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Back to quota politics Ban on Hindi films |
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Adarsh housing society scam
Relics of the colonial past
The unsung Indian hero of Kenya
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Back to quota politics Humiliated
in the recent assembly elections and at a loss to face the Hindutava agenda of the BJP’s Narendra Modi in the run-up to the general election, the Congress-led government at the Centre has started playing divisive, communal politics by trying to woo the 8.25 crore members of the Jat community spread over several northern states. Last Thursday the Union Cabinet asked the National Commission for Backward Classes to consider the issue of granting OBC (other backward class) status to the Jats at the Central level even though the commission had rejected the Jat demand in 2011. There is no official survey on the socio-economic status of the Jats. The community is generally viewed as socially and economically dominating. In the absence of any credible proof of their “backwardness” courts may strike down Central and state decisions granting the benefit to them. The issue resurfaced recently after the agitating Haryana Jats threatened to block roads leading to Delhi. The Hooda government has accepted the recommendation of the Haryana Backward Classes Commission for 10 per cent job reservation for the Jats, Sikh Jats, Rors, Tyagis and Bishnois. The commission has also recommended 10 per cent job quota for the economically backward, taking the total reservation level in Haryana to 67 per cent, much above the 50 per cent ceiling the Supreme Court imposed in 1992. There is no way the state can implement this decision unless it goes the Tamil Nadu way and enacts a special law for this. Not to be left behind in the pursuit of the politics of appeasement, Capt Amarinder Singh and Parkash Singh Badal have made a similar demand for Punjab's Jat Sikhs. They all are playing dangerous politics which can inflame passions, leading to consequences they may later find hard to control. Poor returns from agriculture and the dismal state of rural education are among the factors that have turned the Jats restive. These issues need to be addressed for social cohesion. Reservations can be justified only if made on the basis of income rather than caste. Voluntary affirmative action is still better.
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Ban on Hindi films Among
many things that bind India and Pakistan, one is the undeniably love for
films. Often this love knows no borders. Not only Hindi films but also superstars like Shah Rukh Khan are immensely popular in Pakistan. But the recent High Court ruling would not only put the brakes on the release of Indian movies across the border but could also put the clock back. Justice Khalid Mahmood of the Lahore High Court has asked the Central Censor Board to stop issuing clearance certificates to the “illegally” imported Indian movies. Indeed, the court has a point and the rules certainly can’t be bent to facilitate the release of Indian films. However, it must be realised that the restrictive ruling that “films shot in India and with an Indian sponsor can't be released in Pakistan” itself calls for a relook. As it is Indian films have been out of bounds in Pakistan for a long time. After the 1965 war Indian films were banned in Pakistan. Things improved after 2006, with the easing of some restrictions. On whether Bollywood is killing Lollywood, the film industry in Pakistan itself is a divided house with some feeling that the success of Indian films in Pakistan has brought back audiences to theatres, while others maintain that Indian movies undermine the growth of the indigenous industry. However, those who have picked up cudgels against the release of Indian films in Pakistan must understand that in the long run competition, especially in the creative field, has not hurt anybody. Moreover, in times when Hindi cinema has moved away from anti-Pakistan rhetoric to emphasise upon Indo-Pak friendship, cinema can go a long way in mending broken ties. While Pakistan should take Indian movies off its negative list, India too should encourage the promotion of Pakistani films. If Pakistani artistes can be a part of Bollywood, Lollywood too can find a niche in the Indian movie market.
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Thought for the Day
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. —Voltaire
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Punjab Games Association THE occasion of the Harikishen Das Cricket Tournament now going on at Lahore was availed of to hold a meeting at the University grounds to consider the desirability of a Punjab Games Association. It was felt that there should be a body to regulate games, arrange tournaments and provide facilities in the matter of play-grounds. His Honour the Lieutenant Governor, who arrived punctually, was received by the Managing Committee of the Lahore Club, and presided over the meeting which was attended by Mr. Casson, Commissioner, Mr. Tollinton, Deputy Commissioner of Lahore, Mr. Bosworth Smith, Deputy Commissioner of Ferozepur, the Honourable Lala Kashi Ram, the Honourable Bakshi Sohan Lal, the Hon'ble Rai Bahadur Ram Saran Das, and a number of other leading European and Indian gentlemen interested in games. Commercial view of the South African problem APART from sentiment, which we are told is a governing factor in deciding colonial problems and which should not be in deciding Indian problems, it is worth noting that for the economic prosperity of the colonies the Indians and other Asiatic races should not be excluded. The Economist of November 22 draws attention to the fact that the prosperity of the Crown Colonies in the East and West Indies is mainly due to Indian labour. The dominating influence of the Orient in the world’s rubber market is also due to Indian and Asiatic labour. The British tropical supplies that are pouring into England in increasing quantities are also due to Indian labour. And Natal knows that without Indian labour, some of its industries could not flourish.
