Sunday, December 25, 2011

[Naxalite Maoist India] Rene Girard quote on Man



Man is the creature who does not know what to desire, and he turns to others in order to make up his mind. We desire what others desire because we imitate their desires.
- Rene Girard , Violent Origins


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Posted By Abhay to Naxalite Maoist India at 12/25/2011 02:14:00 PM

[Naxalite Maoist India] René Girard's Mimetic Theory: Random Link

After radically transforming social relations over the last decade, techno-geeks now want to re-invent political theory..One such person is Peter Thiel who has been pumping loads of money to promote his Guru's theories through various means and foundations...

Mimetic Theory:A Very Brief Introduction

René Girard
René Girard is recognized worldwide for his theory of human behavior and human culture. In 2005 he was inducted into the Académie française, and in 2008 he received the Modern Language Association's award for Lifetime Scholarly Achievement. He is Professor Emeritus at Stanford University.
But back more than 50 years ago, René Girard started teaching French literature because he needed a job. He hadn't even read many of the books he was assigned to teach. Then, as he studied the classic novels of Stendhal and Proust with a fresh mind, staying one step ahead of his students, he was struck by a series of similarities from novel to novel. Unbound by any narrow research agenda, Girard discovered a simple but powerful pattern that had eluded sophisticated critics before him: imitation is the fundamental mechanism of human behavior.
Stories thrive on conflict between characters. By reading the great writers against the grain of conventional wisdom, Girard realized that people don't fight over their differences. They fight because they are the same, and they want the same things. Not because they need the same things (food, sex, scarce material goods), but because they want what will earn others' envy. Humans, with a planning intelligence that sets them apart from all other animals, are free to choose. With freedom comes risk and uncertainty: humans don't know in advance what to choose, so they look to others for cues. People can desire anything, as long as other people seem to desire it, too: that is the meaning of Girard's concept of "mimetic desire." Since people tend toward the same objects of desire, jealousy and rivalry are inevitable sources of social tension -- and perfect themes for the great novelists.
After his successful writings on modern literature, curious to find out how well his "mimetic theory" of imitative behavior might explain the human past, Girard studied anthropology and myths from around the world. He was struck by another series of similarities: myth after myth told a story of collective violence. Only one man can be king, the most enviable individual, but everyone can share in the persecution of a victim. Societies unify themselves by focusing their imitative desires on the destruction of a scapegoat. Girard hypothesized that the violent persecution of scapegoats is at the origin of the ubiquitous human institution of ritual sacrifice, the foundation of archaic religions.
Girard then turned to the relationship between rituals of sacrifice and the many acts of violence recorded in the founding documents of the religions of the modern West (including the secular religion known as the Enlightenment): the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Gospels. Girard interpreted the Bible as a gradual revelation of the injustice of human violence. The culmination, Jesus's crucifixion, is unprecedented not because it pays a debt humans owe to God, but because it reveals the truth of all sacrifice: the victim of a mob is always innocent, and collective violence is unjust.
An outsider in every field, René Girard has changed scholars' thinking in literature, anthropology, and religion. But you don't have to be a scholar or an insider of mimetic theory to understand it. Imitation is constant, scapegoating is an ever-present temptation, and violence is wrong. These simple insights have unlocked the meaning of modern novels, ancient myths, religious traditions, and the behavior of each and every one of us in our daily lives.
Today a global community of scholars is building on Girard's work to better understand our world. Imitatio is a non-profit foundation devoted to aiding progress in this ongoing development and critique of René Girard's mimetic theory. Here at the Imitatio web site, you can read Girard's writings, peruse scholars' work, learn about upcoming events and watch video from past events. Sign up for our email newsletter to stay current with news, events, publications, and discussions in mimetic theory from São Paulo to Paris, Tokyo to San Francisco.
Read more at http://www.imitatio.org/


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Posted By Abhay to Naxalite Maoist India at 12/25/2011 02:09:00 PM

[Naxalite Maoist India] Chalo Assembly : Andhra Pradesh Documentary 2000

Black Monday - Chalo Assembly on 28th August 2000 : Firing on people agitating against power prices

Documentary about the mass struggle led by 9 Left Parties in Andhra Pradesh



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Posted By Abhay to Naxalite Maoist India at 12/25/2011 01:57:00 PM

Monday, December 5, 2011

[Naxalite Maoist India] Q&A: Sonu Gujjar, Maruti Suzuki Employees Union


After spearheading a five-month agitation that severely hit production at Maruti Suzuki, Sonu Gujjar, former president of the unrecognised Maruti Suzuki Employees Union, created a stir with his exit from the company last month. Detractors alleged he had received a substantial "full and final settlement" from the company in lieu of his resignation even before an agreement brought the labour unrest at Manesar to an end. In an interview with Akshat Kaushal and Sharmistha Mukherjee, the 25-year-old from Jhajjar explains what drove him to desert his 2,000-odd comrades. Edited excerpts.



After being the face of the Maruti strike for three months, you are now being labelled as a betrayer. There are allegations that you took money to leave. How do answer these accusations?
I read in the papers that I was accused of accepting a bribe of Rs 40 lakh. Is there any proof of that? No one contacted me to verify whether I got this money. I and my other comrades successfully led the strike at Maruti. Our demand was that Maruti should take back all the casual workers at the Manesar plant. That they have now done. The company has also reinstated 64 suspended workers, that too without a chargesheet. The strike was a success; how is this a betrayal?

If you won, why did you leave the company?
I was sure there was no way we could be reinstated. I am just a tenth pass. Do you think I would have stood a chance against the lawyers Maruti would have fielded when the inquiry against us began? All 30 of us had a choice of either accepting the company's offer or facing inquiry, which we were sure of losing. We were hoping the trade unions would support us in our demand for reinstatement, but that did not happen. So, we took the money the company gave us, and exited.


If not Rs 40 lakh, what was the value of the settlement? 
All 30 workers have received Rs 16 lakh each. This comprises our dearness allowance, provident fund and basic salary that we would have received if we had gone on to work at Maruti till turning 52. This is legitimate money that the company owed us.


Was there any pressure to reach an agreement?
There was no pressure from the company. But, people from nearby villages were pressuring us to end the strike. They were worried that their livelihood would be affected if Maruti moved out of Haryana. Pressure was also there from workers' families.


