SC/ST should be removed. Either way it does not make sense to continue the reservation policy.
Posted by Salil Goyal at 23:55 on Aug 14, 2007

Reservation will only help the politicians to survive but will not help the "real poor" unless steps like providing excellent educational infrastructure at rural/semi urban centres and programmes to improve the communication and leadership skills of students at all levels. Also, the truly poor should be identified, irrespective of religion, caste and creed (say, those who earn less than Rs.5000 a month) and they should be offered free education until XII std and thereafter as well, subject to certain merit criteria (say, 80% on an average).
Posted by s thiagarajan at 23:10 on Aug 14, 2007

Caste problem in India is a general law and order problem, which became associated with our society. It only can be eradicated by proper and impartial implementation of laws and speedy justice system. Policies like “reservation” will only strengthen the heinous caste system and weaken the whole country, all of us, irrespective of our castes.
Posted by jay at 21:32 on Aug 14, 2007

The Supreme Court has finally making an excellent decision.This idiotic quata drama cannot go on forever>Our "Brilliant Politicians" are only using it as a vote bank.Only when the quaota policy ends completely can we be sure that the Industry has 100% quality workers and our colleges are producing quality citizens who will be an asset to the nation. Reservation is actually a form of racism.If we want Indoia to become a fully developed super power we have to eliminate reseravation completely.No developed super power has any kind of reservation.
Posted by Therese at 20:49 on Aug 14, 2007
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070022601&ch=8/15/2007%2012:28:00%20AM
Parliamentary panel recommends reservation for SC, HC judges

New Delhi, Aug 17: In a suggestion that will bring the higher judiciary into the ambit of quota conundrum, a Parliamentary committee has recommended reservation for Supreme Court and High Court judges.
Contending that the recommendation was within the provisions of the Constitution, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice in its report said the Constitution "has to be read and interpreted harmoniously and holistically" and Articles 124 and 247 have to be read with Articles 14 and 15(4).
"Without needing any further Constitutional amendment, the provision for reservation in the higher judiciary has been already included in Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution," it said.
Calling for quota for SCs, STs and OBCs in the higher judiciary "to meet the ends of social justice and equity," the report says there is no reason why judiciary too should not represent the reality of social milieu in which it has been created.
"When the Executive and Legislature are brought under the ambit of Constitutional reservation, it is but natural that Judiciary, the third pillar of democracy, should also be covered by the principle of reservation," Committee chairman E M Sudarsana Natchiappan told reporters here.
"Otherwise, it creates a dubious distinction among the three pillars of democracy. This is the major rationale regarding reservation in judiciary," Natchiappan said.
The caste-based reservation already exists for the judges of subordinate courts.
Questioning the higher judiciary for "not taking a broader view" of society while appointing judges, the Committee goes on to say, "Through a shrewd process of manipulation, the Indian judiciary has been keeping the competent persons of the downtrodden communities from the purview of appointment of judges.
"This nexus and manipulative judicial appointments have to be broken. Reservation in judiciary is the only answer," it points out.
The Committee also cites the National Commission to Review Working of the Constitution to prove its point.
"In higher judiciary, the representation of SCs, STs and OBCs is inadequate. Out of 610 judges in various high courts, there are hardly about 20 judges belonging to the SCs and STs," the Commission has observed.
Hinting that persons of the same upper caste and community were always climbing the ladder of judicial hierarchy, the Committee also cites an apex court judgement of 1993 in its favour.
"Even today, there are complaints that generations of men from the same family or caste, community or religion, are being sponsored and initiated and appointed as judges, thereby creating a new theory of judicial relationship," the apex court had observed.
Less than 2 percentile points separate OBC students from General in IIM's shortlist
By IE
Friday August 17, 02:50 AM
At a time when the Supreme Court is hearing a case on higher-education quota for OBCs where the petitioners have argued, among other things, that any reservation will dilute merit, there is data from IIM Bangalore to show otherwise - OBC students scored barely two percentile points below general category students in the final shortlist for 2006.
In the average Combined Admission Test percentile scores of candidates shortlisted for the group discussion and interview stages, OBCs earned 97.73 below the general category's 99.14. Candidates from the SC/ST segment got 89.04 and 81.46 respectively.
IIM-B has released academic profiles of the 1,065 students shortlisted this year from across categories of general candidates (707), OBCs (104), SC (147) and STs (79).
While the scores of general category, OBC and SC/ST students display differences at the CAT level, the gaps are narrower at Class X or XII level. A report in The Indian Express report had earlier revealed how in the IIMs' admissions procedure, school-leaving marks play a greater role than the CAT score itself.
While the average marks of all general category students in their Class XII exams is 88.74 per cent, the average for OBCs is 87.70 per cent. Again, if Class X scores of shortlisted students are considered, the difference between the general category and OBCs is a fraction of a percentage point - 88.94 per cent against 88.85 per cent.
The IIM-B data also shows that an overwhelming majority - just under 85 per cent - of shortlisted candidates came from an engineering background. Another interesting fact is the percentage of women across categories. General category women find the maximum representation among shortlisted candidates, at 18.53 per cent. Amongst OBCs, they are only 13.46 per cent, even below the 17.01 per cent among SCs.
Taslima should leave or die: Muslim clerics