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Adarsh housing society scam TO the best of my knowledge the word Adarsh means ideal. But what the Maharashtra government — a Congress-Nationalist Congress Party coalition, headed by Prithviraj Chavan — has done about the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society scam is just the opposite. It is indeed brazen beyond belief and scandalous beyond measure.
On the last day of the state assembly's winter session, obviously to prevent any discussion, it laid on the legislature’s table a judicial commission’s report that had indicted no fewer than four former chief ministers, all of them Congressmen, two ministers of Maharashtra belonging to the NCP and a dozen bureaucrats for extending to the rather dubious housing society "illegal patronage" in return for the allotment of flats to their relations and cronies. Simultaneously, the government announced that it had “rejected the report”. What makes the state government's performance all the more deplorable as well as ironic is that it runs counter to what the Congress party’s vice-president and the ruling dynasty's scion, Rahul Gandhi, has been saying these days. For instance, he told the annual general meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) that the “biggest problem before the country is corruption. It is bleeding the people to death”. If he has remonstrated with the Congress-led Maharashtra government the country has yet to hear of it. Instead, published reports in several newspapers allege that Mr. Prithviraj Chavan, who has a reputation of being upright, wanted to take action on the judicial report, but had to yield to “pressure” from Congress high-ups as well as his NCP allies. This is entirely in accordance with all ruling parties' usual practice of covering up scams and scandals, as is happening at the Centre on the massive wrongdoing in the allocation of lucrative coal blocks. No wonder the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, seized the opportunity to make fun of both Mr Gandhi and the Maharashtra government at the big rally he addressed in Mumbai. What the two-man judicial commission — consisting of a retired high court judge J. A. Patil and a retired chief secretary P. Subrahmanyam — has exposed adds up to a sordid tale of “political patronage, misuse of power and subversions of law” to perpetrate a big fraud. Some of the facts exposed are shocking. For instance, the number of original members of the housing society was 40 and all of them were connected with the nation's defence. That was so because even if the land, recently reclaimed from the sea, belonged to the state government (something the judicial commission has confirmed), it had been given to the Defence Ministry on a long-term lease. The ministry's understandable decision was to reserve the planned building at the site for the heroes of the Kargil war and war widows. But from the very beginning “every norm was violated” and every rule and regulation twisted or manipulated to enable others not entitled to Adarsh flats to muscle in. By the time the building came up in 2010 the society’s membership had soared to 102 of whom only 37 were connected with defence. This could happen because by extending to the housing society all manner of patronage, politicians, bureaucrats, two retired army chiefs and their relatives were enabled to grab the coveted flats. Apart from allowing the society to cover larger floor area than allowed, the builders were permitted to evade the mandatory environment clearance for constructions close to the seashore. In fact, the judicial commission has underscored that under the policy framed before reclamation had begun it had expressly laid down that the reclaimed land should be used only for “public purposes”. Remarkably, the judicial commission has come to the same conclusion that the Comptroller and Auditor-General had in a report submitted to the President two years ago. The CAG had said that those “holding fiduciary responsibility” had “betrayed it for personal aggrandisement”. The judicial commission states that the entire issue of Adarsh “smacks of undue haste and a desire to bestow benefits on the [housing] society”. Of the four former chief ministers indicted by the judicial commission the worst is the record of Ashok Chavan who had had to resign after the lid was taken off the Adarsh scandal. It is therefore deeply depressing that a few days before the commission's report was made public, the Maharashtra Governor, K. Sankaranarayanan, had refused the Central Bureau of Investigation’s request to sanction Mr. Ashok Chavan's prosecution. The Governor had blandly stated that there “was inadequate evidence against the former CM”. The judicial commission's report makes nonsense of the Governor's argument because it clearly says that there was a “nexus” between Mr Chavan's actions and the "benefits drawn by his relatives". Among the beneficiaries was the former chief minister's mother-in-law who was allotted a flat in Adarsh. An intriguing question that arises is: Why should the Governor's sanction be needed at all when