What happens to the fate of the union, which was the cause of the unrest? 
During the settlement, the company committed to approving a union at the factory. The management had then said the workers would be allowed to follow the usual process for registration and the company would not obstruct their way. I am not part of the company, but I still feel strongly for the union. I am also in touch with some workers.


Where do you go from here?
I will soon start looking for a job. I know it will be difficult. But then, what's easy? My father is mentally-challenged. For now, I want to be with him for some time.

Source ET : http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/qa-sonu-gujjar-maruti-suzuki-employees-union/454839/



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Posted By Abhay to Naxalite Maoist India at 12/06/2011 11:04:00 AM

[Naxalite Maoist India] Face of New Labour in India : India Today Article


New breed of activists demand labour rights across industrial units

| November 19, 2011 | 08:47
A.R. SINDHU, 38 DelhiSecretary, All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers & Helpers
Education: Physics graduate
Claim to fameSindhu is one of few trade unionists who have tried to reach out to workers employed in Government social sector schemes. After anganwadi workers held a huge public protest in the capital in 2010, the Government was forced to double their salary from Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000.
Big labour is back. The Maruti employees' stir hogged the headlines for months but it's not the only recent instance of labour unrest. Trade union disputes are spreading across the country. Maruti Udyog, Dunlop, Dhanlaxmi Bank, Coal India, Bosch, textile workers in Ludhiana-the list of dispute-hit entities is long. The number of man-days lost has shot up from 9 lakh in 2002 to 16 lakh in 2010. In the first half of this year, nearly 1 million man-days have been lost. Taking ownership of these protests are new independent trade unions and a set of young activists cutting across unions and party lines. Some of them ultimately succumbed to money and pressure but the rest are assiduously building unions at organisations where it was hitherto inconceivable.
IFB Automotive, at Binola in Haryana, is a leading technology provider for safety- and comfort-related products in the automotive sector. Its client list includes the biggies such as Honda, Ford, Toyota and Hyundai. "Every time you push back your front seat in the car, remember that our hard work has gone into making it possible. We worked to make life comfortable for others, often working overtime without extra wages. Now, over 250 workers have been expelled without an adequate explanation," says Manoj Kumar, 25. He is not your textbook trade union leader. A political science graduate, he heads IFB Mill Workers' Union which is spearheading the protest against the company's decision to terminate the workers. "A day after 250 workers were packed off by the management on June 11, we decided to form a union. I had never been affiliated with any political party. I thought I should put my education to good use to lead these workers," he says. Kumar has already prepared an overtime bill of Rs 62 lakh for the workers and submitted it to the district labour commissioner for inquiry.
Rakhi Sehgal
RAKHI SEHGAL, 41 DELHIOrganiser, National Trade Union Initiative
Education: Post-graduate
Claim to fame Sehgal plays a pivotal role in NTUI, one of the fastest growing independent trade unions whose membership has grown from 500 in 2006 to nearly 11 lakh now. She heads the ongoing protest in Hero's Dharuhera plant in Haryana.
In Ludhiana, two young men, Rajwinder, 29, and Lakhwinder, 28, have led 1,500 power loom workers on an indefinite strike since September 22 for better wages, reasonable work hours and safer factory floors. A poor brick-kiln worker's son who now heads the powerful Textile Mazdoor Union (TMU) that has stalled all work in 95 medium textile units in Ludhiana's industrial district, Rajwinder says even as a child, while helping mix the clay with which his father made bricks, he knew something was "horribly wrong". His family, like scores of other households of brick-kiln workers, was forced to live on the brink of starvation while the kiln owners grew rich.
"A whole new world opened to me in college," says Rajwinder, recalling the time when he first read freedom fighter Bhagat Singh's jail diary. The young man devoured the extensive literature on labour movements, from the Howrah railwaymen's agitation for shorter work hours in 1862 to more contemporary movements in the 1980s led by Datta Samant. In 2005, Rajwinder and Lakhwinder, a diploma-holder in casting and moulding plastics from Chandigarh's Central Scientific Instruments Organisation, headed for Ludhiana. They launched the independent Karkhana Mazdoor Union (KMU) in June 2008, whose membership grew rapidly as workers got increasingly disillusioned with older party-affiliated labour unions. The subsequent success of a textile workers' strike in September 2010 established the KMU's dominance across Ludhiana. It paved the way for a separate TMU with plans to unionise Ludhiana's cycle industry, automobile ancillary units and hosiery workers.
Punjab continues to have one of the lowest rates of minimum wages in the country, which, TMU claims, has not been comprehensively reviewed since 1970. Private factory owners are reluctant to pay even this low wage. "Textile workers are terribly exploited. A single worker runs twice the number of machines he did a decade ago, yet takes home less money than he did then if one adjusts for inflation. Working conditions are extremely unhygienic," says Rajwinder, recounting an instance in 2008 when a local tyre-manufacturing unit's management simply disowned a worker who was killed in a shop floor accident. "These are very poor people who live in unimaginable squalor. Workers have no choice but to fight. Things can't get any worse for them," he says.
Rajwinder and Lakhwinder believe the stage for the current labour unrest in many parts of India was set with the liberalisation of the economy that was initiated in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. The new unrest, the duo says, comes after a long "agitational gap" since the 1990s wherein traditional labour unions, essentially geared to dealing with public sector managements, were unsure of how to tackle private owners, new sectors and mammoth social sector schemes of the Central Government. "The new independent unions have a younger leadership and are more in sync with the aspirations of an equally young workforce," says Lakhwinder.
Rakhi Sehgal, 41, with short hair and a carefree grin on her face, lifts her fist as she says, "I love a good fight." Her union, the National Trade Union Initiative (NTUI), has grown from a membership of just 500 workers when it was founded in 2006 to nearly 11 lakh now. While traditional trade unions were still formulating their strategy, NTUI forayed into unorganised labour, private factories and organising women workers.
Sehgal, a post-graduate in international relations from American University in Washington, first came to Gurgaon in 2003 to conduct field study for her doctoral dissertation. "I was taken aback by the problems workers faced and decided to stay back and organise them," she says.