Friday, 17 August , 2007, 19:36

Kolkata: Muslim clerics in West Bengal Friday issued a "death warrant" against Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen if she did not pack her bags and leave India.
"Anybody eliminating her would be given Rs 100,000 and unlimited rewards if she does not leave the country immediately. She has insulted Islam and continued to create problem in this country," Syed Noor-ur-Rehman Barkati, the shahi imam of Tippu Sultan Mosque in Kolkata, told IANS.
"We are forced to issue such a warrant because the government is not making use of the constitutional provisions and driving her out of the country," Barkati said after a meeting of several Muslim clerics across India here.
Nasreen was not available to react to the latest development.
On August 9, Taslima Nasreen, who lives in Kolkata, was attacked at a book release function at the Hyderabad Press Club by legislators and activists of the Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), a Muslim political party in Andhra Pradesh.
"Taslima Hatao, Desh Bachao (Drive out Taslima and save the country) is our slogan and we will launch a big agitation if the government continued to patronise her and allow her to stay in India," Barkati said.
"She should leave within a month," he said after the meeting that was attended by some of the major Muslim organisations of India, including All India Sunni Ulema Board and representatives from Hyderabad where she was attacked.
In January 2004, Barkati had urged a congregation of 10,000 that he would offer 20,000 rupees ($436) to anyone who would blacken Taslima's face "with ink, paint or tar or she can be garlanded with shoes."
In June 2006 the same imam offered on local TV the sum of 50,000 rupees ($1,175) to anyone who blackened her face and drove her out of Kolkata.
The 45-year-old writer had first attracted the ire of fundamentalists in Bangladesh for criticising the treatment of women in Islam and atrocities on Hindu minorities in that country in her novel "Lajja" (The Shame). She first went into hiding in 1994 and then fled Bangladesh with support from international human rights organisations like PEN and Amnesty International.
She was given asylum in Sweden. Since then she has lived in Germany, France, the US and later Kolkata in India, where she got a tourist visa though her requests for citizenship have been repeatedly turned down by the Indian government.
Nasreen's visa, scheduled to expire this month, was extended by six months till February next year.
"If I were a citizen of India perhaps people would not have thought that I could be killed just like that. The truth is that I cannot return to Bangladesh while returning to Europe is like courting death too. I can only live here in Kolkata," Nasreen told IANS in an interview last week.
Though the Left Front government in West Bengal condemned the attack on Nasreen on Thursday, it had banned her book "Dwikhandito" (Split in Two), the third volume of her seven-part autobiography, till a court order lifted it.

Kudos to the Muslim Intellectual Forum for coming out boldly and
unequivocally against the murderous attack on Taslima.

