A Birthday wish to our daughter Beverly

Our Dearest Beverly,

You were a gift to us

four years

after our first

was born.

Pretty and Precious

but thank God

not perfect, not precocious,

coz'  with every dawn

you'll strive to improve

and never give up

till, to the world you prove.

You wipe our tears

You calm our fears

You are a leader

for us to cheer,

a precious jewel

in our somewhat

worn out crown.

But, It’s when you sing

With that mellifluous voice

That we drop everything

to listen -  It’s our  choice

A score and one

is a magical number

In the life of anyone

For, from fun and frolic

and natural dependence

will be born,

the sense of responsibility

and independence.

in earning to live

in spending, and to give,

in almost everything,

you hold dear.

But always remember

We love you and

we will always, always

be near.

With love and best wishes on your 21st Birthday

Dada and Mama

1/10/2015

Club memberships: State Politicians set to jump the queue

Bengaluru: Both the Central and the state Governments are in the Control+Alter+Delete Mode. The state government, run by a party which has been vocal against the politics of bans, has gently set in motion the process to enact legislation making it mandatory for all private clubs and associations to sanction out of turn membership to lawmakers, including MLAs and MPs, and regulate their functioning.

The draft bill has been put up on the government's website for feedback until the 18th of September. The government is expected to bring the bill to the assembly during the winter session.

In August 2012, the Assembly dominated then by the BJP, set up a seven-member committee, headed by Hemachandra Sagar, to look into the functioning of all private clubs as demanded by the then leader of the Opposition, Siddaramaiah, now chief minister. The panel visited 26 clubs across the state and submitted its report in March 2013.

Inspector General of Registration and Commissioner of Stamps Manoj Kumar Meena said the bill has been drafted as per the Assembly committee recommendations. The department will soon hold a meeting with representatives of clubs, he added.

The Legislation:

The Bill's introduction says it is "A Bill to provide for removal of restriction, imposed by recreation clubs and public places, on persons wearing veshti, (dhoti) reflecting Kannada culture or any lndian traditional, dress, to enter into such places and for regulating the Membership and fee therein"

Thus ostensibly it has three objects – regulation of dress codes, memberships and fees of private clubs". All of these are now regulated by the bye laws of these individual clubs, which are by and large run by annually elected committees from among their membership.

Even as the bill says that its intent is to eradicate the colonial legacy, it seems to be seeking to impose its own neo colonial legacy, as it prescribes harsh penalties on the office bearers of clubs, for failure to comply with the bill and the rules made under it.

Dress Codes:

Many private clubs have not altered their age old dress code rules which permit entry only for those in western attire. It is a discriminatory rule of the colonial era, designed to keep unwanted desi's out. However, it also serves the purpose of uniformity and is perhaps why it has been retained.

The bill seeks to remove such restrictions when in clause 3 it says " no person, wearing a veshti (dhoti) reflecting Kannada culture or any other lndian traditional dress, shall be denied entry into any public place, by reason only of this dress: Provided that the dress shall be worn in a decent manner".

The Bangalore Club, started in 1868 by the British, requires its members to be dressed in 'western style' including shoes. Kurtha Pyjamas and Kolhapuri Chappals are not permitted. This is true of many clubs in Bengaluru. A few years ago, the club denied entry to the then-director of the National Law School of India University, Dr Mohan Gopal, as he was dressed in a dhoti-kurta.

Gopal's protests did not cut any ice with the Club’s managing committee and finally he resigned saying “No club, howsoever exclusive, can or should consider itself above the core values embodied in our Constitution. I regret that I am unable to associate any longer with an institution that treats our culture and attire with prejudice and contempt."

Karnataka’s bill has borrowed heavily from a similar bill passed by the Tamil Nadu assembly last year, after a similar episode involving a High Court Judge.

Membership queues

The most controversial clause of the bill is perhaps clause 5 which enables legislators and other eminent persons to jump the membership queue. It says, " no membership shall be denied to, Member of Parliament, Member of Legislative Assembly, Member of Legislative Council, person with meritorious contribution in sports, ex-servicemen or renowned person and those who have strived for, upliftment of society, cause of State and the nation, without their representations for allotment of membership being duly considered".