"Unlike traditional unions, we listened to workers and made the organisation democratic. The central leadership isn't allowed to turn down decisions taken at the grassroots," she adds. NTUI engages with employers and the state on issues of collective bargaining and regulation of employment in workplaces. Its interventions span from DHL emplo-yees across the country to health workers in Punjab.
Debasis Shyamal
DEBASIS SHYAMAL, 32
Haripur, West Bengal
Executive member, National Fishworkers'Forum
Education: Graduate from Prabhat Kumar College, East Midnapur
Claim to fame
Shyamal played a prominent role as convener of the protest movement against the proposed nuclear plant in Haripur. It resulted in the West Bengal government scrapping the project altogether in August this year.
Traditional trade unions have failed to innovate and restricted their activities to public sector units. The once powerful Left trade union, All India Trade Union Congress, has little clout among workers in new industries. A.R. Sindhu, 38, secretary of the All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers affiliated to the CPI(M)'s trade union Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), is one of few trade unionists who have tried to reach out to workers employed in Government social sector schemes. "They are the driving force behind all Government programmes but they live in abysmal conditions. The Government has on its rolls the services of 41.39 lakh women who receive an average of Rs 50 per day for working in social sector schemes," says the physics graduate from Kerala who had moved to Delhi in 2000 when her husband Krishna Prasad became national president of the Students Federation of India, the CPI(M)'s student wing. Prasad returned to Kerala and became a legislator. Sindhu opted to stay on in Delhi to organise anganwadi workers in north India. "After anganwadi workers held a huge public protest in the capital in 2010, the Union Government was forced to double their salary from Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000," she says.
Leaders are emerging from the factory floor. Sharavana Kumar, 24, has all workers at mobile handset manufacturer Nokia's Tamil Nadu plant in Chennai on speed dial. He, along with P. Suresh, also 24, set up the Nokia India Tozhilazhi Sangham in 2010. Finnwatch, the watchdog for Finnish companies operating in developing nations, reports in September 2010 that Nokia's employees in Chennai are being paid low salaries "even in the Indian context". "Initially, workers were scared to unionise. Then we talked to them about their rights and asked them to come under the banner of an independent union," says Kumar. Nokia's Chennai workers went on strike in July 2010 and secured a pay revision.
In the small fishermen's hamlet of Baguram Jalpai next to Haripur in West Bengal lives Debasis Shyamal, 32, a leader of the National Fishworkers' Forum (NFF) that represents around 7 million fishermen. In 2004, he was inducted into the NFF executive committee at 24. Shyamal is a graduate but his seven uncles are all fishermen. "My life changed after I met Harekrishna Debnath, the late NFF chairperson, and Father Thomas Kocherry, the founder of Kerala Swatantra Matsyathozhilali Federation," says Shyamal. He got involved in the fishermen's movement himself.
Shyamal played an instrumental role in the Machimar Adhikar Rashtriya Abhiyan, a campaign of fishing folk that started in Jhakhau, Kutch, on May 1, 2008 and finished in Kolkata on June 27, 2008, after covering major fishing villages along the entire seaboard. The campaign demands included scrapping of the proposed Coastal Management Zone (CMZ) notification of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and recognition of the rights of fishermen. The Government modified the CMZ Act after the movement.
Shravana Kumar
Shravana Kumar
SHARAVANA KUMAR, 24Chennai
Founder, Nokia India Tozhilazhi Sangham
Education: Pursuing BCom by correspondence
Claim to fame Kumar, along with P. Suresh, set up the Nokia India Tozhilazhi Sangham in 2010.Workers at the Chennai plant of the handset manufacturer went on strike in July 2010. Kumar had the last laugh as Nokia agreed to a long-term pay revision.
Independent trade unions are often accused of a myopic factory-level approach at the cost of the larger trade union movement. Sonu Kumar aka Sonu Gujjar, 25, the union leader who brought Maruti Suzuki to its knees, is accused of such an approach. 'Pradhanji', as he is called, led the young tribe of workers through three strikes since June, protesting against the management's "unfair practices" and demanding that their union, the Maruti Suzuki Employees Union, be recognised. Maruti Suzuki India witnessed a production loss of at least 50,000 units and over Rs 1,800 crore in revenue since June. Sonu took a settlement package worth over Rs 40 lakh and quit in early November, leaving colleagues to their fate. An Industrial Training Institute Rohtak graduate, he had joined Maruti in 2006 when its Manesar unit was being set up and decided to stand for the Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union (MUKU) president's post in April. MUKU being Gurgaon workers-dominated body, Manesar workers decided to launch their own union. He was elected president. "He raised such important issues and with such conviction that he managed to inspire us," says Parvinder, a worker.
Sonu Gujjar
SONU GUJJAR, 25 GurgaonPresident, Maruti Suzuki Employees Union
Education: Diploma from Industrial Training Institute, Rohtak
Claim to fameSonu was the face of the labour unrest in Suzuki's Manesar plant. The company witnessed a loss of 50,000 units and over Rs 1,800 crore due to a labour dispute since June. He has since accepted an exit package and left the union.
Sonu now faces both criticism and fulsome praise for the final agreement reached on October 21 between the management and the workers. "We thought he had the capability and the conviction to lead us," says Rishi, a former aide. His supporters say it was difficult to secure the workers' initial demands as the government largely spoke in management's favour. Suber Singh Yadav, leader of the Suzuki Powertrain India Employees Union, says part of the problem is Sonu's age. "There was a lot of pressure from all sides. A leader shouldn't be scared; he is too young," he says. Sonu is refusing to talk to the media now.
New unions run the risk of not putting democratic processes in place and getting hijacked by a leader who treats it like a fief. "The task is to imbue the spirit of democracy among the workers. In north India, workers often follow a leader without giving serious thought about the organisation and its mission," says Sindhu.
Many workers in the bpo sector approach unions only if they face a crisis. "We often end up playing agony aunts. The first salary of many workers is often more than the last drawn by their parents. It is very difficult to build a credible and committed leadership because we face the same crisis the industry faces: heavy attrition," says Kartik Shekhar of unites, a bpo industry union.
- With Asit Jolly, Lakshmi Subramanian, Partha Dasgupta and Shravya Jain
Source : http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/special-report/1/160578.html


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Posted By Abhay to Naxalite Maoist India at 12/06/2011 10:43:00 AM