Mr. Ashok Chavan does not hold any official position? More importantly, why should sanction be needed for prosecution for offences under the Indian Penal Code. The Supreme Court has observed more than once and has repeated only the other day that prosecution “for cheating and conspiracy required no sanction”. But who cares? After the Prevention of Corruption Act was enacted the Congress government then in power issued a “single-point directive” that the CBI could not start an inquiry against an officer of Joint Secretary's rank and above without the government's permission. What was an executive order was incorporated into the law by the BJP-led coalition. This created a bizarre situation because more often than not, the government took no decision at all on the investigating agency's request. It was then suggested that there should be a three-month limit within which the government must decide. No one has bothered to implement it. The greatest puzzle is that the outcome of the Assembly elections in four northern states, particularly the Aam Aadmi Party's spectacular debut in the nation's capital has shown that apart from rising prices, corruption and misuse of power are major issues over which the people are greatly exercised. Strangely, the rulers of this country seem indifferent to the popular sentiment even in the run-up to the general election in April-May 2014.
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Relics of the colonial past A
motley group of ‘red-beacon’ users sat around a TV set waiting with bated breath the verdict on the judgment day. As the words of doing away of the red beacon flashed on the screen, faces fell amidst disbelief. Shoulders drooped, giving impressions of carrying many more years than the actual. The silence was broken by shrill ringtones and people got busy trying to pacify agitated family members. A lady called off her marriage, as she had tied the nuptial knot because of the red beacon only. Marriages in the offing were called off similarly. Children threw tantrums as they could not bear to face their friends in cars sans the red beacon. Even the domestic staff threatened to abandon their assignments as it was below their dignity to serve a master with no read beacon to him. Brothers, sisters and friends all turned their backs on them to add to the misery of these people as their whole world came crashing down. Wise men that they were, they knew that the red beacon was a colonial relic and hence despised. They could now visualise the entire edifice crumbling as everything that smacked of the colonial past -- house, car, peons, malis, the security cover -- all seemed set to go. Life without these essentials was unimaginable and renunciation seemed to be the only option. “We need to change our mindset. Ostentatious lifestyles have to be replaced by simplicity. Renounce everything, including clubs, a legacy of the ‘Gora Sahibs’, and socialise in temples, deras and ashrams. What to do? These places are also in the news for all the wrong reasons”, quipped one. Amidst discussions, despair and despondency grew. All were at a loss to understand what was wrong in retaining these ensembles as they had been passed on to successive generations, though with some aberrations. After all even a river gathers silt and gravel on the way. Just as they were about to throw in the towel, a sedate voice from the oldest beacon user rang out, “No need to despair. All clouds have a silver lining. What we cherish may perish but none can sully the ‘Royal Stables’. We can never be diminished till we adhere to the oldest culture running in our veins”. What is that?” cried all in unison. “Durbar culture” came the reply. It is indigenous and ensures our complete supremacy while guarantying subservience and servility of others and after all, these so-called colonial relics were conceptually a lift from our “Durbars’ only”. Magic words. An imminent extinction now seemed remote. Instantly, scowls gave way to grins and a loud cheer went up amidst the clinking of Champagne glasses, while single malts soothed the parched throats and all broke into a tango as the strains of jazz filled the air.
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The unsung Indian hero of Kenya When I visited Kenya for the first time in 2005 as an educationist, it was inconceivable then that I would soon be writing a play on an unsung Indian hero Makhan Singh, who had migrated from Punjab in 1927, organised the labour movement of the country, became the first person to call for total freedom from the colonial rule, remained under detention for 16 years and was the first leader to be arrested and the last to be released after independence. If about 20 readings of the play Mungu Comrade in India, England and Canada attracted hundreds of people, who were riveted to the spoken action, it was not the magic of writing; they were actually enchanted by the mesmerizing protagonist who has rightly been termed as a “totally unadulterated idealist”. Dr. Fitz De Souza, Deputy Speaker of Kenya’s first National Assembly said about him, “he wouldn’t compromise his principles on anything.”
