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[1] From: <jitu11in@yahoo.com> Date: Mon May 29, 2006 11:12pm Subject: Reservations are the interest paid by politicians for loans from their vote banks, writes M J Akbar Reserved for politics By M J Akbar | I wonder if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh realises how effectively he has maimed the legacy of Finance Minister Manmohan Singh by an ill-intentioned reservation policy that seeks to restore the primacy of political manipulation over rational economic evolution. The British protected their empire by the effective use of a Roman principle of political management: divide and rule. The British divided Hindus and Muslims in order to survive. Manmohan Singh’s government is pouring acid on the divisions of Hindu society in order to protect its power. Caste is a fact in India; casteism is an evil. There was early recognition of this evil when the basic structures of a modern Indian state were being established by the generation that won us freedom from the British. Coincidentally, I am writing this on the day Jawaharlal Nehru, a Brahmin who challenged the inequities of Indian society, died. Nehru understood the need for affirmative action. But none of these terms—caste, casteism or affirmative action—is a stagnant reality. Nehru, and the Constituent Assembly, followed their leader and mentor, Mahatma Gandhi, and extended affirmative action to those who had suffered the greatest injustice, the Dalits. They did not raise the bar to the backward castes. Was Nehru an enemy of the backward castes? He dreamt of and founded the great institutions that have become the pride of India all over the world. Reservations were not an unknown concept: why didn’t Nehru, or his daughter Indira Gandhi, allot half the seats in educational institutions for select castes? You cannot accuse them of being indifferent to India or its realities. In fact, the inequity was much worse 60 years ago, and 30 years ago, than it is today. But Nehru and Indira Gandhi knew that, if it is to succeed, social policy in a democratic polity must be held together by reason and consensus. When there is reason, policy is reasonable; when it is reasonable, there is consensus. Casteism, and the domination of the upper castes, was much, much worse in 1950 and 1967 than it is in 2006. But there was no anger when reservations were made into law in 1950. The upper castes that would not permit the shadow of a Dalit to cross their path suppressed their bloated egos and kept their mouths shut. Reservations were accepted as a necessary step towards a better India. Today, excess is on the verge of destroying the necessary. Reservations are now the interest—collected by pick pocketing the future of India—paid by politicians for loans from their vote banks. Students and doctors are out on the streets not because they reject the need for social justice. They are out because politicians are stealing the future of the young in order to preserve the power of the old. Does Manmohan Singh understand why these young men and women have suddenly become so disillusioned with him? It is because Singh gave them their most recent illusion. He promised the young release from the shibboleths and knots that had curdled India for too long. A child who was five in 1991, when Manmohan Singh became finance minister and guardian of economic reform, is 20 today. He, and, thank God, she, have grown up in the belief that India won political freedom in 1947 and discovered economic freedom in 1991. Perhaps the latter could not have come earlier. It needed the confidence of a state that had been able to protect its political independence against the encroachment of neo-colonisation. It may also have needed the failure of theories like state-entrenched socialism. ---------- [2] From: Regi P George <george_regi@yahoo.com> Date: Mon May 29, 2006 Subject: Waiting for `anna' in Vidharbha -P. Sainath Waiting for `anna' in Vidharbha P. Sainath The failure of the banks has seen new kinds of creditors emerge in Vidharbha. Some of these now come in from neighbouring States — with a `home delivery system' of loans. Many farmers owe money to banks, cooperative societies, input dealers, private lenders, close relatives — and `anna.' Life is about borrowing from one lender to pay off another. WHERE CREDITOR IS KING: Upa sarpanch Tulsiram Chavan of Koljhari in Maharashtra displays a cheque from the government `package' for farmers, which gives him `relief' — to the extent of Rs.78. Others speak of cheques of Rs.5. These will not be deposited "since it's costlier to get to the bank and