[Naxalite Maoist India] The State of Surveillance Technology


It's only a matter of time before we lose the privacy of our thoughts.
iPhone, BlackBerry, Gmail users are 'all screwed': Julian Assange
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has told smartphone users that they are vulnerable to a 'mass surveillance' industry that has been steadily growing since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"Who here has an iPhone? Who here has a Blackberry? Who here uses Gmail? Well, you're all screwed," said Assange in this video taken during a speaking engagement at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism at the City University of London.
The warning came as Assange launched his website's new Spyfiles project on Thursday.
The Spyfiles reveal the activities of about 160 companies in 25 countries which develop technologies to allow the tracking and monitoring of individuals by their mobile phones, email and Internet browsing histories.
More on 
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/12/02/iphone-blackberry-gmail-users-are-all-screwed-julian-assange/
Palantir Technologies - A Profile
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/palantir-the-vanguard-of-cyberterror-security-11222011.html


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Posted By Abhay to Naxalite Maoist India at 12/06/2011 10:35:00 AM

Friday, November 25, 2011

[Naxalite Maoist India] Kishenji tortured and killed in fake encounter


The killing of top Maoist leader Kishenji raised a controversy on Friday with his supporters and some political parties alleging he was eliminated in a fake encounter, a charge denied by CRPF which said it was a "clean" operation. The Maoists demanded an independent probe into  the circumstances leading to the killing of Kishenji in Burisole forest in West Midnapore district on Thursday. A call for a two-day bandh in West Bengal from November 26 was also given by Maoists in protest against the alleged fake encounter.

"Kishenji was killed in a fake encounter. To protest this we are calling a two-day statewide bandh from November 26 and a week-long protest," Maoist state committee member and spokesperson Akash told PTI on phone from an undisclosed location.

Rejecting the allegation, CRPF Director-General Vijay Kumar said Kishenji was killed in a 'very clean and successful' operation by the joint forces in West Midnapore district.

"It was a very clean and successful operation and our boys did not waste a minute," Kumar told reporters in Burisole forest in Jhargram area where Kishenji was killed.

"No, no, no" he said when asked about the allegation that Kishenji was eliminated in a fake encounter.

Telugu poet and Maoist sympathiser Varvara Rao also alleged that Kishenji had been killed in a fake encounter.

"Kishenji was arrested two days ago and kept in police custody. He was killed in a fake encounter. It is a murder case which should be probed,'' Varvarao Rao told reporters at Kolkata airport.

Rao had also said that the "story" of an encounter was a fabrication.

Maoist spokesperson Akash when asked to substantiate his allegation said, "He was arrested when our people were present nearby and then murdered in cold blood. We demand an independent investigation into the killing of our leader".

CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta in a letter to Home Minister P Chidambaram said, "The story of the encounter appears to be fake, needs to be inquired into and the government must clarify".

Questioning the manner in which Kishenji was killed, Dasgupta asked government to clarify whether he was done to death in "cold blood" after being arrested.

Dasgupta, who spoke to Chidambaram on phone, quoted a "source" to say that Kishanji was arrested at noon yesterday and "subsequently killed in a cold-blooded murder".

"If my information is right, then it is an act of dastardly crime in violation of all national as well as international laws," he said in the letter.

Human rights activist and the head of government-appointed interlocutors, Sujato Bhadra also demanded an inquiry into Kishenji's killing.

Samajwadi Party also levelled the allegation of a fake encounter and said Naxalism cannot end through "massacre" of Naxal leaders.

"The way reports of Kishenji's killings have come out, it does not look like Kishenji was killed in an encounter... It is a fake encounter," Samajwadi Party leader Mohan Singh told reporters in New Delhi.

In Bihar, the CPI(M-L) Liberation urged West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to order a judicial inquiry into the killing of Kishenji, just as she had demanded one for the death of rebel leader Azad in Andhra Pradesh last year.

"There is a similarity in the encounter deaths of Azad and Kishenji. Mamata Banerjee should order a judicial inquiry into the killing of Kishenji," CPI (M-L) leaders Raj Kumar Singh and Krishna Adhikari told reporters in Patna.

Source HT - http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/WestBengal/CRPF-under-fire-for-Kishenji-s-killing-defends-itself/Article1-773963.aspx




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Posted By Abhay to Naxalite Maoist India at 11/25/2011 08:36:00 PM

Thursday, November 24, 2011

[Naxalite Maoist India] Kishenji traced through Sabyasachi Panda’s Laptop

Panda's laptop helped securitymen lay trap for Kishenji 

A laptop confiscated recently from a top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda's hideout in Odisha is believed to have helped the security forces carry anti-Maoist operation against Mallojula Koteshwar Rao alias Kishenji. According to sources, the laptop was analysed by top analysts in Delhi to locate the whereabouts of the no 3 leader in the Maoist hierarchy.

Kishenji
According to sources, security forces including the CRPF had surrounded Kishenji and a few other top leaders in the forests of West Bengal on Wednesday itself. However, Kishenji managed to give police the slip only to land in the middle of yet another ambush. An encounter for half an hour resulted in his killing. 

Panda's laptop is believed to have provided several important clues about the whereabouts of other leaders including another politburo member Akkiraju Ramakrishna alias RK. According to soruces, RK was earlier spotted in the Andhra-Orissa border. However, a miscommunication among the security forces in cornering him allowed him to escape the police net recently. Though unconfirmed, sources said the next target would be RK since his location has almost been confirmed.

However, the rights groups are crying foul at Kishenji's encounter. They believe like in the case of 'encountered' top leader Azad, Kishenji too was captured somewhere else and brought to Junglemahal only to be shot from close range. According to sources among the sympathizers, Kishenji has a security cover of about 40 people armed with advanced weaponry and there is no way he alone getting killed. The other version that is pointing at the cause of action is the infight within the Maoist party.

Though the staunch supporters of Maoists rule out any infighting, sources said that the local leaders particularly the natives of the eastern region in the party have always been opposing the way Kishenji operated and did not like a Telugu climbing up the ladder in the hierarchy. "Undoubtedly there is an information leak from within the party," a source said.

Source : DNA http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_pandas-laptop-helped-securitymen-lay-trap-for-kishenji_1616995

Related Post List of Social Workers and Political Activists arrested, killed online.