These provisions are sufficiently vague for the government to push the membership of anyone the government chooses. It’s not clear, if after due consideration, the clubs can reject an application for membership from an eminent person as described by the bill. The bill also does not specify if the membership should be considered out of turn, whether it’s for the duration of the legislator's term, or whether it should be free of cost. These details will be known, once the rules are prescribed.

It seems that this is a battle between old Bengaluru and its elite, and the new power centers. Some say its old money vs. new. In a way, this is Bangalore vs. Bengaluru.

Membership Fee:

Bengaluru has many family clubs. These include sports associations like the KSCA and the Hockey association which have their own club houses. The admission fee in colonial clubs in Bengaluru, the Bowring Institute, the Century Club, the Bangalore Club and the Bangalore City Institute, which are over 100 years old range from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 25 lakh and, in many clubs, the wait period is 15-20 years. Monthly subscriptions depend on the facilities being offered.

The House panel which went into this issue suggested formulating guidelines “for fixing membership fee and creating an environment to provide membership to the common people”.

With a view to controlling the spiraling membership fee, in whose favor it is not clear as yet, Clubs are under the provisions of this bill, required to mandatorily seek the approval of the Government before prescribing a membership fee. Clause 4 says that “no unreasonable membership fee shall be prescribed, without the approval of the Government".

Clubs – a worried lot

Clubs are running scared after the Bangalore Club episode, in which the Club lost its bar license and its ownership of the land on which it stands was questioned following an altercation between a sentry and an institutional member, an IPS officer. The high court has given a temporary reprieve on the ownership issue, but the club's bar remains permanently shut.

Having read the clauses of the draft bill, Clubs says they are willing to make certain concessions, like altering their dress codes, but privately say that they say they can't allow politicians or anybody else to jump membership queues. They say they have no issue on providing temporary or associate membership with all the associated privileges that such membership entails on payment of the prescribed fees, but are wary of providing any special treatment to the detriment of regular members.

Legislators Club:

True, legislators have not been able to make an entry into prestigious clubs due perhaps, to the long membership queues and the membership process itself. It is for this reason that they have previously tried to have a club of their own on the lines the Constitution Club of India. Two heritage structures, the Balabrooie guest house and the Carlton House, both government properties were considered, but abandoned due to public criticism. It appears that this bill is their way circumventing the problem.

A battle is looming. Bangalore is not going to give in so easily to Bengaluru. They are likely to take the fight all the way to the Apex Court, and there is no way to predict how the battle will end, but one thing is fo sure, the clubs will never be the same again, as they live in apprehension of  the guillotine.

Newskarnataka Link

The story of our democracy - dissent and be damned

Yesterday morning, the CBI raided premises connected with the social activist Teesta Setalvad, triggering protests from her and her well wishers on the social media. Setalvad described the raids as nothing but a BJP Vendetta.   

The raid was based on a case registered last week against Ms Setalvad and her organization for alleged violation of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act in receiving funds from abroad without taking prior permission from the Home Ministry.

The fate of Setalvad, who took on the Modi Government in Gujarat over the 2002 riots in a variety of forums, ranging from the media, to the court room was all but sealed when the Modi Govt. took over at the Centre in the summer of 2014.

Setalvad, who was a thorn in the BJP’s  flesh for more than a decade since the Gujarat riots  is now set to be extricated surgically,  after several unsuccessful but ongoing attempts to do so by the state government since 2006.  Willing or compelled,  central agencies have now been roped in to deal the knockout blow.  While a number of cases have been foisted upon her since 2006, the one that has hit the headlines and continues to do so, is the one against Sabrang communications, Sabrang Trust and Citizens for Justice and peace, a company, a trust and an NGO in which she has an interest.

Sources indicate that the  Central Bureau of Investigation has filed an FIR against Setalvad under Sections 120b read with Sections 35, 37 of IPC and Section 3, 11 and 19 of the FCRA Act of 2010 (criminal conspiracy and receiving funds illegally) after notices were issued to her and her husband and which were responded to with voluminous documentation. In the First Information Report FIR, the agency has also named Ms Setalvad's husband Javed Anand and Gulam Mohammed Peshimam, both directors in Sabrang Communications and Publishing based in Santacruz, Mumbai.