The attack reminds me of a similar attack launched by the Hindutva
goons on Medha Patkar and Mallika Sarabhai on April 7 2002 within
the hallowed preccincts of the Sabarmati Ashram while participating
in a citizens' meet for communal amity against the backdrop of the
state-sponsored anti-Muslim carnage in Gujarat. (BTW, Feroze, one of
the signatories here, had also been present. Played a critical role
in fending off the first wave of the attack - by Amit Thakkar
barbarously pulling Medha out of the meeting place by her hair.
Taslima, as it appears, was a bit more fortunate.)

It does not require one to agree with the statement in its entirety
to appreciate the position enunciated here that "in a secular
democracy and a free society, we need to tolerate dissent and the
freedom of conscience".
This is a cardinal principle that must be upheld at any cost and
under all circumstances.

Sukla
manohar biswas to me
show details 10:04 am (8 hours ago)
Telling of an Untold History of Dalits
( This article is about four Dalit women of
eighteenth century Bengal.)

Author : Manohar Mouli Biswas
E-mail : manoharbiswas@yahoo.co.in
website: dalitmirror.com
Nineteenth Century Bengal is always remembered for its
glorious history. Bengal Renaissance took place at
that time. And perhaps the time has come now to see
the history from below and from this angle of view
different new things are coming to refresh our old
knowledge to usurp in unused domain. The Renaissance
so far as mentioned by the historians put its working
among the urban people. And it did do little for
uplifting the poor and the humiliated of rural Bengal.
Particularly if the history from below is looked into,
Dalits of Bengal come on the discourse of discussion.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1774-1833), Henry Louis Vivian
Derozio (1809-31), Ramtanu Lahiri (1813-98),
Krishnamohan Bandyopadhyaya (1813-85), Dakshina Ranjan
Mukhopadhaya (1814-78), Ram Gopal Ghosh (1815-68),
Pandit Iswarchandra Vidyasagar (1820-91), Akshaya
Kumar Dutta (1820-86), Michael Madhusudan Dutta (
1824-73) etc. were the pioneering personalities of the
Nineteenth Century Bengal Renaissance. All of them
were born in the Brahmin or Kayastha Hindu families
excepting Derozio who was by birth a Christian. All of
them were from educated and cultured families. None
was having any lineage with the untouchables of
Bengal. They thought of promoting the society
educationally, culturally and economically. Nothing of
their programs was about the untouchable. It meant
Bengal Renaissance was not for all.
Now perhaps the time has come to know of the history
within-the-history. In one article of recent discourse
about ‘ The Bengal Army’, Irfan Habib has focused two
new thoughts on the subject. The Bengal Army was the
largest modern army in Asia having over 135000 native
soldiers well trained in the modern methods of
warfare. On many occasions Hindu contingents elected
Muslim officer and Muslim contingents chose Hindus as
their officers. It is nothing but the secularism
basically in Indian character. The second one is an
interesting history against our old knowledge. In the
army the natives who were recruited were mostly of the
upper caste Hindu Brahmins and they took some kinds of
prejudices of their own religion more vigorously
rather than the national freedom of a nation.
Naturally the religiously prejudiced parochialism
played role over the patriotism of the then freedom
fighter. And it is due to parochialism the people from
the lower strata of the society did not get any chance
to be recruited in the army though they had been the
majority population of the soil.
In this writing it would be ventured to project the
patriotism, the thirst for education and literature,
the love and the compassion of suffering people etc.
of the eighteenth century Dalit women of Bengal.
Within their own limitations whatever they did were
the history of Bengal for us to be exclusively proud
of the contributions they made in the face of social
adversity. The first woman who was known for showing
of the courage to get formal education from a male
teacher of a village-school was one born in an
untouchable community in 1776 in the district of
Mymensingh. She could have taken this courage to equip
herself to express the passion of human mind and love
through letters.
Another brighter history of a Dalit woman is that Rani
Shiromoni of Jangal Mahal in the district of West
Medinipur had been the first Indian captive in the
British jail of Fort William of Kolkata in 1799. As
she had been leading the Choar Vidroh of Bengal had
its primary starting in 1760 and the final phase
continued for five years from 1795-1800, she had been
taken into the military custody to curb down the
revolt of the suppressed and it happened while
Shiromoni along with her solder-in-chief Golok Dikpati
was in the forefront of the battle.
In the eighteenth century a Dalit woman Rami by name
became famous for composing beautiful songs of deep
devotion to the almighty as her lover. She was born in
the washer-man community. She was entangled in a deep