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Posted By Abhay to Naxalite Maoist India at 11/25/2011 10:31:00 AM

[Naxalite Maoist India] Kishenji traced through Sabyasachi Panda's Laptop

Panda's laptop helped securitymen lay trap for Kishenji 

A laptop confiscated recently from a top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda's hideout in Odisha is believed to have helped the security forces carry anti-Maoist operation against Mallojula Koteshwar Rao alias Kishenji. According to sources, the laptop was analysed by top analysts in Delhi to locate the whereabouts of the no 3 leader in the Maoist hierarchy.

According to sources, security forces including the CRPF had surrounded Kishenji and a few other top leaders in the forests of West Bengal on Wednesday itself. However, Kishenji managed to give police the slip only to land in the middle of yet another ambush. An encounter for half an hour resulted in his killing.
Panda's laptop is believed to have provided several important clues about the whereabouts of other leaders including another politburo member Akkiraju Ramakrishna alias RK. According to soruces, RK was earlier spotted in the Andhra-Orissa border. However, a miscommunication among the security forces in cornering him allowed him to escape the police net recently. Though unconfirmed, sources said the next target would be RK since his location has almost been confirmed.

However, the rights groups are crying foul at Kishenji's encounter. They believe like in the case of 'encountered' top leader Azad, Kishenji too was captured somewhere else and brought to Junglemahal only to be shot from close range. According to sources among the sympathizers, Kishenji has a security cover of about 40 people armed with advanced weaponry and there is no way he alone getting killed. The other version that is pointing at the cause of action is the infight within the Maoist party.

Though the staunch supporters of Maoists rule out any infighting, sources said that the local leaders particularly the natives of the eastern region in the party have always been opposing the way Kishenji operated and did not like a Telugu climbing up the ladder in the hierarchy. "Undoubtedly there is an information leak from within the party," a source said.

Source : DNA http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_pandas-laptop-helped-securitymen-lay-trap-for-kishenji_1616995

Related Post List of Social Workers and Political Activists arrested, killed online.


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Posted By Abhay to Naxalite Maoist India at 11/25/2011 10:17:00 AM

Monday, October 17, 2011

[Naxalite Maoist India] Naxalite student demonstration video 1968 - Calcutta

This is a fragment from the Louis Malle documentary Calcutta (1969). It shows Naxalite student organisations demonstrating and the Calcutta police firing on them. It also has some clips of the United Front student demonstration.

Related Post

The Life and Struggle in Regional Engineering College, Durgapur 1966 to 1970





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Posted By Abhay to Naxalite Maoist India at 10/17/2011 02:24:00 PM

[Naxalite Maoist India] Jairam Ramesh on Naxalite-Maoist Movement of India


SARDAR PATEL MEMORIAL LECTURE
Some reflections on the Maoist issue: the title of the lecture comes from the popular image in the media that a "liberated" Red corridor is sought to be created extending from Andhra Pradesh to Nepal and cutting across the very heart of India...
Text of the Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture (organised by Prasar Bharati) by the minister for rural development
I am not just privileged but also truly humbled to be part of this prestigious lecture series launched a half century and six years ago by none other than C. Rajagopalachari. Many distinguished personalities have preceded me and this makes me feel all the more honoured to be here this evening.

To say anything about such an indomitable colossus as Sardar Patel, one of our Founding Fathers, would be gratuitous. Often referred to as the "Iron Man" and as the "Bismarck of India", he was part of the triumvirate which dominated the Indian National Congress and indeed the Indian political landscape for almost three decades. Using this imagery of the trinity, one of his well-known biographers B. Krishna wrote :"Gandhi represented Brahma-the creator and inspirer. Nehru reflected Vishnu's soft, gentle looks, a nobility of character and humanism that transcended barriers of caste and creed. And Patel proved, like Siva, the destroyer and unifier-the builder and consolidator of Modern India ". And in keeping with the modern-day Brahma's predilections, the destruction was peaceful. During his visit to India in 1955, Nikita Khrushchev is reported to have expressed his amazement at the Sardar's accomplishments by remarking "You Indians are an amazing people. How on earth did you manage to liquidate princely rule without liquidating the princes?"

On his death on December 15th, 1950, Nehru made an emotional statement in Parliament and described his departed comrade-in-arms as "the builder and consolidator of the new Indiaa great captain of our forces in the struggle for freedom...one who gave us sound advice in times of troubles as well as in moments of victory, a friend and colleague on whom one could invariably rely,, a tower of strength which revived wavering hearts when we were in trouble". The Cabinet Resolution of December 16th, 1950, drafted by Nehru himself, spoke of his "magnificent talents and abounding energy, his matchless courage, inflexible sense of discipline and genius for organisation".
Sardar Patel's contributions go beyond being the cartographer of immediate post-Independence India . He had a profound impact on our Constitution as well as chairman of the Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and Tribal and Excluded Areas in the Constituent Assembly. Granville Austin in his classic history of the making of the Indian Constitution writes: "Nehru and Patel were the focus of power in the (Constituent) Assembly....The blend in the Constitution of idealistic provisions and articles of a practical, administrative and technical nature is perhaps the best evidence of the joint influence of these two men". None other than Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar himself acknowledged this influence in his famous speech in the Constituent Assembly on November 25th, 1949 when he said: It is because of the discipline of the Congress Party that the Drafting Committee was able to pilot the Constitution in the Assembly with the sure knowledge as to the fate of each article and each amendment. The Congress Party is, therefore, entitled to all the credit for the smooth sailing of the Draft Constitution in the Assembly".

Today, India is the largest milk producer in the world and has seen a White Revolution captured memorably in Shyam Benegal's Manthan. Not many know that it was on entirely on Sardar Patel's bidding that the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union was set up in 1946 under the chairmanship of his lieutenant Tribhuvandas Patel. This was then to spawn the Amul cooperative movement under Dr. V. Kurien's leadership in Anand.
II
The topic of my lecture is "From Tirupati to Pashupati: Some Reflections on the Maoist1 Issue". The title comes from the popular image in the media that a "liberated" Red corridor is sought to be created extending from Andhra Pradesh to Nepal and cutting across the very heart of India . This has been described by the Prime Minister to be India 's most serious internal security challenge and by the Home Minister to be even graver than the problem of terrorism. Armed communist insurgency is something that the nascent Indian nation-state of which Sardar Patel was the home minister confronted in Telangana even as the Constituent Assembly was debating the architecture of our republican democracy founded on adult suffrage and positive discrimination in favour of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The modern-day Maoists see themselves as legatees of this uprising2, which Sardar Patel dealt with firmly but sensitively.