The Case

Sabrang Communications was set up in 1993 and began publishing the journal ‘Communalism Combat’.  It was Sabrang Communications that published the controversial Justice Srikrishna Commission Report into the Mumbai communal riots of 1992-'93, soon after  Jyoti Punwani and Vijendra, printed 500 copies of  it even before the state government made it public and provided the public with a glimpse of  how  public administration works when a riot takes place.  Were the riots compounded, contained or constrained is a question that the report tried to answer.

Setalvad and her husband Anand set up the Sabrang Trust in 1995 and did amazing work, winning several awards during the period up until the Gujarat Riots in 2002, and incidentally nobody questioned their work. 

They established Citizens for Justice and Peace in 2002 after the riots and went after the alleged perpetrators of the Gujarat violence, pursuing them through various courts.  They hired lawyers, identified witnesses, helped record their statements and worked tirelessly for the cause of the victims of the riots and justice. The 120 or so convictions in this sorry episode in Indian history cannot all be attributed to them, but certainly their efforts had a large role to play in a number of convictions.

Even as they became a thorn in the flesh of the Modi government in Gujarat, pushing victim’s cases, and pursuing the alleged perpetrators, both in the courts and on television, their work was not overtly hampered, for fear of a national media backlash, until they went after the then Chief minister of Gujarat, and current prime minister Narendra Modi in the case of the death by rioting of Javed Jafri. They supported the widow of the Congress MP, Ehsan Jafri, in her pursuit of the alleged perpetrators of the crime.

The NGO, set up by Teesta Setalvad, ‘Citizens for Justice and Peace’, helped Zakia Jafri file a criminal complaint for criminal and administrative culpability against top politicians and policemen, including the then chief minister, Narendra Modi. The Supreme Court set up a Special Investigation team (SIT) to go into the charges of criminal conspiracy, but their report stated that there was not enough evidence to prove his involvement. Hence the ‘clean chit’.  Jafri, aided by Setalvad, protested in the trial court in December 2013, but her petition was rejected. They filed a revision petition in March 2014 and this will now be heard on July 27th   instant.

Interestingly, within eight days of the petition being rejected an FIR was filed against Setalvad and others for embezzlement of funds collected for the Gulbarg Society. All the organization’s accounts and Setalvad’s personal accounts were frozen soon thereafter.  

The Gujarat Crime Branch which till date, had handled all the cases related to   Setalvad, was by now comfortable in the knowledge that the Centre would be a willing ally in their efforts to shut down Setalvad’s activities. They wrote to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)  in Delhi in March 2015, raising objections to Setalvad’s organizations receiving funds from the Ford Foundation. With surprising alacrity, the ministry sent notices to them about violating provisions of the Foreign Contributions Regulations Act. While Setalvad’s NGO was not the exception to this FCRA query,  as things turned out, they were certainly, along with Greenpeace, a prime target. The Ford Foundation, despite the Obama Modi bonhomie, was caught in the cross fire and like any other Foreign contributor, is now required to get clearance from the Home Ministry, before releasing funds to any non-governmental organization.

The Ministry of Home Affairs raised three questions – one of eligibility to receive foreign contributions, the second of record keeping, and the third, lobbying with political parties the government accused Sabrang communications of accepting $421,000 from Ford Foundation in violation of FCRA and without getting prior approval from the union home ministry. 

Sabrang in its defense says that under section 4 of the FCRA 2010 they are entitled and they convinced themselves of this legality after consulting experts and before signing a Consultancy Agreement with Ford Foundation in 2004 and 2006 "to address the issues of caste and communalism" through a clearly defined set of activities. In their response to the MHA in respect of the second query, Sabrang reiterated that they had kept records and had  provided copies of the same to the FCRA team, during the inspection visit of the  team in Mumbai on June 9 and 10, 2015, and additional documents as required were also posted to the FCRA department. As regards the third accusation, the Setalvad team says that they are not lobbying, but as an NGO they engage with the government of the day to draw their attention towards the legitimate social issues.

According to them, the organizations in the dock, sent in nearly 25000 pages of documents to support their responses, yet the CBI filed an FIR against Setalvad and raided her residence.  The next objective seems to be custody, which the Supreme Court has been preventing through repeated injunctions based on pleas from the Setalvad couple.
 
As of now, all Setalvad can do is defend herself against the series of FIR’s and warrants, thereby slowing down her pro bono legal work through her trusts, if not stifling it all together, which the government appears determined to do.   She has to commute from Mumbai where she lives and works to Ahmadabad and Delhi, from one court to another to sustain her freedom and work – just as the Doctor in Delhi ordered.