back." `ANNA' IS not exactly the village deity. Full article at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mahajanapada/messages ------------------- [3] From: Sukla Sen <suklasen@yahoo.com> Date: Mon May 29, 2006 Subject: Indo-US Nuke Deal: Scuttle This Atrocious Move! [As had been pointed out repeatedly, this (purported) deal is a frontal assault on the (nuclear) non-proliferation treaty (NPT) - the current non-proliferation regime and the only multilateral commitment of the nuclear weapons states to complete global nuclear disarmament, by trashing one of its key provisions that the NPT signatories - 187 at the moment out of the total 191 members of the UN (India, Pakistan and Israel are the three non-signatories and N. Korea is a recent, maybe temporary, dropout) would not have any nuclear deal - civilian or military, with a non-signatory. This 'deal' - the offer of an extraordinary sop to a deviant nation, is another gross unilateralist act on the part of the Bush administration in vile defiance of its international treaty obligations. The actualization of the 'deal' would just not provide a big boost to the American neo-con project, by way of recruiting an important global collaborator, for unilateral and unfettered global dominance - by foregrounding its awesome military prowess to make up for the deficiencies of the US state in terms of its nevertheless huge economic and diplomatic clouts, but also tend to trigger off a mad rush for the weapon of deliberate mass murder the horrendous effects of which breach time and territorial barriers and victimize even unborn generations in faraway lands. Global resistance must be mobilized to scuttle this yet to be finalized 'deal' at all possible levels.] Inter Press Service May 27, 2006 INDIA, US TIGHTEN NUCLEAR HANDSHAKE Praful Bidwai http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mahajanapada/messages ---------------------- [4] From: ddry@sancharnet.in Date: Mon May 29, 2006 9:45am Subject: Re: Reservation' Causes Turmoil within the Sangh Brigade AFTER READUING YOU WRITE UP REGARDING THE ATTACK OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH,I am convinced that there are brain washed people who blow a particular tone from their flute.No new law is required against conversion.The present law has enough and more coverage. All India Catholic Union has been challenging the the anti-national communal forces like the RSS,VHP and BD to show a single case of force conversion for the last over 20 years but till today no one has come with any case.On the other hand these communal force are forcibly converting the christians to Hindus knowing very well that these Dalits (ST) have never been Hindus..Does the law of the land permit to do so? FIRST PUT YOUR OWN HOUSE IN ODER THEN think of others. Denis Quoting Sukla Sen <suklasen@yahoo.com>: > http://www.khullamkhulla.net/quotaagitation.html > > Say no to the very principle of caste based quotas Do not compromise. The > offer to increase the number of general quota seats is a ploy to appease the > striking medicos. This would also mean a proportionate increase in the > number of quota seats. Are the Group of Ministers (GOM) taking everyone for > a fool that they come up with as ridiculous an offer as this to placate the > Excluded Castes & Communities* (ECC)? None should fall into the trap of > these obviously preposterous proposals of sick and small political brains. -------------- [5] From: Sukla Sen <suklasen@yahoo.com> Date: Mon May 29, 2006 Subject: Nepal: 25-Point Code of Conduct http://www.kantipuronline.com/coc.php ----------------- [6] From: palash biswas <banga_sss2003@yahoo.co.in> Date: Mon May 29, 2006 Subject: Re: [Arundhati Roy] The Most Cowardly War in History Yasir Abbasi <dryiabbasi@yahoo.com> wrote: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.phpcontext=viewArticle&;code=ROY20050628&articleId=540 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=ROY20050628&articleId=540 The Most Cowardly War in History by Arundhati Roy June 28, 2005 World Tribunal on Iraq Opening Statement of Arundhati Roy on behalf of the jury of conscience of the world tribunal of Iraq. Istanbul, Turkey 26 June 2005 ---------------- [7] From: Sukla Sen <suklasen@yahoo.com> Date: Mon May 29, 2006 Subject: Reservation: Another Informed View Date:01/07/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/op/2003/07/01/stories/2003070100010200.htm Reservation needs revamping ----------- |
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June02, 2006 - [India Thinkers Net]Digest (1-11) June 1st 2006 >> |
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