The phenomenon of Naxal violence has been studied by official committees from time to time. I recall that in the early 1980s, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sent a team headed by the-then Member-Secretary of the Planning Commission to conduct field-level studies of Naxal-affected areas in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh and recommend solutions both for the Centre and the States to adopt. The author of this report is, incidentally, now our Prime Minister. The recommendations were many but the main point made was that urgent and long-festering socio-economic concerns of the weaker sections of society must be addressed meaningfully if the influence of Naxal groups is to be countered effectively.

More recently, three years ago the Planning Commission published the report of its 17-member expert group on development challenges in extremist-affected areas. And what a group this was. It had all the people you would want for such an exercise, people who have spent a life time thinking, speaking, writing and working on this subject—people like Debu Bandopadhyay, S.R. Sankaran K. Balagopal, B.D. Sharma, K.B. Saxena, Ram Dayal Munda, Dileep Singh Bhuria and Sukhadeo Thorat to name just eight of them. As was only to be expected, the report of this group was extraordinarily detailed. It gave the historical, political, social and economic context to the issue, reviewed government efforts to deal with the problem and recommended a number of key policy and programme measures and changes to vastly and visibly reduce, if not totally eradicate, the effects of Left-wing extremism in different states. Running into 95 pages, this report may lack the lyrical beauty and sheer poetry, misleading though it may be, of Arundhati Roy's now famous 33-page essay in Outlook magazine3 but for sheer comprehensiveness and depth of analysis and for showing a practical way ahead it has no peers.

Please permit me to inject a personal note here. As a student of India 's political dynamics I have always had an intellectual interest in this subject, but over the last seven years, my involvement has grown and has become increasingly more direct. First, since 2004 when I became a Member of Parliament from Andhra Pradesh, I have used my MPLADS funds mostly in Adilabad, Warangal and Khammam—three Naxal-affected districts--to strengthen women's self-help group organisations and reduce the trust deficit between tribal communities and the civil administration. Second, between June 2009 and July 2011 as minister in charge of environment and forests it fell on me to bring about changes in forest policy and administration since this has been identified as a key factor in dealing with the issue of Naxal violence. Third, since July 2011 as minister in charge of rural development covering key programmes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), watershed management, drinking water supply, housing, social assistance and modernisation of land records, an opportunity has been afforded to me to address the development deficit in the Naxal-affected areas that the 17-member Planning Commission expert group so tellingly identified.
III
Before I go any further on the development route, I wish to pause and reflect on something that the Union Home Minister has so forcefully said on more than one occasion, quite in contrast to his predecessor who described the Naxals as "our wayward and misguided younger brothers" (and I should add increasingly sisters) who have to be gently persuaded and cajoled to give up the cult of violence and wanton killings. Both in Parliament and outside, the present Home Minister has said that on the basis of material gathered from captured left-wing extremist groups, it is unequivocally clear that their objective is the violent overthrow of the Indian state and that their basic ideology is a complete rejection of parliamentary democracy as enshrined in our Constitution. Knowing the Home Minister as I do, I can attest to the fact that he believes very much in the "developmentalist" approach, the strategy and approach advocated, for instance, by the expert committee of the Planning Commission to which I referred earlier. But he does raise a fundamental point that should not be brushed aside summarily. Of course, the Indian state has confronted many groups in the past that reject its very basis and rationale. And in many cases, these very groups that have fought the might of the Indian state for years have finally come around and become a peaceful part of our polity. I might recall here that in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Kameshwar Baitha, a top Naxal leader, contested and won on a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) ticket from Palamau in Jharkhand.

Some weeks back in Kolkata the Union Home Minister reiterated that the Centre is ready for unconditional talks with Maoists and all that it is demanding that they stop violence without necessarily giving up their ideology, surrendering their arms or even disbanding their militias and armies. I cannot think of a fairer offer than this.
It is my good fortune to have two outstanding IAS officers working with me now, both have had the misfortune of being abducted by the Naxals. One was kidnapped in 1987 in Rampachodavaram in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh along with S.R. Sankaran and kept captive for four days. The other was held hostage for nine days in Malkangiri district of Orissa. Both the officers are very strong advocates of the S.R. Sankaran approach of development and sensitive governance in tribal areas. But in my continuing conversations with them, two things have emerged. One, the Naxals are exploiting the tribals and two, the tribals themselves want peace, not war. The Naxals are using the tribal areas and issues for their tactical purposes. The terrain and the forests suit them for guerrilla warfare. They have spread their terror and ensured that the developmental activities are obstructed. The tribal cause, which the Naxals espouse, is only a mask to further their own agenda. The Malkangiri incident is a clear message from the tribals of the region that they want development and not Naxal terror.

What is clear is that we need a two-track approach--one that deals with the leadership of the Naxals, who wish to overthrow the Indian state and the other, which focuses on the concerns of the people they pretend/claim to serve. There is clearly a need to recognise tribal populations as victims--first of state apathy and discrimination and then of the Naxal agenda. My firm belief is that a complete revamp of administration and governance in tribal areas, especially in central and eastern India , is the pressing need of the hour. Andhra Pradesh has attempted to do this through its ITDA (Integrated Tribal Development Agency) model but much more needs to be done. We must also come to grips with the sad reality that affirmative action programmes like reservations have had a very marginal impact on the welfare of the central and eastern Indian tribal communities.
IV
The Union Government has identified 60 districts in seven states that are affected by left-wing extremism. Of these, 15 are in Orissa, 14 in Jharkhand, 10 in Chattisgarh, 8 in Madhya Pradesh, 7 in Bihar, 2 each in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh and 1 each in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. 18 more districts are being considered for inclusion. States have said that the "block" and not the district should be the basic unit for identification and I quite agree with this demand. There are a few districts, for instance, Guntur in Andhra Pradesh and Raipur in Chattisgarh, which are not part of this 60 but where certain blocks are badly affected. I am hopeful that when we get into the XIIth Five Year Plan from April 2012, we would have made this change from the district to the block.

