|
|
|
|
|
Banding together
Testing failure |
|
|
Gold rush at Unnao
Stagflation at the door
Ishwar or Allah, we celebrate both
The intellectual in the age of cultural elitism
|
Banding together
Any
meeting to counter communal forces and condemn the rise of communalism in India would be a good thing per se. The People’s Unity Against Communalism, a CPM-led forum of regional parties, had the stated purpose of forming a non-Congress and non-BJP front to fight communalism. Political commentators would understandably go beyond the obvious and see the coming together of 14 political parties on the same stage in New Delhi on Thursday as an opening move in the complex game of political alignments before the elections expected in May 2014. The gathering of many leaders starred Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Prakash Karat of the CPM, A.B. Bardhan of the CPI, Sharad Yadav of the JD (U), H.D. Deve Gowda of the JD (S), Bijayant Panda of the Biju Janata Dal, and M. Thambi Durai of the AIADMK, among others. While the CPM deserves some praise for its ability to bring in such a disparate group together, and Sharad Yadav’s presence is bound to raise eyebrows in the Congress circles, it is not clear how they will be able to work together towards a common goal. Right now, it seems to be to challenge Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s prime-ministerial ambitions. Indeed, his bęte noir Nitish Kumar attacked him in his speech, even as he asked other parties to counter the threat posed by “fascism, communalism and terrorism”. While it can be argued that the voters may want an alternative to the Congress and the BJP, it is not clear if such an option can be credibly cobbled together from these regional parties because of various factors, including contradictions that are bound to become fault lines. Indeed, the reluctance of some of the leaders at the event to announce any pre-poll alliances underlines the tenuous ties that bind them. At best, this was a grouping of people desperately seeking to provide an alternative to the voters, if not themselves.
|
|
Testing failure
Four
officials of the Chemical Examiner Laboratory, Kharar, have been accused of falsifying test reports to let off people arrested in narcotics cases. This may not seem surprising — as complicity of law enforcement people in crime is common — but it is horrifying nonetheless if one considers the implications. After the police has collected circumstantial or material evidence, it is upon the forensics people to corroborate its validity. They could even provide new insight into a case based on their findings. Just as this may help in clinching a case, the power could be misused — as in the Kharar lab — to let people off too. Entire cases built up by the police with difficulty could fall through on one false technical report. Corruption in the police is what people have become accustomed to hearing, but forensics was also a check on the investigators. That makes the present case a kind of double blow. A police Sub-Inspector is suspected to have been the link between lab technicians and narcotics suspects. This indicates a systemic breakdown. The wall between the police and forensics has to be tall. Even as this lab is under the Punjab Health Department and the police under Home, the huge amount of money involved in narcotics was apparently able to overcome the gap. A sharp eye has to be maintained at all times on any interaction between personnel of the two departments. If false reports have been used to let suspects get away, these could as well be used to fix someone in a false case. For all its worth, forensics is an underutilised science in policing in India. Most of its role is still only at the trial stage, when evidence comes under scrutiny. Ideally, it could be used extensively during investigation too, DNA profiling being the star resource today. But that needs investment. The rigour required to run such labs reliably is also missing — the Home Department would be a more natural entity than Health to run the Kharar lab. A visit to the stinking hole overflowing with viscera that this place is will present a quick sum-up of the entire situation.