love with Chandidas, a Vaishnava devotee to God and he
was Namasudra by sub-caste who had at that time social
recognition as the Chandalas, the dalit marginalized
of Bengal. Both Chandidas and Rami lived for some time
in Nabadwipadham in adoration of Shrichaitanya,
popularly known as Chaitanya Deva who was believed by
his followers to be the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. He
was opposed to priestly ritualism and preached the
faith in personal God called Hari. He believed that
through love and devotion the personal presence of God
can be realized. He was the preacher of the
bhakti-cult of Bengal as well as India in the
sixteenth century. His doctrine of love for all
irrespective of castes and creeds influenced the
common mass and the people from the lower strata of
the society embraced the Vaishnavism in larger number.
The story of Rami and Chandidas is history beyond
history.
Another Dalit woman of eighteenth century Bengal was
Rasmoni born in a cultivating family of Halisahar in
1793 and at the later stage of her life she became
popularly known as ‘Rani Rasmoni’. She did a lot of
social works to remove the poverty of the Dalit mass
and make them educated. She took an extraordinary
courage to fight against the British to protect the
exploitation of the Dalits. Once she threw a legal
challenge to the East India Company to defend the
right of the fishermen of their fishing in the river
Ganges. How did she do this thing? While the Company
all on a sudden imposed the levy of water tax for
fishermen to fish in the water of the Ganges, the
fishermen community was put into a deep trouble. Rani
Rasmoni came forward to correspond with the British to
take Ezra of the Ganges water on paying consolidated
amount of rupees ten thousands only to the Company and
issued official order to all the shipping merchants
not to use the water of the river because if their
ships entered into the river the fishes of the river
might flee to the sea. The company was trapped into
their own nets and ultimately they allowed the
fishermen to fish into the water of the Ganges without
paying any tax.
Out of these four Dalit women Sula was the senior most
by age and Rasmoni was junior most. It has been told
earlier that Sula had got education from a male
teacher of a school through a meticulous exercise of
her own initiative. Rasmoni, on the other hand, was
also on the same plank of illiteracy as she could not
find a scope to go to school in her childhood but
after marriage she got the education of letters from
her husband. She was blessed by God as she was a very
good looking girl born in a poor and untouchable
farming community. Nothing came as bar in life while
she got married within the same caste group in a very
rich family of the then Kolkata. Her father’s
Harekrishna Das who was Kaibarta by sub-caste and her
father-in-law’s Pritiram Marh through change of their
profession a few generations back to business in
Kolkata became the owner of lot of land and money.
Pritiram’s second was Ramchandra, a good looking boy
with knowledge of letters married Rasmoni at her age
of eleven years.
Behind the nick name of Sula a popular good name
Sulochana she had. Her father’s name was Ramdebh who
an illiterate farmer of the village Thakurkona of the
district Mymensingh was much happy to arrange the
marriage of his daughter with Joyhari, a tender aged
boy of the nearby village. It was planned the stay of
Joyhari after marriage in his father-in-law’s only but
from boyhood Joyhari was indifferent to materialistic
world, spiritually advanced, some years he stayed,
then absconded and remained untraced for ever. However
Sula was waiting and waiting and while she was in the
full bloom she felt an urge to express her mind in
letters. She had been to some Charunath, a village
school teacher to earn the knowledge of letters.
She became the writer of a gitikavya “ Shri Shri
Gopinikirtan” by name. In the gitikavya she has
expressed herself as a worshiper of Krishna as her
husband and she is none but a deep devotee to Him. In
the preface of the gitikavya she has given her own
identity as a Chandala woman and historically this
Chandalas were a sub-caste under the untouchable
communities of Bengal. There is another history of the
Chandalas that they had undergone an unceasing
movement for thirty years from 1881-1911 to change the
name of Chandalas to the Namasudras. Hereunder her
writing what she has told in verse in the preface in
respect of self-identity is reproduced:
I do pay my indebted regards to my parents
Whose grace helped me in this world I'm present
I do fold my hands to the goddess of learning
Whose grace has been with me in the writing.
I do bow down with cloth putting round throat
For any mistake in verse please not to hurt.
I do beg you all to have a bliss on my head
Not to look into my guilt if I’m doing the stupid.
I do pay full respect at the feet of my husband
Who absconded and never found to be back.
Wherever you stay oh my beloved husband
May I always keep you in my heart behind.
Whatever has happened it’s a fate of mine
On the day of my death you come to me again.