When you look at these 60 districts on a map of India , five characteristics stand out. I should, however, mention straightaway that the 7 districts of Bihar are an exception to these generalisations. Bihar has its own dynamics embedded in caste and land-related structures.
  • First, an overwhelming majority of these districts have substantial population of tribal communities.
  • Second, an overwhelming majority of these districts have significant area under good quality forest cover.
  • Third, a large number of these districts are rich in minerals like coal, bauxite and iron ore.
  • Fourth, in a number of states, these districts are remote from the seat of power and have large administrative units.
  • Fifth, a large number of districts are located in tri-junction areas of different states.
Let me make a couple of observations based on personal experience on each of these characteristics.
On the size of administrative units, recently on a visit to Chattisgarh I discovered that the size of some blocks (like Conta in Dantewada district and Orchha in Narayanpur district and Orgi in Surguja district) was equivalent to the size of some districts in some other states and indeed equivalent to the size of some other states themselves. Given poor connectivity and infrastructure to begin with, this is a huge handicap to contend with by administrators. Rationalisation of administrative units is entirely within the domain and powers of state governments. The Chattisgarh government has very recently decided to create five more districts in the Naxal-affected regions of the state and this is a good step.

On the tri-junction nature of these districts, Debu Bandopadhyay, one of the key administrators responsible for land reforms in West Bengal in the seventies and early eighties, has an interesting story to tell. When I mentioned this dimension to him recently in Kolkata he recalled that this was very much part of Hare Krishna Konar's considerations while working out the strategy in the early 1960s before the CPM came to power in West Bengal. I was told that Konarbabu focussed on three specific areas as epicentres for class struggles—Naxalbari, Jangalmahal and Hasnabad--all three of which are in tri-junction areas. Today the key tri-junction areas are Chattisgarh-Maharashtra-Andhra Pradesh, Orissa-Chattisgarh-Andhra Pradesh, Orissa-Jharkhand-Chattisgarh, Orissa-West Bengal-Jharkhand. The challenge is to quickly improve infrastructure—roads and bridges more specifically—that enables basic developmental activities to be carried out. My own view is that there is no alternative to the Central government stepping in for financing and executing these tri-junction infrastructure works. It is not happening at the speed at which it is required.

Realising the need for smaller units accompanied by a broader pan-state approach to dealing with the administrative aspect is an important first step to deal with the problem. But the real challenge is how do you transform administration in tribal areas so as not only to give people a sense of participation and involvement but, more fundamentally, to preserve and protect their dignity"? How do you prevent or address their continued victimisation, first by the state and now by the Naxals? Empowering the tribals, who are essentially victims, by giving access to basics, by giving them what is theirs by right and by securing their livelihoods is, to my mind, an absolute undiluted must4. Here, issues related to land ownership and land alienation must receive over-riding priority.

On the minerals issue, the Union Cabinet has very recently approved the repeal of the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957 and its replacement by a new law. This new law will establish a District Mineral Foundation in each of the mineral-rich districts into which will flow every year an amount equal the royalty paid (for minerals other than coal) and equal to 26% of net profits as far as coal is concerned. This works out to something like Rs 10,000 crore annually at present rates to be distributed across the mineral-rich districts which could each get close to Rs 180-200 crore per year. These additional resources are to be used for local infrastructure development and for the welfare of the communities impacted by mining activities. The new law also provides for the approval of local communities before mining concessions are granted and when mine closure plans are implemented.

On the forests dimension of the Naxal-affected districts, I took five major initiatives when I was at the MoE&F. First, state government-executed physical and social infrastructure works requiring less than 5 hectares each of forest land were exempted from the approval processes of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 as also the need for compensatory afforestation. Second, amendments were approved to Section 68 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 that not only raise the monetary limits to which offences could be compounded but also ensure that local forest officials can lodge cases only after the written consent of the gram sabha. Third, a beginning was made in Menda-Lekha village of Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra to transfer control of the transit pass book for bamboo—the most important NTFP (non-timber forest produce)—from the forest department to the gram sabha5Fourth, an expert review of the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 was initiated along with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and specific reform measures identified including a sharper focus on the recognition and granting of community, as opposed to just individual rights. Fifth, the idea of a Central minimum support price (MSP) for 12 major items of NTFP, coupled with the removal of all purchase monopolies, was taken up with the Planning Commission and the Finance Ministry. These initiatives must be taken forward. More than anything else, I firmly believe that a completely transformed forest administration lies at the very core of an effective anti-Naxal strategy.

Regarding the tribal nature of the Naxal-affected districts, much has been said about the pivotal role that the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (known popularly as PESA, 1996) can play in fulfilling the aspirations of people in a manner by which they are fully involved and empowered. However, even after fifteen years, the Act has yet to be translated into reality primarily because of the reluctance of the states and also because of the reluctance of the Centre to invoke its provisions to take on a more direct and active (and activist) role in Schedule V areas. There continues to be considerable divergence of opinion on whether "consultations" with the gram sabha as envisaged in the legislation is adequate or whether there should, in fact, be "prior informed consent" before the start of development projects. Furthermore, I am convinced that implementing PESA in an environment where the local administration is dominated by disinterested and always-ready-to-leave non-tribal personnel will just not have any positive impacts. The technical and organisational capacity of panchayati raj institutions has to be built up urgently.

One important administrative innovation introduced by the Central government in these 60 districts is to give untied funds to a troika comprising the Collector/District Magistrate, the Superintendent of Police and the District Forest Officer. In 2010/11, Rs 25 crore was released to each district and in 2011/12 another Rs 30 crore will be released. The idea is that the triumvirate representing the face of the Indian state as it were would be in a position to identify critical developmental works that could taken up and completed quickly so that the people begin to see the government in a completely new light. These works cover ashram schools, anganwadi centres, drinking water schemes and roads. This has spurred unprecedented development activity in these districts and it is interesting to note that none of the works taken up so far have been the target of Naxal attacks. This initiative should continue on an expanded scale but the challenge will be to give a role to elected representatives and local elected institutions in the selection and execution of works without, of course, losing its essence—which is flexibility and speed of execution.
V
In my current ministerial assignment, I consider the PMGSY to be the single-most important rural development intervention that can significantly transform the ground-level situation in the LWE-affected districts. This is not to minimise the importance of other programmes but the PMGSY stands apart. The first target of Naxals is roads, that is why PMGSY works are severely lagging in the LWE-affected districts. Some innovations have been made to maximise the involvement of local contractors, for instance. But there have been frequent instances of these contractors being killed. Some degree of security cover by para-military agencies like the CRPF will be essential to expedite PMGSY works. But we have a long way to go.