|
|
|
Gold rush at Unnao
The
dream of finding 1,000 tonnes of gold buried under the ruins of a 19th-century fort in Daundiya Khera, Unnao, UP, has lead only to a dead end, 11 days after ASI (archaeological survey of India) began digging the site. Digging under the gaze of thousands of onlookers at Raja Rao Ram Bux Singh’s fort, the 12-member team of ASI has found only a few pieces of bangles, pottery and bones so far. A local seer, Shobhan Sarkar had a dream of seeing 1,000 tonnes of gold buried under the fort beckoning him. Instead of approaching the ASI, he approached the Union Minister Charan Das Mahant, who was convinced — without any evidence per se, to ask the ASI to commence digging. By doing so, the ASI has not only shortchanged scientific rigour on the whims of a politician and a seer, it has put a question mark on the way institutions work that demand a high degree of professionalism. The ASI, by tradition, carries out excavations keeping in mind specific, well thought out academic themes and research areas in mind. In its long history, it had never participated in digging out lost treasures of erstwhile royalty. By getting involved in such a high-profile excavation project, which aroused the curiosity of foreign media as well, without the approval of the standing committee of the Central Advisory Board of Archaeology, it has invited more questions than the digging would answer. Even if one assumes that some metal, if not gold, does come out at Daundiya Khera, as has been suggested by the surveys conducted by the Geological Survey of India, it would still leave a bad precedent for an institution which has been carrying out excavations keeping in mind the historical and archaeological relevance of a site. After hitting the dead end, the ASI will now dig other tunnels, finally digging down to 15 metres. Whether it will hit upon 1,000 tonnes of gold, only time will tell, what is obvious right now is that the credibility of the institution has taken a blow.
|
|
|
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important. — Bertrand Russell
|
Stagflation at the door The financial markets have been pleased about the Reserve Bank of India’s transparent and predictable policies. As expected, the Reserve Bank has raised its repo rates (the rates at which commercial banks borrow from RBI) by 25 basis points on October 29 to 7.75 per cent. This will raise interest rates also. By raising repo rates twice since his becoming the RBI governor, Raghuram Rajan has proved to be a conservative monetarist who regards inflation control as the biggest problem of the economy. Inflation has been a long-term problem now and is troubling the middle classes and people with low and fixed incomes immensely. In September, food price inflation reached 18.4 per cent which was the highest rate in 38 months. WPI (Wholesale Price Index) was also at 6.46 per cent and the Consumer Price Index, which reflects retail prices that common people have to pay, was at 9.84 per cent. An alarming forecast of the RBI is that the retail price inflation or CPI will remain around 9 per cent next year. The fact thus remains that even though the entire government machinery has been deployed in the past to control food prices, yet it has not been able to do so. Onion prices have shot up by 322 per cent. That inflation is still not under control is a de facto failure of past monetary policies of the UPA government. How are other BRICS countries coping? China has the lowest inflation and India has the highest. All the members of BRICS have been suffering from the monetary easing policy conundrum of the US in recent times when FIIs left in droves to go back to the US. Now they are again returning after an assurance from the US Federal Reserve that its monetary easing policy will be continued and even India is getting FIIs back as a result of which the rupee has recovered. But why has the RBI now lowered the growth forecast to 5 per cent for 2013-14? Recently, the Finance Minister had declared that the low GDP forecast (4.25 per cent) by the IMF about India was wrong and an underestimate. An important reason why growth forecast is lower than expected is the below-average growth rate of industry which is slated to be only at 1.3 per cent. It was 0.6 per cent in August 2013. This is ominous for future job creation in the country. Low growth and high inflation is a dangerous cocktail known as stagflation which affects the whole economy and is difficult to get rid of. Agricultural growth however has been forecast higher at 3.7 per cent due to better monsoon this year. But it is not enough to pull up the GDP growth rate or to reduce the food inflation. Low business confidence and poor state of infrastructure are also responsible for a lower GDP growth outlook. FDI has also slowed down and domestic investment is at a low point. India has slipped three notches and has been ranked at number 134, according to the World Bank’s index of “Ease of Doing Business”. It is a serious situation except that the economy is “too big to fall” and many people in the middle classes and higher income groups have enough savings or black money to go on shopping for gold and other luxury goods during festivals and weddings. Looking at the shoppers in the metro cities one would think that all is hunky-dory and people are buying as before. But sales are down, businesses are failing and