Throttling dissent and vilifying opponents

While Setalvad’s NGO is not the only one in the eye of the NGO squeeze, and therefore cannot prima facie be seen as the target of the pogrom – Greenpeace is one other prominent one among them – it certainly is a reminder of the power of the state to crush its opponents, - and opponents of the state they are, but in the interest of civil liberties -  through instruments of state oppression, legally, and ruthlessly. 

While the government says, and rightfully so, that they are merely ensuring the rule of law and due process, to the discerning lay observer that has voted this government to power for development, it would appear that the state is using the innumerable instruments at its disposal to intimidate and throttle dissent, and ultimately buy silence and compliance. Examples abound from the Setalvad case to the Khemka and Amitabh Thakur case, and even the killing of a number of RTI activists in the recent past.  Dissent in the social media too, has been viewed with a jaudiced eye. This is not healthy for a vibrant democracy that should welcome dissent.
 
The actions of the government in the Malegon blast case, where a public prosecutor, by her own admission to the media, was directed to go slow, are in direct contrast to the alacrity displayed in the Teesta Case and the way other sensitive cases like the Ajmer Blast case are being handled.

Communal conflagrations of the magnitude of the Mumbai, Delhi and Gujarat riots are a thing of the past, and the government claims credit for this development, but they, perhaps deliberately, do not acknowledge, that the nature of the beast has changed.  Conflagrations’ are localized and low key, but are a constant, and peak just before state elections. Minorities have begun to feel insecure, and are retiring to their corners, hoping to be ignored, but that is not going to happen very easily. 

Viewed against this backdrop, silence of the leadership in government cannot mean anything else other than complicity.

Newskarntaka Link

The state of play in our country beckons us...

As citizens we must be concerned about the state of play in our country. Are we? If we are and still remain silent then we are as guilty of the kind of excesses that are being witnessed across the country as the real perpetrators are - whoever they may be. Excesses that involve throttling dissent by intimidation, not by law, banning, by intimidation, not by law, preventing culture from being expressed, by intimidation, not by law, policing intermingling between genders, whether from the same or different communities, by intimidation, not by law, and even ghettoizing the minorities by preventing minorities from residing in housing societies or buying  properties…. by intimidation, not by law. A democracy is built on the cornerstone of law, unlike a monarchy or an autocracy, which is indeed built on intimidation.

The events that cast a shadow

The recent wave of incidents began with the "beef murder" in Dadri. Patently, it was not an accident, but the result of intimidation, for doing something that was "not acceptable". Politics took over soon after, and the essence of the issue was lost, TV Debates notwithstanding. While the MHA warned of strict action against all equally, doubts linger, because the ground reality has been shown to be different. Take for instance the case of the gau mutra test. On 6th October 2015, the Gujarat chapter of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad declared that non-Hindus, especially Muslim men, will not be allowed to enter garba dance events held in housing societies of the state, forget about residing there, and they would be tested for their Hinduism by what they called the gau mutra test - Gau Mutra would be sprinkled and you and you must not flinch.... if you want to pass the test!.

Then on 8th October 2015, the Shiv Sena threatened to disrupt a concert by Ghazal maestro Ghulam Ali, who was supposed to perform a tribute to Indian Ghazal icon, late Jagjit Singh. The Mumbai concert got cancelled, again by intimidation, not by law. They also threatened Sudheendra Kulkarni, who heads the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), to cancel a book launch of former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri scheduled for Monday noon. On the morning of the function, he was attacked, allegedly by Shiv Sena party leaders, and his face smeared with black ink “Shiv Sena activists threw ink at me and smeared my face. They abused me,” Kulkarni alleged. Kulkarni, was a speechwriter for former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. 

The BJP Government in Mahararastra were mere spectators to the entire drama, though some of the perpetrators were reportedly arrested later and the function itself went off smoothly, seemingly rupturing the already rocky relationship between the BJP and the Shiv Sena.

If Prime Minister Modi, the Prime Citizen, is himself silent on these events, can we then, say anything without retribution?  Is that perhaps the game plan? Credit, though, must be given where credit is due - He did break his silence, but only after he was compelled to do so, by the President taking the lead the previous day, to enormous coverage in the media. 