I do adore Radha-Krishna of lovely Vrindaban
In this writing I shall glorify them as my icon.
I do pray to the Vaishnava Lord, kind as ocean
For His benevolence as I’m a wretched woman.
I do head down on the earth before Charunath
Reading and writing as my teacher he taught.
What pray I know or what song I can sing
It’s all that God can made me able to spring.
Lord you may not hate a Chandala woman me
It’s my pray let Sula always at your kind feet be.
(Translated by Manohar Mouli Biswas)
The expression of Sula’s writing was simple and easy
to understand. She loved her husband very much but
could not get him in a physical touch. She became
mentally weary and exhausted due to alienation. She
thought of the husband and put him to the place of
Lord Krishna for a heavenly kind of worshiping. Here
it is a notable thing that the physical existence of
his husband and Lord Krishna was put into the single
embodiment. As Radha was for Krishna, similarly she
was for her husband.
It has become easy on records to realize that the
Vaishnavism has had a great influence on the Dalits of
Bengal. The story of Rami or Rami Dhopani or Ramtara
is an example. Rami is the nick name and she had a
good name also. She was Rajakini in the history of
Bengal Vaishnavism. What a new thing here told she was
a born Dalit in the perspective of the caste hierarchy
and not in womanhood. A glory here lies in the history
of the subaltern that Rami was the first major woman
poet of Bengal though she was a Dalit. Hereunder it
will be tried to reproduce some portion of the verse
she composed but it is to be kept in mind that it was
a few in number so far has come to the knowledge of
scholars and researchers in the field.

(one)
Where you go oh my friend of heart jilting
me your woman lover
I can’t bear up with if I fail a moment to see your
countenance.
As from the days of my childhood I have thought of
none but you
What fault you find ejecting me to go to Mathura I
want to listen to.
Your leading guide is very cruel and devoid of sense
and justice
With feeling none can throw woman into the sea saline
of sorrows.
On candling love if you want to go tell me when will
come back
Listen to my words, I’m Rami telling, keep my
presence with you.
(Translated by Manohar Mouli Biswas)
(two)
Always you roam in broad day light out of passion in
the forest
Off and on I’m in the sorrow because of I can’t see
your face.
Time and space is at fault becomes a big jungle yug
alike lore
Your alienation puts my mind in unrest and life
becomes anxious.
Your curling hair unblemished much with beauty of
countenance
I do stare with both of the eyes having no break of
the open lids.
He whom I al’ys visualize before my eyes he bars and
prohibits
Oh you are more than my own life then what I to blame
the deity.
You are my own, I am your own, whom then we need
befriend
Out of woes Rami views without Chandidas earth becomes
a nil.
( Translated by Manohar Mouli Biswas)
(three)
What shall I say oh peer if it fails to cool down
To tell on weeping a charring face may smile.
Husbands coward may not have wide chests
Stopping to worship goddess adds disgrace.
While to tell of sadness mind begins to weep
Mouth can’t speak out and in heart to die.
In the villages propaganda