He was born on December 27, 1913 in Gharjakh, a town near Gujranwala (Pakistan) in the family of Sudh Singh who went to Kenya in 1920, about two decades after the British took Indian labour to Kenya to lay the railway track from Mombasa to Kisumu to feed their commercial needs. In the 16th century the Portuguese had also imported workers from the then colony of theirs, Goa, to help build the coastal Fort Jesus. But it was in the last years of the 19th century when 37,000 workers and petty tradesmen were introduced from Punjab and Gujarat for the line that is termed by the African tribes and subsequently by Robert Hardy as The Iron Snake. The slithering of this ‘snake’, passing through the dense forests took life of about 2,500 workmen; roughly four persons per mile of the track. Another 6,500 were injured seriously. We have seen this terrain in the film made on the first-hand accounts written by John Henry Patterson in Man Eaters of Tsavo. It was against this background that Makhan Singh entered Kenya as a young student and did his London Matriculation in 1930 from Nairobi. He was a brilliant student. His class fellow Chuni Lal Madan, who later became the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of independent Kenya, wrote: “Makhan Singh had a magic brain and he used to excel in the subject of Mathematics”. He wanted to go to England for his higher education but his father insisted that he should assist him in the printing jobs in his newly established press. The financial condition of his family compelled him to work for the press. But he accepted it only as a paid worker against fixed wages. His later life would reveal that it was not his arrogance; he, in fact, penciled his roadmap for future activities. Birth of a nationalist
The mid-1930s played a decisive role in shaping his fortitude. In 1933, from being permanently employed with the Railways, the Indian workers were reduced to the level of being temporarily employed. When Makhan Singh was asked to become the Honorary Secretary of the Indian Labour Trade Union under the Presidentship of Ghulam Mohammad, their strikes of 1931, 33 and 35 had already failed.
He started looking at the developments in the larger context and never restricted himself to parochial issues. Resolutions such as reduction of working hours to eight, reduction in the high taxes that workers were paying, and condemnation of executions done by Hitler were passed.
Gradually, the scope of the union work was further extended to the whole of East Africa; name of the Union was accordingly amended. He started working in collaboration with his African counterparts and also Gujarati nationalists like Ambu Patel. He even warned Indians against their social biases of caste, creed, gender and nationality whereas he supported positive measures taken by the British like combining Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda as a single administrative unit. But he was dead against their policy of discrimination on the basis of race and region; he was on a complete fast for seven days until the government withdrew a sectarian law.
Fred Kubai, a freedom fighter and a close associate of Makhan Singh says, “He suffered honestly for Kenya’s working class. I know him as a fighter, every inch a fighter, a Kenyan nationalist of the highest order and a brother in trade unionism and in our national struggle for independence.”
But on the downside his own people distanced themselves from him as he was asking for equal wages for Asians, African and European workers. His resolutions in support of Indian independence, unity of East African workers, revision of educational policies in India, release of Baba Gurmukh Singh and Teja Singh Sutantar were refused to be presented in the Gurdwara by Sri Guru Singh
Sabha.
Married to Satwant Kaur in 1934, he had had a son in 1937 who was named Hindpal Singh. He named his second son as Swarajpal Singh. He took an active part in the successful Mombasa general strike in 1939 and the following year he visited India with his family to apparently attend the wedding of his brother-in-law. However, disguised as a Muslim on May Day he addressed 30,000 textile workers who were on strike in Ahmedabad demanding better wages. He was arrested after a week and remained under detention for about five years. Instead of enjoying the fruit of freedom in India, he chose to leave its shores on August 22, 1947.
The struggle
Makhan Singh’s real problems started on his return to Kenya. He got an order of deportation from the British government citing his entry as an act of oversight, despite the fact that Sudh Singh had already got permission from the British Government for his entry. He got support from members of British parliament and the Government of India. He was lucky that the Supreme Court ordered the government to try him in a court of law before deportation; and the case fell flat on technical grounds. The government again came back with a fresh deportation notification. Such frequent orders, arrests and releases between 1947 and 1950 filled him with iron resolve and his image soared sky high; he was reckoned as one of the front runner freedom fighters of the country.