shops are shutting down. To rev up the economy, much will have to be done to revive investment which will create higher manufacturing growth and jobs. For investment to rise, interest rates would have to be lower. The RBI has however eased liquidity which is good for business. It has cut the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate by 25 basis points. MSF is an overnight borrowing rate for banks and a cut in the rate eases cost of funds for lenders which can lead to higher credit growth. It could lead to lower short-term rates for home loans and other EMIs could also remain the same. The RBI had earlier jacked up the MSF by 200 basis points in July when the rupee sagged sharply and it was felt that liquidity had to be controlled to curb speculation. But then RBI rolled it back by 75 basis points in its September 20 review and another 50 points in early October. Now the MSF is at 8.75 per cent, which means it is 1 per cent higher than the repo rate which is considered normal. The RBI has, in effect, doubled the borrowing limit of banks against their cash positions with the immediate effect of increasing liquidity in the system. The RBI expects the current account deficit to widen at first and then come down. It will widen to 4.4 per cent of the GDP in the first quarter of 2013-14 because of low export growth of 3.8 per cent. Later the current account deficit is supposed to shrink to 3.5 per cent. The rupee’s value against the dollar would get better as a result and also because more dollars are already flowing into the market due to return of the FIIs. The RBI’s Swap facility for Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Banks) –under which banks have been permitted to swap fresh FCNR (B) dollar funds for a minimum of three years at a fixed rate of 3.5 per cent per annum— and an increase in banks’ overseas foreign borrowings, have led to $10.1 billion inflows. Yet the rupee has not gone back to its previous level. The idea behind the RBI’s latest policy move is not just to control inflation only but also to curb inflationary expectations. The fiscal deficit has been predicted to be around 5 per cent by the RBI, which is higher than the expected 4.8 per cent. Any increase in the government’s market borrowing is bound to be inflationary. How far inflation control will be successful, only time can tell and we have to wait and watch. Inflation control is important because high food prices will lead to lower nutritional intakes of food by the poor which is alarming. But inflation cannot be controlled by interest rates alone. By being overly hawkish Mr Raghuram Rajan is not going to help industry which is starved of investment. Many industrialists have expressed their disappointment with RBI’s stance because a lot of innovation-related investments need to be undertaken to improve the competitiveness of industry. The capital goods industry needs a revamp. Yet the market’s expectation is for another repo rate hike
soon!
|
||
Ishwar or Allah, we celebrate both India’s celebrated unity in diversity has been under much attack after the riots in Uttar Pradesh earlier this year. A recent ruling by a Malaysian court gives me hope that the underlying principles of equality and secularism in India are stronger than we imagine. A Malaysian court recently ruled that non-Muslims cannot use the word Allah while referring to God, even in their own faiths. The court maintained that the term Allah must be exclusive to Islam or it could cause public disorder. A look at our film industry, which unites the length and breadth of India, is enough to dismiss any such fears of "public disorder" caused by usage of the term ‘Allah’. For decades and more, Bollywood songs have celebrated the divine as Ishwar, Allah and other such names. We all have heard the popular bhajan from Hum Dono, "Allah tero naam, Ishwar tero naam, sabko sanmati de Bhagwan". The song was written by one of the greatest lyricists that the subcontinent has known – Sahir Ludhianvi. The music was by Jaidev. Lata Mangeshkar sang the song. Nanda was the actress on whom the song was filmed. Another celebrated bhajan by Sahir was "Ishwar Allah tero naam, sabko sanmati de bhagwan". The movie was Naya Raasta, which released in 1970. The use of the word ‘Allah’ for divine continues unbroken in our popular culture. Kailash Kher became an overnight sensation after he sang "Allah ke bande" in the film "Waisa bhi hota hai", a 2003 release. In the film "Teri meri kahaani," which released in 2012, Prasoon Joshi wrote the lyric "Allah jaane". The song was filmed on Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. Harshdeep Kaur, the young Sufi sensation, has been loved for her version of "Allah hu Allah". In January this year, Saif, Deepika, John Abraham, Anil Kapoor and others danced to the pop hit, "Allah duhai hai/phir bewafai hai/mushkil rihai hai/Haan tere pyaar mein," in the suspense thriller Race 2. The movie was released in January this year. Vidya Balan and Imran Hashmi paired up for Ghanchakkar in June 2013. One of the songs in the movie – "Allah meharbaan," made waves. Playing across at most parties in north India is the popular track – "Aukhay painday lambiyan ne rahwan ishq diyan, Allah hu Allah". All this goes on to prove that the divine may be referred to by any name in India – Ishwar, Allah or god. All are accepted. All are good and all celebrated.