There are 25 districts out of the 60 LWE-affected districts where the expenditure levels are lower than the overall national average. And within these 25, there is a core of 10 districts where expenditure levels are lower than the average for the LWE-districts themselves. These to me appear to be the districts where Naxal activity is most intense. These ten districts are Bijaipur, Narayanpur and Dantewada in Chattisgarh, Gadchiroli in Maharashtra , Khammam in Andhra Pradesh, Lohardaga, Gumla, Latehar and Simdega in Jharkhand and Malkangiri in Orissa. It is here that we need the synergy between the security forces and implementing agencies on the ground in order to speed up connectivity without which nothing else worthwhile is really possible.

We have estimated that in order to complete all PMGSY works covering habitations with a population of 250 to 500 in these 60 LWE-affected districts about Rs 15,000 crore will be needed. Another Rs 19,000 crore will be needed to complete road connectivity to habitations with population less than 250. In addition, we will need additional funds to complete small and minor bridges (unlinked with PMGSY roads per se) which have an importance of their own in these LWE-affected districts. I am optimistic that these resources will be forthcoming—the challenge really will be to ensure project completion in the next three-four years at most. We need a renewed sense of urgency and a "get it done" attitude. And we are battling huge odds. One small bridge—the 1 km Gurupriya bridge—that is crucial to fighting Naxalism in Malkangiri district in Orissa has been talked about for almost three decades and it still remains to be constructed.

Along with PMGSY, I consider interventions to ensure the speedy settlement of land-related disputes to be high priority in the LWE-affected districts. In many places, the ability of the Naxal cadres to mete out "instant justice" has given them a foothold and acceptance amongst the people at large. Here I recall my personal experience some years back. When I first went to Adilabad in 2004, I met a feisty Gond lady called Mankubai whose land had been usurped by outsiders and she had been fighting her case with the government and with the judiciary for over two decades. I immediately mobilised some young lawyers who, working under the aegis of the state government's Society for the Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), were able to get Mankubai's land restored to her. That experience is still fresh in my memory and that is why I am now proposing to support the establishment of paralegal assistance centres in all the LWE-affected districts. These centres would document all cases of land alienation and work for the restoration of lands to their rightful owners, mostly tribals.
VI
The might of the Indian state is in the Naxal-affected areas. 71 battalions of central para-military forces, amounting to some 71,000 personnel, have been deployed. They have a vital role to play in backing the state police and in developmental activities. The Collector of LWE-affected Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh told me recently how the presence and approach of the CRPF in the area had a considerable psychological impact enabling villagers to come out in large numbers to seek employment under MGNREGA. But let us be clear, para-military and police action cannot and should not be the driving force. The driving force has necessarily to be development and addressing the daily concerns of the people, of people who have every reason to feel alienated. Massive reform of the police and the forest administration at the cutting edge is the need of the hour. A more humane policy of land acquisition with focus on effective rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) is the need of the hour. I think it was Walter Fernandes the noted sociologist who estimated that over 50 million people in central and eastern India have been displaced over the past five decades due to developmental projects. R&R for very large numbers of people has yet to be completed. Worse, there are large numbers of tribals who have been subjected to repeated displacements. It is not the Naxals who have created the ground conditions ripe for the acceptance of their ideology—it is the singular failure of successive governments both in states and governments to protect the dignity and the Constitutional rights of the poor and the disadvantaged that has created a fertile breeding ground for violence and given the Naxals space to speak the language of social welfare but in reality use that as a cloak to construct their guerrilla bases and recruit most tragically women and children in large numbers.
VII
So where do we go from here? Let us not underestimate the seriousness of the threat we are faced with. I, for one, do not believe that a "developmentalist" strategy alone, so eloquently advocated by the Planning Commission's Expert Group, will do. I also do not believe that a strategy based on the primacy of para-military and police action will yield long-term results. The two must go hand-in-hand deriving strength from each other. We are combating not just a destructive ideology but are also confronted with the wages of our own insensitivity and neglect, especially in so far as the central Indian tribal population is concerned. Simply put, we need to rise above partisan political considerations and set aside old centre versus state arguments and work concertedly to restore people's faith in the administration to be fair and just, to be prompt and caring, to be prepared to redress the injustices of the past, and to be both responsible and responsive in future. Only then will the tide of Naxalism be stemmed.
IX
started by paying tribute to Sardar Patel's enduring achievements. Let me end by recalling two other dimensions of his personality, which somehow have not received the attention they deserve. First, was his sense of fairness. He was tough and uncompromising but, at the same time, large-hearted. Nothing captures this better than his exchange with the Nawab of Bhopal who wrote to him in August 1947: "I do not disguise the fact that while the struggle was on, I used every means in my power to preserve the independence of my state. Now that I have conceded defeat, I hope you will find that I can be as staunch a friend as I have been an inveterate opponent". Patel's reply was quick: "I do not look upon the accession of your state as either a victory or defeat for you. It is only right and propriety that have triumphed at the end, and in that triumph you and I have played our respective roles. Second, was his devastating sense of humour. He comes across as a stern, serious, and single-minded individual, which he undoubtedly was. But he had a deadly wit as well, perhaps surpassed only by Sarojini Naidu in that remarkable generation of men and women. The distinguished diplomat K.P.S. Menon records in his autobiography a discussion that took place in 1950 on Goa in which Sardar Patel wanted quick action saying that it was just two hours work to liberate it from Portuguese rule but Nehru resisted the suggestion saying that it would create international complications. Menon reports that Sardar Patel remarked to a friend that Nehru was proving himself to be not merely the political heir of Mahatma Gandhi but a lineal descendant of Gautama Buddha! And those of you who think that only Nehru was his target, consider this gem from Krishna's biography. Making fun of Gandhi's preference for using baking soda in almost every drink, Sardar Patel would offer a solution to a difficult problem with the humorous remark-- soda dalo na.

Source : Outlook 



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Posted By Abhay to Naxalite Maoist India at 10/17/2011 02:20:00 PM