He had already translated Marx’s Das Kapital while in detention in India and had also worked with Jagjit Singh Anand in publishing the weekly Jang e Azadi from Jalandhar. Though he had been writing for local Swahili and English media since 1935, the establishment started taking him very seriously only then.
He opposed the celebrations when Nairobi got the status of a City on the ground that the town was clearly divided between the ‘poor’ and the ‘rich’ and the poor can’t be the part of such festivities. It was on May 1, 1950 that speaking at Nairobi’s Kaloleni Hall, Makhan Singh became first individual in Kenya to demand “Complete independence and sovereignty of the East African territories - Uhuru Sasa.” He was arrested and remained in jail continuously for 11 years, without a proper trial and was released only after Kenya got independence.
An ardent votary of communism, Makhan Singh also showed complete faith in and adherence to non-violence. The fierce Mau-Mau movement, which left thousands of Kenyans dead at the hands of British, took place when he was under detention.
We cannot find his parallel in history; no other communist fought against the colonial rule so peacefully and successfully.
A relentless fighter
In his later life he turned an atheist but he wrote a number of poems on varied subjects, including Guru Nanak and the apostle of peace Guru Arjan Dev. He recited his verses also in gurdwaras, Sanatan Dharma and Arya Samaj Temples. Makhan Singh was impressed by Mahatma Gandhi. Though he never faced apartheid personally as Gandhi did; yet he decided to fight for the cause of Africans, unlike Gandhi. He decided to stick to Kenya under all circumstances, again unlike Gandhi. He didn’t waver even when his mother died in Kenya and the British were ready to release him only if he agreed to leave the country after the ceremonies were over. But he gave more importance to his adopted motherland than to his biological mother.
He fought relentlessly against the wishes of his own people who were from Punjab, for the equal wages for Europeans, Asians and Africans. He battled persistently for the cause of the poor and without any compromise. English writer Dana Seidenberg rightly terms him as the “most important Asian to have lived in East Africa in the twentieth century.”
The perception that Makhan Singh was denied any post-independence role in Kenya because he was a communist is misplaced. Actually the manner, in which land ownership rights of poor Africans remained with the western grabbers, exposes the myth of sovereignty. The subsequent incidents in post-colonial era in Kenya affirm the sham called freedom. Under new regime a number of frontline leaders were either murdered or detained; few others were deported. They include Pinto Pio Gama, Tom Mboya, J M Kariuki, Pran Lal Sheth, Oneko and Odinga. Anti-corruption man Bildad Kaggia was humiliated for his honesty, and the most honest Makhan Singh was simply ignored. He falls in the league of Gandhi, Mandela and Martin Luther King. But in contrast to them he is like sunk ebony, the valuable wood; its weight drowns it; whereas the straw swim so easily.
The writer is a noted playwright The writer is a noted playwright
Man of grit * Makhan Singh was a frontline freedom fighter of Kenya, who spent 16 years of his life in jails of India and Kenya. *
The only communist who fought against colonial rule anywhere in the world with non-violent means. *
He structured the labour movement of East Africa in an unprecedented manner through his organisational abilities, linguistic skills in Swahili and English language and through his ability to seek co-operation of Gujratis and Africans. *
He was the first person to seek total freedom from colonial rulers. *
He was the first to be arrested and last to be released by the British from the Kenyan jails. *
He belonged to the tribe of honest politicians who did not own any property.
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The usually placid crowd, given to ‘light banter’, was now in a melancholic turmoil. The elitist plumes, always in place, were now like ruffled feathers. The ladies stood in a corner wiping their eyes, while the men, normally chivalrous, were scared of giving their handkerchiefs to them for fear of being accused of an ‘unwelcome conduct’, even as they bore it all with a stiff upper lip, unable, however, to control the quiver.
Fred Kubai, a freedom fighter and a close associate of Makhan Singh says, “He suffered honestly for the sake of Kenya’s working class. I know him as a fighter, every inch a fighter, a Kenyan nationalist of the highest order and a brother in trade unionism and in our national struggle for independence.”