|
||
The intellectual in the age of cultural elitism One
by one our gods have let us down. Now that paternalistic capitalism is tired and socialism principally dumped, democracy is knee deep in a state of crisis. We stand at the end of the
century where the centre cannot hold, and where a way of life is under siege from forces within and without. Henry Giroux, the American cultural critic writes: ‘Manufactured ignorance is the new reigning mode spurred on by a market-driven system that celebrates a
passion for consumer goods over a passion for community belonging, the well-being of others and the principles of a democratic society. Ignorance is no longer a liability in neoliberal societies propagating a capitalist imaginary that thrives on the interrelated register of consumption, privatization and depoliticization.’ The complacent cocoon The end result is a closed social class that ignores civic responsibility and discourages any national debate. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President, Centre for Policy Research, Delhi, writes: ‘The ponderous debates over the big issues cannot throw a cloak over the really ugly battle: India's elites are now like a crazed pack of wolves, completely out of control to the point that they are devouring each other in an unprecedented frenzy, taking down every
institution with them. The real crisis is not order versus disorder, communalism versus secularism, growth versus stagnation. The real crisis is this: what happens to a society when everyone tears into each other without restraint? It is general versus general, chief justice versus chief justice, economist versus economist, media against media, bureaucrat against bureaucrat and all professions against each other. The real battle is among old elite now in the last throes of self-destruction, where even minimal self-awareness is too much to expect. Much of this fight is a frenzy of rhetorical excess. But alas, most of it will
have deadly consequences on the ground.’ Elitism arguably survives and perpetuates itself on its own institutions and transnational networks of communication and self-promoting connections. As for those who stand outside this circle, there is nothing but contempt and antipathy. The middle-class suffers under the fear of falling into the underclass. Political debates do not address this shrinkage of the middle class, or the growing poverty, the rising crime rate and the flourishing drug traffic and the decay of the city. Elites keep themselves dangerously insulated and the university based intellectuals progressively withdraw from the general issues of public responsibility owing to an increasing collusion with institutionalised structures of specialisations that leave no scope for radical engagement within society. Social and cultural pressures of conformity and specialisation impinge on the contemporary intellectual with no stamina in steering an independent course. The need of the hour, therefore is to counter the neoliberal onslaught and the reactionary education system that operates for the gain of political and economic power and, largely, for the continuance of the status quo. This is the clear and present danger to the institutions of democracy, resulting in a society of, in the words of Ira Shor, Professor at the City University of New York, ‘…monopolised wealth and distributed poverty, a culture of endless war, legalised torture, detention without trial, bursting prisons, and schools that turn our bright children into data.’ The capitalist world is thus fascinated by the world of, in the words of Henry Giroux, ‘vampires and zombies condemned to live an eternity by feeding off the souls of
the living.’ Isolation of arrogance One of the ways in which dominating cultures can be put to test is through the development and evolution of counter-structures and counter-narratives by rediscovering forms and concepts suppressed and denied by such powers. The only path to affirmation of the self is to act and create a new activism by embracing anti-authoritarian gestures that would challenge not only the corporate faith and neutral truths, but also the state which represses committed critical work. Robert Jensen, Professor of Journalism at the University of Texas, goes on to give his views on role of the intellectuals: ‘One of the jobs of intellectuals is to identify the issues to which we should be paying attention. Intellectuals today should be apocalyptic, focusing attention…on the hard-to-face realities of an unjust and unsustainable world. Today, the distribution of wealth and power around the world fails to meet even minimal moral standards. In the face of increasing inequality within the human family that is playing out in an increasingly fragile natural world, we are all — or should be — apocalyptic now, and intellectuals need to step up and do their part.’ But the trust in the intellectuals is under acute doubt: ‘Ordinary people often express a lack of respect for and distrust of intellectuals, whom they see as elitist snobs flashing academic credentials as proof of superiority. That assessment is in many cases on target; intellectuals —especially university professors — have done a lot to earn this resentment and should be critiqued. But we shouldn’t minimise the importance of real intellectual effort — the task of understanding how the world works and communicating that understanding to others —just because we are annoyed with the arrogance and self-indulgence of a privileged group,’ concludes Jensen. Missing human trust Where does this ‘trust’ come from especially in a society where you have a new global class that lives a private life of seclusion dotted with well-planned itineraries to the most exotic of places. The farce lies in the idea of ‘fear’ that haunts the superrich who endeavour to stay clear of disease, violence and crime. Writing in the Newsweek, Emily Flynn and Ginanne Brownell argue: ‘Those with money are increasingly locking their entire lives behind closed doors. Rather than attend media-heavy events, they arrange private concerts, fashion shows and art exhibitions in their own homes. They shop after-hours, and have their neighbours (and potential friends) vetted for class and cash.’ Such are the new global citizens who live on ‘an Indian passport, a castle in Scotland, a pied- a-terre in Manhattan and a private Caribbean island.’ For instance, such a case of sheltered living is seen in a village near Shanghai which is modelled on a typical English village with a pub, Sainsbury supermarket and an Anglican church. Residents here belong to the 1 percent oblivious of the 99 percent or the slums of the world. Sao Paulo in Brazil is another example where the city, according to the famous cultural theorist Slavoj Zizek, resembles ‘a futuristic megalopolis of the kind pictured in films such as Blade Runner or The Fifth Element with ordinary people swarming through the dangerous streets down below, whilst the rich float on a higher level, up in the air.’ Apparently there are 250 private heliports in Sao Paulo. This is the new
class division. The moral and ethical guidelines apparently have been abandoned by the elites who now wholly depend on science to master their fates and private and undisclosed lives. The conservative right is responsible for upholding the ideology of the free market that relies more on social mobility, ignoring civic equality that is basic to a working democracy and
presupposes at least a rough approximation of economic equality. Refusing to join the dance of the status quo the
radical non-conformist must tear off the mask of the corporate elites and the epidemic of privatisation spreading its tentacles to crucial areas of public space, health, water and education in order to boost the basic democratic idea of public good. The solution to this crisis lies in facing the era of Big Finance capitalism and an economy based on the extraction of resources, especially for energy, by taking a more optimistic stand where the public intellectuals try to lay out a roadmap for an economic system that bases itself on ethics and sustainability,
ushering in a stronger democracy with a people who still retain the traditional values of
a community. A cultural struggle is needed at every level to fix the problem of, as Marx would say, tragedy and farce that face a world ridden by exploitation and exclusion. Economic life must be pervaded by a culture dependent on moral bonds of social trust. Only such societies with a high degree of social trust and a dialogic interaction with the public can create the kind of flexible, large-scale business organisations needed for successful competition in the emerging global economy and international order.
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
The dominating mood is a sense of universal ruin capturing the moral, sexual, and spiritual decay with sterility and deep intellectual uncertainty thrown in. As Chris Hedges, the famous American journalist specialising in politics and society puts it, ‘We now live in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the press destroys information, religion destroys morals, and our banks destroy the economy.’ The privileged minority consisting of the rich, the well-informed, and the intellectuals from the university are to be blamed for the lack of values and loyalty to one's history and society. Meritocracy seems to be essentially anti-democratic since the well-to-do live under the delusion that they are self-made and have no responsibility towards their community. What is of utmost concern is the growing division between the managerial and professional elites and the 'ordinary people'.