However, he approached the topic diplomatically, emboldening lumpen elements in his party. On October 8th, addressing a rally in election bound Bihar, he said, "In a democracy everyone has the right to speak their mind. But Hindus must decide whether they want to fight Muslims or poverty. Muslims must decide whether they want to fight Hindus or poverty," he said. "The Rashtrapati has shown us the way. There is no bigger inspiration than him, let's follow his path," he said.

Litterateurs in resign and return mode

A brewing confrontation has two approaches in Psychology – Fight or Flight. Most of our eminent litterateurs seem to have chosen the latter to register their protest against these events, rightly or wrongly, leaving the field open to   marauders.

Eminent literary figures, Shashi Deshpande, K Satchidanandan, P K Parakkadavu have resigned from their posts in the Akademi, citing the fact that the Akademi has been derelict in its duty in defending the community from the unparalleled attacks on their freedom of expression,  and the growing sense of intolerance for a different view. 

Kannada writer Aravind Malagatti too resigned from the body's general council, joining the growing protest by writers over "rising intolerance" and "communal" atmosphere. “Killing of personalities like Kalburgi, (Govind) Pansare and incidents like Dadri lynching are an attack on the Constitutional rights in this country. They are highly condemnable,” Malagatti said. Malagatti is among 20 representatives from various Universities in the General Council of the Sahitya Akademi.

In the meanwhile, other eminent personalities like Nayantara Sahgal, Ashok Vajpeyi and Sara Joseph have returned their Sahitya Akademi awards, while at the state level, six Kannada writers had earlier this month returned their awards to Kannada Sahitya Parishat upset over the delay in arrest of Kalburgi’s killers. In addition, Gujarat-based writer Ganesh Devy, 'Yuva Puraskar'-winning author Aman Sethi and four other eminent writers from Punjab Gurbachan Singh Bhullar, Ajmer Singh Aulakh, Atamjit Singh, Waryam Sandhu have returned their Sahitya Akademi awards all on one day for the same reasons. "The Akademi cannot draw its legitimacy by celebrating writers while shying clear of solidarity when they are targeted," Sethi said in a tweet.

Ganesh Devy said that his decision was an expression of solidarity with several other writers, who have stated their concerns of "shrinking space for free expression" and "growing intolerance towards difference of opinion".

Poet and a former chairperson of the Lait Kala Akademi, Ashok Vajpeyi returned his Sahitya Akademi award protesting against what  he called the silence of the Prime minister over the murders of writers. "The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) keeps quiet. He is an eloquent Prime Minister who addresses lakhs of people, but here writers are being murdered, innocent people are being killed, his ministers are making objectionable statements...Why doesn't he shut them up?" he told NDTV. 

"Why doesn't he tell the nation and the writing and creating community that the pluralism of this community will be defended at every cost? Although the government makes announcements that this would not be tolerated, that would not be tolerated ...but tolerance is there. How is it that all this has erupted now?" 

His renunciation of the award came after Nayantara Sahgal, the 88-year-old niece of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru gave up the honor protesting against what she called a "vicious assault" on India's diversity and debate.  Arguably, she did not have the same attitude when she accepted the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1986, after the Sikh riots, but the context is important. 

"He has uttered no word of condemnation at all at these incidents. The whole country wishes the Prime Minister to make a statement because the situation is getting more and more serious," Ms Sahgal said.

The strength of diversity in geography, culture and thought

You watch a Hollywood movie, and are dulled by the sameness of the characters and the geography. You go to a bollywood or any other ‘wood’ movie, and you are enchanted by the enactment and depiction of different cultures, and the varied geography. It's what India is, and its greatest appeal to its ordinary citizens and millions of foreigners who visit it. 

We are ordinary people with everyday fears and ambitions, and we have lived in harmony for ages - till now we have sung together, danced together, gone to school together, celebrated festivals and weddings  and eaten together - whatever we are comfortable eating irrespective of whether our neighbor ate it or not. Our togetherness was our bulwark against nepotism and fragmentation.

There’s so much going on in our country – by intimidation, not by law, and neither tweets, nor face book can resolve the issues these events raise.

It’s important that our leaders step up to the plate and tell us what they value, so that everyone knows the state of play, and where they stand in this game of thrones and bones.

Newskarnataka Link